#I just wish the spying plot line was more explored

[bringerofdeathandtheapocolypse]

I just thought about this now but I can't recall Makarov and Ivan ever directly interacting with each other.

Like the closest we got was Makarov being unhappy with everything to do with Raven tail in the games.

Like Gajeel got to have a couple lines of dialogue with him and he was the spy. (Which side note, the fact we never see anything further from that aside from a mention and a flashback post Fantasia is missed potential)

But it's so bizarre that we never see either of them interact. We've never actually seen what them having a conversation is like because we've only ever heard stuff about it second hand through other characters talking.

We don't even know what exactly got Ivan kicked out of the guild. I don't think it's related to the dragon lacrima since Laxus was way younger when that happened. The most we know is Laxus was a teen but that's such a wide period of time that Ivan could have been exiled in. It also can't be lumen histore since Makarov clearly didn't know Ivan was aware of its existence until after his fight with Laxus.

Like I want to know what it was that Ivan did and why hardly anyone talks about him.

Like the kids I can believe since it's possible some if not most of them weren't at the guild when Ivan was exiled and Laxus also makes sense since he seems like the time to not want to bring things like that up. But why did we never hear a single mention of Ivan from anyone else before or after Fantasia.

I mean this is a guild with a decent amount of gossips in it. Surely someone would mention something about Ivan. Like a good moment to bring it up might be when Laxus is being an absolute ass. Maybe have one of the older members compare his behaviour to Ivan and voice concerns on Laxus becoming like his father.

I do like Ivan's proper introduction where he's talking to Gajeel which puts a seed of doubt in Gajeel's loyalty to Fairy tail for a bit. That was very cool and is an interesting set up.

Like in general, Ivan had such good potential for a villian. We've known of his existence for most of the series (I think his first mention was in Fantasia but I might be wrong, been a bit since I watched pre fantasia) and he had a relation with three of Fairy tail's members by the end of Fantasia, that being Laxus, Makarov and Gajeel.

I can kinda understand not seeing much from Laxus since he sorta just nopes out of existence for two months (which is why I can understand that some people don't mesh with his redemption since we don't really see it occur, it just kinda happens off screen and everyone forgives him which kinda also happens for Jellal which honestly, he did way worse than Laxus and he just sorta forgets it for a bit so again I can see why it doesn't mesh with some people) but we still have Makarov and Gajeel prominently.

Ivan should have been an underlying villian, have a few more scenes of Gajeel's spy work either with him talking to Ivan or Makarov and actually give us more information about Ivan and his past in Fairy tail. He doesn't need to be sympathetic, just give me a reason for his decisions and also you know, tell us what the fuck he did to get exciled.

And I've brought this up before but have him be way more prominent of a villian in GMG than he was. Have him try to fuck over Fairy tail in the games, even roping Gajeel into it with threats (like saying he's getting too attached for their plan and have him threaten someone in the guild like Team shadow gear or Lily for example) and have his members go after the mages in the night like they did with Wendy and Carla but in a way it can't be easily traced back to Raven tail's guild so like no magic use or purposely obscuring their faces (cause why don't the dragon slayer s try explaining that they're sure it was a raven tail member based on scent and have the council take something that exclusively 5 to 7 people in the country can do as proper evidence)

I also still stand by the fact that Gajeel should have gotten a repercussion for his spying. I personally go with a physical one but there are plenty of options. My personal favourite spot is right before the Ivan Vs Laxus fight, maybe even have Ivan use Gajeel as a way to get Laxus to listen to him by threatening to kill him and when Laxus tries to find a way around it to get Gajeel help (who would likely be drained of magic with Ivan's orders) Ivan instead severally injures Gajeel. That's just an option. There are tons.

Like Ivan is just so underutilized as a villian and it makes me sad because it's so interesting. He's one of three villains that have come from the Fairy tail guild. The other two being Hades (obviously) and Wraith(who died and lost his memories and also isn't even a true 'villian' just someone fighting on the opposite side to FT) and all three have vastly different reasons for becoming a villian/antagonist. But we just didn't really get much for him.

[adventures-in-mangaland]

I'm going with 10 All Time Classics from the Captain America (MCU) fandom. I mean, they're all classics to me, at least. In no particular order:

1. This, You Protect by owlet

First installment in the Infinite Coffee and Protection Detail series, which are all amazing. It's a “Bucky escaping Hydra and rebuilding his sense of self” fic, which he does while spying on Steve. With eventual Avengers Family and a lovely cast of OCs bonding with Bucky in the meantime. It has a very distinctive perspective and writing style; Bucky's in constant internal (and sometimes accidentally external) dialogue with himself, making it hilarious and tragic all at the same time. I love it. I've recently been getting into The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells and this Bucky has a similar sassy-but-vulnerable vibe? Read this if you like that, anyway.

2. The One Who Knows by Dira Sudis (dsudis)

This is a Political Animals AU, in that no-powers Steve is inserted into the Political Animals world and Bucky is TJ. Discusses being outed and depression but is ultimately hopeful. The author is one of my all time faves and has written lots of great stories for this and many other fandoms.

3. Blue Scales by chaya

Steve is a merman AU. He's still Captain America, though. It's crack with heart, I love it.

Best line: "May your scales and your love story be our weird secret forever.”

4. Our Lingering Frost by eyres

AU where Bucky is rescued from Hydra in the 50s (?) and so is around for Steve to be found.

5. Assets Out of Containment by follow_the_sun

It's a classic to *me*, OK? Bucky goes undercover at Jurassic World just as that movie's plot kicks off. They're Hydra dinosaurs! It's just great. Also has a podfic and crossovers with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

6. Not Easily Conquered (series) by dropdeaddream and WhatAreFears

Some of the greatest fanfiction I've ever read, the whole series is epic. Anyway, it's a "Steve doesn't go into the ice" AU with added queer angst when (never sent) love letters from Bucky resurface. I particularly like the second installment in the series The Thirteen Letters, which are just Bucky's letters and are insanely well-written.

7. to memory now I can't recall by Etharei

Time travel AU! Featuring post-CATWS Bucky accidentally switching places with CATFA era Bucky.

8. If Wishing Made It So by Leveragehunters (Monkeygreen)

Genie!Bucky AU! This author is great at writing AUs with fantasy/genre elements, it was hard to choose. They've also written an excellent werewolf!Steve AU and a horse!Steve AU that I really love.

9. Into That Good Night by Nonymos

An Interstellar AU! Very angsty and tragic but with an eventual happy ending.

10. Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square by Speranza

Speranza must be one of the best writers in the fandom, so it was hard to pick just one of their fics. Other strong contenders were All the Angels and the Saints and The Fifties, so check those out too! But this one has a special place in my heart. Steve, Tony and Natasha accidentally time travel to WW2 London, leading to an accidental run-in with CATFA-era Bucky. The author does tragic and romantic time travel tropes so well, but with a happy ending.

I now realise that most of these are AUs, so here’s a bonus rec for a non-AU in-universe story that’s severely underrated and deserves more love:

+1

Heart, Have No Pity on this House of Bone by Sena

This story follows Bucky in-action in the Pacific Theatre. It’s very well written and, from what I can tell, well researched. Steve only appears in Bucky’s imagination and the story focuses on the horrors of war rather than romance, but it’s gripping! And it explores unrequited love, being closeted and period-typical homophobia, which I also enjoyed. I’m still holding out hope for a sequel.

[enchi-elm]

Turn Week 2023 Day 7: If I could change one thing...

For starters, I agree with what @honorhearted said about wishing the show was more character-driven than plot-driven. And the fact that it’s an ensemble cast is no excuse. If I could have this show with Downton Abbey-style narrative flair and pacing, I’d be thrilled.

I’m currently working with a friend on a secret hush! project that is basically a supernatural being AU, so I can’t pick that one as I’m already taking the reins myself.

I’m going to be a broken record and say I would have loved to have seen more Indigenous elements involved. Granted, yes, the show is about spies and the Culper Spy ring in general. But there are also story lines about Rogers and Akinbode, family relationships explored in Judge Woodhull and Samuel Townsend, and those enrich the main themes, they don’t take away from them. Even Rivington gives us a little speech.

Why couldn’t there have been more focus on the lives of Han Yerry and Awasos and their stories? It’s just such a big part of the historical context to wipe from the record. Indigenous populations, warriors, sachems, politicians and thinkers were involved in this conflict at every level, even as fighters in the Continental Army itself (Stockbridge militia, whoop whoop!). Not to mention the British and their extremely loyal and powerful ally in Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea) of the Mohawk. The presence of Indigenous warriors was used as a psychological tactic on both sides, and when they weren’t used in more formal military offences, they were used in sneakier missions, like scouting, raiding parties, and the like. How easy it would have been to include more Indigenous characters!

The interactions of Caleb, Ben, Rogers, the British generals and the Continental generals with their Indigenous allies would have told us a LOT, creating a richer portrayal, more intricate political tapestries, and frankly, should have been the baseline for inclusion.

*clears throat* *drinks water*

Also.

I would change the last line of the show. To literally anything else.

[cantdanceflynn]

I like the concept of Irving as a character, he definitely has the potential to be a character like Buford, where he’s doing something in general questionable but everyone is just kind of fine with it? Like how Buford is a bully but everyone is okay with it. I don’t think Irving does anything as bad as being a bully, though, he just comes across like a stalker sometimes.

I do wish he’d been treated a little bit differently by the show, though, since he seems to be constantly put in the wrong and turned into a joke. He never really has an episode where his good qualities are explored.

In the shrinking episode, which is his first appearance I believe? There’s a moment where everyone backs away from him as he says Where’s Perry a lot. I didn’t find that part funny, and I think it was an odd choice to make him so ostracized from the group. The show is constantly reminding us that we shouldn’t like him by making him seem like a creep. Personally, I don’t think he really does anything super bad, and there’s potential for an interesting character. I just wish it wasn’t such a thing that no one likes him.

Personally, I dislike when there’s jokes about one person being super uncomfortable to be around, since that kind of narrative is just a bit icky? Especially considering he’s like… 10. Speaking as someone who was bullied and ostracized from their peers as a child… I just find it hard to find humor in it, I guess? When we get lines like “Friends, bullies… Irving” I just think if i was Irving this would be upsetting and I’d be upset that no one considers me a friend.

Irving’s brother is hilarious though, I find him so funny for no reason. I kind of wish he was sort of like Linda in the sense that he wouldn’t be able to see Phineas and Ferb’s inventions? It would be an interesting parallel to Candace’s struggle, and maybe there’s something that could be said about how both characters are obsessed with Phineas and Ferb, but in different ways? For Candace it’s busting them, and for Irving he just really likes them and wants to show his brother their stuff? That’s not really based in the show but idk I just want there to be most of an ongoing bit with their dynamic that’s a little more interesting than ‘they don’t like each other’.

Basically, this was probably way too long of an answer to your question, but my answer is: Irving is fine but I’d like him more if the show didn’t try to make him seem creepy and disliked. Also he should have more interaction with other characters than just Phineas and Ferb. Is he jealous of their friends? Does he get bullied by Buford? Does he have any friends? Why was he in such a high position of authority in the episode where the movie genres were fighting if apparently he isn’t liked by many people?? When does he join OWCA??? I would LOVE a plot where Irving joins OWCA because he’s a good spy.. that would be cool! Imagine if he worked with Perry to make sure his cover isn’t blown..

I need that now. Agent Irving is now on my wishlist for the new episodes.

OH YEA FR. HE DOES GENUINELY BECOME IN MANY WAYS PART OF THE GANG LATER ON ESPECIALLY AND I THINK OVERALL ITS NOT TOO BAD BUT ALSO IT IS KINDA TELLING HOW THEY KINDA PUSH HIM ASIDE LIKE THAT EARLY ON

AND YEA JDJFSBHJFSFSHJ ALBERTS HILARIOUS. I DO THINK THERES ABSOLUTELY A BUNCH OF INTERESTING STUFF TO DO W ALBERT AND IRVINGS DYNAMIC(LIKE. IRVING TENDS TO BE IRRITATED W HIM BUT HE ALSO CLEARLY COPIES A BUCH OF ALBERTS TENDENCIES AND THINKS HES SOME LEVEL OF COOL UP TO NOT PHINEAS AND FERB. ITS ALSO RLY WELL IMPLIED ESPECIALLY WITH MORE CONTEXT THAT IRVING IDOLIZES PHINEAS AND FERB SM BC HE WANTS THAT SAME RELATIONSHIP WITH HIS BROTHER, AND LACK OF CONTACT DUE TO BOARDING SCHOOL W HIS ACTUAL BROTHER(AND THE CONTACT THERE IS BEING. EH AT BEST) BASICALLY CAUSED IT TO GET WORSE OVER TIME) AND MAN THAT WOULD ACTUALLY BE RLY NEAT AS A POTENTIAL GROUP OF PARALLELS

AND SO TRUE OH MY GOSH. WE GET CONFIRMATION IRVING JOINS OWCA IN AYA, WHICH. AYA BELOATHED BUT OWCA SPY IRVING IS THE BEST FUGGIN CONCEPT OH MY GOSH I WISH WE'D ACTUALLY GOTTEN TO SEE MORE.

AFTER YOU GET TO/REWATCH THE FIRST PNF MOVIE THERES A SPECIFIC FIC BY BEX I WANT TO RECOMMEND TO U ON THAT END :)

MY OPINIONS ON IRVING R PRETTY DARN CLOSE HONESTLY. I FIND HIM FASCINATING ESPECIALLY POST REALIZING ALL THE IMPLIED INTRICACIES W HIS RELATIONSHIP W ALBERT AND I TRY TO DO MORE WITH HIM OVERALL HES MY UNDERRATED FAVE OF THE SERIES OVERALL I JUST RLY LIKE HIM

I THINK YOULL LIKE IT MORE LATER ON WHEN HES RLY MORE CONSISTENTLY PART OF THE GROUP THO ITS HONESTLY RLY NICE :)

[mayhaps-a-blog]

Since Outbound Flight isn’t a canon novel, it might change with the new books, if Zahn gets to rewrite it or something - my understanding is that he likes to keep things canon in case they suddenly decide that a bunch of Legends novels are canon, but they might not line up totally with the new books.

Setting aside the Doylist answer (Zahn, as he may have done elsewhere, lost track of his timeline), I actually think you could move Outbound Flight into the Clone Wars fairly easily with some tweaks.

Spoilers below the cut! :)

Let’s be honest, Anakin and Obi-Wan were there to get people to read the books and had no impact on the plot. Don’t bother with them this time; they’re off fighting the war.

The stated goals of Outbound Flight were to: 1) Explore the Unknown Regions, and possibly even beyond the galaxy; 2) Look for the missing Jedi, Vergere; and 3) Establish a Jedi colony outside the Republic, because C’baoth had some prescience of a great danger coming for them.

