#I ACCIDENTALLY POSTED THIS ON MY MAIN FIRST AND ALMOST DIED

[offtorivendell]

Why I think Elain's book needs to be next, regardless of ships

Disclaimer: this is, of course, entirely my opinion, and people are free to think otherwise.

Spoilers: the entire Maasverse is discussed, beware.

I've spoken about this a few times, but never dedicated a post to the topic, so here goes. I'll try to keep it brief, but no promises lol. Please be kind in the comments/reblogs.

To provide a quick overview, the following are the main reasons why I believe Elain needs to star in ACOTAR 5, rather than waiting for the 6th (final?) book. I know that SJM has suggested that further ACOTAR books may be planned, I'm referring to the three novels that are most likely to follow the "Koschei" plot, and not whatever happens afterwards.

A chance to become proficient in her powers before events escalate in the final book

Elain needs to make a mistake

True choice in her romance

The mating bond

The crossover

A chance to become proficient in her powers before events escalate in the final book

Aelin, Feyre, Nesta and Bryce have all had the chance to hone their respective skills before the events in each series came to a head. Aelin in Mistward (and beyond), with Rowan; Feyre trained with Rhys and Cassian; Nesta trained a little with Amren, and then more with Cassian when the Valkyries were reformed in ACOSF (we know they need to keep training as a unit, but the foundations have been laid for this, and the rest could, imo, happen in the background of ACOTAR 5); even Bryce trained with Cormac and Hunt in HOSAB, to learn how to harness their associated powers.

If Elain isn't afforded this opportunity, she will be much less able to work through any of the expected quirks in her powers before her proficiency in them really matters. I suspect she's relied on luck and rage so far, but that will likely only get her so far. Because...

Elain needs to make a mistake

Following on from my first point, each protagonist has - in the course of her training - made some sort of mistake. Aelin couldn't harness her Fae powers until she learnt to shift into her Fae body; she also made plenty of tactical errors throughout the books, notably the end of EOS, though she thankfully came through unscathed. Feyre and Amren almost died in the Summer Court retrieving the Fae half of the Book of Breathings, and she made yet another mistake in Hybern, when she joined the two halves together. Nesta erred in the Prison, when she underestimated the Harp and almost lost Cassian to Lanthys, and she barely survived the Bog of Oorid. And Bryce? There were multiple errors made, such as the events that led her to Prythian.

To clarify, I am not criticising any of these characters for having made these mistakes, because we all have to learn and start somewhere. Rather, I'm saying that if SJM follows this pattern, Elain needs to make a decently sizable mistake in book 5 - will she accidentally set Something or Someone free, if those of us who think she has the ability to traverse the murky realm, or unchain the land are correct? This would set the stage for ACOTAR 6, complete with drastically raised stakes.

True choice in her romance

I know people disagree with this take, but for me, there is no true choice for Elain if there is only one option available to her. This wouldn't be such a big deal if she hadn't shown such displeasure at the existence of her mating bond with Lucien, but seeing as she has - and also considering the "hurt and confusion" that she experienced at Solstice, I would be so disappointed to see Azriel move on first and get his HEA while Elain is left upset. This is not a critique of his character, but I would find it very difficult to believe that she wasn't settling for Lucien if he is the only love interest left to pick.

Aelin chose between Chaol and Rowan, Feyre between Tamlin and Rhys, Nesta between Eris and Cassian, and Bryce between Cormac and Hunt. I - like many others - think the love triangle that we should be focusing on is the one that centres Elain, not Azriel. Will she choose Lucien or Az? We all have our own thoughts, but again, it's only a true choice if there is more than one option.

The mating bond

Picture this: it's 2026 (we hope), we have just finished reading ACOTAR 5, and Elain and Lucien still haven't acted on their mating bond, either way. The hatred that Elain receives now, for simply making her apparent disinterest obvious, or taking the time to decide what she wants (whatever the reason), will get a thousand times worse. I don't want to be around for it, it's bad enough now.

The crossover

I haven't spoken about this before, because when I originally discussed what I've mentioned above in reblogs or on Reddit, the crossover didn't yet exist. But to me, it also plays a part in why I think Elain needs to be a protagonist in ACOTAR 5, and not 6.

The fandom loves to laugh - and I get it, we all expected the Prythian crossover in HOFAS to be more extensive than it was - but many Elriels, myself included, read "roses and bread" at the end of HOSAB and immediately thought of Elain, who has been tied to both roses/gardening and baking bread, and for whose story the phrase "bread and roses" could hold significance, as @psychologynerd has suggested. Obviously, it didn't amount to anything obvious in HOFAS, because SJM appears to have focused on Bryce's underground adventure with Nesta and Azriel in the end, rather than having Bryce spend any time at all in Velaris, but for all of that, I don't think our theories have been proven wrong. They're just in their "watch this space" era.

One of the issues that my fellow Elriels and I discussed before HOFAS came out was that, while many of us have noted how well-suited Elain's powers appear to be for intergalactic travel, be that mentally/spiritually, or even physically (her sisters, too, I think, but this post is focusing on Elain), we didn't think SJM would want to spoil the reveal in a POV that wasn't her own. In the end, we ended up with a lot of Elain-shaped gaps in the plot.

So, knowing that SJM has said that the next book after ACOTAR 5 will likely be revisiting an existing world - many of us think Erilea - and knowing that the precedent has been set for worldwalking, wouldn't it be ridiculous to see Feyre and/or Nesta visit Erilea, but not Elain? They're almost certainly more powerful together, three links like an Archesian amulet. We need to know about Elain's magics simply so such a powerful character - a Cauldron Made Seer who is hinted to have other strengths as well - can be utilised.

It would be such a waste otherwise. Think what you like about Elain personally, but kingdoms would kill for someone with her (hypothetical) skill set.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and once again - if you choose to interact with this post, please remain kind and respectful. 💜

[crystalrabbit246912]

NRC Group Therapy

So I just had a thought that I needed to flesh out and I figured, why not post it on Tumblr, so here you are.

What if the main 24 (all of the named characters, counting Yuu and Grim, excluding the teachers) had group therapy?

Now, I know that there'd obviously be fights between everyone, but can you imagine how funny it would be? Like you have Leona making aggressive comments toward Malleus and Sebek yelling back at him while Malleus is just sitting there happy that Yuu invited him to therapy, or Floyd chasing around Riddle, who's ready to blow a fuse while Jade enables his twin's behavior and Azul tries to stop it.

All while the poor therapist, who's probably very underpaid, is starting to realize that they're maybe a little out of their depth.

Yuu, who's very much Not Okay after all of the Overblots, ends up accidentally trauma dumping by saying something and thinking that it's completely normal, and also has to play peacemaker for everything because... because Crowley's in charge for some reason.

The Overblot gang, especially... (I started thinking of who had the saddest backstories and then realized that it all of them have messed up pasts) all of them, do end up spilling some stuff and traumatizing the therapist in the process.

Some of the guys, like Ruggie with Leona disintegrating him and the Tweels with Azul almost stealing their power, and maybe some passive-aggressive comments toward Idia and Ortho for their kidnappings.

The First-Year Gang, (Yuu in particular), are especially struggling, like Ace and Deuce covering their necks whenever they hear Riddle raise his voice, Jack watching Leona and Ruggie closely, Epel ducking his head and not fighting back against Rook and Vil even when he doesn't want to do something, I couldn't think of something for Ortho, and Sebek flinching at the sound of lightning.

I can imagine Ortho bringing up the fact that he has the memories of the human Ortho who died in the past and Idia built him and the therapist just blue screening for a moment.

Everyone: Casually bringing up near-death experiences and past trauma like it's something everyone goes through

Therapist: I hope you realize it isn't normal

*A brawl somehow breaks out in the background*

Yuu: Guys, guys, calm down! Both sides are valid. Epel, you're allowed to be upset that Vil almost killed you in the past, but be aware that he's actively working on changing. Vil, Epel's been traumatized by you, allow him to be mad at you.

Therapist: ...this is way above my paygrade.

[haltderpyy]

I went to Momocon 2025 (my first ever convention) yesterday and it was super fun and I’m going to yap about it now yippe

(2nd attempt posting this cuz after spending and hour writing the first it didn’t save and deleted itself aaaa)

I went in a GingerBrave cosplay which was also my first ever cosplay! It took me a little under to week to make and I’m very proud of it

The only main issues I ran into with the mask was the paint on the inside of the mesh rubbing off onto my forehead, the hot glue bruising my nose a little, and the mask being hard to speak through

Basically the whole time I was at the con I kept hearing people say “OMG GingerBrave” “look a GingerBrave!” etc behind me which was super cool :D I kept being recognized and OMG SO MANY PEOPLE came up asking for photos it was SO COOL. I felt like the star of the show and couldn’t stop smiling it was so fun and I loved it :333 there was also this one little kid who I kept seeing over and over, and at the end of the con they ran up to me and hugged me and it was the sweetest thing ever 🥺 I almost died it was so cute

There was also one time where my mom called my name (we had gotten a little bit separated in the crowd) so I turned around really fast and accidentally gave two cosplayers a heart attack 😭 like imagine you’re just hanging out at a con and all of a sudden BOOM GingerBrave jumpscare

Also APPARENTLY there was a crk photoshoot and I MISSED IT because my goofy ahh didn’t check the schedule at all (I crashed out for like 10 minutes straight over it) but it ended up being alright because after that was over all the cookie run cosplayers started going to different parts of the con so I got some cool photos from that :3

I also managed to not buy a single thing which I hear is impressive for conventions

Anyways here are some photos! I have a lot more I wanted to show but tumblr has an image limit unfortunately, plus a lot of the photos I’m in are other people’s so I don’t have them (also the Candy Apple cosplayer in most of the photos is my sibling)

Group of Mikus I found (my group was counting and apparently they spotted over 130 different Miku cosplays in total)

“Pure Vanilla said I could come!” Ahh photo

Anyways thank you for reading my yap sesh :3

[in1-nutshell]

Hey, not sure if you're down for writing a continuation of the “Megatron 'accidentally' adopting human Buddy who fears nothing” post. But there was a line “Rung has a line of bots that express the same worry for Buddy one day doing something dumb and not being able to come back from it.” that I think should be expanded upon. Dangerous things are constantly happening to the lost light crew and Buddy must have the devil's luck to come out of everything that happens unscathed. I'd like to see that luck run out. I'd like to see the crew panicking because Buddy got hurt badly and there's been no news if they'll recover or not. I want to see Megatron deal with the impending mortality of his newly adopted kid poorly. And I want to see everyone on the lost light panic even more because if Megatron doesn't start a war if this kid dies, Whirl absolutely will. P.s please let buddy live, I may crave angst, but not that much.

Have a good day, love your writing

Ooooh! Have you been peaking at some of my drafts? haha! I have been thinking about what would happen if Buddy ever got hurt on Megatron's watch. But now more bots are going to watch.

Hope you enjoy!

Megatron and Fearless Buddy who gets seriously hurt

SFW, familial, platonic, angst but happy ending, mention of injuries but nothing graphic or detailed, Human reader

MTMTE/LL

As we all know Buddy fears nothing

And this put some stress on their friends and new dad, Megatron.

“Hey Megs!”--Rodimus

“Rodimus, don’t call me that.”--Megatron

“Yeah, not gonna happen. Anyways I was wondering if you’ve seen Buddy anywhere. They were supposed to show me something?”--Rodimus

“Show you what?”--Megatron

“Something about being a present for being Brainstorm’s ‘Guinea pig’?”--Rodimus

Buddy flying by on a jet pack.

