#I’m the heir of space btw guys

[beetroota]

Me and the gang

[randomidiocyncrazies]

Gwitch S2E3 “Father and Child”

w o w the Jeturks really cannot catch a break! after the L Lauda took last ep, this ep starts off with Guel being taken hostage by the Fold of Dawn and in a BAD way, unable to respond to outside stimuli

the terrorists intend to use him as a bargaining chip (I wonder how they found out his identity—I’m guessing their intel is good enough to recognize him on sight, plus Guel probably didn’t put up any resistance at questioning attempts, having been broken by accidentally killing his father in combat)

i’m guessing the camp will be attacked, and Guel will help the refugees evacuate—we saw kids trying to feed/deal with him when he was broken, so he’ll probably try to save the kids as a sign of him gaining resolve (and he’ll fail, probably, because the Jeturks are here to be punching bags)

it’s kinda ironic that, for all that she hates spacians (beating the shit out of Nika when Nika says her acts of violence will cause spacians to have a pretext of ignoring earthian voices), Norea is forced to work for spacians, who have all the power in their working relationship

although... the way she calls Sabina a “traitor”, i wonder if my previous speculation of Shaddiq’s squad being his fellow orphans—and them being Earth orphans specifically—is on the money? there has to be a reason why Shaddiq is so hung up on splintering the Benerit Group, and why the squad is so ride or die for him

glad we finally get some sense of Shaddiq’s deal! “Can’t fill stomachs with grudges” was extremely good, and i’m like 99.9% certain that the squad are fellow orphans (though i don’t understand why there are no other guys... i guess the other guys would’ve been rivals to the Grasseley inheritance? it’s been implied before that Shaddiq isn’t the only potential heir to Grasseley Defense.

and as for why none of the girls are potential heirs, well. apparently sexism thrives in space)

lmao punch me in the feels! Sophie's motivation was to get creature comforts and attain a family... and she did have a family who remembers & mourns her. also, children inherit bloody conflicts from their predecessors in a never ending cycle of violence, etc etc

THEME OF BLOODY CONFLICT LOCKED IN AN UNBREAKABLE CYCLE OF VENGEANCE AND REVENGE INTENSIFIES

(also, despite Guel being understandably devastated about accidentally killing his dad, i’m glad Vim Jeturk died. sorry not sorry.)

dumbass, your job is to defend and buy time for your fleeing civilians. good fucking job bro

our dead child of this ep. sorry girl, if someone SOMEONE didn’t draw attention to the garrison, maybe you’d have survived

...i still think Guel is going to fail in saving her, because being Guel is suffering. this man’s purpose in this show is to get kicked down at every opportunity. BUT at least he’s showing some initiative (good for him?)

Ah yup, there she goes...

with Guel’s assertion to not let the things that bind him to his father (who is still a POS btw) disappear, i wonder if he’ll go back to Jeturk Heavy Machinery—Lauda is in critical condition after the attack last ep, but if Guel does go back I’m guessing there’s going to be a split faction within Jeturk for who should be the next CEO

and about Quiet Zero... from Prospera, we know Quiet Zero (and potentially Vanadis Institute’s project with the GUND format) focuses on transhumanism, and I’m wondering what sort of plant survival strategies Nortrette has in mind when proposing Quiet Zero, and how it differs from the current project (if it does)

We know Miorine is going to be involved with Quiet Zero in some fashion either way, but it could be kinda interesting if she chose to walk away EXCEPT outside circumstances forces her to get involved. HOWEVER, with Gwitch’s themes of parents using children in their schemes/children following in their parent’s footsteps, I’m guessing Miorine will willingly get on board with the project, at least to investigate it

[salsflore]

random f/o + ship thoughts

help. get me out of this hell!!!!

alhaitham

not averse to touch, but its not his main way of expressing affection. prefers acts of service and quality time over anything else.

leaves her notes when he’s gone. simple things like “don’t forget to bring your jacket before you leave.” or “i’ll be back late, no need to wait up for me.”

has a consistent, healthy bedtime routine somehow?? will often remind her to go to bed just so she doesn’t stay up too late. (she does anyways)

realistically i don’t think we’d have many hobbies in common, so they’d probably co-exist in silence and do their own thing instead ...

surprisingly amazing at helping her deal with her overthinking or #issues because hes just so... logical. shes like "ohgh...shjsk...." and hes like "No." and shes like "ok thanks i am cured now"

he runs colder so they use different blankets + neither fully likes or dislikes cuddling to bed, but enjoys some space. will let her hug onto him anyways, though

mika’s experimental-breakfast victim. rip

random but probably the type to change his icon once and then never again. would leave his profile(s) blank. loser

childe

heavily prefers calling over texting. likes to send her silly voice messages to update her of whatever he’s doing right now ++ pictures of the stuff he finds interesting

after a long day at work or while trying to sleep, he’ll cling to her. calls it his way of recharging. she is forced to deal with it, unfortunately ...

likes to brag to her about random stuff, even the most mundane of things. like "yup. i got the last one before they ran out of stock! i’m so cool.."

often got scolded for returning home bloody/injured or something. he’ll brush it off sometimes and be like “umm ?? but its not MY blood, therefore-” but he’s careful about it now, lest he upset her (again)

enjoys having matching household items with her, e.g slippers or toothbrushes??? likes to buy useless household products

sort of annoying about being married. very much a “my wife” kind of guy

diluc

initially very hesitant about showing his scars to her. enough so that he wouldn’t even take his gloves off. she’d be like “haha hey you can remove them!” and he’d be like “haha! no. i would rather die btw” but he gets there eventually okay!!

i think i mentioned this before already but after the tavern closes she’d pop in to keep him company + help out as he cleans and makes preparations for the next day.

god... probably has a picture of me in a locket like a loser...

sends home gifts whenever he’s away for work. like a bouquet of flowers or something. or 5,000 cats

will let her try out new hairstyles on his hair + she helps him brush through it after a shower.

he doesn’t fully get her sense of humor but will play along with it just to appease her.

zhongli

similar to childe in the sense that he’s also a “my wife” guy. a little more subtle though. he doesn’t do it intentionally and gets bashful when confronted

is an adeptus, so he doesn’t rlly require sleep? only started having a regular sleeping schedule bc of her.

often asked to help remind her of stuff. he has excellent memory so might as well. he does it everytime without fail :3

touchstarved and very much enjoys being held. would rather die than admit it, however.

painfully dense. everytime she tries to jokingly flirt with him or something it just goes riight over his head...

has a whole collection of valuable shinies because. you know. silly dragon...

like childe, sends updates w/ photos during the day (but he’s awful at taking photos. reminds me of a certain cat-loving heir..)

[destinygoldenstar]

The Consequences Of Sun’s Actions

His stepmother died.

His uncle died.

His cat died.

They didn’t live long enough to see him go to space.

Now, more than ever, Sun Nosobirrie is DESPERATE and not emotionally stable to think rationally.

All he cares about right now is his dreams.

He doesn’t want to wait till he finishes college anymore.

That’s why he’s stealing a rocket ship from GeekCon, that might be founded by the college?

I’m saying it is.

“Goodbye world!!!!! IM OUT TO THE BEYOND!!!!”

“Wait, what’s that guy doing-OOOOHH GOD!!!”

Sun traveled to space and found the Cosmic Relief Dog Pound.

There he met the boss alien of the department looking for her dog. Sun tried to make excuses to look around and let his curious side get the better of him, but instead he got DOXXED.

And apparently the boss is a dog-napper? Question mark? (I didnt really understand the story)

Sun investigated the cages, and even agreed to an injection…

Yeah, this is gonna end bad…

And he found there were several cages of earth mutts.

Then, my prediction cause it ended there, Fitz found info about Sun. That he was a Nosobirrie. The grandson to the Nosobirrie that opened the wormhole to earth for aliens all those years ago, and as such was responsible for their discrimination by sim humans.

So they CHASED SUN. They were after him to get revenge. Revenge for something Pepper did and not him btw.

And Sun barely got back to the rocket to escape.

OR DID HE?

Remember when they doxxed him?

Well that night, Sun was upgrading his own rocket, minding his own business…

THEY INVADED.

“WHEN WILL YOU LEARN?! WHEN WILL YOU LEARN!?!”

So Sun got abducted.

UUUUUUUUUUHHHHH…

And got a pristine reputation from it????

My guess is that they realized he wasn’t Pepper. He wasn’t the person they were after.

But they already drugged him and dazed him, so what could they do? He was the grandson, so he deserved some form of punishment, right? Especially for the dogs…

Well one, the college found out about the incident I guess. And they weren’t happy about it.

So they put him on probation.

I’m saying that’s what the story is. Cause otherwise this was a glitch. I did all the work. It didn’t get counted somehow.

Ah well, at least Sun’s home safe. If a little drowsy. Pepper and Mercury being here could not be more appropriate.

And Rubys still yelling at him. Not happy about the stunt he pulled. Appropriate.

Everything’s fine-

WAIT…

OH NO.

OH NO….

ARE YOU SERIOUS?!??!

I avoided it with Pepper somehow. Yeah she got abducted but she didn’t get pregnant from it.

I was thinking “We should probably have the Grey Gen heir” BUT OH MY GOSH…

So… yeah.

Sun is pregnant with an alien baby.

“THE CONSEQUENCES OF OUR ACTIONS!!!!”

“And it’s only going to get worse from here…”

[ladyloveandjustice]

The Westing Game Chapter 28

“And Then…”

It’s time for a WEDDING! Nope, not Angela and Denton’s wedding, thank God. It’s Otis and Crow’s wedding. I’m…going to assume he told her everything about how Westing hired him and his true identity? It would have been interesting to see her reaction to that- but it is in-character she’d forgive him pretty quickly, considering how little she thinks of herself in the first place and how much she kept hidden, she’d overlook others ‘sins’.

It’s very cute that Angela and Sydelle are the bridesmaids. I’m glad Angela ended up providing comfort to Crow.  After all, through Angela she’s presumably shown someone like Violet can live a happy life. Crow gets a “second chance” at seeing how she could have been happy. Was that Westing’s goal in introducing them?  But honestly, it could have easily gone another way. This whole experience- INCLUDING seeing that someone like her daughter didn’t have to suffer and she really could have prevented it if she’d eased up like Grace was eventually made to do- well, that could have just driven Crow deeper into her guilt and trauma. It was really down to luck that it didn’t. Alternately, things could have gone another way for Angela, where the family didn’t change, she didn’t change, and she ended up suffering. 

It’s a good thing it ended up the other way, but so much of Westing’s scheme could have had catastrophic consequences, yet he was still willing to risk it. Which does make him interesting, because he’s still a jerk in a lot of ways, just one that ended up having enough good inclinations (in his elder years), good luck and the saavy needed to pull off a good thing.

Now we get to see which way each heir decides to go with their life post-Westing.

-Her debt paid, Ford decides to use the rest of her money to help finance Chris’s education. Very heartwarming. Again, the book has a theme of marginalized people connecting, and though Ford and Chris are marginalized in different ways, its cool to see Ford recognizing Chris has struggles she can help with.

- Theo can go to college now too!

-Hoo’s inventions are selling well, and Sun feels more comfortable and at home being his business partner than she did at the restaurant, where she had to dress up and engage with people getting this theme park idea of her culture. She’s gotten closer to Doug and made friends at the apartment too.

