#because at this point i have very good suspicions re who is that anon

[valyrfia]

I think Max will either retire or move to Ferrari in 2027

OUR LESBIAN FERRARI PROPHET SAYS SO? DROP THE TIMELINE

Okay okay anon walk with me.

So I think Lewis is Ready for Retirement. I think he would've retired at Mercedes, eighth championship be damned, if Mercedes had just given him an ambassador contract so he could've used his position and his brand for the causes he wants to dedicate the second half of his life to. As is, Mercedes refused to give him that contract (which, I could go on for AGES about how blindly ridiculous that is and is a clear marker of how far this sport still has to go re: racism)–but Ferrari did.

However, to be a Ferrari ambassador, a 2+1 year race contract accompanies it. Obviously this is a good move for Lewis anyway since it's looking like Ferrari will be one of the quickest teams moving into 2025 and Lewis must have some information on how they might nail the regulation change come 2026, but, and this may be controversial. Charles Leclerc is an established driver at Ferrari, the absolute darling of the tifosi (I mean, he's the second most important person in Italy after the literal pope), and most importantly he's a driver that has not yet hit his ceiling. Now, this is where I tread carefully, but I believe that Lewis, in comparison, is past his prime. Sure, he pulled off an incredible drive at Silverstone this year but he has not been able to match George–and George I believe is currently at a lower level than Charles. I have a sneaking suspicion that Charles is, well, going to walk all over Lewis next year. And if Lewis truly has only moved for the sake of the ambassador contract, he'll break the racing contract after 2 years.

Okay but Ollie is supposedly lined up for that Ferrari seat, and Ferrari NEED an order of succession, so who says that Max will take it?

Red Bull Racing is falling apart at the seams (sorry RB fans). Christian Horner is a power-hungry [REDACTED] who will bring the whole team down with him. The Thai side have never really cared about the Formula 1 team (and I know from Sources, backed Christian Horner in this whole fiasco which is why CH wasn't fired). Newey is gone, I'm sure other key figures will get pinched in the next couple of years, Max has kept everything together for pure skill this past year but the writing is on the wall. I'm going to hold everyone's hands when I say this, but I don't think Red Bull are winning either championships next year....

However, for as much as Max loves to talk about it, I don't think he's actually ready for retirement. I also don't think he'll be the type of guy to retire on a low. Max's contract is until 2028, but he can break it if he drops to P3 in the championship, which, I think there's a non-zero chance of happening in 2026 especially under new regulations/brand new engines.

So Ferrari are likely going to nail the new regs, Max doesn't want to retire on a low, and it looks like Ferrari shopping for a driver and Max wanting to leave Red Bull will line up within roughly the same window.

There's also a couple of sentimental reasons I want to point to. Max (as much as he tries to deny it) is a victim of the old Red Bull Golden Boy curse of being a Ferrari fan. I mean, he literally grew up in the Schumacher era, with his father being friends with Schumacher. He's stated multiple times how if he can't hear the Dutch anthem on the podium he'd like to hear the Italian one. I suspect deep down, he's much more of a tifoso than any of us realise.

There's also the Charles Leclerc of it all. Now really walk with me here because this is tenuous and yes is coming from a known Lestappie (tomato tomato) but isn't really a Lestappen argument.

Charles throughout his entire career has been obsessed with measuring himself up against those who are considered the "best of the best" and showing that he can beat them. He ate Seb alive, he'll likely do the same with Lewis. But both of these are drivers past their primes, at the very end of their lifespans. Charles has still yet to prove he can go toe to toe with a great at their prime and win.

Charles is, literally obsessed, with comparing himself to Max in interviews. Now (RIGHTLY SO) we Lestappies all point and laugh and call him a little obsessed but there's a very real publicity reason he wants to insist to everyone how him and Max were on each other's level in karting–people will subconsciously start to associate Charles as being on Max's level even if he hasn't proven it with championships. It's a very calculated move by Charles, and one I haven't seen many people discuss. Charles wants his name and Max's to be said in the same sentence because it validates Charles' own skill.

But Charles doesn't want to be known as Max's equal, not really, what he really wants is to be considered better than Max. And if he can't do that through number of championships, he can do it by putting the two of them in equal machinery. I think Charles will actually push Ferrari into trying to sign Max, because this is the way he can cement himself firmly as one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time.

So I think a perfect storm of these combination of different factors will result in a Max to Ferrari move in 2027. Obviously all pure speculation, but drawing everything together, I'd give it maybe a 50% chance (providing Ferrari actually do come together which, Forza).

[velvetvexations]

it's different for all of us <3

I'm happy to have provided that relief!

so even in very progressive and trans pockets of the kink scene, you'll still often find carried-over attitudes that implicitly "center" subs in the scene--workshops are catered to subs. writing is from the perspective of the subs' desires. doms are treated with suspicion if they're not directing their attention to a specific sub. etc.

and a lot of this creates a *really bad* environment for transfem doms in particular to feel comfortable openly expressing sexuality and desire, because the dom stigma is *pre-existing* on top of vanilla society already portraying transfems as predatory. and in the scene locally at least, transfems are generally only *provisionally* seen as women due to presenting as "soft" and intentionally effeminate, so that adds another layer on top of it--acting too dominant in the scene will often get you misgendered by people subconsciously associating dominance with manhood.

and then we get into how that crosses over with the intracommunity pressure from the transfem side of things to adhere to gendered stereotypes in order to be seen as a woman by your fellow girls, and how part of that is "kindly" meant pressure to cast away dominant and aggressive behaviors with the argument that girls are only performing them because they feel they have to conform to male social roles, but nobody likes it when i bring that up because nobody wants to admit there's intracommunity problems in trans groups 🙄 but the intracommunity problem does bleed over into the kink scene in my experience

IDK, I don't really have a problem with the idea that transfem dom content might be rare for a variety of reasons, but so are a doms in general when you compare them to subs, and I believe OP when she said she wasn't trying to say that trans women are inherently subby but she did phrase her point in a way that made it sound like a very similar sentiment I've seen a lot.

- Trans fem meetup group. Previously run by a trans woman who moved away. There was no group for almost a year before a non binary person started it up again. Huge FB outcry over this not being a trans woman and ppl bullied them into making a public post confirming they were AMAB and identify as trans fem. They have posted that they would be happy to hand the group over to a trans woman if people would be more comfortable with that but nobody is interested in taking it over. (2/5)

- General trans/intersex/etc advocacy group. Run by an intersex person who could be considered trans masc, I don't know if they identify that way. Pretty much everyone else I know of involved is trans fem aside from one cis woman, I don't know everyone involved though.- Radical trans group who organise protests etc. Leadership is all trans fem last I checked. They have some trans masc members and try to have some equality in representation re: who makes speeches at events. (3/5)

So, imho this is fairly balanced insofar as groups just tend to be organised by local people willing/interested in organising and so there is rarely any kind of perfectly equal distribution of who organises them. If one or two people quit or move the entire "balance" can be thrown one way or another. But there is so much hue and cry from a loud minority about how "all" the local groups are "run by trans mascs". (4/5)

Including ppl claiming "all the meetup groups are run by trans mascs" & when ppl point out the person running the trans fem group is trans fem you get "You know what I mean". Yeah, I know what you mean, and it's not good! (5/5)

Good analysis, anon!

Small minds have limited storage capacity.

[bookishtheaterlover7]

Hi booky!

Marketing anon here.

So I don’t think whether or not CE is really married is really important at this point (RE: he’s in HW where the majority of relationships…I suspect have strings being pulled in the back).

The fact is that’s the narrative they are going to with and want to sell, so he is just pushing that narrative along. He/they want you to know and think he’s married. I personally believe that’s the important part about all this. But he and others around him are intentionally keeping it vague and I think it’s working to their favor because it plays into the whole privacy thing they were going for.

Saying “my wife is from PT” basically implies he married a woman from PT. That’s not giving anything exact but it’s also implying he married AB, the woman he’s been linked to most recently and she’s from PT. But at the same time, there millions of woman in PT/from PT. Who’s to say he’s not married to one of them, especially if they haven’t come out and said it was with each other? 🤣

So he confirms without actually having to confirm and if I had to make an educated guess, I would say that’s as good as you’re going to get it. Don’t quote me on this though.

I know some team real blogs were saying it’s normal for someone to not say their partner’s name, and that’s true for the most part. Think about how when you meet someone random - and you mention your partner. Do you necessarily say your partner’s name? Probably not, especially if you don’t know the person like that.

The thing is, with CE/AB the plausible deniability and vagueness is a pattern.

It’s not just him once saying my wife in passing, it’s also him not mentioning her for two years, then suddenly mentioning a nameless GF, then eventual nameless wife.

Same goes for her.

“My husband” “my dog” “pictures of the dog but no tags of the husband even tho everyone knows whose dog that is”. Even her trolling best friends do the most and only troll by posting suggestive backgrounds and no direct tags. If you’ve paid attention this entire time it’s very easy to tell there’s a reason they’ve done this for this long. TBH, I had my suspicions at first they were just trying to protect privacy because they hadn’t gone public yet and people were already harassing them. But after they went fully public the same charades continued all the way past the wedding and into the new year? That’s when my suspicions were more or less confirmed - that this was intentional orchestration and some form of strategy. Weird, yes, but not unheard of. In fact, my suspicions are that other celebs have done something similar to this too (re: Leo DiCaprio and Gigi hadid, bill hader and Anna Kendrick). I think in Hollywood there are so many strings being pulled all the time. Nothing is coincidence. Nothing is coincidence in marketing in general. Things are planned out well in advance and I mean this wholeheartedly.

He posted two stories with her and he never says her name out loud (does everyone remember that?), he doesn’t tag her (well she was deactivated, but he doesn’t mention her name in the videos in captions either).

She never refers to him by name and the one time PT reporters tried to talk to her she refused to talk to them. She lets in tags of herself but never anything confirming or alluding to anything directly to him. Notice how before they went public she was letting herself get tagged in basically everything related to their dating rumors and she was keeping all their dating comments in but deleting and untagging others? Now she’s doing the opposite and I feel that may be intentional too. Maybe.

The one time they attend the same premiere - did you notice he didn’t take pics with her? She got her solo pics and then disappeared? She then posts a pic of herself at this premier but doesn’t tag him, the movie, or the cast? Is it ungratefulness or is it strategy? Think about it.

His friends/her friends all post separately from the same place and it’s only this most recent PT sighting he’s in a photo with Joana (weird right?)

You get suggestive follows and likes but no real interactions that can be legitimate.

I believe that’s why TMZ has been acting so shady throughout all of this. I think they know something’s up.

I think everyone knows the big thing at play here is plausible deniability. It always has been.

Wearing wedding rings - ok but anyone can wear a ring TBH? It doesn’t really say too much.

Lastly - in my line of work marketing and PR work the same in some ways but also different. My company puts out press releases (which I help write) when we announce things like winning industry awards, acquisitions, partnerships, rebranding. But we don’t do a ton of really innovative stuff and PR is pretty low maintenance here. So while the methods and processes are the same, I imagine PR in HW is much different, more complex, and more creative (lol). I don’t have any answers for why they do what they do, but I can tell you the vague wording they’ve repeatedly use definitely means something. I don’t think it’s just coincidental.

What I’m trying to get here is that marketing and PR in any industry is going to involve a bit of “fudging the truth and stretching the line to make things seem a certain way to fit a certain narrative. It’s absolutely manipulative when you put it that way but it’s also business. It’s not personal. It’s why I don’t let it get to me and I just let it be. Don’t lose sleep over it. All things will unfold as they should.

Have a great night!

Hey, Marketing An🫶n!

Good to see you again! ☺️ And as I expected, you're insightful. And gave well-articulated thoughts. So, thank you 😌

Have a good night! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[ginnsbaker]

wow. part 6 literally made me speechless the first time I read it. I literally had to take breather cause that was too much for me to deal with 😭 I'm sorry this might be too long cause I have so much to say....

• Wanda pointing out that having children would've made her rethink her decisions, I felt that, deeply. Personally, I am someone who's not sure whether I want children or not in the future so for her to say "Maybe it would have stopped me"??? GIRL F*CK YOU 😭🤮. My mind would definitely make me think of that over and over again until I start blaming myself for what happened.

• You know what hurts the most? The fact that there's no one else to blame except Wanda and Vision. In other cheating fics, the mind stone always serves a purpose why Wanda decided to cheat. It's always "there's a connection between us because of the stone". Here? nothing. Just Wanda actually making a huge mistake.

• I was feeling bad for Wanda for a bit, then I realized that she deserved all that. I read your reply to another anon about the reasons of suspicion (newly bought lingerie icks me the most cause it meant she actually made effort to look good for vision 💔). I honestly can't think of any reason (for now) why Y/N should forgive her.

• Both Y/N and Wanda badly need some time apart. Healing takes time and it won't happen anytime soon. Wanda just can't force her way to Y/N's life again cause that surely won't work.

• I don't wanna talk about the smut since I genuinely don't know what to feel about it other than Wanda doesn't deserve a single ounce of affection from us 😏 lol

It took some time for me to actually have some thoughts about part 6. My mind was like "I need at least 2-3 business days to recover from this" 😆. Once again, thank you for being so talented and blessing us with this beautiful fic. I'm a huge angst enthusiast so pls keep it coming. Hope you're feeling much better now btw. All my love 💕

- 🦄

~ I did kinda thought if I should've broken it down in two, but I just couldn't find where to cut it right. anyway, after 6, we're gonna go back to the usual length :D nah, you dont have to worry about sending me paragraphs, i was looking forward to what you 🦄 had to say

~ it's one of her worst word vomits throughout these series, i admit

~ The arbitrary nature of cheating is very much real. especially when you've been so used to the comfort and security someone provides, and you don't think it's possible to lose them when you do something stupid.

