#as well as the rest of gen 2 probably

[crowce]

Hello fans of these 3 specifically

[22ayla19]

Hello! I just recently saw your Jiyan x Pregnant! Reader and I loved it sm! I just want to request a part 2 of some sorts maybe? But with a twist like reader gives birth in the time where Jiyan, Rover, Yangyang, and Jianxi had to fight in order to stop the 2nd potential Therenodian War uprising. He and Rover was victorious. When he comes back he sees reader with their child already maybe reader just had given birth so it's a sweet moment? I have been brainrotting about it. >_< Take your time and I hope this request is alright and doesn't go against any rules of your requests. Thank you sm! ✨

Jiyan x Pregnant! Reader PART 2

PART 1

You were already in the last month of pregnancy, childbirth was just around the corner, but the situation in Jinzhou had deteriorated sharply. There were fierce battles on the border where your husband fought. Of course, you knew that your husband was strong and would always emerge victorious from a battle, but you couldn’t help but worry about him, which unfortunately did not have a favorable effect on you. As a result, labor began prematurely, which made my husband's parents worry.

For five hours you suffered in anticipation of full disclosure. Five hours of endless pain. Your mother-in-law did not leave you, because she knew what you were feeling now and support in the person of a loved one would be most welcome.

- Be patient a little longer, dear. Soon there will be a full disclosure, - your mother-in-law consoled you. You just nodded painfully, not wanting to shout to the entire department how much it hurts you.

Now the full disclosure has arrived, you are being wheeled into the delivery room where you will spend the next hours giving birth to your first child.

What you experienced could not be described in words. This is a terrifying pain, as if all your bones were broken. No longer able to hold back your scream, you started screaming throughout the entire delivery room, although you could probably hear it even in the corridor and neighboring rooms.

- Push, daughter! You can! Just a little more! - although your mother-in-law was not present at the birth, as a doctor and a person close to you, she was present at the birth, - Come on, honey! One more time! The baby's head is already visible!

To rid yourself of this terrible pain, you gathered all your last strength and began to push harder.

- Well done, daughter. You did it! - your mother-in-law told you, to which you only smiled tiredly.

- Congratulations, madam! You're have a girl! - the midwife congratulated you.

- Daughter... Jiyan, really wanted a daughter... - you didn’t have enough strength to speak, but seeing your girl, you found them and said, - JingYang... Jiyan really wanted his daughter to have it... calm and peaceful future...

- I will take care of my granddaughter, honey. You need strength, so rest. I will inform Jiyan that he has become a dad, so rest easy, - the new grandmother assured you.

- Can I... at least hold my daughter for a little while?..

- Of course, dear, - with these words the mother-in-law signaled for the midwife to come up and give you the baby.

- Hello, princess, - she began to coo over her daughter, - You made me pretty worried, but now you are already next to your mother.

- Inform General Jiyan that his wife gave birth to a girl, -the mother-in-law ordered to immediately convey the message to her son. While her daughter-in-law was giving birth, she realized that the situation on the border had begun to stabilize as some doctors reported that General Jiyan and Rover had won the battle in the border area.

Meanwhile, at the border zone, everyone congratulated the general and Rover on their victory.

- We have eliminated the main reason for the entire battle, but even so, there are enough Taced Discords that need to be eliminated for a calmer life for the citizens of Jinzhou, - Jiyan, although he was glad of the victory, knew that this was not all that he still had to do.

- General! General Jiyan! I have important news for you! - a soldier ran to Jiyan to tell him the news.

- What's happened?

- Your wife... Your wife gave birth to a girl, - the soldier didn’t have time to finish saying, when everyone around began to congratulate the general on becoming a dad. Jiyan himself did not fully believe that he had finally become a dad - JingYang. That's the name of the girl.

- JingYang... A peaceful and calm future, - Jiyan couldn’t help but smile. He really wanted a girl to be born, but he couldn’t think that you would remember his words that he wanted a peaceful and calm future for the baby, and in honor of this you named the girl symbolically with the words peace and quiet.

- Congratulations, General Jiyan! - Congratulations were heard from all sides, to which Jiyan responded with gratitude. He wanted to share such a joyful moment with everyone.

A week later, he was able to return to Jinzhou to finally meet his daughter and wife. When he first entered the house and headed towards the nursery, he couldn’t help but cry from the way you cooed over your daughter.

- Dear? - your voice brought him out of his trance. You, in turn, came up and wiped the tears from your husband’s eyes. Taking him by the hand, you led him towards the crib so that your daughter could meet her dad, - Look who came to us. This is your dad.

- Hello, princess, - the girl only began to coo joyfully in response at the sight of her father.

Jiyan felt like the happiest person in the world. In addition to the fact that he has a wonderful wife, he now also has a beautiful little girl, all like her mother.

- I love you, dear. I love you both and will protect you until my last breath.

[guillotinna]

I keep seeing these Gen z is task force 141 and I wanna join

Anytime you use a computer, you do that stupid movie hacker trope of exaggerated typing and say "I'm in"

Saying "POV" in front of sentences

In the group chat saying "1 like and I'll kms", liking your own message and then saying "damn guess I gotta"

I see a lot of these posts were Gaz and Soap would understand y/n....bffr, no those geezers would not

No one knows what the gen z kid is saying they just know it's probably not good

"You're telling me a shrimp fried this rice?"

You have a small photo you keep tucked in your chest pocket and after enough times seeing you looking lovingly at it, one of the guys asks who it is. Is it a s/o from back home? 😏😏

You say no and pull out a photo card of your fave singer and they're like ??? Really

One time during a particularly physical scuffle with the enemy, you get thrown to the ground and huff out "one hop this time" only to promptly tackle tf outta your assailant while saying "take it back now yall"

Reads everyone's zodiac charts except ghost bc he won't tell his birthday let alone the time he was born so you just make one up

Price calls a 6 am meeting to which you say "double it and give to the next person"

*Alexa, play teenagers by MCR*

If you had time describe the base, you'd say it smells like ball sweat, blood and war crimes which everyone took offense to for different reasons

Would absolutely get soaps doodles tattooed

Actually speaking of which, imagine getting caught giving yourself stick and pokes with a pen and being banned from using pens period

You'd be in a meeting with a #2 pencil

Ofc a gen z member would be absolutely feral which very little regard for their own safety much to the dismay of the others

Quoting "Oh these aren't homemade, they were made in a factory....a bomb factory......they're bombs." All the time around soap even though he has no idea what you're talking about

You don't spent too much alone time with ghost bc he likes quiet and you can't be alone with your thoughts which is why you lean more towards spending time with soap or gaz

I just like puns so I'm gonna add this but gen z love borgs (a customized gallon jug of alcohol that is usually given a name) and yours is appropriately named taskforce 1-borg-1

this is mainly for my americans but i know pretty much the whole world got beef with engl*nd: before you met Soap, you thought the entire 141 was en*lish so when you finally did meet him, you said "oh thank god" with a sigh

americans 🤝 scotts

making fun of english "people"

"Pull up in the monster, automobile gangsta With a bad bitch that came fr-" "....sergeant, comms off please"

you show Ghost WAP and he has to take a walk

*price yelling at gaz and soap*: KYLE GARRICK AND JOHN MACTAVISH GET IN HERE- Y/n: oop not the government name

Another for my US baddies: if your'e ever arguing with any of the guys, the nail in the coffin would be "and it's called soccer"

"one more like and i'll-" "enough!"

you call Price "ms. girl" and he could not be more confused

someone asks "do you serve?" and u reply "yah, serve cunt"

when asked why you decided to join the military you said something like: "well i didnt think i'd live past 18 so when I did, i ended up here".....crickets from the rest of the team

"good thing we only have showers on base because i would have already taken a toaster bath by now"

ask Gaz "no bitches?🤨" one more time see what happens

price: the enemies have taken civvies hostage and blocked off all exits and entrances to the town-" y/n: "omg tea"

Also calling price "capt. Save-a-hoe"....I wanna be saaaavvveddd ;)

If you took a shot every time you said "rest in peace to all the soldiers that died in the service, I dive in her cervix", you'd be dead lmao

When asked if they like the military they'd say "it was either this or the psych ward so yah, I'll take it"

Quoting MPGIS constantly and no one even sort of knows what that is ("Crack. Is that what you smoke? You smoke crack?")

Some detainee being interrogated is spilling some nonsense, so you hit them with "oh brother this guy stinks!" And then with the butt of your gun

"Little bad trini bitch but she mixed with China, real thick vagina, smuggle bricks to-" "SARGENT ENOUGH"

Falling asleep on team mates (minus ghost's) shoulders mostly because the most peace they get is when you're unconscious

*when y/n hears any slightly suggestive/dirty phrase*: what are we talking about 😏 (iykyk)

Same energy as: " born next to a nuclear power plant, has an IQ of 2 and was hit in the head with several Rocks as a child"

Vine quotes out the wazoo, it's just awful for the rest of the team lmao

Replying to everything with "on god?"

soap: "what are you 6?" y/n: "yah 6 inches deep in your mom".....you did not walk away from that unscathed to say the least...worth it tho

[mountmortar]

i've brought it up before but there is genuinely something to be said about the fact that blue calls the hgss protagonist to say that they remind him of red and then he ALSO calls them literally just to ramble about pokémon:

"I'm Blue. When I look at Pokémon, I get a strange feeling—you ever get that? There's round ones, flying ones, swimming ones, flaming ones, freezing ones, shiny ones, dark ones—there are so many different types, and yet, they're all Pokémon. I mean, like Pokémon, there's not just one type of person, either… But it's still kind of strange when you think about it."

which is probably because. again. they remind him of red. and he's sad and lonely and misses his best friend (made obvious by his depressing mini-speech about nature being capable of destroying everything if it so much as twitches when you First Meet Him in gsc/hgss, daisy alluding to the fact that he "needs company" when she gives you his number, him literally starting out EVERY PHONE CALL where the protagonist is the one to call him by saying "Hello…Whatever… Don't worry about me. I'm doing peachy over here!" which. speaks for itself. nobody would have thought there was anything to worry about if you hadn't gone and said something, blue). but there's also something to be said about his OTHER phone call to the protagonist:

"I'm Blue. Anyway, you're really something. Traveling all by yourself, visiting all these different Gyms you find and beating them all… Well, you're not really alone…You've got Pokémon with you!"

i think the emphasis he puts on the hgss protagonist traveling by themselves in the beginning like it's some sort of marvel before he covers it up by saying "you're not alone actually you've got your pokémon" is kind of funny because it's so obvious that he's miserable being alone. even when they were competing against each other he and red still did their journeys together. gen 2 is the only generation where they're separate. they're both at the world tournament when we see them next in black/white 2 and even when it's mentioned in xy that blue went to study in kalos for a while you could also very much argue that red went with him (probably just to hang out in the background) considering they BOTH mega evolve their pokémon in sumo/usum where they've literally moved to alola and lead a battle facility together. these two have literally never been separated in their lives because they grew up together and apparently three years of no contact between them was enough to be like "alright well that's never happening again. i'm spending the rest of my life with you. prepare to be perpetually stuck with me for the rest of your life." and they are both absolutely delighted by this outcome. no complaints. it's THE funniest fucking thing ever.

[chaethewriter]

You're my type.

Jack Champion x reader

In which Jack talks about his celebrity crush, leaving you with your own thoughts.

HEAVILY IMPLIED SOUTHEAST ASIAN AND SOUTH ASIAN READER.

