#I love talking about this stuff since it's so important and elaborate in canon

[demcnsinmymind]

psychology + mental health : deep dive!

tagged by : @greatwrath tagging : @badassxbirdy @kxllerblond @walriding @mslangermann and anyone else who wants to!

general mental health related trigger warnings apply.  feel free to include more or exclude those facts / test results that take too much time or don’t apply, you can check out this list for more personality-related quizzes to include!

quick facts.

canon details a hugely traumatic event in his life which is the main root of the majority of mental health related issues he has now. prior to canon, he didn't really have any mental health issues whatsoever. Post canon, it's an entirely different story obv., as the sole survivor of said traumatic event.

diagnoses. ptsd, generalized anxiety disorder, panic attacks, major depression & stockholm syndrome

triggers. hospitals, doctors, sharp objects, darkness

positive coping skills. very good and quick at adapting, generally very optimistic and hardworking, tries his best to keep in shape both physically and mentally, always keeps himself busy, tries to be kind and a good person

negative coping skills. very avoidant and dismissive, bottles everything up, doesn't accept help / doesn't want to acknowledge that he needs help, stockholm syndrome and unhealthy attachment to a certain demonic outer god, constant flipflopping between survivor's guilt/shame and illusions of grandeur and self importance, lies and fakes his way through his problems

attachment style. :

Avoidant / Dismissive - The avoidant attachment style is characterized by disconnecting from negative emotions and minimizing the importance of relationships. Avoidant attachers also tend to hold themselves in high regard while maintaining a distrust of others’ intentions. For these reasons, people with this attachment style often avoid emotional closeness and intimacy in romantic relationships.

This information isn’t to suggest that people with avoidant attachment don’t seek out relationships, or that they don’t enjoy spending time with their partners – instead, they may become uncomfortable when they perceive that their partners are crossing boundaries or trying to get “too close.”

love language. :

tie between acts of service and words of affirmation

myers-briggs / mbti. :

ENTJ. The Commander

Commanders are natural-born leaders. People with this personality type embody the gifts of charisma and confidence, and project authority in a way that draws crowds together behind a common goal. However, Commanders are also characterized by an often ruthless level of rationality, using their drive, determination and sharp minds to achieve whatever end they’ve set for themselves.

are their diagnoses formal (via a doctor or therapist) or informal (self-diagnosis, a hunch, unrealized)?

very much formal and in a way informal, too. he was wrongly 'diagnosed' at first - by the place/'doctor' who held him captive, and given the place's nature and everything it put him through, those 'diagnosed' mental health issues were in return actually triggered and realized in him because of it. after he got out of Collingwood and landed back in his correct timeline/ Danvers' psychiatric facility, he was diagnosed by proper mental health professionals and actually declared a case with severe issues that will have to spend the rest of his life institutionalized, but of course, he ran away.

have they ever been treated / medicated?

yes, and it's exactly that treatment and forced medication that gave him all of those mental health issues in the first place. In canon, Lance was lobotomized and went through your regular 1940s psychiatric treatment plan, which hasn't exactly been much of a rosy ride. In the 2010s he was also medicated to try and help with several after effects of the lobotomy, but of course, he ran away form that, too.

have they ever been hospitalized or treated on an inpatient basis?

I mean....see canon for that lmao

do they have a family history of mental illness?

No. Not at all. This guy and his family were cookie cutter vanilla and happy.

how old were they when they first started experiencing / realizing symptoms?

35.

how was mental health handled / discussed in the family / community?

It wasn't ever really discussed much, given how healthy and happy his family was. In the filmmaking business burnout was common but not really talked about, and though everything was a bit hush hush, it wasn't exactly frowned upon or a bad thing. Truth be told, mental health was just a none issue in his life before canon. Had there ever been a scenario though, then his family would've been supportive hand trying to be helpful.

what are their thoughts on their mental health / their diagnosis?

That is a very complicated thing to talk about actually. Lance is perfectly aware of the fact that he's not doing good. In a way he knows that Friedkin and his cult have achieved what he'd been so desperate to deny. He was driven crazy by what happened in canon and there was no way for him not to go insane given the circumstances. But he's not one to admit defeat so easily. And he fought very very very hard to get out of the situation and he did get out of it. It's a victory of sorts but what came out of it with him jeopardizes that big time, so it's a very harsh topic for him to think about. Especially since all his trauma stems from a mental hospital and health 'professionals', and thus, it's almost impossible for him to go to some of them to get the help he needs. So for the most part, he tries his best to just ignore the fact that he has all those severe problems, tries not to think about them at all basically. Hoping that this way, they'll just go away. But of course, they don't. On the rare occasion where he does think about it...honestly, it leaves him just utterly devastated. His life was basically destroyed by this cult. He mourns that deeply. The fact that he was healthy and at the very top of his own game.

in what ways has their diagnosis shaped their life or experiences?

It pretty much dominates his life now. He needs a literal demonic outer god in his brain just to function normally. Without it in his mind, he would need to be institutionalized for life. His sleeping and eating habits are just a complete mess, he's always on edge and doesn't trust anyone, he won't ever be able to have a normal life ever again if we're honest. On the bright side, he's learned to appreciate just being alive and very basic things more. It's also made him kinder and a much better person, honestly.

symptoms.

bold all that are present, italicize those that are resolved, or in the past.

depression.anxiety. panic attacks. disassociation. derealization.  depersonalization. suicidal ideation.   self harm.  homicidal ideation.  psychosis. auditory hallucinations.    visual hallucinations. delusions.    mania.    hypomania.    racing thoughts.    hyperactivity.    attention difficulty.flashbacks.    nightmares.  hyperarousal.    hypoarousal.    hypersexuality.    hyposexuality.    psychopathy. risky behavior.catatonia.    somatic / bodily concerns.    mutism.    phobia.    agoraphobia.    hoarding.    obsessions.    compulsions.    body dysmorphia.    hair picking.    skin picking.     amnesia.    illness anxiety / hypochondria.    sensory loss.    speech difficulty.    comprehension difficulty.    communication difficulty.    tics.    defiant behavior.    irritable mood.    vindictiveness.     aggression.    pyromania.    kleptomania.    paranoia.    attention seeking.    narcissism.    avoidance.    dependency.    pica.    rumination.    food restriction.    food binging.    purging.    soiling the bed.    insomnia.    fatigue.    sexual dysfunction.    delirium.    developmental delays.

explorations / elaborations on any of the above symptoms:

The one flashback and nightmare he continues to have is of being back down in that basement on Friedkin's operating table, seconds before the lobotomy. The only difference being that unlike in reality where the hammer struck down just once, in his dream, they keep hammering and kill him, and that he's awake and aware of it all and doesn't pass out from shock. He goes through that one over and over again and not even Azathoth can stop that from happening almost every night.

Other than that, he has lots of trouble with sleeping and eating, because Collingwood obv kept him awake and on the brink of starvation for so long. The hallucinations are also a big thing, though they've been way more severe inside the building and in the 40s and have calmed down significantly ever since he got back to his own time. But whenever they happen he sees and hears his dead crew, asking him over and over again why he locked the door, telling him that they want to go home, and blaming him for their deaths.

If he sees a doctor or a hospital and if anyone as much as just mentions getting him anywhere close to either of those he -will- freak out and have a fullblown panic attack.

[hoperays-song]

Sing 1 Commentary and Review Pt. 1

Like I said yesterday, I will be giving commentary through out the run of the movie here! Is this an elaborate plan to distract me from my fic being with my beta reader? Yes! Am I using it for content? Also yes! I will try to remember to include timestamps and screenshots. But probably will just end up doing screenshots most of the time, sorry. Welcome to the madness!

(There will be multiple parts because these take a while and also there's a limit of thirty photos per post so yeah. I got 9 minutes in? I talk a lot during movies ok? It's an AuDHD thing.)

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

I feel like now is as good of a time as any to mention that I despise minions (aka was forced to watch Despicable Me in art class way too much as a child). So yes, we're not even past the opening credits and I'm already complaining, welcome to watching a movie with me everyone.

Ok just noticed this for the first time, but Old Moon Theatre had lyres (a symbol of Apollo, the Greek god of music) and grape vines (a symbol of Dionysus, the Greek god of theatre) on it, which is just super cool!

I love the fact that Buster canonically talks to himself and narrates his own life. Like same bestie. Love this for you. You're in your delusion era rn but go for it mate.

Lesbians!!

(No I will not be taking criticism here. That pose is one of the gayest things I have ever seen and I just looked in a mirror.)

HE HAS APPEARED!!!!!

Ok three things. One, these cops appeared out of literally no where. Like we just did a circle around the boy and we did not see them. Can they teleport or something???

Also, two, what the hell is in that box? I'm typically not one to judge what random stuff you leave in an alley (yes, yes I am, but to be fair this is the cleanest alley I've ever seen), but is that just a box of cut up springs??

And for number three, you thought you heard someone singing??? You thought you heard someone singing and only spare one glance down the alley behind the bank during a spree of bank robberies??? Ok no, these cops are terrible. The bank being robbed is absolutely their fault, what the hell?!

Ooooo, eight ball keychain!!!

I mean... Johnny did warn them, ten seconds too late, but he did warn them. He's still absolutely grounded but you know, he tried. Also, I just realized they took the license plate off the truck for the robbery. Insanely smart. The best boys. I love them.

✨ 🎶He's a runner, he's a track star! 🎶✨

Also, apparently Johnny can catch up with a accelerating truck... ok then.

Glad to see this skill that I'm absolutely sure will be used again in the multiple other applicable scenarios. What was that? It never comes up again? Yeah, that seems about right.

Ok, how the hell have the not found these guys yet??? Like the rest of the gang are in disguises, horrible ones but still disguises, but Johnny wears the exact same clothes throughout the movie and is not hiding his face in the slightest. You're telling me no one, not a single person, recognized him???

Also, just how many vintage trucks are in this town? Like just look up the truck model and go down the list of all the one's owned in Calatonia. Boom, done. The police in this place suck at their jobs.

ROSITA!!!!

Ok, so the piglets are definitely around first grade judging by the alphabet and number chart on the wall. Also, a learning chart on the wall is so cute and sweet, I love it!

(Theory) So... we can all agree it's summer right? Because not only are Johnny and Meena home (ok Meena's home, Johnny's being a felon, but that's not important) at lunch time but so are the piglets. They for sure aren't in school yet. And yeah, I know they leave with backpacks later on but that could just be daycare (it's likely daycare). So, since a lot of daycares aren't open on weekends (or at least ones near me), Sing 1 starts in the summer on a weekend! That's cool!

Awwww Rosita. I'm so sorry honey. I love you, we all love you, and I wish I could say you have a normal, relaxing life after this movie but... I'm sorry. Not even close to one.

Ok wow, forgot how vertigo inducing this movie was. Wow.

Ash has arrived!!!!

Also, super interesting how Ash's guitar looks a lot more worn that Lance's. It has scratches and faded stickers while Lance's looks shiny and new here.

And Lance... ewww.

Fair man, fair.

And before people get on to my man Harry for kicking them out without pay by the looks of it, most restaurant gigs I know of are not paid, the musicians get tips and exposure, and I'm pretty sure there is not one single person in that restaurant soo... yeah. They weren't getting paid either way.

One of the best expressions all movie.

I'm gonna punt him. I don't care that he's been on screen for 10 seconds, I'm gonna punt him.

(Moments where Lance is puntable counter: 4)

And now we have everyone!!! Meena, welcome aboard!

Also that cake looks amazing. ...Hold up, I'm getting lunch.

Ok, I'm back! Let's dive back in to my lovely ramblings that are hopefully semi entertaining.

Oh boy, let's talk about the happy birthday scene. For one, Meena is a kid. Stop being mean to a kid.

For another, the rest of her family just stops singing??? Like excuse me, that's not how the happy birthday song works. I don't care if one of the singers is a grammy winner, you don't stop singing just to listen to them. It is a group effort. Either everyone sings or no one does. It's the birthday song rules people. They really put her on the spot here and I do not appreciate it, the poor baby.

So, Meena has tried out for choirs and bands before but it never worked out. That makes me think her social anxiety is not new and I am very much disappointed with her grandfather's perspective on it.

Oh great. He's here.

(Mike puntable moments counter: 1)

Their money must be different than ours since that is the design of a penny.

Also: (Mike puntable moments counter: 2)

OK. This is a straight up mugging. Why is no one doing anything?! Like excuse me?!?!?

Oh and now he gave the guy an asthma attack. Sod off Mike.

Why is everyone siding with the mouse man?????? He sucks??? Hello????

(Mike puntable moments counter: 5)

Ok, ignore the monkey man for a minute. The restaurant is legit named 'The Squids'. So do they own it? Do they work there? Was the founder a squid? What's the situation because I'm guessing the don't eat them since they are sentient.

For such a fancy restaurant, they have terrible taste in lighting decor. I'm pretty sure those are the same ones at my doctor's office.

Oh Eddie, my favourite trust fund baby of the series. It's so good to see you.

Ok, let's talk about the implications of what Eddie is saying here. He says that his dad has been paying for the shows. And Buster's theatre has been struggling for way more than one or two shows.

And I don't know about you guys but I personally wouldn't pay for my adult kid's friend's failing theatre more than once if it turned out to be a bust. It's a waste of money and have you seen today's economy. Now if that was my kid's partner? Different story. I would probably be more willing to pay for a few more for both of their sakes.

What am I saying here? Noodlemoon. They're dating. End of story. ----------------------------

I'll be right back with part 2!

(And 30 more screenshot taking up memory on my dying laptop.)

[homeofthemany]

jack versus kai

& versus his past!

part 1, part 2, part 3

first part of my breakdown of 1x19, "kickin' it in china", that was supposed to be in my last post. i'd recommend reading it for context because i drift out of canon territory in some heavier ways that might not make sense here if you haven't already looked at it. (:

up until this point in the series, jack has been a pretty cool, confident, & unshakable kid, but we also haven't learned anything about him. we know he was trained by his grandfather [who's a karate master], but that's about it. he's incredibly skilled in martial arts & clearly very talented, but he's a very normal & down to earth guy. then we meet kai, and things sort of start to fall apart.

