#I need things to be done with purpose and intention in this show!! just once!!

[sihtryggr]

*apparently* Daemon does send B&C after Aemond and they decide to go after Helaena and her children instead.

Like is this the war of accidents and oopsies?

I suppose Helaena will accidentally trip and fall out the window, Daemon will be so excited to see his nephew that he’ll jump from dragon back to hug him but, his sword is just too big and too long and it’ll accidentally jab Aemond through the eye and Rhaenyra will also accidentally wander straight into Sunfyre’s mouth and so on and so on.

[justblades]

⌕ FLIMSY FEELINGS, 18+

⟢ CHARACTER : blade x afab! reader WC : 1.4k

⟢ WARNINGS : EXPLICIT, MDNI. dubcon, somno, voyeur! blade, oral (fem receiving), sadistic masochistic themes, mutual masturb#tion, cunnilingus

⟢ A/N : we don't have much info abt his character rn but i tried my best with the available provided info as of the moment !! enjoy <3

raven hair ripples from the bitter cold winds blowing, the glint of crisp solferino hues show a reflection of an unknown person - someone the stellaron hunters just happened to pick up as they tread upon weaving the threads of fate, just how the screen play director foretold.

it was just blade and you alone, encompassed by the archaic, gunmetal gray walls. blade watches your slumbering figure as he wears a solemn face, lips pressed into a thin line, not showing any kind of expression at all except for a stoic mask.

is it really a mask? no one could tell. blade just proceeds to stride towards your body, feeling an aching sensation he needed to tend to. it's a feeling he'd come to despise - but it's still a part of his bodily function. even though he abandoned his old way of living and is now in a pursuit of his path to vengeance, there are trivial things he must fulfill at once.

blade slowly descends to your position, vision still not anchoring away from your dozing shape. humans truly are fragile, he thought to himself— to see someone in their vulnerable state, it feels quite intimate. it was an epiphany blade had for a long time ago he forgot when, but all he knows right now is there's just one thing that must be done.

he feels his pants grow tighter by the minute, the flickering light bulb casts a darker shade of monochrome gray on the crotch part. the navy haired doesn't delay any further and proceeds to get it done. blade unbuckles his belt swiftly, letting the item crash against the concrete flooring; followed suit is an act of self pleasure, he gradually wraps his dominant around his throbbing girth, reveling the wamrth he had to offer to himself in dead silence.

the stellaron hunter may not show it but gratification already courses through his system. at a slow pace, he continues to lean more towards your figure, his cock now at its full glory. its head twitches, itching for a sensation for it to be enveloped in; something warm, something tight and something alive. three qualifications that his mere hands could not satisfy.

perhaps that was your sole purpose for you being brought here in the stellaron hunters' temporary hideout. he rips your clothes with one clean cut from the cracked sword he brandishes, one of the many ways he showcases his astonishing swordsmanship. steadily positioning himself from your slit, a hot, rock hard feeling rubs on your lower lips.

blade's heart begins to pulsate against his rib cage, each beat becoming louder and faster in such an irregular manner. the more he got to feel your slippery cunt, the more eager he only got. and with one powerful thrust, he successfully makes his entrance inside you, his cock lavishing the comfort of your velvet walls clamping around his length.

he huffs a deep breath and only realizes it late as he catches a quick whiff of your scent— for some reason, he was drawn on. the male inches forward your neck, his hands tightly clasped on yours to make sure there would be no attempt of escape. presently atop you while you laid on your stomach, you could feel some faint but added pressure on your limbs plus a somewhat familiar presence from above.

blade was only detached from what you were feeling and only carried on with his own intentions. he rams inside you with no forewarnings, his tip fills you all the way up to the very brim. a breathy, whiny moan erupts in the vicinity that undoubtedly came from you but he heeds no mind to it— continuing to pound into your walls, intruding with such an abrupt pace and not in gradual motions.

in anything that he does, he emanates of destruction. a polar opposite of care, tenderness and love; it shows in his rough, vertiginious thrusts, his firm tight touch, and lastly, in his facial expression. you were not one bit shocked, if anything, you just accepted what is happening as of the present. being used as a cocksleeve for a passing feeling, it rips at your heartstrings but you were powerless before him.

you continued to pretend as if you were still dozing off in spite the mewl that you tried so hard to bite back, stifling more noises threatening to slip out. it would be far more awkward if you're awake as you weren't one bit acquainted with blade. not even shared glances, all the information you have is an overheard conversation from the hunters, only knowing his sole name : blade.

the swordsman eventually begins to drop his guard down, becoming more lax at letting his guttural groans come undone from his mouth. his bandaged hand wanders on your naked, exposed skin, traveling to places where he finds the most appealing. aside from the sound of skin slapping, clothes shifting and his jagged breathing were accompanied by the chime of his dangling scarlet earring.

a sharp pang of pain follows from a loud smack sound. it was his slender hand coming into harsh contact against the plush of your ass, leaving darker imprints from your complexion - it was no doubt, his spanking's seal. you could no longer play pretend as you wince from the pain, your eyes shot open and you turn your head.

your vision was then graced by the indigo haired, he took notice that you were awoken but as usual, he's cold as a gelid ice. he did not care.

when suddenly, he withdraws his cock from your pussy and flips your body around— thus making you meet his face, catching you off guard from your current dazed state. you slowly look up to meet his sharp gaze to the point that you could see your own image from his vivid cerise eyes. your very first locked gaze with blade, and mayhaps the last. his hand clasps on yours once again but only to bring it down to your cunt, he proceeds to uncurl your balled up fist.

he guides your fingers to stroke and pleasure yourself, your own digits prodding through your wet entrance. your breathing quickens, a foreign sensation brewing in the pits of your abdomen; meanwhile blade doesn't do anything but to watch on your expressions. "continue." blade commands ; his raspy, deep voice resounds into your ears.

you were struck with both of shock and nervousness, his tone laced with authority and coldness to it yet again. as embarrassing as it is to do it in front of a man you've never met in your lifetime, you obey his order, continuing to pump your fingers in and out of your coiling walls before his predatory naked eyes.

the navy haired pleasures himself at present, along with you - matching your rhythm. your legs spread open in front of him to feast upon that no man has ever tasted, an unfamiliar sensation wells in his heart. he groans and picks up the pace of him stroking his own erection, a feeling of release immediately dawning upon him.

with blurry vision, for a moment, you could see a hint of sadness and regret behind the vermillion windows of his soul. although the actions he's committing currently are lascivious and of lust, you swear to yourself there was something more than what meets the eye.

as quickly time flashes, strings of muddy white spring out from his cock, the liquids spilling into your exposed tits and your panic stricken face. he catches his breath in the midst of it, heavy panting echoes inside the enclosed vicinity. "i didn't order you to stop."

his words pierces your perturbed mind, he pertains to your masturbation ending just as when he reached his climax. the male swiftly gathers all the cum littering your skin with one hand and one movement, cupping the liquids carefully only to insert all of it into your pussy.

a moan bubbles from your throat, feeling his long fingers curl inside your sticky walls. blade, even though a stoic man most of the time, he's also full of surprises. he flicks his tongue over your clit, the pointy tip rubbing viscules and in circular motions on the specific spot.

your back arches, waves of pleasure crashing upon your lethargic self. blade doesn't halt and carries on to suck your walls out, margins of his sticky lips perfectly fitting with your lower ones. his tongue once again skillfully glides over your sensitive parts— earning him your climax as it spills out from your hole, adorning his sharp, masculine features as if your ejaculation was an accessory.

it felt ecstatic, as if your body drifts into the seventh heaven from blade's cold touches. in spite of the overwhelming gratification pooling in your body, hundreds of questions start to flare up in your mind, mainly about blade's identity. naturally, it rolls from your lips, a question he didn't see coming.

"what are you really?"

among the many blank faces blade shows you this night, he finally unravels a different one upon encountering your question. "are you really that fervent to know?" he rhetorically asks as a sneering smile creeps on his lips.

my masterlist !

[strapathon]

★Flirt your way through it★ E.W teaser

Summary: You've always told yourself that you hated Ellie Williams. That you hated her smug face, her earthy scent, and a voice that puts people on their knees. But shit, you couldn't resist her, which is why when she asks you to help her get Cat back- again... It still perplexed you why you said yes. So here you are, once again, you're helping her make Cat jealous.

Content: Typical Queer longing, stupid gays, flirting, sexual intent, sexual content (soon don't worry).

Tropes: The Queers are stupid again, Hopeless Romantic, Fake Dating, One bed trope, Not so friends into Loves, School Photographer x School Libero

A/N: English isn't my first language and I'm mostly doing this for fun so don't expect the writing to be flawless. Also, comment to be on the tag list

You often question the definition of Friendship, does someone count as a friend even if the only thing they've done was cause destruction onto your well built sandcastles in the park when you were 12? If so, then Ellie Williams was not a friend. It may be for her since even after the constant bickering and avoiding you do she still manages to be in your daily life. Life really is unfair, you think as you glare at auburn haired bitch. She smiles as the girl next to her continues to twirl her hair and bite her lip. You look at them with disgust.

You heard from a friend of a friend that Ellie recently broke up with her girlfriend Cat and seeing this sight right now makes you want to throw your head into a trash can and vomit your lungs out. You've heard of Cat before, mostly from Ellie when you were kids. You swear, the girl could talk your ears off. You distinctly remember, you cinema hopped with the two when you were younger. There was never much of a Romantic chemistry between the two but things may have changed. It was in the Cinema bathroom, just as you were waiting for the staff to turn your head, Ellie whispered in your ear, "Cat's super pretty." you looked at her with a blank look on your face and scowled at her. That moment was confusing, because when she got the option to sit next to Cat she didn't take it and opted to sit next to you and Jesse. Guess she's not as bold as she looks.

You snap out of your thoughts when Ellie turns her back and catches you staring. You weren't scared to show her your disgust, looking at her up and down with your eyebrows scrunched and your eyes still glaring. Ellie winks. Typical. The period ends smoothly despite Ellie churning your eyes red from glaring when she purposely knocks your perfectly lined stationaries off your desk. You held your breath, closed your eyes, and counted one-to-five. It was a technique you found in a magazine for anger management; it's easy to say you use it a lot.

