#Now obviously I don’t assume any of my followers have done this

[vio1315]

I feel the need to remind people,

There is nobody Jesus is unable to save

I feel it comes up far too often that I am researching a mental illness or behavior or types of people that people will comment how such people will never be saved, never come to Christ

And I honestly think this is an evil thing to say, let alone publicly, let alone where a record of it is kept for all to see for however long the website is running

Do you have any idea where people who are struggling with all manner of things and looking for help are going to end up? On those exact pages. Do you know where they might look for more information when the article/video/etc waxes on about how rare it is for these people to change or find help? Right in the comments.

How dare the people who post this stuff. To take away the only real hope for the lost. To say ‘this is where everyone can find peace for their soul except for you.’ ‘only those good enough can be Saved’

I have seen people mention being in absolute despair because there’s no help for them even though they want to change. There’s no need to make this even harder. 

No sin, no mental illness, no habit, no personality type, no mistake, no past is going to prevent people who put their faith in Jesus’s death and resurrection from being Saved, so stop trying to turn them away and discourage them.

[artist-issues]

“At least it's not ferociously attacking God quite as directly as Steven Universe did…”

Not that I’m surprised by this statement, but can you elaborate on this? Kinda intrigued by your thoughts on Steven Universe.

Okie dokie, you’re not the only one who has asked me about this, so I suppose I’ll poke the hornet’s nest. 😅 I haven’t talked about this before because I assumed that everyone who wanted to hear my kinds of opinions on stories wasn’t watching or interested in Steven Universe.

It’s like asking vegetarian if they enjoyed a turkey dinner. The turkey dinner was so obviously not made for vegetarians to enjoy, so why would the vegetarian even bother analyzing the turkey?

But I think if some people are asking me why I think Steven Universe is anti-God (of the Bible) its because maybe they don’t know what the turkey is. Not completely. (Maybe not you, because like you said, you’re not surprised by my comment.) So I’ll explain my thoughts on Steven Universe.

If you’re just following me because you liked some stuff I posted, but didn’t realize that I’m a Bible-believing Christian and don’t want to hear about it, unfollow me now. Because I’m going to talk about some hot button issues here and the trolls will come out.

Steven Universe is really well-done. The jokes are funny, the writing is believable, the characters have great chemistry, great design, the concept is fascinating, the slow build-up and reveal of the plot elements is great. But when you watch the throne room scene in the last episode of Season 5 “Change Your Mind,” it’s alarmingly clear how much the whole show is not just settling for defending and championing the LGBTQ+ worldview—it goes all the way to attacking what Christians believe, on the other side.

Anything that’s pro-LGBTQ+ is doing that by default, but this show goes out of its way to do that.

You have to understand: God created and designed us. Deeper than that; He created and designed romantic relationships, and invented marriage. He didn’t just create love—He is love. So when humans come along and do what we’ve always done since the fall, and say, “I’d rather define what Your thing is and how it works for myself, God,” it’s not only an incredible slap in the face, it’s an attack on God’s actual identity—and it’s destructive for us and the people around us. Like a fish insisting it can breathe oxygen.

But Steven Universe goes beyond that. It knows that the Christian worldview is it’s biggest opposition. It digs right down to the heart of the worldview-battle. LGBTQ+ worldview says, “I should get to love what I want and be who I am, because I’m me. Love is love. (By which I mean, any action or relationship I choose to call love is love, because I’m the one calling it that.)”

Biblical worldview says “No, wait, you shouldn’t base your decisions on you alone; what you want changes day to day, and you’re broken, so you can’t ever be satisfied based on what you want—the Bible says God made you for something, and you rejected that, and it broke you. You’re not how you’re meant to be: even what you want and what you think love is is twisted up and can hurt you and others. But if you submit to God He’ll help you, He’ll fix what’s broken and give you new life by making you how you were supposed to be: He’ll live in you and through you.”

Are we beginning to get the picture?

See, the whole thing with the opposing views between LGBTQ+ and Christian people is as old as time. It’s not a new debate. It’s Satan and Eve in the garden. She says, “This is not how God said things should be,” and Satan says, “Are you sure that’s what He said? He knows if you do this thing, you’ll be like Him. You’ll be god: you’ll get to decide ‘how things should be’ for yourself.”

He lied and said that disobedience would satisfy her. That she knew what her own heart needed better than the God that made it did. That the very act of being imperfect would make her godlike.

And then Steven Universe comes along and says “if every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn’t have hotdogs.”

And has a cast of created being characters who’s imperfections (Garnet’s forbidden “love,” Pearl’s obsession, Amethyst’s insecurity) are supposedly “the best thing about them; what makes them who they are.”

And has a main character who used to be a part of the god-like creator relationship, but used her power to come down to earth and completely change who she is into a fully different person.

And has a godlike Creator character who claims she “doesn’t need” her created beings (just like the God of the Bible) but they all have a little part of their creator in them so she has to repress their imperfections; she holds them all to a standard that’s impossible to reach called “perfection” and punishes them when they don’t meet it even though it hurts them to try; she expects them all to do what they were created by her for; she fixes them when they can’t meet her standard by shining her light through them and making them extensions of their Creator.

And has a main character who argues, fights back, tries to stop her, and is answered with lines that sound surprisingly like what LGBTQ+ people hear when Christians argue with them: “you’re only making things worse; you’re just deceiving yourself; even while you resist it your actual light can’t help shining through,” etc.

White Diamond just wants everything to be perfect. Like her. She just wants her created beings to “be themselves.” But what she means is, be how she created them to be.

And she’s the bad guy. She’s playing God in this show, and Rebecca Sugar is saying, “If God is telling us that can only be happy by being perfect, as He is perfect, and doing what He created us to do, then He’s wrong. Our imperfections are what make us special—unique—individuals—free—and there is nobody who has the right to take that freedom away from us, not even out creator!”

And you know what?

If God were like White Diamond, like Rebecca Sugar believes Him to be, Steven Universe would be right.

But He is NOT.

God is not a dictator who forces us to conform to a standard of perfection and then smashes us when we don’t meet it. He is a King who made us perfect to begin with, and we rejected him, because He allowed us to do that. He knew that true love was love that had to be chosen, and He wanted us to love Him by choice, so he gave us the option. But Rebecca Sugar doesn’t understand—there was never “Choose God or Choose Yourself.” There was only, “Choose God or Choose Nothing.” There was nothing except God. Then He created everything. There is no version of reality where you have something better than God, or even slightly less good but different, to pick. You’re not jumping from one ship into a smaller one, but at least it’s yours—you’re jumping from one ship into a void, and then complaining that there’s no other ship. That’s humans. That’s not God. / White Diamond didn’t make her creations perfect (Amethyst) and she didn’t make them for love. She made them for power. That’s not the God of the Bible.

Even when we did choose to try and love ourselves instead of God, and therefore warped our ability to perfectly love at all, He didn’t smash us. True, everything fell and was cursed, which is exactly what He warned us would happen if we chose it, but it was a natural consequence of breaking ourselves. And then He didn’t leave us that way. He didn’t give up on us. And He certainly didn’t just zap us, snap His fingers, quick-fix it and turn us all into robots who are extensions of Him, who say they love Him but only because it’s His voice puppeting us to say it.

No. He came to us, chose to give up His life at the exact point on the timeline when Romans, masters in the art of slow, humiliating, torturous death, would be the ones to carry out His crucifixion, and saved us Himself. Through the sacrifice of His own life. And even then, we still have a choice. We get to choose to accept that incredible self-sacrifice when we don’t deserve it, and be given new life and a relationship with the Creator who knows us and loves us better than we can love ourselves or receive love from others—OR we can just keep stubbornly insisting that our slavery to the opposite of what God wants is somehow freedom, and our twisted versions of love are genuine, and we’re not broken, and die like that. Die broken creatures who lived their whole lives stomping their feet and screaming “I’m not a creature, I’m a god!”

White Diamond sacrifices nothing, because Rebecca Sugar doesn’t know the God of the Bible. She just knows her idea of Him. She’s never actually gotten to know Him. If she had, she’d learn how silly and twisted her idea is.

Because you know what, yeah, if every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn’t have hot dogs. But people aren’t pork chops. And hot dogs have flavor (not better than pork chops) but they are awful for you.

Christians aren’t perfect cuts of meat with no individuality or flavor. Just because we all know and love the same God doesn’t mean we have no personalities. It just means we don’t think so freaking much about what we are, or who we get to be, or what we like and want. Jeez, what a self-centered, narcissistic, self-obsessed way to live. She plays Steven like he’s this wonder-child, innocent and full of heart, who encourages his friends to love and keep trying. But honestly?

This is very pretty animation but it’s not real. Steven looks happy hugging Steven but self-love doesn’t ultimately get you that.

That’s all based on the premise that what he’s encouraging them to do is actually good, and will make them happy, and will help them love better. And it just won’t. Not in real life. That’s not how any of this works. Self-love is just self-obsession. And that is a sure-fire way to hurt you, and everyone around you.

You’ll never be free by choosing to run to a worse master. You’ll never be satisfied with your crappy attempts at loving yourself, because you were made to be loved flawlessly and forever by someone who is Love Himself.

And choosing to identify with your imperfections doesn’t make you uniquely you. It just makes you exactly like every other human being marching in the same line since the Fall.

White Diamond’s not relational. She’s up high and distant. That’s not God. He made you to be in relationship with Him. He loves you, totally and perfectly, and He proved it by sacrificing for You.

So yeah. That’s the problem with Steven Universe. Come get me, SU fans.

[twirlyleafs]

