#If you don't think this is consent them maybe this isn't the series for you

[lestcat-de-lioncourt]

In response to the assumption that Lestat never loved Claudia

Whilst there were moments describing that he didn't really care about Claudia, it's not certain but he seemed to think she was in the way, though, this story is told by Louis who is known very well to be a totally unreliable narrator with now Armand who is butthurt about Lestat running off from him as well, whispering in his ear. Likewise, Claudia's diary has multiple pages stripped out, and it's mostly the parts favouring Louis left.

Lestat gifted what was assumed to be a family heirloom, at least in fan theory, (the gorgeous antique necklace) rather than given to him by a marquis as he mentions upon doing so, something you would often gift to your child you ultimately cared for and saw as your child. Though, whoever gave it to Lestat, it was still a special gift.

Lestat taught Claudia a multitude of talents, which Louis would not teach her nor encourage her to do. Piano, chess, hunting to survive (not particularly done by Louis due to his vegetarian vampirism), and Daniel calls out a lot of what Louis has to say was her relationship with Lestat and how he's painting it to be.

Looking toward the time when they conspire to kill Lestat, children can be easily manipulated, not to mention that she has the mind as a young person and there's trials and tribulations we have to go through during puberty, and it's a rather vulnerable time.

He looked regretful when he called her a mistake as well.

I know people so often accuse him of not loving her just because he's telling her off, normally in situations that would literally threaten her life and anonymity, and safety, this drastic opinion and assumption parents don't love their kids if they tell them off during moments that could end up killing them, is really telling of who has got kids and who hasn't ever needed to look after one.

Maybe he loves her, maybe he doesn't, he certainly struggles with her, and it's the age old tale of one parent being jealous of the other, or feeling lonely once having kids as the relationship may because less consistently intimate with less time to spend together, alone. There's things she's done that upsets him. He struggles with her playing them off against each other, but that's what kids often do. It's a survival technique.

It's very clear that he's too messy to be a good parent. He needs a whole lot of therapy, but that doesn't remove someone's capacity to love their kids. He has a lot of love for them.

This isn't related to his unchanging polyamory taking on various lovers, which he was very clear about with Louis, and he'd initially consented to and even done himself.

People look at Lestats behaviour and immediately assume he doesn't care nor has any real love for any of them, but that's so not true. The reality of love and family dynamics aren't as clear-cut as people try to paint them and disqualify more complex expressions of their feelings towards one another.

It is stated that he is forever haunted with the guilt and shame of Claudia's death.

You can see love and hurt and a series of emotions he felt when Louis asked Lestat to make them a baby (in the adaption, though yes, it is an adaption), for them to start a family, that he wanted a kid with Lestat. In that moment, he did, though he says he made her as the ultimate gift for Louis, a daughter, a child, and starting their own family. This is a very raw feeling that people who decide to have kids will often experience. I don't believe he "baby trapped" Louis though, as many keep saying, considering he was worried about the consequences that would happen to her and her future as a child immortal. Seeing how distraught Louis was and empathetic to the potential death of the child, he changed her. He tried to highlight to Louis that in the end, it could do her more harm than dying.

I don't think he never loved Claudia, I may well be wrong, though.

[flowerandblood]

The Prince and The Fox (2)

[ modern! • Aemond x friend! • female ]

[ warnings: bullying, mention of sexual abuse, trauma ]

[ description: After the events of her childhood, despite her best efforts, her neighbor and the younger brother of her friend Helaena, Aemond, does not want to know her. This state lasts until a house party organized by his older brother, Aegon, during which an incident occurs that will change their relationship forever. Slow burn, angst, toxic ex-Alys, rough Aemond. This is several anon requests combined into one fic. ]

WARNING: The main plot between the characters takes place in high school. Yes, in high school. The belief that teenagers wait with an intimacy when they are in love in high school is ridiculous to me. Aemond and the character here are the same age. Don't ask me how old they are, in my country you are of the age of consent in your first year of high school and an adult in the last year of high school, so if it is more convenient for you, think about it that way and decide for yourself. In this story, I am not following the trail that they are magically friends right away, but how they become friends and what that even means. I'm writing this fic to give the perspective of young, lost people, not adult women who want to see exactly themselves in everything they read. If that's all you expect, this isn't the fic for you.

I don't want whining about this in my comments or asks. I will delete these and block you. You have been warned.

Aemond + Evans Series Moodboard

This is my first story that has its own playlist, but yes! Get in the mood! Story Music Playlist. Songs used in this chapter: Turn Your Back on me & The Lion's Mouth by Kajagoogoo and Welcome to the Jungle by Guns N' Roses.

* English is not my first language. Please, do not repost. Enjoy! *

Next chapters: Masterlist

_____

That night she slept very badly. Her parents asked why she had come back so early and if she had enjoyed herself. She burst out crying, unaccustomed to lying, and told them what had happened.

Her father was furious, stormed out of the house and made her show him which boy had nagged and touched her. She begged him to let it go, Cregan had been away from the party for a long time, they had gone somewhere with friends.

Her father said he wouldn't leave it like that and demanded to speak to Aemond. The next morning she appeared, accompanied by her father, at their house, embarrassed, her father explaining what had happened. Their mother was shocked by what she had heard.

She, her father, Alicent, Aegon, Aemond and Helaena sat down in the living room to talk about it.

"What? God, I swear, Mum, I didn't know Cregan would do something like that!" Mumbled Aegon, shocked at what had happened, Helaena was distraught and sat beside her, stroking her hand. Aemond looked at her, some kind of understanding in his eyes.

He felt that she had done the right thing telling her parents about it.

"Aemond, my daughter told me that you stopped him and stood up for her. I am very grateful to you and I want to ask you, if his parents insisted that it was word against word, will you be able to confirm what she said?" Her father asked, and he nodded without hesitation, tightening his lips.

"Yes. It was exactly as she said. I heard him tell his mates at school during break that he was planning to fuck her here at the party." He said in shame, lowering his gaze, his mother shaking her head in disbelief, slapping her hands on her thighs in a gesture of helplessness and rage.

"And you kept silent?" She asked with disappointment and pain. He pressed his lips together and swallowed hard, overwhelmed apparently by remorse.

She felt her stomach tighten at the thought that he really hadn't meant to stop then, that he could have done something much worse to her.

Aemond lifted a gaze full of pain and shame at her.

"I-I thought he was just bragging to his mates and... I don't know, that you're into each other. That maybe you want this too. That he's actually a good guy and wouldn't do anything to you against your will. But when I saw your face when he started touching your thigh on the couch, that look of discomfort, I…" He said in a slightly trembling voice and paused, looking her straight in the eye.

She swallowed hard, understanding what he wanted to say.

He didn't expect it from him either.

She nodded, feeling warm in her heart nonetheless at the thought that he had followed them out to see if anything would happen to her.

If he would hurt her.

She covered her face with her hand, her father put his arm around her and stroked her tenderly.

"It's good that you spoke about it, sweetheart. You can't leave it like that." Alicent said, nodding her head. Suddenly she clapped her hands as if she remembered something.

"The cameras! Our security company keeps footage for 48 hours. We also have one in the garden in case of a break-in, why don't I call them and ask them to send us the video from yesterday? We'll check if we can see anything on it." She suggested, her father said it was an excellent idea.

She lowered her head, terrified that her father and others would be able to see it, that perhaps on the video it wouldn't look like sexual assault at all.

After all, she had hugged him herself.

They waited impatiently by Alicent's laptop, sitting down and glancing at her inbox, the security company employee who was in charge of her equipment said he would try to send her the footage within fifteen minutes.

They all flinched and moved closer as a new message appeared with a video file. She swallowed loudly, terrified, ashamed, feeling a tightening in her stomach and throat, afraid that it didn't look at all like she said it did, that everyone would think she was lying, that they would never believe her again.

She felt herself shaking, her knee moving up and down in an involuntary tic. She shuddered when she heard someone put a chair next to her, Aemond sat down touching her with his knees and shoulders, placing his elbows on the table, leaning over the monitor.

"It was about ten o'clock at night, Mum. I remember because by the time I left the clock was striking the hour in the living room." He said lowly, and Alicent quickly ran the cursor to that hour and turned on the accelerator a few times.

"Oh okay, mum, it's them, I can see Cregan!" Said Aegon, leaning between them, turning off the acceleration. Alicent pressed the spacebar, stopping the video.

"Do you want everyone to watch this?" She asked her quietly. She looked around and thought, in essence, that she recognised that these were people she trusted, who she hoped cared about her.

She nodded, swallowing hard.

Alicent pressed play.

The camera was up high and part of the bench was obscured by the canopy, their faces not visible. She saw them sit down, saw his arm around her, stroking her hand for a moment. She felt a cold sweat on her back as she saw his fingers lift higher and higher, heard Aegon and his mother draw in a loud breath as his hand slid under her dress.

Her father covered his mouth, heartbroken when he saw her hand immediately clamp down on his wrist in a clear gesture of defence, her whole body tense, it was obvious she was trying to pull away, to push back, to escape, and instead of letting her go he pressed her tighter against him.

She felt tears under her eyelids and lowered her head, not knowing where to look, she felt Aemond press his body closer to hers, felt his breath on the top of her head, felt him looking at her.

"− Jesus −" Muttered Aegon in disbelief, running a hand over his face. "− fucking piece of shit −"

Then they could already see Cregan and Aemond struggling with each other, her sitting down on the grass and crying, Aemond crouching down beside her and putting his arms around her, saying something to her.

The footage had no sound, but what could be seen on it was enough to clearly understand what had happened.

Her father got up and said he needed to get some air for a while and smoke a cigarette. Alicent followed him out, apparently wanting to work out what they were going to do, whether to report it to the police or not.

She felt Helaena's warm embrace, felt her lay her head on her shoulder and hugged her immediately, Aegon and Aemond looked at them in silence.

"− I'm sorry − fuck − if I had known, I would never have invited him! − I saw you two cuddling on the couch in the living room, but God, I thought you two were just in love − that, I don't know, you're together, just unofficially yet −" He mumbled, and she swallowed loudly, rubbing her eyes, trying to pull herself together.

"− please, Aegon − it's not your fault − you didn't do anything wrong − don't worry, I won't tell anyone about the alcohol −" She said quietly, tiredly, and he sighed heavily, scratching his head, clearly distraught that something like this had happened at his own party.

