#but it seems to be common sentiment and i for one have really loved everything about this show

[kingofdahiphop]

K am I the only one on tis god forsaken webbed site that like... Doesn't have a problem with g witch's pacing? It definitely has been very zippy in the second cour compared to the first but I think it's been efficient in it's storytelling and not hambfisted in having to explain every little detail to the viewer

People have been sharing for weeks that there's too much left unresolved and that everything about the story is too rushed, but I genuinely dont feel that way? For sure it is definitely easy to miss things since a lot of information can be thrown your way very quickly (I kinda was a little lost when the nika/shaddiq connection was first being shown) but I think that's fine!

Idk but imo a good story doesn't need to answer all your questions, as much as you might want it to, and I feel like the overarching narrative has been pretty satisfying. The only thing that would make me disappointed at this point is if sunrise doesn't animate sulemio making out stupid style having a tender kiss but that is because I love them so much

[adiluv-moved]

❥ PHOTOGRAPHER + GENERAL HCS. ˚⊹꒷

⚜️୧・꒰word count꒱ 1129.

📕୧・꒰warnings꒱ none!

👑୧・꒰adi moment꒱ unfortunately i am writing for french 'people' now… how sad… /j lol—to be real, though, i’ve actually started playing identity v again and ended up sparking some interest for joseph ꒰netass gave me tranquility, as a treat꒱, so here we are! feel free to send in requests, whether it be for him or other characters! hope you enjoy! ꒰ㅅ´ ˘ `꒱

꒰⚔️꒱・A closed-off aristocrat with a slight tendency for egotism, Joseph is certainly one of the more tedious residents to woo. Congratulations for ꒰somehow꒱ managing to do so! Beneath his haughty and withdrawn persona, he’s an incredibly observant, caring, and loyal individual—and he does his best to make sure that you feel loved whenever he’s by your side.

꒰⚔️꒱・Although I consider him to be far from optimistic, considering everything that’s happened within his pre-manor days, I do still imagine him to be a sort of hopeless romantic. This is a sentiment you’ll become well aware of through the many dates that he plans for the both of you—whether they be candlelit dinners, strolls in the garden, or something else. These dates do occasionally go astray due to the ever growing amount of inhabitants sharing the space, though he does his best to keep/get things back on track. Please reassure him if things get a bit too hectic—he’s very much prone to panicking.

꒰⚔️꒱・As a man of the arts, you’re quick to become his new muse. He loves taking photos of you at any and every moment he can, regardless of how mundane it is. Depending on your own sentiments of the matter, this could potentially be a root of disagreements—especially considering that the camera seems to follow him every time you’re together. Similarly, he’s a big fan of painting you, originally using the photos he took of you as references, though he quickly abandons them once he gets the hang of things—he’s a fast learner when it comes to you.

꒰⚔️꒱・Of course, though, he values your happiness far more than his desire to preserve you, and he’ll try to stop taking so many photos of you if you ever express discomfort. ꒰Of course, the keyword here is ‘try’.꒱ He slips up on occasion, so please try to be patient with him—it’s his way of showing love, and he tends to get a little over dramatic at times.

꒰⚔️꒱・Joseph is also a rather clingy type of lover, and jealousy is ever quick to sink its fangs into him. The fear of losing you, whether it be physically or emotionally, is relentless in haunting him once you start dating. Even so, it isn’t something he vocalizes often, due to his fears of being considered as weak. Whether it be him hovering close to you whenever you’re too close to another survivor, or the way that he subtly begs you not to leave his side, it is something that you come to notice.

꒰⚔️꒱・Ignore his signs of jealousy, and you might just find that other survivor being targeted during matches—but he’ll ꒰reluctantly꒱ catch himself if you call him out on it. Afterwards, he’ll just resort to being a pouty mess around you, though some extra affection is quick to restore his good mood. You might even catch the Joseph Desaulniers apologizing to the other survivor afterwards—though you’d best bet that he’s swearing them to secrecy. It’s embarrassing, truly! You know nobles like him are meant to be composed at all times..!

꒰⚔️꒱・When it comes to facing you in matches, well… It really does depend. His most common strategies include going friendly for your entire team ꒰and spending the time by your side꒱ or simply avoiding you until everybody else has been chaired and he can give you dungeon. However, there are times that he’ll have to go full swing on you—he fears that the baron might punish the both of you, otherwise. He tries to be gentle on you when this happens, grazing you ever so lightly with his rapier, but he’ll always come running to Emily’s infirmary once the match is over… just to make sure.

꒰⚔️꒱・Assuming that you haven’t been hurt by him in a match, though, it does take some time for him to catch back up with you. Joseph is a massive cleanfreak, and absolutely despises the idea of being dirty—something caused both by his social status and the illness that took Claude away from him. He tends to make a beeline to his shower whenever he returns from matches, a habit that you’ve gradually come to pick up due to his hesitancy to cuddle with you when you haven’t. All things considered, it is a good habit, so you don’t mind it all that much.

꒰⚔️꒱・When it comes to things like PDA, I do imagine Joseph falling more on the conservative side ꒰once again due to his upbringing꒱. He’d really only engage in it when he’s feeling jealous, and for the most part prefers to keep all amorous gestures private… though he won’t complain nor attempt to stop you if you give him a quick kiss on the cheek, or something similar. He does, however, use a lot of French nicknames and terms of endearment for you—both in private and public. Mary enjoys teasing him for it, and offers to translate them for you if you don’t know French.

꒰⚔️꒱・Circling back to his fixation on cleanliness, the worst thing for him is falling sick. He’s quick to become upset if he notices himself falling under the weather, and he’ll quickly try to find something to blame for it. While this can grate on the nerves of whoever’s caring for him, being angry distracts him from his fear—though he’ll try to tone things down if he notices that he’s riling you up. Regardless, he’s grateful that you’re putting in the effort to care for him, even if he initially tries to shoo you off for the fear of getting you sick, too.

꒰⚔️꒱・If you’re the one sick, however, things tend to go much differently. He’s a mix of worried and distant whenever it happens, constantly obsessing over your condition and endlessly pestering Emily—begging her to make sure that you’re alright. At the same time, however, you won’t catch a single sight of him while you’re still ill—the thought of seeing you in such a state causing his stomach to churn. He’s quick to apologize once you’re better, pressing kisses on every part of skin that he can reach… Though expect a slight scolding to accompany his tenderness.

꒰⚔️꒱・Ending this with a cuddling headcanon..! Joseph absolutely adores having you close to him. Whether it be you sitting in his lap while he reads a book or him having an arm wrapped around you as he rants about bad matches and annoying survivors, cuddling is a necessity for him. He’s not against the idea of falling asleep while holding you, either, but be warned that his grip gets shockingly tight once he drifts off. While attempts at escape don’t fully wake him, he’ll try to convince you to stay with half-asleep murmurs of ‘don’t leave, mon ange…’ or ‘stay a little, mon amour…’. Unfortunately for you, they’re rather effective.

i have a taglist, which you can sign up for here!

[kairiscorner]

(this is my first time writing for earth-42 miles, so please correct me if i get him wrong, ty !)

(reblogs are greatly appreciated, it helps get my content out there! if you guys like what you see, please reblog it too <:D)

((also i'll be distinguishing miles 42 from miles 1610 through his second name, gonzalo, PLEASE CORRECT ME IF IT'S TOO WEIRD/INCORRECT IN THE FIRST PLACE TY... + ART IN THE PIC IS NOT MINE, I JUST EDITED IT, CTTO.))

miles-42 and miles-1610 x reader (twin au <33)

you had known the morales boys your entire life, they were sweet and caring, though only one of them was vocal about it; the other made it hard for you to tell if he cared or just waited for you to shut up and leave him alone. either way, both loved you just as much as you loved them, maybe even a bit more than you believed.

the two were partners in crime, whatever one did, they were sure to have the other's back. be it escaping home for the night to hang out with you, graffitiing some public place behind their dad's back, sneaking into their uncle aaron's place to hang out--they always had each other to get themselves out of trouble.

the two shared everything, as well. in common sibling, and of course, twin, fashion, their shared clothes, a room, a family--and of course, lives together. they were like two peas in a pod, quite literally; they'd share each other's joys, pain, anger, sadness... it was like a twin sense they had, an instinct that everything the one had, the other had to have, too.

but some things just weren't supposed to be shared, and even for the two close brothers, they knew that sentiment very well. there were days when the twins would hide things from each other, some feelings of jealousy, anger, or even... kind of just insecurity about not having what the other has--it hurts them sometimes that they know they can't share everything they have with each other.

even you.

they knew you since they were kids, teased you a whole lot, but protected you when you needed them. they were your best friends of all, even if other friends left you or you left them, they were the ones who stuck by your side the most, who you knew best. they were the real ones, and they loved you a whole lot; you were practically part of their family, as per what rio and jeff told you.

but even if you three were friends your whole lives, the two felt... different about it. as if they thought 'friends' was an incorrect label for what they wanted to be with you. they were big dreamers, both of them were–but the biggest dream of all, for both of them, was to make you theirs. and they don't mean to share you, they mean you pick either of them, be it gonzalo or miles.

gonzalo is subtle about dropping hints on how much he likes you, he only gives you a small sliver, a small taste of how much he really feels about you. he keeps you company when you're lonely, and he doesn't chat up a storm as much as his twin; in fact, you barely notice he's there, but somehow, you feel comfortable and safe around, especially when you finally notice him there.

you feel bad that he sometimes goes unnoticed to you when he hangs around you, but he doesn't mind–he can want you attention, it's a big honor for him to have it all to himself, but he wants to earn your attention, not force it out of you.

unlike miles, gonzalo is more of a listener, like a really intent listener. miles is great to talk to, it's a two-way street, you talk and listen, he talks and listens; but gonzalo always seems to listen, just mainly listening to you is the best he can do.

he didn't really feel like he was the best person to go to for advice, he'd rather listen to your problems and help you solve it on your own. he's unsure of how to solve a lot of problems on his own, so helping other people solve theirs? yeah, he worries a whole lot about what he says, even if he doesn't show it.

he cares about you so much, and he knows how capable you are, he tends to worry less in general because he trusts you so much. but if you really needed him, oh goodness, boy does not hold back on helping you, defending you, even.

he appears scary to a lot of people, and he uses that to his advantage. one time, you needed him to pretend to be your boyfriend for a couple of days, just to shake off some creeps who can't take the hint that you weren't interested. it got to the point where, when miles wasn't around, gonzalo confronted those guys and, nonchalantly, threw their lunch in their faces.

he did not flinch at all, and, without hesitation, he took your hand and ran away with you out of the cafeteria. when you asked him where he was taking you, he just said he'd take you far away from them, and even if they'd follow you, he'd beat their asses for real. like hell he'd let anything happen to you, let anyone else think they can have you.