“Hi Roddy! Hi Megs! Bye Roddy! Bye Megs!”--Buddy

“…”—Rodimus and Megatron

CRASH!

Both mechs start running

But as time continues to go on, their little antics are just normalized. Sure, there are still some bots that know the true fragility of the human life span. Such bots included but not limited to Ratchet, First Aid, Velocity, Swerve, Rung, Megatron, and Whirl

“Where are you going with those pilars?”—First Aid

“It’s nothing illegal, yet.”--Buddy

“What type of answer is that!?”—First Aid

But for the most part the crew thinks Buddy is almost as durable as they are. Yes, even Megatron has been guilty of this type of behavior. He isn’t too proud of that.

“C’mon Fleshy jump and do a flip!”—Random Bot

“Bet—”--Buddy

“I think not.”--Whirl

“Whirl?!”--Buddy

“If you break your dumb fragile bones who else is going to come with me on planet expeditions? Cyclonus? I think not. He sucks out all the fun.”—Whirl

“I am literally right here.”--Cyclonus

So, let the angst begin.

The place was being invaded by space pirates.

The pirates where taking the bridge and had successfully barricaded themselves in.

“Why can’t we just break the door down?”--Buddy

“The main room has delicate equipment. One wrong move…”--Megatron

“Okay that’s a bad idea then.”--Buddy

“We just need an opening from the main door and we can figure out the rest.”--Rodimus

“Hey, I’m tiny enough to fit through the crack under the door. I can open the door!”--Buddy

“Absolutely not.”--Megatron

“For once I’m agreeing with him.”--Whirl

“Hey, its not like we have many options here. Unless someone else has a better idea then I am quite literally the only thing stopping these guys.”--Buddy

“…go then…”--Megatron

He was going to regret saying it like that. The computers dashboard in order to unlock the door or at least give it an opening. So, when they were sure that the aliens weren’t looking, they sprinted over to the console by swinging up with a grappling hook to the chair and began running towards the buttons.

They had indirectly activated the plasma screens.

These were holoscreens all over the ship that would show what was happening on the bridge. Everyone had a front row seat to Buddy sprinting across the console. There where cheers as Buddy was coming closer and closer to the button

“They made it!”--Rodimus

“Way to go Buddy!”--Tailgate

“Just press the button.”—Ultra Magnus

“That’s my Amica—”--Whirl

It was right there…

The alien came out of nowhere…

“EW! A Rat!”--Alien

“A ra—"--Buddy

They swatted Buddy across the room in one swift movement. They’re tiny body hurdling across the room and off screen. A small sickening crack was heard.

It was barely noticeable.

But it caused a deafening sound across the entire Lost Light.

 Good news for the crew, Buddy’s shoe came off from the force of the hit and successfully pressed the button opening the door.

Everyone is lined up to take these aliens down.

Megatron and Whirl are at the forefront of it.

Megatron is trying to find Buddy while Whirl is absolutely destroying everything.

Megatron spots Buddy slumped over in the far corner of the room.

No motion, nothing

He is just frozen in place.

“Buddy…”--Megatron

“…”--Buddy

“Megatron! Move!”--Ratchet

Ratchet snaps him out of it as he is trying to help Buddy.

Megatron snaps out of it a cover him.

Buddy is rushed out an into the medbay.

Everyone is waiting.

The sudden gravity of Buddy’s mortality weighs heavily on the minds of everyone involved.

Megatron sulks in his room thinking about how he failed them. He can’t bear to sit by Buddy in the med bay. Ratchet understands and tells him that he when Buddy wakes up.

Whirl on the other hand, stays by Buddy’s bed side the entire time.

“Hey Tiny. It’s been a hot minute since you’ve open those little eyes… You mind opening them up?”--whirl

“…”--Buddy

“Fine be like that…”--Whirl

“…”--Buddy

“Well, you’ve missed a lot since you took that hit. One you have a ton of inner most energon by your room and a growing number of get-well gifts. I personally made sure none of you’re a secret bomb. Megs is still in his room and its giving everyone the creeps.”--Whirl

“…”--Buddy

“… Don’t tell this to anyone… but we miss you, you scared the ever living Pits out of us.”--Whirl

“…”--Buddy

Whirl has lost every good thing in his life. He is going to make sure that this one thing does go so soon.

Buddy does wake up

“Hye Whirly Bird?”--Buddy

“Buddy?!”--Whirl

“Why you looking at me like that? Someone died?”--Buddy

“You nearly did Tiny!”--Whirl

“But I didn’t, huh? It takes more than a hand to stop me.”--Buddy

“…I guess huh.”--Whirl

Megatron is zooming over when he hears. Buddy is trying to play off their injuries to try and keep the peace.

“Hey Megs.”--Buddy

“Buddy…”--Megatron

“You okay? You look like you’re dying.”--Buddy

“… that was a poor choice of words.”--Megatron

“Yeah I guess— woah, Megs?"—Buddy

Megatron gently holding Buddy’s hand the best he can

“Just let me hold you please, just a little bit.”--Megatron

“Sure Megs.”--Buddy

As they are recovering Buddy is treated with a bit more respect than they had before. Good thing too, they did after all manage to save the ship after all.

[aalghul]

hiii @bitter-hibiscus i accidentally deleted your ask about the al ghul siblings and then forgot to post this from my drafts....

dusan: the eldest child we’ve been introduced to, around 800 years old. he’s said to have accompanied ra’s as the first white ghost for centuries (we don't really see him until very late into the game ofc). ra’s didn’t claim him openly because of dusan’s albinism, and only realized he had lost his most loyal child when dusan gives his body to ra’s after talia refuses to let damian’s be used. this is off the top of my head but i don't remember his mother being mentioned.

nyssa: she's a few hundred years younger than dusan, lived (and suffered) through WWII and followed ra's for a while before she went off on her own. she and her mother are jewish and russian, though we never actually meet the latter. nyssa was sort of part of the downfall of the al ghuls in a meta way though since death and the maidens was what led us to the most racist era of al ghul writing. terrible stuff. anyways, nyssa manipulated talia for a while and led the league after she killed ra’s (and almost killed talia). and then she died. she is an interesting character but she'd have to be overhauled heavily to not be a detriment to either ra's or talia.

talia: in the main timeline, she doesn’t extend her life in any way. she wants an average human lifespan. her mother, melisande, was arab and chinese (no further details provided, naturally). there are two versions of her death: mike w. barr’s is that melisande was pushed into a lazarus pit by qayin, and denny o’ neil’s is that she died of a drug overdose and ra’s chose not to save her (i prefer the former).

bonus: unnamed fetus whose mother has been forgotten because this entire story happened in the son of the demon timeline dc didn't want to be canon for the longest time (because of damian. sotd is vaguely canon now but the chances of bride of the demon being canon are low lol may as well mention it though)

[aizawashuichi]

Ref: this post.

I wrote some tags, but they were a bit messy, because I was not exactly in the right headspace (Romanian elections + having to study). In any case, I just want to ramble about crime statistics and Matsuda saying, “There has been a dramatic decrease in the number of violent crimes committed worldwide, especially in Japan.”

This is not meant to give an answer or anything. I tried to give it some structure (probably failed), but it’s just to see the absurdity of the Death Note world.

First, I just want to talk briefly about Ohba’s faulty logic and then I’ll get into the main thing.

Light says, “It’s been six years since Kira appeared. War is a thing of the past, most of the worst criminals have died, and the world’s crime rate has gone down by 70 percent.”

That is not possible. First of all, it has already been well documented how the death penalty, which this is in the end, is not really effective to deter people from committing crimes. People that want to commit crimes will commit crimes. People that do not want to commit crimes may commit crimes. And this is regardless of a God who doesn’t even know their name unless it appears on the news, internet or in some public database of criminals just for Kira.

Confidential information on criminals may have started to flood the internet, but surely not the one of a man who killed his wife in a small rural village of central Africa o Eastern Europe or Middle East, unless they were weirdly technologically advanced from 2005 to 2010. Digitalization wasn’t as common as now, so I think it’s safe to assume that people committing crimes in some not so well-known region of the world, where technology is very limited or restricted, wouldn’t reach Kira.

Other than this, crimes happen everywhere: in extremely secure and strict prisons; in public, where everyone can see them; in situation that would make people so obviously guilty. Fear comes and goes, unless someone lives in a constantly stressful environment (which the death note universe seems not to be). People will adapt to this and get smarter at hiding.

We don’t know the rate at which Light and other Kiras killed, but even if Light alone killed one person per minute, that’s 2.628.000 people in 5 years. There were around 11 million prisoners worldwide in 2004. And, at least in the US (using it because it’s the one country that I can easily find stats of), there were almost 700k individuals admitted in prison in 2004. By the time, they kill 700k people, other 700k people will show up. Maybe, there is a decrease in this figure, but not that much, because a lot of people might be entering after a long trial.

Light didn’t obviously spend that much time killing people, because he had to keep up appearances. Misa maybe did, but at one person per minute is highly unlikely. She too has to act as if she’s not Kira. The same goes with Takada and Mikami, who also came way later. They didn’t kill enough in my opinion to create some sort of exponential fear in people that would paralyze them.

Moving on. He says “war is a thing of the past” but there are reasons to have wars and civil wars that would outweigh any fear of being killed by Kira. Especially grassroots revolutions. Then, I already mentioned this, but crimes of passion, of necessity and accidental ones… Those will not be stopped by fear. Death Note assumes people just constantly think about him, which can’t be the case, because that would mean that every murder, every crime, is premeditated. Also, for having a character with such a big ego, it surely doesn’t account for other people that might be the same and either don’t believe they’ll get caught or actually challenge Kira to kill them by committing as many crimes as possible.

There is also the dark number of crimes. How much are they? Nobody knows. Also, because of Kira’s activity, they may start to underreport other crimes.

Generally, it seems to be just the logic of the DN universe that what Kira does has the outcome Light desires. That is not realistic. Also, yes, I am not counting Kira’s crimes as crimes. That is a whole issue of its own, but since it follows Light’s journey and he sees his actions as retributive justice, those will not be seen as crimes.

Now.

Task force… Task forces?

To me, it seems highly unlikely that this kind of thing would only have one Kira task force. Yes, they cooperate with L and that’s why it’s the main one, but it feels almost impossible that no other country has an appointed group of policemen to work on the same case, to meticulously record data, to come up with their own hypothesis. We only see L work with the FBI and briefly with the Interpol, but what about each country? Why do these governments not care enough to put in that type of work? Why didn’t they coordinate different task forces around the world to have a full picture of the phenomenon?

L might not care because he’s looking to find this supposedly person (not group) in Kanto, but the police doesn’t know that yet. Yeah, one person is in Kanto, but is this the doing of only one person?

Standardization and crimes stats in general.

What Matsuda said is technically wrong not because Kira’s crimes are violent crimes and deterring people is not that easy, but because there is no global standardization for crime statistics. You can’t just say there is a decrease in crimes, when you don’t have the full data of the year. By the time Matsuda says that, there is no country that has readily available information useful for this kind of interpretation. They just have those who died in prison by heart attack.

What if crimes were extremely low all year but if you count Kira’s crimes, that trend is the same as the previous year. Having a few weeks of low violent crime activity doesn’t mean there is a decrease. That’s not how you read a trend. Those are rough numbers you are considering out of context. If you don’t count Kira’s crimes as such and the trend stays low, then you can’t say it’s his doing. Could be a lot of reasons, that you will infer on at the end of the year or in January of the next one.

