#except for when he's not but that isn't the point

[baejax-the-great]

Massive Veilguard spoilers ahead, but this post I made in June now just... baffles me.

It's a reference to the start of the game where Varric points out correctly that people are dying, and Solas says, "That's what they do."

And I assumed, along with, oh, around 5k people on tumblr i guess, that this was Solas's doublespeak. He is tearing down the Veil because people are dying--he lost them their immortality thousands of years ago and he is trying to restore it. People dying right now is an ongoing crisis that he is trying to solve, but ultimately unimportant to the end result of people being immortal again, when they will stop dying.

Except... we get to the end of the game, and that isn't his motivation anymore. Doesn't even mention it. Doesn't mention any of the benefits of getting rid of the Veil. Just says the world is wrong and it's not how it was when Mythal was alive.

So this brilliant doublespeak at the beginning of the game laying out his motivation that we know from Trespasser is... not that. It's nothing. Were the writers misleading us about what this game was going to be? Did they forget they retconned the shit out of Solas and forgot to make this line make sense? Is Solas just supposed to be a callous murderous asshole now?

????????

Varric: People are dying!!

Solas, who invented people being able to die and is currently trying to uninvent that: Yeah, man. Glad we can agree on this.

[sokkastyles]

The thing about people trying to "defend" KA by "debunking" common zutara takes is that it results in some really wonky and decidedly antifeminist takes. One of the most ridiculous and actually hair-raising in its anti-intellectualism is "KA isn't hero gets the girl, it's hero gets the hero!"

Which is wrong on multiple levels. And part of the thing is, hero gets the girl is such a ubiquitous trope that you really shouldn't have to try to debunk it. There are a lot of ships I like even though they fall under that narrative. And trying to debunk it kind of makes you look like an idiot. Especially with atla, because although Katara is a hero, she just blatantly does not take up the same amount of narrative space as Aang. She's the last waterbender of her people, and yet the show is still called Avatar: The Last Airbender. The trope she takes up most often is mentor figure to Aang, who is positioned in every way as the most important figure in the story and the ONLY person who can save the world.

This does, in fact, turn out not to be true in the end. Katara gets a moment of heroism in the finale during a climactic battle that is in many ways, more memorable than Aang's. But she's still not standing up on that stage at the end. No one calls her "the real hero." She doesn't get to stand next to Aang and Zuko during his coronation, despite the fact that Zuko would be dead if not for her. In fact, the camera follows her gaze intensely as she looks lovingly at Aang being lauded as the hero of the day.

Katara spends a lot of time throughout the story fighting to be recognized as a hero in her own right, and this is precisely because she starts at a deficit, and gets extremely angry at Aang when he shows her up, in a scene that's almost metatextual in Katara's awareness that she is not the hero of the story. The show allows her isolated moments to prove herself, but ultimately shunts her to the side for the sake of "the real hero," who she is destined to marry from the moment he lays eyes on her, and people pointing out the sexism here should be a surprise to no one except those who ascribe to the most milquetoast definition of feminism and a complete ignorance of narrative criticism.

[a-confused-spoon]

...y'know, it's not just the fact that Caitlyn knows Viktor, but the fact that this Caitlyn met this Viktor

I know I already talked about this, but like- HELLO??!

Mind you, Caitlyn isn't just a little sister to Jayce, her parents are also Jayce's patrons and her mother works with Heimerdinger (who Viktor used to work for) on the Council- the Council that basically dictated what kind of use hextech was going to serve in Piltover for however long the timeskip was (as said by Jayce in 1x04), so there's no way these two didn't have at least a couple interactions once Viktor becomes Jayce's partner.

Tell you what, I think these two vibed pretty well too.

First thing first, I just know Caitlyn treated the idea of meeting Viktor the exact same way a younger sibling wants to meet their older sibling's crush; "yeah I need to meet this so-deemed super cool person so I can shit-talk about you to them 'cause it's fun, but also what makes them so special to you and/or so stupid they'd want to spend time with you, allegedly?" type of deal. And there's more to this too 'cause- no wait, I really need to stress this point:

I think it's safe to assume Caitlyn didn't have many friends growing up, if any at all, and Jayce (who's what, twice her age?) is seemingly the only person she shared a bond with where she didn't have to pretend to be someone she didn't feel she was, which only became more and more a thing as time went by.

And everything is fine until the events of 1x02: there's an explosion, Jayce is put away, there's a trial and all of the sudden she's lost her big brother under no explanation other than "he's a misfit and you can't be friends with him anymore", and as far as she knows, Jayce will no longer be in her life and will likely give up all his hard work. She lost her best friend and he lost his purpose in life, all in the span of a single day.

...and then, the very next day, everything seems to be fine again? There's a Council meeting, she's allowed to be cool with Jayce again and when she asks what the fuck happened to this man he opens with "So there's this guy...".

I can only imagine little Caitlyn's thoughts whilst she was processing all the new info: "Okay so you're telling me there's a guy with a funny accent, Piltover's most important person's ex assistant, who I nor anyone's ever heard of nor seen for some forsaken reason, who you met literally last night and he sweet talked you into not giving up because it didn't work when I tried- rude but okay- and then he convinced you to commit a crime to help you complete the research my parents funded? When you were already at risk of exile? And that research was super personal to you specifically, but now it's a you guys' thing? And he's from the- WAIT, HE'S FROM THE UNDERCITY?!!"

'Cause Caitlyn was curious about the undercity as a kid too, innocently so; you're telling her she has the opportunity to talk with someone who didn't just go there, but used to live there? Someone who managed to get where he is with nothing other than the sheer power of will?!

