#especially ads for Hero Wars

[somewhereincairparavel]

“jason is so cold and inconsiderate” his natural instinct when he found out nico was staying at camp was to hug him tightly but he restrained himself because nico mentioned to jason ONCE that he doesn't like being touched. consent KING

[modawg]

I need an opinion!

So piper, jason and leo, were at chb for like 6 to 8 months till the argo 2 wasn't finished right?

And they prolly must have heard like a gazillion stories about percy.

Do you think they ( specifically piper ) ever thought, that the campers were just overglorifying percy, cause how can 1 guy do all that!?

hii i love giving my opinion :D

honestly yeah and i think it’s a very appropriate response too i think most ppl would be skeptical abt all that but i also don’t think any of them think camps lying at all

ik you were talking abt piper but i feel like the person who would be the most critical of it all would be jason not bc he’s jealous or thinks he could’ve done it all in his sleep but bc he’s been there he’s fought in wars he’s gone on quests and he knows the reality of a lot of those things in comparison to leo or piper or any of the new campers who weren’t there during the war

i also think a lot of the stories have been glorified or made to seem cooler then they were bc at this point his earliest win is like 5 years old and most of the people who were there when any of them happened have died so it’s kind of expected for the stories to be edited a little through word of mouth

i feel like a lot of the stories have been edited to be more kid friendly and “yay happy hero” type rather then the stories we get where ppl die and percy gets severely injured like the edits aren’t harmful but i just know jason can sense that and piper probably can too hearing stories from annabeth where she can see the pain is real

i think the ones everyone can agree are factual to some degree are ones they hear straight from annabeth

and i feel like during those months since the war and percy’s disappearance were the most recent things to happen they would hear a good amount of stories both from annabeth and other campers that would back up the things they hear abt him enough that it would be hard to not believe or take them as truth yk

however i don’t think that stops them (any of them; new campers piper leo jason) from looking at pictures of percy and think “how tf did this kid do all that”

[threebea]

I was thinking about how the Padawans being part of the war effort DOES suck and kind of bother me, but for some reason I don't really see it as an in universe moral failing of the Jedi.

First I was like: well Star Wars is aimed at kids . A pov character that is a kid makes sense. Especially in the early seasons of TCW and Rebels. This was added in the cartoon and it became part of movie canon after the fact that Padawans held military rank. Suspension of disbelief etc etc.

Then I was like... Wait. Padme was fourteen when she became elected queen, and although it was supposed to be a peaceful rule it got to the point where other fourteen-year-olds became her body doubles in case of assassinations. She also goes and leads an army to take back her planet. At no point was anyone like: you know what you're fourteen you should probably stay at base camp while we do this. We don't actually need you for the storming the palace part.

The GFFA in universe does not place moral significance on it. It isn't weird. If it did there is no way Shmi would have said: yes my nine year old son will do the death race when he doesn't have to even though he has never won or finished before. The plot must allow the gffa to be okay with child endangerment with the good guys still being good guys. No one says Shmi is a terrible mom when she agrees to let Anakin do it. She wasn't being coerced she's just convinced that the only way to help people is to put a nine year old in a death race. In real life if she did that we'd be horrified. And remember Padme isn't bothered because of Anakin's age she's bothered that they're staking everything on a random kid.

So Padawan Commanders makes sense in the GFFA.

Although yeah it makes sense to feel bad about Padawan Commanders in the real world, it also doesn't really say anything about the Jedi and their morality. They're pretty in step with the rules of morality of the universe.

The GFFA has similarities, but it isn't our galaxy.

Would I want children in real life to be trained as Jedi? No. I wouldn't want an eight year old to be trained as crimefighting hero Robin either. It's only when we're looking back at these things through an adult lens and ground fantasy in reality that it becomes a problem.

If you don't want to suspend your disbelief that's fine. But can you make moral judgements on the Jedi without looking at anyone else in the galaxy about this one particular fact? I don't think you can.

I don't know, funny to think about. Especially with the newer media which is aimed at for adults with nostalgia. Then the story does try to seem grounded in reality, but also trying to justify the past where our belief was suspended.

[juliettejwnewinesa]

Hello autor-nim!! How are u?

Can you write a piece where baku had a affair with baekjin young sister and after S2 last episode, he founds that she have his baby 🥹🫰🏻

Title: "Yours."

Pairing: Humin x Baekjin's Younger Sister Setting: Post-Season 2 of Weak Hero Class 2

beakjin is still alive ok 😭

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

Baekjin was gone.

Not dead. Not missing. Just... quiet.

After the war that burned through the Union like wildfire, most of the pieces were still being picked up. Humin had disappeared from the center of it all, floating on the edge of what was once a battlefield, haunted but alive.

It had been three months since everything collapsed. Three months since the last time he’d seen her.

Baekjin’s little sister.

The one girl he should’ve stayed away from. The one mistake he couldn’t bring himself to regret.

It had been an accident, at first. Or that’s what he told himself. Late nights studying in the same library, accidental glances, fingers brushing when she handed him a pen. The tension had started soft, sweet — then it bloomed into fire.

Their affair had been a secret. No one could know. Especially not Baekjin.

But even then, it hadn’t felt like an affair. It had felt... real. Like the first good thing Humin had touched in a long, long time.

So when he opened the door that night, only to see her standing there with fear in her eyes and a hand protectively placed over her stomach, something inside him cracked.

"Humin," she breathed. "I need to tell you something."

He said nothing. Just stared at her — at her pale face, trembling fingers, the way she kept glancing down at herself like she was ashamed of what she carried.

Then the truth dropped.

"I'm pregnant."

The world spun.

"It's yours."

Silence. Heavy. Crushing. Humin didn’t move.

His throat worked, but no words came out.

She kept going. "I didn’t know at first. But I’ve been to the doctor. It’s... I’m almost three months."

"Three months," he echoed hollowly.

That lined up. Right before the final fight. The week where things had spiraled out of control. The night she snuck into his room with tear-streaked cheeks and a desperate kiss that turned into hours tangled in sweat and love and everything they refused to name.

He sat down. Hard. Like his knees couldn’t hold him.

"Baekjin doesn’t know," she added, voice soft. "Nobody does. Only you now."

"Why tell me now?"

Her chin trembled. "Because I can’t do this without you. And I didn’t want to hide it anymore. I know what we had wasn’t meant to last, but—"

"Don’t say that."

She blinked.

Humin looked up at her, something raw flickering behind his eyes. "Don’t say it wasn’t meant to last."

He stood, slowly. Walked toward her. Stopped just in front of her like he was afraid to touch her now. Like she might shatter.

"Are you scared?" he asked, voice barely a whisper.

She nodded. "I’m terrified."

"Me too."

And then, finally, he reached out — hand resting on her stomach, where his child grew. His. Not just hers.

A small, involuntary sound escaped her lips. Relief. Pain. Love.

"I don’t know how to do this," he murmured. "But I’m not walking away."

She looked at him, lip trembling, eyes shining.

"What about Baekjin?"

His jaw clenched. "That’s going to be a war. But I’ll take it. I’ll take all of it — him, the judgment, the fallout. Because this..." he looked down again at her stomach, "...this matters more."

And then he kissed her. Like it was the first time all over again. Slow, reverent, his fingers slipping into her hair, pulling her closer until the air between them melted.

They sat on his couch after that. Wrapped in a quiet that felt like safety.

She told him about her symptoms. The nausea. The doctor’s visits. The way she talked to the baby sometimes when she was alone, just to make herself feel less scared.

He listened.

And then, as the night stretched long, Humin reached out again — this time to her face.

"Let me take care of you."

"You already are," she whispered.

But he meant more.

He pulled her gently onto his lap, letting her settle against him. Kissing her again, slow and deep, like she was something sacred.

And when they undressed — careful and quiet — it wasn’t rushed. It wasn’t desperate. It was full of unspoken promises.

She gasped when he entered her, fingers gripping his shoulders, and he held her tightly like she was something he never wanted to lose again.

The pace was slow. Reverent. Their foreheads pressed together, breaths shared, soft moans and shuddering whispers echoing through the quiet room.

"Mine," he murmured, over and over again. "Mine. Mine."

And she clung to him, heart wide open.

Because she was.

And so was he.

Outside, the world might explode again. Baekjin might find out. Fists might fly.

But in this moment, wrapped in soft sheets and each other’s arms, they were just Humin and the girl he couldn’t let go of.

The girl carrying his child.

His.

Forever.

naurrrr i didn't know where to put a Hongdae joke 😭

[oceansoul001]

After 170 hours I've finished Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 and I cannot even start to describe this emptiness I'm feeling now, knowing that there is no more of this great story waiting for me to experience (at least for now). What a wild ride it was and what a surprisingly amazing game, with all the twists and turns of the plot, all the memorable characters that I deeply cared about and rooted for, all the emotions of Henry's journey and all the thoughts about war, revenge, duty, and finally making peace with the past and moving on. The emotional spectrum of the game is astounding - it can so flawlessly switch between being extremely funny or delightfully absurd to being heartbreaking or devastating in the heaviest moments. But as the game’s content is so dense and rich, that writing down all my thoughts would require a whole book, or at least a dissertation, I would like to specifically touch upon one, nomen omen touchy subject. The Henry-Hans romance.

I'm not sure if it is possible yet, but I would also like to skip over all the controversy-driven discussions regarding this romantic subplot, clearly lead in bad faith and mostly by people not even engaging with the game, and be able to talk about this topic and analyze it as it is, without questioning its right to even exist in the game. Why do I focus on this quite small and optional aspect of the game at all? Well, I’m not gonna lie – I always find the RPGs with possible romances more engaging and captivating, as love – as a general emotion, with different shades of it – is in my eyes one of the crucial aspect of any hero. So if we are already talking about the love towards parents or other family members, patriotic love for your country, or king, platonic love between friends and comrades, and then all of a sudden omit only the romantic love, something is not adding up for me. If you want to give me a rich RPG experience, give me at least one good romance option, and I’m sold. But it is not easy at all, especially the “good” part.

