#but just like super honestly in the grand scheme of things

[rockwgooglyeyes]

Hi Rocky, remember when I said I had conflicting feelings about Round 7. Well um what did you think of the new video

Geo!! Lovely to see you :3

So unpopular opinion maybe, but I actually really liked Wiege? That could be just because I enjoyed the song but the amount of lore that they're able to give us in little snapshots is truly amazing. Hyuna losing her round, Hyuna sacrificing herself for Luka, all of the natural metaphors in the lyrics (the wings drenched with longing finally unfold, you'll embrace the sea that sings, etc), Mizi finally gonna go apeshit . . . I'm excited for what's next and I'm actually very happy with Wiege! Not necessarily happy that Hyuna died but uh thats more complicated. . .

One, it seems apparent that Luka killed the other clones of him? Which is both insane but also makes a lot of sense, insofar as his feeling of superiority towards them. It's a crazy thing to think about but it shows the way that he views most other living beings as chess pieces in a broader game, if that makes sense? He doesn't really care about people on a personal level, most often, and that's what makes Hyuna special. . .

We also get to see how Luka's love is both obsessive and possessive, the him kissing her wanted posted while in his room, (yknow the whole "your life is mine" bit from before) but we also get to see how Luka's love really is, in part, about seeking comfort from someone he loves. He leans into Hyuna while she cries, likely mourning Hyunwoo's death, and when he runs towards her, he's reaching out. It's strange how . . . earnest it is, how unadulterated by anything like possession or conditions. Not only that but Hyuna does seem to genuinely love Luka back, maybe not romantically, but she definitely cherishes him, which we knew before but it's still nice to see confirmed again.

Additionally, I would say that we get evidence that the fight that killed Hyunwoo, well, it was started by Hyunwoo. It seems likely that Luka did something to annoy Hyunwoo or did something that frustrated him, enough that Hyunwoo decided to get physical. I mean Hyunwoo doesn't seem happy about it, for sure. But with the framing, it makes me think that Hyunwoo was simply killed in a fight, most likely on accident- though we know that Luka has possessive feelings over Hyuna, from what we've seen of his past with Hyuna and Hyunwoo, he didn't seem to view them as that much of a separate entity. A lot of the shots where Hyunwoo is still alive, in Wiege at least, Hyunwoo is framed as positively as Hyuna is . . . which makes me think that Luka didn't kill Hyunwoo on purpose.

Then again it doesn't really appear like Luka knew what he'd done, in the aftermath. . .

We also get to see more glimpses of the kiddos at the garden which made me very happy!! I don't have much to say about it but I simply find it endearing to see them all together again, to have that confirmation that they really were friends, they really did love each other. Ivan bringing the others to take care of the waygein was the most interested of the "past" cutscenes to me . . . besides all of the Hyuna focused ones, that is.

Additionally, the snippets of a modern alternate universe, seemingly the high school au? or something adjacent to that, is so lovely, just to see them all happy . . .

I think it's so interesting that Hyuna sacrifices herself, fulfilling a pattern that we've seen before with 3 out of the now 4 dead characters. Ivan, Sua, and now Hyuna, all sacrificed their lives for a person that they loved. It's fascinating on a more meta level that Hyuna's sacrifice is the only one that isn't planned, she didn't intend to die for Luka today but she does because she doesn't think, she just knows that she needs to save him from being killed. I think that both of those forms of sacrifice are kind of lovely, they show the willingness to put your life on the line for someone you love (but sacrifice in and of itself is often a selfish act, and I'm definitely not saying it's heroic . . . just poetic).

Not only that but the rocket imagery behind Hyuna while she's speaking to Luka is so so strange. I don't really know what that is but I have one theory; "because everything begins from there." I think that the rocket, maybe, is representative of that first contact that humans had with the seygein all those years ago, the way that humanity got itself into this mess of slavery and suffering, and by extension, "everything begins from there." but that's my only real thoughts on the rocket . . .

man this is so long I'm sorry Geo . . . suffice to say, I actually like Wiege!! probably a weird thing to say but uh yeah, the song is lovely, the animation is stunningly beautiful as per usual, and the story is utterly thought provoking, I am rapt. The amount of lore we got in this episode along makes me froth at the mouth a little.

Thank you so much for asking, Geo!! I am going to send you an ask because I'm curious what you thought 👀 love youuuu thank you so much for indulging me :3

[ostolero]

Mirroring Sheev's Plan by Sullivan

Performed by Austin Walker on AMCA

(originally posted on Cohost)

https://bsky.app/profile/dimosar.bsky.social

https://bsky.app/profile/austinwalker.bsky.social

https://bsky.app/profile/morecivilized.bsky.social

Sheev's Plan:

get elected to senate for naboo

start new sith order

work republic and separatists against each other. recruit evil guy to lead separatists.

(this jedi kid is wicked strong!)

get jedi in deep with clone army. (save some clone jars for later? just in case...)

PIVOT: Make the jedi kid evil. dont need separatist guy anymore. got a new evil guy.

make my evil guy kill his jedi pals when they come to arrest me. ill finish em off with my lightning attack

(fucking guy used his sword to bounce my lightning back at me! honestly my fault. takes a minute for the lightning to wind down and he got my ass on the bounce. fair play. now i look like a leather couch but its fine. can blame jedi for THAT too)

Use the clones to kill the jedi, have my evil guy kill the seperatists, keep the army, spin into empire

GALAXY NOW UNDER MY CONTROL

chill as emperor for a while. humiliate Vader for a laugh. make death star.

Endgame achieved.

(Vader's kid blows up my death star)

PIVOT: get new young apprentice by turning him evil once he kills his dad, or maybe make Vader cooler by making him kill his gay son. either way its a win-win for me.

(thrown down hole and killed.)

PIVOT: good thing i kept those clone jars!! make new clone body to inhabit. takes time to get right. need something to do until then

build enormous fleet of big spaceships, each with their own super death star laser. keep em on the down low... why use em? they lose half the value as soon as you fly them off the lot

(clone son betrays me but its no biggie. its fine. have loads of clones at this point. whats one clone son?)

create a DECOY fascist empire. put one of my weirder clones in charge. Not giving them any of my ships though. can build his own shit. dont look at me. get a bank loan

let failed clone recruit vaders grandson (will explain why later) let those guys take over the galaxy with a different super death star. assume they built this one themselves. very cute!

GALAXY NOW UNDER MY CONTROL

(only via proxy tho. not done yet)

let(??) vaders grandson ("ben"?? ok) usurp failed clone and rule galaxy. wants to “kill the past” but whatever. can still make this work. NEED to keep this kid in the mix (will make sense when we get there)

drop the big news. Im not dead! Fortnite. awesome moment.

lead kylo ren to my base using complex scavenger hunt. puzzle knife.

tell him he’s always actually worked for me. big reveal. big moment. He's my lackey now. a little traitorous and unreliable, but this will pay off later trust me

use death star ships to take over galaxy even more

GALAXY NOW UNDER MY CONTROL

(awesome... but not enough. something missing)

let kylo ren lead clone granddaughter to home base using complex scavenger hunt. Puzzle Knife cool enough idea to do twice i think

taunt granddaughter into killing me so i can possess her un-janked body. All part of my grand scheme...

Endgame achieved. (??)

(kylo ren betrays me)

PIVOT: Possession stupid plan anyway. Instead, use ben and reys Horny Essence to make my nasty old body normal again.

throw ben in hole (grandson purpose revealed)

destroy resistance with lightning powers. shooting spaceships down with magic lightning basically a solved problem at this point.

GALAXY NOW UNDER MY CONTROL

kill the granddaughter actually. dont need her anymore. lightning powers classic for a reason.

ive got this thing in the bag as long as she doesn't bounce the lightning back at me off her fucking laser sword.

Endgame achieved.

[lordprettyflackotara]

Did it First || Part Two || Jeff the Killer

SMUT MINORS DNI 18+. tw: descriptions of gore; yandere!reader, yandere!jeff, rough sex, honestly just yandere as fuck

Jeff the killer had destroyed the sweet innocent you.

If the sex wasn’t enough, seeing you with an axe in your hand did it. You stood over Stella, a blonde Jeff had been fucking for months while also fooling around with you. Jeff was frozen in shock, his eyes widened as he stared at her bloody corpse. You had attacked her from behind, her back mangled and flesh hanging on by thin shreds of her skin. You didn’t stop there Jeff would find out, his eyes trailing up to her face. You had stepped on her, pinning her to the ground as you swung the axe at her throat. Jeff could see the manic swings you had took, her head cut off, sitting beside her corpse.

Jeff had seen and had done a lot in his day. But this? This was a lot for even him to handle. Just yesterday he had been entangled with her in the sheets, her eyes now permanently open in shock. They were lifeless, fear washing over the pale killer as he looked up at you. Splattered blood was staining nearly your entire body, your cheeks painted with the droplets. Blood soaked your shirt and pants, an unhinged grin spread across your lips.

“What’s wrong Jeff? You killed for me so I killed for you. After all, you did it first.”

Jeff was not as infatuated with you as he thought he was. What you nor Jeff realized, was what everyone else around him already knew. He had the attention span of a walnut. Jeff had a pattern of doing this, hyper-fixating on girls and then growing bored. It was nothing personal. Jeff did what he did and he would continue to do what he wanted to do. Every girl he had done this to before had two options. They could either cope and move on. Or, if they were more of a spicy bunch, Jeff would have to kill them off. It was sickeningly satisfying to the killer, making someone fall in love with them so hard that they couldn’t move on with their lives. Jeff knew his entanglements with average girls could get messy. Slenderman made it very clear any potential threat to exposure would need to be terminated.

Besides obligation from him, Jeff enjoyed slaughtering his past lovers. Something about seeing the insides of a person really gave him something to remember them by. Faces and names became blurred, Jeff unable to even remember his last fling before you. But what he could remember crystal clear was the fact that none of them. not one, had returned the favor. Jeff enjoyed killing off people in his flings lives. Relatives, lovers, friends, it all blended together after a while. The mortal attachments that made humans so fragile was adorable to him. He loved nothing more than to cut that cord. His brain always justified it beyond it being a means to control his fling. Most people didn’t realize they’d be better off without those restraints holding them back. Jeff thought that if anything him killing Jim was tame. He was a shitty hookup, not a work of art or someone memorable in the grand scheme of things.

Killing wasn’t anything super meaningful anyways. So after a couple of months, Jeff grew hopelessly bored. He knew everything about you. There was no mystery, no fantasy. You were exactly who you presented yourself to be. It’s not like Jeff could reciprocate, his life a forced secret that he had to keep. And you could bet your sweet ass he wasn’t going to tell you how he became the monster he was. So Jeff did what he always did, he disappeared and moved on. As he stared at Stella’s corpse he supposed deciding to move on within the same town was perhaps not the best idea he’s ever had. Stella was the stereotypical blonde you saw on social media in bikini pics. Jeff didn’t necessarily have a type, but she was the bobble headed moron Jeff needed after a fresh break up. His appearance didn’t freak her out either, an added plus. He ignored that it was because of her wanting to spite her parents. She wanted him to get her pregnant, the idea of having a freaks baby to piss off her parents somehow the best plan in her mind.

Jeff didn’t mind playing into it anyways, burying himself in her cunt every night. It didn’t matter anyways, her parents had been dead in their bedroom for days. He would’ve loved to keep the affair going, but truthfully he was too lazy to bother moving the bodies. He knew the smell would catch her attention and things would get unnecessarily bloody. He didn’t need to kill her anyways, he knew she would be shipped off to the closest mental institution. But didn’t she need it anyway? Wanting a killer to impregnate her just to piss a couple of people off? Yeah, Jeff could definitely justify breaking things off. He decided to check on her one last time, wanting to really savor the feeling of her cunt. She may have been a helpless airhead but Jeff was never one to turn down sex. That’s when he saw you, proudly standing in her bedroom doorway. He must’ve missed the murder by a few minutes, the blood still fresh and oozing out of the corpse.

What Jeff hadn’t anticipated was the opposite what he wanted. All of his time as a killer he either ditched or killed girls, no in between. He picked seemingly average and normal women, careful to avoid ones that seemed unstable. His mistake was choosing you. Your obsessive tendencies and underlying codependency issues slipping under the cracks of his inspection. You were the devil in disguise, unaware that he would provoke it out into exposure.

