#but I am curious about why they chose the focus they did

[muninnhuginn]

Lowkey fascinated by the decision to hide from the audience when Do-jun was about to die. Because if we look at all the hints* he knew it was soon and yet it's set up as a shock for the audience rather than building it in as an oncoming sense of doom about whether he could break the loop or if he was just doomed to die in the same way.

I think part of it is that if he thought too much about his upcoming death where the audience could see it then it would become increasingly difficult to talk around the fact that he (in his first life) was also involved in it. But they had the choice, I guess, to either play into his upcoming death and see if there was a way to avert it (there's not) or to make it seem that everything is going amazingly and so let the audience (who are aware there's more than an episode left) gain a slow sense of everything working out too well and then *that* is what builds the sense of doom.

The fact his previous close shave was in a car accident and he remembered at that point what had happened to the og Do-jun. That he'd made a will to deliberately leave his mum his Soonyang shares and he'd recently donated his 700m inheritance to charity definitely work in terms of closing off his affairs. The way his memory was so good about when events happened and yet he told Seo Min-young he'd see her on a load of future events he knew he wouldn't make it to. He had to have known that it was that his death would coincide with the medal winning and he knew it couldn't be avoided so he just got his affairs in order quietly. It's possible he managed to block out the exact date he saw Do-jun die the first time (if unlikely - the only reason I'm not 100% sure of it is because it seems cruel to Seo Min-young to ask for another chance when he knows he's about to die) but at the very least, his actions and his earlier thoughts showed he knew it was imminent.

[mediumgayitalian]

okay a few solangelo things i’m curious your take on,

what kind of gift givers do you think will and nico are to each other?

are either of them music nerds? making playlists? gifting playlists? what music do u think they like?

what is their favorite fruit?

do you think either of them keep up with pop culture? are they fans of anything? celebrity crushes? like do you think will would think timothee chalamet is cute bc he lowkey has nico’s vibes and is such a buzzer name for celeb crushes? lolll

and then, do you think nico shamelessly takes will’s sweaters and shirts to wear or secretly swipes them?

ty! love ur blog so much xx

HELL YEAH THANK YOU

what kind of gift givers do you think will and nico are to each other?

i think nico spoils will fucking rotten.

his dad is the god of wealth he is holding NOTHING back. aside from that, he grew up wealthy and spent so so long in the lotus casino. i think he has a rly bad handle on money lol.

however he's such a mysterious guy that i think it doesn't occur to will that nico is actively spending money on him??

like will makes an offhand comment about how he would marry the person who would bring him the mystical rocket launching boba fett. and nico is like word okay and the next day there is a rocket launching boba fett on will's pillow and he's like BRO???? OH MY GOD?????

but he just figures that nico knew someone who had it!! he knows nico is big on figurines & collectibles and has a lot of connections, so he thinks nico just called in a favour.

in reality nico did all those things and also spent like two hundred k lol

basically, nico doesn't even think about it. if he hears a friend express a want that he has to means to acquire...its not even an active choice to him?? he's like well why wouldn't i buy this for them.

and i think this means a whole lot to will!!

he's spent his life in his mom's tour van or a bunk bed. he grew up in two wars. he was responsible for an entire infirmary at 13. he's a nerd and he likes nerdy things but like...collecting takes time. and money he doesn't have, because money isn't really a focus in camp and its not like he's paid lol

so of course there are things that he likes but...imagine being will. imagine having a budget for the INFIRMARY YOU RUN and thinking, like...well the camp has only so much money. i know exactly what these medical supplies cost. i refuse to steal. why would i ever be so selfish to ask for money to be spent on me and the things i like?

and then there's nico, who doesn't need him to ask. who WANTS to give him things he wants, not just what he needs or what he wants for others. what WILL wants. nico will get him.

will on the other hand....he gives away his time like it's free.

he does things for people. constantly. like austin complains about not having anywhere quiet to practice and will builds him a soundproof practice room. you know?

now when nico, who has had no one spend their time on him since bianca....

like his father did not have time for him. even when he lived in the underworld, he was put to work. or else he was bored. it's not like he and hades HUNG OUT, you know?

and of course he had no friends to spend their time on him. even in his first time at camp half blood -- for the first time, bianca didnt have time for him. she chose the hunters for ETERNITY, she said i am done choosing you now. and nico drove percy insane, who certainly didn't have time for him between saving the world. the entire time we saw him in TTC he was being pushed away.

by the time he had hazel, HE was the one pushing himself away before anyone else could. he filled his time so he wasn't waiting for anyone else. besides, through no fault of hers, he and hazel CAN'T give each other as much of their time as they would like!! they live on opposite sides of the country!!

but will.....

gods will. will SEEKS HIM OUT. the first thing will says to him is i have carved out, in my busy healer schedule, three days of time for YOU. not only have i carved out these three days, but in that brief moment of time where i was running around camp, i was thinking about you. you were a PRIORITY and i'm upset that you did not come spend your time with me.

like.....oh my god. can you imagine that? being nico? hearing someone you barely know, at this point, talk about how much time he wants to spend with you? and then as you get closer, he spends SO MUCH time with you!! he makes you a priority!

will walks nico to breakfast and watches him in sword practice and takes out his schedule when nico is making his to make sure they line up. he plans dates and they're FUN and he is so careful to make them enjoyable for nico, too, so much so that he forgets his nerves.

the biggest gifts they give to each other is noticing, i think. i see you, i see what you need and wont ask for, and i care enough to give it to you anyway.

are either of them music nerds? making playlists? gifting playlists? what music do u think they like?

will is the HUGEST MUSIC NERD IN THE WORLD.

he may not have many musical talents himself but music was naomi solace's whole world. you bet your ass it's everything for him, too.

he is teased for his love of country, and he does love country (everybody loves country if you hate country you are lying to yourself, i know you sing along to before he cheats with your whole chest), but he has a VAST music taste.

he is a britney spears stan. i will not be convinced otherwise.

nico, on the other hand, is not nearly as ignorant about music as people pretend he is. y'all he was in a casino/arcade until like 2006!!!!! do you think it was silent in there!!!!! do you think he is not the absolute king of just dance and DDR!!!

however he was, like, 10. so i think he's familiar with a lot of songs but in the way you were when you were a kid, you know?? like i could sing paparazzi w my whole chest beginning to end flawlessly at eight years old, but i would not have been able to recognise lady gaga by name or sight.

i think he and will make somewhat of a game out of it. the first time they hang out, nico is NERVOUS beforehand. like for hours. will said they were going to have a chill day bc he has time off, but what are they supposed to DO?? before they were actively doing stuff together. will was teaching nico first aid basics, or nico was helping him around the infirmary; they were helping rebuild camp together. sure, they were talking, but they had something to focus on if things got awkward or conversation faded naturally.

that is VERY DIFFERENT from just hanging out in person. is nico supposed to have conversation starters prepared? how much silence is rude? is will going to finally decide he's boring? or weird? will is such a hyper person!!! how is nico supposed to entertain him!!

meanwhile will is in his cabin freaking the fuck out to his siblings like GUYS HES GONNA THINK IM A WEIRD NERD DORK LOSER 😭😭😭.....WHAT IF HE SAYS THE WORD SAND AND I GO ON THE ANAKIN SKYWALKER RANT ON REFLEX FUCK KAYLA WHAT DO I DO I DONT KNOW HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS LIKE A NORMAL PERSON HE IS SO OUT OF MY LEAGUE

so he calls his mom 💀

and his mom is like baby....you are a disaster are you aware. and hes like thanks MOM i know i need HELP OKAY

and naomi is like well you got on with my backstage crew just fine. and hes like well yeah we just talked about music that was easy.

...

OH THANKS MOM YOURE SO SMART

and he's like wait nico has spent a lot of time in the underworld...he might not be very up to date!! this'll be awesome. so he stays up till like 3 on the big house computer carefully making nico several CDs worth of playlists.

he makes HOURS of music. way more than they could ever listen to in one day, but he gets carried away. he makes a playlist with his favourite country music, including his moms stuff obviously, with rock music he thinks nico in particular will like, pop punk stuff, regular pop, an entire CD dedicated to the icon herself kesha (whom he knows personally bc she sun backup vocals for his mom when she was a teenager), some musicals, and some iconic european music to top it off. he has a little bit of EVERYTHING.

most important, though, he makes a CD with the top 100 billboard songs from the years 1958 (when it started) to 1985. he doesnt have enough time to do it all the way to this year in one night but vows to work on it when he has time.

when he goes to nico's cabin, he comes with a stack of CDs as long as his arm and chiron's CD player. he's practically sparkling with excitement; when nico opens the door he is already halfway through a sentence lol.

for four straight hours, they just listen to song after song, will pausing after each one to ask what nico thinks. he recognises a lot of them, even though he didn't know their names, but even still he's pretty quiet at first. but as they go on it gets hard not to get caught up in wills excitement, and he dances like such a dork, anyway, is it his fault for laughing? and those four hours pass like MINUTES and suddenly its curfew and will has to go.

this becomes their tradition! will plays a song, nico reviews it. even as they learn how to hang out with each other in different ways, it becomes reflex -- when there's a song playing will looks at nico for a reaction. when they're with others, in public, whenever.

the first time nico makes will a playlist he cries.

the playlist is called sunshine.

will plays on his walkman until its worn right through.

what is their favorite fruit?

at first will thinks nico doesn't like fruit at all because he has to force this dumbass to eat fruit and vegetables. all he eats is like. cereal and sandwiches. it stresses will the fuck out.

he's out here plopping a bowl of fruit on nico's table like eat this whole thing or i'm gonna whoop your ass before scurvy does. (he is genuinely afraid nico is going to get scurvy, although its not a very effective anxiety because hes kind of deeply afraid of scurvy in general and is always trying to push people to eat oranges lol).

