#also I just find vlad so interesting and for some reason I’ve always related to him (before s3 at least)

[fuck-kirk]

I feel like my main beef with the Danny Phantom fandom is that they’re always torturing Danny when Vlad is RIGHT THERE

[oksanapark]

i’ve been seeing a lot of confusion regarding the plot of 4x05, so i thought some people might appreciate a brief overview of everything that’s going on with The Twelve and how the themes relate to Villaneve. because truly we’re all just here to watch two women kiss and the plot is SO HARD TO FOLLOW FOR NO REASON 😭 ok lets do it

4x05 Recap: As we knew, carolyn's father was a spy during the cold war. following in his footsteps, a younger carolyn has just been hired to the UK’s intelligence service, and her first mission is to infiltrate an anarchist political group, presumably to keep tabs on the soviet union’s influence in europe. here, she meets Johan (who she pretends? to date) and a young Konstantine (who she’s instantly attracted to, moreso than you’d want a spy to be lol). Not long after they sleep together, carolyn finds her father dead. she investigates and realizes konstantine is a KGB agent who only got close with her to get info on her father. konstantine snapped photos of him kissing other men and used his sexuality to blackmail him. subsequently, carolyn’s father commits suicide.

instead of just killing konstantine, in classic carolyn style she tries to make a deal with him, likely to find out who was targeting her father and get justice for him. but before she can, a jealous Johan interrupts. They end up killing him (or so they think). in reality Johan survives and goes on to help found The Twelve--which we finally understand is an organization dedicated to the political philosophy of anarchy. Based on Vlad’s behavior throughout the show, I think It’s possible that the Russian government is in bed with The Twelve, so we might hear more about that soon.. but anyways!

i know there has always been this theory that carolyn was a member of the twelve, but i never bought into that for various reasons and i think 4x05 makes it pretty clear now that she wasn’t. she was just spying on a group of people where the first ripples of the idea developed.

Post-4x05: These events set carolyn and konstantine down opposite paths-- konstantine becomes enmeshed with the twelve, while carolyn throws herself into MI6 work, seeking revenge but also probably out of guilt for making mistakes that lead to her father’s death. yet at the center of this mess is the strange love/hate relationship that carolyn and konstantine never seem able to let go of... from what i can tell they stay in contact for a while afterward, exchanging love letters as well as government secrets (at least long enough for them to frame Vlad as Carolyn’s source). The show hasn’t explained when or why they lose contact.

(disclaimer: it looks like the crew screwed up the timeline because 4x05 is the first time carolyn and konstantine meet and it uses the title card “1979,” but in 1x07 kenny finds letters between carolyn and konstantine that were dated “1977-1978″ ... so i’m working with what i have here ldkjfd sorry)  

okay, fast forward to season 1 episode 1.

carolyn hires eve to investigate a series of assassinations that she secretly suspects is the work of The Twelve..... which means that, decades later, it appears she only has a loose grasp on what the organization might have grown to be or who exactly is involved. though she is unsurprised to hear their name when Frank implicates them in 1x05.

In 1x06 however, carolyn appears VERY shocked when none other than konstantine vasiliev joins her, eve, and vlad at dinner. this is the scene that gave me the impression that the two of them haven't spoken in many years.

whew okay that’s pretty much it!! hopefully the overall thread of the story is making sense now... the question is ???? why tf should anyone care about this? lmao. personally i think it’s interesting to look at how carolyn x konstantine work as a contrast to villaneve.

Why this stuff matters: Eve and villanelle are the products of carolyn and konstantine respectively right. they’re like a fucked up family. carolyn originally saw eve as a pawn to help her achieve her personal goals, and of course konstantine groomed villanelle to be a weapon for the twelve.

what we're seeing play out in eve and villanelle's relationship is actually like... a breaking free of the older generation's war. carolyn and konstantine were star-crossed lovers in the truest sense, on opposite sides of a sociopolitical conflict, as well as (not completely) opposite sides of the moral spectrum. yes they cared for each other, but their relationship was built on distrust and hatred really. in 1x06 when eve asks "is konstantine an old friend?" carolyn simply answers  "no" with a smile. because whatever love they shared, it was never enough to overcome their differences.

eve and villanelle stand in stark contrast to that. neither are loyal to a certain party or cause--in fact they were both morally lost at the beginning of the show--but they found something worth being loyal for in each other. they are willing to change for each other, with villanelle becoming more like eve and eve becoming more like villanelle, and both working to find common ground, common humanity between them. carolyn and konstantine were little more than puppets of two corrupt governments, but with eve and villanelle it’s not british agent vs. russian agent. they’ve felt the corruption on both sides and their love exists outside the bounds of society altogether.

it’s a love that crosses cultural lines, nationality, political ideology, differences in morality, and importantly, sexuality norms. the fact that eve and villanelle are both women, the dangers of which were powerfully highlighted by the blackmailing of carolyn’s father in this episode.

and actually, carolyn’s whole character arc follows this homophobia-related thread. her mistakes in the ‘70s inadvertently led to the outing and death of a gay man, which has been at the heart of everything she does. now in the modern day, carolyn has watched and in some ways oddly encouraged the development of a romance between eve and villanelle, two women on opposing sides of a war. it’s almost like a combination of carolyn’s issues with her father and konstantine... and perhaps a resolution of them. i think she empathizes with eve and villanelle. even roots for them a little. its been delightful to watch because carolyn underestimated eve when she first recruited her and she didn’t expect to have her life so profoundly changed by her friendship.

something similar could be said for konstantine, as he was the one who orchestrated the blackmail. he was always far less enthusiastic than carolyn about eve and villanelle’s relationship, but i think being witness to their love has deeply affected him as well.

back to what i was saying though about villaneve existing outside the bounds of society... killing eve is a stunning love story because nearly every force in the world is working to keep them apart, yet they have this unexplainable, unbreakable bond that transcends it all. and again, konstantine and carolyn are important because they work as a contrast to this-- two people who DID let their differences get in the way of their love. carolyn reflects on this briefly in 4x05 and man this scene brought tears to my eyes:

Carolyn: “Do you ever think what might’ve happened if we hadn’t [killed Johan]? Do you think we might’ve had nice, normal existences? Kept our children? Maybe you and I... [trails off].”

Konstantine: “I don’t know.”

Carolyn: “No, you’re right. People like us aren’t made for happy lives with happy endings.”

But maybe eve and villanelle could be... if they learn from their mentors.

anyways thats it i guess! oof this was longer than i expected haha but yeah these are just my thoughts after watching 4x05, thanks for reading if anyone made it this far <3

[allzelemonz]

Mr. Mayor: Vlad Masters X NSG Reader

Decided to make it gender neutral despite the request because I love Vlad and I know other boys and enbys do too. Also made the reader Jack Fenton’s sibling because I think there’s a slap in the face situation part 2 later on.

Visiting your brother’s family was always great. Jack rambled on about something ghost related while Jazz caught you up on her academic successes and Maddie told you about the big new events you’d missed since visiting last. Your favorite part of the visit was taking Danny to hang out. Your nephew was your favorite, not that you’d ever say it out loud.

So taking Danny to the Nasty Burger to meet with his friends was right in your wheelhouse. Sam and Tucker seemed like really nice kids. You admired Sam’s taste in the weird things and Tucker’s understandable love for technology. In talking to the kids you remembered what Maddie had told you.

“So, the new mayor, not your favorite person?” You looked around at the high schooler's faces.

“He tried to make us wear school uniforms, started a curfew at four o’clock, and we almost lost the Nasty Burger.” Danny explained.

“Does he have some sort of vendetta against you or something?” You asked as you went to take a bite of a fry.

The teens looked at you skeptically. As if you knew something you weren’t supposed to.

“What?” You looked around. “Am I missing something?”

“He’s just a bad guy, that’s all.” Sam clarified.

“He’s the guy that’s been chasing after Danny’s mom since they were in college, other than that he never seemed that bad.” You set down the fry you were never going to get the chance to eat. “He and Jack always spent summers between semester doing stupid ghost expermments in th attic.”

“So you knew him before…” Danny stopped himself from finishing.

“Before?”

“Before college?” Tucker filled questioningly.

“Yeah, yeah, you knew him from when my dad went to college?”

“Not really.” You answered. “Just caught glimpses of him. I was in high school so I didn’t really pay attention to what Jack did.” You shrugged. “He seemed nice, but he stopped coming over so often for some reason.”

Once again the teens looked at each other as if they knew something special.

“All right, who wants to tell me?” You broke their little staring contest.

“Tell you what?” Tucker spoke in more of a series of squeaks rather than words.

“Yeah, there’s nothing to tell.” Sam covered.

You turned to Danny. “Nephew.”

He gulped and let out a nervous laugh. “It’s like Sam said, he’s just a really bad guy now.”

“Explain.”

The look of a disappointed (Aunt/Uncle/Auncle-This is the most common gender neutral term I’ve found) was something that could move mountains. Danny shifted in his seat clearly trying to come up with a convincing lie.

“Daniel, tell me.” You narrowed your brows and the kid looked white as a ghost.

Hold on, no. His hand was gone. The one that was resting on the table. Gone.

“Is this a ghost thing?” You asked.

Danny looked down at his hand and tried to play it off as if it was just a weird angle. It didn’t work. With all the nervous muttering and poorly formed excuses it was obvious they were lying.

“You’re half ghost?” It was hard to believe, but it was the only thing that the kids didn’t sound like they were lying about.

“Yes, just keep your voice down.” Danny warned. “Vlad is half ghost too, that’s how he became mayor and got all of his money.”

“So he’s bad because he played to his strengths?” You muttered to yourself.

You gathered up the trash around the table.

“Why don’t you introduce me to him, Danny. I’m sure he’s not that bad of a guy.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Sam chimed in.

“I may be related to Jack Fenton, but that doesn’t mean I’m an idiot.” You looked at Danny who seemed to forget that he could do ghostly things and was trying to hide in his shirt. “Come on, Danny.”

Reluctantly Danny left his friends to introduce you to his arch nemesis. A fourteen year old with an arch nemesis and it had to be your nephew. Town hall was busy, but that’s what town halls are like. Danny helped you walk through a few walls until you were outside of Vlad’s office. The fact that your nephew could just walk through walls was going to take some getting used to. Danny opened the door to see a rather handsome man sitting at a large desk with a fluffy white cat in his lap. He looked up at the sound of the door clicking open.

“Why Daniel, to what do I owe the pleasure?” His voice had a calming effect.

“My (Aunt/Uncle/Auncle) wanted to meet you.” Danny seemed tense in the way he spoke. “I’ll be at home.’ He muttered to you before leaving the room.

You closed the door as he left.

“Good to meet you Mr. Masters, I’m (Y/n), Jack’s (Brother/Sister/Sibling).”

“Oh, yes, I remember seeing you around.” Vlad recalled. “Please sit.”

You did so, taking the seat across from him.

“I wanted to meet you because I’d always been a fan of your work.”

“Oh, thank you, it's always nice to meet a fan.”

“And because I never got the chance to really meet you when you and Jack were friends.”

“I must say, I do regret not meeting you sooner.” Vlad leaned forward and rested his chin in his hands. The cat scurried away to a small tower by the window.

“Why did you and Jack stop talking?” You asked.

“Oh, college passed and we went separate ways.” He waved off the issues.

“That’s it?”

“Well, I used to have a bit of jealousy toward he and Maddie, but I feel it passing more and more with each word.”

“Each what?”

“Each day.” Vlad corrected himself.

“Right…” Your eyes wandered to the framed Packers jersey on his wall. “You’re a Packers fan?”

“Why yes.” Vlad smiled fondly at the jersey. “I’ve tried to buy the team itself, but no luck.”

“I’ve always been a bit of a fan, and I love the jersey.” You complemented.

“Say, would you like to accompany me to a game this season?”

You blushed red. A very attractive man just asked you to go to your favorite team's game.

“I, uh, I’d love to.”

“I have my own box, bottle service and all of the perks.” He bragged. “Afterall someone with your looks deserves nothing less.”

You let out a nervous half laugh. “Thank you, Mr. Masters.”

“Oh, please, Vlad.” He insisted.

“Right, Vlad.”

The name rolled off your tongue in such a pleasant way. Jack might kill you for this, but come on.

“If you’d like we go for dinner tonight as well.” Vlad offered.

“Sure.” You answered right away.

After having to interrogate Danny and his friends you realized you never really got to eat.

“Shall we then?” Vlad waited by you with his arm out to take.

You walked with him to a limo reserved just for the mayor. He sat next to you and gave great conversation. You discussed the Packers, politics of Amity Park, and personal preferences. Dinner was much of the same, but with more food. Vlad wasn’t like Danny had said. He was a gentleman. He may have acquired his money by not-so-legal means, but he was a nice guy.

The ride home was more conversation. Vlad bought the ticket to the game he’d promised and inquired about why you were in Amity Park.

“It was just time to visit, catch up with Jazz and Danny.” You explained. “I try to tune out Jack, he calls every week or so anyway.”

“And how long will you be staying in our fair city?”

“Around a week.”

“And I couldn’t persuade you to stay any longer?” Vlad offered.

“I, uh, I don’t know.” You thought. “Maybe.”

“There is a position open at city hall if it interests you.” He met your eyes. “I’d be happy to pull some string to keep you around.”

“I wouldn’t mind that.” You nodded along.

You hadn’t noticed how close the two of you were. Until Vlad’s hand was already cupping your cheek. He gave you a moment to react before he leaned in and pressed your lips together. It was a sweet kiss, timid. As if he hadn’t done it in a long time.

You scooted closer to him on the seat and wrapped your arms around him, one of your hands finding his pony tail to play with. Vlad rested his other hand on your side and pulled you a bit closer. You pressed further and intensified the kiss. Vlad obliged and kept the pace, kissing you with as much passion.

The car came to a stop and made you both separate. Time was cut short.

“I suppose I’ll see you soon?”

“Of course.”

“Lunch tomorrow?”

“I’d love to.”

Vlad opened the door for you to step out and gave you one last smile before the car drove away. You were definitely going to see him again.

[five-rivers]

Stars Aligned Chapter 2

Here’s the thing.  Danny knew this was a dumb decision.  At least as dumb as stepping into the ghost portal (but at least he’d gotten some nifty powers out of that, hey?).  Whatever reason his bio-dad had for chucking him out the door within days of his birth couldn’t be good.  Putting himself within reach of the man…  Yeah.  Not his brightest thought.  

(Not to mention the wizards.  And witches.  That was so weird, how they had two different names for essentially the same thing. Then again… actor, actress…  Why were people so weird?)

On the other hand, twin brother.  Twin brother who had to live with aforementioned baby-abandoning bio-dad.  Twin brother who wasn’t allowed to visit America.  Or, Danny suspected, a family of squibs.  

Yeah.  

Yeah.  

So, here he was.  Getting everything in order for a wizard passport and wizard international travel, because bio-family refused to even look at an airport.  