"Hey." You heard the birds stop singing, snakes in the Nile river devour their prey, and the angels cease the blow of the 7 trumpets. "What do you want, Ellie?" you hiss. "Woah, Woah, chill out tiger, just wanted to say Hi," Ellie put her hands in her pockets and smiled devilishly. "What do you need?" you ask her as you stand up and swing your backpack on. "Can't I just talk to my best friend?" Your head snaps at her with a look.. "Woah!" She says, swiftly putting her hands in the air. "Guess, I'm not your Best friend then." "Good thing you know." You replied.

"Look, I have a favor to ask." she says. This little fucking bitch. You roll your eyes at her. "You know how me and Cat broke up, right?" Mhm, you hum and roll your eyes.

"I need you to help me get back with her."

"And how do I do that?" You tell her. Gosh, she smells good. That was one more thing you hated about Ellie, other than her angel like looks and voice, her natural scent that drives you fucking crazy. Crazy angry, yeah.

Ellie takes a step closer, leaning towards your face. You take a step back, your knees hitting your desk and you stumble. Ellie smirks, leaning ever so close, her lips pursing near your ear. "You know what to do, sweetheart." You stare at her bare neck. 'Flirt your way through it' Deja vu sends fireworks throughout your body.

In that cinema years ago, Ellie inches close to you. "Help me get her, flirt your way through it."

Fucking Ellie Williams. You just can't resist.

tags: @paqerings

[gwynethshadowsinger]

My Thoughts about the Bonus Chapter(s)

Feysand - Happens around Ch. 22 (I think)

I do think everyone has spent a long time assuming Elain is sweet and innocent and that we will end up seeing a different side emerge when it's time for her story to be told. I think she's a lot like Lucien. Willing to stand back, but won't be afraid to step in and show that other side when needed. She'll access her surroundings beforehand, though, and act accordingly. Almost like a sly fox just waiting for their moment 👀

Feyre is right. If Elain had been wearing the gloves Lucien had gifted her the previous Solstice, she wouldn't have gotten hurt by that stubborn rosebush. Is this particular phrasing some type of foreshadowing for Elucien? Will Lucien protect her from any and all harm if she's just let him in instead of running away?

I loved finding out where the baby's name came from 😍

Azriel - Happens around Ch. 58/59 (I believe)

Poor Azriel. He just wants a mate and what Rhysand and Cassian has 😭

I didn't much care for his interaction with Elain. It felt wrong and off. He's full of negative, only sexual emotions, and him being around her is not good for him.

Azriel shouldn't be trying to go after a female who has not rejected the bond, especially knowing how he holds the mating bond in regard.

I also didn't like how Elain was willing to let Azriel kiss her so close to her (supposed) sleeping mate. Both of them were in the wrong here.

That rose necklace..... Elain was hurt once again by something with roses. This is the second time Sarah has mentioned her being hurt by something with roses. That's gotta be intentional on her part. Maybe Elain will give Lucien a chance now? I doubt she'd end up hurt by him. He's done everything to respect her and is just waiting on her to come to him. I really hope she does.

Rhysand asked all the right questions 👏

The Cauldron chose three sisters. Tell me how it's possible that my two brothers are with two of those sisters, yet the third was given to another. Boy... you couldn't even say Elain's name?!?! The Cauldron also only turned two sisters. Not three.... so he's already way off base....

Azriel admitted he didn't get far with his planning, certainly never behond the fantasies he pleasures himself to after saying Lucien would never be good enough for her...well that absolutely killed any lingering thoughts I had about a potential pairing between him and Elain. Yuck. I'd want a man to think of more than just sex and for his own sexual purposes. Lucien so far is the ONLY male good enough for Elain.

He'd been so vigilant about keeping away from Elain as much as possible, and had stayed up here to avoid her, and tonight... tonight had proved he'd been right to do so.

His interaction with Gwyn was 😍😍😍😍

I LOVE the shadow's reaction around Gwyn. How they dance with her breath. How they were calm and content to sit on Azriel's shoulders after something restless settled in Azriel. How they SUNG BACK IN ANSWER!!! If that isn't major foreshadowing, idk what is.

I'm insanely proud of how far Gwyn has came to.

Again...the necklace.... while I HATE he regifted it... I love this ending to the bonus chapter. How he found himself in front of Clotho, unconsciously.. almost like he was drawn by something 👀

He might not consider Gwyn a friend, BUT.... I say that might change in a big way.

THAT ENDING!!! The SPARK ✨️ The PICTURING OF GWYN'S EYES LIGHTING UP. THE TUCKING THE THOUGHT AND PICTURE AWAY DEEP DOWN WHERE IT GLOWED QUIETLY. THE SLIGHT SMILE THAT ACTION CAUSED THAT HE HAD TO CONCSCIOUSLY ERASE... OMG ARE THEY GOING TO BEMATES?!?!?!

A THING OF SECRET, LOVELY BEAUTY!!!! AHHH!!!!

These bonus chapters totally made me 100% an Elucien & Gwynriel supporter.

[deoidesign]

if i may ask, is it difficult at all to re-edit/organize the comic pages from the webtoon format to fit the graphic novel format?

on another note, I'm so happy that your kickstarter was funded!!! I love time and time again, im so excited to see this all happen <3

I'll just turn this ask into something of a guide for the process! Because yes, it is difficult, but there are also many ways I have been preparing from the beginning for this very situation to make things easier for me!

I've worked in both print and scroll in the past, and have done this transition once before for a short story, so I already had familiarity both with my goals for print, and struggles with the transition!

How I prepared from the beginning for this transition:

1: My panels are 2500 pixels wide, so they can span my page (which is 8.3x5.8 inches) at 350 DPI (which is print quality)

2: My layers are organized: Text, FX, Foreground, Characters, Background

3: I draw one very large (twice as big as any panel would be, minimum) background for my major locations, as well as drawing furniture assets in isolation. This not only saves me time when making my actual episodes, but it also offers me INCREDIBLE flexibility when making this transition to print.

These 3 things let me pull the character art to the page by itself, scale it up or down to fit my panel, and then fill in the background behind the character.

So, I read the scroll version, decide how many and which panels I want on the page for the pacing (I also keep page spreads and page turns in mind while I am doing this), and then I pull those panels over from the scroll version to the page.

Then, I make the panel borders/page layout that I want, fit the character art into it, paste in the backgrounds, do any art editing that I need, add FX, and then re-do the text!

Sometimes I do need to draw parts that are missing (shoulders or elbows getting cut off is an extremely common one) and sometimes I need to adjust facial expressions, cut panels, or rearrange panels to make things read more clearly. Since it's my comic already, I know how to do these things while maintaining the original intent, but if I were working with someone else's comic I would need to work closely with them to know what can and can't be cut.

(original panel vs an expanded version)

Another common issue is that VERY tall panels will inevitably lose a lot of information when they’re turned to pages. Identify the purpose of the panel (pacing, showing a lot of detail, etc) and then replicate that with your page layout.

examples (in order) are: scene transition, being overwhelmed, suspense, and establishing shot. All of these were a single panel in the scroll version!

Another issue when converting pages is that panel order is a lot less straightforward than when starting from print format. Conversational back and forth that's fine in scroll often messes up the flow of reading in a page (characters facing out, not looking at eachother from panel to panel, etc) and so some creative solutions are necessary to keeping the reading order.

For the first page I had to delete and rearrange some panels, and in the second the dialogue bubbles guide us to read this page in a circle. (dialogue guides through a lot of my pages lol)

And the last really common issue that pops up is that height differences can be really difficult. Usually in print this is solved with clever angles, but I’ve already drawn everything. So, I’ll either resort to vertical shaped panels, panel pop-outs, or editing a character up or down to fit into the panel.

(examples in order)

So, yes, it is difficult! But I have a lot of experience with both formats, and having prepared for this from the beginning I've been able to make the transition a LOT more smoothly than I otherwise could have.

I hope this helps!

And, thank you about the kickstarter! I'm extremely excited I'll be able to print these, the proofs I've received so far look just absolutely stunning and I'm so so so excited to get to send them to people!!!

Obligatory self promo, if you want to see the kickstarter page and get these four books for yourself, then you can check it out here ^^ It's been funded, so at this point we're just reaching stretch goals and placing orders!

[lover-of-mine]

Hi, I put this anonymous so it would let me ask from my 911 account instead of my main account. I wanted to ask a question about your yellow and blue color code post.

"They're also in the wrong colors during the will reveal, which is interesting if they follow through it this particular symbolism the way I'm expecting them to."

Do you think the colors are wrong or connected in any way with the original intention of bringing both Eddie and Buck out of the closet post 4.13 and 4.14? Further, do you think that they also originally intended Eddie to come out first in season 7 may have played a role in the wrong colors?

Asking from @justchillandshipit

link to the meta in question

Hi, darling! Yes for the first one, not exactly for the second one. They have been playing with Buck and Eddie and blue and yellow in the background since under pressure, so the will reveal is deliberately blue and yellow and I believe it is because of the romantic connotations surrounding the aborted love confession that conversation is.

I was actually thinking about making a post about this, so thank you, because during the will reveal Buck is in a yellow that's close to the shade I expect Eddie to reach. They are basically the same color.

That's not true for the blue, but I believe that the choice to make Buck's blue closer to the color of Oliver's eyes to make that particular shot as harmonic as it is affected the shade and made it a bit more teal than expected, because it is close to the blue Buck is wearing during 706, that is the second part of Buck's coming out.

So I believe they are intentionally switched during the will reveal, because while that is a major movement, it's not the climax of the situation, is the setup. They aren't really saying what they need to get together. So I think the plan has always been Buck as blue and Eddie as yellow.

I also think that because Buck in general is a lot more blue than Eddie, so the color feels a lot more natural on Buck than it does on Eddie. There's also the way that they use that burnt yellow color with Buck. Especially the therapy connotations, I feel like it was supposed to be used as a discovery color, but not as the destination color, so Buck would reach the blue anyway, just through a different route.

And if we consider the locker room scene as something that stayed the way they intended when the plan was for Eddie to come out first, they could've made Buck yellow anyway, because the way they used the sun on Eddie could've easily been done with Buck, and he's already yellow in this context, they could've just kept building on it. They decided against it, and I think it's because that was never something they wanted to go that way.

But actually my major proof here, is actually the couch theory dinner in 601. Because assuming a bunch of things, including that they knew s6 was gonna be their last season with fox, and that they were gonna try and force fox to let them get them together before the show ended and they changed plans once abc bought the show and gave them the space to do it with the full glory, I feel like Buck's blueish grey and Eddie's yellowish cream are on purpose and the base of the beginning of the color theory with them, especially because all signs of the couch pointed to Eddie.

