#I wish I was writing a book so I wouldn't need to make these choices?

[fluffypinkhedgehog]

❀⊱Walking Home Part 3⊰❀ ⤷ Shadow the Hedgehog x Reader | sfw, angst, one-shot, school au

w/c: 1,882

summary: Shadow's worried, so he followed you to the library.

warnings: Miscommunication, Shadow's P.O.V.

a/n: Man, these kids really need to speak their minds. (I need to learn that, too.) Also, I injured my wrist, somehow(???), so this was written with a lot of pain lol. Oh, and I decided on a theme song for this little series. Not because of the lyrics themselves, but Carly Rae Jepson's Call Me Maybe's vibe is very "hopeless romantic teenagers" lol. On top of that, I do have an idea for the ending of Walking Home. Not exactly sure how we'll get there, but I'll certainly try to make it as entertaining as possible! ღ P.S. There was an edit to the last chapter. See if you can find it! P.P.S. This took WAYYY longer to write than I wanted it to, BUT IT TURNED OUT SO GOOD AAAAAAAAAAAAA-

Shadow approached the double doors to the school library, stopping. He had followed you in haste, not really thinking about what he would do once he found you. What would he say? What would he do? He can't exactly comfort you, could he? Well, isn't that why he followed you? Shadow closes his eyes and takes a breath through his nose, trying to calm his thoughts. Letting them run rampant right now isn't going to help the situation. Shadow balls his hand into a fist at his side while the other grips the strap of his backpack like a lifeline. He just had to make sure you were okay, nothing else. He didn't even have to talk to you.

With a huff of finality, Shadow gripped the handle of the door to the library, pushing it open with ease. A small tinkle of a bell rang out as the door opened, alerting the librarian at the desk who looked up from her book, which was poorly disguised as a magazine. A classic move many kids in his classes pulled when trying to use their phone during a time they shouldn't, though— for Shadow— it was a first to see someone trying to read an obvious erotica novel behind one. Shadow nodded to the librarian in greeting, who silently nodded back before returning to her debaucherous reading choice.

Turning away from the librarian's desk, Shadow headed deeper into the library. Normally, he would've asked the librarian where you went inside, but Shadow knew your favorite spot. Besides, he's pretty sure that miss librarian was too swathed in her book that she didn't know where you went. That's fine.

Shadow looked down the aisles as he walked through the library. For how quiet the library was, there were a lot more students here than he initially thought. He spotted a couple messing around, running between the aisles as one chases the other as silently they could without disrupting the whole library. Shadow rolled his eyes and sighed through his nose. He wouldn't admit it, but he was jealous.

As Shadow made one more turn he finally reached the back of the library, a popular spot for those who have a lot of studying to do or simply wish to sleep. That's where he found you; sitting at the center table with your face buried in your history textbook, your notebook to your right with pretty, color-coded, and curly handwriting. The table you sat at was your favorite spot; it got the best sunlight in the entire library. He often found you in sunlight. He liked the way the warm sun casted a halo around you, how it made you so sleepy but you were too stubborn to fall asleep in its warm embrace. Every time, though, you would always succumb to its sweet and warm embrace in the end.

Shadow shifted the strap of his bag on his shoulder, steeling himself. He didn't really want to distract you from your studies, but he promised himself that he would check in with you to see if you were alright. You looked bothered by the rumors, after all. Shadow put his free hand up to his mouth and coughed, trying to get your attention, but it didn't work. He coughed pretty loud too. That's when he noticed earbuds in your ears. You must be listening to your favorite low-fi music. He noticed that you liked the outdated stuff from the playlist you once showed him, songs from over 10-ish years ago. Shadow rubbed his fingers against his thumb in nervous hesitation before reaching forward and tapping you on the shoulder.

The reaction was immediate: a loud yelp that echoed off of the thick glass of the windows and a thump from you hitting your knee under the table, making your favorite thermos fall over, the liquid inside going all over the table. Thankfully, it was just water with ice.

“Ah, shit, shit, shit!” Shadow flinched back as you exclaimed as quietly as you could, scrambling to grab your jacket and soak up the water on the table before it could ruin any important papers. A 'Shhh!' comes from a nearby table, annoyed by the noise. You turn towards the shusher and respond with a heartfelt “Sorry!” before sighing and bending down to pick up the thermos that fell off the table.

Shadow felt really guilty. He didn't mean to scare you so badly. He scratched the back of his head, ruffling his quills. He looked back at you, the grip on his backpack strap tightening slightly. It's becoming a bad habit. “Do you mind if I... sit here?” He asked, tentatively.

“No— huh? I mean, yes! Yes, you can sit here. At the table. Here,” you cough, “Yes.” Crap, it was obvious he made you uncomfortable. He felt even more guilty now. He watched as you moved most of your items on the table, most of which were soaked along with your jacket. He noted that it was one of your comfier jackets. Damn it, he's just ruining your entire day at this point, isn't he? It was a bad idea to try and follow you.

Shadow pulled out the chair closest to him, dropping his bag on the floor beside him as he sat down. He dug through his backpack for his homework. By the time he pulled it out and looked back up at you, who had sat back down with a huff, a cloud had covered the sun, making you lose that ethereal glow. It made him a bit sad, but he can't control the weather. The two of you sat in silence as you continued studying your history textbook and Shadow started on his.

Shadow's mind started to swim with intruding thoughts. Every little motion of yours he was overthinking. Your scrunched face caused him worry, the tapping of your pencil gave him anxiety. He knew these were just your little quirks, which he found adorable, don't get him wrong, but the guilt was eating at him. He had to speak up. “Are you okay?”

You let out a startled 'huh?', looking up at him, surprise written on your face. “Oh, uh,” You look away, towards the window. Your gaze becomes distant. “Yeah, I'm okay.” It was another silent moment before you move your gaze back to your homework. Shadow wasn't convinced of your answer, his brows furrowing. That's when you look back up at Shadow, your expression beaming. “Thanks for asking, Shadow. I appreciate it.”

Shadow's heart skipped a beat. There's that smile he always liked. He smirked, giving a single chuckle through his nose. “I'm glad.” Shadow paused. He wanted to keep up a conversation with you. He wracked his brain as he watched you go back to your homework. He had to do it fast! What would he say, though? “Are you... going to the next track meet this weekend?”

Shadow caught you at a bad time. You were in the middle of taking a drink of whatever was left inside of your thermos, which probably was not a lot considering that it got dumped all over the table. Either way, he caught you off guard, yet again, causing you to accidentally inhale your water and choke on it. When will he stop ruining things? Shadow stood up, hovering over you. He didn't know what to do, the Heimlich maneuver that he just learned last week slipping out of his mind like sand. “I'm fine, I'm fine,” you said in between coughs. “You just caught me off guard, sorry!”

“It's okay,” Shadow replied, not really knowing how to reply to that. He sat back down in his seat. He looked at you, face full of worry. You looked at him and giggled a bit. Was something on his face? You shifted in your seat a bit.

“I'm gonna be busy on that day,” you finally said, fiddling with your mechanical pencil. Shadow's heart sunk. “Sadly, I got work!” You said with a sad smile. You had a job?

“I didn't know you had a job,” Shadow said, relaxing back in his chair. He was trying to look nonchalant, but he wasn't quite sure if it was working or if he just looked dumb.

“Uh, yeah. I work at the bowling alley. You know, the one down on main street.” Shadow knew that place. It wasn't exactly the safest spot, but the bowling alley was popular so it was safer than others. He was relieved that it wasn't any of the other bowling alleys in town.

“Maybe I'll visit,” Shadow said. Oops, he wasn't supposed to say that out loud. You looked at him, facial expression shocked. Did you hate the idea that much? He knew you didn't like him as much as he liked you, but your reaction did hurt him a little. Backpedaling, Shadow continued: “With the track team. Sonic's been saying he's been wanting to go. Bowling, I mean.”

“Oh,” you said, visibly deflating. Did you.. Not hate the idea? “Yeah, sure. It would make things at least a little lively there.” You gave a sad smile, eyebrows furrowed. You went back to your textbook as fast as the conversation ended.

It became awkward. You and Shadow worked on your homework in absolute silence, the only sounds were the rustling of paper and pencils writing. Shadow couldn't take it any longer. He set his pencil down, looking up to tell you the truth, that he wanted to visit so the two of you could hang out outside of school, but when he looked up he found you slumped over your textbook, asleep. The sun came out from the clouds in that moment, washing you in that warm, ethereal glow. He stared for what felt like forever but was only mere moments before he smiled, closing his textbook and putting it away along with his worksheets.