Danny had a suspicion that, based on how they spelled the word and a few other comments in that particular letter, that they weren’t entirely clear on what an airport was.  

Fun.  

On the other hand, in comparison to the actual, normal, legal passport he’d gotten, just in case bio-family left him somewhere, wizard passports were much, much easier to get.  The wait times were practically nonexistent.  He could, in theory, get the passport on the same day he traveled.  All that was needed was proof he was a wizard and his adoption papers.  

Of course, ‘proof he was a wizard’ actually meant ‘wand.’  Wands being something they used as personal ID, despite the fact that they were a) sticks, and b) didn’t actually carry any personally identifiable information.  Sure, Jack said that they were somehow connected to their owners, but unless there were, like, giant books of details about everyone’s wands at every place that would, conceivably, need ID, and had people trained to identify all those tiny little characteristics…  Danny just couldn’t see how it would work.

Danny’s current theory was that all wizards were just insane, which meant that his twin would most likely fit right in with the rest of Danny’s family, right as soon as Danny figured out how to legally kidnap him.

(No, Danny didn’t have a ghostly Obsession, and it definitely wasn’t family related.  He was only half-ghost, after all.  Why do you ask?)

Anyway.  Wizard passport.  Wizard ID. Wizard sticks.  

Wands.  

Wands meant a nerve-wracking trip to the nearest wizarding town with Jack.  Evidently, he’d lived there a couple of years after his parents sent him away from Britain when he was around fourteen because of ‘the war.’

Abruptly, many of Jack’s stories about his childhood made more sense.

(It had always been something of a joke between Jazz and Danny to try and figure out what ‘the war’ was supposed to be, and if Jack’s parents had just… Conned him into thinking he’d eaten horse meat.  For some reason.  Even if the Fentons hadn’t seemed like that kind of people, no matter how eccentric.)

(Also, evidently Jazz and Danny had never met Jack’s biological parents, who were not named Fenton, although his adopted mother was also a witch.)

(Why was everything so complicated?)

 The “wizarding community” was a small town accessible only by a train line invisible to ‘no-majs.’  And also flying brooms.  Which wizards used.  Danny had seen the train before, not realizing that he wasn’t supposed to. Several times.  Usually while flying to Wisconsin to deal with whatever Vlad had done that week.  

If Danny was a wizard, was Vlad?  Was being half-ghost somehow tied up in being magical? What did that mean for Dani?

(Hey, maybe this whole affair could be used to bring Dani into the family safely.  Who was to say that he didn’t have a secret twin sister?)

Danny could admit that the town itself, which had almost a Ghost Zone vibe with how all the architecture seemed to be from fifty plus to a hundred years ago and also the physics breaking magic, was sort of cool. It was… cute, he guessed.  He didn’t really like how everyone was staring at Jack, their clothes were just as weird, but it wasn’t a new thing.  People always stared at Jack.  

That’s what happened when you wore hazard-orange jumpsuits twenty-four seven.  

The shops all had names out of a fantasy novel, and at one point they got turned around and wound up on a residential street where they had to ask for directions, but eventually they made it to ‘Willoughby’s Wand Emporium.’

The interior of Willoughby’s Wand Emporium reminded Danny strongly of a shoe store.  The shelves were all lined with boxes of approximately that size, and the employees all carried measuring tape.  It also smelled like a shoe store: musty and dry, with a hint of polish.  Or maybe it was wood varnish?  Or some kind of paint.  

A young woman bounced up.  “Hi, how can we help you today?  Replacement wand?”

“First time, actually,” said Jack.  

“Oh, I’m sorry,” said the woman.  “You’re just so tall for your age.”

“I’m fourteen,” said Danny.  

The woman began to turn red.

“He was missed,” said Jack.  “It happens.”  He smiled, but it looked far more strained than usual.  

“Oh,” said the woman.  “Ahem.  Well, if you’ll come right this way, I can start taking measurements, and start trying out wands.  The wand chooses the wizard, they say!”

“Okay,” said Danny, shrugging.  That was… interesting.  Were the wands sentient?  Did that somehow make them acceptable IDs?

Seemed really weird to keep sentient things stored in boxes.

… Said the kid who stored sentient beings in a soup thermos.

A really high-tech soup thermos.

Didn’t make it better.  

Except he didn’t keep them in the thermos indefinitely.  Except for Dan.  

Danny didn’t know if the wizards kept the wands in boxes indefinitely, either.  Maybe he should stop assuming things.  That had gotten him in trouble with ghosts more than once.

The woman took her measuring tape from where it hung around her shoulders, held it out in front of herself, and promptly dropped it. It did not fall.  

As basic as levitation was for ghosts, it was really weird to see a human do it.  (Especially when it always took so much concentration for him to levitate things other than himself—Hence why he never really used the ability in battle.)

The measuring tape flitted around Danny’s head, shoulders, arms, and body, taking measurements.  He had to sit on his reflexes hard to prevent himself from trying to catch it or knock it out of the air.  

He was so nervous.  Was it normal to be nervous?

The measuring tape snaked back through the air to the woman, who smiled.  “Alright,” she said, “we can start with that.  Uh, to explain the process, we usually start out with wands in the appropriate size range and try and zero in on the ones that respond best to you from there.”  She flicked her own wand, and several thin boxes slid themselves off the shelves.  “We use a wide variety of wand woods from a variety of wandmakers.  Just about any tree that grows in North America is probably represented here.” She paused.  “Except for palm trees.”

“That makes sense,” said Danny.  Palm trees were quite different from other trees.  

“Alright.  Let’s start with pine.  The core of this one is dragon heartstring—Harvested humanely, of course!”

“Core?” said Danny, latching on to the familiar word even as he regarded the wand itself dubiously.  

“Yes.  As with our woods, we also stock a wide range of wand cores.  Each wand has a core made of a small part of a magical creature.  Dragon heartstring, unicorn hair, and phoenix feather are the standard ones…  But that standardization is rather British.  We have a few others available.  Thunderbird tail feather—Only taken during molt.  Wampus cat hair.  Dittany. Rougarou hair.  Jackalope antler…  Those are the more common ones, though we do have others.  Even some kneazle whisker, although most people don’t want those.”

“Why not?”

“Ah, they tend not to be very strong.  But sheer power isn’t everything.  Some prefer control, need lower power output…  or are worried about accidents while they’re learning.  We do see some adult learners every now and then.”

That actually sounded sort of appealing to Danny, but he supposed he’d better go about this normally.  At least at first.  

He picked up the pine wand and immediately dropped it.  

“Ow,” he said.  

“Ow?” repeated the woman.  “Oh,” she said, catching sight of the burn on his hand.  “That’s… not supposed to happen.”

“Y’know,” said Danny, conversationally, “I’ve only held, like, two magical things in my life, and both of them have damaged my hands. Is this, like, a common thing, or am I just ridiculously unlucky.”

“Second one, I think,” said the woman.  “Cynthia’s good at minor healing charms.  I’m going to go get her.  Okay?  Okay.”

Shortly thereafter, phoenix feather wands were also eliminated as a possibility, not because they burned Danny, but because they seemed intent on burning everything else around him.  Pine wands were also a definite no-go (“Don’t worry about the lifespan thing,” said the woman, “that’s a myth.”).  As was everything but elder, apple, pear, hornbeam, thorn, and yew (this list got another mention of myths from the shop assistant).  

At this point, the shop owner, Mrs. Willoughby, was drawn out from the back room to observe the mess Danny was making.  

“My,” she said, “I haven’t seen anyone have this much trouble in a while.  Heather, why don’t you go get some of the specialty cores.”

“I thought the unicorn was working well,” protested the woman who’d been helping Danny so far.  She winced as Danny picked up a new wand and exploded a light.  “Comparatively.”

“Yes, we could probably eventually find a unicorn hair wand that would work for him, but all things considered…  I feel like we should explore other avenues.”  She sniffed.  “Nothing associated with fire.  Perhaps kelpie mane?”

“I’ll check,” said Heather.  

.

Kelpie mane, it turned out, did the same sort of thing as phoenix tail feather when it came to Danny.  Only with a lot more water involved.  

“I didn’t think that would work, anyway,” said Mrs. Willoughby.

“Then why,” said Danny, wringing water out of his shirt, “did you have me try it?”

“Oh, cases like you greatly improve our understanding of wandlore,” said Mrs. Willoughby.  “You’re not likely to have noticed this yet, but the population of wizards and witches is so small compared to the no-maj population that everyone who gets very far in a profession has to be a bit of an innovator.  I’m recording this for future reference, and I’ll be looking forward to seeing what you do in life.  If anything.  It would be very helpful to me if you became famous.”

“Hard pass on that,” said Danny.  

“Or at least come back at some point.”

“I’ll consider it,” said Danny.  “But, like, we were really hoping to do other things today, so maybe…”  He made a circular motion with his hand.  “Or at least, ugh, I don’t know.  I feel like everything you give me is trying to kill me.”

It was a very familiar feeling, and a very unwelcome one, nonetheless.  

“We really aren’t,” said Mrs. Willoughby.  “But perhaps… from now on, we’ll limit to the woods to the Rosaceaes.  The others tend to be called unlucky.  Well, except for the hornbeam.  Is there anything you’re singularly passionate about?”

Singularly passionate?  “Not really,” said Danny, who did not think about ghosts or helping people or space. He shifted, uncomfortable, and squelched.  

Screw it.  He was supposedly a wizard, now, right?

He phased the water off himself.  

“Oh my god!” shouted Heather.  “Did you do that on purpose?”

“Uh,” said Danny.  “No?”

“Calm down, Heather.  Don’t act like you’ve never seen accidental magic before.”

“Not with a teenager doing it!”

They were now attracting a crowd.  Yay.  

“He’s not trained, yet,” said Mrs. Willoughby, unconcerned.  “Don’t be rude.”

“Yeah, can we get back on track, here?”

After a few more tries, Mrs. Willoughby had determined that the wood that reacted the least badly to Danny was hawthorn.  Then she sent Heather into the storage room to fetch more.  

“I don’t know why we even have these,” said Heather, under her breath, carrying several boxes marked with stamps that read ‘THESTRAL.’

“Because some people have trauma, Heather.”

“He’s a teenager.  I seriously doubt he has deep personal experiences with death.”

“Wow, way to assume, Heather,” said another shop assistant, who was passing by with a far-too-curious customer.  

“Here,” said Mrs. Willoughby, handing Danny a box.  “Try this one.  It’s hawthorn.”

With some suspicion, Danny slid the cover off the box and gingerly picked up the wand inside.  

It didn’t do anything like what the other wands had. Instead, the slender length of wood gave him a faint echo of the feeling he got when he was on an emotional high and engaging in either extreme mischief or obsession-adjacent activities (because he did not have a real, ghostly, capital-O Obsession).

Danny declined to hold it with all five fingers, lest he be overcome with mania.

Yes, he was paranoid.  But when touching things can go as badly for you as they did for Danny, paranoia was justified.  

“Oh, it looks like you’ve found your match,” said Mrs. Willoughby, clapping.  

With the ease of practice, Danny did not let any trace of horror or unease show on his face.  He ignored the surge of glee from the wand, and carefully placed it back in the box.  

Yeah.  He needed a wand for passport purposes, but there was no way he was going to use that.  He’d just fake magic with ghost powers.  It had been working out okay so far.  

What was the worst that could happen?

A rather relieved Jack paid for the wand, and they made their way, slowly, to the government building.  

“So,” said Jack.  “You want to save getting those beginner magic manuals for another day?”

“Absolutely,” said Danny.  He wondered if his twin had gone through anything even remotely like this and if it was really worth all this trouble to meet a person he would have basically nothing in common with other than blood.  

Blood that likely meant less than usual, considering that his was diluted with ectoplasm.  A fact he would have to hide.  With no allies or back up.  In England.

(Again, this whole endeavor was not his greatest idea.)

.

Draco supervised the house-elves as they cleaned out the room next to his own, feeling rather blank.  He had campaigned vigorously for his twin to come, but now that he was…

The boy, for all that he was as much a Malfoy as Draco, was an American for all intents and purposes.  What did Americans even like?  What did they call their bastardized version of Quidditch?  Would Deneb even know about wizard games?  According to the woman from the agency, he’d been raised as a muggle by those squibs he’d been placed with.  

Slowly but surely, Draco’s heart sank.  He had no idea what his twin would be like.  Deneb, despite being his brother, would essentially be a stranger.  

He was beginning to understand why his mother was so angry at his father.  

[dannyphannypack]

Crossover Fic Recs

Hey, saw your post for some fic recs! Unfortunately I can't continue the wonderful thread of reblogs because I wish to remain anonymous, but here have some cool crossovers that I didn't see get rec'd yet :D (you can either post this or add it to the reblogs, I don't mind either way)

Just Another Meteor Freak [500k words, complete] (and it's sequel, which is unfortunately incomplete) is a Smallville/DP crossover that's absolutely a fantastic read and I cannot recommend it enough, it's one of my faves! Brief synopsis: Danny goes to live with his aunt Martha Kent after his family dies (and for once Danny's family dying in a crossover fic doesn't have anything to do with TUE!), and misunderstandings of the good kind and mishaps ensue because of course Danny and Clark's hero complexes come into play. It's got hurt/comfort, fluff, angst, sibling-esque-bonding, and all sorts of cool stuff, including ghost king headcannons and new powers for Danny. It takes place mostly from a Smallville perspective, but Danny's woven in so seamlessly that you won't believe he wasn't in the original show to begin with. I read it for the first time after having not watched Smallville in years and I could still understand it though, so I think that if you haven't watched Smallville before you could still enjoy the fic a lot!

And like, honestly, I totally recommend other stuff by this author (jadedbluerose) too. She's got a Merlin/DP crossover that's pretty fantastic, but unfortunately she hasn't updated anything since 2014 :( still worth the read though!!

Spirited Away [70k, complete] is a Harry Potter/DP crossover, it's honestly THE MOST hilarious fic I've ever read. Synopsis: Danny is an unwilling student at Hogwarts, and the most chaotic Hufflepuff the world has ever seen. He claims he's been kidnapped but when no one listens to him, he raises all kinds of hell to try and get kicked out. And if that doesn't work, well, he can always sue them. 100% worth the read, it will definitely make you laugh.

Various Superphantom (Supernatural/DP) crossovers by sapphireswimming. Literally anything Superphantom found here? Totally the best. You can also check out Superphantom fics by surelysilly (whose fics are more on the darker end of the spectrum, and their prose style is kinda abstract rather than your traditional linear narrative) Vitaliciouscreations (they've got a oneshot collection that's pretty fun, as well as a oneshot that I wish they'd continue and a complete cute 13k-word penpal fic.)