Aemond said nothing, fiddling with his mug of already half-cold coffee, it seemed to her that he hadn't slept well that night either.

Her father had decided that they would drive with this recording to his parents.

She was horrified.

"I will go with you." Aemond said, and her father nodded.

They drove there together in their car with Alicent's laptop. They sat side by side in the back seat, she saw that he was pulling at the cuticles around his fingernails again, she noticed with pain that he had actual wounds around them.

When he saw in the reflection in the window that she was looking at him he stopped immediately and swallowed loudly, lowering his gaze.

He was stressed too.

When they arrived a surprised Mrs Stark opened the door for them, asking who they were and what had happened.

"I would like to talk to you about your son."

She, Aemond and her father sat on the couch on one side and Cregan and his parents on the other as her father played them the video. Cregan was pale, sitting with his arms folded, feigning indifference, his knee shaking restlessly, he was biting his lower lip, his eyes red.

He was terrified.

His mother made big eyes when she saw the moment he slipped his hand under her dress and looked at him with disbelief mixed with pain. His father snorted, shrugging his shoulders.

"And what, are you going to go to the police? Destroy a young boy's life because he made a mistake, because his hormones are raging?" He asked as if it was a trivial matter, a complete nothing. She felt the rage surge in her father.

"Because of your son's hormones, he can act like a mindless monkey and grope girls who don't want him to?" He hissed, his father raising his eyebrows, pointing at her with his hand.

"Please, forgive me, but from what I can see in this video your daughter was pushing herself into his arms, after all he could have misunderstood her…"

"Mark." Said his wife, clearly not believing what she was hearing, pale.

Her father stood up, pointing his finger at her.

"My child came home crying because someone molested her. He only stopped because her classmate went out into the garden. And what would your son do if no one helped her, hm? How long would he hold her while she tried to break free?" He thundered furiously on the verge of tears, she had never seen him like this before.

She just sat on the couch, looking at her shoes, shaking all over, feeling that her biggest nightmare had just taken place in front of her eyes.

Please, forgive me, but from what I can see in this video your daughter was pushing herself into his arms.

Mr Stark raised his hands in a defensive gesture as if to show that his aim was not to argue or escalate the conflict.

"I admit, my son acted unwisely. He misread the girl's signals and behaved badly. We will be watching him more closely in this area. Is that all?" He asked, and her father closed the laptop with a loud slam and growled to them that they were leaving.

She stood up and cast one last look in Cregan's direction, he was looking at her with a hatred she had never seen in her life before.

She burst into sobs as soon as they got into the car, her father comforting her loudly telling her not to cry, that they were driving to the police station.

"No, no, please, no!" She whimpered, leaning forward, grabbing his arm, her father looked at her in the mirror.

"What?"

"I can't do it, I can't do it anymore. I… stop, I think I'm going to throw up." She mumbled, her father stopped with a squeal of tyres. She got out and immediately vomited on the grass, coughing and crying, feeling her stomach convulse in pain.

She heard them both get out of the car, her father put his arms around her saying that everything would be fine, Aemond stood beside them not knowing what to do with himself, not knowing how to behave.

The next few days at school were extremely difficult for her. Some of her friends and acquaintances were shocked and horrified, giving her their complete support and understanding, saying they were disappointed by Cregan's behaviour.

However, others thought that she was simply lying.

"Attention whore." One of his friends growled, hitting her on the shoulder with his arm as he walked past her.

She saw that someone had scratched the word 'liar' on her locker standing in the corridor. She looked at it indifferently, then opened it as if nothing had happened and exchanged the books she needed with the ones she could put away.

This time he was the one looking at her.

She felt his gaze on her back in the classroom, in the corridor, as she sat at the bus stop looking at her shoes.

For some reason, even though she was alive and everything was going on, she felt dead.

She couldn't erase his touch from her mind.

She sat on the bus in total reverie, occupying the seat at the back by the window, sitting in her earphones, listening recently to nothing but Kajagoogoo songs, 'Too shy', 'Turn Your Back On Me', 'Ooh to Be Ah', 'The Lion's Mouth' looped on her player.

Their electronic sound and the wonderful bass guitar in the background energised her when she had no strength and couldn't rouse herself.

She had just listened to 'Turn Your Back On Me' for the second time since the morning when she felt someone sit down next to her.

She glanced to the side and spotted a black sweatshirt, familiar hands clicking something on his phone, apparently pausing the song he had just listened to on his player, she saw that it was 'Welcome to the Jungle' by Guns N' Roses. She pulled down one earpiece, looking at him in surprise.

"What are you listening to?" He asked, pulling on the cord of his black earphones, which dropped gently onto his lap with a quiet click.

She handed him her earphone, which he took from her, placing it in his left ear, moving a little closer to her so that there was enough cable for both of them. He mused, listening.

"Interesting." He muttered lowly, glancing at her player.

"Kajagoogoo." She said quietly, going into the track list so he could see what their songs were called.

"Nice bass." He admitted, as if surprised by this discovery himself. She nodded and closed her eyes, resting her temple against the glass, just sinking into the sound of the music.

He listened to the songs of her favourite band with her until they reached the school.

When the bus stopped he handed her back her earpiece, their hands touched. They looked at each other, for the first time so closely. He picked up his backpack and rose, trying not to hit his head on the low ceiling and walked out in front of her, no longer paying attention to her.

She walked through the corridor of her school listening to "The Lion's Mouth", trying not to pay attention to whether anyone was looking at her or not, focusing on the words of the song, staring blankly ahead.

Hey fool watch out! (Watch out) You'll get mauled by the lion's mouth -

Hey fool watch out! (Watch out) You'll get mauled by the lion's mouth (I don't think so) -

Hey fool watch out! (Watch out) You'll get mauled by the lion's mouth -

The music suddenly stopped when someone tripped her up. She wobbled and fell over, collapsing on the floor, her earphones falling out of her ears. She lifted herself up on her arms and turned over her shoulder, noticing Cregan's hateful stare.

A moment later, several things happened at the same time. Aemond who threw him to the floor, pounding his face with his fist, holding his sweatshirt, growling that he was a fucking piece of shit, a mere abuser, a nobody, a zero.

His colleagues and teachers had to separate them, Cregan spat blood on the floor.

She felt someone grab her shoulders, Helaena stood over her, looking at her in horror.

"Are you all right?"

She sat in her classroom terrified, glancing anxiously over her shoulder at the empty seat in the bench he sat in, knowing that he and Cregan had ended up at the headmaster's office.

That he was in trouble because of her, that he could be suspended because of her.

She shuddered when she heard the sound of the door opening and saw him step inside, the teacher paused his reasoning for a moment and grunted, returning to the subject of the lesson.

Aemond walked over to his bench without a word, not looking at her, and sat down in his chair, pulling off his backpack, taking out his textbooks and notebook, giving her one calm look.

She pulled her phone quickly from her sweatshirt pocket, reminding herself that she had his phone number, and quickly texted him.

She heard his phone vibrate on his bench. She sat looking ahead, feeling her heart pounding hard.

After a moment, the display of her phone lying on her thighs lit up and she saw that she had received a new message. She opened it quickly, feeling a tightness in her throat.

She turned towards him over her shoulder, his lips curving into a grin. She smiled gratefully at him and breathed quietly, turning ahead, trying to finally focus on what her teacher was talking about.

Boarding the bus after class, she dared to sit next to him. They looked at each other, he watched as she untangled her earphones and plugged them into her phone. She saw him pull his own off and pause his player.

"Are you going to listen to that band with weird name again?" He asked lowly and she nodded, smiling at him.

He held out his hand to her and she handed him her earpiece, this time with her left hand, turning on 'The Lion's Mouth'.

"This is my favourite." She admitted with a smile, feeling calm for some reason, her stomach filled with warmth.

"Mmm." He hummed, their elbows resting against each other lying on their armrest, however neither of them seemed to mind.

She understood then.

The Little Prince took a step towards the Fox of his free will.

She smiled under her breath.

He wanted her to tame him.

_____

Aemond Taglist:

(bold means I couldn't tag you)

@its-actually-minicika @notnormalthings-blog @nikstrange @zenka69 @bellaisasleep @k-y-r-a-1 @g-cf2020 @melsunshine @opheliaas-stuff @chainsawsangel @iiamthehybrid @tinykryptonitewerewolf @namoreno @malfoytargaryen @qyburnsghost @aemondsdelight @persephonerinyes @fan-goddess @sweethoneyblossom1 @watercolorskyy

[saintsenara]

What do you think about Tom Riddle Sr?And your thoughts on Tom Riddle Sr/Merope Gaunt as a ship? I read some of your answers on Merope Gaunt and I just adore your fic 'Enchanter's Nightshade'. I was curious as to what your thoughts are on his canon character, the way that he is treated in fanon and if you have any headcanons on his character

thank you very much for the asks, pal - and i'm sorry that i'd entirely forgotten that i had an answer for the first sitting in my drafts until the second arrived in my inbox...

[thank you also for the very kind shoutout to enchanter's nightshade!]

and i find tom sr. extremely interesting as a character, and he's someone i think quite a lot of compelling stuff can be done with in fanfiction - particularly in how fic writers can take a sledgehammer to how he's treated by the canon narrative...

which - of course - means that there is a trigger warning for a discussion of rape in what follows, which is under the cut.

tom and merope

it's worth starting by emphasising that the series never thinks of tom sr. as a victim. it treats love potions as benign and broadly amusing [the only time we ever see someone under the influence of one - ron in half-blood prince - it's played for laughs], describes merope's drugging of tom sr. as something she would consider "romantic", and never acknowledges that she was his rapist.

[although it is important to point out that the fanon that voldemort's issues with love come from the circumstances of his conception is something jkr never said. and i also think that it's important, when thinking about tom and merope's relationship, to recognise that all the evidence of canon is that she is subjected to incestuous sexual violence at the hands of her brother and/or father - she is an abused teenager with no meaningful understanding of consent or bodily autonomy, and she evidently views her "relationship", as she sees it, with tom as a means of escaping a life which is undeniable, unrelenting misery.]

