#bc obviously i’m gonna ask she’s baiting me

[mollyrolls]

omg i forgot to tell you guys but i was fully dying last night roommate storytime

for context: my roommate, let’s call her cece, is the most cliche tiktok theatre kid girl you could ever imagine. we did random roommates so we don’t have that much in common; she likes to go out to clubs and frats and shit and i spent my night last night doing a puzzle. dichotomy of man

anyways, i was back in the room getting ready to gts and she comes BURSTING into the room and immediately starts stripping 😭😭 i’m like “hi cece….whatcha doing..” and she jumps a foot in the air bc she didn’t see me. keep in mind i am not doing anything secretive or hiding, like i’m just standing there.

she starts going on this crazy tangent abt how she’s a horrible person and is abt to do this horrible thing and i immediately clock that she is drunk off her ass 😭 she’s also just standing there in her bra and underwear and i am looking so hard at the ceiling bc wtf am i supposed to do in that situation

and idk if i misheard her but i swear she said to me “i’m going to fuck my best friends boyfriend” 😀🤨 she’s also changing into like a lacy babydoll??? like hello!!!!??

so i’m thinking : ok this girl has been on a self sabotaging streak recently (another story for another day) and she is in no position to be doing anything like that rn so i guess it’s my job to talk her out of doing this disastrous thing

so i say “cece don’t fuck your best friends boyfriend. that’s crazy.” and she goes “nononono not fucking, eye fucking. i eye fuck everyone when i’m drunk.” which i can confirm bc she was doing it to me at this exact moment, i am still staring at the ceiling

so i’m like ok fine that’s ur prerogative as long as ur not compromising urself do what u want. but she’s conscious enough to know that if she keeps eye fucking this guy her best friend is going to be paranoid abt it?? and like have a horrible night?? but she’s not gonna stop!!!??? whatever

and then this is where i start dying bc she starts comparing herself to ME 😭😭😭😭

she’s like “ugh molly you’re so cute and wholesome, like spending ur night with ur game group and ur puzzle ugh i want to be like youuuuu” full drunk girl whining and like spinning around and i straight up had to bite my fist

bc i was doing the aforementioned puzzle bc she had sexiled me abt 2 hrs before

but she’s in this like playboy cover lingerie set going BACK OUT to her friends room, full sprinting across our room bc she keeps forgetting shit, has not said a coherent sentence once, and is talking abt how i’m a cute little wholesome person and she wants to be like me. i feel like i’m tripping on something

and then this is the best part i’m quoting this verbatim

“and while i’m about to go do this HORRIBLE thing because i’m a HORRIBLE person YOUREEEE gonna be in here in the room probably writing some cute fun story which by the way you should probably post on AO3 bc if i ever figure out how to work AO3 i bet i’d find ur stuff and i bet it’s be so good but i’d never tell you i found ur stuff bc i wouldn’t know but i would know because you look like you’d be a good writer okay BYEEEEE!”

and then she slams the door and is gone until 3 am. this was in a span of abt 4 minutes

[soaps-mohawk]

I know I’ve sent you something before but i genuinely can not get your fic out of my mind and now need to say something else. It irks my soul (in a good way I promise😭) that the reader won’t just tell them what she needs. But it’s also so understandable bc why would she? No matter if they’re her pack or not she doesn’t fully trust them.

But also seeing the vision fo her finally asking for what she wants. Seeing her finally kneel (in a non-sexual way) is going to be something that I will eat up immediately. Like everytime it’s mentioned I cross my fingers for it to be in the chapter.

Also (I’m so sorry for the ramble) Ghost finally warming up to her???? The absolute best part, like okay go girl you get that man. I think the only thing that made me want to strangle them was the fact that Price didn’t even tell her anything.

Like i would be so mad😭 even if it wasn’t meant that way like her feet are hurting horribly (the blisters show that) she was obviously tired and didn’t know what was happening and was being used as bait? Bro I hope Soap and Gaz told Price about the blisters and he felt bad bc wtf😭

so if you can’t tell i love your story. HAVE A GOOD DAY🫶🏻🫶🏻

Aah don't ever apologize for rambling 🥺 I love it when people have thoughts about my writing 🫶 (no but I've literally gotten inspiration from people's rambles before so...don't ever feel bad for doing it)

Ugh reader and her issue with feeling like she shouldn't want things hits me so hard like...part of me just wants to scream at her to ask but also part of me gets it 😭 (ik I'm the writer but sometimes these things have a mind of their own). But I get it, I wouldn't fully trust them either. Not after just a week.

Yaass Ghost is finally starting to see the light...kind of. He's a tough nut to crack and it's gonna take a lot more work but he can't deny those instincts 🤭

Nah I'd be so mad too lol. I originally had an idea for a scene where Price decides to use the reader for hostage retrieval training, but he doesn't tell her it's training because he wants it to be as real as possible just to see how badly it would effect their ability to save her if it ever came to that. It felt a bit too mean and out of character for Price in this fic though. Cause that would stress reader out so badly and that could be dangerous. I don't think he'd risk that.

Aah thank you so much. Always feel free to come in here and ramble with your thoughts. I will read them and eat them up like a delicious meal 💚 y'all are feeding me with this kindness and support for this story fr

[plantpest]

The thing is she hasn’t denied any of the accusations because they’re true. Those blogs are genuinely all her. She just doesn’t like people knowing that she’s a TERF because it’s bad for business. No one has said anything defamatory or insulting towards her. It’s just like any other business where the CEO gets caught saying racist/transphobic/sexist etc things except she’s not coming out an apologizing, she’s just getting angry at whistleblowers. I’m sorry that she’s gaslighting you over it.

and another ask:

She’s changed her TERF blog URL three times in 2 days. It’s not that she’s denying it, she just doesn’t want anyone to find out. She doesn’t want to be a better person. She wants to continue to be transphobic while taking our money.

tl;dr tumblr user havekat is a fucking terf lol

there's a whole mess under the read more

let's address kate:

on @havekat she doesn't reblog much from outsiders. however, from the reblogs she actually has (old and new) a whole lot are from terf blogs. the same goes for katsflora

speaking of katsflora, there's at least one straight up transmisogynistic post with no connection to plant there. this is her blog on which she mainly posts pretty pictures. probably reblogged to the wrong blog

the extremely aggressive transphobic blog that changes urls every now and again (henceforth known as That Blog) has reblogged havekat since its start in... 2018? i can't see the archive anymore, i guess tumblr is being tumblr about it. it's still actively reblogging her art as well as having a painting of hers as a header. kate is obviously fine with this blog promoting her, which would lead one to assume she is fine with extremely hateful people promoting her

she often talks on havekat about her stalker/harasser but never goes into detail. this is fine, no one is entitled to share details about shit like that. however, she often talks about being suicide bated. in her latest posts she talks about The Anon (an anti-kate anon who we guess is her stalker) going around is spreading lies about her and talking about how she is a failure. she never says what the lies are. the anon also never says she's a failure, but this is kinda pedantic of me to point out

she never publishes the harassing anons she herself gets that are presumably suicide bating her. that's obviously fine as most people don't want shit like that plastered on their own blogs. ...except that she uses this as one of her main points fishing for sympathy. she is also very quick to publish any other asks she gets however abusive language they have

she reblogged someone getting an anon (The Anon we guess) with some regular ol' kate-is-a-grifter-and-a-fraud. there's presumably been some back-and-forth with the receiver and kate. kate added "I don’t sell to people who help a stalker suicide bait me". from what we can see there's been no suicide bating. my guess is that kate doesn't know what "suicide bait" means. someone telling others to not buy her art is not suicide baiting. someone harassing her to the point of her feeling suicidal is not suicide baiting. it's vile and abusive behaviour that can have very extreme consequences, but it's not baiting

when someone asks her outright about her being the owner of That Blog she talks in circles

when someone asks her outright if she's being a terf or transphobic she deflects by stating she's bi (which... you can be bi and a terf. you can be straight and a terf (straight radfems are hilarious but w/e). you can be a bisexual or heterosexual or homosexual transphobe)

gonna slip in a quick terf=/=transphobe. there's layers n shit. at the top there's "trans people are very much valid in their own struggles but trans women have no place in women's issues since that encompasses only cis women bc reasons". which is transphobic but like. at a socially acceptable level

kate blocked me for asking her to clear up The Anon's accusations. she has not blocked That Blog

on That Blog and The Anon:

The Anon is from what i (and others) can tell some pissed off terf who hates kate for one reason or another but likely bc kate is totally fine taking money from trans people (specifically trans women) and refuses to confirm or deny her opinions openly on havekat

however kate sometimes refer to The Anon as a he and gives some details that doesn't adds up to The Anon, which makes me think there's actually two people going around. or there were and now there's one. it's kinda whatever tbh but worth pointing out i guess

The Anon sending messages abt kate being the blogowner is likely a fucking piss ass terf herself and is getting off on kate getting upset. so like. fuck off. block me will ya?

the owner of That Blog could be a bored and extremely hateful person with lots of spare time who pretends to be kate, but it would take serious dedication. some people are unhinged enough to do shit like that

That blog has reblogged kate's art since its start, several years back. lots of the art uses the same tagging style as kate has. however, tags can be changed retroactively. with a tag changer it's easy and quick

the two blogs have a similar typing style, but lots of people on tumblr do, so it's not really anything. it's also not that hard to mimic other people's "tones" if they're not already similar

the blogger has "slipped up" a couple of times and hinted at or admitted to being kate. could be a determined hater or it could be kate. we have no such slip-ups from havekat or katsflora, at least not from what i could find. havekat doesn't even promote katsflora and afaik it's her blog

That blog has, again, kate's art as its header. kate had a public freakout about someone adding descriptions to her paintings, so if she didn't like That Blog she would likely be public about not tolerating her (i assume based on content etc) using kate's art as a header

i cannot stress enough how violent the content of That Blog is. it's extremely transphobic. the "infiltration of women's spaces" (aka trans women existing) seems to be the blogger's biggest hate subject

whenever there's a fuss around kate possibly running That Blog the blog changes url. some drama hungry shit is keeping track of them and making sure people can find the newest url. search and you will find. i won't link That Blog or the url tracking blog bc i don't want people exposed to this shit too easily

my take from all this is that kate is a terf, and a really slimy one at that

at the base level she is totally fine with having radfems, terfs and transphobes promoting her. she has been fine with terfs and transphobes since before her money struggles. she is still fine with this. i understand how desperate she could be and needing to find support wherever she can, but by trying to play two fields she is at risk of losing everything. either she is fine with terf ideology and loses all her trans and ally support, or she takes a stance against it and loses that side instead. from what i've gathered lots of terfs are against her bc she's playing with the enemy i guess

she could have been vibing with terf ideology but grown into a healthy mindset right before the money issues hit and so never bothered to unfollow and/or block people in order to gain as big of an audience as possible. but i dunno. people calls her out right and left and she continues to be shifty around it all

as for me i will continue to operate under the assumption that she is a terf and i will warn others that supporting her means, sadly, not only that they are supporting someone in need of help, but someone who is also promoting a politic that is killing people

it is a hard stance to take bc - assuming what she is saying about her economical situation and struggles with her dogs and homelessness etc etc is true - i am actively asking people to potentially making a mentally ill person homeless. but the opinions she holds are supporting death, direct and/or indirect, of trans women (trans people, but specifically amab enbies and women)

i have screenshots btw i just don't feel like cleaning them up. if someone want to make a whole ass recipe blog i can send them but eh. i haven't said anything that's hard to find

[hollywoodsargeant]

chapter 11 thoughts (amazing chapter as always) and damn is it a chapter (and my thoughts are long so as always sorry if it’s a pain to read)

first of all i love how even oscar’s coworker thinks that him and logan are in a relationship. ‘he’s just touchy’ i mean sure touchy is definitely when you have sex with your friend, make out with your friend and whatnot, that’s just him being ‘touchy’ obviously. if a coworker is saying that youre and you still arent convinced idk how oblivious you can be

and logan saying that the best parts of him are oscar, i mean yeah youve kissed youve fucked and youre both inseparable so that makes sense i guess but i love though that kyle is all so confused about this everytime logan is like ‘you know what i mean’ bc no logan i dont think kyle has a life long friend that hes done more than friend things with before

speaking of more than friend things, i still dont know how they can call themselves just friends when they’ve now both fingered each other and one has eaten the other out (first thing i thought of when i saw that scene was a similar scene in shark bait). i know i keep saying this but every chapter i always think ‘wtf do you mean that you’re just friends???’ and logan saying that he likes oscar whilst he’s naked is not helping my point

also i get logan’s entire college thing, moving away from everyone is so weird and especially when you know your best friend is going to be moving away from you. i wonder what will happen between the 2 of them and whats gonna happen after they go to college (unless somehow they magically cross paths in the same college or whatever)

anyways we need more of drunk logan thoughts bc i think it’s really interesting to see how he as a character thinks about things (just without a filter stopping him anymore) like just full on saying he cant get hard when he thinks about fucking oscar, no filter stopping him. i like hearing these thoughts just bc they’re so unfiltered

and kyle again… poor kyle i swear if i were him i would be scheming with callum to get logan and oscar together bc the man must have at least heard logan talk about oscar as if he’s his partner (no sorry i meant ‘friend’ obviously) like a million times

maybe kyle’s teasing might actually work idk (does it? perhaps it does, only you can tell us haha), and with that, that’s the end of my thoughts, sorry for it being so long and again thankyou for another great chapter!

HELLO. THANK YOU FOR YOUR THOUGHTS <3 never a pain to read i love and appreciate your thoughts very much me taking like 4 days to answer this ask is no reflection of my appreciation i just suck and am busy. Anyways

justice for oscar’s coworker tbh. she has been forced to witness their antics and then also put up with oscar’s insistence that they are Just Friends. at least she’s getting paid to be there…

logan literally does not know what he would do without oscar. i mean oscar doesn’t know what he would do without logan either but he isn’t really talking about it… but like. idk. just in life stuff like that is pretty wild to think about. like who would i be without this person in my life. logan thinks he would be Much Worse without oscar and does not understand why kyle doesn’t just Get exactly what he means like hello. logan. pretty sure You are kyle’s best friend and he is not gay for you. but i digress

THEY’RE JUST STUPID. aware of the fact that they do things “normal” friends don’t do but not aware of the fact that they’re just not friends. “it’s different with him” yeah because you are IN LOVE? whatever. my bad i did write it like that!

college will be fun. hehe. they’ll be fine… going to different colleges for the plot but it will be a spectacular time. they can keep arguing about who will drive to visit who until the end of the world probably. AND THEY WILL VISIT EACH OTHER! and i’m scheming.

DRUNK LOGAN WAS SO FUN TO WRITE. something something the first person he thought to call when he needed help was oscar. something something his angel. something something oscar being stupidly nice to him and why the fuck are you untying his shoes for him buddy stand up. Anyways. i agree more drunk logan i love him

i will disclose that kyle is a catalyst in thee ending of all time. i have it all planned out in my brain and not written down but shoutout kyle. he’s evil and i am evil and logan is fucking stupid

[rei-does-stuff]

HELLO IM BACK WITH A CH FIC

Nothing historical or dramatic bc fuck that, I wanted to do something fun

So here’s countries arguing about a fictional tv show bc ITS FUN

JUST CHARACTER SHIT BC IM BORED MAN

—

America was heading to the EU building’s breakroom. They always had better snacks in the vending machine so he always went there for lunch. As he was putting money into the machine he heard the faint arguing of Germany and Japan who was slowly getting louder as they got closer.

