#didn’t have access to the direct quote for some of these so apologies if the wording is a bit off

[zukkaoru]

for the ask game - "please come get me" with best friends sokka & toph ?

may i offer you some modern au sokka & toph featuring nonbinary toph & sokka with tourette's?

warnings for alcohol / unintentional underage alcohol consumption / a character being drugged via drinks being switched around (all are only talked about, as this is entirely set after the fact)

(angst quote prompts)

Sokka told Toph not to go to the party.

He told them that they would regret it. That it wouldn’t be as fun as it looks on TV, that it’ll be a sensory nightmare, that it’ll get too crowded for them to properly use their cane, that parties are not made to be accessible for anyone beyond your average frat boy.

But all of the frustration and the I told you so attitude fade away as soon as he answers the call.

“Please come get me,” is the only thing Toph says. Their words slur together just enough for Sokka to pick up on it, and he can hear muffled music and shouts in the background.

Sokka is on his feet before they’ve even finished their sentence. “Where are you? I’m on my way.” He puts the phone on speaker and sets it down so he can tug on his jacket and grab his keys.

“‘m outside. Not too far fr’m th’ house.”

Sokka nods, more to himself than as a response to Toph. His shoulder rolls as he goes to reach for his phone and he bites back a groan so Toph won’t hear it and think it’s directed at them. “Are you - y-you, you - safe?” A whistle follows the question before Sokka can suppress it.

(Toph knows his tics are worse when he’s stressed, and he doesn’t need them worrying about him right now.)

“Mm-hmm. …’m sorry.”

“You don’t have anything to be sorry for,” Sokka assures them as he picks up his phone successfully this time. He finds the address Toph sent him for pick up purposes, though he wasn't scheduled to pick them up for another few hours.

“You said I shouldn’ go. You were right. ‘nd now you have t’ come get me early, ‘nd…” their voice trails off.

“I’m not mad - mad. mad. mad. - at you. I’m just worried. I don’t - t-t-t - want you - t-t-t, t-t-t - getting hurt. And - mad, mad, mad, t-t-t - and I know you can t-- t-t-t - take care of yourself, but that doesn’t mean I’ll stop worrying about you, okay? You’re a little sibling to me, and it’s my job to worry about my little siblings.”

Sokka grabs a water bottle from the fridge before slipping his shoes on and hurrying down the stairs and outside of the building.

Toph doesn’t say anything until Sokka’s getting into his car, and it’s just a quiet, “Thank you.”

“I’m going to stay on the call with you until I get there, okay?”

“Okay. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

--

He finds Toph sitting in the grass, near the road but not close enough that they’re in any danger. The party has spilled out onto the front porch, but not close enough to Toph that Sokka can make out any of the conversation.

Sokka parks on the side of the road near where Toph is, not particularly caring if it’s a legal move or not, and then jumps out and hurries over to them.

Toph looks up like they can see him as he approaches. “Sokka?”

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“...Can you help me walk?”

(That’s not a good sign.)

“Of course.”

Carefully, Sokka helps Toph to their feet. One of their arms goes around Sokka while the other continues to tightly clutch their cane.

They promised Sokka they wouldn’t drink, but Sokka is pretty confident they didn’t keep their word. He isn’t going to harp on them for that right now, though - he can give them a lecture on underage drinking tomorrow if the hangover isn’t persuasive enough.

Sokka mumbles something under his breath - one of his tics, but he’s hardly paying enough attention to recognize which it is right now - and Toph apologizes again.

“You don’t have to keep apologizing. I’m not upset. I’m glad you called me instead of just trying to tough it out.”

Toph sniffs, but doesn’t say anything else. Sokka helps them into the passenger seat, fastens their seatbelt for them, and then goes around to get in his own seat. He hands them the water bottle and waits in silence until they’re done drinking.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Toph shrugs. “Someone switched my drink. Not much to talk about.”

“Someone w--” he’s interrupted by a tongue click. “Someone did what?!”

“Song helped me get outside ‘nd call you. She couldn’t drive me home b’cause she was drinking ‘nd Jin wasn’t comin’ t’ get her ‘ntil late b’cause she was on a date.” They take another drink of water and then hand the bottle and lid to Sokka. “Can’t get it back on.”

Sokka screws the lid on and hands the bottle back to Toph. “You’re okay, though?”

Toph nods. “Didn’ notice though til it was too late. Thought it tasted kinda funny, but didn’t know why ‘ntil Song tried it ‘nd said it tasted like there was tequila in it.”

Sokka blinks. “How did you not notice that?”

“Someone dared me to drink a… lemonade-coke-fruit punch-milk mix.”

“...Okay.” Sokka decides he’s not going to question that one. It sounds very much like a Toph thing to take someone up on that dare and fully follow through with it. “I’m going to take you to my apartment for the night, but do you want me to get you food on the way home?”

Toph hesitates, and then nods. “Can you get fries?”

“Yeah, I’ll get you some fries.”

“Thank you.”

“Of course.” Sokka shifts into drive and slowly begins to drive away, making sure there are no party stragglers in his path.

“Sokka?” Toph speaks up again after a few moments of silence.

“Hm?”

“I’m glad I get to be like your little sibling.”

(Sokka absolutely does not have to blink back tears at that.)

“I’m glad I get to be like your brother.”

[marvelsswansong]

Could you please do 48 with Sugar daddy!Bucky, please? Thank you!

48: “Why do you keep this picture of me in your wallet?”

word count: 2.3K

a/n: includes mention of sexy times (obviously, it’s a sugar daddy AU). I changed the quote slightly to fit the blurb better, sorry about that x blurb requests are still open, check my bio for more info :)

NOTE: above gif is simply used for aesthetic. not to indicate the reader is imagined to be white and skinny. 

regular taglist: @wantyoubackpeter @platonic-plots @superwholockwannabe @xxmizzlexx @xdsockmonkey @princess-unicorn124  @not-jay-c @therealmrshale @caswinchester2000 @heartbeats-wildly @mostlylyricedits @musiclover1263 @angel-spidey @delicately-important-trash @theimpossiblehologramtree @sweetstilesofmine @valentinevirgo @barnes-heaven @paintingbellarke @cherryblossowm @sailorcrescentpotter1 @tomshufflepuff

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

“No feelings, just business.”

That’s what he had told you, the first time he had bought you that far too expensive champagne at the bar at a roof party in Milan. You had been dragged there by Natasha after turning down her offer to let you stay in her penthouse for a few weeks while you could find another place to live in after your landlord had decided to kick you out for a wealthier renter. As a university student, you needed to find a new place to live, and fast, near the university. Unfortunately, your university was in the smack middle of the city- making any possible accommodation extremely expensive.

“Just two drinks and you can leave.” Natasha argued, grabbing your hand and dragging you into the party. You already regretted entering as you felt so out of place- Natasha had been born into wealth, her father being an oil baron and her mother being one of the most famous actresses in Russia’s history. The other people at the party were those in her circle, other rich, successful and attractive people far above your caliber.

“I don’t belong here, Nat.” you complained, frantically pulling at your dress. She had insisted on buying it for you, going as far as pretending to go to the bathroom before paying the bill at the cashier of the designer store, but it was far too tight and short. The black little number clung to every crevice of your skin and matched with the velvet heels you were wearing, making you feel slightly self conscious with every step you took.

“Nonsense, babe. You look fucking gorgeous, you’ve been stressing too much lately and you need to blow off some steam tonight! Besides-” she leaned in closer to your ear to whisper. “I’m pretty sure half of the men here want to jump into your pants tonight.” 

You didn’t even want to glance at the direction she was pointing at and scowled, pushing her off with a playful glare.

“You’re just saying that because you’re my best friend.” 

“No I’m not, I-” 

Someone near the pool called Natasha’s name and she gave you a brief apology and a hug before scurrying off, greeting the other person with a loud scream. She was definitely a social butterfly, whilst you took a bit of time to warm up to people- especially in situations where you felt out of place. And now you were left. 

Alone.

“Could I keep you company instead?” a deep voice rung out from behind you. His tall stature dwarfed yours in comparison as he extended his hand towards you, the cuff links of his Armani suit rolled back slightly to expose his skin. The designer suit was nothing compared to his gorgeous face, a hint of stubble on his chin and a jawline that could cut crystal glass.4

“S-sure.”

He ordered the two of you a cocktail you’d never heard the name of, but you didn’t question it, still mesmerized by his presence. He chuckled at your obvious stare, causing you to look away in embarrassment.

“Are you fond of Oscar de la Renta?” he asked, seemingly out of nowhere.

“W-who?” 

He chuckled at your frantic response, sipping on his glass slowly as he eyed you up and down.

“Your dress. It’s an Oscar de la Renta piece.... You’re not a part of this usual crowd, are you?” 

You shook your head sideways, confirming his suspicion.

“How’d you know Natasha?” 

“We go to the same university. She invited me to this party because I’ve been pretty stressed in between studying and finding a new place to stay... Money’s really tight right now and places in the city are expensive...” you rambled on, not noticing the shift in his eyes as he listened to your predicament.

“I could help you, you know.” he proposed. You chuckled nervously, toying with the hem of your dress.

“I don’t even know who you are.”

“The name’s Bucky. Bucky Barnes.”

Three glasses of wine later and he’d lured you in, trading details of your life with his. You found out that he was a self-made billionaire who co-owned a private equity firm with his business partner, Steve Rogers. With hundreds of companies under his palm, he had it all- the money, the fame in the business world, the admiration and loyalty. But he wanted more than a “quick fuck”, as he put it.

“So what exactly are you proposing?” you’d pressed, leaning in closer. He smirked, flexing his rolex watch in the dim bar light.

“I could be your sugar daddy, in the bluntest terms.”

“Do I look like the type of girl who’d be a sugar baby?” 

He raised his eyebrow.

“I don’t know, doll, but... you’re fucking gorgeous. And out of money. I know you’re busy with school and all, but all I’m asking is that when you’re not at school to accompany me. I’ll give you everything else- money, gifts, trips to exotic places, connections.... All you need to give me is affection and physical company.” 

You bit your lip, mulling this over. The thought of being a sugar baby had never entered your mind, but here you were, being offered the world and more by an insanely attractive man. And all you had to do was keep him company- emotionally and sexually. His hand traveled over to your lap, his clean cologne warming your senses as he awaited your answer.

"No feelings, just business, right?” you asked quietly. He nodded.

“No feelings, just business.”

That solidified your decision.

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

For the first few months, you followed him everywhere.

Fiji. London. Paris. French Rivieras.

You’d let him pin you against the wall and fuck you senseless at the hotel room in exchange for an unlimited access to his platinum credit card the next day. He spoiled you with designer dresses from brands you couldn’t even pronounce and gifts that could single-handedly pay off student loans. 

With your schedule as a full time student and his hectic lifestyle as a billionaire CEO, you both agreed on having spaced out interactions. If he was in the city, you’d meet him twice a week, maybe even more if he was offering extra. If he was travelling, you could take a week off, week and a half off, maximum, to see him. On the days where you couldn’t physically see him, lots of sexts and calls were exchanged, all from the new phone Bucky had bought you. 

It was as business as it could get, or so you thought.

You’d gotten a call from Bucky in the middle of the night, whilst you were cramming for a final, even though you’d both agreed at the beginning that meeting up during finals would be extremely limited.

“Hello?”

“I need you to fly with me to Boston tomorrow night.”

You sighed, rubbing your eyes.

“Bucky, I can’t. I’m swamped with finals and-”

“Doll, I’m literally begging you, I-” 

That caught your attention, causing you to sit straight up. Bucky never begged for anything. Let alone, to you.

“My family’s been bugging me about meeting my new ‘girlfriend’ and me ‘settling down’ or whatever. I already told them I was bringing you, please, doll? I’ll double, even triple your pay.”

“Buck... It’s not about the money right now, I really need to do well on my finals. It’s in two weeks.” 

“And we’ll be back in a day or so, it’s just a quick stop by. Please... do this for me? A-at least as a friend, we’re at least friends, right?” 

And for some reason, perhaps it was because he sounded unusually desperate, you said yes. He picked you up in his limo the next day, exactly at 6pm, and you flew with him in his private jet to his childhood home in Boston. 

“It’s a little small.” he’d warned on the plane, as he helped you step down the metal stairs. 

Small your fucking ass.

You were astounded by the sheer amount of ground the mansion covered, as a maid scurried towards you and took your bags into the house. The steep marble arches and the high pane windows made you feel small, as you felt Bucky slip his arm around your waist and guide you towards the entrance.

Bucky’s mother was waiting for you at the door, pulling you into a tight hug and gushing about how pretty and polite you were to Bucky. You felt your heart skip a beat when Bucky referred to you as his “girlfriend”, but you forced yourself to breathe and smile.

No feelings, just business, you had to remind yourself. 

Bucky was dragged off to the side by his sister and father, meaning that you were dragged to the kitchen to keep his mother company. She was a very lovely woman, which was why you felt quite guilty lying to her about dating her son. 

“I’m so happy you’re dating my son, (Y/n).” she cooed, opening the stove. “I’ve never seen him stare at a woman so madly in love.” 

Signing if off as good acting on Bucky’s part, you smiled, waving off her compliment.

“I’m the lucky one, miss. That said, I’m pretty sure I’m the romantic in the relationship.” you joked, eliciting a laugh from her.

“I wouldn’t be too sure about that, you know. I’ve seen that picture of you in his wallet.”

Picture? 

Bucky never told you he kept physical pictures of you. You’d spend him pictures and you two took pictures on dates and outings, sure, but it was all digitalized and kept away in your phones....

Right?

Before you could question her further, she announced that dinner was ready, forcing you to sit next to Bucky. He pulled out a chair for you, causing his sister to outwardly “aww”, and making you let out a shaky sigh.  His hand found his way down the table to rest in yours, his thumb grazing your hand repeatedly in a soothing manner. 

That was new.

Bucky was an affectionate man, but he usually kept it brief, unless in bed. 

“So (Y/n), tell us more about how you met Bucky.” Rebecca pressed, sipping on her glass of wine with a teasing smile. The conversation flowed easily from there, jokes and embarrassing childhood memories being thrown around as time passed by. Four cups of wine and a mortifying story about Bucky falling on his face during a dance recital at his boarding school, you and Bucky clambered up to bed, your face still red from laughter.

“It’s not that funny.” Bucky grumbled underneath his breath as you clung onto him for support.

“Sorry, I just... I never would’ve thought you’d be a dancer. Let alone a clumsy dancer.” you teased, opening the door to the bedroom.

“Well I guess there’s more of me for you to discover.” 

The drunken haze lifted from your consciousness at his response, the sudden soft tone catching you off guard. The entire night, you drank away your fears, the fear that maybe he liked you back. You’d realized you had caught feelings for him, hard, about two months into it, but you’d talked yourself out of acting on it.

No feelings, just business. That is what he had said.

But the whole night he went out of his way to touch you, holding your hand and kissing the back of your neck. Calling you “doll” and “sweetheart.” Telling his family stories about you with an adoring gaze in his eyes. And according to his mother, that picture of you in his wallet...

“Shit, I left my phone downstairs. I’ll be right back.” he said, interrupting your train of thought. He conveniently left his wallet behind, and when you flipped it open, there indeed was a picture of you inside. 

And not just any picture.

It was one of you, passed out on his lap after a particularly grueling and boring conference call, in which Bucky was working from his home. You weren’t dressed up, hell, you didn’t even have any makeup on. Just an old t-shirt he owned and short pajama shorts, and a pair of penguin socks. It was oddly domestic and simple.

And he had it printed and stuck in between the leather bindings of his wallet.

“Why do you keep this picture of me in your wallet?” 

Bucky’s smile dropped off his face as his eyes shifted to the picture he’d been hiding away in your hand, dread seeping across his chest. He swore under his breath, he knew he should’ve kept it somewhere more secretive, but he just couldn’t help himself.

“Can I be honest?”

You nodded as he took in a deep breath.

“I.... I know I said ‘no feelings, just business’, and really, at the beginning, I thought that was all it was going to be. But... somewhere down the line, I realized, you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. You’re wicked smart. You’re so kind. You’re not afraid to crack a joke at my expense. You’re... the perfect girl for me, except I was paying for it. I was paying for this... fantasy. Before you say anything, I know you don’t feel the same. I know this is all business for you, so uh, if you want to end the relationship now, since I’ve gotten attached, I’ll under-”

He’s cut off by your body crashing into his, your arms wrapping around his shoulders and he can taste the cherry wine on your lips as you press into him. He eagerly returns the kiss but is left dazed when you pull back, a wide smile on your face.

“I love you, you idiot.” 

He smiles back, a smile so bright and sweet that makes your heart flutter, before he pulls you onto his lap on the bed. His hand is already underneath your blouse as he pulls out his phone, his lips tracing your neck.

“So... what’d you say I get a new picture for my wallet?”

[robininthelabyrinth]

Fic prompt: lxc pretends to be lwj. For a day? To fool... somebody? For fun?

…just run away.

Lan Xichen was not often given to bad moods. On the contrary, he had always been praised for having a sunny outlook and a pleasant demeanor, and it had become something he prided himself on. He preferred to greet people with a smile; even when he was insulted, he preferred to let it roll off his back, knowing it would never harm him. It was very hard for mere words to affect him – to get under his skin.

Unfortunately, irritating words appeared to be the one area in which Nie Huaisang excelled.

Nie Huaisang had come to Gusu for help with a problem at the most inconvenient moment, sobbing his heart as he always did, and Lan Xichen had had to send a letter to Jin Guangyao explaining that he would likely be unable to make their appointment as a result. It had been especially annoying because he’d hoped to use the opportunity to give Jin Guangyao a book for his birthday, which Lan Xichen would be forced to miss the date this year due to certain responsibilities at his sect; he’d mentioned in his letter that he would ask Lan Wangji, now more than a year out of his ‘seclusion’, to bring the book instead.

He hadn’t expected Lan Wangji to refuse outright to even consider going to Lanling.

Still, none of that was enough to seriously bring him down, and his mood cheered up even more when he realized that Nie Huaisang’s problem, which had been held out as the sort of sobbing, gasping, threatening to die type of problem, was in fact easily solved. That in turn meant that, if he hurried, he would likely be able to make to his appointment with Jin Guangyao – a few shichen late, yes, but it was better than not going at all.

He’d just been finishing up tea with Nie Huaisang, thinking happily about what a surprise his unexpected appearance would be for his sworn brother, when Nie Huaisang had said –

That.

Lan Xichen didn’t even remember how the conversation had gotten to that point, only that Nie Huaisang had been laughing, face bright and happy, when he’d said it.

“I wish I was more like er-ge, not concerned of what other people think; I take you as my role model! It would be so much nicer to think that whenever I encountered any serious problems, I would just run away!”

Just run away.

The words were like a thorn under his skin.

“What makes you say that?” he’d asked, fighting and failing to maintain his smile, not that Nie Huaisang noticed.

“Well, isn’t that what you always do?” Nie Huaisang asked, his eyes wide and innocent; he was still a child, even after years of sitting in the sect master’s seat. “You ran away after the Cloud Recesses to save the books, you ran from one place to another during the war, you ran away when da-ge died –”

Nie Huaisang had been sitting in Nie Mingjue’s favorite place, wearing clothing that looked just like Nie Mingjue’s, drinking from the tea cup that Nie Mingjue had liked, and he’d said that.

Lan Xichen had gone to get help, to find medicine, to do something. He hadn’t run away.

It wasn’t – it wasn’t running, during the war. He’d been a courier, taking news from one place to another; the Lan sect had been rallied to war very effectively by Lan Wangji, and he hadn’t wanted to step on his brother’s glory. It had been useful, necessary…

He had run away when the Cloud Recesses burned, though. He hadn’t wanted to, but his uncle had begged him to prioritize the saving of their sect’s most fundamental treasures.

Maybe that’s why it bothered him so much.

Nie Huaisang had moved on shortly thereafter, nattering about his birds; he hadn’t even noticed how effectively his words had stabbed Lan Xichen – but that was Nie Huaisang in a nutshell, wasn’t it?

Lan Xichen had taken his leave shortly thereafter and headed to Lanling, but it was still bothering him.

He kept going back to it, turning it over and over again in his mind, indignation warring with guilt; as a result, he wasn’t smiling the way he typically did when he landed at the entrance to Koi Tower.

It was also why he didn’t notice at first that people had started calling out “Lan-er-gongzi” to him instead of addressing him as Sect Leader Lan or Zewu-jun, just absent-mindedly nodding at them as he swept past the gateway and headed inside on paths he knew well.

He was already halfway to his destination when he realized – they thought he was Lan Wangji.

Lan Wangji, who’d already developed a reputation for having, and this was a direct quote Lan Xichen had overheard, “a bitter facial expression that made him look as though his wife had passed away.”

(Lan Xichen hadn’t liked hearing that. It was all the worse because it was true.)

It wasn’t actually funny – Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji looked alike, yes, but not that much – but at this point Lan Xichen was so desperate to think of something other than Nie Huaisang’s irritating words (just run away) that he seized on it at once, deliberately arranging his face in something a little like Lan Wangji’s cold-faced glare.

It was childish of him, of course. But wouldn’t it be even more of a surprise for Jin Guangyao, to come in with a resigned polite expression (he’d never understood why Lan Wangji so disliked him) and then to find the person he’d actually hoped to see? It would make him smile, and Lan Xichen could give him the book in person and apologize yet again for missing his birthday…

Yes, it would be perfect. Jin Guangyao’s joy would be the ideal balm for Lan Xichen’s unexpectedly hurt feelings.