But as KCD2 is a very unique game when it comes to its different aspects – like the demanding, slow-paced gameplay, or the unique blend of open-world with more contained main plot missions – it is also very unique when it comes to the romance options, or, let me say it aloud – when it comes to THE main romance option, the most integral romance option, the most naturally developing romance option in the game. The Henry-Hans (optional) romance that we can observe growing very slowly throughout this 100+ hours, is for me one of the best and most meaningful depictions of love in any RPG with player's agency. This relation, even if you opt out of romance, simply has it all - is intertwined with the plot, is rooted in character development and has the possibility to depict characters together during many different situations throughout the whole game. And this is how a good romanceable character should be written in a video game – as an independent character first and foremost, NOT as a character that was created with a sole purpose to serve as said romance option. In this case Hans ALWAYS plays a meaningful part in the story, and ALWAYS shares an important bond with your Henry, regardless of player's decision whether to engage with the romance or not. But many other games seem to forget about that, or don’t manage to create the bond between characters first, before the option to romance them appears.

And then comes the hard to describe aspect of THE FEELS. The slow development of this relation, the steady growth of feelings, up to the point, when you cannot deny it any longer, and when you cannot allow yourself to not act upon them - because of the circumstances, because of this sense of impending doom, that makes all the risks worth taking, as any of you might anyway be dead the next day. Audentes Fortuna Iuvat, remember? The risk that Hans takes in the decisive moment of this relation is THE epitome of his saying, and I don’t believe it is a coincidence when it suits so perfectly to the whole theme of the game and to Hans as a character in general. And this bold risk taking is so gut-clenching and heartbreaking, but also heartwarming in this one stolen moment of happiness that seems unreal. Say what you want, but you simply cannot tell this kind of story, invoke this kind of feelings - without first having two equally developed characters, that the player equally cares for and have cared for before any romance possibility was on the horizon. Add to the mix very real external hardships (all good romances need a hardship to overcome!), that due to the time and place make this relation tragically doomed before it even has begun, and there you have it - one of the most compelling romantic stories I have experienced in a video game, hands down.

And please don’t start with medieval this, medieval that, before you stop and think about greatest medieval love stories (that we know of) – these are always stories of impossible love, of doomed love, of forbidden love. Of two people, that cannot and should not be together because of the class they belong to, because of the promises made, because of duty, because of sin and religion dogma. Don’t tell me you cannot see the comparison between Henry and Hans, and, say, Tristan and Isolde, THE number one medieval chivalric romance couple, where they commit sin against God and betray their King at the same time, every time they are together. Don’t tell me that Henry, who clearly aspires to all the ideals that we associate with knighthood – chivalry, protection of the weak, devotion to land and rightful king, and generally noble idealism, let’s call it – is not the perfect hero of chivalric romance, with Hans being of course his damsel-princess, way above his league, already promised to another and soon to be in a loveless, political marriage, spending parts of the game either captured in some tower or stuck in some castle, having to wait for his knight to safely return to him. It is all there, I am sure not accidentally, and it fits all the themes and motifs known from both actual medieval literature and their pop culture representation SO WELL if you think about it for a second.

And there's one more component that elevates this particular relation to S-tier for me. You can have superb writing, you can direct the most impressive cutscene, you can have the build-up ready - all of these won't matter and won't work if the actors don't sell you the romantic feelings in the key moment. Which I assume is not easy, when for the most part you play other aspects of these characters and probably were not cast with this specific plot point in mind. But here comes Luke Dale, showing us the side of Hans Capon that we have not seen before, with the most heart-wrenching expression of his fears, with voice breaking at the exactly right moment, the trembling, the anger, the despair, but also the tiniest bit of hope - and in just two broken sentences he conveys it all, and it's all so bloody real. It's a masterwork, and I'm so happy that I could witness it in game, even more - become part of this relationship as the playable character himself.

I sincerely hope that the end of the main game is not the end of this subplot, as there is still so, so, so much more to explore with these characters in these circumstances. And their relation is so unique, comparing to popular fiction in general, but even more so in video games, that it would be a great loss to just leave them be as they are at the end of the game. I cannot wait for the possibility to go through more emotional turmoil with Henry and Hans, probably because I cannot even remember when was the last time I’ve fallen in love with fictional characters so much and so fast, as with these two. And as already said, love is the key. 

[silverflqmes]

I was curious about a HC for Sephiroth with a quiet S/O that loves to sing when they’re alone?

໒⦂ ��𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐋𝐔𝐎𝐔𝐒.

notes. hello anon! i’m not sure if you just wanted one hc so i added a good amount to suffice enough for a post, hope you enjoy and that they are to your likings<3

genre. fluff + comfort

sephiroth x gn!reader.

⌗ sephiroth has known you to be a rather soft spoken individually, often reserved amongst others — though he didn’t particularly mind it. he had similar habits, anyway — if anything it made him feel less alone..

⌗ with him, however, you were thankfully a bit more talkative — as was he, with you. it just felt more comfortable for you both to fully express yourselves, especially your lover.

⌗ but something told your beloved that you were keeping some quirks secret.. certain little things — habits of yours.

⌗ particularly the melodic voice that greeted his ears one chilly evening when he’d arrived home from a dragged out meeting.

⌗ you had been so engrossed in whatever you were busy with, that you hadn’t even heard your boyfriend come in. normally you greeted him at the door if you were home- a cute little routine of yours and sephiroth’s — which made it all the more strange that you hadn’t done so.

⌗ given the late hours, part of him would have assumed you to have fallen asleep as a reason for not expressing your usual ‘welcome home, sephiroth!’ but would you have left the record player on..?

⌗ sephiroth tried not to question it and just assumed you wanted noise with whatever you had been occupying yourself.

⌗ only.. the record player was not in use. interesting.

⌗ with his enhanced hearing, the silver haired first decided to give into his curiosity, leaning against the cool wall as he listened in on that mellifluous tune.. and that was where he reached his conclusion.

⌗ the person singing was you!

⌗ for a moment sephiroth flushed and recoiled, thinking that perhaps he had intruded on your privacy somehow — which brought a slight feeling of guilt.

⌗ he hadn’t heard you sing before. maybe a soft humming while you were busy with your paperwork.. but not full on singing. were you not comfortable doing so in front of him? a mild case of stage fright, perhaps..

⌗ even still, he couldn’t help but feel lulled by your voice — at ease.

⌗ so much, that shinra’s famed hero hadn’t even noticed his body sliding down the solid surface, feline-like eyes fluttering shut.. until his rear made contact with the hardwood floor.

⌗ naturally, sephiroth.. given his height and muscle mass — would make a bit of a thud. guys look at that cushy tushy, come on which might have been ignored by him, since his focus was on your voice, but the sound had very much found your ears.

⌗ the song you’d chosen to sing came to an abrupt pause, concern overcoming you as you beelined out of your shared bedroom with a loud gasp.

⌗ “s-sephiroth..?!”

⌗ but your beloved was.. pretty much fast asleep, a serene smile on his lips with strands of silver framing his relaxed countenance.

⌗ now how could you possibly wake him up? he was likely exhausted from his work, the war in wutai — everything that came to mind regarding shinra.

⌗ a sigh left your lips as you tucked a lock of hair behind his ear before crouching to wrap his arm around your neck. no way would you allow him to sleep through the night like that. especially with his restless sleep schedule.

⌗ and so, you poured every ounce of your strength into your legs, lifting the two of you up with a slight wheeze. sephiroth wasn’t light by any means, but you wanted him to sleep comfortably — which in turn, kept you going with your ambitious, and quite possibly foolish, endeavors..

⌗ a few steps was all it took before you were easing him onto his side of the bed, prying off his boots and pauldrons so that he could relax better. there wasn’t any danger in your shared flat, so he could do without them for the rest of the evening. you’d protect him, anyway.

⌗ crawling into the space beside him, you then curled into his side, fluttering your eyes shut as you allowed sleep to envelope you, just as it had your lover.

⌗ when dawn broke and bled through the curtains, sephiroth stirred a little before opening his eyes slowly, allowing them to adjust to his surroundings — specifically you, cuddling into his chest.

⌗ had he fallen asleep so suddenly that you had to carry him into bed all on your own?

⌗ you murmured something incoherent, likely from a dream, as he smiled tenderly, pushing aside the thought to slide a gloved hand into your hair, petting you gently.

⌗ perhaps he wouldn’t move just yet to prepare breakfast.. and instead, enjoy your warmth for a little while longer.

⌗ however, he would have comments upon your wake, wanting to know why you’d hidden such a lovely voice from him all this time.

⌗ but, for now, it would just be him, his fluffy bedding, the morning rays, and yourself.

⌗ gingerly, the first class SOLDIER leaned in to press a tiny kiss to your temple, whispering a soft, “sleep well, my love.”

notes. i may have indulged a little here, but it’s sephiroth aiakwhdjsjs sleeping with him sounds so nice rn😵‍💫 ahem- hope it was good tho, anon!

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[katyspersonal]

Heolstor might be a Carian in-law, or just a Carian + Ranni tried to prevent his raise too?

So, he has a Moonlight Sword! It is a staple in Fromsoft's games, but in Elden Ring setting, it is a customary gift by a Carian queen to her chosen one

+ not a ring finger, but it reminded me of a ring of purple gemstone that Rennala is depicted wearing (also not a ring finger, funny enough):

So, I wonder whether he also was engaged with a Carian at some point? He is apparently an AU version of The Revenger from Weeping Peninsula whose whole nation got wiped off by Godfrey ( x ), and sorcerers from Liurnia, Carians included, were also enemies of the Erdtree before Rennala's marriage!

I am actually questioning whether it might have been an existing character? 🤔

I was not sure what to make out of the fact that in Japanese original script, Ranni says that now "the night is infinitely far away" besides the fact that 'age of stars' is somehow a different type of the 'night' than whatever it was that she presumably prevented!

But now, seeing that Nightreign's whole poster is an Elden Ring that was altered into a blue version with crescent motives, that Heolstor has Elden Ring inside like Radagon once did, and that he has a sword gifted by a Carian princess to her consort (and maybe their customary ring), I feel like I know just the person that can offer some insight on this situation!

The thing is? The Carian princess in question here is not Ranni, but Renna herself! It is especially apparent by how Lazuli Conspectus sorcerers in Raya Lucaria were already a thing before Ranni was even born, and they wield this crest!