“No! You’re wrong! You’re literally misremembering the scene!” Germany said.

“No! You just have the worst media literacy ever!” Japan argued.

“You’re talking to me about media literacy??? Have you looked in a mirror????” Germany exclaimed, appalled.

America knew exactly what they were discussing. It was a murder mystery drama called ‘The horrors at Manor Du-k’all’ it was about a bunch of aristocrats who get invited and eventually stuck in a old abandoned mansion that belonged to the host’s uncle. The host dies in the mansion and the show is about, well, who killed him. Every weekend the two would visit eachother to watch the newly aired episode. The finale was tomorrow where they’d reveal who the murderer really is. America had binged watched the show recently so it was still fresh in his mind. It was clear the two had…Differing opinions about who the real murderer really was.

“It’s Barry! I know it, the characters know it we all know it! If you actually PAID ATTENTION to the scene he’s clearing faking his reaction to Juliet’s backstory so he can get on her good side! It’s obvious!” Germany said, they both were in the break room at this point.

“He’s just bad at expressing his emotions! I don’t call you a murderer for your reactions! I’m telling you it’s Maria! She had every reason to kill the Host! Especially after he literally cheated on her!” Japan argued.

“That’s what they want you to think! It’s clearly bait! Barry had good reason too! The Host literally threatened to put his father onto the streets if he fell out of line!” Germany retorted. He then saw America. Germany called out his name.

Oh great, he’s gonna be dragged into this. “What’s up ya twinks?” He asked. “We need you too—wait did you just call us twinks—?” Germany was interrupted by Japan. “Forget that! We need you to settle this!” He began. “You’ve seen ‘The horrors at Manor Du-k’all’ right?”

“Yup! Binged it a few nights ago!” America replied. “Great! Can you PLEASE tell Germany he’s being fucking delusional!” Japan exclaimed, crossing his arms. “What! No! You tell Japan he’s a fucking idiot!” Germany argued.

“Look gays, as entertaining as it watching you squabble you’re both wrong. It’s obviously Juliet! The set-up is clear and she’s the ugliest member of the cast soooo-“ America trailed off.

“WHAT??? Firstly what does attractiveness have to do with anything???” Germany said flabbergasted!

“Yeah don’t be a fucking misogynist!” Japan added!

“Hey! Hey! I’m no misogynist! In every TV drama the member of the cast who isn’t as conventional attractive as the rest is always the villain! That’s TV 101!” American argued.

“OH CMON!”

“THATS FUCKING HORRIBLE!”

“YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!”

Their arguing continued until Portugal and England walked through the door. “Holy fucking shit, what are you guys screaming about?! You’re so loud!” Portugal said aggravated. “They’re talking about that show I showed you!” England told her. “Oh that? That show was stupid! It was obvious the killer was Barry!” She said.

“HA I FUCKING TOLD YOU SO!” Germany said excitedly.

“What??? No! The killer is clearly Maria!” England retorted.

“HAH FUCK YOU GERMANY!” Japan said in a triumphant glee.

“Okay! Okay! Before we all start arguing again…” America paused. “Japan when’s the last episode?” He asked. “Tomorrow night!” He replied.

“Alright, Germany’s house is the closest so we’ll all go there and watch the episode. Then you’ll see I was right!” America explained. “Pfft please! I can’t wait too see your face when you see I was right.” Germany said.

“Oh yeah? We’ll see about that!”

.

.

.

Today was the day of the finale! Everyone was at Germany’s house. Plus an extra guest. “UK? What are you doing here?” Germany asked. “I’m bored and I wanna see you all scream at each other about a mediocre tv show.” He said. “Plus I wanna see the ending.”

They all sat on the couch. And turned on the tv.

“I have finally figured out who the culprit behind our host’s murder! The killer is….”

“Me!” A voice called out. The ground started to shake, the paintings were falling off the walls. All but one, a painting of the Host’s uncle. Something started to come out of it, slowly at first, then was springing and jolting to get out of the painting. It was Du-k’all! Well his spirit at least! “Y-You killed the Host!” Cried Barry. “That bastard deserved it after he murdered me! His own uncle!“ The guests tried to calm the spirit down. “Burn this place, straight to ashes.” It said. “Only then will I be at peace.” The last scene of the show was the rest of the cast stumbling out of the building as it went ablaze.

Everyone was staring at the tv in shock. Not even being able to say anything. “Are you SERIOUS?? That was the ending???” Germany finally said in frustration. “That’s was fucking bullshit! A complete cop-out!” Japan added. “That doesn’t even make any fucking sense! It never said shit about the supernatural before this!” Added America.

The UK chuckled. “What are you laughing at?” Portugal asked. “Your petty arguing is amusing. I saw that ending a mile away, the show-runners knew that pinning the crime on any guest would result in someone getting pissy, so they did this, plus a twist gets ratings.” He explained.

“I guess I’m just smarter than you all, since none of you figured it out.” He said with a shit-eating grin. Everyone was silent for a moment before England said, “All in favor of kicking the UK out in the rain and review bombing the show’s website?”

“Yeah.”

“I can get behind that.”

“Fuck yeah!!!”

“Shit—” The UK said as he stood in the pouring rain. “I actually thought the ending was good—“ He shrugged. Walking home. Don’t mess with countries and their tv shows he supposed.

—

OKAY YEA THATS IT BYE

[biqherosix]

hiiiiiiiiii do u write for the drgaon prince ??????????????????????? it’s totally not el spamming you again bc you deserve your ezran/callum x sister reader even if i’ll give it to you too

the secret life of katolis royalty - headcanons

prompt(s): the royal family uphold a proper, good reputation. but with you and your siblings, there are always bound to be a few secrets whether they're silly or not

pairing(s): familial! callum x fem! reader x ezran

fandom(s): the dragon prince

genre(s): fluff

warning(s): none (if there are, please feel free to point them out!)

other notes: hi el 🙄 anyway yes i write for dragon prince now because there is a lack of content in this fandom, especially for the royal siblings ! i want platonic goodness, and i'm getting it even if i have to make it myself. enjoy :) also reader may possibly be bi?? can be interpreted as whatever you'd like though !

- so you're three years older than callum, making you at least seven when ezran is born

- you're so protective, no doubt about it

- and callum doesn't mind because you're not overbearing (if anything callum is more protective of you and ezran than you are of your brothers)

- which is why callum never finds out about your little things with both soren and claudia (more like a kiss with claudia, dating soren, and then breaking up with soren to try shit out with claudia; spoiler alert you kinda miss soren as much as you love your magical perky girl)

- another reason is that cal has such a major crush on claudia before meeting rayla and you don't want him to feel bad upon finding out

- but let's be honest ezran finds out because he walked in on you making out with soren after exiting a secret tunnel

- ezran gossips with you more than you both like to admit because of this huge secret only the two of you now know

- but it brought you two closer and he's really happy about that because now he gets to cuddle into your side while he asks questions and spills the beans while you play with his hair lmao

- yk sometimes you even shit talk callum and his sword fighting and that definitely stays between the two of you (he always wonders why you two are giggling under the tree whenever he plays around with soren)

- but you love your brothers and they love you so !! freaking !! much !!

- y'all are attached to the hip, you can't be seen without one or the other

- most of the time it's your brothers doing your thing and brushing up your knowledge on royal etiquette because a part of you is anxious whenever your father talks about his royal wrongdoings

- he doesn't mean to worry you, he just wants you to be prepared (you were in fact, worried and unprepared when he died and you now had three mf children and a dragon egg to take care of)

- don't worry though because callum and ezran are here to save the day and will tell you how amazing you are for hours, it honestly passes the time very well

- okay but i gotta get this outta the way before i forget but callum is the epitome of the "you're doing amazing sweetie!" meme okay?? he is

- where he succeeds (magic, art, being awkward) you on the other hand lack and vice versa (you are badass okay? you can fight and spar properly thanks to your mother's extensive knowledge and even without a weapon you can pack a punch)

- rayla doesn't really understand how callum can be so happy and perky even when you suck at what you're doing

- but he's your baby brother and he loves hyping you up

- callum is your biggest hypeman and always has been it's a second nature to him, trust me if someone were to mention your name he'd never shut up !!

- like this one time you drew rayla and callum on a spare piece of paper callum gave you and it didn't really turn out the best but he still fake cried and attacked you in a hug

- he keeps it in his sketchbook and he's never letting that go, so rayla jokingly judges him for it and your boy ezran backs you up with callum

- "i don't see why you keep it, i mean it doesn't even look like us! we're like lil' stick figures" "art is contemporary, rayla. it can be anything you want it to be! isn't that right zym?" "ez is right, plus it doesn't look that bad! it's cute. look, she even drew me doing magic! her markings are so accurate" "callum, i don't even know what spell you're doing" "it's clearly aspiro! look at the wind" "they're lines!" "that's what art is all about!"

- baby gets so nervous when he and rayla kiss bc he obviously has to tell you and your opinion matters most to him; he's just scared bc rayla always teases you and you may not approve

- so he kept it a secret for a fat minute after telling ezran, ez is so annoyed bc he has to keep your soren secret and callum's??? at least bait and zym are there to listen (man relationships are hard)

- you just laugh because you saw it coming and the moment is just so wholesome !! you tackle rayla into a hug, welcoming her into the family with "bad drawings and all" bc she never lets you live it down fr fr

- but later that night callum can't sleep and he lets out everything because he never really told you about his crush in the first place like he feels really guilty because you're always so open with him and sometimes he has some walls up, like how he was with king harrow even if you're his biological sibling

- also you bet on your life that you would do anything to make sure callum was content with his life and so after his lil rant and your assurance he asks if you've ever felt that way before

- and you had to do it to em, so you tell him about soren and claudia

- "why didn't you tell me anything before?" "you liked claudia! i didn't want to be the reason for your heartache" "but you're my sister, you deserve to be happy. maybe you and soren can work out" "eh, we'll see. not gonna lie i was ready to go back for him after he almost killed that dragon. he looked pretty hurt but you looked way worse honestly" "hey! you're making my heart hurt here y/n." "that doesn't count because it was playful!"

- you end up going to sleep that night leaning on each other because that's what you've been doing all your life — leaning on each other and you don't want him to forget that !!!

- you also wake up the next morning with ezran in between you sleeping soundly, and rayla comes back to the three of you making funny faces and laughing like there was no tomorrow

- she didn't get it but the three of you did, it was a simple moment that you would all cherish even after ezran becomes king — perhaps it even makes you better as royals

- and from then on, there were no secrets, just a family trying to piece themselves together again after so much tragedy

[bestworstcase]

I like your thoughts on how Rapunzel was handling things wrong in “Rapunzel: Day One.” The episode tries to imply that Cassandra is wrong for not sharing her feelings with Rapunzel, but is a Rapunzel really the person Cassandra should be opening up to? Rapunzel never respects Cassandra’s boundaries. Cassandra’s a private person. Rapunzel doesn’t respect that. And just because Cassandra doesn’t want to open up to everyone doesn’t mean that she’s bottling things up.

ok so this is gonna be a long one bc tbh i like. fundamentally disagree that RDO, the narrative of RDO, in any way positions cassandra as the one at fault for the emotional conflict between her and raps.

to digress a bit - while tts is not immune to Aesop Episodes (e.g. rapunzel's enemy or you're kidding me) wherein the characters close out the story by talking about What They've Learned, ultimately i don't think tts can or should be read as a morality play. it's a story where sometimes characters just... fuck up and the narrative doesn't waste its time on hand-holding or spoon-feeding us the moral.

anyway, i submit that RDO is what i'll call a False Aesop Episode. it follows the basic structure of an Aesop Episode (protagonist acts badly -> protagonist learns a lesson) but the lesson rapunzel learns is a bad one. it's like if you took... say, "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" as an aesop, the False Aesop here is rapunzel confidently eating a rotten apple and then being blindsided a few months later when the doctor who kept begging her not to eat food with maggots in it steals the moonstone from under her nose and runs off into the night with her new demon pal--

and that metaphor got away from me a little bit but you get the idea.

#1: constructing the conflict

the episode opens with cassandra. she's training; we see the sword fly out of her injured hand; lance suggests she take a break, and she answers, "thanks to rapunzel's little trick at the great tree, i have to relearn everything using this hand, so breaks aren't really an option."

she isn't harsh about it. her demeanor isn't all that different from her normal self—she even segues into a very typical concern (that the woods are dangerous and they should all be on their guard) and banters with lance a bit.

what this communicates, immediately and succinctly, is that:

1. cassandra's injury is severe. it's disabling. she's either in immense pain or she's lost all the strength in that hand or both.

2. cass is really upset about this, and not happy with rapunzel.

3. nevertheless cass is keeping her feelings more or less in check; the worst anyone could say about her is she's being a bit more curt than normal.

which is to say, she's acting quite reasonable. she's not taking out her hurt feelings on anyone else or being mean or lashing out, and she's not hiding her injury either. the most concerning thing about her behavior here is actually that she's focused on training so she can do her job instead of on healing or resting or taking care of herself.

then there's a pan over to rapunzel, who is angrily watching this play out while venting to pascal. "i get why cass is mad at me," she says. "she told me—" huge disdainful rolling of eyes here "—not to use the decay spell back and the tree, and i did, and she hurt her hand. but if she had just listened to me and stayed out of it, this all could have been avoided! and i feel like we could work things out, but she refuses to talk about it!!"

line this up against cassandra's behavior and spot the differences.

cass is focused on her injured hand. cass is upset because rapunzel accidentally mutilated her in the great tree. that's what this conflict is about for cass; her injury, and how she feels about being injured.

by contrast, rapunzel thinks the conflict is about them not listening to each other. she does acknowledge that cass was injured, but 1. she puts the blame on cass, and 2. has shoved the fact of the injury to the periphery of the conflict. it's not important, it's just a natural consequence of the real conflict, which is cass being mad and petty and refusing to talk to her about how she's unfairly blaming rapunzel for something that wasn't rapunzel's fault.

[i will add here that this behavior from rapunzel is 100% not knowing how to handle guilt and externalizing it as anger, and this thread of rapunzel burying her guilt gets picked up again in rapunzeltopia; it isn't that rapunzel doesn't care that cass is hurt, so much as she's just not emotionally equipped to process these feelings in a healthy way so it mutates into...this.]

and where cass handles her feelings in a pretty reasonable way, rapunzel rants and raves and draws cass as a literal monster with fangs and claws—she's stewing in her out of control emotions and concludes that she just has to find a way to force cass talk to her, which she does shortly thereafter by ordering—not asking—cass to come with her to search for parts to fix the caravan.

