#aight time for character tag hell

[moonmacabre01]

got a WHOLE heap of them!! do as many or as little as you want :3 and for anyone!! ^^

🤥, 👻, 💥, 😭, 🙈, 🙊, 🙉, 👑, ✏️, 💚, 💖 !! ^^

HO BOY LETS GOOO!!!

🤥(Lying) are they good liars? do they have tells to show they're lying?

Taurus is a surprisingly practiced liar, actually! He got into the concept for the sake of getting out of trouble, and has since used this skill to continue getting out of trouble, trick opponents into revealing information, and on occasion play mild pranks. He tends to fixate on a person's face when he's doing this, though, to try and gauge their reactions

👻(Ghost)do they believe in ghosts? what are their "ghostly experiences", if any?

Fondue does believe in ghosts, though he hasn't encountered any. He does have his suspicions that there might be a few in Castle Dedede, but that might just be paranoia.

💥(collision) what emotions do they have trouble dealing with?

Taurus has trouble with fear and sadness. He hates feeling this because he starts to feel like a powerless little kid again, which in turn generally leads to him doing or saying something rash to try and prove to himself he isn't. Once he and Rosey get closer and become actual friends, he starts to pick up some healthier ways to dealing with this. But old habits die hard.

Perihelion has trouble with happiness, surprisingly. It's an emotion it's so unused to, it doesn't know how to process or express it, so any attempts to do so come off as (sometimes really)weird or awkward. Poor lonely cat </3

😭(crying) what makes them cry? do they cry easily?

Rosentine doesn't cry as easily as she used to, but a sure way to do so would be to compare her unfavorably to her mother, who she still in some way idealizes. Physical pain also tends to make her cry, though she has gotten at managing that with age.

🙈(See no evil) whats a side of your oc that they don't want to show other people?

Perihelion doesn't want to show how lonely and desperate for love it really is, because it's already convinced that either way, they're not going to receive what it wants. It's basically resigned themself to never being 'known' by anyone by the time it meets Galacta and the others.

🙊(Speak no evil) what is something your oc will refuse to stay quiet about?

Taurus would never hesitate to speak out if a kid's being unfairly punished, since he knows what it's like to be on the receiving end of such things(thanks Taurus's mom >:|)

🙉(hear no evil) what is the worse thing your oc could hear from someone?

"Your mother would be disappointed" I think it's pretty well known by now that Rosentine really admired her mother, and well . . . yeah

👑(crown) what does your oc want to be remembered as? why?

Rosey wants to be remembered as a just and gracious Queen, and a good friend. She simply wants to be known in a kind light.

✏️(pencil) is there a particular quote / lyric that you associate with them?

I don't actually tend to associate particular quotes or lyrics with ocs, I moreso associate them with songs.

💚 (Green heart) what things make your oc feel comforted? hugs, kisses, food?

Physical affection of all sorts is good for comforting Phoenix, but cuddling in particular really helps, since it reminds of when he'd nuzzle up to his older siblings and mother in their nest. Food, especially meat, also helps.

Taurus finds hot foods, like toast or tea with honey, really comforting. He also takes comfort in large bodies of water, having grown up near an ocean. He'll sit for hours just listening to the waves if allowed to.

💖(sparkling heart) are they a subtle or a showy lover?

Taurus is definitely a subtle lover, he'd show he cares more through small gestures and gifts than big displays. Enough tea in the kettle for two, a new coat after you mentioned the old one was wearing thin, a wing wrapped around you in cold weather. Not much spoken really, he's not good with words, but he'd find ways to make his feelings known.

[iruiji]

SAGAU but Creator Reader has been tagging along with the Gourmet Supremos.

If you didn't know or have forgotten, Gourmet Supremos are one of those quest series that is randomized because some part of the questline can only be accessed with dailies (like Whispers in the Wind or Snezhnaya Does Not Believe in Tears or Garcia's Paean).

This questline spans from Inazuma up to Sumeru. I think there were 6-7 quests in total? I forgot. (it's 8).

(These are Julie, Parvaneh and Xudong in order.) There are more characters that made a cameo in here but we'll just limit it with these three.

Context dropped, onto the short HCs.

• Okay so, I didn't really read the whole story of this one so I'm just going to make some random HCs on the fly. I'm aiming for a goody-feel with this one so no heavy angst will be involved.

• Alright, so. Xudong is the leader of the Gourmet Supremos, and he only found you because when you land in Inazuma, you literally dropped into their camp and was about to steal a sausage from Julie's backpack (but there were so many ingredients there!!!)

• Xudong was fuming, lmao.

"THIEF!! SOMEONE, HELP!"

• Aight, geez, made you run a marathon there.

• The next time you've met, all three were together and they saw you roasting some lavender melon in some dilapidated tent you found while walking aimlessly. Hey, better than no shelter at all. For some unfathomable reason, your inventory only consists of food materials - with everything, and I mean everything, missing.

• God damn. It's like the heaven is telling you something. 🙄

• Anyways, yeah. So for some reason, the only access to the goddamn ingredients are locked, and you can't use it and you don't know when you would be able to use it, so you have to scrounge up whatever pitiful sources you can get.

• Sadly, it's mostly lavender melons.

• Like, you already made several dishes from this and it's really starting to grind on your gears, so you took a dive in one of the caverns and found some meat and was happily grilling it with the melons when the trio came out of nowhere.

"Thief!"

The hell. "I didn't get the sausage, though."

"But you still tried to!"

"I mean, I was dying of hunger, so.. you know."

Julie, bless her heart, gets in between you two. "It's fine, Xudong. They needed help, did they not?"

"But-"

This time, Parvaneh chimes in. "As they've told you, they didn't get anything, so let it go. And you." She points at you with calloused finger. "Who are you?"

That caught you off guard a little. Told them your name and, to Xudong's bewilderment, started chatting amicably with you. Some time later though, he softened a bit but still a little cautious. They traded cooking tips with you, and, to their utmost surprise, you exchanged many tips on cooking as well.

"How do you know all this?" Xudong asked as you finished explaining the difference between sauteing onion and garlic first.

"Oh. I'm uh, a professional chef back in our place. Been years though, so yeah." You replied as you took a bite of their chicken. "Holy shit, why is this so good?"

Julie and Parvaneh just smiled proudly.

• So like, you became a new addition to their team - but you actually specialize in desserts. Xudong has many a great views in cooking, as well as the two ladies, and together you journeyed the whole of Inazuma for rare ingredients and made some two or three journals that have been since published and loved by people. (The fangirling/fanboying is real when you saw Xiangling's message drooling about your own version of Tiramisu).

• One day, however, you lot came across a shrine - it doesn't look abandoned, oddly, but it looks really, really old. You asked them what's the deal with this one, and they explained about the Creator.

Oh.

You're in SAGAU?

Shit.

"People said they've come back, but we don't really know.."

Double shit.

• With that knowledge, you try and avoid the main cities as much as possible and only let the three buy on populated areas. Thank God they didn't really notice you suddenly covering half your face with a mask - which you only shrugged when asked.

"I like masks."

Fair enough, they suppose.

• ..oh fuck, is that Yae Miko?

"Ara, and who is this?"

Xudong, Julie and Parvaneh bows and you hastily followed.

"She is our new companion, Lady Miko."

She looks at you with an impish grin. "Oh?"

Dont act suspicious. Don't act suspicious.

"..yo."

Nice.

• Coming across the main characters from the game are very, VERY rare. You can actually count on one hand the characters you've met:

Yae Miko;

Thoma (he was going around asking for favors as usual and you bump into each other and only had quick apologies as interaction);

Kujou Sara (she was patrolling the area and asked about your mask - which you replied that it's part of your outfit. damn, her glare was fucking menacing!);

Kuki Shinobu (you were side to side buying groceries once), and lastly;

Kamisato Ayato (you actually didn't meet - you just saw him giving speech in a podium for some event you just came across).

• You figured, hey, maybe you're NOT the creator or whatever. And just tried to live normally after some time. The mask stayed though, because you just survived the pandemic back here and was cautious.

• About a year and six months with the team, Xudong suggested you come all to Sumeru to expand your knowledge. Holy shit, yes please!

• ..and then you met the Traveler on your way.

"Your Grace..?"

Triple shit.

😭 sorry for disappearing for about a year - i was too lazy finishing anything. And now, I added another idea not to finish on the list 💀 wrote this whole thing in like 30 minutes motivation really is a wonderful thing, huh?

[brucewaynehater101]

I miss the feeling I had when I first joined this fandom, I knew virtually nothing so everything was correct and I loved everything, even if that stuff just isn’t true, i was like

Bruce is a bit emotionally constipated but loves his kids? Hell yeah sounds legit

dick is a silly happy flippy man who is a bit promiscuous? Love that for him

Jason is a mega feminist literature nerd who is also buff and takes care of the street kids? Perfect man honest

Tim is a nerd who never sleeps and is queer and has never known the touch of a man nor woman? Sweet

Steph is waffle obsessed goofball? Well I prefer pancakes but right on

Cass is a mute badass who loves her fam? I love her

Duke is a normal dude? Well someone has to be and he seems neat

Alfred can do no wrong? Aight, I love old perfect tea men

Damian is a little prick? So are all middle schoolers give him time

But then I had to go learn about the characters and now I have complex opinions about them, and can see the inherent racism and sexism in how they are portrayed

You know before I joined the bat fandom I did not use the exclude tag in ao3? Like tmnt and dp have some bad stuff but usually I could just scroll past.

but now I am having to avoid fics where whole ass adults are bullying and/or oversexulizing a child

Im constantly on the look out for untagged batcwst

I struggle to find fics that don’t describe dicks ass

I have been in this fandom for probably about two years now and y’all I swear

sorry for ranting, and don’t worry I love all your stuff and I know the just back click don’t leave mean comments rule

I’m just tried bc most of the stuff I thought was true turned out to be false

Mm. I do find it a little exhausting trying to navigate the lines of what's canon, what shouldn't be canon (but is due to racism/sexism/homophobia/etc.), and just having fun.

I'm also trying to cultivate the mindset of what I've seen on Tumblr about not policing other people's ships/ideas. I am highly uncomfortable with some (particularly underaged people and adults dating), but I'm also not leaving hate comments. Like you said, the backspace exists for a reason.

Idk. There's a toooon of takes/ideas about the batfam that are inherently false, but as long as they aren't racist/sexist/etc takes, I don't see the harm in them. So what if someone wants a coffee obsessed Tim? So what if Jason's kill code is very strict? As long as they don't claim it's canon, let them be

But yeah. I have a mile long exclude list for fics on AO3. I used to use it only for triggers (I can not do stockhold syndrome, my lords), but now it's got other weird ass shit I've stumbled upon (I saw a fic where the batkids were spanked as punishment??? Like I said, not gonna leave hate comments or single anyone out. Just not my cup of tea).

I also am usually not a fan of romance/sex. It's why the batfam intrigued me so much (found families usually don't have that in it). I like exploring dynamics outside of romance and thus love the batfam. They've got so much going on that romance/sex is not needed. They are such a mess without that dynamic being added (talking about the Bats getting with a third party, but, again, trying not to yuck anyone's yum).

However, I agree. There's a ton of misinformation within fandom. I like how complex canon gets with the characters, but there's also widely different takes with them (mostly talking about Bruce here. He can either be trying or just a straight up horrible dad).

[ultimateplaylistmaker]

Rate all the popular dangitronpa ships out of 10

Komahina; really fun but also kinda overshadows other fun ships, along with the issue of characterization being a bit flanderized, but very fun in basically all forms 8/10

Oumasai; interesting fact the reason i call it oumasai instead of saiouma is because 1. Kokichi tops and I refuse to budge on this. and 2. to help keep it out of the much more popular tag when I'm complaining. Anyways 90% of it's terrible but that 10% can be pretty damn good though, please become less popular, constant bad characterization 3/10

Ishimondo; classic, maybe too much of a classic, way too hard to find other ships with these two, however ishimaru did in fact get mondo on his knees in that sauna so i can't exactly say they are wrong, alas i got into danganronpa at like 13-14 and i was too young to really appreciate this ship and has kinda made it not something i ever really reach for 7/10

Naegiri; also a classic, I love them, they are so cute, they love each other so much and the memes are great, genuinely amazing, plenty of room for fluff angst and crack. Adorable but also not something I tend to overly reach for over other ships however am more likely to casually see it and go "HELL YEAH" and read a 40k fic, 8/10

Kaimaki; long time fans know I am not the biggest Maki fan, she's grown on me over the year, but the more canon a ship gets the harder it is for it to keep my interest without some other detail, and Kaimaki, does not have that other detail, I don't mind reading it if it catches my fancy, though I think I prefer it unrequited on Kaito's end, is 'aight 6/10

Saimatsu; similar problem as kaimaki of thhe more canon the ship the harder to keep my attention HOWEVER saimatsu is also a fucking comedy because they both kinda bring out the unhinged in the other and also the angst does make me really sad, so its good even if its not what im reaching for. 8/10

Naegami; 14 year old me was fucking obsessed with this ship, I have since calmed down. Thank god. Honestly overexposure made it a bit stale to me I think, like it's FUN don't get me wrong, I love Togami being a fucking freak about this little peasant little guy, but it's a bit generic "soft with mean" shipping I feel, very much "baby's first rivalry ship" for me 6/10

Oumota; oh that's the good shit, that's the good shit, the angst, the drama, the competitiveness, the assisted suicide, the secrets taken to the grave, the totally for real kiss in the hangar, the, pun intended, amalgamation of them in the final trial. The fact their love hotels line up, the fact they balance each other out. The hilarity of Maki and Shuichi's faces if they found out these two are dating, Ohhh my god, ooooh my god 10/10

Fuyupeko; another classic that falls under "the more canon it is, the harder it is for me to get into it" also Peko just...isn't super interesting to me, like don't get me wrong she's still great, but she's definitely a character I don't think of as often. I love the art for it though, fanartist go HARD and i love it, it's just overall missing that friction or interesting twist I want with my ships, tends to lean too domestic. 6/10

Kamukoma; pretty fun! I kinda grew a bit out of this one as well but sometimes you want komaeda being the absolute fucking dramatic worst with his cringe loser emotionless emo boyfriend, and that's a lot of fun. Good for angst, especially more cracky angst at times. Very funny when Hajime after the fact is like "HEY W HAT" 7/10

[whatdoeseverybodywant]

You're the Only Girl for Me - Chapter 12

I do NOT give permission for my work to be translated or reposted on here or any other site, even if you give me credit. DO NOT REPOST MY FICS

Reblogs, comments, likes, and feedback ALWAYS appreciated ❤

All OC Characters belong to me

Series Masterlist

taglist: @christinabae @southerngirl41 @jeyusos-girl @jeyusosgirl @reci1996 @melaninsugababy @bemybabiibish @jstarr86 @baconeggndcheez @nbanenefrmdao @purplehairgawdess @arination99 @alyyaanna @m3llowww @jeysbae @empressdede @theninthwonder @badbitchcentralinc @bluesole16 @leaderofthebadbitchbrigade @bebesobrielo @venusesworld @babysyhsyh

**if your name is bold, tumblr won’t let me tag you**

February 4th 2021 - Pensacola FL

It had taken 3 weeks to get Josh moved into his new place and have it up to par for when Tracy brought the boys down. Tracy had insisted that she needed to make sure that her kids weren’t being brought to some ‘crack house’.... those were her exact words and it pissed Josh off, and brought on an argument that had her pushing back the boys visit another week. 