@val-of-the-north explained why the Snowy Crone is Renna in a way more detail in this ( x ) post, but all in all, Renna was long time ago dead and became the four-armed blue cursed ghost herself:

Ranni's motivation is to push the Elden Ring out of anyone's reach as it is the tool to hack laws of nature and people's fates according to your own vision, and allow a presumably more "objective" force (the stars) guide people instead!

But if Renna knew Heolstor, and already was dead from old age (?) by the time Ranni found her, she might have also added something like "Oh by the way there is another guy who will seek to nuke the Golden Order but not for a noble reason that you do, he will seek revenge upon all living after what happened to him, I don't know when or if he will raise but you might want to prevent him from taking the Elden Ring as well :/". So now, along with other things, the Night is also "infinitely far away", because Heolstor did as much as he did through taking the Elden Ring!

Now, I am not sure whether Renna herself was his bride! Could be that, could be someone else but she would still know about him through being family in law. Maybe Godfrey nuking his country even was the actual reason Liurnia became hostile to the Erdtree? The thing is, trolls, close allies of Carians, were traitors of the Fire Giants that sided with the Erdtree during that war instead! A Troll named Theodorix was even glorified as a hero by them. Raya Lucaria soldiers also seem to honor the Golden Order's ways, as they specifically loathe Albinaurics for their "impure blood" and went against Carians because Rennala "was no god, after all" (so, didn't like how divorce effected her). Original Raya Lucaria sorcerers also respect the golden amber along with the stars, as the source of ancient life, as said by Sellen, just that they aim higher for the cold stars!

I was confused, but with the new information, it started to feel like it were Carians specifically who went against the Golden Order! It just meant roping everyone in Liurnia with them too, since they are literally the rulers of the region! And maybe Heolstor's people being killed off and Castle Morne / Weeping Peninsula usurped became the trigger. Something more like 'well when we decided to not do anything about the usurpators we didn't expect they'd eventually usurp us :/'.

At the same time, there is also the whole fact that "night and flame" is exactly what Heolstor inflicts on the Lands Between x)

He must have been in a very close association. Alternatively, maybe he himself a Carian princess that went a very separate way to establish a different territory and country, but the Erdtree could not let someone thrive without their authorisation. -_-"

+ fun fact that might be a coincidence but maybe not: Weeping Peninsula and Liurnia are the two regions where whole settlements tormented by Frenzied Flame exist! A residence of Carians, and a residence of a Carian's consort......

UPDATE: @sahashbelvanie left a comment and:

Yes, seems like the Moonlight Sword restricts him, it isn't necessarily his.

sjhfshdsh Well, folks, perhaps like 70% of the post is cancelled, it is JUST about how Ranni intending to stop him along other things was foreshadowed XD

[ireallyamabear]

The choice to put Una Chin-Reily on a Starfleet recruitment poster in the late 2370s seems a nod to the extraordinary person she is and her exemplary service, but Boimler’s enthusiasm for her as a personal hero cannot mask the fact of what Starfleet execs are really doing here: while it is Starfleet tradition to honour esteemed personnel from its centuries of history, we have to look at the poster as a product of its time: it seems clear that, shortly after the devastating death toll and the rapid militarisation of the Dominion War, putting a prominent figure of the Great Exploration Age - and notedly someone who had not served in the Klingon War - as the poster person for Starfleet is an indictment that contemporary young people of the Federation are not drawn to the service as it is in their time anymore.

Critically, Starfleet has to use somebody from a 120 years ago, a timeframe that would lap generations of even especially long lived member species like Vulcans or Denobulans, to attract new recruits. Boimler says himself that seeing Una as a representative and her motto - “Ad astra per aspera” was: “Uh, it was a really big reason why I joined.” Clearly there is a wealth of recognisable Starfleet officers from 2370 and onwards, but their entanglement in the Dominion War, or at least in the Borg threat makes them unsuitable as role models for people like Boimler who cannot help but associate these contemporaries with the horrors of war and intergalactic conflict. Thus, the retreat to a “safe” historical narrative, with Starfleet still being about peaceful exploration reflects the growing divide between the realities of a colonised galaxy, the ongoing need of new bodies to fill the posts on all those ships and space stations and the aspirations and values of young people today. In this essay I will question whether Starfleet can keep its promise of scientific integrity in the face of growing political unrest in the UFP and ask what “Number One” herself would have thought about-

[katerinaaqu]

Have you noticed the importance of narrators in the Odyssey?

If someone reads the Odyssey we notice there are many characters that narrate a story.

We firstly have Phemius, the self-taught singer who sings against his will for the suitors the tales of the heroes of the Trojan War especially their fate after the war

Second we have Nestor, Helen and Menelaus that focus on Odysseus in particular or the events that surrounded him

Then we have Demodocus the blind singer of the Phaeakes who sings the events of the Trojan War

Last but not least Odysseus himself who tells us his own story the infamous Odyssey

All the narrators or storytellers cause something to happen or emotions to their audience. For example Phemius causes Penelope to come down, for us to see and hear her. Helen Menelaus and Nestor introduce us to our hero. Demodocus is causing the reaction of Odysseus that reveals him to his audience and forces him to tell his story. However something differentiates Odysseus from the other narrators within the Odyssey

Odysseus tells his own story

And that shows to his narrative. Odysseus is not just aligning some facts or information he knows. He is telling his own story: traumatic events that happened to him, memories that scarred him, memories that seem pleasing to him...and that shows to "inconsistencies" to his narrative

He speaks positively or negatively in several places showing the ups and downs of his mood as he speaks

Some parts of his narrative he slides over (see for example Ismarus) as if he doesn't want to talk about it or elaborate and extends other parts (see Polyphemus)

Sometimes he speaks positively of himself or his men and at others he berates them depending on how the events of his narration go

Oftentimes he stops to breathe and the Phaeakes encourage him to go on and he does collecting his thoughts

At times he inserts some small information to the story while others he omits it

And the emotions show

He starts by speaking about his homeland. He is nostalgic, positive, dreamlike even

He becomes dryer as we get to the events of the trip

He sometimes needs to stop and collect himself

He is encouraged to speak which means he hesitates

He stops sometimes to possibly enjoy the praise he receives

He waits for people to stop talking or ask him questions and assist his narrative

Homer didn't just give us a flashback story of someone speaking in first person. HE GAVE US A LIVE NARRATION a narrator who appears to speak in real time with all the "flaws" of the conversations such as the fact not all events are given the same severity, the pauses and all.

I believe this is a massive reason why the Odyssey is being retold and loved. Because imagine how lively it was in antiquity to have your narrator pause and speak and think instead of directly singing the whole thing like someone else telling it but instead we see Odysseus live being affected by the emotions of his own narration and adding or omitting details. We can almost imagine him tearing up or being angry or sad or happy or relieved as he speaks!

HOMER YOU WERE A FUCKING GENIUS!

Thank you @annoyedbreadstick for the inspiration for this!

[shadamypositivity]

a negative post under the cut (not from me, I'm just commentating on it)

(See OG post below.)

due to the nature of my blog normally I wouldn't even bring this up but a) I'm bored while IT is working on my computer (AGAIN) and b) i like a good discussion.

I'm gonna skip over the obvious fallacies of shadamy being a fake ship (bc what does that mean, I have no idea) and that SEGA never acknowledges it (they clearly have) or markets Shadamy (if the Shadamy Sakura series and them being marketed together didn't clue them in, then they are willingly ignorant abt it lol)

I did want to discuss the Amy Rose Minnie Mouse aspect and her "purpose of the franchise" bc i actually have a lot of thoughts to this! And before I go one, it should go without saying but I do love SonAmy, it's very cute and they're characters who can have good chemistry and deserve good things! Anyway, here's my thoughts.

Amy being created to be Sonic's Minnie Mouse as far as I had read it was pressure from the company to make Sonic more marketable (i.e. adding girl character, hero saves damsel quests etc). What i love about how they went about it was flipping the script, especially for the era, it was more commonplace for damsel characters to be the sweet, love interest (Minnie, princess peach, princess daphne) that the hero pursues as a goal to complete as well as a reward for his efforts.

Sonic being adverse to Amy's advances, who is supposedly created to be the love interest, is unique and adds to his personality which was a really good move imo. it added to the edge that Sonic kind of gives as a protagonist, his sass, his impatience, his cock sure nature while also being altruistic and loyal of course, but him viewing Amy as a friend that he occasionally has to rescue and bear the affections of is objectively silly and fun.

Now, pertaining to Amy's purpose of the franchise being Sonic's endgame love interest, I do take a lot more issue with. Not only does it invalidate Amy's space in this franchise, making her no more than a romantic reward for the ending of Sonic's hero's quest (because, if SEGA thinks Sonic won't "slow down" for Amy now, it implies he will have to undergo some sort of change or, less noble, when he seems himself ready to reciprocate Amy's feelings on his terms, irregardless of how long he makes Amy wait for him) but it also ironically makes Sonamy make less sense canonically.

Like, if Amy is only meant to work as Sonic's female, romantic counterpart, why does SEGA not let it happen canonically? Because it's not a ship war thing honestly, most of the GP already assumes they are and there's plenty of valentines merch to suggest otherwise, so...why not just do it? probably because it doesn't make sense for Sonic's character and I don't just mean for SonAmy, honestly, I mean it for any and all Sonic ships. It isn't that Sonic doesn't love or wouldn't have romantic feelings, it's that I think he doesn't allow himself those attachments. Friends are everything in this world and I've always loved this franchise for showcasing an array of lovely strong friendships, but the difference in friends and significant others is that there's compromise, there's balance, there's giving up things, there's building a home and a family and doing things as 2 as opposed to only needing to worry about yourself. friendships are no less of a love than romance but there's also a lot more grace in friendships when it comes to responsibilities and emotional compromises. I'm getting into the weeds a bit here but what I mean to say is that Sonics character doesn't make sense for a romantic partner, free like the wind and on an eternal hero's journey. It has also never appeared to be a want of his to be able to have these things (but im willing to be proven otherwise) Maybe down the road it would, but that's not fair to Amy or any other partner for that matter. Amy's whole world doesn't need to revolve around waiting for her hero to be ready to accept her, especially to a character so full and rich in love and affections to give.

