#but just in case something comes together i figure i'd better have the origin story on the blog for context

[bookshelf-in-progress]

Jules and Vern

"The worst thing about time travel is that it's so dreadfully dull." Juliette leaned back against the railing and fanned herself beneath her enormous broad-brimmed hat.

Vernon felt even shabbier and out-of-place standing here by the most expensively-dressed woman amid the expensively-dressed crowd on the deck of the time cruiser, but a statement like that made him forget his self-consciousness. "How can you say that? All of history within your reach!"

This cruise was the trip of a lifetime for him, the result of years of penny-pinching; now that he'd been among this crowd--to whom a time-travel fare was pocket change--he could see how they'd view it as commonplace, but never boring.

Juliette gestured expansively toward the fogs of history that surrounded the ship. "You meet no one but other time travelers, who talk about nothing except the time they glimpsed Alexander the Great from across a battlefield, or passed beneath Beethoven's window while he was banging on a piano, or the time they swear that they actually held a conversation with a medieval peasant, the physical limitations of time travel be hanged."

Vernon leaned forward eagerly, wishing he'd thought to bring a notebook. "Has that actually happened? Speaking to natives? The implications to our understanding of time travel--"

"Of course it hasn't happened, you darling little fool. You're going to be an easy mark if you know so little about time travel."

Vernon reddened. He knew quite a lot about time travel, actually, but this wasn't the time to start listing his papers and awards. Every child knew the first rule of time travel--the streams may run parallel but never cross--but every scientist knew the key to discovery was an open mind. "You can't discount stories just because they go against current scientific understanding. You never know when one could be true."

"None of it's true--that's the entire point. We spend ghastly amounts of money to get on these ships, and then spend the entire time making up lies to prove it was worth it. We wander about historical scenes without having the slightest impact on them. Walk through crowds of people who can't perceive us. We are well-dressed ghosts walking among ruins, never truly living."

It was rather sad when she put it that way, and Vernon felt the strangest urge to comfort a woman who probably spent more in a day than he could earn in the average year.

"I plan to live," Vernon said, even though it sounded horribly too-earnest. "I've got one trip and I plan to make the most of it."

Juliette peered at him above her oversized sunglasses. "You know, I believe you," she said. "And I think that's an excellent reason to make sure I keep you nearby."

[dailydemonspotlight]

Inti - Day 62

Race: Deity

Alignment: Light-Law

July 2nd, 2024

Sun gods are dime a dozen throughout mythology as a whole- I'm not chiding them, mind, as people need an explanation for the giant ball of red-and-yellow in the sky that we can't live without yet blinds you if you look too long at. Such a strange, almost eldritch concept needs at least some cobbled-together excuse as to its existence, and frankly, good on ancient civilizations for having one beyond 'it just exists.' Whether it be something driven around in a great chariot, a headdress, or, in the case of the Inca, a god itself, which is just what today's Demon of the Day is! The gold-disked dictator of the ancient Inca cult, Inti, is an incredibly curious case.

Now, to begin, like almost every polytheistic religion, the Inca cults had a pantheon. Filled with unique and curious faces, there are almost too many to really mention, with many gods representing very minor aspects to day-to-day life- Kolash, for example, was the god of birds and their trills, or Axomamma, who was the goddess of potatoes. I'd recommend giving the Wikipedia page a nice scroll through for a grasp of just how many there were, and how several were rather major- the Inca revered certain things above others even in comparison to other parts of the world, after all, making them a bit of a curious case in comparison. However, throughout this pantheon, a few names stand out as the most important, and among them is, of course, Inti.

Inti was highly revered and beloved, being the primary figure of worship throughout most Inca cults and movements, but unfortunately, in my research, a lot related to him has been lost to history. A lot of South American mythologies are relatively obscure, unfortunately- even the Aztecs, which have some very famous figures, have a notable lack of primary sources that make researching them an uphill battle. Back on topic, though, Inti was worshipped alongside his wife, the moon goddess Mama Quilla. (She was also his sister, but I'm honestly not even phased by incest anymore in these damn stories.) Soon thereafter, Quilla conceived two children for him, Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo, whom they both sent down to the earth after they had matured enough to help establish order to the fledgeling mankind.

As the myth of origin goes, Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo worked together to create the first city, Cuzco, as well as creating the first Inca Road before sitting down into the ruling positions of the Inca people... and that's about all I can really find on Inti. Call it my lack of focus due to writing this at near-midnight, but this interpretation of Inti that the series seems to be pulling from only really has one real myth behind it, at least from what I can tell. Odd, for such a pivotal character in the mythology, but a lot has likely been lost to the throes of history. Even a lot regarding Inti has been lost to history, such as possible plaques depicting what could be further stories being lost. It's really quite unfortunate, but I suppose it's what happens to a god in an era where, so often, religions were erased to propagate one's own.

At least we still have this disk in memory, alongside several other artifacts. I dunno why I started feeling so melancholy about this- maybe I just need Inti to come out again to feel better about the loss of so many years of history.

[thebemoon]

hiii i love your writing and i squeal everytime you update. I am a writing but I feel like I over explaining my characters movement. But I’m scared my readers won’t know what’s happening. Sorry if this makes no sense!

Thank you!

It's a great question that I am here going to overexplain.

Because I'm going beyond just characters' movement and into overexplaining in general. It's so easy to underestimate your readers. And then all your lovely ideas are buried in explaining and people have to pick out the gems.

I always overexplain when I first write something because I'm feeling my way through the story, too, and trying to figure things out. So we get a Hermione internal monologue for a page telling everything that's happened to her since the battle, and then every joke is overexplained.

And I'm writing like this:

-----

"How can I help you?" Hermione said civilly. It was a good idea to be civil because she and Malfoy had to work together and she vowed not to say a thing about the pygmy puff on his shoulder because it wouldn't be polite, and surely he would appreciate her self-control.

Or not.

"Go ahead, say it," Draco growled through gritted teeth. He knew she was looking at the pygmy puff, everybody was looking at the pygmy puff -- in fact, there was a mirror on the corridor wall next to him and the creature was looking at it, so even the pygmy puff was looking at the pygmy puff.

-----

This is great because now I have a better handle on what's happening and where did that pygmy puff come from? The key is to go back at the end of the chapter and edit out all the overexplaining. The thing is, you won't really know what the overexplaining is until you've reached the end of the chapter or long scene.

One key question to ask yourself is: Can the reader figure this out? Can I reasonably count on them to make the mental leap? It's okay if readers don't catch everything the first time. that's what rereading is for. it also lends a bit of mystery to your writing, the sense that there's so much more unrevealed.

In the example above, I'm going to leave the pygmy puff stuff alone because it might be important (it wouldn't be the first time). I'll just edit Hermione's paragraph.

---------

"How can I help you?" Hermione asked. She raised an eyebrow at the pygmy puff on Malfoy's well-tailored shoulder, but said nothing. Surely he would appreciate her self-control.

Or not.

------------

I don't have to say civilly because the question is already very civil and we all know the tone it's usually said in. Especially if I've already positioned Hermione as a responsible person. It's not a huge mental leap that she said the question civilly. It's also not a big leap that she's being polite (just another word for civil) because they work together, the working together apparently been established. Plus now I have room to throw in a raised eyebrow and well-tailored shoulder. Readers are smart. They pick up the nuances.

And yeah, sometimes something will be unclear, but it happens less often than you think, and I'd personally rather read a fic and occasionally go "wha?" rather than have everything explained.

So overexplaining is not a writing problem -- it's often an editing problem. I recommend overexplaining with abandon in first drafts. In my case, I take a little break, then come back and edit, always assuming the reader is smarter than I am.

As for characters' movement, which is what your original question was about, I always overexplain in the first draft because I'm trying to visualize where they are and what they're doing. There are some subtle tricks to avoid that, though. Some movement parts are supposed to be hardly noticable, like "said" in dialogue. She opened the door, she walked over to the sofa, he picked up his wand. Little bits like that ground the scene. But you don't have to describe everything. You can just say he made tea, rather than describe the process.

One trick is to infuse the characters personality and situation into mundane actions. Let's say Hermione is closing a door. She might do it with a bang if she's made, or do it very carefully if she doesn't want anyone to hear, or do it carelessly, hitting it with her foot and not even looking. Or even seductively, then leaning against the door and looking up into silver eyes and so on.

I recommend reading a lot of good writing -- fanfiction or not -- and noting how they move their characters around. It can be done very naturally.

I'll close this long essay with a quote from an amazing writer about overexplaining:

"In school you learned to write as if the reader

were in constant danger of getting lost."

— Verlyn Klinkenborg

I think that's true.

We're all encouraged to explain and organize and transition and constantly supervise the reader. But I'm not convinced that makes writing any clearer, and it certainly takes away some of the fun.

But then I like to sweep ahead with energy when I write, looking over my shoulder at the reader to say, "C'mon, keep up! We're going places! Don't you want to know where Draco's headed with that dying Nightshade plant?"

Have fun!

[auroraescritora]

SITTER'S LOVE - Nico!Babysitter, Percy!Teacher-father - Masterpost

Hi, how are you? As I promised, I'm here with a new story. I mean, it's not new, but I've never posted it here. However, I already have some chapters posted elsewhere, on Tapas and Patreon in portuguese, in their original versions. They're going to be short chapters, but I still wanted to share them with you, especially in case plagiarism shows up. (Someone came along with a sad story trying to use my story and my words, you know? So I'll bring other stories here too, for documentation purposes)

We have a portuguese verson too. Right here.

This story started because I wanted to tackle something different, something very cliché, something quick that turned out to be longer and more in-depth than I wanted (I was trying to overcome the blockage of another story). Sometimes the life story of the characters speaks louder, and so the story was born. A father who's trying his best and a boy who's scraping together money to get into a top college.

As always, the characters are very OOC, quite out of character with the canon, although I've tried to keep their essence. So, consider the story more of an original than a fanfic. I decided to focus on character and world building that sounded realistic. I thought about how Percy would act and what his personality would be if he was raised in a strict and demanding way, among incredibly wealthy people and educated to be the CEO of one of the most important companies in one of the most important metropolises in the world. Nico, on the other hand, comes from a humble background, his father being involved with political figures in a small town just a few hours from the big city, raised to conform to whatever his father decided was right, but wanting more of life than to marry whoever his father told him, more than to conform to a small town life.

Basically, that's the premise of this story. Now, how these two people meet is the mystery that will soon turn into something more than pure attraction. So far I have two narrative arcs ready, the story currently at 95,000 words. There is no sex in the first 40,000 words, although there is some innuendo that sounded more interesting to me than the sex itself.

The first chapter is slightly slow, but I promise that from the second onwards things will get more interesting. The chapters are short because the monetization platform requires the chapters to be short, so I strutured the chapters this way. So every three parts would be what I usually put in a chapter. If you could read it and give me some honest feedback, I'd appreciate it. I'm thinking of deleting the entire first chapter, so your opinion might help me decide that.

Now, on to the official information:

I have two covers for this story, although I usually use the second one.

Synopsis: Okay, he told himself. Nothing personal. Sure. No big deal, just another job where Nico would stay for a few months, make some money and move on to the next job until he had enough for college. He took a few steps towards the door and climbed the few steps, these made of white and gray marble. Soon after, he rang the doorbell before his nerves got the better of him. Impatient and overcome by anxiety, Nico rang the doorbell again, pressing the button harder than he intended at the exact moment the door opened, revealing a tall man, almost seven feet tall, with messy black hair and intense green eyes that stared at him with disinterest. Okay, nothing personal.

Nico!Babysitter, Percy!Teacher-father

This is a story about a student who, in order to have money for college, becomes a babysitter, meets the children's father and develops feelings/lust for him. From then on, fantasies begin to emerge and everything becomes complicated between them.

Summary: Nico, a twenty-year-old boy, works to pay for college when he is fired from his current job. In search of another, he meets Percy Jackson, a businessman and university professor, the father of the children he will be taking care of for the next few months. From then on, Nico becomes more involved with the Jackson family than he expected.

Fandom Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan

Ship Nico di Angelo/Percy Jackson past Will Solace/Nico di Angelo

Personagens Percy Jackson Nico di Angelo Annabeth Chase Jason Grace Hazel Levesque Will Solace Hades Alice Jackson Logan Jackson

Tags Friendship Love Anguish Alternative universe Nico!Babysitter Percy!Teacher Original characters D/s elements Age difference

The first chapter will be out in a few minutes.