“So you ready to see your boys?” Airielle had as she excitedly bounced on her toes. She was beyond happy for him because she knew how much he missed them and Josh couldn’t wipe the smile off his face, no matter how hard he tried. 

“Hell yeah.” He said, grabbing his keys off the counter. “You sure you don’t wanna come with me to pick them up” Airielle nodded her head. 

“I’m sure. You spend the day with your boys and I'll meet up with y’all for dinner.” She cupped his cheek when he gave her a look. “I promise I'm not tryna run away or anything. I’m really excited to meet them. It’s just…” She paused and bit her lip. 

“Tracy” He said and nodded his head in understanding. “Aight, i’ll call before comin’ to pick you up.” She nodded and grabbed her purse before walking out the door with him. She let him walk her to her car and placed a kiss on his lips before driving away. 

Airielle groaned as she entered her apartment and saw Joe lounging on her couch. 

“Don’t you have a home?” Joe rolled his eyes. 

“Yeah, but I like being here. Whatchu’ doing here anyway. I thought you were meeting Jahair and Jahmir?”  Airielle grabbed two waters out of the fridge and sat down on the couch passing him one. 

“Yeah later on. Their mom wants to see Josh’s apartment to make sure it meets her standards or something,” 

“You ain’t wanna see her? Size up the competition?” She sent him a glare that made him laugh and hold up his hands. “I’m kidding” she hummed and rolled her eyes. 

“I can deal with him having kids, but the whole baby mama slash ex-wife thing,” She shrugged “Imma have to work up to that.”  Joe chuckled and nodded his head. 

“Yeah, Trace can be a bit much at times I don’t blame you.”  Airielle shrugged again

“I mean, if I wanna stay with Josh, imma have to meet her eventually just not now.”

The butterflies in Airielle’s stomach intensified as she heard a knock on the door. She knew Josh liked to actually meet her at her door instead of her coming down to his car, but she thought him having his sons that he would make an exception. 

All of the nervousness left her body when she opened the door though. Josh stood there with his usual bouquet of flowers but his two sons also had one rose each in their hands. “Hey,” He smirked and handed her the bouquet and his sons followed suit with their single roses. 

“Thank you.” She said smiling at the youngest, Jahmir who blushed and hid behind his father's legs.

“I stopped to get ya’ flowers and the boys wanted to get you some too.” Airielle placed a hand over her heart and thanked the two boys again before letting the three of them in so she could put the flowers in the vase. 

“Thank you guys. My other flowers were starting to become withered.” Josh led the boys over to the couch before grabbing Airielle’s hand and going into her bedroom, cracking the door. “What? What’s wrong?” 

Josh sighed and grabbed her hands, his thumb rubbing circles on the back of them. “Don’t be mad at me aight?” When she nodded, Josh continued. “Tracy is coming out with us tonight.” 

“Oh.” Airielle said, pulling her hands out of his grasp and wrapping her arms around herself. “I thought she was just flying down with them and leaving.” 

“She was, but uh- Mir brought you up and she said there was no way she was letting her kids meet you without her meeting you first.” Airielle sighed and sat on her bed. “I’m sorry Rih” 

“I mean I guess it’s okay.” 

“You sure?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. “Cause it’s okay if you don’t want to meet her.” Airielle shook her head. 

“No, it's cool. I wanna spend time with you and your boys.” Josh nodded with a big smile on his face. 

“Aight bet, come on before they start tearing up ya’ living room.” 

AirielleJones

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Airielle had never felt more awkward in her whole entire life. Josh had warned her that Tracy could be a bit much but.. Jesus she was insufferable. Everything was cool at the arcade, Jahmir and Jahir had pulled Airielle and Josh all around the arcade while Tracy stayed at the table with their stuff. 

 Airielle could avoid Tracy at the arcade by walking away when she was around,  but it was at dinner that they sat across from each other and Tracy kept sending Airielle glares when she would try to talk to Jahir or Jahmir, Tracy would answer for them as if she didn’t want Airielle talking to her kids.  

Josh glared at Tracy as he leaned closer to whisper into Airielle’s ear. “Don’t worry bout her aight? As soon we done eating me, you and the boys can leave.” Airielle sighed and nodded her head. She had no clue as to why Tracy was making everything so difficult. 

Yeah, they used to be married and they were together for a long time, but from what Josh had told her, Tracy had been moved on and the boys had already met her new boyfriend without any interference from Josh. 

“So Arabella-” 

“Oh, it’s Airielle.” Tracy shrugged and waved her hand dismissively

“Same thing.” Airielle let out an exasperated sigh as she grabbed her cup and took a sip. “So I hear you work for the WWE too.” Airielle nodded. “Are you a wrestler as well? I don’t remember seeing you on T.V” 

Airielle resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “No, I’m not a wrestler, I'm a backstage interviewer.” Tracy frowned her face up. 

“Oh, that sounds boring.”  

“Oh well it’s not” Airielle shot back immediately then cut her eyes towards Josh who had covered his mouth with his hand, trying to hide his smile. 

“Daddy, I'm tired.” Jahmir interrupted and Airielle sent out a silent prayer. Finally she could get away from Tracy.  Josh gave Airielle his card so she could pay and took the two boys to the bathroom. Airielle immediately took the card and rushed over to the counter so she could pay. 

“Is that my husband's cuban?” Airielle’s hand flew up to the chain on her neck. “It looks just like the one I got him for his birthday last year.” 

Airielle sighed. “Ex-husband and No, it’s not his.” Was all Airielle said, getting the receipt and walking out of the restaurant with Tracy hot on her heels.

 “You know,” Tracy said once she and Airielle were outside  “I think you would look so much better without all that make-up. Your skin is probably crying out for a break.”  Airielle let out a loud laugh, tilting her head. Her eyes twinkled with amusement. Tracy was trying to get a rise outta her but it wasn’t going to work. 

“My skin is fine, thank you very much.” She rolled her eyes, still laughing. It was at the moment Airielle wished Josh gave her the keys to the car because if Tracy said one more thing to her, Airielle wasn’t sure if she’d be able to hold it together.  Luckily Josh and the boys finally came out.  Airielle stood there awkwardly as she and Josh waited for the boys to say goodbye to their mother. 

Tracy turned to Airielle and gave her one final up and down glance before saying “I guess it was nice meeting you.” And walked off before Airielle could say anything back.

“Thank you.” Josh said, breaking Airielle out of her thoughts. He had just finished putting the boys to bed. She finished wrapping her hair up before turning towards him, a confused look on her face. 

“For what?” Josh shrugged and patted the spot on the bed next to him so she could come lay next to him. 

“I know you wasn’t too happy about having to spend the day with Tracy” He said as she climbed into the bed next to him. “So thank you for still coming and spending time with me and the boys.” 

“It was no big deal.” She shrugged. “I mean, no I wasn’t ready to meet your ex, but it was gonna happen eventually right?”  She laid down and propped herself up on her elbow. “Besides, I’m happy I got to meet your kids today. they’re cool as fuck.” She smiled and Josh knew right then and there he was in love. 

AHHHH! they're so cute 😭🥰

sorry in advance about the next couple chapters

[aluria-sevhex]

HELL FUCKING YESSSSSSSS

hey if you wanna read all of my posts as i play through ISAT, they are all tagged as #Aluria plays ISAT for the first time (please don't spoil)

notes:

-aight i'm back yippee

-title theme my beloved

-i always find it so funny when an enemy tries to freeze Mira

-gonna try this boss again

-ok i think i'll just replay Floor 3 on this loop instead of looping forward after i find out another one of Bonnie's favorite foods so i can build up everybody's stats

-OH. BONNIE OVERHEARD THE DEATH CONVERSATION.

-heh Bonnie slapped Siffrin

-uh... the audio is REALLY ominous...

-oh, Bonnie...

-WAIT WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT DID I JUST LOOP SLIGHTLY BACK IN THE PAST?

-Siffrin you ok i don't think that was helping ur mental health issues your eye is covered in shadow in your dialogue portrait

-i will once again NOT kill Siffrin via anaphylaxis. i will take the fish head

-...i didn't. get info on Bonnie's favorite foods this time.

-ok according to the save screen that didn't count as a loop

-anyway time to try looping to get the Bonnie snack info

-hey... the Tear dialogue isn't as silly anymore (it just says yes or no without the 'looping time' or 'living time')

-hey i didn't skip any loops this time!

-time to kill this pair of assholes again

-"carry my ashes with you" aw that's a sweet dialogue option

-i am so tempted to kill Siffrin. but i won't.

-awwww... i talked to Bonnie and now Sif is comforting them

-ok how the fuck do i get the info. BONNIE PLS.

-hold up. does Siffrin no longer nod when zoning out? :((((

-WAIT FUCK DID I FORGET TO GET THE KEY ON FLOOR 2.

-...Mira's roommate. was learning to make bombs. why???

-lol Isa knows how to make a bomb

-Mira has anti-anxiety meds. this makes a lot of sense tbh

-...what are these papers for???

-so i decided to try using the silver coin since a person said that you can do something with it related to the croissant lore. and it said "you think about the Incident" or smth like that lol

-lol Sif forgot the term 'stuffed animal'

-idk why but it feels like a lot of Craft skills are like. slower. or have bigger cooldowns in Act 3. even tho i KNOW they don't and my brain is fucking with me

-ok the game accounted for the key thing

-in the bathroom again

-Sif is calming themself again and figuring out what to do

-Siffrin, self-loathing and calling yourself stupid won't help :(

-i zoned out at some minor dialogue but i don't remember what the dialogue was the first time so i am fucking clueless about what was going on with a choice i made. sorry Mira idk why i 'saved you' by smacking your mouth ;_;

-i love getting to obliterate weaker Rock enemies with Paper α V

-i have now gotten Sif to level 60

-sometimes it's nice to take a break and talk to Loop

-wait a sec. doesn't one of the lower floors have a sharpening stone?

-ok it's been a while and now i have everybody back to level 52. time to kick the asses of the 3rd floor boss

-ooo Odile got a new skill

-time for the last snack break!

-Bonnie's upset now because i didn't try the fritters D:

-time to face the King again... and hopefully talk to him

-welp. *that* didn't work

-oh nvm now i can ask him questions via the Craft menu!

-you. you can give the King the flower.

-yeah the characters have a point! why Vaugarde specifically?

-the King is NOT responsible but he says Siffrin has an odd smell. huh... the only other things where an odd smell has been noted is Bonnie saying the star crest Sadnesses smell odd... but if Sif had that smell then it would've been noticed sooner...

-dude. how rude to say that if Siffrin doesn't understand Time Craft they can't understand the King's methods. maybe i should read more on Time Craft in one of the libraries? or that one book on craftonomy...

-the "you have heard this before" for zoning out got more and more annoyed

-once again. what does the King need to say?

-hm i was talking to Odile and Bonnie piped in really excitedly that they have more pineapple in their pocket

-GOD FUCKING DAMMIT MIRABELLE I LOVE YOU BUT YOU STOPPED ISA'S CONFESSION ToT

-time to talk to Euphrasie and loop again ig

-hey what's that in her hair?

-"you inhale sharply, almost choking on the smell of burnt sugar around you" BURNT SUGAR BURNT SUGAR THAT'S THE SMELL OF TIME SHENANIGANS AS SEEN WITH THOSE SADNESSES

-SAY SOMETHING ELSE EUPHRASIE

-how do i get the familytale?

-ok i talked to Odile and i'm gonna help her!

-am i gonna have to go all over town for this?

lmao yeah i think i will

-oh hey the wizard-loving kid is named Manon

-oh my god. i have to go back to the boulanger

-FINALLY

-:O THERE IS NO RESEARCH???

-oh THAT'S why Odile is in Vaugarde

-oh... her mom left... all of her travels here have been to try to reconnect with that part of her...

-HEY SIFFRIN I AM ONCE AGAIN ASKING WHERE THE *FUCK* ARE YOU FROM?

-damn. bro has amnesia

-LMAO I ASKED MIRA ABOUT THE PAPERS AND THE BATTLE THEME STARTED

-...bonding proposals???

-oh my god Mira joined a dating website group

-"we have one of those at home"

-"oh, i don't have a type! i like all kinds of people equally!" is this in a bi way or an aro way

-YEAH AROMANTIC REPRESENTATION

-DIVERSITY WIN! THE KICKASS HANDMAIDEN WHO'S IMMUNE TO BEING FROZEN IN TIME AND THE SORT-OF CHOSEN ONE IS ARO!!! I FUCKING CALLED IT YEAHHHHHHHH :D

-oh, Mira :( you're not the problem you don't have to do anything like that you're not comfortable with

-hm this game is dealing with personal identity a lot

-:( :( :( oh, Mira...

