#also even then still have her have consequences

[hx4x4enthusiast]

Optimus realising he is a dad (PART 2)

HAHA your god has heard your prayers my followers. I finally wrote part two. *I am running on energy and spite excuse the god complex*

Part 1

“Oh, man I missed the bots so much. I can’t wait to go dune dashing with Bulky and Jacky again.”

“I agree, I love my family but I missed Bee, playing games with my cousins isn’t the same as with him.”

“Yeah I can’t wait to go on a long ride with Arcee.”

Despite exhaustion tugging on the kids, the prospect of seeing the bots again filled all of them with excitement. They collectively agreed to wait at Jack’s house for their guardians to pick them up or a Ground bridge to open. The roar of a powerful engine captured the attention of the children. Which promptly turned into confusion as well as curiosity, when they spotted a very familiar blue and red truck instead of their respective guardians vehicle modes.

Grabbing their bags and locking the door behind them the group walked over to the truck parked on the curb. Jack reached the Prime first and opened the door for Miko to crawl into first, afterwards he helped Raf before climbing into the drivers cab.

“Uh hello, Optimus uhm where are the others?”

“Did something happen to them?”

“Greetings young ones. I can assure you Raphael everyone is well, the lull in Decepticon activity, allowed for an increase of free time, which was as far as I witnessed well used. To answer your question Jack the other are at base, receiving a standard medical examination Ratchet insist upon.”

“Yeah no disrespect OP but why are you picking us up.”

“A valid question Miko, while all of you were on vacation a discovery was made. We… I didn’t plan would…could happen.”

Silence encased the small space of the cab as the truck started moving and pulling out of Jasper, never have the children witnessed Optimus so unsure. Even without really knowing the depth of the position of Prime. Optimus was always a pillar of strength knowledge and confidence, witnessing him being so unsure was concerning.

“As you know due to the war the birthing place of all Cybertronians the Well of All Sparks has stopped working. One of the consequences was a stop in the creation of new sparks, the human equivalent to a child. When a New Spark is created it outer protective layer is still soft and easily damaged, so they have to rely on a protector to help them. These protectors are called Foster additionally they makes sure that all of the Sparklings basic needs are met. When the outer shell has hardened the new spark is referred to as a Youngling and enters a mentoring program for their assigned task. Once they gained the basics and graduated the Youngling program, they are recognized as full Cybertronians.”

“Why are you telling us this, Optimus?”

“Yeah I mean didn’t really wanna have a lesson in school free time.” “MIKO.”

Jack snapped at her, but still he was just as curious as Raf about the answer the Prime would give. While Optimus wasn’t necessary a quiet wallflower, he also wasn’t the most vocal bot.

“Your question is reasonable Raf, to explain what happened in your absence and not shock you I deemed it reasonable to explain Cybertronians relationships as they differ in aspects to human concepts. So allow me to continue, through the entire prospect, you would refer to as “growing up”, no emotional relationships are formed. You are one in many as you start life, opening your spark to someone is in every sense a deeply personal and vulnerable experience on Cybertron. Hence such bonds are sacred and them shattering will negatively impact all parties of the bond. One of the strongest bonds known is the Carrier or Sire bond. To ensure the survival of our species every Cybertronians has a set of coding typically referred to as the Sire/Carrier Protocol. Though it’s activation differs for every bot, the programming makes us protective of our own it typically happens when we form attachments when they are young before they are recognized as Cybertronians. It is a bond the same as the ones you form with your parents at birth. To answer your question Raf, in the absence of all of you my body displayed most unusual behaviors. A scan from Ratchet revealed that nothing was wrong with my frame physically. After another analysis it was revealed that my Sire Protocol was running and my frame acted upon the missing of my Sparklings.”

“OMG DOES THAT MEAN THAT YOU HAVE KIDS, WHY HAVE WE NEVER MET, OMG THEY GOTTA BE SO CUTE-“

“MIKO-Jesus keep it down would you I appreciate not losing my hearing yet.”

“Wait guys, Optimus said that he didn’t know he was running this protocol so he didn’t knew he had children. And if his body acted because his Children were missing. And we were all gone. Then…then we are…”

Optimus came to a stop, opening his door allowing the children to exit his cab. Though none of them moved, realization now also displaying on Jacks and Mikos face. Optimus carefully transformed back into his bipedal form positioning the children in his servos. Carefully he sat down his back against the wall of the small cave he once found patrolling. Slowly the kids, one by one looked up at him. Countless battles a millennia of war and still never was the prime this nervous and unsure as in this moment.

“So does that mean I get to call you Dad?” “Seriously Miko?” “What, I get an alien space Jesus as a dad that is cool as hell.” “Omg why am I friends with you.” “Because you love me, Jackie Boy.” “Shut up Miko.”

All of his fear and stress left his frame as he saw the children bickering with each other like always. A fond huff escaped the prime as his intake stretched into a small smiled, his faceplate shifting into something soft, something loving. For the first time in a long time he was at Pease, his Sparklings, with him, safe and happy. Slowly as to not jostle them he raised his servo to his Chest right by his spark. The movement interrupted the little argument between Jack and Miko, both focusing back on Optimus. This time Raf stepped forward holding onto the Primes thumb for support before speaking.

“Optimus we kinda already saw you as a father figure.” “Yeah you always help us when we need us and y’ know have really good advice.” “Thank you I am truly grateful to have already fulfilled such a role for you.”

With fondness in his optics observed he his two youngest, but as his gaze met with the oldest of the three, Jack looked away. Noticing the avoidance of his gaze Optimus send a commlink to Ratchet with his location, a second later a Ground Bridge opened up, turning to the other two.

“Raf and Miko this Ground Bridge will bring you to base Bumblebee and Bulkhead are already waiting for your return. We will join you later”

Before Miko could start to argue Raf took her hand and shaking his head. Optimus carefully lowered his servo back onto the ground, allowing Raf and Miko to hop down. Turning around to meet Jacks gaze he gave them a nod, sharing a look between them a silent conversation happened. It always fascinated Optimus how human managed to communicate without speech, ERP fields or commlinks. The silent conversation ended with Miko and Raf turning around and disappearing into the ground bridge, which promptly disappeared afterwards. Leaving the cave empty and silent except for the Prime and young human. Optimus lifted his servo back up to his chest allowing the Jack to not have to make direct eye contact with him. The silence continued neither of them making conversation.

“I…I never had a dad. I mean I do he is somewhere probably, obviously otherwise I wouldn’t exist. Mom said he was still there in the beginning but then one day he just left. I don’t really remember for me it’s always been just Mom and me. But then I met Arcee and you and the others and there where so many people there. And I am not alone anymore but everything changed so fast and what if this isn’t real and everything will be gone.” “Change is never easy, but change is also a chance. It forces open doors and shows us possibilities we couldn’t see before. Sometimes that means that we are met with harsh pain and suffering. But it can also push us, it makes us grow and without it we cannot go forward. Sometimes it is fast and happened in the blink of an eye and sometimes it is slow and happens in the span of millennia. Go this way in your own time Jackson, the door is open but it is your step to take.” “Thanks Optimus.” “You are welcome, Jack. Would you like to stay here a moment longer or do you wish to return back to base.” “I…I think I want to stay here a bit longer with you if that’s alright? “I do not mind.”