-Sydelle returns to work, and no longer feels the need to fake illness or injuries to get attention, as her status as Westing heiress gets her plenty. She is, however, still pretending a little- basically acting like she has millions. I guess that’s an improvement. Baby steps!

-Jake has, uh, been appointed consultant of the state lottery, good for him I guess. Grace is now running her own restaurant, having taken over Hoo’s space, and is very happy. There’s definitely irony in how she tried to stifle Angela’s career prospects, only to find fulfillment in pursuing her own career. That’s internalized misogyny for ya. It’s interesting that when listing why she’s lucky she says:

[..]She was a respected restaurateur, wife of a state official and mother of the cleverest kid who ever lived. Turtle was going to be somebody someday.

Angela is…not included in her mental list. SHE’S the forgotten child for Grace now. Which after years of being controlled, Angela’s very okay with, but it still indicates that while Grace has gotten better in like, not valuing her kids based on a restrictive idea of womanhood, allowing them more freedom, etc, she’s still obsessed with status and pretty terrible. Angela is only in college, and only regular-really-smart instead of a supergenius, so she slips Grace’s mind. And with all that’s gone on between them, the relationship between mother and daughter might be irreparable. I doubt they’ll ever be close. Which is sad, but realistic. Grace sucks a little less, but she still sucks, and Angela’s doing her own thing.

-Angela doing her own thing is being back in college and saving for med school btw, and dumping Denton and any other guy trying to pick her up. Happy for her.

-Meanwhile, Alice. Implied to be playing chess with Westing a lot, still hanging with Flora a lot (aw!) and investing in the stock market. Grace is right about one thing, the kid’s going places.

-With Westing’s money, Crow and Otis upgrade their soup kitchen. Very nice. I appreciate how everyone changes for the better, but we still see nuance- people like Grace and Sydelle still have obvious faults, everyone is getting on with their lives with room to grow. And we still have two chapters! What could happen next?

[makeste]

Thank you responding to the AFO Vestige question. Assuming everything you said is true then the question that comes to my mind is why did AFO and the Dr waste so much time preparing Tomura and making sure he was worthy. They would had succeeded more completely if they just did the operation as quickly as possible. Also do you think that Tomura rejected AFO because he thought it was an illusion that he did not want to submit to, or because he rejects AFO in his enirtey? Have a good day.

I’m actually going to turn this question around and take it one step further. if AFO’s plan was to transfer his quirk all along, why didn’t he do it fifteen years ago? specifically, why did he choose the child Shimura Tenko as his vessel, rather than the already-grown Shimura Kotarou?

you see, this isn’t confirmed yet, but I suspect that the primary reason AFO decided to transfer his soul into a new body is because that’s essentially what his brother has been doing for the past nine generations, and AFO has hypothesized that that’s why his brother’s quirk has gotten stronger and stronger, to the point of him actually being able to put up a fight against him now. and so he applies the same logic to his own quirk, and figures that if it worked for his brother, it should work for him as well. we know that AFO believes his transfer into Tomura will enable him to finally steal OFA, but we don’t really know why he’s so confident of that. it wouldn’t surprise me if this is the reason why.

anyway, so if that’s the case, it would mean he’s had this plan for some time now, likely even before he was injured by All Might. this whole plan is basically based off of Quirk Singularity theory, and Ujiko confessed to Mic that he’s the one who originally came up with that concept -- right before he met AFO.

so it’s not too much of a stretch to assume that when AFO met Ujiko and heard his theories, that’s when he finally put two and two together that his brother’s quirk was becoming progressively stronger with each subsequent generation, while his own quirk -- powerful, but stuck at the comparatively weaker first-generation level -- was stagnating. it then stands to reason that this is when he first started putting the plan together to transfer his quirk into another body. not seven years ago, when All Might injured him, but decades before that. decades before All Might was even born.

after all, this is when he first started experimenting with the Noumu as well, researching how to prep another human’s body to be able to withstand multiple quirks. because it wouldn’t be enough to simply transfer his powers and be done with it; if Ujiko’s theories on the Singularity were correct, the transferred quirk would be exponentially more powerful, and so the new vessel would need to be able to withstand that. everything we know about the Noumu makes so much sense in hindsight if we look at it in the context of AFO researching how to create the perfect new vessel for his transferred, and upgraded, quirk.

but here’s the thing: if it is true that AFO started putting this plan into works years before he sustained his debilitating injury at All Might’s hands (and that does seem to be the case; Ujiko even said that AFO “foresaw his downfall”, which I interpret to mean that he knew he would eventually be outclassed by OFA if Quirk Singularity kept doing its thing), it’s all the more reason for me to believe that he fully intends to possess his “successor’s” body, rather than just going along for the ride. a healthy AFO would have absolutely no incentive to transfer his powers unless he was sure he would survive the process. that’s basically just suicide otherwise, and at the time he would have had no reason to desire that.

anyway. so if that’s true, it would also mean that when AFO tracked down Shimura Kotarou fifteen years ago, he likely already possessed the technology to transfer his quirk into Kotarou’s body if he wanted. this would have been only a year or so before Shirakumo’s death, and Kurogiri is an extremely advanced Noumu, indicating that their research had already progressed pretty far by this point. Kotarou is arguably just as good of a potential vessel as his son, and has the same devastating blood ties to Nana that AFO wants to use to torment All Might. he’s also fully grown, and AFO wouldn’t have to wait another 10-15 years in order for him to be old enough to possess. so why not??

and I think the answer to this question is the same as the answer to the other question of “why did he wait so long to transfer his quirk to Tomura”: because they weren’t ready yet. because AFO needed a perfect vessel, and the technology wasn’t read yet. they hadn’t reached a point where they knew the transfer would be safe. they hadn’t reached the point where they could reliably ensure that the new body would be able to withstand the quirk (hell, we’re seeing some problems with that now). they hadn’t yet gathered all the quirks they wanted, such as the regeneration quirk. they needed more time. and so AFO chose to kill Kotarou -- or rather, have Tenko kill him -- and take Tenko under his wing instead.

again, Tenko was “adopted” by AFO more than fifteen years ago -- before AFO was injured by All Might. and yet he went ahead with his plans to raise Tenko as his perfect little All Might-hating heir anyway. this means that whatever AFO’s ultimate plan is with Tenko, it’s something that was concocted before he was injured. or in other words, before he would have had any incentive to willingly sacrifice himself in favor of ~selflessly~ turning the reins over to his heir. he was putting in the time to raise Tomura up as his successor before he had any reason to. if all he wanted was a new body, he could have just locked the kid up for a decade or so until the transfer process was finally ready to go. so it must be more than that.

so I have a few stray thoughts/theories on this. first things first, AFO just really likes to fuck with people. remember that he in essence created OFA to begin with because it wasn’t enough for him to simply defeat his bro; he wanted to subjugate him. he wanted that decisive victory over him, mental as well as physical. for him, the psychological aspect of the victory is just as important. and so I think that part of him putting Tenko through all of this torment and raising him up into the perfect homicidal pawn was purely just to torture All Might and Nana and all the rest of the OFA users, because AFO is just kind of fucked up like that you guys.

second, is that as we’ve seen with OFA, even when one of the souls does have predominant control, it doesn’t mean the other souls just disappear completely. they’re still there in the background, and they’re still capable of influencing the user’s body, and possibly even wresting control. hell, we’re seeing this happen right now. if AFO can possess Tomura’s body, it’s reasonable to assume that if the situation were reversed and AFO had control, Tomura could still try to fight back as well. and so presumably, it would be much more desirable if Tomura was inclined to be cooperative with AFO, much as the OFA vestiges all get along with Deku. if you’re gonna invite a roommate to come share space in your brain -- possibly for the rest of all eternity -- better get one you’re sure you can live with, right?

and there are a bunch of other reasons I can think of; I’m just gonna list the rest of them real quick so we can wrap this up:

Ujiko says in chapter 222 that Tomura is “weak” and needs to prove himself. it could be that this was his way of setting up Tomura to “train” with Machia for a few months so as to gain the physical and mental fortitude to be able to withstand the four-month Noumufication process.

it could also be that he wanted Tomura to amass a loyal following in much the same way that AFO had before him, as a lot of AFO’s power came from the number of people who were loyal to him and/or feared him.

lastly, it could just be AFO playing the long game once again, seeing as his ultimate goal is to steal OFA back from its current bearer. OFA, which contains his brother’s soul along with all of the other bearers’ souls. (why he thinks this would be a good idea is beyond me btw, but that’s another topic for another post lmao.) and at that point Tomura’s soul will be reunited with Nana’s. except he can’t even allow them that little bit of peace, because he’s such a spiteful, miserable fuck. so he’s made it so that if they are reunited, either Tomura will hate Nana, or else alternatively he’ll be so torn over all of the evil shit he’s done that he still won’t be able to reconcile with her even if he wants to. but the point is, either way, AFO wins! because everyone is miserable except for him. :’)

anyway, so this is all conjecture; it’s possible there’s some other reason I haven’t thought of, and it’s also possible that I’m wrong about all of this, of course. my read of AFO’s character is that he’s too selfish to ever step back and let someone else have all the glory while all he can do is watch. everything about AFO -- his quirk, his name even -- is defined by selfishness, in stark contrast to OFA and its users’ selflessness. and so I’ve always believed that AFO would be the final villain somehow, so as a result my theories are all colored by this belief. but it’s possible I’ve misread the character or Horikoshi’s intentions, and that Tomura is in fact the final villain, in which case it remains to be seen exactly what is going on with AFO and all his psychic bullshit then lol.

but if not, then this is my best guess. and as for why Tomura rejected AFO, he said it himself; he believes he’s outgrown AFO and now wants to surpass him. AFO and Ujiko’s plans to make him self-actualized worked a little too well, maybe. or maybe not, and this is still playing into AFO’s hands in some other way I haven’t figured out yet. I honestly don’t know for sure. but I am fairly certain that by the time this arc ends, we’ll have a much better idea.

[the-busy-ghost]

TSP S02E08 - Peace (At Last)

It’s the last episode of this strange show and tbh it’s a bit sad, because you know, I think I had fun. You have to give the actors credit for genuinely creating some moving scenes, and I will miss some of the dresses the costume department served up. On the other hand, the show was bizarre and nonsensical but that in itself was genuinely entertaining, and also I think that this was a piece of media which really lent itself to being pulled apart- it can be quite educational to analyse some of the balls to the wall nonsense in period dramas, and sometimes they really can offer new lines of enquiry that people wouldn’t otherwise think about. But yeah. Cast and crew must have had a good time making it and in some areas, the acting shone through, where it was allowed to. If anything half the reason this show was disappointing is because it had every opportunity to be much better. 

That being said, onto my rant for the week. 

- We start off with some sadly wooden Shakespearean-play-being-performed-live-on-stage line delivery which wasn’t really suited to television or this show’s established aesthetic. There were quite a few other places in the script this episode where characters said things in a rather cringy way that would have been much better on stage, or not said at all. Maybe it’s the writers, who knows. Bit disappointing though.