TW for light discussion of ptsd & trauma. super light, super nonspecific.

where is jack, mentally? who is kai?

jack gets to go to china to fight in a tournament that he's, in his words, been dreaming of ever since he started training. woohoo! this is good! i'm sure he feels very accomplished & reassured of his skill level after being accepted to compete in the championship! maybe he can actually get over what happened with that random kid named kai he mentioned! jack is seeing a future for himself in martial arts again and is training in a new, healthy environment with people he likes. what's more important to him is that they seem to like him back!

the first thing we learn about kai is that he's the only opponent jack has lost to, and it was so devastating to him [likely physically and emotionally] that he gives up on karate until he moves to seaford. he seems uncomfortable talking about the subject and clearly doesn't want to elaborate, which i think can show "can show", since this is a kids show & they can't go too into detail that he's still somewhat insecure about his skill even though he rationally knows that he's the best in their dojo.

while we're making assumptions based off of writing choices, i think it's interesting that he confides in rudy & kim, intentionally keeping this from the other three; jack goes out of his way to talk to them outside. i like to think that he knows that they look up to him so he didn't want to talk about it in front of them, but logically this is just the writers keeping the a-plot separate from the b-plot lol. everybody, especially jerry, should've been involved, but i get that it's a kids show & they need to balance out the heavy stuff with the silly stuff.

the next thing we learn about this mysterious kai opponent comes from the man himself! this match jack is talking about apparently happened two years ago ["i thought i beat the karate out of you two years ago."], so not at all close to the start of the series. this is something that deeply affected jack, enough to have made him give up on something that really matters to him. if we assume that kickin' it follows the standard full season = full year formula, then kai would've beaten jack probably about a year before the start of the show, maybe a little over that, since 1x19 would be happening by the end of that season year.

i could make a whole separate post about jack's [c-]ptsd via his grandfather [long-term] & the fight with kai [one main standalone traumatic event], but the gist is that i cannot see a reality where that fight doesn't absolutely wreck him in more ways than one. jack was beaten so badly that he dropped karate, something he was probably training in since he could walk, for an entire year. that poor kid absolutely develops ptsd.

he also had no intentions of returning to it until he met jerry, milton, eddie, & rudy. even still, he almost chooses to walk out on them until he realizes that they're just as passionate about karate as he probably was as a younger kid. jack insists that he's not a karate guy and is a self-proclaimed skater boy, but it's clear that he still loves it and loves the culture [& action movies teehee] surrounding it.

next part (:

[utilitycaster]

Regarding your tags: do you mind elaborating on the Rumblecusp thing? I caught up to streams during the Aeor arc and didn't really see fandom stuff earlier, so I'm a bit curious what you meant by that? Thanks in advance!

(in reference to this post)

Not at all! Basically, during the Rumblecusp arc, there was a lot of back and forth of who was Ackshually Supportive of Jester And Her Choices, and, with the admission that I myself am not a neutral person in these discussions, they all conveniently aligned with the decisions of the character they most shipped with Jester:

Caleb generally let her do whatever and stayed out of it, which was interpreted by people who shipped him and Jester as him supporting her (because he lets her do whatever), but leaves out the context of Caleb's whole canonical deal of feeling he cannot judge other people or tell them what to do in their own personal matters because he feels he has no moral position to do so; ie, this is not explicit support of Jester but rather how Caleb interacts with basically anything in which he is not directly involved. Do note also: Caleb tries but fails to have Cat's Claw grab Jester when she holds on to Artagan; there is, clearly, a point where he will oppose her choices.

Beau was pretty against Artagan the entire time. Honestly I think Beau punching him was very funny and she did, to her credit, ask permission first, but anyway, this was interpreted as Beau protecting Jester from The Traveler's malice. And, to be clear, he did bring them to Memory Loss Island on purpose, and while he promised Jester he'd have helped her, it's fair to have concerns about that. But Beau - understandably, since she frankly doesn't have good relationships that date back to early childhood the way Jester does - never quite seems to grasp how important Artagan is to her, and that you can be frustrated with him (hell, Jester is) and worried about Jester while still acknowledging that cutting off Artagan entirely will never be on the table. (Given Beau's mechanics, she is unable really to interfere with Jester being pulled up into the sky so I can't judge her on that).

Fjord ends up in the middle. Jester specifically seeks out his opinion, and he essentially says "look, we will support you as long as you're not being forced to change yourself to suit Artagan." He and Beau also agree to intervene with the Traveler as needed. When Jester is being taken, he goes up there with her and tells her to please let go and that the party will catch her. Eventually, Artagan takes the choice away and kicks Jester (and Fjord) off.

Now for what it's worth, I do think talking through these three approaches is interesting! All three characters are, canonically, people who care about Jester and harbor romantic feelings, and all three are approaching this in real and interesting ways consistent with their characterization. The reason why the discussion was eyerollingly stupid to me is not that it existed; it was that first, it really only centered around those three and either ignored or excused non-romantic faves (Caduceus is very suspicious of Artagan and the judgiest man to ever exist (affectionate), but people arguing in favor of Caleb's laissez-faire attitude who liked Caduceus often gave Cad's judgment a pass while calling Fjord and Beau awful. They also largely ignored Yasha and Veth, who both had imo approaches not dissimilar to Fjord's, though more subtly borne out in that they did not explicitly talk to her about it.)

Second, and more obviously, it was all "what does Jester want" until she decided she wanted to kiss someone they didn't want her to, and then suddenly she's a dumb bitch and her choices are bad, so, you know, was it ever about respecting her choices, or was it a constantly shifting goalpost of what supports the ship. (sidebar: if the goalpost is constantly shifting for your ship? does not bode well for the ship, typically.)

Anyway the two points I'm getting at here are:

I think you can love someone unconditionally in that you care about them as a person regardless of what they do, but that doesn't mean you can't judge them or encourage them to make different choices. It's like a twist on the old saying: if your friend jumped off a bridge, would you follow them? Except it's "if your friend was going to jump off a bridge, and it was their choice, would you stop them?" or "If your friend were going to push a ton of innocent people off a bridge, would you stop them?" There is a difference between "I want you to have agency in your life and be happy" and "I'd rather let you destroy yourself or others than push back even a little on your choices". There's something selfish, in being so scared to lose someone before the fact that you risk losing them far more permanently; and something deeper and more selfless in saying "I love you so much that I'd rather you hate me and live, than that you die or commit atrocities." Like, you should be there for them, but you don't need to validate things you believe are harmful just to support them.

The core principle of literary analysis is basically "any interpretation is valid provided it is evidenced by the text." You can watch through the lenses of shipping goggles and enjoy yourself; but often those are not supported by the text. And that's fine! I know I tend to sound condescending towards this and I will admit it's because I see absolutely no appeal in it, but if you want blorbo 1 and blorbo 2 to kiss and want to watch a show that seems to be driving to that end point regardless of canon, then that is your right and I am not going to stop you. However, no one else is under any obligation to find validity, let alone agree with that interpretation. Indeed, just as it's valid for you to watch with shipping goggles, it's valid for other people to vocally disagree (provided they're not harassing you and are doing so in a place you can choose to block out), particularly if it outright conflicts with canon or is hypocritical in the context of your other interpretations.

[daenystheedreamer]

honestly hadn't thought of the first men/native americans parallels before but you're right they're definitely there! personally my first impression was first men = celts, andals = saxons, ironborn = danes but that's v much from a british perspective.

i mean theres obvs a lot of inspiration from gaelic cultures for the first men (pre-andal reach is wales ill die on this hill) and i guess i would argue that the andal invasions are more similar to saxon settlement than european colonisation? as in, not nearly as genocidal, not coming in as a unified force or trying to create a unified state, those left in the andal/saxon controlled portion end up assimilating to the invaders' culture. oh and also im a bit obsessed with the whole mystery around the vanishing of brittonic languages in saxon britain and mayyy have elaborate headcanons on the andal replacing of the first men languages based on that.

oh and the whole ironborn/danes thing. well the viking parallels are obvious. and then the danelaw was my first thought when i read about ironborn controlled riverlands haha.

ah sorry just to be clear im not trying to say you're wrong!! i just find pre-targ westeros v fun and would love to hear more about your headcanons cause it sounds like they'd be p different to mine! i also don't know that much about different native american cultures - do u have thoughts on the inspirations for different first men regions? i mean obvs the north and wildlings you'd be looking at inuit cultures but do you have thoughts on the others? i also thought an interesting parallel to the north would be the saami altho im also pretty uneducated on them haha.

anyway i just really love worldbuilding fantasy cultures because of how it prompts me to find out more about various real world cultures - and it makes sense to take inspiration from multiple real world cultures. i mean one of the reasons i love tolkien's dwarves so much is they prompt the question 'what exactly would a fusion of old norse and jewish cultures + a few original bits such as a love of geology and craftsmanship even begin to look like'. (although i do also know it's important to remember that real world cultures are real and to be respectful of them, especially when they're not my own and especially when it's an oppressed culture)

anyway sorry for the essay in your inbox feel free to ignore i just love rambling on about this stuff! also in terms of your original point - yeah the people who whine about 'bla bla but they're meant to be white' are so dull. i mean 1) it's all made up anyway who cares 2) 'white' is either a post-colonial construction within a specific political, historical, and cultural context or just a description of skin colour. it means basically nothing from an in-universe fantasy perspective (obviously the choice of which characters are white and how they're written is important from an out-universe perspective grrm would it kill you to be normal about non-northwestern european cultures). also the valyrians aren't white they do not have pale skin just look at where valyria is located on a map. sometimes the author is wrong.

no worries i LOVE this ask i lovelovelove just talking and rambling about things im interested in and care about and i LOVELOVELOVE when people do it back!! 

yeah personally i figured the northern first men were based on the picts since the wall is clearly inspired by hadrian's wall and the celtic influence is clear too. in the show the spiral motif they introduced reminded me of the celtic triskelion (though its more proto-indo-european than celtic) which tickled my brain!! YES ON THE REACH WALES THING because garth greenhand and their national founding myth is SOOO king arthur they have such a culture of chivalry plus there’s a bunch of arthurian-inspired names sprinkled throughout the reach (off the top of my head there’s agramore(agravain), gawen (gawain) and perceon(percival))

the ironborn danes is very much text and canon, they’re clearly vikings and i think GRRM has specfically said that. however i think sea-faring peoples can easily be identified as polynesian/pasifika.

for me there what the text presents which is that westeros is grea britain with medieval moorish spain taped to the bottom of it, and then there’s the more culturally interesting fanon in my head that still mostly fits into canon! since the concept of whiteness obvi doesnt exist like you said and genetics are hand waved there’s really nothing in the text that denies an indigenous north. 

i personally see them as indigenous siberian (specifically yakut) since the first men allegedly travelled from the dothraki sea and many indigenous ethnic groups of siberia such as the yakut are north asian and turkic which fits into the way the dothraki are written. im not american so i dont know much about inuit and first nations american traditions but in my head i see the free folk as inuit! 

i really agree with your last paragraph, i think the way fandom projects whiteness onto these characters is due to a majority northern american fanbase who aren’t doing it out of malice but more ignorance. take the example of dorne: theyre obviously based on medieval al-andalus spain, specifically after the umayyad conquest. this textually implies west asian middle eastern influence. 

its a little funny how people cling to daeron targaryen’s racial classification guide when harassing artists over their depictions of characters because if anything that’s the literal whitest part of the text lol. his three categories (stony, salty and sandy) vary from ‘european’ pale skinned to olive-skinned to dark-skinned. whos to say that doesn’t fit a popular fanon dornish india, which famously has many ethnic groups of varying physical appearance? regardless of the fact this is fiction books where people can do what they want, there’s nothing textually that rejects a physically indian-looking dorne.

many characters aren’t described with pale skin. sansa, dany and cersei are a few i can think of but rarely are side characters described as such. there is a presumption from the reader and the author that these characters are white simply because that’s just the norm, right? but it’s not, nor is this series real-life. a lot of my headcanons are still based on the text but really that doesnt matter!! its fake books and we’re having fun and i can think of the characters however i want. and lastly, youre so right about valyria. i see them as east asian since theyre, well, from east essasia but i think its funny to argue with redditors by saying theyre egyptian since well thats obviously part of the inspiration!! what are you gonna do, argue with grrm???

idk your ask was really well presented and my answer is distinctly ramblings of a brain with no stoplights so apologies but your ask made me think lots thank you!!!!

[verycharismaticdragon]

As the novel guy(tm), I need to set the record straight: Wen Kexing is not compared to a wife just once in the novel, he and Zhou Zishu have an elaborate roleplay about being ~husband and wife~ that gets brought up time after time. Where Wen Kexing, the strongest mf in all jianghu not counting the literal immortal, pretends to be a poor bullied wife whose husband is giving her a cold shoulder 😩

And he's having so much fun with it too like *GASP* "are you abandoning me now that you've toyed with me?" *GASP* "how could you go to a brothel when your old wife is still alive?!" (they were there for information) *starts reciting confucian rules for obedient and virtuous wife*

He also cooks and is all like "something made by human hand has real flavor, and it may even have ~love~, when you taste it you'll be able to tell 😘" this man is malewifing it up SO hard. To the point that I haven't seen a single novelverse fic where he's referred to as 'husband' - I think because he self-ids with 'wife' so gladly in canon it doesn't feel right to use anything else.

So yeah, novel!WKX is not just "compared to" a wife, he's wearing the moniker purposefully and with a lot of joy.

That said, if you saw "husband and wife" and thought "oh, just another BL recreating gender roles but with two men 🙄"... Wen Kexing is the top, actually.

More specifically, he's an example of my favorite danmei trope 少女攻 shàonǚ gōng - a.k.a young maiden top. The concept of shàonǚ gōng seems to have originated as a pushback against "masculine top, feminine bottom" cliche. You all know that one: the top is physically strong, stoic, and wise to the ways of the world, occupying the role of either the protector or the aggressor; while the bottom is kind, emotional, and naive, slotted into the nurturing role if not outright damsel'ed... yeah, it was really prevalent in the '00s. And much criticized since then for 'regurgitating traditional gender roles' or 'gender essentialism with the serial numbers filed off', as some ppl put it. Now, I don't quite agree with those assessments, but that'd be a tangent; the important thing is, a number of BL concepts that saw a rise in the '10s are actually deconstructing this exact cliche.

Shàonǚ gōng trope in particular seeks to decouple the traditional gender role stuff from the characters' preferred positions: shàonǚ gōng is a top, but he is also sensitive, emotive, and nurturing - often much more so than his partner. (Yes, Luo Binghe is another example of this trope!) In other words: the purpose of this trope is to fuck with the portrayal of the top as traditionally masculine, and it's done by giving him traits, values, or interests that would typically be assigned to the female lead (in m/f) or the bottom (in m/m).

Of course, since the time this trope started appearing (TYK in specific was written in 2010-2011), the discussion on gender has come a long way, and shàonǚ gōngs wearing every gender hat with style now comes off as more gnc / queering the binary than anything. Which is a fun optic! My nonbinary ass is thriving here!

But I'm also not... entirely joking when calling these characters "a guy who is a femme but also a top". Broader femme identity is about approaching traditional femininity in a queer way; and the shàonǚ gōng concept also engages with traditional femininity as mapped onto queerness, if from a fairly different place. So yeah, while I'm saying it light-heartedly (i mean, we are talking about for-the-bit guy yuri poll), Wen Kexing is very femme-aligned, by virtue of his character archetype.

Of course, if we have a guy who is femme-aligned, it would only require the tiniest leap of logic to say his relationship could well be guy yuri-aligned. But what about the other half of that equation, Zhou Zishu? Well, first of all, I gotta say that you can transfer the same dynamic where ZZS is the husband while WKX is the top onto a story where they are both women, and it would still work in a perfectly queer way.

But aside from this, Zhou Zishu is also extremely mom-coded - though that may not come thru to eng audiences because he's specifically "strict chinese mom" coded. Think Evelyn Wang from EEAAO; Zhou Zishu is basically the same with his kids. He may say harsh things, but that's only because he wants the best for them. (Btw he and Evelyn also share a character beat of actually doing their best to not be the parent their parent (figure) were to them.)

And in a different vein, he's also mom-coded because for most of the novel he's doomed to die. You know, I'm actually very curious if anyone wrote any analysis on the intersection of "dead mom" and "dead shifu" tropes because both are supposed to die to facilitate their child's coming of age... interesting stuff.