~ re: lingerie: when i wrote in flames, i wrote it as an AU from a film called unfaithful, starring richard gere and diane lane. im not sure if any of you guys saw that film, but it stayed in my parents cd shelf and was off limits. i only watched it recently as an adult lol. most of the details in in Flames were faithful to this material, i recommend you see it. the lingerie isn't because of Vision. it's about her embracing her own lust, because she got addicted to the feeling of being wanted

~ correct. they need it. something's gonna happen that's gonna force that.

~ the smut was uncomfortable to write, because im a romantic who always associate it with love and emotions and all that cheesy stuff. id pay someone to write it for me if i could. but it was necessary to the story because it showed the actual depth of R's trauma, manifesting just now.

I am feeling much better :) I saw your message like 2 hours ago, but i needed to complete a 10km run :D

Thank you so much, my dear 🦄. Please take care!

[janiedean]

@ dearest anon who hasn’t realized has been blocked like last week or a month ago

so I’m only occasionally seeing your app notifications but I’m not getting your ‘jaime raped cersei’ bullshit (yes, I got tired after last week, sorry!), I’d just like to inform you that not only you’re wasting your time, but just so you know, since some of us actually do remember that y’all have been pulling bullshit since 2015 if not earlier:

hmmmmm waaait a moment here..... from where do I remember that argument?

oh, right.

soooo wait..... you’re actually lowkey admitting that either your dear mutual or whoever quotes this bullshit (so maybe even you) was sending jb shippers hate on november 26th *2015* when you go around saying you never harass anyone? hm? because seems fairly damning to me, and believe me, some of us remember the shit you were pulling since then. (and have receipts. but that’s beside the point.)

now: since I don’t get your bullshit asks, either you’re the person who was fllling my inbox with rape apologism last wednesday, or you’re the person who called me a slutshamer bitch some ten times in the span of ten words back in november, or you’re the person who informed me that my mother should have aborted me the day the GOT premiere aired because that’s the three people I blocked on anon during the last eight months of perpetual harassment party. now, if I were you, I wouldn’t be in a hurry to put my face to any of these things because really, not what I’d like to be associated with. so, how about you, hm, can this bullshit, grow up and mind your business instead of sending me and my friends 90% of which aren’t even *in* jb fandom the same hate anons? because you’re sad.

and btw, just for your information, I actually did write spitefic based on your dumbass emeralds vs sapphires comment. and I actually want to thank you! because you know what?

it’s not always I get this much traffic on a fic and I was really proud of how it came out :))) if you’d consider putting some effort in creating fanworks for your ship wouldn’t you all be happier? idk, throwing it out there,

btw, I’m not publishing your credentials because I’m a nice person like that, but considering that apparently your side doxxes people, maybe you should worry about actually doing illegal things or cheering on ppl doing illegal things instead of what fictional characters did or didn’t do in canon. just a friendly advice :)))

[basilly]

fake dating quackity headcannons || irl!quackity x reader

. request:  how about completing fake dating series and hcs for fake dating quackity but with little rivals to lovers? really loved the ones you did for karl &wilbur!!

. tysm to this anon- let’s hope its as good as the other two 

. enemies to lovers type beat >:)

. the timestamps and dates on the photos are wrong and irrelevant :D photos are a ref!

. pronouns: they/them

. karl’s! & wilbur’s!

. your little rivalry with Quackity had started quite long ago, as you were both streamers for a while and had similar followings

“Chat says- you should play with y/n? Who tf is that?,,,(he google searches your user) oh- nah chat we don’t need nobody here.”

. that had gotten clipped so fast by your fans and soon there was a small rift between fans and fanbases

. after that, the two of you would often go back and forth on twitter

. once the two of you had gotten in the same among us lobby for a stream, each making it each other’s goal to kill the other as fast as possible

“Ok guys- once quackity turns this corner I will kill him.” *your character slides his head off* “Y/N WTF YOU”RE ACTUALLY DOGWATER”

. however, there were a large amount of fans who thought the two of you oozed sexual tension and shipped you guys

. and you would never admit it, but you thought quackity was really cute, which did not help whenever someone mentioned the ship

chat: “y/n, what do you think about the ship with you and quackity?”

. kinda caught you off-guard, and you pretended to not see it, hoping that no one caught it (rlly failed)

chat: “OMG CLIP THAT! why did they ignore the question? are they dating quackity??”

. soon enough, you and quackity were trending under your ship name, which caused quackity to dm you on twitter

. although you were very grateful for your fans, you had a ton of creepy ones that would make awful sexual comments, so this situation may solve it

. you quickly answer with your idea

. quickly typing out your entire spiel, quackity actually felt bad, and agreed- on one condition

“Okay, I’ll go along with your fake dating and your rules if you admit on stream I’m better and funnier than you”

. you were kinda like -_- but nonetheless you agreed

. the first step the two of you had prepared was to post photos on twitter, in order to first let your fans become less hostile and at least tRy to believe it before going on stream

. you couldn’t go into total ‘honeymoon phase’ or it would’ve arose too much suspicion

. to say you got your fans confused was quite the obvious statement

. however, it wasn’t until your conjoined stream that you had people convinced

“Chat chat chat, today we have a special guest- my s/o, and you may know them from that one clip that went viral way back” “Hi guys!”

. to make it more convincing, you leaned towards quackity, hoping he didn’t try to move away, otherwise chat may not be convinced

. what you didn’t see, as you were focused on the screen, was quackity turning a bit red and flustered

chat: “Wait they look really good together” “I wasn’t convinced before but now i am” “YESS THEYRE SO CUTE”

. thankful that chat was buying it, you relaxed a bit and tried to treat quackity as you would a regular boyfriend

. throughout the stream, chat continued to buy your guys’ front and you noticed less of the creepy fans were making comments

. unknowingly to you, quackity had gotten very nervous and was very fidgety, feeling weird about his reactions right now

. all he wanted to do was hug you and be close to you- weird because he was your enemy

. restricting himself, he focused on the game- or at least tried to

“Come on quackity- scared to lose to your s/o?” “NO! I’LL BEAT YOU RIGHT NOW! WATCH!”

. at one point you had even rested your head on his shoulder, which- you did had to prep yourself a lot and gather the courage

. quackity on the other hand was incredibly flustered but responded with trying to wrap his arm around your shoulder/waist

. chat just went nuts, clipping it, screenshotting, all while the two of you were slightly embarrassed

. the both you were just thinking this is kinda nice

. after stream, the two of you were slightly avoiding one another, scared of your feelings, as they betrayed your usual they’re my enemy relationship

. quackity had even called Karl for advice

“Karl- I’m supposed to hate them but-” “Dude, you like them” “NO- I mean I can’t be they’re just- they’re my enemy, since day one” “So? I mean, anyone could see how much chemistry the two of you have.”

. in your next conjoined stream, it was yet another competition game

“QUACKITY ARE YOU DUMB?” “HEY WAIT NO” “Why are you so close to me? Are you going to kiss me?” (are we about to kiss rn ;))

. at this point, quackity’s feelings had shot through the roof- he moved forward and pressed a fast but soft kiss on your lips, effectively making u combust and the chat to go insane, as well as shocking himself

. you quickly dug your head into his neck to hide and he tried to cover his face

. inside, you were elated and shocked but you couldn’t do much until the stream was over

. quackity had made you so incredibly happy these past few weeks, and even throughout your rivalry, it was exciting and gave you adrenaline

. the kiss was the cherry on top

“The kiss quackity?” “I- uh, maybe i really don’t hate you?” “I don’t hate you either.”

. the two of you were trending once more, but this time you couldn’t be upset at it at all

an: this one took a while but its like 800+ words :D i really liked this one I think tumblr is being a bit wack cuz my notes consistency has been rlly off :/

requests are open!

[coffeestainsandcashmere]

Let No Man Steal Your Thyme - (older Dramione) Part Five

I hope you enjoy this one! It features a surprise snooty owl (I wonder who could own such a creature???) and some well-meaning concern from a friend. And some banter. And an expensive lunch. Because Theo is extra and can’t help himself. And it’s 4.6k words long...

I also realised that, since I wrote the first chapter basically out of the blue and not really intending for it to blow up into a big multi-part story, I’ve messed up the timeline a little with Harry’s kids, so I’ll have to go back and fix that when it comes to a re-edit before it goes up on AO3, but for now, just handwave it, ok? :)

Finally, many thanks for your lovely owls, anonymous or otherwise, about this story and where it’s going! I was honestly floored by the feedback I’ve got, and thank you to those who’ve reblogged it and helped get it out there for folks to read. I have a very small following since this side-blog is fairly new, so all reblogs are very much appreciated. I did a quick doodle for the cover of the story which you can find here, if you’re interested in how I pictured Draco and Scorpius standing in the steam from the Hogwarts Express from chapter one.

Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four

___

Far earlier on Monday morning than she was accustomed to these days, Hermione woke with a start and frowned, confused. Eyes dry and prickly, and hair absolutely everywhere, she sat up and looked around, straining her ears as she blearily tried to work out what had yanked her so unceremoniously from a deep and mercifully dreamless sleep. Her Muggle alarm clock silently showed 05:54 in harsh red numbers, and nothing had touched the wards or tried to get in, though there was something thrumming against them, like the lingering reverberations of a plucked harp string.  

The temporary stillness was shattered when a wild scrabbling of claws and the beating of enormous wings started up against her bedroom window. With a flailing shriek of surprise, she nearly fell out of bed, but after taking a deep breath, she stumbled out from under the covers to wrench the curtains open.  

“Bloody owls!” she began, but drew up short when she saw the unfamiliar bird waiting impatiently on the other side of the glass.  

There, battering its truly monstrous talons against the glass, was a colossal eagle owl. When it saw her, it stopped its fussing to perch haughtily on the brick windowsill outside and fix her with a fiery red glare. If owls could have raised their eyebrows, she got the impression that this one would have done it at the sight of her.  

“Yeah, well, it’s early. What did you expect?” she groused as she slid the window panel to one side and the bird looked around her bedroom with obvious disdain. Imperiously, it stuck out one leg, like a noble expecting a servant to remove a dirty boot, and she saw a rolled-up piece of parchment with a green wax seal and a green ribbon to bind it together.  

“Who do you belong to then?” she asked, going automatically to stroke the bird’s flight-ruffled chest plumage. It instantly hissed and nipped at her fingers, and she barely drew them back in time. “Christ! No need for that,” she gasped. She’d never met a postal owl as cantankerous as this one. “I usually give visiting owls a treat, but I don't think I like your manners one bit.”  

With the letter in hand, she slid the window closed again, leaving a gap just small enough that the bird wasn’t going to barge its way in. She wondered if it had been instructed to wait for an answer because it began almost immediately clicking its beak against the glass and hooting indignantly. 

“Manners makyth bird,” she snapped without looking up, and broke the unfamiliar wax seal on the letter.

It had a cursive ‘M’ within a circle, but was otherwise unadorned. Unfurling it, she glanced at the name on the bottom and her eyebrows rose as her growing suspicions were confirmed. It was signed in a princely English roundhand by none other than Draco Malfoy.  

She snorted, glancing back at the bird who was doing its best basilisk impression from the other side of the glass. “Who else would have such a snotty owl?”

It hooted childishly at her again and she laughed.  

Dear Hermione,

I must beg of you to forgive the unspeakably rude hour of this correspondence, but I am leaving this morning for France by portkey for a couple of days and I had hoped to get your answer before I left. I should add now before you read any further — although with your kind heart I fear it may be too late already — that Cassiopeia here is not fond of physical affection, but is very partial to owl treats. She can be bribed into doing almost anything for food, but affection is sadly not in her nature, so please be careful with your fingers around her beak. The only reason I was able to get her to fly at all at this time of the day was to bribe her lavishly. She’s terribly spoilt, and for that, I’m sorry too.  

Hermione shot another look at the bird, who narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “Cassiopeia, eh?” she said and the enormous owl bobbed a few times. “Prideful about your good looks then, are you? You should know how your namesake’s story ended then. But, I suppose you could be forgiven since you are an inordinately pretty bird. You’ll still not get a crumb from me after trying to take my fingers off though. I’ll be having words with Malfoy about that.”  

Cassiopeia ruffled her feathers and promptly turned her back on Hermione. The bird didn’t take off, so she returned her attention to the letter.  

I spent all weekend thinking about our evening together on Friday, but it will come as little surprise to you to learn that it has taken me all that time to muster up my limited courage to ask you to dinner at your next convenience. Naturally, I left it to the last possible moment to ask you. I have a place in mind in London, but it’s a little more out of the way than the restaurants on Diagon Alley. I have it on authority from the owner that you have never been there, and I would very much like to surprise you, but if you would feel more comfortable knowing in advance, then you can ask Theo while I am out of the country.  

Staggered, Hermione stared at the letter and found her vision swimming a little. Blinking, she was shocked to find tears blurring his formal — almost painfully formal — words.  

But how long had it been since anyone had actually asked her on a date? ‘Too intimidating’, ‘too boring’, ‘too work-orientated’, ‘too bossy’, ‘too driven’ were all things she’d heard at one point or another, and admittedly many of them from Ron.  

