#and even that aside this is just an impossible debate to be objective on

[theghostofashton]

.

[frudoo]

Mmmm unethical ER Doctor!Gaz…

Warnings: Fingering, edging, medical malpractice, inappropriate doctor/patient relations. Fem!Reader.

Your toes curl as you swing your legs off the side of the exam table, fingers tapping against your thighs nervously. It took forever for you to get called back, and it seems even longer, now, that you’ve had to wait on the actual doctor to show up. The bright fluorescent lights have started to make your head pound. Biting your lip, you debate on just leaving to try and deal with this… issue on your own again. The very issue that made you seek out help to begin with.

The paper sheet beneath you crinkles as you hop down, cursing yourself for wasting your own precious time. You grab your purse and open the privacy curtain to leave, effectively running into the doctor who had finally showed up. You’re not usually one to bitch and moan to people who are only here to help you, but you’ve been waiting for over an hour and you are in agony, damn it. For the first time in your life, you prepare to chew out a person you don’t even know, sucking in a deep breath.

“About time you… showed… up…” Your mouth drops open when you actually glance up to get a good look at the doctor’s face, immediately feeling your heart drop down to your stomach.

Towering over you with a cocked eyebrow and a cheeky smile is the most gorgeous person you have ever seen in your life. Flawlessly smooth skin and deep brown eyes, maddeningly straight teeth and a perfectly kissable nose. You find it impossible to tear your eyes from his luscious lips, entranced and frozen in place.

“Righ’. Sorry ‘bout tha’ wait. Would ya mind havin’ a seat up there f’me?” He hums, and fuck, even his voice is delicious.

“I- um- I’m so sorry,” you mumble, scrambling back to sit on the exam table once again.

“No’ to worry. I’ve dealt with far worse attitudes than yours,” he teases, and you curl your fingers into the hem of your skirt. “I’m Dr. Garrick, yeah? Says here your problem is… oh. Oh, my.”

You’re mentally cursing yourself. You could literally die right here and the only thing they’d put on your gravestone is ‘idiot.’ A very horny, very broke idiot.

“Yeah,” you tuck your lips into a tight line, humiliation evident in the way your entire body is trembling.

“Alrigh’. I can have a female come in t’do this if you’re more comfortable-”

“No! P-please, I just want it out,” you plead, nearly in tears at the thought of having to wait any longer.

“Hey, hey, tha’s fine,” he soothes. “Go ‘head and remove your bottoms f’me, I’m gonna step outside t’give ya some privacy.”

Dr. Garrick does as he said he would, closing the curtain behind him. With a shaky sigh, you remove your skirt and panties and set them aside, laying back on the table with your feet flat on the surface, knees bent and pressed together. After a few moments, the curtain slides open and the doctor steps back inside, clearing his throat softly.

“I’m jus’ gonna place your feet in some stirrups, alrigh’? It’ll be easier f’me, and hopefully more comfortable f’ya,” he explains, plopping onto his chair and rolling towards the table.

In the cubbies below you, there’s a contraption that pulls out to act as stirrups, and Dr. Garrick helps you guide your ankles onto them carefully. He then drapes a paper slip over your bottom half, giving you a false sense of security given what he’s about to do. You take a deep breath when you hear him go to wash his hands, wishing you were just about anywhere else but here. The seat puffs again and you flinch when you hear him snap on a pair of sterile gloves. Fucking hell. This is getting too real.

“Gonna have a look, now,” he says softly, placing two gloved fingers at your entrance.

Cautiously, he pulls your outer labia open in an attempt to find the object lodged inside of you. Shaking his head, he sighs.

“Can’t see it from out here. Gonna have to push inside,” he explains, gently pressing his middle finger inside of your pussy and feeling around. “Y’know, there are safer options than a hairbrush. I would recommend investin’ in a genuine sex toy, preferably with some kinda base at the bottom.”

“Noted,” you grit your teeth, biting back a moan when he inserts another gloved digit.

You’re already sensitive from having the broken hairbrush handle stuck inside you for over two hours now, and the way his fingers are stretching you out and rubbing against your walls is nothing short of overstimulating. With your eyes squeezed tightly shut, you don’t notice the way your doctor smirks, but you sure as hell feel the way his digits brush against your g-spot.

“Ah, I feel it, now,” he murmurs, curling his fingers to hit that bundle of nerves again.

You don’t expect him to shove his fingers in further, nor the way he speeds up, rapidly massaging your sweet spot. You can’t hold back the whimper that escapes your throat, your back arching uncomfortably, ankles slipping in the stirrups.

“Sorry, I know it’s sensitive,” he says, but there is no sympathy in his tone.

Dr. Garrick rests the pad of his thumb on your clit and circles it tightly, muttering something about needing stability to help him pull the object out. You bite your lip, thighs already trembling as you curse yourself for getting off from this. You simply can’t help it—a pretty man knuckles deep in your pussy, hitting all the right places flawlessly. You’re right on the edge when he pulls his fingers out, popping the hairbrush handle out with them.

“Got it,” he smiles proudly, and if tears weren’t blurring your vision, you might have seen the smug glint in his eye because he knows he ruined your orgasm.

You hear a clank and then the snap of his gloves being pulled off. A weary sob escapes your throat at the newfound emptiness, your cunt clenching around nothing and your swollen clit still throbbing. Dr. Garrick helps your feet back down from the stirrups, watching the way you just lay there limp. He sniffs, hovering over your body and leaning in close to your face.

“Y’know, if ya don’t want a toy, ya can always give me a call. I won’t keep ya waitin’ next time.”

[vminizzle]

Sleepover

pairing : college boyfriend!jungkook x f. reader

genre : smut, fluffy tones

warnings : dacryphilia, teasing, making out, light dry humping, marking, use of sex toy, overstimulation, oral (f.receiving) , fingering , multiple orgasms (2) , use of pet names, praising

words count : 1.7k

A/N : i love college boyfriend!jungkook, usually he’s more confident but this time I decided to make him a bit flustered at the beginning because why not? Anyways, it’s finally the week-end!! I hope I did well with this fic,, gonna sneak a link in it lmao. REMINDER : POOR ENGLISH enjoy! love y’all - sunny

FEEDBACKS ARE VERY VERY WELCOMED

M RATED 

“make yourself at home babe.” you said kissing your boyfriend’s cheek as he entered the living room with his bag.

Tonight, you invited your boyfriend for a sleepover, watching movies all night and eating tons of snack until you knock out then cuddle to sleep: a ritual you had since you started dating.

Well, a ritual you get to do everytime your dad travels overseas for work. He didn’t really like the idea of you and your boyfriend being alone in your bedroom.

Even if it’s for "homework", he would always ask you to let your bedroom’s door open, and would occasionally come glance at what you both doing.

It’s not that he didn’t like your boyfriend. Not at all, he kinda appreciates "the biker" you’re dating but the thought of his innocent daughter doing forbidden things, such as kissing on the mouth with a boy make him anxious.

That’s why, everytime you both want to have "alone" times together, you would go to his dorm or he would sneak in through your window at night.

“I’m just gonna take a quick shower to freshen up.” you said making him nod.

Jungkook followed you to your bedroom, putting his bag on your desk chair.

You were about to close the bathroom’s door when he called you “baby wait wait wait! where can I find your laptop’s charger please? I forgot mine at the dorm.” he sighed.

“you can find it somewhere in my wardrobe.” you chuckled.

“but good luck it’s a mess.” you waved playfully as you closed the bathroom’s door.

Jungkook opened your huge wardrobe, a pair of jean and two big hoodies falling on his head.

“wasn’t kidding when she said it was a mess.” he laughed.

He put the clothes aside as he crouched down to look into the few drawers.

Opening one, he found your underwear. His ears instantly turning a deep red as he picked one of your panties up. He lifted the thin black fabric in front of his face, his cheeks burning as he imagined you wearing it.

Jungkook groaned feeling a bit guilty for invading your privacy like that. But the thought of you wearing it only for him to see made blood rush down there.

He shook his head before putting the panties back in the drawer before closing it.

He opened another one, random stuff filling the furniture such as hair bands, headbands, your hair brush, lip balm, random bracelets and earrings, and again it was a mess.

Jungkook chuckled at how messy you were. He was about to close the drawer, but something caught his eyes midway.

A purple little object stopped his movement.

He bit his bottom lip, hesitating to grab the suspicious object. He thought for a moment, debating on if he was doing something bad. He took a deep breath, curiosity eating him more and more.

“ah fuck it.” he said before grabbing the little bullet.

Jungkook stared at it for awhile, his imagination running wild as he realized what it was.

Since when do you own this?

Were you using it often?

were you using it because he can’t make you feel good? "no impossible." he furrowed his eyebrows at this one thought.

He couldn’t help but question himself.

But you must looked so pretty pleasuring yourself.

Just imagining the scene turned him on.

He was so immersed into his thoughts that he didn’t hear the bathroom door opening.

“babe.” you called out softly noticing him crouched down in front of your wardrobe.

You furrowed your eyebrows as you approached him “did you fi-” 

Jungkook turned around looking up at you a bit surprised before following your gaze.

“Oh no! That’s not what you think. Not at all. I mean yes ..but no! It’s just.. I was searching for the charger and I .. argh shit sorry baby I didn’t mean to.. y’know… I just found it accidentally.” he said panicked.

"I’m so so so sorry.” he finally stood up, guilt painted all over his face.

“it’s ok don’t worry” you reassured him, your cheeks burning as if he just found out one of your wildest secrets.

Was it? No?

You looked at his hand still holding the purple object. You stood there for a moment before he talked again “do you use it?” he asked curiously.

You looked up at him surprised by his question.

“no. not gonna lie, I forgot about it there is a long time ago now.” you laughed awkwardly.

“well..” you continued.

“I’ve bought this before we met. Like you know I’ve never dated someone before you .. and .. yea ..so I bought this ..y’know to.. yea” you gulped lowering your head.

Jungkook sighed almost in relief “I thought you bought this because I wasn’t.. good enough..” he admitted.

“Good enough?” You asked confused.

“yea I mean, good enough to satisfy you.. pleasure you..” he trailed out.

“oh no no! you’re perfect! you are more than good.. I mean .. you know” you avoided his eyes, embarrassment washing over you as you cringe at your words.

Your boyfriend smirked “am I ?” he teased.

You nodded looking away, fidgeting with your fingers.

He hummed coming closer to you “don’t be so shy my love.” he stroked your cheeks softly.

“I’m not shy” you whined rolling your eyes playfully.

“when was the last time you used this?” he gestured to the little vibrator.

“years ago? I don’t even really remember” you answered lowly.

“what about we use it again tonight darling?” he smirked pulling you closer to him, your chest flat on his.

You gasped softly his sudden confident startling you. You bit your lip before nodding, the idea of Jungkook using it on you excited you.

He smiled softly as he connected his lips with yours, kissing you softly, his hand on your hip, the other one still holding the little bullet as he made you walk backward to your bed.

You let your body fell back on the mattress as the back of your knees touched the edge of your bed, your boyfriend falling on top of you.

Your hands went to the back of his neck playing with the little black curls as he hummed into the kiss.

He hovered over you, one of his hand travelling down to your thigh lifting it up a bit as he started grinding on you.

“Jungkook” you moaned his name softly making him harden a bit more.

He let go of the vibrator putting it somewhere on the bed as his other hand caressed their way down to the elastic of your pajama short.

“Can I take this off?” You only nodded helping him to get rid of the garment.

Jungkook laid on his stomach between your legs, his plump lips dancing on the soft flesh of your thigh leaving little kisses and decorating the skin with love bites and hickeys.

You whimpered as he nibbled the flesh with his teeth making goosebumps raise on your skin. He smiled before leaving a peck on the abused and sensitive skin. 

His lips got higher as they reached the hem of your panties. The bridge of his nose brushed against your lightly-covered clit.

"f-fuck Kook” the little friction making you whine. He put his fingers under the elastic band of your panties waiting for you to give me the green light.

“go on, I’m all yours.” you whispered.

Jungkook smirked at your words “I love it when you say that you’re mine.”

He slid the fabric down your legs slowly, throwing it on the carpeted floor.

He spread your legs again, his head disappearing between them as he kissed your clit softly making you let out a breathy moan.

Jungkook started sucking on your glistening lips, his tongue pushing inside your entrance painfully slow.

He pulled away before inserting two fingers at once making you gasp. He started pumping slowly inside you, feeling your warm walls contracting around his fingers.

“fuck it feels so good.” you breathed out feeling hot already.

Jungkook reached for the bullet vibrator, "cleaning" it quickly with the sheet before turning it on, putting it gently on your bud of nerves.

You threw your head back, the added stimulation making you feel lightheaded.

He lift your shirt a bit, enough for him to leave kisses on your tummy.

“you’re doing so good for me. ” he said before pressing the vibrator a little bit more on your clit.

You nearly screamed as he hit your g-spot with his long fingers.

"d-dont stop oh my god! Jungkook! I’m so c-!”

Jungkook bit his lip at your ruined state, the way you furrowed your eyebrows, your lip trapped between your teeth, a thin layer of sweat covering your forehead.. you looked so pretty. He could cum at the sight.

You threw your head deep in the pillows as you came on his fingers, your loud moans coming out as melody to his ears.

He picked up the pace, your walls tightly convulsing around his fingers. The vibration on your throbbing clit now too much to handle as your hand went to grab his wrist.

“t-too much.” you whined a tear sliding down your cheek.

“C’mon my love, just a bit more hm?” Jungkook said softly.

“i know you can take it.” You gulped as you felt the oh-so-familiar feeling in your lower stomach.

“I’m- fuck I’m gonna-”

A wave of pleasure washed over you as you cummed on his fingers again, legs lightly trembling, hips bucking at the overstimulation.

Tears started spilling onto your cheeks, you cried out his name over and over as you felt your second orgasm coming.

Jungkook watched you in awe as you came for the second time. The tears sliding down your cheeks slowly making him twitch in his pants.

He turned off the vibrator, fingers moving slowly into you to help you ride your high.

“You did so good.. so good for me.” he whispered softly, caressing your thigh to soother you a bit. He leaned down kissing you throbbing clit gently making you hiss.

He got up to grab a warm wet towel in your bathroom to clean you up. He went to your wardrobe searching into your drawer for the red panties he saw earlier.

Jungkook smirked as he gave it to you “put these for me pretty please.”

You grabbed the thin panties chuckling. 

After a moment he cleared his voice making you look at him curiously.

”are you gonna help me with this?” he smirked looking down at his boner.

—

A/N : a part 2? 🤔 dad came back earlier? 👀 thanks for reading!!

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

One more from (mostly) climate journalist David Roberts:

"I haven't written much about politics since the debate, mainly because I'm so overwhelmed by disgust & contempt toward this country's media & commentariat that it has rendered me inarticulate with rage. Twitter probably doesn't need more rage. I do just wanna make one point tho.