”Start of the season-drama” pt2

Max Verstappen x reader

TW: slight angst, raised voices

A/N: thank you sooo much for the support on part one!! doing a lil happy dance because of u xx

~~~~

Max had tried calling you over fifty times the past three days but you refused to answer. You didn’t know if it was because you were still upset with him or because you were just that ashamed, but you couldn’t find it in you to talk to him. You had hope that there was a reasonable explanation for the photos but no matter how hard you tried to come up with one they all ended with you heartbroken. You were terrified Max would confirm any of them.

You read his texts and listened to his voice messages, responding that you’d talk to him when he’d get back. When he threatened to take an early flight, missing the race, you told him he was being dramatic and then you wished him good luck. Max stopped trying to reach you after that.

You had called in sick to work Friday and Saturday, staying home to simultaneously write and watch the qualifying and the race. You weren’t surprised to see Max bring home another win, but you felt bad when you noticed his seemingly bad mood in the post-race interviews. You could just assume you were the reason for the constant frown on his face and the dark circles under his eyes.

Sunday afternoon rolled in and you were restless. The fact that Max would be arriving back home tomorrow was starting to freak you out and you forced yourself to keep busy at all times not to overthink everything more than you already were. Currently you were standing on your tiptoes on one of the bar chairs, dusting the top of the bookshelves that were lining one wall in the living room. It obviously hadn’t been done in years and didn’t necessarily need to be done now either, but it was something to do. You were so caught up in your work that you hadn’t noticed the sound of the front door being unlocked, the bags being dropped on the floor or someone entering the room. Max stopped on the other side of the room, brows furrowed as he took you in. You were wearing one of his shirts, by the look of it one of his oldest ones and he knew you would’ve had to dug deep in the drawers for that one. As you reached the top shelf it rode up enough for him to see that you were wearing a pair of his boxers too and for some reason he melted slightly at the fact that you were dressed all in his clothes.

“Be careful.” You flinched, a gasp leaving your lips as your head spun around to follow the sudden sound. Max eyes widened as you wobbled for a second before regaining your balance and he thanked god he didn’t cause you to fall.

“Max, you’re home already?” You were confused, trying to figure out if your calculations had been wrong. He nodded, having to stop himself from walking over to help you as you climbed down from the chair.

“I took an early flight, left right after the podium.” He paused for a second, feeling the anger he’d felt for the past few days bubbling up again. “Felt a bit stressed to get back here since my girlfriend has been refusing to talk to me.” You bit down on the inside of your cheeks, resisting the urge to roll your eyes.

“Congrats on the win, you were-“ you began, but Max cut you off. He had told himself to keep calm, talk this through, but he felt the plan collapse almost immediately. He couldn’t deny the frustration.

“Are you fucking kidding me? I don’t want a congratulation from you y/n, I want an explanation! I want to know what the fuck happened on Thursday?” His voice was sharp, arms crossed over his chest. You looked away.

“What happened was that I wanted to come see you, but you said no.” You shrugged, the frown on your face deepening.

“I didn’t say no, I said it was unnecessary- that’s not even the issue here. The thing I’m most upset- confused over is you said I had some girl?”

“I saw the pictures Max.” You glared at him, all the hurt and confusion and anger from the past few days coming back. “I saw you with her.“

Max looked even more bewildered than a second ago, flailing his arms out in exasperation. “Who?! What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about your fucking date to the banquet!” You exclaimed, raising your voice to match his. “The girl you snuck away with when you didn’t think anyone would see!” Max just stared at you with wide eyes, lips opening and parting in confusion. You, however, took his silence as a sign of guilt. “I get that you’d want a girl who’s willing to follow you everywhere, who’s willing to give up her own life to be your trophy but fuck, Max, I thought you’d at least give me a heads up.”

”I didn’t bring a fucking date to the banquet, where are you getting this from? What fucking photos?”

Without another word you reached for your phone, searching up the tweet that started this whole mess. Zooming in on the photo where he was cupping her cheeks you handed him the phone, crossing your arms over your chest the second he grabbed it from you. Max stared down at the screen, eyebrows going up before they were pushed together. Slowly he looked up at you again.

“Baby-“ he began with a sigh, the apologetic tone of his voice had you assuming he was about to confess to cheating on you. The anger was quickly replaced with hurt and a shockwave of sadness. Suddenly your vision was watery and you took a step back, wrapping your arms tighter around yourself. Max seemed to understand, quickly shaking his head.

“It’s not what you think, not what it looks like.”

“Oh come on-“ you sniffed, but Max wouldn’t have it.

“No, I get how that sounds but just let me explain. That’s Rebecca, you’ve met her. Tommy’s daughter.” You had to rummaged through your brain for a second before you could place the name. Rebecca was the daughter of one of Redbulls mechanics. You’d met her a few times during races, she was a sweet girl. Your eyes widened slightly.

“Isn’t she like seventeen?”

“Yeah!”

You stared at him, even more chocked than a moment before. Max saw the look on your face and quickly shook his head. A shiver ran up his spine at the realization of what you were thinking.

“God no! Not like that. She was at the banquet with Tommy but something happened, I think someone tried to pressure her into drinking and stuff- I met her when I came from the restroom and she was crying so I brought her out, away from everyone.” Max looked down at the photo again, frowning. “Away from the cameras, I thought. She was hyperventilating and I all could think about is when you’re having a panic attack so I did what I do then, I held her and I forced her to breathe with me.” When he looked back up you were already staring at him, lips slightly parted in chock. Max tossed your phone into the couch, taking a careful step closer to you. “That’s it. That’s all that happened. I did what you taught me.”

“God.” You let out a shaky breath, hiding your face behind your hands. Out of all the scenarios you’d constructed over the past few days, none even came close to this. Max hadn’t cheated, he hadn’t even been close to. He’d helped an innocent girl, doing for her what he always did for you when you suffered from anxiety. The guilt was slowly settling in your stomach. Max watched you softly shake your head before you carefully glanced at him between fingers. “Max I’m so sorry.” You saw him visibly relax when he realized you accepted his explanation and a second later he sunk down in the couch, seemingly exhausted. With a deep breath he leaned back, closing his eyes.

“Fuck.” He sighed, reaching up to rub his forehead. “I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure out what I did and why you were so mad and not once did it occur to me that it might’ve been this.” Things were quiet after that. You crawled up on the barstool, pulling your knee to your chest, as Max stayed half laying down in the couch. Leaning your cheek against your knee you watch his chest rise and fall slower and slower. You almost thought he’d fallen asleep when he suddenly spoke again. “Did you think I cheated on you?”

“I don’t know.” You answered honestly, making Max open his eyes to look at you. You felt your heart clench at the sad look on his face. “I love you Max, and I know you love me but-“

“But?” He asked softly, moving to sit up properly. He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, and watched your through thick lashes. You took a deep breath.

“But sometimes I worry I’m not what you want. I know a lot of the others wife’s and girlfriends come to every race and you know, follow you guys around the world. I would understand if you’d want that too. You’re always talking about how I should quit my job and- well I saw the pictures and I guess all my insecurities came to life and I freaked out. I’m sorry.” You reached up to swiftly wipe away a stray tear and Max frowned. He reached a hand out, waving it as to call you over. You got the hint and slid down from the chair, carefully padding across the floor to him. The second you were within reach he pulled you down in his lap and you could practically feel yourself melt into him. God you’d missed having him close.

“You are everything I want.” Max mumbled against the top of your head and you felt shivers run up your spine. You opened your mouth to answer but quickly shut it again when you felt the lump in your throat, a few tears spilling over as you blinked. Max let his arms snake even tighter around you as he heard you sniff quietly against his chest. “I love how much you value your job and I’m so proud of you for actually being able to handle both studying and working at the same time.” You felt his fingers press softly into your side as he spoke, voice hushed and gentle. “I tell the guys all the time how smart you are, how much I admire you.”

“But I’m never there for you.” You whispered and Max carefully shifted the two of you enough so that he could look down at you. His eyes flickered between yours, hand moving up to wipe your tears.

“You’re always there for me. Maybe not in person, but I always know I have you. Like you always know you have me, right?” He waited for you to nod before he continued. “I can race on my own, just like you work on your own. Whats important to me is that I get to come home to you.” He carefully picked an eyelash from your cheek as you processed his words. When he met your eyes again he offered a small smile, tilting his head slightly. “That being said, if I could I’d spend every second literally glued to your side but apparently that’s not healthy.” You laughed at that and the smile on Maxs face widened. With something between a sigh and a chuckle you dropped your forehead back against his chest.

“I’m sorry again Maxie.” You mumbled against his shirt, feeling it vibrate as he hummed.

“Don’t worry about it schatje.” He pulled you with him to lay down in the couch and it barely took a second before the two of you were comfortably entangled in each other. “Honestly, it was kind of nice seeing you that jealous. It’s an achievement from my part, without even knowing.” He joked, earning another laugh from you as you lifted your head to look at him.

“First place the first two races of the season wasn’t enough achievements for you?”

The grin almost took up Maxs whole face and you giggled at the proud twinkle in his eyes. Before he had time to say something that would have you slap him, you leaned in to press your lips against his instead.

Max was home and everything was alright.

~~~~

Tagging ppl who asked for pt2 <333

@lpab @aexitizen-ln4 @buttfug213 @sxcretricciardo @hadthemapplebottomjeans @sunny44 @phantomxoxo @sunnyfunnydemon

[ripplestitchskein]

@angelshizuka I didn’t want to add on to your post and derail it so just doing a screen grab.

But this really bothers me. Like WHY did Blitz think this was a good idea? And how did he plan on keeping it once he had it? He’s not like unintelligent, the whole business is a good idea and they have no competitors we’ve seen other than CHERUB trying a reverse uno.

I pointed out in another post about this topic that Blitz is aware that there are other ways to get to Earth. He dated several succubi and incubi who have crystals. He was able to get one really easily to find Barbie. He could have gotten back with Verosika or any of the others if he was willing to have sex for it. It’s the same kinda arrangement and would involve a few groveling phone calls instead of a heist and fingers crossed you aren’t arrested or killed if you get caught. For Verosika her feelings probably stopped him there but there are other succubi and incubi and obviously he has the game to convince them.

Like if the plan was sneak in, get the book and he won’t know it’s me, fine. But he was already caught and Stolas already confirmed he knew who he was. That same plan would also work a lot better with lower risk at some succubus’s apartment than a royal party. And Asmodeus has hundreds of succubi and incubi and associated crystals versus one guy’s personal spell book. Risk analysis says. “Steal some random nobodies crystal from their probably unsecured house”. And even after Stolas clocks him he’s still like “I’ll just take it” and then thought just ghosting Stolas after would be enough??

I just feel like there has to be a reason, even if it’s like a subconscious one. Why Stolas? What reminded Blitz of a royal who has a book that can go to the human realm 25 years later when he had fairly recently ended a relationship with a succubus who can also do that? And Barbie was able to find a job to get to Earth so it seems like that was also an option. He could have doubled up, run drugs or human shit and also killed people at the same time and done it legitimately. Partnered up to ride along with a succubus even, “Hey, you go do your sex demon shit and I’ll be killing people, we’ll meet back here at 3”. He’s still the boss in that scenario even if he also works with someone else to do it, he’s doing that with Stolas anyway. The consequence of running afoul of Asmodeus if he finds out and is mad because of his partnership with Fizz is only slightly higher than it is stealing from an Ars Goetia.

I don’t know if it was to fuck with royals specifically? He thought Stolas would be an easy mark, but he doesn’t really know him now from what we’ve seen so that’s a weird assumption to make. He seems to think pretty negatively of royals why would he assume this one wouldn’t be the same if he was caught?

Did he follow Stolas before hand to get a vibe? How did he know about the party? Did he just pick a random day and there happened to be a party? What was the lead up? I guess it was in the paper, maybe he saw it there and was like “Now is my chance”. I can buy that from an impulsive desperation level but like I said, there were easier ways.

I hope they get into that but I dunno if they will, it’s not like crucial to the story so maybe better to not waste time in it, it really just adds to the basic framework established but I just have questions.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for “catfishing” as hispanic?

There’s not really much context for this. I’m white from England. I started studying Spanish when I was about 12 because an artist I liked spoke spanish and sometimes had comics in spanish. I learnt mainly from being online watching videos / reading dumb comics in Spanish.

I’m 18 now. I follow some people who speak Spanish and if they post/reblog something I sometimes reply in the tags in Spanish, especially if it’s about culture from a Latin American country or whatever. I’ll do this with people I don’t follow too.

My friend saw me do this once and private messaged me to tell me I shouldn’t pretend to be one of them and that I was sneaking into a community I wasn’t really part of by doing this (I’m English, I’ve never actually left the county. I don’t have any personal connections to these cultures besides what I’ve seen online)

Why I might be NTA:

- I’m literally just replying in a different language

-it’s my blog I can do what I want

-I’ve heard it’s good to have more languages spoken online

Why I might be TA

-there’s no obvious indication it’s not my native language, so I am kind of tricking people

- I’m not lying about it but I’m definitely not going around advertising the fact I’m not native on my blog anywhere, so they would probably assume I was

-The posts are often quite cultural (like a nostalgic TV show, food, meme, sometimes something political, whatever. My point is the target audience is probably Hispanic people and not me.)

- I reblog posts making fun of British people/politics/royals obviously (who doesn’t). This was the post my friend noticed and complained about when there was a post making fun of King Charles in Spanish and I replied in Spanish agreeing. I’m not sure if this makes me an AH but my friend thought that making fun of British people in Spanish made it seem like I wasn’t one of them.

TBH I did not think I was the asshole and still don’t really think that. I’ve been doing this for a long time. But I thought it was worth asking anyway cos like just because I’ve done something a lot doesn’t mean it’s right. Also if this gets a NTA sweep I might show my friend but if it doesn’t I’ll adjust my behaviour probably.