You didn’t accept Jeff’s choice. If anything you had convinced yourself that he had been tricked in some way or was testing you. Ultimately you decided either way, the blonde bitch had to go. So you began stalking him as he once stalked you. You hid in the shadows, watching him climb into her window time and time again. It seemed so bluntly obvious to you this was a test, the killer not even attempting to conceal himself in his bright white hoodie. So you waited for the perfect moment. Coming right and out and killing her during their affair didn’t seem right. You didn’t want either of them to have a chance of preventing what had to be done. Jeff would confidently stroll into her house around the same time every night. He was so predictable. You felt like even though you lacked the traditional information one usually has about their partner, you knew Jeff. You knew what he liked and disliked. You knew his habits like picking at his nails or running his fingers through his hair. You knew him better than he could’ve ever imagined.

“Wow this um, wow,” Jeff said, trying not to stumble over his words. The pale killer had never been so caught off guard before. You dropped the axe, allowing it to fall to the floor as you approached him. “I understand why you did it, testing me. Finding a real ride or die bitch must be hard when you’re a real man,” You purred. You strolled behind him, wrapping your arms around his neck. You could feel him tense up, freezing as you placed a kiss to his neck. “You need a real woman and guess what baby? I’m that bitch. Blondie here could’ve never done this for you,” You say, glancing over at the bloody corpse. Jeff swallowed, becoming increasingly nervous and aroused. Jeff liked to have control in any and all situations, but something about the lack of control in this one was making him incredibly flustered. It was humbling, having you snatch the reigns from him. “Now it can just be us. Just me and you,” You cooed. Your blood stained hands coated his hoodie, covering it with an all too familiar color. “Thats right,” Jeff confirmed, swallowing. You pressed a few soft kisses to his neck, before standing on your tippy toes to reach his ear.

“Oh and Jeff?”

“Huh?”

“If you ever fuck another bitch again i’ll kill you.”

Jeff should’ve been terrified. He had created a mini me. A monster. Yet he felt all of his blood rush to his cock, your curious gaze not failing to notice. “Oh baby does this turn you on? Seeing what i’d do for you?” You asked mockingly. You smirked as Jeff braced himself, his cock aching against his jeans. Your hand slithered down to his front zipper, pulling it down aggressively. It didn’t take long for your hand to find his cock, pulling at the length as it hardened in your palm. Your other hand slid to his throat, cuffing it and squeezing. “Not so big and powerful now are we?” You hummed. Jeff bit his bottom lip, the urge to snap at you rising but the feeling you were providing him was far more euphoric. “You’re a crazy fucking bitch,” He panted, watching you slowly jerk him off. You smiled as you nibbled at his ear lobe. “I’m sorry what was that? You wanted me to stop?” You teased. Jeff’s patience had thinned, quickly turning around and grabbing you. He tossed you onto the bed, pinning you onto the mattress. “I said you’re a crazy fucking bitch,” He hissed.

You giggled with glee as he began to tear at your pants, shoving them down to your ankles. He roughly palmed your panties, growling. “Wet already whore? Seriously? Murder get you off?” Jeff huffed. You grinned as he tore your panties harshly, ripping the fabric and tossing it to the ground: With two fingers he rubbed up and down your folds, examining your slick. “You’re fuckin soaked, don’t think you need any prep,” Jeff grunted. He grabbed his shaft, rubbing it up and down your folds. “Besides princess you better get used to taking this dick, since you’ll be taking it for the rest of your life,” He spat, shoving himself inside of you harshly. You had taken Jeff dozens of times before. But this. Something about the way he was fucking you now obliterated all of those previous experiences. He showed no mercy as he bottomed out inside of you, taking a brief moment to relish in the feeling of your walls clinging to him. “You’re insane, you know that?” He asked. You giggled at his comment, watching him pin your wrist above your head. “I’m insane? You’re one to talk,” You countered.

This earned you a sharp slap across the face, causing you to whine as Jeff moved his hips. “Dont talk back to me slut,” He barked. He didn’t give you time to process his response, his hips aggressively snapping into yours. All thoughts about the gruesome scene behind the two of you had faded, the only thing you were able to focus on being one another. Jeff’s thrust were harsh and unforgiving. You wanted him forever? Wanted to be his girl? Then you better buckle up and bow down to who you belonged to. You whined as the knot inside of your stomach tightened further, his cock abusing your g spot. “You take me so nice. Shit, maybe you really were made for me,” Jeff grunted. You smeared Stella’s blood on his face with your hands, cupping them against his cheeks. The crimson paint stained his pure white skin, the blood of his ex lover unfazing him as he rammed into you.

You wrapped your legs around his waist, trapping him as if he came closer to his high. “Go on Jeff, cum in me. I’m all yours,” You pleaded. Your begging made him lick his lips, his permanent grin curling upwards into a real one. “You sick bitch. I’ll give you what you deserve,” He snarled. He watched you slither a hand to your clit, both of you close to your highs. As euphoria washed over you it occurred to you this is all you ever really wanted. Him to be yours. With his cum flooding your cunt and filling you to the brim, you realized you got what you wanted.

[catzz089]

Lestappen reverse amnesia for the Put That Guy Into A Situation ask game?? 👀👀👀

Max had been having a great day.

Perfect, even.

He’d walked to a bakery in the other side of Monaco without being interrupted, ordered and walked all the way back and still, there were no photos or autographs or anything.

And look, he appreciated that people liked him, he really did. He enjoyed hearing people shout his name in grandstands and cheer for him and make him little bracelets with “inchident” written on them. It was lovely, truly.

But god. Sometimes he missed the peace and sanctity of being alone and getting to actually live his life.

It was rare he had days like this, especially in Monaco, where all the worlds famous people are compounded into one tiny country, and people came from far and wide specifically to watch them like animals in a cage.

You couldn’t blame him for wanting a day or two in silence.

Well, not total silence.

Today had been total silence.

He hadn’t received texts from anyone. Not the team, even though he knew he was due a stern talking to for skipping a press conference.

Hell, not even Charles had texted.

Which he wasn’t upset about, he really wasn’t.

It just…

He’d been dating Charles for eight whole months, and he knew in the grand scheme of things that was nothing, but it felt so right. So normal.

They’d managed to tip-toe around each other for about a week or so, before they finally took the drive and went straight in. Since then it had been magical.

It was a new, brilliant feeling to be loved so wholeheartedly. And every single morning, every single one, they would send each other a good morning message, maybe a face time call. Probably a promise to call later. They’d continue texting throughout the entire day, even when they were still going to see each other.

Charles had never forgotten, not properly. Because even when he forgot, Max wouldn’t. Once Max sent his, Charles would usually be straight on it and it would all be perfect.

Max had sent his message at 7:42.

It was 14:28.

He wasn’t bitter. He could never be upset with Charles. It just maybe felt a little lonely.

It had been seven hours. Even if Charles had woken up late, surely it wouldn’t have been that late.

(Max knew he hadn’t woken up late. He knew. It was a Tuesday, Charles always went to the gym at 8am on a Tuesday. He also had a Ferrari meeting today, he’d been told about that last week. The meeting was at 12, Charles should be awake.)

It was fine.

Charles would message later.

———

Charles did not message later.

Max was beginning to get the sickening feeling that something was really, really wrong.

In his boredom he’d texted about a thousand other people- even Esteban got sent a meme of their podium together.

Absolutely no responses.

Not one person messaged him back.

He was desperately hoping Charles was just super busy, or maybe he’d lost his phone.

Something like that.

Charlie ❤️🏎️:

Me:

Good morning love

How are you?

<sent at 7:42>

Me:

Charles?

Are you okay?

Has something happened?

<sent at 19:01>

He’d give it an hour.

———

He did not give it an hour

It was maybe 25 minutes at best before he slipped his shoes on and slammed the door on his apartment shut.

It was a 10 minute walk, but he honestly couldn’t stop himself as he walked towards his Aston and jumped inside.

He shot down the street, desperately hoping he wouldn’t get fined for this, because a Formula 1 driver getting into issues because of a car was downright embarrassing.

Charles’ doorman didn’t spare him a glance and he swept inside and made a break for the stairs. The elevator alway took so long to open, he trusted his legs to go faster.

He didn’t waste a second, whipping out his spare key and instantly shoving it through the lock and pushing his way inside.

“Charles?” He called.

There was no response.

He walked further, going towards the kitchen.

He gently pushed open the door and-

He was slammed back with a vicious hand grabbing at his collar.

Cold sharp metal was pressed to his throat.

He barely managed to regain his balance in time to look Charles in his wide, wild eyes.

“Who the fuck are you?” Charles growled.

Max opened his mouth to speak but no words came out.

What the fuck was he doing.

“Charlie?”

“Don’t fucking Charlie me,” he snarled, “who the fuck are you and what are you doing in my house.”

“Um, apartment, actually.” He corrected on total instinct.

The knife pressed harder.

Expertly done, Max. Real good job.

Now he was genuinely fearing for his safety, which really fucked with his head considering this was the only person he felt completely, 100% safe and comfortable with. But for whatever reason, Charles looked to be just in the wrong side of insane, and Max had some survival instinct to his name.

“No no no, Charles. What do you mean? I’m Max. Your fucking boyfriend? What the fuck is going on?” His breaths were coming in faster now, he laughed and it sounded fake and hysterical to his own ears.

Charles’ face never softened, not like it usually did. He kept his grip firm.

“Look, man. I get you’re some fucking fan or whatever, but you do not get to break into my fucking house and act like we know each other.” He snapped.

“What? No, have you hit your head? Charles I’m your boyfriend. At the very least I’m your fucking coworker, we’ve been racing against each other since we were eight.” Max stressed.

Charles somehow managed to look even more angry.

Max grabbed his wrist and pushed the knife away, very quickly followed by Charles himself getting a firm shove as he jumped back and far far away from his pyscho insane boyfriend.

“No no no, Charles I swear. I can prove it! I can prove it!” He whipped his phone out and brandished it about like a torch.

Charles was looking at him, still very angry but at least he wasn’t being threatened with the damn knife again.

Max rushed to pull up his camera roll, clicking in the ones of their most recent date.

“Look!” He exclaimed, scrolling through the photos from afar. “It’s you and me, see! Happy! Together! Because we are dating, Charlie.”

Charles looked pale and unsure, before it flicked straight back to anger.

“Is that fucking AI? You fucking psycho, you break into my apartment claim we’re dating and then show me fake photos? You don’t think I’d be able to remember my boyfriend?”

“Well, honestly I kind of thought you’d remember your boyfriend too,” Max muttered, which was the wrong decision as the fire relit Charles eyes and he stepped forward.

Max was still far too aware of the massive kitchen knife hung in his hand and Charles’ usually harmless tendency to defend the people and things around him.

Except this time he was defending himself from his boyfriend and Max was scared.

“Okay, uhm, it seems like this is a bad time? I’ll- uh- pop back in later?” He said, more of a question than anything else.

He backed slowly towards the door, watching Charles carefully for any changes in movement; like prey escaping a predator.

When Charles seemed to register his words, and moved after him to do something, Max leapt back and out of the door, slamming it in front of him.

———

The second Max entered his apartment he make a break for his bed and collapsed onto it, burying his face in a pillow- which didn’t even fucking help because the pillow smelt like Charles and Charles didn’t even know who he was.

Was he okay?

Had he hit his head or something?

Max hoped he hadn’t, he was busy moping in bed instead of calling an ambulance for his disillusioned boyfriend. If something was wrong Max was being insanely useless.

Charles had never looked at him like that before.

Max had seen him angry, hell he’d even seen Charles angry at him. But that had been different. So, so different.

At least Charles knew his fucking name, at least they both knew they’d get it sorted out the second the emotions had calmed down. At least Max hadn’t been scared of being hurt.

His eyes gazed over his streams of messages. Some people had left him on read. Some delivered.

Nobody had responded.

No, he thought.

Charles wasn’t the issue here.

Max was.

He wasn’t sure how or why, but for some reason he was the issue and he had no fucking idea how to solve it.

He clenched his eyes shut.

What the fuck was he meant to do?

Nobody knew him.

Did he still have a job? Could he still race?

There was a month before the next one, surely that was enough time to figure it out.

God, did he have anyone?

Charles clearly didn’t remember him, what about his sister? His mother? His friends?

Was he just.. a ghost?

What had happened?

And how the fuck was he meant to get things back to the way they were?

He couldn’t live like this. He knew that.