I feel like if they were allowed to do what they wanted with s6 with the threat of cancelation but without someone on fox telling them they couldn't, buddie would move to the brighter color together, since there would be no time for them to do two separate queer arcs. In this world, the lighting actually triggers something, and they get together during the s6 finale, which would be the series finale, bringing the conclusion to this conversation during the closing arc.

But the switch to abc allowed them to expand on that more, and now we are here. I think the colors are supposed to be switched while they are on the wrong path, and that was always the plan.

taglist (interact with this post if you wanna be tagged, or send me a message, just let me know):

@sparkedblaze @hermioneindisguise @eddiedisasterdiaz @mosaicstardust @stagefoureddiediaz @kejfeblintz @glasscities @angelcamael @sparkedblaze @caw-salem @dreamofsomepiphany @100ceruleaneyes @linus-lucy @chaosqueery @gina-spike @chimchiminie98 @elvensorceress @dangerpronebuddie @ijustdontlikepeople @182daysof @steadfastsaturnsrings @sparklespiff @inell @joshwritesfics @lunarsolar1 @dingdongfries @wolfdeans @jesuisici33 @miles--to--go @hopefuldreamers-world

[ay0nha]

Some Unholy War | Theseus Scamander

SUMMARY: In an ideal world, you’d like to think you and Theseus could be friends. Frankly, though, his compassion made you nauseous. Or maybe it was nerves. The feeling was always hard for you to distinguish. You wished the way he looked at you would bring warmth to your chest, but it only reminded you of how that was another impossibility. 

PAIRING: Theseus Scamander x f!reader��

WORD COUNT: 2.1K

WARNINGS: canon-typical things, mentions of smoking and drinking, angst, morally gray reader, mutual pining, semi enemies-to- lovers, protective Theseus, etc. 

A/N: Lowkey proud of this one, so comments and feedback are Super welcomed! This was based off this request, so thank you SO much anon, this was a blast that might have to be a series. Also Huge thanks to @kalllistos​ for all the help, couldn’t have been done without you!! Enjoy.

PART II, PART III, PART IV

You fit in so absolutely.

The rim of your glass was still lined with enough sugar to enjoy dwindling sips. Theseus knew it was gin. Your lipstick left a mark on everything you kissed, the pattern was found on your glass, and the cigarette holder balanced between your fingers. You made everything look so serene. Simple.

Scanning the room, you hadn’t seen Theseus yet. However, he, too, fit in—tie properly knotted to show his status and pocket-watch cleverly tucked in his waistcoat. Once he joined you at the secluded booth, he’d complete the idyllic image.  

Yet, Theseus lingered for a moment, taking you in. Your confidence was always envious. It worked silently, exuding from your presence alone. Your magnetism couldn’t be credited to magic but to how you evolved, becoming pointed and moving without fault.

Theseus was one of the only ones remaining to know it hadn’t begun that way. He remembered you, a few years below him, always sprinting to class, already late. The professors would scold you, and your confidence was read as insolence. You challenged everything and excelled in doing so, but it only lent itself to trouble. It created a barrier always present between the two of you.

“You’re late.” You sucked in a crackling breath. With pointed eyes, you took his presence in. Even late into the night, he was always so poised. Professional.  “I’m risking a lot showing my face here.”

“You look beautiful.” Theseus slid into the leather cushion. The charm always came with his supposed  professionalism. It came in waves and never crawled under your skin the way intended. “Relax…It’s fine.”

Unbuttoning his suit jacket’s button, Theseus settled. It was bold of you to accept his invitation to meet so publicly, but he knew you couldn’t resist. You just needed to play your part smartly and get what you want.  

“Your promises are too shallow for me to trust.” You crossed your legs, making it easier to lean and be heard. Then, you clicked your tongue against your teeth with sarcasm, “I think I’d rather you arrest me.”

“Unfortunately, I’ve clocked out for the night.” Theseus was an intentional man, a clever man. He was protecting his image just as much as yours. “It’s just you and me.”

“That’s why you wanted to meet here…” You hummed with feigned realization. The muggle restaurant was a precarious cover but equally as rewarding in its purpose. “You know there are better ways to ask someone on a date.”

“I’ll keep that in mind for next time…” Theseus matched your hum absentmindedly. The banter was a buffer, something to ease into an inevitable unwanted conversation. Reaching into his heavily charmed jacket, he pulled out a file.

It was always a fucking file. The folders were always pristine, never quite full of all the information, just enough of what Theseus was willing to share. It grew over the years of the unorthodox relationship, but you knew not to mistake that for trust.

The figures in the picture were blurry, moving incoherently as they entered a building. The stack of images moved in sequence, following rushedly an exchange that was meant to remain a secret. Without seeing their faces well, you knew who they were, and you held back from using your cigarette roach to burn it all away. Instead, the image repeat over and over before you, but your expression was trained with passivity.

“When did he get out?” You finally met Theseus’ eye. Your composure could fool most, but to a trained eye, your discomfort was obvious.

“A month or so at this point...”

Your laugh was bitter. “So, I’ve been a sitting duck.”

“You’ve been avoiding me...” Theseus countered, his tone just barely teasing. There was truth in jest, as there were plenty of owls following you. You looked at him, knowing what came next. His compassion would get him killed. “...I can help you.”

“Careful.” You cocked your head, musing a buried thought. “You’re getting awful sentimental these days.”

“Don’t you want those off?” Theseus leaned in like you had, voice low. Although his fingers were threaded together, he pointed to the bracelets on your wrists.

You smirked, “And ruin my outfit?”

Rarely did you acknowledge them so explicitly. The bracelets—admonitors—dampened your magic by tracking your every spell. They made you feel like a child with a trace spell. Part of you wished you could say you grew accustomed to the constant surveillance, but you grew weary of lying.

The offer was too sweet, and you wanted more than just your magic untraced. “What’s the catch?”

“You help the Ministry find him.” Theseus was trying to protect you, but you were too filled with vindication to notice.

“You mean work for you.”

He frowned, correcting you, “With me.”

“There truly isn’t a difference in your world.” You spat. The ministry was the reason you were in this mess; they branded your cuffs as a daily reminder that your autonomy was shared. “You’d be using me as bait.”

The conversation would go in circles, as it always had. It was the reason more time was added between meetings. Every time you left, that bitter taste grew stronger, and it was difficult to put it aside to face Theseus again and again. This was different—more threatening, but your anger prevailed.

“I won’t do it.”

“Catching him will clear your name.” Theseus all but begged. He remained poised, but you knew it would only last for so long. Those around you looked your way; interest piqued in conversation they weren’t privy to.

“I’m not innocent.” You were blunt. You had been called cold because of it. But it was a trait that you favored, especially at times like this. You wanted to see Theseus break.

You had done unspeakable things, figuring it was an acceptable way to siphon your affection. You were young and blinded by false idolization. Theseus chose to see the best in you, even now, even after everything. He, too, was blinded by an image of you that hadn’t changed since you were children.

The table held your drink, forgotten and diluted. The air was tense and hushed. Theseus needed to move fast, knowing you were moments away from fleeing. But he knew he had just enough time as you lit another cigarette, this time not for vanity but to quell your nerves.

Your nails tapped on the base of your cocktail glass. Your fingertips twitched, begging to satisfy their itch for magic. You debated on if your actions would be worth it.  Theseus decided for you, hand flexing to replenish your drink.

Your lipstick remained fresh but still marked the glass. It was perfectly cold, calming the swarm of nerves that hit you. “It’s a bit strong.”

“Nothing you can’t handle, I’m sure.” Theseus appreciated your teasing; it meant he was doing something right.

“This place is quite charming, you know,” You looked around before shifting forward even more. It may have been improper, but you leaned over the table, elbows resting comfortably. “Next time, we’ll have to venture and order food.”

“Sure.” Theseus agreed, body language mirroring yours. To anyone else, the pair of you would look smitten. “Anytime you’d like.”

“Anytime?” Your eyebrow ticked up as you tapped at the ashtray.  “Come on, I’m surprised you’ve stuck around as long as you have.” Your knuckles crept forward, almost bumping his as they dragged to the middle of the linen cloth atop the table. “Truly—We haven’t—”

You stopped yourself with an uncharacteristic laugh. A tinge spread below Theseus’ freckles, assuming your humor was chastising him. But you were laughing at yourself, at how ridiculous you felt. You were enjoying yourself.

The feeling felt foreign, so you prickled. “Be practical, Theseus.”

Your worlds barely overlapped, and where it had highlighted the worst parts of each of you. Your world was dark and hidden; you stole and bribed. You were suitable for it and resisted morphing into the image Theseus expected of you.

He was as kind as any Hufflepuff, putting other needs first and blindly placing his kindness. He mistook his demeanor for bravery, but his true bravery formed by sitting across from you. The only barrier seemed to be Theseus’ incorruptible moral code, a space where you couldn’t quite freely exist.

“I need to know the full story.” His voice was commanding, betraying his desperation.

Theseus looked warm, contrasting the winter blizzarding outside. A bubble was created that was becoming suffocating, but with him across you, it seemed just marginally bearable. His hand flexed, skimming yours, hoping to regain your attention.

“You already know how it ends. What does the rest matter?” You thought to sink back, but you chased the small contact. “I want nothing to do with this. With him.”

“I’ll be there the entire time,” Theseus promised, voice low and steady, reflecting his sincerity. You could make out the warmth he was willing to share, but you weren’t willing to accept it wholly.

“And my interests?”

Theseus’ expression fell slightly at your evasive rejection. It reminded him of his position, of his strained relation to you—what he was supposed to do but always found a reason to put off.

“It depends on where they lie.”

In an ideal world, you’d like to think you and Theseus could be friends. Frankly, though, his compassion made you nauseous. Or maybe it was nerves. The feeling was always hard for you to distinguish. You wished the way he looked at you would bring warmth to your chest, but it only reminded you of how that was another impossibility.

You wished his gaze would turn you to stone; that way, you could avoid everything else. Instead, it made you melt, it made you pliable in way you opposed with others. There was a suspicion he kept returning just because of that—despite your bluff and his willful ignorance, you weren’t made of stone, and deep down, he knew that. Probably not consciously, but he did.