Lan Xichen felt positively mischievous, even a little wicked. He hadn’t played a prank on anyone in years, certainly before the war started –

(Just run away.)

He wasn’t going to think about that.

Lan Xichen made it to the Fragrant Palace – it had been years now that it belonged to Jin Guangyao, since he had taken the place of sect leader, and yet it still seemed as though it were his ‘new’ quarters – and nodded to one of the door guards, announcing, “I will wait for Lianfeng-zun inside,” in a way he would never have done if he weren’t pretending to be Lan Wangji.

Of course, once inside, he found himself with a dilemma: the Fragrant Palace was a classic building, full of servants and Jin sect cultivators, any one of which could catch Lan Xichen in an unguarded moment and ruin the whole surprise. If only there was a better place to hide…

The bronze mirror in the corner caught Lan Xichen’s eye and he pressed his lips together to hide his amusement. He couldn’t do that.

Hiding in another sect leader’s treasure room would be offensive, after all, a trespass – though Jin Guangyao was always saying that Lan Xichen was welcome anywhere he was. And he could do it; after all, it had been he himself who had taught Jin Guangyao the trick of how to enter…no, he shouldn’t.

A high-pitched voice travelled through the hallway, and Lan Xichen abruptly remember that Jin Guangyao wasn’t the only person with free access to the Fragrant Palace – his wife, Qin Su, was equally the mistress here, and worst of all it seemed like she was heading straight towards the room he was in.

(It wasn’t that Lan Xichen didn’t like Qin Su – it was that she didn’t like him, her smile fading a little every time she saw him. He couldn’t hold it against her: it had been to Lan Xichen that Jin Guangyao had turned for comfort after the death of their child, not his wife, and Lan Xichen had indulged his sworn brother in his grief when he should have reminded him not to leave his wife to grieve alone. Lan Xichen was a painful reminder of that painful time, now, and he couldn’t blame her for not wanting to see him.)

Jin Guangyao would understand and forgive a small trespass, Lan Xichen decided. It would be easier to explain a little thing like that than to have deal with the fallout of making Qin Su cry again.

The mirror worked the way it always did, and he stepped through –

There was a blank period in Lan Xichen’s memories after that.

It was as if his brain had simply stopped working, refusing to accept the evidence his eyes were presenting him with. The sight filling his eyes, the smell filling his nose even through the scented incense that filled the treasure room, the feeling in his fingers as he lifted them to touch the cheek he remembered so well –

By the time the haze that had fallen upon him had lifted, Lan Xichen was far away from Lanling.

He wasn’t sure where he was – he vaguely recalled, as if remembering the actions of another person, that he had staggered out of the treasure room and gone to the window, leaping onto Shuoyue and flying straight out of Lanling in violation of all prohibitions on using a sword within city limits.

He hadn’t had a direction to his chaotic flight, he’d only been desperate to –

To run away.

I’ll do what er-ge does, and just run away – isn’t that what you always do?

He was still clutching Nie Mingjue’s head in his arms.

His da-ge, his friend – he should have been buried safely in Qinghe. Under Nie Huaisang’s lax supervision, yes, but still, he should be there. Not – not in pieces.

Not in Lanling, like some sort of sick trophy.

Trophy.

A-Yao, his A-Yao, he’d – was it just grave-robbing? Some sort of perverse triumph over Nie Mingjue, who had only ever wanted the best for him even if he were not very good at showing it? After all, Nie Mingjue had died of a qi deviation, in public, there could be no question…

He’d died in Lanling.

He’d been speaking to Jin Guangyao before he died, and his final rage had been aimed at him, and –

And Jin Guangyao liked to keep trophies.

Lan Xichen had always known this, of course, but it had been little things: wanting to pin up a flag from a battle he’d helped win, keeping letters of old correspondences, things like that. Not – not like this.

Lan Xichen’s mind was rebelling against him.

His A-Yao – Nie Mingjue was his sworn brother. He couldn’t have –

He could.

It wasn’t like he didn’t know all the things Jin Guangyao had done, after all. It was only that he’d always believed that there was a reason behind them, some justification that made sense.

Just run away. Isn’t that what you always do?

Nie Huaisang’s innocent words had been right. Lan Xichen ran away: from the facts, from the truth. He blinded himself because he didn’t want to believe it.

He couldn’t run away this time.

Nie Mingjue’s head is in his arms, but Lan XIchen can feel the pulse of resentful energy already – his sworn brother had died a violent death, betrayed by someone he should have been able to trust; there was no soul-calming ritual in the world that would keep him from becoming a fierce ghost. The head was already straining in his arms, as if seeking to fly off, seeking –

The other pieces.

Nie Mingjue’s soul was still there, divided into pieces and bound; Lan Xichen recognized the horrific array that had been painted on him. It was vile, ghastly, an abomination.

It called for an answer.

No, there would be no running away this time.

At least Jin Guangyao would have no choice but to confront Lan Xichen this time, now that he knew that Lan Xichen knew –

Lan Xichen’s entire body gave a sudden start, and a chill filled his heart.

He didn’t know.

Jin Guangyao – Lan Xichen had been pretending to be Lan Wangji, hadn’t he? He’d hidden Shuoyue’s hilt, he’d mimicked his brother’s expression, he’d wanted to give Jin Guangyao a surprise…

Jin Guangyao, who Lan Wangji had never liked and who had never especially liked Lan Wangji in turn, would have no reason to think Lan Xichen knew.

He would think Lan Wangji knew.

And after all, they had comforted each other over the death of one brother – why not another?

Lan Xichen had put Lan Wangji into terrible danger.

He had to find his brother.

He had to find him right now.

[saventhhaven]

Jealousy

Pairing: Dean Winchester x reader

Tags: jealous!Dean, flirting, irritated!Dean, frustrated!reader, awkward!Sam

Word Count: 1,340

(Gif not mine)

Dean pushed the door open enough for you to get in behind him but didn't bother to hold it for you. You sighed agitatedly, making sure it was locked before following him down the staircase. His stiff body language told you that he didn't want to talk about it anymore, but the way he almost hesitated in his quick strides made you believe otherwise.

"Dean, I already apologized like four times!" you exclaimed. "Even though I did nothing wrong!" you added as an afterthought. Sam looked up from his laptop in the library as the two of you came in, eyebrows raised in question.

"What's going on?" he asked. Dean shook his head as he shoved his hands into his jean pockets.

"Nothing." You had to fight the urge to roll your eyes. Of course. Leave it to Dean to take something that's bothering him, and shove it down so deep that it never sees the light of day again.

"I was getting information for a case, and your brother didn't like my methods, so now he's mad at me," you explained. Dean plastered on a half-smile, shaking his head for emphasis as he spoke.

"It's okay! I'm not mad!" The smile would have almost been convincing, to his credit, had it not been for the slight twitch developing under his right eye. You glanced over at Sam surreptitiously before leaning over ever so slightly.

"Is it just me, or does he seem mad to you?" you asked under your breath.

"Goddammit, I just said I'm not mad!" Dean snapped, causing you to jolt in surprise. Damn. It wasn't like you had been putting all of your efforts into keeping your voice down, but damn. Sam sighed, shutting his laptop and getting to his feet.

"Run me through what happened." God bless him. He was always trying to find some even ground. Dean cast a warning glance in your direction, again, wordlessly telling you that he didn't want to talk about it, but you ignored him, crossing your arms over your chest as you blew a strand of hair out of your face

"Dean got all upset," you started to explain, "because I was flirting with some guy to get information-"

"No, no, no, he wasn't just 'some guy,' okay?" Dean cut you off. "He was a total douchebag! I mean, what the hell was he wearing, anyway? Danny Zuko called, and he wants his outfit back." You shot Sam an incredulous look, who merely shrugged weakly back at you. He was actively trying to excuse himself from the room by taking small, hesitant steps away from the two of you. Apparently, even he sensed that Dean was being unreasonably... Dean about all of this.

"Did... did you just reference Grease?" Dean went red, a stark contrast to his bright green eyes, which were filled with a bit of embarrassment.

"No!" he exclaimed before sighing heavily. "Maybe! Look, all I'm sayin' is that no girl buys into that stupid playboy leather jacket look."

"Ha!" The laugh came from your mouth before you even realized it was you that had made the sound. That was rich, especially coming from Dean Winchester himself. You had vivid memories of him wearing a "stupid playboy leather jacket" when you first met him. "You mean like the one you wore for some three years back in '05?"

"Hey, I'm an exception! And I didn't act like a playboy!" Even Sam let out a snort at that one, and he was halfway across the room.

"Oh, really?" you fired back. "Because I seem to recall you profusely hitting on me when we first met." He spluttered a bit, and you used his temporary inability to summon comprehensible words to your advantage. "I really don't get why you're so upset! I was just looking for a lead like I always do. The person I was asking just happened to be a guy, and as a woman, I know what gets guys talking! There's nothing to be mad about here!" When Dean set his jaw in his telltale way, you braced yourself for whatever he was going to say next.

"I'm not mad, Y/N, I just brought it up as a general concern, and you're the one who started blowing it all out of proportion." And there it was.

"I’m the one blowing it out of proportion?" you nearly screeched. "When he offered to buy me a drink, you threatened to, and I'm quoting you here, 'turn his face inside-out.' What the hell does that even mean?" You glanced over your shoulder to get Sam's two cents on the situation, but he was gone. He must've finally slipped out when you weren't paying attention. With an exasperated huff of air, you turned your attention back to the older Winchester, whose lips had formed something between his signature delicious pout and a frown, the skin between his eyebrows slightly creased. "It was just for a case, Dean! That's all! It didn't mean anything!" He crossed his arms over his army green cotton t-shirt, taught over his freckle-sprinkled skin.

"Oh, I get it," Dean finally said with a wry look in his eyes. "You've got a thing for me." You felt your eyes go wide as saucers as you began to reel, taking a physical step back.

"What?" Where the hell did that come from?

"No, I get it," he repeated. "That's why you've spent the last half hour explaining yourself." You felt your lip curl back involuntarily.

"I don't owe you anything," you practically snarled. Dean nodded.

"I know that," he agreed innocently, all traces of his frustration suddenly gone. "I never said you did. So, if you don't mind my askin', why have you been so hell-bent on telling me that it didn't mean anything?" Now it was your turn to be trapped in stunned silence. "I'll tell you why," he continued, "you've got a thing for me."

You'd be lying if you said you hadn't thought about it. How could you not? After years of constantly being around him, it was practically impossible not to. Hell, you had even found yourself thinking of Sam a couple of times, but that was only when you had first met him, and it was never to the extent of how you used to think of Dean. Correction: how you still thought of Dean.

Chewing on your lip to the point that you were afraid it would start to bleed, you shook your head, acutely aware of the way your face had started to heat up.

"You're an ass," you informed him. As you went to leave him in the dust, his hand was on your wrist, whirling you back around and pulling you to him, making your heart stutter wildly in your chest.

Not even the most lucid of your daydreams could have compared to how it felt to have his perfect lips on yours. Dean kissed you with a softness that you had never seen from him before, a warmth that made your entire body tingle, and with a depth that no one had ever achieved before, and you immediately began to feel dizzy with it. One of his hands served to steady you, stationed on the small of your lower back, and the other rested against your face as his thumb brushed tenderly over the apple of your cheek. When his tongue brushed against your lower lip, you gasped softly, parting your lips to allow him access. Dean gave a soft growl that made butterflies erupt in your stomach, and he pulled you closer. If it was actually possible to get drunk on a kiss, you were certainly getting there.

When you were finally forced apart by the need to breathe, you kept your eyes closed, unwilling to let the moment come to an end.

"Don't worry, gorgeous," Dean murmured into your ear. 'The feeling's mutual." Much to your disappointment, he released you, giving your hand a small squeeze before he was out of your reach. Totally frozen in place, you watched him go. He paused in the archway of the library. "And by the way," he said over his shoulder. "I used to flirt with you so much because I've wanted to do that since the day that I met you."

Thanks for reading!

As always, links to my masterlist, taglist, and inbox (requests are open!) are in my bio! <3

My Everythings:

@cole-winchester​ @alexwinchester23​ @1-am-made-of-stardust​ @thorukindig​ @fiftyshadesoffandom6783​ @hobby27​ @supernaturalenchanted​ @organicpurplepants​ @odysseyofasiren​ @defenderrosetyler​ @crystal-lilac​ @youshrimpdickfucknugget​

Dean Darlings:

@calaofnoldor​ @transparentfestivaltiger

[citywithchair-blog]

Ableist harassment

CW: Ableist harassment caused by a professor.

I wrote more than this to the higher ups at the university. This class is called Mindfulness and to teach us mediation. 

A few weeks before classes started, I emailed her explaining my disability and my access needs, including the need for captions.

1st class:

She asked us to walk around in our space and to move our feet a certain way as part of our meditation. I wrote in the chat section of Zoom that I use a wheelchair and won’t be moving around. Another student asked the professor what was the alternative exercise for those who can’t walk. The professor did not respond to our inquiry.

She then proceeded to talk about her amazing friend with a disability who died. This was uncalled for and hurtful to lack such mindfulness to my access needs and then to bring up a disabled friend. It’s almost like she was trying to win points for having a diverse group of friends and use it to hide her lack of consideration.

3rd class:

She started off the class with screen-sharing a video from YouTube. I had to ask for the captions to be turned on since the Zoom captions weren’t capturing the YouTube video very well. She told me to "go to YouTube to get a better translation [sic]” and I replied by asking her to click the CC button herself. She ignored me.  Why am I expected to sync up and pay attention to both Zoom and YouTube just because I am a hard-of-hearing student? Am I supposed to go online after to learn what was being said during class? A far simpler solution would have been if the professor had simply clicked ‘CC’; then the captions from YouTube would show up on the Zoom screen-share for all students.

Later on in the same class, she played a voice-guided meditation from her computer. Other students were asking if another video was playing, since the audio quality from her computer was so garbled. I couldn’t hear nor see anything. In the chat, several students were asking what was going on. One student said “Just listen”, but I had no idea audio was playing. After a few minutes after that, with no response in the chat box, I noted the professor's eyes were shut. I was very confused and remembered the professor had asked me to speak up if I needed anything, so I unmuted my mic “Excuse me, sorry to interrupt but I’m hard-of-hearing and can’t hear anything.” The professor did not address me, but instead asked “Is that true?!” to her student TA. The TA replied that she was not hard-of-hearing, so she could not assess if there was a problem. I then said, “I told you multiple times about my disability needs and that I require captioning. You are being ableist by dismissing my needs and asking an abled person if they are true.” The professor pursed her lips and was silent for a few moments, then replied “There are nicer ways of making oneʻs needs known."

After a minute the TA reached out to me via chat to apologize and ask if she could have handled it better, I told her she was good, that it was the teacher that needed to apologize. She asked if I wanted to stay after class to address this and I agreed.

Then during lecture the professor made a weird reference to Dana Reeve, the wife of actor and disability advocate Christopher Reeve, quoting her as saying "I learned a long time ago life just isnʻt fair, so you better stop expecting it to be." She then graphically described Christopher Reeve's accident as "his head basically came off his spine," and stated that he died and his wife followed shortly after. 

This narrative of Christopher Reeve erases entirely the years of groundbreaking disability advocacy between his accident and his death, graphically describes the details of his accident for shock value, and centers the feelings of his abled wife over the details of his life and accomplishments.

After class and accompanied by a friend and fellow classmate, I reiterated to the professor that her behavior during the guided meditation had been ableist. The professor became defensive and stated that she was only trying to make sure there were no technical difficulties going on from my end by verifying with her TA, and that she should be allowed to check such things without "being called rude in front of 117 people." I affirmed that it was her right to ask "Is anyone else experiencing technical difficulties?", but that it was not acceptable to ask "Is this true?", because the latter insinuates that I had been lying. The professor admitted to this fault, but then stated that she was teaching the meditation class "out of the goodness of her heart" and that it was a "service." My friend interjected to say, "With all due respect professor, accessibility is not a service, it is mandatory." I then recommended the book "Demystifying Disability by Emily Ladau" to the professor, saying it may help her understand what ableism is, how to be a better advocate and ally for her disabled students. The professor did not respond to either of these statements and rounded on her TA, telling her she was in charge of communicating with the students for any technical or accessibility issues. The TA nervously reiterated that since she was not hard-of-hearing, she could not see how she could anticipate my needs. The professor said that she wanted communication to be streamlined from one source, through the TA, so she could focus on her teaching. The meeting ended shortly after.

The following day, the professor sent an email asking me to come to class half an hour early due to technical connection issues. This adds a lot more work on my plate to not only arrive early, but also to tell her how to do better the experience since I already told her and she dismissed my needs. Why would I want to show up early if the class is such a negative space?

She did not apologize for getting defensive after class or her crude allusion to Christopher Reeve, nor did she clarify if I have direct communication with her and not through the TA during class.

4th class:

I decided to give the professor one last chance after we spoke. But in class she randomly talked about life being unfair again, and how parents should teach their children this lesson by giving one child a cookie and the other two, and saying "life isn't fair" when one of them cried. She then said how unfair it is that some parents have an autistic kid and even worst multiple autistic children. This was blatantly, clearly ableist, but I didn't have the energy to call her out anymore.

After class I found that she had emailed me to thank me for helping her find the "transcription" option in Zoom, as it helped her, a presumably abled person, read back on her lectures after class. She told me I had "blessed" her and her future classes. I was very offended because never apologized for her dismissive and defensive behavior in our discussion after class. And to tell me that I had blessed her by making her teaching easier by making her aware of something for my access needs, not for reasons of being a better advocate for disabled students but for reasons of helping her personal organization, was also offensive.

I am losing sleep over this professor's behavior towards me and the disability community. It is even affecting my ability to focus on other class work. Overall this professor's conduct towards any disabled student is unacceptable. I am worried there are other students who won’t speak up for their access needs when the teacher is publicly dismissing disabled people in general.

Because of all this I am requesting you to take action, however seems fit and I would like a full refund for this class.

Thank you for your time and look forward to your response.

[pandoraborn]

Cruelty of the Beast, part 7

( previous. )

Characters: c!Ranboo, c!Tommy Word count: 1685 words Content: whump, mention of hypnosis, confessions, Ranboo and Tommy have a bonding moment, talk of apocalypse, tommy calls Ranboo out for his hypocrisy

-----

They’re finally left alone. Ranboo is unable to make eye contact with Tommy, which seems fine, because Tommy isn’t looking at him either. There’s a shift though, an unspoken understanding of the situation they find themselves in. It’d already hit before, but now there seems to be something heavy between them.

Ranboo focuses on the food on his plate. It’s nothing special, a slab of pork and scrambled eggs. It’s not like Dream and Wilbur are starving them, nor depriving them of a warm bed, a warm home, and general comforts, but Ranboo still doesn’t like this place. He doesn’t like knowing what he’s helped plan in the past, what he helped put Tommy through.

When he forces himself to look in Tommy’s direction, Tommy’s staring at Wilbur. He can’t decipher the expression on the other teen’s face, but it’s a far cry from troubled. He has to wonder what Wilbur told Tommy today.

“Hey,” Ranboo mutters. He looks down at his plate, cutting into the pork slowly. “Are you okay?”

Tommy turns back toward him. In his peripheral vision, he can see a large grin spread across Tommy’s face. He wonders if Tommy is brainwashed somehow, then retracts that thought. There’s no way Wilbur has that kind of power.

Dream’s words come back to him. “I’m not controlling you, I don’t have that kind of power. Wilbur, maybe, but he’s not interested in you, he’s interested in Tommy.” Ranboo shudders at the memory. It’s unlikely that Wilbur was able to pull anything sinister in the one day they’ve all been split up.

“Yeah,” Tommy says. “Wilbur and I had a long conversation and he cleared some things up for me.”

“Did he hypnotize you?” Ranboo asks. He hadn’t intended on asking that, and immediately winces. It’s a stupid question; Wilbur’s only human, it’s not like he actually wants to hurt his brother.

“What?” Tommy scoffs. “What are you on about Ranboo?”

“Honestly, I don’t know.”

“Not to be...well, okay, I mean to be blunt and offensive, but I’m not you and Wilbur’s not Dream. I’m sorry Dream hurt you, but Wilbur didn’t do anything, we literally just talked.”

“What’d you talk about?”

“You’re awfully nosy, aren’t you?” Tommy sounds defensive. Ranboo lets out a sigh. “Okay, okay. Sorry. I’m still shaken up, we went out to gather sand and gunpowder. Mostly sand.”

“And?”

“Before I answer, are you going to tell me what you and Dream did today? Did he hypnotize you?”

“No.” Ranboo offers a smile. “He and I literally just talked, as well.”

“Wilbur apologized to me,” Tommy says in a rush. “He said he thought that by dying, he was doing me a favor. He didn’t realize things for me had gotten so bad.”

“Do you believe him?”

“He was crying, Ranboo. Wilbur never cries. He normally doesn’t really talk the way he did earlier. Like, I think he actually meant it when he said we can be brothers again.”

“You trust him?” Ranboo tilts his head. “One conversation is all it takes?”

“You’re seriously getting on my nerves here,” Tommy grumbles. “What did you and Dream do today? You’re on edge for some reason, what happened?”

Ranboo isn’t sure what he’s allowed to say or not say, but then again, he and Tommy are in this situation together. If they’re going to be each other’s only friends, he might as well start being honest.

“Apparently I’ve been helping Dream a lot longer than I realized,” Ranboo whispers. “I’ve been out here before, digging up something for him.”

“Stop being cryptic and tell me what’s going on. Jesus, I’m tired of secrets.”

“Dream and Wilbur want to go to the end,” Ranboo says. “They want some dragon that’s in there. They both want to use us to get it into this world.”