nico ALWAYS drags his feet about it. at one point will gets worried that nico just straight up doesn't like fruit and starts fretting about synthetizing supplements.

turns out nico is just, like...a little pretentious. about fruit particularly. in his defense, he has been all over the world. like he's had indian mangoes and algerian clementines okay it is VERY hard to settle for stuff grown in north america as nice as the demeter greenhouses are.

his favourite fruit ever is the lemon though. he had a lemon tree in his backyard when he was a kid that he doesn't remember, exactly, but he remembers how it tastes. will brings him a lemon once and almost as if his hands are working on their own, he cuts a slice, removes the peel and pith, puts it in a jar of sugar, and shakes to coat it, like his nonna would do secretly when he mama wasn't looking. its the best thing he's ever tasted.

will is a fruit fanatic, on the other hand. he steals strawberries every time he walks by the fields. the demeter cabin has to count their blueberries every night because he can and will eat them all when no one's looking.

his favourite, though, and he never ever gets it at camp, is prickly pear. in the summers before camp he would go to the desert with his mom and pick enough to make his stomach hurt -- he's never home when they're in season now, so sometimes when she's free shell drive up to new york just to bring him a box of them. she knows he's busy and cant leave camp in summers but she wants him to have that, at least.

do you think either of them keep up with pop culture? are they fans of anything? celebrity crushes? like do you think will would think timothee chalamet is cute bc he lowkey has nico’s vibes and is such a buzzer name for celeb crushes? lolll

i think all year-rounders are into pop culture just fine, but they're a few years behind. except for music -- will knows music. but things like movies and tv shows and memes, they either get updated from their summer-only friends or they stumble upon in naturally when it's not longer relevant lol.

nico, though, has an encyclopedic knowledge of old pop culture, because the lotus got new tech and games and movies before literally anyone else. he saw back to the future before it was in theatres and it changed his life. he quotes it all the time and no one has called him out on it then, but it is only a matter of time.

(he has seen star wars. he saw star wars before will was alive. but it is 100% funnier to pretend he doesn't know what a galaxy is and watch will's eye twitch when he asks him about luke skyrunner)

and then, do you think nico shamelessly takes will’s sweaters and shirts to wear or secretly swipes them?

yes absolutely. but he's super embarrassed about it at first so he genuinely STEALS them, not just borrows them.

it's a heist and everything. he shadow travels into the apollo cabin at like three in the morning and rifles through will's shelf. when he gets back he panics and shoves it under his mattress, where it lives in shame for four months. will just thinks it must have been an unfortunate victim of some poor sick child or bleeding demigod and writes it off.

after several months, during which nico thinks about the sweater ALL the time but cannot physically force himself to touch, nico finally gets brave enough to take it out from under his mattress. he just stares at it for a long ass time, wrinkling it in his clenched hands. it's just a hoodie, you know?? who cares.

nico cares. obviously.

eventually he gets so annoyed with himself that he just yanks it on expecting to be able to tell himself like SEE you dumbass it's just a piece of clothing it literally does not matter. except.

except.

the hoodie still smells like will.

somehow.

and that is.

well.

he would rather dunk his head into the river of fire than admit it, but he melts. the hoodie is old as hell and worn and so so so so soft, gods, no wonder will wears it all the time. he never wants to take it off ever.

for weeks, whenever he's alone in the cabin, he wears the hoodie. it stops smelling like will pretty quickly but he doesn't mind, it's still the most comfortable thing ever. it becomes second nature to walk into his cabin, throw off his jacket, and tug the hoodie on, wearing it to bed.

on one night, and of course it's the hermes' cabin fault, everyone is rushing out of their cabin to see what the fresh fuck is sounding like twenty four fire alarms at once and also a nuclear explosion. nico, in his haste, does not take off the hoodie.

will, whipped, makes sure his siblings are okay and then turns immediately to find nico. he Sees The Hoodie. nico Sees Him See The Hoodie. nico tries to flee.

will has longer legs and also spots a teasing opportunity, so hera herself could not stop him.

will teases him to pieces but is also visibly pleased. the next morning nico finds another hoodie of will's hung over his desk chair.

he wears will's hoodies all the time.

THANK YOU FOR SENDING THESE IN I HAD SO MUCH FUN

[saintsenara]

I’m curious why you loathe the implication that wizards are immune to muggle diseases. Is it because it reinforces the idea that they aren’t really the same species as muggles?

thank you very much for the ask, @urupotter!

and the answer is - yes, pretty much.

how the body is understood, how illness and disability are thought about, how the medical system works etc. are all questions that i am primed to obsess over in any piece of media - even when they're not actually significant parts of the story.

which is to say, i completely understand the reason why the harry potter series treats these topics in the way it does. magical medicine isn't one of the themes the story is designed to focus on - which means that its purpose is as incidental worldbuilding detail which reinforces the whimsical vibe of the earlier books and the darker vibe of the later ones, and which means that its treatment in the text makes sense within the setting and genre conventions of canon. harry being able to take a bludger - a cast-iron cannonball moving at speed - to the head and living to tell the tale is the same as john wick being able to fall from a great height, land on his back, and then get up and walk around: he's an action hero in a fantasy.

and so wizards being more physically durable than muggles - and also wizards having their own magical diseases, and being immune to muggle ones - all makes sense within the context of the books as literature. kids don't want to read about harry having a cold. they want to read about him being a wizard.

but when i'm deciding to enjoy myself by taking the question of just how fucked-up wizarding society is much more seriously than canon does... the implication that wizards are immune to muggle diseases and that they are broadly unaffected by physical trauma unless that trauma has a magical cause really bothers me. entirely - as you say - because it directly undermines the series' thesis that the purity of magical blood is irrelevant and that the wizarding world's dehumanisation of muggles and muggleborns by treating them as, essentially, separate, lower species is wrong.

the main canon example of this which i detest is dumbledore's suggestion in half-blood prince that merope gaunt could have survived childbirth if she'd simply "raised her wand to save her own life". after all, if a little bit of magic makes one immune to experiencing complications during childbirth [unlike thousands upon thousands of muggles throughout history, who would probably have very much liked to have lived to see their children grow up]... then voldemort is completely justified in thinking merope's death was a selfish, shameful, deliberate choice.

[i do understand that the idea merope chose to die is primarily included in the text so dumbledore can segue into saying that lily "had a choice too", contributing to the gradual reveal in half-blood prince and deathly hallows that she's the key to the whole mystery. but i still think that jkr could maybe have though a little bit harder about what she was suggesting with this than she evidently did...]

and so i think in fandom it's both fun and important not to accept the idea that wizards are automatically resistant to anything which might kill, injure, or disable a muggle - especially because it lets us really play with some of the big worldbuilding questions surrounding the conventions and institutions of wizarding society.

what do disability rights look like in a world which is so rabidly intolerant of difference, and which appears not to have any sort of welfare state? the nhs is a recent invention, created in a muggle britain which is culturally and institutionally separate from the wizarding one: so is treatment at st mungo's free - and, if not, what happens to those who can't pay? how is queerness understood in a society which appears to have views on sexual expression which are fairly conservative - and how does this mean the wizarding state responded to the aids crisis? what do reproductive rights look like in this kind of society? if the dementor's kiss results in - essentially - a vegetative state, what is done with the people the kiss has been performed on? what might it be like for your relative to develop dementia at 100... when you know they might live to 250? what impact do biases about blood status have on how muggleborn patients are treated?

i just think it's interesting!

[ranbling]

Thank you for answering my ask! You mentioned something I (somehow) forgot to mention, the fact that yea the reason why Chase’s dad gets more focus in the fandom is simply because we not only get to actually see him but also that Chase directly expresses anger towards him. I am curious tho as to why his mum gets barely any mentions though? Like you’ve said it seems like we don’t even get to hear her name. If we were to interpret it as an “artistic choice” let’s say, I guess it could be read as him just blocking out those memories, or like I’ve sort of mentioned in my last ask, Chase seeing blaming her failures on his father leaving, which is why he’s more upset at his fathers actions than at his mothers (because admitting that only one parent failed you is much less painful than admitting that both of them did. But that is another story.) I’ve also seen somewhere that he’s got a sister? Which  I’m guessing also isn’t that explored on, as I also didn’t see any name or trace of her. Kind of a shame because I think that just adds another layer to his family background  and upbringing.

To summarise: Chase got strong daddy issues, Chase got even stronger mommy issues(potentially)

So, I think Chase as a character is very secretive about things that matter. He makes up heroic stories to flirt with girls, has a whole fake reason as to why he wanted to become a doctor, but doesn't really talk about his personal things. He only opens up to the kid with the alcoholic mom to help, he tells the nun about the seminary school, but the team does not know about it and he only talks even about his father when he literally shows up and Chase can't avoid talking about him. His mom on the other hand is dead and had been for a long time. I can't remember if we know exactly how old Chase was when she died (or if it was even mentioned) but he wasn't even an adult yet. It's in the past and I do think Chase is chosing to just... not focus on it. His mom was an alcholic, she is dead now and it's easier to just not bring her up

So yep, I def think he blames his mom alcholism on his dad leaving (and possibly cheating on his mom) and it's just easier for him. He left and everything is his fault and the fact that both of his parents failed him can be blamed on Rowan

Also, his sister gets brought up in s8, but it's just a little mention and I'm not there yet in my rewatch and honestly I can't even remember what they said about her. I know she is much younger than Chase, so that's another trauma

other explanation of why it's not really brought up: it's the House show and the other characters' past is not really relevant to the show, so they only give us little snippets to get some kind of backstory, but don't expand on it

Also I'm really enjoying your thoughts, so thank you for sending these asks!!

[cocogum]

The dragon HAS to be Draconiros.

