#and i have so many questions about how he ended up with the covert

[blackkatmagic]

Absolutely obsessed with the idea of sugar baby!Paz, he absolutely deserves to be spoiled by Jaster. How do you think he would react to Tor?

Tor: You're a Vizsla! As your clan head I'm ordering you to get away from that filthy True Mandalorian right now!

Paz 'grew up with an Official Talking Stick' Viszla: Well I didn't vote for you.

Jaster, democratically elected by the clans, meeting a Vizsla who fully believes in both a very Mandalorian set of morals and the right of everyone to have a say in matters: I'm aiming for a spring wedding, but if you want to elope that's fine too.

(More seriously, seeing as Paz was entirely willing to challenge Din for the Darksaber because he thought Din would be a bad leader/hadn't upheld the covert's values [and like. he was right in a lot of ways], I imagine he'd take one look at Tor and his complete lack of honor/morals/decency and be like. Fuck that, fuck you, fuck this, give me the stupid shiny sword I'm giving it to the real Mand'alor.

Paz struck me as someone who is deeply devoted to the idea and the philosophy of being a Mandalorian, as well as being a survivor and someone who really cared for the people in the covert, and I feel like he'd very much vibe with the Supercommando Codex and the rewritten Canons of Honor.)

[flawseer]

Became curious based on a Smaugust piece: What are your thoughts on everyone's favorite royal suck-up, Pike? (also ofc compliments to your writing and art)

Surprise, I am still kicking. And thus my Sisyphean quest to answer all the questions in my inbox continues.

I like Pike. I used to think moderately favorably of him, but pondering this question and then drawing a bunch of pictures of and about him made me realize that, yeah, I am rather fond of him. He is funny and cute in the same way a small, yappy dog is.

I remember once talking to my partner about Pike and I asked: "Do you think the JMA staff has to deal with Pike constantly trying to sleep in the hallway in front of Anemone's room?" Only to then realize, upon re-reading the books, that this actually happens in canon. I was thrilled.

Most of the time when people ask me what I think of a character, they want to hear what my take on them is, so I'll get into that.

Background

I don't think a lot is known about Pike's life, outside him having been assigned as Anemone's (questionably) covert bodyguard. He is one of those background characters that fill out the student roster at JMA but don't get a lot of development, though he is one of the more lucky ones as he gets comparatively more lines and scenes than, say, Barracuda, or Garnet.

We don't ever hear about his home life or familial situation, but I think he comes from a common military family. Not a particularly prestigious one, but rather one of middling significance. I imagine one of his ancestors--like his great grandmother--once made it to captain and ever since the whole family has prided themselves on their military legacy and loyalty to the Seawing throne, even though nobody else really knows who they are.

Pike's parents are both bottom rung palace guards; trusted enough to be stationed vaguely near the seat of government over a remote outpost, but nothing more. As is tradition in their family, they signed up as soon as they were old enough to hold a trident. Pike was expected to follow in their footsteps, and so did the same. He is naturally eager to please, doesn't ask many questions, and knows how to follow orders, so he took to this life relatively well.

One thing immediately apparent when observing Pike is that he is very blunt, headstrong, and reckless. He is prone to self-injury and mishaps, routinely making a tail end of himself during exercises. One day, I imagine, he was out in the courtyard, practicing his combat maneuvers, when he somehow managed to trap himself underneath a training dummy in a humiliating way. Unbeknownst to him, the Queen and Princess were walking past a window overlooking this scene, and the latter happened to spot him.

Princess Anemone, starved for normal social contact due to being permanently leashed to her overbearing mother, immediately took a liking to the clumsy guard and wished to take Pike into her service. The Queen though, hated the idea. Anything she couldn't control with 100% certainty was not to be let near her only living daughter. She didn't even let her own sons approach the Princess for this very reason. So she refused.

But Anemone, sensing an opportunity to finally snatch a tiny mote of control over her own life, didn't relent. She would never overtly defy her mother, but pushed back against her in the most passively aggressive way she could muster. She WOULD have this one thing that was hers, no matter how many times she had to sigh wistfully or forget to eat.

Coral meanwhile still disliked the idea, but after some pondering figured this could work to her advantage. Granting her daughter this favor would make her grateful, and thus easier to keep in check. It was not like the boy would be able to do anything undesirable since she would always be there to watch anyway. And if he ever displeased her, a random guard was easier to dispose of without turning heads, than if she let Anemone play with one of her brothers.

So eventually, she acquiesced, and extracted Pike from the palace guard to assign him to her daughter's protection.

The news hit Pike's family like lightning. Suddenly, after decades of being nobodies with delusions of grandeur, the whole palace was paying genuine attention to them, and the new recruit who, overnight, got assigned to be the Princess' personal retainer. Pike's parents took him aside and impressed on him how important of a task this was. If he did his job well and kept the Princess content and safe, not only would the current Queen think favorably of all of them, but Anemone would remember his service and reward him once she took the throne herself. For his sake and theirs, this was an opportunity not to be squandered.

And thus, Pike shouldered this great responsibility suddenly thrust onto his wings and embraced being Anemone's personal servant and protector. Pushed forward by his sense of honor and loyalty, a desire not to disappoint his family, and the knowledge that, if he were to fail and lose the only heir, Queen Coral would surely kill him.

Day-to-day life

Pike takes his duty very seriously, both out of loyalty to his liege, and because of how much is at stake for him personally. I picture him getting up during the small hours each morning and beginning his daily exercise routine, to stay in shape for his job. His roommate Flame often wakes up to him noisily doing squats in the middle of the sleeping cave and yells at him. "Am I cursed to be tormented by a diminutive idiot Seawing wherever I go!??!" Pike is lucky that his other roommate, Bigtail, is a heavy sleeper. Otherwise the training session would likely be cut short, with Pike tied to the ceiling lamp.

After wrecking Flame's sleep, Pike usually seeks out Anemone and attempts to stay near her at all times. Initially this caused friction between him and the teachers, as he would often skip his own classes to attend Anemone's. He only stopped doing this when Tsunami made it clear skipping classes would get him sent home, and thus away from Anemone permanently.

As they spent time at the Academy, the Princess began to get better and better at giving Pike the slip whenever she got fed up with his overprotectiveness. He freaks out whenever she vanishes, which is often. To help manage his stress, the JMA staff make him attend regular seminars on inner peace and meditation hosted by Fatespeaker. He is not very good at it, but enjoys the exercises that involve listening to running water.

He began to mellow out for a bit after initial growing pains, until the History cave incident occurred. The bombing shook him back into the bodyguard mindset and he began sleeping in the hallway outside of Anemone's sleeping cave. It weirds out Ostrich whenever she has to climb over him. Attempts to get him to stop this have been unfruitful. The current policy seems to be to let him do this until things calm down and he stops on his own.

Anything else

I believe Pike may have a thing for Rainwings. He is generally hyper-aggressive and rude towards everyone he talks to, with two notable exceptions. One of them is Anemone, whom he is sworn to serve and keep safe. The other is Tamarin, whom he is uncharacteristically kind to. My personal impression is that he may have a bit of a crush on her, but keeps himself from pursuing it as to not upset Anemone.

To my knowledge, Pike never really interacts with Turtle. That is a shame, because I would like to know how they would get along. Pike may be greatly disappointed at Turtle's general un-regal-ness, but still begrudgingly respect him out of obligation. I can picture a scene where he berates Turtle for his demeanor, only for someone else to chime in with an affirmative "Yeah Turtle, you suck", upon which Pike turns around and starts ripping into them about disrespecting Seawing royalty.

Concerningly, Pike's future is very uncertain. He is actually in grave danger right now. If Queen Coral ever finds out that he allowed a murderous, seawing-hating ancient wizard to abduct Anemone, she will have some opinions on that. If Coral has one consistent character trait, it is homicidal vengefulness against anyone who fails to protect her children, regardless of circumstance, regardless even if the perpetrator IS one of her children. That means there is a very real chance she will recall Pike from Jade Mountain and try to tear him apart.

I don't think Anemone would allow this to happen, mind you. She has been privy to her mother dragging poor sods out to the plaza to rip their teeth out, enough to recognize the signs of it coming. If she suspected Pike's life was in danger, I believe she would prevent him from leaving.

For now though, he remains at Jade Mountain, doing the best he can with the responsibility he was dealt, acting as Princess Anemone's retainer. It is a difficult, stressful, at times thankless job, but he would not have it any other way.

"Honor, and duty."

[mockerycrow]

are you good at character analysis? I wanna know what your analysis would be for Gaz, I’m trying to figure out his story since he’s my favorite out of TF 141

KYLE GAZ GARRICK

BASIC OVERVIEW — BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Kyle “Gaz” Garrick is a British Black man who enlisted into the British Army around 2008 or 2014 (unfortunately, the developers have inconsistencies). His operator biography states 2008 while the official activision website in a blog post about MW2019 states 2014, however it does make sense for him to enlist in 2008. He would have been at least sixteen years old which is the minimum age requirement to enlist. I would like to quickly throw in that Gaz is indeed older than Soap, as this is a misconception that I surprisingly see a lot! Gaz’s blood type is B- and he currently ranks as sergeant (which according to the official British Army website, it typically takes at least twelve years in the service, however it implies it also depends on the person’s abilities).

Gaz spent four years in the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment. During these four years going through a multitude of tests and challenges before passing selection for Special Air Service (SAS). The activision blog says during MW2019, it’s his sixth year serving as a sergeant. However, as Gaz had been selected for TF141, I believe their ranks have paused in time. Gaz has mostly spent his time in anti-terrorism in his military career. He’s an expert in demolitions, VIP escorting, weapons tactics, covert surveillance, and target elimination. He’s been awarded multiple medals, and earned his Parachute Wings whilst spending time at Camp Lejeune in the U.S. whilst collaborating with Navy SEALs. Kyle is a master of evasion and deception, being the only candidate in his entire class to escape capture from the facility and evade detection during resistance training. 