You always came back. Or he did—another indistinguishable something. You could still feel his fingers reaching for yours. It almost made you cave. Yet, your back met the bench of the booth, and your hand drew away as you placed your cigarette on your lips.

Although you were still present, Theseus watched you flee. Your guard returned stronger, but he didn’t regret his words. Theseus’ eyes were pleading, and you went to blame his naivety, but you found something distinct there. The reason you were here tonight was not for a favor.

It was an ultimatum, not a request.

“When was this decided?” You asked. You thought Theseus came alone, and now the naivety fell on you. There were too many eyes on you now to dismiss the crowd as solely muggles.  You fell so perfectly into the trap that all you could do was laugh.

“I wanted to keep you out of this,” Theseus admitted. It was the truth, but he knew what needed to be done. The greater good, you could already hear his defense. “This is the only way.”

“Your way.” You shook your head. Another laugh. “And what happens when he kills me? Hmm?”

“He won’t.” Another promise that made you sick. “I’ll be there the whole ti—

“Then you, Theseus—” Venom dripped from your every pointed word. From the corner of your eye, you saw how the undercover aurors were ready to respond to your agitation. If they wanted a spectacle, you were moments from providing it. “— are ill-prepared for what he’s willing to do.”

“You need to trust me.” Theseus attempted to regain the conversation but failed to recognize any mending he made was lost.

“And why should I trust the man that watches my every move?”

Theseus put you in this position; he was the wizard who held your wrist tightly all those years ago to secure the admonitors. For your own good, he told you. He believed it, and yet again, you found yourself at the hands of his so-called mercy.

“And if I decline?” You weren’t in such a position to, but Theseus understood your question only brought ruination. 

“The only way you're walking out of here is because of me.”

A threat, how original.  Your cigarette threatened to burn your lips. The ash tarnished the linen that fell over your lap. Apart of you hoped it would set the entire thing aflame. Maybe then you’d have a chance at a genuine escape. For now, though, you resolved to the final word.

“You think you are blessed with morality—” You finished your drink, the taste becoming sour. “—yet what sits before me is nothing but a boy that’s only purpose is to follow orders blindly.”

[luneemeritus]

So a lot of antis who claim that Stolas is a coercive rapist point to his appearance in S1 EP1: Murder Family because according to them Blitz accepted the arrangement while he’s being shot at, by comparison Stolas is chilling in his bathtub making him not properly consent to the deal. Do you have any rebuttals to these claims? Also let’s also mention the fact that Stolas was spying on him with a bubble. I just want good answers that point to Stolas not being a bad person because I want to root for him and Blitz being together.

The thing is, Blitz was already using Stolas's grimoire way before the deal was proposed. Stolas never demanded anything, he proposed the deal and asked for Blitz's consent. The way they are in different scenarios don't symbolize rape or coercion, the 'power imbalance' in their relationship is not there to make Stolas a coercive monster because he isn't. The Full Moon is literally sex work, not coercion, not rape, not prison, it's a sex deal where *both* benefit. Stolas needs the book, the book belongs to HIM, Blitz was the one who started their relationship with sex in order to get the book (this is shown in the pilot! Not only in S2-EP1!), Stolas only continued it.

The grimoire is *not* only Blitz's only way to access Earth. It's, supposedly, the easiest. Supposedly because we clearly see other low-class beings having access to Earth without stealing from some Goetia. Blitz is smart and capable enough to find a new way to go to Earth.

The fact that antis can only use this scene as a "prove" that Stolas is a rapist just prove how they didn't understand anything from the show (or they are ignoring it on purpose). Literally the next episode from the same season, Blitz denies having sex with Stolas. S1-EP2, "find some else's face to plant that feathered ass". Blitz has agency, Blitz consents, and he denies fucking Stolas. In "Harvest Moon Festival", Blitz says that the deal was not something he fussed about. He talks about his deal with Stolas with his friends as a transactional fucking (cause this is what it is), he denies sex with Stolas in "Ozzie's", and we can also see Stolas' messages in "Western Energy' saying that nothing was ever forced between them. Stolas never took the grimoire away from Blitz even after months being rejected. What lacked in their relationship was communication, not consent.

And I'm not even counting everything about "The Full Moon" episode. Blitz literally sings about how much he enjoys sex with Stolas, spends the whole day buying things to use on Stolas, begged for Stolas to *keep* the deal, said multiple times about how much the deal is something he enjoyed and wanted to keep, and told Loona and M&M about how Stolas never forced anything on him which lead to months without intimacy between them. Where is the coercion??? Simply, it's not there.

Once Stolas starts realizing that the world isn't a fantasy and the power imbalance between him and Blitz means that his class is deeply unpriviledged, he immediately finds an alternative way for Blitz to access Earth. He was feeling guilty for any possible 'abuse' he could've done (which didn't happen). The point is: antis can't see either Blitz's agency nor Stolas's intentions. They just care about their own paralel version of the show that never existed.

I'm sorry that antis affected the way you interact with the show. No one should feel guilty or ashamed for having fun and consuming media they enjoy, specially when the "critiques" are all based in lack of attention, lies and bad faith. But don't worry, Stolas is not a rapist, he is well meaning despite his flaws and you can cheer for Stolitz. We all know it's endgame.

Edit: also, Stolas spying on Blitz has nothing to do with antis's allegation. Yes he was spying on Blitz, he is a lonely fucked up man with nothing better to do lol Blitz also spies on M&M in a way worse level. Is that rape? Of course not.

[blackbird-brewster]

Meta: Jemily Queerbaiting

With the huge influx of posts saying 'Jemily is gonna be canon', I really appreciated seeing this post because OP was completely correct. I didn't want to write an entire dissertation as a reply, so I'm making my own post with my personal opinion on this. (All sources are noted in footnotes)

Before I began this rant, for anyone who thinks this is anti-Jemily. It is not. I have shipped Jemily for 18 friggin years and that's never going to change. This post is specifically my thoughts about queer baiting.

First off, I need to note that the showrunners (and the cast members who use social media) KNOW what a huge queer following this show has and that's why we got pansexual Tara Lewis in S16 [1]. Which, in itself, was SOOOOOOO important!!! Our first canonically queer main in SIXTEEN seasons was a middle-aged Black woman!!! That's phenomenal. (The fact it was horrible rep, because they instantly ruined her relationships once her queerness served it's plot point is a whole other post entirely)

In my opinion, the 'big Jemily moment' Paget posted about on Twitter [2] (and AJ hinted at during a recent IG live) is simply queerbaiting to get people to watch S17. I know a lot of you are newer to the fandom and I love your enthusiasm, I really do, ship and let ship, but listen, let's be real, Jemily is not going to be made canon. The showrunners aren't going to suddenly say (after 17 seasons) 'Surprise, Jemily is endgame'. This show has never cared about queer rep and now that CBS/Paramount have already ticked their queer rep box with Tara, they won't be in any rush to add any other characters to it.

Please buckle in, I've got a lot of thoughts on this matter --

What is Queerbaiting?

If you aren't aware of what queerbaiting is, here's a good definition:

Historically, queerbaiting has carried two meanings: the first is an act of aggressive heterosexuality to shut down queer subtext on screen while still teasing and catering to the queer audience in advertising, public relations, and fan engagement strategies; the second is an existing homoerotic tension between two characters played up on screen while met with derision by the professionals behind the scenes. [3]

The Medium article quoted here is from 2017, a time when parasocial relationships were really starting to take over social media. In 2024, actors are now only a mention or tag away online, they have direct conversations with fans, and this process has allowed for an even deeper form of queerbaiting.

Oftentimes online, actors are asked directly about certain ships and while some ignore these questions (usually to avoid breaking their contracts or other repercussions), others (looking at you, Paget) choose to instead tease fans about queer ships. She's done this for years upon years and if I've learned anything in the past twenty-years of existing in fandom spaces it's this -- don't hold your breath. In it's original meaning, for something to be deemed as queerbaiting there had to be malicious, or at least, purposeful intent to string queer fans along by teasing them with suggestive content about the ship in question, while knowing this ship will never come to fruition in canon.

The thing to remember is, Paget and AJ aren't the only ones who know about Jemily shippers -- the network and showrunners are well aware of this ship too. When networks/showrunners figure out they have a strong sapphic fanbase, they love to use that to their advantage to get more viewers and higher ratings. Queerbaiting is a goldmine to keep fans watching long running shows, look at Rizzoli and Isles, Supergirl, and OUAT for examples of this.

Jemily and Queerbaiting:

Ever since Emily joined the BAU in S2 (2006), there have always been fans who ship JJ/Emily (shoutout to the old LJ forums!). Way before celebs were just a tweet away from fans, back when all our fics began with disclaimers so we wouldn't get sued by networks, we went to great lengths to keep our fanworks far removed from actors/showrunners attention.

As far as Jemily goes, this reply from Paget in a 2009 interview with TVGuide.com [4] (which has now been deleted from their site unfortunately, but there are quotes on Tumblr still [4.a]) confirmed some fans' worst fear -- the actors had found our fanworks online.

TVGuide.com: Of course, a band of fans want her to hook up with Hotch.

Brewster: I know! I didn't realize that fans make these videos on YouTube? A.J. Cook sent me a hilarious one that made it look like Prentiss and J.J. were having a secret lesbian affair. You know, when Hotch was blown up in the SUV, we shot this scene where he's in the hospital and I'm standing next to him, looking at his bleeding ear. Our director came in and said, "Paget, you're looking at Hotch like you're in love with him. It looks really weird." So now, every day, Thomas [Gibson] and I flutter our eyelids at each other.

This was the first time I recall anyone acknowledging Jemily shippers publicly and at the time (Jan 2009), the show was still in Season Four (just before CBS fired both AJ and Paget [5]). Paget genuinely said it's 'hilarious' that fans shipped JJ/Emily. Even now, I'll see people say 'We know Paget and AJ have seen Jemily fanvids, so they obviously ship it too' -- but those same people rarely acknowledge the full context of the original answer. Paget not only thought JJ/Emily were 'hilarious', but then she doubled down and turned her reply back to how she and Thomas liked to play up the chemistry between Emily/Hotch.

While no one can say for sure which video it was that AJ sent Paget, just knowing they were watching JJ/Emily fanvids sent a bit of a shockwave through the femslash side of the fandom. To some it felt like an invasion of privacy, fanworks are by fans for fans -- knowing the cast were poking around in fandom spaces added an extra layer of worry around what we fans were posting online. Fifteen years ago, it used to be quite taboo for actors to outwardly discuss shipping or other fanon for whatever show they were in, and we fans were usually comfortably removed from the actors altogether.