Shadow stood up and started gathering your things, putting them in your small messenger bag. He wasn't sure exactly how you liked things put away, so he hoped that what he was doing was good enough. He gingerly peeled you off of your textbook, replacing it with your jacket— which was has thankfully dried out already— and putting it in your bag before putting your back inside of his backpack so it's secure.

Shadow then moves you off of your jacket so he could put it inside of his backpack as well. He was glad that he had such a large backpack. Afterwards, he slung his bag over his shoulders and picked you up. You immediately clung to him in your sleep, getting comfortable in his arms. A small blush crept up on his face as he started to leave the library. This certainly wont quell the rumors anytime soon. That's when he heard you say his name as he walked out the library doors.

“Shadow,” you said, sleepily, almost slurring. Were you already awake? “I like you.”

Shadow froze in place. His face was entirely flushed. You liked him? Then he heard you lightly snore, continuing with something nonsensical. Oh. You were sleep talking. Shadow's heart sunk, his blush fading quickly. But... What if what you were saying in your sleep were your true feelings? If they were...

He wished they were.

Tag list: @affinitytales

[parcai]

I'm sure this isn't even a new discussion point, but it's bugging me more the more I think about it. ACOMAF's infamous Chapter 54/55 – Rhysand's infodump – is the go-to justification for his stans. That's where he gets a lot of his appeal, by explaining his past actions and motivations before their little paint session. ACOMAF, though, is so different from ACOTAR and its first book appeal, it lacks the whimsical magic, whirlwind romance that the other books just don't have. It feels like SJM put more thought into the plot and writing, which is why the later problems are so frustrating. Because not only is ACOMAF generally lower quality than ACOTAR, it's those less quality sections that people use to justify Tamlin hate to make Rhysand look better, which is ridiculous because if SJM has to take so many roundabout paths with poor plotting/writing to justify Rhysand, then how 'good' can he really be?

The way ACOMAF undoes what ACOTAR was about... ugh. It's such a blatant rewrite, and a poor one at that, as we all know and have discussed endlessly. But it's more than that! It's a rewrite and it's explicit about being a rewrite, but people can't even see that/don't care! Rhysand wouldn't be nearly as popular if he didn't have to explain all the supposedly good things he's done for Feyre! Tamlin saves her family and doesn't go around boasting about it; he protects her, even if it risks his court. He tries to shield her from Prythian's problems. They had their issues, sure, but it all felt more natural. If Tamlin had a whole lengthy chapter sitting there talking about all his choices, maybe people would love him too, but that doesn't happen in ACOTAR, because that's just such lazy writing!

Forget who you like more, or whether you buy Feyre's POV – the fact that Rhysand needs that infodump and that justification for his actions, whereas Tamlin's actions often speak for themselves! The writing feels like it's working overtime to elevate Rhysand at Tamlin's expense. And this circular logic is just so incredibly frustrating.

I wish SJM had kept Rhysand as he was in book one. I actually deeply enjoyed him there. Or, if she was going to do all this, had actually properly foreshadowed it. All this overcompensating just to make him look good... so annoying. I miss Rhysand where the narrative held him accountable, allowed him to be truly morally grey and just an entertaining guy doing the most insane things. I miss the first book. I miss the hinted-at insane lore between Rhysand and Tamlin, their fathers, their families, their powers. The picture of them being friends, to standing across from each other in a hallway, each other's families' blood on their hands, glowing in the light of new High Lordship. Their history, their contrast, the fact that neither of them were fully good people but the narrative could respect that and still love them both anyway. I miss everything about it, really, before it all turned juvenile and unrealistic and childish.

I don't think people have enough critical thinking to understand that it was already easy to love Rhysand and appreciate him for what he was in the first book, that perfection/goodness doesn't equate to likeability, and it was his flaws, fully acknowledged, that made him so interesting/fun to learn about. That this was the beauty of the first book in the first place. Brb mourning what could have been…mourning the fact that it never had to be Rhysand vs Tamlin in the first place.

Rhysand and Tamlin and Feyre and how they all work together to show different sides of what it means to grow up and work through the horrors of your past and become who you were always meant to be (aka the point of writing about 500 yos like this in the first place). A story of a mortal girl with fire in her veins, who shot a wolf, and threw a shoe, and was both saved by and ended up saving the Beast. Was reckless and stupid and with a big enough heart to venture down into the depths of Amarantha's lair, not some overly forgiving, amnesiac doormat, who changed them both in very different ways, and who changed her. Head in hands btw. It's not just that Tamlin deserves justice, it's that all three of them do. None of this is as it should be, and the blindness to the injustice of Tamlin's character is only the tip of the iceberg. 😞

[inseparabiles]

For the next like, two days, Boys and Wolves will be tagged with Geta & Cara instead of Geta/Cara.

I do not anticipate this state to last any longer than that, but presently the & team of demons in our head has scored a win.

I fucking hate tagging this fic I swear to god. No matter what we do with it it's going to give the wrong impression to someone. The A/N section to explain the relationship tag is several miles long and even that I don't think helps.

Like yes it's platonic. No they're not being platonic about it. Questions? Me too.

[rensylph]

Hihi! I'm not sure if you do nsfw or not, but if you do..PLEASE. IM BEGGING U TO MAKE A NSFW VER OF THE GENSHIN HIGH SCHOOL AU😭😭🙏🙏

Sure I guess, you guys consider whenever it's canon or not canon to the au. I'm sorry if it's bad It's my first time writing nsfw stuff

𝐘𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐍 ( 𝐒𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐋 𝐀𝐔 ) 𝐍𝐒𝐖𝐅 𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍

<< yandere genshin ( school au ) NSFW version >>

⚠️ MINORS DO NOT INTERACT ⚠️

You are a student at teyvat high, a prestigious highschool only for the wealthy and the elite has managed to get in due to one of your family members managed for you to be a student in the school, little did you know your presence will catch the hearts of many students. Characters: Diluc, kaeya, thoma, ayato, alhaitham, kaveh, childe, scaramouche, xiao, kazuha, albedo, vent

⚠️ Warning : this may have NSFW content ⚠️

(English is not my first language)

𝐒𝐓𝐔𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐅𝐈𝐋𝐄

NAME: (name) (last name)

CLASS: 2A

CLUB: music club

FAVORITE SUBJECT: (your choosing)

(Name) A second year student, a member of the music club, born from a middle class family has become an object of many students desires.

Diluc

A complete virgin, I mean he was saving for marriage but if you want to do it now he wouldn't mind he was having fantasies about you guys wedding night. I mean if you're planning on going to college why don't you move in with him and get married with him after college. Your life would be set.

Every time he thinks of you he couldn't stop popping a boner, even the slightest touch of your hand causes him to go crazy and go to the bathroom.

But the good thing is that the new arrangements with the student council president ayato, you and him will cross that border.

Kaeya

He has his fair share of sleeping around with the population of the school, so he's very experienced compared to his brother's diluc who is a virgin. He doesn't understand his brother's saving his virginity for the right one, until he meets you.

I mean he uses his charms to enchant the school to get everything he wants now he's regretting his choice because his reputation as a playboy is well known, causing you to avoid him entirely .

And every time he tries to flirt with you or try to indicate action, you would just look at him with a confusion. You're impossible to flirt with and so oblivious but that's a cute trait he could fix if you let him show you a good time

Thoma

Another virgin, unfortunately he has to witness you and student council arrangements and deal to keep funding incoming for your club

He's not allowed to do anything but Just watch you in the hands of predators that are willing to rip your flesh apart and feast on you.

But he also carries fantasy of himself and wishes for you and him to be together so he just needs time to strike. So you and him would be together without anyone disrupting your time.

Ayato

There are new arrangements with you and the student council, when Ayato called you and told you he had no choice but to cut the funding for the music club, and when you begged ayato saying you're willing to do anything, this gave him an idea.

So once a week or month, after school you would go to the student council meeting room and let your body be devoured by them, you allowed them to do anything with you.

Even tho the arrangement is with the entire student council, you and him would sometimes book a hotel room to spend the night together. And will use toys on you during school if you do not behave

Alhaitham

Of course accidentally witnessesing one of your rondavous with the student council, he decided to use it to his advantage. He used it to blackmail you and the student council president ayato.