 Relaxing against the Primes chassis, the two beings of different species stayed like this until the sun bid farewell and the younger one fell asleep. Protected by the millennia old titan with the war worn spark which found peace and love in three small humans.

Masterlist

[whump-ohmy]

Whump Intro!

Hello there! My name is Harley (she/her), your new local whump writer, exclusively on tumblr, soon coming to ao3 :D I've liked whump since I could remember and way before I even had a name to put to it, and I have been lurking here for a while now. But the time for crawling out of the shadows and writing my own things has come!

I'm doing the Bad Things Happen Bingo and so far, I have one prompt fill up, and three more written ones sitting in my folder and waiting to be edited. Tags for it: #my writing #bad things happen bingo

I am still really new to actually interacting in this community and writing things, so I don't really know exactly how things work but hopefully this will turn out well :) --- Some tropes I love:

- Lady whump (I really, really just want some women in my fiction) - Hurt AND comfort - Fantasy / medieval whump - Nonhuman characters - Defiant whumpees - Touch-starved - Torture; whipping, beating, stress positions, etc. Tropes that are meh / I don't really like:

- BBU (occasionally I do circle back to it, but it's not really my thing) - Hurt no comfort - Medical whump - Lab whump - Carewhumper Squicks:

- Extreme gore - Eye / teeth injuries ---

Other things I'm working on:

I also have 30k of a completed series sitting in my folder though it needs a LOT of editing before I post it. Here's a quick overview of it for those interested:

A thief and assassin unable to leave her occupation and bound to the whims of a cruel and powerful earl, is captured after she is given false information. To her surprise, she is freed though the consequences for failing her mission soon prove to be almost worse than death. In the end, the person who saves her is one who she had expected would be amongst those cheering the most for her death.

If anyone would like to beta for this or knows where I could find a beta, I'd really appreciate it! I'm terrible at editing and a second perspective would be really nice.

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

In Dis-Honest Company

Jessica Alba's not so honest makeup artist purged his Instagram🧐 and deleted evidence of his participation in The Meghans January 2019 (avocado toast) 'suicide watch' scam. Good thing the internet never forgets:

Posted by Daniel Martin on January 20th 2019 from London, United Kingdom:

"Back to our Tig days. Thank you Meghan for being the consummate hostess this weekend and still being the avocado toast whisperer, YUM!"

Daniel Martin, Meghan Markle, Harry the Spare, Oprah Winfrey, Gayle King, Doria Ragland & Tyler Perry all LIED to the world about Meghan Markle's suicide ideation story that allegedly took place on the evening of the Cirque du Soleil performance, Totem, on January 16th 2019 at The Royal Albert Hall. The truth is that The Meghans were angry & deeply embarrassed because they were unexpectedly booed by the Sentebale fundraiser audience. After the booing, we watched Sparry temporarily reject her hand (which enraged her) until after he clapped for Sentabale's special guest.

MeGain was never alone that day (multiple visits with Amy) nor did she do her own makeup (or HAIR) for this evening Sentebale (fundraising) event. "...go upstairs & throw the makeup bag in the sink..." never happened because Daniel Martin was PAID to do her makeup and help her dress for the event!

Also it's important to reiterate that MeGain did NOT shed a "1 tear left eye go" when those house lights went down/dark during this Cirque du Soleil performance.

Meghan Markle was NEVER on "suicide watch" that week. She was never a threat to herself or to Sparry's unborn child that week because her BFF/makeup artist Daniel Martin was PAID to travel from America to London to keep her company for the week!!! She telephoned HR the very next day because she suffered a devastating blow after being royally booed. The booing was more evidence that their reputations had been ruined. In her opinion, the palace failed to protect her (reputation) which would hurt her Diana 2.0 image as well as their "brand" for upcoming megxit/post-baby sussex royal merchandising opportunities.

All public, face to face "confrontations" where she is told "no" and is faced with the consequences of her behavior, are viewed as a declaration of war. MeGain & Sparry are buulies and cowards. Meghan Markle is a Narcissist. Any humiliation, public or private, leaves her with a severe wound of rejection which she nurses by plotting revenge. A few examples:

Airlines Seat: While dating Sparry & working as a part-time soap opera actress, MM's airlines reassigned her seat to accommodate a group of dignitaries. This REJECTION enraged MM. In her mind, having regular sex with the Diana's SPARE son, was a tran$actional activity for which she was owed VIP treatment EVERYWHERE and from EVERYONE. As for this wounding, she declared, "THIS won't ever happen again."

HRH Duchess of Cambridge told her to stop harassing staff

Hrh Duchess of Cambridge told her the bridesmaids dresses were trash

post Australia engagement & walkabout: the words of a stranger: "what you're doing to your father is wrong!"

booing at Royal Albert Hall for Sentable Fundraiser; complained to palace HR that her reputation was not protected & required more PR reinforcements to cope, including a reteat

Saint Paul's Cathedral:

booing at Saint Paul's Cathedral entering & departing for Quenn's Platinum Jubilee

They were required travel within the royal motorcade in designated vehicles to the Cathedral. They chose not to "carpool" with the family to the Cathedral and instead, hired their own driver.

attendees included volunteers from all over the Commonwealth, as the couple was ushered to their seats, 1 attendee loudly asked, "why are you here?"

seat assignments inside Saint Paul's Cathedral Couple expected to be seated with Senior Royals, instead they were assigned to sit between the Queen's niece (Lady Chatto) & his York cousins.

Queen's funeral walkabout: woman put her head down & refused the handshake (essentially turning her back)

Queen's funeral walkabout: Palace staff demanded that she immediately release the Queen's flowers

The best NYC heckler: "Meghan Markle the charlatan duchess who conned the royal family!"

south park parody/film: worldwide privacy tour

Vanity Fair Article

Baby2Baby Initiation Complete: The "manifesting party" politely acknowledged Kerry Washington's birthday.

It's no wonder that after archeFRAUD made a significant donation for The Meghans to sit at Tyler Perry's VIP Paley Center Awards table, Kerry Washington FINALLY allowed MeGain to join her Baby2Baby inner circle. It seems that the hard work of Daniel, Tyler Perry, Kelly, NOprah & others finally paid off (literally), as MeGain was allowed to be photographed/filmed (perhaps by Daniel) inside Jessica Alba's home & seated at the dinner table like a circus seal next to Kerry Washington. Perhaps she was only invited to the dinner portion which could have been served AFTER the 'manifesting party.'

Tyler Perry has been working towards the moment when Kerry Washington would feel comfortable releasing PR photographs of her pictured with MeGain Markle. No matter how many exclusive dinners MM attended with Perry, he has remained incredibly frustrated that his A list friends preferred not to be around her.

I did not watch Washington's show so I'm not a fan of her acting nor her politics. She's extremely particular about who can be in her "circle," so MM must be on cloud 9 just to know she's finally won Washington's trust. Birds of a feather flock together.