Thirty seven wasn’t even old - especially by magical standards - but she didn’t exactly have the same bright-eyed charms as someone like, say, Lavender did anymore. Hard work, and a draining marriage seemed to have sapped much of the youth and vigour from her. And, if she were honest, being replaced by someone supposedly ‘more attractive’ had damaged her more deeply than she cared to admit, even to herself. There were certainly days when she felt like a washed-up, burnt-out, dowdy old matron. She had crashed out of a sparkling career in the Ministry to run a scruffy old second-hand bookshop next to the newly-refurbished Florian Fortescue’s ice cream parlour.  

“Why are you even bothering, Malfoy?” she murmured aloud as she stared blankly at the letter in her hands. With looks like his — and a groaning Gringotts’ account if the rumours were to be believed, not that that mattered a jot to Hermione — he could probably have had almost any witch he wanted, his past and reclusive behaviour be damned. And yet he was asking her to dinner after having only met twice since they turned eighteen? Three times, she supposed if she included that brief encounter at the Ministry on the night of the attack.  

Perhaps he was lonely just wanted the company. Perhaps she was just… convenient; a chump with a soft spot for outcasts…

Before she let herself go too far down that unsavoury rabbit hole, she forced herself to read on, heart pounding. Outside on the windowsill, the owl had gone very still, watching her with curious, orange eyes.  

Please feel free to send Cassiopeia back with your response either way. I hope I have not overstepped or misread how things are between us now, especially given our history, but I find my thoughts returning over and over to our evening, and to that surprise lunch on the 1st of September. I’m not sure what I had expected when you asked me to join you that day, but I certainly hadn’t expected to enjoy myself as much as I did. In the years since I became Scorpius’ sole guardian, I have not sought the company of others, nor have I particularly enjoyed it when it has been inflicted upon me, but those two occasions spent with you have drawn me out of myself. You truly are a remarkable witch, and I’m more moved and honoured than I can express that you have given me even this much of your precious time already.  

Before I begin to ramble too freely, I think I must sign off here.  

Yours,  

D.M.  

P.S. Scorpius did write to me in the end. He has a detention already, and Potter’s youngest is also involved somehow… I will get more details from him anon, and no doubt a letter from McGonagall in due course.  

For a long time, Hermione stood in her bedroom, with her hair in a wild halo around her head and her scruffy old pyjamas hanging low on her hips, just staring at his signature.  

When Draco’s owl began to fidget and fuss again, she sighed and looked up. “Sit tight,” she breathed. “I’m going to get a piece of paper and if you keep quiet, I might bring an owl treat with me when I come back, ok?”

Cassiopeia narrowed her eyes and ducked her head suspiciously, but remained put on the windowsill, so she took that as a ‘yes’ and disappeared into her tiny study.  

Grabbing a biro from the chipped mug that served as a pen and quill pot, and tearing a sheaf of paper from a muggle notebook, she scrawled a note back to him.  

With that done, and before she could talk herself out of what she had just accepted, she returned to his owl with a treat. The bird mobbed her for it instantly, but Hermione scowled at her, snatched her hand back, and barked, “Wait! My goodness, you are spoilt. Let me attach this first, and if I manage it without you drawing blood or otherwise maiming me, not only will it be a flipping miracle, but you’ll get your sodding treat, alright?”

The bird went still with a tiny shuffle of her wings, and stuck out her leg.  

“Thank you,” Hermione said tartly.  

Cassiopeia took off with her note attached by the same green ribbon and secured with a basic sticking charm. The downdraft from her departure sent bits of accumulated detritus from the window ledge spiralling up into Hermione’s face, but she coughed and blinked, and watched the bird soar way up into the sky. The receding dot of her silhouette banked west, out of sight and in the eventual direction of Wiltshire and Malfoy Manor.  

Malfoy Manor.  

She’d hardly given the place any thought since that fateful night ten or so years ago when Malfoy had been attacked, a whole wing had been burned to the ground, and Scorpius had nearly been killed. They’d never said in the papers who had done it, and the Auror Office had been distinctly tight-lipped about it. Not that she’d really bothered to find out more, if she were honest. Once Malfoy’s little yowling mandrake had left her office in his father’s arms, she had been almost instantly reabsorbed with her own caseload, and Harry had never mentioned the outcome of the investigation to her. A twinge of gilt shot through her but she pushed it down. It was hardly a topic for dinnertime conversation either, so she doubted she’d find out immediately.  

She thought vaguely about clambering back into bed, but since she was up, she headed to the kitchen and put the kettle on for a cup of tea. It had been a while since she’d been up before dawn, and she had some paperwork to do anyway.  

Cassiopeia’s appearance was not the only unusual thing to happen to her that day. She had no visitors to the shop at all for the entire morning, but when the brass bell above the door did finally chime, she looked up from the desk at the back of the shop to find Theo striding in.  

“Hi, love,” he grinned, stepping deer-like over the stack of recent arrivals beside the counter and stooping to hug her where she sat. “Lunch. You and me. Now.”

“Theo, I have a shop to run,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I can’t just… leave. Besides, I brought sandwiches.”

“I will literally pay you the price of an entire chest of first editions to spend the next few hours in my company if things are that tight. Or I could just… buy you an entire chest of first editions,” he said, adding with his most dangerous puppy-dog eyes, “Seriously, please come to lunch with me?”

She flicked her wrist and the ‘open’ sign hanging in the glass-panelled door flipped over to ‘closed’. “I’m not accepting your money, Theo. What’s the occasion?”

He twitched slightly and then flashed her a grin; a combination that made her instantly wary. “Does a gentleman need ‘an occasion’ to ask a beautiful lady to lunch?” he asked, his brown eyes wide with feigned innocence.  

Hermione slowly raised one eyebrow. “You’re gay. And happily married. And that’s a terrible line. Try again.”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t take my very best friend out,” he shrugged nonchalantly.  

Something was definitely up.  

“Draco Malfoy is, and always has been, your very best friend in all the world. Try again.”

“You,” he said, actually growling the word this time with comical frustration, “Are one very persistent witch.”

“Mmhmm. How do you think I made it to Minister by twenty-seven, darling,” she grinned, still without getting up from her chair. “Last chance or I turn that sign around and forcibly evict you from my shop.”  

Theo whipped his wand out from his inner jacket pocket like he was in a duel, and apparently vanished the offending sign from the door altogether. “There. Your threats are empty. Come to lunch with me.”

“Theodore Nott, you return my sign this instant.”

“Say you’ll come to lunch with me, and the sign goes back up.”

“I will not be threatened in my own shop!” she laughed, arms folding across her chest like a petulant child. “Put it back. Now.”

“Say you’ll come with me,” he said with a wide, playful grin, planting his hands on the counter and leaning his long frame forwards.  

She had to bite her lips to stop from giggling. The charming scoundrel knew she’d say yes anyway. “I’ll tell Dan you were bullying me,” she said.  

“Tell him; he’ll never believe you. He thinks I’m lovely. Come on, Hermione,” he added, softening from playful to plaintive. “I need to talk to you.”

“About what?”

“You and my ‘very best friend in all the world’, that’s what,” he said, and levelled her with a flat stare.

Her stomach dropped and she remembered the letter from that morning. And its contents. ‘…if you would feel more comfortable knowing, then you can ask Theo while I am gone’ Draco had said. He’d spoken with Theo about asking her out. She didn't know whether to be honoured or embarrassed.

Seeing her expression slip, Theo came round the side of the counter to stand beside her and leaned his hips against the wooden desk. “So you like him?”

“I… Why would that be a surprise?”

Theo blinked, and then his gaze flickered down to her left forearm. Everyone knew about the word engraved into her skin with the point of a cursed knife — she’d never tried to conceal it — but not many knew the real truth of just how the slur had come to be carved indelibly into her flesh. Theo was one of the few who did. “You’re really asking me why I’m surprised you like him?” he said in a hoarse whisper. “You, of all people?”

She took a very deep breath, held it, and then sighed. “Let’s go. You’re paying though. And I’m drinking.”

He managed a shy smile, and as they approached the front door of her shop his shimmering illusion around the sign dissolved to reveal it once again.  

“Cheeky bugger,” she smirked at him and he waggled his eyebrows disarmingly. An undercurrent of anxiety still lurked beneath his jovial expression though.  

A number of new restaurants had opened up in Diagon Alley, but Theo’s and Dan’s favourite was a sleek, modern establishment, quite different from the fusty old decor of the Leaky Cauldron or the other more traditional restaurants in wizarding London. It also sat overlooking the crooked columns of Gringotts, and was eye-wateringly expensive. Naturally, Theo was greeted by name at the door, and the pair were shown without fuss or fanfare to one of the nicest — and most secluded — tables.

With food ordered, and enormous balloon-glasses of wine in front of them, Theo fixed her with a serious look and steered the conversation around to the real reason for his impromptu lunchtime kidnapping. “He finally grew a pair and asked you to dinner then?”

“Mmm,” she nodded. “I take it this is… unusual for him?”

Theo tipped his head back and chuckled softly, sounding more tired than amused. “That’s putting it mildly, love. Until Friday, I had the devil’s own job trying to get dear Draco to leave his gloomy little manor house and come to anything. I had to blackmail him into coming to our anniversary, you know?”  

Hermione just frowned, not entirely sure if he was being serious or not.  

Theo let out a slow breath and stared into his wineglass, idly twirling the stem between long fingers. “Don’t get me wrong,” he said without looking at her, “I’m beyond grateful that he finally seems to be opening up to the idea of… being somewhat… vulnerable again, but…”

“You’re worried I’m going to hurt him,” she said quietly, and Theo bowed his head. “Theo, I’m… You know me. This isn’t just some one night stand with a rich, attractive bloke I met in a bar. I haven’t —” she leaned in close over the table and hissed, “I haven’t even had sex with anyone in years, Theo. Years!” She brushed an errant corkscrew of hair back out of her eyes, embarrassed.

His lips twitched at that, but his eyes remained stormy.  

“I’m not going into this lightly. I was honestly as surprised as you are, but I wouldn’t even be considering going on a date with Draco Malfoy if I wasn’t completely convinced that he was no longer the bratty little owl-pellet he was back at Hogwarts.”

At that, Theo barked such a loud laugh that the patrons at the tables nearby turned to look at him like he’d sworn in a church. He covered his mouth with his hand and snickered himself into silent tears for a good thirty seconds before she rolled her eyes and sat back with her glass in her hand, waiting for him to control himself again.  

“I’m telling Dan you called him that. And Pansy. They’ll love it.”

“Right,” she said, cheeks suddenly hot. “Well, as much as he might have been an owl pellet, let’s not have it become a ‘thing’, hmm?”

The mirth in his face simmered back down and he looked at her steadily over the rim of his wineglass. “Look, I care about both of you, and I can see this going two ways. One: you realise that the two of you actually have an awful lot in common, he takes you to increasingly fancy places for dates, you have lots of steamy sex, and finally settle down together. Two: the past gets in the way, you both say hurtful stuff you don’t really mean, and you both end up single and twice as miserable as you were before you went for lunch at the Leaky. Don't think I didn’t know about that, either,” he added.  

“You’re such a gossip,” she snapped.  

“I was being serious, Hermione,” he said, leaning to one side as their food arrived.  

She paused until the waiter had left but didn’t make any move to pick up her cutlery. “Are you looking out for him or for me?” she asked.  

Theo sighed. “Both of you. But…”

“Mostly Draco, huh?”

“He’s like a brother to me, Hermione. He was there for me when no one else was. You know the things my father did to me as a child, and Draco helped me through all of it. And ‘Cissa too. And I couldn’t believe it when he actually showed up at drinks the other night. Watching him, it… it was like the old Draco had come back to me. The nice ‘old Draco’, I mean.” His eyes glistened and he blinked rapidly, voice cracking as he continued. “After the attack, he shut himself away at the Manor with Scorpius, as if he could keep the whole world out just to keep little Scorp safe. I thought… I thought he’d never leave, Hermione.”

“You never talked about any of this,” she said gently, forcing herself to make a start on her linguine despite the fact that her appetite had vanished almost completely.  

Theo shrugged. “I guess… I guess I wanted to give him the privacy he craved, and to be honest, I didn’t think you’d be all that sympathetic to him after your history.”

At that, she scowled, but she could see his point. “Theo, I held his screaming infant in my arms for hours while he was being questioned by the Aurors that night. I saw his face when he came to my office for Scorpius afterwards.” She shook her head. “No one who saw him then could believe he was even a shadow of the person he had been at Hogwarts.”

At her words, Theo had stopped eating, fork held loosely between perpetually-ink-stained fingers even as it rested on his plate. “You did? He never said.”

She tried not to examine that last comment too closely. “Mm. Harry didn't know what else to do with him, so he brought Scorpius to me to see if I could quieten him down. In the end all it took was a handful of my hair and a few poorly-sung folk songs. But you’re missing the point, Theo. You could have trusted me with things that were worrying you. I would have listened to you.”

“I —” he cut off and cleared his throat. “I know. I’m sorry. I just… Aside from Dan, I don’t think I love anyone as much as I love him.”

It was Hermione’s turn to choke up a little, but she swallowed and said, “Then I can think of no greater accolade for his character.” She looked up at him and added, “So where’s he taking me then?”

“You said yes?”

