#When Luna draws a narrative in her head...it is over

[countessofravenclaw]

You know how Luna and Nina never had an argumetn in canon...

Here's them having one in my fic... WIih no context, except if you are up tp date with S2AU

“Never.” Nina shook her head. “They would have not done that. If they would have been in a position where they couldn’t have been able to provide for their own child, they would have never had a child. You know what they think about the system.”

“Well, accidents happen right?” Luna pointed out, “That’s why the health class always tells us to be careful, although I don’t really understand…” 

“Yes, I know that,” Nina interjected, “But I also know for a fact that they believe in abortion. I think they have even spoken publicly on the cause.” 

“I guess so, but that still doesn’t mean for sure…”

“Luna,” Nina said again, “Let me humor you for a second… There is no chance they would have ever given up a child for adoption willingly—If they truly had been in such a position that they had had a child that they would have been forced to give up … Think about them now, they are millionaires with all the resources in the world at their fingertips, you don’t think they would have tried to find you, her, it? Do you think they would have lied to Gastón all these years. He has always wanted siblings.”

[thedistantdusk]

Thanks to @jenoramaca @gryffindorhealer and @secretkeeper13 for the quick beta work!

A gift for my beloved @ginisbetterthanfirewhiskey.

CW: Language and domestic fluff

______

Trying

From the second he walks through the door, Harry can sense that something’s changed. It takes him thirty minutes to suss out why.

In retrospect, the smells coming from the kitchen probably tipped him off. Or maybe it was Ginny’s distracted hum, followed by the tinkling of plates and cutlery. Perhaps it was the fact that she prepared a full dinner, long before he even got home.

Nonetheless, he doesn’t worry about it too much as he greets her with a kiss, his hands cupping her chin. When he sits across from her at the table, there’s something furtive and curious lurking behind her eyes, but their meal is so peppered with normalcy that he doesn’t bring it up. They banter and laugh about Luna and Robards and wonder what they’ll bring to the Burrow on Sunday.

But when they’ve reached the stage of chasing stray noodles around their plates, Ginny finally clears her throat… and just like that, the nearly imperceptible shift he’d sensed earlier turns into something very perceptible, indeed. “Can I erm. Talk to you about something?”

He pauses, mid-bite, and takes her in. Her lip’s worried between her teeth, her hands fidgeting. Even her hair, normally strewn about her shoulders or parted to the side with a sort of effortless grace, is tied back and resting low at the base of her neck.

Ginny’s not normally this… serious. And he’d be lying to say it didn’t frighten him.

So he blurts the first thing that comes to mind. “Who died?”

There’s a half-second pause in which his chest clenches, his stomach churns. Could it be Molly? Or Arthur? George hasn’t been great either, not that—

But Ginny just reels back, confused… and it’s not until then that Harry realizes he’s really, really misread something.

“I… w-what?” she stammers, brow furrowing. She peers at him for a pained moment before her face relaxes into a look of understanding. “Oh. Oh! For fuck’s sake,” she mutters, rubbing her forehead. “I guess I’m thicker than usual, should’ve known you’d read it that way.”

Harry snorts. “Erm… darling, as many things as I legitimately don’t understand, I’m fairly sure this one isn’t on me.”

Ginny ignores this. “Did you seriously think that something dreadful happened and I’d just spring that on you in the middle of your bolognese?” Her lips twitch into a smirk. “Here’s some pasta. By the way, a fire burned a puppy orphanage to the ground. Could you pass the salt?”

He gives her a plain stare. Nice try. Years ago, he might’ve taken the bait and chased her down that rabbit hole. They might’ve had an hour-long, spirited debate on the existence of puppy-specific orphanages. But after three years of marriage, he knows better.

And she knows he knows.

Ginny finally draws a resigned breath. “No,” she says slowly. “No one died, ok? Or is even… I don’t know, sick or infirmed or threatened.” She waves her hand and continues babbling. “Last I checked, even Muriel’s still going strong, somehow. I’m jealous of that, you know— being old enough to just say whatever the fuck you’d like and have no one question it because—”

“—Ginny,” he cuts across on an exasperated sigh. “As chuffed as I am to chat about Muriel all night, I’d really like to know what’s bothering you. Please?”

There’s another pause as she bites her lip. Then, in one swift motion, she attempts to rise to her feet and push her chair in on her way over to him.

But somewhere along the way, something gets crossed— and Harry watches in bewildered horror as her foot catches on the leg of the chair. Then, right in front of his eyes, she lets out a startled gasp, her arms flailing, before she lands with a thump.

He’s out of his seat and on the floor beside her before he even realizes she’s cried out in pain and surprise. “Are you ok?” he demands, pushing her jeans up around her ankle… her tricky ankle, the one she hurt rather badly at the playoffs last month. Hm. It's a bit red.

Honestly, she hasn’t been this clumsy since she was 10 years old and near a butter dish. This does nothing to alleviate his fears that there’s something Very Wrong.”

“It’s not even my ankle that hurts,” Ginny grits, pushing up on her palms. “Wait— Harry, what are you—”

“Need to ask Gwenog,” he says urgently, running to the other side of the table for his wand. “She said that if anything happens to your ankle to tell her straight away, remember? Better safe than—”

She scoffs. “Seriously, Harry, I’m fine! I didn’t even land on my—”

He arches an eyebrow. “Have you suddenly forgotten the Puddlemere match? When your ankle broke clean through the skin?” Even now, the memory makes him shudder. “You heard Gwenog— without magic, you might not have walked again.”

“But there was magic,” she says, almost pleading. “And seriously, I’m fine!”

Harry finds he has limited patience for her heroics, though, while she’s sprawled out on the floor and nursing a bruise on her arse. “Gwenog’s instructions were quite clear,” he says firmly. “Having a pro athlete as a wife is a group task. It’s taxing on your body. I’ve got to make sure there’s enough of you left to enjoy our lives.”

Ginny clears her throat. “Erm… but what if you… haven’t actually got a pro athlete as a wife. Technically speaking.”

Harry swallows. He’s sure he’s heard her wrong. “What?”

With a wince, she adjusts herself against the wall. “I’m sorry… this isn’t how I’d planned to tell you. I’ve really fucked this up, haven’t I?”

Normally, Harry might press a bit harder. Normally he’d demand answers— and now. But as he peers at her on the floor, there’s something soft and uncertain behind her eyes… something timid. So he decides to do something he knows he’s good at— something she doesn’t let many other people do: take care of her.

With a sigh, he scoops her from the floor and brings her to the sofa. Then he props her against the pillows, putting her legs across his lap.

And he waits.

He doesn’t know how long he sits there, peering at her downcast face, before she finally says it in a rush.

“Iwanttohaveababy.”

It comes on a whisper. A breathed admission. He knows, just from her expression, that she’s never said it aloud.

But he must have misunderstood. There’s no way he’s not projecting, inserting the reality he wants instead. “Could you… could you repeat that?” he manages, his voice gruff and shaken.

Ginny just sits up straighter; her cheeks as red as her hair. “I want to have a baby,” she repeats, the confidence building with every word.

Oh. Looks like he was right after all.

Harry blinks at the carpet, his head spinning, mortified with the tears that have sprung, unbidden, to the corners of his eyes.

A baby. Their baby. A smile plays at his lips as he stares at her ankle in distracted bliss. He’s been ready for ages… longer than anyone he knows. It’s hard to remember a time when he didn’t want a family with her. When he didn’t want to watch her grow and change. To become more beautiful with every passing day until…

He swallows back another round of tears; he’d never forgive himself if he forced this… if he swayed her, in any way, despite what he wants so badly it squeezes his insides.

“But what about quidditch?” His voice cracks; he clears his throat to cover it. “Honestly Ginny, I’ll wait, as long as you’d like. We’re young. Think of what you’d deal with, loads of assumptions and press and comments.”

She turns to him with an arched brow. “And since when have I ever cared about comments? Since when have you cared about comments?”

He spreads his palms in resignation; it was a particularly weak argument. “I know. I just… don’t want to make your life more difficult.”

“Well...” She draws a deep breath and peers down at her nails. “I’ve erm. Actually quit the Harpies, all by myself.” Her cheeks begin to redden again. “I’ve already sent the owl and everything. Resigned. No intent to return next season.”

Oh.

That’s what she meant, then, about not being married to a professional athlete. Harry blinks a few more times as she plows through an explanation that could honestly be something from a dream.

“I’ve… I’ve just been thinking about it. A lot,” she adds, focus returning to her cuticles. “The Harpies are out for the rest of the season— that fucking Puddlemere match and that bullshit ref.” She glares at the pillow to her right. “Nothing like blind favoritism. Fucking prick should’ve been fired!”

All Harry can manage is a feeble chuckle, his hand moving to caress her knee. This time, he can’t bring himself to stop her spiral.

“Maybe it’s not just that match, though,” she admits, rubbing her ankle. “It’s also just… so much bloody work. I’ve been at it three whole seasons, you know? I’m a bit tired of missing birthdays. And family events. And only dreaming of bludgers and snitches. And attending the mandatory press interviews to avoid getting fined, and then giving polite answers to personal questions when I really just want to hex them, and—”

Harry laughs. “I think Sandra Richardson might disagree about the polite answers bit, darling.”

Ginny gives a dignified sniff and continues as if she hasn’t heard him. “Annnyway,” she says, toying with a piece of lint. “I… feel like I’m ready to move on. So.” Her face splits into a grin as she gestures to the corridor. “On with it.”

He clears his throat. “As much as I’d love to take you up on that, I’m confused about how this relates to quitting your job. You could’ve kept playing. Or—”

“—Why is it so hard to believe this is something I want?”

There’s a beat. He doesn’t have a good answer.

“What if I wanted to quit before I got pregnant?” she continues, her tone growing more demanding. “What if I was done with playing, regardless — and genuinely wanted to have children? Your children.”

She lets out an incredulous laugh, tossing her hands in the air. “I have to say, Harry, this feels an awful lot like you’re doubting what I actually want to fit a narrative of what you think I want.” Her eyes narrow again. “Is that really respecting my wishes?”

“No,” he says quickly, shaking his head. He’d never thought about it like that before… how it might be insulting, really, to question what she’s ready for. He laces their fingers together, feeling properly chastened. “I’m sorry. I never meant to… suggest you don’t know what you want. Or something.”

He hears the timid smile in her voice as she squeezes his hand back. “Do you still want a baby, then?” she asks. “Or are you just in it for the practice?”

A smile creeps across his face, his eyes still focused on her hands. “I… think you know the answer to that one.”

“Well, I’m not sure I do,” Ginny says flatly. “Because I just told someone who wants two million babies that I’m ready to carry his first child. Forgive me if I expected a bit more excited fanfare than acting like I drowned your kitten.”

“What’s with you and baby animals today?” he murmurs, inching her pant leg a bit higher.

“Wonder why I’ve got babies on the brain,” she quips, raising her eyebrows. “Maybe because I want one.”

Harry releases a resigned sigh. She’s clearly done playing. “Honestly…” He bites his lip. “If you’re sure that’s what you want, I’m obviously on board. Obviously.” His eyes flit to hers. “I just… I don’t want to be responsible for something you end up regretting.”

It’s the truth of the matter, really; the thing that tugs at him the hardest. The fear he’d ever burden her… the worry he’d ever make her less than happy.

Ginny gives him a small smile, her hand coming to cup his jaw. “I’m going to take that as a weird, sad Harry thing instead of an attempt to remove my womanly agency.” She narrows her eyes. “But that’s your final warning.”

Harry doesn’t need to be told twice. He’s on his feet in a split-second, gathering her into his arms with the stupidest grin he’s ever worn. Trying. Is that what they call this? Are they actually properly trying now?

“Get used to this,” she says as he strides into the bedroom. “Because once you knock me up— on purpose, mind— I’m going to request a lot more transportation.”

“I think I can live with that,” Harry murmurs against her lips, draping her across the bed.

And to avoid a well-deserved slap, he doesn’t say the final bit: As long as you can live with me.

[gins-potter]

Can you do Ginny Weasley for the ask game?

i certainly can lovely x

why i like them

i loooooove my girl ginny because she's a fucking badass, she grows so much over the course of the books, and she just really comes into her own as someone who isn't afraid to speak her mind and knows her own worth, and i love that for her.

why i don’t

the one thing that kind of bugs me about ginny is she can kind of put ron down sometimes, which isn't always unjustified since a lot of the time it emerges out of arguments between them, but i think she can sometimes zero in on his insecurities and target them because he's said something shitty about her. like i'm specifically thinking about that scene in hbp where he slut shames her (which was so not cool) so i'm kind of torn between, she's justified in having a go back at him and damn i wish she wouldn't do that because i'm also a proud member of the ron weasley defense squad.

favorite episode/scene

i think one of my favourite ginny scenes has to be in ootp when harry's worried about being possessed by voldemort and she comes out with that line "Well, that was a bit stupid of you, seeing as you don't know anyone but me who's been possessed by You-Know-Who." because she was kind of a quiet character through the first few books but this is where she really stands up and makes people take notice of her. but then she follows it up by talking about her experience being possessed which couldn't have been easy but she knows harry needs to hear it to understand better what's happening to him, so i think it shows a lot of bravery on her part as well.

but i also really love at the end of bhp when harry tells her they have to break up and she just knows, and doesn't really put up a fight about it because she knows it's something he has to do. and maybe that's a little out of character for her, but i see it more as a sign of how much she's matured because as much as she doesn't want to let him go, she knows she has to for now at least.

favorite season/movie

has to be hbp just because not only does she continue to come into herself as a person and character but we get all that hinny goodness in that book.

favorite line

eughhhh so many. cause i mean "Anything's possible if you've got Enough Nerve" is just so iconic. and then i love "leave him alone, he didn’t want all of that." because she's like this little 11 year old coming to harry's rescue and i just love it. but i also love her little moments of humour/witticism which i think are kind of underrated like "a pygmy puff, but I didn’t say where." So many good lines.

favorite outfit

oof that's a hard one cause i feel like we don't really hear her fashion-sense described a lot in the books but @blvnk-art definitely draws a lot of my fave fanon ginny looks.