Of course, now it's the norm for fans and actors/showrunners to co-exist online and interact with one another. This connection has opened new ways for shows to queerbait their fans. Pretty much every show has some form of social media account now and there is no doubt that the people running those accounts keep up with the most popular ships and hashtags. Not to mention that actors are constantly barraged with questions about whether they ship their character with x,y,z, or whether they think a ship should be made canon, etc. These interactions only serve to benefit the shows themselves, because whether the conversation is for or against a certain ship, it's all just free publicity (Why do you think CM now has a TikTok account?)

Every time AJ or Paget say anything about Jemily, the queer side of the fandom loses their minds. But this has been going on for YEARS now and every single time, it turns out to be nothing but social media hype and queerbaiting. Remember this AJ post? [6] Or what about the notorious reply by Paget to a fan, where she talks about how she and AJ held hands under the table 'for the shippers' [7] I've seen this cycle over and over again, so perhaps I am cynical, but I'm not getting my hopes up that Jemily will ever seriously be canon.

It's widely known now, after both Kirsten [8] and Paget [9] have talked about it, that there was an early idea where Prentiss was supposed to be queer, but that was ultimately scraped before it ever made it on screen. For context, please remember, this show has been airing for nearly twenty years. It began in 2005, during the highly conservative Bush administration. Queer people didn't have rights in the US, we couldn't get married, we were rarely protected under discrimination laws, and we could even be fired for simply being queer (in some states). Diverse queer representation on screen was extremely limited to things like 'The L Word' and 'Queer as Folk' (both aired on Showtime, so they were behind a paywall. And as far as tLw goes, that show was extremely male-gaze focused and is horrible in nearly all regards if you try to rewatch it now). As far as prime time shows went, queer rep was even more rare. Which is why Emily wasn't queer from the get-go.

Yes, things have changed since 2006 in terms of queer rep on TV. We have a myriad of queer identities represented in TV and film nowadays, which is why I think it's so easy for newer fans to say 'lf she was supposed to be gay anyway, they should just make Emily queer in canon!' I know this is what fuels most fans' demands for Emily being confirmed queer, and I get it, I DO. I would be all for it! However, I do not, in one hundred years, actually believe that is going to happen after they already canonically queer confirmed Tara in S16. The fact we even got ONE queer character is ground-breaking for this show.

It's also worth noting, that in the time between Paget's departure in 2012 and her return in 2016, she became very active on Twitter. This was when more and more fans began asking her about Jemily and after Kirsten's AfterEllen interview, fans also pushed for Paget to address the possibility of Emily being gay. 'Pushed' is actually an understatement for some of the outright harassment she would receive. (AJ received some of this harassment too, but less so because she doesn't use social media ass often) Back then, neither of them replied to these things directly. Yet, no matter what either woman posted, the replies were full of Jemily stans begging for her acknowledgement. (Did you know 'stan' is literally a term coined for stalker fans?) I remember one time AJ's friend was missing and she posted info on her IG about it, you know what the replies were? People asking her about Jemily. It was genuinely sickening.

Within this context, it was no surprise to fans when Emily came back in S12 , she and JJ's friendship was seemingly erased. The two women were rarely on screen together in the late seasons, plus the writers saw fit to even give Emily not only one (Mark in London, but two, on-screen boyfriends for the first time in the entire series. I personally do not think these changes to Emily's character were coincidence, I saw the hellscape of what people would say to AJ and Paget online and I fully believe that upon Paget's return to the show, the showrunners purposely tried to distance JJ and Emily to dissuade the more abusive side of the fanbase.

Can I prove that, no. But it is the only reason I can think of as to why Emily S12+ seemingly didn't care about JJ anymore, despite their deep and meaningful friendship. I mean, they both CROSSED THE WORLD to go rescue each other in prior canon -- but when Emily comes back, they acted like they barely knew each other. This was even more prevalent in S16, when JJ's main storylines all revolved around Will, and Emily barely looked at JJ in the entirety of ten episodes. (Remember how Prentiss didn't even hug JJ after bomb, but she did go hug Luke?)

So, do Paget and AJ earnestly ship Jemily, or are they continuing the long tradition of queerbaiting us? Who fucking knows, not me. But based on the history of this fandom, I think I can make a safe bet. (Interestingly, if you search all of Paget's twitter for the word 'Jemily' [10] she only has 3 direct tweets mentioning the ship. I don't think it's a coincidence that two are within the past few months since they started filming S17 (the other one was a RT of Kirsten (who tagged something Jemily)

This is all to say --

Just because Paget and AJ have publicly talked about Jemily,, this doesn't mean it's ever going to happen on screen. And you know what, THAT'S OKAY!! There has been this constant outcry (after Tara became queer confirmed) of 'Do Emily next' or 'Why wasn't it Emily with a girlfriend!?' and 'Jemily needs to be canon in S17!' -- as if people believe their ships aren't worth anything unless they are canon.

That couldn't be further from the truth! Fandom is built on headcanons and fan interpretations and rare pairs and all types of shippers. Your ship does NOT need to be canon for you to enjoy it. I will ship Jemily forever, no matter what. I don't think there will be some magical queer plot in S17, at best, we might actually get to see Emily/JJ on screen together again and after the train wreck that was S16 -- I'll take whatever I can get.

And hey -- if I am completely wrong, if Erica Messer pulls a Korrasami out of her hat, I will be ecstatic. I will be happy to be proved wrong, but at the same time, I'm not going to lose sleep over it and I'm DEFINITELY not going to go hound the actors about it on social media.

Sources:

[1] 2022 Digital Spy article about the importance of Tara's coming out

[2] 04/18/24 Paget Tweet

[3] 2017 Queerbaiting article from medium.com

[4] 2009 Broken TVGuide link

[4.a] Tumblr quote from the above TVGuide Interview

[5] 2010 Kirsten interview screenrant.com

[6] 2019 AJ Instagram Post

[7] 2020 Paget video on Twitter (via @karasluthqr)

[8] 2015 Kirsten interview AfterEllen.com

[9] 2016 Paget Interview CriminalMindsFans.com

[10] @PagetPaget search 'Jemily'

[maxphilippa]

i think that the major misinterpretation that people have with taco is that she didn't get attached to mic because of her sad face in the end wanted to show regret because "she hurted her friend". like. no, she wasn't sad because she regretted what she did. she was sad because she's alone again, but she knows very well at the end that she had it coming. the reason as to why taco was so desperate of wanting mic to tell her that she did gain something is because. she SAW pickle in mic, but of course their situation is very different. "Oh but Taco couldn't have done what she did to Mic to Pickle, Mic was fully aware" but she did do that. Mic herself says it. That is pretty much what II is telling you. Taco isn't a good friend, and is not exactly a good person either. Mic was aware that Taco was/is a bad person, but Mic's nature makes her believe in whoever acknowledges her. Taco made Mic feel like she needed her, just the way she made Pickle feel back in s1.

she didn't really change thanks to mic. her faces of "regret" aren't her actually lamenting all of the stuff she did to microphone, but rather just her realizing that she proved what everyone said about her as a result. i will give it to that she might've tried to change, but not because of mic. she wanted to win the prize so she could prove others wrong on her being a loser and a coward, by being a loser and a coward. if anything, mic made her realize that she hasn't changed. she pretty much just ruined everything for everyone who saw her as a friend, and for herself.

taco's whole arc is constantly just downgraded to questionable takes and listen. i do agree that she is heavily flawed as a character. she is morally gray, but ii doesn't portray her as a good person with good intentions, nor she should be really be treated as if she was. neither she had those good intentions with mic at all, i mean, their "friendship" pretty much started because of taco wanting the prize money, taking a part of microphone's prize if she made mic won, you know, an offer. she would get the prize and mic would get recognition. but everyone seems to forget that probably, the main reason as to why she's doing all of this, is because she does regret how she acted on s1. she doesn't exactly regret doing all of that to microphone, and even if she does, it's for the wrong reasons. (that's because she did the exact same thing to you know, pickle, her once best friend, the only person she truly ever cared about)

people do tend to forget that taco keeps sending letters to pickle, and that's often just used for pickle angst and making it his only character trait, but. it's not that. it's the fact that taco keeps on writing those letters, despite fully knowing that she did hurt pickle because of her actions. taco's biggest flaw is that she can't accept that she has ruined everything and wants so desperately to be back on pickle's life because she ended up caring about him deeply as a person. as a friend. but she was never there at all, either.

taco can't seem to understand that she has hurted people badly. sure, she seemed like a "friend" to microphone, and you can argue whatever you want but a fact is that taco IS smart, and she knew that the only way to possibly keep mic by her side is pretending to want to be better, you know, the same way she pretended to be just a odd fella so pickle and her could remain together and have an advance at the game. she played with both of them. because both pickle and mic believed in her but were just used by her for the game.

however, taco does seem to regret the way everything went during-post s1. you can see how she yearns for another chance and is saddened about not getting it, but that's not only for comedic purposes, but that's because the writing is telling you that she won't get a second chance. at least not here.

what i want people to understand is that, yes, taco is a complex character, however trying to sugarcoat what she did is pretty much missing the point of her writing as a whole. she isn't a good person neither was she a good friend. she hasn't grown because she was never able to let go of something that she thinks that she can fix with some words and a prize. she thinks that she can still fix her friendship with pickle, she thinks that she can clear her name (even if she was the one who tainted it), but she only ended up proving knife right. she proved everyone right. she hasn't changed. a morally gray character is that. they're not exactly fully bad or fully good, but it's taco's actions that speak a lot. words are cheap, and taco's title is "The Liar", and that says a lot, because she kept on lying to microphone and to pickle on both of their games. she won't heal unless she lets go.

and i want to be clear here: i do think that taco can go through redemption. i do think that taco can become a better person, but not in the way people portray her to do so. because it just pretty much goes against what her arc has settled in for us, and the other arcs that were involved in hers as well.

taco's arc is meant to be somewhat a parallel with nickel's in a way. hell, even with knife's arc if anything. she treats knife as a simple bully, but when she saw that he became smarter and way more emotionally aware than what she had expected, she felt attacked by that, because he was stable. he became a better person and he was rubbing that on her, and it made her feelings of anger way worse regarding him, but it is true. knife is pretty much everything that taco wants to be, but here's the thing that made them so different:

knife stayed. taco didn't stay.

knife is accepted by everyone in the hotel because meanwhile he hasn't explicitly said that he had a change of heart, he has shown it through actions and a big difference too is that he was there for pickle, even if they weren't close in s1, and taco is on the woods because deep down she is aware that she can't go back. not if she doesn't have something to offer as an direct apology, but here's the problem. whether or not she got the prize, she still wouldn't get forgiven by anyone due to what she said that day.

again. her problem is not being able to let go and to accept when she has messed up badly. she has been lying to everyone but she has also been lying to herself as a whole. she can't keep on doing this because it's just hurting everyone and herself. keeping grudges and holding onto past friendships that were doomed to fall is just hurting her. she is not on the state to keep on trying, she wasn't at all ever.

taco's arc most likely will have closure on a way that fits her character, and i feel like that would be with her letting go of inanimate insanity as a whole and of what she can't fix anymore. her trying to find herself after years of lying to everyone and to herself. she's not a good person. but she can become one. only if she knows what she did was wrong and that her second chance isn't there, and never will be, and if she recognizes that meanwhile she did that damage, she can still become a better person. just not there.

pickle and mic don't owe her anything, especially pickle. taco does owe them an apology, but they won't accept that. the least she could do is to accept their wishes, understand that she needs to leave them and grow to be a better person. maybe, if she does that, she would actually heal.

she doesn't need anyone to fix her. she needs to fix herself.