“I did. I like him. And not just because he looks like a flipping marble statue brought to life. He’s thoughtful, and he always was extremely intelligent and articulate. I’ve really enjoyed talking with him this time around. I think… I think…” she pursed her lips and took a too-big gulp of wine. Luckily it all went down the right way, and she forged on. “I think… we could work. Or at least… I want to see where it goes, Theo.”

With a slow nod, Theo finally relaxed his shoulders and let out a shaky breath. “He wants to take you to The Foundry.”  

“I’ve never heard of it,” she mumbled. It wasn’t one of the ones in Diagon Alley, for sure.

Theo made a side-to-side movement of his head. “I’m not surprised. It’s…”

“Oh God, is it horrifically expensive?” she asked, eyes wide with a sudden abject terror. “Theo, if he’s going to take me somewhere hideously fancy for our first date, I’m going to back out right now…”

The corners of his lips lifted and he shook his head. “Not in the way you’re thinking. You have to know the owners to get a table though, and there are no menus. They’ll ask if you have any allergies, but other than that, you eat what they serve you.”

“Holy fuck, Theo…”

“Trust me, you’ll love it. The place used to be a bell foundry in the seventeenth century — hence the name — and it’s this gorgeous brick building with arches and vaults, and cosy little corners,” he added, raising his eyebrows. “You’ll forget where you are and be as comfortable as if you were in your own pokey little Muggle living room. I promise.”

She narrowed her eyes and took another gulp of wine. “I’ll take your word for it, Nott,” she said. “What should I wear?”

Without hesitation, he said, “That burgundy number you haven’t worn since Pansy told you to buy it.”

She blanched at that. “Theo, it’s…”

“Gorgeous? Revealing in all the right ways, yet modest enough to suit you? Dead sexy? Exactly the kind of thing that will make Draco lose his goddamn mind when he sees you in it? The kind of thing that will make him spend all evening simultaneously admiring you in it and mentally tearing it off you —”

“Theo, stop!” she hissed, flushing darker. “For God’s sake shut up!”

He cackled into the remainder of his wine, but refused to give any more sartorial advice.  

“Burgundy dress and heels it is, I guess,” she said, and the two of them focused on their food again.  

“I hope,” Theo said as they left a very leisurely two hours later, “I hope you don’t think I was too…” he jiggled nervously on the balls of his feet as he held the door open for her, “Overbearing…”

“I mean, you did ambush me, blackmail and threaten me into having lunch with you at the fanciest restaurant in Diagon Alley where I couldn’t reasonably kick up a fuss, and then proceed to tell me all sorts of heartrending stories about Draco and yourself…”  

When she saw the wounded look in Theo’s brown eyes, she stopped and turned to face him.

“Theo, no. You’re one of my best friends, and you clearly care about us both. Stop panicking,” she added when she saw the slightly wild light in his eyes. “You didn’t try to tell me what to do or who to see. You’re looking out for your friends, and making sure we’re both… serious about this. And I appreciate that.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and added, “But know that if you keep meddling beyond that, I will hex your bollocks off and make you explain it to Dan.”

“Understood,” he said with a watery smile. “I was worried I’d overstepped.”

“I’ll forgive you if you tell me one thing.”

“Name it.”

“Did you have the same talk with Draco about breaking my heart?”

His handsome, freckled face split into a blinding white grin. “I did.”

“Forgiven,” she said. “Now, some of us actually have to work for a living.”

“I work!” he squealed. “I work bloody hard up in the Department of International Magical Cooperation, thank you very much!”

“I know you do,” she conceded. “Not that you actually need a job, you filthy rich prick.”

Theo laughed long and loud, scooping her hand up in his and walking arm in arm down the bustling, cobbled street towards her bookshop. “And to think,” he chimed with a sidelong look down at her, “You used to be Minister for Magic with that mouth.”

“I know,” she said. “It nearly got me into trouble on many an occasion.”

Kneazel and Quill’s little sign swung jauntily in the breeze and Theo gave a slight bow from the waist when they stopped at the door. With anyone else, it might have seemed foppish and insincere, but with Theo, she knew he meant it. He was only silly like this with his closest friends.  

“Good day, fair maiden of the dusty bookshop,” he said. “And thank you for giving my idiot best friend a chance.”

Hermione nodded and smiled. She stood and soaked up the autumn sunshine for a while as she watched his retreating back, until he eventually disappeared into the Diagon Alley entrance to the Ministry and she slid back into the musty quiet of her little sanctuary.

Chapter Six

___

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter of friendship! Next time, Hermione and Draco go for that date...!! Things will start to gain momentum too, fear not. It’s not going to be an eternal slow-burn...

writing masterlist | Ao3

[bookofmirth]

I apologize for the long post, but I was on my phone and was able to put all my thoughts into a single message and not break it into a million smaller ones. Anyway…

I guess one of the overall themes of acotar is finding your family/people. Feyre found the inner circle, Nesta found the Valkyries, and Lucien has the band of exiles. Since I’m seeing a lot of people assume book 6 is Az’s and book 7 is Elain’s do you think this theme will continue on? And if so who do you think will be Az and Elain’s found family? I have my own theories/hopes for this.

For Az I would say at least one of them will be Bryaxis. Maybe he’ll be tasked with hunting him down for his book? Anyway my thought process is Bryaxis is a creature of nightmares and I feel like if anyone can understand that darkness it’s Az. And not just the darkness, but the desire for light at the end of the tunnel. I feel like they would find an affinity with each other. Plus Bryaxis chose the design of an Illyrian and that’s something Az has struggled being his entire life. I feel like if anyone could give him a better outlook on being an Illyrian without feeling like you belong it would be Bryaxis.

As for Elain I know a lot of people, elucien shippers anyway, have said they want her to find her family with the band of exiles. I could see this as a definite possibility, but I honestly would prefer her finding her own people away outside of Lucien (and Az). That’s what I love about Nessian. Cassian has the inner circle and Nesta has the Valkyries and they have each other. I would prefer this type of found family for Elain. So who do I think could be a good fit? Maybe someone we haven’t met at all.

I think one could possibly be Nuan from the Dawn Court. She’s the engineer/tinker who built Lucien’s eye and has a mechanical arm herself. I think it would be really fun to see SJM bring her back into the series and we get to learn more about her, about the time she fixed Lucien, and give someone to Elain outside her romantic interests. Plus I have a sneaking suspicion that something will happen to Elain’s beauty. We’ve been told throughout all the books how Elain is the prettiest, in ACOSF her mother reduced her entire personality down to just her pretty face and what it could bring the family, even Az’s chapter talked about how perfect and immaculate she was. I could see something happening to her perfect beauty that will require Nuan’s services. We could then get them bonding over shared trauma and Elain learning that she is more than her pretty face. It could also give her a better understanding of Lucien.

Not advocating for violence here, would 100% prefer nothing horrible happen to Elain, but with the number of times her perfect beauty is mentioned I find it suspect. Mor is thought to be absolutely stunning too, but her beauty is not nearly as mentioned as Elain’s. And Elain never has anything more added onto her descriptions. She’s just perfect Elain, beautiful and nothing else. It’s a really interesting way for the other characters to describe her. As if they don’t look past her beauty to see the person she is underneath. No one takes the time to really see her. I could see something taking her beauty from her and forcing not just herself, but everyone around her to see she’s more than her face.

+ anon

Hi +anon!

I love the idea of Az and Bryaxis ending up friends? Monster friends? There is just something fundamentally different about Az, darker than any of his friends can understand, so someone, anyone with a very different outlook would be great for him. In terms of social and political power, he only has what Rhys gives him. He feels like he doesn’t deserve things and this hierarchy (High Fae vs lesser) reinforces his feeling of being undeserving. And he’s surrounded by High Fae, well aware that he isn’t one. He has power (with the siphons) but when it comes to what I said before, social or political power, he has only what he is given and I can see that grating on him. Bryaxis is also an outsider and would understand what it’s like to have that power but not quite belong!

I think that if/when we get gwynriel, then Az will have some connections outside the IC already, with Nesta and the Valkyries, but without being entirely separated from his fam because Cassian is such a big part of them too. I can see gwynriel and nessian having dinners all the time. Not formal or anything, just “hey let’s bring a case or beer/wine over and make a night out of it”. 

With Elain, I love the idea of Nuan! I’m assuming that we will get more connections outside of Night and Spring, and especially if she and Lucien end up being diplomats of some sort (🤞) then we’ll get to meet people that Lucien probably already knows and introduces Elain to.

Re: Elain’s beauty, idk if I’d put that much stock in it? I think that references to her beauty emphasize that people don’t see much else, but sjm calls everyone beautiful all the time. It’s almost become meaningless to me 😅 I think people do need to see her in different ways and maybe it can be through her actions. Her personality is so people-pleasing all the time (obviously she snapped with Nesta) that the biggest change could be how she treats others. She keeps trying to put herself out there and getting shot down *coughAz* but at some point she’ll have to shift and find a better balance between being sweet and nice and being rude like she was to Nesta. She just doesn’t seem to even know who she is yet, though she has an idea of what she wants. 

[itsclydebitches]

I’m the tin foil hat anon and I wanted to thank you for the response on my bb submission, you make great points. Although I was frustrated that some of them raised even more questions I didn’t think of myself… UGH… lol the S2 wait is gonna be painful

On the point of crosshair thinking his chip was removed a looong time ago(meaning before bracca or even as early as ep1) it wouldn’t make sense bc of his response to Hunter’s “you tried to kill us, we didn’t have a choice”. He says “and I did?”. So he seems to be aware he couldn’t control himself in all their previous encounters. Does it mean he knows his actions were due to chip then?

And you say crosshair avoiding the “when” question can be due to him not caring if the horrible actions he committed are chip or himself and it’s meant to show that he truly is despicable and evil. It could be the case because he shows absolutely no remorse or regret over slaughtering civilians, never apologizes to his brothers for not only trying to kill them but almost successfully incinerating(!!!) them. On top of that (apparently) without a chip he casually murders his own squad without a blink of an eye right in front of them.

On the other hand, he shows care for Omega’s safety in that episode and wants a better place in the universe for his brothers(even if it’s obviously a mistake). He sounds hurt and betrayed by them yet he still wants what he thinks is best for them. He seemed genuine and sincere in that moment. Even after they refused to join he protected them against the droids. He had multiple opportunities to shoot Hunter or others in the back but never did(and looked like didn’t even consider it). BUT after all of that he decides to raise his gun and try to shoot hunter who already has his gun drawn?! And in front of the whole squad holding him at gun point!!! WTF was he thinking?! WHY? I know they rejected his offer but still. Did his reveal completely change his plans? I just don’t understand. I know he is meant to be “complex and nuanced character with layers” but what a mood swing lmao

As much as I loved and enjoyed the bad batch overall I’m beginning to think that all these inconsistencies aren’t meant to be a crafty set up for next season. What they most likely are is just writers being vague on purpose so they don’t write themselves into a corner.

And as to why the batch and Omega didn’t even try to rescue their brother could just be so that Hunter and Crosshair would have this drama and disagreement at the end. Despite brad rau claiming their argument was over ideological differences. And Jen Corbett saying in that same cursed interview that the batch always love and support each other no matter what because they’re family. Well, I guess not crosshair, he doesn’t count anymore lol

And I agree with you I’d rather see the batch acknowledging they could have done more to try and rescue him than go into the chip details. However, I have a suspicion the real reason or explanation on why they never went back for him isn’t going to be brought up ever. Even *in universe* it simply does not make sense. Just makes me sad seeing how many people also try to come up with explanations. That should have been the writers job to provide something besides Hunter’s “you tried to kill us” bc that’s a weak argument and a total bs since he was SHOCKED to learn crosshair doesn’t have a chip.

Btw sorry for the long posts lol I just found your takes very intriguing

The season two wait is something awful and I only just started it lol. No worries about long asks though! My blog has become quite meta heavy over the years, so this is normal for my inbox. Besides, it’s a bit of a pot and kettle situation. It's not like my answers are particularly concise :D

Okay first, I have the unpopular (?) opinion that Crosshair was never planning to shoot Hunter, partly for the reasons you lay out here. You’re right, it doesn’t make sense, and rather than just accepting that he had that kind of “mood swing" (which would be pretty bad writing based on everything else we've seen) I think it does make sense that this was never his intention at all. Rather, it’s just a setup to make the audience think he’s about to shoot Hunter—that’s the obvious goal of that moment: the shock, drama, confusion, and then relief—but that doesn’t mean that in-universe that was ever Crosshair’s goal, even for just a split second. Omega leaves the pod. Echo, crucially, says that he can’t see her, setting up that Crosshair with his enhanced sight is probably the only one who could. He grabs his rifle off screen and as he does, Hunter leans over the side of the pod as he prepares to jump in, precisely where Crosshair needs to aim to hit Omega. Hunter is in his way. He’s directly in the line of fire, not because Crosshair is aiming for him, but just because that's where Omega is and they're both aiming for her: Crosshair with his rifle, Hunter ready to dive. The little shift Crosshair makes reads to me as him ensuring he doesn’t hit Hunter, despite him being right where he needs to aim, not him full on changing targets.

