#even though they’re technically contradictions?

[your-fave-jewish-magical-girl]

It’s kinda funny how the online left community has basically nothing in common besides hating capitalism and having progressive social politics. After that you can’t get leftists to agree on ANYTHING man.

[kimstills]

blame

pairing: aaron hotchner x fem!bau!reader, platonic!spencer x reader summary: in which your close relationship with spencer makes aaron wonder if there’s something going on between you and the young doctor. content warnings: mentions of kidnappings, torture, child abuse (typical cm case stuff), insecurities, age gap, and haley, jealous!aaron (hb is DOWN BAD), he kind of acts like a prick in the middle of this? but it’s v brief and he apologizes!! hints of autistic!spence, angst if u squint but mostly fluff, miscommunication, technically idiots to lovers but hotch is the only idiot <3 word count: 5.1k (this was NOT supposed to be this long omfg) a/n: this was inspired by a dream i had where i was besties w reid and everyone thought i liked him until i had to blurt out that i was into older men… enjoy!!

If looks could kill, Aaron was sure Spencer would be dead by now.

It was contradicting, in a way. How he thought of Spencer like the son that had come before his actual son, yet he was staring at him like a predator stalking their next victim.

You were standing next to the young genius, shoulders brushing against shoulders as you went back and forth with the geographical profile the two of you had been assigned to work on, something Aaron was really regretting having done.

The team had been called in to assist with a case in Portland, Maine, involving an abductor-type unsub. One who would stalk his victims and learn their routines before kidnapping them, torturing them for two to three days before disposing of them in forests and parks all throughout the city.

You and Reid were both tied when it came to your skills with geographical profiles, one of the many things that had blossomed your relationship with him. But with the way the unsub was beginning to rapidly devolve, the rush to develop said profile and figure out his next move had forced Aaron to assign you two together.

Deep down he knew that it had to be done for the sake of the case and all its victims, and that it was the best decision to make as leader of the team.

But, still, he couldn’t help the jealousy that was bubbling from within him, his gaze completely focused on the way you giggled and smiled, endeared, while watching Reid struggle to tape the map one of the sheriffs had supplied you with to a spare whiteboard in the office the team had been given to work in.

He hadn’t even noticed when JJ walked up to him, the blonde hair and white button up she was wearing apparently not enough to break him out of his trance until—

“Hotch.”

Aaron snaps his head towards her, blinking in bewilderment, “Sorry, what?”

JJ stares at him with a look of both concern and amusement, a smile tugging at her lips. Her hand is raised expectantly and her eyes flicker towards the case file in his hands.

He looks down at it, brows furrowing when he finally sees the death grip he was holding the paper with. It’s slightly crumpled from where his thumb had rested, the pages wrinkled.

He clears his throat, trying to soothe out the file as subtly and smoothly as he can before handing it to JJ, “Sorry,” he grumbled.

The blonde chuckles softly, taking it from him and doing her own best to bend it back into place. She begins to flip through the pages, though she can’t help but follow Aaron’s gaze back to you and Spencer.

You had finally gotten up to help him in taping up the map, taking it from his hands and effortlessly doing so before turning around and giving him a cheeky smile.

JJ turns her attention back to him, biting back a smug smile when she sees her boss practically glaring daggers at the two of you, “I assume you’re trying to figure them out, too?” She asks, looking down at the file.

Aaron blinks, this time slowly turning his head to gaze down at her, “What do you mean?”

Her eyes widen at the realization of what she just had insinuated about her co-workers to her boss. She shrugs coolly, trying to play it off, “Nothing. They’re just really close is all,” she gives him a tight-lipped smile before quickly walking away, leaving Aaron more confused than before.

He feels his fingers twitch by his side when he glances back at you. It’s cheesy, the way his heart skips a beat when you tuck the strands of hair that had made itself to the front of your face behind your ears. His hardened features soften at the sight of you laughing at something Reid’s said, something he’s sure only the two of you understand.

Aaron’s not sure what it was that had gotten him to stick out for you like a sore thumb or how his sudden infatuation with watching and admiring you and your every move had happened.

All he could recall was that it happened, and it had happened too fast for him to begin realizing how you had begun to overcome his every thought and consume him with feelings he hadn’t felt since Haley’s passing and his marriage with her.

A part of him had told himself that he wasn’t to blame; not only were you one of the best agents he had ever worked with, but you were the loveliest and wholesome of humans.

You had your rough days, everyone on the team understandably did, yet you never failed to meet people with kindness and patience, something else that Aaron wasn’t used to receiving when it came to his co-workers. And, as much as they loved him and he loved them, even his team members were prone to calling him ‘cold’ and ‘stoic.’

While you, on the other hand would always meet him with fond, bright smiles and greetings, never once avoiding his gaze or running the opposite direction as to ‘not get in his way’ like others did.

You were like the sun peeking out of the clouds after a dark and tremendous storm, shining on him with such warmth.

So, in the end, he couldn’t really help himself from falling for you. Or for even feeling childishly jealous when you were shining your warmth onto others.

Especially with someone who apparently the rest of the team suspected you of dating.

Perhaps he couldn’t blame Spencer for falling for you, too.

Everyone meant well, and Aaron knew he was also victim to cutting him off when the boy rambled, but you were the only one who truly listened to him. Who would interrupt him gently during urgent matters and let him continue after they were solved, and never made him feel inadequate.

He doesn’t know how he hadn’t seen it before now that JJ has mentioned it—too blindsided with his own feelings for you—but he begins to wonder, though, if there actually is something more between the two of you.

He likes to think that he begins playing close attention to your mannerism, body language, and shared interactions the two of you have throughout the entirety of the case because he has to. Now that it's been brought to his attention that two of his subordinates might be in a relationship, it's his job as Unit Chief to keep tabs.

So, he watches, when the whole team is sitting in the rectangular table, debriefing with one another and sharing ideas all whilst munching on take out food.

"So, we obviously know that the significance of the victim's being dumped in nature spots is important to this guy," Morgan explains, motioning his hand around the air as he goes on, "but could it be that he kidnaps and keeps his victims in similar spots, just somewhere more secluded?"

"Spencer and I were thinking that that could be a possibility," you say, stealing a fry off of said boy's take out plate, "Maybe he doesn't live in these same places, but he could be taking them to a hidden spot somewhere in the forests, something possibly hidden by debris, wood, or anything makeshift."

Spencer doesn't even blink as you continue to steal more neglected food off his plate, continuing to sort through pictures. Aaron could see Emily and Derek give each other a knowing, smug look through his peripheral.

He manages to swallow, the tip of his middle finger and thumb tapping against one another, "What else have you two come up with regarding the geographical profile?"

"Well, besides where he himself could be living or where he could keep his victims, the whole profile is scattered," Spencer answers this time, sliding the plate towards you as he sets down a picture of each victim with the name of the forests and parks they were found in written underneath. "The first two victims were dumped in a forest, the third in a park, and the fourth in another forest.."

As he goes on, you take advantage to continue eating, the way in which he had just let you eat off his plate despite his known phobia of germs not going unnoticed by everyone else.

If that one wasn't a sign, Aaron didn't know what else was.

*

With the geographical profile being all over the place, Aaron decides on pulling you away from the task the following day, instead pairing you up with him to check out the crime scene of the most recent victim.

He doesn't know if it's the leader in him doing so, pulling you away from your original project he had tasked you to do, or if it's just the mix of both curiosity and jealousy that continues to gnaw at him.

He was a grown man, for Christ's sake. Yet he couldn't help the way his heart churned when you hold his hand for a second longer than necessary after he helps you climb up the small, but frosty hill.

"Thanks," you mumble sweetly, your shoulders brushing against him as you walk past him and towards the await detectives.

Aaron trails behind you, trying to calm his beating heart as the lead detective on the case walks you both towards the victim's body.

"This is the second victim that's been dumped in a park," you start, squatting down to inspect the cuts and bruises on the woman's face. "These sites are obviously more public than the forests, yet he still leaves them in more secluded spots, away from general view."

"Well, we ruled out that he can't feel any remorse or sympathy," Aaron adds while he looks around the now closed off park. "He holds and tortures these women for hours."

You stand from your spot, placing your hands on your hips as you look around the park. Aaron recognizes the face you make as your 'thinking' face, your eyes squinted and your nose scrunched.

"What is it?" He asks, trying to meet your wandering gaze.

“Reid and I were talking about the possibility of the unsub dumping his victims in the same places where half—if not all—of his childhood abuse took place,” you miss the way his breath hitches in his throat and the way his shoulders sag slightly, continuing. “We know that he has to be a local here from Portland—probably raised around these same areas—and that he was abused severely as a child.”

Aaron tries his best to nod as nonchalantly as possible, “Something from his childhood obviously triggered him for him to start abducting and inflict the same pain on the victims before leaving them in similar places where he could have been left as a child after being abused.”

“Exactly,” you say, crossing your arms over your chest. “We were theorizing around that idea for a while but weren’t too sure if the abuse could play such a huge part on his M.O.”

At the mentions of you and Reid again, Aaron couldn’t help but feel like an idiot.

Not only was he a grown man, but he was also your boss. And you were his subordinate, someone he should never had feelings for in the first place and someone he shouldn’t be feeling possessive over as if anything was to truly ever happen between you.

At first he had thought that Spencer wasn’t to blame for having the same feelings Aaron so strongly harbored for you. But, maybe, you weren’t the one to blame.

For falling for someone more your age, for someone you worked and paired so well with, for someone nobody else made such a grand effort to understand the way you did.

Not only was he a grown man and your boss, but he was also double your age, a single father, and a widower.

Swallowing harshly, he pulls out his phone from his suit’s inner pocket, “I’ll have Garcia check out any reported speculations of childhood abuse in these areas and see if she can narrow down our list,” He turns, using his height to his advantage and speeding off, leaving you completely behind.

You frown, rushing to catch up to him. You halt when you come to the same frosty hill he had helped you climb up and open your mouth to call for his help, but close it back up when you see he’s already made it back to the SUV and is climbing inside.

When you finally climb inside the car after successfully managing to climb down the hill without busting your ass, he’s talking with Garcia.

You wait patiently as he drives, the phone on speaker as he gives out quick orders that your friend rushes to catch up with. You try to take the chance of speaking up once he hangs up with her, but he’s quickly dialing for Rossi afterwards.

You’re quiet throughout the ride back to the precinct, the sudden change in mood too heavy for you to gather the courage to make any sort of conversation. Once parked in front of the building, he gets out right away, slamming the door while you’re barely unblocking your seatbelt.

You make a beeline to the conference room where you find Reid, no longer paying any mind on trying to find Aaron any longer.

Spencer jumps when you hurriedly slam the door behind you, eyes filling with worry when you lean against the wood and stare at the floor pensively, “You okay?” he asks.

“Fine,” you mumble, pushing yourself off the door and taking a seat across from him. “I just got back from the latest crime scene with Hotch and he started acting so weird after I told him about our theory of the unsub’s dumping pattern.”

“Weird how?”

You move to speak, but hesitate when you realize that going into detail about how cold your boss suddenly acted towards you after being used to receiving such kind—some might say preferable—treatment would make your friend speculate things he, of all people, did not need to speculate.

You shake your head, “Nothing. He’s probably just stressed or tired,” you drop your forehead onto the table’s cold wood, your arms stretched out in front of you. “I know I am.”

A beat of silence passes before you hear a creak and the feeling of a finger press against your index. You bite back a laugh, looking up to find Spencer leaning forward in his own seat to do a ‘finger touch,’ something you had come up with for him after realizing how persistent his germophobia was, even with the people he loved the most.