OTP

is there a correct answer besides harry?

brotp

i have to say i'm pretty partial to ginny's friendship with the rest of the silver trio.

head canon

maybe this should actually be my unpopular opinion but i don't really see her as a journalist, so my headcanon is that she has a long, successful quidditch career, probably plays for england in the world cup at some point, and eventually "retires" to a coaching gig or even flying teacher at hogwarts (at this point i imagine her kids are all grown up and moved out and harry has retired from the auror department and is teaching dada at hogwarts also).

unpopular opinion

idk if this is really an unpopular opinion but i find the take that ginny's feelings for harry are just the result of a lingering childhood crush and therefore not necessarily genuine to be kind of stupid. like, there was clearly a period of time across books 3ish, 4 and 5 where she clearly moved on from that crush, tried to date other people and realised she had genuine feelings for harry, and i think you can see that in how she's really willing to call harry out. when you have that kind of crush on someone you think they walk on water and do no wrong, which just doesn't like up with how the canonically are when they got together.

a wish

i wish we'd seen ginny more in books 4, 5, and 7. 4 and 5 mostly just to lay a bit more groundwork for ginny as both an individual character and as a love interest for harry, just because his interest in her in sixth book is a little abrupt (i can buy that he's just seeing her in a new light but wouldn't have minded a few more hints in those previous books). i also wish ginny, luna, and neville had gotten more of their own storyline in the last book, yes yes i know it's harry's story but there were a few scenes where the narrative shifted away from his perspective so i don't think it would have been that out of place. and i think after how they proved themselves in books 5 and 6 all three deserved that extra bit of attention.

an oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen

this is more a fandom one but oh god please don't ever ship her with draco - personal dislike

5 words to best describe them

brave, witty, powerful, badass, level-headed

my nickname for them

might be obvious cause of my url but i do like the nickname 'gin' for her

give me a character and i will answer…

[lizzieraindrops]

Chapters: 6/6 Fandom: Destiny (Video Games) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Eris Morn/Ikora Rey Characters: Eris Morn, Ikora Rey Additional Tags: 5+1 Things, Hello destiny sapphics; allow me to introduce myself, Femslash, if nobody is going to write the content i want to see then i will create it myself, listen. it's about perceiving the weak and wounded places in someone you love, and lavishing love and care upon them even when they won't admit they need it, it's about the Mutual Support, it's about being kind to them even when you don't know how to be kind to yourself, Light Angst, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, oh and ikora has the most Distinguished Bisexual energy i've ever seen so jot that down, it doesn't come up but you needed to know, this is all just a bunch of softness and tenderness don't @ me okay

Summary:

Five storms Eris and Ikora weathered and one they didn't need to.

The Shadowkeep weblore lives in my head rent free. Set post-Taken King and mostly during Shadowkeep.

“As I told Asher, there is a storm coming...” “Oryx is dead. We’ve weathered the storm.” Ikora is upset. She has yet to understand the bigger picture. “Yet his sisters would see his will done. There will always be another storm.” “Then let’s weather it together.” -Shadowkeep Narrative Preview #1

Many thanks to @hencegoodfortune for the beta read and of course for the memes.

Chapter: |  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |  +1  |

Set just after The Taken King.

Eris knows she is not in the Hellmouth. Although the Tower has never felt the same since her ordeal on Luna, she recognizes it easily nonetheless. At every moment, the freshness of the open air reminds her that she is here, she is on Earth. She has been for some time now.

However, she has never forgotten how to move like a ribbon through the darkness, arcing undetected round predator and prey alike. She doubts that she ever will. Sometimes the habit returns of its own accord, and she’ll find her feet and hands floating weightless as she moves. Joints and muscle and sinew flex in careful concert to absorb every sound before it is made. The lines of lightly tensed limbs spiral seamlessly into the coiled core of her, tethering her in perfect silence. At the same time, she remains ever ready to fight, ready to flee. How often has Eris’ last, Lightless life lay along the knife’s edge of a split-second choice, the divergence between action and stillness, vengeance or survival?

Somehow, the smooth stone of the Tower’s level floors is harder to walk quietly on than the rough winding warrens through Luna’s porous rock. There are no edges to test with the edge of her boot, no uneven surface to ease her soles onto by swift and silent increments. There is only the unsubtle strike of heels on a flat, unforgiving surface. She makes the most of it, as every Hunter here does. Still, it leaves her uneasy. Her feet cannot quite keep to the ground.

Consequently, she often finds herself pacing, wandering from her post in the heart of the Tower whenever she grows restless. Every step falls lighter than the last, chasing silence in a meditation on weightlessness. It does not make her feel any better.

After so long underground, she is unaccustomed to the plenitude of open space here. While she has traced much of the Tower’s perimeters, the negative spaces in the centers of broad rooms and vaulted halls she leaves less frequented. She is too exposed there.

Yet maybe she is less affected by the empty space than the sheer number of souls that so often fill it. After so long so alone, they are simply so many, pressing at her survival-sharpened awareness from every angle. Not to mention she attracts too many of their stares in the crowded plazas. Although detection here is not followed by shrieking howls or the lightning strike of boomers, distrustful eyes still make her hunger for shelter. The choice to endure or to withdraw still needs to be be made. And whether well-meaning or ill-intentioned, a close approach still makes her instinctively recoil.

Eris has scraped out a place for herself here, lingering close enough to share with those who will listen the knowledge she has gained at a terrible price. But it has been made clear enough that she does not belong here anymore, not as she once did. If the condemnation of the Speaker and the only begrudging trust of the Vanguard’s Commander were not enough to tell her that, then the wary regard of most of the Tower’s populace would. So she holds herself back, toward the edges of things. It is difficult to do so at her station so near the Hall of Guardians, the greatest locus of Guardian activity on the planet. She draws herself to her full height and stands there proud, but never takes the ground she stands on for granted. When it becomes too much, like now, she paces.

This time, her pacing has led her to the edge of the Tower where her ship was once tethered. With how wary she has grown of exposed spaces, the open sky above that lays bare every courtyard and balcony should send her seeking cover - and yet, it does not. If anything, its incomprehensibly vast expanse calls to her. Strange.

Eris has traversed the spaces between planets with her own fragile body, with only a ship’s hull to keep the cold from swallowing what remains of her. Yet from Earth’s surface, a few mere miles of atmosphere transforms that emptiness, and its beauty holds her spellbound. It scatters sun into prismatic slices of light. The stars’ unblinking gaze softens into a flutter of eyelashes. No longer can she see the narrow spectrum of colors that humans evolved to discern; it has all faded into endless shades of the same hue. But the contrast of such brightnesses against the dark have become sharper than ever. Indeed, daylight has become a blaze to truly blind her. These stolen eyes of hers were made instead for depths and shadows.

Even so, she often finds herself staring out into the searing sky until her head aches. The sensations make her remember. She is no longer buried beneath stone, lost to this cosmos. She is free now, in some ways.

Eventually, her wanderings bring her back to the shaded refuge beneath the stairs just outside the Hall of Guardians. She is glad for this, too. Her station provides some small respite for her sensitive, ever-weeping eyes. And there she stays, until exhaustion drives her to rest, or else grief or fear or restlessness or her ever-smoldering rage drive her to pacing once again.

It’s true that many other eyes pass by that shadowed alcove of hers. Guardians constantly sweep in and out on either side of her, running and jumping and gliding up and down the stairs with urgent reports and important orders and burning questions for the Vanguard. They are so bright. Few of them spare a glance for her, these days, save for startled new Lights.

There are a few, though, who look upon her not with distrust or fear or begrudging tolerance, but with recognition. Once in a great while, cousin Asher will grace her with his inimitable company. It gladdens her heart, even when he merely stops to exchange research notes or brief insults. He cleaves to his research with a passionate vengeance, as does she. Unlike most, he pays more attention to her knowledge and her current work than her past. With the way he helped care for her in the months after her escape from Luna, she has come to hold him in close confidence.

On occasion, her friend the Guardian, who avenged her fireteam upon the very souls of Crota and Oryx, stops to greet her. Sometimes they bring her news from Luna or Mars. Words are few with that one lately, though. These days, their outgoing ghost is the one who relays whatever tidings they carry. The change leaves a cold shadow over Eris’ heart. Therefore, she values their quiet presence all the more. She fears for them.

Of course, Ikora’s is the kind regard she is subject to most often. Eris has never forgotten that Ikora believed her since the beginning. Most met her genuine warnings of inbound danger from the Hive with distrust, dismissal, or fear. Ikora not only listened, but met her with endless kindness. Even now, as the Warlock Vanguard steps into nearer chamber of the Hall for a brief consultation with Lord Shaxx, she spares a moment and a smile for Eris.

Ikora’s smile has always been warm and real and reassuring, a balm on the fibers of frayed nerves. Among the very few who welcomed Eris back to Earth, that smile was a signal of genuine care and safety that she homed in on immediately. The one directed at Eris now is subtle, a mere quirk of the lips. Yet it hints at the vast depths of passion and compassion below the surface, like a ripple that disappears swiftly on the surface of a deep, deep pool.

Ikora’s outward cool composure that obscures that intensity is not a façade. It is more an ingenius piece of architecture, a mighty aqueduct capable of holding and channelling the endless font of her inner immensities. It is an elegant and functional work of art well-kept and expanded over centuries.

The warmth that must be behind such a small yet genuine smile is palpable; it falls on Eris like the creeping warmth of sunlight, sinking in deep even though it scarcely touches her skin. Even the lower half of her face, where her many layers do not shield her from long-lost Sol, is still sallow and nearly as grayed as the dust of Luna. She hadn’t known at first, with the changes to her vision, not until Asher had told her. He never does shy away from the speaking of truth. In those endless years of darkness, the lack of light and loss of Light took something from Eris, sapped something vital, and left something strange in its place.

Yet Eris can feel the sun again, now. She can walk out into the courtyard at any time of day, find a south-facing wall to lean on, and bask in the radiating warmth like an ectothermic reptile.

Even without leaving the cool shadows of her post, another warmth still reaches her. Ikora offers her one more smile as she goes to return to her own station. Eris stands a little taller under the aegis of her regard, her spine the stem of a sunflower lifting her toward its steady kindness.

Eris takes not a single one of these boons for granted. Each one is a precious gift far beyond what she ever expected to experience again, after her descent into the Hellmouth. Yet none of it can quell her restlessness, for it springs from the same source as her gratefulness. It always comes back to what happened to her on Luna.

Each time she returns to her pacing, the Tower feels a little smaller. The scope of the sky distracts her for a shorter time. Now, even after her sworn vengeance upon the Hive has been fulfilled twice over in double deicide, the path of her vow still pulls her feet forward. She does not know where its shrouded course leads, only that there is still a threat yet to be met along it. More and more, she is certain that she cannot wait here to meet it, or it will be too late.

However, she never expected to leave behind wounds when she leaves. After she departs to sight the next storm on the horizon, she is haunted as often by the surprised hurt that she left in Ikora’s eyes as by the memory of her smile.

[lightcomingthroughthedarkness]

Do you still think Bellamy cares more Clarke then she does for him? After this episode it seems like he could care less about her. Even before he joined a cult....

It's not about if the characters love the other more or not, it's about how the NARRATIVE presents the story. We all know Bellamy and Clarke love each other. We all know they are best friends and have a partnership. But the way the narrative presents that love is different than knowing they love each other.

Clarke gets a 20 second reaction to Bellamy's death and then the narrative doesn't have time to stay with Clarke. We have to support Raven... but Bellamy got an entire episode going through all 5 stages of grief of losing Clarke.

The narrative gives Clarke 20 seconds and Bellamy 40 minutes. We stay with Bellamy's feelings, we follow his feelings, we connect to his grief, we get to stay and we get to feel his pain, his love, his longing, his overwhelming loss. We don't get that with Clarke at all. We know from 6 seasons worth of episodes that Clarke obviously cares but we never get to stay with her and thus the emotional connection is, well, not lost no but lacking. The feeling that Bellamy cares more is because we get to spend time with him/those feelings. The same is not extended to Clarke.

If I only watched the episode when Clarke finds out Bellamy is dead as a person who has never seen the show, I'd never think this is an epic love story. And of course, you need context and the entire series to see that. Sure. But also, not really. If I had just watched the episode when Bellamy deals with Clarke's death, it would have very clear that it was a love story. A man in such grief over losing the woman he loves, we spent an entire episode dealing with that. There's a difference. The only thing equal to that, is Echo's love for Bellamy this season.

Clarke however is given time to grieve Lxa. 3 seasons worth of time. Here the narrative finds the time and the place to force Clarke to stay and RETURN to those feelings. It becomes a shadow of her. Drawings, memories, mentions, call outs, symbols of Lxa here and there. The narrative has since season 3, kept Clarke in this relationship, in this grief, this love, this loss, this person.

However, Bellamy got 1,5 scenes about Gina's death, who was his love in season 3 too. And if we don't want to use Gina here, how about his relationship with Echo, built through time jumps and pushed to the back. Just the notion that Bellamy's love stories are equally as important and treated with care is simply not true. They aren't. He's the male lead yet his relationships are deemed not important enough to even be shown let alone developed.

There is in imbalance. Even if we do not get to stay long with Bellamy's other relationships, we get to stay with Bellamy's love for Clarke. That's not what happens with Clarke. We never get to stay with her love for Bellamy. There is always somewhere else to go, someone else to help, someone else to love, no time, no place etc. There is always an excuse. In the narrative, Clarke's love for Bellamy can be seen throughout the series, yes. But we have several moments in one single scene where we see Bellamy's love for Clarke. Times 6 seasons.

I know that people say "this is not who Clarke is". No. It is. She is. She broke down over Lxa with Murphy AND with the delinquents. She broke down over Lxa with Abby. She broke down over Lxa with Roan. She had a moment about Lxa with Luna. She was called out by Allie, Josephine and hallucinationAbby about her love and grief of Lxa. She's had moments with Madi about Lxa.

We've had the same thing happen with Octavia and her love for Lincoln. The same thing with Echo and her love for Bellamy. Yes, the STORY development in those relationahips are different from Clarke's storyline. But the point is the narrative makes time and stays with those feelings for those characters.

I don't know why people say Clarke is the head and doesn't show emotions the way Bellamy does. Yes, she does. She has several times. But the narrative rarely lets her do that when it comes to Bellamy. Of course she has had moments and I'm not trying to erase them. They are there. But I do not think the narrative presents them as equal to those we have seen from Bellamy. I simply do not.

So by watching this show, yes, I still believe the narrarive has shown that Bellamy cares more. At least, I have an emotional connection to Bellamy's love for Clarke, than I do Clarke's love for Bellamy.

Sure, he's with Bardo now. Good for him. Maybe Clarke can actually step up then and fight for him longer than 20 seconds and then maybe I'll have another answer for you next time.

[jincherie]

pebbles to recommend!

✑  in the light of recent situations and the fact that a few of you have even been so kind as to share some love and positivity with me, I’d like to share some of my own! these are some of the fics that I’ve been reading and loving lately! I haven’t had time to read much, but I hope u all enjoy what I’ve managed to stumble upon as much as I have!

ps. lets leave them something nice and let them know how fantastic they are!

✎  blood magic by @cakebite ​

maknae line x reader | magic au, fantasy au, royal au, yandere au | series

  ➥  in a word, fantastic. i’m not sure how many of you know, but yandere is my guilty pleasure and it’s not that often that I come across it being actually well written and portrayed. This is one of the few fics for the genre that I’ve read and deeply enjoyed. But aside from that, I love the way this world is brought further to life with each and every installation, I adore the fantastical nature, the little tidbits and factoids revealed to me one by one-- it has me thirsting for more! This is a read I easily got immersed in, and it’s not yet complete but I’m looking forward to more adventures in magic, mystery, fantasy... god I’m ready.

Part of why I love well-written fics of this genre is the inner workings, the finer details and each little turn of the cogs that makes the clock tick. I absolutely love that in this fic that is incorporated so seamlessly. From the beginning, there is tension and there are stress conditions-- and while they maintain and level out, with each introduction of the boys (without reader knowing they’re the princes, which is a dynamic i die for btw) and further build of their relationship, along with the glimpes of their background and the environmental factors that are probably going to lead to one or all of them Snapping... it all blends together in a magnificent mass of tension, and for each update that comes I’m on the edge of my seat. I don’t think there has been one in a while, but this is the kind of fic that I’d drop whatever I was doing to read!