1 and 2 aren’t really priorities during a war, but 3? 3 could absolutely be something C’baoth pushes through. Find a place outside the war to settle refugees, establish a Jedi outpost to either fall back to or that will simply survive should the worst happen. It would be hard sell - but so was the original Outbound Flight, and C’baoth could probably get away with recruiting a lot of non-combat Jedi - the old, the injured, the scholars, anyone who has an objection to operating on the front lines (which many did!). The Jedi might even see it as a relief - he can get some of their noncombatants out of the combat zone, away from the Senate, and give an outlet to those who didn’t want to fight, but didn’t want to leave the Order or go against the Senate’s directive either. And the Dreadnoughts are old ships, at this point - easy enough to promise to a colony mission, with the new Venators running circles around them.

So Outbound Flight is a go, sometime in the midst of the Clone Wars. Now we jump to the Separatists, who have been informed from their spy in the Senate that the Jedi are sending a task force through the Unknown Regions to attack from behind! So of course they send their own ships. Outbound Flight proceeds; Thrawn doesn’t need to speak to Sidious himself, just to Separatist leadership - maybe even Dooku, explaining his knowledge of Dooku’s art collection in Alliances. Dooku doesn’t identify himself as a Jedi, but as a former Jedi who left due to political and ideological disagreements. Remember that his primary disagreement was with corruption in the Senate and the Jedi’s refusal to intervene - something Senior Captain “Preemptive Strike” Thrawn would immediately sympathize with - and his “inside perspective” would add credence to his claims against the Jedi as weak-willed and corrupt, unwilling to do what is necessary - something that Thrawn, too, comes to believe by the time of Rebels.

Events proceed. Maybe Thrawn never does go over to Outbound Flight - maybe C’baoth refuses to negotiate from the beginning. Maybe he does, and his comments to Anakin were a screen meant to test out Anakin’s perspective on the Jedi, to see if he agrees with Dooku or aligns with C’baoth’s arrogance. 

Events on Outbound Flight can be mostly unchanged - perhaps with some additions to place it more firmly during the Clone Wars, maybe C’baoth did want to turn them into a military outpost against the wishes of the colonists who’d signed up to escape the war - and of course, the final battle - and its outcome - remain completely intact.

Bringing Outbound Flight forward places it maybe a year before Chaos Rising events, lining up with Thrawn’s time in PT and later, after Chaos Rising and Greater Good and Lesser Evil, when it’s closer to “a couple of years ago” than more recently to Thalias.

I’m not sure I have enough for a full fic that isn’t a word-for-word rewrite of Outbound Flight, but I’ve definitely been thinking about it! Maybe someday I’ll write it all out - a series of scenes, maybe, or the like :)

Did you notice this?

In the Outbound Flight, Anakin is like fifteen, the Clone Wars haven't even begun yet, and Outbound Flight has aboard civilians and Jedi. This all happening about 20 bby, giving like 7 years of time between OF and LE.

But here...

Thrass died A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO!!!!!

So... (Spoilers ahead for those who haven't read the books)

How did it all happen?

The ascendancy trilogy does mention Thrawn meeting and losing an alien ship (probably OF) but taking the gravity generator from the Vagaari. They also speak of Thrass dying (spoiler. In memories he is in the ship with Lorana and about to crash land the crippled ship.).

However, in the Thrawn Alliances where he meets Anakin, which happens at CR and it's clearly at the end of CW, the way he claims he deduced Anakin is a Jedi could mean he never met one or he is making a big fat lie. The second option seems exaggerated, so did he did he not meet the Jedi on OF? Surely he must have met Lorana Jinzler, but what about C'baoth and other masters? And Thrawn didn't meet Darth Sidious then? Because surely he could have recognizes the man later when he came to the Empire. And maybe the interesting question, why would there be an "Outbound Flight" during the Clone Wars? (because it's more or less begun already at this time.)

Well, now some parts make sense. In CR Ba'kif goes to Naporar to get Thrawn who according to the book is recovering his physical therapy after facing the Vagaari and losing Thrass. So it couldn't be the same timeline as OF.

What do you think?...

Either way, here is good change for write new fics about how this could have happened. What ideas are you coming up with this?

[predictable-affairs]

III ✯A waltz that goes - one, two, three, four...✯

There was no fire, no chaos, no fools, just an empty piano room.

How quiet it was, like an other wordly dimension, as if the world before christmas. Absolute stilness, calmness, as if piercing right into the gaze of Narccissuss pond water, and right in the midst of it, drowing in the beautiful tides of silence, lay Laito.

As the suns bright beams shone through the lazily closed curtains, you could tell that he must of been asleep long ago... It's the middle of the day and he wasn't asleep, tired - maybe, but asleep - not at all.

Whilst sitting in the room, pretending as if it was the middle of a stary night, not the middle of day, a small tune of a waltz expresses itself through his fingers. As he pressed each key with care (or what he difined as care), as if a puzzle, combining a beautiful silhuette of music, he pretends that he was the one trying to lull his notes to sleep, diving into the fantasy that he loved the music as much as he hated his father.

Such a beautiful illusion he was under, spinning as a swan in its lake, not noticing another feather creeping onto its dance water...

Curious dust, spying through a crack in the door, as if magic (or maybe something more?), a soft dissapointment, sticking like gum, overtook his senses.

Fingers steading themseleves, landing on each and every nearest key, creating a truly ugly sounds, one (daring to?) rival even the history of this mansion.

A sigh, a singular small sigh, disturbing the stillness of the calm pond.

"I know you're there, you can come out now."

Is that sadness or dissapointment laced in the thread of those words? A shuffle and the dust gathering above the shadows moved, revealing the prepostorous impostor.

"Aah, our little doll~"

A fake hapiness overtakes the notes of his voice, yet the threads are everyday, simple ones, so it doesn't vow to raise suspicion. Only a truly close one can sense the diffrence in its cotton (rotten) wool.

"Mm, Laito...?"

An unfinished question hangs in the air. So many possible endings... Yet, does he truly know the esence of the question?

He does; but silence! Nothing is being said.

He pretends.

"Mmh, why don't you come here, by the piano, we can play a lovely little tune together~"

He will not anwser; will you play along?

A little shuffle of bare feet and the dark piano seems bigger than when it was from the door. More intimidating too...

"Hmm, sit."

He moves a bit with a smile, one hand patting the unworn leather of the chair, eyes gleeming with mischief. Oh, the fire in them is so bright! As if alight just recently, woken up from it's dark dreaming slumber.

Ah, the more you look into those eyes, the more you realise that... the fire is fake. It's not the hot dance of flames for life or excitment, not even hapiness, sadness or revenge. It's fake, it's dark, but it's not cheap. This fire is much more dangerous, much more darker, larger; even though it's fake, be careful! You can still get burned...

The leather of the chair feels soft, it's not cold either, warmed up by someone else...

As you sit, the red headed boy can't take his eyes off you. 

Not giving even a second to cool down from the intense heat from his eyes. Your sleep shirt rides up just a bit as you get more comfortably settled in the chair. It doesn't go unnoticed. 

His eyes, oh! His never ending eyes wander just a bit too low, just a bit to the new plot of nudity. All the way from the heels to the hips; the bare legs and open skin gets him a little excited. It's as if the prudness and innocence of it all is more exciting than you actually being nude. 

Oh, how he'd love to imagine you nude. Absolutely bare and naked, giving it all to him. He is imagining you naked. Wandering just a bit too low once more, and a bit too high for the first time. Looking over, examining everything; wondering, just what would happen if-

"Laito? Can we play?"

Of course we can, my love, just in which way?

"A? Sure, here, go ahead..."

A little disheveled look shines in the eyes, a bit lost, but easily regainable. Sitting up a bit more straight, repainting the moment lost playful smile, his eyelids close a bit and easily turn away to the yellowing white and black keys.

"I really like the tune you played before, it sounded really nice."

A simple comment, a simple smile, one simple emotion - happy. A pretty line graces your lips; a sneaky look landed in the direction of your face, gives a small little blush to Laito. (How he'd love to see it, your face, contort, maybe even make you blush).

"Oh really~? Do you know what it's called?"

A smile, closed eyes, he doesn't want to see you. The question hangs in the air, just like a misreable life ending it's play.

His head turned to you, his smile becomes a bit more scary, his eyes open with just a bit more mischief in them. His head moves closer, just a bit more to intimidate you? Scan you? Explore you? Read you?

As he keeps geting closer,  if you squint, you can notice something is missing. Is it in his eyes? Or in his smile? Is it something in the flame, hiding deeper than the irisis? Or maybe something in his teeth; as if a yellow spot, unseeable, but there to scare, annoy?

"It's called "The blood waltz"..."

Is it a whisper, or is it something in his unnatural tone? Can you... did you tell the difference? Is it just your brain playing tricks on you? Was it just your imagination, that a such a whisper exsisted? Was it also just your imagination, that sent a wave of rare shivers, those types of rare shivers, that you get once in your life as a tide drags you back into it's ocean, prickling down your spine?

It's getting a bit hot in here.

His success, triumph in making you blush, puts back the playful, unreadable smile on his face.

It's a safe smile, yet no heart in it can be seen.

He moves away, his head, his posture back, as if he was a mechanical teddy bear, as if he wasn't real, yet your only wish is, that he were even more real.

And in that moment, in that moment of a wish, in that moment of pure hypnotization, you realise what's missing.

Something that you didn't realise, something, that you thought was so significant, so real, so important, so ture, yet when you look at him now, it was so hard to pinpoint what it was.

Something, that you didn't even think, would make him look so... empty...

He's missing...

His hat.

His hat is missing, he looks so weird without it.

"Laito... where's your hat?"

"Huh? Oh, you like my hat?"

It sounds like a genuine simple question, no mischief behind it.

As he turns away, just for a moment, hiding behind the side of the piano, he seems to grab something. Seeing his back, his side, it seems so lovely, it's as if those green eyes never exsisted, it's as if the mischief hidden behind them, that could even rival Loki's, never did anything, never appeared in your life.

And yet, they turn back in a flash, the emerald green forest hiding in them, once again envolping you whole.

It's quite lovely to get lost...

But, how lost is too lost?

Something simple lands on your head.

"Hmm~, here! If you like my hat that much, you can wear it!"

Cheerfull echoes resonate in the occupied piano room. An empty, but characteristic, closed eye smile, dissolves some of the mist set tension. The hat gently lands as if a fallen feather of a swan, right before turning into a beautiful ballet dancer...

Or...

Right after turning into a swan, never to dance as human again...

"Here, why don't you play me a lovely little tune, entertain me, little doll"

It's just a little blush, a small, invisible tint, perhaps he doesn't see it...?

Maybe if you turn your head just a bit more, turn your focus to the slighty yellowed keys, press just a bit harder, and maybe you'll get the right melody, the right tone. Maybe then you'll finally calm down. Maybe then you'll finally let the music and his unreadable stare drown you in the green land of emerald waters and (un)holy grass...

A simple tune, so melodic, but primitive; one rivaling the beauty of the forest Nymphs and the magic of Orpheus's music.

With a hand resting on the side of the glazed piano, in intense stare is softened (dare we say, even intrigued) and emotion is trying to meet the others.

Yet your fingers are quick. There is no need for a hum or a song, not even a text would be allowed in this tune.

One, two, three, four, and it's a waltz you've never heard before...

"Where'd you learn to play that?"

The melody continues. There is no more suspence, it's coming nigh.

"Shu taught me."

Intensity and stop! The sentence is complete; a black, blot dot is set.

Hands stop, hover and land. You've reached the highest point of the mountain.

"You know... You look awfully adorable in my hat..."

One hand no longer supporting a head, the other slowly slithering, as if serpent, a deadly little thing, across the warmed seat.

The mountain air feels fresh and nively cold on your skin.

"I think... it really suits you..."

The hands drives onto your thigh, both pair of eyes, both looks afraid to cut the tension, as if it were an overblown ballon, that could pop at any drop, or even, a frozen lake. One, with ice so thin, that it makes you question why you even stepped on it in the first place.

Both pair of eyes follow the hand, every trace, it's whole way, it's whole little odyssey.

The fish seem to like to play under your feet, under the frozen water...

On the mountain, you stretch your arms over the horizon.

As the hand rest on your thigh, it's odly warm sensation, radiating from within gives a out a qiuet gulp.

A pair of eyes reach up, desperately trying for air, the green ones slowly follow suit.

Such a beautiful intense gaze, held with a million pieces of silk rope. You're getting lost in the forest, my darling, even if you follow the trail...

So desprate, so strong. You have to breathe, you need to breathe!

The hand moves further up, slowly, intensly, savouring the flavour of your skin, leaving alight a path of fire with each slide up.

His head is twisted, twisted to the side... His hand is moving even more further up, holding, challenging the intense gaze...

You take a breath on the mountain.

You close your eyes, calm on the frozen river.

And the it happens - the fall, the kiss.

His hand stops right where it needs to be, his head closing the gap and giving in to the tension.

A kiss, just a small, little kiss. So soft, so timid; are you getting shy?

(please don't (do) be shy, it makes me so happy...)

The gap is small, but it seems as if you could fit the whole Pacific Ocean in there and still have room to never drown.

But you want to drown...

Eyes locked tight together, you say nothing, but it's all the both of you have to hear.

Quietness, stilness...

You close your eyes on the mountain and...

Fall.

Fall forward, into the gaping abyss with it's bottom never seen...

A raging storm. Lips connected, stronger, hotter; a dancing, dangerous flame in the middle of the room.

It's so hot, it's so suffocating. It's more than just a gentle, timid kiss, it's one that not even Romeo could give to Juliette.

As you fall into the freezing river waters, not even it can stop the burning fire inside you.

You need this, you love this, even if it's burning you raw inside out, right into a dust of ash.

Lean back, just a little lean back; is it because you don't want this? Or is it because you want to let him take you whole?

So much time, such intensity, there is no slow.

As if trying to lead him back with your lips, you're slowly trying to lay down.

Yet, he is pressistent, he will not give in, wont let you get away.

Air, you need air!

But the river is frozen over you.

You keep leaning back, but he just stands up, stradels the poor little chair, and pushes you forward.

Wether it was his hands or his lips, that brought you upright again - you do not know.

But what you do know is that a hand, and another hand make their peace on your thighs. Slowly rubbing and going under, spinning circles like a helpless ballerina.

His hands are under there and they're strong, slowly lifting and making him - your piano chair.

Just as he stradled this chair, he makes you stradle him, continuing your fast burning kiss.

"You're a terrible kisser, you know~"

It makes you blush.

"It's not like I had practice before..."

A little chuckle, this time it's sounds genuine.

Once again, another strong gaze locks itself on you; pressistent! It needs to get your attention...

"Oh, sweetie, I can be your practice, hmm~"

Another kiss, nor hard, nor soft, nor sweet, nor bitter.

It's a waltz, with no rhythm.

"Every week..."

He lifts you, turning around and placing you down on the piano (what an awfully ugly sound it makes...).

His hands enclose on the piano, trapping your hips in place; you won't move away...

"Two hours a day..."

He's getting closer, another sensless, short kiss.

"Until you play my lips, like the melody you played for me..."

Another kiss, this one will last longer, you know.

It's those hot, hot kisses all over again...

He's kissing down now.

It stops at your lips and continues slowly on your chin.

Down.

Down.

Hands won't be left behind; as they lift and and hug your legs again.

Kisses under your chin, on your neck, down your collarbone with a stop right there...