"i held back because i'm a nice guy, like you say. and because i'm nice, i won't beat the crap out of them, yet. but they gotta understand... they can never be with you the way we're together."

you thought you knew what gonzalo meant to say, you thought he meant it in the nicest, friendliest way possible--and he sort of did, but he meant that... no one else can have what he wants with you; this romance with you that he's pictured in his head over and over again, but is too afraid to tell you and own up to his feelings.

he's scared he'll scare you away and lose you.

unlike miles, who always seems to share a laugh with you. miles is sometimes mistaken as your boyfriend, what with your friends and your parents always seeing you two together. you both loved art and music, hung out together several times, even without gonzalo, to share the pieces you two made, listen to music together, maybe graffiti a few walls here and there without his dad knowing; it was bliss, being with miles.

miles made you feel like the world was your oyster, he never restricted you to anything because he knew what it was like to be restricted from a lot of things.

unlike gonzalo, miles talks to you while he listens. he offers you advice, tries to solve your problems for you. and though you really appreciate his help, you somehow feel like he makes it his duty to take up your burdens and make them his own. miles has always been that way, selfless and people-loving, but it hurt you a lot to know that miles can't even help himself first a lot of the time.

he keeps telling you he's okay, he's not at all in any trouble, and even if he looks okay, you knew for a fact those were lies. miles wasn't the best liar, he was kind of compulsively lying, but the only lies he ever told you and everyone else he knew and cared about were that he was okay.

you really wanted to help him, but miles is stubborn; he insists he doesn't need help, he's "okay! what about you?" that's all he ever retorts with. as much as you loved miles, there were just times when you couldn't help him, not because you weren't just sure where to start, but he really closed himself off a lot of the time.

but, he's trying. he expresses himself through his art, and slowly, all his feelings unravel when you ask him about it. he could go on for hours on end about how much he put his feelings, his thoughts, his ideals into his work; how much love he imbued in every single bit of it.

one time, he made you a portrait; he was doing it subconsciously, maybe he did out of longing for you because he made it when you and your family were on vacation. he didn't realize it was you until gonzalo pointed it out, and slowly, he came to draw you, illustrate you, more and more, with and without him realizing that, in all his works... you're always the constant.

gonzalo encouraged him to hand it to you when you got back, but he was scared; what if you found it weird? what if you found it creepy? what if it was actually disproportionate to how you really looked? would you even recognize it was you?

but despite his overwhelming thoughts, he decided that he'd find out the answers when you gave it to him. and thus, he presented it to you the day you came home.

he hesitated, of course, he was nervous--fumbling over his words and laughing awkwardly to himself as you looked at the portrait.

"i know, i know, it's... kinda weird, no? like, out of the blue, you just came to mind. and i guess my hands just had minds of their own, it seems. ha, ah, um, well... hah, do you like it? is it... any good, or...?"

when you told him, without a second thought, that you loved it; he was so relieved. his confidence came back and he showed you more of what he made. though he was a little embarrassed because he thought some parts were off, some parts didn't capture the right essence of you--all that mattered to him was that you were happy, you liked what he made you.

but he could never tell you why you came to mind those days, why you were all he could think of that he drew you over and over and over again. when he listened to his favorite songs, only you came up to mind.

he's scared that if he tells you, he loses you.

the twins talked about how they felt about you to each other, and they came to a joint conclusion: they both loved you. well, that was okay, sort of... not that they'd stop being brothers if you liked either one of them.

"you know i'm not gonna lose to you though, right? i like them a whole lot, and... i care about them."

"hah, what makes you think i don't feel that way about them, too? you watch your back, brother, they'll be mine in no time."

guess it's double the trouble for you, with both morales boys pursuing you and your love.

a/n: yes i was inspired by the scene in the movie, you got me <33

[turbulentscrawl]

Identity(V) Headcanons: Luca Balsa

Next up!

Again, I am new to the IDV fandom, and I have never played the game, so these headcanons are informed by my ongoing lore dives sourcing the wiki, japanese twitter responses, comics, stageplay, and more! Some of these may relate to or even contradict character backstory, and some of them are just pure vibes for me. If you like it, consider shooting a request ;)

-So to start, I personally headcanon that Luca initiated the fight that led to the electrical accident. He’s always been hot-headed and impulsive, especially in regard to the source of his pride. I don’t think he intended for the confrontation with Alva to end anywhere near the way it did, but I do think he felt a good shove or two were well-warranted when he found out "his" ideas were being stolen. It’s when Alva fought back a little too viciously that the accident happened—and it well and truly was an accident. Not that it matters much when the only survivor doesn’t remember the event at all.

-He has headaches regularly, and terrible migraines at least once a week. He’s yet to find a way to relieve the migraines and, even worse, they are typically followed by an episode of more intense amnesia. Under normal circumstances, Luca’s memory problems are manageable. He doesn’t remember the accident, and there are massive blackouts in the memories beyond it, but on the average day he only struggles with small details of more recent events. During these post-migraine episodes, though, he completely loses all context for where he is, what he is doing, and who the people around him are. Most of the time, the important bits come back…but not always.

-Forgotten memories are also sometimes sporadically triggered by something mundane. A word, a texture, a sound, and suddenly he’s frozen stock-still in the face of a one-person cinematic viewing. By the time he turns to tell someone about it, though, the memory is gone again.

-To try to combat these issues, Luca keeps notebooks stashed everywhere. He writes down anything that might be important, as well as anything sentimental. The obvious issue with this, however, is that he doesn’t always remember where he keeps these notebooks.

-Despite his memory problems, his personality is largely in-tact. He maintains a lot of gentlemanly mannerisms and is cordial, if not outright friendly, to just about everyone he meets. Generally, he’s only “rude” in the sense that his attention tends to shift very abruptly.

-He’s the sort of person who appreciates variety. In people, food, scenery, just about everything. Part of why he gets along with so many people is because he can genuinely appreciate all manner of skillsets and hobbies. Likewise, to be a friend to him you only need to show appreciation for his work; understanding is not a requirement.

-It’s canon that he dislikes noise, but enjoys music. These might seem like clashing sentiments, but what it really comes down to is expected noise. Music can be relaxing, inspiring, rush-inducing! It holds your mind’s hand and hurries it along its thoughtful way. JUST noise is…chaotic, distracting, and sometimes startling. Plus, Luca likes being able to hum along while he works.

-It’s common to be static-zapped if you touch him. Long-term contact can even cause your hair to start standing on end. Unfortunately, it isn’t something he can control, so just be prepared to deal with it.

-The best Love Language to give Luca is Quality Time. He can honestly work with pretty much all of them, but Quality Time checks multiple boxes—especially if you’re good with parallel play. For one, he gets so busy with his work that it sometimes makes him feel guilty for neglecting the people he cares about. If you’re comfortable just hanging around his space, doing your own thing while he does his, it’s easier for him to check in with you between the erratic come-and-go of his thoughts. Those small bits of time add up, and he feels much better about his workaholic nature. Second, the more you permeate his memory, the less likely he feels he is to forget you. One of the few things he doesn’t struggle to remember is himself, his own name, and if you’re always there maybe it’ll be the same for you.

-He has trouble balancing his priorities. He often foregoes food, sleep, hygiene, and even his loved ones in favor of working on his invention. Sometimes he’s so absorbed in it that he doesn’t even understand the weight of hurtful decisions, but even when he does, he’d find it difficult to change.

-It’s also never impossible for the emotions that caused the accident to rear their head again. If someone were ever to intentionally sabotage Luca’s work or unapologetically steal his ideas, he may very well lash out with violence. Even if it were an accident, there’s no guarantee he wouldn’t be enraged.

-Luca has no idea what he’d do with himself if he ever did finish his invention. The guilt he feels for what may-have-happened is confused and warped, and he keeps it buried beneath his weighty obsession with the one thing he’s never forgotten…but if it were ever to be out of the way, Luca might be consumed by darkness.

[panlight]

I know you did astrological charts and the birthdays of the Cullens a while back (btw I want to see an updated version in case your opinions changed becuz mine have lol) but I'm pondering those of Bella, Edward, and Jacob. (Also if Ren was a "normal" pregnancy what could her sign be?) I know canon has them as Virgo, Gemini, and Capricorn respectively, but I feel like at least one of those signs isn't very accurate. I'm especially conflicted about Jacob as I did research on the 12 signs but it didn't connect. Your thoughts? Any new headcanons for the main trio and/or the Cullens?

I don't really know enough about the common traits of the signs off the top of my head to say. I'm not so much an astrology girl in real life, but I think it's fun in fiction as a tool to help flesh out a character. Pick a birthday and look up the astrological traits and pick some of those for your character, etc. Or, to work backwards when the author didn't give any of the major secondary characters birthdays to try and pick one for them based on traits. That's sort of how I settled on Feb 18 for Carlisle. We knew he "recently" had a birthday when Bella visits the house in March, so his birthday would be presumably in March or the later half of February. Feb 18th puts him on the cusp of humanitarian Aquarius and compassionate Pisces so that seemed like a good fit.

I think Virgo broadly works for Bella; they're practical, useful, hardworking, can be judge-y and perfectionistic. They aren't super creative or artistic, but they get stuff done but are prone to stress for all the pressure they put on themselves.

Edward's a Gemini (Jun 20) but on the cusp with Cancer, so he could have traits of both. From one website: "Gemini-Cancer cusps are playful, sensitive, romantic, and intelligent. They're highly perceptive and are more emotional and sentimental than they outwardly seem." I mean other than maybe playful (he has his moments but overall takes everything Super Seriously) that's not a terrible surface description of our vampire Romeo.

Jacob's a Capricorn (Jan 14). In descriptions I see a lot of words like persistent and loyal, which works. Negative traits like arrogant and controlling, which could fall into his post-wolfening character shift I guess. They aren't conventionally romantic but show affection and love with smaller gestures. He's not saying Bella is his life now or his life has no meaning without her, but he gives her candy hearts and warm sodas and spends time with her when she needs his sunny presence.

If I could assign a different birthday to one of the three it would probably be Jacob. I could definitely see him as more of Leo; loyal, a natural leader, generous, charming, talkative (telling Bella the secret history like, right away). I think that might fit his original sunny personality better?

Renesmee would probably have been born in late April or early May if she had been the product of a typical human pregnancy based on some rough dates I threw into a pregnancy calculator. That would make her a Taurus (like me!). Stubborn, dependable, set in their ways, appreciates the good things in life, gentle until riled, maybe with an artistic streak. I don't think I'm a very good Taurus example (the whole hedonistic thing is not me, lmao), but maybe Nessie would have been? I see some common traits with Virgo, which might complicate the mother-daughter relationship in the future. Sometimes people who are too similar don't get along well (looking at you, Rosalie and Edward).

[etirabys]

// cw status neuroticism, 

There's this widely recognized phenomenon where a lot of male writers write about self-insert characters who are kind of mediocre pairing up with a woman that has all the qualities they like in women, and reading a lot of this stuff gets pretty tiresome – and sometimes, because of the other stuff this kind of writing gets bundled up with, uncomfortable or upsetting.

But the backlash against this gets distilled so frequently into "if these were real people X would never date Y", "what is X doing with this loser" – that is, "X is out of Y's league", which is a sentiment / concept-pattern towards which I have, to my own surprise, an almost moral disgust. I think it's because these evaluations are the boldest and most explicit I see people being about their buy-in to the model that status permeates everything, you can tell what someone's status is by knowing their traits and capabilities, and that people of sufficiently different status cannot date each other.

(e.g. from a tumblr post I love 90% of: “And not that this is even the point, but why are these supposedly sexy and dynamic and interesting women BOTHERING with your boring garbage ‘on the skinny side of average’ protagonist? Why did you write it like this, Peter?””)

I think people are normally not very frank about believing this, and I like that they aren't because I don't want to live in a world where that's true, and so when they are frank about believing it when it comes to the one specific case of wanting to make fun of writers whose mediocre self inserts, I freak out badly because it's evidence that this is TRUE and everyone PRIVATELY KNOWS THIS and we all live in American-high-schools-as-depicted-by-movies hell and everyone is lying about it because, I don't know, the zeitgeist forbids it.

I have a similar horror/disgust reaction to the notion that sufficiently attractive women can pick anyone they like. Not to pick on the author here – I only happen to have this example mentally available because I love their fanfiction and have read it many times:

"Yeah, it's all cool," Kon said. "Lex's people are almost here. Hey, Kory, if you couldn't date Superman, what superhero would you date?"