If crimes are high and Kira kills prisoners (seen as a crime) that for some reason create a sort of deterring effect, what Kira does will make up for that and keep the trend high. If you don’t see them as crimes, as the manga says, it’s Kira’s doing, but still, you are assuming there is a deterring effect (highly unlikely, especially at the time Matsuda says that – almost two weeks after Light picks up the death note) and that is going to be the trend until the end of the year. Will it? The most there can be is a sort of stagnation because it’s a new situation, and then activity will start again.

How do they get this information anyway?

Are we just going to assume every and each country is willingly cooperating with a task force in Japan, giving them pretty important information about their own justice system? The number of criminals in prison does paint a picture of a country, actually.

And what about cross-country communication? Is it just that easy? Is the NPA the best organization in the world and the only one to have a top tier global communication channel? How is that even possible, since it’s a domestic agency? Okay, maybe they have a Ministry or accredited statistical agencies to do all that work for them, but 1. standardization, again and 2. the amount of time to create it would be insane and the bureaucratic procedures to even have 5 countries be actually capable of real time communication, with all the necessary precautions and whatnot, would be a nightmare. Even if they created a standard procedure for Kira’s killings, what’s the criteria? Can you really say it’s enough? Can you really be sure everybody would be ready to give you that kind of information when you need it? How could they do that without their own domestic task force?

Now, about Kira’s crimes specifically.

Saying that crimes rates went up because of him is also technically wrong if you don’t have all the data for the period (for sort of the same logic as went down), but also can you really be sure it’s Kira or actually just heart attack?

Yeah, we know it’s him and if everyone just assumes every heart attack is because of him, then yes. Crime rates went up, but this is not how stats work. I am repeating myself and I know I sound annoying, but they can’t be sure it’s all because of him. The only thing they can do is gather all the information they have over some months and then calculate a margin of error based on the heart attack frequency before Kira, which needs a lot of work, a lot of coordination and a lot of time.

So, nobody can be sure of anything. Not even Matsuda. He’s just uniformed, naïve and a bit hopeful, but the narrative is beyond wrong.

[abyssal-author-and-artist]

My drawing stylus died yesterday but I got it to work again! Divine Falls Mabel and Dipper will be out tomorrow in all of their glory with creator notes! I'm actually enjoying Mabel's design way more than I thought I would.

Anyways, I feel like I should post Divine Falls lore/plot because... I want to.

In chronological order, not in order of how the show goes.

Ford and Stan, the twin gods of Life and Death respectively, are born to Caryn and Filbrick, married gods of Propecy and whatever I decide Filbrick gets because I literally can't think of something good for him. Ford, as Life, is put on a pedestal. For the first few years of their lives, Stan and Ford (and Shermie, god of conception or some shit, I'm still working on it) have their own wings of the main temples that their parents have. Caryn and Filbrick have one shared temple with a bunch of wings for various things.

College in this AU is replaced by temples, or rather, the status of temples. West Coast Tech is replaced by Ford being offered a large temple so large that a large city will be built around it. Think Athens. And yes, this era is very ancient Greece era because god au. Don't worry, we'll hit modern era.

So Stan wants to travel to spread his blessings. As the God of Death, he doesn't have many, but what he does have are the blessings that go unappreciated. Like granting a peaceful death to people or letting people say final goodbyes. Extending someone's life just long enough that that they can say goodbye to those that matter to them. And he wants to adventure. He wants to spread his blessings silently and see as many things as possible. He wants to do all this with Ford, whose blessings are way more obvious - long and prosperous life, fertility, that sort of thing.

When they're about to set off into the world, a human architect approaches the temple that's run by Caryn and Filbrick offering a huge temple to Ford. Filbrick wants those sweet offerings that mortals make to gods, but Stan doesn't want Ford to take it. Ford is conflicted but promises that if something goes wrong, he'll go with Stan travel the mortal world.

As an accident, Stan accidentally kills the forest where they want to build the temple and the town surrounding it. Stan becomes a pariah because he messed up his brother's chance to have his own temple. Stan goes on the run, pretending to be a mortal and spreading blessings more subtly. He still ends up in jail because people think he's suspicious, but he manages to break out every time.

Meanwhile, Ford is struggling to make his own mark. Because his first temple was ruined so dramatically - rotted trees and cracked stone all the way down - architects see him as a bad omen. He manages to share a temple with Fiddleford for a while, then finally gets his own little temple in a small, newly founded lumber town, where he becomes the main religious figure. People have to make pilgrimages to him, but for the most part, he's free to just exist as a god in a remote mountain town in butt-fuck nowhere, oregon.

One day, he's wandering around disguised as a mortal when there's not many people praying to him as he often does. He finds a cave and senses divine energy and decides, fuck it, he's gonna go in. He finds an inscription on a wall in a language long lost, even to him, and recites it in stuttering words. He's almost disappointed until Bill shows up.

To Ford, Bill feels divine, but weakened. So, naturally, instead of assuming Bill is a fallen Old God (which is the correct answer), he assumes Bill is an archangel for a fallen god - "Maybe even Stanley's archangel? Did he ever have one?" - because archangels are much closer to mortal life than gods are and can be seen in their most powerful form without driving a mortal insane. Basically near-mortal vessels of pure divinity. Bill being a triangle, well, it's odd for an archangel, but Ford's willing to handwave it because divinity does strange things to the mundane and a part of him is latched to the idea that Bill is somehow the mortal hand of Stan (where mortal hand is shorthand for archangel or other mortal vessel of divinity) despite the fact that that makes no sense. Bill uses this to convince Ford that his power, his remaining divinity, can be restored by a certain magical artifact that needs to be remade.

Now, Ford is good with creation and life, but not so much with recreating ancient artifacts with inscriptions from gods and divine entities long dead. So he calls up his old pal Fiddleford, god of Science, to help. Instantly Fiddleford is suspicious of Bill because something feels off. Additionally, Ford was always the one who preferred learning new things about mortal life and ancient artifacts, yet he didn't even bother trying to translate the text? But alas, Fiddleford doesn't know a lot about translating the odd and the strange, so he leaves it at just an odd feeling.

As I'm sure you know if you are a Gravity Falls fan, Fiddleford is right to be suspicious of Bill. In this, Bill's trying to restore his powers and status as an Old God. Part of the way through the reconstruction of the artifact, it goes haywire and Fiddleford receives a fraction of Bill's sealed power, which includes a lot of very not good things, like straight up mass mind control with no cooldown or wind up. It makes him realize that, oh, Bill is an Old God in disguise. He leaves the project and Ford gives up a fraction of his divine influence so Bill can use it to finish the project. He's nearly at the end when Ford takes over again to go grant a blessing. And then he realizes Fiddleford was right.

He calls up Stan, first verifying that he's been tricked and that Stan never had an archangel or other mortal hand due to being an outcast despite the fact that, as Life and Death, Stan and Ford could have mortal hands. When Stan affirms this, Ford calls him over.

Despite being a god, Stan has to manually travel to Gravity Falls, Oregon - his divine influence is weak and many people don't even know that there's a god of Death anymore, let alone worship him. He's stealing offerings from other god's altars just to survive at times - and often gets thrown in jail because he's seen as thieving from the gods when he, himself, is one of them. When he gets to Ford, Ford has descended into paranoia and the town is nervous and anxious due to their town's patron deity not interacting with them anymore. Ford is in his human form, which seals most of his divine influence, when Stan gets to the temple. He's paranoid and isn't even letting people in his temple. Luckily, he has enough offerings to sustain himself, but he's basically starving himself so he and Stan have about the same amount of influence - basically none.

The journals are literally the same except they cover different topics. Basically, Ford gives Stan a book (Journal 1) that covers how best to perform the duties of Life. Journal 2, as held by Gideon, describes how best to use offerings and influence granted by worshippers. Journal 3, once discovered by Dipper, is a record of divine phenomena such as how festivals affect divinity and how the flow of time can sometimes warp strangely (see: The Time Traveler's Pig in canon for why I need to write time travel into the journals). All three have mentions of Bill, and the diagrams and notes for how to recreate the divine artifact.

Ford, instead of getting thrown into the multiverse, has his influence sealed and his power is scattered across the universe as a rogue natural force. He's sentient but he can't interact with anyone, not even as a wisp of influence. His power has been sealed in the same place most of Bill's is, which makes it so he can interact with Bill's well of influence. He spends his time attempting to annihilate Bill's power while sealed, resigned to never being brought back because the artifact is partially crushed, mostly used, and two of his journals have been relocated around the town.

Stan takes over the temple. It starts small, where he just uses some of the stockpiled offerings, one after the other, but eventually, he runs out of influence and needs to reopen the temple. Luckily, if he steals some of Ford's accessories that are the things most vividly depicted in murals of him, he can pass as Ford, the God of Life, pretty easily. He uses the journal to bullshit as many of Ford's powers as possible, but that's rather difficult so he ends up just using any of his powers that he can. Because he has a lot of blessings he can give, it works, and he's able to pass as a somewhat-subpar Life for a few centuries.

Fast forward to probably about the same time Gravity Falls takes place (if not a little earlier). Mabel and Dipper, twin Gods of Earth and Space, live with their parents, the Sun and the Moon, until they're sent away to live with "Stanford, god of Life" in his temple. The idea is that they're learning how to harness their powers best with an experience god on their power level while also using the small town that's very used to the divine and supernatural due to the sheer amount of gods walking among them to learn how to interact with mortals. Dipper finds Journal 3 and uses it to learn a lot of things about divinity and the anomalies.

Something that might be seen as a plot hole: the Earth and Space have existed probably longer than Life of Death. As have a lot of the concepts embodied by children - Pacifica is the god of Change which is one of the oldest concepts ever and Gideon, as the god of Magic, has existed as long as magic has existed. To cover for this, every once in a while a God's essence needs to be returned to the fabric of the universe to merge with other concepts and create new world and religious orders. For example, when Pacifica and Fiddleford (Change and Science, respectively) die, their essences will meld together into Progress. Therefore, Mabel and Dipper were likely part of an entity known as Reality before they died and split into twin gods.

Dipper, as Space, is naturally inclined to keep learning everything about everything - things symbolized by space include mystery, magic, and knowledge, after all, so he's likely to seek out the strange, paranormal and divine.

Mabel, as Earth, is a free spirit who adores creation and finding new, fun mortal pursuits. In general, she's a lot more focused on the mortal side of things than Dipper is - where he wants to learn everything about godhood and their divinity, she wants to enjoy walking among mortals for as long as possible.

When Ford gets brought back, he yells at Stan, revealing he was about to destroy the seat of Bill's power and now they have to go about it the hard way.

Most of the series plays out mostly the same except Weirdmageddon is replaced by Bill regaining his godhood and is defeated by erasing his divine presence with something similar to the memory gun, which has been invented by Fiddleford to prevent his influence from fracturing. There's new logistics behind it which I will. get to. eventually.

So that's basically a broad overview of the plot and I might end up making this into a fic because I have gone feral over this AU. In case you. Couldn't tell.

I might make a separate blog for Divine Falls stuff one of these days because this is a lot, but I'm not sure I will.