It doesn't escape me that one of Amy's most defining and strongest showing was because of Shadow. This is kind of where I can get extremely biased and go on and on about how great a story arc would be for Shadamy to become endgame. Briefly, Sonamy being canon kind of takes away from Sonic's character, while Shadamy enriches. Amy who obsesses and does everything for the attention of her first love finding her own purpose and making her world bigger by being her own hero which was the case for her finding her courage after feeling useless by helping Shadow to remember his promise just by being herself. Shadow who is jaded and hurt and isolated from friends and the world he now lives in finding love and affection and strength in those things because of Amy Rose's big heart. Idk, it's all very poetic to me.

So in conclusion, Sonamy and Shadamy good, but writing wise, Shadamy has a lot more going for it. One of my irl friends who watches sonic things over my shoulder has always taken issue with Sonamy being the canon default bc of her pursuing and Sonics pushing away. When I introduced her to the idea of Shadamy she hoped on with more enthusiasm haha probably bc it was around the mosth era and that was a pretty good showing for them haha. anyway. these are my humble thoughts. I'm not all knowing of this franchise or think myself correct in every way but idk. I don't think its fair to rule out character shipping just bc it wasn't the original intention. that happens all the time with things after all (RIP canon zutara) so maybe op can take a chill pill 😅

[geeky-politics-46]

Random Headcanon thoughts...

You cannot convince me this guy is not a big nerd. Ladies man and hottie though he is. Steve was starting fights in the 40's he wanted to go to a science convention. This man would have been a Trekkie.

Bucky is a huge Star Trek fan.

He's a sci-fi nerd all around. He's not anti-Star Wars or anything. He just prefers Star Trek. Although he does wonder now if Lemar picked his codename because of Battlestar Galactica.

That is the future he was promised and the modern world is sorely disappointing in that way.

He is so bummed that replicators and holodecks aren't real. I mean come on, replicators would have solved the great depression food scarcity?! Why is that not a higher priority?!

If the military in the 1930s/1940s was as science & discovery focused as Starfleet, he would have actually signed up instead of getting drafted. (If you are confused about this see debates over his army id number)

The idea that money is no longer used because people do things driven to improve the quality of life for everyone hits him deep, having grown up in the depression. He remembers all the suffering caused by lack of money. He hates that homelessness is still such an issue, especially among vets and those with mental or health issues.

The Borg are his least favorite alien species/villain. Far too reminiscent of his time as the Winter Soldier and the time he's spent learning not to detest his cybernetic arm.

That being said, he does feel a deep personal connection to 7 of 9's story arc. Going from being the bad guy who was taken against his will to a hero is something he has been & is living himself. He feels like 7 would understand all of the complicated feelings he has about himself.

If you ask him, he'll say his favorite captain is Picard. Maybe Kirk sometimes. In reality, he's a Janeway guy. He loves strong women & he feels just as strongly about coffee as she does.

He has started picking up Klingon. The whole team turns when they hear him call John a petaQ while arguing one day. He doesn't even realize he did it until they ask what the hell it means.

He has 100% bought Alpine a stuffed tribble.

Im sure there will be more added to this gradually. I accidentally hit publish before I was ready so I'm finishing this in a hurry.

Back to main masterlist

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

Bucky Barnes taglist: let me know if you want to be added! I've got several Bucky stories in the works.

[localfandomenjoyer]

I headcanon that in the Kronide AU of Perse being Zeus' twin, Perse would not be on the council because she doesn't want the drama, the meetings, or her family (Hera) being paranoid.

Instead she wanders the mortal world.

In the myths, Zeus would occasionally pretend to be a traveller and basically spot checks random people or kings to see if they are hospitable and gift or punish they accordingly. Now, Perse fulfills this role. Not only will she inspire the Mysterious Stranger/Mentor figure in modern stories, like the enchantress in Beauty and the Beast, ancient Greeks will be more respectful to women especially when they travel solo, in case it might be Perse herself. If they are nice to her, Perse might gift they something, maybe the classical 3 wishes, or a child. If they are raging misogynists, well good luck. Women will have a much easier time in general.

For an added bonus, she will become both a most trusted confidant and advisor to Zeus because he knows his twin will be humble, impartial and distant from whatever drama is occurring among the gods, as well as a friend to humanity that is well-worshiped despite having little myths. He can take criticisms from her because her opinion will not really reach divine ears to destabilize his authority as king, and she is excluded from his extreme paranoia.

It's only until the Trojan war that she rocks up to the throne room to demand an explanation since all the mortal kingdoms are getting involved in a divine war and she is really behind on all the tea. Everyone simultaneously says oh shit.

Much as I agree that Perse wouldn't want the drama and meetings, it is does help with affecting change, staying informed of what happens and persuading others to her word, something she will see the utility of. Take Odysseus - without a council seat, Perse would really have no way of helping him or voting in his favour. Plus Zeus would be more paranoid if the greatest claimant to his throne is wandering about the world doing who know's what. At least if she's an Olympian, he knows where she is.

I do like the idea of her wandering about the mortal world in disguise. My thoughts immediately turn to Gandalf, who she could serve as a template for, guiding heroes and advising the kings of the realm in disguise. Though I don't think she'd be so curse-happy to inspire the Enchantress - original or Disney adaptation. In the Disney version, all his castle staff are cursed for no reason. In the original, the Prince is cursed because he didn't want to marry the Enchantress (who helped raise him from a child, so the situation is extra fucked) and all his servants are turned to stone (which is arguably worse than being made into household items).

[imagination-mess]

A Second Chance at Life (Touya Todoroki X Fem!Reader) Chapter 6

Summary: For the past five years, you’ve been raising your son as a single mother. You’ve successfully avoided questions about his father by claiming that he died during the Paranormal Liberation War. From what you believe, this isn’t a lie. The last time you saw him was when he personally escorted you to U.A.’s shelter amidst the chaos in the streets.

Unbeknownst to you, he has been alive all this time, clinging to life in a facility working to keep him alive. His father, Enji, has been desperately searching for someone willing to heal him. After his presumed death, a single photo of you and Dabi began circulating through the underground, hinting at the nature of your relationship. To protect yourself and your child, you had to pay someone to stop the pictures from spreading further.

The photo provided answers to a long-standing question: who was the healer Dabi had been protecting? It identified you as the healer who had been deemed untouchable, but it also brought unwanted attention.

A/N: Sorry for any grammar or spelling errors in advance.This chapter turned out much longer than I expected. It didn’t start off this way. Right now, it’s definitely the longest chapter so far. I hope you enjoy!

This chapter will include Reader’s, Kou's (Reader’s assistant), and Rei’s points of view. Masterlist of ASCAF Previously Chapter Five Word Count: 3.3K+

You kept your eyes forward, ignoring the blinding camera flashes erupting from both sides. Paparazzi and news channels lined the walkway, snapping photos, shoving microphones toward you like vultures circling a fresh carcass.

"Dr. Remedy! Look over here!"

"Is it true you're treating a criminal?!"

"Are you a villain sympathizer?!"

"Traitor!"

"Is that your son?!"

You kept a soft but firm hand on the back of your eldest son’s neck, guiding him forward, making sure his face stayed hidden beneath his hoodie. He was completely covered. He is wearing a baseball cap, sunglasses, and a face mask. Every inch of him shielded from their gaze.

Security guards covering you on both sides, forcefully parting the crowd as they escorted the two of you toward the hospital entrance.

You’re only showing your face to attend the conference with Touya’s family, just as you promised. Recovery took much longer than you expected. You’re not completely out of the woods yet, but you’re stable enough to hold conversations.

The main reason your eldest, Seishiro, is accompanying you is because you're required by the Heroes Public Safety Commision to disclose his existence to his next of kin, which in this case is Enji.

You're not surprised. The truth was bound to come out eventually. You had even hired someone on the inside to tamper with the results before, making them appear inconclusive. The Todoroki family had been plastered across headlines for months, until the media eventually lost interest.

Was it ethical? No.

But you don’t regret it. Not when it meant protecting a child who barely knew what existed beyond the orphanage walls. A child who’s only just beginning to discover the world around him. There’s no reason for him to face the added burden of media scrutiny.

Especially now that Endeavor has been caught in his lie to the public. When he announced the death of Touya years ago. 

_________________________

You were gathering the files and notes needed for the meeting while Seishiro was sitting, laying back on your office chair with his feets on top of the desk. He was playing a game on his phone while munching on the snacks that you have in your snack drawer. 

At the very least, he has his sneakers off. You are letting it slide, because you aren't sure how they are going to react to his existence. He doesn't want to be here either for the reasons to be meeting them. People who are strangers to him. 

"Seishiro,"

The white-haired boy immediately paused his app and looked up at you, one eyebrow raised with a subtle, questioning look. You almost never used his full name, usually sticking to nicknames. So when did you do it? 

He knew it meant one of two things: either you needed his full attention... or he was deep in trouble.“Be on your best behavior,” you said simply. “At the very least, make a good first impression.”

That was all you asked, knowing full well that Seishiro had a smart mouth that got him into more trouble than you liked. He didn’t dare use it with you or anyone in the family. He knew better.

If he ever did, he’d be biting off more than he could chew.

The last two times he tried, it ended in disaster. Once, he was literally chased for several blocks during a family reunion by an older cousin who had zero hesitation about throwing hands with kids. The other time, your mother clapped back so hard to one of his comments that he stayed silent the entire day and even apologized before heading home.

"Okay. I will be on my best behavior, just for you, ma." Seishiro says with a mischievous smile and resettles back to his comfortable position. "Now shuu, I want to beat this lev-"

He yelped, eyes wide as he scrambled to keep from tipping over when you knocked his feet off your desk, clutching his chest like he’d just seen his life flash before his eyes.

You tried really hard to stifle your smile as you left the office, but the sight of him sitting there all dramatically offended made it nearly impossible.

You took a couple of deep breaths to shake the smile off your face, mentally preparing yourself to deal with the Todoroki family.

You knocked on the door before opening it, finding Enji and Rei already there, accompanied by Shouto and Fuyumi. It seemed you were interrupting something.

Fuyumi and Rei looked flustered and frustrated, their expressions saying it all.