Meeting this Viktor guy is no longer just a little "I wish", it becomes a fucking mission.

...meanwhile Viktor's barely aware the Kirammans have a daughter to begin with.

I mean- he does know, but just because Jayce mentioned her a couple times, perhaps forgetting to mention her being a 14 year-old.

Not that Viktor would give a shit either way, he isn't really fond of anyone in Piltover (aside from Jayce, Heimerdinger and Sky) and the likely spoiled heir of an ultra-rich family is no exception to this, regardless of age. However, she is close to Jayce, and her extremely important family is funding what is also his research now, so he's like "whatever, I guess I'll be as cordial as I can with this miss Caitlyn if I ever meet her".

Which happened, at a certain point in time.

I think Viktor was pleasantly surprised to find out that this good hearted and fairly smart girl was also very curious to know more about the undercity- perhaps he's taken a little aback at first; she is a councilor's daughter and he has to pay attention to what he says around her after all. But at the same time, she is a councilor's daughter and if she's so well intended then why not answer truthfully to her questions when she could, one day, help through her family's influence?

And on the other side, little Caitlyn absolutely adores Viktor, and not just because he's witty and has a funny accent, but because Viktor talks to her like she's an adult.

Cait isn't really used to this sort of treatment, but of course Viktor doesn't address her like a clueless child that needs protection from the real word: that's a privilege the kids in Zaun aren't really given, and they are no less important than her. Besides, what's the harm?

It's also great because whenever the Kirammans organize a ceremony of sorts to celebrate some new hextech achievement as Jayce's patrons, Caitlyn and Viktor would manage to chat separately from the rest of the obnoxiously rich guests, so she doesn't have to feel out of place or babied and he doesn't have to be at the centre of attention as Jayce's partner. Viktor would also get a healthy dose of rich people gossip through little Cait's unintentional open disdain for the environment her parents keep her in, and the only reason why Caitlyn allows herself to lower her guard when talking about it is because she knows damn well that Viktor both probably agrees and has no intention nor reason to tell anyone. If anything, he just comments sarcastically to most stories, and she's happy she can share them with someone who won't say "now now, don't say that about so and so".

And of course, whenever Caitlyn comes to visit them in the lab (not a very common occurrence since the 1x01 accident), Jayce is just happy to see them getting along... whenever Caitlyn isn't whispering something to Viktor while they both look at him, at least.

[niwaart]

Doctor! Male! Reader X Batfam ( part1, part2....)

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

Part 2

When Damian finds out he has a brother... a half-brother... and that his brother is older than him, he feels threatened. Why is he threatened? For two reasons. The first is that his position as Robin might be stolen, and the second is that his father will pay more attention to his older brother... and he's not proud to call him his brother. So the day after Bruce visits the hospital where Y/N works, Damian decides to observe and test his new brother. Is he strong? Is he smart? How many villains has he fought? Does he have a sad past? That's what Damian will discover.

In the evening before midnight, Y/N was roaming the hospital corridors, making sure the kids returned to his office where he was sleeping. Since Gotham never sleeps, that means a lot of emergencies, a lot of injured people, and a lot of busy doctors. So the best solution for Y/N is to sleep in his office instead of going to his apartment and returning to the hospital in case of an emergency. So when Y/N opened the door to his office, he let out a cry of fear when he saw little Robin searching through his things with papers scattered everywhere. Y/N looked at Robin who didn’t care about Y/N’s presence and continued searching. Y/N remained silent for a moment trying to understand what was going on. “You… Robin?”

"Yes... you are doctor Y/N Wayne?" Robin said when he sat on the Y/N seat after giving up from find anything except the lollipops.

Y/n looked at little Robin in confusion "How I can help you, little Robin?"

"Don't call me little! I'm not a little!" Y/N had a wry smile on his face After seeing little Robin's reaction.

"Oh?... then... tiny Robin?" Damian's face turned red with anger.

"I'm not a tiny!!" Y/N burst out laughing as he pointed his finger up and down at Damian.

Damian's dignity as Robin was at stake from Y/N's laughing so he jumped out of the chair trying to grab Y/N who ran away into the empty hallways with little Robin chasing after him.

"And I thought the Robins can fly!" Y/N said as he continued to run away from little Robin until he reached the back garden of the hospital.

Y/N is used to running away, after all he is a doctor who took care of Gotham's homeless children. But the person he's running from isn't just any ordinary kid in Gotham, it's Batman's son Robin. Damian jumps over Y/N and Y/N falls face down on the ground.

"I got you! You won't escape me! Now take back what you said!" Little Robin said as he put his weight on top of the helpless Y/N beneath him.

Y/N grabbed his poor nose and said in a written voice "I've said a lot in my life, so I don't know what I'm supposed to take back."

"You definitely know! Take back everything you said about me! Now!" Little Robin said impatiently. While Y/N smiled broadly.

"Okay, okay, I will take my words back.... Robin isn't strong... happy?" Y/N moved his head slightly to see Little Robin's expression and smiled in satisfaction when he saw Little Robin's teeth chattering in anger, but he was surprised when Robin got up from above him and walked away from him.

"You are not worth my precious time." Little Robin said surprisingly calmly.

Y/N laughed as he got up from the ground and cleaned his clothes from the fall in the garden. "aww, i pull my words back, Robins is so cute."

Robin turned to Y/N angrily but eventually sighed and walked back into the hospital to Y/N's office. Y/N happily followed him, "So, little Robin, tell me why you were in my office earlier? Am I a criminal? Could it be that I'm a sleepwalker? Oh my god that's creepy."