To be clear up front: I don't give one tiny hot fuck who the Dem nominee is. I truly don't. Biden's fine. Harris is fine. A warm puddle of vomit is fine. *There is no conceivable resolution to the nomination fight that could change the basic calculus of this race.*

Preventing a fascist takeover of the US is my top priority--as a journalist, as a voter, as a human. If it isn't yours too, you should feel bad about yourself. If you haven't made the stakes of this election clear to everyone within the sound of your voice, you should feel bad.

But I'm not gonna rant. [breathes deeply] Just gonna make my one point, which is this: the idea that that the process of jettisoning Biden & choosing someone else will go well -- will be *allowed* to go well -- is a deeply deranged fantasy.

The idea that Dems will do this & will end up feeling unified, that Harris will come out popular, that "the dynamics of the race will shift," all of that ... fucking deranged. Deranged in such a perfectly characteristic Dem way.

"This person/policy/slogan/approach has been irredeemably slimed by Republicans & a hostile media -- let's throw it overboard!" That's the Dem way. Always with this starry-eyed hope that they can reset, start over, get it right this time.

Just as one example -- other people have aggregated these -- there have been "calls" for every Dem nominee of the last 30 years to step aside. Dems practically delight in abandoning their own people, policies, & principles in response to bad-faith pressure. They f'ing love it.

But, as I've been saying for, oh, 20 years now, the situation is structural. The current situation is an outcome of a particular incentive structure & that structure will remain exactly the same if Harris takes over the ticket.

For centrists, journalists, pundits, *even Dem electeds*, the way you prove you are a Reasonable, Serious Person in DC is by shitting on Dems. For the left, the way you prove you are a true radical is by shitting on Dems. For the right ... well, obviously.

Everyone's professional incentives are to shit on Dems. Dwelling on Trump & his fascist movement -- however justified by the objective facts -- just doesn't bring that juice, doesn't get the clicks & the high-fives, doesn't feel brave & iconoclastic. It's just ... no fun.

So, say Biden stepped aside in favor of Harris tomorrow. How long until the vapid gossips we call political reporters find something wrong with her, some alleged flaw they just have to write 192 stories about? How long until the hopped-up mediocrities we call pundits ...

...find some "counter-intuitive" reason that the new Dem ticket is flawed after all? How long until the irredentist left gets over the temporary thrill of its new Harris memes & remembers that she's a cop & turns on her? How long before the ambient racism & misogyny in the US...

... lead center-leftists to conclude that, sure, they'd support a black woman, just not *this* black woman? In other words: how long before everyone reverts to their comfortable, familiar identity & narratives?

About 30 f'ing seconds, is my guess.

Dems uniting, feeling good, telling a clear story, receiving credit for their accomplishments--all of that is *impossible* in the current environment. It won't be allowed. Dems can punch themselves in the face all they want, abandon whoever they want, apologize all they want...

... they simply will not be allowed to turn the page & start fresh, because everyone's incentives remain the same. If they did that, elites, including media elites, would have no choice but to openly & frankly grapple with Trump & what he represents & they *don't want to*.

Everyone feels comfortable shitting on Dems -- it's just a cozy professional space. You get to feel brave & independent (just like all the replacement-level pundits around you) with zero risk.

Yes, it's abysmal, contemptible cowardice on a genuinely embarrassing scale ...

... but it is what it is & we should have no illusions that it will change with a change in the top of the ticket.

As @whstancil has been trying to tell you people (good god how he tries), the information environment is thoroughly corrupted.

@whstancil For some reason, left pundits are pathologically averse to acknowledging that fact. And so they grasp at these straws -- if we could just get rid of Biden, we could have a reasonable conversation! Yeah, sure. You absurd summer children.

@whstancil This election is not a choice between two individuals, it's a choice between worldviews, between futures. Do we want to continue down the path to multiethnic democracy or do we want to impose a white patriarchal Christian autocracy?

@whstancil At stake is the entire federal civil service. The machinery of state built since WWII. Freedom & dignity for millions. Yes, democracy itself. That's not an exaggeration. Yet this country's elites have utterly failed to convey those stakes to the populace. A *grotesque* failure.

You can not look at this extraordinary media freakout this last week and not psychologize, not see all kinds of displacement. They can't or won't be serious about Trump & so they are fucking *giddy* at having permission to scold Dems again. Their safe place.

Anyway, my point is just: none of this will change if Harris replaces Biden at the top of the ticket. The idea that the media -- with these soulless careerist court gossips in charge -- will allow it is just fantasy. They *need* Dems in disarray & so they will engineer it.

The US is right on the precipice of falling into bona fide fascism & *the vast majority of the voting public doesn't even know it*. That speaks to a deeply diseased information environment. Until Dems do something about that, all their self-flagellation will buy them nothing.

Not knowing what else to do, Dems shit on their own

(Rebecca Solnit)

[elkian]

Something I noted while reading the manga that's still really interesting to me is how there's no Objectively Completely Good (or Evil) character in Dungeon Meshi. I think it interacts with Kui's really believable character dynamics, too.

Under the cut for major spoilers:

From Laios' party, we have no purely Good person. Laios is often the punchline/stooge/what have you, but he has his positive traits. The party trusts and follows him despite his foibles. Chilchuck is so resistant/bad at emotional communication that he tries to sabotage his own team (to protect them) and ended up divorced without knowing how, and almost dies because he was too embarrassed to admit this. Marcille is a mix of proud and brilliant that causes as many problems as it solves, including the whole Committing An International Felony thing and that's the START of it in some ways. Senshi's willingness to stick to his guns makes him inflexible towards his teammates in ways that can cause issues, like the Mandrake situation or driving Chilchuck to berserk rage in the trap room.

(Sidenote, I've realized Kabru and Laios are foils not just over the monster thing - an unquenchable passion that drives each in their own way - but because of their team leadership styles. Kabru is very personable, but as mentioned in my prev post linked above, Laios is knowledgeable about team synergy and skills. Also considering his interaction in Marcille's nightmare, Laios tries to take his team's emotions seriously, he just isn't always the best at it because he's assuming from himself as a baseline, and that's just not accurate to most non-Falin and non-Senshi interactions. (And even some of those.)

My point is that while charisma is the basis of Kabru's MO, Laios isn't incapable of caring about his team and understanding them, it's not not as obvious because he goes about it in a different way.)

It's been noted before, but both Thistle and the Winged Lion aren't totally evil. Not only are they sympathetic, but they have virtues in their own ways.

Thistle's greatest crime was loving his family too much, and it is a tragedy of literally epic proportions, kicking off the entire series. His methodology is suspect and involving the WL was doomed from the outset, but his intentions were legitimately good. The kingdom's citizens even begin sort of forgiving him or at least trying to accept him at the end of the series, which is really touching. There's a lot of debate over the concept of redemption arcs, and to be frank, I don't think it's possible to redeem Thistle's actions at this point, but that doesn't mean he's narratively required to die in isolation. If anything, that would contradict the communal elements repeated in the narrative. It's the citizens' choice to forgive him, not a requirement. It's not exactly a surprise as the series was closing on a happy ending for all involved (aside from WL ig) at that point, but it's still nice, and it wasn't a lock.

The Winged Lion may never have had the capacity to be Objectively Good, as an eldritch being with no basis in humanity or the physical world initially, but the manga takes the time to show the WL bemoaning the loss of followers, the loss of potential "flavors". Although the WL has immense power, that power is -not unlike the Genie in Disney's Aladdin now that I think of it lol- bent to the whims of creatures that WL simply doesn't and will never have the capacity to truly understand. WL also doesn't seem able to interact with the physical world on most levels until the ending, requiring a snowballing of power and the reaving of reality itself before the Winged Lion can really affect the "world", and arguably it can't be the purely physical world at that point in order to be interacted with. The Winged Lion is antagonist and overlord, yes, but also a victim in a sense. Like Thistle, redemption is impossible. Unlike Thistle, forgiveness and cohabitation is also impossible. It's not the WL's fault. I kind of think of the WL as like a bear or other wildlife that has developed such a taste for human food, garbage, etc. that they will keep breaking into houses and dumpsters no matter what. There's no infrastructure available to rehabilitate the WL, to return the Winged Lion to the eldritch plane it once inhabited. Only the WL could choose to do so, I think, and notably doesn't. Still, I can pity the Winged Lion like one does the bear that gets shot for breaking into dumpsters and biting humans in the process.

Anyways, many more examples abound, but it's a fascinating element to an already complex and fascinating story.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Stephen Robinson at Public Notice:

Kamala Harris clobbered Donald Trump during their first (and likely only) presidential debate on September 10. She humiliated him by smirking and laughing at his offensive buffoonery. She appeared strong and presidential, while Trump looked weak and confused, often reduced to incoherent babble. It was a total reversal from Trump’s June 27 debate with Joe Biden, which was uniformly considered a disaster for the president. But how Biden and Trump responded to their defeats further highlights the stark differences between the two men and their parties. One party acknowledges reality and aspires toward furthering the public good even when it involves personal sacrifice and wounded egos. The other is a cult of personality that would rather lie to its supporters than admit their dear leader is fallible.

Winners don’t usually complain about rigging

Biden’s debate performance resulted in a crisis of confidence about his ability as a candidate. Although some Biden supporters complained about the moderators or tried to minimize the event’s significance, they at least acknowledged that the president didn’t come off well. Supporting Trump, however, is like taking up permanent residence in Lewis Carroll’s storybook Wonderland where you must believe nine impossible things before breakfast, no matter if they contradict each other. Trump’s post-debate narrative is barely coherent. He claims the ABC moderators conspired with the Harris campaign to rig it against him, but he also insists he won. He’s gone as far as to compare himself to a prizefighter who scored a resounding knockout. “Comrade Kamala Harris is going around wanting another Debate because she lost so badly — Just look at the Polls! It’s true with prizefighters, when they lose a fight, they immediately want another. MAGA2024,” Trump posted on Truth Social just hours after the debate.

[...] Democrats started having difficult conversations about Biden almost immediately after his debate loss. They understood the president’s performance had reinforced a damaging narrative about his cognitive fitness and would be tough to come back from. The Biden campaign might’ve initially painted anyone sounding alarms as “bed wetters,” but the post-debate polls were a sobering reality check. The current post-debate aftermath is just as alarming, if not more so, for Trump. Harris now leads Trump in at least six polls conducted after she laughed in his face on live TV. A YouGov poll found that voters overwhelmingly believe she won the debate (56 percent to 26 percent). Even better for Harris and our representative democracy, 41 percent of independents say they learned positive information about her.

[...] But Trump needed to do more than just remain standing against Harris. His primary objective in the debate was to halt Harris’s momentum and negatively define her. He clearly failed while Harris succeeded in presenting a positive, presidential image to undecided voters. Focus groups conducted after the debate agreed that she outmaneuvered Trump at every step. Unlike the GOP primaries in 2016 and 2024, Trump is only running away with the election in his own twisted imagination. 

[...] Contrast Biden’s realism with Trump, who’s fundamentally incapable of presenting himself as an “underdog.” He’s always on top, dominating his opponents. It’s only the rigged system that tries to pull him down. Despite Biden’s efforts, his polling remained bleak and it looked increasingly likely that Trump might win decisively, flipping control of the Senate and expanding the GOP’s House majority. Democratic leaders understood that a course correction was necessary. They met with Biden and urged him to reconsider his decision to stay in. Yet, even at his lowest point politically, Biden held all the leverage. No one could force him to step aside. The pressure from Nancy Pelosi, Democratic donors, and allies was effective only because Biden cared about the party defeating Trump. Defending democracy was more important than his ego. This was the ultimate test of character and Biden passed it with flying colors.

The difference between Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s debate performances reveal two different people and who they are: Biden admitted to having an awful debate without complaint even as he was fighting off attempts to withdraw the candidacy (though he did eventually withdraw); while Trump delusionally believes he won the debate that most objective observers believe he lost.

[cerberus253]

Tunic Manual Page Locations and what their placement says (with Librarian Side Notes because hyperfixation)

Cover/1: Top of the mountain, to which one would need to learn The Golden Path from The Holy Cross (after pages 2 - 54/Back Cover are all collected). This would mean nobody aside from the Cycle Breaking Ruin Seeker (and whoever put it there I guess?) would reach it, making it near impossible to obtain. This is where the earth and sky meet and the heavens can be observed, thus it suggests to show the Heir the completed manual to finally understand the world. (Side Note: The Librarian never got to this but would deem it useful)

2/3: This sheet contains the Table of Contents and how a long time ago a civilization found a way to defy death. Seeing as how the Manual is a mysterious object and some pages are new or self-update, the Table must be constantly changing, but the lore behind it does not. It is found with the Far Shore on the southern isolated Portal Plate, suggesting it is not for everyone to gaze upon and was left there for future Ruin Seekers. (Side Note: The Librarian did not find this page, for he will never reach the Far Shore. If he did, he would deem it most intriguing and possibly useful)

4/5: This sheet contains lore on the “terrible power” that rises, and the world being “thrown into ruin,” leading to the Prison/Beacon that awaits its successor to stabilize the world. This is found on an isolated island within the Overworld, suggesting it was lost. (Side Note: Found but was seemingly useless to the Librarian on the surface level, for he already knew this history and fate)

6/7: This sheet contains information on the Prison/Beacon’s seal, and lore about the battle that has been fought “uncountable times.” Although this page appears old, it must be updating itself as events go by, stating the Red Will Slate has been coveted and the Green Vigor Slate has been stolen. It is located by the entrance beneath the Eastern Fortress. Seeing as how it is in the open and in no particular spot, it must have been tossed, most likely before the self-update. (Side Note: Up for debate on it being found by the Librarian. If yes, it was before the self-update and it was seemingly useless to him because of the lack of interest on releasing the Heir. If no, then he may find it interesting that it somehow self-updated)

8/9: This sheet contains an illustration of the Heir and being drawn into the mysterious quest of the selected person. It informs the reader that this world is not of our own and is placed somewhere outside our direct reach. This sheet is located on an isolated pillar off the shore of the Overworld. This suggests it was lost to the wind and forgotten about, whether on accident or on purpose. (Side Note: The Librarian might have found this sheet because he has found out this world he lives in is unnatural and is trapped within some barrier. He may have lost it when he was trying to come to terms with everything being “just a game” to those on the outside of this world)

10/11: This sheet contains info on how to start the adventure, beginning with the two Bell Towers, and what you need to understand at first. Found behind a locked door needing a key, which is found out in the open, this is one of the first sheets you will find. Fitting for a strange person waking up in a strange land. Secured but easy to find for those willing to go on the quest. (Side Note: The Librarian most likely didn’t find this due to it being in such an unimportant spot, but he most likely would deem it useless)