"Was I interrupting something?"

"Y-"

"No." Enji cut off Shouto, who stared at him, clearly disappointed.

"Hm. If you’d like to see Mr. Todoroki," you said, offering the option. "I can take you to see him before we go over the details of the operation and his action plan."

___________________________________________________

You escorted them to let you see Touya behind the glass in a private section deeper within the hospital since the media is outside and has more security than usual. He was purposely hidden away within the maze of the hallways. 

He was moved into another room when the paparazzi reached his room at some point last week.

Shouto was the only one who didn't stay long at the window unlike the rest of his family. Enji and Rei look close to tears seeing their eldest son sleeping peacefully.

The reconstruction of his entire body, including muscles and bones, was the reason he now has the arm he lost years ago. Essentially, he has a completely new body.

As you explained, the operation is more detailed than Kou has done. You were using the body scans of Touya's own body to explain what happened. 

You refused to take all the credit when Enji tried to profusely thank you.

"It was teamwork," you replied, your eyes still focused on your paperwork as you spoke. "Working with other doctors and nurses whose quirks helped make it possible for Mr. Todoroki to essentially start from zero. But from now on, it’s his responsibility to take care of his body."

You glanced up at Enji, who nodded in understanding.

"He should be waking up soon. That’s our only concern at this point. He’s been stable since the operation. He’s out of the woods. Once he wakes, we’ll evaluate his physical responses and whether he’s able to speak," you said, then looked over at the rest of the Todoroki family.

"From there, he’ll be transferred to the rehabilitation center listed in the original paperwork you included in his action plan. They’ll be responsible for providing whatever therapy Touya needs whether it’s physical, occupational, mental health support, or anything else required to help him adjust back into society." You softly say before looking through your paperwork. 

“Before we end this meeting, I’ll need Endeavor’s permission to disclose the next piece of information,” you say, sliding a folder across the table. “Due to the presence of two civilians and a pro hero not directly involved in the case, I was instructed to obtain written approval before proceeding. This request comes directly from the HPSC.”

You open the folder, revealing two documents. One for Shouto, the other for Rei and Fuyumi.

“What is this about?” Shouto asks, narrowing his eyes.

“It’s related to a classified mission. Everyone involved was required to sign NDAs because of the nature of the case,” you reply, keeping your gaze firmly on Enji.

“Which case?” Enji asks slowly, eyes flicking toward the papers. You can see it in his posture. The slight tension, the shift in his shoulders. He already knows. The name is probably burning on the tip of his tongue.

“The orphanage case,” you say, your voice calm. “The one involving Dr. Garaki.”

Enji’s hands curl into fists, jaw clenched. He lowers his eyes to the documents, scanning the details. You can tell he’s hesitating. He is debating whether or not to let his family hear even a fraction of what happened during that mission.

“It’ll be surface-level only,” you assure him. “No in-depth information. That’s all the HPSC permits.”

You pause, giving him time to think. “After this, you’re welcome to request a private briefing for more details. If you choose to share it with your family, that’ll be up to you.”

He simply picked up the pen. His hand hovered for a moment, frozen mid-air, before he finally signed the documents.

You moved wordlessly, pulling out two photographs. One of Seishiro as a child when he was first taken from the orphanage, and the other a recent image of him now. You slid them across the table toward Enji, who was seated closest.

His eyes widened, but you didn’t pause.

“This case was unique,” you began, turning your attention to the others, who were clearly confused. “Dr. Garaki was attempting to create artificial children, clones , using the DNA of heroes and villains alike. The purpose was to raise them as soldier-weapons. Designed to look like someone familiar, someone recognizable, even loved. The moral dilemma that causes is intentional.”

The photo made its way down the table. Fuyumi’s breath hitched.

“Years before the war, Dr. Garaki somehow obtained Mr. Todoroki’s blood. That’s how this boy who goes by Seishiro was made. Biologically, he’s a clone of your eldest son. He didn’t inherit his fire, but instead a warped version of his mother’s quirk. On top of that, he was given an additional one. His body and abilities were genetically modified to fit Garaki’s ideal creation.”

You pulled out more photographs. Milestone images from over the years and placed them gently on the table.

“Who raised him?” Enji asked, voice low and tight. “Why wasn’t I told about this sooner?”

You didn’t flinch at his stare. Your voice remained steady.

“I did. I’ve been raising him. I am technically speaking, his mother. As much as Seishiro looks like Mr. Todoroki, he is also mine. His DNA is a combination of ours.”

Enji’s face tensed, eyes narrowing as that answer hit him like a punch to the gut. You noticed his jaw clench, the flicker of something dangerous behind his eyes—but you didn’t waver.

“The reason you were never notified,” you explained, “is because Mr. Todoroki’s blood was never registered in the updated national hospital database until recently. Once it was entered and cross-matched, the alert was sent to the HPSC, and then to me. Since Mr. Todoroki is currently unconscious, I’m required to inform his next of kin.”

Your gaze met Enji’s, unwavering. “That’s you, Endeavor.”

The silence was thick. until Rei’s soft voice cut through it like a blade.

“Would you have ever told us, if you weren’t required to?”

"No," you answered without hesitation, voice firm but not unkind. "That choice belongs to my son. If he ever wanted to find you, I’d never stand in his way. But I wouldn’t have come to you, not unless I was required to."

That truth hung in the air, heavier than everything before it.

Fuyumi’s voice came next, barely above a whisper. “How old is he?”

You met her eyes gently. “He’s twelve.”

You stood then, calmly smoothing down your white coat.

“I’m required to offer you the opportunity to meet him. But for now, I’ll give you time to process this. Talk amongst yourselves, decide what you want to do moving forward.”

You turned toward the door.

“I’ll be back in ten minutes.”

And with that, you stepped out, leaving behind the heavy silence and whirlwind of emotions that clung to the room like smoke.

Out in the hallway, you exhaled low and shaky. The door shut quietly behind you, but the weight of Enji’s stare lingered like a hand around your neck. Cold. Unreadable. There had been something behind his eyes just before it vanished. Something dangerous.

You didn’t like it.

Not one bit.

So you stood there for a moment, grounding yourself. One breath in. One out. You weren’t just protecting your son from the world. You were protecting him from them . 

Especially when Touya made it clear. Years ago, when you were pregnant with Renji, he didn't want any of his family members, especially Enji, to ever know about Renji's existence unless you had no other choice.

You're trying your best to respect his wishes. Seishiro’s existence had been completely out of your hands. But Renji isn’t. You have control over that, at the very least.

Seishiro knew about them long before you were ever required to say anything, because when he was younger, he wanted to know who his father was. He started asking questions after seeing other kids at school getting picked up by their dads…

and realizing he didn’t have one.

You were honest with him.

Both Seishiro and Renji share the same father, which is why the two look so much alike. Despite being created under completely different circumstances, you constantly remind Seishiro that he will always be your child and that you will always love him, no matter what.

At the very least, Seishiro can defend himself if something were to happen, especially if it involved Enji Todoroki. He has decent control over his quirk now, but he still wears the quirk-nullifying jewel bracelets. The same ones you took him to get, because you wanted that choice to be his, not anyone else's.

The reason is simple: his quirk activates when his emotions get too strong. And it’s hard to control when he is overwhelmed by emotion.

You’ve lost count of how many times kids tried to pick on him, assuming he was quirkless. He doesn’t brag about his quirk or show it off like some of his classmates. But the moment someone messes with a friend, especially the one who is quirkless. He’ll step in without hesitation.

He used to argue, sometimes even fight, just to pull their attention away. Now, he’s perfected a glare that reminds you far too much of Touya. A look that says fuck off without needing a single word. And surprisingly, it’s been working. He hasn’t gotten into a single fight this year.

He can take care of himself now. And if things ever escalate, he knows how to use his quirk to escape the situation instead, with a trick you taught him from your own experience handling loud, reckless patients. It’s about buying time to get away and call for help.

Unlike Renji, who’s still too young.

Renji’s quirk is already a ticking time bomb. None of the quirk analyses you've run have been able to predict it. Because it doesn’t exist yet.

That alone deeply concerns you. Especially now, with his white hair slowly turning a bright red. Probably an indicator of fire, inherited from the Todoroki bloodline.

You worry because Touya’s body couldn’t handle his own flames when he was younger. His quirk hurt him.

The closer Renji’s birthday gets, the more on edge everyone in your family becomes. They’re all keeping a close eye on him, including Seishiro.

None of your family members have fire quirks, which is why there’s more than one fire extinguisher in different parts of the house.

It gives you anxiety.

You’ve seen the cases of how many children are hurt by their own quirks. And with the growing theory that quirks only get stronger as generations pass…

It doesn’t help Renji’s case, either. Not with Touya’s flames already stronger than his father’s. Not with your own quirk being a mutation between your mother’s and father’s.

The possibilities are endless, and you have to stop yourself from researching more.

Because if you don’t, you know it’ll only feed your anxiety even more. Bonus Scene: Seishiro had left his mother's office and headed down to the flower shop on the bottom floor, wearing only his face mask to avoid drawing attention from the heroes patrolling the halls. Otherwise, he'd end up looking like a sick patient.

He noticed that some of the heroes looked completely bored out of their minds.

The hospital staff greeted him left and right. Many of them recognized him, as you often took him with you to work until he was cleared by the HPSC to be enrolled in school. Despite the face mask, they recognized him easily. He wasn’t really trying to hide his identity.

"Oh my! Is that you, Little (Y/L/N)?" The elderly woman who ran the flower shop beamed at the sight of him. It had been a couple of years since she'd seen him. He removed his face mask as she requested to let her see his face.

"What can I help you with, sweetheart?" The woman’s smile was so warm that he couldn’t help but return a nervous smile.

She used to give him lollipops and candies whenever he came in with you, trying to make him smile. Back then, he didn’t even know how to smile.

"Something nice. I barely know anything about flowers. Just trying to make a good impression," Seishiro muttered, nervously scratching his arm.

"Oh! What's the occasion?"

"Meeting my father's family," Seishiro said, unsure how much to share. He doubted the elderly woman would gossip, though.

"You don’t sound too excited to meet them."

