#and turns out !! the good girl is NOT murdering people she is trying to solve one

[ellies-enrichment]

i can't believe i made so many text posts and my queue is still empty 2 days later does it not know i had a headache and needed it to keep going with new exciting posts that i haven't made because my head hurt

[tacroyy]

losing my shit about the two times vimes gets slapped by a woman in the guards books (night watch and snuff; spoilers for both below). terry pratchett is completely goddamn brilliant.

both times, it's near enough to the beginning of the plot that vimes is partially convinced he doesn't know what's going on and is still information gathering (so, working a little on autopilot, although thoughts are starting to coalesce). the women he encounters show up after a watershed moment—major transformative plot points on both occasions—and both help him and help move the narrative along with the information they provide. and this is my favorite detail—he's tired both times, too, and just needs to think, because of the amount of new information he's processing.

from night watch:

"I think perhaps I lost my memory when I was attacked," he said. That sounded good, he thought. What he really needed now was somewhere quiet, to think.

"Really? Perhaps I'm the Queen of Hersheba," said Rosie [Palm]. "Just remember, kind sir. I'm not doing this because I'm interested in you, although I'd admit to a macabre fascination about how long you're going to survive. If it hadn't been a cold wet night I'd have left you in the road. I'm a working girl, and I don't need trouble. But you look like a man who can lay his hands on a few dollars, and there will be a bill."

"I'll leave the money on the dressing table," said Vimes.

The slap in the face knocked him against the wall. /end quote

and from snuff:

She [Felicity Beedle] turned to Vimes. "It would seem, commander, that providence has brought you here in time to solve the murder of the goblin girl, who was an excellent pupil. I came up here as soon as I heard, but the goblins are used to undeserved and casual death. I"ll walk with you to the entrance, and then I've got a class to teach."

Vimes tugged at Feeny to make him keep up as they followed Miss Beedle and her charge toward the surface and blessed fresh air. He wondered what had become of the corpse. What did they do with their dead? Bury them, eat them, throw them on the midden? Or was he just not thinking right, a thought which itself had been knocking at his brain for some time. Without thinking, he said, "What else do you teach them, Miss Beedle? To be better citizens?"

The slap caught him on the chin, probably because even in her anger Miss Beedle realized that he still had his steel helmet on. /end quote

vimes makes mistakes. he makes mistakes all the time, and he knows this, and pays attention to them. vimes spends a lot of time thinking about thinking (engaging in productive, internally motivated metacognition well within his zone of proximal development, my master's in teaching insists i say). he thinks about his thinking, and he thinks about other people's thinking through the lens of his own.

in both instances, vimes is coming to realizations about the true nature of things.

in night watch, this would initially seem to be more surface than deep: he's getting to physical grips with exactly when and where (and who) in the past he is; he's learning the ground, mapping, figuring things out—but vimes is also trying to settle himself back in to what he knows, and what society is in these different times, to see if that fits. plotwise, in vimes's present, the seamstresses have a guild, rights, safety, standards, rules, regulations, and even societal respect—although certainly not close to what they deserve, it's much more than what they had before vetinari made their guild a reality. but in the past, where vimes is now, the seamstresses don't have this level of security, and are subject to violence (although it is shown to be societal and legal violence [being arrested for working during their profession's peak, etc] rather than interpersonal or sexual violence [the agony aunts exist and, it is clearly stated, dispense the same justice that they do in the future, specifically to individual clients rather than to larger institutional structures]).

so, when vimes puts down rosie by making a disparaging joke about her profession—oh, you're actually not important to me or to men or to society at all; your labor is not to be respected; i got what i needed from you and will of course pay you, but in the most insulting way possible—he's not only communicating what society thinks, but a moral issue of the novel as well. night watch, after all, is about revolution: who gets to be in power, and who gets to control who gets to be in power? it's frankly revolutionary for pratchett, a mainstream english author, to treat sex workers and sex work as positively as he does (of course, his depictions are not without flaws). he makes it clear that, after all, shouldn't we view sex work as physical labor? isn't it true that anyone who is employed is engaging in physical labor? how is a seamstress really different from a "seamstress"? (it's the power dynamics and misogyny standard to western/european/american/christian society: women and sex must be controlled by the patriarchial majority, kept small and afraid and in chains.) pratchett legitimizes the seamstresses in vimes's present. in vetinari's ankh-morpork, the seamstresses have just as much power as the merchants, the armorers, the assassins—and vimes knows this, but he did grow up in the past he's in now.

in snuff, vimes's approaching anagnorisis is more obviously manifested. brilliantly, pratchett begins vimes's encounter with the goblins by talking about vimes's childhood teacher, mistress slightly, who "taught [him] how not to be afraid" and made him blackboard monitor, "the first time anyone had entrusted him with anything;" vimes thinks he'll put a bag of peppermints on her grave if he gets out of this alive. all positive, and in fact clearly transformative, praise from our hero. but vimes is in a goblin cave, and pratchett has brought up mistress slightly because vimes is remembering his first (educational, not physical) encounter with goblins. this paragraph is worth quoting in full:

"[Mistress Slightly] had one book in her tiny sitting room, and the first time she had given it to young Sam Vimes to read he had got as far as page seven when he froze. The page showed a goblin: the jolly goblin, according to the text. Was it laughing, was it scowling, was it hungry, was it about to bite your head off? Young Sam Vimes hadn't waited to find out and had spent the rest of the morning under a chair. These days he excused himself by remembering that most of the other kids felt the same way. When it came to the innocence of childhood, adults often got it wrong. In any case, she had sat him on her always slightly damp knee after class and made him really look at the goblin. It was made of lots of dots! Tiny dots, if you looked closely. The closer you looked at the goblin the more it wasn't there. Stare it down and it lost all its power to frighten. 'I hear that they are wretched, badly made mortals,' the dame had said sadly. 'Half-finished folk, or so I hear. It's only a blessing this one had something to be jolly about.'"

a near-perfect depiction, unfortunately, of the educational experience. encounter something that scares you and makes you uncomfortable, examine it with the help of a pedagogist, examine it on your own, take it apart so that you are not afraid anymore, and instead understand what it is and how it is made: that's the experience from the first word of the quote all the way until "Stare it down and lost all its power to frighten." and then, a heel-turn: your teacher shows that they completely misunderstood the lesson they were teaching—and that you, the child, understood both parts of the lesson perfectly: you absorbed the critical thinking skills and that this existing societal prejudice is, in fact, totally correct and should not be examined using the skills you just learned.

thus, pratchett has vimes, our hero, our moral center, spout the violent, ingrained, dehumanizing, incitement-to-genocide nonsense of the society in which he has been formed. vimes does this tiredly, without thinking, without making the connection between how things are and how they ought to be, missing the direct relationship of that required moral reevaluation to the case and situation at hand. and pratchett throws that directly back in vimes's face, physically. both times, pratchett says: even if you're tired, even if there's shit going down, even if your worldview is being turned upside down, even if you're in the dead middle of processing everything you've so recently learned, you cannot make the mistake of dehumanization/depersonalization. and you, of all people, have to know that, vimes. not one drop of alcohol passes your lips, not one minute after six goes by without you reading to your son, not one arrestee is subjected to even small or casual police brutality. and not one person—seamstress or goblin—is to be insulted and discriminated against and excluded from deserving to live. to do so, to make that mistake even once, is to face the immediate physical consequences of it from someone deeply and fundamentally in the know. you need the sense smacked into you.

from night watch:

"Consider that a sign of my complete lack of a sense of humor, will you?" said Rosie, shaking some life back into her hand.

"I'm... sorry," said Vimes. "I didn't mean to... I mean... look, thak you for everything. I mean it. But this is not being a good night."

"Yes, I can see that."

"It's worse than you think. Believe me."

"We all have our troubles. Believe me," said Rosie. /end quote.

from snuff:

It was a corker, nonetheless, and out of the corner of his stinging gaze he saw Feeny take a step back. At least the boy had some sense.

"You are the gods' own fool, Commander Vimes! No, I'm not teaching them to be fake humans, I'm teaching them how to be goblins, clever goblins! Do you know that they have only five names for colors? Even trolls have around sixty, and a lot more than that if they find a paint salesman! Does this mean goblins are stupid? No, they have a vast number of names for things that even poets haven't come up with, for things like the colors shift and change, the melting of one hue into another. They have single words for the most complicated of feelings; I know about two hundred of them, I think, and I'm sure there are a lot more! What you may think are grunts and growls and snarls are in fact carrying vast amounts of information! They're like an iceberg, commander: most of them is where you can't see or understand, and I'm teaching Tears of the Mushroom and some of her friends so that they may be able to speak to people like you, who think they are dumb. And do you know what, commander? There isn't much time! They're being slaughtered! It's not called that, of course, but slaughter is how it ends, because they're just dumb nuisances, you see. Why don't you ask Mr. Upshot what happened to the rest of the goblins three years ago, Commander Vimes?"

And with that, Miss Beedle turned on her heel and disappeared down into the darkness of the cave with Tears of the Mushroom bobbing along behind her, leaving Vimes to walk the last few yards out into the glorious light. /end quote.