✎  quarter quell by @chinkbihh

jungkook x reader | hunger games au, yandere au | series

➥  another yandere story, another insight into my guilty pleasure. again, i don’t often rb or rec many yandere fics simply bc its not often i find one that really pins it and I love enough to rb-- but luna never fails to provide, and I’ve found myself enjoying a number of her stories, most recently this one!

Usually, what I look for and enjoy reading about is the slow build, the climb and increase in yandere behaviour as they grow more comfortable/more obsessed with the character. Even so, this fic dumps it all on its head and I find myself loving it nonetheless. It’s the setting, the unique conditions that allow the yandere features to come out immediately and unabashedly-- and watching the integration of it all, how every aspect of oc’s situation is working together, is fascinating,, and putting yourself into oc’s shoes is terrifying. Luna puts a lot of effort into her fics and each installment she publishes is long and carefully put together,, and that’s something I really appreciate. I love a lot of her works, and this one in particular, because there is always just such attention to detail, such immersion around it all that draws me in and hooks me. I’ve seen her musing about where to take this on her blog and to be honest I’m really excited to see wherever it goes!

(ps. please send some lovely things her way if you end up checking this out, we all have times where we’re a little more in need of some tlc than others!)

✎  immortals by @bang-tan-bitches ​ 

ot7 x reader | supernatural au?, drama, smut, dark fantasy | series

➥  this is one i read a little further back, but one I definitely am still hooked on! What I really love about this one is just.... the mystery of it all. I’m a sucker for dark fantasy and urban fantasy and this bad boy rolls it all into one. Each installment reveals a little more and yet,,, not enough to fully satiate your hunger for knowledge. there are a lot of conditions, restrictions, barriers for the reader-- the push and pull of her innate desire to go to them vs. the constraints of her life and her thoughts is delicious. I remember in particular that each little interaction with each member made my tummy dip, they were so cute and so... thrilling? These two have a real talent and it shows through with fics like this one. I’m not sure when the next installment is, but I’m definitely waiting for it with baited breath!!

✎  beastly gods by @lemonjoonah ​ 

taehyung x reader x ?? | hybrid au, dark fantasy au, slight dystopia au?? | oneshot

➥ i read this as soon as it was posted and honestly.... I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. there’s something about it that just carves out a piece of you and replaces it with a piece of itself. It’s so memorable!! I love it dudes. The whole tone and vibe of the fic from the beginning, the chase and the combination of thrill and fear,,, and Taehyung.... I love the way that the story was set, the premises and tone, and I love how it was maintained all throughout-- what I abolutely love the most about it is that it allowed for that fucking FANTASTIC twist of an ending!! This story, to me, had OOMPH, and I love that man. I’m going to revisit it sometime soon and I definitely recommend checking it out yourselves. I wish I had read it more recently so I could gush more readily, but definitely check it out for yourselves and send some love!!

✎  agape and pragma by @uwugalore ​ 

ot7 x reader | hybrid au, poly au, smut, fluff, angst | series

➥ this is one that i’ve been reading consistently, and have been hooked on from the beginning. from the very first chapter the premise is so heartbreaking, and i was able to really align with the oc and what she was feeling, how her world had been turned so upside down. and then, seeing throughout the following chapters as the members slip into her life & home one by one, healing the pieces of her bit by bit... ugh i might have wept. it’s so soulfully sweet and lovely, this fic, and the spots of angst really just serve to make it sweeter. I love a fic that makes me soft and fuzzy while still having some hot as fuck smut, and this definitely serves that. plus hybrid au! already pinpointing several of my weaknesses. i definitely recommend checkig this out because it quickly became a favourite of mine :) 

✎  beautifully misfit by @orphicbts ​ 

maknae line x reader | hybrid au, angst au, smut? (subby maknae energy) | series 

➥ this is another kind of recent one that I’ve been enjoying over the past few months, and can i just say it’s got a firm hold of my heart and my future puth. If you’d read florescence u know i have a budding weakness for shy boys, blushy boys, and GOD when she introduced each of the boys it had me cooing--- ESPECIALLY jimin. i cant wait for things to bud and bloom and develop, the little hints of nice things the reader is going to do-- ahhh i can’t wait until jimin gets glassses!!! and sees oc all the time!!! and blushes more!!! aaah!!!

It’s just so very sweet mixed in with the little tidbits and aspects of their past which, are sad and angsty but mfkgjdg u know.... u know that hurt/comfort shit hurts so good. I’m really super excited to see where it goes and how their relationship and dynamics develop in the coming parts!

✎  home by @zerotexas1975  

jimin x reader | hybrid au, fluff, angst? | series

➥ I remember reading this when the first part came out ages ago and immediately being hooked, because I saw the prompt by hybridfanfiction that it was based off and love it. And straight away it was so sweet and cute and wholesome, and as we’re quickly discovering I’m an absolute slut for shy boys!! It was standalone for a while, but let me tell u when i saw there was a second part out i screamed and dropped everything to read it-- and!!! it’s so good!! she’s starting to implement the plot now and she’s making us WORK for that sweet validation, work thru the angst on the near horizon, and i appreciate that. it took such a turn that i really wasn’t expecting it but I love how the dynamic between them and the relationship has budded and begun so far. 

✎  euphoric endeavours by @/haveagreatday (AO3) 

ot7 x reader | vampire au, college au, mate au, poly au | series

➥ this is another fic that I’ve been reading for a long while, and from the very beginning I loved the fire of the reader, the spunk and how she wasn’t afraid to go up and confront one of the biggest names on campus. and then reading further and observing the change, the transition in their dynamic. when she found out, vs where she is now. I really love the way she had the reader change and grow, and that seems to be a very big theme in this fic that I really admire! The reader consistently looks to herself for ways to grow and change, and do the boys. The story is so rich and in depth with their history and backstory, all the dynamics and the goods and bads of their past and how it affects them i the current day. I definitely recommend it for an investment and a good time. 

✎  twisted tails & thunderlight by @stskpop ​

// ot7 x reader | hybrid au, poly au, angst | series

// ot7 x reader | supernatural au, fantasy au, witch au/magic au | series

➥ twisted tails is one that I found recently, and although there’s only one part out that I’ve seen, I really love where it seems to be going so far! it’s an interesting spin on the au that I haven’t seen very often, but god... I’m really excited to see how she’s going to spin it and how it’s going to play out. how the grief they must be feeling over oc’s sisters death is going to work with everything else happening, how they’re going to interact and feel about her.... I’m keen to discover how it will all blend together.

And thunderlight... can I just say, I love love love this one! I found it through twisted tails and !!! i love it!!! it’s so rich from the very get go with plot and narrative exposition, the way everything is being set up so smoothly. I’m absolutely hooked, I want to know who this demon is, and whether it’s going to have the gratifying happy ending that I crave so badly... god I love it, and I’m eagerly awaiting the next installment!

!! let’s use this as an opportunity to make their days!! I think it would be really awesome to use this to spread a little more love & positivity, so please send something nice their way and even feel free to reblog this with some fics you’ve been loving yourselves if you’d like! I’d love to see what you’ve been into and check it out!! :) <3 

[emsartwork]

ask dump pt. 2

1. Cinderella is bound to the source of craftsmanship, covering glass and metal found along the french Italian border. Pythia, the major fairy of prophecy is bound to the prophecy source, covering time and divination magics. Mulan is the major fairy of war who was training Nebula to take over before the wizards trapped Tir Nan Og, she has the same source as Nebula in Norway. Vasilisa is the major fairy of transformation, her source deals with change and a little bit of time magic, and can be found deep in a Russian forest. Scheherazade is bound to the source that deals with narratives, connection, and some night related magic, in the desert on the Saudi Arabian Peninsula. Maria “La Muerte’s” is the major fairy of life and death, a uniquely dual source in central America, while this source contains incredible healing powers, it also deals with a magic concerning the soul and for a long time people who encountered it were either spontaneously healed or randomly died if they didn’t have the proper magical protections in place.   @drops-of-moonlights 2. nah, it’s just lynphea. I guess the sun they orbit could be called Marigold? but its def a planet not a moon. 3. about 10 years. 4. Yeah I can do a chart for Male magic users and witches! it wouldn’t look the same as the fairies one lol. Yeah no anybody that tried for sirenix while Daphne was tied to it basically died. I’m still thinking on the religion one.... cus like the great dragon is kind of real??? so is it a faith or a reality or both??? Red fountain is a boys only school and they don’t have any satellite schools. There are lady paladins for sure tho!! The alfea staff are either non-human (paladium and wizgiz) or they are a magic wielding paladin (avalon), or they use fairy transformations(faragonda is actually a nymph and griselda uses enchantix primarily). You can only use one transformation at a time, and the enitial act of transforming uses a lot of power that is sustable only because of the looping connection between the core and the wings(like a car battery) so while a fairy COULD switch between transformations at will, they would be absolutely drained and is they push too far could die. 5. most pick their title based on what spells they like to use. Bloom is tied to the dragon flame so that is predetermined, but she could call herself something else if she wanted to hide it. Stella is also tied to the second sun of solaria through her bloodline, but since she’s half luna she calls herself the fairy of the sun and moon. @nondescriptfrenchfry 6. that is the exact mood i was going for, og pythia is NOT sunshiney lmao 7. It was actually just based on which hand would show the bracelet better lol! @x-i-l-verify 8. Thank you! and youre welcome lol i enjoy drawing the girls @greetings-fiends 9. its possible but not advisable because it messes with the magic users head. Most of the transformations are highly specialized and cannot be used at the same time as another so no the bars would be still be separate. 10. I might try to include the magic of joy just based on the pretty outfits, and food is at least....... a real concept....... but sports and paintix are all kinda boring and don’t seem to serve a purpose. I might try to make greenix a full fledged nature transformation since my version of sophix is just a boosted version of believix lol 11. hmmmm.... i”ll probably end up drawing their nymphix forms but idk if they woudl really need it.... i could see bloom earning it because daphne did, and weirdly maybe flora? idk why tho 12. Yaaasss helia  --Helia’s dads’ would let him paint little doodles on their arms and stuff but Helia used to secretly mix paint into his dads’ food because he “wanted the pretty colors to be inside too” and accidentally gave them food poisoning several times before they figured out what was going on lol @jackiewinters 13. nah. there isn’t really a “standard” wedding, usually it depends on where they live (like if a Lynphean and Zenithian are getting married but they’re living on Lynphea they would do a Lynphean wedding) but if its on magix or in a big mixed races city people pick and choose what ceremonies they want.  14. Yes i will!  15. I FEEL THE POWER OF THE OOOoooOOOOCEAN, CONNECTING WITH THE DEEPEST PART OF MEEeh sirenix is a boring af transformation but the song is an EARWORM @simplychillcakes 16. oh wow, so im not super good with stuff like this but i’ll try my best. Lynpheans have rich soothing voices, usually deeper toned with long pauses. Zenithians are snappy, not because they’re mad, but because they are quick and efficient and taking time to breath isn’t really a concept for them. Melodians vary a lot, but all have a very clear, crisp, almost ringing way of speaking. Solarians are loud and quick, usually mid to high range tones. Dominians speak a lot with their throat (think scotish/israli) and have mid range tones. Andros has a lilting (think japanese....weirdly enough) pattern of speech, and their talking speed varies HEAVILY based on their mood @its-all-about-that-fan 17. so Bloom has the great dragon which might be a natural source or might be more etheral but idk. But she would probably use a flame or lava related source. Stella is almost basically able to use danix because of her family’s reliance on the second sun of solaria, so she would probably use that. Aisha would be a major fairy wind and water, so like a cliffside source. Flora would probably use nature in general(like diana) or specifically a source of trees and forests. Musa would probably use the caves under the golden auditorium, and be the major fairy of sound. Tecna could connect to the core of zenith and be the major fairy of electricity and mechanism.  18. mostly good? like every family has its issues.  musa is close to her dad, and he’s come around to supporting her music career but theres still some unspoken hurt there for both of them. Aisha isn’t super close with her parents, as she’s grown up shes tried to get to know them as people, but she still holds bitterness over them isolating her for most of her childhood.  tecna is, by zenithian standards, outrageously close with her parents, which by other standards is decently close. They can go pretty long with out speaking tho it wouldnt be weird to them.  flora is closer to her mom than her dad, not that she doesn’t love him or anything its just she has more in common with her mom.  Stella loves both her mom and dad, and if its just the two of them with out the other parent she has a great relationship, as soon as radius and luna interact tho Stella ends up feeling torn and hurt and guilty. She’s trying to stop blaming herself but that would release her deep seated anger towards both her parents for putting her through that. Bloom still feels a little awkward with her bio parents, but tries to spend every other week on domino when she’s not on a mission or at alfea. She spends the other week on earth. Mike and Vanessa are always pretty flexible with Bloom’s magical oddities, and they encourage her to spend time on domino. Bloom will always have a place with them, but now that she’s essentially moved out, they’re thinking about adopting another kid. 

[pricechecktranslations]

TTDS: The Ring of Evil; Chapter 4

Torture Tower Doesn’t Sleep: The Ring of Evil infomine under the cut

Scene 1

Gibbet is having her usual dream of things she doesn’t remember (the one in the previous two novels with the bracelet and such). These dreams make her doubt who she is, so she reaffirms she is Gibbet, and she was made by the torture device creator “Kilka/Kiruca (kiruka) Lassen (rassen)”, etc etc. It also makes her wonder on why she’s different from the others, being the only one who needs to sleep, eat, etc.

The dream doesn’t end when the boy gives the girl the bracelet, as it normally does. It continues. A large owl is flying towards the two. It attacks the girl, leaving the boy crying. There’s a flash, and the bird is gone.

Gibbet remembers the name of the owl as Stolasphia, and the girl as Christabel (kurisutaberu). She remembers that she is both of them.

Scene 2

When Gibbet awakes, she finds she is not in bed but standing in the tower foyer. She can’t remember her dream at all. Someone is knocking on the door, and she realizes that tonight is the meeting with Magion and the others (though they’re knocking pretty hard). She doesn’t respond. Eventually, the other person gets tired of knocking and breaks the door open.

It’s Garnes. There’s other people with him (thirty, I think she says—a fighting force), including Raymond and Tsukumo. She’s attacked by Isaac, but is able to stop him with heavy iron shackles with thorns on the inside. She runs upstairs. The other soldiers are about to follow when someone yells that it’s a trap (which it is—she has an iron gibbet ready to grab them).

After waiting at the top for a bit, she sees a light (Raymond’s lightning) shoot up the stairs and hit the gibbet hanging above, knocking it down. Gibbet speculates that Raymond’s lightning is being enhanced by Tsukumo.

She runs deeper into the second floor to get a new tactic around.

Scene 3

She waits at the staircase to the third floor for the intruders to catch up. She can see more lights, this time the lights of the intruders’ lamps. These are Romalius’ men, judging by the snake insignia on their armor. Along with Isaac, Raymond, Tsukumo, and Garnes, there are other assassins (wearing the same black uniform as Isaac). And, finally, there’s also Magion.

She greets the intruders, giving them a bit of a motive spiel about how awful they are and how the girls are doing a service by killing them to revive their father, blah blah blah (causing them to approach more cautiously and slowly). Raymond is watching the hole in the ceiling to make sure there’s not another trap, meanwhile.