How to befriend a ghost [80k, incomplete] is a HTTYD/DP crossover in which Danny gets stuck in the Viking era, and I originally started reading this for the Danny & Hiccup friendship because it's adorable and both of them see how similar they are to each other and find kinship in that. The dragon Danny gets (because this is a HTTYD crossover, this is inevitable!) really sneaks into your heart though, and I ABSOLUTELY adore Sparky as much as I adore Toothless. He's very lovable and complements Danny super well! Of course, it's not all friendship bonding and training dragons, the archipelago is Danny's home now (until he can find his way back to Amity Park/his own century) and he's going to protect it too when trouble arises, just like the dragons do. He even gets new powers along the way. This fic is pretty fun, there's a lot of switching perspectives and you really see the characters' voices come through in it, and you even get to see the dragons' POV, which is really interesting since you get to learn Sparky's backstory!

Den Mother [8k, ongoing] is a Young Justice/DP crossover that acknowledges the fact that Danny is by all rights a first-generation hero, and he's treated with the respect as such and gets to join the Justice League rather than the YJ team. Of course, he doesn't WANT to join the league at first, which is a different take than you'd expect, but he reluctantly agrees and is then given the same responsibilities as a Justice League member--that is, to teach the YJ something about teamwork or whatever. It's not very long right now, but the premise is so good! It has a lot of potential.

A Foreign Perspective [200k words, complete] is a DNAngel/DP crossover that I saw @scrollingdown call a fandom classic once and honestly agree, even though I don't think many people know/have read it. It's a cute friendship fic that focuses on Phantom (not Danny, but Phantom specifically) making his first friend, an older boy named Daisuke, who seems normal at first, but is slowly revealed to be a little more understanding of Danny's situation than he appears. Some comfort involved too since Danny deals with a little more with the idea of mourning/loss than in canon, seeing as Daisuke thinks he's a full ghost and therefore a teenager that died, and Danny learns to be a different kind of hero because of it. Really cool fic too since you don't need to know DNAngel at all to understand the fic, since it's told from DP's perspective, and you get to learn about Daisuke as Danny does. It's just super sweet and it's got some action here and there that makes it exciting, and it's really a fun read.

Other stuff by this author is worth the read too! They've got oneshots of a HP crossover and Ghost Whisperer crossover, and a sadly incomplete HTTYD crossover [100k words] that is still super super good and also deals with ideas about mourning and loss. Their non-crossover stuff is also pretty interesting (there's a Mute!Danny AU and Dash kinda-redemption oneshot I really liked).

Diversity [150k, ongoing] is another Ghost Whisperer/DP crossover, it's a found-family fic where Danny runs away from home after his family dies in the events post TUE. He ends up running into Melinda and she goes out of her way to help him. There's a couple underlying mysteries surrounding the ghosts that haunt this fic, and Melinda tries to understand Danny's past and ends up tangled in a conspiracy because Danny's hiding his ghostly alter-ego and also the GIW are involved at some point (and they are much more menacing here than in canon). It's totally a page-turner, and you can get as invested as Melinda in hoping Danny heals from his loss. Spellbound [150k, ongoing] is a HP/DP crossover by the same author! Danny accidentally gets trapped by Magical Britain and is bitter about it, but he's trying to make the best of it. The Wizards have no idea what to make of him, but he just wants to go home, and he makes a couple friends while he plots his escape. (It's actually been a while since I read that one, so I'm a bit fuzzy on the details, but I do remember feeling bad for Danny in this fic, poor boy's lonely and can't even interact with kids his own age because he's an unknown creature to the wizards. Good thing Danny's never been one to follow authority.)

A Visit to Paris [10k, complete] is a Miraculous Ladybug/DP crossover in which Danny is Akumatized... sort of. The results are hilarious: Danny's a troll, Hawkmoth is frustrated, the heroes aren't really sure what to make of it, and Danny and Adrien make a lot of puns. Oh, and Danny is the only one smart enough to fix Paris' villain problem (okay, so it might be slightly cracky). It reminds me very much of Spirited Away, which I mentioned earlier. It's got the same level of chaos that's for sure. All in all, it's a very, very fun read.

A Different Sort of House Call [50k, incomplete] is a House MD/DP crossover, it's been years since I read it but I've always considered it one of the fandom classics too? It was definitely one of the first things to pop to mind when I was trying to recall all the cool memorable crossovers to rec you, so this goes on the list too. It's Danny at the hospital with House, and the doctors are trying to diagnose him without knowing about his ghost half (and Danny's not exactly willing to tell them either). There's angst (especially since the author wrote this to follow Lab Rat by AnneriaWings), Vlad trying to be an ally (sorta?), and House being clever as usual. Sadly it's incomplete but it's still super good!!

Running Blind [20k, complete] is a CSI/DP crossover (it took me forever to find the link again since it wasn't listed as a crossover). It's super good, Danny runs away for reasons unknown (at the beginning of course) and gets caught up in a murder investigation and he suspects the culprit is supernatural so obviously he helps out. The CSI guys are both trying to protect him (thinking he was a target for the murderer) but also trying to uncover his past and the reasons he ran away. When you find out why he ran away, you might be awed like I was (especially when you realize how long it had been since he ran) or you might be unimpressed, but the aftermath and his family/friends finally catching up to him might make up for that. I kinda liked how Vlad was written here too.

Ghost Crimes and its sequels is a Criminal Minds/DP crossover. It's the first in a very long series (currently 500k+ words in total) that expands on the DP world and lore, and also involves a lot more murder, death, blood (and the other related gore-ish stuff), and overall realism. Like, Danny fights what is basically Jack the Ripper and its terrifying. It's kind of like a "dark and gritty" DP (but like, not unbearably or overwhelmingly dark and gritty), angst sprinkled here and there, along with darker themes and less light-hearted issues (mental health/trauma/depression/etc. and neglect/abuse and like, actual competent adults like social workers and stuff are a real thing in this fic). There's a lot going on but it's got its lighter nice moments too (Dani is there and gets to be a part of Danny's family, Val's in on the secret, among other things). Also some of the chapters are illustrated, it's great. Definitely check it out!

Okay that's a lot of fics so I'm gonna stop now. Have fun reading!!

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 207: Close Encounters of the 4th Set

Previously on BnHA: Honenuki, Tetsutetsu, Todoroki and Iida were all put out of commission in one fell swoop. Seeing as Sen and Ojiro were already captured, this left the fate of teams A and B riding on Shouji and Pony’s respective shoulders. Although Pony succeeded in keeping her fallen teammates out of Shouji’s hands, she wasn’t able to get Shouto over to the Rat Principal Jail before time ran out. As a result the battle ended in a draw, which means that the classes are still tied with one win each. Over in Recovery Girl’s office, Iida and Todoroki took turns blaming themselves, but in the end the two of them renewed their determination to become heroes who put everyone at ease and rush to the rescue of anyone who needs it. Also they’re now best friends with Honenuki. Meanwhile back at Ground Gamma, the fourth set is finally about to begin, Tokage from class B is looking to kick some ass, and my son Kacchan is eager to start showing off for his excited green boyfriend. I am hyped.

Today on BnHA: Team BakuJirouSeroSatou takes on Team TokaBondoAwaKama as round 4 begins. We briefly check in with the audience, where Vlad King is being loudly biased toward 1-B and All Might is being quietly biased toward 1-A. We then cut to Team A who are obediently following Bakugou’s lead despite some obligatory grumbling on their behalf. Bakugou wants to go straight in for the kill, and the strategy is for him to take point while the others hold the rear and Jirou keeps her earjacks peeled for trouble. Trouble does indeed find them before long, as Tokage attacks with her self-amputation quirk, which allows her to split her body up into small pieces that can float around independently to do recon and harass people and so forth. Anyway, so while she’s out there pestering Bakugou, Bondo shows up and uses his “can spit out glue everywhere” quirk to trap the others. Bakugou blasts them free with an explosion, but it leaves them exposed, and Kamakiri from B Team leaps in to attack Jirou with his “can make swords from any part of his body” quirk. Or at least he tries. But before he can actually hit Jirou, Bakugou jumps in to save her. Because didn’t you know? The best heroes are the ones who both win and rescue, and we love character development here in BnHA.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my mostly-unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’m caught up with the manga now at chapter 223, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

wow, Colander Man

and Bakugou is what. chopped liver? not to mention poor Satou. you do know he’s another physical powerhouse right?

ah, Awase is jumping in now to defend their honor

I knew I liked you for a reason Awase. aside from you saving Momo and Bakugou’s lives

oh hey, it’s this guy!

I’ve been wanting to know more about him for ages! it looks like he shares a personality with Bakugou, which means I instantly love him. that says a lot of things about me, doesn’t it. whatever guys, it’s a manga!

hey what the hell is Tokage’s deal anyway though

like, what is this little scale thing that she seems to be floating. goddammit. I’m so curious about her and I already love her and it’s confusing

oh hey, interesting

this is the first time we’ve seen a map of the field. I wonder if that means it’s gonna be important to this match. imagine if one of the class A teams actually tried a strategy!

...okay that’s mean, and not quite fair to the first group (even if they did get in on the strategizing game pretty late), and then to Momo specifically and only Momo. but everyone else kind of just flailed around. I’m starting to think they might actually have gotten too used to having to adapt and react to things instead of being more proactive

anyway, Vlad is going on to say that class A’s one and only win was mostly due to Shinsou, and I have to say, he’s not wrong. however, he forgot to say “only win up until now.” key point there, Vlad King

lmao now Kami, Kiri, Aoyama, and Tokoyami (though he’s mostly silent but you can feel his support) are booing him

and Aizawa’s telling them to cut it out lol

what are you, picketing him?

oh Aizawa you’re so sensible as always

you see guys this is what I said. you haven’t really brought your A-game so far. well except for you Kaminari

noooo now he’s all “looks like Vlad’s teaching skills were a cut above my own” and his kids look PHYSICALLY PAINED

how is he such a good teacher, though?? like, this is the most gentle scolding, and he’s even shouldering the blame himself, but he makes it so effective somehow. he knows exactly how to hit them where it hurts without being cruel or hurting their confidence

and just saying, unlike a certain other teacher, he knows how to rein his students in when they start to get petty

Vlad? you out there? hello?

by the way has Monoma’s tie always had that weird black spot pattern on it?? that’s weird

(ETA: yeah I’m clearly not very observant lol)

lol at least class A has one person unabashedly on their side

THAT’S BECAUSE THOSE ARE HIS CHILDREN

plus, look, Midnight. everyone loves class A. they are plucky and determined and a couple of them have broken wings but they are on the mend and ready to rise from those ashes and kick ass and save the world and okay but frankly the idea of anyone not loving them is just absurd. in fact I would argue that class B has been performing so well today precisely because they’re up against class A and they just naturally bring out the best in everyone

but yeah it’s also just because they’re his kids. and mine, as it just so happens! Katsuki where are you though

(ETA: okay but lmao at All Might being all “I love everyone equally” and then not one panel later thinking to himself “GO ON AND FUCK THEM UP, YOUNG BAKUGOU.”)

;____; oh, cool. it’s okay. I’m cool. it’s just All Might thinking to himself about how he’s expecting great things of Katsuki. even though he is not his successor and he has not invested anything into him. meaning I can take this as confirmation that he really has adopted him in spite of that. he didn’t think ‘I’m expecting great things of you, young heroes!’ or anything generic. he specifically thought about Bakugou. the kid he’s chosen to be Izuku’s partner. okay guys actually it’s not okay and I’m not cool but I’m gonna shut up and keep reading!!

my boy always here to bring me back to reality. oh how I love you

soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo slow! SLOWPOKES! !!!

lmao teamwork

in all honesty watching Bakugou’s leadership in action is always fascinating to me. because it works in defiance of all expectations. everyone’s always complaining about what an asshole he is, but they can also see that he pushes himself just as hard as anyone else. he’s tough, but he’s also fair. he won’t ask anything of someone that he wouldn’t also ask of himself. and because his classmates understand that, they’re willing to follow him

so here they are all grumbling about his attitude, and yet they’re going along with it all the same

lmao Bakugou you really have set the bar for cooperation quite low. good job on tempering those expectations kid

so now we’re flashing back to their planning session

that’s not much of a plan Katsuki. WHY ARE ALL OF MY SONS SO STUPID. hopefully his improved self-awareness will kick in and he’ll listen if the others make suggestions

(ETA: I’m sorry kiddo, I underestimated you. it was a simple plan, but effective. “go out and kick their asses and watch each other’s backs.” but what really made it work is the fact that he took point and they let him coordinate them. that’s something all of the other A Teams lacked aside from Momo’s team, and she unfortunately got cut off from the others. basically, the lesson to take away here is that good leadership can make all the difference in a situation like this.)

also interesting to see the hierarchy at work here lol. so these guys are “underlings” and “punks”, but meanwhile the enemy are “small fries.” not even deserving of more acknowledgement than that, huh

hmm, I’m not sure who’s right here tbh

I know Bakugou has never been the type to sit and wait, and he thrives on improvisation almost as much as Deku when it comes to strategy. but I do feel like if they had taken the time to make a plan to set up some sort of trap, it could have been really good

on the other hand, their team is powerful enough to make “attack head-on” a valid strategy as well. or so it would seem. but we all saw how that worked out in the previous match, though. so far pretty much every class A team has underestimated class B, and that’s proven to be a mistake

anyways I guess we’ll see!

and now it looks like he’s spotted someone up ahead, and he’s calling for the others to hold up

lol

yeah he knows you have a name, it’s Ears!

(ETA: and in fairness, the Japanese word for “ears” is “mimi” and I think it’s an adorable nickname tbh. I will be sad if he ever stops calling her this.)

at least he’s making effective use of her quirk though. maybe he does have a strategy

oh hell yesssssss look at Jirou being a total badass

the amount of mental processing that must be in play here with her having to identify all these sounds and distinguish them from one another and identify their sources and figure out where they are in relation to her is frankly incredible. it almost overwhelms me just thinking about it, so I can’t imagine what it’s like for her. much respect for Jirou, and Shouji too for that matter

but Bakugou is getting impatient and telling her to hurry it up

she’s saying “wait...”

oh shit

lol did you all fuck up somehow

oh damn

nothing to see here, just a floating disembodied mouth chilling out behind Bakugou

how come the others didn’t spot it if it was between him and the rest of them?

dude what the hell

TOKAGE YOUR QUIRK IS FREAKING ME OUT. WHERE ARE YOU. COME OUT HERE AND EXPLAIN THIS TO ME YOUNG LADY

how did the mouth know to dodge him. it’s only a mouth. how can it see or hear or have spatial awareness. why would you send a mouth out to spy on someone, out of all the body parts you could possible send

so apparently Tokage’s quirk is called “self-amputation.” clearly one of those quirks that’s actually much, much better than it sounds lmao

see, the eye makes sense though. I get that she can move her body parts independently, but how does it work when a mouth can somehow see stuff? or is the eye just floating high enough that it can see all the other parts so she knows where to move them?