- I have to ask, why is Margaret Pole just letting Mary stand outside the door in her nightgown listening to all this? That’s rather negligent guardianship? Terribly contrived, 0 marks.

- Katherine and Mary’s scene in the chapel was sort of nice, pity we didn’t see  more of this kind of moment.

- AND we are back in “Scotland” (haha, right), and apparently we are picking up exactly where we left off in the last episode, with Margaret returning loaded with some trinkets from the English treasury. Presents for everybody. 

- First thought why the hell is this castle ruined. Did nobody tell Frost and Graham that all those ruins in the pictures of Scotland weren’t originally like that? Also I have no idea where Margaret is meant to be here. At first I thought maybe they’ll show a Fake Tantallon but her following lines indicate that she’s managed to get to the west land somehow? Very confused. 

- Who the fuck are the ‘men of Arran and Hamilton’. That is not how ANY of this works. I think what the scriptwriters mean is that Margaret has gone to the Earl of Arran and his retainers? But that’s not in the least how they should be referred to, it’s a deeply misleading line and doesn’t really mean anything. Also confirms btw that James IV’s kids were absolutely just set-dressing, since they had an opportunity for Moray at least to show up in 1524, but it seems that they have no relevance to the plot whatsoever so I have no idea why they were onscreen so much.

- “With English gold”- WOW ok, Margaret you really need to explain how you got that because otherwise it just looks like you’re acting on behalf of Henry VIII. Also did nobody consult their ‘Collected Works of Robert Burns’ before writing that line. But ‘assured’ Scots are a complex concept that I definitely didn’t expect the writers of TSP to understand anyway (and really more a feature of Mary I’s minority not James V’s).

- Anyway sorry Frost & Graham if there was any reasonable explanation for the ruined castle, the barbaric Scots stereotype, and the ‘English gold’ in this scene, I’m afraid I found it difficult to hear over the sound of your raging political agenda

- Also they’ve gone with a rather confusing motivation shift for Margaret here. Certainly, in 1523-4, Margaret was trying to discreetly recover control over the Scottish government while at the same time keeping Albany on side, but she couldn’t just march in there with the Earl of Arran and his pals and take it back. Her letters from this period (to Englishmen though, so maybe suspect) indicate that she was hoping that, while Albany was out of the country, the Scottish political community would get fed up with him jetsetting off to France all the time, decide that he had forfeited his rights to the regency, and support her aim of having James V declared an adult monarch in his own right (the ‘taking furth’ of the king). 

But in the context of this tv show, where nobody has indicated that Albany’s support is wavering at all, and where they have declared for the last few episodes that Margaret’s big problem is Angus (who, btw, from 1521 until early 1524 seems to have been sitting in a prison in France thanks to Albany) and that Albany is her ally, it is a very confusing character shift. Unfortunately it shows more clearly than ever that they really did not have enough space in their allotted ‘ten minutes of Fake Scotland per episode’ to cover the complexities of Scottish politics and indeed the enigma that is Margaret Tudor.

- That being said *now* I understand why they keep referring to James as the ‘heir’ to Scotland instead of the king. They’ve mixed up the ‘taking furth’ of the king which was supposed to bring the regency to an end, with an actual coronation and declaration that he was king. Once again, these are not the same thing. James was crowned within a fortnight of Flodden on 21st September 1513, in the chapel of Stirling Castle, with the support of all the leaders of the political community who mattered. In November 1524, by contrast, he was theoretically declared an adult ruler, which meant that his regents could be dismissed (and it helped that Albany, who had not returned from France by the date he said he would, had technically forfeited his rights). And if James happened to take his mother Margaret Tudor as chief counsellor on his ‘secret council’ well that was just his royal prerogative, done with the support of the political community as recognised in parliament.

- But still, contemporary rumours about Albany’s shady intentions aside, *to the best of my knowledge* nobody openly/directly challenged James V’s right to the Crown either in 1513 or 1524. James was the king from 1513, and any ensuing squabbles centred more around who should have responsibility for his upbringing and safety, not his rights to the throne.

- See what I mean about a two minute, ridiculously inaccurate scene being educational though? I could discuss the implications this nonsense would have had for sixteenth century Scottish politics for DAYS and when I go back to check my references for this rant, I learn even more. So like well done to TSP in that regard I guess. Maybe all historical tv shows should be horrendously inaccurate, and then they should do a behind the scenes series alongside it where they get actual historians (not like me) to go nuts and rant about the real history.

- Huge LOL at Mary in the next scene saying that Henry VIII supports Margaret’s annulment from Angus by the way. Not like, historically, Angus has just escaped France and arrived in London or anything. I imagine their conversation would have gone something like this:

Henry: Ah Mary, good to see you. You will be happy to know that I have had a change of heart and I support our sister’s annulment from Anguish, so you can write to Meg and tell her not to worry about him.

Mary: Oh that’s good to hear, I was always rooting for her, I- what’s that behind your back. 

Henry: What? Nothing.

Mary: Looks like the earl of Angus.

Henry: What? Er no, it’s er it’s just my Fake Beard. Lots of people get them mixed up.

Mary: Riiight. And you haven’t got a Scottish earl behind your back?

Henry: Not at all! Why would I have our brother-in-law behind my back? I hate that guy. Isn’t he in France anyway? Now would you go and get Wolsey I need to speak to him about, er... my beard. Yes my beard. It’s definitely not about a letter to Lord Dacre or anything.

Mary: Ok, absolutely believable, I will see myself out.

- Ok I’m getting carried away and actually, this rant is getting very long again even thought we’re only a few scenes in, so maybe I will split it into two parts so as not to clog up people’s dashboards. BRB.

[blukwolf]

AFO!Izuku

Alright so I was watching a... comic? (Yes, watching, as in watching it in yt) idk about Izuku having AFO and accidentally stealing Bakugou's quirk which led to the Midoriya's leaving Japan and going overseas with Hisashi, who happened to be All For One, so this idea came to me as a different take on Vigilante borderline Villain Deku.

(sorry for every mistake you may see here, english is not my native language)

AU in which AFO is Izuku's dad and Izuku inherited AFO, thus leading to him taking quirks from his peers when he was a child because he didn't know how to 'turn it off', which then led to him not having a lot of friends because the rest of the kids were afraid he might try to steal their quirks indefinitely. He went overseas with his family to try and 'forget' about what happened and maybe get a better hand at controlling Liability, his quirk.

Once he's back in Japan, after AFO v AM fight (the first one) news broke out about The Greatest Villain™ having a heir somewhere around the world (which the people would be confused about, but not the villains, THEY KNOW about the Lord of the Underground, they've heard the rumours, so) so word spreads about Izuku without no one knowing is about him exactly, but Bakugou Remembers, he never forgot about 'the Deku who steals quirks' which would be really difficult to evade, given the fact that Katsuki is the powerhouse he is in canon and pretty much everyone hates him, fears him or fawns over.

With this in mind, Izuku knows there's no way for him to become a Hero, not if he wants to be recognized as All For One's son, so his best route to achieve his dream is by doing it out of the law, being a Vigilante.

By this point either way his view of the Hero Society is more wide open, HE KNOWS the difficults of having a quirk that doesn't fit society's standards, HE KNOWS how hard it is to be viewed as the "bad one" for something you didn't have control over, HE KNOWS people would judge you based on literal bullshit if they can, so he doesn't risk it, he can't risk it for his mom, for the safety and the love Inko needs after "losing" his husband.

(they both are very aware of who Hisashi was and Inko is heartbroken, so Izuku doesn't want to make it harder for her by going out on full display on UA by wanting something that doesn't belongs to him)

This leads to him wanting desperately a change, to go out an Do Something for those like him, for those who are ignored by the ones who only wish more recognition, for those who, like him, were casted aside as "liabilities" for the Society.

He wants to be an All Might of sorts, but a little more... Discreet. Without the big announcement, the smile, the 'bunny ears'. He takes more after Eraserhead.

So, he becomes 'Reprise', a vigilante (criminal for those Good Ones™) who goes 'berserk' at night, beating up all types of Real Criminals, going from drug dealers to genuine Villains, freeing neighborhood after neighborhood and doing what some pros are supposed to do.

He takes the quirks of those who he despises, those who he thinks are the worst of the worst. With them, he doesn't hold back, he ambushes them, takes them off guard and takes their quirks as soon as he can.

It's a little bit like Stain, without the murder and the intensity, but he does share a bit of his ideals, mostly when it cames down to the 'True Heroes' and all that jazz.

News start to spread about the new 'villain' going around beating others just for fun, which leads to other villains wanting to prove themselves by conquering the 'Mad V', thus leading to those same villains ending up without a quirk and a wake up call.

(He's not directly involved with UA and the stuff happening to Class 1A, just briefly jumping in to stop Stain and saving Iida's life (IIDA'S LIFE, unfortunately that doesn't change the fact that Iida's entire life/career changed after that, the Hero Killer achieving his goal of damaging him forever))

With word on the street about a new vigilante doing 'God's Work' and defeating Villain after villain, the rumours make their way into UA halls and the police force, alerting Tsukauchi and Nedzu, which eventually leads to Bakugou knowing about it and having his suspicions.

(Neither Bakugou nor Izuku have encountered each other since the day Izuku left for America, so that)

Now about his appearance, he doesn't have the typical Gucci Eyebags for having insomnia, no. He does have the Gucci Eyebags for going around beating villains so late at night.

He IS a bit different regarding his looks, he DOES has his messy hair, but with an undercut (bc only God knows how much I love Undercut!Izuku), and tends to wear normal clothes. In short, he's not far from Canon Izuku but he's definitely different.

He's not the sad depressed snarky Izuku we love to see in fanfics, no. He's more compossed, polite, kind, but he is a loner, tends to stay in the corner of the room to try and get a hang of his surroundings. He's that kind of anime guy who is serious, has a few friends/classmates that he's friendly with, and mostly evades spotlight. He's not depressed, he's angry at the world for being unfair and angry at himself for allowing the world to hurt him.

That changes when he is Reprise. He becomes this violent vigilante who wants to make a change, who goes out at night to pick fights and steal quirks and do what the Pros don't. He's snarky, sarcastic, rude, he talks back and throws insults around the street as if nothing. He's not afraid of getting injured, he welcomes the pain as a reminder, a reminder that he's doing something and that Something is making other people feel safe and protected.

The Night is Still Young tends to be his catchphrase.

He actually goes with a therapist.

He continues writing his notebooks about quirks and pros, and even villains. He has a whole pack of them with all the quirks he has taken, how they function and how to improve them.

He goes to a well-known high school for Geniuses and Prodigies with interests in sports, maths, sciencies and the like, even those who want to make a living in the support drpartment goes there.

He thinks his fort is his Mind.

((I don't think I have to point it out, but his meeting with All Might & the Sludge Villain doesn't happen in this au.))

(Shigaraki is well aware of his existence, he doesn't know it's Izuku until Reprise tries to ambush him. Shigaraki's thrilled with the rumours about a heir of AFO running around ruining business, so he would obviously want to meet him at some point and maybe try and recruit him, convince him to join his Father's side.)

His first real, face-to-face encounter with Katsuki and the rest of Class 1A (some of them at least) happens during Kamino.

Todoroki, Yaoyorozu, Kirishima, Uraraka and Tsuyu are the ones who rescue him SOMEHOW, i'm not going into details because I can't think of them right now, but THEY saved Bakugou.