[adultswim2021]

The Venture Bros. #48: "The Better Man" | December 7, 2009 - 12:00AM | S04E07

I think I figured out a big reason why I love The Venture Bros, but unfortunately I can’t spend too much time expounding on this in a non-shallow way: it reminds me of Ducktales. Because sometimes they go on a big adventure to an exotic locale, and sometimes they have to spend an afternoon killing money-eating bugs in Uncle Scrooge’s money vault. 

In this one, Orpheus and the triad are shown up by the Outrider, the man who “stole” Orpheus’s wife. But he ends up in hot water and requires Orpheus’s help after being trapped in hell. Billy Quizboy does illegal surgery again! And: also: we get the return or H. Jon Benjamin as the master, who reveals himself to Triana and scares her away from Dean and encourages her to go live with her mom and become a dang Harry Potter. 

This one’s sorta important in that it helps drive home the fact that Triana and Dean do not belong together, and it writes her mostly out of the show. At least it writes her out of the compound (she comes back at least one other time I can think of). But mostly it’s just about the characters hanging out and stuff. Yeah, there’s a big scary monster from hell, but a lotta of the episode is just about Hank and Dean going to the mall and sexually harassing women. Dermott is there, too! He’s one of the rudest guys on the show, so cherish him. 

I am struggling to come up with compelling highlights to illustrate the fact that I enjoyed this episode, which I actually did a great deal. I think I’m just happy that it doesn't’ have a plot I feel compelled to write-up extensively. So I’ll just list gags now I liked: 

The Matthew Lesko reference. It is fucked up that that dude has a suit with question marks and not dollar signs. Could it be the Mandingo effect? Oh, in my reality we call it the Mandingo effect because–

A fairly neutral “transgender” joke! In 2009! They didn’t even gratuitously use the slur! Wait, I like a lack of slurs?? SINCE WHEN??? 

“I look like Rufio!” 

The whole scene where the Master pretends to be future Dean is bleak as fuck. Hilariously Jackson and Doc said they based his look on Bernard Goetz. I mean, look at this and tell me he doesn’t belong in the Ventureverse:

A thing I didn't LIKE, per-se, but bears mentioning: maybe one of the worst production errors of the show has Dean wearing a suit to impress Triana, then suddenly not, then it's back again. I originally thought it was due to them shuffling the scenes in the edit but Jackson took responsibility and said he approved of the storyboards of a suitless Dean without thinking. God DAMN him!

EPHEMERA CORNER

Christmas in December Specials (December 13, 2009)

Even MORE Christmas in December to Tell in the Dark. This night featured a few other Christmas episodes but not that many more. I'd rather not post the schedule because of SPOILERS!!! Also, I thought maybe they did something else that was special, but if I am to read Swimpedia correctly the previous Sunday's "Christmas in December" was the one that featured the shop-at-home segments and not this one. I refuse to delete this paragraph. Sorry.

MAIL BAG

I just heard the good news: Adult Swim 2021 is coming to FunnyOrDie to cover Tim and Eric projects as bonus emphemera content. W00T!

The cat is "right out" of the bag: I will be doing this in some form. In fact, I sorta regret not attempting to include more non-Adult Swim Tim & Eric stuff in the ephemera section (like the Shrek 3 promos, for instance), but that's okay. But I do sorta think those are significant in that they are an important stepping stone towards Bedtime Stories. But I'm not gonna cover Eric's music videos or his future court case (speculation)

[hello-im-not-a-possum]

A Secret Leak: Bringing the Dark to the Light

Audrey poured the contents of her bag across the dining room table and looked over them with a sigh: Artist found dead at his desk, Bendy's going bankrupt, Angel gone AWOL, Workers caught in devastating ink flood, twelve injured, six dead, Maestro gone missing, GENT Lawsuit against retired animation veteran ends in strange stalemate... She went to her bedroom and took the collected death certificates off of her shelf and brought them to the dining room, planning in figuring out how they fit in with the newspaper stories, like trying to fit puzzle pieces together.

'Shortly after acclaimed, award winning voice actress Susie Campbell had done an interview with press over her upcoming meet up with animation producer Joey Drew, she completely disappeared off the face of the earth without a trace. According to Ms. Campbell herself, the two were going to discuss the possibility of her going back to reprise the role that had the public catch her eye in the biggest and most ambitious project Joey Drew Studios had ever dared to achieve. But before fans of the original Alice Angel could even anticipate the return of her voice, it was stolen away once more.'

'"Joey and I didn't really leave on good terms... One minute I was doing my daily routine as usual and the next I was scrambling for a new role while looking for new jobs. And I'm not going to lie and say that I *didn't* resent him for that." Ms. Campbell commented in the interview. "While there was still a lot of good folks at the studio, I can't say I missed the place itself or the grinning devil at the top. I think he's only come crawling back after he saw that I've made a name for myself while he's shot himself in the foot." When asked if she was considering turning down Mr. Drew's offer of a reprise, she responded "I guess it will all come down to him. Does he really feel guilty about the whole thing? Is he treating his remaining workers better? Is he actively trying to be a better boss and person? If I so much as sense a single 'no' as an answer for any of my questions, I'm not setting foot back in that studio! Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice...".'

'As there's currently no other leads, the public suspects one of two outcomes: that the voice actress was kidnapped by a scorned and or lovesick fanatic who saw their chance when she was waiting for Joey to arrive, or that the man behind the grinning devil struck down the original Alice Angel in a blind rage-

"...You know, just because Ink creatures don't *need* sleep doesn't mean they don't get tired." Bendy bit his lip as he watched Audrey read through the article.

"Yeah, but it's not like I have the luxury of hiring a private eye to help on this... I mean, imagine if the truth got out, either there would be mass hysteria, or you'd be sent to some lab and I'd be sent to some asylum-"

"Hey! Let's not bring labs or asylums into this!" he shuddered while taking a seat at the table. "...Anyway, while we're going to be pulling an all nighter, there's something that's been on my mind since I've moved in... ...Two somethings in fact."

"What is it, Bendy?"

"One; why do you have these death certificates? Joey I could kinda understand. I don't know how the death business works, but I guess it makes sense for people to give the still-living family members copies of it along with the inheritance, but Henry? Susie? Everybody else who was close in contact with Joey while working at the studio? Where did you get these and how?"

"They were all in file cabinets at Archgate Studios. I also found a lot of the newspapers in a file cabinet in Nathan's office." Audrey put Susie Campbell's death certificate on top of the 'Angel gone AWOL' article. "Sometimes I get mistaken for a secretary and I play along with it to get into areas I'm normally not allowed in."

"Huh..." Bendy nodded in thought as he looked over the ink flood case. "...I thought that the guy who turned part of his studio into a museum celebrating "Joey's legacy" would want to hide away the parts that the public found disgusting. Sweep it under the rug by destroying them..."

"Well, the thing about Nathan is that he loves everything about Joey." Audrey shrugged. "All the good, all the bad, all the truths and lies... Everything. He'd keep things hidden away so that only he could see them, but I don't think he could ever bring himself to destroy anything related to him or his legacy."

"...I guess that makes sense..." The imp sighed as he skimmed over the closest article to him 'Artist found dead at desk'. "As for the second thing: How come you're nothing like Joey?"

"Care to elaborate..?" she smiled nervously, not knowing if the imp meant that in a good or bad way.

"You two have different hair colors, different physical forms, different ink forms, and wildly different personalities. I mean, he's stupid, impulsive, has questionable morals, loud, and most importantly: He's always trying to make himself the main star of the show, being loud and in control."

"I see..."

"While you? You might be kinda clueless, but you're also curious and you're doing your research, you seem to only be taking risks because you're backed into a corner here, and you're pretty quiet, meek even. Sure, you can banish souls into the inky puddles and break skulls open when push comes to shove but you sure as hell don't act like it... In fact, you remind me more of Henry than Joey."

"And how do you feel about Henry?"

"Good question... When I first met him, I hated him. I thought he was the reason I was in this mess in the first place. I believed that if he stayed back and... I don't know, done *something,* anything to change my fate. Maybe if he was there he could've convinced Joey not to hurt me, maybe if he was there he could've fixed me in a way where I didn't need to be tortured into a perfect form, maybe... maybe if he was there he could've taken me with him so I wouldn't have to be along with him..." He rubbed the tears out of his watering eyes to keep himself from bawling like a baby. "...But now? Now I know that I was blaming the wrong person. Henry is just a retired animator, he never would've suspected that he was capable of anything like this. For all he knew, Joey was just a good friend but a shitty boss and that's that. When he found out the truth, he was already trapped in a cage just like everyone else..."

Audrey moved to hug the imp but held back, not knowing if she'd make it worse but not willing to risk it...

"Can I come to work with you tomorrow?"

"Well Bendy, we both know some of the problems with that..."

"Please! I could wear a disguise and I'll be quiet! I also know how to get through vent systems without making noise and my hearing's good enough to sense where people are coming and going! They'll *never* know I was there!"

"Okay, fine... but you also have to be very careful, Wilson's ghost has been hanging around the studio."

"Weird... I thought it would stay in the machine since he died in there- Wait, he doesn't enter or leave properly, so it probably spat him out to prevent more irritation."

"...What?"

"Okay, when you first got in the cartoon studio, did you see ink coming out of its nozzle when you entered the ink? Or see a doorway open to what distinctly looked like a sepia-toned and cartoonish world?"

"No..? It was more of a pool of ink leaking out of the bottom of the machine itself and Wilson pulling me into it."

"Well that explains it... Think of the ink machine like a person and normal people as food. It eats the food and makes ink people. But Wilson doesn't get 'eaten' because he doesn't properly enter it, he more so... makes it bleed, enters the blood stream, and gets to the ink world that way. Like some kind of parasite that the ink world notices and tries to fight off."

"...Huh..." Audrey blinked slowly, processing the metaphor and internally wondering if they alluded to something else or if she was just overthinking it. "...Well I guess that explains why he's here..."

"Anyway, if he's here no matter what form he takes he wont scare me." The demon smirked confidently. "He's powerless without his keepers!"

"If you say so... See you in the morning, Ben."

Audrey went back to looking over the articles, just wanting to match up one more to a certificate before calling it a night...

-----

It was easier sneaking Bendy out of Archgate than it was to sneak him in, some reasons more obvious than others.

The crowds of other coworkers were difficult enough to navigate through, but she also had to deal with the lingering fear that 'playing dead' wasn't enough for the little devil in her bag to avoid suspicion. Sure, any random passerby would easily mistake the limp demon for a very well-made toy, but Audrey was so used to his liveliness that just going limp wasn't enough to convince her, and therefore she didn't think she and the imp were convincing anyone else.

She was thankful that her office had a lockable door and an airvent cover that could easily be unscrewed with a pencil.

"Okay, to keep you from getting lost; No unscrewing other vent covers while you're in there and just in case, I'll mark this one with a sticky note."

"Don't worry, I know exactly what I'm doing." He brushed her off and climbed in the open vent.

"But do you know the layout of Archgate?"

"I don't need to, the thing I'm looking for has a *very* distinct smell."

She nodded hesitantly, reminding herself that while Bendy did need help from time to time. the imp climbing through the vent wasn't always a small and helpless creature that jumped at loud noises and cried when he burned his tongue on soup. Just because he hasn't turned into the Ink Demon yet didn't mean that he was permanently like this, ...did it?

"I'll be back in say... two hours, maybe three if I get held up by vent-traffic or something." He reassured her. "Don't worry until at least past the three hour mark, okay?"

"Okay, and if you see Wilson in there..." She handed him what looked like a bottle of bleach spray. "It doesn't *kill* ink creatures or ghosts mind you, but it's basically pepper spray for him."

"Got it, thanks Audrey!"

With that, he disappeared into the vents while Audrey tried to refocus her mind on her work.

...

"It's so much dirtier than I anticipated..." Bendy murmured while crawling through the webby, dusty vents. "Spiders in the not-ink world must be really flexible..."

He shuttered at the thought of entities *like* the regal widows, but with the traits Audrey described them with: more legs, eight beady eyes, and large, sharp pincers...

"Okay, focus Bendy, Nathan's office has to be around here somewhere..."

To his left, the sound of a set of keys being dropped echoed throughout the vents (or at least, it did to him) and as the opportunistic demon saw his chance, he made it to the set, peeking at the vent cover to make sure that there was no one looking and carefully removing the cover from his side to pick up the forgotten set...

