#but then their government actually came together to oppose him

[existennialmemes]

Very cool of South Korea to demonstrate how to resist a dictator, so the difference will be stark when our legislative branch doesn't do that.

[razzmatash]

Not Yet Day 10 - Surprise Visit Love and Deepspace Sylus x f!OC 1431 Words Read on Ao3 banner by firefly-graphics

“Calli, you never mentioned that your boyfriend was loaded!”

Pulling her head out of her scrubs, Calli blinked at the woman that had swung around the lockers to face her. “Huh?”

She rolled her eyes before shaking a finger at her. “Your man. Not only is he good looking but he’s loaded as well?”

“Probably loaded in other ways too,” another voice chirped from the other side of the lockers, causing laughter through the room.

“Where is this coming from?” Calli asked warily, tugging her t-shirt down over her belly.

The other nurse’s eyes widened suddenly. “Oh, you didn’t know?”

“That he’s loaded? I already knew that.”

“Well, you’ll see soon enough!”

“Wait!” she said sharply as the other turned sharply to run away. “What the fuck are you talking about?!”

No answer came and she had the distinct impression that everyone was getting out of the locker room as quickly as they could.

Calli huffed to herself. What the hell was going on? Why would she suddenly mention Sylus like that? She’d never really hid the fact that she had a boyfriend. It would have been idiotic given how Sylus liked showing up to pick her up whenever he could and showing that they were very much together. But she didn’t talk much about what he did or where he came from. It was hard to keep the others at bay but most of them had picked up on the fact that she didn’t want to talk much about it.

Of course, that meant they started making things up. Government secret agent, mafia boss, playboy billionaire. Those were only the latest guesses she’d heard thrown around and she refused to acknowledge that she had heard them. They were having fun and Sylus always thought it was amusing when she told him.

But why would she say that?

Rolling up her scrubs, she tucked them into her bag and hefted it up. She needed to get home quickly so she could start prepping for tomorrow. While she was excited about having everyone over for holiday dinner, she wasn’t sure how it was going to go. So she wanted to get as much done tonight as she could and try to have a good night’s sleep. Then she could be ready for whatever chaos came from dinner.

She pulled on her jacket and started for the door. With any luck, transit wouldn’t be too bad and there wouldn’t be any hassles getting-

“Where are you taking her?”

“It better be somewhere nice!”

“Or maybe you should get her a ring!”

Calli paused at the chorus of voices that sounded suspiciously like the girls she worked with. Peeking around a corner, something odd happened. Her heart somehow sank and leapt at the same time. Sylus was standing near the nurses station, completely surrounded by the rest of her shift. It was them peppering him with questions! What were they doing? And what was he doing here? He’d told her he’d be busy until dinner tomorrow, wrapping up everything he could before they went on their holiday. Had he lied or had he actually wrapped up early?

“She’s deciding where we’re going.” Sylus’ smooth voice reached her, amusement laced through it. “Only she knows if it’s nice or not.”

“But you’re paying for it?”

“I am.”

“You also didn’t answer about the ring,” someone said slyly.

Her heart leapt into her throat and she hurried around the corner. They’d only been together a few months! What were they doing?! She didn’t want them to ask and she absolutely did not want him to answer!

She didn’t know if he heard her or if he somehow felt her approaching but Sylus looked up suddenly. She saw the smile spread across his face before his gaze dropped back down to the other nurses. “A ring?” he mused. “I wouldn’t be opposed but-”

“What are you doing here?” Calli interrupted, jerking to a halt on the other side of the small crowd.

The nurses all spun to face her before they all hurriedly left, saying their goodbyes and holiday wishes. Sylus continued to watch her with a smile, one eyebrow raised at her outburst. “Hello, sweetie,” he murmured, leaning down to meet her.

She reached up and covered his mouth with both of her hands. “Why would you answer that?” she whispered. “They’re just trying to get a rise out of you.”

He caught her wrists and pulled them away from his mouth. “I don’t think I’m the one they were trying to get a rise out of.”

Calli huffed, shaking her head. “But what are you doing here? Did you wrap up everything early?”

Sylus hummed, letting go of her wrists. One hand stroked over her hair while the other threaded their fingers together. “I did so I thought I would come help you tonight.”

And spend more time with you. The sentiment was unspoken but she heard it loud and clear. “I’d like that.”

Another smile before he was leading her away from the station where the girls were still watching them like hawks, waiting for more information. His almost comment on the ring was going to make the rounds but hopefully that would die down by the time she got back. Hopefully.

She gave a little wave as people chirped their goodbyes as they walked past but Sylus didn’t stop to let her talk to them. She didn’t mind. Her thoughts were starting to pile up with all the things they needed to do to prep for tomorrow. It would be a little easier with him there but maybe she could fit in a few more things so they could relax more tomorrow. Maybe-

A small noise left her when Sylus tugged gently on her hand before wrapping an arm around her waist.

“You’re overthinking it,” he said without looking, leading her out the door. “We’ll do what we can and finish the rest tomorrow.”

“But-”

“Kitten, we have time.”

She puffed out her cheeks before sighing. He was right. She’d had enough time when it was just her. With him there, they could finish early, maybe enjoy dinner together before tucking in for the rest of the night. She didn’t say anything as he took her to his car and helped her into the passenger seat. Instead, she just snuggled into it.

His laughter roused her a little bit as he pulled away from the hospital. “Comfortable?”

“It’s better than the bus,” she teased, making him chuckle.

“I should hope so.”

Calli smiled and almost purred as a large hand came to rest on her thigh. “Definitely don’t have that on the bus,” she murmured.

His fingers tightened for a moment. “I should hope not.”

It was her turn to laugh before they fell into a comfortable silence. But he didn’t let it last for long.

“Black diamonds,” he said quietly. “Platinum.”

She frowned, turning to him. “What?”

“I said I wasn’t opposed to it, kitten. Do you really think I haven’t thought about it?”

Her frown deepened. What was he talking about? Opposed to what? What would he be using diamonds and platinum-Calli froze in her seat, staring at him. “Sylus....”

“Maybe I should,” he mused. “It’s just a ring.”

Her heart thumped in her chest, her pulse ringing in her ears. “You....”

He caught her hand and brought it to his lips. She didn’t miss which finger he kissed. “But you don’t let me buy you jewellery,” he continued. “You don’t take it when I try to give it to you. Would you turn me down if I gave you a ring?”

She didn’t know what to say, her thoughts whirling again but going in a completely different direction.

Scarlet eyes slid to her and his lips quirked up. “What are you thinking about to look like that, sweetie? Can’t a man give his lover a gift?”

“But a ring?” she squeaked.

“What’s wrong with that?” he asked smoothly. “It’s just a ring. What do you think it is?”

She didn’t know what to think! Was he serious that it was just a ring because the girls were absolutely not asking about just a ring earlier? Or was he teasing her and actually being serious?

Another look and a soothing squeeze of her hand. “But I didn’t get to finish,” Sylus said quietly. “While I’m not opposed, I know it’s not time.”

Her heart was back to pounding wildly at the mere thought that he wanted that with her. Because she heard the unspoken yet at the end of his sentence.

[aeithalian]

……you MUST know I want your director’s cut thoughts on a shard or two lol xoxo MJ/kiwiana-writes (my kingdom for asks from sideblogs)

OOOOH hehe hello MJ i keep seeing you pop up reccing a shard or two and just know that every time i see it, i send up a little prayer that your pillows are cold on both sides.

ANYWAYS (most of my followers on this blog aren't RWRB fans but who cares) a shard or two is definitely a weird fever dream of a fic. I read the entire book in like 24 hours (this was just before the movie came out, so less than a year ago) and I, having a strange interest in politics, was like 'hmm, you know what? not enough politics'. So now we have a shard or two. I've always had a interest in politics and I always felt weird about being that person who has a strange in-depth knowledge about the US government, but I think writing the fic helped me think about politics in less of a pessimistic way, like 'here's what I would want to see in modern-day politics'. It also kind of raises the philosophical question of how good people function in a corrupt system without being corrupted themselves, and Alex is such an interesting character to play with on that front because I view him as so idealistic that he refuses to be corrupted purely out of spite and stubbornness.

So, that's how it got started, I think. I told myself I wasn't going to start another WIP while I have one going for a different fandom, but here we are. I originally intended for it to be way shorter than it was (here I was thinking last October that 20k was an insane length for chapter 1, and then chapter 3 ended up being 100k all put together), but it's been such a fun passion project and a real stress-reliever for some reason, and a great way to develop my writing. Somebody in the comments asked me if I write professionally (I do not, and I likely never will, but I appreciate the sentiment).

As for director's commentary, I'm just spitballing here but I have so much fun stuff to share so here ya go.

I know there's this whole debate in the fandom about whether or not Alex goes into politics post-canon, like either go into local politics or start his own firm or whatever, and I generally don't see a lot of people saying that he would go into upper-level politics like he does in the fic. Very rarely do I see any post-canon fics that delve into what Alex's future career might look like if he ran for any office, so I kind of just did it myself, as one does. I do remember seeing CMQ say on their Instagram that Alex wouldn't run for president, but he might run for governor of Texas, but I kind of pulled a Harry Potter fandom and ignored the author (sorry not sorry), but I did make a reference to it early on in chapter 3 for anybody who's looking for any easter eggs). Regardless, it's very fun writing a Gen Z politician who gives no fucks (Alex is Gen Z, I'm taking no critiques on this). I'm so excited for people my age to start running for office. We're going to kill it, I feel it in my bones (you won't catch me up there, but maybe in some health policy behind-the-scenes work, who knows).

The names for the characters were a ton of fun to come up with, and I tweaked them all the time, but here are some tidbits behind some of them:

Edward McKinney's (opposed the amendment in chapter 2 and was Alex's opponent for the Democratic nomination in chapter 3) last name is a play on William McKinley (the 25th US president) to kind of bring this mindset to the table that McKinney is exactly who your stereotypical politician is who would run for president.

Pinkley's name is also a reference to Charles Pinckney, who ran for president in 1804 and 1808 as a Federalist. For no particular reason. I was just having fun with it.

Treacher's name actually comes from the word 'treacherous' because I originally intended for him to be way more of a villain than he ended up being, because I thought it would be interesting to have a political opponent who isn't necessarily an enemy.