You smile at him, leaning your head on one of your forearms and pressing your finger into his.

From outside the glass-windowed office, Aaron watches you both, a solemn look on his face.

*

The case is finally closed once you and Spencer’s theory is proven right, the unsub securely put away and the green light to go home given at last. But with the late night icy weather too dangerous for the jet to take off, Aaron orders for everyone to instead turn in for the night at the hotel and head out first thing tomorrow morning instead.

He gives a silent thanks to no one in particular when he finds out it's his turn to have a room all for himself, the rotation always being cheated by Dave, Derek, or Emily that he always forgets who's next.

Shockingly enough, he's ready to turn in for the night, not even sparing an extra glance to any of the files he had brought with him as he prepares for bed. He's just about to sit down when a knock comes from behind his door, echoing throughout his room.

He lets out a quiet groan but stands nonetheless, rubbing tiredly at his face before swinging the door open. His first instinct is to snap at whoever's behind, but that's before his eyes cast over you.

You're fiddling with your fingers, dressed in your pajamas that consists of an off-the-shoulder shirt that dips low enough to show off your collarbone and the very top of your chest, your bra strap in the middle.

And, despite the chilly weather outside, you were wearing shorts. A pair of cotton shorts that peek out from underneath the shirt you were wearing and leave little to the imagination—more so, Aaron’s imagination.

Truth be told, he's seen you in a lot less. Your usual team outing outfits consisted of tank tops, baby tees, shorts, and slightly more revealing clothes.

But this, seeing you in what you would normally sleep in, sends him into a completely different spiral.

You cringe and immediately panic at the thought of having woken him up, "Sorry, were you already asleep?" you ask, taking a tentative step back.

Aaron blinks and clears his throat, the pads of his thumb and middle finger once again tapping against one another, "No," He lies. "I was barely getting ready."

Your shoulders drop and the panic dissipates as a small smile replaces it, “Oh, okay,” you bring your hands behind your back, rocking on your heels, “I just wanted to talk to you. If that’s alright?”

Aaron’s brows furrow though he immediately steps to the side to allow you in, a soft ‘of course’ following.

He takes in the way you hesitantly step in, back facing him and arms still intertwined behind your back.

You’re being respectful, probably hoping that you’re not overstepping with whatever it is that you want to talk about. And though you always are, he can’t tell if you’re nervous, worried, or filled with insomnia that you just couldn’t sleep.

“Is everything alright?” He finally asks when you don’t make a move to sit down anywhere, his hands slightly ajar to his side like he’s ready to reach out and touch you.

God, how he wishes he could touch you.

You clear your throat and turn around, “Actually, I was just coming to ask you the same thing,”

The harsh lines on Aaron’s face deepen when you take a seat on the edge of the bed, glancing beside you as a signal for him to join you.

He swallows as he does so, careful not to sit too close and award you space. His eyes flicker back up at you when he hears your breath hitch.

Seconds of silence pass before you shuffle closer to him, bringing your body forward so that you were staring at him directly.

“Are you… feeling okay?”

Aaron freezes, his movements completely stilling at your question. His mind begins to race with all the possibilities of what could have brought on your question when it clicks.

How he had concurred that you and him were completely different and could never be a possibility, and how he immediately decided that acting cold towards you would shun out the feelings he’s felt for so long now.

Another clear of his throat, he replies, “I’m fine.”

You raise a brow at him, giving him a look that shows that you know he’s not telling the truth.

“Are you sure?” you ask again, this time more firmly. “I don’t mean to overstep, but you’ve been acting rather…strange ever since you and I got back from the fifth victim’s crime scene.”

Aaron cringes at how your expression turns into a sad one, quickly masking it with one of concern afterwards.

He sighs. He supposes that if there’s a possibility that you and Spencer are dating, now’s the time to ask you about it.

He makes a show of staring directly at you in the same way he does when he’s in his ‘boss mode,’ trying to study your face before he asks the question, “Is there something I should know about you and Spencer?”

That wasn’t what you were expecting.

You’re taken aback, quite literally flinching as if you had been struck. It takes you a few seconds to take in what he’s just asked you, and you shake your head almost as if it wasn’t real.

“I’m sorry?”

The desperation gnaws at him once more, and he’s not sure which side of him wants to find out the answer.

“Are you and Spencer dating?” he asks again, voice somehow unwaveringly calm as he punctuates each word clearly.

Your mouth opens in shock, letting out a sound that’s half a scoff half a broken laugh. You look around the room in utter bewilderment.

“What correlation does my relationship with Spencer have with what I asked you?” You can’t tell if you’re angry or just confused, but you stand from the bed and stare down at him.

Aaron follows your lead, “I never noticed it before until the rest of the team pointed it out, but you two are close. Close in such a way that—” He swallows, “—as your boss, I have to ask.”

Before the rest of the team pointed it out. Of course.

You fully scoff this time, “As my boss, you should know that Spencer and I have always been close,” you concur.

“Then why can’t you look at me?”

Despite your heart hammering in your chest, you force yourself to look at him, “Excuse me?”

“You’re not looking at me, you’re getting defensive, and you’re practically avoiding the question,” he says, his own gaze practically boring into you.

“Hotch—”

“You’re deflecting by saying that I should know that you two have always been close, and while I do know that, you’re still not answering my question.”

It feels cruel of him to press you for answers like this, knowing that there was an easier way to do it.

“Reid and I are not dating!” you do your best to not shout it at him in fears of waking the rest of the team up, fists balled at your sides.

“Then why are you so nervous?” he asks, taking a step closer to you. “Why can’t you still look at me?”

“Because it’s you that I like!”

You slap your hands over your mouth immediately and the room falls silent.

Aaron blinks. Once, twice, three times.

You liked him?

You lower your hands, nervously brushing your hair behind your ears as you look around the room in a state of panic, “I-I’m just going to go,” you mumble and immediately rush towards the door.

Aaron stands the for a second, too frozen to do or say anything before his own panic settles in brazenly. His body moves before he has time to register what he's doing and what he'll do when he reaches you.

He wraps an arm around your forearm just as you open the door, halting you from stepping outside, "Y/N, wait,"

"Hotch, please," you're quick to try and release yourself from his grasp, yanking your arm towards yourself in what results as a poor attempt. "Just ignore what I said."

"I can't do that," he dips his head to try and get you to look at him but you simply avoid your gaze even more than your originally had, your cheeks flushed.

"Hotch, let me go!" you whisper-shout, once more fighting his grip. “I’m already embarrassed enough, I don’t need you chastising me anymore.”

“I’m not chastising you, Y/N,” Aaron’s sure he sounds as desperate as you probably feel, but he can’t find it in himself to let you go and ruin his one chance of bringing his feelings to the light. Even if it went against everything he had been telling himself earlier that week.

“Do you not think it’s possible for me to feel the same way?”

Your head snaps towards him, your movements suddenly rigid at his question, “W-What?”

You’re sure that, if your heart hadn’t raptured beforehand, it certainly will now.

Aaron takes you letting your guard down as the chance to bring a hand to your waist and pull you back into the room, shutting the door and thanking that nobody else from the team had emerged from the commotion.

“What do you mean by that?” you’re quick to ask, staring up at him with curious, yet hopeful eyes.

He lowers his head as to avoid your gaze this time, letting out a deep breath. Everything he wanted to do now went against everything he had told himself the day before, when he ridiculed himself for ever thinking that you would like someone such as him or that something could ever happen between you two.

“Hotch,” your voice is firm and you allow yourself to take a step closer to him. You need him to look at you, to give you some sort of clue that he didn’t just say what he said to play you, to get you to re-enter the room just so he could profile you even more. “What do you mean by that?”

Repeating your question doesn’t help him and it certainly doesn’t help the way his heart hammers in his chest, a sound so loud that he’s sure you can hear it from how close you’re standing.

“You like me?” you whisper, dipping your head to try and meet his eyes. How ironic that just a couple of seconds ago you were trying to avoid it.

Aaron shrugs, finally looking up, “How could I not?”

His boyish, yet vulnerable expression makes your breath hitch.

“I said that I had to know if there was something between you and Reid as your boss, but it was just because I was jealous,” he shakes his head, trying his best to suppress an all but amused smile. “It was immature of me, really.”

You shake your head, trying to collect both your own thoughts and everything he was telling you. He had been jealous?

“So, is that you acted that way after I told you about our theory in the park?”

The way in which he left you behind in both the park and in the parking lot of the precinct hits him like a brick, cringing at his actions, "I realized then, when you were talking about what you had both come up with, how compatible you two are. How it would make more sense for you to like someone more suited for you. I'm sorry for how I acted,"

Your heart breaks at hearing his confession, of how he, the same man you practically fell head over heels for after your first meeting, could think that he was unworthy of your attention. If you were being honest, you hadn't been hurt by the way he had acted earlier in the day, only confused as to why.

"Hotch--" you stop yourself. You take another step closer, closing the space between the both of you more and more. "Aaron,"

He snaps his head up at your usage of his first name, the way you said it so gently and naturally getting all his attention.

"I've liked you ever since I first met you," you confess. "I'll admit I was too intimidated by you to fully register what I was feeling, but the more I got to know you, the harder I began to fall. And I fell really hard," you let out a laugh, trying to ignore just how much you were putting on the line right now and how self-conscious you felt with his eyes boring into you.

"You've been with the BAU for three years," Aaron's voice is barely above a breathless murmur and he's sure you wouldn't have heard it if you weren't standing so close. "That's how long you've liked me for?"

You nod, lips pursed, "I never said anything because I thought you would never see me that way, let alone reciprocate my feelings. If I'm telling the truth, I wouldn't have said anything if it weren't for you pressing me into telling you that I was dating Reid."

Aaron smirks despite the warmth he feels on his cheeks, shrugging his shoulders and letting out a soft laugh, "Well, then I'm glad I ended up asking. Who knows how many more years we would've gone like this if I hadn't."

You both laugh, subconsciously curling towards each other when you both double over and bring yourselves even closer than before.

You stare up at him with a warm expression before casting your eyes downwards. You lift your hand to linger above his, the pads of your fingers brushing against the hairs on the back of his palm, "So, what happens now?"

Without breaking eye contact, he takes your hand in his while the other reaches for your waist once more. You let out a small yelp when he pulls you even closer, your bodies now touching and radiating the warmth you both thought you’d never be able to feel from one another.

The next few seconds are filled with bliss when he lowers his head to press his lips against yours. You’re immediately weak, letting go off his hand to place both on his shoulders as to support yourself.

The other now free hand of his comes to rest on your other hip, fingers digging into the fabric of your shorts ever so possessively. A whimper escapes from your mouth and Aaron takes the opportunity to deepen the kiss, doing so with so much fervor and passion that it leaves you feeling dizzy even with your eyes closed.

Aaron is relentless even after you pull away to catch your breath, the act of kissing you now something he’s inevitably hooked on. He presses kisses all over your face, from your cheek to your chin to your jaw, then all the way down to your neck.

“You know,” you cough out, flushed from the attention, “I told you how long I’ve liked you, but you didn’t tell me how long you’ve liked me.”

Aaron smiles into your skin, immediately recalling when he first realized his own feelings for you. He lifts his head to press a sweet kiss to your lips, eliciting a hum from you.

“I can tell you all the details over either a nice dinner tomorrow evening after we land,” he says, another kiss to your lips. He turns your bodies around so that his back was to bed, the mattress dipping under his weight when he sits. “Or you can spend the night here and we can stay up all night talking about it.”

His voice is sultry, and the way in which he grabs at your hips to get you to straddle him makes you flush.

“Are you already trying to seduce me?” you ask, mock offense in your tone though you happily take your guided seat on his lap, both knees on each side of his thighs.

