#and my brother is being super vague about everything but i guess the kid implied he was going to send a swat team to our house or some shit

[steviescrystals]

MY LIFE IS NOT REAL WHAT IS GOING ON

[cricketwrangler]

Hahah alright so I just learned my (autistic) little brother was in some way physically hurt by his one-on-one. Barely know more than that because DCS and the school and everyone they've talked to were being super vague and downplaying everything.

My brother who's a teacher says DCS (was cps when I was a kid but I assume the same thing) hardly ever actually shows up. Says even when he told them a kid was being molested by a family member, because he couldn't say which one, they did nothing. Which tracks cause a friend being clearly abused by her dad back in highschool had cps called multiple times and they alerted her dad that they were told, but never actually showed up. (Now when I was in that situation and the therapists reporting BEGGED them not to tell my family or put me through that, their hands were tied I guess :/).

Anyway. My brother told my parents to ask dcs 1. Why they asked if Ian had had nausea/tiredness (my dad being a nurse knows that implies head injury) and 2. Why they actually came down. And they pretty much said they had to whenever something involved [vague and official terms for anything that could be considered physical harm].

My mom said someone ELSE asked something about if his LEG was ok. So there's definitely a lot more going on. What the school told my parents: he was at a corner desk with 1o1, kept pushing it away from him, and she kept pushing it back. Assuming he either thought it was a game, or he just wanted more space. Idk if it gave her too little room or if she was just bothered he was doing it when she didn't want him to. Supposedly she got up, grabbed the back of his swivel chair, and held him facing the wall???

So obviously that's bullshit. Only witnesses were the other 1o1 or paras (idrk the difference, pretty much people with no specialized training who are paid jack shit to stay with kids who have an IEP requiring it, and according to my brother, are pulled by the school when an emergency substitute teacher is needed). One of them that I know Ian likes cause he always talks about her, said that the woman said something like "I just wish I could hit him sometimes". And that she felt awful because apparently it wasn't the first time she said something like that about Ian, and she should have reported it before. Idk how much they can say though because they're employed by the school. Who obviously just want to cover their asses.

Anyway they just got the official dcs report in the mail and i told my mom to send me a pic of it. The best part of all of this is so far the suggestion from the doctor is to put him through ABA again :).

[enchantedlokii]

Ringing

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: language, implied/referenced terrorism

Characters: Peter Parker, Tony Stark, Pepper Potts, Morgan Stark

Mentioned: James Rhodes, Bruce Banner

This is loosely based on a dream I had recently where my brother and I were apparently Tony’s children. Anyway, the house blew up and my brother was hurt similar to how Peter is hurt in this. My mom and I were inside and didn’t get hurt too bad. It was strange, I know.

When Peter first started to hang out with Mr. Stark, he did have worries about being caught in the crossfire of something that didn’t involve him. He knew that there were dangers of being around the man. He was old enough to remember the attack on his Malibu penthouse years ago, and he didn’t doubt that there were still people who hated his mentor enough to do something similar in the future.

His worries started fading after a few months, however. He had his Spider-Sense. He knew when he was in danger. He never felt like he was in danger around Mr. Stark except when they were in the middle of a battle.

After the Battle of Earth, that fear was completely gone. The man had retired. He wasn’t a threat to anyone; villains or business tycoons. Peter didn’t think that anyone would target him now. They had no reason to. So when he felt the tingling in the back of his neck, he brushed it off. He thought it must be something small. He didn’t think he needed to warn Tony. They would be fine.

“Morgan found some new videos and has been talking about you nonstop all week. Fair warning, she’s probably going to ask half a million questions within the next hour.”

Peter grinned. He loved the little girl. “I can handle it,” he chuckled, jumping up the porch steps ahead of him. “I—”

Peter flinched as the tingling grew stronger. He started to tell Tony when he saw the worried look he gave him, but that’s when it happened. There was a loud noise, a flash of light. He vaguely noticed Tony running towards him before his vision went white.

That’s when the ringing started. Peter groaned softly, squeezing his eyes shut at the light. He was numb at first, the pain coming slowly. He gasped as a shooting pain shot through his right arm. He blinked his eyes open and turned his head slowly, seeing that there was something pinning him to the ground.

“Pete!”

Peter blinked. That was Tony. He sounded panicked, and Peter guessed he must have been calling for him before his hearing returned. There was pain there too, but for the moment he was just glad he was alive. He could handle injuries. As long as he was awake and talking, he would be okay. “Mr. Stark?”

Peter winced at the shakiness in his voice. It sounded weak, he realized. It hurt, too. It hurt to speak. It hurt to breathe, actually, but he tried not to focus on that. Panicking would only make things worse.

“Thank God,” he heard Tony mutter. He probably wasn’t supposed to hear it, but now that his senses were back they were dialed up more than ever. “Are you hurt, Kid?”

“I’m okay,” Peter lied. “Are you alright?”

“I’ve had worse.” Peter heard shuffling. As the man got closer, he could hear his fast heartbeat. He peeked through the mess of rubble and caught sight of him. “Okay. Okay. Talk to me, Pete. Help me find you.”

“I’m right here,” he told him. He let himself close his eyes and focus on his hearing. He could hear other voices a bit farther away. Pepper and Morgan. They were okay. They were alive. “G-go check on them.”

“Let me get this off of you first,” Tony countered. “The house is mostly fine, okay? They may be a bit scratched up, but I’m confident that they’re not trapped under a pile of wood.”

“I hear them,” Peter mumbled. “Around the back, I think.”

“Good, that’s good. They’re okay, Kid.” The wood started to shift around him a bit. He hated thinking it, but he was surprised that the man had the strength to move it. Especially if he was hurt. He guessed it must be adrenaline. “Tell me if anything hurts you.”

It did hurt. Everything hurt, but he didn’t complain. Finally, he saw light and let himself smile when he saw Tony in front of him. He was beaten up, bleeding from a cut on his cheek, but overall okay. He had been a bit farther back, and Peter guessed he was the one who took the brunt of the explosion. He was glad, too. “H-hey.”

“Hey, Pete,” Tony murmured, reaching down and combing through his dirty hair as he looked over him. He noticed his pinned arm and immediately moved to try to lift the beam off of it. “Sh*t.”

“It’s broken, isn’t it?” Peter groaned. The pain in his arm was growing every second, and it took all his will to not cry. He had been in a lot of pain before, but this had to be near the top of his list. On top of everything, it was still getting harder to breathe and he was struggling to keep his panic at bay.

“I think so, Kiddo,” Tony sighed. “Are you hurt anywhere else? I know you said you weren’t before, but I can see the pain in your eyes, Pete. So tell me if anything else hurts, alright?” He paused, looking over his shoulders. “Pep! Over here!”

Peter squeezed his eyes shut again. He could hear two sets of footprints. Morgan was running, he noticed, and collided with Tony. She was crying and he hoped it was out of fear rather than pain.

“Peter? Hey, look at me.” Peter blinked up and saw Pepper was over him now. Her face was dirty and a she was a bit scratched up, but her eyes were clear. She wasn’t hurt. “Where are you hurt, Kid?”

Peter ignored her question, looking over at where Tony was stroking Morgan’s hair, whispering to her that it was okay. He looked back at Pepper after a moment. “Mo?”

“She’s just scared, Peter,” Pepper assured her. “She was upstairs in her room. She wasn’t hurt at all. I promise. So let me know where you’re hurt, okay?”

Peter raised his left arm, the one that wasn’t injured, and held his chest. He didn’t want to say. Not when Morgan was right there. He saw Pepper’s eyes widen and she looked over at Tony. He followed her gaze and saw that he saw too. “Morgan, let’s go wait on Uncle Rhodey, okay?”

Morgan looked up at Pepper. She looked like she wanted to protest, but she nodded. She squeezed Tony one more time before walking over to her mom and taking her hand. As soon as they were out of earshot, Tony moved closer and put a hand on Peter’s chest. “You’re going to be okay,” he promised. “Just keep breathing.”

“It hurts,” Peter admitted.

“I know. I know it does,” Tony murmured. “Just. . . Just don’t panic, alright? I know it’s hard right now, but you need to keep your breathing steady right now. Don’t push yourself.”

Peter nodded, but in reality he could feel his heart pounding even harder now. He could tell that Tony was struggling not to panic right now himself. His own heart had started pounding faster again now that he realized Peter was hurt. It was easy to tell he knew something was wrong. “You’re hurt too,” he found himself mumbling. Because he knew that he would push himself to his limits if anyone else was hurt and ignore his own injuries.

“I know, Pete. It’s not that bad, I promise,” he replied, putting a hand in his hair again. “Don’t worry about me.”

“Always do,” Peter grunted, closing his eyes again. His body wanted him to sleep, but he knew he shouldn’t. He had to wait for Rhodey to get there with help. Then he could rest.

He huffed and tried to push himself up, hissing at the pain in his chest. He was sure he felt his ribs shifting as he was gently pushed back to the ground. “No, stop,” Tony said sternly. “The last thing you need to do is puncture a lung. I’m already afraid one’s collapsed, Kiddo. You have to stay still.”

“I can’t go to the hospital,” Peter told him, opening his eyes again. He knew he needed to, but he also knew that his identity would be in jeopardy. “I-I gotta just deal with it.”

“You are not going to just deal with it. You’re going to the compound. It’s not finished yet, but Rhodey said the medbay was finished,” he explained. “You trust Bruce, yeah?”

Peter nodded weakly. He liked Dr. Banner, and knew that he would never do anything to hurt anyone if he could help it. They weren’t exactly close, but they had talked a few times since the battle. He knew he could trust him.

“Good.” Tony smiled at him and then looked up. Peter heard a new wave of noises and realized that help had finally made it. “Hold on just a bit longer, Kiddo.”

Peter wasn’t sure how much time had passed when he woke up later. He was a bit confused at first, missing details of what had happened and how he had gotten to the medbay. He could hear a steady beeping noise that lined up with his heartbeat. Then he felt the cannula under his nose helping him breathe and the IV in his arm. His other arm was wrapped up close to his side. It hurt, but not as bad as it had before.

“Hey, Pete.” Peter felt a hand squeeze his. He smiled a bit and turned his head, finally opening his eyes. He was a bit surprised that Tony was with him, but he could tell that he had been looked over too. His face was cleaned up and one knee was wrapped up similar to how his arm was. He looked tired, but the pain had cleared from his expression. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired,” Peter murmured. “Like I’ve been drugged.”

“That’s pretty accurate,” he replied, pointing a finger at the needle in Peter’s arm. “Super soldier painkiller. Not a very high dose, but you’ll be groggy for awhile.”

Peter just hummed in reply. He closed his eyes and tried to gather his thoughts. He remembered Morgan has been crying. Where was Morgan. “Mo?”

“She’s okay,” Tony promised him. “She’s sleeping now, but I’m sure she’ll be in here when she wakes up. She was worried about you. We all were there for a bit.”

“‘M ‘kay,” Peter told him. He didn’t want to worry anyone. Especially not when he wasn’t the only one hurt. “Jus’ tired.”

“I know, Kiddo. I know,” he replied. “Get some rest, alright? I’ll be right here.”

“You rest too,” Peter countered, glaring at him. He was sure that Tony hadn’t slept any since they got there, and he wasn’t sure how many hours that had been. He had to be exhausted.

“I will,” Tony promised, raising a hand and combing it through Peter’s hair. “I’ll sleep here on the couch, okay? I’ll be right here if you need me.”

Peter smiled and closed his eyes again. “Mmkay,” he hummed. The strokes were killing him to sleep more than the drugs in his bloodstream. He felt safe.

“Love you, Kiddo,” he heard Tony murmur as he started to drift off. He thought he felt something on his forehead; a kiss, but he couldn’t be sure. Either way, he smiled. He was too far away to respond in any other way, but he knew that he would understand.

Love you too.

[willel]

Random Season 4 Wishes

Here is a random list of things I want to see in season 4 in no particular order. Some of these are more like predictions than wishes, but at this point, any prediction made is just a wish. 

A break from all out romance. The romance wasn’t really handled all that great last season. Other than the looming monster danger, it was the forefront of season 3. I would like a return to a season 1/season 2 formula where while there is still romance, it is never the focus. Stranger Things excels with subtle tender moments and meaningful physical contact. 

Character growth over character drama. Another issue season 3 had is too much conflict between character. Hardly any of it really contributed to character growth. The only character growth to be seen is Mike being a little less clingy and El being a little more independent. Nothing else noticeably changed, not on screen. Conflict is important... but it should be pushing our character forward, not locking them in place. 

Recapture the importance of family. Our cast has been divided in two. The Byers + El are somewhere new while the others stayed behind in Hawkins. This leaves an excellent opportunity to revisit old threads long forgotten. I would love to see Nancy and Mike actually interacting. Not just one conversation or exchanging a glance. Full out brother and sister duo. I feel similarly about Jonathan with his own family. I would like to see a plot where all the Byers + El are in it together. 