...Only to be grabbed by the wrist by a four-fingered hand and hoisted up like a freshly caught fish. And the 'fisherman' in question was grinning ear-to-ear.

"Looking for these?" Wilson let out a raspy chuckle as he jingled the keys in front of the annoyed imp's face. "I knew you were going to come back here eventually, but I didn't expect you would be so easy to cat- AAAURRGHHH!"

Spraying the ghost in the face with the bleach, Bendy braced himself for impact as Wilson dropped him to wipe the stuff out of his eyes, grabbing the keys and slipping back into the vents.

"Not so fast!" the false janitor called after him while trying to climb into the small vent himself. "This is far from over, devil!"

Just as he saw the demon's tail disappear into the darkness in the vents, Wilson started to chuckle before breaking down into full on laughter, laughter that made the demon stop in his tracks...

"Of course you ran! It's all you can do you... you pathetic, insignificant, little ink stain! And to think that you're the product of the legacy my father gave so much up to protect! The legacy of a thief that left a wife husbandless and a child fatherless by infecting a good man with obsessions over a dying empire that deserved to die! The legacy of a weak, cowardly, little man..."

Bendy turned back, glaring at the man half-stuck in the vent.

"...Do you think I'm running from you because I'm afraid of you?"

"Well, it's not like you stayed and fought me, is it?" He smirked. "Go ahead, run along little mouse, the cat will catch you once and for all before you know it..."

"It takes one to know one, what is even one thing worth fearing about you? You have no powers given to you, taken from others or otherwise, The ink machine created your Keepers, not you, and your creation "Duddy Shitchips" or whatever his name is has nothing behind it, no heart, no soul, it never would've worked to be my successor because it was just made in a spiteful attempt to steal an audience you don't even want, just taking it for the sake of making them talk about a creation you made instead of a creation made by someone who you hold the stupidest grudge against."

Wilson's smirk quickly fell to a frown.

"You know, it's kinda funny." He sat down with a chuckle. "Even if it's for wildly different reasons, we have the exact same enemies and same tragedies... Both of us were cast aside by our fathers because they wanted to chase illusions of greater things, both of us were hated by people for our appearances when we have no control over how we look, and both of us really, really want Joey to get beaten to a pulp. Who knows, maybe if things went differently, we could've been the best of friends."

Wilson's eye narrowed at the grinning imp. "I am nothing like you..." he spat through gritted teeth.

"Exactly. I'm a being of darkness that wanted to embrace the light but was rejected from it all my life until now, and you? You're a spoiled rotten being of light that threw away so many things that even now you still take for granted... All to try to control darkness out of the false belief that the light rejected you."

Bendy turned away from him and made his way back through the vents while Wilson tsked.

"I lost nothing, do you hear me demon?! Nothing!"

"Then you can make it back to being passably human on your own, right?"

The only 'answer' given was the soft echos of the various sounds of the demon disappearing back into the vents.

[jerzwriter]

I really hope we get to read about Eva, and Reset, and Kismet and everything you want to share with us :) ❤ no pressure of course! Just wanted you to know you still have people who care and I know I'm not the only one 😊

Nonny,

That's so incredibly sweet of you! Really, it is.

Honestly, it's been tough for lots of fandom writers. Things are so quiet, and while I can honestly say most don't write for notes when engagement is super low, it's hard to stay motivated.

I don't plan on closing shop here anytime soon, but I have been trying to figure out how I want to proceed. I'm really in a place of I have to write what I want to write, and honestly, some of the fics I've been taking the most pleasure in writing recently have been for Wake the Dead. Kind of proof that I never did this "for the popularity" that some idiots used to love screaming about (projection?). I'd rather write something I love (and if it has two or three truly engaged readers, all the better) than write something I'm not excited about writing, not particularly proud of, but getting notes.

I still have stories to tell, and I still want to tell them. As long as that's the case and I have at least A reader lol, I'll be here. For WTD, I have a lot I want to do. In OH, I'm deciding what I'm going to do. I really want to put out Reset, but that's a mammoth project, but I'll see. I definitely want to continue my HC for Tobias & Casey, but (and this hurts) I see where that will come to a point where I've told it all. I'm not sure what to do with Ethan and Kaycee, part of me wanted to concentrate on series for them, and another part wants to go back to the start and write "Elsa's Version" of canon (not a full rewrite - but stories that tie together).

I definitely have stuff still to come, but right now I find I really have to write where my heart and passion are.

With that said, there are some other fandoms I've considered writing for (I'm just seeing if I have enough interest to do so), and I'm really, really thinking of moving toward concentrating on original stories soon. It's definitely a crossroads here these days for just about everyone. 💜

But thank you - truly! 💜

[millakatariina64]

Happy Saiou Day!! 💙💜

So if anyone remembers last summer I said I'd post the complete portraits of my talentswap designs and a climactic scene from the AU with a full summary when they're finished? Well, I didn't forget!

So, below are my headcanons for Ultimate Supreme Leader Shuichi and Ultimate Detective Kokichi~!

(I'm really passionate about this AU, I hope you read it ':3)

(Tho no climactic scene unfortunately)

Ultimate Supreme Leader Shuichi

So first of all Shuichi's parents are still celebrities, move overseas and leave him with his uncle. However in this AU Shuichi's uncle is a politician who actually has a really good reputation. Problem is, his uncle is incredibly busy and is almost never home because of that. Still, he wants to be like his uncle (though the wish is fueled more with wanting to be good enough and accepted). Shuichi's personality is basically the same.

So then one day I Alligator girl's (Gonna call her Wani) alligator gets stolen by some group who're going to sell it and they threatened Wani to not call the police or tell anyone. So she asks Shuichi to help. Somehow they manage to retrieve the alligator together secretly (idk) and right afterwards one of Wani's friends is in trouble with some shady local business. So Wani suggests they make a group to stop these sorts of people and that Shuichi would be the leader. He agrees, he still wants to do something to make this world a better place like his uncle.

After that Wani starts asking her most trusted friends at school if they'd like to join (Shuichi would never have the social courage to ask someone that). When they get to 10 members (all girls) they stop growing for some time and decide to get themselves uniforms. When they're finally considering getting more people into the team since Shuichi doesn't really know these people, he decides to start wearing a mask to be safe. He also starts using the code name "Crow". The other 10 members go by flower names.

The group then grows a lot. And by the time Shuichi's officially scouted to be an Ultimate, it has around 1500 members. And it's making him very worried as Shuichi's not even sure anymore if he's skilled enough to lead it. The group started out stopping or changing corrupt businessmen, unethical businesses and other evil groups. And although that still is what they do, he's realized that the way they go about things is pretty illegal. (When he first realized this, he started wearing a hat.) Obviously he forbids violence, but they still use blackmail and steal information. Also they need money for the group to function at this point so they've had to get it through illegal means that Shuichi's not sure of anymore. So Shuichi is immensely scared of being revealed as the organization's leader because it would completely destroy his organization and it would also annihilate his uncle's as well as his parents' careers on the spot. Basically everything would get ruined and it would be a nation-wide scandal. Perhaps even an international scandal.

He gets even more worried when the police finally start realizing there's some sort of group that's blackmailing big businesses and start investigating.

When he gets scouted to Hope's Peak, the letter comes to his base and even HPA doesn't know his identity, just that he's a high school student. He doesn't think like he deserves the title at all since it's really his organization that does the hard stuff and Wani's the one that's made it grow and he shouldn't be panicking like this if he really was a "great leader". But he still decides to go due to "If you manage to graduate from Hope's Peak, you will be set for life!". But as his family can't know of him being scouted there as the Ultimate Supreme Leader, he forges a letter claiming he's the Ultimate Lucky Student which he shows to them. And at HPA he requests he be referred to by that title.

Problem is, now his year group has 2 Ultimate Lucky Students and a certain Ultimate Detective gets suspicious.

Miscellaneous: Shuichi really wants to use make-up but he's really afraid to at home since he feels his uncle would think it's really weird. So at the organization's base Wani heard about it and got him some makeup and now Shuichi wears makeup when on missions and at the base. Also the organization has a helicopter. (It's a central part of that climactic scene I talk so much about.) Shuichi thinks about becoming a detective perhaps, but he's not sure how he'd be able to leave his group anymore so...

Ultimate Detective Kokichi

For Kokichi I still have my pretty elaborate origin story. His early years are great until at some point his real father finds out that Kokichi's mother had actually had the Kokichi and his older twin brother with him and not her husband leaving him alone. And thus he murders Kokichi's mother out of spite. Kokichi and Tamotsu (my headcanon name for his twin) see the murder take place and flee. However, they were never actually able to make out who the murderer was and they knew even less of why their mother was murdered.

The murder never gets solved and this mystery stays in Kokichi's mind. Who ruined his life, who killed his mother?

(I feel they'd have like an uncle and their mother's husband lived with them obviously. There'd also be other factors like disposed evidence and the suspects vanishing making the murder so much harder to figure out afterwards.)

So Kokichi and Tamotsu end up at an orphanage, one related to the one Maki's at. It's kind of a terrible place, but it's where Kokichi meets (most of) Dice. They become inseparable friends (tho don't form a group with the name Dice. I'll still call them that here for clarity's sake though). However Tamotsu who had always been supporting Kokichi and being there for him at his side starts becoming bitter (jealous?) against Kokichi due to dice and starts turning against them. This is the time when Kokichi starts developing his lying to protect himself from Tamotsu as well as the borderline abusive authority at the orphanage. He's also started to figure out the dark secret of the orphanage training children to become assassins.

I feel like during this time a detective was investigating the orphanage. So when things get too dire and Kokichi and Dice escape the orphanage the detective ends up taking them in after finding them on the streets afterwards since he can't just send them to an orphanage at that point. So Kokichi and Dice end up staying with the detective and start helping him out. Kokichi's especially interested in the orphanage now and he and the detective with the help of the other Dice members figure out a lot of stuff. (This is also the time the rest of the Dice members "join".) Until one day the detective gets assassinated by someone from the orphanage sending them a message to stop the investigation.

So Kokichi takes over the Detective's office and to get by he starts working on all kinds of small cases with the help of Dice. And that's what they mostly do. Among those small cases are often cases that have something to do with saving children. However Kokichi occasionally also takes on homicides and investigates organizations. He wants to be prepared for when he finally investigates his mother's murder as well as the organization behind the orphanage. He wants those people locked up in jail forever.

Personality wise Kokichi's pretty much the same. He still loves pranks, lies all the time and would have elaborate stories (lies) about like for example how he was the one who managed to put the previous Queen of Novoselic's assassin behind bars. (The previous Queen was not even assassinated). He'd also jokingly blackmail people by claiming he knows something about them or could figure out something incriminating about them. He never really means it, though he would like try to find out harmless embarrassing secrets to mess with people.

Around the time he gets scouted to Hope's Peak he's specifically requested to assist in the investigation of a mysterious organization that steals information and sends blackmail and other such things. It's a huge flashy case, so of course he picks it up.

At Hope's Peak he then meets an (surprisingly mysterious?) Ultimate lucky student who seems really interested about his Ultimate detective talent and his lying.

Bonus

The original portraits from summer 2020. My laptop just broke when I finished the lineart and then I couldn't really edit them on my new tablet anymore and they were getting really old so I just decided to completely redo them. Also lmk if you want the sketch of the climactic scene since I'm not sure if I'll finish it even though I really like it. It looks pretty okay even if it's unfinished.

Also hope this is coherent and that I haven't forgotten anything aah. And damn if you actually made it this far gezus. This took like 4+ hours?? oops.

[aros001]

Going in blind: Watching season 2 for the first time. Random thoughts.

Huh. Only 7 episodes. Not complaining necessarily. For series with an ongoing plot I've definitely become more in favor with their seasons only having as many episodes as they need rather than them having to stretch themselves out to full up a certain number of episodes, which can lead to padding and just bad character moments.

Episode 1: Jeez. Catra visiting Shadow Weaver's cell just to rub her success in her face and verbally abuse her back for once. It's like a twisted version of Zuko and Ozai from ATLA. Catra's upbringing under her was abusive but this is far from a healthy way for her to deal with it. She's basically deliberately swimming in her resentment.

Episode 2: It's not that I'm rooting for her but by-golly was it fun to watch Catra act like just the absolute worst she could while she was Glimmer and Bow's captive.