‼️ SPOILERS FOR THE GREAT WAVE ‼️

So a while ago, back when chapter 1 recently came out, a French YouTuber by the name of Zaki theorized that the dragon in Yugo’s nightmare might have been Draconiros.

For those who don’t know or don’t remember the dragon he was referencing, here is a short recap:

Draconiros is the dragon of dreams.

His job is to govern the dreams and nightmares of the Twelvians. People suspect he might have taken the form of Grougalorasalar while talking to Yugo.

Despite never meeting Yugo, he could have watched over the Twelvians through their dreams. This means that he might have seen Oropo's dreams, as well as Yugo's own, giving him insight into Yugo's future actions and indirectly caused consequences. If true, this theory would explain why he holds a grudge against Yugo. It currently stands as the most compelling theory among all others.

(this small segment was just something I pulled out of a post I made when chapter 1 came out)

But why am I mentioning him all of a sudden?

Because the next chapter, which is chapter 4, will come out today late at night and the cover for the chapter shows an individual we have never seen before.

No matter how much we try to distinguish who is the person underneath the hood, there’s no one we know that fits the exact figure the cover is showing. But when we take a look at the Draconiros theory, we can see so many physical similarities to Draconiros’ form.

For a better idea of what I’m talking about, here’s Draconiros’ dragon form and human form placed side by side.

And here is Draconiros in the Dofus game with the only things different about him are his clothes having different colors and patterns.

The image depicted on the cover of chapter 4 appears to be a humanoid figure. In order to gain a better understanding of Draconiros, let's focus our attention on his human form.

Upon examining the cover, it becomes apparent that the shadowed figure depicted is male, although some details remain undisclosed. We can also assume that he’s quite tall given how solid he seems. A closer look reveals that the man possesses a sturdy jaw and a broad neck. Upon comparison with Draconiros' physical features, it is evident that the two share a similar bone structure in these areas.

Based on the three main key points - the jaw, neck, and tall stature - I am absolutely confident that these two are the same person. There is no doubt in my mind that everything fits perfectly after noticing these major physical similarities. It's only makes me fully believe that Zaki was right.

But again, the reasons why I’m even bringing this all up are because 1) Chapter 4 is approaching and this figure will obviously make an entrance soon, and 2) I’m still so very confused about why Draconiros did not reveal his dragon form to Yugo.

If this is actually Draconiros, then why would he purposely show Grougalorasalar’s dragon form and not his?

No matter how good the Draconiros theory is, it doesn’t change the fact that Draconiros chose one of the primordial dragons’ forms instead of simply taking his.

Remember, he’s the dragon of dreams, he can invade a person’s mind and make up anything he wants including changing his appearance.

But why change his appearance in front of someone he loathes?

He had no problem telling Yugo TO HIS FACE that he absolutely despises him and will hunt him down. If he’s so bold with his words, why not just show himself completely to him? Because he assumed the form of Grougalorasalar, the attention was diverted from him whether this was a deliberate act or not.

I can't understand why he chose to conceal his true identity by taking the form of a dragon from the primordial era. I'm also curious why he picked Grougalorasalar, out of all the dragons available.

So because the theory has one decision that stands out as strange, the one being Draconiros choosing to take Grougalorasalar’s form instead of just using his own, it makes it difficult for me to fully accept it.

It just seems so unnecessary for him to use another dragon’s appearance for this. But then again, the only dragon, or any divinity really, capable of entering someone’s dreams like that is Draconiros.

[justrightofanevening]

As soon as you make up your mind to talk to Brian, he looks up first, eyeing you carefully.

"It's been a while since we've seen you out like this. What's the occasion?"

You don't know what to say. You hadn't planned for this, and you certainly didn't want Marius to know you were only doing this because he asked. What kind of first impression would that be?

"I was just...curious about the rest of you. There's...a lot I don't know about you, that's all."

He smiles.

"Well, if it's me you want to talk to, I have no issues with that."

How would he know you wanted to talk to him if he was the one who spoke first? You don't bother to ask, as he begins to rattle off facts that you're sure he's had to recite to you before.

"My name is Drumbot Brian, I'm the pilot here on the Aurora. Well, she mostly flies herself, but me and Nastya work together to make sure everything stays in order."

You nod along, absentmindedly playing cards as you try to hold onto the information he gives you.

"You've been here for quite a while, but it's true we haven't had a lot of chances to talk. It's a shame you went and ruined everything."

...What?

You can feel a static in the air, your hair standing on end as you struggle to focus.

"Why did you leave? Why did you come here? And why would you stay?"

"You should go back. We don't want you here."

No. This was wrong, and you knew it, so why wouldn't it stop? You try to focus, to ground yourself, but the voice ringing in your ears was a painful distraction.

"Do you know who I am? Would you be sad if your fate led to my demise? Who am I? Who are you? Do you even know?"

No, you don't. You're not sure how to respond, or if it would even be the right thing to do. Should you just ignore it until it goes away? But you can't do that every time. What if he's actually trying to talk to you, and this is simply interrupting him? What if he asks you a question and you can't respond?

"HA! Take THAT!"

"A full house! This round is MINE!"

You jump in your seat, suitably distracted and frankly terrified. The world around you shifts back into focus, and you're relieved. Marius seems to be looking at you strangely, but everything looks...Normal.

You lean to the side and whisper "Does this game even use full houses?"

Marius shrugs. Perhaps you chose the wrong person to copy.

In any case, it seems you've once again missed out on the conversation, as the others begin to chat without you. Were you not meant to be here? Should you try again? Was it even worth it?

...Usually this is the part where you would feel your will being taken from you, that awful sensation of the world slowing to a halt as your choice is made for you. Where had it gone? Were you...alone?

"I need your help."

No one seems to understand what you mean.

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[korgbelmont]

Choices Insiders January 2024

Happy new year everyone! Hope you all enjoyed and are looking forward to the year ahead!

Actually back this time with this month's Insiders. Apologies for not doing my normal post on the December Insiders, but I was just too ill to be able to focus so decided it was best to leave it.

Anyway! Here we go. New year, new post.

So I chose other and this is what I put;

Found it while scrolling for games on the playstore and thought "yeah, give that a go".

That was in 2018 and here I am haha

I haven't seen anything on Unbridled as to what people think of it, so I won't say much. I'll give it a go when it begins it's release and see what it's like.

Same as above. I'll give it a go when it begins it's release and see what it's like. Other than that, I can't say much.

Let me know what you think of both this and Unbridled if you have played them!

So slight confession with both of these. I've only got to the first two chapters of Ship of Dreams when it began it's release and I've only played the first Chapter of Cursed Heart 2. It's that thing of forgetting one week and then just keep forgetting. I am planning to catch up with it over the weekend as I am intrigued by it and even though for me it's only been one chapter, I'm interested by new characters Oleander and Jack.

I never actually attempted this. I had thought about it, but I can't remember why, but I decided not to have a go. Congrats to those who saw it all the way through!

I haven't played DnD in years, last time was not long before everything hit and my friends and I could no longer meet up to do so. But if we do decide to, I may have a look at the sheets on the wiki and pop a character in to play as haha

Having seen the official cover for Hot Shot, I know which one was used. But to be honest, a majority of covers these days are very similar, so I don't think much.

One thing I would be interested to know is what lead to choosing Ice Hockey as the sport.

Given that they mentioned the shower in particular, I'm guessing there is a scene with the MC and Love Interest in the shower.

The third image makes me think that it is going to be from the CG that is usually seen in the first chapter. Maybe the Love Interest intercepting it or something...

Putting these two as I wanted to discuss a couple things about Blades 3. Firstly, I am surprised a BK3 is happening. This one I feel is the final one as usually they only go up to 3. The second bit is that I am surprised at how early it has been currently scheduled. I can see it changing as it did happen with BK2, but yeah. Same with Crimes 3 to be honest on both points.

Okay, so a couple of new titles, but first I want to speak about The Deadliest Game as when I opened up this morning, I found out about the VIP Exclusive prequel. It has me wondering if we will see this more often or if it just a one off. It does mean though that it looks like it has something related to gambling.

Right, next up is Along Came Treble and The Ghost of Us which were announced last month. I've seen people say about how it is a music book (maybe it's meant to be a mature version of Platinum). I'll give it a go when it begins it's wide release.

The Ghost of Us sounds like a book that could be a book set in two time periods about two lovers reincarnated and their ghosts of their past selves guiding them to the other. Not much information other than the title to go on at the moment.

So the first new new title here is Filthy Rich, and to be honest, it screams that it's a more mature book.

The other new title is Hearts of Fire. I think I remember them saying about a Firefighter book at somepoint last year, and here it is.

But before all of that, there is Immortal Desires 2. I am really looking forward to this one. It was such a welcome surprise to see the 180 and have a sequel greenlit. Looking forward to more Gabriela and curious to see who the villains of this one are.

First Wide Release isn't until next month. I am curious as to why it got pushed back, maybe they're trying to keep with their VIP release schedule and keep double month releases together...

That's it for this month. As always, I will do my best to nab screenshots from one of their other social accounts and post on here.

Keep safe everyone!

[skylights422]

Time for my second post before the new X-Men 97 episode: opinions on The Plot of the first three episodes!

Overall, I've been having a ton of fun with it. The first episode had a lot of fun parallels to Night of the Sentinels and worked well as a sort of re-introduction to the team. The second episode was intense but juicy. (I do understand the critiques I've seen of Magneto's speech - there are certain parts I think were done well, and I did automatically go 'oh hey they're talking about his Jewish background!' when he started talking so I don't think they...fully...removed it, but other parts of it were confusing and kinda lost the plot and yeah, I agree with what others of have said about the original speech being a lot more direct and powerful) I DO think they are mostly doing Magneto well in that his intensity, his drive to protect mutants, and his relationship with Charles are all still well done and those were all present in the original cartoon as well. Sometimes I almost wanted him to go villain mode more lol just because it's always impressive and sometimes the human characters are KIND OF ASKING FOR IT. I do wonder if he will stay on the hero side from now on or if he'll eventually end up a villain again - I could see it going either way for this show!