You could also btw say wenzhou are yuri-coded because of how their interactions after a certain point are laden with delicate heartache of not being able to keep the one you love... (novel is a HE though, dont worry.)

So basically we have one guy who's a virtuous wife and one guy who is a strict mom and the guys are dating. That's very yuri.

Propaganda:

For Vanoe: "vanitas promised his canon love interest, as a romantic gesture, that if she started to become a monster, he would kill her so she wouldn't have to suffer. and then later when discussing how vanitas will eventually turn into a monster himself, he said he wants noe to kill him when that time comes. pretty yuri. also i'm a lesbian and i like them"

"Idk they have such a homoerotic shoujo manga dynamic but they're guys. Or maybe not that much but you gotta admit this would be exquisite yuri if they were girls. Noé the gothic romance heroine etc etc"

For Wenzhou: "Basically in their family unit Wen Kexing is the wife but Zhou Zishu is the mom. Also there are lots of genderbends of them around but the best ones are those where Wen Kexing goes super hard on femme but Zhou Zishu deadass has the same personality and appearance - like shoutout to those artists/writers u r the real ones. Also lesbian Zishu still being called "husband" by Wen Kexing, mwah chef's kiss! He would SO be a butch."

"Wen Kexing is compared to a wife twice in the show and at least once in the book iirc. Canon malewife + wears red eyeshadow and rocks a red robe in his Ghost Valley Master getup + his husband is an emo assassin, they are so incredibly yuri even if they're guys"

For Ineffable Husbands: "Well due to neil mentioning that they was plans for a fem presenting 1960s scene of the two of them that never ended up happening, there's a lot of fanart of that. Plus, they are an angel and a demon, and both technically don't follow the gender rules of humans and many other species on earth, so while they do present very masculine throughout the show, they could be any gender and therefore they seem very fitting for this.(I do apologize as I don't quite understand what guy Yuri is despite your definition so I am guessing and have no clue if they count."

"Looks like m/m on first glance but they don't actually really have gender and Crowley dresses as a woman for a good few years canonically"

"theyre male presenting in the show but they dont really have gender so they could be wlw if they wanted to"

"While both characters spend most of their time presenting as male, they are supernatural beings without any real sex or gender. Crowley appears as a woman multiple times, and one scrapped scene included both Aziriphale and Crowley as women in the 1960s. Additionally, it’s very common to find “Ineffable Wives” fanworks, with both characters appearing as women. As well as having been an immensely popular fandom ship for many years, it has been confirmed that Aziriphale and Crowley are canonically in love with each other."

"Regularly turned into women in fanart. Both Aziraphale and Crowley are incredibly gender. They have been together in some sort of way for 6000 years. Heavy yearning. Cringefail. Divorced and married at the same time. Literally an angel and a demon. What more could you want?"

"theyre literally genderless and can be anything ever!!!"

"Their genders are ineffable and they have hopelessly pined for centuries"

[byfulcrums]

I keep seeing people saying that Raph is the strong one of the group, but that's not true, so I have decided to give them all roles because why not.

!! Spoilers for the movie and the series !!

• Leo is the leader and the strategist

The leader part is really obvious since it's a canon thing, so I'm going to focus on the strategist thing.

As we see many times in both the series and the movies, Leo is a reckless, maybe kind of stupid, person. He tells dumb jokes and annoys people 24/7. He doesn't really seem like a good strategist. Well, if you think that, then you are even more than wrong, my dear not-friend! In both the series and the movie we also see how great of a strategist he is. Sure, the others also had their time to shine and show that they're also pretty smart when it comes to it (except for Donnie, that guy is smart all the time. Not when it comes to emotions tho), but it's honestly clear who the strategist is.

In the first fight against Shredder, we see how he was able to trick Big Mama, who always has another card under her sleeve. And, sure, it turned out that it actually favored her, but it doesn't mean that he didn't do it. Also, that's not the only time we see him outsmarting his enemies. He's cunning and manipulative, and he can easily trick people into doing what he wants. The main problem he deals with is how even if he has a main idea of what to do next, he doesn't always tell it to the others, making them fail a lot (communication issues baby). He's better at working alone, but at the same time he isn't, because he needs his family for his attacks to be effective. I'd talk more about this, but I need space for the others.

• Donnie is the inventor and the brains

That's easy to see, since he's the one who builds their gear, but let me elaborate a bit.

One thing I love about this Donnie is how he's not a pacifist. The other Donnies aren't either, but they're more willing to listen if it means evading a fight (I think there was an ep where someone says “we're not looking for a fight!” and Don answers with “who says we aren't?” or something like that). This Donnie is also kind of reckless (not Leo reckless, but reckless) and jumps onto the battle often without a plan.

The difference between him and the others when it comes to plans, is that while he doesn't have one, it's hard for him to lose the fight because of how smart he is. He calculates his every move, making sure that the person/yokai/mutant he fights with is always someone he can actually fight with (and even if he can't, he always has his tech with him).

One of his most important character traits is how he invents stuff. He always, and by that I mean always has his tech on to support him and his brothers. If it weren't because of this, then there's a huge probability that he and the others would already be dead from even before the series started. His main issue is how he relies on it too much, so when his tech fails, he doesn't really have anything else to defend himself with (unless his family is there with him. Also, the ninpo, but he's already showed his disgust with using mystic stuff many times).

• Raph is the protector

Many people say that Raph is the strong one, but that's not true. Sure, he is strong, but he's not the strongest.

It's a canon fact that Splinter wasn't always for them when the boys were young. He's not really to blame because of that (I mean, with the amount of trauma he has I'm not surprised he didn't always interact with them. I'm not saying it was okay, but he did have it rough, and even then he did his best to be a good father), but he still neglected them. It's also a canon fact that Raph takes over the role of the big brother very seriously. Ever since he was young, he had been protecting his brothers, even if that meant being a little bit too overprotective (Mikey's solo mission). He's always been there with them, taking the hard hits and not letting them get hurt.

One of the biggest examples of this is his sacrifice on the movie. He literally shields Leo with his own body, breaking his she'll (ouch). And when Leo sacrificed himself, we see so many feelings on his face, and he's for sure thinking how he should be the one to be in Leo's place because he's the oldest, he's supposed to protect them.

• Mikey's the strong one (the powerhouse)

Now this is what I wanted to talk about!

When I say strong one, I don't only mean physically, I also mean mentally (and mystically). Mikey's canonically the ‘therapist’ of the group (haha kin), taking over the name of Doctor Feelings to, well, talk to his family about his feelings, helping them accept them, etc. That's a really hard job to do, and it's easy for a person to fall so deep into that ‘I most help them’ mentality that they stop caring about themselves. So yes, you need to be really strong for that.

He's also physically strong as fuck. I mean, the little guy threw a whole building at the Krang, you can't tell me he's weak.

But the thing he's the strongest at is his mystic powers. In the first episode he's the first one to ‘unlock’ his mystic weapon (even if it did hit him in the face. Literally), and in the movie he literally opens a portal to the future and to another dimension. Leo can also open portals, but his portals year through space, not time. He's also “the greatest mystic warrior the world had ever seen”, so yeah, him being the strongest in the whole mystic thing is canon.

I had this in my mind for a looong while and was planning on talking about it but never did it. There are actually so many things I wanted to talk about but never published because I actually wanted to make a fanfic out of them. My friend (shoutout to Mari. Love you girl) told me to share everything as an idea, a concept, instead of a whole story. I love her very much.

[multiples-fandomswontkillme]

~Metal Family headcanons~

These are like my... general hcs)? which means I didn't include my main hc that Glam, Ches and Vicky are polyamorous, married and started dating after Glam met Vicky, and absolutely everything that implies for the kids and the relationships between each member of the fam. Maybe I'll make a separate post for that or maybe not! Who knows lkfwnlfqnf

Glam

Bisexual

Glam has constant nightmares and ocasional night terrors ever since he ran away home and is an active sleep walker. Ches helped him through the worse ones when they were younger, and learned how to deal with them, always preferring not to wake him up but being with him until the episode passed. Vicky has learned how to deal with them, though she normally asks Ches for advice with it cuz she comes out short sometimes.

He has PTSD. I bet it's diagnosed too, he takes medication and goes to therapy, it doesn't mean he still doesn't have his bad days anyway. He's trying to get better.

Glam has talked to Vicky about his past, his father and his family. This is a direct contradiction of Alina's confirmation that Glam doesn't talk about it with anyone but man FUCK THAT. We love good communication in this house, Vicky tries her best to help him, but there's only so much she can do to help.

Glam enjoys gardening, cooking and making models, he also likes doing his make up, painting his nails and dressing up in fancy, extravagant clothes even if he has nowhere important to go.

He likes taking care of everyone's hair, and constantly helps Vicky brush her hair cuz there's so much of it, Dee when he gets stressed over how tangled it can get, buys Ches hair products so he actually takes care of it, and chases Heavy so the kid actually washes, untangles and brushes his hair.

This one is kind of weird, but I refuse to think any adult in the family is unarmed at any time. Glam owns a taser and pepper spray. They're bright pink and sparkly.

This man cried his eyes out while watching Coco. He's hell to watch movies with cuz he talks and predicts what's gonna happen during the movie, judges them with scores at the end and all.

Vicky

Also bisexual!

Vicky's the one who does everyone's laundry most of the time. She prefers it that way since she's the only one that knows how to wash their black clothes so the colors stay vibrant. (This is based on my gf shaming everyone but Vicky cuz their black clothes always look so muted and almost gray, but Vicky's whole outfit is always the same vibrant black colors, so we decided that neither Glam or the kids know how to wash dark clothes)

She has anger issues, if it isn't obvious. I think she also has PTSD, mainly survivor's guilt due to her surviving the accident her brother died in. She blames herself and cannot bear to talk about it, in some sort of deep denial. If she can't remember, it can't hurt as much, right?

She has scars on the right side of her back and her hip, from the road rash she got on her brother's accident, she never treated it due to grief and it scarred badly. Apart from that, the scar of the caesarean section from Heavy's birth. She doesn't really mind both of them, they happened, nothing to do about them.

She likes watching boxing competitions, brawling matches and motorcycle repairing on TV. Loves doing BBQ's and going to the pool. Also an enjoyer of teasing her kids, kissing and loving her husband at random times, spending time drinking and bonding with Ches and bragging about her family and punching anyone who thinks they're not that cool.

Not particularly a fan of make up, skirts and dresses or any traditionally femenine-perceived stuff. But has been making exceptions due to Glam and Ches being unashamed of being seen as femenine, and actually rocking the looks. The internalized misogyny is kind of slowly dissapearing.

Apart from the guns she carries in each arm (I mean her biceps, have you looked at the size of those?? She strong) she has brass knuckles on her at all times. Glam gifts her new ones sometimes, she loves having multiple choices to punch people teeth in.

Loves horror, thrillers and action movies. Falls asleep during rom-coms and dramas. Ironically, loves gossip and talking shit about people. Enjoys hearing Ches talks about the gossip going on in the nursery home even if she doesn't know who the hell he's talking about.

Rest of the family under the cut!

Heavy

Heavy is a trans boy! He doesn't know his sexuality yet though, he's still figuring himself out. When he's older, i think he definitely dated some men but had better luck with girls.

Heavy has had innocent crushes on some girls on his class before, but they never turn into anything more cuz he's not the best at expressing himself. He follows the bother-the-girl-to-death-until-she-hates-you gimmick, and unsurprisingly, it doesn't work.

I'm sorry to break this to u but Heavy totally had an among us phase, and uses so much reddit and twitch slang... You know he does.

Likes bullying and teasing his brother to death. You know that when Dee had his first romance, Heavy was ALL up in his business being a tease and a bad attempt at a wingman. He means well tho.

He's not squeamish at all. Also has great pain resistance. This kid has picked cockroaches with his bare hands and loves cats, of course the cats have scratched him. He's tough!

Grows up to be the charming himbo he was always destined to be.

Dee

I hc him as demisexual. Kind of inherited his dad's tastes for the takes no crap, intimidating but pretty kind of people.

Can't cook. He tries but he can only do basics like rice, cereal, chicken nuggets or eggs. Complicated meals always burn or don't taste like anything at all. It drives him crazy.

Dee was a quiet and very well behaved toddler before Heavy was born. He never threw tantrums or got whims. After Heavy was born though, and despite the fact he understood his brother was small and needed special care, he started craving attention often and cried and got mad at little things. Typical jealousy of the oldest sibling.

The first time Dee fell in love with someone, he didn't recognize it was love at first. He just thought his interest on the person was born out of curiosity and aesthetic attraction, but as soon as he realized he seeked validation and companionship, that he liked seeing them smile, that he wanted to protect them, that he yearned for more time alone with them and that he wanted more than what just a simple friendship implied, it was an instant 'oh hell no'. He wanted those feelings to get the hell away, but unfortunately, they were there to stay.

Canonically likes MLP, psychological and horror anime like Death note and Hellsing, so I'm deciding he also watched Death Parade, had a FNAF phase, is very into The Walten Files. This guy enjoys any kind of specially dark ARG's and knows a ton of lore of real crime, unsolved cases, ghost appearances and other stuff. Doesn't believe in the supernatural, but sure is entertained by it.

He's a mess at romance. Flirting? His attempts at compliments are hardly flattering. Giving gifts? The best he can manage is jewelry and you can kind of tell he asked his dad for help. Dates? He's so nervous he's silent for most of it, but begins getting comfortable and having fun if his partner really knows how to get him down from his negativity cloud.

Ches

Pansexual.

He's very good with kids. He has the patience of a saint and he's laid-back, chill and fun but still is an authority figure who knows how to put limits. Sure, he's gonna let the kids light up a house on fire BUT hey, now they know everything about fire precautions, burns and how to treat them AND how to get away with arson. What an educational evening, am I right?

Due to certain info from the "Goodbye" official comic, I headcanon Ches as depressed. I don't want to elaborate a lot 'cuz of spoilers, but... God, everything related to his mom fucking hurts, man. How did he deal with all that?

Ches has been Dee and Heavy's babysitter so many times he cannot count them with all his fingers. He learned how to put those kids to sleep almost immediately (Sing Bon Jovi's "This ain't a love song" and any cheesy love song in a slow lullaby style and they're out), which movie were their favorite as kids (Heavy loved 'Monsters Inc.' and Dee never looked away during 'Meet the Robinsons'), how to console them after nightmares (Heavy needed reassurance, sweet words, and to be with someone until he fell asleep again. Dee just had to be tucked in, get his nightlight turned on and kissed in the forehead). He practically raised those kids along with Vicky and Glam.

More than once, Dee and Heavy have slipped and called Ches "Dad". Ches immediately gets his shit eating grin on and answers "Yes, son?" and does a couple of dad jokes just to mess and embarrass them. He's actually very flattered and surprised at how proud of himself he is for being a father figure to both kids.

Has a scar on the left side of his forehead due to a bottle his mom threw at him when he was younger, around the time he met Glam. He hates the scar with passion, it's a permanent reminder of the fact she never cared, that's why he always keeps it covered with his headband. Gets sad about it sometimes.