It's when the news about a creature created by the LOV broke out that he found out about his dad's survival. So he tries to gain information by breaking in the police's archives (thanks to a friend of his who happened to be a hacker) which led to him finding out about the upcoming raid at the LOV base, but he's Izuku, he KNOWS his dad, he KNOWS the type of man Hisashi is.

So, while the League of Villains location is there, he doesn't goes there. He makes an investigation of his own, finding clues, proof, following people. Using common sense, he finds the Warehouse where his dad is supposed to be.

Only, he doesn't makes it that far. He's scouting the area of Kamino, walking around aimlessly, praying that the raid goes well so the Pros can leave it there and continue pursuing fame so he can go to that same Warehouse and confront his dad and maybe throw a few punches and cry a few tears when all Hell breaks loose.

There's a thunderous tremor around him and the screens lights up and there's All Might, in all his glory (he's not a hardcore fan anymore btw) standing in front of a terrifying villain, and suddenly Izuku is very, very scared.

And so, he watches. His heart is in his throat, ready to be thrown up as his Dad fights against the man he used to look up to. He watches as All Might buries All For One into the ground like an unused toy, and he's a mess, he's crying alongside the other people, but he cries for his dad, for the man that he loved so much, and there's this feeling of bitterness in the pit of his stomach that he wants to ignore so desperately.

So he turns around and starts walking again. He remembers his dad, working with him and helping him to control his quirk, giving him the best hugs of the world, cheering him up when he was feeling like a waste of space. He remembers the loving husband and father that Hisashi used to be and he's feeling really miserable when he stops abruptly and looks up to find Bakugou just a couple of meters ahead of him.

The rest of the rescue squad is there, too. They're looking from Bakugou to Izuku really puzzled because the firecracker they know is eerily silent and this boy is just there, face blank with just a little bit of puffiness in his eyes.

So Bakugou, a witness to all the madness from that night in Kamino, with pent up frustration and anger, goes completely blank with emotions and calls him Deku, demands for answers to questions such as 'the hell are u doin here?' 'are you with them?' 'are you playing hero again, uh, fucking Deku?'

And Deku's just there, overwhelmed by grief, because he lost his dad in what he suspects is national television, and he knows his mom is probably at home, probably saw everything. He knows Inko is just as heartbroken as he is, and that hurts like hell because it's his Mom, his everything, the one person that holds importance in his heart that he has left.

And seeing Bakugou at that exact moment, it's too much, he's emotionally incapable to deal with him of all people at that very moment. So he just. Can't.

He looks at Bakugou, he looks at him, and says "you haven't changed anything, Kacchan" and Izuku completely ignores him, keeps walking as if nothing happened, as if it isn't a blonde pomeranian screaming after him to 'stop looking down at him, you fucking freak'.

(when he makes it home he tells his mom he was in Kamino when everything happened, and Inko starts crying real hard, and Izuku too, and everything is a mess)

After his Dad's defeat, he starts attacking Pros, mercilessly and ruthlessly, but only those who deserves it, those who he thinks have failed at doing their jobs of protecting people.

Tsukauchi is desperate to capture him, wanting to bring an end to the 'Heir of the Underground' as people, mainly villains, are calling him after AFO is brought down and the similarities between AFO and Reprise are pointed out. He knows that if he leaves him on the loose for too long, there's no turning back, Tsukauchi knows what's on the line for him and is afraid FOR Izuku, knows he can become a target later on, or he can take over his Dad's Empire and be worst.

He doesn't know is Izuku, and even if Bakugou is having a crisis over Reprise and everything going on around him (because of course is Deku, it's always been Deku) he can't go and tell them, he doesn't has proof, only memories from when he was a kid and a very obvious dislike of Midoriya Izuku.

So Bakugou buries Izuku and Reprise to the back of his mind and concentrates in his own shit, the internships and the provisional license and that jazz.

(I always saw a lot of hc about how everything changed for class 1A without Deku there. So I'm taking this too and a few others things. Can't remember where I saw them tbh but all credits to their rightful owners)

Not all of them, Class 1A that is, got their license, just a few lucky ones, but a great deal of them failed. They aren't that motivated nor are That strong. USJ changed them, showed them a truth they weren't expecting this early, and losing Iida just reminded them that.

Overhaul Arc it's the same, except that, in the middle of the battle against him, when Mirio was fighting Chisaki and protecting Eri, Reprise showed up and took Overhaul's quirk right after he shoot Mirio.

(Mirio, who had Permeability. Mirio, who had One For All. He loses both of his quirks.)

At this point, and with overhaul newly added to his collection with a few others, Izuku is mostly invincible. The chaotic vigilante he used to be becomes fierce, a force to be reckoned with, so when Tsukauchi hears about Reprise getting overhaul, he warns ALL of the Pros to be careful at encountering him.

The Hero Comission WARNS EVERY AGENCY that, in case of coming face to face with Reprise, they have to flee inmediately or suffer the consequences, which are losing their quirks and having to step down from being pros.

It becomes a really bad situation, with fear striking every Pro present, much more so after losing the Symbol of Peace, which leads to a vulnerability in those afraid of losing everything and leaving unprotected a few places, or outright giving up the title of Pro.

Everything comes down to the fateful meeting of Shigaraki and Izuku.

Shigaraki knows there's malice in Reprise, he knows he felt that pain too when All For One was captured, that's why he's going against Pros now, and he plans to use every ounce of that pain to bring him by his side.

Liability (Reprise) of Lorde was a huge inspiration tbh

[starrystories2]

Hey! Your story sounds super cool. Could you tell me about the lore behind it?

...sure

There’s a lot though.....

So get ready...

Remember how I said that I realised that I accidentally copied atla when making my magic system... well, similarly, the very eariliest histories of the world indicate that there were four races original races, each race born with the magical ability to control their respective element. The Sylmuryl (water), the Bolnlow (earth), the Volvalens (fire), and the Kairussians (air). (I’m really sorry atla, I promise the magic system is not the same, and that history plays out a lot differently). 

The earliest records tell of the aftermath of a war: The Sylmuryl, the Bolnlow, and half of the Volvalens under the rule of an evil witch vs. the other half of the Volvalens and the Kairussians under the rule of Himself(the only and perfect God). The resolution of the war is unclear, but it had something to do with Himself’s Banisher, who banished the Black witch from the world. 

After the war, the magic of the losing side dissapeared. In dispair, the Sylmuryl sunk into the sea, and the Bolnlow hulled themselves in the mountains, never to be seen again, and dying off into extinction, leaving behind their halfborn children (because the world was totally cool with interbreading).

The Kairussians decided they didn’t want any more part in the world after that dreadful war and created a land in the sky called Douden, where they took any halfborns with Kairussian blood. (Basically leaing everything in the hands of a divided fire nation... yeah.... that was smart)

So... the Volvalens fought on the wrong side of the war don’t have magic while the survivors from the other side of the war(there’s not many of those left btw) do have magic. (Not to mention all the rest of the orphaned or half-orphaned halfborns running around...fun times) So obiously, the logical thing for the non-magic Volvalens to do is hunt the magic Volvalens into extinction and round up all the halfborns to a) keep the separate based off of their heritage(because volvalens are ocd or something/totally did it to keep them from joinging forces against them) and b) kill off/experiement with any of them that show magic abilities in attempts to regain their own magic.

...okay, so I even made the fire nation jerks in this story... so much for that...

anyway, there is one Volvalen who’s not a jerk(oh my gosh why can’t I stop....I just realised...I PROMISE HE’S NOT ZUKO!)....Kallen, is a Volvalen who is against what his people are doing and(long story short) leads a rebellion of halfborns against his people. Unfortionatly, he thinks that as long as his people are alive, the halfborns will never be safe(not an unfair assessment...except) as a result he genocides his own people (except for himself). 

Let’s keep in mind that the Kairussians can see all of this play out and do LITERALLY NOTHING!

 Kallen meets with representatives from each sect of the halfborns left on earth (for those who are counting [this is based on heritige btw] 3 sects on earth, 3 in Douden) to discuss his what to do now. 

These are the results: While two of the sects want Kallen as their king, the halfborns have no Volvalen blood(only 1 sect) claim that, though they are greatful, have no allegience to the volvalen people (because lack of volvalen heritage,) and want to be left to their own devices. Kallen, not wanting to rule the whole world (not wanting a repeat of what just happened) thinks it’s a good idea and together the council divides the land between that sect and Kallen’s new kingdom (most of the land belonging to Kallen, because there’s just more people, but anyway)

Anyway, Kallen becomes king and (despite totally abliterating his own people and ruling pretty much 2/3 of the world’s popluation) he’s a pretty boss king and everbody loves him. 

He marries his first wife Jadnir and has two sons, Jaden and Karner. After his first wife dies (don’t ask, I don’t know why... yet) he remarries a woman named Gondabal and has two sons with her, Gontner and Lenndabar. 

Kallen decides that instead of giving everything to his oldest, Jaden, he is going to divide his land evenly between all four of his sons, because he’s a good dad and luvs all his bois. (This unconventional passing on of Kallen’s rule inspired a few different ways that the crown would be passed in the four cultures that spawn from Kallen’s sons)(but more on that later)

So everything is fine a dandy for a while. (There are even legends that the four brother’s were so close that they were sad that their kingdom’s were so far away from eachother, so they prayed to Himself to make a way for them to see eachother and Himself decided to give them a meeting room outside of space(but not time) that only the king and his heir could go into, but such a wild story like this has no proof, so it makes a good bedtime story for kids).

But after a while (like a long while... like those 4 bros be dead now) The desert in Gontner(btw the countries are literally the four sons’ names) domain grows into Jaden and Jaden is like, idk wut to do with this, it’s sand. So Jaden decides to sell all the desert to Gontner because most of their land is desert already so they can actually do stuff with that land and Jaden can’t (and the desert got pretty big so Jaden is basically giving away half their kingdom). And EVEN THOUGH IT WAS JADEN’S IDEA TO SELL THE LAND IN THE FIRST PLACE, they feel like they were cheated, so they decided to go invade Lenndabar(and fyi Lenndabar is basically a giant island off the cost of the mainland, and I mean a big island)

So Jaden goes and takes over Lenndabar, forcing it’s people into the mountains in the north. Not long after that, Karner desides to help Lenndabar out and tries to conquer Lenndabar from Jaden to give back to the Lenns.

And at this point, each contry as about 1/2 the land each (if you don’t count the montains in the north) and because neither of them are able to gain more ground, things settle into an uneasy cease fire, that goes on for a while(to the point that both the Jades and the Karns are very comfortable and settled into the land they posess (but that belongs to neither of them in the first place)

Well... that was a lot... 

if any of you are still not drowning in information here are a few details more...

1. At some point during the cease fire a plague hits Lenndabar (I don’t know when exactly, but it’s pretty important to some of the characters’ backstories so I thought I’d mention it. I mean it does make sense though, because there are three different people groups all occupying the same island, so of course disease is going to thrive and some people will have immunites while others don’t)(maybe the plague is the reason the cease fire starts in the first place... idk)

2. Gontner cut off comminications with his brother countries after they got land from Jaden, but before Jaden’s invation of Lenndabar, and hasn’t gotten involved with this war at all.