Right as they’re upon her, Raymond finally notices the real trap. The ceiling itself is the trap—the whole ceiling around the hole is not the usual wooden one, but rock instead (presumably set up below the normal wooden one). Assuming I’m reading this right, anyway—it falls and crushes them. Gibbet escapes to the third floor, where she “passes the baton”, so to speak, to Rack.

Scene 4

So, the narrative refers to what Gibbet used as the “suspended ceiling”. They don’t use it much (for obvious reasons). Apparently as a torture device it’s used to crush people more slowly, so as to not outright kill them.

Due to the massive number of people, they’ve actually managed to survive the falling ceiling (all collectively holding it up). Rack goes up to the guy in the front and takes off his helmet, putting on one that’s superheated (a “fire crown”, it’s called—very rough translation, 火頂). What you’d expect to happen happens (and he burns his hands trying to take it off to boot), and she goes to the next soldier (they can’t stop her—they’re all holding up the ceiling). Garnes recognizes it, of course. It’s specifically designed not to kill the person right away, so they can suffer longer.

Garnes tells Isaac to run for a switch that’s behind Rack while he keeps her distracted. He calls her over and they talk for a bit (like how he did repairs on Maiden only to come back to try and destroy them all). She prepares to use the superheated helmet on him, when Isaac throws the switch and the ceiling lifts.

She tries to attack, but Raymond counters her. All the soldiers leap on her at once. She manages to evade them though, dashing downstairs. Raymond and Tsukumo pursue her, as well as several of the soldiers.

Garnes and Magion discuss that it’s better the crew has split up in case they run into any more group traps.

They also discuss the people with them (who are exhausted), Garnes pointing out that one of Romalius’ men (the man Rack put the helmet on first) has fangs and scales. The other soldiers get a bit miffed and Garnes drops the subject. They all decide to head upstairs. Magion looks outside the window and sees the lake, noting that it’s changed slightly from how it was before.

Scene 5

NOTE: You will have to pardon me—this next part is written after I decided to push through and finish infomining the novel, meaning there’s been enough of a time difference between the stuff previous and now that I may have forgotten what I have and have not shared in earlier chapters. So, if I repeat information, I hope you’ll forgive me.

Benji is there on the coast of the lake, the water level much lower than it was before (I believe it says one fourth of its normal height). Luna and Romalius are in a wooden boat on the water, and she bids Benji climb down to join them.

I’m having some trouble visualizing but basically, the portion of the lake that was previously submerged leads into a subbasement for the tower (one they’re traversing via the boat).

This is—slightly confusing for me, but as they approach the tower they see that another tower is there underneath it, designed like its reflection when the lake was full. Luna calls it the “Reverse Tower” (I guess I’m just not sure logistically how that works). As they approach the reverse tower they see another boat ahead of them with two men from Luna’s team. They’ve blown a hole in the wall so that they can enter the reverse tower, but warn that as it’s been submerged for so long it might be unstable.

Luna, Romalius, and Benji all jump from the boat into the tower. They end up in the middle—three floors belowground. The reverse tower doesn’t appear decorated much, and the walls aren’t made from anything Benji’s seen before (not rock or iron). Romalius speculates that, rather than this being built under Torcia tower, Torcia was built to conceal this tower. What he’s trying to obtain in this venture is in this reverse tower.

Luna draws them to another room, where she’s found a small red altar. It’s made up of three parts—the lowest level has (toys?) made to resemble food on plates. The one above it as a variety of wine bottles. And the one on the top level has a wineglass the same color as the altar. It’s labeled “Blood Grave”. It smells horrible, like it’s already been oxidized.

They leave the room, Romalius leading them further down the tower.

Scene 6

Magion is regretting their strategy of splitting up. He’s on the third floor, and the soldiers with him were captured by countless talons (the witch spider things) coming from the ceiling. The unit got scattered trying to escape them. Magion was able to escape along with some others, but then they lost their way and are unable to find the stairs going up. Garnes and Isaac are missing too.

The soldiers with Magion are suddenly felled by Rabiah (who comments that they are familiars like him—I assume this means that what qualifies one for being a familiar is being a wraith that serves another wraith, in this case the soldiers serving Romalius).

Magion has a fear of birds from a trauma in his childhood.

Rabiah explains that most familiars are actually quite strong, and a master wraith usually only has two or three at most—Romalius is able to employ/enslave (the word here is unclear) so many only because he’s stolen that power from Stolasphia (Rabiah’s sister).

Before Rabiah can kill Magion, he is stopped by Gibbet. They quarrel a little (gist of it is Rabiah is bad at making a victim suffer properly to serve as food for Beritoad). Before Gibbet can do anything though, Magion reveals that he came to the tower to talk to her.

Garnes meanwhile is on the fourth floor, alone. Garnes considers going back down to watch the soldiers get tortured, but stays his course of going to see Maiden.

Note that in Hank’s time, the prison for holding victims used to be full of people, but is empty now. Garnes reflects on Hank a little, heavily implying that he was an HER (it doesn’t say it outright), and was only lauded as a hero because he killed the right people (foreign enemies). Garnes himself was praised for his torture work during wartime, but that went a total 180 once peace was achieved (not that he resents this).

Garnes is, to his delight, attacked/approached by Maiden.

Raymond chases Rack downstairs (as she’s the most dangerous from a strategic standpoint), a few soldiers in tow who split up to search the first floor. Confirms that Raymond can use the gold bracelet (the one he hid from Romalius) to strengthen his lightning attack using Tsukumo.

Raymond and Tsukumo find Rack in the dining room, torturing one of the soldiers with “Lissa-chan” (the iron coffin of Lissa). As Rack is distracted, Raymond and Tsukumo take the opportunity to strike.

Scene 7

Opens on Beritoad watching what’s going on. He is accumulating power from the suffering of the intruders. He is positive that today will be the day of his resurrection.

Scene 8

In the fourth floor down of the reverse tower, it doesn’t look too different from the ones above it. The only difference is that there is dense writing on the floor, and old relics and ancient texts lying about (all of them using the same type of writing). Luna says it looks like “Monsolo” writing (monsoro), an ancient type of lettering (though she can’t read it). Hargain was the only researcher to crack its meaning. Romalius has already gone down to the next floor, so they can’t ask him about it. They quickly follow after him.

On the fifth floor down, there’s a large open space. I thiiiink it says that it’s a circular, three-sided stairway for people to sit in (sort of like an amphitheater I guess?). The fourth edge, the part the seats are all facing, is an oblong altar. Amo (still incorporeal) is standing there, and he’s already talking with Romalius. Benji and Luna watch.

He calls Romalius the weakest of the 72 original wraiths (suggesting all others are descended from these 72), and thus is surprised he’s lasted this long. Beritoad is also apparently among their number, as well as Rabiah and Amo himself (note—Luna calls him Amostia—amosutia—so I’m going to go by that now).

Romalius attacks Amostia with a snake (the one from his tattoo), and it bites his arm despite him appearing to be incorporeal. Amostia remains calm, however.

Luna reveals her knowledge of Amostia, saying they must seal him. Explaining this to Benji (who had no idea), she points to the center of the floor, which has a grey bronze (?) statue wearing armor. She says the armored body itself is Amostia’s shell, and what Romalius is fighting is Amostia’s spirit. Their ancestors made the reverse tower to seal him away, and then built Torcia over top of it.

According to Luna, Amostia is one of the seven most powerful wraiths from the old days when there were more wraiths, and they clashed with humans. They need to reseal him because both Reverse Tower and Torcia are aging, and so too is the seal decaying. Note though—this is knowledge she got from Romalius, and she doesn’t fully trust it. She did though find a sheet of parchment in the tower that reads “72nd Experiment” on one of its lines (I think she’s roughly translating).

They’re not sure what to do about it though, so they continue to watch the fight.

Amostia chides him, saying Romalius can’t kill him by attacking his spirit alone. Romalius retracts his snake back into a tattoo. Amostia tells him to leave if he’s just going to mess around—he wants to tell Rack the continuation of the story he’s been telling her.

Finally, Romalius notices Luna and Benji there. He calls them over, and (Benji holding back, feeling in his gut that they are making a big mistake) sends Luna over to the statue. He points at the statue’s feet, telling her to look there. She does. He then brings his arm down on her neck and cuts her head off.

Benji bolts, charging straight at Romalius, furious. Romalius brings his arm down on Benji, and his vision goes black.

[sometimesrosy]

Usually after episode 11 in previous seasons, we have kind of an idea on how the season finale is gonna be like and also how the next season will begin, but I'm kind of stumped with this season. Do you have an any idea on it? this is regarding everything. Bellarke. Sanctum. The anomaly. Madi.

Yeah. I think it might be like last season where the final battle is finished half way through the final episode and we get the last half of the episode to deal with the NEW situation. And bellarke. 

The battle moved up faster than I expected. We’re already in it and haven’t gotten to the finale yet. 

So they’ll solve the sanctum prime problem, probably with a little revolution because frankly the nulls deserve to kick their asses. And right now, the Primes are in an extinction event. Five of them are dead-dead. (we also have five empty mind drives.) Which leaves three of them alive and active. And four of them on ice. Five. Ryker’s on ice now too. We only have Russell, Gabriel and Priya. AND we only have three non prime nightbloods. Clarke. Madi and now Echo. wow.

I don’t know how they’re going to solve it but they will. To me, the more pressing concern is Madi and sheidheda. We’ve seen Madi hooked up in the operating room, but I don’t believe we’ve seen her in that shot from the trailer, where it looks like she’s getting woken up like when the primes wake up. or getting the serum? 

BUT we have a problem. Getting sheidheda out of her head. SEPARATING sheidheda from the other hedas. I think an emp would kill all the hedas and maybe the AI also. So, I speculate that Raven and Abby will try to use the sanctum technology to draw sheidheda out into a minddrive. Put madi to sleep using the serum? “kill” madi to suck sheidheda into the mindrive. remove the minddrive and erase sheidheda??? I still think they might put him into someone else because I wonder if the sheidheda story is done? (maybe they won’t do it until next season. idk. he’s a good villain but he’s not the villain for this season, he’s a subplot.) We’ve never had a villain that unexplored before. So I figure they’ll explore it next season. Kind of like how ALIE was built up in season 2 but not a real threat to everyone until s3. If you follow me you know I think he’s Cadogan. I still can’t shake it. 

And THEN of course, there’s the anomaly. We STILL don’t know what it is. We STILL don’t know what’s in side of it. The spirals are STILL a mystery, although now we can understand the toxins, the visions, they psychosis, and even Murphy’s vision of hell. We also have a disappeared Diyoza who was chasing her daughter. We know the anomaly works with time, i think that vision also worked with time. it wasn’t a projection from Diyoza, it was a vision of Hope as she was in the future. There’s no way DIyoza is dead, leaving us with that story hanging loose. I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop and it’s unconnected to the current plot, therefore I think it’s connected to NEXT season’s plot.

The reveal of the anomaly and Diyoza’s survival and Hope, and.... listen. There are too many people around who were around when the earth was first destroyed and who took an active part in it. THEY ARE THE PEOPLE WHO DESTROYED THE EARTH and WE (our heroes) are responsible for their monster when they let it out. 

Every time I try to see myself out of a story taking our heroes back to the original apocalypse, I get turned right around back to it, because too many narrative threads head right back to the original trauma. 

Yes humanity is a mess. But it’s OUR mess. And no one gets to erase that. Not ALIE by wiping everyone out. Not MW by hiding in the basement. Not Sanctum by running away and saying it’s not their problem. Not Cadogan by forcing the issue of doomsday so he can take over.

What if the anomaly kept Diyoza because Diyoza was the only one back then who was trying to FIGHT the destruction of the earth. She lost, and was imprisoned and now she’s here, but her battle is not over. She lived to fight another day, and now she’s got, like this Alien God on her side (the anomaly,) a weapon designed to fight ALIE (the flame,) a tech genius (raven,) a medical genius (abby,) a handful of demi gods (wanheda, blodreina, the heda, and bellamy i don’t care that he doesn’t have a name yet he is the opener of doors, the key.) the thief, the assassin, the trickster. 

I think the reveal at the end of season 6 will be a mission to fix the original apocalypse. I think the apocalypse maybe sent Diyoza back to earth, to her time. And she can’t do it alone. She needs. SHE NEEDS THE DELINQUENTS because they are the best, most badass team of heroes she’s ever met. She needs Clarke and her curb stomping boots and she need Bellamy and his inspirational speeches and she needs Blodreina and her fierceness and Raven and her genius and Abby and her mad doctor skills and Murphy and his rock throwing and that psycho little Madi. 

Diyoza is a The COLONEL. She’s gone into the alien. What does she care about most? Hope?? Yes her baby. But also she tried to stop the evil hundreds of years ago. And had no hope. Now she has hope. How does she have hope? 

OUR HEROES.

listen. if y’all can try to get my head out of this place, this expectation??? give me something that disproves this theory. NOT “i don’t like it” or “if it goes to timetravel I’m out” or “but i like something else,” but something that disproves this. I thought about alternate realities, but that seems to me along the lines of just ESCAPING the damage that humanity has done and not being responsible for it. Like Luna. She tried to create an alternate reality separate from the real world and it came back. Or Sanctum, trying to create an alternate reality which turned out to REPLICATE or even intensify the sins of the past world. Lincoln said they were responsible. Diyoza said as long as we’re still alive we can keep trying to turn things around. The whole redemption story as being about ACTION and fixing your mistakes. The whole being the good guys. Monty’s disgust about the eligius 3 which was for COLONIZATION and to use up the resources of new planets since they’d taken everything from the earth already. The second dawn doomsday cult. The two suns immortality cult. The grounders warrior cult. 

listen. i have ideas. i’m far too attached to my ideas and i just need this season to be over so I can see what happens.

[solarpoweredflashlight]

Think - Saturn/LT Fanfic

“I’ve been thinking about you,” Saturn says, impulsively, angrily, hungrily, earnestly.

String of Pearls is somewhere nearby. Luna-Terra can read it in Mare Crisium’s input sensors, can feel it in the way she shifts differently. The prototype’s strange gravity changes the vibration of her old beast’s engines against Luna-Terra’s callused palms just ever so slightly.

“You say that like it’s my fault,” Luna-Terra retorts coolly, beads of sweat gathering and pooling between her shoulder blades as she flicks switches, twists dials. Like breathing, the muscle memory of each tiny adjustment, each analog translation from her mind to her body to her Ship-Self’s body and her mind.

But no – they’ve always been very clear they’re not supposed to think of the Ship-Selves as having their own thoughts, their own instincts.

She turns the ever-bleeding warhorse of a robot just so, searching, hunting. The others, perhaps, they use their Ship-Selves to see, to feel, to sense. Luna-Terra doesn’t have that luxury. Does she want it? Hard to say. She’s never known anything else but the struggle to translate her true intentions from one body into another, never known it to be effortless, and she has adapted. Some might say – some have said – that this struggle has shaped her, defined her.

Maybe one day she’ll replace Mare Crisium with a Ship-Self that doesn’t take so much work to make hers. But then, would it really be hers if she hadn’t put all that time and love and pain into understanding how to make it be what she needed it to be, do what she needed it to do?