Aksel Wolter's (the guy who overthrew my man Onderburg for the Baltonian presidency) name was originally going to be Signe Wolter, but then I saw a cool TikTok that compared some enemies throughout history and saw how similar their names were (George Washington & King George, Jesus & Judas, Obama & Osama, etc.) so I thought it would be cool to have an Alex and an Axel, but the spelling was too similar so that's how we ended up with Aksel because that's also a way it's spelled in northern Europe.

Erik Onderburg's (you know who he is, RIP 😈) original name was Henrik, and that got all the way into the published version of chapter 2 (he's mentioned towards the end), and then when I was writing the first scene of chapter 3 and realized that Henrik and Henry were way too similar, I had to change it.

Ellie (full name Elena) is named after Ellen, with a bit of a Hispanic twist. I think Alex and Henry's deal was if they had a girl, they'd name her after Ellen, and if they had a boy, they'd name him after Arthur. I like to think the middle name would have been Orion either way.

Hunter Weaver (the in-universe replacement of Anderson Cooper) has nothing to do with WASPY Hunter. That was a total coincidence and completely unintentional. But, hey, if you want to believe they're the same person, go for it.

All the research in there is legit! Wikipedia has been a fucking godsend for election results and facts about government structures outside of the US, but it kind of sucks trying to relay stuff into two decades in the future. You never know what kinds of issues are going to be important in 20 years, so I actually kind of avoided that problem by just relating it to some of our current issues today: queer rights, specifically in trans communities, election fraud, 3rd party candidates, human rights issues (ikyk) and so on. And the makeup of NATO, the UN, G20, etc. haven't changed because I can't see into the future.

I also had to do a surprising amount of math? Trying to figure out dates and stuff was way more difficult than I anticipated, especially for election results and percentages, but I realized I really don't need to pull out my TI-84 calculator for a fucking fanfic, but I'm also terrified of the prospect that somebody will correct me on any of my math or research so the calculator stays. It makes for some funny moments, though, like when I realized that if Alex actually ran in the 2040, he would really have Teddy Roosevelt beat for the post of 'youngest president' by, no joke, 3 weeks. So that's kind of fun (and how I firmly decided to have that be the timeline of things).

I write most of the speeches the characters give myself, but I use chat gpt to get me started sometimes (the product is always pretty bland, so it's really just a reference for structure), but I use real-life speeches for reference too. For example (and a bit of a sneak peek), in chapter 4, Alex is giving a speech to the UN General Assembly, and I lifted a couple phrases directly from one of Obama's speeches.

Writing this fic on google docs was a terrible decision. When i was writing chapter 3, the entire word count was well over 160k and the software was getting so laggy every time I needed to control f something for reference. So chapter 4 and beyond is currently being written in a new google doc. Speaking of which, having to switch all my formatting over onto ao3 with chapters this long is a pain in the ass. 0/10 do not recommend having to go through each chapter and fix the formatting every time just because I wanted to have fun little article inserts.

I was going to make it smutty and then i chickened out. i deeply apologize for my cowardice (i've never done smut before).

I guess if you want a couple sneak peeks for chapter 4, I can do that too 😜

If this next chapter had a motto, it would be "every president has their tragedy". Yes, that should probably scare you. (honestly, I'm a little nervous to write it too, just because I know it's pretty dark but hey, if Disney can show Mulan killing 2,000 Huns in an animated children's movie, then I can tag this as mature and not be worried about traumatizing people, okay?)

If it had a theme song, it might be 'Fourth of July' by Sufjan Stevens or 'Abstract (Psychopomp)' by Hozier. (Don't be scared, you'll be fine, because if the chapter after that had a theme song, it would be 'Dog Days are Over' by Florence and the Machine)

So, all the chapters are titled with 5 stages of career development (completely arbitrary, I worked off Indeed's for a while and then I said 'fuck it'). Stage 1 was Establishment, stage 2 was Maintenance, stage 3 (spanning ch. 3 and 4 on ao3) was Advancement. So stage 4 (ch. 5 on ao3) will be Obstruction, so take that how you will. But stage 5 (ch. 6 on ao3) will be Resolution, so that should make you feel better. They're sister chapters, so although the conflict itself is resolved in chapter 4, the lasting changes and long-term effects of that conflict will be mostly featured in chapter 5 (which, honestly, is the one I'm most excited to write because I feel like it's that moment when Alex really grows into himself).

And a little fun knowledge just for you: there's actually going to be a stage 6 (ch. 7, on ao3). I was going to surprise readers by adding on a chapter after I publish stage 5 with a 'psych! you thought this was over, suckers'. Stage 6 is titled 'Reflection', so I'm planning for it to be about how Alex leaves office dealing with the idea of his own legacy and accomplishments (but as I teased in Stage 3, he won't actually be 'done').

I think that's all I've got in me. Chapter 4 is in the works, but it's taking way longer than I'd like (I've only just started part 1 😬) since I started a new job that's kind of sucking the life out of me. I'm very excited to share it, though! I'll be sad when it's over (maybe I'll do a missing moments oneshot series after, who knows).

director's cut ask game

[wifiwuxians]

sent here by aoxue lol

Songxue + spy x family au?

HELLO i was literally just typing this up under her post so it's great you came to me! i've added xxc to it too i hope that's ok? also, for anyone reading this and wanting some kind of spy/assassin-esque story...

please read fairy fish by pomegranites (SO SORRY I KNOW YOU HAVE A TUMBLR BUT I CAN'T REMEMBER THE URL RIGHT NOW </3), it is songxiao but they're assassins and AQ and XY are there too being SUPER cute, we had the privilege of getting it for SL Love Week! it might scratch the itch!

but now...

keep in mind i am riffing here. I have not consumed this media!! but it's a good premise!!! SL and XY get paired together for their cover story, with SL being the cool and handsome spy tasked with observing his tricky target and XY being his, um, wife. more on that in a moment. their perfect angel child sent from heaven (A-Qing) is a mischievous little squirt with a sharp wit and the power to read minds, but she keeps it very well hidden. she fears rejection and abandonment (reader do you sense a theme in my AUs) if they were to find out. it makes her a good judge of character, though. she often bites XY when he gets too close to her.

SL didn't really want to fall into the spy business. it's antithetical to the just and righteous morals he grew up believing in, but personal tragedy and an increasing lack of faith in the justice system and heads of government led him down that path. he tells himself he's doing it for the sake of his country and the good of all people and leaves it at that. he tries to be genuinely affectionate to A-Qing, because he thinks she's fantastic even though she's trouble, and he tries to keep her on the right path. thing is, affection isn't really his forte. fortunately for him, A-Qing knows how he feels about her.

XY is in it for the possibility of bloodshed. he's been told he has license to kill if things go sour for whatever reason, so while he is strongly encouraged to ensure things do not, in fact, go sour, he's sort of always hoping they do. like SL, personal tragedy has set him down this path in life, only he acts purely out of need for catharsis as opposed for any love for his nation. as a result, A-Qing thinks he's scary, even though she's conflicted because he does genuinely like her, biting aside (he sort of finds it funny, actually).

XY is not at all keen on playing the role of doting wife and mother, and SL respects that, and doesn't demand any of that at home. XY does what he has to in public, but at home is his authentic self; a man. (hits you with transgender beam). the arrangement suits him just fine, since SL is not affectionate and is actually rather detached, and he can just horse around with A-Qing without the added pressure of responsibility, completely neglecting the thought that she might want an actual family.

XXC enters the scene as A-Qing's dazzling, sweet, gentle, enthusiastic homeroom teacher. he is everything A-Qing wants in her life and she knows he has a soft spot for her specifically. SL is smitten with him the moment he meets him, tripping over his words in the most unprofessional way possible and adopting a sort of softness towards him in future encounters that resembles how he behaves with his daughter. XY is baffled and honestly? pretty damn hurt. he didn't mind detached cold SL because he figured he was like that with everyone except the squirt, and now here he is falling for some goody two shoes glorified babysitter when he's meant to have a wife? PLEASE! his thoughts get scary for a stint and A-Qing kicks him in the shins repeatedly, and that clues him into the fact that she has powers, though he doesn't ask for fear of sounding insane. SL is very confused at the home dynamic that develops from this, and everything hangs in the balance. XY finds that XXC is disarming, and hates himself for not being able to commit to hating him fully (and less as time goes on). SL has to battle with this newfound attraction and the fact he is a married man, even if it's all for show; especially because he's started to develop a soft spot for his spouse.

[rocksrntpeople]

MCU Rewatch - Iron Man 2

So, turns out I did know what Iron Man 2 is about and just thought that it was Iron Man 3. What the hell is Iron Man 3 then? Something, something, annoying little kid, something, something, Iron Man? Idk, but at the very least this is the last one that makes me go, “what the hell was this about again?”

Granted, Iron Man 2 was a lesson in cinematic dichotomy and I had a hard time feeling engaged with the Ivan Vanko plotline. It seemed super shallow and just generally less interesting than what Stark was dealing with.

So, the main plot of this movie is actually tri-fold. Firstly, we have Tony Stark dealing with palladium poisoning. He’s dying because of the device that’s keeping him alive and it’s the first time he’s dealing with failure somehow, and there’s just a lot of internal strife going on. 

Alongside this is the much more public battle of Iron Man’s identity. The U.S. government wants the Iron Man suit to be a symbol of the US military, to represent power and glory over all through violence, but that’s not who or what Iron Man is. Up against Stark is a bloated (literally) politician and a weapons contractor who may be one of the most annoying characters in the MCU.

And this leads us into the third, kind of shoe-horned-in plot of Anton and Ivan Vanko. When Anton dies at the beginning of the movie, his son Ivan decides that now is the time to take revenge on Stark, as opposed to a few years earlier before he had the Iron Man suit and before Ivan’s dad bit the dust. But okay. And what is he mad about? That Tony Stark’s dad “stole” the arc reactor idea from Anton and then decades later Tony actually made it somewhat useful.

I’m sorry but that is just a stupid plot. So this guy, who’s been trapped in Siberia for decades, finally decides to leave and his motivation is that some guy whose dad used to work with his dad used old technology to create new technology? And he’s going to combat him with…whips? Powered by technology that, not only was totally available to this villain since well before Tony “stole” it, but is also literally impossible for some of the world’s best scientists in top facilities to create?