“So...” At least Tommy looks pale. Ranboo’s glad that Tommy isn’t taking this news lightly, it gives him hope that Tommy isn’t completely falling for Wilbur’s...whatever Wilbur is doing. “So what Wilbur said earlier makes sense now.”

“What?”

“What he said to me makes sense. He said when all this is over, and it’s time to let everything go.”

“Tommy, they’re going to end the world. Why aren’t you panicking?”

“Ranboo, I’m fucking exhausted, mate. I’m tired of fighting with people, I’m tired of being used as everyone’s punching bag, and I’m tired, in general. So yeah, I want it all to end. I’m a child and I’ve already lived through more than everyone even cares about. Dragons aren’t ideal, and of course I don’t want anyone to get hurt, but I don’t have anything to go back to.”

“What about Tubbo? Or Puff-”

“Tubbo’s got you, and Puffy has a life outside of me. No one needs me. You’re the one who has something to lose in this. If you want to sneak away, I won’t stop you, but I’m not going with you.”

“Tommy, you know this is classic villainy, right?” Ranboo swallows.

“Tell me more about what you did. Do you know what you helped Dream out with? What was it you dug out?”

“Oh.” Ranboo looks down again. “I dug out a hole that leads straight to a lit end portal. Apparently, I helped put you in this position. From exile, to being trapped in the prison, and now this.”

“So you call me wanting to stay with my brother villainy, but you helped hurt me, and you somehow don’t see the hypocrisy here?” Tommy laughs sardonically. “That makes us both villains, Ran.”

“Tommy I’m sorry.”

“Save it. I’m not going to hold it against you forever, I just want you to really think about this. You can’t sit on a moral pedestal and call the rest of us out when you contributed to my death.”

Ranboo falls silent as he reaches back behind him. He grabs the book Dream gave him earlier and wordlessly hands it over to Tommy. “Read the last page,” Ranboo mumbles, as his only response.

Tommy does, flipping through the pages silently until he reaches the last page. He reads the common words carefully; Ranboo can see his eyes flickering back and forth as he studies what’s written. After what feels like ages, Tommy finally looks up, handing the book back.

“So you knew.”

“Tommy, I had no idea.”

“You knew,” Tommy repeats firmly. “You fucking knew the whole time what was going on. You knew that Dream and Wilbur were working together, you knew that Wilbur was coming back, and you fucking knew about the dragon. You knew!”

“I don’t remember! I swear I don’t remember this!”

“What do you think Tubbo’s going to say if this falls into his hands? What do you think Puffy and Sam and Quackity are going to say? You knew. They’re not going to buy memory loss this time because this is your handwriting. Including the ender bits.”

Ranboo’s shoulders slump. Tommy’s right. He hates that Tommy’s right. The proof is literally in his hands, and destroying it isn’t going to do much either, because now Tommy knows.

“We have to warn Tubbo.”

Tommy points the tines of his fork in Ranboo’s direction. “We can’t tell them. We’re here now, and regardless of how you or me personally feel about this situation, we’re not getting out of this. Personally, I’m past the point of caring, and I know some part of you, whether you remember or not, wants this. Instead of marrying my best friend, you should marry your unconscious self and come to terms with this.”

Tommy is smart. Ranboo knows he’s smart, and Ranboo also knows Tommy’s right. It only contributes to how smart the stupid ass is. Ranboo can’t remember though, it’s like some part of him is blocked. After what he’d seen today, Ranboo can feel that mental wall in place, and he doesn’t know how to access it. Neither does Dream, apparently.

“I don’t know how to remember,” Ranboo admits. “I don’t know how to access those memories.”

“I can smack you upside the head with a brick,” offers Tommy with a snort. “Seriously. You were talking about hypnosis earlier, maybe it can be used for good instead of evil.”

“I don’t want to be evil.”

“Think it’s a little late for that, bud.” Tommy doesn’t sound angry, at least. Ranboo had expected Tommy to yell and storm off, but he’s still sitting by Ranboo, and now offering help. He doesn’t understand this.

“Why aren’t you mad at me?”

“Why should I be? Because you helped Dream? Wilbur quoted Lord of the Rings at me and I fell into his arms sobbing. You could probably offer a hug and I’d burst into tears. This is how fucked I am.”

“I feel the same,” Ranboo admits. He forces out a short laugh. “Dream was admittedly really nice to me.”

“He can be your friend then. I don’t want him anywhere near me for awhile.”

“We’re both really fucked up, aren’t we?”

“Yeah man, that’s the conversation we’re having. We’re fucked up because we’re considering helping the two strongest villains of the server launch an apocalypse. If that doesn’t scream fucked up, I don’t know what does.”

“Tubbo...” Ranboo shakes his head. “I have to see him one last time at least.”

Tommy looks over his shoulder. The two adults are engaged in quiet conversation, and they look as if they’re falling asleep. Tommy looks around the cabin and spots a couple of potions in the corner. The color tells him they’re potions of weakness.

“Not tonight,” he whispers. “Another night, soon. We can drug those two and I’ll help you sneak out for the night. You can meet up with Tubbo, I’ll even give you a note from me. But it’s all gotta be before sunup, because I don’t want to lose Wilbur’s trust and faith in me, alright?”

Ranboo nods. He’s apprehensive about this whole thing, but he’s also strangely reassured with the vague knowledge that everything will be okay.

He doesn’t know why he’s feeling that now, though.

Huh, must be a missing memory trying to surface.

[jojoreadwhat]

there’s nowhere that I wouldn't go. // h.s. x fem!reader • fluff

- hello lovies, long time no see. well i’m back with some things in the works. this is just a kickstarter and a introduction of what my work will look like from now. i hope you enjoy! -

y/n and harry get into a spat and sometimes space isnt the answer.

this is just full of angst and lots of fluff.

words;? semi-proofread sry. also shitty ending and it’s been a while so I’m rusty. I apologize in advance.

i listened to this

+

harry has been somewhat of an unofficial ambassador for the brand and was invited to a party supporting gucci and their new line launching this fall. giving you both access to material first hand, and you the honor of being his plus one, publicly debuting after two years together. dressed in the pieces sent with the invitation from head to toe. you had arrived fashionably late to the gathering, hand in hand on the gold carpet leading to the entrance of the beautifully architectural place the event was being held in. the interior of the place timeless and oozing in elegance. low lit from the gold sconces along the cream colored walls. white table cloths and golden runners, covering the round tables, topped with elaborate centerpieces filled with gardenias.

it all felt like a dream. indulging in the atmosphere to dress up to the nine’s, sipping on fancy drinks and dancing to the italian music echoing through the gallery. with the hundreds of people circling around harry and you both as swayed closely. feeling out of place and belonging all at once, harry noticed this often throughout the event. he could see the stars in your eyes as well as the restlessness about to descend. he made you feel like you were on top the world. his sweet reassuring gestures. soft hands firm across your silk covered back, securing you. harry’s rosy plump lips grazing your ear, muttering sweet nothings in his thick rasp voice and tickling your cheeks pink. reminding you that you were meant to be here with him.

until she interrupted.

you weren’t bothered at first, you were fully aware before tonight had arrived that she would be here. that she could possibly be a nuisance and want harry’s attention. and there wasn’t animosity towards her from you because without her and her letting go of harry, you wouldnt be here as his girlfriend.

that all changed after the night went on. you were exiting the ladies room when she was all over harry. she had pulled away when you came back to the picture but it didn’t stop there. when she brought up unnecessary past between him and her. being all touchy feeling and giving you a devious smirk as she went on. it didn’t help that she looked stunning, her golden blonde hair dancing along her glowing ivory skin and her jumpsuit accentuated all the right places. looking more suited as harry’s date and making your confidence tonight, deflat. at the same time you couldn’t blame her for being herself. you couldn’t blame her for wanting to weave her way back into Harry, even with you standing next to him. but the knot forming in your stomach at him not doing too much to defuse the interaction didn’t go unnoticed.

now bursting through the front door of Harry and yours shared LA apartment. irritated and ready to pop. you looked to any room to go to as long as you weren’t in the proximity of your boyfriend who you left in the driveway. you had just endured twenty minutes of arguing on the drive back from the party. your face felt hot to touch and you swore anyone could see steam leaving your ears.

you trotted up the stairs, your heels in hand, as you climb up to your bedroom. still internally fuming and spaced out in your own thoughts, you didn’t realize how close harry was behind. not hearing the door once it closed, instead his leather clad feet hitting the hardwood of the hallway to the room you were in. getting louder as they approached before halting.

“love, please.” he spoke first, he wasn’t expecting the night to end like this. the complete opposite to be exact. not standing in the doorway with caution as he watched not help you detangle yourself from tonight’s attire.

you were delicately loosening the straps of your dress to fall down your arms, trying to be purposeful with it while wanting to rip it off in anger.

“no.” simply stating, not making any contact as you held the now strapless dress to your bra less chest as you scrimmage through your tee shirt for a shirt harry’s to sleep in. “your actions spoke for themselves.” finishing then as you let the dress fall to the floor, rolling your shirt on to drop at the top your thighs. not giving harry an ounce to the imagination of what could’ve happened tonight.

Harry sighed, exasperatedly. catching from the corner of your eye him running his ring-covered fingers through his thick dark curls. pushing off the door frame before finally stepping into your shared bedroom. “I know and they were not truthful.”

“Ha, okay. Sure they weren’t.” you scolded, standing at your tall dresser as you took off your jewelry. shaking your head.

Harry was loosening up his bowtie, creeping closer to you before you turned to him. silently telling to stay put. “I mean it, I know that I didn’t act appropriately.” He owned, “But I didn’t know what to do! I didn’t know she was going to try all of that.”

you huffed loudly, your hand flattening to the top the dresser before you could move and work on the next earring. “oh c,mon Har! you warned me about her antics and now you didn’t know what she was going to do?” You reminded. Harry’s head fell in defeat before he snapped back up to you. “I know what I said! But I didn’t know she was going to be that bold.”

you looked at him dead, “do you know who you are?” realizing that you were unintentionally quoting him again. you watched his adam’s apple bob in his throat as he swallowed, noticing what you said too. “are you trying to make this a laughing matter now?” He questioned, “you were about to rip my head off minutes ago.”

“i’m not, please scratch that because that wasn’t my intent.” you explained, watching the corner of his mouth shift upward. he knew you like the back of his hand, he knew that this would lead to making up sooner or later, he knew you were upset and still trying to keep yourself together and also have your moment and express yourself. he loved you for it, you hated it cause you were trying to be serious. but you made him a better man, he needed you more than you may have felt tonight. he knew what happened at the gathering was wrong, he could’ve done more to stop it all. it’s the reason for this recalculation of tonight’s events.

you pinched the bridge of your nose, trying to regain your thoughts before you looked at him again. his green orbs still staring at you, waiting for what to leave your pretty lips next. “in all of this, you may not have known what to do to stop her. but you knew what you were doing when your grip left my body and your attention went to her.” you spoke, then. “just like you had warned me about and I wasn’t prepared that you would actually give it to her.”

harry didn’t say anything after that. trying to piece together the words that everything she was feeling wasn’t wrong, he hurt her, unintentionally. it was the further thing from his mind in the moment that everything was happening. it was more vigilance because he knew what his ex was about. but never in the slightest was it to crawl back to her. Not when his everything was standing in front of him, doubting herself and her stance in his life.

“it wasn’t supposed to be perceived like that, please let–” You shook your head causing Harry to stop speaking midstream. “I don’t want to keep talking about it. I just want to sleep.” She said then. “we’ll talk more about it in the morning.” Moving to her side of the bed to start removing the throw pillows. Harry sighed heavily, shuffling his feet to his side, grabbing his pillow. “I’ll be in the guest room.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2am had come around rather slow and you still wide awake. tossing and turning in your california king. trying to get comfortable as you wrapped the sage duvet closer to yourself. seeking to drift off at any minute now. but despite your eyes feeling heavy, your mind was racing.

this was the last thing you wanted. the only time harry and you ever slept apart was when he was away, entertaining the world. you wanted to stand your ground, but as you laid there able to rethink everything. harry wasn’t the bad guy here. he did a lot more than you thought.

he came home with you. he paused the idea of a good night out, to make sure that you knew were his main focus of the night. of his life. not the party, not the friends or old lovers. you.

you didn’t see that in the moment, everything was overwhelming. your thoughts were taking over and making the little things seem like the problem. when the biggest action was he followed you out that door, went through what felt like a lifetime drive home of fighting, proving that the situation between him and her was the last thing he was concerned about. because what mattered more was you.

rubbing your face in your hands, you stared back up at the ceiling, annoyed with yourself. this became bigger than it needed to be. and you were feeling it hard when you looked over at the spot empty next to you.

you threw the duvet off yourself, turning and sitting up off the side of the bed. your bare feet hitting the chilled wood before making a beeline to the bedroom door. you tip toed down the hall until you came to the third door on your right. taking a breath, you went to raise your hand and knock lightly on the guest room door when it opened before you could hit the white wood with your little knuckles. and a shirtless harry stood before you.

from what you could see from what little light the window gave near by. he was having the same problem as you, his green eyes slightly reddened from the mixture of sleep deprivation and rubbing them. surprised even by seeing you standing there. his dark brown curls, tossled in all directions upon his head.

“are you alright, love?” he asked as if everything was okay. putting you before him. it made your heart swell and hurt at the same time.

you nodded, “yeah, just can’t sleep.” you said, he huffed lightly, his hand reaching behind to scratch his head. “me neither. it’s a bit cold in here.” he replied, then. knowing the exact underline of what he meant.

looking down at your pink painted toes. before meeting his eyes again. feeling your eyes become glassy. “look, I’m sorry.” you began. harry shook his head, immediately pulling you to him. your arms wrapped around his toned torso swiftly. your face colliding to his chest, smelling his signature cinnamon and vanilla scent. what smelt like home to you. “no, love, I’m sorry. for everything.” you pulled away slightly, still wrapped up in him and meeting his green eyes. you were not going to allow him to take the blame.

“Har, no. you didn’t have to come back home with me but you did. you didn’t have to deal with me on the way home, but you did. you–“

harry raised two fingers to your lips. stopping your ramble mid-stream. his fingers than moved to caress your jaw, keeping your eyes locked on his. “please stop, y/n.” he muttered soft, raspy and covered in sleep. “it’s okay. really.”

you raised at your brow at him. “but why?” you asked, why was he just taking it? you wondered. harry just smiled, his hand now enveloping your face, thumb running over your soft cheek. “because I love you, more than you know and I made you feel like I didn’t.” you went to protest again, but he stopped you once more.

“I dont want to hear anymore about tonight. there’s a perfectly, cozy bed in our room. waiting for me and the love of my life. and the past two hours have been awful without you next to me.”

the smile harry put on you, spread across your lips before you could stop it. you wrapped an arm around Harry’s neck. bringing his lips to yours in a sweet kiss, pulling away shortly after. “I love you too.” you said, then.

“let’s not waste another minute, let’s get some sleep.” not saying another word, tangling harry’s long, ring covered fingers in yours. before heading down the hall, to your bedroom, to where you both belonged together and for always.

[onisiondrama]

"Onision: In Real Life DEBUNKED” Breakdown & Thoughts

Confirmed by Sarah over a 9 hour phone conversation with Onision

I’ve seen a lot of people speculate this phone call never happened because James’ claim that it was 9 hours long. I can’t lie, that threw me off when I first read it too. 

I believe most likely he is exaggerating the length of the conversation, although it’s not impossible for the them to speak for 9 hours.

The date he claims the call took place on lines up with the dates and times of Sarah’s last 2 tweets. She seemed very upset. I am not going to post them because her account is currently private.

the conversation started January 22, 2021 and ended around 1am her time, it continued laters that morning only to end with Sarah's sister taking the phone away and screaming that she was happy Sarah ruined his life while refusing to give the phone back to Sarah

So they took a break in-between calls. Possibly he is counting the 9 hours based on when their first phone call started and their last call ended.

Her sister taking the phone away and telling him off gives me the impression Sarah was extremely upset while talking to him. I don’t believe this was a confession / begging for forgiveness call like he is trying to make it out to be.

SARAH'S CONFESSIONS DURING COVERSATION 1-22-2021:

I doubt that these were confessions. Based on his past debates and interviews, I think it is more likely James walked her through carefully worded scenarios / events and forced her into answering with a simple yes or no. If she tried to add more or explain herself, he would cut her off and exclaim he was right. That’s how he’s treated others during debates, especially during recent interviews about Sarah’s (& others’) accusations against him, so that is how I imagine the call going down.

- The fraudulent #MeToo'ers were paid to participate in the documentary.

I understand the concept of it being unethical to pay accusers for interviews due to it possibly being an incentive for them to exaggerate, but everyone already participated in free public interviews. Everything they said in the documentary they have already stated multiple times for free. They did not say anything new. I personally don’t see them allegedly getting paid to be on the documentary as a blow to their credibility.

Also, James wanted to be paid to participate as well. So if he participated and was paid, should we no longer consider his claims valid? Especially since he would not just defend himself, but also make accusations against everyone since he claims he is actually their victims. Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was already paid for at least one of his interviews about this whole thing by now.

- Sarah now has enough money to "Make a down payment on a house"

This is so incredibly vague. That could be almost any amount of money. Also, I don’t trust his quotations. He didn’t specify that was a direct quote from Sarah. He could have asked her how much she was paid and she would not say, so he asked if she could make a down payment on a house.

- Sarah again admitted to apologizing twice for raping Onision via sexual extortion.

So she agreed that she said “sorry for raping you guys” twice as she was angrily leaving the house? We already heard that story from him 100 times. He never went into detail about why she left angrily, but I always assumed it was because they got into a fight and that is when he first accused her of rape. I always assumed she said that sarcastically in response to his accusation.

- Sarah made it clear the documentary had her sign a contract of silence so she could not "legally" reveal how much the fraud #MeToo'ers were compensated to be involved.

I don’t think she would know how much other people were paid? I don’t believe she is in personal contact with Shiloh or Regina and I don’t think Discovery would disclose details of their contracts with other participants.

Since Sarah falls under “fraud #MeToo'ers” in James’ perspective, this makes me think she stopped him questioning how much she was paid. Now that I think about it that way,  he may have been taking the “down payment on a house” quote out of context. She may have been giving him an update on her life. He did says she “now has enough money” to do so, but didn’t specify that was because of the documentary.

- Sarah stated she truly hates both Shiloh & Regina (the other fake #MeToo'ers)

We already know this. Sarah and the other victims publicly cut ties with Shiloh and Regina because they chose to stick with Chris Hansen and participate in the documentary. The other victims wanted to stand together and not participate to try to prevent the documentary from happening.

- Sarah admitted Regina & Shiloh are frauds.

If she did, he’s not specifying what was allegedly fraudulent. The way he says “admitted” makes me think he talked about a specific incident and asked her if she agreed it was fraudulent. Like, Shiloh’s tattoo fund or something.

If she admitted she believed Shiloh and Regina were lying about their accusations, he definitely would have said that and not this vague shit.

- Sarah admits she herself intentionally mislead people to make Onision look bad.

Lmao as if she needed to strategically mislead people in order to make him look bad because he was so gosh darn innocent in this whole situation. I definitely believe he lead her into agreeing that she was misleading about one thing that made him look bad and he is using that to justify this broad statement.

- Sarah again admits she was kicked out of Onision's life for comitting a crime against Onision.

He’s just repeating himself. This is the same point as the alleged rape apology.

- Sarah admits she blatantly went out of her way to silence Onision/prevent interviews from happening so he could not deliver facts/evidence.

We already knew about this. Chris Hansen said he decided to drop negotiating an interview with James because the victims asked him not to do it.

This did not “silence” him. He went on plenty of other interviews.

- Sarah admits the laptop she had and mislead people about, in fact had nothing on it.

I am imagining two possibilities:

1. It’s possible James was misleading with his question and asked if there was something specific that he already knew was not on there, like photos of himself or photos of minors.

2. Sarah also sent a cell phone to Chris Hansen and Vincent. Perhaps the internet got mixed up and hyper focused on the laptop when it was really the cell phone that contained the damning nudes Kai sent to Sarah as a minor.

- Sarah admits she only turned her laptop in because the internet pressured her to. Confirming she defrauded countless people to replace the laptop via GoFundMe, not revealing to them the laptop she turned in had nothing on it.

I don’t believe the internet pressured her into originally sending the laptop to Chris Hansen / Vincent. I believe she did it to help the investigation. When she found out it was never given to the FBI months later, she seemed extremely upset.

After she got it back, that is when she noticeably hesitated on what to do with the laptop. People on the internet definitely pressured her into doing something with it before she was ready. Her being pressured into handing in the laptop to the FBI does not prove there was nothing on it. She most likely hesitated because either she did not want to deal with it / needed a break or she did not know who to trust with it.

Sarah was not the one who made the GoFundMe, it was Shiloh. The description said she needed a new laptop while the FBI had it for an investigation. That was true.

I’ve seen the argument that Sarah asking for funds for a laptop was fraudulent because she was fine without one while Vincent had it. Looking back, Vincent told her he was going to remove the hard drive, send the hard drive to the FBI, give the laptop a new one, and send her laptop back. I know during this time she was borrowing a friend’s laptop. This makes sense to me. She was borrowing because she thought it would be temporary. Once she officially handed it over herself to the FBI, she no longer had access to one and needed one for school.

(Washington state law prevents phone conversations being recorded without both parties consenting, Sarah was very concerned the conversation was being recorded, repeatedly asking if she was being recorded - as usual, Onision told the truth, he recorded nothing)

I’ve seen a lot of people talk about ways he could have gotten around this law or legal ways he could have proven this conversation happened. At the very least, he could have taken a screen shot of his call logs to show the date and how long he was on the phone for.