[ghoooooooooooooooost]

i only shared it w a friend before but can i tell you all my death mark 2 au/rewrite... here (spoilers obvi, also body horror + insects warning)

(edited so theres more details smile)

most things r the same except for the departed (and no naked girl cgs OFCOURSE)

making it so that the departed pretends to be daimon instead of the two high school girls

normal daimon is around but he’ll gradually get sick n every now n then something weeeeird happens (as in yashiki accidentally talks to fake daimon. also maybe you see the weird bug ghost that hovers above everyone near endgame with him first)

crowbar scene happens w fake daimon while real daimon is actually passed out somewhere. mashita comforts yashiki n then they both realize its a fake

(that's what these doodles were referencing)

my dearest friend chip suggested the departed could also be konoe so n that would make sense n make him more present in the plot so byeah

we both agreed that they didn't push the bug + mold horror theme far enough so i tried my hand at it. mold can be really gross irl ewwww

my design for departed daimon is actually toned down from the og tho, just bc i thought the weird spider face was more goofy than scary. personally bugs are scary to me when they're crawling on you n burrowing into your skin n making holes n laying eggs in there - like the bees in death mark 1. there was some real-stories tv show abt that specific thing happening that aired when i was a kid n it freaked me out a lot

why was hime's mold just ourple swirls boooriiiiiiiiiiiing

/

edit july 15th 2024 adding this into the main og post since wonderful chippard linked it (basically a neater rewrite of everything i just said + what i said in the reblog addition. i rewrote it for a solo zine hence the proper capitalization lol)

Instead of Himeko and Michiho being The Departed, it’s Daimon and Konoe. Normal Daimon is still there but every now and then he’ll start acting strange or feeling sick due to The Departed’s possession. The “love” aspect would be shown through Daimon specifically too so Doctor Duo ship is canon in this. Konoe basically uses Daimon to try to get to his Dear Husband. In place of going into a coma like in the original, his behavior intensifies and condition worsens until he suddenly runs to the bathroom. When he comes back… dun dun dun… that’s The Departed – Yashiki doesn’t know…! Crowbar scene ensues. But!? After Yashiki tells Mashita, they see Daimon perfectly alive in the infirmary. Yasuoka found him collapsed in the hallway at some point.

The plot would play out basically the same with some changes (no fanservice girl cgs; more Konoe screen-time; Michiho + Himeko act differently; Saki or Abe partner? more school-related ghosts...).

Maybe the game could be longer to give the new characters more time to shine while not removing the returning ones. Not sure how that would work exactly… One possible solution would be to have day segments where we get to play as Yashiki while he's actively teaching (which would also address the "why'd they even pick a school setting" problem bc damn they barely did any school specific plot shit outside of Hanako & Kashima). Would be awesome and in-line with how the first game brought up war if they kept addressing problems with the education system. Also I think I wouldn’t have any unavoidable human casualties after Hanako’s chapter? All the unavoidable deaths made my friends confused about if they were doing something wrong or not and it honestly felt off to me too. It would be compelling if after failing to protect the first student(s), Yashiki actually successfully protects the rest of them in the good route. Making him feel like he’s become more steadfast after the first game and staying true to his word. Especially if Naomi survives in my opinion - ‘she almost dies but is spared if you make the right choices’ or something like that. She could even be in the room when Yashiki sings the school song.

Not sure how I'd make The Departed feel even more connected to the school... Maybe there's a romantic superstition popular among the students that's based off their "wedding ceremony" -- but it's innocent enough to not give away how they died.

[dragonbma]

Reasons why I firmly believe Vos didn’t perish initially in the Sea Temple and instead survived (if even for a short while) inside: This is going to be a rant so bear with me…

The subtle hints in the game dialogue reveal a lot despite us never finding his inventory or concrete evidence suggesting how Vos died:

1) In the emporium when you first consult Jack about going to the Sea Temple, he mentions his friends Vos and Sammy were killed during the first adventure. He doesn’t explicitly state he saw them both die, just that “neither of them made it out alive.” (More on this in 2)

2) After freeing ‘Vos’ in the temple, Jack seems more excited than confused that his buddy is alive. In fact, Jack asks him no questions. (I can dismiss that as Jesse needing the dialogue options, but Jack’s lack of suspicion is either because Vos had an ambiguous death or he’s in denial that his friend is dead.) Jesse mentions to ‘Vos’ that “Jack said he saw you die.” But from all the game dialogue I’ve seen, Jack never says he saw that.

Full Quotes:

3) “Whatever’s left of Vos must be somewhere down here too…” -Jack after picking up Sammy’s inventory in the Sea Temple

He says “somewhere.” Almost as if he’s not even sure where his other friend died. Huh, kind of like he didn’t see it…

Yes I know that upon entering the guardian room of the temple, he says that everything is a blur, but after picking up one of your friend’s inventories, wouldn’t memories come flooding back? I feel like that would have been a crucial memory even if it was repressed.

Side note: It’s kind of weird he doesn’t go looking for Vos’ inventory. Idk if this is because he genuinely doesn’t know where it is or because he’s so distraught after finding Sammy’s inventory that he needs some time to think before he can handle seeing Vos’ as well.

4) “I thought you were a goner, man!” -Jack to ‘Vos’

Note how he says “thought.” What happened that made you think he died? Because seeing him die wouldn’t merely leave you thinking your friend died. You would be 100% sure-

Jack doesn’t say “I saw you die!” Or “How did you survive (insert whatever killed him)?”

5) “The real Vos would never have survived in my Sea Temple that long!” -Romeo post-reveal

HE. SAYS. “SURVIVED.” That’s a weird thing to say if Vos had really died initially along with Sammy.

He doesn’t say anything like: “You really thought I was your friend? After you watched him perish?” or something implying Jack saw it occur. Because knowing Romeo, he would absolutely jab at a blunder like that and belittle Jack for believing his disguise after seeing his friend die.

So, yeah. Our favorite sea temple adventurer lived in that death trap of a Brita filter for Admin knows how long until his eventual death by… starvation? Temple traps? Both? Maybe the guardians still killed him but later? My main guesses are he got trapped in the obsidian cages, or separated from Jack while they were escaping. Either way, Jack accidentally abandoned him after thinking he was killed. Such a shame we never find his inventory pile or anything because that would answer so many of my questions- Romeo give back Vos’ inventory challenge (impossible.) I know you have it.

Idk if we’ll ever know what actually happened but here’s my ten cents. ^^ I am so very mentally well as of now. Thank you for coming to my TellTalk /j

[Or another rant if you want:]

[trans-luis-serra-navarro]

hi! do you have serennedy headcanons about luis and leon being parents?

Hello!! Of course I do omg are you kidding me!!!!!!! I have a whole tag on my main @wisecrackingeric-2 titled ‘DadSerennedyAU’ if you wanna see my own spin on the idea!!!!! ORRRR if you wanna read something from yet another incredibly talented artist and author I CANNOT recommend @mooseonahunt ‘s AU enough!!!! And I know the lovely @geddy-leesbian has made some posts on this subject also!!!!!!!

But in terms of Headcannons I have plenty!! I’ll put them below the cut to avoid clogging anyone’s dashes!!

Edit: THIS IS UH UM. V E R Y LONG. I WENT KINDA BUCKWILD WITH THIS ONE AHDNCHDNXUXJXJ SO UH PLEASE ENJOY I GUESS!!

• First and foremost they are t4t. Sorry I don’t make the rules (also. Look at my blog name HQNAHWNEHDNDUDJ /lh)

• I imagine it was probably Luis who wanted a kid- we don’t know much about Leon’s childhood other than the fact that his parents died (the very wonderful @highball66 has some more information on the backstory we DO have for him!!) and thus we don’t really have a good idea of what his relationship with his parents might’ve been- but Luis is the TOTAL opposite. We know from context clues that he had a really strong relationship with his Grandfather, who went as far as to encourage his love for science and the unorthodox in an incredibly strict Catholic environment, and it’s implied on some level that Bitores Mendez had some hand in helping raise him, so I can imagine that Luis is very attached to the idea of parenthood and would probably wanna be the same kind of man his Grandfather was to him!!!

• Leon???? Realistically???? Probably a whole lot more hesitant- like he almost dies on the job everyday there’s no way he’d feel fit enough to raise a kid. But also,,,,, this is resident evil and also fiction where we can do whatever the hell we want so hell yeah he comes around to the idea eventually!!!!!!

• Luis is probably accidentally VERY clingy with their kid/a lil overbearing during the toddler age. Everything he’s ever contributed to in his life has either hurt others or he’s destroyed it one way or another- and everyone he’s held closest to him dies in some way. And going off of the first point, he’s probably put a LOT of pressure on himself to be a good Dad like his Grandfather was, so that usually ends up with him hogging the baby HCNNSSNSJSNIS

• Leon, again similar to my last point, would probably have the opposite reaction where he has this gut instinct to keep his distance- like he’s worried if he gets too attached it’s all gonna be ripped away from him just like Sherry was all of those years ago. But I highly doubt either of their qualms last for very long- they’d talk things out and figure out something that works for the both of them <3

• They’d probably go with the same middle and last name as Luis- ‘Serra’ and ‘Navarro’. I know I keep repeating myself but Luis had a really good relationship with his Grandfather and his culture/heritage clearly means a lot to him (ie; the intro to Seperate Ways), so being able to keep that little piece of his history alive would probably mean the world to him <<33

• And going off of that, Luis is ALWAYS trying to encourage their kid to learn more about their culture and heritage- teaching them Spanish, cooking them traditional foods, etc etc etc and when Luis isn’t there to do it, Leon is always more than happy to do so <<<<<<33333

• Let’s be real,,,,,,, Leon is coming up with the cringiest baby names ever HXNEHENDUXNXU CMOOOOOON LOOK AT MR. WHERES EVERYONE GOING BINGO!!!!! But Luis probably isn’t much better BCNENWEJSJ I can easily picture him convincing Leon that noooooo Alonso or Miguel aren’t references to Don Quixote hahahahahaha omg what’re you taaaalking abooout. So anyways if it were a girl what about Dulcinea-

• I’m picturing them choosing to have a kid a lil bit later than most people (like,, late 30’s-early 40’s??? So not like they’re old or anything but it’s not like they’re having kids in their early 20’s yk HNCSHDNSJ) so for that reason in my mind they’d probably only want one kid

• Very predictable but they both read Don Quixote to their kid when putting them to sleep and/or they sing them lullabies in Spanish. Who here is surprised for that one certainly not me

• And once again WHO IS SURPRISED, the kid’s room is very subtly Don Quixote themed. Lil stuffed donkeys and windmill motifs everywhere you get it (<- normalest guy alive)

• Leon’s probably the one who does more physical activities with their kid- realistically, Luis is N O T surviving that knife to the back without some major lifelong injuries, so Leon’s the one who always carry’s their kid on his shoulders or swings him around when they’re playing etc etc

• I think Luis would be a lil sad that he isn’t able to join in on those kinds of physical activities, but he’d absolutely make up for it by taking their kid to work or teaching them general hands-on skills n stuff!!

• Leon ABSOLUTELY would wanna teach their kid self-defence as early as possible. He obviously mellows out and realises hey maybe teaching a 10 year old how to wield a knife is a Bad Idea, but with everything he’s seen in his life there’s no way he wouldn’t want his kid to know how to defend themselves at LEAST

• Wild-card one here but the three of them ABSOLUTELY take family trips to Madrid or other cities in Spain during the summer

• Last wild-card one but sometimes Luis will look at their kid and see his Grandfather so clearly he just starts fuckim bawlimg. Same with Leon. He sees the childhood he could’ve had and sometimes he’s gotta excuse himself to cry. Love these beautiful idiots

Tl;dr they would be very very wonderful parents who would love their kid with all of their heart and soul and you can put that headcannon from my COLD DEAD HANDS!!!!!!