USAGE OF READER WITH DARK HAIR.

A/N: rushed this in between my work, enjoy this lowkey terribly written thing <3

"Probably Margot Robbie if she was younger and single you know. I would be like, hey you wanna go.." with Avatar 2 releasing in the cinemas, the interviews with the next gen cast were hitting the charts. Trending on all platforms as they were the face of the upcoming movies. This also meant that their fanbase would skyrocket. Especially Jack's. And you couldn't blame them. Your boyfriend of almost a year was young and handsome, of course he would get the attention. And well deserved. With the amount of focus on Jack, clips about him went viral. And you got across one of those clips.

Probably Margot Robbie if she was younger and single you know. I would be like, hey you wanna go..

You watched a tiktok on your for you page of your boyfriend going on about his crush on Margot Robbie. And she was pretty, beautiful even. But there were these thoughts at the back of your mind.

Was that his type?

Were you even his type?

Margot Robbie was every boy's dream: blonde long hair that sat on her shoulders and those blue eyes that lit up the room. You threw your phone next to you, screen facing downwards as you rested your back against the soft duvet. You gazed at the ceiling, eventually touching your forehead with both of your hands as this was such a stupid situation. You were supposed to meet up with him today, and you couldn't let this entire situation decide how today was about to go.

You had an hour to get ready, both mentally and physically, as you had to get your shit together. He loves you. He chose you. Hell, he made the first move. His celebrity crush shouldn't define who he dates.

But your celebrity crushes are usually the people who you're attracted to right?

Shut up.

You changed into your date outfit, which was harder than usual, because you wanted to look extra pretty for him. Clothes scattered around the room, covering your floor as you dug into your closet. Eventually, you found something pretty. An outfit you had always felt pretty in when you wore it. But once you looked in the mirror, all your confidence fell to your feet.

Was this how he loved you?

Dark hair flowing past your neck with dark eyes staring down someone's soul. Your skin the center of attention in your transparent room. In front of that same mirror, you had done your makeup. Something lightweight, concealer hiding the spots you were insecure about. Eyeliner at the outer corners of your eyes with kohl, as well as your waterline. Applying a brownish lipstick on your lips, because anything shade lighter than that you hated on your lips.

Downstairs, you sat on the couch. Your father at the dinner table with your mother in the kitchen. Your legs bounced as you tried to forget about his words.

Probably Margot Robbie if she was younger and single, you know..

Would he have dated someone who looked like her instead, if he were to meet her right now?

He wouldn't right?

What if he felt attracted to her, what then?

Too lost in your thoughts, the knocking on the front door remained unanswered. "Open the door, I think it's your white boyfriend." Your father had yelled from the dinner table, not looking up from his phone. The volume of his tone kicked you right out of your thoughts. You got up from your seat, your knees buckling as you walked towards the door. "Hii baby!" His smile reached his eyes as he immediately pulled you in a tight hug, his nose burying into your hair as he slightly bended over. This could almost make you forget about your worries. Almost.

You were short, to say the least. You just reached his chest as he was incredibly tall for his age. You were the average height for your people, but for Westerners, it would seem incredibly short.

"Hi, love." You stood on your tippy toes with your arms wrapped around his neck, pulling him down to you to press a kiss against his rosy lips. Butterflies tickled your stomach as his plump lips pressed against yours. He was the one to pull away first, gazing into your eyes with his nose scrunched up, "You look so pretty, baby. All that for me?" You could feel your cheek warm up and as a response you broke eye contact with him.

He smiled at you, your shy demeanor so cute to him. Behind you, a lot of movement occurred. It made Jack look up, coming face to face with your father.

"As-salamu alaykum, sir." His American accent obvious as he spoke. This time, it was his turn for a blush to creep onto his cheeks. You have been together for almost a year, but he still had yet to win over your father's heart.

"Wa-Alaikum-Salaam. She's home by 7pm without tears. Bring her home. Have fun." Your father was extremely stern, his words extremely to the point. Yet, he always made sure to end his speech on a good note.

"Of course, sir! I will get her home safe and sound!" While holding him in your arms, you felt him stiff in your hold. It made you giggle. Your 6'1 "foot boyfriend shaking in his shoes in the presence of your much shorter father.

You had greeted your father in a rush, pulling your boyfriend with you as the two of you headed towards his car. He had opened the door for you, "get in, milady." You chuckled at his little acts of service, thanking him as you sat down on the passenger's seat. Jack walked to the other side of his car and took a seat next to you, "Where to, pretty?" His hand was already resting against your thigh, awaiting your answer. Dates with Jack were always unexpected. It was always where the moment took the both of you.

"Mall?" You shuddered as his fingers ran against your skin, the thin material of your pants not offering much cover. "Sure thing, whatever my girl wants."

The ride was quiet, your fingers playing with his free hand as you gazed outside the window. He treated you so well. So why were you feeling like this?

"What's up, pretty?" He noticed your unusual behavior. Of course you did. How couldn't he? He was by your side from your highest to your lowest, he basically knew almost everything about you.

You bit your bottom lip as you pulled at his skin, "nothing."

A lie.

Once again, silence filled the car with the radio playing as a background noise. Should you just tell him? Now? Before it could ruin your date?

"Tell me?" He put his car in park once he found an empty place in the parking lot, pushing his seat back for enough space between him and the steering wheel. To pull you by the arms onto his lap. You were facing him now, completely stunned with this action.

"Tell me, pretty girl." He pressed a kiss against your nose, his hands on your waist to keep you secure, "what's wrong?"

Communication was important.

It was the key.

"Promise you won't get mad?" You played with his shirt as you spoke, your gaze locked on the necklace lying against his collarbone. The pendant wad a pretty pink rose quartz, shaped into a heart. You remembered gifting him it as a way to hint your feelings to him. The color didn't match the color palette of his outfit, but he still wore it around his neck, almost proudly.

"You're thinking too hard with that pretty little brain of yours. I'm sure I won't get angry with you, babe."

"Uhm, okay." You took a breath, your fingers now tracing the cord of the necklace, "am I your type?"

Silence.

It made you look up at him, your eyes wide as you awaited an answer from him. A smile made its way on his face, immediately leaning down to press a firm kiss against your lips, "of course you are, why are you asking?"

"The interview, you uhm," you tried to gather your words in a sentence that would make sense and Jack gave you all the time you needed. His hands rubbing your back reassuringly as he watched you intently.

"You said you would shoot your shot with Margot Robbie."

Jack had opened his mouth to speak, but you cut him off, "I don't look like her. So you know, I thought—" this time, he cut you off with a deep kiss. A tender one, one that held so much meaning. Passion. Love. One of his hands traveled towards your cheek, caressing it as he deepened the kiss. Your hands stayed at his chest, clutching onto his shirt.

He had pulled away from the kiss to gasp for air, "I love you." He breathed out against your lips, "I love all of you." He continued, pressing a kiss against the tip of your nose, "I love this."

A kiss against your eyelid.

"I love this."

A kiss against your cheek.

"I love this."

Your forehead.

"I love this."

Your lips.

"And I love this."

"I'm so different from her, look at me! I'm—"

"Beautiful." He finished your sentence with lovesick eyes. "You're beautiful."

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jackchampion me when she's the one having my last name @ justy/n

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justy/n ily ily ily🫶

-> jackchampion love you❤️

justy/n bold caption!

-> jackchampion watch it happen, I will manifest it🌕

[lost-in-lamentation]

It probably isn't the best pair, but could I suggest "I'll take over from here, you go rest" with Mammon?

(Or with Lucifer if it comes easier)

(Writer's block is a pain, I hope you can defeat that beast soon and I wish you a good day)

a/n: thank you for the well wishes anon (´ω｀) also praying that i can defeat it soon ..

prompt #2: mammon + “i’ll take over from here, you go rest.”

content: tired reader who needs some extra help getting errands done.

warnings: brief dizziness for the reader.

comfort. mammon x gen!reader (you/your).

you groaned internally when your d.d.d. pinged with a loud notification. during your study time, you always kept it on silent, with the exception of lucifer’s contact allowed to bypass the do not disturb settings. if your phone was going off, it meant lucifer had another task for you. with a sigh, you tapped your screen awake, groaning again when you saw that lucifer wanted you to run to multiple stores. you replied back with a quick “okay”, not wanting to stir lucifer’s mood. before heading out, you stopped by mammon’s room, poking your head through the doorway. a call of his name had the room responding in silence, and you realised a few seconds later that his car wasn’t in the room either. guess he’s out doing who knows what, you thought to yourself.

adjusting your bag on your shoulder, you set out for your first errand, which in hindsight, should have been your last. you weren’t sure what went through your head when you decided on the grocery store first. the amount of food for beel alone had you stopping for breaks as you carried the bags around. the second stop wasn’t much better; lucifer had definitely underestimated how many packages were at the postal office for pick up. the demon at the front desk had half a mind to ask if you needed assistance to take everything back, but with the cost of extra shipping, you end up grumbling “no thanks,” before putting on a strained smile and hauling your belongings out to the street.

you weighed your options once you got outside. beel would definitely be able to carry most of this, but he’d snack on the groceries before you even got halfway home. lucifer was not to be disturbed, of course. satan would most likely be holed up in his room reading, while levi would be playing games. mammon was nowhere to be found, and as for asmo and belphie; “out of the question,” you huffed. sighing despondently, you stuffed as much as you could into your backpack before sliding all the bag handles around your forearms. the weight made you dizzy and had you teetering dangerously from side to side. your teeth broke skin as you bit down on your lip, the effort of staying up and trying to hold everything going far past your abilities. finally, you took a shaky step forward, but a particularly heavy bag swung too far in front, sending you barreling towards the ground. you had given up, accepting your fate of crashing into a muddy puddle when a shriek from up ahead caught your attention.

you felt arms circle tightly around your torso, and your head landed on a shoulder you were very familiar with. “oh, mammon?” you practically slurred the question, your mind not all where it should be.

“that’s all ya have to say?!” mammon shouted at full volume, despite being right next to you. “seriously human, what are you even doin’ with all this?” he grunted with the effort to set you upright, tugging the bags off your arms and forcing you to get rid of the backpack that was dragging you down.

“lucifer asked me to run errands,” you said quietly, your hand clasping mammon’s shoulder to stabilise yourself. you failed to notice the red dusting mammon’s cheeks as you gripped even tighter.

the white haired demon hooked an arm around your waist in response, holding you up. “and you decided that you could carry all this?” mammon chided quietly when you shook your head, his gaze softening when he saw how quiet you were becoming. “okay, okay, come on. can you walk? my car’s over there.”

you blinked your vision back into focus, now seeing the way mammon had parked. you weren’t sure if you could say he parked at all, with the way it was practically on the sidewalk. “mammon, why’s your car-?”

“don’t ask, just get in there. i’ll take the stuff over,” he muttered, pushing you gently away before leaning down and grabbing a number of the grocery bags. by the time you had settled into the passenger seat, mammon was back with the second round of items, piling it into his trunk carefully. he headed back again for the remaining few, throwing what couldn’t fit in the trunk onto the backseat. “that would be a lot for even beel, ya know,” he exhaled, getting into the driver's seat next to you. “what else is on that list from my dear, older brother?”

“eh? weren’t you going out somewhere else?” you asked, not wanting to interrupt his day off.