Oh, and there? Those kisses were prefume.

They'd linger and sometimes even leave something behind.

He'd bare his fangs and bite, just a bit, right there. But being lost in this high, in this new, strange world, you can't, you don't have to feel anything. The pain is just an illusion, it's actually exctacy, just hiding in a different form.

Yet, biting won't stop him. He'll molest the spot, those two little dots; kiss, suck, lick. Anything and everything, just to get that same sound out of you, that you made a few seconds ago, right in the moment of the bite, the kiss; anything...

And yet, there's no stopping there, you might linger on one spot, but you can't stay there forever.

Kisses keep flowing down like a cold river stream. Down to the heart, to the chest, to the valley. They flow as if a leaf on an ocean. Through the stomach, around the waist, all the way to the hips and stopping near the middle. It's the edge of the waterfall.

"Say, what game did you play with Kanato?"

"What do you mean?"

"Kanato doesn't usually say much, but his look today, your smell... that's all we had to see..."

...

"So, what game did you and Kanato play?"

"It's a special game."

"Oh?"

Just a tilt of the head, both arms on your thighs, but they're holding up a had of their own.

"And how do you play this special game~?"

"Kanato has a special sweet and if I lick and suck it, I get some cream at the end."

"Mm, a special sweet...?"

He's smiling.

"Mhm, I think you have one too."

"Oh really?"

"Yes! Kanato said the cream was supposed to be sweet, but I don't think it was,"

His smile (or is it a smirk?), it get's a little wider.

"Maybe if I try yours, it will be better...?"

"Hmm, how about... I try some of that special cream~?"

"I don't think you can; I think you should ask Kanato."

"Oh, mm, I don't think I'll need to do that,"

His smile... It's still a smile, but there seems to be something off with it...

"Have you ever heard of reversing games?"

"Reversing?"

"Mhm, how about we try reversing your special game, I think I've got the hang of the rules..."

It's no longer a smile, just the esence, no soul of it.

A dangerous fire has unknowingly been lit.

As he kisses the middle once again, soft hands trace your thighs up again, getting a hold of some fabric, squeezing, crumbleing it up, just to pull it all down.

The leaf finally flows off the edge of the waterfall.

At first, a gentle kiss, just like at the start, just like what led to all of this.

Then a another and another kiss, each one more passionate than the last. Tugs and kisses, they are getting more hard, they're less soft, more demanding; this will you lead you somewhere more than the edge of a waterfall...

But it feels so good...

"Laito!"

Another harsh tug, one hand holding on to the piano, as if it were your life, if you let go - you fall. The other quickly flowing to the top of your head, right to the hat, to hold it... Is it to not make it fall off? For reasurance? Something to make you calm down?

"Mm? Oh, don't hold that hat sweetie,"

One hand leads the other off the hat, holding on tight to the wrist (maybe a bit too tight). He doesn't want to let go...

"Just try to not make it fall off, I don't like it when my things get dirty~..."

A look that's trying to bind you in your place is cast once again. It's hard, it's intense, it's... dirty...

"Well..."

The gaze, it's stronger than the gods.

"Some of my things, hehe~"

And he drowns in kisses again, not coming up even for a breath.

It feels so good, as of the tides of the wishing waves have swept up and taken you away. The exctacy, the pure chaos of it, it just slowly builds this feeling inside you. One, that could be compare to the finding of your very own ocean.

It feels amazing, his kisses, their hard, theirs rough, but you dont want the to be soft!

You need this, you want this!

And the ocean that you found is slowly flooding.

"Laito..."

It's not supposed to be a moan or a whimper, but it's not making him stop.

"Laito."

He keeps going, and if anything - even faster and better than before.

Something’s building up inside of you; the ocean is soon to overflow...

"Laito!"

And there it goes, you just let go. The ocean finally overflowd, spilling out the sides of the earth.

You did try to warn him, but that, this feeling... It could rival anything in this world, even the almighty love...

He doesn't seem to care, that you're finally done, over the high, but still stuck in its euphoric fall. He just keeps licking, sucking, cleaning everything up.

"Is it... Is it sweet?"

The questions echo may be tired, but it's esence is just still building up.

"As sweet as honey, hehe~"

He smiles, he laughs or perhaps it's a chuckle.

"So sweet that I want more..."

The ocean may have spilled, but it's far from empty.

He goes and carries on with his want, despite the protest.

Oh, the second time was even better than the first!

So much more sensation, somuch more work... It didn't take long to finnish this time around.

And now, you felt completely down. Still sitting on the piano, heavy, thick breaths, sleep slowly overcomes tiredness. Yet, even as you’re huffing and puffing, feeling as if you just ran a marathon and blabbering on nonsense - he doesn't stop, he didn't stop.

When you finished the second time, he didn't stop; didn't lift his head up, didn't say any comments, just kep on going.

It's hard, you're trying to keep it in.

It does feel good, better with each second, but it's just too much! You... you don't fel like you can take it.

His name falling from your lips, as if trying to stop him, warn him, tell him...

But he cannot hear, he refuses to listen.

The sensations keeps going on and on, you won't be able to hold on for much longer.

One last time, you try his name.

"Laito!"

Yet, to no avail, you are done for.

As the last couple seconds tick, the clock reaches 12, it's already midday. And with those last seconds, with that last tick you release.

The build up, the hold was so big, you feel as if a fountain was just released; and with the tick of the clock, with the wooden bird, a darkness overcomes your eyes. You fall into it, letting go of your physical body, allowing the dark to hug, envolpe and drown you whole; let your soul and mind wander free. Let the exctacy release while you continue to forever swim in it's waters.

Go to sleep now, rest. Let relief overcome you, never to awake from euphoria again.

                                                            ↢ II o’clock | IV o’clock ↣

[m-y-fandoms]

1 Thing I Love & 1 Thing I Hate About EVERY Danganronpa Character Part 1

Part 2

SPOILERS FOR ALL THREE MAIN GAMES

I’d love to hear our opinions as well in the comments or my inbox or DM’s! If you try this trend with DR characters, tag me!

Sayaka Maizono

♡ Her passion for her career and friends.

✘ The way she tries to screw over Makoto when the game had just begun. Like wait and see what happens before screwing over such a great guy? Leon didn’t deserve it either.

Leon Kuwata

♡ His voice actor (English), and how real and human his execution was in that we all would be so scared and irrational. It was just so iconic and sad as it’s our first introduction to the death in this series and we all think: “shit, this is real... they are really killing these kids.” I didn’t think it would be that brutal, just seeing his body limp at the end with the haunting music.

✘ His design is disgusting. I hate how he looks.

Chihiro Fujisaki

♡ So innocent, so kind, so intelligent

✘ Shouldn’t have been killed for such a stupid reason, also they did Mondo dirty with that motive for killing as well. Just a mess. As for the actual character, Chihiro cries right off the bat when you do your introductions and that was kind of annoying to me personally.

Mondo Oowada

♡ He has a lot of respect, understanding and emotions for someone I thought would be a hard-ass douche biker.

✘ The worst motive to kill ever in a game where you know you’re getting executed if you’re found out. Like you’d be extra careful and that’s his reason to kill? Lazy writing.

Celestia Ludenberg

♡ Bad bitch energy and her goth lolita design.

✘ Manipulation and double murder. Bad bitch energy only goes so far. Confidence is different then selfishness. Also, of all the chapter 3 triple murders... the worst motive to kill.

Kiyotaka Ishimaru

♡ Emotions: secure in his masculinity, able to cry, show emotions, and apologize when he’s wrong. He’s funny and likable.

✘ The Ishimondo white hair thing was stupid. Taka was fine on his own.

Hifumi Yamada

♡ Writing takes talent, fan fiction as much as any other style or genre. Also the talent of his voice actor (who also voices Kiibo/K1-B0).

✘ Literally everything else about him.

Sakura Oogami

♡ I love everything about her. I love her wisdom, loyalty, design, voice etc. Just step on me, mother.

✘ Why the hell would she ever agree to be a spy even if it meant the end of her dojo? I just don’t think she would do that rationally because she isn’t selfish. The others would suffer for her spying. She remedies this with redemption in her letter in chapter 4 but still she should’ve said no off the bat. Everyone had something to lose. The dojo wasn’t worth spying for monokuma. Also I just don’t think she would commit suicide. She can’t help the remaining students survive and redeem herself truly if she’s dead.

Kyoko Kirigiri

♡ Bad bitch energy, calm and collected when I could never be.

✘ Especially in future arc of the anime, damn can you show some emotion please? Through your words and expressions not just your actions. Sure she was willing to “die” for Makoto but like I just want more emotion from her sometimes, even in THH.

Makoto Naegi

♡ So pure. I Love Bryce Papenbrook. Makoto reminds me of Sora and I love his design.

✘ In THH I didn’t mind his innocence but in the Danganronpa 3 future arc anime, when people started straight up abusing him and accusing him, he needed to grow a little backbone.

Byakuya Togami

♡ Love my dad, king shit, also love how over the progression of the games and animes he becomes a little more kind to his friends.

✘ Why the fuck did he mess with Chihiro’s body? Just so cruel and disrespectful.

Yasuhiro Hagakure

♡ Funny magic man. Sexy voice.

✘ Please. Please Hiro use your brain just once. Why do we have to prove Kyoko isn’t a ghost?!

Toko Fukawa

♡ Character development in UDG and I love Genocider.

✘ Putting down herself and others constantly gets old in THH.

Aoi Asahina

♡ Love her voice actress and her personality

✘ We really just gonna get everyone killed in chapter 4 huh? Surely you know they don’t all deserve that.

Junko Enoshima

♡ A very memorable villain with great hair and design.

✘ I just can’t stand her. I hate her so much.

Mukuro Ikusaba

♡ Her mercenary background is super cool as a concept.

✘ Too bad it wasn’t explored nearly enough.

Hajime Hinata

♡ Seeing the protagonist be a little less naive, innocent and positive than Makoto was a refreshing change, although I loved Makoto. I liked Hajime’s cynicism and expressions that sometimes just screamed “this shit again, huh?”

✘ I enjoy the way Izuru looks but I hate him as a character. He is sexy to look at but Hajime is just a better character overall

Teruteru Hanamura

♡ His love for his family and mother especially is so cute and heart breaking if you know the full story.

✘ He needs to know when to dial it back and quit with the perversions. And no it’s not just how he looks, Miu needs to chill at times, too.

Twogami

♡ I feel like he genuinely cares about his friends, just hides it well

✘ His death felt like a cop out and poorly written. It just didn’t sit right with me. Also his design is disgusting to me, his outfit and such.

Mahiru Koizumi

♡ Loyal to her close friends.

✘ I just have no interest in her as a character and I find her boring.

Peko Pekoyama

♡ Loyalty. Loyalty is something I value very highly in every form of relationship. Peko is also very hot.

✘ Come on girl... I know how you were raised but you should’ve known Fuyuhiko didn’t think of you as just a tool and you two should’ve expressed your true feelings long ago. Like even in secret. How do you live like this? Also I feel like killing Mahiru could’ve been avoided with a calm talk.

Ibuki Mioda

♡ Cute design, positive vibes.

✘ Cringe sometimes in the way she talks.

Hiyoko Saionji

♡ Beautiful character design and some very good insults and snarky remarks at times.

✘ Just irredeemably mean and annoying. Even when you do her free time events she is just so annoying.

Mikan Tsumiki

♡ I like her design as well as her hair, expressions, sprites and clothing.

✘ I hate her. I just hate her whether she’s in her true psycho form or timid stuttering form. She’s just annoying in my opinion.

Nekomaru Nidai

♡ So supportive, can hold my drink at a party. Respects everyone and wants the best for them.

✘ Bro Mechamaru was a stupid plot point. I just couldn’t stand looking at him and couldn’t take it seriously. Still sad when he died though.

Chiaki Nanami

♡ From chapter 5 of sdr2 on she is impossible not to love if you didn’t already. Just the selflessness, the sadness of the reveal and execution, how she returns to help Hajime at the end???? I love her. I love her hair design, color palette, her personality, everything.

✘ I’m bitter and miserable about her being the only class member to actually die (the despair arc anime) also her falling asleep at random times is kind of odd and she doesn’t seem to be like that later on in the game??? Like it seemed like a cheap joke but not actually who she is? Hard for me to explain.

Gundham Tanaka

♡ King shit, couldn’t praise him enough. He’s sexy, loves animals, and is funny as hell sometimes. His voice actor is a saint and a cool dude and I named my guinea pigs after the Dark Devas (yes I know they are hamsters in the games.)

✘ Come on dude. I get that being from Hell and magic and having evil powers is your shtick, but we all know that you and Nekomaru sacrificed yourselves so the others wouldn’t starve. We know you care about your classmates. There comes a time when it’s time to let personas and facades fade and be true to your heart. I just feel like him denying he cared at the end hurt. We all know he cared. I didn’t like how he was haughty until the end. He deserved better. I love him.

Nagito Komaeda

♡ I love him so much. So cunning and intelligent, always a step ahead. And he’s big sexy.

✘ Him killing himself in chapter 5 hurt me so bad I was like in denial for days. Also hate how Bryce Papenbrook gives him a raspy stoner psycho voice in the game then a light airy higher-pitched voice in the despair arc anime. It just bothers me. I love his voice still but the inconsistency just hurts my OCD

Sonia Nevermind

♡ I love that she’s so interested in her passions and love her feelings for Gundham

✘ Her outfit and bow are atrocious. Also why didn’t she start liking and talking to Gundham sooner on? Their romance bloomed late and it would’ve made for a better chapter 4 ending if they were a bit closer.

Kazuichi Souda

♡ Cool design and outfit, love his voice (also voices Kaito in V3) and his backstory is relatable at times. He’s also very human in that he’s scared a lot of the time or insecure or blames others in panicked situations. It’s not always a good thing but it’s human and realistic.

✘ Gosh he can be so annoying. Sometimes flirting or whining too much is well... too much.

Akane Owari

♡ Strong-willed and definitely someone I would be friends with

✘ What the hell is her outfit? Gymnasts and athletes don’t wear that shit. Stop objectifying her when it doesn’t even make the product or plot better. Like there’s absolutely no point to making her dress that way. I was a gymnast for 15 years. Even those who do parkour (which Akane seems to do more often than actual gymnastics in the anime and game) don’t wear what she wears. Also she’s underrated.

Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu

♡ I love him. He’s the DR character I’m most like out of all the games and anime. Tenko is a close second. I think he’s adorable, love his character arc, development, redemption, and love his voice.

✘ In the anime/despair arc, Fuyuhiko is not done justice. He doesn’t get enough lines, has a different voice actor, just doesn’t give off the same vibes.

Izuru Kamakura

♡ Sexy man long hair good.

✘ Boring character. I wish he were just Hajime.

Kaede Akamatsu

♡ Loyalty and leadership are such attractive qualities in her. Also she faced her death with such class and dignity and I respect her because I could never.

✘ Some of the voice lines Erika does for her are just weird and cringe. Just random moans or grunts... I don’t know it’s like when Ann Takamaki from Persona 5 (also voiced by Erika) makes suggestive noises as well. Just grinds my gears. Also hate her outfit down to the hair pins.