Damian mumbled incomprehensible words in Arabic in annoyance as Y/N chattered over his head. When they arrived at Y/N's office, Y/N sat in his chair tiredly, the chase between him and Damian was fun but tiring.

" I came here because I want to know about you, how strong you are and what your weakness is..." Y/N looked at little Robin in surprise. About him? His strength? His weakness? What?

"Ahh... I don't understand what do you mean, little Robin, but here all I can give is that." Y/N handed little Robin a strawberry lollipop. Damian looked at the lollipop in disbelief, Really? Is he a child to Y/N?

"I don't want it.." Damian looked at Y/N angrily. “I want you to tell me about yourself! What is your use in life! Prove yourself!”

"huh?... well, I'm a doctor?.. is that satisfying you?" Damian almost screamed in frustration as he felt his mind tear apart with anger and resignation. As he tried to calm himself down, Y/N unwrapped the lollipop and placed it in Robin's little mouth who was surprised by the gesture. But he gave in and kept it in his mouth. "you are annoying."

"I know that" Y/N winked at Damian In enjoyment. "I like your company, little Robin, but you have to go home now. It's the middle of the night and I want to sleep."

Little Robin looked at Y/N for a few moments before turning and walking to the window to leave. "I will back. And I will find about you.." With these words, little Robin disappeared as Y/N laid his head on his desk to sleep with a smile on his face.

♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤

"So, Robin? What did you find?" Bruce said in a hoarse voice from exhaustion as he searched the bat's computer for a new case.

"Nothing interesting, he is boring, just a doctor... annoying doctor.." Damian groaned as he remembered the nickname Y/N had given him... Little Robin.

Bruce looked at his son with a raised eyebrow. "I didn't know you liked lollipops.." before Bruce could continue Damian ran inside the manor. Bruce sighed and then turned his focus back to the computer in front of him. "Kids are weird... but do I look old?"

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

That was funny 🤣🤣 we are at the beginning of making Damian a real yandere!

@roxy776699

@missmannequin

[cometconmain]

Just gonna point out here (targeted in the direction of anyone calling the CEO shooter a terrorist) that this constant slapping of 'terrorism' on shit that isn't by people in power who want to delegitimise acts of measured violence against specific people in power who actively caused the suffering and death this was about are making people stop treating that term seriously and I think that's a really big problem.

Nobody else died. Whoever did definitely kill the CEO didn't blow up an entire building to get to one guy. He didn't do a mass shooting of the building to get to the one guy. He didn't target random civillians and hold them hostage and sexually assault and slaughter them while planning killing as many people as possible regardless of what they've done or not done as individuals. He didn't attack a concert to get one guy. His only political statement with the murder was 'these people have been murdering us in the tens of thousands for decades and it's time they understood we've had enough through the only language they seem to understand because they ignored us when we were talking peacefully and went on killing us anyway because due process was never going to stop them when they have the game rigged in their favour.' And he made sure only the person responsible for these acts of horrific fatal negligence against innocent people was the one who died and no one else. That's not terrorism. At most it's assassination and we can argue about whether or not that's a helpful mindset to be accepting in the long term as much as people like but for fuck's sake people HAVE TO STOP labelling shit terrorism that isn't. It's watering the term down and people who are rightfully angry at being shut down at every turn when they do things that can't be swept under the rug (which applies to all kinds of non-fatal activism so don't come at me on that) are starting to ignore actual terrorism when it happens because their experience is that anyone using that word is just trying to remove the last shred of power a group has to stand up to their oppressors.

Do we have to just also make sure we consciously don't let ourselves redefine that term in either direction? Yes. But it's a two way street and everyone else misusing that word in the first place need to meet us in the middle in not waving it around slapping anyone and any activism they're made uncomfortable by like it's a wet noodle regardless of what the people they're slapping are ACTUALLY doing or not doing.

If we decide terrorism is bad (and obviously actual terrorism genuinely is!!), and then decide anything involving any form of violent resistance in the face of increasingly violent oppression is now terrorism, what kind of message do we send to all the people who are basically being told they're not allowed to resist that oppression now even if the situation isn't changing enough from the peaceful measures because every time they come with an olive branch they're met by a policeman/soldier's baton/tear gas/taser or even bullet?

The longer we go without listening to people when they ARE talking, and shutting down all other avenues to reach change except for the violence we also condemn as blanketly wrong regardless of circumstance, the more enraged and violent those people will get. It's basic psychology and easy enough for people not experiencing that inescapable oppression to say kindergarten level shit like 'violence is bad; killing is wrong.' If someone tries to kill you in the street and necessary escalation to stop them results in their dying, is that wrong? But they were trying to kill you. Were you supposed to limit yourself and increase your chances of death because they had a family? What about your family?

There have to be nuances to this because the world is more complicated than the play room where all the toddlers who can't handle that nuance are. Little Tommy isn't stopping little Johnny from talking to him because he doesn't have that kind of power. An adult can step in and resolve the child-level issue and make Tommy listen to Johnny and teach them to handle conflict peacefully and respectfully.

That doesn't apply to the adult-level capitalist world where money over millions of people's lives is the norm and intricately rigged and enforced so it never changes through peaceful resolution (we can keep chipping away and we do make things more bearable than the rich people want to give us, but it's a constant and exhausting battle while in the meantime everyone we love is either dead, dying or at risk of dying around us every day this goes without being properly fixed). In a world where a homeless man can be murdered in cold blood on a subway train after the attack stopped, but a CEO who has killed a horrific number of people in cold blood himself gets shot and his killer made an example of to the angry populace who see this discrepancy and understand that the powerful are only trying to maintain their status quo, there is only so much saying "Please pretty please stop killing us. We're human beings. We've justified to you over and over again why what you're doing is wrong and you still kill us with no consequences and no end in sight but maybe if we just keep talking and expecting a different result it'll happen" can do to stop the status quo that is constantly being propped up by corporate and governmental interests.