(Do you remember this, Marvel? It was two movies earlier.)

Meanwhile, the other two plots are doing great work with the whole dueling egos and themes of identity crises between private and public personas. Plus there’s a whole overarching moral lesson of friendship is power!

Once again, chef’s kiss; perfect. It’s clear that Favreau loves Iron Man; it’s where he started and it’s where he thrives. Despite having to shove in a fairly generic action plot, he manages to tie together the rest of the movie to create seriously humanizing moments that endear us to Iron Man.

There’s a lot to like about this movie, but it’s mostly in the quiet moments, the atmosphere, the snappy comebacks Stark tosses out like nothing. The cuts to the Vanko story were often jarring and felt like commercial breaks cutting into what I really wanted to watch.

And to be completely honest, what I wanted to watch was a lot of world and character building. We’re still in the dawn of the MCU here, and Iron Man 2 and 3 do a lot of heavy lifting as far as establishing new characters and letting viewers see how the rest of the world responds to superheroes.

I was more excited to see Black Widow than I thought I would be. I don’t dislike her or anything, but when she came on screen it was electric, like this is it, the world is expanding. She doesn’t belong here; she’s not part of the Iron Man team. Yet here she is, meddling.

Along with Romanov, we also get Coulson on the scene again and of course, Nick Fury. The little nods to Thor throughout the film were shockingly enjoyable. I didn’t know shit about Thor when this came out, so going back knowing everything that will happen…it’s a whole new kind of tension. This is gonna be a theme for a while, I think. The MCU ball doesn’t really start rolling until after Captain America shows up.

While SHIELD is basically only in the movie to give Iron Man some much needed pep talks, the rest of the cast does a great job supporting Tony Stark. He doesn’t make it easy, but by the end he’s friends with Rhodey again (after getting into a mech fight and having Rhodey steal one of the suits), he saved the public from US military contractors, he gets together with Pepper finally, and he even gets a message from his father validating his love for him! Come on! Everyone is in Iron Man’s corner!

Except, obviously, the main bad dude Vanko (and also that idiot Hammer). This guy kept saying “you lose” like he didn’t waste his life in Siberia being evil, and then just…explodes. Okay; girl, bye.

Can we talk about how cool this movie is for a second? As time goes on, the movies begin to rush the action a bit, especially as the battlefields become more complex, but in Iron Man 2 the actions make sense.

For example, Tony Stark’s germ thing. There are many possible reasons why he might have an anti-germ thing, primarily the fact that he’s dying throughout most of the movie, but what’s awesome is how he asks Pepper to put on a mask when she’s coughing, how he refuses to take things handed to him, how he shirks away from people trying to touch him. Those little continuity details make a big difference.

I especially loved when Black Widow and Happy are fighting at Hammer Industries and you can literally see Happy fighting in the background while Black Widow has a whole long fight scene.

(And yeah, yeah, yeah, I know it’s a little ridiculous that she got changed and moussed her hair in the car. I don’t care; I overlooked Vanko and I’ll overlook the little Black Widow gaffes too.)

Then, there are so many awesome shots done for no reason other than Iron Man is cool as fuck. 

Whereas Iron Man established Tony Stark’s character, Iron Man 2 established his new personality, the one that can just barely handle failure and needing help and overall considering the impact of his actions beyond his immediate circle.

Most of the MCU characters have this type of personality evolution, and it’s one of my favorite elements of the franchise. Stark will undergo a few personality shifts throughout the series, as you’d expect since he was the first one in. I’m very excited!

Speaking of personality shifts, I’m so excited for Thor! I have just a bit of hatred for the original Thor characterization, but the other characters are great, the plot is decent, and it’s just really amusing to see this fancy, stuck-up Thor, knowing what’s to come for the character.

Iron Man 2 gets a 6/10 for me overall. Definitely one of the weakest MCU movie, but it had plenty of redeeming qualities.

[roydeezed]

One Piece-Chapter Round-Up(Chapter 1080)

This chapter we whip around to another part of the world to see our favourite fearless hero rescuing his protege. This makes me straight up terrified ya’ll. I’ll go into why later. Though this might seem like a pretty self-contained chapter, it puts forward some heavy implications about the state of conflicts going forward. Mainly, how many different factions there will actually be. Oda usually likes to keep the focus pretty dialed in on the Strawhats so it was wild that he not only cut away to Law, but also Sabo and Kid. And now with this focus on Koby, he makes his intentions clear. Not only will this upcoming conflict focus on the newer generation, Luffy as a Pirate, Coby as a Government Agent, and Sabo as a Revolutionary, but many, many factions will be involved, including the Revolutionary Army, The World Government, SWORD, The Strawhats, The Red-Haired Pirates, The Blackbeard Pirates, and Cross Guild. And the reason why Oda’s cutting away so much is that he needs us to understand how it all came together. This is the world that the Marineford War set into place, and it shows that the death of one of the strongest people in history, Whitebeard, was only the lighting of a powder keg. I’m gonna go in-depth on this chapter past the “Keep reading” so check it out for more thoughts. 

These are some Departed, Infernal Affairs type vibes I'm getting here.

Okay, so there’s no way Garp makes it out of this alive, right? Both sides can’t make it out of this unscathed so there needs to be some sort of give from one side. Blackbeard needed to split his focus among several places and getting Poneglyph rubbings were a priority for him so he went to the least contested island the victors of Wano were going to. By splitting Blackbeard’s crew Oda gets to do a few things. Through the story he gets to showcase the different abilities of the Blackbeard Pirates in order to set them up as proper rivals to the Strawhats, and as Blackbeard he gets to show us his priorities. First of all, let’s look at the breakdown again.  So since Van Auger, Burgess, and Doc Q were with Blackbeard fighting Law, and Shiryu, Pizarro, Sanjuan Wolf and Vasco Shot are on Hachinosu, that leaves Catarina Devon and Lafitte with Aokiji on Egghead. Let’s examine the dynamics there because I think Blackbeard’s about to betray Aokiji and Moria is actually the tenth titanic captain.

First of all, knowing he would fight someone quite capable he brought his homies with him. He only needs one guaranteed victory. So why send someone to egghead? And with only 3 people as opposed to the 4 each on Hachinosu and against Law? Because Catarina Devon and Lafitte, the two sneakiest members of the Blackbeard Pirates, aren’t there to help Aokiji take anyone down. They’re there to kill Aokiji. Maybe if it’s me imagining things and giving Blackbeard too much credit but he’s not dumb. As soon as Aokiji is forced to explain SWORD, Blackbeard’s whole demeanor changes. I do believe he intended to use Koby as a bargaining chip but now he’s possible bait. I think Blackbeard has realized that Aokiji is SWORD and is sending Lafitte and Devon there with him to assassinate him. I think this would be confirmed we see Lafitte and some other person with Aokiji since if Devon is disguised in front of Aokiji, it’s him she’s trying to trick. 

Next, narratively I don’t think it makes sense for Garp to get out of this alive. One, it would be an excellent chance for Garp to pass on his will to Koby and second it would provide more motivation for Luffy to take down Blackbeard. It’s also is a good chance to show off his powers and introduce us to his squad that he’ll sacrifice himself for. I just don’t see him having a part in the final fight going forward. And that brings us to one key thing, that decides if Hachinosu itself is a trap for Garp or not. And that’s if Blackbeard knows how much Koby means to Garp. If he does, this whole thing with Koby trying to free Moria could be a trap. While Moria loves his crew, why would he stand up to such a ruthless pirate such as Blackbeard and why would Blackbeard even leave him alive? The only other reason than it being a trap is that Blackbeard hasn’t found who he will give Moria’s fruit to and the previous owner needs to be alive before the transition. Also there’s the fact that Blackbeard has beef with Garp since Blackbeard we clearly in some way shape or form an admirer of Xebec, who was officially taken down by Garp. Maybe that’s why he was originally going after Luffy before switching his focus to Ace. 

In this chapter we find out the fruit’s of some of the other titanic captains and get another mention of the rocky port incident in which Blackbeard acqquired Hachinosu with Koby’s help after Law instigated it. I really love how it flavours the world as this huge event that took place while we weren’t observing Luffy. Pizarro ate the island-island fruit which seems to be an evolution of Pica's fruit the same way Akainu’s fruit is an evolution to the mera-mera-no-mi. Vasco Shot has a fire based fruit and Sanjuan Wolf ate a giagantification fruit which I guess makes him able to become even bigger. This chapter, more than anything seems to be setting up for the future conflict by letting us see the players in action before the final conflict as we also see some Marine’s in action like Kujaku with her whip-whip fruit that can command inanimate objects, Prince Grus with his squelch-squelch fruit that probably made the clay infantry, and Hibari, who can use some variety of powers. While most marines seem to match up against pirates, it seems these agents, who are probably SWORD, match up more with the revolutionary army, with Kujaku mirroring Belo Betty, Prince Grus mirroring Kurasu, and Hibari mirroring Koala while being a tsundere like Pudding.

I really love the characterization this chapter. Koby is such a damn hero while also putting into perspective how terrible his life has been that he doesn’t believe anyone would rescue him. I really want him to know the lengths that Hibari and Helmeppo went to save after this cause my boy needs to know his self worth. I also adore that Garp put on such a huge display of love for Koby. Believe in your worth Koby, you’re a gem. Koby also readily sacrifices himself to be bait and even looks death in the eyes calmly, he’s rreally shaping up to be a great rival to Luffy. He’s still got a ways to go as Luffy is already a Yonkou. We also see that Blackbeard probably trusts Shiryu a lot as he left him in charge of three incredibly destructive people in San Juan Wolf, Pizarro, and Vasco Shot.

With Oda jumping around so much, I don’t know where the story is going to go next but I’d love to see this conflict play out fully. We might head back to Egghead before cleaning this one up just like we did with the Kid conflict. Either way, we’re in for another break week so strap in folks. 

[childlikegoblinqueen]

Chapter 83 Notes:

Spoilers and actual history which inspired the last line within.

Chapter 83 had a considerable amount of fluff. I wanted to give the tense relationship between Hunter and Darius a reprieve.

What better way than to have Darius teach Hunter how to dance for his very first Grom?

Some inspiration for that came from the scene in book 3 of ATLA where Aang and Katara rework their Katas into a dance.

