#The original might be a weird bastard man but

[dumb-butt-with-a-sword]

"There's just one rule. No adopting the trash child."

C A S S I D Y. My rotten soldier, my sweet cheese, my good time boy (gender neutral.)

Marion and Cassidy can never catch a break. Someone help them.

Willbot: Why....does it hurt?

Willbot: I just want to cry.

(Willbot has so much angst potential.)

Characters and Willbot au belong to @nachosforfree

[kingsmoot]

hi! im not sure if you’ve spoken about this before but would be so interested to hear your thoughts on the dynamic between ramsay and the original reek? like the combined matters of reek already being a serial rapist and murderer before he even meets ramsay, the abject weirdness of an adult man being best friends with a child/preteen, and the fact that ramsay names his torture victim after reek despite no indication that he ever tortured the original reek? i always felt george was hinting at some kind of cycle of abuse thing with the whole “who corrupted who” line. anyway sorry this ask is so long but i love your analysis and would really like to hear what you think!

hello 🩷❤️🖤 firstly thank you for your kind words!! i have spoken about this before, but i'm happy to speak about it again, ty for your interest! i'm honestly a little surprised this is such an underdiscussed topic in general!! but not too surprised.

in short: yes. i completely agree with you. from my reading of the text it is obvious that reek was sexually abusing ramsay. i've made a few posts about it:

1. most plainly here

2. and i also touched on it here where i talked about ramsay's mama willingly and purposefully putting him in danger

I went through asearchoficeandfire and pulled every mention of reek i, the manservant that roose gifted to ramsay, so let's go through them all together

the rest is under the cut for discussion of child abuse, endangerment, neglect, and csa, as well as rape and necrophilia

there are three "reeks" in the text. reek, the manservant that roose bolton gave to ramsay and his mother. reek, who is ramsay in disguise in winterfell. and reek, who is the tortured remains of theon greyjoy. to keep things simpler and easier to follow i am only going to call these three people reek, ramsay, and theon, ignoring who might have been called "reek" at what time.

"Lord Bolton has never acknowledged the boy, so far as I know," Ser Rodrik said. "I confess, I do not know him." "Few do," [Lady Hornwood] replied. "He lived with his mother until two years past, when young Domeric died and left Bolton without an heir. That was when he brought his bastard to the Dreadfort. The boy is a sly creature by all accounts, and he has a servant who is almost as cruel as he is. Reek, they call the man. It's said he never bathes. They hunt together, the Bastard and this Reek, and not for deer. I've heard tales, things I can scarce believe, even of a Bolton. And now that my lord husband and my sweet son have gone to the gods, the Bastard looks at my lands hungrily." Bran wanted to give the lady a hundred men to defend her rights, but Ser Rodrik only said, "He may look, but should he do more I promise you there will be dire retribution. You will be safe enough, my lady . . . though perhaps in time, when your grief is passed, you may find it prudent to wed again."

acok, bran ii

this is the first we hear of reek and ramsay, and it's notable that they've only been over at the dreadfort + its surrounding lands for two years now. we learn later in adwd that reek and ramsay have been together since ramsay was a child, but they were living in weeping water with ramsay's mother

It was a few days after Alebelly's bath that Ser Rodrik returned to Winterfell with his prisoner, a fleshy young man with fat moist lips and long hair who smelled like a privy, even worse than Alebelly had. "Reek, he's called," Hayhead said when Bran asked who it was. "I never heard his true name. He served the Bastard of Bolton and helped him murder Lady Hornwood, they say." The Bastard himself was dead, Bran learned that evening over supper. Ser Rodrik's men had caught him on Hornwood land doing something horrible (Bran wasn't quite sure what, but it seemed to be something you did without your clothes) and shot him down with arrows as he tried to ride away. They came too late for poor Lady Hornwood, though. After their wedding, the Bastard had locked her in a tower and neglected to feed her. Bran had heard men saying that when Ser Rodrik had smashed down the door he found her with her mouth all bloody and her fingers chewed off.

acok, bran v

the above is referencing ramsay, of course, disguised as reek. here we have the account of how ramsay and reek were caught on lady hornwood's lands after they had kidnapped and raped her from the stark perspective (and filtered through bran's 7-year-old perspective as well) but a little later on we hear it straight from the bastard's mouth:

"Aye, but [Ser Rodrick] thought us friends. A common mistake. When the old fool gave me his hand, I took half his arm instead. Then I let him see my face." The man put both hands to his helm and lifted it off his head, holding it in the crook of his arm. "Reek," Theon said, disquieted. How did a serving man get such fine armor? The man laughed. "The wretch is dead." He stepped closer. "The girl's fault. If she had not run so far, his horse would not have lamed, and we might have been able to flee. I gave him mine when I saw the riders from the ridge. I was done with her by then, and he liked to take his turn while they were still warm. I had to pull him off her and shove my clothes into his hands—calfskin boots and velvet doublet, silver-chased swordbelt, even my sable cloak. Ride for the Dreadfort, I told him, bring all the help you can. Take my horse, he's swifter, and here, wear the ring my father gave me, so they'll know you came from me. He'd learned better than to question me. By the time they put that arrow through his back, I'd smeared myself with the girl's filth and dressed in his rags. They might have hanged me anyway, but it was the only chance I saw." He rubbed the back of his hand across his mouth. "And now, my sweet prince, there was a woman promised me, if I brought two hundred men. Well, I brought three times as many, and no green boys nor fieldhands neither, but my father's own garrison."

acok, theon vi

ok just a quick pause i LOVE ramsay's little monologue here it's SO CRAZY GOOD it's so good it's so

like telling theon to his face "aye, but he thought us friends. a common mistake." is CRAZY. it's so good!!!! after so many chapters of build up too the whole thing feels like being nailed down to a chair and put in thumb screw and every time there's a new bran or theon chapter they're tightened just a half-turn before this reveal where your thumbs are sliced clean off by a scimitar IT'S SO GOOD RRAUUUGHHH

sorry i got distracted. this li'l bit is interesting because it sets ramsay up as In Charge. he calls the shots. "[Reek]'d learned better than to question me," he says, and he sacrifices reek to the stark riders to save his own skin. the way ramsay tells this story sets reek up as disposable and submissive. a servant who is below ramsay's station, defers to him, gives obeisance, and gives his life for his master. (notable as well that this is not Lady Hornwood who they are raping the corpse of, but an anonymous northern girl, likely one of the smallfolk who live by and/or in the Hornwood keep)

ramsay's language here also makes it clear that this is habitual for him and reek. he likes to hunt girls, rape them, and kill them, and reek likes to fuck their corpses before they've cooled. romance. this was established somewhat back in bran ii when lady hornwood first introduced the pair, but we now have it straight from ramsay's mouth that this is their habitual game.

"I knew the first Reek. He stank, though not for want of washing. I have never known a cleaner creature, truth be told. He bathed thrice a day and wore flowers in his hair as if he were a maiden. Once, when my second wife was still alive, he was caught stealing scent from her bedchamber. I had him whipped for that, a dozen lashes. Even his blood smelled wrong. The next year he tried it again. This time he drank the perfume and almost died of it. It made no matter. The smell was something he was born with. A curse, the smallfolk said. The gods had made him stink so that men would know his soul was rotting. My old maester insisted it was a sign of sickness, yet the boy was otherwise as strong as a young bull. No one could stand to be near him, so he slept with the pigs … until the day that Ramsay's mother appeared at my gates to demand that I provide a servant for my bastard, who was growing up wild and unruly. I gave her Reek. It was meant to be amusing, but he and Ramsay became inseparable. I do wonder, though … was it Ramsay who corrupted Reek, or Reek Ramsay?" His lordship glanced at the new Reek with eyes as pale and strange as two white moons. "What was he whispering whilst he unchained you?"

adwd, reek iii

the above comes two books later, and now that we've gotten lady hornwood's perspective (and this is a perspective that comes from the general northern grapevine of people who live between winterfell and the dreadfort) and ramsay's perspective (which we will soon learn to doubt) we get roose's.

it's interesting too, i had always pictured reek as a grown adult man, but my friend @wormlips pointed out to me recently that roose does call him a "boy" in the above passage. i think i always pictured him as an older man partially since theon is transformed through his year of torture in an abandoned shipping container into an old man. i had just always made the logical leap that in addition to making theon smell terrible so that he is more similar to reek, purposefully torturing and starving him and turning him into a bent old man was also to emulate reek. to recreate him in a way. so i have always pictured him as being WAY older than ramsay, like rams is between seven and ten and reek is like... forty five. but wormie also pointed out that drinking perfume seems like a childish thing to do. i can see the sense in their reading of it! i have personally never pictured the two of them as being close in age, but rather ramsay as a child and reek as an old(er) man. i think the two incidents of reek stealing perfume might have happened when he was young but that he was an adult by the time ramsay's mother came to the dreadfort to ask for a serving man.

it's interesting also that roose implies with his question of who corrupted who that reek was not a serial rapist + murderer before he was given to ramsay. but idfk about that. the thing is that all of these people are unreliable narrators, so it's kind of a murky picture of a purposefully obscured past.

it doesn't make sense to me that the smallfolk would claim the gods cursed reek to "stink so that men would know his soul was rotting" if he wasn't already murdering and/or raping girls or defiling corpses. why would that be how they explained his smell if he was just a normal guy with a medical condition?

it's possible that roose only gave reek to ramsay and his mother because of his smell. because ramsay's mother wanted him to give them a servant to help her raise the boy so roose gave her one who smelled like an open grave being used as a latrine. but that doesn't seem like the kind of joke roose bolton would play. not to me! roose giving the troublesome mother of his rapebaby a man with a proven history of horrible violence? that seems like the kind of joke roose bolton would play. to me.

also reek and ramsay becoming "inseparable" reads as far less sinister if you picture them being the same age. i do not.

another point to reek being significantly older is that it wouldn't make sense for roose to send a child over to a woman who was asking for childcare support. even if he did, she'd send him back. he couldn't do any more work around the mill than ramsay could if they were both children, he would just be an extra mouth to feed. so even if he isn't quadrouple ramsay's age like i'm picturing him, he would definitely be older. like 16-7 at minimum i think.

to your point about cycles of violence, i would say that ramsay's entire existence as a character is about cycles of violence. the cycles are certainly cycling!!! but that's not exactly what i get from this particular snippet. i take roose's question about whether reek corrupted ramsay or ramsay reek in the same way i take his telling ramsay that his way has always been in favor of "a peaceful rule and a quiet people". he's full of shit!!!

my reading of it is that rams was obviously already a violent child. maybe he was killing animals, hurting his mother, hurting his fellow children. but he was a child. and reek was an adult man with a history of violence towards others. that violence isn't explicitly stated in the text but i think if the smallfolk were saying that his soul was rotting then it had to be pretty bad. i interpret this as reek already being a rapist and serial killer before he ever met ramsay (which is your reading too!).

"Has my bastard ever told you how I got him?" That [Theon] did know, to his relief. "Yes, my … m'lord. You met his mother whilst out riding and were smitten by her beauty." "Smitten?" Bolton laughed. "Did he use that word? Why, the boy has a singer's soul … though if you believe that song, you may well be dimmer than the first Reek. Even the riding part is wrong. I was hunting a fox along the Weeping Water when I chanced upon a mill and saw a young woman washing clothes in the stream. The old miller had gotten himself a new young wife, a girl not half his age. She was a tall, willowy creature, very healthy-looking. Long legs and small firm breasts, like two ripe plums. Pretty, in a common sort of way. The moment that I set eyes on her I wanted her. Such was my due. The maesters will tell you that King Jaehaerys abolished the lord's right to the first night to appease his shrewish queen, but where the old gods rule, old customs linger. The Umbers keep the first night too, deny it as they may. Certain of the mountain clans as well, and on Skagos … well, only heart trees ever see half of what they do on Skagos. "This miller's marriage had been performed without my leave or knowledge. The man had cheated me. So I had him hanged, and claimed my rights beneath the tree where he was swaying. If truth be told, the wench was hardly worth the rope. The fox escaped as well, and on our way back to the Dreadfort my favorite courser came up lame, so all in all it was a dismal day.

adwd, reek iii

the above always sends a chill down my spine... "a peaceful rule. a quiet people. that has always been my way. make it yours." you delusional lying bastard 🩷🩷🩷

this passage is notable as well because it shows us that rams is an unreliable narrator. it's not the first time either!!