“It is your fault,” Saturn chuffs, and shows her hand. So damn cocky. Is she trying to be found? Maybe. Ah – but she cheats, that damn Celestial Mechanic. The String of Pearls reveals herself momentarily to the sharpest of eyes, the cleverest of observers, and then recalculates all of existence, fudges the numbers, and she’s gone again with a wink before Luna-Terra can get a shot off. She’s gotten better. Or maybe she was always this good, and she’s just come to terms with the necessity of cheating to get what she wants.

“I don’t control what you think,” Luna-Terra says, and the sweat gathering between her shoulders comes together, rolls down her spine in one slick bead like a greedy thumb down her back.

“I felt that,” Saturn whispers over the comms.

“Get out of my head,” Luna-Terra growls, stilling in her cockpit, straining as if to hear with her human senses. But she can – she isn’t listening through the Mare Crisium, she’s listening to her. The body itself creaks and groans, responding to the tides of that slippery little asshole and her slippery little ship.

“I’m not in your head,” Saturn says, “I’m just listening in on the narrative – and the narrative says you want the same thing I want, I think.”

“And what is it you think?” Luna-Terra asks, a little smirk forming on her face. If she can keep Saturn talking – no, don’t think about it, don’t give her the opportunity to read between the lines. Don’t think, just do.

There she is.

Behind Luna-Terra.

Sneaking up. Snaking up.

The poisoned tip of a monstrous claw following the path of a bead of sweat in reverse, up the back of the Mare Crisium. Luna-Terra shudders, but waits. She knows better. She knows the second move is always more advantageous than the first. When the time comes her body, old though it is, retrofitted and fixed and made to fit if not made to fit, her body will know what to do.

“I keep getting sidetracked by this little thought,” Saturn says, and she doesn’t purr like Pluto does, but Luna-Terra can hear the grin in her voice, the violence, the rage, the trust, the threat, the promise. Sweat along her back, goosebumps along her arm. “Do you wanna hear it?”

When did Saturn get so damn cocky?

Time to teach her a lesson.

Before she has time to think, Luna-Terra is throwing herself forward, body within body, muscle memory flying loose and easy, natural as breathing, translating intent to kinetics to intent to kinetics, and Mare Crisium whips around, a steel greyhound bristling with edges honed sharp by humanity’s cruelties. Her spear hooks String of Pearl’s feet, flips them out from under her, and in a daring move her gravity flares – a burst of urgent assertion. Saturn goes down, but as she does she’s laughing.

“Hit a nerve, did I?” Saturn smirks, looking up at her from the ground as if she’s won the fight, as if she still has the upper hand.

“When did you lose your fear of me, I wonder?” Luna-Terra muses, striding to where String of Pearls lies crushed among the dust of Ares’ haggard surface. She crouches, looming over Saturn’s Ship-Self, and draws her blade. Saturn needs to be afraid. If she’s not afraid of Luna-Terra, then she’s not afraid of the Memorial Foundation. And if she’s not afraid of the Memorial Foundation, she’s not afraid of Earth – and she really, really should be.

“I would say it was the first time I saw you helpless underneath of me,” Saturn quips, and in that moment Luna-Terra realizes the String of Pearls’ tail is coiled tight around the Mare Crisium’s ankle. Too late. “And I realized you wanted to be there.” The tail yanks, and Mare Crisium’s feet are pulled out from under her body. She falls, breath catching, and the shock of the landing knocks the air right out of her.

The dust clouds up, her Ship-Self groans, her human body groans, and the String of Pearls insinuates itself against them both, thighs to thighs, palms to palms, stomach to stomach.

“And now we’re back here again,” Saturn says, gloating.

“So we are,” Luna-Terra says, a coil of something winding tight in her chest. Say nothing, give nothing away.

“You know what I keep thinking about?” Saturn says, as if she doesn’t have Luna-Terra pinned, as if they’re having this conversation casually and not through desperate, tense combat. “It’s really been pissing Mercury off how I keep trailing off and being distracted, it’s actually kind of funny.” String of Pearls’ face comes in close to Mare Crisium’s neck, and Luna-Terra can feel the thrum of her enemy’s Tidal Reactor through their touching Ship-Selves. “You, beneath me again,” Saturn says, her words ichor and wine, dripping poison that numbs and softens.

“I could throw you off of me anytime I want,” Luna-Terra says, attempting to sound unconcerned. Her reward is a loud guffaw, triumphant and childish, through the comms.

“So you admit you don’t want this to stop.”

“That isn’t what I said.”

“So say it.”

“That I don’t want this to stop?”

“If it’s true.”

Silence. Truth. Truth, hanging thick in Luna-Terra’s throat. She loves this. She loves the freedom of failure, loves the liberation of giving someone else total control. She hates having to be the one to make decisions.

Saturn laughs at her through the narrative, if not through the comms.

“Maybe just for a little while,” Luna-Terra says, and as the words leave her lips tension begins to leave her body.

“I’m not like Pluto,” Saturn says, easing their Ship-Selves more closely together, an embrace instead of a grapple. “I don’t think I can just know what you think, know what you want, know what’s best for you. There’s some stuff I can guess. You don’t make it hard to guess.” Luna-Terra feels her cheeks get hot, says nothing. “I’m not in your head, and we don’t have years of history. So I’m gonna need to trust you, LT.”

“You can trust me,” she says, and feels the sweet surrender in uttering those words.

“Can I trust you to speak up for yourself?” String of Pearls eases Mare Crisium to its side, encases it in a gentle hold heedless of the ever-seeping blood of its open wound. “Can I trust you to tell me no when you need to?”

It’s strange, to have it asked of her so plainly, but nice. Yes, it’s nice to not have someone just assume they’ll be able to read her like an open book.

“If you need me to,” Luna-Terra says, relieved to have been given a directive, “then I will.”

“I do need you to,” Saturn says, and Luna-Terra can read in her Ship-Self’s sensors that Saturn has opened her cockpit, “Because if I’m going to tie you down and sit on your face, I need to know you want it just as much as I do.”

“Fuck,” Luna-Terra exhales.

“What’s that?” Saturn croons, mocking. “Use your words, miss big tough ace pilot.”

“What do you want me to say?”

“I want you to tell me whether you like the sound of that, for one.”

“Yes,”

“Yes?”

A pause.

“Yes please.”

“Good girl,” Saturn laughs into Luna-Terra’s ear across the comms, and it’s a pure hit of pleasure, dopamine delivered direct to her brain. “My cockpit is open. You should come say hi, hotshot.”

“You want me to come to you?” To leave Mare Crisium, to enter String of Pearls. She thought it would be like before, when Saturn slipped past her defenses and inside her Ship-Self, inside her thoughts, inside her desires. This wasn’t what she was imagining – if she makes that journey across the chasm between their Ship-Selves, there’ll be no denying her desire, no pretending she was the passive recipient and not an active participant in this treasonous foreplay.

“Do you trust me?” Saturn asks. No. Yes. Maybe. Definitely. Definitely not.

“I want to.”

“Then come try it. Just for a little while.”

Luna-Terra thinks, just for a moment, before she remembers how much she hates doing that – stopping to think. Things never work out right when she stops to think. It’s a human tic she’s long discarded, and so she discards her uncertainty and opens the hatch.

There isn’t far to traverse, wrapped up in String of Pearls’ embrace like she is, but her heart is thundering like she’s run a lightyear marathon by the time she reaches Saturn’s waiting, open chassis.

It feels disrespectful to keep comparing her to Pluto, but they’re both such a big part of her life – both such fucking insistent tops sometimes – that she can’t help it. Pluto, Luna-Terra imagines, would be smiling benevolently, praising her softly for making this leap of faith.

Saturn is smirking, that damn smug idiot. It makes Luna-Terra melt all the same.

“Come here,” Saturn growls through her smirk, taking Luna-Terra by the lapels and kissing her, hard and hungry. Luna-Terra yields, softening and compliant, each shuddering exhale freeing her of the burden of thought, of decision-making, of responsibility. Mine, mine, mine, sing Saturn’s kisses, Saturn’s teeth, Saturn’s greedy fingers. Luna-Terra allows herself to be pulled into the cockpit of the String of Pearls.

Yours, her body whispers, with a trembling release. Just for a little while. Just for a little while.

[first-and-last-neocount]

On a Pale Horse, Part 2

Second and final part, because I already finished the book. Yes, I read that fast sometimes. What can I say? The ADHD is strong in this one. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Piers Anthony did indeed manage to turn it around at the end there, and I ended up enjoying the climax of the book a lot, even though we started on a kind of squicky note. Overall, I can’t really say I’d recommend the book - far too many sensitive topics handled poorly for me to broadly endorse like that - but I can say that I’m going to read the rest of the series, even though the books will be given away when I’m done with them and not kept for my long-term collection. 

Side note, if the first post didn’t indicate it adequately, these reaction posts are going to be chock full of spoilers. The books are decades old, but still. 

Zane is still just awful, but his defining character trait through the whole story - his sheer bull-headed stubbornness - ended up being the crux of the whole plot. It turns out that Satan was cheating the system in an attempt to gain more power; Luna, Zane’s girlfriend, was destined to be a great politician who would block Satan from gaining more influence on Earth, and so Satan was scheming to have her die early and remove her from the chessboard. The other Incarnations found out about this, and conspired to have the old Death killed and Zane take the office; they recognized that he was so incredibly pigheaded that, if he fell in love with Luna and had the power of Death’s mantle to draw on, he would upend the entire system of the Afterlife and defy Satan Himself to protect Luna. 

I’m completely on board with having a morally ambiguous protagonist if it serves a purpose in the story, and in this case it did turn out to do so. I still don’t enjoy the rampant sexism written into Zane’s character, but it’s not enough to put me off when it has a very obvious function in the narrative. 

Also, Zane does get slightly more tolerable toward the end of the book, when he grows a spine and stops whining. For the first three quarters of the book, Zane is very unsure of his footing as Death, and does a lot of waffling and woe-is-me whinging about how his tasks are overwhelming and nothing makes sense and he feels like he just can’t seem to be effective at anything. Toward the end, though, Satan sends a hit squad after him. Zane is forced by necessity to get a lot more decisive, and comes to the realization that he’s been holding himself back, and that he has a lot more power at his disposal than he realized; the newfound confidence makes him a lot more tolerable, though I don’t think he underwent nearly the moral growth I would have liked to see from him. 

The end of the book implies that God and Satan are not actually as much at the top of the pyramid as Zane - and the reader - were previously led to believe. Rather, in the final showdown, Zane was shown to be able to overpower Satan directly... because the matter they were in conflict over was a matter of Death, not Evil. It seems that God and the Devil are only two more of the seven Incarnations that actually exist, rather than five, and their dominions are Good and Evil respectively. The structure of the universe dictates that each Incarnation is inviolate in their own domain, so while Thanatos cannot affect the running of Hell since that is Evil’s domain, likewise Satan cannot affect the proper taking of a life, since that is Death’s territory. 

I love the premise of the story for a whole host of reasons, and I particularly admire it from a writer’s standpoint, because the author managed to set up a scenario with incredibly powerful characters who will never fall prey to being unassailable and thus boring. All of the Incarnations are omnipotent... in very specific circumstances. To raise or lower the stakes, the author doesn’t need a specific plot devise like Kryptonite to be in play - all he needs to do is tweak the circumstances to bring the source of conflict further into or out of the specific Incarnation’s domain, and they will be more or less powerful accordingly. As a reader I actually enjoy complicated political intrigue, so I like the idea of a setting where rules-lawyering and manipulation are key elements of the power struggle; if an Incarnation successfully argues that something is within the concern of their office, they gain more power in the matter, and I really appreciate the flexibilty and creativity inherent in that setup. 

I’m really, really looking forward to starting in on Bearing An Hourglass, though. God, Zane fucking sucks. 

[crimsonlyre]

Vampdoc: 5/19/2018 Prompt

Today’s prompt was provided by @adeptussquid!

Prompt #5: A vampire is learning how to be a doctor in modern times, and must deal with performing surgery.  Hilarity ensues.

As always, don’t hesitate to leave critique in my asks or my notes!

----------------------------------------------------

The bustle of the ER was especially intense today. A gas explosion down the block had resulted in a number of casualties- numbering well into the thirties by the final tally. Doctors and assistants ran about in a blur, medical jargon flying around the space as those patients who were quite a great deal luckier than the others in terms of injury questioned- selfishly- as to when they would be seen. One such particular doctor was a woman by the name of Luna Beauregard- an accomplished surgeon and holder of multiple prestigious rewards.

At least, officially.

The truth of the matter was that Luna Beauregard had died a very long time ago. Then known as Lanette Boudreaux, she had gone through a number of different lives since her official death. Now, one might think it strange that someone like her was employed at a hospital... Much less as a surgeon, considering the nasty case of hemophilia that the condition intends to imply. Luna, as she was calling herself, was a well trained and seasoned vampire. Yes, vampire. The method through which she  subsisted was by hypnotizing the staff in charge of the on-site blood bank, and taking what she needed through those means... Of course, with hypnotism now on the narrative table, it should hopefully be quite easy to guess why she held the position she held.

Supernatural bullshit.

Luna had been an employee of St. John's Memorial Hospital for a touch under two weeks. With no real credentials and no real experience- it was a miracle that she had even lasted this long. With fast talking and fast application of her feminine and supernatural wiles, she was able to scrape by one day at a time... Though a piece of her couldn't help but think that this was- quite possibly- the worst decision that she had ever made in terms of 'work placement', as she had begun to call it. Today was a prime example of how woefully underprepared she was... Seated in her office as the rest of the staff zoomed about the building with urgency, she sat with her feet kicked up on the desk reading through the latest edition of 'Vogue' with a phone and her wallet nearby.

The office, of course, actually belonged to the woman whose place she had taken. The original Luna had indeed been a successful surgeon with a list of accomplishments one hundred miles long, but she could not have accounted for the sudden life change of becoming a vampire's dinner. In her absence, this false Luna had taken her place... Even moved in with the late Beauregard's husband! Of course, with the fact that she had taken this woman's office, titles, and accomplishments? It meant that the very same expectations were placed upon her than had been upon the real thing. Which meant that it should not have surprised her nearly so much when third year surgical intern Renee Wilson slammed her palms down on her desk- having entered without drawing Luna's notice.

"You BITCH!" She exclaimed, her gaze withering as Luna casually looked up from her book.

"Oh, me? A bitch? Darling I save LIVES! What kind of bitch does that, huh? That's right. Not one." The 'doctor' huffed, turning her attention back to her magazine. That is, until a full cup of pencils was thrown directly at her face- falling all over the floor and her lap. There was little more she could do than sit in stunned silence- else risk the possibility of baring her fangs and hissing... So she sat, giving the thousand yard stare to the folded down pages of her magazine as she processed what had just happened.

"Okay. Alright. So you're serious, fine. Why are all you interns so freakin' hormonal? What, did I sleep with you some night and not call you back? D'you wanna' go have hate sex in the elevator or something? This is how that usually goes, right?" If Renee had been red in the face before, now she was practically on the verge of exploding. There was a reason that Luna jumped to that conclusion of course... A great deal of research had gone into her decision to take up this position, and she wasn't about to let it go to waste. Not after everything that poor Meredith Grey had gone through!