(ETA: maybe this just works like Mighty Wings and Pony’s quirk and I should just stop questioning it sob.)

and now Bakugou is being pelted by a bunch of disembodied Pieces of Tokage

jury’s still out on whether I find this quirk cool or terrifying, but I will let you know when we come to a decision!

so Katsuki is thinking that they don’t pack much of a punch but they’re annoying because the targets are too small to hit

meanwhile Sero is setting up some sort of tape perimeter which doesn’t look like it would be even remotely effective, but they seem to have confidence in it lol

“there. now class B, you stay on your side of the stage, and we’ll stay on our side”

and now part of Tokage’s head is again shouting, “okay, all done!”

what is all done??

OH SNAP

CLASS B HAS A GLUE MAN?? COLANDER MAN, YOUR QUIRK WAS GLUE?! HOW DO THE CLASS B QUIRKS KEEP GETTING EVEN MORE AWESOME

so now the glue is dripping off of Sero’s tape barricade and they look pretty stuck. shit

Colander man says this was all due to Tokage’s plan

Bondo is such a great name. reminds me of Sero’s. straight up Engrish. I love it. and that is a damn convenient quirk

and here comes the Bakuclone now to enter the fray

isn’t this the same quirk as that lame doped-up mobster guy that Kiri beat in the Basement arc, before we got to the basement part of it? aww. I’m actually a little disappointed here; not that it isn’t a cool quirk, but when you’re competing with guys who can physically manifest onomatopoeia and shoot fucking glue at people and melt anything they touch, that sets the bar pretty high as far as creativity

wow, class A really managed to get themselves into quite the... sticky situation. ahaha. why are you looking at me like that

what even was the tape barrier supposed to do other than get in their way to begin with though

now Satou’s doing something inexplicable

protect them how, by miming that you’re in an invisible box??

oh thank fuck

this is one of the funniest Bakugou panels I’ve ever seen by the way

just. the way he’s still getting the shit beat out of him by Tokage’s flying amputated body parts. the fact that he’s completely facing the opposite way from where he’s aiming for no apparent reason. what are you even doing

having said that, that’s some damn good control. to be able to blast the glue away while not hurting his friends, once again without sparing a fucking glance in their direction, apparently? damn, son

I bet you Jirou could have blasted it apart with her quirk though if he hadn’t stepped in

fuck you, they didn’t need a shelter to begin with. and it’s better than being stuck in place and not being able to fight back at all

anyway so now he’s diving at them, and Tokage is shouting to take out Jirou first!

ooooooooooh

yes please omg!?!?!

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

BAKUGOUUUUUUU

holy shit. he practically teleported there. he’s so fucking fast holy shit. class B never actually stood a chance did they??

also, Deku’s face though?? the way his jaw just dropped and he doesn’t even appear to have registered it? thank you manga gods for this glorious bounty oh shit

and now there are two bonus pages of BnHA smash featuring the Bakugou family oh lord what a blessed dayyyy

(ETA: I still gotta go back and do the rest of these which I forgot about from the previous chapters. you can clearly see where my biases lie since these are the only ones I didn’t skip lol.

also, this seems like a good place to put up my Mitsuki Disclaimer, which is that I love her but I understand that not everyone does, but I’d like to steer clear of any discourse about it if it’s all the same to everyone! my more in-depth thoughts about it are here just fyi.)

so first there’s a strip basically establishing the hierarchy in the family

poor Masaru. I like to think he has a spine when it comes to the important things, though. but clearly he’s not very good at laying down the law

and next up is a strip about Katsuki and Mitsuki waging war and tearing the house apart

(ETA: okay but can we all stop for a moment to appreciate that Mitsuki, who has no hero training and whose quirk is “glycerin sweat” which does absolutely nothing other than give her healthy glowing skin, nonetheless smashed a fucking table (??) to bits here with her fucking fist just cuz. new headcanon that Mitsuki was Rosa Diaz in a past life. what kind of woman doesn’t have an axe.)

ngl I like that she’s not intimidated by him. but “poor Masaru” certainly seems to be a running theme here

and lastly we have Katsuki angrily asking why his dad married her, only to instantly regret it as his dad nostalgically begins to reminisce about their romance

the second panel with Katsuki’s “oh shit” attempts to abort once he realizes what he’s done is amazing omg

Masaru: [loudly] “AND THEN WE HAD SEX”

also their cute lil blushes in the third panel are adorable

I appreciate the text saying “treat him kindly” because seriously, Bakudad is a precious cinnamon roll and he deserves love and appreciation

anyways that’s all for today, tune in next time, kids. same Bakutime, same Bakuchannel

[nikatyler]

Oh hey, long time no replies. And these are the first ones of this year. I have a hard time replying now. It’s not like I don’t have time - I’m doing okay, actually. I mean, I wouldn’t complain if there was less homework, but still. Free time exists. It’s just that I can’t bring myself to replying to either comments or messages...I replied to asks quite quickly though, which is something unusual for me. Usually that’s where I’m slowest. I don’t know, is this another weird anxiety thing? Like I know I can reply, but I just...don’t?

Anyway...let’s get that done now I guess. There’s a lot of these, apologies if something got lost. Maybe it’s my fault, maybe it’s not, all I know is that sometimes my activity feed doesn’t show me everything.

unstablesims replied to your photoset “Vlad the fashion icon strikes again.”

he's rocking that goth TM look lmao

I mean yeah.

unstablesims replied to your photoset “This brings back memories. Maybe he’s not evil, he just wants some...”

he's vv nice to his friends..... the problem is becoming his friend ��

I was going to reply with “if this ain’t me” but...actually once I get comfortable around people, irl especially, I’m awful to them D: (I can quite easily turn into the sarcastic asshole friend and no one believes me until I unleash it lmao) But anyway yeah I kinda can see Vlad to be that way, now that you mention it

#JusticeForVlad2k19

justkeeponsimming replied to your photo “End of the Year Tag 2 This time I was tagged by @justkeeponsimming....”

Ronnieeee!!! Your sims are SO gorgeous! Love love love this!

Aaaaah thank you so much! ♥

dandylion240 replied to your photo “I tweeted this last night but I want to share it here as well because...”

When Ross and Caleb finally got together. I'm still hoping Caleb changes his mind and turns Ross.

If I had replied to this a week earlier, I could’ve used my favourite eye emoji. Oh well. Yeah, it’s good he changed his mind, isn’t it? :D I couldn’t stand the idea of separating them.

jackssims replied to your photo “I tweeted this last night but I want to share it here as well because...”

The birth of Miracle! Caleb, Ross, and Sunset! The high school story and when Miracle and Adam got together as well!

ghkjahfljhk lately (I mean for the past few months) I’ve been really disliking Miracle and Adam’s storyline but for some reason when people mention it, they always say they liked it, so I guess I didn’t do that bad of a job? 

Same with the good old Zoey storyline. Everyone who has ever talked to me about it said they liked it and thought it was interesting, but I’m over here like “gjkfjgfjhg don’t mention that mess to me ever again”.

melien replied to your photoset “Sunset spent the New Year’s Eve by playing sims. This is very...”

I'M LITERALLY DOING THIS RIGHT NOW

I feel personally attacked

It’s fine, we’ve all been there :D

I think I played sims too this year. Well, first we played some board games with my parents, then there was midnight, I cried, went to see the fireworks (while finishing a bottle of wine but I swear I wasn’t drunk)...oooh and then I watched a stream and edited my sims screenshots! Okay so I didn’t actually play but I edited the pics and like...these are still fun new year’s eve plans, am I right?

melien replied to your photoset “Dawn came over and the two spent hours talking about space.”

I love their outfits! Totally would wear something like this

I like Sunset’s style especially. Well, sometimes she wears clothes I wouldn’t, but for most of the time, it’s just comfy fun stuff I wish I had. Especially considering my dark phase is over and colours are slowly coming back to my closet :D

melien replied to your post “I have some random sims I could share. Anyone interested?”

Ohhhh... on one hand I'd always want sims from you but on the other hand I fear I won't do them justice because idk where to use them rn. Dilemma

pls ask

I’m always down for creating sims for mutuals and friends (I just never talk about it), so just let me know when you want one. Also, I’m sure you would do them justice. I’m really not afraid you would fail there. You know I love everything you do, so... :D

melien replied to your photoset “This guy ♥”

Ending 2018 on a high note

The best note possible

simtress replied to your photoset “Caleb: Isn’t it sad that there are so many ways a vampire can live a...”

i love the name caleb...♥

Me too! I’ve liked it since the first time I had seen it in an English textbook years ago.

dandylion240  replied to your photoset “Oh god please tell me I didn’t accidentally have risky woohoo on or...”

It'd be fun to see what their kid would look like.

I agree and I’m surprised I’ve never played with their genetics. smh ron

cafeheart replied to your photo

okay he's hot but this also makes me uncomfy for some reason asfdlkjaj put him back

jackssims replied to your photo

I agree he’s got a hot vibe going, but this just feels wrong tbajfnakcn

It is kinda weird, I’ll admit that (but “reimagining” him was fun). It’s like...taking away Caleb Vatore’s weird emo hair. I admit I’ve done that once but it was just to mock myself anyway. I wouldn’t do it “for real”. Emo hair must stay. Yes it’s dumb, but also, it’s iconic. we stan dumb hair

I’d say this is something similar. I don’t want to say anything about Ross is iconic, but...you get my point, right?

jackssims replied to your photoset “Ross: “Okay, I don’t like this. I have a theory.” Caleb: “I know what...”

👀

The funny thing here is, when I was writing this dialogue, I had no idea what was going to happen later.

jackssims replied to your photoset “Caleb: “I don’t…I don’t ever want this to end.” Ross: “You’re the only...”

Way to dodge that, Caleb

Oh yeah. He’s good at that

unstablesims replied to your photoset “Sunset: I know I said I’d work out today but I really don’t want to…oh...”

mood

An everyday one

alfalfalegacy replied to your photo “Sim Download: Cara Meadows she/her, bisexual Another one. I imagine...”

ahh she's cute! might have to nab her for my private save ;)

Yay, I’m so happy to hear that! :D

jackssims replied to your photoset “Everything about this picture is a big mood. You may tag yourself now.”

Tbh I’m both Caleb and Sunset

Relatable

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your photoset “Valentine: “Relationships and love aren’t really for me, but attending...”

Ironically her name is ValentineXD

Yup. Exactly. I bet it must be annoying for a person who couldn’t care less about getting into a relationship.

myopiccc replied to your photoset “Sunset wasn’t born to follow the crowd.”

Seriously!?!? I would never know THEY can use an umbrellas clever way! LOL

Lol they sometimes open it inside. Doesn’t seem clever to me :D But yeah, I didn’t expect them to sit down like this.

solarmoodlet replied to your photo “Sim Download: Enric Noel he/him, gay Sometimes a miracle happens and I...”

hes so cute. added him to my save. Tyvm!

Ahhh thank youuu!

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your post “Simblr 2019 Goals”

I join you with the last point�� I kinda defeated social anxiety irl but the online anxiety stays. And they say shy people can communicate better online!

melien replied to your post “Simblr 2019 Goals”

I third the online anxiety, glad to know I'm not alone

I wish I could say I defeated it irl as well...things got better (mainly because I just had to get used to it and grow a thicker skin) but I’m still an anxious trainwreck 99 % of the time :D It’s the same online. 

Also, instead of actually starting a conversation with people, I’m always like “oh you know, if you feel like talking to me, just send me a message, I don’t bite” but the problem is I know there’s a lot of us like that here and I’m not the only one with this fear of communication so maybe I should be the one to find the courage once

Wow that didn’t make sense but I think that only proves my point that I’m an anxious trainwreck :D

penelope-and-wonders replied to your photoset “You can put the umbrellas away, guys.”

What fun would that be? ��

Oh right, I can’t have a normal wedding :D It’s a universal rule that I should finally accept. Something would be wrong if everything went right for once.

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your photo “Sim Download: Leigh Smith she/her, pansexual A long long time ago I...”

Omg, I looove her! ❤️❤️

Thank youuu ♥

green-productivitea replied to your photoset “Sunset: “What can I say? Freaking finally. Took you long enough to...”

The fact that she call him dad :O

Yep, she did. I love the relationship these two have.

yamekamerainbows27 replied to your photoset “Sunset: “You’re the woman that said she didn’t want a child, and you...”

Damn Sunset! You tell her girl ��

melien replied to your photoset “Sunset: “You’re the woman that said she didn’t want a child, and you...”

Go Sunset!

That’s what she deserves

sparkiemonkey replied to your photoset “I mean, Sunset was right. Dawn is adorable.”

she is totally adorable

Up until now I was always saying that this legacy has some Good Genes, now with Dawn it will be more like Cute Genes.

unstablesims replied to your photoset “Marcella: “What are you two doing?” Sunset: “Watching the clouds!...”

let them be dorks in peace!! lmao

Exactly!! No reasons to judge

cafeheart replied to your photoset “I would lie if I said I saw this coming.”

yknow if someone didnt have context for your legacy this kinda looks like caleb is murdering ross asdkfbbd

omg you’re right and I hate that you are right

vampcatsims replied to your photoset “Ross: “We’ve taken many risks already and now I’m taking another one,...”

noooo he's going to leave him at the altar god this is going to hurt so much

omg wow this is where scrolling down and reading new ones before old ones causes reaction mistakes cuz omg this is for realsies isn't it?

kyveria replied to your photoset “Ross: “We’ve taken many risks already and now I’m taking another one,...”

@vampcatsims don’t worry, ross has already had someone leave him at the altar so Caleb is going to stay ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Haha yeah, they’re going to be fine. I think. Can’t promise anything.

jackssims replied to your photoset “Caleb: “I…how can I say no to this? Yes, Ross. Yes, I will.” Ross:...”

Good! I was scared he was going to say no for a second ����

Imagine if he left him and I’d introduce a new spouse now. Or bring back Jordan. Or Marika.

Omg imagine I’d bring her back and she’d get her “happy little family” she claims she wishes for now.

myopiccc replied to your post “ - fave types of movies?”

Such a tense era! I'm a historic nerd too:)

Yeah, I love it! I mean, I don’t actually love it, there were some bad things happening, no freedom of speech and such, but for me, it’s an interesting era to learn about. I also think it’s important to know about these times because in a way, they’re still so similar to where we are now, we really should look back at them and try to not make the same mistakes...sadly, when I look at the situation in my country...sometimes it feels like people forget. Not just people like me who didn’t experience it and have only learned about it in History classes...feels like even people who have been there forget and it’s sad and frustrating and I wish I could do something about it. Okay rant over.

jackssims replied to your photoset “Caleb: “Tell me honestly. Did you expect me to change my mind with...”

Nice! But I swear if this somehow backfires and Ross ends up dying...

👀

dandylion240 replied to your photoset “This doesn’t even need a caption.”

Ross you better not have died!!

jackssims replied to your photoset “This doesn’t even need a caption.”