-DIVERSITY WIN!!! THE SKETCHY WANDERER STUCK IN A TIME LOOP WITH MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS IS ACE!!!

-MY BLORBOS ARE ACE AND AROACE FUCK YEAH I AM SO HAPPY

-FUCK IT I'M POSTING NOW

SERIOUSLY THO I DON'T THINK I CAN ACCURATELY CONVEY HOW FUCKING HAPPY THIS PART IS MAKING ME. TWO OF MY FAVORITES ARE ACE AND AROACE HELL FUCKING YES

[violetmuses]

Element - A. Aretas ❤️‍🩹

Title: Element - A. Aretas ❤️‍🩹

Fandom: “Bad Boys” Film Universe

Character: Armando Aretas

Pairing: Armando Aretas + Female Reader

Main Storyline: One secret might change everything when Armando Aretas joins the Miami Police Department.

Tag List: @nelo0wesker @yassbishimvintage @nobodygetsza @peaxhygirl @superstar-t20 @adoresmiles @klssngss @deja-r @hyper-trash-panda @amethyst-loves-bucky @planetblaque @sweettea-and-honeybutter @lovedlover @xjjawsomex @readingisahobby @kindofaintrovert 🏷

=====

2024

Red and blue overcasts immediately brightened the skyline this evening as police officers arrested goons.

“Good job, y'all. Let's get out of here.” Detective Mike Lowrey took charge and rounded the members of the AMMO squad, including you.

After handling many questions or encountering secrets over time, Mike would even take responsibility as the biological father of previous criminal Armando Aretas.

To cut down his time in prison, red tape pulled strings and Armando returned to Florida, now working as your partner.

“Barbecue this weekend?” Mike's longtime partner and best friend Marcus Burnett chuckled.

“Hell yeah.” Mike would leave, but not without facing Armando.

“What's up?” Revealing slightly accented English, Aretas stayed cordial toward Mike.

“Wanna go?” Mike referenced the celebration once more.

“You sure?” Armando squinted.

“Rook visits all the time.” Cutting your nickname, Mike gestured as you caught up with weapons expert Kelly, smiling.

“I'll go.” Aretas noticed Mike, yet glanced toward you for a second and butterflies nearly swarmed.

“Aight. We'll drive with Christine tomorrow.” Sharing their fist bump, Mike leaves Armando by himself.

***

The Miami Police Department scheduled this cookout from public parks each year.

Sunlight warmed as you entered the parking lot and charcoal began smoking past various directions.

Just when you'd exit the car and head over to see everyone, music rattled out of nowhere.

Mike's classic Porsche rolled near your vehicle while the AUX cord hustled overtime through subwoofers.

“Really?” You laughed out loud and stepped away, ignoring Mike.

Both Armando and Lowrey's wife Christine shook their heads in return.

Christine also worked as an experienced physical therapist and helped Mike heal throughout the shooting recovery which took place years back.

“His idea, not mine.” Armando clipped jokes when reaching the park together.

_______

“Keep talking. It'd be nice.” Mike grumbled toward Armando later.

“What?” Aretas seemed clueless.

“You like her.” Mentioning you, Mike arched his brow and walked away, returning that grill debate with Marcus and Reggie.

Just when Armando moves for his plate, you reach attention first.

“Over here.” If nothing else, you don't want Aretas to sit alone in this large space.

“Hey.” Armando wouldn't smile, but feelings kept racing again.

“Hi.” Your voice greeted him. There's so much more to life than work, especially right now.

By the end of this cookout, no one else intervenes and Aretas nearly ditches Mike to stay with you.

“Go.” You laughed right through another smile this afternoon.

“Fine.” Armando says back.

Once this man looked around for privacy, Armando stepped closer and kissed your cheek, heading to Mike's Porsche.

[iliveforyouilongforyouvesuvia]

ok its me again hi AAAHHHH this is so nice i feel so warm im lying on my bed kickin my lil legs i cant believe this thank you for being nice omgggg now im on a roll im gonna say things about julian hkdhjgdgjf

only one song really that i scanned the whole tag looking for to see if anyone said it before and i was so surprised that i didnt find it and i went to check the official playlists on spotify cause maybe its on there already and thERE ISNT ONE WHAT???? i had the muriel one liked on here and id never checked any other ones out lmao but like i swear there had to be one?? like maybe they made it first and its somewhere separately??? julian is like the most popular one how the hell does he not get a spotify list is that how this tag was created?? *gasp* am i discovering the ~fandom lore~

(just gonna say you dont actually need to answer any of that in detail dont waste your time gksgkydgjf im just screaming into the void cause i was so flabbergasted after those 3 whole minutes of research i put into this)

ANYWAY the actual song would be House of Wolves by our lord and saviour MCR! its so good for him with his whole Woe is Me drama king vibe lol and the plaguey thematicssss mmmm delicious TELL ME im a BAD BAD BAD BAAD MAAAAN aight you lil masochist i see u and the "you better run like the devil cause they never gonna leave you alone" you get it caUSE HES A FUGITIVE DO YOU GET THE DEEP UNRAVELABLE METAPHORS DO YOU GET IT DO YOU G aight shut up hkhfjtdy anyway

ok i lied jystfhte heres another one i just remembered i really wanted to put here its not new but just in case somebody hasnt seen it yet lmao its such a masterpiece ill do anything to give it its due here ya go

https://youtu.be/61HltPN_k3g

and the other thing im really glad to have seen people mention here is musical songs cause thats one of the things i love about him the most like yass we love a thespian king slay grl so then anytime im binging a musical there always come the intrusive thoughts of "aw hed love this one" and "oh hed be great for this role" like i went to see f-ing swan lake with my f-ing grandpa and one of the major takeaways i got from the experience was (UH IM GONNA PUT A SPOILER WARNING HERE? I GUESS? IN CASE ANYONE CARES HELLO JULIAN BAD ENDING SPOILERS AHEAD DO MOVE ALONG NOW IF YOU DONT LIKE THAT AVERT YOUR GAZE CITIZENS LMAO LIKE YOU HAVENT SEEN FANARTS N ADS ALREADY ALRIGHT ALRIGHT) "omg jules would be so perfect as that bird guy villain IN HIS BIRD GUY SHAPE TOO OMG WITH THE WINGS ON STAGE THIS IS AWESOME WHY CANT I DRAW GOOD GODDA-"

anyway hed love hadestown (hed at least try to cast muriel as hades cause hes perfectly intimidating for it but theres way too many lines which okay Maybe but AND he has to sing???? nah hes out bkgdhkdt) i dont know what hed think of pierre natasha & the great comet cause its maybe a little eccentric i suppose but i think hed appreciate the cultural roots of the vibe with him being fantasy ruso-slav-ukrainian-whatnot heritage i reckon and hed definitely have a blast at a live performance and hed ABsolutely join in with the actors in between the rows at some point and theyd ABSOlutely let him cause hes that good and game recognize game cmon hes gonna show you amateurs what a real kazotski looks like

i can also see him enjoying sweeney todd, for its delightful edgyness, maybe even some themes relatable for him, and his sappy ass would SO memorise Pretty women to whip it out at an opportune serenading moment khgdturshc im so cringe and loving it

well i cant think of any more shows to throw him together with so thus ends my soliloquy wow i cant believe thats how you spell that anyway i hope anybody who knew what the hell im talking about enjoyed all that jgfztits see you in another 20 minutes when i come back like "AND ANOTHER thing-

Yay, it's the character song essays anon!! :D

I'm glad to see you back, and I will once again be re-linking the song you shared below and adding your suggestions to the tag ^.^

And frankly, I'm 76% certain that one of Julian's love languages is theatre, especially musical theatre. That could be tickets, that could memorizing the lines from one of this favorite scenes and reciting it back to him, it could be showing up to every single performance he's involved in :)

I'm glad to see you back in my inbox, friend, feel free to message me if you ever want to obsess over the characters together! Cheers -

brainrot

[sapphire-weapon]

Favorite ships in RE verse (Remake included)? Ik you like Ashley/Leon so feel free to scream about them. I'm also curious to know if you have any ships among the side characters.

oof. aight. so.

Leon/Ashley is the only "real" RE ship that I have, in the sense that it's the only one that I actively create and seek out content for. I'll go into the whys and hows of that a little later, but. In case anyone was curious why I go so hard for Leon/Ashley --

Actually. When I reblogged this post initially, I almost tagged it as #WHEN PEOPLE ASK ME WHY I SHIP LEON/ASHLEY #THIS IS WHY

I restrained myself because I don't like doing that to other ppl's posts, but. It's a pretty accurate representation of what drew me to the ship initially 18 years ago. Queen/Knight ships are my absolute favorite dynamic for a ship ever ever ever ever. Hands down. No contest. And what are these two -- especially in OG -- if not that?

My second favorite kind of ship? Doomed ones. Missed opportunity ones. "If only things were different" ones. "Our roles in each other's lives will never allow this to happen" ones.

And that's also them.

Real talk? I would actually like the ship way less if I thought for a second that there was a chance that Leon and Ashley could/would actually get together in canon. I'd still like it, but not nearly as much. (which is why it's really funny when people try to be like "it'll never be canon" YEAH NO SHIT I HOPE IT NEVER IS)

So I was cursed to fall super hard for this ship from day one. Like, there wasn't even a chance in hell I wasn't going to ship these two. No other two characters in this series have a dynamic that's even kind of similar to this.

And then the remake happened and it poured even more of the shit I already liked about it on top of what was already there and I was like "mmm yes it's delicious thank u capcom"

So that's my whole thing with those two.

And outside of those two? Well.

Back in the days of early RE fandom, we were so small and so starved for fan content that it was commonplace for people to read fics for ships that they didn't care about or even like lmao. I once read like 80,000 words of a Wesker/Leon fic because that was all I could fucking find that I hadn't read yet (and also wasn't weird monster dog porn -- late 90s/early 00s RE fandom was fucking weird ok).

Those early fandom days were also kind of magical, though, because so much of the canon was wide open to so many different ships and interpretations and scenarios. Like, as time has gone on and RE has grown larger and larger, the world of RE has started to feel smaller and smaller. It's way way WAY harder to write a canon-compliant fic these days, because there's so many moving parts to the story now, and a lot of details have been cemented in place that never used to be there.

Like, it's rad that the canon has so much to consume in it. But it sucks because it feels restrictive as a result.

So, like.

I have actually written fics for so many different, random ships over my 25 years in this fandom, because this fandom used to be more of like a... swap meet, sort of? Where we'd all just take requests from each other and write fics for each other and share them around -- because the fandom was so, so goddamn small back in the day.

I have actually written fics for:

Leon/Ashley (of course)

Leon/Claire

Leon/Luis

Chris/Jill

Chris/Rebecca (seriously)

Chris/Leon

Steve/Claire

Billy/Rebecca

Wesker/Ada (this one was fun, actually. I'd fuck with this one again)

Of course, there were people who were ride-or-die OTP folks (though this actually didn't get really bad or become any sort of real majority in the fandom until after RE4's release, and that's only because RE4 just dumped so much gasoline on the Aeon vs Cleon war holy fuck. RE fandom became a fuckin minefield after RE4), but a lot of us really just dabbled in a bit of everything. So I never really got like... super attached to any one ship, if that makes sense?

There is actually something very nostalgic about Leon/Claire for me, if you can believe it, because the ship was only viable until about the time of Degeneration, so we're going way back. That movie made it very clear that these two were not at all going to stay as active parts of each other's lives, so the ship basically died upon its release.

But prior to that? That was one of THE BIG SHIPS in the fandom. So, the vast majority of fics that I wrote back in the swap meet days were Leon/Claire, because the majority of my fandom friends fell more on the Cleon side of things.

Today, I don't like where their dynamic has gone in later canon. There's nothing there anymore, and I've lost all interest in it.

But... at the same time... when RE2make happened, it was something I thought about revisiting just for old time's sake. I haven't pulled the trigger on it yet, but I do still think about it from time to time. Maybe I'll actually go ahead and do the thing one of these days, now that I'm back in the habit of writing RE fic again.

But anyway.

The point is. Any side ships I have, I really just enjoy in passing. Like, if I see nice art of Chris/Jill or Billy/Rebecca I'll definitely reblog it because I do enjoy it, but I have never even one time gone out of my way to find it or any fics of them. Most of my contributions to side ships are thinkpieces and meta analysis.

Leon/Chris is one of the ships that I've done deep dive meta analysis for -- and half of that was just to piss off fanboys who were already mad about RE6 to begin with, because those fuckers made the fandom UNBEARABLE in the early 2010s -- but I still don't go super hard for them.

Same thing with Remake-verse Leon/Luis. I've done meta for them because people have asked me for it, and I do find their new dynamic absolutely fascinating from a literary/storytelling standpoint. They're another ship I do enjoy, but... again, mostly in passing.

So. idk if this actually answered your question. RE ships are just kind of a weird topic for me in general most of the time, because I went so, so, so long just looking at characters' individual arcs as opposed to engaging in actual ship content.

I've talked about this a little before, but I did go through that period (around 10 years) where I tried to pass it off that I had no ships in order to seem like an "objective" source for canon information (which, in hindsight, is so fucking stupid because I could've just done what I'm doing now and kept objective facts about the series/canon differentiated from my ship shit, but w/e), so in those 10 years, I didn't really engage with RE ships, like, at all.

So now I'm just kind of at the point of "dude whatever idc as long as we're all having fun."

[blackjackkent]

Aight, resuming my slow but steady liveblogging process through Throne of Bhaal! I really have no idea how close we are to the end, but I'm gonna try and get as much done this evening as possible and we'll see where we end up.

(As always, block the tag “#bjk plays baldur’s gate 2” if you would like to avoid all this nonsense. Alternatively, if you have been invested in Caden’s story and would like to help pick what sort of character I play when liveblogging BG3, I have a poll up.)