Ches likes to spend his time with a group of grannies of the nearby nursing home. He genuinely considers them his friends and gossips and hangs out with all of them on weekends. Bingo, billiards, walks in the park, soap opera marathons, you name it. I even designed them, gave them names and backstories... God, i just love the concept too much. I'll make some art about Ches and his granny gang FOR SURE, you're NOT ready for them.

Carries a pocket knife on him at all times. This man grew up on a bad neighborhood and absolutely knows how to defend himself, he can be intimidating when he wants to be and will pose a threat if needed. He's fucking terrifying when genuinely mad. Just cause he looks harmless doesn't mean he is, darling.

That would be all!

[sovamurka]

Good job, dear!!!

I love the dollhouse location so much because it has so many interesting details in it that you can't help but analyze.

There are two objects that indicate that Yana senses and even KNOWS that Balor is in her subconscious. Perhaps Yana put the framed picture as a proof that there is someone in her head that is not supposed to be there. The second object suggests that Yana is already walking through her mind in search of the intruder (because that thing was the early kind of animation, this one showed the walking man).

"Small" interlude before I continue. I need to elaborate on the murder of Yana's parents. Thing is, Siergo was the boss of Dreamcatcher who stole the most important knowledge he had at the moment. So when everything went down to shit Siergo called Balor and allowed him to finish the dirty job. That included driving Yana's parents insane (which was easy since they were already brainwashed by the cult). Ironically, he did not kill them despite having his bloody hand in it. Demons did. Through Yana's little body. This is reminiscent of Fran Bow (however Yana canonically has more in common with American McGee's Alice but that's another story). Balor also points out that he knew Yana was the little girl he met all those years ago as soon as he entered her mind (that explains his horror at the beginning when he was breaking glass around him).

Now about the dolls!

We meet various Yanas (it's funny to see if you know the ending of Demonslayer) made from different materials. All of them have sad, apathetic or horrified looks on their faces. They possibly reflect Yana's wish to be a simple girl with beautiful dresses who never had to go through what she had to (by the way, it's hilarious how in Крутиксы we're shown what Yana would look and behave like without her demonic trauma - there she is the sweetest young lady who can be very forgetful, and cat-Balor complains about that but still loves her). They also show what Yana feels when demons possess her - she feels like a doll with no will of her own. Balor even calls her as such in this chapter. And he uses the gentlest variant of it - куколка - as if trying to somehow make his approach softer. However, he never calls her that again (perhaps to show respect to the only person he actually has any respect for). It also reminds me of Balor's talk with Satan. The latter one tried to reason with our nightmare by calling Yana "the Puppet" and Balor "the Puppeteer". To which enraged Balor replied with the greatest amount of venom in his words since this "horned cretin" never considered them a symbiosis.

Now let's take a look at this.

As you can see, everything made out of glass is broken (remember about Yana's subconscious filled with broken glass? it's the same stuff). The window that doesn't show the world outside (friendly reminder that even before her demonic possession she was in hiding since her cultish parents probably never spoke to normal people) is broken. The mirror (Yana's own self) is broken. As are some of the dolls made of porcelain. And all those dolls show Yana's unstable state. There are teary-eyed dolls, there are rag dolls with buttons and stuff, there is a doll with the beheaded cat lying near (perhaps how Yana interpreted its death), there is a doll in a demonic circle ready for exorcism and there is a doll (as you pointed out) who looks like her future self.

The most interesting doll differs from others with her brightness and hints of violence.

It is Yana in her Alice costume (this comparison is very important when we talk about her at this point, as is Balor's Mad Hatter parallel in his first appearance), holding a cat akin to Cheshire. She's covered in blood and, unlike others, has a doll stand (perhaps to show that she's barely standing mentally when we meet her).

And, of course, how could we forget about the murder scene!

We're shown that Balor was connected to this right from the beginning (all the walls are covered in his markings). He sees almost the exact same doll that we saw earlier but this time it's not just a doll - it's the embodiment of Yana's guilt. It's what she has in her core.

This is the doll that Balor takes, it's the one he talks with...

...and the one he gives to Yana as a sign of their connection.

I’ve been thinking about Yana and Balor again (<- one of the most common sentences for me starting a post) and there were a few details I found interesting.

This will contain some information about the Dreamcatcher volume, as well as, naturally, Demoslayer.

So, number one!

When Balor first manages to actually see something in Yana’s mind that isn’t molten glass, he comes in a… what would we call it? Room? Maybe space would be more appropriate. Space it is.

So, he sees a lot of dolls which are revealed to be, if I remember correctly, Yana’s complexes and fears. Even with him there for such a short time, the space starts to morph into something more like… him.

We see tentacles and little eyes where he passes, and the space changes to, so to speak, accommodate him.

But, there is one thing that stands out. A small, framed picture of Yana, with her eyes covered in black marker, and Balor-like eyes around her. Seems okay, right? Only a temporary influence of Balor.

Except, with what we see in Dreamcatcher, and later in the last issue of Demonslayer, the two of them were always destined to meet. (And, again if I remember correctly, I think Balor was actually the one who killed Yana’s parents (they were in a cult, spooky stuff; that one guy, I’m guessing, had his fingers in it, but Balor was still there).)

If we take this into consideration, Yana could’ve unconsciously remembered him and it stayed somewhere in her mind.

So, this brings us to the next detail. Take this scene, for instance.

Some of the dolls Yana was, or, even better, that she saw herself as. Among these, there are three that caught my eye.

Firstly, the two cats, one on the floor and the other being held by a standing Yana doll in a blue dress. Both are fairly creepy cats, with turquoise eyes nonetheless.

These cats could represent the cat Balor was possessing just a while ago, but with so many broken dolls, I find it hard to believe all of them, or at least even these three (because I reckon these must’ve lasted for longer; this has been mere days, maybe less, since we’ve first seen Balor) are from so little time ago. Even if only one of these cats is new, one of them must’ve been older. I mean, come on, black cat with turquoise eyes that just so happened to be there? Not to mention that the markings don’t wholly resemble those of the recently possessed cat. Could it have been that the cats were normal cats, but when she came into the possession (pun intended) of cat-Balor, they morphed into these? Possible, but there is one other doll we must take into consideration.

It’s this one.

It is Yana, who else, with her signature cat-eared hoodie, but… the hoodie is black, not white like her usual, or, if you want, real one. And look at the eyes. The eyes on the doll - one is turquoise, almost green, in a colour so reminiscent of Balor, while the other resembles Yana’s eye colour better. A doll of not what has been, but of what they’ll become. And this is, I’d say, a bit too far for Balor’s influence to catch on so quickly.

So, how does Yana know? Does she know at all? I’d say she might not, but some part of her mind does - there is something in her that knows about that fate, and it might be a nod to the fact that later on, there will be countless universes where they will meet in various ways. Maybe some of those universes already existed, they’ve just forgotten about them.

Anyway, certainly a few interesting little details to keep us thinking.

Now, on to

Number two!

Upon meeting, and after seeing Balor’s very sad no good backstory, Yana wants to break him (his face, mask, whatever we decide to call the form he has) while accusing him of stealing that face. Balor then tells her that, without any magic or means to protect herself, she is just a dead weight to Danila and Black Hound.

While we know he shouldn’t necessarily be trusted, because he is a) a sneaky bitchard of a nightmare, and b) unbelievably scared for his own pathetic life which Yana is holding in her hands while being extremely angry at him, I’d say he’s lying.

The reason for him to lie is also probably to, as we know he sometimes does, minimise his fear of Yana, because he knows that if someone else taught her magic or helped her with it, he’d be gone.

But we, as the readers, can catch on to the fact that he is lying by paying attention to some other clues.

When Yana discovers Balor and tells him to get out of her head, her eyes start glowing blue.

Despite here being a part of a face, for which I am not sure is maybe Lugh’s or the Antichrist’s (considering courier lore, that could be Antichrist), it’s not their influence Yana is using either.

Both his magic and eyes are a distinctive yellowish-golden colour, and Yana’s light blue doesn’t quite match Balor’s colour either, as his is a slightly more greenish hue.

This also happens with Yana when Sneak tries “possessing” her at Queen of Rot’s demand, and her eyes get the specific colour again.

Therefore, this leads me to the conclusion that, if only partly, Yana’s magic (or more likely courier magic) not only exists, but often manifests in light blue colour, as does the Antichrist’s.

The reason why she couldn’t use it earlier was either that she: wasn’t aware it existed, managed to utilise it only upon first meeting Balor because he was a creature she could actually fight against, or simply wasn’t strong enough before. I reckon she can use it herself, so despite it being a remnant (or part of) his power, it can still be considered hers. The question of why not use it earlier is for someone else to answer, as I’ve grown tired of typing.

I hope, if you have read this far, that you’ve enjoyed my rambles. See you around, I guess!

[fanfictionsquared]

I’m reworking my one MoD!Harry AU. Details below the cut.

Who did I draw in the pic?

Regulus (sharp cheekbone, curly hair that changes length)

Sirius (in the jacket with pins hehe)

Lily Luna (red hair)

Teddy (blue hair)

What is the AU now, FF^2?

*inhales deeply*

SO. Everything’s mostly canon (not cursed child compliant tho lmao), and Harry is officially Master of Death since he was the owner of all three hallows at the same time. This means, essentially, that he is now the personification/god of death.

Since Harry is Harry tho, he doesn’t want to live forever alone, and so his friends and family try to help him find a way to get out of it. There isn’t one. So he is, of course, resigned to living forever alone.

Except his friends decide “no, no thanks, we’re not letting you do this alone.” So when Harry dies and ‘ascends,’ his family and friends choose to ascend with him. He’s able to reach already dead souls using the stone, so Sirius also ends up making the choice to ascend too. The rest of the dead are content staying where they are.

(I have,,,, such a long list of who ascends and what they do and blah blah blah, but I’m not gonna get into it because it is….. so much. It’s truly just so much.)

The important thing is that the way this works is that the universe resets itself every so often, slightly different each time. And certain things carry through, like tales turning into mythos. Harry and his immortal (sometimes reincarnating) family, are the focus of several of these myths, including the harbingers of the apocalypse one.

So when his family meddles, it’s usually with those names, rather than their original ones. Which, when they interact with alternate incarnations of people they know, can cause some shenanigans.

What is actually depicted in your doodles?

Regulus,,,, listen he is my current blorbo and I just wanted to draw him, ok? The jegulus fandom got its teeth in me and now I’m thinking about Harry Potter stuff again. (Speaking of which! Fuck JKR.)

In this AU, he doesn’t ascend with everyone else, but instead ascends later during a whole thing that I will maybe actually write into a fic. Maybe.

Top left is just the first full body Regulus design I did. Dipping my toes in, you could say. Key things; he’s younger in this. Pre-ascension. He’s wearing slytherin’s locket for plot reasons.

Top middle is the Black brothers with their animagus forms behind them. And yes I made regulus’ a lion. Tbh I think he deserves it. He’s dangerous, lazy, proud, sneaky, and at the end he was really, really brave. I know lots of people make him a house cat, but like. If Sirius can have his star’s namesake as an animagus form, so can regulus.

Below that, we have Regulus saying “Potter?” While looking shocked. I won’t elaborate too much on this for plot reasons (in case I write the fic), BUT, this is the moment that he learns that Lily Luna is a Potter.

To the right of that is the brother hanging out and being cute and I love them. I just want them to reconcile and talk and be family again 😭. Also I want Sirius to have 100 little gay pins for his leather jacket. He deserves it.

Bottom left is Lily Luna and Regulus together. I this AU on particular, Regulus has a mentor/mentee and uncle adjacent relationship with her. They are cute, and I love them, and I won’t hear otherwise, sorry not sorry.

Bottom right is the only doodle I will give spoilers for. It’s post-ascension, where Regulus, Sirius, LilyLuna, and Teddy are all about to wreck some shit. The rest of the family jokingly calls them the “Grim Squad”, because all of them go out and hunt down wayward or death cheating souls. So if you see them, you’re their target, and will die. Just like the Grim thing.

Last words

This is a self indulgent au, and idk if I’ll write it, but maybe I’ll elaborate on it more here if anyone is actually interested. Either way, I’m just happy I had the motivation to draw this 😌

[soulmeshart]

Why Stolitz will be endgame

Since the latest episode of Helluva Boss dropped (episode 5) I’ve been seeing a lot of people simply pointing out that Stolitz is problematic and toxic and that it shouldn’t be shipped. However these people never really think about the fact that  a) this is only the fifth episode b) where the ship is heading So I’m here to talk about that. What we’ve seen in these first 5 episodes is simply a look at what the relationship between these two is and who they are individually. This episode in particular was great because it pointed out two important things to us: 1. Blitzo doesn’t hate Stolas’ and deep down probably craves some sort of romantic relationship between them 2. The core issues of their current relationship Let me elaborate both of these 1. So far we’ve had the impression that Stolas is simply a nuisance to Blitzo and that he is simply using him for the book. All of their interactions up until this episode we’re pretty negative and made it seem like their relationship is purely sexual and that it exists for business reasons only. Episode 2 let us know that Stolas wants to get Blitzo involved in his life outside of the whole “transactional fucking” thing and this episode let us know that, well, Blitzo really doesn’t mind that. Think back to the first scene in episode 5. If Blitzo only wanted a purely professional relationship with Stolas or even hated him(as some people believe for whatever reason), he wouldn’t have agreed to go to the Harvest Moon Festival. There was nothing for him to gain by going there and he agrees to the invite without any real hesitation. This let’s us know that Blitzo doesn’t hate Stolas and is fine with being involved with him outside of their deal. Now for the “craving for some sort of romantic relationship part”. There are 2 hints about this in the episode. The first one comes in the scene where Blitzo tries to explain his relationship with Stolas to Striker and gets really emberassed. Remember what Striker says: “So you even conned that ditzy blue blood into getting you to the surface.” If this was the case Blitzo probably would’ve been proud of himself and simply confirmed that what Striker just said was true. But that wasn’t what happened. He got flustered and started fumbling his words around. The second hint is in the scene when Blitzo finds out that Striker is planning to assassinate Stolas. Striker tries to get to Blitzo to get him to join his side. He keeps telling him things that clearly bother Blitzo. For example: how the system is rigged against him. In those things he also lists the fact that Blitzo is being treated by Stolas as a toy/plaything. Now, why would Blitzo be bothered by this if his and Stolas’ relationship really is purely transactional. If that were the case then they’re both just using eachother and that’s the end of that. Blitzo is using Stolas for the book and Stolas is using Blitzo for sexual favors. Now weather this is or isn’t the case isn’t important here, what’s important is the fact that Blitzo doesn’t want this to be the case. Aka he wants his relationship with Stolas to be something more.