/ROSS/

ajkfaglafkghlahgfk I didn’t realize this would seem like he’s dying I’m sorry for causing panic fjaklflk

I just thought it was funny he set himself on fire and Caleb is over there like “nooo I agreed to marry this freak I have made a grave mistake”

princessdejamars replied to your photoset “Ummmm”

oh no not again

Yes. Yes again. And yeah, I could’ve left without saving. I didn’t. I was shocked when it happened and once I realized he’s pregnant again...you should’ve heard my hysterical laughter. Something is wrong with me and I don’t like it.

cafeheart replied to your photoset “Dawn: “Not a chance.”

sunset looks scared shitless asdkfjdbdb

"fhlakhfalklahkjjkij she’s kissing me I wasn’t prepared for this what do I do jgljfkjhlaafkgl”

jackssims replied to your photoset “Caleb: Nothing happened…I’m fine…I’m just gonna give this dog a bath...”

That's totally not going to lead to more problems later, Caleb, if anything *did* happen (/sarcasm)

Yup. It’s totally okay to do that.

jackssims replied to your photoset “oh shit”

Oh fuck

alfalfalegacy replied to your photoset “oh shit”

wow

this is wild haha

Basically my reaction

jackssims replied to your photoset “Stella: “Dad, you’re home alone?” Caleb: “I think so.” Stella: “Aw,...”

jlkfdzsjlkfadg She's pregnant, he's pregnant, truly amazing

ikr

That’s a twist I truly didn’t expect at the end of this generation. Not that I’m complaining

jackssims replied to your photoset “Stella: “Anything else?” Caleb: “What? Is there supposed to be...”

/Caleb/

jackssims replied to your photoset “Caleb: “And that’s not all…” Ross: “Huh?” Caleb: “Nothing. Forget it.”

//Caleb//

See Ross and Caleb were made for each other because they both have a hard time learning from their mistakes lol

dandylion240 replied to your post “I WAS HOPING HE WAS PREGNANT WITH HIS FIANCE'S BABY NOT GETTING...”

There's a way to bend the rules. Since Ross will become a vampire. He and Caleb have forever to have a child together. So once Sunset takes over as heir I say anything goes for Ross after that �� but that's just me lol

Ooh, technically that could work! I didn’t even think about that. Good point. I don’t think they’ll have children together but I really do like this idea.

jackssims replied to your photoset “Ross: “Is there anything you would like to tell me?” Caleb: “I was...”

Good! Caleb got the courage to tell Ross

I mean he didn’t really have another option at this point

jackssims replied to your photoset “Caleb: “You’re not going to leave me now, are you?” Ross: “I’m...”

Wholesome Ross (he’s really come full circle tbh)

I kept saying he would get better and no one believed me. There you have it guys, he’s a changed person. Character development! :D

simtress replied to your photo “™¥ ♥”

*eeps! she's too cute1

ikr, I miss her ;-;

melien replied to your photoset “Stella: I can’t believe it’s actually raining on my wedding day. We...”

It's a free riiiiide when you've already paid

Is this a reference I am supposed to get

Because I’m dumb and don’t get it lmao

melien replied to your photoset “Sunset: “Say cheese hair!”

So don't ask how I remember it because I'm probably too invested lol but your theme with red hair/blonde(yellow) hair in gen 3 of every legacy? It continues

Omg I didn’t even realize! Sebastian and Lynn started it obviously, then in my Raven Legacy it was a little “easter egg” but this time, it’s a coincidence (a nice coincidence). I guess I just can’t have too many redheads!

melien replied to your photoset “oh shit”

The ultimate plot twist

The plot twist I normally would’ve welcomed but this time, I actually felt sorry for him. He didn’t deserve it the first time (aka the time I was petty and did it on purpose) and he didn’t deserve it this time either. But still. Aliens. I can’t just quit the game without saving when it has to do something with them, can I?

melien replied to your post “I WAS HOPING HE WAS PREGNANT WITH HIS FIANCE'S BABY NOT GETTING...”

Maybe babies for them perhaps?

Y’all really want them to have kids huh

melien replied to your photoset “Nooooo Rocket :( He’s old now!”

Can Caleb also turn Rocket? Vampire doggo would be fun

Man I’d love if that was possible (even though...I just imagined him biting the poor dog and that’s kinda weird). Buuuut...there’s something else that I did and it’s almost as good.

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your photo “Sim Download: Minako Ito she/her, lesbian Traits: Good, Loner,...”

All of the Sims you put for download are so pretty! I'm grabbing them all!

Thank you so much ;-;

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your photo “i was enchanted to meet you”

Aaahh nostalgia!

I knoooow ;-; I love them and I miss them and I want to play with them again

I mean I could, first I’d just have to finish the high school story and that’s...highly unlikely lol

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your photoset “oh shit”

Aliens are in love with him that's true

New otp: Caleb/Aliens. Oh that's weird

They have a weird thing for Calebs

If you guys know a Caleb irl protect them

If you are a Caleb, well...I’m sorry

tiny-tany-thaanos replied to your photoset “Rocket: Hey I’m old, just thought you should know…oh nevermind what...”

This is somehow sad=((

Yeah. I love this little dog so much :(

[comicteaparty]

June 24th-June 30th, 2019 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party week long chat that occurred from June 24th, 2019 to June 30th, 2019.  The chat focused on Drugs & Wires by Mary Safro & Io Black.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB START!

Hello and welcome everyone to Comic Tea Party’s Week Long Book Club~! This week we’ll be focusing on Drugs & Wires by Mary Safro & Io Black~! (https://www.drugsandwires.fail/)

You are free to read and comment about the comic all week at your own pace, so stop on by whenever it suits your schedule! Remember, though, that while we allow constructive criticism, our focus is to have fun and appreciate the comic. Below you will find four questions to get you started on the discussion. However, a new question will be posted and pinned everyday (between 12:01AM and 6AM PDT), so keep checking back for more! You have until June 30th to tell us all your wonderful thoughts! With that established, let’s get going on the reading and the chatting!

QUESTION 1. What has been your favorite scene in the comic so far? What specifically did you like about it?

QUESTION 2. Who do you think made the Worm and for what reason? Why does it seem to mostly be affecting Stradania and not other places? Do you think Dan’s implant can ultimately be fixed, or is he stuck forever away from VR?

RebelVampire

QUESTION 3. At the moment, who is your favorite character? What about that character earns them this favor?

QUESTION 4. What aspect of the world’s cyberpunk setting interests you the most and why? Alternatively, what aspect are you hoping to see explored a bit more in regards to how it affects the characters?

RebelVampire

1) Gonna be a bit depressing when I say the bridge scene where Dan almost threw himself off it. Which I'm gonna spoiler tag the rest of this just as a suicide trigger warning precaution. I was 100% right there in the moment with him during that scene. Like I understood why he'd arrived at that conclusion, and it didn't come off as patronizing as I feel a lot of similar suicide scenes often do in comics. This is a man who even I felt really had nothing to live for, as sad as that is to say. Not that I wanted Dan to die, of course, but I get absolutely why he would. And then when he's saved, I liked that he is angry about it. Cause that is a dark reality I feel too many comics shy away from. And just all that gritty realism really hit me in the heart. 2) I don't know who made the worm and I don't think it matters all that much. Rather, I think the reason is more important, and the reason I think is to either kill VR or draw attention to Dan's shitty country. Which I kind of want to believe the latter, that this is somehow politically motivated. Or even if its the former, the idea is to get ppl more politically involved. That being said, I do think it's someone in Stradania who made it. As for Dan's implant being fixed, I don't think so. I don't think he'll be let off the hook that easy, and that he will continue to have to face his awful world for what it is, garbage and all.

3) Dan because he is the delicious epitome of a flawed protagonist. He's not mean, but between his drug problems, his crappy attitude towards most people, and so forth, he's got some real issues to work through. But that's great, cause at least that makes the few steps forward he's taken more satisfying. Since he's not getting those steps easy. He has to basically crawl through metaphorical lava to gain even 2 cm. 4) I really like the world's integration of VR and cybernetics. Like it's not on the level it's just there, but there's businesses around it, slang around it, and so forth. It's presented as this super ingrained culture thing, and that is super hard to play off. And it's just really well-done to see all the ways that those aspects bleed into their lives, whether the invention was intended to do so in that way or not.

Historical Jesus

I'm about to catch up. gimmy some time

RebelVampire

itll be going for the rest of the week, so theres no rush.

snuffysam

1) My favorite scene is the basement wake. It's a cool way to introduce those side characters (especially Vlad), and we were shown how our protagonist is seen through other people's eyes.

Like, we as the readers get to see Dan's struggles first-hand, but seeing the way Dan's "friends" think of him as a mindless junkie is really eye-opening

Re-reading the wake chapter made me think of something regarding question (2). Rebel, you suggested that the worm may have been made to kill VR. Could the reverse be true instead? Vlad has this speech about how the victims of the worm are martyrs, and the rest of the cast groans... but maybe he's not so far off.(edited)

My favorite character is Lin. On the surface, she's a terrible, shady person, but she's got heart where it counts! (in a trunk with a bunch of other organs)

Though I also really like Dan, for the same reasons as Rebel. He starts off in such a terrible place, and watching him take baby steps towards improvement is... honestly, uplifting, even if he does sometimes take some big steps backward.(edited)

RebelVampire

QUESTION 5. What has been your favorite illustration in the comic so far? What specifically about it do you like?

QUESTION 6. Do you think Dan will manage to find Eve again? If so, how might that affect him? Further, what do you think Dan’s past history is in general with his family and others that might play a role in the story?

Historical Jesus

Is the person writing this comic Russian

RebelVampire

cant speak for Io, but while not from Russia, Mary does speak Russian

Historical Jesus

SHe might have had family immigrate from Russia. This story just feels very Russian in the sense that everyone is down on their luck

But yeah. This story is freaking great!

Cryo

Hey, Mary here! I'm a Russian from Latvia, Io's German but I usually consult him on any Russian bits we have in the comic : D thanks so much for reading, loved seeing all the replies so far!

Historical Jesus

It's you

@Cryo Do you have experience with information security or bug hunting?(edited)

I mean, you sound like you REALLY understand hacker culture(edited)

Historical Jesus

ok I finished

1: Favorite scene? Hard to tell honestly. I like them all for different reasons. It's the continuum of the story I appreciate. The fact I'm always wanting to see what happens next? 2: Who made the worm. I've noticed that people who were infected had illegal copies of software. From a cybersecurity perspective, worms only work when either (A) someone finds a vulnurability that has never before been seem or (B) people don't update their shit for whatever reason. Hence why most software schedules mandatory updates. This could just be the inevitable conclusion to using pirated or older software. 3: Favorite character: Dan. I can relate to him the most. I don't do party drugs, just psycodelics.

4: Favorite aspect of cyberpunk. Historical relevance. In our past, rulers were privileged to rule because humans believed they were "ordained by God" to rule. European philosophers then said that the right to rule belongs to those who become the height of natural selection/ The premise being that there is no god and that we are "free agents" with "free will." No one is entitled to anything unless they produce something of value. This made perfect sense when manual labor was relevant and everything had to be done by hand. This includes pen and paper math. Hence why pay is exclusively based on labor value. Enter the age of technology fucked this up. Capitalism today is STUPIDLY efficient. We WHOOPED natural selections ass. We also learned that humans can't simply "change their outlook at will." Humans are mortal and are not much different than machines. The have needs and all that pesky human stuff. Some people could argue that healthier people have more free will than others, but poverty is the inevitable conclusion to this "free will" "labor value" mindset. But people think principles are sacred and set in stone. So what we are seeing is devalued labor and everyone becoming more poor and the formation of corporate oligarchies and dependences. Cyberpunk was WAY ahead of it's time in seeing this. We need to revisit this genre because I sure as shit don't want to live under a global illuminati with hard line cultural segregation.(edited)

Cryo

No, no real hacking experience here, I'm a 3d modeller by trade. We do our research when we can but our readers are a lot more technically minded than we are :p

Historical Jesus

I love 3D modeling

Attila Polyák

I'll be totally honest your work didn't really catch me at first, but I kept reading. Aaaaand dang that was a good decision. This is genuinely well made. I'm only at the end of chapter 4 but that bridge scene was great. I'm pretty sure it'll be my favourite scene but I need to read the rest first.

Historical Jesus

I have one of two options in life. Make high detailed models to sell on Gumroad or make comics. Gumroad will require constant adaptation to new software, but I already have my comic story structure fgiured out

Cryo

@Attila Polyák thanks for giving us a chance! Hope you enjoy the rest ( though chapter 5 is a lot less dramatic in comparison!)

Historical Jesus

Do you have a resolution in mind or are you just making it as you go?

Cryo

Yeah, we know where we're taking the story, but how it gets there can vary. Lots of the scenes we wrote years ago have to be tweaked or redone entirely to work

Historical Jesus

If the "free will" capitalist have their way, then we can expect the future to look very similar. Lots of poor people using lots of old tech. All software and hardware is closed sourced and locked down.The division between rich and poor will be larger than ever. Many of the zero days will be state sponsored much like they are now and they can use this to legally infect people and categorize them and use their own information against them if they ever become a threat to the state or the rich tech oligarchy

When I read this I got sense of creepy forcasting

More kids are playing with the Linux Kernal than smoking cigarettes so we might be ok

Historical Jesus

5: Favorite illustration? Anything that involved gif animations. That's not to say it should be overused but it was used at the right time

6a: Will Dan find Eve again? Probably. Since Cryo has a conceptual end in mind, I imagine she serves a key purpose in the plot. If they don't then it's likely that their actions will effect each other in some way.(edited)

6b: What is Dan's history with his parents? Let's look at who Dan is now. He's a poor drug addict who has had a dead end job. Yet he is not an overly angry person. Just depressed. He hangs around computer poetry people and other drug people. As a person who has experience with drugs, I noticed three types of people who do the dangerous drugs. At least in the US. They are... -People who have had repressive or needlessly strict parents. Thus overdoing drugs becomes associated with freedom and eventually a point of rebellion. But you can do too many of them. -People who are poor and need to sell them because they are poor. Naturally many of them do the drugs themselves so they naturally become addicted. -People who's parents are drug users themselves. The people who teach are schools will tell you it's that "people are trying to be cool" and it has nothing to do with that. Truth be told, they are hiding something. There is also a lot of dark racial history behind enhancing substances and the law and that can influence people's decision to take them, but I don't want to get into that because I don't want to get booted from this server.(edited)

Historical Jesus

Actually, @Cryo, would you be willing to give us a brief personal biography? Also, if you are, then can you tell us about your parents, what they did for a living, and the income situation you had growing up.(edited)

Why am I asking this? I think we can come up with more interesting answers about the comic if we know YOU as a person and how that influences your writing. I was able to infer that this story sounded Russian as fuck. Since the setting was Russian, I figured you were either from there or had family there

We can give more interesting answers that can help you come up with more interesting writing

RebelVampire

@Historical Jesus Your questions are getting a little personal, and while I understand the logic behind them, keep in mind we're here to discuss the comic and not the creators' personal lives.

keii4ii

Yeah... I feel even if the creators are okay with discussing it, this stuff is best left to DM

Historical Jesus

I understand. I would like to give her the choice. If she chooses not to then I understand. Biologically speaking, I think art is meant to be personal.

keii4ii

(and of course, if they don't want to discuss it, no one should pressure them about it )

RebelVampire

yeah if @Cryo wants to answer that's fine. Just for the future please keep those sorts of questions to a minimum and watch the wording on them. Cause that statement did sound overly pressure filled.