Even if we choose to read it as him deliberately aiming at Hunter—because yeah, the scene is meant to be ambiguous—I don’t think he, like, meant it meant it. Crosshair, as we’ve seen throughout TBB and TCW, can be pretty antagonistic. He likes to do things to get a rise out of people, like staring at regs until they snap at him, or pushing Rex’s buttons until he swings. If he was choosing to aim at Hunter in that moment, rather than Hunter just being in the way, I think it’s only bravado. Remember the “Don’t make the same mistake twice. Don’t make me your enemy” line? Crosshair has a need to remind others of his skill and power—whether it’s playfully like in TCW, or more seriously in TBB—and that’s likely what this is here. “Hey, Hunter. Look. I got my weapon back. I’ve got you cornered. I’m about to save our sister when you can’t. Remember that I’m good and you need me.” Those feelings of abandonment are tied up in that need to be needed, so when Crosshair is seething at being left behind, brutally showing them how he can get a drop on their leader and doing the thing they can't (save Omega) is a great way to remind them of what they threw away/re-boost his own self-esteem. But none of that means shooting Hunter was ever a real possibility. Because nowhere else do we see Crosshair willingly trying to harm his team. He does while under the chip’s influence, but then he never hurts Hunter when he’s captured. He kills his new team before they can hurt the batch. He helps them fight off the droids. There’s a tussle, but it’s not choreographed like either he or Hunter truly intends harm. Crosshair demonstrates no aggression during the entire escape, willingly gives up his weapon after saving Omega, and just stands there as they leave. If this guy actually wanted to hurt them, he would. Which is more likely, that Crosshair had a split second of real murder intent across two episodes of doing everything possible to help his team, or that this was just a mean bluff?

But personally, I don’t even think it was a bluff. I think the coincidence of Crosshair needing to aim there and Hunter already being there is just meant to imply an attack for the audience, not imply that Crosshair, in-universe, ever intended to hurt him, even for just a second. If he had, he wouldn’t look so surprised and sad when he realizes the others are pointing their weapons at him. If he was out to shoot Hunter, even if only for a moment, seeing his brothers come to his defense would be expected; a given. But if he only ever intended to save Omega, then seeing their weapons trained on him would produce the emotions we saw: shock that they’d turn on him and then severe disappointment. From Crosshair’s perspective, he didn’t do anything wrong and never intended to do wrong either. Hence, looking away in disbelief that his need to aim through Hunter was taken as a serious threat. He's realizing that they honestly believe that he would hurt them. Not the chipped version of him, but just him, all on his own.

As for the rest of his characterization, I think your point that “You tried to kill us” is a weak argument is pretty important. Meaning, Crosshair knows he didn’t attack his team and nearly kill them, the Empire controlling him like a puppet did. He (arguably) doesn’t owe them an apology for something that he was as much a victim for. However, we usually expect one anyway—like Wrecker still apologizing to Omega—because that's how people who have hurt loved ones react, whether the hurt was intentional or not, but that guilt is currently overshadowed by his fury that they left him behind. For him I think it’s a bit of a circular problem. Yes, he nearly killed them… but he wouldn’t have nearly killed them if they’d come back and rescued him. With the obvious disclaimer that the Empire is the real evil here, Crosshair as a threat is a bit of a problem of the batch's own making. If they’d done the right thing and gotten him out, there wouldn’t have been these scary moments like the engine incident. If they’d at least tried, then Crosshair likely would have been more guilt-ridden because he hurt his brothers who were trying to help him. As it stands, he tried to hurt the people who claim they're his brothers, but who left him behind. That's why he presents this second chance as magnanimous: from Crosshair's perspective, they haven't done anything to earn his care, but they're getting it anyway. An apology though? That's pushing things too far. If when Wrecker turned the group had locked him somewhere in the ship and gone off planet, leaving him there under the justification “Well, he tried to kill us!" would Wrecker still return with apologies for his actions... or would he be primarily pissed at being left like that, withholding apologies because they did him harm intentionally, whereas he did harm under another's control? I mean, maybe he'd be forgiving (the huge difference between his and Crosshair’s personalities is another factor), but also maybe not. Having Crosshair apologize for the near-death experiences requires 1. For him to feel responsibility for something that was forced on him and 2. For him to not be absolutely furious at the batch for abandoning him. They've gotta work through that before Crosshair can acknowledge that guilt.

Killing his second team on the other hand… idk if the batch cares, honestly. It was the killing of civilians that they balked at, not other fighters like themselves. Even the Jedis’ execution, something they clearly didn’t like, wasn’t enough to turn them from the Empire, presumably because the Jedi are capable of defending themselves. They fell in battle. It’s only when the Empire asks them to kill kids and untrained civilians that they go, “Absolutely not. This organization is evil.” Murder of other fighters was, you know, not great, but not worth defecting over either. Crosshair’s second team is made up of fighters who have been trying to kill them, so they’re definitely fair game. If we removed Crosshair’s plan from the situation and the batch was just fighting their way off Kamino after a capture, would they have also killed the team without a blink of an eye? Probably. It's self-defense. The second they raised their blasters it became a battle and, unless you’re specifically out to stun someone for some reason, battles end bloody. The shock is which side Crosshair was on, not that one side was willing to murder the other. It’s definitely messed up from our perspective that Crosshair laid a trap to murder his team to prove a point… but from the batch’s perspective? Crosshair killed a bunch of imperial fighters who were threatening them during a battle. That’s just an average Tuesday for them, nothing much to get upset over.

And omg don’t get me started on Crosshair wanting to find Omega a family! Like yeah, it’s obviously a #mistake and his faith in the Empire is Super Messed Up but... the underlying motivation is so good. It’s another situation where there’s no easy answer. Which is more important: Omega’s emotional health where she grows up with clones like her, the people who are now 100% her family, or her physical health, where she stays some place where she’s not always getting shot at, kidnapped, at risk of going hungry, etc.? It’s easy as the audience to go, “Of course she belongs with her dads!!” but if you choose to read the story through any realistic lens, Crosshair absolutely has a point about this being terrible environment for a kid, the exact point the batch themselves were making until Omega begged to stay. I love my feral, compassionate child but let me tell you, I YELLED when she yeeted herself out of that pod. This is a traumatized, formerly isolated kid with absolutely zero self-preservation, combined with, at times, a lack of basic common sense that’s inevitable in children (like not realizing she can’t pull a very heavy droid up through the water). As emotionally gutting as the thought is and, in this particular case, a Very Bad Idea, I really can’t fault anyone for raising the possibility that she go somewhere else, somewhere she’s likely to survive into her teens 😅

[jadienjaystoriesandart]

First thing is first, I am a Dream Fan, I rather like his content and got into it over the manhunt stuff. Secondly, this is me just throwing my hat into the rink and from the things I’ve read. Thirdly, I’ve only take basic statistics, and it’s more complicated than just looking at numbers. 

This is just some of the questions I ask myself after reading articals about this whole ‘Did Dream Cheat on Speedrunning’?

1. Why make a video at all? Being in college, allegations of cheating are taken seriously, and at the most timely manner. The school will not wait to bring you into the office to ask if you have been plagiarizing or cheating.  So, my question is, why did they make a video calling Dream out? I have not heard nor seen them do this to other players or youtubers. So what makes Dream any different? Because he’s a big name youtuber? That’s pretty suspicious 

2. Why did they wait to get the files? At the utmost conveince, if foudn out anyone has modded or do anything, one should get the files first and at the quickest manner possible. But, instead, (from what Iv’e gathered) they made a video first calling him out as a cheater, then asked for the files. Waiting a total of 10 days! Ten saying he could have changed it in that time. Well, if you have caught him cheating at all, then you should have gotten the files FRIST before anything else! Less of a window of time for him to have changed anything.

3. Backtracking. I noticed in my articals I read about this, that when Dream did give his files over and admitted that, yeah, he does mod for youtuber videos. The team was quick to back track, stating they ‘didn’t have much proof, but his luck was suspicious’.  I’m not law person, but I’ve had enough liars in my life to know that backtracking is a sign that one is trying to make their lie believeable. It’s either they weren’t expecting Dream to give up his files, much less make them public, or they were trying to soften the hate both sides were getting. 

4. Comparison to Trump? Really guys? Trump refused to give up his own taxes returns for a long time, I still don’t know if he did. Compared to Dream who made his files public and gave them up to the team and was honest that yea he mods them for videos. Trump would have refused to give up anything and try to redirect the problem else where. 

5. This was very unprofessionally handled. But I also heard that this team is a group of younger people whoa re volunteer workers. (Don’t know if this a true) I also read they hadn’t even informed Dream they were going to make a video that not only attacked his character, but also hardly told him anything about their suspicions he cheated.  That is not only bad journaling, that is also very deplorable and slander at that point whether he did it or not! Give the fact they even stated they had ‘Little proof’  What should they have done? Oh I don’t know, got his files before anything else, not waiting days to get it. Emailed him in private to ask about this. Hired an actualy person to look over it to see if these allegations were correct if they were that worried. NOT post a FUCKING video attacking his character for the WORLD to see! Espeically on flimsy evidence they have admitted to be flimsy, just strangly lucky. Dream is a youtuber, while popular, he’s a person. (He’s not a white house person in charge of the whole country, he’s a guy with a fan following.)

Had you been caught cheating at a game, event, or anything, would you liked being taken up on stage and called out with no defense to your name in front of everyone? I’d be rightly pissed too and embarrassed!

6. The creditable of the guy Dream hired. Look, I know the document isn’t well put together, nor do we know this guy in person. But, look guys, while I’ll admit it’s suspicious, this guy was hired to explain high level math to a bunch of people who either didn’t read the article, don’t know math that well, or just don’t care. AKA it was dumbed down for a reason. I honestly don’t think many of us would have read an article of a bunch of numbers, when most of us barely read the one the modorators put out. 

Why do we need to know who this guy is? So some of us can send him hate because he dared defend a man who they think Cheated? Don’t deny it, you guys just want to send anon/email hate a poor man making a living because he dared defend someone you hate. It’s no wonder this man possible asked to remain anonymous. Internet dogpiles aren’t always a good thing. 

and 7. Regardless of whether Dream cheated or not is something only Dream will know. And I have to say this, stop throwing your stones from your glass house.  People, I’ll level with you, we aren’t all saints here. Many of us have cheated at something, big or small, in our lives. Whether it be on a test, SATs for college, a college exam, at your work place to get a few extra bucks on overtime, or even to get recongnision for something you didn’t do. If everone was treated the same, like many want, all our dirty laundry would be aired out on a video for the world to see.  Does this mean we should call people out? No, something do need to be stated. But I can’t see how cheating a minecraft game, on a man who placed 16th over all, is a big deal.

Think about this, out of the many submission recived, using probility also, at least a good handful of them have cheated or did something small. Some of these go unnoticed, while others are noticed.  I can bet to you, if Dream did cheat, HE WAS NOT THE ONLY ONE. 

So, my dear readers, why is no one calling them out on a youtube video and sending them hate?  Because theya re lesser known youtubers? I say everyone should be under this mindset of ‘Guilty until proven innocent’ we have going on.

To clarify. It’s all sus on both ends. But I’ll take it in stides and wait it out for this to either blow over or a truth to be found.

Anyway: My personal opinion? I don’t think the guy cheated, all these questions point to something fishy going on with the modorater team. And having been accused myself of cheating, when I never did, it’s a hard battle to fight.

[qqueenofhades]

so. we (re: me) have given ivan and fedyor a lot of shit for their zero braincells and absolute idiot behavior (looking at you ivan ivanovich) and all the anons are (rightfully) screaming about konstantin but we should also acknowledge all the kind of, sort of soulmate energy progress Ivan and Fedyor made this update…

1. Fedyor and Ivan sorting out what they want to be called (sort of) and although we all kind of wanted to throw Ivan off the lighthouse, his hang ups about being called Vanya are not totally crazy and actually shows a lot more about how terrified he is to lose Fedyor

2. Fedyor is becoming much better at reading Ivan and patiently pushing communication when he can’t fill in the blanks. And Ivan, while not exactly forthcoming, is definitely opening up

3. Both of them are becoming much more comfortable with showing and receiving intimacy. And side note here but Fedyor saying that he doesn’t feel worthy of it himself sometimes was a huge little nugget hidden in there

4. While we all want to feed Ivan to the polar bears for this, Ivan’s hang ups about not leaving with Fedyor are much more pragmatic and (unfortunately) good points that we all scream at our screens while we watch romcoms. Ivan leaving with Fedyor is a pretty serious commitment and Ivan probably wants to make sure that Fedyor is sure.

Indeed, INDEED. While there was a great deal of ARGH KONSTANTIN in my inbox this morning (which I do understand, though I'm like is this or is this not what the people said they wanted, lmao) there were plenty of other things that happened in this update, as you point out. They're absolutely getting more comfortable with each other in a lot of different ways, having conversations about actual things, and while of course we want them to be all the way to intimacy, they have a Lot of things to work through first. Ivan's reasons for not wanting Fedyor to call him Vanya make total sense, even if they're a little heartbreaking. As he says, everyone who has been familiar enough with him to use it before has either died or permanently disappeared, and given the situation that they are in, I can absolutely see why he doesn't want to tempt fate.