“don’t be stupid,” mammon scoffed. “you nearly died just trying to hold everything.” you opened your mouth to protest, but mammon had his hand covering it before you could utter a word. “no. you look like you haven’t slept in ages so… i’ll take over from here. it’s just errands anyway. you need to get some rest.” mammon wasn’t gentle in his scolding, but the concern in his eyes told another story. “i’m taking you home.”

you pushed his hand away, giving him a hard stare. “i’m coming with you.”

the second born cursed his sin; of course he would let you stay. greed came in the way he never wanted you to leave. the tips of his ears turned pink, admitting defeat before he could. “fine. but you’re sleeping in the car until we get to the next store.”

“mammon, the next store is like, five minutes from here.”

“shut up. i’m taking the scenic route.”

a/n: and so, mammon drove around for an hour instead of taking you directly to the store

reblogs are really appreciated (´ω｀) ♡

prompt list here.

[acealonsowrites]

Subaru Mini Fic Pt 2

Pairing: MC/Reader x Subaru Kagami

Tags: SFW. Slight-ish(?) angst, misunderstanding, Subaru's all-around oblivious. Sorta mean Frostheim gen students (eventually). Leo's an asshole (currently). Ends in fluff.

Summary: When Subaru receives a confession letter asking him to meet up in person, all signs point to it being from you. Unsure of his feelings, Haku and Zenji encourage him to go for it, but will you be the one to show up at the Ethereal Spring?

Subaru's mind was still afflicted by thoughts of you as he walked the corridors of Darkwick's main building heading for Sho's food truck to meet you and Lyca. Haku's words rang clear in his head, swimming around with the idea of having to reject you in a matter of hours. How was he even going to get through lunch with you? A part of him wished he hadn't done the only thing that could confirm your ownership over the letter.

"Reject?"

"Well," Haku started, "Zenji's right. If you don't feel the same about MC, you're gonna have to reject them. And I know you can be shy but don't even think about not showing up. I won't let you. Whatever you decide I'll support, but come what may, you'll be going to the Ethereal Spring tomorrow."

Subaru looked down at his hands on his lap, his eyebrows creasing. "What if it's not from MC, though?"

"Would you feel better if it wasn't?" The vice-captain asked, clearly trying to gauge the actor's thoughts.

"It would probably be easier if it wasn't. I can't really stomach the thought of rejecting MC and losing their friendship."

"Is that really what you want to do?" Haku questioned. For a moment the pair sat in silence. Zenji slinked about above them, anticipating Subaru's response which never came. Haku sighed before continuing, "Well, there's one surefire way you could find out if it's from them or not." He held the envelope up, still in his hands from when he Subaru had given it to him to read. He motioned for the captain to take off his gloves. Subaru hesitated for a second before complying.

When his hands met the smoothness of the paper, his vision began to blur into the memories of the letter's handling. It had been typed so he could not go further than the moment the paper was spat out by the printing goat in the library. Subaru barely had time to process that disturbing image before you came into view. Without a second glance at the words on the paper, you folded it neatly and placed it into the envelope he was now holding.

Subaru came to with a dazed look on his face. The use of his stigma had been too short-lived this time around to actually affect him beyond a subtle pain in his head.

"So? What did you see?" Haku peered at him over the rim of his teacup, having been mid-sip.

"MC..."

"Well, then you should probably sleep on what you're gonna say to them tomorrow. If you do decide that rejecting them is your...preferred course of action, just make sure you let them down gently. Zenji and I will be supporting you from the sidelines, whatever you choose."

"Oh, yes. It will be absolutely devastating but only you know what is best for you, dear friend!"

"And hey, don't feel too bad about it. I'll personally make sure they rebound properly," Haku said with a wink. The teasing tone in his voice did little to quell Subaru's nerves. If anything, his words made him more uneasy with the suggestive nature behind them. He felt a brief pang in his chest, choosing to ignore it as he finished the rest of his tea.

Subaru paused in his tracks when he saw you in the hallway, making idle conversation with the tall ghoul from Mortkranken. If his memory served him well, the student's name was Jiro. Though he still had no idea how he was supposed to interact with you now that he was sure of your feelings for him, he made his way towards the two of you. The first sound his ears caught as he approached you was that of a deep, melodic laugh, one that obviously came from the Mortkranken ghoul.

He swallowed a lump in his throat before speaking up, "MC! I'm glad I caught you here. I was about just on my way to Sho's truck right now." He watched you turn to look at him, a smile lighting your face as you greeted him with a bow.

"Oh, Subaru. Great timing, I was just about to head over, too. You know Jiro, right? Vice-captain of Mortkranken. Jiro, this is Subaru, the captain for Hotarubi."

"Patient #0671, Subaru Kagami. Yes, I'm aware of him.," Jiro replied stoically. He seemed to pay Subaru no mind as he bowed and introduced himself properly, his ruby eyes trained on your neck. Subaru watched the ghoul bring his hand up to your shoulder, slightly pulling down at your collar. The suddenness of this action made you flinch, turning your attention back to Jiro.

"I was looking at your mark," he said, unprompted.

You unconsciously brought your hand to your neck once his had retreated. "Why? Is something wrong?"

"Not really. I just remembered Yuri said we'll have to take pictures during your health checks from here on out, to make sure it doesn't change shape, size, or pigmentation."

"Oh, I see." You let out a laugh, brushing away your obvious discomfort. Subaru could only watch, conflicted. Once again, he had felt the same pang he had yesterday at Haku's words. This time, though, it felt too important to ignore. He almost got lost in his thoughts of what this could mean when you faced him once more. "Did you want to walk together, Subaru?"

He gazed into your eyes, just now noticing how big and bright they got when you smiled at him. He wondered if you looked at anyone else like this. "Yes, I did."

As the two of you exited the main building, the campus around you was buzzing. General students were flocking to their preferred lunch spaces. Some familiar ghouls were loitering about as usual, most of them sending you greetings in passing.

"So, um, are you on a mission with Mortkranken now, then?" Subaru asked after a brief lull.

"No. Surprisingly I haven't been assigned again yet. Now that I've gone to every house I never know what to expect next. I'd rather have a break from Mortkranken, though."

"You don't like them? I can imagine the work must be more difficult there than usual."

"It's not that I don't like them. Actually, they're quite enjoyable to be around. Compared to most of the other houses, that is. Yuri can be a bit much at times but he works hard. You kind of have to give credit where credit is due, in that regard. And Jiro's just Jiro, I guess. He's very useful. I'd probably say he's one of the strongest and most talented in combat that I've seen of the ghouls."

Subaru listened to your ramblings, not missing how your appraisal of the two ghouls made his heart ache yet again. He was becoming increasingly aware of the sinking feeling in his chest. "I don't know Jiro all that well but I'd have to agree with you. I know I'm no match for him on either front."

"Oh, I didn't mean it like-"

"It's okay. I didn't take it any sort of way, I was merely making an observation. But I do hope you can rely, not just on Mortkranken, but on all of us ghouls to help you break your curse. As captain, I've made it one of our top priorities in Hotarubi."

"...Thank you, Subaru." He took a glance at your smiling profile, your eyes locked on the ground as you walked.

"I wanted to thank you for the letter," he said shyly after a moment.

"It was no problem. Oh! I'm sorry, I forgot your umbrella back at the cathedral. I can go get it real quick-"

"No! Um, I mean, it's fine, really! And we probably shouldn't keep Lyca waiting any longer. He gets quite agitated after a while."

Your steps faltered as you processed Subaru's uncharacteristically loud tone and rushed words. If you didn't know him to be such a graceful person, you would almost think he was flustered. "...You're right. I'll wait till after lunch. Anyways, did you find out who the note was from?"

"No, actually, but I think I have a good idea of who it's from."

"That's good. The girl made it seem like it was important." Subaru was somewhat surprised you were still going with your story of the general student. He wasn't sure what to do in this situation. Should he hint at his knowing the letter was yours? Or should he play along until you both met up later?

"I'm rather shocked someone would leave such a personal letter in a third party's possession," he said innocently, settling with a mix of both.

You stared at him quizzically, not really sure what he meant. "I'm not sure if you're trying to accuse me of something, Subaru, but promise I didn't read a word of that letter," you teased.

"I wasn't-," he started to say, pausing when he saw you hiding a chuckle behind your hand. "Well, then I guess I can tell you that it was a confession letter. I'm supposed to be meeting them in about two hours so I'll know for sure who it was from then."

Your heart thumped in your chest, your smile quickly fading as Sho's food truck finally came into view. Suddenly the trek to Highway to Home felt way too far away. "So I delivered a confession letter to you. Wait, you said you have a good idea of who it's from, right? So, then, how do you feel about that?"

"If it is who I'm thinking about...I'm not really sure anymore. Even yesterday when I was talking to Haku and Zenji about it-if I'm being completely honest, I wasn't sure if I was going to accept it or not. But now, I guess, I'm considering it. Accepting it, I mean."

"That's great, Subaru. I'm very happy for you." You tried to give him your best smile, your steps quickening ever-so-slightly. This wasn't exactly what you were expecting to hear.

You delivered a confession letter to Subaru. The idea was so ridiculous it was almost laughable. You were hyper-aware of your feelings for the actor. You weren't sure when they had developed, just that they did. And here you were giving him another girl's confession. It probably wasn't ethical but you were beginning to wish you had read the letter before sealing it, if only to flat-out refuse to deliver it. But, the more you thought about it, you couldn't say you weren't happy for Subaru. That much was true, at least. You certainly weren't planning on confessing to him, not until your curse was broken- if it got broken at all.

You let out a soft, inaudible sigh, feeling more conflicted than anything else. "We should hurry up."

When the two of you finally found Lyca in line for the food truck, you were grateful to not be alone with the Hotarubi captain any longer. You lingered by the pair as they conversed, not paying attention to what was being said. You greeted Sho when you were at the front of the line and thanked him when he gave you your food, fully comped as per usual. It wasn't until the three of you made it to the terrace, snagging a bench as soon as you got there, that the conversation caught up to you.

"MC, you're being too quiet. Stop it," Lyca said between bites of his chicken over rice.

"Sorry, I guess I'm a little tired today." You immediately tried to perk up a little bit, fixing your posture and putting a small smile on your face. "How's your chicken, Lyca?"

"Why are you asking? It's always good," he answered rhetorically. "You should come to the bar if you're tired. Rui's always saying he misses you. You can use the room you slept in last time."

"Thank you. I'll be sure to stop by sometime this week."

The three of you went on with your meals, making small talk when there was nothing left to say. You had finished your plate quicker than you had intended when you realized just how suffocating being next to Subaru felt at the moment. You were eager to get away, wracking your brain for any excuse imaginable. Subaru's umbrella would have to wait another day, there was no chance you'd want to see him again before his big meet-up with the Frostheim general student.

Just then, your phone buzzed where it sat on the bench between you and Subaru. Both you and the actor glanced down as a message from Jin lit up your screen. Not exactly someone you'd call a savior, but a welcome excuse, nonetheless.

"Sorry guys, the King doth beckons," you said in your best mocking tone. You excused yourself politely, the pair watching you leave as they continued eating their respective lunches.

"Lyca," Subaru said once they were alone, "I have a favor to ask of you. I just want to confirm something."

The werewolf hummed, sizing up his friend. "What is it?"

"Can you smell this for me and tell me what, or rather, who you smell?" The actor pulled the envelope out of his school bag. He held it in front of Lyca's nose, intending for him to sniff it, which he did.

"It smells like goat," he replied, groaning in displeasure.

"And...?"