Return of Kali. Kali, I feel, is a very important piece of El. While season 3 would have us forget her influence of El, I hope next season doesn’t completely ignore her presence. It would be interesting if Kali’s prediction comes true, that no matter where she hides or who she’s with, “they” will never let her live in peace or have a normal life. Not because I want harm to come to El, but because I don’t for a second believe the government is done with her or the other experimented children.

Proper strategist Michael Wheeler and proper action man Lucas Sinclair. I would like to see the return of the strategist Mike who always seems to have a plan and can get everyone on the same page. In season 3, he was fumbling around distracted. I feel normally, Mike would have set a trap for the Mind Flayer or would’ve formulated a proper plan to escape the mall or the cabin. In Lucas’s case, they did ok with him in season 3 actually, but it was really out of character for him to freeze up while El was being choked out. I want to see a more forward athletic Lucas. 

Will to make new friends. In season 3, we saw at least 2 of the 4 boys interests changing drastically and the other was all too eager to go off and hang around new people. Given Will’s situation (new town, new house, new school, distant old friends), I’d like to see Will gain some new friendships. That’s not to say he’d drop the old ones. They’re the OG after all. But, before all the drama of next season picks up, it would be nice to see Will being happy and acknowledged by new friends.

US Government becoming a threat again. Personally, I did not enjoy the Russian plot. Everything seemed like a joke. When the US government were the bad guys, everything felt more dangerous and dire. You never knew who was listening. Who was watching. What would happen if they found El or if they would hurt the boys and their families. Next season, I feel they could make the Russians feel like as much of a threat as the US government if both governments are clashing and in a race to the bottom. By that, I mean the government should become a major foe again racing against the Russian government to do bad things. Open a gate? Control a demogorgon? Allow the Mind Flayer in again? Both these governments should screw up equally. 

A slow return of El’s powers. I want El to get her powers back, but I want it to be a slow daunting process. It’s like she starts back at square one. She can move and pick up small things, but even that has taken her months. She’s stuck between being seemingly normal with no powers, but also missing the power she once had. 

Casual power training. As we know, Will is really into comics. El might be too since Max introduced her to them. A classic of comics is the super hero training to regain their strength or to become stronger. It would be really interesting if Will contributed to El slowly regaining her powers by setting up obstacles and challenges just for her. Maybe on the weekends, he designs a building and she must use wooden blocks/legos to make it with her powers. Or, build a house of cards. A game of darts using powers only. A game of catch. (I was going to say Jenga, but it looks like that didn’t get released in the US until 1987) Anything Will can creatively come up with that he thinks will help her regain her strength. (whether it does or not is up for debate) It’s mostly casual fun. Some bonding opportunities. Who doesn’t enjoy training the hero/super hero? (basically, it’s roleplay) 

Will’s power expanded. I am writing a proper theory page on Will’s/the Byers’s powers, but let me explain exactly what I mean here. It’s clear Will has powers, but they severely limited them in season 3. Examples:

Instead of only sensing the Mind Flayer when it’s nearby, he should be able to close his eyes, concentrate, and locate the center of activity

Will should have great insight into the Mind Flayer’s intentions even if it’s just honest guesses on what the Mind Flayer wants and what he’s trying to do (like in season 2)

Will’s danger senses should happen immediately, not delayed like we saw in the hospital or in the mall. He should be able to tell the Mind Flayer is coming for them from miles away or even across dimensions.

Will should retain true sight, the ability to see into the Upside Down. A dangerous ability to be sure, but can be useful if we’re going to have gates popping in and out around the world like what’s been implied.

Karen possibly discovering the truth. Honestly, Season 1 Karen is such a good mom. And in season 3, that discussion with Nancy was superb and beautiful. I would love for Karen to learn a little more what her two eldest kids have been up to. If not that, I’d like for her to at least give more guidance to her kids. I’d like for Nancy and Mike to vaguely come to her for advice and she’d grant it, no questions asked. (ok, Karen used to be very nosy so maybe she does ask questions, but takes a step back and respects their privacy)

Joyce to be believed right away. I honestly do not understand why people doubt Joyce, you know? She’s been right 3 years in a row now (Nancy too). I swear if anyone questions her intuition next season, she should give them her classic Joyce sneer until they realize how silly they’re being. In order of “alarm bells”, I think it will go like Will >> El >> Joyce >> Jonathan in quick succession. All 4 family members should be very sensitive to weird things as this point. 

Jonathan gets a plot. I want to see things from Jonathan’s perspective again. After season 1, we’ve barely gotten anything. I want to see Jonathan putting forth plans or leading the charge, at least for a little while. There is a great opportunity for this next season since he’s the man of the house about to graduate from high school if he hasn’t already. (*sobs remembering Will is taller than him now, officially). Heck, if we want to switch around the order of “alarm bells”, maybe Jonathan becomes alert of something wrong before Joyce does this time. 

Less product placement. In season 1/season 2, there was product placement, but that was because they were really setting the scene. It was 1983. This is what products used to be like. This is what was popular at the time. But season 3? They cranked that dial up 2000% when they didn’t need to. It really made it feel less serious and set in reality. Don’t dare use Lucas to spit out a damned Coke ad ever again. 

Genuine friendship moments. I’ve mentioned this earlier, but with less romantic drama and stuff, I’d like to see genuine friendships return. The El and Max friendship was great and all, but it’s really a shame it was so heavily focused on Mike. I hope in the future, these two girls are able to share screentime without the boys being mentioned or thought about. Same with the guys, it would be nice if they could hang out like before without splitting off into pairs or focusing entirely on their romantic lives. They don’t really feel like a friend group anymore, just a group of double dates (hence why I’d like for Will to make friends outside the original group.)

Proper use of the supernatural. Season 3 was weak when it came to the Mind Flesher imo. They had this whole idea of the Flayed who seemed to be totally normal (and sweaty) just walking around town living their lives until a flip was switched. Whyyyyy in the world weren’t they used to try to get at our cast? The only time they did it was in the hospital, but we saw dozens and dozens of people who could’ve served the same purpose except it could happen anywhere. Maybe there were other ‘patients’ in the waiting room that also turned on the kids that they had to fight off? Maybe strange people came to all their houses trying to find them or break in? They could’ve gone full creepy like season 1/2 but they didn’t. I’d like to see them fully use the horror aspects next season. 

That’s what I got off the top of my head. 

[sentient-stove]

The Mishaps of Ladybug and Kuro Neko- Chapter 2

Fandoms: Miraculous Ladybug, Sanders Sides

Relationships: Patton & Roman, Roman & Virgil, Roman/Virgil (way down the line), Remus & Roman, Logan & Virgil, Janus & Marinette Dupain-Cheng  (More later)

Characters: Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Virgil Ito, Logan Ito, Patton Hart, Janus Dupain-Cheng, Roman Prince, Remus Prince, Tikki, other kwami

Summary:  It’s been almost fifty years since Marinette’s used a miraculous.  And unfortunately, someone’s stolen the butterfly and the peacock.So when the missing miraculous turn up in the US, she’s forced to hand out a new team of heroes, finally hanging up the mantle of ladybug forever.

Virgil did not sign up for a kwami(?) that’s obsessed with cheese curds.

Roman is ecstatic that he has the ladybug miraculous, after all, superheroes are cool!

Logan wants to live his life and avoid racial slurs, too bad the annoying ass heroes keep destroying his fucking bedroom.

Patton spends his time hero chasing, maybe he’ll get a super power one day too!

Janus is done™

Chapter Summary: Virgil and Plagg meet, Roman and Tikki meet, Kuro Neko and Ladybug meet.

Notes: I want to write for Whumptober and then my brain focuses on this :/  what is wrong with me XD

AO3  | Previous | Next

Virgil upended the contents of his bag onto the small pull out bed that nested under Logan’s. Half of the sketchbooks were soaked beyond ruin and the others were wet, but he could probably hang them to dry and they’d be okay.

He wrapped a blanket around himself as he sat down, slowly beginning to sort through the mess that was on his bed.

There was an origami box among the books and Virgil lifted up, confused. The paper was dry and it wasn’t even slightly smushed from being in a teenager's backpack.

So obviously he opened it.  Virgil had often been compared to a cat with his stupid amounts of curiosity and gosh damn it, he was going to live up to the stereotype.

The box almost fell apart, a glowing ball of light flying around him a few times before condensing in front of him.

“What the--”  Virgil fell backward as the cat-like creature opened its eyes and yawned.

“Got any Camembert?”

“What?” Virgil shook his head.  “I’m lactose intolerant and it’s not like Chinatown’s gonna have fancy ass cheese.”

“Chinatown? Where are we?”  The cat thing floated to look out the dirty window before turning back to the emo.

“San Francisco, 2065.  United Commonwealth of States.”

“Huh.  Where’s Chat Noir? Do you even have cheese here? Oh, does cheese still exist? You’re probably my new holder, I’m Plagg.”  The cat, no, Plagg did an odd flip in air while Virgil tried to process everything.

“Are you talking about Paris Chat Noit? Or Noir I guess...”

“Noir, yes.  Adrien Agreste? My old holder.  Oh! I can say his name now!”  Plagg looked excited for a moment, before his face fell.  “oh…” 

“What does that have to do with you?”  Virgil held out his hands to catch the small cat thing, who had a look of melancholy on his face.

“It means that he’s dead if I can say his name.”

“I’m sorry Plagg.”  Virgil gently scratched the top of the creature’s head.  “So you were Chat Noir’s familiar?”

“Kwami.  I, with the ring, gave him his power.  Ladybug, with her kwami did the same.  You wanna be free?”

Virgil looked back to the origami box.  He could see the ring there, black and green tempting him.  “I don’t know.”

“You’re nothing like Chat.  I like that.”  Plagg flew out of Virgil’s hands and down to the ring, picking it up and placing it in the teen’s palm.  “To transform, say ‘Cat Daddy.’”

Virgil looked horrified.

“I’m just kidding, you say ‘Claws out!’  I had to prank you.”

Virgil slipped the ring on, watching as the green faded out and it shrank a bit to better accommodate his small hand.  “Do I need to feed you first?”

“No, I haven’t been used in a while.  Go ham Virgil.”

“Claws out?” …

Logan opened the door to the shared room, expecting to see his brother curled up in a mound of blankets, not an empty room with an open window.

“Fuck.”

…

“Fuck.”

Virgil listened to Logan move around the room, completely unaware that there was a slightly new hero outside the window.

At least the outfit wasn’t ridiculous.  Virgil felt slightly… off, as if his usual style had been pushed to the left and then a few extra embellishments had been added.  There was also an added strength and when he jumped, he felt like he was launching himself way higher than needed.

Don’t panic, don’t panic, just get used to moving…. 

Virgil faceplanted on a roof, almost crashing through someone’s laundry.  It was painful and by the time he peeled his face off the ground, someone was on the roof, staring slack jawed.

“Hēi māo, Hēi māo!”  

That probably wasn’t good.  Virgil couldn’t understand them, and so he shrugged and jumped forward, clearing them easily and landing on the next roof with less difficulty.

He could get used to this.

…

Roman found a small octagonal box on the dressing room makeup counter, a note to him on top.

The box was small, looked old and it easily fit into the palm of his hand.  Roman held it and shakily opened the note, hoping that it wasn’t a termination of work.

Roman,

It seems that the services of a ladybug hero are needed once again.  I trust you to wield the power of creation.  Good luck, kwami knows you’ll need it.

(I recommend heading in the direction of Chinatown to meet your partner.)

The rest of the day is yours,

-Ladybug

Roman slipped the note into his pocket, excitement bubbling up inside him as he opened the box.  The effect was instantaneous, a glowing ball of pink solidifying into a strange creature.

“Hi!  I’m Roman, and you are?”  

The creature blinked, almost surprised.  “I’m Tikki and I am your kwami.”

“Cool… This is so cool!”  Roman bounced on his heels and looked back to the box, noting the familiar earrings that rested there.

“How much do you know about your new powers?”

“Nothing, except that these earrings give me magic powers and I have a partner near Chinatown.”  Roman set the box on the counter in front of him, pulling out the earrings.  They flashed, and once he’d blinked the stars from his vision, two gold studs sat in his hand.

“I’m gonna have to pierce my ears, aren’t I?”

“Yep, but the earrings will prevent you from getting an infection.”

Roman sighed and bit his lip as the first earring went in, wincing as he put the backing on and did the other ear.  “Ow, shit, that really hurts.”

“The pain will fade.  Would you like me to explain how to transform?”

“Sure.”

“To detransform, you say Spots off.  And to transform, it’s the reverse, ‘Spots on.’  While transformed, you will have a power that you can use one time before you have ten minutes to detransform and feed me.”  Tikki smiled and Roman nodded solemnly.

“Tikki, Spots on!” 

…

Virgil was barely getting the hang of it when the blur of red and black slammed into him, sending them both crashing to the ground in a dirty alley.

“What the fuck??”

“Language! Unless you’re a villain, then I guess the foulness is implied!”

Virgil hissed and squirmed out from under the person, blinking rapidly as he recognized the black and red pattern.

“You’re the new Ladybug?”

“Why so disappointed Alley Cat?”

“Not my name.”  Virgil spat and when Ladybug didn’t respond, he sighed.  “Kuro Neko works I guess.”