Kory blinked. "I do not want to date Superman."

"No lie," Cassie muttered.

"Shut up," Kon hissed at her. "Yeah, but if you did want to, but you couldn't, who would be number two?"

"I don't understand," Kory said. "If I wanted to date someone, I would date him."

Kon paused and studied all seven golden feet of her, amber hair tumbling to her knees, and the scanty purple costume barely covering her breasts. "Okay, fine, nevermind."

Really? Dating works like this? The dating world of humans is a cacophony of weird preferences and relationship constraints and couples where I privately think one of them is really interesting/likeable and the other isn't but they seem really happy and they must see something in each other that I don’t... and you can have sufficiently hot people that they could date anyone they wanted???

I think this kind of thing is much more common in female characters than male, and it's uncomfortably obvious to me why: attractive women have more sexual capital than attractive men – in fact, their sexual capital comprises far more of their total capital / status resources than men – and therefore when people write about them and how much capital they have, it's in terms of how desirable they are and how they can date anyone they like. Even among feminist authors! Possibly especially among feminist authors, because feminist authors are more interested in writing about women who have a lot of status/capital!

[getvalentined]

Torn (For the Ask Game)

TORN

🎟️ SEXUALITY HEADCANON: Torn is biromantic and somewhere on the asexual spectrum. Not purely asexual, because he does find some people very sexually attractive, but it's pretty rare.

⚧️ GENDER HEADCANON: If asked, Torn would say that's none of anyone else's business.

💕 A SHIP: I honestly don't really ship Torn with anyone? I have an AU where he ends up with a version of Jak, but it's overly complicated and would never work in anything remotely closer to canon. I do think he's in love with Ashelin, but I also think he has terrible taste so it's not really something I'm into.

🖇️ A BROTP: Torn+Tess is probably my favorite, I love the implied character dynamic between them and I wish we'd gotten to see more of it. They seem to trust each other implicitly, and I'd love to know how they got to that point in their relationship!

🚫 A NOTP: Torn/Erol was reasonably popular back in the day but I'm really not into it. I appreciate a good hateship as much as the next person, but I don't think either of them would put in the effort to actually engage with each other in that way.

💭 A RANDOM HEADCANON: This one is pretty common now, but I've been in this fandom so long that it wasn't really the accepted fanon theory back when I was most active and thus I still treat it like my own headcanon—Torn's voice is Like That because his throat was slashed open during the assault on the Sacred Site that led to the loss of the old holy district. This attack also left him in a coma for multiple days, during which time Samos dedicated all his energy to helping him pull through, and Torn was presumed dead by Praxis and the rest of Haven's leadership. He survived, obviously, but honestly never fully recovered, which is why he always has a respirator (even if he's not using it) and very rarely works in the field anymore.

🗣️GENERAL OPINION: I'mma be honest, I fucking love Torn. I love his character development, the introduction as a gruff hardass and then the revelation that he's sentimental enough to put everything at risk for the safety of one person, followed by him standing up and refusing to wallow in his own guilt. Such a cool character. I can see why his people follow him so fervently.

(For the character ask game.)

[elvenbeard]

It's 8:42 in the morning, I didn't sleep, I finished Phantom Liberty.

MAN. OH MAN.

I have so so so many emotions, I'm so... HHHH.

Big big big big big spoilers below the cut.

I only played through one of the expansion endings so far (siding with Songbird), and I played the new main game ending... and I'm such a fucking puddle of feels now hhhh.

What I can say is that... I still love the Sun ending a lot for Vince, and that won't ever change. But this new one now... I don't even know where to start MAAAnnn...

I started my 12 hour gaming session yesterday briefly before shit went down like... Feels like it was all in a different life (HAH). I really liked the whole prep-work for taking on Hansen, tracking down the rental car, the convo with Songbird about her past, and man, I said that before, the lil scene with Alex had me bawling. The little human moments of connection in the face of all the horrors Cyberpunk does so well that get me everytime. Vince getting up to dance with her was so fucking cute, and internally both me and him and Alex probably too knew that that would be the last moment of peace - and potentially (and he ended up being right) the last night they'd play on the same team.

Like... Even after the convo with Song, me, the player, was pretty sure I'd end up siding with Reed. He and Vince had a lot in common with their backgrounds, principles, etc etc. and Songbird seemed out of control, in a way, like Reed had said. But that whole sentiment he kept repeating ("she doesn't know what's best for her", "I gotta save her" etc etc) was beginning to creep into Vince's head and rubbing him the wrong way (having grown up with an over-bearing, controlling parent, the whole control-shit at Arasaka, etc etc) - subconsciously at first, but it got to a point where he could no longer rationalize it away.

AND THEN. FUCKING FUCK. The faceplate. I had been dreading that shit so fucking much, I knew it was coming but yeah... I think Vince would rather die than having that done on him out of his own free will. Like... the tech is insanely cool for a spy ngl. But Vince is not a spy. Not really. With his background and opinions of cyberware and everything... getting your face replaced is a step too far, a step he wouldn't wanna take, ever, unless like, he got his face melted off in a horrible accident or something like that. Not for a one-off mission, more or less, for people he didn't even fully trust. Both he and me were hoping that somehow there would be a way around it. Like you can talk your way out of taking the oath and so many other things. But no, this thing is forced on you (for plot reasons, obviously, and again, I fucking love the concept of it and the options it offers for gameplay. I'm really just speaking for my V's personal experience here XD)

That whole situation felt so fucking invasive to begin with, and I'm not even speaking about the cyberware. There was so much pressure, from Reed and the Ripper, zero explanation as to what exactly the Ripper was gonna do, just how invasive the procedure is (that it's not reversible just like that, for example). V was never shown the thing beforehand, never got an explanation what it's made of, how it works, how to maintain it. There way not a single friendly word, nocalming him down. Worst doctor expereience ever, and that's quite the achievement with Vince's trackrecord of dealing with horrible doctors in the past. The whole thing was traumatizing as hell for him, the whole experience, just being knocked out without much of a warning, then not even fully and HHHHHH.

And then he stumbles back out of there, desperately clinging onto the hope and trying to tell himself that it's all gonna be worth it, all the trauma, the pain, questioning his identity even more than he already does. But the show must go on. And so he goes on to kidnap the Frenchies, and for some reason he wants to believe these two nobodies will make it out of this mess alive somehow, against all odds. Yeah. No. But not just *that* they died, but *how* they died was the final straw. So fucking cold and brutal. Vince was shocked how Alex was suddenly so cold and brutal, although not quite as much as Reed. And then when Vince gets rightfully upset about the situation, how it was handled, how inhumane... Like, he had to kill a lot of people working for Arasaka, and as a merc, but he would always wanna make it quick, painless, if it was really necessary to kill someone to begin with. Unbekownst to the victim, bullet to the head, precise and quick. Especially if it was supposed to be an execution, not something that happens in combat. But these two kids were scared shitless, dragged out of the car and not executed but butchered, brutally. And when Vince gets upset, complains, is enraged about how unprofessional these two alleged spys are, Reed says "they were just some criminals, why would you care?" - you know, to the lowly criminal standing in front of him. That was the line that shattered the fragile trust V had left in Reed for good. Like... he didn't trust So Mi either, but she had just as many reasons to distrust Reed and the FIA and Myers as V, and he would've rather taken his chances with her instead after this final display of something he could absolutely not stand behind any longer.

Damn. I loved the whole sequence with Kurt, the convo, pretending to be Aymeric (from a player standpoint it was amazing, I also cackled later when I played Run this Town and got to use the disguise in a different context xD but honestly, Vince was hating every second of the meeting, also knowing he was just about to betray the people that hat brought him there.

Kurt's death was... maaan. Epic and a letdown at the same time. He would've deserved so much more screentime and a bigger part in all of it. I would've loved the option to side with him xD but then the DLC wouldve been even larger and even more complicated. Loved it as is though, still but yeah. Needs more Kurt!!!

Vince had no regrets about betraying Reed and putting his trust in Songbird until the very end... even when she ended up betraying him one final time with her revelation of the cure only working once. I fucking loved the confrontation with Reed on the bridge at the spaceport, I had been crossing my fingers so so hard for it to come to a showdown like that. I was so tempted for the dialogue choice of "take her, and I don't want anything for it in return". Cause like... despite everything, Vince had no desire to kill Reed. It wouldn't have changed a thing. Too many people had already died on his behalf anyway, and his hope for a cure was lost either way. So he ended up surrendering So Mi. I picked the option "deal", because I absolutely wanted to see the new main game ending, and I'm not sure if maybe with the "I dont want anything" choice you lock yourself out of it, but I will definitely test that out next time around.

The whole stuff that happened at the spaceport in general... I'm still trying to process it. And of fucking course Mr Blue-Eyes has his disgusting creepy fingers in all of it (or one of his associates) by helping So Mi, offering her this way out. I hate it (I love it). But that whole sequence of getting her to the spacecraft, I loved it so so much. Like all the boss fights and main missions, it was so nicely paced and structured, I had so much fun and I'm speaking as someone who is not good at fighting in video games.

So Mi's betrayal hurt, but letting her down in the end hurt even more. URGH. UUUURGH. But like... in that moment Vince was also like "okay... no cure. fine. But I'm not without leads, I'm just so done with all this spy crap. I should've never agreed to help her in the first place." If anything, he was sorry for things not turning out good for any of them really, but when do they do in NC.

He was glad to talk things out with Reed in the end to a degree, say his farewells. Still not getting his hopes up too high about him, still not really trusting him all that much. In a way still sympathizing, but at that point he'd be certain that he's done with the corporate world and anything like it for good. Revenge and hard feelings were pointless, Reed suffering from his decisions was punishment enough for Vince in that case.

I'm not sure if Vince would end up asking the FIA for help realistically. Like I said, I love the Sun ending for him a lot from a narrative standpoint. And Johnny's whole "please, don't do it", and him getting wiped as the price for it for good... that was at the same time not as bad as I had pictured it, but simultaneously it was awful. So yeah... I really don't know if, with all the choices present, the FIA would be number one. Realistically he'd wanna hear out Hanako first, and I think with how time-sensitive everything else is beyond that, the FIA is propbably off the table. Either way though... I wanted to see the ending.

I was bawling my eyes out during the AV ride, V and Johnny making up, talking a final time... and Johnny calling him Vincent in the end fucking destroyed me asödhjfasfasdf ;______; Doctor detected heightened emotions not just on V but on me as well that was so... HHHHHH. My feels ;__;

And then... the new main game ending. God. Like... ever since those new holocall icons of Kerry and Judy appearing a while ago, with Kerry's 2079 world tour promo... We had to get a timeskip. And I feared the cure would be tied to working for the FIA long term or some shit like that, something that would drive a wedge between V and his loved ones for good. The cure being tied to all sorts of horrible things I kept imagining...

And then the reality was so much more gentle and in a way so so fucking happy if that makes sense? Like... fuck, two years have passed. And fucking Reed and no one else in fucking Langley apparently considered even telling anyone back in NC about the complications of V's operation and all. Y'know, keep his loved ones in the loop after even telling him "tell your friends you'll be gone for a bit, a month tops". And that's the worst betrayal of the whole expansion for me cause like... it was so pointless. Did no one tell anyone cause they had no hope? Cause they wanted to sever V's ties on purpose? Was it Reed's decision, someone else's? Was it intended as punishment? Or was it downright laziness and uncaringness for V as a person, and he maybe just an interesting yet complicated experiment. That one really really hurt. And Vince could not blame Kerry or any of the others for being hurt by that and having moved on with their lives. He would've in their spot, for sure. And no, Reed, he absolutely fucking will not work for the FIA, fuck off. And then Vince fucked out of there as quickly as possible and never looked back.