I touched on this in season 1 but part of the drama of the heroes feeling guilt over leaving Entrapta behind is kind of lost on me a bit simply because it was her own fault it happened. She deliberately went back into the purge room because of her machine obsession, which then closed on her and erupted in flames. It was more than reasonable to assume she was dead and no one but her was to blame, so I'm not really able to be invested in their guilt over it.

That said, weirdly enough I do like that her "abandonment" doesn't seem to be even a blip on the radar for Entrapta herself. She hasn't joined the horde because she resents the heroes or felt left behind, she simply is so obsessed with machines and experimentation that she'll be on the side of whoever lets her do the most of that. Like, it's selfish and irresponsible but it's very in-character and I'd far rather have a traitor motivation be based in that over something stupid like a misunderstanding.

Episode 3: I love the mental image of Shadow Weaver thinking up princess-themed ghost stories to tell Adora as a child.

So, if the previous She-Ra Mara separated Eternia from the other realms/planets/whatever she did and that's what cut off the She-Ra line for 1000 years, I'm guessing Hordak may be from the time before that happened, thus his drive to create portals and calling Eternia a backwards world. Either he's naturally long-lived or his technology is extending his life.

Episode 4: You know, you could maybe argue it was vague enough that it could be taken other ways but I'm definitely getting some vibes here that Scorpia is crushing on Catra. She literally refers to the two of them as soulmates at one point. I know she says she's trying to be friends but this feels a level beyond that.

Fun little reference to the original She-Ra cartoon thrown in there (and maybe Cowboy Bebop...? James Bond...? What was Glimmer's art style supposed to be?). I like how it is more like just playful ribbing than anything outright dumping on the original. Again, I've never seen original She-Ra but whenever remakes/adaptations go out of their way to trash to the original I always kind of wonder why they bothered doing an adaptation if the original is just that bad? Also, I was having trouble sleeping so it was about 2am when I watched this episode and the very Eartha Kitt Catwoman Catra made it very difficult for me not to lose my **** and stay quiet. With how much of a contrast that version is from the one in this series, that was hilarious. Bonus note, it's a nice touch that Frosta's version of Catra is a pretty crasher in that sweet suit, since that's the only impression of Catra she's ever had.

Adora being a chosen one is definitely elevated up simply by how much the pressure of what she's supposed to be is getting to her. I'm likely going to keep making Avatar The Last Airbender comparisons throughout the series but that's partly because I went into this series figuring it'd be at least structured similar to ATLA (season 1 being more episodic and a little more kid-friendly as it builds up the world before getting more serious later). Adora and Aang are interesting to compare here. Aang's worries early on were less apparent because he was more in-denial/choosing not to think about his problems that much, which fit with his character as a free-spirited Air Nomad. While Adora is much more military-minded. She can't keep herself from thinking about her problems and trying to prepare for the worst-case scenario. And jeez, that idea of who/how Catra is in her mind. Not only beating her but making her watch as she takes everything she cares about away. Not Shadow Weaver, not Lord Hordak, but Catra. That whole Lion King Mufasa/Scar moment between them in episode 11 and their fight in the S1 finale really did a number on her mental image of her old friend. Not reasonably so.

Minor note: I'm sure I'm the only one who got this impression but by the look of it, the way the robot's eye moved, and the music, after getting the soda spilled on it that little spybot gained sentience for half a second and then immediately died. It was so darkly comedic I had to laugh.

Episode 5: So that red disc is basically She-Ra's Red Kryptonite, having an effect on the mind rather than the body. The drunk Adora joke doesn't really do it for me but it did get some nice interactions going between Scorpia and Sea Hawk, two characters I certainly wasn't expecting to bond. I did really like Catra's panic when berserker She-Ra nearly beheads her. The implication is that is Adora really wanted to kill her Catra would already probably be dead. It's a thing I like about powerhouse characters like Superman or Aang, who could just demolish everything around them and don't simply because they're a good person...which in turn makes them the scariest person on the planet when they're well and truly ticked off. I'm not going to lie, I do kind of want to see a She-Ra version of Aang when Appa was stolen or when Superman fought The Elite.

Also, Catra's line of "I have control over Adora. I'm not giving that up for anything.". There's a lot to read into there.

Episode 6: I guess my prediction was sort of right. Shadow Weaver became basically a magic parasite and while it did increase the power she's capable of the implication seems to be that she needs a constant fix of magic to keep herself going, thus her attachment to the Black Garnet.

Have we seen Micah before? Given how long ago the flashback seems set, the fact that Shadow Weaver didn't kill him and thus he probably becomes someone important later in life, I'm guessing he's Glimmer's dad and the queen's late husband, since I think he's the only important male character whose face we haven't seen yet. Also, he's voice by Ezra from Star Wars Rebels and that cracks me up for some reason. It's the exact same voice and a relatively similar character.

I compared Catra and Shadow Weaver with a kind of twisted version of Zuko and Ozai and that definitely still fits here. Both Catra and Zuko confront their parent and call them out for the inexcusable abuse they put them through but while that moment was the start of Zuko's upwards journey this and SW's betrayal seems like it's going to cause Catra to spiral even further. Makes sense why Adora leaving affected her so much. She's probably the only one Catra's ever had that she could consistently trust and rely on, even if she did somewhat resent her.

Not surprised Hordak is getting along with Entrapta. She's not socially aware enough to be scared or intimidated by him, so she'll speak frankly, and since all she wants to talk about is the machines, experiments, and how they could get them to work Hordak probably doesn't take much issue with that. She's producing results, which is what he cares about, thus also why Shadow Weaver and Catra started losing favor with him. I wonder if Catra is going through imposter syndrome? Shadow Weaver had that line that Entrapta earned her place next to Hordak and, if you think about it, Catra hasn't really "earned" anything. We saw that she didn't really take her training or studies that seriously, showing up late to combat practice and even getting partial credit for what Adora beat. She wasn't promoted to Force Captain because of her own abilities but because Adora had defected when she was supposed to get that title. She's come close to a few victories but never really had any except for Glimmer and Bow's kidnapping...whom she then basically let escape when she returned Adora's sword to her. She doesn't have the slightest clue how the horde's bureaucracy works when trying to get things done, like simply getting troops armor. Given how much better than her Adora always was and how little she herself has to her name, I wonder is subconsciously Catra believes she doesn't deserve her current position and thus why she's fretting so much over trying to prove herself.

Episode 7: Am I mistaken or did Bow's parents say that he's the youngest of TWELVE siblings? I was going to ask whether Bow was adopted or if his dad's used a surrogate or if maybe there's even just simply magic in She-Ra's world that allows two people of the same sex to have a child together but now I'm just focused on the 12 kids thing. I get nervous just imagining myself having more than one. You should see me when I'm with two cats. I have to pet both of them because I'd feel like I'd be making one feel left out and like the other is the favorite. I'm a mess with kids.

The dad with dreadlocks (Lance?), his design looked familiar to me and I finally realized it reminded me a of a fanart design for a human Grim from The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. Very different voices between those two characters though.

I wonder if there's any significance to the robot protecting the crystal having the same design as those in the artic in episode 5? Obviously both have the connection to the First Ones but the robot in the forest who was also protecting First Ones' tech had a more insect-like design over these more worm/Graboid ones.

I'm kind of curious what Hordak would have done if Catra had told the truth. Given his interactions with her and Shadow Weaver he doesn't seem like the time to tolerate failure but I suppose the implication here is that he at least would respect those who own up to their failures. Or I suppose more simply he was just testing to see if she would lie to him and since she did there's little merit in keeping her in a position of authority anymore where she could lie about important things again.

Season 2 verdict: Still enjoying it. Another person on this reddit recommended I view seasons 2 and 3 as one since they are basically just one season split in two. I was going to do that but this ended up longer than I thought I would, so I'll just do 2 and 3 separate to keep them semi-organized and easier to read.

I think overall Catra is my favorite character since she has the most interesting backstory, interactions, and just general path through the story out of everyone. She's like Pearl from Steven Universe or, well, Zuko. There's just so much baggage there that she's trying and kind of failing to deal with. I'm always invested in whatever's happening when she's onscreen. Hordak so far is a good big boss villain for Adora to face but Catra is a good archenemy for her.

Original Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/PrincessesOfPower/comments/o027y3/going_in_blind_watching_season_2_for_the_first/

[nomattertheoceans]

Speaking of the rain... I really liked the feysand apocalyptic au and i would looove a follow up...i know u said u dont plan on updating it but maybe talk about it a little where you wanted it to go? Or like a time jump further into the future hehe

If not that's fine just thought I'd drop by❤

Ooooooh Nonnie thank you so much for this ask!!! First of all because it made me realize that I never put this fic in my masterlist, so that reminded me to add it there ^^ But also because I loved writing this AU so i’m so glad you’re interested!!!

Indeed, I don’t plan on updating it because it would require actually doing some world-building, and deciding what I want to do with the other characters apart from Rhys and Feyre. I have a lot of original projects in mind (that I also don’t mind talking about, by the way ^^), plus I also plan on finishing Staying Afloat, so I don’t think I would find the time to develop this fic the way I would like to. But it was really fun to write. I’m honestly rather happy with the way the one-shot turned out in any case! I do think it was easier to write for me because one of my most developed originals is a post apocalyptic story, so I’m more familiar with the genre, which made it easier to write than other styles.

Anyway!! I’m gonna put my thoughts under a cut because I have no idea how long it’s going to get hahaha

So the idea I had would be for the two groups (the Archeron sister on one side, Rhys, Cassian and Rhys’ little sister (who would be like, 11 or 12 at the time, also her name is Lyra because it’s what i called her in I made you a promise)) to join and travel together.

For what happens directly after the scene I published, I figured it would be Feyre convincing her sisters to follow Rhys to where his group is hiding. It would be harder to convince Nesta to follow Rhys (I figured she would finally relent because Feyre would be like “I’m going there and if you don’t come you’ll starve to death” ladjflkajlfaj just some sister shit, you know xD), but Elain would be willing to go because in this universe she’s a nurse so she wouldn’t want to imagine a little girl suffering if she could help.

Then they would reach Cassian and Lyra, and what follows would be basically Elain doing some gross medic stuff, a LOT of pain and of crying little girl x) I had this idea in my head of Feyre and Rhys talking, like, she can see he’s distraught so she tries to reassure him by saying something like “your sister is strong. She’ll make it.” and he answers like “she shouldn’t have to be that strong” you know, some classic apocalyptic stuff hahahahaha

So anyway, after this they would all head out to try and get to Velaris together, because of course they would be stronger as a group than separately (plus maybe Lyra would still need medical attention at first) and what follows would be all of them growing closer and Feysand falling in love, as well as Nesta and Feyre starting to have a better relationship, and the sisters growing close to Lyra, too, somehow in a “older sister” kind of way! And obviously, Cassian and Feyre being buddies immediately because their friendship gives me life, okay.

I honestly don’t have a lot of ideas as to what I wanted to do with characters other than Feysand apart from these largely underdeveloped ideas.

The big question I had to and didn’t solve, was whether or not it was true that Velaris was a safe haven. I like both possibilities of this, because both could create tension for the story. So it’s basically Schrödinger's plotpoint lmaoooo is Velaris just a pointless dream? Is it an actual safe haven they can hope to reach? Who knows? I certainly don’t lmao

So anyway, here below I just put all the notes I had for random scenes between Feysand (again, they were the center of the ideas I had so that’s why I have much more for them than any other characters). Those ideas are mostly in chronological order as to when it would have happened in the story. I literally copy-pasted this from my document, so it gives you a pretty clear idea of the complete mess that are my outlines in general  ( @staticpetrichor​ loves my outlines cause they make her laugh lmao they really are a true reflection of the mess going on in my mind at any given time)

They're on the road, one of them is standing guard and the other comes to see them, cliché (but cute so who cares) post-ap dialogue ensues: "you should be sleeping." "I couldn't, so I figured I'd keep you company." Then they talk quietly about their life and what they did before. Feyre tells him about how she loved painting. Maybe she thinks again about how his eyes remind her of the sky (but she doesn’t say anything because we love some good emotional unavailability lmao)

They find a small lake or a river or something and everybody goes in to bathe and have fun, Rhys looks at Feyre stripping down to her t-shirt, bra, panties, and he's like "fuck me up she's so gorgeous” ajldkfjladjlfa he’s so smitten already

This one is a weird idea but lmao I don't care, also this would be an actual problem in a post ap world sooooo I’m valid: Feyre has like the worst bra, it's really old and it's not a sports bra, it's like a classic one that doesn't really fit her anymore (she probably lost like a size because of hunger). And Rhys knows this because she's complained to him a couple of times about her back hurting (big boobs problem lmao can relate). And at one point they're in another city and he finds this sports shop and he finds a sports bar that should fit her, so he gifts it to her. And like at first she's acting as if he's being weird (like she's teasing him about staring at her breasts so much) but really she's glad. And then she's like "okay I'm gonna try it on but don't look" so she does, but then she looks up and watches him, his back turned away, and she's like overwhelmed with feelings (AS YOU ARE) so she tells him to turn around and she's showing off the sports bra, like they tease and flirt and stuff, and they almost kiss then but someone interrupts them lmao

They start having sex at some point, it's like raw and hot like "without feelings" *looks at the camera*, they convince themselves that they don't care about the other that way, and it's just physical. But really it's only because this world is so brutal and dangerous that they're both scared of caring too much and losing the other.