Aaron hums this time, brushing your hair back to begin kissing at your neck again, “Can you blame me?”

He already knows your answer, he’s sure. He knows you can’t, because he can’t, either.

[berrybanana-arts]

Billford Reccs (as requested!)

@gratych requested some CONSENSUAL Billford as there is a LOT of noncon and dubcon out there... NOTE- Always check the tags!! These are Billford reccs so abusive/manipulative behaviour tends to be in literally all of these even if only as a 'oh god in hindsight this is sad' way.

RF- Researcher Ford (Pre-betrayal) PB- Post-betrayal W- Weirdmageddon AU- Alternative Universe (e.g. One Of Us)

Just as a note- I'm pretty sure ALL of these are Triangle!Bill.

*SFW*

Starstruck by FireFlerg899- RF Cute and fluffy with a hint of angst and manipulation because it's pre-betrayal. What a contradiction! Stargazing.

Something Said Before- FireFlerg899- RF, PB, W Mentions of torture, goes through all 3 eras echoing the same phrase.

To Destroy, To Remake- FireFlerg899- AU, PB Deliciously dark Ford, tempted by power!

Break and Bind yourself to Me- kingsteeth-RF, PB Poetic and different. I enjoyed this.

Future Talk- anysin, RF Bill talks to Ford about the future and coming to visit him. Light warning for pain/blood/emotional manipulation. Funny Bone - anysin, RF Ticking, fluff

Silent Lies- Perlumi, PB Ford reminisces on the past. Minor self-harm, angst, references to NSFT themes but no actual sex.

Knock on My Door- sugarboat, PB (portal) I LOVE this one. Bill finds and patches up a wounded Ford because only HE is allowed to mess with Sixer. Graphic description of injuries, hurt/comfort, weird fluff.

The Writing of Destiny- Nelja, RF Oof. Love this one- Ford believes everything has led him to Bill. Lovely fic.

Reality is an Illusion- chaseandcatch, RF, PB OOF. Sweet and short. Ford looks back on his first journal entry about Bill with... uh... new information.

I can be cruel to you, my love- orphan_account, RF? PB? Unsure. Prose poem, love this series (Hymns).

thoughts that are above you (i've gotten so good at lying to myself)- orphan_account More prose poetry! forever cursed in love are the observant- orphan_account More sad prose poetry. Bill puts Ford in a time loop until Ford gives him the answer he wants.

*NSFT:*

CLEAR consent-

Ford is super duper into it in all of these! Warning, a LOT of these are pre-betrayal and therefore Ford is technically being duped into thinking Bill is his friend so the consent IS dodgy in that way. Enjoy!

I search myself, I want you to find me- dieslaudata, RF Bill is having some fun with Ford's body while Ford watches. Consensual possession.

Contrast- dieslaudata, RF Choking, in a sexy way rather than a dying/torture way. Love having to clarify that /hj. Consensual possession. Holding Onto Everything- sugarboat, AU, PB AU where Ford accepted Bill's deal many years ago and they are in an established relationship, of sorts. On One Condition- anysin, RF Voice kink, conditioning, coming untouched, etc

Calling You- anysin, RF Ford summons Bill in a more... Unconventional manner.

Up to the Neck- anysin, RF Jealous Bill. Short, but Bill's blustering always amuses me.

Everything Stays- sugarboat, RF "Only one of them sees the inevitable end approaching"- LOVE this caption. PWP, tentacle sex, praise kink.

First- Pengychan, RF Fluffy, awkward, cute!- "Full access to one’s mind comes with a few downsides, like stumbling on private fantasies the All Seeing Eye could have lived without ever having to see. Not that they’re not kind of flattering. And really, there’s a first time for everything."

Count to 100- kikaikitai, RF Ford summons Bill in a more... unconventional manner. Again. This is a running theme in Billford NSFT fics and I love it. Praise kink.

Incubus- kikaikitai, RF Sequel to Count to 100. Ford loses himself in his sexual relationship with Bill. Weird demon sex, consensual possession, worship, etc. This is a fun one. Obviously manipulative fuckery from Bill. Ford is DOWN BAD, though.

Restless Sleep- GoofyGoldenGirl, RF Massage, fluffy NSFT.

Trignometry- wubub redux, RF Alien biology, Bill helps a 'distracted' Ford concentrate. Ford wants to reciprocate.

Territorial- Pengychan, RF Mentions of sex. Bill saves Ford from a creature torturing Ford with cruel words, pretending to be Bill... Yes, the irony is painful.

Vibe for this section- Consensual! But more dubious/dark than the last section.

Ranges from 'Ford is capital M mad at Bill still but also DTF...' to 'hoo boy this is a little dark!' Read at your own risk, you've been warned. Check the tags!

Are you ready to drink or are you waiting to drown?- sugarboat, AU Body horror, tentacle sex High Esteem- anysin, RF Jealous Ford. No sex, just Bill being very manipulative, gaslighting Ford and telling him what he wants to hear.

Blood Offering- nelja, RF No sex, just a ritual involving self-harm and dark thoughts from Ford as he summons Bill after a long absence.

A change of scenery- nelja, RF No sex but there is burglary, tattooing, and suggestive themes.

Golden Nerd Doll- nelja, W No sex but- objectification, possessive behaviour, etc from Bill who lacks any sort of self-reflection abilities...

Ghosts of Love Past- nelja OK, WARNING, this one is kissing, if not straddling, the dubcon line. I'm popping it on the list because 'non-consensual bondage' is literally in canon. TLDR- Bill chains Ford (Weirdmageddon) and pets his hair. Ford has a visceral reaction to this which he hates/loves/hates.

I hope you enjoy the fics! I've been careful not to spoil them too much but do be careful- Billford is always a tricky one, as much as I love it.

-Berry

[xxwelxx]

I tried making my own similarity board for the cosmic opera set coz I noticed stuff (it’s mostly just the antennae)

I’ll try making it more legible under the cut

I’ve seen a few people mention this already, the devil n angel parallels btwn tsukasa n rui, I see it and agree amen

But what I haven’t noticed is the mention of tsukasa’s antennae having the same shape as rui’s cat drones. The feathery looking angle wing antennae can also resemble the wings of a pegasus.

There are stars present on them as well, rui on both, n tsukasa on his right one.

Moving on from them for now, emu’s antennae seem to include everyone. The colors and designs chosen are reminiscent of both tsukasa and rui’s old stage outfits. Her right one looking like rui’s old pink coat with the yellowy goop on it, n her left one having a similar blue color with yellow line accents to tsukasa’s entire old look. The new one kind of matches too, but the blue is darker and the yellow isn’t as stringy throughout.

When it comes to matching with nene, they have the same patterns on their antennae. Right is goopy, left has lines. Emu has 1 goop and 2 lines, while nene has 2 goops and 1 line. Both line designs are done in yellow.

On nene’s shoulder also appears to be an emu alien (the antennae match). Its body has all of WxS signature colors.

Even though tsukasa and rui have stars, they’re still in different colors. Tsukasa’s are white and rui’s are yellow. This also mirrors how emu’s goop is yellow when nene’s are white.

You may have noticed this already, if we flatten down their antennae, nene and rui would have 2 ridges and emu n tsukasa only have one. Oddball 1 2 reference maybe I dunno.

Nene and tsukasa both have a black base color. Nene on her left one, tsukasa on both. Rui and emu both have blue gradients. Emu on her left n rui on both. (Technically the blue on emu is a base color, but it doesn’t show on the card and in the 3d outfit it’s a gradient. There’s a gradient from tsukasa’s hair color to the antennae too so depending on how I classify emu’s situation it would contradict the language I used previously. But maybe, just maybe, no one actually cares that much and we can all move on from this) Tsukasa n rui have these on 2 ears while emu and nene have them on 1.

I think that’s everything! If I notice anything more I’ll mention it later :3

I think it’s very sad we didn’t get a nene in alien form. I know she’s just a two star, but couldn’t they have put her somewhere on emu’s card really far away or something :(( 2 stars are so heartbreaking, esp when their designs are so gorgeous.

[maxdibert]

Hi, regarding your "People who defend James’s stripping Severus in front of the entire school" Post. I am struggling with this from time to time, but I also like to ponder and discuss so:

I really like the fandom version of the Marauders, and I honestly do not really care for Snape because in the fics and art I interact with he is usually not part of. (I also read a lot of Muggle AU etc.. And I think another huge part is that I never really thought about how young he technically still was as a teacher because of Alan Rickman´s age. As a child I simply disliked him and never had an opinion on the Marauders as they appear so little in the movies. I guess it´s hard to move on from that?) What the Marauders did in Canon to Severus, and probably other students, was horrible. I agree. I also think Snape has his faults too, but the abuse against him shouldn´t be excused "because he was mean too". If you abuse and abuser, it´s still abuse.

I guess my question is what´s your opinion on the take to like the fanon version but not the canon version?

"The lengths some people go to twist facts and canon to conveniently excuse their favourite characters’ actions because they can’t accept them as they were is honestly incredible. Or maybe they just need to tell themselves they’re not fans of a couple of rich, abusive bullies because deep down they’d feel terrible about it—who knows."

To take the potential the Marauders have, the idea of a tight friend group in a magical school, explore different family dynamics... I like to play around with that and what was made of it. I think I can do that while acknowledging that what they did in canon was bad. It´s why I struggle with canon compliant stories, like their behaviour sucked. If I only knew the canon version I would not like them because I wouldn´t like "rich, abusive bullies". But changing the characters and their actions is, to me, part of what makes fanfics fun?

And of course I could do the same for Snape. But I didn´t and there is probably a lot to unpack on why I mostly ignore him. But. ultimately, to like him I would have to change him a lot from canon too. What the Marauders did as kids might have actually been worse (?) but how he became later makes me dislike him and for the Marauders we have more freedom to interpret how they turned out as adults. (Even though I just said changing the story is part of fandom and I could just make Snape nice... There are so many contradictions in all my thoughts on this topic)

Okay, this got really long and aybe a bit all over the place. You don´t have to answer this. But if you have any thought´s I´d be interested in hearing them :) This is also my first ever anon ask and I really don´t want to fight on this topic I just have a lot of thoughts.

My problem is precisely that the characters this new generation of the fandom has invented are unbearably boring. A bunch of normie kids who dress like Zendaya and her friends in Euphoria and have average teen drama issues that seem straight out of a cheap Netflix series. I mean, where’s the appeal in that? Where’s the appeal in turning Sirius into a whiny twink who just goes around pining for Remus Lupin—who, by the way, has suddenly become some sort of sassy alpha male—when their canon dynamic is way more interesting? When Sirius in canon is a guy with temper issues who thinks that just because he went to Gryffindor and has the “right ideas,” he’s managed to shake off the stigma of being a Black, yet remains as arrogant and violent as the rest of his family? When he has good intentions but has never really confronted who he is, where he comes from, and how ignoring that won’t make his behavior any less problematic? When he’s willing to do anything for James but simultaneously capable of deliberately ignoring Remus’s well-being? When he’s a rebel but still falls into the same abusive, hegemonic behaviors he was raised in? When it seems like his opposition to his family is a conscious choice, but it’s actually just the result of his mommy issues? He’s an incredibly complex character in canon, full of contradictions, and there’s so much interesting psychological exploration to be done with him. And you’re seriously telling me you prefer an OC with his name invented by the fandom who just cries over his non-canon boyfriend and feels validated because he paints his nails? Seriously???