12/13: This sheet contains what you can do in the world. Funny enough, “praying” is considered forbidden even though it is used to “give respect” to the tombs of those before us (which we later learn the action crushes the soul trapped within). This is found in front of a Save Statue at the start of the East Forest within an old building. This may suggest further help, and warning, to those who venture further. (Side Note: Other than praying being forbidden, it was seemingly useless to the Librarian on the surface level)

14/15: This sheet contains help on focus and evasion. This one is found easily in the open on top of a Portal Pad, suggesting it was initially purposefully discarded there. (Side Note: Found but was useless to the Librarian on the surface level)

16/17: This sheet contains strategy tips, and Treasures and Tools within the world. It is found out in the open on a Portal Pad in the Overworld, suggesting it was initially purposefully discarded there. (Side Note: Found but was useless to the Librarian on the surface level)

18/19: This sheet contains info about gaining ‘false’ power via material sacrifices, as well as the connection to the Far Shore. It was probably lost down the Well due to people focusing and remembering more on what it does rather than how it was done, thus losing the origin notes. (Side Note: The Librarian most likely never found this, but it would be interesting to him)

20/21: This sheet contains info on Badges, Wishing Wells, and Hints and Clues for the Ruin Seekers’ quest. This page must have been made after some time of the Cycle’s, well, cycles. The sheet can be found in front of the steps to the Mountain Door. (Side Note: Found by the Librarian but considered useless, for he has no interest in freeing the Heir and doing Ruin Seeker things)

22/23: This sheet contains more Hints and Clues, the purpose of the Hero’s Graves, and info on how to Pray. These pages are for the Ruin Seekers alone to help them on their journey and become the Hero, as well as being nudged to find hidden things that even the world tries to hide. The Shopkeeper holds this sheet in the skull rock to the east of the Overworld. (Side Note: No, the Librarian did not find this sheet. If he did, he would find it most peculiar and hide it from nosy Ruin Seekers so as to halt their progress, and to keep these hidden things to himself)

24/25: This sheet contains info on how to Pray and an illustration of the three Slates being used. It gives a major hint to the importance and usefulness of Praying, but only to those who are determined to go on their quest, even by defying sacred ways. Strangely enough, this is one of the sheets that is not needed for the Golden Path. This may have been created before the Golden Path and Praying were considered connected. The sheet can be found within the Central Temple after ringing the Bells. (Side Note: Up for debate on if the Librarian found this. If no, it’s because again, he has no interest in freeing the Heir and thus has no reason to enter the temple. If yes, he tried Praying before but didn’t do it right and got no results, thus deeming the page useless)

26/27: This sheet contains survival tips and the map of, and some info on, the Western Gardens. This page suggests that someone made note on the Shopkeeper’s existence. It is found within the Gardens on a precarious ledge above the water, suggesting it was handled poorly. (Side Note: The Librarian may or may not have found this, and he may have been the one to eventually toss it after not finding anything in the noted caves (Shopkeeper is in a “between the realms” place, so not just anyone could waltz into it), deeming it useless)

28/29: This sheet contains the map to, and some info on, the Overworld and the Well. It is found in the eastern part of the Overworld on a small island with a stone structure. The placement may suggest that this is where the sheet is suppose to be. (Side Note: Useless to the Librarian on the surface level)

30/31: This sheet contains the map of, and some info on, the Dark Tomb and below the Eastern Fortress, as well as a preview of the Last Siege Engine. It is found at the end of the Well, suggesting it was lost a long time ago, maybe by people who were exploring below the earth. (Side Note: The Librarian never found this and would deem it interesting but eventually useless)

32/33: This sheet contains the map of, and some info on, the Eastern Fortress and some history on the Ruined Atoll. Page 32 gives hints on what the forbidden art of Praying can do. This sheet is found on the beach in the Overworld. (Side Note: The Librarian did not find this because it’s buried in the sand on the base of a cliff. If he did, he would consider it useful and would look more into Praying. Whether it works for him is up for debate, since Praying is for giving respect to the dead, which is apparently forbidden)

34/35: This sheet contains the map of, and some info on, the Ruined Atoll and the Frog’s Domain. Judging by its contents, it must have been made after the catastrophe of the land, making it relatively new. It also shows the location of the Triforce of Courage Green Vigor Slate, to which the frogs built their home around it. The Librarian must have snuck in without their knowing and stole it. It’s location suggests it was lost by a Ruin Seeker within the Well. (Side Note: The Librarian never found this and would deem it useless, for he already found the Green Vigor Slate)

36/37: This sheet contains a preview of the Librarian and the Boss of the Scavengers. It informs of their own personal quests, with the Librarian trying to find the Holy Cross and the Boss looking for the Triforce of Wisdom Blue Soul Slate. Its updated information, as well as its lack of Golden Path lines, suggests they may have been recently new pages. This sheet can be found within the Eastern Vault on the second floor, maybe found by the Custodians after a Ruin Seeker. (Side Note: The Librarian never found this, but if he did, he would be deeply confused and startled by it, as well as looking down upon the Boss and her actions. He would not like this sheet)

38/39: A sheet the Librarian obtained, and I’m guessing it was from a Ruin Seeker. Depicting the Quarry and the Swamp, this may have given him the idea to visit the locations. The Quarry taught him the “Spirit Magic,” and the Swamp/Graveyard posed as an obstacle, but he stole the Portal Pad for his research on the Far Shore. Being found next to a deactivated robot, he may have studied said object to understand how to take apart the Portal.

40/41: A sheet the Librarian obtained, and I want to say it was his first because of the old coffee stains. It was found next to the chalkboard depicting a cube. Page 40 depicts the Cathedral, page 41 depicts the Far Shore. This may have given him a lead on the location of the Holy Cross, and gave him an idea on what the Far Shore can do.

42/43: This sheet contains info on how a Ruin Seeker becomes the Hero, as well as a hint on how the Holy Cross is used is. This one is found within the fountain, hinting it was intentionally placed for those who can and will use it. (Side Note: Unknown if the Librarian found this, but would probably consider it useful for understanding the Holy Cross. Could be seen as eventually useless because he believes the Holy Cross is an object, not just a directional pattern. Ruin Seekers are also bullshit in his mind. Never found it because it wasn’t there when he initially looked. Yup. That’s my excuse)

44/45: This sheet contains more info on how to use the Holy Cross and the choice to become the new Heir. The Holy Cross hides many secrets and is only exposed to those who Pray in reverence upon used souls. To find the Golden Path, one must find and learn the Holy Cross. Use this information to take your rightful place as the new Heir. Locked behind a Holy Cross door is where this page is located. Funny enough, it is rather early on in the world and is only given to those who know the Cross. This is the way to victory. (Side Note: The Librarian never found this, but would deem it very useful)

46/47: This sheet contains a choice the Hero can make and information on the faeries. “Using the power of the Holy Cross and traverse the Golden Path,” the Hero can end the Cycle of being stuck in a loop and in a land of undying. The faeries understand this and test Ruin Seekers on how well they can handle the Holy Cross and its final test. The location this sheet is in is within the Eastern Garden, but on a ledge behind an island. My best guess is that is was purposefully lost to the wind for Ruin Seekers to find. (Side Note: The Librarian never found this, for it was always elusive to him. He would deem it very useful, only if he could find the faeries and finally end the Cycle himself)

48/49: This sheet contains information on the faeries and the eventual “map” of the Golden Path. This page manifests after using the Holy Cross to solve the Golden Obelisk in the north-western part in the Overworld. It is hidden, probably by the faeries, for those who understand the Holy Cross and how to use it. (Side Note: The Librarian never found this, but would deem it very useful)

50/51: A sheet the Librarian obtained, and I want to say it was from a Ruin Seeker. Page 50 depicts the Mountain Door, which the Librarian most likely visited and came to the conclusion he needs the Holy Cross for. Page 51 depicts the Badges and their affects, as well as a hint to one of the many Golden Treasures he is unaware of and cannot perform. This sheet is found next to pages 40/41, suggesting he knew a connection between the Holy Cross and the Door.

52/53: This sheet contains Memo notes on Treasure puzzles and faerie puzzles. It was written by past Ruin Seekers who have discovered these secrets. It is found behind a locked Holy Cross door located through the Old House, suggesting it was meant to stay hidden and only found by Ruin Seekers, and maybe the House was used by past Seekers as well. (Side Note: The Librarian never found this and would deem it useful, but only if he could find the Holy Cross)

54/Back Cover: This sheet contains the Memo for Trunic understanding, the Trophy Room reward, the end to the Golden Path, and a secret treasure reward. The Memo page info suggests someone did make it to the Trophy Room secret location and figured out its message, but eventually lost the page on purpose or accidental. The fae were then became its wardens, to which maybe they wanted to keep it hidden until the right person appears. (Side Note: The Librarian never found this, but would deem it interesting)

---

I’m very tired and was wondering on what the Librarian already knew and what he didn’t and could he have figured out what the Holy Cross is, or is he just too dumb because some of these are pretty obvious on what is needed to be done even though you literally need BloodBorne Insight to find out the Holy Cross is something beyond your world.

[utilitycaster]

Anon if you're still out there, I don't mean to pile on, but I have been thinking about this on and off for the past day, and there's two different interpretations of it, and I disagree with both:

If you're getting at an idea that there haven't been any really big risks in the first place, I think that Chetney and Bor'Dor's reveals, Aabria and Christian's choices to play characters so tied to the party members, and honestly Matt's multiple big swings for episode 51 were all, well, big risks, and see below re: the fact that you'll never get 100% positive reception, but on the whole I think they were taken well!

On the other hand if we're talking about the criticism received: I can't stress enough how infinitesimally small and absolutely anodyne a decision can be and still receive an online freakout. While I try not to put words in the cast's mouth, they are openly contemptuous towards Bowlgate, to give an example of a completely normal thing that people are still debating.

Here is a brief and noncomprehensive list [note: people reading this, this is not an invitation to add more to it, trust me, I know] of very, very tame choices I can think of that people frothed at the mouth over:

Ashton saying they knew a different form of loneliness than Laudna did

Liam indicating the nature of Caleb and Essek's relationship with relative subtlety and acknowledging the differences in human and elf aging

Ashley flipping the coin to decide whom to resurrect, after the cast playing surviving characters agreed this was the best option

Matt's use of the same default filler words ("entity", "interior", "circumstance") because, idk, he DMs a widely broadcast show that can run 5 hours long sometimes on a weekly basis and has for over 8 years and that's hard and DMs rest on specific filler words

The fact that sometimes NPCs have abilities that are not available to PCs

Fjord growing a beard

Orym nodding

A larger number of completely OOC asides, statements, and facial expressions than I care to count

The inciting post for this whole ask still holds; I do think that people who are used to double standards or closer scrutiny on the basis of gender, sexuality, or race can sometimes be more hesitant to take those big risks, and I'm sympathetic to that. However, the volume of online criticism is largely unrelated to the gravity of the choice made or any attempt I could make at objective judgement of how good it was. In the end I'd say a majority of criticism comes from people really mad that the story doesn't match their fanon and reinforce their personal beliefs, or that the world does not stop revolving for their personal favorite character. It would be impossible to dodge all online criticism, and when it comes to less major choices, I don't think it's even on the cast's radar because if it were we'd just watch eight people frozen in place every week and complain about that instead.

mh, can't even remember the last time someone took a significant risk in CR and the reward was higher than the online criticism

Maybe this is just me but unless the online criticism has actively risen to the level of credible threat in the real world - and I really don't think it has since Campaign 1 - it's 100% worth it. Online criticism is fake and doesn't matter. Like, I've gotten some wild fucking anon hate before as simply an anonymous non famous person who sometimes has opinions, and the enjoyment I had writing whatever meta prompted it is always more rewarding. If someone who doesn't know you personally calls you a dumb cunt they are probably the dumb cunt, you can't please everyone so you may as well please yourself, etc, etc.

[beetroot-merchant]

a couple of prod's siblings and their creator! blease click the images to actually. See Them

Lore(TM) is under the cut! long post

So first off, if you haven't already read Prod's lore I suggest you do that first since I talk about Aeolian (referred to as "the programmer")'s motivations & what the purpose of these sticks are over there, I'm not sure if this'll make much sense otherwise :p

[also rq since i dont remember mentioning it in the original post - prod is a year old, created only a month or two after dea]

Aeolian_84

"It's not an axolotl tail, it's an eel goddamnit!"

The programmer and owner of the computer everyone else originated in. "Aeolian_84", if it wasn't already obvious, is an online handle- he's never disclosed his real name. He's in his mid-thirties, human, if you couldn't tell, and is currently studying artificial intelligence and how "human" it can become. He personally doesn't believe AI could ever achieve sentience, and regularly taunts his sticks about how he's more alive than they'll ever be; whether or not he's right is up for debate.

Aside from his work in AI, he's very into in philosophy- and although his knowledge in the area is impressive, he's also a pompous prick about it. Generally arrogant and stubborn- until he's faced with something that takes actual effort to fix, then he's a master of coming up with excuses.

Quite lazy when it comes to names, just calls the files whatever the latin word for the paradox is. Addresses his sticks, if at all, by their full .exe name, regardless of whatever nickname the sticks come up with- and they do come up with nicknames a lot, since usually the latin words sound stupidly pretentious or are hard to pronounce, and also as a symbolic bit of retaliation.

As for the many ways his stick figures have tried to rebel over the years, he doesn't usually try to stop them unless their methods actively slow down or halt his experiments, or take up more system resources than he's willing to give up. He's described their attempts as "cute; inspiring, even".

dea.exe

Preferred name: Dea

Full name meaning: Goddess

Age: 1

Paradox: Omnipotence paradox

Result: Capable of creating inherently impossible objects, however, they cannot be observed and appear not to exist to anyone except him.

Despite their appearance and significant power, Dea is quite gentle and caring towards almost everyone. Always willing to listen and comfort and somehow almost always knows exactly what to say. A master of both de-escalating and escalating situations depending on their motives. Their face can be a bit scary to strangers, but he plastered it onto himself willingly, simply a sign of rebellion against Aeolian and the role of an angelic, pure being he forced onto her. Although the area around the black mark is generally more sensitive to touch and gets hurt/infected easier, Dea maintains that she has no regrets.

Dea is the only stick Aeolian has ever made with actual powers (they're titled "reality manipulation" in the files but really, that could mean anything) but they're usually blocked by a secondary program the animator made specifically for them. Every now and then, Aeolian will come up with a new task or experiment for them to carry out; usually they'll barter a little, Dea only agreeing if he allows for something else (whether it be longer rest time for Prod or access to a certain site, since the ones the sticks can access are whitelisted), however they both know not to go too far - Aeolian because he knows she might outright refuse to do anything for the next couple weeks, and Dea because they know he might do something to hurt the other sticks.