Ramsay was clad in black and pink—black boots, black belt and scabbard, black leather jerkin over a pink velvet doublet slashed with dark red satin. In his right ear gleamed a garnet cut in the shape of a drop of blood. Yet for all the splendor of his garb, he remained an ugly man, big-boned and slope-shouldered, with a fleshiness to him that suggested that in later life he would run to fat. His skin was pink and blotchy, his nose broad, his mouth small, his hair long and dark and dry. His lips were wide and meaty, but the thing men noticed first about him were his eyes. He had his lord father's eyes—small, close-set, queerly pale. Ghost grey, some men called the shade, but in truth his eyes were all but colorless, like two chips of dirty ice. At the sight of Reek, he smiled a wet-lipped smile. "There he is. My sour old friend." To the men beside him he said, "Reek has been with me since I was a boy. My lord father gave him to me as a token of his love."

adwd, reek i

ah, but that's not true, is it, rams? your father gave him to you as a jest, to spite you and your mother. he was given to you both to harm you and it is a quirky little miracle that he ended up harming others with you instead.

rams tells himself and other stories about how he was welcomed into his father's house and beloved by him. how his mother was a great beauty who his father was in love with. and it's all lies. all dust upon the air.

i'll also note that roose describes reek as being "dim". i don't think there's much truth to that tbh. i think roose is proven time and again to view all the smallfolks as dumber than him. beneath him and mostly inhuman. this is really well defined in arya's acok chapters when she serves as his cup bearer and she is totally invisible to him.

"A fine rule, m'lord." "The woman disobeyed me, though. You see what Ramsay is. She made him, her and Reek, always whispering in his ear about his rights. He should have been content to grind corn. Does he truly think that he can ever rule the north?"

adwd, reek iii

[ALICENT HIGHTOWER VOICE] AND AEMOND... YOU KNOW WHAT AEMOND IS.

this btw is where my characterization of ramsay's mama really takes root. i think it's obvious enough what she was doing without this explicit confirmation from roose, especially with how ramsay acts and how he speaks about himself. but this is the crux of it. she had everything taken from her. her husband murdered and her raped under his still-warm corpse. and then she carried her pregnancy to term in the hopes that the gods would grant her a boy who could be given a place in the world that she never could be.

to me this is where the cycles start cycling. not with reek and ramsay, but with a desperate, violated, brutalized woman giving her son back to her rapist and insisting that he claim him. like, if she were... i'm not certain that i would call her a "Good Victim" for doing this but she could have aborted her pregnancy. tried to rebuild her life now that her husband was dead and she was physically brutalized. aboritcides are plentiful in westeros. or if she wanted to keep her pregnancy to term she could have lived the rest of her quiet life with her child in weeping waters in the shadow of the dreadfort. and she could have kept her son far from the leech lord who brutalized her.

but she didn't!!!!!!!! she shoved that baby right into the wide open razor toothed mouth of the monster who brutalized her!!! she knew exactly what kind of man lord roose bolton was and she was determined to get her child recognized by him and taken into his fold.

i love that rams is like... a personification of her all consuming rage as well as a personification of his father's brutality. it's great.

"He fights for you," Reek blurted out. "He's strong." "Bulls are strong. Bears. I have seen my bastard fight. He is not entirely to blame. Reek was his tutor, the first Reek, and Reek was never trained at arms. Ramsay is ferocious, I will grant you, but he swings that sword like a butcher hacking meat."

adwd, reek iii

further evidence of reek being significantly older than ramsay! a child would not tutor another child. further evidence also that reek was already a brutally violent man before he and rams started playing the most dangerous game in the woods. he taught ramsay how to hack people apart with a broadsword.

also calling reek ramsay's "tutor" here reinforces to me that their relationship was inappropriate. odd for a young child and his teacher to be "inseparable".

"He's not afraid of anyone, m'lord." "He should be. Fear is what keeps a man alive in this world of treachery and deceit. Even here in Barrowton the crows are circling, waiting to feast upon our flesh. The Cerwyns and the Tallharts are not to be relied on, my fat friend Lord Wyman plots betrayal, and Whoresbane … the Umbers may seem simple, but they are not without a certain low cunning. Ramsay should fear them all, as I do. The next time you see him, tell him that." "Tell him … tell him to be afraid?" Reek felt ill at the very thought of it. "M'lord, I … if I did that, he'd …" "I know." Lord Bolton sighed. "His blood is bad. He needs to be leeched. The leeches suck away the bad blood, all the rage and pain. No man can think so full of anger. Ramsay, though … his tainted blood would poison even leeches, I fear."

adwd reek iii

aaaaaaaaand back to ramsay's bad blood. "I had him whipped for that, a dozen lashes. Even his blood smelled wrong." :> where did all the bad blood come from, i wonder? his sire perhaps?

i love roose describing rams as full of anger. that's his mama's anger 🩷 calcified by roose's rejection of him and his refusal to accept this. spurred on by reek's proclivities and by reek's own rejection by his liege lord. just a horrible layer cake of brutality and violence and abuse.

that's all the quotes i have for you!!!

to me it is obvious from the above text that reek sexually abused ramsay as a child. possibly when he got older and bigger and stronger and reek was a much much older man, smaller and frailer, he really was meek and obedient to ramsay. but it didn't start out that way. his tutor would not behave with deference towards him. the man who taught him how to hack meat apart with a broadsword and how to hunt women through the woods before skinning them was not... subservient to him.

the closeness between them is suspect just because of their age difference and further suspect because of who reek is and what he does.

i also think that ramsay would never see this as sexual abuse. i think ramsay and theon have exactly the same frame of mind here where it isn't possible for them to be sexually abused or taken advantage of because they're men and that doesn't happen to men.

it's obvious that ramsay thinks of his relationship with reek fondly. fondly enough that he tells people reek was a token of his father's love. fondly enough that he creates a new reek for himself after the first one dies.

to your point about ramsay torturing theon into his reek when he never tortured reek, i do read part of that as revenge. like a sort of inversion of what was done unto him. i don't think that reek tortured ramsay the way ramsay tortures theon! but i do think he assaulted him. a major theme with ramsay is the playing of parts (a theme intensified and continued when jeyne is brought to winterfell as arya) so i see his sexual abuse and torture of theon as an inversion of what reek did to him.

i mean, i think ramsay tortures theon for other personal reasons. like resenting his beauty, his status as a lord's legitimate son, and the way he treated him in winterfell when he took it over. and just because he's a sadist who likes torturing people to get off. but also i like to think that it was an inversion of what reek did to him.

i'm unsurprised also that this isn't really talked about because the asoiaf fandom in general loves to say that the cycles are cycling but hates to admit that the evil monstrous characters who hurt people were also hurt themselves. so it's like bad fandom politics to say that ramsay bolton, who is a serial killing serial rapist, was also raped as a child. and put into situations with people he never should have been in because he was a child.

this is way too long it's way too many words it took me like the whole day to write it!!! i hope you read it to the end and don't get bored!!! thank you for your question mwah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jade-eclipse-lithium]

You’re Next spoilers!!

The sentence itself already broke me, cuz it’s the exact sentence Nana gave to All Might, then All Might gave it to Midoriya

My man was having tea time in the middle of the war field, talk about being classy

Then this asshole had to take it personally and proceeded to gaslight the entire Japan

Bastard isn’t even Japanese, like, go back to Europe and be your mafia boss, jfc

Then his light show??? Ate the entire city and where their floating boat goes

The floating boat was kinda good ngl but the amount of All Might statues unnerves me

Then the confrontation between Fake and real All Might!! All Might go!!!

Bro took it personally again and changed his name to Dark Might, so original

Then Midoriya being a cute idiot, but still an idiot, he just slides down the entire thing

The mind washing part was suppose to be scary cuz most of Class 1A are left completely defenceless but MY HEART

TENYA AND HIS BROTHER TGH AT WORK, RUNNING

SHOTO AND HIS FAMILY, TOUYA AND HIS PARENTS, HE DIDN’T EVEN HAVE A SCAR

Honestly the tape as a rope was pretty smart points to Sero

Ojiro SWINGS

PROMINENCE BURN

Bakugo taking charge, so proud

How would you see me smile if you’re not around? Not exactly words but still my heart

MY BOY MIRIO

Let’s be honest the part where Hawks and Mirio were playinh charades is gold

Mirio: *doing weird hand signs*

Hawks: *shares the same braincell so he understands*

AND AT THE END OF THE BATTLE THAT SCUM OF THE EARTH WAS WEARING ALL MIGHT’S HERO COSTUMES, PLURAL

Mirko literally slayed

Best Jeanist and Edgeshot being the good partners they are

You’re not giving up right, Tsukuyomi-kun? Sassy bird

THAT’S ALL MIGHT’S COSTUMES YOU GOOD FOR NOTHING

YES BEAT HIM, BIG THREE, BEAT THE OLD MAN

[cellarspider]

27/30 The Measure of a Movie

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We return to this movie that’s trapped me in a five minute scene for three whole days, Prometheus.

Content warning for death of a man who didn’t look convincingly alive in the first place, death of some extras.

So, David has just followed his orders from Weyland, and hit a hungover Engineer with a demand for eternal life.

Naturally, this doesn’t go well! Particularly as, stated previously, Shaw is also concurrently screaming at the Engineer in a language they don’t understand, and Weyland ordered a security NPC to hit her. 

Frankly, this is one of the most relatable facial expressions the movie’s shown me thus far. This big bastard expected to be waking up two thousand years ago, on a mission to kill humans for their moral failings. And then they wake up and the little suckers are everywhere.

As said before the PIE ate me, the original intent was for Weyland to declare himself a god for creating David, a perfected version of humanity. And there is a very brief moment here between the Engineer and David. 

A tiny little glimmer of hope for this weird, fucked-up little android, that he might be accepted for what he is. Saved from the Last Judgment for being a good little guy who only killed someone the Engineers wouldn't have liked anyway. The chance to start anew.

Nope!

The Engineer’s expression may indicate they're slightly sorry for what they do to David, but that doesn't stop them. He’s the robot Son of Man, because the movie’s religious themes have been so over the place, and being fully human and fully divine is not a selling point to his current audience. The “human” part seems to be the sticking point. In fact, this may be part of why the Engineers decided to destroy humanity in the first place–if they didn't get ahead of their wayward children, then humans might attempt to imitate their creators, imparting their bad ideas on to whole new forms of life in the process.

Of course, we don't know what the Engineers planned in the first place. We don’t actually know if humans were the intentional result of what the Engineers were doing. Anything Homo sapiens-y could have potentially been a mistake. Maybe they were trying to recreate themselves! Maybe they really liked Australopithecus!

Regardless, their behavior has not convinced the Engineer to change course. In fact, the Engineer seems to be noping out extremely hard, starting by ripping David’s head off and beating Weyland to death with it.

David wanted to see Weyland die, but seeing it so up-close was probably not as planned. I was struggling not to laugh in the theater, because. Really, how are you supposed to take this?

The last security guy also dies after trying to shoot the Engineer, so they sure added to the movie. Doctor Frankenstein also dies due to aggressive yeeting, which I will admit is a little harsh, state and local law in the US tend to list desecration of human remains as a relatively low-level felony. See, this is why you should’ve had the Prometheus classed as a diplomatic mission, then she could’ve gotten immunity.

In amongst the chaos, there is one little quiet-ish moment of the dying Weyland, muttering to David’s severed head: 

“There’s nothing.”

“I know. Have a good journey, Mr. Weyland.”

You know, marketing and discussion around this movie said that it touched on big themes, like “where do we come from” and “what happens when we die”. This, as far as I can tell, is the only thing the movie has to say on the latter. Well done, we’ve got that one sorted. Or rather, the movie did, I distinctly remember having not a single clue what Weyland was saying. When David said “I know”, I didn’t.

Totally unrelated, here’s a quote from Damon Lindelof, who took over writing on the movie:

Blade Runner might not have done well [financially] when it first came out, but people are still talking about it because it was infused with all these big ideas. [Scott] was also talking about very big themes in Prometheus. It was being driven by people who wanted the answers to huge questions. But I thought that we could do that without ever getting too pretentious. Nobody wants to see a movie where people are floating in space talking about the meaning of life [...]

Yes. Truly, nobody wants to see that. Wise words from one of the writers of Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013). Truly, there has never been a science fiction fan who’s wanted that.

[Video description: A clip from Star Trek: The Next Generation s02e09, The Measure of a Man (1989). Picard is defending Data’s right against an order to submit to disassembly so that more Soong-model androids can be mass-produced. The scientist wishing to do so asserts that Data is not sentient, and Picard challenges the scientist to prove that Picard is sentient, and asks the court to carefully consider the precedent they might set if they determine Data has no rights, and then thousands of him are created.]

This is what could be. Right here. Four and a half minutes of courtroom drama in a dull room, debating the definition of sentience and the meaning of creating new forms of life, earnestly defending the rights of a man in body paint and funny-colored contacts. It brought a tear to my eye.

I don’t feel like saying anything more about Prometheus right now, but we’re almost done with the thing.