Shuichi Saihara

♡ I love his nasally voice. I love his design and he’s so adorable. I love how emotional and compassionate he can be. He ties with Makoto for favorite protag of mine.

✘ That sprite where he sniffs his hand. And his ugly ass hat.

Rantarou Amami

♡ Sexy man, sexy voice, sexy piercings

✘ Ugly outfit, and wasted potential

Ryoma Hoshi

♡ I respect him and feel bad for his outlook on life and for how poorly he views himself. I love his little hat as well and he’s the first “different styled” character (Hifumi, Bandai, Teruteru) that I liked the design of.

✘ I hate when he says “got a long ways to go,” it’s overused and annoying, and wish he gave himself more credit. Also hate that when you first meet him he warns you that he’s killed people and is dangerous to be around. Come on buddy, you know you wouldn’t hurt your friends. Stop pushing them away.

Kirumi Tojo

♡ Competence, well rounded, skillful

✘ Boring as hell. I wouldn’t waste one free time event on her.

Angie Yonaga

♡ Dark skin, super cute, love her talent as an artist myself.

✘ Gives religious people a bad name and is super manipulative which I hate.

Tenko Chabashira

♡ I relate to her and feel bad when she’s misunderstood. She’s a good person deep down. Also love her sprites.

✘ There’s more cunning, funny and clever ways to write her digs at men.

Korekiyo Shunguuji

♡ I’m in love with this man. Long hair, voice, mystery, mask, intelligence, passion, talent.

✘ He definitely was a victim of abuse and a lot of people refuse to see that and just hate him. Team Danganronpa should’ve given him a redemption arc where he realized his sister abused him and changed.

Gonta Gokuhara

♡ I love his design except for his suit. Also he’s so cute and naive. I cried for his trail.

✘ No need talk like caveman. Better way to do this.

Kokichi Ouma

♡ Like Nagito, I value his intelligence and crazy cunning.

✘ Shouldn't have died. Also shouldn’t have manipulated Gonta. That was just cruel.

Miu Iruma

♡ She has her hilarious moments and her death surprised me and was sad.

✘ Sometimes she lacks basic empathy, i.e. calling Tenko “Tencrotch” when she just fucking died.

Maki Harukawa

♡ Amazing character development. Didn’t see her surviving until the end at the start. Also her love and passion for Kaito.

✘ “Do you wanna die?” gets old.

Kaito Momota

♡ Just the overall best bro you could ever have.

✘ Has some toxic masculinity issues and anger issues.

K1-B0

♡ Pretty much everything about him. His design, his attitude and personality, especially how amazing and cool he is chapter 5 onward, his execution made me so sad. He’s so innocent and funny without trying.

✘ When you do his free time events he’s very arrogant and just talks about himself a lot... it seems odd and not similar to the Kiibo we see throughout the game.

Himiko Yumeno

♡ Super cute design, love her voice and “Nyeh...” and her sprites. Her character development is great as well.

✘ Why did they take so long to make her important and likable?

Tsumugi Shirogane

♡ An excellent and well hidden reveal

✘ I hate her. So annoying, from the voice to the references and her personality.

[phoenix-before-the-flame]

Ok I want to know your take on the Magic Council. Because to me it’s one of the most inconsistent things in fairy tail. Like “the magic council is extremely powerful and fairy tails fears them” and “the magic council ain’t shit”, the council acts like a magic military but also guilds do all the actual work, the magic council holds significant importance and the magic council doesn’t actually do anything.

The thing that’s especially annoying to me is that the concept of the magic council had a lot of potential if it was explored and expanded on in a narrative way. If they had more structure and impact on the story. Especially if the effects of the council were mentioned throughout the story and not just brought up when narratively nessasary for some plot hole or something. I feel as if some great characters who were magic council members could of been written if the council was explored.

Anyway I want to hear your thought on the magic council. How would you fix it/redo it, anything, please. I’m begging.

What can i say except i wish the magic council was used more?

Like from day one it was established that the council is the main military force in universe and exist to monitor and police wizard and guild activity. They're also the ones who create and enforce laws regarding wizards as well as dealing out punishment.

They're basically cops for wizards only, and seeing as how in universe wizards only make up 10% of the overall population its interesting that theres a specific set of laws to deal with such a small percentage of the population (wizard racism? Its more likely than you think)

In universe they've even been around for a long ass time too. With them being noted as far back as Mavis' time a few years after the events of FT Zero (after the events of the second trade war where they passed the Interguild Dispute Interdiction Treaty which prevented guilds from participating in wars)

In my head the council is an extra branch of the government that exists outside of the jurisdiction of the royal family amd has far reaching influence to a few other countries outside of Fiore as well.

They have a large military consisting mostly of non magical people with few mages, they work to disband dark guilds, they confiscate forbidden magical items (they have the lullaby flute after that whole incident) alongside literal magical weapons of mass destruction ( face and etherion). To the general public they're a good force that doesnt sway under the influence of royal whims. To guilds they're a nuisance always on their backs.

But they do shady things. They plant spies in guilds to gather intel and to hopefully destabilize them into disbanding (I hesitate to think that Mest was the only council spy ever. I'd like to think that the council has spies everywhere in guilds). They use S class wizards as public examples of their power, see Erza being arrested in the way early series and do under the quiet shady research projects ( Brain from Oracion Seis was apart of the Bureau of Magical Development which did the experimentation on Ultear. While not canonically apart of the council i like to think that they are).

(I also like to think that Wizards who are possible candidates to become S class have to be tested by the council before the guilds can carry out their own trials. Because i feel as though the council should be involved in that process.)

Wizard Saints? Public figureheads to show companionship between them and the guilds but the saints only have power in title. Nothing more.

They're shady af, and who doesn't love a shady government in stories?

There could've legit been an ongoing thing in the background of the arcs of the council working to destabilize FT in the eyes of the public because FT is one of the few old guilds in operation present and is not only powerful but a inspirational figure that literally thrives on going against the law(wouldnt want more of those popping up would you?). If it goes logically others trying to follow in FT's footsteps will fall in line and be easier to control.

It could've gone on that the council got real close to their goal of tearing fairy tail down but due to the events of tartarus (see Jackal crazy murdering everyone) they literally lost almost all their forces and had to be built from ground up.

Mest, being one of the few original council members of a high position, gets promoted and having seen both sides of the situation from his spying days rebuilds the council by doing more work alongside wizards and guilds thus bettering the relations, law reforms, decomissioning the weapons of mass destruction, working with the royal family on stuff yadda yadda yadda resulting in good magic council in the end blah blah blah.

But thats just my 2 cents i suppose °3°

[tigris-types]

How to fix Barbie: Big City Big Dreams

Give it more screen time.

And I have some ideas how to fill up that screen time, spoilers below.

So this movie was only an hour and I feel the story was trying be similar to Rockn Royals with spotlight solo at the end, but it didn't have as strong of a story as Rockn Royals. More screen time could help with this, but I think changing the conflict a little would work too. Here is how I see my "rewrite" going:

Movie opens up the same with the daydream and meeting Brooklyn. They still arrive a day early, but they don't become best friends right away. They figure out nicknames and start to unpack. They sing about what their goals are for the program. Brooklyn sees this as a stepping stone to Broadway, Malibu sees this as an opportunity to extend her viewership by gaining more skills (continuing the goal from princess adventure). Both want the spotlight solo and know of it beforehand. This song sets up their motivations and our expectations for the plot.

They finish unpacking, still have time left in the day, and even though they are competitors, and Brooklyn has lost friends over competition before (as mentioned in the song), she agrees to show Malibu around New York. They become friendlier towards each others, but idk if I would want to use Before US here or not. (I think I have a better place for it)

The conversation happens on the subway as it does, they make their pact. And Barbie doesn't fall asleep, she is on California time, and shouldn't get tired until after Brooklyn who is on NY time. Brooklyn however mentions jet lag and how her mom is a pilot so she knows if they don't return now, Malibu will regret it the next day.

This is where we get Malibu sleeping in as they attend the first day. They have the announcement for the spotlight solo and the hint that Lee is more than she seems. Malibu is falling behind and they sing Work It. Ken calls, Barbie mentions how she doesn't know how Brooklyn does it, and he suggests she asks her. Ken also says, "I believe you can be anything" because I think it would be a funny way to bring in the tag line for Barbie dolls.

Anyways, she she ends up asking Brooklyn, and even though they are competitors, Malibu says competition is about bringing out the best in each other. So Brooklyn helps, they become better friends and then you have Before Us, but more focused on surviving class than exploring New York.

The song ends with one of the teachers praising Malibu and Brooklyn is just a twinge jealous. As they leave class, they run into Gato and meet Rafa. Now that classes have begun, it makes since he would already have dresses prepared (instead of on the first day, cause that made no sense to me).

Brooklyn and Malibu go the park, try on the dresses, they work with spinning, maybe we should mention this to Rafa. Same as movie.

They return to class and reminders for auditions for the spotlight solo are either heard or seen in posters. Malibu and Brooklyn comment on how they both want it, but it would be even better if they could win it together. (This line is a set up for later)

They meet Lee at the cafeteria and her identity is revealed, same as the movie. And idk, I feel like there should be another song here, maybe about Brooklyn's and Lee's past and how fame isn't all that great. This is a musical, and there could have been more songs.

The day next Lee's dad comes and they have their confrontation. Rafa films class and the accident. Malibu assures Brooklyn it is an accident and while she mostly believes her, Brooklyn does know competition can do crazy things to people. She suspious, but brushes it off.

In this version, I'm not sure how Good Vibes would work. Maybe the lyrics are rewritten and its about lifting each other up instead. It's a call back to how Malibu asked Brooklyn for help, and now Malibu can help Brooklyn. Both girls help Rafa with the spinning-shimmer dresses, and Malibu helps Brooklyn with cruth choreography for the spotlight solo audition.

When they return to school, the Barbies are called into the dean's office. Malibu is expelled for sabotage and is told she will be on the 7pm flight out of New York (idk times, it just needs to be dramatic) Malibu walks out sadly as Brooklyn walks in. Malibu is too sad to say a word to her and walks off screen to her dorm. Rafa tries to call out but doesn't follow. Brooklyn talks to the Dean, and as she leaves the office Lee walks up and says she just saw Malibu packing her things, whats going on? Brooklyn explains and exclaims how she knew it all along that Malibu was out to get her. Rafa and Lee try to comfort her and Lee tries to say how maybe it's like her situation and things aren't what they seem. Brooklyn doesn't want to hear her it and sings Playground of Our Dreams.

Rafa and Lee talk, they remember the video, Rafa goes to the Dean as Lee tries to find Brooklyn (gotta repair that friendship). The Dean is shocked at the video and agrees to reenroll Malibu but her flight is about to take off soon. But luckily, someone knows a pilot!

Brooklyn calls her mom to stall the flight and she meets up with Malibu at the airport. She interrupts a phone call between Malibu and her parents as Malibu tells them the bad news. Brooklyn explains, and then Malibu tells her parents the good news. Her parents also decide to fly out to New York to support both of them in the spotlight solo auditions. (Basically Malibu stays in New York and doesn't return home because that made no sense.)

They return to school, and we see Lee confronting her dad. As it turns out, after Brooklyn went to get Malibu, Lee confronted her dad about it like in the movie. Expect this takes place at night instead during the day. She also now has audio evidence to her dad admitting what he did (a nod to spy tech from Spy Squad but this time its from Rafa).

The next scene is Malibu and Brooklyn practicing for the spotlight solo. It's a montages and they sing See You at the Finish Line. They are competing against on another, but together at the same time. The song ends with them preforming on the audition stage. The Dean commends them on their effort but says only one can have the spotlight and results will be posted tomorrow.

It says Barbie Roberts. But the girls have an idea, since it's both their names, both of them should get the spotlight. Lee says she might be able to make that work and Rafa says he has the perfect costumes for them.

Lee goes to her Dad who is talking with the Dean and is in the process of trying to cancel the spotlight since his daughter didn't get it (or try to change the candidate to someone more worthy, like his daughter! He says as she walks up to him). As Lee walks up,, the Dean gets a call and excuses herself. Lee then threatens to release the audio of her Dad admitting his interference if he doesn't back down. He back downs and then complains about business and how he was "only" trying to help "his little girl shine". The Dean returns and say their MC of the even just got sick and they need a replacement or Lee's Dad might get his wish.

Lee then steps up and says she could MC, she does know Emmie Lee after all. *wink wink nudge nudge*

Lee makes it possible for both Barbies to have the spotlight, and she introduces them like in cannon. This time, it makes sense why she is hosting. They sing Big City Big Dreams, and when the camera pans to both their families it's also makes sense they are there.

Movie ends, curtains draw, and that's how I would fix this movie.

[yellowocaballero]

Human Relations Snippet: Tim teaches Jon the internet and odious goats are sacrificed to the cult of Bezos

There’s no reason for this to exist. I was rereading a bit of HR and I saw a throwaway joke about Jon wanting to buy Martin a Portal Gun. I started wondering about how that would even work. The answer is, obviously, a 200 year old man squinting at a computer screen wondering why there’s so many horny singles in his area. I get possessed by demons easily, so I took three hours out of writing my daemon au and wrote this instead. Bon Appetit. 

(Edit, quick clarification: I think that Jon would refuse to use the name for the Beholding that Smirke made up, and although all of this exists in my head and you guys don’t know this, there was a lot of tension between Jon and Jonah’s ‘circle’. So Jon hated Smirke and thought he was a hack. He uses Smirke’s terms to others sometimes for ease of understanding or in deference to Jonah (:/) but I think that mentally he mainly calls the Beholding his own name, The Witness. It rings of that personal and intimate connection Jon and the Beholding has. Anyway, onto the story.)

After one hour in anguished uncertainty, fifty popups that advised Jon of very many ‘hot singles in his area’, six separate sites that Jon’s God had to inform him were covers for thieves that stole money from you, and a very confusing retreat to Jon’s favorite internet page ‘Wikipedia’ as to what an Amazon was, Jon had given up.

Normally this was where he asked one of his personal assistants for help. Normally, he wouldn’t even be trying, and he would have just told one of them to do it. This was how Jon had cunningly mostly avoided using computers for the past twenty years. Some endeavors were unavoidable, and Jon was proud to say that he mastered email in 2010. Or was it 2008? He liked to think it was 2006, but it was possible...never mind. If it was important, the Witness would tell him. 

After one hour in anguished uncertainty, fifty popups that advised Jon of very many ‘hot singles in his area’, six separate sites that Jon’s God had to inform him were covers for thieves that stole money from you, and a very confusing retreat to Jon’s favorite internet page ‘Wikipedia’ as to what an Amazon was, Jon had given up.

Normally this was where he asked one of his personal assistants for help. Normally, he wouldn’t even be trying, and he would have just told one of them to do it. This was how Jon had cunningly mostly avoided using computers for the past twenty years. Some endeavors were unavoidable, and Jon was proud to say that he mastered email in 2010. Or was it 2008? He liked to think it was 2006, but it was possible...never mind. If it was important, the Witness would tell him.