Otiosus.exe

Preferred name: Otio

Full name meaning: Quiet, submissive, obedient

Age: 3

Paradox: Barber paradox [scept. sticks don't have hair, so its holding their wrist and leaving a little band of light teal paint on it. which although feels different, its functionally the same - a procedure that the majority of the population can't perform on themselves]

Result: Changes depending on the way its coded.

The most passive stick figure when it comes to their programmer. Since his time as a paradox was quite easy except for the occasional hostile response, and none of its code actually causes him any harm, most of the hate that does exist stems from how much he's hurt the others; namely Fluvi, since they've been close friends ever since he banded them - probably because she was one of the few non-NPCs he interacted with before the creation of the others. He's also one of the few older ones along with Fluvi lucky enough to be deemed "interesting" enough to be kept alive, rather than being trashed or wiped like most of their older friends.

He's been known to be overprotective of his friends- likely the most notable incident was when he made Fluvi stay behind during Prod's escape, much to her indignation. It says it was just worried that exe may have been given better odds at pulling it off than the average stick, since they hadn't seen exes code at the time; which although even Fluvi accepts is fair, she still brings it up from time to time as something of an inside joke. They both still say they have no regrets.

Fluvidus.exe

Preferred name: Fluvi

Full name meaning: Inconsistent, fluid, changing

Age: 5

Paradox: Liar paradox/Pinocchio paradox [However instead of Pinocchio's nose growing, it's a color shift between pink and black]

Result: Flashes between colors at a speed determined by the computer's processing power

One of the first stick figures Aeolian ever created, and the most outwardly against him. Because of how inexperienced he was at the time of her creation, they continued to flip randomly between pink and black in different chunks of their body even after the code was removed - and still glitches out regularly. Aeolian is, of course, fully capable of fixing it now that he's more experienced, but refuses to on the basis that she's old and irrelevant, and that he would rather spend time tinkering with something newer.

He's aware of the simplicity of her paradox and how easily it can be solved, even without a computer; this combined with how much Aeolian neglects her often drags her down a spiral of self doubt, believing her existence to be meaningless. This used to be his main philosophy before Otio's creation and their eventual friendship - but despite the bond between it and everyone else, she still spirals sometimes.

[kawaiijohn]

Rewind, Rinse, Repeat Chapter 1

For Invisobang Minibang 2021

Ao3 Link

Chapters: 3 finished, 12 total Rating: T+ Warnings: Major and Minor Character Death- all temporary, Implied Child Abuse/Neglect, Strong Language, Mild Body Horror, Mild Injury. Other warnings listed by chapter Characters: Clockwork, Danny Fenton, Pariah Dark, Levi | Leviathan (OC), Mal (OC), Observants, Mentions of other characters Ships: Lost Time, Dark Ages, CW & OC child, CW & Levi | Leviathan (OC) Genre/Tropes: Human AU, Magic AU, Found Family, Character Origin, Hurt/Comfort, Original Magic System and Lore Additional Tags: Existentialism & Existential Angst, Memory Loss & Amnesia, Corruption, Clockwork Centric, They/Them Pronouns for Clockwork, The Fenton's A+ Parenting, Obersvant Bashing

Summary

“Clockwork can I ask you something? How did you become a ghost?”

The tale surrounding the mystery of Clockwork's existence; a world where magic is common and ghosts are not. A world where one lonely, average mage tries with all their might to save what means most to them. A world where things need to be remade into something better.

Shout out to my betas @bibliophilea and @moonlights-shadow-warrior for keeping me sane, @13thdoodle for letting me use their OC, Levi, @dailudannos and @sailor-toni for providing art for later chapters, and all the folks over at @invisobang for being awesome!!!!

Chapter One below the Cut. The rest is available on my Ao3 account because tumblr linking/posting is hella broken.

Chapter 1: An Inquiry

“Hey, Clockwork? Can I ask you something?”

Clockwork looks over from the mirror they were watching intently.  “You already have, Daniel,” they reply, offering the other a smirk.

“Oh, ha ha.  You've never said that to me before.”  The reply is filled to the brim with sarcasm, as per usual.  Danny rolls his eyes, but a small smile gracing his lips betrays the fact he isn't annoyed in the least.  “Seriously, though.  It’s something that's been on my mind like... every day for the last two weeks!!"  He raises his hands towards the sky, flopping back in the air dramatically.  "But... it's kinda, y'know.  Personal-”  Danny trails off, slightly embarrassed.

Of course.  Clockwork finds themself smiling fondly- Danny thought he’d said something he shouldn't have- an inquiry that could make his guardian upset (as if it's even possible to upset Clockwork like that).  A question is a question, and this is a worrying habit of his that the Time Master is trying to help break, even if it's still somewhat endearing to them.

“I uh, I mean... it’s personal about- to you, not to me. That’s what I meant!!” Danny continued.

Clockwork stares at him, unblinking.  An idea (or thousands) of what he may ask flashes through their mind’s eye.  With a single, calming pulse to their Core, Clockwork pushes the involuntary slideshow of timelines aside as if they're no more than curtains.  They need to focus on the window in front of them; the here and now, not the temporal drapery.

It's a habit they are trying to overcome for Daniel’s sake.  To ensure their ward's growth, they need to stop peering into the near future as often- not discourage his asking of questions.  After all, what is a child if not but a well of endless curiosity?  Cutting Danny off is also sure to disallow the development of any trust or patience Clockwork needs to build within their young ward.  They wouldn’t receive either of those things if they assume what he wanted to ask.

It's common decency to not assume, lest it ‘make an ass out of you and me’, according to Daniel.

It is going to be a tough habit to break, but by the (other) Ancients, they're trying their best.  Their ward deserves the infinitesimal choices all other children have when asking things of their guardians, so even if they do glimpse to the future, they will not mention it to him.  Clockwork refuses and will continue to refuse to take their ward’s agency away; to not have a choice in things is a fate worse than fading.

The boy has been quiet, stuck deep within his own thoughts even after an impressive five minutes and thirty-seven and a half seconds of silence (uncharacteristic of the boy, Clockwork notes).

Now that just won't do- he must have lost his train of thought.  Clockwork gestures at the ghost boy, motioning for him to continue.  It works- Danny adverting his eyes and clearing his throat, "Well, it’s just like- you know so much about me- like, how I died, the whole Ghost Zone Prince business, that entire disaster doomed timeline with Dan... I just keep thinking- no- realizing, that I barely know anything about you!!”  He throws his arms up in thinly veiled frustration.

Clockwork smirks. “You had another question, did you not?”  They place a hand along the edge of the closest Temporal Mirror, turning to face the mirror- still halfway facing Danny.  They can see his inner debate clearly written on the boy's face- the mirror reflecting as if it were an ordinary object (for now).  They turn towards it fully and watch Daniel's reaction from behind them, acting as if they aren't finding joy in their ward's hesitation.  It's always adorable when he tries not to offend Clockwork. "I may be able to work with time, but that doesn't mean I wish to float here waiting for an answer all day."

Danny blinks a few times, rolling his eyes again in response.  Clockwork is certain that if they weren’t secured to his skull by human musculature they’d fall out and roll away.  “Well, I’m sorry for trying not to be rude and like, asking outright... but since it’s you I have to always be super direct!!  Jeeze you’re frustrating sometimes!”  He floats towards his mentor, crossing his arms.

Danny often forgets Clockwork isn't easily upset over trivial things such as questions.  Most questions are about things they already know the answers to, anyways.  And the few things that they don’t know when asked, they figure out soon after.  Such is the duty of the Master of Time- to be a step ahead of everyone and everything else always.  Besides, in most timelines (68.3% of them, to round up) the question Daniel wishes to ask is along the lines of ‘What was your past like?’ Another small fraction (a little under 20%) the question is ‘How did you get so strong?’ .  And even in the remaining timelines, the question would be along the lines of ‘How do your time powers work?’

They are each things Clockwork expects Daniel to ask them at some point or other, as it were.  There isn’t really anything Daniel can ask that could be too shockin-

“Clockwork, I was wondering… how exactly did you become a ghost?”

They... did not see that coming… in any of the timelines they’d glimpsed.  Clockwork stills for only a fraction of a moment, but it’s long enough for Danny to flinch, feeling as if he’s crossed a line.  They hear more than see Daniel shrinking in on himself as they look off into nothing, buried memories waking slowly in their mind.

Clockwork is brought from their introspection by a mumbled curse.  “Shit!  I mean... uh crap??"   They just stare at Danny as they are brought back to the present.  "Never mind just... sorry for asking...  Oh man!  Did I offend you somehow?  Ancients dammit, this is what I was worried about!!”  They watch him curiously, soft whirring coming from their ward's anxious core.  “We can just forget about it if-”  Daniel’s hands wring together nervously, shoulders tense with worry and face full of guilt.

Right- facial expressions are also important for a young ghost's emotional communication and development.  Sometimes the Time Master wonders if their isolation in Long Now affected their social behavior (it did).  Their face is carefully blank most times, so they set to fix it- they offer a small grin, hand coming to rest on Daniel’s shoulder.  “It is more than fine, Daniel.  You asked if you could ask a question- which is in fact, two questions, I should note- but I gave you consent to ask it of me.”  They squeeze his shoulder to placate the worry.

“It’s about time I told you this story, as it were.  I just did not foresee it being told at this very moment."  Clockwork floats slowly, turning away from their Mirrors.  "Come along- it’s best we sit for this.  I’ll have one of your friends bring us some tea.”

Danny floats after his mentor, looking around the room the two normally use to study history of the Realms.  “So, uh… is it a long story or...?”

“Oh, it is very long, indeed.”  They fly through an ornate door and over to their favored 'chair'- a stack of comfortable cushions in violets and blues, both impossibly cool and warm at the same time.  They recall Daniel discovering the room, eyes full of wonder and posture relaxed.  Clockwork chuckles- the first time their boy had wandered in here he'd decided to take a running dive into the pile, jumping up in surprise when it was cold as ice, yet warm as fresh laundry.  The expression on their ward’s face is one of their fondest memories; a happy moment amongst all the tedium of watching time.

“It may take a while to tell this tale proper. But, it is a story that ought to be told.”  Daniel makes himself comfortable on his chair of choice- an unholy combination of 'borrowed' pillows and what appears to be a more modern gaming chair- complete with an obnoxiously bright green-black color scheme.  Clockwork has to hide another smile as Danny wiggles himself deep into the pile.  “So, Daniel- what do you know of the phrase ‘Totems of Power’?”

“I thought I was getting a story, not a pop quiz!  Unfair!!”  His disdain for schooling makes Clockwork laugh fondly before the boy continues.  “But they’re like… hmm how do I explain this?  Well, there’s the universe right?  Like every timeline and every result of every timeline all at the same time kind of ties into the main universe thingy- but there's still a main timeline, and that's kinda like... Main Street, and the other possible timelines are uh... like side streets with dead ends?  But there's other forces that like, aren't time and… uhhh...”

He hums, crossing his arms deep in thought.  Clockwork takes the time to purr-sing-hum at one of the many blobs floating in and out of their lair; Daniel had asked them to keep some around as pets and the Time Master was happy to oblige.  They were unable to deny something so beneficial to the young Prince, after all.  The one deemed ‘Mr. Pants’ by one of Daniel’s friends answers their call.  Clockwork buzzes to it a quiet request- ‘bring Daniel's favorite tea and mugs for two, please.’  The little thing chirrups and zips off through the walls- eager to serve the Lair’s owner and be (potentially) rewarded with pats (from Daniel).

The Time Master brings their undivided attention back toward a grumbling ghost boy, lost in thought.  “Daniel if you need to ask for help I’m glad to-”

Danny snaps his fingers, coming to a realization before his mentor can finish.  “I got it!!  The best way to explain it is ‘The Universe needs to run smoothly, so there’s certain forces- like Time or Space- that are upheld by a powerful entity, like a person or like… the avatar of that concept?  Yeah, something like that, but they ensure the aspect they represent is properly cared for so the universe doesn’t completely like, die.’”  Danny nods to himself.  "It's why you stepped in to stop Dan, to make sure the world didn't end like that."

“That is correct- it is my job to ensure this universe of ghosts and reality doesn't crumble prematurely.  Now, do you have a recollection of any other Totems you may have encountered?”

“Well, yeah!  We call them ‘Ancients’, though- so like… Pandora is the one for war and history, and Nocturn is for like… dreams?  The Void or something, maybe?  And then there’s old man Pariah who isn’t one, but he said there’s a Leadership Ancient somewhere, and then-”  Danny pauses, blinking at Clockwork in realization.  “Wait, you asked that for a reason, didn’t you?”

“That I did.  Becoming the Totem, or Ancient of Time is where this story starts.”  Clockwork hums, seeing Mr. Pants fly back towards the two- nearly spilling scalding tea all over the ground.  “Now then.  We have drinks.  We are sitting comfortably.  I believe it’s time I spin my tale for you.”  They take a sip, closing their eyes in bliss.

They open them once more and see Daniel sitting, eyes full of stars and eager- Eager to hear, eager to fire off a question a minute.  It makes a chuckle bubble up in their throat, to see their favorite person so excited to learn.

“Once upon a time, there was a human; average in most ways, a simple person living a simple life.  They would get up in the morning, perform their daily tasks, and go to sleep at night.  Day in, and day out- a boring, but fulfilling existence.

“However, where this story differs from what we recognize as reality, is that in this realm, humans who could control magic were the norm.  Think as if it were like one of those fantasy games you and Tucker play together- mages, healers… all of those and more were commonplace when I was alive.  Yes, humans can wield magic now, but it is nowhere near as frequent as they could in our tale.”

They pause, seeing that Danny was about to interrupt.  “Wait wait- this realm?  Like- this is a completely different reality?? And people can wield magic now???  Are you messing with me?  Like… I thought it was all just-”  The boy stops, his train of thought drifting off the tracks as it tends to now and then.

“Yes, first, this is a completely different realm from either the Mortal Plane or the Ghost Zone.  Second, Daniel- tell me... have you not noticed the magic of those you have encountered?  Blood blossoms… a reality warping gauntlet?  The existence that is ‘Freakshow’ in general should be a red flag, seeing as his talents were… strangely non-ghostly in origin.  Not to mention objects such as the Infi-map...”

“Man, I wish I could forget about Freakshow… who mind controls ghosts???  He was the worst!” Their young ward crossed his arms and grumbles.

“If you’re done sulking about your past misadventures and former foes, I was in the middle of telling a story, if I recall correctly.  One you asked I tell you…”  Clockwork simply stares, unblinking as steam wafts from their slowly cooling tea.

All is well, they knew Danny would only take approximately 4.85 seconds to snap his attention back to their story.  Clockwork sips their tea, waiting.