And yes, likewise, we talk a lot about Ivan's total lack of self-esteem or ability to trust that he deserves good things, but Fedyor isn't risking his life multiple times in the attempt to defect because he's so happy with his own existence or believes that he could survive if he stayed in the USSR. In chapter 1 he was thinking that if he couldn't successfully escape from the country, he should hope that he just died in his sleep, and in this chapter, he was acknowledging the fact that he has never had anything approaching a real relationship either. He's had secret hookups in underground clubs at night, but nothing with the same partner aboveground in daylight, and he does NOT know how to handle that or deal with how much he wants it. Fedyor is an academic and an intellectual, which means that he overthinks everything and is keenly aware of how much he doesn't fit into the place he was born (in chapter 5, he's commenting on how he doesn't belong to either the USSR or the USA and it makes him feel like an empty and rootless ghost). But he still loves Russia a lot and that disconnection hurts him, and just... anyway, yes. While Ivan's issues and hang-ups are more apparent, Fedyor's run just as deep. And I have many feelings about both of them. My poor sweet dumb sons. /wraps them up in blanket

And yes, frankly, while we all WANT Ivan to decide unconditionally to just run off with Fedyor, that is a HUGE life decision, especially for someone you have known for what... only about three weeks? If Ivan did go to America (or anywhere else) he would be completely reliant on Fedyor, which someone as independent and self-sufficient as him obviously hates. He doesn't speak or understand the language at all, he can't just walk into somewhere and get a job, he couldn't be useful, he would be under suspicion from the CIA/FBI, and he is deeply attached both to the lighthouse and to Russia. As Fedyor notes, Ivan has lost SO many things in his life that it's not fair to expect that that will automatically include his beloved homeland, especially for the sake of a guy that he just met. He cares about Fedyor very much and wants to get him to safety, but it's still not clear if that means him going too. That isn't to say he won't get there, but if he does, there are a lot of things (not least Konstantin...) that have to be properly worked through and addressed first, in what is already an incredibly stressful situation. So indeed, lol, Ivan is an idiot, but his hesitations are entirely justified in this case, and Fedyor knows that too.

So. Yes. Welp. Dun dun dunnn. Etc. Ahem.

[eat0crow]

Cliche but can I request flower shop owner Marinette with gang boi Jason?

Dear sweet Anon, you have no idea how weak I am for cliche tropes. I took some liberties here seeing as Red Hood is already a sorta gang leader and just used that! I hope you like my rambly headcanons! I had so many ideas for this au that I really had to try to hold back.

Ground Zero

1) There’s a flower shop right on the edge of Jason’s territory that’s essentially become an urban legend.

No one is actually sure how exactly it’s still standing, it borders two rival gangs, Red Robin’s usual patrol route, and Jason’s terf. There have been at least three gang wars raging on the same street, yet still Miraculous stands as the one neutral spot in all of Gotham. It’s a cute shop, don’t get Jason wrong, but the only miraculous thing about it is that no one has even tried to claim it.

He brings it up once, the keyword once. Because the shop has stood as neutral ground for at least a century, and no one wants to be the one to break that streak. The shop is also cursed apparently, or at least protected by some malevolent force. The building lost a shingle once in the ’80s to a member of the False Facers, and the very next day saw Gotham PD hauling in at least two-thirds of the Black Mask’s operation.

Which is probably exaggerated, right? None of the minor drug lords under Jason want to get into it. The Black Mask doesn’t want to get into it. (He clams up the moment Jason tells him the shop re-opened, apparently, it had closed a year after the shingle incident)

Miraculous, as well as the parking lot it sits on, is the ground zero of Gotham. No crime goes into the lot, no crime goes out. The pots are never tipped over, no one tries to steal even a single rose from the display. No one touches the cute building, even if it’s painted an obnoxious pastel pink that stands out like a sore thumb in the Gotham night. At least, as far as everyone knows—Jason is still kinda skeptical about that. Really, it’s the perfect set up for a smuggling ring.

Tim is there sometimes as Red Robin. All the time really, at least twice a week. Jason has caught him more than once staked out with a pair of binoculars in the windows. A couple of times he even catches him helping the clerk repot plants. Which, yeah, Jason’s met Tim a time or two, he doesn't make a habit of sticking around his family, but the kid never came off as the gardening type.

It’s especially funny though, to see the pictures of Red Robin in a pink apron behind the counter trending on twitter.

He’s tried to go in a handful of times, to offer the owner his protection and whatnot. But each time he tries he forgets what he’s doing before he even turns the handle. Whoever runs this place must have the best luck in the world because this shit has been happening since it was built.

You’re a wayward gang member attempting to talk to the owner, you end up forgetting what you’re doing mid-action, and only start to remember five days later. The building is damaged, so is whatever scheme you’ve been planning. Actually in the shop when you decide to talk business, nope, it’s time for the most inconvenient phone call of your life.

“Why Dick, did you have to call me? I was so close.”

“Jason, are you crying?”

“I finally made it into the door. I’ve been trying for months to get in. But no, your ass gets stuck in your suit, and suddenly it’s time to call Jason. Nope, lose my number.”

2) Apparently everyone, including the fucking demon spawn, has been to Miraculous.

They all get kind of quiet when he brings it up though, Alfred actually leaves the room. Jason may have issues with Bruce, and Dick, and Tim, and don’t even get him started on Damian, but Alfred’s always been the neutral party for them. He’s always been the one they go to, no matter what. Upsetting Alfred is a capital offense. Jason feels...shitty about it.

“Alfred used to go, and get a bouquet there every weak after you died,” Dick tells him, folding his hands together, and settling in. Tim looks uneasy, and far more awkward than usual—which is saying something. “He’d get some white lilies to put on your grave. I went with him a few times, but he hasn’t been back since. I think the shop reminds him of it. When you were...you know.”

“Oh.” Jason really feels like an asshole.

“Yeah, I can’t say I’ve been back either.” Dick rubs the back of his neck like he’s admitting to something secret. “It used to be on my patrol route, back when I was first Robin. It always used to creep me out so I'd avoid it.”

“Really, Grayson,” Damian says with the same air of condescending superiority he always has.

“Hey, back in those days it was an abandoned building. The one that the witch owned! I don’t know about you, but I don’t fuck with witches. No thank you! I like my limbs.”

Jason might actually remember something like that, it’s hard. Like all the memories from before are hard, but he thinks back to being a kid. To growing up in a scummy neighborhood, and hearing people talk about the witching house that no one was allowed near. The one spot Squatters and Junkies, no matter how desperate, wouldn’t step foot in.

“It’s not all that bad,” Tim says. “My mom remembered when it was open the first time around. Mr. Fu was really nice, he used to let her play in the pots.”

“That aside,” Dick says fixing Jason with a half-crazed look. “It re-opened like a month after you died, so yeah, I went there with Alfred a lot. Like once a month a lot. The shop has this thing. You go in, and you’re instantly wrapped up in this nostalgic warm-fuzzy-reliving-my-childhood feeling. It’s weird.”

Tim stares. “I think that’s a you problem. I go in all the time, and yeah, the shop has a nice vibe, but it’s more like a you’re-safe-here thing.”

“You’re both, as usual, utterly wrong.” Damian sniffs. “If anything, the shop feels like coming home.”

The entire table turns to stare at him with wide unbelieving eye’s. Jason can hardly believe his ears...did Damian really just say something like that. The shocked look on even Dick’s face goes a long way in saying just how much no one can believe something so well adjusted came out of the demon spawn’s mouth.

Damian’s blush is priceless, his stutter—yes it’s a stutter no matter how much he denies it—is even better. “I mean to say. It feels familiar. The shop, you walk in, even for the first time, and you feel like you’ve walked through the door hundreds of times.”

Which, huh, because. “I always thought it felt like a warning. You step one foot onto the lot, and it feels like the walls themselves are daring you to start shit.”

3) Despite the hype that's built up around Jason going in, his first visit—No, Marinette that one didn’t count I literally just turned the door handle—is really anticlimactic.

It works like this, Roy asks him to pick up flowers, because Valentine's Day is today, and Kori will know what he's doing the second he tries to make up some lame excuse. Jason will never know how the man could ever be such a bad liar. As far as Kori knows, Jason is doing a typical supply run. Which, he is doing a supply run, even if the thought of cheesy romantic comedy cliches makes him sick.

All the same, Jason takes his role as best bro seriously, even though he has doubts about being able to complete this task. If his previous 52 failures are anything to go by, Miraculous hates him. There are only so many times a man can get maimed before he comes to the conclusion that the building itself has it out for him.

The hornets were what sold him. Not the bees, the hornets.

So with the air of a man who has just been sent out to war, Jason puts on this thickest jacket, his gloves, leaves his phone behind—even if attempt 34 taught him that was a really stupid idea—and braces himself to step inside. Maybe it’s because this is the first time Jason has gone into the flower shop for actual flowers. Maybe his luck is improving. Maybe...maybe the universe is setting him up for something even worse. Either way, it’s the first time the hair on the back of his neck doesn’t stand up the moment his foot hits the floor.

The girl at the counter is cute, just around his age with the bluest eyes he’s ever seen. That says something, because Jason has met Superman. That man's eyes are literally otherworldly. But Marinette’s, Jason has a suspicion this is the Mari Tim is always talking about, her eyes look like they’re glowing.

Jason realizes he’s been standing in the doorway staring, way too hard, when Marinette, that’s what her name tags says, clears her throat. With an air of confidence—Jason is a firm believer in the inherent power of bull shitting your way to success—he walks up to the counter.

“I’m looking for a bouquet,” Her stare is piercing and Jason swears it burns all the way down to his soul. “For Valentine's day. One with roses, and all that shit.”

Marinette huffs, and points to a depressingly empty display shelf. “You, and just about everyone else. Did you place an order?”

“Did I place an..” Jason trails off under his breath. “Please tell me you have something with the name Roy Harper in your registry.”

Marinette takes a moment to glance down, to ruffle through her papers. “I’m sorry, I only have one left, and its got the last name Grayson on it.”

Jason sees his life flash devastatingly fast across his eyes. It ends with him being torn to shreds by one of Roy’s homemade bombs when he comes back empty-handed. There won’t even be enough of him left to throw in a Lazarus pit. Nope, he’ll be sidewalk chalk.

So really he feels no guilt in fleshing his most charming smile, the one that always makes the old ladies coo, and saying. “Perfect, I’m here to pick that one up.”

Marinette takes one look at him draped over the counter, and bursts out laughing. Today is not a good day for Jason’s ego. “I thought you were Roy Harper.”

“No, I’m Dick Grayson.” The words are bitter in his mouth. “But the bouquet is for my friend, and I wasn’t sure what name he put it under.”

“Oh,” Marinette says, a smirk playing across her lips. “You think I was born yesterday. Sorry hon, but you’re not an alternative pick up, and I'll need to see some ID.”

“You expect me to show ID for flowers?..... Really?”

“Yes, I expect you to show ID when you’ve given me two different names, and those flowers are worth over a hundred dollars,” Marinette bites back. “Sorry, but that’s been paid in full, and I’m not going to lose a customer.”

“Okay,” Jason says, taking two crisp bills out of his wallet. It hurts because Roy gave him a twenty, and Jason will always be a cheap bastard at heart. Nevertheless, he likes Kori, she deserves this, even if Roy, who will be begging for mercy later, does not. He has to very consciously remove his hand after sliding them over. The urge to snatch them back is strong. “Listen, I really need that fucking bouquet. I am prepared to pay you double the price Grayson paid.”

Marinette actually looks offended. “Just because everyone else in this city is okay with being bribed doesn’t mean I am. You can keep your money.”

“Everyone has a price.” Jason gives her a look. “Name it.”

“Well, I don’t,” Marinette snaps, reaching down for her phone. “You can take your money, and fuck off. Before I get Red Robin over here to flush you out.”

“And here I was, thinking this was neutral territory.”

“It is.” Marinette stiffens. “This place isn’t under Red Robin’s protection, but he’s still my friend. I won’t hesitate to get him over here.”

“How about this then. The bouquet for protection. I can get Red Hood to claim this place.”

“What part of neutral didn’t you get?” Marinette asks, leaning over the counter and getting into his space. From here, just inches apart, her eyes are iridescent. Blue light toxically dripping out of a cracked glow stick. “Miraculous doesn’t get involved in your shit. You all want to wage war on each other? You want to pedal drugs? You want to smuggle shit? That’s cool, but you keep that away from my fucking shop. Miraculous doesn't get involved, you can all kill each other outside.”

She’s kind of terrifying up close. If Jason wasn’t convinced she would disembowel him, he’d be tempted to kiss her. Consent, however, is sexy as fuck.

Jason knows when he’s fighting a losing battle. “Is there any way. Anyway in hell, that I can get my hands on those fucking flowers?”

“Yeah,” Marinette says sitting back down. “You can call Grayson, and have him give them to you. But aside from that, I’ve seen a lot of shit. Sorry buddy, but you can’t buy me or scare me into anything.”

“I’ll call the sorry bastard up right now.”

“I’m not giving you his number.”

“I don’t need you to give me his number, I have it right…” Jason trails off, suddenly he remembers leaving his phone behind.

4) Jason is a petty asshole who has learned that the secret to getting into the flower shop is to think flowers.

Listen, Jason had to make do with drugstore flowers, and Roy’s disappointed puppy eyes for a month after being kicked out on his ass. To add insult to injury, Tim tracked him down two days later, as he was mid drug bust, to tell him to stay away from Marinette.

Okay, it’s not like he hadn’t already been planning to go back, frankly, the shop is a strategic masterpiece. Half of its cred as an urban legend comes from the fact that whoever claimed it would be given an instant power-up. It’s the One Ring to rule them all. Jason has to go back, and convince Marinette that the Red Hood is the one to ally with. He has to.

So yeah he’s going to go back anyway, but now he really wants to. Because Tim, his replacement, dared him. Maybe a bigger person would back down, what with all the external forces building up around the shop, the legend, the neutrality, the many failed attempts, Tim somehow having a vested interest…well, Jason has never been the bigger person.