When Gaz first meets Cpt. Price, Gaz is currently assigned to an SAS specific counter-terrorism program in the UK who collaborate with the police, which is another misconception that Gaz was a police sergeant at one point (he was not! I believe some people think this because at E3, Gaz was wearing a police baseball cap).

CHARACTER OVERVIEW

Like true to the original Gaz, he is Price’s protege, being his student. Gaz is overall a serious and hardworking man, loyal and unbreaking. He knows when to joke and he knows when to reload. However, Gaz is not perfect and he does lose his cool (we see subtle development with this later down the road). While being loyal, Gaz does not hesitate to question Price’s choices and actions. We see this multiple times during the series, the most prime example being in MW2019 when Price and Gaz are interrogating The Butcher with Yegor. The Butcher taunts Gaz, causing Gaz to lunge and Price to send him off to fetch.. “The package”. The package being, The Butcher’s family. The reboot games, you have choices, so I’ll give the very basic run down. 

You have the option to opt into the interrogation or to opt out of it. If you opt out, Price bursts out of the room with the information (if you go near the door, you hear The Butcher’s family sobbing). If you opt in, you have so many options. At the end of the day, Gaz is mostly silent and follows orders from Price. In the police cruiser scene, Gaz questions Price in the car—he did not expect to be using women and children as bargaining chips and he makes that clear, and this is a big teaching moment between Gaz and Price. We have to remember that Gaz is young and considering everything, inexperienced to an extent. Price makes up for that inexperience, teaching him along the way. During the interrogation scene, Price makes a remark: “We’ve taken the gloves off.” This is because Gaz lashed out. Later in the car, Price says “When you take the gloves off, you get blood on your hands, Kyle. That’s how it works.” after Gaz questions him.

CONCLUSION

Overall, Gaz is a very complex character and I enjoyed watching his development during these games. I’ve seen people claim Gaz is boring or plain, but I genuinely do not believe that to be the case. Gaz, in my opinion, is also the most relatable character. He’s young, ambitious, and determined. He’s charismatic and efficient. I don’t believe a character has to be extremely traumatized, or look very very unique to be a well-crafted character and Gaz is a great example for this. 

Gaz is just a man who enlisted; someone who is smart and well-rounded (as much as an SAS member can be), he’s quick on his feet and he molds into group work fantastically. He’s extremely versatile and is a quick learner—and wants to learn. He has his flaws that make him human. Gaz develops great self control, is level-minded and is able to think for himself. A great student questions their mentor in everything and you see this with Gaz. 

You see Gaz struggle with morality in the series in a sea of characters who kill and do things without a second thought. We see him question things, we see his emotions and his extreme reluctance. We definitely see some development down the road as Gaz becomes more ruthless, but he never quite forgets his humanity in a way, compared to Price where he can easily disconnect humanity (ex. Calling The Butcher’s wife and son “the package/leverage”). 

Along with this, we see him struggle with the rules in place. I also think this is why Gaz and Price’s dynamic is great. There are rules for a reason, and both Price and Gaz know when to break them—but Gaz learns that breaking some rules doesn’t always happen for the most heroic of actions (again, Price’s quote about bloodying your hands after taking the gloves off). Gaz wants to save people and keep the peace, we see this in Piccadilly during the terrorist attacks and the aftermath scene with Price where Gaz lets the Captain know that he and his unit had actionable intel on the terrorist cell who committed the act. Of course, we see later down the road that taking the gloves off removes all limits, not just some of them. We also see a glimpse of Gaz’s conflicting feelings when 141, Farah & Alex, as well as Laswell learn about Hadir and his plans, as well as when Farah’s forces are deemed a terrorist organization.

I think I rambled on a lot about him, hopefully this is understandable! 

Sources: price & gaz activision blog intros (2019), inconsistency in enlistment date, cod fandom wiki, gaz scenes mwi & mwii, official british army website.

[noneorother]

The secret timeline inside of Good Omens season 2 revealed, *part2*

Part 1 l Part 2

The ineffable cut is explained in part 1. Please read that first. (I’ve burnt a timecode into this ineffable edit to help pick up the rhythm.)

So now that I've shown you XX:X6 is the number of the beast in the last installment, what else can we glean? Well, it turns out angel numbers (sequences of repeated numbers ex: 22:22 or 20:02) are quite important events in the S2 universe! I've cut together every "Angel Number" I could find in the timeline and put them in order. I first noticed this near the end of the ineffable cut, where Beelzebub and Gabriel hold hands, so I've started with that one just to give you an idea how bonkers this whole sequence is. Don't forget, sound on! Breakdown below the cut.

So we start off with this Beez and Gabriel sequence near the end of the cut. They start singing to each other a little out of time, but lo and behold, at 02:03:20 the music comes in right on time with the seconds ticking by to line them up. By the time they reach 03:33 they're gone.

Aziraphale is excited to get his "record"! He's doing something sneaky, and as a result opens the door to go off to said covert activity on 00:02:22.

Crowley asks "Do they know?" on 03:33. Who are they and why does he want to know? This whole scene is on a St-James park bench so spying and double speak is in progress, clearly.

Crowley then asks "Something big?" on 00:04:44. We get the hint for the main action of the entire second season here. Something's up with the up...

Now the real fun begins! I'll come back to the ones I just skipped in a later post because they're more subtle. Here's the first "real" angel number at 11:11. Aziraphale discovers THE box and touches it for the first time.

At 22:22 Nina and Maggie's signs are "mysteriously" ignored by a human passerby.

This is wild. Aziraphale is learning about the Everyday record and something funny happens. 33:31 Aziraphale says, " Do you have a copy?" 33:32 Maggie says, "Mm, too many of them" and at the same time a car horn beeps twice. 33:33 Aziraphale is startled by the fact that a double car horn happened on a XX:X2 and looks out the window in concern. So the question is: does Aziraphale feel or know the rhythm of the timestamps?? And are things that line up with numbers a signal he's paying attention to?

A funny one! At 44:44 Aziraphale seems to be wanting to check if Gabriel is really who he says he is, and is watching him like a hawk. Gabriel does all he can to do nothing at all and look innocent while the angel number passes by.

Another funny one. Nice. 55:55 reveals that the Bentley likes Aziraphale more than Crowley, and does whatever he wants, including not speeding when he puts his foot down.

This next one's a little peculiar. It seems like an exchange about Gabriel's whereabouts, but it's the halfway point of the edit (1:11:10-11:11:11) of the ineffable timeline and we seem to be having two conversations at once. Shax says on 11:11 "He hates you." Does she mean that she thinks Crowley hates Aziraphale, or... that Gabriel hates Aziraphale. Aziraphale looks noticeably shocked at her reply. After the eyebrow raise of "You don't seem like his type at all" I would bet we're not talking about Crowley anymore. How did she get this information?

01:22:22 Gabriel does a little laugh to himself while signalling with the lamp. What the fuck? Does someone know morse code?

01:33:33 Maggie extends her had to Nina at the ball, to invite her to dance. Nina looks pleased, but doesn't move until... a very odd miracle sound on a XX:X6 happens and she jumps up to take Maggie's hand. That miracle sound is not Aziraphale's, and besides, he would never miracle on a 6. Who's the demon making Nina dance...

Aziraphale's halo toss is the flip from ACT II to ACT III of season 2, and as such, get's a special time right before rolling over to the second hour. He decides to throw it down on exactly 01:54:45, and at 01:54:54 gets a giant tubular bell ring in the music to highlight the action. It lands on the ground at 01:55:01, and incinerates the demons at precisely 01:55:10.

01:59:59 Beez and Gabriel hold hands, and a magical chime sounds at 2:00:00. Maggie start her sentence "Aww, that's really sweet" at the same time, and manages to finish it on 2:00:02. (Dagon politely waits to pretend to barf on a XX:X3 after she's done.)

The last one is a big one : 02:02:02 gets "to face CELESTIAL punishment" by Michael. This is what we've been waiting for the entire season, the Checkov's gun of the book of life. But, where is it? We then get an odd cowboy showdown style stare-off between Michael and Shax. I'm predicting that missing chunk of time in the bookshop before we come back to Michael threatening Aziraphale with the book of life is going to be a pretty interesting reveal in season 3. -------------------------------------------

People, this is the short version of this post. There are SO MANY things to unpack. Next up is doubled numbers. If you want an ides of what it takes to break things down, here's my workflow timeline right now. The stuff after the first big space is numbers I haven't shown you yet... This show is insane.

[sonicasura]

Skyquake could not provide precise answers onto how exactly he escaped death. All he could say was that he had been reduced to only his spark while his frame was being repaired. His attempts to describe the state he had been reduced to even boggled the likes of Soundwave. The Seeker hadn’t had time to properly integrate some of common human languages, thus was unable to understand his potential captor. A vexing situation that left Megatron feeling angrier than ever before.

“Cybertron was destroyed?!” Skyquake’s couldn’t help questioning, in the middle of a health check up. “How can this be?”

Knockout paused in checking the ancient warrior’s internals. “I’m surprised your little spark buddy didn’t mention it…” The medic mused having already connected ‘Cliff’ as the Autobot Cliffjumper. Still, he was a bit offput by having to check on a mech recently returned from the dead. “I only really caught the tailend before joining the cause, y’know. But, I heard it was Dark Energon straight in Primus’ core.”

Breakdown waited in the shadows in case this ended up becoming a Terrorcon situation.

—————————

Footage of a large bird creature resembling the human mythos about phoenixes thoroughly thrashed Airachnid. Another screen showed someone resembling a miniature Insecticon land between Arcee and the captured Seeker. The initial scans of both revealed neither were flesh and blood as their mostly organic looking bodies suggested. They weren’t cybertronian either making Ratchet’s processor spin.