[asirensrage]

Saudade - Prologue

Rating: Explicit Pairing: Mikey x OC, Hanma x OC, Ran x OC, Mikey x OC x Draken Fandom: Tokyo Revengers Warnings: swearing, violence, threats of violence, murder, smoking, sex, consensual sex between teenagers, alcohol, recreational drug use, mention of trafficking, torture, family neglect, mentions of sexual violence. isekai OC. memory loss. **warnings are not exhaustive** Summary: No one seems to realize she doesn’t belong until she finally runs into her “new” brother, Hanagaki Takemichi. Now, hearing his story, Takara makes the choice to help him and hopefully find her way home, but faking it til you make it only lasts so long when you start losing the memories of the life you had before. As Takemichi becomes the only family she’s ever known, how far will she go to protect him? also on ao3

fic masterlist

Prologue:

He stares at the way they’re throwing his shit and breaking it without a care. They have no concept of what they’re doing to him, to everyone else. Before he can stop himself, he snaps.  “You’ve taken my precious memories and trashed them!”  They don’t even react.  “Don’t fuck with me!” Takemichi swings, a punch fueled with anger, towards Mikey…only to stumble with the force and fall as Mikey avoids it. He crashes into the garbage. He pulls himself out and yells, calling them out on what they’ve ruined and how they don’t give a shit about the people they hurt. He feels one of his friends holding him back, trying to keep him from trying to hit them again. It doesn’t stop him from yelling and pointing out how much trouble they caused. He doesn’t want them to fight. He doesn’t want the future he remembers to come true. Tears build up in his eyes before he can stop them. “You’re supposed to be cooler than that,” he says softly, ending his rant.  “What the fuck is going on?” A voice cuts through the tension and anger. It’s enough to make them all stop and turn. Standing in his driveway, holding a plastic bag and wearing shorts and an oversized shirt, is some girl he’s never seen before in his life. Her hand is on her hip and she’s glaring at all of them. “Who made this mess?” Her glare turns to him. “I swear to god, Takemichi, I’m not cleaning this shit.” Her eyes narrow. “Why are you crying? Did they hurt you?”  He blinks at her. Does he know her? “Hey! Takara!” his friends greet her with familiarity.  “Hey, big sis!” Takuya calls out. Since when did Takuya have a sister? “Boys,” she greets. She looks over Mikey and Draken before turning her gaze back to Takemichi. “Well?” “No,” he finally says.  “Good.” She pauses for a moment as she looks at him. “You know you have shit in your hair, right?”  “What? Ew!”  The other boys all laugh, pointing it out before taking off. Draken and Mikey leave together with claims of running before he can stink them up too. His friends run off, yelling goodbye to the girl and laughing hysterically at Takemichi’s fate. He hangs his head at the fact, but at least it seems like Mikey and Draken are friends again. That solves it, right? There’s a sigh. He looks up to see the girl still standing there.  “You are so gross,” she says, making a face at him. “Come on, get inside and shower.” She moves past him and heads for his house.  “Hey!” he runs after her, confused as to why this stranger is breaking in. “Who are you?” She looks back, confused. “What are you talking about? I’m your sister.” “What?” He doesn’t have a sister.

everything tag: @raith-way @zeleniafic @veetlegeuse @chickensarentcheap @residentdormouse

@themaradwrites @kingsmakers @thatmagickjuju @awkwardchick87

tr tag: @mitsuwuyaa @blackfire2013 @bleach-your-panties @reiners-milkbiddies

[katsona-the-katsequel]

Human Heart, Aigis' Heart

Here comes Aigis' story!

___________________________________________

I am the humanoid tactical weapon Aigis. I am an Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapon developed in the Kirijo Group's lab. I am the cutting edge of modern military technology, and the culmination of many years of shadow research. Though my body is mechanical, I also possess a human-like mentality, and I am the world's most powerful Persona User. I am particularly renowned for my sturdiness, and just like the story of the Aegis Shield from Greek mythology that gave me my name, I am truly undefeatable, impenetrable, and invincible.

Yes. I was supposed to be invincible.

However, at Gekkoukan High School, where I was currently studying, I never had a chance to use this excellent weaponry in my student life.

To borrow the words of Yukari-san and other female classmates, I felt like a little blue or depressed.

"...Well, today is the 4th, so...um, Aigis-san. Please tell me how you would feel about it."

Oh, by the way, we were currently in class. Professor Toriumi was asking me to respond. I was just thinking about it, but as a cutting edge humanoid tactical weapon, my brain is capable of parallel processing, so I won't miss any questions. But...

"What's wrong? Is modern Japanese too difficult for returnees? There's no need to think about it so deeply."

The text we were currently reading was a novel called "Kokoro" written by a man named Natsume Soseki. I didn't seem to have a good enough understanding of this "Kokoro" yet. After about 32 seconds of silence, the teacher spoke to me in a manner that could be perceived as slightly over-the-top, perhaps trying to give me a clue as to the correct answer.

"He proposed to her over his best friend K, and she ended up committing suicide... I wonder what Aigis would think in that situation?"

"If it were me... I would think that my friend would have committed suicide."

"...It's not the same as it used to be. Give it a twist! Give it a twist!"

"Could it have been a murder disguised as a suicide?"

"Why?! This is Soseki! Don't turn a masterpiece of pure literature into an Edogawa Ranpo mystery!"

"In terms of motive, the young lady is the most suspicious... but we need to check the absence certificate..."

"Listen to me! Listen to what I'm saying!"

As usual, Toriumi-sensei exploded, and soon the bell rang to signal the end of school. If this were a plan for me to kidnap "Miss" from my best friend K, it would be easy... But even for someone with a mind that can summon Personas, understanding this "heart" was not as easy as it sounds.

"Well, you are human beings, but it's still hard to understand other people's feelings. Isn't it okay to worry so much about it?"

My precious friend nodded enthusiastically to Junpei's words. It was lunchtime now, and we were on the rooftop. I'd asked the two of them to come over to get their opinions on how to solve the problem I was currently facing.

"However... the reality is that 'humanness' is an essential skill for my school life. If communication with civilians is hindered for any reason, then my mission will also be hindered."

"But it seems like you're getting along well with the other kids in your class."

"No, I feel like I'm a total stranger in the so-called 'high school girls' community. I can't even fully understand how to communicate via cell phone email..."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"For example", I said, taking out my cell phone and showing them the email I received from Yukari the other day. It said, "Tell Kirijo SP I'll be late (^_^)."

“This?”

"Normally, the term SP refers to a bodyguard who provides personal protection for important people. So I told the Kirijo Group's security department that Yukari would be coming home late that day."

"Well, that's..."

"For some reason, they gave me a strange look."

"I guess."

"That night, Yukari was very disappointed when I heard that SP was an abbreviation for Senpai. But that's not all. In another email, I saw the phrase "H/K" and it took me three days to realize that it was an abbreviation for 'By the way', if it was 'H&K,' I would know that it was an abbreviation for the German gun manufacturer Heckler & Koch."

"That's something the average person wouldn't understand..."

"What is the point of using gal characters? It is unreasonable to make 'juko' read as 'ta', or 'ju' read as 'sa', and to increase the amount of information that would take only one byte to two bytes. It's inefficient."

"Now now now. That's what being a high school girl is all about. Besides, you don't need to be bound by those norms, Ai-chan is human enough... Ah, that's right."

Suddenly, Junpei stood up as if he had just thought of something.

"What's the matter?"

"From now on, if you want to ask for advice like that, I think it's best to get advice from someone in the industry."

Saying this, Junpei smiled happily. This kind of human-like smile is essential to camouflage one's appearance as a human female, and yet it was something I lacked. I wondered if I could acquire a smile like that...?

"And so, I'm your special lecturer, Takeba."

"I-I'm your assistant, Yamagishi."

“Junpei, in the end, didn’t you just want to use Aigis’s troubles as an excuse to have some fun?”

The situation was incomprehensible.

Afterwards, we met up with Yukari and Fuuka, and for some reason we ended up inside Karaoke Mandragora in Paulownia Mall.

"Well, well, well, don't worry about the small details! Going to karaoke with friends after school is a typical thing for high school girls to do, right? I think it's important to start with the formality, you know."

"Is that so? Junior high school girls go to karaoke on their way home from school... I get it. But in that case, shouldn't we invite Mitsuru-san too?"

"I-I think Kirijo-senpai is a bit different from the average high school girl..."

The details were unknown, but it was profound.

"Okay then, let's start with Ai-chan. What will you sing? Anything is fine."

"Singing, huh? It's my first experience, but I'll do my best."

"Okay then, do your best!"

...

"It was an unexpected situation."

"Well, my head's still spinning..."

"I thought my eardrums would burst..."

"Well, well, I guess that can't be helped, huh?"

It was an unfortunate accident. The moment I turned on the microphone to sing, a terrible cacophony occurred. The electromagnetic waves emitted by my engine resonated with the speakers, causing a phenomenon known as howling. It was like a sonic bomb.

The force of the blast was devastating. All the drinking glasses were destroyed, and the karaoke equipment in the next room was also damaged.

"The electromagnetic seal at the core was perfect, but no one had thought about the drive motors at each joint..."

Was this a feeling of despondent feeling? Was it impossible for me, after all, to acquire the abilities of a normal female student? As if to cut me off from such thoughts, Junpei spoke as cheerfully as ever.

"Well then, let's pull ourselves together and move on to the second high school girl staple! Let's go take a purikura photo!"

".. Purikura?"

I was a little wary of the words I had no memory of, but since it was Junpei's plan, I replied with a firm yes.

"I'll give it a go... Yes!"

"All right! Let's go to to Game Vanick!"

"So...what is a purikura?" Junpei took a big tumble.

...

"So this is Purikura... Print Club? I see."

According to Junpei, it was a device for processing photos taken of several people with stickers. Apparently, taking photos with friends and sharing the stickers was the basis of high school girls. I didn't really understand the intention behind it, but if this action was necessary for the operation, I couldn't run away. Desertion in the face of the enemy was punishable by firing squad.

"Okay, let's go."

"Okay, let's have Yukari and Fuuka together. Um, the background is this... the frame is this... OK, let's start. I'll press the button."

"Come on, Aigis, strike a pose."

"A pose, is that it?"

"That's right, smile smile."

"Eh, a smile...?"

Before I could even process what was happening, a sound similar to the clicking of a camera was heard, and shortly afterwards the stickers were dispensed from the receiving slot below.

"Uh... Wait, my smile is a bit stiff, maybe?"

"She's not laughing."

As Yukari had said, the expression on my face on the photo was what you might call expressionless. As a weapon, I didn't have the ability to change my expression depending on my emotions.

"Let's try again, shall we?"

"I think that attempt would be futile. The fact that I cannot express a smiling or crying face is due to my specifications, so there is nothing I can do about it."¹

When I said that, everyone looked at each other and then burst out laughing.

"What's the matter?"

Without answering my question. No, as if they had no time to answer, everyone continued laughing. "What are you talking about... hehehe... Ah, Ai-chan, as expected of someone who has been maintained by Ikutsuki-san... Hehe."

"Ugh, that's painful... What kind of pun was that?"

"It can't be helped. Ahahaha."