“Is that Chinese?” “No dumbass.”

“Dumbass doesn’t work as a superhero name.  And besides Kuro, we are in Chinatown and you do look like some anime emo hero.”

Virgil grit his teeth together, glad that Ladybug couldn’t see it due to his mask, which covered the bottom half of his face rather than the top.  “Japantown and Chinatown combined after 2036.”

Ladybug’s brown eyes blinked a few times before he seemed to snap himself out of the thought.  “I’m sorry for being insensitive.”

“It’s nothing.”  Virgil stood and held out a hand.  “Truce LB?”

“Sure thing Kitten.”

“Hell no on that nickname.”  Virgil pulled his new partner up and laughed as Ladybug pouted.

“Then you can’t use nicknames on me.”

“Ah, but there’s the kicker Scarlet.  I have a bunch to use since you didn’t rename yourself.”

“But Ladybug is English!  It works!  I don’t see why we don’t call you Black Panther… oh wait…”  Ladybug trailed off, his expression slowly growing more confused as they stood there.

Virgil smirked, gave a two fingered salute and grabbed his staff from the ground, using it like a pole vault to catapult himself back to the roof.

“See you around Bug Boy!”

And with that, he was gone.

…

Roman watched Kuro Neko leave, feeling excited.   His partner may have looked dark and vaguely emo, but holy hell, did he have a sharp tongue.

He was 100% Roman’s type and he knew that he was screwed.

[diminuel]

Supernatural 15x01 rewatch

As a warning to send you on your way; this is a long post and it’s not clearly structured. It’s a reaction and not a proper analysis/ meta. I’d love to hear your thoughts or be pointed towards your own reactions if you’re willing to share~

Okay, here we go! All under the cut!

I am fond of the smooth transition between the “THEN” and “NOW”. The summary of last season was pretty short and I had somehow expected a montage spanning all seasons, but this is better.

First of all I am confronted with the slight vagueness of the issue at hand: the doors to hell have all been opened, so any soul that wants to is free to walk the earth again. So are they ghosts or are they demons? Since they possess bodies demons would be most likely, but then they wouldn’t be cast out of a body by iron alone. Other ghosts we see later on - any ghost that’s not in the cemetary trying to eat Sam and Dean and Cas - don’t seem to need to possess a body. Neither are they in any way restricted to a particular place or object or bound by lore (White Woman, Bloody Mary... they both just kill whoever is available, not who they would usually go for due to the “rules”).

The second remarkable thing is that we get Belphegor in Jack’s place, both masking his loss but also parading it around, depending on which character he has a scene with. Belphegor, while suspicious, is also highly entertaining and even though he has no eyes he is pretty insightful. Jack’s dead and Dean comments it with “he didn’t deserve this”, but that is the height of emotion for Dean regaring Jack’s demise, at least in this episode. Dean wanted Jack to die but ultimately decided against it, but I assume his lack of emotion (or at least the lack of expression of those emotions) are a good indication that Dean’s anger at what Jack has done still overrides his paternal feelings and any sadness that Jack's death might cause him. He wanted him dead, now he’s dead, moving on to bigger issues.

How Dean deals with his own complicated feelings regarding Jack is one thing, but how he deals with Cas’ feelings is quite another. Dean shows no compassion at all for how Cas feels about Belphegor walking around in Jack’s body. But neither does Sam, not really. They instead jump at the chance of having an ally. A demon comes, possesses Jack’s body, gives them a little speech and conveniently has all the right spells just available to himself and Dean & Sam don’t even think about second guessing it? It’s like “I need angel blood :D” and when Cas hesistates Sam urges him to give his blood anyway.

Also, Sam doesn’t have a lot of scenes with the guy, it’s mostly Dean and Cas being shown to have very different reactions and that’s pretty telling too considering Dean and Cas have been established to be Jack’s parents more than Sam has lately. 

While Dean is pretty unperturbed and cracking jokes like calling Belphegor Crowley Jr. (I’d call him Babybel but to each their own), Castiel went from anger at him possessing Jack to a heart-broken admittal that he can’t even look at Belphegor, something that doesn’t even seem to cross Dean’s mind as a possibility? He lets Cas go without berating him for it, so at least it gave him to think a bit and he didn’t default to not letting Cas have emotions about it.

Belphegor has a reaction to the Equalizer, so I assume there might be something coming featuring that kill everything suicide gun. Belphegor probably knows more than he lets on, who knows if he’s even from our version of the Sam and Dean story, but we’ll probably see. The scene showing the gun in Belphegor’s presence was there for a reason and we’re bound to see what it’ll become.

Belphegor commenting on how gorgeous Dean is (and then later on how much he admires him as an artist) is just so funny to me. Kind of uncomfortable of course because it sounds like Belphegor is flirting and the dude is possessing Dean’s kid *lol* Generally, Belphegor is our big question mark of the episode. Is he who he claims to be? What is his goal exactly? Helping the Winchesters to put things back into hell seems far-fetched but not exactly impossible. 

But, I must now comment on one of the high lights of the episode for me. Dean, Cas and Belphegor are in the impala alone. Belphegor witnesses Cas share that he cannot even look at Belphegor. I’m pretty sure Jack made the demon news too, but Belphegor still asks about his meatsuit, which then reveals an interesting, juicy bit that warms every Destiel shipper’s heart. Dean says that Jack was “our” kid. Now, imagine you’re Belphegor and you get that piece of information after having just witnessed a tense moment between Dean and Cas. Who is “our”? Considering that Belphegor knows that Sam and Dean are brothers and he has seen how Cas acts around him, he inevitably must interpret “he was our kid” to mean Dean and Castiel’s. Especially since everyone in hell seems to know that Dean and Cas are “attached”. I’m just waiting for Belphegor to comment on Dean and Cas’ failing marriage.

But hey, back to the plot! I wonder what the Equalizer wound does. In all honesty we don’t even know for sure what the Equalizer does, because it certainly wasn’t the only thing that could kill Jack. Maybe its goal was to purge Jack out of the story since he, in theory, could be a thread to the whole cardhouse structure of the multiverse that is Chuck’s AO3 profile of not beta read variations of the same story (like Metatron said, Chuck posted the first draft). When Jack was born he created rifts into different worlds - the abandoned drafts existing parallel to their own - and he had impacted other worlds, killed players from different universes (well, not that this was the first time this happened, Meta Misha anyone? Poor guy) and could destroy it all. Chuck doesn’t mind losing one story. There are countless more, but having Jack mess up all of them, especially the ones Chuck likes to observe? That would suck. So if that was something the Equalizer was meant to prevent, balacing all the other universes out there, then maybe Sam now accidentally became a portal/ door to other worlds. The fact that we saw a different Sam, heard a different Dean seems to imply this. 

Well, that’s just speculation because it could also be that Sam, having accidentally forged a connection with Chuck due to their common wound, could simply see things - the future, different versions that Chuck is currently invested in. In any case, I’m very excited about that, seeing different versions of Team Free Will is my jam.

And while I’m speaking of things that are my jam? I must mention Cas’ flat “You shot me”. So good. I always wonder why that doesn’t happen more often in close ghost combat when shotguns are involved. Luckily Cas can’t get hurt *lol* 

But... why can a ghost hurt a demon and why can a ghost get a hold of Cas? These ghosts generally do weird things but I assume that might be because they’ve been to hell for a while and are on their way to become demons? But that brings us back to the question I asked initially and I guess we’ll see more of that in the next episode.

And now, the other DeanCas scene. It doesn’t exactly qualify as a conversation but it’s there and it’s still meaningful. Why did Dean get out of the car, why did he approach Cas, why did he ask? The way he cuts any conversation short beyond the quick affirmation that Cas isn’t hurt, Dean shows that he doesn’t want to talk, doesn’t want to hear anything from Cas. Belphegor picks up on the rejection it is meant to be. It is kinda awkard, it is kind of cruel. Dean knows how Cas is struggling with the situation, at least when it gets to Belphegor but Dean is clever enough to know how much Cas is hurting because of Jack’s death. But Dean allows no grief, no expression of it, which I think is cruel... And it’s not necessary. Even if Dean is angry at Cas still (obviously) that doesn’t mean that he gets to decide to not let Cas be sad about the death of their child. (But Dean has done that before, when Charlie died and Sam apologized to her while they gave her a hunter’s funeral, Dean decided that Sam didn’t get to say anything, because he was at fault. It makes Dean seem so self-righteous, deciding who can or cannot be sad and in what shape they are allowed to express their grief.) Cas has shown in S14 and now again that he wants to talk, he wants to tackle the issue as a family. He never rejected Dean’s sadness, anger and grief - it was Sam that held him back, it was Dean who decided to cry alone in the woods even though Cas would have been there for him.

And Cas isn’t even angry at Dean, which is something that I expected. I wonder if that will continue this way; with Cas having plenty of reasons to be upset with Dean, but only ever taking the rejection Dean heaps on him, accepting that Dean doesn’t grant him the right to voice his own grief, without ever speaking up about it. Just... it’s unfair?

By the way, Sam continues to remove himself from the entire issue. He has very little to offer in terms of reactions to Jack’s death, he has nothing to offer in terms of comfort for Cas, presents no grief for either Cas or Dean to comment on and in turn get to show glimpses of their own struggling. And he too takes no responsibility at the current moment for the situation, no apology offered to Cas regarding his involvement in the “kill Jack” mission... Which is disappointing as well but not super unexpected either. Maybe it’ll come later, but as with Dean, Cas doesn’t seem to hold any anger so far.

I did like the ending. From what some interviews stated I had expected Sam and Dean to struggle with having God as the one who wrote their entire lives a lot more. But they’re doing fine so far...

All in all, a good episode. Throwing Belphegor into the mix created some very interesting situations and having him there means that he - as an outsider - gets to poke at things that interests us too, like the focus on the Dean - Cas drama. He comments on it for us, gets Cas to speak up in ways he probably wouldn’t if there was only Jack’s corpse around. So I’m pleased. :D

[wahbegan]

Blah Blah Trailer Things Blah I’m So Weary

All right w/e you’d think i was getting paid for this the way i crank them out even when I have no desire to but fuck it as all the ones before, under a read more so you don’t have to scroll and shit and so that if someone makes a super obvious correction in the first few notes i can change it and nobody will be the wiser tee hee hee I am gonna stick to things that haven’t been confirmed so shit we already know like “There are additional flashbacks to when they were kids, Mike still lives in Derry and has been tryna figure out how to kill It through...tripping, apparently? They meet at Jade of the Orient like in the book,” etc. I won’t touch for the sake of brevity. I also won’t go over things I did in the last one

1. The flood of water in the sewer COULD be right after they actually kill It, in the book they kill It in the early morning, and Its death coincides with a massive storm destroying the town, starting with the sewers flooding and backing up

2. Adrian Mellon, post beating and being thrown off a bridge by homophobes, as Pennywise mockingly offers him help before eating him. This is STRAIGHT out of the book, right down to the silver eyes Pennywise is sporting i’m very excited

3. Bev walking in the rain looking shaken up seems to be her right after having her fight her way out of her abusive boyfriend’s place, we know they’re keeping that intact courtesy of the bruises on her arms in the Mrs Kersh trailer

4. Not sure where Eddie’s standing in this child-to-adult montage, i can only guess that maybe Ben is outside that bar he gets shitfaced in before he goes back to Derry? But that’s a shot in the dark. I know Bill’s standing at the storm drain where Georgie got dragged in, which we saw It taunting him in Georgie form briefly in the last trailer, and Mike due to the area and the police lights on his face, seems to be investigating child murders like he was in the book. It’s what prompts him to call the other Losers. Richie is at the Paul Bunyan statue

5. So yeah the carnival seems to play a bigger role than just the backdrop where Adrian first has trouble with the homophobes like in the book, Bill probably follows a lead there, possibly investigating what happened to Adrian aaaaand finds Pennywise chewing down on some kid right behind a glass he can’t get to him from in a mirror maze, ostensibly just to fuck with him. Brutal and sadistic, i gotta say i love it even though it’s hard to analyze further than that since there isn’t anything even remotely analogous to this in the book. Oh, the little swinging punch clowns are done up like Tim Curry’s Pennywise, that’s a fun easter egg. Also Pennywise’s long tongue on the glass is reminiscent of The Leper’s tongue from the book, probably did that on purpose. 