Not by a long shot.

The first three times he attempts to return, Marinette meets him at the door. She’s quick about flipping the sign from open to closed. Jason, the first time, had tried turning the handle, whatever magic makes that building hate him, makes it lock up the second the sign changes. It’s not Marinette, Jason watched her. Her hands never touched the lock.

The first person he complains to is Roy, of course, who actually gives him the idea. Roy is a genius sometimes. So attempt four ends with him buying a single sunflower. It’s gaudy as all hell, and also the first thing his hand touched after he spent an hour trying to get Marinette’s attention.

She apparently will only talk to him in the brief thirty seconds she spends cashing him out. Which, yeah, that’s fair.

And so it begins. Every day except Tuesday, the only day the shop is closed, Jason goes in, buys a single sunflower, and talks up the Red Hood.

Even if Miraculous never comes into his fold, this will all have been worth it just to have seen the look on Tim’s face the first time he comes in just as Jason's buying his daily flower.

There’s a small hole burned into his wallet, but Kori loves sunflowers.

Jason’s not the only regular, but he’s the most frequent, by the end of his fourth month he knows all the other regular’s sob stories, and everyone and their mother thinks he's sweet on Marinette. That may be the kind of true by this point. He’s worn her down to where she will talk to him as he browses. Even if she also complains that, “It’s pointless. I already have your sunflower set aside.”

Month six marks a distinct turning point in their relationship. He was upgraded from General-Creep to Recurring-Menace to Okay-I-Guess-We’re-Sorta-Friends-Now a while ago. Month six is the month he gains the title of Permanent-Fixture. It’s marked by him walking in and Marinette forcing an apron on him.

“I told Red Robin when he started coming by, that if he was going to hang around than he needed a reason to. So if you want to hang in Miraculous you’re going to work in Miraculous.”

“Unpaid labor is illegal.”

“No, it’s not. It’s just called volunteering.”

5) Getting together actually takes a while.

Jason is relentless when it comes to his recruitment pitches, but he has standards for fuck's sake. No woman actually enjoys it when men flirt with them on the clock. There’s a whole power imbalance thing that makes him sick to his stomach.

Sure Marinette can take care of herself. She’s a force of nature. Jason had offered to help carry potting soil for her once. One time. That was before he saw her lift the thirty pound bag over her shoulder like an empty sack of rice. Marinette can take care of herself, she just won’t.

Jason has seen more than one scummy fuck harass her. She gets quiet….she loses her confidence, and it’s just so wrong to see a person as strong as Marinette look small. He’s not sure what about blatant flirting and bad pick up lines bothers her so much but—Marinette can never know, and they’ll never tell her that the Red Hood tracked each one of them down. Threats are beautiful things. They just make it all come together.

He is a gentleman, even after he starts working with her. While co-workers flirting with each other isn’t as bad, it’s still kind of awful. The problem is that Marinette is always working, she never leaves Miraculous. Even on her off days.

So Jason, never finds the right time to ask her out himself. All the regulars already think they’re dating. His brothers think they’re dating. Alfred, Alfred thinks they’re dating after walking into the shop one time since Jason’s resurrection. He’s thankful his brothers gave him a heads up—not. Alfred walks in to find him behind the counter with a fluffy pink apron on, even his refined British manners are tested. Jason just knows he’s laughing. He knows.

It happens like this, Jason teams up with Batman and Co. to help with a standard smuggling ring. Nothing difficult, the only reason it should have required all of them was because of the shipment size. It should have been easy. It had been easy.

That is until the Joker shows up, Jason freezes, and takes a bullet straight to the stomach.

Stomachs bleed...a lot.

He doesn’t remember much of what happened after that. Stomachs also hurt a lot, and it’s hard to think coherently when you’re in excruciating pain. Jason, blacked out shortly after Dick started putting pressure on the wound. For future reference, while stopping the bleeding might be important, it hurts like fucking hell.

Marinette is the first thing he sees when he opens his eyes. She’s hunched over herself in the plastic chair next to his bed. Someone, probably Dick or Alfred, draped a blanket over her. She looks vastly out of place, like the room itself is sucking the life out of her. The lighting makes her skin almost translucent.

The second thing he sees is the sunflowers covering every inch of the hospital room. There must have been a couple dozen, at least. It was probably closer to a hundred if not more. Despite the pain that comes with laughing, Jason can’t help himself.

His laughter alerts the nurse, who alerts his family. Apparently, they’ve all been camping out in the waiting room. Much comfier couches there. His family wakes Marinette, who turns her piercingly otherworldly eyes on him.

Marinette stays quiet through all his family’s fussing. She stays quiet even after that. All she does is stare. Jason doesn’t think she’s actually seeing him.

“I didn’t think I missed this many days,” Jason jokes, gesturing to the multitude of flowers wrapped around every available surface.

“No, you didn’t.” Marinette’s answer is curt. She’s distracted, Jason really wishes he knew what she was seeing.

“Not a fan of Hospitals?” Jason tries.

Marinette blinks. The cloudy look on her face disappearing as she shakes her head. “No, I really can’t stand them.”

“Me either.” Jason feels an intense desire to continue the conversation, if only to keep Marinette from closing up again. “You know, you didn’t have to visit me.”

“I wanted to,” Marinette says. “Your brother called, and told me what happened. I came by just after you were finishing up in surgery.”

“What about the shop?”

Jason has been working at Miraculous—volunteering because Marinette still doesn’t pay him—for months. He’s invested in the place now.

"It can be closed for a few days,” Marinette says, reaching over to take his hand. Jason lets her, he’s always hated hospitals. It's gotten worse since he came back. The comfort is welcome. “This is more important.”

Jason wants to say something, to take his shot, and ask her out. Because she’s just as important to him, but it feels wrong so, he settles with, “You’re a really good friend Marinette.”

He does his best to ignore the way the words choke him.

“I think,” Marinette starts, only to stop herself. There’s a moment of internal debate before she continues, “I think we both know we’re a little more than just friends.”

6) Jason never does claim Miraculous, it remains perfectly neutral, despite having the Bat-Family practically living out of the apartment upstairs.

“Hey, do you think now that we're dating you can convince Tim to come by out of costume?”

Jason blanks. “What?”

“Tim, do you think you can get him to stop dropping by as Red Robin so much. People are starting to think Miraculous has been claimed as part of Batman’s terf.”

Jason does the most logical thing he can think of. He buries his face in his hands, and groans. “Why did you have to figure it out?”

“Was I…not supposed to?”

“No, no you weren’t. How did you?”

“Jason, there’s only one person you hate as much as Tim, and that’s Red Robin. I’ve seen how you look at both of them. No one makes your eyes scream murder as much as he does. Not even Dick.”

“Oh God,” Jason says wiping a hand across his face. “Does that mean—”

“That I know you’re the Red Hood?” Marinette asks, cutting him off. “Hmm, I’ve known that for longer. Probably since you first started coming around consistently. At first, I thought you had like, the biggest boner for the guy, but then you seemed really into me and well, you talked him up way too much to either not have a crush on him or be him so, I connected the dots.”

[thefloatingstone]

you can't just NOT tell us what caligula did

Oh ho ho ho HO!!!

*cracks knuckles*

My dear sweet innocent anon…

Here’s an incomplete list of things the real Caligula did (because the movie made some of it up… but a lot of it not…). I’m writing it as a basic list because writing it out in detail might actually kill me. It also doesn’t help that since Rome destroyed most of the evidence of Caligula’s reign we have very little documentation on Caligula apart from a few sources, and many of the finer details are argued on whether they’re true or not.

Caligula was Roman Emperor from 37AD to 41AD (You will notice that is only 4 years. During these four years he;

Possibly killed his adoptive grandfather Tibirius to become emperor (we are not sure but there was some suspicion)

Nullified Tibirius’ own grandson from Tibirius’ will on the grounds of insanity.

The first 7 months of him as emperor were actually very good so not much to report there. He was popular and made moves to make himself popular with both the people and the military After falling ill (or possibly poisoned) all of this changed

he started to kill off or exile those who were close to him or anyone he saw as a threatfor any reason

He started to kill or have people executed who said anything negative about his appearance

had his cousin and adopted son Tiberius Gemellus executed, enraging his and Caligula’s joint grandmother who then either committed suicide or was also killed by Caligula

He had his father-in-law Marcus Junius Silanus and his brother-in-law Marcus Lepidus executed as well (again. For little to no reason.)

His uncle Claudius was spared only because Caligula preferred to keep him as a laughing stock.

Is said to have had an incestuous relationship with his favourite sister Julia Drusilla. (Drusilla died at age 38 from a fever)

had his other two sisters, Livilla and Agrippina the Younger, exiled. Caligula was supposedly having an incestuous relationship with both of them as well

Started executing people without trials

Forced the Praetorian prefect, Macro, to commit suicide

Spent so much of Rome’s money on his own extravagance that Rome fell into financial crisis

began falsely accusing, fining and even killing individuals for the purpose of seizing their estates to spend on himself

Started taxing lawsuits, weddings, and prostitution

Started auctioning the lives of Gladiators during shows

Wills that left items to Tiberius were reinterpreted to leave the items instead to Caligula to further his spending on himself

in the first year of Caligula’s reign, he squandered 2.7 billion sesterces that Tiberius had amassed

grain imports were disrupted because Caligula re-purposed grain boats for a pontoon bridge, resulting in a famine

Ok I’m gonna have to elaborate on this because this is some insane shit and this was where the crazy REALLY starts getting out of control. More so than incest and executing people for no reason;

In 39, Caligula performed a spectacular stunt by ordering a temporary floating bridge to be built using ships as pontoons, stretching for over two miles from the resort of Baiae to the neighbouring port of Puteoli. Caligula, who could not swim, then proceeded to ride his favourite horse Incitatus across, wearing the breastplate of Alexander the Great. This act was in defiance of a prediction by Tiberius’s soothsayer Thrasyllus of Mendes that Caligula had “no more chance of becoming emperor than of riding a horse across the Bay of Baiae”.

(imagine being that full of spite and THAT big of a Chad)

anyway, moving on;

He also had 2 insanely large ships constructed to himself during this same time. During the famine and financial crisis.

Decided numerous senators were not trustworthy and had them executed

Forced the senators he did not execute to weight on him and run beside his chariot to humiliate them

marched his troops to the northern shoreline of Gaul as a prelude to the invasion of Britain but then ordered them to collect seashells, which he called the spoils of the conquered ocean.

Declared war on Poseidon and marched his troops to the beach where he ordered them to throw their spears and stab the water

began appearing in public dressed as various gods such as Hercules, Mercury, Venus and Apollo.(Imagine if Trump started showing up in public dressed as Jesus Christ)

began referring to himself as a god when meeting with politicians 

Had himself be referred to as “Jupiter” in several public documents

had 3 temples built where people could worship HIM

Had a different temple which was dedicated to gods be dedicated to him instead. (Imagine if Trump said the Notre Dame is now a place to worship him instead)

would present himself as a god to the public 

had the heads removed from various statues of gods located across Rome and replaced them with his own.

was represented as a sun god on Egyptian coins 

took things a step further and had those in Rome, including senators, worship him as a tangible, living god. 

ordered the erection of a statue of himself in the Jewish Temple of Jerusalem

The Temple of Jerusalem was then transformed into a temple for Caligula, and it was called the Temple of Illustrious Gaius the New Jupiter. 

Slept with other mens’ wives and bragged about it publicly

Would kill people for mere amusement

Once, at some games he was attending, he was said to have ordered his guards to throw an entire section of the audience into the arena during the intermission to be eaten by the animals because there were no prisoners to be used and he was bored

Prostituted his sisters out to other men

Would send troops on nonsensical missions apparently for his own amusement just to waste their time

Turned his palace into a brothel

Planned or at least promised to make his horse Incitatus into a consulate in the senate

DID actually appoint his horse as a priest

Built his horse its own house and a carved marble manger to eat out of

Planned to move to Egypt to be worshipped as a living god

Displayed his 4th wife Milonia Caesonianaked to his friends on several occasions

Taxed the Roman people when his daughter was born to fund her education and dowry

there’s this little extract from Suetonius which idk how to put in a bullet point

“after the birth of his daughter, complaining of his poverty, and the burdens to which he was subjected, not only as an emperor, but a father, he made a general collection for her maintenance and fortune. He likewise gave public notice, that he would receive new-year’s gifts on the calends of January following; and accordingly stood in the vestibule of his house, to clutch the presents which people of all ranks threw down before him by handfuls and lapfuls. At last, being seized with an invincible desire of feeling money, taking off his slippers, he repeatedly walked over great heaps of gold coin spread upon the spacious floor, and then laying himself down, rolled his whole body in gold over and over again.”

Caligula was assassinated in 41AD at the age of 28 by getting repeatedly stabbed.

Here are some direct quotes from him;

Would that the Roman people had but one neck!

Let them hate me, so long as they fear me

I have the right to do anything to anybody

Having punished one person for another, by mistaking his name, he said, “he deserved it just as much.”

And this which is not a quote by the real person but from the film, and despite it not being a real quote I think it’s excellent stuff

I have existed from the morning of the world and I shall exist until the last star falls from the night. Although I have taken the form of Gaius Caligula, I am all men as I am no man, and therefore I am a god.