For episode 3, it was a RUSH but it was a fun rush! The horror was spooky, the action solid, and there were some really cool emotional beats as well. It...definitely would have worked better as a 2-4 episode story arc, because some of those plot beats would have been SO GOOD with more room to breathe. And it definitely ran into my pet peeve of 'the only explanation to some of this is "uhh well it happened in the comics"' which I never like - why was she called the Goblin Queen in this version? It's a pretty specific title that didn't have anything to do with her powers or motivation or anything. Or was there a reason she chose the name Madelyn Pryor in this version? Who knows. I do think if you HAD to fit a whole arc into one episode, this was the best it could be done, but I still wish they simply had more episodes in the season to tell their story (like, 24 instead of ten). Because yeah, each episode has felt like a one-shot almost, but not in a normal bottle episode way, in a 'each episode is one arc unto itself', with just certain character threads carrying over.

This isn't a huge issue for me since when I first heard there was ten episodes in the season I went 'oh yeah, this is gonna be a huge mess'. xD So my standard is 'if it's a FUN mess I'll be fine with it, since I love these characters and am excited to see more content with them - and maybe if it's big enough future seasons could have more eps'. And it has definitely been a fun mess so far!

ALSO I AM EXCITED TO SEE A STORM ARC. Her losing her powers is UGH, but I know it's gonna be a whole Thing and so it will be cool to see her get more focus. I also really liked seeing her friendship with Jean! There was not enough varied team friendship duos originally for me, and what they got going seems really nice.

AND MISTER SINISTER IS BACK. I do think he's a very intimidating villain, so I am curious to see what they do with him and what kind of character dynamics it brings out in the heroes. :O

All in all, I have my critiques and quibbles, but I am HYPED and still having a good time!

[iliveforyouilongforyouvesuvia]

Hey, how are you doing? How was coming back to work?

If I can be curious, let me ask you this super hard (or maybe simple, it depends), question: who's your favorite character and why? Also, which one do you find the most easy to understand/write?

Have a nice day my friend, cheers 😊

@dolceaspidenera hi! I'm so happy to hear from you! ^.^

And ooh, those are good questions. I won't answer them completely, but I will give you honest answers ^.^ I apologize in advance for what turned into a character analysis mini-essay XD

I do have a favorite character of the M6, but I prefer not to write like it on this blog. I think it's awesome when fan creators focus on their favorite characters - it means that everything they make is done out of love! - and it's almost something you'd expect in a dating sim fandom when you have to choose one specific character to experience most of the story with. I initially chose not to do that just because I genuinely enjoy writing for connections with all of the M6, even if there's very few that I would want a specifically romantic connection with. Every single one of them are characters that I'd be happy to get to know, as a lover, or an honorary sibling, or a close friend.

The longer I write like that, the happier I am that I do. It means I've explored aspects of the world of the Arcana that I wouldn't have initially been invested in, but that have contributed so much to the story! It also means that I get to chat with people who have so many different perspectives on the game because of their own preferences, and I've learned a lot from them!

As to who is more or less easy to write - that changes based on the prompt. For example, prompts that reference pre-prologue Vesuvia are a lot harder to write with Portia, simply because she didn't arrive there until after Lucio's "death" and because the game doesn't really delve into the life she's had there since. And the hardest prompts for me to write in general are for MC with specific familiars, only because those are characters I haven't read about XD

There are also themes I wish I could explore more, sometimes, for all the M6, but doing so would require so much speculation that it would be hard to keep the headcanons feeling "canon." Julian's life before Vesuvia, for example - he's been knocking all around the world since his teens, and of the two or so decades that that comprises, he's only spent a few years of that in Vesuvia. He glamorizes his adventures when he talks about them, but nobody in their late teens acts as a medic on a battlefield for their apprenticeship without taking away some kind of baggage. When does he break down without dramatics or smokescreens? When does he learn to talk about a painful past without trying to redirect his hurt into drama? When does he learn the healthy kind of selfishness that lets him be completely honest?

Asra's so emotionally private it's hard to get a read on them sometimes. We know they're deeply in love with MC and that that's been a shaping influence on them for the last nine years - but what else? There's so much about him that aches to be known, which he frequently tells MC in his route, but he still treats his relationship with them like it's fragile and new. What happens when things are more settled and they know MC isn't at constant risk of falling apart? Did they ever feel betrayed by MC for not leaving Vesuvia with them? Did they ever feel resentful of MC for causing that much relational pain, or at the very least, for holding them in a full-time caregiving role for three years? When does he learn to depend on them to the point of exposing them to his own ugly thoughts and feelings?

Nadia, for all of her capacity, is still very emotionally young. She's just beginning to process her feelings regarding her own family, which stem from her childhood and were never addressed directly until they were invited to the Masquerade. She has a deep-seated lack of faith in her own strengths, which MC has had the chance to help her overcome, but that attitude has been affecting her perception of other people's opinions of her for most of her life. At what point does she learn how to interpret someone's concern for her as something other than belittlement? At what point does she learn how to recognize and apologize for her own mistakes in a relationship without experiencing it as self-rejection? At what point does she learn to recognize someone else's strength without comparing it to her own and feeling challenged if she doesn't measure up?

Muriel's especially hard to predict physically. He has a whole host of reasons to feel the way he does about his body in relation to himself and others. It could be easy to say that, as he heals in his relationship with MC, he learns to enjoy and seek out physical pleasure as he overcomes trauma (in multiple ways, like food, and comfort, and intimacy). But when it does come to physical intimacy, Muriel is so easily read as demi/asexual that his interest in that aspect of a relationship doesn't really act as a good benchmark for healing. Maybe his aversion to touch is only trauma-related, and underneath that gruffness is a pent-up, touch-starved lover. Maybe he stays consistently disinterested in that kind of physical pleasure, simply because that's the way he is - and there is nothing wrong with that. But we don't know how that progresses.

So much of Portia's life is missing. We don't know much of what her life was like before she came to Vesuvia after Lucio's "death", and we honestly don't know much of what it was like after. We know that she's friends with all the palace employees and that she has a close connection with Nadia, and that's it. It's hard to know how she fits into a post-canon community because she remains so detached from the other M5 throughout her story. Most of what we know of her life with MC afterwards is that she spends a lot of it on a ship. She's the kind of person who thrives in building and maintaining community, and yet we have so few clues about what that looks like. Does she become like family with the sailors, assuming that the ship keeps the same crew? Does her new status give her a peer-based relationship with Nadia? Does she try to keep Julian in her life, or do they drift apart again? Does she eventually create a new home base in a different country?

And, well, I've already a written a whole character analysis of Lucio. We know that he's determined to become an honest man, but we don't know how that plays out. Does he get tired? Does he find a stopping point at "morally gray"? Does he stick it out and become one of the most emotionally healthy characters? Does he ever settle down somewhere else and build a life there? Does he stay in touch, or reconnect with anyone from Vesuvia and build a new friendship with them?

Anyways, those are some of the rabbit trails I let my brain loose on sometimes, and those are a lot of the character aspects I have a harder time writing for because it's so open-ended. Maybe another creator will read this and have answers I don't yet XD

Thanks for your questions, friend, I hope you don't mind my mini-essay!

brainrot

[demonslayedher]

What if Kanae had lived and Shinobu had died? How different would the former be compared to the latter? Add-on: How would Kanae have reacted during the events of Wasp's Nest in place of Shinobu?

I am so touched and honored every time I'm asked about The Wasp's Nest. T^T But before that, let's just focus on the canon-as-we-saw-it side of things by writing a short death scene:

When Kanae found her, Shinobu had no way of speaking. Aside from the gash down her right lung, something else was wrong with her. In her panic, Kanae couldn’t think of what, and held her tiny, little sister for one last time.

“Shinobu… Shinobu…! Who did this to you?” she asked blankly, questioning the whole universe for how it could do this to her sister, revenge the furthest thing from her mind. Shinobu, however, was lucid, and revenge was exactly what she desired. Her blood vessels pounded not with the last efforts to extend her life, but with pure hatred and rage for whomever she had spent her fruitless last battle against. Besides a being a demon, whoever this demon was, they earned a special amount of enmity.

With short Breaths out her nose while keeping her mouth shut tight to stop the guzzling, Shinobu raised a hand to point at Kanae’s eyes, and Kanae spoke on her behalf. “One of the 12 Moon Demons…”

She pointed upward.

“…An Upper Moon…!”

She traced two horizontal lines in the air.

“…Upper Moon Two!? Shinobu! Your poison would never be enough against a demon like that! Why didn’t you wait for me? Why did you take them on by yourself?”

With the last burst of strength, Shinobu stressed the Corp hand signal for ‘don’t breath in.’ She blazed her last conscious stare into Kanae’s eyes, branding her with this warning. Her eyes then slowly rolled and closed, and her hand fell.

“Shinobu… Shinobu…!!”

--

yeah ok that hurt

The real question is whether Kanae would handle her grief in a healthier way that Shinobu did, trying to be the new embodiment of her sister's personality and wishes, which wasn't fooling anybody who already knew them both. I really don't see Kanae doing this, but it sure would be funny if she tried, she'd be so bad at it. The scene on the roof would place out with Tanjiro asking her if she's tired and Kanae just letting the whole act drop and saying, "phew, yes, that gets exhausting!!"

As for the events of the fic, I'm got a smattering of writings and doodles below. As we didn't get to explore her much in the fic (as her absence was likewise part of what set the tone for the role of Tsuguko in the Butterfly Mansion), this will have a special focus as being from the first Tsuguko's perspective.