[foggydismay]

My FAVORITE resident evil duo

‼️Not written with the intent of a ship BUT can be taken as either a ship or not, whatever you see fit! ‼️

In the originals, he sadly got taken out VERY early but I still find their very short dynamic to be nothing short from amazing.

Even as Ada calls him a runt and complains how much she has to do for him, in the chapter change sequence, she mentions how she’s the one who personally brought it to the organization’s attention on his value and that as how she puts it, he is a brilliant scientist.

And I especially love her line,

“I did it because I like him. His history betrays an enthusiasm I once shared”

Even with their limited time, their story was done wonderfully for what it is!

Their one meeting 😭

And now, my absolute favorite, the remake!!!

Firstly, with Luis’s increased screen time, it really gives them more time to showcase their bond!

I feel as if in the remakes, she actually cares more for Luis than Leon outside of mission purposes.

Luis helped her understand a lot more about the work she does in general! (By being an idiot) But she gained more value to trust and that she doesn’t ALWAYS have to work alone for what she wants. Luis showed her she can still benefit even with trusting others for a bit.

It is shown very obviously that Ada does not care for things unless it concerns her in any shape, way, or form. (Shown by how she does not care about Leon nor Ashley being infected and does not pay any mind to the idea of medicine until she is informed she’s infected too)

She only starts to gain sympathy for the situation when Luis is distraught about the loss of his medicine, which Ada goes OUT OF HER WAY to help get the ingredients even though the only thing she ever promised to Luis for the Amber was to get him out of there and have him under protection.

Sure, she needed the medicine herself, but she didn’t even protest the idea of getting off course and even came up with the solution to make more! Since Luis was so focused on the idea that what was left was destroyed. (Def far fetched…)

But also Luis’s pure concern for her in the scene where he gives her the sedative! :( And especially since that’s the last time they were ever able to see each other face to face.

But my main reason? How she honored his wish! She paid little to no mind into helping Leon AT ALL. (Shown in how she sees him fight Salazar, but since it didn’t concern her, she didn’t lift a finger to help him. Contrary to when she shot Mendez, she NEEDED to be in there to Investigate) but she switches off the bombs to the island to honor the fact Luis wanted them to make it since he did everything he could to save them and to “set things right”.

She had no reason to switch it off for her own benefit, she didn’t do anything to directly save Leon just because she “wants” to and she literally told Leon to leave Ashley behind! She did it to honor Luis ☹️ And since she’s a woman who doesn’t let emotion ever get in the way of her mission, I find this really sweet 🫶

I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!!! Luis didn’t deserve to die 😔💔

(Picture credit to people on pinterestttt 😋😗)

[kell-eramis]

My Thoughts and Criticisms on Earthspark:

Before anyone has a knee jerk defensive reaction to this, I’m not saying anyone’s bad for watching, or that you’re not allowed to like it. I just ask that you take into consideration what I’m about to say.

While I have issue with pacing, the deus ex machina in the last batch, the way it doesn’t explain much and expects the viewer to fill in details from other continuities (IDW+Prime especially), and the way character arcs are done (especially Grimlock, Starscream, and Shockwave), I’m going to focus on one aspect that pervades through much of the show itself: the topic of xenophobia and anti-immigration.

This topic is first introduced with the main villain, Mandroid, who “wants to defend Earth from Cybertronians, no matter the cost”. If it was just this, it would not be an issue, as many villains in the past have adopted the same kind of thinking (Silas, Skywatch, Sector 7, etc). However, the second batch introduced other specific allegories: the way humans treat Cybertronians. Tarantulas alludes to the idea that “humans will never be able to cohabitate with Cybertronians” so he chooses to attempt to disguise himself as human in order to live freely.

However, it is completely introduced in the second batch finale. One of Robbie’s friends from Philadelphia (portrayed as visibly latino, might I add) is seen defending “Transformers go home” graffiti. For me, it bore a strong resemblance to the sentiment of “go back where you came from”, which is often used as an anti immigrant sentiment. This is just one detail but it entrenches the primary conflict: the Terrans defending their (and the Cybertronians) place on Earth.

This is emphasized by Mandroid’s reappearance in that same episode, once again saying that he wishes to rid Earth of Cybertronians. It is revealed he is making Cybertronians fight each other in an underground fighting ring for energon (you know, the thing Cybertronians need to survive) and dismantling the loser for his own purposes. While this is not something I can speak to, I have been told that this is also reminiscent of human trafficking, something brown immigrants are susceptible to. All of this, combined with the graffiti and the way it implied that a good amount of humans feel the same way, Mandroid’s motivation, and GHOST’s existence as an organization to police Cybertronians and lock up “bad Cybertronians” (which they even refer to the Terrans as “undocumented Transformers” that must be captured… I feel as though that needs no elaboration.)���this of course is any Cybertronian who is not GHOST that is just trying to survive (like Tarantulas, Breakdown, or Bumblebee), not just “evil” Decepticons.

Then, it is revealed that Croft and Mandroid are working together, and that Croft has a space bridge with the intention to invade Cybertron, and the both of them want to kill any energon based organism.

These anti immigration allegories were handled very badly to me. I’m someone who was affected personally by 45’s anti immigration and racist policies (I will not elaborate further and please don’t assume anything), and it genuinely did hurt seeing how it was handled in Earthspark.

Firstly, it’s a false equivalency. The Cybertronians did bring their civil war to Earth. They did cause many people to get hurt. This same argument of bringing violence to (particularly, USA and Canada) is often used to argue for anti immigration laws. However, it is (especially USian) imperialism that has led to the violence they use for that argument. By using this false equivalency to represent an “immigrant struggle”, it does more harm than good.

Secondly, they focus solely on the oppression, rather than how the Cybertronians can make a home on Earth. The immigrant experience is not just suffering and oppression, it’s something that can be beautiful. Making a new home, a new community, new friends, becoming a new person is an incredible experience! But Earthspark does not focus on any of that, which is a shame, because Transformers can be a good medium to show immigrant narratives! The most we get is what Bumblebee experiences with the Maltos, but that’s only really shown in one or two episodes, and beyond that he’s mostly just the Terrans’ instructor. It’s also less of a focus on the creation of a new home, rather just settling into a new role as instructor.

Thirdly, up until this last batch, the actions GHOST were taking were seen as justified—the ones imprisoned were “evil Decepticons”, and even though it’s brought up to Optimus a few times that it’s unjust what their options are, he does not do anything. To me, based on the evidence I’ve seen, it’s meant to be an allusion to ICE. This allusion is flawed for the reasons I stated above, but also the fact that the prisoners were only freed upon learning that Croft and Mandroid were working together against Cybertronians, and not beforehand, even though it was always an unjust thing, felt offputting.

Ultimately, you’re allowed to like it. You’re allowed to love it! I did want to inform people, however, because this kind of writing IS harmful because it appropriates a struggle that cannot be accurately depicted without nuance and without input from affected communities. It personally soured the whole show for me, as it pervades the entire theme. If you have any questions, corrections, or ideas you want to posit, I’ll be happy to listen (I’m not turning my replies back on after what happened to my Miguel post but my inbox is open), but please be respectful.

[yoonzinuhh]

RUN TO YOU

𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 : mingyu x reader,seungcheol x reader(not a poly)

𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗿𝗲 : office au. boss x worker,co workers,fluff,smut,lil drama.

𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 : SMUT minors dni.

𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿’𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗲 : this is purely fiction. i have no intentions in sexualising any artist. just for entertainment purposes. let me know if you want to be added in the tag list (for the series/permanent tag)

series list , episode 1 , episode 2

the whole talk of 9-5 work piling has started hitting you. it was hectic but you loved it. and the workspace was good too. surprisingly,you’ve started getting closer with mingyu. hanging out at each other’s places,late nights talks and ice cream walks at 10pm. it was pretty much safe to say he’s a part of your close friends circle. and most importantly seungcheol was barely there but when he was he makes sure you have a hell time. even if he wasn’t being serious it still annoyed you.

“i’ll go get my food” mingyu took his eyes off his phone. you slide a lunch box to his side while opening yours not even looking at him.

“having canteen food everyday is definitely not making your random stomach aches better.”

“b-but you don’t have to..that’s double job” he said with a frowning smile staring at the box.

“oh come on. adding one more cup of everything isn’t hurting anyone. plus you can always treat me with a coffee every evening you know” you wink at his direction.

he chuckles. he does. but his heart just grows warmer. it wasn’t a week ago he said how office food doesn’t suit him the best but he has no choice because his cooking is probably worser. living alone in a huge city with no friends or no cooking skills was hard. but honestly you made it better for him. even though you don’t show your care for him louder,you surely do with your actions.

and just like that the break ends with giggles,complaints and rants about work.

“i think i’ll stay little late today. i need to catch up with alot of work from last week..this is driving me crazy” you tell him with your hands and eyes on your computer as he was packing his stuffs.