Historical Jesus

of course

keii4ii

I don't think we should be getting further into this territory?

RebelVampire

Agreed. This isn't a really appropriate topic for #week_long_bookclub, @Historical Jesus and has little to do with the comic.

Historical Jesus

I understand. I'm trying to demonstrate the the relevance and the benefits of understanding the author as a person. And again, it's her choice to choose what she discloses.

RebelVampire

And again, I get the logic. But just not appropriate for this discussion.

Historical Jesus

fair enough. I just want it to be known

I rephrased the question so it's less assertive. I apologies, I suck with social skills. Hopefully by the time she reads it, then it will be more inviting for her.

RebelVampire

thats better wording for sure, thank you.

Historical Jesus

no problem

art was definitely designed to be personal. The reason why a lot of big budget art feels bland is because it's meant for everyone and they have to not get too deep into offending people. Because it has to make money. That requires the work of a true genius. D&W is specialized and it will attract a certain group of people. Mostly people who value anonymous culture like myself. Or so I imagine.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 7. Which characters do you enjoy seeing interact the most? What about their dynamic interests you?

QUESTION 8. Will Lin actually go through with her plan to get into politics? If so, do you believe she can actually make a difference? What obstacles do you think she might run into, and do you think Dan will be of any help to her?

Cryo

(i would appreciate not having to talk about my life and anyones political beliefs neither here nor in DMs, thanks for understanding)(edited)

Historical Jesus

Understood

Historical Jesus

7: Dan, primarily because he is relatable. He would interact the way I would. Not having money sucks.

Historical Jesus

8: Will in go into politics? Probably not. She strikes me as a neroatypycal character. I could be wrong though.

RebelVampire

@snuffysam If the worm was designed to improve VR, I really want to meet the person who decided that making ppl martyrs was the way to go. Cause that's some backwards thinking, imo at least XD

5) There's a lot of really great ones, but I'm kind of fond of the illustration of Dan puking up rainbows. It's this cool mix of gross, psychedelic, and not what I expected. It expressed a lot of mood somehow for something that's less grand than I usually pick. 6) I think Dan will find Eve again, if only cause from a technical perspective she was introduced super early on to not be important. However, I think meeting her again is just gonna make him feel bad about himself as he realizes how little his baby steps of improvement are. In regards to his family, just gonna be bold and say my theory: his dad is part of that political group that took control and really hates cyborgs and technology and all that. Thus they were probably not the most open-minded and rejected Dan in multiple ways both through emotional abuse and neglect.

7) I like seeing Dan and Troy right now. Everyone else in the comic is kind of...shitty towards Dan. Like i know Dan isn't the greatest person, but I would hate to be in the situation where I'm constantly being told I'm a junkie who won't amount to anything. Which I mean don't get me wrong, those are interesting interactions. But Troy? Troy is this new person whose only experience with Dan is kind of a nice if not high tension one. Troy comes with a fresh, no prior knowledge of Dan perspective, and I think that's really interesting and gonna be a good way to shed new light on Dan's more positive traits. 8) I think Lin will try to go through with it, but I think Lin is fighting a losing game. Short of stuffing the ballot, I don't think those she's trying to help will vote for her. Instead they'll just bitch and be complacent to the world around them. But on that same vain, Lin probably could just stuff the ballots to win. I umm...honeslty don't think Dan can help her in anyway. Dan is really busy helping himself to suck less at the moment. XD

RebelVampire

QUESTION 9. What sorts of art or story details have you noticed in the way the comic is crafted that you think deserves attention?

QUESTION 10. What do you think Sandman and Fixer will find in regards to the Worm as the story continues, and what does the VR cafe Sandman has been hacking have to do with anything? How will Nate tie into this given he’s looking for Fixer?

RebelVampire

QUESTION 11. What do you think are this particular comic’s strengths? What do you think makes this comic unique? Please elaborate.

QUESTION 12. Overall, what role do you think Troy will have within the story? Additionally, how will she get out of her situation with having no ID, money, or much in the way of people she knows?

Historical Jesus

9: The art against the web design literally looks like something we would see at Def Con

10: I image he has a lead. After all his motivation is revenge

11: it’s strength is that it's good at making people empathize with characters even if you can't relate to them

12: I don't think Troy will get out of her situation. If she comes back to the states empty handed she will be fired. It might be in her best interest to get wrapped up in finding the worm programmer

Typically speaking large scale worms are state sponsored but it's not clear how far this thing actually spreads.

RebelVampire

9) My favorite details so far have been the small things in the background. Like the random graffiti on the walls, the cracks and dilapidation of the buildings, all the small do-dads in Lin's place. Like none of that needs to be there to create a complete background, but it adds so much character to the setting and each character. So I really appreciate the extra mile taken for that. 10) I think Sandman and Fixer are gonna find that some corporation or someone high up on some food chain made it on purpose. As for the VR cafe? Honestly, I think it's a red herring and Sandman is making an excuse to target them just cause he hates them. As for Nate, I think Nate is gonna join the investigation team but also kind of serve as a negotiator between Fixer and Dan. Cause I don't think those two will get along without help.

11) I think this comic's strengths are a) the setting both visually and story wise, as it's a really strong and vivid setting. then b) Dan. It is very, very hard to write a character like Dan. There are so many things he does that could immediately make him unlikeable, what between the drugs, self destruction, and general assholeness to some of the ppl around him. but yet he is likeable. you do want to see him succeed and not suffer. yet you also still can acknowledge hes unreliable. its a great dynamic that lesser writing could not pull off. 12) I think Troy is gonna be their viewport into the corporate world. Which I think will play a role since there is a themeing here about evil corporations. Plus, she at least knows some stuff better than they do, as she already showed off at the VR cafe. But getting out of it? Nope. Shes stuck and probably gonna make another panicked call to Dan at some point. And Dan will be an angel and help again.

snuffysam

I'm going to go out on a limb here. Not only will Lin go through with running for office, she'll win. And she won't even have to stuff the ballot that much. But... I'm not sure her fight will be over there. After all, there's more than just one corrupt person in the country. I agree with you on the investigation into the Worm, @RebelVampire . I think someone up the corporate ladder is responsible. With that said, I don't think Sandman is targeting the VR cafe for nothing. I think he's trying to draw more attention to their security flaws for... some reason. I guess to get more people involved in investigating? I doubt he foresaw Troy showing up and offering to upgrade the cafe's machines though, so I that probably isn't part of his plan. I think a major part of Dan's character arc going forward will be accepting that he doesn't need Eve. Like, accepting that he doesn't need her help to get better, and that he's the only one he needs to prove his progress to.

Dan's character writing is absolutely my favorite part of this comic. In a weaker comic, I would absolutely hate how a self-destructive character like Dan is portrayed. Like, often characters with addiction/other mental health problems in fiction come off as unlikeable, or too cartoonish, or too depressingly stagnant (at least, from what I've seen in other works of fiction). But Drugs & Wires strikes a great balance where character progression isn't always linear, and isn't always positive, but it's there, and that fluidity makes you want to root for him more each chapter.

Attila Polyák

Now that I finally read all of it... 1, The bridge scene at the end of chapter 4, that was really done. 2, Dan's implant... I'm pretty sure it can be fixed, but I have doubts if Dan will ever have the resources to have it fixed. As a matter of fact I feel like he'll never have the money or influence to have it fixed and the way it is he can't really replace it either, so... He's probably stuck without VR. 3, Lin! She's awesome! 4, Probably the grey market implant dealers, even though that's kinda bog standard cyberpunk stuff. :) 6, Yes, they will probably meet again. And yes, I do feel like we'll need to see more of Dan't past history especially about how he got involved in... well in everything that's his current life. 7, Nagy, as surreally odd, is a great addition to Dan. Like at times I thought his absurdity would actually help Dan. 8, Ofc she will, you don't forge that much "voter trust" for nothing. And Dan, tho probably seemingly unwillingly, will likely help her one way or another.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 13. What are you most looking forward to in the comic? Also, do you have any final thoughts to share overall?

QUESTION 14. Do you think Dan will ever be able to kick his drug habit, or will he continue to fall back into it forever? How will this affect his relationships? Further, how will his habits shape his future role in the story?

RebelVampire

13) I'm looking forward to getting more info about the worm. Cause right now I dont feel any more knowledgeable than I did at the start, and I'm itching to see Sandman, Fixer, or Dan to somehow get a bigger clue to what's going on. 14) I think both will apply. In that Dan will kick the habit eventually but will always be at risk because addiction is not really something you just completely cure. It's a battle he'll have for his entire life, even if he learns to manage it. As for for his relationships, I don't think it'll have much affect, tbh. Maybe things with Lin will improve, maybe Eve. But everyone else is kind of a jerk who already writes him off. Dan is in need of a fresh start somewhere far away.

Historical Jesus

13: Same here. I would like to know more about the worm. I hope that Cyro puts a cool technical characteristic into the worms behavior so that creates interesting and unique challenges for the characters 14: Statistically speaking most people do not kick their drug habit's. Especially not in the position he is in. Based on the story's cultural nature, I doubt the ending will be happy. But I am sure it will be interesting

Cryo

Thanks so much for picking and reading our comic this week! I've had a great time reading all the replies, especially since we don't hear from new readers often, and it's gonna come in handy when we get back into writing more stuff for the comic.

snuffysam

I had a great time reading it, Cryo!

Io.Black

Just wanted to add my own thanks to everybody who took the time to read and comment this past week. As a writer, it’s always incredibly valuable to get a sense of what people are taking away from your work, as well as where they think it’s headed.

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB END!

Thank you everyone so much for reading and chatting about Drugs & Wires this week! Please also give a special thank you to Mary Safro & Io Black for volunteering the comic and creating it! If you liked Drugs & Wires, make sure to continue to support it via some of the links below!

Read and Comment: https://www.drugsandwires.fail/

Drugs & Wires’ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/drugsandwires

Drugs & Wires’ Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/Cryodraws

Drugs & Wires’ Merch: https://www.hellovoid.online/

Safro’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/marysafroart

Io Black’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/b_iologic

[sublimegentlemanalpaca]

What’s a piece of media you either have a love/hate relationship with or just have a mixed opinion on?

To answer my own question, I suppose one piece of media I have a love/hate relationship with (if that’s the right phrase) is the FATE franchise. I shall give a brief explanation of what the heck that is. It’s this franchise that to my knowledge began as one of those visual novel things. The basic premise being about Seven wizards/mages are chosen/choose/ get together to participate in an all out battle royale to be granted a Wish in an event known as the Holy Grail War. The weapons of this War being their own magical ability (or lack there of in some cases) as well as summoning heroes and figures of Mythology, History and so on called Servants in one of Seven Classes. Saber, Archer, Caster(usually magical people. Also almost always the EVIL ones), Rider(having some kind of cool mount/vehicle), Lancer, Berserker, and Assassin. They play with the premise in some cases (one being two teams of Seven each with their own Servants. Or one where there’s a real one and a fake one going on simultaneously), but that’s usually the basic idea. My familiarity with the series comes from watching the Four anime adaptations available on Netflix and searching TV Tropes while bored. Once I give a brief thought or two on those, then I’ll get into the reasons for liking and disliking...

Fate/Zero adaptation of a prequel novel series to the original Fate Stay Night. The best of the four I’ve seen, and quite possibly my third favorite anime behind Stein’s; Gate and Spice and Wolf.

Fate Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works. Enjoyable. Good, some elements which weren’t so good.

Fate Apocrypha. Was over all terrible suffering from the elements I dislike which I’ll get into shortly. Had a handful of good things which I could expand on..but another time perhaps.

Fate EXTRA. Bad. Bad, just...bad. That’s it really.

Now, to sum up this entire franchise in my opinion, it has some really good ideas here and there with and overall nice premise....but it is plagued by poor execution, stupid or insulting character motivations/ Designs (mostly in terms of  the legendary characters). 

For the Good, you’ll have some cool and likable characters doing cool and awesome things (fight scenes being a highlight), you’ve got some nice arcs, and a handful of pretty good relationships. Some romantic, others surrogate familial, and so on. You’ve got some characters with interesting motivations ( one character’s motivation and wish in Apocrypha being perhaps one of the few good things to be said).

But then there’s the bad. Oh dear, the bad.

First there’s the character design, that’s the big one. For one you’ve got several figures who are white washed...which is kinda ridiculous because clearly dark skin tones can be done in all these series....they just...don’t? Then you have other designs that are just...No. one of the worst that come to my mind is Jack the Ripper. So get this...in this universe Jack is apparently the amalgamation of the spirits of Children who were abandoned by Prostitutes....kay...but what they dress said child in is just....wtf Japan? Give her some damn clothes! And this child Jack...just wants to eat Souls or hearts or something...What’s weird is they have a second version of Jack the Ripper, and that Jack works so much better as a design and for a motivation. Going off the legend of Jack the Ripper, so the Fake Jack’s ultimate wish (the Spirits all have their own wishes) is to know who the hell is Jack the Ripper...

Another thing with the franchise is what I understand to be called the Saber Problem. Referring to the character of Saber (aka Arturia Pen Dragon) one of the most popular characters from the Stay Nights, and Zero...and a bunch of others no doubt. For one thing a bunch of other characters keep looking like her for really no reason? Also...they keep genderbending Historical figures? Like doing so with Arturia, that works that’s your own thing, your staple and stuff. You go and what not. But they keep genderbending Historical figures? Which for one seems like they’re just not doing enough research to find Awesome women from History and Mythology? Which is just..what? Like for example in that afformentioned awful show Fate EXTRA two of the first Heroic Spirits we meet turn out to be Nero and Sir Francis Drake? And with Drake I’m just sitting there wondering...if you wanted an awesome Lady Pirate wouldn’t it have made more sense to have that Chinese Pirate Queen whose name escapes me?

Another problem is motivation and the wishes of some the Heroic Spirits. For example in that Apocrypha series you have Achilles summoned as the Rider of Red team or some such...his whole wish is the vague and dumb ‘I just want to be a true hero’. Really Achilles? That’s it? You sure you don’t want to ..oh I don’t know wish to go back to the Trojan War and get out of your tent and fight so as to avoid your lover dying to inspire the troops? You sure you wouldn’t want to accomplish the specific goal of saving Patrolocus? No? Just be a hero? This worked with Diramuid in Zero because he kept being betrayed and stuff.. but you just want to be a hero? Okay Achilles. Other wishes are actually interesting. Take Vlad the Third, his wish is simply to eliminate the existence of or him being connected to the Dracula Vampire stuff.