MeGain has worked for years to penetrate the Baby2Baby clique. While in Britain (Spring 2019) she & Sparry used "Sussex Royal" to collect pre-megxit donations for LA's Baby2Baby, just another megxit indicator.

During the SARS-COV-2 pandemic, she & Sparry flew from Montecito to LA to wear masks and briefly distribute a few back to school items during a small neighborhood baby2baby fundraiser.

Many people still think MeGain was NOT invited to NOprah's birthday party; however as I've tried to explain in the past, that "party" wasn't actually NOprah's party but rather a celebration for Anastasia. Since NOprah chose to attend (on her birthday), the restaurant surprised NOprah with a special birthday cake. Something similar may have occurred at Jessica's home with the doughnuts.

If these hollyweird frauds will go along with Meghan Markle's lies about suicidal ideation, then they will lie about ANYTHING.

[sunrisecaminus]

Megatron x Cat Reader SFW

Summary - Cat manipulates the Warlord to keep them. The entire ship is relieved you are still around.

Warning: Hints of animal death

Type of fanfic: Fluff (Very fluffy)

So…They have a stray cat on board the ship. Soundwave reported that the cat got on board when they landed a few weeks ago. Megatron told his entire crew that if they see this little creature, exterminate it and dispose of it. Megatron hates not only humans, but anything that is from this gross planet called Earth. He has no idea why his old friend protects these disgusting creatures, and he can't believe how highly he thought of Optimus before the war. Megatron has seen the security footage of the p/c (pelt color) fluffy bug walking around and sniffing around. Anytime he asks people to go hunt it down, they tell him how they either couldn't catch it, or accidentally shot another soldier in the foot trying to kill it. He has gotten so angry about the little shit, he told everyone that he was going to do it himself and ever sense he would observe all the hallways he walks past. If he saw anything remotely organic or even small, he would aim his blaster at the thing before finally realizing it wasn't the creature.

You, a small cat that has been through foster home after foster home finally ran away from your last family and became a stray for a few months. Right now it was winter and it was way colder than you would've liked it to be. You found a nice warm looking blue car and hopped on the back of it before it drove off. Breakdown didn't know you were on him at the time and you now are living inside this massive flying mansion that you have been happily running around. Secretly you have been eating any rats that would wonder onto the ship whenever they land or you would just leave and kill as much as you could to hide somewhere on the ship to last a longer time. Your pantry is now massive, filled with dead rats and birds inside a small vent in the wall. It was so cold in that vent that all your food could last a whole other week before expiring. You are right now grooming yourself as you see guards walking past the vent from time to time. You liked breakdown from how warm he was, but you have always been way more interested in the giant grey spikey giant. You have dreamed of laying on his shoulder when he sits on his giant chair and being able to sleep in peace. Soldiers fear him and you would love to just have someone there to protect you. Though it has gotten a bit worrying anytime you try to get near him. He would shoot anything, even a soldier if he thought you were around the corner. All your motivation is just to…climb on the thrown secretly and lay on the giant warlord. The only robot that you were able to have them trust you and keep you a secret was Lazerbeak. Lazerbeak saw you once, but than realized you were chill and just hasn't really said anything about it. Only Soundwave also knows about it, but he loves his child so much he hasn't told Megatron either for her. Soundwave does wish for you to just leave the ship and never return. He knows this isn't a good environment for you, but he understands that you have now just made this place your weird home so he just convinces Megatron sometimes to not have the ship fly until you climb back on with your prey. There was a time when soundwave met you personally and the way you rubbed on his leg and vibrates…yep nope you have been adopted. He just now needs to convince his leader to chill out about this fluffy cutie. Soundwave has emailed all soldiers to not harm you as you would be useful to the cause and there would be consequences if you were hurt in anyway. Now you are able to walk around freely and have made a bunch of friends with the lower military bots. Knockout and Breakdown are one of your favorites and have just been chilling in the med bay most of the time on the ship, but that wasn't enough for you. You are a cat, you are very stubborn. When you have a goal you would not be stopped, you NEED that big giant to like you.

Hiding under Soundwave's desk, you see the big leader on his chair like always. It is now time to get your dream cat tower as you slink yourself behind the throne. Soundwave sees you and looks over to Megatron, who is right now looking at some data pads of reports. Your little paws sink into the floor and than jump to the arm rest and then jump up to his shoulder quickly without him noticing…at first. Once you got on his shoulder you started to kneed the area before loafing about. Megatron feels the tiny pressure on his shoulder and looks over, seeing the tiny creature he has been desperately trying to kill for the past few weeks. "…" He lifts his canon up to his shoulder very quietly to not startle you and starts to charge up. Soundwave stops what he was doing and steps forward. Megatron sees this and stops the canon from firing, but still has it aimed. "What do you want Soundwave, I am busy disposing this bug." Soundwave steps closure and shows him the recording of Lazerbeak and him playing with the creature and other clips of the entire ship loving on you, even…Dreadwing has a clip of him petting you with his finger while he was doing paperwork. Megatron was furious at first and was going to just squish you, but than Soundwave shows a small graph of the morality the ship had after you started coming here. There was even another chart that stated the success rates of missions have increase because of the soldiers now having a motive to come back to the ship. Megs still…did not like this what so ever. He was ready to risk his entire fleet on turning back on him just because of this stupid thing. Both of them stop what they were doing when you made a noise. You woke up and started to meow, purring on Megatron and rubbing against his helmet. Soundwave wasn't really showing any emotion (never does), but holy crap was he shaking on the inside for you to just either stop what you were doing or run for your safety. Megatron feels the fluffy fur (or soft skin if you are a hairless cat) on his helm and his entire mind just shifts to how cute you were. No…he will not be manipulated by this thing! Good primus though you are making the cutest purring noises and your tail just swishing around. Megatron grumbles and puts his hand down. "Fine, but this little scrap better not be on me when others are around." Soundwave gives a smiling emoji and goes back to his work. No one sees this, but after a while of you sleeping on his shoulder, he takes a finger and pets the top of your head. Yep, you have done the impossible. Megatron likes you now.

[eff-plays]

That's what I found funny about those comments about Rook not being the 'super special protagonist'. Hawke started off as a nobody,and yet people on here generally seemed to like them,but the kicker was that Hawke was still extremely competent working as a mercenary and all that,despite the surrounding messiness of Kirkwall. With Rook its like the devs were more concerned with making them oh so quirky,funny and #relatable and I've never wanted to dropkick a protagonist in a Bioware game more than I did them which caught me off guard!😅

It's not even about competence, because Rook is perfectly competent. But that's about all they are. Competent. In fact, they're just as if not less competent than the companions. There's no real reason for why they're the leader, despite leadership supposedly being sooooo central to their story. A good game will give you a reason as to why you're the leader of your ragtag group, even if mechanically, it's a given.

Like. The Warden is recruited why? They did some insane shit and Duncan went "oh fuck I need someone like this ASAP" and/or "this compentent person's about to be murdered and I gotta grab them before that." There's myriad reasons, but you, as the player, are there to see it, and it makes sense to you. After Ostagar, why are you the leader? Because Alistair doesn't want to be. That's his big character trait, he doesn't want to lead, he's not comfortable making decisions. But somebody has to, or else Ferelden is fucked! This trait of his creates consequences for him and for the player, which builds both their characters. So the Warden is a leader out of necessity, and it adds to the desperation of the story but also the characterization of the Warden: no matter the reason why, this is a person who will step up when shit hits the fan, and get shit done.