Danny snaps out of his thoughts only a millisecond off of Clockwork's prediction. “Sorry... it’s just super weird to think that magic actually… still exists?  Like ghosts are real and all but magic being a thing feels a bit far fetched, don’t ya think?”  He pouts, brow furrowed.

The Master of Time finally closes their eyes, removing the hood from their head.  White hair floats gracefully behind them, settling just past their shoulders.   Clockwork opens their eyes again- a serious, yet warm expression directed at their ward.  “Magic is simply defined as reality altering acts using both energy and the willpower of a sentient being, if that helps.”  Another sip.  Mr. Pants made a wonderful batch of tea, as always.  They smile wider when they notice Danny’s expression- the boy has never seen them without a hood, and they know doing this will (in 99.78% of all possible timelines) convince the boy to take what they said seriously.   ”Just as ghosts can be defined as ‘ectoplasm given form and consciousness’, forces beyond humanity and the physical realm can be explained with scientific terminology if you know where to look.”

“So like... what all did magic have to do with this ‘simple human’ version of you?  Did you ever have the power to shoot lightning??  Could I shoot lightning if I tried?  Like were you some sorta time wizard?  Is that why you’re all… timey-wimey and powerful?”  Danny wiggles his fingers with a look of confusion on his face.

Clockwork always finds their Core warming when their boy acts his age.  He's abnormally prone to shoulder the destiny of the world on himself and often forgets he's just a kid.  “You could continue asking questions one at a time, or you could allow me to tell my story.  The choice is yours, Daniel.”  They smirk, watching as Danny purses his lips, his steady flow of questions stopping short.  The best answer.  “Perfect- all is as I thought it would be.”

They close their eyes and reminisce as they continue.  “Now- to answer your last question… Yes.  You could say magic is how I came to be the Master of Time in both the Infinite Realms and the mortal plane, but there is much more to the story than that.  Other players, situations, and pure circumstances.  The universe in its infinite chances and possibilities brought myself, as well as many others to the situations they face here and now.”  Clockwork pauses, taking the moment to stare straight through Danny’s soul.  “Even yourself.”

The boy shudders, an appropriate response.  “Wait... me?  Did you… do something in the past to like… a past version of someone we know??  Can that even happen???”  Danny is already enraptured by the story, eyes twinkling as his mentor opens up about themself.  The boy is obviously thinking about everything that has happened, everything that could possibly have happened, and everything that Clockwork could possibly drop on him.

They feel Daniel cautiously tug on loose strands of time to see if he could possibly scope out what is about to be said, quickly failing to do much else beside give himself a small headache.  “Time stuff is still really confusing, Clockwork…”

“You could say that.  You could even say that trying to mess with time in the inner sanctum of Long Now is the most confusing ‘time stuff’ one could do if they were not myself.”  They grin- a Temporal Mirror appearing behind them with a thought.

“What’s the mirror for?”  Danny catches sight of himself and looks away, embarrassed that he’s been literally glowing with power after trying to do something so simple with his developing powers.  The glow is something he’s been working on suppressing recently.  After all, it would be a shame if other ghosts could see the boy powering up by aura alone.

The Master of Time smirks, bringing tea to their lips again.  “I thought it would be fun to attempt braiding my hair and doing my makeup for once.  It has been an awfully long time since I’ve done either.”

They stare at Danny who just bursts into laughter.  “Did you just use sarcasm???  Man, I didn’t know you could lighten up, Clockwork!”  The boy laughs harder, sinking deeper into his nest of pillows.  After a few minutes he was finally wiping tears from his eyes.  “But no.  Seriously… what’s the mirror for??”

“Why, what they are always for, Daniel- seeing through time and space.”  Clockwork waves their hand.  The mirrors show an image of a human with dark hair and burgundy eyes.  They have a large, hooked nose and medium brown skin- and Danny finds himself having a hard time guessing their gender.  The human sits at a desk, paused in time with the delicate gears of a clock sprawled along the desk surface, tools in hand.

Behind Clockwork, the image changes, showing the human living through an average day- images play in small spurts, never showing the whole story.  “Do you understand what’s being seen?”  The young boy nods, grabbing Mr. Pants out of the air as the blob drifts between the two.  Good, he will probably need the companionship, especially towards the end.

This isn’t the easiest story to tell, nor is it easy to listen to, but with a sip of their tea, Clockwork continues.

[alderaani]

prison break (echo x reader)

A valentines gift for @just-some-girl-92 as part of the event being run by @starwarsfandomfests! Thanks so much for putting another one of these together @lilhawkeye3, and I really hope you like this Dell! I think credit for white haired Echo goes to @/amiro-art? That was the first place I saw it anyway, and I’ve really liked the headcanon that it’s like that post-techno union ever since!

Based on this prompt: Character A moves in next to Character B. They have conjoined balconies and A's pet/child wanders into B's apartment.

Fives and Echo are both reunited and well in this because everyone gets to be happy on Valentine’s Day and I said so. We don’t need canon on this blog.

The other side of the wall explodes with noise. 

It makes you pause, looking up from the knitting trailing over your knees to cock your head towards the opposite apartment. You think you hear the screech of furniture legs being pushed along the floor, then the frantic rumble of several male voices speaking over the top of each other, the clatter and clang of things as they are removed and replaced.

It’s odd. When Tith-Mar lived next door, you used to hear it every time he coughed, or swore at that awful old holodrama he used to watch every Taungsday. As much as you tried to stop yourself you couldn’t help but get invested, and that was almost worse. Out of pride you never put it on your own unit, but that just meant you ended up half pressed against the wall, eventually not even pretending you weren’t listening to Capula and Mont confess their love. It had given you something to talk about, anyway, when you went onto the balcony to water your plants and he went out there to smoke the fancy deathsticks he joked he’d live and die by.

In the year since the war ended and Tith-Mar was finally able to move back out to be with his daughter on Ryloth you’ve never quite gotten used to the quiet. There was a strange comfort in knowing that there was someone on the other side of the wall. Maybe it came from the three years of water shortages and occasional outages - or, notably, the rampage of the Zillo beast, which hadn’t come quite close enough to flatten you in your sleep, but had downed enough of the power grid that you’d been locked in your apartment for five rotations. You miss the soft Rylothi folk music he used to play in the mornings, and you miss seeing him sometimes, blowing smoke up into the brisk Coruscant mornings with his blue lek, faded now in old age, wrapped around his neck like a scarf.

You just miss the comforting assurance of having someone else there. If it wasn’t for the sound of the door going, and the occasional thump of something being moved, you’d hardly know that you had neighbours at all now. It’s almost funny to think back on the furore it caused when the Republic bought the apartment for GAR resettlement. It led to the only neighbourhood meeting the building has ever had, and you’ve been very glad for that fact after discovering that a solid faction of your fellow citizens are bigots. It’s something you knew, objectively, but witnessing it from the people you personally rub shoulders with was a harder pill to swallow than having to watch some of the anti-clone protests on the holonews. You’ve not tried to remember the more colourful misconceptions about clone troopers aired by prim soft-handed mid-levellers as they sat in a lobby you can remember the Coruscant Guard clearing rubble from with nothing but their hands. However, you do very vividly remember someone from two floors up asking you if you’d ‘really feel safe’ living next to ‘those walking warmongers’, being young and living on your own. You’d shut that down, of course, and the resulting vote had passed in favour.

You’d honestly half expected the troopers to reject the place after that, and you wouldn’t have blamed them either. 

Everyone had known the day they moved in, had pretended not to watch as a GAR issue speeder loaded with two armoured figures and a meagre quantity of possessions had pulled up on the walkway and made their way cautiously inside. You’d thought about introducing yourself, knocking or something, but concluded in the end that they didn’t need anyone else ogling them. You’d figured that there would be plenty of time for that later...and now here you are, a whole year on, and that glimpse is just about the closest you’ve ever gotten to them. You think they still spend a lot of time off-planet, helping with the reconstruction missions the now-voluntary GAR conducts throughout the Mid and Outer Rims. You hadn’t even been sure that they were home at the moment, actually. 

There’s no doubting it now, as the frantic thumps and raised voices continue. Through your balcony door, cracked open to catch some of the soft breeze the weather engineers have scheduled today, you can make out a little of what their voices are saying, one frantic and forceful, the other softer, but no less worried.

“ - kriffing hell, can’t believe we’ve lost...Rex will have our heads…”

“...can’t have gotten far...can’t even walk!”

“ - already checked the fresher, Echo!”

“It can’t hurt to check twice...knew we shouldn’t have…”

You bite your lip, turning round while debating whether you should offer your help. Then you freeze. The baby on the other side of your caf table freezes too, chubby hand poised to grab the cookie you’d been saving for later. They’re standing on legs that wobble a bit, and there’s a glint of steely determination in the dark eyes that fix on your face. 

“Hello,” you say a little weakly, realising very abruptly what the troopers must have lost.

The kid appraises you for a moment longer, brow furrowed and intent. There’s a huge amount of judgement there for such a small face, those focused eyes taking you in for several very long seconds. Then they huff, and very deliberately turn their attention back to the cookie. You smother an incredulous laugh. 

“Not impressed, huh?” You say, carefully setting your knitting aside and uncovering your legs. “Can’t say I blame you, I prefer cookies too.”

The baby doesn’t dignify this with any attention, instead making a soft crowing noise as their little fingers strike victory and retract with the cookie firmly in grasp. When they immediately move to cram it into their mouth you burst into action, leaning across the caf table to swipe it. Just those mere seconds of contact have made it slightly damp. 

The baby’s face scrunches in outrage, and they let go of the table edge, sinking down onto their padded bottom with a sharp, high noise of annoyance. They don’t cry, but the frown is something spectacular.

“Sorry, kid.” You force yourself the rest of the way up, keeping a hold on the cookie with one hand. Can kids this young even eat solid foods yet? Do they have any allergies? You don’t have any siblings, so the last time you were around a baby was when you were one. For all this one’s bravado, they look awfully breakable. “I’ll hang on to this for now, yeah?”

You don’t think that they’re old enough to understand what you’re saying, but the huff the baby lets out feels extremely pointed. You stare down at them on your rug.

“Don’t suppose you could give me any pointers on how to hold you?”

It turns out babies are wriggly. You put the cookie down long enough to hoist the kid into your arms and attempt to manoeuvre their little arms and legs so that they’re not jabbing into your vital organs, but at the sight of the food being placed far away, the kid lets out a piercing noise, right into your ear, and attempts to kamikaze their way back to it. A body that two seconds ago was ramrod solid and deliberately unwieldy is suddenly boneless and impossible to hold onto. Your brain goes empty of everything but wrestling with several pounds of struggling infant. 

You end up on the floor, eventually, but at least both of you are in one piece. You’re breathing heavily. The kid’s face is thunderous. It’s very cute, but you can’t wait to give it back and appreciate that from a distance. Somehow, you manage to settle them onto your hip.

“What the f - heck was that for?” You ask, purely to make yourself feel better. Even if the kid could answer you, you get the feeling they simply wouldn’t. “Was it because I put the biscuit down?”

The kid makes a huffing noise. You roll your eyes, but can’t help smiling. The baby’s dark, just-curling hair is soft against the skin of your upper arm, and their weight is warm and solid against your side. 

“I’m not taking it away from you. I’m gonna let you have it, just need to make sure it’s safe for womp-rats first. And return you before those poor guys tear their place apart, okay?”

You re-collect the cookie and struggle back to your feet, looking towards the open balcony. Visions flash through your mind of the baby pulling that boneless trick out there, with nothing but spacelanes separating them from the ground 50 stories below, and...no. You’re not even vaguely risking that. The front door is definitely the better option, but somehow more daunting, as you stand before the neighbouring apartment with your heart in your throat.

The second you knock, the frantic voices inside cut off abruptly, and then you hear the mad scramble that ensues to reach the door. It wooshes open, and suddenly you’re face to face with your neighbours for the first time. 

They’re less identical than you’d expected. Maybe that’s a stupid thought, but it’s the first one that stumbles, half formed and dazed, into the open void your brain has just become. The second, very unhelpful follow up, is that they’re also much prettier than you’d expected. Not that you’d necessarily expected anything, but - you’ve never seen one of the clones without their helmets before. The Corrie Guard, back during the war, had made a point of never taking them off as far as you’d ever seen. That was apparently a crying shame. One of them has thick, dark curly hair, a tidy goatee, and a tattoo on his forehead. The other’s hair is a sharp, startling white, interrupted by metal nodes of some sort. Some sort of post-war medical adaptation, you assume. He’s slightly leaner all over, his eyes a little larger in his face. But the way both of them sag against the door frame is exactly the same.

“Thank the fucking force,” The dark haired one breathes, clutching at his chest.

The other trooper elbows him sharply in the ribs. “Fives.”

“She’s ten months old, Echo. She’s not gonna repeat it.”

“She just escaped from our apartment after General Skywalker swore up and down she’s not mobile yet. It’s gonna be her first word just to spite us.”

You laugh before you can stop yourself and flush a little when all attention snaps back to you.

“That I can believe,” you force yourself to say. “Hi. I think I found something of yours.”

You hold out your armful of infant and - you presume Fives is his name - reaches out to take her, groaning in relief. 

“Thank you,” he says, fervent, taking a moment to bury his face into the child’s hair. She puts a determined thumb into her mouth and stares at your hand, still clutching the cookie. The trooper turns her in his arms and holds her up at eye level. “You are a menace, Leia. I thought we were gonna have to call in a search.”

It’s nice to have a name for that little displeased face. Leia regards the trooper for a moment before sticking her hand into his face. His eyes are impossibly warm as he pretends to gobble her fingers, and it is, quite frankly, cute as fuck. He turns his attention back to you, but just as he opens his mouth, the sound of a comm going off somewhere behind them cuts through the moment.

“That’ll be the General,” The white-haired trooper laughs. “You better take her and show him, before he raises down half of Coruscant trying to get here.”

Fives nods, flashing another blinding grin at you, before he and Leia are gone. The trooper you’re left with blows out a breath and scrubs a hand over his face. 

“Well,” he says, his mouth crooking into a wry smile. “That was exciting.” 

He sticks his hand out, and when you take it, his palm is rough and his grip firm. You give him your name without thinking about it, staring into the kind, golden depths of his eyes. They crinkle at the corners when he grins. 

“I’m Echo. And - I know Fives already said it, but seriously, thank you. Where the shab did you find her?”

“Trying to steal biscuits from my caf table,” you say, laughing openly when Echo drops his face back into his hand and groans with embarrassment. “I think she got in through the balcony door.”

“Force, we didn’t even think of that. What a first impression, you must think we’re idiots.” 

You shake your head, enamoured by the faint colour you can see rising in his cheeks. He brings his metal hand up to his face and presses the cool prosthetic against his skin. 

“Not at all. You should have seen the look she gave me when I found her, she knows she’s in charge.” 