Shaw books it, and the Engineer, apparently, does not care to follow her. There’s more important things to be doing, like getting the terracide back underway, and making another Alien reference.

I don’t hate this. It’s a little Iron Man in how the exoskeleton folds around them, but it’s still nice to see this used as an actual, weird-ass flight suit and restraints. And it was something neat to keep my attention. At this point I was just shrugging about the looming threat to humanity, thinking “y’know what, this has been a pretty reasonable response, all things considered.”

So, with that level of investment in the safety of the characters, obviously I was on the edge of my seat waiting to find out how they’d stop the ship.

I wasn’t, actually, I was wondering how the fuck Shaw, a few hours post-caesarian, managed to run so goddamn fast. She ends up on top of the ship’s hangar as it’s opening. This mostly affords us set-up for a moment that did make me wince:

I’m pretty sure surgical staples aren’t built with dramatic leaps across crevasses in mind.

Anyway, Janek decides to sacrifice himself and the Prometheus, which Vickers is not a fan of, given that she’s standing right there. She’s given forty seconds to get suited up so she can eject and survive with her Chekhov’s gu–I mean, her life boat quarters.

The other two crew members decide to sacrifice themselves too, because power of friendship or something, I dunno. Their only character traits were “call out stuff on monitors” and “occasionally make bets with each other”.

Is it bad that I felt a bit sad that they manage to stop the ship? That’s probably bad.

I’m saving the dumb thing that comes after. That's for next time.

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Citations for alt-text rambles:

https://www.deviantart.com/pretty--kittie/art/Prometheus-Engineer-407337525

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1613839/ 

https://flickr.com/photos/jbassett9/6567513029 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smile#Other_animals 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australopithecus_africanus 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_in_Bugis_society 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3FsASNavdU&list=PL100AFFA291934352 be aware Gandahar is 80s French SF, and therefore you will definitely see female-presenting nipples. Also, Penn and Teller have voice roles in the dub for some reason.

https://youtu.be/muXiufO9dXg 

https://youtu.be/c_iK61aROWw 

https://youtu.be/dVnrWFbaFck 

https://youtu.be/snTaSJk0n_Y 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Strangelove#Sets_and_filming

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Thunder#Document_leaks

[maxwell-grant]

Any thoughts on the second Mr.Terrific?

I like him quite a bit. I'm not super well read on the guy but he feels like a character Jonathan Hickman would have made a star out of by now if he worked for DC, or at least an extremely Hickman-esque set of ingredients. He is not just an omnicapable genius Great Man of science and technology with spiritual or emotional or moral blindspots, but an omnicapable-yet-compromised Great Man who defines himself around an ideal and statement of intent that can clash with the practical reality around him. He quite literally wears on his sleeve his own arc words to be repeated for emphasis.

And there is a bit of a tension in his composition also in that, he wears the most straightforward possible motto taken straight from a Golden Age guy, he's defined one of the purest distilled ideals a superhero can wear ever put on paper, and has an origin about him taking up superhero work as a newfound and sole meaning in his life, but he is not a traditional superhero, he is a Doc Savage kind of guy modeled after the heroes of the bastardverse across the street. Much of his origin is defined around the fact that he is just not operating on the same wavelength everyone else is. He is very much not a bastard, it is important that he isn't, but still, Batman would not get invited to the Illuminati, where as Michael might. He helped form a rip-off of it, even.

But to me he also feels like a character who still needs some work put into him to reach something really great. He's a guy with a killer design and a pretty good origin and sometimes occasionally a cool personality and generally is very useful to have around as a handyman gluing plots together, but who always seems to sit at a weird middleground between Reed Richards, Tony Stark, and Not-Batman that keeps him rather undefined. In his present state he is a plug-and-play character to explain plots as they happen, rather than the center of uniquely interesting things himself. He sits at a middleground now where he is too big to be street level, but he's not powerful or big enough to save the world on his own, so he's forced to fill out the stuff in between usually in mediocre spy or tech guy roles.

On the other hand, that malleability can also be a strong point to him, the fact that you can insert him anywhere from detective stories to scaled all the way up to managing a Justice League. He has legacy baggage but he is not a guy you really need to explain, you can put him in the big leagues and big stories and he explains himself as is. And it seems that people kinda get that he should be a bigger deal than he actually is, that he is open to bigger and better and more interesting things to be done with him, but there needs to be more put into it. He needs his own set-ups. He is a cool design and a cool guy and within those, really cool ideas waiting to happen.

I have been really loving the set photos that have been coming out of James Gunn's Superman and particularly the ones with Mr.Terrific, it's making him click with me a bit more and I think the movie might be what pushes me to outright love him. Given Gunn's statement comparing Holt and the other heroes to workplace buddies, he just makes intuitive sense as a guy who does things with Superman at the weird sci-fi superhero job which they both have whether it's to knock asteroids out of orbit together or deal with runaway super dogs. There is a pretty lovely World's Finest kind of symmetry to them that I really hope to see expanded on.

[sleepingshadowknight667]

Lenore was the informant au

Lenore comes forward to Auggie. The only man that she knows won't sell her out and won't speak to her family.

The entire family is under fire. Auggie has a plan, though, and she doesn't know it. Because they're in court, no one in the family cares, hell, Pym is doing a crossword puzzle. And then the bomb drops. There's an informant in the the family, and Lenore thinks this is it. (Oh how poetic it would be for Auggie who got screwed over by the Usher family once to do the same to them.) She is lucky that the rest of the family is too busy reacting to notice her, but then again, her shock could also be chalked up to the news.

She goes home, acting as if everything is fine. Play the naive girl. The one who doesn't know any better. (But she does know better. She has known better.)

Unsurprisingly, her dad starts talking about who the informant could be and starts blaming Uncle Perry. And she realizes that this was Auggie's angle. Because her family is so dysfunctional that they would all be too busy blaming each other. She feels somewhat saddened that everyone took up pitchforks so quickly but at the same time, she isn't surprised. This family is held together by fear, not trust.

And then the family dinner happens. Nana Madeline doesn't even so much as glance her way. There are subtle and not so subtle shots fired across the dinner table between her aunts, uncles, and father. A Pym Original comes out and then Dad asks if the informant will more or less be disowned. Nana Madeline says no. Because of course not, there's only one real way, one suitable way, to deal with such a betrayal. Death. And if that doesn't send a chill down her spine, the fifty million bounty Grandpa puts on their heads does. The family has turned against each other just at the drop of the hat. But it's not like they were ever really united to begin with, not in the way that matters.

But then, Uncle Perry dies. A horrific accident. Her mother was there. She doesn't know what's going on. It might be her dad's fault. At least, Grandpa seems to think so.

Uncle Perry was never really liked by the family, that much she knows. But now there's another thing to deal with on top of the trial and the charges, and her family is distracted, but so is she. Her mother is undergoing surgery, her uncle is dead, and she blew up their lives not even less than three days ago and no one in her family knows.

But then two days later Aunt Camille dies. Gets her face ripped off by a chimp at Aunt Victorine's lab. Another freak accident because Aunt Camille shouldn't have been there in the first place...at least that's what they say, what the news say, what the family says. But maybe things aren't right with Aunt Victorine either. And it goes deeper than she thinks.

And then Uncle Leo falls off his balcony. Literally two days after Aunt Camille died. Four days after Uncle Perry. She buries half of her family the next day. She sees how divided her family is at the funeral. They mourn for the photos, but she's heard the way Dad and Aunt Tamerlane talk about her aunt and uncles. They called them "The Bastards." She doesn't know if her aunts and uncles every truly loved each other. Part of her thinks that none of them really know how to love.

With so many deaths in such a short amount of time, the informant business is forgotten. She knows it isn't outright stated but there are more pressing matters that require the family's attention. But she can't find herself to be relieved by it. Her aunt is dead and so are her uncles. Her mom is still severely burned. Her dad is starting to act weird. And things are happening too fast.

Mom comes home. Aunt Victorine dies along with Al. Literally the day after the funeral. Dad doesn't even bat an eyelash. She doesn't know if it's safe anymore, and part of her, in the deepest pit of her mind, wonders if she's responsible. Three deaths within a week of each other is odd, tragic, concerning. But four? Four is too much of a coincidence.

Dad starts acting weirder. Something is wrong.

She doesn't know why this is happening.

Grandpa is speaking in poetry. Something is wrong.

Mom is more responsive now but it's weird sometimes she can barely blink and other times she can somewhat speak.

Aunt Tammy dies two days after Aunt Victorine. She's certain now, her family is under attack. She sends a message to Auggie. (Dad is too busy...out of it...to know.) She asks if something leaked. He tells her no. Her identity is safe. And while she may be safe, she knows Mom isn't.

She wants to do the best for her mom. Her father disagrees. He's off, likely on drugs. He keeps saying that the people who are supposed to be here to help her mother are around but she knows they aren't. They fight. He leaves. And she knows (she has always known) something is wrong.

Mom was mutilated. The cops are called. Dad is dead. (Two days after Aunt Tammy). She can't even be too upset. Not after what he did to her. Pym tries to bullshit her. She more or less tells Pym to fuck off. It doesn't matter what's good for the company or the family. And besides, what family? There is practically no one else. All the heirs to the Usher name are dead. And she is going to hold onto what little family she has left.

She buries the rest of her family two days later. This funeral is smaller. It's just Grandpa, Nana Madeline, Juno, and her. The guilt...grief...is starting to sink in. Not even a complete week after she buried the first three. There is no more trial. Considering everyone is more or less dead. And she wonders if it's even worth coming clean. This all began after that day in the court room. Somehow this feels like her doing. Maybe it's the grief talking. Survivor's guilt maybe.

She was advised not to reveal herself, just in case. Her family can be brutal, she knows that. But there is no brutality now with Nana Madeline and Grandpa...just the figments of a broken family. Part of her wonders if it was even a family to begin with. She doesn't think so. The Usher Family were a group of people tied together by blood and nothing more.

Juno leaves. Part of her is upset at that. Grandpa says not to mind it. And she tries to tell him to move on from all the bad that the family has done. To try and fix it. And she almost considers telling him that she was the one who was trying to take the family down, before she realizes she's talking to a stubborn old man who doesn't know anything else than what he's done. So she says nothing else.

She knows she isn't going home. There's nothing left there for her now that Mom is safe and in the I.C.U.

There's a woman, if she can be called that, sitting on her bed when she comes out of the bathroom after getting ready for bed. She doesn't know this woman. But something inside her tells her what she needs to know.

She is going to die.

Death calls her over. Tells her about the future. A future that she has shaped. Her legacy. A legacy of good things to come out of the Usher's shadow of darkness.

Death was surprisingly kind. And lets her ask one last question.

"Before I go, I need to know. Was it me?" Lenore asks, her voice a shaking whisper. "Did I do this? Did I..." a moment of hesitation, "...did I kill them?"

"No." Death shakes her head, a gentle motion. "Their fates were all sealed long before this. As was yours. What you did was very brave."

"Will they know it was me?" She can't help but ask.

Death laughs softly.

"It doesn't matter if they do or not. It wouldn't have changed anything that happened."

Death's touch is soft, gentle. Peaceful almost. It's all over.

[onmyyan]

🗡️Psycho🗡️ Anon, here again!