Are you seriously telling me that James from the fandom—the goofy puppy dog protagonist pulled straight out of every cliché teen movie—is more interesting than canon James Potter, who is blessed with the wonderful depth of class hypocrisy for analysis and exploration? Are you really saying that a flat, soap-opera-level stereotype is better to write or develop than a rich kid who had every reason to be a Cedric Diggory but chose to be a Draco Malfoy? Are you really telling me it’s more interesting to write about the feminist girlboss icon of the 21st century that you’ve turned Lily Evans into rather than a complex, contradictory female character like the one in canon: a girl from a working-class town, spoiled and adored by her parents, who finds herself for the first time in a world that makes her feel even more special but where she doesn’t quite fit because of her background? Someone who, in her effort to fit in and be recognized, creates an image of herself as moralistic and perfect, yet in truth doesn’t stand up for or care about anything unless it directly affects her? The bullies target Mary Macdonald, and she doesn’t lift a finger or say a word until it suits her to end her friendship with Severus. She’s supposedly Severus’s best friend, but at the same time, she downplays the bullying he endures and even flirts with his abuser. She’s supposedly the epitome of morality, yet she marries a bully. Do you know how much room there is to flesh out those gaps? The things that aren’t clear? The sheer depth you can draw from that? And you seriously prefer a character ripped out of a 2012 Taylor Swift song over that? Is that honestly more interesting to you?

Do you really think that the sassy alpha-male version of Remus Lupin, full of quick-witted one-liners, is more compelling than the kid who disapproved of his friends’ actions but stayed silent out of desperation to preserve the safe space they represented for him? Who felt consistently left out of the bond James and Sirius shared? Who, even when what they did seemed utterly immoral, stepped aside because deep down he was so afraid of rejection that it made him a coward and a hypocrite? Who eventually drifted away from his entire group of friends because of his inferiority complex to the point that they even thought he was a traitor? One of his supposed friends nearly used him as a weapon to commit murder, and he forgave him without a word because he knew that standing up to him might mean losing everything. Are you really telling me that the cheap romantic drama version is more interesting than all of that in terms of exploring a character and the dynamics of dysfunctional friendships within that group? Really? Are you seriously saying you’d rather pretend Peter was just “there” than delve into how they treated him like a pet because he went along with all their mischief and they underestimated him so much they never realized they had a sadist among them? You prefer a convenient, nice Peter over a dark, deeply flawed one? Really?

Yes, the dynamic among the Marauders is fascinating, but it’s fascinating because it’s dysfunctional, full of power imbalances, clear differences in the relationships within the group, and a ton of things that don’t make sense unless you provide a coherent and in-depth explanation. It’s in that dysfunction where the intrigue, the plot, and the character exploration lie—not in creating an idyllic, problem-free group of friends whose drama arises from stereotypical romantic relationships. Not in creating OCs with canon names who bear no resemblance to the actual characters and have the depth of a sheet of paper. Sorry, but no.

And sorry, but I’m not buying the argument that the Marauders are “easier to explore” just because Sirius and Remus made it to adulthood, and Thewlis and Oldman were already in their 40s when they played their characters, making them middle-aged like Rickman. And Snape was their same age and spent the same school years with them.

So yeah, it’s fine if you’re not interested in a character, but the excuse is always, “I haven’t seen much of that character to be interested in them.” Well, if you only move in your own echo chamber, and that chamber happens to be full of haters, obviously you’re not going to see much. There’s a huge Snape fandom with tons of headcanons, people constantly creating and writing all kinds of content with all sorts of pairings and perspectives on him—you just have to look for it. I mean, literally, everything we know about the Marauders is because of Snape. Their youth only exists to enrich and explain Snape’s character. If we know anything about Lily and James, it’s because they serve to fill in Snape’s backstory. Otherwise, we would have only had the adult versions Harry imagines or knows (Remus, Sirius, and Peter), and we’d know nothing about what happened before. There is no Marauders fandom without Snape, because the concept of the Marauders as teenagers exists because of and for Snape’s backstory.

So honestly, my problem isn’t with the fandom but with the new fandom and its vision of the characters. Characters that don’t exist because they don’t resemble canon and instead feel like self-inserts with canon names. And I find it a waste because canon is so rich, and its characters are so unexplored, yes, but if explored coherently, they’re far more interesting than if they’re just turned into inconsistent projections.

[play-rough]

Headcanon so specific and yet so likely to be actively contradicted it’s more of a theory waiting to be confirmed or rebuked-

So I’ve yapped in the past about Chuuya and Kunikida’s different caregiving styles, I thought today while I was walking through a field about how they’d transport Dazai around when he’s too small to walk. Chuuya would definitely be happy to just carry him everywhere because that’s where the baby prefers to be, and unless they’re out for hours I don’t see him thinking it’s unreasonable to just carry him everywhere-

But that’s not very practical, so Kunikida wouldn’t do that. His main choice of transportation is a stroller- a forward facing or reversible one (so Dazai can see him at all times 😢) and while Mackerel complains, he doesn’t kick too much of a fuss about it because Kida’s preferred mode of Dazai-transport is a baby sling (supports and holds the thighs up so the feet don’t dangle too far down-) that he bought because he thought it would be an easy solution to the impracticality of carrying Mackerel everywhere- but Dazai hates it because, and this is a hc I hold quite dear to my heart, now that he has older brothers he looks up to- Dazai is very particular about certain things that make him seem ‘Too Little’. From his line of logic, being carried everywhere is fine, but a baby sling is far too babyish. Having a crib is just about acceptable, and sleeping in Kunikida’s room is the goal (he’s so mean for rarely making any exceptions) but having his crib in the same room as his caregiver is outrageous! Only REALLY little babies have their crib in the same room as their caregiver!

And yeah, if you get Dazai while he’s sleepy enough and tiny enough, he’ll actually love the sling, but he’d never let it happen otherwise, so pram he goes.

Christ this is a long one. All that just to say grumpy Dazai in his pushchair.

-🍓

I hope it’s ok if I put these two-in-one because even though Chuuya bought the stroller, he does just prefer to carry babyzai. Stroller was kind of thrown in relatively last minute because I think it would be useful in future fics for other ideas (i have a vision of babyzai at the aquarium getting pushed around) and even though Chuuya technically bought the stroller, I really like and agree with ur message andnskdjdjks I’m so here for Dazai trying to be older now that there’s older kids to play with, he does already associate older littles with being less needy. It’s not that Dazai dislikes these things, but he knows it makes him take up more time and he knows it’s more intense care than the other two receive, makes the poor baby really self conscious

I think because Chuuya knows Dazai on that deep level he knows that baby is just always going to be most comfortable being held, easiest way to keep him happy. They really only do the stroller if they’re going on an all day outing like the aquarium or for a walk in the park maybe. For smaller events, Chuuya will probably just use it as a car seat but leave the stroller folded in the car. Dazai causes the least amount of fuss about just being carried, so that’s usually Chuuya’s go-to.

Kunikida would love the stroller and baby sling (and while Dazai would be fond of neither, I agree he would probably prefer stroller to sling). Kunikida likes keeping the baby close, and having his hands free for whatever he needs. Kuni is usually also watching more than one little, so it’s great for multitasking. While he probably puts up a fuss going in to the sling, Dazai usually settles down in it after a bit. In the baby’s eyes, the stroller probably does seem a bit more independent, and Dazai can snuggle down in his blankie if he needs a break or if the outside world is too stimulating (leading to less trips home early due to overwhelmed babies)

[miss-sweetea-pie]

A zutara rant about Aunt Wu’s prediction.

As a proud Zutarian I personally love the idea about aunt Wu’s prediction that she gave Katara about marrying a powerful bender is actually hinting at Zuko being the guy.

But I did see some antics mention “Zuko isn’t a powerful bender and it’s mentioned a lot that he’s not that good, they didn’t even think he was a fire bender bah bah”

First off that’s very rude!

So let’s over, analyze the fortune teller episode. Looking back on that episode we noticed that Aunt Wu’s predictions are technically accurate, but not always as they seem. this gets confirmed by the end of the episode and how that one man smugly tells Sokka that the prediction, said the village wouldn’t be destroyed and it wasn’t. Or that one guy having a safe trip and almost getting attacked by a platypus Bear but the gang saves him, technically, he still had a safe trip.

So the whole prediction is “ I see great romance for you the man you’re going to marry, he is a very powerful bender.” 

(technically that wasn’t actually the whole prediction, considering A.ang was eavesdropping  and well Kat@ang is all about A.ang and his feelings but I digress)

So the first half I guess is more about your taste in romance. I don’t think or feel like the canon kat@ang is this great epic romantic personality. But hey i’m willing to admit it could just be my taste. However the show does give us an example of a really powerful romances between Oma and Shu. In story lore of a romance that is so great it has been remembered for centuries and has a city named after them and ironically it has the famous enemies to lovers trope. hmm Interesting.

What I can defend though is the part that mentions “the man you will marry is a very powerful bender” you see A.ang it is a very powerful bender and once he is a fully realized avatar, he will probably be considered the most powerful bender. but like I pointed out Aunt Wu’s  predictions have a catch or they’re not always as you expect. And she said, A (not most) very powerful bender that could technically be anyone right? considering there are masters for all the different elements and being considered a master is still very impressive and seen as an accomplishment Even if you are not the avatar. So her future husband could be a possible Master. Adding the fact that most of the masters are old so this person could not even be fully realized yet, Insert Zuko.

So people mention that he isn’t that great of a bender or he’s not that powerful and yes, the show does mention that, but also who tells us that? Oh right. His dad the literal villain. The people that try to put him down tell him that he isn’t good enough. personally, I also think the show try to contradict that by showing us moments. for example in book one he did take down Zhao and showed him mercy. (when I watch the show, I think Zuko is actually holding back a lot of the time because he does have a consciences. his whole arc was kick started by him, having a conscience  and being empathetic so I don’t think it’s crazy to imagine him holding back a little). so when Ozai calls Zuko weak it’s kind of similar to how he calls A.ang weak in the finale. But no one questions A.ang not being a powerful bender. Hmmm weird.

Also, the other reason why I think Zuko being the one in the prediction is just better for the story is because the idea that you can become a powerful bender just feels so satisfying to me. In the show people still need to find masters and grow their skills. we are shown that people get better at things over time if they apply themselves. I think that’s a really good lesson. A similar lesson is already applied with Katara I may add, so it’s pretty fitting in a way.

Also the fact that he learns the true meaning of fire bending adds a nice layer of depth. it isn’t just about the skill of fire bending It’s also about the mindset. It really goes to show how he really has become a better and powerful bender in the end.

[divinemackerel]

As much as I do enjoy the occasional fanfiction where frenrey is sweet and romantic, that dynamic (in my opinion) directly ignores and contradicts the most interesting implications about their characters.

“Gordon” isn’t an AI like the rest of these guys, he is a player, able to warp and change his surroundings in a unique way, yet choosing to play along like he is nothing more than another NPC. He is honestly rather malicious in a sense, seeing as depending on your interpretation of the canon, he could also be a streamer on top of this. (Not Wayne, but like, an abstract sort of “oh he is a streamer playing a game,” another layer to the story but still a layer separate from the truth.)

Meanwhile, Benrey is just a rogue bit of code that went wrong, some equivalent of a virus maybe, which is actively working against the player and seems to have some sort of power over the game.

Their dynamic for the first part of the series until the betrayal is one laced with implicative power dynamics, one where while Benrey can annoy and bother Gordon, he is technically powerless, and there is no real fear for the Player.

After the betrayal though, Gordon’s pain is real, and if I remember correctly, we stop seeing donos pop up too, along with seeing chat. Yes there are like, real reasons to this, but in the context of the story, we stop watching a funny stream and instead get an inside look at a man yanked into a game, trapped in the same world he was playing. And it seems, to me, like the only one capable of doing this would be Benrey. Why would G-Man, for example? He doesn’t even seem fully aware the game isn’t real.