I think it’s worth noting he has recorded people over the phone without their consent in the past. Like Shiloh’s manager and Madison.

I’m not saying he’s outright lying about the call, but I don’t understand why he expected the internet to believe some vague bullet points about a phone call no one knew about about until he randomly made a page on his site for it a whole month after the call took place.

Tl;dr - He’s being way too vague. I believe he is taking a lot of the conversation out of context and manipulatively lead her into answering yes or no questions that would make it look like she’s admitting to the thing he’s accused her of and denounced her past accusations against him.

[mememanufactorum]

Halo: Reach quote starters

* FEEL FREE TO SHARE AS YOU PLEASE, NO CREDIT NEEDED. CHANGE PRONOUNS OR ANYTHING ELSE AS DESIRED.

-Noble Actual-

“You read his file?”

“Anyone claim responsibility?”

“Consider it done.”

“I’ll see you on the other side.”

“I’m not gonna lie to you. You’re stepping into some shoes the rest of the squad would rather leave unfilled.”

“I’m glad to have your skill set, but we’re a team. That lone wolf stuff stays behind.”

-Winter Contingency-

“Just get me under the hood.”

“You get a chance, maybe you can ask them.”

“I’m lonely already.”

“Shoot down attempts are likely, so keep your distance.”

“Let’s stay focused. Watch your sectors.”

“Let’s check it out.”

“I want your eyes in the sky.”

“Why are we not seeing explosives residue?”

“There’s a lot of blood on the ground.”

“Looks like there’s nothing here. Let’s move on.”

“You have permission to engage, but be selective. We don’t need to telegraph our presence.”

“Go in quiet. I’m right behind.”

“On your knees, now!”

“They’re not rebels, they’re farmers. Look at them.”

��What the hell was that?”

“Cheer up, big man. This whole valley just turned into a free fire zone.”

“No disrespect, but don’t we have better things to do than round up strays?”

“We don’t leave people behind.”

“I’ve cut about halfway through the door.”

“Where’s the rest of your unit?”

“Found something.”

“I’ll take that. Not your domain.”

“It’s all right. We’re not gonna hurt you.”

“Keep still, and I’ll release you.”

“Flush ‘em out. I’ve got you covered.”

“You’re in my light.”

“What’s your name? Do you live around here?”

“Your accent sounds familiar.”

“Big man forgets what he is sometimes.”

“Best not touch anything. You wouldn’t want to ground this place.”

“May God help us all.”

-ONI Sword Base-

“Regrettably, my efforts to obtain relevant data on enemy forces has been unsuccessful.”

“Let’s knock some heads!”

“I doubt that very much.”

“Can’t do this on my own!”

“Are you havin’ fun yet?”

“Beautiful, ain’t it. Someone should take a picture.”

“Nice work, by the way.”

“I aim to please.”

“Been all hers half my life.”

“I requested your assistance and do not need reports on events that occur on my own doorstep.”

“It’s been too long.”

“What have you done with my armor?”

“Just some… Additions I’ve made.”

“Perhaps you could shed some light on his death.”

“We had other, more urgent matters to attend to.”

“Before you ask, I was alerted the moment you tried to access its contents. As I am with any unauthorized tap.”

“I could send you to the brig for interfering with my work.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“Just making a reading suggestion.”

-Nightfall-

“It’s starting to get crowded up here.”

“Direct action is always necessary.”

“Here. You may need these.”

“I’ll be in touch.”

“Looks like we’ve really pissed them off.”

“Give us a hand! Bastards just keep coming!”

“Little more action than we’re used to.”

“What are you doing here? Whole area’s supposed to be evacuated.”

“Didn’t like leaving it to someone else to protect our home, so we came back.”

“You know this stuff is stolen.”

“What? You gonna arrest me?”

“Gonna steal it back.”

“That’s no strike force, it’s an invading army.”

“If we’re gonna smother this thing, we need to go in hard and fast.”

“Sun will be up in a few hours… And it’s gonna be a very busy day.”

-Tip of the Spear-

“Might want to hold on to something!”

“We shouldn’t stay here.”

“I’ll hold these bastards off.”

“Have a nice day.”

“One way to get their attention! Hang on to your teeth!”

“No, no! Somebody tell me this ain’t happening!”

“We need to get out of here now!”

-Long Night of Solace-

“Forty-eight hours? That’s imminent?”

“Uh-oh. Who’s your money on this time?”

“You always pick her.”

“She’s always had him dialed in.”

“That thing’s crushing us and we’re waiting for backup? They’ll be backing up a graveyard.”

“You’re preaching to the converted.”

“I know that look.”

“You can say no.”

“You don’t even want to hear it?”

“...Fine. I’ll hear it.”

“And this is relevant… How?”

“Not the word I would use.”

“Don’t cut yourself.”

“This sanctioned?”

“What do you think?”

“Thank you for sharing.”

“As a soldier in the field, I couldn’t possibly have access to those kinds of resources.”

“You’re scary, you know that?”

“Good luck with that.”

“You’re the one who’s asking him.”

“Oh, there’s no way in hell he’s gonna go for this.”

“Some plans are too good to say no to.”

“Show them what you can do!”

“This breaks my heart…”

“Discourage the curious.”

“Hear that? I’ll be all by my lonesome back here. Make it quick, would ya?”

“Nothing we can do.”

“At your earliest convenience.”

“Damn it… So it’s gonna be like that.”

“Well, I’ve got good news and bad news.”

“And the good news?”

“That was the good news.”

“That’s a one way trip.”

“We all make it sooner or later.”

“Time has come to return the favor. Don’t deny me this.”

“Tell ‘em to make it count.”

-Exodus-

“You got to be kidding me.”

“Damn, how do you stop that thing?!”

“Help! Somebody help us!”

“They’re coming! They’re after us!”

“Come on! Let’s go!”

“What are those things?!”

“Somebody shut that damn thing off!”

“What the hell is taking this thing so long?”

“Glad you’re on our side.”

“City’s been under siege for the last five days.”

“Guess some of us don’t like leaving a job half-finished.”

“Son of a bitch! I can’t watch this…”

“How’s the day so far?”

“Just keeps getting worse, huh?”

“You saved a lot of lives today.”

“He didn’t make it.”

-New Alexandria-

“Sorry I came alone.”

“Make him proud.”

“I said back off, you nasty son of a bitch!”

“Damn! Look how they move!”

“Look at this place. Used to be the crown jewel… Not anymore.”

“Hey, you made it!”

“It’s a regular family reunion.”

“Keep ‘em. He gave ‘em to you.”

“I’ll honor him my own way.”

“The big man was sentimental…”

“He gave his life thinking he just saved the planet. We should all be so lucky.”

“I hear what I hear.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“You want to know if we’re losing?”

“I know we’re losing! I just want to know if we’ve lost.”

“Keep it brief.”

-The Package-

“We’re gonna have to thin ‘em out, or we’ll be way too popular.”

“We’ve got a job to do, so let’s stay focused and get it done.”

“Looks like they got themselves cornered.”

“They were committed to the position.”

“I’m going with cornered. There’s nothing here.”

“If we’re supposed to blow this place, this ain’t the spot to do it from.”

“I didn’t bring my shovel.”

“Alright, we came this far.”

“Apologies for the unusual security measures, but the stakes demand it.”

“Yes, well, as they say, news of my death has been greatly exaggerated.”

“Not sure I understand.”

“Whatever we’re doing down here, we better do it quick.”

“I don’t think you understand. We’re out of time.”

“Bury any of it, and you bury mankind’s best chance for survival!”

“Please. Buy me all the time you can.”

“What is this stuff?”

“Her measure of you carries as much weight as my own… Perhaps more.”

“Mankind is outmatched.”

“An apt question if there were somewhere else to place our hope. There is not.”

“Do you have it?”

“Say the words, please.”

“I have it.”

“I require no escort.”

“Make sure nothing falls into enemy hands.”

“I’ll do what’s necessary.”

-The Pillar of Autumn-

“You are alarming me.”

“Not sure how long she’s gonna stay together.”

“Don’t wanna hear it.”

“Go with him. It’s a ground game now.”

“It’s been an honor.”

“I’ll do what I can to draw their fire.”

“She made the right choice.”

“Stay low, let me draw the heat.”

“You think we got time to walk over there?”

“You don’t have the firepower!”

“I’ve got the mass.”

“Hit ‘em hard, boss.”

“You’re on your own.”

“They’ll be remembered.”

“Who’s next?!”

“I’m ready! How ‘bout you?!”

“We gotta get the hell out of here!”

“I have the gun.”

“Good luck to you.”

“Good guns.”

-Lone Wolf-

“Our enemy was ruthless. Efficient. But they weren’t nearly fast enough.”

“Our victory – your victory – was so close… I wish you could’ve lived to see it.”

“Your body, your armor – all burned and turned to glass. Everything, except your courage. That, you gave to us, and with it, we can rebuild.”

[gayregis]

boppinrobin replied to your post: “Question. Part 1. Hi. I like your blog and your analytical analysis of books,”

aauuuughhh tysm for ur analysis as always

thank you for reading and liking it!!

arinasassymessi replied to your post: “Question. Part 1. Hi. I like your blog and your analytical analysis of books,”

Thank you again for your response! I wrote anonymously because I was a little embarrassed by my English, but to be honest, I've been reading your blog for a very long time, and I've always wanted to discuss some topics with you. Thank you, I feel more confident now. First of all, I apologize for the fact that I considered this scene pro-life.

The thing is, I've reread the witcher books countless times (mostly because of Regis, lol). And if in the first times I was so fascinated by the plot and characters that I did not notice any obvious sexist/homophobic moments, then after rereading the books more consciously, I caught very unpleasantly, conservative motives, which Sapkowski is not shy about.

I remember that the first time this scene, even though it caused a bit of misunderstanding, still touched me with its warmth and how Geralt emotionally supported Milva, helping her make a rather difficult decision. And the way Regis was pleased with his actions, smiling at him, awww.

But after studying the books in more detail and the messages that Sapkowski puts in them, it seems to me that I began to see a catch everywhere. At first, I was also delighted to learn about Ciri's relationship with Mistle, wow, progressive author, LGBTQ+ representation! But after seeing this relationship "live," I felt cheated, and since then, I have returned to this scene with Milva.

I thought, oh no, isn't everything here the same as I believed? Most of all, I was afraid of Regis because he is my comfort character, the voice of reason, and a progressive medic. Does Sapkowski put pro-life ideas in his mouth?.. After a couple of discussions with friends, this fear only took root.

However, after reading your in-depth analytical analysis, I agreed with it, looking at the facts in a new way, and was glad that my first guesses and feelings from this scene were close to the truth. Now I can rest in peace, lol.

About "medicament/medicine" and "agent." I have read books in Russian, and now I am rereading "Baptism of Fire" in English to practice. I think the difference between the words "medicament" and "agent" in English is somewhat unclear, and it is impossible to say precisely which of them has a negative connotation.

Both of them sound entirely neutral and normal to me, but again, I'm not a native speaker, correct me if I'm wrong. In Russian, instead of the word "agent," we have the word "snadobye" (the closest translation is 'potion,’ and in Polish, it is 'ziola’). And while "medicament" means only medicine, a remedy, the word "snadobye" can also mean medicine, but has more folk properties (?).

It is brewed from herbs and a synonym to a potion/drug — a poisonous, magical, and forbidden drink, usually attributed to witches and wizards. For me, Geralt's refusal to use the word "medicament" — neutral and scientific-medical — in favor of a word that has a more magical/negative connotation seemed rather strange. But again, this is just my guess.

I consider the Russian translation closer to the Polish one because it belongs to the same language group, but I don't have access to the original to check what words were used there. In any case, I think that since Geralt decided to use one instead of the other, they should differ in some way, but it is not known in favor of which word this works. I also like your version.

I also had a lot of questions about Milva and her actions. She's probably my second favorite character after Regis, and I didn't understand her actions until a certain point. She was not satisfied with a woman's position in her society, so instead of the usual role, she decided to participate in Geralt's journey?

I was also not very clear about their conversation and Geralt's conclusion: "someone else's child for your own, life for life." Why? After all, she could stay in Brokilon and give birth, but if she didn't want a child, she could have an abortion (for example, she rather cruelly compared her child to young wasps that eat caterpillar alive).

Recently, the Russian Witcher community posted a short theory that Milva was in love with Geralt and therefore went after him. Milva's thoughts in Brokilon speak in favor of this — she finds Geralt attractive (although she felt something similar for Cahir when they were waiting for Geralt and Buttercup to be released from prison at night).

*not Buttercup (have no idea what is it), JASKIER

Also, their conversation outside Regis' hut at night, when Milva bitterly remarked that Geralt needed another woman — a scholar, a wise one, a beloved one (Yennefer), desire to get emotional support exactly from Geralt and and insisting on his presence during the miscarriage, her further refusal to marry the baron, and perhaps Sapkowski's sometimes ANNOYING idea that any woman should go crazy in Geralt's company. But again, these are just guesses, and I would be interested to hear your opinion.

I also didn't know that tumblr has a word limit in comments, so my replays look pretty stupid now, lol.

yes!! i also read the books first just for the plot and then went back and later, when my mind was clearer, noticed a lot more of political views in the writing. it’s the fact that a lot of sapkowski’s other takes are shitty (re: feminity, lgbt individuals and relationships), or at least come off as shitty because they are not explicit enough to actually be a progressive opinion, compounded with the fact that the scene with milva is not very clear on exactly what regis is asking geralt, why he is polling them, why geralt is upset, or what they even intend to do. i think also, because the subject is so important and people have very intense opinions about it, it makes you nervous to see it come up in a fictional story, even if the author is promoting a good message - it’s the feeling you described of, “oh no, isn't everything here the same as i believed?” 

and yeah, you’re right, in english i’d say medicament and agent both have neutral connotations, “agent” to me sounds more scientific, somehow? like it would be used in an experiment? i think i have usually heard it more in descriptions of products, like “cleansing agent” in relation to something dealing with chemistry... but then again, i am not a scientist, doctor, beautician, etc...

and about milva - agree, i love her too :D!! these are my personal opinions and takes on her character motivations but:

i think her ‘not being satisfied with a [traditional] woman’s role in society’ extends beyond not being satisfied, it’s being disgusted with it - in tower of the swallow, she describes how she as a teenager experienced sexual assault at the hands of her stepfather, and her mother didn’t do anything (assumedly because of the societal roles involved, and you can (unfortunately) see this occur in real life as well, mothers don’t protect their daughters from the men they stay with). milva beats him to death and runs away, and never goes back to that life. additionally, in baptism of fire, she talks about her name - milva, and why she changed it, and she says that her original name, maria, along with a lot of other “feminine-sounding” names beginning with M (this is at least what i got out of it, they sound like sweet names given to peasant girls), get your ass pinched in taverns (this is my best recollection of the quote). 

it’s clear that she has not only experienced discomfort, but really just blatant violence at the hands of “traditional feminity/women’s societal roles,” and so she goes to rely on only herself at first, hunting in lower sodden, and then finally being ‘adopted’ (kind of) by brokilon and eithne, becoming affiliated with them and working for them and the scoia’tael. this makes sense to me, because of course brokilon is a matriarchy, and the elves are mentioned to raise (and thus, treat) male and female elves the same way.

i won’t rule out that sapkowski intended for milva to have romantic interest in geralt, but i think that even if he did, it wasn’t interesting and i disagree with that direction for her character. my takes continued are that:

re:  "someone else's child for your own, a life for life." in this conversation, she talks to geralt about the differences between “milva” and “maria,” her two identities that seem to be at ends with each other. she didn’t want to stay in brokilon to have the child, because by societal means, she is no longer a “woman” in the traditional sense - she’s milva, not maria - she kills, she laughs as she pulls out the arrowheads from corpses, etc., like her chosen name, ‘milva,’ she is a red kite, a bird of prey. 

she doesn’t fit the societal expectations of a woman, and was never trained in being a mother (she ran away from home as a teenager, she hasn’t done ‘traditional woman things’ like keep house and cook, raise and deal with children, weave (?) and work in a house since she was 16, and she is older than that now (i’d say she’s at least past her early 20s, because she is described as a “young woman” compared to angouleme’s “very young woman” in lady of the lake, and angouleme is approx. 18-19). but since she doesn’t fit these expectations, how can she expect herself to raise this child? thus, she likely wanted to drop the baby, but since she was raised in a conservative rural society in which women are expected to bear children and not have abortions, she may have felt guilt and shame for wanting to do so. thus, she wanted to follow geralt - although she would have intentionally lost her child, she would have intentionally saved another, absolving her of her guilt. it’s like as regis described to geralt in the middle of the book, about penance and running up debts, this is a large theme of the book - a baptism of fire, fire which not only purifies, but burns (a challenge which absolves one of guilt, but it is painful). 

these are just my takes, i think sapkowski’s intentions were more along the theory that milva had a crush on geralt, but as i said i think that’s just boring and the “easy way out.” he also did that with cahir and ciri, making heterosexual love the motivation for a noble deed, and it’s just like... these characters have so much other depth and serious individual issues, and you want to reduce their motivations to just simply “they were in love”? okay... so yeah i don’t think sapkowski really may have intended any of the above, or if he did, it was to a lesser degree, but this is my interpretation of it.

[fbfh]

Light Up the Dark - Leo x reader [II]

genre: romance + action + enemies to lovers kinda

word count: 1.3k

au: none

pairing: Leo x gothy!child of eros!fem reader

requested: nah

warnings: more brief mentions of anthrax, mentions of robbing a dentist and crafting w human teeth, living in an abandoned warehouse, i think that’s it??

summary: Leo and Jason finally find the demigod they’re looking for, but it’s going to take a lot of persuading for Leo to win her over to come to camp with them. 

listen to: karma - ajr

a/n: finally have a reliable laptop so i can hopefully post more?? don’t quote me lmao

Jason barely parks the car before Leo and Calypso are out the door. Leo thinks out loud while tweaking his tracking device, and Calypso starts listing the places she’d found in her travel magazines. 

“First I’m going to go to the Portland Observatory, then there’s this cute little ice cream shop not too far from there, and gods, there’s jewelry boutiques and coffee shops…” She lets out a noise of excitement and heads down the street before disappearing around a corner. Leo had wanted to say something to her, but now he just stared at where she had been a moment ago. 

He brushes it off, and turns back to his tracker. Jason takes in a breath to say something before Leo walks by him and says to come on, he got a signal. They walk for a couple blocks and Leo is doing everything he can not to focus on what just happened. I mean, I should have expected it at this point, he thinks, she’s practically been ignoring me since we left the island, why would now be any different? Then, as usual, the voice of overjustification enters the chat. He tries to silence the conflicting inner dialogues with no luck. 

Beepbeepbeep.

He looks down at the tracker.

BEEPBEEPBEEP.

He looks over at Jason.

BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEE-

They take off running. 

They run for a few blocks, zigzagging around, before Leo sprints forward. 

"She should be up that way," he pants, not realizing Jason had fallen behind. He barrels forward, eyes glued to the tracker, when he slams into something and a cold liquid seeps into his hoodie. His eyes flit up to apologize, but the words get caught in his throat. 

He's looking down at the hottest girl he's ever seen. 

Just the fact that you're standing so close to him makes his heart race, and he can't tear his eyes away from you. Heat rises to his cheeks as he studies you. He's fixated on your eyes; there's makeup smudged at the corners, and they're a rosy pink at the bottom. Something about them makes him want to create things. Is this how artists feel when they see their muse? His breath catches when he realizes they're staring at him, through him. He snaps out of his trance when he realizes you’re waiting for him to say something. You look pissed. He tries for an apology, but nothing comes out. He'd heard of people looking 'hot when they're mad', now he really got the expression. Your glare intensifies. 

"I WILL MAKE YOU SNORT ANTHRAX!" 

His heart is pounding - maybe from the running, definitely from you - as you crush the cup in your hands. You grab his collar and his heart stops for a second as you shove the cup down his shirt. You scream and storm off. He watches you stomp off until you turn a corner. Jason finally catches up to him. He takes in the coffee stains all over Leo’s clothes, the redness of his face, and the cup sticking out of his collar. 

“... You know what? I’m not even gonna ask.”

Leo barely hears him, still staring at the spot where you were a moment ago. You were like nothing he’d ever experienced before, the closest comparison he could make was an intense summer storm; loud and powerful, shaking everything up, then gone before you can blink. He never thought the words ‘I will make you snort anthrax’ could be a turn on. 

“Did you find the demigod?” 

Jason’s voice cut through his thoughts. 

“...Yeah,” he points to the corner you had just disappeared around, “over there.” His instincts win, and he takes off running after you. He catches up to you a second later. He grabs your shoulder, and you spin around yelling, “WHAT?!” He fumbles for what he was about to say, but he’s still stuck on your eyes and how loud his heartbeat sounds. He chokes out the usual monologue about how surprise! The greek gods are real and you’re their kid and you need to get to camp right now. Or at least he tries to. What came out was more like, “Uh, this is hard to believe and everything, but one of your parents is a… a greek god-” 

 “Wow, thanks for the compliment!” You cut him off incredulously. 

“Wha- no, I didn’t mean-”

“Because it’s so hard to imagine me as the child of a god,” you continue. 

“Not hard to believe like that-”

“I mean, look at me! I’m a hideous, coffee covered monster!”

