#at this point I don't even only want justice for all the wrongs done in the world by evil people I want BLOOD

[silvermoon424]

Thoughts and prayers :) :) :)

When do we finally start sending these sewer rats to the guillotine

EDIT: This goes deeper than I thought. The city of Davenport is hurrying to demolish the building even though there are still missing residents and they literally just found a still-living woman in the rubble who would have certainly been killed if the demolition went forward. There are currently protestors raising hell in Davenport about this.

This is disgusting and suspicious as hell. I'm seeing Davenport residents talk about how the politicians of their town are corrupt and are likely trying to cover this incident up while not caring if they end up killing people in the process (because, again according to residents, Davenport's infrastructure has been falling apart for many years).

[pink-amethyst-tarot]

🤍 Why You Should Be Proud Of Yourself 🤍

credit to @crystallilytarot for the idea 💕

P I L E 1 P I L E 2 P I L E 3

Close your eyes, take a deep breath and choose the pile that you think is the one for you ♥

P I L E 1 - You have come so far! Four of Swords, The High Priestess, Two of Pentacles, Eight of Pentacles, Ten of Pentacles, The Fool, The Magician

The first thing I heard before even pulling cards is The Party's Just Begun by the Cheetah Girls and that feels like a sign that you should be having fun, dancing and living your life to the fullest! Your life can be so beautiful if you let it.

You know much more than you think that you do. I feel like you are back and forth between losing faith in yourself and feeling like you are finally breaking through. (I know what that's like, I've been there too much.) You've got to cut yourself some slack. Yeah, it's not perfect now but, you have made so much progress and that is important. You are so much closer to the finish line than you realize. Don't give up now. You've worked too hard and have come too far to give up now.

party cuz you know the future's all yours // dance 'til your feet don't touch the floor // celebrate the day you've waited for // party like you're ready for so much more // do it like you know it's never been done // go a little crazy // have too much fun //today's the day, c'mon everyone // the party's just begun //

Channeled song - The Party's Just Begun by The Cheetah Girls

P I L E 2 - Going With The Flow Two of Pentacles, Nine of Pentacles, Two of Wands (Reversed), Six of Pentacles, Justice, Queen of Pentacles, Eight of Swords

Despite your fear of change, you have overcome, finding your balance in your life and either now or soon, you will be enjoying the fruits of your labor. That could be financial abundance for this pile - it seems pretty likely, considering all the pentacles. You have been a very giving person and now it's time that people start giving to you in whatever way that may fit you.

You should also be proud of yourself for getting yourself to a point where you don't feel sorry for yourself. You've done the work to really see the truth of the situation - where you have been both right and wrong - and you've seen that you aren't as stuck as you once thought.

P I L E 3 - You've opened your heart again! King of Cups, Ten of Swords, Seven of Swords, Seven of Pentacles, Ace of Swords, Eight of Pentacles (Reversed), The Moon, Ten of Cups

You've been through some hard times. I feel like your heart was really bruised and batter but, despite the things you have been through, you have taken your lemons and turned them into make lemonade! I can see some of you turning to writing, journaling, or posting on social media. You have been working on yourselves and you are so happy with the progress you've made. You should be proud of yourself; I know I am! This work you have done on yourself is leading you to a new beginning in your life, a change of pace that you have be dying to have!

Your dreams are coming true and your intuition is spot on! You are about to get everything you wanted and then some so you can relax and know that your life is about to change for the better.

If you are looking for a personal reading, you can look on my shop on Etsy at PinkAmethystTarot, DM me or send me an e-mail at pinkamethysttarot@gmail.com

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Thank you all so much for interacting with me and my readings, it really does mean the world to me!

Page Divider by @cafekitsune

LEGAL DISCLAIMER: FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY. THESE READINGS ARE FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY. no guarantees are implied. These readings are not a substitute or replacement for any professional help or services. My readings are not a substitute for any form of professional legal, medical/psychiatric, relationship, religious/spiritual or financial/ business advice nor consultations. You should always see a professional legal/trained adviser for help in any matter. I am not responsible for any decisions/ actions you take.

[theoncomingchaos]

Who loves Rook: Spite or Lucanis

I've been seeing a lot of discourse about this, and I just want to add my thoughts.

I might be totally wrong about this, but here we go. When Spite was put into Lucanis, he was still Determination. The fact that he changed throughout the torture, forced insertion, and imprisonment suggests to me that they have been put into a speedrun of a similar situation to Anders and Justice/Vengeance where they have started to meld. (As Anders put it, you wouldn't know where one begins and the other ends). Just like Anders and Vengeance, Lucanis and Spite can have separate consciousnesses and even disagree about things, but their core values have started to influence one another and become a part of one another- heightening certain aspects.

I think this melding is why we see some dialogues where Rook tells Lucanis that he sounds like Spite and similarly it's also the reason for the shared attraction- which I fully believe is coming originally from Lucanis.

I'll be honest my first time through I romanced Lucanis and was very disappointed. I didn't even see him and Neve ever flirt (she only ever encouraged us!) But still, it seemed to go from 0 to 60 with him. Now, I am on my second playthrough and I only just met him, but I am starting to see some really subtle looks and dialogues that suggest that Lucanis wasn't lying later when he said he was attracted to Rook from the beginning, but was afraid to really pursue anything or even acknowledge the possibility of being with them. With his fear of trusting people, ptsd from the prison, failed history in romance, and his new situation with Spite that he still hadn't worked out yet, he never thought anything would or could ever come of his feelings. We know Lucanis loves romance stories and likely longs for one of his own, but in such a situation it must have seemed truly impossible and terrifying to let someone else in. Especially someone you really care for and are starting to trust. So, he pushed it all down. Rook flirts? Maybe a small smile, but then quickly lock it all up with everything else he can't handle. Focus on work. Don't think about Spite, or Rook, or anything difficult.

However, if the melding has already happened as I suspect, then the feelings Spite is expressing are shared with (and likely sourced from) Lucanis, he's just better at expressing it directly- which makes sense for a spirit that was once Determination. When you first talk to Lucanis after the rescue, the thing Spite says about Rook changes accordingly to your tone, but to me the responses still sound like they come from Lucanis and are then echoed in Spite: "He doesn't want to hurt us." Even the "He's more fun than you" is something Lucanis seems to think about himself as he is fully aware that much of his life has not been his own and believes "all he knows is death."

Leading back to the main point, Lucanis's trust and interest in Rook would be heightened by Spite the way Anders' anger towards the templars was heightened. Even though they are finally free from the prison, their is a sense of constant suffering from still feeling trapped by fear, regret, and pain- Spite feels that suffering too. The elements of determination are still within him the same way justice is another side to vengeance. Both spite and vengeance are the results of failing to achieve their goals of Justice and Determination. Spite sees Rook as a way to free them from pain and restraint, a glowing and beautiful key to the prison door, and he is determined to do what needs to be done to solve the problem. That's why he doesn't hesitate. He has no fear. He wants to talk to Rook. He wants Rook to come in and free them.

After Rook has freed them, they become a source of comfort and safety, once they encourage Lucanis and Spite to find a way to cohabit comfortably, the two continue to meld, and the need to protect Rook, to love Rook, to keep them, is very deeply shared. Now, IF Spite was somehow removed or even somehow restored (Both of which I think are impossible) that would likely change. Determination outside of Lucanis would likely become more like Compassion. He would likely forget the horrors he experienced to return to his original purpose.

So, that leaves some final questions, particularly one Hawke helpfully asked Anders- Is Spite an unwilling party in the threesome?

That's up to everyone's own morality. While both Spite and Lucanis didn't have a choice to become like this, it is the situation they are in and the way they have to find a way to accept and live with because there really doesn't seem to be any real way to change it. Through their time together, Lucanis and Spite have influenced each other and grown into something new. Part of that is Spite also loving Rook. In that way, for those who are feeling (rightfully) underwhelmed by Lucanis's romance, Spite can almost be seen as a symbolic expression of Lucanis's love.

All that being said, I think there were some small things they could have done to make the romance more satisfying over all...but I'll save that for another post.

[utytimeline]

I might make some people mad, but I'm gonna say it, anyway.

So, Ceroba's reason for choosing Chujin over Star was because she wanted someone more mature. At least, that's my understanding. Star was playing cowboy and role-playing with his friends while she wanted to settle down and raise a family.

And... yeah, Star had a lot of growing up to do. And he did almost none of it until Ceroba stopped him from shooting us.

Star's main character flaw is his ego, but it's even worse than just an ego. Half the reason he set up the Wild East was to help everyone else. He wanted to bring in money to help his family when the Swelterstone's effects caused a drought; he wanted monsters to get a taste of what the surface is like so they don't drown in despair; and he wanted to make Ceroba happy after she lost both her husband and her child. All of this on top of feeling like he was a "nobody farmer" that couldn't do anything or help anyone.

So Star's primary character flaw isn't as simple as just having a big ego. His primary character flaw is trying to fix others as a way of fixing himself.

Sometimes this is a good thing, tho. I often think of Star as the "papa" of the Feisty Five. He's the protective one, he's the one teaching them ethics (reminding Mooch that they're not supposed to be bandits, playing dead to teach Clover about the responsibility of potentially hurting someone), he takes care of the town, he's made ALL his own money from this town that he built himself (enough that Mooch wants his inheritance, so it's a sizeable amount), he even gave his posse a designated nap time, gave Ceroba a home (and possibly gave her his bed while he crashes on the couch), sews his own clothes, set up all the rules and regulations... and I could go on, but I think I've made my point. Star is not wholly irresponsible. He's not perfectly responsible- he, and the rest of the posse, have a habit of breaking and losing Blackjack's weapons, they're all loud and rowdy, and they have a tendency to forget to turn off their boulder machines out in the Dunes.

So, yeah, Star does still have some growing up to do. But he's got a good start.

As for... everything that went wrong... That was entirely due to Star's worship of humanity. Star fell in love with westerns and with the justice and overall sense of romance that they portrayed, so much so that he not only tried to make himself into one of his western heroes, but he then extended this worship to the first human to ever set foot in the Dunes- namely, Clover. And because of this, Star completely threw everything that was good about himself out the window. He sees a human an immediately decides "this is my deputy," without even really giving Clover a fair chance to see if they even are deputy material. He forgot the safety glasses, got so worked up he forgot how to pronounce "duel," became extremely temperamental, apparently forgot that Vengeful Virgil was scheduled for the train mission that day, locked up a Royal Guard against her will (arguably committing treason in doing so, I might add), and just generally began running over everyone's words and emotions, including Ceroba's.