[silverflqmes]

Do you have any hcs for yandere Sephiroth? 👀

໒⦂ ‘𝐘𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐄’ 𝐇𝐂𝐒.

notes. hi hi so uh i don’t do yandere stuff, it’s not a topic i’m super comfortable with writing ( as mentioned in my rules ) but i will provide a more subtle, toned down version if that’s okay instead :’)

genre. angst + suggestive

tw. possessive behavior, implied manipulation, jealousy

disclaimer. there is a visible flip in the headcanons from pre nibleheim sephiroth to post — which takes on a darker approach. if it’s not something you are comfortable with reading, then don’t.

sephiroth x gn!reader.

⌗ as a person who dealt with the loss of those he allowed into his life, having brought his walls down for them.. i do think sephiroth might have developed a bit of overprotective behavior — which honestly, is expected..

⌗ he doesn’t want to lose you or for any harm to come your way. whether losing you refers to death.. or to someone else — he doesn’t want any of that to come to fruition.

⌗ everything in life he cherished has been taken from him and you are not about to be one of them..

⌗ normally he’s as cool as a pickle if you’re talking to someone else, but there’s this aura emitting from him.. one look at sephiroth and the innocent bystander is practically shaking in their boots.

⌗ you of course — would be confused as hell on this.. i mean when sephiroth pulls you closer, you just assume he wants proximity..

⌗ until you go home, that is, and he’s just holding you without any means of letting go.. it’s silly, watching that subtle, yet visible pout of his and the furrow to his brows and all is understood

⌗ piece of you by shawn mendes tbh that is where my brain is rn

⌗ sometimes it’s a little more than an inescapable hug and turns into a storm of kisses — perhaps even a mark or few would be left in his wake.. but nothing that makes you uncomfortable cuz he doesn’t want to hurt or force you into anything. consent!!

⌗ while he has selfish desires and would prefer to have you all to himself, he values boundaries and freedom — it’s something he wasn’t given and he isn’t about to take that away from you, too.

⌗ but if you were trying to get a reaction out of him by PURPOSELY trying to make him jealous.. good LUCK walking in the morning are the only words i have for you LMAO

⌗ there is after care tho trust and it’s all part of the plan because he gets to have you stay over and spend time with him<3 which — despite your grumbles — you are more than happy to do<3

⌗ now uh, post nibelheim sephiroth.. he is a different case cuz he’s under the influence of jenova cells — which are obviously making him do some wild stuff..

⌗ following the concept that you would have said cells opens up the opportunity to mess with you a bit, as a means of getting you to execute his whims. kinda like he does with cloud..

⌗ he’s aware you’re trying to take him back and save him from what he’s become, and uses that to his advantage. you would do anything for him, wouldn’t you?

⌗ slowly, he would isolate you from your companions — they want him gone, anyway, but you don’t. you couldn’t sit with the idea of your lover being gone, even in spite of all he had done.

⌗ you told yourself it wasn’t him, and it was true, it wasn’t. for that.. you wished to continue your attempts at saving him, even if it was a descent into madness..

⌗ gradually, you are succumbing to his words, allowing them to reshape the view you had made for yourself.

⌗ he was right, anyway. the humans who blindly believed in shinra- were the ones that gave the company the power and means of further destroying the planet for their glory. sephiroth was right in almost every way to execute the goals he made for himself.

⌗ he only ever appeared briefly to you, his caresses leaving enough of a linger to leave you touch starved — yearning for contact.

⌗ the one winged angel only whispered soon in that velvety tone of his, a reassurance of the reunion that would be upon you both in time.

⌗ but at times, you pressed, pleading for just another second — minute or few of his time.. and with that desperation in your voice, the expression that crosses your features, how could he refuse you?

⌗ he would spare his precious time and entertain you a moment longer, indulging just a bit in you, and himself, of course. but once more leaving you lingering, longing for more.

notes. not one for writing yandere oriented content, so i hope this was okay and fulfilling enough since i watered it down quite a bit :’) just not super comfy associating him with the qualities of a yandere..

↳ return to main masterlist . request rules . send an ask

[rafeandonlyrafe]

second chance

words: 800

“y/n?” your name brings your nose out of your book, popping your head up to scan the beach, seeing who might have called your name. your eyes stop on a familiar face.

“rafe?” you are surprised to see him for sure. it’s been almost three years. you set your book down on your towel, standing up to meet him halfway. “hey.” you’re not sure if he’s okay with it, but you can’t resist it, you throw your arms around his shoulders in a hug.

you’re relieved when he hugs back. “hey.” he pulls away, taking a good look at your face, giving you time to study his. he’s matured a lot since you last saw him, and he looks more like a man now than the boy that you had a summer fling with.

“how have you been?” you ask. you assume he still lives here in the outer banks, but maybe he’s just home for college. you haven’t had any contact since you left.

“good, good.” he nods, “just helping my dad with the business.” “oh, nice.” you nod. you don’t have many memories of his dad other than that he intimidated you. “i’m back here on vacation, obviously.” 

“yeah, i looked for you the past two summers but…”

you duck your head in embarrassment. “we went to um, florida instead.” you’re from michigan, but you spend all summer with your dad, wherever he feels like going that year. it’s always been like that since your parents divorced.

rafe is about to respond when a petite brunette stalks up to you, flinging sand with her stomps. she looks pissed at rafe, and your stomach instantly drops when you realize what was going on.

“rafe, who is this? did you forget you’re supposed to go swimming with your girlfriend?” she asks.

“oh, i’m just an old friend. we were done talking anyways. see you later rafe.” you wave and return to your towel, not wanting to get him in trouble with his girl, even as he sends you multiple glances as he heads towards the water.

--

you aren’t surprised by the knock on your door later that day. you take a deep breath before opening it. “hey rafe.” “can i come in?” he asks. you nod, letting him into your dads rental home, not that he’s ever actually here. since you turned 16 he took his summers with you as an excuse to let you do whatever you want while he does the same. 

you follow him towards the living room, rafe remembering the way from when he spent all of the rainy days that summer inside with you. “i’ve missed you.” he says, sitting down on the couch.

you join him, but put a cushion of space in between you. “missed you too.”

“why didn’t you say goodbye?” rafe asks, hurt flashing over his face before he gets control of his emotions again.

“i just…” you wring your hands out. “it was just a summer fling, right?” you let out a laugh that sounds fake even to your ears.

“was that what it was to you?” rafe asks. when you don’t answer rafe closes the distance, moving closer and taking your hand in his. “because that’s not what it was to me.” “i’m sorry.” you whisper. “i just thought it would be less painful. since we never would have worked.” “why?” rafe presses, “why wouldn’t we have worked?” “because i left to go back to michigan, and we were kids, long distance wouldn’t have worked.”

“i would have been willing to try for you.” rafe says, and it’s all too much. you stand up, needing to put some distance between you again.

“you have a girlfriend.” you remind rafe.

“she means nothing to me.” rafe says, and you snap your head to him.

“you can’t say that.” 

“i can if its true. i broke up with her before coming over. i want to try to make this work, please.”

“i’ll just have to leave again at the end of the summer.”

“but you don’t, do you? you’re an adult, you can choose where you live.” it’s crazy. you can’t just move across the summer for a guy you had a brief romance with three years ago. but for once in your life, you feel like indulging in the craziness.

“kiss me.”

rafe looks up at your words. he didn’t expect them, but he moves quickly once they process, cupping his hand around your face as your lips connect, gentle at first before he wraps an arm around your waist, pulling you into his body, deepening the kiss.

you pull away with a smile, having missed the feeling of rightness when you kiss rafe. 

“i don’t know what our future looks like, but i’m willing to take this chance with you.”

[stillness-in-green]

sorry, didn't see the answer until today. thank you for that but I mean proving AFO wrong that Tenko is filled with hatred and destroying and no one can accept him. we know thats a lie now but Tenko still dies?

Hey again, anon. So, I went back and tried to fit this follow-up context into your original ask—answered here for anyone who wants to look over it again.  My initial answer was based on you meaning that AFO should have been “proven wrong” in his assertions about human frailty and how, once someone has been rejected by society and become a Villain, there’s no way for them to come back.  Reconsidering your issue (that Deku killing Shigaraki doesn’t prove AFO wrong) with the knowledge that what you meant was him saying Shigaraki is only capable of hating and destroying things…

I guess in the end I don’t think the story believes AFO is wrong about that either? I mean, obviously he was, back when he first told those words to at-the-time-still-Tenko. But now? Not so much, at least in the author's eyes.

Below, if you want to subject yourself to my reasoning again, you can follow along as I talk myself through getting to that quite jaded conclusion.  My apologies if I misunderstand or misrepresent you again anywhere along the way!  Admittedly, based on my experience with the fandom and what names we choose to use in talking about the characters, I suspect we’re coming at them from radically different positions, but my position is the one I’ve got to offer you. Please know that, to whatever extent we might disagree on how much "Shigaraki Tomura" was ever a legitimate persona, we are united in our opinion that Deku should have done more for him if the story was serious about him being the Greatest Hero.

......

So, okay, the biggest issue with asserting that Shigaraki has any kind of moral core or personality independent of his AFO-instilled hatred/destructiveness is that the best arguments for it all revolve around the League and how Shigaraki wants to be their “Hero,” how that’s contiguous with his personality even from when he was “Tenko” because both fit a pattern of reaching out to the outcasts that everyone else around them ignores or mistreats.

I believed that too!  I still do, in fact!  I want to be clear that I think Shigaraki still has legitimate grievances and that his desire to make a world in which Villains will be happier is still, in its own way, noble and true!

But.

But that glorious spread where Tomura says that even if every bit of his hatred is smashed, he’ll still keep going because he has to be a Hero for the Villains that need him?  That spread comes before the montage showing AFO’s involvement in the Shimuras’ lives from before Tenko was even born.  And part of that montage is the absolutely buffoonish reveal that AFO even influenced Tenko’s sense of heroism by leaning on Tomo and Mikkun (the aforementioned outcasts) to encourage him to be a Hero.  I tend to assume that the two of them were from one of Ujiko’s orphanages—I can’t imagine how else AFO would be in a position to give two random children direct orders!—but whatever the case, it means that even Tenko’s draw towards standing up for outcasts is something influenced by All For One.

If you take that away, what else is left?  I could pick a few little traits here and there, but ultimately, what Shigaraki comes back to in the end, in that very last conversation with Deku in the shared mindspace, is destruction.  He pursued it to the end, his last expressed regret is that he couldn’t carry it out, and his final messages to ally and enemy alike revolve around the destruction he sought—telling Spinner he died fighting for it and telling Deku that it’s up to him and his whether any of what he destroyed actually stays destroyed.

To me, that suggests that the manga does believe that Shigaraki Tomura was, ultimately, an existence that could only destroy, and the fact that some of what he targeted deserved to be destroyed doesn’t negate the fact that he was still ultimately defined by the destructiveness that AFO meticulously crafted him to embody.  Even Deku seems to think that, in the end!

Like, really working through the timeline here?  Deku did want to believe that the Crying Child indicated that Shigaraki had some drive other than destructiveness at his core.  One of the (vanishingly rare) times he actually spoke to Shigaraki during their fight was his refutation of Shigaraki’s claims that he’d successfully devoured The Crying Child and thus transcended his humanity.

Running on the desperate certainty that Shigaraki was wrong/lying, Deku smashes his way into Shigaraki’s core and metaphorically uproots his hatred and psychically holds his hands, and Shigaraki still says that even so, the Villains still need him…  And if it ended there, maybe we could say that AFO was “wrong” in the sense you describe—that while the method Shigaraki uses to Be A Hero For Villains is warped by AFO’s influence, his desire to be that Hero is genuinely his own.  But then we get That Reveal, and even the parts of Tenko that seemed to predate AFO are revealed to be just another aspect of AFO’s machinations—Tenko’s heroism, his sense of injustice, even his very existence, all are indelibly stamped with AFO’s mark.