2. Now let’s look at the core issues of their relationship which are all presented in this episode very nicely. Stolas does a lot of condescending things to Blitzo throughout the episode. He baby-talks to him twice, puts out a cigar on his horn (though we know fire doesn’t hurt imps, it’s still disrespectful), he shows him off in public like he’s some sort of thing, etc. Now let me clear this up first, Stolas’ intentions aren’t malicious. He loves and cares about Blitzo. When it comes to the show, we know this because a) If Stolas just wanted to fuck an imp, he could’ve gone to way less trouble to do so and wouldn’t have to lend out his book which is VERY important b) He wouldn’t try to get Blitzo involved with his personal life and the most important person in his life, his daughter. A parent introducing their SO to their child is a pretty big deal. Now Stolas should’ve considered both Blitzo’s and Octavia’s feelings before doing that however we know that he really isn’t experienced with healthy relationships with other people (romantic and platonic). If we’re talking outside of the show, there are official instagram accounts for all of the Helluva Boss characters. The two most active ones are actually Blitzo’s and Stolas’ (jeez i wonder why). Now these accounts we’re confirmed to not be a 100% canon in the sense that not everything that happens there happened in the actual universe of the show. However Viv has stated that these accounts are ran by people who know all of the characters PRETTY GOOD. And in case you haven’t seen these accounts, Blitzo and Stolas have a lot and i mean A LOT of very positive interactions there. Sure we will occasionally get a horny comment left by Stolas’ on one of Blitzo’s posts or even a horny post of his own regarding Blitzo. But what we see more is just genuine wholesome stuff between the two. For example: Stolas constantly leaving positive comments on Blitzo’s posts such as telling him to have fun when he goes to hang out with either Loona or M&M, him supporting Blitzo’s passion for art and horses, we also get to see him putting up missing posters and searching for Blitzo at one point when Blitzo get’s lost. We see him visiting Blitzo to take care of him when he’s sick,etc. The list goes on and on. Obviously most of this didn’t happen but what’s important is the fact that Stolas clearly cares about Blitzo, like, a lot actually. The show hasn’t gone to this point yet but this is clearly where it’s headed. Plus the official twitter account for Helluva Boss reposts a ton of Stolitz fanart and they don’t do this for other ships, except M&M.

Now back to the issues of the relationship. All of the things I’ve listed (the baby talk, the cigar thing,etc.) wouldn’t seem like much of an issue IF there clearly wasn’t a class difference between them. In this episode the show REALLY let’s us know how bad imps have it. It’s rare to see them start businesses, the system is rigged against them, Stolas is also kind of condescending to them in his speech (though it’s obvious he actually does like imps and he isn’t intentionally being like this. He even calls the Harvest Moon Festival “charming”). I don’t think he realizes how inappropriate his behavior is. I think future episodes will almost a 100% tackle the topic of Stolas’ realizing how different the lives of imps are from his. This will also let him have a better understanding of Blitzo. All of his actions towards Blitzo through the episode, even thought they’re made with good intent, to Blitzo it just seems like Stolas sees him as a toy (even thought this isn’t the case).

In short, on one side we have Blitzo who is craving a romantic relationship (specifically with Stolas) but believes that Stolas is simply using him for sexual reasons and deeply dislikes his unintentionally condescending attitude towards him, and on the other side we have Stolas, who had lead a loveless life for years and has finally fallen for someone but is too blinded by his infatuation for Blitzo and the thrill of love to consider how Blitzo is feeling and the difference between their positions.

Now, this ship is going to be an end game ship a 100%. What we’ve seen so far is only what the starting point of their relationship is. They’re both going to grow as the show goes on and so will their relationship. Stolas will learn to consider other peoples emotions (which isn’t only a problem specifically related to Blitzo but also his daughter), the struggles of imps and how to properly convey his emotions so that Blitzo doesn’t mistake them as purely sexual. And Blitzo will also need to learn how to open up his heart and to stop running away from others (which is something he does I’m assuming, it looks like he ran away from his relationship with Verosika and it seems like their relationship was p serious given the fact she has a tattoo with his name).

Also while I do think Striker and Blitzo have a fun dynamic, I don’t think this is even an option as an end game ship. The sexual tension was high but that’s about it. Plus Striker was trying to manipulate Blitzo which isn’t cool in my book. Not against the ship tho.

So yeah, gonna reblog this when these 2 idiots (stolas and blitzo) get together with a big “told ya so”.

[theperrylleluniverse]

Letters U - Z (I did it!)

u = urge; who’s the most impulsive? who do they loop into their plans, and who entertains their antics?

Perry is so impulsive and it drives Paul nuts because Perry does everything with so much confidence and stoicism that everyone just accepts it as part of some elaborate cunning plan but Paul knows for a fact that Perry is just going by instinct 95% of the time and does INSANE things as if they are totally sensible courses of action. But of course he always tags along so he can keep his bf and gf safe and not in jail heehee

Della loves an antic and is always down for a caper so she’s an enabler for Perry’s impulsiveness.

The flip side is Perry also will do spontaneous stuff like taking them all on a trip to Europe or like buying a restaurant out for a night so they can have a private dinner. 

v = vacations; how do holidays go? are they big exotic trips, or the occasional staycation?

These three are terrible at taking holidays LOL they always end up working! But they do try to get some time away together when they can. I think their favorite form of vacation is to take a long weekend up at Perry’s cabin. They spend the time fishing (Paul and Perry), reading (Perry and della), talking, and enjoying nature. 

They do occasionally take international trips but it takes a ton of planning to coordinate their work calendars and most of the time they somehow end up working anyway (but lbr they love it). My wife is currently working on a fic where they go on a European train ride! And I’m thinking of writing a fic where they visit Paris together (Paul would LOVE Paris) :) 

w = worthy; how are insecurities handled? is anyone more self-conscious than the others?

Stop everything and go read When I Can’t Run to You, I’ll Walk Gently into Your Arms it’s incredible and deals beautifully with this subject! Teaatfour is working on more fics in the series and I cannot wait!!

Since I want nothing more than to go back in time and smack every person who ever said anything mean to Raymond about his weight, I like to explore themes of fat phobia and body acceptance when it comes to the trio. I think Perry does feel some insecurities about his body (especially compared to Paul who is so fit) and his partners have to remind him what a big sexy bear he is <3

We’ve seen on the show once or twice when Della expresses being insecure with her body (I’m forgetting the episode title but I’m thinking of the one where she goes to meet one of her old friends and she’s like exercising to try to slim down before the lunch and Paul catches her and it’s really cute). She probably has the same insecurities that a lot of women had and have around body image and especially around getting older. But we know her boys are always there to tell her how beautiful she is and worship her the way she deserves <3

Outside of physical insecurities, I think sometimes Paul can feel insecure about his role in the trio. I think early on in their relationship, he sees Perry and Della as the picture perfect couple and such a team that he thinks of himself as the third wheel they keep around for sex. Perry and Della have to drill it into him that they love him and he’s just as integral to their lives as they are to each other. 

x = xoxo;  who checks up on their partners a lot when they’re apart? do they call, or are texts enough to make them feel close?

They obviously can’t text because it’s the 1950s/60s lol but if they could you know Perry would be texting Paul’s ass constantly like fully quadruple and sextuple texting like “case update?” [2 min later] “update?” [5 min later] “update?” [2 min later] “????” Paul mutes him and Della just texts him when its actually important info L O L

But ANYWAY in mid-century America where we lay our scene, it’s pretty canonical that Paul calls into his agency’s switchboard pretty often as a habit so he can keep tabs on everything so I think it’s a natural extension of that habit that he checks in with Della and/or Perry fairly regularly when he’s off on assignments especially if they are long-distance. Perry is impatient AF so if Paul doesn’t call him every hour on the hour during a case, he’ll call Paul so he can get an update. I think Della gets a little worried if Paul and/or Perry are out on a case and they don’t call her at least once in the evening, but generally she’s not as clinging as those two heehee

y = yearn; who misses their partners the easiest (ie, calls them to hear their voices when all they’ve done is run to the grocery store)?

I think they’re all clingy and codependent but at the same time independent?? IDK it’s contradictory but I think they do miss each other when they are apart but they also are people who are working all the time and are pretty used to being separated so they don’t really feel the separation as much if that makes sense?? Like they know they’ll always be together again at some point so it’s just a matter of waiting (even though waiting can be hard sometimes). 

I explored this a bit in my fic Conference Call - Della and Paul are very emotionally connected so I think they’re the ones that are like calling each other to hear each other’s voices and being clingy in that way. I think sometimes Perry can be distant even when he’s physically present (when he’s hyperfocused on a case) so Paul and Della have to kind of draw him back into connection through the physical touch or those intimate moments where they kind of break through to reach him via eye contact. 

z = zealous; who was especially eager in their pursuit of the relationship? was anyone more reserved in their want for it?

As I mentioned earlier, I honestly don’t really have a strong headcanon for how they got together. I tend toward the idea that Paul and Della are much more aware of their feelings and what they want from a long-term relationship (not marriage in the traditional sense) whereas Perry kind of takes for granted that they will always be there for him so it takes him longer to confront the depths of his feelings and open himself up to a new possibility in their relationship.

I’m actually working on developing a fic right now that explores a lot of the anxieties/dreams/hopes that they have to work through when they first decide to be “we three” so I guess stay tuned LOL

Doing the poly fluff alphabet by @scealaiscoite for the Perrycule!

Letters A - E:

a = affection; is anyone more overly affectionate than the others? when it comes to physical vs verbal, who prefers what?

We all know I consider Paul a big golden retriever haha I think he’s the most affectionate of the trio for sure - he loves with his whole heart, body, and mind! I think both Della and Perry appreciate receiving physical affection from him and they seek it out when they want to feel close to him. However, I think Della likes receiving and giving verbal affection a lot as well - see Paul calling her “beautiful” and “gorgeous” :). I think Perry is more reserved than his partners but he is open to receiving their affection and he will speak their love languages if they need it. They balance out nicely - Paul gives a lot of affection, Perry is happy to receive a lot of affection, and Della will do both!

b = bed; what’s the sleeping situation like? are there regular sleeping arrangements - does anyone like to sleep alone?

In my headcanon, they each have their own place and since they all have crazy schedules, they don’t really have a consistent sleeping arrangement. Most nights they sleep separately or in whatever pair ended up together that night (Paul and Perry when they get home late from an investigation, Della and Perry when she manages to convince him to leave work for the night, Paul and Della when they have a date night together, etc). It’s a treasured luxury for them when they manage to all be together for a night.

I think Paul is a cuddler and Perry likes being cuddled (not that he’ll ever admit it heehee). Della loves to rest her head on her boys’ big comfy chests but when she sleeps she tends to move away from them cause she gets too hot.

When it’s Paul and Perry together, Paul is the big spoon to Perry’s little spoon and they spend the whole night all tangled together. When it’s Paul and Della, they usually end up with Paul scrunched up in one sliver of the bed while Della starfishes out over the rest of it. When it’s Perry and Della, they start with Della laying on top of Perry but then mostly keep to their own sides except they like curl toward each other, or their hands or feet are touching, or some other cute shit like that.

When it’s all three of them I think it’s some combination of the above but they all like it best when Della is curled up between the Paul and Perry <3

c = comfort; when someone’s feeling down, how do the rest look after them?

Perry - i think Paul and Della know that the best way to comfort Perry is to push him and motivate him. He doesn’t like to be coddled and he’s skeptical of words of comfort so they kind of have to do it in a roundabout way. Paul is good for a comforting shoulder touch and often is a sounding board for Perry to talk things out. Della is acts of service all day baby; she’s taking all the little things off his plate so he doesn’t have to carry quite so much weight on his shoulders. She also knows how to make him smile or laugh when he’s upset or angry.

Della - she reaches for physical comfort first and foremost and her boys are there to give it to her. Paul will wrap her up in a big bear hug or let her hold on to him while Perry is there with the steadying hand on her elbow and the gentle touches to her back and waist. I think Paul also serves as her sounding board too - he’s a great listener! They also try to cheer her up by being silly (Paul) or deadpan sarcastic (Perry) to make her laugh/smile :)

Paul - surprisingly Paul is the hardest one to comfort of the three. He keeps his emotions close to his chest and has a hard time accepting comfort because he sees himself as the rock who has to always be solid and steady so he can support his partners. Of course Della and Perry have his number though. Perry will patiently but unflinchingly dismantle Paul’s walls one brick at a time until Paul actually talks about his feelings and lets Perry shoulder some of his burdens (see the excellent fic Gone Fishing for a perfect example of this!). Della doesn’t push but she listens and she’s been willing to be vulnerable with him in a way she’s not usually and that's encouraged reciprocity from him. I think Della and Paul are very open and emotionally honest with each other <3

d = dates; what do dates look like? who usually plans them, or are is it a group affair?

These three LOVE going on dates!!! Most of the time it’s eating meals together - they love a romantic dinner! They are also great at turning work events into dates because to them their work life is an inherent part of their romantic life. And of course we can’t forget Paul and Perry’s fishing trips (which is their version of a date I think). I also headcanon that Perry and Paul both like to take Della out for dinner & dancing at least once a month.

e = events; who drags everyone else to their family/friends’ events?

PERRY MASON. This man has to do so much shmoozing for his job and literally does not know how to not be working 24/7. I think he’s a social guy in general too so he actually enjoys cultivating relationships but he has much more fun when one of his partners is with him so he always drags them along if they’re available!

Della is usually the one who goes but just because Paul is always super busy with the agency and keeps weird hours. Otherwise, we know our charming extrovert would love to go chat up people with his bf!

Also this is literally canon lol, Perry is always taking them to work events and social events

[cobraghost]

CHARACTER STUDY; BJC’S INFLUENCE.

i know it’s really easy to say that BJC’s a himbo, that he’s got no brain or is/can be stupid. but the fact of the matter is? this man is a scary genius. he is   not   a force to be taken lightly -- he’s not just some idiot with an ego too big for his own good, despite coming off as absentminded at times. And today? I’m gonna talk about just what this entails. :)

When it comes to general public opinion, most people can agree on one thing -- the world loves Billy Joe Cobra. Some people would disagree, though -- they think he’s just an overhyped pretty boy, that he isn’t worth any of his hype. 

But I’ll be the first to assure you -- there’s a reason he’s so widely beloved. There’s a reason why his music is as loved as it is, why all eyes were on him til the day he died. There’s a reason why his existence, short and tragic as it may have been, is so wildly loved, why people went absolutely apeshit for him when he was alive. You don’t just get to the top of the food chain without working your ass off for it, and BJC worked his to the bone. He did a lot of things he wasn’t proud of to get to the top and stay there -- not caring what he had to do to be famous, only caring about keeping himself at the top. And up until the day he died, he managed to do just that. He thrived, he produced music all he liked, and he was king of the world. 

But the thing is, both the show and fans tend to forget just how crazy influential he truly was. At least, within his canon, that king of the world statement? That’s NOT  a fucking exaggeration. I feel like most ppl who interact with me may not understand the true scope of just how well known and powerful BJC’s status was. And that’s not any shade -- I just haven’t stressed how important he actually was. So allow me to elaborate, and clarify, just how famous he was.

This. Man. Had. BILLIONS. of fans. 

no. not just a couple hundred thousand, not half a million, not millions. BILLIONS. At least 2 - 3 billion. 

His influence was absolutely INSANE -- no matter where you went in the world, it’s highly likely you’d have known at least one of his works. Nearly EVERYONE knew his name -- they loved him, and he loved his fans.  And you don’t just get to this position without knowing how to mastermind your way into staying at the top.

You see, Billy Joe has been in the Hollywood spotlight since he was only 6 years old. He was practically raised by Hollywood -- there’s never been a second he WASN’T out of the spotlight. Though ... that’s another ramble for another time. 