#2: the breakdown of communication

i've said it before but it bears repeating: cassandra might not be perfect, but she's a good communicator. in s1 and the front half of s2, she shares her feelings with rapunzel readily and frequently. when she tries to set boundaries with rapunzel, she's able to be clear and specific about what she needs. when she expresses frustration with eugene or her dad or rapunzel, she's very articulate about exactly what she's frustrated about. she can recognize when politer, softer refusals are being ignored and become blunter and more specific to ensure the message is getting across.

the moments when cass struggles to communicate are noteworthy because they're not normal. they signal that she's in acute crisis. think of how her unhinged rant about adira in RATGT heralded a complete emotional breakdown. she clams up in RDO because it's the only thing she can do to protect herself. because rapunzel is an inexperienced nineteen year old who learned all her social "skills" from a manipulative, egotistical abuser and nowhere in the series does that show more than in RDO.

rapunzel knows cass doesn't want to talk about the great tree, so she isolates cass from the rest of the group with the intention of forcing her to talk about it anyway. she's passive aggressive at first: chattering about inanities and trying to bait cass into 'opening up,' and acting vexed and guilt-trippy when she finds out cass brought owl along. she broaches the subject by going "too bad there's not an open-up-to-your-best-friend-about-the-thing-you-guys-are-fighting-about wand, huh?"

then she leads with "i know you're mad at me, but i did the right thing. i didn't have a choice," which... what can cass even say to that? she acknowledged cassandra's anger in one breath and followed up with "but you're wrong tho" in the next. that statement makes cassandra's feelings about her debilitating injury into an argument about Who Was Right.

this is a game that cass tries very hard not to play. "look, if you feel that way, then it's fine. we're good," she says, which is a statement that is not true at all on its face but - what it means is that if rapunzel wants to turn this into a debate about Who Was Right, cass will concede because that's not an argument she's invested in. cass does not want to put her feelings on trial so rapunzel can pick them apart and decide whether she deserves to have them or not.

so she disengages. the sun sets. they camp. rapunzel pokes her again, this time with a more direct approach: "cass, i need to talk about what we both know is going on between us."

and that's when cass throws up a WALL. prior to RDO, when cass is pressed on her feelings, she either: 1. opens up and explains to the extent that she's able (e.g. under raps or RATGT), or 2. flatly shuts the conversation down (e.g. cassandra vs eugene). but in RDO?

"there's nothing to talk about."

"i never said i was upset."

"what makes you so sure that you know how i'm feeling?"

this is cass falling off the end of her rope. this is a cass who spent the last year and a half with rapunzel running roughshod over every boundary cass exhausted herself trying to set. this is cass maybe a few weeks out from rapunzel screaming at her in front of all their mutual friends and then telling her "i am going to make decisions you don't agree with and i need you to be okay with that" when cass tried to open up about her deepest insecurities. this is cass spiraling into despair because she's seen that her best friend cares more about assuaging her own guilt and exerting her authority as a princess than she does about cassandra's feelings.

this is the moment when the friendship dies.

#3: the memory wipe, cassandra's apology, and the false aesop

the details of the tangled-but-cass shenanigans are not super important for the purposes of this discussion. suffice it to say that cassandra lashes out in the heat of the moment, seriously harms rapunzel by mistake, and spends the rest of the episode trying to repair the damage, then apologizes to rapunzel for hurting her. this is, obviously, the correct thing to do when you hurt someone, even if it was an accident.

you see the parallel here, yeah?

rapunzel hurt cass with magic by accident, and then made cass's hurt feelings all about her, blamed cass for the injury, twisted the facts to justify her own indignation, picked a fight about Who Was Right and invalidated cassandra's feelings, and pushed and pushed and pushed until cass blew up and lashed out at her.

cassandra also hurt rapunzel with magic by accident, and then she set aside her own hurt feelings from the argument they were having before to focus one hundred percent of her energy on brewing a cure and keeping amnesiac rapunzel safe, readily admitted her fault, and offered an earnest apology for losing her temper as soon as she could reasonably do so.

if RDO were a true Aesop Episode, this would be the lesson, and rapunzel would of course learn from cassandra's good example and reciprocate by apologizing for the accident in the great tree and her abysmal behavior afterwards—and in a reflection of how cass shared how bottling up her anger allowed it to erupt in a catastrophic way, rapunzel would probably confess that her demanding, selfish behavior came from a place of feeling awful about what happened and terrified that it would ruin their friendship.

but RDO is a False Aesop Episode. rapunzel isn't emotionally equipped to handle the intensity of her guilt, and she lacks the social insight and empathy to draw comparisons between what she did to cass and what cass did to her, so she can't connect the two situations in her head to understand what she's doing wrong. the true aesop flies right over her head, and instead what she learns is this:

1. she was right about cass being upset

2. backing cass into a corner fixed the problem

3. friends really do "just know"

4. being pushy and forceful was the right thing to do.

because the thing is, when cass apologizes for the accidental memory wipe, she truthfully explains why she acted the way she did—she's furious and she didn't want to talk about it, so she held it in as long as she could and then exploded when the pressure became too much—and for rapunzel, i think the explanation and the actual apology get conflated. meaning, cass says "i'm sorry for what i did out of anger" and what rapunzel hears is "i'm sorry for being angry."

and because of that misunderstanding, from rapunzel's perspective her own indignation has been validated and her behavior justified, because she was right all along and cass shouldn't have been angry with her in the first place and now everything is fine--

but it's not fine.

we're not supposed to share rapunzel's perspective here, because she's flat out wrong. nothing is really better and nothing has really changed, except that rapunzel got the talk she wanted and stops putting this intense pressure on cass. so as we enter the house of yesterday's tomorrow, rapunzel is taking it for granted that things are fine with cass, and meanwhile cass is still injured, still angry, still as aloof as she can be without getting rapunzel breathing down her neck again... and then she meets zhan tiri, who gives her everything she needed and couldn't get from rapunzel.

like, to my mind, this is the entire point of RDO, that rapunzel makes this catastrophic mess of trying to patch things up after RATGT and comes out of that mess wrongly thinking she succeeded. the episode is presented through the lens of rapunzel's perspective, but the lines are very wide and i absolutely think the intention is for the audience to read between them and understand the reality that rapunzel has sort of blinded herself to.

[hyperfixationtimego]

Happy little hcs to atone for my sins

Taka and Hina are study buddies

Sometimes Aoi manages to get Taka off track because she’s just so enthusiastic and wants to hear about all of her friends’ hyperfixations and special interests

37.2 minutes later

Taka’s infodumping about how he despises moral philosophy but also thoroughly enjoys it bc that’s how moral philosophers are

Or he’s infodumping about political science and debate tactics and how speeches were effective or not for various reasons

Sakura and Mondo work out together

It started off as a coincidence when they were in the gym at the same time but it kept happening so they called it a schedule

They talk about their SOs and they’re smiling

Sakura teaches Mondo certain stretches and exercises to help relax different muscle groups for whenever he pulls a muscle or has a flare up from the thing with the bikes

Leon constantly asks Chihiro to turn alter ego into a vocaloid or at least program a bit of that tech into their system

Bc he would rather shave his head again than talk to Sayaka about producing music

He just has so many ideas

And it’s cool when there are kinda punk rock songs that are covered in an 8-bit or a vocaloid style

Byakuya and Celeste have a small series of bets with low stakes about what their inferiors classmates will do to lead up to them jingling away morosely like the fools they are

Sayaka shamelessly advertises her group’s mercy to her classmates and friends

Everyone gets their nails painted at some point

Nobody knows how Byakuya got roped into it but it worked

Makoto has rainbow loom

Atua forgives you

anyway YEAH LEGIT?

Hina has fully and thoroughly fallen in love with all of her friends and classmates’ expressions whenever they’re talking about something that excites them omg 🥺

she sees someone rambling and having a good time and hears the enthusiastic pitch of their voice as well as the general Vibe™️ that they’re giving off and she just???? [Y E A R N]

:)

and also just???? her and taka being study buddies is so valid oh my god??? they’re really close because of it!!! And Taka always loves hanging out with her because he knows she’ll let him just Talk??? and he adores that about her????? And she’ll be ENGAGED which!!!!!! oh my god!!!!?????

hi in this house we love and adore hina

And Sakura and Mondo???? absolutely?????

they have friendly competitions over who can lift the most weights/do the most reps/etc. (they do it sparingly, ofc! bc Sakura at least knows that they’ll both be subconsciously trying to beat the other as opposed to listening to what their bodies need in the moment. Sakura is the single braincell of class 78 no I won’t take it back because it’s true)

and they totally doooooo like they both get such cute loveydovey pining expressions whenever it’s Their Turn™️ to discuss the latest cute thing their partner(s) did. and listening to the other talking???? oh my god it’s literally the neatest thing????

Sakura looking at Mondo: I would die for this man

Mondo looking at Sakura: this woman is literally beauty and perfection in human form

THEY’RE SUCH GOOD FRIENDS OKAY???

also chihiro joins them for training sometimes!!!! She obviously isn’t able to do as much as the other two are, but both Sakura and Mondo are always so proud of her progress??? They’re like “you are so cool and strong do you know that??? you better know that”

and speaking of chihiro hdbdvdvdvdvdvdvdvd on GOD Leon will Not leave them alone abt it and they’re just like

“y....you do NOT have the attention span,.......you’re gonna get frustrated within like the first five minutes......and then I’ll have done all that work for nothing..............”

but Leon’s >:( no I won’t!!!! music is my Passion!!!!!!!!

so it’s like *sigh* okay

and anyway leon genuinely does rlly like it???? like he gets burned out very easily and can only compose things in short bursts, but he’s always so so so proud of the finished products??? (Even if nobody else likes it but shush 😌)

and it makes chihiro :D to know that something she made (even if it was done with reluctance) has brought one of her closest friends so much happiness????? she’s also like good for Leon but also if he ever bothers them about something like that again they are Literally Going to Snap but that’s another story for another day vwv

AND YEAH LIKE. HE DOESN’T MIND TALKING TO HER ABT MUSIC IN GENERAL BECAUSE IT’S AN INTEREST THEY SHARE (quite possibly one of the only times they will have a conversation without one constantly insulting the other ❤️) BUT. ADMITTING TO HER THAT HE NEEDS HELP WITH IT IS THE WORST HE HATES IT HE HATES IT HSBDBSBD

god okay so. his first impression of her when they had just come to hope’s peak and met for the first time was “oh my god!!! she’s a pop idol!!! so she must know a lot about music!!! maybe she’ll help me become a popular musician!!!” and her immediate reaction when she first heard him ask was to literally roll her eyes and he was like oh okay fuck her actually

and then slow burn enemies-to-friends 💛

WHEBDVSVS CELESTE AND BYAKUYA JUST BEING RICH ASSHOLES IS SO FUNNY??? LIKE THEY HAVE WEALTH SOLIDARITY AND THEY ACT ALMOST LIKE alright your status makes you worthy of my time, I suppose-

they’ve had bets on everything from how many times kirigiri will pass out from exhaustion by the end of the school day, to how long it’ll take before Kirumi finally Loses Her Shit, to how many people will be harmed by Komaeda’s luck while hanging out with him.

Mfs about to die smh

and dhdbwvwbsvwvwb yeah like??? sometimes a normal conversation with maizono will turn into her being like “yeah, and by the way, if you’re looking for a change of style and wardrobe, you should check out the newest shirt my band just released as part of our merch drop, and-”

Makoto is the one who gets baited into her merch ads most often sndbsbsbdbdbw

even mentioning the word “merch” around Leon or Kaz will earn her a lot of groaning and sighing, and occasionally a pillow or other soft object being hurled at her face 💛

oh my god they all have a manicure spa day,,,,,,,class bonding 🥺

hdbdvdvdv they got Jill to break into his dorm and kidnap him ngl like the specifics they gave her were something along the lines of “use as much force as you need to without killing him” and she was like “DONE”

and okay I’m not gonna talk abt everyone’s nails but now I’m thinking about it and like-

Sayaka gets like a lighter violet background with gold and white stars smattered around them, more concentrated in some areas than others, and it’s generally very pretty 🥺

chihiro’s are a different solid pastel color on each finger!!! it’s very kidcore and fun and they love it so muchhhh!!!

leon gets a little self-conscious when it’s his turn because his nails are highkey disgusting from all the time he spends playing baseball - there’s dirt trapped under them and everything so he’s just like hhhhhhh anxiety go brrrr but anyway he gets solid black because he’s edgy and cool like that 😎

I think Taka gets a French manicure with little dark red flowers pressed towards the tips because!!! simple yet pretty!!!

Celeste probably takes the longest because her request is sooooo complicated like it’s black and red and long ass acrylics with overlapping patterns and everyone else just kinda sits there feeling h o r r i b l e for that poor nail stylist

Toko gets a checkerboard pattern, with each nail having a different neon color in place of white!!! Because she knows that Jill will find it cool and pretty and colorful the next time she fronts (visual stimming jill?? 👀)

Togami just picks whatever will get him out of the chair quickest hdbsvdvdvdbdbdb

anyway Makoto????? rainbow loom????? absolutely

he has so many bracelets!!!!! so many so many so many and he knows how to create such a wide variety of styles it’s so cool!!!!!! he wears a bunch of them at any given time because they are so fun to fidget with!!!! and rubber texture hvvvvhvv!!!!

and he creates personalized ones for his friends, too, like he knows their favorite colors and sometimes picks up on whether they prefer a certain style or not from the way they react to the other ones he’s made and it’s!!! just so neat!!!!!

I’m thinking about it and!!! he has a bi pride fishtail, a trans pride arrow stitch, a black and neon green railroad, a pastel pink/blue/purple/yellow ladder, a jelly yellow and green dragon scale, a rainbow double cross, and a bunch more!!! he also has a bunch with charms and beads added into them!!!!

He also makes them for his friends even if he knows they won’t wear them!! Like Toko, for example, isn’t the biggest fan of jewelry because she doesn’t like the texture, but he creates one for her anyway and fills it with so much love (it looks like a daisy chain!!!! because at least she’ll be able to look at it and hold it and still be interested in it without it needing to be on her wrist!!!)

he makes a ton of bright colored ones for Mukuro (usually either single or inverted fishtail because he knows she wouldn’t enjoy wearing anything too heavy or overbearing) so that she has more mobile visual stims!!!

similar for Jill!! although most of hers tend to be black and bright neon rainbow in various bulkier styles!!!! Jill will also force him to let her look at his bracelet-covered arm whenever they hang out because. my god,,,,,,so many Colors™️

he’s found that togami prefers black and white simpler styles, and that Kyoko absolutely adores singles, fishtails, and double fishtails in any shade of purple, and that Mondo likes any of the larger styles in darker colors + blacks and grays!!! Chihiro loves anything with jelly and glitter bands!!!

Leon usually only wears one at a time, but he cycles through every single one that his boyfriend’s ever made for him because????? GOD they’re so cool and his boyfriend is so crafty and incredible and just,,,,,,,,,hvvvhvv every time he looks at the one he’s wearing he’s able to calm himself down and remember that Makoto loves him........it’s also very good for stim and fidgeting <3

anyways sorry yes Makoto with a rainbow loom is filling me with serotonin and it’s canon now

[robotslenderman]

Perry and Elisa headcanons:

Elisa thinks it's weird that a Nosferatu Thinblood has a Hecata-like bite, but it's Dove who, due to her experiences with Modian, immediately realises that Perry is a full blooded Samedi. When Dove raised the possibility that Perry might be Cappadocian to Elisa, she was worried they'd have to protect him from the Hecata (and that Dove would refuse to extend that protection because of the treaty), but Dove said "nah, he's Samedi, he's Hecata. He probably has that bane as the equivalent of a genetic throwback - sometimes that happens." (Dove would know.) Much relief ensues and Elisa helps Perry learn about the Samedi and Hecata, and even gets him in touch with a couple over time.