[which is to say - i find tom and merope interesting as a pairing because of this inherent nuance, tragedy and violence.]

the series also criticises tom sr. for leaving the relationship - in line both with its broader disdain for absent fathers and idealisation of devoted mothers, and with its prioritisation of love-as-suffering and love-as-sacrifice over forms of love which are more self-indulgent. its view is evidently that tom sr. should have gritted his teeth and remained in merope's life in some way or another [maybe not as her husband, but also not as her survivor] in order to have been involved in his son's life.

indeed, it always stands out to me that - when discussing tom sr. fleeing his abusive relationship - dumbledore refers to merope as "merope riddle". emphasising that the two were married underscores the fact that the text views tom sr. as straightforwardly unadmirable - a husband and father who abandoned his family.

[and he gets his comeuppance. i think it's worth noting that the narrative isn't sympathetic at all about his death - the opening chapter of goblet of fire, where voldemort's murder of the riddles is described, states plainly that nobody likes them - and he finds himself unable to outrun the son he left behind when that son uses his bones in his resurrection ritual... the subtext is clear: abandoning your son was the wrong move, and since good people - like james and lily - don't abandon their son even after their deaths, tom sr. is therefore a bad person.]

that both dumbledore and harry see him like this makes sense within their watsonian characterisations. harry has - as he says when lupin tries to walk out on the pregnant tonks - the view that parents should never abandon their children unless they have literally no choice, which is a perfectly understandable opinion for an orphan who lost their parents in such traumatic circumstances to hold [he also takes a very dim view on merope for dying]. dumbledore, who recognises the dangerous paths overwhelming desire can lead one down, sees himself in merope, and is therefore less willing to examine the cruelty of her actions.

voldemort also thinks of him in this vein - his view of his father, expressed during his resurrection scene in goblet of fire, is that he abandoned merope [with whom he had a consensual relationship] in a fit of pique when she confessed to him that she was a witch. voldemort thinks of his father as a deadbeat who left him to rot - and the series never takes issue with him holding this view, even as it works to prove many of the other things he believes about himself, magic, and power wrong.

tom and voldemort

the role tom sr. plays in voldemort's narrative arc, then, is pretty much unconnected to his experiences at merope's hands - he is not considered by the text to be a warning about the corrosive, oppressive, violent potential of using magic against muggles which voldemort follows his mother in doing, for example.

his role in his son's arc across the seven-book canon is to underscore that voldemort will never successfully outrun his muggle heritage - the fact that his son has his face and his name [and the fact that dumbledore, and then harry, insist on using this name for him after voldemort sheds it, which is - and we should call it what it is, especially given jkr's stance on such things - deadnaming] serves as a way for the text to criticise and humiliate voldemort, undermining his belief that he's something pure and special [and undermining his pride in his descent from slytherin] by making clear that, when all is said and done, he's just an ordinary man with a muggle father.

and so his death occurs purely to enable this narrative treatment of voldemort. he has to kill his dad - because he's trying to eradicate anything muggle from himself - and so the action becomes all about him. tom is basically just there.

but this is something i really like playing with in my own work. i always end up writing tom sr. as not only physically resembling his son - except for the fact, and i'll die on the hill that this is the canon text's intention, that voldemort has his mother's eyes - but as being the source of his mannerisms and many of his non-childhood-trauma-induced personality traits.

partially this is because i think we might as well take the series' belief that voldemort can't escape the riddle genes and go the whole hog with it.

but it's also because i think it's worth skewering the series' view of voldemort's slytherin heritage as - essentially - dooming him to be incapable of change in either positive or negative directions. the way the gaunts are described in canon - violent, unstable, grandiose etc. - is set up to suggest that voldemort gets these aspects of his personality from them, that - like the parseltongue - being a terrorist with delusions of grandeur is just something the heirs of slytherin are bound to inherit.

but i like idea of these traits coming from the less mystical branch of voldemort's lineage - and his decision to indulge them being nothing more than deliberate choice.

tom riddle sr. character notes and headcanons

which leads us to the question of what tom sr. is like as a character separate from merope and voldemort.

we only see him once in canon - where he's talking in a carrying voice to cecilia about how much land his dad owns and correctly identifying morfin as a danger to society - and he's only mentioned a handful more times: his whirlwind marriage; his return home a few months later, which he explains as him having realised he'd been "hoodwinked"; the fact that he's considered even worse than his "rich, snobbish, and rude" parents by the villagers of little hangleton in the period immediately before his death; and that he dies in his evening clothes with a look of pure terror on his face.

his gravestone in the goblet of fire film has him born in 1905, and i like this [although i push his date of birth back a couple of years in order for him to have finished university when he's attacked by merope] because it enables him to be a stereotypical "bright young thing" - the sort of dissolute aristocrat, untroubled both by his father's victorian morals and by the devastating impact of the first world war on men a decade or so older than him, whose exploits dominate our image of the roaring twenties [or - at least - the roaring twenties in britain]. at the start of 1925, before his life all goes wrong, i like him as idle, profligate, bohemian, constantly partying, a keen user of cocaine, promiscuous, vain, and incredibly rude to his servants, tradesmen, and policemen and so on - spending his days in a whirlwind of hangovers, tennis, elaborate fancy-dress balls, modern novels, dining at his club, and piles of liberated flappers, vile bodies [and jeeves and wooster...] style.

and i do think the idea of him as lazy, convinced of his own brilliance, and complacent [personality traits not helped by an education at eton and oxford - he takes a fourth, the lowest-possible passing classification, on a degree in greats - which he has neither the intellect nor the work ethic to succeed at without the power of daddy's money] offers a really interesting side to him being preyed on by merope.

i like him as someone who thinks of himself as rational, cheerfully irreligious, and far too modern and well-bred to waste his time on the silly superstitions of the boring, ordinary people in the village. him mentioning to cecilia about the stories the villagers tell about morfin can be read as him being condescendingly amused by local folklore surrounding the gaunts - a sort of "would you believe it, one of our gardeners is convinced they're wizards! too, too funny!" vibe - and i really like writing him as someone whose total rejection of the possibility of magic and conviction that the gaunts are just pitiable and disgusting, rather than dangerous [the view of the rest of the village], means that when merope offers him a glass of shimmering water he thinks "why, what a lark!" instead of running.

when he returns home, however, i imagine him as profoundly changed - paranoid, beset by nightmares, increasingly superstitious [voldemort's own rather... catholic leanings being mirrored in his father going full sebastian flyte is delicious to me], unwilling to eat or drink anything he hasn't seen prepared [one of the reasons, perhaps, why the servants at the riddle house dislike him so much], unable to go anywhere near the stables and see the horse he was riding when evil befell him, unwilling to talk to anyone or receive visitors [hence his reputation for being snobbish and rude - the villagers interpret this as him thinking them beneath him], unwilling to spend money or give gifts because he's afraid of unwittingly finding himself ensnared again [giving him a reputation for being rather miserly], and so on.

i like the idea of him becoming incredibly reclusive, losing his interest in the social life he once enjoyed overnight, and spending his days sleeping poorly and staying inside. i imagine his parents being supportive to the best of their ability, but that tom's inability to speak openly what happened to him [he, like his son, doesn't like doctors because he fears they will accuse him of being mad] means they can only do so much. their understanding of tom's marriage is the same as the rest of the village's - that tom consensually slept with merope, she told him she was pregnant, he "did the right thing" and married her, and he then discovered she was lying.

[he knows - of course - that she was pregnant, and he is convinced in his bones that the child will one day find and destroy him...]

tom's obvious post-traumatic stress disorder would undoubtedly have been enough to exempt him from conscription when the second world war broke out - although, of course, his medical unfitness wouldn't have been described in these terms.

and i think it's really interesting to consider how this would be received in the village - especially since the riddles would have gone out of their way to conceal his mental state from the public [hence their performance of the rituals of aristocratic life - including taking their dinner in full evening dress - even after he comes home a changed man]. i really like the idea of the general view being that - unlike the ordinary, hard-working men of little hangleton - tom managed to buy his way out of service [not only in the army but also on the home front], and that, to be quite honest, it was no wonder wounded war-hero frank bryce snapped and killed him.

which is a nice segue into the fact that frank bryce/tom riddle sr. is a concept i've recently become completely convinced by. frank staying in the riddle house after he's eliminated as a suspect in the riddles' deaths is something i find really quite moving - not only because of what it says about the disconnect between the historical memory many brits have of the war and the war's reality that a disabled veteran would find himself with nowhere else to go, but because it must indicate a genuine affection for the riddles which nobody else shared. the garden bringing some comfort to tom sr. on his worst days triggering a solemn, steadfast love for him in frank [requited or not] which endured past his death really compels me.

[and i also think that frank having some deeper connection with tom sr. - rather than just being his gardener - provides a more satisfactory explanation for why voldemort uses him as a horcrux murder than we get in canon. voldemort seeing - in his father's mind or frank's - that the two were entangled in some way would only increase his fury that tom sr. abandoned him and his mother...]

i'm also hugely convinced by the potential of shipping tom sr. with dumbledore. i don't particularly like stories in which voldemort is collected from the orphanage and raised by his father - firstly, because most of the things i find interesting about him are so heavily rooted in his orphanhood, and secondly, because i think that tom sr.'s move would be to place his son as the ward of someone he felt certain he could pay to keep quiet rather than bringing him up himself. but i can see dumbledore becoming aware of a magical child lurking in a london orphanage years earlier than in canon, having some sort of misguided belief that he should track down said child's family, turning up on the doorstep of the riddle house with a sinister toddler glowering in his arms, and insinuating himself into tom sr.'s life in a way which is either very funny or very dark.

cecilia is also an incidental character i'm unjustifiably obsessed with. i like her as tom's casual girlfriend in 1925 - with neither of them imagining for a second that the relationship will ever be serious - who then turns into the only friend from his glamorous set who remains in contact with him when he comes home.

and - i'm afraid to say - the plot-bunny of cecilia deciding to try and unravel the mystery of what's made tom so ill and scouring london orphanages until she discovers tom jr. has now bounced into my head... joining the other tom sr. fic i would pay cash to see, a rebecca-style caper where the second mrs riddle is haunted everywhere she goes by the spectre of merope...

[oceanwithouthermoon]

least favorite saiki ship and why ?

IT SCARES ME THAT THIS IS ON ANON. WHAT IF I SAY THAT I HATE A SHIP AND THEN IT TURNS OUT THE PERSON THAT ASKED THIS IS LIKE THE CEO OF THAT SHIP OR SOMETHING.