[yellowmagicalgirl]

20 questions with a Fanfic Author

Thank you for the tag, @aerialworms

How many works on Ao3?

320 public (albeit mostly archive-locked), and then there are three unrevealed works as well.

2. Total AO3 Word Count?

332,344

3. Top 5 fics by Kudos

Reunions and Revelations: Post-Rise of the Titans fix-it, except I never watched RotT. I find it rather interesting that despite krexie being such a controversial ship, this still manages to rank above any other ToA fic I've ever written. Rated G.

Supplanter: Changeling!Jim meets his familiar while in the Darklands. Rated T.

Birds, Bees, and Blood Magic: co-authored by @tunafishprincess and based on Tuna's AU where Jim and Claire accidentally made a magic baby in a cauldron. Rated G, on almost-certainly permanent hiatus (Tuna, if you want to change that, let me know).

Merlin’s Unavailable (Please Leave a Message with his Apprentice): AU where Douxie was the wizard in the tomb instead of Merlin. Rated G.

No Reason for Love: Post-Wizards AU in which Krel merged with Gaylen's core to defeat the Arcane Order, and then he went into self-imposed exile because he hates himself for merging with the core to keep everyone safe from himself... except Douxie followed him into exile. Rated T.

4. What fandoms do you write for?

At the moment, my fandoms are Khyber Shards and its sequel Blades and Banners as well as whatever fandom I get assigned to for an exchange. Also, I have a plot bunny in the works for Eberron Renewed.

5. Do you respond to comments?

If I have the spoons to.

6. Angstiest Ending?

One of my recent fics, the priest that you ignored might qualify because the main character of it tries to bait her friends into killing her.

7. Fic with the happiest ending?

Out of my recent fics it has to be Body Temperature Restored, since Gideon gets brought back from the dead.

8. Do you get hate?

One of the major reasons why I no longer post on FFN is, well. Let's say I get 100 reviews over the course of a couple months. 90 of them are those "pay me to draw fanart" scams. 9 are queerphobic hate comments. 1 is genuine.

Meanwhile, AO3 is so much nicer.

9. Do you write smut?

The closest I have gotten is fade-to-black foreplay.

10. Do you write crossovers?

Generally no, but I do have a couple crossover plotbunnies hopping around my head.

11. Ever had a fic stolen?

Roughly half of my fics got scraped.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Once someone offered, but otherwise the closest I've ever gotten is writing a fic in German for my German class, rewriting it in English, and then uploading both versions.

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic?

See question 3.

14. All time favorite ship?

Apparently it's krexie, since I wrote 35 fics about them on AO3.

15. WIPs you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

All of them. However, my ToA muse has pretty much moved on.

16. Writing strengths?

Angst.

17. Writing Weaknesses?

Fluff, as in true fluff and not just hurt/comfort. Also, anything that requires me to be hyper-aware of bodily positioning, like fight scenes and smut.

18. Thoughts on mixed language dialogue?

I enjoy it if you either link a footnote or do something cool with hover text, especially if the POV character is supposed to know what's being said.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Either Miraculous Ladybug or Tai Chi Chasers. I fist published for ML, but idk how long my TCC fic had been in the works since it was a decade ago.

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

How dare you make me choose?

I guess I'd have to narrow it down to either the longest fic (Destiny's Pawn), my only completed multichap that's longer than a 2-shot (Juliet Dies in This), or first time I wrote the first fic in a fandom (A Burning Helm). Those are the three I'm most proud of for different reasons.

I'll tag @tunafishprincess, @avirxy, @pirate-melody, @elizabethemerald, @littlecactiguy, and @autumnalfallingleaves

[atopvisenyashill]

(Just to preface, this is gonna be my last ask to you where I compare the Martells to the Greens.)

Do you think that Arianne is going to be an enemy of Dany? Do you think/hope that Arianne can survive Dany? Do you think that most of Dorne will be aligned against Dany in Winds or Dream?

I first got the idea that the Martells and the Greens may have something to do with one another when I saw a post here on Tumblr that Alicent Hightower, Daemon Blackfyre, and Robert Baratheon did more to destroy House Targaryen than any other single person (I agreed with this.) Someone else replied that the Targaryens were self-destructive above all else (I did not agree with this.)

I see the potential formation of a triumvirate between Doran, Aegon VI, and JonCon as a return of Alicent, Daemon, and Robert to fight House Targaryen once again.

Fire&Blood is a book written in service to the main series, the stories in it are almost certainly clues as to how Dany's story will unfold. I think each major enemy of the Targaryens foreshadows a major enemy of Dany. The Faith Militant against Maegor, the new Faith Militant against Dany. The Greens agains Rhaenyra, the Martells against Dany. Daemon Blackfyre against Daeron II, Aegon VI against Dany. Robert against Rhaegar, JonCon against Dany.

JonCon is like Robert, a stormlord marching to war for unrequited love.

Aegon VI is like Daemon Blackfyre, a handsome and dashing young man who embodies the perfect image of what a feudal ruler should be.

Doran Martell is like Alicent Hightower. He spent 16 years patiently planning his own and his family's rise to power. Alicent Hightower spent 20 years patiently planning her own and her family's rise to power. Doran and Alicent are both calculating and methodical and play the long game.

I think that Dany is going to win every war her ancestors lost: Maegor lost against the Faith Militant, but Dany will win. Rhaenyra lost against Alicent and Aegon, but Dany will win against Doran and Arianne. Daeron II lost against Daemon Blackfyre (that is, lost the war for the hearts and minds of the Westerosi; everyone knows Daeron was the loser that was bailed out by Bloodraven at the last minute), Dany will win against Aegon VI. Rhaegar lost against Robert, Dany will win against JonCon.

I see the Martells as the possible basis for the Greens because their similarities seem more than accidental to me. Doran and Alicent, Arianne and Aegon, Elia and Helaena, Aegon and Rhaenys and Jaehaerys and Jaehaera, and more.

Quentyn is a dutiful son who goes on a journey to Meereen to win a noblewoman's hand; he tries to claim Viserion without the knowledge or permission of Queen Daenerys. Aemond is a dutiful son who goes on a journey to Storm's End to win a noblewoman's hand; he claims Vhagar without the knowledge or permission of King Viserys.

Oberyn was in Oldtown as an acolyte at the Citadel from age 13 to age 15. Daeron the Daring was in Oldtown as a squire at the Hightower from age 12 to age 14. Both Oberyn and Daeron are popular, dashing, daring, somewhat hotheaded but dutiful younger sons, and they both have stories that involve vengeance for a brutally killed relative. The only difference I see between them is that Daeron died at 15 and didn't get the chance to become a bicon girldad.

Trystane may be bound for a gruesome death and he has a loyal sworn shield în Ser Gascoyne of the Greenblood. Maelor met a gruesome death and he had a loyal sworn shield în Ser Rickard Thorne.

I don't really see the point of reflecting Alicent, Daemon B., and Robert in Doran, and the Griffs? It just seems incredibly random, without any sort of emotional reflection or logical basis. Doran and Arianne's relationship is nothing like Alicent and Aegon's relationship. I know you believe otherwise but frankly, I think that's a really surface level reading of all four characters. If there's a Martell echo, imo it's the Velaryons - Not Targaryens But Mixed Valyrian Descent, who consider themselves the equals of the Targaryens, with an aging but still sharp as a whip patriarch who has some Weird Gender Dynamics going on amongst his kids (given the Laena Should Have Been Heir/Arianne thinks she's being usurped of it all), as well as a faction that doesn't have their own claim though they once did, and is attempting to marry into the new regime. Like, that's the thing about this comparison - the Martell faction has to join another faction they can't be their own. If they're joining with JonCon, they are joining but just like the Velaryons are their own separate faction from the Blacks, the Martells would be their own separate faction from JonCon. I think this is forcing the characters to fit the parallel rather than finding an organic parallel within the story.

Also this-

Daeron II lost against Daemon Blackfyre (that is, lost the war for the hearts and minds of the Westerosi; everyone knows Daeron was the loser that was bailed out by Bloodraven at the last minute), Dany will win against Aegon VI.

that's not just a stretch that's breaking canon, and that's why I'm saying I think this is a forced parallel based off a surface level reading. Maekar and Baelor explicitly are doing a lot of work for the loyalist cause and are just as instrumental as Bloodraven in winning the first Blackfyre War. Daeron was not the loser that was bailed out by Bloodraven by any stretch of the imagination. You cannot say these are parallels to Dany where Dany will win when...Daeron won lmao, and Daemon and his oldest sons got absolutely wrecked at the Redgrass Field.

I've said it before, but I don't think Dany is a Rhaenyra who wins. Whatever victory she has in Westeros is going to be more of a pyrrhic one - I don't think she's landing early enough to do anything but almost immediately blow up King's Landing once she gets there. She's not going to have a real victory, very similar to Aegon II - she's going to do something violent, and stupid, and almost immediately land in hot shit. I also think this take on F&B being about ~Dany's Story~ is way too focused on a singular family and character rather than the ensemble as a whole. For all people like to act like this is ONLY the story of her family, this is an ensemble, and not everything revolves around her.

[kohakurin8]

It's Not Me, It's My Basement

Explained

⚠️ WARNING ⚠️

This Post Contains Soilers Following the First Paragraph.

Proceed with Caution.

That's right! It's Halloween time, my favorite holiday ever, and I'm back at it again with the semi-extensive theory posts. This time I'm tackling something in one of my favorite genre of media -- Horror RPG Maker Games.

Last night I experienced an adorable, eerie little game called It's Not Me, It's My Basement.

Developed by arcadekitten, the incredibly short-&-sweet story follows a non-binary child named Embry G. Oliver who is hiding a horrible monster in their basement. Although they didn't see it for themselves, they believe that the monster ate their parents, and Embry now feeds it whatever they can so that it doesn't attempt to eat them too. Unfortunately, as the story progresses it appears that the more the monster eats, the stronger and hungrier it becomes...

The story then begins to reach its climax when Embry visits the market to find a traveling doctor in town. Since Embry has been telling the villagers that their parents are bedridden sick, they're forced to meet Dr. D. Light (who is acutely of his punny name) and take him back home. Dr. D. is incredibly kind and helpful, even capable of making Embry trust him enough to open the basement door. However, in an attempt to stop him from descending the stairs to meet the monster, Embry accidentally pushes the Dr to his death. Truly tragic ...

Throughout the entire short story, the monster is never truly seen. However, it does demonstrate its ability to mimic voices and presumably shapeshift, all the while acting mercilessly manipulative. By the ending, that took me entirely by surprise, Embry has a nightmare where they confront the demon and get consumed by it, only to wake up and brazenly descend the basement for real.

And that's it

That's where it ends.

Boom, roll credits.

Now, my intense OCD ass simply can't cope with an ending so sudden and inexplicable, even if it was written incredibly well. In fact, the entire story was cryptic and felt immensely symbolic, steeped so heavily in allusions to depression and guilt that you could serve it at tea-time. So of course, I began to research popular opinions and theorize about what all of it really meant.

Now, the most popular theories (and almost exclusively) are either:

1) Everything is exactly as it's spelled out for you. A monster ate Embry's parents, it can shapeshift and manipulate, and Embry finally gains the courage to confront it instead of running away.

2) Embry actually has a Split Personality, or psychotic alter-ego, which murdered their parents and now the Main Personality of Embry is living with guilt that they don't entirely understand.

3) Something bad happened to Embry's parents that, as a child, Embry cannot understand and the entire story of the game is Embry suffering from traumatic hallucinations.