He looks down at you, lost for words. How can he say that's not true, you're incredible and make his heart go boom boom! What words are stronger than beautiful? You cock an eyebrow at him expectantly. He pushes past this feeling that makes him want to master poetry just to write sonnets about you, squeezes his eyes shut, and chokes out the important parts of the rest of the speech. 

“We need to get you to camp.” The words come out in a rush, then there’s silence. He stares down at the pavement. He knows if he looks at you he’ll get all flustered again. After a minute, your voice cuts through the silence like drizzling honey. 

“You want to take me to a summer camp?”

“U-uh, yeah…?”

He hears you blow a quick breath of air out of your nose. Was that a scoff or an almost laugh?

“Well, that’s new.” After a moment of consideration, you respond, “I’ll tell you what. I’ll go to your summer camp - if you get me coffee whenever I want on the way there.” He takes in a breath to reply when you continue, “I also want free access to bleach and hair dye. And I get to choose the music in the car.” 

He’s like, yeah, that’s fair.  He calls Jason over. 

“Jason, this is, uh…” You introduce yourself with a curt smile. “Right,” Leo continues, “I’m Leo, and this is Jason.” You look up at him. He seems nervous. 

“Yup,” he raises a hand in greeting, “Jason here.” 

You blink.

“Okay? What do you want, a medal?”

Leo turns to Jason and says he has to grab something real quick, and they’ll all meet up at the car. You start walking beside him down the sidewalk. You revel in the uncomfortable silence. After a minute he tries to make conversation. 

“I, uh… I like your purse.” He says. 

“Thanks, I added the studs myself.” you reply, smiling slightly. 

“Oh, that’s-”

“They’re made of human teeth.” You continue. He’s quiet again, trying to tell if you’re joking.

“I had to rob a dentist.” 

He doesn’t talk much after that. Leo arrives at the car a few minutes after you do. Jason gets into the driver's seat, and Leo hands you a milky iced coffee and some paper towels. 

“What are these for?” you ask, looking at the paper towels in your hand. 

“So you can dry off.” He replies, “Sorry about before. Americano looks good on you though, it brings out your eyes,” and you smile a little in spite of yourself. You dry off and take a sip of your coffee. Your eyebrows rise in surprise. It’s perfect. 

“How… did you know my order?” you ask, a little amazed. He holds up the crumpled, and now somewhat straightened, cup you had shoved down his shirt and points to the description on the side. 

“I have my ways.” He smiles playfully and you both get in the back. 

“Hey,” you say, buckling your seatbelt, “can we swing by my apartment to pick up a few things before we leave? It’s not far from here.”

“Yeah, that’s perfect,” Leo replies, “I can help you out while Jason picks up Calypso.”

You tell them the address and give occasional directions, and a few minutes later you pull up to an abandoned warehouse. Jason is about to ask if this is the right address when you hop out of the car and just… walk inside. 

Jason and Leo share a look. This is going to be interesting.

[jjsjuiceboxx]

NOT SO SUBTLE

REQUESTED FOR: @www-imbored-com

SUMMARY- You and Drew have grown close filming season 1 of obx, you think you’re starting to love him and you think he likes you back because he is very touchy and he always makes sure he is sitting close to you.

⚠️WARNINGS⚠️: cussing.

A/N: this is just a bunch of fluff, happy reading :).

☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎ ☮︎

While filming season 1 of obx drew was one of the first people you got close with dont get me wrong you were friends with everyone and close with everyone but you and Drew’s friendship was a bit more then the others, you noticed how in the first month of filming season one Drew got a little flirty complimenting you every chance you got “wow that dress looks beautiful on you” which always led to you blushing. By the third month of filming he would open doors for you and always offering his water to you.

6 months into coming you guys held hands hugged and cuddled. In public the people who didn’t know you guys thought y’all were dating but you were not you never went on dates and he never asked you to be his girlfriend. Of course you hung out outside of filming but it was mostly with the group every now and then you two would go out alone.

Currently you were on set filming season 2 you had already done your scenes for the day but decided to stay back just in case they needed you to help or, or help madelyn take pictures and funny videos for tomfoolery, “hey did I show you the photo of Drew I took this morning in the trailers?” Madelyn asked after taking a photo of the sunset with the silhouettes of the pogues in the background looking like shadows “no, but now you said it I need to see it” you said she handed her camera over flicking to the photo and there it was Drew practically passed out in his breakfast burrito “oh my god that is gold he isn’t living that down ever”

Who isn’t living what down?” The man who uses a burrito as a pillow muses at you “oh nothing dearest drewseph” Maddie said laughing and putting her camera away “how was your day?” You asked calming down from laughing so hard you barely saw him today “it was good I missed my lady around, oh did you drink enough water? And eat? I know how you get when you don’t eat food” Drew reprimanded but sweetly you rolled your eyes “yes Drew I ate food dont worry they beast is in hibernation from a food coma” you said Maddie and Drew laughed “ok good we don’t need you to break another window” Maddie said remembering how you were starving you all were but you had it the worst and were so mad at Rudy and chase for messing around you punched a window and broke it then immediately apologized for breaking a window and said you were just really hungry Austin walked to you and literally shoved a hamburger in your mouth and you were so quiet for 20 mins while you at his hamburger feeling so much better ever since then everyone makes sure you ate so you don’t end up splitting them in half.

“Yeah yeah I’ve gotten a lot better” “yeah because we all remind you to eat or shove food in your face” jonas walked over to the three of you “hey guys so we just need the pogues for the rest of the day so it’s a wrap on you guys if you wanted to go and stuff” Jonas said and walked off quickly to direct what’s happening next “I was thinking of going out to this lake where you can rent paddle boards and canoes and stuff, do y’all wanna come?” Drew asked “yeah that sounds like fun I’ve never been paddle boarding before” “I would but I promised I would help out around with everything you guys have fun tho” Maddie said you guys said goodbye and hopped into a car.

Once you arrived you immediately took a picture of the view because it was so beautiful “Drew this is beautiful, how did you find this?” You asked amazed “aww yanno just some tourist site thing” you walked up to the people at the booth for the paddle boards once you got the paddle boards you and Drew started to paddle in the lake “so am I your lady or is there a secret women I need to know about?” You asked Drew laughing “oh it’s definitely you but i dont know one of the set members dog looked really good today” you both bursted out laughing “you’re such an idiot” “oh yeah well can an idiot do this?” Drew questioned before throwing himself off the paddle board and doing a flip landing perfectly into the water.

“No I guess an idiot can’t do that, you’ve proved me wrong starkey im quite impressed” you said clapping for him “good because I’ve actually never done that before and just hoped it would look cool not gunna lie I was trying to impress you” Drew said getting slightly red “well you’ve succeeded tremendously” you said you guys continued talking and paddle boarding deciding to race you lossed tho because you fell into the water.

“Drew look at the view it’s soo pretty oh my god” you said taking out your phone and snapping a bunch of photos you stopped when you heard a camera shatter and looked at your phone confused since you put your silencer on so it wouldn’t disrupt your time with Drew you looked over and Drew is looking at his phone smiling then he showed you the photo it was of you in the paddle boat taking a photo of the view “should I post this and be basic and caption it “she thought the view was pretty but I thought she was prettier” ?” Drew asked making your laugh “oh of course I’m trying to turn you into a white girl that should be the first step” you said you sighed “thank you for saying I’m pretty” you blushed and looked down at your reflection in the lake you guys paddle board was side by side so it was easy for him to take his hand to your chin and make you look at him “youre so welcome, honestly you’ve made this whole experience so great and I just want to tell you that I love you a lot and uh do you want to officially be my lady?” You laughed but said yes and you guys kissed it got a little heated because of all the sexual tension that had been built up you had tongues in each other’s mouths your hands in his hair and his on your bare hips on of the paddle boards almost flipped “maybe we should head back to set, also we took the only car for them to get home in” you suggested drew nodded not being able to form words and off to set you went.

When you arrived you saw everyone waiting all in their normal clothes “dudes did you really kidnap my car?” Austin asked “I wouldn’t say “kidnap” I just borrowed it” drew said air quoting kidnap “whatever you’re not riding shot gun for that and neither are you Y/N” Austin said getting in the drivers side you shrugged “SHOTGUN” chase belted out him and JD made eye contact and JD touched the handle first and sat down “gotta be quicker then that” JD said to chase you rolled your eyes and got in the back Drew got in right after you and you both intertwined your hands together the rest piled into the car and off you went to the apartment buildings.

Once you got on the highway JD plugged his phone in the aux and played music Rudy, chase, and both maddies were singing so loudly you got a lot of confidence from no where and unbuckled your seat belt and straddled Drew’s lap “what are you doing?” He questioned wide eyed “you’ll see just go with it” you mumbled and then started to lean in he surprised you when he met you half way and you continued what you had stopped at the lake his hands were squeezing your ass making you want to moan but you didn’t and you tugged on his hair “uh guys ? Can you like I don’t know maybe not do that?” Rudy questioned looking at you guys he was seated right next to drew one of Drew’s hands moved from your ass and waving off rudy. His hand immediately went back to where it was you felt everyone’s eyes on y’all now Rudy groaned annoyed “Ok you can borrow my car from now on” Austin said chase turned the song louder hoping you would stop Madelyn and Madison laughed you heard Madison say “that explains his insta photo she said showing everyone that he did in fact post it madelyn decided to take a picture and video recording “hey guys you gonna come up for air? She asked you just flicked her off you could hear the video replaying “dude this is gunna be so good for tomfoolery”

You guys pulled up to the apartment but you wouldn’t know cause you were still making out with Drew his hands in your shirt this time and you leaving slight hickies on his neck then going back to his lips and pulling his hair making him lean to the side so you can get better accesses chase turned around when no one got out of the car “yo love birds we are here” chase called but you still didn’t move Madison giggled “wow” Madelyn pulled her phone out again and recorded knowing the look on Rudy’s face meant he was about to do something funny “ok that’s it” Rudy stated frustration obviously on his face and tone because he was squished two on one of his side and then both the maddies to his left side keeping him from getting out of the car “I’m fucking hungry and squishedl” he complained turning towards you and drew who were still kissing you felt a hand on your forehead and then suddenly you were being pulled apart from Drew you opened your eyes to see the same was being done with Drew you moved your eyes from Drew’s to Rudy who was literally pulling you apart by your face “we are here it’s time you stop so I can get out” Rudy said his tongue out so he can focus on pulling you apart once he was satisfied he looked at you since you were closest to the door “now get out so I can get out and get food before I lose my shit” you got out and thought drew would follow but he wasn’t fast enough for Rudy’s liking “oh fuck it” Rudy said before climbing over Drew’s lap and then running to his and chases apartment door.

“Yeah don’t mess with Rudy when he is hungry he gets mean” chase said “much like Y/N just not physical leash not yet” chase mumbled “I’m going to my house to watch tv and for Cheetos” JD said “wait I’m coming, everyone out of my car” Austin said catching up with JD drew got out of the car and came straight to you “I guess this is goodbye” he said sadly “yeah I think it is” you said back just as sad “oh my god you live in the same apartment building 3 doors down calm down” chase said going up the stairs Madison followed to get her shoes she left the night before madelyn still there laughing at the video she got of Rudy pulling you and drew apart.

You hugged drew and went in for another kiss, Madelyn had left by now leaving the two of you out there you both pulled apart and said your goodbyes “goodnight drew I’ll see you tomorrow” “goodnight my lady” drew said you went to move out of his embrace but couldn’t he was latched on you tapped his shoulder but only got a hmm “babe, you gotta let go” you said laughing “I did” “yeah for 2 seconds” you literally had to pull him away from you and turned him around and slightly shoved him in the direction of his house he went to come back to you which led you to turn around and run away from him “Drew I love you but if you hug me one more time I won’t let go” you shouted as you got further away from him you heard him laugh and went into your apartment with both maddie’s you heard your phone ding and saw drew texted you saying that he missed you.

[alexanderlightweight]

To Err

Thank you @thougtsofadyingatheist for the lovely prompt!  This took far longer than it had a right too but I was very excited to write it, it took a little different turn than I expected and I hope you like it!!

Prompt: “At least you’ll die doing what you love; Walking into danger.” 

-

“At least you’ll die doing what you love.  Walking into danger.”  Kyle griped as he finished cleaning out the deep laceration on Alex’s ribs.  

The door to Isobel’s backyard, because since Max had died they’d started to use her home as a safe middle ground, slammed shut and Alex clenched his teeth.  Not from pain but from knowing what was coming next.  If Kyle hadn’t currently been stitching him up, he would have kicked him.

“What the hell happened?”  Michael asked and the house gave a deceptively gentle tremor.  

Kyle winced and mouthed a soft ‘sorry’ to Alex but apologies were useless now. 

“A miscalculation,” Alex said at the same time that Kyle blurted out “shrapnel.”

There was one very long, incredulous moment of silence and Alex lost it, “what happened to doctor-patient confidentiality, Kyle?”  And when both men gave him an equally unimpressed and unamused glare, added, “also it was miscalculated shrapnel.  The point was to not have shrapnel, then I miscalculated.”  

“What were you working on that a miscalculation meant shrapnel?”  Liz asked, because of course Michael hadn’t been alone when he arrived and Alex was just about done with everything.  In fact, he was making a vow of silence.  Which meant that he wasn’t talking and since Kyle had already thrown him under the bus, he could return the favor and let the doctor fix this damage as well.

After Alex’s silence had stretched on for too long, Kyle neatly tied off his last stitch and removing his gloves, looked at the group. 

“We’ve been going through the data that we managed to get from Caulfield,” he paused, a moment of respect for the lives lost that day, “and we’d found a few other possible locations.  Our concern has been going in too-“ and Kyle paused.  “The systems for Caulfield were archaic but with just enough new tech and coding that they were also very delicate.  We’ve been working on reconstructing the self-destruct mechanisms.  If we’re operating on the assumption that these other sites would similarly linked, we want to make sure we have ways of shutting them down.”

There was an unspoken vow that lingered between them all.  That what had happened at Caulfield would not, could not, happen again.  

“So you’ve been recreating the system with the purpose of figuring out all the fail-safes and how to shut them down?”  Michael asked and his voice was tight, “and you didn’t think to, I don’t know.  Ask any of the people with actual powers to help?”

“Your powers didn’t work in Caulfield, not like they were supposed to.”  Alex said, breaking his self-imposed silence.  “There was some kind of alloy all throughout the facility that I don’t have access too.  They had enough time to figure out how to weaken your people and their gifts.  Doing it this way made the most sense.”

“Right.  Which is how that,” Michael gestured sardonically to Alex’s chest and never before had Alex wished more for a shirt, “happened.”

“As I said, I miscalculated.”  

“Actually, you said it was unstable, waited until I was in the jeep and then attempted to-” Kyle paused from where he’d started packing up his medical kit, “nevermind.  That part is completely unimportant.  There’s no permanent damage and Alex hasn’t lost any more limbs.”  

Alex rolled his eyes at Kyle’s smirk and added, “the good news is I figured out a way around the trigger point that caused this, so win-win.”  

-

Michael wasn’t sure which part was worse.  The fact that Alex and Valenti were still clearly spending a lot of time together, the fact that they were keeping everyone else in the dark while doing dangerous experiments, or the fact that they were at ease enough to have a mutual sense of morbid humor that flowed smoothly between them.   To paraphrase Max who had no doubt been quoting someone else at the time, he found it ‘quite fucking irksome’.

“Right well, seeing as Isobel is almost here I’m going to get us something to drink while you finish cleaning that up,” Liz said, clearly sensing that Michael was near his breaking point.  “Mikey, care to join me?”  

He grunted a response, not even bothering to playfully snap back at the nickname.  Inside Isobel’s kitchen he flung the fridge open, calling a beer to himself and opening it before it even reached his hand.  

“You want to talk about it?”  Liz asked softly, grabbing down both a bottle of tequila and acetone from the shelf.  “You seemed pretty close to losing it out there with your powers, that’s not like you.”

Michael shrugged and accepted both of the shots she offered.  “Long month, long damn year even longer fucking life.  I definitely don’t want to talk about it.”

-

Michael would be the first to deny that he spent the rest of the evening in a mixture of glowering and sulking.  Alex stuck to sipping a single beer for most of the night while Valenti actually deigned to relax and try to match Isobel for shots.  Liz had been convinced to let loose for one night -a mental break from her desperate need to find a way to save Max- and was out with both Maria and Rosa.  Somehow that had turned into him watching Isobel taunt Valenti into another shot while Alex laughed at them from the couch.  

Meanwhile Michael was pacing himself, cutting his alcohol with acetone and ice and sipping on it.  He needed to keep a clear head with Alex this close.  It was hard not to go to him here, in a place they didn’t have to hide any of their history, seeing him soft with laughter and at the same time knowing he was hurt.  Michael wanted to even out the past between them just enough so that they could finally stand without a chasm between them.

Instead, he had to watch as Valenti made inside jokes with Alex that Isobel quickly caught onto, had to watch them laugh and smile and see Alex lean into casual touches that Michael had once coveted.  In another lifetime he’d have been filled with joy, knowing that Alex finally had people who would touch him without hurting him, instead Michael found himself yearning for even just another one of their long lost, stolen moments.  

Instead, he had to make due with the way that every so often, their gaze would meet and Alex’s face would tighten as he hid away just enough emotion to make him unreadable.  

Michael hated it.  

It was both worse and better once Iz convinced Alex to take a few shots.  He didn’t do many, but it was enough to leave him loose limbed and relaxed as he sunk into the armchair.  It was also enough for Isobel to leave to her room.  Michael had already been planning on staying in the guestroom Iz had designated for him or Max.  Valenti was dozing on couch when Michael knelt next to the chair and reaching out, gently tapped Alex’s arm.

“Come on there Private, let’s get you to a bed before you fall asleep here.”  

“I’m good,” Alex mumbled, bleary and uncoordinated as he reached for a crutch that wasn’t there and then groaning when he overextended his reach, arm going to cradle his side.  

“Valenti was right, you are going to die doing what you love.”  It came out a little harshly but Michael was just so tired of everyone he loved in pain.

“Oh, so your name is danger now?”  Alex muttered haughtily, swaying slightly and oblivious to how Michael’s breath hitched at his admission.

“Alex,” Michael said softer than his previous accusation and Alex swayed again.

“I don’t,” he blinked, “I don’t think I should have taken Isobel up on those shots.”  He slurred and then looked down at the floor, it was spinning.  It took him a moment, Michael’s voice an unintelligible and white noise around him.  “D-did Kyle drug me?”  His voice raised in betrayed accusation and he let himself fall back against the couch.

“Actually Liz did before she left,” Michael said. “She did make sure they were safe to mix with alcohol.”  

“I see who my true friends are,” Alex bit out and flopped his hand in Michael’s direction, “never thought I’d say that about Kyle.  Not after high school.”

“Still can’t believe you forgave him,” Michael said and sighed when Alex didn’t answer, just blinked, “oh for, alright Private.  This way, come on.  Iz offered up her guestroom.”  

“Not the army,” was muttered against his ear and Michael was thankful that Alex was too out of it to feel the way he shivered when they connected.  Michael’s arm supported Alex as he led him to the room and helped him to bed.    

“When are you going to stop walking headfirst into danger and not caring about how anyone else is going to feel about it?”  Michael asked, keeping his voice soft enough that Alex’s brow furrowed in confusion.  It was a surprise when Alex surged up, knocking their foreheads together none-too-gently.  It surprised more than hurt Michael but Alex gave a wounded little, ‘ouch’ before flopping onto his side and burrowing his forehead against the soft pillow. 

“What was that?”

“Headfirst into danger,” Alex mumbled into the linens, “night danger.”

As Alex drifted into whatever sleep he managed, he left Michael staring at him -healed hand pressed shakily to his chest as he tried to imagine if a future was possible for them.

-

“Well, that went better than it should have,” Kyle admitted the next morning as they left Isobel’s.  He still felt off and it was only due to years of working on far too little sleep that he’d managed to pull himself together, that and blessed electrolytes.  

“Speak for yourself,” Alex said with a side-glare as he pulled out his tablet. 

“Oh, you mean your little confession?  I’d say Guerin looked star-struck, but that could have also been the result of whatever minor concussion you gave him.”  

“And to think, I told Michael you were the only friend I could trust.”  Alex was teasing, Kyle knew that but he took a moment at the stop sign to look over at his friend. 

“As someone you trust, you’re sure you want to go through with this?”  Kyle asked and shook his head when Alex turned with a little smirk, “don’t deflect this onto me.  I’ll be fine whatever the outcome but you saw how upset he was about you being hurt.  If this goes wrong, how do you think he’ll react?”

Alex stayed silent for a moment, long enough that Kyle had to start driving again.  

“I think,” Alex sighed, “I know- that Michael would want to come with us, again.  That Isobel and and Liz and possibly even Rosa and Maria would get involved.  I also know that they’re civilians.  All the alien powers in the world mean nothing if they can’t stay calm and work under pressure.  It’s not a risk we can afford to take.”

“I hate that you’re right.”

[homespork-review]

Homespork Act 4, Part 1: Blight of the Paradox Clones

BRIGHT: Act 4 opens on a loading sequence titled ‘GATE 1’, and then there’s a short pan down through firefly-dotted clouds to a dim blue landscape called the Land of Wind and Shade. John manifests at ground-level and it’s time for another walk-around game!

The icon in the upper right corner opens a conversation with Nannasprite, who’s still back in the house. Apparently she can’t accompany John around the Land, but she can certainly give him puzzling half-answers to any questions he might have. John asks her point-blank if she was always cryptic and evasive or if that’s a sprite thing, but she predictably avoids answering.