"I’m not. I’d rather be at school, writing essays all day, than meeting them," Seishiro complained, leaning on the small desk while watching her gather flowers. His comment made her laugh.

"Hopefully, it’s not too bad," she said, continuing to arrange the bouquet.

Seishiro huffed but said nothing. He rested his head on his palm, watching her before glancing at the heroes walking in.

"Are you being good to your mom?"

"Yes… I try to be," Seishiro muttered, knowing he could be a handful at times.

Most of the time, you were always on his side. The number of times you had to come to school for meetings about the fights he got into was endless.

You always wanted to hear his side of the story before hearing the administration's version. You believed in his honesty, and he couldn’t lie to you because he couldn’t bear the thought of disappointing you.

The one time he did lie and got caught, the look of disappointment on your face haunted him. It only happened once, and that was enough for him. When he joined in bullying a quirkless person, he was trying to fit in. 

But after that, he withdrew from that friend group. They weren’t the kind of people he wanted to be around, and you clearly disapproved when you found out.

You were disappointed and gave him a long lecture. He lost his electronics and television privileges for 3 months.

You made him learn about the discrimination faced by quirkless people the old-fashioned way by reading books at the library with his grandmother, who agreed with the punishment.

That lesson made him realize how difficult life was for quirkless people in a society full of quirks. He voluntarily apologized to the quirkless kid, who was shocked to even receive an apology.

Seishiro would rather be an outcast than part of a group that bullied others. He remained an outcast for the rest of elementary school but somehow became friends with that same quirkless kid.

He refused to be peer-pressured into picking on someone who was quirkless, especially after everything he had learned. He was the only one who spoke out against bullying, which made him a target of the same friend group. He doesn't even know what gave them the idea that he is quirkless.

He was proud of the fact that he had beaten them up without a quirk. He even told his quirk trainer about it and received a high-five for his effort. Not many people could fight without their quirks, especially at his age.

He was snapped back to reality when his mind drifted elsewhere.

"As long as you're trying to get better, that's what matters. You're still young. You'll make mistakes. Everyone does, even grown-ups. The important thing is learning from them," the elderly woman said as she handed him a beautiful bouquet.

Seishiro was about to reach for his wallet to pay, but the woman shook her head.

"It's in the house. Save your money and buy some of your favorite candy with it. I wish you luck with that meeting, Little (L/N)," she said with a smile, which made him smile in return.

"Thank you, Miss Lily," Seishiro said, before covering his face again.

________________________ Anyway... what do you guys think of Seishiro so far? 👀 Does the apple fall far from the tree (Touya)? Next Chapter 7

[ostensiblynone]

A Noel Gallagher interview with Weller circa 1999

The Observer Magazine | October 1999

Sex, drugs, rock'n'roll…

Both spokesmen for their respective generations, it's perhaps unsurprising that the men behind The Jam and Oasis became friends. Here, they talk frankly together for the first time about music, the daughter Paul Weller has never mentioned in print before, Noel Gallagher's fears about fatherhood… and Liam's behaviour at the birth of his son

On a warm autumn afternoon, in a secluded rehearsal studio, Noel Gallagher, rock star and dad-to-be, is telling Paul Weller and The Observer about the exact point he decided that the party was over.

'It was about a year and a half ago, right?' he says, dragging on a Benson & Hedges. 'And I just said: "That's it, man, the bar's closed." The house in London was like a nightclub. I'd be coming back off tour, and people would go: "Your house is lovely." And I'd be like (irate): "Who the fuck are you?" '

Weller laughs and says to me: 'He's left me outside before, shouting through the letterbox. I wasn't allowed to come in. I was on the D-list.'

Noel ignores him. 'There comes a point when you just can't do it any more,' he says. 'You can't go to any more parties, you can't drink any more drinks, you can't do any more drugs. There comes a point when you've just got to go, "All this has got to change." I've seen it all before, man, you know what I mean?' He turns to Weller for moral support. 'It's kind of like the first time you have sex, isn't it? Every time after that you've done it before, haven't you?'

'Oh, I don't know,' says Weller drily. 'Some of us get better after the first time, Noel.'

We're in the mixing room of Huckenden Farm, near High Wickham, where Oasis (or rather, what's left of Oasis after the recent departure of guitarist Paul 'Bonehead' Arthur and bassist Paul 'Guigs' McGuigan) are set to rehearse for the foreseeable future. Weller (it's always 'Weller') is a suave vision in sheepskin, while Noel (it's always 'Noel') sits slouched forward in his chair, with his anorak zipped up almost to his nose.

At times, watching them banter together, punting for punch lines, they seem less like a British rock-music dream team (trad division), and more like Brit-rock's George and Mildred, only with added swearing and drugs. According to legend, the first thing that Noel Gallagher ever said to Paul Weller was: 'Piss off!'

'That's right, isn't it, Paul?' says Noel, pulling up a swivel chair and lounging on it. 'You were helping yourself to our rider at Glastonbury, and I wasn't having any of it.'

Weller can't remember much about it.

'I was drunk.' Nor does the 41-year-old 'Modfather of the Rock Aristocracy' seem especially keen to analyse why it is that he and the 32-year-old 'Saviour of British Guitar Music' have turned out to be such good mates. 'You just click with certain people, don't you?' says Weller gruffly, sticking his hands yet deeper into his jacket pockets. He's smiling, though.

Indeed, the only time that the notoriously touchy Weller gets remotely stroppy is when I refer to the photograph of him, Noel and Paul McCartney, taken at the time they recorded 'Come Together' for the Bosnian War Child project. It was then that the derogatory term 'Dad-rock' was coined, and it has stuck ever since. In some people's eyes, Weller and Gallagher being friends was suspicious enough. When their mutual hero, McCartney, came into the frame, it was as if Sixties elitism was taking over.

'It wasn't like we were jerking off,' sighs Weller, exasperated. 'We were doing something for a specific reason. And with it being three generations of people and all that, I thought it was pretty cool.' Noel nods his head in agreement.

Where their backgrounds are concerned, Noel and Weller have a lot in common. Both were small-town boys with the sort of big dreams that their respective localities, Manchester and Woking (to which Weller eventually returned), couldn't begin to accommodate. 'Wanting more, being dissatisfied with your lot, that's where the push comes from,' says Weller. 'It's not just an artistic trait, it's down to individuals striving to be something else.'

'Exactly,' says Noel. 'Even if I wasn't in a band, if I was a milkman, I'd still be saving up to travel the world. Just getting pissed down the pub would never be enough for me.'

Noel and Weller also have something in common politically, in that they've both been in bed with the Labour part - Weller on behalf of the doomed Red Wedge movement in the Eighties.

'Once I met the people involved, I thought, "Get me out of here." Forget show business, these people had egos the size of that barn.'

Noel, even more famously, went to Number 10 for a drinks party that he's never been able to live down since. 'I was just carried away by my own self-importance', he admits. 'I just thought: "Fuck me, if the prime minister wants to see me, I must be a right geezer!" '

Both men lived to regret their involvement. 'Nothing really changes, does it?' says Noel. 'Same shit, different day.' Nor is either of them particularly impressed by New Labour notions of self-improvement.

'They think that working-class people want to be middle class, but they don't,' says Weller. 'Wanting some bucks and a nice house isn't wanting to be middle class.'

'Yeah,' scoffs Noel. 'What was it: "We're all middle class now." I find that really insulting. Being middle class is just one step closer to topping yourself, if you ask me. It's just the most boring thing I could ever imagine.'

I ask Weller if, over the course of their friendship, there were any preconceptions about Noel that he'd found to be untrue.

'No,' he says grimly. 'It's all true.' As it happens, Weller was impressed by Oasis from the start. 'They really kicked the Nineties up the arse. They were the band everybody needed to hear.'

For his part, Noel was a little young to be a hardcore fan at The Jam's peak. 'But, in my weight division, I was probably the biggest Jam fan for miles around. When I first saw Paul on telly, on Top Of The Pops, with The Jam, I didn't give a fuck where he came from, or what his politics were. His records blew my head off, and that was it.'

The fact that, all these years later, The Jam continue to 'blow people's heads off' is the main reason we're talking today. This week sees the release of Fire & Skill, a tribute album of Jam covers. The first single from it, 'Carnation', by Liam Gallagher and Ocean Colour Scene's Steve Cradock, went straight to number six in the charts. And simply because it is The Jam, Fire & Skill looks destined to do much better business than the standard tribute album.

Indeed, in terms of the respect and affection people still have for them, it wouldn't be too outrageous to describe The Jam as the Beatles in parkas. Weller, a living, breathing Quadrophenia movie, was singer, guitarist and songwriter; Bruce Foxton was on bass, and Rick Buckler was on drums. Together, they burnt a target-shaped hole in the nation's consciousness in the late Seventies and early Eighties, with albums such as Setting Sons, All Mod Cons and Sound Affects and singles such as 'Down In The Tube Station At Midnight', 'Eton Rifles' and 'Tales From The Riverbank'.

Blooded in working mens' clubs, and devoted to sharp tailoring, Weller and The Jam kept their mod ethos, even as they embraced the 'no star' ideals of punk. 'We used to stay for hours after gigs just talking to fans,' recalls Weller. 'Our relationship with them was one of the really special things about The Jam. We kept to the punk rules more than the punks did.'

During this time, Weller saw The Sex Pistols play at the 100 Club, which, in modern rock terms, is a bit like being in the stable when Jesus was born. Even now, Weller still retains a strong affection for the punk era, while having no time whatsoever for those bands who've seen fit to regroup over the years. 'People go on about the Chinese population boom,' he grumbles. 'But there must be more reformed bands around than Chinese people. Soon, there won't be enough electricity to go round, because they'll all be plugging their amps in.'

Should bands be caretakers of their own legends, Noel?

'I'll tell you in about 20 years.'

Weller split The Jam in 1982. 'The best thing I could have done,' he says. 'You wouldn't want to see me jumping about in The Jam in 1999, would you?' Maybe not, but many people find it odd that, since the split, Weller has never once spoken to Foxton or Buckler. 'I don't see why it's such a big deal,' he says. 'I never liked them. All this stuff keeps coming out about how they're always trying to make contact, and it gets on my tits. It wasn't like I ever felt any real support from them when I was writing all those songs. Nothing like, "You did a good job there, Paul. Well done!" Well, maybe from Bruce a bit, but with Rick there was nothing. I'm not bitter about it, I just don't care. When we were playing together on stage, it happened, and that's all that ever mattered to me. They were never the first people I'd go for a drink with.'