Hawke. Why is Hawke the leader? Well, initially they lead the family because of family dynamics. They're the eldest sibling, and Malcom left them in charge, not Leandra. Again, this builds character for both Hawke and Leandra. They defer to her out of respect and because she's their mother, but it's made obvious in the prologue that she's not the one leading the party out of Lothering. Why won't Bethany lead? She's too timid, too used to hiding in the shadows. Why won't Carver lead? He's brash and has something to prove, his ego will get in the way of getting shit done. Also, both of them are like, 18. So yeah. Aveline? She's busy taking care of her husband, who is very much too dying to throw his dick around, as seen by Hawke standing up to him when he threatens Bethany. So? That leaves Hawke.

Why does Hawke keep leading the Kirkwall gang, then? Varric is comfortable close to the action but not the one leading it, he's a little freak who likes to watch and take notes. When he's made Kirkwall's Viscount, he fucking hates it. Anders? No. Fenris? He'd behead Anders the first chance he got, who's the only healer around, and Fenris needs to keep a low profile on account of being hunted. So he's deader than dead after a few months at best. Merrill? No. Aveline? She's in a position of authority, but as the game shows us, she's not very good at that, either. Isabella? She's probably the closest to a competent leader out of the guys left, and she's a former ship captain, so that makes sense, but without Hawke's influence, she's too selfish to stick around for long, so she'd just use the gang for her ends and then fuck off. She'd also have a hard time getting Aveline to behave.

So. It has to be Hawke. They're the only one who can utilize the companions in a productive way while keeping their most destructive tendencies in check, consciously or not. Mind you, being a GOOD leader isn't a priority in a game. You can be a huge asshole, but still there needs to be an in-universe reason for why it's the player character and nobody else. More on this later.

Inquisitor? They're the easiest to explain, because they have the Anchor, but even with that narrative gimme, the writers show them becoming The Inquisitor after a while. After they work for the Inquisition as an agent first, proving themselves very capable out of necessity or a genuine desire, after Haven, where we see they have what it takes to lead a large amount of people while also putting those people above themselves (potentially out of optics/necessity). Even there, the narrative goes out of its way to show how and why the player character is in charge, the progression of events that leads there. Notably also, the Inquisitor isn't shown to be good at everything nor handle everything personally, they have advisors and agents, so even there it's not "everything is your job personally and only you can fix it" but "you're the main guy, both figurehead and the only one with the literal means to fix this, but you're just one person so you need help". It makes sense from a narrative standpoint.

Rook? Oh boy. First of all let's see why they're in the story in the first place. Varric recruited them. Off-screen. Where they did a thing that saved people instead of a powerful person's investment. Cool. We don't see this happening, or how Rook went about doing this. We're meant to be swayed by just the concept of somebody not being down to sacrifice people for the profit of some guy, we're meant to think this is what makes Rook a good leader. But it doesn't? It just makes them a vaguely good person, yet we're meant to think Varric, who's seen so much shit, thought this quaint little action was enough to mark Rook as special. Need I remind you that he recruited Hawke because they were a very competent mercenary. And yeah, the man has done a lot of growth in the years since, but you get what I'm saying, right? If anything, he'd think this was a naive little rookie (ha) who hadn't yet been hardened by the world.

But sure, okay. Varric recruited this do-gooder go-getter, and then he croaks, leaving them in charge. Why? No really, why are they in charge? Why do Harding and Neve defer to them? Harding was an Inquisition scout and worked to stop Solas before Rook was even recruited, so she'd have seniority over them in this regard. Neve is a hardened seasoned Batman detective or what the fuck ever. She's not even getting paid at this point, so she sticks around out of morality than anything else. Why doesn't she take charge to lead the investigation? Esp since Rook and Harding are more used to following orders than she is. As the later companions join, it gets even more ridonk that Rook is in charge. Davrin is explicitly a superior to a Warden Rook, and he does give them the order that he'll be the one to kill the Archdemon instead of them. Emmrich is explicitly always senior to a Mourn Watch Rook, and he's a professor, and older than everyone else. This guy knows how to lead. Rook is always outclassed by whoever shares their faction. And yet, they're in charge.

"Well they have Solas in their head" sure. But Rook could just as easily have been an advisor type who relayed the information to whoever else led the Veilguard. Solas' manipulation is a Doylist justification for their leadership, but provides no real reason for why everyone else is down to listen to the guy who has the enemy whispering secrets in their brain. Solas needs a foil, yeah, so he creates his own foil. But "Solas needs a foil" can't be the justification you give the rest of the characters in-fiction. If Davrin asked "hey why am I listening to the orders of a junior member" Rook shouldn't answer "well it's because one of the guys we're fighting who caused all this tells me what to do :)" Good thing everyone's so nice and never asks questions, I guess.

The one thing Rook has going for them is that they're so nice and can talk people through their problems. But that's a therapist, not a leader. And we don't really get the sense that being nice and a good listener is unique to them in any way. Because everyone is always nice to each other, we don't get the sense that any of them have a connection to Rook they don't have to anyone else. In fact, we can't talk to anyone outside of when they want to talk to us, with our only option being that we have to eavesdrop on them talking in private, and they stop as soon as they notice us. That makes Rook feel uniquely isolated from the others, not like they have a special connection to each of them. It's more like we truly are the therapist, somebody who has to be nice and understanding out of obligation rather than any genuine connection.

One thing that stuck with me is that Iron Bull line from Inquisition, where he says that being a leader isn't about being the best or strongest or most powerful, but being willing to make tough decisions when nobody else is. And this, this could have worked wonders in Veilguard. If everybody else remained as nice as they were, but Rook was pragmatic and ruthless and didn't shy away from hard choices? That would have made sense, especially with the angle the game tries to go for of "uwu the burdens of leadership uwu." Rook never has to consciously make hard decisions, they never have to weigh the pros and cons and consider the consequences, because they can never know those before they make a choice. The main ones being Treviso vs Minrathous and Harding vs Davrin.

In Treviso vs Minrathous it's pretty ridiculous how the companion from the city you don't save gets mad at Rook. The same amount of people went to each city, and people didn't know they needed the dagger to kill the dragon. As far as Rook knew, both cities had the same chances of survival, and it was unfortunate luck that this wasn't the case. And while it makes some sense for the companion to have this irrational blame for Rook for a bit, the game can't really frame this as "Rook's choice", because it wasn't. It's not their failure. The consequences of that choice are not fully theirs to claim, and thus that burden of leadership doesn't apply to them quite as much as the game pretends to.

The Harding vs Davrin choice is even dumber in that regard. Rook sends one of them to hold off a second hostile force. Which they successfully do, regardless of who you pick. Davrin/Harding then chooses to launch themselves at Gil. That is 100% out of Rook's control. Rook didn't send either of them to their deaths, and it's only a consequence of the player's actions in a gameplay sense, NOT Rook's. Which is why the whole Regret prison sequence feels so weird. The game conflates the player as an actor with Rook as a character.