So when it came down to the Showdown... Star blamed Clover. Star's not an idiot. He knows good and well it's not Clover's fault. It's Star's fault- or more precisely, it's his worship of humanity that is to blame. But the problem is, he's taken it upon himself to guard the feelings of other monsters, to make them feel hope and joy. And he just screwed up and stole all that from them. So he's conflicted, not willing to admit that he has done the exact opposite of everything he set out to do. And since it's his worship of humans that led him to this point, he decides to blame the human.

Hence, the Showdown.

But he doesn't want to do it. He says himself, "Monsterkind's Hero is a title soaked in blood." He loves humans. And he sees Clover as a friend. He doesn't want to kill them. He's not a killer, and he doesn't want to be one. He doesn't believe in it. Justice is one thing, but... how is it just to kill someone that did nothing wrong?

So. Here's where Ceroba comes in. Telling Star he needs to calm down and go back to who he used to be. And Star points out that she's changed, too. Even Ceroba says, before taking Clover to the Steamworks, that she doesn't know if she has room to tell Star to go back to the Starlo she used to know.

Ceroba, tho, is no different than Star (this is the part that I said might make some people mad). Ceroba worships Chujin just as much as Star worships humans.

Ok, look. Chujin was a great craftsman. He built so much- furniture for Dalv, his and Ceroba's house, the space heater at the Honeydew Resort, many other items in use throughout the Underground, Kanako's toys (even programmed a video game for her), and so much more. So much that even Star respects him for all that he did for everyone.

However, there is also much that indicates that Chujin wasn't the best at his job. His only award is "You Tried at Engineering," and it took 14 tries for him to build a working robot. In Chujin's defense, I will say that it is impressive that he did build a working, sentient robot without the use of a SOUL, which is how Alphys made both Mettaton and Mew Mew; however, if Chujin is really such a genius, why did it take 14 tries to get Axis to work, when it apparently only took 1 try for Guardener?

And then Chujin didn't just stop with robotics, but went on to SOUL research. Two completely different fields. (And before anyone starts commenting on Alphys, I just want to point out, yet again, that both of the robots she built did use SOUL power; so, realistically, Alphys never was a great robotics genius, but rather, everything she did was a part of SOUL research- hence, the reason Asgore hired her as the Royal Scientist). But Chujin decided to press on with his SOUL research, despite there being no indication anywhere that he had ever done any such research before.

Now, I'm not trying to say that Chujin wasn't remarkable or a genius. I'm just pointing out some things that indicate that maybe he wasn't quite the genius that Ceroba wanted to make him out to be. And... Ceroba's reaction to his "You Tried" award. She's proud of him. More pride than what is warranted by such an award.

Ceroba said she met Chujin when he pretty much rescued her after she twisted her ankle, fell into a ditch, and laid there for several hours, unable to move. She also said that she had considered dating Starlo before meeting Chujin. So... hate me for this if you want to, but I feel like she may not have the best judgement when it comes to guys. Now, that's not to say she picked losers or creeps. Both Chujin and Starlo were/are sweethearts that care deeply about everyone around them. But the fact remains that Ceroba left behind the guy that she'd known all her life for a guy she just met, just because he rescued her from a bad situation.

And I'm not even saying she made a bad choice! By all accounts- including Ceroba's, Martlet's, and even Starlo's- Chujin was a good, kind-hearted, hard-working monster, and a wonderful husband and father. But... he wasn't perfect. And I think Ceroba, even though they had to have been married at least 10 years, just always had stars in her eyes where he was concerned. He was her everything. She believed he could do no wrong. She believed it so strongly, she was willing to do... many horrible things.

Ceroba's drive to kill Clover started with her love for Chujin. She wanted to do anything to keep him alive in her own heart. And when their child begged and pleaded for a chance to help, Ceroba agreed, because Kanako woshipped her father, too. Ceroba's misguided belief in her husband guided her to do things she would never have done otherwise.

Thus the reason for her guilt. It's not just guilt over killing her own child. It's also guilt over knowing that it was her own misguided worship of a monster that wasn't as perfect as she thought he was, that this was what led her to kill, and to kill again.

Ceroba worshipped Chujin. Just as Starlo worshipped the ground Clover walked on, Ceroba worshipped the ground Chujin walked on.

So when people point to Ceroba's comment that Starlo didn't grow up... yeah. She's right. Starlo needed to grow up.

But so did Ceroba.

One of the hardest parts of growing up is realizing that the people you worship are just people. They make mistakes, and you, yourself, are mistaken for believing they can do no wrong.

So, anyway. There's as much Staroba (Starfox, I call them) hatred as there is love for the ship. I've seen both sides of the argument: Starlo isn't mature enough; Ceroba is insane. Yeah. You're both right. And that's why they're perfect for each other. They both made the mistake of changing everything they were in an effort to continue worshipping their idols. They both went nuts. They were both driven to kill. This is the inherent danger of idolatry, believing so much in something that isn't real, that you will do anything to make it stay real to you.

[vidavalor]

I've had to disconnect from my dash because of all the negativity; I honestly do not get why people are acting like a semblance of justice+a movie is the worst thing in the world?

I'm mourning for the full six-episode season we lost because ng couldn't pass the utmost basic sub-zero bar for not acting like scum and of course I wish amazon had kicked him out and then sprung for it anyway (and honestly, as long as you're blaming the right person, I think it's fine to feel upset? We deserved better, the cast and crew deserved, Terry deserved better, and this one guy ruins it for everyone because the bar was buried six feet deep beneath the ground and he still managed to go lower, and that does suck, and it is miserable and unfair, so take a moment if you need it 🤷‍♀️) but let's face it, we got off lucky. Arguably, considering this was a standalone novel from the nineties, that then got made, in one of the best book adaptations I've ever seen, into a limited standalone tv miniseries (and, again, emphasising the standalone here, so even if it all goes to hell in a handbasket, we'll still always have S1 and the book; people have been ignoring the Jurassic Park sequels for nearly three decades), and then got a surprise sequel, we were pretty lucky the whole way through.

And regarding the whole what if it's bad thing, I was always going to be worried: I was anxious long before this shit went down, and I was anxious before S2 and even S1, as well. It's not like we ever had any guarantee it was going to be good beforehand either, and at this point, knowing what we do now, I'm not at all sure I'd have trusted ng to write this anyways. So while, yeah sure, I'm maybe a little more anxious now, I trust Michael and David with these characters and I trust Rob and Rhianna with Terry's legacy and story and that they wouldn't have fought so hard for this ending unless they planned to keep fighting and thought they could pull it off. Isn't the problem with this kind of thing normally that what happnes is the creator who cares deeply about the work gets pulled in favour of someone out-of-touch who cares not a jot about the story and needs to leave their own grubby fingerprints all over it? More the other way around here, no?

Anyway, what I also wanted to say was that I really appreciated your 'think of it as the final two episodes of season two' (and all your takes on this situation so far, very level-headed and optimistic, thank you). I mean, you're right, and it's hardly wildly out-there for a series to finish on a feature-length special, and although the filler material in S2 and the compression of S3 maybe means it doesn't exactly resemble what the second book would have been, it was only ever meant to be two books. (Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed S2 and was very glad to get it, even though I am a book/S1 fan and also had the most fun in that time fandom pre/post/around the time of the S1 release, but why does it exist? Ego? You can't tell me you couldn't have fit the important parts of S2 into one season with the S3 plotline.)

Basically, I'm grieving the could-have-beens (imagine if he'd been exposed way earlier and the TP estate had had control of this whole production from the very start!) and I'm a little worried that that hurt'll stick around no matter how good S3 is - which I need to fix, because that's more power over my favourite show and what it means to me that I want to give anyone, let alone someone like that - but at the end of day, I do think it definitely can be done with what we have, and I'm choosing to be hopeful it'll be done well, because, well, why wouldn't I?

(I will say this hasn't been great for my faith in humanity, because I really want to believe not all men are shit and some of them are making it very difficult right now, but that's an entirely different problem and so far believing most people are mostly good has always prevailed in the end so. y'know. we'll get there. might reread discworld, that's always good for that.)

Sorry for venting all this at you! I just kinda felt the need to write it all down once to get it off my chest... have a snack on me? I'm partial to cherry tomatoes, green melon and mandarines at the moment (I stop eating salads in winter, which means I default to eating even more fruit) but I can also offer homemade baked goodies fresh from this morning? 🥧

Hi there. 💕 You are welcome to vent away & thank you for the delicious-sounding snacks and kind words. I'm glad my posts on the movie boosted your spirits about it. I agree with and can relate to almost everything that you said here so assume that anything that I don't address just has a 'yes, absolutely' nod happening. 🙂‍↕️

The one thing I want to touch on here is S2 and this idea of it being "filler" that you mentioned that I think might not be quite accurate. I think you (and anyone else who reads this) might feel more enthused about the idea of a good ending in 90 minutes after reading this so hopefully this'll be another way that I can help?

On why S2 is really the whole story and actually had a lot more going on in every way than S1...

Ok, I'm going to explain something that drives writers like myself bonkers 😂 and that is how some readers or viewers of fictional stories mix up plot and story.

Nothing grinds our gears than reading things like "filler" and "unnecessary subplots" because, while everyone is within their rights to have an opinion on written works, 95% of the time, the person who says phrases like this isn't talking about the quality of the work but of its very existence. They're saying "why did we have to read/watch this? it didn't connect to anything" and that's where they are very, very, very... argh, just tell them, Crowley...

...thank you, dear. Right, so, why is it wrong?

Because what many people who don't write don't understand about subplots and more character-driven story arcs is that the writers sat down and decided to do that stuff for very, very specific story reasons. Readers and viewers mistake plot for story. Plot only exists in service of story and, so, all plots exist for a purpose in the story. They're all relevant. In fact, the stuff people usually label as "filler" in a story is really exactly where they should be looking to figure out what the story is saying. If you're big mad about all this time you spent with Maggie and Nina in S2, I'd say you might not still understand what S2 was about because you won't understand Aziraphale's story without understanding both Maggie and Nina's struggles in S2, for example.

