#also i still have to work on some event sets lolol

[fujunfuren]

i havent been okay since they start getting back together and in their married era. i just have no time to gif these sceness. i kinda need it out of my system, hopefullyyyy this weekend!!

[starcurtain]

Teyvat's "Most Down Bad" Award Goes to Alhaitham for a Second Year Running

Seeing everyone making fun of Alhaitham for his "stalkerish" tendencies in this event is funny, because I feel like a lot of people missed that "Be literally everywhere Kaveh is" has been Alhaitham's MO from the day Kaveh appeared in the game.

From only grabbing his house keys after Kaveh returned from the desert (he couldn't have had both sets of keys at the end of the Archon Quest unless he went home and got Kaveh's copy) to ditching conversations to get back to his house only after Kaveh came home, to showing up without any warning or explanation in Kaveh's hangout with some ridiculous excuse about hearing his voice through noise-cancelling headphones... Refusing to offer any help in the Temple of Silence story quest other than staying in the library with Kaveh...

Since when does Alhaitham willingly cover anyone else's duties?

But this trend of "Be everywhere Kaveh is" didn't start when they were adults. It was already in place when they were still Akademiya students--and it's a trend that didn't end even when they had their fight.

Even when they weren't speaking, Alhaitham dogged Kaveh's every step through published responses to Kaveh's research articles in academic journals. He insisted on keeping a line of communication between himself and Kaveh open, even if the only way to do that was through very public ideological clashes. Pulling Kaveh's pigtails to get his attention lolol. It's implied that, for at least the few years between their fight and Kaveh moving in, this was the only communication between them--Alhaitham's refusal to allow their connection to entirely fade away. (And the fact that this is revealed in Kaveh's character stories--through his precious journal that records the moments of his life that had the most impact on him--shows just how deeply he values the fact that Alhaitham didn't give up.)

Another relevant side note: Alhaitham never asked Kaveh to give up his half of their house. Knowing half of it belonged to Kaveh, knowing that Kaveh may one day want to reclaim his part of it, knowing that it was listed as theirs, Alhaitham moved into the house and made zero effort to change its ownership. He was completely fine with living in "his and Kaveh's house." The stories suggest it was only months later (or even longer) that Kaveh even noticed he had the house, and he transferred away ownership of his portion without Alhaitham ever asking him (or even seemingly wanting him) to do so.

Please, let that sink in. Alhaitham actively left his grandmother's (presumably comfortable) house to move into "his and Kaveh's house," with no apparent explanation for why, and after doing so, he made no attempt to change that "his and Kaveh's" label. He moved into the house with no promise that Kaveh wouldn't show up on the doorstep the very next day and move in too. It almost feels like another deliberate provocation--I've moved into our house, are you going to come stop me? LBR, if Alhaitham had had his way, Kaveh would have been living there with him from Day 1...

There's also the fact that Kaveh literally can't write on a single message board anywhere in the entire nation of Sumeru without Alhaitham hunting his messages down and responding to them (which absolutely no one else does, by the way).

"NUH-UH!" "UH-HUH." "NUH-UH!"

Alhaitham's own character stories tell us explicitly that one of Alhaitham's defining character traits is "He is never where you need him to be," yet somehow...

Shot, and chaser:

Any time Kaveh is in the slightest bit of need or danger or just wants Alhaitham near, Alhaitham is "coincidentally" exactly where Kaveh needs him to be, whenever Kaveh needs him to be there.

Alhaitham didn't just "happen" to run into Kaveh in Port Ormos, an entirely different city from where he was supposed to be working. He didn't just "happen" to read the same terrible book as Kaveh when we know he otherwise would not waste a moment of his time on poorly-written literature...

He didn't just "happen" to appear when Kaveh was upset and needed a distraction in the House of Daena during Kaveh's hangout. He didn't just "happen" to be sitting around waiting when Kaveh needed answers after the Archon Quest. He didn't just "happen" to find Kaveh's academic publications and every single message board posting and respond to them at length and in public.

Which is exactly what Kaveh's mother told Kaveh he needed.

What level of down bad is "Abusing your powers as an Akademiya employee to keep tabs on your crush's library loans"? Just asking for a friend.

The only person for whom Alhaitham just "happens" to be available is Kaveh, over and over and over again--because he is very deliberately making himself a constant presence in Kaveh's life.

(Like, out of all things, I think people really underestimate the devs deliberately paralleling the romantic relationship between Kaveh's mother and father with Kaveh and Alhaitham's relationship. If you want to point to one thing that says "These two characters are intentionally queer-coded," it doesn't get any more obvious than this.)

Alhaitham, are you not embarrassed to be this transparent??? 🫣

[erinwantstowrite]

hi! hope your having a good day/night/timezone/etc.! u got any writing tips (like how to not lose motivation/use up as much of it as u can while u have it, any ways to get the words flowing/“get in the writing mood” that have worked for u) for any of ur fellow fic writers? (idk if this’s been asked b4 (it seems like a common question lmao), but if it has, ‘pologies, lolol ^^)

i have a few that i've been thinking up to try and post!!

remember that you aren't on a deadline to write, and to take the time you need. no one wants to read something you rushed, let alone do YOU want to read it. and it REALLY matters if you love what you're writing. you'll kill your motivation trying to keep up with something like that!! if you only had time to write 300 or you had a great day and wrote like 3000, you're doing great either way!!!

there's a lot to keep up with when you're writing, and you have to remember and understand all of it. if you're trying to write while you're tired/upset/etc, you'll likely end up with something you're not that proud of. (granted, art is art, and sometimes these emotions can create something beautiful or meaningful). take metal breaks so you can come back to your work with a fresh mind, and don't overexert yourself. you'll remember and understand more if you treat your writing time like you would when you're studying. sometimes i make flashcards to remember characters, places, events, etc.

sometimes i can get too analytical with my writing, or it starts to become flat? if that makes sense? meaning, like... i'm putting words on paper rather than delving into the story. too many "they felt this way" and not enough "Character A turns to face the man that had changed their entire life with the single shot of a bullet, careless to what damage he could have caused. It's haunting to see that the man is simply that: a man. Not a monster as they had imagined, laying awake at night and wondering what their father had seen in his final moments. He's just a man." what helps with this is putting myself into the shoes of a narrator, remembering that i am telling the story as if i already know what's happening (even if I don't know where I'm going with a scene yet). i imagine that my reader is right there next to me and i'm telling them the story in real time like we're sitting around a campfire telling ghost stories, or that i'm the quirky narrator of a book they just picked up.

During times where i'm losing inspiration or feel like i'm in a loop, i like to go back to my favorite medias and spend some time with them. i recently rewatched Gravity Falls, the Sea Beast, and the Adam Project, and it was a fun mental break that got me into the writing mood. i try to find similar media to what i'm writing at that time. if i want a scene focused on funny banter or a comedic effect, i read or watch comedy. if i want to write a scary scene, i'll watch a horror movie. etc etc. "studying" your favorite media and putting yourself into your fav writer's writing shoes is a great way to improve your own writing. think about why that joke was funny, what the set up was that made it that way, and if it would have been a different joke if another character said it (Gravity Falls is one of the best media you can use for this, but really, reading mysteries in general can help)

physical exercise, if you can. getting your blood flowing and treating your body well!! when i was in band, we used to do "body warm ups" set to music, and i still do them to this day. it gets me awake and alert while also letting me listen to fun music before i write

[hanafubukki]

So Hana; I came across a post talking about unpopular twst opinions and was wondering if you had any.

Hello Violet 🌸💚🌷

I hope it’s okay for me to call you Violet 💚🌷

This is a rather interesting question 🤔 and I had to think on it a bit. I honestly don’t know if some of what I say is unpopular or not, so I guess I’ll express a few of my opinions that I have. ☺️🌺

I guess before I list them I should say that this is my opinion only. I don’t mean to hurt anyone by expressing them nor am I calling out anyone. Literally just my thoughts. You’re allowed to agree or disagree✨✨

Normally, I would assume I wouldn’t have to put a disclaimer such as this because everyone has their own opinions and we should all have an open mind but I’ve seen the internet lol and wowza on how some act to such things lol 🌺🙏

I hate the guest room. Personally, I’m not into that kind of mechanics in gaming. It’s not for me. The fact that we have to do it to level up friendship levels irks me. And it’s a complicated system too which is another annoying aspect. I also kind of blame the guest room function for personal stories being lowered since those have been replaced with furniture. It’s just an extra chore that I’m not really into.

Event wise: I think we have too many octa (+ ortho and ace) in them. My diasomnia bias aside, I don’t think the other characters get enough spotlight. When was the last time Ruggie was in an event? Cater? Riddle? Jack? Kalim? Rook? Deuce? I know octa make them money but still, give the others more spotlight? I don’t count the beach or Halloween event either. Because Halloween, half the cast is in it and beach event was similar. Even New years I don’t count, because eventually, we will get them all in new years outfit. The usually four character events is what I’m speaking of because that’s when you get proper screen time and development for each character. I can literally go on lolol

I don’t know why this would be unpopular but it seems it might be? But I don’t hate RSA. They have a lot of potential story telling wise and their side of things. And I know there’s biasness with NRC and we wanting them to win, but I feel there’s more to RSA than we know. Like how we shouldn’t judge villains, we shouldn’t judge the “heroes�� either.

Jp schedule wise I don’t think they are too slow as many believe. I think for the working female class, which the game is aimed at, the scheduling is perfect since it was made for them after all. It gives them time for daily life and twst gaming. Doesn’t mean I don’t get impatient either lolol

On the other spectrum, EN is going too quick. With events and main story. Slow down. What are you trying to accomplish except burn out your fanbase?

I don’t want an anime. We will get one. There’s a high chance and I’ll watch it obviously. But I honestly don’t care for one. The issues that an anime will bring…is a lot.

I don’t think the gameplay is boring. As mentioned before, the game was made for the female working class. So the gameplay is to the point, and depending on the event, can be challenging. But grinding wise and all that? It’s pretty working class friendly. If I didn’t have the auto lessons and battles, I wouldn’t be playing it. It’s because of those mechanics that I am. Thats what stops me from playing many mobile games. The constant forced to play and keep track. Hence part of why I’m not into Hoyoverse games.

I don’t really care for “this place in twst = this place in IRL.” to me, it’s a game in a fantasy world. Is it interesting to see some of the influences? Yes, of course. But that’s it. I’m playing this game for the fantasy setting, the magic, the story, and the characters. I don’t really care to add, realism, I guess you could say? (I’m trying to escape reality okay? Why would I want it in my games?? 🤣🤣)

I wish we had more magic in my magic world. And I think it mainly applies for book 7 for me personally and how “wow, tech is going to beat malleus and save the day” but I kind of wish that isn’t the case. Yes, it makes for fun story telling and memes. But, for a magic based dorm, I want a magic based solution. That and the fact, I don’t care for the implication how magic is slowly being taken over by technology. Kind of hits close to home you know?? With all the AI shenanigans.

I hope two certain popular theories aren’t true and I’ll leave it there. My personally thoughts on them is, I hope it’s not that predictable and I had hoped for a different route for such characters/events.

I’ll stop there before I make a whole essay for you to read lmao 🤣🤣 I have more thoughts that I could share but this is already so long 😆

I don’t know if this was a “unpopular opinion” or more me rambling but I’ll let you decide that Violet 🙏💞☺️

What about you? What are some of your thoughts?