"It's weird if Ikutsuki says it, but if Aigis says it its charming.”

I understood. Although it was not my intention, it seemed that what I said was a pun, a series of similar-sounding words used to create a sentence. I was a little confused, but I was also happy that all of them enjoyed it.

"Huh? You can smile."

"Eh?"

I was surprised by Junpei's sudden remark.

"Were you laughing?"

"Yeah, I saw it too."

Fuuka agreed with Junpei. I saw.

Was I laughing?

"That's right. She has a better smile than our unsociable field leader."

At Yukari's words, that person turned away as if it didn't matter. Now that I thought about it, this person didn't show his feelings on his face very often. Still, he was doing a great job as a leader and seemed to get along well with his friends. Suddenly, I thought of one thing and spoke up.

"Am I of any help?"

"Huh? What's wrong all of a sudden?"

"I can't behave like the so-called 'high school girls'. I'm not good at karaoke or photo booths. I can't understand the human heart. But even so, is it okay for me to be here as one of your friends, as a member of SEES?"

"Of course!" Junpei answered loudly.

"Was that what was bothering you, Aigis?"

Yukari also spoke in an exasperated tone, followed by Fuuka.

"Aigis, you were worried, weren't you?"

"Worried... Yes, maybe I was." What I must do was defeat shadows together with everyone else. And to protect that person. If I couldn't act like a female student, then perhaps I was not up to the task, perhaps I was not living up to everyone's expectations. It was these thoughts that were making my processing unstable, and now it seemed that even I had finally realized this.

On the way back from Paulownia Mall, Fuuka came up to me and said,

"You know, I think that if you get anxious because you don't know what the people around you think of you, doesn't that mean you have a great heart?"

“Is that so?”

If so, I was glad, for I, who was troubled by my inability to understand the mind, was relieved to learn, paradoxically, that it was the mind that troubled me by things it found difficult to understand.

"The human heart is a mysterious thing."

"We all feel the same way."

Everyone was together... that's something that made me happy. I suddenly took my cell phone out of my pocket and looked at the photo I had taken earlier.

"We have matching ones."

When I said that, Junpei and the person walking in front of me looked a little surprised.

This time I was aware of it too. It is at times like these that humans laugh.

I am Aigis, a humanoid tactical weapon. I sometimes worry because I can't understand the human heart, but I am a lucky Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapon because there are people who care for me.

___________________________________________

¹. They're not being jerks. Aigis accidentally made a pun.

I sometimes forget Minato is there 😭

Tag List: @kerto-p

[basilone]

Sometimes, war is the province of women. An alternate take on the battle for air dominance over the skies of Europe during World War Two, as told through the stories of an American all-female bomber crew and the people around them.

This is a collection of standalone works that all interlock to form one big patchwork quilt of stories. It will see new additions every so often, especially because a lot of it is written to prompts. The collection on AO3 is my best attempt at organizing it in chronological order.

[click here for the WIP story collection!]

Want to know a little more about the OCs featured in this collection? Please click the readmore below!

Charlotte “Lottie” Rivers-Mayhew Fighter pilot turned bomber pilot Can fly anything, will try anything. Big mouth, little heart. Lives in the land of innuendo and crude jokes. Loud about her whole existence. Very smart, but downplays that like whoa. Julie “Jules” Langdon Bomber pilot Runs this gig and everyone else just needs to get with her program. Great at reading people the riot act. Comically unimpressed by everything that lands in her path. Nosewrinkles at any and all delays. Known for slipping people an extra bite to eat. Christina “Tiny” Heartfield Bomber co-pilot Needs five hours to get ready for any kind of social event. Silver spoon baby. Knows all the gossip and all the good songs. Gets a little bit stressed about flying in warzones. Loves a good ghost story. Eleanor “Nora” Graham Navigator The Mom Friend. Prone to giving hugs and peptalks. Bossy and quite rude when things don’t go her way. Cannot flirt her way out of anything. If you see her running, that’s just standard procedure. Valerie “Val” Hodges Radio operator Absolute poker-faced ballsy liar. Most innocent face in the whole crew. Smokes more than her job should allow. Will try to wiggle out of any lectures by offering the most inane excuses. There’s not a puzzle she can’t solve. Genevieve “Two” Hodgson Tail gunner Shows up late to everything except the war. Always chewing gum. Queen of half-hearted salutes and vague politeness. Keeps saying she’s too poor for this level of bullshit. Has a mean right hook. Madeleine “Push” Perrault Flight engineer Making lists calms her down. Can and will call you stupid in four different languages. Thinks planes are better than people. Voice like a foghorn with the attitude to match. Believes she can fix anything. Evelyn “One-Eye” Carter Ball turret gunner Happy-go-lucky baby of the group, rolling with life’s punches. Will talk your ear off. Could probably get away with murder. Best gunner in the crew. Can be painfully naïve. Dorothy “Dee” Llewellyn Waist gunner Born a pessimist. Genuinely thinks no man should ever sport a mustache. Has a limitless supply of stories about her family. Very protective. Would inspire a riot if anyone ever let her talk long enough without interruptions. Maxine “Max” Morrison Waist gunner Bold and brash and crackling with energy. Cracks more bad jokes than anyone alive. Has developed some rather complicated handshakes. Will interrupt any event or conversation. If you see her running, something’s probably chasing her. Stella “Frosty” Lombardi Bombardier Icy calm in any crisis. Can calculate any bomb drop. Complains about the food. Is a true girl’s girl and refuses to so much as speak to most men. Never wants to miss out on the fun.

Lucille Dorrance-Jones, goes by Lucy Jones Nurse The singlemost stubborn person on the planet. Thinks some injuries are fascinating. Harbors a healthy distrust of bureaucracy and paperwork. Can probably drink you under the table. Encourages anyone to sing. Cressida Dorrance-Jones Interrogator Sharp as a tack. Does not forgive, does not forget. Secretly more big-hearted than people would give her credit for. Really wants to fly a plane. Has an ongoing one-sided vendetta with Meatball. Darlene Mayfair Mechanic Cheerful and spirited. Very gifted storyteller. Turns shy when complimented. Ride or die for people and sticks with them longer than they might deserve. Marches to the beat of her own drum. Georgina “George” Campbell Mechanic Has a soft spot for strays. Suffers no fools. Is here to win a war, not ogle cute men. Perpetually fighting a losing battle against the grease stains on her uniform. The best co-conspirator you could ask for. Imogene “Genie” Chapman Clubmobile girl Very outgoing people-person. Better at giving advice than at taking it. Designated hair-cutter. Loves movies and dancing. Knows just about anybody by name. Jack Ellis OSS Doesn’t miss a beat. No-nonsense natural leader. Very determined to do what he believes is the right thing. Talks about the war in terms of “the game”. Warm and caring once he lets his guard down.

[artist-issues]

Raya and the Last Dragon popped into my head today and I kept thinking about how the incredibly unsubtle and poorly executed message of trusting others felt like a first draft.

What do you think about it? Would a revised script with the same story premise fix that film? Or was it doomed from the get go in what it was trying to say?

Good question! I go back and forth. I think the movie's biggest weak point was its writing, so I guess I'd say, "a revised script with the same story premise would fix it!"

There's nothing wrong at all with a message like "Without trust, we can't stand together." Because it's very true. Everyone has priorities, and there's always a chance they'll choose themselves over you, or over the "greater good." But if you keep trying to take control of the situation by believing the worst about them before it happens, you'll be exhausted & jaded, they'll be exhausted & jaded, and all your time and energy will be spent on competing with each other for the grand prize of "who can look out for their own interests better."

I think Raya and the Last Dragon's premise works for a truth like that. It makes total sense to have a girl who's competitive become jaded and control-freaky when her father, the symbol of the virtue of trust & good faith, is murdered by betrayal. And not just any betrayal, but betrayal from someone she directly tried to befriend and trust as a sort of "first experience" with that good faith her dad was always talking about. Makes total sense. And it's impactful; something that traumatic and personal would cause a relatable character flaw that the heroine needs drastic measures to overcome.

I actually love the concept of Sisu too. I like the idea that she's this pure, selfless soul who's got childlike faith—but, all the jaded people in a post-apocalyptic world respect and consider her worldview because she's a revered dragon. So she really does change minds just by being around them, just by coming back and existing in the first place. I mean, if she had been just a sheltered girl from, say, a different country, who came into the broken Kumandra with stars in her eyes, the bad guys wouldn't have thought twice about whatever she exemplified. But she's a dragon.

And step back and think about it: having a group of characters from every walk of life come together as a mini-experiment in trust and unity during the course of the adventure is a great idea. It's not flashy or original, but it's classic and true. Avatar the Last Airbender has a crew of characters from each tribe combining to defeat evil. When Kenai has a prejudice against bears in Brother Bear, how is that character flaw solved? Not just by him turning into one, but by him having to travel with and get to know one.

What they get to know is that they all have something in common: they've all lost people to the great evil in the world. And, they all want the same things, despite cultural differences. They all want their families back, they all want safety and success.

So yeah, the pieces are all there. The problem is, the writing was just super clunky. Theres a lot of telling, when it comes to the story, instead of showing. There's not no showing. There's just not enough.

I know this is already a long post, but I'll just point out: Aladdin's message had a lot to do with trust, too. But no character ever said out loud, "you have trust issues and you need to work through them." Certainly not more than once. The closest you get is Genie telling Aladdin to be himself.

Instead, you're just shown that Jasmine is the type of girl to give an apple to a hungry kid without even thinking about whether or not the shopkeeper wouldn't want her to do it. She's the type of girl who plays along with a scrubby boy from the marketplace trying to help her. She's the kind of girl who goes out with a Prince even though she has reason to believe he's already lying to her. She just does those things, and never says, "hey, why did you lie to me--you have trust issues!"

Meanwhile Aladdin's whole story is him bending over backwards to control what everyone thinks of him, because he can't trust them to accept him as he is. But he never says, "Trust gets me hurt." He just says, "if Jasmine knew I was really some crummy street-rat, she'd laugh at me."

Those sentences that the characters say are well-written because they are realistic. Only in our modern psycho-babble Instagram-influencer culture, where everyone thinks they're an expert on the human psyche, are teenagers starting to say things like "My trauma causes me to struggle with trust."