There’s plenty of examples of the correlation between dancing and fighting within pop culture and so many articles on it, but after an offhand conversation with @threegoblinart about Baz Luhrman’s Strictly Ballroom, I went a different route.

Also, fun fact! My spouse, whom I met in martial arts class was a competitive ballroom dancer when he was a teen. He was an amazing fighter too.

I loved the image of all of these adults whom Hunter was out at odds with under Belos taking on a nurturing role aside Camila and helping him figure out how to redirect the years of combat training into something like dance, so he could get to enjoy his first school dance with his girlfriend.

It felt like a sweet healing moment.

ThreeGoblin and I also agreed that Hunter would loose his mind over Swing Dancing, and the movie Swing Kids came to mind. Under the Third Reich, Swing Dance became part of a movement of youth who opposed the nazi party. Swing Kids was a simplistic look at the history of the movement, but not necessarily a bad place to start. I dropped a wiki article about that at the end of the chapter.

ANYWAY this is a perfect chance to drop info about a covert historical operation which VERY LOOSELY inspired the big reveal at the end of the chapter.

Please take into consideration that my refrain when asked about Darius’ deal in SCOM has always been that Darius has made a series of poor decisions.

That said, he is essentially the head of the CIA for the BI. Intelligence is the shadowy part of the military. Defense is the more front facing one. It’s not fleshed out by any means and in this story the two work together very closely, but if Darius was to answer Hunter’s questions with the classic,

“I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.” It would go very badly.

The concept of a current government working with former enemy scientists to develop weapons /etc is based on Operation Paperclip.

So Darius being directed to work with Kikimora to develop Miki- Ultra has a real world precedent.

Doesn’t mean he liked it or even wanted to do it.

Much less scope in the fic, of course, but information about this below.

[thepolyamorouspolymath]

ADD IT TO THE LIST OF THINGS JOE BIDEN HAS GOTTEN RIGHT!

Including but not limited to:

-steady jobs growth

-free vaccines

-student debt reduction (if less than we or he wanted)

-closing federal for profit prisons, and releasing or relocating prisons in under 2 years

- INFRASTRUCTURE for the first time since 1980

-Inflation reduction giving us the lowest Inflation in the Western World.

-partnering the Dept of Land Management with Native nations to be better stewards of public lands

-continuing to hold together aid for Ukraine to keep fighting and staying alive

-convincing China to open its strategic oil reserves to help Europe continue to support Ukraine, despite being tentative allies with Russia

-refusing new drilling permits for federal land bc despite the need for oil there were already 19k unused permits so he wasn't writing a blank ticket

-not once trying to interfere with his son's case in court or in Congress

-not once trying to interfere in the Jan 6 cases

-not once trying to interfere in Trump's cases... the DoJ is meant to be independent and he respects that and the rule of law even as he hates Trump and loves his son

- stimulus checks within the first 100 days to deliver a campaign promise abd bc it was needed.

-proactive partial payment of the child tax credit so parents got it as child care bills came instead of the end of the year (not sure why that program didn't become permanent)

Now, you can list things he's gotten wrong -- every President gets something wrong -- but anyone who says he hasn't done anything is simply wrong. He just hasn't played it to the press while doing it, bc a) he was busy actually governing and b) not making a thing about it meant the GOP didn't have to oppose it, and could quietly vote in support without voter pressure such as the 18 GOP senators who voted for infrastructure.

Otoh, ONE significant piece of legislation was passed while Trump was in office -- a fucking awful tax plan that wasn't even his, it was the congressional GOP tax plan. His policies were done by fiat -- executive order and rule changes bc even his own guys would support him with their words but not votes in Congress, and most of those fiat policies were struck down in court, most often by Republican judges.

 Our Nation has made tremendous progress in advancing the cause of equality for LGBTQI+ Americans, including in the military.  Despite their courage and great sacrifice, thousands of LGBTQI+ service members were forced out of the military because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.  Many of these patriotic Americans were subject to a court-martial.  While my Administration has taken meaningful action to remedy these problems, the impact of that historical injustice remains.  As Commander in Chief, I am committed to maintaining the finest fighting force in the world.  That means making sure that every member of our military feels safe and respected.

     Accordingly, acting pursuant to the grant of authority in Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution of the United States, I, Joseph R. Biden Jr., do hereby grant a full, complete, and unconditional pardon to persons convicted of unaggravated offenses based on consensual, private conduct with persons age 18 and older under former Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), as previously codified at 10 U.S.C. 925, as well as attempts, conspiracies, and solicitations to commit such acts under Articles 80, 81, and 82, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. 880, 881, 882.  This proclamation applies to convictions during the period from Article 125’s effective date of May 31, 1951, through the December 26, 2013, enactment of section 1707 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014 (Public Law 113-66).

     The purpose of this proclamation is to pardon only offenses based on consensual, private conduct between individuals 18 and older that do not involve any aggravating factor, including:  

     (1)  conduct that would violate 10 U.S.C. 893a, prohibiting activities with military recruits or trainees by a person in a position of special trust;      (2)  conduct that was committed with an individual who was coerced or, because of status, might not have felt able to refuse consent;      (3)  conduct on the part of the applicant constituting fraternization under Article 134 of the UCMJ;      (4)  conduct committed with the spouse of another military member; or      (5)  any factors other than those listed above that were identified by the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces in United States v. Marcum as being outside the scope of Lawrence v. Texas as applied in the military context, 60 M.J. 198, 207–08 (2004).

     The Military Departments (Army, Navy, or Air Force), or in the case of the Coast Guard, the Department of Homeland Security, in conjunction with the Department of Justice, shall provide information about and publicize application procedures for certificates of pardon.  An applicant for a certificate of pardon under this proclamation is to submit an application to the Military Department (Army, Navy, or Air Force) that conducted the court-martial or, in the case of a Coast Guard court-martial, to the Department of Homeland Security.  If the relevant Department determines that the applicant satisfies the criteria under this proclamation, following a review of relevant military justice records, the Department shall submit that determination to the Attorney General, acting through the Pardon Attorney, who shall then issue a certificate of pardon along with information on the process to apply for an upgrade of military discharge.  My Administration strongly encourages veterans who receive a certificate of pardon to apply for an upgrade of military discharge.  

     Although the pardon under this proclamation applies only to the convictions described above, there are other LGBTQI+ individuals who served our Nation and were convicted of other crimes because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.  It is the policy of my Administration to expeditiously consider and to make final pardon determinations with respect to such individuals.

     IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-sixth day of June, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-eighth.                              JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.

[autisticlee]

why is the only way for republican politicians to do anything seemingly good for the Democrat politicians to oppose the good? like banning tiktok if you want to see that as bad because free speech and people make a living there or whatever. democrats are against it and ban it and suddenly trump supports it when what he wanted originally was it banned because "omg China ew" or whatever. he should be happy the democrats did that and reached his goal. but how dare they take his fame for doing it! he needs to do the opposite now and get the fame from saving it! now he gets to pretend to be the tiktok hero. the hypocrites flock to the big ego hypocrite. they love that shit. they love contradicting themselves. so they can pretend to ~always be right~ and place all the blame on everyone else and never take responsibility for anything.

if you make him and his people think the idea came from themsleves because their only goal is to do the exact opposite of the democrats, then it would be a very dumb yet big brain move. it would make the democrats look awful and makes none of us want to support them. but it makes the "worse of two evils" that is currently in power "look better" or at the very least get to pretend to be better once in a while. they pretend to he heros because they are tricked to do the right thing.

it's all such childish nonsense. the government looks like a battle of petty 4 year olds. "I don't want to do what he does. i'm not like other girls" behavior. but I don't think the democrats are smart enough to purposely make Trump and his baby brigade choose the right things by playing the villain. or they would have done it more. unless it's a test. because god forbid the two sides ever agree on anything. they MUST disagree on every single possible thing for some reason. how dare they ever agreed and work together to actually help their people. 🙄

it's the most pathetic and childish game and most lfnthis country eats that shit up. they cheer for their government sports team or they jump ship to the winning team. it's not what we need as a country or as humans but it's the only thing these government people will do. that and dance for money basically. i'm tired of this. I hate it here. please end our suffering. I don't want to participate in this childish bullshit that puts our lives in danger.

[une-sanz-pluis]

Was Margaret of Anjou's murder of Humphrey proposed by the Tudor dynasty?

Margaret's involvement in Humphrey's downfall was first proposed in the sixteenth century according to B. M. Cron in her MA thesis, "Margaret of Anjou: tradition and revision". I'm yet to discover who was the "first" to claim she was involved in Humphrey's murder, however. Polydore Vergil, followed by Holinshed and Hall, claimed that Margaret was involved in a conspiracy to deprive Humphrey of power and influence but he doesn't explicitly connect her with the plot to murder him. I've included an excerpt from Vergil on Humphrey's death behind the cut.

Whether or not Margaret was actually involved is something we'll probably never know. Although most contemporaries believed Humphrey was murdered, most historians think he died of a stroke or heart attack brought on by the stress of his arrest. Margaret gave Humphrey a New Year's gift in 1447 which might suggest (as Cron suggests and Maurer perhaps hints at) that Margaret was uninvolved in the plot against him.

Henry VI certainly approved of the plan to arrest Humphrey on charges of treason, while William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk has traditionally been seen as the architect and prime mover of the plot against Humphrey. Margaret, plausibly, could have been aware of the plot or even involved, especially given her close links to Henry and Suffolk. However, the claim he had opposed Henry's marriage to Margaret, thus earning Margaret's enmity, seems to have originated in Polydore Vergil's 16th century account rather than any contemporary sources.

I've taken this extract of Vergil from Dana F. Sutton's hypertext critical edition of the 1555 version of Anglica Historia.