Either way, it is an inverse of their previous dynamic, one where now Gordon, the Player, is helpless while Benrey is almighty, and its one that only kind of continued to mount in tension to the boss fight.

I find that dynamic between them fascinating, much more so than them just getting along and everything being ok. Their relationship to each other is one primarily built off of being prey and predator in a sense, and that is something that causes them to be pulled together, and chafe endlessly.

They’re by definition some kind of toxic yaoi, but in a way that transcends romance.

[mothfables]

Modern Day Chain Work at a Christmas Market

so i work at a seasonal christmas market and had this idea today while we were doing set-up. time to induce my misery (lighthearted) on my favourite characters lmao

under the cut so it doesn’t take up your dash haha

Time is the closest thing they have to a manager. he does not like this. Warriors is a close second

Twilight + Four are in charge of physically setting up the tent/stall

Legend, Wild, and Four are in charge of displays (well, when Four isn’t fed up from setting up the tent)

Wild works in the back/warehouse, Time the register with regular breaks on the floor, Legend on the floor (he refuses to even touch the register), Hyrule the floor, Twilight on the floor and occasionally register, Sky’s the greeter and occasionally works the floor or other things, Warriors is mostly on the register, and Four does a bit of everything. Wind is technically, on paper, on greeter duty (cause, yknow, child labour) but he sticks his nose into everything, much to literally everyone else’s chagrin

Time tends to put Sky on greeter duty because he knows the other man tends to tire easily, but he does surprisingly well at whatever he’s assigned. that being said, whatever he does, he passes out immediately upon getting home

they tried the ‘My Name is Link’ nametag thing exactly once. they lasted two days before everyone was sick of it

Hyrule is still shy + uncomfortable around crowds, despite working there for four years. Time has tried putting him on the floor to try to boost his confidence, but he still escapes to the back at every opportunity

Legend flat-out refuses to work their busiest weekends. he told Time they’d have to drag him kicking and screaming into the store if they absolutely want him there. Time has yet to test this

Time + Twilight are physically intimidating, which tends to be a deterrent for most shoplifters + Karens. when that doesn’t work, though, they have a secret weapon: Hyrule

shy he may be, put him in front of a Karen and you’re in for a show. more than one of them have stopped what they’re doing to watch things go down. Time has berated them for it but they don’t pay him any mind considering he’s guilty of the exact same thing

also, Hyrule has a sixth sense for potential shoplifters, no matter where in the store he is. Four + Legend have been trying to figure it out but after four years they still don’t have an explanation

Time asked Mallon once if she wanted to work at the market with them. she laughed and told him she’d rather stay on the ranch. there are many days where Time regrets not doing the same thing

Wild does not work the floor. he has stated in no uncertain terms that if he’s put out there he will bite someone. to this day Time doesn’t know if he means a customer or one of them

everyone has their own organizational system that directly contradicts everyone else’s. they all hate it

Wind works the least hours out of all of them (considering he’s fourteen). he’s pouted about this many times, but the rest of them agree he should save his back + knees while he still can

Ravio is perfectly happy with his own shop. he does pop in sometimes to say hello, though, and on occasion brings treats for everyone

[o-hora-o]

another question! Do you think anti-entropy still holds a grudge against otto and/or shicksal for what happened in ‘55? I remember tesla blowing up at one of clones and basically talking smack about him to his face, but welt and einstein were able to have a (somewhat) civil conversation with him.

This one is a bit complicated to answer due to the story-plot-holes problem or more like writers' laziness to dive deeper into the history development of these two organisations + me not being alright with how the story was unfolded and then wrapped up in general. But it's a great question to ponder about nonetheless! 

 As Ein once said “I can't erase my memories but I won't blame you for what Otto did”. I think this can suffice as a short answer. 

And now let’s dive into this story of the most contradictive illogical moves I can’t fathom to this day.  

Schicksal and NA branch had had tense relations long before 1955 happened. Technically, Edison’s personal disdain for Schicksal and Yellowstone soulium situation can be considered a starting point of this story. Plus, even though that NA branch had some sort of autonomy, lab 42 was still considered a part of European branch therefore they had to obey HQ. And a defiant group of scientists with different philosophy, life values and belief was something HQ couldn’t allow to freely exist. So, the conflict of sides was unavoidable. Even if 1955 accident had never happened, NA + lab42 would’ve fought for their independence one way or another. What I want to emphasize here is that AE organisation was destined not only to be founded but to be founded on ashes of lives and sacrifices, the core of the organisation was a historic legacy of its own.   

But 1955 did happen and then it was all snowball effect from there. Conflicts, threats, intrusions, more conflicts, rivalry etc. And the thing is that the story plot wouldn’t have gone so smoothly if Schicksal and AE had continued having beef with each other. So, at some point, they had to start cooperate, temporary at first and then on permanent basis.  

Yes, AE and St. Freya were wary of each other at first, Ein was cautious about the information and strategies they shared with Far East branch. But at some point, the story led AE to the dead end where they couldn’t defeat honkai without Kiana being the key part of their world saving plan. And then Kolosten arc came where AE and Schicksal had a whole relationship development story and AE realised that no matter how much it hurt, no matter how huge their grudge was, no matter how unfair the life was, they couldn’t blame Schicksal members for what Otto did and for what Otto made them do.  

What I dislike about it is that AE’s will to work with Schicksal felt too forced and contradictive? As if the story told them to “shut up and get over it” while, be it Ein or Tesla, clearly couldn’t shut up and get over it but were forced to play buddy-buddy with Schicksal nonetheless. Ein definitely held a grudge against Schicksal. But then something contradictive started to happen. She was reluctant to work with Schicksal at first, then she wasn’t, then she was reluctant once again and at some point, it all led to her becoming Theresa’s lapdog, to put it bluntly. And, by playing this right hand man role and speaking in the name of AE, Ein left Tesla no other choice but to suck it up and go with the flow. Which was a low blow since we all saw how emotional and enraged Tesla was in the Kolosten arc (reminder that she wanted to bombard the city) when the story decided to remind them of what Otto did. Still, they were willing to put their bitterness aside and go on a new path together as partners with Schicksal. 

Like, we have Ein and Tesla who kept AE afloat for many years which wasn’t an easy thing to do because 1) AE was an unstable organisation that was on the verge of collapsing many times 2) Joachim was MIA throughout almost the whole story 3) In the end of the day, they’re just two scientists, just a theorist and engineer. Yes, the organisation was more of a burden to them, but it was all they had, it was their legacy, their pride and their fuel to keep going. And then one day Joachim comes back from his MIA status in the story and discards it all by agreeing with the merging plan of two organisations. 

I might be biased but the “there’s no longer a conflict of ideas between us” and “it doesn’t make sense to operate separately” is something I’m not agree with to this day. Because the conflict of ideas is still there. Schicksal and AE do have different ideologies and Coralie and Helia keep proving it in the part 2. These two organisations are still naturally different on a core level. Always were and always will be. AE and Schicksal could continue operate separately and be business partners together as mechas organisation and valkyries organisation. But no. For some reason making Joachim ditch the whole organisation into Theresa’s hands and therefore burdening her with leading two world organisations simultaneously seemed more positive and wholesome to the writers. Moreover, it was done so randomly? Without anyone’s consent in AE on that matter? It’s not only Ein or Tesla who had wary opinions about Schicksal but other AE staff most likely had too. There’re generations of AE members who spent their lives seeing Schicksal as their enemy for many reasons, be it personal or political. And then everyone just went with the flow, agreed with Joachim’s decision and that’s it? I mean yeah sure, he deserved to start his life anew doing whatever he wants. But he was a sovereign after all. So many decades and efforts to make AE an independent strong organisation only to give it all back under Schicksal’s control? Just great. What’s the point of making characters so attached to their organisation only to end it with them being like “yeah, whatever, we can’t care less”. If Joachim wanted so badly to step down from his role, why to not give the sovereign role to Ein and Tesla as they rightfully deserved it? They were brain and hands of the AE organisation the whole time. The merger is even more absurd knowing that they continue operating autonomously and separately. But now being part of Schicksal.  

Which means they came back to where they started and all that history legacy and holding grudges thing goes down the drain in my opinion. 

I still think that AE were made dirty. We still don’t know about AE’s structure, how they let faction split to happen, who’s in control of their military forces now, what about Edison’s companies that were left, why Ada never played some crucial role etc. And on top of that we have this sad story about characters full of bitterness and resentment who never had a chance of being properly written but to be only used as another tool to move the game story.  

[keepmeinmind-01]

rewatched the ministry corridor scene and while it does have its flaws (i.e., what the hell is going on and how come this doesn’t really matter), i really like how they made newt prickly and theseus (awkwardly) affectionate there. I think it’s so interesting. like newt is compassionate and friendly to everyone but a bit standoffish to theseus. theseus is distant from most people and pretty reserved but affectionate towards newt. the contradictions!

like i know i write them with a bagful of problems that complicates this, and this scene was also charged by the credence discussion—but hey, let’s pretend for a moment it’s just set neutrally, and forgive me for writing my own subtext that’s actually not subtext.

I love prickly newt and affectionate theseus.

in short, I like the idea that maybe newt just doesn’t like theseus very much at that point, because i sort of relate to placing distance between myself and other people for no tangible reason. it feels like such a good character flaw. being sweet and compassionate but also just that little bit defensive. and even more interesting for newt’s psychology if it’s not a cut and dry situation and perhaps it’s even a little arbitrary, rather than super deep. like maybe he just doesn’t want to be around theseus, he just wants to leave; it’s not because he has a history where he hates theseus or because he loves leta. it’s just that he doesn’t like theseus in that moment, even though theseus is (according to david heyman, which you’d have to squint to see) finding middle ground. like maybe theseus is doing all the things that are technically right, but newt is just being prickly because at that moment, he /is/ prickly.

I feel like a core thing in their relationship is a certain amount of irrationality because of the distance. like newt pushes theseus away for /some/ reasons but he also doesn’t know why. and theseus keeps persisting in this very limited way with this somewhat one track mind and still doesn’t /quite/ break out of it. maybe they have many other reasons, but when it comes to a quick interaction, this is just “what happens.” perhaps not because theseus has ever been particularly mean, or newt has ever done whatever that equivalent is back, but just because they’re both so unsure with one another.

idk…i wish i could articulate it better, but i really like it, I don’t know why. I feel somewhat represented by the fact that newt at his core is compassionate and gentle, but doesn’t come across as “nice” all the time when he’s uncomfortable or unsure, and perhaps sometimes that’s just how he is. like maybe newt is being a little “mean” to an observer, because he’s not perfect, but theseus keeps pushing on: because in the end being a /little/ prickly and mean sometimes is /okay/. you can be a cinnamon roll-style character and not always extend eternal love and sunshine to everyone all the time, because it’s hard to work like that.

this part is slightly tangential, but, like, i think i am autistic, and sometimes, even though my family are fine, i can’t bear to talk to them, or anyone at all. i like to think newt has days like that, where he’s snippy and a bit unfair/resentful and quietly prickly and desperate to retreat, but we (and all the characters) love him anyway. :,)

[stairset]

Satine says “we are a people of tradition” in season 3, and in this behind the scenes featurette from 2010, when lead designer Kilian Plunkett discusses the design process behind Satine (at the 16: 44 mark), he says that they tried to “make it feel that she was definitely part of this culture”. This proves that Satine hated everything about Mandalorian culture and was ashamed of her Mandalorian heritage and tried to deny it.