Would love to hear other’s opinions as well ☺️🌺

[linkspooky]

oh mannn that cycle meta got me thinking (I love your metas btw) since the story is slowly wrapping up do you think that the story is going to end on a “the cycle is broken” note or more like… “the cycle is destroyed” note? I mean the whole jujutsu system is not only made up of the higher ups, it also consists of the big three jujutsu families, the zen’ins, the Kamos and the Gojos as Megumi mentioned in the goodwill event arc and they all desperately try to uphold the current system and keep the toxic cycle going, but I’ve been wondering… cause I don’t think killing kenny and sukuna is going to solve the entire problem (like at least to me these two are just using and toying with the current system. they don’t really seem to care about it, since they have their own plans) and now… well since maki annihilated the entire Zen’in clan, and THEN gojo (at least it was implied it was gojo, but who knows) killed the higher ups maybe there’s a pattern forming lolol so that only leaves the Kamos and the Gojos, so assuming once they’re gone (along with the heian boomers)… would that break/end the cycle? I mean I don’t think playing safe politics would ever work or really change anything, because the system only cares about upholding itself, so the only way to end is to completely destroy it..?.. but I don’t know

I'm not actually sure about whether or not the system is going to be truly broken by the time the manga is over, because you yourself said that both the higher ups and the Zen'in Clan have been purged now by someone slaughtering them, but... that's the exact kind of slaughter that Gojo was speaking out against and said would not work in the first ten chapters. For Gojo to suddenly approve of slaughter and the story to take that route in the end game is just odd.

We have not seen the fallout of Maki killing the Zen'in Clan and if there is actually going to be any consequences from that in-story, or if Gojo's even heard the news of that happening so it's hard to comment on that event.

However, we have witnessed the immediate result of the slaughter of the higher ups. ALl that ends up happening is Gojo places Gakuganji in charge instead, someone corrupt enough to organize an assassination of Yuji, and who killed Yaga under orders with no consequences.

Which is what Gojo warned of earlier in the first ten chapters, that if someone did bother to slaughter the higher ups, then the people who replaced them would not be much better. I'm going to borrow from some tags @hxhhasmysoul put on a post of mine.

Gojo wanted to raise strong and intelligent allies who would replace him as the next generation and a better alternative to the previous generation that's still currently in charge and holding onto power by sacrificing the youth.

However, he didn't raise them to do political reform of think for themselves about how things could be better, he raised them to be Mini-Gojos. Gojo's students for the most part do not look at Jujutsu Society as a whole, and use might makes right as justification for their actions. Gojo's students have declared on multiple occasions that they don't care whether or not what they're doing is right or wrong.

Gojo's students all call themselves cogs in a machine. He hasn't raised a set of political reformists, he's raised a set of kids who are all individually very strong, and also loyal to him. Which is like the underyling motivation of Gojo's goals all along of going with education to raise up pupils, he was always going to do this, just replace whoever was in charge with people he handpicked. Gojo's students not really caring that much about reforming the system isn't really a flaw in Gojo's plan, it's a feature.

Which is why when Gojo is sealed in the box, his students don't even try to defeat Kenjaku or Sukuna, their only goal is to get him out and let him take care of everything. Gojo's students are all ultimately loyal to Gojo's agenda because he raised them to be that way.

If Gojo dies against Sukuna however, it will show that Gojo's methods have failed and the main characters will have to scramble to find some other way of dealing with the problem. They'll no longer have "Just get Gojo out of the box" as the magical key to their problems. If there is going to be a big change in the story, it's probably going to be pushing things away from Gojo's individualist mindset. When Hakari is convinced to come with Yuji, Kirara mentions that despite hating the higher ups Hakari's always felt a strong connection to the people at Jujutsu High.

THe only reason that Gojo came out of the box in the first place, is a weak person who Gojo would write off as a random extra, saved Kurusu when she was falling off a building when all of his super strong students absolutely failed in that situation.

The most toxic attitude of sorcerer society is that individual strength means everything. Gojo hates the collectivism and tradition that requires people to continually sacrifice themselves for the collective good that keeps the higher ups in power, but collectivism isn't always a bad philosophy the same way that individualism isn't always good, they can both be taken to toxic extremes. The higher ups maintain their power through toxic ideas of collectivism requiring the sacrifice of others. Whereas Gojo's faction is the toxic extreme of individualism, which is why Maki, and then either Gojo or Yuta went on a murder spree with the elders. The true advancement from the toxic ideas of sorcerer society would be finding a balance between those two.

Which is probably where the real challenge in the manga is going to come, where Gojo's individual philosophy fails him and he gets either defeated, or just eaten by Sukuna and the kids finally have to learn how to function as a group instead of a loose collection of individuals. If Jujutsu Society is destroyed effectively by the end, then it's likely Gojo their biggest and most useful cog in that machine will perish alongside of it to make room for all of his students.

[mouthsfullofsharpteeth]

job headcanons for marble hornets

was thinking about how troy and joseph were saying that tim was likely working as a contractor or garbage man of some kind during the events of marble hornets, and it got me thinking about what jobs he and the others might have had. gonna say maybe just in a college setting, because i think tim was the only one out of the main four that actually kept a job while marble hornets was going down.

Alex- i think in his senior year of high school, he probably got his first job at some kind of gas station or maybe mowing lawns. in college, he would definitely have a movie theatre job, and i think when his hipster phase starts up, he becomes a barista

Jay- he worked at blockbuster until it went out of business. also i know some people joke about jay being a trust fund baby, but i could not disagree less however i have found a middle ground. he lives with his single mom but gets child support checks once a month from his uber rich dad that did not mean to get Jay’s college student mom pregnant. so they have some money but he is not a trust fund by any means. but anyway i think he also works at a grocery store and maybe also the same movie theatre alex works at

Tim- i think they have the right idea, because of tim’s mental health he probably struggles to keep jobs sadly. i feel like for this reason, he tries to keep several at a time so if he gets fired from one he doesnt end up completely unemployed. probably ends up being like labor and customer service stuff, though he’s not great at customer service. I have an image of truck driver tim in my mind now too tho he could totally do that and slay

Brian- he’s got major bar tender vibes. he’s socially awkward but still extroverted, so talking with people that are drinking alcohol makes is less stressful LOLOL. he’s also got barista or waiter vibes

[lullaebies]

Hey Alice! This was a request for a Helagon one-shot kind of like the one you did for her birthday. Maybe you could do one where they celebrate his birthday together just before the wedding. He's all anxious, irritable and not looking forward to it and Helaena kind of surprises him maybe?

Thank you 💚💚💚

absolutely! now this became a continuetion to the first oneshot becausei thought it would read better - definitely can be read as stand alone though. it also... became a bit horny at the end- BUT not that much lolol. I hope you'll enjoy it!

The walkway of the gardens has never been more unappealing. 

The cobblestone pathway remains soiled by dirt, and the trees have not aged further than how they looked last year, but in this wee year that has passed in a breeze all has changed for Aegon. The sun of his nameday has refused to bend to his will and not rise, and his wedding is now due in days few, too.

The servants are cutting at the bushes to make topiaries that fit the beauty of the coming event, but he is more inclined to direct them to chop at the leaves more aimlessly. He has no inclination to believe the gods look to him at all, but even his mother with her countless visits at the sept knows aimlessness is all that has been bestowed on him.

The maids are weaving roses into the green-leaved arches across the yard, the sharp thorny stems plunging in struggle into the leafy bushes. He wonders if they’d paint the white daisies red too, if they could, ruin this garden whole. There’s a swirl to his stomach that he cannot ignore. He feels an anxious tingle across his skin, one that vyes at him to scratch and rip. 

Father looked him in the eyes for once, when he told him and Helaena of their future. Father looked him in the eyes and hoped this marriage will make him an entirely different person.

Aegon closes his eyes, breathes, and kicks as hard as he can against a nearby pot of flowers, shattering against the pavement. The servants and maid look at him as if he’s half mad, still in their place instead of working like the unwitting ants they are.

Helaena, who is just a few paces away and sits on the ground as always, is the only one that looks at him unsurprised. The young caterpillar that she fostered in her palm is given to a stack of fallen leaves that had been piled on by her side. If it eats away at the mess of leaves bestowed to him, Aegon doesn’t know; he turns on his heel and leaves the garden. The resignation she stares at him with might be the worst.

—

Some time after the sun sets, there is a knock on his door. 

Mother has already rebuked his behavior from earlier, as did grandsire. The knocks echo the pounding of his head, his migraine relentless. He almost wants to tell Ser Erryk to tell whichever esteemed guest at the door to fuck off, but no. He is unsure of who to expect at this late hour, but his sleep goes unperturbed;he wouldn’t have found it anyway.

The door opens, and Helaena peeks her face in, as if she’s never been in his rooms before, and as if these rooms won’t be hers too, soon enough. He lifts himself up against his bed’s headboard. “What do you want?” he asks crassly, but she doesn’t seem quite surprised at that either.

“Aegon,” she comes into the room in shy steps. “Come with me on a stroll.”

He squints his eyes at her for a moment. She’s wearing a day dress, not one for sleepwear. He wonders if this is any trick of hers, but she has become unpredictable since they travelled the city together. Aegon looks away as he thinks of it; that day heightened feelings got the better of him, kissing her in the air. He doesn’t think either of them returned to the ground quite the same.

He only wished to prove he could listen to her wishes, and even then he found himself at her mercy in the air, curling his face against her hair. Weak for comfort, and too weak for duty.

“Quick, Before someone else comes to guard your door,” Helaena then urges. He blinks. Ser Erryk is not there? It then dawns on him. She waited for the kingsguard to exchange posts. That lights a tinge of excitement in him. She knows it’s not allowed either.

Nightly walks shouldn’t be anything they’d be doing; unchaperoned even less so. And that’s all the difference, in her coming here. They only ever listen to the rules. When those rules are defied.. He licks his lips and reaches for his boots, hastily putting them on.She already defied the rules with him before, but it’s not quite the same. 

Defy everything for me.

Her eyes are set on him as he laces the leather boots. When she hears steps coming, she comes and takes him by the arm, hurrying him with her down the hall. He has not a smidge of an idea of where she plans to take him, but he doesn’t quite care. He’s rather fine with being led, when someone so willingly wishes to lead him.

They walk through the Keep like mice, careful to not be caught. Their own home is a maze to fear every turn of, but neither he nor Helaena are deterred. Helaena has a tight, demanding grasp when she wishes to, and her hold on his arm is not much different from how her hold on her favorite toys was as a child. How can her grasp be so insistent in times like these, he’s unsure.

Only when there is something to escape, they find themselves relying on each other entirely.

Finally, she takes him once more to the path of cobblestone and topiaries. The broken pot pieces were all lifted from the grass, no evidence of his fit remaining. The dim moonlight makes the flower arches cast shadow on the ground. He grows wary as they walk on each shadow. Why would she bring him back here, after this morning?

“What did you bring me here for?” he finally finds himself asking.

Helaena lowers her hand from his forearm to his hand, suddenly touch growing so fragile. Her gaze is cast on the ground, until her hand envelopes his fingers again and drags him to a stone table the court’s ladies often used for tea parties. She parts from him for just a moment; she goes to the bushes, and miraculously pulls out a bottle of wine and two cups to set on the table.

“I don’t know the city the way you do to traverse it on my own,” she confesses, nervous hands putting the items in front of her and him. “But I know the gardens and the bushes, and the kitchens and the hallway,” a small grin comes to her face.  “And I know mother confiscated your room’s pitcher of wine.” 

Aegon can’t help but release a puff of laughter. “You’ve stolen this from the kitchens?” he asks with raised eyebrows. Helaena shrugs at that, her hands coming together as looks back up at him, fingers now playing with one of her rings.

“Happy nameday, Aegon.” 

Her eyes are softer purple in the moonlight. What seemed like resignation earlier seems more akin to concern. He doesn’t quite like that concern; surely she didn’t bring him all the way here to fret over him like a mother. Aegon comes to sit at the table, and opens the bottle she had brought; it will certainly not be her favorite, a dry Dornish red wine like this, but she sits by him and accepts it when he pours the drink into her cup.

As afraid as he is for the coming days, he wants her confidence to be by his side to continue. One may call him a craven, he wants her to reach for him first. She was never scared to do as much when they were children and playing, she shouldn’t be now.