6. Oh yeah confirmation Bowers is alive and in a mental hospital, and Pennywise is calling him back, apparently via red balloon instead of the moon which BOOOOOO but whatever

7. Since they changed it from the book a bit to revolve more heavily around Neibolt Street, that seems to have more prominence in this half of the movie as well, with lots of shots of them going into it, whereas I don’t think they touch it as adults in the book. I do like the fridge shaking like It’s about to come out of it like It did in the first movie to eat Eddie. Clearly lots of call backs so that’s fun. Actually, you know what? It could be Stan’s severed head with a bunch of balloons in there cause there’s a scene like that involving a (different) fridge in the adult half of the book/miniseries

EDIT: Okay, according to someone on youtube who saw Comic-Con footage, that IS the case damn i’m right once in a while except in this case Stan’s head...the youtube source didn’t say whose head it was but i’m...there’s no way it’s not Stan’s goes on to sprout spider legs and crawl at them a la The Thing so that’s pretty awesome

8. “I’ve seen all of us die” is an interesting line. Now, in the book, fUCKING STAN YOU FUCKING BASTARD ANDRES MUSCHIETTI YOU LITERALLY TOOK EVERYTHING FROM STAN AND GAVE IT TO A DIFF-ahem. Forgive that little outburst. In the book,...SSsss.....hrng. Stanley Uris is the one who seems to have visions or at least a sense of the future, not, Bev, as well as some vaguely defined psychic somethinerother. Obviously, her kidnapping slash Deadlighting slash empty eyes slash floating thing never happens in the book, so once again, no real way of knowing if it’s a Dr. Strange circa Infinity War thing where she saw a possible or a bunch of possible futures or just Pennywise fucking with her to make her feel hopeless thing. I mean obviously we know they don’t all die so i’m just curious about the nature of her vision she had in Its lair. Obviously some of it came to pass, but...i just don’t know if it was a vision from The Turtle or a trick from It, or possibly a little of both. But it’s one of those

9. Oh yeah right that....that’s definitely Stan’s death scene. Not that there was any question, really, but this is solid confirmation he takes a one way ticket out of Clowntown on the Razorblade-in-a-Bathtub Express

10. Oh I forgot to say about the alien-looking spikes i think that’s the blasted-up exploded remains of whatever it landed in just btw

11. Okay so Bill as an adult back in the basement with a screaming ghost Georgie confronting him in a very similar way to when he was a kid, Bev back in the bathroom where she got bullied and it seems like her childhood bathroom? Filling up with blood and...trying to help someone out of the blood lake? Okay.

I have a theory about all this.

I think it’s them interacting with their younger selves. I think.....

I think The Ritual of Chud is going to manifest differently for every single one of them, and it’s basically going to be them going to some mindscape where they go to their kid selves, to their worst and darkest moments, and are either trapped there in despair or have to save their younger selves. Think of The Haunting of Hill House’s Red Room. I THINK that’s what’s going on here. Judging by...I’m almost positive Bev is reaching out her hand to pull her younger self out of the blood, and you can see young Bill behind adult Bill in the background while Georgie’s going “what the FUCK you’re the worst brother EVER” at him so look i think i’m right, okay? 

12. When Bev smashes the mirror, it looks like, you know how in the first one Henry goes to carve his face on Ben’s stomach but only gets the H? In the book that scar disappears when he grows up but then comes back after Mike calls him and it looks here like not only has the scar come back but It has either actually cut the entire name down there or at least made him hallucinate that the entire name has appeared on his stomach. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s the latter, some kind of hallucination Bev’s trying to break by shattering the mirror.

13. Yeah so if you hadn’t read the book, that’s pretty much definitely Eddie Richie’s holding, and he’s pretty much definitely dying and his final words are pretty much definitely gonna be “Don’t call me Eds. You know I hate it when you...”

14. Oh yeah right I’m pretty sure the underwater monster is a more decayed Ms Kersh and it looks like instead of turning to candy, her house floods for some reason? And here she is being all spooky and underwater with Bev i do not know why the flooding is a thing but w/e uhhh look it’s not in the first trailer i don’t know where i think i saw this or how I got this impression but i think somewhere there was a brief shot implying the water like came out of a painting or something. Possibly a 1408 reference, actually

15. Gotta be Its lair disintegrating after the completed Ritual of Chud which yeah when they were all holding hands a few shots earlier and looking up at orange light i forgot to say that’s def the Ritual starting

17. Whoever this is, Bill i’m assuming flying through that tunnel to the rectangle of light is pretty close to straight out of the book Ritual of Chud

18. Mike tripping, as per mentioned

19. Given the shit all over them and how emotional Richie is, it seems like this would be at the end after they leave the sewers? Idk his scream could be about several things, but it’s just the kind of scream that says “my best friend in the whole wide world and completely hetero lifemate just got his arm bitten off by a weird giant spider alien thing and bled to death”

20. Andres Muschietti mentioned the underground clubhouse would be part of this movie, as well as the “tripping and coming dangerously close to dying via carbon monoxide poisoning so we can hallucinate about where It came from” part of the book but at the end Pennywise is clearly slamming the door which wasn’t part of that sequence unless i mean they may have just added it in for a scare or it could be one of the adults going back to said clubhouse and having a flashback leading into Pennywise fucking with them, either is a possibility

21. Okay so unfortunately i have egg on my face and this clearly is It (not Henry Bowers like i theorized) previously not in Pennywise form, putting on Its Pennywise form, possibly for the first time in a flashback.

22. Okay i am almost 100% sure Pennywise, Devourer of Worlds and Children, The Spider, The Deadlights, The Eternal Consumption, ends this trailer by saying “Hewwo”

[thecloserkin]

Wasteland by Francesca Lia Block (2003)

Genre: YA

Is it the main pairing: Yes

Is it canon: Yes

Is it explicit: No

Is it endgame: Ahahaha no he’s dead from the get-go the book is about her processing her grief

Is it shippable: Depends on your tolerance for angst — mine is high so yes

Yes the story is far from ideal but I am of the opinion that it is a must-read for incest shippers. Y’all can safely ignore the publisher’s summary which makes it sounds like this is a book about her falling in love with some other guy, how he helps her “put the pieces back together” and “face the past that is haunting her.” Lol like >70% of the scenes are in the “past,” her brother is not her past he is her everything.

A couple of stylistic disclaimers before we get into it: The dust jacket describes the novel as “darkly opalescent” and “poetic and lush.” If that’s not your cup of tea then you know who you are. It’s not exactly Second Person POV but it might as well be: the pronoun “you” is the siblings’ special name for each other, so the chapters are told in alternating POVs and there is a lot of “you” this “you” that. Nonlinear narrative too but you probably surmised that from the “poetic” bit. Francesca Lia Block’s prose is spare and sharp but the plot is nonexistent and the character development is scarcely less so. It’s a slim volume, 150 not-very-densely-spaced pages with generous margins, and we already know what’s going to happen. Spoiler alert they were iN lOvE!!!!! What this book does have in spades, however, is alllllllll the best brosis incest tropes; checks every damn box. Spoilers ahead:

When you were a baby I sat very still to hold you. I could see the veins through your skin like a map to inside you. How could skin be that thin? I was afraid you might drop and break. I stopped breathing so you wouldn’t …. Then you reached out and curled your fingers around mine … That was the first time I knew I had a heart inside my body.

I cannot get enough of this - the instant, bone-deep, lifelong connection. I look forward to seeing it develop into romantic love of course but you cannot skimp on establishing the depth of their relationship prior to that. Let the record reflect that I am 132% here for the older sibling gravitating to the crib to calm the crying baby. You know what I’m also here for? Teenagers walking in on each other masturbating:

You jerked up and looked at me. You were in bed with the sheet over you and the room smelled close. I smelled your pot and beer and your smell — salty, warm, baked. I read in a magazine that women aren’t supposed to be attracted to the smells of their father and brothers.

She’s clearly aware of her burgeoning attraction to him but she’s also confused by it, and even more confused about whether he reciprocates. She’s barged into his room before going on a date specifically so he’ll see her outfit and her makeup and I don’t think it’s even to make him jealous — jealousy is, if anything, a secondary objective. She wants him to tell her she’s beautiful. She needs his praise and validation in order to feel real; she needs it like a plant needs sunlight. One of my favorite things about incest ships is how they know each other inside out:

We’d stop for rocky road ice cream in Westwood on the way home and I picked out the nuts and gave them to you, you plucked marshmallows out for me.

Just the use of the customary we would stop instead of the one-off we stopped says volumes about this bonding ritual. Then she goes on to describe how she got sunburnt at the beach and he was the one to apply aloe/ointment to the blisters. The blisters on her CHIN and her CHEST. After that they have a convo about reincarnation, which ends thusly:

If you were a mermaid, you said, If you were a mermaid, I was the sea.

Later on he gets a mermaid tattoo. Adkjkdfjkdfdjk. At this point I should probably mention that the main characters’ names are Lex and Marina and Marina means “from the sea.” It is unclear what Lex is short for but probably Alexander? Which means something like “defender.” Check it out though this is what happens when Marina gets her first period:

I asked Michelle to go and get you. I could have told her, I guess, but I didn’t. I wanted you. I was scared and you were always who I went to when I was scared. I was practically stuck to my seat. The wetness pooling underneath me. I looked up at you. You had come running. There was sweat on you face, your eyes all pupil. Hey, you, you said, down on your knees looking at me. Hey you what is it you scared me you okay?

She doesn’t even say anything just casts her eyes downward into her lap and he knows right away what it is. He takes off his sweatshirt, ties it around her hips, pulls her upright, holds her against him for a second, then goes on to walk behind her down the hall, shielding her body with his. When will you fave ever.

I never looked at other boys. I tried, as I got older, to like them. I tried to like my square-jawed dance partner in sixth grade graduation … I tried teen idols with their skinny bodies and whiny voices … I tried to like Robby Rydell because he was a good skateboarder but he caught me with a jump-rope lasso and tried to stick his tongue in my mouth on the playground before he ever said hi. I really tried hard to like Brent Fisher because it seemed important that I find somebody at that point. Not somebody to fill a space. There was never a space.

TRIED TO STICK HIS TONGUE IN MY MOUTH BEFORE HE EVER SAID HI. Why would she ever go for any of these jerkwads when Lex is right there.

So in addition to the Lex and Marina POVs there are also sections narrated by a kid named West, a friend of Marina’s. He is lowkey interested in her, but I’m okay with that since it’s not like he’s bitter or whinging about being friendzoned. I’m actually partial to Outsider POVs when they serve the important narrative function of confirming the untouchability of the main relationship, which West absolutely does. He literally thought Lex was her boyfriend the first time he saw Marina in seventh grade:

They were walking together and laughing and he thought that must be her boyfriend.

Imagine how many people must have thought the same thing though. And West is very matter-of-fact when he describes Lex as “the person you love more than anyone,” and when he sees Marina completely dry-eyed at Lex’s funeral he is super concerned because how the hell do you hold all of that in girl — “to hold your brother’s life and his death inside of her,” is the way he puts it.

One time Lex goes to a fortune teller. She tells him “There’s someone who loves you too much,” which is exactly the sort of vague but broadly applicable prognostication that con artists are known for tendering. For fifty dollars she promises to tell him more, but Lex thinks What more could she tell me? I already knew. He fights it but he can’t help it because him and Marina? It’s like fighting gravity. Tbh most of the tension in their relationship is a result of them trying to fight the gravitational pull of their attraction. Lex goes to a prostitute because, well:

She was the farthest I could get from you. That’s what I wanted.

The next logical thing to do, of course, is to date Marina’s bff, thereby damaging Marina’s own relationship with the girl but Lex explains he’s desperate to do something, anything to “sever” himself from Marina definitively. Needless to say I am 200% here for siblings engaging in unsatisfactory sex with other partners in order to cope with their forbidden feelings … as long as they hook up in the end. Which they do. While housesitting for Lex’s English teacher. It’s this grand old house with a sunken garden, filled with old books and plenty of wine, and outside the jasmine is in full bloom. I mention this because the scene is carefully framed as a romantic one, not some sordid sweaty physical encounter. I’m pretty sure there was fumbling — it was Marina’s first time after all — but it’s in keeping with the genre that Marina draws herself a bubble bath and throws the window open and calls for Lex to bring her a refill of wine … and that’s when we fade to black. Guys their story is TOO PURE FOR THIS WORLD.

They go to a club:

One of the guys from out there came over … He said hey, asked you who I was. You asked him why he wanted to know. He flashed his sharp teeth at you. He said why’d you think? because I was a babe. You said I was your sister and you looked like a statue.

Lex is torn between being overprotective because Marina is his sister or jealous because Marina is the love of his life and I am dyyyyying. Lex, later:

He may have a basement full of artillery but if he ever comes near you I am going to kill him.

Straight up threatening to end anyone who even looks crosswise at his (objectively drop-dead gorgeous) sister? YES.

After Lex dies a random girl whom Marina has never laid eyes on before comes to their door and demands a memento so she can make an honest-to-god altar to Lex. This is creepy af and I don’t at all blame Marina for telling her to get lost. Well, it turns out this girl was in love with Lex probably. And you know how sometimes when you’re in love even if it’s one-sided you notice things about the object of your affection that other people don’t? This girl feels like she was entitled to Lex’s affection as much as his leather jacket. Lol bitch no he belongs to Marina heart and soul.

She said that Marina would regret this. She said it’s one thing to keep someone to yourself when they’re alive, but when they’re dead it’s really sick.

Don’t worry, Marina handles her fine. But it’s strongly implied that this girl, or someone else in her posse, or someone else entirely, guessed or suspected about the incest and threatened Lex with the knowledge and that’s how he winds up committing suicide.