Actually, let's talk about the Regret prison. The game's whole "oh woe the burdens of leadership, Rook vs. Solas as leaders, oh these parallels!!" Except when it comes to actually hold Rook accountable for anything they do, it chickens out. The game bombards you with The Walking Dead style popups like you have the object permanence of a toddler, "THIS ACTION WILL HAVE CONSEQUENCES", but then when it's time to face those consequences in the Regret prison, Rook gets outta there lickety-split because, well, they have no regrets! And the ones they do have aren't theirs to claim! Davrin/Harding chose to launch themselves at Gil! Bellara/Neve volunteered to deal with the barriers! All of Rook's allies are grown adults who know what they're doing!! Rook has to rely on their friends who are also fighting to save the world!! :))))

So the game spends its entire self trying to convince you that your choices matter and that they will have consequences, but in the end it goes "um actually. any leader must rely on their pals :) and their pals will willingly die for the cause (: so it's not your fault!!"

Honestly, it would've been brilliant commentary on agency in narratives like this if it was only a little bit more intentional. And the one thing that could've saved this would've been Rook going "actually, I have no regrets. Yeah it sucks my companions died but like. I succeeded in what I set out to do. Yeah Treviso burned but that's because Minrathous didn't. Yeah Harding died but that's because somebody had to keep the darkspawn away. Yeah Bellara got taken but that's because the barriers had to come down." If Rook's lack of regret wasn't because their companions are soooo competent and sooo responsible for their own fates, but because Rook WAS responsible, and they knew it, and they OWNED it, that would have been baller. But Rook's regrets aren't theirs to claim. And they're not allowed to have those they try to claim, in the end.

Instead, Rook is sad because of things that are blamed on them despite not being their fault but the game presents them as their fault, but then they're absolved not because it wasn't their fault from the start, but because the companions apparently had all the agency to begin with and simply take Rook's regrets away. So Rook feels bad about being a bad leader after experiencing the consequences they could never have predicted or owned, but are then absolved of having to feel bad because those actions were never theirs, and they actually did super great!! So, in the end, did Rook actually do ... anything? Anything at all? Can they claim to have done a single thing, if they're not even allowed to take the blame for their own choices? Can they take ownership of consequences they could never predict? Are they even a leader, or simply the most replacable therapist in all of Thedas whose only job was to tie up someone else's loose ends and enable them to save the world? And if that was the point, why yap about leadership and Solas parallells and the inane popups?

Am I making sense? If not, it's because I'm trying to untangle some bullshit that never made sense in the first place. I'm a lot like Rook in this scenario. No agency in sight.

But yeah um. I'm totally pissed because I'm not the main character. Totally just malding that I don't get to self-insert as the Mary Sue protagonist. Sure. Whatever dude.

EDIT: I just realized that a game I finished recently, Wandersong, does the whole "infinitely good therapist type fixes the world through being nice and they're NOT the main character" shtick so much better lmao.

[storytowrite]

Seven deadly sins (OT8 x F! Reader)

-> Sin Four: Envy |Kim Seungmin|

Genre: Suggestive, Angst, Fluff

Word Count: 1067

Warnings: 18+

Summary: Y/N performed every one of the deadly sins and that's means that she's going to hell.

----------

You woke up in bed alone. You were still in the third room, however, there was no Hyunjin by your side, with whom you had spent... actually, how much time? You had lost count long ago.  But was it actually that important? 

You finally decided to get out of bed and look for Hyunjin. After all, he couldn't have gone far, right? In the end, he himself invited you to the third room and, as a host, he should look after you. 

You looked around the room. There were definitely more women in it now. This surprised you a bit. Why so many of them? Did Hyunjin also invite them, just like he invited you? 

Last night Hyunjin made you feel special, but now, seeing so many beautiful women around, you begin to feel insecure. You didn't like the feeling. Your gaze finally located Hyunjin, who was sitting among the other girls and joking with them. 

You heard his laughter. One of the girls put her hand on his thigh, and another whispered something in his ear, which made him laugh. You squint your eyes. You didn't like it one bit. Why would Hyunjin turn to some girls after such a good, intoxicating night? You were overwhelmed with jealousy. Hyunjin's laughter began to become louder and louder. And you began to be eaten up more and more by envy. You didn't like the fact that he was sitting among other women. That he was letting them touch him. You decided to confront him. 

“Hyunin?” You started while standing in front of him. “Can you explain to me what all this is supposed to mean?” 

“Hm? What do you mean?” He asked, raising his eyebrow slightly. “What do you have a problem with, my muse?” 

“What do you mean, what do I have a problem with! You spent the whole previous evening with me and now...” You started, but he didn't let you finish. 

“Love, you are not my girlfriend. You let your emotions get carried away and now you are suffering the consequences. Not my fault.” He shrugged his shoulders dismissively. Well, he didn’t care about you. 

You looked at him in disbelief. Last night he was definitely saying something different from what he represented now. You watched as the women around him became bolder and bolder in touching him and whispering sweet nothings. Hyunjin apparently liked this, because his face expressed satisfaction. 

You boiled inside. How could he treat you like this? Like some kind of thing? You watched the view in front of your eyes for a while. One of the women sat down on Hyunjin's lap. You clenched your jaws with jealousy. 

“Are you okay?” You heard suddenly next to you. You glanced at the owner of the voice. A tall man, not much shorter than Hyunjin, appeared right next to you. 

“No, it's not okay.” You burbled, watching as the woman on Hyunjin's lap began placing kisses on his neck. 

“Ah, you've fallen victim to Hyunjin's charm.” The man spoke up with a slight smile that you didn't notice. 

“And what do you know?” You snorted, rolling your eyes. 

“Believe me, beautiful, I know.” He smiled warmly at you. “I'm Seungmin, and you, jealous?” 

“I'm not jealous.” You denied and turned toward him. “I am Y/N.” 

“Nice to meet you, Y/N. Would you like to join me?” He asked, offering you his arm. 

“Huh? Join where?” You asked slightly confused. 

“You'll see.” He winked. “I'll take you where few people have the opportunity to enter. What do you think? You'll make them jealous.” Seungmin said this loud enough that the women surrounding Hyunjin looked at you. 

“Ah yes? Then let's go.” You agreed. 

Seungmin smiled and, giving you his arm, led you to the exit of the third room. On your way out, you looked over your shoulder some more and looked towards Hyunjin, who, despite everything, did not look happy. 

Seungmin led you to another room. This one was black with green accents. You looked around you. It was the first time you had seen such a vibrant color combination. You liked it. You were in the fourth room. 

Appetite grows as you eat. Getting to the fourth room was easy. You spent a great time with its host, Seungmin. Seungmin was funny and intelligent. His comments were always on point. His stories were entertaining. You could listen to him forever. 

However, some doubts and questions began to arise in your mind. How did you get through four rooms in one evening, out of seven, when for years you couldn't even advance to the second room? 

You began to have some doubts. Something wasn't right, however, you couldn't tell what exactly. How long had you been at the club actually? How much time had passed? A couple of hours? One day? Several? You were so preoccupied with it all that you couldn't tell. You lost track of time. 