... its torisai LMAO.

i dont like saying it on here much cuz its one of the most popular ships in the fandom (the number one most popular ship is kubokai, and im not a fan of that either ☠️ i just think theyre the ship you get from looking at the show/manga purely at surface level and just picking two characters that are close friends and saying 'they should date' even though they wouldnt actually fit together.. i just dont see it personally lol.. OKAY ANYWAY SORRY-) but i really dont like torisai 🧍🏻‍♀️

(im about to talk about sa under this, fair warning)

i literally just posted today about people shipping things in ways that mildly trigger me, and torisai shippers do it pretty bad !! for some reason, mikorei shippers and yumetori shippers etc dont really do the thing that torisai shippers do where they romanticize sexual assault in the way they write them.. im not sure why that is, maybe they think that men cant be sa'd in the way women can ? they think cuz its a gay ship that its okay to write tori sexually harassing and assaulting him (+acting like its cute, not tagging it accordingly with warnings, etc) ? crazy. especially since saiki is implied to be a victim of sa (or at least is canonically a victim of sexual harassment and attempted sa) by his brother..

that whole thing is something i genuinely think is awful and nobody should romanticize sa, but toritsuka isn't inherently awful and still had potential and good character development, so that alone doesnt really make the ship that bad since the shippers are the problem.. i actually used to be okay with it until the shippers ruined it for me, but thinking critically about it (and thinking about WHY the shippers believe that their dynamic is so sexually abusive) did make me realize how much the ship sucks anyway.. (imo !!)

its partly because i project onto saiki, but i already mentioned how saiki is canonically a victim of (at least attempted) sa, and i reallly believe that he would not be interested in dating someone who is so obsessed with sex to the point where he canonically sexually harasses people and tries to peep without their consent !! he is literally an sa victim, obviously that would make him so uncomfortable!!

their friendship at the end of the series is nice and one of the most developed in the series, so i get where people got the ship from, cat tank incident invites a lot of content about them... but toritsuka still has a lot of work to do on himself before he can date ANYONE, and ESPECIALLY a literal sa victim..

when he saw saiki as a girl, one of the first things he did was DIRECTLY ask him about his boobs.. WHY WOULD HE DATE HIM AFTER THAT SKSNKAKAMSK..

actually lol, when i made that post today about ship content that triggers me, part of that was specifically inspired by torisai shippers lol.. (not all ofc and no hate, it just isnt my thing !! torisai mutuals i love u please don't unfollow me..) ive seen multiple people post about how they love torisai BECAUSE they would be absolutely awful for each other and bring out the worst in one another.. like hmm.. great for you if you enjoy that, but that is entirely why i DONT ship it !! i hate ships like that, i love my fluffy healthy romantic ships !!

okay anyway anyway, i love their platonic friendship, they care about each other lots, theyre one of the most developed in the series, their friendship has lots of potential, etc.. i just dont see it romantically !!! maybe in the far far future, but definitely not at the point they are at the end of the series..

[angelsanarchy]

Fever Dreams: Mike x Y/N One Shot Series PRT 11

Tagging: @icarus-star @chainsawgvtsfvck @romanroyapoligist @liquidsmoothdomme @madamemaximoff06 @drazenka @blacksoul-27 @444rockstargf @kappasbbgirl @luzclarita57 @tempt-ress

When Y/n approached the garage the next morning, Mike was leaning against the wall smoking a cigarette. She smirked at him as she got out.

"Well don't you look fresh and rejuvenated for someone who battled blue balls." Y/n teased.

"Who said I had blue balls?" Mike finished his cigarette and Y/n paused.

"I just finished beating off thinking about you. Took a nice video for you too if-" Mike was interrupted when Sicky walked out of the garage.

"You two keep it in your pants until Leff gets here okay? He's pissed off today." Sicky informed making Mike scoff.

"When isn't he?" Mike walked into the shop with Y/n following him.

"I don't think he could take it out to piss in those pants Sic, I think you're safe." Y/n was extra sassy today and Mike chuckled.

"Hey, you have my full consent to test your theory any time." Mike put his hands up in the air as he sauntered towards the bathroom. Y/n watched Sicky go into the office to wait for Leff and decided to test her theory.

When Y/n pushed the door open, Mike glanced up at the mirror and turned around.

"Hey what-" Mike yelped when her hand connected to the front of his pants.

"What the fuck?" He asked as she squeezed.

"I'm trying to test my theory." Y/n smiled at him but he swallowed a lump in his throat.

"You could at least warn a guy." She could feel him harden under her palm.

"How did you finish yourself off last night? What did you think about?" She asked making Mike lean against the sink, letting his hands grip the counter.

"Are you trying to get me hard to see how easily my pants come off?" He chuckled trying not to let himself get too overwhelmed.

"Maybe..." Y/n teased stopping her hand from gripping him.

"I was thinking about you riding my cock, tits bouncing in my face, my hand on your throat." She felt him growing stiff.

"What it would feel like to feel you cum on my cock and moan my name." Mike pressed his hips forward into her hand and she gave him a tight squeeze making him squeeze his eyes shut tightly.

"You want me to cum on your cock pretty bad huh? You have a very vivid imagination." Y/n breathed against his neck and he hummed.

"You have no idea." He groaned feeling how uncomfortable his cock was against his zipper.

"I bet you didn't even wear underwear today, did you?" Y/n smirked feeling the heat radiating off his clothes cock.

"I-I can't...not with-fuck, not with these." Mike knew if she didn't stop, he might cum right then and there.

"I want to see the video you took." Mike opened his eyes and looked at her. Her eyes looked darker than normal and he could tell she was turned on just by feeling him up. He picked his phone up from the sink and pulled up the video playing it for her. It wasn't a long video but she watched it closely, chewing on her lip as she continued to squeeze him.

"You have a pretty cock. All that cum was for me?" She asked seeing him coat his fist as he pumped himself clean.

"Y/n..." Breathed feeling too close to cumming in his pants to answer her questions. The door to the bathroom banged opened and Y/n jerked her hand away from him, leaving them both standing there looking like a couple of caught teenagers. Sicky looked between them and shivered.

"You two are fucking gross. Leff just pulled up. Get your shit together." He pointed at Mike and he turned back towards the sink, hiding his raging boner. Once the door was shut, Mike unbuttoned his pants and tried to adjust himself. Y/n laughed watching him struggle to even get his hand down his tight leather pants with his rings on.

"You like this shit, huh? You get off on teasing me." Mike shook his head at her. He knew he was going to have blue balls now but just having her hands on him for a little bit was worth it.

"Oh absolutely. I don't believe you're this quiet when you jerk off though. Where's the fun in being silent?" Y/n asked making him look over at her.

"I took the audio off the video. Listening to my heavy breathing and moans isn't as sexy as you might think." Mike buttoned his pants back up, not feeling much relief but he at least wasn't as obvious as he had been a few seconds ago.

"Send me the video with the sound." Y/n handed him his phone back and he took it carefully.

"Why?" He asked curiously.

"So I can use it to get myself off tonight." She smiled at him sweetly and Mike hissed.

"Jesus fucking Christ." He shook his head making her laugh. The door banged open again and Leff froze with his hand on his belt.

"You two stop fucking off and get out there. I have to piss." Leff ordered raising his voice. Y/n mocked him as she left the bathroom and Leff glared at Mike.

"You too idiot. Get out." Leff pointed to the door and Mike walked out trying to side step to avoid squeezing his sensitive dick against the metal zipper of his pants too much. He realized if he was going to keep these pants, he couldn't ever wear them around Y/n.

[pocket-sized-nightmare]

hiii!! can you give the "directors cut" so to speak on your fic "except for you, you can always stay"? (forgive me if that's not the name i can't remember names for shit)

thank you so much for the ask!!!

a thing i've always loved about c!gem is that she's incredibly willing to blur the lines of reality and characterization, to the point where it's hard to tell what she's taking seriously. she was actively roleplaying as a princess during empires, which is the most obvious example, but she's also very quick to pretend situations straight-up aren't happening – "it's fine" is a common phrase in her vernacular. couple that with the fact that she's new to the life series and isn't familiar with the emotions of the death mechanics, and you've got someone who only knows how to fit into this dramatic world by embodying geminislay to her core.

as such, my interpretation of the gempearl divorce arc is somewhat of a tom and jerry situation: they act like mortal enemies, but neither of them would go so far as to permanently harm the other, and there's a deep-down understanding that it's all a bit in the end. that's why pearl keeps coming back regardless of how much gem pretends to hate her. (i definitely think that c!gem took some of her teasing a bit too far towards the end of the season and it did leave a lasting impact on c!pearl, which makes me desperately long for the gempearl 1v1 battle we could've gotten...)

in this fic specifically, gem and pearl each have some of their own demons to deal with already. gem's anxieties towards pearl in this fic are based on my headcanons for secret life (shameless self promotion here: my queerplatonic gempearl secret life retelling) – specifically, that the watchers possessed her when she opened the end portal and replaced her eye with their own warped visions for her. (this ended up creating fascinating parallels later that i think i may need to go back and expand upon, because pearl what the fuck do you MEAN you forgot about your girlfriend's entire corruption arc.) gem sees pearl's eye go scarlet long before the rest of her body and fully panics under the reasonable assumption that pearl is in danger of becoming Watcher Zombie 2.0, which (spoilers for the aforementioned series) nearly permakilled gem.

as for pearl... though i don't subscribe to the idea that the evo smp was torture from the watchers – i think it was genuinely enjoyable most of the time, right up until the ending – i think there was definitely something off about it. glitches abounded, healing was slow, saturation was never quite right... health wasn't really a guarantee on the server. i don't touch on it in this fic (and in hindsight, maybe i should've), but my headcanon is that c!pearl has a habit of hoarding food/medical supplies on the off-chance she's endangered by a glitch no one will listen to. not knowing which items were safe to eat, and especially nearly dying from it, set her off. so neither gem or pearl is coming at this conversation from a particularly good headspace.

gay people talk to each other challenge 2024: difficulty level impossible

but i really do think they still cared for each other throughout the whole thing. gem is still mischievous and playful at the end of the fic, but pearl knows now that it's a bit, and with her "i won't hold it against you" promise, gem basically has her full consent to Cause Chaos for the sake of a good story. they're so silly goofy it makes me emotional <3

there is one very big plot inaccuracy that i will write off as minecraft mechanics. warm pie does not cut neatly!!!!! it will melt and all the filling will run out and you will be sad. so don't do that. Fiction Does Not Reflect Reality, etc.

silliness aside, though, i'm glad this fic made people smile! toxic yuri is fun, don't get me wrong, but i did also really want to explore what the between-session downtime looks like for a character as enigmatic as gem and how it affects her relationships with her friends. (now i just need them both to battle to the death on hermitcraft.)