We left off last time having escaped our little hell pocket dimension and being deposited in the city of Saradush, a Bhaalspawn sanctuary city currently under siege by another Bhaalspawn general named Yaga-Shura, while the Bhaalspawn general that is supposed to be defending it, Gromnir il-Khan, is busy going mad and abusing his subjects.

We left off in the process of breaking into Gromnir's castle from underneath, so let's see where that takes us. :D

[cutebunnys50]

Love Live Superstar season 3 episode 5 spoilers and spoilers for everything that comes before that (by mention)

UGHHHGHH how could they do this to me, even when I thought I wasn't as obsessed with Sumikeke, they keep dropping more and more things like they're trying to force me back into it 😭😭😭😭😭😭 Granted, this is Love Live so they're just (throwaway) crumbs but since Smkk was my old flame, I unintentionally latch onto them unconsciously.... It's like before I even realized it, I've already picked it up and then it slowly drives me more than a little mad... -- LIKE RIGHT NOW

I was excited to see it WAS a Keke episode and she's finally being allowed to graduate (temporarily) from her gag character status, but while Keke is confiding in Kanon and I'm mentally nodding along, we suddenly get a shot like THIS

SUMIRE????

i literally muttered, out loud, "oh my god" under my breath when I saw this 'cuz WHY ARE YOU STANDING THERE WATCHING HER FROM FAR AWAY, i know it's probably like break time or something but is Sumire stalking her or something-- and of course the choice to have Sumire show up immediately 'cuz apparently these two come as a package deal 😭😭😭😭😭

they're friends obviously and I'm not reading into things more than I usually do, even if I do like wearing yuri goggles, 'cuz I'm always paying attention to canon and whatnot too, but obviously this is directly after the "I love you" scene (which does canonize them, come ON), so this clearly has additional context and intent and baggage or whatever hjdsflksdfds the takeaway is "if Keke is troubled, then Sumire will be there worrying about her" and that's very true to season 1 Sumikeke too because Sumire has always been kind and considerate and that's what made her my fave in the first season in the first place.

ANYWAY

I thought, "lmao ofc Sumire is also involved whenever it comes to Keke and her troubles, aight, fair enough" but we go further into the episode and then we get a line like THIS

I'M SOO SOO curious

what are the current Sumikeke fans feeling right now.... Directly after the episode I thought, "Sumikeke fans ate so well this episode" but surely I'm not the only one who thinks this... Anyway, I thought I was over them... But apparently not 'cuz this episode has me feeling some kinda way. IN PARTICULAR I REALLY liked Smkk a LOT so it kinda reminded me of just how deeply obsessed I was with them. Like, I don't actively look them up any more 'cuz the negative experiences kinda overpowered my desire/curiosity for more, but the inner part of me that STILL loves them is the exact reason why I'm writing this right now cuz I really want to get this out of my system. what the hell....

don't play with me hhHNGNHH I KNOW ALL ABOUT IT YOU KNOW. I KNOW ABOUT THE LINES IN STARRY PRAYER , WHICH I BELIEVE WAS IMPLIED TO BE FOR KEKE "I'll erase everything that's unpleasant in your future"-- IT'S LITERALLY IN THE SMKK TAG WHENEVER I CHECK, I KNOW ABOUT IT !!!!!!!

And then if we walk back, I don't think I ever publicly commented on Sumire's behavior in S2 besides my disappointment that Smkk jumps into toxicity way too quickly for my liking when I never liked them for their toxicity (only their cute banter/childish bickering/rivalry which you're NOT supposed to take too far, damn it), but the way Sumire was willing to become the villain to protect Keke was WILD, I really wonder why people haven't written fics using this as a concept... For example, I had a lot of ideas myself from back then but I could EASILY imagine a fic where Sumire takes the blame and becomes some kinda scapegoat/sacrificial/martyr character and it'd be so hnnhghhh and angsty

obviously writing it is harder than imagining it, so i'm not saying writing something like that would be easy at all, but Sumire's canon behavior is like prime fanfic material,, do they see... does the fandom like that sorta thing too... isn't it like... almost perfectly trope-y and incredible but COMPELLING? why not write something like that instead of all the fics we currently have; in fact, i'm gonna check the Smkk fanfiction tag rn and probably monitor their tag in general out of curiosity for a while, especially while I wait for the next episode, so I probably won't tag this rambling, I dont want to see myself in the search results every time lmao, but even though I don't think anyone followed me from my Smkk days, this episode was SOMETHING

FIRST OF ALL

I was really distracted by how many plane tickets "Keke" apparently bought, I kept thinking "how expensive are plane tickets?!?? how much did you spend?? can you afford that? is it cheaper over there???" but finding out it's her sister makes me less confuzzled, still, is her sister rich or something, I have no idea how expensive tickets are, maybe it's a US thing? maybe i should look it up?

Anyway, that aside, everyone acting like her "sister" was some stranger was obviously done for comedic effect but in my head i kept yelling, "THEY LOOK SIMILAR, THAT'S OBVIOUSLY HER SISTER" so i feel like during that moment, I was more impatient about waiting for them to find out/get the answer lol

THEN HOSHIKUZU CRUISING IN CHINESE, AWESOME, I wanna listen to that a lot , release the full version??? Keke also looked stunning,

BUT ALSO, "the live is a day after tomorrow" GIRL?? GIVE THEM MORE THAN A DAY TO PREPARE?? omg that's like. actually wild as well.

you bring them to Shanghai and i'm wondering how rich everyone is and then they're told they have to prepare for a festival in like a day or two, I know the group practices choreography and everything and it's theoretically not impossible but why would Keke's sister do this lmao

seeing her finally get a design and face was cool though! i sometimes forget Keke is a little sister/younger sibling but with the way she acts, that's so fitting lmao. LL sure loves its sibling relationships

anyway, i've been enjoying S3 way more than I did during S2 (cuz of internal biases I think, but S3 also has many good lines and moments, such as the Natsumi + Shiki characterization I always wanted when it came to the first years, as opposed to Kanon solving everything and inviting everyone on Earth to the club. it's really cute that Kanon cares and tries to solve everything and literally has to be held back by Chisato but for example , finally Mei giving us some additional concrete reasons to ship Shikimei and so on and so forth)

That was a flood of words because I just finished watching the episode and it shook me and now I'm going through my old Smkk stuff and remembering how I felt about them and how much I loved them (still do? idk at all), but I guess I'll keep seeing what happens. S3 really does have me reacting more than S2 'cuz during S2, the "i love you" scene was spoiled to me first and then when it happened I was mostly like, "?" instead of fangirling like someone more engaged would do, but in S3, Sumire just exists in Keke's general proximity or says a line and I'm reeled back in. BECAUSE of that prior context. 😭 cuz it all adds up....

alone, i can dismiss it as the power of friendship or whatever but not when it comes to Sumikeke. this girl is GAY.

Bonus:

Kanon-chan's kind counseling face 🥺

honestly i don't wanna talk about it 'cuz the framing is coincidental in my opinion, the way I used to like a love triangle with these charas in particular, but Kanon truly is an interesting and likeable character in my opinion. I just wish they executed her better? idk. like, don't make anyone dislike her lol . i know it's easier said than done but I don't like the idea of her being disliked just because she appears a lot and goes way too "main character" mode. I do agree that it's good to give the other characters spotlight, but don't turn Kanon's kindness/helpfulness into something bad....!! LL staff, are you listening?! (rhetorical question)

At the end of the day, I still love these girls a lot. It's absolutely not shipping brain either lmao: i've been following them since their debut and all of this has literally added up. Didn't someone also say some gay throwaway line in the manga about how much Keke likes Sumire or vice versa??? i really like and care about them but it's precisely because I liked them so much that I couldn't handle them being mischaracterized, first by the fandom and then by the anime/canon itself by turning their deep relationship into something shallow or mean-spirited or gag-like.

I still remember all of this and I still feel it. Like they say, if you can switch off your love for something at the drop of a hat, then perhaps you never really loved it at all. End rant/rambling, whichever it is.

[johnnystorms]

the tags on the various posts floating around about the love unlimited ft. peter’s breathtakingly bad boyfriend behaviour are like -- i get it, in that this is hysterical laughter levels of terrible, and that Feels Bad given peter does love gwen, but. on one hand, it’s kinda worth noting the tone of the comic; the dialogue and way the action plays out has to match the tone, and maybe would be delivered differently in a different genre. but also……… it’s not like this is the first time peter has ditched a situation that’s incredibly socially inappropriate for him to abandon. hell, it’s not even the first time he does it for johnny related reasons.

i super get the impulse to rail against it—and i’m 10000% on board with gwen hunting spider-man with a shotgun; the tags targeting johnny had me a little ? bc he’s expressing an emergency. it’s not a personal call. obviously you don’t want to tear someone away from a wake, but johnny is just telling him the situation. peter is the one who chooses to go, and while johnny cajoles him a bit, it’s not like he puts up much fight. he thinks of his crying gf being like i hate spider-man and he’s like aight sure time to thwip. ftr i think gwen can shoot johnny if she wants as well (support women’s rights but even more support their wrongs or dubious right-wrongs), but like. i don’t think she’s going to think it’s his fault her boyfriend didn’t try that hard to say no lmao

but anyway. yeah. super get the impulse to be dismayed abt it or whatever but… it’s not a new thing for peter. i think we’re all better off if we just acknowledge that characters we love very dearly sometimes behave very badly lmao

[assortedvillainvault]

The Bloggening

Aight then, time to tell y'all what's coming up next!

As you can see, my asks are now disabled, and will continue to be so until I clear out my to do list. Said to do list is as follows:

Masterlists, Drafts, DV'Cule prompts, and OF COURSE, my ASKS.

Holy hell peeps I've got a lot of asks (thank you all sm!!)

In More Detai! The bloggening plan is as follows:

Masterlists To Be Created For;

Hades COMPLETE

Jafar COMPLETE

The Horned King COMPLETE

Captain Hook COMPLETE

Captain Barbossa COMPLETE

Davy Jones COMPLETE

Yzma COMPLETE

Drafts To Be Completed;

Breakdown of That One Arcane Scene that makes my chest hurt COMPLETE

C. Hook 'Teaching Reader how to Dance' Ask COMPLETE

Reblog of a @disney-android-foundation post that makes me wheeze COMPLETE

DV'Cule Prompts to Write;

Out-Cheating the Carnival COMPLETE

Frollo Does Not Approve of Anything, Ever, Pt. 1.5 COMPLETE

Frollo Does Not Approve of Anything, Ever, Pt. 2

Hades Has to Pick a Plus 1 COMPLETE

By Talos this Can't be Happening, Frollo Edition

ANOTHER Undead Sorcerer?!

Ask List, In No Particular Order;

Romance One Shot, Captain Hook X Reader COMPLETE

Imhotep Summons Pitch Black, Headcannon/Drabble COMPLETE

Fluffy Confession, Barbossa X Reader

Friends to Lovers, Hades x Fem!Reader COMPLETE

Dr. Facilier, Headless Horseman and Horned King. Fluff Headcannons

Pitch Black X Human!Reader, Headcannons COMPLETE

Married Life with The Horned King, Headcannons (two-part ask)

Retro Video Game Love, TFP Starscream X Reader

Witch/Mage!Reader X The Horned King, Headcannons COMPLETE

You're a DemiGod?! Jafar X DG!Reader, Headcannon/Drabble COMPLETE

Who's the Better Pirate?? Hook, Barbossa, Davy Jones. Headcannon/Drabble COMPLETE

Comfort Headcannons, Starscream OR Darksiders Character of My Choice (Undecided)

More Hades x Eldritch!Reader, Headcannons (Two requests) COMPLETE

Hades X OCD TransMasc!S/O, Headcannons

NOS4A2 X Electomancer!Reader, Headcannons

Imhotep X Insecure!Reader, Headcannons

Thieving Meet-Cute, NOS4A2 X Villain!Reader, One Shot

Hades vs Lost Kittens, Drabble COMPLETE

“Did you just bite me?” prompt, DV'Cule One Shot

“Keep screaming. No one’s gonna hear you.” prompt, Starscream x Human!Reader COMPLETE

“Don’t bleed on my carpet” prompt, Imhotep X Reader

“You licked me!” prompt, TFA Blitzwing X Reader COMPLETE

TFA Blitzwing X Chaotic!Reader COMPLETE

Family Kidnapping, NOS4A2 x Reader Headcannons/One Shot

"I remember you" prompt, Horned King X Reincarnated!Reader COMPLETE

"Comforting touches" prompt, Davy Jones X Reader COMPLETE

Return to the Resturant! DV'Cule vs Waiter Headcannons/One Shot COMPLETE

Imhotep X LovesPDA!Reader, Headcannons COMPLETE

“Don’t bleed on my carpet” prompt, Hades X Reader COMPLETE

That's Everything! I'll be Editing and reblogging this post as I go!

Btw in the absence of asks feel free to comment/reblog and say stuff in tags for that sweet sweet serotonin and writing juice to fuel me onwards. I cry with joy everytime someone takes the time to leave me a sweet message or say how much they enjoyed my work, means a lot!