But the point is, with all this influence, it reaaaally bugs me when people act like he’s just a himbo, or undermine his work and status. When they act as if he wouldn’t know how to function as a human being, or is really stupid, it’s like .. no. This man was raised to be the perfect Hollywood soldier. When people come onto him, expecting him to bend to their will, he WILL snap back. This man isn’t a pushover -- a bit too trusting at times, maybe, and sometimes even lightly gullible. But he’s carefully learned the ins and outs of hollywood all his life, he’s learned how to climb the social ladder and put himself first to get where he has. He knows how society works, he can be pretty cunning, cut throat, and even MANIPULATIVE to get his way. And that’s show biz, baby! He knows how to play each and every one of the people who interact with him like a fiddle. People tend to forget that, just because he is absentminded. So let me make this clear.

ABSENTMINDEDNESS DOES NOT EQUAL STUPIDITY. ESPECIALLY IF IT’S NOT SOMETHING BJC CAN REALLY HELP!

Just because he has a tendency to be easily distracted or not think before he acts sometimes doesn’t mean he’s stupid. If anything, it seems more like he’s just ADHD. And, he also doesn’t know much ‘normal every day’ stuff either -- which the fandom loves to stupify him for. And y’know, that’s another thing. Billy can be a diva. He can be a menace, he can seem unreasonable at times -- yes, he has the ego bigger than the Milky Way. But you know what? He’s NOT as stupid as everyone insists he is, especially in fanon. 

Fanon tends to DUMB him down so much, it gives me all the wrong vibes. And why did they do this? It’s... because he didn’t know typical every day stuff. It’s because he never got to go to school , because his hollywood life prevented him from doing so. But, even so --  he didn’t NEED to know every day stuff when you’re as famous as he is. All he cared about in the moment, when he was still alive, was the present -- didn’t give a shit about the future, nor the past. If you were as famous as BJC, I doubt you’d want to or have the time to learn anything else. Billy Joe was a workaholic in life -- he barely ever had time for himself, always working to pump out his next killer tune. But we see that, whenever he applies himself or tries to learn something new, he has a scary knack for learning the material fast and flawlessly. He can control any situation as he pleases, he learns information at amazing speeds -- this guy genuinely is a GENIUS, and is not exaggerating when he refers to himself as such. 

Before the age of 13, he’d produced 15 number one hits. He constantly can be seen playing instruments idly, busting out completely new tunes and making it up as he goes along -- singing, beatboxing, you name it. He can make up entire songs on the fly, which is also showcased in canon, and that’s .. fucking amazing!!! He was a man who was-- and IS -- still very passionate about his work, which we see time and time again throughout the show. Diss anything you want about him, but talk trash about his hard work, or imply he didn’t even try when making that music? Ohohoo, you’ve made a HUUUGE mistake.

And speaking of his music, a lot of people also tend to forget he canonically has what I like to call ‘siren’ music. Meaning, his music -- whatever emotions he’s feeling or trying to get across in the song -- causes physical reactions to those who listen to them. It doesn’t matter if you hate his music or not -- he can sing pitch perfect notes at an inhuman level, and you WILL react accordingly to his music. He’s insanely talented, he knows how to manipulate emotions through songs to get his fame. He’s made many love songs that genuinely cause whoever hears it and sings it pitch perfect to fall in love with him in the first few notes. His music is NOT something to be underestimated. You may hate it, but it has unfathomnable amounts of power. And that power? 

Billy Joe Cobra isn’t afraid to use that to TEAR. YOU. APART. 

All it would take is one diss track. One diss track, and your whole life is over. EVEN after he’s died, you’re gonna be fucked for life. You’re pretty much guarenteed to be miserable for the rest of your days. Your career, if you were famous, is over -- nobody has ever survived a diss track, barring Miss BlahBlah. Think about it -- with his BILLIONS of fans, with the insane amount of influence he holds over the world ina  vice grip, and with how rabid and fiercely his Cobrahead fanbase adores him? You do the math. They’re going to help make your life a living hell, and billy KNOWS it. He doesn’t ever regret it either -- if you have a disstrack made on you, then you absolutely deserved it. And BJC is going to laugh and enjoy your misery, watching you fall while he grows even bigger, as karmic justice. 

The thing about Miss BlahBlah’s career getting tanked is she made the mistake of trying to start a fued with Billy that she ultimately lost. She was in WAAAAY over her head, and should have known better than to try and copy him, or kill his chicken. She was haughty and in over her head, and thought she could knock down BJC a peg. She should have known that nobody can knock him down a peg.

But look where that got her! It left her in a fucking gutter, her career taking such massive damage she’s barely ever relevant anymore. Her name is barely spoken, people barely ever acknowledge her existence -- sure, she’s on the red carpet sometimes, but even then, nobody ever pays her any mind. This is just one prime example of his power being put into use -- and why you should never, ever make BJC angry. 

While it’s easy to annoy Billy, it’s actually VERY hard to genuinely piss him off. And when he’s genuinely angry, he doesn’t throw a diva tantrum -- he doesn’t get loud, or make a scene of it. He gets bitter, icy, and physically imposing -- an angry billy is a VERY SCARY BILLY. If you’ve everpushed him to this point, to the raw  emotion past the theatrics he keeps up just to entertain himself, you have fucked up BIG TIME. You will never, ever be able to recover. Don’t fuck him over -- don’t hurt him, and think you can get away with it. Don’t try to smear his carefully, precisely crafted public image that he works to maintain, or he’ll make you wish you were dead. 

Don’t put him down; he knows his worth. And he knows his place is at the top of the foodchain -- he’ll put anyone who doesn’t comply in their fucking place if he has to, and he has no problem doing that. He’s above just about everyone and he knows it. Those who don’t heed his warning are doomed to fail, and he’ll gleefully put you in your place. He looks down upon just about everyone who tries to knock him off his metaphorical throne -- try that, and you’re dead meat.

So, it is in your best interest to always remember his mantra when interacting with him.

“You mess with the Cobra, you’re GONNA get the fangs.”

[wordsnwhiskey]

As It Should Be | Chapter 5: Breaking In The Newbies

Pairing: Agent Whiskey x F!Reader x Frankie Morales

Summary: After a rough and emotional night, Frankie makes a decision on Jack’s offer. Before they can get to that though, the morning debrief with Champ brings back a familiar face and Jack has you and Frankie teach the junior agents a lesson during combat training.

Rating: M

Warnings: Canon typical violence, guns, swearing, discussions about safewords.

A/N: Alright, a lot of stuff needed to happen here and we’re going to have a little action and see Frankie show off a bit. It was important to me that the discussion of safe words and Jack checking again for consent happened in a chapter separate from the actual smut. For me, it further emphasizes that Jack doesn’t want Frankie to feel pressured to accept or do anything he doesn’t want to because it’s “in the moment”. Consent is sexy, friends.

I have to give my love and thanks to mi esposa @danniburgh and my friend Agent Capri Sun for the beta reads, the fantastic constructive criticism and encouragement!

Masterlist | Series Masterlist | Chapter 4: Company | AO3 | Art

The morning sun stirred Frankie. Even with his eyes still closed, he could tell the room was alight, but the warmth that surrounded him had nothing to do with the sun and everything to do with the body next to him. He opened his eyes and realized he was definitely not in Whiskey’s guest bedroom. Instead, he was very much curled into Whiskey’s lightly rising chest. Frankie blushed, very unused to being the little spoon, and moreover, not used to someone’s morning wood poking at him. Whiskey was gently roused from sleep by Frankie’s small movements. He lifted his arm from around Frankie’s waist and stretched.

“G’morning Flyboy. You were having nightmares, so I brought you in here.

“Oh, sorry for waking you up and… thank you.” Frankie felt guilt sting at his throat.

Whiskey grunted and rolled out of bed to go shower.

“Nothing to worry about, partner. I’m no stranger to those kinds of nightmares.”

Frankie was grateful Whiskey understood and made no effort to pry. With a grunt of his own, Frankie got up from the bed and made his way to the kitchen, intent on trying to get coffee going while Whiskey showered.

Whiskey finished his shower and stepped out to dry off, then wrapped his towel around his waist. He was drawn to the kitchen by the smell of coffee, Frankie’s initiative quirking the corners of his mouth into a small smile. He leaned against the kitchen counter and watched as Frankie poured their coffee, handing Whiskey’s to him black. Jack hummed his approval, a sound which he noted made Frankie preen a bit.

“Good boy.” Jack gestured to the coffee with a small wink as the air seemed to be pushed from Frankie’s lungs. “Now, as much as I enjoy the view of you in just my shorts, let's get you into something you can wear at the office.”

Frankie was rooted to the spot, Jack’s “good boy” ringing in his ears and sending a wave of warmth throughout his entire body. Jack didn’t comment, just let his smirk speak for itself as he took his coffee back to his room and opened the doors to his closet. His fingers tabbed at a few of the hanging suits as he looked back to see that Frankie had finally uprooted himself and joined him.

“We’re similar in build, so you ought to be able to pull off one of my suits…”

Frankie winced.

“Right, well then, let’s go with something a touch more casual.

Jack grabbed a pair of jeans, a blue button down, white t-shirt, belt, and socks, handing each article of clothing over to Frankie as he moved around his closet.

“There, that should do you. Comfortable, but still presentable for Statesman.”

Jack gave him a smile only to notice Frankie shifting his weight.

“Thanks,” came Frankie’s reply as he turned to get dressed. He didn’t mind going without boxers, but the sudden realization that he needed more clothes of his own hit Frankie as he dressed in the clothes Jack had given him.

“Hey Jack?”

Whiskey hummed in acknowledgement as he finished getting dressed himself: jeans, suspenders, white button down shirt, and a navy wool blazer.

“I was thinking about your offer last night, and… I’d like that.”

Whiskey turned to look at Frankie, giving him a once over, distantly thinking about how good Frankie looked in his clothes, and a mischievous smile lit up Whiskey’s face.

“I’m looking forward to it, Flyboy. We’ll discuss things a bit more at the end of the day in my office. It’s about as close to neutral territory as we’re gonna get for that conversation. For today though, I want you to be a good boy and stick to me like a shadow. We’re meeting with Champ first thing. Then, we’re gonna have some fun.”

Frankie nodded, rocking back on his heels for a moment, then fell in step with Whiskey as they headed out, both of them grabbing their respective hats as they went. The ride in Whiskey’s Bronco was quiet, and soon enough they were riding the elevator up to their floor in the Statesman tower.

You were seated at the conference table facing the double doors with Pope to your right.

“You sleep alright, Pope? Hope Ginger didn’t keep you too late.”

“She’s something, that’s for sure, Hawk, but she did let me go, eventually.”

He gave you a good natured laugh that slowly lost its shine.

“You hear from Fish, Hawk? Ginger told me where she put him up and I went to check on him last night, but he never answered.”

Worry bloomed in your chest, not that it had really gone away after seeing Frankie leave yesterday. You figured if he wanted or needed to talk, he would have reached out to you. Honestly, you had hoped he would have checked in with Pope at some point since he probably felt more comfortable with him. Just then, the conference double doors opened, giving way as Jack strode in, greeting you with a smile and tilt of his head. Relief eased the tension in your chest and shoulders when Frankie followed closely behind Jack. Your eyes darted over to Whiskey, fixing him with a questioning gaze as you realized the clothes Frankie was wearing belonged to Jack.

“Fish!” Pope practically jumped out of his chair, rushing over to Frankie with a duffle bag in tow. “I was worried about you, hermano. I went to the hotel, but you didn’t answer.”

To Frankie’s credit, his face didn’t betray much, but both you and Pope knew that Frankie didn’t have any other clothes aside from what he had left with.

“Uh, yeah, must’ve just missed you.”

You could tell Pope was filing the information away for later. Your eyes wandered to Jack’s again and you raised an eyebrow. At least you now had an idea why he had cancelled on you last night.

“Here, Fish. I figured you’d want your go bag.”

“Gracias, hermano.”

They clasped arms, then took their seats. Frankie grabbed the orange tinted glasses he had left the day before and put them on, adjusting them on the bridge of his nose. His gaze fell to yours and he gave you a small smile, but before you could say anything, Champ’s holo image flickered to life.

“Catfish! You’re looking mighty fine! Much better than yesterday.”

“Yes sir, thanks.”

Champ nodded. He’d been worried about how the man would fare, especially considering the news yesterday.

“Right, down to the business at hand. It does appear that a new cartel is making their play at center stage, picking up where Poppy left off. They’re not following Poppy’s business model, though. From what we understand, the group is headed by four individuals: Isabella Gómez, Duke Hernández, Steven Weisel and Emily Weisel. They’ve taken to calling themselves La Linda Rosa, likely after the Red Agent flowers. Up until now, they’ve been your run of the mill cartel, but it’s our belief that the Weisels have been instrumental in their production and processing of Agent Red. Recently, the Weisels purchased land in Colombia, and from our drone coverage, they may have set up processing plants there. We don’t know why the sudden shift to Agent Red, though. The plants themselves go for $500k per plant, and they take time to mature. We don’t think the Weisels are responsible for acquiring the plants, so that leaves either Isabella or Duke.”

Frankie’s attention drifted from Champ to the pictures on the screen and swore.

“Fuck. Pope, you know who that is, right? I thought they were in Australia?”

Pope did a double take, recognizing his old informant’s brother. The Statesman stared at the two men, waiting for them to elaborate. Frankie sighed and settled into his seat a bit more, knee bouncing anxiously.

“Four years ago, Pope came to me and the rest of our old team to take out Gabriel Martín Lorea and make out with the money he had stockpiled. Pope’s CI, Yovanna, and her brother, Duke, both worked for Lorea. In exchange for helping us, Pope got the brother out of jail and we dropped them off in Peru with papers to Australia and $3M. Looks like Duke wasn’t satisfied with life in Australia.”

Ginger frowned and pulled up Duke’s known associates, Yovanna’s picture following the others on screen.

“Yovanna appears to still be living in Australia, but it’s possible Duke grabbed the money and ran.”

Frankie closed his eyes, lifting his cap and carding his fingers through his hair before placing the hat back on his head and sighing.

“What’s the plan? Sounds like the plants and processing facilities need to be taken out, and then there’s the compound, too.”

Pope nodded, then sighed as well. This was bringing back memories for the both of them.

“We’ll also need to be wary of the local agencies. They’ll be on the lookout for anyone suspicious, especially if it’s anything like how it was with Lorea.”

Champ nodded and tilted his head to Ginger.

“We’re doing our own recon and then we’ll break out teams. Pope, Catfish, we’d like you to at least help with intel, and given your experience in taking down Lorea, if you’re up for it, I’d like you both on the compound assault team.”

You saw Pope and Frankie share a look, Frankie’s jaw clenched and then he nodded.

“Yes, sir.”

“Great, not to worry boys, Statesman has the best resources, stateside or otherwise. For now, I’m sure we can keep you plenty busy. Whiskey, don’t forget, today is your day for combat training with the new recruits. Bourbon, Cranberry needs you to test equipment in the lab later today.”

“Pope, could you actually stick around again for a bit? I’ve got some more intel I want to run through with you.” Ginger chimed in, and you were surprised he didn’t grimace at the idea of being locked in a room for hours again.