---

My name is Ichijo Tomoe. I’m a Kanoto in the Demon Slayer Corp. My Breath is Flower Breath.

I was the oldest daughter in my family. I had a mother and father, an older brother, and three identical triplet sisters. They were much younger than me, and were treated as the glittering stars of our neighborhood. Everyone always delighted in seeing three of the same smiling faces, with their hair in bows and buttons all over their Western dresses, and strangers often bothered us wanting to take their photograph.

I loved each one of them dearly, and the demon who attacked my family ate each one in front of me. It had come for them, curious what a rarity like triplets may taste like. It killed my brother first at the door, and then my mother who ran to him, and my then my father, who was ripped away as he tried to shield us daughters. I still have the scar on my arm from his fingernail. The demon chose to spare me, intending to eat me once it had appetite later, and it kept me trapped under a pile of broken furniture. I could only watch and listen as they were each killed and mocked as the demon talked about flavors and flesh. By the time it dragged me out of our home, I was limp and in shock.

I do not know how many minutes or hours passed before a swordsman of the Corp rescued me, and after that, I was collected and cared for by the Kakushi. As they helped me recover, I learned of Flower Breath, and that it might allow someone like me to stop such a wretched thing from happening to anyone else. I’m told I’m good at it, but I find myself unsure.

One of the few Flower Breath users I later met was Kochou Kanae, and she had a sister, Kochou Shinobu, who practiced Insect Breath. They had made a promise together when young that they would kill as many demons as they could to prevent anyone else from going through the pain they had, and this made me feel kinship for them. Though we did not meet often, I admired them. Kanae-sama even more so, for she was the Flower Pillar.

When I heard news that Shinobu-san had been killed, I fretted over what to do. I did not know if it would be out of line to offer my condolences to a Pillar, but imagining how her heart must have ached, I wanted to give her a sign that she could talk to me, or at least, that I cared. Whether or not to accept my company in her grief, I wanted to leave as her choice. With my heart fluttering under my nerves, I paid a visit to the Butterfly Mansion, and silently offered Kanae-sama a bouquet when she answered the gate.

“Calendula,” she said, her swollen eyes falling on the flowers. “Sadness and parting. Armeria, concern and sympathy.”

Though her voice remained even and calm, my face tickled with tears.

“Rugosa rose… sadness, followed by beauty.”

My face flushed red. I had chosen the rugosa rose to try to offer hope, but I knew that beauty never followed the sadness of losing dearly beloved ones to demons. That flower was a stupid choice.

“Thank you, Tomoe-chan. You lost your little sisters too, didn’t you?” she said, and before I could respond, she had wrapped her arms around me and sank to the ground, burying her face against my shoulder. “Three of them, didn’t you?”

I couldn’t say anything with my throat so knotted behind all my tears. I held her as she sobbed.

--

So Ichijo goes on to be taken in as a Tsuguko once Kanae has concern for where her Flower Breath technique is lacking. Ichijo is completely overwhelmed by the sight of Kiyo, Sumi, and Naho, and excuses herself as quickly and politely as possible to have privacy in her room. She takes her meals alone there because the memories of her little sisters' deaths are otherwise too much for her to stomach anything. This saddens Kanae, but she kind of understands why and leaves Ichijo be, asking Aoi (who is still a Breath trainee) and Kanao to serve her meals. Ichijo feels like Kanao is playing keep-away from painful reality, which Ichijo finds she can relate to.

So then later on Mita brazenly comes seeking to be a Tsuguko as soon as she passes the Final Selection, as there's no Insect Pillar to study under but she was told the Flower Pillar had a good understanding of Insect Breath techniques. It is right as she's finishing her rehearsed self-introduction that she takes a look at the Flower Pillar and realizes---that's her!!! That's Kochou Kanae, who made a mockery of her by telling her a lie that she needed to be a certain height before she could start Breath training, which Mita stupidly believed and it cost her a whole year of training she could had started on earlier! Kanae takes an extra moment to recognize her, then says how surprised she is to see her in the Corp and yes, if she can help with Insect Breath and loan out her sister's books, she's more than happy to.

Ichijo and Mita have a quiet, formal relationship and they both like it that way. Mita, irritated with having found her way into Kanae's care (and is indignantly convinced that Kanae would had tried to make her a nurse like all her other orphans if she had gotten than idea by the time she rescued her), is more prone to complaining than she would had been under Shinobu, whom she had deep respect for. Ichijo is a little put off by Mita's complaints. Mita cares less about other people wasting Kanae's time since Kanae seems to find lots of ways to waste it herself.

Ichijo gets to live longer in this AU! Sorry and thank you for your sacrifice, Shinobu.

So Kanae's got her two Tsuguko whom she takes around with her on missions, and then one day a third one shows up with a letter of introduction from her cultivator, who also happened to be Kanae's cultivator. She and Kanae hit it off immediately.

Oh Ichijo, so tender and pure.

Ichijo finds Kobayashi overwhelming at first, and is relieved when Mita complains about her chattiness while she's trying to study. However, Kobayashi has a high enough EQ to figure out that Ichijo will converse if asked the right questions, and since she gives Ichijo her full attention while she listens, Ichijo starts feeling more at ease with her soon, and as a sempai Tsuguko, she gives her pointers here and there on the training Kanae has them do, but not too much because Kobayashi is older and above her in rank.

When Mita presents Kanae her report on the feasibility of filling her body with poison, Kanae laughs very nervously as she starts tearing it to shreds and burning it, right in front of Mita, who shrieks at all her hard work getting demolished. Kanae then admonishes her like Shinobu did, but adds, "This feels like the kind of thing my sister would have thought of."

They do manage to make amends (as Mita has attained more respect and more of a relationship with her Shihan by now), but unfortunately for Mita, Kanae's knowledge of demon poison is not as good as Shinobu's, and Mita dies all the same. Kanae feels a lot of guilt about that, and it also brings on a fierce wave of missing Shinobu, whom she believes could had saved Mita if she had been there. As she is more open to a friendly relationship with her Tsuguko instead of a purely formal one, she accepts Ichijo and Kobayashi's emotional support in this time instead of shutting herself away and not letting anyone see how Mita's death is affecting her.

As in the fic, this happens while Aoi is away at her Final Selection and what with how the older girls have all been supporting each other in this time, they are ready to accept Aoi at her emotionally weakest state and give her support to sit with her feelings too. This helps Aoi to wrestle through things and decide with more peace that she needs to quit the sword. Kanae is relieved, not just because this means Aoi will stay home and safe, but because she can be kinder to Aoi this way. If Aoi were to be half-way about swordsmanship, Flower Pillar Kanae would have no choice but to be strict with her.

All this being open with their feelings and facing the horrors of reality would be an opportunity for Ichijo to face her trauma and eventually be able to accept and appreciate the company of Kiyo, Sumi, and Naho. They'll never replace her sisters, they are each as unique as each of her sisters was, and their families will never be replaced either. With Kanae's and Kobayashi's help they sort of know why Ichijo had always been so stand-offish, and after Ichijo tearfully apologizes for giving them any uncomfortable feelings, they warmly forgive and welcome her into 'the nest,' as Mita had called it.

With the girls all functioning more like sisters than Shinobu would have had the ease to let unfold, Kobayashi is comfortable consulting with Ichijo about Kanao's aptitude and interest in Flower Breath. Ichijo hadn't picked up on it before, but once Kobayashi mentions it, she notices it too, and she goes along with Kobayashi as moral support to consult with their master about it.

Uh oh, they seem to have struck a nerve with their master. Things are a liiiiiittle bit tense. But now that they've mentioned it, Kanae is stunned she didn't notice it sooner herself. One day while talking with Sanemi she says that she was once shocked when Sanemi off-handedly said that if his brother was stupid enough to join the Corp he'd pluck his eyeballs out, but now, she kind of understands that! She kind of had a passing whim to pluck out Kanao's eyeballs! She gets it now! Sanemi isn't really sure that this is a good development.

Nonetheless, Kobayashi feels the same conviction that Kanao needs training for her own safety because no one can stop her from wanting to fight demons, and Ichijo feels fretful about doing things behind Kanae's back, but feels a lot of regret that Kanao probably say some bad examples from her and she worries if Kanao will pick up improper technique. She makes peace with this by pulling Kanao aside one day and just saying, "Kanao-san, say, you know the footwork on the 4th form? The knee should be facing more squarely forward, not outward like the way I do it. And the elbows on the First Form? They're not supposed to be locked. And the posture on the Third Form? It should look more like..."

And Kanao soaks that all in, still gets in trouble by practicing with Kobayashi, Kanae gets more mad about them going behind her back than about the training, Ichijo is crying heap on apology on the floor, Kobayashi reexplains their concerns, words it in such a say that it somewhat echos Shinobu--"it's dangerous if she doesn't--" but also twists that echo in a key way, "she's thinking for herself."

Those words stab Kanae through the heart, and she knows she can't hold Kanao back if this is truly what she's decided. She knows she should probably teach Kanao instead of more dangerously letting her go blindly down this path of her choice. But she still has the guilt of over the promise she made with Shinobu and how that led to Shinobu's death, and Kanao is especially precious to her because she's the one whom Shinobu brought home to be like another sister to them. She needs more time to get her feelings in order.

And then Kobayashi dies. Whoops.

Kanae is kind of shook by this, but it's easier to accept Kobayashi's death as one of many that always happen in the Corp, not something Kanae directly could or should had prevented. Still, it hurts! They were friends, and something kind of like sisters! Ichijo is more open with her feelings now and is a mess, and admits to Aoi at some point that she sometimes thinks of retiring too, because her Flower Breath will never even be as good as Kobayashi's was. Kanae uses this period of mourning--because everyone sure liked Kobayashi--to ask Kanao very seriously if this is what she's prepared for. She's very likely to die and make people sad like this.