She eases up in giggles when she’s half a cup in. One remark about how they should hide the bottle in the shrubbery for mother to find and fuss over and she laughs, some wine staining her dress. This garden is not so daunting when he’s allowed to act as he pleases; if he wanted, he could roll all over the grass and Helaena wouldn’t care.

He finds himself half sprawled on her, fourth cup in while she just finishes her first. He doesn’t quite care if he falls back on the grass, but she does hold him safe from tumbling over.

“Are you feeling better than earlier?” she asks him tentatively, when his cheek is smooshed against hers. He lifts himself up a bit to look at her. Don’t look sad, he thinks to himself. He doesn’t like how her eyes are on the bottom of the empty cup. “I tried to think what you’d like, but I was unsure…”

“Unsure,” he repeats, playing with the hair at her nape. 

Helaena’s grip on her cup grows tighter. “You seem happier out of here,” she says quietly. “I wasn’t sure if I could do anything…”

Her lips fall into such a sour shape. Almost just like his. I want to taste it.

Aegon takes the cup in her hand and throws it to the bushes, taking her by surprise. She holds onto his arm and blinks at him. His other hand is woven into the curls of her hair. 

“You can,” he says, when their noses brush together. “Please.”

Just reach out to me, and you’ll soothe me whole. 

Maybe it’s the breeze of air that reminds her that all that happened in the sky may also happen on the ground. He’s so weak to red lips and when she closes the gap he can’t help but grab onto her waist. Fuck dragons, fuck the sky; who needs wings to soar?

He’s just fine, the way he is when she accepts him in her arms, when she kisses sloppily at his lower lip and chin because it doesn’t matter how and where she kisses, she’s just fervent on him. She yelps when he lifts her from her place on the stone bench and puts her on his lap. There’s much to hold under the folds of her dress, and he cherishes that much; squeezes through the fabric to feel her waist.

She pants on his lips, and tries her best to respond to his kisses, holding his face. Everything that falls into her palms seems to become her whole world for at least a moment in time. Until the time for her to lay him back to the leaves, he will take it.

By the time the kisses grow slow, he grows too comfortable and accidentally falls back onto the grass, making her fall with and on top of him. Their landing on the ground has them meeting with clarity once more. Aegon laughs when he sees how he painted her lips red, with the wine and these kisses of his own.

He’s no better than those ant-like servants, and he’s no better than the caterpillar that she kept in her hand. When she rolls off of him to lay on the green grass, he curls by her side. He doesn’t want to be left alone in the leaves.

Helaena turns on her side and leans against him too. Their future is already all painted; it is all they have left to themselves.

[sashketter]

The Captain and the Senator Chapter 5 Footnotes

Kunta afa - fuck me (Twi’leki) (source)

My deepest and sincerest thanks to odekiisu for this handy reference guide on clone armor. It’s been absolutely indispensable 😚😚😚🤗🤗🤗

Holy frijoles, Batman! This is the longest chapter yet 😱 I really didn’t want any chapters to go over 6k, but I didn’t feel like splitting this one up, either, and I actually spent a week editing it down lolol 🤷🏻‍♀️ 

Chi Eekway becomes the Senator for Pantora sometime during the Imperial Era - that’s canon. I can’t imagine Riyo stepping down of her own volition; she seems like she’s at the height of her prowess during TBB. Obviously, I don’t want to kill her, and forcing her out would require a level of political gymnastics that I don’t feel capable of engineering right now lol But I think the clones would give her a good enough reason to not just step down but redirect her efforts, reflecting Papanoida’s claim in “Trespass” that sometimes the wheels of democracy turn too slowly. If the Senate won’t help the clones, then by Jove, she’ll do it on her own, just like Papanoida did with his daughters’ kidnappings.

There’s a whole lot of exposition about clones on Pantora that I could have saved for the epilogue because some of it technically takes place after the events of TBB, but I wanted to show how important Riyo and New Kamino would be to the clones and set up her momentary distance from Rex but continuing involvement in his activities. Hopefully, a little flashforward isn’t too disruptive.

I’m of the growing opinion that Teth was the only base for the Clone Underground and Rex wasn’t exaggerating about how thinly spread his men are. So, I fixed it 😊 More bases, more clones rescued.

But that also means more chances of failure, which we already see in “Infiltration” and “Extraction,” but I like the idea of them chasing dead ends, never giving up hope, being so close to the center of other characters’ stories that could’ve changed their own trajectory but never quite catching on. I like the idea of ghosts or remnants of the Republic haunting the Empire.

Cody’s message about “making up for what he did” is taken from an abandoned subplot for the Obi Wan Kenobi show. It’s also an allusion to/continuation of what he said to Crosshair in “The Solitary Clone”: “We make our own decisions. Our own choices. And we have to live with them, too.” Clearly, he regrets something, enough to go AWOL, and if Rex hasn’t already found him, then it’s because he’s trying to right a wrong. Tbh, I’m still kind of on the fence about including Cody.

“BUT WHAT ABOUT THE INHIBITOR CHIPS???” You hypothetically say lol I probably didn’t need to bring them up, but I’d argue that bringing in more clones means reckoning with the chips eventually. I still can’t believe how TBB centered the chips all season 1 and then did nothing with them again 💀 I’ve said this before, but that might be the biggest loose end from the show. We know Kanan knows about the chips, and by the way he describes it, their reveal sounds like a public outing, not a confidential confession to surviving Jedi only. Would Rex and Echo have told Riyo!? I honestly don’t know. I can see their existence being argued in the Senate and the arguments working for and against the clones, so I left that open for now 😉 

The idea of having Rex transmit safe coordinates through coded radio messages comes from real-life spy craft. Another WWII parallel. I used the NATO phonetic alphabet, “Papa” for P and “Uniform” for U, to signify the letter part of the galactic grid points for Pantora and Teth.

I wanted at least one scene with Rex, Echo, Howzer, and Gregor together and not talking about missions. Just bros being bros.

I didn’t intend for Howzer to constantly cockblock Rex lolol but between silly “Captain Traitor” and the vigilant Mom of the Bad Batch who probably put up with a lot of antics from Fives, Howzer was the best candidate to keep Rex and Riyo from fucking off into the sunset and keeping them on point.

A running motif in my clone fics is that the boys just hit and smack each other whenever they’re the least bit annoyed or excited. I’m an only child, but I’m told this is typical sibling behavior? Correct me if I’m wrong. Either way, it also reminds me of real-life soldiers and athletes, these physically fit men who are wholly incapable of showing each other affection softer than a punch 💀 I won’t go into the homoerotic, toxic masculinity of it all, but my intent is pure and simple slapstick humor. I’ve got Fives hitting Jesse on the shoulder on a loop in my head 😌

I originally wanted to end the chapter with Rex sleeping in the barracks with his brothers and the boys teasing each other about their (s)exploits, but I’m too damn determined to stick to this stupid idea of each chapter beginning with Rex and ending with Riyo lol Maybe I’ll write an alternative chapter or something, a separate fic, so keep a weather eye open.

I would like to reiterate for the record, after the footnotes for Chapter 1, that I have absolutely nothing against Echiyo and think it’s actually a worthy ship. My intent with the first scene wasn’t to laugh at Echiyo like Rex did, but to highlight how closely those three work together and just wink and nod at Echiyo shippers. Live and let ship 🫡

What’s more power couple coded than talking strategy after fucking?

I’m sure we’ve all wanted to suck the life out of Rex at one point or another. I just hope I did our fantasies justice.

Remember, in my footnotes for Chapter 3, how I wanted to return to Riyo’s slip of saying “love you” to Rex? I lied lolol I was originally going to do it in this chapter, but I just couldn’t find an organic way of doing it. Maybe in later chapters, IDK yet.

Oh, and in case it’s not abundantly clear by now, I love alliteration.

Do y’all understand now why I saved “infiltration” for the title of this chapter? Because Riyo infiltrated the base, and then Rex infiltrated Riyo 😇

[starcrossedxwriter]

Alright, finally got back to this lolol and here it is! A bit of a different take on it but a lil fluff with MBJ & Raven! This is set in between their first date and her birthday!

***

Raven’s hand groped around in her bed without taking her eyes off the pages of her book as she tried to grab her discarded phone before it stopped ringing. She did not understand who in their right mind would have thought to call her at this hour. Admittedly she was still awake, so utterly engrossed in her book that she had pushed back her self-imposed bedtime four times. 

However, her annoyance at the person interrupting her reading time immediately dissipated when she saw the name scroll across her screen. 

Michael 

“I should charge you for calling me this late,” she mumbled into the phone as she slid her bookmark into place and tossed her book to the other side of her bed. His deep baritone laughter filled her ears. “What if I’d been asleep?”

“I knew you weren’t. You’re off on Thursdays and you told me you were about to start a like 900 page book.”

He could not see her but her face twisted up in shock that he would ever remember her work schedule. She supposed it made sense. They were only a week and some change but he was extremely respectful of her time and life outside their arrangement, only scheduling dates and events around her other obligations. 

“Touche,” she admitted as she flopped back down against her pillows. “But it’s only 760 pages, thank you very much.” 

“Not that much of a difference. I also…  just couldn’t sleep. Figured I see if you were strugglin’ too.” 

“How’s New York?” 

Michael was there to do an interview for a magazine and photo shoot. 

“It’s New York… same as it’s always been,” he chuckled. “Nothing special bout it when you’re here as often as I am. Excited to get home…” his words trailed off as he stopped himself from saying the important part: that he was excited to get back to her. 

“When do you come back?” She tried to hide the hopefulness from her voice. They had a date scheduled for Saturday night, dinner and a party Issa Rae was hosting that Michael wanted to attend. He had been gone the entire week and been so busy, Raven had not heard much from him at all during that time. She could not deny that there was a small part of her that was worried something would keep him there longer. 

“Don’t worry, baby girl. I’ll be back for our date 'n give you want you need,” he teased, his heart beating slightly faster at the idea that she wanted him back. 

“Ha ha. Don’t flatter yourself,” she joked, though she felt the anxiety in her chest ease a bit. “How would I get paid if you aren’t here?” 

“You gon’ pretend you ain’t excited to see me after a week?” 

She shrugged. “Can’t inflate your head more than it already is. Somebody’s gotta keep you grounded, superstar. Not that I mind the intrusion, but everything ok? Why’d you call?” 

“Oh, uhh next week, Ryan invited us to a dinner with the Black Panther cast… it’s your birthday though, that ok? Sorry, he texted me earlier and I forgot to ask.” 

Michael had told  himself 100 times that that was why he was calling her. Not to check in or see how she was doing. No, he called to get the answer to this one question… that he could’ve waited until morning to ask. But somewhere deep in his soul, he knew that he really called because he wanted to hear her voice more than he wanted rest, more than he wanted anything in that moment. 

She could tell he did not still believe her when she said she did not celebrate her birthday but something in her could not deny that it made her feel cared for that he thought to check first. 

“Y-yea… yea it’s fine.” 

“You sure?” She could hear the skepticism oozing out of every sllybale. She could imagine his face as if he were standing right in front of her. 

“Yea I’m positive. Dinner with THE Angela Bassett and Ryan Coogler feels like a damn good way to spend my birthday.”  

“Ok cool. I’ll let him know. How’s the book?” He asked as he settled in his bed. He needed to head to bed, he had an early day in the morning. But he refused to let another day pass without hearing her voice.

“Good. One of the kids recommended it for book club so I checked it out. It didn’t disappoint. Though I dunno if this book’s appropriate for teenagers. Definitely rated R. But the enemies just became lovers so I’m really living my best life reading this.”

Michael laughed. “You like that shit?” 

“It’s the best trope in existence, I dunno. I just love it when people fall in love slowly but feel it all at once? If that makes sense.” 

Michael could tell she had sat up as she spoke. He imagined the passion and excitement in her expression and body language at talking about something she loved just by how much brighter her voice got.

“Nah, I don’t get it,” he admitted. 