This goes on for a while, they grow closer without realizing it, they're always standing close together and talking at night and touching each other casually. They think they're being very subtle, but really everybody around them know what's going on lmao

Later on, they all settle in an abandoned building for a few days (because Reasons lmao it’s not important I just love this idea) and Rhys spends a lot of time alone and Feyre wonders where he is. And then like the second or third night, Feyre is still awake when Rhys comes in and he's like "follow me, I want to show you something" in a very excited voice, like his leg is fidgeting with anticipation and he looks like a little kid and Feyre smiles, she's really puzzled as to what's going on but she follows him. It turns out he found like a good mattress on their first night when he was exploring, and then he spent the next days cleaning the room and looking for pretty blankets (that one was hard and he's embarrassed that they're all so mismatched), and he lit up some candles. And he's like all embarrassed and blushing because he tells her he doesn't want to assume anything is gonna happen, he just wanted to do something nice for her. But Feyre is like "shut up" and she kisses him and then they make love in the makeshift bed and its romantic as hell. ALSO I need this quote to happen: "When I'm with you I forget to be scared."

[salvatoreschool]

Julie Plec Tells Us How Hope's Finale Twist Will Affect Legacies in Season 2

[Warning: The following contains spoilers for the Season 1 finale of Legacies. Read at your own risk!]

Legacies did the unthinkable in its Season 1 finale, and now we're not sure whether Hope Mikaelson (Danielle Rose Russell) is dead or alive or hovering somewhere in between!

The finale saw the Salvatore School under attack from Triad Industries, and the confrontation eventually left Josie (Kaylee Bryant) in mortal peril. After she jumped in front of a bullet made from Malivore mud intended for Lizzie (Jenny Boyd), the poison slowly started to eat away at her. Only Hope's blood managed to save her, but we're wondering whether or not that will end up being a great thing considering she found a magical device in Alaric's office that could eventually release a pretty huge baddie — more on that later.

As for Hope, after facing off against this week's monster (a headless horseman, of all things), Ryan Clarke (Nick Fink) got the best of Hope and Landon (Aria Shahghasemi) and threw the final artifact into the Malivore pit, raising his father from banishment. Knowing she couldn't allow the monster-eating golem to return to Earth and use Landon's body as a meat suit, Hope killed Landon (temporarily, obvi) and threw herself into the pit along with Landon's brother. As the tribrid of the three species that created it, Hope realized she was the only thing that could destroy it, finally giving her loophole existence a purpose. Girl, you are too noble for your own good.

So, is that the end for Hope, especially now that no one even remembers her? And what does her "death" mean for everyone else but especially Rafael (Peyton Smith), who might now have to remain a wolf forever? TV Guide spoke to showrunner Julie Plec about this huge finale and where we go from here when Season 2 picks back up.

So Hope is officially erased, but are all traces of her really gone? Or can we hope to stumble across some clue to remembering her and getting her back in Season 2?

Julie Plec: There is hope, and there is an actual pitch for that, so your brain is in the right place, creatively.

Is Malivore dead now or did she just prevent him from rising?

Plec: That is the question, I think, that we're left with at the end of the season, which is — technically if she had destroyed him, would she be destroyed in the process? Maybe not. So the fact that no one remembers her might mean that there's still a blackness out there that is keeping her captive. And since we've already seen a glimpse of how s---ty that is, I hope that's not the case.

Can we expect to see a Hope-shaped hole in the lives of everyone left in Season 2?

Plec: That's exactly what we can expect to see. What's fun about it, and sad about it, is we'll be able to realize just how much impact Hope had in these people's lives without them even realizing what they're missing. And just understanding that they all feel individually like there's something that doesn't feel right and that they're struggling with this feeling of not being complete somehow. It just feels like such a universal experience, especially for teenagers. I'm looking forward to having each of those characters act out on that feeling.

If feels like Raf is the one most affected by her loss, since he's kind of stuck as a perma-wolf?

Plec: Yeah, Raf is screwed. Raf is a perma-wolf. Look, when Hayley (Phoebe Tonkin) on The Originals was turned into a wolf all that time, that really did a number on her, and Raf is a new werewolf, who is still a teenager. So to be stuck in your most primal and feral state for God knows how long, if he's ever even able to get out of there, that will be catastrophic.

Landon did learn that he was intended to be a "meat suit" for Malivore to let him procreate, but does he even remember that? And if not, is that still a looming threat in Season 2?

Plec: I think that's a good question. What, if anything, of his experience and all the information that he learned about Malivore will he remember? Even more so, what does it all mean now that Malivore doesn't appear to be functional anymore? So Landon is going to have a lot of questions moving forward, and a Hope-sized hole in his heart, as you've said.

I love the chemistry between Hope and Landon! Every time they're on-screen together, you just can't help but go, "Awww!"

Plec: Thank you! It's so pure; I think that's why I love it so much. It just feels really innocent and honest and pure in a way that you don't get a lot in relationships in movies and television. So I think that's why I really like it.

Will Triad Industries play a role moving forward, considering most of their staff was just killed or consumed by Malivore?

Plec: We may have seen the last of Triad for now in that I think M.G. (Quincy Fouse) made it very clear with his mother what role he expects her to not play in his life moving forward. I certainly don't think the organization is going anywhere, so they will be out there lingering in the shadows and maybe our heroes will cross paths with them another time.

The twins seem to have found the Ascendant, which The Vampire Diaries fans will recognize as the key to a prison world. How worried should we be about a visit from evil Uncle Kai (Chris Wood) if they start messing with that?

Plec: I think when a key that would open the lock that is keeping evil Uncle Kai imprisoned shows up on your screen you should always be afraid ... and also super, super psyched — which, by the way, is not me saying that Chris Wood has agreed to come back because I have not gotten any answers out of him yet, but I would love nothing more.

Will we be seeing more of Penelope in Season 2?

Plec: Penelope was a very successful character for us, and we always love the villain that ultimately finds a way to redeem her wicked, selfish, evil ways over the course of the season and leave us all crying and wanting more. Certainly my hope is that she remains in our universe and she, in spite of being in Belgium with her family, may make an appearance again. I can't make any promises, but I certainly would love to see her.

Can we also hope for the return of Clarke? Because I was really digging the revival of the whole supernatural brothers thing!

Plec: There's going to be a hole in the marketplace right now for supernatural brothers. We have not necessarily seen the last of Clarke. Certainly wherever Hope is, it seems to be that he is there as well. It depends on where that is and what that looks like and if we want to tell that story.

So if we want Hope back, we might have to get Clarke?

Plec: Exactly. Two for the price of one.

Are you looking to introduce a new big bad for Season 2 or are you hoping to stay invested in this Malivore storyline?

Plec: We are going to take a page out of Harry Potter and hope that Malivore can be an ongoing threat, much like Voldemort was able to be over the course of all the books. That is the goal and we will see how long we are able to do that.

And are you planning to keep the monster-of-the-week format or lean into more serialized storytelling.

Plec: I think our emotional and character stories will always be deeply serialized like The Vampire Diaries, but the structure of the monster of the week or a monster that can span a couple weeks has been a lot of fun for us, and we've really enjoyed it. So we'll definitely be continuing down that road.

Are there any plans to return to monsters we've seen and spared before like that gorgon who was getting flirty with M.G.?

Plec: There's absolutely opportunity for any of the monsters that we've seen before to come back again. I know my personal favorite is the necromancer. We've got some competition... people who loved the dryad, the gorgon — if we can figure out a way to make snakes cost less in visual effects, [it] has a better shot at coming back when technology can catch up to what we want to achieve. That was a "learn the hard way" kind of character.

Alaric's (Matthew Davis) position at the school has been left up in the air, so what can you say about the impact of potentially removing him as headmaster if that's how the council votes?

Plec: I think that for a man whose last decade-plus of his life has been committed wholly to his daughters and this school, if he wakes up one morning and is no longer the headmaster, that's going to be a big dramatic shift for him and I'd wonder how he would make it through that.

[sidsky]

Would you consider posting the deleted Gideon-kicks-Khan's-ass scene? Even if it's really rough, I'd love to read it.

Unfortunately this version of that scene never made it past the outline stage, so it was all just notes and ideas of what would be in it. 

But I can go into more detail about what changed from the outline to the chapter’s final form.

Spoilers for Chapter 69 and 70 of Safe below.

So Safe keeps expanding. I’ve split a lot of the chapters up as I’ve gone along, and although I think 81 chapters is going to be the final count, I once thought the same thing about 50 chapters. A lot of times, it’s because I realized I’d crammed way too much into a single chapter, and if the story is going to make any sense at all, it needs more room to breathe. And sometimes, it’s because an element in one chapter needs to be moved to another chapter to get the desired effect. And sometimes that element has to be scrapped completely for the sake of the story.

A mix of these things is what happened with chapters 69 and 70 of Safe. Personally, I like the way the chapters turned out in their final form far better than what was in the outline. The changes add up.

Originally, Chapter 69 was just going to be the party sequence. No explosions. No kidnapping. Just the Augments reveling in their new freedom. Khan, not wanting to risk taking Leonard off the chain even for such a seemingly safe event, left Leonard in the medbay during the party, and kept an eye on him via the security camera he’d installed. From what he can tell, Leonard’s kind of sad to be left behind, but other than that, he seems fine. 

It’s important here to note that another change was made to the story earlier on. In the outline version, Khan never let any of the other Augments know that there was a camera in the medbay. Leonard doesn’t even know. So no one knows that Khan can keep tabs on Leonard during the party. They think Khan thinks none of them have the guts or desire to try anything with Leonard.

And since Leonard is still on the chain in this version, chapter 70 goes a lot differently. It doesn’t even involve the Enterprise crew at all.

In the outline version, chapter 70 starts with Leonard reading on his PADD; maybe trying to write out a journal entry where he talks about being nervous about going back home. Even entertaining the thought of what would happen if he decided to just stay. Because he’s terrified of going back. He has no idea what will happen, or how he’ll be treated. Khan’s warped his perception of the Federation enough where he’s honestly not sure some admiral won’t try to have him killed to keep him quiet about the sterilizations.

This rabbit hole gets interrupted by Harulf coming in. Leonard assumes he’s hurt himself somehow down at the party, and goes to try to help him. When he’s in reach, Harulf punches him in the stomach, forcing the air from his lungs so he can’t call for help, and pins Leonard to the ground.

In the outline version, Harulf isn’t trying to escape. Especially not with Leonard as his hostage. The chain makes that too hard. Instead, he’s looking for dirt on Khan. So he can turn the others against him, and take over himself. (Not a very sympathetic goal, and it didn’t cash in on Khan embarrassing Harulf after he revived him in a way I found meaningful. Plus, it’s pretty tropey. Hence more changes to the chapter’s final form.)

And so Harulf starts to torture Leonard to get him to give up some physical evidence that Khan’s done something horrible. Leonard is refusing to give anything up, partially because he doesn’t want Khan to get hurt, and mostly because he’s pretty sure part of Harulf’s plan is to kill him to keep him from telling the others who did this to him. Which was accurate. Harulf’s whole plan hinges on nobody knowing that he was the one to do this, and also hoping that Khan lashes out at his own people while looking for retribution.