What Aladdin says is much more immediate, much more down-to-earth than that. It shows where his brain is in that moment. He's not thinking about the general philosophy of truth and trust. He's just thinking about what he should or shouldn't say on his date, and how scary the idea of getting laughed at is. We, the audience, are smart enough to infer that it's all rooted in trust issues. We don't need Genie to deliver a speech six times to make it abundantly clear.

I'm capable of identifying that as the problem, but I'm not great at doing it, myself. I know the language, I'm not great at speaking it. But actually I'm going to punt this part of the question over to @doverstar , who is very skilled at "show, don't tell," especially in dialogue. How would you re-write that scene where Sisu is trying to convince Raya of the importance of trust?

One final thing that I think handicaps Raya and the Last Dragon is that, because of the way they're written, the characters lose likability. Theres a way to have a traumatized, defensive girl who thinks she knows everything still be likable. Just like there was a way to have a selfish, insecure liar be likable in Aladdin.

I think there are other issues—I'd have completely written out the baby and the monkeys, and I'd have cut the fight sequences between two teenage girls way shorter because nobody cares about them. But that can be for another post.

[veeluvss]

terrors.

emily x f!reader fluff

emily had been having nightmares about a certain unsub who has been teasing her

she takes you with her to solve the case

+1k words

i woke up to the bed jolting. instantly, my eyes opened and i saw the back of her head, shaking.

"baby," i whispered, resting my hand on her back. she sighed and her breathing was deep.

"nightmares again?"

"yeah," she mumbled out, rubbing her head. i sat up so i could see her but she avoided eye contact with me.

"you need to speak to someone about this Em," i said softly.

"no, no," she insisted. "i'm fine. i just have to catch the guy." she sighed and threw the covers off her.

"go back to sleep baby," she mumbled, she grabbed my face and kissed me softly before heading to the bathroom. no way was i going back to sleep, if she doesn't then i don't either.

the next day, i was baking some cookies when i got a call from emily.

"hey hot stuff," i smirked down the phone. we'd passed our night with other activities and i still wasn't over it.

"hey baby. what you doing?"

"baking your favourite, what you doing?"

"we'll i'm about to head to new york. i think he's there. fancy a vacation?" i gasped. i'd always wanted to go to new york.

"pick me up on the way!" i giggled, running up the stairs.

"turn the oven off sweet cheeeeeks," she teased down the phone. i giggled and ran back down, making sure the house wasn't going to burn whilst we were away.

on the plane, she phoned her old boss aaron. she'd told me all about her team over and over again. i'd spoken to rossi on the phone a few times but it was never anything serious. they were assisting on the case so i'd get to meet them.

"hotch," emily said just before he said goodbye. we were heading to new york and they were too.

"prentiss," he replied, raising one eyebrow.

"my girlfriend is with me," emily said, smiling widely. i saw hotch smile too and i felt good. i'm glad i'd got to come.

when emily and i first got together, it had been difficult at first. she didn't want to settle in london, hoping she'd one day go back to the us but i guess i was just too captivating for her. for a while, we were friends with benefits - she used me and i used her, we both knew that but as time went on, i could tell she was falling for me. one drunken night in my hot tub, she confessed her love for me - sobbing into her glass of red wine and i'd never been more happy with someone in my life.

"sit there, eat cheetos and be good," she whispered to me, planting a kiss on my forehead as she began making up her murder board. i chuckled and ate my cheetos, one after the other. emily spoke to herself as she pinned things to the wall. i watched her in awe, she was gorgeous. my girl.

"excuse me, i'm looking for emily prentiss," someone said, coming to the door.

"you've found her." emily smiled, shaking her hand.

"i'm tara lewis! i've heard lots of good things about you!"

"all of it is true," my girlfriend smiled and nodded over to me. "this is my girlfriend, y/n y/ln."

"it's nice to meet you!" tara said.

shortly after, the whole team entered the room. i stayed in the corner, feeling a little nervous. this was lots of people all of a sudden.

emily smiled and shared a hug with them all, then turned to me, smiling widely. "this my girl," she smirked. rossi smiled and came over to me, smiling.

"welcome to the family darling!"

i smiled and did the introductions, everyone seems lovely but it was too many of them.  i wasn't a people person.

they thankfully got stuck straight into the case so i disappeared back into the background, eating my cheetos.

we ended up heading to Chicago, i followed like a silent lost puppy yet again. the team tried to get me involved but i wasn't a big talker, especially in front of groups so i just faded into the background, not that i minded. when emily fell asleep, head on my shoulder, i had an awful feeling and then, she started shouting JJ.

the whole team were around her, JJ trying to wake her up and i was shaking her hand.

"i'm awake, i'm awake," she whispered, sitting up. she looked around her.

"sorry," she mumbled, blushing. "why are you all staring at me?" it was true- everyone was staring at her.

"you were dreaming." spencer said. no shit sherlock. i just took emily's hand in mine, offering her the support and she squeezed it.

we caught him. emily shot him in the head. she came back to the precinct - a visible weight lifted off her shoulder.

"you did it," i said, wrapping my arms around her neck. she lifted me up and kissed me.

"i did it baby," she smirked. i giggled as she spun us around and i couldn't be prouder.

"i'm so proud of you," i told her, running my hands through her hair.

"thank you for coming with me," she said, kissing me softer. i smiled and put my head on her shoulder. i'd never leave her, ever.

emily and i headed back to quantico with the team. emily was dying to see Penelope and they'd arranged a surprise to see her. when we got there, emily and i were walking down the corridor, hand in hand when we stopped outside an office. the office of derek morgan - by the sign on the door. inside stood the one and only penelope garcia. emily smiled, letting go of my hand and walking in.

"yo, up baby girl, what you doing in my office?" she laughed. instantly, i burst out laughing, penelope did too, wiping her tears.

"what are you doing here?" she asked, grabbing emily's face and giving her a big hug. i smiled, letting myself fall into the corner.

"you thought i'd come all the way here and not come see you?"

"when did you land, no one told me you were landing! no one tells me anything around here," she chuckled but then her eyes fell on me. her eyebrows raised and she gasped. i couldn't help but smile.

"oh my goodness ! you must be y/n y/ln! i've known about you two for soooo long but i couldn't tell anyone! oh my goodness, you're here," garcia gasped, jumping closer to me. i laughed and gave her a light hug. emily smiled sympathetically at me.

"it's lovely to meet you," i told her.

"you toooo sugar plum." she giggled.

not long later, myself, emily and the entire team were heading out for mexican. according to emily, i'd never had good mexican food because i was born and raised in england. the team were all lovely - garcia especially. we sat around the table, me between emily and rossi. i liked this. looking at em, i saw how happy she was - how wide her smile was and how it had been there the entire time we'd been here. she was happy here. this was her place and you know what, i think it's mine too.

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Bad tune, but it rhymed

Maribat Biofamily September

Day 26: Milk Carton

@maribat-calendar-events

It had started when Dick absently turned his milk carton around after pouring himself a glass, sighing when he found a new face printed on the side.

It was good, of course, getting a child’s face out there when they went missing. The program itself had led to very few success stories so far, but the successes had still happened. Anything that helped people find kidnapped children was a good thing.

It was, however, a slightly depressing thing, to turn your carton around during breakfast and see a missing child’s face on the side. To know that, if they were printed on the side of a carton, they’d been missing for quite a while. To know that most kidnapping victims didn’t live past the first few days.

He crossed one leg over the other, peering at the face on the carton. At the name inscribed beneath it:

Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

His lips pressed into a thin line.

Well, he supposed that he knew what case he was going to be investigating today. Maybe it would be good for Robin – for Damian – to have a relatively nonviolent case to solve. The kid wasn’t coming around to the ‘please don’t murder people’ mentality, which was… certainly exhausting.

Dick wondered if this was how Bruce had felt while raising him, way back when.

It wasn’t as if he could ask a dead man for his thoughts, though.

His eyes flicked to the plate of waffles in front of him. Barely picked at. They were soggy with syrup. Alfred’s waffles were always amazing, but these days they were just… okay. Dick wasn’t sure whether this was a sign that Alfred was depressed, or if it was him.

As terrible as it was, he hoped that Alfred was the one who was depressed. Dick had too much on his plate right now, he didn’t need a mental illness making it worse.

His eyes flicked to the smattering of pills beside his plate. Absently, he counted them out, and then popped them into his mouth. With a few swallows of milk, his pills were gone, and the years of medical complications that came with crimefighting had been abated once more.

He picked up the milk carton again, shaking it to see whether there was enough milk left to bother keeping.

His eyes caught on the young girl’s face again.

He could bring this family closure, if nothing else.

~

He leaned back in Bruce’s – his – chair, squinting up at the last known footage of Marinette, dated to a little over two months ago. She had been with her friend at the time. They had gone out shopping, as teens are wont to do. The friend was holding her bags for her. They swung between the pair of them with every wild wave of the boy’s hands as he spoke. Marinette dodged the assailing bags with a practiced kind of ease, chatting peacefully.

Until her friend, Adrien Agreste, tripped over a piece of sidewalk that had jutted out more than expected, and went sprawling over the ground.

For a moment, Marinette paused. Squinted at her friend, trying to gauge whether he was okay. From the looks of it, Adrien had skinned his knee, but frankly he was lucky that he hadn’t impaled himself on a discarded needle. Once she had assured herself that he would live, she pointed and laughed.

They were just teens having fun. There was a hair of tension that never left their shoulders, sure, but they were hardly more tense than any other Gothamite walking past them.

The Agreste family hadn’t filed a police report, claiming that Marinette had walked Adrien home and then left their doorstep, never to return. It was entirely possible that Adrien Agreste and his father were the last people who had seen Marinette.

Most kidnappings are done by people who knew the victim.

“Robin,” Dick called, spinning in his chair. Damian was struggling with the clasp on his cape, but immediately stopped when he noticed Dick was looking at him. The cape slid to the floor behind him. Dick, kindly, decided not to point this out. “We’re going to Little Paris.”