She laughed and turned onto her stomach, her legs crossing at the ankles as she talked to him. If anyone could see her, she looked like a school girl talking to their crush on the phone. 

“It’s like… you as the reader know they’ve loved each other from the moment they laid eyes on each other. They hate each other but every moment they spend together softens that barrier between them slowly but surely. And then one day, all of a sudden, it hits them all at once that they can’t live without each other. The build up is agonizing and torturous but the pay off? Worth it every single time. And I dunno, that’s what a lot of life is anyway.” 

“You talk about characters and their relationships as if they’re real.” 

“Cause they are. Not literally, of course. But I dunno… when I was writing, they existed in my head like they were real, living breathing beings. You tellin’ me Adonis Creed doesn’t live rent and bill free in that head of yours?”

“He does. All of ‘em do actually. Some more than others. Takin’ on the personas, can be hard to shake.”

“How do you do it and… keep you?” She asked quietly, her fingers playing with the charm on the necklace he got her the week before for one of their dates. She found herself sliding it on every single morning even when he was not around.

“Always had a strong sense of me… always knew who I was and wanted to be. I can go down the road of a character but I always know how to find my way back cause I know me.” 

“That must be nice…” 

He could hear the longing in her voice. 

“What?”

“Being able to get lost and have something you wanna come back to… most people are trying to escape their reality and have no desire to come back.” 

Michael propped himself up on his pillows, his hand resting on his bare chest. “That how you feel?” 

“Sometimes. But there’re some things worth coming back to Earth for these days,” she mused with a soft smile. 

“Like what? An insanely handsome boyfriend?” 

She laughed. “Yes, my insanely sexy, fake boyfriend is one of those things.”  

“I aim to please.” He smiled as he heard a soft yawn, Raven clearly trying to stifle it but she failed miserably. The selfish side of him wanted to ignore it and talk to her until the sun came up. However, he knew that was not right. “You should go to sleep.” 

“Yea I should,” she mused. And he was right, she should. However, she had no desire to hang up on him. She did not need to know how her book ended, she did not need sleep. She just needed him, his presence. “Ok tell me… your favorite role you��ve ever played?” 

“Oof that’s hard. You know I’ve been actin’ since I was like a kid, right? Dunno if I remember every role honestly.” 

Raven let out a cackle. “Wow… just had to throw that slight flex in there, huh?? You’ve had sooooo many roles you can’t even remember your favorite??” 

His laughter made her heart swell. “Not a flex! Well… yea kinda a flex. But it’s true.” 

“Was it… Wallace?” 

“The character that started my legacy of dyin’ on camera?? Nah. Though I loved being on that set.” 

“Hmmm…” her chocolate brown nails tapped against her chin as she contemplated. “Oh I know… Human Torch wasn’t it? Honestly, one of your best movies.” She bit her lip as she stifled a laugh at his gasp on the other end of the phone. 

“Wowwwwwwww, had to bring up my one flop huh??” 

“Told you… gotta keep you humble.” 

“Well you succeeded. That movie wasn’t… that bad really, was it?” he asked with a chuckle. Though he already knew the answer. 

“I don’t think you really want me to answer that, Michael.” 

“Ok, watch when I humble that ass on Saturday night,” he answered, the dominance in his voice making Raven’s thighs clench together. 

Fuck, how does he have this effect on me??

“Don’t threaten me with a good time, baby,” she answered, her voice sexy and sultry. 

She shifted onto her back and pulled her covers up to snuggle deeper into bed as they talked. 

“I think you’re amazing in all your movies,” she offered quietly. 

Michael smiled, her praise of his talent felt different than other people's… like she truly meant it and was not just saying it to be nice. “Thanks… Best book you’ve ever read?” 

“Impossible question. And I’m not answering that til you name your favorite role! Can’t flip it back on me.” 

“Oh come on…” 

The two playfully bickered back and forth for another hour, answering random questions about each other as the night stretched on and on. Michael was not even ready to hang up, neither of them were but he could hear Raven fighting sleep in her voice. He had kept her up long enough but he prayed she thought it was worth it. 

“Aight, you’re about to pass out on me. Go to bed.” 

She let out a yawn that tugged at Michael’s heartstrings. He did not understand how literally everything she said and did made him feel so many things. She rubbed her eyes before nodding. 

“Yea I guess I should get some sleep. I just…” she sighed. “This was… nice. I like talking to you before bed.” 

Michael’s grin grew wider as he listened to her words. “Same time tomorrow night? At a more acceptable west coast hour?” 

She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth to stop the cheshire cat sized grin that spread on her face. 

“It’s a date… free of charge, this time.” 

“Night, Rae.” 

“NIght, Michael.” 

Raven held the phone down from her ear for a moment, staring at the screen as his name scrolled past. He did not press the end button and neither did she for a few seconds. Finally, she ended the call and let the phone fall onto her chest. Something in her soul felt more at ease after talking to him, a peace washing over her that she had not expected. Something about just talking to him did that for her, something she had not expected when they got into this arrangement. 

However, it was a welcomed development. One she loved so much that she would gladly ignore the exhaustion she would surely feel to stay up and talk to him again the next day.

Tags: @apenasumlug4r

I’m not sure if anyone has ever asked, but I need Raven and Michael having a cell phone conversation while he’s on an important recording

Anon I need a couple more details for this one… sorry 😭 lol like him pausing an interview to talk to her or something like that?? Feel free to DM me if that’s easier lol

[ikeromantic]

Eeeeeeek! I just saw your latest follower event! Hehehehe ☺️☺️♥️♥️🤩🤩 Massive congratulations dear! I swear ive requested in every event 🤣🤣🤩♥️

Lolol so i am here once more to humbly request more of the man i love♥️♥️♥️🤩🤩😳😳

Could i pretty please with syrup ontop request Ikevamp Theo!

With

Space,

Hawthorn tree - protection and defense

Annnnnnd Calliope - muse of ecstatic harmony, poetry, and eloquence

Hehehe thanks so much dear♥️🌻🌻🌻😳 as always dm me if i accidentally missed a step!😳 sending all the sparkles! And once again! Massive congratulations ♥️♥️

You do! And that makes me smile ^_^ Theo is always a fun one to write. It also give me an excuse to look up Dutch curse words xD So let's see . . . approx. 570 words on the themes of Space, Hawthorn - protection, and Calliope - eloquence!

Theo watched the crowd with a certain wary anticipation. There were more people here than the cabaret could comfortably hold. All the tables were moved out and the floor was packed with people standing shoulder to shoulder. Quite a few were drunk and rowdy, trying to push for space. Impatient. 

“There aren’t many women here,” his girl said nervously, going on tiptoe to speak close to his ear. 

“Right. It’s mostly men and whor - ah, working ladies.” He tightened his grip on her waist. “Don’t worry about it. You’re with me, Hondje.”

She grinned up at him, some of the tension easing. “That’s right. I am.” Her chin rested on his arm. “Thank you for bringing me here. I really wanted to see an opera.”

“Opera-comique,” he pinched her bottom lightly. “It’s not Iolanta.”

“I don’t even know what that is,” she giggled.

A drunk lurched past their nearest neighbor, stumbling into her as she laughed. Theo tried to turn her so he took the brunt of the impact, but there wasn’t space to do it.

“Watch where you’re going,” the man spat, glaring down at her, then realizing this was a woman, he leered. 

Theo pulled her closer. “I think you need to move on, monsieur. Quickly.”

The drunk ignored him. “I could forgive you for a kiss.” His eyes drifted from her face to her bare shoulders and down the fitted gown she wore, tracing the shape of her under the fabric.

“I -”

“Franse slag! One more word and you’ll regret it.” Theo grabbed the man’s collar, his words a low rumble in his chest.

“What’d ya call me? I’m not scared of you.” The drunk drew back a fist. He was a big man with hard calloused hands, and in a fair fight, he might be able to take someone like Theo. But it was never a fair fight with a vampire. 

With a huff of annoyance, the girl pushed Theo and the drunk apart. “Are you both serious right now? If you start fighting, this place will turn into a riot.”

Theo shrugged. “I’m not letting this mierenneuker touch you. Or think about touching you.” Anger colored his cheeks and lit his eyes.

“I dunno what that means, but you won’t be able to say it when I pound yer face.”

Theo caught his fist and began to squeeze.

“Wait! Wait! Please, guys! Stop it!” Her protest did not have any impact. The men glared at each other. She put her hands on her hips. “Theo, if you don’t let him go, I’m leaving by myself right now. And . . . drunk guy! You’ll never get laid if you talk to women like that. Especially not ones that clearly have a boyfriend. So go home, get sober, and learn some manners!”

Her outburst attracted the attention of the people around them and several cheered. The ‘working girls’ clapped. 

After a tense moment, the men let go of each other. The drunk grumbled an apology and slunk away. 

Theo took her hand. “Didn’t know you had such a persuasive bark, Hondje.”

“Pffft. You could learn some manners too, you know. Still calling me a puppy. Lovers usually get nice nick-”

He silenced her with a kiss, lifting her off her feet. This brought more whoops and cheers. He didn’t set her down until she was breathless and glassy eyed. “That’s better,” he smirked. “Now stop yapping. The show is about to start.” 

[anischa22]

Last Christmas event told how MC presence changed many things for the suitor + a bit of their childhood memories at Christmas

This memory involves one of the suitors and bc this, i gave up the premium ending for their sweet ending :') even I didn't finish all of the story though

So the story be like this :

~ Chevalier x Sariel

~ Nokto x Rio

~ Luke x Licht

~ Jin x Leon

~ Yves x Clavis

And vice versa

I'll share their memories 😊 some story its very detailed but some don't and i don't very good at English so feel free to correct me!

Chevalier x Sariel

~ They have the same view of Christmas, there are no good memories other than bloodstained memories. So while everyone is busy with celebrations, the two of them are busy getting rid of all enemy, of course working separately.

~ Chevalier been doing this since he was still a kid, as Sariel say. If he doesn't do that, then he'll just be wasting his time reading

~ Meanwhile Sariel, always doing the dirty work even though the king disapproves his action

~ On one occasion, Sariel who was on his way back after getting rid of some rebel group, met Chevalier in the forest, standing covered in blood amidst the scattered corpses. (Here Chevalier is described as 'kid' while Sariel as 'young man')

~ Sariel offers to clean up what's left, because as the princes educator, he also wants Chevalier to enjoy Christmas. Well yeah, Chevalier doesn't care about that

~ After that day, Sariel went to Chevalier with a book for exchanging information. Then Chevalier offers an agreement, if Sariel can bring him the book he wants, Chevalier will provide all the information Sariel wants

~ This continues until now. Sariel said he also managing Chevalier's library besides Clavis. (This from Sariel's POV story aka if Chevalier is not paired with MC)

~ from Chevalier story, actually the two of them rarely talk. But this is different since Chevalier became king and also tutoring MC. The sweet ending ends when Sariel invites Chevalier to drink together in his office and Chevalier agreed!

~ Actually Chevalier asked Sariel to find out what Christmas gifts are popular in town. Surprisingly for the first time, Chevalier was worried that his gifts would not enough satisfy MC (aww~)

~ as addition from Chevalier story, he took MC to visit his grandfather, Marquess Michel (and not for work reason 😊) Marquess Michel says he'll going to Christmas party that Chevalier hosted. Chevalier was quite surprised, because apart from his health reasons, it's well known that Marquess hated the late King for what happened to his daughter. And after that incident, the Marquess never set foot on the court again

This is very good for MC. Indirectly shows that their relationship was sanctioned by Marquess Michel. Even though he is old and rarely go out, the Marquess's influence still the same. Just with his existence is enough to make people shut their mouth (wow now we know where Chevalier got that charisma!😳)

~ One more! Chevalier accompanies MC to learn dance then they take a break. Actually MC is really tired, her legs are shaking but she doesn't want to sit because Chevalier is still there. Unexpectedly, Chevalier grabbed MC, then sat on the dance hall floor with MC on his lap! Aww~man, out of all people .... Chevalier 🤧

Jin x Leon

~ Jin looks troubled, Leon asks what's wrong. Jin said he was looking for Christmas present for MC then he asked Leon for help and they went to town. Turns out Jin used Leon to bring his basket lolol

When they visited the flower shop, Jin saw a small pine tree, the only tree left in the shop. The size of the tree reminds Jin of Leon's height back then. He reminisced about how his siblings were the size of those little pine trees and now they growing with such an unadorable size lol

Jin : pfft, Leon, you used to be as small as this tree 😊

Leon : ... Ugh ... Hey, that was when I was little ...