When Harulf pulls out the knife, and starts doing something similar to what he did to Leonard in the final version to try and get the Enterprise to beam them up, Khan comes barreling in. 

Khan tackles Harulf off of Leonard, and the fight is even more viscous in some ways than ended up in the final version because Harulf’s not stunned. Gideon rushes over to Leonard, and starts treating his injuries immediately since they’re already in the medbay.

When the fight is over, and Harulf’s dead, Khan orders everyone but Gideon and Leonard out of the medbay. They take the body with them, except for Harulf’s hand, which Khan puts in cold storage for the same reasons as in the final version. Only Gideon treats Leonard’s injuries. No Aiko or Zuleika helping out. Which means no Zuleika there to accidentally intimidate Leonard, and remind him of what Khan said would happen if he slipped.

Khan locks the door behind the last lookie-loo, then goes to make sure Leonard’s going to be alright. Leonard starts to panic, because the sight of Khan covered in that much blood flashes him back to what happened to the pilot. Khan realizes this, and goes to take a shower in the medbay’s bathroom.

Gideon noticed Leonard’s reaction to Khan, but Leonard refuses to talk about it, so he tries to let it go.

But then, when Leonard’s arm has been treated, Gideon looks around, and mutters something about wanting to clean up some of the blood on the floor.

And that’s where Leonard slips. In his exhaustion, he tells Gideon where the rag bin is in the medbay. It slips out before he realizes the implications of what he’s just told his friend. Or really remembers what those “rags” are. He tries to tell Gideon to stop, but it’s already too late.

And Gideon finds it all. Every tattered, blood-stained, ruined uniform from the first month of Leonard’s captivity. He realizes what it means, and is horrified.

Leonard immediately tries to backtrack; to make it seem like it wasn’t as bad as it very clearly was. But Gideon’s not having it. He knows now, and he’s trying to figure out what to do about it. What he can do about it.

And that’s when Khan comes out of the shower. A problem I hadn’t figured out yet in the outline was how Khan suddenly had clean clothes, but in the outline, he had a new, blood-free outfit on instead of a towel. Which is important to note for reasons that will become obvious.

He sees Gideon standing next to Leonard with one of the tattered uniform tops; sees the disgust on Gideon’s face, and realizes what’s happened.

And he’s pissed. Really pissed. 

Khan starts shouting at him. Saying Leonard’s told Gideon everything. That Leonard broke his promise to keep quiet. 

Even as Leonard’s babbling in terror that it was an accident, Khan threatens to finish the job Harulf started, and comes towards Leonard with murder in his eyes.

And Gideon gets between them.

There was a reason Khan told Gideon when he first woke up about how scared Khan used to be of having Gideon as a sparring partner. Vow of pacifism aside, when Gideon needs to fight, and is in good health, he’s better than Khan.

And this is one of the few cases where Gideon would ever break his vow.

The fight itself was just a blur in the outline. I hadn’t hashed out the details before I went a different route. But it would have ended with Khan’s face pressed into the floor, Gideon pinning him down just like Khan did to Leonard in the music player chapter.

Then Leonard...begs Gideon not to hurt Khan. To just let it go. That he was going home in three days anyway, so it didn’t matter. Gideon doesn’t want to let it go. He wants justice for what was done to Leonard. For what Khan was clearly still doing to Leonard’s mind.

...Then Khan reminds him how this will look to the other Augments. Gideon is either going to have to severely hurt Khan to incapacitate him long enough to go get the others, or he is going to have to kill him. After what Harulf just did, either option is going to make it look like Gideon and Harulf were working together on a coup. They won’t listen to what he has to say. They’ll just think he’s a traitor, and whatever he does to Khan will be done to Gideon three times over.

Gideon, recognizing this as well, counters that if Khan kills him, the other Augments will assume he was trying to cover something up. They would see a terrified Leonard cowering from his “protector,” and know something had happened. And everyone knew Gideon and Leonard were good friends, so framing Gideon for Leonard’s murder would never work either.

Either they all walked away from this, or none of them did. Any drastic action would doom them all.

In the end of this version, Gideon and Khan come to a tense agreement: in exchange for Gideon’s silence, Leonard would be returned to his people not in three days, but the next morning. And Gideon wasn’t leaving Leonard’s side until that happened.

So the chapter would have ended in a stalemate, with the same end result of Leonard abruptly leaving the Augment colony, but for completely different reasons than ended up in the final version of the chapter.

One of the big problems I had with the outline version of the chapter is that it would have made Gideon complicit in covering up Khan’s abuse of Leonard. And I didn’t want that for the character. Plus, the outline version also probably would have resulted in Gideon having an “accident” at a later time, to silence him for good without arousing suspicion. And I like Gideon too much for that. 

I also wanted to show Leonard’s Stockholm syndrome in a more in-depth way, and having so much exposed in this chapter would have undermined a lot of what is still to come. And the outline version also undercut the reaction I wanted Khan to have to Leonard after almost losing him in such a senseless way. Not to mention all the details I noted throughout this summary that added up to this version of the chapter being really interesting in summary form, but an absolute mess to actually write out. 

All in all, I’m much happier with the final version of the chapter...but I still kinda miss seeing Gideon kick Khan’s ass.

I hope this is a decent form of what you were looking for :)

[lizzybeth1986]

Nuestra Familia (RCD MC: Astrid)

Book: Red Carpet Diaries

Rating: G

Pairing: Astrid-centric, minor Seth x Astrid

Summary: Astrid realises she doesn't know her family as well she had thought. Minor crossover with The Freshman/The Sophomore/The Junior.

Author's Note: This is a bit late for MC Appreciation Week, but I figured I'd put it out there anyway. This is my origin story for Astrid Ortega, my second RCD MC, who is involved with Seth. There's a cameo of one character from TF/TS/TJ in the end and I have a feeling you folks have already figured out who it is 😅 I used (of course) the "crossover" prompt from this list for my fic. I'm tagging @choices-mc-rules, in case they would still like to reblog this.

Translations:

Nuestra familia - "our family" in Spanish.

Chanclas - slippers/flip-flops

Tres leches cake - Typically a very moist chiffon cake soaked in a mixture of evaporated milk, condensed milk and heavy cream. Tres leches literally means "three milks".

Abuela - one of the terms used for ‘grandmother’ in Spanish.

Ita - Short for Abuelita, also used for grandmothers. Astrid calls her grandmother the former, her mom Teresa calls her grandmother the latter.

Manda Huevos - Can mean a lot of things according to context, but generally used to express a range of emotions, such as annoyance, disappointment, contempt or disbelief. In this context, Teresa means “it's not fair”.

If I've gotten anything wrong in terms of references, please do tell me, and I'll definitely fix it in the fic.

“One more foot inside my kitchen and it'll be my chanclas for you later.”

Teresa Ortega said these words to her daughter Astrid, in the same tone one would use to offer a guest some tea.

It wasn't that her mom didn't allow her kids to help with the cooking. She did. Salome was too young to do much but set the table yet but Astrid (and her big sister Letitia, whenever she was home) often pitched in to help with the meal.

But heaven help anyone who tried to help Mom with her tres leches cake.

This recipe was from Mom's Ita’s faded little diary, passed down to her by her mother on the condition that she would learn its recipes off by heart. It was her pride and joy, Mom would often say. Her baby before her actual babies came along.

And today it was even more essential Mom get this cake right. Astrid's abuela was visiting, and ever since Astrid's mother insisted on naming her Astrid (“She’s already named my first and last - at least leave the middle one to me!”) she could do nothing right.

Perhaps it would've been easier to handle if Dad wasn't Abuela's only son, if Mom had someone she could jointly ignore Abuela with, if they had cousins they could play with while the adults sorted out their issues. Or perhaps not. Still, it would have been nice to know.

“Easy, mom, I'm not going to touch your precious cake,” Astrid said, grinning, “Lemme demolish it at lunch instead.”

She'd be lying if she said she wasn't tempted, though. She could get the scent of baked cake wafting in all the way from her bedroom, and her mother was already starting to combine Carnation milk, condensed milk and 1/4th of a cup of heavy cream into a thin, but somewhat creamy, mixture.

Mom raised her eyebrows. “Why are you here, then?”

Astrid felt the muscles around her neck tense up, but schooled her face to a look of injured innocence. “What, can't I just want to talk to my mom once in a while?”

She craned her neck a little further behind Astrid, a tiny frown beginning to form between her brows. “What's that you're holding behind your back?”

Ding! The cake was ready now, just in time for soaking. Astrid let out a sigh of relief. She wanted Mom to see this wedding card, yes - it was why she came to the kitchen in the first place - but now was probably not the time for questions. Questions about family or about secrets. Not when she knew how important it was for her mother to get her weekend cakes right.

“Family” was always a big deal around the Ortega table. Dad was his mother's only child, and Mom’s parents passed on long before any of them were ever born. Her father was as annoyed by Abuela's antics as her mother was, but it never stopped him from having her visit every Sunday because “she's the only family we have left”.

It was as if he needed her to keep himself rooted, as if without her he would be floating aimlessly, no aim or identity, taking his wife and children down that path with him. Abuela knew this. By God, did she know this.

Or so I thought, Astrid said to herself, gripping the wedding card tightly and creating new creases where the word Ortega was written.

Mom was gritting her teeth now, carefully pouring the three-milk mixture over the cake and muttering to herself. “One more word about dry cake this time and I'll give her soggy toast, I swear I will.”

Astrid would have stood up last week and said something to Abuela, if only Mom would let her. It was probably a good thing Leticia wasn't around, she'd fire shots at Abuela for less. She was protective over all of them and often in the heat of the moment she'd forget she’d be landing them all in further trouble.

She was still muttering. “Wants chiffon cake. Screams bloody murder if I use box mix. What, Teresa, looking for shortcuts again?” Mom's voice was raised in an accurately nasal imitation of Abuela's voice. It was almost like she'd forgotten Astrid was there. “Then I make it from scratch like she wants. Then it's Oh Teresa this is so dry oh Teresa it tastes like sawdust. Why else do you think I use box mix, eh? You want it from scratch and you want moist. ¡Manda Huevos!”

The diatribe kept Mom occupied while she finished pouring, so Astrid kept silent. Mom needed this. This wasn't something she can say in front of Letitia (resulting in another Sunday screaming match) or Dad (what would he do?) or Salome (no way would the kid ever take Salome, language! seriously again). Mom needed someone to have her back, no matter how silently or secretly. And that someone had better be her.

“If only Linda had stayed…”

Astrid froze. “What did you say?”

Mom looked up, blinked twice, then stiffened. “Nothing. Nothing.”

Silently, Astrid handed over the card she'd been holding, all this time. She found it while searching for her dad's treasured García Lorca poetry collection, hidden between a page that exalted love and a page that mourned loss.

Mom took it from her, her eyes widening as she read the words.

LINDA ORTEGA

and

DOMINIC SANDOVAL

request the honour of your company at their wedding.

“Dad always told us he was all Abuela has, right,” Astrid said, “The only Ortega for miles around."

Mom answered by busying herself with more activity than ever. Keeping the soaked cake in the fridge. Pouring the remaining milk mixture into two glasses. Washing her hands. Washing the dishes.

“I'll do that for you,” Astrid took a plate from Mom's hands, “Just talk to me.” She grabbed a sponge and dish washing soap, cleaning vigorously. “All this time, Dad's been telling us Abuela's the only family he has, Mom. Like, he has no one else. Like, we have no sisters or brothers besides the three of us. Was he lying?”

“You're wrong,” Mom said, her voice suddenly sounding sharper, harder, “Abuela's the only family he has left. Your father didn't lie.”

“Just omitted the truth, yeah,” Astrid wished she knew how she felt about this. Right now there was so much she was feeling that she didn't exactly know where to begin. “There's no “together with our parents” above their names either. Not like yours’.”

Mom sighed, picked the card up, then held up two glasses of milk-mixture in front of her. “Take one and give the other to your sister. I have a lot of work to do.”

On any other day, Astrid would have grabbed that glass and relished its creaminess, wiping the milk-moustache off her mouth with a flourish. But today no amount of sweetness was going to take away that weird metallic taste in the roof of her mouth.

“I'm not done asking about this,” Astrid said, scowling, “to you or to Dad. If I have aunts and cousins out there, that's something I wanna know.”

Astrid did try in the weeks to come. But she never saw the wedding card again, and neither Mom or Dad ever responded when she raised the topic again. Still. It felt nice to dream.