Peter Lukas was right on almost nothing, Jon thought disgruntledly as he slammed his laptop shut - including in his taste of men, company, philosophies, men, patron deities, professions, and men - but he was right in his proclamation that the internet was the degradation of society. Not that he hadn’t sacrificed his morality and sold out, feeding his patron through something called “incel forums” and “Reddit”. Between him, Jonah’s “Excel spreadsheets” and “TurboTax”, and Annabelle Cane’s ridiculous “MMO guilds”, the Society was filling with computer geeks. Jon could always read the wind: he had to keep up, and quickly. 

Besides, Martin had kindly educated him on how it was almost unheard of for a young man like Jon to not understand how to work that Goggle thing. Giggle? Martin was very streetwise and was one of the most insightful people Jon had ever known, he was definitely right. 

Which is why he had to buy him this “Portal Gun” that he wanted. He had even shown Jon the website! And if Jon was in desperate times trying to navigate these confusing webpages entirely with URLs he memorized, then he would take desperate measures!

“I’m going down to the Archives,” Jon said, slithering off the couch and clutching his laptop to chest. Jonah had bought it for him. He appeared surprised that Jon was using it. “I may not be back for a while. I need...a book.”

Jonah didn’t look away from his own infernal machine. It seemed he was on that ‘Excel’ program again. Was it one of those ‘video games’ he kept hearing about? “Do I want to know what you were doing on that laptop.”

“Reading Wikipedia,” Jon said immediately, and somewhat defensively. Jon had discovered Wikipedia in 2001 before promptly funding it and throwing his weight behind its development. He had spent a solid five years convinced a computer was a kind of electronic screen that let you read digital Encyclopedia pages, like in Star Trek. He’d seen Star Trek. Georgie made him. “Did you know that -”

“Yes, yes, have fun. Haven’t you read that entire site already?”

“Not even,” Jon said defensively. “I can’t just sit and read through entire Encyclopedias anymore, Jonah. We know more things now.”

“What a way to describe the last two hundred years,” Jonah said, not even looking away from his computer. “We know more things. Never change, Jon.”

“You’re the one who never changes,” Jon grumbled. But it was a weak comeback, and considering his brand new delightfully short stature somewhat untrue, so Jon breezed out of Jonah’s office with full knowledge that he’d think of a better comeback halfway down the steps to the Archives.

In fact, it wasn’t until he was at the door, and by then he felt stupid for losing a point against Jonah anyway. He easily opened the door, stepping inside and quickly bee-lining for Sasha’s office. Her burgeoning powers were wonderfully flowing in the shape of access to and understanding of technology. He had never seen such gratuitous breeches of privacy as she casually committed. Every day Jon was validated in his decision to save her from the Stranger. A balance, an equal yet opposite Archivist from Jon, would be invaluable. Not that Jonah and Jon weren’t their own yin and yang, but Jonah’s powers were paltry and out-of-date. Mind reading and spying through iconography was so 1960. They needed fresh blood. 

Sasha had been a wonderful choice, and Jon didn’t regret choosing her to act as saviour. Most of the time. Some of the time she -

“She’s not in.”

Jon’s fist halted in front of the door, about to sharply rap on her office door. He turned around to actually look through the bullpen, only to see that Timothy was sitting in his chair chewing a sandwich. Somehow angrily. Definitely suspiciously. 

“Are you sure?” Jon asked dubiously. “Because you’ve lied about this before.”

“Because you should stop coming down here and bothering her.” Timothy balled the saran wrap in his hand and dunked it in the trash can, somehow undoubtedly giving the impression that he wished it was Jon’s head. ���Just bugger off.”

Someone was in a snit. Normally Timothy wasn’t this hostile. Jon had thought that learning his name might make him less mean, but it did little to help. But when Jon looked around he didn’t see Martin, and a quick check assured him that both Sasha and Martin were having lunch at their favorite deli and engaging in that plotting hobby they both enjoyed. Timothy had elected to stay behind, stewing in his own angry and paranoid juices. 

He would have to do this with Martin out of the Archives...and he really wanted to take care of this now so Martin would get it before the weekend...and it wasn’t as if Jon was scared of this boy he was one hundred and seventy years older than…

“Uh,” Jon said intelligently, “can you help me with...something…”

Timothy’s face twisted in a novel combination of surprise and disgust. “What,” he sneered, “your evil fear god or whatever can’t figure it out for you?”

“I don’t need others to think for me,” Jon said stiffly. It was something he’d had to say far too many times. “The Witness is less helpful with...troubleshooting...look, do you know how to work a computer?”

Timothy stared at him blankly. “Like, at all?”

“I’m trying to buy Martin this toy he desires,” Jon said desperately. Fuck it all, he walked over and sat down in the chair next to Tim’s desk. He pulled a little bit closer, placing his laptop on Tim’s desk, and ignored the way the other man leaned away. “But whenever I try I keep on seeing alerts about hot singles. I’m not interested in young women, I just need to buy a ‘Portal Gun’. Do you know what a Portal Gun is?”

Timothy continued staring at him, eyebrows raised. Clearly involuntarily, so quick that he may not even have noticed, one corner of his lips was ticking upwards into a smile. 

“How many credit card scams have you fallen for?”

“Absolutely none,” Jon said, very quickly. He pulled out his credit card, placing it on the table. He knew a credit card was involved, although he didn’t know how. “What do I do? Do I swipe it? Is there a port?” He picked up the laptop and squinted at its sides, looking for a port. “I wanted to ask Sasha for help, since she’s the expert in hacking, but surely you know the basics?”

“I mean...I can’t, like, code, but yeah, I can work Amazon.” Timothy carefully opened the laptop, watching the display light up. He effortlessly navigated to an icon on the screen, clicking it open. 

“That’s not right,” Jon said urgently. “You’re supposed to press the E.”

“I do not want to know how many toolbars you have,” Timothy said bluntly. “We’re using Chrome. That’s another way to look at the Internet.” He rubbed his hands together. “Yeah, I got a grandmother, we can do this.”

Jon perked up. “So you’ll help?”

Went unsaid: even though you hate me?

“Whatever,” Timothy grumbled. Jon decided not to press his luck. 

Jon decided that he liked the Chrome better than the Internet Explorer, because it was simpler and Google was on the first page. Tim rapidly typed on ‘Amazon.com’ into the search bar and easily scrolled through the very busy and picture filled page that immediately popped up. Why was everything so fast? Maybe this was why the young people had no attention span: these pages just came up immediately. No flipping for indices for finding anything in phone books. 

“Right. What was it, a Portal Gun? Like from the game?”

“A board game?”

“Video game.”

“Like on a VHS…?”

“Right.” Tim pinched the bridge of his nose. “You know, Sasha said that you’re one of the most famous sociologists and anthropologists in British history.”

“I am extremely intelligent, Timothy, and I won’t abide any insinuation otherwise,” Jon said curtly. “I cannot be expected to keep constant track every time there’s another - iPhone or whatever. You have teenagers in your family, correct? Do you always know what they’re talking about? That’s, what, a twenty year age gap? Multiply that by ten.”

That shut him up. Timothy sighed again, much more aggressively, but he clicked the white bar and typed in ‘portal gun’ anyway. “Right. Not fucking apologizing, but right. I still don’t fucking know what ‘Twitch’ is.”

“It’s a brief spasmodic contraction of the muscle fibers,” Jon said helpfully. “Fascinatingly, this phenomenon was first observed in frog’s legs before I was even born in 1780, by Luigi Galvani. Erudite man, by the way, but he couldn’t hold his liquor. It was the birth of the study of bioelectricity, although the exact mechanism of muscle contraction eluded scientists for years.”

“Never mind.” Timothy sighed again, the perfect mix of aggravated and long-suffering. It seemed to be the man’s two favorite emotions. “My grandmother has a PhD and she still can’t figure out her cell, either. We had to get her a Jitterbug.”

Amazon, as Timothy explained, was a kind of shopping mall, except you could pick out what you wanted by its picture and have the shopping mall pack it up and send it to you. Jon didn’t quite understand why people preferred this to just going to a shop yourself, seeing as you could get it immediately instead of with a three or four day turnaround, but Tim explained that Amazon was cheaper, had a wider selection, and didn’t make you get off the couch.

“Oh,” Jon said, finally getting it, “this follows the economic model of large scale businesses underpricing their products to undercut smaller businesses in the area, driving them out of business until they hold monopoly over the market and can raise their prices without worrying about staying competitive.”

Timothy stared at him. 

“I mean,” he said, “I guess?”

“This explains why my Alexa project was successful so quickly,” Jon mused. “With a lack of competition or alternatives, consumers are more likely to accept the dramatic invasions of privacy as normal. Normalizing intrusions into privacy took ages, but my early efforts paid off very well. The Ring doorbell was even better, along with the line of security and home protection systems. We’re now working on live streamed 24/7 surveillance to social media platforms.”

Timothy stared at him further. 

Finally, he said, “Alexa was...you?”

“Of course,” Jon said, baffled. Who else would it be? “I gave Jeff the idea and convinced him it would be profitable. I didn’t understand the whole mechanics of it, but once I gave Jeff a vision from the Witness he was eager to implement the divinely inspired spyware.”

Timothy continued to stare. 

“The evil fear god controls Jeff Bezos.”

“He thinks I’m a prophet, actually,” Jon said helpfully. “I let him become Cardinal of the imaginary cult in exchange for funding some of my more esoteric programs. Had him sacrifice a goat and everything, it was great.” At Timothy’s alarmed look, Jon was quick to elaborate, “It was the most evil goat you’ve met in your life. Morally odious.”

“...for my sanity I’m going to pretend that you said none of that.”

In retrospect, although Timothy had worked at the Institute for a few years, it did take quite a bit of time to acclimate to the fact that the Avatars permanently shaped the shape of human existence in order to better feed their gods. Jon knew better than anyone: when humanity made gods, and gods made man, and man made gods...the feedback loop could self-perpetuate for years. Eternity, if needed. 

But they had no luck on ‘Amazon’. With Jon’s eidetic memory he was able to easily pick out the one that looked most similar to the one that Martin had showed him, but all of the little toy guns were for someone named ‘Rick’. Then Timothy took twenty laborious minutes explaining the entire plot of ‘Rick & Morty’ to him, which Jon patiently sat through. 

“I think young people today deeply enjoy explaining media,” Jon said, once Timothy finished telling him the funny jokes. “I’m very interested in your interests, Timothy.”

“You are so fucking condescending. And please call me Tim, you’re sounding even more like my grandmother.” When Jon brightened, Tim - Tim! - quickly said, “This does not mean we are friends.”

Granted, Jon had never once in his life gave a shit about making friends, but he felt as if he should be making more of an effort with Tim. He was a sort of supernatural brother in law, wasn’t he? Although Sasha perhaps Sasha was more of a favored niece. At least, he would be, if today’s generation found some morality and stopped living in sin. 

Good lord. Now he was sounding like Jonah. Georgie used to joke that he was born in the wrong generation - he should have been born a 17th century Puritan instead. Jon found it a very funny joke. Jonah did not. 

“Are there any other shopping websites?” Jon asked finally, after Amazon failed them. He’d have to call up Jeff later and complain. “Or is this the only one?”

Tim sighed. “Let’s check Google.”

Quickly and efficiently, yet with many lightning fast detours, Tim found another site called ‘eBay’ - pronounced ‘e-Bay’, not ‘ehbay’ - that listed off exactly what they needed. They weren’t under the toy section, instead listed as something called ‘cosplay’, but Tim seemed highly resistant to explaining that one, so he dropped it. 

They picked a likely looking white toy gun that looked the most similar to the one that Martin had liked and Tim talked Jon through punching in the numbers on his card into the website and sorting through the billing and shipping information. Tim helpfully took down the numbers on his card to file later. 

“And...done!” Tim said, pressing a button and leaning back. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

“It was ten times as complicated as I thought it would be,” Jon assured him, “but also much more fun. What else can you buy online?”

“Oh, god. What can’t you buy.”

Jon brightened. “Can you buy books?”

“Old Gertrude used to buy Leitners on eBay,” Tim said dully, “so yeah, sure, why not.”

Jon stared at his computer. He carefully navigated the mouse to the big red x and clicked out of the internet browser. “That’s enough of eBay, then, I think.”

Guess he would have to stick to buying Leitners in person. It was no good buying fucked up books from sketchy sources. Always stick to people you trusted, or at least trusted to be themselves. Mikaele was Jon’s favorite supplier since the kid Leitner disappeared, and they had a pleasant working relationship. Mikaele shared his grandfather’s stories about the history and culture of the Maori, and Jon told him which of his haunted artifacts would be the most helpful in the imminent apocalypse. 

“Well,” Tim said finally, gently pushing Jon’s laptop away, “that was...something, great bonding session with my local supervillain, please run back to Elias and bother him instead.”

“You were very helpful, Mr. Stoker,” Jon said, as professionally yet paternally as possible. Tim was six years older than his body, so he’s not sure how it came off, but the touch of grey at his temples helped with the dignified air. “And as soon as you start acting like a man and propose to my Archivist, you’ll make an excellent brother in law -”

“Uh, excuse me?��

Jon spun around in his chair to see Sasha and Martin standing at the door, holding doggy bags and looking somewhat flummoxed. Probably confused at the sight of him and Tim having a civil conversation, which admittedly had never happened before. Possibly also confused at how completely mortified Tim looked. 

“Who said anything about proposing?” Sasha asked incredulously. “Tim, are you -”

“No! No, god no!” Tim stood up quickly, holding his hands out as if he was placating a raging bull. “Nobody’s been saying anything - I would never do that to you -”

“Oh,” Sasha said frostily, crossing her arms and letting the bags swing, “would you.”

That was a domestic Jon should stay out of, even though he definitely caused it. He and Martin sidled away in tandem, huddling near the back of the Archives as Tim frantically pled for his life. 

Sneakily, Jon glanced at Martin out of the corner of his eye. He looked happy. Happy, and just as stressed as he always looked - Jon had never known Martin when he wasn’t constantly stressed out, and he was more than aware that it was his fault. 

He looked good, too. Really nice, broad jawline that gave his face a friendly round shape. Just friendly and round in general, it was really handsome. His hair was as nicely short and ruffles as ever. The big glasses were super stylish, and really framed his face well. Really big, broad hands. Jon, who had always been so poky and tall and thin and gaunt, like some kind of haunted scarecrow that lurked through the corners of time, was envious. He wanted some of that softness and gentleness. Really, he wanted some of Martin’s -

“So what were you and Tim doing?” Martin asked. “I didn’t know you knew he existed.”

“You told me his name,” Jon said anxiously. “I don’t forget the things you tell me, you know.”

Martin smiled shyly and him, and Jon found himself smiling back. “It’s pretty good for my ego to hear that I have something to teach the immortal genius.”

“I don’t know,” Jon said, as Sasha yelled in the background, “I’ve been learning a lot lately.”

“Really?” Martin teased. “Anything interesting?”

“Oh,” Jon said, watching the yellow fluorescent light cast Martin’s dim smile in soft relief, “I can think of a few things.”