What was the point if he woke up to a cold bed, woke up to do nothing and then went back to bed?

He wanted Charles back.

He wanted his morning cuddles and secret make out sessions and careful words back.

His heart ached at the thought that he might never get that again.

He could never love anybody else after Charles, he was it for Max. They were meant to get married and retire and move away together in a house by the water somewhere with a zoo of animals.

He brushed his hand over his neck. He could feel the raised skin where the knife had grazed. It hadn’t cut him, not properly, it had just broken a couple of the top layers of skin, leaving it red and inflamed. It hurt, almost. It hurt more that Charles had been the one to do it.

His sweet, caring Charles who always looked out for him, and held him tight and treated him with such reverence Max hardly knew how he deserved it.

Maybe he didn’t.

Maybe, some omniscient force recognised that Max didn’t deserve the love and affection Charles presented him on a silver platter, and ripped him away. It must have been too overpowered for Max to even be able to do anything.

He felt cold, like the terror creeping through his veins had turned to ice and he would never be able to feel warm again.

He fought back the tears pressing at the corners of his eyes and hauled himself up to the closet.

He pulled out a hoodie. His favourite one.

Obnoxious red with a massive 16 on the back. It smelled distinctly of his favourite cologne.

He slipped it on and flopped back into his bed.

He was overwhelmed with the scent and feel of what should’ve been pure happiness, but was now beginning to feel like the worst mix of dread and despair.

He curled up tighter, not even bothering to go underneath the covers, even if it would’ve helped with the ceaseless shivers.

His breaths turned shattered, until they turned into soft sobs ripping their way past his lips.

He gripped his legs, digging his nails in under the vauge hope it would help ground him.

The crying never stopped, no matter how hard he tried to muffle it down.

His eyelids felt wet and heavy, his entire body felt weak and useless but he just couldn’t sleep.

He checked his clock, 02:14.

His mind was still restless, running on a mill that never slowed or stopped. It just kept fucking going.

By the time his body finally gave up and lulled him into a fitful sleep, it read 04:01

———

He startled awake as a loud bang resonated across his room. He jumped upright, propping himself up on the bed with his hands, especially as his head spun at the sudden change.

He looked to the doorway, a shadowy outline of a person with their hands pressed agaisnt the side of the doorframe.

It almost looked like-

“Charles?”

He seemed to deflate, and stepped closer.

Max flinched back, thinking for just a second that Charles had returned to finish what he started, until Charles, in a voice so utterly soft and breathless said, “Oh, Max.”

Max let out some strangled mix between a sob and a sigh of relief. Charles leapt forward onto the bed and pulled Max into his arms.

Max instantly reciprocated, wrapping his arms firmly around his torso and shoving his head into the warm crook between his neck and collar as he safely positioned himself on Charles’ lap.

Charles pressed frantic kisses along the top of his head, gripping him close protectively, like nothing else in the world mattered.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry mon cœur.” He whispered.

“I swear. I swear I don’t know what came over me. I love you, Max. I love you more than you even know, sweetheart.”

Max sniffled, pressing impossibly closer.

“I’m so so sorry, I’m so sorry, baby.”

Charles gently peeled Max away from him, eliciting an embarrassing whine.

He framed Max’s face with his hands, dropping kiss after kiss on porcelain skin.

His forehead, cheeks, nose, lips. Max surged back in desperately for a stronger, firmer kiss. Charles complied easily, moving a hand to card through his hair.

Eventually, he pulled away, to Max’s displeasure.

He titled Max’s head up, taking a squinted look at his neck.

Max heard his breath hitch and felt his hands begin to tremble as they pushed Max back into his body, curling his arms tighter around him.

“God- I. Max I’m so sorry. I swear- I promise, I-“ Charles stuttered. He sounded so genuinely distraught that it hurt Max too.

He also sounded frighteningly close to tears, and Max really didn’t want that.

“It’s okay, Charlie.” He said, his voice came out low and croaky.

“No it’s not. I hurt you. I threatened you. Fuck, Max. I had a knife to your throat. What part of that is okay?”

Max sat up and snuck his arms around Charles’ neck.

“No, Charlie. You saw an intruder break into your house and did what you could to get them out.” He said sternly. “I don’t know what happened yesterday. But nobody knew me. You couldn’t have done anything about that. That is exactly what I want you to do whenever someone breaks in.”

Charles looked miserable staring at him. Max smiled softly and kissed his forehead.

“The intruder isn’t meant to be you, baby. You came in with a key. That’s not intruding. And what if I had been worse? I don’t ever, ever want to hurt you. I want to keep you safe from everything, but I was the one putting you in danger.”

Max frowned.

“I’m okay, Charlie. You didn’t hurt me. I’ve done worse itching my neck.” He explained, his throat was begging him to stop talking but he had to keep going until he forced it through his boyfriend’s thick skull.

Charles huffed a little hysterically, “You’re eyes are raw and red, I came in and you were curled up on top of the duvet wearing my hoodie that you were clinging on to way too tightly. You have massive black circles under your eyes and a cut on your neck that I put there.”

Max loved him so much. But sometimes he was so stupid.

“Yes, well you’re here now, aren’t you? You can fix me up nice and quickly. You’re always the best at it.”

Charles perked up at that, not obviously but Max knew. He would always know.

“Yes, of course- I mean… Can I? Please?” He asked hopefully.

Max let out a wet laugh, “Yes, of course Schat. I finally get you back, obviously I want you to take care of me.”

Charles sighed in relief, pulling Max back in and flopping them both down into bed so they were lying down. He kicked the sheets down until he could flick them over the both of them, encasing them in warmth.

Max cuddled happily into him, dropping a trail of kisses across his neck.

“I think,” Charles whispered, “We start by getting some more sleep. Then I can make you a nice breakfast, and we can have breakfast in bed-“

“Charlie,” Max giggled, “You can’t even boil pasta properly. You’ll burn my apartment down if you try breakfast.”

Charles gasped dramatically, “Lies and slander, mon trésor. How dare you.” He grabbed Max’s waist and flipped them both over, so Max was underneath Charles, staring up at him as he sat up and straddled Max’s waist.

“You’ll pay for this, baby. I have no other option.” He monologued. “I’m going to have to torture you,” He bent down and pressed a flurry of kissed over Max’s face, coating every available surface until Max was laughing and writhing underneath him.

“Charles! Get your slobber off of me!” He shrieked, but Charles continued his attack with vigour.

“Have you had enough, sweetheart? Because I’m afraid we aren’t done yet!”

Max managed to get his arms free enough to cover his face from the onslaught and pushed back against Charles’ face.

“I surrender! I surrender!” He shouted, and Charles finally let up.

“Fine fine,” he drawled, “Just let me see your pretty face.”

Charles coaxed his arms away from his smiling face and dropped one more firm kiss onto his lips.

They grinned at each other, the previous day forgotten. Charles grabbed at Max’s waist again to spin them back over so Max could curl back into his chest again, exactly where he belonged.

“I love you, baby.” Charles sighed fondly.

“I love you too, Charlie.”

[riddlemearose]

hello i have come to ask more about wild with magic he cant controll

i love that hc so much and it fits him so well! like no one taught him bc hyrule was mostly empty, and he wouldnt even know he had it himself because why would he! its genius!

Sure, I’m happy to info-dump lmao.

I know other people have already come up with the "Wild has magic" headcanon about botw before, but for me it honestly started as a series of jokes with a friend. Basically it made sense to me since all the other Champions’ abilities are either outwardly shown to be magic like with Mipha and Urbosa, or at least implied to be, as in the case of Daruk’s magic being hereditary, and Revali’s being something no other Rito has managed to achieve.

So we were both like “oh yeah, he’s got to have magic” *cue shitposts and memes*

There’s minor evidence to support its existence in botw; Teba says to Wild “it was as if time stopped with every arrow you let fly”, and Daruk’s Training Journal mentions that Link once told him that it feels like time slows down when he focuses. Some people take this to mean Wild has really good reflexes and others went with magic. I’m in the ‘Wild has magic’ camp bc someone did the math and worked out he’s like… almost moving at super-sonic speeds when he closes the distance to start a flurry rush.

The reason I say he can’t really control it is bc the only time he’s ever shown being able to do so is to enter and exit bullet time. That’s literally it. If you dodge at the right moment, even if you don’t want to flurry rush, it’ll still trigger and give you the opening to perform one (which ends after like 1-2 seconds of inaction). Wild also doesn’t have a magic meter like some other Links do; he uses his stamina. He’s literally brute-forcing his way through his magic (which, side note, Urbosa must’ve hated watching). And, to build off that last sentence, this means that Wild probably doesn’t have a lot of magic, but he does recover it incredibly fast – especially compared to the others who have to use potions. More on this last part in a moment.

It’s true that no one was there to teach him per se, but I think it’s a tad more complicated than that bc botw has an odd thing where it shows a lot of magic users (at least as far as I understand when compared to other games) but doesn't go into detail, which is fair given the Calamity. This means we don't really have a concept of how prevalent magic usage is in the grand scheme of things.

Looking at the series in a whole, for hylians/humans magic is largely limited to the Royal Family (specifically the women of the Royal Family), and they seem to mostly wield light and divine magic, very different from time magic. (The Ocarina of Time is there, but that’s an heirloom and not severely limited with its function based on whether its user has royal blood or not.)

And given how the Sheikah have been treated in botw's Hyrule's history, as they are the only other hylians aside from Flora and Wild who are shown using magic, I'm guessing it's not a skill you want to encourage, and innate magic users, even if they weren't Sheikah, were probably affected by the roll-on effect of the genocide for a very long time. This would create a long, deep-set history of missing knowledge that eventually affects the present.

If you ignore the potential loss of magic teaching, honestly I would assume it’s still hard to teach someone magic when you don’t share that particular type bc it probably requires knowledge that you don't have in regards to how it flows and can be controlled in order to be used. I do very genuinely believe Wild knew that he had magic before he died tho, bc I think Urbosa would’ve told him. It was the only time she ever heard him speak and the convo went something like Urbosa: you have magic. You just did magic. Link: nuh-uh Urbosa: FYM NUH-UH

This lack of training and general knowledge of how magic works is what I partially attribute to his weapons breaking as fast as they do. Attunement doesn’t actually exist obviously, but in fantasy worlds where it’s a part of the magic system, it’s a conscious step. It’s only seems to become an involuntary one when the person attuning the item has a lot of experience with the field that item is used in.

What I mean by that is Wild’s obviously never learnt actual theory (and it might be too late to fix the groundwork he's already laid), so he’s only ever been able to make his magic work in conjunction with the one thing he’s already being trained to do: weapon-fighting.

This is why he has flurry rushes, bullet time, and his fast recharge time. His magic manifests alongside his physical capabilities (so it will recover just as fast as his stamina does) and is attuned to flow through physical objects that simply aren't designed to withstand prolonged exposure to it (so his weapons, bows and shields will degrade and break faster).

I do believe his magic is something he has the ability to train (take the change to how bullet time uses stamina between botw and totk for example), and I personally like to write him getting a one-hit-swing second of slowed down time whenever he parries, but I think these ‘upgrades’ would honestly just come from fighting more and pushing himself in those situations, not from learning basic magic principles lmao.

And honestly, Wild’s magic is just really funny to me bc it has shenanigan potential that’s really only limited by your own creativity and his stamina wheel.

I say that because part of this magic headcanon actually grew from a post-totk headcanon where I whole-heartedly believe that Wild and Flora end up sharing the Sage of Time title, since there’s one extra Secret Stone floating around and they both specialise in different types of time magic. The joke w/ my friend has now become “well, if Wild can’t even willingly activate his magic unless highly specific circumstances are met, wtf is going to happen when it's amplified?"

Answer: he has literally no idea what he’s doing. He has accidentally slowed time on several pots/ladles/plates/etc that got knocked over, mistakenly frozen a yiga sword which yanked it straight out of the yiga’s hand – he meant to freeze the yiga whoops – and intentionally managed to slow time on one (1) bokoblin (and has not managed to replicate that result since). … he’s getting there. Maybe.

(Additional follow up lore can be found in this reblog. Also adding this to prevent future confusion at my accidental vagueness on this: yes Wild knows he has magic.)