Elisa is pretty casual about the smell. She mentions it and she doesn't pretend it's not there either. "I'd hug you, Perry, but it's three AM and you smell like shit so I'll hug you first thing tonight." Perry is a bit defensive/standoffish at first but comes to appreciate it over outright hostility and/or when people "politely" pretend it's not there while obviously not wanting to deal with it.

For example, when Elisa gives him a room in her haven she'll be upfront about the fact she's using sheet/pillow protectors to stop him leaking on stuff, a room with no carpet so the smell doesn't get stuck in it, an ensuite so he can clean himself off easily... but unlike most, you know, she's actually offering a bed instead of pretending she doesn't have a place for him to stay, and she's also pretty "yeah you smell like shit in the morning but I'm just gonna have to deal with that." He's not sure what to think about this attitude in the beginning.

Elisa also teaches him to weaponise the smell. "You just met someone? Be considerate. Insist on meeting your contacts outdoors early on in the night, and standing downwind from them. They get difficult? That's when you start visiting them in their office an hour before dawn and sitting in their chairs and leaking on their upholstery. They'll soon get the idea that you're someone they want the goodwill of - and that's invaluable. Most fledglings have to work really, really hard to have that kind of power over somebody and all YOU have to do is change what time you're meeting someone. Use that."

The above point pretty much drove home to him that yeah she hates the smell, but not HIM, and she's willing to work with it. He develops a crush on her after that.

He does make a move when he's more confident, a few years later. She turns him down and at first he's pretty self loathing over it but they have an open discussion about the smell and she's like, "look, if I had feelings for you I'd just work with that - sexy stuff first thing after dusk when you're at your best. But I'm not going to pretend I'm interested when I'm not out of pity because we both deserve better. I'm sorry I hurt you but I can't say yes to this, not when I wouldn't mean it."

He got over it rather quickly, to his own surprise.

He has his own car. He calls it the Corpsemobile. When he gets the opportunity he loves to give people ultimatums - "either I ride with you and stink up your car, or you can ride in mine. And mine smells worse than the state I'd leave your car in."

Elisa helps set him up with a good ghoul - someone who runs a small mortuary. Puts a small mattress in one of the shelves, actually makes a nice comfortable haven out of it. It being a mortuary means the smell isn't suspicious, and he just pretends to the staff that he has a medical condition and its way less hassle to sleep in one of their drawers.

Getting the corpse stink out of his clothes is almost impossible so he's ALWAYS going through fresh clothes. Elisa helps set him up with another ghoul that can give him a steady supply of shirts, underwear and pants.

He hates getting pulled over because the second a cop gets a whiff of the interior of his car they think he's got a body in the trunk. Elisa uses her connection with Dove to get him a third ghoul in the police force, but when he's not in Tucson he's SOOL there.

He has discovered that maggots actually keep the smell down, as they eat away at the rot, so when he starts rotting a few hours after dusk, he applies maggots to the areas he sees are starting to deteriorate and wraps them in bandages. The smell doesn't go away completely but it does make a difference.

When he's outside of Tucson and a cop insists on searching his car, he peels away a bandage and says "actually, that smell is me." He also has a bunch of fake medical paperwork so that they don't insist on taking him to the hospital - he says he's on antibiotics and the maggots prevent the gangrene from killing him, and because of that he doesn't have to stay in hospital.

He knows a lot of facts about maggot therapy to make it convincing. In reality I'm pretty sure that gangrene is not something that you can be an outpatient for but most cops aren't going to know that if he can be convincing enough.

Once, he was travelling with Harley in the front passenger seat when they got pulled over in the early hours. He played dead as Harley desperately tried to get him to wake up to prove to the increasingly freaked out cop that he was alive and just had a "medical condition". After calling for backup and getting Harley on the floor, when the cop opened the side door Perry went "BOO!"

The cop shot him.

They had to kill the cop and bury the body to preserve the Masquerade before backup got there, because while they can cover up Perry's clan bane with "it's a medical condition", it's a lot harder to cover up a bullet through the chest.

Perry thought it was hilarious. Harley, who's a lot more squeamish about killing innocent humans and destroying the lives of their families and loved ones for the lulz, didn't think it was funny at all.

(Elisa backs up Harley but privately also thinks it's hilarious, except for the bit where they had to kill the cop. "It's one thing to kill to protect ourselves, it's one thing to kill because we're hunters eating our prey, but it's completely another to set up a human to die for your own amusement. Don't do that again."

"I didn't kill her for the lols, I just didn't think she'd -"

"SHE WAS A COP OF COURSE SHE WAS GOING TO FUCKING SHOOT YOU, YOU DUMBASS.")

Yeah, that prank did damage his relationship with Harley for a while.

BUT sadistic prank notwithstanding, he actually has a pretty good relationship with Harley. Harley wasn't sure about the stinky Samedi at first, but was too much the southern gentleman to be anything but polite about it. He quickly got used to it and saw Perry for the lost kid he was. Because Harley was in his forties when he was Embraced, he was pretty calm and difficult to faze, so he was able to rub off on Perry and help calm him down over time.

Perry and Harley were both furious at Lettow when Lettow came back to Tucson. The way Harlow saw it, putting Elisa through her First Season was completely unnecessary and Lettow could have properly vetted her, and also a huge risk to the Masquerade. The way Perry saw it, if someone of a different clan can put her own life on the line (due to the Accounting) to take in a complete stranger who'd been a Masquerade issue for nothing in return, the least Lettow could have done was look after his own fucking childe.

They were even less impressed when Elisa got sexually involved with him and then romantically, because they saw it as Elisa wanting the security of having a sire and Lettow exploiting that. Elisa, meanwhile, didn't appreciate being infantilised. She defended Lettow because "he kept an eye on me from a distance", and he left caches for her to discover and arranged for her to have jobs when the courier jobs started drying up. Harley and Perry were like "gee, how generous of him."

Perry was like "if I knew her standards were that fucking low I'd have asked her if she'd changed her mind about not going out with me"

Lettow was on thin fucking ice with the two of them for a while, and it took time for them to realise his feelings for her were sincere and that he wasn't going to abandon her again. In the meantime he rarely took their bait and let their attacks and accusations roll off his back - as an elder he rarely took things personally, understood it was between Elisa and her childer, and wanted to respect that she wanted to maintain some peace. Part of it was also due to guilt and self loathing. But he was also glad she had two very protective childer to watch her back, since he knew that safety and support was very important to her.

Harley and Perry also threatened to Fight Him, which caused Elisa to double facepalm bc one, Men, and two, elder with super strength and fortitude. Lettow just thought it was funny but also took the opportunity to bait them on being young and rash. He didn't resist ALL the time.

Lettow and Perry would never be close, but they came to respect the place the other had in Elisa's life, and even came to rely on each other every now and then.

[revive-the-fandom]

Now you may be asking “Isabel, what’s the point of writing a small essay on a minor character from a kids movie?” and I’ll tell you!  

NoneofmyfriendswillputupwithmybullshitThere is no point!  I just like writing things about things I like!  And I wanna write about

Her.

Because she was a cool fucking character!  With an awesome design!  And I don’t give her enough attention!

And that’s her introduction!  A large, chunky girl wearing a black T-shirt and a pretty pink cardigan looking absolutely murderous.  She’s tough and strong and intimidating.  How often do we get that from animated little girls?  Astrid is all of those things but she’s also tiny, and wearing form fitting ‘tough action girl’ clothes.  Cupcake gets big ole boots and a freaking tutu!  Her hair is messy and nothing she wears matches and she clearly doesn’t put up with anyone’s shit!

I mean,

look how scared these guys are of her!  Pippa and Monty are more timid but Claude, Caleb and Jamie seem like regular old roughhousing tough kids until this moment.  And they’re all scared of a girl in a tutu!  Like, bullying is obviously not acceptable but so much media portrays the bullies as football players or edgy kids who smoke, or a manipulative and condescending queen bee type.  Cupcake is a big, quiet girl in a tutu.

and when she finally turns to the dark side and joins their play?  She’s not suddenly delicate or girly girl.  She chases them with a lump of snow larger than her own head.  And seems so utterly impressed by Jamie’s sled ride through town!

but still has the empathy to be worried when he crashes and gets hit by a runaway sofa

and when the others admit to constant nightmares she shows a lot of empathy and understanding towards the group (Caleb in particular) 

she seems to be able to read people too!  Claude, Caleb and Jamie push each other around a lot.  Pippa and Monty don’t.  So once Cupcake is added to the group she starts pushing them around too, starting with Caleb.

Poor kid.

Time to talk about Cupcake and her belief in the Guardians!

She’s super into unicorns (obviously)

but it’s never confirmed if they’re real like the Leprecaun and the Groundhog (I suppose the Groundhog was necessary since it’s partially staged in Pennsylvania) 

however she is shown to be very well connected to the spirit world, at least unconsciously.  Aside from Jamie and Sophie, Cupcake has the most interactions with the Guardians and the Spirits around them.

She’s the first to be influenced by Jack’s magic on screen (and the only one of the group to experience this)

She’s sent dreamsand and nightmares in one night, plus she’s visited personally by Pitch on the eve of his first attack on the Guardians

She’s also the first of Jamie’s friends to be visited by Jack, she’s the first to get outside and sled with them (indirectly convincing the twins to join the sledding) and seems to have no trouble reigniting her belief in the Guardians and believing in Jack off the bat.

She’s techincally Jack’s second believer, and she’s also the second one to stand up to Pitch and defend the Guardians

She instigates the fight against the nightmares

and overall has the most interactions with spirits.  She’s one of those characters that bumps into the spirit world without wanting or trying to.

And then there’s the question of her home life and her family.  Her home appears a couple of times during the film, though it’s not as intimately known as the Bennett’s home.  It’s easiest to find during Pitch’s introduction here

her room is the one with the blue light.

I’m going to go on a tangent here and talk about her house and it’s location.  Because as you can see here it’s three floors above a shop and next to what I assume is the town hall. 

The shop is visible in multiple scenes, such as the sled ride at the beginning

which means that her house is adjacent to the town hall and the square with the statue

yet another landmark is the petrol station

where the final battle occurs (god Cupcake’s room has the best view for this movie)

... Actually...  now that I’m looking, I’m gonna have to make a ‘spot-Cupcake’s-house’ post bc this is getting ridiculous lol

Now my question is this: how much of the building does Cupcake’s family own?  

There’s a couple of maps (neither are true to the film istelf but...) by Peter Maynez one of which lists Cupcake’s home as a ‘loft’ which implies that her family owns just the top floor or so.  Which is fine... except...

what apartment has a dog door????

So I propose that Cupcake’s family is actually loaded and owns the whole building including the shop.  That way there could be a portion of the ground floor that’s part of their apartment.

Which brings me onto the shop itself.  It’s name is clearest in this shot

Kice’s BAIT & TACKLE

I’m not well versed in fishing terminology but it does appear to be a fishing shop.  Now I have been informed by my dad who has been to the US unlike me, that this would be full of fishing gear and also maybe hunting gear (maybe guns? idk I’m British I don’t know the rules about guns - tho Burgess is confirmed to be in Pennsylvania if it’s state by state?), camping gear or general outdoors equipment so probably a decent amount of income.

Kice seems to be a surname.  I might have gotten the wrong end of the stick here but that’s what I’m assuming for now.   Kice (according to Ancestry) seems to be a Germanic/Slavic last name, which may be Cupcake’s last name?  

Cupcake’s family is also a mystery but we do know that this guy(?) exists

and that he likes to read the newspaper in the morning

so he may be her father or father figure?  They might not even be a guy but they do have a stereotypical masculine figure so I’m going with that?

anyway, weird shot next!

I spy with my little eye three pairs of shoes.  These are three different types of shoes so they may all belong to one person, or they have three other people in the house and these are their current shoes?  I think Cupcake keeps her shoes in her room/next to her bed so 

I would also say that considering the (possible) size of their house it would be easy for her to have siblings living with her (younger so they don’t keep shoes by the door, or older so they could be out all night).

(The heavy decoration in Cupcake’s room also implies that the family has money)

Cupcake/Pippa&Monty/Claude&Caleb/Jamie&Sophie/Town of Burgess

[trensu]

Episode 45: The One where the Juniors Stick It to the Old People

Still in the demon subdue palace aka wwx's classy cave and wwx is putting ss on the spot and it's great

he's implying that su she is just the distraction or whatever so jgy can enact the Ultimate Evil Master Plan

oooh, i like this idiom he used here

"the mantis is catching the cicada, not aware of the bird behind it."

nice

I LOVE WATCHING WWX BE CLEVER

HE'S SO ATTRACTIVE DOING HIS DETECTIVE WORK

HE JUST BLUFFED HIS WAY INTO MAKING SU SHE REVEAL HIS HAND AND IT WAS AWESOME

he was all, why don't you prove me wrong and play the Totally Not Evil Magic Music you played before?? hm? 

su she ofc didn't play it so wwx pulls out some papers from his robe and is like, that's alright i'll just have lqr read this sheet music i stole from your boss's secret chamber...

and then su she panics and tries to stop him but lwj launches bichen at su she like a boss

The only unbelievable thing here is that su she somehow managed to block bichen and send it right back to lwj tbh 

(thus revealing he still had access to his own spiritual energy lol what a loser)

Lwj catches it gracefully and does a serious pose and side-eyes su she with all the venom he can muster lol

Ewww, su she just spat blood and disrupted the magic circle (bc he knows he’s been caught out)

lwj ofc tries to attack him again but su she is COWARD and teleports himself away

The puppets try to storm the place but wn is on them in an instant

Oh, lwj gets bichen ready to help but wwx grabs him by the arm to stop him

Wwx: it won’t work, don’t bother

Lwj doesn’t look happy about this but he lowers his sword anyway

sect leader yao starts talking but idc what he has to say

Wwx takes the time to spell out that ss is working for jgy and they’re both up to no good

Bc apparently all his detective-y exposition didn’t make it obvious enough

God, it must hurt wwx to be surrounded by idiots all the time...

wn is still fighting off puppets but he lets wwx know that he’s not gonna be able to hold them back for very much longer

The fact that he can hold them back by himself like this at all is amazing tbh

So lsz, being the protective badass sweetie pie that he is, immediately dives in after wn, offering to help!

Jin ling sees him do this and draws his sword to follow behind but jc stops him…

JC IS GIVING JL THE ZIDIAN

Lol Jc’s all like don't lose it! But jin ling doesn’t take it!! 

He actually shoves his way passed jc and throws himself into the throng of puppets with just his father’s sword

Jc is FURIOUS, he’s all, get back here you idiot!! 

Jin ling ofc doesn’t listen

Lsz: you should go back

JL: I won’t!

LSZ AND JL, I LOVE THEM SO. LOOK AT THOSE PRECIOUS BABIES BE BETTER PEOPLE THAN THE OLD FARTS IN THE CAVE

So now we have wn, lsz, and jl fighting off the puppets and protecting everyone

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

WWX TOOK OFF HIS OUTER ROBE AND REVEALED LWJ'S UNDERTHINGS 

wwx slices his fingers on bichen to start writing on lwj's white inner robes that he’s shamelessly wearing and displaying to the world

lwj watches him VERY INTENTLY, LOL

WWX IS USING HIMSELF AS BAIT!! THE MARKINGS ARE GONNA LURE THE PUPPETS TO HIM!!!