The whole "your body can't tolerate implants anymore" thing... Did not really hit him that hard. Like... yeah. Netrunning, hacking, which he was always so fucking good at, is not gonna be a thing anymore in this timeline. And that he'll miss sorely. Feeling really really fucking capable about something he built a big part of his life around. That was a central part of his life for all his life, really.

But apart from that... he was always low on chrome. He wouldnt miss it nearly as much as other Vs I think. I think what he struggles with more is just recovering from the coma physically, how weak he is for sure for a while, the fact he probably will never be as fit as he used to be. But still... there's hope in that. Cause he gets to live. He never wanted to be a merc, he would make a damn good fixer for sure... but he'll find something else, something less dangerous. He won't be happy being just a nobody in the crowd, but he's also fallen from high places before and climbed back up, coming out on top every time, every time more himself, seizing new opportunities and making his way. He can make it out of that hole. Like, yeah, the timing sucks... But Kerry wants to see him again, and they can rekindle things. I'm sure they will. I'm so happy Kerry got to play at the Crystal Palace, he's so on top of his game, given how low he was when he and V first met. You know... he says he was hit hard by V's disappearance and potential death, but he's out there rocking the world. He's doing good, he didn't fall back into a spiral of depression and despair. And that makes me so happy. And Vince is gonna hold on to that thought of a future together not just not being off the table, but being so much more certain than before now.

Vince is upset about Panam being so upset, but he can understand her well. He wouldn't feel much different than her. He is sad about River not wanting to see him, but he hopes he can change his mind, somewhere down the line. He is so excited to meet Judy's wife, he is so happy she found peace and love. Hell, Vince would happily just be Kerry's useless trophy husband, if I'm being completely honest, and it's possible now. With no obligations in Night City left, no reputation to upkeep, they can do whatever they want. Rogue promises he wont be forgotten, he will be a legend of the Afterlife forever - one that actually gets to live a full life. Who can forget about all the horrors. He's gonna adapt and find his new thing and like, you know...

This little scene, and the farewell scene with Misty hit me so hard cause... remember this?

I actually... had something very very very similar planned for Vince in the long run that we get with PL now. I'm feeling extremely validated with my headcanons and ideas and concepts and just... Yeah. Not that that's absolutely necessary for fanfiction to be valid or anything, but I'm just... so happy.

I said it in a prev post, PL is the gift that gives on giving by granting me all my little wishes and confirming so many tiny random headcanons. But I didn't think it would also get me pretty much the ending I'd been working on already in the background, the one that he'd deserve. So yeah... idk. Cyberpunk can have happy (or at least bittersweet) endings, it does for me 100% now. V gets to live and survive, if you choose to, canonically.

[verybadatwriting]

A Strange Pair

Lestrange!ReaderXFred Weasley

Summary: Fred Weasly and Y/n Lestrange make things work, despite the familial differences

Warnings: Descriptions of reader’s hair, unsupportive parents, abusive parents, probably mentions of mass genocide, bad eating habits/food scarcity, nightmares, dislike of self (specifically hair)

Notes: Your dad in this story looks just like you do in real life, I just wanna make it abundantly clear that you look like you. IDK if I’m explaining it right. I tried to keep it gn, as usual.

Part 2

Gn!reader

Word count: 3,547

In all but two ways, you looked like your father. Same skin, eyes, everything. The two things that didn't line up, and that people always immediately noticed, was that you had your mother’s smile and her hair. Thick, curly, and quite untamable. Since your first year at Hogwarts, you’d been told both were too reminiscent of her.

Many people had serious grudges against your parents, especially your mother. That was completely understandable. You had never really liked her. Or maybe you loved her. Sometimes even you didn’t know. There were times when she was a monster, and others where she wasn’t quite loving, but better than the monster. It didn’t make sense, to you or to anyone else. 

Outsiders thought you would be just like her. A monster. Teachers included. All the (secretly) loyal Death Eaters thought you were too soft and not at all like the woman they’d fought alongside, and who had gained the Dark Lord’s attention. In your own family that was the sentiment. Not good enough. Too soft. Not Slytherin Enough.

When you were a toddler, you’d made the mistake of asking if she loved you.

“No.” She had replied simply, then elaborated, “You’re my flesh and bone. Even that’s not enough to make up for your nature. Additionally, love is a distraction. A distraction from the one thing that truly matters…” 

You’d run crying to your father, who simply told you that’s the way she was. That was the last time you cried. Later that day, you were sitting with your aunt Narssissa and her newborn son. As you listened to her baby-talk to him, you started to resent your mother. You once overheard her say she expected you to be one of the small burned marks on the Black Family Tree. 

That resent didn’t pass during the war, or your parent’s sentencing for the torture of the Longbottoms, it only grew. For four years you lived with the Malfoys. Draco saw you as an older sibling, and you saw him as a tragically misguided child. In those four years you became disillusioned with the Death Eaters, mainly after more research into the attack on the Longbottoms. 

During your first two years at Hogwarts you befriended the Weasley twins, who were in the same year as you. Fred liked you and vice versa, and by your fifth year you were a couple. His mom didn’t approve, and you doubted your mother would either. You didn’t care, nor did he.

The outside observer couldn't fathom why you were together, you seemed like complete opposites. He was the life of the party, from a big family that fought on the right side of the war. In fact, the only thing you seemed to have in common was the nack for getting into trouble, especially with that wretched new pink-clad teacher. Umbridge.

You knew of the twin’s plan to set off fireworks and start a shop. The night before they enacted it, you and Fred were cuddled up on a couch in the Gryffindor common room, late at night. George sat across from you two.

“And then we’ll make our grand exit!” Fred said.

“Along with dropping fliers for our store.” George said.

“I think that Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes will be the most popular shop in Diagon Alley.” You said.

“At least among trouble-making youngsters.” George added. You three chuckled for a moment.

“Where are you going for the holidays?” You asked.

“We’ll probably stop by our mum’s house.” Fred said, “Unless she completely flips out about us deserting school and disowns us.” He realized what he’d said and sucked in a quick breath. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay.” You said, “I don't think your mom would do something like that. Setting off a few hundred fireworks and leaving school isn’t the worst thing you two have done.” 

The twins laughed, and made sure not to be too loud. You were not supposed to be in their common room and someone finding out about the three of you meeting would have had disastrous consequences.

Around midnight George turned in for the night, and advised you and Fred to do the same.

“We will.” Fred said, “Just a few more minutes.” George went up the stairs, leaving Fred and you curled up on the couch together. After a few moments of silence, you spoke.

“If you and George want to stop by over Christmas…” You said, “Here’s where to find me.” You pulled away slightly to scribble down an address on a slip of paper and handed it to him along with an envelope with a key in it.

“It’s not the biggest apartment, but there’s enough room for three.”

“Thanks, love.” He kissed the crown of your head, “We really should get to bed, George and I need to be rested up.”

“I’m gonna miss you, Freddie.” You said.

“I will too.” He echoed, “Now that I have this,” He waved the slip of paper, “We’ll be seeing eachother often.”

The next few months flew by, like the twins had flown from Umbridge. You kept your head down at Hogwarts, and worked hard. Fred and George often sent letters, and you sent many as well. Over the summer, the letters were filled with invitations to visit them. Sadly, you had to decline. You were working your butt off to keep your apartment. Rent had gone up drastically.

You and your cat lived in an apartment in the Muggle side of London over the breaks. It was pretty nice, although strangely shaped. The entryway had a bedroom on the right, then it opened into a kitchen/living/dining room with windows. If you continued going forward from the door, the wall curved to the right ever so slightly, the bathroom’s on your left, and at the end of the hall is a second, smaller, bedroom.

It was always empty. It had furniture, chairs, beds, and such. All you brought with you each visit was a single suitcase enchanted against water, fire, and anything else you and Dumbledore could think of. That contained all your documents, money, a few prized possessions, and photos.

You had to save up enough to send rent while you were at Hogwarts, so that you could move back in during the breaks. All summer you worked tirelessly. Fred’s letters were what kept you going.

A lonely school year started in September 1996. After what felt like an eternity of studying and ignoring Umbridge, Winter Break finally rolled around. You briefly made eye contact with Mrs. Weasley on Platform 9 ¾. She glared at you, and you continued on your way.

You went home to your apartment, with arrangements to start work the next day. All you could do was head to bed. The next morning you woke up at five thirty to get to work. By six you were out the door. 

Six to six forty was commuting. Very different from Hogwarts, where you often didn’t have to leave the building. Crammed into the Tube, you didn’t even get a seat. After a hellish morning commute you got to the cheap chain restaurant you worked at every break.

Over your lunch break your boss pulled you aside.

“Hi Y/n.” He said, “It’s lovely to have you back, such a hard worker… Anyway! We’re cutting your hours.”

“What.” You said.

“We’ve learned to manage well enough without you.”

“Sir, we had an agreement.”

“I know…” He said, “Things change, plus we never signed anything official. I can still get you some hours, but they’ll be at odd times. Not enough people are signed up for the midnight to seven for tomorrow. I can get you that shift for sure and you’ll get at least seven hours a day.”

Somehow managing to not flip out at your manager, you politely nodded.

“Does today’s shift have the usual times?”

“Yes, you’ll get off at four.” He said, “Speaking of which, get to work.”

 

Hours later, after changing out of your slightly greasy uniform and folding it in the bottom of your bag, you left work to do two things. Get food for the week, and see if there was any way to make some more money. If you only got seven hours going forward there was no way you’d be able to keep the apartment.

Six pm rolled around and you walked into your apartment. You’d had no luck with getting a second job, especially since your availability during the school year was nonexistent. You did pick up a few packs of instant noodles and some cat food. At least your pet would be happy.

Turning the handle, your cat acknowledged you by lifting her head.

“Thanks for the warm welcome.” You said, “I brought dinner for you. It looks like it’s just us. Again.” You opened the food and plonked a bit in her bowl. While she ate, you thought about making a packet of the noodles, and decided against it. 

For all his failings, your manager was always alright with the workers sneaking a sandwich every now and then. You’d just eat in six hours when you got to work. That would have to do. You crawled into bed to sleep for a few hours.

Something woke you up. It was the sound of someone trying to navigate somewhere without being too loud. There was a knock at your bedroom door.

“Hey? Y/n?” A familiar voice said.

“What if we have the wrong house?” Said another.

“Then the key wouldn’t have worked, George.” Said Fred, “I thought my twin would be a bit smarter. Honestly.”

“Freddie?” You asked, opening the door.

“The one and only.” The two of you embraced in a kiss and stayed like that for a moment. Then you heard George bumbling around in the kitchen.

“Oh Merlin.” You sighed, “What on earth is your brother doing?”

“I don’t know.” Fred said, “Do we want to go find out?”

Turns out he was cooking. 

“Hi Y/n!” He said, “I’m making dinner. This fellow,” He motioned to Fred, “Was so set on getting here as soon as possible that he didn’t let us stop to eat! I’m making some for you too.”

“Oh George.” You said, “It’s fine, I’ll eat when I go to work.”

“That’s hours away!” He protested. “Do you just not like my cooking?”

“Fine.” You said, jokingly angry. “I’ll join you, but I’ve got to get to bed soon.”

“Why?” Fred teased, “Got a hot date?”