No one actually wants to be in a civil war. Most of us don't want to kill people. Bringing the rich and powerful who have killed so many to justice through due process and a proper trial is always going to be better and healthier for our society than walking up to them and shooting them.

But if you give people no other choice because you will never see that proper trial by your own design...

What else are those suffering and dying meant to do? Just keep suffering and dying quietly? Accept this constant violence toward them only to have their desperate violence called unacceptable and wrong and terrorism while yours is quietly swept under the rug?

Never target innocents. Never try to wipe out an entire group of people for the actions of a few. That IS terrorism and unjust and unacceptable because it's unnecessary force against random innocent people. But if the few who are doing those horrific actions aren't being stopped by normal societal methods of dealing with them peacefully and they continue shutting down every avenue you try to take to make them face justice non-violently and you actively make sure only to target them that's not terrorism. That's being pushed to the brink and finally breaking the way everyone will eventually under that type of oppressive violence and then making sure only the people actually committing that violence against you receive violence in return. That's self defence.

This literally is the only course left in a truly dystopian system where there truly is no end in sight except through making it clear people can't take it anymore, because they don't let people express that peacefully either. What else are those people supposed to do when you will never go to trial and ALSO refuse to let due process and proper trials happen to those you want silenced?

Terrorism stopped sounding like a bad thing to us when people made it mean anything they didn't like. And that's seriously fucked up because actual terrorism where people are targeted indiscriminately for a political or religious statement really is wrong and fucked up and unnecessary and has to stop. It's never necessary to do that even if it's about fighting the status quo and increasingly violent oppression. You can do that without killing or even risking innocents. The guy who shot the CEO proved that. There's a middle line to walk here and we have to make sure we don't let people flopping labels around like wet noodles make us think that terrorism is just ok now because it's been applied so frequently to defence of the public both violent and peaceful in a system where they shut down all other methods of change they would have to listen to otherwise.

And the people treating it like a wet noodle only to go on to committing acts of violence and aggression to terrorise the public with no repercussions themselves have to stop doing all of that and all the shit this is about in the first place. We know what the authorities are doing with this public spectacle and all it's doing is making people angrier and happier to commit more violence. This is how you get more and actual terrorism, not less of it, because people with less care for those nuances are going to see you doing this shit and decide that makes it necessary to expand the crosshairs. (Again, people need to know the difference and choose not to do that; but you know these assholes will jump on that the second it happens to lend credence to their decrying of genuinely necessary and properly measured violence against them to stop their constant unrelenting oppressive violence against everyone else. And then all the bootlickers who have not yet experienced the leopards eating their faces will tut tut and decry everything too in support of the leopards all while those leopards are eyeing up their faces next.)

Honestly I'm pretty sure the Redcoats would have called the Americans fighting for their freedom 'terrorists' during the American Revolution if that had been something they could use to delegitimise the Americans' cause in the public eye. It would be interesting to see what they did say instead because it's unfortunately a very effective tactic people in oppressive power over others use all the time now. I wonder if people used to fall for it as badly back then too as they do in the modern era.

"I’m very concerned about my client’s right to a fair trial in this case.  He’s being prejudiced by some statements that are being made by government officials. Like every other defendant, he’s entitled to a presumption of innocence. But unfortunately the way this has been handled so far his rights are being violated. And as you know, Your Honor, there’s a wealth of case law guaranteeing his rights to a fair trial, but none of the safeguards have been put in place yet here — in fact it’s just the opposite of what’s been happening. 

He’s a young man, and he is being treated like a human pingpong ball between two warring jurisdictions here.

These federal and state prosecutors are coordinating with one another at the expense of him. They have conflicting theories in their indictment, and they are literally treating him like he is some sort of political fodder, like some sort of spectacle. 

He was on display for everyone to see in the biggest staged perp walk I’ve ever seen in my career. It was absolutely unnecessary. He’s been cooperative with law enforcement. He’d been in custody for over a week. He waived extradition. He was cooperative at all accounts. There was no reason for the NYPD and everybody to have these big assault rifles — that frankly I had no idea it was in their arsenal — and to have all the press there the media there. It was perfectly choreographed. 

And what was the New York City Mayor doing at this press conference, Your Honor? That just made it utterly political. And as your honor knows under Loro v. Charles, the Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit has held it to be clearly established that these staged perp walks to the media unrelated to a legitimate law enforcement objective is unconstitutional. And I submit that there was zero law enforcement objective to do that sort of perp walk. There’s absolutely no need for that whatsoever. 

And frankly, Your Honor, the mayor should know more than anyone about the presumption of innocence that he, too, is afforded dealing with his own issues. And, frankly, I submit that he was just trying to detract from those issues by making a spectacle of Mr. Mangione. 

And there are consequences to this. 

He has a right to a fair trial. And I just want to put on the record statements that the mayor made publicly about my client. Nothing saying “alleged” for example. And he said “I wanted to send a strong message with the police commissioner that we’re leading from the front. I’m not just going to allow him to come into our city. I wanted to look him in the eye and state ‘You carried out this terrorist act in my city, the city of New York that I love.’” And he wanted to show symbolism. 

Your Honor, he’s not a symbol. He’s somebody who is afforded the right to a fair trial. He’s innocent until proven guilty. And the mayor was talking to jurors — future potential jurors that elected him. Those are the people that elected him that he is talking to and calling this man a terrorist.