Obviously, these all have some pretty big flaws. The first theory is simple enough, but relatively uninspired, and feels rather like an insult to the thought put into the nuances of the story. Not to mention, Embry, their parents, and even Dr. D. Light cameo in other arcadekitten games that canonically take place afterwards.

Which farther disproves the second theory, since the characters are all clearly alive and well. Not to mention, as someone with a lot of experience in the field of child trauma and psychological issues, the story really gives no hints whatsoever to Embry potentially having a split personality. Nor does it hint at any potential triggers that would cause them to kill their parents.

And the third theory is the best yet, but still leaves some holes.

So, after careful consideration, I offer you my inspired theory: The Coma Dream.

Perhaps they were in an accident with their parents, like a car crash (or in this world, carriage crash). They were sent into a coma and assumed their parents died based on the sounds they'd heard, since while in a coma they couldn't remember the details of what happened.

Being a child, Embry would have related the sounds they heard during the accident to some sort of monster. Especially if they were asleep when the accident occured.

Within the mysterious subconscious of a coma they could have fabricated a story based on their fears about what really happened and what life would be like without their parents. The heavy theme of guilt and mistakes would even be Embry's immature mind trying to cope with what happened, and feeling like they had done something wrong since they couldn't really understand it all.

Kids have a tendency to blame themselves for things that weren't their fault, simply because they don't understand the situation.

Then of course, facing those fears in the basement is what allows them to wake up.

This even potentially explains Dr. D. Light. Considering Embry's mother was a nurse, as revealed in her cameo in Crowscare, the Dr could be her boss or the family's personal doctor. Someone Embry trusted and liked.

Although Embry acted like they'd only just met the Dr, it isn't unheard of to not entirely recognize (or only subconsciously recognize) someone typically familiar in a dream.

And have you ever had a really intense nightmare where things start to get better, and you think something good might happen and help you, but then your fear and anxiety of something bad ruining it actually causes that to happen in the dream?

Because I have and that would explain why Dr. D was so reassuring only for Embry to panic and push him down the stairs. The more they worried about D getting hurt, the more they thought about what bad could happen, and suddenly those thoughts came to fruition.

Following this theory, after facing the monster in the basement, Embry may have either unlocked their memory about what happened -- a painful, terrifying memory that they were trying to hide -- or perhaps they merely finally gained the courage to wake up from their coma. Either way, when they wake up their parents and Dr. D would be safe and sound, and they could all live together happily again.

Of course, this is only a theory, so I'd love to hear your thoughts on it!

If you're interested in playing the game, you can download it here:

[therealprismcat]

PLEASE DO IT

the people have decided, here's a fanfic rec list of dsaf fanfics that arent focussed on davesport! (in no particular order)

Centipedes by Raccoonsandpossumswritesometimes [incomplete]

Dee centric fic which is a swap between Dee and Jack. Not only is davesport not the main focus, it's also pretty toxic. TWs at the beginning of each chapter, but heed the tags.

Hello, You. by galaticanthem [incomplete]

Another similar premise to Centipedes. If you think davesport is toxic in centipedes though, here it is arguably worse. Plot is a bit confusing as of chapter 7, but as it stands, here are the trigger warnings that I can remember off of the top of my head (but basically, if you're sensitive to disturbing themes, i'd skip this one):

Murder

Abuse

Kidnapping (by the looks of it but ????)

Underage drinking

Neglect

Body horror (I think??? it's so early into the fic im unsure of half these warnings but as it is rn i think it is important they're there because thats what it looks like at least)

Dave is very objectively NOT a good person in this fic. Like, at all. I don't think any future chapter could change that. If you're a person who cannot read about their favourite character committing absolutely heinous things theres nothing wrong with that and I wouldn't read this. If you can stomach all that though, it's a good story.

Dave and Old Sport Adopt a Kid by Wario_Speedwagon [incomplete]

Davesport is there and it's prevalent and not toxic, but it's not the main focus. It's more of an accidental baby acquisition fic. I can't think of any trigger warnings for this one, but check the tags. always.

Matted Fur by Afval [one-shot]

Evil ending fic with rabbit symbolism for Dave. All TWs are in the tags.

Sharp-Toothed Rabbit by orphan_account [one-shot]

More evil end Dave ft. animal metaphors! what more could you want? All TWs in the tags.

happiest day by grimkid [one-shot]

A fic about Jack's happiest day. Jack x Steven, no TWs iirc but heed the tags.

Octane Rating by dontrollthedice [one-shot]

Canon compliant fic about the good ending, only its harrysport. i dont even like the ship but this fic makes me so unwell /pos. No TWs I think but look at the tags.

NO MIDDLE-CALLING by XYZ_Countoriss [one-shot]

Silly chatfic, what can go wrong? -oh that right. No TWs needed, but look at the tags.

Operation Get Your Brother to Remember You After Years of Thinking He is Dead by Sockth [incomplete]

A fic focussed on Peter and Jack, I think the title is self explanatory. No TWs but look at tags.

Safety Infiltration by themostneontwig [incomplete]

After Jack betrays Dee in the evil route, Dave decides he needs to be stopped. A fic based around the idea of Legacy Jack founding the pizzaplex. No TWs that instantly come to mind other than the fact that it's set almost immediately after Jack kills Dee. Look at the tags though.

Hot Chocolate by Wario_Speedwagon [one-shot]

Ouch, set right after Jack dies the first time round. This fic physically hurt me and I mean that in the best way possible. TWs in tags.

After the Storm by themostneontwig [one-shot]

Christmas fic focussed on Peter and Jack. Read this one after Hot Chocolate, it can save you. No TWs unless you're Ebenezer Scrooge in which case dni

Jack's Squad Has UNO Night by Wario_Speedwagon [one-shot]

The title's a lie they play cluedo /j just some wholesome fun. No TWs.

An Unexpected Connection by End_Transmission [one-shot]

Post good end, but Jack 'lives'. We all know Dave had at least ONE kid. No TWs.

Peter Kennedy and the Worst Place on Earth by biptari [incomplete]

AU where Jack and Peter swap places. Steven x Peter. As for TWs I can't say everything off of the top of my head but I KNOW Henry is homophobic and transphobic in this. I can't remember if he says slurs 100% but I'm pretty sure he does use at least one so like, watch out. Other than that, heed the tags.

That's all I have right now. If you know some more then feel free to reblog to add them. No hate to davesport or anything but if you write dsaf fanfics that aren't focussed on davesport then you are my lifeline /hj

[caramel1mochi]

Trouble in Paradise! Gekko x Reader [Sample]

Heya again! I'm back, and this time with a quick story!

This isn't a request or anything like that, it's something quick that's been burning in my head for months but I had nowhere to post it that I wrote to introduce myself again, but this time with a banger! I hope you enjoy it!!

I'll still be working on requests, this is just the appetiser before the main courses, if you catch my drift. Anyway, I hope you have a good read! Oh, and don't mind the wonkiness. Tumblr formatting is such a doozy. I'll go back and try to fix any errors if I find 'em.

❤ฺ·。

Gekko / F! Reader

Words:  4k

Genre: Fluff

Summary: Drama unfolds after Gekko and Deadlock get into their first dispute in a mission you were in charge of. Seeing as how this might put a stain on your record, you set out to make things right and unintentionally remind Gekko why he had a crush on you in the first place.

。+❤ฺ·。❤ฺ·。+❤ฺ· +❤·。❤ฺ·。+❤ฺ·

Despite the lingering tension between them, Deadlock and Gekko never really got into an actual argument. Deadlock was simply too mature to let things get to her. At most, she’d throw Gekko a stern look before going on about her business.

And Gekko… he’s not the type to stir up conflict on his own. The only time he almost fought her was when she accidentally threw a Gravnet at Thrash, but it died down when he realised it was genuinely a mistake.

Today, however, was different.

Today, they were under your watch for the mission. And despite it being Deadlock’s third mission, you made the mistake of taking your eyes off of her and Gekko for one second. 

Whilst waiting in the VLT/R, you noticed that everybody entered except for them.

“Y/N, you’re sure they’re not dead?”

In response to Viper’s concerns, you shook your head.

You weren’t incompetent, so of course, she believed you. But if that’s the case, then what the hell was taking so long?

Crap, what if they died when everybody left?

Lifting your hand towards your ear, you unmuted. And almost immediately, Gekko’s angry voice blared through your ears. And you flinched.

“...because Wingman got stopped doesn’t mean he did nothing! Hey, he probably did more than you this whole m–”

You muted.

That did not sound like Gekko at all. Since when was he so snappy?

It was kind of cute, in a way. But now’s not the time to be having such thoughts.

“I’ll go and check on them.”

Viper nodded and allowed you to hop out of the vehicle, making your way to them. 

It didn’t take that long to figure out they were on A on account of how loud their voices had gotten. It felt unnatural to hear two of the calmest agents shouting like this.

❤ฺ·。

Arriving on A, you noticed them standing in the centre next to the generator, Deadlock leaning on it as she crossed her arms.

On her face wasn’t a typically serene expression. Instead, she harboured a massive amount of anger. So much so, neither of them heard the loud creaking of the wood boards under you as you walked, your heels elegantly clicking with each step.

“Why the strawman, Gekko?” Deadlock retorted, “I told you, again and again. It was a mistake. Get it through your head.”

“I just think it’s funny that you only make mistakes when it comes to my crew, you know? First the Gravnet, now this?”

Deadlock harshly waved him away, turning to the rafters you stood on.

“Then see if I care. I wasted too much of my time here. If you want to cry to somebody, then cry to–”

She stopped once she saw you, both of their expressions quickly softening.

“Cry to?”

You started, tilting your head.

Both of them had to look up to meet your gaze, the ledge you stood upon providing an unintentional boost to your already intimidating aura.

The blonde crossed her arms and turned her gaze to the ground, gritting her teeth.

“Nothing. I was… intending on returning to the aircraft.”

“After ten minutes?”

They fell into an awkward silence.

Keeping their bosses waiting whenever they’d call for a gathering in the meeting room already put them on thin ice. But keeping them waiting after a mission? Of course they’d think that they died or something horrible had happened.

Neither could imagine the displeasure on Viper and Brimstone when they realise the holdup was over some petty argument. Especially when it came to Deadlock, considering how highly they thought of her.

But the unamused look on your face says it all.

However, the worst part was the prospect of you having heard Gekko say such crass things. Typically, with a clear head, he’d never let those things leave his mouth.

But not only did he lose himself today, there stood an incredibly high chance that his crush heard him.

“Okay, fine! We’ll go back. Sorry for taking so long, and stuff…”

Then, your earpiece hissed.

“Y/N, did you find them?”

Viper asked. And just as quickly as she spoke to you, you unmuted and responded.

“They’re okay. You can go, but bring the aircraft back in fifteen minutes.”

“Understood.”

Just as you muted again, the two looked at you in absolute shock.

“Woah, hey, what’re you doing? Why’d you tell her that?”

Gekko said. And for once, Deadlock stood by him, angrily agreeing.

“I’m not returning to Viper with this on my record. If someone like Deadlock is going to start a fight in the middle of the site, then you’re both also going to settle it. Do you understand?”

“But–”

“Do you understand?”

“Crystal.”

Deadlock said through gritted teeth, and Gekko turned his gaze away whilst nodding.

They weren’t pleased, but they couldn’t really go against your orders.

It might not be your fault, but the idea that your techniques in battle could've caused the increase in friction between these two will definitely be planted in some agents’ heads.

If that idea then reaches Brimstone and Viper, and they believe it, it won’t end well on your side.