The werewolf gave a deeper inhale, obviously confused about what was happening. "Hrm, it kinda smells like MC a little. Why?"

Subaru pulled his hand back, hesitant with his next words. "I'm not sure I should say."

"Then what was the point of me sniffing that?"

"Well, it's just that I wanted to know if anyone other than MC has touched this, is all."

"You're being weird, Suba. What's the deal with this paper, anyways? What is it?" Lyca wiped at his mouth, growing impatient at Subaru's evasion.

"It's a confession letter. From MC, I'm pretty sure." Subaru felt a weight lift off his shoulders as he finally said it, the full picture coming into view for him.

With your talk on your way to the food truck, he was beginning to doubt himself. Maybe his stigma didn't take him far enough in the memories of the paper. Would he have been able to see beyond the printing goat's mouth all the way to the computer it was typed on? It was unlikely but not impossible, he supposed. But with Lyca confirming that only you had touched him, the image solidified in his mind. He was fully prepared now, knowing that he would meet with you in just under two hours, and he was set on accepting your confession.

"Confession? I don't get it," Lyca said in his usual manner, his eyes filled with curiosity.

"I don't really know how to explain this but MC likes me," the actor blushed at his own words.

"So? I like you, too. And I like MC, too. Doesn't mean I'm gonna go write letters to you."

"Right. But this is a different kind of like. More special, more romantic..." He really couldn't handle explaining any further, now he was just hoping that by some miracle Lyca would understand.

The werewolf stared at him for a few seconds, eyebrows knotted in concentration until they finally shot up. "Oh, you're saying MC likes-likes you! Rui's talked about this before. Does that mean they want you to be their boyfriend?"

Subaru could feel his face burning as if he were engulfed in flames, struggling to look into his friend's eyes as he responded, "Yes, that is what that means."

"Hrm...then do you like-like them too?"

The actor pondered the question for a moment, forgetting to be shy or embarrassed as he mulled over the possibility. "Yes, I think I do."

Just then, he heard a sing-songy voice call from behind him. "Kagami~ fancy seeing you here."

The two looked up simultaneously, Subaru's gaze locking with a pair of mischievous golden eyes.

"Who are you?" Lyca asked beside him.

"Lyca, this is Leo, Vagastrom's vice-captain. He's friends with Sho," the actor explained.

"Ever the loyal customer, hm?" Leo jutted his chin to the container on Subaru's lap. "Cute. Anyways, I couldn't help but overhear a bit of your conversation."

"What's it to you?" Lyca's tone was defensive as he quickly gauged Leo's negative energy despite his sweet-sounding voice.

"Kagami, I didn't know you were friends with Obscuary's mutt. I guess someone has to feed it and take it on walks, hm?" At that, Lyca began to growl, Subaru failing to calm him down as Leo kept talking, "Well, whatever. I just wanted to say it's adorable that you think the NPC likes you, considering they already have me as their boyfriend."

Subaru felt himself choking on the words he was using to settle down his friend, his voice suddenly becoming raspy. "What?"

"MC would never date you," Lyca snapped back at Leo.

"Ugh, I know, I know. I'm way out of their league. But y'know I'm just super generous so I'm used to doing charity like this." Lyca's growling grew even more intense. Subaru had stopped trying to soothe him, almost wanting to let him drive Leo away. Maybe some biting wouldn't hurt? Subaru glowered at Leo, who was clearly enjoying this new range of negative emotions he had coerced out of the 'perfect actor.' Leo let out a soft chuckle. Of course, he didn't care at all about his fake relationship with the NPC. This was just an opportunity he simply couldn't pass up. As soon as he had heard Subaru saying he liked you, he knew exactly what to do. With Sho busy with the food truck, he had to find entertainment elsewhere, right? "I just wanted to let you know that you have no chance, Kagami. I mean, between you and I, I'm a hot, trending influencer and you're a washed-up, out-of-work actor. The choice is really not that hard."

And with that, he was off, giving the pair no opportunity to retort. They watched as his figure faded away into the small crowd of students scattered throughout the terrace. Lyca looked to Subaru, noticing a rare, sour look on his face. Even his smell was different than usual. What Leo said must have really gotten to him. "Don't listen to him. MC would never date him. He's too mean and his scent is the worst I've ever smelled."

Subaru snapped his head back to Lyca, sporting his most sincere smile. In this moment, he was very grateful to have a friend like Lyca. Not just him but Haku and Zenji. And you, too. He was starting to realize that people like you and his friends kept him grounded, something that Leo sadly was lacking. And just like that, he knew Lyca was right. It was impossible for you and Leo to be dating because you would have grounded him as you did for himself. He didn't want to think too much about it, though. He now understood that he wanted your humility, your grace, and your kindness all to himself. He let himself be vain for a second to think that you weren't on this earth for people like Leo. You were here for him. And he was here for you.

Subaru stood up, his mood much airier than it was ten seconds ago. He bowed at Lyca, thanking him for having lunch with him and assuring him they would do so again tomorrow, and started making his way to the Ethereal Spring to wait out the remaining hour-and-a-half before he'd see you again.

Yay I got some cameos into this one! This is super not proofread and I only write at like three in the morning so sorry for any mistakes. I didn't intend for this to be a three-parter but, because of these cool talents I have called oversharing and yapping (which translate into writing, trust me bro), here we are. So anyways yeah, like and reblog and lmk if a part 3 is wanted. Okay love you bye.

[tpher]

scary girl analysis !

something something the most clearly gimmicky gen 4 character we know. as your resident pahkitew island apologist, i dont care. it actually took me a bit to warm up to her and i figured id talk abt why that is

so her main thing is being creepy and sadistic for the sake of jokes. its not serious.. mostly. she does prove to actually be down to hurt others (such as when she got a hold of a jackhammer). but what about an instance where she wanted to hurt someone for actual reasons? when was that?

that was when priya went up to her to compliment her on doing a good job on the previous challenge. priya says that shes surprised by scary girl having done a good job.

scary girls response?

a very defensive "oh, it surprised you that i was good? cuz you thought id do bad?"

and thats the thesis of this post

scary girl is very insecure

backing up for a moment, in ep 2 when the teams were on ships and attacking each other, she was the one who came up with the idea of sinking the other teams ship as an idea on what to do when they were out of ammo (? iirc). but no one else heard that, just zee

then in ep 3, ripper makes her go last in the relay race thing bc he didnt want her to "blow things" for the team. she reacts by trying to bite his finger. not with a funny creepy smile, but with genuine anger to her literal bite. and then during that challenge, she infamously grabs a bear by the arm and starts beating it up while saying "thats what you get for growling at me!!!". once shes done, she goes "byeee" and goes on like nothing happened. proving that if someone wrongs her, she can easily let it go.. so long as she gets to do something back. remember this for later

and here we come back to her interaction with priya. so far, scary girl has proven herself to be a pretty alright player and she herself knows that. so the notion of someone being SURPRISED she did well?? does not sit well with her at all. but the way that she harps on the wording, even before zee steps in to make it worse, is what gets to me. it just really adds an extra layer to her character that, well. ironically surprised me! for someone who always seems to be in her own world, so unconventional, so ill-fitting with everyone else to also be insecure in some capacity?

anyway she tries to hurt priya with a spoon but gets interrupted. later on, priya is still thinking abt their encounter and feels bad so she tries to make it up to scary girl by flattering her. namely by saying that scary girls question was smart.. and priya being her awkward self, only dug herself in a hole by making it seem like that was a smart question by scary girls standards

scary girl is speechless. baffled. mad beyond words

it should be noted that scary girl looked offended when priya even started speaking. meaning that she also did not forget about their conversation that morning. she REALLY took it to heart. applying the bear logic here, had scary girl hurt her with the spoon earlier, would she be less mad? would she had considered each other even? and in that case, would this comment go over better or would it had simply restarted her need for revenge?

well. they dont interact for the rest of the episode up until the very end. after ripper used priya as a human shield, obviously injuring her

scary girl tells her that rippers a jerk and that priya didnt deserve that. so she'll be voting to get ripper out. and calls priya her "friend".

(her face and tone makes me a bit suspicious if this was genuine. but thats probably just her being her offputting self so i'll ignore it.) ok so by scary girl logic, priya deserved to have SOMETHING bad coming her way after what she said to her.

but not this.

scary girl, who came here to "make friends and watch them get really hurt", was not okay with what ripper did to priya. perhaps she thinks that only she could be allowed to hurt priya to balance things out? personally giving priya her karma, perhaps?

but now she considers priya a "friend". who likely wants to see her get hurt. but in the fun way that scary girl likely sees most other contestants as, possibly? idk.

anyway after all of that, we can see just how insecure scary girl can get over unintentionally awkward phrasing. just how deeply it hurts her feelings to be underestimated like that

season 2 spoilers ahead !!!

in season 2, we see even less of her. but there is SO much to work with

normal girl is so fascinating to me

by the time s2 starts, scary girl already has an all new look. shes trying to be "normal"

she admits in her confessional that some ppl thought she was too scary in the first season so thats why she changed her appearance and her everything. who were these ppl?

other than a dog as a joke, online forums, showing an interesting glimpse into the in-universe ""real world"" stepping into total drama. perhaps also a meta joke on the fandoms response to her but who knows. imagine unabashedly being yourself on tv and everyone is telling you to change. you are 16 and likely going through a weird phase. feeling a lot of heightened emotions already and ""knowing"" that this is who you are (at the moment). and if its not a phase? still 16 on international television getting lambasted by millions

and last but not least, her MOM??? her own mother. that just raises more questions abt how scary girl was before getting on td. was she NOT like this before? was she playing it up for the cameras? or did she just go unhinged without parental supervision? in any case the fact is that even her own mom wasnt okay with what makes her happy and how she presented herself.

so scary girls solution? to try her best to suppress anything that made her unique. to try to adhere to "societal norms", in her own words.

we dont see much of her in this ep other than her commenting on how shes normal and totally did not want to see someone get hurt. shes clearly struggling so bad. she knows that apparently what she likes isnt "right", therefore the opposite must be true, right?

she is simultaneously so immediately different that the others didnt even recognize her at first. yet still so "scary" that she cant fit in. she just doesnt know how no matter how hard she tries. if she were to stay longer, what can she do? this game is not only abt your skills in the challenges its also a social thing. how long until she snapped and went back to her old ways?

and then we get to the campfire ceremony. chef is about to call out whatever it was the she did wrong that day, but she interrupts him with a simple "no."

she cannot fathom being sent home, at least not this early. bc shes normal! she is sooo normal and she tried SO HARD to be normal! she read normal books and normal movies and studied normal people. she even taught herself to smile in a more acceptable way, which is so autistic coded to me. so she deserves to stay longer.

(getting flashbacks to my topher psychoanalysis and his entitlement being both a tragedy and his self-imposed downfall)

..but she studied "normal people" in her own not-normal way. while they werent looking. while they were sleeping. while they had no idea she was there.

so she got booted out for that. and she cannot believe it.

when she says that she "didnt even try to hurt anyone this time", she is mad. that was her ""fun"" and she managed to control it 100% only to get eliminated??? shes fed up!

but when she talks about how she taught herself how to smile in a "less-creepy" way?

she softens up and looks genuinely hurt.

she tried so hard. she saw all those horrible comments from people judging her based on like 5 episodes on a reality show. her own mother didnt accept her. her insecurity won and she aimed to change and repress everything that made her unique

and it still wasnt enough

[minweber]

I kinda find it interesting that up until now all Dragon Age protagonists, as well as most companions for whom being of a particular age (usually older that the rest) was not a part of their characterization, were essentially all the same age - that is, a part of the same generation.