But his wife Margaret was a very prudent woman, eager for glory, full of reason, counsel, officiousness, and manlike enterprises, in whom you could see much intelligence, much diligence, much vigilance, much carefulness. But she was not free of a womanly nature, being headstrong and fickle. When she came to realize that her husband Henry was ruling in accordance with Gloucester’s will rather than his own, and that he was devoting no great diligence or thought to the war, she decided to take that care upon herself, and gradually to deprive the duke of all the great power he enjoyed, so that she herself would not be called a goose for allowing her husband, now growing to maturity, to be governed by another man. Therefore a little later Margaret strove to put her plan into practice. But when the woman had once attempted this of her own volition, suddenly some men ready for sedition, prompt for violence, prone to crime and murder, rose up who sought to make Gloucester unpopular and egged her on [...] Fired by these urgings, the woman seized control of the kingdom, together with Henry her husband, and although this was nothing else but to plow a field by yoking together an ox and a donkey, as the saying goes, she nevertheless began spiritedly to undertake that responsibility. First she not only barred Gloucester from all public affairs, but also declined to shield him from his enemies’ insults. For not long thereafter some nobles conspired against the duke, accusing him of many misdemeanors, and particularly that he punished men convicted of crimes with greater severity than the laws of England prescribed. [...] Although the duke made a very creditable response to his accusers, he failed to help his case because he had already been marked down for death, save that he freed his mind from distress in that he was not obliged to listen to his condemnation and did not know the time appointed for his death. For the conspirators, fearing that there would be rioting if they subjected this popular man to a public execution, they decided to take him unawares. Therefore by authority of the Privy Council they summoned the nobility to appear on an appointed day at a parliament at the Abbey of Bury. When Gloucester made his appearance with the rest, he was suddenly arrested and on the following night, setting the worst example in human memory, he was strangled, with all his retinue thrown into prison at a single stroke.

Vergil's account is at odds at what we know - that is, we know that Humphrey's political influence had been waning for some time before his marriage to Margaret and that Henry had rarely, if ever, governed according to Humphrey's will (Humphrey wishes that was the case!). It is, however, close to how we see in Shakespeare depict Margaret and Humphrey's relationship in Henry VI, Part Two. Vergil's characterisation of Humphrey is in the "Good Duke Humphrey" vein and it's possibly for that reason he makes no mention of Eleanor Cobham's existence let alone the witchcraft accusations.

While Margaret's depiction isn't wholly negative, her flaws are associated with her feminity ("she was not free of a womanly nature, being headstrong and fickle") and her behaviour is linked to internal division and the death of the Good Duke, even if she is not actively involved.

[alanjporterwriter]

Books Read in 2024 #9 - “Frank Whittle: Invention of the Jet” by Andrew Nahum

It’s long been a repeated tale that Frank Whittle was the solo genius who invented the jet engine and was ignored and shunned by the British government and aviation industry, until he and a bunch of friends got together to fund the development of a prototype. At which point it was all taken away from him. - A tale oft repeated by Whittle himself.

In this relatively slim volume Nahum digs deep into government records and the papers of Whittle’s “Power Jets” company to paint a different picture of the unprecedented levels of support he was given to act as an unofficial jet-research lab, and the subsequent problems of him not wanting to collaborate when it came time to turn his ideas into a scalable production technology.

It’s a times a bit of a dry read with too many direct extracts from archival material that would have been better summarized, but it builds a fascinating picture of the early days of a disruptive technology that shows, as with most disputes, that the actual story probably lies somewhere between two opposing viewpoints.

[whatisonthemoon]

John Marks exposes Gary Jarmin Again as a deceiver!

Originally submitted to WIOTM as a post by “Don Diligent” on January 27, 2017

▲ Pictured: John D. Marks

Chicago Tribune - November 10, 1974 - Shadows on Rev. Moon’s beams by John D. Marks - Pages 17-18

John D. Marks is an associate of the Center for National Security Studies in Washington and co-author of “The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence.” This article is excerpted with permission from The Washington Monthly magazine.

. . . in South Korea . . . Moon operates a training school to which the government annually sends hundreds of thousands of civil servants, local officials, and military men for a course in militant anti-Communism…Even as other Korean religious leaders have turned increasingly against President Park Chung Hee’s authoritarian rule, Moon has stayed an enthusiastic backer of the regime…as F.L.F., Secretary General Gary Jarmin asserts, “Even if Park got more dictatorial, we would support him.”

. . . the sect’s Freedom Leadership Foundation opposes detente and works to “roll back the Iron Curtain.”…its three main areas of activity are:

*The World Freedom Institute” . . .  The group plans an “international training center” in Washington and is already active on more than 20 campuses.*The Rising Tide*Lobbying. According to Jarmin, the F.L.F. is “already spending a lot of time” on the Hill trying to influence" congressmen and senators on national security issues.

. . . Since the F.L.F. [as well as the Unification Church] is a nonprofit, tax exempt organization under the Internal Revenue Service’s rules, it is forbidden to actually lobby for specific legislation, but Jarmin states it carries on “educational” programs especially for legislative aides…And soon, according to Jarmin, the F.L.F.

. . . intends to spin off a separate new organization which will carry on direct lobbying and support selected political candidates.

The F.L.F. spends about $50,000 to $60,000 a year, not including the labor costs of its eight full-time employes [who receive no salary and who, as “core” membere of the Family, live together in their own communal center, with Jarmin serving as their spiritual as well as temporal leader].

Jarmin maintains that most of the F.L.F.’s funds come from private donations and contributions from the parent Unification Church. He says there are 5,000 F.L.F. members, including the 2,000 hard-core Moonies whose names were automatically inscribed on the organization’s rolls when they joined the Unification Church.

Several rank-and-file Family members with whom I talked had no idea that they also belonged to the F.L.F., and indeed were almost totally ignorant of the movement’s political side. In listening to roughly 12 hours of religious lectures at a weekend workshop designed to attract new recruits, I heard no mention of any of the group’s political activities.

When I questioned Jarmin on why the political aspect of the movement was not mentioned, he admitted the omission was no accident: “People who attend the workshops, have more concrete ideas about politics than about religion, ” he said. “We try to avoid politics. If we came on strong about Viet Nam, it would chase people away. Our anti-Communism is religious, so until we convince people of a belief in God, it is to our disadvantage to politicize.”

. . . the sect’s 25-year-old financial adviser, William Torrey . . . 

Where does all this money come from? Well, until recently, Torrey claims the main source of income has been the hawking of decorative candles, followed by the contributions of about 2,500 sympathizers but not “Family members” who live and work outside the church.

Lee Jai Hyon, who was a top diplomat in South Korea’s Washington embassy until opposition to the Park regime caused him to defect to the U. S. in June, 1973, equates Moon with another Korean messianic leader, Park Tae Sun, who, Lee says, also raised large sums of money from fanatic believers and grew rich from his business holdings.

The Park regime of course welcomes the backing offered by Moon, but its interest in his movement may well extend into the murky world of espionage.

According to both Lee and State Department sources, the Korean government is actively concerned about improving its dictatorial image in this country, and they do not doubt that its intelligence organization, the Korean Central Intelligence Agency [KCIA], has on occasion secretly subsidized ostensibly private organizations for this purpose just as the American CIA has done for the last 26 years.

If there is any intelligence connection between Moon and the Park regime, it is almost certainly limited to the very top level of the Moon organization in lobbying or public relations work for the Korean governmentand not intelligence collection.

IT WOULD be wrong to take the Family too seriously as a political movement, but the ease with which its young members have overlooked or accepted the group’s political aims may have its importance.

Related articles on Gary Jarmin linked below

What kind of members were Michael Warder and Gary Jarmin?

The Curious Case of Gary Jarmin

David Keene, Gary Jarmin, Sean Moon & the Second Amendment Foundation

More on Gary Jarmin

The Unification Church and KCIA: Some Notes on Bud Han, Steve Kim, and Bo Hi Pak

Watergate, Contragate, and Foreign Campaign Contributions

[itshype]

Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss, Godhood (DC x DP)

What’s the best way to cover up a secret when Danny can’t lie very well? Make an even more elaborate lie – but one that tugs on the heartstrings! My DC x DP Previous Works: Space Lover Danny, Kingmaker Danny, Service Animal Cujo, Danny yoinks Connor, Ghost Bruce HC + Ghost Jason HC

So, Danny's government just made his existence illegal. Which is rude and very othering and mean. In canon, Danny sort of slides around this but hey, this should be a pretty upsetting incident.

So, Vlad immediately switches his attitude (because your girl loves redeemed Vladdie!), and the two work together for weeks to try and minimise any chances of either of them getting caught. Danny is really feeling the whole “Only two of their kind” when his president declared open season on Danny (I don’t care if this isn’t how laws work in America. I’m not American I don’t care for foreign legal accuracy).

And so, weeks later, they’re actually together in ghost form with Extended Team Phantom (Tucker, Sam, Jazz and Valerie) trying to figure out their best way forward because if Vlad openly opposes these laws as Mayor too publicly the GIW might start looking at him way too closely and everything would unravel. They really can’t pretend that revealing the possibility of a human/ghost hybrid wouldn’t put events around whichever of them hadn’t been caught under a brand-new light.

Valerie is there pretending not to be emotionally invested in her boss’ and Danny’s welfare while reading a book and occasionally leaping in with “Devil’s Advocate” comments of how the Fenton parents and GIW might respond to some of their ideas.

Then the Justice League show up. Now there’s a whole law (please see Navigate any storm for my HC about the JLA’s relationship with the anti-ecto acts) they're obligated to step in. Now, I’ve been pretty uniform with who I’m including in these notfics so for a change, here we get Wonder Woman, Barry Allen’s Flash, Supergirl and I think Jason Todd but dressed up as Batman (Bruce got a booboo on his ickle frontal lobe and is out for the count, Flash and Supergirl are here because I loved their dynamic in all crossovers in the DCTV universe PRE-crisis).

Here we have the perfect storm of well read (Diana and Jason) but kind of gullible and not-as-paranoid as Batman (Flash and Supergirl, Jason is definitely suspicious but would defer to an expert like Wonder Woman in the right scenario).

Diana has shown up ready to fight, Hestia’s lasso glowing in her hands, and Team Phantom is sharp – they’re well trained and smart, but they can’t really compete against superhumans like the JLA. Diana demands that they all surrender and relinquish control over their human sycophants before being taken into custody for violation of the anti-ecto acts and performing actions of war on civilians or whatever other legal stuff she knows about.

The two halfas are floating and green so denying any knowledge would be bad. Vlad steps forward to try and babble on to buy Danny time and he scrambles for an escape. He doesn’t see a way out, but what he does see is the book that Valerie was reading. Percy Jackson. He looks back at Wonder Woman. Back at the book. Back at the Daughter of Zeus.

“Cousin! It’s so great you came to visit us at last!”