So, Your Honor, I just want to make a record of this and put everyone on notice that this has to stop, and my client is entitled to a fair trial and the presumption of innocence."

[georgeweasleyslostearhq]

MISTLETOE TRAP

Prompt 3: mistletoe

Pairings: Eddie Munson x Fem!reader Summary: after spending so long watching you and Eddie hopelessy flirt with eachother, the club comes up with a plan fit for the festive season to bring you guys together. Warnings: mention of kissing, brief mention of Eddie being in the hospital. one mention of Y/n, I APOLOGISE

🦌𓂃 ࣪˖ ִֶָ་༘࿐⋆꙳❆⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°°‧❆⋆.ೃ𓂃 ࣪˖ ִֶ

🦌𓂃 ࣪˖ ִֶָ་༘࿐⋆꙳❆⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°°‧❆⋆.ೃ𓂃 ࣪˖ ִֶ

Christmas music played softly in the background as the club played a festive board game, yelling and screaming over each other filled the room as everyone pointed fingers to who's cheating.

the smell of pizza filled your noses as the fire crackled of Gareth's livingroom.

the lights of the tree twinkling in your eyes as you sat on the couch next to Eddie, everyone else choosing to sit on the dirty carpet. pillows under all their buts to soften the hard wooden floor.

it was perfect, everyone having fun, laughing- more or less when everybody isn't fighting, but despite that, it was perfect.

the club did this every year, but it's the first time Mike, Lucas and Dustin have attended.

and while this was their first time hanging out for Christmas games, this was not their first rodeo when seeing a certain pair of flirty best friends that are way to close to be just friends.

"my hands are a bit cold, mind warming them up for me?" Eddie had smiled, earning many silent groans from the room, from everyone except you, who had blushed and shook your head sheepishly

"I have a feeling you just want an excuse to hold my hand, Eds" you teased

"you caught me. so what do you say?" you nudged you, holding out his hand.

you've always been the flirty type of duo, you and Eddie. you don't know when it happened, it started with little remarks in certain situations that he deemed fit, then you slowly began retaliating, giving small comments back that left poor Eddie flushed in surprise. but the certain situations turned into a weekly thing, then soon every time you'd see each other.

"I say my hands are quite cold too" you rolled your eyes, slapping your hand in his and interlocking fingers

you barely noticed the glared and groans from anyone in the room until they all got up and left, saying they are going to the kitchen for seconds

where they all huddled up, sick of their dungeon master and his best friend acting like a bunch of idiots while flirting with each other.

"I'm sick of this, it's been going on too long" Jeff sighed

"I think it's cute" Dustin shrugged "Eddie deserves love too"

"Really? you think our dungeon master complaining his hands are too cold and that she needs to hold them is cute?" Lucas shook his head, questioning his friend's sanity,

because what you and Eddie have going on, is not cute.

"it's a bit cheesy-" Dustin started before Mike cut him off

"-it's gross!"

"Well, what do we do?" Gareth bit the inside of his cheek

then Dustin had an idea.

a brilliant idea

it was just involve talking to Steve.

🦌𓂃 ࣪˖ ִֶָ་༘࿐⋆꙳❆⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°°‧❆⋆.ೃ𓂃 ࣪˖ ִֶ

You walked into the Harrington home with Robin.

a little party with Steve's friends that you had been invited to, given that his parents went out of town.

you walked in, surprised to see the whole club sitting on the couch, including Eddie- which was less surprising

you knew Steve and Eddie were mutual friends, or friends, you're still not sure, you've never seen them directly talk after Eddie got permitted out of the hospital.

but the whole club here was definitely not something you would expect. but god you were happy

"we were waiting for you" The Munson boy cheered on your arrival

"don't cream your pants, we were just stuck in traffic" you rolled your eyes, pointing the robin behind you who threw her coat on the coat hanger, literally, letting it fall to the ground

"You do know how to put a coat on a hanger, right?" Steve huffed, picking her jacket up and hanging it on a hook while you settled on the couch, right next to open seat next to the one and only Eddie

the whole club had greeted you with unsettling smiles, Dustin rocking his legs as he sat cross legged on the floor.

their faces made you suspicious, they were always up to no good with those looks on their faces

"what's up with them?" you whispered to Eddie, who shrugged

he picked up a Garfield mug, steam floating up and reaching his nose as he brought it up to his lips. humming at the taste before pulling it away and back onto the coffee table

you giggled, looking away when he turned to you

"what? do I have something on my face?" he smirked, knowing the fluffy whipped cream adorned his top lip

you shook your head as he leaned in

"wanna help me out and get it off?" he raised his eyebrows, nudging your shoulder

it was a sight to barf at to everyone else I the room, but fighting against the sickening interaction, they knew this had to happen, this was all apart of the plan, well not this but this party.

that's actually a lie, Steve had invited everyone over for a little gathering, and by everyone he means his friends, but due to much begging to his favourite child, Steve had let Dustin bring the club too, why? the Harrington boy doesn't know, nor understand but whatever.

you huffed, reaching up and swiping the foam off of his lip, silently gasping when he connected his lips with your thumb, licking it off your finger.

the party's eyes were wide with disgust and shock before Dustin spoke up quickly

"Eddie why don't you get Y/n a cup of hot coco while we explain the rules of the game to her"

Eddie looked over to the freshmen and nodded, getting up

"marshmallows?" he asked before leaving, earning a happy nod from you

"only th-" you started before he cut you off, disappearing down the hall to the kitchen

"-the white ones!"

you blushed and smiled, watching as Steve placed The Christmas game down on the table, Mike eagerly opening it up