It's been noted that Inquisition's cast is generally older that that of Origins and 2, but we do also meet them about ten years later, which squares quite nicely - the cast of the games set in 9:30 starts out in their varying 20s, while the cast of the game set in 9:40 is in their 30s and up.

But the Veilguard crew seems to be another matter - by 9:50 you are either squarely in your 40s and 50s (which most of the companions and, by extension, Rook, don't really seem to be) or were born significantly later than previously mentioned characters.

I think that when I started writing this down I was leading up to some kind of joke about millennials and gen z, but now I am just thinking how fascinating it is that the narrative of the franchise has gone on long enough for there to be characters who probably grew up among the consequences of the earlier games' events, the ones for whom the world-changing events of the Age of the Dragon are the norm, if not already history. How cool is that! I really hope the writers of Veilguard found it as compelling an idea as I do and it gets explored a bit in the game.

[kydrogendragon]

Call of the Night - Day 2 of Sandmanniversary

Words: 3k

Pairing: None (but implied future Dreamling)

Rating: Gen

Ao3 Link Here

When Hob signed up to help man the White Horse, he hadn't really cared about what it was they were doing. All he knew is it was a three month expedition, it paid decently, and they needed an engineer on board in case anything happened to the old girl. Honestly, he'd expected a fishing vessel or maybe some government contract type deal. Once he was aboard and introduced to the crew, however, it became apparent this was a little different.

Loads and loads of gear and boxes were set up in the hull. Constantine, their lead researcher and childhood friend, filled Hob in on the details of their mission. Apparently, they were a team of marine biologists (there were definitely more titles and fields, but they went over Hob's head, so marine biologists it was) studying some rare sightings out in the North Atlantic a good five hundred miles from port.

The journey so far was fine. He'd gotten to reconnect with Jo—who he hadn't thought he'd see again since she'd left for uni in the states. He'd also gotten to get to know the rest of the crew. And The White Horse was quite the beaut. She ran fine and ran smoothly. They probably didn't even need Hob around, which left him with more free time on his hands than he was used to. He's pretty sure he's just a few more "visits" away from Jo wringing his neck.

When he'd returned to his bunk later that week to a small stack of books and pad and paper, he just laughed. To Jo's credit, she at least found him some books that actually sounded like something he'd read.

It was a month into their journey when it happened. The sun had set long ago. Most of the crew was either having their "breakfast" for the late-night shift or fast asleep in their bunks. Hob strolled the deck, walking its length and enjoying the fresh sea air.

It was quiet save the roll of waves and splash of the ship against them. It was this, this peace and silence of the ocean at night that Hob had needed. He also probably needed something more to keep his hands busy as well, but at least Jo was trying with the drawing supplies, as shit as he was with them. The most exciting thing that's happened so far was one of the rigs kept catching when reeling up. He at least got to whip out the tools for a few hours.

He was about to head back when he heard...something. If they were closer inland, he'd guess it was a bird—still could be, he supposes. It was quiet, just barely heard over the crash of water against the steel of the ship. It droned on, long and drawn out. It was deep, pained almost. And each minute it sounded closer.

Then he saw it. There, way on the horizon, a pale red dot among the darkness. It looked like a buoy or beacon as it moved with the waves. Hob frowned, lifting his binoculars that hung around his neck up to his eyes. It was hard to pinpoint in the night, but when he finally landed on the light, he gasped.

It was still far out from their ship, the details hazy, but it wasn't a buoy and it definitely wasn't some sort of beacon or the like. It seemed to come from some sort of...creature? Fuck, it was hard to see at this distance.

The noise grew louder, sharper, as the light drew closer. Hob's heart raced in his chest as the eerie sound soon filled the air. Tales the crew had told flash through his mind, stories of leviathans, of creatures belonging to the deep. Of mermaids and sirens, of life unknown and undiscovered. Of the rare sighting they were here to locate in the first place.

Hob reaches down, pulling the walkie-talkie off his belt. He clicks the button and raises it to his lips.

"Alex, you're gonna want to see this. Starboard side, up closer to the bow. And hurry. Think we may just have your mystery monster."

Seconds pass before his walkie talkie crackles to life. "Hob? What?"

"I'd get up here quick, mate. Whatever it is, it's not man-made. And it's glowing."

"Glowing? Paul, can you—...Okay, okay! We're headed up. Keep your eyes on that thing."

Hob clips his device back onto his belt and keeps his eyes trained on the rapidly growing bright spot amongst the dark seas.

The thing looks only a mile from the ship at this point when the strange sound coming from it quiets. And then there are footsteps on the hull.

Paul and Alex race up with Jo and some of the less science-more muscle crew follow close behind. Paul steps up, putting a hand on Hob's shoulders to steady himself against the rocking of the boat.

“Where is it? What did you see?” he asks.

“Paul…look.”

Hob and Paul turn towards Alex who stands against the ledge. He points out into the water where the red glow is beginning to dim. Paul gasps, waving to the others.

“Go! Go, hurry! We need to get that thing, toss out the netting now!”

The ship comes to life. People race about, orders are shouted, lights flicked on. Ropes are tossed around as the rigs are set up and ready. Hob watches that fading dot all the while. Its hard to tell from here if the thing is sinking into the sea or if whatever part of it that glows is simply…fading. Fuck. Is the thing dying?

“Sending!” One of the riggers calls out as the net is lauched out into sea. The lines of rope are illuminated in the bright ship lighting until they fade from view as they fall over their target. Then, that noise from earlier sounds off. It howls, calling out into the darkness as—Hob guesses—the net falls over it.

“The hell is that noise?” Jo shouts over the sound of machinery and waves.

“Dunno!” Hob calls back. “The thing was making a different sound earlier.”

“What kind of sound?”

“More…pained. I guess.”

Jo looks grim as she turns back towards the ocean. The crew call out to one another and the rig groans as the net is recalled. The chains and gears slowly clank. Rope and netting is hauled aboard, swirled in piles to the side.

“What the hell are you putting the thing in when we get it on board?”

Jo pales. She races towards Alex, talking into his ear. Its too loud as the winds start to pick up and the waves grow stronger. Hob watches as the two dart below ground.

The click-click-clicking of the gears rolls on. Hob backs up, giving the open area of the boat wide berth for whatever it is they end up hauling in. Paul's leaning over, calling out to the other biologists and scientists when Hob catches the words “I see it!” leave the man's mouth. Alex reappears, sans Jo, and races over towards Paul, shaking the man in excitement as the last few dredges of netting are hauled up.

And then Hob sees it. He sees the mass of wriggling black and red and white. He sees a mess of fins and scales. And he hears the deep, almost growling call that comes from the things mouth. Its…its human mouth.

The creature, whatever it is, struggles against the thick ropes as its lowered onto the deck. Salt water splashes over the boards, clinging to Hob's skin. He hears the wet slap of flaining limps and fins as the last of the net grows slack.

And then he sees hands.

Or something close to hands. The fingers are longer, sharper. Like claws dipped black. As the creature reaches out, trying to get traction on the slippery surface, Hob can just barely make out webbing between the digits. Alex and Paul step closer along with some of the others. He steps forwards and then freezes. Eyes, as blue as the ocean herself, pin him in place. The red glow fills his vision and then all Hob sees is darkness. He drifts off to the sound of shouting and a final, deep melodic groan from the creature.

He wakes up in his bunk. Or a bunk at least. His is normally the upper one but Jo sits to his left so unless she gained the ability to float, he's on one of the lower ones. Probably Matt's.

“You're alive,” Jo greets, setting her notebook down on her lap. He can just barely make out what looks to be field notes as he turns towards her.

“I am. What…what happened exactly?”

She sighs, pushing her bangs out of her face. “Matt carried you down here all freaked out. Said you'd passed out on the deck as the damn freak storm rolled in. Hell of a time to play damsel in distress there, Gadling.”

He chuckles, stretching his limbs as he does so. His body is sore, but not in any way that's out of the ordinary. His head aches a bit but not too terribly. “Any ideas what happened to me?”

Jo shrugs. “Dunno. Weird pressure drop from the storm fucking with you in combination with who knows what else. Rach took a look over you though. Gave you a clean bill of health from what she can do with you being passed out as you were. Said you should probably go see her for another once over when you woke up though.”

He sits up, nodding as he does. “Sounds good.” Flashes of the night before run through his mind. He remembers the black and red and white. He remembers fins and scales and claws and hands. And then he remembers those eyes.

“The, uh. The creature. Did you—”

“Get it? Yeah. You missed out on all the fun of figuring out how the hell to get it in the observation tank. Could have used your strength though. Thing weighed a shit ton. Had to use a hell of a lot of tranquilizer to get it to even stay calm and not flair about. We'll have to run more tests and cross-reference the sighting reports but I think this just might be ghe creature people were talking about.”

“What is it?”

Jo huffs. “That's the thing Hobsie. It shouldn’t exist at all.” She turns with a mischievous smile on her lips. “Things a bloody mermaid.”

The creature—and Jo was right. Things a bloody mermaid. Well…merman, he supposes—glares at them from its tank that is definitely too small for a thing its size. The part of it that looks human is about the same size to a normal person, though it’s significantly skinnier and bonier than most men. If it had legs, it looks like it could have been a high-fashion runway model with that narrow waist and sharp cheekbones. But, it doesn’t have legs. Instead, its got a giant fucking tail with fins and scales and everything.

Hob is definitely processing this world perception altering finding completely fine.

If merpeople are real, are unicorns? Bigfoot? Nessie? Fucking dragons?

Hob needs to sit down.

He falls into the folding chair by the wall, hands in his lap, as he watches the group of scientists flitting between their equipment, the tank, and back to their equipment again. They’re checking the water for lord knows what and currently seem to be trying to find a way to get a blood sample without the creature—man—merman thing attacking them with either its claws or tail or teeth. Christ, it has sharp teeth. Nearly took off poor Paul’s fingers when he tried to grab a water sample. Looked more like a monster from the deep than anything from the Little Mermaid.

Its skin was pale and it stared them all down with eyes black as the night sky. It’s hair—was it even considered hair?—floats off its head in the tank like the smallest, most dainty strands of kelp you’ve ever seen. Well, if kelp was pitch black, anyway. Gills protruded from its neck near the leathery looking fins and fans on its face. Its hands faded from normal-ish looking skin to inky black nails that could pierce as well as a knife.

Then there was this thing’s tail. If the upper half of it was something that should be played by Bill Skarsgard, the lower half was a thing of beauty. A dream and a nightmare mixed. Most of the scales were black, but caught the light with an iridescent shine. It reminded him of the tail feathers of the roosters they’d kept when he was young. Mixed in were sections of deep ruby reds, painted on the merman in patterns similar to koi fish. There were large fins on either side and down towards the tip, not unlike a betta or goldfish, but were currently tucked close to its body. It was quite a sight to behold.

And then there were the eyes. The one Hob kept trying to make a conscious effort not to look at but keeps finding himself drawn to. They're dark. Black like the night sky. And yet, he remembers the brilliant blue of them on that first night….

“Hob?”

He startles, whipping his head up to see Johanna standing off to his side with an amused expression. He sighs, placing a hand over his heart.

“Christ, Jo. Make more noise before you sneak up on a man like that.”

She rolls her eyes before nodding her head towards the stairs. “Walk with me?”