Mandalore joined the Republic after Satine become the leader, which is obviously inherently a bad thing because All Government Automatically Bad Always. Despite being loyal to the Republic and its core principles, she was often very vocally critical of them when she disagreed with their decisions, and she chose to stay neutral in the war and was upset at the prospect of a Republic occupation of Mandalore. This proves that she was a total shill and sell-out for the Republic who forced her people to assimilate into Republic culture. (Even though the Republic, not unlike the United Nations in the real world, is a largely symbolic organization that consists of thousands of planets with different cultures and thus there really is no one singular “Republic culture”)

In the aforementioned behind the scenes featurette, (at 7:12) Dave Filoni, Kilian Plunkett and Joel Aron discuss how the shapes in Mandalorian armor inspired the design direction of the New Mandalorians (including Satine herself as previously stated) so as to give them a uniquely Mandalorian aesthetic, from the architecture to the clothing to the artwork to the ship design to the goddamn hair textures. In Rebels, when we meet a prominent warrior clan in the form of Clan Wren, the design of their ancestral home, the artwork on the wall, and the clothing worn by non-warrior Alrich Wren all generally follow similar design cues as the New Mandalorians. These design choices were clearly not done for a reason and this only further proves that Satine stripped Mandalore of their unique identity and Made Them Assimilate Into Republic Culture™. They’re now totally interchangeable with core worlds like Coruscant because Mandalorian culture is WAR KILL DEATH CARNAGE only and none of that other stuff matters. Also, the royal palace has a giant ass mural of Mandalorians fighting Jedi in ancient times right on the front of it for all to see, which clearly shows that she was erasing history and that the New Mandalorians Forgot About Their Roots.

It’s an important plot point in both season 2 and season 5 of The Clone Wars that Death Watch cannot take Mandalore by force because they are too small in numbers and Satine has the will of the people on her side, which is why they have to ally themselves with outside forces (first the Separatists, then Maul and the criminal syndicates) and must come up with super elaborate schemes for the express purpose of painting themselves as heroes and making her look bad, and it is only by doing this that they are able to win the people over to their side, at which point she surrenders the throne. But BEFORE she lost the throne, members of the Protectors, an ancient group of elite warriors dedicated to serving as royal guards to Mandalore’s leader, made up Satine’s royal guard during the Clone Wars, as stated in this Rebels Recon episode (10:30). In Rebels, Fenn Rau, the leader of the aforementioned Protectors, says that many Mandalorians by that time regard Bo-Katan as Mandalore’s rightful ruler in part because of her relation to Satine. Also if we go by the novelization for the Shadow Collective arc in season 5 (said novelization is technically Legends now but it’s one of the few sources in either continuity that gives any specifics on how her rise to power went down and this specific detail has not been contradicted by current canon) it claims that the warriors who supported her rule did so willingly because even they were tired of the constant fighting. All of this clearly demonstrates that Satine did not respect the will of the people at all and did not have the majority on her side for the bulk of her time as ruler and her rule was definitely not recognized as legitimate by anyone.

As also mentioned in the aforementioned Rebels Recon episode, the Protectors who served as Satine’s royal guard wore armor that was essentially just a more ceremonial version of their traditional combat armor, as worn by the aforementioned Fenn Rau. Also, Sundari’s police wear armor too. Also also, Satine’s own former Prime Minister Almec has his own armor that he pulls out during the Siege of Mandalore, and since it doesn’t match the aesthetic of the other Maul loyalists it’s safe to say it’s most likely his family’s armor passed down to him. This clearly proves without a doubt that Satine flat out banned wearing armor even though that’s never stated anywhere, that’s clearly the only logical explanation as to why the average citizens don’t wear it. Certainly not because their society was actually peaceful for about 20 years give or take and they didn’t need it or anything like that.

Satine speaks Mando’a (specifically the Concordian dialect) in the literal first episode she appeared in. Mando’a can also be seen in written form on the police speeders and in the royal academy. This shows us that she suppressed the language, further destroying Mandalorian culture.

The lack of racial diversity on Mandalore in The Clone Wars was definitely NOT an out-of-universe character design problem, but rather an in-universe problem that only applies to Satine and the New Mandalorians specifically (even though their opponents in Death Watch are just as white), as opposed to, say, the True Mandalorians in Legends who are so much more racially diverse. And season 7 definitely did NOT add more New Mandalorians with darker skin-tones as a direct result of the criticisms regarding how white the planet was in the previous seasons (and because Star Wars in general became much more diverse after the Disney buyout).

Also she’s a colonizer despite literally being born on a Mandalorian colony planet. And she can’t be the leader specifically because she wasn’t born on Mandalore and is thus not a real Mandalorian, but this same logic doesn’t extend to any other Mandalorian characters who weren’t born on Mandalore, such as Jango Fett, Boba Fett, Din Djarin, Fenn Rau, Ursa Wren, Ketsu Onyo, Jaster Mereel (assuming the broad strokes of his Legends history still hold true in canon), etc.

In conclusion, if you can’t see how Satine was OBVIOUSLY meant to be seen as a villain who committed cultural genocide by telling her people to maybe stop doing imperialism in favor of focusing on productive things like art and education, and also implementing gun control, then you CLEARLY haven’t been paying enough attention. Hashtag Make Mandalore Great Again.

[prismatoxic]

i know the original mgs1 graphic novel has been around for almost 20 years. i'm sure it’s been analyzed to death by people smarter than me, with more innate knowledge of the series than i have, but serzh and i watched the digital one (with all the voices and animations), and i've been thinking about it ever since.

mgs1 is my favorite. in comparison to the rest of the series that followed, it's far more subdued; the voice acting is more sincere, the setting is less fantastical, the enemies more human... when things like psycho mantis's manipulation or vulcan raven's ~mystic native powers~ (ugh) come into play, the juxtaposition of those events with the more grounded rest of the narrative makes them feel more severe.

is mgs1 perfect? god, no. maybe raven's portrayal can be somewhat forgiven from a game from 1998, but a lot of the issues it has come down to technical limitations and plot discrepancies, imo. i have a lot of thoughts about how stilted snake and meryl's relationship is, too, but i kind of want to give the game a point for that one since they fell apart after the fact anyway. i just don't know if that was intended from the start. if not, they wrote an unsalted cracker of a relationship story for no real reason, and that's sad.

but my thoughts don’t end there, nor do my thoughts on twin snakes and, later, the graphic novel, which was eventually billed as a way for players to get the story of mgs1 without having to play it. i feel like that framing makes things far more egregious than they already were. regardless, if you’re interested, my thoughts on all this will be under the cut. i’d love to hear other fans’ thoughts, too. fair warning, though: a lot of this will be centered on the dynamic between snake and otacon, and their individual characterizations, bc those things interest me most and also made me the angriest when changed.

so let’s get twin snakes out of the way first. twin snakes is a bastardized version of the story that i love, which somehow manages to mangle the narrative while also changing none of the dialogue. i’ve heard the story of david hayter personally paying all the other returning VAs to get them to come back, but you can tell they don’t really have a lot of passion for re-recording things they already said years ago. david himself, while not so disenfranchised, has fully switched to the later snake portrayals here, and while i do think he’s a very talented VA and the only snake i’ll ever agree with, the direction he was nudged in from then onwards makes snake so... over-the-top, and hammy. it’s embarrassing at times, and in twin snakes it’s at its worst.

then there’s the characterization. ignoring the voices, for a moment, you will also run into situations where the characters’ actions and movements paint a picture of them that contradicts the characterization they had originally. snake is... over-the-top, like his voice, and then you have otacon. i am still mad about otacon. i am so mad about otacon. without changing a single goddamn one of christopher randolph’s lines, they butchered his character, turning him into a joke: he’s constantly falling down in silly slapstick ways, even during the wolf death scene. one of the most powerful scenes in the entire first game, if not THE most powerful one, and they turned it into a fucking JOKE. (and had an actual wolf carry her body away at the end??? what????)

...but this has absolutely been talked about by people smarter than me. here’s an article by the english translator for mgs1 about his work and experience with the game, and here's a video by youtuber jackdonsurfer about the differences between mgs1 and twin snakes, and why twin snakes is a bad remake. i highly recommend both of these, they’re very good.

so moving on from twin snakes, we have... the graphic novel for mgs1, the bastard son of the two games combined with a bunch of its own ideas as well, for better or worse. i’ll be referencing the digital version, but anything that isn’t related to the voice acting will still hold true for my thoughts on the actual book.

the graphic novel uses the same voice direction as twin snakes, but toned down, more befitting the tone of mgs2 or 3, which did seem to learn from that particular mistake. the actors also seem to have regained their passion for the project, and for the most part, give it their all. gray fox is voiced here by rob paulsen, as well, and that’s a decision i understand, same as in twin snakes; greg eagles voiced donald anderson along with gray fox, and the similarities between his anderson and gray fox voices were inescapable once you recognized them. i do think greg eagles did things a lot more passionately, and his version of gray fox is very different from rob paulsen’s, but at the same time, the more mechanical read of gray fox’s lines—up until the tail end of the fight in the lab, or the REX fight, where he gets more intense—does lend an interesting interpretation to his character. so, in the end, while i think i overall prefer greg eagles’ version, i don’t think rob paulsen’s is bad.

so everyone is doing their best, and the writing isn’t as godawful as it was in twin snakes... however, several things jeremy blaustein discussed specifically changing in his english translation of mgs1 in the polygon article i linked are instead lifted from the twin snakes version of the script, or based largely on it. so it’s not great. better, but not as good as it could be.

so with that out of the way, and with me having a subzero interest in talking in depth about the art (it’s really stylized, but there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s perfectly serviceable), it’s time to talk about the story.

there are some things the graphic novel does alright, or even really well. i like the added scenes between FOXHOUND members and other main characters; i like otacon’s justification for wanting his own codename; and i love the psycho mantis section. absolutely fucking flawless concept, wish they’d done that in the game instead of making the controller vibrate. ah well.

the rest, though. god.

i mean, a lot of it is fine, i suppose. slightly more dramatic spins on the original narrative, cutting out parts that only made sense in-game, shifting some events around, and otherwise just sort of doing things the same. but i have some very specific grievances about some of the portrayed relationships.

so, if this post gets out farther than i expect, like some of my other mgs posts have, here’s some background: i’m an otasune shipper. i don’t think that affects my biases too much, as the story and characters are really important to me as-is (in the original, obviously), but i am particularly invested in snake and otacon’s relationship, even in a strictly canon sense. otacon is my favorite mgs character, too. so let’s discuss some of this while also knowing those things about me, for transparency’s sake.

onto the point, i think snake and otacon’s relationship in the original game is massively important to the narrative. the video i linked by jackdonsurfer discusses this, and is one of the reasons i originally started fully considering it, but to be more precise: snake and otacon are very explicitly narrative foils. 

snake is a military veteran, a mercenary, a soldier by birth and by trade. he kills people for a living, and he does it well. he’s gruff and aggressive and with rare exceptions, looks out for himself first and foremost. he’s rough around the edges, sharp, pushing away meaningful connections and never letting anyone get too close.

otacon is a scientist, as well as an anime fanboy, two of the first things we learn about him. we also quickly learn that he’s a pacifist—upon accepting that he’s responsible for a nuclear weapon and not a defensive machine, he immediately vows to fix it, refusing to cause any more deaths than he surely already has. he’s soft and kind and passionate, and he wants to help people, whether it be the whole world or just snake. he wears his emotions on his sleeve, and even when snake is holding him at arm’s length, otacon is trying in earnest to connect with him.