"Un fucking believable. Doctor Beauregard, we have a situation in the ER that needs all hands on deck. That includes you. So what the Hell are you doing in this office reading fashion magazines!" Renee reached across the desktop, snatching the magazine from the stunned Luna's hands with a harsh whip of paper before it was handedly discarded into the trash bin beside the door. "Now get out here and pick your interns. You're performing a thoracic aortic dissection repair in OR one in NOW." Renee stormed out of the room without another word, as Luna launched herself out of her chair in a bid to quickly follow after her to ask what she had just said. A thoraxic what? That sounded complicated!

Nervously, Luna tugged at her collar as she made her way out after Renee... Where the hell was OR one again? This was usually the part where the show cut right to the action. She was never told that hospitals were such ridiculous labyrinths! Map... Map map map. The woman's eyes feverishly searched about for some manner of navigational assistance, eventually settling on a large map of the hospital's fire escape routes in the hall. From the looks of it, OR one was all the way on the top floor of the four story hospital... On the farthest side of the bloody building.

Because of course it was.

So she ran. Full tilt, her laniard with name badge swinging to and fro so intensely that it quite literally slapped a passing Nurse right on the bridge of the nose. Luna didn't stop when the woman gasped and clutched at her wound- however... Heedless of the fact that her plastic card had, somehow, ripped open the woman's flesh. It was taking a great deal of restraint to keep her pace measured. After all, she was a creature of the night! AND a certified medical professional! There was a very specific art to running in these situations according to the hospital shows, so she had to honor tradition!

By the time she arrived at the OR, she was plenty able to fake being out of breath; in truth it was likely no small part due to the fact that she was a VERY un-athletic bloodsucker. Un-athletic, and unb-coordinated. She opened the door to the prep room with an impressively stoney face despite her exhaustion, moving to the sinks and beginning to scrub in with surprising efficiency. As she did, one of the doctors assisting entered and spoke with a dreamily warm- yet extremely condescending voice, "Doctor Beauregard... Have you chosen your interns? You aren't planning on going in there without them, are you?" Luna lifted her gaze, affixing him with the withering gaze of a professional actress feigning intense disapproval.

"With all due respect, Doctor... D-doctor. I don't need interns to scrub in on a surgery I know better than my own right hand. If anything, they would only get in the way. A... An uh... A Thoraxic Reduction Distection is textbook. Step by step. If anything I'm insulted that you think so little of me as to suggest I need interns."

Doctor Doctor lifted a brow at her, running a rag over his hands with an 'are you serious?' stare on his face clear as day. But soon enough, and much to Luna's surprise? He chuckled... Shooting her a devilish smirk as those dreamy, dreamy eyes drank her in. "That's the attitude I like... Alright then, Doctor. The stress is getting to you, I can tell... But, we'll get this done." Luna's response came as a haughty huff as she finished scrubbing in, holding her hands out towards him as she innocently tilted her head.

"Gloves?" "Yeah, I'll be your intern for the next fifteen seconds." As he began to slide the surgical gloves over her hands, her own expression twisted into a visage equally as devilish. "If you're my intern, then what do you think about meeting me in the break room in ward C after we save this man's life?" The gloves on, he gave her a roguish wink.

"Save her life, and I'll think about it." Well, these mistakes happen when you don't read your patients charts.

This patient was a woman. That was what the expression on Luna's face said, and it was one that earned a tremendous laugh from the surgeon assisting. A laugh that continued even as she pressed her back to the door, rolling her eyes as she entered the OR without even putting a face mask on. The faux-doctor strode towards the woman on the table, humming all the way there as she finally arrived tableside... Her eyes wandered up to the observation room- where she noticed at least a dozen people sitting in to watch. A quite "Yes" slipped between Luna's lips as she looked back to her patient, and realized quite quickly...

She hadn't a single clue on how to go about cutting a person open for surgical purposes. Sure, she had some knowledge of old world medicine... But leeches weren't going to fix a thoraxic whatever the fuck. Her eyes widened as the other three surgeons filed into the room to assist- watching her expectantly as she acted like a mannequin. One minute passed... Two. Three. Four. Five minutes passed in complete and utter silence, before finally, one of the other surgeons in the room suggested in a biting tone- "Doctor Beauregard! The longer you delay, the further this patient declines! You need to start the procedure now!" With that goading, the vampiress was roused from her stupor.

"Doctor Acula, the longer you scream at me like a little baby, the longer this patient goes without care. God... Shouldn't you be more in awe of me or something? I mean, I'm the Meredith!" Despite the childish nature of the retort, the hypnotic nature of her voice seemed well beyond capable of quelling his well founded scrutiny.  Now that the rude one had been dealt with? It was time to do a Thalatonic Hysterectomy.

Luna would have known what to do, for certain. Yet Lanette was none the wiser. Instinct was something with which a vampiress was exceedingly close... But this time, it was going to betray her. Her right hand grasped a ten blade from the instrument tray beside her, staring at it with a completely deadpan look in her eyes before she decided to begin the procedure—

And made the first cut. Expert work being put in to the incision- and not even a flinch as the blood made itself visible. "Suction." She commanded dryly, placing the ten blade down and picking up a pair of clamps. She shoved these into the incision- forcing it apart in a grotesque sloshing of bone and meat. "Hold it. I'm going to begin the Thoraxaholic Disgenuation." The grip on the clamps was taken by the attending who had spoken against her just earlier- now stoneface calm as she began to work. It was all textbook. Professional as all Hell. At least it would have been, if it was even the proper procedure. At least it wouyld've been if it weren't for one glaring fact.

Everyone in the room, and everyone in the observation room, was staring straight ahead with a dead emptiness in their eyes. Lanette, however, was still staring blankly at the instrument in her hand. She looked between it and the doctors across from her, humming thoughtfully before lifting the scalpel in hand- and jamming it into the patient's chest cavity. "There. Thorakoxic whatever is now done! Uh..." The others would be trapped in that illusion for quite a while. She hadn't had a chance to study the actual procedure- but all that she needed to keep consistent with reality in her little illusion was that the procedure took at least 48 hours. She had glimpsed the board, so it was a simple matter to make it last that long in dreamland.

Speaking of dreamland, her own was over before it even had a chance to begin. That realization became apparent as she let out a harsh sigh and a shake of her head.

"Well uhm... I shouldn't waste this. In the name of professionalism and... Whatever." Vampires had uses for freshly expired individuals, after all. After she snuck out of here and left the name of Luna Beauregard behind, she could use a ghoul to stand in as her assistant for her next undertaking...

The judicial system was full of bullshit, right? She could make a killing as a defense lawyer! Lord save them all.

[hothoovesgaming]

Developer Update #2

DISCLAIMER: Hot Hooves Gaming is an indie game developer with no ties to Hasbro or any of its properties. We don’t own any of the characters featured therein, save for the individual Original Character (OC) who has been created for this non-profit fan-made game project.

Welcome everyone to Hot Hooves Gaming’s second developer update for our My Little Pony Visual Novel Project. It’s been a crazy March for HHG, what with our “Spring Heat” event taking place during our Spring Break (probably not your Spring Break XD), and a lot of story to progress with alongside some more character portraits that have increased the cast of characters to nearly overwhelming numbers. No time for April Fool’s jokes here, so we’ll be diving straight into the update.

Let’s put a number on the project’s progress bar:  7%

Script

The main arcs that we worked on in March were the romance arcs for Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. As far as the story goes, our main character Dusk and Twilight have gathered the Mane 6 and traveled to Canterlot to see Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Their search for answers took the group to the Canterlot Library, but with no clues and no leads to clear up the mysteries of the Crystal Crisis, everypony returns to Ponyville to do their own thing.

Twilight’s side story has presented a unique problem that’s stumped our writers and for good reason: we don’t know how to rhyme. XD Hahaha, as silly as that is - it’s an excruciating issue when you are attempting to write for Zecora the Zebra and one finds that it is impossible to rhyme words like a pro. Her lines have been written as if she is speaking normally, but at some point, we will have to come back and address this issue.

Surprisingly enough, Pinkie Pie’s story worked like a charm from beginning to end with no hiccups. Character development for the Pie family is on full display in this romance arc, and we are very excited to continue the second half of her story later.

Fluttershy’s story underwent a couple of rewrites, beginning in the brainstorming phase. Not only is the final draft different from the original brainstorm, but we actually started writing a completely different story (according to our best synopsis), but it was way too convoluted and confusing! During a time when were already progressing very slowly, we made the hard decision to scrap the chapter altogether and start over. This gave us a chance to come up with a different story that took away a major element we were trying to push from the start: Flutterbat. I guess we’ll have to give that another shot later if we want to include them in the story at all. Sorry ya’ll. However, we feel that the final draft for Fluttershy’s romance arc will not disappoint, and it is actually super duper sweet. Wait till you see it. >_O

With April coming into full swing soon, we have been reviewing where the story is heading now that we are going to the Crystal Empire. When we return to Ponyville, Dusk will be able to engage with Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash in the first half of their respective romance arcs.

Art

Some of our greatest efforts in the form of art has come in the form of a special set of pictures called “Spring Heat”. The challenge we had for our artist was to draw at least two pony fan art pieces every day during Spring Break. One picture would be a pony engaging in some SFW activity with a Spring theme attached to it. The second picture would be the same pony in a more unconventional NSFW situation O////O Oh my! The challenge was a success, with 12 pictures being produced over six days. Featured here are some of the SFW pics that are color sketched and ready to continue onto the coloring phase before completion.

These will be the first pieces of official fan art produced for public consumption by our artist at HHG, and if ya’ll could see what his first attempt at fan art was a few months ago… ~CRRRIIIIINNNNGGGEEE~  We try not to think of it.

This art pack will be posted once all of the pictures are completed with one set for the SFW pics and one set for the NSFW pics.

The cast of characters for the game has gone up by a few mares (and perhaps one or two stallions) thanks to the romance arcs that are being written along the way. Future additions may include Flim and Flam, Photo Finish, Vinyl Scratch, and Octavia. Featured below are a couple of new supporting characters who will be joining the story for the Mane Six’s romance arcs.

Programming

This is the area that has seen the least progress recently, and it’s thanks to the work that we have already completed up to this point. We already have a prototype menu for the pre-alpha version of the game, along with a message box, and in-game menus for the load game screen, the save game screen, the backlog, etc. HHG has other obligations that keep us from dedicating our time exclusively to the MLP VN project, so we do our best to progress a little bit in each field at a time. Preparing the script and assets for TyranoBuilder to use in the future takes priority over working on any builds of the game.

We’ll be doing our best to produce a proof of concept in the coming weeks in order to better showcase how the game is going to work and what features it will have such as the in-depth story, branching dialogue paths, and dramatic CG scenes.

We’re hoping to focus on one very important thing in particular this coming month and that is the SCRIPT. It is through the completion of the script that we will be able to identify all of the characters who need base character portraits; and with all of the major events and scenarios mapped out, we will be able to better plan for the CG scenes that will need to be drawn out.

Completing the script will also allow us to enter the Script Review/Editing Phase to examine dialogue and plot consistency through the entire main campaign. Allow us to emphasize this one more time in case our readers may be unaware: the My Little Pony Visual Novel Project is a narrative story centric dialogue-based character driven visual novel experience. Probably the most extensive of its kind, and we here at HHG are dedicated to bringing the fandom an experience that they will not soon forget.

Thank you everyone for coming to see our Developer Update for April. It is thanks to the inspiration of this series and its passionate fanbase that we are able to continue doing what we do best - creating deep stories and visual spectacles our audience can look back on with excitement and a thirst for more.

See ya’ll in the next post. And remember -

A crisis is coming…

[aion-rsa]

Immortals: Fenyx Rising Hands-on Preview Shows How the Game Is Inspired by Zelda: Breath of the Wild

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In October, Den of Geek got four hours of hands-on playtime with Ubisoft’s upcoming action-adventure fantasy title Immortals: Fenyx Rising. In the online demo, which was guided by a Ubisoft demoist, we got to see a bit of the game’s open-world setting, the Golden Isle, which is heavily inspired by the milieu of Greek mythology. The game is vast, epic-looking, and from what I’ve played so far, has engaging combat and gameplay loops that should fill out its open world nicely.

The story revolves around a dark titan named Typhon, who was banished to the underworld of Tartaros by Zeus and the rest of the gods and has returned, thirsty for revenge. He’s imprisoned most of the gods save for Zeus (who’s been stripped of his powers) and the titan Prometheus, who makes a bet with the king of the gods that a lowly human would be the one to save all of their asses.

You play as said human, a warrior named Fenyx who has washed up on the shores of the Golden Isle after an epic sea battle caused her ship to crash. In a fun play on a storybook or Dungeons & Dragons campaign, Prometheus proceeds to narrate your adventure, bantering back and forth with big-headed pessimist Zeus as you set out to free the gods from Typhon’s grasp and restore the island to its former, gilded glory.

What struck me immediately about Immortals was its art style and comedic tone, which reminded me (in a good way) of the ’90s games and cartoons I grew up playing and watching. For example, SNES city-building classic ActRaiser came to mind, a game I still have a lot of affection for. The characters and environments pop with color, and the dialogue between Zeus and Prometheus is funny and irreverent, giving this epic adventure a unique tone. The game’s presentation is cohesive, from the Greek-inspired fonts to the angular and exaggerated features of the characters’ faces, and while some may dismiss the art as kiddy or cartoonish, the game looks pretty incredible at times, especially when you’re looking out on the Isle from a great height. The game’s draw distance is, pardon the pun, ungodly.

Following the game’s narrative initial cinematics, you’re brought to a character creation menu where you can decide what your Fenyx looks and sounds like via a modest set of customization options. From the moment you assume control of Fenyx, the entire Golden Isle is open for you to explore.

It’s hard to ignore that the game is derivative of a few games in the same genre, particularly Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed series and Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The former’s influence can mostly be found in the way the open world is arranged and curated. That said, comparisons to Assassin’s Creed Odyssey are shallow at best–that game was NOT the first to use Greek Mythology as a backdrop.

But the resemblance to Breath of the Wild is pretty uncanny. You can climb any object in the environment, limited only by your stamina bar. There are puzzle/dexterity-based underground vaults to complete, and the game’s overall aesthetic, combined with the strikingly similar traversal mechanics, makes Immortals look unquestionably similar to Nintendo’s modern classic. 

Despite the clear comparisons one could draw between the two games, the terms “rip-off” and “copy” are far from appropriate here, especially once you delve into the world and story Ubisoft has crafted. Immortals has a voice of its own, and more importantly than that, from what I’ve played so far, the gameplay is absolutely on par with the game’s it’s derived many of its designs from.

Exploring the Golden Isle was my favorite thing I did during my demo time for several reasons. For one, traversal is super easy and a lot of fun, especially once you unlock the Wings of Daedalus, which allow you to glide freely over the grassy fields and winding beaches that stretch out before you. Climbing feels just as good as it does in Breath of the Wild, and there are various beasts scattered about the map that you can sneak up on, tame, and enlist as your mount. My Ubisoft demoist directed me to a field where I found a unicorn, who was quite difficult to tame but made up for it once I hopped on (mounts have stamina meters, too, and hers was sizeable, to say the least). 