[thespoonisvictory]

I wish we had more Niki and Wilbur interactions too. I don't really consider Eret's motivation any better or worse, it's more of a "reasonable" motivation than a "good" one. He was like "yeah L'manburg's not gonna win this. Better get the whole thing over with quick". It makes it a bit more realistic that he'd grow to feel remorse by himself at least.

Yeah the Eret adopting Fundy bit is odd. Thankfully everyone seems to know that Eret didn't know the adoption stream was that day and doesn't hold it against his character, but also they played it as a serious emotional moment for Fundy and he had one of his biggest interactions with Ghostbur on that stream, so it kind of has to be canon. It also makes Fundy's whole "why does everyone leave me" thing feel a bit hollow and also at the expense of Eret's character, because they planned to show up and weren't allowed a redo. Like I could think of several characters Fundy could have a better relationship with if he actually reached out and expressed his desire for one, Eret being one of them. Like I said thankfully no one blames Eret for that and understands it wasn't intentional but in character it makes c!Eret look at best like they didn't care enough about Fundy to remember.

It's a bit of a pet peeve for me, but I really dislike it when it feels like the story or certain characters are bent in a way to make one character especially miserable. I have this issue with Tommy's story too. I didn't expect the afterlife to be nice at all, but going so far in the opposite direction felt less like an interesting aspect of the worldbuilding and more like an excuse to give c!Tommy even more trauma. So just, yeah. I feel like they should've cut it. Fundy already had a complicated new surrogate father figure relationship to explore with Phil.

cc!fundy has the bad habit of starting really compelling plotlines and then just having horrible execution, whether that be drywaters, the adoption arc, or his villain arc. s2 fundy feels like he’s trying on about fifty different plots, none of which fit together and instead leave fans to draw lines (which can be drawn ofc but it’s not done smoothly in the narrative we see). even his newer lore feels a bit like that ‘all spectacle no substance’, a great piece of work with nothing to stand on or build off of before or after.

as a result, it leaves his character feeling ‘hollow’ like you said, like the author just keeps putting his character through stuff so we feel sad. he drops storylines and then places the blame on characters, throwing people like c!niki or c!eret under the narrative bus when in reality they ‘abandoned’ him because he hasn’t played on the server in a month and they’ve moved on. I would love to see more consistent work from fundy because he’s very talented, but I don’t think we’ve seen that since his spy arc in s1. instead, he just keeps piling misery on and it gets tiring.

I agree with you about the afterlife (honestly even with c!wilbur getting supposedly more evil), but at least tommy has the benefit of lightheartedness and filler lore that waters down the constant trauma.

[mithrilwren]

Fanfic ask game for procrastinating on writing, which as of this week is actually accurate, since I’m finally writing again! (or, more specifically, editing what I wrote two months ago so I can get back to writing.)

Tagged by @essektheylyss! Thank you, this is exactly the kind of activity my brain needed tonight.

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

72! I was hovering at 69 for quite a while, sad to break the streak haha

2) What’s your total AO3 word count?

~550K, which is somehow both more and less than what I expected

3) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Many, lmao. According to my Ao3 (omitting any blanket tags) I’ve got 22 there, plus at least two more over on ff.net from back in the day, and probably a couple more just on Tumblr. Most of them I’ve only written one fic for, though. I think the only fandoms where I’ve written more than one are Critical Role (35), Supernatural (15), Haikyuu!! (3), The Exorcist (2), Dimension 20 (2), and Yu-Gi-Oh! (2)

4) What are your top five fics by kudos?

Pick a Number, Any Number

Surprisingly, my number one is NOT a Critical Role fic, nor is it even one of my longer multi-chapters! It’s actually a one-shot I wrote for Haikyuu!! back in the day that took off far beyond what I expected. I wrote it for DaiSuga week, which was a ship I (to be completely honest) wasn’t even terribly invested in, but I had a fun idea and people seemed to like it! (It’s also much fluffier than what I usually write, which might be part of its broader appeal ;))

A Winter’s Ball

Unsurprisingly, the next four are all CR ;). This one was a M9 x VM crossover that I primarily wrote between the hours of 3-8am over the course of two insomnia-wracked nights and honestly, I think it shows in its uncharacteristically unstructured format (compared to my typical style, which tends to favour shorter scenes with very intentionally-placed breaks between, as opposed to scenes that flow into each other without pause). That’s not to say I think it’s a bad thing! The story, which follows Beau as she drifts through a party in Whitestone and observes the interactions between the various guests, actually flows better without that kind of interruption. This was also my first Beaujester piece. I started writing it right before Beau’s confession aired, and published it the week after, which definitely pushed me to make what had been only subtextual in the first half of my draft into the emotional lynchpin of the story.

Only the Nightingale Sings

I’m really glad this one still ranks as high as it does, because this story is absolutely my pride and joy. At one time (though I’m not sure that’s true anymore) it was the longest gen fic in the fandom, which is pretty cool! Plot-heavy, twist-heavy, angst-heavy, with seven points of view to follow and multiple interwoven storylines, it was a beast of a thing to write, and took almost exactly a year to finish, but the long process was oh-so worth it. Literally nothing makes me happier today than seeing a new comment or kudos on this story.

Closer Still

One of my earliest shadowgast fics, this one asks the question “how can you make the ‘stuck in an elevator trope’ fantasy?” The answer is, as always, demiplanes. This fic, perhaps more than any of my other shadowgast fics, is interesting to revisit, because it was written before the ep 97 reveal, but literally everything Essek does in it would suggest otherwise. It reads like I already knew he was a spy working with Trent, and yet I was firmly in the “Essek is NOT the spy” camp at the time. Gotta chalk that up to Matt telegraphing his growing guilt into the preceding episodes - even if I couldn’t see it, it was clearly there.

your dust from mine

My other novel-length CR multichapter, this fic brought me so much joy in the otherwise bleak summer of 2020. Most of my best memories of those four months come from working on this story. A Fjorclay adaption of The Goose Girl (my favourite fairytale) this story is about healing, growth, and figuring out what happiness means to you. While I know most people don’t read stories for this pairing anymore, for obvious reasons, I still cherish your dust from mine for how much of my heart I poured into it, and I look back on it with a huge amount of fondness.

5) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I do my absolute best to respond to every comment someone leaves on a story of mine, even if it occasionally takes a month or two. Replying to comments is one of my favourite parts of the fic-writing process - it gives me a chance to revisit peoples’ kind words and (often, incredibly insightful) observations, and I hope it also shows how appreciative I am of each and every one. 

6) What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Though I write a lot of angst, I honestly tend more towards bittersweet endings than straight-up sadness. The only one I can really think of is What You Own - mind the tags if you follow the link, this is definitely one of the gnarlier things I’ve written for CR - whose ending is, admittedly, bleak. But this story so far removed from canon that I don’t think it’s the kind of angsty ending that lingers with you, as much as it packs a punch and then lets you go on your way.

7) Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I tend to enjoy thinking about crossovers moreso than actually writing them. I’ve brainstormed a few, but none have ever made it much farther than the first page.

8) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

A few times! Not often, thankfully. Only one time in particular really sticks out to me, mostly for how it rocked my confidence in a way that I don’t think any comment could now, since I’ve had a few more years to build up faith in my own writing.

9) Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Very, very occasionally.

10) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I hope not! 

11) Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope!

12) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Oh man, back in the Glee days... yeah. Yeah, I have. Nothing that ever got published, though ;)

13) What’s your all time favourite ship?

Not sure I have one! Ships come and go with the seasons, and sometimes they’re best left in the era you found them.

14) What’s a WIP you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

The Shadowgast figure skating AU. It’s never going to happen, but I wish it had.

15) What are your writing strengths?

I would say probably structure, in terms of constructing narrative arcs and through-lines. I’m organized with my writing in a way that I am in few other areas of my life, haha. I’d also say my sense of place - I think I’m pretty good at constructing living, breathing settings and exploring how my characters interact affect/are affected by them.

16) What are your writing weaknesses?

I have a tendency to be wordy (which you might surmise from the length of this post, lol) and repeat myself, usually by going over emotional beats that don’t need the extra reinforcement. On the other hand, I tend to underexplain certain elements (particularly, important plot details in fic, and character motivation in original writing), which can lead to confusion.

A couple years ago I would have said dialogue, but I’ve put a lot of practice into it and I honestly think I’ve improved a lot, which is pretty cool!

17) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I’ve never done it myself, and it’s not generally my favourite thing to read (like @essektheylyss said, it makes me hyper-aware that I’m reading words on a page, especially if I have to follow a footnote somewhere). That said, I’ve definitely also seen it used effectively, so I think it’s more down to whether it suits the particular story!

18) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Yu-Gi-Oh!

19) What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

As mentioned above, Only the Nightingale Sings.

[randomfandom815]

Defending the women of LOST/Sexism in LOST

People say they don’t like Kate Austen because she’s “annoying” “can’t choose between Jack and Sawyer” “always wants to join every single mission”. Kate has way bigger things to worry about than sorting out her romantic feelings. Yes, she is developing feelings for both Jack and Sawyer, but she doesn’t have time to figure them out while trying to survive on the island. And the fact that people don’t like her because of the whole “I’m coming with you” thing is a little ridiculous, because they’re hating Kate for wanting to protect her friends and do whatever she can to help. You know who else does that? Jack. But plenty of people love him for those very same reasons. Yeah, a lot of Kate’s character was centered around the love triangle, but that isn’t the character’s fault, it the writers’s.

Then there’s Claire Littleton. People always complain about her “my baby!” thing, but... she only actually says that a few times, AND, if your child was taken from you or you thought your child was going to be hurt, wouldn't you be worried out of your mind? Wouldn’t you want to do anything to help them? People also criticize Claire for her entire Season 6 arc. She was alone, on the island, thinking everyone had abandoned her, with only the MIB for company. She was also tortured by the temple Others, who she thought had taken her child. Claire was a single mother who just wanted to keep her son safe, give her a break. 

Sun-Hwa Kwon is a character who actually doesn’t receive that much hate, but there is still the fact that people don’t like her because she left Ji Yeon to go back to the island for Jin. Here’s the thing: Sun had no way of knowing what was would happen on the island. She had no way of knowing that Jin had time traveled to the past, and she had no way of knowing what would happen with the MIB/Locke. She thought that she would be able to go to the island, bring Jin and the others back, and the two of them would reunite with Ji Yeon. And then in the submarine incident, Sun didn't want Jin to stay. She wanted him to live and take care of Ji Yeon. It was Jin who made the decision to die with her, not Sun.

Shannon Rutherford is a very unlikable character. Even I don’t enjoy her character, or Boone, and that is a view shared by many other people in the fandom. Many people call her selfish, spoiled, and just plain rude. And she was all of those things, but that wasn’t her entire character. Remember, they had all just been through a plane crash, landed on an island with no chance of rescue. Also, friendly reminder that she was only 20 years old. She was scared, and her way of coping with that was to try to do something normal. Let’s not forget, in Pilot, Part 2, she volunteered to go on the mission to fix the transceiver. She was constantly feeling useless, and it didn’t help that other characters, especially Boone, were constantly putting her down and mocking her. When she started to see Walt, she genuinely made an attempt to help him, even though she wasn’t sure if he was even there. Her death was untimely, and I wished we had gotten to see her grow more as a person. Also, her death was used for shock value and to further Sayid’s character development.

And now, one of the most hated characters of LOST, Ana Lucia Cortez. Now, while the characters I mentioned above were shit on and criticized, Ana Lucia was absolutely hated by the fandom. People hated her attitude, her toughness, her dislike of most of the people around her, and the fact that she killed Shannon (who, by the way, was just as disliked by many Ana Lucia haters). You know who else has a similar attitude? Who has that same toughness and dislike of people? Who else killed someone? That would be Sawyer, a fan-favorite, white male character who is beloved by the fandom. Now, for the last point, what I am comparing here is Ana Lucia killing Shannon to Sawyer killing the man he thought was Frank Sawyer in Australia, right before flight 815. Ana Lucia killed Shannon because she was trying to protect the people she was leading (including Sawyer!) from who she thought was the Others, and killing Shannon was an accident. Sawyer killed the man completely on purpose and out of revenge. Oh, and it wasn’t even the right person. Yes, I am aware of the man Ana killed long before flight 815 out of revenge, but if we can take her very small amount of character development, in which she refused to kill Henry Gale, a known Other at that point. Whereas Sawyer was still willing to kill a bunch of people in Season 6, the end of his character arc. And yet, Sawyer is still in most people’s top five characters lists (just to be clear, I do not hate Sawyer at all, and this is not anti Sawyer but pro Ana Lucia). You may argue that people love Sawyer because of his character development, which I do agree with. However, Ana Lucia was never given the chance to have Sawyer-like character development because she was killed off in the same season that she was introduced in. She wasn’t even allowed to be in the church in the flash-sideways, and she didn’t get to “move on.” Ana Lucia deserved way better than the death for shock value that she got.

Next up on the list is Juliet Burke. She, like Sun, also isn’t the target of a lot of hate, but there are still things that need defending. The first thing is, of course, her sudden change of mind when it came to detonating the hydrogen bomb in Season 5. Yes, it was selfish of her to endanger everyone on the island just because of the way Sawyer looked at Kate. But if the plan did actually work, which she thought it would, that meant she would lose everything she had gained over the past few years, including Sawyer. Juliet is incredibly kind and feminine while also being badass at the same time, which is amazing because you don’t usually see those two traits coinciding (usually a badass character isn’t very feminine and a “traditionally feminine” character isn’t a good fighter). As for all of her motives in Season 3, Juliet was trapped on the island for three years. All she wanted to do was leave and go home to her sister. Yes, she manipulated Sun, but right after that, she made things right by helping Jack make a plan to stop the Others. Her death was heroic, and I’m glad she was finally able to be happy in the flash-sideways. (I am declining to mention her whole relationship with Goodwin and all the drama with Ben, although I might dive into that in another post). 

Now, the character Rose Nadler has almost nothing that needs to be defended. She is a constant wise voice of reason who isn’t concerned with the drama of the rest of the survivors. Her relationship with her husband Bernard is very sweet, but she doesn’t let that stop her from doing the smart thing (like stopping his SOS sign idea). Not only that, but Rose has one of the best (and most meta) lines on the show: “If you say live together, die alone to me, Jack, I’m going to punch you in the face.”

Another character who doesn't need much defending is Charlotte Lewis, but not for the same reason as Rose. Charlotte was done dirty by the writers. Of the science team, she is the least fleshed out and explored. She had a single flashback and a little bit of exposition information from Ben, but that’s pretty much it. Every significant thing she did was for the sake of other characters. She had a fake-out death so Ben would reveal that he had a spy on the boat. She was taken to the Barracks so that members of Jack’s group would have a reason to go there. Her going to the Barracks was also an excuse to get Miles and Kate there. And she only died/was dying for shock value, to up the stakes of the time flashes, to provide more questions to the characters and the audience, and to further Daniel’s character development. In the flash-sideways, all she did was go on a date with Sawyer and further his character development. She didn't get to go to the church and move on. Daniel and Miles, the other members of her team, on the other hands were given compelling backstories and centric episodes.