~

There was, surprisingly, quite a bit of information on both of the teens. Adrien was an Agreste, a child who modeled for his father’s relatively successful fashion line. According to way too many articles speculating on the personal lives of children, the two had been friends for years – and, perhaps, more.

Dick wasn’t interested in rumors, so he went with what was confirmed: they were childhood friends. They were both the children of French immigrants, and had bonded because of that.

There was also a high chance that they had bonded over their intellect. They both made top scores on every test.

Much to the chagrin of their teachers, who would complain that Marinette had a tendency of passing out cold in any class she deemed ‘unnecessary’ – considering Marinette’s parents owned a bakery, the strange sleep schedule checked out.

But Adrien was a star student in every sense of the word. A perfect attendance record, grades that never dipped below a 95, never causing a fuss…

Adrien’s mother had passed away sometime last year. His grades hadn’t dipped in the slightest.

~

Batman and Robin stepped through the silent house, careful not to let their shoes squeak on the tile floors. The frankly ungodly number of alarms had been deactivated, but that wouldn’t mean anything if they woke someone up prematurely.

Most of the people who happened to hear something in the middle of the night assumed that it was simply their house settling, or someone in a nearby apartment, or the AC clicking on, but rich people were unlikely to let any sound go. Sure, they might assume similar things, but they would also likely investigate, if only because they had paid millions for their houses and therefore were almost offended when it wasn’t in perfect condition.

They stepped into Adrien’s room.

Despite the late hour, the teenager wasn’t home.

Batman and Robin shared confused glances. Teachers hadn’t discussed a sudden uptick in delinquency from Adrien. Hadn’t mentioned a single behavioral change in any of the files Dick had managed to get his hands on.

Perhaps the teen was just sneaky?

Dick worried his lip for just a moment, before remembering that that wasn’t a habit befitting of Batman. He pointed for Robin to check Adrien’s computer, and then began searching the room.

The place was clean. Not classic ‘rich people’ clean – too clean. There was no laundry in the basket, nothing that seemed out of place, no hint that anyone lived there at all.

And, apparently, the computer was out of battery, as Robin was forced to plug it in.

The hair on the back of his neck prickled, and he resisted the urge to try and flatten the issue. The cowl would have prevented it anyway.

Robin finally managed to boot up the computer.

Only to frown.

Because the computer’s logs hadn’t shown any activity for over two months.

… Marinette wasn’t the only one that had been kidnapped.

And, for some reason, no one had reported this. Not the police who had supposedly stopped by for questioning, not his teachers.

Not Gabriel Agreste.

There was only one kind of person who could get away with this sort of thing in Gotham.

“Robin, heat vision,” Batman said, immediately swapping over himself. A film covered his eyes, and he grimaced as he picked up on a couple of heat signatures a few floors down.

Batman and Robin were on the first floor.

He sighed.

They could either brute force their way down with gadgets, or painstakingly search the house for a way down.

But these kids had already been missing for over two months.

Subtlety in this kind of scenario would only prolong their suffering.

“Robin, subdue Gabriel Agreste,” Batman said. As wary as Dick was of leaving Robin with a person who could be deemed as ‘evil’, the two teens would need someone with a delicate touch, and Dick didn’t trust Damian to be particularly gentle when he wasn’t watching.

Robin immediately rushed out the door.

Not a great sign.

Dick allowed himself a silent sigh.

And then he started cutting his way through the floor.

It wasn’t long before he found himself in a Cold War-era nuclear bunker. Not a great one, considering Batman had been able to get through it without much effort, but that was definitely its original intention.

Now, though, it seemed to be a holding cell.

The two teens were passed out on the floor, wrapped around each other, probably to stave off the cold. But, as if feeling their gazes, Adrien blinked awake. Dull eyes blinked at him for a minute, uncomprehending.

Dick fought back a wince. Slowly, his hands out in front of him to show they were empty, he approached the pair.

“Hey,” he said, softly. “I’m going to get you out of here, okay?”

Marinette didn’t stir even when he spoke. Her face remained pressed into Adrien’s chest. Adrien hugged her closer, as if trying to hide her from view.

“Go ‘way,” Adrien slurred.

“I won’t hurt either of you,” he promised, taking another careful step forward. “I’m here to help.”

Adrien seemed to realize that Batman kept getting closer to them, because he sat up, slowly, dragging Marinette with him.

“Is she okay?” Batman asked, deciding to change tactics. “She’s pretty out of it.”

Adrien shook his head. “‘S fine, she can fix herself when she wakes up.”

“Are you sure? What if she doesn’t wake up?”

Adrien’s eyes widened in horror.

Dick might have felt a little bad about manipulating a probably-drugged, definitely-traumatized teen, but frankly he really was worried about whether she would wake up. Neither of them were in good health, that much was clear, and the Batcave had basically all of his equipment.

Slowly, Adrien dragged the both of them to their feet and started stumbling over.

~

Dick watched Damian tend to the two teens, Marinette’s lax expression pinching just slightly as an IV of saline solution was inserted into her arm, Dick noted that Marinette honestly didn’t look that different than Damian.

In fact, they looked eerily similar.

He glanced at the blood he had already collected from both of them for the sake of checking their vitals, since there was definitely something in their systems keeping them as well-behaved and docile as they were.

Adrien and Marinette had probably been dosed with the same thing. And Dick really needed to assuage the creeping sense of dread.

But, as he ran it through the machine, and pulled up her DNA…

He found that his suspicions were correct.

Her DNA matched Bruce’s and Damian’s.

Dick pressed his face into his hands, groaning a curse, uncaring of whether it was ‘unbecoming’ of him.

How was Bruce managing to make his life miserable from beyond the grave?!

[bingo6776]

In sickness and in health

i genuinely hate this, and yes the ending is rushed because i am lazy and yeah xxxx 

1.6k

Wednesday was not a person that was easily worried, even about the people she genuinely cared for. She had faith in their abilities to defend themselves, and if that faith waivered she was more than ready to step in and protect them in any shape or form. That shape and form usually being freshly sharpened blades meeting the soft flesh of whoever thought it would be a good idea to harm the ones she loves.

Which is why when you had been missing from the day's classes, which is something you’d never usually do, she felt the familiar icy grip of worry tugs at her heart. Illogical thoughts of the numerous enemies she had rallied up at her stay at Nevermore flashing before her eyes, your body beaten and bloody held in their grip. Normally she found the idea of Tyler still hunting her down with Thornhill and her army of decaying colonisers to be amusing, such a sad attempt at a long-dead victory, yet when she thought of you being in harm's way because of her, her normally steady heart picked up a few paces.

So, in her mind, she was rightfully worried that you had been brutally murdered and left in a ditch. Although usually, the prospect of a new murder to solve would have excited her, considering this was you her excitement was more fear and cold, dark dread.

“Enid,” Wednesday called as she stared down at the girl seated at one of the Quad’s lunch tables. “I am concerned about Y/N, they have been out of lessons all day. It is unlike them.”

The blonde girl flashed the scowling girl a quick smile, “don’t worry about it, apparel they caught some cold from a normie. Seriously, how those guys get sick so often is beyond me. But anyways, yeah.”

Whilst Wednesday did feel her worry lower slightly, it still did not disappear. She hated the thought of you being in pain and alone…

This is why she was currently pushing the door to your dorm open, she let her eyes adjust to the pitch-black darkness of the room before slowly stepping inside.

“Y/N?” her voice came out as a soft whisper, carefully trying not to land on any squeaky floorboards.

The only response she got was a rough grunt, followed by wheezing that grated against her ears, the stuffiness of the room feeling as if it was clawing at her skin.

Oh, God. 

Wednesday hated sick people. 

She loathed people on a good day, but sick people? In her experience with Pugsley, they were clingy, pathetic, and the embodiment of everything Wednesday was disgusted by. But no, this was you. gritting her teeth and ignoring the stifling aura of your dorm, she forced herself not to just turn and leave.

“Wends?” you reached over to turn on your bedside lamp, a soft groan coming from your mouth as your sensitive body stretched too quickly. “Whatcha doin’ here?”

As a soft glow flooded the room, Wednesday got a good look at you. Your hair was in complete disarray, your skin flushed, eyes drooping. Despite the lack of blankets on your body, there was still a thin gleam of sweat across your body.

“You were not in classes. I had begun to think someone had maimed you and left you for dead.”

“Yeah, well, I fucking wish. Anything would be bet-“ you couldn’t finish your sentence as your wheezing turned into a round of violent coughs that left your chest aching and your throat feeling raw.

Wednesday stepped towards your bed, pulling the water bottle by your bed up to your lips, titling your head back gently as you gulped down as much water as you could.

“Careful, drinking too fast will only cause stomach pains,” her voice was delicate as her fingers brushed a piece of hair that was clinging to your forehead away.

“God ‘s so hot in here,” you flopped back down onto your pillow. With your eyes widening slightly you rushed out a string of questions about missing any important projects or tests, you really couldn’t let your grades slip. Not so close to these stupid fucking exams.

Without thinking, Wednesday placed her hand back on your forehead, soothing your hair back as she looked down at you. a relieved sigh came from your lips as you felt her slightly calloused hands touch your skin, her freakishly cold skin cooling the rampaging heat that swam through your body.

“You should be focusing on getting healing, your grades will not suffer if you do not attend classes for a few days,” the goth absolutely hated how soft her voice sounded, but she felt the urge to console you in some way. She shared your desire to succeed in every aspect of life, to be the best of the best. Wednesday liked the envious or crushed looks the other students gave her when she got practically perfect scores again, it truly was as close to euphoria as Wednesday had felt at Nevermore. Except when she was with you, of course.

Her line of thought was broken as you hummed lightly as her hand moved against your hair once again, your stomach growling softly not too long after, yet you looked far too content and tired to even notice your apparent hunger.

“Stay here, I will be back soon,” the small girl briskly walked towards the door, leaving as quietly as she arrived.

You had spent what felt like hours fighting off sleep, trying to ignore the pounding in your head and the way breathing became more painful each time your coughed, no matter how gently your tried to do it.

But more than anything you missed how her voice soothed the pounding in your head, how her touch let you feel like you could relax, really relax. Like you were safe and taken care of. At this point, you were ready to forfeit your life to whatever satanic demon was currently trying to pull it away from you.