Cliffjumper’s voice broke the medic out of his logic spiral. “—couldn’t physically see anything. I think I was literally reduced to my spark while my frame was left to make everyone think I was extinguished.” The red scout explained, though most of his explanation was self theorizing done about his previous state. “Talking to Quake, er, Skyquake kept me sane for a while. Neither of us exactly brought up factions.”

A preliminary health scan had already been conducted to make sure the revival wasn’t merely temporary. Though very rough, the repairs made to him were thorough in attempting to repair foreign biology. By who? Ratchet had no idea—merely that the handy work suggested refined tools doing a subpar yet functioning job. Such a paradoxical effort.

“Many strange things have occurred since your injury and Megatron’s subsequent return.” Optimus began, blue optics narrowing at the strange creatures on the monitors. “These beings are as helpful as they are vexing in most cases. Their actions have proven whoever is leading them prefers to remain rather covert.”

And wasn’t that a worrying pill to swallow.

One would think these creatures were simply acting on their own at first glance, but the coordination belayed some form of direction.

“I wish I could’ve understand the voice I kept hearing as spark more.” Cliff muttered, having already clued his team into what he knew. “It was just incredibly difficult to translate without having a physical processor. They? Maybe a female sounded relatively young. But, she never spoke much when scanning Skyquake and I.” A female who spoke in English… “She mentioned a threat bigger than the war’s stakes. It was why she was scanning us, I think?”

The creatures could go toe to toe with even the sharp instincts of Airachnid yet there was something their leader was concerned about?

The red tapped his servos, then seemed to recall something else. “There was one name she mentioned—Try? Trip? Tryp-something? I think he’s a Con cause she kept saying Decepticon over and over after his name?”

Bumblebee was the one who put it together first beeping out in a very worried tone. <Trypticon? She’s trying to revive Trypticon?!>

“Bee?” Raf couldn’t help being worried over his best friend suddenly being so panicked. “What’s, who’s Trypticon?”

——————————

Pen’s half cyber body was glitching as she paced around one of her second oldest Digimon’s home in the Farm. The blue squares flecked off her form, her walk cycle becoming disjointed. Ion levitated low to the ground as their internals ticked faster than usual.

She stopped with her back facing them.

“I don’t even understand what I am supposed to feel about this. Truly? You have left me so emotionally stunned, I am grasping at straws to even speak to you right now.” The cyber sleuth commented as she finally turned around to the tense Hagurumon. “I’m not upset about you helping those two—maybe a little over Skyquake. What I am upset about is the fact you did this mostly on your own. You knowingly gave me the souls of two beings to study.”

Ticking in their internals slowed to an almost crawl as the mechanically-minded digimon attempted any sort of response to this. “[Observation: Frame and processor scans would have not allowed you to restore Titan/Trypticon in earnest.]”

“Ion. Those two were aware of everything while reduced to their sparks. Who knows what they heard or saw or felt while in cyberspace. And again, kidnapping is not an okay thing to do.” Pen clarified, still having a stern tone. She would never yell at her digimon outside of getting their attention. Disappointment rang louder than any words spilt in anger…

An Eater alert cut off her next words. Pen’s expression grew increasingly worried as the alert revealed this wasn’t a standard Eater. A half blood or humanoid level one had spawned in the universe—in the Autobot base!

—

Slight spoiler. The data cylinder’s information inside Bulkhead’s mind is pretty tempting to, y’know, a species that consumes data…

Poor Skyquake and I don't blame Breakdown for keeping a safe distance. Meanwhile Pen alongside the Autobots are reeling from their own respective discoveries. Although the latter now have a dangerous intruder in their base as a data cylinder doesn't have much concealment compared to the matrix.

I can practically hear the Eater Boss theme already skulking down the halls of the Autobot Base.

[scythemichaelfaraday]

“A Nice Guy”

Edgar Vargas is painted as a kind Christian soul with conviction and faith that was tragically brought to an untimely death at the hands of Johnny C.

Sure no one wants to die horrifically by the works of a homicidal maniac, but the way that Edgar goes about attempting to do so is quite covert and sheds a lot of light on who he is not only as a character but as a self-proclaimed person of faith.

Also to note before I begin: this is not a personal attack against those that see Edgar in a positive light.

Playing Nice to Get You to See Their Way (And Get What They Want)

A common tactic of Christians is to find the downhearted, the “broken”, the outcasts and build them up with friendship, affection, and support that susceptible people often lack. But their goal is not to make a lasting relationship, it’s to chip away at the person’s boundaries ever so slowly until they can indoctrinate them.

Now, Edgar’s goal obviously is not to indoctrinate Johnny, but he uses the same tactic of listening to Johnny rant about the mistreatment he experiences, offering some degree of sympathy, and ultimately showing that his primary goal of hearing Johnny out is so that he can slip in the request that he be freed. And he does this several times, most prominently, here.

The common pattern of listen, wait, and ask for what they really want.

Christians Don’t Deserve Bad Things Obviously

When asked about what he’d done to Johnny to end up in the torture device, Johnny responds that he hadn’t really done anything except for being a person.

When Edgar learns about this, he questions why then Johnny, as person, doesn’t kill himself.

The first hint that he believes only the bad, the unworthy (whatever that could mean to him) should die. Johnny is just one of the unsavory, evil people that Christians like Edgar believe deserve to be condemned (unless they ask for divine forgiveness).

And the second hint is illustrated here:

“What if I’m not like all those goblin people? You just randomly picked me out, when you could’ve taken someone more deserving.”

Many Christians like to believe that they are holy people divinely picked by God himself to show the people of this Earth how wrong they are and to come to faith to be fixed. So why would bad things happen to them? Are they not God’s special children, his “Army?”

Don’t those queers, those atheists, those left-wing lunatics, that street performer who impersonates robots and makes that irritating wheezy whistle noise more deserving of this anguish than them?

Christians don’t see any other line other than “people of Faith and my lifestyle” and “people not of Faith and my lifestyle” and anyone who fits into the latter is grouped altogether whether they be child abusers, people who get abortions, or a little child in Africa that worships another higher being than them.

Why poor innocent undeserving Edgar?

“A Heaven for Me, and a Hell For You”

This deserves its own point because in addition to claiming he is undeserving of his death, he also makes it clear that he believes in divine punishment (and reward) as all Christians do. And finally the niceties that Christians wear falls away.

He doesn’t know really anything about Johnny other than he’s a deranged, ill murderer, but he has already decided that he is deserving of Hell. Again, anyone that a Christian perceives as not being of their lifestyle and Faith is condemned to Hell.

In fact, as a bit of an anecdote, a youth group leader at a church I used to attend was very adamant and very certain that children who die before they are “saved”(including infants) go to Hell. It doesn’t matter that they are innocent and have done nothing wrong, just because they don’t serve their God, that person deserves to go to Hell.

If one takes all of this into account, the only thing we can credit Edgar with is that he was civil with Johnny until he wasn’t (I think telling someone they’re going to Hell kinda ends a civil streak). We don’t really see much more about him outside of this brief interaction, but I think most people who have been burned by Christians can see through the kind façade that he puts up.

Again this is all just my personal opinion. Take what you like and leave the rest.

[dutifullynuttywitch]

Eva watched from the top of the watchtower. The soft morning was almost a blessing, the tireless hours of work behind her. From working patrol to finishing up the foundation for the new greenhouse, it was a tough job. To bask in the few good hours of sunlight was heaven and there was something particularly interesting about the way the sun rose and set - melting into orange and red, before filling the skies with blue. A beginning.

“Happy birthday!”

Eva didn’t have to turn her head around to recognize the person. “Not my birthday, Troy. You know, it was cute at first, but you bringing it up randomly and guessing your way out of this, isn’t”

“No, I am being serious.” Troy reached into his pocket and gave her a piece of paper. 

“What’s this?”

“A while ago, I ran a covert operation with the Raiders to the Tower for meds and everything - we kept it a secret and I came across the records room and found your birth certificate. Your real birth certificate, not the bullshit date the Tower gave you. Hundreds of hundreds of them out there in the room, I saw it all and -- well, now isn’t the time to dwell on something that has happened, it’s a new leaf and -- the birth certificate puts your birthday sometime around now, actually.”

“This -- this is real?” Eva gave the piece of paper a tap. It felt real. It was real. The certificate issued the names of her fathers in bold detail, the place and time of her birth - at approximately 5:30 in the morning, just enough for the night to wither away and the day to break. Signed by a nurse in the hospital she would never see, broken down and reclaimed back by nature many years ago. “Oh my god- this is real.”

“I know you aren’t a huge fan of pomp and circumstance-”

“I could go for some cake, though.” Eva teased.

“That can be arranged.” Troy grinned. 

“Leave it to you to literally steal a birthday present for me.” she chuckled. “Thank you - I don’t know what to say.”

“Well you don’t have to.” he responded. “It’s your day, Eva. I don’t think you have to be grateful for your day.”

“No, I have to. But -- for now, I’m just glad you’re here to celebrate it with me. Cake or none, I’m just -- happy.” Eva clutched the piece of paper, almost hugging it with her arms. She gave Troy a quick kiss, resting her head on his shoulder as they watched the sun slowly rise up to the horizon.

___

Happy birthday Léa! I hope you liked the little drabble I wrote with a half-cooked idea lmao. I hope the year treats you well, my friend! Thank you so much for being so kind, such a positive force in this fandom and I wish all the kindness, all the wonderful things back to you <33

ohh I adore this idea!!! Thank you so much Mads for this thoughtful gift!! 🤩😍🥰

Eva's always had so many questions about her past, her fathers, how her life was before the outbreak. She and Brynn were so young when it all started. I HC that with the trauma from losing their fathers so violently, running from drones and being picked up by strangers to suddenly end up in the cold, sterile, unforgiving intake room of the Tower, Brynn and Eva would completely freeze up at the questions and orders barked by the intake guards. Resulting in fake birthdays based on approximate age as they were quickly sized-up... The Tower scavengers would eventually find the certificates, but why correct dozens of fake birthdays if it didn't change the usefulness of the unimportant workers/clogs in the system?