That at least gets Wonder Woman to pause. She asks what he’s talking about. Then “Batman” says not to let the ghost confuse them. He’s glaring at the vampiric ghost who seems to be trying to protect the smaller one. Vlad has legs, Danny has his little tail form.

Danny lets out the fakest laugh you’ve ever heard. He explains that ‘of course’ they weren’t ghosts. They were superpowered beings. Superpowered beings are protected by metahuman law.

“Batman” points out that they both look a lot like ghosts. Danny’s mind is scrambling for the right names. He finds them.

“Oh, I am actually the son of Melinoe, goddess of ghosts.” Daughter of Persephone, would make him Diana’s first cousin, once removed. Totally fit in with his power set plus she was a really obscure goddess who wasn’t very well known or documented, and therefore he could make up stuff about his ‘mother’ if he so chose.

“And who’s the vampire?” Barry asks, though Jazz, at least can tell that everyone is way less on-guard.

“I am…” There’s a very long pause. “His Father. Deimos. God of Dread. Son of Aphrodite and Ares!” Danny wants to smack him.

Okay, great, Vlad just ‘yes, and’ed Danny from being a demigod to the both of them being full-blown gods in their own right. Sure.

“Yes! I am Phantom…”

Jazz cuts him off to say that his name was Phántasma [φάντασμα] and of course the locals just anglicized it to Phantom from the original Ancient Greek. Danny agrees and goes onto explain how he was a pretty new god – y’know, comparatively – and these were some nice humans who were all considering becoming his priestesses and priest. Sam ducks in to explain how Phantom – sorry, Phantasma, was the god of ghosts finally relinquishing hold on their forms and surrendering to the afterlife. Something chill and small, nothing that would necessitate him getting involved with human affairs and no abilities that would mean any extra attention from the Justice League.

Diana starts to cry, she thought she was all alone in the world and right here was her cousin. All along she had family in the realm of men, family who had been so excited to meet her yet who had not reached out. Unfortunately, Danny made a mistake. Melinoe isn’t Hades and Persephone’s daughter. She’s Zeus and Persephone’s daughter. Diana connects the dots and in a single instant stops crying.

“A baby brother!” She reaches forward to squish Danny’s face.

Jazz takes great offense at that. Danny is her brother (though she can’t admit that). Danny’s at closest, Diana’s half nephew – but since he’s her half nephew on BOTH sides she’s willing to concede him as her full nephew.  Diana argues that since her Dad is Danny’s grandfather and great-grandfather plus great uncle, their ichor is close enough that he’s basically her full brother. Ironic as Deimos would actually be closer to being her half-brother. Vlad is a creepy old vampire though, not an adorable teen superhero.

Tucker makes up a very elaborate story about being too insecure to reach out before now. He requests Phantasm’s blessing to convey this story to Wonder Woman so that Danny doesn’t have to say anything.

Valerie gets out a notebook to try and map out this fictional family tree while googling all the deities’ names she doesn’t already recognise. It makes her thankful it is only fictional. Phantasma’s family tree looks more like a Christmas wreath. “Batman” is also trying to figure out the most appropriate relationship between Phantasma and Diana in his HUD.

This is when everyone has made their biggest mistake, not paying attention to Vlad for more than a minute. This is a problem he is thrilled to remedy. His chest swells and he starts to prattle on about how hard it’s been for him as a single father since his beloved Melinoe died in the God War (Wonder Woman’s cinematic canon prequel). Of course, Supergirl asks how they survived, and they say some very broad things about sheltering in the afterlife where Ares could not reach them, as gods are most powerful in their own domain.

Disregarding the fact that if this all were true, Danny would be about 100 years older than her, Diana acknowledges that a child without a mother must struggle and offers to help Danny whenever necessary. If he wanted to, he could come live with her in DC and meet all her superhero friends to help guide him.

They’re scrambling for a reason as to why Danny would turn down this offer. Vlad speaks first. He explains that since his mother’s death, Danny has overtaken her domain as the god of all ghosts and, while Phantom is very clearly not a ghost, he couldn’t possibly leave all his subjects. Especially since the stupid GIW keep attacking father and son. Vlad says that honestly, the US government should be glad that they haven’t smote them, the GIW and everyone else who would challenge them.

Diana is horrified. Ghosts are revolting scum, and her two new family members are full-blooded gods who shine with otherworldly power and definitely not the glow of ectoplasm.

Whenever any of the other superheroes (who are more clear-headed at this time) try and ask any probing questions either:

Danny insists that a mere mortal wouldn’t understand the scope of his abilities

Tucker yells at them for daring to question “Phantasma’s” great authority

Sam insists that she would hate to be told the answer, that everything her god does is for her to decode. She asks what they think the symbolism of Danny robbing a bank could be.

She offers to get them in touch with the president and he could make them both special advisors to the GIW – the JLA had only been called in due to how much trouble the agency were having and bringing two gods in would be a quick way to get the entire situation ship shape.

The flash gets in touch with Phantasma’s high priestess next week, he reassures everyone that the ‘misunderstanding’ is all cleared up. Danny’s officially the CEO of the guys in white.

Hope everyone enjoyed. Masterpost coming soon.

((Dan as Hades???))

Here's "Phantasma's" family tree - simplified

[mermaidsirennikita]

I'm only halfway through s2 of vikings: valhalla but I'm so glad they separated harald and freydis because these 2 didn't have any chemistry, anytime they were together on screen it was always boring land to me. And I could say the same for leif and his dead girlfriend from season 1 that they tried to convince me he was super in love with when she was so forgettable I couldn't even remember her name

Lol her name was Liv and I liked her just fine but she definitely didn’t do anything especially exceptional. I think that you could make an argument for her representing like…. Leif feeling like he’s a flop pagan Viking, which he kind of is, but yeah she was not this grand love.

The thing that has always been an issue with this franchise is building love stories over time. Even when they have pairings with a compelling hook and chemistry between the actors, they don't allocate a lot of story time to them, and the actors have to fill in the gaps--which means that when the writers take sudden turns, it's even more jarring. Take Rollo and Gisla, a ship I think was fairly popular, that actually did have a multi-episode "falling in love" arc that most of the show's ships didn't get, with actors that had chemistry. She basically hated him until suddenly she didn't and they fucked like bunnies, and it was fine because a lot of people, myself included, liked them--but then a time jump happened and they had huge issues and it was like "oh, this is sudden".

Now, Michael Hirst (who I think...... is prone to this kind of relationship writing or lack thereof) is not as directly involved in the new show. I think he's largely involved in a capacity wherein he came up with the concept, but it's not really something he guides; at least, that was the case last I checked. But I think you see his fingertips in the relationship writing. When you've got a good hook and chemistry, you can make it work--Leif and Mariam, I found really charming because of chemistry, and because I liked Leif, who seems to be very torn about his place in the world and his relationships with people who have big ambitions and opposing religious stances (Freydis as a pagan and Harald as a Christian), forming this romance with this learned woman who helped him grow. Even if it's like, oh wow, Leif, who is mourning a woman, is now falling in love with a woman who's dying from the outset lol. It's Vikings. Women Big Dying.

And I think this approach also works pretty well with Emma and Canute, who really don't have a lot of screentime together... But the actors have chemistry and their entire bond is really compelling. They're both plotters and schemers and politicians, and he's super into her big brain while having a different approach to governing.

I actuallllly really like the romantic alternative they set up for Harald in season 2, even though there was way less screentime devoted to development than I'd like. I loved where it ended in the season (what a hook) and it made way more sense for him, imo, than Harald and Freydis.

Like, I have no idea why Harald is into Freydis. She really doesn't seem to align with his vision (and at the end of the day, Harald is all self-centered ambition and we love that for him) and she has like... zero respect for his religion. And don't get me wrong, I am not saying "Christians good", but the show's huge "pagans good, Christians bad" thing is.... boring lol. Like, Freydis really hates Christians, Harald is a Christian, and like. She's right in the premiere. They should just stop.

I don't get Freydis as a character at all. The performance doesn't do it for me, to be honest, and she's basically incredibly disconnected from EVERYONE in the main cast. Like, yeah, the England arc is disconnected from the BIG ARC (which is Harald and Leif) but.... There's way less time devoted to it than there is to Freydis, and there are several established mains involved--Emma, Godwin, and to a lesser extent Canute. Whereas Freydis was mostly on her own last season, with characters who really didn't end up carrying over to this one with her, and this season they basically had to make people up to interact with her. And the only one I cared about was Bradley James, who SOLD EVERY DAMN LINE LOL.

And the show did such a NOTICEABLE 180 in s2 (which I definitely enjoyed) versus the end of s1. You end s2 with Leif and Harald split and Harald with Freydis. Suddenly, by the end of the s2 finale, Harald and Freydis are big broken up, and Leif and Harald are back together and have an entire BRO ROAD TRIP the whole season, during which Harald is set up with another woman who I suspect will be pretty important to his ambitions. Yes, Freydis has Harald's baby, but I'm 90% sure that this was largely because the show super wants a kid with Harald and Leif's DNA in it.

Like, clearly Freydis was written to be a Lagertha 2.0, and as much as I hated Lagertha by the end of the original series, she was a very popular character and basically the face of the show for much of its time post-Travis Fimmel. I feeeel like they basically have to have that locked in so that they can promote their "ooh woman roar shield maiden rah rah" bullshit that got them viewers with the first show... But they know Freydis individually didn't play as well for viewers in the first season as Harald and Leif, lol. They know the thing that's most fun about this show is watching This Hot Guy Who Thinks He's Kinda A Big Deal and His Zen Friend Who Somehow Is Going Along With This have zany adventure with wacky hijinks. Like, Leif and Harald will never kiss, because Vikings, but the show is investing more time and development into that relationship than any canonical romantic relationship. Much like... some other... homoerotic relationships... on the original show... pick one of 500.

(Sidebar: I like Emma and Canute together a lot, but I also think that Emma and Godwin have a similar deal going on where they don't canonically have a romantic thing happening, but because they are not romantic the show actually devotes more time to their, in this case contentious relationship, so you wanna see them kiss. And Godwin has fabulous chemistry with Emma AND Canute, and Emma and Canute have chemistry, so it's like whenever they're all together I wait for Canute to be like "you guys fight so much, you know how we can resolve this?" before pushing their faces together. Canute seems like the type of guy who'd initiate a threesome that way.)