As you felt your eyes droop closed yet again, the door was pushed open slightly, Wednesday was holding a steaming bowl of what smelt like your favourite soup.

Placing the bowl on your desk, she helped you sit up, her touch firm but caring, it almost felt as if she was worried that placing too much pressure on your currently frail body would lead you to shatter into a million pieces in her arms.

“You know, I never expected you to be so … so gentle,” you rasped out as she slowly raised a spoon of the hot food to your lips.

“I may not show it in conventional ways but I care for you more than you will ever know. Every breath I take is for you, every time I stop myself from slicing into one of these moronic outcasts is for you.”

“If I didn’t think I was going to die soon, I’d be swooning so hard right now, my love.”

Wednesday rolled her eyes as she simply kept feeding you, handing you a napkin now and then to clean yourself up. Once you were finished, she stood again with the bowl in hand.

“Wait here, I will be back soon,” and just like before she practically glided towards the door.

Before she could touch the doorhandle you called out, waiting for her dark eyes to refocus on you. “Can – can you stay? Just for a bit. I’m feeling a lot better with you here, Wednesday,” you smiled slightly.

As if contemplating her options, she stared at you for a few seconds before letting out a sigh and walking back towards your bed, planting herself on the floor with her head leaning back to rest by your hand.

“What the fuck are you doing, Addams?” you laughed and patted her head. “C’mon, come up. I promise not to infect you.”

“One, you could not even think of infecting an Addams, Pugsley and I used to play with vials containing essences of the bubonic plague whilst you were learning your ABCs,” she sat up straighter, raising a brow at you in the classical Wednesday way. “And two, I do not snuggle, I do not cuddle. You shall just have to suffer in pitiful silence, or let me leave.”

Throwing your head back in a loud groan despite the pang in your throat, you reach down as far as you can and get a firm grasp on her wrist and try to pull her up from her seat without moving too much yourself.

“Wends, I could literally die tomorrow. I could die tonight, so please, just – hold me for five minutes, okay? Five. That’s all I ask.”

Just for good measure you also throw in your best attempt at pleading puppy dog eyes, hoping you feel look less desperate than you feel.

Rolling her eyes so hard you’re concerned they may get stuck in the back of her head, she stands and climbs over to the very small piece of the bed that you weren't already sprawled over.

Without missing a beat you curl into her side, relishing in her icy skin coming into contact with your overheating body. You never thought you’d crave the feeling of ice crawling through your veins so much until you met Wednesday that is.

“I suggest you enjoy this, Y/N, I’ve already started the countdown,” gently she wraps an arm around your body when you only hum in response.

That five minutes was a total lie. You’d planned on immediately going to sleep as soon as the gothic girl climbed into your bed, and you weren’t one to ever flake out on plans.

Was Wednesday too soft to move you, especially when you looked so cutely pathetic clinging to her as you slept? Absolutely.

[clownsalot]

yea ok i know im not the only one voicing concerns over amane getting forgiven this trial but. i am actually so worried for what'll happen if she is so im going to talk about it anyway

longish post?? i think?? so uh. read more

- on the one hand, the one everyone talks about: shidou's physical safety. this one's obvious

you can argue that amane is 12 and shidou is a grown ass man more than twice her age but also;;;; a lot of theories ive seen of amane also include her victim being an adult. 12 years old or not, there's a lot you can do with a weapon when you catch someone off guard, and shidou isn't exactly fit to fight someone off, even a 12 year old on adrenaline. also given how he's working himself to the bone keeping mahiru alive and taking care of fuuta he's probably not going to be all that alert to his surroundings either. though with kazui once again innocent leaning, hopefully this concern can be set aside for a while.

- on the other hand, what worries me more (ie making me shit my fucking pants in fear) is that there's another real threat amane poses that can't be solved by kazui being forgiven: amane is trying to convert fuuta.

(from fuuta's 2023 birthday timeline on the wiki)

shidou's safety can be accounted for, but whay about fuuta? fuuta, whose mental health is going to shit and at an all time low; fuuta, desperate for anything that'll give him a sense of safety and security? right now fuuta is a textbook example of someone vulnerable to cult indoctrination, which amane will happily provide. there was also @vampuppyy 's post (that i agree with and also makes other good points) that mentioned this could be compounded if amane is forgiven as well. hell, fuuta's second trial voice drama is even named BAPTISM OF FIRE.

if amane is forgiven this trial, someone is definitely getting hurt.

- the threat amane poses aside however, i do have my own reasons for voting her guilty this round beyond her potential to hurt someone. and it's that i don't think forgiving her is actually going to do her much good??

(amane's second trial voiceline, also from the wiki)

she says she'll forgive us for trial 1 and to think about our verdict again carefully with the implication that she expects to be forgiven this round. i think forgiving her this round will do nothing but just tell her 'we were wrong to not forgive you the first time, your cult beliefs are right actually. thank you for your generosity, please take this as an apology for our mistake' which does nothing but reinforce her belief that she's righteous in her cult mentality, especially if we're right about her murder being partially motivated by her believing her victim also broke one of the cult's tenets. she's going to turn out like muu singing about how 'it's not my fault' won't she?

i get why people are forgiving her this round and im not saying it's wrong (honestly good for amane for killing her abuser!! you go girl slay), but imo it's not the best decision to make right now given the circumstances. of course milgram's strict innocent/guilty system doesn't allow for any kind of nuance, and i do realize a guilty won't be good for her either, but i think doubling down on the guilty and not forgiving her this round might be the better decision in the long run. if we still want to forgive her, we always have trial 3 to do it anyway

(honestly i think if we wanted to forgive her it should've been in trial 1—but there's nothing we can do about that anymore, all we can do now is play damage reduction trying to fix what went wrong after the trial 1 results)

so uh. yeah that's all the reasons im guilty voting amane this trial 👍 i hope this was coherent

[subbyfoxelf]

gencon 2024 after action report, part 2: day 2 (friday)

previously on gencon con report.

i had a pretty light day on friday in terms of scheduled events, which i think is something i'll try to do differently if i (hopefully) go back next year. grammy had a gm shift that started basically immediately, and mommy had a game in the afternoon that i wasn't part of, but vi had a couple hours before we parted ways so we decided to spend a couple hours at the boardgamegeek hot games room.

the hot games room is basically a large room with tables for folks to play at and a library of popular new release board games. i think the games were in alphabetical order, i say "think" because literally right at the beginning of the line was a copy of arcs, and we really didn't need to look at any of the other games once we saw that they had it considering the rave reviews it's been getting.

after getting a chance to play it, it's incredibly easy to see why it's been such a critical success. arcs is a game about space colonization and conflict with plenty of optionality in how you approach it. there's a lot of unsurprising mechanics like resource management and earning victory points, and of course rolling dice to resolve space conflict, but also some slightly more unexpected ones like a light trick-taking aspect to resolving actions on each turn.

above all, it's complicated & multifaceted without being intimidating. we were able to pick up the rules in no time, and once we did gameplay was smooth & exciting. this also feels like a game with a ton of replay value, and that's just the base game. there's also a campaign expansion that i'd love to try somewhere down the line when the game is more widely available. (the lgs i work at had it in stock for a minute because we backed the kickstarter, but it sold out basically immediately. again, after playing it it's really not difficult to see why.)

after this there was a rather long gap in my schedule that i made the somewhat ill-advised choice of trying to fill by looking for mtg singles in the vendor hall. it didn't take long for the sensory overload to get to me, and to make matters worse i was basically in the middle of the huge hall and literally couldn't find the exit for a good 30 minutes or so.

when i did finally make it out, i made a beeline for the quiet room, but when i got there it was literally full. if i have one piece of feedback for the event, they REALLY need more than one quiet room. finding literally no respite after that vendor hall honestly kind of broke me and i ended up in pretty rough shape, just kind of wandering aimlessly through moving crowds of people until i finally found a relatively quiet corner of one of the satellite hotels to just kind of collapse in for a while. and honestly if there had just been another quiet room this would have been easily avoidable.

anyway, after a while to recover i met back up with grammy & cj, waited for mommy to finish vir game, and we all got some food before heading to our second game with all four of us together, brindlewood bay.

brindlewood bay is for sure in contention for my favorite rpg we played at the con, though it's difficult to compare to my other favorite for reasons that will become clear when we get to it in the next post. brindlewood bay is a pbta cozy mystery rpg that is something of a marriage between what i imagine golden girls is like (i've never watched it) and murder she wrote. basically, you're a team of old lady sleuths who need to solve various crimes while also gradually learning about some larger eldritch threat lurking in the shadows. (we didn't get too far on that track, it feels like that's more for a longer campaign than on your first sitting.)

during character creation you pick a sort of detective superpower (mine, which i sadly didn't end up using, was encyclopedia brown's ability to use one piece of real-world trivia to help solve the mystery), an overall style (i picked hippy-dippie; see! told you it would come up later), and a "cozy activity" (i picked gardening, because i think that's the old lady activity i'm the most likely to develop later in life). after you pick all your traits and the few stats you need to fill in, you go around the table and suggest some resources for each other to have access to. one of the other players had cooking as their "cozy activity," so the party gifted that player an herb garden, and they gifted my character an "herb" garden since her hippy-dippy style felt at least a bit weed-coded.

another thing that came up rather organically is that my character & mommy's ended up being the "and so, they were roommates!" brand of lesbians, and the entire table including the gm seemed to get a big kick out of that.

this was my first experience with pbta, so i don't have much to compare it to, but i wouldn't be shocked if a lot of these games more or less come down to "if you/your playgroup like the premise/vibe you'll enjoy it," and i really think gencon helped "break the seal" on these sorts of games for me, and i'm hoping that'll translate into me being a bit more adventurous about trying more games instead of just watching the pile of games we own but haven't played get bigger & bigger.

but yeah, that was a wrap on day 2! only two games, but definitely a case of quality over quantity, so no complaints here.