Foxton and Buckler don't appear on Fire & Skill, but Weller does, on the secret track 'No One In The World', at the end of the CD. 'I just happened to be there when Steve [Cradock] was laying down the vocals,' he shrugs. 'I didn't plan to be on my own tribute album.'

Noel, for his part, chose to record 'To Be Someone', the caustic cautionary tale about the rock star who has it all, blows it, and gets so smashed he can't even remember whether he enjoyed any of it in the first place. Remind anyone of anyone? As it was recorded more than two years ago, Noel is the first to admit that the moral of the lyric was wasted on him at the time, mainly because he was pretty wasted at the time.

'The song definitely means more to me now than it did then,' he says. 'I was living it then - going out, doing loads of drugs, the lot. I made an effort to sound earnest because I was being paid £20,000 for it, but it was quite ironic singing those lyrics because I was bang on it at the time.'

How 'bang on it'?

'Very. The way things were around my place, it was almost like I had no choice. If everyone in your house is doing it, then you're hardly going to sit there with a can of Coke doing nothing. It would be rude not to join in, wouldn't it? Well, that was always my excuse, anyway.'

He grins at Weller, who is laughing and shaking his head mock-despairingly.

How about you during The Jam years? It must have been all speed and glue-sniffing when you were a boy?

'Oh yeah,' says Weller, pulling a silly face. ' "Hey everyone, it's Saturday night, let's splash out on a bit of glue!" Nahhh!' He shrugs. 'We couldn't afford drugs, or find them in Woking. And I probably wouldn't have done them even if we could.' He shakes his head, for real this time. 'You'll never see me waving the flag for drugs, because I've seen the arse-end of them as well. One of my best friends died of an overdose, and I had a really bad acid trip when I was a kid, and all that stuff put me off. I've had a bash obviously, but it hasn't done me any favours. I've never seen drugs as part of my culture really.'

Weller's voice trails away, grows a bit wistful. 'People just want to escape, don't they? Some for a little while, some for ever more.'

For the longest time, Noel Gallagher and drugs were a match made in powdery heaven. 'Being famous is a good laugh when you're on drugs. You meet people and go, "Nah, nah, fucking, nah", and everyone goes, "Wow, hasn't he got loads of charisma.'' And, really, you're just hammered.' Then, relatively recently, Noel started having terrifying panic attacks. 'Anxiety and all that.'

'What's the matter?' says Weller. 'Couldn't you find your gear?'

Exactly how frightening was it, I ask Noel.

He gives me a look. 'It would have to be pretty frightening to make me consider packing it in, wouldn't it?'

What about Liam?

'Oh, he's all right. He's got three years until he's 30. He'll grow up eventually, in the time it takes to get his free bus pass.' Noel feels now that after Oasis played Knebworth in 1996, he probably felt a little aimless. 'Where could anyone go after that?'

What everyone seems agreed on is that, sooner or later, drugs start to affect your songwriting for the worst. All around us, in the studio, there are signs of a band determined to recover their 'natural high', so to speak. Behind Weller, on the mixing desk, sits a Dinky toy Marahishi, surrounded by four dinky toy Beatles. In the main rehearsal room, Oasis have placed pictures of John Lennon among the studio's own vintage Sixties posters. It makes you wonder what the new album (working title: Where Did It All Go Wrong?) is going to sound like. Or rather, it doesn't make you wonder at all (a wee bit Beatlesy is my wild prediction).

The important news is that Noel feels back on track after the over-hyped, under-loved excesses of Be Here Now. And what times they were. The helicopters. The armoured vans. The strong-arming over playlists. The egomania. The tantrums in America. The giant telephone boxes on stage. As Weller puts it: 'All that stuff that happens when a band are left to their own good taste and devices.' For a while back there, Oasis seemed less of a band than a rock-industry version of GoodFellas. Any regrets, Noel?

'Oh yeah, absolutely,' he says. 'More than anything else, I regret not taking enough time over the songs. We've had a year off before doing this album, but we should have taken the year off before Be Here Now. There's probably three decent songs on that album. The rest of it was just winging it.'

Isn't that being a bit hard on yourself?

'No, it isn't,' says a sharp voice. It belongs to Weller. Not for the first time, I notice how, for all that they are mutually respectful, Noel and Weller are also very hard on each other, to the point of being brutal. There are times during the interview when they pace around like two big, proud cats in adjoining cages, pausing occasionally to stick a paw through the bars and take not-so-playful swipes at each other's heads.

Maybe one of the reasons they are such good friends is that they can discuss 'quality control' without resorting to platitudes or sycophancy. It's probably not so much a 'guy thing' as it is a 'success thing'. When you're a 'spokesman for a generation', maybe the only person you can trust to tell you the truth is, well, another 'spokesman for a generation'.

Noel agrees with Weller, anyway.

'I think his exact words at the time of Be Here Now were: "Coasting, you're fucking coasting." And it has to be seen as disappointing when, after eight months of the album being out, you're still signing copies of the other two. Still, to this day, I've only signed about three copies of Be Here Now.'

'In the course of a writer's life, you get these highs and lows,' says Weller.

'Yeah, I know,' smiles Noel. 'And I have to say that the best thing that could ever have happened was that album getting panned. It made me sit up and go, "Hang on, I'm not God's gift to the music business." If that album had sold more than the other two, I don't know what would have happened. I'd probably be sat here now, farting into your tape recorder, going, "Put a breakbeat behind that - it will be number one next week!" '

Oasis's troubles aren't quite over yet. On the plus side, the new album is coming along well, and the famously fiery relationship between the Gallagher brothers seems to be mellowing. 'I'm tired of analysing me and Liam,' says Noel. 'I'm in a band with him, and I'm always going to be in a band with him. Whether it's good or bad, could be better, could be worse, is irrelevant. I'd freak out if he wasn't there. He's the bullshit detector in anything I do.'

However, while they have found the new Bonehead (Gem, formerly of Heavy Stereo), Oasis have yet to find a bass player. 'Every-one wants to be Jimi Hendrix, these days,' moans Noel. 'No one wants to be Bill Wyman. I don't think even Bill Wyman wants to be Bill Wyman.' He has little patience with speculation that the rift was caused by his and Liam's legendary rows.

'I don't really know why they left, because they haven't had the courtesy to ring me and explain, but, you know, all bands row, fall out and walk off tours. Admittedly, not as much or as publicly as we do, but they all do it.'

So, you have no real explanation to give to your fans?

'No', replies Noel. 'And I don't think it's me that owes people the explanation.' He holds his hands up innocently. 'I haven't left the band. I'm still here.'

With everything going a bit Spinal Tap for Oasis, it would be easy to forget that they remain the defining band of their era, with two classic albums, Definitely Maybe and (What's The Story) Morning Glory, and possibly another in the pipeline. Weller, for one, is watching Noel with a look in his eye that suggests that he personally wouldn't want to go through band-hell again.

'No, I wouldn't. It's a young man's game.' Right now, Weller is working on the follow-up to 1997's Heavy Soul. 'I've got to prove myself to myself again.' Before the massive success of Wild Wood and Stanley Road, he had his own 'humbling' period when his post-Jam outfit, The Style Council, had their fifth album rejected by Polydor.

For a long time, Paul Weller was about as fashionable as leg warmers. 'It needed to happen, it brought me down to earth,' he says. 'I hadn't been living life - real life - properly, do you know what I mean? But it was hard, very hard, finding myself at 30, with no job, no contract, my first child, and nothing really to do with the rest of my life.' Weller smiles ruefully. 'It taught me a big lesson, and hopefully one I won't forget. I was lucky that I had my family around to support me.'

The ongoing Paul Weller project has always been something of a family affair. His dad, John, is his manager; his mum, Ann, and sister, Nikki, used to run his fan club. Weller is totally devoted to his family, and they to him. Back in the Jam days, they would think nothing of having the phone disconnected to raise money for equipment.

'I come from a very loving background,' he says. 'But you know what? I'm still as insecure. It's not their fault, it's just the way I am. I don't sit there analysing it. I just accept that that's the way it is.'

Noel is looking on enviously. 'My background wasn't like that,' he quips. 'Mine was like the Clampetts.'

That's putting it mildly. Gallagher Senior was, by all accounts, a violent, uncaring drunk, which left mum, Peggy, picking up all the pieces. At times, Noel goes to great pains to be gleefully, provocatively sexist. 'Call me old-fashioned, but, you know, women - fuck 'em!' However, the fact remains that, at the height of his fame, the Mancunian groupie magnet jumped into a serious relationship with Meg Matthews. As did Liam with Patsy Kensit. 'I like things to be stable,' says Noel. 'I'm not into chaos.'

Later he says: 'Childhood stuff isn't everything, is it? There's all that stuff that happens between 17 and 20 that shapes your outlook on life. Like when you first meet women, or hang out with a gang of friends. It's how you think about yourself, too. Lying down and having a think before you go to sleep, and realising that you might smoke a bit of spliff, and you might rob a few car stereos, but you're not this major criminal they would have you believe on News At Ten. You're not a bad person deep down inside, know what I mean?'

'I don't think that childhood always decrees how a person is going to turn out,' agrees Weller. 'Love always makes a difference whatever your age, but if you look at our backgrounds and look at us, I'd say that, if anything, Noel was more confident than me, and no less the loving person for it, if you don't mind me saying so, Noel?'

'I don't mind you saying so, Paul. I agree, I agree!' splutters Noel.

For a comical, and rather touching moment, the two men stare at each other in speechless, giggling astonishment, as if to say: 'What's going on - are we bonding?'

Seriously, Noel, are you haunted by any of it?

'Not at all.'

You'll be a father yourself soon, are you looking forward to that?

'Oh yeah,' he says. 'I can't wait to knock the fuck out of my kids.'

A second later, Noel is crouching with his mouth a millimetre away from the tape recorder: 'Can I just say that I was joking when I said that.'