Here’s some Ashley Hunt brain rot cause I adore this man too. Not sure if you’d like it though, so lemme know…

So I was thinking about all those cliche hallmark movies and similar ones where a big city girl is forced to go to the country for some shit. Like a family reunion or she sent there to “connect to her roots” or some bullshit reason. And the entire movie is just city girl having some weird spiritual journey falling in love with the country and some farm boy beau, literally abandoning her entire established life to go pick flowers and get fucked by cowboy dick. It’s like some conservative feverdream propaganda to be honest. City=bad country=good. So what if that’s what us readers were in a AU? A hardcore city girl who wanted to get the fuck out of hick town after helping grandma. And so here the brain rot I had with how Ash is gonna pound us and make us his lil stepford wife…

We are hella terse upon arrival to our gran’s house. Meetin Ash we still polite but we ain’t here to make friends n shit. Ash bein the fine gentlemen he is, still offers to help fix stuff. We ain’t stupid, cause anything to help gran settle faster means we get to leave the hicks faster. We agree and offer to reimburse financially Ash for the extra work he’s doin. Ash ain’t stupid either and wants our time instead of money. Wants to take us out to see the town and country to show us that it ain’t as bad as we think. We reluctantly agree, cause the Wi-Fi is shit in the house and we might die from boredom otherwise…

Ash purposely fixes the house slowly each day and afterwards takes us on different outings. Sometimes it’s to the town to show us places and to introduce us to everyone. Other times it’ll be around his farm, around beautiful nature landscapes, etc. Man is an intelligent and fuckin fine ass manipulative suave, cause he’ll purposefully take us around dusk when the sun be settin when the sun be in the low with that horrible glare in your eyes…if you don’t got a hat on…And that what he do. He knows we got no hat, so every fuckin time he puts his cowboy hat on top of our head to “protect our eyes n face” and we don’t know the fucking cowboy hat rule! So here he is flauntin us aroun town on his horse with us wearin his cowboy hat sittin in front of him as he guides the horse from behind us. Smilin n shit to all the locals who obviously know something we don’t…

Durin these outings we gradually be openin up to Ash. Not because we want to. But cause we gotta as he’s the only person to talk to aside from gran. Lack of socialization be real torture…We still dead set on goin back to the city. Cause we ain’t some cliche movie protagonist. We gotta life we love back home. It ain’t shit to contrary belief. We tell him we appreciate everything he’s done for us and we’ll leave in a week since gran should be alright by then. Now this is when Ash is starting to go full yandere at this point…

As we helping Ash one day fix one of the last issues in the house, so conveniently we get injured on the head and have to be taken to the local doc for some stitches. Like the entire town, the doc loves Ash and Ash easily lies and convinces the doc to remove our IUD too while we’re knocked out from the anesthesia. We had told Ash during one of our conversations that we didn’t need to go to the pharmacy for birth control pills as we had an IUD instead. So Ash being the lovable bastard he is, told the doc that we were wanting to try for a baby asap and that I had a horrible time gettin the IUD originally inserted. So it was better for me if I was unconscious for the procedure. And so now we have no IUD but alas think we still have birth control when we left absolutely defenseless…

We get the stitches too, wake up, and Ash takes us back home and takes care of us with the small help of gran. We gotta stay a bit longer now from the urge of our gran and Ash unfortunately so we do just that. Ash is very stellar at takin care of us even though our injury is still minor and we don’t have broken legs or anything so we can navigate and take care of ourselves just fine. But Ash insists sense he blames himself for our injury. He makes sure to feed us and hydrate us and give us our medication the doc prescribed to make sure we’re fine. A while passes a bit more and we are just itchin to get the fuck out of town. We tell Ash we’re finally going to leave tomorrow. And that’s that…

Ash wants to give us a proper farewell so invites us over that night to his house for a few drinks. We see no reason to decline and blissfully go over. We get drunk easily cause we’re a light weight and in the midst of our intoxication confess to him that we find him “damn hot” and we’d have loved to pursue a relationship with him if he was livin in the city and not out in hickville. He coaxes out of us our true feelings about him and we shyly admit that we think we’d fallen for him over the time we’ve gotten to know him. And this sends this motherfucka over the final edge. He was already gonna make us his from when he first saw us, but the confession solidified our mutual attraction and “love” for each other…

Ash then proceeds to take our face gently into his hands and gently kisses our lips in response. We lean into it, letting our drunk poor decision making skills taking over. We leaving tomorrow, so why not let this happen? What’s the worst that can happen? Let’s just ride the cowboy for fucks sake. We got nothing to lose…

Ash is romantic and hella skillful. He can work our body easily and gets more passionate as we totally let loose. He picks us up and latches our legs around his waist while still kissing, all while walking easily to his bedroom to do the deed. Artfully he unwraps us and himself and he makes the best fuckin love to us we’ve ever had. Nobody ever has come close to what this fine ass motherfucka has performed on us. Our pleasure was constantly put first, the aftercare was a godsend, and we were almost having second thoughts leaving the town so soon. Almost…

We wake up hungover and sore in the best ways possible with cum still pouring out of our pussy despite it being late into the new days’s afternoon. Some tablets and water is by the bed for us to drink, which we happily do. A note from Ash is there saying he’ll be back later since he’s out working on the farm and that we should take it easy. We spend the rest of the day till he comes back bein a blushin mess rememberin last nights events. The confession, the fuckin, holy shit the fuckin…

Ash comes home and it’s a bit awkward at first. But eventually we’re both able to be mature adults and talk about the past nights events. Ash also confesses he’s been in love since he first saw us, and that he’s happy that we like him and did what we did last night. We panicking inside though cause while we still have pretty much fallen for him, we still don’t think he’s worth trying to have a relationship with being so far from the city and all. What’s a girl to do? So we try to let him down easy and explain that we just don’t think the relationship could work in the end with our different life styles and all. We still really like him, but it wouldn’t be fair to pursue something that’d probably end in heartbreak…

He understands and tells us he figured he couldn’t hold a city girl like us down. It’s so late now that he wants us to spend the night again since it’s a bit away from our home with gran. He says we can still sleep in his bed as there are other rooms in his available, cause he got a large large residence since he got a gigantic farm. He gets us fixed up with dinner and all our needs and tells us he’ll take us back to gran in the morn…

Mornin comes and we go back to gran’s. Unfortunately…she’s not doing well and the doc is immediately called over. She passes away the next mornin. We are heartbroken n a sobbin mess. We knew she was in bad condition hence why we came out to the countryside to take care of her for a bit, but we didn’t think she was that bad and would be gone so soon. Luckily…we got our loving cowboy by our side to console us. And once again our trip is prolonged even further. It takes about 2 weeks to hold the funeral for gran, with some friends and acquaintances of hers comin out of town. Then another 2 weeks to finish cleaning out the house to put it up for sale as we don’t have the money to keep it even though we inherited it. And wouldn’t you know…the stress and constant work finally caught up to us and made us ill for a solid week. Ash once again took care of us and told us just to relax. Relax and stay for as long as we need to as we were staying with Ash for the time bein…

The house finally sells when we finally get better and we take the next week to tie up any loose ends. Including those with Ash…And as we prepare to find him…we have the urge to throw up? Thinkin we’re just sick as we empty our stomach into the toilet from all the horrible stressful events that’s been happenin. But we never throw up even when we sick…so why now? And so a terrible thought quickly flashes in our head. Pregnancy? No. It’s not uncommon to miss periods especially when a person is super stressed or has gone through trauma. And besides we got a birth control that has a 99% pregnancy free rate. But for some illogical reason, we still feel so shitty and decide to go to the local pharmacy to pick up a pregnancy test…

In the bathroom at the pharmacy, we take the test and sure enough it’s positive. We pregnant. And we are shaking in confusion and fear. This wasn’t suppose to happen. How did this happen? We sobbin drivin home Ash’s place panicking about tellin him. He’s already there at the door consoling us when he sees us in tears. And through incoherent cries and sentence structures we muffle out the news to him. He’s “shocked” and tells us that he’s not upset or anything and is actually happy to hear he’s going to be a father. We still a mess tryin to process everythin and just let Ash hold us in a large sofa and whisper sweet nothings into our ear…

It’s very late at night now after we’ve woken up from our trauma induced nap layin in Ash’s bed in more comfortable clothes he easily changed us into. Now that we done cryin for the most part, logic finally takes over and we know we ain’t ready to be a mama. Especially giving birth to a baby to a man we practically just met a lil over 2 months ago. We dead set on gettin an abortion n leavin this hick town for good n never coming back. Town given us way too much PTSD understandably…

Ash comes back home and we do our best to front a brave face n explain our decision to him. We ain’t keepin the baby. We’re never coming back. We sorry to break his heart like this but we thankful for everything he’s done for us. He’s visibly upset but understands our decision. The rest of the night passes with an uncomfortable atmosphere and we don’t get a lick of sleep…

Dawn comes and we get an early call that we’re being evicted from our apartment!? The price has gone up exponentially the past month and we failed to make the payment and certainly don’t have any rainy day funds to cover it. We’re just learning about this now, no new notification about the price change a month ago, so what the fuck is going on!? The only “good” highlight is that our stuff is still there to be collected and hasn’t been trashed n dumped. What makes the morn even worse is just a while later we get another call that we’ve been fired from our job cause we’ve been deemed inadequate for the job since we’ve taken too much PTO even though we saved up so much annual leave and our family member fuckin died! Corporate havin empathy, challenge impossible!

So now we a sight to behold. A fugly hysterical sobbin mess. We homeless, jobless, and prego. The holy damned trinity of what every woman strives to be at the same time. Ash obviously comes into the room as he can’t ignore our sobbin party now as it’s so fuckin loud it rattles the entire house. We sound like a banshee puttin on the opera show of the century. Takes a long time to finally have the brain cells to reiterate the events to Ash. And lucky us he the finest beau in the land and does nothing but console us. Is our giant fuckin teddy bear, tissue, life coach, etc. He obviously tells us that his home is our home for as long as we need it. And we finally just take him up on that…

Next few days just go by mindlessly for us. We don’t know what to do. We don’t know what we can do. We’re such a wreck mentally we don’t know where to begin on reconstruction. Ash takes care of us though. Like he always has. He even offers to pick up our stuff from the city and at this point we just let ‘em. Too tired to be bothered with all the bullshit life has thrown at us we just wanna be a cow and graze all day with no worries. And Ash…beautiful Ash easily convinced us to take time off before job huntin again. He doesn’t mind bein the sole provider for us. He got plenty of money and resources for us. I don’t have to worry my pretty little head. And I don’t ever have to think of repayin him back…

Some more time passes and now that we’re out of pity party comatose I can focus on gettin back on my feet. Startin with dealin with the unwanted pregnancy. So Ash takes us to town to see the doc, cowboy hat still always on our head and all. And this is when the doc does the usual rural town schtick on us. Doc shows us that the embryo has become a fetus on the ultrasound, talks to us about the beauty of life, birth, motherhood, sends us home with photos of our fetus and an immense sense of terror in our minds…

We’re well aware of pro-life propaganda cause we’ve seen it in the streets protests back in the city. But now that we’re the ones dealin with it first hand it’s a completely different feelin. What makes it worse is that we’ve undeniably fallen for the “baby’s” father, Ash. He’s been nothing but loving to us thick and thin. Expecting nothing in return. Supportin us in all our decisions. We never found a man who came even close to Ash in performance in bed, and most certainly never found a man who was as great a friend or partner either. So would it really be all that bad to have his child? We know that he’d make a great father. He’s been great to us and we aren’t even officially his girlfriend…

Goin around town to eat something after the doc visit was an experience…Locals asking Ash when the wedding will be as life in the hicks tends to move fast. Unsurprisingly we’re seen as a couple as we’ve been living with each other, always out with each other, and doin other local courtship laws I don’t know about (like the fucking cowboy hat from day 1). And durin that ride home we make some tough decisions in the head…

When we get home and settled for the night, we tell Ash if he serious about bein happy about wantin the baby from when he first found out. There not a hint of dishonesty on his face when he pours out all his emotions on us. He wants us. All of us and what bears fruition to our love. Been wantin us since he first saw us and that’s never changed. We happy cryin and show him the photos of the fetus and tell him we’re keepin the baby then since he also wants us. Ash knows our courtship was extremely short but makes sure to let us know we’ll never regret it and he’ll make us the happiest wife in the whole world. And so he proposes right there…

And we spend all night fuckin. Chasin ecstasy highs. Ridin each other like there’s no tomorrow. We’re basically rabid feral animals at this point. And we made the sims romance marriage speedrun world record look like a fuckin joke. Going from friends to significant others to engagees in a minute…

Next day we just giggling to the local courthouse to file for the legal marriage work. We can have a fancy formal weddin later, but for now with a baby comin along and life showin how fast it changes we think it best to just ensure we’re taken care of in the eyes of the law. We’ve let our friends know of the situation after basically bein MIA for the past month. Givin them all crazy twighlight zone whiplash and glazed and confused congratulations to my new life. And with Ash’s silver tongue, he’s once again convinced us to not find a job for the time bein. Focus on ourselves. Our health. The baby. He’s got everything else covered. He can provide for us just as he always can and will…

And so the rest of the months fly by. We becomin the most domestic partner ever since we don’t have any other job. And we found out we not having 1 baby but 2. Twins! So we’re not taking a formal out of house job and bein a stay at home mom n wife instead since we’ll have a lot on our plate now. Ash is even more thrilled with this. And can’t wait for the rest of our lives to be filled with marital bliss. And many more kids as he plans to give us at least another 5…

Ash will also take to his grave what he did to keep us here. The IUD removal and head injury weren’t the only things he did. He also got the doc to give him ovulation fertility drugs. So all those times we were thinking we were takin pain killers or meds to make sure the stitch wounds wouldn’t get infected were really something to help boost Ash’s chance to “nail” us down. And boy did they work…And for poor gran? The apartment eviction? The firing from the job? Anything else? Did Ash really do anything else to manipulate things to his favor? Is he just that intelligent? He is loved by everyone, has great connections and charisma. Or is he just god’s favorite and the universe loves him unconditionally? I’ll let you decide the extent of his “yan” side…

Either way. That’s our HEA for us and Ash if we were to be a city girl who was hesitant to be with Ash in a AU. Thanks for readin. And feel free to use this and the previous smutty Delmont brother ideas I submitted in your works if you want. I don’t mind

Love 🗡️Psycho🗡️ Anon

DHEJDHDJDJDHDH HELLO??? PERFECTION??? ASH IS PROBABLY MY SCARIEST OC AND YOU NAILED THE CHARACTERZATION BABES DJDNDNDJ MY LORD??? HELLO??? HES SO SCARY AND HOT FUCK THE WAY THIS SHOT ME WITH A BOLT OF INSPIRATION OMDNDMD I NEED TO WRITE ABOUT THIS SPOOKY MF NEOW

[possiblylando]

Chainsaw Man 123 'Early' Analsys.