“are you sure..do you want me to stay back?”

“no..i’m good. i’ll get home before 8 that should be fine. you can leave” you wave at him while he just stands there.

“oh mingyu i’m not a child,i can go ! leavee” you whine.

“fine..let me know once you get home and..no more coffee.” he says staring at the multiple cups of coffee that kept you awake the whole day.

“sure mom. now leave” you chuckle signalling him the door.

“hmm” he pats your head before leaving.

the whole office was silent. you were probably the only one here and to be honest you loved the silence. you could focus more on working on your documents so you could leave while the city was still alive.

two hours later you were finally done.

throwing the pen away you stretch,arching your back against the seat,your chest raising up the air while leaving out the most exaggerating groan known to man you fail to see the man who entered the room.

“damn wow- look who’s still here” you shot up almost falling down at the sudden voice with your heart being out.

shit. he’s here.

“i was working on some papers mr. choi”

“come on. it’s past work time you can just call me seungcheol..we are probably just one or two years apart.” he walks in eyeing the papers the spread out on your space.

“mom was right you indeed are a sincere worker..”

you get up real quick packing your things and glancing the watch.

“i like to keep things professional” you say earning a chuckle from him.

“are you taking the bus ? its late already..i can drop you off”

“i’m good sir. thank you”

“y/n. its not a big deal and it could give me a company you know.” he says getting little closer.

“well..i don’t see the need to entertain you past work time,seungcheol” you say out emphasising more on his name.

clicking his tongue he gets closer. you unconsciously get back,your back hitting the table.

“you did know how to entertain me well that night,y/f/n”

he’s so close to you right now. his breath fanning your eyelids. his stare was intense. oh fuck it.

looking down at his lips you lean in. he kisses back,hungrily. your hands travelling through his neck as his hands find your hips.

“trust me..you have no idea how much i wanted to fuck you all these weeks” he groaned making you sit on the table.

continuing the kiss,his hands massaged your flesh slowly opening your legs apart. trailing through your inner thighs his fingers touch the outside of your panties and he groans at the wetness.

“god..what do i do with you” he says as he removes your panties letting it lay onto your ankles.

kneeling down he stops at your core pecking it twice. looking up at you with full of lust. like a hungry man who hasn’t eaten for days.

“seungcheol..eat me out already” you say desperately and who is he to deny.

kissing your entrance he spreads your lips with a little V with his fingers. tongue licking a fat stripe along your hole to clit making your head fall in pleasure. entering one finger inside while kissing your swollen clit his tongue,he devoured you hungrily. sucking it off his fingers moved faster. your eyes closed as you feel your stomach flip. “god..cheol” you whisper.

“i-i’m cumming…oh fuck CHEOL” you cry out as you cum hard on his face. licking you off he stands up to kiss you,making sure you taste yourself.

“cheol? i like it” he chuckles in between the kiss while grinding his hardness onto your exposed and wet core.

your hands go down onto his zippers and you let out a soft “please..”

kissing you more he unzips. rubbing his length onto you twice he slowly entered,stretching you out. his groaning and your moaning made the air hotter.

increasing the speed he grips your hip tighter moving rhythmically.

“you like that” he says before hitting faster. you’re both a moaning mess right now. his thrusts getting more sloppier you both reach your climax. hitting your second orgasm that night your head falls onto his shoulder as he pats you head,massaging your thighs.

staying that way for a several moment you pull back,standing down to put your panty back.

“i’m dropping you home” he says and you have no choice left because no way you’re walking with this legs home. the ride home was with small conversations about work and how badly you wanted to come here.

you get out from his car before saying a small thanks. and he nods.

“you were amazing” he said before watching you get home.

closing the door behind you stare at the wall blankly knowing where exactly this was going. you both know it’s too late to stop and who cares a little fuck at office occasionally with no strings attached..right ?

tags : @shadowyjellyfishfest @thepoopdokyeomtouched @leah-rose03 @wonwootakemyheart @aaniag @fragmentof-indifference

[umbralaether]

I am loving your BG3 writing, so: “you have no idea what you've done to me.”

No matter how hard he tried, he could not stop staring at her hands.

Hands that were quick to fight, to burn and break when needed; impulsive at worst and calculated at best. She had no problem using them this way, chipping blood from her fingertips like old paint, it was all a means to an end.

When her hands did not end up driving a stake through his heart, he knew she’d be the perfect shield. For all intents and purposes, everything was going according to plan. He could ignore the strange fluttering in his chest whenever her hands brushed against his skin. After all, it meant nothing. A strange side effect of survival.

At least he had thought so.

Watching that same gentle hand given to others twisted something strange in him. How captivating it was to see her fingers combing through Shadowheart's hair, weaving small white flowers into the dark locks as she braided them into their usual fashion. The act was almost imperceptible to the half-elf until one fell into her lap, leaving her flustered as Ceruli laughed in turn. You deserve a bit of niceness now and then too, you know!

His thoughts drift to what it would feel like to have those hands run through his own hair, if the soft caress of her fingers would awaken that same flustered response. He starts to question the fairness of it all, that Shadowheart should get to know this feeling when he hadn't, that she should experience her softness in a way he’d only seen.

“Careful, Astarion. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you are envious of our Lady Shadowheart,” Wyll’s smirk is worse than his words.

“Envious? My, you’ve got it all wrong. I’m simply enjoying the show.”

Ever the masochist, he finds himself still thinking of her hands in his hair when he comes to feed later that night. Part of him aches, wanting to know if the sensation would be soft, pleasing. If he would like it, if he could get lost in it. He certainly couldn’t ask her to do such a thing, of course.

Perhaps he was envious after all.

Wyll's comment eats at him still, resurfacing a few nights later when she recruits the Druid and he makes her laugh, a rare sound to hear in the Shadowlands. He grits his teeth when Halsin kisses her hand, wishing her a good night, and for a moment he wants to take those hands in his if only to remind her of him, however odd it seemed.

He once again shoves aside the fluttering in his chest. Why should he be so bothered by this? He could get whatever he wanted from her should he attempt the same flattery. A few honeyed words here, a sultry look there. It was easy.

So why did Halsin's forwardness rub him the wrong way?

He doesn’t find the answer until later, when he comes to feed one night; her gaze warm, inviting. She looks at him as if she truly sees him. It hits him then— he wants her to want him, willingly, not tricked into it with pretty words. Not just because of an alliance, or an agreement. He wanted her to want him, the person he was under the many masks he’d put up to hide behind.

You have no idea what you've done to me.

He’s ready to be fully wrecked, and he doesn’t know what he expects, telling her the truth. Exposing the raw parts of himself, against all better judgement. Admitting that his plan for protection was going so well until he went and compromised it. By feeling… what, exactly? A strange sense of fondness?

“I care for you, Astarion.”

She steps close, pulling him into her embrace. He freezes with an almost animalistic need to flee bubbling up— then stops, realizing what this is. He returns the hug, the fear melting away. This is what he's wanted, after all. Her touch. Her acceptance.

A spark, newly born.

[placeinthisworld]

just curious what you mean about your idol becoming what she used to sing about? what do you think has changed? no hate just genuinely curious

i feel like over the years her music has become more jaded, less personable more targeted. she used to sing about her experiences and feelings more generally and therefore held more interest bc of the relatability aspect of her songs. like for all the ogs which i may still listen to she had so much intent in the songwriting. like, as a teenager i never went through a breakup (still haven’t?) so i could never relate to her breakup songs in a traditional way- but the way she would write about her feelings would still feel relatable to me enough to help me through different situations.

i feel like now she writes to complete and album. she knows she can bullshit something quick is she’s motivated enough. it feels like midnights was a first draft- like it was never edited and perfected it was just written, recorded and produced. done.

i also feel like her fanbase has a lot to do with it. i think when folklore was released, she had disappeared from the spotlight long enough for the general public to forget why they were so against her to begin with. i think taylor made her dating life a main highlight in her career (whether that was on purpose is another debate), so when she got with joe and went private for a bit the general public weren’t being plastered w ts/ bf gossip and sightings to annoy them and remind them of her “serial dater” reputation. and when folklore came out it was purely about the album and not the relationship that influenced the album bc it was “fictional,” and people needed something fun to transfix on when the world was unpredictable and scary bc of covid- which is why everyone and their mom became a swiftie overnight. nobody speculated about what song was about who (i mean swifties did ofc but it wasn’t a world wide thing- it was just rocking out to august). the internet definitely shifted during this time and it feels like everyone became chronically online.

long story short: i feel like taylor is using her songwriter and platform as a weapon. she knows her fans are weirdly cult like and notoriously known for being bullies on the internet, and that they’ll buy and believe anything she says. i think everyone will be expecting a folklore- likeness to ttpd but i think it’ll be a cheap way of blowing over her relationship with joe and changing the narrative for rep tv. overall it just feels like all of her songwriter is so personal to her life and her relationships it’s not relatable anymore, her words don’t have the impact they once did. everything feels tailored to her life specifically and it’s more of a show for swifties to make pick up easter eggs for clout on the internet. like she knows what she’s doing with ttpd, we all know.

it’s evident in the way she markets herself, it’s evident in the lack of marketing of her albums. she knows her fans will promote it for her. no lead single, no real description of the album or anything. hundreds of dollars of encouraged preorders for something you don’t even know if you’ll like until you buy it. fucked with umg to try to return it if you don’t. fomo if you missed out on an “exclusive” or “limited” item.

also just the whole miss americana thing she’s ignoring. we all heard her. she said she wanted to be on the right side of history. yet here she is politically silent as always- besides that one time in 2020 when she coincidentally had something to release….

(also unrelated….but like the taylor overexposure is real. i love that she’s interested in doing different things but i wish she would prioritize quality over quantity. it feels like she’s rushing through everything to get to the next one. i just wish she would care more about her art than breaking records and being #1/ talked about constantly. it just feels very….narcissistic? like girlie you’re a billionaire and youre still in your early thirties what are you trying to do??? be the first person to sing on the moon like??? when is it Enough for her?)

[talenlee]

Game Pile: I Wish We Were Worse (Faith and the Satanic Panic)

Script and thumbnail below the fold

Content warning, this is a game with a lot of horror elements including demonic possession and catholic imagery.

Spoiler warning, I’m going to talk about the elements of this game that include the ending of the stories.