[leebrontide]

This is not gonna win me a lot of friends on here but seriously a lot of y'all are irritating me lately with your gleeful piracy posts.

"Poor people deserve stories, to!" You're right. 100% Go on gumroad. There are a ton of authors, myself included, who are giving away free books there. Many of them are from the very marginalized backgrounds y'all claim to want to champion. Look for newsletter giveaways. there are literally so damn many ways to get books that come from creators who have consented to give them away. Oh, but you think anyone should be entitled to the exact book they want without paying for it? the popular book from the big publisher? That's a different thing. That's a different thing that continues to uphold ideas that the mega-corporations are the only source for good stories, that only stories vetted by the companies you claim to be rallying against have value.

"Piracy is archiving!" Archiving is archiving. I can't speak to how it works with indie videogames or what have you, but with books, this is absurd. Ok, say you illegally download a book. If it's from a huge publisher, this is nonsense cause a ton of those were printed. It is not in danger if vanishing. Say it's from a small publisher- you have now decreased that publishers chances of of continuing to print and distribute the book. You are making the book harder to locate in the future. You want to make sure a book doesn't vanish? Pay for it. If it vanishes utterly off the internet when the author dies or whatever, then yay, you have a copy and can maybe help get it back in circulation. Not paying for the book didn't help with that. You can help save an out of circulation book later just as well if you paid for it.

"Piracy is counter corporations!" See point 1. Also, a lot of the sites where you all are pirating fiction do just as much scraping of indie, self-pub, and small press books. Robin Hood wasn't stealing from the poor to give to the poor. I personally know an author whose publisher dropped them mid series because the book wasn't selling, who later found a piracy site with WAY more downloads of her book than there were legal sales. She gave up publishing after that.

This isn't sour grapes, folks. To my knowledge, my own books have never been pirated, and to be honest, over the years I've sold as many copies as a regular mid-list author with a pig publisher.

But I have watched so many authors- not wealthy people- have their work stolen from them. Many of them are disabled and really struggle with other kinds of jobs. They can do this work, but they can't make money, and this is honest to god a big part of why. I feel like people don't believe this. If you don't hang around authors maybe it's tempting to buy in to the hollywood idea of an author.

If you don't think you're entitled to demand free labor from a plumber, then why do you think you're entitled to demand free labor from an author or artist? Is it because you don't have to look them in the eye? Is it because you feel like you can get away with it? Is it because you've fallen for the fantasy that authors are wealthy people living glamorous lives, and their labor doesn't count because they're so lucky to be making a living with their art?

I don't know. And please don't defend this to me.

Just go read free books, if you can't afford to buy them and don't have library access. Or at least stop rubbing what you're doing in the faces of all the creators on this website who put a lot of hard work into the things they make.

Reblogs are nice, but reblogs accompanied by cheerful endorsements of stealing things which aren't freely given do not make for an ideal community.

[damnfandomproblems]

/765811979817533440/6218-god-some-people-are-really-fucking

Bro this shit is not okay. It's one thing if you didn't enjoy a particular bit of a piece of media (such as a ship) and to even do something like write a fanfic where your OTP is the canon one, or maybe the ship is written better than it was in the show/whatever. Like, IDK maybe you thought X had more chemistry with Y than he did with Z, or maybe X and Z are canon and you like that, but think it felt really rushed, so you fleshed out their relationship more.

But it's a completely other thing to do that to someone's personal ocs and shit on the person who owns them just because you didn't like something they did. What the fuck? There's the argument that once you post your ocs online they're "in the public domain" (that's not what that means btw) so anyone can just take them and do whatever they want, whether or not the owner consents. I feel like that's true in a way for like actual licensed series, but I think it's a bit different when it comes to some rando's ocs. There just seems to be an extra layer of sheer disrespect when it's "I'm taking this random 12 year old's Sonic oc because I don't like that they didn't make him gay" instead of just writing a fanfic where Sonic himself is gay. You get what I mean? Especially in cases like your first example where it was then "GUYS! IT'S CANON! I FIXED THEIR SHITTY WRITING! LOLE!!!" and trying to come up with ways of "cancelling" the owner because "DUR MUH PROBLEMATIC SHIPZ" all over something that petty.

I hate how entitled people are over things that don't belong to them. I've seen countless times where people have blatantly disregarded boundaries because "BUT YOU POSTED UR OC PUBLICLY, SO IT'S TECHNICALLY MINE TO DO WHAT I WANT WITH!". Like, no John, I don't think that 14 year old on Tumblr dot com with 5 followers wants you to be constantly shitting on their writing and "fixing" it with content they're uncomfortable with. And I don't even necessarily mean like NSFW levels of stuff, either. For example, a common one I see is people inserting polyamory into everything as a "fix" for supposed love triangles (even if there isn't actually one there). Not everyone is into that. And even if they are, it doesn't mean they're okay with those characters being poly. Or people making really sexual/inappropriate comments about the ocs, even if the creator says it makes them uncomfortable or they're a minor themself. Nope! Don't care! Oc in the public eye! That means it's mine!

Like damn bruh, I wish we could be more respectful of other peoples' ocs. How do you think it makes these creators feel when people are constantly shitting on their work and/or stealing it and breaking boundaries to "fix it"? That's not okay.

(I kinda rambled a bit there, but hope I'm still able to get my point across lol)

Posting as a response to a previous ask.

[l0v-ly-c4t]

NAVIGATION

/ᐠ - ˕ -マ - Hiii! Welcome to my blog, you kitties 👋😽 my name is Marii, and I'm so glad you found me :3

masterlist - instagram - pinterest

🗒 ❛ about me ༉‧₊˚✧

/ᐠ - ˕ -マ - Hiii, as I said, my name is Marii, and here you can get to know a little more about me!! My favorite color is P1NK, I simply LOVE cats. They're my favorite animal in the world!!! I'm really into sweet food, and english is not my first language 😉

I don't have that much free time, so maybe I'll be offline for some time, but I'll always come back, I promise 🫶✨️

🗒 ❛ rules ༉‧₊˚✧

/ᐠ - ˕ -マ - So, the rules are quite simple here:

NO minors on post tagged as +18, remaining post are free

NO reposting my work somewhere else without my consent

FEEL FREE to send me a request, being it a writing request or a fanart, wtv, you can ask me anything

FEEL FREE to text me in a casual way, I would love to hear feedback and to make new friends

/ᐠ - ˕ -マ - Easy, right?

🗒 ❛ requests ༉‧₊˚✧

DA WON'T's

I will NOT be writing anything +18 about minors, and neither will I age them up for it.

I will NOT write anything involving incest or step-cest.

I will NOT write any disgusting kink, such as piss kink, blood kink, and those kinds

I will NOT write anything related to pregnancy, I simply can't it's not something I don't like. It is just that I am not comfortable writing it.

I will NOT change a characters' cannon sexuality (I won't do, for example, a gay character in a fem!reader fic, don't ask)

I will NOT write with heavy and uncomfortable themes, such as abuse, rape, kiddnapping, spanking, and between other things (basically anything non-consensual or illegal)

I will NOT write anything homophobic, racist, xenophobic, sexist, and any other discriminatory stories. This is a SAFE PLACE for everyone

DA WILL's

I WILL write both platonic and romantic relationship between two people.

I WILL write both character x character and character x reader

I WILL write Headcannons, one shot's and (maybe) series

I WILL write smut, angst, fluffy, and anything between those 3. You can describe the kink, the scenario, the positions, the love language, the angst itself, basically anything! The more details, the better (since this way, I can write exactly what you want)

I WILL try and write all of the requests, but I cannot promise anything

I WILL be making some spelling mistakes. As I said, English isn't my first language

I WILL write smut, angst, and fluffy stories, even mixed ones

I WILL write readers from all genders, but if you don't specify it in your request, I will simply make it a fem!reader (since I'm a female so it's easier)

/ᐠ - ˕ -マ - If your request doesn't follow one of those rules, you will be ignored, and I won't do your request.

DA FANDOM's

━━ ❝ Mouthwashing

━━ ❝ Boku No Hero Academia

━━ ❝ Marvel

━━ ❝ The Owl House

━━ ❝ Adventure Time

━━ ❝ The Last of Us

━━ ❝ (some) Pedro Pascal characters

━━ ❝ Kimetsu No Yaiba / Demon Slayer

/ᐠ - ˕ -マ - anyways, thank you for reading it!! Plus, I will update this if I enter a new fandom or if I think of any other rules for the request.

[cookinguptales]

While I do think Arthur's characterization (and the relationship in general) gets much more compelling as the series continues on, I do really like this aspect of their relationship even in s1.

(And, while I'm not about to talk about it now, I do also love how we see the beginnings of John's fascination with and respect for Arthur's detective work here.)

(more thoughts on forced proximity, the violation of being known without your consent, and the intimacy of giving that consent under a cut)

I think one of the really compelling parts of Malevolent and the relationships it's building is this concept of... being known, I guess, and the implicit horror (but potential comfort) in being unable to hide who you really are.

I think we all have our own issues when it comes to the mortifying ordeal of being known, etc. but we haven't found ourselves in a situation where we are almost physically incapable of remaining unknown by another person. Arthur (and his various hangers-on) has found himself in this unenviable position -- and worse, he has not even gotten to choose who gets to see him.

Both Arthur and John attempted to hide intrinsic parts of themselves from the other very early on, but realized eventually, with frustration and exhaustion and a small amount of comfort, that it was going to be impossible to hide from each other. John couldn't hide who he really was, a sliver of an eldritch being who delights in torture and madness. Arthur couldn't hide his past, either, not forever.

The two of them are almost forced to lay bare their most intimate and private memories, fears, and neuroses -- and to hope that the other won't use it against them.