So every time you do something wrong on a test you will get punished, and if you did well on a test you will be rewarded. As well every time you or him visits each other's house there will be some in course with each other

Plus every time he is stressed or overworked you have no choice but to follow him and distress him no matter the location. In school, bathroom, literally anywhere and you have to keep quiet if you guys don't get caught.

Kaveh

Poor kaveh seeing the love of your life having intercourses with your rival and roommate that gotta hurt. One time when you were with alhaitham. In exchange of keeping his mouth silent he also wants to have the same deal as alhaitham.

So every time when you finish with alhaitham you have to go towards kaveh. Heck maybe he will join you with alhaitham.

On the bright side, he's not been as stressed as before as well and he get a better view of biology and how does your body works

Childe

He's very pent up and everytime he win a game he will always expect you to reward him for doing good In the game.

Every time he's invited to a party, he will ask you to be his plus one and will not let you leave his side. If you're bored here don't worry he will take you somewhere more fun

He will take you to a hill, and you guys will make out in his car or just drive you back home so you and him could make out there. And he gets verbally jealous whenever someone tries to flirt with you

Scaramouche

Whenever he feels jealous or he feels like it, you will have to expect being pulled to the side drag into an empty broom closet and make out there

He doesn't even help you put your clothes back in or do after care just smash and go.

But sometimes he is gentle or whenever he's feeling a little nicer he's more gentler with you and gives you after care sometimes

Xiao

Also a virgin, he's very shy during his first time but gets the hang of it when you guys started to do it more often when he's not busy

He's very shy and nervous during his first time as well every time when you guys decided to have intercourses but he does have impressive stamina he can last for hours

He gets jealous when other students manage to get you before him, he once saw you walk out of the broom closet with scaramouche with a sweety body and disheveled clothing, so every time when he's jealous he's rought

Kazuha

The most gentlest and sweetest out of all of them, he can be rough but if you want to and ask him politely.

He always gives you the best after care after doing it, as well as gives you milk tea or any drink you want after doing it.

Will write poetry about your time with him In detail and will read it to you in the middle of it, it describes how he was feeling and what he wants to do with you and the things he's gonna do with you in extreme detail and find it amusing you blushing.

Albedo

He's very curious on how the human anatomy works during intercourse, so he asked you to do it with him so he could study how the body works

He calls your hook ups an experiment of the human body, he will write down every reaction thru every position or toys he uses on you.

He will say "how interesting" after managing to get a reaction from your body. And every time you guys do it, you will wear his lab coat.

Venti

The most open about your hook ups to make your other admirers jealous. And every time you try to shut him, he will reply with you " I thought you were enjoying it"

Likes to tease you a lot and grind against you when you are playing your music, same as Kazuha will write poetry about your time together.

Will always try to convince you to hook up or go another round even tho class is about in 5 minutes other wise you guys gonna be late I mean he doesn't care when ever he's late or not

[utilitycaster]

Hi, would just like to say thank you for writing up so much meta on campaign 3, it is keeping me sane seeing similar thoughts to what I’ve had written down coherently.

The last couple asks you’ve answered have got me thinking about how campaign 3 ended up like this (indecisive characters, weird nonsensical themes, only setpieces and maybe a ship or two being memorable) and I remember hearing that c3 was described by Matt as ”Pulpy” and I keep coming back to that and thinking that there was never even meant to be a big decision. From what I’ve read of old pulp fiction dnd novels it's pretty much “here’s the big bad go defeat/seal/slap them on the wrist, have fun on the way there with several cool setpieces and romance!” and I wonder if there was even meant to be a god debate at all or if it was just picked up in the middle of the story by the cast. It could explain why the characters wouldn't fit the story if this wasn’t meant to be the story.

Cause a character who goes with the flow is fine in those books and a character who only looks into what is thrust upon them works, but it feels like somewhere it tried to be more and just fell apart.

Because even now the story does feel pulpy but just held down by a narrative it isn’t handling well. 119 was a great episode and having the Raven Queen show up in the middle to give boons is an incredibly cool beat that would be memorable as hell but for it to end up as another god debate just sucks. But the rest of the campaign sort of does that with cool beats that end up dragged down in one way or another so its not unique I guess

I know you talked about the “pulpy”ness of c3 a while ago and was wondering if you had more thoughts now that we’re in the endgame for the campaign

I do - this is all rather speculative but in some discussions with other people one possible explanation that's come up is that Matt genuinely didn't expect the characters to be so hesitant to save the gods or stop Ludinus or sympathize with the the Vanguard, and has kind of pivoted to make a campaign that accomodates those doubts...but in doing so sort of fucked his end premise of "we must deal with Predathos". Which, you know, makes a lot of sense! What if Hearthdell was intended as a glimpse into why people might join something like the Vanguard to introduce an element of complexity to a party that (quite reasonably I might add) had said "these people are a fucking scourge on Exandria" but instead served to fan the flames of "well the gods didn't give me things when I asked so yeah we should let them be eaten"? What if the fetch quests to the Shattered Teeth or the scouting mission were like the quest for vestiges - something that the party desperately wished to do to achieve a deeply felt goal - and not something they had to be nudged along to do every step of the way? What if the party went into the final confrontation with any consensus or intention? Because then yeah a pulpier "you're taking on the Big Bad Ultimate Threat...but your MOTHER is on THEIR side" a la vintage superhero comics plays out much more coherently. I cannot stress enough that the cultural touchstone Matt brings up about the campaign is the 2012 Avengers film. Regardless of some posts I've seen (which tend to assume anything the cast has ever read/watched/played is an influence, which is. incorrect) that is your starting point.

The thing about all the "take a third option" and "status quo" talk surrounding this campaign is...this post is actually a good description of how it plays out in real life. Like yeah there's a lot of political constructs within the world that are stupid and unjust! However it is unproductive, naive, and idiotic to act as though just because you don't like them they aren't part of a complex system that needs thoughtful dismantling (at least, if you place any value on human life) or worse, that they simply don't exist because they shouldn't. Sometimes you genuinely do have two choices and neither is ideal and if you do not choose between them because you're holding out for a better option the choice is made for you, and often, it's the worse one. Sometimes there is in fact a problem caused by something stupid that you cannot undo in time to solve said problem, and it is selfish and childish to say "well I think this shouldn't be a problem" and leave it at that. You will fail in your endeavors if you do this. People will see that's your approach and stop listening to anything you say.

Bells Hells feel like that to me and it's not even entirely their fault. I think because Matt had such a clear endgame in mind in the sense of "face off against Predathos" and the party was so ill-suited, and the early pacing was genuinely already bad, he's sort of tried to pivot away by following every dumb idea Bells Hells have to perhaps funnel them towards that endgame. And this is a problem too, because it means the plot doesn't push back on them and they do not grow as people, which means that a lot of us are getting tired with their shit. It's telling that most of Bells Hells' loudest defenders are the "well, if you're traumatized, you're excused from all responsibility for your actions ever :)" types within the fandom because like, part of why people are sick of Laudna's shit (for example) is that it's like ok I agree you shouldn't have an evil wizard in your head but you do, so like, what are you doing about it. And because she hadn't done anything about it and because they had to get to Predathos we had our Deus Essek Machina situation, which to be clear, not mad about, but it also means Laudna never really learned or grew from this. And to be clear she's not alone; part of the frustration around Ashton is it seemed like they DID have a revelation around shardgate and then immediately discarded it.

There's many more factors I'm sure but just to sum up:

Matt has a very clear overarching plot in mind [and, also, probably was creating a campaign for characters who see point 3 had more realized worldviews and goals and investment in their communities]

Matt does not give the cast much guidance in creating characters for that plot; "pulpy" is really tonal and not even genre

Cast, having played characters specifically designed for the "complex and morally gray and must be from the continent the campaign is set on" campaign last, turn to wacky and go-with-the-flow types

Overarching plot kicks in; characters do not behave as expected

Matt tries to embrace/encourage this by getting the party to follow what they want to do

Go-with-flow/take no responsibility party doesn't know what they want to do

endless loop of a DM trying to adjust the direction of flow to a directionless party instead of imposing a direction/Cast trying to take direction cues from a DM who keeps throwing more options at them in the hopes one will appeal to them which turns into a "what do you want to do" "I don't know what do you want to do" situation.