A story is the whole, overall thing. It's the meanings, themes, and messages in the work. It's what's being said. It's the ideas being put forth by the piece. It's what it's about. It's different from plot, which is just the stuff the writers are making the characters do or not do in order to tell the story that they are looking to tell. Story is the art; plot is a tool used to make that art. Fiction writers can come at their story from almost anywhere to convey what it is that they are trying to say so there is meaning in the fact that they are choosing to tell their stories the way that they are telling them. They came up with these ideas for reasons.

When you dismiss stuff as filler, you're saying that it's lesser than more in-your-face and bigger plots (when, often, it's very much not), and you're telling a writer how they should have written their own story-- most of the time, without even fully seeing the ending of that story or giving any consideration to why it is that the writer wanted you to read or watch the stuff you're saying wasn't necessary. I'm not arguing that every story is perfect but you aren't getting anywhere near close to being able to evaluate a story if you're not willing to dive into what you were given and consider why it was that you were given those things and what they might mean.

Until the main question that you're asking about every single aspect of a story is "what is this saying?", you're not really fully engaging with a work. You won't get there by dismissing what the artists are telling you is important.

The secret sauce to interpreting fiction are subplots, actually. They exist to help highlight the themes of the main story, often in a slightly more direct way. If you want to understand Good Omens, starting with Ineffable Bureaucracy is actually one of the best ways to get at the core of the themes of the story. It's far from wasted time in the story.

There's actually a funny nod to the importance of subplots in 1941 when Aziraphale references Sophocles, the playwright who basically created the concept of the supporting character whose story mirrors and parallels the main character(s). The mention of Sophocles shows up in S2, the season that brings Gabriel more fully into his purpose as exactly that.

The reason why S2's plot is centered around the honestly pretty easily solvable mystery as to what's happened to Gabriel is because Gabriel, from the get-go, has been the entire story distilled down.

If you follow nothing but Ineffable Bureaucracy in Good Omens, you're going to be closer to getting what it's about and where it's going and what its end game is than you are if you are dismissing it as wasted time when we only have few episodes left. If you haven't yet seen the secret wisdom in Jim-- not to mention understand that Jim and Gabriel are the same person-- then you're probably wigging out more about the movie.

You likely think that S2 was wasted on stuff like Gabriel, or Maggie and Nina's romance, when they should have been getting to Armageddon and The Second Coming already!

You haven't yet noticed that Armageddon has more than one meaning in the series.

It's not always the literal destruction of Earth but also a person's own life crisis. We are all worlds of our own and those worlds can be put at risk if we don't let others in and take care of ourselves and those around us.

When you realize this, you can start to see that S1 goes hard with a freight train of plot all over the place that is related to Armageddon in a more Biblical, apocalyptic sense while it establishes its universe for us but that, once we know how it all works, we can get something like S2... a time where we can step back and start using Armageddon in the more figurative way that the story is also presenting it.

We need to because the story isn't about Heaven or Hell-- it's about being a person. S2 is emphasizing the deeper aspects of the themes and rolling that out at a pace more in line with a person having a few days of inner crisis. When you see that Aziraphale's crisis is the point then you can see how S1 can be about The Four Horsepeople riding to the end of the world and S2 can show War (inner conflict), Pollution (mental health issues), and Famine (symptoms of the other two; lack of food and pleasure and connection; self-starvation and self-denial) as a mental health crisis.

The point is that if you're thinking these characters need to come together to overthrow Heaven and Hell and get to the South Downs Cottage and there's no time slajdflkfwjlkejlje!?!?, then you aren't realizing that not every revolution involves guns and bombs.

People all over the world can start a love train that's far more effective. You might think a subplot about The Hellhound and The Ginger Cat learning to play nice and that they have a fuckton in common and should maybe bury the hatchet and just become eternal bffs already is filler but Crowley and Gabriel aligning is set up for the end game. It's strength in numbers and finding peace and family. They can't overthrow Heaven/Hell without help and Gabriel is the Supreme Archangel. They literally will never have a South Downs Cottage ending without a plot that helped Crowley and Aziraphale see that Gabriel and Beez are on their side.

This is the revolution in Good Omens:

It will take all the characters coming together to overthrow Heaven/Hell and set up something new for us to get a happy ending and we absolutely will. S2 is Gabriel-centric because Gabriel is the key to all of the characters getting a peaceful ending and because he's a split-directly-down-the-middle mirror of both Crowley and Aziraphale. In a season that is more about Aziraphale's inner Armageddon than about an external threat, Gabriel is vital to telling that story. The plot of S2 is every bit as important to the story as S1. I'd argue that it's even more important because takes the time to go at the themes in a slower, deeper way. It needs to because it's a story of a fall that sets up for a story in S3 of a recovery from one.

Good Omens is the absolute perfect combination of a show that is both very, very detail-oriented and full of depth while also being, secretly, an incredibly simple story. I do not mean simple in a negative way but in a chef's kiss sort of way. Simple in a tight and elegant sort of way. This is something that I think some people might not see when they're theorizing but it's something to keep in mind ahead of the movie. Not just because the movie is shorter-- this would have been relevant if we were having a longer S3, too.

Good Omens has a very engaged fan base that looks for the details, yes. *raises hand* I'm one of them lol. And there will be plenty to pour over in the movie, but... the big thing to keep in mind is that your theory needs to be something that is simple, that can be explained in under a handful of scenes, tops, and that is focused on where Aziraphale's story arc is going above anything and everything else.

If you're beginning with time loops and the birth of a new antichrist baby, I'm telling you from ages of experience reading and writing stories, you're going to be way off. If you are over here composing theories of the story that you are arguing are correct and this theory involves, idk... *makes something up* Crowley is really Elvis and Elvis is really The Bentley and when a rainbow hits Whickber Street at exactly 4 minutes into the new season, Satan will be revealed to really be Jesus, I think maybe you might be missing the point of the details that the show has given already. Like the plot, these details exist to reinforce the themes of the story. Story beats everything else-- it's what this is all about.

And what Good Omens is about? Is best summed up by Michael Sheen, in this single sentence that I really, really agree with and have paraphrased more than once in posts:

Good Omens is about the business of living. It's about the human experience, which is the experience of being a person. Everything related to Heaven and Hell and good and evil and Armageddon and supernatural things is plot that only exists to highlight a story about the complexities of being a person.

The supernatural is human and the human is supernatural.

That is what Good Omens is about.

While Crowley and Aziraphale are built as two halves of a whole and are both main characters, Aziraphale is the main character from a technical, story perspective, because he is the character whose story arc is driving both the plot and story forward. He's heading for a happy ending with Crowley in the South Downs by the end of the film. If you're making theories, start with what kind of plot would truly get him there and still fit with all of the themes of the story.

This 'it's about being a person' business is why if you look at S2 as filler and not as a season that is exploring the continuing themes on a deeper level, you're still worried about things like there being no time in a movie to show the story of a new antichrist kid being born or how they're going to fit the whole Second Coming into the movie. You don't yet see that Aziraphale parallels Adam and that being an antichrist is basically just being a person and that Aziraphale is presently the antichrist in the story. There is no antichrist child yet to be born. They won't be cutting it because it's not the story.

Armageddon since S2 has been Aziraphale's own personal one and the story from the end of S2 on is now how, if all the other characters can't come together to help him, it could also trigger Armageddon of the S1, Earth-destroying kind. It's tying a more literal Armageddon into a more figurative one. Because this story is about being a person so Armageddon is just metaphorical for going through a mental health crisis and shutting people out.

This story's themes include that every person matters and we all have to let others in and look out for one another. That there's strength in numbers. That found family and adopted family is as much family as biological family-- often, even more so. That labelling and categorizing people is bullshit and you should always open the cover and read the first sentences of people and help people whose stories begin with the same letters find one another. That it might be surprising who has things in common. It's about all of Heaven and Hell versus all of humanity, in the sense that ideas of being a perfect angel or being seen as an evil demon are concepts felt by human beings that get in the way of peace and healthy, happy living, but that fighting them is a common, human struggle, regardless of from where you come.

If you are too focused on the religious plot being the center of the film, you haven't yet seen the meaning of why the end of S1 was an eleven year old kid saving the world by telling off the bio-dad that was never there for him. You might be one of the people who thought this a silly, anti-climatic ending to that story, and don't yet realize that this is the entire story in a nutshell.

Adam can only reject Satan and keep the darkness at bay because he is surrounded-- here, literally-- by a family that supports him. He has good people for parents and was lucky enough to grow up with resources that all kids in this world should have. He has an absolutely terrific group of friends. He has this witch lady and her boyfriend and these two gay uncles that just showed up out of nowhere 😂 and his human incarnate self has what it needs to make it through this crisis, in this moment, even if he'll probably have others throughout his life, just like all of us. He's not evil incarnate and he doesn't have to be perfect-- he's just a person.

Aziraphale tells Adam this but struggles to see himself in the same way. That's what S2 is about.

S2 is about that other kid who, like Adam, breaks the season down into a single line of dialogue, David Tennant's apparent favorite from the season:

Jemimah knows who she is and she is happy to claim ownership over her art and contributions to the world. She's living her life with excitement and enthusiasm in a way that gets more complicated as we become traumatized adults. Crowley and Aziraphale struggle with this. They have been making a life together on Earth for thousands of years and each struggle, in their own ways, to truly accept that they are people who are allowed to have a life because they struggle to accept that they are people, just like everyone else.

Their story is about getting to a better place with that. That's really all Good Omens fundamentally is. That's why their ending is going to be to go live in a little cottage together that isn't a business that covers up an angelic embassy that covers up a secret love den. It's just their house-- theirs together for the life they're going to live openly together.

If you want some peace with the film, I'd advise throwing over your theories about The Second Coming and Armageddon needing to happen and antichrist kids and how Jesus fits into everything. Jesus in Good Omens is Crowley romancing Aziraphale at the crucifixion and Aziraphale using what Jesus said to Crowley to reject temptation as invitation to fuck him. I thought Jesus in a single scene or less was the most likely thing for S3 and the same holds for the movie. It's not the story. The only time The Second Coming is mentioned in S2 is by the villain and, to get there, Earth would have to first be destroyed. It won't be.