~ Flashback, one day at the court, Jin meets Leon. They rarely see each other because Leon spends most of his time in his room. Jin greeted Leon and asked how he was. Knowing that it was Leon's first Christmas outside his room, Jin gave Leon the candy he had brought with him as Christmas gift

~ Jin will never forget the boy face that said "delicious!" when he ate the candy, even though Jin was feel a bit sorry that candy he had at that time was mint candy. Next year, they meet again, Jin commented on Leon who looks healthier and often goes out. Jin want to get along with Leon so this time Jin gave honey flavored candy. Leon's response still the same. Well later Jin found out that Leon always said delicious to any food that was given to him lol

~ from Jin's story, we can tell that Leon has already taken the Fourth Prince place. At that time, Leon still unfamiliar with court and cities, so he goes out quite often. Jin was the first to approach him and give him a gift. Jin is also the one who helps Leon adapt in the court

~ from Leon story, MC helps Leon distribute gifts to the children in town. One of the children confessed his love to MC. Don't want to lose, Leon challenged the kid to fight for MC lol so they had a snowball fight

Yves x Clavis

~ sometimes, I thought that Clavis was an isekaid, came from the future then transferred to Rhodolite era bc .... the heck he want give his lover a DAKIMAKURA!! 😭

In addition to a Clavis-sized pillow, he will also give her a bed sheet with a picture of himself 😭

~ Clavis already imagined MC being happy and loved him even more when she got the gift. But MC ...

Yeah, she rejected that idea

~ "Why? You don't want to be sandwiched by two Clavis?" 😭

~ okay after that, Clavis back to his usual routine while thinking about MC .... But suddenly Yves, who was walking in front Clavis, stop and ask "Clavis-sama, why are you following me?". Yves had a bad feeling when Clavis smirked and sure enough, Clavis 'kidnapped' Yves 😅

~ Clavis takes Yves to a cafe, actually Clavis asked Yves for advice because Yves always up to date with popular trends in city but because Yves is always scared and runs away whenever he sees Clavis, Clavis has no choice but to tie him up lol.

Hearing this, Yves's mood instantly changed. Yves proudly told what he had known, reminds Clavis that Yves used to laugh more often back there. Then without wasting any time, Clavis immediately dragged Yves to hunt ingredients. Yes, Clavis wants to make something but with ingredients he bought himself. Poor Yves

~ Next day, after delivering Christmas present to his younger brothers (a tree that makes funny sounds for Licht, a carrot-shaped cushion with carrot scent for Nokto and a surprise box with honey popping out for Luke 😅) Clavis presented his homemade cake to Yves

The cake has 10 colors with 10 different flavors, Yves commented with "a color that makes you lose your appetite" lol Clavis reminded that no matter how the cake was made, Yves would always eat it

Yves asks why does Clavis always spend Christmas bothering him than with the other brothers?

Clavis replied that Yves' reaction was more interesting. So it's very worth it

~ Clavis recalled, Yves in old days didn't open his heart to anyone. Given his lineage, it may be unavoidable that if he feels he has no place in this country. He always celebrate Christmas with his nanny until one day, his nanny died. Yves still attending the party, but he's always in the corner of hall

Clavis then took initiative by approaching Yves started by baking a cake, setting a trap if Yves ran away from him and many more. Clavis had thought about stopping his actions, but seeing that his actions were the right answer for Yves, he still does it until now.

yep, even though at first Yves will cried, but in the end he will laugh too

~ from Yves perspective, well yeah he was annoyed and angry at Clavis' pranks. But after thinking it through, he realized some of Clavis's mischief happened when he was feeling depressed or when he wants to cry. In the end Yves didn't get angry and just laughed at Clavis silly prank

(it's cute when Yves fell in Clavis's trap hole, he crying and screamed "LIICCHHTTTT!!")

Thus Yves knows that Clavis cares for him and thanks to him, Yves doesn't feel so lonely every Christmas come

~ "Maybe Clavis's mischief is 90% of his hobbies, but the remaining 10% is kindness." Lol

~ btw in Yves story, Yves wants to surprise MC and Clavis appeared out of nowhere, took Yves right away to a shop that turned out to be Clavis's ... So the items being sold there are Clavis's unusual and surprising items ... That surprisingly become very populer in the city 👀

Yves rejected all of that. So Clavis asked if all the surprises here didn't match his expectations, then what kind of surprise did he want for MC? Yves realized that Clavis' suggestion was very reasonable. He thought about how sometimes Clavis acts like a real big brother

Sadly, I didn't have time to read Nokto x Rio and Luke x Licht stories ( ；∀；) But if I'm not mistaken, Nokto and Licht's memory is them trying to make blankets (?) for their mother. Aww~ so cute 😖

[daily-dose-of-imagines]

Nsfw/Sfw Holiday Hcs

@looseautumnleaftea​ asked: Hi there! I hope you're well, I was wondering if I could request some SFW and NSFW Headcanons of what Sabo and Ace would do with their s/o during the holidays, please? Thank you for your time! Stay awesome!

.・゜-: ✧ :-　　-: ✧ :-゜・．

Hi anon and thank you for requesting with us! I am so sorry this is so late, but I hope you still enjoy it!

The NSFW will be under the cut for those you who don’t want to read it!

>Admin 𝕋

.・゜-: ✧ :-　　-: ✧ :-゜・．

SFW:

I feel that Sabo would be so excited to do all the holidays traditions with you!

I see him decorating the house and I see him wanting to bake holiday cookies with you

Sabo would be the type of person to want to go out and find the best type Christmas for the both of you!

Like, Sabo would be far more excited about it all than you would be

He would want you to watch him put up the Christmas lights, telling him he is doing a good job

And once the lights are done, he would want to start on the house, making it extremely festive, lots of greens and reds

He would want to have the biggest wreath for the door, so big, one would think they would get attacked by it lolol

Sabo would be the one to cook the christmas dinner, so that you didn’t have to. Not that he minded, I feel Sabo likes cooking especially if it were for you

He would cook an extravagant meal, simply perfection. And he would be excited to hear your praises about his Christmas dinner and how well he did!

Another thing that I can really see, is Sabo singing romantic Christmas songs to you!

Whether it is when you are getting ready for bed or if you are working on a little craft, or even when he is cooking dinner for you, Sabo would be singing romantic Christmas jingles

It was his way of showing you that he loved you just as much as he loved Christmas!

.・゜-: ✧ :-　　-: ✧ :-゜・．

I feel that Ace wouldn’t be as excited about the Christmas as Sabo is, but he would be excited in his own way lol 

He wouldn’t be the type to cook you an extravagant holiday dinner or to fully decorate the house

I feel he would put lights up on the house if you were to ask him nicely (and do him a favor later on if you know what I mean)

Other than the lights, I feel Ace would actually be pretty excited about trying to find a good Christmas tree for the house

That would probably be the best part for him

Going out into the woods and looking at nature while the snow falls slowly on the leaves and cold ground

He would ask you which you liked the best, and when you would say one, he would get really serious, saying how he thinks a different tree would be better

Basically, Ace is a lumberjack in disguise

Like, I imagine if you were to want to light a fire in the fireplace, Ace would have to be the one to pick the best type of firewood

Just imagine pine wood burning, the smoke smelling of sweet pine

he would be the reason as to why it smelt like Christmas and pine 

Like he would be that type of person during the holiday to do that shit

(What a dad lolol)

Ace would also be the type to want to watch you bake cookies

He would love to just observe you mix the ingredients and put the dough into the oven

It’s so domestic, and it makes his heart so warm!

NSFW: (Sabo)

SO, for Sabo and his little sexy time, I feel he would want it to be something special

He would want to do something spicy on Christmas day, to make it extra extra special

Something that you and him would remember for the rest of your lives

He would set up the bedroom while you were away doing something

He would put cinnamon and pine scented candles around the room while he was wearing a nice silk robe, ready for you to come home

And when you do, boy you would not be ready for all the love he was about to give

He would take you by the hands and slowly lead you to the bedroom, and when you both enter, Sabo would close the door and start to kiss your neck while gradually undressing you

You are totally into it, the scented candles making you dizzy in a good way as Sabo roamed his hand over your body

Your moans make him shudder inside and out, it makes him want to take you then and there, but he wanted this to be a slow and special event

so he will take his time eating you up like you were one of his Christmas cookies

Every lick and bite and suck will make you want to cry out in pleasure

And it will last for hours until Sabo takes you

And he would be slow and methodical, drinking in all the whines and moans you gave him

And he loved how you held him when you were under him as he slowly thrusted into you

It would last for hours, and he would not let you go until the both of you were completely exhausted!

(Ace)

See, Ace would be the type of person to not really have anything planned

But you know how i said he liked watching you bake cookies?

Well, he liked watching you lick the dough off the spoon too

So much so that he would scoop some of the dough onto his finger and point it at you, indicating that he wants you to lick it off of his finger

Getting the vibe quickly, you would give him a seductive gaze as you suck the cookie dough off of his finger

Things would get hot and heavy real quick

Ace would move everything off the dining able so he can make room and place you on it

He would undress you hastily and groan as you nudged is hard on

You were into it just as much as he was

He would spread your legs and go down on you with the vigor of a warrior

and he would be so good at it, that you wouldn’t last five minutes (this makes his ego go way up)

You would want to do the same thing for him, but he would stop you

“No, this is my Christmas present to you” Ace would say, his voice gravelly and raspy, low and sexy

the rumble would go to directly below, make you more aroused than before

and Ace would give you the time of your life, making you moan and sometimes even scream, to which would make him even more enthusiastic to give you more pleasure 

You would think the table would have broken by how hard he was pounding into you!

By the end of it, the cookies were left forgotten, the kitchen a mess and you and Ace went to the bath to freshen up after your little spicy kitchen escapade! And in it, there will be major cuddle time!

[amphibious-entity]

TMBS Book 1 Brain Dump

~An Embarrassingly Long Post~

I don’t know why I’m writing this or why I’m so determined to do it. Maybe to finally assume my true form and become a mega dork on main, or maybe just for fun!

This is basically a compilation of all the main points running through my head after reading The Mysterious Benedict Society (2007) for the first time. Rather than posting a ton and spamming the tag, everything’s here in one neat package! (hopefully this gets it all out of my system rip)

Contents:

The Book Itself

The Book Itself, for real this time

The Characters

A Funny Parallel

The S.Q. Section

Lines & Scenes I Liked

Spoilers abound!

The Book Itself

Upon acquiring the first three books (don’t judge me pls), I was surprised at just how long they are. Like, they’re still pretty light being paperbacks and all, but these books are hefty lads.

The first book has this Disney+ Original Series circle thing printed on it, which is kind of unfortunate. Regardless, I love the cover illustration and yellow is actually my favorite color :D It made me weirdly quite happy whenever I saw the book lying around in my room

Also, it’s really cute how there’s a letter from Mr. Benedict at the end! (It only reveals that you can find out his first name if you “know the code”, meaning the bit of Morse printed below the summary on the back.) Shock and horror, though, as I realized I’m starting to recognize some of the letters

The Book Itself, for real this time

It’s wonderful how the tone of the book really shone through to the show adaptation. Something about the deliberateness of the aesthetic, from the set designs to the fashion to scene compositions, that really sells that particular style— like it’s very clear that this story is being told to us, rather than one we’re seeing unfold, if that makes sense.