Penelope Widmore is similar to Charlotte in that there isn’t much to defend because she doesn’t do much that affects the plot. Nearly everything she does is about Desmond, and the writers barely even gave her a personality. I’m sure Penny was an actually interesting person, if they had bothered her to give her any storyline that didn't involve her love interest.

Danielle Rousseau is a character that kind of slides in and out of the story as needed. Now, Danielle isn’t the subject of a lot of criticism just because she isn’t very focused on, but from what I have seen, here’s what I have to say: Danielle was alone on the island for sixteen years. And for sixteen years, she had to live with the knowledge that she was forced to kill the man she loved and her team. Not to mention the fact that her daughter, Alex, was taken away from her when she was just a week old. Can you blame Danielle for being paranoid? Her death was not a fair end to the character, and it was only used to kill off Danielle quickly and provide shock value.

Her daughter, Alex Rousseau, is similar to Charlotte and Penny in that she doesn’t need to be defended because everything she does is to affect other characters. In this case, those characters are Ben and Danielle (especially Ben in the later seasons). Danielle’s entire character is centered around the fact that she lost Alex and has been searching for her, and Ben’s motivations after Season 4 are largely motivated by Alex’s death. She herself doesn’t have much of a character arc, and her death was only to provide shock value and further Ben’s character development.

Another character that falls into the category of not having much to defend because every action is for someone else is Libby Smith. Once the tailies and the main survivors joined together, she was almost immediately shoved in a relationship with Hurley. The only things we knew about her backstory were that her husband died, she was a clinical psychologist, she was in the same mental hospital as Hurley, and she gave Desmond a boat. That’s it. She didn’t have a centric episode, and she only appeared in other people’s flashbacks. Her death was only to provide shock value and further Hurley’s character development, as well to show that Michael betrayed the survivors. 

Notice how many of these women died for shock value and/or to further a man’s character development? Notice how many of these women are disliked for traits that other characters are loved for? Notice how many of them barely exist as their own character without a man? I love LOST, I really do, but their treatment of female characters needed a lot of improvement.

[sonicringnoise]

Have a Jak 3 rant

Okay, I need to talk about Jak 3 and just...how absolutely janky the plot is. 

This rant is extremely long, so I put it under the cut.

First of all, I just want to point out, I love this game. I love it so much, and it’s my favorite out of the trilogy. But it just...it could have been so much better, guh.

And I know that development of this game was rushed (hell, it only came out a year after Jak 2), but I’m still going to rant about it!

It starts out just fine, with the Wasteland and Spargus and the arena, but it gets so weird as it goes on. Just...really disjointed.

We never really find out why Jak keeps going after eco crystals. Seriously, he gets a dark eco crystal from the Dark Maker at the beginning of the game, a light eco crystal from Seem, and just...starts collecting them, for some reason? Like, was he going to make a necklace? Start a rock collection? It’s never explained.

But whatever, it turns out those are needed later in the game to save the world. Fine.

After some Spargus-y missions, we then go...to the Monk Temple. You know, the temple. That’s never been mentioned before, and we didn’t even know existed, but we just went up there to explore and stuff and...

Like, how hard would it have been to have a line where Seem says, “We monks live far to the north, in a temple in the mountains.”

Then we’d at least have a reason to go there. But no, instead we just show up there and start poking around. 

This is one of my biggest issues with the game. In Jak 2, there are cutscenes that set up these missions, or even communications in gameplay that tell us where to go. In Jak 3, there’s just...a lot of that missing.

But, fine. Whatever, Jak has, like, ESPN or something.

At the volcano, Jak gets a dark power of invisibility, I guess. But only when he touches certain statues, and it’s only ever really used to get past a few traps and then never again.

Oddly enough, this was something that...made sense? I mean, invisibility is actually a power that dark eco has. Remember in Jak 2, there were metal heads who could turn invisible. 

But it’s never used! And that complaint holds true for almost every power Jak gets. You basically use the powers when a prompt comes on screen to get through a one-time obstacle, and then never again. 

Then we find out Veger is talking to the monks, but no one ever really expands on why? Or how? Like, for a city hidden in the Wasteland and forgotten, a lot of fucking people know it exists! 

Speaking of which...

We meet Ashelin in the desert and she begs us to come back to Haven City. Jak asks her how she knows Damas and she answers, “It doesn’t matter now.”

Excuse me??

It totally does matter! If Ashelin knows Damas, it begs the question: does she know that Jak is his son? Does she know the Kid is his son? Does she even know about the Kid? 

I mean, Ashelin would almost have to know that Jak is Damas’ son: during this scene, she gives him his seal back and says, “Don’t you remember who you are?”

Whatever. Add that to the list of things that are never mentioned again.

Jak says he’s not coming back to the city, because he’s an angry teenager and he likes hanging around with his Sand Dad. 

This is immediately followed by Jak returning to Haven City.

We head to the Monk Temple, again for no reason. This time, we open up some doors and Pecker leads us back to the city. 

There is no explanation as to why Jak has a change of heart. I actually think that the scene where Damas and Jak had a heart-to-heart and he mentions his lost son should be here: it leads perfectly into Jak deciding that the Greater Good is more important than his feelings.

Instead, we get nothing. Nada. Zilch. Just Jak heading back to Haven City because it’s The Thing To Do.

We reach Haven City after a boss battle and meet with Samos and Keira. Samos sucks, but that’s in character. Keira has no lines in this scene, and only makes goofy faces. Seriously, look: 

That’s it, that’s the character. 

Like, what’s happening in this scene? What’s going on with you, Keira? Are you okay? Are you making bedroom eyes at Jak? Are you confused? Did you smoke some of your father’s funny herbs again?

(Again, I know Keira’s role got cut down a lot because they changed voice actors, but it’s...so...jarring for a normally prominent character to suddenly get shoved into the background.)

We do some missions for Torn and eventually find out that Erol is the bad guy. Never explained how Erol survived slamming his Zoomer into dark eco and exploding in front of a huge crowd, but at this point, it’s whatever. 

We continue on our journey: Tess is a furry, Samos is useless, Torn is...Torn. 

We get a scene with Sig where Jak and Daxter ask him about Damas and his job as a spy and all that stuff. Fine, well and good, except the following exchange happens:

Jak: You’re playing with people’s lives!

Sig: Why not? They played with mine.

I’m sorry??

There’s a story there, and I’d like to know! What the hell happened to Sig? Why is nothing ever explained??!!

We get some Dadmas feelings, then we head over to have a chat with Kleiver. And this happens:

Jak: Kleiver, I need to find some very special Precursor artifacts, but I’m running out of time.

...Are you?? Has that been established?

So, in one of the previous missions, Samos mentions over the communicator (during gameplay, not in a cutscene) that to activate some ruins in Haven Forest, you’ll need some artifacts. But all he says is this:

Samos: Mar wrote that there was some ancient ruins to the west that were activated by five special artifacts and revealed wondrous truths. I'll see what I can find out.

That’s it! There’s never a cutscene where Samos says you need to find the Holo Cube, the Quantum Reflector, the Beam Generator, the Prism, and...by the way, there is no 5th artifact. Samos, you’re full of shit.

(Unless the Eco Sphere you get from Seem towards the end counts, but it’s very unclear.)

And, by the way, I had to Google those artifact names. The artifacts are never actually named until you acquired them in-game. Jak just finds random artifacts and is like, “Welp, this’ll do it! How convenient!”

Sigh.

Once we get all these artifacts no one told us about, we’re told to go take a cab down to the center of the earth. We don’t do that, and instead blow some shit up to visit our friends in person again. 

(Quarantine mood, really.)

And, again, I can’t get over how much of a non-character Keira is. Seriously, she just stands there and claps like a 3-year-old.

And we also come to my own personal pet peeve: the scene where Ashelin strips Veger of his title.

I can’t with this shit.

The biggest issue I have with this game, from a story standpoint, is how quickly the inciting incident is resolved. Like, Jak being banished is the whole reason we have a Jak 3. The city turned against him; his anti-hero choices in Jak 2 led to him being blamed for the war in Jak 3. It made sense.

But Ashelin decides, 75% through the game, to just be like, “Naw, Veger, fuck you. Get out of my face, buh bye.”

It just pisses me off, because if Ashelin had that power, why didn’t she use it before Jak was banished??

And why is Jak okay with this? Why is Moody McAngerface not even a little annoyed that she didn’t care enough to do this when he was dying of heatstroke in the desert?

Uuuuuuggggghhhhh guys I don’t understand.

So we see Vin again, blow some more stuff up, fight Erol, and get some tentacle wings. Seem acts all nice to us and gives us a present we didn’t know we needed. More Dadmas ensues, we see the Dark Maker ship for some reason, blow even more stuff up.

Finally, it’s time to head to the catacombs. We get into some trouble with Dark Makers (even though there’s only, like, three of them), and Damas busts through the goddamn wall in a car.

No idea how he got here, considering the Wasteland appears to be an island, but whatever, it’s a badass scene.

Then, because Jak can’t have anything nice, they get hit and crash the car all over Damas’ legs.

Seriously, dude, I get that you might be dying from blood loss, but why are you coughing, your lungs are fine.

So Damas dies, Jak is his long-lost son, it’s very sad, and Veger you piece of shit.

I will forever be salty that Veger, who was an overall excellent villain, was sidelined for Erol of all people. Admittedly, Jak 2 did the same thing with Praxis, but Kor was a much better Big Bad than Erol.

Regardless, we then get the Worst Plot Twist Ever, when we find out the Precursors are ottsels.

k.

Moving on from that tragedy, we then get to fight Erol. The fight sucks, it’s boring and I hate driving the stupid Wasteland buggies.

And then the end comes, and my blood pressure skyrockets. Somewhere, my PCP senses a disturbance.

The Precursors being ottsels is stupid, but Jak telling them to call him “Mar” is even stupider. First of all, Jak does not seem like the kind of person to get sentimental over his birth name. It’s weird, and I don’t like it.

Second of all, the ottsel leader calls him Mar once, directly after that. And then never again. 

Seriously, 90 seconds after Jak says he wants to be known as Mar, this happens:

I’m sorry, what’s that?

Why would you add that line in about Jak wanting to be called by his birth name, and then ignore it a minute and half later??!!

It just infuriates me. There’s a lot of stuff in Jak 3 that does this: it’s touched on once, then it’s gone forever.

And let’s talk about Daxter’s wish. I actually find this particular decision - where Daxter chooses to wish for pants instead of being human again - totally believable. 

Despite how much Daxter is regarded as the comic relief idiot of the duo, he’s actually shown to be pretty sharp. He’s definitely observant. And at this point, remember that he’s already seen the Precursors at work: he saw them turn Veger into an ottsel.

So Daxter probably realized that these guys were on some monkey paw, be-careful-what-you-wish-for bullshit and decided to wish for the most innocuous thing he could. Who knows what would happen if he actually asked to become human again? Might come out lookin’ like Samos.

And he’s right, by the way! Look at what those assholes did to my baby Tess. They could’ve just got her a size 6 pair of Levi’s and been like, “Here, boom, pants.” 

But nooo, they turned her into an ottsel, too, because why not why the fuck not nothing matters ahhhhHHHHHHHHH

...

...

Anyway, like I said, Jak 3 is my favorite in the series. It had such potential. It’s like a puzzle that’s missing pieces. I like it more for what it could have been, rather than the absolute mess it actually is.

[arshipweek]

AR Ship Week - Popular Ships

Banner credit

This is the second weekly post in the lead up to Alex Rider Ship Week. Only 3 weeks to go!

This week we’re going to look at the most popular ships in Alex Rider fandom (be warned: there are book spoilers upcoming).

[Graph depicting the top five Alex Rider Ships and the number of fics tagged with each pairing. Yassen Gregorovich/Alex Rider has 241, Tom Harris/Alex Rider has 26, Yassen Gregorovich/John Rider has 16, Helen Rider/John Rider has 15, and Alex Rider/Wolf has 14]

Looking at the stats on AO3, it's obvious that one pairing dominates the shipping fandom, with more than nine times the amount of fics than the second most popular ship.

So how has AR fandom ended up like this? 

Alex's world is full of adult villains that die quickly and supposed "allies" that often treat Alex worse than the villains. There isn't much scope for shipping Alex with a character of the same age either. A love interest, Sabina Pleasure, was introduced in book three but the uninspiring writing and Alex's denseness to her signals did not give much for fandom to be interested in. And in contrast to the TV show it wasn't until book five that one of Alex's school friends even showed up.

In this environment it's not surprising that the fandom latched on to a mysterious character with a complicated relationship with Alex...

Yassen/Alex

[Yassen and Alex from the 2006 movie Stormbreaker]

Yassen has only appeared in 3 out of 13 Alex Rider books but he's made a big impact, which the TV show and movie have capitalised on by putting him in a much bigger focus.

He's an assassin with a mysterious past, and an odd reluctance to kill Alex even when he's in the way. Their journeys parallel each other--both having their happy childhood destroyed at age 14 and being forced into a dangerous adult world, only on opposite sides. There's lots of juicy conflict to explore and many interactions between them to take in a shippy light, including the famous "love confession" from the 4th book ‘Eagle Strike’. There are also some big barriers in their way but the majority of fics get around the main one by setting the story in the future when Alex is all grown up.

Perhaps the most surprising shipper of this pairing is the director of the Alex Rider movie Stormbreaker, who decided to add smoke machines and romantic violins to their rooftop farewell. Enjoy the video of this!

Tom/Alex

[Tom and Alex from the 2020 Alex Rider TV series]

This ship has had a big revival in interest recently, with roughly half of their fics on AO3 being written since the TV show aired. The show overhauled Tom's character and made him a much bigger part in Alex's life from the very beginning. 

Unlike many other ships with Alex, Tom is someone who’s been there before Alex joined MI6. A link to Alex’s life from before where he can be a normal teenager, and not a super spy. They’re easy to ship together, with lots of hugs, banter, sleepovers (just where is Alex meant to sit on that tiny bed for a samurai movie marathon?) but also some deep caring between them. Tom is one of Alex’s strongest defenders, as shown when he cycles all the way out to deliver a pizza see Alex when he was worried about him. 

Yassen/John

We’ve seen snippets of Yassen and John’s relationship throughout the books, but it wasn’t until Russian Roulette that we saw the full picture. Alone and mistreated for years, John was the first person to show Yassen kindness and consideration, even though he was only there to train Yassen as an assassin. 

On one of their missions John saved Yassen’s life while giving him a scar to forever remember him by. Even after John’s betrayal, Yassen still saves the life of his son. Yassen’s line in Eagle Strike sums up their relationship beautifully:

“He saved my life. In a way, I loved him.”

John/Helen

This is the one canon ship represented in the top five, and like most adult canon pairings in YA books, John/Helen lives a quiet, unassuming existence in fandom (not infrequently joined by a John/Yassen pairing). 

It's not helped by the fact that we learn next to nothing about Helen in canon, and anything we hear about John is heavily biased. But as we learn in Russian Roulette, they're also the couple who met for a few, fleeting hours in Paris against the wishes and knowledge of both MI6 and SCORPIA, despite the risk to John, and Helen's visible pregnancy. They had the odds against them but made the best of what they got, showing signs of a deep and abiding love at the base of the series' plot.