After that reveal, Deku never again pushes back against claims that Shigaraki can only destroy.  He never pushes back on AFO’s claims of authorship of Shigaraki’s life; he never tries to encourage Shigaraki by insisting that his bonds to the League are real regardless of how AFO raised him.  Heck, he never even suggests Shigaraki still has the chance to figure out who Tenko could be as long as he can break AFO's hold and reject his teaching. No, Deku just…accepts AFO's premise, apparently.

And so I come back to the same conclusion I did before: Deku is angry at All For One, but he does not disagree with All For One.

I genuinely think that, as far as the narrative is concerned, the tragedy of Shigaraki’s ending is thus:

Anyone Shimura Tenko was or could have been was overwritten by All For One’s grooming long ago.  Maybe this could have been prevented if things had gone differently—if Nana had beaten AFO, if someone like Deku had been there to intervene the day of the tragedy, if someone on the street had reached out to him before AFO—but as it stands, Shigaraki Tomura is too far gone to save.[See Note]  Deku can end the monster that was behind it all and try to honor the victims that Shigaraki’s actions brought to light by changing the world that created them for the better, but he cannot save Shimura Tenko because Shimura Tenko was lost long before he and Midoriya Izuku ever met.

(Note: One of those "Maybe If..."s the story dangles is Spinner taking some ill-defined step to help his friend, but my opinions are that disingenuous suggestion are just a long string of profanity. Suffice to say, if Shigaraki could still have been "saved" all the way up to the start of the second war, then the Heroes bear way more responsibility for failing to do so than Spinner ever could, and Deku is even more of a fuckwit for not arguing with AFO's assertions that Tomura is nothing but what AFO made of him.)

Of course we wanted more than that.  Of course we wanted Deku to do more than that!  We spent all that time watching Shigaraki grow and bond with the League—why, if the only reason for that growth and those bonds was to prepare him as a vessel for AFO?  We watched Deku resolve to try to save and/or understand Shigaraki’s heart no matter what—why, if everything in that heart was written in someone else’s hand?

The story told us that the best heroes always manage to both win and save, and that we were reading the story of how Deku becomes the best hero—why, if the story was only going to conclude that Shigaraki’s death at Deku’s hand was inevitable because the harm All For One did was impossible for either of them to overcome?

And to me, at least, that’s why Shigaraki’s death and Deku’s role in it feel so wrong: not for the in-universe reason that Deku and Shigaraki don’t disprove/disavow AFO’s claims, but for the meta reason that My Hero Academia lied to us and wasted our goddamn time.  It spent over two hundred chapters building up Shigaraki Tomura—as a villain, yes, but also as a victim, a friend, an enemy, an ally, someone who existed in the world he was rebelling against—only to then turn around and spend its remaining two hundred chapters tearing him back down to nothing and then telling us that’s all he ever was anyway.

All For One killed that crying child a long time ago, and all Deku can do is wipe away his tears and then wave him goodbye. 

By punching him to death.

It’s hard to imagine a bleaker outcome for the “Tenko” that started Horikoshi’s whole career as a mangaka, but I guess that’s what happens when your chosen career brutalizes you so badly that you come to define a Hero as someone who helps people endure their suffering instead of saving them from it.

...…

...Uh.  So, this got pretty bleak itself in the end.  Sorry, anon, everyone.  I write that way to get my point across, and I’m no little bit bitter about the whole thing myself, but ultimately, I just want to remind everyone that the story is over.  I’m not going to try to turn this whole thing into a positivity post all the way at the end, but just embrace that much: your obligation to care about the things Horikoshi wrote—to the extent that that obligation ever existed—is fulfilled.  If you hate the ending, well, so do I.  But now and forever, we and everyone else can go and do what-the-hell-ever we want to do with the characters and world that Horikoshi left us.

I hope we do.  I’ll be rooting for us!

[corvidcentral]

Uhhhhh late night post abt vulpes redemption (?) idk I don’t like him as a character but rather a concept and also I’m tired so that’s both why I’m posting this and why it might not be coherent :3

Okay anyways I don’t think there’s any actual way to redeem him. End post

Jkjk. But also not really.

Vulpes is. Obsessive? To say the least. I feel like any sort of redemption you’d force him through would be by transferring his obsession from Caesar and the Legion onto smth else. Which has a negligible chance of happening but let’s humor those chances

First you’d have to actually convince him to leave Caesar. Once again nigh impossible but yeah. I actually don’t have any ideas on how’s this work LMAO

Once you’ve done that he’s probably gonna feel. Lost? He’s dedicated literally his entire life to the Legion and Caesar, and without that, what is he? So I feel like he’d latch onto the closest thing that’s maybe similar to his time there and yet not that. Which would be. Whoever convinced him Courier or otherwise.

Now you’ve got this weird obsessive dude following you. “I owe you my life so I’ll do whatever you ask of me.” Aka his time in the Legion 2 electric boogaloo. He’s more than likely convinced himself that it’s different that he’s different from Back Then but he’s still the same.

You can tell him to kill someone and he’ll do it no questions asked, because he now lives to serve you. All you have to do is tell him he’s better off now, outside of the Legion than he ever was inside it, and he’ll believe you, because you’re now his obsession. He’ll believe he’s a better person now, since he’s no longer a frumentarii, even if he might actually be acting the same way or worse

And obviously Nobody will trust him so that will in turn create this. Cycle. He’s outside but what now? Nobody will look him in the eyes besides you, and even if they do it’s to remind him of things in the past, and it’s different now, can’t they see? You’re the only who can see he’s changed, changed for the better, so that means he can only trust you, like he’s known this entire time. Time is a circle and all that. A dog will never forget its training no matter who holds onto its leash

Also I’m using “you” in place of any actual pronoun I’m assuming this is the courier he’s latched onto you can assume anyone otherwise idrc

Like I said it’s late its like 1:45 am for me so if none of this makes sense blame that. I just like thinking abt characters late at night and never doing anything abt it ever again after that

[lily-orchard-gossip-blog]

Hello hello again! It's good to have you back for a little while! Unfortunately there is a lot of infighting in the critical sphere right now and it's not very fun to follow. And worse still Lily is as smug as ever. People are too invested in who ripped off what, who's disrespecting this or that, they should just be having fun at Lily's expense. That's what Saiscribbles has done, and you can tell how effective it is because Lily has tried every strategy in the book to prove how not mad she is.

You know what?

I think I would like to poke fun at the whole thing. I mean, it's sounds like she's gotten a bit ridiculous since I've been gone. (Ridiculous sounds like an understatement, thought.)

I've done serious and it's exhausting. You can only take her serious for so long before you realize she doesn't really even know or believe what she's saying.

As for the fighting, well... It's a shame, but let's try to focus on what's at the core of this blog: Gossiping about Lily.

...But I do have one thing I want to get off my chest, so I will mention it here and then move on. It is under the read bar just so those who don't care can ignore it.

I do have one thing to say about the drama, and that's about Ethel.

They are a liar liar pants on fire.

Seriously, I watched Evangeline Skovs video, which was one of the better coverages on the subject and there was no plagiarism. Not even of me, and I was a source!

Never mind that fact that Ethel legit lied about my blog in their rebuttal, claiming that Levi couldn't find anything on my blog about their video, or glade, so Evangeline was lying.

Their proof? Levi used the search bar, used the word minor and glade, and nothing came up except one post...

Fun fact: I'm bad at tagging things, and my search bar is kind of useless because of that.

(Side note: why would I use glade's name? Why would I want to draw attention to someone who I assumed wanted to be left alone? I'm pretty sure that was made clear in the video.)

Anyway, if you used my archive you could easily find TONES of posts from me talking about the video in question with details.

Here's one that Ethel conveniently left out:

And you know what's hilarious about that? They reblogged this take to try and rebuke it on their tumblr. (That they have long since abandoned.)

I decided to ignore it, because obviously I'm not going to try and get in a fight with them, and Ethel was so mad by that they messaged me directly to try and threaten me with legal jargon.

So I blocked them.

But hey, since I'll probably never bother with this again, here are the messages. Enjoy old drama from like...2 years ago:

Image text here:

[Okay, I've put this off for as long as possible, but please, read this case study as right now you are parroting harmful legal advice. Victim testimony not only constitutes evidence, but can be sufficient evidence to convict, a fact that was tested in Commonwealth v Gustavo Gonzalez Santos in Massachusetts.

I’ll highlight two relevant sections in case you don’t have the time to read the entire thing: “The defendant's sole argument on appeal is that the evidence was not sufficient to support his convictions. The defendant asserts that "there were no witnesses to the alleged assaults," "no physical evidence," "no medical or forensic evidence," and "no expert testimony." He argues that "there was absolutely no conclusive evidence presented at trial that suggested the [d]efendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt."” And: “Here, the victim testified to facts that constituted each element of the charged offenses. Her testimony, which the jury found to be credible, was sufficient, standing alone, to support a finding beyond a reasonable doubt as to each of the convictions. See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Lawrence, 68 Mass. App. Ct. 103, 104 (2007)

("The victim's testimony was sufficient evidence of [indecent assault and battery on a child under age fourteen]"); Commonwealth v. Gonsalves, 23 Mass. App. Ct. 184, 185 (1986) ("The victim's account of what the defendant did to him in the apartment was sufficient to overcome the defendant's motion for a required finding of not guilty of rape"). The idea that long infected our legal system that the victim's testimony in sexual assault and rape cases is less credible than the testimony of victims in cases involving other types of crimes -- an idea that reflected nothing more than sexism and an unwillingness on the part of our courts to treat sexual crimes as the gravely serious matter that they are -- has been rejected both by statute and by common law.”

When you and others continue to parrot the myth that victim testimony does not constitute as valid evidence, you are harming victims of rape and abuse. This is straight up rape culture and, since I’m pushing back any video coverage on the matter until I’ve finished dealing with Lily because I don’t want to muddle things, I need you to stop promoting falsehoods. We have legal members on our team who have passed the bar, Patchie does not, Opal does not, and neither does You Can Eat Hearts. You are causing unnecessary harm to victims by breathing life into myths constructed by rape culture. To be clear, I am not asking for your denouncement of certain people, just for you to please, stop publishing bad legal takes.

This is also the case in Canada, if you're wondering - https://www.accused.ca/evidence.htm

Sorry, I just realized I didn't give you the US case study. Here it is - http://masscases.com/cases/app/100/100massappct1.html#:~:text=The%20jury%20found%20the%20defendant,We%20affirm. ]

Oct 30, 2022 9:16 AM

Whew, you have no idea how long I wanted to spill this tea.

Alright, I've said what I've wanted to say on this topic. I'm now going to focus on laughing at Lily and her horrible incest stories.

[joshslater]

Delayed Graduation

Repost of an old story that was previously flagged as too risqué for tumblr. Similar stories and bonus material on my Patreon.

- We might have a solution of sorts for you.

I barely registered principal Johnston talking. My world had been shattered, without warning. It all felt unreal, and most of all unfair. I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong, but there were no witnesses, just my word against hers. She wouldn’t press charges, Johnston had explained. I was almost demanding that she did, so I could clear my name, but thought better of it. If it went to trial all outcomes would be bad, to varying degrees. This way I would just be expelled. I guess I could use the term “drop out” to soften it further. It’s not like the job market is stellar even if you have a degree, but this would firmly pigeon hole me as manual labor.

- What? - I said we might have an arrangement that could interest you.

He pulled out a stack of papers from his manila folder and placed them in front of me, and continued.