The Isle is divided into six zones, each inspired by one of the gods. Aphrodite’s portion of the island, for example, is a verdant painting-come-to-life, with rolling hills and blossoming gardens decorated with Ionic architecture. Hermes’ zone is a darker place, with dry, yellow fields contrasting with burnt treelines, volcanic rock, and a deep purple, starry sky. Gargantuan statues of the gods are featured prominently in their respective zones, which highlight the steep verticality of the game’s environments, which is not only eye-catching but opens up myriad gameplay possibilities.

Combat is familiar action-adventure fare, with time-slowing dodges and parries being as crucial to victory as your light and heavy attacks. You’ll also find godly powers as you progress through the game, like Hephaestus’ hammer, a melee attack that deals massive damage over a large area, and Apollo’s arrows, which you can manually guide to your target. Much of the combat takes place in mid-air as well, with air combos playing a major part in almost every encounter. Overall, the combat is enjoyable, dynamic, and about as complex as it needs to be. I doubt anyone will be blown away by the action here, but it’s only one aspect of a much larger game, and in this context, it does its job.

Fenyx can brandish swords, axes, bows, headwear, and armor, and as you explore the Isle, you’ll find gear of varying levels of rarity and power. I love how the different items are represented cosmetically–so often in games all gear looks the same, but in Immortals, Fenyx can truly look like a different character depending on what armor you’re wearing.

Gear is customizable and upgradeable at the game’s central hub, the Hall of the Gods, where you can change your appearance, upgrade your stats and potions, take on quests, etc. Your character’s skill tree is also managed here, and I found that most of the abilities I saw seemed pretty viable in combat and worth exploring, regardless of playstyle. Ubisoft has really honed its skill tree game over the years, thanks to the Assassin’s Creed games, and the experience shows.

One aspect of the game that I wasn’t particularly impressed with were the vaults, which were challenging but didn’t capture the imagination like other areas of the game. The puzzles are multi-staged and clever, but they aren’t nearly as inspired as what you’d find in Breath of the Wild. And the art design in these sections falters too — a bunch of stone structures floating in space with a pretty galactic backdrop got old quick. But there are puzzles to be found above-ground on the Isle proper, and I enjoyed these a lot more. They’re simple, like sliding tile puzzles and scavenger hunts, but the gorgeous landscapes heighten the experience.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

What made the game feel really promising to me was when I ventured to a small island off the coast that happened to be overrun with harpies. My demoist had given me ample resources to level up my Fenyx to my heart’s content, and yet when I faced the world boss (six in total) at the island’s apex, I got my ass handed to me REAL QUICK. What this told me was that you can’t simply rely on loot and grinding to finish the game–you’ve got to learn the combat system inside and out and hone your skills to succeed.

I came into Immortals: Fenyx Rising with essentially no expectations, and by the end of my time with it, I couldn’t wait to see and play more. I love the comical banter between Zeus and Prometheus, I can’t get enough of the pastoral environments, and the slick presentation looks to be substantiated by engaging gameplay.

Immortal: Fenyx Rising is out on Dec. 3 for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PC, Google Stadia, and Amazon Luna.

The post Immortals: Fenyx Rising Hands-on Preview Shows How the Game Is Inspired by Zelda: Breath of the Wild appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[cassyblue]

A very long post on my onions about JJBA

I am completely caught up with the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure manga. Took me two weeks to do it. But my brain hasn’t been up to reading novels/novellas since concentration whomst? Once the semester starts, I tend to read more comics than novels just because of time constraints. I am still on Part 3 of the JJBA anime. It’s an anime that I just can’t binge because it is a lot. I really like JJBA because it takes the shonen fighting manga and just turns it into a fever dream. So below is my thoughts on Parts 1-8, includes many a spoiler. Also as it goes on I get more sweary sorry. 

Part 1: Phantom Blood

Not my favorite arc, but it is the first part so I feel it doesn’t have the same level of writing/art as the next parts because Araki is starting out. It’s pretty tightly written and straight forward. Jonanthan is my least favorite Jojo. I think my main problem with this part is the assertion that Dio is evil due to the abusive environment he grew up in. That’s pretty much what I can say about Part 1. 

Part 2: Battle Tendency 

Part 2 is more complex and the characters have more growth than those in Part 1. I enjoy Joseph as a protagonist since he is a good combo of little shit and dumb teenager. The enemies to friends arc with Caesar is great. Throw two dramatic bitches together and the chaos that ensues is fun. I really liked that the best user of haman is a woman because the previous part was pretty dude heavy. Liz Lisa is on the fine line between fan service and sexy. But the fanservice doesn’t happen during fighting so I can forgive Araki on certain parts. The thing about Part 2 that really stands out to me is the expansion of the worldbuilding. It doesn’t feel overwhelming and fits neatly into the narrative. My other thought is that Araki just likes drawing asses. 

Part 3: Stardust Crusaders

Oh boy, so this is where I start to have a lot more onions. Everything I knew about JJBA before watching/reading was that there was this thing called a stand and everyone was gangsters. So when I started JJBA I was like tumblr lied to me what the hell is going on. Unlike Joseph in Part 2, Jotaro is just an asshole, a well meaning asshole, but still an asshole. Through this entire arc, Jotaro literally does not grow as a character unlike Part 2 with Joseph which is super frustrating. In Part 2, Joseph goes from cocky punk kid to more responsible and level headed kid with self discipline. Jotaro’s fighting ability literally gets no training whatsoever compared to Joseph. In the 45 days that the plot takes place, I would have thought that Avdol would have at least did some sort of training since he is the most experienced stand user. But nope that sure didn’t happen. The bickering between Joseph and Jotaro is enjoyable and the side characters are good humor relief. I think that’s where my frustration is -- Kakyoin and Polnareff have more character development than Jotaro does. Polnareff is in many ways a foil for Jotaro in that he ACTUALLY learns to accept help and so on. 

Things I did like was the introduction of stands. Thought there could have been better explanation but it’s JJBA so you know it’s going to not be there or it will be there eventually. I think this arc has ok writing but Part 2 was more solid. 

Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable

I really liked this part. It was more of a slice of life comic with mayhem. I felt that compared to Part 3, Part 4 does a better job with depicting teenagers. Josuke and his friends are literally dumbasses 80% of the time and Koichi has their one brain cell most of the time. Part 4 also dives much deeper into the origins of stands as well. 

What I liked was how the mystery parts of the comic were interspersed with the comedy parts. The previous arc was pretty straight forward without much diversion to have more insight into the characters. Part 4 is much more focused on relationships and has a psychological bent to the story. Unlike until the end of Part 3, Josuke and friends work as a team very quickly. The other part that I liked was the incredibly awkward Joestar family reunion.  Part 4 just has the most depth for me out of all the parts so far. 

The other part that I liked was the evolution of stands -- that some stands can grow and others have remote abilities and so forth. 

My biggest beef with this part is Araki totally doesn’t understand how graduate school works. Like ok first off, why the hell did Jotaro choose to do marine biology?? Want some background on that which we never get. When Jotaro is introduced, his specialty is whales and sharks (which i am sure he punched a shark at some point) but then at the end Araki decides that Jotaro’s doctoral work is on starfish? Um like ok what the fuck here. That’s a HUGE jump to do in academia in terms of changing your study organism. Like for me jumping from lepidoptera to hymenoptera was incredibly painful and that’s just WITHIN one ORDER (insects). Here Jotaro is jumping PHYLUMS. The other thing is that it takes uuuuh 6 years max to do your doctorate. So idk how Jotaro is able to do his entire dissertation in 3 months. It’s taken me two and a half years just to get my experiments done for my master’s degree. My advisor has given me two months to write my thesis, BUT I ALREADY HAVE MY DATA???? Jotaro would have had to collect all the data and speed write and I have no fucking clue how the hell he would even pass the defense even if he wasn’t also investigating a serial killer. Pretty sure the whole marine biology thing is just a cover so he has jstor access for everything related to stands. 

Part 5: Golden Wind

I didn’t expect to like this arc. But I did. It’s the arc that tumblr spoke of. First off, it has the perfect balance of dumbass to incomprehensible. Part of why I like JJBA is that you can see Araki’s art evolution and this is the first arc where he has completely gone from ripped as fuck dudes to twinks. That being said this is the arc that has the first plot hole and I only have a few theories as to why. It starts with Jotaro sending Koichi to Italy to investigate Giorno who is Dio’s biological son from his return in Part 3. This entire arc when I was live texting it to my best friend probably receives the most what the fucks in her replies. TD;LR: Giorno technically Joestar because Dio stole the body of Jonathan Joestar to make his comeback because you would think Araki for once has some somewhat reasonable biology here. Surprise fucker, Giorno’s hair turns blond once his stand ability awakens because he’s Dio’s son. So the whole Jotaro investigating Giorno thing is COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN. My only explanation is Koichi is like yeah he’s an idiot kid and I don’t think he’s going to be a problem or Polnareff calls up Jotaro and is like yeah I’m keeping an eye on this kid while haunting a magic turtle. 

Which brings me to the most insane part of the whole arc, the GODDAMN TURTLE. As we learned in Part 3 with Iggy, animals can be stand users and there is this turtle that is a stand user. And basically Giorno and gang use this turtle to escort the boss’ daughter while plotting to take down the boss. There are so many fights over this goddamn turtle. Turtle does what turtle wants on top of it because it’s a fucking turtle. I just. The turtle. Then fucking polnareff dies and somehow manages to possess the goddamn turtle for almost a third of the arc???? And decides to keep hanging out in the turtle after everything is said and done as a fucking ghost. Like ok, I shouldn’t be like this is the most whack shit that’s happened in JJBA because there was an honest to god alien in Part 4. 

Honestly this arc also had some great character arcs. I think that somehow each character manages to grow and confront their issues. Considering that Giorno is the son of Dio, he actually is a pretty good kid. Like I was going in expecting Dio Jr. Which thank god that was not the case because I would have been like Really? REALLY WE ARE DOING THIS AGAIN? I think my main complaint was Trish was pretty sexualized. She’s fucking 15, Araki, please let her have some more clothes. 

I am kinda bummed that there is no crossover between Josuke, Jolyne, and Giorno because I think it would be pretty funny. 

Part 6: Stone Ocean

I don’t know where the fuck to start with this one. First off, I am from Florida. I lived in Florida for 20 some years of my life. I grew up in Florida. The first fucking thing that this manga does is say that it’s set in/near PORT ST. LUCIE (PSL). I grew up in PSL. For the longest time, PSL was pretty much known for being a growhouse central because it’s a suburbia of maze like developments. Like I am pretty sure that Araki just took a dart and threw it at a map of Florida. BUT that being said, there are several marine biology/oceanography research institutions very close to PSL so I guess I could see it considering Jotaro is supposedly a professor of marine biology now (honestly I think he just fucks around with stand research instead).  Stone Ocean feels more like it’s set in Miami. It has that vibe. I have been to Miami one too many times and have nearly died in Miami (more than once). Stone Ocean is a literal fever dream for me. However, I enjoyed the hell out of it. It ranks up there with the one Sailor Moon arc where Luna has the crush on the astronaut’s boyfriend and there’s space shuttle shenanigans. 

Oh and did I mention that Stone Ocean is set in 2011. This is kinda an important point since let me put some context to why half of this is me screaming. The space shuttle program ended in 2011. I saw the last shuttle return (I wasn’t able to see the launch because it was fucking crazy to even get a seat at the place I’d go watch it in PSL). ANYWAYS, let’s get on to this beautiful disaster trainwreck of an arc. 

So first off, Jolyne is my favorite jojo. She’s a punk ass kid with a lot of issues. I was worried it would be endless fanservice, but actually stone ocean wasn’t too bad in that regard. Also part of Jolyne’s design features butterflies heavily so I’m like yeah this is my favorite (did I mention that I study butterflies, that I have lived, breathed, and eaten butterflies since I was 12? Ok i did eat a moth once but that’s another story). Also I thought Jolyne’s stand was really cleverly done (besides that I screamed that it had sunglasses). Jolyne gets framed for her shitty ex hitting a pedestrian which turns out to even be a whole set up. Fun fact, Jolyne’s shitty ex is from Palm Beach. The only thing you need to know about Palm Beach is that it houses Mar-A-Lago, yep that Mar-A-Lago. It’s full of rich white people. Which makes the whole boyfriend shit even funnier for me. Like I can already see how the fuck Jolyne and Romeo meet etc etc etc. Let’s just say the one high school the county over is notorious for the rich kids being absolute wankers (duis, drugs, the whole shebang) and I can fill in the blanks just from being from the area. 

So it’s time to put Jotaro on blast again because he is such a fucking dick. He literally abandons Jolyne for 14 years. Jolyne is convinced that he doesn’t want her and hates her. She has every right to be angry with Jotaro. This goes back to Part 3 when I said that Jotaro literally has no character development, Jotaro still hasn’t learned a single fucking thing. He still thinks he has to do everything himself so that the people he cares about won’t get hurt. Which is partly a result of Part 3, but also he had the chance to overcome that misconception in Part 4? But he doesn’t? He like asks Josuke for help once and basically takes on the bulk of the investigation himself so Josuke and pals don’t get hurt/further involved. Jolyne eventually realizes that the reason Jotaro abandoned her is that she and her mom won’t get caught up in the stand bullshit etc and forgives him. Which like I can understand why she does that. But it’s an incredibly shitty excuse to sever all ties with your kid and divorce your wife just because you’re trying to protect your family. Like ok, I have a rough relationship with my family and it can be really, really hard not to forgive them if they suddenly start being good to you despite the fact they have hurt you so deeply and you just know it’s a bad idea to get back close to them because it’s only going to end badly. Anyways, Jotaro is a fucking dickweed. 

The one thing that I really liked is how Jolyne’s determination brings other people closer to her. She’s a literal brick wall and just bulldozes through obstacles regardless of if it’s a good idea. She also will not abandon her friends. So Jolyne best jojo, fight me. 

I can not believe that all of Dio’s kids except Giorno are Florida Men. I was like Araki it does not take 10 hours to get from PSL to Cape Canaveral and then I was like wait Jolyne has to fight a Florida Man like every 10 minutes so it does kinda make sense. The whole part in Orlando was like a fever dream. I lived in Orlando. When the mickey mouse shit started, I was like ofc there’s going to be a fight with The Mouse. You cannot enter Orlando without making a sacrifice to The Mouse. 

I completely knew that the arc would climax at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) just because it was set in 2011. I was fucking screaming the whole way through the final fight at the KSC because I have been there like idk 5 times or so. Can you believe that you used to not have to go through a gate to get in to tickets? That was before 9/11. Now it’s not like that. Anyways it was pretty great. 

I thought the ending was actually pretty satisfying considering the whole universe reset? 

Anyways Araki delivered the fucking florida man experience so completely that I was happy. He literally managed to write the arc like a Carl Hiaasen or Tom Dorsey novel on crack (those two are the best known Florida novelists who write mystery/crime novels about Florida). When the Part 6 anime comes out I am going to be so ready. 

Part 7: Steel Ball Run

Soooo this first arc of universe reset where everything is like do the Cupid Shuffle like 500 times while high as fuck. I think Part 7’s is weak compared to Part 4,5 and 6 in terms of writing BUT I was impressed by the originality of retelling of Part 1. I really liked the western bent to it. Also, I didn’t think that Araki could do completely new world building with stand origins without it being boring af. But he managed to make it really interesting and fucked up. I will put in a warning here: This arc isn’t great about race (not surprised at all), there is the magic cure for a disability trope (not a fan), and also sexual assault of a minor (really fucked up). 