[littlemisssatanist]

my acotar unpopular opinions

taking this time to come out as an acotar reader. yes i've read all the books and i've spent way too much time thinking about it. i enjoy the books in the sense that i enjoy hating on many of the characters and loving a few of the others.

be forewarned inner circle fans. you will not like this.

rhysand is not a 'morally grey' character. he's a rapist and a groomer. he sexually assaulted feyre utm, he groomed her (reminder that she was 19 in acotar), and he withheld important medical information from her. 'you'll always have a choice' my ass.

nesta telling feyre about her pregnancy was not a bad thing. why do people act like it is? 'oh she did it to hurt feyre' hurt her by doing what? revealing the lies that her beloved husband had woven? revealing the fact that she'd die giving birth? the fact that rhysand told literally everybody but feyre?

mor is not the champion for women everyone thinks she is. this i will give to sjm it is truly impressive to make a character like women and still be a pick me. i'm not even going to go into her whole weird ass relationship with her dad (i still don't understand why she wouldn't just kill him. 'oh rhys needed the army' rhys is supposed to be the most powerful high lord ever. either admit he's a fucking loser or give me an actual good reason for this) or the fact she's seemingly incapable of doing anything to help the women in the court of nightmares, but everytime she was mentioned, i had to let out a heavy sigh and rub my temples.

on a similar topic. i liked eris. like a lot. out of all the acotar characters sjm has written, eris is by far my favorite.

the inner circle needs to sit the fuck down. they are the most hypocritical bitches i've ever met. they like to think themselves high and mighty. reading them make fun of lucien's band of exiles while their name is literally 'court of dreamers' was the most infuriating thing ever. and then they have the gall to be insulted when called out. don't dish what you can't take.

out of all the inner circle, the only one i don't hate is azriel. this is simply because he is the only one who hasn't opened his big fat mouth and done something bad (except if you maybe count his whole thing with elain). cassian is on my hit list. it's on sight with cassian.

nessian is sjm's worst ship and i will stand by that. lucien/nesta could have been so much. 'nesta would have ripped lucien apart' and cassian was your first choice? not even azriel was considered? like be so for real right now. sjm didn't see the potential of lucien/nesta and i will forever mourn that.

sjm is a terrible writer. i'm not saying this to be mean but she seriously just sucks at it. that being said i admire her ability to still make millions of dollars off her shitty writing. as a woman, i am rooting for her. as a reader, every day i wake up a shoot a prayer to the heavens begging the gods to not let sjm write any more books from the inner circle's pov.

lucien/elain is better than azriel/elain. argue with the wall.

eris/azriel is better than azriel/elain. you can kiss my ass.

NESTA/ERIS IS BETTER THAN RHYSAND/FEYRE. i know this because i have been enlightened.

feyre is a victim to rhysand. that being said, she is also a major bitch. both can be true because these things are not mutually exclusive. i wish she could make friends outside of the ic like nesta did, but i know that's unlikely.

feyre's pregnancy storyline was completely useless and went against her whole character.

acomaf retconned everything about tamlin and feyre's relationship in order to make more money. idc.

tamlin gets a ridiculous amount of hate. rhysand is hypocritical. so tamlin locking feyre in a house because she wants to ride out with him into potential danger is terrible and abusive, but rhysand locking nesta in the house of wind for... *checks notes*... having sex and spending money on alcohol is helping her? what?

[hyperbolicreverie]

for the “I wish you’d write a fic where…” ask

Law Doesn't Leave the Donquixote Family AU

This one really gave me a run for my money, because it's not an AU I'd usually write. I hope it satisfies!

Law walks briskly down the hallway towards the executive suites. The shipment of black-market supplies had come earlier than expected, and Doflamingo would want to know they'd arrived, as several key items the Family had needed for the upcoming Dressrosa operation were included. It probably wouldn't change their timetable, but keeping information from Doflamingo was never a good choice, so Law had volunteered to inform the captain of their arrival.

He's almost to the big double doors when he hears conversation from inside. Well, that explains why none of the executives were around to collect the shipment. They were here, instead.

"...there even a point anymore?" Diamante's voice was asking. "The brat's almost sixteen, and he's smart. Why not have him do what needs to be done now and be done with it?"

"Patience," Doflamingo's voice rumbles back, a familiar low chuckle sitting in the back of his words. "The best pawns don't know that they are one, and as you say, the boy is clever. I want to be absolutely sure he's mentally right where I want him first." There's a clink of glass; it sounds like they're drinking. The senior officers often did at this time of the evening. "Besides, we make our move on Dressrosa next month. Better to make sure that goes off without a hitch and consolidate power beforehand. Splitting focus never works well."

Law's brow furrows. Were they talking about him? Diamante calling him a brat was nothing new; neither he nor Trebol had ever particularly liked him, and Corazon had disappeared over two years ago now, but with all the violence the mute had exhibited Law didn't think he'd fare any better if the captain's brother was still around.

All he knew is that bringing up Corazon in any capacity these days was a one-way trip to one of Doflamingo's bad moods, so the man's memory simply haunted the Family like a silent ghost, unaddressed and unmourned.

"Not afraid he's going to figure it out?" Law hears Trebol chuckle wetly. "His devil fruit is rather infamous, after all. The information is out there."

"Fortunately, few books speak of the procedure, and even less treat it as something more than a faerie tale," Doflamingo says. "It was easy enough to make sure we never happened to have one of the ones which does anywhere near where Law could pick it up."

Law frowns. Doflamingo had been keeping something from him? Something regarding his devil fruit? That made no sense. Doflamingo had been adamant he learn as much about his devil fruit as possible ever since he stole it out from under the Marines. He always talked about how proud Law made him, mastering such a tricky power so quickly and at such a young age.

What was going on?

"He really is quite the impressive specimen," Doflamingo muses. "And I couldn't be prouder of how he's turned out. Not just anyone could handle the power of a devil fruit that grants immortality at such a young age."

Law's mouth drops open, and he hurriedly covers it with his hand to keep from letting out a gasp of shock. He could do what? He knew his devil fruit was sometimes called 'the ultimate devil fruit,' but that was an ability that beggared belief!

"It's a pity that the immortality operation kills the user."

Surprised adrenaline is immediately replaces with horror, and Law feels his blood run cold.

His life? The thing he'd fought tooth and nail to keep, despite all the things that had tried to take it away from him? The thing that Doflamingo himself had helped preserve? It made no sense.

Or had he saved him solely so he could be a tool? Had that been the whole point?

Had Doflamingo lied about his true intentions just as much as the Marines who'd turned guns on the citizens of Flevance had, when they'd promised salvation?

Hand still pressed tight over his mouth to keep from making sounds, he moves as silently as possible back down the corridor towards his room. He needs to think about this. About the implications. About what it means for him and Doflamingo and everyone else who'd apparently known about this thing he could do.

And then he needed to make a plan.

[my-mt-heart]

Day 2 of "what the hell is going on with TBOC's promo," which is kind of a rhetorical question because I'm pretty sure we're witnessing a duel between two opposing marketing strategies again. I wish AMC would just put their foot down already and tell the dudes trying to ruin everything for Melissa and the fans to sit in the corner and stfu because the whiplash is not serving anyone, especially not two weeks before the premiere. Let's look at these bios...

Carol’s bio really does capture the true nature of what Daryl means to her and it gives her a strong emotional drive for her journey in S2. I think it also could've touched on her dealing with the trauma of losing Sophia all those years ago to round out her arc, although I'd argue that even that isn't separate from finding Daryl seeing as though that loss "ignited" their "unbreakable bond" in the first place. In any case, I like Carol's bio a lot and I have no doubt Melissa's performances throughout the season will bring it to life. Whether or not Zabel's writing can live up to it is a post for another day (Notice that the word "friend" did not come up once? That's how you know Zabel didn't get final approval on this one). Here's the thing about soulmates, though. If one feels that deeply connected, the other should too. If one of their stories gets damaged, the other's does too and that's what's bothering me right now. We should see their soulmatism reflected in Daryl's story as well, but we don't and without that mirroring, both his and Carol's journeys just feel sad.

Long before the promo circuit for TBOC started, I was worried that we wouldn't get to see Daryl fighting to get home to Carol (specifically), catch glimpses of him missing/thinking about her (specifically), or feel that spiritual connection that Carol does and this bio does absolutely nothing to alleviate my worries. This makes it sound like Daryl is going to be solely focused on whatever is going on in France until Carol arrives and even then, I worry about how he'll interact with her (thanks again for your unthoughtful analysis on that, Zabel). Similar to how Daryl has been taken hostage by the French characters, albeit through gaslighting, it feels like he has also been taken hostage by Zabel, Nicotero, and other men in charge who desperately want to use him as a stand-in for the generic, emotionally unavailable action hero that male viewers are supposed to identify with and/or aspire to. They won't let him be the character many of us were drawn to in the flagship show: the unconventional hero who's loyal to his family and falls in love "forever" with one woman (Carol). Like I said yesterday, "loyal" Daryl is the only Daryl I recognize and the only Daryl I want to watch, so it needs to be explicitly clear where Daryl's heart lies. We need to see that Carol is his first and only choice and we also need to see that Daryl has no romantic interest in Isabelle. That's the other problem...