I love this book so much. At the same time it is just.so.painful. to read. It unequivocally frames Lex and Marina’s story as a love story rather than as deviant behavior, which is all to the good. And it’s like Trope City here. But Lex essentially commits suicide out of guilt for the intensity of his feelings for Marina, which �� last time I checked the world was not suffering any shortage of incest stories where it ends badly for the protagonists. And then …. plot twist! (I know I said there was no plot but somehow there is a plot twist.) Turns out Lex was adopted. Cue the Alanis Morissette song “Ironic.” Marina is livid when she confronts her mother about it:

I said I had a right to know, why didn’t she tell me?

Do you think I didn’t see what was between you? Do you think I could tell you he wasn’t really your brother ad have my children …

She couldn’t finish it and I couldn’t tell her that it had happened anyway.

Welp. So that happened. And when she recounts the conversation to West, he says:

Isn’t it harder now, that you know you could have?

It’s the same thing. He was my brother anyway. When someone is something to you, it’s always that.

Which about sums up how I feel about it too. The first time I read this book I was pissed about the deus ex machina reveal but I have since softened in my censure. The fact that Marina finds out about it too late makes it more tragic, not less, and it’s not like Francesca Lia Block was ever going to give us a happy ending. She’s also written another book with incest but that one is about a very damaged girl whose father molested her :(

[logan-after-dark]

March 3rd 2018

I feel like I had someone else’s lucid dream last night. Many weird and wonderful details below the cut (trigger warning: a character in this dream was molested as a child, and I experienced some vague flashbacks of it/associated trauma):

The first thing I think I remember doing is floating around a place that was familiar to me, although the ‘me’ in this dream wasn’t really me, I don’t think. The elementary school I floated by was familiar to me, in that in my mind I called it Fallingbrook Elementary (which was a school I went to for a few years as a kid, grades 3-6 I believe), but then I turned around to see this castle monument thing (that doesn’t exist near Fallingbrook elementary school), and overheard some tourists nearby talking about how “the King” put a magical barrier around it to keep people out of the vicinity, so that the castle will always be in pristine condition. There’s supposedly a sign on the front of it talking about it, but nobody can get close enough because of the barrier.

I remembered hearing about that as a kid growing up in the area (once again, not me - whoever I was supposed to be in the dream, this girl), and I thought that, since I’m floating around having an out-of-body experience, might as well get a closer look.

Sure enough, there was a sign. Well, more like white letters protruding from the stonework on the front of the small castle, declaring the spell’s intent, the King’s name, and the date it went up. I suppose the sign had to be done first before the barrier spell was cast, which may’ve been a little pre-emptive on their parts, but what can you do when you’re lucid dreaming someone else’s life XD

Anyways, I start floating/flying around this hometown and night is falling, and I find, well, myself. I find myself asleep in bed next to my boyfriend, I guess, and she wakes up in a panic as I start looking through things in her room. See, this girl had a very traumatized past - I believe it was implied that she was sexually abused as a child by a man. The details of the horrible experience started to overwhelm me, and I started to fade out like I was going to wake up, but I struggled through the haunting ‘memories’ and stuck with it. That’s why I started opening drawers. I wanted to take away the last memories of her attacker and get rid of them for her (and for myself) once and for all.

I’m not entirely sure why I, in an out-of-body experience/lucid dream/astral adventure, was able to not only find my conscious and sentient body as if it was a different person, nor why I was able to interact with her environment so directly as to open her dresser drawers and a cupboard, but there I was XD And it woke her and startled her as if there was a ghost in the room, and her boyfriend, whom I knew to be very sensitive and supportive, woke up to hold her shoulders and try to calm her down. At that point I decided to stop haunting her, and decided to let myself be seen by her, instead of remaining as some invisible creepy ghost.

The familiarity in her eyes told me it was like looking into a mirror for her. I explained to her, very calmly, what I was trying to do for her, for both of us. I told her to let me take care of the last remnants of that time, to let me destroy the last few things of him that she had left, and to let me bear that burden. She started crying and hugged me. Her boyfriend left for a couple glasses of water, and when he got back and we both explained what was going on, he held her and encouraged my search.

I found some photos of him, and the memories they provoked made me feel so sick it was nigh unbearable. But I took care of them anyways. Next I found some notes and letters I had written to him, explaining that I didn’t like what was happening. Those were hard to look at. I couldn’t read them, I just couldn’t. I showed them to her and told her ‘I’m taking these to get rid of them, okay?’ She agreed uneasily. But she seemed to be faring a lot better. Her boyfriend held her by the shoulders and she savoured that glass of water as she watched what I was doing.

I purged it all. Anything that I could find that connected me/this poor girl to him.

Now I just had to make sure he was rotting in jail like he should.

I floated through the town to find the small police station and the lockup. I don’t know why he wasn’t in a bigger prison out of town, but that’s where I found him. He was rotting in some concrete cell at the back of the station, and I found him asleep, dressed in a ragged grey jumpsuit, on the can.

He woke up. And he could see me.

And he was silent.

And, somehow, I realized that this wasn’t like him.

There was something off about his demeanor, his mannerisms, everything. He didn’t gloat, didn’t have some one-liner prepped to torment me with, he didn’t even seem to recognize me. This horrible man was someone that I knew very well and at a vulnerable time of my (again, her) life. And he was just sitting in this cell, lifeless.

I quickly realized that I didn’t really have anything to say to him, not in this state. So I left. Phased through the walls and just left him to rot.

I’m not sure how this transition occurred, but the next thing I remember doing was searching this guy’s apartment with my family - mother, father, sister, little brother. They weren’t at all like my family in real life, but I recognized them in the dream as my family. Anyways, we’re digging through his stuff, and someone finds this catalogue of masks, sort of? Long face masks like a founded sheet of paper printed to look like different characters from a video game I (apparently) recognized and enjoyed as a kid. Think sort of like League of Legends meets Team Fortress - big, buff, burly guys in a whole bunch of different roles and with different weapons and abilities. We left the apartment somewhat empty-handed. The place was a complete mess, but whatever we were looking for (evidence the abuse happened, maybe? Validation?), we didn’t really find it there.

As we’re leaving, dusk has fallen and there are very few people out on the streets. This town is old-fashioned, with interlocking brick sidewalks and old stone buildings and churches. So much so that there’s an older lady out lighting the lamps alongside the street and sidewalk. My father greets her and offers her some coin, for which she thanks him, and then I get a look at her face.

It’s not a her. It’s him, in disguise.

I recognize the eyes instantly - one grey eye, one blue - and that wicked smile. He’s out of jail and roaming the streets in a big heavy coat and a long curled wig of dark hair. We were just about to cross the empty street as a group, but I’m frozen in my tracks and have stopped breathing. I’m actually struggling for air, to make any kind of sound to alert my family, but I just can’t. At least, not until my dad comes to check on me, putting a hand on my shoulder once he sees that I’ve stopped.

“HIM,” I gasp. “IT’S HIM.”

He knows exactly what I mean, and my family leaps into action. This guy wasn’t just an average joe, I find out too late, as my family begins to fight him while I stay out of the line of fire and try to support. He cackled and gloated as he manifested some sort of pale white vine weapons from his body, all four taking down each of my family members, knocking them unconscious and putting their lives at risk. I was able to use my dream powers to push him back, to literally will the vines away from my family, rouse them, and heal whatever damage had been done. I barely understood how they were injured, I just willed them better, and I overpowered him as I did so. This caused him to panic a bit and flee, but not before my family’s own powers came into play. My adult sister (who had blonde hair and colourful leggings with a tank top) kicked him in the face from meters away. I think my dad had super strength, and I don’t know what my mom or brother had (yes, it was very reminiscent of The Incredibles - I watched a trailer for the new one recently so that probably inspired this part of the dream XD).

This asshole still managed to get away, despite the fight and effort we all put into it. Instead of chase him down though, my dad said we ought to come up with a plan and find some help.

So that’s what we did. Next thing I know we’re sitting around a table with a map of town, with a bunch of big, burly men. It turns out, these guys from the video game from earlier are also real in this dream, apparently? I definitely felt awestruck that they not only existed, but came to help me with hunting down this monster. The first thing we discovered was that the catalogue of masks that we saw at his apartment, were actually disguise masks that could change your whole appearance if you wear them. He had ordered quite a number of them through this catalogue, and even had one custom-made to look like himself, which was what the poor guy in jail had been stuck with wearing. This created a new problem though, in that the very people who came to help us couldn’t be trusted, because he could literally look like any of them anytime he wanted. Yeah. Great way to start things off.

These guys were very supportive of me though - they dwarfed me in size with their military gear and broad chests, and they were all holding my shoulder, clapping me on the back or hugging me. It felt nice to have that positive attention from a man, after everything I’d gone through in the past, and I felt warm and safe amoung them, in spite of the whole mask issue.

The characters in the game that I remembered were listed alphabetically I remember, with the first guy being caucasian with blue eyes and brown hair just long enough to have waves in it. He had a headset with a small blue screen suspended in front of one eye, and red and white body armour. His codename was Atllas I think. The next guy down on the list had a surname that started with B I believe, who was dark-skinned and looked fairly similar to TF2′s Demoman, except with both eyes, more wrinkles in his face, big broad chest, and no Scottish accent. He actually remarked at one point in the meeting that he thought the game was ridiculous, and he didn’t understand why anyone ever played it. I said “Well, here I was about to tell you that you were my favourite character to play,” and he looked abashed while Atllas had a good laugh.

The meeting left off on a rather positive note despite everything else that happened in the dream, and after that we started searching for that asshole, but after some brief confrontations that I barely recall and him switching masks a whole bunch, my memory of the dream itself gets quite fuzzy, and I don’t know whether we actually managed to catch him in the end.

[passanima]

I’m gonna review a manga even tho it’s an animation blog cause I’ve read something I thought had a cool concept, and like an idiot had hopes, just to be left deeply disappointed and upset. So I’m gonna rant till I feel better!

It’s called shishunki bitter change and is one of the popular “genderbend” manga that usually goes like: girl and boy of high school age fall or bump into each other and realize they now switched bodies!

That seems fun and all but in general the girl is the only serious/mature one while the guy is a dumbass and a pervert and the first thing he’s gonna do in the girl’s body is touch her boobs or look at her naked. They also usually find a way to go back to normal but still decide to change from time to time because why not.

The cool concept this one manga I’m gonna talk about has, compared to the usual format, is that boy and girl meet and change place in elementary school. Way too early for the gross jokes. And also, they don’t find a way to change back and have to live as each other from now on. We follow them for years, until high school. Which leave them for 6 years dealing with this uncomfortable situation.

So I thought it was gonna be great! We won’t see the usual boring tropes of the genre, it will feel fresh, and we’ll get to follow them as they’re growing up! How difficult it may be, and shit.

Of course, I was wrong!

Instead we got very bad writing (and bad art but that would have been fine if, you know, the story had been good) that don’t even try to touch the most important elements of their lives or just gloss over it so fast you’re left feeling like it wasn’t talked about at all.

We start with these two 10 years old kids who play in the park till boy fall on girl and next time they open their eyes, you know it, they switched body. Of course they panic and try to re-do the fall in hope they’ll switch again so everything goes back to normal. But it doesn’t work.

Since they don’t know what else to do and it’s getting late they have to go home and decide to just pretend they’re each other for a day, then meet again the nest day and fix this thing somehow. Till now this thing works, it’s believable, it’s just the first few pages.

Boy in girl’s body go back to an abusive home where the dad is almost never here and the mom just don’t pay attention to her child. The boy was lucky enough to have a nice and warm family so the change is quite a shock. I MEAN to me the reader it was, but to him it’s just “ah ok” reaction and he’s more upset about having strict rules to follow. It’s still fine, he’s a kid that as far as he know only need to pretend for a night.

Girl in boy’s body live the opposite. She comes back to a lovely family with an attentive mom and a little brother who wants to play together. She’s more impressed by the food than anything else and the weird thing is the lil bro is the only one who realize something is weird. He ask where his real brother is and the girl tells him they’re playing a game and his bro will come back if he keeps the secret.

I would... Love to talk about it. If it had been brought up again, and if it had made sense too. It’s implied the brother knows and remember the person in his brother’s body isn’t his actual brother... But he also doesn't seem to care about it! Remember that they stay 6 years stuck like this? Damn, that’s a long game to play. If I was 6 of age and my nice older brother disappeared one day and I only got a clone of him with a weird personality I wouldn’t have kept my mouth shut about it for years! I would have cried to my mom about it or something! it’s upsetting!

The first problem is that. These young kids are never shown to be upset about it. Really upset I mean. It’s a strange and scary situation they don’t know how to deal with. And they’re only mildly inconvenienced. 

It’s just not realistic. This would happen to me today I would panic, like, bad. I don’t want to ever be stuck in someone else body. Someone being in my body and using it however they want is the scenario of actual nightmares I have from time to time. So if this happened when I was 10? I would have cried just at the idea of pretending being someone’s else in front of this person parents and sleeping in a stranger’s house.

Yea, because the two kids aren’t even friends to begin with! They’re classmates that rarely talk to each other. Being stuck in your friend’s body? Might be fun for half an hour. In an almost stranger’s body? Not fun for even a minute!

And we... Directly jump in time. Something like a year in the future. One year they pretended to be each other and no one but the lil bro that don’t care about it so much found out.