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[feanorianethicsdepartment]

Alright, I read your recent post and need to know - what is your interpretation of Maglor’s relationship with the twins?

askjdhslkjag my biggest self-inflicted problem in this fandom is that my take on maglor, elrond, and elros' relationship is so intensely detailed and specific i am forever tormented by none of the fic i read ever quite getting it right (from my perspective; i’ve read plenty of fic that presents a good interpretation on their own terms, it’s just never mine.) it’s simultaneously way darker than the fluffy kidnap dads stuff and nowhere near as black-and-white awful as the anti-fëanorian crowd likes to paint it, it’s messy and complicated and surrounded by darkness, and yet there’s also a sincere connection within it which mostly serves to make all those complications worse. angry teenage elrond is angry for a great many reasons, and the circumstances around him being raised by kinslayers account for at least half of them. there’s lots of complexity here, and i don’t see it in fic nearly as often as i’d like

(warning: the post... feathers? i already have an internet friend called faeiri this could be awkward - anyway, the post she’s talking about includes the line ‘everyone is wrong about kidnap dads except me.’ this post follows on from that in being as much a commentary about why various popular interpretations of both how the kidnapdoption went and the way people subsequently characterise the twins just don’t work for me as it is a setting out of my own ideas. i’m not really interested in getting into discourse here, i’m just trying to get my thoughts down. i’ve read fic with these interpretations before that i’ve liked, even, don’t take this as a Condemnation, aight? also this turned out long as hell, so i’m putting it under a cut)

i can never buy entirely fluffy depictions of kidnap dads

which isn’t to say i don’t read them! sometimes all i want is something sweet, for these kids to get to be happy for once. it’s not like i think their time with the fëanorians was completely devoid of laughter

it’s just. the pet names, the special days out, the home-cooked meals, it can get so treacly it stops feeling like the characters they are in the situation they’re in and turns into Generic Found Family #272

it soaks out all the complexity - which is the thing i am here for - and acts like oh, these kids were never in any danger, they were perfectly happy being abducted by the people who murdered everyone they knew, there’s nothing possibly questionable about this relationship at all

and... yeah. that’s not the characters i know. that’s not the context i know they belong to

i just can’t forget the circumstances that led them to meet

rivers of blood, the air filled with screams, a town ablaze, a woman choosing to die. every interaction the three of them have is going to proceed from that nightmare

(sidenote: i tend to hold it was maglor that raised the twins, with maedhros looming ominously in the background not really getting involved. it’s mostly personal preference, i’ve been in and out of the fandom since before this kidnap dads thing blew up and when i joined that was a perfectly standard reading)

(also the cave thing was a dumb idea, old man, if only because it implies beleriand had streams safe enough for children to play in at that point. the way it separates the twins from the third kinslaying is also something i don’t particularly vibe with)

probably my least favourite angle i’ve seen on the situation (edged out only by ‘maglor was actively abusive towards the twins’ which no no no no no no no no NO) is the idea that maglor (and/or maedhros, append as necessary) took the twins specifically to raise them

like, i get where it’s coming from, but it makes maglor come off as really creepy

(i have read fics where it is indeed played off as really creepy, but that’s not a maglor i have any interest in reading about)

(’mags 100% bad’ is just as facile a take to me as ‘mags 100% good’)

even if you’re saying maglor took them in because they had no one left to take care of them - i highly doubt they were the only children the fëanorians orphaned at sirion. idk, it always makes maglor seem much less sympathetic than i think it’s meant to

i prefer to think of it as more... organic? something that evolved, not something that was preordained. them growing closer gradually, the twins finding an adult who might maybe be on their side, maglor becoming invested in them almost by accident

and then the twins are so comfortable with the second scariest monster in amon ereb they frequently sass him off and maglor’s gotten so used to not hurting them he’s not even thinking about it any more. no one’s quite sure how it happened, but they’ve made a Connection

‘wait aren’t they a murderous warlord of questionable mental stability and a pair of terrified small children who’ve lost everyone they ever knew? isn’t that kinda fucked up?’ yup! that’s the point! complexity!

another idea i don’t like is the idea that maglor was an objectively better parent to the twins than eärendil or elwing

other people have talked about this already, i won’t rehash the whole thing. i will say that while i don’t think elwing was a perfect parent - someone so young, in such a horrible situation, i wouldn’t blame her for screwing up - i do think she (and eärendil) did the best by them they possibly could

this is one of the few things they have in common with maglor

something i come across now and again is the idea that sure, elwing and eärendil weren’t abusive or horrible or anything, but they were a couple of basically-teenagers with so many other responsibilities, there was only so much they could do. maglor, on the other hand, is an experienced adult who could take much better care of the twins

and...

first off, it’s not like mags doesn’t have a job. he’s a warlord, he has a fortress to help run, military shit to handle, lots of other stuff that needs to get done to stop everyone from starving or getting eaten by orcs. i feel like sirion had enough of a government there was plenty of opportunity for elwing to take days off and play with her kids, but in the fëanorian camp nobody really has the time to chase after a couple of toddlers, least of all one of the last points on the command network. they just don’t have the people any more

(seriously, the twins getting a formal education with tutors and classes and shit is a weirdly specific pet peeve of mine. this is a band of renegades, not a royal household; if there’s anyone left with those kinds of skills they almost certainly have more important things to do)

more than that, though - well, a quick glance through my late stage fëanorians tag should tell you a lot about what i think maglor’s mental state is like at this point. he is so accustomed to violence death means nothing to him, he’s lost most of his capacity for genuinely positive emotion to an endless century of defeat and despair, he hates everything in the universe, especially himself, he’s only able to keep functioning through a truly astounding amount of denial, and he covers it all up with a layer of snark and feigned apathy, which he defends aggressively because he’s subconsciously realised that if it breaks he’ll have absolutely nothing left

(maedhros, for the record, is... i’d say more stable, but at a lower point. maglor may interact with the world mostly through cold stares and mocking laughter, but at least his mind is firmly rooted in the present)

(on the other hand, at least maedhros lets himself be aware of what they are and where their road will lead)

which... this doesn’t mean maglor doesn’t try to be kind to the twins, or rein in his worst impulses around them

there’s just so little of him left but the weapon

he stalks through the halls like a portent of death and gets into hours-long screaming matches with maedhros and has definitely killed people in front of the twins

not even as, like, a deliberate attempt to scare them, but because when you solve most of your problems by stabbing them it’s pretty much a given that people who spend a lot of time around you are going to see you do it at least once

and sometimes, he curls up in an empty hallway, and weeps

... suffice it to say i don’t think elwing’s the more preoccupied, or the less mentally ill, parent here

just. in general, the fëanorians aren’t cackling boogeymen, but they’re not particularly nice either

no one has the energy left for that. not these isolated and weary soldiers at the end of a long losing war and the beginning of the end of the world. they don’t really bother to guard the kids against them escaping. where else are they going to go?

the sheer despair that must have been in the fëanorian camp after sirion, the knowledge that the cause cannot be fulfilled, that they are utterly forsaken, that they’re really just waiting to die -

it can’t have been a happy place to grow up in, under the shadow of loss and grief and deeds unrepentable, and the slow march of inevitable defeat

they would have had a better childhood if they stayed in sirion, raised by people who knew how to hope

but that isn’t the childhood they had. and despite everything i’ve said, i don’t think that childhood was an entirely awful one

yeah, see, this is where the other side of my self-inflicted fandom catch-22 comes in. just as much of the pro-kidnap dads stuff comes off as overly saccharine and simplified to me, i find much of the anti-kidnap dads stuff equally simplistic in the opposite direction

the idea that maglor and the fëanorians never meant anything to elros and elrond, that they had no effect on the people they became at all, that it was just a horrible thing that happened when they were children, easily thrown in the rear-view mirror...

that’s even more impossible to me than the idea that life with the fëanorians was 100% fluffy and nice

like, i’ve seen the take that elros and elrond hated the fëanorians from start to finish. they were perfect little sindarin princes, loyal to their people and the memory of doriath, spurning every scrap of kindness offered to them and knowing just what to say to twist the knife into the kinslayers’ wounds

... dude. they were six. hell, given their peredhelness, mentally they could easily have been younger

what six year old has a firm grasp of their ethnic identity? what six year old is fully aware of their place in history? what six year old would understand the politics that led to their situation?

don’t get me wrong, i can see hatred in there. but something else that doesn’t get acknowledged alongside it often enough is the fear

some of the stuff i’ve read feels like it gives the kids too much power in the situation. they’re perfectly happy to talk back to and belittle the people who burned down their hometown and killed everyone they ever knew, like miniature adults who don’t feel threatened at all

and, like, six. i can see them going for insults as a defensive measure, but it is defensive. it’s covering up fear, not coming from secure disdain

(and a lot of those insults sound, again, like things an adult who’s already familiar with the fëanorians would say, not a scared child who’s lost almost everything. why would a six year old raised by sindar and gondolindrim know what the noldolantë is, let alone what it means to maglor?)

(... i’m just ranting about this one fic that’s been ruffling my feathers for five years straight now, aren’t i)

i mean, i write elrond as the world’s angriest teenager, who snipes at maglor pretty much constantly, but the thing about angry teenage elrond is that he’s angry teenage elrond

he’s spent long enough with the fëanorians he has a pretty secure position within the camp, and he knows that maglor won’t hurt him from a decade and change of maglor not, in fact, hurting him

but as a small and terrified child abducted by the monsters his mother had nightmares about? he fluctuated wildly between ‘randomly guessing at things to say that wouldn’t get him killed’ ‘screaming at maglor to go away in words rarely more complicated than that’ 'desperately trying not to do or say anything in the hopes of not being noticed’ and ‘hiding’

(and i don’t think the twins were never in any danger from the fëanorians, either. quite besides the point that before they started orbiting maglor nobody was really sure what to do with them... well, they wouldn’t be the first children of thingol’s line the minions took revenge on)

(fortunately for them, maglor did, in fact, take them under his wing. by this point even their own followers are shit scared of the last two sons of fëanor, nobody’s going to mess with their stuff and risk getting mauled. tactically, it was a pretty good decision for a couple of toddlers)

more to the point, i feel like a child that young, in a situation that horrible, wouldn’t reject any kindness they were offered, any soothing touch in a universe of terror

in a world full of big scary monsters, the best way to survive is to get the biggest scariest monster possible to protect you. that’s how elros rationalises it when they’re, like, eight, mentally, but at the time they were just latching on to the only person around them who seemed to care about them

that’s how it started, on their end. two very young very scared children lost in a neverending nightmare clinging tightly to the lone outstretched pair of hands

as for maglor...

i’ve called mags evil before, but i see that as more of a... technical term? he is evil because he did the murder, he remains evil because he won’t stop doing the murder. hot take: murder bad

but that doesn’t make him, like, a moustache-twirling saturday morning cartoon villain. he is deeply unhappy with the position he’s in and the person he’s become, and he’s always trying not to take that final step over the edge

it’s not that i can’t see a maglor who is abusive or manipulative or who sees the twins more as objects than people. it’s just that that characterisation is one i am profoundly uninterested in. i do occasionally read fic with it, but it never enters my own headcanons

horrible people can do good things!! kinslayers can do good things!! the fallen are capable of humanity!! people can do both good and evil things at the same time, because people are complicated!! maglor is not psychologically incapable of actually taking pity on these kids!!!!

it’s... again, complexity. the fëanorians straddle the line between black and white, which is a lot less sharp in the legendarium than it’s sometimes characterised as. it’s what draws me to their characters so much, why i have so many stupid headcanons about them. pretending they fall firmly on either side of the line is my real fandom pet peeve

and, like, this moment? this sincere connection between a bloodstained warlord and two children who will grow up to be great and kind in equal measure? i may not entirely like the direction the fandom’s taken it recently, but that beat, that relationship, it still gets me

so no, i don’t think elrond and elros’ years with the fëanorians were an endless cavalcade of abuse and misery. i think there was love there, despite the darkness all around them

an old, tired monster, and the two tiny children it protects

maglor never hurts the twins, not ever, not once. his claws are sharp and his fangs are keen, if he so much as swatted them he’d rip them in half. instead he folds down the razor edges of his being, interacting with them ever so carefully. he has nightmares of suddenly tearing into their skin

seriously, the power differential between them is so great, maglor so much as raising his voice would break any trust they have in this horribly dangerous creature. fics where he does corporal punishment always get the side-eye from me

the mood of their relationship is... i find it hard to put into words. melancholy, maybe, like a sunny afternoon a few days before the end of the world. three people who’ve lost so much finding what respite they can in each other as the world slowly crumbles around them

there are times when it feels like the three of them exist in a world of their own, marked out by the edges of the firelight. maglor telling stories of the stars, elros giving relaxed irreverent commentary, elrond getting a few moments to just be, all their troubles kept at bay

they are the last two lights in a world sunk into darkness, the last two living beings he does not on some level hate. he will tear his own heart out before he sees them in pain

he teaches them to ride, he teaches them to read, he gives them everything he still has left. the twins should never have been in this situation, maglor probably isn’t entirely fit to take care of them, but it is what it is, and they take what love they can

(maglor depends on the twins emotionally a bit more than any adult should rely on any child. he’s still very much the caretaker in their relationship, but that relationship is the only one he has left that’s not stained by a century of rage and grief. he’s obsessed with them, maedhros tells him frequently. maglor’s standard response to this is to try to gouge maedhros’ eyes out)

(that particular darker side to their relationship, where maglor’s attachment to the twins turns into a desperate possessiveness - that’s not something i think i’ve ever seen in fic. which is a shame, it feels much closer to my own characterisation than the standard ways this relationship gets maleficised. darker, in a different way than usual. horribly compelling in its plausibility)

however you want to read it, i don’t think you can deny this is a relationship that defines elrond and elros’ childhood. they were raised in the woods by a pack of kinslayers, the text is quite clear on this

but i’ve seen a lot of talk about how elros and elrond are only sirion’s children. they are completely 100% sindarin, they love and forgive eärendil and elwing thoroughly and without question, they identify with doriath over - even gondolin, let alone tirion. the fëanorians - the people who raised them - had zero effect on the people they grew into and the selves they created

and that, more than anything else, i find utterly unbelievable

look, i get what this is a reaction to. a lot of the kidnap dads stuff paints the fëanorians as elrond and elros’ ‘real’ family, and i’ve already talked about what i think of the idea that maglor-and-possibly-also-maedhros were better parents than eärendil and elwing. i think it’s reductive and overly optimistic and just a little too neat

but to say instead that elrond and elros held no great love in their hearts for maglor, no lingering affinity with the fëanorians, no influence on their identity from the people they grew up around, none at all? that after it happened they just left it behind and resumed being the same people they were in sirion?

that strikes me as just as much an oversimplification. it sands down all the potential rough edges of their identity, all that inconvenient complexity that stops them from fitting into any well-defined box, and replaces it with a nice safe simple self-conception i find just as flat and boring as declaring them 100% fëanorian

we can quibble over who they call ‘father’ (i personally find that whole debate kinda petty) but denying that it was actually maglor who was the closest thing they knew to a parent for most of their childhoods, and that that would, in fact, affect the way they thought of themselves and their family, elides so many interesting possibilities out of existence