Without Daryl's and Carol's bios mirroring each other as they should, Carol and Isabelle get framed as opponents in a quest for Daryl's heart, which is completely unnecessary, gross, and straight out of the "book of TV tricks" Zabel claims not to use. Daryl and Carol have 11 seasons of chemistry to capitalize on. Caryl's romance is the only one that's been earned, the only one I'm invested in, and the only one that needs payoff. Clemence is an extremely talented actress whose portrayal of a nun could've added something really fresh to the story, but having her catch "feelings" for Daryl after knowing him only a few months and question her long-standing faith of over a decade not only paints her as a weak woman whose weak principles are no match for a man's charm(?), but also glosses over the string of lies and emotionally manipulative plays she made against Daryl in S1. Isabelle's character has become nothing more than Zabel's and Nicotero's seriously problematic projections of what defines a woman, and I don't want it. It's an insult to Clemence, to Caryl's bond, to Daryl's history of childhood abuse, and to fans who have also suffered through CA or DV. So believe it or not, retconning her as a "former" nun all of a sudden does absolutely nothing to make this forced romance less abhorrent, AMC.

If the last couple of days have proved anything, it's that Daryl's and Carol's show needs a female showrunner who understands how to write not only complex female characters like Carol (and like Isabelle could have been), but complex male characters who don’t fit the dudebros’ definition of what makes him masculine or heroic. That's what Caryl, Melissa, and the fans deserve. They deserve a successful show and promo that gets everyone excited instead of confused and anxious. I enjoyed the clip of McReedus discussing the scene where Carol flirts with Daryl on top of the bus in S3, I liked hearing them confirm that Daryl's reaction was due to trauma and not lack of desire. I wish AMC would let them do the heavy lifting instead of trying to placate three EPs who keep self-sabotaging (seriously, you don't need all of them hogging the mic and spewing nonsense at Palyfest/NYCC). I don't appreciate being given consolation prizes (today's video, Carol's bio, yesterday's poster) after being kicked in the teeth. It says a lot about what I can expect from the season, which isn't very encouraging. It just means AMC is still trying to make everyone happy and will end up making no one happy and potentially ruining two iconic characters in the process.

[jspenft]

Home alone on Satoru's birthday.

I know I'm coming back after what, one? Two years? I don't know anymore. But I just had a fic idea and fuck, need someone to write it asap.

(English isn't my first language, and didn't proofread, pls be lenient)

It's a 𝙎𝙖𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙪 𝙂𝙤𝙟𝙤 𝙭 𝙛𝙚𝙢!𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧, and I'm sorry but Suguru is mean in it (don't blame me okay it just happened in my head😭).

Okay so basically, you're in a distance relationship with Satoru, or like he's away for missions (or business trip if NoCurses!au).

He's been away for so long, it's been weeks, you text, call, sure, but it's not enough, you miss each other so fucking bad. He sends you texts of the lines of: "I put your perfume on my pillow but nothing compares to you :( Need your arms around me sweetheart" "Miss you🩵" "Love you so much", and you needed him as bad.

Plus his birthday was approaching so fast, and you came up with a fucking great idea (not to be presumptuous, but you're pretty proud of yourself).

The idea: buy a plane ticket and surprise him.

Simple right?

You thought...

Days goes by and you plan everything: buy the plane ticket✅ book a room in the hotel he's staying (even though it's just to gain access to the hotel corridors and knock on Satoru's door)✅ making his favorite pastries✅ hell you even planned to wear those clothes he loves you to wear✅ everything was going to your plan.

You knew he specifically asked (ordered) to have the day off on his birthday, so the field was clear for you.

You both had planned a facetime that day (even though he would've liked to stay on call all day, you convinced him to move the call to late afternoon. Your excuse was lame, but he thankfully believed it.). But what he didn't know, is that when you'll call him, you'll be in front of his hotel room at that time. You giggle already imagining his reaction.

A few days before, just to be sure, you texted Suguru asking him to subtly encourage Satoru not to leave his hotel room at the time you'll be there. He agreed.

The day comes and you're so excited.

You're ready to go, check everything.

But shock is written all over your face as you inspect your wallet:

𝙒𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙙𝙞𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙚 𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙠𝙚𝙩 𝙜𝙤??

You are surprised at first, thinking that you must have put it somewhere else. But the more time you spend running around the house, the more horror replaces the initial shock on your face.

You really try to remember, but no, you really put it in your wallet! So how did it disappear!??

Time passes and the house is in distraught, you turned everything upside down, but still nothing.

Last resort: buy another ticket.

You run and scroll through the airline's website on your computer and: the flight is sold out...

𝙎𝙊𝙇𝘿.𝙊𝙐𝙏.

You start crying, why do these kinds of things only happens to you?

In the end, you decide to go to the airport anyway, because who knows? Maybe there will be a last minute cancellation and you'll have a free seat? spoiler alert: no.

You're crying, trying to hide your sobs from people.

For fuck sakes this isn't home alone! So why did this happens to you? All you wanted was making your boyfriend happy on his birthday, was that too much to ask for?

You spend the rest of the day sobbing in your bed. You may be overdoing it a bit, thinking that it wouldn't be a big deal for others, but you can't help but feel bad. Seeing something you've been preparing for so long slip through your fingers so easily, and that because of a poor plane ticket: it frustrates you to the highest degree. You miss Satoru so much.

You have no other choices than accept your fate. You already wished him an happy birthday at midnight, and all that's left is to wait for the facetime you had planned for late afternoon. You're already practicing fake smiles and hiding your swollen eyes.

Imagining yourself with him almost makes you shed a tear. Facetime is good, but nothing compares to being in each other's embrace.

You're suddenly brought out of your reverie by a message notification. Message from Satoru to be precise, you know it cause you have a specific ringtone for him.

You open his text, and begin to start rubbing your eyes, not believing what you're reading.

𝙏𝙤𝙧𝙪🍡🩵. 𝟰:𝟮𝟮𝙥𝙢 :

"𝘚𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘴!! 𝘠𝘰𝘶'𝘭𝘭 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘨𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥! 𝘚𝘶𝘨𝘶𝘳𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘺 𝘣𝘪𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘥𝘢𝘺!!!! 𝘊𝘢𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘵?😁 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘮𝘺 𝘣𝘪𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘥𝘢𝘺, 𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘭𝘭💅🏻💅🏻💅🏻 𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘪𝘳𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘴𝘬 𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘧 𝘪'𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘺! 𝘈𝘯𝘺𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘸𝘦'𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨!🥳 𝘞𝘦'𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘬𝘢𝘺? 𝘓𝘶𝘷 𝘶𝘶𝘶🥰"

...

...𝘿𝙞𝙙 𝙎𝙪𝙜𝙪𝙧𝙪 𝙂𝙚𝙩𝙤... 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙡𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙠𝙚𝙩??

You can imagine anything from there.

But I can think of the reader so shocked that she doesn't answer Satoru's call, or the following ones. She ends up picking up, but is very evasive in her answers. Ofc he asks her what's wrong, and so she explains to him.

Everything.

How she planned everything down to the last millimeter, how Suguru was in confidence, but he decided to stab her in the back by stealing her surprise. (Because yes, maybe the missing ticket is a coincidence, but the idea of ​​surprising Satoru, that, Suguru stole it from her).

Now imagine Satoru not believing you? Telling you his best friend wouldn't do that. "Why are are you lying?".

You'll sob, maybe even Shoko will hear the news and call you. You'll ask her "What? You don't believe me either?" but she believes you.

I don't know why Sugu would do that tho. Maybe he felt like the new girlfriend was stealing his best friend?

Just dreamed abt this fic, hope you like the idea.

[kimberlyannharts]

At this point Power Rangers has done a few crossover comics, and they've all been some pretty logical and big name choices - the Justice League, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Godzilla. So today's crossover comic is one that definitely took people by surprise - Usagi Yojimbo, the long-running story of a wandering rōnin having adventures in feudal Japan (who also happens to be a bunny rabbit), written and illustrated by Stan Sakai since 1984. While an icon in his own right - funnily enough, he's a regular guest in TMNT properties - I don't think ANYONE really had HIM in mind as a contender for a crossover with Power Rangers compared to more conventional properties like Transformers or even My Little Pony.