[luveline]

hiiii, I miss Eddie and Roan so much. Could you write something about them pleaseee? ❤️❤️❤️

eddie and roan try not to fall asleep while (almost stepmom) reader bakes a tray of brownies, 1.5k

Eddie can't sit on the couch, he lays down. He has ever since he can remember, and while he tried to be polite when he first moved in (unlike Roan, who made herself at home delightfully quickly), you're way past that now. 

"You look uncomfortable," you fret, tilting your head to the side as you look down on him in concern. "You want a pillow?" 

"I want you to lay down with me immediately," he says, making grabby hands at your stomach. 

You refuse him with a stunning, angelic, beatific smile, the kind that makes him think fuck I should marry her, before he remembers he's already going to. If there's one thing about Eddie Munson, it's that he wholeheartedly believes that you're the prettiest woman he's ever met. Maybe you started that way, maybe he loves you so much you've metamorphosed into an intoxicating creature of good looks, but whatever it is, he's obsessed with it. 

"Lie down with me," he demands. 

"I'm gonna make little brownies," you say, shaking your head, "but I know someone for the job." 

He's half expecting you to scoop Mr. Porterson out of his tank and hand him to Eddie in a cup, but you head upstairs to Roan's bedroom. He can hear your voice through the floor, and his daughter's answering gasp. She all but runs down the stairs, demarcated by you and Eddie shouting the same thing, "Don't run down the stairs, Ro!" 

She's huffing and puffing by the time she gets to the living room, rounding the couch to stand in front of Eddie. "Hello," she huffs. "You need a hug?" 

Eddie opens his arm and drags her in. He should say something cheesy and loving, like, don't I always? He's not a super serious guy, but it's been on his mind a little more often as the wedding approaches and Roan gets taller how lucky he is to have you both, and how things could be totally different. He never expected to be a dad and he honestly didn't want to be before he saw her little face.

Eddie remembers picking her up when she was still smaller than his arm, two inexperienced hands under her armpits raising her up because he realised he could. 

Her legs scrunched up toward her chest and he thought, oh, my god. And now she clambers on his chest and does her pill bug curl with her knees, reminding him so much of her baby scrunch and the way her head smelled. He drapes a gentle arm behind her and tries to pour every ounce of love he possesses into his touch as he pats her shoulder, a steady thump, thump, thump. 

"You smell nice," Roan accuses. 

"That's weird. Maybe check again." 

She sniffs him. "You smell yummy, like Y/N's shampoo." 

He may have ran out of body wash, and he may have used a dollop of your shampoo. He doesn't think it'll matter in the grand scheme of things and all you're sharing, but he puts his finger to his lips. "Shh," he whispers, "don't tell." 

"You said I'm not supposed to have secrets," Roan says. 

"You're not." Eddie draws a line down her back just to hear her giggle. "Except this one." 

"That's what you said about the last one." 

"This one and that one, then." Not like she managed to keep that one secret, either. What was he thinking, telling his five year old he wanted to propose? She lost her mind aloud. 

Then again, she spilled the beans and you immediately told Eddie he had to move in with you (he can't remember it perfectly now, but he's pretty sure you said, 'I think you better move in', which was just bossy enough to have him falling in love twice over). 

"I don't like secrets," Roan says.

Her voice strengthens as she gets older, and her pronunciation of things grows smoother. Occasionally she speaks and she sounds much older than she is. Currently, she talks with a funny cadence, emphasis on things that don't need it and, and an underlying sense of awe like she can't believe what she's saying. 

"Fine," Eddie says, pulling her closer still, "we won't keep this one secret. But if she shouts at me I'm going to have to sleep in your room tonight." 

"I'll sleep with Y/N." 

"No, because I'll need you to dry my tears." 

Roan nods into his chest, the faux silk of her sleeve shushing against his shirt as she brings a hand up to his hair. "Okie dokie," she says, twisting one of his curls around her fingers. "But don't cry." 

"I'll try not to, sweetheart." 

She smiles and relaxes fully into his arms. 

"Are you tired?" he asks. 

"Don't think so." 

"You've already got your jammies on. You don't want a bath tonight?" He's feeling affectionate for his life, adding, "Mommy has new bubble bath, it smells like chamomile. I'm sure she'd love to share with you." 

"Yeah?" 

"Mm-hmm." His eyes are getting heavy. Maybe he's tired. The thought of a bubble bath almost puts him to sleep. 

"Don't fall asleep," Roan whispers. 

"I'm not, Ro. Just resting my eyes. You don't have to stay and cuddle if you're busy." 

"I like you," she says. 

"I like you too." 

— 

Little brownies are the best thing ever. You make a very wet brownie batter and pour it thin in a big baking sheet. You barely cook them, and then when they're cooled and cut you freeze them, and when they defrost (at a time of your choosing) they're perfect for eating or putting into Roan's school lunchbox. You set the last tupperware of them into the freezer and wipe your cold hands on a dish towel, happy. 

It's a bit strange, but before you met your Munsons, you had no idea how peaceful it could feel to have done something for someone else. You weren't an overly selfish creature but there's this unnameable feeling that comes with doing this kind of 'chore'. Taking care of the people you love… 

Well, it feels good. Not as good as this is about to feel, you guess, turning off the kitchen light and locking the front door as you go. Eddie and Roan lay on the couch with the TV set to a loud volume. You'd assumed they'd both be awake, but it seems they've fallen asleep despite the odds. You're gonna languish in it with them just as soon as you can tetris your way into the pile.

Roan has crawled up the length of her dad's chest to press her cheek to his, and Eddie's wrapped his arms around her tightly, tucking her in with nowhere to turn. 

You can't fit into their cuddle pile without disturbing the peace, but you can't be expected to abstain, surely. 

You sink down onto the floor by Eddie's head, bringing your hand to his sleeping face. Careful, you stroke a twisted baby hair against his forehead, the dark kink of it like a thread through pale skin. 

Roan stirs, or wasn't as asleep as you thought. She yawns wide, lips smacking as she asks, "What are you doing?" 

You grin at her loud whisper. "Just looking. You okay?" 

"He's squeezing me." 

"Too much?" 

"No, I like it. I feel like a sardine." 

"Yeah?" You rest your upper body on the couch, her pyjama top satiny under your hand. "You like it? You're not claustrophobic?" 

She gives you a daunted look.

"It means squished, pretty much," you say.. 

"I like it," she reaffirms. Roan pulls her arm out of Eddie's grasp to touch yours. "Dad says I can have some bubble bath." 

"Of course you can, princess. You know you can have anything of mine." Except the top shelf stuff, but she can't reach that high. "I left you some brownies for ice cream." 

"You did?" 

"Yeah, I did." You meet her eyes, formidable baby browns that you never stood a chance against. Her cheek is warm as you lean in for a quick peck. "You're beautiful. I love you." 

Roan gasps happily. "You're beautiful-er!" 

"Thanks," Eddie mumbles, smirking as he starts to wake from his nap. 

"Time d'you call this, Eds?" you ask fondly. 

He turns his face one way and the other, agonised. "Oh, but I was so cozy! My girl is so soft and she's pretty much my blanket, and she was being so nice to me!" He sighs, a picture of distress, his voice croaky with the edge of sleep. "Can you ever forgive me?" 

"Sure!" Roan says, laughing. 

"Just this once." 

He squints at you. "This is pretty much your fault anyways." 

"You'll forgive me. Please?" He leans up for a kiss. "S'what I thought," you say into his lips.

You nudge him back and squeeze onto the couch. He has to go on his side for you to for and Roan ends up half on top of you, a knee jabbed into your stomach. Still, it's fine for now. Your quiet desire to be cuddled with them is abated, a strong arm behind your back and a much smaller hand sneaking inside your shirt sleeve to warm the attached, similarly small fingers. 

[maxdibert]

In my opinion, Albus Dumbledore is one of the most hypocritical and despicable characters in Harry Potter—if not the most. I find it outrageous that this old man dares to say he’s disgusted by Severus when he’s not all that different. My soul cringes at all the "greatness" surrounding him, and his whole "for the greater good" rhetoric feels like a cold shower, as if people have a moral obligation to die to save the world.

Severus, a mere pawn in the grand scheme of things, is disgusting because he joined the wrong side, but the great and kind Albus is a symbol of the resistance against evil—even though he was practically Grindelwald's right-hand man. This attitude of placing himself above someone like Severus is so infuriating.

Not to mention all the mental gymnastics he does, belittling and minimizing Severus’s trauma, making him seem crazy when he snapped in POA. Apparently, the past is only condemnable when it’s convenient.

My problem with Dumbledore goes way back, long before the whole thing with Severus even came into play. I already thought he was quite a self-righteous prick for claiming to care so much about people and then leaving Sirius Black to fend for himself. I mean, the whole situation with Sirius, Peter, and the Potters never sat right with me. Seriously, with all of them supposedly under his command—because he was the ultimate leader of the four—when Sirius is allegedly the culprit, Dumbledore just lets him go to Azkaban without even probing his mind to see what happened?

Having a supposed Voldemort ally, a double-agent serial killer, and you seriously don’t want to extract every piece of information from him? You’re not interested in investigating what really went down there? Or maybe he probably knew Sirius wasn’t a threat but didn’t care because he’d already achieved what he wanted: Voldemort out of the picture for a while and the kid being watched over at his aunt and uncle’s house. That initial question then evolved into: The kid at his aunt’s house protected by his dead mother’s spell while a double agent infiltrates the enemy ranks, willing to do anything for Dumbledore’s validation? (Once it became known about Lily’s spell and that Severus had been working for Dumbledore).

Even before I had the full picture, Dumbledore’s attitude toward Sirius smelled fishy. It seemed really off and totally incoherent for someone who supposedly cared about the people under his command. This feeling intensified for me in the fourth book and then really hit home in the fifth. Sirius is essentially the only emotional support Harry truly finds in an adult. Sure, Sirius is dysfunctional in himself, but Harry sees him as the father figure he never had, or at least that connection to his parents he so desperately needs. It’s canon that he needs to talk to him, even if it’s just to vent.

Doesn’t the kid matter to you enough to use your super-powerful, highly respected wizard influence to clear Sirius’s name so the kid can at least spend weekends with him in Hogsmeade? I mean, come on. I’ve seen many people try to justify this by saying, “If Sirius were available, Harry would have wanted to go live with him and leave the Dursleys, and Lily’s spell wouldn’t work,” but that’s pure bullshit. Just tell Sirius that what keeps Harry alive is being at his aunt’s house. Sirius is rich enough to buy a house in Privet Drive and be close to the kid so he wouldn’t have to leave. It’s not that complicated.

But this is something I thought of later with the last book. What really bothered me in the fourth was: why wasn’t Dumbledore doing anything? Why, in the fifth book, does he have a guy who’s clearly a walking time bomb locked up in his childhood home? Just waiting for him to finally explode? Honestly, when I read the fifth book, I thought maybe Dumbledore put Sirius there and set all those restrictions because he knew him well enough to know he’d eventually snap and do something reckless, and Dumbledore could just wash his hands of it. Even before all the truth came out, before the seventh book, Dumbledore already disgusted me. With everything in hindsight, not only does my nearly two-decade-old theory still make sense, but I firmly believe it’s true. I think Sirius Black annoyed Dumbledore, not only because of how he could influence Harry but because he was a disruptive element. He was a soldier who didn’t blindly follow orders, someone explosive, with an uncontrollable temperament, whose leitmotif had always been opposing authority. I think Dumbledore knew that Sirius probably only stayed somewhat stable in the Order because of James, and once James was out of the picture, there was no one to handle him. So, indeed, he became a nuisance. He could do without him. Sirius wasn’t useful because he was too temperamental and impulsive for espionage or information gathering. He wasn’t helpful offensively because he systematically questioned authority and wouldn’t follow Dumbledore’s orders unless he had a good reason. So, Dumbledore let him remain a fugitive and then locked him up in his childhood home, which was essentially his greatest trauma, and left him there to drink himself into misery until he couldn’t take it anymore, snapped, did something stupid, and ended up dead.

But not only that, Dumbledore’s attitude toward his students always annoyed me. I’ve always hated favoritism because I was raised that way. My mother was a teacher at the school I attended until I was about 12, and I never got any special treatment. She was literally tougher on me than on anyone else. As a kid, I could never understand why Dumbledore showed so much favoritism toward Gryffindors. I could kind of get that Slytherins were the “bad guys” and blah blah blah, but there were two other houses he completely ignored. Over time, and with maturity, this feeling only grew stronger.