'Having a shit childhood and stuff,' he says wearily, dragging hard on yet another Bensons & Hedges, 'it can't help but shape your outlook on life, but it should never shape your actions towards other people. I would say that having all that happen is why I'm strong, why I'll always be one of those people for whom the glass is always half full as opposed to half empty.'

Does it make you happy being able to make things easier for your mum?

'Oh yeah,' he says, brightening. 'Because that means that Mum looking after us had some meaning. We can give a little bit back to her. And having kids is part of that, because she's always wanted to be a grandmother. It's not like they're presents for me mum, but it's another meaning of life for her, and another meaning of life for me.'

Noel pauses. 'And just because I got knocked about by my old man, it doesn't mean to say that I would ever knock about my own kids.' His mouth sets in a determined line. 'Because I never ever would.'

Weller has two children, Nat and Leah, with his ex-partner and Style Council bandmate, Dee C Lee. Does he have any wisdom to impart to Noel and Meg about their impending parenthood? 'Yeah,' laughs Weller, slapping Noel on the shoulder. 'Good luck, my son, you're going to need it.'

'I'm shitting myself,' says Noel in a whisper. 'I don't actually know what I'm going to do. I haven't got the faintest idea, me. I'm just trying to book gigs as close as I can to the dates, and make sure that it's speaking by the time I get back.'

Are you going to be there for the birth?' asks Weller.

'I don't really want to be,' says Noel.

'Why not?' says Weller. 'Aren't you on the guest list?'

They both laugh, Noel, slightly hysterically. He saw his nephew, Lennon, at the weekend. 'They don't do much, do they?' he says, as if he'd seriously been expecting to play pool with a newborn baby. 'I'm waiting for mine to get born, obviously, but then I'll be waiting for them to get a personality, because then you can have a laugh with them.'

'There's not much you can do in the first bit,' says Weller (completely incorrectly, I might add). 'You feel a bit useless, but once they're up and walking, it's a whole different world. You can't imagine life without them. It changes everything, but in a good way.'

You've got a son and daughter, haven't you, Paul?

'Two daughters,' he says emphatically.

He even, very briefly, holds up two fingers.

'Two daughters.'

At the time, I was confused. I had seen a photograph in a magazine of Weller bombing along on a moped with Nat and Leah, and I could have sworn that they were a boy and girl. But it seemed that they weren't - they were two girls. The moment passed, and I forgot about it. Then, a couple of days after the interview, Weller's publicist rings. Paul Weller wanted me to know that, actually, he had a son and two daughters.

The second little girl was from a brief relationship after his marriage to Lee had failed. Weller hadn't mentioned this in print before, simply because he didn't feel that it was anybody else's business. However, he'd realised that I'd got the wrong end of the stick, and hadn't felt comfortable. He didn't want his second daughter growing up thinking that he'd tried to hide her away, like some dirty secret.

Oh, I said, nonplussed, did he want to talk about it? No, said the publicist. She really couldn't see that happening. Weller had just wanted to set the record straight, do the right thing that was all.

I remember all this as I'm wandering around the bustling, chaotic launch for Fire & Skill at the Hackney Gallery. I'd parted company with Noel and Weller at Huckenden Farm with an abiding, slightly surreal memory of two of Britain's biggest rock stars executing a dual impersonation of yet another rock star - Liam Gallagher - at the scene of childbirth.

'Can you imagine?' Noel had said. 'Him with a big green mask on, going, "Come on, you fucker, come on!" And: "Is that gas you've got there, mate? Give us some of that." '

'Yeah, and having a go at the doctors,' says Weller. '"Keep your hands off my missus!"'

They laugh and settle back into their chairs. A few more cigarettes lit, a bit more coffee drunk, a few more jokes told, and then that's it, they're gone.

I see Noel again at the Hackney Gallery. Outside, a fleet of specially customised minis with targets on the bonnets are running their batteries down, keeping their lights on in the drizzle. Inside, I see Liam Gallagher leaning against the doorway of the main party room. He's on typically cryptic form.

'I love Paul Weller,' he tells me. 'But I was too young to be really into The Jam. I preferred The Beatles.'

I'm still trying to work that one out when I see Noel chatting to friends at the bar. His glass is half full, as always. I remember what he said at the interview about his current definition of success: 'I could track my life in the records I've made - the first one was young and eager, the second one was a consolidation of those achievements, and the third one was fat and drunk. For the fourth, I want success on my own terms - which is just to be a decent songwriter in a good band.'

Paul Weller isn't at the party, of course. 'He wouldn't come to this sort of thing,' says a close friend of his. 'It isn't his style at all.' And I realise that he's right. Paul Weller is probably sat at home, shunning the showbiz treadmill. Doing the right thing.

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

bonus: [the Paul Weller Fan Podcast: an interview with Julian Broad, where: We also talked about an Observer Magazine shoot from 1999 with Noel Gallagher, and how their mutual admiration made for some great imagery.]

[amythestalithia]

Adding Myths to my Athenide AU for the Lols

....................

🌿 Leontiskos of Mycenae (original character inspired by mythic types)

Claim to fame: Famed boar hunter and shield-bearer of King Eurystheus. He was known for slaying men as easily as beasts and for loudly boasting about his conquests—especially of women.

The Myth:

Leontiskos once saw Perselena at a battlefield shrine, resplendent in blood and bronze. He was struck dumb with desire—but instead of honoring her, he bragged to his fellow warriors that he would "tame the sea’s daughter" and "wrestle the war-maid into his bed like any Amazon."

When Ares heard what he'd said, he didn’t challenge Leontiskos to a duel. He didn’t even appear.

Instead, when Leontiskos returned to the field, he collapsed mid-battle, vines bursting from his mouth and wrapping his limbs. Before his comrades could help, he had turned into a crimson-flowered vine, thorned and spiraling around his broken spear.

The vine is now known as Clematis texensis, Scarlet Leather Flower

Addition to the Lore:

A whisper myth at Camp Half-Blood .

Ares casually says, “Leontiskos? Oh yeah, turned him into a plant. Guy called my wife a ‘sea nymph with a sword kink.’”

Older demigods might avoid stepping on certain vines for fear of bad luck

Younger campers say, “Is that what happened to Leontiskos? Or was it Aphrodite who got him?”

Perselena never even noticed him

Romans believe stepping on it dooms your next campaign.

Greeks say it whispers in the night if Perselena is near.

Camp Half-Blood’s infirmary uses its petals as a salve only when Ares’s children are bleeding.

...................

The Pact of the River Blades

Setting: During the reign of Tullus Hostilius, when Rome wars with Alba Longa.

A Roman commander and an Alban commander, both on the brink of battle, meet in secret to avoid mass bloodshed. They ask the gods for a sign to seal a one-on-one duel to decide the war. As they wait by the Tiber, a silver spear rises from the water, with red thread tied to its shaft.An old woman — hair braided like a soldier, skin like sun-scarred bronze — appears and offers each man a dagger. “Swear loyalty to your word — or your cities shall drown in it.”

The commanders accept. The duel takes place. Rome wins — but honors the fallen Alban hero with a tomb blessed by Fides, goddess of loyalty and heroes.

Addition to the lore:

Gods and Romans swear on Perselena or Fides during oaths, to stay loyal to them.

.............

[alexanderwales]

The Index

This is an index of things I've written and posted online, with minimal descriptions because most of them have blurbs if you click the link. This list is not exhaustive, especially because there are a bunch of short stories and dribbles in various places. If something you liked is missing, let me know.

Web Serials

Worth the Candle - Juniper Smith is a teenaged Dungeon Master who ends up in a world filled with all the things he dreamt up for his campaigns, along with signs of his friend who died months earlier. This Used to be About Dungeons - Five teenagers live in a house together, bake bread, tend the garden, and occasionally fight monsters in dungeons. Thresholder - Thresholders travel from world to world, fantasy one minute and scifi the next, always encountering an opponent, growing stronger as they battle. Shadows of the Limelight - Fame gives you superpowers, and Dominic just saved the world's greatest hero from defeat in full view of a large audience. Glimwarden (unfinished) - A small town huddles around lanterns that keep the darklings at bay. Four teenagers must grow in power as the darkness encroaches. The Dark Wizard of Donkerk (unedited) - Two men steal a baby from an orphanage, then find out he's too cute to sacrifice and raise him as their own.

Fanfic

The Metropolitan Man (Superman) - Lex Luthor attempts to unravel the secrets of the alien. A Common Sense Guide to Doing the Most Good (Superman) - Superman gets really into effective altruism. Instruments of Destruction (Star Wars) - A fable of project management aboard the second Death Star, through the eyes of Admiral Tian Jerjerrod. Branches on the Tree of Time (Terminator) - Sarah Connor is working as a software engineer at UCLA when a naked man shows up on her doorstep. A Bluer Shade of White (Frozen) - Elsa can make life, and Olaf is smarter than he looks.

Shorts

Eager Readers in Your Area - Artificial intelligence has left authors scrambling for readers. Charlotte clicks on an ad. Variations - An orc visits an art exhibition where she feels out of place. Contratto - Julia takes a job as a marketer, working for the vampires to keep their secrets safe. The Randi Prize - James Randi offers a prize for anyone who can demonstrate supernatural abilities. Coming Home - After a long time isekaied to a fantasy kingdom, an errant father has coffee with his estranged son.

I also post short stuff to this very tumblr, which can usually be found under the #microfiction tag unless I forget. Usually this is mirrored on AO3, unless I'm lazy.

Web Comics

Millennial Scarlet - Lamont Pearce is a gig economy demon hunter whose mother ran a government agency meant to defend against Hell. Worth the Candle - A webcomic adaptation of the web serial

Non-Fiction

The AI Art Apocalypse - Slightly outdated thoughts from 2022. Why to Write a Sex Scene - Observations on the narrative purpose of carnal pursuits. Game Review: Underhill - This review contains no screenshots, because this game does not exist. Writing: An FAQ - Accumulated wisdom from 4 million words and counting. Creating Interesting Magic - A much-requested post on making interesting magic systems (and characters, and plots, and worlds). How to Write a Web Serial - It's both easier and harder than you think. The Trouble with Writing Nazis - On giving villains too much credit. Interesting Things to do with Time Loops - Exploring the boundaries of the conceit.