Deadlock getting in a fight was like Cypher or Omen getting in one. It’s incredibly concerning, considering how she is as a person.

You sat down on the ledge, resting your chin on your hand.

“Now, tell me what happened.”

“Deadlock almost used her cannon on Wingman, and–”

“Gekko says that I was purposely trying to shoot his creature but I–”

“That’s enough.”

They both spoke at the same time, and this prompted you to shut them up.

Bad idea.

But from what little you heard, you could clearly tell that neither of them provided an unbiased take on the situation. And unfortunately, you weren’t exactly focusing on them after the spike planted, so you couldn’t tell yourself.

Which is why this whole situation took place.

You sighed, and gestured to Deadlock.

“What happened?”

She took a deep breath and began explaining.

“The spike was planted. Their Jett ran to wine, so I wanted to trap her with my accelerator.”

Whilst she explained, she gestured to the left of the arched entrance. And you nodded, crossing your legs.

“When I launched the pulse, Wingman came out of nowhere and got in the way. I tried to avoid him, but I wanted to catch Jett as well. So the cocoon had a crooked path and an opening. If any of the others noticed that area and shot it, she could’ve easily escaped with one bullet! It’s nonsense!”

With each word she spoke, you could tell her anger began rising to a point she could hardly control.

“It was only luck that Viper had that wall up right after I got their Jett!”

You nodded once more.

During the mission, you do recall seeing the path that formed, noting how weak the wires looked as they desperately held on to each other. But it quickly flew by you.

Then, you turned to the Angeleno, who was now just as angry.

“Gekko, is this true?”

“Only parts of it! She’s just putting the blame on me like I can read people’s minds, or something!”

“Your creatures can take bullets no problem! Why’s my cocoon such an issue?!”

“I won’t let you harass my buddies just because you can, Deadlock!”

“Hey, look at me.”

They complied with clenched fists.

“Neither of you are to speak with the other without my permission. Do you understand?”

They nodded, Gekko fixing his posture and looking elsewhere.

You looked at him. Your gaze, despite the vacuous expression, easily pierced through his.

It left him uneasy. And a tiny bit awestruck.

“Tell me what happened.”

Unlike the articulate Deadlock, who took her time gathering her thoughts, Gekko simply let the words spew out of his mouth, completely discarding his inhibition.

“She’s right up until she blasted the cannon thing! I told everybody, out loud, that I was going for Jett, with Wingman in my hands. And I let the little man go! Then she took out her arm. It’s like she was waiting for me to send him out so she can hit him!”

“You didn’t say that through the radio–”

“Deadlock.”

Her mouth was quickly forced shut. A bit satisfying on the Angeleno’s side.

Only Gekko would manage to make such a calculated woman so angry. Same goes for Deadlock, now that you’ve seen this side of her.

In a way, it was poetic.

You sat back with a sigh and ran the situation back in your head. 

Somehow, this was even more aggravating for the duo, the atmosphere around them thick to a suffocating degree. But this time, you weren’t the cause. The best part is that it was growing thicker as you thought, Deadlock’s finger slightly twitching thanks to the fury she felt.

It took you almost a minute to try and form a conclusion, but you couldn’t. You didn’t see enough to make such a decision.

Besides, it’s not like you could just go ahead and make one. This wasn’t some petty argument. If their abilities overlapped in a different way, it could’ve heavily backfired. There had to be repercussions for something like this.

“Okay. I need to run this with the others before something can be done. Until then, I’m suspending you two. I am not to see either of you in the same room, let alone talking to each other. Is that understood?”

They nodded.

“Good. Now, is there anything else you want to say before we leave?”

“No, no. We’re, um, we’re good.”

At most, Deadlock wanted to voice her annoyance at how much you interrupted, but that wasn’t really important in the grand scheme of things.

However, you could tell that Gekko was nervous. From the way he stood, and how he kept his eyes on the ground even when you looked at him.

It wasn’t related to his crush on you anymore, something else now bothered him.

You got up from your ‘seat’ and led them towards the departure point, silence taking over the conversation as they waited for the aircraft to return.

❤ฺ·。

Gekko jumped when he felt a flick against his forehead, mumbling an ‘ow’ and rubbing the spot in annoyance.

“Hey, what was that for?”

“You’ve been zoning out for the past minute! What’s on your mind, huh? Did something happen back in Venice?”

Jett crossed her arms on the cafeteria table and leaned forward, decreasing the distance between them even though she sat on the opposite side of the circular table.

“You could say that… I mean, it’s kind of a long story, and I don’t think–“”

Wingman ‘elbowed’ him and scolded him for his nonsense.

“It’s not that important! It’s not like–”

Then, a series of gargles took Jett’s eyes off of Gekko and on the yellow creature that suddenly leapt off of his lap, explaining to her what happened in detail.

Jett’s brown eyes glimmered as he spoke, but her expression remained blank. Like an amazed puppy that also had no idea what the hell was going on.

Suddenly, he was swiped away back to Gekko’s lap, a red tinge on his cheeks.

“Yo, quiet, little man! I’m trying to keep that secret!”

The last words were spoken through gritted teeth, but Jett didn’t notice.

“Come on, Gekko, I was listening to him! Did you have to do him like that?”

“I– I mean, he was getting carried away… but he just said that, um, basically, Deadlock and I got in a fight.”

“Deadlock?”

He nodded, disappointed at this predictable reaction.

“Why would Deadlock of all people get in a fight with you? She’s chill, like, I dunno, all the friggin’ time? And so are you!”

“That’s exactly what I’m worried about! The, um, the Deadlock part. If you think about her like that, then what’re the admins gonna say? They’ll take her side, no questions asked! They respect her way more.”

“Yo, Gekko, pause. You can’t be saying stuff like that when I don’t even know what happened. Give me a run down, yea?”

With a sigh, he started giving her a general explanation of the events, which took a bit on account of Jett asking for elaboration at random points in the story.

Gekko leaned against the chair once he was done, resting his arm on the back of it.

“...Y/N said that she’ll talk about it with the others, but, you know, Deadlock clearly has the advantage here.”

“What’re you on about, fam? What advantage has she got, she joined after you!”

The thick British accent snapped Gekko out of his bout of anxiety. He glanced at Phoenix who sat right next to him, sipping his smoothie.

“Since when were you here?”

“Gotta say, one hell of a feud you both got goin’ on, mate.”

“It’s not a feud, she’s trying to kill my buddies! I’m telling you. First, that bear, then Wingman.”

He heard a gurgle. But weirdly enough, it wasn't on his lap. They both looked at Jett, who was petting the creature she somehow stole whilst they were distracted.

“I dunno Gekko. I mean, I like you, but I think that it was just an accident like last time.”

“Give me a break. If what she’s doing is an accident, then you’re also accidentally stealing my friends eight times a day.”

She awkwardly giggled, turning her gaze back to Wingman on her lap.

“Nah, but, let’s go back to that advantage thing.”

“Just look at her! Deadlock has it all, you feel me? She’s like Sova. Experience, wisdom, looks, she lost an arm in a fight, too! I’m still in training.”

“Yeah, to be fair, you don’t look like you spent a day in a battlef–”

Jett elbowed Phoenix hard enough to shut him up, before meeting Gekko’s gaze with a warm expression.

“Don’t listen to them! Even if they take her side, in our hearts, you didn’t do anything wrong! We’ll defend you no matter what, Gekko!”

She spoke in a mawkish anime-like way, making Gekko chuckle. But he’d be lying if he said that it wasn’t cute.

“Yo, and since you like Y/N, maybe you can charm her into helping you out, you know? Take it from the man himself, mate!”

Phoenix thumped his chest once with a wide grin on his face. And though Gekko’s face turned beet red, he simply cleared his throat and tried his best to form a cohesive sentence.

“Dude, no way. Remember when Chamber tried flirting with Viper? I don’t want that to happen to me.”

“Sure, but remember, Viper still promised a date afterwards.”

Jett rolled her eyes.

“Chamber only got a date after he killed, like, four of them at once, smartass.”

The topic switched to something else, discussing how that date would go between them. And though it worked in making Gekko temporarily forget until the admins would come to a decision, his eyes still wandered throughout the cafeteria, worried.

And the unease only increased when he saw everyone except for his superiors.

❤ฺ·。

You, Brimstone and Viper sat around the large circular table in the meeting room, each facing each other as they discussed the situation, having heard you tell the whole story based on what Gekko and Deadlock said.

Sage was also meant to be here, but she never responded to the call for whatever reason.

It seems that, just like you, neither of them saw the events unfold in front of them. Though Viper was also onsite, she didn’t pay attention to them on account of her being busy with safely defusing the spike.

But that doesn’t mean they didn’t form opinions based on what you told them.

“Looks like a communication error on Gekko’s side.”

You perked up at this, confused.

“Gekko?”

“He didn’t use the radio before he sent out Wingman, he only spoke. I believe his voice was drowned out by the gunshots and whatnot.”

“Deadlock only said that in passing. There’s no concrete confirmation of such a thing.”

“I didn’t hear him, Y/N. Did you?”

She tilted her head with a raised eyebrow, the right portion of her hair slightly revealing her previously concealed green iris. You broke eye contact, looking elsewhere.

To be fair, he didn’t deny it. Either because he really didn’t, or he couldn't speak up right after you shut Deadlock’s mouth. Even you knew how compliant Gekko was whenever you'd so much as ask him to hold your bag or something.

“No, but…”

“It’s not too hard to believe. He’s still training under Harbour. He’s a good kid, but he’s bound to make mistakes.”

Brimstone spoke up, stroking his beard with one hand. Though he tried to, like you, make Viper more lenient towards the youth, she didn’t change her mind.

“The first thing you learn is not to mess up your communication. Even with the smallest mistake, someone could die and it would be too late for Sage to bring them back. And that’s a mild example.”

“None of Harbour’s notes on him mention any issues even related to this.”

You explain, Viper shaking her head.

“Why would it be Deadlock, then? This is a novice mistake while she has a notable amount of experience, even before her recruitment. I find it hard to believe.”

Brimstone nodded, before putting his hands down and sighing. Seems like he was convinced.

“If that note thing is true, then it’s out of character for him to suddenly make that mistake now.”

“So, what’s your decision?”

You all looked at each other for a few seconds, before Viper spoke up.

“Gekko failed to communicate properly.”

“Brimstone?”

He shrugged.

“Sorry, but she makes a good point. I’m gonna have to say the same thing.”

You set Gekko and Deadlock’s folders down on the table, taking a deep breath. Looks like there wasn’t much of a choice left.

“Will there be a penalty for this?”

“This is a major mistake, of course there will be.”

“Kid’s already in training, but I think we should increase the–”

Then, the door violently swung open, revealing a dishevelled figure.

“Sorry I’m late! Did I miss anything?”

Sage said amidst each gasp of air, holding enough files to look like a book close to her chest. Messy strands of her hair framing her face, alongside the sweat that dripped down her chin.

“Just about everything. We were about to penalise Gekko.”

Viper replied without lifting her gaze, unamused.

“Penalty? Don’t, don’t! He’s innocent. I was there. I heard him on the radio, Deadlock was the one who didn’t speak.”

Everyone locked eyes with the healer in surprise.

“Deadlock?”

“Yes. Y/N, you were there next to him, don’t you remember?”

“Not until now since you mentioned it.”

“So, Deadlock is the one who didn’t speak. Are you saying she intentionally ignored Gekko?”

Sage shrugged, setting the ‘booklet’ on the circular table and taking a seat.