With that, the meeting was over, Champ’s holo image disappeared and they took their glasses off. Jack stood up and Frankie was quick to follow him, much to your intrigue. You stood up as well. You were eager to watch Jack have his way with the new agents. It was always fun. Whiskey seemed to know you would be following and beckoned for you to enter his office first, followed by Frankie, and Jack closed the door behind him.

“Go ahead and set your bag down wherever you’d like, Flyboy.”

Frankie dropped his bag in a corner then promptly started to rifle through it, pulling his shoes out and quickly swapping his dress shoes for them. He let out a sigh of relief as he rolled up on the balls of his feet and rocked back on his heels. He hated dress shoes.

You took a short minute to admire Frankie in the blue button down while he rolled up his sleeves. Jack’s fingers wrapped around your wrist and he tugged you into him.

“Missed you, darlin’.”

Smiling, you took his face in your hands and tugged him down for a kiss.

“Missed you too, Jack.”

You murmured against his lips, and you resolved not to ask about last night. Whatever happened, Frankie must have reached out to Jack, not you or Santi, and you’d leave it at that. Jack hummed contentedly for a moment before he pulled back and winked at you.

“Are you coming to watch us break in the newbies, darlin’? I was thinking you and Flyboy could do the first demo.”

You narrowed your eyes suspiciously, but there was a playfulness in them as well.

“Us?” You questioned Jack with a raised eyebrow.

“First demo?” Came Frankie’s question as he whirled around to face you and Whiskey.

Jack’s smile broadened and he started out of his office and towards the elevator, expecting you and Frankie to follow.

“What are we demoing, Whiskey?”Frankie asked, more pointedly this time.

“Well, our newbies are scheduled to learn about disarms and what happens when the enemy goes for their gun. I thought it’d be good to have them start out seeing Bourbon disarm you.”

Frankie huffed as he crossed his arms and leaned against the elevator wall. You smiled as you leaned against the wall opposite Frankie.

“It’ll be just like old times, Fish.”

He groaned and shook his head.

“Why have me do the demo though? I’m not a Statesman agent.”

Before you could respond to reassure Frankie, Jack chimed in, eyeing him with nothing short of gleeful mischief. Jack enjoyed breaking the new agents in almost a little too much sometimes, but it was good for them, and he was good at it.

“No, you’re not, you’re ex-Delta Force, Frankie. These agents have had plenty of training, but they don’t have your experience, Flyboy. They’re gonna learn the difference today.”

Jack shared a similar philosophy with you when it came to combat training and sparring. You had been a terror in hand-to-hand, still were, you were proud to say. You knew there was often a size disadvantage, but you had learned to use your opponent’s momentum against them, and more importantly, you didn’t follow convention. In sparring matches, most people fought like they were sparring, which was fine for beginning, but there was a big difference between practicing and being in an actual fight. You never advocated for an all out brawl, but you refused to follow the typical learned pattern that people naturally gravitated towards. Tom had been predictable and a sore loser. Will was predictable but sweet. Benny, well, there was a reason he was semi-pro, which left Santi and Frankie. Santiago was fun, and you had lost your fair share of matches to both him and Benny. Frankie had a spark in his eyes when he sparred, but no matter how hard you had tried to get him to let go, he refused. It had nothing to do with anything silly like you being a woman, more to do with the fact that Frankie never seemed to just let himself go in that way. You had only seen him let go a bit twice, both times in the field and well worn down by the day.

The elevator dinging startled you out of your reverie, and you followed right behind Jack towards the training room. Frankie assumed they would be entering a gym of sorts, but he was sorely mistaken, and he realized the ‘floor’ they were on must have been composed of several. The ‘room’ was really more of a training complex housed in the unassuming tower. To the right, a group of 20 people stood, waiting. He gave them a cursory glance, and then his eyes were pulled to the range. He’d definitely have to visit to let off some stress. He followed as you and Whiskey led the way to the group of agents and hung back slightly as the group stood to attention.

“Well, look at this promising group of newbies, Bourbon. D’you think they’re up for today’s lesson?”

You let the smirk on your lips turn into a full crooked smile, you had more than a small idea as to what Jack was going to do. Looking over your shoulder, you caught Frankie’s eye and nodded for him to join you.

“I don’t know, Whiskey, simple concept, but we’ll see what their execution is like. My money is on our guy.”

The agents before you bristled, full of young pride that was well-earned. Whiskey’s hand clasped over Frankie’s shoulder as he introduced him to the new agents.

“Y’all are in for a treat. Our friend, Catfish, here, has generously volunteered to help train you on close quarters combat and disarms. Bourbon will demo the defense first. Catfish,” Whiskey took a pistol from the long table off to the side and handed it to Frankie. “Your objective is simple: shoot a blank at Bourbon.”

Frankie’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, and his eyes sought yours to make sure you were comfortable. An answering smile was good enough for him, and he checked the pistol, confirming there were no live rounds, before looking back up at you. The two of you easily slid into a ready position, and Jack gestured for the new agents to give you some room.

“Halcón, when you go for the takedown, ten cuidado con mi espalda. Ya no soy joven.” [be careful with my back. I’m not young anymore.]

It only mildly annoyed you that he already knew you were going to go for the takedown, after priding yourself on your spontaneity earlier, but you pushed that out of your mind as you both stood a few steps apart. There would be a split second when Frankie pulled his pistol and took a readying step. That would be where you would have an opening and make your move. A tense handful of seconds that seemed to stretch on filled the air. Jack watched the new agents, the tension between you and Frankie seemed to embed itself in the junior agents’ lungs as they all waited with bated breath.

Nothing telegraphed Frankie’s quick movements as he drew his pistol, but on instinct, your body was moving. He saw your left hand fly out to redirect his momentum and push his gun hand away, quickly shifting to plant his weight, keeping you from landing the takedown this early. The training you and Frankie had received taught you to be efficient and end things quickly. That was easier said when you had spent years training together. The junior agents seemed to still be holding their breath while you traded blows. Your moment of opportunity came, and you took it. Frankie seemed to understand what was happening but his balance was off. You stepped into him, your hip bumping his as your hand came to grip over the top of his pistol. The next thing everyone knew, you were both on the ground, the gun skittering harmlessly away, and Frankie’s arm in an arm bar. He grunted and quickly tapped at your leg to surrender, and you let him go. The class was quiet until Whiskey broke the silence as you helped Frankie to his feet.

“I hope you lot were paying attention to Catfish here, he did a great job demonstrating what to do when facing a difficult opponent like Bourbon. For this exercise, the rest of you will attempt to take a shot at Catfish and he will disarm you by whatever means he deems necessary.”

You can’t help but let out a small laugh, knowing Whiskey was being intentional with his wording.The laugh died quickly, however, at the words of one of the junior agents.

“How was that a good example? He lost, he was disarmed. We should be practicing against someone better, who would last longer.”

At your side, you saw Frankie stand up straighter, his feet moving shoulder width apart as his hands clasped behind his back and he fixed the younger agent with a steely gaze. Even as his breathing remained calm, it was obvious the words had gotten to him. Whiskey’s good natured grin turned into a smug smirk.

“Davis,” Whiskey began, calling the man out by his last name and emphasizing he hadn’t earned a Statesman moniker. “Since you’re so eager, by all means, approach Catfish when you’re ready and show us how your Statesman training fares.”

Frankie kept his gaze leveled at the cocky junior agent, noticing in his periphery that you had moved away to give them plenty of room. Davis moved to be a few steps in front of him. Frankie continued to hold the stare as he questioned Whiskey.

“Are you sure about this, Whiskey?”

Whiskey nodded, Frankie’s gaze flickering over to him for the briefest of seconds, then he brought his hands to a loose ready position at his sides. Davis drew his pistol, but Frankie grabbed the barrel with his left hand, stepped forward and hooked his right foot behind Davis’ lead leg and pushed on the agent’s chest with his right hand. Davis went down, but found himself suspended by Frankie’s hold on his shirt. The class was filled with littered gasps and snickers. The ‘fight’ was over before it had really begun. Frankie helped right the agent and stepped aside to let him retrieve his firearm.

“Attaboy, Catfish! Davis, looks like you’ve got some work to do. Here’s another lesson, agents: Statesman agents aren’t your only competition out there. We’ve got some fancy gear and trainin’ here, but there’s a world of intelligence agents and mercs out there. Catfish served with Bourbon, and that should tell you all you need to know.” He paused a moment to let the information sink in as Davis returned to the line to lick his wounds. Then Whiskey called the next agent.

Frankie breathed in, then out through his nose, and got ready. As they went, the junior agents in waiting began to pick up on a few of his techniques, and he had to adjust, but time spent practicing and training at Benny’s gym had prepared him well for this.

You watched as Jack’s eyes danced while he followed Frankie’s movements. The circumstances earlier had prevented him from truly appreciating how efficient and capable the quiet man was. The last of the junior agents had made their attempt and consequently failed. Frankie’s breath was coming more unevenly now, and rightly so. What he had gone through would be exhausting for anyone.

“Well done, everyone, a round of applause to Catfish for taking the time to demonstrate y’all have a lot to learn before getting approved for field work. Now go on and line up at the range and get warmed up. We’ll be running sims next.”

The junior agents dispersed to the range towards the back of the room. Frankie let out a breath and rolled his shoulders to let out some of the tension he had been carrying, then started heading for the range, eager to let off some more steam.

“Where do you think you’re going, partner?”

Frankie frowned, his eyes darting between you and Whiskey in confusion.

“I thought we were going to go shoot?”

Jack smiled then winked at Frankie.

“They’re warming up, you still have one more person to disarm, Flyboy.”

Frankie’s fingers twitched, and you could see that the exercise earlier had worn at his usual restraint.

“No lasso.”

Whiskey handed you his lasso, then unloaded his revolvers and passed you the ammo. He holstered his revolvers again and stepped into position in front of Frankie. You watched as a new kind of energy seemed to crackle between them, and some of the junior agents seemed to sense it, stopping to watch as well.

Whiskey was fast, but training at the boxing gym had helped Frankie with his speed. As Whiskey drew his revolver, Frankie sprung forward. He didn’t bother to grab the gun. Instead, he brought his fist down on the barrel, sending it skittering away. Whiskey’s fist connected with Frankie’s side, and you heard, rather than saw, Frankie’s reservations fall away with a snarl. He took hold of the inside of Jack’s blazer, grabbing the grip of the other revolver holstered there and made to pull it out and take the ‘shot’. Jack’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. He hadn’t expected Frankie to go on the offensive, but he found he was impressed. He liked a challenge. Before Frankie could draw the revolver from the holster, Jack grabbed his wrists and wrenched them down, then back up quickly to break Frankie’s hold, and then Jack threw them both to the ground. Both men recovered quickly, but in the chaos, the revolver had fallen to the ground and Frankie scrambled for it. Just as his fingertips touched cold metal, Whiskey’s whip flicked the revolver further away, and they closed the distance to grapple with each other again.

Your match with Frankie had been a well practiced dance, and this was too, in its own right. However, where yours had been fluid, Whiskey and Frankie were bordering on feral. For a moment, it appeared that Frankie had gotten the upper hand. Whiskey staggered backwards, about to fall, but as he went, he flicked his whip, the corded length wrapping around Frankie’s throat. He tugged, sending them both to the ground. Frankie grunted and struggled against the snare he was in. Whiskey wasted no time in scrambling up and pinning Frankie, his knee to the pilot’s back. Frankie continued to struggle until Whiskey leaned down so that only the other man could hear.

“Easy now, Tiger, save your strength for tonight. You did good.”

Frankie relaxed under Jack’s weight and nodded. Whiskey got off of him with a grunt and unwound the corded length of the whip from Frankie’s neck, then pressed a button on the handle to recall it. He helped Frankie up and dusted him off a bit.

A few of the junior agents were still watching in awe. It was rare to see a senior agent like you or Whiskey truly need to put some effort in, and to see it twice in one day was something else entirely. You walked over to the two men and put your hand on Frankie’s shoulder.

“You did great, Fish, nice to see you let loose for once.”

He scoffed good naturedly and swooped to pick his hat up from off the ground.

“You guys had quite the audience while you were at it, too.” Your smile was barely contained as you raised an eyebrow at Jack.

This time it was Whiskey’s turn to scoff.

“Well, I hope they’ve been practicing. They’ll be running the sim after Frankie does.”

Whiskey patted Frankie on his shoulder then gestured for him to follow. He led him to an enclosed area that occupied the majority of the left side of the training complex. A small structure that looked like a house sat inside the enclosure, and you knew it was furnished to match whatever simulation scenario had been determined. Whiskey stopped at a table just outside of the enclosure and gestured to the rifle, combat knife, folder, and headset.

“Alright, Flyboy, I know you’ve done this sort of exercise before. Your brief is on the table there. Good luck.”

You and Whiskey walked a bit further along the enclosure to two screens. One cycled through a variety of camera angles while the other would connect to the headset once Frankie turned it on.

“You’re really having Frankie run the simulation?”

Whiskey nodded, “I didn’t have him help with the demo just to teach those newbies a lesson, darlin’. He’s been through hell, and I figured getting him to work through some of that in sparring and the sim would help. That, and, well… you can’t blame me for bein’ curious, Bourbon. Last time I got to see what he could do, we were a bit busy trying not to get shot.”

You can’t help but to chuckle and shake your head, your attention going back to Frankie as he geared up.

“Frankie turns into a different person on missions sometimes, used to scare the hell out of people on base who saw it. No one ever suspected it because he was always the quiet one, but he’s just as competitive as the rest of the guys on the team. He was just always scary good at keeping a level head and focusing on the mission. You’ll see.”

Frankie put on the kit provided for him then flipped through the brief before lowering the headset and advancing. The brief had been fairly simple: infiltrate the compound, rescue the target, and escort the target to the exfil location. They even provided a decent description of the target. The virtual course populated guards patrolling the 3 entrances. He opted for the path of least resistance with only 2 guards posted.

From the screen, you and Jack could see Frankie take a deep breath, his shoulders relaxing even as he crept towards the two guards. You knew it was because he was willing himself to let go, to let his instincts and muscle memory take over. He was lightning fast as his knife came out and he landed brutal and precise fatal blows to the targets on the screen. In a normal situation, he would hide the bodies but the miracle of technology meant he didn’t have to. It was beautiful in a devastating way to watch Frankie move with such confidence, stealth, and precision. He peered around a hallway, noting the sudden influx of guards and catching a glimpse of red at the end of the hall. The brief had indicated the target would be in red, and it made sense that there would be more guards to ensure the target didn’t run off. He counted five hostiles in the hallway.

Five guards, five bullets.

Once he had downed the hostiles, Frankie stepped through the hallway, catching a glimpse of the target and swore at how cliché the scenario was. The brief had just said the target had last been seen wearing red.

“¡Me están jodiendo! ¿En serio? ¿Una mujer en un vestido rojo?” [They’re fucking with me. Really? A woman in a red dress?]

You could both hear Frankie through the mic link in his headset, and you couldn’t help but laugh. It quickly died as you and Whiskey tensed. The woman in red was a decoy, one that statistically caught the majority of users by surprise.

“Ma’am, are you-” She moved just barely and he saw the glint of where a gun was holstered. Frankie didn’t finish his sentence. Instead, he fired a shot to her chest and grumbled to himself before moving on. Normally, it wouldn’t have taken him that long to figure it out.