Every time Abuela made a snide remark at lunch, she imagined her cousins there. A snarky younger girl who’d make smartass comments. A strong boy her age who’d shut Abuela up with just a glare. A nice aunt who’d take Mom's mind off all this nonsense. It didn't help much, but it felt nice.

It felt nice knowing she had company out there. Somewhere.

--

6 years later.

“Donuts, Iowa?” Seth’s eyes were gleaming at the prospect. He was more a bag-of-chips kinda guy most days, but he also liked having massive sugar rushes before a comedy gig.

“As long as the insides of six of those are practically spilling over with fruit jam, I'm game,” she said, standing on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. It felt exhilarating, freeing. She hadn't felt this normal in a while - normal enough to kiss her boyfriend without worrying about paparazzo jumping out from a bush. There was a guy in a leather jacket she didn't recognize - three blocks across - looking at her like he wanted to talk, but not in a way that made her feel unsafe.

That was the nice thing about Northbridge. People looked, sure, but they were less likely to make you feel like an exhibit from a zoo.

“Wait here, yeah?” Seth said, planting a kiss on the lips instead, “I'll be back before you can finish spelling “OHIO” with your arms.”

Astrid laughed. Seth said the most Ohio things sometimes. Neither of them had had this much fun since she was offered a lead role in Tender Nothings, which was why Seth always jumped at a chance to take up gigs in Northbridge, and why he always offered to take Astrid along when she was free.

The guy from before stepped forward a few minutes after Seth entered the donut shop. The summer heat must have been too much for him - his leather jacket was now slung over his shoulders. “Um, hello. Astrid Ortega?”

He stood with his hands in his pockets, mouth pursed into a thin line, a tiny curl slipping carelessly from his hair and resting on his forehead. She caught a peek at the tail end of a bird tattoo (Owl? The tail looked pointy) on his left arm.

“Yeah,” Astrid said, wondering whether it was her or Seth he wanted to talk to, “but I don't know what your name is.”

“ Zigmund. Zig for short,” he replied, looking behind him from time to time, “My sister Lucy’s a big fan. Asked me to help her get an autograph from you.”

“Is she here?”

“Yeah. But she doesn't want to come out. She's shy.”

Ah. So that was the cherry-red blur barely hidden by that building. She learned long ago that no matter how friendly you appeared, your image would precede you and intimidate people anyway. Autographs were great, but somehow she didn't want to stop at just that.

“Would she come out now if I asked?” she gave him her sunniest smile, “Tell her I won't bite.”

Zig hesitated, then nodded. Astrid watched him walk to the other building, move his hands expressively as he tried to convince his sister to join him (from that angle he almost looks like Letitia, Astrid thought), and return with a curly-haired, starry-eyed teenage girl.

“H-hey,” she said, then blushed, clearly embarrassed by her nervousness. Silently, she hands over her autograph book. She keeps her eyes studiously away from Astrid's face. “I, um, I like mystery films, and I really, really liked Tender Nothings.”

A girl after my own heart. “Maybe you'll like Sunset Boulevard, then,” she said, smiling.

Astrid could have just signed and left it at that, but there was something about these two. Something about the way they stood together, or exchanged glances, or something, that reminded her of home. Which was silly. But it didn’t change the fact that she wanted to leave a good impression on them.

“What would you like to be when you grow up, Lucy?”

Lucy didn't miss a beat. “Ballet dancer. Like my brother.”

Astrid smiled, particularly at the look the girl gave Zig. Yes, she could see on second glance that even though some people would say he didn't have the body of a dancer, he held himself with a certain grace, a certain lightness that belied a stronger core. Hit by a sudden rush of inspiration, she quickly scribbled a little note to go with her signature, and asked Lucy to read it.

To Lucy and Zig, future (hopefully!) best ballet dancing duo in America. Be sure to save me a seat when you folks get famous. Love Always, Astrid.

“Wowwww,” Lucy whispered. Zig suppressed his smile, trying not to let how he felt show, and failed. A corner of his mouth lifted upwards, revealing an almost-invisible dimple.

The two left before Seth brought his box of donuts,but they thanked her at least thrice as they walked away.

“Wait till I tell Mom about this,” Astrid overheard Lucy tell her brother as they left, “I told you she'd be really, really nice.”

“You did,” there was a note of indulgence in Zig's voice.

"Ortegas all around the world. Wherever we're from, we're nice.”

Had Seth come out a moment later, Astrid would have probably walked up to them and asked. Perhaps asked them where they were from and their parents’ names.

But Seth was here, with donuts, and there was never a moment she could take her eyes off either.

“Do you know those two?” Seth asked her, passing her a tres leches cake donut that was claimed to be one of their best, “They looked familiar.”

“”No,” Astrid replied, closing her eyes in bliss. Mmmm. The treat was taking her back to Des Moines, back to home, back to her mother's little kitchen. “But I wouldn't mind meeting them again.”

--

[empty-movement]

I know this is a Utena central blog, but have you seen Ikuhara's other shows Penguindrum and Yuri Kuma Arashi? I'd like to know your thoughts on them! In my opinion Penguindrum had a lot of good themes and amazing concepts & designs but some of the plot lines were questionable.... same with Yuri Kuma but with even more questionable plot lines and overall both shows just didn't have the genius that Utena has to me. What did you all think?

I think that Chiho Saito and Enokido played much bigger roles in the development of Utena than the fandom as a whole would like to believe. Ikuhara has got some awesome ideas and he seems like one of those people with that overactive pattern recognition thing that makes for very unique artists-- but if you actually look at the interviews, Enokido is associated with most of the gutpunch moments in the anime. You know, the ones that make you gasp and wince, like Touga’s backstory (even though that one in particular never made it into the anime).

Chiho Saito is a whole damn thing on her own. The English-speaking fandom doesn’t seem to like her much and she’s constantly accused of “not understanding her own work.” This latest manga chapter has brought all that up to the surface again-- to which, honestly, I have some very damn sharp words in answer. Accusing one of the creators of a work of not understanding it because you don’t agree with how she understands it is short-sighted at best. But honestly, I’m coming to believe that she probably made the biggest contribution of all to SKU-- restraint.

Let me say that again:

restraint

Because, taking both Penguindrum and YuriKuma as evidence, Ikuhara has that great pattern recognition thing going on, but no one is holding him back and saying “okay look how does this make sense, how does this fit together, where is the internal logic?” And as far as Gio and I can tell from the interviews, that is exactly what Chiho Saito did. Constantly. Probably to the point that he hated her at times. But that’s exactly what Ikuhara needs.

Circling back to your original question, I enjoyed Penguindrum, but it lacked the gutpunch moments and the underlying logic of SKU. The ideas were there, and there were some really great trippy moments, but it didn’t have that kick, you know? And the characters didn’t really show a lot of depth, which was disappointing. I still enjoy it. In fact, I’m making my friend @mrsrobichek (hey baby (ΦзΦ) ) watch it with me and we’re having a blast. Also, Grey Wednesday is a gorgeous song and I listened to the whole soundtrack bunches when I was on a cross-country road trip a few years ago. Gio isn’t really that fond of Penguindrum, but eh, she has questionable taste anyway XD

On the other hand, YuriKuma... sigh. I feel like a bad fan or something? Or at least a bad consumer of related “literature.” I couldn’t finish it. I actually couldn’t even get past episode 3. I hated it that much. And I know exactly why-- the characters were flat and just kept flattening further. I’m told that changes later on, but at that point a) I don’t have time to spend waiting for something to get better and b) that’s the straw that broke the camel’s back, it was still missing that same underlying logic and that darkness that made things feel important instead of just wacky, or not-so-wacky, anime hijinks.

I feel so bad! I wanted to like it, but I just straight up couldn’t. A lot of the moments I enjoyed felt like they were pulling heavily from SKU, and in that case, I’ll just go watch SKU again. What makes me feel worst is that I found a couple episode synopses talking about Takarazuka influences and the role of men in women’s media that were really excellent and that I really enjoyed, but... well, I stopped reading them because I would have to watch the show to know what was being referenced and I just do not have time for that shit.

Aaaand here’s what ties all of this together-- I think Ikuhara needs the right team to be effective as a director. I think he needs someone to develop his characters and add the dark bits (Enokido), and I think he needs someone stopping him and making him figure out what it is that he’s doing and why (Saito). And I think without those things, he’s not going to make another classic. Sure, I think he’ll make enjoyable stuff, but without at the very least someone like Chiho Saito to hold him back and make him figure out what the hell he’s trying to say and how to make it understandable to his audience, the underlying logic of his stories comes out garbled at best.

In summary, plz come back and save anime, Be-Papas ;_;

[motorcyclegirlfriends]

You know what I'd love to see in S3 of Supergirl? Supergirl saying "I got this" and then...having this. Like capably assessing and dealing with a situation like any other superhero would get to do on their show. There are so few incidents where Kara is allowed to be confident and act without immediately being proven wrong by a character or narrative. It just drives me nuts when they nerf Kara to give others agency

It��s funny, I was thinking about how annoying that is when I originally made that post.

But I think it’s a pattern writers fall into to teach characters new lessons each episode, and it’s not something unique to Supergirl, by any means. 

It just shows up in different ways on other shows.

For instance, from what I remember from when I watched Arrow (it’s been a while, so it may have changed), Oliver has to relearn to trust his teammates constantly. You think he finally gets it, but then a couple episodes later he’s back to brooding about on his own when he would be so much more effective with real help. 

In the Flash, one instance of this is Barry repeatedly relearning that he shouldn’t alter the timeline.

But Supergirl's Lessons are a lot more heavy handed and obvious, possibly because the age range starting younger. It’s a mark of the Family Friendly Show.

And Lessons aren’t in and of themselves a bad move (though it’s a bit after school special for my tastes), it only really becomes a problem when the characters themselves are lessened so they can then learn. 

The goal is to give characters some kind of advancement each episode, but what results is often simply the illusion of advancement. One step back, one step forward. And it leaves audiences who are in tune with the characters frustrated, because not only is there no real forward movement, but the characters are temporarily moving backwards for no reason, damaging the cohesiveness of the character’s qualities.

But it’s more about the writers being unimaginative than something done on purpose or because they have a poor opinion of Kara (or any other character in question).

Rather than having to elevate their material and tackle more complex problems for the character to face, they make the character a little dumber/stubborn/irrationally emotional etc. than they are so they can learn simple lessons that they, the writers, know how to teach.

They probably don’t even know they’re doing it.

But I’d argue that this doesn’t necessarily give other characters more agency. In fact, in Supergirl, the opposite has generally been proven to be true.

At the beginning of season 2, I complained about Kara learning lessons she didn’t need to learn before.

Suddenly Kara felt entitled (to her position with Snapper), suddenly Kara was xenophobic (though we learn later that the planet was filled with slave owners so it was less “hmm this culture is bad because it’s different and because of the wrong things my planet taught me about them” and more “wow these people actually do bad things and should be criticized” but that’s not something they had in mind at the time. The original storyline was framed so that Kara was in the wrong, had this negative quality, demonstrating something we’d never seen from her before and never really saw from her in any other context again).

Season 1 had a theme of the week, but it generally handled the lessons in a way that aligned pretty well with the character (Kara learning to deal with her anger, learning how to balance her life, etc.) 

There were still slip ups in that regard, but my disdain for this system was more about the cheesiness and clear formula than poor character treatment. 

So season 2′s handling of this especially bothered me, in the beginning.

But then, the lessons stopped. 

Kara wasn’t learning something new every episode. In fact, she often had the answers that someone else needed. She helped J’onn accept his feelings for M’gann despite feeling guilty about moving on after the loss of his family, she helped Alex deal with her feelings for Maggie. Mostly, she helped Mon-El become a Real Boy.

And it was disastrous.

Mon-El became at the center of the story, because he was the one learning things. Kara became his teacher while also not really learning anything new on her own each week, and thus became a passive character. Mon-El was doing all the advancing, while Kara mostly just dealt his “advancement” or with the immediate problems she faced each ep without growing much.

So now? I miss the lessons...

Of course, you’ll be delighted to know that there’s a way to have the worst of both worlds!!!

The episode “Alex,” which I never seem to stop complaining about, had Kara simultaneously develop negative traits that go directly against her previously shown qualities and development (ex. “Why would we talk someone down when we could break their arm instead???”) and didn’t give her a fully developed arc within the episode. (I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Kara was the antagonist of that episode and I hate them for it.)