John wanders around the Land, getting into fights with (oddly non-aggressive) imps for grist. The Land is very atmospheric, with glowing blue mushrooms and odd pipes everywhere. It’s also inhabited by large, excitable, bipedal orange salamanders who blow bubbles and dispense information about the Land. One of them has acquired John’s bedsheets and is now calling itself a wizard.

A salamander standing by one of the pipes explains that it’s called a Parcel Pyxis. If you need something, you can chisel a picture of whatever it is into a stone tablet and drop it into a Parcel Pyxis. If you find a tablet, and you have what’s carved into it, it’s polite to drop it into the Pyxis and the Breeze will take it where it needs to go. (Just what the Breeze is isn’t explained yet, but given the name of the Land, it’s fair to assume an explanation will be forthcoming in due time, and it’s thematically consistent.)

While wandering, John finds a telescope. Looking through it, he sees his house, perched waaaaaay at the top of a very tall, very narrow rocky crag. He also finds a very large pipe sunk into the ground. He can hear something very, very big breathing at the bottom.

There are definite pros and cons to these games, but on the whole I like them. They’re more immersive than the usual comic panels, and it’s nice to do some self-directed wandering. On the other hand, it’s easy to miss something in a walk-around game, which hardly ever happens with comic panels…

FAILURE ARTIST: The Salamanders crack me up. Good parody of NPC chatter.

CHEL: Comic panels of the walkaround are included later on, so if you really hate the games you can read it straightforwardly.

John is confused by now being below his house when he went through a portal above it; Nanna cryptically claims that “To ascend, you must first descend!”

BRIGHT: With the game out of the way (it doesn’t really have a defined end point), we return to normal comic panels — and also to the future. AR is embroiled in a shootout with the snakes from PM’s ship, which are now firing laser beams. A stray blast decapitates the frog temple. AR returns fire with a rocket launcher. His first shot takes out the snake. The second knocks WV flying. WV lands behind a rock, and the carved pumpkin lands on his head. AR lines up his next shot...and pauses.

The carved image of Bec’s head seems to mean something to AR, because he immediately ceases fire and comes down to start yelling at WV. This turns out to be a poor move on his part: PM still has her sword, and she is not pleased.

I really, really like PM as a character. She has no dialogue whatsoever and still projects massive amounts of integrity.

The comic returns to Jade. She’s retrieved Dave’s Sburb discs from the time capsule, which is clearly going to move the plot along...

Looks like the TIME CAPSULE has reset itself. It is sprouting a new bud. Presumably something else will come out when it blooms again in about 400 years. Too bad you won't be around to find out what it is!

...aaaaaaand we go into sylladex shenanigans again.

I will say this for sylladex tomfoolery: It absolutely can break up tension and provide some lighter stretches in the plot. The problem is that these don’t always feel natural. I find them less annoying now and can appreciate the humour, but they really bugged me the first time around.

Still, Jade’s use of her sylladex does at least speak to her character.

Jade eventually settles on Pictionary modus, which means she has to draw a picture of whatever she wants to captchalogue. If she doesn’t have the drawn item to hand, her modus instead captures a “ghost image” of the item on a card, complete with alchemiter code. Handy! Unfortunately the modus has some trouble understanding Jade’s drawings, interpreting her picture of her eclectic bass as a regular electric bass.

Bec then catches up and teleports Jade back to her room. In a demonstration of unusual good sense, Jade promptly gets on with installing the Sburb Beta.

Back in the Land of Wind and Shade, John pesters Rose to ask if she’s here on the other side of the gate, in the “spooky glowy place with oily rivers and stuff”. She doesn’t respond. He does however get pestered by Jade, who is now awake and therefore fully aware of what Sburb is (much to John’s confusion). She tells him to go get his copy of the game so he can be her server player. John is convinced Jade is psychic, but she tells him that he has access to all the information she does, he just doesn’t know it yet.

Meanwhile, Dave is also trying to get in touch with Rose, also to no effect. Jade pesters him and they have a cute conversation in which Jade forgets how a reference goes, but Dave assures her she got it anyway. She tells him she’s setting up as his server player and shows him a picture of the meteor aimed at his house. There are no size comparison points available but Jade assures him that it’s really, really big.

TG: well as if like one the size of a bus wouldnt kill me anyway

FAILURE ARTIST: Dave describes his beating from his Guardian as “i got served like a dude on butler island” and Jade says it’s “(DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA)”. It’s hard to take the abuse seriously when none of the characters do.

ARE YOU TRYING TO BE FUNNY?: 14

BRIGHT: In the Medium, John is getting pestered by carcinoGeneticist again. We now have a picture icon for CG. Look familiar? Yup, it’s the guy from the end of the Intermission.

So I guess this is the first time in the main comic that we get confirmed, visual proof that the trolls are aliens? It’s hard to point to, since the trolls get introduced gradually.

I’ve no idea how this was received in fandom when it first happened, but by the time I got to Homestuck, the fact that the trolls were grey folks with horns was probably the most famous feature of the canon, so...not so much of an impact. Still pretty cool though.

FAILURE ARTIST: I wish I could remember how the fandom took it.

The trolls in these early acts make a big deal all the time about how they are alien and the kids are human. It’s an amusing parody of the way aliens act in fiction but it is weird when the trolls become actual characters and we find out their psychology is surprisingly human most of the time.

CHEL: Hence the WHITE SBURB POSTMODERNISM count. That’ll spike later.

BRIGHT: CG is unexpectedly friendly this time. Apparently he’s been trolling John backwards through time, which is frustrating as each earlier John knows less and less, so CG keeps having to repeat himself. (Which...doesn’t make much sense? He’d have to explain more obvious stuff, sure, but John would remember things he was told in later-from-CG’s-perspective conversations, so...ugh, time travel!) Despite this frustration, however, John’s relentless friendliness apparently wore the trolls down and now they’re friends. Or at least CG thinks they are. John is less than convinced.

CHEL:

John asks if the trolls are in his land, but CG berates him for self-centredness:

CG: WE HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR DUMB LITTLE WINDY PLANET OR YOUR PETTY LITTLE QUESTS. CG: OR FOR THAT MATTER YOUR ENTIRE GAME SESSION. CG: YOU AREN'T THE ONLY ONES PLAYING THE GAME. CG: EVERY GROUP OF PLAYERS GETS THEIR OWN DISTINCT, BLANK SLATE SESSION. CG: AS WILL BE EXPLAINED TO YOU MANY TIMES.

He instructs John to relay an apology for the trolling to Jade and to tell her to GET HER GROSS AND TOTALLY UNATTRACTIVE HUMAN BUTT OFF HER UGLY HUMAN HIGH HORSE AND ANSWER MY MESSAGES. John says he’s a bit focused on his own quest right now, and sets off to find his father’s car.

TIER: While that's happening, we cut back to the gaggle of aliens having a grand old time around a campfire with some good food. A familiar pair of squiddles, now old, is visible as well.

FAILURE ARTIST: AR/PM/WV was a popular OT3 back in the day but you never see it anymore.

CHEL: Pity. It’s adorable.

FAILURE ARTIST: We cut to Dave’s place, where Jade is setting things up for the game. The air conditioning unit helps with the process, but the birds everywhere don’t. Dave drops the r-slur.

CLOCKWORK PROBLEMATYKKS: 16

Rose also talks with Dave as this is going on. She says this to him.

TT: I've done nothing but wait for boys to play this game with me all day. TT: First John lollygagging with the client, and then you with the server, downright filibustering my existence with unending fraternal melee. TT: And yet a girl, one who didn't even own the game, was able to connect with you minutes after you connected with me.

I’ve seen this quoted as Rose/Jade Lesbian Power but I wish we had more scenes where the two actually talked to each other.

CHEL: Being happy that one of your friends is competent means you’re in love with them now? And yet if someone used that as evidence for a het ship they’d be run out of the fandom. Anyway, Jade removes Dave’s bed to make room.

TT: And there she goes. TT: She HAS the karma.

FAILURE ARTIST: Rose has been talking to a troll, but she doesn’t know the gender so uses “he/she/it”. Funny to think there was a time when we didn’t know the trolls’ gender. Particularly the gender of Rose’s favorite troll...

Jade tries to tidy up the apartment using “a woman’s touch” a.k.a. a towel drenched in toilet water. Which begs the question of how her home is spotless.

CHEL: Because Hussie is again not thinking through the implications of the living situations as presented, and/or trying to present things as simultaneously a joke and serious. To be fair, considering the dreambot, she could have a super hi-tech cleaning system, or Bec could teleport the dirt away, but if so, we ought to see that.

WHITE SBURB POSTMODERNISM: 10 ARE YOU TRYING TO BE FUNNY?: 15

FAILURE ARTIST: In doing so, she accidentally rips the toilet out and drops an F-bomb.

CHEL: We now get a video of Rose’s location, the LAND OF LIGHT AND RAIN. Her house is now perched on a tiny island surrounded by glimmering pastel oil-slick-looking water, a waterfall pouring down out of nowhere beside it, with golden clouds scattered around pouring rain. It’s very pretty!

We again see the carapaces finding things in the ruins, and WV brings PM to see inside the bunker. The blast earlier formed an entry into the third room which had been locked, which contains further devices, this one with more spirographs and a frog picture on it; WV doesn’t know what this one does and the power’s too low to use it anyway. Back in the room with the monitors, PM is impressed by WV’s drawings and he offers her the pack of chalk. AR, meanwhile, cooks food.

PM recognises the monitor as similar to the one in her own station, though hers was watching a girl. Here, we get the static panels of the runaround game, from PM’s point of view.

Back in LoLaR, a mysterious textbox in cursive addresses Rose as Seer, suggesting she explore. Recall that the book mentioned the Heir of Breath, the Seer of Light, the Witch of Space, and the Knight of Time. Since Jade is the one who’s been doing the Seer-ing so far, I’ve seen readers assume she was the Seer and Rose the Witch, but it seems not; further explanations of what those titles really mean are forthcoming.

Sudden cut back to John’s land, where the village is under attack! Huts are aflame, and much bigger and more powerful monsters have arrived.

In Dave’s apartment, Jade opens the cruxtruder by dropping the displaced toilet on it, splashing water everywhere, much to Dave’s aggravation since all that juice was going to come back to haunt me. He’s relieved to see the countdown gives him four hours, but Jade doesn’t know till what, and he realises she’s sleep-messaging him again. He orders her not to watch him pee, and dont put anything weird in the seizure kernel.

TG: the last thing i need is for your weird brain webcam to be snapping shots of my dong TG: your grandpa was a sick fuck why would he build a voyeurbot for a little girl CALL CPA PLEASE: 8

Well, he is kinda right. Anyway, Dave spends a couple of pages elaborately planning misuse of the apple juice bottle and tricking John into drinking from the alchemised bottle, but he dismisses it as too much trouble and goes in the shower, kicking out the puppet. Good thing it was only his bladder that was the problem, if you get my drift. Some fans have speculated that this puppet also had a camera in it, but I can’t see evidence of that; I guess if you squint the eyes might look like a camera lens? I feel if that was the case it would have been shown. Hussie didn’t shy away from the weird shit with Dave’s living situation earlier.

Jade is upset to find the bisected bird from earlier, and decides to help the bird by putting it in the Kernelsprite, angering Dave again. He figures she’ll be more helpful when she’s awake, so he instructs her to slap the air to her side; the dreambot mimics her movements and whacks the real Jade in the face, waking her up.

BRIGHT: I burst out laughing the first time I saw that panel. It’s pretty clever of Dave. (Though obviously not kind, but of a variety that’s in keeping with the story.)

CHEL: Cut to the carapace camp, where they’re burning empty crates for a campfire. AR decides to use the Squiddles to Win over that fine carapace in grey, which seems to distress WV and Serenity. PM takes a Squiddle, but rather than being won over is vaguely reminded of something.

TIER: We then jump back into the past, where we find a totalled car and what looks like AR?

CHEL: Yep, though here he’s going by Authority Regulator instead of Aimless Renegade.

TIER: Whatever the case, this dude is not happy with this traffic violation. Another thing he's not happy with? Unauthorized parcels. Which brings us to the Parcel Mistress, who's been looking for this particular package for a while apparently. Now how to get it?

With that we jump back to John! Who's doing decent enough in his clobbering of game enemies. Just when things ain't looking too hot though, a mysterious stranger shoots and kills them with extreme prejudice. He looks familiar ain't he?

And even if he's not, that gigantic book under his arm can only be the work of the ol’ Colonel Sassacre, which John helpfully points out.

CHEL: Meanwhile in some other time period, PM suddenly remembers she must deliver a message to John. Back in the present, Parcel Mistress, for it is she, finds a tablet carved (badly) by John, depicting the SBurb envelope. The prompt suggests PM ready her sword, but she has none, and claims she would never resort to violence. Instead, she tries asking politely. Despite their lands’ enmity, AR finds her attractive and doffs his hat so furiously you are in danger of starting a HAT FIRE. His civility does not extend to handing over contraband, though. The tablet is sufficient evidence for him to give her the envelope, but to get the green parcel she must ask his bosses. PM puts the envelope in a pyxis, trusting the Breeze to move it, and follows AR.

John plans to follow the man, who he does not yet recognise as Jade’s Grandpa, to get his book back, but first he must help put out the fire in the salamander village. He flings the BARBASOL BOMB he made earlier into the volcano.

The cooling lather should work its magic in no time…

OH GOD HOW CAN SHAVING CREAM BE SO FLAMMABLE

Yeah, that doesn’t work so well. Fortunately, just as all seems lost, A big gust of wind conveniently comes along and blows out all the fire. The salamanders declare John a hero, though he’s just confused.

FAILURE ARTIST: A prompt (PM) asks John if he still has the tablet and if he wants to carve something on it. So, in another time loop, he does that.

Back at LOLAR, a very elegant and mysterious prompt ask Rose to find Jaspersprite. Rose cannot find him, but she does find footprints leading to the mausoleum. The mausoleum isn’t there anymore, but the underground passage is still there. Rose takes it down to a pier where someone has recently taken a boat and left a martini. The mysterious prompt says “A mother will do whatever is best for her children.” Nobody ever said “a brother will do whatever is best for his siblings”.

In the future, WV becomes the Mayor of Exile Town. The peace is disturbed when a “huge eggy looking thing” appears in the sky.

Cut to Jade giving the punch card of an “eggy loking thign (sic)”. Guess someone on the forum had bad spelling?

CHEL: It’s a callback to Rose describing the other unfinished GameFAQs entries, which were typed in haste. One described their entry item that way.

FAILURE ARTIST: Dave creates a huge red bird with a huge red egg. When he tries to use the egg, the crow sprite takes it and puts it in a nest made of smuppets, swords, and Lil Cal.

Dave doesn’t have enough grist to do anything. He fusses around building what he can. That done, he goes inside and installs gristTorrent to steal grist from John. Who exactly made that software?

Meanwhile, in LOLAR, Rose has set up shop on the pier. The mysterious prompter tells her to consult with the Heir and in the pesterlog we see she’s chatting with John. They catch up on the trolls and various things. Unfortunately, Rose is harassed by a gallowsCalibrator who tells her in 133t speak that her mother hates her and left her forever. Amazing that GC eventually becomes a beloved character since they are such a little shit right now. GC has synesthesia and jokes about their species communicating through “CLOUDS OF FR4GR4NT G4S3S”. They want to be helpful, but they deny wanting to be friends, though later they say they are becoming something called “H4T3FR13NDS”.

CHEL: Rose asks if I'm being courted or trolled here, which with further reveals about the trolls will become somewhat ironic. Other trolls are jumping around in time but GC is ST4Y1NG L1N34R [...] C4US3 W31RD T1M3 STUFF G1V3S ME A H34D4CHE, though will jump forward in the timeline so they don’t have to wait too long between conversations.

BRIGHT: GC isn’t the only one...

FAILURE ARTIST: GC explains the voices in the players’ heads are from the Exiles on Earth. The ultimate goal is to create a new civilization with them. With that important information, GC bids adieu for now.

TT: So the exiles are on Earth? Does that mean our goal is to get back there too? To resurrect it somehow? GC: NO NO NO GC: S33 1RON1C4LLY TH3Y G3T TO DO TH4T GC: 4FT3R TH3YR3 DON3 H3LP1NG YOU TH4T 1S GC: YOUR JOB 1S OF GR34T3R CONS3QU3NC3 TO S4Y TH3 L34ST GC: BUT P4RT OF TH31R JOB 1S TO R3BU1LD L1F3 4ND C1V1L1Z4T1ON TH3R3 GC: 4ND 1F TH3YR3 SUCC3SSFUL 1N THOUS4NDS OR M1LL1ONS OF Y34RS TH3 T3CHNOLOGY 1S UN34RTH3D 4ND TH3 PL4N3T 1S R1P3 FOR S33D1NG 4LL OV3R 4G41N TT: You never answered the question. Where were they exiled from? GC: FROM TH3 TWO K1NGDOMS 1N TH3 1NC1P1SPH3R3 GC: 3XP4TR14T3D DUR1NG TH3 R3CKON1NG

CHEL: We now know who and what the Exiles are, so let’s lop off a point for that:

WHAT IS HAPPENING??: 8

FAILURE ARTIST: Back in the past, when John went by ghostyTrickster, he tries to have a conversation with Jade but it’s interrupted by CG warning her that her robot will explode. After CG leaves, Jade and John talk about the trolls. Seems blocking does no good. John drops the r-slur.

CLOCKWORK PROBLEMATYKKS: 17

We cut to CG being gray and angry in some mysterious grey room.

Then, back to Jade. Her package from her pen-pal appears again.

Cut to ghostyTrickster John. GC trolls him, outs herself as female and blind, and threatens to cut his throat “4ND L1ST3N TO YOU BL33D WH1L3 1 SM3LL YOU D13”. John is naturally unnerved by this, but he also takes inspiration from her taunt that he’s bad at ectobiology.

CHEL: He takes for his new username a term that the trolls introduced him to, and is surprised when they immediately find him? Maybe we DID need a Too Dumb To Live count.

FAILURE ARTIST: We cut to a troll like CG, but with red glasses and a Libra sign on her shirt. This is our first look at gallowsCallibrator.

CHEL: Okay, does the death threat qualify for SEND THEM TO THE SLAMMER? It’s a bit extreme considering at this point in his timeline John has done nothing to offend her. Then again, maybe not; the narrative doesn’t present this as being the right and proper thing to do.

Back in the present, PM arrives in enemy territory, with the parking citation as a ready excuse for her presence. Imps and agents she passes now have features from Jaspersprite; cat faces, princess hats, and we see a DD-like figure wearing a cat-ear headband. PM follows a red carpet, only to be confronted at the end by this eldritch-looking majesty:

PM is naturally trembling, but is merely instructed to speak to the Archagent, who we’ve met before; Jack Noir. We see a ring with four pearl-like orbs on the monarch’s hand; this will become important later.

Rose’s Exile voice bids her farewell, telling her to Find your sprite. Realise your purpose. No longer guided, Rose decides to start making her own decisions, beginning with a sip of martini.

In the desert, A WINDSWEPT QUESTANT suddenly appears, this being a tall white carapace with a feminine figure and narrow eyes, from the eggy lokin thign, with the unsound effect EGG! WV and AR appear disconcerted, while PM is busy telling John to put the carved tablet in the pyxis.

Back in Jack Noir’s office, PM attempts to grab the green box and leave, but Jack appears suddenly behind her, making her jump, and tells her she’d better have the ticket payment or you are wasting valuable time he could otherwise spend shirking his clerical duties. PM nervously explains she’s actually here for the package, and Jack points out she doesn’t have the right courier forms.

In spite of how he's supposed to be dressed now but isn't, he ain't nobody's fool.

However, instead, she could always do an errand for him. Specifically, following his HIT LIST, which is two pictures of white crowns recognisable as the tops of the king and queen chess pieces. He also gives her the enormous black sword we saw her future self use. PM, terrified, departs, and Jack wonders if she’s actually stupid enough to try it.

You make a policy of handing out a REGISWORD and a HITLIST to just about everyone who enters your office.

Curious, he opens the package, and stares into it in surprise.

At Dave’s apartment, Jade has put the Punch Designix in the hallway, making it rather hard to navigate, but regardless Dave’s busy alchemising. He plays with a few add-ons which temporarily render the machines unusable, but eventually manages to use a jumper shunty thing to consolidate all the machines into one. Jade draws some components, gets the captcha codes of their ghost images, and sends the codes to Dave, who plugs them into the machine. Useful, but could probably be compressed into fewer pages, especially when he follows it up by playing with the new machinery. This is adding to my conviction that the machines should have been simplified severely in the first place.

GET ON WITH IT!: 15

John finds the wrecked car with no dad, package, or game, and gets trolled by GC again. She offers to help him, claiming she wants to H3LP YOU 4DV4NC3 MOR3 QU1CKLY because she’s bored watching his long adventure and wants to help him skip ahead. John points out she could just skip forward on the timeline as she has before, and she admits that she just wants to see if she can change the timeline, as her friends don’t believe they can. She offers him a map, which he accepts.

John complains, naturally, and she relents and offers to guide him directly to the pipe which will help him skip to the next Gate. Honestly, he has reason to complain; her smellovision allows her to read text on a screen, yet not to draw?

Rose, back in LOLAR, battles monsters, doing surprisingly well considering she only has knitting needles for a weapon, culminating in an epic sequence in which she stabs both needles into an ogre’s eyes, flips onto its back, and uses her knitting as reins to ride it down the waterfall. Dave informs her he’s out of grist, but she finds the idea of killing the ogre for supplies when it’s unconscious to be distasteful. He’s interrupted by grimAuxiliatrix, The Troll Who Talks Like This, asking about Rose. The conversation is awkward as GA seems unable to read Dave’s sarcasm.