(i’m not even going to get into the most braindead take i have ever heard on the subject, namely that because their time with the fëanorians was such a small fraction of elrond’s total lifespan it was like being kidnapped for two weeks as a toddler and had no greater significance than that. do you not understand what childhood is????)

like, i tend to think of elrond as a child as being very loudly not-a-fëanorian. elros is more willing to go with the flow - hey, if the creepy kinslayer wants kids, elros is happy to play into that in order to not be murdered - but elrond is very firm that he’s not happy to be here and he doesn’t belong with them

(this is after they get over their initial terror, of course, when they’ve realised they won’t be fed to the orcs for the tiniest slight. even so, elrond only really gets shirty about it around people he’s comfortable with, whose reactions he can reasonably guess at. naturally, the first person he does it to is maglor)

elros calls maglor their father exactly once, when they’re... maybe early preteens? this is because elrond hears him do it and immediately loses his shit. they have a dad, elrond says, in tears, and a mum, and any day now their real parents are going to come to pick them up and take them home

... right?

it gets harder to believe as the years roll on, as their memories of sirion fade, as they find their own places within the host, as maglor watches over them as they grow. elrond still mentally sets himself apart from the fëanorians, but it’s more of an effort every year. life in the fëanorian camp is the only one he’s ever really known. he can barely remember his mother’s voice

then the war of wrath starts, and the fëanorian host drifts closer to the army of valinor, and the twins come into contact with non-fëanorians for the first time in forever, and it becomes clear just how obviously fëanorian elrond is. he always insisted he wasn’t like the kinslayers at all, but he dresses like them, talks like them, fights like them

the myth cycles the edain tell are almost completely unfamiliar to him, he barely remembers the shape of the songs of lost doriath. even these sarcastic commentary and subversive reinterpretations he made of maglor’s stories - those were still maglor’s stories! he’s been trying to guess at the person he was meant to be, but it’s growing nightmarishly blatant how little elrond ever knew about him

instead, the people he was born to are as alien to him as the orcs of morgoth. he is a fëanorian, through and through

... yeah, elrond (and/or elros) having an absolutely massive identity crisis upon being reintroduced to his quote-unquote ‘true kin’ is another angle i’d love to see in fic that i don’t think i’ve ever come across. all those potential grey areas around who they are and who they’re supposed to be sound utterly fascinating, and i think it’s the complexity i hate to see elided over the most

i really, really doubt they could effortlessly slot back into being eärendil and elwing’s children. not when they’ve been surrounded by, lived alongside, been raised by the people who were supposed to enemies for most of their lives

they just don’t fit into that box any more. they can’t

speaking of eärendil and elwing, while i do agree that they both (especially elwing) get a lot more flak than they deserve, i don’t agree that therefore elrond and elros were never the slightest bit mad at them and fully forgave them for everything with no reservations

because, well, they were left behind. elwing had no other choice, but they were still left behind; it led to the world being saved, but they were still left behind. all the best intentions in the universe don’t erase the weeks and months and years of waiting, of a hope that grew thinner and frailer until it finally quietly broke

that’s a real hurt, and a real grievance. even if the twins rationally understand that their parents were making the best out of their terrible situation, you can’t logic away emotions like that. it’s perfectly possible for them to know they have no reason to resent eärendil or elwing, and yet still harbour that bitterness and pain

(i did write a thing once where elrond loudly rejects eärendil as his father in favour of maglor, but something i didn’t add in that i probably should have is that elrond later regretted doing that)

(not like, several centuries later, when he’d grown old and wise. two hours later, when he’d calmed down. but he was still legitimately angry at eärendil, because the one thing angry teenage elrond was not lacking in was reasons to be mad at the adults around him, and before he could figure out if he had anything less furious to say the hosts of the valar left middle-earth behind)

(it’s another element to the tragedy of the whole thing. in that particular story, which is mostly aiming for maximum pain, the only thing elrond’s birth parents know about their son for thousands of years is that he hates them)

(and he doesn’t, not really. you can’t hate someone you’ve never known)

not that i think they couldn’t ever make up with their parents! fics where elrond and his birth parents work past all the things that lie between them and form a functional familial bond despite it all give me life. i just don’t like the idea that there’s nothing difficult for them to work past

i don’t like the idea that elrond and elros would naturally, effortlessly identify with the mother they last saw when they were six and the people they only vaguely remember. i can see them doing it as a political move, i can see them going for it as a deliberate personal choice, but i can’t seeing it being immediate and automatic and easy

no matter how great a pair of heroes eärendil and elwing are, that doesn’t change the fact that to elrond and elros, they’re at most a few scattered memories and a collection of far-off stories. and so long as the twins stay in middle-earth, they’re never going to draw any closer

compared to the dynamic, multifaceted, personal, and deep bonds they have with the fëanorians - who, and i know i keep saying this but i think it gets tossed aside way more casually than it should, are the people who actually raised them, their birth parents must feel like a distant idea

and that’s why i can never buy interpretations of elrond as 100% sindarin, a pure son of doriath, with no messy grey areas or awkward jagged edges to his identity. given everything we know about his life, it seems almost cartoonishly simplistic

honestly it seems like a narrative a bunch of old doriathrin nobles trying to manouevre elrond into being high king of the sindar or something would propagate. it's neat and nice and tidy, something that’d be much more convenient for everyone if elrond did feel that way

but i just don’t see how he can. this narrative is easy and simple in a way real people never are, it ignores all the forces pulling him apart. elrond being uncomplicatedly sindarin with the life he lives and the people he's close to - that doesn’t make any sense to me

which isn’t to say i think he’s 100% noldorin, from either a gondolindrim or a fëanorian perspective. (i find it a little more believable, given, again, who he grew up around and who he hangs out with, but it’s still a bit too reductive for my tastes.) it’s also not to say i couldn’t believe an elrond who made an active choice to emphasise his sindarin heritage

it’s not how i think of him, but it works. i don’t have a problem with other people interpreting the complexities of the twins’ identities differently

i just have a problem with people acting like it doesn’t exist

in general i think there’s a lot untapped potential that gets left behind when you declare the twins, separately or together, as All One Thing

they’re descended from half the noble houses of beleriand, and they have deep personal ties to most of the rest. they belong to all of the free peoples even the dwarves, somehow, probably and i feel like that was kind of the old man’s point? so many peoples meet in them, to say they wholly belong to any one species is probably an oversimplification

they sit at a crossroads of potential identities, and rather than narrowing down their worldviews to one single path, they take the hard road and choose all of them. that’s what you need to do, if you want to change the world

and, to bring this back to my ostensible topic, in my estimation at least this mélange of possible selves does include them as fëanorians! it’s not overpowering, but it’s certainly there, and the adults they grow into long after they’ve left the host still bear influence from their childhood

nothing super obvious, nothing that wouldn’t stand out if you didn’t know what to look for, but there’s something almost incandescent in how fiercely elros reaches out for his dreams

there’s something almost defiant in elrond’s drive to be as kind as summer

as for who they publically claim as their family... honestly, it depends. while it’s usually more tactically prudent for elros to connect himself to his various human ancestors, on occasion he does find a use for his free in with the elf mafia, and elrond, code switcher par excellence, is famously the son of whoever is most politically convenient at the moment, which is rarely, but not never, maglor

(in the privacy of their own minds, well, eärendil and elwing may have been the parents elros was supposed to have, but maglor was the parent he actually had, and elros doesn’t particularly care to mope over what might have been. elrond, for his part, figures that after all the shit maglor has put him through, the least that bastard owes him is a father)

but honestly? i think before any of their mountain of identities, before thinking of themselves as sindarin or gondolindel or hadorian or haladin or fëanorian or anything, elrond and elros identify as themselves

they are peredhil, they are númenóreans, they are whoever they make themselves to be. that’s how elrond finally resolved his identity, figured out who he was and found something past the pain and the rage

he wasn’t doriathrin, or gondolindrin, or falathrin, or fëanorian, or whatever else. he was elrond, no more and no less

and that person, elrond, could be whatever he chose to be

... elros came to a similar conclusion, with much less sturm und drang that he’s willing to admit. being able to go ‘hey, i can’t possibly be biased towards any one of your cultures, because i’m descended from all of you and i was raised by murderelves’ makes it a lot easier to unite people around your personal banner, turns out

the stories other people tried to force on them shattered into pieces, and the peredhel twins were free to shape themselves into anything they could dream of

and as the new world struggles alive, these lost children of an Age of death begin to bloom into their full glorious selves -

i just. i love the poetry of that. despite every single shadow that hangs over their past, despite all the clashing notes pulling them apart, they harmonise it all into a greater, kinder theme, determined to make their world a better place in whatever way they can

they fail, of course, but so do all things. the inevitable march of entropy doesn’t diminish the long millennia they (and their descendants) held onto the light

and their growing up in the fëanorian host definitely had a huge effect on the noble lords they became. you can see it in elros’ loud ambition to create a land of happiness and hope, elrond’s quiet resolve to heal all the hurts inflicted by this marred reality

it wasn’t a perfect time by any means, but neither was it a nightmare. it was what it was, a desperate existence at the edge of a knife where, nevertheless, they were loved

even after years upon decades upon centuries have passed, it’s hard for the wise king and the honourable sage to separate out and identify all the conflicting emotions swirling around their childhood. they never knew eärendil or elwing, true, but they also never really knew maglor

not as equals, not as adults, not as people who could truly understand him. he disappeared into the fog of history, leaving only childhood memories of razor-sharp, gentle hands

it’s messy and it’s complicated and getting any real closure would be like shoving their way through a thornbush with bare hands even if elrond could find the shithead, and yet at the core of it all, there is light. not the brightest of lights, maybe, but an enduring one

that contrast, above all, that note of warmth amidst the shadows, is what fascinates me so much about their relationship. three screwed up people in a screwed up world, finding a little peace with each other

and the fact that somehow, it does have a good ending - the children grow up magnificent and compassionate and just, they become exemplars of all their peoples, lodestars of the new world born out of the ashes of the old - that makes it seem to me like this relationship must have contained some fragment of happiness

but, fuck, all the darkness that surrounds that love, all the tangled-up emotions its existence necessitates, all the prefabricated self-identities it can never slot into - nothing about it is simple, nothing about it is easy, and i find that utterly enthralling. especially how, despite everything, that flickering light never goes out

well, i don’t think it does, anyway. my take on this relationship is both complicated enough no one else ever quite gets it right and well-defined enough every single ‘error’ in other people’s interpretations sticks out like a kinslayer in rivendell

it is an entirely self-inflicted problem, i will admit. other people are allowed to interpret those complexities differently from me, and it’s entirely my own fault i lack the :waves hands around nebulously: to write my own hypothetical fic on the subject at a pace faster than glacial

still, though. i do wish there was more fic out there that engaged with these complexities. a lot of the common fandom interpretations of this relationship just sweep it all away

[theconstantsidekick]

Truth (1) | b.b

Pairings: Bucky Barnes x Stark!Reader, Past Steve Rogers x Stark!Reader, OC x Stark!Reader (brief)

Genre: Fluff with a touch of angst.

Summary: Sam and Bucky call on the only Stark left in the Superhero business—codename Static—to help take down the Flag Smashers. Only problem is, she’s pretty damn reluctant.

(These scenes incorporate y/n into the pre-existing story as a character without making drastic changes to the plot or mythos. All the major plot points from the MCU remain in place with the addition of the reader as Static, who is not only a Stark but also enhanced)

Warnings: Swearing.

a/n: Aight, aight. Here’s the skinny; I function purely on attention and praise, so please leave a comment. I’m a narcissist; I make no apologies. I love reading your hot takes. Entertain me in exchange for all the entertainment I’m providing you. Also oh, the tag list is open.

sidenote: This episode is my favorite one. I'm so very excited.

The Whole World Is Watching (5) | Truth (2) | Series Masterlist

“What the hell happened to you?” Sam asks the moment he spots her walking into the same room of the old wastewater treatment plant where he talked to Karli.

Y/n pushes herself up to sit up on a table to his right. She can spot the shield placed on the table he’s leaning on. On the floor next to his feet, however, are his wings—or what remains of them at least—in a bag. They’re broken and beaten. While she doesn’t know what happened between him, Bucky and Walker, she can venture a guess that it did not end well.

“Well—” she's promptly cut off.

“What the fuck happened to you?” Bucky asks with far more alarm as he makes his way in from the same door as her. He rushes to her side, assessing the damage. Concern etched on his face. She gets it because she feels the same for him and Sam. But... seeing as she’s a grown-up who understands how feelings work; she can also acknowledge her worry for Bucky is far more irrational, and therefore must be stem from a much different place.

“I could ask you both the same thing,” she says.

“We both aren’t fucking super spy ninjas who, apparently have trained with the Dora Milaje,” Sam quips back. “Besides, you can already guess what happened to us.” He looks down at the shield next to him.

She cocks her brow and smiles a bit, both actions make her wince. She’s got a cut on his lip and temple. While her previous gash on the cheek has healed, she’s wearing a couple new ones. She also had a dislocated shoulder, three broken ribs, and a nasty scar on her leg but they don’t need to know about that. She’ll heal... Far quicker than any human can.

“Karli,” she answers easily.

“Karli did that to you?” Bucky asks, clearly not buying it.

“No… five of her Soldiers did—”

“—for fuck’s sake!” Bucky cuts her off again. “And you say I’m the one who runs into fights without thinking?”

“Is this the part where I say, you should see the other guy?” She knows she’s being petulant but the worry in his eyes is doing things to her and she’d rather not go down that road for someone who’s probably not interested. She’s had enough rejections for a lifetime, what with the last man she loved choosing to go back in time for his ex instead of staying… for her.

“Yeah well, I don’t really care about the other guy, do I?” Bucky spits out, angry.