Whiskey whistled, thoroughly impressed. It wasn’t long after that Frankie found the real target and reached the ‘exfil location’.

“Damn, sweetheart, you sure picked a good one.”

He winked at you, and you grinned back as Frankie pulled off the headset and his kit, then walked over to you.

“Alright, agents! Catfish successfully completed the sim in 15 minutes, that’s your time to beat!”

A chorus of groans echoed in the training room. Whiskey ignored them and clapped Frankie on his shoulder.

“You did good, Flyboy, really set the bar high. Most people get caught up by the decoy.”

Frankie’s chest puffed out a little at the praise, but he was soon shaking his head. Before he could deflect the compliment, Whiskey squeezed his shoulder.

“Feeling hungry, Flyboy? Figured the three of us could grab a quick lunch before Cran steals Bourbon here away from us.”

“Yeah, I’m starving. Didn’t expect you to keep me busy like that.”

Vermouth entered the training room, and you waved him down.

“Hey, Vermouth! Watch the junior agents for us. Whiskey’s just got them running the sim. We’re going to go grab lunch!”

Without waiting for Vermouth’s answer, you grabbed Whiskey and Frankie’s hands, dragging them out of the training room and to the elevator.

“There’s a deli not far from the office we can walk to, and it’s late enough that we should miss the rush.”

Walking arm in arm with both of your boys, you could think of very few things better than right now. You didn’t care that you were in the middle of downtown New York. All that mattered was Whiskey on your right, and Frankie on your left.

Frankie did his best to relax and not let his anxiety and internal struggles get the best of him. Whiskey’s words echoed in his mind: “When it comes to me and Bourbon, keep an open mind and try not to overthink it.” That was a lot easier said than done, but he was working on it.

You were right, the timing made it so that you had missed the lunch rush. You all ordered your food, Whiskey stepping in to pay with a look that silenced both you and Frankie, then you all went to sit down.

Whiskey practically sprawled in his chair, his legs encroaching your space under the table and Frankie’s space next to him. Frankie sat somewhat stiffly but the more he ate, the more he seemed to relax. You nudge his foot with yours playfully to grab his attention.

“How’s your back? Mr. Ya-no-soy-joven.”

The three of you laughed, and Frankie shook his head with a wide grin on his face.

“I’m not! Gotta leave that shit for the young guys who think they’re invincible.”

“Young guys like Davis?” You shot back, smug on Frankie’s behalf.

“Cocky kid had it coming.”

There was no anger in Frankie’s eyes, only the slightest lilt of mirth in his voice as his gaze met yours, then Whiskey’s. Whiskey leaned forward and barked a laugh while patting Frankie on the back.

“He sure did. The lot of them were in need of a reality check. That’s why Champ specifically likes to have me or Bourbon take at least one pass at our junior agents. After all those hours spent training, they tend to forget that there are much bigger fish out there.”

Conversation flowed easily between them for the rest of their lunch. It reminded Frankie of the prior morning, when they were enjoying breakfast and everything just felt right. It felt as if all of the pieces of the puzzle were coming together, and this time, this time, it didn’t feel fleeting.

Walking to the office was much more comfortable than the walk to the deli had been. You noticed that Frankie was far less stiff under your touch on his arm, even leaning into you occasionally. You parted ways in the elevator. You were heading to the lab to play guinea pig for Cranberry, and your boys were headed upstairs to Whiskey’s office. Frankie seemed hesitant to let you go, and you did your best not to spook him, your heart fluttering in your chest.

Given everything that had happened, things needed to be almost wholly in Frankie’s court, at least until he was more comfortable around you. You had certainly noticed, however, how easily Frankie and Whiskey seemed to allow each other into their respective spaces. The elevator doors closed behind you as you strode down the hall. You were glad that they were comfortable together, though. It had definitely been a concern of yours, considering their respective pasts, but you also thought that there was the potential for them to relate and understand each other better than most.

The rest of the day passed by slowly, and as directed, Frankie remained Jack’s shadow. Jack did his best to keep from laughing when 5pm rolled around and Frankie began to subconsciously bounce his knee. He was scrolling on his phone, lower lip pulled between his teeth and brow furrowed as he tried to focus on whatever was on the screen.

You knocked on Jack’s open office door, raising an eyebrow when you saw Frankie startle at the sound. He wasn’t usually this jumpy. Jack’s gaze met yours, and you could see the amusement and mischief that bubbled in his eyes.

“Hey there, darlin’, you getting ready to head out for the night?”

“Just about, wanted to come see my boys before I do.”

Frankie’s knee stopped bouncing at your words, his phone falling into his lap as he looked up at you. You motion for him to scoot over a bit as you sit down on the couch next to him and rest your chin on your hand.

“We’re still on for dinner tomorrow, right?”

You posed the question to the room in general, even though the three of you knew that it was really directed towards Frankie.

“Uh yeah, I’m-I’m looking forward to dinner tomorrow,” Frankie says after clearing his throat and gives you both a shy smile. Leaning over, you take his large hand in your own and give it a squeeze.

“Great!” Standing up from the couch, you smooth your clothes, give Frankie a kiss on his cheek, and then kiss Jack. “I’ll find us a place, and we’ll figure it out more tomorrow. Night, Frankie. Night, Jack.”

A minute later, you’re gone, and suddenly there’s nothing keeping Frankie’s mind off of the time, which is painfully close to 6pm, when Jack said he’d be done with work. The moment the clock turned that final, eternal minute, Frankie sat up straight, attentive, and alert as his eyes watched Whiskey.

Jack leaned back in his chair, stretching, then relocated next to Frankie on the couch.

“I don’t want you to feel obligated to do anything tonight, Flyboy. If you feel like you’re not up for it, we’ll just grab dinner and head home.”

Frankie shook his head and took a steadying breath.

“No, I want this. I-I could really use it, Jack.”

Whiskey nodded, eyes wandering over Frankie as he adjusted on the couch.

“Alright, I use the green, yellow, red system. You need me to stop for whatever reason, call red, and that’s it, no questions, no hard feelings or fuss. I’ll get you cleaned up and help you come down. Sound good?”

Frankie nodded, his tongue suddenly thick and his mouth dry in anticipation. Jack tutted.

“I need you to use your words, Flyboy.”

Frankie swallowed, his heart beating wildly in his chest.

“I understand, s-sounds good.”

“Good. Now…” Jack pulled a small pad of stationary paper and a pen from the side table. “I want you to write out what you’re ok with and any hard or soft limits you have.”

Frankie nodded, then took the pen and paper and began writing.

[click for better quality]

A blush took hold of Frankie as he handed it back.

“It’s what I can come up with off the top of my head, for tonight at least. I’ll let you know if anything else comes up though.”

Jack’s eyes were dark as he perused the list, looking up from the paper to Frankie, he stood up with a smile.

“C’mon Flyboy… we’re gonna have some fun tonight.”

Thank you for reading! Reblogs & comments are much appreciated!

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[mayadoesfandomstuff]

As I'm currently writing a long post right now based on Persona 3, I've decided to take a break and let my brain rot over some old ideas of my cursed "Filo Thieves" AU in which Persona 5 takes place entirely in the Philippines.

It's so stupid of an idea and I cringe at every thought but hey, misery loves company so imma inject these ideas to other people. Here's just random things in word vomiting out in bulleted list format.

The gsme would start at like 2015. Typically this won't matter much, but in the Philippines, there were a lot of major political and academic changes in the Philippines during this time so the year is a bit more important.

The Philippine elections also takes place on May so it would align with the 2016 May elections.

This means that the thieves may be about a year younger than they are in the actual game. This also makes sense since if the were the age they were in the game, most of them would he college-age because of weird school year stuff in the country and the story just won't work as well.

Joker and the other second years would be 10th graders though. This aligns with their canon age anyway.

The thieves are definitely memed on as the "Akyat Bahay Pangmayaman" and has had supporters since the beginning. Like huge supporters.

Because of this, I do think that even if people think they killed Okamura here, they would still have like a shit ton of supporters.

The international community could not give a rat's ass about these people up until the Okamura case. That's what I think would happen in this case. That country is filled with crazy stories anyway and weird criminal groups so why the fuss about them? When a wealthy local CEO got killed, people started paying attention.

With the other cases like Kamoshida and Kaneshiro, it was expected with the climate of the country.

Madarame was a surprise and did cause waves internationally just for a little bit.

The Medjed incident really got people talking but Okumura was the thing that really sensationalized the whole thing internationally.

Side note, of course all of these names would he different in a Filipino AU. Can't figure it out yet.

The PT case is being handled by the DOJ and none other than Prosecutor Nijima, a bright and trailblazer lawyer who graduated from UP Law.

She's not that directly involved in the investigation as she is in-game as Filipino prosecutors don't have the same insane duties as Japanese and Korean prosecutors, but she's pretty involved as she can be. She handles high profile cases but her backlog still has like a shit ton of drug cases and shit.

Joker doesn't get officially arrested but is sent to the DSWD. There's more context to this that I might elaborate on later but just count him lucky that he didn't die.

He gets sent to Manila from the province since his parents wanted to avoid the stigma.

Sojiro is just a close friend of the family who has to take Joker in since they don't have any family in Manila. I'm debating if he runs a karenderya or a private cafe like in-game or just a small private restaurant. Either way, I doubt it would be as atmospheric as it is in-game no matter what it is.

Joker lives not in the attic but some sort of backroom storage thing where typical house employees would have roomed in.

Some of the palaces would definitely look different but some might stay the same.

I definitely think that Kamoshida's palace might retain it's castle status but I'm torn between that and a hacienda but a hacienda might fit Madarame more.

I'm also torn between having Madarame having a hacienda or retaining a museum or maybe something close to the Philippines Culture Center.

Kaneshiro's palace wouldn't be a bank in my opinion but maybe one of those high-end BGC office buildings where millionaires reside in next to lavish shopping malls.

Futaba's palace could be a tomb as well, but if I want to Filo it up I was thinking of making it a deserted island temple or something like that or maybe an elaborate burial cave system kinda like those caves where archeologists keep finding ancient human settlements in the country.

Okumura's whole space thing could definitely be retained but I just gotta add that I find the idea funny that Haru's confidant would be dealing with her trying to keep the company away from the Jollibee Food Corporation.

Sae's palace is just straight up Resorts World Manila. Yep.

Shido's Palace would still be a boat, but I do want to make it that the entirety of Malacañang would be on said boat as sort of a reminder that Malacañang was built near a riverside. The flood that covers the country is polluted like the floods that cover the country regularly.

I have more but that's it for the brainrot for now. See you next time as I vomit up ideas on how Joker's treated as a Filipino palaboy in the big city in his fancy private school!

[monocytogenes]

and QUISRA: 9, 25, 26!

To clarify since I'm not really going in order here--this is for the OTP asks (and yes thank you just. Themst)

9. What are their thoughts on having children?

Haha, oh man.

So Malavai "Infant Contingency Report" Quinn definitely wants children. This desire has a lot to do with the culture he's in: Imperial society has a strong interest in family legacies and "genetic purity", to the point that if you're what's seen as genetically fit (human or sith with little to no alien ancestry, especially if you're force sensitive on top of that) it's considered your duty to reproduce. Growing up in an upper class human family, he had always expected to marry and have kids, and it was really only the tanking of his career--and his associated self-loathing--that kept him from doing so prior to meeting Isra. He's quite enamored with the idea of being able to contribute to her lineage--it's a notion rather wrapped up in his whole fixation with serving her--and aside from that, I think he'd just really enjoy being a dad. I see his relationship with his own father as having been one of those stern-yet-loving situations where he looked up to him intensely, and the idea of being that kind of role model (and expressing that sort of love) to kids of his own is one he savors.

And then you have Isra, lol.

Isra hadn't planned to have kids, much less to get married, given that she's a female alien in a society that's patriarchal and speciesist. Her career and independence are important to her; she warmed to the idea of marrying Quinn in large part because he explicitly didn't want to be the dominant one in the relationship (to the point that in my canon he actually winds up taking her surname.) I imagine she's undergone some (reversible) method of surgical birth control because the hormonal implants most Imperials use weren't tested on aliens and tend not to work so well for them; she's pretty damned serious about not wanting her ambitions sidelined.

I think she isn't entirely opposed to the idea on the whole; she's just very 'absolutely not right now' and would prefer not to have to deal with the pregnancy part of it out of concerns that it'd damage her body. She'd probably be open to using a surrogate sometime in the future; I can see her deliberately selecting someone who's also a zabrak and paying them exceedingly well, lol.

25. Do they have any hobbies they share?

Yes! Here's some--

I picture them as both being into ballroom dancing. Quinn grew up going to such events, so he's really good at it, and Isra found that there's a bunch of skill transfer from her hand-to-hand combat training and general athleticism. She actually got him to finally break down and confess his lust for her after they first danced together (I am weak for that trope, okay) and they attend a lot of fancy social events to have an excuse to partake in that activity, as well as to generally network with the Imperial upper crust.

I also see them having a shared interest in opera/musical theater--I headcanon that theater in the Empire is one of the few venues where socially subversive and emotionally buckwild stuff can be depicted, since there's a rich tradition of sensational storytelling that emerged out of old sith culture. You see stuff in opera like snarky enslaved aliens who talk smack to their enslavers, dissolute soldiers who sell out to the enemy, and intimidating femme fatales (which, uh, Quinn might have been a little too into in his youth.) Isra loves tales of crazy interpersonal drama and empowerment of people like her, Quinn's kind of an art nerd in general who likes getting worked up into strong feelings by that sort of thing, so they often see shows together or watch them on holos.

Also, hear me out on this: sex is totally one of their hobbies. I say that because they're kinky as fuck and their sex life generally consists of Quinn voicing elaborate fantasies and Isra working with him to make scenes out of them. Their bedroom in their nice Kaas City apartment winds up full of associated implements on account of them imagining and researching and being all "I bet we could do something fun with that!", haha.

26. What are their vices?

In the context of the relationship--

Quinn's someone who spent years centering his sense of worth around his job, and he's thus a workaholic who can have a tough time disengaging from that (Isra has to deal with this at times by being all 'we're not going to talk about this stuff in the evenings, and I need you to literally block off our personal time in your schedule, okay?') I think he also can be a pain to live with because he's kind of neurotic about cleanliness--like, for the most part Isra's cool with it because she prefers not doing chores, but when he starts reorganizing her stuff/putting things in places she doesn't expect she's like DUDE COULD YOU NOT. He's also spent years repressing a lot of his negative feelings when he sees them as inconvenient to others, so his communication skills aren't always the best when he's upset about something (though he's pretty aware of this and is working on it.)

As for Isra, the most prominent thing that comes to mind is that she's something of a compulsive flirt; she kiiiinda gets off on Quinn's jealousy, while from his standpoint that's not part of the spectrum of kinks he's into (he does, on the other hand, find it hot when someone tries to flirt with him and she gets a tad possessive.) Quinn also has an aversion to being publicly affectionate in most contexts or airing the particulars of their sexy activities that she doesn't always respect, lol. Some of her pushing at his boundaries is probably good for him on the whole, but she can definitely cross the line out of impatience and hurt his feelings in the process.