When I read the sixth book, I was genuinely outraged because the guy condemned Tom Riddle when he was just a kid. Like, ??? How is it possible to make those judgments when they’re just children? I also thought it was absurd that he told Draco not to do it. I mean, after six years of totally ignoring him because to you, he’s just a Slytherin son of purists doomed to darkness, you tell him not to follow the orders of the maniac threatening his family?? Don’t you think if you’d done your job as a teacher and stepped in earlier to make the kid question what his parents were telling him, maybe he wouldn’t have ended up in this situation? Don’t you realize you abandoned and ostracized an ENTIRE HOUSE FULL OF KIDS highly susceptible to supremacist ideas, didn’t give a damn, and now you’re surprised when decades of negligence result in those kids choosing the wrong path? Don’t you understand that the alternative to following Voldemort is following you, and the only thing they know about you is that you either ignore them or constantly favor their rivals? Like, WHAT THE HELL DID YOU EXPECT?

And then there’s the Severus issue. Some people say Dumbledore was the only one who understood Severus. Yeah, sure, he understood him all right. He understood him well enough to use all his traumas against him, manipulate him, and turn him into a weapon. Some people also say Dumbledore was like a father figure to him. I don’t doubt that Severus might have seen him that way, as a positive paternal figure (finally, after his father and Voldemort) whom he wanted to please because he felt that if Dumbledore validated him, it meant he was becoming a better person and redeeming himself—maybe in a way similar to how he saw Lily as someone through whom to measure the right direction. But this wasn’t reciprocal. Dumbledore didn’t give a damn. Dumbledore saw Severus the same way he saw Harry: as a weapon. He realized Severus was an unstable, scared boy with a massive load of guilt, and being fully aware of the power of guilt from his own experience, he decided to exploit it. He knew Severus was talented, knew he could become even more so, so he locked him in a gilded cage: left him at Hogwarts, which had never been a home to him but a torment, kept him closely monitored, and used his skills whenever he wanted.

Dumbledore is the perfect kind of person to be a general in a war. Honestly, he’s amazing at it. He understands that soldiers are weapons and must be prepared to die for the greater cause. He understands that wars have casualties and that’s okay as long as those casualties help move closer to victory. He understands that sacrifices must be made and that if those sacrifices bring us closer to the goal, that’s fine. He gets that disruptive or dissonant elements that could jeopardize his plans need to be eliminated. He perfectly combines Machiavelli’s style with Sun Tzu’s: make your soldiers see you not as a superior but as a father.

He earns absolute devotion by embodying this fatherly figure that inspires trust, but deep down, his mind is a tangle of plans. His goal is to defeat Voldemort (who, by the way, is also a product of his own negligence, because if he hadn’t been such a crappy teacher, maybe he would’ve noticed the red flags and stopped Riddle earlier, but okay). If defeating Voldemort means a bunch of teenagers have to die, another kid ends up in prison, a child has to sacrifice his life, or the people around him are manipulated, so be it.

I understand this philosophy—it’s very military—but I don’t agree with it because I hate that kind of mentality. I could respect it if it weren’t for the fact that Dumbledore, on top of it all, is so moralistic. The guy who should be the last to pass judgment on others’ decisions, who should keep his damn mouth shut, is constantly moralizing, being condescending, and posing as the champion of morality and the compass of good and evil. Honestly, I would have slapped him in the face, I swear. What a jerk. So many messed-up people, all because he was a narcissistic prick. Screw him.

[thefandomenchantress]

General Thoughts About Eden's Garden

I have, at long last, finished chapter one of Eden's Garden. And I really liked it! While it wasn't perfect, I still really enjoyed playing it and am very glad I got to experience it. Since I wasn't around for the Another fangames, this is the first time I've been able to keep up with a project like this as it's coming out, and it's been really cool.

So, without further ado, let's get started! Project Eden's Garden spoilers below. :)

I'll start with my criticisms, since I don't have a lot of them. Honestly, my biggest complaint has to be the technical issues I faced while trying to play this game instead of watching it. But I'm not going to sit here and pretend making a game is easy by any means, so I don't really hold that against the game, even if it was frustrating.

Plus, I'm an idiot. I sat for like half an hour trying to figure out the Non-Stop debate controls and thinking my WASD thingy was malfunctioning and not letting me switch truth bullets, when there was only one truth bullet I was allowed to use at the time. I was just being stupid and not catching on when it only showed me one truth bullet in the corner, haha. The repeated crashing of my game, however, wasn't my fault. But I was able to get my hands on a work-in-progress low-spec version of the game that stopped most of the crashing and stuff! After that, most issues went away, except for after the trial ended and the after-trial dialog wouldn't pop up, leaving me on a black screen even after a restarted my computer and tried a few more times. But I'm not too unhappy about that, it's not like I was missing any riveting gameplay sections, haha. I could just watch the YouTube version of the execution and stuff.

Other than those technical difficulties on my end, there are only a few actual problems I had with the gameplay, haha. The first being that I am terrible at bullet hell-styled gameplay, apparently, and Argument Altercation kicked my ass in normal mode. I really wish there was a way to switch your difficulty on that, or maybe checkpoints, because after about thirty or more tries of not being able to get past stage three, I gave up and ended up just getting my hands on a save file from after the minigame. I may love videogames, but that does not mean I'm good at them, haha.

As for the actual writing, I don't have too many complaints...I suppose if I had to say something, though, it'd be that some of the characters felt like they didn't have enough to do this chapter. Ulysses is probably the main one I felt this applied to, even if I love him, he didn't give us too much this chapter, other than a lore drop during the pharmacy investigation (His limited screentime didn't stop me from growing attached to him, though haha). Other characters, despite getting a little more screentime, felt like they didn't really develop at all in the grand scheme of things. But I don't want to focus in on this too much, since it's only chapter one and most characters usually don't start having any big changes until a murder occurs. And the disproportional screentime may just be the writing style of Eden's Garden being that they focus on a certain group of characters each chapter, when they have the most relevance. Wenona, for example, feels like she's being set up to be a larger player down the line, even if she wasn't a super major character this chapter.

There was a lot more I liked about the chapter than disliked, though! All the characters really grew on me, for the most part. Well...Almost everyone. There is one character who I'm kinda meh on right now, since I'm not quite sure what they're going for yet. He's entertaining, I like him fine, but he's not quite on the same level as everyone else. And that character is:

Jett.

Honestly, I think the main reason I'm having trouble is just how he treats Toshiko.

Jett, why are you picking on a literal child??? What are you doing??? This wouldn't bother me if I knew an explanation for it that gives cool insight into his character, but as is I'm just kinda annoyed at him for it. Then again, I haven't bothered to experience any of his FTEs yet, so it's possible he gives some sort of explanation for his child-belittling ways there, haha.

The Mark and Jett thing was fine, I'm liking the set-up there. I think the only difference that makes me like the Jett and Mark stuff over the Jett and Toshiko stuff is that Damon actually calls Jett out for not respecting Mark's boundaries, meanwhile no one really reprimands him for belittling Toshiko because of her age. When he shares her blackmail, no one says "Hey, man, that wasn't very cool of you." They just shrug Toshiko's blackmail off and say no one should share anything else. Wolfgang even calls her blackmail a "joke". No wonder Toshiko is so desperate to be respected, everyone but Ingrid is so rude to her (I can forgive Grace, though, because the gremlin bit was the funniest thing in the prologue to me).

Of course, if they end up calling out his behavior towards her later, as well as everyone else's, I'll be happy and probably end up liking him more. His whole never taking off his helmet thing is pretty cool, I'm interested to see where that goes and to see any character development he has. And him and Cassidy's little friendship being established through gaming was fun.

...Writing all this out actually made me appreciate Jett a little more, since I don't think I would be able to say this much about some of the other characters...I mean if I felt something other than passive enjoyment maybe they’re doing something right…

Oh, right, there were other characters this chapter. Let's get onto them!

Damon was just as entertaining as last time, I'm excited to see what happens next with him. Him letting Diana defend herself made it seem like he was going to be more empathic to others and improve, but Eva betraying him might mean he starts trusting the others even less than before.

In daily life, Eva...Might've been my favorite. Don't get me wrong, Kai is still my favorite character overall, but I loved Eva in daily life so much. Her "Bweh..." and "Raaaage..." voicelines are some of my favorites in any fangan and I'm happy I experienced all her FTEs. I loved her in daily life, deadly life was...Still fine and good, the execution was super well-animated and cool. But her being the culprit did sort of undercut my enjoyment a little, since it sort of calls into question the truthfulness of certain aspects of her character that made me like her. Still really cool, though.

Kai was great. I'm going to make a post dedicated to him later, where I'm sure I'll ramble on and on for a while, so for now I'll keep it brief. He was just as funny as last time, surprisingly helpful in the class trial, his large amount of screentime was a pleasant surprise to me, I'm super excited to see if he'll be the new support, and his FTEs were really cool. I'm super hyped to ramble about everything concerning him later.

Ulysses, despite his limited screentime, managed to be pretty charming this time around. Him already telling backstory stuff to us makes me a little worried for if he'll die soon, but oh well. Him literally saying "um, actually" when he starts his objection was great. Toshiko calling him ugly in...the Prologue, I think(?), was blatantly incorrect because I really like his design. There's something about his color scheme that I enjoy, idk. Plus, owls are my favorite animal, so I was pretty much guaranteed to like his theming.

Diana being heavily suspected by the fanbase and then being suspected in-universe in the trial was cool, the whole "choose the culprit" minigame legitimately tricked me into thinking it was her for a hot minute...Until I remembered how much unused evidence we had, haha. Excited to see where she goes from here.

Wolfgang...Damn those sprites in the Diana flashback were cool. I should definitely check out his FTEs to get a little more context, but wow. While I'm not surprised he was the chapter one victim, I'm a little disappointed we'll never hear more from him.

Grace was great, her demeanor is kinda similar to another favorite character of mine, so I've become pretty endeared to her. I'm interested in seeing where the bunny symbolism goes, and how she'll react to Wolfgang being gone. She had no FTEs (her actually responding when I tried to enter her dorm (I was doing an experiment to see if I could enter anyone but Kai's and Damon's) jumpscared me haha), so I'm guessing she'll live a bit longer and receive some character development! Yay!

Wenona was fun, her attitude was as entertaining as ever. She's probably one of the characters I most want to go do the FTEs of, I'm interested to hear more about her.

Desmond and Eloise's friendship was fun, the scene where they try to get Grace to let them in Wolfgang's room was definitely the highlight of both their characters for me this chapter. Eloise standing up for herself during the confrontation and Desmond backing her up without hesitation was awesome. Can't wait to see their friendship expanded on (And Desmond being angsty during the closing argument was hilarious).

Toshiko and Jett already had most of my thoughts laid out above. Jett I've mostly finished describing, but I did like Ingrid and Toshiko's friendship this chapter. Toshiko's whole pretending-she's-totally-not-freaking-out-and-being-actively-traumatized thing was good, I liked how she was desperate to sound smart in the trials, it fits her character.

Mark was a little ruder than I thought he'd be going in, but I'm not complaining. While I don't think anything topped "Grace, call the fire brigade" this chapter, some things got pretty close, like his annoyed facial expression when you agree with him. Him not wanting to be acknowledged at all at the gaming tournament was interesting, I'm excited to see where they take his character.

Ingrid...Was fine. I'll be honest, I was a little disappointed at how my view of her failed to change at all this chapter. Even her blackmail was something we learned in the Prologue already. Still, I can appreciate her. Even if she didn't change much this chapter, I still like what she is right now. She's all-around pretty cool, and I like how she makes sure to defend Toshiko, unlike some characters I know. /j

(Her being called "reliable" made me immediately feel like she might not last long, though... :()

Jean is pretty interesting to me so far, Cassidy suggesting that he might just be posing as a 'pirate' was intriguing. Him saying there was an arcade on his ship made me think of a crack theory that he worked at a Chuckie Cheese type place, but instead of there being a strange mouse, you could hang around at his prop ship and take pictures with him and his "crewmates" (Co-workers or employees) in costume, with an arcade and snack bar nearby...His knowledge of machinery stuff is also cool. I should check out his FTEs.