“Leave it to you to literally steal a birthday present for me.” she chuckled. “Thank you - I don’t know what to say.”

This is so Troy!! I adore that he ran a covert operation with the raiders - I do HC he'd become drinking buddies and eventually good friends with Boots, Knuckles and co. - and stole Eva's birth certificate. And that he kept it a secret until her actual birthday!! And.. and.. right at sunrise, literally around the time she was born 🥹🥰 This is what I love about the guy, all the underrated little gestures to brighten Eva's day. ❤️

I loved everything about this, from the descriptiveness of the sunrise, to the playful banter, the brilliant idea around Eva's birthday... thank you so, so much my friend!!!! I will treasure this drabble 🌼🌺💛

[curator-on-ao3]

20 questions for fic writers

Thank you so much for tagging me, @divinemissem13! ❤️

1. How many works do you have on Ao3? 127

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? 660,997

3. What fandoms do you write for? Star Treks, mostly Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks, Picard, and Voyager.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Tuvok’s Secret (G): Tuvok has a secret — and he trusts only one person onboard to keep it. (Kathryn Janeway & Tuvok)

Feet on the Ground (G): Something solid slams into Kathryn’s back. She stumbles forward, bumping Mark, who in turn careens into someone else. Kathryn turns to glare at the probably inebriated party-goer who didn’t watch where they were going. But, instead, she looks up to achingly familiar dark eyes and the curves and lines of a tattoo that Kathryn spent the last eighteen months telling herself she didn’t miss. (Chakotay/Kathryn Janeway)

The Halo Effect (M): Tom Paris and Kathryn Janeway didn’t intend to fall in love. (Kathryn Janeway/Tom Paris)

Fly Me to the Moon (E): Kathryn Janeway and Tom Paris never met each other years before Voyager. Never served on a covert mission together. Never fell in love. Never planned a future together. Nope, never happened. Because a secret like that could lead to some … complex dichotomies. (Kathryn Janeway/Tom Paris)

Bad Ensign (T): Harry Kim finds out he missed out on an important part of the Starfleet Academy experience. Hilarity and dirty jokes ensue. (ensemble, friendship fic)

5. Do you respond to comments? Yes. If someone was kind enough to leave a comment, I’m going to thank them.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I used to not know how to answer this question, but I recently got a kudos on Honey, I’m Home and while that story definitely isn’t “sit down crying” angst, I feel like maybe it qualifies? (Though In the Doorway might also fit under that criteria? Both stories are Kathryn Janeway/Tom Paris, but they only get together in one of them.)

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Either Feet on the Ground or Youthful Exuberance (Some Kind of Love). Feet on the Ground has Janeway and Chakotay finding their way together after their Delta Quadrant trauma (note: Chakotay is afraid to leave the Sol system for fear of getting pulled into the Delta Quadrant again — Prodigy!Chakotay didn’t exist yet when I wrote that but, from what I’ve heard, he could possibly relate). Youthful Exuberance lets our heroes, Christopher Pike and Una Chin-Riley, have all manner of ups and downs, but the tags promise a 100 percent happy ending and I was determined to deliver.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Not that I’m aware of, usually.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Yes. Vanilla because I find that interesting to write. (I’ll read all sorts of stuff.)

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? I write crossovers within the Trekverse. The two craziest allowed Tuvok and Geordi LaForge to have tea together (Asunder [T] Kathryn Janeway/Tom Paris) and Shannon O’Donnell Janeway to tell Benny Russell how much his writing has meant to her (Meeting of the Minds [G] Shannon O’Donnell Janeway & Benny Russell, Kathryn Janeway & Benjamin Sisko).

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Other than by ChatGPT, not to my knowledge.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Yes, In the Doorway was translated into Russian.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes, and am doing so again.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? NCC 1701

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? There’s one I technically finished about Tom Paris and Owen Paris in the aftermath of Owen’s beta canon torture by the Cardassians. But it’s really dark and I don’t know if I’ll ever edit or post it.

16. What are your writing strengths? Adaptability (to prompts), brevity, details.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? I’m having trouble lately with voice and lack of vocabulary variety.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? If necessary, a beta fluent in the language can be very helpful.

19. First fandom you wrote for? I consider that to be Voyager, but recently reflected on an even earlier fandom for me.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? My most recent fic always holds a place in my heart, so Disarmed (Mirror Una Chin-Riley/Mirror Christopher Pike) is special to me, and also was an interesting mental stretch because I’d never before written sex that the characters think is good but I think isn’t good. But my all-time favorite? Youthful Exuberance (Some Kind of Love). It’s my novel length love letter to Chris and Una, and it means a lot to me.

Tagging: Tumblr has been doing this fun thing lately where I don’t see posts from people I follow. So, if you actually see this, please consider yourself tagged with no pressure. Also, in addition to the wonderful people tagged by @divinemissem13, I’m tagging @grissomesque @fiadorable @emilie786 @genius2mania @lorcaswhisky @enterprise-come-in @marymoss1971 @sun-lit-roses @kejsarinna @iamstartraveller776 @isagrimorie @emonydeborah and the fantastic folks I’m not thinking of right now because I have tag anxiety.

[cha-melodius]

20 for the writing meme, please!

Thanks for asking! You picked a doozy, lol. (Ask me questions about my writing)

20. Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

All right, here's some meta for chapter 2 of Nova, Baby (why chapter 2? Because it's an entire 5+1 inside a single chapter of a multichap fic, which is meta enough reason to choose it).

So yeah, it's a 5+1! I thought this was very clever, lol. Also a little bonkers, but there you go. I love this chapter because it really is a huge arc in Alex and Henry's relationship development, plus I got to play with these little encapsulated moments, and some other characters got to come in too (Nora, Pez). I'll give you some "behind the story" and lists of references for each section!

Below will be spoilers for the entire fic, so be forewarned.

I. My excuse for food-as-a-metaphor-for-love. I love that canonically Alex is a good cook, and this was my excuse to have them indulge when normally you might not get much of that in spy fiction (although, this is also a bit of a reference to my other fandom, The Man from UNCLE, where one of the spies is also a good cook; fancy dishes at safehouses is kind of my jam). I chose molé as a dish because making a traditional one has so many ingredients, to really drive home Alex putting a lot of effort into his relationship with Henry.

II. I had such fun writing this one so that, even though it's from Alex's POV, the reader doesn't know he's wearing a vest until Henry does. He might not have been risking his life (much), but he was definitely risking some broken ribs. This one has a bunch of little references in it, mostly to other spy media:

jumping through a fifth story window into a swimming pool—this is a Burn Notice reference. Throw a mattress into the pool first. Also I just love the idea of Alex being a little Extra when it comes to being a spy.

three guys who look like they walked off a Guy Ritchie set—TMFU is a Guy Ritchie movie, plus I love his movies in general.

Alex hadn’t gotten any confirmation from Langley that MI6 would be a part of this op, Henry had just shown up and Alex hadn’t really questioned it—Meant to sow a tiny thread of doubt in Alex's mind, which would pay off later when the fake burn file comes through.

he notices the way Henry’s eyelashes are wet and clumping together and his eyes are rimmed in red—Henry fucking lost it here. See also the part where he kills the men rather than his usual incapacitating, nonlethal shots. This is probably the point where he realizes how deep he's in.

Turns out, they don’t argue about what to do with it. They destroy the hard drive—direct TMFU reference, (spoilers for that movie), this is what Illya and Napoleon do at the end with the missile plans.

III. The classic Nora-and-Alex-have-a-conversation-about-his-bisexuality scene. Also I just loved the idea of Alex being so oblivious to his bisexuality that he's actually sucked cock before and written it off because 'that's just what spies do'. The layout of desks/offices in this fic roughly comes from the show Covert Affairs, since it's one of the few I've watched that actually regularly shows CIA interiors.

IV. Behind the story peek: Henry bails on this mission because he's concerned, after Lisbon, that he's getting in too deep. Also this scene Alex being a Henry-sexual (not interested in going home with any other people in the bar but can't figure out why), which I love. Also Pez in a poncho, because he would. Pez and Alex have an absolute blast on their mission, and Pez gives Henry no end of shit about Alex when he gets back.

V. Tender wound-tending my beloved. This was such a moment of honesty for them. I mean, not completely honest, but I think this is the first time Alex really realizes just how much Henry cares about him (save the full romantic feelings). There is, of course, a massive callback to this scene near the end of the fic where Alex tells Henry that he can't die because promised he'd always take care of him. All that time, he's carried that in his memory. So yeah, this is a pivotal moment.

+1. Ah, the kiss moment. I always love a kiss-as-a-cover trope, and it made for a good first kiss in this one where it would be easier to write off the potential for feelings, since it was all for the mission. Lots of canon references in this one:

in another life, he would have made a great politician—obvious reference is obvious.

I suppose I could, I don’t know, fall into the dessert table or something—a refence to Cakegate of course.

Christ, you’re thick sometimes—I changed the quote because I wanted it to be a bit less severe than "as thick as it gets." Alex is only thick sometimes in this universe, lol.

Henry’s back hits the wall next to some kind of small, indoor tree—always kissing under a tree, these two.

public displays of affection can be strategically useful for diverting scrutiny away from yourself—yes, this a CA: TWS reference

ALL RIGHT, that's probably enough lmaooooo. You asked me to ramble and I rambled. I hope this was interesting to at least one person.