If the story is about being a messy human walking the Earth and we're in the end game now, then the story is about Aziraphale and only Aziraphale. Everything-- everything-- will be in service of Aziraphale's story arc. We already had just a few episodes with S3 and we now have even less time but the way this is going is still the same. The story is Aziraphale's fall and the other characters coming together to challenge Heaven to keep Aziraphale from eternity in Hell. That's how Armageddon is stopped this time around-- overthrowing Heaven with Aziraphale's fate as the motivation to take on The Metatron. It's nothing to do with Jesus. It's everything to do with Aziraphale.

When you see that, you can see how feasible that is in 90 minutes, with plenty of time for things like 1941, Part 3 and other flashbacks.

I think, when all is said and done, you might wind up appreciating S2 more after the film but you can get there already if you start looking at it less as meaningless fluff and start asking why it is that we were shown this story, in this way, and what that can tell us about the story we're watching.

[j4keluver]

baby, i'm here to love you

pairing: boyfriend ! jake x girlfriend ! reader genre: established relationship, angst, comfort warnings: reader calling herself stupid, crying authors note: this is for my pookie @luvj4key. i hope i did you justice love </3

jake has always been the best boyfriend - like a golden retriever to your beck and call. his smile radiates through the entire room and his laugh could heal the souls of millions. he has loved you endlessly and never once have you ever doubted it.

so how did you end up yelling at him over not washing the dishes? "jake i asked you to do one thing for me ! and you couldn't even do that," you yell out. whatever those girls said about mercury being in retrograde, were right. it felt like the earth was rotating backwards with finals week around the corner. you have summed up about an average of 3 hours of sleep a day, the rest of the hours hunched over in the library.

it was getting more frustrating with the days going on and jake has been busy with his own school work. you knew jake was busy, either studying for his own finals or gaming with his friends. jake was always a smart guy, being in honors classes and passing them with ease. you. on the other hand, struggle to grasp concepts until they are fully immersed after countless hours of practice.

you had given jake a heads up to ask him to please wash the dishes before coming home. you wanted to cook dinner but you didn't have any clean dishes to use. jake, on the hand, had just got home and decided to take a small nap before doing some cleaning around the house. he sets an alarm and it doesn't ring.

"baby i'm sorry, it was a mistake, i didn't mean to forget," he says as he tries to pull you in for a hug. you shake off his advances and you roll your eyes at him, "it wasn't that hard of a task to do but you still couldn't do it? i've been endlessly studying in the library for finals week because i'm not a genius like you and i don't understand the material ! i keep trying all these practice problems and i keep getting everything wrong and i just wanted one thing to be done. i'm starving all day and i wanted to come home and cook us dinner but none of the dishes are done and.."

your voice breaks with ease and jake's demeanor immediately softens. his tone is so soft that you would miss it, "baby..."

the emotions that you've been holding for however long comes breaking down as tears streamed down your face. jake feels like his heart is chipping away, "oh baby, come here." you take a step forward before jake fully wraps his arms around you, his cologne wafting into your senses. his arms rub soothing circles on your hip as he plants soft kisses into your hair. "hey it's okay, i got you, i got you."

your tears start to slow down as you slowly catch your breathe. jake slowly pulls you to sit on his lap while the sound of your breathing is only heard. jake whispers to you, "what happened baby? tell me."

you only let out a small exhale, "i've just been so stressed with finals and i just can't grasp the content and i feel so stupid. i just don't know how to get these formulas down and i didn't want to bother you because i know you were busy with your own finals. i just didn't want you to become annoyed at me or think i'm stupid."

jake reaches up his hand to cup your cheek and softly caress it with his thumb, "my sweet angel, i can't believe you've been holding all of this in. it's okay to not understand content after studying it, sometimes you just need a little more time for things to click. if it doesn't, you know i'm here to help you always."

he continues on, "you are not stupid because you don't understand something, okay? you are very smart and work very hard and you can never bother me. baby, i'm here to love you."

your eyes soften at his words and the only thing you can say in this moment is a 'thank you.' jake points to his watering eyes, "look baby! you even got me crying." you only softly laugh and give him a kiss which he gladly returns.

"let's order some takeout and we can work on some of your material tomorrow morning? how does that sound?" jake says and you nod. for the first time in weeks, you finally smile.

© belong to j4keluver. do not copy, translate, or repost.

[scoobydoodean]

#okay wait do y'all think that she wasn't going to try and murder Dean?#Do you think he was going to get through to her?#convince her somehow to not try to stab him?#that she was telling the truth at all in that scene?#because she was totally going to try and kill Dean#like 100% that was going to happen#and if Sam hadn't shot her then Dean would have had to kill her and that would have been so much harder on Dean#like it was disturbing that Dean had a 3 day old monster child that wanted to kill him but who was then killed by her uncle Sam instead#and even more disturbing that they then never mention her again#but these are also the guys who left their half brother in Lucifer's cage and didn't lose any sleep over it so...#and I love Dean but killing Amy was an asshole move#and there's kinda a difference between killing an active imminent threat and killing someone in cold blood after the fact @jinkieswouldyoulookatthis

I didn't want to clutter someone else's post but this was partially directed at me? I've talked about the whole "Emma vs Amy" debate quite a few times, but I'll share a few thoughts.

Amy is a present, unrepentant, fully cognizant, adult, serial murderer. She is not actually sorry about what she did in any way. She believes that slaughtering humans like cattle to feed them to her son was the morally correct action even if it wasn't the ethical action because it kept her son alive. She is not correct.

Emma is a brainwashed child who's been psychologically conditioned for a few days. She has never killed anyone and only wants to kill Dean because some women who abused her told her to.

Hunters like Sam and Dean primarily deal in punitive justice, not preventative justice—and what I mean by that is that Sam and Dean try not to kill people (with powers or without powers) who have never killed anyone.

While I think you're right to point out that a preventative justice component is in play, that is not primarily how Dean makes the decision to go after Amy, and the reason we know that is because Amy's son swears to kill Dean and Dean does nothing about it because the boy has done absolutely nothing wrong.

Dean's application of his personal code is consistent here. He kills Amy, who is a murderer who killed four people, but he does not intend to kill Emma or Amy's son—both of whom wanted to kill him—because neither has actually killed anyone and both may choose not to.

You say that Emma was going to kill Dean 100%, but you don't actually know that because we never got to see that future. You assume Amy would never have killed again, but when you add up "murderer who regrets absolutely nothing" and "child vulnerable to catching illnesses" you get "Mom who absolutely would kill again as necessary and who would feel zero remorse doing so just like the last time".

I don't personally think SPN gives us any reason to suspect that three days of psychological conditioning from a cult is too much to overcome. We have seen other characters overcome much more serious levels of psychological conditioning intended to make them killers. For example, Cas and Alex. I'm not saying Emma wasn't trying to pull the wool over Sam and Dean's eyes in the scene where Sam shot her, but I am saying that doesn't actually mean in any way that she couldn't be convinced to actually choose a different path.

Under the same litmus test with which you suggest Emma's condemnation, we'd also condemn season 2 Sam for his potential "future" crimes. We are killing monsters before they actually become those monsters... because of the dark path someone else intends for them to go down. Amy—again—is an active present unrepentant serial killer.

I think sometimes people misremember the scene where Sam kills Emma—recalling the scene as a scene where Emma lunges at Dean with the knife and Sam steps in just in time to save his life, or where Dean is unarmed and Emma has him at knife point. But that is not what happened. Emma quite literally brought a knife to a gun fight. Dean had a gun pointed at her, and if she was thinking straight at all, she would have left to avoid being killed if given the chance—especially when Sam arrived. And had she not, Sam could have shot her at that point—but Sam didn't wait to see what she'd do. He wanted her dead, because even if she ran, he didn't think they were equipped to deal with surprise attacks from Dean's Amazon child. That is the decision Sam made after a brief moment to consider, and it makes sense to me given the headspace he was in at the time and his assessment of Dean's headspace as well, but it does not make his decision consistent with his previous or future behavior regarding people who have been psychologically conditioned to kill.

My own frustrations are more with fandom, for a thought process that really really does not make sense to me, where Emma deserves to die but Amy deserved to live. I do not agree with that premise. I do not understand why so much of fandom has the perspective that a child who hadn't shed a drop of blood and who was acting in response to a cult's torture, who brought a knife to a gun fight and had already been driven into a corner where she had no choice but to surrender or run—doesn't deserve a chance to choose something else before she's barely lived and before she's heard a loving word in her entire life, but an adult with full cognizance of their actions who went through with killing four people and doesn't regret it should go on with their life and is "just a good mom doing what she had to" and killing that person is the bad thing. I don't understand that. I don't think Dean killing Amy was wrong at all in the "hunters kill supernatural murderers" show. The only thing Dean did wrong was lie about it and not take enough care to keep her son from seeing it happen.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

I read your rewrite of Chapter 2 (which was great, by the way) and would like to clarify some things. Of course, you wrote that the fixes were just you exploring possibilities, so you don't need to justify anything if you don't want to. 1. How would Leona join the investigation? Correct me if I am wrong, but Leona didn't seem to know about Yuu and co. until Riddle and Qater confronted Ruggie. For him to know about them so soon, someone (like an injured Savanaclaw student or a Savanaclaw student who overheard Yuu and co. questioning others) would need to let him know. Even then, would he be able to join without looking suspicious? 2. How does Leona plan to frame Diasomnia and get it to stick? He can point fingers all he wants and use the circumstantial evidence they gather to prove it, but Diasomnia has no reason to sabotage others when they have Malleus. Leona would most likely be aware of Crowley's biases, so is he just hoping casting enough suspicion would force Crowley's hand? Does he intend to convince students from other dorms to demand their disqualification despite the lack of motive?

[Referencing this post!]

Wow, people are still reading that?? 😭

As I said in the original post, my book 2 rewrite was more of a compilation of shower thoughts without much care given to fleshing out the finer details. It is by no means perfect, nor is it meant to cover everything.

There’s enough wiggle room left for various different interpretations using my book 2 rewrite as a basis. It’s meant to be flexible!

Just for fun, here are my thoughts:

To your first point, I don’t think Leona would come off as suspicious if his introduction was framed a certain way (which I’m sure he could plan around). Yuu and co. would be investigating all the dorms (since they’re all suspects), which includes Savanaclaw students. Leona could easily hear it from Savanaclaw mobs and then reintroduce himself to the group, claiming he also wants in on the investigation to seek justice for his injured students. Since Riddle is already investigating with Yuu, Leona could easily use that to distract from his true intentions. He would come off as just another pissed dorm leader trying to stand up for and avenge his dorm members. (And if we really want to get technical, we could reason the other dorm leaders are not getting involved due to other reasons, like Azul being busy with the inter-dorm event organization, Jamil not trusting anyone with Kalim but himself, Vil preoccupied with his professional gigs, Idia being Idia, and no one knowing where the heck Malleus has wandered off to now.)