AND HANGUANG JUN IS GOING TO BE FIGHTING OFF THE PUPPETS THAT GET NEAR HIM

BC THEY'RE SOULMATES AND THEY LOVE EACH OTHER

AND THEY’RE A FANTASTIC TEAM OVERALL

Ljy tries to offer himself up as bait too but wwx is like nope! You all just stay out of our way

Ljy tries to protest but lwj cuts him off with a “listen to him.”

Then our boys share a brief look before throwing themselves into the fray

They look so cool here! Wwx lands steady on his feet with a solid thunk and brings his flute up to his (beautiful) lips

In contrast lwj slides in with sharp glide right next to wwx and gets battle-ready 

LOOK AT MY SUNSHINE BOY PLAY HIS FLUTE LIKE A BOSS

God he looks so good when he’s focused like this

LOOK AT LWJ FIGHT OFF HUNDREDS OF PUPPETS LIKE A BADASS

Lwj is twirling around wwx so fast, fighting back every puppet that comes his way

Wwx is dodging any that get too close but he’s also smoothly bobbing and weaving around lwj’s attacks

THEY WORK SO SEAMLESSLY TOGETHER I LOVE THEM SO MUCH

meanwhile wn helps clear the way for the rest of the cultivators to escape

cut to the cultivators swarmed around the exit of the burial mounds, yao is talking, yuck

sect leaders yao and ouyang are the worst. 

they're all, let's just leave and go to lotus pier to recover!!

jc is like, you want us to leave just like that?? (YOU COWARDLY BASTARDS, he doesn’t say but i know in my heart that he’s screaming that in his head) 

and the other guys are like, yeah, it's not like lwj and wwx are gonna survive that 

jl is like BULLSHIT OFC THEY'LL COME BACK (i love my bratty son)

And Jin Ling is Right BC LWJ IS COMING OUT OF THE WOODS WITH WWX LEANING AGAINST HIM

Wwx looks all weak and worn out. Like, he’s leaning against lwj heavily and lwj is watching him all worriedly

Wwx knees buckle and he goes down, but thankfully since lwj still has his hands on him, he doesn’t fall hard

LSZ RUNS TO THEM AND IS LIKE R U OK???

POOR BABY IS SO WORRIED AND UPSET!!

Lwj still has his eyes glued on wwx but you can tell that he’s starting to feel weary from the battle too

wwx is like we're okay, don’t worry, AND THEN PASSES OUT

which is the EXACT OPPOSITE of okay, omg

Lwj does this little gasp and twitches towards wwx but thankfully lsz is able to catch wwx before he hit the ground

Lsz is frantically calling his name but wwx is completely out of it and all we hear him say in response is a very weak “a-yuan”

At that, lwj’s eyes shift from wwx to lsz and he just stares at him bc here is his son, frantic over wwx, his soulmate, and his son's other father.

And there is his soulmate, murmuring their son’s name

AND NEITHER OF THEM KNOW WHO THEY ARE TO ONE ANOTHER

BC LWJ KEEPS NOT TELLING THEM FOR SOME REASON??:?

cut to some docks on the river

fucking yao and ouyang are running their mouths again

i hate those losers, i'm ignoring what they're saying

oooh, wn is approaching the juniors. lsz specifically. jl gets all on guard.

lol all the other juniors cower away but lsz stands his ground. 

aw ☹️ wn steps back when he sees the kids get all scared

now we're getting some info from lsz that's heavily implying that lsz is actually a-yuan. 

wn is so excited here bc he might have a surviving family member! he's so happy!! It’s adorable!!!

wn: can i call you a-yuan?

lsz: ofc! (WITH THE SWEETEST SMILE!)

wn: a-yuan, how have you all these years?

Lsz: i’ve been living well!

EXCUSE ME A MOMENT. I'M DEF NOT CRYING. JUST GOT SOMETHING IN MY EYE. LIKE A TREE BRANCH OR EMOTIONS OR SMTH. IT'S FINE.

here we learn that lwj started taking care of lsz  since he was about 5yo, and he taught him to play the guqin

WN GIVES HIM A LITTLE PAPER BUTTERFLY

AND HE FLASHES BACK TO A HAND GIVING HIM A PAPER BUTTERFLY AND IT'S SO OBVIOUSLY LWJ'S HAND

wn is all teary-eyed and tries to reach out to touch lsz's face

but jl draws his sword and startles them

lsz gets between them but jl is all like step aside, this is none of your bsns

lsz: jin ling, put your sword away first

jl: get away! *shoves lsz*

He regrets it IMMEDIATELY if the way his jerked forwards to, idk, grab him is anything to go by.

He holds himself back tho bc he’s cursed with pride and general awkwardness towards his crush like his father before him

lol everyone rushes to catch lsz bc lsz is a sweetie-pie and everyone loves him

wn is all it's okay if you're mad at me, i won't fight you but don't hurt lsz!

oyzz: he was caring for you! how could you push him and ignore his kindness?

omg oyzz really does have a sensitive soul. what a sweet boy.

then someone mutters smth like oh, he's so ill-bred and ofc jl hears it

jl: right! i'm just that awful, so what?

now we cut to lwj and wwx who are on one of the boats! 

lwj has his guqin out and is playing magic music for wwx who's got his eyes closed and eyebrows are all pinched together

WWX IS SO BEAUTIFUL, EVEN WHEN HE'S OBVIOUSLY EXHAUSTED AND IN PAIN

lwj can hear the juniors bickering and wwx starts fussing in his sleep muttering jin ling jin ling

lwj: wei ying

and wwx startles awake

wwx: lan zhan, what happened?

lwj: you passed out

wwx: not me. i mean, jin ling?

ofc wwx doesn't care what happened to him, ofc he only cares about what happened to his nephew

lwj doesn't answer but they both hear the bickering on the docks

we cut back to the juniors

jl is like, yeah i'm awful but you can't discipline me!!

wwx: what is going on?

and we watch wwx exit the boat and make his way down the dock to where the juniors are

and i was thoroughly distracted by his slim waist in those swirling black robes and had to rewind to watch it again

jin ling looks like he's about to cry and he has wn at sword point and wwx is all gently telling jin ling to put his sword down

jl: i won't!

wwx: jin ling!

jl: no!

and then he has a meltdown. he's all like, so i'm acting childish, satisfied? AND MY POOR BRATTY SON STARTS SOBBING HIS LITTLE HEART OUT CLUTCHING HIS SWORD 

jl: this is my father's sword, i won't put it down!

AND NOBODY IS GOING TO HIM. NOBODY GETS NEAR HIM OR TRIES TO HUG HIM AS HE CRIES WITH HIS WHOLE BODY, MY POOR LITTLE BOY

SOMEBODY GIVE THIS KID SOME GODDAMN AFFECTION ALREADY

LIKE, EVEN A PAT ON THE SHOULDER OR SOMETHING. ANYTHING!!

all the juniors look down awkwardly but wwx swallows back tears bc he knows that he's partially responsible for the way jin ling hurts rn. even lwj looks sympathetic

(oh, finally remembered that this is a kid in pain, huh, lwj?)

jc hears his nephew crying and comes out of his own boat

jc: a-ling! why are you crying? come here.

and jl goes running to him

and it's kind of sweet how he does it?? idk. 

the lack of hesitation indicates that he sees jc as a safe person to run to and it's sweet, i guess.

jl starts scrubbing his face in his sleeve to get rid of the tears

jc: what's wrong? who made you cry?

i wouldn't say he asks this tenderly but his voice is softer and not nearly as sharp as it usually is when he talks to people

and you KNOW he’s ready and willing to rain hellfire on whoever made his nephew cry

jl doesn't answer but jc glares down the dock where everyone is standing

LOL EVERYONE LOOKS DOWN 

THE JUNIORS, WWX, WN

THEY ALL AVOID JC'S GAZE AND HAVE THE GUILTIEST LOOKS ON THEIR FACES

lwj doesn't look away tho and his face is in its usual neutral state 

but we all know how lwj and jc's relationship is so this is not surprising

then yao has to open his mouth again but what he says doesn't matter, it's how the juniors react that matters

oyzz is all like why are you using that tone? if wwx wanted to hurt us, we wouldn't have made it this far, right?

lsz: oyzz is right!

lol oyzz does this little chin thrust like heck yeah i'm right

LOL jc is like, sect leader ouyang, the mouthy kid is yours, isn't he? he's so good at talking 

I LOVE WHEN JC GETS LIKE THIS. 

HE SAYS IT SO MILDLY AND OUYANG LOOKS PAINED AS HELL

NHS SMIRKS IN THE BACKGROUND

IT'S GREAT

ouyang: zizhen, come here to your father

oyzz: father, you said i shouldn't disturb you

and his dad's all like, get over here right now and oyzz ducks behind lsz and says I WON'T

LOVE THAT KID LOL

his dad proceeds to scold him and nhs is giggling in the background, i LOVE it

some jiang disciple goes up to jc to let him know they're ready to set off to lotus pier

Jc to wwx: you're barefaced enough to go back there?

wwx looks stricken

lwj is watching his face closely, concerned bc his soulmate is hurting (again) bc of jc (again).

we make it to lotus pier by nightfall

Side note to mention that the scenery and music as they travel down the river to lotus pier is really beautiful

Everybody files in but jc stops in front of our boys and wn and doesn't budge until wn says he'll stay behind. 

and even then he doesn't say our boys can come in, he just turns around and walks off

AWWWWWW

LSZ TELLS WN HE'S GOING TO STAY WITH HIM AND KEEP HIM COMPANY

WN IS SO SURPRISED AND HAPPY

AND OUR BOYS ARE WATCHING THIS HAPPEN

WWX IS ALL WIDE-EYED

He makes a move like he's going to join them and lwj stops him

lwj: let them be.

you know lwj, this would be a perfect time TO TELL WWX THAT LSZ IS HIS KID, HIS LITTLE A-YUAN.

but no, instead he just gazes at him soulfully

which, okay, i'm never gonna say no to soulful gazes BUT YOU CAN MULTITASK, CAN'T YOU??

LWJ, YOU CAN LOOK AT HIM WITH YOUR WHOLE  HEART IN YOUR EYES AND TALK AT THE SAME TIME.

Oh, lwj and wwx are at the gates of lotus pier and wwx looks at the sign above the gates 

his eyes get all red-rimmed and you can see his throat bob 

BC HE'S HURTING. 

BC THIS WAS HIS HOME WHERE HIS SISTER AND BROTHER LIVED AND LOVED HIM AND NOW HE DOESN'T HAVE ANY OF THAT

god the way lwj looks at him whenever these moments pop up...he knows exactly when wwx starts hurting inside and he keeps his eyes trained on him the entire time until wwx indicates he's ready to keep moving

we cut to a little moment between lsz and wn where lsz tells us how lwj raised him with a bunch of bunnies and it's adorable

We cut to sword hall where all the cultivators are gathered

jc gets called away and as he's going to tend to whatever it is he sees wwx try to go towards swords hall and glares at him

wwx literally had one foot over the threshold and he awkwardly drags it back out at jc's glare

poor wwx. he just looks awkward all over.

like, he looks down and away and gets kinda fidgety. can't meet jc's eyes. BUT HE STILL MAKES IT LOOK SO PRETTY

lwj on the other hand stares right back at jc, lol, to emphasize I'M NOT INTIMIDATED BY YOU EVEN IF THIS IS YOUR HOME I'M IN RN.

and only after that's, like, telepathically communicated or smth do his eyes flicker over to wwx to see how he's doing.

after jc stalks off, wwx does that cute little nose tap thing he does

wwx: lan zhan, sit down~

and he indicates the stoop with a playful smile

lwj looks at the stoop for like half a second before walking around wwx like NOPE, sitting on stoops is not a thing that hanguang jun does

wwx's mouth curls into a little scowl like fine, be that way.

he sits down on the stoop himself while lwj leans on the pillar next to it, eyes closed and arms crossed and basically looking like a very beautiful and elegant statute

LOLOLOLOL

WWX GOES TO SPRAWL BACK ONTO THE STOOP, RESTING ON ELBOWS 

AND LWJ, WITH HIS EYES STILL CLOSED SAYS: No misbehavior.

HE KNOWS WEI YING SO WELL

wwx looks up at him and pouts but still straightens up so he's sitting properly

wwx starts to sulk and complain about how jc's been gone for so long when jc shows up with a couple of ladies following him

jc pauses to look at our boys and says "come on in" shortly and turns on his heel to enter swords hall

Lol wwx turns to look at lwj with a big smile on his face bc hey, look at that! jc invited them in!!

wwx and lwj just loiter awkwardly near the entrance of sword hall

now we're gonna get a whole bunch of exposition that we don't care much about

blah blah jgy arranged for jgs to die surrounded by prostitutes blah blah

blah blah jgy knowingly married his half-sister blah blah

and throughout all this exposition, wwx is the only one who asks questions and looks for more details.

the rest of them are all willing to take everything at face value which really just explains everything about how they all ended up in this mess, tbh

we also keep getting reaction shots from jin ling and it makes me sad. 

he does the death grip on his sword, and looks shocked and confused at every revelation, poor boy.

and the episode ends as the crowd starts to get riled up over all this brand new information

Which honestly is a relief bc things were getting WAY TOO PLOTTY for my tastes

Return to Masterpost

[despicablenotions]

Okay I'm seeing gene and Desiree interact and my baby gene talking about being a pawn so here's this:

Since you both are obviously strapped to the thighs of certain characters, the joker uses you guys as bait

Or at least gene gets used as bait and then arrow!techno finds out SHE PARTIES WITH DESIREE, A BAD BITCH FOR JOKERS SQUAD

Okay listen tho how about this, gene and Des you guys were like friends in school and then went down different path (kinda) and then gene didn't knOw her bestie was like "a bad guy" and DES WAS THE ONE TO CORRUPT HER AND THATS WHY ARROW!TECHNO AND HER ARE ONLY FWB BUT HE CANT RESIST HER AND BC DES IS GENE'S 🤝 THEN ~ ANGST ~ BC SHES HIS WEAKNESS JUST LIKE DES IS PO!GEORGES WEAKNESS SO EVENTUALLY THE TWO GUYS ARE FIGHTING AND DES AND GENE HAVE TO BE LIKE :O

I love the idea of you two fuckin shit up I think it's gonna be awesome honestly (this is not making gene a main character I'm sorry if that came off like that bUT think of how fucking cool Des is like you know she's secretly running shit in the background and genes her little toadie)

You guys are so hot, tag team me

... All I have to say is thank you so goddamn much for helping me legitimately plan out how Gene and I are gonna fit into the story. Fuck the story being a quackity x reader x george, i simp too hard for him to have po!george be with someone else smh. Reader can fuck Deadshot!Punz since that's happened canonically in DC Comics. It's fine.

But yes you know I'm literally running shit behind the scenes, just fucking everybody so nobody wants to actually kill me because like, bro, who'd want to get rid of someone that's as good a fuck as me/j

But yes, PO!George and Arrow!Techno will have to have a big fight now just because of this ask. This story is going beyond an x Reader now. Now it's a whole self indulgent fic where me and my bestie get to fuck shit up half the time while the rest of the time Reader's fucking shit up.