After all, what do they know about samurai in Power Rangers?

It's Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Usagi Yojimbo!

= So I know I've gone on and on about Shawn Daley's art but I really just need you to look at them again. It just makes me so happy to see a more stylized take on the MMPRs - basically if you took Daniele di Nicuolo's art and ramped up the anime influence by 100. It gives the book that much extra charm

= who the hell is THIS I'm here for the FURRIES not another random boring human!!!!!! it's like I'm playing Animal Crossing

= Jason's attitude in this book annoys me but at the same time it wouldn't be a Ryan book if he wasn't writing Jason in a way that annoys me.

= (also, they knew about the Morphin Masters this early in their Ranger career? I guess Zordon did mention them in an early episode, but.........what have they done that's similar to this that Jason would know about kjkjdkf

= I still think it's very weird that they didn't give the whole "maybe it would be easier if I was fighting alone" to uh.....you know.....Tommy, the loner? Who's so used to fighting alone that he struggled to adjust to a team? But I guess he has a girlfriend and Jason doesn't so.

= Is this a safe space. because the rabbit is pretty hot.

= HAHAHAAAA TOKEN EVIL HUMAN I KNEW IT

= YFIP: THE MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS - assisting the villain, thievery of a powerful artifact, assault against civilians, racism against furries

= Like I've said before Jason's characterization here irritates me a bit but I'll give the book props that someone's actually allowed to call him out on it for once. Like man I wish Tommy in the main series was allowed to tell Jason to shut up once in a while like Usagi does here

= Kim: Tommy, it's 4 pm! Time to go help our friends!

Tommy: yes honey

= Wow, look at these guys! They're like......Shogun Rangers! ............wait a minute

= But seriously, though, I gotta say these are one of the best alternate MMPR designs we've gotten in ages - I LOVE how they apply all of MMPR's little details into each individual user. And the altered weapons are awesome, too. Between these and the Kaiju Rangers we've really been cooking with the alternate forms lately

= And as I said, they did manage to resist the urge to give Usagi a Ranger form. I did like my old "maybe he'll find a Samuraizer" idea, though

= They both nearly died via crystal explosion a few hours ago but all they care about is their cool new outfits, just otp things <3

= I was about to say "well yeah, duh, that's why the Dragonzord doesn't have wings" but then I remembered. oh yeah. technically the Zords aren't Japanese in origin in-universe, are they

= It's nice to see Dragonzord Battle Mode! That was a form that didn't get a lot of spotlight in the comics - I think the only time we really saw it in the main series was Shattered Grid, and not for very long before it got destroyed by Serpentera

= Kim and Usagi only get one real onscreen exchange but she also catches him in the Pterodactyl and they have matching bangs. I'll take this as a win, though Splinter is still her #1 rodent dad

= they are so fucking sad

= I think future books should bring Usagi back or just crossover with him again with no explanation. Make people think he's a PR character just like how people assume he's a TMNT character

[cirillka]

A lot of unnecessary banter from "fans" clogging up Witcher 4 posts when we should just be excited and enjoying trailer edits and fanart. It's tiring, but every complaint has a logical answer, there's no "ah-haa" moment in any of these complaints.

"Ciri can't be a witcher." Except she's called precisely that in the books and in the... Witcher Ciri ending of Witcher 3. Which the entirely of the game's plot suggested (I understand there's alternative endings, but the game's logical flow goes to Witcher Ciri ending). Ciri is a playable character in Witcher 3 alongside Geralt. She is in every way Geralt's daughter, apprentice and heir to his profession. This is a classic "did you not play the game/read the books?" response and I don't know who, with any bare-minimum inkling of the lore, would say this with any seriousness.

"She couldn't have gone through the trial of grasses." Her going through the trial is clearly new Witcher 4 lore, but it's not an unreasonable route. The reason Geralt was a "super" witcher was that he was able to take on more mutations for his trial because he is the son of a sorceress, which isn't supposed to happen as sorceresses can't conceive children (this due to their bodies undergoing changes when becoming disciplined in magic, not some sacrificial ritual that the show suggested). Ciri's bloodline is not just a sorceress bloodline, but the Elder Blood/Lara Dorren bloodline which is so coveted for it's magic prowess, it... was a central aspect in the books and Witcher 3 plot. It is reasonable to assume that she would survive the trial of grasses should she elect to pursue it, which she clearly did.

"She's OP." Trust that CDPR will write to accommodate this? From the trailer, it seemed clear that Ciri had to resource manage her Lara gene. She wasn't teleporting at all, we saw the classic green magic associated with it, and she chose to channel it into a lightning spell. I think that's a great balance. Besides, who wouldn't wouldn't want to play as a combo witcher and sorceress, do you hate fun? lmao.

"I can't play cause Ciri is a woman and I need the protagonist to be a man to relate to them." Skill issue, honestly. I understand the feeling of playing a character that is your gender identity (I am excited to play Ciri for this), but I've played plenty of games as a man and the narrative experiences are still enjoyable and worthwhile, Geralt being no exception. Literally my two guy friends who are the biggest into Witcher, read the books and played the games with me, cite Ciri as both their personal favorite character and are so stoked she's taking the lead in Witcher 4. People with any attachment to Geralt as a character should feel naturally excited his/your daughter is taking up the mantle.

"She is ugly." Incorrect. She looks older, mature and beautiful all in one. This makes her look different from her younger Witcher 3 self, yes (as we should expect?), and in all the best ways. I'm sorry you hate attractive women, that is a personal problem and I wish you future clarity.

"She better not be gay/woke." She already is. The Witcher already was. Even without the books, there is a direct dialogue choice as Ciri where you can specify a preference in women (referencing her girlfriend from the books). The game will likely write her as bi and let the player choose, so sit down and quit crying.

Edit for one more I saw: "She has a School of the Cat medallion, that's wrong!" She's had it since the books, it was a pivotal moment and big spoiler how she got it, but it hung from her belt in her Witcher 3 designs. She just wears it on her neck now.

[marie-wisp-of-curiosity]

DA:TV thoughts, part two

Part one here, about Rook!

Spoilers for everything Dragon Age.

ABOUT THE TONE: An homage to our favorite Thedasian writer!

I think DA:TV's writing references Varric's books.

I was reminded at points of DA2, where Varric tells the story of the Champion to Cassandra, the one he ends up writing in his most popular book.

DA: TV's more "campy" sides are inspired by serials and pulp fiction. Some, but not all, signs of this are:

The end of chapter narrations where "Varric" is hinting at what's to come, like a serial's writer would.

Neve's story that is written like a pulp fiction detective story!

The theme of books, reading, and writing being present throughout the game. I loved the book club codex entries so much! The end of chapter narrations also makes me think that Rook is telling this story after the facts. If this was just Rook, in the present, imagining Varric telling their story, they wouldn't know the future. I think that by showing us that our narrator knows what is coming, the game may be telling us that this is Rook telling the story after the facts. (*Before the reveal of Varric's death, this actually was part of what fooled me. I remember thinking that if Varric was telling us what's to come, he was going to survive. * :') ) This would also work with the idea that Rook is Varric's successor… Maybe Rook is Thedas' next writing sensation!

About the villains, the Crows and Dalish elves joining the elven gods About the villains In DA:TV, Rook doesn't spend a lot of time explaining the nuances of why the Big Bad Guys are bad because they don't need to. What Rook needs their public to know is that those assholes kill and enslave innocent people and that they will destroy the world for power. We do not get a big slavery in Tevinter plotline or mission, and I think that was a sensible choice in the game we got. It's still mentioned often. My favorite example is Lorelei, the Shadow Dragon's shopkeeper, who is one of the elves that was sold into slavery to Tevinter by Loghain in DAO. Slavery, blood magic, violence, and abuse are everywhere in the game, as part of its context.

I think that narrative choice was made because of the time they actually got to make the game, but also because that's not the point. This story is not about how fucked up the world is; it's about how to actually save it. It's not about the abuse or trauma; it's about healing. Rook has to find people who already see how messed up the BBGs are and round them up to make things better.

Still, there is some nuance about the smaller villains: it is said towards the end of the game that any Venatori or Antaam soldiers that want out are spared and helped. Even some BBG, like The Butcher, chose to do the right thing (in their way) at the end. I was also glad we got to see Qunari people outside the Antaam and regular people in Tevinter; to me, that felt more important to support an idea that transcends all Dragon Age media: people are people, no matter where they come from.