Cassidy's whole gaming gimmick is cool, and I like her, but I think if I'm being honest, her fun design and awesome voice actor kinda carry her for me. I don't think she'd be one of my favorites to hear speak otherwise. Some of her voicelines are just hilarious by themselves, too, though ("I better zip up my fly, my genius is showing" was my favorite, like what the fuck that is so random and funny and she only uses it once). She's a character who I don't think I'd find nearly as funny if the vocal delivery wasn't as on point as it is, but seeing as it's totally awesome and on point I have nothing to complain about she’s really cool haha.

And those are all my general thoughts on each of the characters. Now onto a few individual moments I really liked!

I replayed the Prologue before playing through chapter 1, and something really cool I noticed was that when they're on the train, this happens after Cassidy says she smells something weird:

I thought it was really cool how they subtly foreshadowed his lack of a sense of smell like that! The devs really thought his character through from the beginning, I suppose.

But moving on to chapter 1, specifically the trial. One detail I really liked was this:

“Near the boiler room door, I discovered a thin piece of metal.”

“During the investigation, there was a strange smell permeating the boiler room. It took me a moment to notice, but when I did…”

Damon takes credit for both the scrap metal and the smell.

This happens very directly with the metal, where he says that he discovered it. While he does admit he didn't think the metal was important before, what he fails to do is give credit to Ulysses for pointing it out to him, since Damon didn't notice it until Ulysses did. And when Ulysses did notice it, Damon berated him for even writing it down. And yet now here he is, pretending that he took note of the piece of metal all by himself.

He also takes credit for finding the smell, albeit slightly less directly. But he still makes it sound like he noticed it by himself, when Jean was the one who had to directly point it out to him. And even then, Damon could only smell the generator at first, and Jean had to further explain what he meant. And Damon pretty much plagiarizes his description of the smell without crediting him, too. You’d think a debater would know how to cite their sources correctly, haha.

So long story short, Damon fails to mention that he got help investigating from both Ulysses and Jean. I find that interesting because even though Damon says he can only rely on himself right before this trial starts, he is actively ignoring that he is only able to steer the trial in the right direction at certain points because of the help he received from others. The game is both proving his point about him only relying on himself (+Eva this trial) wrong, while also letting the player further see his mindset. Pretty cool. (Though I’d honestly be kinda pissed if I was Ulysses haha).

I also really liked Eva this chapter. Legitimately the first chapter death I've been most sad about in any Fangan. Usually I see the fake-out support thing coming a mile away, since it's such a common thing in fangans, but they genuinely fooled me with Eva. I really got attached to her and I'm sad to see her go.

I still haven't really fully processed her character, but what I do know is that she's really cool and relatable and her voice actor is very talented. Her design is amazing. Her sense of humor is immaculate. Overall, amazing character I was devastated to see go.

One cool detail I noticed, in order to commemorate my love for her:

After avoiding Grace, which Damon theorizes was because she didn't want her talent mocked, she investigates the Dining Hall people. And yet, even though she mentions Jett and Mark being unhelpful, she says nothing about Kai.

This could be shrugged off by the fact Kai said something helpful about the footsteps when Damon approached, but since Kai says this info like he hasn't shared it with anyone else, I don't think that's the case. Instead, I think this confirms Damon's suspicion that she is avoiding those who mocked her real talent, since Kai is definitely a jerk about it to her face on at least two occasions. She legitimately just didn't speak with him. That really hits home just how uncomfortable Eva was with a lot of the people in the killing game.

(I'll talk more about this in the Kai post, but Eva not mentioning Kai when you enter the dining hall, and Desmond also not mentioning where he went before that, made me actually start worrying that we were gonna find a second body haha, that's why I noticed this).

Lastly, I'd just like to say:

Even Desmond and Eloise being like "dude no stfu" at Diana in this CG was hilarious and I love it.

[honeyhivess]

i can't help falling in love with you <3

first 3 overblot boys falling in love with gender neutral reader

tags: cursing, might be ooc i am new to writing them

riddle rosehearts <3

riddle would only be open to dating someone after his overblot, he's such a stickler for the rules and didn't allow himself to truly let go and have fun until after the blot incident

he would be really scared to get into a relationship because of his parents, mostly his mom

he didn't want to get older and become his mother and treat his significant other like she treated him

you would probably have to be really close to him for him to start liking you tbh

the realization honestly hits him in the middle of the night

after doing his nightly routine he got into bed and relaxed, thinking over the unbirthday party that happened that night

adeuce had invited you to attend since you helped paint the roses, and since riddle had a bit of a soft spot for you by now he happily allowed it

you had a chair on one of the long sides of the table, closest to his chair at the head

late in the night his mind kept replaying you laughing at one of trey's bad jokes

oh shit.

riddle would be eyes open, staring at the wall in realization

the warmth he felt in his chest remembering your bright smile that day had him pleasantly overwhelmed

he never had the chance to crush on anyone else before since his mom so heavily sheltered him

this feeling came to him unknown and he was confused

he had a hard time falling asleep that night, and the next morning he immediately rushed to trey

after being teased a bit and prodded a bit more he realized he liked you

which, scared him

a couple days after he found out just what those feelings meant, he would have a hard time facing you

he didn't know what to do with this newfound information

you would have to confront him and make him tell you why he was borderline avoiding you

his face is RED red

he wouldn't stutter and would still kinda talk normally, but it would be more rushed

"Prefect... I've had the realization that I, really like you... If you would indulge me, I would love to take you out sometime...?"

leona kingscholar <3

...eh

lions normally have a pride of females, so leona is kinda used to flirting and romance

however, he is the bastard second born, so he isn't used to being the center of attention

when he met you, he saw an opportunity to have the chance at romancing someone without his brother looming over his shoulder

you hadn't even HEARD of his brother, which meant you couldn't even really pick falena over him

this excited leona a lot, so he got really territorial over you really fast

he would also put quite a bit of effort into wooing you, well, more than normal

he really tries to make himself just generally more appealing

he's nicer when you're around and started taking care of himself a bit more

it's a subtle change to you, but he gets DESTROYED by ruggie

when he initially realized he liked you he didn't have any big reaction

he's been through a couple relationships prior to you so it's not really anything new to him

you will start being dragged into his schemes more

also known as i really hope you like napping because you're about to get crushed

he drags you into his naps a lot, and he lays directly on top of you

you will not escape.

also he starts giving you a lot of things, gifts, food, clothing

he's not a hopeless romantic so don't really expect any super grand gestures

he also doesn't really confess? he kinda just asks you out

confessing is lame to him, it's juvenile

"Ay, herbivore? You free this saturday? You better be, I need a date to this dumb restaurant."

azul ashengrotto <3

motherfucker is NOT confessing first

i really hate to break it to you, but after his childhood, he does not have the confidence for that

now, azul may not confess, but he will flirt

...badly...

when he realized he kinda panicked and was immediately overwhelmed with worst case scenarios

he does not think you would ever like him, when he was younger he tried confessing to someone and got laughed at

so that kinda crushed him

jade and floyd would not be told, but they would notice very quickly

azul gets flustered when you're around and you get offered discounts occasionally

at first they thought azul wanted something materialistic from you

no he just wants your hand in marriage

they immediately become his wingmen, but

they are kinda the world's worst wingmen

jade is actually pretty good at highlighting azuls charms and good traits, but he also loves embarrassing azul in front of you

floyd is, floyd

he's a bit louder and much less subtle

and when combined they just start embarrassing azul, the poor octo-mer is dying

now, if you start hinting towards liking azul back, it is on

he immediately goes back into his smooth personality and he will start flirting with you

it starts of subtle, but it will become more apparent as time goes on

if you're really lucky and catch him on a good day, he'll ask you out

he'll invite you to monstro lounge, no one else will be there and you will be treated like royalty

jade would be the one serving you and floyd would be watching very intently from the kitchen

everything is on the house, just for you

"Have whatever you'd like, Prefect. This is all but a little taste of what more is to come."

a/n: i had so much fun writing azuls, i love octavinelle so much asdfghjk

[turtleblogatlast]

Thinking about the Don Suave scene and what it means in terms of LGBTQ+ representation because my brain does nothing if not torment me with random topics to ramble about on the regular.

Anyway, I just wanted to ramble about why I like the scene but to get it out of the way - the scene can very easily be interpreted in so many different ways, and all of them are valid. I personally see it as Leo having at least some attraction to a man. And the following is an explanation of my own interpretation and thoughts on it and what it means especially for Leo’s portrayal in the grand scheme of things.

Long-winded interpretation under the cut!

Now, to start with, it’s important to me that in the scene Leo looks at Don Suave in the very beginning and then for the entirety of the rest of the time the man is on screen, Leo’s eyes are closed. Yet, in the end, he is still visibly enamored with Don Suave, happily cuddling up to him as he’s being carried away.

You can very easily interpret this as Leo being spellbound and that’s honestly super valid and I believe he likely was at least somewhat in the beginning, but considering how fast he looked away and how he never looked again, I personally think it makes more sense to read it as Leo just finding the man attractive, at least somewhat. (For the record, I personally headcanon Rise Leo as bisexual with a heavy preference for men, but I want to be blunt when I say that any interpretation is valid. Literally any. Ace, pan, gay, bi, none of the above or a mixture of something new literally all of it is more than okay and fair. Hell you could even interpret this entire scene as more romantic attraction than physical and it would still work. Anything goes!! Don’t bother people, guys, really.)

The main reason I take this scene to be at the very least LGBTQ+ adjacent isn’t just because of how it’s portrayed, but because of who Leonardo is. Not in terms of Rise of the TMNT, but in terms of the entire Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles™️ franchise.

Leo’s a character who, while changing with each iteration, has still at his core been around for decades upon decades as “the blue one”. One fourth of the team. He’s the one most are going to look at as the Leader, and oftentimes he is the one closest to having the title of Main Character. Not to say the others aren’t just as important, but Leo’s presence in the A plots of basically all TMNT media is often something very main character-esque.

And that’s very, very important to note. Here we have a Main Character of a prolific and decades long-running franchise distributed by a children’s television network. You can play around with his and his brothers’ characters all you like, but there is always going to be challenges to dodge around, especially since this was still in 2018-2019.

For example, you can play around with their designs so long as they’re color coded turtles, but their sexualities? Now that’s tricky.

“But what about Hypno and Warren?” Not main characters and also they’re Rise originals. They have a lot more room to play around with than a character like Leo does. But even talking about main characters in the franchise, you could arguably have an easier time playing around with Donnie or Mikey’s sexualities than Leo or even Raph, as (unfortunately) the former two tend to get more B plots, so they’d likely have had a little more leeway (still not a lot though.)

So, where does this leave us?

It leaves us in a place where outright stating and/or showing undeniable proof of Leo’s attraction to men is very, very difficult. So, workarounds!

Workarounds like the entire Don Suave situation.

To be honest, as left up to interpretation and lowkey and deniable as it is, this whole scene means a lot to me because of who Leo is as a character. It’s just nice when we get so see even the bare bones of representation with characters that have been such a large part of pop culture for decades, y’know? Even if more would be so much nicer, this is better than I thought we’d ever get for these boys.

And, again, literally nothing I’ve said is the only way to interpret it, I’m more than happy when people interpret media on their own honestly, it’s just something I’ve been thinking of lately and I was wondering if others felt the same way.

Whatever you think when you interpret this scene or Rise Leo as a whole, I just thought this would be interesting to think about, even if it was ramble-y, haha.

[razorblade180]

Petty Bet

Mualani and Aether: *eating together*

Paimon:…..Are yall gonna kiss or what?

Aether:*chokes aggressively*

Mualani:W-What!? Where did that come from?

Paimon:You’re always hanging out. Everyone is thinking it. All are watching with interest.

Aether:No, you’re just a busybody. What, you make a bet or something with my relationships?

Paimon:….*averts eyes*

Aether:You’re betting on me!?

Paimon:Maybe! Who could say!?

Mualani:Haha, that explains the intense approach. Who the heck are you betting w- it’s Ajaw, isn’t it?

Paimon:He needs to know failure! To be humbled!

Aether:What was the bet?

Paimon:He said “despite the mediocrity of my lowly servant, the blonde would easily fall victim to Kinich before some chatty Beach Bum” and Paimon thought that was stupid and said “Aether’s been falling for Mualani faster than a rushing tide. If he’s wants to be with anyone it’s clearly someone as likable as her!”

Aether:Now why would you repeat that last part?

Mualani:I’ve been giving you nonstop surfing lessons every chance we get when you ask.

Aether:Because it’s fun! We’re having fun!

Mualani:Also , “chatty beach bum?” I might have to tell Kinich about that one.