These two have completely opposite personalities. And the parents just don’t realize. The girl’s parents, sure, they’re abusive and don’t pay attention to her, it’s already been said. I’m not surprised about it. But the boy’s mom just think “wow you’re so mature now”. Like. If your kid completely change personality in one day something seriously wrong happened. Of course she’s not gonna think it’s something supernatural but she should be wondering if it’s related to school or something. Anything! The parents are either idiots or the author just didn’t want to spent time on it.

At some point the two kids decide to confess their situation to a friend, who decide to believe them. That’s the only person they tell for 6 years.

I still don’t buy that kids would keep such a secret for that long, it’s neither realistic nor smart. In this situation you would want to ask for help. Even if the adults don’t believe you talking about it is still the best thing to do.

... Well at least they have one (1) friend they trust with it, better than nothing.

It’s also shown that girl in dude and that friend spend time together at the library to find books about people in the same situation as they are, to, you know, find a way to go back. But again that’s literally just one scene and we never talk about it again.

There’s so many short scenes that talk about important things and then, bye to that I guess, you’ll never see it again, there won’t be any sort of resolution to it.

So, now they’re in middle school and the most important (at least you think) part of the manga that is right there in the title is finally talked about: puberty!

Girl in dude is growing up and starting to look more manly and she’s panicking mildly about it cause deep down she’s a girly girl and she miss her body and wearing skirts. Dude in girl just had his first period and somehow thought he was gonna die instead of realizing what it was (which they studied at school), and ok I’m not gonna laugh about that because honestly RELATABLE. Of course you freak out the first time you see so much blood. He get really upset about it, mostly the pain, and having to go thought this every month.

And you know whaaaaaat? It’s never brought up again! Something that clearly deeply upset them, we get one scene of it and bye forever!

I’m not gonna talk about the next scene for long cause it’s so badly written it’s just whatever at this point. Remember how boy in girl live in an abusive family? Well he start yelling at the parents one day, telling them they suck, and magically they’re nice afterward.

Take notes people: that’s how you deal with that kind of shit! Yell at your abusers and instead of being ever more badly abused like you’d think would happen, they’ll suddenly become nice cause that exactly how the world works.

This review is so long already and there’s still so much to say... I’ll finish a bit abruptly, sorry.

In the end, the manga isn’t as refreshing or interesting I first thought it would be. All the important part are randomly throw super fast at you, there’s no character grow, nothing is realistic even tho the author tries so hard to make it look like it.

And of course it gets vaguely transphobic and homophobic even tho those are subjects you should seriously talk about if you want to realistically make such a scenario. It’s mostly jokes about how girl in boy want to wear skirts, in the body she’s in right now, but the true owner of said body refuse to let her do it cause it would make him look like a transvestite and that’s gross right? Also when it comes to having a crush they have to keep it the romance straight but in those bodies (how they’re viewed by others) it’s a bit hard. Girl in dude tries to becomes friend with a girl in her class who sees her as a boy and falls in love. Which makes her uncomfortable. There’s also a boy later on who falls in love of her, as he sees her, so as a boy. Of course it’s just vague enough that the author doesn’t need to address it and make it clear that, yeah, that’s gay folks. Cause we don’t want that in our manga.

In the end what I hate most is that nothing change. Again, no character grow. They spent 6 years in each other bodies and still believe they’ll find a way to change back without realizing that... Even if they do.

It won’t be the same.

It was their body till they were 10. They’re now 16 and almost done with puberty. If they go back now they won’t recognize their body, it would take so long to get used to it. Not even touching on having to go back to their original family who should realize it if they suddenly completely change personality AGAIN? Accepting the fact that the parents are idiots and won’t realize it, after 6 years they’ll be strangers. And the friends they made along the way sure won’t be friend with a total different person like it’s normal.

In this situation, accepting that the 10 y/o kids never told anyone but that one friend about their situation and all that bullshit, there’s still a point where they’ll should grow accustomed to the body they’re in and accept it as theirs.

But because they don’t, because the author doesn’t know how to write, they’re mentally stuck and haven’t grow at all. They can’t think of the future. They have only two more years of high school before choosing a path in life in case they never go back, and they refuse to think about it.

The manga may get a satisfying enough ending but I’m not interested in reading it since nothing make sense and all the important point are always ignored.

[atamascolily]

Episode Review - Sinbad 2x03 - “Heart and Soul”

Let me begin with this one-sentence plot summary courtesty of Far Far Away: "In order to save Bryn, Firouz and Doubar from a woman who must feed on human souls to survive, Sinbad and Rongar race against time to steal back her heart from her vampire husband, Baron Orlock, so she can perish."

... Yeah. So I already knew that this was highly unlikely to be good.

That said, I'm starting to get my stride with the second season. The TV spots help, because they are a 30 second recap of all of the episode highlights, so I can brace myself for impact. Once you give up expecting it to be good in that kinda-cheesy-but-still-awesome-fun-to-watch way of Season One, and just let your inner MST3K critic loose, it starts to be fun again. You just have to take your joy where you can get it. 

I mean, in this episode, we have a random string quartet, the decidely unexpected appearance of a Hand of Glory, a redshirt actually surviving the episode, and Sinbad swinging from a chandelier. And we learn that if Sinbad has to choose any of the crew to get him out of a pinch, it's totally going to be Rongar. Because Rongar is awesome like that.

(Photos from Far Far Away.)

We open with one of those hilarious big picture settings that I love, with the boat lovingly pasted in the corner for scale.

The usual suspects, plus two redshirts, are shepherding a cart and horse through the forest (did you see any forests in that above picture? 'Cause I sure didn't). Doubar is grumpy because he's literally pushing the cart and his boots are falling apart. Sinbad is grim and unsympathetic because he's an asshole this season and money is money, damn it. I have no idea how much fifty gold pieces is in the world of this show, because the writers don't give us worldbuilding details like that, but it sounds like a lot.

Bryn is freaked out. Firouz starts to correct her...and admits yes, those trees are damn creepy, actually.

They pass through a village, only to have random villagers warn them from traveling at night and offering safe lodging. Sinbad declines, having a package to deliver, a reputation to uphold, and a tide to catch.

The villagers are upset because a young couple hasn't come back and nightfall is coming... You already know those kids are so doomed.

Sinbad and Bryn spot the young couple making out in the woods. Bryn thinks it's charming and cute. Sinbad is grumpy. "Wait 'til they get married," he humphs like a grinch. GEE SINBAD, ARE YOU BITTER ABOUT SOMETHING? DOES HER NAME START WITH M? I WONDER.

Night falls, and the kids aren't back yet. A flock of bats turns into... this guy.

He sucks their souls out with some bad special effects.

Bryn feels a disturbance in the Force, but not enough detail to be useful, because plot.

The crew camps in the woods because Sinbad finally admits they're not going to make it to the castle in the darkness. Look at him brood in the darkness, while everyone sleeps. What's he brooding about? I'm guessing Maeve, for reasons. 

He hears a wolf howl... and decides that THE best plan is to walk quietly off into the woods, by himself, to investigate, without waking anybody else up. Which is a terrible idea and defeats the whole purpose of having a night watch in the first place.

Luckily, Bryn sees him do it... and decides the best solution is to quietly follow him. Because... that's a terrible idea, too.

I was kinda hoping Sinbad and Bryn would ambush each other in the dark, but apparently Sinbad is not at all surprised when she randomly shows up behind him. Anyway, they find wolves, but nothing happens, so they retreat back to camp....

... only to discover everyone awake, angry and wondering where the hell Sinbad is so he can make official decisions.  Oh, and heir employer, Baron Orlock, and his busty henchwoman.

Orlock has "other business," so he orders his henchwoman, Marisa, to take the crew and cargo to the castle, and have his wife take care of everything. Marisa obeys, but is a jerk about it, though. 

Things aren't at all ominous inside.

Hello, random background musicians in the corner!

(If I were to talk about authentic period instruments, or how we're suddenly in Europe for no apparent reason, I'd be here all day, so let's just say that there are anachronisms aplenty and leave it at that.... a running theme through this episode.)

Marisa walks in with some guards and the cargo crate macguffin thingy. It breaks on the ground. Everybody's freaked out, having no idea what the hell this is. 

Marisa threatens the guard for clumsiness,  Sinbad intervenes, everybody fights. Marisa's not very good.

But hey, who cares about that when you can swing from a chandelier?

Hey, this is a real body! Firouz exclaims once things have calmed down a bit. Everybody is even more freaked out.

Perfect time for Orlock's wife, Kalilah, to make a dramatic entrance and clear everything up.

Kalilah orders Marisa to take the wounded guardsmen and throw their bodies to the dogs. Firouz attempts to intervene, but is overruled. Kalilah reveals that the thing in the crate is a fossilized body from the ruins of Pompeii, which is a) actually a legitimate thing and b) even more creepy.

Firouz, despite himself, is intrigued by the phenomenon. "Real lava?"

"Fast lava, slow citizen," quips Kalilah casually and then gets back to business. Turns out Marisa and her guards are mercenaries and not very well-behaved ones at that. Kalilah and Orlock have a lot of armed guards... to protect themselves from the locals.

Sinbad just wants to know where the money is. It's on the table. Doubar collects it. So, get out fast, right?

Nope. Kalilah wants them to sit at the table and tell her about the world. When Sinbad calls her out on not eating, she mocks him for being overly suspicious and offers to hire him for another job.

No, there's too much weird shit, Sinbad says. We're leaving on the next tide.

Right, says Kalilah, and then appears to change the subject, asking if Sinbad finds her attractive. This is where Doubar, Rongar and Firouz probably roll their eyes. Here we go again. One of the redshirts, however, pipes up, HELL YES! The other agrees heartily.

Kalilah offers to kiss one of the redshirts. Doubar tries to hold him back, but he pushes his superior away (!!) and kisses her.

Of course, this ends badly.

Sinbad is super-pissed off, but it turns out Baron Orlock literally took Kalilah's heart and hid it away, making her functionally immortal. She wants Sinbad to get it back for her so she can end her miserable existence. Oh and Orlock's a vampire, sleeping in an entirely different stronghold during the day.

The crew gets locked in their chairs during all this exposition. Notably, Kalilah refers to Bryn as "sister witch," which is interesting and Bryn is confused but intrigued.

Kalilah says one crew member gets to go with Sinbad on the heart mission, everybody else has to stay behind and will get eaten if Sinbad doesn't return in 24 hours.

Sinbad looks the crew over. He chooses Rongar.

"Excellent choice," agrees Firouz instantly. At least one of us gets to survive this mess.

I agree. If I were going to assault a vampire stronghold, I'd definitely want Rongar on my side. Fighting isn't Firouz's strength, Sinbad still doesn't know Bryn very well, and Doubar, although big and strong, is not good at stealth or running. Plus Doubar has to hold down the fort while Sinbad is gone. Remember when Rongar and Sinbad teamed up to defeat the wind warriors back in Season One? Yeah. That was awesome. I'm sure that's what Sinbad was thinking about too.

Aw, man, Firouz looks so sad here as he gazes at Rongar.

The surviving red shirt (literally wearing a red shirt!) freaks out and shouts at Sinbad for not choosing him instead. Bad form, dude, seriously bad form. Doubar berates him, and he shuts up.

Bryn asks Kalilah if she can get a good-bye kiss from Sinbad, but of course, it's a ploy so she can whisper in his ear that Orlock has returned and knows exactly what is going on. I'm not sure why she can't just say that out loud, though. 

“GODSPEED, MY BROTHERS!” yells Doubar as they Sinbad and Rongar leave, because Doubar is confident they'll succeed in the nick of time. This happens all the time.

Meanwhile, Orlock and Marisa are having a moment. They know Kalilah has chosen "a new champion" (implying this has happened before) and Orlock says it’s Marisa's job to kill him. Marisa asks why she just can't let Sinbad succeed and become the new Baroness - a reasonable question under the circumstances.

Orlock's casual answer is literally that Marisa is good enough to sleep with, but not good enough to be an eternal life companion, and despite their differences, Orlock really likes Kalilah, and they've been together longer than any of his other wives... so Marisa should treat Kalilah with respect. Ouch.

If you don't kill Sinbad and Rongar and my wife dies, Orlock threatens, I'll kill you. Got it? If you succeed, we'll have some celebratory adultery. Great choices for Marisa, right?

Meanwhile, the wolves chase them, but Sinbad and Rongar pull the old "breathe through a bamboo tube" trick and the dogs can't find them underwater for some reason. 

Marisa traps them in a snare, but of course doesn't kill them when they're at her mercy, because she's an idiot. Instead, she gloats and pulls all of their weapons off. It takes her a long time to pull all of Rongar's dirks off. 

After making some vaguely ominous threats, she departs. Apparently, the wolves are coming to eat them. I'm not sure HOW the wolves are going to eat them when they're suspended several feet in the air, but as you may have noticed, Marisa isn't the brightest bulb in the box.

I was kinda hoping that Sinbad and Rongar would literally pull themselves up the rope onto the tree branch and untie themselves, because that would be awesome, but Sinbad has a hidden knife in his clothes so he just cuts himself free. I TOLD you Marisa was an idiot.