@genethequeen

[shanhelingmoving]

UGH u said that u were giving this run more leeway bc of jodie,, YES Ive been doing that too, and I hate that the first female doctor has such empty writing bc she could! be! good! it's so sad! and, bc I was so excited for it, I still feel like I should be more grateful? but I'm really not feeling it and I worry that its only bc she's a woman and I've got internalised misogyny or something.

but it just seems like any other boring angsty modern scifi and I want MORE.

like 13's first season I could understand bc chibnal was new, and so was jodie and the cast, and there were a lot of new characters to flesh out, but now it's been so long that I'm just not willing to wait for the spark anymore? like Graham and Ryan left and I didn't even care bc I hadn't even connected to them at all. and they all keep giving these speaches about how they're gonna be there for each other forever but I honestly can't see it? idk anything about any of the companions except the fact that they all seem to love the Doctor.

oh my god anon i TOTALLY understand you like. when i first got to her season it almost felt an obligation to like jodie & 13 because ahem girl power™ and also b/c i do really like jodie as an actor. (esp on broadchurch!) in addition to that we’ve been asking for a female doctor for such a long time so when we finally got one and it felt. hollow. i still feel a sense that i Should’ve liked her and her run Should’ve been great, and to criticize her run as you said did felt a lil ungrateful?? it’s like. because we got this, we should be happy with the crumbs. which is so so much </3

obviously i don’t know your whole situation but i also don’t think it can be completely internalized misogyny either, because i genuinely just chalk it up to bad writing, i’m with you on the not feeling anything for the new characters. i really tried to like them i really did, and i do like them but it’s in the very shallow way of ‘oh, they’re neat. i hope they don’t die’ and thats probably the extent of it. 

i think it was @suzie-costello that said it was like chibnall was trying to invoke nostalgia to distract from the empty writing and i definitely think she’s right – it’s both the boring angsty modern scifi AND the constant nostalgia baiting is like a veneer over that to try and say ‘well actually, we still are doctor who’ and it makes me really sad! i love this show i love how good it can get and also how hilariously awful (in the fun way) it can get but. i just can’t feel the vibes from jodie’s run ://

final note there’s a really good podcast called gayv club i listened to w/an episode goes in-depth about s11/12 that i think you’d like! it’s by @/shesnake and @/akajustmerry & here’s their page <3 spotify episode link !!

[darkgeminisworld]

This is gonna be a rant about a probably toxic friend so if you don't wanna read it, this is a heads up.

Okay so for several reasons, most of them being that I need to move on, I decided to write this lengthy rant about a friend I'm pretty sure will not be a friend of mine for much longer, which sucks bc he's almost my only irl friend but also feels good bc he's exhausting and I'm pretty sure he's also toxic.

I've met this guy like 6 and a half years ago, and we pretty much bonded over shared interests pretty fast. The first thing that bothered me was that he'd always be late, which would be absolutely fine if he'd been honest about it. But writing that it's five minutes until he's there and then showing up 30 minutes after that, or writing "I'm on your doorstep" and taking another ten minutes to show up, almost every single time, isn't, especially since I strained to be on time the first months (meaning I'd be too early bc my brain only does too early or too late, nothing in between). And his being late wasn't just 20 or 30 minutes, several times he was over an hour late. Oh, and once when we had agreed to meet he legit wasn't home and I waited around 2 hours, which I really should have held a grudge for back then and been way more pissed at him.

The second thing that bothered me was that he was way too nosy. He'd ask if I'm free to meet and play video games or whatever and whenever I said no he'd ask what I'm doing and if I can't manage my time another way to make time for him. And the thing is, not only did I not ask several times after he told me that he's busy that day, but I actively told him, several times over the course of about the last two years, that it bothers me and asked him to tone it down. My problem here is only that he didn't stop after I asked him to, bc before I told him and asked him, how was he supposed to know.

Coming out to him went well, though he did ask me whether I'm into him, which... No. Obviously it could've gone a lot worse, but still.

The next is more a small annoyance, a small itch, although it might have been a warning sign. He couldn't handle defeat very well. In most video games he was better, but he low-key aggressively denied it when I pointed out the win-lose ratio in my all-time favourite video game series and he'd try to cheat at other games. If it was only about him being competitive I'd understand, but that doesn't mean trying to rewrite the past by blatantly lying about it and ridiculing me for pointing out that that's bullshit, especially since it's only games, played for the fun of it.

We also went to the cinema sometimes, though if it had been up to him it'd have been way more often and that's another point where he really didn't let it go after getting a no. Whether he wanted to watch a horror movie after being told, several times, that I really don't like horror movies, or just the general question of whether we'd be going to the cinema, he'd ask again and ask what I'm doing, why did I not want to go, would another time be good, couldn't I ask my parents for money (which, to be fair, I could have. But I preferred not to bc back then it was really stressful bc we had to move and renovate and I just didn't wanna add more frustration if that makes sense? Plus I wanted to get my hands on some things, which required to save up) etc. Almost every time we did end up going, it was he who initiated it. I mean, don't get me wrong, I wanted to see some of the movies just as badly as he did, but... And if he can't even accept "no" from a friend of several years (also a 100% guy friend as far as he is aware bc I didn't start to address gender issues with him), I'm worried about other contexts with that word. Also we did some kind of text role play (just texting back and forth with OCs inserted into several fantasy works like the Inheritance Cycle, who would parttake in the storyline, no set rulebook or anything) and his characters did some questionable and even outright deplorable things and when I wanted his character to suffer consequences, he always wanted him to get away with it. Like, his idea for one of his characters "pranking" mine in reaction to a prank which in itself was a retaliation to his character's pranks was kidnapping and waterboarding my character. And he kept defending it as a prank and demanded that my character should just forgive his character, like... It really made (and continues to make) me wonder and worry just how much of his darker thoughts I don't know about. And I don't know how accurate it is but I once saw a post with a quote that went along the lines of "man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth." (btw I couldn't think of a satisfactory way to phrase it so I ended up looking up the quote and apparently it's from Oscar Wilde)

So I spent a fair amount of time arguing with him over that and trying to explain to the best of my ability why it was wrong, and for some time it went better.

Fast forward a few months to the blm protests or more specifically news coverage of it and info I sent him. He defended cops and blamed the protestors and even justified the atrocities of the cops, so that was the first instance where we had a huge fight. I practically drowned him in links and videos etc and some weeks into that I thought I'd managed to get through to him (Spoiler: I didn't really get through to him) so I kept it in mind but continued to have contact with him and everything (bc at the time I didn't know that I didn't really get through as much as I thought).

From there on it pretty much went downhill. We had been thinking about doing a trip to London for a few days (his idea but at the time I really wanted to go, it was around 2 years ago when I still practically worshipped that one author, she who must not be named) and to this very day he's not letting it go completely. Even though the pandemic puts lots of obstacles in the way and I have more important things to worry about, namely final exams and applications. Even though London is expensive as shit and I still have no way to earn money atm. And about the vacation, I finally canceled last summer (and gave the aforementioned reasons) and he completely lost his shit and got super aggressive, insulted me and tried to guilt-trip me into taking that back and agreeing to still go on that vacation with him. Then we got into another fight where he wanted me to cancel the vacation with my grandparents, which was already planned and booked and everything in order to make time for the vacation I'd already said I don't want to go on with him anymore and aggressively demanded (he didn't ask, he sent a demand and bombarded me with exclamation marks) to know when exactly I'd be going on vacation with them. Then he went offline after I refused and ignored the next few messages I sent him and only replied when I asked "what I'd I reconsidered my stance on the trip?". I mean, baiting him with that definitely was shitty of me, but the result showed that that was basically what he wanted, pressure me into still going on that vacation. That specific conflict had been going on for weeks, bc despite me telling him that it's counterproductive and detrimental to my mental health to increase the pressure and therefore my anxiety about getting a job to pay for the trip, he kept pressuring me while acknowledging that he's giving me lots of pressure and anxiety and even using that against me.

He also didn't acknowledge that most times we try to meet, he goes offline for hours before replying and disappearing again. That would be absolutely fine if he didn't accuse me of doing that, which btw is his standard technique and it took me a long time to realize that. He always tries to shift the blame to make me look like the one at fault, and he always, always demands that I apologize when we had a fight via WhatsApp.

And when I started enforcing my boundaries and telling him to stop asking again and again why I can't meet, what I'm doing, or demanding other explanations, he started to attack me for the kind of language I use, so when I'm ever so slightly sarcastic he immediately latches onto that and creates a new conflict.

But this still isn't all, oh no. He's also basically an ecofascist, and is fully okay with sacrificing social justice to save the environment, completely choosing to ignore that the people he's protecting are the ones at fault and that the ppl who contribute the least are the ones experiencing the hardest ecological consequences.

He's said multiple times that he thinks both sides are equally bad, in the context of left and right in general as well as antifascism and fascism and that he doesn't "condone the oppressed defending themselves with any means necessary" bc that, too, would include violence. He's defending the "right to free speech" even when right-wingers say really disgusting shit, he disagrees with prohibiting demonstrations of ppl who think that Corona is a hoax, he has zero empathy for ppl who are affected, who suffer long-term consequences from infections, not even for ppl who die from it (he literally said "people die anyway, that doesn't justify imprisoning everyone else") and somehow still thinks he has the moral high ground.

And the last bit he did was explaining to me, from his endocisallohet white guy perspective, how I'm "not discriminated against" bc gay ppl in my country can get married (only since 2017 btw) and when I, despite the fact that I shouldn't have had to and that it was a real blow to my mental health, wrote him a message that was almost the length of an essay, he calmly started to question my replies with the detachedness of someone who's discussing whether pineapple belongs on pizza and demanding further explanation. To top it off, he said that marginalized ppl have to always reply to everyone calmly and politely, no matter if it was offensive bc the person asking might be unaware of that. Otherwise, he said, everyone would be right to stop listening to us. Like, he literally said that we don't deserve human rights if we're not licking the boots of our oppressors if that way of thinking is followed through to the end.

I almost forgot, he also thinks that white ppl should have a say in whether something is a racist slur, or whether something is racist in general (we're both white, but at least I'm trying my best to unlearn what my upbringing taught me instead of being the cliché of the white person who goes "how dare you call me racist, I've never been more insulted in my whole life!", which is basically his reaction)

So up until this last fight, I conceded some ground to him to end the fights and keep him as a "friend" not only bc I feel horrible when I imagine losing one of my only irl friends but also bc I was hoping I could get through to him and educate him, to the best of my ability, on how to be a good ally to marginalized people. But the disregard with which he treats my explanations why the way he talked (wrote) about marginalized people is absolutely not okay and the fact that he just told me that he genuinely doesn't see how he did anything wrong even after I explained it to him in detail is just too much to bear at this point.

Oh, and while looking through the chat to prove him a liar I found that apparently, to him a promise is a promise, no matter whether it was given under pressure or voluntarily, so do with that what you will.

[storytellerofuntoldlegends]

can we close the space between us now

A/N: second prompt for the @badthingshappenbingo! I had hoped to post this yesterday bc of May the Fourth, but unfortunately it took me longer than expected. Also, the original prompt the anon gave me was for stormpilot, but it just kinda turned into jedistormpilot because I love their dynamic so much! (also, not sure when it will happen, but I fully intend for the next bthb prompt I fill to be for Sanders Sides, bc I got an idea after the latest video... *smirks in angst*)

Prompt from Anon: For the bad things happen bingo, used as bait? The first order captures Finn but makes it obvious where they're holding him, and the resistance is like "no way, this is obviously a trap, we're not getting him", but Poe is like "fuck you that's my husband ((side note: ep9 is 1000x more enjoyable if you go into it imagining that Finn & Poe got married in between movies)) I'm going to get him" and steals an xwing to rescue him and it was a trap but that's not gonna stop Poe

BTHB Prompt: Used As Bait

Warnings: kidnapping, self-esteem issues, death mention (a first order officer and some stormtroopers get killed), kissing

-

It was supposed to be a routine mission. Steal some much needed supplies from the First Order, then get back to base. Except for things seemed to never go as planned with the Resistance, did it? They ended up getting swarmed by Stormtroopers, and in the Resistance’s scramble to escape- Finn got captured. And worse, after the Resistance was forced to retreat and leave Finn behind (something Poe felt immensely guilty about), the First Order publicly announced that they planned to execute Finn for his betrayal of leaving the First Order to join the Resistance. Not only that, but it was going to be a public execution, and strangest of all- they weren’t exactly shy about where the execution was going to be, as well as where Finn was being held. The execution was scheduled to be held on Corellia, and Finn was being kept on a First Order ship that was orbiting the planet.

“We have to go and save him,” Poe demanded, resisting the urge to slam his hands down on the conference table. Some of the Resistance members shifted around nervously, while Leia’s mouth was set in a firm line.

“Poe. I know you care about him, but-”

“But nothing! With all due respect, General, Finn would do the same for one of us,” Poe fumed, fists clenching at his sides. Leia’s expression didn’t change, but the Resistance members gathered around the conference table looked like they wanted to be anywhere but there.

“He would also not want us to recklessly run into an obvious trap,” Leia replied, her tone firm and brokering no room for argument. Not that that was going to stop Poe.

“So, what, we’re just going to leave him to die?!” he exclaimed, this time giving in to the urge to slam his fist down on the table. The Resistance members jumped, some of them giving out shouts of surprise- but Leia remained resolute. However, after a moment or two of Poe furiously glaring her down, her stoic expression turned sympathetic.

“I am sorry, Poe. But the Resistance is spread thin as it is. There’s nothing we can do,” she replied softly. Poe’s shoulders slumped slightly as he clenched his jaw, finally accepting that this was a battle he couldn’t win with Leia. But that didn’t mean that he was giving up on Finn by any means.

“Understood, General,” he said stiffly, turning on his heel and stalking away from the conference table. He wasn’t completely sure where he was going, but everyone he came across took one look at the barely-contained frustration in his expression and steered clear. 

Soon enough, Poe found himself a little ways into the forest on the outskirts of the base. He stood alone for a few moments, until he heard the sounds of something rolling over the dirt, accompanied with a few concerned beeps. A small smile slipped onto his face, despite everything, and he turned around to see BB-8, looking up at him with what seemed to be the droid equivalent of a concerned expression.

“Hey buddy,” Poe said with a sigh. BB-8 let out a questioning chirp, rolling forward to nudge at Poe’s leg. He shook his head fondly.

“I’m fine. It’s Finn I’m worried about,” he replied, nudging BB-8 back a bit. The astromech let out a series of disbelieving beeps, and Poe resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

“I am fine! Just… considering doing something dumb and reckless,” Poe muttered, rubbing the back of his neck anxiously. BB-8 made a shrill screech (the little droid clearly had been spending too much time with R2-D2) and began to berate Poe in a series of beeps and chirps.

“I know what General Organa said! But I can’t just let Finn die,” Poe said firmly, glaring down at his droid companion. BB-8 cooed in concern, his head drooping forward slightly. Poe let out a sigh.