3.Also... at some point... some of the Kairussian halfborns and the few Kairussians left at this point(they’re also almost extinct, but not yet....I don’t know why yet) returned to the world and most are living in secluded places.

4. There are rummors that right before the Jades invaded Lenndabar that the Lenn King took his heir and threw him down a well before jumping himself. There were no eyewitnesses, but the story is assumed to be true and the whole event is called the Whay, but no one can remember if it was named after the king or his heir. Whay is now used as a strong curse, especially in the slyva towns, and when used as a direct insult to someone can mean that they are a REALLY big jerk and coward or they are REALLY stupid and gullible.

Let me know if you have questions! Thank you guys for giving me a platform to tell my story even though it’s not done yet!

Hope you enjoyed!

[jackyjango]

For the Writer Asks: A, N and Y.

Thank you so much for the ask, @lyricfulloflight !! 😬

A: Of the fanfic you’ve written, which is your favorite and why?

Arghh! That would have to be a tie between

We Are Star Stuff - The fact that I wanted to write this fic was the reason I started to write fanfiction in the first place. So it'll always, always have a special place in my heart!

Stardust- This fic a culmination of my favourite things: cherik, best frieds to lovers trope, SPACE, and a futuristic setting. It also challenged me immensely as a writer.

Plus, both of those fics exemplify my obsession with space.

N: Any fic ideas brewing that you’d care to share?

MY MIND IS ALWAYS A BREWING PIT FOR CHERIK IDEAS!!

1. Roomates AU- I read this au idea from a reddit post (I'm sure it's somewhere on Tumblr) where this straight dude doesn't like his roommate kissing other guys, so he begins to doubt that he's subconsciously homophobic. But turns out that he's just jealous and he has subconsciously fallen in love with his best friend/roommate. Okay, I might have started writing this one. Yes. I have.

2. Historical-Royalty-Arranged Marriage AU- Erik is only 21 when he becomes the commanding General of Shaw's army, and he's only 25 when he overthrows the Emporer, Shaw, and is crowned as the king of the vast Kingdom of Genosha. Suspecting that Erik would be just as cruel as Shaw was in his rule, the border kingdoms of Genosha (with no standing army and no match for the army of Genosha, whatsoever) try to save their lands through diplomatic means. By marrying off Brian Xavier's son, and undoubtedly, the most beautiful Omega, Charles Xavier. I am writing this btw.

3. 'The Vow' AU- Charles is an heir to the vast Xavier inheritance, and Sharon plans on doubling that by marrying Charles to Shaw, a business tycoon. So she throws quite a fit when Charles announces that he's marrying Erik, a mere mechanic. Luckily for her, Charles loses his memory of Erik and their marriage of two years altogether. Now there's nothing stopping her from bringing Charles back to the Xavier Mansion from the shoddy container unit Erik calls home and marry him off to Sebastian Shaw. Will Erik be able to win his Charles back? I'm not writing this but I need this AU okay!!

Y: What are your thoughts on your personal satisfaction with something you’ve written vs. the popularity of your stories?  Do you tend to be most satisfied with your most popular stories?  

Personal satisfaction for me I suppose comes from how much I've grown as a writer in the process of writing that fic- with how much thought I put into it and the characterisation, how I navigated a plot hole or how subtly or well I portrayed a particular character and their development. Sometimes fics I'm very happy with in terms of my writing don't get all that attention, and some other times, fics I wrote while on my commute from work (in less than an hour) get more likes and hits. (Not that I don't put thought into the second kind of fics, no. It just comes out easier. That's all)

And I don't have many popular fics, only a handful of them. And I'm happy with most of them writing wise, so I got lucky, I guess. He he he.

As for a personal choice, I tend to run behind personal satisfaction (though it's only an illusion, I tell you) with all of my works, because that's in my hands. I can control it. Whereas, the popularity of a fic is something I can't.

>>Fanfic Asks

[creativegodtiers]

Prompt Response: Upstart/Exodus Scenario

(apologies for the troll quirks 😔) “yo,” Virave, the Knight, said, lying sideways across their chair. “there’-S a lil -Situation -Stirrin up” “Yes, I Gathered bY the fact You’d called us all into the Situation Room,” Evelit, known to the mortals as the Mage, said with a raise of her eyebrow. “be nIce!!” Lilith, the Sylph, admonished, before turning back to her moirail. “what’s the matter??” “okey doke, here’s the thing,” the Knight said. With a flick of their hands, a small figure appeared on the table, bearing a smug smile and a toga. Lilith leaned in to inspect the figure. “Caesar?” “no i think that is the chicken man,” Summer, aka the Rogue of Void, said solemnly. “Don’t be ridiculous,” the Mage admonished. “{summer has a p(o)int. he greatly resembles the chicken man,}” Wisria, the Heir of Space, said. “I don’t know who that is,” Evelit mumbled. “haha!! smartie Doesnt know something!!” Summer crowed. “Fuck off.” “can we get back on track?” the Knight demanded. There was silence. “thank-S. thi-S guy claim-S he’-S a ‘better’ god, the ‘true’ one.” They tapped a claw on the table, narrowly missing the little figure. “-So far a-S i can tell, he’-S a de-Scendant of one of u-S who got hopped up on power and ha-S a literal god complex. needle-S-S to -Say, i want thi-S twink obliterated. who want-S to go put the fear of the god-S in hi-S heart with me?” The Rogue, the Sylph, and the Witch (also known as Elmara) immediately raised their hands. “{i d(o)n’t like c(o)nfr(o)ntati(o)n, but if y(o)u need a s(o)lar eclipse, text me,}” the Counter of Stars said with a small smile. Evelit sighed. “This could Go a lot of waYs. If I See You start makinG bad choices, I’ll alert You throuGh the usual method.” “texting “DONT DO IT DUMBASSES” to the group chat,” Virave said with a nod. “got it.” The man—his name has been lost to mortal minds, but we’ll call him Chad, because he was so a Chad—stepped down from his platform. The people adored his message, his speeches were on point as always, and just as he’d thought, those so-called Creators were either not real or too detached to do anything about it. “yo.” Chad glanced over to see four unassuming troll youngsters. He had to stifle a chuckle—three of them had their arms crossed and one was leaning her elbow on another, the very picture of teenage skepticism. Regardless, he would convince them. He was very convincing. “What can I do for you?” he said, putting on his best smile. He’d never been fond of trolls, but more followers were always needed. “A little birdie t+ld me y+u’re playing at g+dh++d,” one said, moving forward. Her red skirt swirled around her feet. Chad idly wondered how she avoided tripping. “I’m not playing, my dear, I am a god. A better god, in tune with the people, not sequestered in my tower all the time like some ‘gods’.” “okay but like heres the thing” one girl said, stepping forward. Chad wondered what caste these trolls were-none of them had a sign, and the dark blue of this girl’s shirt didn’t point to one specific caste. “the gods r literally always out n about u just gotta LOOK DuDe” Chad scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous. If the gods are so active, why haven’t we seen them in action recently?” “maybe you haven’t,” the jadeblood (you could tell by the scarf) girl muttered. Something clicked in Chad’s head. “Ah. You’re going to try to prove you are the gods.” “well, he caught on...decently fast,” the jadeblood said to her comrades. “so how we gonna play this?” the blue shirted one said. Chad felt a sting of mild irritation that they were ignoring him in favor of keeping up the “gods” facade. “okay, here’-S my idea. i -Shank him, and lilith heal-S the wound,” the one who hadn’t spoken before said. They pulled a knife from their yellow coat and twirled it easily in their hand. Lilith (presumably) gently whacked them on the arm. “don’t be sIlly! we‘re under some sort of oath not to harm mortals, aren’t we?” “no,” the other one grumbled, “but fine, i gue-S-S.” “I c+uld d+ the timey thing,” the one with the red dress suggested. There was a chime and she looked down. “Ah. N+pe. Evelit says bad idea. Damn.” Chad couldn’t deny a stirring of fear in his chest, but he pushed it down. “If you are the gods, then which ones are you?” “fuck yes!!” Lilith cheered. “transformatIon sequence tIme!!” “Yes,” Red Skirt Girl said. “HELL ye-S,” Knife Kid said. “hell fuckin yes” Blue Shirt said. “Can I g+ first?” Red Skirt Girl said. “I’ve been practicing.” Everyone nodded, so she took a breath in and began to twirl. The edges of her skirt flew up, revealing striped green stockings, which quickly became a blue as she spun faster and faster until- A glittery green shoe clicked hard against the pavement and the girl stopped, beaming with pride. Her skirt settled around her, shorter and fluffier now, her sleeves longer and— The Timecrest emblazoned proudly on the front. “The Wild One,” Chad whispered, unable to keep a hint of reverence from his tone. The Goddess of Tune did a very silly bow. “In the flesh.” “me neXt!!” Blue Shirt cried, clapping her hands. She closed her eyes and- Chad couldn’t quite describe it. She seemed to almost fold in on herself, imploding, but before she could implode all the way, she was back, suddenly, fully formed. She was still wearing the oversized blue shirt and black leggings, but now she had fingerless gloves, a domino mask, boots, and most importantly, the Voidcrest on her shirt. “The R-g-e of ——“ Chad said. Or, well, not really said so much as half-choked. The Rogue grinned. “Someone knows their history!” “So you’re-“ Chad turned to the other two. The jadeblood girl simply flicked her hands and the scarf transformed into flowing ribbons, the dress lengthened, and the Lifecrest bloomed into existence, along with several flowers springing up around her feet. “I thInk some people call me the Goddess of UprIsIng, whIch Is great, don’t you thInk?” The one remaining had apparently already changed, into the glowing golden cape and matching shirt and pants of.. “The Speaker of Truths,” Chad said. “Bingo bongo,” the Knight deadpanned. Chad took a deep breath in. No matter. He was still the better god, even alone. He had something they didn’t! “Well, regardless of your flashy transformation sequences, you are out of touch,” Chad declared. “The people have forgotten you, and a new god—a better, friendlier god—is here.” “woooow,” the Rogue drawled. “i cant even...ive seen stupiD, but this is something else.” “can i plea-Se ju-St -Shank him?” the Knight said, twirling their knife. The Sylph gently patted their cheek. “shoooosh.” “can we call in a solar eclipse now?” the Rogue said, but the Witch shook her head. “It w+n’t d+ any g++d. This is a matter +f rhetoric.” “OH!!” the Sylph said suddenly. “I’ve got an Idea!” She turned to Chad. “when’s your next sermon?” Chad checked the time. “A few minutes, actually.” “great! we’re comIng,” the Sylph said, and shoved past him, dragging the Knight along. Chad, confused, followed. When he arrived on stage, a crowd was already gathered, expectant. The gods stood off to one side, leaving the microphone available. Chad stepped up, tapped it a couple times, and told himself his mantra in his head. You are powerful. You are mighty. You are open. You are a god. “Helllooo, my people!” “our people,” a clear, commanding voice cut in. Everyone turned, and when they saw the gods, gasps and whispers broke out. “is it gonna b a rap off” the Rogue stage-whispered to the Knight. “nah,” the Knight said back. “i think i get what -Sylphie’-S plan i-S.” The Sylph started to walk towards the podium, and her friends followed, creating a strange little parade. “um. hello,” the Sylph said into the microphone, and the whispers increased. “thIs man claIms we have abandoned you, that we are out of touch. he lIes. we are among you, always, and not even fIguratIvely. who here has been to a protest recently that turned sour?” A few people raised their hands. The Sylph nodded, pointing at one of them. “you. protest for goldblood psIonIc headache medIcatIon to be legalIzed? there were a bunch of sonIc blasts, but somehow no one got burned. that was me helpIng. best of luck, btw.” “you, the one with the nice jacket,” the Knight said, and the people quieted, because the Speaker of Truths would not lie to them. “i told your mom -She had to get you vaccinated. did -She?” “Y-Yeah,” the kid said, looking shocked and maybe a little overwhelmed at having this attention put on them. “She did.” The Knight nodded, satisfied. ���Y+u,” the Witch said, pointing at a young woman. “We fucked +nce. Last week, actually. Call me?” “okay, well, that Isn’t the best example-“ the Sylph said. “we went 2 a rave together!!” the Rogue said, pointing at yet another startled face. “wait, u 2? aw fuck man. i cant believe uve done this.” “-So, we gonna -Smite the-Se dork-S?” the Knight, and the crowd all backed up a bit. Chad, for his part, was eyeing the mic as if weighing the chances of being able to grab it back vs the chances of the Knight “shanking” him. “nah, they’re good,” the Sylph said. “just needed a lIttle remInder of theIr real gods, I thInk.” “sure we shoulDnt try 2 push that reminDer a bit?” the Rogue said hopefully. The Sylph smiled. “Already texting Wisria,” the Witch said. The Rogue stepped forward and raised their hands dramatically. “citizens! in the interest of fairness, we will allow this chaD here 2 give a lil Demo of his talents.” Chad stepped forward, looking like a man who had just seen his own death and was not at all pleased with the indignity of it. “Yes. Ahem...observe!” He pulled an apple from thin air, spun it around with a flourish, and then tapped it, It instantly aged and became a wrinkled and gray mush. “Cute,” the Witch said. The Rogue nodded. “one of urs. alright, y’all got the flashy anD non fatal powers. take it away!” The Sylph seemingly spontaneously grew a pair of jade wings and fluttered over the heads of the crowd. With a hum, she perched on a tree and gestured to the Witch, who sprouted matching wings of her own and joined her. Together, the two managed to age a small tree to the point where it’s shadow fell upon the whole gathering (considerably grown by now), and then to the point where it died. The Sylph then casually regrew all its limbs, and the two leapt down from their now considerably heightened perch. “Alright, our turn,” the Knight said, and right on cue, the sun went out. There were several gasps and a few shrieks, but everyone fell silent when the glowing Crests of the gods appeared in the sky, bright enough almost to replace the sun. Then they faded, the sun reappeared, and the gods took a bow in the style of stage plays. “learned your lesson, dearIe??” the Sylph said to Chad as the Rogue shoved him in front of the mic. Chad looked down at his feet, not meeting the eyes of what had once been his congregation. “I...I am not a god.” “damn right,” the Knight said. “alrighty, peace out y’all.” “stay safe!!” the Sylph cried. “keep an eye out 4 us,” the Rogue said with a wink. “Call me!” the Witch said, pointing again at the young woman in the crowd she had singled out before. And the four ascended away, pleased with a job well done.