[androgynouspenguinexpert]

gather round, children, because op made an irreversible error on her graduate project three days before it's due and this blog is the only thing keeping her from snapping!

let's talk about camelopardalis!

unfortunately for him (and this analysis), cam is more of a narrative device than a character, but he has a handful of standout moments. if i had to pin him to a theme for the sake of consistency, i'd probably say processing and recovering from trauma.

cam, despite his specialty as a serenity daemon, is an incredibly anxious person - he usually keeps it under wraps, but cam starts to spiral almost immediately when he loses control of a situation. notice how quickly he bounces after someone offers him help instead of the other way around, which is what he's used to. it's his comfort zone. camelopardalis helps people; he sees it as his only purpose. he becomes incredibly stressed when he's not helping, and god forbid someone offer to share some of the emotional weight he's always carrying.

i think camelopardalis has the opposite problem to someone like avior - he's a little (read: a lot) too tied to his identity as a serenity daemon, and doesn't really consider himself an individual. it certainly doesn't help that the department has snatched him up to use as a mobile therapist-slash-trauma response worker. camelopardalis ties his self worth to his usefulness, and the department is all but happy to exploit that. maybe not consciously, but having your memory modification team want to work 24/7 at full capacity isn't something any government branch would complain about.

the tidbit that memories can be moved around but never fully destroyed is incredibly interesting to me - because, among other things, that means that cam is holding the worst memories of who knows how many people. we get a tiny peek of that later in his (what i hesitate to even call) series, but cam shuts it down as soon as he realises he's opened up too much. all this poses an interesting moral question - what are we meant to do with horrible traumatic memories if they can't be destroyed? obviously, most people just have to work through them themselves the old fashioned way, but what about people like ivan? or baby? people who have been victims of horrific magical crimes (cheers vega) that need to have their memories removed for their own sakes, and to maintain covert? is it really fair to cram all that trauma into one person? (spoiler: it is not)

okay, so we can't just shove the worst emotions known to man into a daemon and hope for the best. but now what? do we make them take turns on the trauma? do we split it up, ending up with more people holding smaller pieces? do we just pile all the horror into one person and kill them? there really isn't a good answer here, at least not that i can see. serenity daemons holding onto the memories of their charges is really only pushing the trauma one rung up the ladder, and leaving the daemon to work through recovery acoustic style.

i doubt we'll see cam in any meaningful capacity any time soon. he's really not relevant to the current A plot, and i'd argue he's bundled in somewhere with the F or G plots at the moment. still, i think camelopardalis has a lot of potential. if he eventually decides to open up to someone, he might get to experience some of that peace he strives to grant to others.

[starlitangels]

hey I was just wondering if you could explain what Redacted’s inversion is exactly? Because it still kinda confuses me.

The Inversion—not to be confused with the Imperium (of which I’ve already done a summary of each season so far)—was an event that occurred in-universe on December 31, 2021 right as the closing ceremonies for the 39th annual Elemental and Energetic Games were supposed to begin at 7pm. At 7pm, a portal from the alternate reality plane of Death opened and an army of Shades poured out (Shades are loose formations of magic pieced together from the magic in the River of Death).

The Inversion is called that because for a few hours, the River of Death “flowed both ways” usually it flows from Life into Death (Death being the alternate reality plane that acts as an in-between because the River flows to the Veil and that’s when there’s no more hope for a human to make it back, presumably) and beyond the Veil. But with the outpouring of Shades into the plane of Life, killing 1,500 people, the Death was flowing into Life as life was flowing into Death by how many people were killed.

The ward used to keep the magic contained to not breach covert was reactivated because it could hold the Shades and everyone in that stadium was trapped inside for hours, but the entire rest of Dahlia was saved from the attack due to that decision

That very same night, Elliott and Sunshine were attending the CloseKnit meeting and got caught by Blake and held hostage and all that

And, less than an hour before the portal opened, Avior and Starlight ended up in, and subsequently escaped, their trap in the Meridian

Vega’s story is still going on in October of 2021 so whether he and Warden get anywhere close to the Inversion is still unknown but wouldn’t surprise me

So yeah everyone in the ward boundaries was fighting off Shades for several hours before the ward dropped and a wave of magic from an assembled crowd outside the ward wiped out the remaining Shades. Leaving all of our favorite characters with trauma and injuries and all that not-so-fun stuff

Then in the post-credits scene it’s revealed that Brachium figured out the Inversion wasn’t an invasion. It was a feast of Life-force and magic for What Lies Beneath the River (the defeated, imprisoned Sovereigns)

If you have any more questions or if I wasn’t clear enough about something please feel free to ask! I did this in a bit of a hurry

[noatherics]

KAI: @flybcll

powering through his sense of uneasiness with heavy steps announcing his arrival, he abandons covertness. his gait causes him to meet her quickly, and his shoulder bumps against her, although he lingers close. a bitter twinge of freshly smoked cigarettes and hastily sprayed cologne follows after him. there's an air of timidness around him, unlike usual boldness. it shows in the way he fails to speak for a second or two, even when met with questioning eyes of greenish turquoise. two glitter jewels that see far deeper than skin when gazing 'pon him. they used to bring him such unease, but now he only craves their attention. he sought it out with mischief and wit, which never fails to earn them again. to earn her laughter, her words, her smile […] he sees them all in his dreams. the longing lurking beneath his eyelids. unsteady digits rub against themselves even if his lips still present a smile. nonetheless, his eyes were still shining beneath tints of red, unable to mask their fervor. they are an open window to the storm raging inside him, which quells to a gentle breeze in her presence. raging winds dull to gentle breeze coiling themselves around the vestige of her. something about him […] is disheveled. messy locks of hair sticking up while clothes sit with creases against his body. dark shadows lurk beneath his eyes in sharp contrast to the sunny smile showing hints of teeth. he's tired —— yet content. content to be this close to hear, to have her near. his arm loops around her shoulders, ending the little distance between them. it's the victim of circumstance. it knew deep down that it never really belonged in the first place. her entire body fits nicely into his side &. he notes how it belongs there in his eyes. for now and many years to come, it belongs beside him where he might see her face each morning and night. ( he's sure of it, but did he ever doubt it? ) he loves her so. his mind fills with thoughts of her. a wave of nerves threatens to overtake his prior conviction falls before the roar inside his chest. it's the roar of a crowd at the bottom of the ninth, and he knows it's a turning point. his fingers gently lock with hers, a means to lift her hand and then subtly catch her wrist . a goldish band slips around her hand, finding a new home on her arm. it shimmers […] form shifting and settles on a pattern similar to a woven fabric, then again to another design. it changes with ease and as fluid as the winds themselves. kai shows his wrist, which holds a similar band with a constant sea of forms. however, now, when it's close to the other, it hums in tune. like true music, a gentle resonance between the two rattles through their bones. ❛ figured it'd be nice to know when you're close by. caught with my pants down more than few times, didn'tcha? ❜ there's a hint of mischief in his smile, and he carefully slips off his shades. no blinders between him and what his heart wants; not anymore. ❛ it can do other stuff, too. could be a necklace, could be a ring or something sharp. i figure trouncin' around the world kinda means having somethin' that can do a lotta things a lotta ways. ❜ a pause as he grits his teeth. ❛ it's … i really liked what you got me before so, happy white day. i hope you like it —— if you don't, i will start crying, and it will be awkward for both of us. ❜

QUIET IS A HOME, whereas silence is overwhelming. always, she has something running her brain, in her presence, some tune or sound or something. if her ear isn't filled with words of her cared ones then it is filled with melodies——up until the moment something new joins the cacophony, and the spare earbud from her right ear falls down 'pon shoulder, immediately finding a way to tangle in her braids. as he approaches, she is already tilting to listen. shoulder to his chest, eyes questioning—not unusual to suddenly be in his presence, but not common either. she usually at least sees a text.

but she isn't bothered. if anything, shoulders slump, warm, safe. his body presses into hers and she melts, softened by him. where i belong. its a strange thought, finding ease in touch and affection, but kai has always made it easy / everything is easy with him. like the world slows around him. makes more sense, and less. heart thrums in her throat.

she anticipates a kiss, for a moemnt—expects his lips to brush her knuckles, but this is better. she can feel the magic in it, the subtle shift, the hum. can feel him. not just against her side, but her flesh, too. like its part of him, and maybe it is--the studs in his ears catch the light and her throat catches her breath.

he's beautiful. in every way. it suffocates her, sometimes. but now she knows if she's ever drowning on her own, he is still near. manicured nails lift into the air, idle touch brushing along the mercurious flow of gold. it expands slightly with her touch, and she pushes it upward to her bicep, snuggly tucking it around muscle and giving a quick flex. it adjusts with her———and she thinks she might cry. but no. not in front of him.

which is hilarious, considering his own threat.

" kai ... "

slowly, she drags her gaze from the accesory back to his face. soft and sharp, colored with an anxiety she rarely sees in him. it's amusing, truly��how similar they can be. how different, too. her touch lifts from the gift, and she second hand rises with it, cupping his jaw in her hands. she studies him, memorising lines, admiring unfettered beauty. camera ready at all times.

" i love it. thank you. i— ... " words escape her. they have never been her strong suit. so instead, she uses her gentle grip to pull him closer, lower, so she might press painted lips to glossed ones. it lingers, both spark and lipstain, as she releases him.

too overwhelmed, dry humour coats her tongue: " people are going to think we're getting married. "

[black--sun]

Ichigo blinks. “I don’t know. I’d have to see the panties first. No promises.” He wouldn’t of course. But he wouldn’t be beyond enjoying seeing what Shiro has in the department of skimpy or lacy. 

“You’re worried what I’ll think of you?” He shoots Shiro a doubtful look. “I went to jail for you, jackass. Don’t underestimate how much I want to be here. And don’t assume just because you haven’t let go of your past that I won’t be able to either.” He sighs. “I’m serious though. You don’t have to tell me anything. I’m just saying you can and I’ll listen, and maybe I’ll like you more because not just anyone comes back from where you’ve been.” 

Shiro acts like Ichigo is a novice, and he is, but the end result is being told he needs to have more of something he enjoys, and he’s willing to bet Shiro will serve him all the mixed drinks he wants, so for once, he doesn’t argue. “You remember that you’re not that much older than me, right? I’ve had some time to acclimate.” Clearly not enough though. 