[saint-sebastian-coded]

please tell me about the books you’ve read recently i would love some recommendations 👀🤲

okay!!!! im bored so heres my thoughts on all the books ive read (or finished reading) since the start of summer

all of murder most unladylike 5/5 its a middle grade series (9 books) about two girls in the ninteen thirties who go to boarding school together and solve murder. its so funny and i really like the historical perspective in it too. i read it originally when it was coming out but i decided to look at it again (can't remember the exact reason why but anyway). soooo fun and pretty clever too

monk and robot duology by becky chambers about 4.5-4.75/5 very interesting world building im not sure i fully understood it so im going to reread but i think its speculative fiction about a post technological world but a robot decides to visit and becomes friends with a monk

all of the locked tomb series. twice. 5/5. i feel i do not have to explain this everyone read it Now

priory of the orange tree 5/5 this is my fourth read through i'm currently on my second read of a day of fallen night (the prequel) and !!!! the prose !!! the world building !!! the characters. i kinda hate that very few people like niclays i love niclays he's so funny to me and a complete cunt

all of nevermoor. twice 5/5. its 223 days to the fourth book coming out and in the hiatus ive managed to write like 19% i think of all fic for it on ao3. so yk. i like it a normal amount its like its very fun middle grade series (im going into my junior honours year of uni so my summer reading was v self indulgent lmao) about a girl who is rescued from death at the last minute and has to compete to get into a specific society so she won't get deported and the world building is sooo good and i love the characters sooo much

fun home by alison bechdel 5/5 the way the narrative is presented in this like all the negative space where things arent said but we're supposed to understand its very good

the gilded wolves 3.5/5 i feel like its on me for like. starting this in june 2023 and reading little bits over the year bc i was a bit confused so im gonna try reading this again sometime but it was pretty fun ngl

transgender marxism 4/5 i found the ideas in this interesting but im not sure i understood all of it so im gonna read around the subjects a bit so i get it more

black leopard red wolf by malon james 3.5/5. i kinda lost where the plot was going about halfway through so this is another book on my reread list but the prose is soooo good that it kept me going

honey girl by morgan rogers 4.25/5 this is about an astrophysicist who has a vegas wedding after she goes out right after getting her phd and is kinda lost in what she wants to do so she strikes up a sort of friendship sort of relationship with her wife from the opposite side of the usa and i found it to be a really nice read

wolfsong by tj klune 4/5 this book is kinda long for what it needs to be tbh and i dont really like the omegaverse enough (its not omegaverse but like. omegaverse's third cousin basically like werewolves and stuff) but i enjoyed the writing style

he who drowned the world by shelley parker-chan 5/5 its the sequel to she who became the sun and i love that zhu has such a good time in this book the second the narrative turns to her its almost a buddy comedy. amazing prose love the world building love the themes love the characters. banger. cant wait to see what shelley parker-chan does next

kemosha of the caribbean by alex wheatle 3.25/5 its about this girl who's a slave in port royal during the golden age of piracy and wins her freedom in a duel and joins a pirate ship as a cook so she can get the money to buy her brother's freedom. i liked it but i think im kinda past ya ig

the aeneid by vergil (cecil day lewis translation) 4/5 oh my goddddd oh my god. amazing. poem of all time

kyoshi duology by fc yee 4.5/5 on one hand i liked it more the first time i read it but like its still good its just ive read some really amazing books since but i love kyoshi and rangi so much and i really like the povs from jianzhu zoryu and yun also

the silmarillion by jrrt 3/5 i did not understand. i will read again im sorry tolkien fans

the mcga trilogy by rick riordan 4/5 this book series was my personality from the release of sword of summer to like two years ago??? on one hand i forgot how much i liked certain elements on the other hands certain elements did not. age well. or weren't good to start with. i feel like rr should like. get a better handle on his narrative arcs tbh

the histories by herodotus (tom holland. not spiderman translation) 4/5 this was very weird but very interesting

the two ministry of unladylike activity books currently out 5/5 this is the sequel series to murder mosr unladylike but about one of the main character's little sisters and her friends outwith the story (which is excellent) i like that it balances showing that the lives of the original characters are still ongoing without going full nostalgia bait

the kane chronicles by rick riordan 4.5/5 outside of the walt and anubis thing (too old to date a Thirteen Year Old jesus christ) very good honestly rr's best series in terms of worldbuilding, characterisation and narrative arcs

the annals by tacitus (yardley translation) 3.25/5 v good translation but holy shit completely boring im sorry im a tacitus hater i fear. interesting historical source tho

lives of the caesar by suetonius (edwards translation) 3.75/5 every single roman emperor is in hell

the aeneid (aeneid daily) 4.5/5 see above

daughter of the siren queen by tricia levenseller 3.5/5 this could be good but every single romantic scene was punctuated by me saying aloud that i hoped jakey died. i do not remember her boyfriend's name i just do not care. nothing special tbh

the woman of troy by pat barker 4.75/5 this is the sequel to her book the silence of the girls which is a retelling of the iliad from briseis' perspective. this book is still mostly from her perspective but (i believe) a retelling of the troades (i haven't read the troades in english except in summary and i only translated it for like two weeks as a seventeen year old so i forgor but i think it is) i usually hate classical retellings but i like barker's take on things and i just found out (like rn) that theres a third book coming out so im excited about that

the atlas six by olivie blake 2.5/5 this book was written to have out of context parts quoted on tiktok

dictator by robert harris 5/5 this is the finale to his cicero trilogy told through the perspective of tiro whom i love and admire (he probably invented the ampersand and other stuff we use as short hand. everyone say thank you tiro) very good

the eternal ones by namina forna 3.5/5 i really liked the first book in this series and i think i liked the second one too and i think the worldbuilding is compelling but im not interested in any of the characters especially her boyfriend sorry. i liked britta tho. also again i think im kinda past ya rn so

nevermoor graphic novel part two 5/5 i thought the art was beautiful but the story was kinda rushed and one fairly important scene was left out which i was really looking forward too and also messes up some of the relationships which was a shame (unless it got covered in dialogue but i dont speak french i was literally just there for the pictures)

task force z #11 & #12 4/5 nice

tiger tiger by petra erika nordlund 5/5 everyone go read this now its about a girl who steals her brother's identity and his ship to study sea sponges and meets god who is a tits out nonbinary lesbian along the way and also: sea sponge

the lightning thief by rick riordan 4.5/5 the fact that luke didn't say "western civilisation is a disease" in the tv show is a goddamn travesty. also i have many thoughts about the themes of nostos and kleos between luke and percy

a sky beyond the storm by sabaa tahir 4.5/5 i love the world building so much in this book and i had a really good time with the character development too. i want to reread the series at some point all at once bc i finished boom three in december and i think i forgot some parts lmao

cursed crowns by katherine webber and catherine doyle 2.5/5 this book is stupid. some of the dialogue is funny. like twice

the eagle of the ninth by rosemary sutcliff 3.5/5 if aiglemene in tlt isnt inspired by this in some way (eagles, ninth, leg injury) i will be genuinely surprised. good time

the dawn of yangchen by fc yee 4.25/5 not quite as fun as kyoshi but i found the politics very interesting

whale weekly 4/5 i lost the plot like back in 2022 but the prose is immaculate its so fucking tragic and it was so preventable i love the whole cosmic horror of the whale

amari and the night brothers by bb alston 4.75/5 this has the same vibes as nevermoor but like the main character is looking for her brother and accidentally finds out that shes a magician and also this is a bad thing. kinda cliché but very fun and i had a good time

[klinefelterrible]

Don't mind me, I have some quick ideas to probably never use because I can't focus

1- solving crimes mailman, who does everything wrong, has no idea what he's doing and solves murderers during solving the original theft, never finding out the original thief

2- venom-like creature that's neither good nor bad, helping him out of boredom and because he thought the mailman promised him his daughter as a vessel but he actually asked sth like "yeah and I guess you want to fuck my daughter, too" and when V answered "we'll see", the mailman answered "yeah, right, okay" and V thinks it's a deal.

3-mailman's kinda goth daughter who tries to summon a ghost for fun and gets a venom-like monster to possess her but he only makes her more courageous and puts her into funny and scary situations

4- mailman's daughter's best friend who is in love with her and is scared that she'll find out. Venom-like monster knows that and makes a deal with her that if she dies, he'll get her body to devour and in the meantime he's trying to help with her attraction towards his vessel human

5- another monster but this one looks like a little stool chair and practically does nothing really purposeful or helpful except for he can jump really energetically and forcefully and likes violence so jumps into people's faces only to smash them and basically does nothing more than being a trip wire for anyone and he eats feral cats because they eat birds and this self-propelled stool likes birds because they remind him of home

So basically the first case of the mailman and his daughter is the case of missing money from the nearest strip club safe, and the building burns down with club owner in it and they search for the one missing girl who turns out to be mailman's daughter who wanted to buy herself a cool bike so she went there on stage, danced twice or thrice, got her money, got grabbed by a club owner, venom-like monster didn't like it and he disconnected for a minute or two only to he stole money from the safe and the owner recognised the mailman's daughter he threatened her so the venom-like monster came back at night and burned the place down to look like an accident and the mailman accidentally learns that club owner was a rapist and he raped his girls so the mailman detective finds out a perfectly good solution that solves no crime and the story ends with both girls kissing on the bike, mailman tripping over the chair and getting another case of missing cats

[sseanettles]

I struggled to choose (your wips sound so cool!) but I thought I'd go one of your original works :) so yellow rose manor?

haha aw thanks @rriavian! don't worry you picked a fun one!

yellow rose manor is going to eventually be a series, but it's going to be my take of what happens when you have a bunch of zillennial supernatural entities renting an apartment together and their ensuing adventures and shenanigans with all the plots rooted in real life issues of stuff like domestic abuse, religious trauma, addiction, etc. etc.

It's set in San Francisco, so the apartment is an old Victorian home that is haunted on a very structural level by the ghost of a murdered nine year old Victorian era girl who possesses the house because her body was buried in the foundations. So she's the kind of haunting where if you set up foundational stones in other places she can teleport the house to those foundation stones, she can change the very structure of the building to screw with you (moving doors, stairs, etc.) and is simultaneously everyone's mom due to her chronological age vs. death age and the WOULD YOU STOP THAT poltergeist.