And fuck Bucky Barnes. Man’s gotta stop making her fall for him if he doesn’t even intend to fucking have the courtesy to reciprocate.

“I’ll heal—” she tries but is promptly cut off by Bucky.

“That’s not the poi—”

“Can we change the subject now?” She looks over at Sam, silently pleading at him for an out.

And Sam being the great friend he is, obliges. “Yeah, sure. What did you mean when you said you don’t have your powers anymore?”

Ah, out of the frying pan into the goddamn doghouse.

Bucky finally takes a few steps away—still frustrated—and leans on the table opposite to Sam while being diagonal to Y/n. They’ve all changed back into their normal clothes. Bucky’s back in his bomber jacket, a simple t-shirt, and pants. All of which are black, as per usual. While Sam’s wearing his brown corduroy jacket, blue jeans, and a wine color t-shirt, same as they were before they suited up. Y/n however is still in her fighting ensemble, having been too busy being looked over by the paramedics to have any time to change.

“Exactly what I said,” she replies, her eyes staring at her feet.

This is far from an easy conversation for her. She’d rather talk about the merits and demerits of the damned accords again.

“They were working back when…” Bucky pauses, glancing in Sam’s direction before adding, “you had that tussle with Walker.”

Honestly, she’s really had enough of James Buchanan Barnes’s assault on her very cold, very fragile heart. She’s losing her mind over here. Why does he have to go and be so damn considerate?

“You can call it a panic attack,” she supplies, in a small voice. “It was a panic attack,” she says looking at Sam and after a pause adds, “That’s kinda what I mean.” Both men look at her curiously. She breathes in heavily, gathering up all the courage she has, “I can’t use my powers without losing control… without having a panic attack. I—I... Every time I use my power, I get thrown back to the last time I did...”

The words hang in the air, for everyone to mull over. They all know what she means but just to clarify Sam asks, “The battle with Thanos?”

Both of them know that isn't why she's having a hard time talking about it. Both of them know it's the man in a suit of armor whose absence has left her all raw and beaten. But none of them voice it.

She nods before pausing, and declaring, "I’ve got PTSD.”

“Fuck Y/n, why didn’t you say something?” Sam asks. His brows are furrowed and he seems… disheartened and so very concerned. She’s always liked Sam. From the moment they knocked on his window after having been bombed by Hydra back at Steve’s old army base. He’s always been scarily good at reading a room. He’s an intuitive little bitch. He can read the emotions of the people around him pretty damn well while also being tough enough to kick their ass. The best part is, he’s perceptive enough to know exactly when to talk and when to fight. Which is why she never worried about him going against Karli alone. Which is also why she has been trying her best to keep herself as calm and as cold as possible; to avoid the look of pure agony in his eyes. She doesn’t know what to do with it.

And, don’t even get her started on how avidly she’s avoiding looking at Bucky now.

“I did. I said I didn’t want to come,” she defends pointlessly. She’s just being testy for the fuck of it. She doesn’t really know how to act otherwise right now.

“That’s not what I meant and you know it!” He exhales heavily. His voice is back to a much softer tone when he adds, “If we’d known you couldn’t use your powers, we wouldn’t have—”

“—I was a perfectly capable agent for S.H.I.E.L.D. for over 15 years without using my powers,” she cuts him off. “I haven’t suddenly turned into some fucking damsel in distress now,” she spits back at him. She recognizes that she’s trying to antagonize him into stopping him from caring but she can’t really stop herself. Knowing better doesn’t always translate to doing better.

“I watched you Al Pachino your way out of a hail of bullets. You’re the damsel causing the damn distress! I am not saying you’re weak; I’m saying that if I knew that my friend was going through something I wouldn’t have dragged her into a fucking fight,” he says exasperated, almost at his wit’s end.

She doesn’t actually want to piss him off. She knows where he’s coming from. But she hasn’t been a very open person with people outside of Tony, Peggy, and (to an extent) Nat, so this is all pretty damn new to her. So she concedes, sighing she says, “I’m fine Sam. Well, not fine... but I’m in therapy. I’m functioning. Alright?” She hopes her tone conveys her understanding as well as her guilt.

When she sees Sam nod in response she asks, “Now… What's happening with the Flag Smashers?”

“The GRC is conducting raids to try and find Karli, but so far they've only found her followers. They've searched this camp, and just like the last camp, nothing. She's gone. We'll never find her,” Sam spits out, anger present in every movement of his hand.

Torres walks into the room, “Hey, you got your sleeve back,” he says pointing to Bucky. And then he turns at her and almost stumbles, “And you’re… here. You’re Static… and you’re here.”

She can’t help but smile at how adorable the kid looks. “So it seems,” she says easily.

“Sorry,” he stops in his tracks, fidgeting a bit, “I’m just a—I’m a big fan. You’re... awesome”

Her smile grows. “Means more than you think. Thanks, Torres.”

“You know my name,” he remarks almost to himself.

She thinks he’s too cute.

Bucky, however, seems to disagree. He grumbles audibly before pushing himself off the table and beginning to walk away.

“Are you off to take care of Zemo?” Sam asks pointedly, sitting down on the table behind him.

Bucky turns to look at them, there’s so much anger radiating off of him, Y/n doesn’t know what to do with it. He says nothing, turns around, and walks out the exit he came from.

“All right, good to know you survived,” Torres calls out behind him.

“What's our next steps, Torres?” Sam asks.

Torres turns back to look at him as he says, “Captain America killing a foreign national in public, it's kinda like a big deal. Like international incident big. Folks, uh, higher up on the payroll are all over it now. So, unfortunately…”

“They're taking jurisdiction,” Sam finishes.

Torres snaps his fingers and lets out a soft, “Yeah.” He spots the bag on the floor. He takes a step towards them, leaning down, he asks, "What happened to these?” He pulls the bag along with the wings inside them onto the table.

“So is there anything we can do?” Sam asks, avoiding his question completely.

“Not really,” Torres replies, absentmindedly. He’s too engrossed in assessing the wings. “As you can see, they've cordoned off the whole camp, and Karli's a ghost. After what went down, she is laying extra low. Like, under-underground.”

“And that's why it makes sense for us to get involved. The longer we let her regroup, the harder it's gonna be to find her,” Sam says looking at him.

“She's got people helping her from all over the world, on all platforms. She's really, really good at this thing,” Torres explains.

“Yeah,” Sam breathes out.

“How'd these break?” Torres asks again, caressing the wings.

She knows that look in his eyes. She can spot it from a mile away now, that’s how well she knows that look. A part of her wants to crush it because that’s the only way to make sure the kid survives… But another part of her knows, you don’t walk into this line of work without being absolutely, annoyingly stubborn. So the most she can do is send out a prayer, hoping that whenever he chooses to follow in Sam’s footsteps, he’s well prepared.

Sam, though, just sighs in response.

“Anyway, all we can do now is sit tight and just chill,” Torres supplies. “Sometimes, there's nothing to do until there's something to do.”

Sam says as he gets up off the table, “That's bizarrely wise.”

Both Torres and Y/n chuckle in unison “Well, I'm a bizarrely wise man, Sam,” he replies with a smile.

“Well," she chimes in, "Guess you won’t be needing the muscle anymore, Boss,” Y/n tells Sam, jumping off the table. She puts her hands into her jacket pockets.

“You can call whenever you need, you know that, right?” He asks, his eyes filled with worry.

“I know, Bossman,” she replies with ease and a smile. “I appreciate it.”

“Where will you go?” He asks.

She begins walking backwards towards the exit, “Back to my day job.” She shrugs.

“Which is?” Sam asks, cocking his brow.

“Babysitting.” She exits from the same door as Bucky did.

So she does go back to her life. It’s routine, mundane, and while she absolutely loves it… After having tasted the thrill of the Superhero shindig again, a part of her can’t help but miss it. She’s had an on and off affair with domesticity all her (very long) life. But maybe the hero gig will always be her old lady.

And maybe that’s the exact reason why a sense of pure excitement runs up her spine when she gets a call a couple days later and a familiar name pops up on the screen.

“Hello?” She says picking up.

“Hi,” comes the short reply.

After a few seconds of silence, she says, “Are you gonna tell me who this is, or—”

“Oh fuck, sorry. It’s Bucky—James… James Bucky Barnes,” he manages to fumble out.

Y/n can’t help but chuckle. “I'm just fucking with you, James. I know it’s you.”

“Oh,” he replies sheepishly. “Um, are you busy?”

She’s currently dressed in white wide-leg jeans, a white sweatshirt with a denim jacket. She's leaning on her bike, her precious Triumph Thunderbird Storm as it stands parked in front of the Midtown School of Science and Technology, waiting.

“Yes,” she replies, honestly.

“Oh. Sor—”

She cuts him off, “But for the pretty boy who spun me around on the dance floor I could always make time.”

Look, she’s a smooth motherfucker, okay? She’s always been a smooth motherfucker. But she isn’t flirting to be smooth. She just has a very bad, very annoying habit of getting flirty every time she’s nervous. Now, you would think that sounds awesome. You would be absolutely wrong. Cause right now, she’s flirting with a man with whom she’s pretty sure she doesn’t have a shot.

She’s regretting the words while they’re spilling out but they are far too true for her to take back. Especially when she can practically hear the man on the other side of the phone blush.

“... I feel special,” comes the reply.

“Glad I didn’t miss my target.” Smooth-motherfucker! But she’s gotta reel it back, “I’m presuming nothing’s on fire, seeing as you’re not screaming… So, is this a personal call, James?”

“Um. Well no. Ugh but… Yeah, kind of, I guess,” he stutters.

“You sure?” She asks bemused.

“It’s a bit of both actually. Um, I was thinking about going to see Sam once. I’ve got something I wanna drop off and… I don’t know. I think this whole thing kinda beat him down. So…” he drifts off.

“You want to check up on your partner,” she summarizes with a smile.

“No…” he’s met with silence from her end. So he concedes, sighing, “Fine, yes. You happy?”

“Very,” she replies slyly.

“Will you come along?” His voice is soft.

“Would you like me to?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“Seemed pretty pissed the last time we talked.”

“Not at you; at the situation,” he defends. “Not at you,” he reiterates after a short pause.

There’s a comfortable silence that falls between the two.

Until it’s broken by a bell ringing in the background and children spilling out of the gate. One of them makes a beeline straight to her.

“Hey, Miss. Stark! You ready to go?”

“Just give me a sec, peanut,” she tells the kid. She pushes herself off the motorcycle, speaking into the phone, “Unfortunately, my day job’s calling. But I’ll pick you up at the airport and we can drive over to Sam’s together. Does that work for you? ”

“Yeah. Yeah, it does.” Bucky sounds… confused.

“Alright. I’ll see you later, Sarge,” she says as she swings her leg, straddling the bike.

“See you later, sweetheart.”

Motherfucker.

She hangs up with a smile gracing her face and pockets the phone. She hands one of the helmets hanging off the handles, over to the boy while putting the other one on herself.

“Who was that?” he asks.

“None of your business,” she tells him, locking her helmet in place.

“I was just being polite. I know it was Sergeant Barnes,” he says with a smile, as mimics her actions.

She checks the clasp on his helmet and says, “Well, Pete, you should consider changing your name to Nosy Parker, instead.” She pulls the visor on his helmet down.

He gets on the bike, holding onto her shoulders. “Your references are so old, you know that?”

She inserts the key into the ignition and starts the motorcycle. She revs up the engine twice before she says, “I never should’ve introduced you to Harley.”

Peter just chuckles in response as they both speed off… safely.

tag list: @thisisparadisemylove@justab-eautifulmess​@intothesoul​ @buckyisperfect @aryksworld @ceo-of-daichi @ireadthensuetheauthors @fckdeusername​ @hotleaf-juice@itspetitfantomestuff @jn-wolf@freeflyingphoenix @jeremyrennerfanxxxx123 @geek-and-proud @bduchrnskei

Read part 2 here.

Find series masterlist here.

[thejudgingtrash]

Annabeth is a good person,but not a nice or pleasant one,IMO.

YES.

That’s it. That’s the post. Pack it up everybody, we just cracked the case and cleared up one of the most compelling fights in the PJO fandom since forever. Good job everybody, clap it out and there’s the door! Don’t forget ordering the drinks at Starbucks, Mitch! They’re on me!

Okay, but on a more serious note: YES. YES EXACTLY.

And before some of you roll your eyes or grab your pitchforks – put your biases aside and hear me out for once. I like Annabeth. She’s my in my top three characters only second to Percy himself. I love Percabeth. It’s my favorite ship in the entire series and to be frank, the only ship that I care about PJO wise. Hell, I spend my time creating my own headcanons or writing my own fanfics with Percabeth being the star in them.

But that is not to say that I’m unable to see how certain things have developed over the years or where they stand now in regard to Annabeth. I’m not here to ignore things that have been said and/or done due to or in the name of Annabeth and I’m not here to vilify anyone that doesn’t like her. And I’m here to admit that I’m guilty of some of the things that may be addressed in this meta essay that you will read in just a second. However, I try my best to assure you, that I’m for once able to recognize my own bias.

Warning: a monster essay lies right upon you.

This should count as a paper of its own.

Back to the statement on top: I would go out even further to reframe your claim, anon:

Annabeth Chase is a good character but not a nice or pleasant person.

Annabeth is a wonderful character but she isn’t a nice one. Or at least not nice to everyone. She is (construction wise if I dare say) the best character out of the series. She has her positive traits (she’s caring, she’s emotional, she’s encouraged and volunteers, she fights for what she believes in, she forgives (even if doing so begrudgingly)) but she also has her negative traits (she’s stubborn, she’s brash, changing her mind takes forever, she is prejudiced, she baits others). That balances things out. She is branded as the intelligent kid but does irrational things (like I’ve just said a) she’s a kid and b) she’s not a robot). She should probably know better, but we all make mistakes and hopefully grow and learn from them. The clouds in the sky do blur and cover our visions sometimes.

Annabeth had clashes with other characters or was about to have fights due to her stubbornness or jealousy (Rachel, Reyna, etc.) and has of course her problems with the mortal world and her family but she also found new friends, some things cleared up throughout the narration and she was/is quite popular in Camp Half-Blood.