(Newsflash: they both use it against each other.)

Even here, fairly early into the series, Arthur is coming to realize that John understands him. He may not like it (and John doesn't either), but there's a peculiar mixture of frustration and weary acceptance, maybe even a little bit of affection, in the way John talks about him here. And Arthur is forced to accept that John isn't wrong. He does watch Arthur, and Arthur is starting to feel unpleasantly seen.

The two of them will peel away each other's protective layers as the series progresses, and John will come to understand Arthur's guilt, self-loathing, and self-destructive tendencies. Arthur will come to understand John's guilt and confusion and desperate need to believe that even the most monstrous among us can be saved.

And then, y'know, right as we're starting to feel comfortable with the two of them, too, right as they've kind of ironed out this weird, codependent relationship between them, the two are separated. John is replaced with Yellow.

This is where things get kind of interesting, imo. Because John and Yellow are similar, but not entirely the same. There's a whole nature vs. nurture vs. purposeful minefield argument to be had here, but I'll talk about that some other time. The fact of the matter is that, by this point, Arthur had mostly pushed past the agony of being known because he had found a creature that knew him intimately -- and loved him nevertheless. Who accepted him.

Yellow came to know Arthur, too. Was given a confession that even John didn't know yet. And he didn't accept Arthur.

Arthur didn't accept him, either.

So you have both sides of it, really, and the intrinsic horror of being unable to hide from a roommate inside your own mind. Arthur and John hated being known, but came around to it in the end because they grew comfortable with even all the worst parts of each other. There was a sort of tentative acceptance there, and one that they both desperately needed. They have both consented to being known, for the most part, because they have consented to trust each other with that knowledge.

But what happens when they don't come around? When they don't accept you? When you have no ability to hide from a person who has nothing but contempt for you, and there will never be trust shared between you?

That gets toxic very quickly.

You come to realize how lucky the two of them were to find common ground eventually, even if it was largely bonding through shared trauma, and how easily things could have been much, much worse.

And then, y'know, we don't just have to compare John and Arthur's relationship with that of Arthur and Yellow. We can also compare it to all of the humans in Arthur's life, ones that John seems to be getting increasingly frustrated with.

Once Arthur goes to New York, you really see how much of his life has been dominated by his refusal to be known. He wouldn't open up to the mother of his child, to the child, to his father-in-law, not really. He sealed a part of himself away from them, and in refusing to be known, never really fully came to know them, either. He denied himself these relationships.

But Arthur is changing, isn't he, and it's probably partially due to him becoming more comfortable being known through his relationship with John. He's opening up to his FIL. He's opening up to Noel.

And then there's Oscar. In Oscar, we see something interesting, and something that John seems to find deeply threatening.

Oscar is sort of a mirror image of John in some ways, except the intimacy he offers Arthur isn't forced. He let Arthur in on purpose. He told him about his past on purpose. He genuinely likes Arthur, wants to know him, wants to be known by him, and wants to be with him. It's the first time since perhaps Parker that Arthur's been in a position to know and be known in a healthy manner.

It's one of the first times he's been in a position to choose to be known, and to some degree, he does let Oscar see him. He does it because he wants to, not because he has to. He sees Oscar as a friend and potential partner, not just one more uneasy, forced ally.

While I believe that John's insistence on leaving Oscar behind is largely connected to whatever the hell's going on with Kayne, I do think there's also a bitter jealousy in him that covers up quite a bit of insecurity. He knows that Arthur doesn't have a choice about being with him, and here he sees Arthur being presented with a choice -- and wanting to take that choice. He sees Arthur wanting to be known by a person, a human, a person who can give Arthur a lot of things John can't. Stability. A physical partner to touch and hold and aid him. Understanding. True comfort.

Humanity.

But most of all, John sees the allure of being in a relationship where Arthur can truly choose how much of himself to give. He sees that Arthur wants to give in a way that he didn't want to give himself to John, not initially, and that mostly happened because Oscar gave himself first. Which is a thing that John still can't do, not entirely. Arthur knows him more intimately than John has ever been known before, but... he's still hiding things, isn't he?

And, due to their forced proximity and shared affection, it's killing him.

So... in the end, I do think it's very interesting. The way that the monstrousness of John and Yellow and the KIY in general is the way that your mind is not safe from them. There is no place in you that is truly private or your own. And true intimacy can't come from privacy torn from you -- only of privacy freely given.

I think John's seeing the difference now, though Arthur might not have entirely figured out what he's feeling yet. John is realizing that though Arthur trusts him now, so many of their shared experiences were extremely nonconsensual. He'll never have quite what Arthur can have with a person like Oscar because Arthur can choose to be more or less honest with him, but he can't choose whether or not to give himself to John the way he can with another human like Oscar. He'll never have the intimacy of being... chosen, y'know?

And I know that in some ways Arthur has chosen John, and in some very aggressively overt ways. But John also knows that it wasn't always going to end that way. It certainly didn't with Yellow. And he suspects that if he and Arthur hadn't been forced together for so long, it probably would have ended up like Yellow.

That's gotta sting.

I think... Arthur knows that, too, really. It's part of what scares him about John losing parts of himself. He's so codependent with John by now, to the point where temporarily losing him was deeply traumatic for him. He was also confronted with the knowledge that if the two of them had had any choice in the matter, they probably wouldn't have eventually come to love each other the way they did.

Which means that... no, he really can't believe that some version of John will always come back to him. And if John loses his memories again, as he seems to be doing now, he may never get him back again. There will be no second chances, just other versions of the Yellow debacle.

idk man. It's just... forced proximity vs the intimacy of choice vs the love we have that truly is only based on the memories we've built with others. It's all a part of the mortifying (if not deeply traumatic) ordeal of being known, and it's one of the parts of the series that I find by far the most interesting.

[lady-phasma]

I'm not gonna lie - I am really upset about Aemond turning to the Madam for comfort and consolation.

It isn't even about shipping Aemond with anyone else, but I am really surprised. Like in Season 1, Episode 9, he felt uneasy around the Madam, here is a quote from leaked script (if you haven't come across it yet):

AFAIK, season 2 starts 10 days after Luke's death. So, why Aemond would suddenly trust the Madam enough to turn to her for sex and comfort?

I'm finally catching up on asks. I know it's upsetting but I don't think that's likely and, if they write it that way, we can only wait and see what they do with it.

As we approach the first episode, I want to be clear about spoilers and leaks: not a fan. It's about consent and I don't consent to them. This isn't directed at you but as a general disclaimer because this particular aspect of season 2 is important to me as well.

It's important to note that this image is from the blog darksvster and is not a leak. Scripts are often stored at UCLA library after production is over. This is that blogger's transcription of the library copy:

I don't think he does turn to her for comfort. I'm sorry that you are so positive that he does. It sounds like you need to take a breath, think about the various options the writers have, and maybe give yourself some compassion by thinking they might surprise you.

Fandom should be fun, not anxiety-inducing. If it really has you this upset or if you have seen something that confirms this for you and you feel stressed, then maybe you need to take a break until the season starts or switch to a new tv series for the next week.

It's going to be a roller coaster over the next 9 weeks. Remember to breathe, it's just tv and it's, as Matt said, "a hoot." It's a dragon soap opera and should bring you joy. Please don't keep things in your life that are negative or upsetting for you if you have the choice. 💕

[canyoufucksoniccharacters]

CAN YOU FUCK BIG THE CAT?

Yes, him. Big The Cat. From Sonic.

Hey, I ain't judging. Here at CYFSC Inc. we give every character an equal fair shot, and Big is no exception. So let's get into it, shall we?

Alright, starting off, let's look at the archives. And by archives, I mean something that only exists through internet archives- the Sonic Channel ages! As you've likely gathered from the last post, I have a certain disdain for these. But, We're trying to look at official sources and canon material here, so let's start there.

He's... 18? Allegedly? That's odd. For someone so subdued, well put together, someone who loves fishing like nothing else in the world, someone who has seemingly the largest amount of physical strength out of anyone we know in the entire cast (Not counting transformations or power-ups), you wouldn't think he'd be listed as the same age as Rouge. Let's see, where could this have-

OH GOD FUCKING DAMN IT

Every time, without fucking fail. As stated in the last post, this manual holds no ground whatsoever. The ages were never listed in the original Japanese manuals, not a single time. And, again, there is no confirmation whatsoever that there was any communication between whoever wrote these and Sega. Reminder, this manual said that Eggman is a feminist and a romanticist. It is a malignant cancer that will be mentioned around 12 times, give or take, because of how absurdly inaccurate it is, and how much it influenced the age listings we had before they were removed from Sonic Channel.

So, an age of 18 that has been unlisted since October of last year, which is sourced from one of the most god awful yet wordy manuals the series has ever seen. Yeah, I don't buy it.

Look at this. This thing is not 18. This is not a young queer man getting his footing and entering adulthood. He has his own little hut in the jungle that he presumably made himself, he's an expert at fishing and seems to hold more knowledge on sea life than any of us could ever hope to match in our entire lives. He's absurdly strong, able to lift entire cars and boulders over his head as seen in SA1 with very little effort. Sure, Knuckles can crack boulders into pieces with one punch, but can he deadlift them? I don't think so. Big is strong. Real strong.

This is a bear. Not the animal, the gay archetype. This is a massive man who could bend you over his knee and crush your skull. But, he won't. He'll just fish. Fish, as it would seem he's been doing for years with his little frog friend. Don't let his childish way of speaking fool you, he's just like this because he's kind of a hermit that rarely ever leaves his little jungle hut for any reason other than fishing. Rest assured, this man is at MINIMUM about 20 years old, maybe even around 30. Really, you could go anywhere with him so long as you're not approaching the realm of old age.

Big The Cat is, by all accounts, able to consent. You can fuck him. But...

Would you fuck Big The Cat? Could you fuck Big The Cat?

This isn't a matter of if he can consent. He can. That much is obvious. But could you? Would you look at his 6'5/200cm figure, his seemingly impossible weight of 617 pounds, and think yourself physically able to? Would you be able to look into his deep cream yellow eyes while you fuck him? Whether Big is a top or bottom is beyond my jurisdiction, but neither gets you off easy. It might get you off, but it won't be an easy time. Fucking Big is not for the faint of heart. It's a commitment. I can't stop you, I have no intent of trying to stop you.