Instead of the haman or however the fuck it’s spelled, Zeppeli uses a power called the spin which is his family’s secret ability. Zeppeli enters the Steel Ball Run which is a transcontinental horse race with a reward of half a million bucks. Johnny Joestar, a disgraced jockey sees Zeppeli use the spin and enters the race despite being paralyzed waist down just to figure out how the fuck Zeppeli uses it. For the most part, the depiction of disability is pretty good until you know the magic cure trope (offensive to disabled people, I can go more into depth with this in a different post). Zeppeli and Johnny start out as rivals but then become good friends and the writing is so good. However, every fucking cover drawing of the two together by Araki is very homoerotic. I don’t know if Araki actually knows how gay his drawings are? Like from Part 1 onwards, they are like...gay. Dio is there and I was like ok he gonna be vampire again but nope DIO FUCKING GETS DINOSAUR POWERS???? LIKE HE CAN TURN INTO A GODDAMN UTAHRAPTOR?????????????????????????????????????

Steel Ball Run has several layers of plot which are masterfully tied together :  the actual race, Zeppeli’s past, Johnny growing as a character, and the holy corpse. The holy corpse shit was right up my alley as being someone who loves crack christianity stuff. Like ok, at first I was like yeah it’s a saint and then I was like oh it’s the virgin mary and then Araki fucking hinted throughout the second half of the plot it’s JESUS???? Anyways that was some wack shit. President Valentine was a really good villain by the way -- completely captures Murica fuckery.  

I liked the addition of the fibonacci stuff/golden ratio in terms of maxing out stands/spin. 

My main issue with this arc besides race and disability fails is the handling of Lucy. She’s 14 and Araki oversexualized her. Like goddamn it she’s a FUCKING CHILD. This arc is probably the worst in terms of its treatment of women. I was really pissed at the fact that Araki had Lucy graphically assaulted and raped. So beware of that. That is part of the reason as much as I liked the originality of Part 7, I can’t really rank it high on the quality of JJBA parts. 

ANYWAYS ONTO PART 8

Part 8: JoJoLion

I am up to date as of August/September 2019 issue of the magazine JJBA is serialized in (I really want to say it’s Jump, but I’m probably wrong). This arc is really fascinating because it completely skips from the 1890s to the present day . There is the ties to Part 7 as that Johnny marries a Japanese woman whose family is a big part of this arc. It is set in Morioh like Part 4, but a Morioh completely shifted 180. It combines the story of a family curse, a man searching for his identity, and a conspiracy about these magical fucking fruit?

A college kid, Yasuho, pulls this dude out of the dirt at these weird formations in Morioh. The dude has no idea who he is and Yashuo names him Josuke. Note, the kanji for this Josuke are different than those for Josuke of Part 4. The Higashitika family that Yasuho is friends with takes Josuke in because he’s a stand user and he gets drawn into their shit while he tries to figure out who he is. 

The twist with Josuke’s identity and past was like fucking mind blowning. Like did not see that one coming that he’s the fusion of Yoshikage Kira (who in part 4 was the villian but in this one is the Joestar son of Holly? Not a murderer?) and Josefumi Kujo (character design resembles Part 4 Josuke). The thing with this arc is that it’s this weird combo of part 3 and part 4 with new content and characterizations. So it’s on one hand familiar and on the other hand completely unfamiliar. It continues with the corpse stuff, but I’m not completely sure how the corpse ties into the plot with the fruit and the new villains-- The rock people. It has to do with the equivalent exchange concept which is threaded throughout this whole arc. But like how exactly besides how Johnny died in Japan? Is the corpse still there in Japan? Araki TELL ME. 

Bonus: Little Jolyne Goes To Morioh Doujinshi. 

I found this Doujinshi on Batato and there wasn’t an author or artist attached but holy shit it is the CUTEST thing. It’s basically about Jolyne meeting Josuke because Jotaro needs a babysitter. It’s a very short one Doujinshi and the last part is hilarious. Anyways highly recommend reading this one because it’s really cute.

[kane-and-griffin]

what is different about Clarke vs Octavia becoming commander? we know Octavia was never part of society on the ark, but from a grounder perspective, she's still a sky person. both Clarke and Octavia have lived among grounders, while Clarke has been about 'transcending tribalism' and changing things with the idealistic goal of bringing peace to warring factions, Octavia has been more enthusiastic with status quo. has Octavia assimilated with grounder culture enough to be a dual citizen?

We talked about this a little bit on Meta Station, but basically, in anutshell, the answer to this completely depends on what we mean when we say“Commander.”  There are two potential ways I could see this going; for oneof them, my answer is “YIKES PLEASE NO DON’T LET EITHER OF THEM DO IT,” and forthe other, my answer is that they could actually sell me on it with either ofthem, though for plot reasons it’s more interesting to me personally with Octavia.

LET’S BREAK IT DOWN.

THE BAD WAY

It’s certainly true that of all the Sky People, it’s Clarke, Octavia (andalso Kane LET’S NOT FORGET ABOUT KANE) who have spent the most time immersed inGrounder culture, learning to understand it and respect it. But it’s still not their culture. Which means for me, anyconstruct of a “Commander” which resembles the way Commanders looked before -incorporating the Nightblood and Flame theology, serving as a religious andpolitical leader over twelve/thirteen distinct clans, etc. – getting handed overto somebody who is not actually ofthat culture feels . . . real iffy.

Part of what makes this tricky is the way the writers treat Grounder cultureoverall.  As it’s constructed, it isn’treally a nationality and isn’t really an ethnicity and isn’t really a religion.It’s a society that evolved out of basically whoever the fuck was left alivewhen Becca landed, which was probably an incredibly heterogenous group (unlessof course the main survivors were Cadogan’s band of survivalists and all theGrounders are descended from them).  Butassuming that Becca’s first people represented a whole bunch of differentethnicities and cultures and religions and out of a mishmash of lots ofdifferent things, one new thing emerged, and “Grounder” as we understand itapplies only to people who are specifically descended from that one newthing.  Which is a really specific way todraw a boundary around a society.  It’sdifferent from how you can convert to a religion and then become a member ofits clergy, or you can emigrate to a country and then run for political officeafter becoming a nationalized citizen. There isn’t a way, really, to become a Grounder, because what “Grounder”means is entirely about who you’re descended from.  And their whole religious and politicalstructure is tied specifically and directly into the origin story of theirpeople and what they have always believed that to mean.  So where this gets kind of dodgy is that,even if we subtract out the extremely complicated layer of how the twosocieties are coded in show (Grounders = primitive and tribal, Sky People =civilized and enlightened) and the various tropes that plays into about colonialismand race and class, we’re still left with a society who choose leaders througha method that is deeply steeped in a very specific set of traditions andbeliefs that Clarke and Octavia don’t share, and a culture of which they arenot a part, and having either of them roll up all “CHIP ME, BITCHES, I’M ANIGHTBLOOD NOW, I’M YOUR SUPREME RULER FROM NOW ON” is . . . let’s politely sayquestionable.

Those problems would exist with anyone from Skaikru, but there are a coupleissues with Octavia and Clarke specifically that make me side-eye it evenharder.  So, as a lifelong Catholic, oneof the most annoying things on God’s green earth are people who just foundJesus on like Tuesday and because this is all new to them they think it’s new,so all they want to do is lecture people who have been doing this our wholelife that we’re Jesus-ing wrong because we aren’t following the rules to theletter.  Like slow your roll, Susan, ifyou want to start going to Confession twice a week I can’t stop you, but I willbe watching television with no pants on like a regular human. We call this“convert’s zeal” (yep, it’s enough of a phenomenon among faith communities thatthere is actually a name for it) and it’s the best example I can give of myspecific issues with the notion of Commander Octavia.

From within the narrative – that is, for who Octavia is as a character – her immediate obsession with Grounder culture anddesire to assimilate makes perfect sense. She didn’t have a place or a home with the Sky People, and no real tiesexcept her brother.  She’s been lookingfor a place to belong, and Lincoln became her whole world very quickly, the waythat first loves tend to do.  Her desireto make his life her life, and then her clinging onto it after she lost him,make totally logical intuitive sense from a psychological perspective.  Meaning, this is exactly what you’d expect aperson like Octavia to do.  It’s alsovery fitting for someone like Octavia to take that ball and run with it,CONVERT’S ZEAL AF, and subsequently try to “out-Grounder” characters likeLincoln and Indra by reminding them of the rules of their own society(sometimes by violence) – a society of which, again, she is not technicallypart.  This is all plausible, but it’s not really a good idea.  It gets into somereal “yikes” territory if the narrative is intending us to believe that Octaviasmacking Lincoln and Indra around and yelling “GROUNDER UP, MOTHERFUCKER, YOU’REGROUNDERING WRONG!” is something we’re supposed to approve of.  So for that reason, there’s an additionallayer of concerns with Octavia becoming Commander and essentially enacting thaton a large scale – becoming more Grounder than the Grounders, essentially –that I don’t love.

All the same concerns apply to Clarke as well, in terms of stepping in toserve as the sacred leader of a culture and faith that isn’t yours – a faith which,because of this whole technology vs. superstition division between the clans,you don’t just not share but activelybelieve to be bullshit.  But with her, it’s additionally complicatedby this new “Chosen One” narrative the show seems to be developing over thecourse of the season, with everyone telling Clarke she was “born forthis.” 

Because the problem is, she wasn’t.  

Lexa was. Luna was.  They were born Nightbloods, trained with theother children under Titus, grew up steeped in Grounder tradition and belief,and fought in the conclave.  Clarke wasborn on the Ark, with no knowledge that anyone on the ground was even alive, and only became a Nightbloodartificially like five minutes ago.  Thenotion that she nonetheless was still somehow “born” to be the Commander,despite lacking all the qualifications and even the beliefs that hithertodefined that role, basically invalidates the entire Grounder belief system. And yet the narrative appears to be continually reinforcing your “you were bornfor this,” “this is your destiny” angle with Clarke, tying it specifically toLexa, and it makes me a little concerned that this may be where they’re headed.

We were given a clear understanding of what makes someone a Commander; notjust taking the Flame and communing with the past Commanders but also beingborn a Nightblood, winning the conclave, going through the Ascension rite, and upholdinga specific set of political/religious beliefs and traditions for which youwould have been groomed since birth.  Itis a profoundly sacred role to their culture. So if anyone can just inject themselveswith Nightblood, stick the Flame in their head and call themselves theCommander, what does that do to people like Gaia and the belief system uponwhich they have based their entire life, and what does that mean the narrativeis telling us about the notion that their faith was dumb and superstitious and “primitive”in the first place?  Was she “born forthis” because someone from a more “enlightened” society had to explain to themthe difference between a sacred relic and a computer chip, and then step intothat role without any of the belief system that used to define what that rolemeant?

THE GOOD WAY

So all of that being said, the possible angle that I could absolutely getbehind, and which could work plausibly with either of them, is the idea thatthe word “Commander” actually comes to mean something very different in thisnew world they’re building.  Not aCommander like Lexa, but a Commander like Becca.  Not the established clan head of an entirecivilization with a complex sociopolitical structure for a foreign Sky Girl toroll up and appropriate, but the head of a ragtag group of whoever the fuckcomes out of that bunker alive, trying to create a new social structure out ofeveryone who is left.  A motley crew of Grounders, Skaikru and Azgeda, whohave collectively decided to abandon those previous divisions and become awhole new thing.  No Chancellor.  NoIce King.  No Commanders.  One society, where none of those divisionsmatter anymore, and where taking the Flame isn’t about being anointed some kindof god-king, it’s because you need access to all the shit Becca knew about “Howto Survive an Apocalypse 101.” 

Grounder Commanders were elected as kids, and don’t seem to live very long(Titus was, what, mid-fifties?, and I forget how many Commanders he said he’sserved, but it didn’t sound like anyone got to die of old age in that job), so theiryouth wouldn’t be a factor in an O.G. Grounder Ascension but actually doesbecome something that needs a plot-related explanation if they’re trying to,like, start a democracy. As a ride-or-die member of Team Adults, on a practicallevel I’m like “please don’t make a teenager the president,” though if we aregetting a time jump this becomes quite a bit less absurd.

If they go this direction, Clarke is by far the most obvious choice – all theJaha leadership parallels this season, the fact that she’s taken the Flamebefore and already encountered Becca, the “you were born for this” stuff, the bafflingretcon that she suddenly decided to “transcend tribalism” like JUST NOW whicherases a lot of what made Season 1 Clarke so great.  Destiny or not,Clarke expects to assume the leadership position wherever she is, and the peoplearound her expect her to as well.  Whichis probably why I’m actually rooting way more for the gig to go to Octavia.

Octavia has been a problem character for me since the start of thisvengeance arc in the middle of Season 3; we’ve been watching her channel allher grief and anger into an endless succession of destructive behaviors, withno real clear sense of whether the narrative intended us to be on her side ornot.  I think some of that is gettingclarified this season (the Pike flashbacks as she held a gun on Ilian may havebeen clumsy on an emotional level, but they did serve to definitively remindthe audience, and Octavia, that Bellamydid not kill Lincoln, which clears upthe question of whether we were supposed to take her side when she accused himof that), and we know she gets some big crazy plot twist because everyone fromthe show in every interview who gets asked “who has the coolest arc thisseason?” says “Octavia.”  So like, thinkfor a second about the idea of Octavia having to do something she’s never donebefore in her whole life and actually assume a role of leadership over otherpeople.  No big brother/little sister dynamicto hide behind.  Octavia has often beendefined, both in the narrative and I think to herself, in the context of otherpeople.  She was the girl who lived underthe floorboards, then she was Bellamy’s sister, then she was Lincoln’sgirlfriend, then she was Indra’s second, then she was grieving Lincoln, thenshe was Kane’s bodyguard.  So I like theidea of Octavia having to ask herself some hard questions about who Octavia is,on her own.  After four seasons of seeingher sit in judgment of Clarke and Bellamy and others’ decisions, sometimescriticizing the outcome without really having a complete understanding of whatwent into it and how many competing forces were at play, I like the idea ofOctavia being the one who has to make the hard choices.  It’s the missing piece to her finally beingable to really understand her brother. She also needs something constructive to do with her passion and energy andemotion and grief besides, you know, stabbing people.  Imagine Octavia having to persuade, Octavia having to learn how toget people to actually follow her, Octavia having to take diplomacy lessonsfrom Dad!Kane (”you can’t just kill everyone who disagrees with you,” as CallieCartwig once told him), Octavia having to collaborate. Octavia and Bellamy working together to bring everyone to the table – Azgeda andTrikru and Skaikru – to figure out who this new society is and who they want tobe.  Octavia getting to honor Lincoln byhelping to establish the kind of peace he hoped for (remember him in 301telling her about how Kane and Abby had the right idea and were trying to builda community where those divisions didn’t exist anymore), not by stepping into aspecific and clearly-defined role that’s held as sacred by a culture that doesn’tbelong to her, but by putting all her grudges and hostility aside to fight fora new way.  And if that involves hergetting Nightblood so she can take the Flame and commune with Becca about specificthings that Becca knows, that’s different enough from “Octavia becomingCommander” that I think I could be totally down with it.