- We have a little trial project we would like to push ahead with, to see what the full potential is. Coach Andrews would personally take charge of your training to see how far he can take you in a year. Similar to what he managed to do for Shane O’Brian. Since you will be heavily supervised, fully scheduled and not share any classes with your former class mates, she has agreed to allow you complete your studies under these conditions. It’s not that many months until she graduates anyway. Your graduation obviously will have to wait until next year.

Shane of course was the star of the basket team. He was two years below me, so I didn’t know him, but I heard he had basically never touched a ball before he met coach. He must have been active in something else though, with that body. The girls were swooning like crazy. Some of the boys too, as rumor had it.

- Sir, I’m really grateful for this opportunity, but I’m not really made for sports. Just look at me. Tall and thin. Not much track and field around here. - We are not asking for any miracles. Just follow all instructions given and do your best. That’s all we’re asking.

I started to flip through the papers. I was bored just looking at the page numbers.

- Should I bring this home to my parents? - This is a bit time sensitive, so I’d prefer if you make your decision already today. You’re 18. You get to decide this on your own. Why don’t I leave you for a bit? You can have a read through, and then decide what you want to do.

As he left the room I started to go read through the contract properly. Why do they make things so complicated? The contract really just said that I assumed responsibility for the “infraction”, but the school would not disclose it to anyone unless the contract was breached. I would agree to participate in the athletic education study for one year. In return the school would allow me to graduate next year. But written over 26 pages.

I didn’t feel like I had many options. Initials on every page and signature on the last. Then repeated on the second copy of the contract. I was about to leave and find principal Johnston when he returned, followed by coach Andrews.

- Have you made up your mind, or would you like Mr. Andrews to explain it in more detail. - I’ve already signed the papers. - Oh, well then. I’m so happy we could work something out.

Coach Andrews opened the gym bag he was carrying and pulled out a blue singlet and ear guards, and held them for me to take.

- Let’s try this on right away. - Now? Here?

Johnston opened a door to a side room of his office.

- You can change in the conference room here. - But wrestling?! Have you seen me? - As I said, follow all instructions and do your best is all we ask.

It was the first time I even held a singlet in my hands. I’ve never even thought of how to put one on. It wasn’t hard, just step in them like some shorts and then pull the straps over your shoulders, but I never imagined doing it.

I looked ridiculous. I guess size isn’t as important when the fabric is stretchy, but this sure wasn’t my size. The taut straps pulled the fabric in the groin, while at the same time my thin legs didn’t fill out the legs of the singlet. What a mess. I walked back into the office, naked apart from this one single piece of clothing.

- Should I put on the ear guards as well. - No, that isn’t necessary. Here.

Coach opened a small, brown, glass bottle and poured its contents into a white plastic cup from the water cooler, and handed it to me.

- This is the time sensitive part. Drink up.

This day was going from horrendously bad to confusing to weird. I emptied the cup. The liquid tasted like cough syrup. Sickly sweet and with bitter herbs.

- What is.. *cough* *cough* - Here. Take a seat.

It felt like drinking really hot cocoa when you are frozen. It kind of spreads from the chest to the rest of the body. All of me was getting warm, and an uncomfortable feeling or pressure. Everything was off, like I was drunk, or high or something. It was over in a minute, though it is quite possible my mind was playing tricks and it really was longer than that.

- Stand up against the wall, so I can take a photo.

Bewildered, and with unsteady steps, I did as told. He snapped a few pictures with his phone, and then showed me one.

- Don’t tell me this isn’t a great starting point.

I couldn’t believe what I saw. It was definitely me in the photo, but it was like the aspect ratio was wrong. I must be several inches shorter, but everything, arms, legs, chest, shoulders, neck, was wider. Even my face was altered, if ever so slightly. Where just minutes before, or whatever, I was a lanky gamer, I now was a hunk of muscle.

- How is this... - Don’t worry about the details. We must work quickly now while you are fresh, to get the wrestling technique right. Meet me in my office tomorrow at 7 am.

With that he slapped me on the shoulder and left. Just as he was about to exit the office, he pulled out a pair of shoes from the bag and placed them at a table.

- Oh, I almost forgot these. Your new size. See you tomorrow!

My head was spinning. What had just happened to me, to my body? Starting point? Principal Johnston had his distinct “anything else?” look.

- What about my studies?

My voice was lower than before, I think.

- You’ll be placed in the athlete’s reduced curriculum class. We just need to retest your proficiency levels first. - Why? I don’t understand. - My point exactly.

He didn’t make any sense. I felt tired, slow and almost dizzy trying to understand him.

- What about this body? What happens when I graduate? - You graduate with the body you have, like everyone else. It’s not like we can change it by magic or anything.

He smiled and chuckled to himself.

- Take your old clothes with you as you leave. Something might still fit.

Nothing did.

[kiteblue42]

s2e2 made me think about Mobius / Loki from Mobius point of view - what the heck is going on with him anyway?

Stream of consciousness on S1 -S2ep2 follows….

S1e1 - The one where Mobius goes from manipulative to empathetic.

Mobius has studied all of Loki’s life, he’s actually informed as soon as Loki is brought in (the TVA know about this particular interest of his.) In his own word “lm actually a fan.” This could all be manipulation until last scene where Loki confesses he doesn’t like hurting people. Loki can’t see Mobius expression as he says this - which if he was just manipulating would be triumphant instead Mobius looks full of compassion - so we know this is not just someone using Loki there’s some personal feeling there.

S1 e2 - The one where Mobius loses control of his feelings but doesn’t know it yet.

Renslayer spots this first - pointing out Mobius “soft spot for broken things” which Mobius denies (will we get more on that?). Mobius claims he’d still be able to prune Loki “I’ll prune him myself” and in Roxxcart heavily questions whether Loki is trustworthy. “Why are people you can’t trust always saying trust me.” The last thing he says to Loki before the infamous “divorce scene”.

S1e3 - The one with no Mobius 🙁

doesn’t have enough Mobius for us to judge really I just assume he’s ranting to himself in his head the whole time.

S1e4 The one where Mobius accepts (some of) his feelings.

This episode opens with an obviously very hurt and betrayed Mobius. So now we know that whatever he told Renslayer (about being able to handle his Loki) and he all his very logical cautionary language (about trust) in the end it was nonsense. He’d completely lost his heart at some point in S1e2 and had been in denial about it. He’s also beginning to doubt the TVA mission here and hasn’t been able to process any of that logically. So we see a very emotional Mobius is the interrogation scenes. Its useful for the audience because he straight out tells us he thought Loki was a partner (“I guess you don’t do partners”) and a friend (“… a really bad friend”). (This isn’t necessarily romantic though the “Sylvie with an i or ie” thing certainly raises eyebrows”).

At some point in Ep 4 Mobius pulls himself together enough to do some pretty calculated sleuthing on Renslayer. Then we see a partial coming together of Mobius head and heart in the time jail scene where you can see him acknowledging Loki as a friend, making a conscious decision to trust him. “I got to take the word of 2 Loki’s” “how about the word of a friend”.

The offer here is to help save Sylvie which is something he is doing for Loki (he hasn’t even spoken with her at this point and has very little interaction with her ever as it goes). In fact this will cost him his life (since Renslayer almost immediately prunes him). Given the speed of events there’s only really time for a partial acceptance of whatever messy feeling Mobius has for Loki - it goes from yes we’re friends to now I’m willing to die in the space of three strides.

S1e5 - The one where Sylvie is Mobius’ perfect excuse to ignore his feelings

This is the only episode where Mobius has any extended interaction with Sylvie - though we don’t see that much of it. But it is interesting & crucial as it tells Mobius that Sylvie is interested in Loki. One of the first things she says is that she came to the void to look for Loki. I think that’s important because we see Mobius concede pretty much all ground to Sylvie in the episode. Later Sylvie tells Loki “he cares about you” - so Mobius must have done or said something for her to figure that out - and it’s not a question she’s pretty confident about it. The Loki / Mobius final scene is the long hug beloved by Lokious shippers everywhere. What’s interesting is that Loki says “thank you my friend.” Whereas Mobius deflects and almost hands off the emotion to Sylvie with the “you’re my favourite.” It’s clearly *not true* that Sylvie is his favourite he’s met her for all of five minutes so what is this? It reads as an acceptance / concession that the more important partner for Loki will be Sylvie. Whatever messy feelings Mobius may have he’s doing the “I’m happy for you” thing. Again it’s not necessarily romantic. I don’t think Mobius would know - and now has no reason to even examine it or deal with his feelings which I suspect suits him just fine. Just like when you have a really close friend and they get together with someone you know that chapter of friendship is over - and there’s little point in wondering if it could be more.

S1e6 - The one where eons of friendship mean little

Not much Mobius content and we don’t see them together unless you count the last scene. The most interesting insight probably comes from Mobius / Renslayer scene where Renslayer makes a good point about Mobius choosing Loki over her. Logically there are good reasons Mobius would make that choice the TVA has been morally dubious at best and Renslayer tried to kill him. But what is interesting is Mobius’ emotional reaction - he just seems sad and resigned about what happened between them despite the friendship supposedly lasting eons. Contrast this with his emotions in s1e4 in response to a lesser betrayal by Loki.

S2e1 - The one where Mobius would rather die than talk about it

Given the speed at which things happen in this episode it’s another one where processing feelings is not going to happen.

Mobius opens the season is a different place to the season close - re TVA s1 ends with him declaring he’ll “burn it to the ground”. S2 starts with him questioning what they should do “everything you are doing was wrong and all your gods are dead”.

When Loki & Mobius finally find each other in the war room Mobius instinct is to get the near hysterical Loki out of the room and alone. He asks where Sylvie is almost immediately - hears enough to work out there’s unfinished business there. Partially understands the HWR threat but focuses on the time slipping. It’s worth noting that Loki and Mobius have somehow ended up in the same ambiguous position re the TVA vs Sylvie & B15 who are probably still in the “burn it to the ground frame of mind”. For all Mobius ambiguity this season so far the one thing he does seem clear about is his loyalty to Loki - he trusts everything he says without question and his priority in e1 is to fix the time slipping (this is no one else’s priority not even Loki’s). Note everyone else’s gods might be dead but Mobius god is still alive.

The episode ends with Mobius willing to die horribly to save Loki ( very nearly doing so). I’ll need to rewatch but I’m not sure if Loki actually knows this is a death sentence for Mobius (although maybe it’s obvious that’s what will happen if you lose all your skin). IIRC OB is only clear about “you will die” after Loki time slips to the future. In any case Loki can’t know in advance that Mobius will stay out in the walkway far too long.

Before Loki timeslips we have one of those “what was he going to say” declaration scenes. Very frustrating, but Mobius reaction is interesting he interrupts - which means he’s worried about whatever it’s going to be. Whether it’s going to be sone emotional declaration of love or friendship or a plea to find Sylvie - he does not want to hear it. He’s willing to go and die horribly before dealing with that - very on brand.

S2e2 - the one where Mobius is a silly little man

The meat of this episode (for our purposes) are the interrogation scenes onwards, but it’s worth noting before these that Mobius is not very focused or serious in the earlier scenes. In London he’s cool about stopping for a drink, when they go to see OB he casually declares “he has it all under control”, when they are trying to decode the tempad Loki calls him out to focus. There’s something there about Mobius disassociating from the task at hand. An interesting point is when Loki explains about the Renslayer recording in the past Mobius starts to ask “ when we’re you going to tell …?” But he gets interrupted which does tell us Loki has not given chapter and verse to Mobius yet - and bearing in mind Mobius seems (so far) to have put himself entirely in Loki’s hands this season that may come back to haunt us.

I could say a lot about the interrogation scenes but I’ll pull 3 things from them

(1) More evidence Mobius trusts Loki completely and accepts his dark side - evidenced by the approach to the second interrogation and also not intervening when Brad was taunting Loki in the first one.