Anyway, I really enjoyed s2 but that was something I noticed a lot. Freydis basically having an arc you could totally fast-forward through without missing anything related to the main plot (again)... While Leif and Harald have the meat of the story. She's supposed to be as important as them, but I don't think the writers have their hearts in it with her. So she's basically a total cypher. She's the Keeper of the Faith, and it's like? Cool? Harald is like, going to be an actual king and Leif is gonna discover America, but they need a Strong Viking Woman because they can't let Emma be the Strong Woman rep because she's not a viking and also wears dresses a lot, which means she is not actually strong.

Also, everyone who is against Freydis needs to be a super legit bad person because she gets to be Cool and Good, whereas Emma must be Cool and Treacherous. Because she does not fight with a sword (straightforward and masculine), she fights with politics and her brain, which are bad (subversive and feminine). Though I really had fun with Emma's arc this season and I don't think they were like... trying to make us hate her the way they used to try to make us hate Aslaug, it was kinda funny to watch the contrast.

Anyway. Bring on season 3 and for the love of God, continue to lean in to with Leif and Harald shenanigans versus Freydis like. Midsommar singing.

[ofwraithsandwords]

Sees: "This sort of goes into my headcanon on how Integra's father has influenced her conduct with her subordinates and her position as director, but that's another subject entirely."

May you please explain more about this! (same anon btw). I am very interested! I feel like it might be in the minority of thinking she's not a very good leader/director. Her go-to solution to most things is to send Alucard out. Which always leads to a mess. Even her father realized that using him too much could've been bad. Not sure why or how he came to that conclusion. Or if ever learned from it in his later life… But I do find it interesting that his daughter proceeded to use Alucard for everything involving vampire extermination. Even gaining a replacement for alucard in seras during the 30-year gap.

More likely, stuff like that was written for cool set pieces/fights rather than show questionable leadership choices. Thus some of my confusion comes from whether this is sloppy writing or was actually intended in some way. Also, I should end this by saying this isn't a knock on her character. I just like to overthink ideas in this manga too much.

Hey again, Anon! Sorry for the delay!

Yeah, I do feel like Integra's leadership skills are definitely lacking in certain situations, but like you said, this is likely more of a way to showcase Alucard's abilities and violence in the anime as opposed to showing how Integra is kind of an incompetent director.

But here's the thing: you have to remember that Integra was given the organization when she was...14, I think? So she basically had 7 or 8 years to learn all the ins-and-outs of not only vampires as a species, but occult/supernatural-related subjects as well AND has to direct, supervise, plan, and mitigate any incidents/operations thrown her way. All the while keeping this secret sector of the English government totally under wraps. So...no pressure?

Like you, I don't think less of Integra as a character if she's seen as a faulty leader. In fact, I think it makes sense in certain cases and makes her characterization more complex and nuanced.

Anyways, as far as my headcanons about how her father shaped some of her mannerisms goes, I think it was his more clandestine behavior is what really effected Integra the most. The womanizing, drinking, smoking, fraternizing with other officials and superiors, keeping the true nature (or at least part of) the Hellsing Organization from his only daughter - the list goes on. Being around this behavior is going to have an impact on a child, especially seeing how her father probably treated women as little more than arm candy and a means for pleasure.

I think this might've been part of what drove Integra to dress in suits, to smoke cigars, and go by "Sir" in order to be on the same pedestal as her male counterparts. You could argue that it's because only knights could join the Round Table of Protestant Knights and not dames, but honestly? It's not like they couldn't make an exception. They wouldn't have had a choice. Regardless of what your opinion is, Integra chose to go by "Sir". No one calls her Mistress Integra, Lady Integra, or Dame Integra - there's only one person that refers to her with a female title and it's the Nazi war criminal himself with "Mein Fräulein".

I also have a headcanon that until Seras showed up, Integra was very in the closet and had a good bit of internalized misogyny. I mean, she grew up around and was raised almost exclusively by men, most of which who implicitly benefited from their patriarchal government. I'm sure a few of them had a few choice things to say about women and minorities in general despite Integra being half-Indian.

Anyway, once Seras was introduced and she and Integra spent the next 3 decades together, I like to think that Integra really unlearned quite a bit of the prejudice that was put on her at an early age and came to be proud of her identity as a half-Indian woman.

Most unsavory comments are met with criticism or a good glare from her which ended up causing quite a rift between her and some of the other knights. But most of them are maggot food at this point, so it doesn't really matter.

I will say though, despite her being much more respectful than her father, she's been known to put on the charm in front of a pretty lady once in a while.

[paramoira]

the opposing facets of ariadne's life had always attempted to house a strange kind of separation, though in equal measure had always been magnets attracted to each other, pulled by some invisible force of inevitability. her mother had always maintained a distance from the family she'd married into aside from kadir-- had always encouraged her father to find his base further and further into the light than the shadows. for awhile, he had, and the heavens knew he wasn't as involved in uncle nik's operations as he could have been. and yet, he still was involved; sometimes ariadne wondered if that and her fathers' continued absence was her fault on some level.

would he have been as involved if she hadn't nagged him so many times when he had actually been present to take her on a trip two hours outside of london?

would he still have been as involved if these trips hadn't allowed for an ulterior motive for him to go hence?

the short answer is, her father had always been the person he was and regardless to her irrational wonderments, he was always going to be on the path he'd chosen decades ago.

ariadne thinks, maybe, that was her parents problem before all the other shit came into play. her mother had attempted to change him, to turn him into someone he wasn't without accepting all of him. his choices hadn't made him a bad man, just.. complicated. he'd held his own reasons and perhaps some of those same reasons, even if he hadn't always been as present in her life as others, were what had governed her ability to accept elements of life others would find much more difficulty within. but ariadne understood, perhaps better than most these days, that there was a difference between seeking to bring and inspire light into someone's life and seeking to change them into someone they weren't. and that maybe, just maybe, even as people evolved, it was merely watering the seeds which had always been part of them.

maybe her parents were doomed even had things played out differently.

it's strange how she thinks about that often these days even when ariadne hasn't spoken to her father in sixty-seven days. and there inlaid how ariadne's life stood upon a precipice of magnetic forces attempting to collide so often. maybe in some other world she could maintain the distance. she couldn't imagine her life in any scenario being fully black or white-- family, loyalty.. it was too integral to who she was as a human being. yet she wondered if in another life a boy named tommy hadn't entered her world what that would have looked like because sometimes she considers those strange early mornings years ago when she came to help polly and now with her presence in brimingham so regular despite working with the coppers in london, that from the moment tommy shelby blasted into her life there was an inevitability within; cosmic forces determined to intermingle in the same way like called to like for her father, him always having a foothold in nik's world.

and yet, how strange it was that ariadne could walk these streets and feel at home among people her coworkers never would. people that perhaps most people wouldn't. their worlds to outsiders shouldn't make sense together. but for children that hadn't mattered. it did, but it didn't. she liked tommy because he was tommy and she thinks he liked her the same. perhaps in ariadne's mind there was a kind of separation of some things, an ability to accept both sides of the coin of life. being connected to the shelby family didn't correlate to an inability for her to help the coppers bring justice to a murder victim. they were all facets of her life and she was okay with that in a way her mother never had been able to be with her father. in a way her mother had never been with ariadne's relationship with the shelbys either-- but she hadn't been around enough to prevent it and perhaps, even as a child, araidne had held enough sense when her mother or grandparents were around to not push in the same ways she did with others she knew would accept such dynamics in her life.

again, strange, the fashion in which her mind makes these parallels.

tommy shelby was.. her friend for nearly as long as she can remember. even if the weight he brought upon her heart these days was nearly unbearable. even if sometimes she wanted to hate him for the words he let come out of his mouth since his return and the harsh tone to her own at times. 'i didn't come here to see you. john called me.' she'd said once, a few weeks ago after the disaster of his words toward her the visit before. but had she meant it? in her heart? perhaps not and she thinks he knew that. didn't that make it all the worse? that even when they were so distant, when he was pushing her away from him over and over again she was positive he still knew her? understood her? could read her? it was infuriating. it'd have been so much easier if she could have hated him. but in what world could ariadne ever do that? in what world would she not see the weight of sadness, of trauma in his eyes? the confliction he always attempted to hide from her?

there was more too this. more to everything. she knows it in every cell within her body even if she doesn't understand the specifics. she knows him more than she thinks he wants to accept. maybe it's why she keeps showing up. sure she'd usually come there for polly or arthur or john or even others but there was something more. like calling to like, even if she hadn't fully come to realize just how true such was. furthermore, ariadne had never given up on anything that mattered within her life and she certainly wasn't willing to give up on tommy fucking shelby even if half the time he made her want to push him into the canal. and yet, perhaps, this was at the forefront of a strength within her that her mother never held. ariadne, even in her lack of true understanding of the details which governed so many people within her life, had never sought to change those people. she'd accepted them in the same fashion they had accepted her.

loyalty, understanding, respect. it's something that strikes her lacks when she's there at the garrison, watching interactions between people and the blonde women behind the bar. she's not entirely sure why she notices, except she'd seen the woman, grace, and tommy talking and perhaps that'd caused her to pay attention. she rarely allows herself to allow her thoughts to wonder upon it. but it was these concepts, respect at the forefront, which were why uncle nik was so proud when she went into forensics, even when she'd gotten her placement when by all accounts it should horrify a crime boss because she wasn't on the take. she was in the work because she cared. because she believed in it. it was also why ariadne had been able to walk into the garrison for years and feel safe that any of patrons saw her as simply ariadne and not as some narc or enemy. because she'd never judged them. they lived the lives they'd chosen and she did the job she'd chosen. it didn't have to be opposing, it just had to not be related to each other in a professional manner. maybe she was naïve for that mentality but it was who she'd always been and ariadne saw it as a strength and her mother's lack of an ability to adapt as a weakness. life had never been black and white. wasn't in any world or scenario. there was little benefit in attempting to force it to be. perhaps that was unkind to her mother's memory but it was the truth.

it was reality.