Hob stands, following behind her as they make their way up and out of the room with the impossible but here creature. Jo pushes the door open and they step out onto the main deck. The salty sea air hits Hob’s lungs. He takes a deep, shuddering breath and he realizes just how shaky he’d been down there.

“So.”

Hob huffs. “So? This the part where you tell me I’ve seen too much and have me killed?”

Jo just turns her head slowly to him, looking at him with her classic ‘you’re an imbecile’ face. “Nope, wasn’t planning on any murder today. But I did have a favor to ask of you.”

“Oh?”

Jo sighs, pushing her bangs up out of her face. “Obviously, we’ve a bit of a major discovery on our boat here. And, of course, I’m thrilled about it and I’m certain the rest of our crew here is too, but I also know that this whole things gettin’ funded by the Burgess family and, no hate to Alex, but I trust his father about as far as I can throw him.

“So, if that thing we’ve got down there’s got a brain like ours, I want you to try and befriend it cause there’s no way in Hell I’m letting Roderick Burgess get his hands on something like this. And if you can befriend it, then maybe we can get it to trust us enough to release it without having to use all the equipment and having people figure out what we’re doing.”

Hob blinks. This was...not where he thought this conversation was going. “What do you think the old man’s going to do?”

“Keep it trapped like some exotic pet? Try and eat it? Fuck if I know what those rich bastards like to get up to in their free time, but I’ve never heard a good story come from them when it came to keeping rare creatures in their possession. How many horror stories have you heard about those rich old fucks keeping tigers or crocodiles or other shit in their house?”

Hob huffs a laugh. “Not many, honestly.”

“Right, forgot. You like to live like it’s medieval England and newspapers and Twitter haven’t been invented yet.”

“Hey! I do use the internet, you know!”

Jo elbows him lightly as she laughs. “So, will you help me?”

He sighs, leaning back against the wall by the door. Jo watches him, hands in her pockets. Hob can say, with certainty, he’s never been asked to befriend a literal sea creature before. And he’s pretty sure that keeping one in a tiny tank isn’t doing them any favors either. But it’s Jo that’s asking. And she doesn’t ask for much, not for serious stuff like this. And he owes her a lot already, like this job, for one.

“Fuck,” he groans. “Alright, yeah. I’ll see what I can do. I make zero promises I’ll be successful, but I’ll try my best.”

“Good. And if that doesn’t work, come two months, I’ll just need your brawn instead to help haul the thing back to the ocean instead.”

“That thing weighs like a hundred and fifty kilos! I’m not that strong!” Hob cries.

“Better work on your fish charm then, eh?” she says with a wink.

Hob shakes his head. The shit he does for this woman.

“Right. Well, I’ll let you lot do your poking and prodding. I’m going to stay up here for a bit and just...process my future months for a moment, yeah?”

Jo laughs as he heads back down the stairs, leaving Hob alone among the sound of waves and the spray of the sea. He walks over to the ledge of the ship wall. He folds his arms and rests them and his chin on them, sighing as he watches the boat rise and fall on the ocean waves. The stars shine above him, land long gone from view. It's just him, this boat, this crew, and the fucking fantastical creature in the tank just under his feet. What the hell has happened to his life?

He stays there until the chill seeps through his jacket and into his bones and only then does he retreat to the safe warmth of the interior. He pads his way down the stairs and hallways until he's crawling into his bunk. As Hob closes his eyes, he drifts off to the thoughts of pale skin and blue eyes and a lingering fear of what it all means.

[mythicalartisttm]

What’s your opinion on transgenders people? I ask as i have seen you reblog a few things and I am unsure on your stance. I mean this in no judgmental way i would just like to know your thoughts

anon this ask both excites me and fills me with caution, but! I will provide you with what you seek!

what do I think about transgender people? Here’s my answer to that, but be warned, it is lengthy!

1) they’re to be treated as people, not outcasts. Human is human, and we are supposed to treat fellow humans with love, care, and respect, even if we don’t agree with the people in question, or if it’s just plain hard.

2) I say this with gentleness: their perceptions of themselves are skewed*, and there are many reasons for this with the primary one being that we live in a broken world, which leads to everything else. But one of the absolute worst things we can do to trans people/ people who want to be trans, regardless of the reason, is to go along with the idea that they are or can be any other gender than the one they were born with. As you can probably tell, I believe in the God of the Bible, and that while human hands may have written the physical book, He speaks through the people that wrote it. So let’s let His Word do the talking.

You know the creation story, yeah? It’s ok if you don’t, let’s recap anyways:

Every day for 6 days, God made aspects of our universe, and when He declared everything finished – perfect! God’s work ain’t finished ‘till it’s perfect – He rested on the 7th day (Genesis 1 and 2). On the 6th day He made humans, male and female, and they were made in the image of God Himself (Gen. 2:26). They were also the only aspect of creation God formed with His own hands; Genesis 2:7 says God made the first man from the dust of the earth, and verses 21-22 says He took a piece of the man to make the first woman.

That might not seem huge to you, but it speaks volumes of the care God put into humanity specifically. Everything else – the sun, stars, sky, trees, dogs, almost everything you can think of – God simply spoke them into existence. But for humans; for you, anon? He got up, got His hands dirty, and shaped your head, your heart, your spirit, your body. He gave humanity a literal special touch that He gave to nothing else.

This is reinforced again by God speaking through king David’s Psalm 139, verses 13-16:

13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body     and knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!     Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. 15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,     as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. 16 You saw me before I was born.     Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out     before a single day had passed.

God is omnipresent, meaning that He’s everywhere all the time any time, and nothing escapes His knowledge. This includes the creation of a new human being (again: male or female, no secret 3rd option for this one). And because God Himself – who makes no mistakes – oversees and ordains the creation of every new little boy or girl, wouldn’t it make sense that God would make them as He intended to make them: perfectly, without mistake? There is then no ground for the “born in the wrong body” argument to stand on, because God made your body with you in mind; your body was made specifically for you, and there were no errors on His end.

Now, what if you just straight up don’t like your body? I think everyone has disliked their body and/or felt uncomfortable in it at some point, that includes me. If someone’s going through puberty then they are almost guaranteed to be uncomfortable in their body because that kiddo and their body both are growing up. Sometimes you’re uncomfortable in your body simply because it’s changing, but this particular change is a good thing! Going through puberty is a sign that your body is working as it should, even if it feels weird. To try and block this transition from happening, or deliberately alter it, is to actively harm your body’s natural progression.

So yes, I do think that a trans person’s view of their body – that they were made for a different body and so they should change it – is not only wrong, but harmful to themselves in the long run. Why are we affirming this; giving people of all ages the means to scar themselves to feel good in the now?

Last bit before the TL;DR: if there’s anyone out there who thinks God won’t except them for any reason that you can think of, I’m gonna stop you right there. There is grace for you. Yes, even for that; please refer to my pinned post. And also this.

My explanation doesn’t cover all bases I’m sure, but the TL;DR is that the human body is a sacred thing designed by God, with care, made differently and specifically for every individual person, and it is medical malpractice (evil) to alter it within the context of transgenderism. If you have undergone the gender transition at any time – or have done anything else, ever – God still loves you with his whole heart, and He wants you to let Him help you with whatever may have dragged you down this time. Even if it was self-inflicted.

Lastly, some stuff I didn’t know how to cleanly fit into All That

*it is worth noting that basically everyone has a skewed perception of themselves about different things and to different degrees, but in this context I mean “a skewed perception of how a trans person relates to their body”

Creation was deemed “good” before people, but after people, God declared it “very good.” Again, in Genesis 1. I literally cannot stress enough how much God wants people to come to Him for whatever the reason

Chloe Cole's discussion with Dr. Peterson + the comment section and the testimonies in it

this post

[aurorialwolf]

Ok I’m feeling better (got burnt out) so now I’m gonna continue my posts about next gen redacted ocs!! I made a custom tag for these posts, so you can click that to see the rest of them :D (it’s tagged on this post)

This time: David’s son, Dante!

- His full name is Dante Gabriel Shaw

- His nickname is probably smth like Danny, so Davey and Danny lol

- He looks a lot like Gabe, his eyes being closer in shade to Gabe’s than David’s, and his facial structure & hair being very similar as well. This makes David both happy and a little sad, which Dante doesn’t understand until he’s a little older and David explains everything about Gabe to him.

- David brings him and Angel to visit Gabe’s grave regularly, and they leave dahlia flowers and honeysuckles (which i stole from other ppls flower hcs sry fhksdhjs)

- He’s besties with Ashlyn (Asher’s daughter) because of course

- He has a sort of inner circle who are all his friends in the pack, so that includes Samuel Jr., Ashlyn, and Milo’s daughter

- He’s always acted like a mini alpha, protecting his friends like David does, he started mimicking David when he was 2, attempting to do speeches to the rest of the pack toddlers

- He shifted for the first time when he was 14, a week before the winter solstice, and while it was painful, he managed pretty okay. His shifted form is very similar to his dad’s (large black wolf in my hc), but with a white swirl pattern on his right flank.

- He is the most responsible in his friend group, making sure they’re all eating, they’re on time, etc. would absolutely be the guy who has all the papers and passports when they go on an international trip.

- He may act a lot like his dad, having a gruff exterior, but it’s mostly a cover, and he can be a little goofball sometimes, like his other parent (Angel)

- He loves playing minecraft, started when he was 5, and co-ops with Angel often to make cool builds

Ok now for official alpha / security company stuff that he’d do!!

- He’s David’s only kid (in this version of things) so he’s naturally expected to become Alpha

- So, he often shadows his dad to important events, as well as security gigs

- One of the major things is he accompanies his dad to Solaire-hosted events, and while his dad greets William and shakes hands with him, Dante greets Emilie (William’s daughter), and shakes hands with her.

- She enjoys messing with him, and has held him in a couple second trance to see how he reacts (like I said in her post, she’s not great with mortals), which he eventually, after a couple meetings, can reliably break out of.

- Usually at these events, he stands around with his dad mostly separated from the vampires, interacting only with those who approach them, because David is worried about him being vulnerable to attacks or trances

- Luckily for him, Samuel Jr. (Sam’s son) is a regular attendee at these events, as William invites him, Vivienne (Vincent’s daughter), and their parents. Of course, Samuel is very protective of his friends, so whenever Dante has been at risk, he’s protected him, albeit maybe too violently, but it gets his point across.

- Now I feel like it’s a good time to mention that Samuel jr and Dante are boyfriends / eventual mates!! So it adds an extra layer considering Samuel has a rightful claim to him (the magic bite thingy), mostly for the purpose of being allowed by vampire law to protect him somewhat violently 👍 (Samuel also visits Gabe’s grave independently to leave flowers, because he’s paranoid about getting permission to date and eventually propose to Dante cuz blah blah tradition even though Gabe wouldn’t care if he were alive)

- He also shadows his dad on security gigs, learning all the best ways to keep large groups safe and orderly in case of an emergency. He also gets properly trained in gun use, just in case, and does pretty alright (they train at a typical gun range after he gets the proper licenses)

- Dante eventually heads his own event security gig, and manages pretty well. He’s doing it with his group of friends, so they goof off a bit over radio, which he scolds them for, though lightheartedly

- He does experience some rough gigs, not ever quite inversion level but there was a time when a clan of vampires descended on a large event being held in a stadium that had similar levels of danger, with luckily less losses

- One day, when Dante is ~25, David gets pretty sick, though is not in any danger, simply is somewhat immobilized and can’t perform his usual duties. Asher takes over, as a beta typically does, but starts trying to convince Dante to take over as alpha, which has been a previous conversation before, especially between Dante and David, but Asher is now making it a bit more urgent, and Dante is resistant to the idea.