To your second point, I think Leona definitely has the capacity to trick/manipulate other students into believing Diasomnia is responsible. He could set up situations which incriminate certain Diasomnia students (based on their unique skillsets), then leave the other dorms’ students to come to their own (false) conclusions based on that. Obviously, it would look too suspicious if he and Savanaclaw students are the only ones pointing fingers, so he has to convince the others to parrot the rhetoric he wants them to. If it was done this way, we achieve many things: 1) Leona comes off as way more intelligent than in the original book 2, 2) it sets up more parallels between him and Jamil (who also tried to get a lot of people to side with him under false pretenses to convince someone of higher authority to change their mind) for delicious book 6 payoff, and 3) it adds to the sense of betrayal the other students experience at the end when it turns out Leona deceived them.

Something I feel that the main story fails to do well is to define the rivalries between each dorm. It’s only mentioned a few times off-handedly, like how Octavinelle and Scarabia students are intelligent and are thus always neck and neck in terms of grades. In my revised book 2, an opportunity arises to utilize this untapped potential. Think about it: what if the other dorm members are more likely to suspect Diasomnia because the main story calls more attention to how the dorms do NOT get along with each other?? Diasomnia is described to us as a place where skilled all-around mages go, and this has resulted in the Diasomnia students being more arrogant than your average NRC student (which by itself is already very arrogant). From that point of view, it’s not too hard to believe that the other students could think Diasomnia is injuring other students “just because they can”. They’ve grown too arrogant and think they can get away with doing whatever they want because they won’t face the consequences of their actions. (Malleus himself is THE poster child of that across multiple events and vignettes too.) There doesn’t necessarily need to be a motive in the traditional sense; people could suspect that Diasomnia has gotten too high and mighty, so they are conceited and feel entitled to doing whatever the hell they want. It would be a perfect way for Leona to weaponize the preexisting animosity and pride of the NRC students against them. The injured students would then feel slighted because Diasomnia are being held up as the metaphorical “golden children” (despite their theoretical unethical behavior) while their suffering is looked over. These feelings ironically also parallel how Scar feels cheated of the throne because of his careless older brother and son, or even how the hyenas are not seen as part of the Pridelands.

[pinkcottoncandyss]

After Yellow

What's it's story anyway?

After Yellow will not have a comic for some reasons;

I'm too lazy to do this

I have trouble thinking that nothing is good enough

To be quite honest, the comic is bad and poorly written.

There's no point in having a story made without knowing how put it into practice

But I don't want to leave my au without having it's story shared! I have a lot of affection for this, it took me a long time to write anyway.

Anyway, let's get started

What is the story of the AU?

Chara and Asriel's plan went very wrong, and while the prince returned underground, an adult with the soul of justice followed him wanting to "avenge the child" that Asriel carried in his arms.

The monsters were devastated, they lost both heirs to the throne on the same day! So his protections were down when the human attacked. Half of the population was killed, Asgore and Undyne were two of the thousands of victims. Toriel, seeing everything around her, laid down a new law; The next human to fall would be killed and their soul would be used to break the barrier. She no longer had compassion for humanity, her entire family was killed by a human! Anyway, when Frisk fell underground, he was the third human to get there.

Looking around, they had no idea where they was.

Frisk was playing in the forest when this happened and they didn't even see what they had done.

Anyway, on their way underground, they found Flowey. The flower desperately tried to feel something, but nothing worked. When he saw the human, he was initially with one foot behind, but realized it was just a... child.

Flowey decided to follow Frisk on their journey and help them get out of here. Heading to Snowding, the human met MK, also a child whose parents were victims of the massacre. They didn't remember what a human looked like, when it all happened, MK was just a baby, so they didn't realize that Frisk was one of them.

All the monsters would hide wherever the trio passed, all afraid of what the human was capable of. That's why Frisk at no point had the obligation to defend themselves against anyone. Anyway, MK guided Frisk to snowding, where Sans was. Sans was the first guinea pig with the determination experiments, and also the only one so far. He thought that what was the point of living in this place when some human could fall and kill his brother? But unfortunately, his body couldn't handle the determination within him. His bones are slowly melting and rotting from the inside out. Sans at this point can no longer walk without crutches. That's why, when he saw Frisk together with MK, he couldn't stop their journey.

The children continued walking until Watterfall, where Mad mew mew showed up! the leader of the royal guard and the second scariest woman in the entire underground (second only to the queen). She wasted no time and tried to kill the human, hunting the child with anger in her eyes. When MK tried to stop her, she told him that Frisk was a human and why she wanted to kill them. Even knowing this, MK didn't let her do anything to Frisk and helped them escape to Hotland. Unfortunately, having to stay behind.

Frisk continued their journey with only Flowey hidden in their backpack, their only company. They continued until they found a restaurant, where they met Muffet and Grillbys. Both best friends.

Grillbys helped Muffet get the spiders out of the ruins, their fire keeping them all warm until they reached Hotland, their home. They both started a restaurant together! It was a success! The food there was genuinely delicious.

Anyway, Frisk stopped for lunch there (they hadn't eaten anything since they fell underground, they was hungry). However, they was unable to eat their meal in peace, as the chief cook, Papyrus, attacked. She took that job because Mad Mew mew "didn't want weaklings in the royal guard" (her words) and kicked him out. Not letting him even want to be trained. Seeing Frisk there, a flame of hope lit up inside him! He could finally follow his dream! But of course, he couldn't kill Frisk and they both ended up becoming friends.

They both talked about various things. Papyrus mentioned a friend of his who hadn't left the house in months and even showed a photo of her to Frisk. He also gave the idea for the human to convince Toriel to repeal the law of kill humans. After a long conversation, Papyrus gave Frisk his number (even though they said that they didn't have a phone) and went to work.

Frisk and Flowey even tried to continue their journey, but some lasers blocked the way. The talking flower said there was a control panel in the lab that could make them deactivate, so they went there.

Frisk tried to open the door, but it was locked, they also tried to ring the doorbell, but no one answered. Flowey, already bored, picked up a rock and threw it at the window. The human reprimanded him, but still entered the laboratory.

when the lights came on, GOD WHAT A MESS! The laboratory stank worse than a dump, everything was overturned and spread across the floor.

Looking around, Frisk noticed that a woman was lying on the floor, it was the same woman that Papyrus had shown her. She was sleeping amidst stacks of paper and packets of snacks, her white coat was dirty yellow.

The human couldn't see everything so, against Flowey's pleas, they approached the woman and woke her up. Standing up startled, Alphys stared at Frisk for a moment before realizing what they were. The child assured her that everything was fine and that they would not hurt her. Frisk asked if she was friends with Papyrus, to which Alphys nodded and buried her face in her hands. After Undyne's death, she had entered a phase of mourning and depression. Even though Frisk was a child, they could see what was happening.

They both ended up talking, Alphys couldn't hold back her tears and even though that human didn't even know her, they helped her. At the end of the conversation, Alphys gave Frisk a cell phone and let them continue their journey.

A lot of things happened in the meantime, puzzles were solved, soldiers tried to kill Frisk, but managed to reach the palace. The queen was waiting in the garden, irritated by the human's insolence in appearing like this.

Frisk tried to talk to Toriel, but was almost hit by her scythe. The queen seemed in no mood to talk. The fight began, Frisk tried to act, talk and convince Toriel in every way, but she just ignored it. Eventually, she hit Frisk squarely, leaving them with just 1 HP. Flowey was about to intervene, but Frisk decided to just spare Toriel. And when she tried to make the last blow, she couldn't. She couldn't hurt a poor child, even a human one, they was still a child.

She fell to her knees, dropping the scythe. Toriel couldn't do that.

At the end of it all

I would like to say that I had the courage to make a sad ending, but I really couldn't

In the end, Frisk was adopted by Toriel. They and MK were officially siblings!

The law was changed, every human who fell would be a friend, not an enemy.

Mad mew mew was obviously angry with all of this, she didn't like the new terms, but she had to accept it

Alphys finally sought professional help and talked to Papyrus and MTT again

MTT got a robotic body too :D

Papyrus continues to work at the restaurant

Unfortunately, the barrier will never be broken. It takes 7 human souls to do this, something that will never happen.

Bonus; Sans and Toriel are a Canon couple here

My notes

It's really not the best thing in the world and it could be much better, but I'm satisfied and that's what matters!

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask me.

[gwenllian-in-the-abbey]

"If it feels like Alicent needs Rheanyra to suffer in order for her life to have meaning."

https://www.reddit.com/r/HouseOfTheDragon/s/6bMp4SmUpH

What's your opinion on this post?

I think the summary, "it feels like Alicent needs Rhaenyra to suffer in order for her life to have meaning" is kind of a misrepresentation of Olivia Cooke's quote cited in that reddit thread.

"Rhaenyra can just get away with anything, and it's so fine. The king turns a complete blind eye, whereas Alicent has always had to walk this tightrope for her whole entire life," Cooke explains. "Just the injustice of it that she feels, until things happen and she realizes that none of it f---ing matters. She looks around her family, and they're all f---ed up. She's like, 'I've been so perfect all my life. I haven't taken a step wrong, and it doesn't f---ing matter.' I think what we see in her evolution is this complete existential crisis."

“(rhaenyra) is the mother that alicent wishes she could be. i don't think there's empathy there. i think it is just another cause for alicent’s resentment, because it’s something she's doing better than alicent ever could.”

Alicent doesn't need Rhaenyra to suffer in order for her life to have meaning, what she needs is justice. She is married to the king and has given him three sons and a daughter, and she's treated no better than a mistress. Ironically, Alicent could have been a royal paramour, had royal bastards, and they would probably be safer as bastards than they are as trueborn children. It's blindingly unfair, and no one in Alicent's life recognizes that. Even her father cannot really acknowledge that Alicent personally has been done wrong because he had a hand in the doing.