[lyraeon]

Alright yeah we doin this

An incomplete list of current headcanons for Homestuck Classpects of Hermits (a work in progress)

(Updated on Feb 9 after the war's end made me realize a few things)

Joe has been throwing around big Rogue energy the last few weeks. Living in other people’s bases/borrowed spaces around the server, weaponizing stuff that’s frankly not weaponry, casually trying to bend the rules to pass over the moat, sneaking fans onto the server, creating a diss track in a matter of hours and “including” his teammates into it... all from a pacifist standpoint, mind you. I’m currently saying Rogue of Space. Edit: No no no I'm a goddamn fool. Wow. Joe is a Heart player. So I'm going with Rogue of Heart, though this revelation also has me reevaluating the Rogue part a little.

Doc has long obviously been a Doom player - the rules are his plaything. I’m going with Thief of Doom specifically. He has duplicated countless items over the seasons, he will manipulate the truth for his own purposes, and honestly just? Oh we’re gonna casually make a precision creeper cannon, oh and btw we’re gonna shoot ourselves in on llamas while we’re at it.

Grian I haven’t been watching for anywhere near as long so I’m having a hard time pinning down his class (my instincts say Heir, but he’s so ready to cause chaos I can see Bard or Prince), but his aspect for me comes down to Breath or Hope. He got almost the entire rest of the server to play along on three of his games by now simply by saying okay these are happening everyone :D c’mon let’s goooo! For being the diving force behind most the season right now, I dub him an Heir of Hope.

Tango is a Light player - his luck is too extraordinary (how many times has he said “I could use __” and gotten it?), he knows too much, he is happy to use that information for crazy shit. Plus last season he put a giant nether base into the overworld and this season he’s holding up a lake with a force field. I’d previously written him down as Prince of Light, but he’s softened out so other arguments could be made.

Xisuma is a Mage, keeping things organized and level. I had him down as a Space player when I made my original list last season, but part of that was a joke about his volcano. Having multiple “hims” all logged in on the LPMT server to AFK for different things and keep things in line felt more Time player though, and he isn’t someone I’d consider myself an “expert” on, so I’ll write him as “Mage of Time” with a large-ish question mark beside it.

I’ve always enjoyed the joke of Life player Cleo - after all, she’s a zombie! But this season she’s brought in the armor stands, which have a life of their own... Plus she was very, very, very determined to win that Phantom hunt. Between those, and a bit of bias via her long-running Sims series, as of right now I have her as a Witch of Life.

Cub as Lord of Void and Scar as Muse of Breath. I know, I know, pulling out Lord and Muse are fighting words, but explain to me how the heck else they get as much done as they do. Was particularly motivated by last season - Cub creating the Cub Hub, Scar managing 18,000 miles flown, and the sheer scale of their projects. Cub basically magics things into existence (or out of existence - the absurd win on the Phantom Hunt, getting bored and just finishing digging the nether hub), while Scar is the root of all inspiration on that server and so beloved his cat’s now in the game. Doubles as fun because Void and Breath fit Vex Magic both thematically and color-wise.

Rendog is a Page. I’m sorry, I don’t make the rules, he just is, you know it in your souls, and you know he would be proud of the dang outfit. I unfortunately don’t quite know what kind of Page though - currently my notes say Page of Heart.

Zedaph is a Bard of Life. I thought Page for him initially, too Wormman jokes but the man has to find the most difficult way to do everything and thrives on bases that blend into their surroundings. Also at one point he killed himself repeatedly to opera music just to troll people, so...

Stress’s is already suggested by her name - she’s a Maid of Rage. It makes more sense when you remember Rage is about emotions in general, rather than just actual rage, and see that her content, more than anyone else’s, feels ruled by her emotions in both release schedule and actual content. All of her singing, all of her typing out her accent, all of her actually expressing her frustrations but treating them as just part of life, all fit with that.

From here we start getting into people I’m only clear enough on to have one or the other written down for:

False is a Knight. She has a strong sense of duty and of preserving her self-image. She also can fight like nobody’s business.

Mumbo is a Time player. I thought Space at first as a joke about all his storage systems, but I’ve started to see those as a tool to balance how organized (and scant) his time is. More than any other hermit, he is a creature of habit/routine.

Impulse, as the other ideas guy, feels to me like a Mind player.

I think of Iskall as a Seer, but that may just be because of the imagery of his diamond eye.

Bdubs isn’t really around anymore, but while he was I had him down as a Blood player for his role within the NHO.

Everyone else I either can’t get a good enough read on despite watching them, or don’t watch enough of their content, to really pin anything down. Is Wels actually a Knight? I just don’t know, but I feel like no. Is anyone on this server a Sylph? Who the hell is the Space player so we can finally get a successful session? I just don't know!

But of course all of these are just my thoughts/headcanons, based on my observations and brief talk with a couple friends about it, so they are completely open to debate/interpretation/argument/expansion.

(Please debate me. I am that kind of person. I want to think more about these!)

[mtvswatches]

Wynnona Earp 1x04 The Blade

Spoilers disclaimer (please read before sending messages or writing comments.)

Stray thoughts

1) We got a flashback of Doc’s final moments with Wyatt Earp, and he made it look as if Wyatt didn’t believe in demons and such… how could that be? And how reliable is this flashback if Doc is the one relaying the events to Wynonna?

2) He’s a fucking show-off and I’m falling…

3) I SHIP IT SO HARD

4) Finally an explanation! Sort of…

DOC: I made a barter for eternal longevity. Cured me of chronic tuberculosis and freed me from the ravages of time, unless I catch a bullet, a knife, or an oncoming train.

But… in episode 2, with the shadow monster that was hunting Wynonna and Waverly, he did say that he wasn’t going back to hell or something like that… so… did he make this deal while he was in hell? Or did he visit the kingdom downstairs after making the deal? And what is he, exactly? He’s not a ghost, he’s not a revenant.. is he just An Immortal?

5) I mean, everyone is in purgatory because of “unfinished business”, that’s the definition of purgatory…

6) Monster of the week?

7) Why are Waverly and Wynonna having the conversation about Doc just now? That is major news, why didn’t talk about it before?

8) You do not mess with Wynonna’s sisters…

9) Why is the heir walking into revenant territory without any backup whatsoever?

10) Oh-oh…

BOBO: Now you see, that's that wild imagination, always gets you into trouble. You'd think that after all the months in St. Victoria's Psychiatric, you would know the difference between what is real - and what ain't.

So, like Buffy, Wynonna was committed to a mental institution because of her “delusions” about monsters and demons…

11) At first, I was like, why is Bobo letting them find Father Malick so easily? And then he went “tick-tock, tick-tock” just like the dude that got out of the mirror and I’m like… hmmmmm… something smells fishy here…

12) What a charming fellow…

He HAS to tell me where he gets his nails done OMG!

13) This is definitely the dude from the mirror…

I guess you can only see him in the mirror, for some reason?

14) So this monster (is it a revenant? I’m not sure, he doesn’t seem to behave like revenants and he’s crawling out of mirrors…) chases down sinners and haunts them until they repent and are forgiven for their sins?

15) I’m not gonna lie, I have a huge lady boner for Doc. Like, every time he’s on screen and he speaks with that freaking accent… I die a little.

16) I’m guessing the guy having drinks with Doc will be the next one to be killed off by razor guy.

17) Yep, he’s already listening to Kesha on the mirror.

18) Oh shit, Megan killed Samantha’s father because she took of in her boyfriend’s car because she’d caught him cheating on her with Wynonna… And that’s why she’s dead now… That’s some messed up butterfly effect…

19) Yep, and now Razor Guy is going after Doc.

I wonder whose forgiveness he will be forced to ask for in order to be spared…

20) This was… cringy…

21)

DOLLS: You know what I see in your eyes? A man who doesn't like small spaces. You been in prison? Solitary confinement, ooh.