But seeing sadness like this is what drove Kanao all along. It only makes her more determined when Kanae asks her, "Are you sure you want to learn Flower Breathing?"

Seeing as Kanao didn't even so much as flinch for her coin before answering yes, Kanae thinks back to the promise she made with Shinobu, and knows she has no right to tell Kanao no.

"Alright," she says, offering her pinky. "But you must follows my orders, get stronger, and survive. We must take down Upper Moon Two and avenge Shinobu together. It's a promise."

[useless-sfw-fanfictions]

Momo doesn't understand what age regression is at first...

She hears about it through Denki and Sero, who are very involved with the topic. Sero is Denki's (and Shouto's, but no one else besides Sero really knows that) caregiver.

They play video games together and do finger painting sometimes. It is really fun and is a nice way for the both of them to relax after the stresses of UA's hero course.

Denki decides that he wants to include more people with his regression and be able to go into littlespace where ever in the dorms he feels like. So, they start talking to people about it.

Some get it and some don't. Momo falls in the latter category.

"Why can't you play those games without Dino pajamas and a sippy cup?" she asks genuinely.

Denki just shrugs, grin never falling from his lips, "it's just easier to slip and have a good time overall. to not have to worry about every little stress and only focus on.. well, little things."

She nods, but it is clear to both boys that she doesn't understand.

She declines their invitation to see a play date in action, but not because she isn't curious to learn more but because she must do some research first. She hates when she doesn't know something.

Research is what takes up the rest of her evening time and so it is a few days later before she can find Denki alone to ask him more about it. She asks and he answers.

She doesn't ask to be around him while he's little for a little while still, but when she does she brings supplies. She waited until she was completely comfortable with it because she read that having an unsure atmosphere can sometimes throw a little off. So she brings stuff.

They play with Play-Doh together and make multi-colored sandwiches that she had to stop him from eating more than once. Sero says he's about four years old.

"Tanksies, Momm...oh," he says after the materials are all put away and he is laying his head on her shoulder.

The name sounded weird from his garbled speech. As if the last syllable was a mere after thought than intentional.

"What did you just call me?" she asks gently, nudging his head up so that she can meet his eyes.

He pops his thumb in his mouth and stares back at her.

Sero moves over from the other side of the room (he'd been there the whole time to keep a watchful eye on his little guy for Momo's first time with him). He sits on the other side of Denki and gently pulls the boy's thumb from his mouth.

Denki makes an argumentative sound, but Sero is there to hold his hand a shush him. Momo watches this play out while quietly observing.

"Shh, you know you can't suck on your thumb anymore. Not after you hurt yourself..."

Sero's voice takes on a tone that Momo has never heard before when he talks to Denki while he is little; more of a parental talk than she would have ever given him credit for before this moment.

Sero guides Denki to sit closer to him while he relaxes into his new spot on this couch. Denki sucks his thumb when he is anxious, so Sero had told Momo that the best thing to do is hold his hand and cuddle him.

It doesn't work this time.

"Nhnoo," Denki fights back, drawing out the consonant sounds.

"What, why not? You love cuddles," Sero watches Denki with a certain level of exasperated fondness in his eyes.

Honestly, Momo hadn't realized they were this close.

Denki shakes his head and says, "wanna still sit next to Mama." He cuddles back into Momo's side.

Sero's eyebrows shoot up to his forehead and he let's Denki snuggle close to the woman there.

Momo is speechless.

Mama?

Had he meant to say her name? Or was it intentional? She didn't know.

So she asked: "am I Mama, Denks?"

Denki's grin is immediately as he rubs his cheek into her arm and shoulder. "mhmm, yesh... Mama, mama, mama..." he murmurs, voice growing heavier with incoming sleep.

Momo maybe finally understands.

Being called that name makes her feel special. Like, his simple mind chose her to look after him. She was deemed special enough by someone in such a vulnerable position to be called that?

Sero grins at her while watching this all play out on her face while Denki snoozes against her.

Later, once Denki is big again, they ask her if the name is okay and if she'd like to be more involved in the future and she agrees immediately.

♡♡♡

I just love, love, LOVE Momo being her littles' Mama. She'd be such a good one, too! She'd make them all kinds of custom little gear and make sure they had plenty of snackies and didn't burn themselves on their tea. Ugh, I just love her!!

[scary-grace]

*ahem* I am here to ask a question, or at least, a couple questions about your barduil fic: Kairos.

When will it be updated, and is that soon... actually, I'm okay with that being a surprise. No pressure.

2. Why did you do that to me?! For context I will have to admit I am only currently at chapter twenty something or other which is pretty good for starting the fic only yesterday. And to avoid spoilers I will avoid saying anything too revealing. BUt HOly cOw You scared me half to death. Okay, to be honest, I do not read "scary books" ever. My imagination is too powerful. But this! This is something else. reading about certain creepy things that happened... okay, completely normal, very cool. *things get creepier* I think I need to take a break, maybe turn on my light and huddle underneath my blanket for a couple minutes.

3. I love this fic, probably one of my favorites ever. Hey everyone? Hear that? Go read Kairos. But in all seriousness are you going to add tags when you finish it? I panicked while reading it and flipped to the front because I was worried I had missed some tags and then it would be my fault, which it was... reading at midnight? Very. Bad. Idea. But still...

4. I want to say how fascinating the whole fic is. One of the things I love the most is how it mentions the Cambodian war. No. Not mentions. revolves around! And its so important that people learn about it and know that it happened. I'm just curious to know what made you decide for there to be where Thranduil and Rirosseth went?

I just wanted to say that though this sounds and has a couple mixed messages in it I am absolutely in love with this work. Sure, its given me the heebeejeebees but I can shake those off. What I can't shake off is how this fic haunts me, and I can't stop thinking about it and craving more and more. This is a love letter. Maybe a love letter with some complaints but Still!

-Short time fan but fan for life now.

-ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh-

<3 <3<3

Hello, and thank you for the ask! I'm going to address your points in order to make sure I answer them all (in recompense for you having to wait a few days for the answer to the ask.)

Kairos typically updates on the first Friday of every month! However, we're on an accelerated update schedule for the next few chapters, so while one will be released on September 6th, there will also be another released in September.

I'm really impressed with making it to Chapter 20 in a single day! That's a lot of fic to get through, and a lot of surprises of the pleasant and unpleasant variety to encounter.

For the tags...I originally went with "no archive warnings apply" because that was my standard tag for fics up to that point, but the more appropriate tag is probably "chose not to use archive warnings". It's possible that I'll update them with a few more specifics after the fic is complete, since I've gotten a few pieces of feedback now that I underestimated the spookiness level.

Some of it was dictated by the time period the fic was set in -- I feel like it would be weird to write a fic set in the U.S. in the 1970s and not at least acknowledge the U.S.-instigated wars in Southeast Asia. From there, I had a choice about what to focus on and how much to focus on it, and I chose the Khmer Rouge and the Cambodian genocide. It didn't seem like a subject to acknowledge and gloss over, and with Thranduil's role as a doctor and his desire to help others with all the means at his disposal, the only place that seemed realistic for he and Riro to be was working with refugees. That's the part of the fic I spent more research on than anything else, and it's the piece of it I was most concerned about getting right.

Thank you so much for this wonderful asks! Getting any asks about a fic is exciting for a writer, but long ones like this are especially awesome. Apologies again for the delayed response, and I hope you enjoy the next chapter of the fic when it's posted on the 6th!

[gummybear1178]

F-14 (Family of 14) Chapter 9: 3 Pairs of 2

Chapter 1:

Chapter 2:

Chapter 3:

Chapter 4:

Chapter 5:

Chapter 6:

Chapter 7:

Chapter 8:

Also on AO3:  

Hope you guys enjoy! If you want on the taglist let me know! (See guys I am learning Tumblr)

Not fully sure where this story is going other than it will be IceMav and their 12 adopted dagger squadron kids!

The dagger squad is determined to find out who Maverick is married to, leading to some shenanigans and eventually the reveal! Followed by one shots featuring MavDad Icemav and Dadmiral with the Daggers!

Feel free to leave requests and ideas

Bradley was only a little confused. Out of the blue the previous night he had recieved a text from Jake 'Hangman' Seresin, wanting to meet up.

They agreed on Jake bringing food to Bradley's house.

And so that was what was happening.

Bradley sat on his couch waiting on the sound of a vehicle driving up and a knock on his door. He couldn't fathom what Hangman of all people would want to meet up with him about.

Soon the curious knock finally came at the door.

Bradley made his way to the door, not having a clue what would follow this.

"I brought the food." Jake said with a smile as he held up two bags of food.

"Good, cause I am starving."

Jake set the foor out on the coffee table in front of the couch as Bradley grabbed them each a soda from the kitchen.

"So, Hangman, what's this sudden meet up about?" Bradley asked walking back in.

"Jake." Jake corrected between bites of his burger.

"Alright, Jake," Bradley said, his head now more frazzled than before. "What's up?"

"I figured if we are going to be on a squad together permantly I might as well get to know everyone better." Jake reasoned.

"Forgive me for my confusion here Jake," The word still felt foreign in Bradley's mouth. "But that's not exactly in character for you."

"And what do you know of my character?" Jake asked.

"Pretty much what we all know, you are a show boating loner with an ego larger than the Navy's fleet."

"No, that's Hangman's character." Jake corrected. Figuring that being direct was the best way to go about this.

This made Bradley pause before he could take the next bite of his burger.

"Talking about ourselves in third person now?"

"Not exactly, I..." Jake tried to find the words.

"Does this have anything to do with Maverick pulling you aside the other day?" Bradley finally pieced together.

"MavDad gave me some advice, decided to give it a shot." Jake answered honestly, surprised though that Bradley noticed their disappearance.