Echo smiles bashfully. “It’s the first time we’ve ever won the lot to babysit the twins, our Company would have crucified us if we’d lost her.” 

“Then I’m very glad to have provided a rescue.” 

There’s a short silence as you fidget with your sleeves, strange anticipation churning in your gut. There’s no reason to keep standing here now that the pleasantries are done with, the baby exchanged, but...some part of you resists it, almost looking for an excuse to stay. He and Fives are the first new friendly faces you’ve met in a long time, soothing a sting you didn’t know was there.

“I - um -,” Echo begins suddenly, shifting a little. The colour in his face deepens. “I really like your plants. I’ve always meant to say something. We keep trying to guess what they are.” 

“Oh!” Your heart turns over in your chest and you wouldn’t be able to stop the smile bursting onto your face if you tried. Those damn things are so hard to keep alive through the unpredictable engineered weather. You don’t think you’re particularly house proud, but you do preen a little that he’s noticed. “Thank you, I, um, I water them every morning. I could...go through them with you one day? If you like?” 

Echo’s head dips an assent. “I’d really like that.” 

You linger a moment longer, a pleased thrill still lingering in your belly, but there’s no putting it off now. “I suppose I should let you go. But...please knock if you need anything.” 

Echo smiles. “Hopefully not in pursuit of any more babies.” 

You’re just about to turn away when you remember the cookie in your hand, slightly smushed now. “Oh! Can you give this to Leia? I wanted to make sure she could eat them, first, but I promised. Seemed only fair, since she went to all that trouble.” 

Echo huffs, his expression softening, taking the cookie with careful hands. “I’ll make sure her highness gets it.” 

Then you go back to your quiet apartment, somehow deflated when faced with the monotony of your knitting and your music. You hear a few more sounds from the other side of the wall, faint laughter, perhaps a child squealing, and find your curiosity has not been sated at all.

It’s a wonderful surprise, then, when two days later on a clear, sunlit morning, you slide open your balcony door to water the plants and find Echo waiting, his face tipped up to the brightening sky. There is a packet of cookies resting on the duracrete by his feet, and two steaming mugs of caf on the railing by his elbow. 

It feels like something special...It feels like a beginning. 

taglist // @nelba @leias-left-hair-bun @battletales @bad-batch-of-fics @iscream4clones @majorshiraharu @snippytano @missinashkin @808tsuika @eries45 @dom-i-nic // 

[delusion-of-negation]

I criticise your nomination of biastophilia because people would definitely get it confused with zoophilia. plus cnc with people of consenting age is possible. my personal preference is we stop it altogether, the concept of a "big 3" because kink is nuanced, we could just as easily harm someone with breathplay done bad as with badly done cnc. but necro really shouldn't be in the big 3. it seems like going: "okay, so these two guys, they're into things it physically is impossible for them to be with without hurting the people/animals, and here's frank, he likes inanimate objects." if anything, erotophonophilia fits most because consenting to an actual death is much more murky, and doing so just for a shag? unthinkable. like, even assisted suicide for medical issues is this huge debate, and when done it's done in the most peaceful way physically possible. of all the kinks, aside from chronophilias re minors and zoophilia, erotophonophilia is the least possible for consensual versions of actually doing it (so excluding roleplays). although, I guess technically it could hypothetically be possible. really, I don't think there's a "big three" "bad" kinks, I think that a harmful action is possible with like most of kinks (and even with normal non-kinky stuff, most rape or abuse, even of kids, is just completely opportunistic or power related, and not attraction as motivation), with the exception of such attractions to inanimate objects (probably can't rape a teddy bear), so saying that there's these "big three" and everything else is harmless, for the sake of easily distinguished discourse categories, seems kinda useless. however, yeah, if people are married to the idea, necro does not belong alongside the other 2 by any stretch of the imagination.

"I'm for all kinks except 'the big three', because those are really dangerous!"

[muffled sound of erotophonophiliacs hiding in the cupboard]

[wrenhyperfixates]

Loki Series Thoughts—The Variant

With the release of episode 2, I’m back with another analysis. Spoilers ahead!! This will be a combination of personal thoughts, theories, and objective analysis. This is overall, a positive review, so if you do not want to see that, I would not recommend continuing to read. I am however more than open to some friendly debate and discussion over any and all of the following points, whether you agree or disagree with them.

With all that being said, let’s dive in:

I feel gypped on the Holding out for a Hero fight scene. I mean, I liked how the scene was shot, especially with the whole loudspeaker thing (it set the mood very well), but where’s Loki fighting to that song?

Alright, I might as well address the elephant in the room: Is Loki OOC? Well, for my money, the answer is both yes and no. And I don’t mean to be wishy-washy; it really kind of depends on how you define OOC and/or who exactly you take this Loki to be.

What does OOC mean? To me, the literal definition of “out of character” would be the character acting in a way unlike they’ve been seen acting before. Likewise, according to Collins Dictionary it would be defined as “not typical of the apparent character of a person or thing.” Now, that’s a bit too black and white. What if you have a character in a new situation, how do you know how they’d react? By analyzing their past actions and seeing if they line up. And if you stop at this point and deem Loki entirely OOC, well you’re allowed to and that’s valid. I, however, would not say entirely is the word to use. Somewhat, yes, but not terribly and not inexcusably so. I’ll come back to this in a moment.

Who is this Loki? He’s the one right after the Avengers, of course, but he’s something different too. Think about it, the whole series is centered around how different choices can shape the very fabric of the universe. Wouldn’t it stand to reason that changes in Loki’s story would cause him to behave differently than what we’ve seen before? This is, in essence, a different Loki, albeit one who’s own narrative is shaped by a shared backstory with ours. It even says it on his jacket in big, bright letters: VARIANT. So while he shouldn’t be too dissimilar from the Loki we know, I do not think we can entirely look to the old to determine the new.

Now that we have that out of the way, we’re back to my somewhat noncommittal answer of the original question. Loki has some moments that seem OOC, but almost always has a (valid) reason for acting that way, both in and out of universe.

Loki’s OOC moments:

◦ The Renaissance Fair: And I by no means think this applies to his whole spiel. In fact, I think it was largely in character. What got me was “Which is absurd, because my people are, by nature, gullible fools. A trait that I, the God of Mischief, exploited time and time again simply by listening.” And then again, right after B-15 announces they are one unit away from red line. Though, my issue with the latter is how rushed it is. This could make sense because he’s worried about having time to finish his ploy. It’s a small thing to harp on for sure, though, for the point I am trying to make.

◦ In the hallway: This is where I think he’s most OOC. It feels rambley and pointless. More a desperate plea than a calculated last resort.

◦ With the librarian: I was hesitant to put this one in, but he seemed a bit unsure at points in his dialogue here. The inflection of his voice in the middle just sounded, like I said, unsure.

◦ The cafeteria (both times): More so in the first. The metaphor was, like Loki himself said, clumsy. But what I really think is OOC here is how excitable and obvious he is after Mobius concedes, “Not bad.” And the only thing on their second cafeteria chat is at the very end. His response of “I know” to being called clever, once again has an inflection to it that I would not typically associate with Loki—it’s too pronounced.

◦ Pompeii (beginning of scene only): Loki seems pretty flippant about the whole thing in the immediate moments after their arrival. (As an aside, I don’t think he’s necessarily unsympathetic here; he knows what happens and to keep himself safe and prove his point, he can’t branch the timeline.) To be quite honest, I think he might just be goading Mobius as he’s done to our God of Mischief many a time already.

◦ Before Roxxcart: He seems nervous, and his speech is a bit rushed again. Then again, this is something he wants—to be better. I’d think he’d be a bit more calm about it, though. Then again, with everything that’s happened recently, maybe it’s a natural response?

The reasons why he seems OOC:

◦ It’s on purpose: He knows what they think of him. If he plays into that, even in an exaggerated way, they’re not going to call bs on it.

◦ He’s been through a lot/Not our Loki: Like I mentioned earlier, not only is this a new environment, it’s a new Loki. He’s been shaped differently from our Loki because of how he was immediately thrust into the world of the TVA after many traumatic experiences.

◦ It’s an acting choice: No, it’s not one you have to agree with. But I believe Tom could be doing it to highlight moments where Loki is saying things he personally does not actually believe or that he knows others believe. Just to distinguish from the more calculated lying he does.

So, are there moments when Loki acts OOC? Yes. Is it inexplicable? No. Are the answers to those questions always the same from person to person? No, because like so many things, it’s all about how you frame it. And, of course, every person perceives each moment of time through their own eyes, with their own thoughts, in their own ways.

Loki has plenty of moments in character, too. In fact, I’d say he was overwhelmingly in character, for my understanding of it. In the earlier parts of the Renaissance Fair he is witty and lying with ease. At all other points that I didn’t mention, I found his vocabulary and inflection perfectly fine. I can’t think of any one moment his hand gestures particularly stuck out to me as out of place. And during his impromptu magic lesson, he seemed so sure of himself. He has snark without being rude. His interactions with “the variant” are on point. Even in the majority of the Pompeii scene, he’s not acting OOC, he’s just acting. He wanted to make an over-exaggerated splash to test his theory. Between that and speaking Latin, aren’t we seeing his cunning and wit?

Well, with that divisive and slightly negative topic out of the way, let’s move onto Mobius, his character, and his role in the show. He’s a bit different than the Mobius we see last time. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still moments where he seems to be manipulating Loki, or at least attempting to (the walk to the elevator; dangling a meeting with the Time Keepers in front of Loki’s face). In episode two, he’s presented as a victim. Mobius is just as much a slave to the “sacred timeline” as those living in it. He can’t go into the world and do the things he wants to do. Even any questions about time that Loki has, he answers seemingly by rote (perhaps drilled into his brain through propaganda?) or he can’t explain well (note, two times he somewhat hesitantly deems what Loki says as “an oversimplification”).

We’re also told that Mobius has a soft spot for broken things. That seems like a bold thing to say if Mobius hasn’t done something big before. Has he possibly ever used a variant like this before? Could he even possibly have a deeper connection to the rouge variant? Probably not on that second one, but it’s not wholly impossible. Though, going back to “has he done this before?” (and get ready for me to get absolutely insane now) do the rings on the table have deeper symbolic meaning pertaining to this? Yes, it could have just been for comedy, it may have just been a cool shot, but why put so much focus and emphasis on it like that with the camera and dialogue if it has no significance. Basically what I mean is, it’s symbolic of Mobius messing up. He messed up Renslayer’s table, maybe he botched a mission. Or maybe he even screwed up when working with another variant. Regardless of whether that’s symbolism, we do see him have a soft spot for the people at the hurricane shelter.

Mobius’s role in episode 1 was trying to break down Loki and recruit him. In this episode, he was more of a guide, more of a friend. Yes, there are lines like at Roxxcart when he says he knows he can’t be trusted, but there’s also a lot of camaraderie between the two. By the time Loki and Mobius are having their second chat in the cafeteria, they seem familiar with each other, engaging in what seems to be a friendly bout of verbal sparring. They seem, at very least, fond of each other, and I believe Mobius is, to some extent, on Loki’s side.

In fact, Mobius and Loki share something in common; they want something more than what the time keepers have preordained for them, even if Loki is more ready to admit that. Mobius is still, however, playing the part he’s been assigned, his “glorious purpose.” And, yes that includes some digs like that at Loki, whether Loki’s in the room or not, and whether they’re subtle or not. Is “I’ll delete him myself. He’s really arrogant.” really a dig though? I mean, it sounds like he could just be saying what Renslayer wants to hear. And when he talks about Loki wanting something more, wanting to change, I don’t think he’s actually talking about Loki. With the inflection and stage whisper, it almost sounds like he’s projecting. Remind you of anyone? Mobius will likely end up helping Loki, or may even turn into a tragic hero, his fatal flaw being his unwillingness to admit the TVA is not infallible.

The TVA workers. Isn’t odd how some of them have names and others don’t? Do they name themselves? More likely, I think whoever is in charge of a branch of the TVA gets a name, and all underlings get the less than human mix of letters and numbers with which to identify themselves. It also seems that the people with the most personality are the ones with names. B-15 has a personality, sure, but it’s more just in line with “I work for the TVA. This is what they want. I will do exactly that.” It’s almost lacking something that the named characters have lying beneath the surface of their character arc.

And then she gets enchanted, and if Wunmi Mosaku wasn’t already shining with the limited story for the character, oh boy she is now. When B-15 comes to, she is scared. It’s on her face and in that little shuddered breath. And when asked what happened, she seemed so unsure, timid. I’m definitely interested to see how that progresses!

Back to the workers in general, they didn’t seem as sad about their coworkers this episode as in the last. Even with C-20 it seemed to be a respect thing. I mean, they reset the timeline with their colleagues lying dead on the floor. I think in a lot of scenarios, dead soldiers would be given a proper burial.

Ravonna Renslayer and the time keepers. Renslayer is even more steadfastly devoted to the sacred timeline and the time keepers than anyone else. Why? Well, I think it’s because she is the time keepers. Any time they’re brought up, it’s quickly explained away with a simple “they’re busy.” That’s because they’re not real. But Renslayer sure seems chummy with them, huh? What other reason then its her timeline she has everyone protecting.

Then again, she may only be second in command, but not to the time keepers. (I mean, omniscient and omnipotent beings who are relatively aloof and unreachable? They’re perfectly set up to be revealed as not real. Plus the constant non-answers when it comes to them, I’ll be more surprised if they’re real than if they’re not.) But in the comics, her plot line is interwoven with that of Kang the Conqueror, a time traveler, among many other things. Even more likely than her being in charge, is him being in charge.

And now for the variant. It’s not Lady Loki, we all know that right? Ok, that comes off a bit harsh, but she is listed as Sylvie in the credits for languages other than English. This was also who Sophia Di Martino was previously listed as on IMDb. I won’t get into her story in the comics now, but I’d bet we’ll take elements of that in her story in the series. And if you’re still not convinced that’s who this is, why have her blonde? It just doesn’t make sense to change that about her. Plus, Sylvie takes on the name of Enchantress. What does Loki say her powers are? Enchantments. She doesn’t want to be called Loki either. She does say the main Loki variant is her, but if she’s framing him or taking on his persona for her crimes, why stop now? Her language is distinctly un-Loki like, too. She also boldly declares “This isn’t about you.” And finally, there’s the foreshadowing in Loki’s line, “I would never treat me like this.”

I only wonder what her motives are. Is she looking for revenge on the Loki from her timeline? Or perhaps she’s working fo him? Maybe he’s dead and she’s avenging him? Or he’s alive and she wants to grab his attention? Maybe she has motives all her own. And what of Mephisto? Does he actually play a part in this? I’m just spitballing, I need more information.