Another thing of wasted potential/confusion relates to the special anime bs superpowers the Servants have. This will be some nitpicking I suppose. Abilities which are supposed to be derived from their legends/lives/etc. Some of these are awesome. One character for example is able to become instantly proficient with whatever weapon he is using. This can be Swords, Spears, Machine guns, Jet Planes you name it. Hm. Come to think of it...there’s only like two I can think of off the top of my head (that I recall anyway) that either confused (didn’t live up to it’s potential) and frustrate (because it clearly should have belonged to another character).

So yeah. Great premise, some really cool characters, and a lot of misteps, dumb ideas, poor execution. I can recommend Fate Zero...and I suppose FSN Unlimited Blade Works? If you have Netflix. The other two...Apocrypha has like three to four good things? But the rest is just bleh. Don’t bother with Fate EXTRA. Should note, said shows can get quite violent so..keep that in mind. Another note is that in Fate Zero there’s a lot of uncomfortable harm done to Children (given who one of the characters turns out to be..) and that’s all really...unpleasant. It can be a very unpleasant show I will not deny that.

Has some of the best fight scenes I’ve seen in anime (Fate Zero and UBW I mean)Best character of the Franchise is probably Isekander from Fate Zero?Mordred was one of the good things to be found in Apochrypha. I’m reminded of a failed attempt in college to try and make a home brew Whatsit based on the Franchise. Thought of how John Dee would work as a servant, but I digress.

So yeah. There’s that. Hope that answer is sufficient Bliss. My apologies for the Walls of Text.

Make of this what you will.

Al, the Chronographing Cottager and Prince of Naming.

[monotype-on-phantom]

Another Analysis of Danny? Yeah, I Guess So.

Not too long ago, I stated that I headcanon the entire Fenton family as neurodivergent. This led to quite a bit of discussion, and eventually I said that I specifically think Danny has clinical depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

I didn’t really go into more detail, because while those are all things I myself suffer from, I want to tread carefully when talking about things like this. The last thing I’d want to do is accidentally say something hurtful.

However, multiple followers expressed interest in me going into more detail about why I have these headcanons. Since these are all things I actually struggle with, they reasoned that my personal experience would help me address this with tact.

So, alright. I’m giving in.

As a disclaimer, I’m not a psychologist and I don’t have a ton of knowledge about psychology. I’m just a dude who likes seeing himself in characters he relates to. This is going to be more based on my own personal experience than anything else.

Now that you know all that, let’s finally get into it.

To keep things organized, I’ll just go through each one individually. A lot of symptoms of these mental illnesses can overlap, so this will keep things from getting messy.

Since the depression was the first one I picked up on, let’s start with that.

Clinical Depression

My Brother’s Keeper is a good one to address this. Granted, Spectra’s MO is making people feel miserable, but she does that by picking at struggles the kids are already dealing with, not by necessarily causing those struggles (though she’s willing to do that, too).

I’ve heard depression described by others who have it as “the emotional equivalent of watching paint dry,” and I don’t think there’s a better description for it in the world.

Depression is way more than just being sad all the time. More often than not, I find it’s just a feeling of emptiness and hopelessness. When I’m in a bad depressive episode, I just stop feeling like things matter. Everything sucks and it’s not getting better, so what’s the point in trying?

Danny shows a lot of the symptoms that come with this feeling of hopelessness. He doesn’t eat or sleep very well. His energy levels are usually very low. He doesn’t have as much motivation to do things that he enjoys. He fixates on his failures and past mistakes and blames himself for most things that go wrong in his life. He has a harder time focusing on things, particularly in class. He can be forgetful and not notice details that might seem obvious.

A lot of these things are caused by his ghost hunting, but since Danny has made it clear that he doesn’t enjoy it, and every time he tries to take some time to himself it backfires, it makes perfect sense for him to feel trapped and hopeless.

Ghost fighting is one of the causes for his depression, not a replacement for it.

I’ve also mentioned that Danny is a really angry child, and anger can be a symptom of depression. When you’re feeling down all the time, you can become more irritable. Things bother you more. You lash out more. Even small things can get to you.

My Brother’s Keeper is, again, a good example of this. Danny’s lashing out at Jazz a lot, and even his friends notice that he’s taking things more seriously than usual. This is far from being exclusive to this episode, though. The Fright Before Christmas and Life Lessons both show Danny being irritable and frustrated, even though he usually still means well enough.

Danny even lashes out at Dash sometimes, someone that he’s afraid of, because he’s just too tired to deal with his crap.

Danny’s irritability was actually one of the biggest clues for me that he has depression, coupled with his tendency to degrade or blame himself.

As someone who deals with this, let me tell you, depression is exhausting. Even though I’m usually not doing much, the empty feeling alone zaps me of my energy. A lot of the time, I just want to sleep through my days and not bother with anything. I’m not allowed to, though, so I can get irritable.

Even if you don’t have depression, you’re probably familiar with this feeling. When you’re kept up late at night or you’ve had a rough day at work, you’ll feel exhausted, and that results in you getting annoyed more easily. Small things like people leaving the toilet seat up or the kids being noisy or people repeatedly knocking on the door will drive you crazy, when they’re usually not that big of a deal. You’re tired, and you don’t want to deal with even these small annoyances. You just want to be left alone.

It’s worth noting that Tucker, Sam, and Jazz don’t have these struggles, despite also being moody teens with a lot of pressure on them. They have bad days, but they’re usually more chipper than Danny (yes, even Sam.)

To me, Danny is a textbook example of a depressed teen. It’s not even a question. This kid needs to talk to someone. Unfortunately, he’s not looking to do that any time soon.

Anxiety

There are a huge number of anxiety disorders, and I’m still not the best at differentiating between them. I don’t often feel the need to pinpoint exactly what’s causing the anxiety. For me, it’s just when certain things happen (or don’t), the warning bells start ringing in my head and I struggle to focus on anything else. In a lot of ways, it’s like hearing that music in a horror movie right before something scary happens, except nothing ever happens. The music just keeps playing, making you feel more and more worried about what’s coming next.

The anxiety disorders I’m the most familiar with (meaning the ones I struggle with the most) are social anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and panic disorder. I don’t feel like I need to cover the first one much, though, because despite being shy and self-conscious, Danny doesn’t really panic when he has to be in social situations. He can be awkward, but he can brush off embarrassment easily enough and he doesn’t have an issue with badmouthing people he dislikes to their faces. These are all things I’d die before doing.

The fact that he can stomach social situations alright doesn’t prevent him from worrying about every other thing that could possibly go wrong, though.

While not as common as Angry Danny, Panic Mode Danny shows up with some regularity.

Public Enemies (and TFM, though I don’t wanna rely on that example) is a good episode to demonstrate this.

The town’s on high alert and ghosts are everywhere, but just about everyone is handling the situation better than Danny. His paranoia is warranted, but he can’t bring himself to focus on anything except for what could go wrong. He overthinks all the details and worries excessively about all of them.

Danny’s parents are at his school. Ghosts keep showing up at the worst times. Danny doesn’t even know that Walker’s behind everything or what he’s up to, but he’s not in the right state of mind to think about that. This isn’t Detective Danny Time, this is Worry Time. And it prevents him from being as productive as he could be.

One of A Kind is another good example, where Danny’s so worried about Skulker that he can’t even eat, though Sam and Tucker are trying to encourage him to. It’s not like the eating itself is dangerous (as far as he knows), but he’s too busy worrying to even think about eating.

He’ll also worry about things that wouldn’t actually turn out as bad as he thinks. He fears his parents dissecting him if they find out his secret, or Valerie not liking him if she finds out, or Vlad being behind every bad thing that happens, even when he’s actually not.

It’s not as pronounced as his depression, but when Danny worries, he worries hard and can even get extremely paranoid. It even starts getting so bad that Danny himself starts questioning if he’s hallucinating in The Fenton Menace, because his constant worrying and paranoia fit that explanation. (And that’s the last time I’m referencing that episode in here. Bleh.)

There’s another disorder that’s classified as a type of anxiety, though, and I don’t think there’s any point in arguing that Danny has that.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

This one’s far less about Danny showing symptoms (though there’s that, too), and more about the fact that no child who goes through the stuff he does would not have PTSD.

The symptoms of PTSD overlap a lot with depression and other anxiety disorders. Things like guilt, negative thoughts, feeling on edge, constantly looking out for danger, and struggling to feel happy or even to trust others are a few symptoms that can overlap with depression and anxiety. The difference is that, with PTSD, these things are triggered by a specific, traumatic event. And that’s where most of my focus is.

Danny’s been shot at by his own parents, hunted, tortured, brainwashed, threatened with experiments and even actually been experimented on (counting the cloning experiments), almost died several times, listened to his parents talk about wanting to dissect him, watched loved ones die (even if they ended up being alright), and that’s not even mentioning some of the other stuff Vlad puts him through or the fact that he was ruthlessly bullied long before any of this happened.

For me, it’s less a matter of if Danny was negatively impacted by all of this and more a matter of how in the world could he not be?

As previously mentioned, a lot of his anxiety and depression is the result of his ghost fighting. He’s paranoid about danger showing up at any time. He’s always trying to stay alert. He barely sleeps or eats. He blames himself when things go wrong. He doesn’t even trust his parents anymore, eventually believing that, if they found out he was half ghost, they’d dissect him without hesitation.

Heck, even the accident that gave him his ghost powers seems to have had a huge effect on him. He’s questioning his own humanity, he’s understandably afraid around a lot of his parents’ technology, he’s paranoid about being found out and not being accepted.

Personally, though,  I feel the show should’ve shown more effects. There’s no way he doesn’t have a fear of mental health specialists after what happened with Spectra. Is there anyone who thinks he wouldn’t have nightmares about things that happened in The Ultimate Enemy, Kindred Spirits, and D-Stabilized? How much does he remember from Control Freaks, and how often does he think about it? How much more does he let himself get hurt because he’s terrified of turning into Dan?

In a better show, this stuff would’ve been explored more thoroughly, but as it is, I don’t think there’s any denying that this kid’s been traumatized. Hopefully Jazz can get her psychology degree quickly, because she’s probably the only psychologist Danny would trust, and he needs to talk to one.

And I think that covers things well enough. I did also mention that I think the Fentons all show symptoms of ADHD, but that’s another can of worms entirely. Besides, this post is long enough as it is. I’m pretty sure I’ve been working on this for over two hours straight. I’ll just leave things here for now, and maybe I’ll touch on the ADHD in the future (if people are interested).

Thank you for your patience, everyone! And now I can move on to other things that people may or may not have been waiting for since this blog began.

[thesaltydigest]

Joint Review: “And I Darken”, or: Everyone is Fucked Up and Toxic and Nothing Goes Well

Title: And I Darken

Author:  Kiersten White

Review By: Captain Clo and Bekworm

Verdict: So many bad decisions are made you’ll want to pull your hair out, but this violent girl is fascinating, and boy isn’t her brother adorable? but I don’t think I’ll be reading the sequel... wait did I just buy it???

This Review contains spoilers

And I Darken is an alternate history YA novel with a very specific twist: what if Vlad Dracul – the one who inspired Count Dracula – was a woman? Lada Dracul has all his story – daughter of the Wallachian Voivode, or Prince, Vlad II Dracul, she is sent to the Ottoman court as political hostage with her younger brother, Radu (who is instead an actual historical figure), when she is just a child. Inflexible and obsessed with the idea of going back to Wallachia and becoming its ruler, Lada is violent and cruel, convinced that love is weakness and that being a woman is a disgrace. Of course, she isn't completely wrong. Lada is a warrior at heart, but she has to struggle a lot in order to be respected as such. And she is a political hostage, in a precarious situation, and any weakness or soft spot she might show can and will be used against her – hence why she never lets her love for her brother show, for example. 

Radu is the deuteragonist, and is everything Lada isn't – kind, sensitive, averse to violence. Where Lada fights with all her might against any and all attempt to tame her with scathing remarks or her fists, Radu is more of a political animal, preferring to use his words and his good looks to charm and deceive. They are also complete opposites in how they see their future. Lada hates the Ottoman empire and wants to go back to Wallachia; Radu converts to Islam and has no desire to leave.

Their relationship becomes even more complicated when Mehmed, the future Sultan, enters their lives – since they both fall in love with him.

CHARACTERS

BEKWORM: The hatred for women in this book is a little much for me. Women who marry are weak or "A waste of air", and women who have children are even weaker or "broken from the inside". The only strong women are the ones who walk away from this life. The ones who marry and have babies are locked away and considered useless.  

CAPTAIN CLO: That's understandable for who Lada is, but is certainly there. She sees marriage as a prison – she knows she's going to be used as a political tool and made to marry whoever her father wants. You can either sympathize with her perspective or see it as a sign of how inflexible and spiteful she is. No one character in this book is a good example. Lada is very self-centered, and since she can't imagine a situation in which marriage doesn't mean her personal annihilation (and she's right in this expectation), she thinks any woman who is satisfied with marriage is stupid. Actually, self-centredness is exactly what makes her and Mehmed identical, and so toxic for each other.

BEKWORM: Mehmed did not grow on me one bit. My god. He is well and truly awful. I'm glad Lada walked away from him. And Radu's devotion is just pathetic by the end of the book. "Could never love anyone but Mehmed!" You're like 16, mate, calm the fuck down. But I guess I'm not romantic in the sense that I believe loving someone every day for years is a choice. People think it's something you fall into and can't get out of, but that's not true. And it's why I think a lot of long term relationships fail when people realize they're not hopelessly in love anymore. Because waking up and loving the same person every day is a choice you have to make. So if you love someone for years it's because you want to. So get the fuck over it, Radu. Sometimes people don't love you back. For fuck's sake. Am I heartless? I don't even care.

CAPTAIN CLO: I was actually struggling to rationalize what I liked about Mehmed and I came up short. What even is his personality? I can come up with a decent list of character traits for Radu and Lada, but not for Mehmed. Why are they both in love with him?  

BEKWORM: Exactly!! He's definitely a character you can't describe because there's just nothing there.

CAPTAIN CLO: I think Lada might like him because he's something to aspire to (powerful), and because for all that he's still sexist sometimes, he doesn't want her to change her ways. But that's very little. And why does Radu love him at all? What does he get from Mehmed that makes him attracted to him?

BEKWORM: I don't know. Maybe because Mehmed was his sexual awakening. But he gets nothing out of their relationship.

CAPTAIN CLO: This is always a big problem with YA romance, in my opinion. A lot of times you can't tell what makes a character attracted to someone. Certainly, Mehmed treats Radu with kindness and trusts him, but just like Lada, he's self-centred, takes him for granted, and hardly thinks about him at all. Radu is invisible to both of them. Maybe that's exactly why he falls in love with Mehmed? Radu has a few friends, and it seems like he looks for kindness in people, but if it's kindness he's after, he might have fallen in love before, with the first Janissary he befriends. Instead, even when offered a relationship with him, he's not attracted to him at all. He wants Mehmed. But why?