Where that narration style stood out to me the most was the first chapter. We are told (rather than shown) how Reynie gets himself to the point of the second test, and there’s this whole twisty time maneuver for that whole sequence of events that’s really interesting

A super secret fun fact about me is that I wanted to be a writer when I was younger! So this particular balance of show vs. tell is really neat, since it runs counter to my own tendencies. The sheer amount of commas in every sentence is also kind of comforting, since Ahah, I Do That in those few serious-ish attempts at writing lol

Overall this book’s style reminds me a lot of Roald Dahl’s books, which are very nostalgic for me :D The whole “kids are more competent than adults” angle helps a lot too haha

The Characters

Oh boy here’s where I get a little bit critical! Overall I did really like this book!! it’s just that that expresses itself in all this weird “”analysis”” lol

Reynie - much better in the books than in the show

It’s sort of a lukewarm take but I feel like show!Reynie is kind of boring? He doesn’t have a lot going on flaw-wise, and obviously since he’s the protagonist he can’t have too many weird traits or else the kids watching can’t project themselves onto him as easily

(I call it the difference between an aspirational protagonist and a vessel protagonist. Going off of the Roald Dahl vibes, think Matilda vs Charlie. show!Reynie is more of a Charlie)

Thus when we get to see him really struggle with the Whisperer and doubt himself it gives him a lot more dimension, at least in my opinion

It is a federal crime that the white knight scenes were not adapted into the show

Sticky - my son

I’ve long held to no one besides myself and my long suffering sister that Sticky is The Best Member of the Society

He happened to hit a lot of the Bingo squares of Stuff I Like In Characters: glasses, anxious, nice :), kind of a coward but ultimately is there for his friends, etc

For some reason I don’t talk about him nearly as much as you-know-who, but I love him just as dearly

Kate & Constance - I don’t have much to say

Kate is really interesting in this book! I like how we get to see more of her depths, in particular that one passage about her belief that she is invincible being the only thing that keeps her from falling apart? :c

Also her constant fidgeting is relatable lol

Constance is somehow a lot more tolerable in the book. I think I’m just one of those people with no patience for small children, unfortunately lol

(Some of) The Adults

It’s interesting that they had such an offscreen presence for most of the book. Giving them more time was probably one of the stronger changes of the show

However if that decision was made at the expense of the white knight scenes I think the choice should have been clear

I like the way Rhonda and Number Two are written

Milligan always on sad boy hours 😔✊

The “mill again” passage is touching but kind of messes up the pacing of the getaway, at least for me. Maybe I should read it again to make sure I didn’t miss something

Miss Perumal is much better in the show. We see so little of her in the book she doesn’t function well as an emotional anchor for Reynie, imo

The Institute Gang

Jackson and Jillson serve their purpose well, and Martina was surprising to say the least. I like the direction they took her in the show! I can’t imagine how funny it must have been to watch the tetherball subplot come out of nowhere lolol

These sections were written out of sequence, so random tidbit I couldn’t fit in The S.Q. Section: I like how he stumbles over his words. relatable

Mr. Curtain

While I think I know why they decided to not give Curtain the wheelchair in the show, we were totally robbed of Actor Tony Hale’s performance for the reveal during the final confrontation

Speaking of the wheelchair, it’s such a powerful symbol of his need for control or rather, his fear of losing it

The Contrast between him and Mr. Benedict. This point is expanded on in A Funny Parallel

Mr. Benedict

Oh boy, Mr. Benedict… How do I say this

I find it hard to trust Mr. Benedict, unfortunately

I mean to say, I do in the sense that I know he would never hurt the kids, thanks to knowing that a) this is a children’s book series and b) the meta (tumblr) states that he is really nice and lovable and stuff, but seriously. Why do the kids trust him at first?? I probably missed something somewhere

I like to think I’m an optimistic person, but unfortunately I’m also super paranoid. The premise of “a bunch of vulnerable orphans team up with a strange old man” is just so odd to me I don’t know how to explain it

I don’t know!!! I really want to trust Mr. Benedict

One of the strengths of the show is that we get to see him more often, and thus he gets to acknowledge more often that the plan is weird and that he feels really badly for putting the kids in danger and that he’s trustworthy and genuine

But his lack of presence for most of the book just makes him into something of a specter, invisible and unknowable, speaking only in riddles from across the bay

Which is why the white knight scene is so important!! I loved that scene ;-;

Because here’s an actual emotional connection! We can actually see it happening, rather than only being told that it exists

Reynie asking for advice and receiving encouragement, in words that demonstrate that Mr. Benedict actually cares about him and worries about him and agghh

It is a federal crime that the white knight scenes were not adapted into the show

But overall this whole issue didn’t ruin my enjoyment of the book at all! It’s just ->

A Funny Parallel

Okay, ready for my biggest brain, hottest take ever??

Mr. Benedict and Mr. Curtain…. are… the same

I mean obviously not entirely, given that one is benevolent and kind and the other is… Mr. Curtain

But seriously. Genius old man seeks out children (mainly orphans) to enact a plan. Said children often end up incredibly devoted to his cause and deeply admire him this is a little flimsy

Undoubtedly that’s intentional and is supposed to show the difference between them, like some kind of cautionary tale? “Let yourself be vulnerable and let others help you, lest you turn eeeeviiillll”

I guess that’s where the aforementioned epic contrast comes in. You get Mr. Curtain, strapped into his wheelchair and hiding behind those mirrored sunglasses, terrified (but unwilling to admit it) of ever showing the tiniest hint of vulnerability, vs. Mr. Benedict, who can let himself fall knowing that someone will catch him :’)

Anyhow I have nothing against the parallels, I just think it’s funny

The S.Q. Section

The S.Q. Quarantine Thread so it doesn’t leak out everywhere else <3

I’d like to meet the emo angstlord genius who read this book and decided to make SQ into Dr. Curtain’s son. What in the world

Okay I should probably preface this by saying that I absolutely adore both book!S.Q. and show!SQ with all my heart. Somehow, despite being a completely different character in both mediums, he has managed to be one of the best characters in either and certainly one of my favorites (besides Sticky of course) in the entire franchise, despite the fact that I’ve only read the first book/watched the show so far. I am confident in this statement.

But seriously! How?? Why?? I could probably write a whole other essay about why show!SQ is such an interesting character, and the change works so incredibly well. I’m just. Baffled

Okay, focus. book!S.Q. is such a sweetheart, oh my goodness. Like, 100% one of the most endearing characters in the book. Poor guy. I don’t even know where to start!!

He just seems to be a genuinely good guy at heart, despite being technically one of the bad guys. He’s genuinely happy for Reynie and Sticky when they became Messengers and helped Kate when she “fell” and was concerned about Constance when she looked sick and how he was in that meeting with Mr. Curtain and Martina?!!? aaahhhhghgh ;-; he just wants people to be happy TT-TT

Comparing him against literally every character at the Institute is probably what makes him so endearing tbh. When everyone else is so awful to the kids, it really makes him stand out. Like a cheerful little nightlight in the worst, most humid and rank bathroom you’ve ever been in

It’s kind of pointless to theorize about a book series that’s already concluded (I think?) but. Is the implication of S.Q.’s forgetfulness supposed to be that Mr. Curtain used him in brainsweeping experiments somehow? The timeline probably definitely absolutely doesn’t line up but like. How did he get to being a Messenger being the way he is now, given how cutthroat the process is? And then of course Mr. Curtain keeps him around as an Executive because he’s fun to mess with and presumably his loyalty. I��m very curious as to how their relationship develops in the other books, if at all. Those are probably where the seeds of the “let’s make them family” logic were planted

But wouldn’t it be hilarious if the reason we don’t know what “S.Q.” stands for in the books is that he just. Forgot

Another thing that occurred to me. Given that he and the other Executives were Messengers at some point, what were their worst fears? What is S.Q.’s worst fear?? Inquiring minds need to know

One last horrible little anecdote: I was thinking about book!S.Q. while eating breakfast, as one does, and suddenly it hit me.

I want to believe The Author Trenton Lee Stewart had the name for a character, S.Q. Pedalian, and was like, “Hm! What sort of quirky trait should this young fellow have?” Because, of course, in this style of fiction every character has to have at least one cartoonish or otherwise distinguishing trait to stand out in the minds of children. (For instance, Kate has her bucket, Sticky has his glasses, Constance is angry, and Reynie is Emmett from the Lego Movie)

Anyhow, he looks around the room, searching for inspiration. Suddenly he comes across a jumbo box of plastic wrap. Completely innocuous in design, save for one line of text. 300 SQ FT.

“…large… S.Q. …feet? THAT’S IT!” i’m sorry

Lines & Scenes I Liked

In no particular order!

Sticky quotes Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Evil combination aerobics/square dancing in the gym with the Executives

Everyone being happy at the end :’)

Everyone partying after Sticky reunites with his parents, and later finding Mr. Benedict asleep at his desk from the moment they shook hands :’’)

Literally any scene with Sticky in it

Any time Kate says “you boys” or “gosh”

[“Um, sir?” S.Q. said timidly, raising his hand. “A thought just occurred to me.” / Mr. Curtain raised his eyebrows. “That’s remarkable, S.Q. What is it?”] clown prince of my heart </3

S.Q.’s determined monologue about searching for clues after he bungled up the first time

Literally any scene with S.Q. in it (please refer to The S.Q. Section)

Reynie trying to resist the Whisperer.

[Let us begin. / First let me polish my spectacles, Reynie thought. / Let us begin. / Not without my bucket, Reynie insisted. He heard Mr. Curtain muttering behind him. / Let us begin, let us begin, let us begin. / Rules and schools are tools for fools, Reynie thought.]

NO MORE HURTIN’ WITH CURTAIN

Milligan showing up on the island!!

Remember the white knight hhhhhh

“controle”

A Super Secret Bonus Section

I would be extremely surprised if anyone read through all the way down here lol. Regardless, here’s a little acknowledgements section :D not tagging anyone since I don’t want to bother all of these people

Special shoutout to tumblr blog stonetowns for unknowingly yet singlehandedly demolishing my reluctance to read the books by posting a ton of cute quotes. Thank you for your service o7

Thanks to the two OGs that liked the post I made right before this one, for being my unwitting enablers and for sticking around despite being a) technically an internet stranger (hello!) and b) someone I haven’t spoken to irl in literal years (hey!!)

Last but not least thankz 2 my sister for putting up with me ranting about the book when I first got it and for asking about “CQ” sometimes lol. (i desperately hope you’re not reading this orz)

[sunlightwoo]

high

☀︎ pairing: seonghwa x fem!reader

☀︎ genre: angst, squints of fluff, slice of life (i guess you can call it?)

☀︎ wc: 1163

☀︎ plot: You didn’t think that you would see him again after all that time spent apart, but now that you were both in each other’s paths again, what could this mean for the two of you?

☀︎ a/n:  hey guys!! so i used prompt 1 & 24 for the drabble prompt event that @ficscafe​ was hosting and i decided why not start off the collection with some angst? but i hope you guys are ready for the next few weeks cause i am definitely not LOLOL

STORMS OF BROKEN HEARTS | ATEEZ MASTERLIST

The blue sky entrances you into a calm state of mind that makes you believe that nothing could go wrong on your wedding day. With your eyes trained on nothing in particular, you waited in the waiting room as you could only tell that within an hour or so, you were finally getting married to the love of your life, or so you thought.

From what you have experienced in the last two to three years, the marriage that was set up now was done because your parents had wanted you to succeed as their heir for their company. Not wanting to disappoint them, you had already complied and went with what they had wanted for you to do and met with your arranged fiance, seeing as though he was a nice guy. 

And he was, which was why you hated the situation that you were in. 

You remember the past relationship that you had been in just months before they had poured all the arranged marriage junk on you, and remember that it originally was a friendship that could’ve been more. The feelings and every single emotion that was carried on your sleeve were present for the other to see, yet there wasn’t anything that either of you had done because of the fear that your own bond of trust would break.