“I didn’t mean to snap at you, bud, but you can’t change my mind. I’m going to rescue Finn,” he said, crouching down to give BB-8 a reassuring pat on his head. BB-8 let out a contented buzz, but still seemed concerned. Poe’s mouth set in a firm line. BB-8 was going to have to deal, because Poe was determined to rescue Finn… even if it was a trap set by the First Order.

-

It was late at night when Poe made his move. It would be easier to steal an X-wing while much of the base was asleep. If everything went according to plan, he would be well on his way to Corellia before anyone even realized he was gone. But of course, as was the trend lately, things didn’t go according to plan.

“What are you doing?” a voice demanded from behind him. Poe nearly jumped out of his skin, whirling around to see Rey standing with her arms crossed. Poe resisted the urge to groan.

“Just- y’know, checking up on the X-wings! Yup… everything looks good, you can probably go now,” Poe rambled, glancing over the X-wings in a show of checking them over. Rey raised an eyebrow, clearly unconvinced.

“I know you’re sneaking out to save Finn,” she said flatly.

“What? No! I’m just restless and couldn’t sleep, so I decided to take a walk!” he replied with a nervous laugh. Rey let out an irritated sigh.

“I know you’re lying- your story keeps changing! And besides, BB-8 told me that you were planning to go off on your own to try and save Finn,” Rey said, and it was then that BB-8 sheepishly rolled out from behind her.

“Traitor,” Poe muttered. BB-8 beeped cheerily back at him. Poe shook his head, then looked back to Rey.

“Don’t try and stop me,” he all but growled.

“I’m not. I’m coming with you,” Rey said firmly. Poe practically jumped in surprise, taken aback.

“What?! I don’t need your help- besides, you’re too important!” Poe spluttered. Rey frowned at him in confusion, and it was then that Poe’s brain caught up with his mouth.

“What?” Rey asked quietly, a touch of disbelief in her tone.

“Uh- I mean, General Organa seems to think you’re pretty important, so-”

“And you think you aren’t? To her?” Rey pointed out. This time, it was Poe’s turn to frown in confusion. He couldn’t help but notice that the “to her” part of Rey’s statement seemed like more of an afterthought… did Rey really think that Poe was important?

“I- I mean, I don’t know! What’s your point?” Poe huffed indignantly, crossing his arms.

“My point is that you’re going to get yourself- and Finn- killed if you go by yourself. So I’m coming along,” Rey replied, and Poe couldn’t help but notice how similar she was to Leia in that moment- fierce, determined, and not taking no for an answer. BB-8 beeped in a slightly indignant tone, and Poe let out a sigh of defeat.

“Aw hell- fine. You and Rey can come along,” Poe conceded. Rey smirked at him.

“Not that I was giving you a choice in the matter, but I’ll let you think that it was your idea for us to come along,” she teased. Poe rolled his eyes, and started to head towards the X-wings, but was stopped by Rey putting a hand on his arm.

“Now what?” Poe groaned, brushing off her hand and sulking slightly.

“We can’t rescue Finn in an X-wing. It can’t fit two people, and even if the two of us somehow managed to squeeze in there, Finn wouldn’t have anywhere to go. Besides, if we flew up to the First Order’s ship in recognizable Resistance ships, we’d get shot down before we even get to Finn,” Rey explained. Poe huffed out a breath of frustration- Rey was right.

“You have a point- but then what are we gonna do?!” Poe demanded. Rey gave Poe an “I-have-a-plan-and-you’re-an-idiot” smirk (a look he was far too used to getting from her at this point).

“BB-8, you remember when you, Finn, and Rose stole that ship to get back to the Crait outpost?” Rey asked. BB-8 chirped an affirmative, and Poe resisted the urge to grimace.

“The Xi-class light shuttle? You want to take that to rescue Finn?” Poe asked incredulously. BB-8’s head swiveled between Rey and Poe, seeming a little concerned, but the two of them were too focused on each other to notice.

“Whatever happened to ‘I can fly anything?’” Rey scoffed. Poe rolled his eyes, and BB-8 let out a concerned, warbling chirp.

“My piloting abilities are not the problem, the problem is that thing has light weapons and minimal shields- not the kind of thing you wanna fly to take on the First Order,” Poe shot back. This time Rey was the one to roll her eyes, and BB-8 chirped again, only to be ignored yet another time.

“This is a rescue mission! Not a battle!” she hissed.

“And an unauthorized rescue mission, at that,” a voice piped up. Both Rey and Poe jumped, quickly turning to see Leia standing not too far off, her arms crossed. BB-8 let out a series of irritated chirps at Rey and Poe, and both seemed a little embarrassed at ignoring BB-8 and getting caught by Leia.

“Uh- hey there, General,” Poe said with a sheepish grin.

“Cut the pleasantries, Poe,” Leia replied with a firm glare.

“It was my idea,” Rey blurted. Poe looked to her with a shocked expression, and Leia just chuckled and shook her head.

“There’s no need to lie, Rey. And I know now that trying to stop either of you is a fruitless effort,” she said, a hint of something fond and affectionate in her tone.

“General?” Poe asked in disbelief.

“Go. Take the Xi-class light shuttle- and I’ll act plenty mad at you for disobeying direct orders when you come back with Finn,” she ordered, smirking slightly. Poe stood in shock for a moment, but soon regained his composure and exchanged grins with Rey, and then the two of them darted off to the shuttle, BB-8 rolling along behind them.

-

Finn tried his hardest not to squirm against the binders on his wrists. He glared at the First Order officer who was staring him down smugly. The officer was a general, but Finn hadn’t bothered to catch his name- the important thing was that at least it wasn’t General Hux. Another aspect in Finn’s favor was that  this particular general was too pompous to contact General Hux, or Force forbid, Kylo Ren, because he wanted the glory of executing the traitor himself. Unfortunately, Finn got the feeling that Hux and Ren were letting the general do this- so that they could destroy the Resistance members that would try and rescue Finn. Well, the joke was on them, then- no one was coming to rescue Finn. The Resistance would see the obvious trap, and why would they risk that for an ex-stormtrooper? Finn hadn’t even been very important when he was a stormtrooper, so it wasn’t like he had any important information that the Resistance could use. 

“Anything to say, traitor?” the general spat.

“Just that your plan won’t work,” Finn shot back.

“Oh please, the Resistance comes for every pathetic cog in their infernal machine, no matter how worthless it actually is,” the general sneered. Just as the words escaped his mouth, the cell doors whooshed open behind him, and the sound of a blaster’s safety being clicked off was heard.

“He’s not worthless,” a voice fumed, and the general whirled around- only to get shot down immediately. The general’s body fell to the floor, revealing Poe standing in the doorway with a downright murderous expression on his face, and Rey standing beside him with an equally terrifying expression.

“Poe? Rey? What are you doing here?!” Finn hissed, not sure if he should be grateful or angry at his friends’ recklessness.

“Rescuing you, buddy. What else?” Poe scoffed, a lopsided grin growing on his face as he scrambled over to undo the cuffs on Finn’s wrists.

“But-”

“But nothing. We’re rescuing you, trap or not, because we care about you, not because you’re a ‘cog’ in our ‘machine,’” Rey said firmly, but there was a soft smile on her lips and a slight twinkle in her eyes. Finn couldn’t help but match her smile as he massaged the feeling back into his previously restrained wrists.

“Hold it right there, Resistance!” a voice barked from the doorway. The three of them looked up to see a squad of stormtroopers filing in and surrounding them, their blasters trained on the trio. Rey grit her teeth together, taking a defensive position in front of them with one hand hovering near the lightsaber hanging from her belt. A tense silence settled over the room as the stormtroopers regarded Rey semi-nervously, while a strange, almost deadly serene calm emanated from Rey.

One stormtrooper’s foolish move to shoot first caused all hell to break loose. In the blink of an eye, the lightsaber flew into Rey’s hand and she ignited it. Rey deflected the shot with ease, shooting the trooper in the chest, and all the other troopers started firing in an instant. Rey deflected every single one, picking off the stormtroopers one by one until Rey was the only one standing, with Poe and Finn crouched behind her. Letting out a slow breath, she sheathed the lightsaber and clipped it back onto her belt, then turned to Poe and Finn.

“BB-8’s waiting at the ship. Let’s go,” she said, reaching out a hand to help Finn up. He took her hand, standing up and seeming awestruck. Poe stood as well, letting out a sound between an exasperated sigh and a hysterical laugh.

“You sound so casual after just taking down every stormtrooper in here,” Poe scoffed semi-incredulously.

“You shot the First Order officer,” she replied bluntly.

“He was belittling Finn!” Poe shot back.

“I don’t know if I should be awed or horrified,” Finn said numbly.

“Try thankful, buddy,” Poe replied with a grin, playfully shoving at his shoulder. Rey rolled her eyes with a groan.

“Find the word for it later, we need to go now,” Rey said firmly. Poe and Finn didn’t argue, and followed after Rey. They darted down the corridors of the ship, and while they did encounter several stormtroopers, Rey and Poe made quick work of them.

“BB-8, we’re almost to the hangar, get the shuttle ready to leave,” Poe said into his communicator after they had managed to take down another squad of troopers. The three of them continued down the corridors, and in a matter of moments they reached the hangar. Alarms were blaring, and Finn could hear the heavy footsteps of stormtroopers echoing down the hall they had just come from.

“This way!” Rey shouted, heading to an Xi-class light shuttle parked not too far away. Poe and Finn followed after her, and the two of them were so focused on reaching the ship that they hadn’t realized that Rey had frozen in her tracks. Finn and Poe barely managed to stop before the bowled Rey over, and they looked to her with concern. But she wasn’t looking at them- her gaze was focused on another Xi-class light shuttle coming in for a landing. Finn felt a chill fill the room when he looked to the approaching shuttle, and he felt there was something… familiar, about the whole thing.

“Rey…” Finn trailed off, voice barely a whisper.

“It’s Kylo Ren,” she said shallowly.

“What?! How do you- you know what, nevermind. I can figure out your weird Force thing some other time, because in case you forgot, we’ve got troopers on the way!” Poe exclaimed, putting each hand on Rey and Finn’s shoulders respectively, then more or less pushed them towards the shuttle BB-8 was waiting on. Rey snapped back to the moment, and she hurried onto the ship’s ramp, waiting until both Poe and Finn had gotten into the ship before going in herself and closing the hatch after her. Poe was at the ship’s controls, flicking switches and getting the ship up into the air with BB-8’s help. For a moment, it seemed like they were home free- until the ship suddenly lurched backwards.

“What’s happening?!” Finn cried out, stumbling to one side as the ship shuddered beneath his feet.

“They can’t have activated a tractor beam within the ship… could they?” Poe asked, trying to urge the shuttle forward even as it continued to be pulled back.

“No… it’s him, he’s pulling us back,” Rey said with a touch of horror.

“Stupid Force-wielder holding back my stupid ship with no rear cannons- can you do a Jedi thing to make him go away?” Poe asked, half-muttering. Rey’s face scrunched up in annoyance, and Finn would have found the exchange rather adorable if their ship wasn’t currently being pulled back down to the hangar floor.

“That’s not how- nevermind,” Rey muttered, hitting the button to open the hatch with perhaps more force than was necessary.

“Whoa, what are you doing?!” Poe demanded, turning around in the pilot’s seat to look to Rey with wide eyes.

“Give Finn your blaster. Since this ship doesn’t have rear cannons, we’re going to have to improvise. Just be ready to get out of here once we break Kylo Ren’s hold on the ship,” Rey ordered, unclipping the blaster from her hip. Poe didn’t argue, and tossed his blaster over to Finn. He caught it, and hurried over to stand next to Rey. Finally, after an agonizing period of time that in reality was only a few seconds, the hatch doors opened wide enough for them to see Kylo Ren standing in the hangar below. They opened fire immediately, Kylo Ren clearly not expecting the barrage. He held his ground for a moment or two, until Finn got a lucky shot that hit his shoulder, and he lost his grip on the ship. It was only a brief moment, but it was enough for Poe to fly free. Rey closed the hatch once more, and once fully out of the hangar, Poe made the jump to lightspeed.

-

It was early morning when they made it back to base- dawn hadn’t even broken yet, but that didn’t mean what felt like the entire Resistance was waiting for them when they touched down. Finn wasn’t exactly expecting a hero’s welcome when they exited the shuttle, but there was definitely something… tense, in the air. He glanced suspiciously between Rey and Poe, who were uncharacteristically quiet. BB-8 let out a concerned warble, and Finn raised an eyebrow. Leia was waiting for them near the bottom of the ramp, and although she wore an unimpressed expression, Finn could have sworn he saw relief in her eyes when she saw him.

“Had a fun joyride?” she asked, staring down Poe. He grinned sheepishly, and BB-8 let out a flurry of soft beeps that seemed like nervous laughter. Rey looked a little embarrassed as well, and the pieces fell together for Finn.

“Wait a minute. Did you rescue me without permission from General Organa?!” Finn demanded.

“Technically I was just gonna rescue you, but then Rey and BB-8 decided to tag along-”

“You were going to go alone?! Of all the reckless-” Finn exclaimed, interrupting Poe and pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. He heard an amused chuckle from Leia, and he glanced up to see her poorly hiding a smirk.

“Here I thought I would have to chew them out, and you’re doing my job for me, Finn,” she said, amusement lacing her tone. Finn felt a grin growing on his face, despite everything.

“Sorry about that General, you can go ahead if you’d like,” he said, gesturing at Poe and Rey, who looked distinctly embarrassed, but no less regretful of their actions. Leia chuckled and shook her head.

“No, I think you’ve done enough. Welcome home, Finn,” Leia said with a smile. Poe and Rey both let out the breaths they had been holding, and even BB-8 seemed to sigh in relief.

“We’re sorry for running off-” Rey began, but Leia held up a hand to stop her from continuing.

“Don’t lie to me, Rey- just try not to run off and get yourself killed again. Right now, I’m betting you three need rest,” she said, looking to each of them pointedly.

“Can’t argue with that, General,” Poe said with a cocky grin. Leia rolled her eyes fondly, and the three of them headed off to their quarters.

-

Finn sat on his bunk, finding himself unable to sleep. Morning was breaking now, and Finn hadn’t been able to catch a wink since escaping the ship he had been held captive on. He was considering just starting his day and trying to carry on normally, but a knock at the door interrupted him before he made up his mind.

“Come in,” he sighed. The door slid open to reveal Poe standing in the doorway, looking as tired as Finn felt.

“Hey,” Poe said, seeming awkward for maybe the first time since Finn had met him. He stepped in, and the door slid shut behind him.

“Hey yourself,” Finn said. Silence stretched out between them for a moment or two. Finn scooted over on his bunk slightly, and patted the open spot next to him. The action seemingly caused Poe to snap to attention, and he wordlessly walked over and sat at Finn’s side.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” he blurted. Finn was surprised- both at the silence and the words that broke it- but he quickly schooled his expression to a soft but teasing smile.

“Don’t tell me that the Resistance’s resident fearless hotshot pilot was worried,” he teased. Poe looked to him with a thin bravado, but Finn could see the raw emotion that lurked beneath the surface. Before he was really sure of what he was doing, Finn reached out to take Poe’s hand in his. Poe didn’t fight his soft grip, and he finally let the brave mask he wore crumble away.

“I was,” he said weakly. Finn squeezed his hand comfortingly.