By the time the wolves arrive, Sinbad and Rongar have climbed the tree just out of reach. Dermott shows up and starts making weird chirping sounds. Back in the castle, Bryn's eyes start glowing so we know magic is supposed to be happening. Dawn breaks and the wolves hit by the shafts of sunlight instantly vanish. The others flee. I'm honestly not sure if this is just a coincidence or if Bryn and Dermott are supposed to be directing it somehow, or how Bryn is able to work with Dermott like that. None of these are things the show is interested in, which makes me grumpy.

Back at the castle, the crew is now chained up in the dungeon with a bunch of other random people in a cage. Firouz and Doubar are resigned (not their first dungeon rodeo) but the redshirt is whining about how they're all doomed, until Doubar yells at him to shut up. Bryn's uncomfortable with how much evil is around. Guards show up with an unpleasant surprise for Bryn - the fresh hand of a hanged man, aka a Hand of Glory.

In this universe, a lit Hand of Glory prevents magic in the vicinity and apparently also hurts/sedates practitioners. Kalilah promised the crew they wouldn't be hurt, but she's asleep upstairs and her guards are sadists.

Marisa finds out that Sinbad and Rongar escaped and come after them with her guards. Watching ground fighters tackle mounted warriors is always fun. Here, Rongar is bait while Sinbad channels his inner Tarzan. 

Sinbad and Rongar “borrow” some of her guards' horses and ride off. Marisa is furious.

... but of course they lose the horses again and go on foot up to the castle via that distinctive rock formation from the "Trickster" episode in season one (only with random dead sticks, so it's different). Because for some reason, we can't have Sinbad STAY on a a horse once he gets one. Sigh.

Suddenly, Marisa attacks, wounding Rongar's arm. I'm just going to assume that's his throwing arm and he's not ambidextrous, because Rongar sits out the rest of this fight, and I can't imagine him not taking Marisa out with a dagger to the back if he could throw.

Anyway, there's some dark flirting and banter and the usual round of backhanded compliments and Marisa falls to her death in the convenient abyss nearby.

Sinbad and Rongar make it to Orlock's stronghold without further incident. They find the heart in a jeweled box, but Orlock interrupts them. Turns out, he never sleeps, he just hides from the sun during the day! Surprise!

Rongar gets some good dirk throws in (I guess his arm is better or the writers remembered his skill set or something) but Orlock is immune, because they're not MADE OF WOOD! Hint: telling your enemies exactly how to kill you is NOT a good plan, even if you think you're invincible. Especially not when you have wooden furniture in the room. 

But Orlock is even dumber than you think, because for some reason his castle has WINDOWS with easily removable cloth CURTAINS on them, so all Sinbad has to do is tear them down and Orlock bursts into flames. Sadly, Sinbad does NOT say, "It's curtains for you, Orlock!" while he does this, but it's still somehow satisfying. Sinbad throws a wooden stake at Orlock for good measure, because Sinbad makes sure his enemies are thoroughly dead before he walks away. Because he's not as dumb as his opponents.

Sinbad and Rongar race back to the castle with Kalilah's heart, but you know they're going to arrive at the last minute, so there's hardly any suspense. Cut to the guards coming to release the prisoners for the feeding.

Bryn's up first, to Doubar's dismay. The redshirt whines a lot. A prison riot ensues. Firouz manages to hit people even with his hands tied, but the redshirt is totally useless.

Kalilah has to break things up, and since the guards injured the redshirt expressly against her orders, she eats their leader first. ... but apparently, she's still hungry enough to eat the crew, because drama. How many people does she need to eat per day in order to stay alive? How does this work? Nothing makes sense, honestly. 

I was actually kinda hoping the redshirt would get eaten, because a) he's a redshirt and more importantly, b) he's been a useless whiner this whole episode. But instead, Firouz lectures Kalilah about willpower and other psychological concepts. It doesn't work. But major props for trying, Firouz!

Good thing Sinbad and Rongar are here to save the day!

"Your heart, my lady," because Sinbad can never resist a dramatic gesture. And because it's literally true.

Why Sinbad couldn't just destroy the heart at Orlock's place and be done with it, I have no idea. Kalilah opens the box, and tosses it into the fire. She asks Sinbad for a good-bye kiss. Sinbad makes a point of pausing and looking over at Bryn. I'm not sure how to interpret the look that passes between them.

I think this is the, Don't worry, Bryn, I kiss everyone! Don't take it personally! face, but I am not sure.

But of course, Sinbad kisses her because a) he kisses everyone and b) even rugged grimdark Sinbad can't refuse the request of a dying woman even if she's EVIL.

Bryn is so uncomfortable with this.

Kalilah mutters to Sinbad how blessed he is because he has family, friends... and love, something she could never find in her long, dark, evil life. She then turns into old!Rumina somehow...

...but only for a moment.

Sinbad catches Bryn staring at him, and it's super-awkward...

Good thing there's that tide to catch!  

So, you see that cage in the background? That's the quartet of musicians that was playing the night before? They don't say ANYTHING the entire time... and the entire crew walks right past them and DOESN'T LET THEM OUT OF THE CAGE.

Bryn pauses to collect Dermott, who has been conveniently AWOL the whole time... She now has Maeve's gauntlet, which is practical since she's the hawk wrangler by default, but I was kinda hoping Sinbad would keep Maeve's gauntlet as a keepsake...

(As you can tell, I'm not keen on Sinbad/Bryn, but you know what would build character and the relationship? SHOW US SINBAD GIVING BRYN MAEVE'S GAUNTLET AND TALKING ABOUT HOW MUCH SHE MEANT TO HIM. SHOW HIM GRIEVING AND MOVING ON. HOW ABOUT IT, HUH?)

But letting those guys out of the cage is just too much, apparently.

Yeah, so I'm really pissed off at this ending because I really can't imagine Sinbad being so preoccupied with the tide he won't stop to help people IMPRISONED BY A VAMPIRE AND HIS MARGINALLY LESS EVIL AND MALEVOLENT WIFE. Right.

So this was terrible. Totally and completely nonsensical. But I kinda want the redshirt to be a recurring background character and MAYBE grow and develop over the course of the season in small background ways. Or, heck, he might be eaten by the next sea monster. It's tough not being a main character on this show. He does get props for actually surviving this episode, though it's mostly luck rather than skill that saves him...

Next up: hell. I do mean that literally.

[rerwby]

Weird RWBY Dialogue, Episode 6

It’s...it’s gonna start getting real weird now kids.

Yang: (calling out) Helloooooooo? (not seeing a shadow quickly pass by) Is anyone out there? Helloooo?" (stops and raises her arms) I'm getting bored here! (hears a rustling in the bushes behind her and turns) Is someone there? (the rustling continues as Yang comes over and peaks inside) Ruby, is that you?

I know she maybe just thinks it’s Ruby, and for good reason since Ruby would be looking for Yang first, but if that wasn’t the intention, it’s weird that she would go to Ruby’s name first.

Yang: You guys wouldn't happen to have seen a girl in a red hood, would you? (the Ursai merely growl at her) You could just say "no".

See, when I see Ruby, I don’t think red “hood.” I think red “big fucking cape” because who wears a cape even? Like even Jaune wears a hoodie, but capes are a bit rarer. Plus Ruby barely wears her hood up. This is all very ironic considering the iconic character on which she is based.

Yang: You... (closes her violet eyes, then opens them to reveal red, making the Ursai look at each other confusedly before Yang screams) You monsters!!!

The performance of this line is cringey and so is its general existence.

Weiss: Excuse me! You attacked out of turn! I could have killed you!

Ruby: You'll have to try a lot harder than that...

Now this is person, but I think it’s weird that Ruby said that particular thing. Why not “I wish” or something? Like I said this is just me.

Ruby: Well, I'm sorry you need my help to win a fight. I'm just fine on my own!

Weiss: Well, congratulations on being the strongest child to sneak your way into Beacon. Bravo!

Weiss’s response appears to come out of nowhere to me. Nothing in Ruby’s statement has to do with her being a child or strong, and the “sneak” thing might just be Weiss being a jerk, but it’s unprovoked. It’s actually a little narratively confusing since we learn another character is who actually sneaked into Beacon. Maybe that was an attempt at a red herring.

Jaune: Did you hear that?

Pyrrha: Gunfire. It seems some of our comrades have encountered the enemy.

The delivery on Pyrrha’s line here is so awful. Like it’s the worst line read in the history of the show, I swear. This is really super unfortunate because I really liked Pyrrah’s lines in episode 4.

Jaune: Gesundheit.

Implications of real-world culture blah blah blah

Pyrrha (off-screen): Aura is the manifestation of our soul. It bears our burdens and shields our hearts. Have you ever felt you were being watched without knowing that someone was there?

I mean, everything here is gonna never be referenced again, but Aura being the manifestation of the soul is actually something that sticks. Is she, however, implying their souls watch out for them, or that the soul gives them a spider-sense? The scene of Ren in the forest makes this unclear.

Pyrrha: (back on screen, walking around Jaune) With practice, our Aura can be our shield. Everyone has it, even animals.

Jaune: What about monsters?

Kind of a weird thing to jump to, Jaune. Like it’s a lot to take in and he just wants to know if monsters have souls.

Pyrrha: No. The monsters we fight lack a soul. They are creatures of Grimm, the manifestation of anonymity. They are the darkness, and we are the light.

Uh. Excuse me I need to check dictionary.com real quick.

...Ok

Yeah the word “anonymity” here makes like zero sense. Ever since I heard this line the first time I was puzzled as to why they used this word. It’s so vague; so weird if I may. It has no fancy meaning, it just means that they are something anonymous. Is that just supposed to mean mysterious or that they’re unknown? God this fucking baffles me.

Pyrrha (off-screen): It's not about why; it's about knowing. Understanding dark and light helps us manifest our Aura. Everyone has some of both.

Yeah not in RWBY it doesn’t. Dark and light are never mentioned again to my knowledge, and if they were it’s been too long since they were introduced lol. Yeah there’s kind of some stuff with the Brothers Grimm Gods but the Grimm themselves have always just seemed like some chaotic force separate from good and evil.

Pyrrha: (mentally speaking) For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death. (placing a hand on his chest) I release your soul, and by my shoulder protect thee. (Pyrrha stops glowing red and hunches over in tiredness)

This is just so incredibly stupid and pointless and never ever ever referenced again as a thing that even behinds to be a thing....I have no more words. Watch this scene if you don’t remember it fully. I mean it. There’s a reason you don’t. It is single-handedly the least useful scene in the show.

Pyrrha: (getting back up) It's all right. I used my Aura to unlock yours, but the energy that protects you now is your own. (grins as she watches the scratch close up and vanish) You have a lot of it.

I guess anyone can just do this then okay.

Jfc is this the part where Pyrrha gets super hot for Jaune? Like listen to how she says “You have a lot of it” like it makes me super uncomfortable. “Jaune your AURA is SO BIG.”

In response, Nora gives her friend a "Boop!" on the nose, causing him to smile and the scene cuts to black as the credits roll.

I take back everything, episode redeemed.

[theculturalvacuum]

A Feast for Fanfic Asks

Julia’s headspace last night: “Okay, time to get into Alysanne’s voice so I can start this next chapter. Patriarchy brain, abusive asshole husband, tinglies for a dilf, guilt about said dilf tinglies... This is really depressing, let’s do an ask round up instead.”

Anonymous said:

I really appreciate you doing the fanfic asks, it's really great to see all the thought you put into the characters and story you are creating. also its a nice thrill to see an answer to something dumb I asked. I know you've got a life and your busy with that as well as your fic and website work, so its really kind that you take the time to answer the asks about your fic as well.

None of my readers are dumb. And they all have excellent taste.

Honestly, I mostly do this to procrastinate.

Anonymous said:

TYBUTT DIES!!!!! It has to be him, hope its not Rhob after his little chat with Loree earlier on, that'd be terrible but I think its too soon for that. Or maybe its that old ass Florent.

All possible.

Anonymous said:

I always love your fic asks so much. It's so great to see how much thought you put into it all and which bits you haven't fleshed out yet and which bits are very clear in your mind. I enjoy the asks as much as the chapters themselves. I find the whole process of how someone writes things just as enjoyable as the end product, its all fascinating to me. Good luck with the rest.

Thank you, I need it. I’m so thankful I have engaged readers who care enough to send me asks. I never thought that would happen.

Anonymous said:

I like the way you write corret. It'd be easy as you said to make him an asshole like Tybutt but he's more nuanced than that they're both products of their world but Corret at least seems to care for people beyond himself and possess some decency even if its filtered through his extreme patriarchal world view, Tybutt just seems out for Tybutt and everyone else is there to furnish his needs and wants. The world tells him he can do what he wants within the bounds of his station so he does.

Westeros was made for dudes like Corret and Tybot, and they’re both soaking in that privilege. Just Corret is not an abusive, rapist fuckface. I think Tybutt would be like he is in any world you could invent, but Corret is much more just very, very normative.

Lucky for Taria, I guess.