they tend to bounce off of each other like polarized magnets, but in moments like the “love blooming on a battlefield” scene or wolf’s death, they come together, finding common enough ground to understand each other while remaining distinctly different. you can feel snake warming up to otacon before the end, even without taking into account the otacon ending (which is noncanon anyway, but its exploration into their relationship in that situation is still very sweet). otacon is willing to sacrifice himself to ensure snake and meryl’s survival in the canon ending, and snake makes especially sure to request otacon’s extraction when the bombs don’t fall.

this all segues nicely into their dynamic come mgs2, but even taken only by itself, it tells a very concise story. even though they both have romantic interests in mgs1, their relationship with each other is important, a key factor in both of their character arcs.

why am i bringing all of this up? well, uh, because the graphic novel tries to downplay it in favor of the romances.

look, i don’t ship either of the “canon” ships in mgs1 (if we can even call otacon/wolf such), but i don’t think they’re done poorly, either. as i said earlier, i felt like snake and meryl’s stilted, almost forced romance lends well to the timeline between mgs1 and 2, because the idea that she’d eventually realize he was exactly who he said he was—thereby seeing the real him, and not this idea of him she had in her head—and subsequently realize she didn’t want that and wind up leaving, is really good. it’s an interesting story, and adds to the overall narrative. as for wolf and otacon, i always got the sense that otacon was in over his head about someone who’d shown him the barest hint of mercy, and wolf was mostly neutral on him in turn. the moment when she reaches out, and snake asks what she wants, and she says her gun? with otacon visibly in frame behind the gun? that’s powerful. he’s inconsequential, meaningless; yet to him, she’s everything, this symbol of “love blooming on the battlefield”. it’s an interesting story.

the graphic novel giving us more scenes between snake and meryl/otacon and wolf isn’t something i mind, especially the latter. i want to see more of that! i want to know why otacon feels the way he does. the first time he runs into wolf in this story, she wants to kill him. (never mind that she “doesn’t kill for sport” in the game, huh.) the second time, she uh. decides she likes him a lot? i’m willing to accept her being at least somewhat fond of him (he does have her handkerchief, after all), but her sudden pivot to openly liking him is... odd. and then the third time, he bursts onto the snowfield to stop snake and wolf from killing each other (this is good, i like this idea), and she can’t bring herself to shoot him to lure snake like she did with meryl (which feels... not like a problem a trained killer like her would have, especially given that she discusses shooting him in non-vital but crippling ways, specifically). her death scene is similarly impacted by this increased focus on her and otacon, stripping away the mood of the original in ways i really wasn’t fond of. 

now, snake and meryl i have less to actively say about because we genuinely skipped a lot of it. it was painful to watch. i like meryl—i think her being an inexperienced wannabe soldier who is desperate to prove herself is a great story. she idolizes “heroes” like snake, who were never heroes at all, throwing herself into the war machine to live up to this ideal that will never exist. (mgs4 handled this well too.) i guess i don’t have much to say on how the graphic novel handled her because of the skipping, but i can say that there was ample focus on her and snake, and in a way, i feel like parts of otacon and snake’s story were surgically removed to make more space for it.

remember the “love blooming on a battlefield” scene? of course you do. it’s one of the most iconic scenes in the entire game—maybe the whole series. how does the graphic novel handle it? it, uh. doesn’t. it’s gone. 

and at that point, i can’t help but wonder if part of the entire point of this was to make the story seem less gay. maybe that’s just a tinfoil hat thing. but why would you remove one of the most powerful, character-driven conversations in the game? it doesn’t sit right with me. were they worried snake and otacon would eclipse the oh-so-important romances if they were allowed to be proper foils?

some of the stuff towards the ending is pretty good. i like some of gray fox’s changes, and i like snake being forced to fire the stinger because fox begs him to, though the original version where snake can’t bring himself to is still good. i like that snake cuts off liquid’s arm, setting up ocelot’s arc later on. i like that the patriots are mentioned; of course they weren’t originally, bc they hadn’t been conceived of yet, but it’s a good addition now that they’re part of the series. 

i don’t like how otacon is stripped of the chance to demonstrate his conviction and loyalty, because he’s already safely out and hacked the security doors in advance. i don’t like how he mocks snake’s real name instead of making a 2001: a space odyssey joke. i don’t like how him escaping with snake and meryl has made for some very confusing fanfics where writers think he was at the cabin at the same time as meryl because that’s the only version of the story they know.

and that, right there, is the worst part of it all, isn’t it?

this version of events, with all its changes, has been presented multiple times as a stand-in for the actual game. it’s not the only one in this series, but it is the only one i’ve seen, and it veers so wildly from established canon that it actively changes several dynamics and story beats—and people without access to mgs1, or who don’t like the look of it, or can’t quite get into it, or aren’t able to play video games in the first place, are given this story as a way to bypass having to play it at all. it has been presented as being just as good as playing the game to see its story. it’s officially sanctioned konami content.

i genuinely hate it.

i liked a lot of things, like i said. some changes were good. psycho mantis was great. several of the VAs did a stellar job (though there was one part when otacon meets wolf and her dogs where the voice christopher randolph uses for him is exactly huey’s, so much so that it makes a genuine statement sound manipulative with that context, but this was recorded before peacewalker/mgs5 so it absolutely wasn’t intentional). a lot of it was a really interesting take on a familiar story, but some of the parts they changed just... were really bad. i was kind of fine with it when we finished it, but the more i thought about it, the angrier i got. 

i don’t know what the point of this is. i mostly just wanted to get out my thoughts, i suppose. it drives me insane that this is billed the way it is, like a canon thing and not some fanciful retelling by a fan. i wish it was better, but i’m at least comfortable with the fact that a lot of people in this fandom don’t seem to have any open feelings about it, if they’ve seen it at all. mgs1 hasn’t been lost to history even a little bit, and i love that. 

if we hadn’t skipped a lot of it, i’d probably have more to say, but also, i never want to see it again, so this is what you get. thanks for reading; i’m gonna write otasune fic now probably.

[invisibleicewands]

Terry Pratchett would love the queer politics of Good Omens 2

Good Omens 2, the second season of Prime Video’s cult hit, will finally arrive on Friday (28 July), almost five years after the first season debuted and over three decades since the publication of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s beloved novel on which it was based. Like the first season, Good Omens 2 is warm, inviting, weird, whip-smart, wonderfully diverse, very funny… and it’s really going to annoy the “anti-woke” brigade.

As with Gaiman’s other recent TV hit, The Sandman, this is a show with diversity and representation built into its DNA. Characters have same-sex crushes and no one bats an eyelid. There’s a completely open approach to casting in which the race, gender and physical characteristics of individuals basically don’t factor into the story in any way. There are characters with visible disabilities, black characters, white characters, old and young, women, men and non-binary – and none of these identities has any bearing on the story. Rarely is representation on this scale so elegantly done. For a story about the end of the world, it’s strangely utopian.

At the centre of the tale are Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) and Crowley (David Tennant), an angel and demon, friends, companions and technically mortal enemies for millennia. Sheen is fussy, well-meaning, pleasant and fastidious, while Tennant is wily, louche and sardonic.

And they love each other. It’s never stated aloud, though it bubbles close to the surface once or twice if you know where to look. The pair’s odd-couple, will-they-won’t-they chemistry, which is less obvious in the book, was the heart of the first season, and season two gives us even more. They’re a classic pairing: attracted opposites thrown together by fate. There’s a wonderful moment in season one where Crowley states that, rather than being agents of heaven or hell, they are simply on their own side, and another where Aziraphale tenderly uses his angelic wing, almost absent-mindedly, to shield his partner from the rain.

What the pair’s relationship hasn’t been, at least not yet, is overtly romantic, though Gaiman, the show-runner, has said many times that he regards Good Omens as a “love story between an angel and a demon”. It’ll be interesting to see how this unfolds as the season progresses. If it blossoms into a full romance, it’ll be another example of the representation baked into the show. Crowley and Aziraphale may be genderless angelic beings, but Tennant and Sheen are cis-gendered men, and any romantic scenes will unavoidably be viewed through a queer lens.

In a way, that would be deeply fitting. Good Omens is not an innately political book, but it is, like most of the late Sir Terry Pratchett’s work, intensely moral – something that Gaiman (alongside the show’s executive producer, Rob Wilkins, who is also executor of Pratchett’s literary state and his “representative on Earth”) has preserved in the new story: a two-season arc based on ideas he and Pratchett had for a follow-up they never had time to write. That morality, that anger at injustice, was an essential part of Pratchett’s writing. (“Do not underestimate this anger,” Pratchett once told his friend. “This anger was the engine that powered Good Omens”.) There’s a lot of that anger in Good Omens 2, mainly aimed at the contradictions and cruelties ordered by God in the Old Testament. The avidly atheistic Pratchett would certainly approve.

But even without the religious critique, Good Omens is innately political. It tells a story in which all characters, regardless of gender, race, age, physical shape or ability can be completely, authentically and – crucially – visibly themselves. It’s a very Terry Pratchett idea. A very Neil Gaiman idea. And an ineffably Good Omens idea.

[winterpinetrees]

Marin's Opinions (The Gap Years part 25)

July 10th 2019

Walden, CO 

Marin and Zerada have their own plans and motives, but you already knew that. I wouldn't call this Mission Impossible it's just Mission Really Tough.

…………......

There’s a line that Marin remembers, but is careful to not share. Humans can do anything if enough of them unite behind the cause, and elves can unite humans behind anything. After a month on the run with these humans, he agrees. Clay’s steady hands, Brian’s brute strength, or Sierra’s technical skill would have been helpful alone. Instead, they are all together, and their minds (while running on far fewer memories and less knowledge) are smarter than his. Their help has been invaluable. 

And to think that he found this trio mostly by accident! Marin was bored in the capital and looked straight across the worlds to San Francisco, where he found three young humans talking about nothing. When he decided to spend some of his gap years in the human world, it wasn’t a tough decision to go find the rich kids again. It ended up being a good choice. He never would have made it to Vegas without them. 

Sure, he almost ruined it on the first day by brainwashing them (his tutors always did say that charms don’t fix problems, they only delay them), but why else would three sensible teens spend the afternoon with a stranger? Between the adrenaline, some very real facts about noble revenge, and the fact that the three were all desperate to do something with their lives, he didn’t think there was much of a chance that they’d run. A month in, the risk is nonexistent. They’re attached to him now! Brian’s downright starstruck with Zerada, Clay couldn’t put down the rifle if he tried and Sierra’s letting curiosity lead her. 

That human momentum is down a single track though. Each teen has a slightly different drive, but they all want to be heroes and save their world. He raised a glass to it on their independence day and scowled goodnaturedly at Zerada when she wouldn’t. They’ve whispered about it at night. That momentum needs to be redirected, subtly, before they use those clever brains to figure the truth out themselves. 

Sierra will be easiest, even if she was the closest to realizing when they began. Sierra’s caught contradictions before, especially around the science she loves. She’s neutral about saving the world, but won’t forget that his mother brought down Excalibur. Thankfully, the worst she ever did was act snarky and ask questions. Every word he shares about the Void or the guns they carry makes her easier to convince. (It’s also nice to talk about it). 

Brian doesn’t just love humanity, but the United States of America in particular. However, he wants his hero’s journey, and the boy has always been loyal and strong in a way that is very desirable in domesticated humans. He’d probably accept anything if Marin spun it around duty. Zerada claims he’s more in love with falling than fallen in love. She says she gets it, and that she can keep him in line. 