The Crows I do wish we had gotten a darker portrait of the Crows. They were changed in one of the books, and in DA:TV they are shown more like vigilantes than an actual guild of assassins. It does feel like a choice made for time, maybe? It would have been interesting to see Rook struggle with working with them. Or maybe the Talons we work with could have been shown as exceptions to the brutal ways of their predecessor? I feel the same about the Lords of Fortune; the "cultural" artifacts thing didn't make a lot of sense to me, and I would have found it more interesting if it was a bit more challenged. We do get more nuance with the Grey Wardens, so I do think this is a time thing. The idea of working with groups you disagree with on some stuff because they also are ready to do the work to save the word could have been very interesting to explore.

That said, if you believe my theory that the game is the story told by Rook, you can tell yourself this is just part of their editing of a more nuanced truth, hé hé!

About the Dalish Going with my theory that this is Rook's telling of the events, I also think that they don't talk about Fen'Harel's agents or elves siding on the side of the Evanuris on purpose. There was probably some, in actuality, but Rook knows very well that elves are already persecuted enough as it is and won't risk giving them even more bad press.

In conclusion! I have so much more to say about that game, but this is already so long! I'll probably write more as I continue to think about it. I hope you enjoyed reading this and wish you a great day! Au revoir!

[whywoulditho]

I'm glad, that DC writers are changing constantly and therefore the characters are protected from the Bat-family. The Bats are the cancer of DC comics. There wouln't be any independant characters anymore if they could gez their grubby hands on the other DC families

That's another way to look at it.. I agree that they're trying a bit too hard to connect every character to the bats' storyline. so you might have a point there. maybe it would create more bad than good if they let batfam authors interfere with the other storylines... but i still wouldn't call the bats the cancer of DC. I think if you took the bats out of DC, it would lose like half of its charm and quality.

with all that being said though, i still think the biggest problem of DC romances (or comic book romance in general) lies in each run having separate authors. think about why harley x ivy worked. it's because both of those characters already existed before they got together. both of them were loved villains and later anti-heroes, they both have their own story, their own past and their own redemption arcs. they're both INTERESTING. and when DC made the risky choice of making them a couple, it worked.

i'm not saying it would work with any other characters, or that they should make all their major characters date each other. but if you want to explore romance in your comics you have to give the readers an actual relationship, involving two realistically written and interesting people. not a major character and their accessory love interest. that's my issue with tim x bernard, or jon x jay. no one will get attached to, or even invested in, these relationships because we don't know anything about the love interests. they're just some random people. even if you try to give them personalities they will still not have a story outside of their relationship with the major character. bernard and jay were only created so tim and jon would have someone to kiss. it's hard to care about them, and therefore their relationship. they're just boring romance side plots.

you can introduce a character with the sole purpose of making them a couple with one of your major characters and still make it work, like batman and catwoman. you can create chemistry with a new character just as well as you can with already existing ones. but i think we need more of the first option. less last minute love interests and more people falling in love. i think what makes DC special is that they show us so many different versions of their major characters, we get to see them grow and change (take notes, marvel) so it wouldn't be off-brand to see already existing major characters, like superboy and robin, ending up together. not when it's DC. to be honest i think it would be like super iconic of them to do that. and i also think that DC fans would much rather have their favorite characters end up with the kind of person they went through hell and back with instead of like, a random citizen. tim and kon have so many parallels. they're both people who didn't have to be heroes at all, but still chose to do it. they both struggle with carrying a mantle too big and the fact that they were not chosen for it makes them even more insecure. they also have a past together, they're close friends, they would take a bullet for each other. so much potential. dont even get me started on damian and jon. those two are like, literal mirrors of their fathers. they have huge legacies on their shoulders and they're like quite literally the only people that could understand one another. again, so. much. potential. i'm not saying they have to be together, but if DC was gonna write romance for these characters I wish it could have been with each other.

[crow-caller]

A lot of terrible ideas have a nugget of a good idea in them. Of the terrible books you've read, which one stands out as the most, "if someone less insane and better at writing got a hold of this idea, it could be quite good"?

There's few books I've covered which I don't think this about! The more bombastic failures often are the ones I see more potential, as opposed to more commonplace sucking (we can't improve hush hush. let's just leave it)

REAPER'S CREEK! It haunts me how much potential there is to explore what the book almost does: what if you were 12, abused, and learned you could rewrite all of existence to be anything you wanted? That's the premise of the book, and it serves as a clear power fantasy for the author I'm not sure he ever separated himself from. The odd choices later made by the god-kid protagonist reflect the fact he Can't grow up- there's absolute horror there. He can have everything he wants, forever: how is he meant to grow or mature? He accidentally removes his mother's eyes and makes her love him anyway. He maybe forces a girl he has a crush on to love him. He removes his best friend's free will. The book (unfortunately) deserves more credit than I think it gets for engaging with these themes at all, but it does it so badly when it could be really good. Child abuse as a cudgel which traps someone perpetually in childhood even when it becomes detrimental to them becoming an adult

PERFECTED! A book about human pets is a really good idea and that's why it has existed before and will again. There's so many angles to explore this, whether it be the personhood of the inhuman or the dehumanization of the oppressed. The culture and history of how this becomes normalized could be fascinating social commentary. You could let Missy live. This one you'd need to scrap like, the entire plot and most of the concept, but you could still stick to the 'wealthy luxury humanoid pets for the mega-elite raised to know no other life' basis.

TENDER IS THE FLESH This is my most controversial review and look, I wish I'd gone into more detail too, but I still don't like the book. But it's obviously a great concept, like Perfected, about a world where eating human flesh has become normalized. Tender just really failed to execute the deeper themes of capitalism and dehumanization in my opinion but the concept is very solid. This is why it's a concept that exists in many other pieces of media. We love cannibalism.

THE COMMAND MENT! Okay, again we would be doing such radical change it wouldn't be the same thing, but the idea of 'we proved god is real so we invented a vaccine to keep his influence out of our brains' is really really funny and could be interesting. This could probably happen in FL.

FALLEN! The rare 'very generic para-ro' entry, but Fallen actually has potential it nearly explores about reincarnation horror. I've been really into the idea of a para-ro twist based on Fallen, where someone learns they're the reincarnated true love of an angel, destined to meet and be together... but then realizes (as she does in the book!) every time the angel meets her, he causes her death, usually at age 16. Suddenly his pledges to be together, the fact he remembers when she doesn't, becomes sinister. he loves her so much he can't stop killing her.

[oonajaeadira]

get to know your moots

@morallyinept and @ace-turned-confused gave me a tag and I will never not play their games. <3

What's the origin of your blog title? I write soft fic and if there's smut it's usually pretty tame and soft, so you should know what you're getting into here.

OTP(s) + Shipname: Kaylee/Jayne always.

Favourite colour: Pastel yellow.

Favourite game: Please come over and play Marrying Mr. Darcy with me. I promise you won't regret it.

Song stuck in your head: I haven't been able to shake "Father Figure" since Babygirl.

Weirdest habit/trait? I need to dry off before putting on clothes. Specifically the panty region. If I don't, it's damp all day, and not in a good way.

Hobbies: Reading and writing fic, reading fiction and non-fiction, arts and crafts of all shapes and sizes, dinking around with musical instruments, video games, board games, going for walks, curating my witch cabinet, listening to podcasts, helping friends do aesthetic interior design, thrift store and online auction trolling, internet shopping, getting ignored by the crows in my neighborhood, and the My Little Pony RPG.

If you work, what's your profession? I support artists. I'm basically a living resource, cheerleader, advisor, networker, etc. I'm also, by rights, an artist myself.

If you could have any job you wish, what would it be? I have my dream job for now. If the Republicans see fit to leech my profession to dying, then I have two backup plans. If the economy is good, I'm going to pursue a job as a ticketing agent at Delta (or other international airline). If the economy takes a dive? You'll be seeing me apply for training as a death doula.

Something you're good at: Figuring out complicated scheduling.

Something you're bad at: Exercise.

Something you love: Ice cream.

Something you could talk about for hours off the cuff: Star Wars. Pedro Pascal. Tarot.

Something you hate: People forgetting that their car is a murder machine--the likes of which is responsible for tens of thousands of deaths every year in this country alone--and that their fkn around could have severe consequences.

Something you collect: Tarot decks. Witchy books. Jewelry. Art supplies. Rocks. Boxes. My old glasses. My old technology.