Paimon:Oh yeah, losing means Paimon has to “bow celebrate his glory as a faithful servant.”

Mualani:And if he loses?

Paimon:He gets locked up for a week.

Mualani:Aether, I think it would be incredibly irresponsible of you to not kiss me.

Aether:You are shockingly petty.

Mualani:It’s Ajaw! Nobody wants a world where he’s winning. A week of us hanging out with Kinich and Kachina in peace.

Paimon:Why are you pretending you don’t literally fall in love with a land and its people in every nation.

Aether:*holds Sandshrew* For your information, I’m trying to set a good example my child and take matters slow like the responsible adult I am.

Sandshrew: Rawr!

Aether:See? They agree.

Paimon:You flirted your way out of court case against in Fontaine.

Mualani:That’s impressive.

Aether:Thank you. I surprised myself.

Paimon:You’re not even denying it!

Mualani:Admittedly, my pride would be ever so slightly bruised if Ajaw did win that bet. In the grand scheme of it all however, it doesn’t really matter considering I’m dating Kinich.

Paimon:WHAT!?

Mualani:Yeah I’m not surprised Ajaw didn’t mention that part. Kinich actually made the first move. I was super surprised. That’s probably why Ajaw was so confident you’d lose.

Paimon:That little- of course he’d play dirty.

Aether:And what are you doing right now?

Paimon:Irrelevant.

Mualani:Don’t be too hard on her. To be fair, Kinich and I are just as competitive in our own way. Like how we plan fun one on one activities with you. And don’t pretend you don’t know we’re flirting; otherwise you wouldn’t have felt the need to explain your lifestyle. You totally like the attention.

Aether:*red* It doesn’t happen often. I feel a little special is all.

Mualani:And there’s nothing wrong with that. I honestly like just hanging out. I’d do it regardless if you’re interested in me or not.

Paimon:You’re totally is type. It’s actually embarrassing.

Aether:I’m gonna grill you.

Paimon:What!? We both agree Mualani and Kachina definitely should get the chance to meet Amber and Collei. They’d be the bestest friends. Especially Amber and Mualani.

Mualani:Oh? Now I’m interested. She sounds like quite the individual.

Aether:Hehe, yeah she’s incredible.

Meanwhile….

A burning stove

Amber:….

Eula:I didn’t think buring water was possible. *freezes stove*

Amber:What can I say? I’m full of surprises. *lowers head* Let’s just order breakfast today.

xxxxxx

Mualani:Well the way I see things, you have options that all lead to fine outcomes. If you’re not interested in either of us that’s perfectly okay. If you aren’t attracted to me that’s alright. I know I’m a lot.

Paimon: (I see he hasn’t gotten to his Fontaine stories yet…)

Mualani:However, if you do happen to be interested, then I have it on good authority that leaning forward right now wouldn’t be embarrassing at all. *smirks*

Paimon:I’ll cover Sandshrew’s eyes.

Aether:How the heck did I end up becoming the equivalent of a bounty?

Paimon and Mualani: You’re a catch.

Sandshrew: Rawr!

Aether:….

xxxxxx

Paimon:Hello Kinich! *side eyes* Ajaw…

Kinich:Mind your tone, anemic bloaty floaty. Soon you will be bowing in reverence to the mighty-

Paimon pulls out a photo she took of Aether and Mualani from a distance, creating the assumption that she did it in secret. It was the two of them sharing a gentle and whimsical kiss by the water with their meal.

Ajaw:WHAT!? IMPOSSIBLE!

Paimon:Oh it’s very possible. You’re looking right at it. They’re dating and you’ve lost.

Kinich:Well I guess that’s that. *stands up* It was one week, correct?

Ajaw:Don’t you dare! This thing cheated! It had to!!

Kinich:You know what they say. “You play stupid games…”

Paimon: “You get stupid prizes.”

Kinich:Time to honor your reward for losing.

Ajaw:I swear to the heavens themself if you dare- *banished*

Kinich:Realistically I’m probably going to need him after for four days to do something.

Paimon:Every second will be cherished. Also, you’ve been invited to go camping and to a dinner.

Kinich:Heh, I suspected as much. *smiles* I really can’t keep with all you sometimes.

[fairytales-and-folklore]

Botched Plots and Ruses

The Owl House » Huntlow

Title: Botched Plots and Ruses

Author: fairytalesandfolklore

Fandom: The Owl House (Masterlist)

Relationship: Hunter | The Golden Guard x Willow Park

AO3 Rating: Teen & Up (a complete collection of author's notes, inspiration credits, content warnings and tags can be found on AO3)

Summary: Boscha's scheme to embarrass Willow in front of her crush backfires spectacularly when she finds out they're already dating.

"I know, right? So embarrassing," Boscha forces out a laugh. "Surely you've noticed the way she looks at you. I mean, it's so obvious she's like, super into you." "Well…" Hunter says, turning to face her with a bright smile, almost smitten, gaze softening to a spot just above her shoulder, and for a moment, Boscha thinks he's reconsidered, that she's about to break up an annoying friend group and snag herself a trophy boyfriend all in one fell swoop, when—  "I mean, I'd sure fucking hope so, considering she's my girlfriend." A moment later, none other than Half-A-Witch Willow herself walks up behind her, brushing past Boscha like she's not even there, wrapping her arms around Hunter's neck and greeting him with a kiss that surely shouldn't be allowed on school property.

Read On AO3 | Read On Tumblr:

It's a few weeks into the new semester at Hexside and Boscha is pissed. Everything is completely messed up. Not just in terms of like, the whole of the Isles getting overtaken by the Collector — that's whatever, it's all been resolved and no one's a puppet anymore and all the major damage is being reconstructed. 

No, we're talking about high school hierarchy, which is like, way more important in the grand scheme of things. Not only is Boscha no longer president of the school, she doesn't hold any of the same ranking she did before. 

Everyone keeps praising her ex best friend and the human and stupid half-a-witch and the golden boy and the illusion kid, all because they saved the Isles or whatever. 

And with all the repairs needed to fix up the school, they had to temporarily cut funding, so now the flyer derby team is getting more attention than grudgby. (So what if she's the only player left on the team? That doesn't mean half-a-witch's stupid sport with its stupid full team complete with competing alternates should get more focus.)

In short: Boscha is pissed and wants revenge.

She's been watching them for weeks now, waiting for her moment to strike. It hasn't escaped her notice how smitten half-a-witch acts whenever she's around the former Golden Guard. Pathetic. What a loser. Surely a big, embarrassing unrequited crush would put cracks into the foundation of their stupid little close-knit group.

Maybe she could even take it a step further, steal the Golden Guard for herself. He's not exactly her type (she's more into witches with green or purple hair, soft golden eyes, an affinity for abomination magic, and— anyway) but he's not exactly awful to look at. She's seen the way some of the other students look at him, hoping to catch his eye. Arm candy like that is sure to get her status back, all eyes on her.

One Friday afternoon in late autumn, Boscha finally makes her move. The two of them share the last class of the day — History Of Magic 303 — and he always sits front row center with a big, dopey smile on his face a few seats ahead of her (pfft, overeager nerd — but whatever, nerds have their uses, maybe she can get him to do her homework for her whenever she doesn't feel like it.)

She waits until the last five minutes of class before passing her note (sealed with cursed wax so if anyone but him opens it, they'll be jinxed with a dozen never-healing paper cuts) up the row to him. She thought about putting his name on the front of it, but she…honestly can't remember what it is at the moment? (Gunther? Harvey? …William? Whatever.) and instead, simply settles on calling him—

hey, golden guard

me, you, dinner and a movie tonight

pick me up at 7 and I'll let you pay

xoxo Boscha

Boscha watches with a triumphant smirk as he curiously eyes the wax-sealed letter, tears it open with a quick slide of his finger, reads it, and—

The bell screams, signaling the end of the school day. Hunter stares down at the letter with an incredulous look in his eyes, wrinkles his nose, crumples it in his fist, and drops it into the trash bin on his way out of class.

Boscha's mouth falls open in shock.

The moment she recovers, she's chasing him down the corridor, textbooks and class notes hastily shoved into her backpack, positively fuming.

"What the hell?" she exclaims in a whisper-shout as she corners him in front of his locker, too worked up to contain her outrage, but desperate not to let anyone in the vicinity know she's just been rejected. "Were you dropped on your head as a kid or something? I just asked you out and you ignored me!"

"Yeah, not interested," Hunter quips without turning around, shoulders tensed in agitation.

"Excuse me?" Boscha scoffs, voice shriller and louder than she means it to be, a touch of pink tinging her cheeks as a couple of students passing by raise their eyebrows. She lowers her voice back to a hiss. "Do you know who I am?"

"You're the asshole who bullied my Captain," Hunter replies cooly, pausing to shove a potions textbook back onto the high shelf with a little more force than necessary. "I know who you are."

Boscha lets out a low growl, the nettling reminder of the flyer derby captain making her blood boil like a Bonesborough rainstorm. She rolls her eyes, gaze landing on a photo of the pair of them spello-taped to the inside of his locker, laughing and smiling, all dolled up in their homemade flyer derby letterman jackets, the words Hunter + Willow written in half-a-witch's neat, swirling handwriting on a little slip of scrapbook paper underneath, decorated with hearts and flowering vines. 

Jackpot.

Okay, so maybe she can't claim the former golden guard as a trophy, but she can still fuck with their friend group and throw his beloved Captain under the bus.

"Speaking of half-a-witch…" she prompts, and Hunter's grip tightens around his locker door.

"You do know she's got, like, a big embarrassing crush on you, right?" she says, wicked grin curling across her lips as Hunter goes so still it's like he's been put under a freezing charm.

"Mmm, I know," she coos sarcastically, playing at being sympathetic. "It's so pathetic it's almost cute, the way she follows you around making heart eyes at you all the time, doodling in her notebooks: 'Willow hearts Hunter,' and 'Mr. and Mrs. Hunter and Willow whatever-the-hell-your-last-name-is'. I even overheard her talking to the human about how she was gonna ask you to Grom, some big elaborate scheme involving her ferns or whatever."

Boscha lets out a long, loud cackle, genuinely a little annoyed when he doesn't join her.

"Is she really?" he asks softly, and something about the awestruck tone in his voice makes Boscha falter in her tracks.

"Uh. Yeah," she says, trying to keep her resolve. "That's— that's what I heard."

"And she really writes our names all over her notebooks? Like, she wants to marry me someday?" he asks, sounding almost exuberant. Clea— clearly he's just processing his amusement, his mortification at being the object of the biggest loser in school's affections.

"I know, right? So embarrassing," Boscha forces out a laugh. "Surely you've noticed the way she looks at you. I mean, it's so obvious she's like, super into you."

"Well…" Hunter says, turning to face her with a bright smile, almost smitten, gaze softening to a spot just above her shoulder, and for a moment, Boscha thinks he's reconsidered, that she's about to break up an annoying friend group and snag herself a trophy boyfriend all in one fell swoop, when— 

"I mean, I'd sure fucking hope so, considering she's my girlfriend."

A moment later, none other than Half-A-Witch Willow herself walks up behind her, brushing past Boscha like she's not even there, wrapping her arms around Hunter's neck and greeting him with a kiss that surely shouldn't be allowed on school property.

"Hi," she says, bright green eyes sparkling as she beams up at him. "Missed you."

"Missed you more," he says, brushing his nose against hers in a nauseatingly adorable way. "You ready for our date tonight?"

"Absolutely," Willow replies, giggling as Hunter leans down to smother her cheek in kisses.

"Oh. Boscha. Didn't see you there," she says brightly, slipping her hand into Hunter's as the two of them sweep past her down the corridor and out into the warm sunlight beyond the front doors.

To add insult to injury, Boscha distinctly hears the golden guard snicker and whisper in Willow's ear, "You'll never believe what just happened," the pair of them giggling as they walk out the front doors together, hand in hand.

Elements of this story were inspired by this post by aikrathecat

[botherkupo]

I swore to myself i wasn’t going to dip my toes back into the trash fire that is the atla fandom, but it is insanely funny to me how worked up ppl are getting over Sokka’s “toned down” sexism

You guys realise it makes waaaaaaay more sense for Sokka to not be super misogynistic in order to make the northern water tribe “Katara can only learn healing” issue more impactful, right?