This chapter gives us a lot to chew on unlike the previous ones which where just fully mystery. Which is why I'm not really sure where we start. I guess at the beginning of the chapter? Yeah.

So this chapter we meet the falling devil. I can't say I was expecting this but I was right about this current body she's using being made from the corpses of the people that jumped off the apartment complex. She's got rather weird theming as she's a Primal Fear who is also a Chef despite it not really fitting with her fear. I guess Primal Fears can have hobbies?

"Hor D'oeuvre, La Root Vonla" is french for something. Someone who speaks french probably has a better translation (If you speak French lemme know the correct translation in the comment or reblogs) but I have to use google translate which was really shitting itself on this one. So the rough translation is: "Appetizers, The Will Route" It being an Appetizer means that this is probably the weakest of her attacks. Things are gonna get a lot worse from here on out. "The Will Route" is clearly in reference to the attack's affects.

It appears the way to overcome this first attack is to come to terms with your past Trauma so that it doesn't weigh on you as much if at all. Falling says "A word of warning- Those who don't finish their food will taste death." which seems like it's directly referring to the way to escape the attack Then we get a flashback of Asa's life soon after the Typhoon Devil attack. This probably only takes place a few Days-Weeks after the event due to Asa's hair still being about the same length as it was in the original flashback.

Left 102 Flashback, Right 123 Flashback. It's pretty clear that Asa has been using the Cat (Crambon) as a substitute for her mother. She's become anti-social and solitary only spending time with Crambon. (Which is fair by the way). At this point Crambon and her School Uniform are the only things she has left of her mother. Then we get this evil fucking bitch

She is easily one of, If not the most evil human character we've ever met.

Up until this point everything seems fine. Asa is willing to try to move on from her mother's death for the good of those around her by letting Crambon move on as well. It's a moment of personal growth.

This bastard could've easily said "Yes, Crambon's fine" even if it was a lie. But instead:

I don't know if this is Asa's mind making the situation worse than it actually was. She might not have even said this but the way Chainsaw Man does it's flashback they're rarely if ever wrong due to human memory being at fault. This demon of a person was so upset about Asa having literally anything to find comfort in that she killed Crambon. Back to the real world we get some more information on the attack.

Reading through this chapter I thought they this was going to be a literal falling attack. Where Falling just lifts up a bunch of people and drops them to die. But the reality is much worse. Anyone who is unable to deal with their Trauma is dragged straight into hell. This is a Therapy Session by Fire. You WILL overcome your emotional baggage or die. Which is why it's important it's Asa in control of the body right now. Since Asa is the one who has to overcome her Trauma to escape this situation. Thats the end of 123. Time to the-- Uh.. I don't know what to call this section. Post-Chapter analyses? Whatever. Now I think the solution to Falling's attack has already been revealed. Chapter 102 was when we got the flashback of Asa's Mother's Death. In the same chapter we get a flashback of Yuko giving Asa her shoes. It's the same chapter when Asa resolves to try and be better.

Even if Yuko is gone now she'll still have an affect on Asa. I hope this is the case cause that'd be nice. Here's what I think we're gonna be seeing in the coming chapter(s) 1. Asa is able to accept that her past Trauma can't be changed and that it wasn't her fault. (Hopefully we get that Yuko mention in some way cmon) 2. Denji shows up and has to deal with his own issues fully (Unless the attack has ended by then) This last one I'm not confident will happen but it'd be cool. We see the first death of a Primal Fear at the hands of Denji & Asa/Yoru. Additionally I wanna know what the deal with Falling is. Her whole theming is rather weird. She's the falling devil yet she's a chef? It doesn't quite seem like something a Primal Fear would do. But I guess they can have hobbies as well? That's all I've got for now. 123 End Question:

Would you?

[realcatalina]

This is interesting info about languages Elizabeth of York spoke

This is excerpt from Most pleasant song of lady Bessy, and it is the part where Bessy(Elizabeth of York) manages to convince Lord Stanley to betray Richard and to contact Henry Tudor.

But he is scared, he thinks he cannot trust any scribe to write essentially treason. But Elizabeth turns around and says-oh I can write the letter. My father had me and my sister Cecily taught by a man from London. I can write well, in both English and French, and SPANISH!

(It is bit strange that the poem doesnt mention Latin, though correspondence from late 1490s strongly suggest Elizabeth knew Latin grammar too. But, we cannot rule out she learnt later than 1484/5. Or maybe she wasnt very good yet in that time and later gained confidence. )

However Bessy knowing Old Spanish/Castilian would make sense if she was intended to wed to Iberian peninsula. But we only ever hear about Richard III intending to wed her to Portuguese royal family. His reign is too short time for her to learn the languaeg.

I never heard that there were any plans to marry her to Spain specifically. But maybe as with Catherine of Aragon learning French to use at English court, maybe Elizabeth of York was learning Spanish to use at Portuguese court. Because it would make things easier for her at least a bit.

If it was true it might have indicate Edward IV already intended her for Portugal.

It is bit weird that the matter(her spanish) didnt get brought up later. If Elizabeth of York was confident enough to write in Spanish, why not write to spanish royals in her own hand in Spanish? Why not converse with Catherine of Aragon in Spanish? Could it simply not get into records?

It is but strange that only spanish wikipedia mentions Elizabeth's education. As source there is book Elizabeth of York by Arlene Okerlund.

But this what it says on their wiki:

When she was bethrohed to dauphin, her father arranged her to have language tutors from France, Italy and Spain.

Although she spoke French, it was not fluently.

(-yeah, in comparison to Henry VII probably not. He was master level.)

Schollars from Oxford taught her classics and experts in calligraphy(handwritting) from Scriptoria at Westminster Abbey instructed her. In other words she had greater education than most men in 15th century(except those ment for church), let alone a woman.

She was also instructed to read and write in English, learnt math, household management, embroidery or sewing, horse-riding, music, and dancing.

You know on first glance it looks overexagerated, but it would make sense given how educated Henry VIII was and his upbringing was mostly dedided by his mother.

If she was so well-educated as woman, it would make sense her son got even better education.

I know the poem might be propaganda. Just sneaking out to meet Stanley in private, would be very difficult. Although if both were at court...maybe. Elizabeth seems to have been given greater deal of freedom by Richard at court, than you would expect. Considering the man had her mother proclaimed whore, Elizabeth and her siblings bastards, and her brothers "dissappeared" in his "care".

But still it was originally written in late 15th century, likely after 1487/8 when Cecily became lady Welles. (First surviving written versions are from c.1600, it was passed on orally it seems-it was a song.) But i dont think we can just throw it away.

But we aware that part of the poem is Elizabeth pleading is her telling Stanley her uncle was making plans to poison his own wife and son.(Which if true, would mean he was starking mad.)

-But it might be that part of the poem is true and part is propaganda.

But the poem is wonderfully written and the dialogs are so logical.

Elizabeth keeps trying to remind Stanley that his titles, lands were given to him by her father and that Richard had no right to the throne, that her brothers disappeared and were not even buried in any sacred ground, that Richard got rid of his original supporters and he might well get rid of Stanley after his usefullness expires.

And he keeps telling her no, there is no real support for anybody else and thinks overthrowing him are foolish dreams etc.

But she keeps going. And revealing more. And big part of it is her saying her uncle wants her to come to his chamber and be his love and wife. And she is extremely oposed to the idea. I mean she lists all the suffering she would rather endure...than to come to her uncle's chamber.

Towards end of her pleading, when Stanley keeps rejecting to help her and wants her to leave, she starts crying, she throws away her headwear and says they will find her body in Thames, where she will drown, her bones shall lay on sand, fishes will feed upon her and that will be her destiny.

And that is what breaks Stanley.

There is of course more-it is very long poem. But I get why currently with the Ricardians trying to restore Richards image this is not being spread around. Because this was probbaly major inspiration source behind Shakespear's Richard III.

-of course it is entirely possible this part of poem is overexagerating/lying. Perhaps other parts too.

Tell me what you think, do you think it is possible she spoke Spanish?

[specter319]

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓'𝐒 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄? (Ace Combat x CoD 141)

A/N: As a little Christmas present, I decided to work on a little something something, seeing a random anon state in @mockerycrow's Ask about fighter jets and Task Force 141 got my interest real quick, having been someone who got introduced to these two fandoms 1-2 years ago I absolutely adore the storyline in regards to Trigger and Count, but also the storyline as a whole, neatly wrapping up the reason why three strikes is called three strikes, if only a certain other game could have the same sort of stable plot- Complaints about the plot aside for those who stumble upon it have fun with this little short story that's been brewing in my head! Please enjoy the Homoeroticism of Ghost and Soap Trigger Warnings: Mention of Blood Word Count: 2.5k Words Characters: John 'Soap' MacTavish x Simon 'Ghost' Riley, mentions of Kyle 'Gaz' Garrick and Johnathan Price.

From the moment John MacTavish’s Scottish blue eyes gazed upwards into the beautiful atmosphere above him, he knew he was utterly and completely fucked. It all started with one moment in time, watching the infamous ‘Ghost’ launch one of their newly brought F-35s testing it out for another squadron, making sure all systems were in check. Watching it from the fences as the utter decimation of their ears thanks to the lack of protection were good faith to the man taking it, for what seemed to be a joy ride. And as Kyle and John stood there, seeing it hovering just mere meters above the runway, their joy was all but uncontainable in knowing just who was behind the sticks.

Conversations were the only thing that took over the engines' mighty roar as Kyle and John yelled at the inanimate object in celebration.

“Ooh yeah! Ooh yeah!” Kyle yelled out.

“Ooh, go ‘un, go ‘un” John egged right back.

And then, just as it pulled up, sure it was now at best pulling upwards of 5 gees, the men on the ground cheered.

“Go on you fuckin’ beauty!” Just as it was making its way further into the clouds, graciously curving its own form into the shape of them. 

They were ecstatic, joyful, even, at least one was, to see a man so tall, almost built like a damn statue from ancient history managing to tame a beast so wild, and wicked. And yet, knowing that it was almost second nature in that man's blood to fly it, because that bastard was the only one allowed, thanks to the great charm of the bastards in the west, to have an F-22 Raptor. The only one in the UK, belonged to a man who had no name, never showed his face to the people he didn’t know, including the two men who stood there on the grassy knoll outside of the airbase cheering him on. 

What a weird shitpot of luck that was, almost as if the gods of fate above had been watching the two men above, seeing them be so supportive of a man who never had the cheers of his fellow squad members, but instead, feared him. Tried to rebel against him, just to get a far enough away distance to stay away from a man and his, as some people called it ‘Raptor’s Ghost’.

Those that had seen it, had been lucky enough to tell the tale, at least, on the side he came back to, fellow squadron and captain, but those who had been on the receiving side of those guns as they lifted from their molded seam, only saw a wisp of a dark gray aircraft, before a fiery explosion filled their cabin.

Yes, there was one thing to be known about this ‘Ghosts’ jet — he’d specified that he must have it in a darker gray. Just a couple of shades darker than what the original metal was painted as. And the thing was? Somehow, amongst his captains ranking, the government and even the fuckers down in Lockheed — they’d said yes to the request. Even if a few bureaucrats in the Pentagon were waving the red flag from the start.

So he guessed that’s what the plan was then, to go and catch a sneak in the middle of the night of what it looked like, though Kyle tried with all of his might to persuade him otherwise, John was dead set on seeing the beauty that stood in the dead of the night in Ghost’s hangar, wielded far away from the rest of the base, but close enough to know that the rest of the team always, haunted by a Ghost, he guessed that’s where the name came from then. Given that this was usually seen beside the B-2, a call sign of Ghost would’ve been fitting for someone in a something like this. And it seemed like fate was tempting him all and amongst this, because, as John approached the hangar, as big as it was, there was a crack left open, not closed, like all the other times he’d passed it in his own jet. Only to then realize this was the reason why they had called him Ghost to begin with, no one thought he was around, until it was too late.