The thing is: she doesn’t have to be nice or pleasant (as a character). Or at least not all the time. Her character is humanized. That is what or who she is. Human. She does stand out as a character, not just because she’s the (future) love interest. She feels like someone you could meet in real life and either adore from the top to the bottom or declare as your biggest enemy. And that’s totally okay if you lean either way – liking or disliking her. Or even feeling indifferent about her. Also great!

To say that she has been the best character that Riordan has crafted is easy to say, because she has been sculpted after Riordan’s wife. He had a model he could rub some of real-life events or traits on. That’s not the problem. The problem truly doesn’t lie on Riordan’s side for the most part for once.

The problem is inherently on the fandom’s side. What the fandom does, how it acts and how it treats Annabeth as a character is the problem. The problems vary but it’s mostly the mischaracterization of Annabeth, starting fights and fan/ship wars, internalized misogyny (in some cases) and how some of the Annabeth stans lash out (ha, got firsthand experience in that field among many of my friends and mutuals!). There is a reason why many people are wary of people that have Annabeth or Percabeth related URLs.

The fact that we see Annabeth mostly through Percy’s lens and (until the Heroes of Olympus saga hits) we never really see her in chill everyday situations is essentially Riordan leaving the back door of the house open, ready for all of you asshats to rob his mansion in Boston. Because a frame on a character means that we don’t get to see the character in its entirety (unlike we do with Percy in PJO for the most part). That means a bunch of stuff is left open for interpretation which is the reason why Annabeth gets so many polarized headcanon and opinions tossed around. I think that is one of the true appeals of Annabeth. You can add on stuff and it necessarily doesn’t have to contradict itself.

We have people calling her abusive due to a (n admittedly stupid and unnecessary) judo flip and we have people that act like she’s never done anything wrong. People sorta use this excuse to form and shape Annabeth however they want and distort her characterization.

People in the fandom act like Annabeth is some weird prized possession. We perceive Annabeth mostly through the eyes of others (Percy, Apollo, etc.) and when we had some sort of insight in her ways (MOA, HOH) it felt… weird? Somewhat? Like Riordan left two bullet points of her characterization and told the ghostwriter: aight, fuck it up, gringo, see you on Tuesday and greet Fred the next time you see him for me. 

There have been many posts lately (by Tharini, Simi, Sawasawako, Jewishpercy and Annie I believe?) that HOO Percabeth felt weird. That they felt weirdly constructed, that there was no conflict, no growth. It felt stagnating, like we’re turning back. We had five books prior where we had Annabeth and Percy slowly shifting from disliking to liking and crushing each other. True development. And when we finally got the cake it felt… dissatisfying. Like the cheap box stuff and not the delicious exquisite taste that we were promised.

I said it previously in my Percabeth ship roast, but let me repeat myself: many Percabeth related things are straight up fanon. Some of it is very old fanon so that’s been unable to distinguish unless you’ve read the books recently and subtract nearly 99,9% of things you see on Tumblr (and occasionally the other shitty parts of the fandom like Reddit, IG, Twitter. Although they mostly steal and recycle tumblr stuff oh well. But back to the topic).

The way people treat Annabeth is so strange. She’s either an innocent fluffy smush baby that’s never harmed a fly and all that she wants for Christmas is being Percy’s lapdog or she’s the devil incarnate, broke into your house, killed your parents Batman style, kicked your puppy and didn’t flush the toilet on the way out. I think this is what mostly makes people hate her or the ship Percabeth. And both extremes are wrong and right at the same time? She is multifaceted so both stereotypes are true and untrue and sorta cancel each other out in the same way.

The true reason why people dislike Annabeth is because the stans are doing the most. (The haters as well, don’t get me wrong, but oh boy. Piss of a stan and you’ll know what I mean). That isn’t inherently new. Are you guys old enough to remember the ship wars that have happened cross platform? Perachel vs. Percabeth? Oh boy, oh boy. I saw some kids on tumblr a few months ago trying to infiltrate both tags and start shit (and also fail). The fact that Rachel still gets used as the bitchy (ex) girlfriend in fanfics? It’s 2020 guys. I know this apocalyptic year is far from perfect and over but I think we can let this trope die, right? Right? I thought we’ve established that Rachel is a pretty chill charcter by now… right?

If you posted your stuff on FFN back in 2010-2013 and it wasn’t the typical cutesy Percabeth story (Goode High, the gods read TLT, punk/prep Percabeth, college AU, etc.) people would’ve come for your fucking throat. Not because the story or the narration was shit. But because the pairing wasn’t Annabeth and Percy (in the sense that Annabeth had to be paired with Percy. I mean Percy gets shipped with everyone and their mother but for Annabeth it was strictly Percy. As annoying as this whole Connabeth thing is – the people behind it actually had a point. She never had a different love interest unless it’s a Percy centered story and he goes off dating Athena, Artemis and Zoe at the same time for some odd reason. Yeah, FFN Percy ships are something). Or it wasn’t the action filled canon compliant story or it wasn’t an AU that was popular.

People were really stubborn, snobbish and wanted their stuff in the four five boxes that were the most popular ones and that’s it. People have been bullied off the site in many fandoms, so it’s not a PJO-only thing but it’s still sad that it happened. (Off-note: most of these FFN tropes are still alive and well and thriving on AO3. Don’t be so snobbish and pretend that every piece you’d find there is a holy grail. There’s a lot of trash you have to waddle through. Same with Wattpad, Tumblr or anywhere else where fanfics get posted. Also had this discussion with Annabeth stans. Sigh).

And Tumblr back then? Forget it, wasn’t much better.

That view has sorta changed (at least for people that have been in the fandom for several years or have managed to find a way to navigate through it) but some of the negative sentiment from back in the day has survived. Be it by new fans coming in or from old fans that never let their stance die. The aggression feels differently and somewhat not. (I don’t know if the anon function had been abused that much back in the day. I was an observer not a participant in the fandom).

Crack a joke at Annabeth’s expense (Kal’s famous “Annabeth is a Republican” post or Dee Dee’s and many others “Annabeth has the education of a second grader, chill with the college plans, girlie” stance) and you have people insulting you, making callout posts, unfollowing and blocking you (based on only that? Okay, honey), making aggressive counter-posts, etc. in a minute. If you respond with “It’s a joke, it’s not real” you have a 50/50 chance of either getting blown off or embarrassing them so that they apologize for once.

This isn’t just about jokes. You can make a headcanon that’s not the cozy cute convenient mainstream saga and people would react the same way. Or art piece (no, not including the whole Tannabeth Blackchase shtick done by Viria and others) or fanfics.

People project so much onto the unfinished canvas that is Annabeth Chase that any form of negative sentiment as little as someone not liking her to straight up criticism, regardless of how tiny it may be, seems like an affront. Like an invitation to a fight. Like an insult to them, their character, everything they believe in. Let me state something:

You are NOT Annabeth Chase. Annabeth Chase IS NOT you. Annabeth Chase is NOT real. Her feeling cannot be hurt. Someone criticizing, disliking, joking about her or even insulting her will not bother her. Someone making a statement about her is not an insult to YOU.

Let me repeat that:

Annabeth Chase isn’t real. Annabeth Chase isn’t you.

So think a little before you act? I get it when you’re a kid and new to fandoms or haven’t been up with fan cultures in the past and are back in the scene. But if you’re in your late teens or even older as an adult and you’re unable to understand that you aren’t what you like – you aren’t the extension of a fictional character – I feel incredibly sorry for you. Because that’s just incredibly sad. Someone disliking something you like isn’t an attack of your character. It shows you that you are you and the other person is a human just like you. That they just have different taste. Disliking something you like isn’t a crime, you know? But me feeling sorry for the way some of y’all act won’t mean that that’s even remotely okay. Especially if you’re no longer in the intended audience for PJO age wise and should know better.

This isn’t a “white stans” only thing. I’ve seen and witnessed firsthand how people of color, mainly women of color, act the same or not even worse when it comes to her character. People have projected their problems and real-life occurring events into her character (I’m sure that she isn’t the only character nor that this is the only fandom where this is happening) and in some cases like I’ve said cannot separate their own personality from the fictional world. Fights with woc happened because of Annabeth fucking Chase. So many things have happened in the fandom the past few months, mostly due to people being forced staying at home because of the quarantine but I’d say it’s 10% on quarantine and 90% on people for acting up like this.

So here’s a little story: There was the act of Riordan blowing the fandom up because of his own stupidity and being unable to apologize for his mischaracterization and lack of research (the whole Piper fiasco) back in June (?) and admits the upset fandom, people on Twitter, Tumblr and Discord legit thought that none of that mattered and that the outcry was destroying Annabeth Chase’s birthday. That’s right. People thought that Annabeth Chase’s non-existing birthday because she’s a fictional character had a higher priority than the rupture and prevalent racism in the fandom. Okay. This isn’t a great look, Annabeth stans. And this of course pissed a lot of people off. I made a post about it and someone not only berated three other people on said post but no, we had a mighty argument which had disrupted many friendships in our circle which haven’t recovered until this very day. We both had our parts in it and no one is innocent. But the cause of this still remains Annabeth Chase or how people prioritize her non-existing well-being. Anyway. I’m getting agitated just thinking about it.

Let’s go back to the characterization thing with Annabeth. Let me remind you:

Annabeth Chase is an asshole. There I’ve said it in a post ages ago (too lazy to look it up, sorry) and I’ll say it again. And that’s not me insulting her. That’s me actually loving that about her. Annabeth is one of the very few unapologetic female characters that really showed all young readers across the world that you can be a girl, a badass, smart, strong, standing up for yourself and what you believe in. You don’t have to be nice. You don’t have to hide your feelings. You don’t need a man in all cases but it’s also okay to accept help and defeat.

A large reason why I think she’s an incredibly important character in children’s literature/YA because many other novels (mostly (sadly)) have the “Oh, I’m a white skinny dark-haired girl that likes unconventional things like READING. I’m not like the other girls, that take care of themselves and pamper themselves by enjoying shopping and wearing make-up. No, I’d rather be one of the boys but a sweet cute little boy and not the jock fuck that drank vodka shots out of a filthy shoe once. Despite me calling myself hideous every man in a 10-kilometer radius falls in love with me and tells me I’m oh so sexy and by the way I’m only 16 years old” shit going on for no goddamn reason.

Yes, I do blame Twilight for this mostly in recent years, but this trope isn’t by any means knew. Pretty sure that you could even use classics as Pride and Prejudice and dissect them in the same manner (Bold statement: Lizzy Bennet is the OG Bella Swan. There. Go fight somewhere in the corner, people). The new wave of YA focuses on girls belittling themselves and only starting to believe in themselves because someone else (mostly the male love interest) tells them they’re worth it. And these books hit the mainstream because they’re incredibly bland and picture perfect white.

With Annabeth it’s different. She shows up for the job and is done with it. (Brie Larson would probably be the perfect in real life version of her. You either like or dislike her. Or you really don’t care). That is what is so refreshing about her. Her unapologetic nature. Can it be off-putting? Yes. Is it annoying? Yes! Hell, every time I read The Lightning Thief, I want to rip her goddamn head off. And it’s just so well written. Her shift from mistrusting Percy but secretly still believing in him to her opening up. Wow, Riordan did something right there.

Annabeth Chase isn’t a young character. She has existed along with PJO for 15 years. She’s on her way to the second decade. I’m pretty sure that with the success of Percy Jackson (and Harry Potter) many lives have been warped and shaped.

But when I say the problem lies mostly in the fandom, it doesn’t mean that Riordan’s completely innocent. The only problem that I have with Annabeth lies not truly with her but the fact that Riordan is only able to produce three variations of female characters:

The sweetheart (Hazel, Silena, Calypso, Hestia)

The strong feminist (Annabeth, Piper, Thalia, Reyna, Artemis)

The bitch (Drew, nearly every female goddess in the goddamn Riordanverse next to every female monster)

And these female characters only know three endings:

End up married with a mortgage, three kids, two dogs and a cat somewhere in Connecticut by the age of twelve

Get dumped into the hunt

Chill on Mount Olympus and only come down to be a nuisance and/or give a cryptic message before going back and doing a godly rave party or something

We know Annabeth as the badass strong female first (or the bitchy character we’re supposed to actually like. Choose your approach), the blueprint so to speak, so some of the other characters feel almost pale in comparison and almost not needed? Doesn’t mean that other characters can’t behave similarly, but it feels kind of redundant especially if their character arcs end in a rather anticlimactic way (Thalia, Reyna). The new additions are the much needed woc as the main story with PJO was inherently white (anyway stan black!Percy and Grover, folks). So it’s not to bash on the new characters, it’s more Riordan’s fault more than anything.

Since Riordan only knows three female character arcs it feels like he tried to copy the formula several ways with different nuances. Some more or less successful. This is where fandom actually comes in handy and helps create more distinguished and fleshed out characters in form of headcanons or fanfiction.

But even in these cases people still make it about Annabeth when it’s time for characters of colors to shine. Remember that whole spiel and discussion that broke out when people (Kal, diver-up, Caitlyn, Bee, reynaisalesbian, etc.) joked about or criticized that Annabeth thinks that she’s having it harder because she’s a blonde? In front of Hazel and Piper? If she would’ve been a real person that’s an invitation for getting decked. And then all hell broke loose because Annabeth stans couldn’t accept the fact that in the real world and/or in fictional worlds the woc/coc have it harder? That the white woman wasn’t the victim that needed the coddling? Yeah, that was mad pathetic.

I hope you people get my point?

Well fuck. I wrote so many things and have the feeling I’ve said nothing. Anyway, I hope I made sense. This is way too long.

TLDR: Chill about Annabeth please. She’s an important character but that doesn’t mean that everyone has to like her, regardless of being a character in the books or a reader/fan of PJO in real life. She isn’t nice or a sweetheart all the time. She also isn’t the monstrous asshole that some try to make out of her.

Peace out.