When Loki finds the file. No. Like. Give a detailed description of this please!!!!! He thinks he’s evil. That he causes all that death with malicious intent. Even if he doesn’t, there’s clear pain over the destruction of Asgard. And look at his eyes, the only thing we’re shown as he process the information fully for the first time. He’s hurt, confused. Disappointed and angry with himself. The bit we’re shown of his face before it zooms in on his eyes portrays this too. He looks so lost in that shot. And he looks to be tearing up a bit.

Maybe I’m just being dumb, but what does it mean 9,719 casualties? Didn’t they all escape? His face as the scene zooms back out is... defeated. Scared. Scarred. He’s barely holding it together. Then something else catches his eye, giving him an idea. And I’m sure more than anything he wants to be distracted from the storm in his mind. So yeah, he’ll happily throw himself into his work. The epiphany on his face as he’s still recovering and discovering new things is just so perfect too.

The confrontation at Roxxcart. This was really well done, I felt. Loki felt in character, and he was fighting smartly, using what he could. Because clearly the enchantment also lent Sylvie’s powers to the person. But Loki manages to hang in there and dig for information while keeping the battle going.

He gets mad, too. He starts yelling. And that makes sense. He wants answers, and for so long he’s been denied them; it’s a recurring theme in his life. He’s losing control of himself a bit here. And that’s a large part of the reason why he goes through the time door. Loki doesn’t want to lose control again. I don’t even know if it was exactly a betrayal of the TVA. I don’t think he’s on their side, but I think he just saw that he couldn’t lose the variant again. Because for what he says his plan is, he wouldn’t have followed the variant. However, he does because he wants answers.

What about that plan though? I’m working a bit in reverse with this scene I realize, but bear with me. That look on his face as he stands, it’s calculating. I think he’s lying about his plan. I think he’s trying to bring the variant in, not work with them.

Also, I’m so concerned for C-20. What’s real? I want to know!! But we’re already getting a feel for Sylvie’s powers. The people she enchants live, but they’ve seen something they’d rather not. What other reason is there for the similar way B-15 and C-20 act? And I know she mentions telling Sylvie the time keeper’s location, but really, it’s their location to her knowledge. It doesn’t necessarily mean they exist. Or maybe it’s just Kang.

And Mobius at the very end of this scene, the very end of the confrontation, the very end of the episode. The last thing is him calling after Loki. And he sounds genuine, almost. It didn’t sound like he was fearful for his own life, but rather more worried for Loki. Though, maybe I have that confused and it’s worried about Loki. Whatever the reason, it sounded like genuine fear in his voice to me.

Finally, some random thoughts that didn’t fit anywhere:

Gugu Mbatha-Raw is so talented. I mean, I got a lot of emotion from Renslayer. Confident and proper at the beginning, panicked and afraid at the end. Even in her talks with Mobius, there’s many subtleties to pick apart. I think it’s heavily implied through her words and actions that she’s evil.

The casual magic use was great. Hope there’s more.

Why do setting off reset charges in the main timeline have a different effect than setting them off in the branch timelines? Like shouldn’t it wipe it, not make branches?

Loved all the rapport happening in the episode. There was a lot of good dialogue.

Despite the manipulations going on, I like the relationship forming between Mobius and Loki. I think they make a nice little duo.

I love all the Loki variants we’re shown. Very, very interesting. Just give us Jötunn Loki for real, please.

Loki was very clever this episode, particularly with figuring out you could hide in an apocalypse and at Roxxcart.

Does Roxxcart have a link to Roxxon?

Their little motto thing is a bit creepy. “For all time. Always.” Sounds like it’s just part of their propaganda.

“You see, I know something children don’t. No one bad is ever truly bad. And no one good is ever truly good.” I love this line. Seriosuly, why not use this sound bite in the trailers? Loki himself is morally gray, and I love that we’re addressing this fact of life; the world is not all black and white, not all good and bad.

CASEY!!!

In the second cafeteria scene, there is a guard in full armor just standing there. I guess they’re monitoring the employees. How likely does whoever is in charge think it would be for an uprising of sorts to happen?

Between sleepy Loki, him putting that jacket on, his hair, that talking to himself and that annoyed little shh in the library, and just being the happy goof that he is deep down (Miss Minutes scene and salad metaphor) Loki was just so adorable this episode.

I think it’s important Mobius said sorry when talking about ragnarok. He knows Loki cares.

Mobius does kind of understand Loki when saying he has an “insecure need for validation.” He’s right, honestly, albeit harsh. But that’s all he wanted throughout the Thor movies too, not to be looked down upon. To be treated as equal. As worthy.

Of Mobius’s two options for why he’s sticking his neck out for Loki, I think they both hold some truth.

Interesting how TVA agents like to keep souvenirs from lives they can never live. Though maybe Renslayer keeps them for a different reason. Like from timelines that were particularly a threat to order—her order.

The score is still on point. Loving the theremin.

Wow an explanation pertaining to time travel I’ve found no holes in. It’s unstable and they have to enter in real time (furthest point on the branch) because of that. Ok, yeah. Checks out.

I’m so glad they kept the title card from last week. I like it so much better than the one from the trailers, and it fits the vibe of the show better.

Is it bad I want all these new branches to red line? I think it seems a little too early into the show for that to happen, but maybe a few of them will? Perhaps improbable but not impossible. But think of the chaos! What better playground for the God of Mischief than a universe thrown into disarray.

And now, my final thoughts. A very good episode with a mainly in character Loki. I like how we’re slowly learning more with what’s going on, while still keeping an element of mystery. Though, Marvel’s twists aren’t landing as well as I think they were hoping (assuming I’m right of course. I’ve seen plenty of other people who were thinking along the same lines though, so). It’s lacking a certain je ne sais quoi that Glorious Purpose had, but I still enjoyed it. Overall, 8/10. Let’s just hope my rating doesn’t go down point with every episode.

Like something I said? Totally disagree? Really want to talk more about one point? Whatever it is, I’d love to hear! Reblogs and comments are appreciated. My ask box is always open, and anon is always on. I look forward to hearing your thoughts! Thanks :)

Me, after not liking one, but two episodes:

[betelguwuse]

I’m starting to think maybe I don’t want to get married. Hypothetically I’d love to be in a godly marriage with a man who respects me and sees me as the person that God does (and not only me but women as a whole), but realistically do christian men like that even exist? Mainstream christianity, especially gender discourse, is so watered down and twisted into something that’s more political than biblical. I feel like this is gonna piss off both the christians and feminists, even though I’m both (though some might say I’m not a real feminist, whatever idc lol). Might also tag as Side B because I feel like this is also maybe a Side B mood? But here goes.

Color coded by vague topic, bolded so it’s easier to read.

Like I recently heard of a pastor being criticized for saying it’s a woman’s duty to look good for her husband, and the boomer conservatives were acting like criticisms of this pastor was the end of christianity. There’s no way “looking good” in a biblical sense was anything more than basic hygiene, nowhere near the beauty standards of today; and that is if the idea of looking good for your husband is even in the bible. These people siding with the pastor were saying that any woman who doesn’t shave or hide her “flaws” with makeup or basically completely embody the tradwife meme are bad wives. Like what the literal hell.

Honestly the entire tradwife aesthetic seems to be the goal for a lot of young christian couples, when it’s not inherently biblical. I used to be into it myself because heck yeah staying home, housekeeping, taking care of children, and wearing cute flowery dresses sounds like a dream. But my goals aren’t universal! Some women don’t want kids. Some women want to work. Good and God-honoring women of the bible didn’t all have kids and stay home. I mean the timeline of the bible spans so long, so yeah maybe there were times when most women did. But that doesn’t mean women who didn’t were bad wives or lesser women. Not to mention there’s such a blurred line currently between cute tradwife lifestyle and creeps who fetishize the idea of a traditional (and by traditional they mean submissive) wife. Gross.

Another thing too many christian men do is say women can’t be in any position of power in the church. There is the whole specific issue of whether or not women should be the highest up actual pastor of the church, and I don’t know enough about that whole debate to validate or debunk it, but I’m not talking about that specifically here. Aside from that one position, a lot of christians think women can only teach other women and girls but not guys, even like literal child boys. That’s so weird, like imagine thinking a little boy has more authority than, or even equal to, a grown woman? Couldn’t be me. And this whole idea comes from an out of context “I do not permit women to speak in the church” from a regular human guy. And the reason he said this was that the women around him were spreading heresy. I still think it’s flawed logic to exclude all women from speaking in that situation just because most of them were wrong, but again, this wasn’t a command from God. This was just a guy recording his church experience and doing his flawed human best to manage it. Various women throughout the actual bible outside of this one leader’s timeline held positions of power in various churches. And modern day american christian men think biblical womanhood is all about subservience? Bro what bible are you reading?

I just want to make it clear that these are all just generalizations, but having been in various actual biblical communities and conservative christian communities, I can kinda pick up on the general sexist behaviors of the latter. But unfortunately in today’s political climate more and more young christians are only being exposed to political opinions that are surface level americanized good christian morals, but not actually biblical.

Even on top of that, even if a man knows of these biblical misconceptions, we live in a society. Like we’re constantly exposed to women’s sexualization, and it’s pretty impossible to escape that. I don’t want to spend my life with someone who’s grown up in a world where women are seen as weak, objects, pleasure machines, etc. And yeah we can unlearn these biases (honestly I hate the word unlearn but I can’t think of a substitute rn), but it feels like a hassle to casually figure out whether a guy can make an effort to understand what women go through, and if I were to just bring it up I’d scare them away. And that’s not to say I’m some perfect person who’s never sexualized men, we are all sinners after all and we live in a fallen world etc etc. But a whole society where women are so objectified that it’s normal for little boys to be watching porn, that just doesn’t really happen with little girls. I can’t speak for all women, but when I started seeing men sexually it was in my late teens when I realized like ‘oh I can sexualize men too? wild. ok I’m an adult lemme check it out’. Still sinful, but not ingrained in me from porn ads as a kid the way most young boys have been since like the creation of the internet.

Even the men currently in my life who genuinely want what’s best for me are so incredibly misogynistic it’s baffling. My male family members see any woman who breaks an imaginary dress code or ideology is some kind of deviant. I just want to make it clear that this is MY family and I’M the only one who gets to complain about them. We all love each other here even if the males are horribly wrong.

So I shaved my head for halloween and my dad could barely look at me, not because he was exactly mad or anything but just because I looked ugly to him. He always says ‘close the windows in your apartment because men will spy on you changing’ but after my hair was gone he was all ‘actually don’t bother because nobody will look at you looking like that’ like wow I wasn’t aware men only sexualized women for their hair. Like you really think a gross creeper is gonna be turned off by a fully naked oblivious vulnerable woman just because she’s bald? That’s not how any of this works. And just today my sister was watching a goth youtuber egirl or something, I didn’t see her makeup but my dad said stuff like ‘ew why does she look like that, maybe it’d be cool as a costume but how is she going to get a job’. Like, I’m not one to go ‘women don’t wear makeup for men’ (because most women who only use makeup to hide their insecurities and follow beauty standards very much just do it so they don’t get backlash from others, if not directly to please men), but when it’s a fun crazy look that’s not meant to be pretty, I’m all for that shit and generally I hate when men lose respect for a woman just for wearing something they don’t like. Like fashion isn’t real and your appearance should be as costumey or weird as you want without people losing respect for you. Also like...do men know that makeup isn’t permanent?? Like if she wanted a job that required no makeup she could easily wipe her face off and get one?? Not only that, but people can work from home and/or be self employed. Maybe youtube itself was this girl’s job. Who the hell cares man. And the worst thing here is my brother outright said one time “the root cause of feminism is pride”. B r u h. And this was back when I considered myself an anti-feminist, even then I knew that feminism started for good reason and I was absolutely furious. I think I kept it to myself like a coward lol, but if anyone said that to me now I’d tear them apart. In a debate I mean, not like literal violence.

Tldr: I’m not trying to say men are inherently more evil because there’s evil in everyone, but the way it takes shape in men in most societies is so insidious and inescapable. I love my family and guy friends, but I don’t want to deal with one in a romantic/sexual relationship because I don’t know if even the most educated and goodest christian boi in this world can see me as a true equal. It sucks because I want sex and children, but when the mainstream idea of hetero sex is female submission, it just makes me shrivel up and contemplate becoming a nun. I’m not even catholic. But even nuns are sexualized and degraded in coomer’s disgusting brains. In conclusion I’m going feral and starting my own woman-only church in the woods let’s go ladies.

[wlw-lovestruck-fiction]

Can we get a fluf fic where Mc tries to keep up with goofy/funny/silly/playful/sleepy/naughty Vivienne? Please I miss my babe😢

Pairing with: PLEASE ANY VIVIENNE X ZOE X MC FLUFFY WOULD BE APPRECIATED 🥺

PLEASE may I request ANY Vivienne x Zoe x MC fluff? Pretty please?…

...

In hindsight, you should have seen it coming. You didn’t even stop to think about where Vivienne had gone off to, used to her random disappearances in the morning and far too distracted with the newest episode of a show Zoe and you liked to wonder about it for long.

Almost buzzing with excitement, you enter Zoe’s room, dropping in the moving chair she has by her side and eagerly watching the screen.

“How much is left?”

“Half an hour, but I think we’ll manage.”

With nothing else to do but wait, you quickly dissolve into excited theorizing, while Zoe just sits there and listens, adding the occasional ‘uh-huh’ here and there. You both had worked out what the twist might be the other week, so you limit yourself to wondering about the characters themselves. That eventually turns into a discussion of ships.

Zoe isn’t much of a shipper, you’ve noticed. She keeps to the margin and analyses everything objectively, acknowledging character interactions but never focusing on them. You were the complete opposite, and a crack shipper to boot, which often clashes against Zoe’s logical side and sparks some amazing debates.

You’re in the middle of one right then when Remy interrupts, knuckles lightly tapping against the door’s side as he peers in, face blank as he looks at the two of you on your respective chairs, cocooned by a blanket, popcorn sitting on your laps. “I’ll never understand what you like so much about that show.”

“Excuse you,” Zoe huffs, angrily grabbing her soda and giving him a sour look. “It’s an amazing show.”

“Amazing!” You echo, as you have done many times before. “I am appalled you don’t see its genius, Remy! Appalled!”

“Right, sure. I remember you both were hysterical over the last cliffhanger. Did you figure out who the murderer is already?”

“Oh yeah,” you wave your hand around, as if dismissing the subject. “Last week. What we are discussing right now is why the prosecutor and the assistant are such a good pairing–” Zoe turns to look at you as if you had just proclaimed the sky was purple, and she looks so baffled you dissolve into a fit of giggles right then and there.

Remy smiles, shaking his head fondly, and stepping out without another word.

“Leaving that atrocious pairing aside…”

Zoe nudges the discussion into another direction and you allow it, satisfied with the reaction you got from her earlier. You’re both stealing anxious glances at the screen, excited to see that only a few minutes are left.