I think what's left unsaid in the second part of that quote is why Rhaenyra is the mother Alicent wishes she could be. It's not because Rhaenyra is inherently a more loving, caring person. We see young Alicent is a very warm girl, with a lot of empathy for others, but by the time we catch up with her as an adult, she's been worn down by her circumstances. Even setting aside the fact that Alicent's children are not the product of a loving union like Rhaenyra's were, Alicent can't be this perfect caring, supportive mother when she is fighting for her children's lives. She can't let down her guard, nor can she afford to be too soft, or allow herself to become too attached, because her children are not simply her children, they're royal children who will be at the center of a succession crisis whether they like it or not. And unlike Rhaenyra, who has this incredible power of denial, Alicent has this anxious, hyper-vigilant personality and she can't just pretend her children won't one day be a threat to Rhaenyra''s claim. This is incredibly detrimental to Alicent's ability to effectively parent them!

And so of course Alicent resents the fact that Rhaenyra can just pretend everything is fine, that she can offer her kids this seemingly unconditional love and support, that she can ignore the elephant in the room when Alicent herself cannot ignore it. And the thing is, not only does Rhaenyra's refusal to acknowledge the problem put Alicent's kids in even more danger, it's not actually great for Rhaenyra's kids either. Just look at Jace, he's flying off the handle every time someone whispers the word bastard and already someone has lost an eye because of it. That kid harbors some deep insecurities, and his mother's absolute refusal to acknowledge his parentage, even privately, puts Jace in a really weird position. How can he prepare himself for his future as king, how can he learn how to face the whispers and the accusations, when his mother won't even utter the word? Alicent doesn't really have the ability at this point to see the flaws in Rhaenyra's parenting, but they're there.

So no, it's not that she wants Rhaenyra to suffer, she wants Rhaenyra to acknowledge that she understands the realities they're facing due to Viserys' decisions. Does Alicent want to feel like her own suffering matters? Of course! No one wants to feel like they wasted their life, that their sacrifices are unacknowledged and unappreciated. Look at how far Rhaenyra's "thank you and I'm sorry" went at the family dinner. Being gaslit is a maddening experience-- there's a reason why it's an abuse tactic-- and being gaslit over a period of years about something with life or death consequences would turn anyone bitter and resentful. But Rhaenyra's suffering in and of itself won't right the wrongs done to Alicent, and on some level Alicent has always been aware of that.

[yanderes-galore]

I've been waiting for this! Darling almost gets caught by the Unknown before the fog gets them. Darling thinks she's "safe" (away from the Unknown) before going on trial and seeing it again. I think Unknown would be happy to see a previous almost victim.

I was originally going to make this a concept but I don't think that would do it justice. So, here's a one shot :) The cool thing about this killer is I don't have to do much research since you're meant to not know anything about it.

Gender is Gender-Neutral as I just... Never said any pronouns- I got too focused on the spooky.

I got really into this, sorry it isn't fully spell checked 😅 I am my only editor, lol.

Reoccurring Nightmare

"Yandere!" The Unknown Story

Pairing: Dubious intentions

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, "Obsession", Stalking, Kidnapping (Technically), Grotesque descriptions, Primarily just horror themes, Violence, Dubious intentions.

Sometimes people get into things they shouldn't. Sometimes you come across something that you shouldn't have known about. Unfortunately, accident or not, there is still consequences.

Poor you probably didn't even mean to get involved with The Fog or The Unknown. If anything, you just wanted to know what happened to your lost friends. Mikaela and Sable have been gone for a long time now....

The search for your friends accidentally got you involved in a darker scheme than you thought. Unbeknownst to you, simply searching got you caught in the crosshairs of something... otherworldly. You had no clue until it decided to strike.

It started with an uneasy feeling. The constant feeling of being watched. Perhaps that was just you being anxious... You are worried about your friends, after all.

But as your research and leads got deeper and deeper... You began to realize you were too deep in this web. You kept finding research and articles about strange phenomenon. Things like dark fog and cryptid sightings.

The entire time the feeling only ever got worse.

Days turned to weeks as you looked over the information you had. The police never bothered to help and you kept finding rabbit holes. No matter how much calming teas or meds you take, you can't shake your anxiety.

Are you being followed...?

Are you insane?

In the middle of the night you hear noises. Things like skittering or... voices. You swear you see silhouettes pass your window or banging across your walls.

You haven't gotten enough sleep... Maybe you're just hallucinating?

Your fears kept getting worse as you continued on. You kept thinking you heard the voices of your friends outside. Yet there was nothing ever there.

Your mind felt coated in a mental fog. You just couldn't think straight. Why did it feel like you were seeing things?

One night marked the conclusion of your fears....

Late at night you kept scrolling through research. At this point you were too far gone into this rabbit hole. There had to be something that took them... right?

"H-Hell..o?"

You freeze when you hear something speak. You look around, yet once again nothing's there. The voice sounds corrupted... inhuman... you can't read it.

"H-Help...!"

The voice croaks again, sounding oddly familiar. You shoot up from your seat and look around. However... You begin to breathe heavily when there's nothing...

Except for a sudden bang.

Your gaze shoots to your window, seeing something skitter off. The brief glance you got wasn't enough to tell you what it is. Yet you can tell it's playing with you...

It's taunting you....

You quickly run through your house in search of a weapon. Something... Wasn't right. With the amount of research you've done, you have your suspicions on what's wrong.

But you're still unable to comprehend it...

Let alone what it wants.

"S-Scar...ed?"

The voice croaks from outside, thumping hitting your walls. It's trying to find a way in. Your heart won't stop racing.

You grit your teeth, grabbing a knife from the kitchen to defend yourself. It's all you've got right now.... However, if this is what you think it is...

It doesn't really matter....

"Cu...te...!"

You grimace at the voice, the gender swapping between a distorted male and female. You can't decipher it. It's all a threat you can't fight....

With a loud crash, an axe smashes through your window. You jump back to keep your distance. Although... You freeze when something crawls through the broken glass.

It looks... Twisted. The cracking of bones fills the room, leaving you unnerved. The...Creature twitches and cracks around until it goes from all fours to on its twisted legs.

You feel bile bubble within you at the sight. You don't even dare look at its face. It's a twisted mimic of some sort of man.

That thing isn't human, however...

Nowhere close to it.

"I-I have... something... for you...!"

You brandish the knife as if it would do anything against it. Even if you had a gun, you doubt it would kill it. Black smoke pours into the room as the creature snaps and twitches closer to you.

"S-Stay... still...!"

The creature echoes before swinging the fire axe. You dodge it but the weapon manages to snag your knife. You curse to yourself as you dodge.

Not like it would've helped you anyways.

The creature turns around to look at you, a twisted grin never leaving its face. Your fear excited it. Such wonderful prey.

However, as you both plot your next move, the fog continues to fill the room until there was nothing but darkness.

You panic, having only vague ideas of what this meant for you. However... When you awoke, your adrenaline began to settle. You were left in a forest...

With nothing but a campfire in front of you...

Along with your two missing friends.

The two are filled with surprise when they see your shaking form on the ground. You stare back at them in confusion. Then...

You begin to cry.

Mikaela and Sable quickly run over to you and embrace you. You sob into them, calming down from your near death experience. Such a thing Mikaela and Sable have grown used to by this point.

They comfort you, rambling about how they didn't expect to see you again. They express concern and worry. After all... No one tries to get here on purpose.

You were happy to find them, even if it isn't safe here. All that mattered to you was the fact you were away from the creature. You never had to see it again...

Even if you had other issues to deal with...

But you could face those with your newly found friends by your side, right?

---

By this point you've gotten used to these new trials. These loops of death and illusions of escape was supposedly what Mikaela and Sable had been going through the entire time you've been looking from them. You were sent from one hell to another....

Yet you were quickly beginning to adapt.

Perhaps you were always meant to come here. If you stopped looking for your friends, would it still happen? You aren't sure... But does it matter anymore?

All you know is death now.

However, with Mikaela and Sable you could get used to the cycles. With them... You felt you could get through this. At least here... you could comprehend most horrors.

Every trial seemed to blend together eventually...

Then you saw it again.

You could never forget the twisted body and unnerving aura. You nearly freeze again in the middle of a generator when you see it shambling around that decrepit movie theater. You fidget with the wires as best you can but you're soon thrown off.

Upon roiling across the dingy movie carpet, you look up to see the very same creature you thought you escaped. It crawls on all fours towards you with that same cracking sound. Your memories flash before you...

Aren't you used to death at this point?

"Fo~und... y~ou~!"

The creature coos in a distorted voice... Shuffling closer in a rapid pace.

Your scream to echoes through the trial as it advances, your mind flashing a reminder that whatever happens... There's no escaping it now.

[orange-orchard-system]

Fakeclaiming is easy because it feels like activism. It feels like protection.

Spotting a "faker" feels like you're doing something. It feels like you're protecting yourself, your community, by pointing at someone and saying "look, I have identified the enemy". You get to feel good that you have done something to help, and you get to feel good to see one of your enemies torn apart by your allies. It's based on a simple reward system for community.

The thing is, though, is that this community isn't solid, and this reward system is flawed.

If a primary way of protecting oneself is spotting fakers, then you're always on-guard, always looking for the enemy in your allies. You'll look for patterns where there may not be any, because you want a leg up on spotting the next of them; you want formulas to rely on – one to decide if someone is faking, and one to decide if someone is not. You want to make the process of protection as simple and easy as possible. And in turn, the easier it gets to "identity a faker", the more often you get that rush of spotting one, that camaraderie of tearing them apart with the "real ones". You have made it easier to justify hurting others, because you have made it easier to win that reward system. And yet, at the same time, because you must remain on-guard, you stress yourself over whether someone fits the formula(s) you have crafted. If all your enemies are fakers pretending to be allies, then you must be ready to turn on any of your allies and tear them apart, too. You must rely on this second formula; these rules you have enforced to decide who is real and who is not. You must not ever think about the process beyond how you can better improve your formulas.

There is no repeal, once a claim has been filed. There is only dogpiling and tearing them apart, demanding they apologize, delete their blog, kill themselves for "faking". They are the enemy, this is what has been declared, and you can tell because they plug into the formula. You can tell because they did something we don't approve of. You can tell because we have declared it true, and you must always believe us and never listen to the person we have been tearing apart, because you wouldn't want to risk defending the enemy, would you? Because...