"so the rules of the game is-" Dustin began

"I know the rules of the game, Dusty, I've been playing this since before you knew how to walk" you chuckled, shifting on the couch

you leaned over and helped set up for the game, Nancy walking in from upstairs, had being in the bathroom when you had arrived. when you were busy putting the cards down on the board, Gareth had taken the bundle of mistletoe from his bag and tiptoed to the doorway of the hallway, connecting the Livingroom and kitchen, where he peeked over the corner to see Eddie lift up the mug and put marshmallows in.

he came and sat down without you realising he left before he spoke up

"hey...Eddie's been gone for a while, why don't you check on him?" he asked you, nodding his head in the direction to the kitchen

"oh.. uh sure" you frowned, getting up, it's not like Eddie couldn't handle making a cup of hot cocoa, but you walked to the kitchen anyway.

you walked through the open wall and yelped when you bumped into his hard frame, the cup of hot chocolate swished and spilled on his chest, earning a groan from him and a gasp from you

"oh shit, I'm so sorry" you blinked rapidly.

"it's fine, love, not your fault" he smiled tightly, sighing

you went to say something but you heard a few hushed laughs and Lucas coughing

you both looked back to notice their gazes focused above you

you look up and back down, confused before you did a double take and your eyes widened, Eddie looking up right after you, a sigh leaving his lips.

a bundle of green and red hanging above you, tied with a ribbon, a bow, mistletoe.

"oh" you said in unison

Eddie looked back down at you, watching as you stared up

he whispered "we don't have to- it's just a silly tradition"

that made you frown, did he not want to kiss you?

you know you were best friends but you had always hoped for more, not that you weren't happy, but he was just so...him, so perfect in your eyes.

"you have to kiss!" Robin smiled

-she wasn't in in the plan, no one but the party was, Steve knew but he wasn't listening when Dustin was rambling, all Steve remembered was him asking if the club could come, and Steve figured half of them were coming, may as well just give the kid what he wants to shut up.

you look down at Eddie to see his concerned face

or was it sad?

you couldn't make it out, but they held something of that sort

"may as well" you shrugged "you know we'll never hear the end of it from them if we don't"

he licked his lips

Eddie was sweating, everywhere. and not just from the fireplace they were right next to. but because he had thought over your first kiss so many times before.

it was be so perfect, so romantic, gentle but desperate. maybe looking over the town or during a drive in movie he'd take you to.

definitely not in Steve Harrington's Livingroom, and certainly not in front of all of yours and his friends.

he'd want it to be right. not a forced act, but an act of love.

because it's you

his best friend.

his lifelong crush

so to say Eddie Munson was sweating balls in this moment would be an understatement.

in the corner of his eyes he saw everyone looking at you both, expectedly

but his eyes were focused on yours. looking so deep into yours that he felt he was melting away

why was it so hot? apart from the scorching hot cocoa that drenched his band tee.

the way you looked at him, so soft, you were so beautiful, the coloured lights from the massive Harrington Christmas tree illuminating your face perfectly, you always looked beautiful in red.

"I don't want our first kiss to be in front of everyone" he mumbled to you finally. moth slightly agape, eyes wide in despair

you furrowed your brows when you looked over silently, watching as they all looked away

the room was dead quiet, the only noise was the crackle of the fire, so they must have heard Eddie.

so as they all looked out the window, watching the snow fall outside, tiny snowflakes dancing in the wind of the night, you looked back up at Eddie.

you silently parted your lips.

he looked back down at you.

he silently parted his lips.

he brought a hand up, slowly.

you brought a hand up, slowly.

his hand meeting the plush of your cheek.

your hand meeting the skin of his exposed hip.

then you leaned in, slowly.

so slow.

Eddie watched as your eyes fluttered shut as his nosed brushed against yours.

and his own soon shut as his lips met yours, grazing ever so gently before he took a sharp intake of breath before fully connecting them, pressing his lips firmly on yours.

Jesus, how they fit so perfectly, he thought to himself.

God, how they fit so perfectly, you thought to yourself.

your lips moved perfectly in sync, creating the kiss that Eddie had envisioned so many times before. it may have even been better.

his warm hand cupping your cheek, his fingertips rough but oh so gentle.

everyone in the room stayed looking outside awkwardly as they heard nothing, but Dustin, deciding to take a peek, was only able to catch a glimpse of the kiss ending, you both pulling away from each other, smiling softly as your eyes fluttered open

your eyes met again. your smile growing as you saw his blown out gaze, the colour of his eyes barely recognisable through his irises as he looked down at you

"I'll make you another hot chocolate" he said, blinking, in a haze of some sort

"I'll come with you" you replied, matching his tone as you grabbed his hand

everyone watched as you both disappeared down the hallway to the kitchen

"they're going to make out in my kitchen aren't they?" Steve spoke up after a minute, frowning

"leave the kids be, Steve, they've finally found out what horniness feels like" Robin joked, leaning against the back of the couch.

Steve's head whipped around in horror. so many thoughts in the poor head of his. are they gonna have sex in my kitchen?

"don't worry guys, this is just what the mistletoe trap does, it brings people together" Dustin said cluelessly

"that's what this was!?" Steve hissed at him, finally remembering something along the lines of 'bringing a young couple together' and 'mistletoe' that Dustin had said over the phone to him when he was just trying to focus on how to shut him up.

🦌𓂃 ࣪˖ ִֶָ་༘࿐⋆꙳❆⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°°‧❆⋆.ೃ𓂃 ࣪˖ ִֶ

bonus-

Steve storms into his kitchen, it's been too long since you both went in there and he wasn't ready for a baby to be made in that room.

all he sees is you, pressed against the counter with Eddie holding you, soft moans and sighs escaping your lips as your hands roamed each others body, your mouths locked together as you made out aggressively.