- Dante says something along the lines of David not being dead, just sick, so he doesn’t need to take over yet, since he’s scared of taking over so soon. Asher flinches at that, and things become awkward. He eventually apologizes, but Asher insists it’s okay.

- Dante takes some convincing, but eventually decides to step up and take over, after David promises to support him in learning his duties.

- He picks Ashlyn to be his beta, and she does a good job! His takeover of the pack goes pretty well, mostly because everyone was expecting it anyways. David recovers fully, and helps him keep everything orderly, and keeps being in charge of the security company for a few more years before signing that over to him as well.

Taglist: @vegafan69 @darlin-collins @kxemii @professionallyyappin @sereh624

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

The One Where the Justice League Almost Didnt Figure it Out

by batsandthebirds “I can vouch for him,” Cyborg said, sitting up straighter. “We’ve worked together before. I can’t promise he’d want the job though. He works out of Bludhaven, last I checked.” Dinah perked up from where she was slumped against the table next to Oliver. “That’s next to Gotham. Batman, what do you know?” All eyes immediately turned to where Batman sat with his arms crossed, looking impassive as always. There was a long moment of silence and the corners of Batman’s mouth turned ever so slightly downward. Finally, in a flat tone of voice that gave no more away than his face ever did, he said, “He’s… well trained. Fast. Could be useful.” ... Also known as, the League eventually figured out that Nightwing is Batman's son, but it takes a while. Based on this post that I initally wrote on my Tumblr: https://ift.tt/VpU54Qr Words: 3219, Chapters: 2/?, Language: English Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, Justice League - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: Gen Characters: Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent, Diana (Wonder Woman), Oliver Queen, Barry Allen, Wally West, the rest of the batfamily will probably show up eventually Relationships: Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne, Justice League & Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson & Justice League Additional Tags: Batfamily Meets the Justice League (DCU), Dick Grayson Meets the Justice League, it's mostly nightwing, Confusion, Comedy, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, canon? I hardly know her, no beta we die like men, teen rating for swear words and a bit of blood, Based on a Tumblr Post, My Own Tumblr Post, but still a tumblr post via https://ift.tt/FQygfqW

[breckstonevailskier]

This will always be my favorite scene from The Boys

I mean, it's a really great scene, it's the scene that got me interested in the show, and worthy of me trying to do some breakdowns.

The scene opens with Stan Edgar watching Victoria Neuman talking on CNN NNC about the Supe-Terrorist threat. An innocuous thing, at first, but there's a few things going on that are apparent with the hindsight of later episodes:

It actually tells us that Victoria herself is the head exploder supe long before the reveal in the season 2 finale, given that this scene immediately follows her having remotely exploded Raynor's head.

Stan is watching intently because he understand the importance of knowing what the opposition is saying about you. Doubly so considering that Victoria is meant to function as a puppet opposition of sorts to Vought. (Though I imagine that this is changing in light of recent events like Homelander threatening her daughter to get her to betray Stan, her injecting her daughter with Compound V, and Gen V ending with her having obtained Dr. Edison Cardosa's Supe-killing virus.)

With the later reveal in season 3 that Victoria is Stan's adopted daughter, he's also watching her because he's proud of the life and reputation she's made for herself as a politician, and it's a good thing she's ended up doing this instead of rotting away in one of Vought's other secret Supe labs. That might actually explain some of Stan's annoyance when Homelander walks in.

Homelander walks in, having barged past Stan's secretary.

Homelander: Morning. Samantha: Mr. Edgar, I'm sorry- Stan Edgar: It's all right, Samantha. Homelander: Busy day?

----

Stan brushes off his receptionist's apology because well, he doesn't blame her. Saying "no" to Homelander's probably one of the most difficult jobs in the world.

Now, at this point, as Homelander starts to complain about the whole thing with Stan appointing Stormfront. Stan plays along with appealing to Homelander's ego. Homelander's obviously frustrated that Stan isn't intimidated or scared by his threats. In fact, Stan seems amused by Homelander trying to throw his weight around.

----

Stan Edgar: Good morning, Homelander. To what do I owe the pleasure? 🤔 Homelander: Well, you never come up to 99. So, I figured I'd pay you a visit. 😊 Stan Edgar: What a lovely idea. 😂

Homelander: Right? 😂 After all, you run a superhero company, and, uh, you never check in with your superheroes, do you? 🤔 Like, uh... oh, I don't know...around the hiring of that girl, for example. 🤨 Stan Edgar: You wished to be consulted on Stormfront? 🤔

Homelander: Well, why not? I signed off on all the rest. I'm the leader of the Seven. 🙎‍♂️

Stan Edgar: For which you have my undying respect. 😉

Homelander: See, I don't think I do. 🤨 No. Not even Madelyn would've dared to try and pull this kind of shit. 😠

Stan Edgar: Well of course, you know how important you are to everyone at Vought! 😂😂

Homelander: No, no. Stan. I am Vought. You show my photo to some illiterate fucking camel jockey in the middle of the Sahara, he's gonna turn around and say, "Homelander," in perfect American. 🇺🇸

Homelander: You know what? My contract's up at the end of this year. Maybe it's time I, uh, move on. How do you think your shareholders would feel about that? 🤔

It's at this point that Stan stares down Homelander for a solid ten seconds. There's no words, but you can practically see what each is thinking:

Stan Edgar: Your significance to this company is actually less than you think it is. And I'm about to give you the rundown on how that is.

Homelander: 😳 Fuck.

----

Now it's Stan's turn to assert his power over Homelander in this conversation.

Stan Edgar: What do you know about Frederick Vought? Homelander: Excuse me?

Stan Edgar: Frederick. Vought. Our esteemed founder. Homelander: Well, I don't know, um, not a lot, probably. I only read his autobiography...five times? 🤔 Stan Edgar: Not the self-serving bullshit that we peddle to the shareholders. The real story. 🤨

Homelander: Enlighten me. 🤨

Stan Edgar: Got his doctorate from Munich. 🇩🇪 Ahead of his time in genetics. Such the rising young star that in '39, Hitler appointed him chief physician at Dachau, where he enjoyed a ready supply of human subjects on which to test his earliest iterations of Compound V. For which we condemn in the strongest of possible terms. Early in '44, he felt the winds change, got spirited away to the Allies. When Oppenheimer was flailing with the bomb, Dr. Vought already had practical applications of Compound V tested in the field. Heroes like Soldier Boy, killing Germans by the dozen. So, Roosevelt pardoned him, and he became as "Wonder Bread American" 🇺🇸 as Disney and Edison.

Homelander: Well, this is a truly fascinating, if not slightly condescending lecture, but, um... I don't think I see the point, Stan. 🤨

Stan Edgar: The point is... that you are under a misconception that we are a "superhero company". We are not. What we are, really, is a pharmaceutical company. And you are NOT our most valuable asset. That would be our CONFIDENTIAL formula for Compound V. Which you, manchild that you are, released into the wild. 😒😠

----

Stan has effectively outlined how insignifcant Homelander is to him and Vought as a whole. Homelander's just a product to him. Moreover, as we'll learn in season 3, this has been Stan's line of thinking for decades, since he was the one who gave the green light to Payback betraying Soldier Boy so he could be replaced with Homelander. He believes that "real power... is the ability to bend the world to your will," and he's doing that here to lecture Homelander.

Homelander tries to bluff his way out, but Stan has that bluff covered.

Homelander: 😳 I don't know what you're talking about. 🤥

Stan Edgar: Well, let me remind you. You slipped Compound V to terrorists all over the globe to get you and your cronies into national defense. But maybe at the cost of destroying the whole company. 😂

----

At this, Homelander has enough of Stan and tries to get in his face to threaten him, but Stan stays perfectly unfazed and has no hesitation emphasizing that really, Homelander has no power in this conversation.

Homelander: I don't think I appreciate your tone, sir. 😡 Not much at all. 😠

Stan Edgar: And I don't appreciate that the FDA now knows about Compound V, or... that it's only a matter of time before the public finds out. While you're preening at the Golden Globes, we're busy running around like maniacs trying to clean up the mess you made. I don't have to consult you about Stormfront or anything else. 😠 Now... I believe you have a premiere of Tek Knight Lives to go to? 🤨

As you can see, this has clearly left Homelander knocked down a peg or three. He's blocked the whole world out and there's a clear buzzing in our ears as he leaves the office and he decides to go pay Ryan a visit.

Other Notes:

I feel in hindsight that Stan Edgar actually directly was hinting at Stormfront's true identity right here. I mean, Homelander barges into his office to complain about not getting to oversee Stormfront's appointment to the Seven, and the first thing Stan does is lecture him about Stormfront's husband, the founder of Vought?

I don't know when the writers decided to make Soldier Boy be Homelander's father, but that twist does in hindsight inform Stan's way of managing Homelander here. Stan was, after all, the one to sanction Homelander's creation using sperm procured from Soldier Boy, and he also is the one who authorized Payback to betray Soldier Boy to the Russians in 1984.

[sharpbutsoft]

So I know you do digital art, but The Hanged fireMan looks like a watercolor. Do you work with watercolors as well, or is it the program you use?

(please brag about your art process, basically)

Yeah! So I do all my (fan)art in everyone’s favourite innuendo of an art program, Procreate. (Specifically on a 2019 ipad pro with a 1st gen Apple Pencil, both of which I would tentatively recommend if you can get them 2nd hand for less than 200euro like I did)

I did a lot of painting as a teenager, and still paint often to this day. Though I mostly worked in acrylics, I have been known to use watercolours (like, when I was in college I bought a little 3euro paint set and would use the inside of cardboard cereal boxes as diy watercolour paper and paint wild little Irish landscapes… and Winter Soldier fan art, sometimes. 2017 was a different world)

So in summary - I ‘paint’ digitally using some very traditional techniques I picked up over the years, and I kinda prefer digital art now, which I will elaborate on below the cut as I detail how I created The Hanged fireMan…

I’ll start with my favourite digital art ‘cheat’ which is that I use So Many Layers. Like seriously, pretty much every new colour goes on its own layer because I am a control freak and love being able to tweak them all as needed. So for this relatively simplistic piece, I’ve still got something like 20 layers all together.

I’m also usually better at grouping layers but in this one I gave up at some point and it felt dishonest to group them nicely before showing you guys lol

So yeah layers is my biggest hack, but the other is using specific texture brushes

I spent a while playing around with various brushes before finding this Tarraleah one which has just the most delicious watercolour-y texture and a really fun edge to it (and it’s got pressure sensitivity, so I can really control the amount of colour I want to put down on the page)

This background was painted entirely with the 1 brush & colour, and I think it turned out pretty cool. For this particular piece I did have a reference on screen to work off for the most part, but those clouded were just painted with my heart

Next (or maybe before, it’s a while sinceI drew this and sometimes I mix it up) is the lines, which are always done with my best friend, the Procreate Pencil!! I love her, she’s so fuzzy and textured and also if you tilt the tip on the pencil you get a broader line (like with a real pencil) which is just the coolest thing!