“But you saved me. I’m safe now,” Finn reminded him softly.

“I wouldn’t have been able to do it without Rey. If she hadn’t caught me before I left, I would have flown to Corellia with an x-wing, guns blazing,” Poe scoffed. Finn let out a light chuckle.

“I’m beginning to think Rey has become all of our impulse control… but it still was you that flew us out of there, and you that shot down that First Order officer. You saved my life, Poe,” Finn said softly. Poe’s eyes flew wide, and seemingly against his will, Finn’s free hand came up to tuck a wayward curl behind his ear. Poe’s breath hitched at the touch, and Finn couldn’t help but smile.

“Finn, I…” Poe trailed off in favor of simply gazing into Finn’s eyes.

“Yes?” Finn asked, resisting the urge to laugh. He didn’t want Poe to think he was laughing at him, but something about Poe’s expression made Finn feel bubbly inside, and it was hard to keep that feeling from escaping in fond laughter.

“Has anyone ever told you that you’ve got beautiful eyes?” Poe blurted. Finn couldn’t stop the burst of laughter that escaped if he tried, but luckily Poe was grinning too.

“No, I don’t think anyone has,” Finn replied, still chuckling slightly.

“Everyone else must be blind then,” Poe said softly. Finn felt his face burning slightly, and he couldn’t find it in himself to resist Poe any longer. He wasn’t really sure which one of them had moved closer, but somehow their lips ended up meeting, and it was everything Finn hadn’t realized he was missing. Poe was soft and pliant against him, one hand coming up to cradle his jaw like he was something precious. Finn let go of Poe’s hand in favor of burying both hands in his hair. Poe snaked his now free arm around Finn’s waist, and he tugged him into his lap without breaking the kiss.

A sudden knock at the door caused them to break apart in surprise. Their breaths mingled together as they stared at each other wide-eyed. Poe’s face was flushed, and his hair was a disheveled mess- had Finn really been the cause of that? The knock sounded again, and Poe let out a soft sigh of annoyance, pouting adorably.

“Just pretend you’re asleep?” Poe suggested. Finn rolled his eyes, opening his mouth to reply- but was cut off by a voice from the other side of the door.

“I know you two are awake,” the voice said, unmistakably Rey. Finn sighed, dislodging himself from Poe’s lap to sit next to him once more.

“Come in,” Finn said, and the door slid open. Rey stepped inside, and it seemed being perpetually sleepy was becoming a trend at the Resistance base, if the exhaustion in Rey’s expression was anything to go by.

“Couldn’t sleep?” Rey asked, the beginnings of a smirk on her face. But Finn couldn’t help but notice that there was something… sad, or regretful, perhaps, about Rey’s demeanor. Finn frowned slightly. He wasn’t sure on what exactly his feelings were, but he knew that whatever they were, they were the same for Poe and Rey. He didn’t want either of them to be unhappy.

“I have something I need to say,” Poe blurted, before Finn even had a chance to ask Rey what was wrong. Rey cocked her head to the side in confusion, and Poe patted the open spot on the bunk next to him. Rey walked over, and Finn and Poe had to shuffle over a bit so that she could sit down, but they managed to fit all three of them on the bunk.

“Well then? What is it you wanted to say?” Rey asked. Poe didn’t answer at first, hands fidgeting in his lap for a moment or two, before he reached out for Finn’s and Rey’s hands respectively. Finn took his hand immediately, while Rey hesitated before gently grasping his hand.

“I’ve been sitting on this for a while, and I didn’t fully realize until we went to rescue you, Finn, but- I- I really care about both of you. And not just like in a friendly way,” Poe confessed softly. Finn and Rey seemed to let out sighs of relief simultaneously. 

“Oh thank Force,” Rey murmured, leaning over to press a quick kiss to Poe’s cheek. Poe flushed brightly, and was a sight Finn was sure he could get used to. Poe blinked in surprise before he came to his senses, a lopsided grin growing over his face as he tried to pull Rey in to kiss her properly. However, he was stopped by Rey putting a finger to his lips, and Finn once again found himself resisting the urge to laugh, this time at the pout that came over Poe’s face.

“Easy there, flyboy. Let’s check in with Finn first,” Rey said, looking to Finn with a concerned expression. However, that concern melted away when she saw the grin on Finn’s face.

“I am definitely alright with you two kissing, as long as I get a turn,” Finn said cheekily. A slight smirk curled Rey’s lips.

“Good,” she said simply, before turning to pull Poe into a kiss that was fierce, yet soft all the same. When she pulled away, Poe looked absolutely lovestruck, and Finn couldn’t have agreed more. Especially as Rey leaned over Poe to cup Finn’s face and pull him into a kiss as well. It was then that Finn realized that the three of them? It felt right, and it felt like the beginning of something wonderful.

-

Tagging: @notalwaysthevillian @today-only-happens-once

[advernia]

push me off a bridge (to catch me as i fall)

a separate post for my ramblings for this fic!! it’s actually the longest thing i’ve written in a while, so i have a lot to ramble about haha;;

prelude

oh man... this started when two of my friends decided to go through edgar’s route at the same time AND also decided to go reacting to every single part of the route through burst texting AT THE SAME TIME, effectively flooding my inbox.... they were fully aware that i was at a seminar and unable to reply... now my inbox is filled with so much edgar screaming i cannot... (゜▽゜;)

screaming aside they were also very willing to read whatever drafts of edgar/mc i had available and this was their favorite!! thanks to them, i decided to finish this omfg... i’m actually so proud that i got this done but tbh it was getting so long that i had half a mind to let go of it already halfway through scene three haha... (;*△*;)

this has uh... some fighting scenes and tbh the first draft had absolutely none of it... this is my first time actually writing long(?) scenes and while i found thinking about them to be fun, putting them into words was some struggle??? like... i've been told that it looks okay but idk it feels clunky to me. oh well ＼| ￣ヘ￣|／

general stuff + war phase, baby!

initially this was only meant to be 3 parts + primarily focused on edgar/mc + with an unnamed mc as usual! but then since it’s an au of kyle’s route, i found myself wanting to flesh out the relationship of edgar & mc when set in a different angle + circumstances rather than just automatically implying attraction...

plus their relationship canonically starts off on the wrong foot in that route & edgar’s fully aware that mc isn’t exactly comfortable around him, so it really doesn’t sit well if i just... put them together, lol. so thus we have five scenes of them getting(?) closer!(???)

in short its a hella slow burn and not gonna lie, when i was writing their scenes i was like f i n a l l y... bless... ಠ ּ͜೦

one of the reasons i like kyle’s route is bc i actually got some feel of an actual war??? idk i think there’s so much plot that u can fill in with it, so i decided going for alternating scenes of the battlefield + med tent. while there's glimpses of the action going on, there’s also the sort of complimenting(???) or offsetting more emotional perspective of what goes on with the medics. 

tbh i stared long and hard at the cradle map when formulating some tactics and i gotta say i had a hard time calming myself down bc... 

in kyle’s route, the red army has the advantage and have pushed the black army as far back as to their bridge, which means that more or less they’ve occupied central quarter... but what dawned on me was... where the hell did the red army position their encampment from there??? 

was an encampment even necessary given that they’re like, in a really convenient area????? they probably could’ve settled themselves in some houses but tbh okay maybe it isn’t so noble of the reds to do (imposing themselves n’ stuff) + they have larger numbers so accommodating all of them is a problem but still... where’d they set up camp??? u see, when kyle + mc step out of the med tent it shows the forest bg, so... where??? on the edges of the central quarter area are where u can see them trees??? on the civic center roof?!?!

well... a decent answer is that they could’ve set up several encampments around the area to ensure their hold on the central quarter... it still raises some questions but honestly it makes a lot more sense... but if not and they really decided to camp out like one big happy family all together, then don’t even get me started on the possibility that the camp was stationed somewhere around here:

because doing that doesn’t have a single lick of sense omfg especially tactics-wise haha... that’s like... why would you do that... you’re wasting all your advantages... o h  b o y... so you bet when i remembered that mc + loki had to pass by a forest to get back to the encampment + encountered ray & some disciples i was like... u m m... why???? if technically the reds took hold of the whole central quarter area then it actually isn’t necessary to skulk around in the forest?????? yes yes i know safety precautions + avoiding detection but... dood... it’s safer to walk in claimed territory rather than the unstable one ahaha...

plus the thing about the black bridge... uh... it's just said in the route that lancelot handles it through magic and that's all. but when i thought back on it oh my god... what did he do??????? how is he still standing??? how much of his lifespan did he shave off just to salvage that situation??????????? how is the poor boi alive?????????? the whole fucking bridge literally falls apart and that's a whole lot of chaos and people and AHHHHH!?!?!¿¿¿¿ if ur gonna make the bridge collapse (good thing they didn't think of disintegrate) it probably cost the magic tower a hefty amount but get rekt lancelot still saves the fucking day, what a king - he's practically got one foot in the grave already... this dood, seriously ಥ_ಥ

there were other things i noticed in the process of writing this based on the route events but i was like fuck it, let’s think on that another day and leave it as it is (┛ಠДಠ)┛彡┻━┻ ily kyle but oh no my brain started reprocessing the other details of ur route

thinking about all that also made me think of other more stuff, like cradle economy + livelihood haha;; it’s stated in edgar’s route (well... it’s actually pretty obvious in other routes too) that the reds are richer than the blacks, so i went ahead and assumed that the former engages in something more lucrative like mining -> jewerly / raw material / mineral trade, while for the latter something more wholesome like agriculture. idk, it works. even moreso that the reds give off the whole nobility vibe while the blacks are simple and casual. even the bg screens of the red & black streets are polarizing.

then i also went over the rest of the chosen thirteen... while the reds show no obvious weapon variety (see: swords), i’d like to believe that they’re taught to be versatile enough no matter what the situation. plus, since they have the funding, i'd like to think they're skilled in magic manipulation, too. meanwhile the black army shows weapon variety, and i’d like to think that it’s because most of their recruits aren’t soldiers in the first place: they’re farmhands / hunters / village people turned soldiers, and it’s actually easier to let them go with what they know first before encouraging them or asking them to learn something new. thus axes and spears and possible unconventional stuff like caltrops.

crimson glory

one of the things i realized was in kyle’s route, mc isn’t exactly so buddy-buddy with the red crew in comparison to other routes. she gets minimal interactions with the four, and zero aside her relationships with the top three are rather... tense.

zero was the other red officer i was initially going to add aside from edgar & kyle, but i added all of them anyway. while they don't appear all together, all of them have scenes together with edgar.

the first edgar & jonah scene shows an obvious contrast - while he's being incredibly critical about it, jonah shows actual concern for the living situations in black army territory. on the other hand, edgar chooses to tease him about it, his joking more or less implying that he isn't that concerned / bothered about it at all. the game touches up on this sometimes, often with edgar commenting on how noble jonah is while jonah shows obvious distaste for edgar's callousness.

still, they work well together. personally i'm amused with a hc of mine that looking at how edgar fights / acts only spurs jonah to act more honorably while for edgar, being exposed to jonah's noble-ness more or less makes him curious to try being honorable from time to time lol. that still doesn't stop anyone from calling him the gentle demon tho ( ⚆ _ ⚆ )

tbh since edgar is obviously sneaky on other routes i wouldn't put it past him to casually pressure lancelot to tell him wtf's going on with this war when he gets the inkling that something's wrong. edgar goes about this subtly not-so-subtly and in the most polite manner possible. lancelot knows him far too well to take bait tho - he makes sure to speak carefully since he's probably knows that edgar's going to pick apart at his words for meanings + implications, so it more or less leaves edgar a bit frustrated since it's clear that lancelot won't tell him much. still, edgar knows when not to cross the line - even he's not so keen on getting on lancelot's bad side.

that aside, i'd like to think that edgar respects lancelot a lot as a person + commander enough that he'd truly risk his life for him on instinct like a true soldier would. while i think i could've done more on writing the gravity of the collapsing bridge scene, i liked the last bit where edgar + zero immediately worried for lancelot.

let's be honest here tho in some way or another all of the reds chosen worry about their king bc bruh... let us in bruh...

the scenes of zero & edgar in the end are also my favorite! it isn’t much, but enjoyed writing their relationship briefly. tbh i think edgar is one of those people under the sleep = most vulnerable = death thinking (no thanks to claudius), so the fact that he allows himself to drift to sleep twice in zero's company is a definite sign of trust. then again, he's injured but still ( ᐛ )و

edgar, idike, kyle

y’know even if this is an edgar/mc thing, i found fleshing out the kyle/mc relationship equally important which i presented in scene three. personally speaking, i’d like to think that if ever kyle didn’t fall in love with mc (on his own route???) he’d still be watching over her anyway since her struggle in the medical field + war reminds him a bit of his younger self after his brother's death.

which is why he doesn't intervene with that one soldier scene - he doesn't coddle her either when she goes into a brief shock. perhaps it's bc he knows so well what she's going through, he decides to let her handle it on her own. this was her experience, not his. and to be fair, she asked to go to the front lines determined but wholly unprepared emotionally. he tried warning her, she wouldn’t listen. now she faces the consequences - how would she go about it?

i decided to slap a name into mc this time to highlight the trust plot: idk if i got it clearly across in the fic, but in times of war + for someone who’s been trained to be suspicious / cautious of everyone like edgar; secrets are a surefire way to catch attention + breed distrust.

tbh he's hella aware that the secret around her name is most likely personal and nothing dangerous, but it's better safe than sorry - by making sure she understands that keeping secrets wouldn't be of any good to her + situation, he gets reassurance that she really is harmless. how bad + seriously she takes it honestly surprises him tho, but then again she's been going through other stuff too so it all piled up.

idike isn’t my in-game name, but it’s the given name i spoke of in this ask, haha! initially scene five has her saying her full name (with surname), but i thought it would be more fitting if i didn’t lol ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

i tried to incorporate a mix of the personalities of edgar’s!mc + kyle’s!mc onto idike, tho at first i was only shooting for the latter - i think it kinda works??? while somewhat composed and determined (kyle’s), she still shows some naivete in her (edgar’s), especially concerning the ways of war + how secrecy & trust work in times of war.

i found emphasizing on her emotional struggle important, since it should be a big blow for her who’s never known the terror of war. the game touches upon on it a bit (tho it's post-med tent scenes) and i wanted to expand on it further since there are so many possible angles to go about it.

the i can’t heal you if you’re dead line sounds like something like shiro emiya might say but lol no i just remembered this p3 manga panel (pg 24) - its been years since i read it and i still love that line and i integrated it here... i was trying to expand that one scene for a while but then i just left it as it is.

in the catharsis scene where idike airs out everything, the fact that edgar fails to empathize with her + focuses more on her emotional state rather than offering actual help (advice maybe, but i honestly doubt he’d do that) reflects that he's still looking at her as an interesting creature and not her as a person. part 5 hints that this may be slowly changing, seeing as he called for her all of a sudden.

... idike probably keeps edgar’s glove as a token of friendship or smth haha ooPSSS i forgot to bring that back ahahaha..... ヘ（。□°）ヘ

ooofff i guess that’s all i have??? a big thank you to whoever read both hot messes™ and by that the fic + commentary itself!!! do feel free to hit the inbox for any comments + questions + more brainstorming + general screaming haha! ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