Staring at your reflection in the mirror, you feel a sense of pity for yourself as you start to rethink everything that has happened since he had been the one to walk out mid fight about what you could’ve been. It could’ve been the wedding jitters that you may be going under, from what people can assume from your current state, but you knew that it wasn’t it, because you were getting thoughts of doubt on whether or not you had truly lived the life that you had wanted in the first place. 

You never wanted to take on your family’s company in the first place, but instead move to the suburban seaside that was miles away from your hectic life; especially with him. It didn’t matter that he wouldn’t have reciprocated the feelings in the first place, but you would’ve been happy just to have his company there from all the nights that you’ve spent gazing under the stars and talking about the inevitables of the future. 

It felt like you were two different people almost everyday, and since the day that he left, you were the only one personality that you had put out to the public eye. With him, you could be the other person that you wanted to be, but not anymore since he wasn’t around. 

There were nights where you had thought about hating him, and as much as you wanted to, you could only think of how highly loved he was. The amounts and surges of love that he was able to provide for the world around him was something you had always admired about his lifestyle, but you were never able to be the one to ask who was that person for him, if that individual just so happened to not be you.

And maybe it’s because of those second thoughts invading your mind that you don’t realize someone had knocked on the door, because you had expected for him to come anyways. You wanted that closure as selfish as it may seem, and you wondered if hearing his words would even change your mind, because after reading the note on the back of his reservation card saying that he would attend, you weren’t sure what to think of everything.

“I want to know when- no, how long did you hide it for?” You ask him, not daring to look him in the eyes as you were ready to cut right to the point, rather than beating around the bush and asking how he had been these last couple of years. 

However, he didn’t know what to say as you caught him off guard after he had closed the door behind him, words stuck in his throat while you stood in the middle of the room in your wedding dress. He had thought originally that it would be a good idea, to tell you everything that he would’ve wanted to say because he still thought of you highly, as the person that he was able to come home to, if he had just said it in the past. 

“Why didn’t you ever tell me you were in love with me, Seonghwa? Everything would’ve been different and now…” You continue and this time you look at him after not hearing a single word come from his lips, feeling tears surface at the corners of your eyes and based on the pained expression on your face, there was guilt that was crawling up the back of his throat. 

He realizes in that moment alone that it wasn’t fair of him to ask you to drop everything and to run away with him again like you were teenagers; because you weren’t. You have already moved on way past the history that you two had as friends, and ever since that day he had messed up on his end of the line, there was nobody else to place the blame except for himself, and he hates that

“I’m sorry… I never meant to hurt you like that, at all. It’s unfair of me to ask you to run away on your wedding day, on a reservation card of all places.” He mumbles back, and you nod, even with the tension that was growing between you both. 

It wasn’t until you feel your phone vibrate that brings you back to your thoughts and you look to see that it was your fiance, seeing as though he had also run away from the altar from what he had texted you. Attached to the text was an image of him driving off away from the venue with a girl that you easily recognized from a gala months ago, and you assumed that he had been hiding her from you in fear that you’d tell your parents. 

But you didn’t feel anything, as you thought that maybe this was a sign to work things out with Seonghwa.

A final message is sent in, your eyes scanning the last words that he has to give you an end on a lighter but positive note, and you realize that this was the closure that you had been looking for in all the years that you had been looking for. You look up at Seonghwa, who was already staring at you with a confused expression when you take off your head piece and heels, diving towards the gym bag in the corner of the room to change into later on as you gave him a calmer look on your face.

“Want to get some coffee and catch up? We have a wedding to ditch, and I have all the free time in the world.”

[bigskydreaming]

Do you ever feel like you're pushing a boulder up a hill defending characters against the same whole-hearted misinformation that keeps getting repeated again & again as if it's canon? I tried 4 times in a chat thread where people kept insisting that Dick Grayson and even the Teen Titans were jerks to Jason Todd when he was Robin. I don't know how you do it. No matter what you say, it just keeps going. No canon is ever enough. Why are some fans so set on the idea that everyone ostracized Jason?

Ooof yeah, that’s a whole barrel of annoying. The big gripe for me, in both my major fandoms, is that so much of the misinformation comes paired with this contradictory insistence on how much people don’t give a fuck about canon.....even while willfully trying to reinvent canon to say what they want it to say, in order to back up their version of events or take on various characters!

Its like, if you don’t give a fuck about canon, THEN DON’T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT CANON. Don’t TELL me you don’t give a fuck about canon, and then GO OFF on how canon does all these things that canon most definitely does not do, thereby casting MUCH MUCH doubt upon your claims of not giving a fuck about canon, and suggesting that in fact, you do give quite a bit of fucks about canon, actually.

Y’know?

fahsklfhalfhkafl

But honestly, I’m not the person to give advice on this front because oof, I make bad choices here. LOLOLOL, no but for real, I can’t really tell you how to just deal with this because I’m like, I do not have mastery of that skillset myself. I have however long since exhausted myself of any illusions about CHANGING the minds of people who are particularly insistent upon things that never happened informing their particular view of characters, because like.....the reality is, people who come into fandoms emotionally invested in views of characters that they derived from other fics or fanons, like......it doesn’t matter that those things aren’t canon, what matters is their emotional investment in this particular fandom is entirely bound up in those particular views no matter WHERE they originated from, and so most of them aren’t changing their minds any time soon because they don’t WANT another viewpoint, their original one is the reason they’re here and invested in the first place. 

BUT at the same time, everybody wants to feel validated in their viewpoints, so the more that viewpoint is challenged by people being like uh no, here’s a thing that says you’re wrong, look, its here, its clear, the facts say shhhhhh the marketing campaign for all the Hateorade you’ve drunk about this character is based entirely on The Sky Is Green If We Say It Is logic.....the more people are like, determined to prove they’re right, even if their own personal conviction ORIGINALLY was not dependent on canon whatsoever and it only retroactively started mattering to them not as a source point for how they view characters but like, rather, a data point for Here’s How I Can Still Win This Argument.

And here’s where being in a comics fandom gets really fucking annoying:

Because there are so damn many comics.

And like, a lot of people in comics fandoms don’t even read the comics, and say so - and I mean, this is fine? If you’re here for the characters you don’t need to be here for the comics, so if you don’t actually like comics, like don’t read the comics, just read fic. Its whatever. BUT the bigger issue in my experience is like.....people arguing about comics canon even when they haven’t read the comics, like....often project onto everyone they’re arguing with, like, their own stance on comics.

What I mean by that is a lot of the people arguing about comics canon even when they proudly haven’t read a comic in their life because there are so many where would they even start and also, eww, I’m not doing all that.....like....there’s this presumption evident in a lot of arguments that the same holds true for everyone else in comics fandoms.....that none of the rest of us have read all those comics either, because how could anyone? There’s so many of them!

Forgetting of course, that many of us come into these fandoms from entirely different trajectories. If you come into a comics fandom because of fanfics, or a cartoon adaptation, or the movies.....upon your first day in fandom, when you look at all the comics canon that’s out there, you’re like holy shit that’s a lot, nobody could ever read all that, I’m certainly not going to read all that, I’m going back to fics.

BUT for those of us who came into these fandoms from the direction of reading the comics......our perspective was entirely different, because it was never some singular monolithic VASTNESS of unread comics that nobody could ever tackle because where would we even begin. For those of us who were reading comics for years or most of our lives......its been a handful of issues a month, month after month, year after year, rather than all in one sitting.

So the point of conflict becomes the presumption from a lot of fans who AREN’T here because of the comics, that comic book canon is this untapped cornucopia of potential validation, Schrodinger’s Canon, it can be basically whatever they want it to be, because who’s to say it ISN’T? If they can’t read all of that, nobody can read all of that, so when you think about it, its entirely plausible that the thing they insist happened in canon actually DID happen in canon, SOMEWHERE in all of that.....because just because they don’t know where it is and can’t point to it as explicitly existing, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist either. Who’s to say, really?

Well. Umm. People who in fact actually HAVE read all or most of the RELEVANT comics. Like yeah nobody’s read every comic ever I bet, lolol, but for lifelong DC readers, canon ISN’T this vast uncharted territory that can potentially contain everything.....its actually quite charted, and there are people who absolutely do know what it does and does not contain.

And this I think is at the heart of the insistence on particular points of argument, like Jason was always perpetually mistreated and Dick and the Titans hated him on sight and that’s why the Knights of the Order of Protection for the Smol Jason Bean hate Dick, because he was a giant jerkface to a little kid who never did anything to him ever. Like it doesn’t matter how much we point out that no, this did not in fact happen and is untrue, COMPLETELY, like.....people who came into fandom because of fics about Jason in which the entire perspective upon his character is uniformly, with virtually no exception, that he was scapegoated by Dick from Day One and he and Dick will always be eternally at odds because of the remnants of what a jerk and failure of a brother Dick was to him at first.......like, I feel like there’s this conviction lying underneath all those arguments, no matter how much canon they’re presented with, that there still exists out there SOMEWHERE, some untapped treasure trove of panels proving what a buttface Dick was to his first little brother, validating everything they’ve ever believed and thought ever, because look all those depictions of Dick being a giant assbutt to Jason in fics had to come from SOMEWHERE after all, didn’t they?

Well, yeah. They did come from somewhere. They came from the writers who wrote those fics that way because they either just hated Dick’s character or they were working through their own sibling angst and projected certain dynamics onto the characters or someone told them this is what things were like in the comics and they didn’t know any different or just didn’t care or a hundred million other possible reasons for why they wrote them that way with none of those reasons being Cuz Canon Said So.....and then those particular depictions caught on and multiplied fruitfully like the offspring of rabbits doing it sans contraceptives.

Because its not like “perpetual black sheep of the family so unfairly hated, so misunderstood, especially by the family’s favored son, the golden boy” is a fan favorite trope on its own, regardless of whether or not the characters said trope is applied to actually FIT that trope.

So in the end, the painful irony was not only did canon have nothing to do with that trend, canon COULD do nothing about that trend, because the reasons people turned to it, despite how often canon gets brought into it....really had nothing to do with canon.

So tbh, my personal stance these days is the best defense to fic-borne and originating views of the characters and their dynamics is NOT canon, its....more fic. Fic that presents a counter-narrative to the ones that are so often the first thing people see when they enter fandom, and thus become engrained as Truth. So that there’s at least more variety out there, because where there’s variety, there’s varied points of view, and the more people internalize THAT, that there are variations to be found in how these characters relate to each other and their shared histories......the more people have to make a CHOICE about what variations they most want to adhere to, from among the OPTIONS they’re presented with, instead of just doubling down on the first thing that clicks for them, no opposition in sight.

And if these counter “Dick’s just the worst like what an uber asshole gonna give a five star rating for Sucking At Life to that guy” fics happen to be inspired largely by canon rather than fanon like....oh no, how strange and unknowable, that’s not the Process, we’re doing it wrong but hey whatever.

But does that mean its not still frustrating as hell to see people just parroting the Dick and the Titans were mean to Jason truism as fact, especially when you know damn well its not? Hell no. That’s annoying as fuck. But don’t worry so much about trying to change peoples’ minds, I say, and instead just find people who ARE open to canon or familiar with it, and just have a good rant. Its fun!

 Here, I’ll start:

UGH AND ANOTHER THING ABOUT THIS WHOLE “DICK WAS SUCH A JERK TO JASON AND THE TITANS ALL FOLLOWED HIS LEAD” CRAPOLA SUMMER SALES EVENT:

Where would that even have happened???

Like what really chuffs my chopped onions here is when people are so suuuuuuuure that the gatekeepers of comic book fandom are keeping the real juicy anti-Dick panels hidden every time they ask “Hey Siri show me proof Dick’s a jerkmonster to Jason”....because like...they’re just SO SURE these panels are out there and its like lololol but where would they even come from? 