Something you forget: Plots to movies and shows if it's long enough since I've seen them.

What's your love language? Giving: quality time. Receiving: words of affirmation.

Favourite movie/show: Labyrinth / The Mandalorian

Favourite food: Tacos.

Favourite animal: Red panda.

What were you like as a child? Very short and looked much younger than my peers. I was picked on a lot, had issues at home, and cried most days which exacerbated both of those problems. Played on my own most of the time and had a raging imagination. Loved to read and write stories. Was a good student because, for the most part and despite the bullying, I did like school. I was quiet until you got to know me and then I wouldn't shut up. My stuffed animal collection was my whole world.

Favourite subject at school? I preferred English, orchestra, and the sciences.

Least favorite subject? Math and gym.

What's your best character trait? I lead with compassion. (Unless I'm in a car. If others are making driving choices that are endangering myself or others, I'm bound to be really effing snarky about it and make some very judgmental comments and throw curses. Not swears, CURSES. I'm a witchy girl, yo. I go hard.)

What's your worst character trait? I get ranty and gossipy much more than I'd like.

If you could change any detail of your day right now what would it be? I think I'd like it to be warmer than 7 degrees outside.

If you could travel in time who would you like to meet? Pedro when he was in grade school. I just wanna see who he was before he became him.

Recommend one of your favourite fanfics (spread the love!): Lately I've been thinking about Love Triangles by @littlemisspascal a lot. And @something-tofightfor just completed her A Wonderful, Awful Idea series and Imma go and grab something warm in a cup and read the last chapter!

tagging: @littleredpandanaps @fromthedeskoftheraven @rulexofxnines @sixhours @iamskyereads

[mewnewew]

hello!! i love your work and everything you do 🙏 thank you for taking the time out of your day to write for us 🤍

i wanted to request a romance fanfic with corazon x female reader 🤍 he’s such a sweet and gentle man. i wish there were fanfics with him 😔you shall write anything your heart desires 😌!! if it shall be a fantasy story, being on a side mission when he was a marine, slow burn, true love, sneaking behind doflamingo to be together, the sky’s the limit 😊

thank you so much for reading this and keep doing amazing things 🤍

Corazon/Donquixote Rosinante x Reader

Oh, how I loved this ask!!! I loved this man so much, you would not believe it. Before Crocodile was Rosi (Yeah, the difference is wild). PLEASE REQUEST ME MORE!! HOPE YOU ENJOY ANON!!! (I google translated so if you don't get the meaning/it is incorrect I really do apologize, it's supposed to be understood/ read as: Rosi, you are my Heart)

There were times, in Corazon's heart when he wished he wasn't doing his mission and everything was normal and happy. Very rarely did this moment come, but when he met her? Seas, did they come.

Confession.

Since you met and your relationship grew, that meant that eventually, you both fell in love. Now, here comes the issue. Rosinanate was the kind of guy who, if he fell in love, fell hard. The type who would see the person they love and see roses and cherubs around them—literally.

Now given that he couldn't speak in front of you, he was screaming internally at his decision and the situation which caused him to be in said situation. But he did have a choice he realised. A choice from which he could easily just talk and let his secret out. Could he? Would he? He shook his head. No. He wouldn't. The mission took some priority after all. He'd just have to say it in a new way since writing it was ridiculous in his eyes.

So he spoke with his heart. When the day came and both of you were in a library, he nudged your knee against his. And you looked up at him, and when you did you saw the softest, most love-struck look in his eyes and you actually paused. He took your hand, in his (it was so much smaller, much more softer, much more unscarred, so perfect in his eyes) and with his free hand spelled out his words, when you gasped and grinned, repeating the words back to him in speech, stood up so suddenly in the joy he ended up falling backward in a pile of books, while you yelped and tried to help him up, only to laugh as he lay there, the most dooziest grin on his face ever.|

First date.

Showing to the rest of the city that he was clearly on a date with someone? Bad idea. Especially when his brother could clearly find out thanks to the rest of the family members? Even worse. That meant he needed to take you somewhere quiet. Somewhere private. Thankfully, you came up with the best idea. Your place.

When he came in, he immediately hit his head on the door frame, causing you to try to rush forward, and crash land on him, your faces inches away from each other. By the seas, he couldn't see a better view. Later when you were cradling his face, checking to see if he had a bump on his head, he almost went into a coma. His heart was beating so hard and so fast, you were sure to hear it.

When you two were eating and having a great time, he wished this was the norm. He could feel his heart ache as you and he washed and put the dishes away. A home, somewhere far away, somewhere peaceful, somewhere for the two of you. Where he could wake up with you in his arms, hear your laughter every day, and bathe in the beauty of your smile. Hold you and dance when you are wearing the prettiest dress.

First Kiss.

This was becoming a norm between the two of you, where you could find him already in your house, sleeping oh so peacefully, or waiting for you to come home. He loved your house. He loved you. But sometimes, the missions he came back from helped in the accumulation of his scars and wounds. Making you worry or fret slightly as you saw the hurt. One time he had come with a couple of cuts after accidentally landing on some jagged rocks. As he sat, nursing a glass of cool, lemonade you had made for him, he waited for you.

As usual when you saw him, you beamed at him, running and giving him a hug.

"Hey baby! How was your mission? I- You're hurt!" You cried, seeing him wince.

He tried to wave you off. No, he was fine. Really. But you frowned and cupped his cheeks. "Where." You demanded.

He sighed, taking your hands off his face, and took his shirt off, a medical patch already there, and needing to be changed.

You clicked your tongue and left, coming back with a kit. Already starting to redress the wound. At one point, he carefully cupped your cheek with one hand, causing you to pause, you asked. His thumb tapped your lips and your eyebrows rose before you nodded slowly. And so, he kissed you. That kiss broke quickly, but one look exchanged and it continued with a passion. Both of you ended up panting slightly, your hands cupping his cheeks and him having pulled you on top of his lap so that you were straddling it, the pair of you were grinning like idiots.

Oh, how he wished this was every day. Where he could do it out in the open, where he could love you freely. How he wished. He would buy you anything, do anything, buy you jewelry, makeup, dresses, anything for you to look like the angel he thought of you as.

First (and last) argument.

You were in tears. He had come, telling you he couldn't be in a relationship with you, and seas, you were breaking his heart even more than he was doing it to himself. Why couldn't you understand that he wanted this more to himself than anything? Why was his blasted life like this?!

He paused, and took your hands in his, you sniffled, looking at him. Leaving one hand free, he snapped it. "Silent" He spoke.

Your mouth dropped open, eyes wide in shock. On any other day, he would have laughed or grinned. Today, he was sorrowfully smiling. "My dear, my precious, my angel" He whispered, hands now holding yours. He told you the truth, every ounce of it, and with that, you sobbed. You sobbed for him. With that he cradled your head to his chest, shushing you. "Don't cry, mi amour. Don't cry, you're breaking my heart further." He murmured.

Eventually, both of you were curled up in your too-small bed with him holding you close, his long and lanky figure curled around you. He stroked your hair as he pressed kisses to your head. You looked up at him, gorgeous eyes puffy from earlier tears. You whispered "Rosinante, eres mi Corazon".

His breath hitched, and his hand snaked around to your nape as he kissed you furiously, as if making you understand his own anger and frustration at his situation.

When you woke up, he would have left you a note, and the lipstick he usually hid behind. Even if he couldn't come back, at least some part of him was with you always. He would leave with Law, dreaming of a future where you two were married, his lovely, perfect wife.

(Later on, as he lay in the snow, he would hallucinate a life where you and Law were laughing, almost as mother and son, in a perfect world, and in a perfect life.)

Changed ending, changed paths.

He walked, slightly unsteady. After that battle, he had been patched up by some locals who had found him. Sending a letter of resignation to Sengoku, and wishing him well, along with thanking him for all he ever did for him, he stayed for 2 years, recuperating. He bore a disguise as he walked to your place. Sneaking inside like usual, he froze as he saw you fast asleep on the couch, his lipstick from the one disguise he used to have on your lips. He moved to try and come closer, only to slip and fall face forward, causing you to snap awake. "Who-who's there?!" You cried, holding a crumpled newspaper as a makeshift defense.

He looked up and gave you a sheepish grin, disguise having fallen off as well. You recognized him instantly, causing you to gasp and run to him, hugging him tight. He curled his arms around you too, holding you as close as possible. He was home. And this time, he would be free, for you were his darling, his love, his Queen.