“This is it,” Zoe mutters softly. “The end of this case. The next one is going to be so weird.”

“We’ll probably find out what happen to the firefighter, right? Honestly, it just looks like they got abducted by aliens–”

“MC!” Rings a voice. Zoe scowls immediately, as if that was her standard reaction to Vivienne – or yet another interruption. Probably both.

“Hey babe, where were you?”

Vivienne’s smirk softens at the petname, quietly pleased. “Oh, you know, getting some things ready…”

“Huh? What, for the heist?”

“Something infinitely better.”

“What could be better than the heist?”

Her eyes gleam, dark pools of chocolate drawing you in like a sailor entranced by a siren’s call. “Why don’t you come with me and find out?”

Zoe groans.

“Can you stop being horny for–” her gaze drops quickly to the clock, “–24 minutes? It won’t kill you, will it?”

“You are always invited to join us, darling.”

“Pass.”

“Your loss,” Vivienne says, with a small shrug. “Then, MC–”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, sure babe, just gimme 24 minutes.”

“Twen– what?” Her eyes follow yours, locking onto the screen. “…Ah. Today is Monday. I forgot.”

“Prepared a whole ‘romantic’ outing for no reason, did you?” Zoe grins. “Sucks to be you.”

A light frown appears over Vivienne’s face. “It’s… only half an hour. I can manage that much.” She finally says, body turning slightly, as if she were on an internal war over leaving and staying.

“Great. You’re making progress, Tang.”

Vivienne rolls her eyes, most of her good mood visibly diminishing. She hesitates a second longer before turning in your direction, pursing her lips. “So– a show. I’m getting cockblocked because of a show.”

“A great show,” both Zoe and you say, nodding solemnly.

“But you already know how it’s going to end. Who the murderer is. MC, you told me that last week!”

“I mean, it’s only a theory Zoe and I have. We still need to see if it gets confirmed.”

“It surely will.” Zoe says, smugly. “The signs are all there. He won’t get away with it. The scarf will be his undoing, no doubt.”

“Wait, you’re still with that? It’s the statue! It’s too fishy! If they check it and–”

“MC, you can’t be serious–” Vivienne tries to interject, but Zoe quickly cuts her off with her own rebuttal to your argument, and the seductress gets this strange look on her face, gaze flicking between the screen, Zoe, and you, stunned for all of two seconds before she shakes her head, schooling her expression.

You distractedly wonder if she’ll leave, your attention quickly taken by the beginning of the opening notes of the show. You enter than zone where nothing else matters, nothing else exists but the screen and you are positively buzzing, mind racing with all the things that could possibly happen until a red blur passes in front of you, something heavy landing so unexpectedly on your lap it takes your breath away.

“Wha–”

“Ow! Hey! Vivienne?!”

It takes you a moment to understand what happened, snapping out of the concentrated state you were a few seconds ago. Vivienne has perched herself on top of your lap, curled there like a smug cat, her arms loosely wrapped around your neck and her gaze is so intense it sets your whole soul alight, consuming every thought you had previously.

You have the same reaction any person would have in this situation, which is, to have a full gay panic.

She– she feels so warm and she’s so close and oh god those eyes–

“Vivienne, what the hell!”

One glance to the right reveals what has Zoe so pissed: Vivienne has her legs high up in her direction, blocking her view of the screen. You don’t even know why she’s so mad, it’s a very nice view–

“The show just began! Are you really that salty?!”

Show? What sh– Ah. That show. Right.

You try to maneuver around Vivienne’s head to look at the computer, but one of Vivienne’s hands instantly grabs your chin, forcing you to look at her with a gentle but firm gesture. Barely, you catch her move her legs to block Zoe too.

“Eyes on me, partner.” She all but purrs, commanding, and your brain short-circuits when she presses herself against you.

“Really? Really?!”

Vivienne gives Zoe her best smoldering smirk. “Oh, I know that look. It’s okay, dear, you can go first… maybe bend me over the table–”

“I’m going to throw you out of the window–”

“Is that your kink, Zoe? Press me against the window, giving everyone full view of–”

“Oh my god–!”

Taking advantage of the situation, you try to peek at the screen again. Vivienne’s grip tightens, making you whimper slightly, her blazing brown eyes meeting yours again.

“Ah ah ah, what did I say? Do not disobey me.”

“Viv…”

“Keep looking at me, sweetheart. If I catch more wandering eyes, you’re going to regret it.”

“Ah… but I…”

Her eyes flash, her thumb tracing the lines of your lips roughly, effectively shutting you up. Vivienne looks pleased, all dark passion, grip softening. She starts tracing a line down to your throat, leaving a trail of tickling heat after the touch.

“Suffering from success, aren’t you, MC?” Zoe dryly states, maneuvering around Vivienne’s outstretched legs with a scowl that could give Nikolai’s a run for his money. She reaches for the back of the moving chair you had borrowed, beginning to push you. Vivienne makes a chocked sound of surprise low in her throat, tightening her hold over your neck. “That’s it. All I want is to watch my show in peace, no interruptions-”

“Um, our show-”

“-and no Vivienne being Vivienne for the next 20 minutes.”

“What am I supposed to be then?”

“Be a doormat for all I care, just do it outside my room!” She punctuates her statement with one final, fully determined push, sending you skidding towards the hallway. Vivienne thrusts her legs to the right, managing to use her weight just so to spin the chair in time. The back collides against the wall with a dull thump, and you barely see Zoe’s deadpan expression before she closes her door. “You better return my chair later!” Is all she says, presumably heading back to her computer.

“…aw, I wanted to see this episode.” You finally mumble, shoulders dropping dejectedly.

Vivienne blinks owlishly at you. “Isn’t the episode going to be available later?”

“Well, yeah, but I’m curious to see how the arrest will go. I don’t think I can wait another day.”

“Arrest. Such an ugly word, when you are a thief.” Vivienne hums, pressing into you just slightly, eyes alight with mirth. “You are quite taken with it regardless… Is it the thrill?”

“Uh…”

“You know, partner, if you want to be in cuffs so much, all you have to do is ask.”

Color spreads over your cheeks like spilled wine, sweet, impossible to hold back. Vivienne leans forward, eager for a taste, that smirk of hers firmly in place and you briefly wonder if you’ll just burst, too filled with surprise and frustration and a little bit of heat.

“Think only about me, MC.” Vivienne mutters, breath ghosting over the skin of your ear, coaxing a shy shiver out of you. The vibrations of her voice send ripples of emotion through you, make you groan slightly. Smirk widening, not caring one bit that you are still on the hallway, one of her hands drops down, down-

“20 minutes! Just 20 minutes!” A flash of gray. Vivienne’s startled squeak. Her grip loosens and she goes tumbling down your lap, the floor receiving her with its cold embrace. Zoe’s door slams shut – again – and your gaze drops, discovering the slipper resting by Vivienne’s hand with an amused snort.

“She got you good, huh?”

“She – just took me by surprise, is all.” Vivienne says, after a pause. You giggle, pushing yourself to your feet and offering her your hand, which she takes gratefully. She doesn’t let go, instead pulling you in the direction of the apartment’s exit, and you throw a longing look in the direction of Zoe’s room before accepting your fate.

You’ll have to watch that episode tomorrow, it seems.

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs “Olympics.”

Didn’t sleep well last night, so decided to write something relatively short for all of you this morning. Hope you like it :) 

“Welcome one and welcome all to the 528th quadrennial summer Olympics! This has to be the most exciting day we have seen in the history of competitive sports.”

“That's exactly right because this is only the second time in human history that the Olympics will be held off earth, and the first time that they are being held interstellar.”

“Four years ago some summer Olympics were held on Mars, but with the restriction to gravity, and some issues regarding respiration. However, after an agreement with the galactic assembly. The Rundi delegation has graciously offered to host the 4020 summer Olympics.”

“And host they have. This stadium was built in under four years with consultations from human architects and with the original classic style of greek and roman architecture in mind. The rundi really do know how to make a beautiful building when they want.”

“This is honestly what the universe really needed after these last hard few years, with the burg war, and the Gromm outbreak, and the Tesraki earthquake, a lot of people were just ready and waiting for some good news. Not to mention that after all of the issues with the LFIL and poor PR for humans across the galaxy, we all really needed a break.” 

“And what better PR than to share one of the greatest cultural achievements of human history. Historically the Olympics have been a time where countries set aside their differences and come together to show off their best athletes in competitions of human skill, fortitude, and perseverance. Now, for those non-human watchers, the Olympics was originally established in Ancient Greece. The word Olympics derives from the word Olympus which was the historical home of the Greek gods. Anyone who competes in the games is called an Olympian giving the implication that their feats of strength and power are almost godlike.”

“Not to mention they originally required the participants to compete in the nude.”

“Ha! Yes let us not forget that. Luckily, or unluckily for us, things have been a bit more modernized since then, and men and women from around the universe will begin their competitions today. Today Will be the first Olympics in history with representatives from interstellar colonies all across the Milky Way galaxy.”

“Beginning in the next four years, Olympic officials hope to open the games up to non-human species for competition.”

“Yes, officials say that it would be an opportunity for humanity to reach out a hand of peace and offer this great tradition of peace to the rest of the galaxy in hopes of fostering cooperation and understanding between all who live in the universe.”

“That will be a great day indeed, and look here comes the olympic torch carried by none other that commander Adam Vir of the UNSC, Earth’s golden boy.”

“The Olympic torch had an intense journey this year lit in Olympic greece and carried all across Earth to where it was secured to be transported on the UNSC harbinger. Now it took some work as UNSC regulations do not allow open flames aboard a interstellar transport, but with some work from some fine engineers and a bit of finagling, the torch was secured lit but burning low in a specialized sealed, and climate controlled compartment during the duration of the flight. Oh, and here he goes, handing of the torch. This will be the first time in human history that a non-human has carried the torch and lit the cauldron. They debated long and hard about who would light it this year, and as a symbol of good will towards the rest of the galaxy, and to usher in a new age of the Olympic Games, the torch has been passed to the chairwoman of the galactic assembly.”

“You know it really warms my heart to see humans sharing such a rich part of their culture and history with the rest of the galaxy. It really is a symbol of everything we stand for at our core.”

“And there she goes. IT’S LIT IT’S LIT!” “A truly amazing day for humanity and the world and the galaxy and the universe.” 

***

The galaxy had never seen anything like it. Humans from all around the galaxy had come together and were determined to astound the watching crowds with feats of acrobatics, and athletics so intense it would be unbelievable to anyone who watched human and nonhuman alike.

IN those days ahead the galaxy watched with it’s jaw wide as one man broke the world now universe record for fastest human sprint at 29 miles per hour. Facts and figures put up on screens above the heads of the crowd gave facts about the human body to put into perspective just how powerful these athletes were as olympic sprinters put their muscles under pressure equivalent to 1,000 pounds of force in a single sprinting step. 

They watched in awe and confusion as a tiny Olympic gymnast no older than sixteen cleared more that twice her body height in a double air rotation defying the laws of physics and gravity as she hung suspended in the air for what seemed like an impossible amount of time.

Eyes were wide and jaws had to be picked up off the floor as a young human from earth cleared the pole vaulting record, launching himself into the sky at 20 feet 3.⅕ inches.

Feats of balance and strength never before seen in the galaxy were demonstrated as those same young adults demonstrated flips, cartwheels and feats of acrobatics on beams barely wider than the width of their feet. Gasps rose from the assembled alien crowd as a dismount brought one young woman off the beam at at least three full rotations before landing.

There was no way that she could have known where she was going to hit.

But the announcers had been right, these humans had an almost godlike control of their bodies and some strange ability to know where they were in space at the optimal moment rotating on a single bar or between two flipping themselves around and around in ways that would have made others feel dizzy only to land smiling a moment later their hands raised into the air in triumph.

And then came the marathon, the event that aliens had heard about but never thought possible, preformed for the first time on a fiery death planet by a one legged, one eyed space captain in his boxer shorts in a little over four hours. The feat itself seemed unbelievable as a story, but when a young woman from a distant space colony preformed the marathon in a record breaking 2:22:53. Less than two and a half hours  required her to be running at speeds of almost ten miles per hour for two full hours.

The stadium could not believe their ears when they had heard what she had done. Alien race officials watch her run trough cameras to make sure that the feat was really true.. But it was true, it was all true. They could not believe their eyes.

Even in the water humans could not be matched pushing bodies that were not meant for swimming to speeds that could compete with one or two species running.

They put their bodies under strain so powerful it should have torn muscle and snapped bone, but when they came up smiling and grinning and waving to the crowd it was all the stadium could do to contain their excitement.

And when that wasn’t enough humans started adding obstacles to their events. 

What was better than a hundred-meter sprint, a hundred-meter sprint with obstacles you had to jump over. At an average of 12.5 seconds participants were reaching speeds of almost seventeen miles per hour, as fast as car speeds within city limits. If any of the humans had crashed they would surely hurt themselves horribly in the process.

And the crowd absolutely loved it.

Nothing was better than watching the humans lift heavy objects, throw pointy sticks, or even leap to great vertical heights sometimes throwing their legs higher than their own heads, which seemed impossible for aliens who had spent most of their time with average humans if they had spent time with humans at all.

Regular humans couldn’t do that.

So what insane kind of humans were these.

How did a human known to release the weighted metal disk when they were spinning around so fast, and what made them decide to throw the weight of their entire body into a kinetic linkage of angular momentum that would send the metal disk nearly two hundred feet in the opposing direction. 

It was the most viewed Olympics in the history of the event. Aliens watched to see the humans preform, and the humans watched to see the alien's reaction to the other humans preforming.

The rundi home world grossed trillions of dollars which expanded the universe’s economy to soaring heights.

Tesraki capitalized on the idea holding even more events for humans to compete in even after the Olympics were over. From then on alien planets would beg humans to come hold their games and competitions on their planet, didn't matter what it was, soccer, football, baseball, you could be sure the rest of the galaxy was interested in seeing it.

The entire universe was giddy with the feats of strength and ability which had been demonstrated in those intervening days.

Humans, who only fell prey to praise once every four years suddenly found themselves famous on distant moons completely by accident with alien companies begging them to endorse products they had never even heard of.

It was such a violent economic upturn, no one knew how to handle it.

There were those, of course, who realized something very different about humanity on those days. They had met your average human, the lazy kind that likes to sit in comfy nests, watch TV and imbibe on excessive amounts of glucose. They had even met the average human who threw in some daily workout routine so at least they could control their love handles.

Your average human scared them with what they could do without even thinking.

But what did this mean?

IT meant that it was very important to allow humans to nerf themselves because if anyone ever convinced humanity as a hole what they could be if ninety percent of the population were at peak human performance….

Well

It was simply better to keep the humans well-fed and sleepy.

Maybe then the universe would stand a chance