In general, the relationship between Lada, Radu, and Mehmed is toxic. Anyone expecting them to get better and understand each other eventually will be disappointed, probably – and I'll be the first in that sorry lot. I really want Lada to stop treating Radu badly. He doesn't deserve it, and they could be such an amazing team. And Radu could learn not to be a fucking doormat, but that's what he's used to, thanks to Lada. And although I want them to get what they want and both have a relationship with Mehmed, I know it won't happen – when does it, ever? No, let's have another toxic triangle. 

I think it's so amazing that there is a book about Radu that acknowledges his romantic ties with Mehmed – at least one historical source attests it, but I can't delve too much in it here – but the plot falls into the tired, old Gay Best Friend Who Is In Love With Straight Friend trope. Honestly. There is also a fair amount of angst about it – Radu feels deeply ashamed of his inclinations. And actually, I'm not sure how much that makes sense. He's an educated person, and his best friend was (historically) noted for his interest in Greek literature. Are you telling me Radu never stumbled upon homoerotic poetry from ancient Greece? Even Persian poetry had notable examples, and that would have been so easy for him to find. And the fact that Mehmed is firmly established as heterosexual... I'm not down for other two books of anguish and pining.

BEKWORM: I'm glad in the end Lada remembered what she wanted from life, because she fell into that classic trope of Ambitious Girl Falls in Love and Forgets EVERYTHING. And that she left. And Radu's reason for not joining her wasn't just Mehmed, and that was good too. Because the two of them having a conflict about what they consider Home is interesting. Having a conflict over Mehmed is not.

CAPTAIN CLO: That's definitely a nice touch. But knowing how history went between the two of them... Yeah, I can't see this ending well. It was inevitable too, they adjusted differently to living in the Ottoman empire. Although Lada will NEVER find a place where she can fit is she keeps going like this. The problem is not only what place they consider home, but their different personalities. Lada has ambitions, but they're STUPID ambitions. She just cares about ruling Wallachia, just like her father before her; she doesn't care about advancing the region or protecting people. Granted, no one does in this book (and historically that's also generally true). She lacks emotional intelligence, and she also suffers for it. Lada completely rejects the idea of home = trusted people I love, so there won't be any betterment in that, I don't think. I wonder if she'll come to realize all this or she'll just. Start to impale people.

BEKWORM: Obviously we hope she just starts impaling people.

Not but really. Lada is an absolutely fascinating protagonist, especially in a time where many female YA protagonists are pasty white girls with shiny brown hair, who has no friends, but she’s so clumsy guys isn’t that adorbs? Lada doesn’t have many friends, but that’s because she’s a feral she wolf who’s ready to cut some throats open with her damn fingernails. And it’s awesome. She’s ready to take over, and I’m more than ready to watch it happen. Lada is an amazing outlet for my lady rage, y’all. I love it.

ON HISTORY                         

CAPTAIN CLO: When goodreads suggested And I Darken as my next read, I was pretty conflicted about it. I'm a huge history nerd and I've been studying the area from the Republic of Venice to Istanbul in exactly the same years in which the plot develops. So of course, I had high expectations. At the same time, however, I didn't; this is a YA book, not a historical novel, and it would be unfair to expect of it the same attention to detail and history-related content. YA lit is (generally) focused on fast-paced adventure, romance, and characters – not on showing historical issues and give a broad, in-depth account of life and history of the time.

In the end, I was still disappointed by what I got – but I feel like I have to “confess” my inflated expectations.

There is one specific issue that I feel like was underdeveloped – the Janissaries. The Janissaries were a military corp at the direct orders of the Ottoman Sultan. They were also slaves, ailing from the Balkan area under the Ottoman's influence. Young Christian boys were taken by Ottoman officials (sometimes offered by the families themselves), mostly from peasant families, and then brought to Turkey. They were taught Turkish and converted to Islam, then brought to the capital to be trained as specialized infantry soldiers. Janissaries were salaried slaves, but were also highly respected and had many privileges. They didn't pay taxes, were the personal guards of the Sultan, and had great opportunities to advance socially – something a lot of them would never achieve otherwise. Promotions were given on the base of loyalty and meritocracy, not class. The more skilled became governors or even prime ministers. Some became governors and then rebelled to the Sultan, like a famous Albanian national hero, Skanderbeg. Some became immensely powerful Grand Viziers, like Zaganos Pasha, the prime minister at the time of Skanderbeg’s rule, and close collaborator of Mehmed the Conqueror. 

There are so many interesting things in just this little, scant description, I don't even know where to begin. Issues of conversion, religion, national identity, class, social advancement... The list is long. And the Janissaries feature heavily in And I Darken, yet these issues are barely touched upon. The Janissaries we directly see on the page are either resentful of their slavery and desire freedom, or traitors of the Sultan, only after better pay and privileges. The better prospects are only brought up once, by Radu, who isn't a Janissary. On top of that, he was partly lying. It's not like dissatisfaction wasn't possible in the ranks, but I think it's important to remember that, historically, Janissaries never revolted to be free. They only did so to have better pay. Seeing as slavery is perceived as morally revolting in contemporary Western culture, it's understandable that we expect them to revolt, Spartacus-style; I did for sure when I started to get interested in them. But history proves that something – their training, their sense of camaraderie, their new-found religion, their better prospects, I honestly don't know – made them stay, and made them mostly loyal. I am deeply dissatisfied in how this matter was brushed aside in the book, although I'm not surprised it was.

RELIGION

CAPTAIN CLO: The role of religion and religious conversion was more central, but still not developed very well. Radu converts to Islam of his own volition, finding peace and understanding in its practice. Which is positive, but the reader is never really told much about Islam itself. I'm not an expert, but my perception is that at the time – mid 15th century – Islam was a much more approachable religion for every class, but especially the lower one. Radu himself remembers the Orthodox rite he was used to as oppressive, dark, filled with notions of sin and hell, and a language difficult to understand. These are childish recollections, distorted by how much he hated his previous life – in which he was mistreated and abused – but they make sense. In Islam he finds something different... but what? Although we're treated to the scene in which he enters a mosque for the first time, we never know what, exactly, he learns that makes sense for him. One can read through the entire book and never learn anything about Islam proper but the superficial, commonly-known things – the five pillars, the muezzins, the mosques, the existence of the Quran. It's very little. It's even less when we learn that a lot of Radu and Mehmed's friendship is based on deep conversations about Islam – but we're never once shown them having such a discussion.

BEKWORM: I wonder if White worried that getting to deep into it would be seen as preaching. But you're right it would have been more interesting to see more about the religion, especially because most people don't know what it's about. I know I really don't.

CAPTAIN CLO: Maybe she did, and that's understandable... but such as it is, Radu and Mehmed's shared religious passion sounds like an informed ability. It feels to me like an important piece of the historical puzzle is missing. Conversions to Islam in the Ottoman empire were rarely forced – yet they happened a lot. Certainly in part for pragmatic purposes – non-Muslim subjects had to pay an additional tax and had various other restrictions – but the persuasive power of Islam shouldn't be underestimated, in my opinion.

OVERALL

BEKWORM: Overall we give this a solid Meh. Lada and Radu are worth the time it takes to read this book. Their relationship with each other is heartbreaking but sweet in an entirely new way. However, the focus of their romantic interest is definitely a big, dull dud. Sorry, Mehmed! But please get a personality you’re really bumming me out. (Oh my god, guys, I think he’s this book’s version of the pasty, shiny haired protagonist! Everybody loves him but no one knows why. He’s the Bella Swan of the Ottoman Courts)

We’re expecting the following books in this series to involve less pining, more impaling, and so much heartbreak you’ll probably be sitting there wondering why the fuck you’re reading it while simultaneously refusing to put the damn thing down. Should be fun! I’ll need a bottle of wine.

[foundcarcosa]

ccxxi.

Do you ever go shopping with your parents (not including grocery shopping)? >> I don’t live with my parent, so no. Have you ever had some kind of sleep-disorder? How did it affect your life? >> I’ve never had a sleep disorder, but I have on occasion experienced abnormal sleep (todash dreams, extremely light sleep patterns). Have you ever had food poisoning before? Describe the experience. >> Yes. That’s not the particular kind of graphic content I’m here to peddle.

Have you ever read anything by Chuck Palahniuk? What did you think? >> I have, but I found him largely unmemorable and a little overblown at the time. I might reread Haunted or Invisible Monsters and see if I get anything out of them this time. How do you tend to amuse yourself on long car journeys? >> Listen to music, read, play phone games, talk to the driver, daydream, nap.

Do you find that caffeinated or alcoholic drinks make you pee more than normal? >> Yes.

How often do you need to charge your phone and iPod (on average)? >> My phone is still new, so I usually don’t have to charge it more than once every couple of days. Do you still enjoy watching Disney movies? >> I didn’t grow up watching Disney movies (the only one I saw as a kid was The Lion King), so my appreciation of them is actually pretty recent. What are some interests you have in common with your parents? >> My father and I are both rather eclectic and syncretic in our approach to spirituality, we are both fond of DIY art projects, and we both find culture and history -- particularly of the nonwhite variety -- endlessly interesting. We actually have a lot in common, I think. How old were you when your parents trusted you to stay home alone all day? >> I was never trusted to do that. (Probably fair.) If you could go to one country for two weeks, all expenses paid, where would you go and why? >> I’m not sure. There are so many countries I’d love to visit, and also so many that I don’t know enough about to know whether I should visit or not.  Do you drink more or less water than is recommended? >> I don’t know how much is recommended (and I probably would take it with a large grain of salt even if I did know), but I think I drink enough water for my needs. Do you like taking walks? >> I do, but not around here. What do your parents think about piercings and tattoos? Do you agree with them? >> My father was against them on me (not entirely sure of his opinion of them in general, especially factoring in cultural customs and whatall). I obviously don’t share his opinion. What are your religious beliefs? Are these the same as your parents’? >> I don’t have any specific, delineated religious beliefs. I go where the river takes me. (My father, last I knew, aligns himself with the Great Spirit concept and related animistic elements, with a heavy dose of Bible influence.) Do you find it difficult to get to sleep early when you have to be up for something the next day? >> Yes, because I don’t naturally fall asleep early. Who has more influence over your taste in music - friends or family? >> I don’t know what has the most influence over what music I listen to aside from just... chance. I run into songs I love, I find more from the artist, I find artists similar to that artist... it’s usually pretty organic. Do you crave alone time, or are you someone who loves being around other people a lot? >> I love my alone time. It gives me the balance required for me to appreciate other people when they’re around. Are you one of those people who texts back instantly? >> Usually. Assuming money wasn’t an issue, what car would buy right now, given the chance? >> I still can’t drive, but if I had the opportunity to buy a car, I’d buy a Tesla Model 3 and then Sparrow would drive it until I could. Do you think going to college/university is the best option after you’ve left school? >> It’s the best option for someone, certainly. Is it easy to sleep late in your house, or are other people pretty noisy in the mornings? >> Sparrow’s at work in the morning, so it’s very quiet (barring any outside noise, since I do live in an apartment complex). But I don’t normally sleep too late anyway. I like to be up in the morning quiet. Do you prefer watching movies alone or with other people? >> I like watching movies with people who are fun to watch movies with.

Do you like cherry Pepsi? >> Yes.

Have you ever bought a CD and hated it the first time listening to it? >> Probably. Do you usually speak your mind? >> I try to be discerning about when to speak my mind. Are you a hopeless romantic? >> In some respects.

When was the last time you were given flowers? >> I don’t recall ever being given flowers.

Is there something you want to forget? >> No. What do you want to name your children? >> Nothing is final on that note. Would you ever write a letter to someone you haven’t met yet, like your future spouse? >> Nah. Did the last movie you watched make you cry? >> Nah. Do you sleep on the couch some nights? >> Technically I do sleep on a couch (it’s a futon and I leave it in the upright position). Also, I used to sleep on the actual couch exclusively when I first moved in here, but I think both of these options are probably unsustainable in the long term. I’m already starting to feel it in my neck. Do you carry a mirror in your purse? >> I don’t carry a mirror in my anything. Do you believe that there is beauty in everything? >> I, personally, can find something to appreciate in a lot of different things, but I won’t say everything. When you’re really worked up, what do you do to relax? >> Talk to -- or, rather, listen to -- Can Calah. Look for a distraction. Try to ride it out. Would you rather spend the day watching movies or on an intense hike? >> I would love to do an intense hike and then come back home and chill out with dinner and a movie. Are you more of a ketchup or dill pickle chips type? >> I have never had the former, am ambivalent on the latter, and actually prefer sweet onion or salt-and-vinegar chips. The first time you smoked, did you cough like a fool? >> No. When you were younger, did you have a Neopets account? >> No. Would you rather live without your Facebook or Tumblr? >> I’d rather never see facebook again than never see tumblr again, no question. Have you ever held an uncommon pet before (ex: mouse, spider, snake, lizard)? >> I’ve held lizards and rats. And I’ve petted a snake. I wish I knew someone with a spider. Would you rather eat only cereal or only toast for the rest of your life? >> Screw that. Have you even been to a drive-in movie? >> No. I keep forgetting that apparently there’s one around here? Or near Wayland? I’ll have to keep that in mind for summer. Is white or dark chocolate better? >> Dark. I hate white chocolate.

Who was the last person you got in a fist fight with? >> Vlad...? I can’t recall, but probably. Would you rather eat a bowl of plain white rice or a can of cold soup? >> Feh. I’d rather just not eat. Did you and your mom ever have a big fight that caused you to move out? >> --- Have you had a good day today or was yesterday better? >> Yesterday had a couple moments I’m not willing to repeat, so I’m going to bet on today.

This weekend, have you got plans? >> Friday night is some Christmas-related gathering at the in-laws’. Saturday is laundry day. Sunday is Christmas Eve service at Kentwood Community Church and I guess whatever other Christmas Eve-related shenanigans go on. Would you ever date someone who was absolutely gorgeous/handsome but thought they were better than everyone? >> No.

Do many people dislike you? >> Not to my knowledge. Do you dislike anyone? Why? >> Sure. Various reasons, all particular to the individual. Do you think you will be in a relationship 2 months from now? >> Sure. Do you always feel like you’re making mistakes? >> No. Who did you last play truth or dare with? >> I can’t recall the last time I’ve played that. Do you like yourself? >> Sure. Do you have empty bottles of alcohol hidden somewhere? >> No, since I have no reason to hide them. What grade is the last person you texted in? >> She’s not in school. Have you changed in the past 6 months? >> Sure. What were you doing at midnight last night? >> I think I was either watching Squidbillies or poking around on Reddit. Would you rather love one person or have many short relationships? >> I actually seem to have done both at the same time in the past few years.