2) Mobius doesn’t know what is real anymore

In s1e2 Mobius says of the time keepers “they are real because I believe they are real”. Which is an interesting position and Mobius starting point in life is accepting where he finds himself. So Brads persistent theme of “none of this is real” attacks the very basis which on Mobius operates. He doesn’t know what to believe anymore and does not know therefore what is real.

(3) Mobius does not have a lot of self worth.

This follows from 2 really. Mobius is the sort of person who accepts whats put in front of him and gains meaning from doing the task assigned to him by and for someone else. But now what does that mean - even his name is not his real name. He is “nothing” in Brad’s words (he repeats that later) and when he says “you’re a silly little man” it’s like that’s how he thinks of himself.

The pie scene

At the start of this scene Mobius tries (and fails) to keep up a facade with Loki. It tells you that Mobius gets most of his self worth from doing his job well and thinks he failed. The “heavy keys” line is also revealing - it tells us he would really like to be a match for Loki but his down cast demeanour tells us he doesn’t believe he can be.

Loki handles this all rather well (in general Loki handles Mobius rather well - when he is paying attention - but that’s another sort of post) and gets Mobius to fess up to losing it. We then get the revealing discussion about Mobius “life on the timeline” which as he points out is not his life. He starts with an obvious lie that he is happy with his life and wants to thank the person who put him there (that may have been true once but does not look very true now). Again it goes back to the idea of low self worth - Mobius thinks the alt version of him would be having a good life / doing better than him. That is not a happy thought if you are feeling bad, really bad, about yourself. He does not want that rattling around in his head.

McDonalds to end of episode

Mobius has pulled himself back together by the time we get here. The most revealing comment is probably the “mean girls” style commentary on Loki / Sylvie who both Brad and Mobius assume are having a heart to heart (they aren’t really when you listen to it). It gives us an echo of “Sylvie with an i or ie” from last season & very fun for that. Ultimately it seems pretty clear Mobius expects to lose Loki to Sylvie some point (it doesn’t have to be romantic - you can lose a good friend to a romantic partner because a romantic partner will generally be the priority). Mobius is pretty unreadable (other than sad/ serious) in the end set of sequences. There’s a micro reaction / acknowledgment to Loki’s hand on his shoulder at the finish - possibly he expected Loki to leave with Sylvie. Mentally I think Mobius expects logically that is what will happen, but this is a character who will not be emotionally prepared if it does (at least not yet).

Yes I am over thinking it ofc … 🤣

[hypnotisedfireflies]

I am re-reading Drifter's Dawn and in the chapter when Tess tells Joel the actual story of what actually went down when the outbreak hit with Mike and Nico, I couldn't help but wonder how Joel would react in that situation. (Basically just slotting Joel in for Mike, with Nico)

I think Tess and Joel's near-telepathic sympatico stems from their chemistry but also their circumstances, having to fight for their lives and get very good at it very quickly. So obviously that wouldn't have developed on Outbreak day, but there would still be a strongggg underlying understanding they would have between them.

All this is to say, may I please request a one-shot re-imaginging of that Outbreak moment where Joel and Tess are married and Nico is their son. (Sarah may or may not exist in this universe)

Thank you kindly!

Oof, what an ask, friend!  You are requesting my brain to do some seriously tricky rewiring here.  And it’ll be kind of weird too, given I’ll be taking the script and changing a character.  I don’t think I’ve ever done that before.  But some mental gymnastics never hurt me so … let’s give this a go!

For this to work, let’s assume all the following are true for the exercise:

Tess and Joel are married and living in Detroit – as you say, just swapping in Joel for Mike (ouch)

Sarah is Tommy’s kid and they’re still in Texas (just to uncomplicate it a little)

Up until now they have lived an ordinary life within their ordinary careers and nothing live-changingly traumatic has happened to them (ie, they have not been tested as they have in Driftersverse) but, as you say, they still have that powerful current of understanding

Let’s not question why any of the above is true and also not hate on Mike too much for what happened in Driftersverse canon :p

I wrote this really fast so I didn’t overthink it, and then proofed it just as fast, so please forgive any errors.

Thank you for the prompt! I hope you like it. <3

Okay ... here's an alternate universe version of the first chapter of Drifter's Dawn:

A low rumble infiltrated Tess’s consciousness.  She let it in, let her mind mull over what it might be … and then let it go as the inviting temptation of deeper sleep engulfed her.  She turned on her side and took a deep breath.  A truck, or someone revving their motor too late into the night.  Tess heard it again and thought even less of it now the noise was rationalised.  She slid her arm over Joel’s waist and felt him bring her hand up to his chest. 

His warmth suddenly lurched from her grasp.  Tess blinked in confusion and sat up on an elbow. 

“What are you doing?”  The words lay thick in her mouth.

Another rumble came as Joel, dressed only in his shorts, raised the blind.  The bedroom was cast in acrid honey light and this time, Tess recognised the rumble as too deep, too long for any truck or car.  As the blind came up Joel was silhouetted completely by unnatural light. 

The next sound was no rumble but an explosion.  The boom swallowed them up and Tess heard herself scream, saw Joel duck down and extend his hand out to her to stay back.  She could hear the windows rattling.  Nico began to cry in the other room. 

“Jesus Christ,” Joel moved back from the frame, still in a half-crouch.  “Stay there.  Stay where you are.  I’ll get him.”

“What’s going on out there?”

“Just stay there!”

Tess watched him go with some kind of amazement.  In her sleep-addled, scared mind it seemed Joel had somehow done this, or that he had answers that he was denying her.  She came up to her knees and leaned toward the window.  She could see smoke buffeting up into the sky.  Something was gone.  What was over that way?  Tess flinched as she heard another explosion, further away. 

She was still looking toward the window when Nico’s cries drew closer.  Joel had him:  the baby was bothered enough to be twisting himself about, flinging his arms and legs and making him hard to hold on to.  But Joel’s hold was inescapable, and the security began to calm Nico even as Tess watched.

Tess slapped around for the remote control.  She extended her arm like a wand to turn the TV on and it came alive across the other side of the room.  An explosion that big was surely breaking news.  Maybe there’d been a trash crash, or a bad fire …

“What the fuck …” she breathed. 

It took Tess a moment to realise that she wasn’t watching a movie.  She flipped two channels ahead and then went back again.  She was seeing the same kind of footage on every station.  People rioting, buildings going up, the army deployed.  A police car on fire.  People were screaming about rabies and terrorists, but all Tess could see in every single shot was masses of bodies rushing and falling all over each other.  She didn’t notice that Nico had gone quiet.  They lost track of time as they watched the same news on every channel. 

“That’s Chicago,” said Joel.

More cities they recognised played out before them, seized in chaos, dense under thick smoke and the screams – the same screams everywhere, on every channel, on every camera.

“What is this?  Joel, are you seeing this?  Joel?”

“That was Houston,” he said.

She tore her gaze from the screen.  Joel was balancing Nico with one arm against his body – the baby still grizzling – and thumbing the buttons on his Nokia with the other.  He pressed it up against his ear, shook his head furiously, and tried again. 

“Come on, Tommy.  Tommy, pick up.”  He finally threw the phone on the bed in disgust.  “It’s not connectin’.”

Tess scrambled out of bed and hurried to the dresser, rummaging around for her jeans.

“What are you doing?  Tess?”

“Getting dressed.”

“What the fuck is going on, Tess?”

“I don’t know.  Get dressed.”

Joel deposited Nico on the bed, where he immediately began to burrow.  They pulled on clothes, passing pieces that belonged to one another back and forth, and then were drawn back to the TV like magnets.  It was increasingly terrifying – two stations went off-air even as they watched, one of them when the camera itself suddenly careened sideways into the out of focus floor, but the screaming was unmistakable.  They discussed what they saw in fractured sentences, trying to make sense of it.  But the message from all authorities were the same:  stay indoors.  Joel kept trying Tommy.  He tried his father.  Tess, slow to the party, found she was unable to reach anyone when she tried, too. 

“Take him.”  Joel passed Nico into her arms.  He was sleeping now, and didn’t protest.

“What are you doing?”  Tess leaned forward, moving Nico to her other shoulder. 

Joel was in the wardrobe.   He reached up and shifted a few boxes around and it took her way too long to realise what he was doing.  He had a handgun which Tess didn’t much like, stored away at the back of the closet.  He’d kept it so casually in the drawer for years but once Nico started moving around, Tess had insisted it be put away.  She watched him take it out and load it up with ammo from a separate box.

“Joel …”  Somehow, this sight was more terrifying than anything else she had seen so far.

“We’re not gonna need it,” he told her.  “It’s just in case.” 

He stuffed it down the back of his jeans and sat before her.  He smoothed his hands through her hair and cradled her face.  He kissed her soundly.  “It’s just in case.”

A new report on TV caught their attention, and they both turned to watch a terrified woman reporting from the back of a news van, which seemed to be speeding through the night.

Tess stood abruptly.  “What the fuck are we doing?”

“What?”

“Joel.”

“Oh, shit.”

It was so surreal, watching the world crumbling on TV.  They had been so engrossed in what they could see in the box that they had forgotten it was meant to be everywhere.  They stood on either side of the bed and stared across at one another, hardly able to believe they had both missed the obvious.  And then a long scream came from somewhere outside, and they ran.

They pounded down the hall.  At the top of the stairs Joel grabbed Tess and pulled her to him to make her stop, and then thrust her back.

“Stay up here with him.”

“He’s fine.  No.  No.”

“Stay up here.”

“No.  No, no.  No!” 

Tess wouldn’t let him go.  Every time Joel freed part of himself, Tess grabbed him again, and he eventually had no choice but to take her hand.  They went down together, quieter now.  Their blinds were already closed.  They went to each door and window and checked the locks and then, by silent agreement and pointing, began moving furniture in front of the doors.  There was not much they could do about the windows.

“Are we doin’ this wrong?  Wait, let’s just think.”

Joel came around the couch they had just lugged into place and grasped her elbows. 

“Let’s just think a minute.  Should we be goin’ somewhere?”

“… where?”

“I don’t know.”

“Go where, Joel?”

“I don’t know!”

Tess pressed her hand to her mouth and took a long, steadying breath. 

Think. 

They were scared.  They’d been woken in the middle of the night to … something, and they didn’t know what was going on.  Not really.  They didn’t know anything except that it was apparently everywhere and the authorities were saying they needed to stay inside.  Now that they were still, Tess could hear other sounds outside, too.  Between the screams was the angry hum of traffic, crashes, alarms.  Her head was buzzing with it.  Tess shook it off.

“This will pass,” Tess told him.  “This is crazy.  We just need to lay low a minute, and it’ll – burn itself out.  Whatever this is.”

Joel was nodding, reassured.  “Okay.”

“We wait.  We just wait here and – the phones will clear and that’ll stop,” she pointed vaguely outside, “and if we have to leave, then the army will come and evacuate us.  Right?  That’s what they do.”

“Yeah.  That’s what they do.”

“Okay.  Let’s – we can wait it out, right?”

“Sure.”

“It’s the right thing?”

Joel pulled her in close.  She could feel the tension vibrating in his body.  “You’re right.  We just wait it out.  Let’s – let’s bring up some things, we’ll wait upstairs.  Stay good and quiet.  Upstairs.”

“Okay.  And – and we’ll pack for when the army comes,” Tess added.  She could feel the uncanny hysteria trembling at the edges, but a plan helped put it in its place.  “One bag each.  That’s what they always – that’s right, yeah?  We pack one bag each.”