Tone warning, I guess? I don’t think very highly of this game, and as a direct result I’m probably going to be mean. And as we know, there are few things worse than being mean to a video game, especially an extremely successful and critically lauded one.

Introduction

Faith is a survival horror game from Airdorf Studios that came out in 2017 and has been gussied up and re-released and expanded on pretty much every year since then. It’s notable for a particular aesthetic that you’d have to be actually pretty well informed about historical video game consoles to accurately pin down, but most people will probably say something like a ‘retro computer.’ You know, an aesthetic space that reaches from the Tandi to the PS3.

The aesthetic is big chunky pixels on a solid black background without much capacity to genuinely do ‘behind’ or ‘layers’ in a contextual way, abstracted shapes that try to represent a thing in big, strictly defined, obvious shapes. There are simplistic animations that would normally betray a limited ability of the game to remember information for each entity. Locations are bare and boxy because that’s what the system can do, and colours are defined by outlines, not by fills. I like what it’s doing with how it looks, because it positions itself as being not just limited, but old. It shows what it can and explains what it can in this very difficult to parse, difficult to experience way, because it is an old game, or so it pretends. That oldness positions the story close to when it’s set — which is Connecticut in 1986.

Part 1

In Faith you take on the role of John Ward, a priest, though there’s asterisks around all sorts of things when you simplify descriptions like that. John’s a priest, formerly, and doing the work of a priest and dressing like a priest and considers the world through the mind of a priest, so y’know, priest. Priest enough. John starts the game disembarking from a car on the highway at the edge of the woods, intent on heading towards the wreckage of a failed exorcism that led to the reason he’s a priest (former). To make your way to the house you first must encounter things like an abandoned well, an old shack with a key in it, a pile of bones and a skittish deer, totally normal exploratory things to do until you encounter the flesh-eating monster that will eat you while you explore. These things need to be done in an order that involves exorcising spirits from stuff, getting a key from the shack, reading a bunch of notes, then getting to The House. Once in the house, you explore it, you encounter a… I guess there’s a better technical word for it, because it’s a possessed child, but we’re just going to go with ‘monster.’

Once the monster is activated, you need to go around the place, exorcise some stuff, understand some of the backstory, and avoid the monster hunting you around the house. Eventually you unlock the attic, head on up there, do another exorcism, which involves essentially, a kind of quick time event. At that point, Faith truly becomes a videogame because that’s when you get a gun. Since the gun is the all purpose sign of agency in videogames, the gun is where the story forks off into five different directions for you to pick and choose in true hypertextual fashion. I didn’t, I did one ending and got pretty much exactly what I expected.

I have no intention to comparatively line up all of these different endings one with another though, and try to explicate some kind of ‘true’ or ‘canon’ ending. This is silly, because one, videogames aren’t like that, and two, canon is for cops, but three, this is a game that’s meant to be examined critically. Engaging with the game critically means being able to look at the game closely and in a specific context that determines meaning out of the repeated use of symbols presented in the text. To quote Roland Barthes: Don’t have a cow, man. If a game is worth critical acclaim it’s worth critical regard and critical regard can bring with it a consideration of the ideas it’s using that doesn’t spend its time sucking the text’s dick.

One of the things about treating games as art and regarding things as works that can be critically engaged with is the willingness to say, even if other people like this, here are ideas that I find present in this work that I don’t like and I have this reaction to. It is not a matter of putting things on an objective scale where goodness and badness slide up and down, but rather that if this text is meaningful and artistic and representative of deeper thought, then it is a thing that it needs to be okay to call the story you find there bad. It’s the price of being interesting, I’m afraid.

Faith is interesting. I would never dare to claim it isn’t interesting.

Part 2

Fundamentally the story of Faith is the story of a priest reconnecting with his faith. That is, he had an experience in the past that shook his faith and had him separated from what he saw as the legitimising authority of his faith (the Vatican), then learning through doing that actually, he still had his legitimising authority of his faith all along (God). The story is framed as a horror and a tragedy — after all, a little girl dies, what could be more appropriately tragic in a man’s story than that? And he’s a priest, those, get that, those are meant to protect children, since they are good people, and turns out that the just and loving god they represent doesn’t do anything to protect little girls from being turned into meat portals. It really is rough on poor John.

In terms of engaging with the game, you can treat any given game in terms of the things it lets you do through its interface. These are the game’s affordances, the buttons it lets you push. Faith has at most five buttons, with one all-purpose ‘do stuff’ button, and four ‘move in this direction’ buttons. Four of those buttons give you a sense of material space, letting you move around in the game’s spaces, and that in turn lets you find and define the shape of the world you’re in. After all, a game can show you a wall, but if you can’t engage with that wall (by walking into it), it isn’t making that wall meaningful. Buttons create movement that create material space.

Following the idea that affordances create space in the game, then, the other button, the all-purpose ‘do something’ button that is ‘hold your cross up and hope something happens’ (which is really a killer way to represent faith) shows you a world where an excommunicated priest’s hope for change and presentation of a divinely specified object can change the world. I could not see any other sign the game is trying to represent this behaviour as anything else but ‘do faith at this object/in this direction,’ and imagining that it’s doing something else involves one of those favourite things of the pseudocritical, which is to remove one’s own ability to interpret the obvious in an attempt to determine the potential.

That creates our two affordances: Move around a space, and demonstrate faith in God at something. Eventually, ‘demonstrate faith in this’ turns into ‘use gun,’ which seems to suggest that this is a game where ‘having faith at things’ and ‘shooting them’ are reasonably comparable ideas. “Do faith” and “Do gun” being cognates is a really interesting kind of fundamental overlap but don’t take this as me trying to deliver some sort of deep cognate out of the game’s religiosity. In this game, you do faith at things until the faith doesn’t work any more and then you resort to using a gun. Faith drives out evil spirits that I assume are concealing paper scattered around the forest, gun drives out evil spirits that are inhabiting bodies and keeping them alive.

I think this is a reasonable assessment of what Faith is doing with its play mechanics. What about its setting?

Part 3

Faith is set during the Satanic panic, in the 1980s. It is set in the northern states of the United States of America, a country that has always been Christian and never not privileged Christians, and it’s set in 1986, which is smack in the middle of the period of what we now know in hindsight as the McMartin Preschool trial. This trial, which at the time of writing is the most expensive trial in American history, in which, to not mince words, a bunch of selfish assholes acted on their biases against people who they perceive as even modestly queer and inadequately Christian. Inspired and inflamed by popular fiction masquerading as fact, the book Michelle Remembers and the claims of some mentally unwell fantasists were stitched together into what, to some actual adults sounded reasonable as a basis to then mentally abuse children into corroborating.

The Satanic Panic was an example of a common Christian evil, to establish fictional rules for reality, then punish people for violating them, facts be damned. Some asshole writes a book for scaring people’s mums – sorry, moms – and then their work catapults out because the systems for the public good aren’t capable of looking at the supernatural and conspiratorial claims of people who also have microwaves in their homes and understand that compound interest exists, and go ‘uh, no, we’re not going to waste our time being mad at a guy for wearing shorts.’

Faith uses its visual aesthetic to frame itself as being from around this same time, too. It gives a specific date. It focuses on the heart of the panic, the idea of demonically posessed children thanks to inadequate care and protection of the church. The exorcism failed at first, John re-attempts it without the Vatican’s support and succeeds, which suggests that the Vatican’s disavowing of John is them being wrong.

I’m not divining tea leaves here: Airdorf have said that the Satanic panic inspired this game.

Thing is, the Satanic Panic, a real event, was a massive event of community-wide child abuse. The people who destabilised and endangered a community, telling children to lie about bad things happening to them, gaslit children into trying to support a horrifying experience of engagement with an international satanic cult that I really cannot underscore enough, does not exist. This game looks at that event in history and suggests, hey, what if that happened?

Or, perhaps more darkly, because of opinions on the Satanic Panic: That happened, right? What about using that idea for a game? And make no mistake: it is a very common thing for people to think that the Satanic Panic was based on a real thing. That, you know, sure, it didn’t happen happen but it kinda happened, right? It was kinda a real thing? Right? Didn’t a bunch of people go to jail because of the magical rituals they were doing? And they don’t think that’s a ludicrous thing to say.

Now, do not think I am saying ‘this game, set in the Satanic Panic, sucks, because you shouldn’t set a game in the Satanic Panic.’ I am by no means against the idea of using horrible topics for games. After all, Wolfenstein 3d is a great and classic game and it’s set during World War 2 and starts in a prison where Nazis torture Jewish prisoners. That game, however, is a game where you’re playing the tortured Jewish person breaking out of jail and killing a bunch of Nazis on the way. Wolfenstein 3D is a game where the game criticises the Nazis as bad people who suck and it’s okay to shoot at and hate, a position that really shouldn’t be controversial now but whatever. In Faith, however, whil it’s set in the Satanic Panic it doesn’t seem to be critical of it. In fact, despite being set so intentionally in the time of the Satanic Panic, it represents the Vatican’s unwillingness to properly torture and kill enough little girls to be a failing of the Vatican.

After all, God’s real, John is right, and the Exorcism’s problem was that he gave up on it, not that the Catholic church routinely supports people to tie up children to chairs and torture them because they think that demons are real. Which, videogames? Sure, videogames can work on the logic that demons are real, but if you make a game about demons being real, the followup is then that ‘oh, yeah, I guess real world ways of dealing with demons are legitimate.’

Look, I’m not on Team Catholic. I am in fact kinda on the opposite side of that conversation. To me, in the real world, Faith is not an idea with a meaningful value. It actually strikes me as the opposite of a virtue, a vice that lets you treat your ignorance and emotionality as something that demands other people’s respect. But even setting aside that personal value, Faith is a game that extols its value of Faith as a thing that you can do, that has meaningful, provable agency in its world, and then that agency, at its absolute limit, can’t really do anything that you shouldn’t be doing with a gun.

God is real, and so are bullets.

Conclusion

Fundamentally, the story of Faith is just another fictional work in the lineage of The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby and going back to Lovecraftian works like The Shadow over Innsmouth and then forward to Michelle Remembers. What sets Faith apart from those things is that with thirty years of hindsight, it steps back in time, positions itself as a story of the time, with those elements, and considers the struggle against evil as being very hard, very difficult, bittersweet and tragic, but ultimately worth doing in the name of fighting evil and holding to your faith.

It is a game that looks at how badly the victims of the Satanic Panic were treated and wishes that they had been treated worse.