GA: She Perhaps Even Regards You With Uh GA: Endearment TG: you have no idea dude she is so in my grill TG: like a stray hotdog that rolled down there TG: and now its too much trouble to fish out with the tongs TG: so you just watch it like crack and turn black GA: Um Is This GA: A Common Sort Of Practice In Human Courtship GA: Watching Oblong Meat Products Tumble Into Places They Dont Belong

adiosToreador, meanwhile, does the same to Rose about Dave, with a similar lack of comprehension of Rose’s loquaciousness. GA contacts Rose again, and a confusing conversation about temporal mechanics ensues. Afterwards, we see GA, who proves to be a short-haired troll girl with pronged horns, a Virgo shirt symbol (my troll!), and cute little vampire teeth.

FAILURE ARTIST: It’s been too long for me to remember the fandom reaction, but I feel like the reveal that GA is a girl was framed like a surprise. Surprise! This troll is a lesbian! But I might be mistaken. Still, this isn’t like Dave’s (mock?) offended reaction to AT. Hussie, like many straight men, is more comfortable with lesbians than gay men.

We’ll see more of Rose’s and GA’s relationship as the comic goes on. Some non-Homestucks here might already be spoiled due to the numerous fanart of the two.

CHEL: I wasn’t surprised by her being a girl; maybe I’m stereotyping, but the prissy nature of her dialogue and quirk sounded feminine to me from the start, not to mention the “trix” ending of her username is a feminine one - if she was male, it would be “auxiliator”. Not sure how many people paid attention to that though. I was surprised by the later information that (SPOILER) she actually was interested in Rose, because facetious declarations of romantic intention are kind of a thing for the human kids at this point and her flustered reaction could be taken either way here.

Dave, meanwhile, is trolled by AT, with the most cringe-inducing text-rap I’ve ever seen (and text-rapping is pretty cringy to begin with). I gotta praise Hussie, it takes skill to make something this awful.

AT: oK, lET ME, AT: oRGANIZE MY NOTES HERE, AT: oKAYYY, AT: (tURN ON SOME STRICT BEATS MAYBE, iT WILL HELP TO LISTEN TO THEM WHILE i DESTROY YOU,) AT: wHEN THE POLICE MAN BUSTS ME, aND POPS THE TRUNK, AT: hE'S ALL SUPRISED TO FIND I'M TOTING SICK BILLY, AT: wHOSE, AT: gOAT IS THAT, hE ASKS, wHILE HE STOPS TO THUNK AT: aBOUT IT, aND i'S JUST SAY IT'S DAVE'S, yOU SILLY AT: gOOSE,

Since we’ll later find out trolls don’t have the concept of police in the same way humans do, and nor do they call animals by the same names we do, I think this is worth some WSP points. Did he watch Dave’s life closely enough to pick up those concepts?

BRIGHT: I get the distinct impression none of the trolls watched anything like enough of the kids’ lives to pick up the concept of the police, particularly since as we’ll see later they missed a few things that are rather more obvious -- such as, say, parents.

WHITE SBURB POSTMODERNISM: 11

CHEL: He also namedrops Prospit and Derse, which I’m not really spoiling anything by saying are the names of the two warring chess kingdoms, though I don’t think those names have been applied to them yet. I don’t know why, it’s not like keeping them secret makes a big difference - did Hussie only just think of them? The quality of his rhymes aside, AT appears very proud of himself; he’s a troll with enormous bull-like horns, a mohawk, and a Taurus symbol. I thought he was really creepy-looking the first time I saw him, but he rather grew on me.

Back on LOWAS, John is squirted out of a pipe with a gush of oil. Ew. The Con Air bunny goes flying and lands in an oil river, and he catches it with the Ghost Gauntlets. An adult and child pair of salamanders happen to be standing nearby, prompting a movie re-enactment, much to the salamanders’ confusion.

Watch on YouTube

CG is unimpressed, though he agrees with John that Con Air sounds entertaining. CG claims to have been watching the whole of John’s life and Con Air is supposed to be one of John’s favourite movies; how come CG hasn’t seen any of it before, especially since he says he has seen a movie John hates?

CG: OK I DON'T SEE HOW WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE BECOMING FRIENDS IF YOU RECOIL FROM MY OLIVE BRANCH LIKE I'M WIGGLING A GNARLED TREE MONSTER'S DICK IN YOUR DIRECTION.

Lovely. Though I gotta say the dialogue and ridiculous extended metaphors are one of the best parts of Homestuck. Wish I could pull those off. However, one point here; if they’re aliens, it seems odd that they would use human idioms such as “olive branch” with the same meaning we do. There is a possible explanation later on, but since they only ever use American/Western phrases like this and it’s clear from other things they say that they didn’t pick up anything much about human culture from watching the kids, I’m upping the count anyway.

WHITE SBURB POSTMODERNISM: 12

BRIGHT: We also discover that troll movies are titled very differently to human movies, such as the classic

CG: WHEREIN NUMEROUS VIGILANTES CONFRONT PERIL; ONE OF THEM BETRAYS THE OTHERS;(BUT IT TURNS OUT TO BE PART OF THE PLAN ALL ALONG); CG: SEVERAL ATTRACTIVE FEMALE LEADS PROVOKE ROMANTIC TENSION; FOUR MAJOR CHARACTERS WEAR UNUSUAL HATS; ONE HOLDS PLOT-CRITICAL SECRET; CG: 47 ON-SCREEN EXPLOSIONS, ONE RESULTING IN DEMISE OF KEY-ADVERSARY;6 TO 20 LINES THAT COULD BE CONSTRUED AS HUMOROUS; EB: wait... EB: this is the title? CG: IT GOES ON.

Apparently after thousands of years of film history, you start running out of movie titles.

Also, note that despite their being aliens, quite possibly with different gender roles, the romantic tension is explicitly provided by attractive female leads.

WHITE SBURB POSTMODERNISM: 13

CG thinks that Earth civilisation’s lack of maturity might explain why the players are (apparently) doing so badly. John retorts that GC is helping him, so they can’t be doing THAT badly. Apparently this wasn’t in the plan; CG goes to talk to GC about it, and she punches him. Seems she’s talking to a future John at the moment, and he asked her to. CG gives John a message to pass on to GC in reply.

CG: TELL HER TO POLISH MY HEAVING BONE BULGE AND SET A TABLE FOR FUCKING TWO ON IT. CG: IT’S FOR OUR CANDLELIT HATE DATE.

John comments that it’s like they’re trolling each other through him now, and asks if CG has talked to Jade. CG is surprised that he’d want to talk to her. John offers to paste the chatlog; CG refuses, and John heads off to talk to GC.

CHEL: Precisely what a bone bulge is is never explained. Context makes it clear it’s an unsavoury body part, and it sounds like a term for one’s dick, even though the boner does not in fact contain bones in humans. The assumption early in the fandom was that the trolls had primarily human anatomy, which seems odd to me considering Kanaya’s complete obliviousness to her Oblong Meat Products comment - most teenagers familiar with human penises would be on that instantly. Anyway, there soon came a phase of experimentation, and by now we seem to have settled on the “functional-hermaphrodites with tentacle dicks” theory. Which is weird, because a tentacle doesn’t sound like something which would be referred to with the word “bone”, does it?

GC’s laughing mouth is reflected in John’s glasses as they speak in what I desperately hope is a shoutout to the Corinthian. She calls John STUP1DLY 4DOR4BLE (minor typo on the comic’s part as the E in her quirk should be a 3) and laughs at CG’s frustration. John relays an approximation of CG’s message:

EB: he wants you to touch his bone lump or something. GC: WH4T!!! EB: and that he's pretty much basically in love with you.

GC asks him to copy-paste the convo for proof but John refuses, saying it was a private conversation, and informs GC that she’s going to punch CG soon. In other news, referring to these characters with only their handle initials when I know their actual names is hard.

On GC’s instructions, John turns around, to discover this hard-to-miss landmark:

This, according to GC, is the D3N1Z3NS P4L4C3, in which the Denizen sleeps on a grist hoard so big their alchemising could never make a dent in it.

GC: USU4LLY HOW 1TS SUPPOS3D TO GO 1S GC: OV3R TH3 COURS3 OF YOUR QU3ST GC: YOU W1LL W4K3 TH3 D3N1Z3N GC: 4ND TH3N F1N4LLY YOU GO THROUGH TH3 S3V3NTH G4T3 GC: WH1CH 1S TH3 ONLY W4Y 1NTO TH3 P4L4C3 GC: TH3N YOU GO DOWN 4ND F1GHT TH3 D3N1Z3N GC: 4ND K1LL 1T GC: R3L3AS1NG TH3 HO4RD EB: so what's my advantage? GC: YOU WONT BOTH3R W4K1NG 1T GC: W3 W1LL SK1P R1GHT TO TH3 S3V3NTH G4T3 GC: F1ND 1TS L41R GC: 4ND K1LL 1T 1N 1TS SL33P

The grist hoard, GC claims, is for the ULT1M4T3 4LCH3MY, but she won’t explain what this is yet, and she leads John to a R3TURN NOD3 which takes him back to his home to prepare.

In the desert, AR and WV hammer some metal to make a gift for the Windswept Questant, which proves to be a crown. PM is shocked to see this, and emerges from the bunker, sword in hand.

Meanwhile, in a long-discarded memory… A PARCEL MISTRESS seeks audience with royalty.

It seems Windswept Questant is in fact, of course, the White Queen.

PM explains recent events and seeks her queen’s advice, showing her the hit list requesting the white monarchs’ crowns. WQ is wearing a ring similar to that of the monarch we met earlier, the Black Queen. Four orbs are attached to it, two light and two dark. On removing it, WQ loses all her elaborate prototyping accoutrements and becomes the normal-looking carapace we saw in her Windswept Questant identity. WQ seems to have a plan; instead of requiring PM to kill her to finish her fetch quest, she simply hands over her crown and ring, and instructs PM to find the White King on the battlefield. Flashing forward to the desert, WQ places her new crown on PM’s head, much to the astonishment of their companions.

On LOLAR, beneath waterfalls pouring from hovering pink turtle shells, Rose frustratedly consults with Jaspersprite, who will apparently only meow. However, when asked a direct question, Jaspersprite is able to respond. He is attempting to fish with his tentacles, but there are no fish, because her Denizen ate everything in the ocean and got so full that it took a long nap. Being as cryptic as Nannasprite, he won’t, however, explain what the message he gave to young Rose meant, saying she’ll understand when she wakes up.

JASPERSPRITE: Rose im just a cat and i dont know much but i know that youre important and also you are what some people around here call the Seer of Light. JASPERSPRITE: And you dont know what that means but you will see its all tied together! JASPERSPRITE: All the life in the ocean and all the shiny rain and the songs in your head and the letters they make. JASPERSPRITE: A beam of light i think is like a drop of rain or a long piece of yarn that dances around when you play with it and make it look enticing! JASPERSPRITE: And the way that it shakes is the same as what makes notes in a song! JASPERSPRITE: And a song i think can be written down as letters. JASPERSPRITE: So if you play the right song and it makes all the right letters then those letters could be all the letters that make life possible. JASPERSPRITE: So all you have to do is wake up and learn to play the rain!

FAILURE ARTIST: Hussie is very good at writing the dialogue of a kitten turned into a game NPC, you’ve got to hand it to him.

CHEL: It’s also worth noting that his colours have stopped flashing pink and purple, and he’s settled on pink.

Rose asks Jade for further information, and learns that all four of the kids have a dream self which must awaken; Rose deduces Jade’s has been awake as long as they’ve known each other. Jade is in fact asleep now, and can only message at the moment because of her robot. Rose’s dream self is dreaming troubled dreams, causing the real Rose to suffer nightmares all her life, and to stop this she must discover how to wake her dream self.

GG: maybe the stuff you wrote on your walls can give you a clue? TT: What stuff? GG: the.... GG: er GG: didnt dave tell you?

Utterly heartwarming moment; we see in John’s dream tower, and Jade has drawn over the LAME KID messages and creepy clown faces on John’s walls with a big bright yellow heart and the message wake up john!!! you can do it!!!

Rose wants to know what’s going on, but Dave is unavailable. The meteor is about to land and he’s scrambling his way up the tower to his kernelsprite’s nest to retrieve the entry egg.

Back at John’s house, he finds the useless rocket-pack-combined-with-junk he experimentally alchemised earlier; GC tells him that the trolls’ resident hacker, who we haven’t met yet, can use its code to create a usable jetpack. Said hacker doesn’t want to talk to them but WONT B3 4BL3 TO R3S1ST TH3 CH4LL3NG3.

John sends the mishmash code…

GC: OK B3 B4CK IN L3SS TH4N ON3 S3COND GC: PCHOOOOO EB: hello? GC: WH4T EB: it thought you said you'd be back in less than a second? GC: 1 W4S GC: 1 G4V3 YOU TH3 COD3 GC: 1TS PCHOOOOO

Hee. The misunderstanding leads into a brief argument, GC claiming that 3V3N YOU 4ND YOUR UND3RD3V3LOP3D BON3 NOOK W1LL B3 4BL3 TO F1GUR3 OUT WH4T TO DO. Once again, we don’t know what a bone nook is. Context could imply either an obscene body part or a brain-related one. Common fanon holds that it’s the vagina, others have objected and said it surely must mean anus; neither of those sound like a “bone” anything to me, and in fact bone would be horribly counterproductive for organs which have to perform peristalsis. Someone did point out to me that it could mean a place to put the metaphorical bone, but that wasn’t what I immediately thought.

FAILURE ARTIST: I don’t think the phrase “bone nook” ever comes up again, though the word “nook” by itself does and it can be replaced with the word “ass” in those cases. Basically, trolls aren’t a fictional species crafted with any care. Hussie wanted some annoying alien characters with a visual callback to “Little Monsters” and it somehow got out of control.

CHEL: Actually, I believe it does come up in Hiveswap Act 1! But we’ll get to that.

John answers a message from Dave, who now claims to be in the Medium, saying it took him four hours. He asks for advice, saying his sprite wants him to prototype it again, and Rose is randomly asleep.

TG: ok fine but TG: it seems to be suggesting something here TG: and TG: i guess im kinda weirded out by its suggestion EB: i don't know, just do what it says! EB: it knows stuff about the game, so it probably knows better than i do...

Not a good sign. John decides to Take dear, sweet Casey (the baby salamander) into protective custody by captchaloguing her, and blasts off for the gate.

Cut to an animated sequence in The Land of Heat and Clockwork, a nightmarish lava-scape covered in machinery (convection schmonvection), where Dave is being extremely badass and surprisingly successful for someone with only half a sword. In fact, multiple Daves appear to be present. We also see, unfortunately, exactly what he prototyped:

Watch on YouTube

Calsprite is even less helpful than the other two, providing a constant soundtrack of creepy laughter while Dave begs him to shut up. According to Dave’s ensuing convo with Rose, this has been going on for four months. That’s… pretty terrifying even before we hear everything that went wrong. John was unsurprisingly instantly slain by his Denizen, and thus couldn’t save Jade from her meteor. Dave, however, has now mastered the art of time travel via the magical turntables he’s created, and intends to go back and prevent all that from happening, now that they’ve spent four months gathering information their past selves can use. Rose is afraid of ceasing to exist; Dave assures her that their dream selves exist outside the standard passage of time, and this will help her dream self wake sooner.

FAILURE ARTIST: The trolls also stopped “trolling” Dave and Rose after John died. This isn’t the end of the trolls, of course.

Dave uses his turntables to go to the past. We cut to a conversation we just saw, where Dave has just entered the Medium and John is about to go pchooooo, except this time from Dave’s roof.

GET ON WITH IT!: 16

Except at the end, Dave tells John not to go. See, Dave from the future just arrived on Dave from the present’s roof. John refuses to believe that this is happening, thinking it’s just a prank. Not even putting future!Dave on the line convinces John. So, future!Dave unloads everything he has in a stack and flips back into the Crowsprite to become a new characters: Davesprite.

CHEL: Note that, instead of Dave’s theme colour of red, Davesprite is orange. I did wonder if this was potentially supposed to show that Bro (whose theme colour is orange) is overwriting/overshadowing Dave’s real self, but since the sprites of the others aren’t the theme colours of their respective kids (Nannasprite is teal to John’s dark blue and Jaspersprite pink to Rose’s purple) I don’t think this is really a reliable sign. Pin in the colours, though, that’ll come up later.

FAILURE ARTIST: Meanwhile, John blasts off with the words “THIS IS STUPID”.

Present!Rose tries to pester Dave, and we get another repeated conversation.

GET ON WITH IT!: 17

Present!Rose decides to nap, and at that moment, Future Dream Rose ceases to exist and becomes absorbed by Present!Rose. I think.

WHAT IS HAPPENING??: 9

Davesprite pesters GC to tell her not to talk to John anymore. GC first reacts by saying “YOU SM3LL L1K3 OR4NG3 CR34MS1CL3S” but then finds out she killed John. She had assumed since she could talk to John in the future, he hadn’t died, but she guessed there was a chance he could die. She’s a little put-out and wants to apologize, but she’s not as sad as you’d expect someone who accidentally killed someone to be. Davesprite asks who is in charge of timeline management.

GC: SH3 DO3SNT W4NT TO T4LK TO 4NY OF YOU GC: 4ND H4S M1SG1V1NGS 4BOUT TH1S WHOL3 TH1NG GC: NOT 4LL OF US 4R3 TH4T 3NTHUS1AST1C 4BOUT TROLL1NG YOU GUYS GC: 4ND TH3 ON3S WHO 4R3 SORT OF SUCK 4T 1T >:|

We do get to meet her, but not until the next act when we meet all the trolls.

Davesprite gives GC permission to talk to John if she cuts out her “coy bullshit antics”. GC mocks his threatening tone and points out she’s higher on the echeladder, from the future, and blind. Davesprite says his self-prototyping gave him great powers and GC says that was a bad idea. They then engage in some banter over GC posting screencaps of Wheeler from Captain Planet (which she calls a “soap opera”). Davesprite and GC end the conversation with mutual respect. Which is honestly really weird after all future!Dave had to go through because of GC.

CHEL: Does this count for SLAMMER points? I think it does. Here’s the first of our new count, then!

SEND THEM TO THE SLAMMER: 1

This will go up whenever a character does something awful and neither the narrative nor the other characters seem to care.

This also brings us into another point. We’ve seen only hints of it, but alternate timelines are a big theme of this comic. Davesprite in particular is a major focus of said theme, specifically the nature of his personhood separately from the focal or “alpha” Dave. However, as we see here, not even the Dave from the dead John’s timeline particularly seems to mind that John just died in an alternate timeline. At the moment, they appear to feel that because there is an alive John, everything is okay. Let’s see how that progresses.

FAILURE ARTIST: Davesprite and present!Dave (who I guess we can just call Dave at this point) talk. Davespite says as a sprite he has lots of knowledge but is obligated to put it in riddles. However, he says he doesn’t feel like it so he’ll answer Dave straight.

DAVE: alright DAVE: here goes DAVE: why are we so fucking awesome DAVESPRITE: thats the best fucking question anybody ever asked

After that best fucking question, Dave asks if John will be alright. Davesprite says that’s up to John, and if John doesn’t listen they’ll just bail him out again. Davesprite says the gear he piled up will help Dave get to the next gate. The two versions of Dave decide to collaborate on a SBaHJ comic and fist “bunp”.

Meanwhile, “hundreds of pages ago”, John gets his bunny from Dave. We see Dave’s note and it’s cool how each of the kids have their own style of handwriting. There’s a very prophetic sentence in this sweet note:

one day your gooberish ways are gonna land you in a jam and i know im going to have to get you off the hook but its cool i got your back bro.

We cut to the present, where John is blasting off. The human emotion of friendship causes him to reconsider his action. John pesters Dave and tells him he’s just flying around and not going to the gate. Crisis averted.

This might seem like a cul de sac, but it created a new character (Davesprite) and introduced many concepts, so it really isn’t.

CHEL: Primarily, it introduced the theme of jumping around in time in the literal sense as well as just hopping between apparently-disconnected scenes. The latter’s not a generally well-advised style of writing, but considering the time travel motif of the comic, I think it actually works fine here. Also, as a webcomic, if one spends too long on one group of characters then by the time you get back to the other ones the readers will probably not remember what happened, so shorter scenes for each group are probably more acceptable than in a novel or movie.

CG trolls John again, and after a discussion of their becoming reverse anti-mutual friends, John complains that CG hasn’t really answered his questions.

CG: SO GO AHEAD, ASK ME ANYTHING. EB: ok... EB: what's the point of the game. CG: ASK SOMETHING ELSE. CG: ALREADY TOLD YOU THAT.

John asks where they are now in their Medium, and CG explains they’re HIDING IN THE VEIL, a meteor belt between the two planets. To clarify the layout for our readers, Skaia the big ball of sky is in the centre, with Prospit the golden planet orbiting it closely enough for its moon to enter Skaia during the “eclipse” where Jade gets her visions. Then there are the players’ Lands, their little adventure planets where the consorts live, the consorts being the little NPC creatures (in John’s case, the salamanders). Every player has a Land of Something and Something. Beyond the Lands is the Veil, and beyond that is the Furthest Ring, the orbit of Derse, the dark planet.