When it comes to lines I just sort of go for bigger shapes 1st and details later, and basically always with some kind of reference. I also use a very old & well known trick of putting the most detail into the object of most importance, and leaving the background more loose and vibey

Artists will tell you that this is to draw focus with details. Artists are lying. It’s cause we got lazy after drawing he fun part & phoned the rest of it in lol (I know this because I am an artist)

Also I love this pencil because I don’t have very steady hands and I actually cannot draw straight/smooth lines to save my life! If you’ve ever seen anything resembling a smooth line in something I’ve drawn, it is almost certainly a whole bunch of lines over each other and then erased at the edges to make it look neater

But who needs straight lines when sketchy sketch lines are so fun!

Next is flat colours (the 3layers in the middle with check marks beside them)

I used the same colours as the background, which you can tell from where they completely blend together right down the bottom, and what I genuinely do is use the Tarraleah brush to generally block out he shape, and then go back in with an eraser and smooth out the lines

Why do I do this? …good question

Next is one of my favourite parts, which is adding the lights! Procreate has some really fun -glowy- layer effects - my favourite is probably Add (A) though Colour Burn (CB) is great too for its vibrancy.

Also those 2 layer 11s are there because I duplicated one and then used the ‘Gaussian Blur’ feature to ‘fuzzify’ it (yes, that’s the technical term) It’s a pretty quick and easy way to add a more diffused light effect around something. (I did the same for the yellow reflective strips on the turnouts too!)

Last step now! So full disclosure - I absolutely traced that writing from a photo of a tarot card lol. I actually always trace writing, as, much like drawing straight lines, I’m bad at handwriting on a screen

I also stumbled upon the Exclusion (E) effect by accident - Originally it was going to be a plain cream boarder like a traditional tarot card had, but I wasn’t fully happy with it, so I just flipped through a few layer effects and as soon as I got to this one, I knew it was the right choice

I love the dreamy contrast of the pinks and purples to the dark navy and grey & how it makes everything looks kinda unreal and outer-spacey

And yeah that’s about it! Everything else comes from my 15+ years of Practical Art Knowledge but these are the specifics of how I utilise it digitally!

This was a lot of fun to write out, and I hope that if you’ve made it all the way here, it was fun to read too!

[mastersoftheair]

ok, so my own final (and very, very fresh) thoughts, bc i wanted to wait until i'd watched everything to make a sweeping opinion of the whole series, and it's quite opinionated. and long. probably too long. i write essays for fun (everyone point and laugh):

my personal (and very, very fresh) ranking of the hbo war shows (not including gen kill bc that's a different war, sorry) goes- band of brothers > masters of the air > the pacific (it's the same for my title score rankings. that hasn't changed yet)

my main points of contention with MotA are 1) the nine episodes, 2) the length of the episodes, and 3) certain editing choices. nine episodes, compared to the classic ten, isn't Nearly enough time to showcase all that they wanna showcase (especially when the episodes are as short as they are, once you get past the recap and "next on" parts). and they wanna showcase A Lot! there so much going on! i'd ask them to pace themselves, but they literally Can't!

i mean, the editing choices are a Whole Thing! practically gives me whiplash sometimes lol. i feel like the weaker episodes still have parts that are Really good, but like. Individually. they don't work together as a stronger whole, which is to the episode's detriment. rather than jumping around (as the show often did), they could've benefited a lot from focusing on the One Story instead of squeezing three more stories into there (i say that, but i think the 4-5-6 episode run (all with multiple stories per episode) did this very well while Still being very good episodes, so it's not like it Can't be done, it just didn't work for 7, 8 and (partly) 9). granted, i suspect a chunk of the weird editing can be blamed on, well, there being only nine (and not all that long) episodes and no one wanting to cough up enough money for a tenth. ugh! i'm blaming both hbo And appletv for this (and covid19 ig). it's just One More Episode, how much could it cost?? and on the subject of episodes, why no episode titles? you used to love episode titles! i could've brainstormed episode titles for them For Free!!

when it comes to the characters, the rankings remain the same: BoB > MotA > TP. it's not totally fair tho, since BoB followed the exact same (and large-ish) group of guys from beginning to end, so you're Gonna know who they all are and get attached. this wasn't the case (for me!) when watching TP, since, unlike BoB, they jump around from group to group. i never felt like i got to know them all that well, outside of the main characters. i think MotA almost hits that sweet spot, especially knowing they had those two main things going against it: large cast And jumping from group to group. there's a case to be made for bias here (i Was the blog blogging about everything MotA for like. years.), but i still think they found a good enough balance of fleshing out the main characters while Also helping the audience get to know about a bunch of minor characters, of which there are a shitton (and their personalities, motivations, backgrounds, quirks).

there's also the representation of women. actual angel renée lemaire is and will always be a cut above the rest (bastogne is just That Good, argue with the wall). she's written so well that it almost makes me forget about how a bunch of women are portrayed in carentan. i have...issues with how women are portrayed in TP (even tho i love lena), so there's that. MotA falls in the middle (again) bc there's Way more women on-screen, but the writing can be questionable. balanced (as all things should be?) captain l'sandra wing-westgate is a character of all time, but episode 7 birthed the craziest discourse known to man (the hbo war fandom), but it wasn't all that unwarranted. manon and michou were sooo cool, but we didn't see nearly enough of them (another victim of the 'editing too many stories into one episode' problem. why not a whole resistance episode? or at least as the only b-plot?). paulina was interesting, but fulfilled one of those 'attractive foreign woman gives sage advice during/after sex' tropes (there's probably a tvtropes page for that idk). so many red cross girls, but none of the in-depth payoff :/ epic highs (multiple women!!) + epic lows (writing women??) = pretty tolerable. not great, not terrible. it was aight. i trust the fandom to build on this tho.

narrative is the big one tho. it's the whole "doing so much with so little" thing they've got going on (i'm ignoring their big budget here lol, could've been bigger). rather than having one main story with many connecting side stories (like BoB), it does the TP thing where there's many semi-connecting side stories set in the same general area. it helps that there's crosby's narration (i enjoy narration, sue me!), and he helps everything connect, sorta. but there's still other side stories that have Nothing to do with him (sandra's side gigs (revealing what she did takes away the mystery of what she Might be doing), the tuskegee airmen, quinn and bailey's eurotrip). would it have helped if there were two narrators (say, someone like rosie)? idk. gonna sit with that one. if there's a through-line, it's not super obvious like in the other two shows. which is insanely funny to me bc i literally like TP less, but that show's got an Extremely tight through-line all the way down. i can't lie and say it doesn't!

back to budget- i've seen people criticize this show for being called "masters of the air" when there's not much of "the air". ig that's fair, but there's the money issue, again. also, it'd get very repetitive if they were always in "the air". there was enough confusion about identifying who was who with the masks on, so imagine if that was Every Episode. out of All the issues the show has, this is the least issue-y. again, that's just my opinion, and it could change.

another budget thing (i think??)- idk enough about costuming and hair for period pieces so i can't comment on that with my 0 background in it, all i Can say is that i knoooooow people were clowning on marjorie cleven's hair in episode 1 (and i could see why, no such thing as 1940s beach waves). but from what i could understand- that actress' addition was a last-minute thing (bc i had No idea who the hell she was and i already found someone cast for marjorie all the way back in 2021). maybe there's something to say about the quality of rush jobs, but i really do think it was the most last-minute thing bc it came out of Nowhere, and timeline-wise, it looks like that bit was done long after everything else had been filmed. outside looking in, it seems something probably went wrong/didn't work out with who or what they already had and there wasn't enough wiggle room (time and money) to fix it. this isn't me being an apologist (lol), but i feel like a theorist at a big board bc nothing adds up! and i wanna know what happened! i'm just speculating! speculating on this blog is All i did for like Years lmaooo.

this is more of a side thing, but some of the lines in MotA feel really on-the-nose, almost corny. and that was Gonna be a knock against it, but there's some equally Extremely on-the-nose lines in both BoB and TP (Especially in BoB), so if i give MotA shit for it, i'd have to give all three shows shit for it lol. none of them are free of cheese.

another silly aside- no peaches, no main gingers, no main eugenes! we can't have 'em all, but c'mon!

there Is some good tho lol. one thing that MotA really has going for it, that i think the other shows have less of, is- and GOD it feels so weird to call this "world-building" when it's actual goddamn history, but- it's got world-building. maybe that isn't the best word for it. but i like how much Bigger ww2 feels in this show. BoB is one stop, then the next stop, then the next stop, which is, admittedly, good from a narrative-perspective (easy to follow), but not as good when you want a scale of how devastating the war is (in fairness, it was filmed in 2000). even TP feels pretty "enclosed" in a way. there's island-hopping, yeah, but all the damn islands look the same (not including australia lol). it's a theatre of the war we otherwise don't really get to see, but there still isn't all that much to see. it's water and sand and rock and dirt. which is the point, but Whatever! would've been cool if we saw sledge and co. in china, but moving on. MotA's able to really show the scale of it, both in the air and on the ground (that scene in germany during episode 6 was both harrowing and fantastic, also the inclusion of the actual children forced to fight nearer to the war's end in the finale). idk i just liked how it was able to zoom in and zoom out (and in and out again) in a way that the other shows weren't.

another thing it's got that the other shows don't is Really driving home how young everyone is (not "child soldier" young, but damn young). the cast is full of baby faces (rip babyface). a lot of ww2 shows/movies don't bother casting to reflect this, but i think overlooking that takes away from the overall impact. you browse through some old newspaper articles or photos of soldiers during ww2 enough and you're gonna Regularly get hit with the face of someone who looks like they could've sat in the desk next to you during a high school lit class. a lot of those b&w grinning faces look like kids bc they pretty much were (more so if they lied about their age). you don't really get that in BoB or TP (it's Crazy when the real life pics of the soldiers portrayed in those shows look younger than the actors).

i'm mixed about the tuskegee airmen. what we have, i love (thank you, dee rees). unfortunately, my biggest irk is that it leaves me wanting more of them, which i won't ever get. speaking as a black person (not speaking for All black people, just how i personally feel about it), having them included feels like a catch-22. if they weren't included in any capacity (all while knowing there were whole tuskegee airmen in stalag iii with the white main characters), there'd be a problem. however, including them (all while having these time constraints and not enough focus on them) leads to the feeling of having them "tokenized" (which i can see). there's no world where there'd be 50/50 split (even a 70/30 split) bc, at that point, just give them a show of their own. but there'd still be a general annoyance that big budget ww2 shows are only ever white. on the other hand, hanks and spielberg and orloff and miller and all the directors (except dee rees) are white, and how good of a story about black people are you really gonna get from the perspective of nonblack people? that in mind, i personally don't feel put-off by having the three tuskegee airmen in the posters/trailers/promos, bc i just Know there'd be a whole nother problem if they weren't included in them at all despite being in the show for however long (it'd be even worse if they made their pictures smaller). like i don't work in advertising, but i don't know if a "sweet spot" even exists for something like this. people would be pissed off no matter what imo (i'm also speaking with a bias here bc i had to browse through sooooo many comments written by white guys whining and crying and pissing and shitting themselves once they learned that the tuskegee airmen were gonna be in the show in Any capacity, so i'm just cool knowing they're in shambles rn (and josiah cross- he played richard macon- always goes Wild seeing his face in the promos, and his joy is pretty contagious).

i give it somewhere like a 7.5-8/10. 3.75 stars out of 5. not perfect, subject to change, gotta marinate, but i'm overall happy with it! MotA's best episodes are better than many other individual hbo war episodes. should i be grading it using the overall sum of its parts, not just the different parts? idk, i'm not being paid to grade lol.