“No!” You guffawed, “I got the late shift at work. It starts at midnight.”

“Aw, I’m sorry, love.” He said.

“Y/n,” George said, “I suggest you get some rest. It’s nearly ten thirty right now and, with all due respect, you need some sleep.”

“Jeez, I look that bad?” You chuckled.

“Georgie,” Fred said, “I’m gonna go make sure they actually sleep.” He slung his arm around your shoulder. A few moments later, you were snuggled in bed together. He was the big spoon, and had one arm looped around your waist while the other served as a pillow. Silence settled for a while.

“Your hair’s in my mouth.” He said. This happened a lot when you were the little spoon. Another reason to hate your hair. You adjusted a little and that fixed it. As Fred was drifting off to sleep, he murmured something.

“I love you.”

“I love you too, Freddie.”

Eleven thirty came about, and your alarm woke you up. Quietly, you tried to remove Fred’s arm and slip away without waking him up. You were unsuccessful. 

“Hmm?” He tightened his arm, “What’s going on?”

“I’m just going to work,” You yawned, exhausted.

“Do you have to?”

“Yes,” You replied, still gently trying to move his arm. “It’s how I can afford to keep this apartment.”

“Do you have to?”

“Do I have to keep my apartment?”

“Yeah.” He sleepily nodded.

“Fred,” You sighed, “It’s where I live.”

“I know, but that could change.”

“Where else would I go?”

“George and I have an apartment, a lot like this one, right above our shop.” He said, “There’s only two beds, but personally, I wouldn’t mind sharing with you.” You thought for a moment, not quite sure if this was the ramblings of a sleepyhead who wanted more cuddles, or if Fred was serious.

“Well.” You said, “My boss will wonder where I am.”

“Just call and say you’re sick.” He yawned, “Or say there’s a family emergency.”

“I suppose that could work. Either way, I have to get out of bed.” Reluctantly, Fred lifted his arm. Within minutes you were back, and snuggled next to him again.

Fred awoke to you suddenly sitting bolt-upright, soaked in sweat and looking really shaken up. He sat up next to you, and slowly took your hands in his.

“Hey Y/n.” He said, “You’re okay. You’re safe.” Your initial instinct was to pull away, until the more rational side of your brain took over and you remembered that Fred wasn’t a threat. 

“It’s okay,” He repeated, “Can you take some deep breaths, love? There you go. Good job.” You leaned onto him, relieved to have some form of comfort.

“Do you wanna talk about it, or lie back down?” He asked quietly.

“I don’t know.” You whispered.

“That’s alright.” He soothed, “We can stay like this.” And you did. He kept his arms wrapped tightly around you until you were ready to talk about the nightmare.

“It was… Well not quite a flashback,” You said, “I was there again. The cold walls. The firelight. Everything was the exact same…” You trailed off.

“Same as when?” Fred asked.

“Same as it was the first time.” You replied. This only slightly confused Fred, you had mentioned the ‘times’ a whole lot, although you never went into detail. This time, you told him all of it.

“I was an infant.” You continued, “Crying simply because that’s what babies do. That demon – my mother – used Crucio on me.” 

Fred sucked in an involuntary sharp breath.

“I eventually learned to stop crying. For good.”

“Oh God…” Fred said, “Y/n. I’m…” He trailed off and hoped his message would get through as he pressed a kiss to your head. 

“Thanks.” You said, “Let’s lie down now.”

“Of course.”

You awoke late in the morning. At first you panicked, thinking you’d drastically overslept, but then you felt Fred next to you and remembered it was alright. George was cooking breakfast, and when he heard the two of you waking up he poked his head in.

“Morning love birds,” He said, “What do you want to eat?”

“Uh,” You said, “I don’t have anything here. Just a few instant ramen packets.”

“Psh,” George said, “Silly of you to assume we didn’t bring food. I suggest you have pancakes, there’s some from the first batch on the table.” He left the room.

Throughout the day Fred insisted you relax. You found out he was completely serious about inviting you to live with them. In the afternoon, you contacted your boss to say you were moving. He threw a hissy fit because you gave such short notice.

“Well, sir,” You replied, “You seemed to be getting along just fine without me. I had the option to completely ghost you and never speak to you again. I’ll be there to return my uniform later today.” And then hung up the phone. 

“Freddie?” You said, “I need to make a quick run to work and drop off my uniform, wanna come?”

“Of course.” He said, “Is George joining us?”

“Only if he wants.”

The three of you walked down to the nearest Tube station. You bought the twins their own cards, and showed them how they worked. Unlike your usual commutes, this Tube trip was enjoyable. Fred and George were amazed at the underground trains, and how scanning a flimsy piece of paper caused the turnstiles to open. 

That night you called the Knight Bus to get to Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes. On the ride you discussed their plans for Christmas. Their mom had invited them over Christmas Day. The only reason they weren’t there right now is because they were waiting for a reply. 

“Why do you need a reply from her?” You asked, “You’ve already been invited.”

“I wanted to know if you could come with us.” Fred said. “I expect there’s a letter waiting patiently for us back home.” 

Sure enough, there was a letter carefully slid underneath the door. It was from Mrs. Weasley, who begrudgingly extended the invitation to you.

‘If it is necessary for the Lestrange child to come too, I suppose it’s alright.’ She went on to threaten you with bodily harm if you stepped a foot out of line. After reading the letter, Fred lead you to his room. Or rather, your shared room. 

He showed you an empty bureau you could put your stuff in. To his surprise, you only had two extra shirts and pants. It didn’t even fill a single drawer. Later that evening, the three of you used the floo network to travel to the Burrow. 

Polite conversation filled the rooms. Mr. Weasley was very interested in the Muggle world, and was thoroughly enjoying listening to you, Fred, and George explain the underground train system. He had many questions, which bored his wife and helped her lose her death-glare at you. 

Over the course of a few hours she interacted with you once or twice, mainly saying things like ‘excuse me’ when she passed you in a narrow hallway. She did see you and Fred sitting together on the couch, and once again glowered in your direction.

“The way you two flirt is shameful.” She muttered, just loud enough for you and Fred to hear. In reply he simply wrapped an arm around your shoulders and continued the conversation like nothing had happened.

You met a woman named Nymphadora, who insisted everyone call her Tonks. The conversation started when she commented on your hair. With more than a little shame, you told her it was from your mother’s side of the family. It turned out you and her were cousins, although her mother was disowned.

“Oh that’s fun.” You said, “I’m disowned too!” Both of you laughed about it. 

“Yeah, that family really sucks.” Tonks said.

“Tell me about it.” You replied. Eventually the time came, and you went to bed. Through the thin walls you heard Mrs. Weasley fighting with Fred. Muffled voices attacking and defending you.

“I want that demon-spawn out of my house!”

A quiet reply.

“Well go and live with them then! See what I care.”

Fred replied again, just barely audible this time.

“But I love them.”

In the morning Mrs. Weasley looked more pissed than ever that you had the audacity to exist. Despite this, she made Christmas wonderful for everyone. The food was delicious, the spirit was there, blocking out the troubles of the outside world, if only for a little bit.

Evening fell. The next morning you would head back to the twin’s shop, just a few more hours without angering Mrs. Weasley any more and you’d be in the clear. Right as Tonks and Remus were saying their goodnights, a ball of fire rained down from the sky! Your cackling mother appeared out of a cloud of black smoke and the fire encircled the Burrow. As quick as she’d come, she disappeared over the wall of fire.

Harry tried to sprint after her, but you shoved past him. You thrust yourself through the fire, weapons drawn, and slung a knife at your mother’s shoulder. It hit with a sickening ‘thunk.’

“Your aim’s improved.” She said, withdrawing the knife and throwing it back, aiming for your torso. You nimbly caught it. 

“What’s wrong?” She teased, “Not happy to see Mummy?” You chucked another knife at her, this time she caught it midair.

“I see. Giving me the silent treatment.” She nodded. 

“Shut up.” You said, as you chased her further into the tall grass.

“Are you sure you want to stay here and play with me?” She asked, “Don’t you want to make sure your friends are okay? Fenrir sometimes plays a little rough…”

“I said shut up.” You lunged at her, and managed to get in a few good blows before she slashed you across the cheek and rolled to her feet.

“Any particular reason you’re not using magic?” Bellatrix questioned, “I always suspected you were a filthy squi-” At that moment, a jet of flame erupted into the air from the Burrow, and she used your distraction to escape, her cackles ringing in the air.

You rushed back towards the fire, only to see the whole group standing outside the now-burning Burrow. A heartbeat passed as everyone watched the blazing house, then Mrs. Weasley turned to you.

“You.” She spat, “You lead them to us. You are just like your mother. Sick! Get out. Now! Leave!” Molly was near hysterics, her husband was barely able to hold her back from attacking you. 

“Bye Freddie, I’ll see you at home.” You tossed a handful of Floo powder onto the burning Burrow and stepped in. The last word was directed at both Fred, and the fire. A whirlwind of green and you were back in the attic of Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes. 

“I guess this is home now.”

[valeriefauxnom]

Interesting(?) Corollary on Aroarce!Euden

So, I've kinda already dug up the more obvious scenes that hint that Euden seemed to be Aroace (as seen here if you missed it).

But as I was spamming Dragalia to my friend today, I found another thing that I think is an interesting addition to this previous evidence.

Specifically, Orion's stories. His base form doesn't exactly give out any flags, aside from his continuing absolute blind spot re. romance...

...But his Valentine's alt has an interesting line in it indeed.

The exchange is as follows:

Again, pretty innocent. Euden thinks he's 'too young' essentially, to be worrying about that, etc. Fair enough.

But this concept seems to be echoed again all the way later in Summer Mym's story.

I'll stress the 'not mature enough to understand what it means to be in love' part for this one.

Here's where it gets hypothetical, but to me, it almost comes across as if Euden, growing up, has learned to associate 'romantic love' with 'maturity' in some fashion. It might stand to reason: kids are often told that, when they see couples behaving certain ways that are weird to them, etc, 'you'll understand when you're older/an adult/when you find that special someone/etc.' So child!Euden might have had a similar moment or three, and associated that romantic love=maturity.

The mere omnipresence of romance as a major theme in society probably doesn't help to dissuade the notion that it's the 'normal' state in the world, and that he is the weird one as he grew up to never having that spark of 'oh now I get romantic love'. Combined with the aforementioned connection he's made, Euden might believe that since he still doesn't feel it, it means he's not mature/too young.

Combined with his other comments over the years like flat-out stating to Naveed he doesn't understand the kind of love he's talking about (romantic) to Malora's story where he says "(romantic love/'capturing someone's affections') [is] just not the kind of thing [he] think about", Euden is consistent on the notion that he just flat out doesn't understand what people mean and feel regarding romance and the corresponding love.

At the very most, he can echo some of the trope sentiments people commonly say word-for-word in media, but even that kinda reinforces that he can at best throw out the most common tropes when trying to come up with what 'romantic love' is: this fanciful 'love at first sight' devotion where one puts absolutely everything about their partners ahead of anything else.

Even then, he doesn't mean a word of it and doesn't really understand why Elisanne is acting all weird about it, because he understands it was an act, she knows that, why would anyone react to having that spoke to them? He was just mindlessly repeating tropes from romance books to upset a dumb fiend. At most, he could see why it was uncomfortable - because it is uncomfortable having that kind of stuff professed to you when you don't like someone, which Euden would perceive Elly as feeling (Heck, he doesn't even really know Elisanne is big into romance novels, thinking 'it's not like her'). In fact, he more bases this comment on making her uncomfortable from a religious sense with the whole 'undying love of Ilia' thing she's forsworn above all else.