CG: OK, THERE COMES A TIME WHEN BLACK INEVITABLY BEATS WHITE CG: ON THE BATTLEFIELD IN THE CENTER OF SKAIA CG: THE WHITE KING IS CAPTURED OR KILLED OR SOMETHING CG: THAT'S WHEN THE RECKONING STARTS. EB: ok... CG: THE RULERS OF DERSE CG: THE BLACK KING AND QUEEN CG: GET THE POWER TO SEND THE VEIL TOWARD SKAIA CG: TO DESTROY IT CG: THAT KIND OF STARTS YOUR BIG "COUNTDOWN" CG: WHEN SHIT GETS SERIOUS. EB: so then it's up to us to save it? CG: YEAH, YOU HAVE THAT LONG TO KILL THE BLACK QUEEN AND KING CG: AND SKAIA ITSELF SORT OF BUYS YOU SOME TIME CG: BY ACTIVATING ITS DEFENSE PORTALS CG: TO CATCH SOME OF THE METEORS

Ordinarily, the players would have plenty of time before this happens, but something done by the human players has caused things to go wrong, and now they’ve not only ruined their own chance of winning, but somehow affected the trolls’ game too. CG refuses to explain how, because he’s already told him again.

John asks if they’re hiding in a crater or something, but no, CG explains there are buildings in the Veil. It’s considered neutral ground, and both sides have laboratories there where they genetically engineer new soldiers and agents. John asks CG to tell GC “nice try”, but he refuses.

Now comes the mid-point animation of the act, “[S] Jack: Ascend”. I thought it was an ending animation, but no, there’s still more. If you don’t want to or can’t watch video I’ll explain the content, but I do recommend it.

Watch on YouTube

Pan over the Skaian system, from LOWAS to the Veil to the purple towers of Derse. Four towers are close together, topped by orbs. On three of them, we see the silhouettes of the sprites, while the fourth is dark. Jack Noir sits at his desk, doing paperwork, a pink princess dress on a stand next to it. He doodles on a parking ticket, declaring the Black Queen to be a HUGE BITCH. Closeup on BQ’s hips as she approaches, because we totally needed gratuitous sex appeal. She’s remarkably curvy for a probably-non-mammal. Still, we’ll forgive the standard scifi tropes. Jack watches on the Fenestrated Wall, until BQ appears and hacks it in half. She waves the dress and a pink pointed hat at him; apparently, now that the princess doll has been prototyped, the carapaces must represent it in their clothing as well as the jester. Jack is understandably displeased, and after a quick-fire montage of various outfits representing the sprites’ themes, he tears the final colourful tunic up.

Meanwhile, Rose’s dreamself has awoken, and discovers what she wrote on her walls; the word MEOW and other arrangements of the letters M, E, O, and W, over and over again, over every inch of the walls except the part covered by her bed. She finally remembers what Jaspers said to her, which was, of course, MEOW. This seems like nonsense, but as she looks, the letters switch to G, C, A, and T, the letters used to denote DNA nucleotides. It’s a genetic code.

The guardians, meanwhile, are battling enormous monsters; Mom and Dad respectively punch out a three-eyed spider-like giant and a rock cyclops, Dad pausing afterwards to carve a hat on a pyxis tablet, and Bro swordfights against a lava-dwelling tentacle beast.

Back to Jack, matters have got worse; not only are the carapaces required to dress like the sprites, but Davesprite still has the sword sticking through his torso, so now so must Jack. Considering what else we’ve seen carapaces survive, he’d probably be fine, but he’s still understandably hesitant. BQ offers him a sword, but he slices off her ring-bearing finger, which… causes her to explode? Jack puts on the ring, which causes Derse to glow white and him to sprout the features of the sprites; a sword grows from him without him having to fall on it, and wings and tentacles emerge. End scene.

So, approximately, human children have possibly caused the destruction of an alien civilisation’s last hope by putting a cat in a princess dress. Whatever else you think of Homestuck, you can’t say it’s not inventive.

BRIGHT: It is that, among other things.

COUNTS ALL THE LUCK: 0 ARE YOU TRYING TO BE FUNNY?: 15 CALL CPA PLEASE: 8 CLOCKWORK PROBLEMATYKKS: 17 GET ON WITH IT!: 17 GORE GALORE: 9 HOW NOT TO WRITE A WEBCOMIC: 15 HURRY UP AND DO NOTHING: 6 IN HATE WITH MY CREATION: 0 RELATIONSHIP GOALS?: 1 SEND THEM TO THE SLAMMER: 1 SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS: 0 WHAT IS HAPPENING??: 9 WHITE SBURB POSTMODERNISM: 13 TOTAL: 111

[tonyglowheart]

@imaginaryelle replied to your post:*me sipping tea* (x)

I would really enjoy seeing more of your thoughts on this, if you ever want to share them.

:’) a lot of my thoughts are salty rants and I’m TGCF on main right now so uhhh not at the moment but if you wanna hmu on like a chat thing of some sort I probably will eventually rant about my dislike of The MXTX Antis and the Problematic Culture people and the purity culture wank :’)

actually you know what, since I’m a parody of myself and I’m like always mood of "and another thing,” I’m just going to. go for it ig

so my biggest thing, is with the MXTX antis/MDZS wank/MXTX wank. is like....god it FRUSTRATES me so fckn much lmfao in so many ways and on so many levels.  like listen. I’m not saying there isn’t stuff to critique in MDZS. But there’s people who are first off: critiquing the writing quality, when I’m like “there’s like a 90% chance you’re reading the EN translation, and probably from ExR, and honestly I know it’s not fandom etiquette to critique fan content bc we’re all doing this for free out of passion, BUT I do, in fact, have some major issues with ExR’s translation quality, and also I lowkey feel like they have a strong traditional yaoi bias and sometimes it leaks through in how they handle certain things.” Big mood of this twitter thread about how when you’re reading in TL you can’t be criticizing the writing bc you’re already reading it filtered and like. you gotta consider things like the TL’s own personal biases or takes, etc. Which I feel like some people don’t in their critique, or at least they don’t take the time to acknowledge it and instead start spinning off into more and more impassioned reactions to perceived slights or faults.

The other thing is like. I admit when I first read MDZS - which I did while simultaneously watching bc I was kind of using CQL as a vehicle to get into MDZS, I had the HARDEST time trying to read ExR’s translation when I was going into it cold many many many moods ago rip - I was also squicked out by the explicit scenes shown. It did remind me a lot of traditional yaoi tropes, and I wasn’t into it. HOWEVER I was also a psych major, and I want to point out that the T/N’s do read to me as having a strong yaoi bias, and also before ExR redid their site they had large “SERVING YAOI AND BL” banners on EVERY page lol. And I think that also primes people to see things a certain way. (I just. am :/ about ExR also bc like... their whole vibe as a “yaoi scanlator” and also I. can’t be sure the TL wasn’t 17 when they were tl’ing it lmfao,,  and they did the whole rant - which fine they apologized for, but I think sort of reflects on a general attitude still w/ the team - about how some other TL had bad quality or something, but their existing TL has a lot of clunky English phrasing and actually a lot of editing issues, too, I was creating myself a back-up copy from their site and like google docs was already catching a bunch of typos and tense issues and such :’) and that’s beyond clunky EN translation phrasing. I just am like. they have a patreon lol, so I can’t say ExR is doing it wholly not-for-profit/dollars, and also like... it’s not like they’re licensed? I get that within scanlation circles, there’s an etiquette of “first come first serve,” but with translation, I think fans are only served with more translations? but I also care about the original work lol, I mean I get the vanity of “I want MINE to be the AUTHORITATIVE tl” bc I feel that mood too, but also I’m like. fam you didn’t bid for a license lmao.)

But yeah like. My petty gripes with ExR aside lmfao, I think when you look at WangXian, the whole “it’s yaoi tropes” gets really strawman. Like from a Watsonian perspective, I mean like... both WWX and LWJ really ARE useless virgins, lol, WWX’s first kiss was stolen by LWJ and his whole idea of sex comes from porn; LWJ is GusuLan and like. yeah. Who is teaching them about lube? certainly not porn. (but this also gets into the whole. like people saying explicit material is “problematic” because it doesn’t show “realistic” sex and I’m like. fam it’s smut, not a sex manual.) And like... they’re both kinky and WWX has a pregnancy kink, and like... good for them I guess?

From a more Doylist perspective..... I think for me, I’m like. well why not? gay media doesn’t have to be uwu to be “Valid,” and like, the people who start attacking mxtx personally because of the way she chose to write WangXian, or saying she’s homophobic because of WangXian or she doesn’t have the range... I already Know they didn’t read TGCF or SV lol. (and yeah SV is more “problematic” but I also think it’s VERY genre aware and both satirizes and also plays with and subverts some of the typical genre “problematic” things. not everything, but like. again the whole idea that non-mainstream media needs to be held to a higher standard to not be cancelled? I don’t hold by that). [But more on the Doylist thing: it’s dumb to me that people react like it’s a moral failing of non-straight works if they don’t fit EXACTLY their personal idea of what a thing should be. And this comes up EVERY time there’s some new thing. hell it’s not even just lgbt-related stuff; Hamilton, Crazy Rich Asians, etc all had nitpicking. Which again, isn’t invalid! but also like. :/ because we DON’T have enough representation right now to pick, and my take is always: the solution is to get to the point where we can pick and choose and can afford to have bad media just like the straights/whites do :’)]

The thing about WWX and LWJ is neither of them, as they’re written in canon, fit within “traditional yaoi” seme/uke stereotypes. The kiss I see people rail against as “dubcon” and also their sex scenes but I’m like. yeah I think it’s fine to say it’s not your cup of tea but to say that that makes them traditional yaoi rapey tropes I’m like. Fam that’s not it lol. LWJ is shown as being SO incredibly responsive and attentive to WWX’s wishes and desires. I mean that’s examples of his passion exploding out, but we consistently see LWJ being respectful of WWX’s wishes and autonomy even when it like. fucks him/them over :’) like when WWX was so hell-bent on hurtling down the mo’dao route :’)

plus also WWX literally fantasizes about them retiring as farmers and he’s the one out working the fields and LWJ is staying at home weaving lol, like c’mon, ya wanna talk gender roles, let’s talk about this.

the other thing is the whole mxtx anti stuff about “she’s homophobic” and “she’s a filthy fujo” and I think there’s issues that people aren’t considering, which I don’t know as much about but I feel like it informs my consideration of mxtx - such as like... not everyone’s internet is as wide open as, like, the West. I don’t know so much about Chinese censorship other than it exists, but I’m like. I think this would affect people’s access to resources which would inform them about how things work/where people are with LGBT thought? It reminds me of when young tumblr kids trash talk older queer people for using terms they see as “problematic” now, and I’m like “you really gotta pause a moment of (1) have some empathy (2) consider the person’s individual personal and cultural context.” MDZS wasn’t made for a Western audience in mind lol, it’s not going to reflect Western values! And China has a different history with its LGBT progression and it’s m/m media, which I don’t know enough about to comment specifically, but I think it’s incredibly disingenuous to judge it based on Western standards. A lot of people probably don’t realize they are! in that it doesn’t even occur to them, which is why they feel so free with their judgment! But also I’m like. lowkey THAT’s a problem for me bc of like. cultural imperialism lmfao. and also reflective of EN-language imperialism, when people are judging EN tl’s they’re seeing on face value without realizing or considering that they’re...reading... a translation... and that translations are NOT in fact direct one-for-one and that there’s a LOT of considerations that go into both translating and reading a translation of a work.

I think the points antis pull up against MXTX is like... stuff she’s said before in interviews - and I don’t know from when, but I imagine years ago at this point - where she was asked about shipping the other characters in MDZS, and she said something I think about how to her, she wants to write in a way that “preserves realism” or maybe she believes in (I only read a TL of it, so I hold the exact phrasing with a grain of salt), and for her, not everyone is gay so she doesn’t write all of her named characters gay. and I’m like. whatever that’s her prerogative as the author. And I think there’s also something that I don’t know if it’s an official “rules”/”guidelines” she wrote bc again I’ve only seen secondhand/thirdhand sources, but it’s something mxtx-antis also quote, where she said to not break up the main couples and also don’t “reverse” them. but again when we’re getting into the shou/gong dynamics, that’s where I don’t feel comfortable commenting because I don’t know enough about the sociopolitical implications of these terms and how they interact within that fandom/community subset. But I do think people need to be taking the stuff they read - ESPECIALLY if they’re only reading it in EN - with a grain of salt. or like a big ol pinch of it. 

edit: I know more about this now lmao and I know exactly which question people use piecemeal of vilify her. Here’s a recent-ish translation someone did. Read it through - the WHOLE thing, and think about the wider context.

But also in general I just don’t think anyone is valid when we start getting into ad hominems lol. Especially when I feel like they’re not really taking a moment to consider what wider contexts and influences might be at play and instead are playing Tumblr telephone with outrage and virtue signalling

sidebar: I also fucking HATE CQL purists lmfao. I don’t feel like I’ve seen or encountered anyone saying CQL fans are less valid than novel fans except in the sense of CQL fans getting defensive about their dislike of the novel - which, whatever, people have opinions - or decision not to read the novel and saying anyone saying they HAVE to read the novel is gatekeeping - which I hold to less but mostly bc I think it’s a fundamental misunderstanding of fan language, some of us say you HAVE to read it not in a neckbeard way but in a I’m so desperately passionate and I want more people to know about this way, kind of like how the “I hate you” in fan language GENERALLY means “I love it so much and I can’t stand it”? - but I HAVE seen people say the novel “ruined” wangxian, or CQL people who seem to be like... purity-wanking, like idk if you were around but god after Infinity War and the number. of fckn ironstranges. posting in the tags. about “love how healthy our ship is” and I’m like. this is still anti culture/purity wank but the other side of the coin 8). I encounter sometimes this lowkey attitude of CQL (or other adaptations) “redeeming” MDZS from the author, and I’m like. y’all are wack lmfao. There’s people wiht MDZS or even TGCF main, and they hate mxtx? and they say shit like “mdzs was only good on accident”? and I’m like. can you just leave lmfao. if you hate her then why are you here. (bc they’ve mental gymnastics this into a virtue ethics thing about “o the work is good and therefore morally fine but the parts I don’t like are because mxtx is morally bad and unworthy and tainted it, and CQL with its Purity has Redeemed it” but I’m like. this is because of censorship lmao. The team did a FANTASTIC job working the character dynamics and story, but like it also is directly because of censorship.)  

like I... have more thoughts than this lmfao bc ofc I do, but anyway, here’s... some of them lol

[theunderdogwrites]

Green Lives Matter

My favorite Halloween costume from my childhood (age 10) was The Hulk.

For three reasons:

1.       I made it myself

2.       I wore it two years in a row

3.       It made my outside look how I felt on the inside – tough but complicated

I cut up an old pair of jeans to look as though my tiny legs had busted through the seams and to make it appear like I’d grown taller. I took an old white dress shirt and shredded the sleeves to symbolize my biceps exploding in rage and slightly shredded away the length. I put black (safe) spray paint in my hair and painted my legs, arms and face in Hulk green to complete the look. There is a photo of this masterpiece somewhere in an old album, I just don’t have access to it right at this moment. I know I looked magnificent because I remember the feeling of hiding behind this larger than life character for a night while grunting for candy or else “HULK SMASH!” your front door down. I love this memory.

Now let’s address this – I did green face.

I refuse to apologize and if The Hulk wants to come find me and break me like a hard pretzel, well then he better bring backup because even though I am no longer painting my face green… I have turned myself into a Hulk. Ok, a mini Hulk. But I can conjure up a temper and throw a tantrum while also being completely unreasonable and void of real direction. So... yeah, he’s going to need someone other than Black Widow to come with him.

I should mention that I am white. And not just white – I am Scottish white (Scottish heritage, born in Canada). Fair skinned, blonde hair, green eyes and I once thought mashed potatoes were the best food of all time. Until I discovered garlic mashed potatoes. Mind blown.

“I love humanity, but I hate humans.” – Albert Einstein

Let’s not lie – being white has its privileges. Do I know what all those privileges are? No, probably because I’m privileged in some way. But I find myself going back to the same bit to explain so much that I encounter in life:

Until my high school guidance councillor explained to me what suicide was, I had no idea it was a thing. I had no idea it was a possibility and I certainly did not know that many people were actively participating.

My lack of knowledge wasn’t due to privilege but rather because suicide had never been apart of my life experience. Would we call that ignorance? Some definitely would because it literally means ‘being unaware’. I feel an ignorant person is not only being unaware, but also a first-rate wanker because they won’t educate themselves or evolve and wish to remain blind to reality.

Once I became aware of suicide, I didn’t pretend it didn’t exist. I started to pay attention. I didn’t brush it off as an experience that didn’t affect me but rather a symptom of fragile mental health and I gave it the consideration it deserved as something that many people were suffering through… most of the time alone. If I see something that is wrong, that I know needs my support – I am there.

That is not my privilege speaking, that is my humanity.  

 The senseless murder of George Floyd ignited a firestorm.

(A firestorm is a conflagration (an extensive fire which destroys a great deal of land or property) which attains such intensity that it creates and sustains its own wind system. It is most commonly a natural phenomenon, created during some of the largest bushfires and wildfires.)

When I saw the footage on the news – I didn’t understand. I didn’t understand the blank, almost twisted look on that officer’s face as he drove his knee down on George Floyd’s neck. I didn’t understand the blatant inaction of the other officers while witnessing this brutal extinguishing of a human being. I didn’t understand why this level of aggression was necessary on someone who was already subdued. And I didn’t understand why the words “I can’t breathe” didn’t invoke an ounce of compassion or relief.

Then came the protesting. Then the riots. Then the looting. And I still didn’t understand.

While some people want to group all three of these events, in my mind, these are three separate actions. Because by attaching the riots and the looting with the genuineness of the protesting…  it lessons the cause, blurs the intention and distracts from the truth… therefore painting the protestors with a brush of violence, greed and chaos. And that is beyond unfair.

The PROTESTS are NOT out of control.

The pain and frustration are what’s out of control and more importantly the injustice is out of control and people are responding to a situation where they feel angry and powerless. Yes, the fires, destruction of property and looting are awful collateral here but it’s important to not loose focus on what caused this current situation. We often look at with contempt and criticize reactions while forgetting the action that started everything.

And that is another injustice.

I wouldn’t even know how to begin writing about Black Lives Matter or Antifa. I say this because of the controversy surrounding both movements. And if you dive deep enough into the internet, like I did, you too will begin to suffer from what I like to call ‘I don’t know what to fucking think anymore-itis’.

So, I’m going to escape talking about these two groups with this:

“Instead of feeling threatened by and hating a movement, be glad you don’t need a movement.”

 My experience with black people is pretty limited. Not by choice, but rather due to geography, common interests and quite possibly socioeconomics. I can count on one hand the number of black people I knew throughout my school-aged years. My area was diverse in other ways, so no, I did not grow up in White Breadville. I mention all this to lay down a bit of background before I continue.

“I don’t see colour.” How many of us have said this at least once in the last six months? I have. And I probably said it to prove to myself or someone else that I wasn’t racist. But I no longer say that… because the truth is, I do see colour. I see ALL the fucking colours and they are beautiful. It’s people who are ugly.

If you were to ask me point blank if I was racist, I’d tell you point blank – I am not. And I’d say this with absolute belief in my character and sincerity. I care less about your skin colour and nationality and more about you returning your shopping cart to its proper location. That is the truth. Your religion doesn’t bother me at all (as long as you’re not cramming it down my throat) but your ability to treat others with genuine kindness and compassion sure matters to me. And I don’t give a flying fuck how you want to identify… be a Martian, I’m totally cool with that, but bully others in my presence and I will come at you with the full force of nuclear pasta (look it up).

The last handful of months (I’m assuming here) has caused most of us to pull up and examine those deep in the corner of our brain concepts. You know the ones – the ones that might get you questioned by The Thought Police if they existed outside of fiction. It’s ok, we all have those little bastard notions creeping around… no matter the skin colour. I started to take a closer look at some of the things I think and how they would affect others if I wore those thoughts on a t-shirt. Needless to say, I’m not super impressed with myself. Because while I know with all my heart that I am not a racist person, I do recognize that I buy into and perpetuate some stereotypes. And I have zero excuses. This admission makes me a bit uncomfortable, but I’m ok with that… I can learn through discomfort.

I hear many people talking about and referring to white guilt.

-          White Guilt: ‘the feelings of shame and remorse some white people experience when they recognize the legacy of racism and racial injustice and perceive the ways they have benefited from it’.

I do not feel shame and remorse as a white person. As a human being, I am ashamed of how many of my fellow humans treat those who do not look the way they do or do not come from the same background. Do I believe there is a legacy of racism and racial injustice? Yes, 100%. Have I benefitted from this because I am white? I may be too dumb to answer this correctly. Or maybe too white? Or maybe I’ve had blinders on because based upon my own level of perception, I’ve always struggled to navigate my own existence therefore only know what has directly prevented me from being who and what I want in this world?

I underlined ‘level of perception’ because as the quote goes: “I stopped explaining myself when I realized people only understand things from their level of perception”

Earlier I said there were so many things I didn’t understand about George Floyd’s death and the protests etc. but here is something I do comprehend - there’s a big difference between understanding someone’s plight and being understanding of someone’s plight. Sympathy doesn’t require a total understanding of what problems other people are experiencing.

I may not fully grasp the struggles of those in the black community because it is not my experience but I will not ignore, deny or challenge their struggles. I will however educate myself on the issues, observe my own reactions and offer support in the ways I can and offer compassion to anyone who is willing to accept a little love from a min Hulk.

Nothing I write here is meant to change your mind. It is not meant to offend or shame you for how you may feel or think and nothing I write here is meant to lessen the seriousness of the current situation facing an entire community of people. As a writer my only goal is often to just disrupt your thoughts. Period.