Anonymous said:

Was Loree telling off Daeron the first time anyone had told him he was an asshole to his face? I feel like she might be one of the few people in the Seven Kingdoms who could do that and get away with it.

Well, yeah, Jerry more or less says so. Princely Privilege, yo.

I’m sure his dad tried to lecture him about duty and how he was fucking over the entire continent, but sometimes it’s easy to ignore your dad, you know? Or maybe by that point poor Egg had “dealing with my stupid kids and their love lives” fatigue and was just, “whatever, Daeron. I guess I just can’t have nice things. Like a legacy. I’m fine.”

Anonymous said:

Any chance that there might be another 25 random things about the world of ''a wedding in sunspear''? The first lot were perfect. Especially the little incite into Maron and his broken heart.

25 is a lot. Maybe I’ll do it to celebrate a milestone, like the official halfway point of the story. That will be in seven more chapters so… August, if I keep up with my 2017 Goals chart and do a chapter a month.

Anonymous said:

I get so conflicted over Olenna chapters, I don't like her in the books, she serves a purpose but all her bigotry puts me off but this chapter was a great way to really explore how different womens roles are in dorne and how that shapes women's characters and how they act. Alleza was just delighted to explore and learn and see new places but somehow that puts her in danger, what a world to live in. but it does highlight the patriarchy world she comes from and throws light on Eliotts views too.

Olenna did everything she was supposed to and followed all the rules and still got fucked over. And here are all these women who are breaking the rules and seem to get rewarded for it. She has a mixture of anger and jealousy about it. But at this point in her life, she’s not ready to give up on the idea that if she’s a good girl she’ll be rewarded.

Anonymous said:

There needs to be more Alleza Dayne's in the world. She's like the teacher no one knew they needed, who just throwing facts at everyone in the party. she's probably read every book she could find about everything and now she's getting to see bits of it which gives her raptures. It's great to see it be a girl too who's educated and want to know about the world, book smarts matters in girls in Dorne whereas north its about luck of the family you're in, if your a Tarly, sucks to be a clever girl

This actually got me thinking about women’s education in Westeros. Remember how Cersei asked Sansa if she “knew her letters” in aGoT? That implies to me that it’s not unthinkable that highborn women, even as highborn as Sansa, wouldn’t be literate. Or at least not literate enough to write a letter.

But if my stupid headcanon thing about women in Dorne being all about administration and taxes and whatever is right, then this is exactly the area of education that would be emphasized in girls.

Either way, it would always suck to be a Tarly woman, I think.

Anonymous said:

I should have known something was going on when Dany kept looking at the stairs. But for some reason I thought she was just hoping Daeron wasn't on his way to upset Olenna more. Maron is such an idiot, how can be think this will end well. I can understand Dany living in lala land during her first real crush and thinking they can marry and be together forever, but Maron is older and surely at least is aware of how little much a match really brings to either house.

Maron has penis feelings at stake here! He has a vague sense that maybe these penis feelings are not a good idea to nurture, but that sense only shows up occasionally. Usually when it will annoy Dany the most.

And I sincerely doubt he’s ever given a moment’s thought to the political implications of any of his actions.

Anonymous said:

God olenna really fucking irritates me ad yet I love her chapter. she's so full of pb, but she's also so ridiculously high and mighty. She's also is envious of Dany and Alleza and in some ways Loreza even if she'd never actually admit it to herself, she know shes a prisoner in her own life but lives in a world that teachers her that acceptable and normal so she accepts it because its all she knows. She may be scornful of the way the dornish live but she does feel some envy for it too.

Oh for sure, that’s quite insightful, anon.

I think part of her problem is that she has no idea what she could possibly be outside of being married to Daeron. It’s what everyone was telling her was going to be her destiny since she was quite young. And it’s been drilled into her head that she has to behave a certain way in order to not fuck it up. And that’s what she sees all these women as doing, fucking it up.

Anonymous said:

Can just say how delighted I am to see your write so many female side characters, and how you've made them all so unique and different. ASOIAF sometimes feels very male to me so I purposely pick out fics that have a wealth of women and this one does not disappoint. Alleza is wonderful in all her nerdy glory, Obella got some sass, Deneza and her work devotion which may lead to brain explosion, Joleta and her no shit attitude, Aelora and her cuteness, Sarra and her sweet badassness etc

Thank you! I hope I’m not buying into ethnic stereotypes with all these assertive Dornish women.

Anonymous said:

Water Gardens is cool, and little Dennet was very cute. Also those little interactions with people highlight the difference in status between sand bastards and other ones. He talked to a Princess so easily and casually, not half terrified he'd be in trouble. he sat at the table with her and everyone else, he talked to Joleta about his Aunt, Obella was there and he wasn't hidden or an issue. He'll be big brother to her children like Genna is her big sister it’s just normal to them.

Ha. Sand bastards.

Obella probably thinks Artyr looks super hot when he’s taking care of his sonion.

Anonymous said:

What Olenna needs to ask herself is who's talking about Genna Sand the way they are? Is it the dornishmen who are trying to force shame on her, or is it men from another land who are trying to force their standards onto her and shame her?

But the Dornish men don’t know any better! And a woman’s reputation is no less brittle than it is beautiful, don’t you know.

Anonymous said:

As someone who spent a mind numbing 5 years in a country where I was the victim of so much casual racism that sometimes I wonder if I actually imagined it or people are indeed that dumb, I have to commend you on Olenna's POV in particular an how she just transplants her views to this new place she's in and spares no thought to how they may not share her values at all and they don't need her pity or ''help''. It's very realistic, she means no actual harm and yet…

Thank you, that’s high praise indeed. It must have really sucked to be in that situation for so long.

Olenna is eventually going to become the woman who calls Ellaria “the serpent's whore,” remember. (And a bunch of Dornish randos will almost start a fight defending her. God, I love them.)

Anonymous said:

Loved the Joleta -Loreza chat it was like a carry over from chapter 1. Joleta is the person who lays it out for emotionally, the one who makes her face reality. But really is there a specific way to deal with her fucked up situation, yeah she should have ended it sooner o he'd have more time to mourn privately and move on but she'd still have had to put aside her love for her duty no matter when she did it. Although someone needs to tell Joleta that Deneza is just busy and to get over herself

Loree is cursed with the Martell tendency to procrastinate; she was never going to send that dude away until the last possible moment. And Joleta just does NOT understand her INTP-ness. Loree doesn’t have any trouble facing reality. The reality is that she’s FINE!

Anonymous said:

Do you think the kids at the water gardens all wear the same thing? Like maybe just simple tunics, no special fabrics or embroidery etc? I'm conflicted about it, part of me thinks yes because they're all wards of the prince from highest to lowest they all play together, learn together, and naked there is no difference between them and maybe that idea stretches to the gardens in general. But they're so class conscious so I'm not sure, maybe they like making subtle distinctions from the start.

Honestly, Dorne is so classist that I think they couldn’t help but make distinctions, even if they were actively trying not to. I’ve always imagined that the common-born kids sleep five to a bed in dormitories, while the lil’ princes have their own rooms with their own servants and stuff.

I’ve always picture the Water Gardens as very colourful, so I hope they don’t all wear the same colour tunic.

Anonymous said:

Oh Olenna, next time there is a long silence just keep it buttoned and you'll be fine, sing in your head or something. Although she has been in dorne long enough to at least know that a loving familial bon isn't always between true born relatives.

But… it’s soooo… awkward.

That attitude towards bastards must seem unusual to her, since people in Westeros always talk about how bastards are a ticking-time bomb of betrayal. (The author side-eyes her sonion, looking for signs of treachery. Nope, he’s just watching Naruto.)

Anonymous said:

Oh dude Lewyn don't go after the reach bro's they're gonna say mean things about your sister and ladies of your land. although maybe considering he's got back up it might be a good idea and all those men can fight it out on how dornishmen let their women take too many liberties, lol.

Omg, keep reading.

Anonymous said:

Maron grow a brain man please, what is wrong with you. At least Dany has an excuse for her dumbness this is all new to her, but Maron you've had love before, you're old enough to know better, but obviously age does not always giveth wisdom.

As the god of this story I can tell you: Maron will never grow a brain.

Anonymous said:

Is it weird to ship Olenna x Obella

If you think trolling is a good foundation for a relationship, then I guess it’s fine.

Anonymous said:

Eliott's got to hit rock bottom and have his notions quashed before he can make a place for himself as consort and figure out how to navigate his new role. It's not the life or role he imagined I'm sure growing up but this is what he's got he just needs to learn a new way and adapt. He's clever he'll work it out, he just needs time. This is where Adwin telling him in advance would have come in useful. Or talking to Leygood and been made more aware from the get go would have eased his path.

Rock bottom, eh? Keep reading.

Anonymous said:

Oh your muse is mean to Jeyne Swann. did she at least get a few happy years with her daughters when they were small? Surely she had at least some happy memories full of joy to look back on from their 0-10 years before they started to become a bit too dornish for her. please?

God, anon. You really aren’t gonna leave me alone until I come up with an entire backstory for this woman, are you?

Yeah, she has happy baby memories. And it’s not that she didn’t like her anymore, or she didn’t like them, because of their Dornishness, they just couldn’t really relate. Her daughters wondered why the hell she was such a pushover, and she spent a lot of time telling Rebanna to stop criticizing her husband.

Anonymous said:

Joleta gurl how can you have a mama like Trystana and be so lost when it comes to people who prize doing their duty highly?

Probably has something to do with the fact that that mama has a terrible blind spot for her. You think she would ever let Linette get away with this shit?

Anonymous said:

I am both excited and terrified for Eliott's next chapter. I imagine to be full of a lot of shaming and slurs. But I'm excited too because the sooner he gets it out the sooner he can start to evolve into new Eliott. He wont be that different but he might become a bit more tolerant and open minded, a bit, a little tiny bit, maybe,...hopefully. Whatever happens Loreza's future has trophy consort in it so she gets to have some fun again one day if this one's a total dud.

Aw, Eliott’s not a dud. But I also suspect there will be a few slurs, and maybe even a bit of shaming.

Lewyn and his peeps will LOVE it.

Anonymous said:

Adorable nerd!Alleza is my new fave. I always imagined Arthur Dayne having a nerdy side, since his BFF Rhaegar had one so it makes sense that his mom was a total nerd too.

RhaeRhae would have loved Batara.

Anonymous said:

Oh Dany you idiot. Open your eyes girl. Although I suppose if she was full of insight and clear headedness she wouldn't be such a realistic teenager. Has she forgotten how marriage works though, or does she think because its a fine match status wise everyone else will be like okay cool even though it does nothing politically?

I don’t think she’s thinking in those terms. Teenagers can be a little... narrowly focused.

And not to give anything away, but you may have walked right into her character arc.

Anonymous said:

Will we get to meet young!Jon Arryn? Or was his bolting in the dramatis personae a seed that won't sprout?

I just made that dramatis personae too damn long!

Um, he may do some great deeds at the tourney or something. Maybe. If I remember about him.

Anonymous said:

do not know whether to love your fic ask responses or curse you for them. im way too invested in this fic, now I wanna know which inconsequential dude jeyne wyl is married to, what emma mertyn thinks of being barely wallpaper, and seriously if there is no a moment in this fic of alyse ladybright laying the groundwork for locking Owain down as her status elevating spouse ill cry.

Fine. Okay, so Jeyne is married to a dude named Ser Jon Carin. He’s a landed knight from the Bone Way (so one of her father’s bannermen) from one of those crazy families who was once really into raiding the Marches. They have two kids, who are both grown up and probably kicking around somewhere.

Poor Emma Mertyns. I don’t know. She takes comfort in her needlework.

And never underestimate Alyse Ladybright.

Anonymous said:

Oh to be a fly on the wall in the Ladybright homestead when her parents found out their clever little girls water garden bestie was princess loreza. I wonder have they even recovered yet, if they're still alive and kicking when she becomes treasurer that might finish them off.

I mean, they’re not peasants, but yeah, it was more than they thought they could hope for.

Anonymous said:

I love the newest chapter, mostly bc I love how write it proves me about the twist! The wedding we're getting is definitely going to be Loreza and Rolyn (he always reminded me of Oberyn), and the Reach lords can go skulk and then marry each other (Olenna and Luther)

Rolyn reminds you of Oberyn? How? They’re both bi, I guess.

I guess this would be quite a twist. And I’m all about the twists.

Anonymous said:

Luv ur awis fic!! I rly luv that Lewyn went after Elliot!! Pls tell me they get together <3 I ship it so hard!! Ellyn forever <3<3<3<3

This is adorable.

Anonymous said:

I know you've said before that Loreza isn't going to call off the wedding, but she seems so done with Elliot in your last chapter. She brought up her former lover in front of him, ffs. So maybe she's trying to get him to call off the wedding so she doesn't have to, and then you wouldn't be lying because she doesn't call it off, he does.

Are you a lawyer?

I just think Loree has no intention of going into a marriage where she’ll be slutshamed by her own damn husband. As for him calling it off; how do you imagine that will go over. Remember, Adwin totally knew about this. Her virginity wasn’t a stipulation of the marriage contract, not even an unspoken one.