"What kind of advice did Dad give you? Usually that's more of Pop's department."

"Told me I should try and connect with the squad more. Let them see a little more Jake and a little less Hangman." Jake admitted, if he was going to be direct, might as well go all the way. Maverick said choose a person to focus on and go from there. Bradley seemed to have an in with everyone, so why not start with him. Or atleast that's the logic he was going with.

"So you started with me Bagman?"

"For starters, I don't like being called Bagman."

"Alright, Jake, so you started with me?"

"Figured why not."

"Alright then, I guess we have to get to know each other then."

"How about we start with the deep stuff?"

"The deep stuff?" Bradley gave him a wild look.

"Yea, like, what's your favorite color?"

"Nope, you've stepped over the line there." Bradley shook his head.

"So you've watched Hunger Games?"

"Who hasn't? Great movies."

"Catching Fire was the best."

"Agreed, but you chose to start our opening up to each other with a Hunger Games reference?"

"We each learned something about one another." Jake justified. "But really, what is your favorite color?"

"Hawain print."

"That's not a color, that's a pattern." Jake dead panned.

"Alright Jake, fine then, what's your favorite color?"

"Blue."

"Like your eyes?" Bradley teased.

"No, like the sky."

Only later did Jake realized Bradley had paid attention to his eye color.

"Alright, if we are doing this might as well dive into the deep stuff now that we have passed through the deep stuff gateway of favorite colors." Bradley stated, before contemplating whether to ask his question.

"Out with it, get off your perch Rooster."

"How did you handle everything after you first air to air kill?" Bradley asked softly, looking away for a moment before looking back at Jake in the eyes.

"I feel like Pop's or MavDad might be the better people to ask that quesiton."

"I'm not asking them. I'm asking you."

"Why are you asking me?"

"This whole opening up stuff only works if you answer the questions."

"I know, but I need to know the why before I answer."

"Mav and Ice are too... Close. They practically raised me. I need someone who hasn't known me my whole life and can relate but not them. I just got them back. They can't know my air to air messed with me. I can't jump back into a relationship with them and immeditally trauma dump on them."

"Why not? I met them a few weeks ago and already did."

Bradley's eyes widened.

"You talked to them about it?"

"Yea, you wanted to know how I handled it? I talked to them. Still not perfect with it, but I can sleep without it poping up in my head every night. I have been able to process it. Well as much as you can process something like that."

"I did it saving Mav, but I still had to take a life."

"My first was saving my wingman, my second was saving you and Mav. You can know you saveed your own, but also have to realize to do that you had to kill another. Though they had the intent to kill too. You didn't go out there to kill, you went out there to save."

"You know Jake, I think I can be friends with this version of you. I like you better without the Hangman persona getting in the way."

"I like me better without him in the way too."

---

"Alright Sherlock, what new info do we have to discuss this week?" Natasha asked as she and Bob sat down at a local diner.

They had made it a weekly tradition to make sure they had a night with just the two of them. At first it was just to get to know each other better as Pilot and WSO eventually it turned into two best friends catching up, and of course gossiping about the Squad.

"Hangman and Rooster are totally going to get together." Bob said as he sipped his milkshake.

"Obviously, but they evidently haven't realized it yet. Maverick probably already started the shovel talk when he pulled Jake away the other night." Phoenix agreed taking a sip of her own milkshake.

"When he came back he did suddenly sit next to Bradley instead of standing across the room."

"But even before that they were not so subtly eyeing each other across the room." Phoenix pointed out.

"Honestly, those two are ridiculously oblivious."

"What other info do we have to discuss this week?"

"The rest of the Class of '86 is obviously going to show up soon."

"Definetly, they aren't just going to have 3 show up and no more. It's just a question of when."

"Exacltly, but what's really a question of when is when the rest realize we are together?"

"Nah, they are too oblivous, we are going to have to be obvious to an insane level if we want them to realize."

"I know, Mav literally showed up pictures of his wedding with Ice and you all missed the huge hint." Bob smirked.

"Mav and Ice will figure it out first." Phoenix admitted.

"Probably, but after that it's a coin toss."

"I'm fine with that. I kind of like us as a secret for now." Phoenix added. She liked their relationship the way it was: without any outside pressures. Normally she would tell Bradley about her realtionships are her best friend, but this one she wanted to keep to herself for a while.

"I like to observe more than be the center of attention."

"I know, stealth pilot." Phoenix teased taking Bob's hand across the table.

"You know, you didn't say anything bad when you found out I was your WSO. You instead immediatelyincluded me. None of my other pilots have done that."

"I've gone through a many of WSOs, and you are the first not to mention I was a girl the first time we met. You had my back and I was going to have yours."

---

FLYBOY groupchat

Slider You guys. There is another IceMav

Merlin There literally cannot be.

Hollywood Shush, you didn't have to withness the chomp of '86

Merlin Yea, but Slider and I had to share a bunk with them for months at a time before they acknowledged it.

Viper Lets get back to the whole another IceMav thing, because the Navy can't handle two of them. It can barely handle one.

Ice It's under control

Jester I trust it even less now

Maverick No really it is

Sundown I really don't trust it now

Wolf Back on topic, it's Baby Goose and Hangman

Merlin HANGMAN?

Ice You know him?

Merlin He served under me for a few months. He could fly, reminded me a bit too much of Maverick

Slider Yea, and Rooster has his moments where he reminds me a bit too much of Ice

Viper So we literally have another IceMav

Slider Yep...

Maverick We weren't that bad you guys, they are worse

Slider I didn't see either of them CHOMP at the other

Maverick You didn't see them on the deck after the mission

Ice Dare I say they tried to replicate the photo

Maverick But they hugged instead of shaking hands

Viper Besides all this, when do I FINALLY get to meet my GrandDaggers?

Ice Soon ---

"Alright COMPACFLT, you better put a rush on that GrandDagger meeting or Viper will find a way to get back at you." Maverick looked over at Ice as he cooked.

"Oh don't I know it. Knowing him someone still owes him a favor and will just get him up in a jet during a hop without me knowing."

"That would not surprise me in the least."

"How much longer on the spaghetti?" Ice asked looking up from the email he had just finished after multiple pauses to answer the Flyboy groupchat.

"It's basically ready, just need to grab the bowls."

Ice smirked and stoof up and grabbed the bowls from the top shelf, just out of Maverick's reach.

Maverick rolled his eyes but took the bowl and fixed his dinner.

"What do you want to watch tonight?" Maverick asked turning on the TV as he took a seat on the couch.

"National Treasure? They just released a series and I want to rewatch the movies first." Ice suggested.

"Sounds like a plan. We can watch the second one tomorrow then the series."

Ice agreed as he walked in with his own food and a drink for each of them.

As Ice sat the drinks down on the side tables Maverick grabbed the large blanket that was draped over the back of the couch. As Ice sat down Maverick spread it across the two of them before grabbing his bowl of food once more and leaning against his husband.

"I'm glad we get to do this more often." Maverick said softly as he pulled up Disney plus.

"Me too." Ice agreed between bites of food.

Just before Maverick pressed play on the movie Ice spoke up again.

"I have to go on another work trip in a few weeks."

"How long?" Maverick asked. He knew he couldn't be too disapointed, normally it was him being shipped off everywhere.

"A week and a half. It's conference in London."

"When do you leave?"

"Two weeks from tomorrow."

Maverick nodded as he leaned futher intoo Ice, if that was even possible.

"I know one of the perks of you leading the Squad here was more time together, but they still want meet at all these conferences and meetings."

"I know. I was always the one being shipped off everywhere before this anyway. It was just less obvious because we were both constantly on the move. We already spend more time together than we did before anyway."

"I know, but that doesn't mean I want to leave you."

"I'm sure the kids will keep me busy."

"I'm sure they will."

"We are used to long distance anyway, and this is not even two weeks. We have mastered video chatting."

"That we have."

"Ready to start the movie?"

Ice nodded as they continued to eat their dinner.

Slowly their bowls were put to the side as they cuddled on the couch.

At peace in a way they never thought they would be.

.

.

.

.

Short but sweet with some plot! Hope you guys enjoyed!! Please let me know your thoughts or if yall have any hopes or suggestions! I love hearing your thoughts!

Also be proud I managed to update again so soon! Because I am proud of myself lol. My schedule is wild and unpredictable.

Figured we need a more lighthearted chapter after the past few.

More fluff coming up but with some plot.

[sokai-asuki]

"I" am "Me", The "Real" Me

(Their True Feeling is somewhere..."

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Empty Sekai

Clay walking around the Sekai, after some explanation and about Fletcher being his brother, HIS brother... Clay try to calm his mind and not thinking back to the time he try to visit the Wizard Council. What else is hiding about his family that he doesn't know...

Why he didn't know nor remember Fletcher? Why now that he knows about this? What kind of magic influence that cause his mother to turn evil... How come he didn't know...

He have more questions and thoughts on his mind until he feel someone coming. He look up and bright light appear. It faded revealed one of the members of Nightcord at 25, Shinonome Ena.

Ena, who's in front of him, holding a tablet also with a digital pen for the said tablet. She looks so determine but change to surprise and happy when she look at him.

"Clay! Just someone I was hoping you come!" Ena said, she walks towards him. Holding her tablet closely to her, not letting the knight see what's on the screen.

Clay give a small smile, "Ena. Nice to see, you doing well...?" Clay said.

"Yes, I am!" Ena said, very confident and determine. This had just make Clay even more curious over her determination.

"I have something to show you," Ena said as she open up her tablet and the screen light up. She seems to be focus on what she wants to show him, until her face lighten up on the thing she found, "Here!"