The activity kept Tess sane.  They swept up everything they thought they needed from the kitchen (panic shopping – they would make two more trips later in the day) and then packed three small bags.  Tess laboured over it for hours.  She couldn’t decide what were the most important things they should take.  She had visions of their luggage being tossed aside and losing important documents.  There was no sentimentality in her packing.  She left out Nico’s favourite toys until Joel reminded her that those might be a good idea, and she almost lost it because she’d just gotten everything organised in a way that made sense to her.  She snatched the toys and pushed Joel away to repack without his meddling. When she was done, she took them downstairs and placed them by the front door in readiness.

He stayed with Nico.  He paced with him or sat up in bed, talking to him like nothing was going on out there.  They divided up the duties of parenting and packing without even talking about it.  Nico’s bond to Joel was stronger, anyway.  Things had been improving for Tess, especially in the last few months as Nico grew older, but in times of distress Nico was better off with Joel.  He could calm him ten times faster than she could.  Tess had no doubt that were she holding him right now, all her fears would transmit directly to him and he’d be wailing and terrified.  His big, brown eyes were uncertain and wet, but he was quiet.  His fists were balled in Joel’s shirt.  He couldn’t have handed him over Tess even if he wanted to. 

She sat with them only when she couldn’t fuss around with the packing any longer.  Tess thumbed Nico’s hot cheeks. “We’ll just wait it out, yeah? Little holiday at home, we’ll just wait it out.”

The night passed.  All the channels had gone off air and the phones still weren’t working.  They kept the blinds down and agreed on silence, regular patrols downstairs to check everything was all right.  They thought they recognised some of their neighbours out there and had a quick conversation about whether they should check it out.  But when they saw one tackle another at high speed they quashed those plans, and never brought them up again.  Sometimes the air was thick with shouts and screams, the squealing of car tyres and crunching metal.  Helicopters pounding overhead, explosions near and far.   And then it would go eerily silent for awhile and that was worse, waiting to hear something.  Then there would be pounding somewhere and breaking glass, more shouts, gunshots.  So many gunshots. 

“We did the right thing?”  Tess asked not long after the power went off.

“Someone will be along,” Joel promised her, but it was hard to believe him.  “Why the fuck are all the lines down?”

He tried Tommy again, tried his father.  He got nowhere both times and lost his temper, tossing the little phone across the room.  It hit the wall and the casing split open. 

“God-fuckin’-damnit.  Oh shit – no, baby – come on.  It’s all right.”

The tantrum had been stewing in Nico for hours, and they had only just managed to keep it under control.  Now it unleashed, and he was arching his back and wailing.  Tess hurriedly passed him over to her husband but Nico was too far gone, and not even he could bring him around.

And then the pounding started at the back door.

“It’s okay!”  Joel held out his hand to Tess.  “They’re locked, we – we barricaded them up.”

The pounding began at the front door.

“If they get in, there’s nowhere to go,” Tess said.

She had been unable to contemplate any alternative other than the turmoil dying down or the army coming to get them.  Going out in the car was unthinkable.  They had no place to go.  And all night they’d heard collisions, honking horns, squealing tyres.  Maybe if it had been the two of them they would’ve tried going somewhere, but not with Nico.

Who was still bawling.

“They’re not gonna go away,”  she added. 

They’d seen that play out in the house across the street. People – these possessed, angry people – mobbing around doors until they got inside.  It had sometimes gone on for hours.

“Quietly,” Joel said, which was stupid given the noise Nico was making, but she understood.

As they went down the stairs the pounding grew worse.  Tess was pacing herself through what was next – the luggage, the garage door, Nico’s seat.  Should they even bother with that?  She could drive, Joel could hold him. But that wasn’t safe.  Was there time, though?

And then windows broke somewhere in the house. One side or another – it was hard to say – but they were shattering inward and Joel was pushing her but Tess could already see it was too late.  As they neared the garage door the first of the figures – bloodied and torn from the windows, presumably – lunged toward them. 

The gunshot was so loud at Tess’s ear that for a moment she didn’t know what it was.  Joel emptied the entire clip into the shapes – there was more than one, how could she not have seen that – and cut them down until they lay strewn on the carpet laid only four months ago.  Tess looked back at him.

He seemed more shocked than she was.  Nico squalling on his hip, the gun still pointing off into the living room.   Tess pushed his arm down and urged him into the kitchen, thinking of the garage and the steps they would need to take to get out. 

Another figure threw itself at them.  It must have come through the other side.  She could see glass in the man’s hair and it tinkled in his wake like fairy dust.  Joel tried to shoot but he was out and then it was on him.  Joel turned Nico away and threw up his arm. 

The kettle was in Tess’s hands before she could think.  It was the first thing within reach. She swung it straight at the head – maybe she shouted, maybe not – and it took three tries to crack the exterior and drop the attacker.  Springs bounced across the kitchen tile.  Tess hit him two, maybe three – maybe ten more times when he was down until she was sure.  She might’ve kept going if Joel didn’t grab her.

“Come on!”

“Are you okay?!”  She clutched at him, at Nico.  He was shocked to silence, gaping at the carnage.  Perhaps he was finally, properly scared.  “Is he okay?”

“We’re okay!  Tess, come on!”

With her free hand, Tess snagged the entire knife block – all seven that had been a wedding gift from Julian – and tucked it under her arm. Joel pushed her into the garage and she had time to grasp just Nico’s bag.   They threw it in the back.

“What’s that?!”

“The knives!”

“What?!”

“You’re out of ammo!”

“I got more!”

“I didn’t know!  Get the door!”

“His seat – ”

“There’s not time!  You’ll have to hold him!”

Sounds inside the house again, a thump against the closed door.

Tess pointed.  “Get the door!”

They pulled out of the driveway moments before the kitchen door crashed inward.  Tess pulled out and stopped with a jerk when she hit something –

“Letterbox!”

“It’s on the other side!”  She cried.

“Just fuckin’ go!”

Tess turned the wheel hard and they sped into madness.

[hannahssimblr]

“Ticks?” My mother shrieks, “Ticks? Are you joking me? And what are you doing sitting on the sofa? Get up. Up!”

I spring up with my hands out in surrender as she pushes past me to swipe at the seat cushions with frantic hands, then she shouts at me again; “Go stand over there, away from the furniture.”

“What’s going on now?” Dad comes out of the bathroom after his morning shower and adopts a disapproving stance despite not actually knowing what is going on yet. 

“Jude found a tick on his arm.”

“Are you kidding me? Jude, you have ticks now?”

“I don’t ‘have ticks now’, dad, I have a tick, one tick. What, do you think this is a new personality trait of mine or something? Do you think I want to have a fucking ticks on me?”

“Watch your mouth!” Mom snaps. 

Dad spears his fingers into his hair in a display of utter despair, “How did you get ticks?”

“One tick,” I reiterate, “and I assume it was from the woods, I don’t know.”

“See this is why I didn’t want you to go camping. This is the kind of thing that happens, and now with a busy morning we have to try and work through this as a family.”

I groan, “Can you stop that please? Why is your language so overdramatic, huh? It’s a bug. I’ll just pick it out.”

Mom stabs a finger in my direction, “Not in here you won’t! Go outside to get that thing off you.”

“Obviously.”

“And you’ll have to go to the doctor too, just in case you have Lyme disease or God knows what.”

Ivy’s bedroom door opens and she emerges rubbing her eyes, “Is Jude sick?”

“No, Ivy, I’m fine.”

“But… Didn’t mom say that you have a disease?”

“No, I just have to go to the doctor for something. Something small. Don’t worry about it.”

“Oh,” Her hair is sticking up all over the place, and her pyjama leg has migrated up to her knee, “Shall I come?”

Mom physically restrains her from coming any closer. “Jude will go on his own, we need to get you ready for the kids club.” 

Her eyes are big blue pools of concern, “Are you sure? I think I should come.” Ivy hates the doctor, she finds it terrifying and seems to assume that I do too, and it’s sweet that she’s offered but I really don’t think that I need the accompaniment of a seven year old child to the local GP. 

“No, it’s okay, you’ll have more fun at the kids club.”

“What is it that’s wrong?” She wonders, and as we try to explain to her about the bug, and how the bug might be diseased, and if so that means I’ll need to get special medicine for it, Jen slips out of her bedroom like a shadow, sprints upstairs and out the front door. 

“Excuse me,” I say to my family. I follow her. 

I hurry out the door and to the deck, then up the wooden steps to the road where I find her lighting a cigarette on the wall. “Oi,” I say, “What you running away from?”

She smirks, “You know, you and your family fight almost as much as Michelle and her mother. Another reason I think you two would get along.”

“Ah, so you’re a coward, hiding from conflict.”

“Have you followed me out here to bring more to me, hm? Not done being mad at me over abandoning you at the campsite?”

“I can't stay mad at you, Jenny, it’s inconvenient.”

She snickers and shoves me, but then quickly recoils and stares at her hand, “I shouldn’t have done that, should I? I might have ticks now.”

“Ah, so you heard that bit.”

“Colette was literally screaming ‘TICKS!’. It’s what woke me up actually.” She looks me up and down and gives me a tiny shrug, “Congratulations.” 

“You sure you don’t have them too, hm?”

“Oh, how would I have ticks? That’s just not in my personality. That’s not the kind of thing I’d get involved with.”

“Is that so? Well, have you checked?”

“Don’t need to.”

“We were in the same woods…”

“Yeah but you were the one rolling around on the ground with Clóda, I think your chances are a pinch higher.”

The memory of the grains of sand floats to the surface of my mind and a horrified shudder rips through me, “Well if you don’t check then you’ll be sorry… like, if my mom finds out there’s a tick infestation in the guest room then she’s not gonna be pleased…”

“Oh, Christ sake. Look,” She holds out her arms, then her legs to me. She searches between her fingers, behind her knees, and even pokes around in her armpits. “See? Nothing. Where else could they be hiding?”

“Apparently they love to get cosy behind your ears. Did you know that?”

She scoffs and runs a finger behind her ear, and I watch as her face falls and horror takes over . We stare at each other for a long moment. 

“What?” I say, “Did you find one?” And then I burst out laughing, “No way, no fucking way!”

“Shut up!” She says with rising panic and throws her cigarette into a drain, “Just shut up! Take me to the doctor with you.”

Beginning // Prev // Next

[vigilskeep]

HARKER!!! How do you create and develop your OCs!!!! Your brain is so big!!!!