an inevitability in the same way that ariadne's destination now, on this cold night, was inevitable. because she didn't know who this random woman who'd shown up one day was really. she was willing to allow her the benefit of the doubt, to see the good in people, but grace was asking questions. too many questions and ariadne wanted to understand why. tommy shelby was being a god awful human being to her lately, but she was going to be damned if she wasn't going to show up when something felt.. unsettling about this woman's interest. maybe grace likes him, she'd considered with a kind of shift of her mood she'd managed to ignore. that'd have been an innocent enough thing and one perhaps she allows to be at the forefront of her mind because she wants to trust people even if she's faced half-truths so often in the past. but the fact remained. grace was asking about tommy and ariadne needed to know why. she could push tommy shelby into the canal tomorrow for being a dick. tonight, she was going to make sure he was.. what? protected? as if she held any real power in his world?

still, ariadne had always liked a challenge.

there's something in the air tonight, as if the wind has agendas of it's own-- a wraith in the night. unsettling... dreaded. ariadne feels the weight of it in her bones, the chill as she'd walked upon old streets.. echoes. echoes of a time when blood seeped into layers underfoot. down deep into the ground, through eras buried by time. perhaps blood still seeped, the reaper taking. she reads the news, the settings upon her phone tending to cause notifications to steer toward the places she frequents. (and when was the last time she hadn't frequented this city? even in tommy's absence-- especially because of tommy's absence. she still remembers those weekends when she'd helped polly with a young child and a group of kids reeling from loss and then tommy wasn't there. he wasn't there and she hadn't fully known why.) troubles found this place, then, now, in the moments it takes her trainers to crunch the ground of an area of turned up stone.

why is she there?

she'd asked herself when she'd entered some time ago now. of course, ariadne had known why she was in brimingham again-- john this time, polly last time. yet was it not truly because of thomas shelby in the end? hadn't it always come back to the boy who'd taught her to throw her first punch? there's little talk at first, a strange kind of awkwardness in the stifling air of the bar. ariadne allows it, doesn't push first, waits, wants to see where grace begins. the women's lips part and then the door rattles nearly off it's hinges. at least that's what it feels like and it sets ariadne on edge. makes her heart jump because it's unexpected. because she remembers a door, a shaking door that her mother had been trying to open when she'd run away from her and then the silence which had followed. it takes her a moment, held breath released as grace moves away from the bar and toward the door. ariadne watches, regaining control of her senses as tommy enters and she knows, gods she knows before he even speaks that something is terribly wrong.

she almost speaks, wants to ask what's happened before he even sees her there and yet grace speaks first, trying to tell him the place is god damned closed. who the fuck tells thomas shelby the garrison is closed? can't she see the creases in his features? can't she see the built up tension radiating off him? maybe she can't. because grace doesn't see him in the same way she does. danger. danger. they mean to kill him. her breath begins to catch again when he sees her, when she watches the way panic starts to rise in him and maybe, maybe in some strange way there's a truth in his anger and the way he points at her. there isn't indifference toward her. he's scared because she's there and there's people coming to kill him. he's scared because he cares. there's more to it. she remembers her own thoughts. all the swirling questions she's had since he'd gone and since he'd come back. yet none of it mattered now when there were men coming to kill him in moments.

grace fumbles for answers. ariadne gives her none.

then there's a gun and edicts given and it should shake ariadne more than it does. the whole of this situation. yes, there's fear rising within her. there's a kind of panic that's making her palms sweaty and her skin to turn a shade lighter. yet she's forcing her breaths in and out, forcing herself to remain in the moment because there was danger and people were coming to kill tommy and ariadne couldn't imagine a world where he wasn't in it. she'd known what it was like to lose him, but this was different. absence wasn't death. she watches grace take the gun. she sees tommy's fear so clearly laid before her that she takes a step forward because she wants to reach out but there's no time. there's no time. there's no time. and then comes the anger, building within her as he speaks of back doors and upstairs. she's shaking her head without even realizing it. as if her body is physically revolted at the notion.

why would she leave him? how could she leave him? she should. it was the safer option. it's what the panic and fear within her was telling her to do.

he steps closer and she can feel him even without touching. the way their energies sparked with fear of loss. he speaks in her native tongue and it takes her the infinity of a second to understand his meaning. cops would come. cops. she worked with cops but these cops... the were on the take. it didn't matter. it did, but it didn't now. no. he's worried about her, about perceptions. about implications even when he's about to stare death in the fucking face and it makes her want to shove him for his stupidity. for the ridiculousness of it. she'd maintained a separation in her life for so long but what the fuck did it matter if a cop saw her now, in this moment? what the fuck did it matter when tommy was staring at her with such fear in his eyes that she could literally feel it?

and then he's moving. out of her space. time is moving again, too fast. she feels the weight of years of loss and she's scared. what she should do and what she does are contradictory. her voice rebels against her body. against her fears. because even if her life's conclusion was within the infinity of a few moments, perhaps especially because of it, she refused to allow fear to take over. ariadne had never had any issues saying no to tommy before. not like other people did. she'd also never abandoned him before. she wasn't about to start now.

"no." she replies, simply, as if it's the easiest and most sure answer she's ever given him. she speaks it in the language he taught her and then she moves. let him be angry. let him hate her even if it's the last thing they'd share. but neither of them would be alone. maybe that mattered more. she pulls out the chair and sits next to him forcing her facial features to appear less terrified than she is. she's digging her nails into her thigh so hard that it's bound to leave marks. because she is terrified. she's terrified of so many things and she has no idea what the fuck she's doing. this wasn't her world. it wasn't her world. it wasn't. and yet, maybe it had been, a part of it, all along. a part she'd been sheltered from, but still a part of it all the same. she didn't know what to do what that. but it didn't matter. it didn't matter. because all that mattered was that when those entered the bar she was sitting at a table next to the first boy that'd she'd ever felt truly comfortable with. the first boy that she'd loved in the the most pure and innocent way. he'd been her first true friend and... simply, because he was him and she was her. and, well, he had taught her how to throw a pretty epic punch.

NEVER IN HIS LIFE HAS THE TICKING of the stopwatch in Tommy's waistcoat so thunderously resounded through the cavity of his skull, the imperceptible scratch of thinned metal against gears grinding away in the background of each movement of the second hand. It sounds as though Death himself approaches, growing close enough to let his victim hear the last seconds of their own life through some strange spell. He has three minutes and forty-two seconds to get inside the Garrison and explain five-minute plan to the only person he could expect to be there, and even that is a long shot, this late in the evening. Part of him is mortified when he tries the door to find it locked, his knuckles white as he grips the door handle and shakes the entryway door hard enough to hear the glass warping with the wooden frames.

His rising panic is quenched at the sight of Grace's silhouette filling the lace-covered windows, and she bends to unlock the bolt in the ground barring him from entry. As soon as the lock is undone, Thomas shoves his way inside, too focused to roll his eyes at the attempted protests from Grace.

" W-We're closed, Mr. Shelb- "

Thomas cuts the barmaid off with a dizzying sort of intensity, almost manic in a sharp gesture with his flat hand. " Leave the door unlocked. I don't have much time and I need a favor. When the clock at St. Andrews' chimes at midnight, two men will come through that door. They plan to kill me. Are you alone.. ? "

His voice fades to something that sounds much more like panic than he'd have liked when he turns and sees Ariadne standing awkwardly like a bad thief caught with her hand in a safe. He freezes completely, the cold blue of his eyes darkening to something frenzied and angry as he turns sharply back to the barmaid with a demand. He points a long, calloused finger at Ari.

" What the fuck is she doing in here ? "

Grace, stricken, looks to Ariadne as if she expects the woman she'd invited ( convinced, rather ) to stay to have access to her own reasons as to why she'd done it. Her shoulders jump and her gaze returns to the man in the entryway when he barks at her again.

" Don't fucking look at her. I'm asking you, Grace. "

She opens her mouth to respond but the second hand of Tommy's pocket watch begins to quiet down in his head, and a cold flash of dread returns him to reality just in time. He has less than ninety seconds left.

Thomas presses the heels of his hands to his eyes and heaves a sigh that sounds so exhausted you'd think he'd been up for days. Perhaps he has. He's... looked better.

It takes him a moment to compose himself, but he withdraws a pistol from the inner pocket of his overcoat, checks to ensure that it is loaded, and turns back to the barmaid. She seems as unsure as anyone as to his intentions with the weapon, and could not appear more shocked when he offers it to her, grip-first, to carry for herself.

" When the church bell strikes midnight, two men will come in through the front door. I will be sitting there. You will be hiding back there. When I make a toast, you come out with that thing cocked and loaded. You just point it. Don't shoot. "

He uses his finger to point out each location and the weight of their significance with seconds left to enact a shaky plan that has been thrown off entirely by the presence of Ariadne, through no fault of her own. That makes it worse.

Another victim to being attached in any way to Thomas Shelby, through no fault of their own.

" Fuck, " he hisses, doubling over with his head in his hands, hiding a face twisted with sorrow. His breath hitches once, as if he is about to cry ; but as if nothing had happened, he quickly rights himself again to look at Ariadne with eyes so full of fear and guilt that it hurts to see. " You need to leave, Ari. There's a back entrance some ways past the stock of new kegs in the cellar... "

You don't have enough time. The cellar door is probably already being covered by IRA snipers.

" ... But... it isn't safe. " Fifty seconds left before the bell. " Upstairs, or behind the bar, or into the snug... "

Cogs turn in his head and he cannot bear to imagine the consequence of choosing the wrong order to give, to have her be caught up in all of this shit of which he's been so determined to keep her out.

Tommy has had his suspicions about Grace for a while. She asks too many pointed questions, asks for too many specifics. She doesn't mind her own business. She seems intent on getting Thomas to speak to her like he trusts her. None of it had been anything even close to damning, easy to write off as a mixture of her curiosity and his paranoia. But this...

This is a bit different.

" Hide somewhere, and stay quiet," he says, then steps forward and lowers his voice, switching instead to Turkish to keep Grace in the dark.

" The police are due at the sixth chime of the bell, and I do not want you seen here when they arrive. "

Like he's cast a spell the second hand of his watch stands eerily still, and he seems to spring to action, loading his own gun only to tuck it away again and rushing to carry a bottle of whisky and a pitcher of water with three glasses to a nearby table. In English again, he shouts over his shoulder at the woman standing in front of the bar, no doubt consumed with confusion and fear.

" Ari, go. Now. Now. "

@paramoira