And yet, you longed to find out what the other rooms looked like. You longed to get to the seventh, or even the eighth - which was probably just a rumor, but your senses said otherwise. 

“Hey, Seungmin? Can I ask you a question?” You decided to ask your host. 

“Huh? Sure, what's the matter Y/N?” He glanced at you from over his drink. 

“Actually, I have a few questions.... First, how long have I been here? Have I lost track of time? What time are you closing the club?” 

“Oh beautiful, it's hard to say.” The man glanced at his watch, which you hadn't noticed before. “It looks like you've only been here a few hours.” 

“Hm? How is that possible? I'll give my head cut off that I've been here more than a day.” You said, puzzled. 

“I don't know anything about that, Y/N. Our club was recently opened.... Maybe you drank too much?” Seungmin suggested. “Or maybe just not enough?” He smiled slightly. “I'll ask Changbin to take you to our special bar. Only the lucky ones can go in there. The others here, if they see you crossing about that door will be boiling with jealousy.” He persuaded you. 

You looked at him and contemplated. Your doubts began to fade. In the end, you felt pride, greed and desire inside you, and the envy of others made you want even more. You were hungry for new experiences.

----------

-> Masterlist <- Lust | Gluttony ->

Taglist: @dinogal97 @velvetmoonlght

[effieotto]

The White Sheep

Summary

“Aren't you too old to have a five-year-old?" Haymitch asked in a mocking tone, watching Plutarch's face turn even whiter from the corner of his eyes. He looked like he was going to drop dead at any moment. "She is not mine," he replied hollowly, approaching the child who was still curled up on the floor, head between her knees, ligh blond hair falling down her legs. And when she looked up, the bluest eyes he'd ever seen in his life, Haymitch couldn't breathe anymore…”

or

In the Capitol, Effie endures the consequences of his lies. In Thirteen, Haymitch assumes the responsibility of hers” The white Sheep

Alternative Universe- Canon Divergence

TW- Suicide thoughts

So, I do write fanfics now...who would have thought huh? lol Anyway, that's my first fanfic ever and English is not my first language, so I'll ask you to be patient with my writing skills -for now- because I'm still learning how it all works. With that said, I had the idea for this project a couple of months ago and I am very excited to be sharing this with you -it surely isn't the usual Hayffie kind of fic, but I hope you enjoy it anyway <3

I also want to thank @hayffiebird for supporting and inspiring me through my very long and difficult fight against my insecurities while writing this chapter. I am really grateful for your help!!!!

[stars0fthesea]

Hello! I’m so extremely bored so I’m gonna post a song analysis kind of thing? But it’s about Jason and Amelia. Uhmmm idk how to explain it soooo JUST READ!!!

Song: A Humans Touch (on Spotify by TWRP, McKenna Rae)

(TW: Mentions of child abuse and neglect. I don’t go into super details but it is mentioned.)

(ALSO ALSO These are my own versions of Jason and Amelia. They were childhood friends that grew up together!!! I’ll make another post about that or whatever.)

Jason and Amelia ^

The first bit could be applied to both of them.

“Am I toy to you, my love? Just a thing to play and then throw away.”

For Jason it’s the feeling of betrayal. he did everything for Amelia, kept her safe from the world. He was loyal to her and yet she betrayed him when he was at rock bottom. He believes that Amelia took all the “love” he gave to her without giving anything back. Essentially she “threw him away” after she realized she no longer needed him. Even though that isn’t what happened.

Jason just can’t ever blame himself for his own actions and the consequences that follow. He didn’t keep Amelia safe, nor was he ever loyal. He wanted control over her, and when he no longer had that control he became angry. That anger mixed with the exhaustion and burnout he faced ended up killing him.

For Amelia, she felt terrified— she was terrified. Always feeling as though Jason never truly loved her, only used her, manipulated her into having no one around her. Scaring her from ever making true friends and only having Jason, until the end. Which goes with the “Am I just a toy to you, my love?” Jason played with her, toyed with her emotions. Turned her once confident personality into a more confined one.

“I never asked for this”

Jason never asked his parents to neglect, abuse, and kick him out of the house all because he wanted to become a toymaker. Amelia never asked for Jason to treat her the way he did just because she was one of the only one to treat Jason nicely.

“I always did my best.”

Jason always listened to his father. Fixing any flaws his father would point out. He did everything to try and get his attention, try and make him proud— until he realized that nothing. Nothing. He did would ever make his parents happy. Everything he did was a mistake in their eyes. And so he tuned them out. Jason didn’t need them anyways. For gods sake he would show them just how amazing he really is.

…

“Without your love, I am a broken mess.” Self explanatory for Jason…after Amelia killed him he ended up being broken. His heart became more rotten after losing Amelia’s love for him. He turned into a mess, looking for a woman that can replace what Amelia left. A void in his heart, waiting to be filled.

This entire part is just Jason. ^

“I never did you wrong”

These words fit Amelia more. During their entire relationship Amelia didn’t do anything to Jason. She was supportive of his dreams, offered to help him succeed, she was an amazing friend.

Yet Jason still treated Amelia as if she was nothing but a toy. She did everything for him, but Jason treated her like a child. Hell she could have done so much more than the pathetic redhead and he’d still see her as something he has control over. Amelia knew that they would never be equals in his eyes, and she didn’t dare say anything about it. (If you couldn’t tell he’s a misogynist.)

For Jason these words just circle back to his entire belief being: His actions are justified because everything he did was to protect Amelia from the cruel world she didn’t understand. He didn’t do anything wrong to Amelia, she just didn’t understand anything. She didn’t understand the love he was giving to her.

“Until the new me came along.”

Amelia again! This kind of goes with the first part but I wanted to write it separately. We know Amelia didn’t do anything to Jason, yeah.

She eventually did free herself from his control, realizing what he was doing to her. It took a lot of courage and strength but she did it. She escaped Jason. And eventually she killed the man that manipulated her. Thus why the lyrics: “I never did you wrong, until the new me came along.” Fits her so well. This new version of herself took over control and got rid of the evil redhead.

“it was just you and me”

Jason from the very start of his life was neglected. His own parents didn’t want him. He was alone. At school nobody would speak with him. The teachers felt bad, but they didn’t do much with the children teasing and bullying Jason. He had absolutely no one.

But then.

Amelia showed up in his life. Amelia who was smiling brightly since the day she met Jason. She was talkative and sure a bit annoying, but Jason finally had someone. And it wasn’t bad. Despite all the other children whispering rumors about Jason, Amelia stuck by his side.

It was just Jason and Amelia.

Jason needs Amelia. Or at least that’s what he thinks.

He takes the lives of every woman that reminds him of Amelia. Whether it be their personality, their face, their looks, whatever. He desperately tries to feel how it once felt to have Amelia by his side. Call it obsession if you will…but really he just misses having such power and control over someone.

[honorhearted]

Jay strode toward a strange metal box with purpose, then pressed on several equally strange protrusions until the curtains juddered, then slowly parted to allow a blinding beam of golden light to pool across the floor.