Ichigo feels his mouth bend into a frown at that question. He wrinkles his nose. “Kind of… yeah. I guess.” Shiro is going to give him a crisis if this conversation keeps going. He likes that he keeps Shiro busy and likes hearing it, and that’s a much safer place for his mind to be. 

Fuck, that little display of swagger works better for him than he wishes it would. Ichigo’s left scowling lightly and watching Shiro drive off until he’s out of sight. He’s so attracted to the asshole it can’t be healthy. Even when he goes out of his way to make sure all possible attention lands on him. 

His time at the hospital is mostly uneventful. He walks in with Ishida and nimbly sidesteps too many questions about the guy he feels comfortable groping in public places. He does give a few details. They’re dating. It just started. He didn’t go to their school. Which was fairly obvious. He even makes tentative coffee plans to run by Shiro later. Then he gets around to questions about looking into whether Yhwach is dead somewhere on the elevator ride. He’s careful not to actually give a name. Preferably he can look into it without being suspicious as hell. If he had his way, he’d bring Shiro Yhwach’s head as proof if he finds a body, but that’s probably not realistic. Maybe a snapshot would work. 

He tables going to find proof as he’s led to his appointment. And instead of the lecture on fucking around while he has a stab wound, he gets one on why it’s irresponsible to leave a hospital before being cleared by a medical professional— which he should know because his father is a doctor. The whole thing kind of tapers off into his actions being his dad’s fault somehow and Ichigo is fine with passing the buck if it makes it all end sooner. He tunes it out in favor of imagining Shiro’s outfit coming off. 

He has to wait another half hour for Ishida to be free to give him a ride. He spends it having a nurse check records for him. Its easier than it should be, since he’s been in the director’s office instead of a waiting room. He’s guessing Ryuken doesn’t work in a lot of people off the cuff. It barely takes a few minutes to find out what he wants to know before the nurse asks him if he’s a relative. He strongly considers posing as Shiro and pretending to be, except if anything happens, he doesn’t want to actually get Shiro into anything. He claims to be a family friend instead. She’s so helpful she nearly does all his covert work for him, going so far as to write some of the details on a card, and he leaves her station before either Ishida can spot him talking to her. 

He fills his scripts after that and spends the last few minutes in the cafeteria where there’s better food than what he got in the other place. Not that he can eat most of it, but it works out and he picks up some crispy fried dumplings and teriyaki for his nearly always ravenous boyfriend. 

Ichigo makes it back to the warehouse a few hours and some walking time after Ishida drops him off. His hospital trip wasn’t that bad of an ordeal, but he’s still heated from his earlier car ride, and he’s been itchy and restless nearly the entire time. And now he’s ready to find Shiro, even if it’s just to stand around and look threatening. He considers stopping at the stairs to rest a while, but he takes them instead, ignoring the way his body wants to drag.

He makes a face. “Ew. I’m not gonna catch you sniffin’ my panties or something, am I?” But ok, Ichigo’s not actually talking about his dirty laundry and he knows it. He knows what Ichigo’s saying. He sobers up and shrugs. “It’s not really a big deal, I guess. You already know I was a dumpster fire. How much worse of an option could you have of me? It doesn’t really get worse than you’ve already heard, just-” he kind of motions from one spot to another, indicating distance. “kinda keeps going. Maybe later.”

He looks over with an arched brow and a scoff. “No one starts out liking what I drink, you gotta age into it. Drink enough sugary, sweet things and develop a taste for the alcohol itself first. You’ll get there, don’t worry.” He’s not trying to make Ichigo an alcoholic, but it is nice being able to share something with Ichigo. And it’s nice to have a drinking partner, instead of drinking alone most of the time.

Well ok that answers that: they both work there. Weird. Who wants to work with their parents? He blinks when Ichigo tells him to fuck the two of them, which he really has not been considering or wanting, but then…. “….are they hot? No. No, nevermind, I don’t care. I’m not interested. You keep me busy and satisfied, they could only be disappointing.”

He cracks up at that awkward little wave he gets back. The poor guy looks like he’s still trying to figure out what just happened while he tries to keep an entirely different conversation going with someone else. And he’s not bad looking, but not nearly Ichigo level hot. Kind of twink-y and breakable looking though. His attention slides to where Ichigo is looking annoyed and embarrassed. He knows where the exit is, he doesn’t need that pointing. He winks before putting the car back in gear and revving it a little harder than necessary to pull away.

[starleska]

i think ‘Big’ Jack Horner is Disney, and here’s why

many of us have had the pleasure of seeing the incredible Puss in Boots: The Last Wish by now, and were blown away by its clever writing, enchanting animation and emotional character arcs. yet there is one character who booted the trend of having a reason for his behaviour, and outright refused to experience any growth whatsoever.

let’s talk about ‘Big’ Jack Horner, and why i think he’s supposed to represent Disney:

‘Big’ Jack Horner isn’t just an antagonist in The Last Wish - he’s a villain. a self-obsessed, exploitative, murderous, petty, cruel bastard of a man whose awful behaviour isn’t just motivated by personal slights or childhood trauma: he sincerely enjoys hurting other people. whether it’s cheating his goons (’The Serpent Sisters’) out of a fair payment for their services or being excited about shooting a puppy in the face, there’s no denying that Jack delights in causing others pain and suffering. but what does he have to do with Disney?

let’s answer that question with another question: do you think that Jack, when placed next to the other antagonists - Goldi, The Three Bears, even Death - sticks out like a sore, plum-coloured thumb?

of course he does! but why? well, let’s look at Jack on a surface level. Jack is a monolith of a human being. not only is he physically huge and intimidating, he is the inheritor of an enormous pastry fortune and operates in the manner of a mob boss, with countless resources and a whole variety of powerful magical items at his disposal. indeed, Jack employs a crack team of bakers/assassins called ‘The Baker’s Dozen’ to carry out many of his tasks. although Jack does harm others himself, it is because of these resources - including the people who work for him - that he is able to bypass many of the obstacles faced by our protagonists in an honest and character-developing way (e.g., the Pocket Full O’Posies in The Dark Forest). Jack doesn’t need to have a character arc the way the other characters do, because he is so wealthy and owns so much.

but Jack’s reason for owning so much and being obsessed with magic and magical items isn’t through intellectual curiosity, or a traumatic backstory where he needed to learn how to wield magic. do you know what Jack’s covert motivation for owning all of the magic in the world is?

it’s money.

when we get the flashback of Jack’s childhood, dancing for the entertainment of an audience using his nursery rhyme, we see him becoming jealous of Pinocchio - and we see Gepetto in the back, absolutely raking in the cash. if we consider this flashback as that crucial moment within which Jack decided to become what he is today - and the presence of our off-brand Jiminy Cricket inclines us to think so - then we can understand that Jack decided that from that moment forward, he would own all of the magic. 

let’s go back to The Baker’s Dozen for a moment. this team of highly-competent, multidisciplinary artisans do everything for Jack, whether it’s baking the pies which make him rich, or laying down their lives at his service. we aren’t given an in-universe reason for why they do this. yes, Jack is feared, but he is still the subject of mockery due to his humble beginnings as a nursery rhyme character. it certainly isn’t due to being treated or paid well. however, if we view the Baker’s Dozen as a metaphor for overworked, exploited artists whose views are routinely dismissed by the money-hungry, powerful corporation who owns their craft...things start to add up, don’t they? considering historic allegations of worker abuse at the hands of Disney, having Jack Horner literally step on their spines and encourage them to flex takes on a whole different meaning. 

it doesn’t end there. do you recognise the items that Jack pulls out of his Mary Poppins bag when his Baker’s Dozen are being destroyed by the Pocket Full O’Posies - the items that he calls ‘the big guns’? it’s the broomstick from Fantasia, the spinning wheel from Sleeping Beauty, the size snacks from Alice in Wonderland, and a knock-off Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio - all references to some of Disney’s earliest and most famous films.

still don’t believe me? well, let’s recap more of the items Jack has in his repertoire:

a hook-hand (referencing Captain Hook in Peter Pan)

a trident (referencing King Triton in The Little Mermaid)

poison apple bombs (referencing The Evil Queen in Snow White)

a glass slipper (again referencing Cinderella)

remember what happens when the knock-off Jiminy Cricket (interesting that there are so many Pinocchio references specifically, huh?) is horrified that Jack is losing so many men? Jack says he isn’t worried about losing the manpower, because he has a bottomless bag full of magical weapons. Jack literally gets his power off of the backs of his workers. sounds a lot like a big company justifying worker layoffs and exploitation because they have so many properties and are too big to fail, doesn’t it? 

hell, Jack doesn’t even know what half of these items do! when he’s using the unicorn horns as ammo, he is surprised that they cause people to explode in a shower of confetti. viewing Jack through this lens, it’s difficult not to think about enormous corporations gobbling up properties and churning out content with little to no regard for their artists (looking back at The Baker’s Dozen - some of whom do perish in the fight with the unicorn horns) or what the properties are about. we haven’t even touched on Jack coveting the Wishing Star, a recurring motif in countless Disney movies as representing magic, dreams, and boundless creativity. 

now, i hear you saying, ‘but Star! why would DreamWorks bother writing their bad guy as a metaphor for Disney?’ believe it or not, this isn’t the first time that DreamWorks have done this. in case you didn’t know, Lord Farquaad is a caricature of Michael Eisner, former chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company. the production of Shrek was actually quite troubled; animators who were perceived as having failed on other projects were ‘Shreked’, or sent to work on Shrek, instead of working on other (presumed to be more lucrative) films. of course, DreamWorks was co-founded by previous Disney CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, hence the animosity towards Disney and its works evident in the Shrek franchise. this is what formed the story of Shrek: an ugly, crude outsider character taking on the clean-cut moralising of a dictator hell-bent on a so-called ‘perfect’ world, all created against the creative backdrop of a painful separation from Disney and a great deal of pent-up rage. 

the irreverent, crass and sometimes adult humour of Shrek was a middle finger to Disney’s high-censorship control on animation. this is why Lord Farquaad (which you may have noticed sounds a bit like ‘Fuckwad’) is so obsessed with Duloc being ‘perfect’, and why he couldn’t stand the freedom of the fairy tale creatures who are the heroes of the first Shrek movie.

in fact, this kind of meta-commentary permeates the Shrek franchise: 

The Fairy Godmother from Shrek 2, despite being a fairy tale creature herself, is highly prejudiced against characters who break out of their perceived social norms: i.e., Shrek marrying Princess Fiona and getting his Happily Ever After. she is an expansion of the control left over by Lord Farquaad, and rich because of her monopolisation of fairy tale creatures and their stories. 