Everyone knew this Ghost, was a guy, they’d heard his voice, never heard him laugh, was only ever a man of a few simple commands and went off when requested. What caught John MacTavish off guard however, was not only the hangar open, but the place had reeked of oil and fuel, only to be diverged its acoustics of the tin metal in the sound of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, a far cry from the throat roar of the hotdogged engines, John could already tell what Ghost had been doing to the poor thing. Either someone had been here recently or there was still someone here, but that never mattered as his Scottish blue eyes once more, got him fucked over, classical music be damned.

The metallic gray was no longer present, much like he had seen on the various photos that had beautifully given the thing a personality of beauty, and yet deadly. But instead, it was given a more, mature grayed look, as if it was a rehashed version of the F-35, the very same one he had been seen in this afternoon in a reskinned jet. Sudden realizations hit the man when thinking in Ghost’s logic, not too shabby for a Ghost when John had realized that much to his enemies disliking, when they suddenly realized that the jet was no longer a most recent US fighter, it was too late to break off anyway.

And much akin to John’s own footsteps, he’d realized that he was pulled in by the absolute sheer squared beauty of the thing and had moved right into the Ghost’s trap.

“What are you doin’ in my hangar?” Ghost lowly spoke, standing to the side, having seen him since he strolled in here. 

“Jesus wept!” John spoke as he suddenly turned around, the closed distance between them was something almost scary at just how close and personal this man had gotten, and all amongst that, he seemingly had the goal to wear a bloody balaclava, all the while wearing a stripped down version of the gear they would have to haul around on their bodies. Was he really that comfortable in wearing the same shit each day? At least the only thing invading his senses was oil and fuel. 

“I said what are ya doing here?” Ghost questioned before his eyes glanced over at the hangar “Squadron leaders gonna know about this,” his voice loomed.

“Sorry,” That’s all the weak bastard had as he tried to pick himself up faster than he could pull back on his own stick. “A’m interested in that piece of art ye’v got there, heard you were the one flying the Lightning around this mornin’”

“So you were the two hanging around the fence”

John stiffened at the sheer mention of that, he’d seen them? He didn’t think he had given the height already gained as he passed the pair of them from the runway.

“Wanted to watch her give her a proper launch, sir” John hesitated as Ghost only snorted and shook his head at the mention of the last word.

“Flight Lieutenant to you” This Ghost guy seemingly didn’t want to have him out of his hangar after all, but there was no doubt that heavy brown eyes were on him, painted darker then the plane before him as his eyes registered on MacTavish’s uniform still barely on given the zip that was seemingly fought with, the sheen of sweat that was just above the ridgeline of his eyebrows gave away just how much he’d been working during the rest of his day, when he seemingly wasn’t cheering this man on, then again. MacTavish did seem like a familiar last name, what could hurt but to take a guess.

“Apologies,” John moved ever so closer to the jet, almost as if he were to go ahead and, to the thought running in the back of Ghost’s mind, steal it. Poor bastard, probably wouldn’t be able to handle the ride as well as he could. “Does that mean I get to call you LT then?”

The cocky chatter over the radio, often with another teammate, only gave Ghost all the more confidence to take that stab in the dark to try and pinpoint just who he was.

“You can, so long as you tell me if you’re the one flying that bloody F-16 around.”

John’s eyes suddenly went wide, and of course, that cocky Brit saw it, and with his own pair too. His soul had actively left his body in the acknowledgement that someone had noticed his maneuverability, everyone else had F/A-18’s. But MacTavish was the one that stood his ground when he said he wanted a former fighter pilots F-16, ready to be given back to the Americans, decommissioned, probably in a scrap heap, and yet, here he was, breathing new life into it and treating it like it had just come off the factory rollers. Though, his only fault that he seemingly had with it, was that of the lack of gun ammunition, paling in comparison to something like the beast that stood before him.

“Uh, and why would tha’ be?” 

Ghost paused, raising a brow in confusion, maybe he was going to have to talk to John’s squad leader, had he really not seen beyond his two feet at just who he had under his wing, the man could maneuver the thing as well as he could like the jet he stood before and maybe, if he ever took the chance (which, in high unlikely doubt he would) he could probably pilot Ghost’s, if not, with just a bigger amount of hesitation.

“Just wanted to give a recommendation to the squadron leader as to who to take under our wing, old talents retiring at the end of the year, figured I’d give whoevers flying that F-16 and the one with the yellow strip along the body of the ‘18 a fighting chance at joining the 141” He brushed it off, like it was a chance to come clean. Ghost knew that MacTavish was the one flying the thing, often put in a good word about it to Price. And Price often agreed, that and ‘Gaz’ who was often his wingmanaccording to Price’s notes were often hotshots, but never in an egotistical, ‘wanting to show who’s boss’ way, it was always one of teamwork, and he quite enjoyed seeing them chant as one of their other teammates took down a target before they did.

“The 141?” MacTavish asked

“Yeah, just need to find out who the pair are in the two jets first” Ghost was toying with him as he finally made a move over to his own, inspecting the various scratches that were seemingly evident in the light, but gave the aircraft a seemingly weathered look, one that, Ghost admired. 

“There a reason why they call you the Ghost?” Quick this one was to change the subject, avoiding it, but copying him all the more in his movements as John did the same, placing a gentle hand along the aircraft as his calloused fingers felt a deep scar along the face of the jet, maybe that’s why he rarely had repairs done to the thing other than ones that were required. Maybe that’s why he wears the mask, he’s damaged, just like the bird before him – but he still flies, still finds meaning in the daylight and blue hues of skies.

“There a reason why you’re dancing around the question?” Their hands moved along the surface of the steel at almost the same time, unknown, but as if they were tracing one another's patterns as the question was left in the air for a bit too long before they finally moved to the nose of the aircraft, having no choice but to look at one another as they did so.

“Could say the same,” He watched as Ghost moved towards him, facing him, how he towered over the man with that stature of power, and yet, the only real dominating power he seemingly had left was his rank, and the jet. Because all the smug bastard did was place his hands behind his back and look down at the Scotsman, as if inspecting him as he did the jet, to see if like him, he too had scars beneath that mohawk and blue eyes that seemingly contrasted ever so beautifully along the dark gray. “What happens if one of us already knows the answers?” 

“Then I guess one of us will have to await the answers of the future, but if they already know the answers, they shouldn’t have to wait too long” They both knew one another were staring, helplessly, but stopping it neither as eyes behind that mask squinted ever so gently. So he did have his scars, one on the chin, must have had a bad accident for it to get that bad, and the blood from it too.

“Then I guess I’ll ‘ave ta’ see me way out of this museum then huh? Wouldn’t want ta make a scene now aye?” John smiled, physically having to retch himself from the spot he stood in, not wanting to move away from the view that was before him.

“Don’t quite appreciate customers making a scene and disturbing the nature of this art” So he wasn’t the only one to quickly move along with what he was suggesting as he followed him, only ever a few steps behind, maybe that’s why he got that name, loud as anything in a jet, then he never exists once the engines shut off.

Ghost eventually stopped following him as John made his way out near the doors of the hangar, lingering around just a bit more before he stopped in his tracks, just maybe, if he really did have the answers, he could see how his future LT would respond. “Don’t think I could handle two pieces of art in a museum, never been able ta handle more than one” He swore up and down he saw the man’s head snap into place about that comment, a slight squint at the body language that John was trying to portray as he moved through the hangar doors. “Have a good night, LT”

“Officer Mactavish.”

Payback time.

“Aye sir?” And they’d fallen into line already, a wingman, of sorts, to a Ghost.

“Call me Simon”

Now MacTavish was standing there, being a complete idiot, baffled by the fact that he, of all people, managed to get into the inner circle of a man named Simon, a Ghost. A snort was then heard through the airy atmosphere as he suddenly turned around and walked back towards the stairs of his office, looking back over his shoulder, leaving him in a scrambled state that was the brain of John MacTavish.

“You’re not too bad yourself,” He paused, “For a F-16 Pilot.”

So that’s his name.

[tideswept]

Hello!!! For the game, perhaps time travel? 👀

never have I ever

Technically no? I've had a few plots in mind, but nothing made it to the writing stage as the scope and potential of it has intimidated me. I feel like I need to have an intimate understanding of the characters and their relationship to successfully pull it off.

As well as a dang good reason for it. It feels like, I dunno, a forbidden indulgence to go into it without a Plan™.

Here's how I'd do it, using the Kingsman idea that probably got the closest to almost making it on paper.

A few months after the end of Kingsman, Eggsy is sent into the past. But far into the past--as in, when Chester was a young agent, perhaps even a trainee.

(I've given some consideration to Chester having held the title of Lancelot originally, which would have, I think, added some delicious flavoring to his rejection of a pleb coming along to possibly take up his title, but I really feel like they would have mentioned that little detail at some point if that were true. Same goes for him having been Galahad. Thus, I arbitrarily decided that it was Lamorak. Though Percival is a close second.)

So Eggsy finds himself weirded out by how much he and Chester have in common as he infiltrates Kingsman. We know from the original Kingsman script and a very clever accent slip-up during his death scene that Chester's background was likely more similar to Eggsy's than Chester ever wanted to admit.

Eggsy's goal may be to save Harry, but he doesn't want to fuck up time too badly, so he has no choice but to play along for a while, only, whoops, now he's being shoved X amount of years into the future (so from the 50s to the 60s) and Chester still remembers him, so he knows Something Is Up about Eggsy, but he cares about Eggsy (friendship? or more? who knows) so he doesn't turn him in. Cue another time jump to the 70s. Eggsy is still trying to evaluate what the best way to handle this is. Kill Chester? Tell him what's going to happen? Ask him to make sure a Harry Hart never gets chosen as a trainee?

But before he can decide, it's the 80s, and despite his best efforts to avoid them meeting, Harry is there. And Eggsy falls head over heels for this Harry, who is so different from the man he knows, but it's still Harry, after all.

Chester, now having left Lamorak behind and being made Arthur, notices and puts two and two together that this is the reason why Eggsy has been coming in and out of his life now for almost forty years. It was never about him, or Kingsman, or anything else that had occurred to him.

... but it still takes until the next time skip (hello 90s) for Eggsy to pull the trigger, so to speak. He has to make a decision now. What to change, and how, in a way that doesn't completely mess up the future? He might have trusted Chester a little the first couple of jumps, but now this is the Chester who was a callous fuck about Lee dying.

Meanwhile, Harry is hurt and furious and confused that Eggsy vanished and Arthur (nee whatever his original title was) seemed to know exactly what happened and only infuriatingly told him to be patient and wait.

(And that's another oof for Eggsy -- has he already changed things too much? Harry in the future will recognize him, won't he?)

Eggsy makes the difficult choice to kill Arthur, but Chester talks him down from that, and asks him the real story of what's been happening, pointing out that he's kept Eggsy's secret for fifty years; if that's not a sign that he can be trusted, well...

Eggsy decides to gamble it all on this Chester not being a complete bastard and tells him an edited version of the story (mostly withholding specific names and dates). Not just what happened in Kingsman, but also how fucking stupid Valentine's plan actually was, and the disasters that it caused even when it didn't fully go through. How close the world came to nuclear fallout.

Eggsy then is propped to 21st century, but he stays under the radar for this final visit to the past, not wanting to meddle further with time. At least as far as Kingsman is concerned.

(Dean, on the other hand, gets a very scary visit from a man that promises to slit his throat if he ever lays a finger on his wife and stepson again. )

When he's finally returned to the present, nothing has changed. Fuck. Fuck. He shouldn't have trusted Chester. Or maybe it was all futile to begin with. As far as he can check, everything played out almost the same way, which means that maybe time just can't truly be changed.

Some time passes. And then he receives a message. From an account named Lamorak, asking to meet in a location that only Eggsy and Chester knew about. Eggsy shows up armed to the teeth, not sure what to expect, but sure as hell not expecting to find Chester and Harry alive.

Both of them had put together what they'd both been told (intentionally or unintentionally) by Eggsy and come up with a plan. They'd play out events to the best of their ability, aware that the Eggsy they'd one day meet was not the same that they'd already met--with some insurance. There was never a poison in Eggsy's drink, it was always a drug so that Arthur could pretend to be dead. Harry didn't get shot in the head, he grabbed Valentine's hand and got shot in the heart instead.

You know. Supposedly.

They've both been lying in wait, unsure of exactly when Eggsy went back into the past, and taking the chance that enough time (ba dum tish) has passed and it's safe to come out. They've come up with an excuse for Harry to still be alive and have the trail of paperwork to back it up, but Chester is done. He's not coming back. He's fine with being known as a traitor. It was about time that Kingsman had a good shake up, anyway.