Because everybody overlooks that in proper Dickens fashion, pre-Flashpoint Jason was a Tale of Two Jasons, the pre-Crisis adorable child of sunshine and whee, and the post-Crisis I have smoker’s lung at age twelve Jason......and these two Jasons can and do and are MEANT to co-exist within the same body! They’re the same Jason, in hindsight!

See, post-Crisis Jason only existed for like, less than TWO YEARS real world time, before A Death in the Family! People have this assumption that because of how rock-solid the post-Crisis origin for him is and how solidly that’s informed his characterization and stories moving forward, like.....there was this HUGE foundation for it back in the day that was built upon.....but no! We’re talking like, less than twenty four issues IN TOTAL. Post-Crisis Jason was a drop in the bucket compared to pre-Crisis Jason.

So why then, is post-Crisis Jason so much more firmly cemented in peoples’ minds than pre-Crisis Jason even though pre-Crisis Jason had way more material written about him?

Because for once in DC’s existence, they were SMART about a retcon. They didn’t TRY to pit post-Crisis Jason versus pre-Crisis Jason and make people pick between them. Post-Crisis Jason wasn’t an attempt at overwriting pre-Crisis Jason and making it so he never existed. Instead, what they did with their limited amount of time writing post-Crisis Jason was overwrite only two stories specifically: his actual pre-Crisis origin, and how he and Dick first met....and then they let everything else from pre-Crisis stay! It just got folded IN BETWEEN Jason’s new post-Crisis origin and everything that came after that, thanks to some handy non-linear storytelling and flashbacks.

So rather than Jason having two entirely separate storylines and directions, they still kept him at just one....and his post-Crisis origin and A Death in the Family became BOOKENDS surrounding not just the twenty issues in between those two stories......but ALSO surrounding ALL the pre-Crisis issues featuring Jason.....including the times he interacted with Dick and the Titans.

And that’s why there’s no untapped treasure trove of potentially vilifying issues showcasing Dick being such a can of Jerkola to Jason.......

Because post-Crisis only amounted to a grand total of like twenty something issues.....in which Jason interacted with Dick once and only once....the issue which ends with Dick giving Jason his blessing as Robin, his costume, and his phone number to call him if he ever has any problems with Bruce.

But simultaneously, because all those pre-Crisis issues still existed, were still relevant, were still in continuity (as evidenced by Jason himself when he came back as the Red Hood and fought Tim at Titans Tower, referencing how he was briefly a Titan himself.......aka those issues in which he teamed up with the Titans, which ONLY happened before his new origin)....we similarly know that it wasn’t like Dick and Jason never had any contact after their first post-Crisis encounter....we just never saw Jason use that phone number on the page AFTER that issue (because again, there was no time before he was killed off in the comics TO engineer another on the page meet-up, like both characters were busy in unrelated stories in the course of the mere year between that issue and ADITF). BUT by the power of retcon, we do know that Jason still must have used it at some point, or else Dick reached out to him again at some later point off the page......because Dick and Jason’s easy familiarity with each other pre-Crisis STILL EXISTED AS WELL. They had a sibling relationship post-Crisis because they had a sibling relationship pre-Crisis...AND IT WAS THE SAME RELATIONSHIP.

And this is Part Two of why no untapped treasure trove of Jerk Dick and Poor Jason panels exists......because other than that one post-Crisis issue, all their other interactions hail from the pre-Crisis era....where Dick adored Jason and so did the rest of the Titans.

Jason wasn’t resentful of the Titans or scared of them or nursing grudges, he thought getting to hang out with his big brother’s friends WAS THE COOLEST FUCKING THING IN THE WORLD and you could practically see him bouncing on the page the times it happened. He glowed when Dick would ruffle his hair playfully or compliment him, and the Titans’ collective energy towards Jason was very much OH OUR FRIEND’S BABY BRO IS THE MOST ADORABLE SMALL CHILD EVER AND WE WILL PROTECT HIM WITH OUR LIVES.

Like people WILLFULLY misconstrue this one issue where Jason teamed up with the Original Titans other than Dick for a mission against Cheshire, and claim like “oh see, this is the proof that the Titans were mean to Jason because of Dick, they kept giving him shit for not being Dick and hated him for replacing Dick....” which omg noooooooooooo, that is so odiously NOT what happened in that issue. First off, NOBODY blamed Jason for replacing Dick back then, because at the time those issues were written, he DIDN’T....this was when Dick had given Robin to Jason himself, when choosing to move on as Nightwing. And even RETROACTIVELY looking at this issue in light of the retcon where Dick was fired as Robin, this STILL changes nothing about Dick and Jason’s dynamic at this particular time or how the rest of the Titans would have viewed Jason as of this issue.....because that’s where the post-Crisis issue specifically writing Dick and Jason’s new introduction to each other on the page matters so much. As now the ultimate takeaway is even while not making Jason Robin himself, this issue STILL showed Dick giving Jason his blessing.....thus maintaining and stabilizing every pre-Crisis interaction between Jason and the Titans and ensuring that this whole “they resented him on Dick’s behalf” scenario wouldn’t throw any retroactive curveballs into how they were with Jason...because now there still was no need for anything on Dick’s behalf, as far as Jason was concerned, because Dick had given his A-Ok.

So that just flat out never happened, not originally, pre-Crisis, and not even in hindsight after the post-Crisis retcons were factored in, because the HOW of the post-Crisis retcons specifically factored in an avoidance of this potential tangle.

And in fact, what DID happen in the arc where Jason teamed up with the Titans without Dick, to go up against Cheshire.......is that Donna, who was in charge of the team at the time, kept trying to defer to Jason-as-Robin, because subconsciously she was insecure about her leadership at the time and having a Robin at her side was making her think of when Dick had been in that role, and simultaneously been their leader, and thus she was trying to lean into the familiar comforts of being able to turn to a Robin for direction.

And Jason CALLED HER OUT ON THIS. Politely. And cutely. No for real it was adorable. But like, he did it with poise and self-confidence and deliberation, and SHE HEARD HIM. She snapped out of it. Jason laid out exactly what she was doing and why and Donna was like oh shit, you’re right, I HAVE been doing that. And Jason was like, and that’s not fair to me. And Donna was like no, you’re absolutely right, that isn’t fair to you, I’m sorry. And Jason’s like, I can’t be the leader here, I don’t have the experience that Dick does. But you do, and you can be the leader. And Donna was like. You’re three for three kiddo, damn you’re good at this.

AND THEN THEY WENT AND KICKED BAD GUY ASS TOGETHER AND EVERYTHING WAS HUNKY-DORY BECAUSE THE POINT OF THAT ENTIRE PLOT WAS NOT “EVERYONE IS MEAN TO POOR JASON BECAUSE DICK MADE A CONSPIRACY OF MEANNESS” IT WAS “JASON’S A KICK-ASS LITTLE GO-GETTER WHO KNOWS HIS STRENGTHS AND HIS STRENGTH IS TELLING PEOPLE WHEN THEY’RE BEING DUMB AND THEY NEED TO STOP THAT.”

Okay, one caveat here. I must confess, its killing me....there is ONE Titan who was a jerk to Jason.

But uh....that Titan was Hank Hall aka Hawk. And he’s a jerk to everybody. Its kinda his superpower.

And he most certainly didn’t do it on Dick’s behalf, as Hank hates Dick and Dick hates Hank asfhilfhalfhalf. Seriously, they’re basically the hateship that ppl keep trying to make Dick and Jason into, only without the incest makes it spicy or whatever element, but like, if you’re not hung up on that and can ship people without them being related, oh no, oh woe, oh say it ain’t so, like, DickHank is the unsung hateship of dreaaaaaaaaaaams. They’re like:

Hank: As it is a day ending in y, I feel now is the perfect time to let you know, without prompting, that I hate your guts because people like you. And I hate people and everything they like, on account of people are the worst.

Dick: Well, you’re people, and you’re the worst, so that tracks.

Hank: So we’re agreed. I hate you. You hate me.....

Dick: Our hate is so in harmony.

Donna: What is even happening here and do I want to know.

Roy: In reverse order, no, probably not, and I’m not sure, but I THINK they’re getting hate married, and exchanging vows to hate each other in sickness and in health, forever and ever.

Wally: *skidding around corner* I CALL BEST MAN.

Donna: Its not a real wedding Wally.

Roy: Idk they seem pretty serious about it. Which means the best man position should be valid here, which means it should be me, because suck it West, only way you’ll ever be Dick’s best man is over my dead body.

Wally: Get ready to throw down then, Robin Hood, and just call me the Sheriff of Notachanceinhell, that best man position is MINE.

Garth: Whoa, hold up, I have an agreement IN WRITING from when we were THIRTEEN for Dick and I to be each other’s best men at our weddings, so I’m gonna need you both to stand down, I LITERALLY CALLED DIBS. Look. ITS IN WRITING.

Donna: Oh for fuck’s sake, you collective pluralization of buffoons, STOP TREATING THIS AS A REAL THING. ITS NOT A REAL THING.

Dick, eyes dead-locked on Hank: Oh this is real Donna. This is happening.

Hank, stepping forward, eyes equally locked: I have never been more serious about anything in my life. 

Lilith: Sure, you’ve only both saved the world but hey why should that matter. This is definitely the real shit.

Hank: Please. I only did that to prove I could do it better than Dick could. I hate the world.

Dick: Aww, and did you cry yourself to sleep when that flopped?

Hank: Wouldn’t know. It didn’t happen.

Donna: I swear by every god on Mt. Olympus, the first one of you to say I know you are but what am I is getting flung into orbit.

Anyway. I might have gotten distracted somewhere in there. What was your question again and did I answer it? I think I did....fahlkfhaklfhalhfa.

[oh-boy-me]

would love to see you roast the angel event again but other than that what did you think of the recent masked halloween one??

For a second I thought you were talking about their outfits lolol (great news, we're in the middle of working on another outfit discussion, tho it's neither of those sets) but--

Yep I Did Not Like™ the Angel event

We’ve all talked about it pretty extensively all over the internet last year (happy almost anniversary, Angel event), but my least favorite part was the way they toed the line between serious and lighthearted?  So it ended up being uncomfortable instead of either of those.

Them losing themselves and being literally forced to do things they would never do was treated as like.  A joke?  But then at the same time Satan’s like “this is the most uncomfortable I’ve ever been, who am I??” and you can be like “this feels wrong” the whole time and they never fully address that.

Then at the end, Lucifer’s like “yeah I’m fine now but this is funny so” and like no it’s not???  You suffered too?????

The whole “shady Simeon” thing I didn’t really care about bc I didn’t trust OM to actually do anything with it anyway, same with “not taking it seriously” Diavolo.

This event had a lot of POTENTIAL that just didn’t get explored.  Diavolo wants the three realms to live in harmony, but how is that actually going??  What is the Celestial Realm like behind the scenes??  None of those questions were answered.

With that said, I feel like I can’t finish this section without plugging Angelic Minds by @creations-of-a-certain-no-one .  It’s still a WIP, but it explores a darker, more serious version of the event.  I HIGHLY recommend it!

--

As for the Halloween event, idk if they meant for it to be funny, but it was.  “Hey there’s this really cool dark alley I wanna show you” is the funniest thing they’ve said in a while lmao

Teaming up with the side characters in the bottom route was fun, and I admittedly forgot to do the top route, but from what I heard the non-romantic options for the top was pretty funny too.  Can’t really comment on the romantic side of the top route tho bc like I said I forgot to read it.

Also I like how they made Lucifer aware of what was happening but unable to do anything to stop it.  I think that was a good way to balance his power without making him an incredibly boring part of the event!

Would have been fun if we got to be more in danger tho, because for a Halloween event I can’t really say it was scary at all, even with that sort of premise.

So uh I guess all in all it was more fun than some of the events we had but it didn’t really stand out to me as peak OM content?  Yeah, a solid B-tier event I’d say.  Better than Spooky Happenings and that’s all that matters lmao