Prince Charming in Shrek the Third fails miserably to capitalise on these themes, but we’ll get back to him! 

Rumpelstiltskin from Shrek Forever After tackles the gluttony of franchise reboots, and how soulless and rooted in corporate greed attempts to reboot often are. whilst not necessarily Disney-specific, Shrek Forever After follows the box office bomb that was Shrek the Third: a movie which noticeably fails to write a compelling narrative approaching any of the themes of the previous two films. the writers learned from their mistakes and wrote a movie which satirised their own selling-out of the franchise, becoming hollow and unnecessary and ‘perfect’ - the very thing they were making fun of in the earlier Shrek films.

there is one more area i’d like to touch on: Jack Horner’s source material. we know that Little Jack Horner is quite obscure: an 18th-century English nursery rhyme involving a boy who pulls a plum out of a pie with his thumb, and congratulates himself for his fortitude. but did you know that from its earliest conception, Little Jack Horner was associated with foolishness and dishonesty?

it’s true: the simple yet inexplicable nature of the poem was lambasted for being infantile, and quickly became the subject of revision, moralisation, and even political satire. it is no mistake that to ‘be under one’s thumb’ (as many of the characters in The Last Wish are to Jack, both literally and figuratively) means to be under one’s decisive control. the choice of Jack Horner for the villain of The Last Wish is a clever one, because we could easily have ended up with a sympathetic Jack, whose ostracisation as ‘not even a fairy tale’ may have led to a justifiable motive, even for his specific brand of cruelty. but instead, the writers of The Last Wish have gone one step further; they’ve transformed a source affiliated with idiocy and deception into a metaphor for a global multimedia conglomerate...all while portraying him as simultaneously terrifying, powerful, and ridiculous. 

it has been over a decade since Shrek Forever After was released, and Disney has changed dramatically in that time. a global giant, Disney now owns more enormous money-making properties than ever thought possible, and consistently capitalises on nostalgia for its early properties to make more money and accumulate power. since breaking out of its exclusive licensing agreement with Disney in 2016, DreamWorks has had no official connection to Disney, making the ground for mockery and satirisation of the company which spawned the studio all the more fertile. ‘Big’ Jack Horner is not just a glamorous return to form for the dreadful, unapologetically evil villain which Disney has eschewed in modern times - he’s a hulking, egocentric monster whose avarice rivals that only of the corporation he’s inspired by. 

and those are my thoughts on ‘Big’ Jack Horner! of course this is by no means the definitive interpretation - we should all just have fun with the movie and come up with whatever theories we like 🥰💖 i’d love to hear your thoughts on him and The Last Wish in general - he’s definitely one of my favourite bad guys to be released in the past few years!

thanks so much for reading, and have yourselves a wonderful day 🥰

[pagesfromthevoid]

Cowboy Like Me | d.d. | 9

Din Djarin x princess!reader

Word Count: 2.1k

Warnings: Kidnapping. Angst. Lol

Author’s Note: ✨Woops✨

Series Mastlist | Talk to Me!

The Taken

“Where did you get this?” The Armorer asked, holding the circlet in her hands carefully.

“The princess I saved –it belongs to her.”

Din had left her and the child on Sorgan, simply explaining that he had to take care of something back on Nevarro. She questioned him, asking if she could come, but he promised he would be quick. It was a little over three days worth of travel between Sorgan and Nevarro, so she was skeptical of him. Din had reassured her that it was nothing bad; that what he was doing was for her. But what he needed to do was important.

Which is what brought him before the Armorer of his people, with her circlet. She had insisted she didn’t want it anymore after he revealed what it was made of. He wasn’t sure where she got beskar steel, but she wasn’t opposed to him taking it. It’s rightfully yours, she had said. Do whatever you see fit with it. 

“How curious,” the Armorer murmured, examining the piece. “I made this many years ago.”

Din’s brow furrowed and he stepped forward. “What do you mean, you made it?”

The Armorer looked to him, holding the faded gold piece out to look at. “Our covert was attacked, long before we settled on Nevarro,” she explained, moving next to lay the piece in the flames. “I had been overcome, and the enemy was prepared to kill. But a young man –no older than your princess, I am sure –saved me. I owed him a debt. Yet…All he asked of me was to make him something that would grow with his child.”

“And so you made the circlet.”

“And grow with her it did.” She nodded once, watching as the metal melted down slowly. “You do know what it means to present a weapon to someone, correct?”

“I do.”

The Armorer watched him before taking the molten steel from the flame and moving it to the forge. “Then I will make it into what you ask. Your signet will be imprinted into the blade.” Din nodded once, watching as she poured it into the shape of a dagger. “Your clan of two will become three.”

“Thank you.”

*****

“Well?”

“Well what?” Calisto snapped, tapping her nails against the control panel of her ship, glaring at the screen. 

Silas Credence stood in the doorway, hands behind his back. Calisto wanted him out of her hair, but she couldn’t risk another death so close to her. The Senate was already whispering about her husband’s sudden passing; assuming things. Silas was simply lucky that Calisto wasn’t willing to risk her freedom yet. 

“Have you located my bride or not?” 

Calisto breathed heavily through her nose, nostrils flaring. Perhaps handing her only daughter off to the man was in bad taste, but it was the only thing he wanted in return for handing over Senex’s seat in the Senate. Besides, the little chit should have been patient and just waited him out. He was a frail thing, probably about to keel over at any point. 

But no. The princess just had to make things difficult and run. And then, as if that wasn’t inconvenient enough, she had to find herself with a Mandalorian of all people. 

Calisto didn’t particularly want to deal with a Mandalorian, though she also didn’t think he’d take so long in delivering her daughter. She was under the impression that Mandalorians followed through on their deals; honor and all that. But a little over a month had passed, and Calisto was starting to grow impatient. 

Her droids had been entirely useless. And when she made contact with that fool Karga on Nevarro, he didn’t have any follow up information about the bounty. Just that a Mandalorian took it up and left several weeks ago. 

She decided that if this was going to be done soon, and done right, she would have to damn well do it herself. 

“I have her located, yes.”

Some backwater planet in the Outer Rim planets, Sorgan, was where her daughter had ended up. Calisto loathed the idea of trucking through woods and farmlands —she avoided it when her husband did it —but if that’s where her child was, that was where Calisto would go. 

“We will be landing on Sorgan in an hour,” Calisto explained, moving away from the panel to stand in front of the window of the ship. “Let me locate her and talk sense into her. If she sees you, she will run again.”

“You should have taught her what her purpose was long before me,” Silas hissed, standing beside her now. “Even if she was not intended for me, no one worth their snuff wants a wife that bites.”

“You brought that upon yourself,” Calisto sneered. “I told you to leave her be until your wedding night. It is bad enough you do not leave her ladies alone.”

“It is my right —,”

“Shut up, Credence.” 

The old man snapped his mouth shut, narrowing his eyes at her. But he did not argue. 

*****

She sat on her knees at the edge of the water, shaking out a basket of krill. Omera was chatting with her idly, explaining the history of the village. There was always something new to be learned, and she appreciated that Omera was willing to teach her. However, she was a bit distracted. Din had returned from his side quest early on that morning, having greeted her with a soft hello and his forehead pressed against hers. When she had asked what he was doing, he simply turned her around and tied the fabric around her eyes and kissed her.

“You and Mando seem very happy here,” Omera commented, smiling at her. “Happy together. And the child seems to adore you.”

She looked at her hands for a moment, admiring the dirt under her nails and the wrinkles that had developed from the water. Her cheeks felt hot as she thought of Din, and the way they spent their time together. Back to the kiss they shared that morning. The way his mouth felt on hers –which was only heightened by the fact she couldn’t see him when he kissed her. The other night, when he had her slip into her gown again, she felt powerful with him on his knees in front of her. And the thought of that alone made her chest tighten.

“I…he’s kind to me,” she admitted, glancing at him for a moment before she looked back at her hands. “I think he might ask –,”

“Oh please, don’t say those words. It’ll only break your heart more.”

Omera whipped around, but she stared in horror at the water in front of her. Her blood ran cold as she slowly looked over her shoulder. Calisto stepped forward —Grogu in her arms. Omera moved to stand, to introduce herself, but she shot her arm out to stop the widow. She stood instead, slowly rising from the ground, eyes on Grogu who looked confused as he reached out for her. 

“Mother,” she greeted, tone stern and dare she say, intimidating. “Give me the child.”

Din had turned from the villagers, hand on his blaster. But she motioned for him to stop, sending him a sideways glance as he slowly stepped towards the two. Omera looked between the three of them, eyes wide.

“Why? Have you taken in a ward in the month that you have played runaway?”

“He has nothing to do with me running from you,” she seethed, taking a half step forward. “Let him go.”

Calisto pressed a finely manicured nail into Grogu’s belly, causing the baby to giggle. Calisto feigned a motherly smile —the same she would use to placate her daughter when she was young. She knew her mother well enough that she wouldn’t hurt a baby; not intentionally. She was a cruel woman, but not that cruel. But Din was seething, she could practically feel his anger radiating. 