Unsettling fortress-like phantasms appeared within the glinting sunlight, and mouth falling agape, Benjamin drew a sharp breath as he tried to make sense of just what he was seeing.

Jay remained remarkably calm -- how could she be calm, when they were under siege by some sort of castle in the sky?!

Her words came to him, but in an increasing jumble of nonsense. He only focused again when she said, “But it is less so a problem of where as it is when, Major Tallmadge.” 

"What do you mean, when?" he demanded. "How long have I been here?"

Discomfited, he fought against the urge to retreat and instead, approached the vast skyline stretched out before him. Though the moment Benjamin peered down below, he drew a sharp breath and blinked rapidly, his stomach pitching and wavering as bile nipped at his tongue. His vision blurred a moment as he struggled to process how high they were -- why in God's name were they so bloody high? -- and the frightening, bizarre-looking carriages that were going at break-neck speeds, and without the aid of horses.

Feeling sick, Benjamin staggered away from the window and swallowed, quickly whipping around and attempting to draw air back into his lungs. "How...h-how could I have fallen through time?" he stammered. As preposterous as the claim was, he also couldn't explain what he was seeing, nor how. "And what do you mean by 'original work?' What could be more bloody important than getting me back to the Continentals?"

“This is going to be a lot to take in and I get that."

Benjamin snorted, still jittery as he tried to calm his rapidly racing heart. "Are you some type of witch?" he asked, unable to keep the bite from his voice. "Whom else have you done this to?"

Were the British employing the dark arts to defeat the Americans? Surely, not...

Incredulous, Benjamin turned to fully face Jay as she spoke of consequences. "I'd hardly say that this affects you more than me," he growled. "This isn't even my home!"

Where were his friends and family? His commander?

Beginning to pace, he anxiously snagged a hand through his hair and attempted to calm his breathing, his lungs spasming until he was on the cusp of hyperventilation. Squeezing his eyes shut, he dizzily swayed until he sagged against a nearby wall, dry-heaving and mercifully not expelling the breakfast he'd just eaten.

"I...I can't be here," he rasped, swallowing back his nausea. "Please...you have to get me out of here."

This was a dream... Please, God, I am surely dreaming!

Oh the ways in which she would have been able to correct her history teachers if only she could bring him to them. Then again that would never be possible as this situation was far beyond normal. Given the circumstance his reactions so far had been on par with what she expected. Right down to the harsh exterior he had to cloak himself with. 

“Fine. I will tell you and show you. But just know that you cannot escape this home.” She said, taking her coffee and rising from the seat she was in. Moving over to the support pillar that held the stairs she pushed a button on the control panel there. That triggered the curtains to start to slowly rise up. As the curtains rose, she moved to stand at the windows waiting to be bathed in the light.  “The reason I have been avoiding telling you much is this. You are still in New York, that much is true. But it is less so a problem of where as it is when, Major Tallmagde.” 

Beyond a familiar sight to her, as the city sprawled out and encompassed her own building within their looming shadows. The sunlight breaking through in staggered beams lighting up wth world below. The streets filled with cars and the constant buzz of people only a story below. Her magic that solidified the building as her sanctum kept the cacophony of noise to nearly mute for her own sanity helped her in this moment as it kept the truth from him. 

“You say you fell off your horse mid battle. And while that might be true you also fell forward in time through a mistake on my part. One that I intend to correct the moment that I finish my original work.” She said, taking a sip from her cup before holding it at her stomach. She would have preferred someone less inquisitive. Then lying would have been the easier route to take. As it was, she had to rip the bandaid off and deal with the fallout of his reactions. 

“This is going to be a lot to take in and I get that. But the fact of the matter is, your life is in my hands until I can figure out the rest of the spell and find a way to send you back.” She turned to glance at him. Maintaining a controlled calm stance. This was going to be a hell of a day and she could already tell that there would be a series of questions that she was no doubt going to have to answer. A mountain of proof for him to believe her. So much that she would have to alter in his memories in time. 

“Believe me when I say, I really had no intention of pulling you from your life. I didn’t even think it was possible. But now we both have to deal with the consequences.” 

[lo-shouldve-been-an-email]

Why did Persephone kill an entire town.why did Rachel have to make it so that Persephone was a mass murderer of children,mother,and babies instead of just a few men that clearly disrespected her.

Honestly,like that it makes more sense for the audience to not only root for her(and for other examples of AoW’s being brought up in comparison) and for Helios not to report the crime to someone.

Also,perse is only really guilty until after she’s prosecuted.its very “only sorry after getting caught” vibes.

[odo-apologist]

Currently really into the specific category of sci-fi media about an isolated group of five people being put in Situations and really going through it

[trappedinafantasy37]

The last DeVir and the forgotten Baenre. Two noble drow forever exiled from their homes and abandoned by Lolth.

[mixelation]

i read through part 2. spoilers i guess. also, again, if you can't handle reading critique of a professionally published book, don't read

so the reviews on storygraphs indicate a lot of people were frustrated with part 1 because zetian is basically confined to a room the whole time. i do think this whole section could have been condensed by a lot because it was pretty repetitive and filled with a lot of characters just explaining "laborism" (communism, basically) to each other and also with the nuance and vocabulary of the average twitter user, but i don't actually think it was a bad writing choice. it lets the breakneck speed of the previous book take a break and lets zetian orient herself to the next step in her... whatever her plan is. she is a uneducated 18 year old whose only talent is having a lot of qi, suddenly being handed a crown and betrothed to an emperor deadset on revolutionizing society. seeing her learn to navigate this new type of life is genuinely an interesting concept

so what is zetian's plan? one of my big criticisms of this series in general is that what Zetian is even trying to do at any given moment is frequently completely unclear. if you read my Iron Widow review, I said that the later ~2/3s of the book feel really unfocused because Zetian doesn't have a real goal or driving force. things just happen because the plot requires them to happen. Heavenly Tyrant is..... a little better about this. Zetian wants to kill the "gods" and get Shimin back. Qin Zheng, the emperor, also wants to kill the gods. This part is solid and the plotting revolving around making this happen while the gods can see their every move is easy to follow with clear action -> consequence.

but then there's zetian's other goals about making society better, especially for women. she doesn't seem to have.... any sort of real plan here? she has very few specific goals for improving the lives of women, and when she does come up with a goal (like getting more female pilots), it's often unclear how exactly she thinks her actions will lead to the outcome she wants or what the outcome will look like. then some outcome happens and it feels more like we just hit that part of the story outline rather than an organic consequence of characters' actions. and "zetian keeps doing shit despite being bad at planning" is a fine character trait, don't get me wrong, but the writing is not good enough to make this feel like it's what's happening instead of just a bunch of "just trust me bro" moments

another complaint i had about Iron Widow is that we get told all these worldbuilding details for qi and how the mechs work, but none of it is actually used to be plot relevant. this.... also gets a little better. but not a lot better. mostly we just see Zetian struggling in battle a lot, even though she should theoretically be more experienced and have all this special training from Qin Zheng, which made me wonder why she's the empress at all. she's bad at politics and she keeps flubbing her robot battles. oh, plus-- the fights are not written super well. i know Zetian can pull the tails off her nine tailed fox mech and form them into lances, but i still don't really know what a hundun looks like??? also what happens to the lances she drops? and they just gone? what's happening

we do slowly see her get better at politics in part 2, but it's slow going and also largely boring. the "laborism" theory as presented feels juvenile and a lot of the societal problems are just "telling" and not "showing." there's a few scenes where we actually get to see problems illustrated, but they're few and far between, and there's so much boring internal monologues and poorly written dialogue spaced between them.