(feel free to correct any mistakes on my facts in this post by reblogging but do me a favor and don’t @ me in my inbox about how stupid I am for saying x or y.)

consider ☕️Buying me a Ko-fi ☕️

[kitsoa]

Ok after reading your latest kh3 remind meta essay. Are you saying Sora's original lion person chainsaw weilder design is the one Yozora might be recalling? Because that'd be awesome if we got to see that Sora design in the game (also Zidane could be introduced around then as a FF companion). I'm definitely getting the impression Yozora knows a lot about whatever higher power is in the KH universe. Which makes sense since/if he's based off V!Noctis then Yozora should have deep connections to -

2 whatever diety of life/death/rebirth(?) that's most likely active in matters of universal laws. Which doesn't seem all that different from Sora's connection to Kingdom Hearts. How KH seems to choose and favor Sora over all other Keyblade weilders despite many weilders thinking others are more qualified. The big difference is is that Yozora is more aware of this reality questioning relationship then Sora is. But Sora is catching up. If KH1's first quote is anything to go by. Sora's always-

3 been confused and sensed something is wrong by his senseless reality. This alone binds the two characters together. Even characters who know the history of Keyblade wars and the Realm of Light being fractured don't sense how senseless their reality is. But deep down Sora and Yozora naturally question and feel unrest by existence itself. Something is wrong. Something isn't real. Does Yozora know his own current corrupted state even if he doesn't have the reasoning/ability to do anything-

5 about it yet? Does he see Sora as corrupted and needing to go back to his original design in order to fit the uncorrupted story? Whatever the case I think the bartending is important because it serves 2 purposes. 1) More insight/mystery of Yozora's personality and agenda. His idea of saving and connections to the FF crystal mythos that preserve and immortalized characters. 2) foreshadowing Sora's inevitable fate if he loses too much strength. Sora will be immortalized by Yozora. That is a -

6 fact I believe Yozora knows. He doesn't lose. I don't think he thinks he's really lost yet considering he just says 'my powers aren't needed YET'. How ominous. =I Maybe Yozora is in a war where all of reality is collapsing and they're fighting for their right to live on passed being CANCELLED to put it lightly. But Sora is special. He's from a different realm. But Yozora is heavily invested in saving him no matter what. Maybe Sora turning crystal will ensure he survives passed any end?

Oh, thank you anon for really considering that crazy meta essay I wrote.

Re:Sora’s “Original” appearance--> I didn’t want to say it outright because there is ultimately no substance to back up the claim but if we are to assume Yozora doesn’t always look like himself and we have a good suspicion that he is harkening to his V!Noctis-- then yeah-- The only other variation Sora has in the modern consciousness is Beta-Sora. I am alluding to that, which if true would be… admittedly kinda fanservice-awesome, but it would also complete the parallel the two types of endings draw between Sora and Yozora. It’s worth mentioning that… by definition one of these protagonists is wrong so the truth is that only one of them actually “got corrupted” and that is very much Yozora by meta-logic but the inverse created is meant to challenge what is real and fiction and expose the proverbial Creator from the woodworks. 

Re: How much Yozora knows→ Despite potentially not knowing of Nameless Star’s absences, I agree that Yozora has experienced a games-worth of content with the “I wandered here on accident and did some trials” line. He’s clearly encountered someone who has tasked him with Saving Sora and this fated meeting has MoM’s name written all over it. But I hesitate to think that Yozora is more cued in than Sora about the meta-reality. I think he has a different relationship to his dreams than Sora does and it makes his experience in the Final World and the meeting with Sora more grounded on his end. He understands them as ‘not real’. “I don’t look like this” “This isn’t the real world” etc. etc. Sora has more respect for the realm of dreams and thought because his world thrives on the happenings in between the physical world more so than probably Yozora’s does. That and Sora struggles with what is the real world on a regular basis due to his profession. He’s just too close to the action to have the clarity necessary to function. Yet in the end quote, Yozora’s just as confused about what is ‘real or not’ as Sora so it’s even.

As a result, I think Yozora is not aware of his corrupted existence. It’s his hostility to Sora of whom he wishes to ‘save’ that convinces me that he is unknowingly projecting his situation onto Sora (most likely due to some outside manipulation).

Re: Doomed End and Immortalization→ I don’t have the FF context with crystals to bounce off your point but it’s very thrilling to see this ‘crystal=preservation’ idea supported in some way because then his actions are a means to Save Sora. Your doomsday scenario is very enticing because of that.

In the essay, I talked about what it means to be alive and dead in the meta-perspective-- how sharing one's story is a form of immortalized preservation and how the story is never-ending unless something smothers it like executive meddling or the obscurity of time and negativity (a parallel for darkness and light? I once made a meta draft on this exact theme). That would work immensely well with Yozora’s motives but would require him to be more aware of his level of reality than I think the text supports. If we want to really dig in and continue to compare Yozora with V!Noctis and the FF15!Noctis-- knowing that this incarnation of Yozora represents the latter scenario… then that means he could be actively fighting against the ultimate DLC-cancelled fate of FF15. But I honestly think that strays too far from Nomura’s story. 

God! this is good stuff. Big thank you to you anon!!

[cupcakemolotov]

6/? Wow the Sagredos have successfully married into money for like three centuries and not one eep of them being broke has leaked. Truly impressive. Man, I just want like an outside POV, an Herald forum, something about House Baylor. Because how does this look from the outside? One sister married into House Rogan, House Baylor looks like a vassal House but isn't officially. And the new Head of House Baylor got Alessandro Sagredo to leave his blue blood family.

I mean, the Sagredos are fairly scary.

But yes, I find this bit of information to be interesting. You gotta wonder what blackmail is going on behind the scenes. Alessandro obviousy scared the pants off the women he was previously engaged to because he shut the one down hard at the opera. very hard. and she shut up.

7/? Lol tumblr has decided I’ve spammed your inbox with too many asks so I’ll have to continue later. Hopefully you’re received them all. I haven’t even started waxing lyrical about how much I love Catalina. Catalina and Elara are def my fav IA heroines. (I’m so sad that iron covenant #2 is probably years away, although I completely understand why no one would want to write a dark book in 2020).

Catalina and Elara are a great deal of fun. Though I absolute adore the Nevada books. This family is insane, and I hope we keep getting books! (And god, give me Hugh. But yeah. Illona an Gordon have had a particularly rough few years personally, and Hugh is just not an easy book. I can wait.)

8/? i think that's what number I'm up to. I just love Catalina so much. It's just so refreshing to have an Urban Fantasy lead who isn't a gut-reactionary archetype (which don't get me wrong, I also enjoy). I enjoy her methodical planning. I really like her and Nevada's chat. I agree with your comment to the other anon, I think it answered some of the things that fell flat in SF, enough so that it felt planned and plotted.

I honestly think Sapphire Flames is a much better book now that I have Emerald Blaze. I went back and re-read it and it bothered me way less now that I have more information to work with. Which. Is always a good sign about a book in general and how a series is going I think. Its baby-catalina and baby-alessandro and then not!

9/9 Now that I've completely vomited all my EB initial feelings at you... in a hopefully somewhat coherent manner... how did you find EB? What did you love/hate? What do you want to see in Book 6? What gem do you think will be used for Book 6's title? It looks like popular opinion is Ruby in the IA FB group but I kinda want to see them stick to blue/greens/purples) coloured gems. Did you manage to catch any of the Zoom panels with IA? Have a wonderful day! And thank you so much for listening!!!

Over all, I really enjoyed Catalina and Alessandro in his book. I thought they did a good job of working in a bunch of big plot points and smoothing out threads from the previous one that bothered me. As I have said, they clearly went into this book with an understanding of what fell a little flat and made a point to fix it. I so greatly appreciate that about them.

I think in general though, Alessandro was good in this book but also a little off for me. I liked that he answered here questions, I like that he threatened Victoria, I liked that he backed Catalina up. But I felt we could have gotten a little more from in places that would have made things just a little more seamless. They didn’t do a bad job with him, but there was a lot of reflection that happened elsewhere that we got told about. I can’t even tell you where it could have been worked it, it just felt a tiny bit off point. Not a lot, just a little. My favorite scene for them in the book was in the van when he was patching her up! That was a delight. And the scene on the balcony cleared up a lot of things, but I feel like Alessandro in the third will need to grow a bit more. Or to show us the ways he has grown. He needs something to make him just a little more of a real character, though right now I am still struggling to find the words to explain what I even mean with that.

I really do enjoy Catalina. I like how they have done a good job of showing the similarities between the sisters and all their differences. Shes a lot of run while not being Nevada, and I appreciate that. Being the middle child and suddenly the boss I think is a difficult thing for someone and the family dynamics are spot on. I am really looking forward to seeing how she chooses to deal with her problems in the future.

I fucking love Leon. Give me his book. Please.

Also. WHERE IS MY MOMMA BAYLOR AND HEART ROMANCE? WHERE? *GRABBY  HANDS* GIVE IT TO ME.

Grandmother Tremaine is my favorite not-bad guy in this series. And I maintain my suspicions about Linus, and who he is but they haven’t really give us many bread crumbs about who Ceaser is either. And I want to punch Xavier in the face and cannot wait until Catalina takes his smug ass down. The dick.

I dunno, there has been a lot of thought about this and we shall see what happens! I probably would have to read it again to give you more thoughts (which I will be doing probably shortly!) But Illona and Gordon always manages to surprise me with their plot twists, and I do so enjoy that about them.

10/10. Oh wait- I completely forgot to mention- can't wait to see what powers Catalina's dark wings develop. Also super interesting that both Catalina and Alessandro have speedy healing talents (not connected, but attributable to both their respective powers). I wonder if Catalina's green/gold wings have been her passive field this whole time. The making people love her part. Using her wings/song to control/guide people's memories is probably active field?

I think Catalina’s power are going to be very interesting because she is not in a magical  bubble. She also has her other family magic and there is no telling what she got from Tremaine. I think your guess is very solid, but I don’t think her love me bits are entirely passive. But I do think the black wings are potentially a House Secret and something that is going to be very unexpected. But the opposite side of love is fear, right? So yeah. its going to be So Interesting.

[headcanonsandmore]

If it’s not too much too ask I’m very curious about dark lord Hermione before the ficlet, like it seems to imply that during the escape from mm Ron died instead of Dobby but what happened from there??? When was her fight with Harry, it’s implied that it was a long time coming on Harry’s end but was it unexpected from hermiones pov??? I’m sorry it’s just everyone ignores that side of Hermione and content (also thank you!!!)

Thank you for the questions, anon. Yes, I did intend for that to be the case; in that AU, Ron was hit with Bellatrix Lestrange’s instead of Dobby after they got away from Malfoy Manor, and died in Hermione’s arms shortly afterwards. 

Within the timeline of that fic, Harry did stop Voldemort in much the same way. However, Hermione’s worldview began to change in the years after the war, and she began to amass power, working her way up the ranks of wizarding government, and gaining followers who shared her vision. 

Eventually, she became the Minister for Magic, and all seemed well. However, then people began to disappear. Umbridge’s was the one that made Harry begin to harbour suspicions about Hermione. Slowly -over the course of several years- Hermione gained more and more power, until she eventually dissolved the democratic institutions of Wizarding Britain, under the pretence of ‘reforming the system’. While many applauded the dementors being destroyed, and Azkaban being changed to a place of apparent-rehabilitation, Harry began to wonder why so many of the old guard were disappearing. 

In secret, Harry began to investigate just how much Hermione’s “reforms” had effected the way Wizarding Britain was run, and how its people saw themselves. What he discovered shook him to his core. It had never been about ‘rehabilitation’; it had been about ‘re-education’. 

Eventually, he confronted the person who he had previously considered a sister. Hermione used her power to have Harry arrested, and exiled. In that moment, she forsook her first name, and went simply by ‘Granger’ from that point onwards. It was easier to cut that part of herself off, than to be “Hermione” anymore.

Granger was never fully able to stop Potter (as she now called her former best friend) from escaping and trying to undermine her regime (because -by that point- she had basically become the dictator of the British wizarding world, with no opposition against her). All of the old guard had either died, “disappeared”, or fled abroad (the extended Weasley family were now living in exile with Fleur’s family in France). 

The dark lady wasn’t sure why she never had Potter executed. Maybe it was nostalgia for their shared past. But -whenever she was reminded of his existence- Granger could hear a nagging voice in the back of her head, questioning why she had done all this. The voice reminded her vividly of herself as a teenager, before her hope for the future had been destroyed whilst kneeling on the beach outside Shell Cottage. 

Granger never expected Potter to actually voice these nagging doubts on the night of their most recent encounter, but his words cut through the barriers she had put around her heart to cut out the pain. All her work had been to create a world where people would be safe and happy, but was that really what Ron would have wanted? 

The dark lady might not weep, but a small part of her will always have that profound sense of pain and loss, exacerbated by the fear that -if he was still alive- Ron would likely be fighting alongside Harry against her.  

~~~~~~~~~~

Wow, I really got into that prose, didn’t I....

I’m glad that this dark!Hermione fic has generated so many responses from people; I really wanted to highlight that Hermione’s already-muddy moral code could have easily broken. Out of the trio, she’s the person who has the most potential for darkness. And it’s no coincidence that living in a world without Ron (the trio member most tied to the concept of ‘good’) would have made Hermione’s transformation much more likely. 

Don’t get me wrong; I find the concept of a Ron-less universe incredibly sad, but I think it’s important to highlight just how important he is to those around him by showing how things would degenerate without him around. 

Thanks for the ask, anon.