So yeah. Valentine's Orion provided an interesting prequel to Summer Mym's story that I felt added a new little layer of elaboration about what Euden thinks of love. All in all, it's surprising just how consistent they were in the messaging some of Euden's thoughts regarding romantic love and its associates.

Bonus round:

Also, apparently the dev team was being funny, and decided to add a running joke for Orion's anniversary lines that Euden just immediately starts walking away and ignoring him whenever he starts waxing poetic about love:

Which, as my friend said, "Honestly what a mood for Euden to walk away/zone out when it comes to things he doesn't experience, aka romance. If he doesn't know what it's like then it's hard to focus or even relate"

The idea of Euden just getting a glaze over his eyes and meandering off whenever somebody starts talking like this is a funny one, though!

[alexjcrowley]

I am watching Heat and making it everyone else's problem, BUT Al Pacino and De Niro in there are top tier queerplatonic relationship goals. Obviously no hate to the shippers who see them romantically involved, it's definitely something that I could see, but let me push my aromantic agenda here.

Because, honestly, Pacino and De Niro being like "this hunt, this kind of rush is my life, I can only get a woman to stay with me for limited time, because it's this what gets me going, being a criminal/hunting criminal"? SIRS MAY I SUGGEST YOU ARE BOTH LOOKING FOR A ROMANTIC PARTNER BECAUSE IT FEELS LIKE WHAT YOU SHOULD DO BUT YOU'RE PRETTY GOOD ON YOUR OWN?

Don't get me wrong, I feel like Pacino cares about his wife and his wife's daughter a lot, but he doesn't love his wife romantically, you know what I mean? He chose a woman he likes and likes to have sex with, and he cares about her but no romo. Even when she says "I'm going out" without him, he doesn't explode into a jealous fit, he is just like "okay, I get you're angry with me, I'll go do my thing now" and that's that.

Robert De Niro being the only one of the group without a partner AND NOT EVEN LOOKING FOR ONE (it's Eady who goes to him). And I'll be honest, him meeting a woman and asking her to move to New Zealnd with him after two weeks to me seems a pretty forced writing choice. Just because they wanted to get him a woman, you know?

Of course the conversation at the bar between Pacino and De Niro is an iconic movie moment per se, but if I put my aro lenses on watching it I love it even more. I like to think their experiences are similar also because they don't need romance in their life, they basically have no place for it.

Pacino is like "my sentimental life is a mess and I wouldn't want it any other way if it meant abandoning what I think is my life purpose" and De Niro is like "Nah, I get it, to keep doing what I do I'd too drop everything that could stop me, romantic partner included".

I don't know, it's like "aromantic meets another aromantic for the first time in their life, turns out they have quite a lot in common".

And I like the idea of them developing some sort of qpr also in a sense that their relationship with eachothers, as cop and criminal, is what keeps them alive and makes their life interesting. That's what fuels them, not a happy ending with their loved one, but the thrill of the hunt!

I know obviously the movie wasn't intended to be aromantic and I don't mean to flatten the interpretation of Heat by reducing it to a queer reading, but there are basically zero movies about aromanticism and when I see a film in which at least one character could be interpreted as aro (usually when they're very focused on their job and they seem to gain more issues than benefits from romantic relationships) I can't help but being like "me! They're like me!". So indulge me, please.

Pacino and De Niro in this movie really feel like Sherlock and Watson in a way, let me explain. I always disliked that part in Sherlock adaptation when John ends up with Mary and wants to marry her and move on from his aventurous life with Sherlock, and not because I want John to be romantically involved with Sherlock, but because I think John is giving up a fantastic, intriguing, exciting life to...be married. If you were to aske me "would you prefer to settle down with a ring on your finger or live the rest of your days solving mystery wuth your best friend" that's not even a question for me, I choose the second option.

And Pacino and De Niro in Heat are people who would choose the second option in a blink like me! Yes, they want to keep ghe hunt going, the adrenaline pumping, they couldn't sit at home watching tv and eating roast, where's the adventure, where's the fire???? The best moment of their day is not at home with their partner, in on the field, oursmarting the other!!!! As far as I am concerned, they said aro rights to me, I don't care. Qpr goals, they wouldn't settle down together, they would play the cat and mouse game for as long as they can meeting weekly in cafe to update the other about the rest of their life and flirt.

After spending 5 days hiding in some secret cove, De Niro walks into a bar where Al Pacino held a sit for him, they order coffee and Pacino is like "What are you doing this days?" "Oh, same old stuff, caught Starsky & Hutch on TV yesterday" "Oh, so you're hiding in a place that has a TV and decent enough signal :)" "Yeah, you got me, what about you ^-^"

It makes sense in my head I swear. They flirt all the time but in a queerplatonic way you know what I mean. You know it.

[lilover131]

Chapter 73 and 74 Analysis

Long time no see! It’s been stressful over here, since I just moved into a new house (my first time living on my own!) and have been distracted with unpacking everything as well as just living life, but I have lots of good things coming my way and much to look forward to! But I’m exhausted...hahahaha.

These past two chapters managed to be both extremely calm and yet crazy exciting at the same time! I know the new chapter is pretty much out now (or will be very very soon), and so I wanted to get this out before I officially read it and don’t get behind three months in a row! There is so much to talk about, so let’s dive right in! 

In chronological order, we’ll start off with chapter 73! OMG, THE LILIE COLOR PAAGGEEEEE!! I’m in love with her dress, and honestly this may be my favorite outfit drawn so far in the entirety of Clear Card. It’s so elegant, detailed, and definitely gives me those Tsubasa/Magic Knight Rayearth vibes! Lilie looks like a straight up princess, and it reminds me just a bit of Kaito’s outfit on the chapter 40 cover page. Lilie’s is a lighter blue color than that particular image, but it has that gradient blue on the white with the gold filagree pattern, so I almost wonder if this was done on purpose… 

The chapter starts off more a little bit after where the last one left off. Sakura has returned from school after her revelation and conversation with Syaoran, and she goes straight to Akiho to spill the beans about the magical world. Regardless of whether Sakura thinks Akiho would accept it or not (which of course she would), I think this is a good call and will make things easier if everyone in the household is on the same page (TALK TO FUJITAKA SAKURA).

 Sakura enters Akiho’s room and comments about how it has a similar layout to hers but that it doesn’t take much to tell it is her room. Of course one telltale sign is the bookshelf! She’s got a nice collection going on, and the cute moon shaped lamp on her nightstand certainly has some Kaito vibes (hehe). Akiho asks her if she really believes that, and Sakura explains that although they have a lot in common, she is still her own person. Akiho shares the sentiment and speaks on how unique Sakura is, which makes her blush a bit before her eyes draw to the watch. It looks less broken since the last time we saw it, which shows how hard Akiho has been working to fix it!

 We finally hear the story of how the watch came into her possession, and Akiho explains that she found this in their great grandfather’s house, but that he doesn’t know where it came from exactly. They had attempted to get it repaired at watch repair shops, but no one managed to ever get it working again. Despite this, Akiho has been working diligently to fix it herself because she can’t help but feel that it is very very important (indeeeeeed Akiho. Quite important!). In a way, this feels more symbolic than just repairing of a watch. This comes off to me as Akiho working to restore Kaito’s time in general. Right now, I think his time has stopped rather than moving forward, and fixing the watch will be like fixing Kaito (even if she isn’t aware of that herself).

 Sakura encourages her to keep working at it before she explains that she has something to tell her. The following panel seems to indicate some time has passed, and we flash forward to after Akiho has been told about her magic. Sakura is somewhat nervous after telling her, understandably so, but Akiho as expected completely accepts it and seems even excited about it as it feels like something out of a book. She goes on to say that it’s a good thing they are different despite being twins, and that even if she can’t use magic, she hopes that she can find something she’s good at to help her that Sakura cannot do. She then states “It’s what I can do…and what I can’t…that makes me who I am”. Not only were these words spoken by her real mother Lilie, but she is also saying it with the same kind expression and pose that her mother did when talking to Sakura in a dream.

This seems to stir Sakura a bit. She can’t remember the dream she had, but it does seem that this triggers a feeling in her that she has to look for something, particularly something magical. Akiho mentions she wouldn’t be to see it since she doesn’t have magic, but Sakura mentions that even she cannot see it. It seems she certainly senses it is there, but Akiho assists by telling a story she heard about hidden magic that only would appear when called by name. Through a discussion about magic and similarity to books, Sakura is triggered to think about books containing memories…a record, and this seems to be enough to summon the RECORD.

 This at least serves as confirmation that SOME of the Clear Cards still exist (at least RECORD does), and unsurprisingly, it has captured memories from the previous timeline. Sakura’s magic really never ceases to amaze me. But what is even more interesting about this is that it reveals a scene we had yet to see before. In this scene, Syaoran is giving her advice to use the RECORD card and having it essentially remain active due to the feeling they were having that someone was making them forget things (-cough- Kaito -cough-), and I can’t help but sit over here and be like “OMG, MY BABIES ARE SO SMART!!”. I’m so proud of them for thinking of this, and man is it coming in handy now.

 It turns out the RECORD card even managed to capture the moment Momo visited Suppi and Kero (which I haven’t forgotten about!!). Sakura is naturally pretty surprised to learn that 1. She was making new cards and doesn’t remember, and 2. Seeing Momo, who she does not recognize, talking directly to her in this recorded memory advising her of exactly what is going on.

 Momo introduces herself and states that she is the guardian of a ‘certain book’ (Alice in Clockland), but that she cannot stop the time rewind that she knows is going to happen (she was right that it was going to happen, but we were all wrong about the reason why. Hahaha). Momo had to be neutral despite her feelings and she could not tell Sakura or Akiho what was going on. Akiho is naturally surprised, because she doesn’t remember Momo in this timeline, but clearly she knows her name. Moreover, Momo mentions “The boy” (-cough- Kaito -cough-) and how he is definitely hiding something but will never breathe a word of it (she was definitely right about that one).

 It seems we have Momo to thank for Sakura getting this vision entirely as the RECORD card should have actually vanished with the time rewind, but thanks to the ring/crown Lilie gave Momo, she was able to cast a spell that allowed RECORD to stay intact without discovery from Kaito. Now, her statement here might make one believe that none of the cards exist if RECORD was only there due to the last spell with the ring, but she tells Sakura that there are other cards that haven’t disappeared and are waiting for her to call their names. I wonder which oooonnneesss?! I imagine REWIND is certainly one considering she hasn’t actually used it at all yet since its creation, and it must have some sort of purpose that we haven’t discovered yet (perhaps the ability to undo Kaito’s spell?).

 The RECORD card then turns into a crystal and enters Sakura’s body, bringing forth all the memories from the previous timeline. These memories bring Sakura to tears, which concerns Akiho, but she embraces her tightly and tells her that she “must bring back what they should never have lost”. It seems here that she is talking about Kaito, and the chapter ends there. What an intense ending!

 NOW ON TO CHAPTER 74!

 CAN I JUST SAY WHAT A BADASS SAKURA LOOKS LIKE IN THIS COLOR PAGE?! She looks ready to FIGHT, and I’m all for it. I love serious Sakura and can’t get enough of it. I absolutely love the outfit and the stars behind her. It’s all very lovely and definitely gives the vibes of the final battle we were all waiting for. She looks powerful in this image, and the colors in general are just absolutely gorgeous with the blues and reds mingling.