Whenever I make characters, I have a hard time getting past the surface level and really understanding what makes them tick. WHATS YOUR THOUGHT PROCESS? I am full of admiration.

honoured u think so!!! um Advices

when it comes to viddy game characters. make ur oc a product of the world and centred on the game’s main themes/conflicts. for example, dao has main themes like duty, vengeance, and sacrifice, so those are all good choices for what your character is About. bg3 so far seems to be about agency, bodily autonomy, power, and what it costs to achieve those things, so you want your character to be in dialogue with that. get that done, and congrats: everything in the game is now about your character and their journey personally! all quests & side quests will echo you and your character will have unique perspective on them

don’t be afraid to make the ‘wrong’ choices, or, more specifically, don’t rush into choosing the ‘right’ one. instead of thinking about the objectively best way to resolve a situation from your uninvolved position as the player, let your reactions be personal. your character isn’t always going to say and do the unbiased neutral best thing and that’s good!!

first of all try to think about your character’s frame of reference for it. everyone has a sort of reference library of experiences which they can use to interpret new circumstances. games are your friend and will usually try to help you with this; for example da2, a game in which your characters always has siblings, has a lot of sibling-focused quests that your character will have a unique take on. but it can be much simpler; what does your player character notice about an npc? do they have something in common? is your character physically stronger and bigger or smaller and weaker? what does your character assume about people who talk a certain way? how does any of that make them react to them? etc. etc. keep track in your head of how the location and enemy types make them feel too. my poor hawke had an ongoing anxiety meter to represent his dislike of real danger to his allies especially from darkspawn, and the more overloaded that was, the more rash and aggressively i would let him react. that was a fun way combat could affect other gameplay; for instance i fully killed some npcs that i could’ve let go, specifically because they’d knocked out one of my people in a fight

when getting into backstory try to sort of reverse engineer why they act the way they act? people tend to behave in certain ways because those are the methods that have gotten them through their life. what are the strategies that have helped them survive? being aggressive? being charming? following orders? staying on the sidelines? lying? and then you can sort of create the environment that encouraged them to be that way. (this doesn’t always mean complying with what the environment valued/expected/wanted of them; often defiance is what people needed to do to get through it with their soul intact.) that’s good for getting a little under their skin to see what makes them tick as u say

uhhh what else. try to be aware of their physicality and the way they look and move and how that affects others’ perception of them. how tactile are they and how much do they gesture? basically think about what comes across when you look at a companion talking and figure out what they get when they look at you. for example, i have a very tactile hawke and i typically imagine a lot more of that casual physical contact when i’m doing companion conversations, and a lot more imposing physical aggression when he’s talking to people he doesn’t like. obviously this requires you doing a bit of imaginative work on top of the game visuals but i believe in you. it just makes them come alive a bit

that’s my kind of... standardised method... more generic advice: people don’t have good or bad traits they have traits which are good or bad in extremes and sticking to a trait whether the consequences are good or bad is often fun; don’t be afraid to be bitchy or aggressive when the occasion calls for it, you often get a lot more life out of this and if you can love a companion for it they can still love you; try maintaining “in character” priorities during combat or when just walking around and figuring out what they’re noticing; sometimes making a big decision that seems “out of character” is actually character-defining because you discover what makes them break from their usual nature

i hope that helps?? that’s how i do things anyway :)

[n7punk]

"freak occurrence: confluence" Fic Notes

“freak occurrence: confluence” is definitely the most meta (and the most ridiculous) fic I’ve ever done, so I’ve compiled some references, notes, and explanations to act as fic notes. If you’re opening before reading the fic, I recommend reading each scene before checking the references for it and absolutely don’t read anything after this first section before you’ve finished the fic.

Catradoras in order of introduction:

Scene 1: This is actually MToHL!Adora immediately post-canon but they haven’t figured that out because they’re similar enough that nothing has thrown them off.

Scene 2: Teenage Catradora from a canon-divergent reality where they run away from the Horde as teenagers and horses aren’t real.

Scene 3: toht!Adora.

Scene 4: slas!Catradora.

Scene 5: BFM!Adora, looking at slas!Catradora obviously, but the other Catra trying not to laugh is toht!Catra.

Scene 6 has no Catradoras, but the tattoo is from my OotW fic 'her heart on her sleeve.'

Scene 7: of course this has the Lone-Adora that isn’t from any other fic, but it also has another reference to slas and a reference to ISoHM.

Scene 8: strange disease!Catradora with mentions of my very first AUs (and one of my first fics period) ‘in thundering realizations’!Catradora.

Scene 9: DITM!Catradora POV and Reflection!Catradora across from them, named for Adora turning into a magicat when she's She-ra (side note: shortly after arriving, Reflection!Catra asked if She-ra was a magicat in this universe specifically because she has always held that was because Adora was gay and when she was told ‘no’ that gave her all the ammo she needed for the next three years).

Scene 10: strange love!Catradora.

Scenes 11 and 12 are the Lone-Catra that isn’t from any fic. Well, I would say this is her origin fic, same for Lone-Adora.

Scene 13: Lone-Catra and LotD!Catradora.

Scene 14: WDtFD!Catradora POV and mentions of Knifepoint!Catradora. It’s very easy to think the couple where Catra’s hand was messed up was from AMLAIT, but I also kind of wanted to include allusions to some Catradoras from other fics, so you could read it as R&B!Catradora if you want. I thought about including an explicit mention of Catra’s boots to make that more clear, but when that ended up being the only pair not from one of my own fics, it felt kind of weird. I wanted to pay homage to some of my favorite AUs others have written in the fandom by including references to other Catradoras that were there, but it’s really hard when most of those fics are just modern AUs without much easily visible about their Catradoras to identify them, and I definitely didn’t want to write any scenes from the perspective of someone else’s version of the character without permission, so I just kind of left it at this ambiguous reference to a friend's fic that I asked them permission for first.

Scene 15: Mentions of catcher!Catradora, Superzero!Catradora, and IHtWCYN!Catradora.

Scene 16: Mentions of TFHFY!Catradora, strange disease!Catradora again, and the Greys!Catradora.

Scene 17: CotC!Catradora (for people following my Tumblr this was the entire scene that was just. missing after all my planning somehow).

Scenes 18 and 19 have nothing new.

Scene 20: SaD!Catradora.

Scene 21: This one is a tease for a future fic :) Edit: Now it has come out, this is Lightbeam!Catradora.

And from here on it’s no one new.

Epilogue Life:

Okay I had to cut the fic off there because this could honestly go on forever BUT here’s some stuff about the fallout of this whole event:

This event is, as you would assume, completely non-canon to the rest of my fics. If you want to imagine each couple went back to right around the time they got taken and quickly their memories of the other reality melted away once in their own timeline again, sure, whatever. There are two dimensions permanently affected by all this however, and that’s Lonely-Adora’s and Lonely-Catra’s.

Adora’s universe splits off from canon at the Portal, whereas Catra’s splits off at Princess Prom. I think both universes could survive on their own without Catra or Adora, but there is a reason the couple needs to be in Adora’s universe, and it’s Prime.

Yes, I might be permanently locking one universe in Despondos either way. Oops. Listen, you win some you lose some. This is supposed to be a crack fic at the end of the day (remember that?) and I wasn’t too focused on implications like that. However, Adora’s universe has already signaled Prime thanks to the portal, so without her and Catra they would be locked in a pocket dimension with an apocalypse on its way, no leader in the Rebellion, and Entrapta on Beast Island.

In Catra’s universe, Entrapta never got left behind because the rescue mission went very differently, so Hordak’s portal project is basically doomed, and the Princess Alliance is intact, united, and extremely motivated to crush the Horde after what they did to Adora. They’re in a good position to fight them thanks the Best Friend Squad uniting the Princess Alliance again and the Horde (more specifically, Shadow Weaver) reeling from the loss of Adora and Catra. They’ll take them down in the end and they’ll do it Adora’s name, just like they would have if Catra stayed in their dimension. After having seen the brainwashing the Horde is willing to do, Scorpia eventually defects to join them when Entrapta manages to — completely accidentally — extend a hand to her just by being herself.

Adora’s universe needs Adora’s inside knowledge to save Angella and Entrapta quickly and face down the Heart and Horde Prime. They’ll find their feet, get Entrapta back, start working on their portal technology, and then get the Failsafe before they even get Scorpia and face the Heart. They’ll move Etheria out of Despondos, taunt Horde Prime to the surface as best they can, question their decisions, but ultimately lure him in and set off the Heart faster and with less loss along the way. No one on the Princess Alliance ever gets chipped in this universe and they rescue Angella not long after and reunite Glimmer’s family.

It takes a bit until after the war for Adora and Catra’s relationship to start shifting, but they do eventually get together, there’s just a lot to process first and fighting evil is a good thing to focus on instead while they do that. They need to become each other’s friends before they can become anything else.

Notes:

⦁ I mentioned a disclaimer in the fic end note. To elaborate on that: I first had this idea around August of 2020 (give or take a month) when my friend asked me which of my AU Catras/Adoras would fuck their alternate universe wife. IDK man, her mind is beautiful. Anyway, it gave me this idea, which was a fun crack scenario that I would turn over in my mind occasionally when I came up with a new AU that I thought would have an interesting pair to add to it. I had no intention of writing it, especially back then when I didn’t have enough AUs to fill out the roster. Since then I’ve thought about making a post explaining the idea just to get it off my mind so many times. In that time, a Spiderverse AU for Catradora was written (oh: I also didn’t watch the Spiderverse until 2023, to the point that the outline for this fic was titled “This Fic Is Older Than The Spiderverse” until I looked it up and realized that’s wrong and I’m just late to the party lmao, but I had no idea what the Spiderverse was about other than multiple Spidermans until I watched it so the death plot point really was just me being fucked up) that dealt with some similarities with the deaths between realities. The fic is good, it made me cry, and I actually read that before I watched the Spiderverse because I missed that tag and thought it was some kind of canon AU. I recommend the fic and wanted to acknowledge it since it shares a plot point. Honestly, when I read that fic I was like oh thank god someone did it, now I’ll seem like I’m copying if I do it too and the idea can leave me along, but the idea Did Not Leave Me Alone and I need to end this 🔫

⦁ Because I know someone will ask: This is absolutely crack and not canon to my OotW series at all. I still have no idea where I should really put it. Being in the AU collection makes sense because it’s relevant to a lot of them, being inside the OotW series but non-canon like ‘take care of each other’ and ‘You and I (and Me)’ makes sense, and it not being in any of those things because it kind of isn’t an AU and definitely isn’t canon to OotW makes sense. I still haven’t decided and I’ll probably move it around multiple times lol.

⦁ Ethereal!Catradora are from my upcoming fic "Lightbeam" and are just a fun little teaser because no one was better suited to sussing magic out. It was either her or Glimmer, who was busy laying magic alarm systems all over the castle for the new alternate universe couples to trip into when they arrived so they could be collected. This is how Catra knew to come running when the SLAS couple appeared.

⦁ “The universe is as dumb as it is passionate, apparently.” C’mon Catra you can’t ask finesse from a celestial body that is no thoughts all vibes

⦁ The whole conversation around the cot/bed is just to show that yeah, they’re different Catras and Adoras, but they’re still Catra and Adora in every reality and this will work out eventually.

⦁ I mostly picked Catradoras based off when would be easy to reference or who I thought would be interesting in the scenario and basically nothing else. Making them distinct was the biggest challenge lmao.

⦁ Oh I know SaD!Catradora teleporting back near their original disappearance might make it seem otherwise, but Adora was missing from her reality for as long as she was in the Prime universe for (and yes, I did internally refer to it as the Prime universe, so I had to make jokes about it. And then I made the omegaverse canon - AS FICTION - to a few of the modern universes for a laugh). I think the people from other highly-similar Etheria's were gone for a 1:1 time or close to the same amount of time they were in the other dimension, but the further a dimension was from canon the less time passing in the Prime universe applied to their own. Or something. Again, none of this is canon.

⦁ They go to Lone-Adora's universe because Catra reaches out for Adora, opening herself up to her. They would have gone to Catra's if it happened the other way around.

⦁ Adora's room was a mess because the Princess Alliance kind of tore it up looking for a sign of her but of course found nothing.

⦁ "So even here I'm..." is "So even here I'm a killer."

⦁ I don't think I ever say specifically what Catra's cause of death was in this universe (because I wasn't sure myself for a while) but when the Fright Zone was kind of shaking apart post-Portal Catra fell and Adora wasn't able to stop it.

⦁ Glimmer is emerging from Bow's room because they actually made some progress on Glimmer healing and reaching out for her friends for support when Adora disappeared. Glimmer was afraid it was because of her and it caused her to do a little - a little - self-examining.

⦁ I've mentioned this a couple times but I spent most if not all of last year secretly hoping to get to 1% of the tag. It's a super pointless goal, but it is cool to have done it. This work is also the 50th in my AU collection (at least, as of now since I'm putting it in there for now) so that feels like a fitting number for a special as well.

⦁ This was supposed to be like 7k.

Upcoming:

I might do another OotW fic or two, but right now my plan for the next AU is “the Reverse AU.” Have fun figuring out what I mean by that, you probably won’t :)