Her compatriot and "dad" of the house is the "landlord" which is really just her old friend who solved her murder back in the 1800s and has taken care of her and the house ever since. His fun twist is that he's actually Galahad the grail knight and spends his eternity following the magically moving island of avalon to protect arthur and await his return. We have some good old loyal knight pining after his king situation here. The house moves with him and for now Avalon is magically posted out in San Francisco Bay by Angel Island and Alcatraz, not that mortals can see it. He is begrudging team dad, the tired and burnt out idealist who is trying so hard to not live up to his legend anymore and just be a guy waiting for his love to wake up. Because he's so burnt out about the world that if he tried to use The Greatest Knight Of The Roundtable Skills without those morals/guiding lights anymore, he's going to just hurt people. We'll see if his latest tenants/eventual found family can help him hope and believe again.

The other members of the house are a medium/witch who is running away from her abusive hyper-religious family and is the newest addition to this house (brought on via a craigslist ad because they need someone to purge the ghost haunting this house they just moved into, it's a really nice house with cheap rent and the landlord is never around, pleaaase?).

Then there is a vampire who has agoraphobia from pre-bitten times, was transformed only twenty years ago or so and HATES that this is the era he's gotta be starting out as immortal in. I have some heft addiction and prior domestic abuse arcs planned for him, it's going to be a good but painful time.

There's a werewolf who is Muslim and has the biggest golden retriever energy, and she handles her zoomies energy by playing on a very physical local recreational soccer team. It'll be a take on lycanthropy where it's viewed as a blessing/god giving you the power to defend that which you love instead of a curse, and she treats it as such.

There is one human in the house, his name is Kevin, and he makes sure that everyone has the appropriate meals and nutrition and supernatural existence requirements/enrichment. His running gag is that everyone he gets close to turns out to be supernatural, and he's so proud when he brings his girlfriend home to show off like hey look guys a fully normal human isn't she great? At which point Galahad walks in and just says "yeah so how did you of all people meet Doto the Nereid", and Kevin just loses his mind.

The first book will be called The House On the Hill and opens like this:

There was a house that lived on a hill. This was not unusual for San Francisco where nearly every house, apartment, office, and parking lot was, in fact, built upon a hill. It made for messy city life—parallel parking from an even deeper circle of hell, savage cardio workouts built into the weekly run to the local grocery store (if it hadn’t been demolished in favor of the latest hipster shop in a never-ending chain of hipster shops), and a sizeable yearly budget for brake pads. Nevertheless, there was still a house that lived on a hill.

[man-down-in-hatchet-town]

THE CASE OF THE GREATER GATSBY EPISODE 17 MOMENTUM AND EPISODE 18 SMOOTH

What a lucky girl am I. Citizen Jasper Fox one week, then Mel’s Christmas party (narrated by Cliff and Willie of all people!) the next. The Persauds truly are spoiling me. And so many details to mull over!

Full mulling under the cut. It’s long, there are theories, blah blah blah. You know the drill.

So, uh, guys, DID I ACTUALLY GUESS IT?? Is my wild-and-crazy Sheilah/Mel theory from a couple of posts back actually on the money??? We haven’t gotten full confirmation from the story yet, just suspicion from our characters, and since it’s my theory I’m going to refuse to truly believe until there’s no room for doubt. But Fig and Ford have happily jumped aboard the good ship Meilah, and I’m soooo here to see how that plays out.

On the other hand, the other part of that theory, that TD is Fitzgerald’s mysterious midnight murderer, doesn’t hold up as well. Wilhelmina and Cliff vouch for the fact that he was at the party between Fitzy’s exit and 1am. This doesn’t necessarily mean anything—Scott was too drunk to record the exact time of his own murder, and while we can infer that it was before 1am (as he probably started recording the moment he arrived home), we don’t know for sure. But even if TD didn’t head to Fitzgerald’s in the dead of night, we still have to account for his hour-long disappearance earlier in the evening. Sheilah notably mentions that she cannot find her keys at around the same time that TD goes missing. As staff able to take people’s coats, TD was perfectly situated to lift her keys without being noticed. He likely spent that missing hour breaking into Scott’s and Sheilah’s house, right? He could have been trying to acquire a copy of Greater Gatsby for Mel, accomplish something related to his quest to join the Brigade, or even follow some order from Mel related to Sheilah’s and Fitzy’s latest spat. After all, we know from an off-hand comment from Cliff that the pair had recently had a fight dramatic enough to become full-blown Hollywood gossip.

But Fitzgerald’s murder is not the only mystery to solve. Do we think this Horace Beanslot, with his apparent disdain for original stories, has anything to do with the mysterious death threats plaguing adaptions? Think about it: Horace strikes down Mel’s passion project idea, over-ruling her enthusiasm for genuine storytelling and art (who knew?) because adaptions are a financially safer bet. Barely a week later, Wilhelmina receives the first in a series of threatening letters targeting those involved with making said Hollywood adaptions. What if the letters are an intentional plan cooked up by Mel and/or TD to make adaptions toxic to Hollywood, encouraging Beanslot to allow Mel’s original passion projects instead? That would explain why so many of the letters were dropped off around the Grapes set without anyone noticing—it would be easy for TD or hired help to deliver all manner of things without attracting any attention. A quest to destroy Hollywood’s adaption habit could also explain why Mel seems to be almost actively sabotaging The Grapes of Wrath at every turn.

And then, ever so inevitably, there is the Dash of it all. What the flippity-flappity-frick was he doing at that party? Fitzgerald had yet to be murdered, Wilhelmina had yet to receive the first letter… all of the cases Fig and Ford are investigating technically hadn’t started. So was Dash there on a matter unrelated to what he’s working on now? Or is he part of something that began much earlier than we know? I mentioned last time that Dash only really appears when Willie is around, and this pattern held true once again. Maybe Roger hired him to keep an eye on Wilhelmina while he was away in the slammer? Alternatively, is/was Dash somehow working for Penny? I don’t think this is particularly likely, their alleged Christmastime hook-up feels more like a cheeky nod to Joey and Lauren’s real life marriage, but it seemed worth asking.

As for the interviews, I’m afraid they were a little more informative to Ford than they were to me. It appears we are fast approaching the part of most detective stories in which said detective has figured out the case and chosen to keep their loyal audience (me) in the dark. We’ll just have to see if I can catch up before everything is brought to light. I didn’t get much from Mel and TD, and the Farnsworth Farnsworth aside simply feels like a silly audio-drama bit, but Vivian and Barnaby were as fascinating as always. Much like Ford himself, I was particularly interested to hear that the cops had already questioned Barnaby about his tie clip. Assuming Ford or Claudette didn’t slip up, there’s only a couple of ways the cops could have grabbed that info: Sheilah could have tipped them off, or the cops could have placed it there themselves. We know that Vivian and Mo are very deep in cahoots—what if she gave him the tie clip to place at the scene, and Mo was the mysterious trespasser spotted by Citizen Jasper Fox? We’ve known from the beginning that Vivian is intent on placing the blame for Fitzgerald’s murder at Barnaby’s door, whether he’s guilty or not. Perhaps, due to their pre-nup, locking him up is her attempt to get him out of her life without losing access to his wealth. But if she’s working with Mo, why hire Fig and Ford? And what does our least favorite cop get out of this? Is it tit-for-tat for some help stealing the bar from Bixby? Who knows, maybe Vivian’s having an affair with Mo as well.

Also, speaking of tie clips, Vivian gave F. Scott one on the night of his murder. Coincidence?

Other Stray Thoughts: -Why was Leery’s Christmas so sad? Are the Persuad’s just poking fun at country music tropes, or did he really just lose a love? And does that have anything to do with anything? -Well, Barnaby’s middle name is “Ellis,” not “Eugene.” But you can’t win them all. -We know Mel has mob ties through her sister’s high school boyfriend Lucky Luciano. Does this play into any knowledge she has of Luigi? -Our little Ford’s ice-cold heart is slowly but surely melting and it’s a lovely bit of character development. Just in time for real-life Christmas. -I love Cliff and his friendship with Willie. He’s constantly lowering his expectations and she’s constantly limboing right under them nonetheless. -I desperately want to see this tap-dance adaption of The Grapes of Wrath. Like, what do you mean it will feature actual wrathful-looking grapes??

That’s all I have for these episode! Six more to go!

[bunny-lou]

17. there should be more of this type of fic/art

if you want to answer. Take care!

Ohhh, in terms of Descendants, I would love to see more non-magic AUs! Like, a common AU is magical settings, like Hogwarts or magical creature based universes or royal settings, which Descendants is very similar to. What about 'normal'-AUs, with no magic or royalty or anything. Modern day where the Isle kids are maybe kids who have trouble with the law and want to start a new path and Auradon kids are prep school kids who do skiing trips instead of dinner with kings and queens. There is no magic to solve problems or dragons to fight or future queens/kings, just teenage kids trying to live their life despite what other people think of them.

Instead of Mal being the daughter of the wicked Maleficent, she's the daughter of a woman who's done serious jail time for kidnapping/attempted murder and everyone believes Maleficent's influence has shaped Mal into a bad kid, still vandalizing her town and skipping school.

Jafar is a disgraced local politic caught in embezzlement, Jay is still pickpocketing to feed himself because no one will hire his father anymore.

Cruella has animal cruelty charges up the wall, not with talking dogs, just normal dogs she wanted to turn into a coat and she's been shunned for years, Carlos growing up in isolation as no one wanted to befriend the son of the puppy killer.

Evie is the daughter of a woman outed for marrying her last husband for money, rumors running rampant that she killed him. Snow White was whisked off into custody with a nice family, while Evie was left behind for people to point and whisper at.

Ben isn't the future king, he's the son of the mayor. Audrey comes from a wealthy, well-known family (think Gretchen from Mean Girls, whose father invented the toaster strudel). Chad comes from money too, and they all go to a private school that teaches 'geography' and 'algebra' instead of 'remedial goodness' and 'virtues and values'.

Ben convinces his parents to start a program for kids from the bad side of town to be allowed into their school. There are no famous villains to be whispered about, only those with criminal pasts and their kids who were left forgotten. No wand to steal, no spell book for guidance, no love spell cookies. Just kids trying to make it work in the real world.

Ask me stuff!