"DISGUSTING!" Steve yelled.

🦌𓂃 ࣪˖ ִֶָ་༘࿐⋆꙳❆⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°°‧❆⋆.ೃ𓂃 ࣪˖ ִֶ

[pricetagofficial]

Day 23: Movie Night

Pairing: Jason Todd x Reader

Warnings: Language, Dick is a menace

A/N: Welcome to day 23! We are in the final days until Christmas! I hope you all have a good week! Header by me, Divider by @cafekitsune

Masterlist

It was the final few days until Christmas, and you and Jason were sitting on the couch together enjoying the night.

Or you would be, if you could decide on a movie.

What was originally supposed to be a movie night, turned into you finding out just how many movies were banned in Wayne Manor growing up.

Some of the most iconic Christmas movies ever made, Jason has only seen a few times to not at all.

"So, explain to me why Elf is banned again?

Jason had his arm wrapped around your shoulders, holding you tightly into his side as the movie of topic played on the television.

"This one wasn't actually anyone's fault. Bruce just hates Will Ferrel and never let us watch it."

You were about to argue, but looking at the movie you were watching, maybe it was a good idea. You didn't want to know what Jason's siblings would do when they were kids with this movie.

"Polar Express?"

"Dick tried to the hot chocolate thing with Tim and Stephanie. You remember the rug that used to be in the lounge?"

You looked confused. "What rug?"

"Exactly."

That sounded like a lame reason, but you didn't exactly blame Bruce either.

"Grinch?" You tried.

"Tim and Duke tried to make the sleigh, and rally poor Titus into it. Bruce banned it because Damian almost killed them for that." he chuckled. "Hilariously, it was Dick's idea but Damian would never do anything to him."

You laughed, you could see the scenario playing out in your head. Damian running around with his sword, after a frantic Tim and Duke with Titus barking after them with a single antler on his head.

"The Santa Clause?"

Jason snorted. "Bruce woke up one night with Dick on the roof trying to scare Santa."

Your eyes almost bulged out of your head. "What in the world?"

"Is a much nicer sentence than what Bruce said when he found him. At least, that's what I've heard."

At this point you were running out of Christmas movies.

"Home Alone?"

"Dick."

White Christmas?"

Jason nodded. "That's allowed."

"A Christmas Carol?"

"Muppet version only,"

"Why?"

"Dick."

You didn't know what else to say. "Just how many of these are Dick's fault?"

Jason didn't even hesitate. "Just about every single one of them."

A meeting needed to be scheduled to speak with Dick and why he must ruin every Christmas movie.

"What about Die Hard?"

You watched as Jason shifted beside you. "That's actually my fault," he admitted.

"What did you do?"

Jason chuckled as he looked at you. "I may or may not have hidden in the vents one Christmas after coming back, with an airsoft gun and may or may not have shot everyone, except Aflred obviously."

Your jaw dropped. "You did not, as a grown-ass adult?"

He nodded. "I even quoted the movie every time I shot them."

"You are unbelievable."

Jason seemed to take offense to that. "Hey! Dick literally recreated the traps from Home Alone and made them more effective. If he wasn't stopped, someone was going to die."

You crossed your arms looking at him. "And how old was he?"

"He was like 12."

"He was a child!

"He acts like one."

You let out a groan and leaned back on the couch. "Well good news. He isn't here to ruin them so we are watching every movie you missed out on."

Jason looked at you once more with a smile. "Sounds like a plan, princess."

[thesummerstorms]

The gingerwort truffle tea hits Rook a lot harder as soon as it has time to enter her blood stream. Around the time she starts humming some Marcher drinking song in Assan's direction, Davrin ends up cutting the picnic short and taking her back to the Lighthouse.

He's a little guilty, sure. He'd meant to give Rook an opportunity to relax, not to put her out of her mind with a hallucinogenic tea. Still, he can't help but laugh a little, especially as Rook keeps trying to have friendly conversations with Assan and the passing Crossroads spirits the whole way home. Her words are growing more slurred, though, so he's glad they don't accidentally stumble on any Venatori or Antaam on the way.

Lucanis walks in to the library just as Davrin is trying to get Arsinoë to settle down on the library couch. He's dressed for a trip - back to Treviso maybe, Bellara had made a comment about spices that morning- but as soon as he spots Arsinoë, his steps falter.

Crows are a paranoid bunch, so Davrin is ready for questioning. Rook and Lucanis are both professional assassins. He knew as soon as he realized what was happening that he'd probably have to talk someone down, reassure them of his intent.

In fact , the general plan had been to find either Neve or Lucanis, explain what happened and throw Rook at them, then find a seat where he would still be able to watch out for her and make sure there weren't complications, but where he was also well out of "clinging" range. Rook's arm had been thrown around his shoulder a little more closely than necessary on the walk back.

What Davrin is not prepared for is how Rook's eyes go wide when she sees Lucanis. The way she immediately stops trying to baby-talk Assan and grows pale and quiet. The crack in her voice when she blurts out- "Please don't tell Viago. Lucanis, please."

Davrin has seen frozen rivers warmer than the sensation that shoots down his spine. Rook's tone... This isn't some recruit embarrassed about being scolded. Her shoulders shake slightly beneath Davrin's hand. Assan lets out a little distressed chirp and rubs against her leg, but for once Arsinoë doesn't respond.

"I knew what was in the cup before I drank it, I promise. Don't tell Viago."