The chapter begins at Yukito’s house. Yukito is adorably feeding Nakuru what seems to be mandarin orange slices? Regardless, she seems awfully comfy under the warm kotatsu. Haha! Touya interrupts a bit to tell them that Sakura is on her way, and when asked if they should go to meet her so she does not walk alone in the dark, Touya affirms that she is fine because she is coming along with Syaoran, Akiho, and Tomoyo as well. This is of course surprising to the both of them, because it is unusual for Sakura to come this late along with the entire gang. Touya has a serious expression, meaning he knows that it is something indeed serious that she wishes to discuss.

The group arrives, and Sakura cuts right to the chase. She tells them that she has something “weird” to tell them (the understatement of the century) and specifies that she wants particularly everyone who knows about magic to hear what she has to say. She cues for Kero and Suppi to come out, and FINALLY Kero acknowledges that he doesn’t have to hide since Touya knows everything. Suppi asks the question literally all of us have been asking by shouting ‘WHY HAVE I BEEN PRETENDING TO BE A STUFFED ANIMAL THIS WHOLE TIME?!”. Hahahahaha. Not sure if CLAMP planned this conversation on purpose or if they realized they had a small plot hole to fill, but honestly….this is totally a Kero thing to do. Kero explains that he did this because Touya never really warmed up to him, and that maybe he didn’t know how truly awesome he actually was. I still don’t get this logic, but Kero’s never been the brightest to begin with. Lol. Touya explains he never called him out on it because he assumed Kero just liked pretending to be a plush, and honestly that seems logical from his perspective. Even Sakura states that she never understood why Kero kept up the act, and I just find this hilarious.

 Just when we thought the whole group was present and ready to hear what Sakura had to say, we get a video call with Eriol and Kaho! I’m so glad they get to be a part of the conversation too! This is the first time we’ve had all of them truly together talking at the same time, and I’m living for it! Sakura begins to tell them what happened, and we see a panel of the moon to show that some time has passed in the conversation before everyone reacts. Naturally, everyone is shocked, and Nakuru comments on who would even have the power to do such a thing.

 Eriol, our ever knowledgeable magical resource, explains that he is not aware of any living sorcerers who possess such a power, which means he has never become aware of Kaito’s existence in this timeline. However, he also mentions that if they have the book required to cast ‘the forbidden spell’, that’s another story. So despite Kaito not existing in this timeline, the book certainly still does. Sakura tells them that the ‘guardian of the book’ told her this and specifically tells Akiho that she had a stuffed bunny she loved very much named Momo who was the guardian’s other form. Akiho is surprised and states that ‘Momo’ is the title of a book she loves, which confirms the theories some fans had about Momo being named after the book ‘Momo’ by Michael Ende (remember the book about the girl who fights time traveling thiefs that Akiho told Kaito about in their first meeting? It’s that book). How cool!!

 Sakura takes Akiho’s hand and tells her that even though they are only twins due to their lives being rewritten, it doesn’t change the fact that Akiho is special to her. This warms the heart of everyone in the room, and Touya makes a comment about Sakura’s ‘sister-complex’, which Yukito teasingly refutes by pointing out his own sister-complex. Hahaha. Tomoyo, sweet as she always is, talks about what a beautiful big sister Sakura was and that Akiho made for a beautiful little sister.

 Sakura continues to explain that she doesn’t seem to remember everything, but that she knows there is someone out there who has been cut out of their current timeline. She can’t explain why she feels this way, but she can’t help but think this person is Akiho’s precious person. Seeing the RECORD card’s memories of Akiho without Kaito really gave me those Tsubasa vibes again (funny how that keeps happening) of the memories Sakura had without Syaoran. It’s really sad honestly…

 Akiho says that being a family member of the Kinomoto family made her happy, but that she felt something inside of her that hurts and like she was always searching for someone. I’m sure that she felt that when looking at the watch, and perhaps she thought that fixing it would give her clues. Sakura tells her that she thinks they are someone Akiho would have never wanted to lose, and that they are also the one who rewrote the world. And as a result, they have to take that person back.

 Kero asks how, which is a valid question indeed, considering they don’t know who this person is or where they have even gone. But Sakura’s instincts tell her that the watch Akiho has will help. We, of course, know she is right on the money with this one, but it’s interesting watching everyone react to the watch. Eriol and Kaho seem to recognize it immediately as an artifact used in time magic specifically, but note that only someone with tremendous abilities would be able to use it.

 It’s at this point that Akiho seems concerned about Sakura’s safety, and she expresses that she doesn’t want her to do anything that would put her in harm’s way. But Sakura counters this by telling her that she’s not being forced in any way, and that she was able to get through all the difficult challenges she’s had to this point because she had so many people who cared about her and supported her. And because of that, she wants to do the same for the people she cares about.

 Tomoyo takes the chance to pull out the bag with the new outfits she’s made and mentions how she could have sworn she made some before, but when she looked, they were all gone (likely due to the time rewind). But while making the sleeves of this one particularly, she had a thought that these outfits in particular were going to be special. I like how CLAMP calls out the sleeves here, because I believe it’s meant to call attention to the fact that this is the outfit sleeve Sakura saw in her dream where she asked the Cloaked Figure when they would meet, and it was when she had that outfit that she would. That is out signal that this is truly the final battle! Whooo! Another thing to note is that the panel showing Tomoyo sewing looks very familiar to the REPAIR card version in Clockland 

Sakura shows her appreciation and also tells Tomoyo she’ll take care not to damage them, but that if she does, Tomoyo will be there to fix it. I like this call back to the REPAIR card conversation where Tomoyo asked she allow her to repair the clothes instead. 

 Touya finally chimes in after being silent for quite a while and insists Sakura don’t stay out past curfew. Sakura is confused because she’s never actually had a curfew, but Touya elaborates by stating that her ‘curfew’ is getting home before their dad starts to worry, and that’s how it’s always worked. Hahaha. I find this page both funny and adorable at the same time.

 Nakuru starts asking who is going to be going and is eager to be chosen as part of the ‘party’. Hahahaha. She speaks as if she is being picked to play a game, and even Suppi comments on it with the same thoughts, pointing out that this is real life and not a video game. Lol. Sakura declines though to bring anyone but Syaoran with her. She wishes she could, but her instincts once again are telling her that because they are looking for Akiho’s special person that she needs to bring hers as well. This is super duper sweet, but I think this is also CLAMP’s way of telling us that Syaoran will have an important role to play here. I know I have said many times that I feel like Kaito and Syaoran have some sort of connection, but I feel like this kinda adds even more to that thought. I can’t wait to see what happens!

 Eriol agrees that she should follow her instincts, but Sakura lets everyone know that if she realizes she does need them, that she may call for them. Sakura takes Akiho’s hands and also tells her that there will be a time when she will need her to do something only she can do, and that she must stay with the others until that time. I imagine it will be Akiho’s voice that becomes important here. Kaito hearing Akiho’s words and calling for him I think will be vital to bringing him back.

 In the next page, Yukito and Touya are talking outside, and Yuki is teasing him for his reaction to Sakura calling Syaoran her favorite person. Hahahahaha. Touya is a little jealous, and even though he didn’t express that outwardly, Yukito of course would be able to notice it. He also asks if Touya already knew about the world being rewritten, and he says that he did not know specifically what had happened, but felt something was off and that it was related to Sakura somehow. He had also been out of the house more often, because he knew it would hurt Akiho to learn the truth about her life. He gets a rather deadly looking expression on his face and says “No one hurts my family and gets away with it”, which really reminds me of his conversation with Kaito back at the botanical garden. It seems he still has that sentiment deep down and also views Akiho still as family even though he knows now that she is not actually his sister.

 The last page shows Sakura and Syaoran in their new battle costumes, and OMGGGG THEY LOOK SO GOOOOOODDDDDD. This definitely screams final battle, and I CANNOT WAAAIIITTTTT.

 That’s all I’ve got for now. Now I can go read the new chapter and start on that analysis! Hahahaha. Thank you again for all your patience and support!

[h20goflashnsplashsealrideon]

in regards to why we like inflatables, i would say that the biggest thing is that i am objectum and have always percieved object sentience for objects that are significant or sentimental to me, and pooltoys is just one of the many facets of that. i do particularly enjoy the art of pooltoys, bc the texture is so fun and cool to expiriment with, so im more inclined to search for them in visual art than some other things i enjoy (plushies for example). i had a little pink dolphin i had years ago who i loved so much and want to get the same one soon hopefully since they still sell them.

for my favourite parts about pooltoys now, i think id say i love the noises they make when you squish them or rub them (this is probably my favourite part). i love how fun and round their shapes are and how friendly they seem because of it. i love that i can float for so long on the big ones in the pool (i am from arizona, the big floating pooltoys are common here!! for pool trips galore) and getting to feel the texture on me of the plastic is so nice. i love that they are full of my own air usually also. it feels intimate almost!! the thing youbsaid about them feeling alive is sooo real they feel like they could spring to life and bounce around with a squrk noise each time they moved :]

yesss drawing pooltoys in particular is really really fun, I'd been going through an artistic slump lately but pooltoys were never un-fun to draw.

and it's cool you agree abt them feeling alive!! i feel like there's a big intersection between objectum and animism, i think a lot of us have this internal desire to see life in everything around us. lots of love to share thru that!

[snarkivistfic]

20 questions writer meme.

Thank you @heyholmesletsgo for tagging me :)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

89 .

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

1,055,134

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Mainly Untamed/MDZS, KinnPorsche now.  I have written in a variety of other fandoms (Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty, Jane Austen’s Emma, Torchwood, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Game of Thrones) but mostly just Untamed and KPTS now.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Talk to Him - A KPTS fic where Tay goes to visit Big in the hospital and the nurses think they are dating so Tay just plays along.

Common People - Another KPTS fic. This one Tay starts having a fling with Jom. I sort of based it on the song "Common People" by Pulp.

Never Have I Ever - KPTS - It's so funny to me that this is so high because it is a short little one shot that I wrote in one sitting. Basically, Tankhun press gangs some of his friends into playing the drinking game Never Have I Ever.

I'm Ready to Suffer, I'm Ready to Hope - The first KPTS fic I ever wrote. It's a Big/Chan fix it.

Give Me One Good Movie Kiss and I'll be Alright - KPTS again - Big/Chan post canon getting together.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

DEFINITELY. I am here for the community and all the friends I have made in fandom have been through commenting on their fics or them commenting on my fics. This seems even more important now that twitter is well what twitter is these days.

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Hmmm I am a happy ending type of gal but I guess The Loves of Ianto Jones (Torchwood) ends with a bit of angst. I always meant to write a sequel, I started writing it, but then I kind of left the Torchwood fandom.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I guess like they all have happy endings but I think maybe When A Young Cultivator is Happiest (Untamed) because that was meant to be the last fic in my Wen Ning/ Ouyang Zizhen series (I wrote a little post script for Wen Ning's birthday this year) so it wraps everything up and ends with three pairs of characters getting married.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I have gotten some hate on my Game of Thrones fics and once on a ZhuLiuHai rpf but generally I am not at all popular enough to get hate - thank goodness!!

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Lol like okay I think that I write incredibly sentimental stories about really nice people who are super shy but find each other. And then once they do they bang the shit out of each other in an incredibly graphic sex scene that in no way fits with the rest of tone of the fic.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I love crossovers! I don't know that I've written any crazy ones. So I will link to my favourite all time crossover the These Rainy Hearts series in which John Hart from Torchwood randomly meets Ethan Rayne from Buffy and after Ethan mistakes John for Spike, they hook up and fall in love. The subsequent fics brought in more Buffy and Torchwood characters and the last fic even included cameos from characters from What We Do in the Shadows. I don't really write Torchwood any more but I have thought of writing a fourth in this series which would include both Untamed and KPTS characters.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of?