“Perhaps she didn’t hear him, perhaps she ignored him. But what’s for sure is that Gekko did what he was supposed to do, while she stayed silent. Besides, I noticed this pattern in her communication. She usually forgets to call out what she sees. Was this not noted down?”

You shook your head once she gestured to her folders, watching as Sage tucked away a few strands of loose hair behind her ear. Of course, she was disappointed at this answer, even though you weren't the one responsible for noting down agent's inconsistencies.

“I am certain there are witnesses who can attest to this.”

“Are you still going with the penalty?”

Just as you asked, Viper held up a hand and let everyone fall into silence.

“What an unexpected turn of events. Looks like we’ll need to put her back into rigorous training. Everyone in agreement?”

You all agreed.

“Y/N, open her folder and write down when I tell you. You’ll inform both of them afterwards, understood?”

You nodded, opening the file and taking out the pen in your pocket, a sticky note just inches away on the desk behind you.

Of course, despite how useful she was as a witness, that didn’t mean that Sage didn’t get an earful for her tardiness. With how much the younglings here complained about how serious even Brimstone was about being on time for a meeting, this is the exact situation they never wanted to deal with.

❤ฺ·。

Deadlock wasn’t pleased with the news whatsoever. Being put back into not just normal training, but vigorous despite her experience felt like a spit in the face. And yet, of course, being the person she was, she bit her tongue and simply accepted it.

Next to her was the much younger Gekko, who stood there fighting for his life so as to not smile at the news.

Not at her being punished, even though it was a small part of it, but the fact they even thought to take his side against her.

“Are there no more details about this?”

“Sage will talk to you tomorrow at sundown, Deadlock. You can ask her questions there.”

“I see.”

“Good. Now, is there anything else?”

Deadlock shook her head, but Gekko meekly took his chance to speak up.

“Hey, uh, can I talk to you alone?”

The blonde silently took this as her queue to leave, making her way to the exit and allowing the door to slam itself shut; leaving you both alone in your dreadful office.

Just like the meeting room, the air was heavy. The atmosphere was thick, and your piercing gaze only made things worse for anyone unfortunate enough to speak to you in your office alone.

“So, this might sound weird, but, um, I really thought you’d all take her side, you know?”

“At first. I tried to convince them, but Viper and Brimstone are very rigid. Sage managed to help me turn the tides eventually.”

You explained as you crossed your arms, noticing the glimmer in his eyes. Gekko promptly beamed with a smile. You expected him to follow up with a simple sentence like usual, maybe for him to stumble over his words. But instead, it was something you never would’ve expected.

Just as you blinked, the usually meek boy pulled you into an embrace, wrapping his arms around you tight enough to unintentionally push all of the air out of your body and suffocate you. Being naturally taller and stronger than you are, he had an easy time lifting you a few inches to level the hug.

“Thank you! Thank you, thank you! I owe you for this, really!”

“For– uh, what?”

You really couldn’t breathe. You could hardly make that sentence. And hearing your breathless voice, he realised what he did.

With a beet red face, he quickly put you down and took a step back, scratching the back of his head.

“S– sorry, I, um, I kinda lost myself there. But I really thought that they’d be biassed, you know? With how much they like Deadlock and that crap…”

Catching your breath, you took a deep sigh and met his gaze. You clear your throat.

Yeah, ‘lost himself’ is a bit of an understatement.

“Don’t worry about it, Gekko. The decision was made, and you’re now free to go.”

“But I have to thank you back for this, Y/N! I really appreciate what you did!”

You giggle and gently pat his shoulder. A simple touch that turned his cheeks red even more than possible.

“You don’t owe me anything. I'm just doing my job.”

“You sure? I could–”

“Really. It’s just my job.”

Gekko opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out as realisation hit him.

Clearly, you weren’t going to give in and allow him to pay you back. No matter how much he’d insist.

Then, he smiled once more, shrugging innocently.

“If you say so. I’ll drop it, then.”

“Good. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

He eagerly nodded with a cheeky grin, before leaving your office just as quickly. The door slamming shut.

Though you were relieved that he gave in and didn’t pursue the topic, you thought back to the way his eyes gleamed with emotion once ‘realisation hit him’. Gekko was a stubborn boy. How could he change his mind so quickly within just a few words? You knew he was compliant, but this situation differed from the others...

…

Oh.

That wasn’t realisation, was it? He’s just gonna go and plan something else. Somehow find a way to thank you right under your nose. And with a group of friends just as cheeky as him, he’d probably have a moderate chance of success. You knew how ���talented’ Raze, Phoenix and Jett were when it came to pranks.

Upon this revelation, you couldn’t help but sigh. You sit back on your rolling chair and turn on the laptop on the table against the wall. 

However, you couldn’t help but smile.

Though it would be inevitable to have to politely reject whatever he had planned for you, even you couldn’t deny how cute Gekko was.

Young people, huh?

[thiefbird]

E, n, u for the letters ask please! 🖖

E - Have you added anything cracky/hilarious to your fandom? If so, what?

Yes, but not recently! These were back in early early high school. I wrote a very short, very bad Draco Malfoy/Apple(as in the fruit) fic once. I hope to god it has been lost to time. I will not tell anyone what my fanfiction dot net username was. I also wrote a Doctor Who/Supernatural/Sherlock/X Files/Star Trek: The Original Series/Warehouse 13/The Yellow Submarine(not Beatles RPF because the only character was Jeremy Hillary Boob, PhD aka The Nowhere Man)/Invader Zim crackfic extravaganza in collab with @gabrielnovakgoestomyschool (there may have been another fandom that I forgot). I do not know if it has survived the passage of time. I almost hope it did. They were all in this incredibly Escher-esque grocery store trying to get milk. I guess recently I accidentally wrote "Loghain Mac Tit" instead of "Loghain Mac Tir" when starting a post, took one look at it, and just posted it without further elaboration. I don't know if anyone ELSE thought it was funny, but I definitely did.

N - Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

U - Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites.

Anders - I love an underdog, I love a revolutionary, I love a pathetic tall man who looks like he hasn't slept in a month, I love a man who will make Those Sounds when he kisses me. Also he loves cats and complaining; same, Anders. More seriously, I think he's a deeply misunderstood character by both those around him in canon, by his writing team and Bioware as a whole, and by the general fandom(not any of my beloved mutuals, we are all in the Right About Anders club); despite this, I do think he is a cohesive character. I just don't necessarily think that he is a cohesive character on purpose. I love the implications of his bonding with Justice, and the avenues it opens up for writing. I fully believe that Anders believes that he corrupted Justice into Vengeance, and that Vengeance is a demon; I just don't believe it's true.

Stephen Maturin - Ohhh, Stephen, my beloved. Patrick O'Brian cooked you up in a lab specifically to make me insane (nevermind the fact that I was three years old when he died) - mine is a fated obsession, to the point that I actually had a crazy-dramatic, toxic relationship with an autistic Trinity College naturalist for four and a half years directly out of high school; my brain simply had not fully learned that Stephen Maturin existed (I'd seen the movie once or twice and listened to the soundtrack ad nauseum because of my mother but never payed much attention), and fixated on the next best thing. Here is my Stephen Maturin propaganda: He's a tiny, angry little man who calls animals and friends and his wife alike "honey" and "my dear" and "acushla/a chuisle" (I will never forget the "awwwwwwww" that came from my mouth the one time he called Tom Pullings honey). He calls his best friend "soul" and "joy", and his other best friend "honey-bun". He's an International Super Spy, one of the most effective in the British service, and refuses to be paid for it because he hates tyranny so much (he does not like English colonialism either, but he has decided that England is the best way to beat Napoleon). He's an Irish and Catalan revolutionary (I did say I love a revolutionary), who is somewhat in hiding in the first book because of his associations with The Society of United Irishmen, and therefore connections to the Irish Uprising of 1798. Despite this impressive resume, this man has never met a boat or ship he is not in danger of not falling out of - he has been at sea for the better part of twenty years by the end of the series, and he still must be Carefully Watched to make sure he does not drown, or get soaked through to the skin. He is an acclaimed surgeon, with a miraculous success rate. He is also a renowned natural philosopher who has discovered multiple species, including a giant tortoise. He is the least tidy or fastidious man in all of creation, and is constantly covered in blood and/or winestains and/or crumbs. He pours alcohol over surgical sites not because he knows of germ theory, but because he thinks it'll help with pain. The only non-familial friend he's had longer than Jack Aubrey(who lives longer than the first book. Sorry James, ily) is Adhemar de la Mothe, a known and flamboyantly queer Parisian. He regularly says that he does not see the harm in sodomy so long as no one is harassing the ship's boys, and that anything that adds more love to the world seems a good thing. He loses his mind over a woman, and the more awful she is to him the more he loses it.

Speaking of Diana Villiers - Oh, Diana. I am fully in understanding with Stephen over you. A beautiful, headstrong woman who can ride better than most men, stuck in the most boring atmosphere of Southern England with her aunt and cousins after the death of her husband and her father both made her leave India - I cannot blame her for many of her actions. Diana is a fascinating character, and to me she is proof of Patrick O'Brian's writing ability. Most authors of Men Go To War books don't really seem to know how to write women very well (C.S. Forester I am looking at you. I do not know who Maria is outside of her fawning over Hornblower), but Diana is a fully fledged person from the moment we meet her setting her horse over a gate, despite the fact that we never see any of the events of the twenty books through her eyes. Not only is she a fully realised character, but she is one that shows his understanding of the setting he writes in. Diana Villiers is coping with grief - not only grief for her husband and her father, but for her independence. Her life in India, keeping house for her father from her mid-teens, would have been almost as different as one can imagine from the life of a poor relation take in on charity by a widowed aunt. She feels stifled in the English countryside, forced to play second fiddle to her cousins in order to keep the peace and a roof over her head. I cannot blame her for toying with men's hearts as a source of entertainment. Going into keeping with Canning is Diana's attempt to regain at least some measure of independence, and it is successful, to some extent. She has money, she is back in a country she finds familiar and exciting - but she also has a jealous, suspicious lover who employs their servants as spies to watch her activities, and little company because she is herself a scandal. Stephen's proposal offers her a way out of her situation; it also, to her, seems like a loss of freedom, not only because Stephen loves her, but also because she loves him, and that terrifies her. So she instead runs away with Johnson to America. Johnson, of course, is worse than Canning, and she leaves him temporarily, but then her freedom in England is threatened, again, this time by suspicions of intelligence work (I always wonder just how she got tied up so tightly in Mrs Wogan's subterfuge; did Johnson have something to do with it?), and surprise! Johnson is there to whisk her away from the danger. But he's worse still, and Stephen manages to intervene(yay Stephen) and get her away and back to Europe. This just keeps happening. Diana wants something that is almost entirely impossible for a woman in the period she lives in: liberty. Anything that could interfere with her freedom and independence is avoided at any cost - even her own feelings for Stephen. Especially her feelings for Stephen. She also, to me as someone with BPD/cPTSD now pretty well in remission, reads as a very empathetic and accurate portrayal of someone with BPD/cPTSD. Personally I think Being A Woman In The Late 1700s is enough reason on its own to have it(and we don't know enough of Diana's life before the Peace of Amiens to speculate on other Sources Of Trauma other than the death of her husband and father), but a lot of her hot-and-cold feels so familiar to me. She can be so cruel, and mean it fully in the moment she's saying it, but almost immediately regret her cruelty while still doubling down because she feels she has no other options.

Wow. This got really long. I hope everyone enjoys my Aubreyad Opinions Of The Day