Clay Shepard is going to be the problem. Clay is sharp. He’s quick on his feet and faster with a gun. There’s almost something elvish about how stable he is, and the boy had a distaste for wild humanity to match. All of that changed after they visited Project Excalibur. A pandemic, even one that clears away the governance he hates, is a personal nightmare for him. Clay has gradually grown from cynical to paranoid and trying to switch gears will spook him like a prey animal. 

In reality though, he won’t notice anything has changed. Driving through the mountains to find intel and allies in the service of a prison break was always a logical next step. Going by the gaps in the casualty list, dozens of his relatives and family allies have been captured instead of slaughtered. He’s been turning it over in his mind. Why would Ishtar choose mercy, especially when a complete massacre would have been justified by Lazarin actions against her two-hundred and forty years ago? Noble loyalties might as well be part of their genetic code. Every Sondaica, Marolak, or aligned noble left alive is a threat. Even members of lower genera can be important allies, like they saw with Litayo. The brief list of dead just doesn’t add up. 

It’s good for him though if the new apex has gone soft because of her Voyager consort! Basic science means that those prisoners are being held together at a few locations under the anti-magic gaze of the Betrayed. He was never shown much of his mother’s paperwork, but even towards the end he could get an approving smile for sneaking around her quarters without being caught. There were over a dozen Betrayed at a stronghold due north of where they are now. He also knows the Betrayed are moved as little as possible for their own comfort (and that their abilities are strongest in places they know inside and out). Over a dozen with plans to requisition more is an almost unbelievable concentration for anything but a major prison. That means they have a possible location, and that the prisoners inside might even know about the security of the place!

It’s still going to be tough. Luckily, humans evolved for tough. 

“Are we back in New Mexico?” Sierra asks “Wait no, don’t tell me. We’re not supposed to give hints for car-chase-geoguesser".

They are in fact in northern Colorado, driving along State Highway 125. He knows she’s purposefully not looking at signs, but can’t the girl tell that the grass is literally greener here, and that they’ve left the Adust-controlled plateau for some sort of artificial irrigated grassland? 

“Oh I hope Kebero is as clueless as you,” he says. 

“Look, I have no reason to bother with a million slightly different types of grass. I’ll probably never be here again, wherever here is,”

Brian jokingly swerves the car. “We’re stopping in every grassland now. Kebero? They’re gonna see nothing but grass. Tall grass, sweetgrass, bluegrass,”

“That’s a type of music,” Clay interjects.

“Nope! Most baseball fields are Kentucky Bluegrass. Anyway there’s bermudagrass and wheat and oats and rice-”

“Shut up about grass, you literal Ken doll”.

“No! Kebero needs to hear all of this”. 

“Rice is grass?” she replies. 

“Yes. Rice is grass. Corn is also grass. Domesticated grass,” Brian responds, telling his mechanically-minded companion a basic fact of their society that every elven child knows. “And you know what else is grass?”

“Probably not, going by the rest of the conversation”.

“Bamboo is grass,”

“I can see that. They have the little…” Sierra wiggles her fingers. “The little top leaves”.

Zerada starts laughing in the passenger seat. This is completely unreasonable. He cannot be expected to deal with this.  Brian drives their too-fancy car (with his magic going towards healing himself, it’s been harder to keep the thing charged) over to a cabin run by one of many overlapping governmental agencies and begins to pester a young woman in uniform about the local plant life. It takes too long to end the conversation and get everyone back to the car, especially once Clay gets into it. For how specialized humans become during their lives, they all seem to have a lot of interests. Weird. 

He and Zerada begin to introduce the plan that night at their motel. Over the next week or two, they need to learn as much as they can about their target prison. Then, once his arm has healed enough that he can move it a bit, they break in, and break everyone else out. The basic strategy will be to stop the Betrayed guards through persuasion (or murder), while unlocking doors so the now fully powered prisoners can get everyone out. That’s the end goal. The harder part is figuring out their plan to get in. 

“What do elf heist films look like?” Clay asks without a grain of humor.

“What? Why?”

“Well, human heist films have a lot of sneaking through ventilation shafts, but that rarely works in real life. What are the big ideas that we definitely can’t do?”

“Well, I can’t go around doors by switching worlds. A place like this will be built underground to prevent that. That means that once we're in, we’re in. No sending away bullets or bodies either”. Brian and Clay mutter to themselves. Sierra is away to avoid being spied on. The humans will tell her everything tonight, using some codes. “Sneaking into the air vents might be possible though, but we’d need a blueprint”.

“This facility, no matter the details, will also be an anti-magic zone. That means Marin and I will be nearly useless once we enter the range of The Betrayed. Elven guns will also be useless,” Zerada adds. 

“That’s just a creepy name for them. I get that magic is important to you guys, but the betrayed? That feels offensive,” Brian says. 

“The betrayal- the change from magic to anti-magic, occurs in late childhood. It is a betrayal. Anyway, their abilities are based on perception more than proximity, so the Betrayed are probably kept in the center of the prison, or each cell block, where they can see all of the prisoners they are assigned to”. 

“Kept? Are the Betrayed prisoners or guards?” Clay looks at Brian after he says it, and both of their faces get very grim.

“Great. And it’s a panopticon,” Brian mutters, probably just to Clay. He forgets that elves have good hearing. He raises his voice. “So we get to the Betrayed and get them to, well, betray their bosses, while Sierra opens the doors?” 

“That was what we were thinking, yes. Escape will be easy once the prisoners’ magic is back. You just need to get in,”

That will be easier said than done.

Once Sierra returns with supplies (mostly food), they all sit on the two beds and create a list. He and Zerada are powerful sorcerers, especially in illusions and charms. They have perfect balance and know how to lie. However, his arm is broken and their magic will be blocked in most of the prison. Also, guards will recognize them on sight. Clay is a sniper with experience breaking into places. He can pick human-style locks and lie through his teeth. He is also willing to kill. Brian can crush an elf’s windpipe with his fist, but really doesn’t want to. Elves generally think he’s sexy and he’s comfortable using that to his advantage. It is also a disadvantage, because he is six foot three and thirty pounds heavier than an elf of the same height would be. (the one exception to this is their enemy, Apex Ishtar Mercuralis, who for unknown reasons is quite literally built different). A human seducing their way past enemy gates also happened in one of the most popular stories from Lazarus’s conquest, so guards might be suspicious. Lastly, Sierra can’t shoot or lie, but she can probably get doors open, so that’s her job. 

It’s not exactly a plan, but it’s the foundation of one. They just can’t let anyone find out until they’ve gotten themselves an army. 

………..

More information on The Betrayed can be found in part 9, part 13, and part 17. 

“human seducing their way past enemy gates” is this world’s origin for the Babylonian myth of Asu-shu-Namir, which still can’t find actual sources for beyond Overly Sarcastic Productions. Maybe I’ve been bamboozled. I don’t think so though. there's lore here please ask me about it!

They’re driving through the Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge. Marin doesn’t understand how the Department of the Interior works and honestly, I don’t think many people do. They do good work though.

[ssruis]

31, 33, 34, 49, and 50 for the pjsk ask game :3

31. Favorite event?

Oh man this changes All The Time… for non mixed events it’s probably a tie btwn it’s on wonder halloween/smile of a dreamer/OHE but I feel like once I get more caught up or have to reread an event for analysis my mind will change again

33. Favorite mixed unit event?

Let’s Study Hard is so peak... Incredible mizuki and an moments. Mizuki/Rui enjoying themselves at school. Akito is in hell (always funny). Toya consistently being hysterical. All the card stories are fantastic. Tsukasa fail moment. Nene is even there for a little bit. Kamiyama crew my beloveds.

Special shout-out to doll festival (tenmas my beloveds) & pandemonium (self explanatory) which are also favorites

34.Mixed event lineup you want?

+ I want an emu/tsukasa/minori/saki/kanade event so badly… I think putting kanade in an event with 4 people who genuinely do not have an off switch is the funniest idea ever.

+ I also really want an event with the leaders.

+ an emu/airi/mizuki/Luka/saki event (pink gang)

+ or a toya/shiho/nene/kanade/niigo kaito event where there’s like. 3 words said. They all just Vibe.

+ an event with tsukasa/shizuku/an/akito (+ any other character who is competent just not like. Academically.) where they have to do a trivia competition or some other intellectual event & it’s shaking up to be a huge flop but they all pull through with their different areas of knowledge

+ event with a bunch of random characters but NOT tsukasa. and they all meet amami seiichi but have zero idea who he is. Tsukasa hears about this and dies inside.

+ siblings event…

49. a hc that came out of nowhere and has no basis in canon but it's ingrained into your understanding/portrayal of the character?

Mostly inconsequential hcs here & if any of them are contradicted in canon uhh no they aren’t </3

+ Rui on ssris is both incredibly inconsequential and also canon. To me.

+ Emu and Tsukasa both have adhd but Emu is unmedicated (& doesn’t really need to be she has systems that work)

+ rui sleeps curled up like a cat, Tsukasa sleeps sprawled out like a star fish, emu clings onto whatever’s closest when she sleeps, and nene sleeps on her back with her arms folded over her chest like a corpse.

+ I saw someone say they had the hc that tsukasa chose his room because he likes to see/hear that other people are home and that stuck with me

+ emu is scary capable of starting a long conversation with anyone like she’s incredibly good at figuring out what you’re interested in/can ramble about and asking you questions about it. This actually has basis in canon but I like to remind people.

+ I think I’ve talked abt it on here before but I think tsukasa having a fictional character crush on the normal virtual singer kaito when he was younger & not realizing it is an incredibly funny idea. He’s like “yeah idk why I just used to really like the character. Whatever (doesn’t analyze this further even when the wxs sekai manifests).” Wxs Kaito knows this but he’s not saying shit because it’s not relevant anymore but it DOES make him side eye tsukasa incredibly hard whenever tsukasa is like “these must be normal best friend feelings I’m feeling towards rui.”

+ technically rin and len being twins is a head canon but I’m sorry that’s so stupid they’re twins to me

+ nene experiences gamer rage. Wxs operate under the assumption that she doesn’t really get Super Angry until they’re at her house and see her die to a boss in a fromsoft game/fail a platforming section for the 30th time and she’s Seething.

+ mmj could survive if they got stranded in the wilderness. Would they make it back to civilization though? Only if they don’t trust shizuku with directions.

+ emu & mizuki fashion buddies… gestures at area convo where mizuki is like she seems like she has good taste. I also just want them to be closer friends.

+ rui listens to video essays/informational podcasts/documentaries while he works and this is (partially) how he’s gained so much knowledge about random topics

+ saki is capable of making the most intricate woven string bracelets of all time & will make them for her loved ones based on their interests.

+ shizuku can play “old people” games (mahjong, mancala, etc) scarily well… don’t play against her or you’ll lose…

50. A hot take?

I think I say my hot takes often & without any restraint so it’s hard to throw one out that I haven’t mentioned before uhh

+ fanbase has a misogyny problem. Who’s shocked (no one). Not even a hot take but I see a lot of people get mad when this is said like. please look up what an implicit bias is.

+ I don’t trust people who only talk about tsukasa with any character takes (including ones about tsukasa they straight up Do Not Get Him) because they’re incapable of viewing other characters outside of their relationship to him. I also don’t trust them in general & find them irritating. & this is coming from someone who talks abt him a lot.

+ you Need To Interact With The Canon Text because if you rely solely on how the fanbase portrays characters you’re going to walk away with the completely wrong characterization. Also the stories are good so you should really be doing that anyways.

+ actually very unhelpful and irritating to reduce female characters down to like one trait and then pretend you’re a fan of them bc 90% of the time the trait is wrong. Nene for example I see so many bad takes on because people think she’s a girl boss (???) 24/7 hater (??????) who never says anything nice about her friends (??????????)