Low-key bittersweet parting, with lots of hugs (Eggsy insists because it's a long-running joke that Chester finds hugs insufferably twee and ridiculous) and Chester disappearing, and Harry and Eggsy getting their happily ever after.

we do not accept Kingsman 2 in this household, thank you.

[worthyheir]

Re: being a bastard, right to succession, and the dragonseeds. This is going to be critical of the show, but it affects my portrayal here and I'm also probably going to link this on my pinned post because of how important it is to my portrayal and also there's gonna be book spoilers so buckle up:

First off, the dragonseeds: These are Jace's idea. There is no specification in his original idea (in the show) that it should only be highborn who try to ride a dragon. It is about finding people loyal, sure, but also, people who are able to claim a dragon. If we go with the show and Rhaenyra basically laying claim to the idea, and the red sowing happening the way it does in the show, then that is fine, I suppose, but Jace would have been there, though he would have been not okay with how it went - not allowing them to flee, first of all, was a very calculated Rhaenyra move that I think highlights how they have her arc going (I have a whole post to write on my multi about Rhaenyra re: these scenes too), but Jace does not oppose ANYONE becoming a dragonrider, so long as they are loyal to his mother and the cause. The dragonseeds is the only option they have left to fight against Vhagar, as far as they are concerned. They don't even know that Tessarion has also taken to wing yet, which gives them another dragon.

The fact that his alliance with the dragonseeds, offering them lordships and legitimacy, is all HIS idea, that is then repudiated by Rhaenyra, is a BIG REASON that Ulf and Hugh defect to the Greens during Tumbleton (the show is for sure gonna make Hugh defect for other reasons, if all his set up is to make any sense, but whatever). Nettles and Addam are loyal to Rhaenyra / the cause, why Hugh and Ulf are loyal to themselves and the fact that they are dragonriders, but if Jace had not died in the Gullet, they would have likely been given those titles OR, at least, Jace would have argued it enough that they might remain loyal to HIM (because he would be heir after Rhaenrya and could ensure it at some point). Jace's death is the catelyst for Hugh and Ulf defecting, and for Nettles spending time with Daemon vs. the others (because she and Jace became friends), which Nettles and Daemon's relationship (whether platonic or not) becomes closer which that + Hugh and Ulf switching sides is what leads to Rhaenyra's distrust.

He does not oppose that bastards ride dragons, because he is well aware of the rumors (or fact in show I suppose) about his own father, and how those rumors affect him and his succession. But he had a dragon egg hatch in the cradle to him - he is the blood of the Dragon without dispute, and that is not being taken away because bastards may lay claim to dragons when they also have the blood of old Valyria.

"It was to them that Prince Jacaerys turned --- vowing that any man who could master a dragon would be grands lands and riches and dubbed a knight. His sons would be ennobled, his daughters wed to lords."

Being a bastard / his right to succession: There IS a deep rooted insecurity in his supposedly being a bastard (the show making this pure fact vs. the books making it propaganda is a weird move but I can't hate on any of the casting because it's all so well done so we will ignore it) and his ability to succeed after his mother, even before the Dance begins. That is why he tries so hard to be seen as a worthy heir and successor to Rhaenyra his entire life. Particularly after the birth of his two youngest brothers, who are clearly full blooded Targaryens, the sons of the heir and the current King's brother.

He does not resent them - if there's one thing about him, he loves his family deeply - but he is intelligent, and understands that younger Aegon might be placed before him by the Lords and Ladies of Westeros, who would see him as having a more legitimate claim based on that alone, when the Greens spend such a time making his bastard status so loud (despite the fact that he is very publicly claimed by his father Laenor and his two grandfathers - Corlys and Viserys. While that alone should be strong enough, particularly after the dance starts, he understands that the right to succession is going to be challenged again if they do win and Rhaenyra sits the throne, because the rumors are firmly planted by that point, rather than just court speculation. Several lords have been told that Jace, Luke, and Joff are bastards at this point, and many believe it, and probably resent the fact that Rhaenyra was able to get away with it, especially when that may make their own holdings and titles challenged by bastards of their fathers.

It creates contention and discord among people and it is because of his claim, and his mother and father, that he knows he might have to fight for his right to rule after Rhaenyra, or that he will be killed (and Joffrey) so that the ascension goes to his younger brother who is so clearly Targaryen and recognized as more legitimate than he is. His claim comes from his mother, and he is a dragonrider so that he is a Targaryen is without question, but it doesn't mean his paternity doesn't bring too much into question.

[catchyhuh]

LUP AND LANGUAGE!!

just our special guy today because i’ve realized i have very complex thoughts about my main man’s polyglotism and the way i see it utilized in canon and in fan work from time to time. i will be rambling, i will be going off target, this is a promise SO LET'S GO!

so baseline, lupin was bilingual from almost birth, with the whole mixed upbringing and all. so we know that, from the start. french dad, japanese mom, you-- i mean it would be jarring to somehow not know a lick of either. I MEAN THEY GOTTA TALK TO THE BABY SOMEHOW

when he was about 4, the Horrors began. you can’t be much of an international thief only speaking two languages that are… really only primarily spoken in their countries of origin (canadian french is very different you know) so they started piling on more: spanish, italian, english, german, they tried cantonese too, but he had so much trouble with the tones that they dialed it down to mandarin, and he… still had trouble with the tones, because even as an adult that’s a LOT of voice control that he tends to lose when he’s overly happy or upset. so yeah it was hard for a FOUR year old to manage it

it’s kind of funny though; the first language he could really speak was japanese, and the language he usually defaults to, the language he THINKS in, is STILL japanese. all those language courses just for him to stick to ol’ reliable

however, certain words pop up in french first for him; usually numbers. by the time he was learning to count, his dad was more adamant about him speaking french more, so numbers (and colors) register as french in his head before he runs them through a little translator in his head and goes “TWENTY” at top volume. if somebody is describing a math problem to him in japanese, even though he’s most comfortable IN that language, he has to redo the whole thing in his head in french to really get his answer. yes, it’s miserable for him

the language he speaks SECOND most often is usually english, but more for a comedic beat than anything. ironically, lupin uses english the way some english speakers use french, in a way to be goofy and overdramatic about mundane shit. but also if you buy into the “jigen was born in america” thing then it just makes even MORE sense he’d be speaking it semi-often

the thing about his french is that while it’s still deeply ingrained into him, he… very rarely sees it come up in interactions. even when IN france, he sort of subconsciously removes his personal connection to it out of the picture. it’s like speaking portuguese in brazil, or speaking russian in, uh, russia. more of a needed skill than a part of HIM, really. in order to truly unlock his French Mode, he’d need to be around someone speaking french OUTSIDE of france, because, weird as it may sound, that’s just how he’s connected to it. and then he’d talk to them for a bit, start slipping into it naturally, and he might accidentally lock himself into it for an hour or so after they’re done talking. this is really the only kind of instance that gets him to slip up around any of the other four, because in his mind, why would he be speaking in french when he knows he can better communicate with the sorry bastard in front of him in another language?

i leave you with one final note to a question you could maybe be having idk: so, how many languages CAN lupin speak? and the answer to that is uh. i don’t know. many. whatever is plot relevant. are we like counting piglatin too or

[dontcallmecarrie]

Ursula Major

midterms + season winding down = STRESS

so, here, have something I’d forgotten I’d saved in my drafts for By Dawn’s Early Light, which is one of the many AUs that’s had me hitting my head against writer’s block for a while now. So if it feels weird, that’s why.

.

They were surrounded: Whiplash’s power core had been shot out partway through the fight, leaving him stuck on the defensive with only backup power against two and a half squadrons of HYDRA elite that’d been scrounged up from gods-knew-where and operating on intel far too accurate for anyone’s tastes.

“I told you to upgrade your specs,” Tony ground out as he fired his repulsors and tried to ignore the way his gauntlets were a few minutes from overheating. He’d be able to make do with the leg thrusters, though it wouldn’t be comfortable for anyone. “Told you to double the plating, but nooo. ‘Better maneuverability’, you said. ‘I don't use a flying tank because I’m original’, you said. Now what?”

“Oh, shut it, this isn’t as easy as it looks,” Ivan growled before Uncle James cut in.

“Keep gossiping, it’s not like I’m being shot at or anything.” He drawled, and they all cringed as the distinctive ping of enemy bullets hitting his arm rang over the comms even as he continued. “Y’know, back in my day, I’d have gotten evac’d by now. What’s the holdup?”

“This is a shitshow and a half.” Ivan groused, “on my way, old man. Think you can you hold out for five minutes? Brat, cover me, I won’t be able to get there otherwise.”

And then JARVIS spoke, completely upending the situation with four simple words:

"Hera has been activated. ETA, two minutes.”

.

Tony was the first to break the momentary silence.

“Well, shit.”

.

“Tell me that’s not what I think it is.” Ivan said immediately, with admirable aplomb. 

“JARVIS, did you have to tell her?” Tony asked in a pained voice, but Ivan ignored him as he continued.

“You made her armor? I thought she didn’t do fieldwork!” 

“Neither did I, it’s supposed to be for emergencies only and she hates flying—”

And then Hera touched down. 

.

In retrospect, maybe giving Juno armor wasn’t the best of ideas. 

Maybe, just maybe, the enormous scepter had been a bit much, and the wings were definitely overkill now that he saw them in action.

Mistakes were made that day. 

Many, many mistakes were made.

.

There was screaming. And explosions. Lots and lots of explosions.

Tony might have even pitied a few of the poor bastards, if they weren’t HYDRA assholes. As it was, he and Whiplash exchanged a single look before sprinting to Renegade and ducking for cover as Hera made her wrath known.

.

“Remind me to never piss her off,” Ivan muttered to Tony as he cautiously peeked over the ridge and surveyed the carnage. “She was scary enough without the armor, dammit, she shouldn’t be able to do that.”

“Like you’re any better before you have your coffee.” Tony replied, but silently agreed as they made their way to the extraction point... or, at least, what was left of it.

The entire base was leveled. Sure, he’d tried to make sure everyone he cared about could take care of themselves, but...maybe he’d been a little too enthusiastic with some of the modifications. Then again, it was his mom they were talking about, but there was no way they’d be able to get the intel they’d been looking for now.

“I missed a board meeting for this—”

“Ivan, you and I both know you hate those damn things, why are you complaining—”

“—I’m going to have nightmares of this for weeks, brat, don't try me.” Ivan snapped, and swore softly under his breath as they continued their slow march. “I am not happy about this, it was a mess from start to finish—”

“We are in agreement,” a cool robotic voice said, and they didn’t jump only because the outline of the Hera armor contrasted greatly with the devastated landscape around them. “Whiplash, Renegade, I can carry you both to the drop point. Iron Man, can you fly?” 

“Give me a few, but yeah.” He flexed his hands experimentally, making a face as he felt the heat still coming off his gauntlets. “Maybe ten. What happened?”

Despite the digital modifier, Tony could hear the smile in his mom’s voice. “HYDRA was attempting to collaborate with some upstarts trying to make a name for themselves. And here I had thought we’d heard the last of AIM.”

[cellarspider]

23/30 Characterization speedrun

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We return to a movie that exposits with all the grace of an inebriated hippo on rollerskates, Prometheus.

Y’know, I have a soft spot for the first movie adaptation of Silent Hill (2006). Yes, we're tangenting to talk about something else I like better, but I swear it's for a purpose.

It mostly sticks to the first game’s content, meaning it limits the number of themes it has to handle. It makes some alterations that affect its interpretation–it switches the gender of the protagonist, alters the religious elements, cuts out the bit where you basically fight Baphomet at the end of the game, but that always felt weird anyway. And, of course, there’s a required appearance by a certain tetrahedron lad, reanalyzed as a punitive figure turned outward on the world rather than inward toward the person that conjured him. I’ll allow it, partly because I saw it when I was a teenager and I thought he was badass.

But what it really nails camerawork, creature effects, and set design. So much so that a lot of the visuals of following games lifted from creative decisions made for the movie. The Silent Hill movie is more a thing of vibes than anything else, and the vibes are appropriately awful.

[Video description: Rose (Radha Mitchell) and Cybil (Laurie Holden) encounter a Lying Figure (Michael Cota), AKA Armless Man or Straightjacket. There’s only a tiny amount of CG here. It was pretty much all Cota’s unnerving shuffle and his willingness to be shoved into blinding, deafening, arm-tying monster-bondage with a breathing tube hidden around butt-height.. We salute you, Mr. Cota, possibly with our feet.]

But where the movie trips and falls is right near the end, where the vibes screech to a halt so that the movie can sit you down and explain the backstory that it already intimated throughout the rest of the runtime.

On a totally unrelated note, Janek has something to tell Shaw.