Conveniently, people who speak out about this reward system are often automatically considered fakers, too. Because their voices are seen as defense of the enemy you have already branded, so they must be enemies too, right? I must now be your enemy for telling you the flaws in this system; in this community. Because only enemies to a community say there's something wrong with that community, don't they? They can't possibly be members of the community who want it to be (even) better. They can't possibly be real members of your community who you have plugged into an arbitrary formula that doesn't even make sense most of the time. They can't be people who have thought about this for two seconds and decided, "Actually, tearing people apart doesn't sound like a very moral action."

Fakeclaiming is a flawed reward system that depends on the idea that the main enemies of any community will always be trying to pretend to be them. Will always be wolves in sheep's clothing. And that the way to help your community – the way to get that rush of justice against your enemy – is to never truly trust your allies; to be prepared to hurt them at a moment's notice; to create formulas based on confirmation bias and plug people into them if they do something against the rules you have decided upon.

I'm aware this is scathing. That's the point. Fakeclaiming doesn't serve any productive purpose; all it does is give the same rush that hitting a child gives a parent.

I am also aware this will likely be used to make me out to be a "faker". An enemy. Very well, go right ahead. Anyone who would decide criticism about the way they go about harassing and tearing apart their own supposed "allies" is an act of "the enemy" is not someone I wish to associate with, so please do reveal yourselves, so that I may block you and move on with my life that does not involve hurting people for the rush it would give me but does involve thinking critically about accusations.

Fakeclaiming doesn't even help the community the way it's supposed to. Drop your formulas. There are better ways to help your community, like accepting our variance and differences, offering advice born from personal experience, and advocating for more awareness and acceptance in your everyday life. Go leave a positive comment on someone's post. Go make a positivity post. Be there for people. I believe you can do better, and make this community better, in turn.

[strawberryblondebutch]

So I read Britta Curl's apology.

Emphasis on read, because no way in hell am I listening to that whole thing with my shitty auditory processing. So please acknowledge that this means I'm potentially missing out on tonal cues and body language.

I don't think she's changed. A good apology recognizes what you've done wrong and how you'll improve in the future. She seems to think that her posts are the problem, not the beliefs that motivated said posts. Her improvement plan is to "grow in humility, and grow in love." I'm not sure where most marginalized groups would rank that in their restorative justice plans.

Even if the apology's content is lackluster, the fact it exists is good. That Curl felt she needed to say something, for her own and the league's reputation, means she knows that eyes are on her. There are degrees of harm in public figures. Among baseball players, you can trace a line down from Curt Schilling (actual Breitbart personality) to Jason Adam (refused to wear a pride cap in a game) to Brad Hand (likes Trump tweets on Twitter in silence). I have no respect for the beliefs Hand's social media activity suggests that he has, but he's not saying on the record that being gay is a bad lifestyle choice, nor is he tweeting about how awesome that Capitol riot was. My personal respect may be nonexistent, but Hand's actions are less directly harmful.

I would love if Britta Curl changed her beliefs. I don't engage in moral Puritanism. I believe that people can change, and I want them to. If she came out with an apology tomorrow where she said, "I understand that my words and actions have hurt members of the trans and Black communities, and here are the steps I am taking to understand why this is so harmful so that I can improve, I would support her. But that's not what happened.

Whether we like it or not, this shit does matter. Arguably, it matters even more in women's sports. I don't like it. I would love if the WNBA, PWHL, or any other league were one where you could shut up and play, and you weren't expected to be a role model for young girls everywhere (which, that's a rant all of its own). But at the end of the day, you can't cater who you are to a hypothetical ideal. You have to cater it to the world that you're in. And yeah, that sucks.

The increased scrutiny on female athletes will always affect marginalized groups more. I'm not going to speak too much on racism in the WNBA, because I don't consider myself an expert on it (I'm only a casual basketball fan, no matter the gender), but I've seen the scrutiny leveled on Angel Reese compared to Caitlin Clark. I also remember Hilary Knight being fucking terrified to come out as queer because of all the outside pressure on her. Having to hide what you believe is different than hiding what you are.

She's not going to get top-six minutes this coming season, and the discourse is going to be insufferable. Yeah, Curt Schilling's a terrible human being, and although his beliefs got worse after retirement, he was an outspoken conservative when he won the 2004 World Series. Compare that to Trevor Bauer, whose shooters claim that he's being blacklisted by the Woke Mob, when he's really just... not a good pitcher, and he's also managed to piss off every manager he's ever had. Britta Curl will not be one of the six best players on Minnesota unless something goes terribly wrong - she's not a better center than Heise or Pannek, and she's not a good enough sniper to move to the wing. The worst people you know will claim she's being punished for her beliefs, because they do not understand how sports work. Block and move on.

It is still very funny that she blocked me on Twitter. Block and move on goes both ways, but I didn't tag her in the post or anything, which means she name searches.

Once again, if you read this far, please consider giving to Prevention Point or Savage Sisters. Harm reduction is important. Those two organizations are why I'm still alive, and the city of Philadelphia wants addicts to die.

[profounddefendorcrusade-blog]

Let's talk about genocide Starlo

... because on one hand, I understand where the devs were coming from. They wanted to highlight that Star was not the cool, badass sheriff he'd love to be. Some pointed out how, realistically, he couldn't have defeated Clover and especially delivered the final blow (he does it in pacifist/neutral bc hes in the worst possible headspace). Star is a big softie and a "naive fool," lets be real. But still, there is one more thing that he is: caring.

He cares about the town, toursits, especially his friends. It's been shown over and over and OVER again. And i'm sure as hell disappointed he didn't bring a real gun. Yeah, he was always aware this was all play pretend, but just for a few minutes, this man should have tried to be the sheriff he never got the chance to be before.

For the sake of everyone. For the sake of justice.

I'm not even asking for an epic battle. I'm asking for a battle that wouldn't even be close to Undyne's in UT's geno. But it would be Starlo's battle. A battle he was robbed of for the sake of Ceroba getting the spotlight.. for the 2nd time. Because this dude is clearly seen as a joke by the devs. I'll ask:

Why ceroba AGAIN? she shone in pacifist, while Star was always more of a comic relief and its depressing. Especially since the genocide route ties too well with a twisted image of justice. Star values it as much as Clover, but here he could have been the hero of justice. I just have to say....

STARLO IS THE ONLY ONE OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS WHO DOESN'T EVEN HAVE BATTLE MODE IN GENOCIDE WE WERE ROBBED HES LITERALLY THE EQUIVALENT TO MONSTER KID OR METTATON NEO i'm not sure BUT EVEN MK GOT A BATTLE MODE. METTATON NEO ALSO GOT A BATTLE MODE. EVERYONE GOT A BATTLE MODE EXCEPT STARLO

He should have said... "I may not be a real sheriff by title, but my soul will deliver justice!" Or smth Then just like during the Asgore fight, he'd almost be dead, ceroba arrives, tries to protect star, gets shot by Clover, they say goodbye to each other, then, before he is about to get shot too starlo says smth like genocide undyne and that's how he goes out.

Even better, he, without thinking, throws his hat on the ground (bc he metaphorically no longer wants to admire or associate himself with humans, ever again), seeing his bff die in front of him and goes either: "I don't care if you make fun. This isn't about being cool anymore. This is about my town, my friends. This is about JUSTICE." or "No... I won't fight you/deliver justice as North Star." *pause* "I'll do it as Starlo." and the dork then just stares at clover (There'd be a "laugh" option if Clover decides to act because, well, they see him for the nerd he is) but he's DETERMINED and at this point it doesn't even matter if he's not skilled, he'd do something he hadn't done in years just for the sake of saving his remaining friends, family, and other potential victims: Starlo would fight AS HIMSELF.

But maybe he wouldn't even fight after he takes his hat off. maybe he'd try to explain to Clover violence isn't the answer like Martlet, because that's something the real him would do. He'd drop the hat, drop the gun, drop the belief that he's a badass, and instead accept that he was, and always will be, a big ol' softie. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Point is, would he actually kill clover? hell no. That would be ooc (now that I think about it, why wouldn't he, when he is able to do it in other 2 routes? And he COULD have done it in flawed pacifist? His whole world and identity crashing down and losing all his friends is terrible, losing his bff to a human he trusted and to whom he gave a gun is also terrible, but so is letting a genocidal maniac continue killing)

But he'd die knowing two things:

1)he had tried to be a real, dignified sheriff, and failed (bc he died, not bc he didn't try. In canon, he doesn't even try and THAT'S SO UNLIKE HIM especially considering the situation)

2)in his final moments, he finally became himself again

and that.. that would have been so much more satisfying than what we got.

[darl-ingfics]

I absolutely love all your fics, especially your Sicktember series!!! 💖💖💖 You write everything so well, especially the fluff. I was wondering if you’d be able to write a miserable San with what he thinks is a head/chest cold that actually turns out to be the flu with ot8 caretakers? I understand that you’re still figuring San out though, so if you’re not comfortable writing for him yet I’m happy with the sickie being Seokmin instead with ot13 caretakers. Only write this if you want to! I love all your writing, so whatever you write I’ll enjoy 😊

First of all, thank you for being SO kind and SO patient! I received your second message today, and that really inspired me to push through and get this done. And I'm so happy I did, cause writing again has felt really stress-relieving, so thank you! I tried my best to do San justice, and honestly, still don't think I've fully got it, but that hardly matters when you make the character so delirious they're really just along for the ride 😅 Hope you enjoy!!!

Friends Like These

Fandom: ATEEZ

Sickie: San (flu)

Caregiver(s): OT8

Word Count: 1,440

Yeosang had been, admittedly, spacing out when San’s head collapsed against his shoulder on the car ride home. Despite jumping slightly at the sudden weight against him, Yeosang relaxed instantly, arm wrapping instinctively around San’s shoulders.

“What’s up, Sannie?” Yeosang whispered, fingers curling absent mindedly in the hair at the nape of San’s neck. 

“Don’ feel gooood,” San whined, sniffling rather pathetically as his body shifted to try to someone get closer to Yeosang despite the constraints of the car. Yeosang frowned sympathetically, even though San couldn’t see. San had been fighting a cold for the past three days, and had rather blatantly lost that battle during practice that day, taking a very clear turn for the worse after lunch. No one was sure how it had happened; San had diligently been taking extra vitamins, drinking ridiculous amounts of water, sleeping as much as possible, trying any and every health hack TikTok supplied… But his efforts had been fruitless, leaving them with a sad, shivery, sniffly San. Which was more than enough to break even the stoniest of hearts. 