I’m gonna go ahead and predict that the “solitary confinement” was in his coffin…

22) I guess all “sinners” are somehow connected to Wynonna…

23) Oh, shit!

RAZOR DUDE: Repent, Wynonna Earp. Two hours to find forgiveness from the souls you've hurt.

Who will she have to apologize to? And how long is her list?

24) HA!

25) This is such a Spike move!!!

DOC: Waverly, you have put together the most thorough resource on the revenants. You are one natural-born investigator, just like your great-great-granddaddy, and I reckon, the true keeper of the Earp flame. Can't blame you for being miffed

Yoko Factor much?

26) Please tell me that there is a parallel between this scene and Willow scolding Angel/Giles or Xander/Cordelia under similar circumstances…

27) Holy fuck this shit was scary!

28) She’s such a dork!

WYNONNA: OK, water! That's reflective, right? OK. So what if his body is in water? What if he's using the water to project himself?

29) I don’t get why they’re shooting the reflection, though. I mean, I would be trying to shoot where the dude is supposed to be standing in order to be reflected in the lake or the mirror or whatever surface, you know?

30) WTF!!!!

31) Fucking Doc is the one who chained and threw him into the lake. Should’ve figured it out.

32) Oh, so this is what Waverly was so miffed about…

I kind of disagree? I get that Waverly is the sister who had been preparing to be the heir. She’d done research, she didn’t run away, she was trying to find the revenants, she embraced the family curse. But ultimately, the rightful heir is… well, the rightful heir. It is destiny, and even if Wynonna is not yet totally on board with the Chosen deal, it is part of her journey. This is something that you don’t get to choose, it chooses you.

33) It’s so satisfying to watch them burn.

34) UGH I LIKE THEM SO MUCH!!!

DOC: I do not have much in this world, besides memories and regret. It would be nice for you to have more.

And he admitted that the last encounter with Wyatt he’d told her about was a big fat lie…

35) I get it, Waverly.

I spent years compiling research on the revenants. I did a four-year university degree by correspondence on ancient cultures and languages because I thought that maybe… maybe I could break the curse. And you, who's never tried to be good at anything in life, got to be the special one while I just got to be Waverly.

But… I think what they need to figure out is that they can actually do this – fight the revenants, break the curse – together. Waverly is actually the reason Wynonna came round to accepting her gig as the Heir. They’re the brains and the brawn, they make a great team, and the sooner they figure that out, the easier it will be for them to beat the revenants, you know?

36) Doc’s real last encounter with Wyatt was not as friendly as the one he’d shared with Wynonna. Wyatt could not forgive Doc for making a pact with the devil to become immortal – and what did he do, btw, sell his soul or what? – which was probably what the Razor Dud was going after him for. The problem is, he will never be able to get the forgiveness he obviously needs. But of course, he has to be so extra about his misery…

37) I thoroughly enjoyed this episode. Even though it was about a Monster-of-the-week, it was super fun and said monster was used to bring up some issues among the characters as well as to bring them closer together. I really liked how they’re becoming their own Scooby Gang – Wynonna, Waverly, Dolls and Doc (is the alliteration on purpose?) Even if they’ve been forced together because of circumstance, they don’t even like each other most of the time, and they’re all so different, they still work great together. I’m very excited to see how all these relationships develop!

38) Hope you enjoyed my recap, and, as usual, if you’ve got this far, thank you for reading! If you enjoy my recaps and my blog, please consider supporting it on ko-fi.Thanks!

[animecat33]

HOWDY I’M BACK! 

My legs are killing me but here’s a rundown of the con under cut so this doesn’t take up too much space

Over all: Iberanime lied to ur faces and treated the cosplay guests like shit. They moved locations which SHOULD mean that they could open 4 whole pavilions for the con if they wanted to... they opened one... for the most popular anime convention in the country, and STILL went off on social media saying “this year we’ll have more space than any other years” which is straight up a lie, they even picked the smallest pavilion of all, the only reason we could breath is because a lot o people just dropped the convention all together.

The only place with some space was the cultural zone, which was in an auditorium off to the side of the con, THAT’S where they put the guest cosplayers for heir panels, in the corner of the cultural zone, separated by a wall, with almost no warnings about when the panels wold start.

Yuriko cosplay had a panel on saturday and had a bit of a turnout which i’m glad i noticed the panel started cause she’s really nice and positive and i learned some stuff about cosplaying professionally.

Captain ghostly... poor guy had like 3 (if that?) people going to his panel, i completely missed it, i though since it was a workshop it would be on a bigger stage since he was teaching people how to work foam clay and stuff. My friend bucky cought te pannel and was one of the only people there.

We all met ghostly later in the cultural zone which is where i got updated on what happened

The only place with some space was the cultural zone, wich was in an auditorium off to the side of the con, THAT’S where they put the guest cosplayers for heir panels, in the corner of the cultural zone, separated by a wall, with almost no warnings about when the panels wold start.

I REALLY hope they didn’t get the wrong impression of the con attendees around here, we really were just given almost zero info.

The convention itself was shitty and the organization was focussed on making money white spanding the least possible.

The good parts was i finaly got to visit an artists alley again (although it was small this year, they overcharged artists for booths), i found some kirby stuff in the dealers hall (which toom uo most of the con btw). Found really cool cosplayers, characters i never thought i’d see someone cosplay around here.

Got to hang out with friends that i can’t see often cause i live far away

[cathcacen]

#TakuMegu if you're still in the mood please? I love your writing btw :) Thank you!

Omg sorry it took so long! I still have a bunch of prompts, but I’m getting through them slowly you guys!

Anyway; hope you enjoy!

The song:

Believer by Imagine Dragons

“First things first – I’m going to say all the words inside my head. I’m fired up, Yukihira. I’m tired of the way that things have been.”

He lets out a chuckle, caught between mild amusement and affection. As fond as he is of Takumi, the Italian really does have a flair for dramatic entrances. “You aren’t going to drop a glove and make me pick it up, are you?”

Takumi rolls his eyes, swiping the blond from his forehead. The deep blue eyes flicker upwards to the control room overhead, but only for the briefest of moments.  “No, but I mean it, Yukihira. Today’s the day I beat you.”

“That’s what I like to hear.” He unwinds the length of fabric around his wrist, giving it a light shake. “Let’s do our best.”

The rise of the Shokugeki has seen to it that Totsuki is never in short supply of entertainment and inspiration. And though those of the Elite Ten – Hayama and Alice and Ryo in particular – take great pleasure in fighting one another on an almost-daily basis, the crowd has lost none of its appetite for culinary combat. And what more to draw a crowd than a battle between the First Seat, and his long-time rival the Heir Aldini?

It isn’t until he’s halfway through the allocated cooking time, hands deep in pastry dough laced with deep red saffron threads, that he even realises there’s something different in the air. Throughout the course of his fifty seven Shokugeki matches with Takumi, Yukihira has come to expect odds stacked against him. Where Takumi goes, so too do his groupies, and sure enough, they’re there in the crowd, a group of girls that only swells in numbers each time they do battle.

It’s different today, though – Takumi usually pays his groupies no mind, so it’s a little surprising when the blond actually manages, for once, to tear his focus away from his work. His eyes scan the crowd as the girls cheer, but he barely seems to see them. It’s an incongruous sight that holds his deep blue gaze: that of a dark-haired girl in the front row – the current tenth seat of Totsuki’s Elite Ten Council.

Tadokoro?

He watches the pair curiously as the minutes pass. Months in the kitchen with Erina have taught him how to multi-task, and it’s how he finds himself putting together his dish at present. It isn’t until he finally serves up his deconstructed osso bucco pie that Tadokoro even spares him a smile, both sheepish and embarrassed at the same time.

When the winner is announced, the hall erupts in cheers. Stunned, he looks to Takumi, whose eyes are blazing with something he can’t quite place.

“You did it,” He grins, approaching the blond with knife-box in tow. “Fair and square. Can I taste some of that forcemeat? It looked really delicious.”

Takumi snatches back his knife, slightly red in the face, as if in disbelief. Behind him, Tadokoro’s face stands out in the crowd, and all of a sudden, it becomes clear to him just what this is about, and just how much he must’ve missed after all.

You’re an oblivious dolt! Nakiri’s voice rings in his head, and he can’t help but to let out a chuckle. She’s going to be so mad at me. “Takumi,” he lowers his voice, sticking his hands into his pockets. “You really should have told me that this was a battle for a fair maiden’s hand.”

“W-what?!” The blond sputters, but the whitening of his knuckles about the edges of his knife case tell a different tale. “Damn you, Yukihira! You don’t even know what’s going on half the time. I just wanted my knife back.”

“Then why do you keep looking back at Tadokoro? She’s not going to be mad you beat me, you know.”

Takumi growls. Beneath the menace, though, there’s exasperation, and just a hint of envy. “Yeah, well. I can never be too sure with you two.”

He clears his throat. “Takumi, Nakiri and I have been official for literally half a year. I don’t know how you thought Tadokoro and I were a thing – she’s like a sister to me.”

In the din of students and judges exiting the hall, the space between him and Takumi is deathly silent. The Italian blinks, once, and then again, the red blooming deeper and darker. He half expects more shouting, but none comes. Instead, Takumi turns on his heels, mutters a quick ‘thank you’, and disappears into the crowd.

He looks up to meet Tadokoro’s eyes; she manages a wry smile and the shrug of a shoulder, and he can only sigh in response. Nakiri really was right about these two. 

Hours have passed. He sits in his room, legs crossed, mezzaluna gleaming in the dim moonlight filtering in through the window. Isami is out somewhere tonight, so he’s all alone.

Except he isn’t.

A soft knock brings him to his feet, to the door, and of course it’s Tadokoro, because who else could it be?

She beams, holding up a stack of boxes wrapped in polka-dotted fabric. It’s a homely sight, one that reminds him of days spent in the Tuscan sun with his family and friends, of picnic foods and cured meats in hampers, bottles of juice and wine and fresh lemonade from the fruit in their gardens. Home.

Tadokoro is home.

“I thought you’d be hungry,” she says, and he steps aside to let her in.

“Starving,” he tells her.

They eat in the balcony, beneath the light of the moon and stars. Tadokoro’s food has come a long way since her early days – and if he thinks very hard, he can recall the smell and taste of their very first food encounter. Like many of his memories, it includes Yukihira.

Tadokoro refills his cup of tea. He glances at her, and as she holds his gaze, he can’t help but to wonder if their future holds more – more quiet dinners in each others’ company, more friendly cooking squabbles, more memories.

He wonders if they’d be sweeter without Yukihira’s shadow hanging between them.

“What is it, Takumi-kun?”

He can’t believe how quickly she makes his heart beat. “N-nothing!” He waves a hand lightly, and prays he doesn’t look as flustered as he feels. “I’m just really glad I got my mezzaluna back, that’s all!”

Tadokoro beams. If she knows there’s something else, she doesn’t say it. They never do.

He wonders if he’ll ever work up the courage to tell her. 

[vardasvapors]

DRUNK LIVEBLOG OF THE AKALLABETH BC I PROMISED @rose-of-the-bright-sea​

Uh unfortunately i’m not too drunk since once again my job was to bounce everyone once the party ended but uhhh it is early morning and i’m still not asleep and i did just spend 5 hours dancing and doing shots so...