But in general, with these kinds of writers, Lessons = focus and attention.

So what the writers should do is teach Kara real, new lessons that stick and that Kara should actually learn.

For instance? 

“How To Make A Plan Before Rushing In”: The Episode

The “Alex” episode touched on this idea, but they added qualities that she didn’t have before—like a mistrust of those with experience—to make it happen. In a situation with such high stakes, Kara being asked to give them a minute to figure it out (knowing that Alex still had more time) should have resulted to her allowing consideration to occur. Her fear of the drastic results of her failure should have kicked in. She should know it could go really wrong, and having her ignore that makes her look stupid and intolerably careless.

This concept should have been something that was presented in a less high-stakes storyline. 

Perhaps Maggie and Kara teaming up because Alex, J’onn, and Winn are in a DEO lockdown (that they’re totally handling, a.k.a. B story), and there’s a villain on the loose that sets traps for Supergirl.

Start the episode off with someone being hurt because Kara wasn’t quick enough, and then she overcompensates and make mistakes when the plot gets rolling (resulting in her landing in traps that she has to be rescued from, perhaps for no reason because they were tricked into thinking people were in danger that weren’t), thus triggering Maggie’s insistence that she low down and think.

(Kara being the one at risk because of her mistakes also lessons the unnecessary animosity between Kara and Maggie in the scenario, because the reason Maggie tries to convince Kara to use her head is for her wellbeing.)

This way, Kara’s need to get there to save people before time runs out—her own safety be damned—is acknowledged by Maggie and by the narrative, but then it’ll be proven that it’s better for everyone if she takes a minute to consider the best move.

At some point in the episode, Maggie’s need to protect Kara because of her relationship with Alex is brought up (maybe mid-argument, for Drama). 

“If something happened to you, Alex would be destroyed,” 

“I have a responsibility to protect those people,” 

“I know. I’m a cop. But you have a responsibility to the people who love you, too.”

“...Well, Alex has you now, remember?” type deal.

Which would lead into the whole “Where do I fit in?” thing they both have with Alex, resulting in them both admitting to fearing that the other will compromise their relationship with her. There’s a whole camaraderie thing that results from it.

At the end of the episode, Maggie and Kara come up with a plan together, Maggie sharing some of her Detective Skills for Kara to internalize. 

Kara is surprisingly the one to have the eureka moment, showing us that she had the capacity to do it, just not the patience. 

They go to stop the villain together, and it goes well. At first. The villain of the episode gets the upper hand somehow, putting Supergirl in danger again. 

Then, plan-less, Maggie rushes in and Does Something Stupid to save her, and it actually works. They save the day, and in-conversation wrap up the idea that planning is the best move whenever possible, but sometimes you have to go by your gut. Lessons, all around.

When everything is said and done, Alex is finally free of the DEO and texts Kara to ask for a sister night, but Kara says that she’s busy, but maybe tomorrow would work. Alex also texts Maggie asking to hang out, but she says she’s occupied as well.

(Don’t worry, J’onn and Winn end up taking her to the bar anyway. One of those Bonding themed episodes.)

Cut to Maggie and Kara eating at some diner referenced earlier in the episode,(Maggie—healthy food, Kara—fast food) and talking and laughing about their old cases. Maggie mentions how she figured out how someone had a gun in their pants by the way they were walking, and Kara mentions the time she fought an Alien whose face turns red just before it blasts it’s victim with fire. 

“Ha. Sounds just like my boss.”

*One of those chatter/laughter wholesome ass fade outs*

In this scenario, no one looks dumb. Hell, there is even a slight amount of character regression (Kara being more reckless than usual) that spurs the Lesson on, but it’s because of a realistic character-true reaction to events within the world.

And then, ideally, Kara continues to know the skills she learned from this episode in the future.

But hopefully, if they use this Lesson technique while Mon-El is away, they’ll remember the difference between things Kara needs to learn and things she already should know.

I mean, the “I’ve got this,” in question may not actually include Kara fucking up afterward. The context of the clips in the trailer includes Kara being depressed and isolating herself from her loved ones. The “I’ve got this” could simply be an indicator of how she is going out on her own now and relying on only herself.

This is a Lesson she’s likely learning here—to let those around her help her. To let people in again, in general. But I consider this new, temporary lone wolf outlook she’s adopted to be a character-true regression.

But if it’s The Main Bad Guy, she’ll likely fail to capture him if it’s in the beginning of the ep. But none of the heroes defeat the bad guy before the climax of the episode. It’s just how tv works. She may not be shown to be incompetent in some way, just outmatched.

It’s a valid criticism of past episodes, but we’ll have to wait and see what the context of this instance is.

(I really do want Kara to have an ep in which she tries for some strategy, though. And continues to try to think that way in the future. Prayer circle for a strategy ep!)

[kittykatknits]

"I do have thoughts on the potential baby and how it could play into the story along with what it would mean to Jon/Sansa as characters." I'd love it if you'd expand on this.

Anonymous said:Do you think Sansa will end up raising Jon and Dany’s child?

Anonymous said:I know you said you’ll do a write up and it’ll take a few days but can you please just answer this question: Will Sansa raise Jon’s and Dany’s kid?  

The original plan was to do a longer write up after the season was over but I’m going to do this summary instead. It’s still ridiculously long. It seems like there are a number of frustrations, to put it mildly, with this season. I’m going to dispense with this whole Jon bending the knee nonsense, because it isn’t happening in the books. Then, we can go into the potential baby.

First, and this is a big surprise to me, is how much impact dropping f!Aegon from the storyline is causing. Honestly, I thought it was a good idea when first learning of it and am still pretty sympathetic to the decision. However, D&D are still trying to create, with varying degrees of success, the dance of dragons we are going to see in the books. It’s this change in the source material that is leading to the stand off between Jon and Dany. To put it bluntly, Jon kneeling to Dany is going to be a complete non-issue.

I think it is extremely unlikely Jon will be crowned the KitN, that’s a show-only invention, given to him for a variety of reasons. Right now, I’m playing with the theory of Jon as a King of Winter since it better matches with his story. Jon isn’t going to be king, he is not going to be in a position to negotiate or offer up the north.

Now, let’s talk about the wight hunt which led to Jon’’s offer to bend the knee. Sure, the specifics of how it happened are stupid, but the entire damn concept makes no sense at all. The WW are an intelligent race, they communicate, they have weapons, they have a purpose, even if we don’t know everything yet. But, wights can not go south of the wall. It’s enchanted, it’s got spells. Remember the rotting hand with Aliser Thorne? Realistically, if this happened, the only thing Jon would have to show for his efforts is a rotting corpse. He could dig up a random grave and get the same results, with a lot less danger.

So, about the big meeting at the dragon pit. Again, that won’t happen either. In the books, it isn’t going to be some gathering of nobles in KL (it will be all blown up by then) that alerts the Seven Kingdoms to the danger in the north. It’s going to be Sam at the Citadel. He’s perfectly positioned to know when the wall goes down and happens to be where the single largest collection of ravens is located in all of Westeros. Honestly, this is one of the scenes I am looking forward to the most, I expect to be crying over it.

Back to Dany, as I said, the show seems to want to keep some version of the Dance. This is why Jaime’s character is all over the place, because in the books he’s already filed for divorce. It’s one of the reasons Euron’s story has been changed as well because he sure doesn’t want the IT. As for Tyrion, he’s not Team Dany and is not going to be interested in forging some sort of truce between her and Jon. He’s actually going to play Dany and Aegon:

“Dragons,“ Moqorro said in the Common Tongue of Westeros. He spoke it very well, with hardly a trace of accent. No doubt that was one reason the high priest Benerro had chosen him to bring the faith of R'hllor to Daenerys Targaryen. “Dragons old and young, true and false, bright and dark. And you. A small man with a big shadow, snarling in the midst of all." 

- Tyrion VIII, aDwD

In the books, I do believe Dany will land at Dragonstone, ready to conquer and take the throne. She’s going to be battling against Jon C. who will use Tywin-like methods in his efforts to secure the IT for Aegon. It’s going to be bloody, a lot of innocent civilians are going to be killed. There is a quote in the first (I think) Arianne gift chapter with a dragon dream that describes just how bad it will be. Dany’s conquest will come to an end after she blows up KL, killing an entire city’s worth of people. It’s only after this happens that Dany will finally turn her attention north to fight  the WW.

In the meantime, Jon will have no crown, no houses sworn to him, and he won’t have the Vale. Kneelgate ain’t gonna happen, at least in the books. There’s a ton more regarding Northern Independence, the GNC, the “Dance of Wolves”, and other stuff that plays into this too, but they all reinforce the same conclusion. They aren’t going to marry to join the north and south, they aren’t going to mary for some grand political union.

Ok, let’s talk about the Magical Targ Baby. As I said earlier, Dany is not barren and she never was. At least in the books, if Jon has a child with her, it will be a bastard. It’s just like Martin to give Jon what he most wants, a child and family in Winterfell, and what he wants least, the child to be born as a bastard like him.

Now, will, the two of them have a child together? Maybe. Possibly. We don’t really have enough information to know for certain. Whether this happens or not, I do believe Dany will not survive the series. She’s going to go out saving humanity from the ultimate form of enslavement, fulfilling the messianic role as the breaker of chains.

As for Jon, he’s a rather straight-forward monomyth hero. He’s interesting and well-done (at least to me) but not particularly unique as far as characters go. In the show, Jon has reached the final stage of his journey, freedom to live, and is singularly focused on defeating the WW. The truly fascinating part, is that it was Sansa who came along on his journey towards the end. Like, that blows my mind every time I think about it. Sansa was the one at his side while he finished his journey. How awesome is that? In the books, we don’t yet know how Jon’s return home will play out, he’s still in the underworld.

We also don’t know what will come after. Will Jon go out like Neo, saving the world? Or will he be closer to Rand and Frodo, still alive but no longer able to be part of the world. Or perhaps he is Odysseus, longing for nothing more than going home again?

Before I go any further, I want to state, that I am a Jonsa shipper. I hope/want (like desperately so) them to be endgame but I will not say that is the case because I just don’t know. None of us do right now. I’ve also been reading these books for years and have learned to keep expectations low when it comes to my personal wish list. So, to get to a point here, I am not advocating for or wanting a Magical Targ Baby.

Frankly, this season has left me kinda depressed with aSoIaF, forcing me to think about the potential endgame for the first time in awhile and I’m not enjoying it.

If Dany does get pregnant, there are two options I foresee, neither of which I like. Dany is either going to die in battle and her child meeting the same fate. Or, she’s going to give birth and still die. If that does come to pass, I do believe the child will be raised in Winterfell by Sansa. As I said, I don’t like these options. Martin loves his dead mothers (“Lady Stark. She’s dead.”) and the idea that he would do this to Dany really turns me off.

Now, if Dany dies while pregnant, it flies really close to the idea of a Magic Targ Baby as sacrifice and the theme of death paying for life. The other option is that Dany gives birth and then dies saving the world. I can’t figure out how to make this work (that wall is on the verge of falling) in the middle of the war for the dawn. If this happens, Sansa will be raising Jon’s bastard in WF, a repeat of what came the generation before. I find this problematic too. There are a number of implications here I find deeply uncomfortable. But, it fits with Sansa’s story and the mother theme that keeps appearing in her arc.

Now, as to how this relates to Jon and Sansa. I’m going to assume, for this post, that Jon lives through the end of the series. If this is the case, Sansa will still be raising the child and be the only mother it knows. If the two of them get married, or end up together, it will be based upon a relationship of respect and affectation that will grow to something more. I am not convinced we will see all or even most of that take place on the screen/page. We will get a dream of spring.

I could go on and on but hopefully this answers some of the questions sent my way today. I will also say that I play around with and mull over theories constantly and tend to be very slow to make a final decision on what will happen. Like my “Jon will be remembered as a villain” theory or my ever-favorite “Sansa will never marry but give birth to a bunch of bastards” theory. My tendency to do this is what has kept the books fun for me so long, the idea of possibility. So, these are my thoughts, as they are today, in this moment. Ask me again in a month and you may get a different answer. 

ETA: I’m not trying to depress anyone, sorry if this did. I’m trying to answer the questions as honestly as I can while also keeping my expectations low. I will also happily remove tags if they are upsetting anyone.