“I’m sorry, love,” Yeosang said gently. “We’re almost home, yeah? Then you can take a nice hot shower, and Wooyoung will make you dinner, and then you can sleep. Maybe Yunho or Mingi will even cuddle with you.”

San’s neck twisted so their eyes could meet. The look on his face, the pout and puppy dog eyes, almost made Yeosang laugh out loud from the pathetic-ness of it. “Why won’t you cuddle with me?”

Yeosang shrugged. “I thought you said Yunho was the best cuddler…”

“It’s because he’s tall,” Wooyoung interjected, leaning over from Yeosang’s other side. “That makes him best by default.”

“What rumors are you spreading about me?” Yunho’s head appeared between the headrests from the backseat. 

“All good things,” Wooyoung defended. 

Yunho pointed a warning finger at him. “It better be.” 

Yeosang chuckled softly at his members’ antics, noting how San did not react at all. That was troubling. Yeosang continued playing with his hair, trying to ignore the heat emanating from his friend’s neck until they got home and could do something about it. No need to worry anyone now…

*

Later that evening, on his way up for a shower, Mingi rounded the steps and nearly had a heart attack, not expecting someone to be sitting in the middle of the stairs. Hand clutched to his chest, Mingi turned back to said person: San, sat on the middle step, leaning heavily against the wall, eyes closed and breathing hard. San had been given the privilege of first shower, usually reserved for any member under the weather, and was currently sporting slightly damp hair and pajamas plus a hoodie; but was still obviously shivering. Mingi instantly scrambled up the steps towards him. “Sannie? What’s wrong?”

“I was…” He swallowed hard, wincing in pain. “Comin’ for dinner but… so far…” He coughed roughly, collapsing in on himself. Mingi’s brow knit in worry; San hadn’t sounded like that earlier. “Couldn’t breathe…”

“Sannie, I don’t think this is just a cold.” Mingi frowned, hand to San’s forehead. “You’re really warm. And you shouldn’t be too tired to make it down the steps.” San simply fell forward, collapsing against Mingi’s chest. The taller man wrapped his arms protectively around his friend, worry exploding in his brain. 

“Help?!” Mingi exclaimed, praying someone could hear him. 

Jongho appeared at the top of the stairs, towel around his neck. “What’s wrong?” His eyes widened when he saw what was happening. 

“Perfect,” Mingi sighed to himself. “Sannie’s really not feeling well. Can you help me move him?”

Jongho nodded, instantly attentive. “Back to bed?” San whined at the suggestion, squirming against Mingi’s chest. “What about the couch, hyung?” San nodded. Mingi pouted his lips at Jongho, heart breaking for their friend. 

San did not remember Mingi and Jongho maneuvering him from the steps to the couch. Did not remember having to stop at the bottom of the stairs from lack of energy, coughing again, nearly gagging from the mucus gathering in his throat. Did not remember his members gathering in the doorway, responding to Mingi’s earlier call for help and his hacking. Did not remember Seonghwa holding a paper towel to his mouth, forcing him to cough out a disgusting clump of yellow phlegm that would’ve have embarrassed him into the next century. Did not remember Mingi and Jongho practically dragging him to the couch, his body crumpling like a sack of potatoes and curling in on itself like a shriveled leaf. 

No, the next thing San remembered was…

“Sannie~”

He peeled his eyes open at Wooyoung’s sweet voice. Wooyoung was kneeling next to the couch, smiling softly. “I made you soup.” He gestured to a bowl on the coffee table behind him. San just blinked at him. “Think you can eat for me? If not, we can just put the soup in the fridge. I made enough so you could get a few meals out of it anyway.” 

“But he does need to get some of it to take his medicine.” Seonghwa appeared behind Wooyoung. His arms were crossed over his chest, his lips drawn into a tight line, but, even in his delirious state, San recognized his posture as worry rather than annoyance or anger. 

Wooyoung nodded. “Right. You still need to eat enough for medicine.” San blinked again, then sighed. Even that slight shift of air irritated his throat, made him cough. He felt hands rubbing his back, hoisting him up, supporting him. As soon as his breath returned, he felt a glass (cool, not cold) thrust against his lips, and let whoever it was pour the lukewarm water down his throat, not trusting his own hands to hold the glass. 

“Look, you’re already sitting up,” Wooyoung chirped. San opened his eyes (when had he closed them?). Seonghwa was taking the glass back to the kitchen, and Wooyoung was now holding the bowl of soup. “Let me give you a few bites, yeah?” San nodded, complied. When his body began to sag backwards, craving sleep, Yunho slipped in behind him, holding him up until Wooyoung could feed him enough for Seonhwa and Hongjoong’s approval. San was peripherally aware that all of his members were hovering close by (except for Mingi, who had run to shower as quickly as possible). Hongjoong kept checking his phone, murmuring to Seonghwa, who would murmur back. San didn’t appreciate them murmuring about him, but was in no position to comment on it. 

Once the captain had given the ‘okay, that should be enough’ cue, Wooyoung disappeared with the soup bowl and Hongjoong knelt on the floor in front of the couch, measuring out a dose of medicine. San was glad they were giving him liquid instead of pills.

“Yeah, we knew you couldn’t handle pills right now, buddy,” Yunho said, giving San a gentle squeeze. San blinked. He hadn’t realized he’d said that out loud. 

“You’ve been giving a running commentary for quite a while,” Hongjoong replied to that, offering San the medicine cup. “For the record, Seonghwa and I murmur about all of you. It’s just your turn today.” San frowned at his members so rudely eavesdropping on his inner thoughts, but accepted the medicine cup and tipped it back slowly. He choked a bit at the bitter flavor, and thankfully Yunho thrust a water bottle in his hands before he could start coughing again. After finishing half of the water, he gave the bottle back and instantly closed his eyes, leaning back in Yunho’s embrace. 

“See? I told you he was the best cuddler,” Yeosang insisted from somewhere. The rest of the members responded to him, but San’s brain was already shuttling him back to sleep to the comforting lull of their voices.

And even though he was also technically asleep at the time, San had an unconscious memory of Yunho petting his hair and kissing his forehead before slipping out from underneath him. Of Yeosang curling up on the other side of the couch, San’s legs resting in his lap. Of Mingi covering him with their coziest blanket. Of Wooyoung setting extra water and tissues on the table for him. Of Jongho singing softly close by, protecting him from bad dreams. Of Hongjoong kneeling next to him with their thermometer gun, taking his temperature. Of Seonghwa sitting in the armchair across from the couch, watching over him under the guise of reading a book.

Even asleep, San could feel his members’ love. And not even the following day’s flu diagnosis could make him feel all that bad with friends like these in his corner. 

Final Note: Again, I cannot reiterate how THANKFUL I am for your kindness, Anon. Your messages we so incredibly sweet, and even your question of when to expect the fic was so respectful and I am so lucky to have a community that supports and encourages this type of creative production in a way that acknowledges and supports the natural ups and downs of life. Thank you again for inspiring me to finish this without pushing; it's people like you who make this enjoyable.

Final Note: Again, I cannot reiterate how THANKFUL I am for your kindness, Anon. Your messages were so incredibly sweet, and even your question of when to expect the fic was so respectful and I am so lucky to have a community that supports and encourages this type of creative production in a way that acknowledges and supports the natural ups and downs of life. Thank you again for inspiring me to finish this without pushing; it's people like you who make this enjoyable. 😘

[zyafics]

Hiiiii! What do you think about Kiiara and Rafe dynamic? I don’t think that they should be romantic at all, but I do think they have a very complex and interesting relationship and I wish we would’ve seen that more this season. I agree with y him telling Kiara that’s he’s a killer was such a dramatic shift. That could’ve been a very emotionally weighted scene and they missed a mark with that.. I don’t know if the writers were intentionally doing this but him admitting to her should’ve been more pointed. I think she’s really the only one in the group that has ever seen him show some type of remorse. Kiara is such a morally strong character. She’s willing to risk her life for literally anyone, even those who done her wrong . Where is Rafe does the same thing in a way but for his dad? he also thinks throughout the season that he’s doing the right thing or at least trying to. What do you think?

here's the thing, i think the pates are planting the seeds for riara. and as much as we don't like it, that doesn't stop the fact that there's a bunch of riara shippers on twt that are vocal and PROUD, and i'm almost certain the pates had to see SOME of their tweets at some point.

i haven't watched the season, but i can't help but think of two specific scenes in pt2 that is evidence for my hypothesis. which is, kie was the one who got the knife and cut rafe out, and kie told rafe not to go out there because he'll get killed and he said "he's a killer too," he's admitting intimate details to kie that sofia doesn't even access to. remember the proposal? remember when she tried to tell him about the hollis deal, and he said he's done worse but he never went into details. why is it KIE that gets rafe's first on-screen admission of guilt? that must've been such an awakening to him and he professes to some stranger? absolutely not. it should've been sarah, but since it's not, i fear it's setting up a romantic link.

i think kiara and rafe had a very interesting dynamic simply because he sees her as both a kook and pogue, and he refers to her with a sense of familiarity that she doesn't outright hate. however, there's a large gap in maturity and age, and i don't think it would work with what happened in s4. kie is grieving, and i hate the fact that they're trying to pair people together just to find an ending. kie should be alone and figuring it out! she has her friends and a support system for that.

lastly, i agree that kie is a morally strong character. she has a strong sense of empathy that guides her decision and she has a strong sense of justice too. so despite rafe having tried to kill her, and everything he's done (esp in s3) she still doesn't seem okay with the idea of him sacrificing himself or dying regardless of that.

rafe is more.. mature, but he had his slips of psychopathy in this season (which i love). he isn't completely changed, and i don't want the narrative to shove down our throats that he has. i doubt he would've gotten cleaned of cocaine by himself, i doubt that he's receiving therapy. he can't be this level-headed, and in the moments that he isn't—it shows the rafe that we all know from all the previous seasons. i like a gradual built of rafe demonstrating his slow changes. where he is piecing together what is right and wrong. where he's trying to find a moral balance of what he wants and what is right. but i still want him to hold onto that characteristic that made him him—his ruthlessness where he goes from A -> B with little regards on the steps that made him there. he called himself proactive? i truly believe that. he's so simple-minded, that he doesn't think of long-term consequences but rather how does he get something done the quickest, fastest way. i want that to be challenged with his growing emotional maturity.