All I can do is wish you good luck.

You will need it.

STATUS: BIG

[threewaysdivided]

for the ask game: 💥🤔📚

if we can only do one, your pick :)

(Fanfic writer ask game)

💥 What is one canon thing that you wish you could change?

I've talked about some other changes in a previous ask, but I think Danny Phantom could have been improved by either re-writing the episode Memory Blank or at the very least, cutting a couple of the jokes. The base-premise is potentially interesting but it was definitely one of the ones where the show did characters dirty for the sake of jokes.

If I had to leave it mostly as-is, I would at least want to ditch the two random insert jokes where Danny "remembers" using his powers to peep in the girl's locker room. Not only is the base joke a gross, sexist "boys will be boys" gag, it also just feels really jarring and almost out of character for Danny in particular. That's not to say that Danny isn't canonically chauvinistic in other ways at times, but this one doesn't jive with how he reacts to similar situations (and behaviors from Tucker) in other, more character-centric episodes. The abrupt musical punctuation feels more like a sudden insert of Fairly Odd Parents humour and I would say it's probably only there because this kind of "adorkable misogynist" punchline is a common staple in both Butch Hartman and Steve Marmel's comedy styles.

Ideally though, since the main purpose of the episode is to give Danny his marketable DP insignia, I would rather do a full re-write around all three trio members actively trying to design a logo for Phantom. Rather than doing Danny and Tucker dirty by making them into boring butt-monkeys who live empty lives without Sam (and doing Sam dirty by making her seem like a weird stalker who changes Danny's suit without his knowledge or consent) we could have had an episode that let the icon have actual symbolic meaning for the whole of "Team Phantom". It's sad that one if the most iconic symbols of the show ends up being tacked onto a character assassinating goof-story when there were so many ways it could have been great.

🤔 Would you ever want to write something canon if you got the opportunity?

Going to go with a soft no on this one.

For one thing, I believe the best stories happen when someone has a specific story to tell, and at the moment my Deathly Weapons fanfic is the main story I feel the need to make exist. As a mystery nerd, I guess I could maybe do a decent detective story involving Batman or Gotham, but on the other hand I don't think it would be the kind of story Modern DC wants to sell.

From a practical point of view, I also think the things and stories I find the most fascinating within the Danny Phantom fandom would probably be too tonally serious to "fit with the brand" of official canon material. (Although it has been awesome to see some of the Phandom olds getting ascended to the level of official canon creators with the AGiT comics!)

As for Young Justice Animated I think I'm one of several fans who wouldn't mind being tagged-in (or at least a fly on the wall) if DC/Warner Bros ever decided to give it the Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood treatment, kick Greg Weisman's Whedon-worshipping incel ass out the door and let some of the prominent staff who were dropped after Season 1 have a do-over to continue the story they were actually setting up. I think there was a lot of potential in that initial cast, and there were some really cool character-centric standalone episodes that could have come from things like digging into Artemis and Jade having a diegetic connection to Alice In Wonderland while living in the same city as Jervis "Mad Hatter" Tech. But as it stands, I found Weisman's multi-season vandalisation of his colleagues' work to be so egregious that I ended up blocking both the main series tag and his name for the sake of my blood pressure. Look, even when he's not writing like the kind of man who probably fantasises about impregnating his colleague's daughter, the Nostalgia-Critic-level incompetence at basic narrative coherence is just exhausting.

📚 Is there a fanfic or fanfic writer you recommend?

Many!

For today's tasting, I would like to recommend Developmental Milestones and the broader Cor Et Cerebrum series by @audreycritter. Actually, let's just make that a general rec' for all Audreycritter's DC stuff.

I really like their interpretations of the Batfam and Superfam. They do such a good job of capturing the humanity of these characters in their non-cape moments, and I love their approach to dialogue. I think it speaks volumes to the strength of their character-writing that, despite not being a reader who generally goes in for Original Characters, I have become deeply obsessed with their on-call OC Batdoctor Kiran "Dev" Devabhaktuni. He is indeed the light of my life. Developmental Milestones is Dev's focus story but plenty of others put the focus on the canon DC roster if you prefer.

Go enjoy seeing Bruce get yelled at by a deeply affronted, potty-mouthed British Doctor with a heart of gold, though he'll stringently deny it.

Thanks for playing!

[angelsanarchy]

Glass Houses: Jack Thurlow x Y/N Series CH 09 -> CH 10

"Feeling sexual attraction isn't a crime Jack." "No but I'm pretty sure jerking off while watching the neighbor might be."

Tagging: @roryculkinluvr @thatsthewrongwallcraig @icarus-star @cc-luvr @madamemaximoff06 @shady-the-simp @quicksilversg1rl @s-0lar @kristennero-wallacewellsver @mayathepsychic1999 @ophelialaufey

Jack slept without interruption the entire night. His body had let him relax enough and his mind was fuzzy. He woke up with a slight ache in his throat, assuming he had slept so well that he had snored. It wasn't until he remembered the cum stained pants in the corner that he felt shame wash over his body. He took a shower trying to scrub away the negative thoughts that swirled around in his head, begrudgingly taking his meds and waiting for the opportunity to talk to his doctor.

"Good Morning Jack, how was your-" He barely let him get through pleasantries.

"I think I need to be locked up." Jack practically yelled into the computer.

"Okay...did something happen last night?" Dr. Carty remained calm.

"Yeah and I think I may be a predator or something." Jack shook his head unsure, wringing his hands.

"I'm going to need a lot more than that please." Dr. Carty pressed.

"Last night, I was finally able to jerk off...to completion." Jack explained like he was expecting him to know.

"Was the subject of your infatuation a minor or someone who has a mental disability that leaves them unable to make intellectual decisions?" The doctor seemed almost afraid to receive the answer but Jack scrunched his face.

"What? No. The neighbor was outside changing out of her work clothes late last night." Jack's explanation made the doctor sigh with relief.

"Feeling sexual attraction isn't a crime, Jack." The doctor could tell Jack was still upset.

"No but I'm pretty sure jerking off while watching the neighbor might be." He insisted.

"I mean, it's rude to say the least in terms of consent but you didn't seek her out. You weren't peeping through the windows or leaving spy cameras in the shower stalls. You simply saw an attractive young woman's naked body, who you also seem to have a good repore with." Jack tried to calm his breath listening to the doctors rationalize his actions.

"Jack, if you had a history of predatory behavior, I would be the first person to send someone to pick you up for treatment. You are not a danger to your neighbor. I hope your regrettable actions didn't cause you to be a danger to yourself." Dr. Carty looked him over but Jack voluntarily lifted his arms up to show him that he was unharmed.

"How are you feeling today?" He followed.

"I mean I slept great. I just woke up and realized what I had done last night, started freaking out and this is where I'm at now." Jack ran his hands through his hair frustrated.

"How did you feel last night? I know you had been struggling with the ability to feel sexual inclinations." Jack had mentioned that he had been pent up for over a year now and all the doctor did was make a note of it.

"I mean I was thrilled. I couldn't believe I could actually get hard let alone finish." Jack explained.

"So you think maybe your connection with your neighbor is going well." Jack shook his head.

"I barely know her. I'm just a guy who appreciates a really attractive naked woman." Jack blew it off but the doctor shook his head.

"If that were the case, you wouldn't have had any issues reaching completion in the year prior. You like her, at the very least you feel comfortable enough to use her in a fantasy." Dr. Carty continued to take notes.

"I don't exactly know how I feel about that. I mean doesnt that sound a little shady? I use her to get off without her knowledge." Jack added.

"Feeling safe with someone isn't a bad thing Jack. You could always let her know that you find her sexually attractive and see how that goes." Jack snorted a laugh.

"I don't know that we're living in the same timeframe Doc. If you haven't noticed, we're living in the times where woman don't exactly respond well when you make sexual advances on them out of the blue. The last thing I want to do is get punched in the face by the neighbor who's letting me dogsit for her." Most days, Jack was able to get on board with the doctors recommendations. Today he seemed like he hadn't exactly had his coffee yet to be encouraging him to just tell Y/n he whacked off to her.

"I would hope that you were a bit smoother with your approach than to just make sexual advances on her. She seems to get along with you well and trusts you to a degree to watch over a life she cherishes. You may not realize that but she's already let you into a precious part of her life." Jack hadn't looked at it that way. He glanced back over his shoulder at the pup snuggled down on his bed, silently snoozing away.

"Jack, let me remind you that your delusions from your episode were not real. You never physically hurt anyone, espiecally in a predatorily sexual manner. You are not a danger to her or anyone else you choose to have relations with. You are capable of knowing when to reach out for help in the instant you feel something changing. Give yourself some credit." Dr. Carty's words were genine and Jack felt some relief from them.

"Thanks Doc." Jack cleared his throat, slightly startling Ace from his slumber. He moved from the desk after ending his session and crawled into his bed next to him. Ace moved to lay next to him so he could pet him.

"What do you think? You think Y/n would punch me in the face if I told her she had great tits?" Jack scratched behind Ace's ears and he rolled over onto his back to get belly rubs.

"I don't know if its the massochist in me or the self destructive piece of shit that wishes she would just so I'd feel better." Jack huffed. Ace crawled onto his chest and took up residencey to stare him in the face.

"We can't lay here all day buddy. We need food and at least a walk." Ace perked up and jumped from Jack's chest. If only he could find something in his own life that made him as excited as Ace was for a walk.

[fenmere]

We're writing science fiction stories about plurality, set mostly in an alien generational starship. And that starship has a long, long history that isn't exactly stellar (haha).

Some people are going to want to compare what's happened on that starship to Earth history, and derive useful messages from that, or to play gotcha with us, and try to discern our outworld politics. That's just going to happen.

But, what we have to talk about is managing a super huge plural system like ours.

Here is a non-very-spoilery pivotal philosophical excerpt from the current book we're writing that kind of spells out the metaphor that our entire series is using (and we think it's good so we're sharing it). We think this is a useful thing for almost any system to think about, even if you don't read our books. Even if you haven't done such terrible things to each other, there are other systems out there reeling from their own histories of conflict. It's good to know what they face.