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

YES! Tragically my friend Serpens Caput on AO3 doesn't write fic anymore so we can't continue our ridiculous jokey RPF series The Untaming of the Crew - about the poor put-upon crew on the set of the Untamed.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

I have a lot of love for Tay/Big (KPTS) but the ship that I always come back to is my beloved Wen Ning/Ouyang Zizhen.

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

I started a sequel to my Untamed fic I"ve Been to Koi Tower, But I've Never Been to Me and it just got so unwieldy and had so many characters and so much plot that I just gave up. I want to finish it but I doubt I will. It was going to be called "Don't Cry for Me Jinlintai".

16. What are your writing strengths?

This is so hard for me to answer. I guess I am occasionally funny?

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

So many - writing description of scenery. Having my characters do anything but just stand there whilst talking. Inability to use a comma properly. Writing smut.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I am only fluent in one language. But I have written in the description that the character says something in English (when the rest of the dialogue is assumed to be in Thai) which comes up any time I have written Vegas or Ken for KPTS since they often throw in English words.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

I don't know if this counts because I have never posted it anywhere but I saw the trailer for the film The Eagle and wrote this whole fic in my head without ever seeing the movie. I eventually wrote it down on paper. I did eventually also see the movie and I mean I was way off but whatever. But I guess the first fandom I wrote for that I posted was Game of Thrones.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

AAAA!! That's so hard to pick!!! I generally like most of my fics. I can't pick one. So here's 3:

From Torchwood - From Out of the Pain - A fix it involving film archiving.

From Untamed - Tentacles Lift Us Up Where We Belong - just because it's such a ME idea - Wen Ning's black veins are actually tentacles - canonical monster fucker Ouyang Zizhen is MORE than okay with that.

From KPTS - What if We Kissed in a Farmhouse Bread Factory? - I love that I put as many references to Farmhouse bread in this as I could and I also love the pairing - Pol / Chan because it's so improbable but I think it really works

Tagging @unfortunatelycake , @jaggededges123 (look I am an anxious person and I don't know who else would want to be tagged so if you're reading this and want to do it, please consider yourself tagged and tag me at the top so I know that you want to be tagged in future things) OBVIOUSLY no pressure to do this!!!

[couldbebetterforsure]

I already gave out my big thoughts about the Final Performance arc of Suzu’s route in over a dozen different individual posts (sorry for spamming the Jack Jeanne tag 😞) so I won’t repeat myself too much on that.

Basically I am super duper wholeheartedly in love with Suzu’s route. It was incredibly well written, had great characterization of both Kisa and Suzu. I also think Suzu’s route flowed well from the common route, like a natural progression. I loved how the rest of Quartz was like on the route too, how supportive and loving they were. Once again, special shout-out to my boy Sou for being the funniest fucker during this arc. Boy really put the fear of God in poor Otori…Fumi and Kai were able to happily pass along their titles as Quartz’s Al Jeanne and Jack Ace to Kisa and Suzu with no regrets. Neji got to have fun with this last play and with how many references to the plays from over the year this one had, seems like he was feeling pretty sentimental. And Mitsuki really showed off how ready he is to be Quartz’s next leader, he knows his class so well! And yeah like I said before, Otori did end up growing on me, he’s such an entertaining gremlin!

Also all the people who tried saying Jack Jeanne isn’t romantic were definitely exaggerating. If you’re looking for spicy romantic contact or lots of physical affection, you probably won’t get it (at least that’s what I’m understanding after doing Suzu’s route). But to say it isn’t romantic at all??? LIES!!!! At the very least Suzu’s route is so incredibly deeply wonderfully romantic!!!!

I already mentioned this but Sissia of the Central Nation is my favorite of Quartz’s plays. Everything about it was beautiful, I felt like I was watching an anime, and like I said before if the developers wanna make a separate visual novel based on the play 👀👀👀👀👀 Though preferably with an ending that leans more towards the sweet side over the bittersweet (seriously you asshats you couldn’t wait for Sissia and Chance to get down first????)

The music was sheer perfection. Departure was a beautiful solo from Kisa, like no wonder Sissia was immediately picked to join Kielce. Kielce the Nation at the Center was without a doubt my favorite, it was such a catchy hype song for the circus troupe! Quartz Anima was a VERY close second, like it so narrowly missed out on being my favorite, it’s beautiful and has so many callbacks to Quartz’s past plays and I found out it also apparently references all the Quartz members’ names in the lyrics too!!! And Over the Wall was another gorgeous solo from Kisa!

The ending song, I think it’s called Where the Wind Blows, was absolutely beautiful and I loved that for me it was a duet between Kisa and Suzu 🥰🥰🥰

So yeah, Jack Jeanne is such a good game and deserves way more attention. I have only played the one route so far but I can confidently call it my favorite otome game and one of my favorite video games in general!

Before I get to the other routes I wanna take a break to play Radiant Tale! There’s another red haired genki sweetheart voiced by Yuma Uchida in that game but I can’t access his route until I woo all the other boys first 😡 So I need to get to work on that!!! When I come back to Jack Jeanne I likely won’t liveblog as extensively as I did Suzu’s route. I probably will give general thoughts at the end or make note of anything major.

But yeah, thanks everyone for reading my thoughts! And sorry again for spamming the Jack Jeanne tag so much! 😅😅😅

[littletissueghosts]

Why Peacemaker Was a Bad Idea

Now, the title might seem a little odd, as I do not excuse Darkstalker nor think that he deserved a "better" ending than his fate with Peacemaker. And Peacemaker has everything he could want in life, right? He has family and friends who love him, a peaceful life in the Rainforest, and even an insatiable love for fruit, something that many parents long for their kids to have. Yet he still deserves better. He deserves family and friends who truly care for him and to not potentially become burdened with Darkstalker's past, like any other dragonet deserved.

But, of course, you might be thinking, "Well, Peacemaker's family and friends really do care for them!" However, both Kinkajou and Foeslayer are shown to treat Peacemaker poorly. In Darkness of Dragons (page 354), Kinkajou states that she made Peacemaker part RainWing because she "thought that would be good for him." While being part RainWing may have seemed innocuous, anti-hybrid sentiments are incredibly common among dragons, especially the NightWings. Peacemaker was all too likely to be targeted by other NightWings for being the dragonet of a RainWing, whether or not this was actually true. Kinkajou knew this, as shown by her quote, yet she still decided to make him an obvious hybrid. She is willing to take her grudge against Darkstalker out on an innocent dragonet who did nothing wrong simply because she views him as Darkstalker. This is not caring behavior. She is harming a dragonet that she magiked into existance to get back at someone who he was intended to be different from.

At the same time, Kinkajou is just one dragon. How much harm can she really do, right? Perhaps she could not do much harm on her own, but Peacemaker's very own mother is shown to continue this pattern of poor treatment. Although we do not see much about her parenting Peacemaker, she is shown to be a poor mother to Darkstalker and Whiteout in Darkstalker: Legends. In Chapter Five, she is shown to be fighting with Arctic, despite that one of her dragonets, Whiteout, was huddling near the fireplace with her talons over her head for the duration of the fight. Yet she made minimal efforts to hide her fights from her dragonets, considering that they were clearly audible from the living room. If she'd truly cared about Whiteout's well-being, then she would've brought her fight outside, no matter what the neighbors may think. And, even though Arctic had threatened to kill their dragonets, she still was willing to leave them with only him for days at a time while she was on military expeditions. If she was a responsible parent, she would have hired a babysitter, which she could've certainly afforded considering her status and wealth.

Her behavior in Chapter Five also highlights her more subtle, but noticable preferences between her children. After her fight, she "moved a piece of hawk from her plate onto Darkstalker's, then another piece onto Arctic's (page 51)," as her apology to the two of them. However, she does not do the same for Whiteout, the dragonet who was in obvious distress throughout the duration of their fight. Darkstalker has to move a piece from his father's plate to his sister's, since her mother did not acknowledge the impact the fight had on her. Throughout the book, there are more examples of her continuing to favor Darkstalker and putting others' wants and expectations over her dragonets' well-being, such as when she decides that she's "ready to give all her love to Darkstalker, her perfect thrice-moonborn dragonet (page 16)," as opposed to Whiteout or when she refuses to even let Darkstalker decide if he wants to tell a highly manipulative queen about his magic. It is obvious that Foeslayer does not prioritize her childrens' well-being highly, as shown by her blatant favoritism, prioritization of social status over her children, and willingness to enable Arctic's abuse. She does not deserve to have Peacemaker as her "do-over" child, and Peacemaker deserves to have a more caring, proactive mother than her.

This situation is made to be even more challenging by that everyone involved with raising Peacemaker know about Darkstalker's relationship to Peacemaker. Many of these dragons still view Peacemaker as Darkstalker in some respects. Obviously, Kinkajou holds some of these views, as she made Peacemaker into a Night/Rain hybrid as a form of revenge against him. Additionally, Moonwatcher states that she "kept expecting to find hints of Darkstalker in him (DoD, page 362)" whenever she came to visit him. As a result, Peacemaker will likely be dragged down when he notices this sort of behavior from his friends, despite never knowing or remembering what he did wrong. It is incredibly hard to keep a grudge or suspicion from a dragonet throughout his whole childhood, no matter how much his friends try to hide it.

But Peacemaker's situation will get even worse if he finds out that he was previously Darkstalker. And, unfortunately for him, there are numerous clues that could alert him to Darkstalker's demise. One of the largest clues was that Tui did not describe any physical changes to Peacemaker except for that he became younger and a Night-Rain hybrid. Despite the emphasis on those details, no other changes were even briefly mentioned. This implies that he most likely had a heavily similar appearance to Darkstalker, which could be catastrophic for him if he or someone else made the connection. Additionally, Peacemaker has to be prohibited from wearing Qibli's earring, which is a problem in itself. If he starts to question why he isn't allowed to wear it, it could result in him figuring out that he's being kept alive by a Darkstalker spell and/or dying after someone tells him to wear it. Lastly, he will remember his friends talking about his "history being different (DoD, page 355)" in front of him. Dragonets are shown to have memories from the day they were born, including Darkstalker, so it is all too likely that Peacemaker will remember what was said, especially since he already had the capacity for understanding language.

And if Peacemaker found out he was Darkstalker, he would likely be sent into deep self-hate due to his prior treatment by his friends. He would finally have an answer to his questions about why it felt like his friends hated him: he used to be a mass murderer and his friends viewed him as irredeemable. Or, worse, he could go the opposite direction of rejecting those who had shunned him by travelling Darkstalker's path. Although Peacemaker does not have powers, he could easily re-obtain them by tricking Mightyclaws into drawing Darkstalker's scroll. And with animus magic, he could have hurt the entire continent on a quest for revenge. Either way would be incredibly harmful to his well-being, and he does not deserve to have such a burden potentially placed onto him.

Although Peacemaker is an interesting storytelling concept, it was very immoral for the Jade Winglet to turn Darkstalker into Peacemaker, rather than simply killing him or designing a more permanent prison. He does not deserve to be mistreated by the dragons who are supposed to love and protect him nor the potential burden from discovering that he was previously Darkstalker.

Oh and, completely unrelated, but Darkstalker is on the asexual and aromantic spectrum as a demisexual and reciprosexual, not because he's a jerk, but because he only falls in love with Clearsight after they start dating and there's very few timelines where he falls in love with someone else. Clearsight's also bisexual and had a crush on Listener, and Fathom is a sex-neutral asexual heteromantic.