This barren moon, believe it or not, isn’t the Engineers’ homeworld. Y’don’t say.

You know what would’ve been a better way to set this up? Have somebody ask “hey, there’s nothing but rocks and ominous buildings here. What gives?”, but they literally never do. Not even the biologist, who does no biology in the movie. The geologist, who also doesn’t do any geology, doesn’t note, say, a lack of siltstone that’d indicate running water, no coal of any kind that’d indicate previous growth of plant matter, no signs of oil or natural gas deposits derived from ancient microbes. Lord knows the poor bastards weren’t swamped with work before the script ate them.

But no, there’s no questioning of this. Shaw dictates in her notes “Was there an outbreak here?”, after exploding the head. But that’s it. No, we leave it to Idris Elba explain, as seriously and as military guy-ily as he can. This is a weapons lab or depot, something went wrong here, Janek’s going to do a self-sacrifice if it seems like the weapon might get to Earth. He even says the weapons are in “those vases”, in case you didn’t notice them before.

Consider: Principle photography for Prometheus was done in 2011, from March 21 to June 10 (cite 1). On November 14, Filming began for Pacific Rim, in which Idris Elba gots to play a serious self-sacrificing military guy with the exact same mustache who has an actual character arc, AND was allowed to use his actual accent.

In Prometheus, Janek apparently had more characterization planned, but it was stripped entirely away until all you’re left is a christmas tree, a plot-mandated laxity in keeping track of passengers, and incomprehensible flirting with Vickers. On balance, that’s more than pretty much everyone else gets, but at the same time, what does that tell us? We are left with a man who’s going to pull a heroic sacrifice, essentially because he’s the only other character we know about.

In cut material, Janek was originally going to give a sympathy monologue to Vickers after she killed Holloway, about a traumatic event in his military career: he watched a bioweapons lab suffer a breach that ended with its destruction. That was cut. His motivation was cut. And more, too, you can see the ragged edges of the script. 

“Right, ‘all you do is fly the ship,’” quotes an exasperated Shaw. “That’s right,” says Janek, who told Vickers that in a cut scene.

Despite these pieces missing, I haven’t been drawing on them very often. Why? Because the movie was still full of baffling decisions, regardless of how they edited it down. The movie that’s shot never looks like what gets shown in theaters, but it is still a representative sample of the material, one that was prepared for us to watch.

While Janek’s entire motivation fell off him in the editing room, Vickers gets undermined by what they did keep. Turns out she’s not just nasty to her employees, she’s nasty to her boss as well, because he’s her dad. She’s presented as obsessed with making sure he dies, which, fair, we’ll soon confirm that his only begotten robo-son is pretty big on that too.

…Except this also means they have the same character motivation, which… That can work, but how well does it work as a twist? 

I am not convinced. Vickers has constantly been pulling power plays on David, who’s pushed back a little in return, but they don’t have to functionally be siblings to make this work. Nor does the weird, occasionally robotic behavior from Vickers have to mean “aha, you see, they are both Weyland’s children with daddy issues!”

She could just be a disposable asset of the Weyland Corporation! She’d have a more sympathetic arc that way, because unlike corpos of Aliens past, she doesn’t want to be there at all. She didn’t want them to talk to aliens, she didn’t express any of the usual flimsy “we can profit off of this uncontrollable killing machine” stuff we’ve come to expect. She seemed to just want to get the fuck out of there. And obviously, she’s gonna die, this movie is frequently aping Alien and Aliens, the corpo does not survive. That could be tragic!

But apparently she wanted to be here, taking five years out of her life and career to sit on ice and do literally nothing but make sure her already dying dad actually dies. Okay. 

It’s especially, structurally weird, because the very next scene has David explaining his motivation to Shaw.

“What happens when Weyland isn’t around to program you?”

“I suppose I’ll be free.”

“You want that?”

“”Want”? Not a concept I’m familiar with. That being said… doesn’t everyone want their parents dead?”

This is what happens when you leave a hyperintelligent newborn alone for two years with nobody but Peter O’Toole as a role model. 

This scene and the pre-caesarian one set up a weird dynamic between David and Shaw that didn’t seem sufficiently motivated by the rest of their interactions, in my opinion. It suggests that David has latched onto her in some way, which the next movie certainly confirms. But why? They’ve barely talked, ad most of it was pure exposition or telling David to do something. Is it because she hasn’t been as bad as the others? Because that’s going to change later. 

David’s hopes are pinned on the Engineer rejecting Weyland. This is a reasonable assumption. The way the scene plays out, however, is not entirely reasonable.

And that will have to wait for another day. Before we get to that, I want another ramble all to myself. About something I like.

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Alt-text rambles:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/paulbhartzog/558247427/in/photostream/ 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greeble 

https://youtu.be/cOrcwL5MHYg

Overflow Ramble 1

The kitchen counters don’t have any grippy surfaces on them, and no lip. The *stove* has no lip, which I have seen before, but it’s stupid. Most modern designs for stovetops meant for installation on ships have a high lip and/or grippers that hold cookware in place. There are multiple open shelves that have no lip. And there’s yet another piece of Decorative African Art just hung on the wall above a food prep counter, within the potential reach of steam or grease splatter. The chair Holloway sat in last time is revealed to be free-standing, as is the coffee table.

No. No free-standing furniture, unless it’s collapsible and used at rest. Put lips on every counter and table. Have lots of grip mats you can throw down anywhere. The design in here is more along the lines of airline tray tables, which are meant to be stowed during rough flight. There is no way to stow all this shit in a reasonable and timely manner. Airline furniture is also designed according to hostile forces, which, frankly, might be relevant here. This comfy, beige apartment space was designed by someone who did not give one fuck if a glass went winging off that 2m tall open shelf and gave you a concussion.

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[strawberry-jan]

I wrote an endnote to one of my fics that ended up being so long and spoiler-heavy that I had to exile a big chunk of it to my tumblr - so here you go: a big ol' Effort Post about the history and fictional history of your guy and mine, Ishin Wagi.

If you haven't finished Ishin, you probably shouldn't click to read the post under the cut, as it contains big endgame spoilers.

In contrast with Inoue Genzaburo — who’s portrayed in Ishin and other media as a serious, level-headed sort of guy — Serizawa Kamo was a heavy drinker with an infamously short temper. He was born in Mito and, like Sakamoto Ryoma, he was a member of the goshi class, though it should be noted that the extreme discrimination that we see Ryoma experiencing in-game is pretty specific to Tosa’s goshi; Serizawa wasn’t particularly poorly off. Also like Ryoma, Serizawa was involved in shishi activities: he was a member of the Tengu Party, an anti-foreigner political group whose members committed various acts of violent rebellion, including the 1860 assassination of Ii Naosuke (a high-ranking official in the Tokugawa shogunate whose death comes up in letters that you can find in Ishin Kiwami). Serizawa didn’t participate in the assassination, but between his ties to the Tengu Party and an incident in which he executed several of his subordinates for no good reason, he ended up in prison, where he assumed he’d be executed in turn. While there, Serizawa was said to have written a poem with his own blood on a piece of scrap cloth: “In the snow and frost, the plum blossom is the first to bloom in brilliant colours; its fragrance lingers even after the petals have scattered.”

In late 1862, Serizawa was released from prison. By early 1863 (and here I’m skimming over a lot of historical context) Serizawa had joined up with Kondo Isami as a member of the Mibu Roshigumi: the precursor to the Shinsengumi, so called because they were a bunch of ronin whose headquarters were originally in Mibu. They worked under the patronage of the Aizu clan; one of Serizawa’s brothers may have had connections to the clan, which Serizawa and Kondo might have leveraged to gain support for their organization. As a commander, Serizawa was kind of a disgrace by most accounts: among other offenses, he was responsible for wrecking a restaurant in a drunken rage and destroying a silk merchant’s shop with a cannon. Most importantly for my purposes, he was allegedly the man who picked a fight with a bunch of sumo wrestlers in the streets of Osaka.*

Serizawa was murdered in 1863, and there are various theories as to why. It’s popularly assumed that the guy was just a huge bastard who was too out-of-control to hold down his job, and that Hijikata and several other members of the organization killed him accordingly. Another theory that you’ll see sometimes is that while his familial connections were useful, Serizawa himself was a liability whom his companions discarded as soon as they felt secure in doing so. Under this theory, the issue wasn’t so much that he was badly behaved (though this probably didn’t help); it was more that he had his own little faction of men who went around looking down on the others and calling Serizawa “sensei,” and that Serizawa had ties to Mito, which remained a hotbed of seditious activity. (In fact, in 1864, civil war would break out in Mito as the Tengu Party staged an armed rebellion against the shogunate.)

I understand why Ishin’s writers dropped most of Serizawa’s history. It’s complicated, it’s not directly relevant to Ryoma’s story, and Inoue is a secondary character who’s meant (like his mainline counterpart) to come across as a superlatively loyal mentor figure and not as a belligerent asshole. But it’s interesting, in that context, that the writers went out of their way to allude to Serizawa’s history in weird ways. In-game, Serizawa is described as “a living shadow from the Mito domain” — which, okay, you could indeed describe the historical Serizawa that way, given that he narrowly escaped execution and then left Mito to join the Roshigumi. But he’s also described as a wandering bandit who took Hirayama and Hirama under his wing before meeting Kondo in Kyoto, which doesn’t particularly fit with history. Okita — our Okita, the fake one, lol — also says that the three of them committed dappan and were promised a pardon by the Mito domain if Serizawa assassinated Yoshida Toyo, which also has no basis in historical reality but which does make him an accessory to the big players’ nasty schemes for a comprehensible reason. Finally, Serizawa’s school of swordsmanship is referred to as “Mito Tengu” despite the fact that, historically, Serizawa trained in the Shindo Munen school. Conveniently, Ishin’s writers managed to skip over Serizawa’s awfulness on a personal level and to avoid depicting the character in the game as a prominent (and very willing) member of a violently xenophobic political group. I’m listing all of these oddities not to make a judgement about the whitewashing of history, but because it's interesting to me that what did end up in the game is there at all: the writers didn’t need to, but they established a connection between Serizawa, the Tengu Party, and the shishi more broadly anyhow.

Of course, I have the brain disease that makes me latch onto minor characters for no good reason and will therefore take whatever little crumbs of Ishin Kashiwagi I can get. Still, typing all of this up made me think about the missed opportunities here. I would have loved to see the writers do more with some version of Serizawa who was a little less of a bastard but who still committed himself to the shishi’s cause in his Mito days and then grew disillusioned with that cause during his stay in prison and his time with the Mibu Roshigumi. It’s a neat point of sympathy between Inoue and Ryoma, who finds himself similarly chewed up and spat out by the Tosa Loyalist Party in the game. That connection lends gravity to Inoue’s decision to tattle on Ryoma to Kondo but also to keep covering for the guy every time he says or does something transparently suspicious. They might be, in a sense, kindred spirits.

It felt too tangential to delve too much into all of this stuff in my Ishin fics, but you can imagine this sense of sympathy lying behind Inoue’s actions throughout Chapter 4 of Secret History &c. (as well as in his little sequence in Chapter 2 of Glorious and Bloody Deeds &c.). You can also imagine that some of the big shishi conspirators in this story would have known about Serizawa’s origins in Mito with the Tengu Party — it was no big secret — and that they would have been appalled by his new allegiances but also suspicious that he had died because of his old ones. It’s also pretty reasonable to assume that the big Choshu players would have some sense of Saito’s identity, given that Hanpeita and Katsura are allies in Ishin’s version of events. Of course, I also think that our Ryoma wouldn’t know shit about any of this and would absolutely respond like, huhh? whaaaa??? to any/all allusions to the complicated politics behind all these stories. If you’re in a state of perpetual confusion about people and politics while playing Ishin, you’re just doing a great job of role-playing Bakumatsu Kiryu.

Anyway, nearly everything I write is turbo horny and my Ishin fics are no exception, so please don’t read them at work, but they’re very much about the stories men tell about themselves and others, and I think if all this stuff interests you, you might find the yarns I’ve spun interesting as well.

* This is another event that’s mentioned in passing in an in-game letter that was added to Ishin Kiwami, and whatever my feelings about that remake might be, I think all the letters and notes are a brilliant addition; I was tickled to see a reference to this incident show up! Historically, the Big Sumo Brawl happened well before 1867 and it had nothing to do with the events covered in Ishin, so please understand that when I’m writing about it in my fic, I’m mashing events together and playing around with a big Bakumatsu sandbox in a way that I think feels true to the game’s style of writing. I thought it would be funny to have Inoue lay claim to the act when he wasn’t even on the scene; it brings the story in line with history, but in the stupidest possible way. (Also, I submit to you that the smut is practically canon-compliant and likely historically accurate. :V)