The narrator is a therian member of a system who was born on Earth, who has used alien technology to transport themself to the Sunspot (`etekeyerrinwuf):

I tried to tell myself that these people were aliens. Their history was not the same as Earth’s. Their psychology wasn’t the same as humanity’s. Their sociology wasn’t the same. And on this ship, their circumstances really definitely weren’t the same. According to them, no one on `etekeyerrinwuf could die without their express consent and intent, or without the nanites themselves being destroyed, such as in a nuclear blast, and killing everyone. And if that was indeed the case, if you were an iconoclastic cadre of transgender revolutionaries who’d created this new world for generations to come to benefit from your lessons, but then discovered that you’d made mistakes and set yourselves up as technocratic dictators for eternity, would you cling to that power? Would you graciously step aside? And if you stepped aside, would you all commit suicide and otherwise not face the consequences of your crimes? Or attempt to atone and hope to see the benefits of letting your children have their freedom? Would you, as an individual, choose to stick around just to make sure your peers weren’t going back on their commitment to let things be? Or what? And if you decided to stick around, what would everyone else be able to do about it? That’s a dilemma that Earth has not seen, and hopefully never will. There was one concrete parallel I could compare all of this to, though. A system. There’s a theory that some people accept that system members never really die, and can’t be killed. Not while the body is living. They just go dormant for a long time, maybe the rest of the vessel’s life. But also maybe not. And what had happened on `etekeyerrinwuf was very, very similar to a lot of stories I’d read from other systems over the internet. However, this was in the outworld. This was the history of a living people. People made of atoms. Atoms made of gluons, and muons, and quarks, and electrons. Or, at least, some of them were. And here I was, trying to make the best of having permanently moved to this world. Much like how I’d had to make the best of being born on Earth, which also sucked. A lot.

[mentallyshattered]

This is part 21 of the "What if Yuu didn't want to go back?" Series!

(I, the author of this work, do not consent to this work being crossposted/translated without my knowledge or used to train an AI, ever.)

Masterlist

"Goodnight, Yuu," whispers Grim.

"Goodnight, Grim," I whisper back. Korrak and Mandible are already asleep, and we dare not wake them.

A moment passes. "Grim, do you want to try and find another big stick tomorrow?"

"Hehe. Yes."

And then our eyes close.

It only feels like a moment later that we're up and walking again, back in the Backstage Room for our usual morning routine. The walk there is muscle memory at this point, so we arrive a minute earlier than Epel. Interestingly, Korrak isn't there, even though he and Mandible were out of bed when Grim and I woke.

Meh. I'm too tired to think about that and add it to my mental list of clues in the quest to unravel the mystery that is our human roommate and his 'possum familiar.

More people file in as I brush Grim's fur to the smooth and silky shine that is expected and achieved daily by every furry familiar in Pomefiore. I'm still half-alseep when I squeeze a dash of kitty toothpaste onto Grim's kitty toothbrush, but that doesn't last.

With my own hair brushed and Epel on my left, I think it's going to be a normal day. Still, something feels off. Very off. I'm unsettled, and I don't know why.

Then it hits me. Slowly, like something oozing onto my head, it hits me. If Korrak has pilot parents, then why did he do so well against Floyd?

This is going to keep eating at me until I solve it. Sigh. And I have classes today.

" 'Ats th'matter, Yuu? Yer lookin' pretty worn-out, an' th' day ain't even really started."

"Myeeh. Classes."

Epel looks at us, confused- before laughing. "We ain't got no class t'day, 's a weekend!"

Grim and I both thank whatever forces gave us a day off. Epel, Grim and I hurry through our routine and go to breakfast- eggs on toast.

I still haven't seen Korrak or Mandible today.

Before I can properly register it- or wake up- Grim and I are adventuring through the woods outside our dorm, continuing our quest for a stick.

We carefully dig through the leaves before I step anywhere, exercising all the caution we feel we'll need to ensure the perfect stick does not escape our notice nor break before we may properly obtain it.

The woods are peaceful. Grim has dismounted from my shoulder in favor of trotting along the forest floor, through the yellow-brown that carpets the grass and tree roots.

His ears perk up. He looks suspiciously at nothing, head turned, and then calms, ears lowering. Still, he's clearly on edge.

I've got a feeling about this. It's a little dread, settling in my stomach like tar, but there's also some determination, sitting atop the dread like snow.

The question about Korrak is still eating at me. It's harder to ignore now that the sleep has left my eyes and mind, but I'm setting it aside nonetheless to search for the stick. Still: why would he lie? Did he even? Maybe it's just redacted information he's not comfortable sharing, as opposed to an outright lie. Maybe his parents taught him self-defense.

But... that didn't look like professional self-defense. It looked like something learned on the streets- but how would I know? I'm new to this world, maybe that's just what their jujustu looks like.

What's that? It sounds like... chittering. I look at Grim. He's facing roughly north, at the source, ears pointed forward. He makes eye contact with me. The message is clear: I'm not just dreaming. There's something- or someone- out there.

Hold on. More chittering? It sounds... different, somehow. A different voice? Wait. That sounds a lot like Mandible. And the other voice is talking now, could that be...Korrak?

What language could that be? Not French, that's for sure... maybe something else?

Wait. I've heard people talking about an "Animal Linguistics" class. If animals have their own language... and Mandible is an opossum...

Grim and I make eye contact again. He's connected the dots, too. Another question: why is Korrak speaking opossum? I've heard other people talking to their familiars during meals and in the Backstage Room, but they don't speak the animal language- they speak their human language, and the familiar chirps, barks, chitters, or otherwise make animal sounds back. I often can't understand either side; a lot of Pomefiore people speak Dutch or Spanish or something.

This mystery just keeps expanding. My mental pinboard has even more yarn on it now, and no extra answers.

The chittering has stopped. Maybe that wasn't Mandible and Korrak? Meh. We have a stick to find!

The woods are pretty and peaceful. Leaves crunch underfoot and underpaw, respectively, and rocks must be carefully avoided- lest I fall over. Grim is a quadruped, so he doesn't have that risk.

Ow! Tree roots. I also have to watch out for tree roots. Wish I remembered that before I fell flat on my face, but it's a little late for that.

"Are you okay?" I know that voice. That's Mandible.

"I'm fine," I start, lifting myself from the leafy forest floor. But, before I ask about what was overheard, I catch myself. They probably wouldn't react well if I asked.

Wait... this is a new area of the forest. I'm standing on the edge of a clearing, set in an indent in the ground, like a reverse hill. The inside of the bowl-like shape is all leaves, with some decent-sized boulders around the edges. One, two... Thirteen boulders, arranged in a circle. Some have sharp edges, others appear entirely smooth. All are grey, but various shades- some are far darker than others. A few even look to have stripes, like the igneous rock I learned about in middle school science class. It's very pretty.

There's an indent in the leaves- a path where someone walked. This must be where Korrak was earlier.

"What are you two doing out in the woods?"

Before I can respond to Mandible's question, Grim jumps in for me. "We're gonna get a big stick to make into a toy!

"Oh, that sounds fun! I think I saw one over here!" Mandible hops down from Korrak's shoulder and trots down the steep slope, into the clearing. I follow, take one step down, trip again, and fall- a hand wraps around my right wrist, and I realize I'm pulling Korrak down with me. He's strong, but gravity and momentum are stronger.

I hit the ground first. My arm breaks my falk for most of my body, but my hips don't get that, and throb with dull pain. I don't feel blood. Then, Korrak hits the leaf litter- and exclaims something when he does. It's not English, but the chittering we heard before. He sounds indistinguishable from an actual opossum.

Oops. I'm staring. And he's noticed, too. Time to try and pass it off as an "I was worried" thing.

"Myeeh! Are you two okay? Yuu? Yuu!"

Well, Grim's beat me to it. And, oddly enough, Mandible is chittering at Korrak. I think he's asking if we're alright.

I stand, stretch, and offer Korrak my hand. He takes it, and I lift him. "You good?"

"S-sure am. Thanks." He pauses. "Are you?"

I nod. "Yeah. Sorry about that."

"Yuu! Do you need ice?! I can summon some!"

"Don't, Grim."

Korrak is looking at me now. "You're pretty fluent in Cat."

I look at him, right into his smokey grey eyes. "What?"

"You're p-pretty fluent in Cat. I'm impressed."

"What do you mean by that? How can I be fluent in a species?" Only after the words leave my mouth do I remember Animal Linguistics is a class.

Korrak bursts out laughing. "Animals have languages. You seem p-pretty fluent in Cat, especially considering it's not y-your native language. That's what you and Grim are speaking. What's h-h-he saying, anyway?"

"He's asking if I need ice and offering to summon some."

Korrak laughs. "G-good ol' Grim."

"By the way, what did you mean by 'not my native language'?"

He pauses, nervous. "W-well, I'm assuming your native language isn't Cat. You seem f-fluent in it, th-though."

"I'm assuming the chittering is you and Mandible speaking Opossum, then."

Korrak nods. "Y-yeah. It's my, um.. Nevermind."

He whispers the last part, just a faint draft of breath, but my ears catch it anyway. Grim's do, too. This time, I take notice of how his words sound- he's speaking Cat.

"Your what?"

"Your what?" I echo his words, in English this time.

"N-nothing." That's a sound he doesn't usually stutter. He's nervous.

I give him a look. He doesn't cave, not yet.

"Found it!"

"Myeeh, that's too thin... maybe. Hey, Yuu, over here!"

I walk over to Grim and Mandible to look at the stick. It's wildly thin, and is shaped like a paperclip someone tried and failed to straighten out. It's not going to work.

"Yeah, too thin. Thanks for trying, Mandible." I spare a glance at Korrak. He's still standing there, nervous. I'm a little scared to leave him alone. Not completely alone, obviously- he'll still have his familiar- but an opossum can only do so much, and... sigh.

"Come on, hench-human. I wanna see Sam's. I heard there's a tuna discount!"

Of course, he's thinking of tuna. His favorite food. He's never told me, but, in the other world, my Grim loved tuna beyond any other food. He loves it here, too.

Maybe we'll run into Rook there; we can ask him for help if we do. Hey, that's right- Rook is probably here somewhere, supervising. Korrak will be okay.

I laugh. "Alright, Grim, let's go and look."

Taking one last glance at the nervous, purple-haired boy and the furry marsupial, we leave the little bowl clearing behind us, questions put aside in our heads.