What shows on the screen tablet, Clay saw a drawing of himself with... Grey Knight... Clay was taken back by it but before he said anything, Ena started to explain, "Kanade have told me you have done make the cover from one of our song, called "Identity" that she and Miku sang. When I was thinking of how to do the cover for that music, I remember the time you explain to Miku and KAITO about why you didn't come visit." Ena said, as she looks upset.

Clay wasn't surprised, out of all the members, Ena seems to be the most emotional and betrayed by Clay stop visiting the Sekai. He did apologize to all of them, but it took awhile for Ena to forgive him.

"I got inspired by one of your story, the Grey Knight. And I am making sure the right color for him and yours to be a bit different. For the eyes, I notice before you stop visiting, your eyes is pure blue night sky. So I chose the color that opposed to it." As Ena said that, she shows the color that opposed to blue... It was yellow.

Clay tune out what Ena said as he focus more on the drawing. It's him and Grey Knight, both of them look at each other. Grey Knight seems to be frustrated, while he calmly and yet, cautious of him. Just as Ena said, it may seems nothing is show much in the art but Clay can see what she meant. Same face, same voice and yet, so different...

Before the revealed of Ruina is his mother, Clay never have someone as his parental figure before Merlok. At the Orphanage, the lady who took care of him does care but more kids come, her attention goes to them just as Clay grow older. And at the Knight's Academy, he hopes he can be a knight that he dream of. But he knows more challenge is going to come to him later on.

Until Sir Griffiths, his teacher from Knight's Academy, present him a copy of Knight's Code. He can pretty tell that the Knight's Code influence him more than the teacher and Merlok. His mind seems to go off somewhere as he remember the time him being a Grey Knight.

His anger, his rage, frustration... That's the only time he can feel rage swelling up in his body... His friends, especially Lance, may have annoyed him and he did mad at them, but during his time being a Grey Knight bring him nothing but rage in his body...

"–And that's why I choose the Grey Knight. I hope it is alright if I used him for an inspiration, Clay—"

"...good."

"Huh?" Ena said.

"What I mean," Clay look at Ena after he done focusing on the drawing, he look at her and giving a gentle smile, but what Ena off guard was not that, "It's pretty good. The drawing really gave away that even if the person is the same, you never know what's the difference is as well."

What caught her guard off is Clay's smile. Not like Mafuyu's but his smile. That gentle smile, this time is genuine... He is genuinely smile...

"Ena? Are you alright?"

Ena finally snap out of her gaze as she notice Clay suddenly look at her in concern. "I, I am fine!" She quickly said, "And thank you, Clay! Thank you for letting me draw the Grey Knight."

"It's alright, the song identity does fit the description of me and Grey Knight a bit." Clay said.

"Y-yeah! Anyway, I have to go now and send it to Kanade!" Ena said, "Bye Clay!"

Finally a light surrounded her and fade away revealing she has gone...

Clay look at the spot Ena leave, he smile, still smile... He never smile this much, what's change...?

—

"Miku? Are you alright?"

Rin's voice snap Miku's thought away, she look at the blonde vocaloid looking concern for the white hair vocaloid.

"I am fine... Just feel something... Or someone.." Miku said as she look around. Does one of the girls figure out their feelings? Or is it Clay?

—

???

Somewhere, a music note tree is on the middle of the field. A blue hair girl observe one Sekai that caught her attention.

"Miku? Is there a reason why you called me?"

Miku turn to the voice, her friend, Megurine Luka, said as she look confused on why Miku need her help. Is there something about the Sekai that Miku notice that she couldn't help?

"Luka, you're just in time," as Miku said that, she walk towards Luka and stop in front of her, "Remember the yellow dust I mentioned?"

"The yellow dust that coming from 5 Sekai that you notice? Yes, I remember," Luka said, her tone turn to serious one, "Have you found the cause of it?"

Miku shook her head, "No, I don't."

Luka shows her frown, Miku continue, "However, after the first time the yellow dust appeared, it doesn't appear much later until," Miku step aside, letting Luka sees it. One of the Sekai, the yellow dust suddenly fall from that Sekai, "This time, it seems to show much yellow dust... I am, I am not sure what to do, Luka!"

"Miku, calm down." Luka said, "Whatever it is, just have hope that this Sekai isn't like..."

"Like that one...?"

Luka nodded, remember the time she visited the abandoned Sekai... As long as the host of the Sekai didn't give up, the Sekai itself won't fall...

"How about we go to others. Tell them everything, you're not a burden Miku, and if this keeps going, we have to see it for ourselves to help you." Luka said and give a reassuring smile to Miku.

—

Kanade's Room

In her room, Mafuyu slept very soundly. Not bother with the computer light, because Kanade is still on working with music. She also had gotten a file sent by Ena. It's the cover for video's thumbnail for Clay's song cover, "Identity".

Kanade suddenly felt a bit sleepy but then back to stay awake. She sigh, she really need to set a time for herself but, she must keep composing.

Just like another time, she suddenly felt a bit sleepy. When suddenly a bright light were suddenly light up on her computer making Kanade cover her eyes from the bright light.

When the light faded, Kanade look at her computer screen, nothing is happening... Kanade felt confused for awhile and sigh, it must be just her imagination...

Until, she felt something on her shoulder. A hand on her shoulder, she thinks it's Mafuyu... But Mafuyu is on her bed, still sleep...

If Mafuyu was there, then who is–

"Kanade? Why are you awake?"

Clay... Clay is here... In her room. Suddenly Kanade's view turn black.

[orangesunsets12]

Howdy, so I'm not sure if you said this or not, but what gave you the inspiration to write your story It Takes Two to Survive? And why did you choose the powers you did to give Steve and Robin? It's so interesting and very creative on the Steve and Robin have powers idea and it's a wonderful story, I am just curious on how it came to be and what gave you inspiration.

Hi! These are all awesome questions, I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability!

I'm not totally sure how I got the idea for It Takes Two to Survive; I think it was a combination of a few things. I had read some Steve Harrington has Powers AUs and I really wanted to make one myself, and I also loved Steve and Robin's dynamic. I had noticed that a lot of people wrote Steve Power fics but never had anyone else get powers, so I figured my story would be a bit unique if I gave Robin powers, too. That way they could also support and help one another, all the while strengthening their relationship.

I think that I also thought that them being captured by the Russians had so many opportunities for angst (which I love to write). I always love seeing Steve being put in hopeless situations and managing to make it out, as well as going through struggles that change how he acts/thinks (character development, I guess?). So, I guess I sort of combined these ideas into one fic?

I struggled so much with choosing their powers. Like, a lot. I remember asking people on Facebook and Instagram about unpopular powers that they thought were cool, picked a bunch of my favorites, and chose between them.

I always thought that it would be cool that Steve got powers sort of based on his personality, allowing him to fight and defend even better than before, thus he got the power to adapt to his surroundings. And, it allowed me to put him in situations that no one else would be able to survive, which was super tempting as an angst writer. The healing aspect of his powers was sort of last-minute, as I love the power and I wanted to include it somewhere. And, looking back, I think that it's perfect for Steve. He cares for everyone so much, so giving him the ability to heal them makes me so happy!

As for Robin, I've always thought that mind reading powers were cool, and it's nearly the polar opposite of Robin's personality. Other that the fact that she's smart, she's really all over the place and appears to be nervous a lot. Thus, having mind powers would require her to force herself to focus, forcing her to go against her regular personality to use them. That's where Steve comes in, as he's also able to help her calm down and focus until she got a handle on her abilities. I also loved the empathy/emotion powers I gave her, as she would be able to control other's emotions and know how people are truly feeling, which is also a huge advantage as well as a disadvantage, and I loved having Robin face that. It may not be in line with her personality, but she's such a great friend and I believe that her being able to feel emotions will make her an even better one. And, as seen in the more recent chapters, both of her powers are proving to be essential with Vecna, which I hadn't planned but I love now.

So, that's sort of why I picked their powers...I hope it makes sense! Thank you so much for the question, and I'm so glad that you're enjoying my story!

[marley-manson]

I am curious, how do you feel about Claudia from interview with a vampire?

Thanks for asking! I think she's a great character. And I just want to reiterate that it's been too long since I've read the book so I can only comment on the movie and show in any detail (spoilers for both, and a little minor one for the books):

I think I love her slightly more in the movie because I think her story works a little better as a young prepubescent child, and Kirsten Dunst knocked it out of the park. Plus I just prefer the movie's like... relationship between the three of them. I love that focus on her being trapped in a child's body, her outrage about it that comes across as somewhere between a betrayed adult and a tantrumming child, and her plotting Lestat's death unilaterally as a response to the unfairness of her existence. Lestat is a dick, but he comes across as more of a victim in the movie because there's almost no effort put into showing why they feel the need to kill him, and I like that. It feels like lashing out, not self defense.

Claudia is fantastic in the show too, and Bailey Bass is absolutely amazing, but her tragedy is more that she keeps getting stuck in abusive situations, and I just fundamentally find that less compelling. But in her favour, I adore her serial killer trophy collector thing, I love how the show balanced her victimization with her sociopathy, she's very funny at times lol, and while I prefer young child Claudia, I thought that they really thoughtfully considered the effects of aging her up and she worked quite well as a young teen as well (aside from the utterly and completely unnecessary sexual assault, which is a strike against the show, but also hilariously easy to ignore because it never comes up again lol.) She's also more fleshed out in the show due to getting more time to develop her, and I think she's a very compelling character in it.

Also just as a little addition, I can't comment fully on the books but I did see an excerpt from one of them in a tumblr post a little while ago which was a bit from her diary, in which she describes killing Lestat only because she felt like she had to kill one of them to satisfy her desire for revenge/justice/something like that, and chose Lestat because she figured Louis would be easier to manipulate. And I LOVE that. Idk if there's more context to it or if it contradicts other stuff as Anne Rice was wont to do, but I'm very into that angle.