“No, no. You are right, he does not,” her mother hummed, looking at Grogu with utter disinterest. “I wonder where this maternal instinct of yours came from.”

“Certainly not you,” she sneered, narrowing her eyes. “Give him to the Mandalorian.”

Her mother hummed again, slowly turning her gaze to Din, who was standing close behind her now. “On one condition.”

She closed her eyes, biting her tongue. She knew the condition; of course she knew. And Din knew too –she felt him tense up behind her, hand frozen on her lower back. Calisto wanted her home —needed her to fulfill the bargain she made with Credence. There was never any escape for her, and there never would be. Din was right to stay paranoid.

“Fine. But give me the baby first.”

“Oh, absolutely not,” Calisto hissed, rolling her eyes. “If you think I trust you, then you are sorely mistaken, child. Bring the Mandalorian; he will get the baby when you are secured in the ship.”

She glanced back at Din, who was standing still behind her, no doubt determining every way he could kill Calisto where she stood.

“Come now, child. Am I not being fair? I am a woman of my word —you know that.”

“Even when your word harms your own child?”

“I never said my words were good. Just that I honor them. And I gave Silas Credence my word that he would have a wife.” Calisto stepped forward, reaching out to grab her by the arm and yank her forward. Din tried to intervene, but she pushed him back. Her mother’s voice was low, drenched in venom as Calisto got into her face. “You have embarrassed me. You could have had anyone you wanted —you could have hired that bounty hunter as your guard and kept him around until Credence died. Maker above, you could have bedded him while Credence was alive for all I care. But you were stupid, and impulsive. And now you have lost both your freedom and your fool Mandalorian.”

She tried to pull herself free, but her mother always had a painfully iron grip. There was a reason she rarely caused trouble as a child —her mother was the one who punished her. A very quick lesson was learned the first time she disobeyed. It was one of those moments that showed her who her mother really was. But she did not show her fear; she would never give her mother that satisfaction. 

“At least give him the credits he earned,” she argued, practically being dragged through the village. “At least do that.”

Calisto let out a nasty scoff, shaking her head. “Why, pray tell, would I give him anything?”

“He didn’t kill me when I offered to pay him to.”

“Yet he stole you away, breaking the Guild’s rules,” her mother reminded her, looking over her shoulder at Din, who was hot on their heels. The smile on her face screamed wicked. “I should have him executed for kidnapping the Princess of Senex.”

Quickly, she shook her head, digging her heels into the ground, trying to stop. “I gave him everything I had,” she lied, looking up at her mother. “I told him it was half; I promised him the other half when I found refuge. You cannot blame the man for trying to make more than the original bounty.”

Calisto eyed her closely, shoving her forward towards the Senex ship. For a moment, Calisto considered her options, looking between the baby and the hunter. Then she pushed her daughter up into the hull and set the baby on the ground. She knew her daughter was lying; knew well that Din had helped her escape. But Calisto didn’t care enough about the whole ordeal to keep arguing with the little chit in her hold.

“Take it,” she ordered Din, then pulled a small pouch from the pocket of her cloak. She threw it beside Grogu. “I will say this once, and only once. The moment you are found on Senex, I will raze this entire planet —and everyone on it.”

Din scooped Grogu up into his arms, trying to console the child who was now sobbing for his princess. As the door of the ship shut, she locked eyes with Din —but there was no fear to be seen. She stood tall as she shut into the ship. A handful of the villagers stood back as the ship’s engines ignited and took off, taking his princess with it. Grogu cried out, reaching out. 

Omera stepped forward, resting a hand on his shoulder. “Mando, I –,”

“Have the villagers load the Crest for me,” he ordered, turning away and storming his way towards his own ship. There was nowhere in the galaxy that Calisto of Senex could hide from him –he would find her, he would end her. And he would save the woman he loved.

“Let’s go save our princess, kid.”

———

Taglist (CLOSED): @r4iner @sgt-morgan @mingeniee @darling1darling @teriolan-blog @venusfalling @double—take @sunshine96 @demisexuallover @mxtokko @ellesvoid @waddafaknik @c-ms1ut @kokoirne @sl-ut @munsons-queen @intense-sneezing @geekrenaissance @dancealongthelightofday @tizylish @ruleroftides @aheadfullofsteverogers

[talea456]

Aaahhh!!! I LOVE complex shows like this! So many layers and layers and layers to discuss!!

I agree with those points, but I also think another, “meta” layer to The Double (and also those other kdramas you mentioned) is the comparison of “story book ‘love’” vs the real thing. It was really on rewatch that I started to realize the extra layers to Shen Yurong’s memories of XFF.

I think Shen Yurong thought he loved XFF, but when you combine his ambition; denial of any choice in his wrongdoings; & his (clearly delusional) thoughts that XFF would want to marry him again with his visions of her being this perfect, uber-supportive-of-him spouse, I think it really demonstrates that he only defines love as something people do to service him and his ambitions. In other words, “love” to him is just another tool to get what he wants. His visions of her show them happy while her memories show her sacrificing and sacrificing and sacrificing for him. His memories of XFF show the audience what he thought of their marriage. And we know he’s a pretty unreliable narrator when it comes to his interpretation of things. (And I think he wanted XFF back not to redeem himself, but because he ended up with no one to serve him the way he thought he deserved to be served…and also because he sees her as a possession to lose and regain as it suites him.)

As for XFF, I think she’s naturally “a giver,” and she thought she found a righteous, worthy man to throw all her support behind so he can achieve his dreams. I think the scene where she’s begging her father to marry him despite their class differences is very telling in this. She sees him as her equal, and this sets out to support him with all she’s got. BUT she was young and little too naive — and maybe a bit arrogant in her own judgment — that she didn’t see the potential red flags.

I think her father was questioning the marriage because he probably saw something in SYR that concerned him. (This is also supported by what we learn of her father later on—that he cared deeply for others regardless of their social status.) Being older (and probably being burned by this same selflessness that his daughter has), he knew that certain men would see XFF as a stepping stone to advance in life. And I don’t think we can deny that SYR did just that. (For example, if you put Xiao Heng in the scene where she’s selling her qin — could you imagine him just standing there letting her walk away? Oh heck no! He’d take the instrument right out of her hand and walk right back into the house with it. SYR said the right words, but ultimately did nothing to really support her — because his love was never about her. It was always about him. SYR is all talk and no action re: his honorable/loving intentions….basically, he’s the definition of a covert narcissist.)

Xiao Heng is, of course, the perfect foil to SYR. He doesn’t suck up to people (and yeah, that’s partly due to his status, but I doubt he would do it if he didn’t have that. He’d probs be more like Ye Shijie re: quiet confidence.) XH is pretty much “very little talk and all action.” He uses the guise of arrogance as a tool in his arsenal to bring down the bad guys. (Whereas SYR uses the guise of humility to mask his arrogance.) Hence XH’s emphasis on the theater of it all. (And his recognition that XFF can play any role she needs to achieve her truly honorable goals…she’s his match in ability and intellect.) I am still really impressed at how the show demonstrates this aspect of his character by using the love story. How it shows him supporting her (despite his words of her being a pawn) throughout — never directly stepping in to “save” her, letting her save herself but still giving physical protection when needed. (Hence the need for his men to keep an eye on her. She’s not able to defend herself physically against assassins and such.) I really love the scene at the palace where he basically tells her to be more careful and she’s all “I can’t. I don’t have a massive spy network and social status to flesh out my theater trope. I’m a one-woman show, babyyy! And so I’ve got to risk my life to figure things out as I go.” And from then on, he’s open in saying he doesn’t want her risking her life, but he doesn’t hold it against her when she does. And a little later, he gives her that whistle so she can use his men when she needs to. Pretty damn sweet.

I, a middle-aged tumblrite, totally swooned when XH told JL/XFF not to compromise herself. Cause it means that he knew that her compassion is both a strength and a weakness. She can go too far in her eagerness to be giving and selfless — and he knows that she already has re: her first marriage. It’s such an amazing way to show the audience that he: Understands her deeply, understands her past and what happened to her, and truly loves all of her. All of what makes her HER. And he doesn’t want her to think that she needs to please him — his love isn’t based in her service to him (despite his words at the beginning of their relationship saying she was his pawn.) That is such a beautiful and powerful thing to see in a romance drama!

Ah the layers. It’s an onion. That’s what’s making me tear up, right? The show is a big damn onion.

Thoughts on The Double rewatch

tl/dr: The FML & SML romantic contrasts sum up like this:

Shen Yurong: Hello my darling, self-sacrificing trophy-wife. Your hands shouldn't touch weapons. They should only do dainty female things.

Xiao Heng: What's up, my fierce wild-cat? OMG your brain is sooooo freakin' sexy, btw. What? You need help learning how to kill someone? Hell yeah, Queen! *grabs her hand and head straight to the armory*

Like, seriously. Every time Shen Yurong has visions and/or flashbacks to his wife, it's basically Xue Fangfei giving c-drama tradwife vibes every time. She's either playing music, doing some calligraphy, or helping him out by selling her things and/or giving him advice constantly.

BUT every time Xiao Heng is seen thirsting over Jiang Li/XFF, it's when she's doing 5-D chess with politicians and talking herself and her family members out of trouble.

Just LOOK at him absolutely LOVING her fucking up the Li family plans. Man is totally turned on by how fucking SMART and CAPABLE she is.

Like, one thing about this scene in episode 16 is that I thought the ML was going to come running to protect/help out the FL here. I've watched enough c-dramas to expect that, ya know?

But not our man Duke Su! He's like: She's totally got this...And I should probably stay seated to manage my giant boner rn anyways.

And how green flag is that "advice" he gives her about not compromising herself & become a different person for someone else in ep 31???? It's pretty dang green, guys.

Point is: Shen Yurong only saw her as a trophy/trad-wife. Xiao Heng sees, and loves, ALL of her.