Why would Kanna run from one overly sexist place to another? Why would Sokka, a boy who is basically being raised by women and must have known there were warrior female waterbenders before they all got wiped out, think that girls are weak, useless, and only good for certain things? It makes no sense, because it was clearly never thought that deeply about. They just wanted to throw in the cartoonish misogyny for cheap laughs — because that’s how we were actually supposed to react. It wasn’t to learn a lesson, it was to laugh at Katara’s angry reactions, Sokka’s dumb attitude, and laugh at Suki later handing his arse to him because he thinks girls can’t fight.

So yeah, I don’t see what the big deal is. Something that gets resolved (if you can even call it that) in a few episodes is not that important to an overall character arc. Adaptation is exactly what it is: an adaptation. Changes will be made to hit different notes and emotions. This is also a live show and they cannot waste time on stuff that honestly doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.

Also, they never said they were removing his misogynistic views — just toning them down, because, like I said, what we saw in the show was the typical cartoonish crap for cheap laughs.

Anyway, all this said, if you think Sokka getting his arse handed to him so he’s not so sexist is gonna revolutionize the world and is the only way to show all the little boys how not to be dicks, idk what to tell you. I just know I didn’t watch atla to be wowed by Sokka’s short-lived stint at being yet another “girls need to stay in their lane” dude.

[rharyx]

Now that I've beaten Dawntrail, I can safely say it's one of my favorite expansions. Like, none of the expansions have actually been bad imo, but Dawntrail is just super comfy and enjoyable.

Wuk Lamat is a lovable character, and I'm proud to call her my sister Lamaty'i. I honestly don't get the hate for her role in the plot, nor her voice acting. She's adorable, and I loved seeing her grow, and experiencing Tural through both her initially naive eyes and her more trained eyes.

Everything about the journey through Tural was really fun, and I think it's some of the best zones we've gotten in a while. I loved arriving in a new place and learning about a new culture and their people, and seeing how it all tied into the Rite of Succession and what Lamaty'i was going to take away from it. How it all added to the stories of her, Koana, and even Zoraal Ja was really well done.

Like, Endwalker was good, don't get me wrong, but all the "end of the saga" doom and gloom really wore me down sometimes, so having a more lighthearted vacation where it's just you and your friends in a new land taking in the sights and helping out where you can was really relieving. I loved the entire time I spent traveling across Tural.

It all felt like a proper adventure, one that the Warrior of Light has been yearning for. They're an adventurer at heart, and sure they'll protect the world when they're called upon, but they at their core just like to travel and meet new people. They love the Star with all their heart, whether due to being a shard of Azem or not. And so this adventure through Tural was exactly what they needed. And you can see it in their eyes.

There are some nit picky stuff I could say that I didn't care for overall, but in the grand scheme of things they don't matter at all, because the expansion as a whole was just really enjoyable. I just can't understand the negative reception it's getting from some people.

Maybe I'm just pulling this out of nowhere, but I feel like we're finally seeing the consequences of so many people being told to "skip ARR" and the earlier stuff so they can get to ShB -- "the good stuff." We're getting people who are calling DT boring or slow, because all they really focused on was the high points of ShB and EW, not realizing DT is what most of the game is actually like. Idk, but DT just felt like all the parts of FF14 that I've enjoyed from the start rolled into one. And if you're only here for ShB-type stuff, you're just not engaging with the game properly.

Anyway, I love Dawntrail, and I love all the new characters and bits of lore it introduces, and I'm sad I already finished it because I don't want to wait for more story content. I really want to see where this story goes, and I want to see more of my Turali family.

[laura1633]

i need to say this somewhere and i hope you won’t mind if i send this “rant” here. bc this is just a stupid smut pet peeve that i let annoy me so much.

but anyway every time i go to the lestappen tag i get really disheartened bc there is such a imbalance. there is so much bottom charles and omega charles and charles being loved and worshiped and i honestly wouldn’t mind that at all but the number of fics where max gets the same are pretty much nonexistent compared to charles-centric fics like there are bottom max fics but they get drowned out. pretty much all the popular fics that have thousands of kudos and that ppl recommend to everyone are bottom charles. seriously i saw a rec list once where the few bottom max fics had the fact that they are bottom max mentioned in the same manner as content warnings for some other fics. it was super weird but maybe the person who made that didn’t think it would come across like that.

i know there are lots of bottom max fics (i’ve probably read them all lol) and ppl who like both, like you. i’m happy about the ppl who comment on bottom max fics those fics still get a lot of love even when it seems so little in the grand scheme of things. but i’m just annoyed and a bit confused that it’s so disproportionate. probably bc charles is more popular than max and bottom charles has gotten so popular ppl are inclined to it and it's "safe" and gets more love.

then again there’s so much talk about omega max on tumblr and then none of that shows on ao3 weirdly. (except maybe on the maxiel side i literally became a maxiel shipper bc i wanted more omega max lol) some ppl on here who say they’re bottom/omega max “truthers” have like several top max fics on their account and no bottom max fics which literally not that deep everyone should write what they want and what they are inspired to write but not practicing what you preach confuses me a bit not gonna lie haha. i’ve written my own fics which are pretty much premises i want to desperately read but no one has written them (like fine i'll do it myself) and i've gotten a good response but i’m a slow writer so i haven't written everything i want to write. thank you for everything you’ve written laura!

I don't mind at all anon, I have added your second ask too <3 Sorry this ended up being a lengthy reply. I love that we can yap about the bottom or omega Max agenda though 😂

I started writing maybe about two years ago and at the time a lot of the Lestappen stories were definitely bottom Charles and omega Charles. I started writing because a little bit like yourself there was some stuff I wanted to read that didn't exist so I just wrote it myself. At the time I had no clue how to write but I have hopefully improved over the past couple years! I was just desperate for there to be some more soft Max or Max being looked after and cared for. I just think Max doesn't get enough love and there can never be enough fics where it's pointed out just how hot he is!

I also like the idea of sexy, hot alpha Charles and think it's fun to not always see him in that 'babygirl' role if that makes sense. Although I can see why he ends up in that role a lot, he is also very pretty

I used to read a lot of Maxiel for the same reason as yourself, in fact I do still read Maxiel because of that reason and also because there are some very talented writers writing it. (although I also think of Daniel as being quite omega like!)

I definitely agree that there is a lot more bottom and omega Max within the lestappen tag now compared to a couple of year ago.

For me, I like to swap it around. I like to write soft alpha Max and even bottom alpha Max. The main thing for me is that the dynamic works for the story I want to tell. I have started leaning more towards omega Max though because I know that there is plenty of omega Charles out there and there are plenty of people who can write omega Charles much better than I can!!

You are absolutely correct about the comments and kudos thing. Firstly I should say that there are some amazing writers writing some amazing bottom and omega Charles fics that deserve all the love in the world and I am not for one second suggesting that they only have so many responses because of the dynamic but (at least to start with) I found that my omega Charles fics got more kudos than the omega Max ones. That might have just been a coincidence but when I start writing a story I know it will get more attention if I write it with the omega Charles dynamic. I'm not for one second suggesting that that is what people are thinking about btw, it's just a fact I have noticed with my own work. These days I just write what I like and hope some other people like it. If I ranked my fics by kudos they definitely wouldn't be in quality order so I don't worry about that now 😂

Like you have said, everyone should write what they like as it's all for fun. I am just glad there are other people out there reading and writing bottom/omega Max or even just Max getting the love and attention he deserves.

I will read top Max and I enjoy top Max. The only Max fics I don't like are where the writer clearly doesn't like Max and is making him unnecessarily aggressive or just making him the butt of the joke in a mean way. I prefer to read Lestappen when I can tell that the writer likes both of them if that makes sense (obviously people have a favourite but that's different. )

The content warning for the bottom Max fics made me giggle. I don't know what context that was in as I didn't see the post but it definitely made me laugh. Maybe it needs a content warning because its likely to alter your brain chemistry and you'll not be able to see him topping again 😂

I will always write some bottom Charles and some omega Charles because it just works in certain contexts for me but I have felt myself leaning more towards the other dynamic. Hopefully most people don't mind because there are so many Lestappen writers these days so there is definitely plenty of omega Charles to chose from.

I am shocked there is not more Omega Max x Omega Charles though as that seems to fit quite well.

Sorry, I totally rambled there but I am a huge lover of omega and bottom Max and always will be. I am also a huge lover of Max being treated nicely and softly and getting all the attention and affection in the world.

[mint-yooxgi]

Of course you can write what ever you want, it is your space after all. I didn't what to make you upset.

It's a bit scary to tell you an opinion you might disagree with because you always answer so aggressive.

I apologize if my response was aggressive. I'm simply getting tired of people saying the same things over and over again when I've stated many times I'm not giving up or abandoning my other fics. It gets tiring to repeat myself so many time, but I understand the frustration from a reader's point of view, too.

This response ended up getting super long, so I'm gonna put it under a read more for those that would like to read it. It's sort of a life update of what's been going on with me lately, along with some explanations and more apologies.

TW: Mental Health, Mention of a death in the family, Depression, and all that jazz

I do want to update my current series, I just find I have no motivation to work on any of them currently. I have most, if not all of them planned out, I just need to take time to finish writing them. They're eventually get done, but a lot happened last year and it took a lot out of me. Between working on the commission, dealing with personal issues and my own mental health, along with timing not always working out, it's been a wild ride.

It's no excuse, but I do also feel guilty about not updating certain series for so long. I think that's where some of my annoyance and anger comes from. I'm also upset at myself, and I end up taking it out on anons and others who come into my ask box asking about my current series. For that, I do apologize.

One of the reasons I started writing this self-indulgent fic for myself near the end of last year was because of everything that had been going on in my personal life. I had a huge falling out with someone I considered a very close friend only to realize they hadn't been treating me as a friend for months. My mental health was already fried, and that just sent me spiralling. It's one of the factors that sent me to the hospital, if anyone remembers that.

Because of that incident, it sort of put a damper on Ateez for me for a little while. Simply looking at their content made me associate them with that 'friend', and I very honestly almost fell out with the group. It took some time, but I decided I wasn't going to let this person ruin something I care for so deeply. That's also why I started writing the fic. Just like with Hotel California, it's what I needed at the time, and I'm still having a blast writing it now.

I can honestly trace back to when I sort of stopped updating my series, and it was definitely around the time I posted chapter 15 of PG. Shortly before that is also when I agreed to write my commission, as well as when I had first started talking to this 'friend'. Most of my time was spent talking with them, so my writing got sidelined. That, and the added stress from not knowing everything about what the commissioner wanted from me for the commission took its toll.

Then, at the end of November 2023, my Baba passed away. She was my last remaining grandparent, and even though we were expecting it and I wasn't all that close with her, it still affects me, even if it's only subconsciously.

I'm also pretty sure I went through a round of burn out, which also took the fun out of writing for me. This ties in with my mental health and all that. The fics I was posting were short, and honestly, all I could really manage at the time. Which is why I was really excited for Kinktober, since that's what really kicked off my enthusiasm for writing HC/PG the first time. I was hoping it would have the same effect, but it didn't.

Granted, there were a shit ton of other factors contributing to that, but I digress.

Last year was not a good year for me, looking at the grand scheme of things. Yes, there were good moments, but a lot happened. There's other stuff to do with family, too, and I had to take care of a lot more things than I'm used to while my mental health had been declining. I'm still not exactly where I want to be, but being on anti-depressants have really helped.

For now, I'm simply trying to focus on things I want to write, and have motivation/excitement for. That, and I'm focussing more on the commission, too. It's been a slow journey, but I have a better idea of where I'm going now.

Plus, with the severe lack of interaction on fics in general, it just doesn't make me as excited to post something nowadays. People barely reblog, let alone comment. Even when I posted chapter 15 of PG, I had to ask how people liked it before I started getting responses.

It's really discouraging as a writer to have people constantly demanding you for more updates when so many don't even interact when you post something.

Anyways, this got long.

TLDR; I'm sorry for coming across aggressive. A lot has gone on over the past year, but I promise I'm working on things. It's just a lot to deal with, and I shouldn't be taking it out on you guys. I do sincerely apologize for that.

PS: If you go out with a friend, and the way they're acting/you believe they're treating you makes you upset, tell them. Don't put your grievances in a public fic skewing the reality of events to make them look like a heartless bitch. Especially if you've said nothing to said friend before they stumble across the fic on their feed. People aren't mind readers. If you don't tell them how you're feeling, they won't know.