Wolf/Alex

[Wolf and Alex from the 2020 Alex Rider TV series]

Wolf/Alex just sneaks in as the fifth most popular AR ship and comes in two distinct flavours. One is the book/movie version, where Wolf is an emotionally stunted bully, and the TV show version, where Wolf is given a welcome dose of protectiveness.

Just looking at the screenshot of Wolf bundling Alex up in a shock blanket shows a lot of the appeal. The ship is an exercise in contrasts--big gruff cuddly Wolf (doesn’t he look like he gives great hugs?) to small and slender Alex. Despite Alex’s age and lack of experience, he can hold his own and stand up as an equal to a fully trained adult SAS soldier. It’s a pairing where Wolf can both respect, and protect Alex.

***

That’s it for this week! Do you ship any of the popular pairings? Thinking of writing any of them for the upcoming Ship Week? Let us know!

Disclaimer: All AR-specific data was current as of the writing of this post (February 28th, 2021).

[alonely-dreamer]

Dangerous Creatures | Chapter 35: Dangerous Opportunities

Summary: Mackenzie, Elijah and Klaus keep busy in New-Orleans...

Pairing: Elijah x OC

Words: 2856

A/N: Please, note that I am French so there might be some mistakes here and there.

Masterlist

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 | Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 20 | Chapter 21 | Chapter 22 | Chapter 23: Part 1 | Chapter 23: Part 2 | Chapter 23: Part 3 | Chapter 24 | Chapter 25 (Part 1) | Chapter 25 (Part 2) | Chapter 25 (Part 3) | Chapter 26 (Part 1) | Chapter 26 (Part 2 & 3) | Chapter 27 | Chapter 28 | Chapter 29 | Chapter 30 | Chapter 31 | Chapter 32  | Chapter 33 | Chapter 34

I made Marcel everything that he is.

I treated him like a son.

And when my father chased me and my family from New-Orleans a hundred years ago we believed Marcel was killed.

We each mourned him in our own way.

Yet, when I returned, I found not only had he survived… he had thrived.

Instead of seeking us out, instead of sticking together as one, he made a choice, to take everything my family had built and make it his own.

Now he is living in our home.

He is sleeping in our beds.

The letter ‘M’ he stamps everywhere… it’s not for Marcel.

It’s for Mikaelson.

I want it all back.

And if I have to push him out to get it, then that’s exactly what I’ll do.

 ***

 Mackenzie’s giggles filled the room. “Stop it,” she kept repeating, but she didn’t mean it, and he knew that. They had started new games together, some even new to Elijah, as if Mackenzie was his muse inspiring him dirty little games he’d only play with her. It was innocent, at first, but soon, Mackenzie became more comfortable with him, more confident, and the stains of blood on the white bed sheets were so common now the compelled staff knew to change them almost every day. The implications of their activities only made them want each other more. Mackenzie, because she knew the effect her blood had on him, and Elijah, because he would never experience anything like this with anyone else other than her. Sure, he knew he would never love anyone the way he loved Mackenzie, but it wasn’t just about love. And that was something that made Mackenzie feel powerful. That was the reason why, sometimes, she refused to take his blood after they were done. So that she’d keep the marks. So that he knew they were there. His marks on her body. Claiming her. And she loved the way it made him feel when he saw them too.

While Mackenzie and Elijah were enjoying what both Katherine and Rebekah had called their ‘honeymoon period’, Hayley wished for death. Well, maybe not literally. But she did pretty much hate her life, and she didn’t have faith that it would get better in the next eighteen years. She was uncomfortable in every way. Not only was she pregnant with the world’s most hated supernatural creature, but her future baby’s father also was a total psychopath who didn’t see her as anything more than an incubator for his miracle baby. He had forbidden her from leaving the house where he left her to rot every day. Every day, she was left with a couple acting not unlike two hormonal teenagers around the house, in other words, alone, alone with dusty books she had no intention of reading, and a TV remote giving her access to hundreds of channels she wasn’t interested in watching at all. In other words, days passed and stayed the same, aside from the rising heat, and growing belly.

To make matters worse, when Elijah wasn’t busy eating his girlfriend (in every sense of the word), he turned into an over-protective grandpa, building the nursery from scratch, making sure she had vitamin, protein, everything a pregnant woman needs according to What To Expect When You’re Expecting, which she wouldn’t be surprised to find on his nightstand. Not only did it make her uncomfortable, and even more irritable, but it made Mackenzie self-conscious and sad, not matter how hard she was trying to hide it.

At first, Hayley thought it was jealousy. But Mackenzie was better than that. And she had no bad intentions towards Hayley, or feelings, on the contrary. After they had made sure Marcel’s secret weapon, whatever it was, could not detect Mackenzie’s powers, they had unlinked Hayley to Sophie, making the witches regret their whole plan to bring the Originals back in town, giving them enormous doubts about whether they would still go on with the plan to dethrone Marcel or not. Of course, Klaus was a threat to them now, after all they had done. Kidnapping Hayley, using his child to blackmail him… The witches were scared, and now, they had bigger problems than Marcel, and the witch community of New-Orleans was starting to turn against Sophie, who had insisted her sister’s plan would work. But Klaus didn’t attack the witches. No, Klaus was still in a suspiciously good mood. Aside from keeping Hayley locked up in the house, he was pleasant with his brother, he was pleasant with Mackenzie, and he was pleasant with Hayley, to whom his nickname little wolf had stuck. He wasn’t acting like a future father, by any means. He didn’t check on Hayley’s health, never asked how she felt or if she needed anything. He didn’t spend any time in the nursery, helping Elijah, or didn’t even talk baby names with his future baby’s mother, not that anyone had expected that from him. No. Klaus spent all his time with Marcel, and they were seemingly getting along great, greater than great, in fact, as if they were the best of friends who weren’t hiding deadly secrets from each other.

Hayley had started to worry about his behavior. What if he really enjoyed spending time with Marcel? What if he just wanted to get back at the witches? What if he didn’t care? What if… all the bad things Klaus could do, that she could think of, or even scarier, that she couldn’t even imagine. However, her worries were put to rest one day, as Klaus came back home one night with a newly made vampire named Josh.

“Josh here,” he had told them, “will be my eyes and ears. My joker, my…”

“Yeah, yeah, we get it,” Hayley had interrupted him. “He’s your spy.”

Klaus had gotten to Josh before Marcel even had the chance to put him under vervain. The vampire was compelled thoroughly by the Original hybrid and will be the key to taking Marcel down.

Though the existence of Josh was a relief for everyone, neither his brother nor his girlfriend trusted him in any way. Not when he was in such a good mood. He was plotting something, and they had a feeling it was nothing good, for anyone.

 ***

 Mackenzie caressed Elijah’s hair, her thoughts wandering back to earlier that day, when he had taken her to one of his favorite places in New-Orleans, a once peaceful beautiful park that was now a crowded and loud playground. She sighed, moving slightly but enough for Elijah to let a drop of blood slide down on Mackenzie’s neck. It drew a red line on her slightly tanned skin and the drop came to rest down her cleavage. She ignored it, she knew he’d take care of it later. Though the maids would have to change the sheets again in the morning.

She had almost forgotten his mouth buried in her neck, his free hand moving up and down her arm, as they were lying naked in their bed, resting from their long day of exploring the city Elijah had missed so much for the past century. He drank from her, her blood, the most delicious in the entire world, like she was the Fountain of Youth herself and he was the only one who got to drink from her, the only one who had that privilege, because he was the one who had discovered her. He had been there first, explored and found her and now she was his and only his and that thought would never cease to amaze him, to make him feel like the luckiest man in the world. But right now, Mackenzie felt everything but lucky, as she was haunted by a picture that would not leave her mind. A picture of his face in that park. And the look that said it all, even though he would never say it aloud, perhaps because he didn’t know it himself. A look she knew well now as it kept coming back, every time he looked at Hayley, every time he talked about the baby, about what Klaus should be doing but wasn’t, about everything he was doing in his brother’s place. It saddened him, perhaps unknowingly, and it saddened her as she knew she could never give that to him. In truth, no one could give that to him. But as powerful as she was, she felt she should be able to do anything, and everything she could do, but that.

He was content, lying in her arms, her hand in his hair, her blood in his throat, just enjoying the moment, enjoying her. But that was not the only reason why the question took him by surprise.

“Do you want kids?”

He froze, puzzled by the question. It surprised him, not only because it seemingly came out of nowhere, but mostly because he had buried that question and that answer a long time ago deep inside of him. So deep, in fact, that it was a hidden part of him, like an obvious take away of his very existence, of every single one of his actions. So deep, that the answer was practically engraved on his bones, carved onto his heart, like an invisible dormant pain that he would never let himself feel or remember. An immortal curse that could not be enchanted away and that will torment him for the rest of his eternity. Why that question? Why here, why now?

He slowly and gently retracted his teeth from her vein, licked the blood that escaped from the wound, though he knew he wouldn’t be able to stop it from bleeding as he moved away and looked up at her. She had asked the question so quietly, like a whisper, like a spell echoing in his head, losing itself in time, making his bones quiver like an earthquake would make a house shake. That question had been asked and answered centuries ago. That choice had been made for him centuries ago. That choice had been taken away from him centuries ago.

She was looking away but turned towards him as he sat up and pulled the duvet to cover them. Not because they were cold, but because the time for their adult activities was obviously over. Now, they had to have another kind of adult conversation.

“I can’t have children, you know that.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

“Mackenzie…”

“Do you? Want children of your own?”

“It doesn’t matter if I do. I can’t.”

“I know you do,” she said quietly, once again looking away, staring at that spot that didn’t exist.

“Where is this coming from?”

She shrugged. “Same place your regret is coming from…”

“I have no regret,” he replied, confused.

“You regret not being able to have children.”

“That is hardly anyone’s fault but my parents, and they are dead. There is no one to blame, though blame wouldn’t lead us anywhere.”

Her hand found his arm and her fingers caressed his skin as if touching him would fix everything.

“Why do you ask?”

“I don’t know… I just thought… it’s unfair Klaus gets to have a child and you don’t. He clearly has no interest in it. But you do.”

“My interest in Hayley’s pregnancy doesn’t go beyond anything an uncle wouldn’t do. Though, I am no ordinary uncle.”

“This is no ordinary family.”

“And that is why your question has no answer, my love.”

She looked back at him. He rarely used such words in front of other people, but when they were alone, when they were being intimate, he called her all sorts of sweet words. ‘My love’ being the sweetest. ‘My love’ was the answer. It meant ‘don’t ask’, ‘it’s okay’, ‘I get it’, ‘I love you too’.

 ***

 Klaus’ face tired of his never-ending smiling. However, he was motivated. Nothing would stop him from reaching his goal. Nothing ever could. And certainly not a stupid smile.

He couldn’t tell which was louder, the screams or the music, however, he had stopped caring. He was tired and annoyed, and he wanted to leave this wretched court of amateurs as soon as possible. Marcel called himself a King and had forged himself a throne, but he was just some tyrant wannabe, a little boy in a paper crown running around with his friends, bullying the weakest kids on the playground. Though he would never reproach Marcel from banishing the werewolves from the Quarter or stopping the witches from doing magic, everything that had allowed him to get to that point he had stolen from him, and that fact was like wood to a fireplace, it kept his immortal rage burning.

Perch on the balcony above the party, Klaus and Marcel stood like Kings in a court of horrors, watching their nobles feast on the buffet. Though Klaus was too old to enjoy such an obvious and basic vampire party, he had to give Marcel a nod of approval every once in a while, to keep things civil. He was bored out of his mind and had run out of things to talk about with his ‘friend’. Fortunately, Marcel had a surprise for his sire.

“I’m hosting a party.”

“Yes, you are,” the hybrid nodded, making the vampire laugh.

“No. I mean, I’m planning a party, in two days. It’s a charity dinner for some… I don’t know, charitable organization for the city.”

“I didn’t take you for the charitable type,” Klaus teased.

“Well, I got a reputation to uphold,” he replied with an amused smile. “It’s mostly an excuse to see Camille again, though.”

“Who? Ah, the bartender.”

“Yeah, the bartender,” he chuckled. “It’s a fancy dinner, just your brother’s type of things.”

“You’re inviting Elijah?” Klaus raised an eyebrow, surprised Marcel would want to be anywhere near his brother.

“Right, and his witch girlfriend, you know, what’s her name…”

“Mackenzie.”

“That’s right. She’s a funny little thing,” he said as he smiled at his sire accusatorily. “She’s not afraid of you.”

“Ah, she’s been through a lot.”

“Do you mean you?”

They laughed.

“I admit, I may have been less than cordial to her… more than once.”

“It’s a miracle Elijah lets you go anywhere near her.”

Klaus knew what Marcel was doing, where this was going. He had been working at it slowly, but not as subtly, for a while now. Marcel wanted Elijah gone, out of his city, no matter how, no matter what it took. He figured Klaus was his best shot, and usually he would have been correct, but not now, not anymore. If anything happened to Elijah, Mackenzie would destroy the whole city, hell, the entire state. No, Klaus had one goal, and he wasn’t going to let Marcel distract him from it.

“It’s different with her. If I kill her, he’ll stop at nothing to take me down, and I’ve tired of our little wars. The last one lasted a century and almost killed me.”

“Ah, let him have his fun. She’s mortal, they’re fleeting little things.”

Klaus chuckled, though not because he found the obvious threat funny, but the mere thought of Marcel going after Mackenzie made him want to laugh. He’d pay to see it, if only it wouldn’t result in Marcel’s certain death.

“Not this one. This one is here to stay.”

Marcel frowned and looked at the hybrid with curiosity. “You actually mean that.”

“She’s a Mikaelson, Marcel,” he nodded as he put his hand on the King’s shoulder. “You know what happens when you go after a Mikaelson.”

Marcel laughed. “Hey, I’m just talking, no harm meant, no harm meant.”

“She’d kill you before you even had a chance to see it coming.”

“See, that’s my problem,” Marcel grimaced. “Witches aren’t allowed to do magic here, and I don’t think she’s understood that.”

“What? Your secret weapon’s been shining bright recently?”

Marcel laughed as he shook his head. “No, nothing like that. It’s the attitude, Klaus. Elijah… he doesn’t respect my authority here. And neither does she.”

“Then why invite them, then? They’re happy enough on their own. Trust me, they’re unbearable to be around right now. They’re so… in love,” he said, disgust visible all over his face, making Marcel laugh whole-heartedly.

“You were never one for sentiment.”

“Right then,” Klaus sighed. “I’ll let them know.”

“I appreciate that, brother.”

Marcel tapped him twice on the shoulder before he moved towards the middle of the balcony, where he’d be best seen from downstairs, to make his usual speech. The words never changed. “Have fun”, “don’t kill too many of them”, and last but not least:

“And no matter what you do, no matter how good she smells or how pretty she looks, leave the barefoot blonde alone!”

That last part they all said together like a chant, like it was a joke. But when Marcel explained the meaning to Klaus the first night, he learnt he wasn’t joking in the least. He had puzzled out all the tiny bits of information Marcel could give him, and the hybrid knew it was no joke indeed.