ANYWAY: first scene of the Akallabeth, remember how the edain were the only Men who fought against morgoth in the war of wrath etc, and when morgoth was defeated the Evil Men who fought for him ran away and conquered all the Stupid Men who were still living in the middle earth area and these men’s lives sucked and were constantly attacked by orcs and monsters and they were dumb and wild and stuff. this explanation is like 20 kinds of LMAO NARRATIVES but also not like, in a lying way, just in a framing way.

otoh the edain got given a giant island in the middle of the ocean as a reward for fighting against morgoth and stuff, osse and aule and yavanna did it. (valar: ‘have an island way out in the sea’ elros: ‘SOUNDS LEGIT’). meanwhile the elves of ME are long-sufferingly granted permission to come to tol eressea because their lives kinda suck. the difference in the tone of the edain’s gift and the elves’ gift is totally not noticed by the narrator but the fact that avallone was build on the eastern edge of tol eressea where it could be seen from numenor is. lol.

there’s this super gorgeous entrancing description of how earendil burned super bright so that he shone night and day and the edain followed him over the calm enchanted sea until they found the island of numenor -- andor the land of gift, elenna that is starwards. however we all know all this incredible rich storytelling stuff isn’t important compared to the tiny scrap of smugness that can be wrung out of making elros hate earendil and/or elves, bc everyone knows that no character’s narrative matters except the feanorians’.

elves of ME also brought all the edain to numenor and elves of tol eressea gave the edain a ton of tools and gifts and stuff to help build their new nation, but you know it’s fun to headcanon elros as a bitter chest-puffing supercilious self-satisfied little prick who finds these elves embarrassing and blinkered and their existence pitiful and tut-tuttingly Wrong. bc that makes sense and is woke for some reason.

the numenoreans became taller than all the sons of middle earth, not all the men of middle earth, so numenoreans are taller than elves. also they didn’t have a lot of kids, bc i guess population explosions on islands with almost no death outside of like 300 years of old age is a Bad Time.

also “and the light of their eyes was like the bright stars” hahahahahahahahaha lmao! kill me! lies down. does not get up.

WHITE TREE FRACTALS

the numenoreans are super cool and get to talk and visit with both elves of tol eressea and elves of middle earth, which seems to lead to the completely inescapable conclusion that numenor is a place where the peoples of all lands can pass messages to one another but this is never mentioned. the numenoreans could totally also have prob defeated the evil human kings of middle earth if they tried but they were totes peaceful -- at an undefined point in time. nice vague timeline blurring bruh.

instead they like, instructed the dumb middle earth men on how to grow grain and grind flour and make stuff out of wood bc uh i guess the middle earth men are too dumb to figure it out, for “the ordering of their life, such as it might be in the lands of swift death and little bliss” hahahahahaha this is the most condescending line in the entire silm it’s great.

then the numenoreans start getting dissatisfied with how they still gotta die and stuff. it’s vaguely described as being something to do with how even their long lives are still not as long as elves’ loves, but every time i read this it reminds me how pissed about mortality i’d be if my great-great-great-uncle who was totally allowed to choose to become immortal kept popping in to talk about how he got to see the cool millennia of my country’s history first hand and debate with my revered ancestral founding king. so.

however the numenoreans totally brush over these sorts of super compelling and sympathetic and valid points and instead just whine about how they’re A Bigshot Kewl Superior Race and HDU Say We Can’t Control Everything If We Wanna, 36 Presents? But Last Century I Got 37! because they’re fucking useless dumbasses.

The valar reply that Aman Will Not Make You Immortal, Yo, and also that elves being immortal and men being mortal aren’t rewards or punishments, which are reasonable points. they then go on to go ‘TBH shouldn’t WE be the ones envying YOU bc you get to peace out of this clusterfuck world, huh, huh whaddaya think about that. also btw the whole mortality thing is some Secret Plan To Fight Inflation eru came up with, and none of us will know it until you and a bajillion generations of your descendants are all dead, lol!!!!’ THANKS VALAR. THAT’S REALLY HELPFUL. GREAT JOB OF ACTUALLY ADDRESSING ANYTHING THE NUMENOREANS ARE BOTHERED ABOUT. KUDOS. i love dumb gods.

the numenoreans are super dissatisfied but instead of anything constructive the king decides to hold his breath and throw a tantrum stay king until he’s totally senile and his son is old, bc of spite, then numenor gets divided into the king’s men and the faithful. the faithful are also bleh about death but assume that the valar have some kind of good reason for what they said, because um, reasons, i guess. no one says if the reasons are more mindless dogma or more a grounding and strengthening faith, but since numenoreans sound like RL humans to a tee it’s probably both. the king’s men aren’t skeptics tho -- they just conquer and enslave and colonize and steal from middle earth, bc ‘the west was denied to them.’ some fans find this to be a ‘yes, but--’ where it’s not the best thing to do but sympathetic and better than those un-nietzschean faithful. i’m gonna assume every single person who finds this nod-worthy is as White as sour cream.

later on Ar-Gimilzor bans the Faithful’s language, sends secret police or smth to find out everyone who is Faithful and forcibly remove them from their homes, relocate them to Romenna, and corral and watch them, call them and the elves of tol eressea spies, chase them out of numenor, and force the faithful leader’s sister to marry the king. some fans still somehow think this was a morally grey and understandable thing to do because secular-culturally-christian libs are vile and have never parsed a history book in their lives.

Tar-Palantir becomes king after being secretly taught Faithful stuff by his secretly faithful mom, but nothing he does to fix things helps and he eventually dies young from depression. His daughter Tar-Miriel becomes queen but her cousin Ar-Pharazon forces her to marry him and give him the kingship instead. exactly how this happened remains unexplained! Boo! I want more details. Anyway Pharazon is a Fragile Masculinity poster boy and when sauron starts causing trouble he decides he’s just gotta go capture him and bring him to numenor to show off and stroke his ego, bc he is an Heir Of Eärendil and Respect Meehhh!! God this guy sounds SO UNPLEASANTLY FAMILIAR DOESN’T HE EH. (parenthetically i am delighted beyond words at how absolutely bang-on it is that the King’s Men, both here and earlier with the convo with the Valar, totally Do Not Mention the fact that they’re heirs of Elros, not just Earendil, bc that would be super inconvenient to their vision of themselves and their mortality grievance!! lol!!! i love it!!!! god!!!!!!!! *fingers and thumb in a circle emoji*).

anyway sauron is super smart and an awesomesauce genre-savvy villain and way too good for pharazon and he flatters him and manipulates him into making him his councilor and convinces him that the valar are lying and and to worship morgoth and slaughter the faithful by sacrificing them on.....hm....altars....as rebels and as scapegoats for all numenor’s Problems(TM)....>_>....lmao tolkien can be really fucking dumb and scattered about his mythology and religion patchworking, and yet the wokeness-masturbating section of fandom is infinitely worse in the most predictable ways.

WHITE TREE FRACTALS (this time featuring bonus BAMF and Super Awesome And Lovable 21 Year Old Isildur......have i mentioned recently how much i hate peter jackson......)

anyway when Pharazon has a mid-life crisis about getting old sauron also convinces him he can become immortal by invading aman, which he should totally do bc The Strong Do What They Will And The Weak Bear What They Must (remember this is tragically admirable if flawed, because it’s defying fate!) and a super armament is built to invade aman and ar-Pharazon’s ex-bff Amandil who’s secretly friends with the Faithful freaks and makes secret plans to sail to valinor to beg the valar to do something and has his son elendil prepare to go to middle earth to see the elves who are hunkered down there doing.....uhhhhh???? probably hiding from numenorean conquest????

but anyway when pharazon invades aman and chases the elves out of tol eressea and then tirion, he has a Uh-Oh I Think This Was A Bad Idea feeling but can’t back down now so he lands ashore and camps out around tirion and then manwe prays to eru to bail everyone out and says he will lay down rule of arda for a minute since he doesn’t know what to do, presumably a la ‘omg dad i fucked up and totally crashed your car,’ and eru solves this by getting ar-pharazon & co buried under a mountain until the end of the world (funny how so few fans ever address this thing re: tirion in valinor fanfic eh? oh yeah i forgot silm fans don’t give a shit about humans), opening up a big crack in the ocean, pulling aman and tol eressea out into space, turning the earth from flat to spherical, and letting the island of numenor get buried under the resulting tidal wave and fall down the crack to wherever. because you know overkill is great! also sauron is too busy doing an Evil Villain Laugh to realize he’s about to get drowned and he totally dies and has to make himself a new body out of Anger and he’s now ugly, which sucks for the fanartists.

anyway manwe saves elendil and his fleet (it doesn’t say manwe, but it does say ‘but the great wind took [elendil], wilder than any wind that Men had known, roaring from the west, and it swept his ships far away...’ which, duh) and they wind up washed up on middle earth, but totally grief-stricken over the destruction of numenor.

I can’t liveblog the rest any better than verbatim so I’ll just quote:

Among the Exiles many believed that the summit of the Meneltarma, the Pillar of Heaven, was not drowned for ever, but rose again above the waves, a lonely island lost in the great waters; for it had been a hallowed place, and even in the days of Sauron none had defiled it And some there were of the seed of Eärendil that afterwards sought for it, because it was said among loremasters that the far-sighted men of old could see from the Meneltarma a glimmer of the Deathless Land. For even after the ruin the hearts of the Dúnedain were still set westwards; and though they knew indeed that the world was changed, they said: 'Avallónë is vanished from the Earth and the Land of Aman is taken away, and in the world of this present darkness they cannot be found. Yet once they were, and therefore they still are, in true being and in the whole shape of the world as at first it was devised.'

For the Dúnedain held that even mortal Men, if so blessed, might look upon other times than those of their bodies' life; and they longed ever to escape from the shadows of their exile and to see in some fashion the light that dies not; for the sorrow of the thought of death had pursued them over the deeps of the sea. Thus it was that great mariners among them would still search the empty seas, hoping to come upon the Isle of Meneltarma, and there to see a vision of things that were. But they found it not. And those that sailed far came only to the new lands, and found them like to the old lands, and subject to death. And those that sailed furthest set but a girdle about the Earth and returned weary at last to the place of their beginning; and they said:

'All roads are now bent.'

Thus in after days, what by the voyages of ships, what by lore and star-craft, the kings of Men knew that the world was indeed made round, and yet the Eldar were permitted still to depart and to come to the Ancient West and to Avallónë, if they would. Therefore the loremasters of Men said that a Straight Road must still be, for those that were permitted to find it. And they taught that, while the new world fell away, the old road and the path of the memory of the West still went on, as it were a mighty bridge invisible that passed through the air of breath and of flight (which were bent now as the world was bent), and traversed Ilmen which flesh unaided cannot endure, until it came to Tol Eressëa, the Lonely Isle, and maybe even beyond, to Valinor, where the Valar still dwell and watch the unfolding of the story of the world. And tales and rumours arose along the shores of the sea concerning mariners and men forlorn upon the water who, by some fate or grace or favour of the Valar, had entered in upon the Straight Way and seen the face of the world sink below them, and so had come to the lamplit quays of Avallónë, or verily to the last beaches on the margin of Aman, and there had looked upon the White Mountain, dreadful and beautiful, before they died.