and guys.... the dialogue. it's so bad. everyone speaks with the exact same voice, and that one voice does not adequately mimic how real humans speak. there's a line where "and/or" literally appears in the dialogue.* every other spoken sentence ends with an exclamation mark. i grew up reading fanfiction so more exclamations mark than usual seems fine to me, but it's SO MANY. plus a lot of descriptions are written like the writer is unsure of what things are actually called? i don't know how to describe this feeling but i don't like it. it's like a watered down version of when fanfics will say stuff like "an oven-like device"

*yes i KNOW some people say this irl. i say this sometimes. do you think an ancient emperor who speaks with a cockney accent** says this???

**I'M NOT MAKING THIS UP

i don't think i really talked about this in my Iron Widow review, but this series has a lot of characters that are there for structural support and nothing else. an example in Iron Widow would be Sima Yi, who's there because a strategist character is needed, but barely has a personality and zero interesting things about him. there's no point to him except that this specific type of role needs to be played by someone. and that's fine in small doses. some characters are just there to be the usher at the theatre. Heavenly Tyrant is better at making its side characters actual characters (like Wan'er and Taiping), but then there's still more and more named characters you have to keep track of who are barely characters. like in part 2, Qin Zheng has to go into quarantine for... almost all of part 2, so Zetian needs a new copilot and recruits two prisoners. one of them is basically not there, and the other is a guy named Di Renjie whose narrative job is to be there and occasionally lecture other people about prison reform to remind you that he is a person. he's barely present at all and has no emotional or narrative impact, so it doesn't feel like much when he dies. there's not enough room in the novel to flesh him out (it's not impossible to communicate a character quickly, but this book doesn't seem to be good enough at character writing to do this) or to explore the absolutely horrific situation zetian forced him into, even though this seems like it definitely should be explored because it's what happened to her. he's just there because the plot needs her to have a copilot who's not qin zheng. zetian does spare a few thoughts of guilt about di renjie, but he's very much a non-character

as for the quarantine thing..... qin zheng gets confined to a single "sterile" room because his 200 year old body supposedly has no immunity to modern pathogens. my educated scientific opinion was "that is bullshit evolutionary biology" so (SPOILERS) i was relieved when it turned out to be a lie. however i need you to understand that that is the tone of this book. i read a completely bullshit explanation, knew it was bullshit, but everything is so overexplained yet immature that I was just like "yeah, seems like that's real for this world"

i will say the Fake Quarantine Reveal briefly had me excited. but i have read the first couple chapters of part 3 and it's just about sex. these two do not have enough chemistry to make this interesting or spicy, and you guys know i love characters who hate each other so much they simply must have sex about it. nope, these two just regular hate each other and their interactions are largely unpleasant. please bring back the plot

their safeword is "private property" and once again i am choosing to believe this is a joke for my own sanity

i've been reading heavenly tyrant (the sequel to iron widow by xiran jay zhao). thoughts after finishing the first part below the cut.

note my impression is mostly critical so far, and so clicking will reveal negativity. i assume most people have control over their own ability to gauge if they can handle this or not, but i've been proved wrong before

bullet points:

i feel the writing has improved on a structural level, but frequently veers into strange twitter-esque rants about the evils of capitalism? and often there are very first draft vibes to descriptions

there is a scene-- i shit you not-- where zetian accuses qin zheng (a legendary emperor who was frozen for 200 years that zetian woke up) of treating her like he owns her, and then makes a quip about how a guy who's against private property shouldn't be like that. qin zheng then replies-- i shit you not-- by explaining the difference between private and personal property. then he says something like "i have to go reform the education system" and leaves. i choose to believe this is a joke for my own sanity, but it is genuinely unclear

one of my complaints about iron widow is that the last 2/3-ish of the book seem to lack focus because zetian doesn't really have a specific goal, she's just doing stuff. in the first third of this installment, she spends 85% of her time confined to a single room. so now she doesn't seem to have much of a goal (she keeps talking about learning how qin zheng became powerful, taking that power, and killing him... but it's unclear why she wants to do this or what she thinks will happen if she succeeds) AND she's not even doing stuff.

i do like qin zheng more than shimin or yizhi. probably because he is the only one in this book making any sort of decisions. that being said, his ~toxic situationmance~ with zetian isn't... like... fun? they just don't like each other

if you liked yizhi or shimin then bad news!!!! they're barely here!!!! i didn't really care so i'm having fun with this new guy. how are you going to uplift the common man but live in a palace, new guy? hmm?

also zetian has gone from "ridiculous but fun to watch break things" to just like. unlikeable. it's to the point where it's hard to feel bad for her because some of her problems really do feel like they wouldn't exist if she was just, like, polite.

ANOTHER complaint i had about iron widow was that there was too much telling instead of showing. i felt this had improved a little with heavenly tyrant, as we see zetian actually attempting positive interactions with women (one of her repeatedly stated goals in the first book was wanting to help girls, and yet we barely saw her give a shit about any individual woman) and the narrative actually gives itself enough room to have zetian and qin zheng interact. however qin zheng keeps giving speeches about new policies he's going to use to fix society and folks, we have not been shown all these societal problems. like at all. there's medical debt? educational debt? no named character has these problems. i did not know these problems existed in this society before this speech.

also his big plans really do read like a 16 year old on tumblr making up an imaginary government based on some posts they read and 0 real world experience. slay

a lot of the reviews on storygraph complain it's too slow but honestly i read the first ten chapters really quickly because like. what is happening here. we'll see if anything manages to happen in the next part

[theoldmanhomer]

yap about yi and goumang in the tags. tiandao council enthusiasts this 1 is 4 you

[racke7]

Trans-Kirito story-idea

After the SAO beta-test, Suguha "borrows" (read, follows her god-given right to be an annoying little sister) Kirito's NervGear.

As Suguha very much doesn't want to run around "as a boy" (yuck), she redoes the body-scan.

Kirito is very much not amused by Suguha stealing his shit, and takes it back. Kirito checks that nothing is actually broken (it works just fine), but doesn't think about "resetting" the body-scan.

The in-game avatar isn't changed (Kirito picks "male"), and Suguha the preteen and Kirito before his growth-spurt have very similar body-types), so any "this feels a bit odd to get used to"-feelings are attributed to Kirito lying about his height.

SAO starts, and Kirito is having zero issues with his avatar.

SAO becomes a death-game and Kayaba makes the mirror-item happen.

The mirror-item uses the recorded body-scan to create the avatar (and a video-feed for recording faces and facial-expressions).

So Kirito now has the body of a preteen girl, and the face of a very cute boy.

Let the chaos begin.

[king-spite]

this is Elara and Maven btw