Lucanis's face has twisted up and, really, it isn't exactly a secret that he's sweet on Rook. Davrin is expecting to see his own horror mirrored back at him. A snarl, maybe, if anger draws Spite too close to the surface.

Instead Lucanis sighs. Not a flash of violet or a hostile glare thrown Davrin's way or a flinch away from Rook's pleading expression. Just a sigh.

Resignation, Davrin realizes.

Lucanis moves forward, crouching beside the sofa and ignoring Davrin entirely now as he speaks softly in Antivan. Davrin doesn't catch any of it except for "de Riva" but Rook is arguing back in the same language, so it doesn't seem to be having much effect. She keeps repeating herself - "por favor", he knows that one too- and if he were a betting man Davrin would put money on it being more or less the same refrain as what she said in Trade.

Rook leans forward earnestly, big grey eyes and too wide pupils. Lucanis asks her a question, his tone gone coaxing, and she shakes her head. Then he stands up and Rook puts her head in her hands.

"Hey, listen-" Davrin says tamping down the nervous twitch in his hand before he can reach before his sword. He steps in front of Lucanis instead, because whatever Rook is so worried about, he was the one who thought this whole mess would be a good idea. "Lucanis, it was just a tea. Rook's just having a bad reaction. Why does she keep asking –"

"Not now," Lucanis growls, gesturing with a short jut of his chin back in Rook's direction. "Ask later. Not now."

And okay, Davrin can understand that. If Arsinoë is this freaked out, no point in spooking her further. But he still doesn't understand why Lucanis is leaving, walking out the double doors of the main building and back out into the courtyard. Davrin trusts himself, sure, but Lucanis doesn't feel the same way, historically speaking. Yet he's walking away?

Arsinoë doesn't notice, all her earlier mirth evaporated like the morning dew. Assan is still making little worried squawks, looking back and forth from Rook to Davrin as if he has picked up on her distress and is demanding Davrin fix it.

Except Davrin doesn't know how because he still doesn't get why Arsinoë is so suddenly upset. He doesn't think it's just the tea, or surely she wouldn't have been so cheerful on the way back from Arlathan.

"This is some weird Crow shit, isn't it?" he says, mostly to himself since Arsinoë is too out of it to respond, "What the fuck." Then, he raises his voice a little. "Rook? You okay? Arsinoë."

At the sound of her name, her actual name, Arsinoë flinches.

What the fuck.

The doors creak open again. He hears the distinctive thunk of Neve's prosthetic against the stone floors followed by a sharp inhale as she catches sight of Arsinoë

"What's going on here?" Neve demands. Her reaction Davrin understands; immediately, she's at Rook's side, hands already starting to glow faintly with what is likely healing magic. "I thought you were headed to Arlathan. Was there trouble?"

"Not exactly," Davrin grimaces, watching as Rook (predictably) lifts her head a little at that last word, the one they all like to pretend he doesn't know Neve has taken to using as some sort of pet name for their glorious leader. Normally that would be his cue to take Assan and flee, but now he's just glad the Rook is reacting to something.

"Neve?" Rook asks, shifting in her seat, then gently pushing at Assan to make room for Neve to settle beside her. "Neve, you shouldn't drink the tea."

"The tea?" Neve asks, reaching up to brush a stray curl out of Arsinoë's face, "What tea?"

"Mmm. The tea. Ask Assan. My head is starting to hurt."

"Ask... Assan?" Predictably, Neve places the back of her hand against Arsinoë's forehead, a slight chill creeping into the air. Even more predictably, she looks back sharply at Davrin.

"Look, in my defense, Emmrich said it was fine. I drank the tea. I'm fine. But Rook..."

What Neve would have said to that, Davrin will never know because the doors open again. Lucanis strides in, too rushed to walk carefully and silence the clinking of his weapons. In his hands, he holds a clay pitcher and one of his own favorite cups, one of the ones from that fancy tea set.

Lucanis hesitates briefly, staring openly at the way Arsinoë pressing her face into Neve's hand, the way Neve is pulling Arsinoë closer, bracing her. His expression goes dark and yet when Neve catches his eye he nods, seeming... grateful?

Weird Crow shit.

"Arsinoë, you need to drink this. Hopefully it will help." Rook shudders against Neve, but Lucanis persists. "Viago is back in Treviso, I promise. He needs to know nothing, but you need water."

"Wait, Viago?" Neve asks, "The Fifth Talon? What does he have to do with this?"

"That's what I want to know," Davrin agrees. It's not like he ever though the Crows were great people, but it doesn't explain why Rook is reacting like this just from seeing Lucanis, why she keeps begging that no one tell the man who is supposed to be her mentor that she... what, accidentally been drugged? That doesn't seem like something a thirty year old assassin should be afraid of, much less to this extent.

Maybe it is the tea. It has to be the tea. Because why else would Rook be acting this way about Lucanis? Normally she's the first to reassure him, to seek him out and assure him that the demon shoved inside his skull doesn't scare her, but now she's refusing to take a cup because he poured it.

Lucanis looks wounded at that, brown eyes gone unreasonably soft and sad. Finally, he hands the cup off to Neve and unbuttons his Crow-purple cape, shrugging it off to the floor. Rook's shoulders slump a little at that, and Lucanis must take it as a sign because the next thing Davrin knows, the man is putting a hand on Rook's knee.

(It occurs to him again that maybe he shouldn't be here, but worry roots Davrin in his spot.)

"Rook, it's just water. I promise, cara. If Emmrich wants to give you a potion, I promise to check it first, but this is just water. I give you my word."

It's probably a sign of trust that despite the fact Rook gets somehow paler at the mention of "potions", ultimately she caves and lets Neve help her raise the cup to her lips. Lucanis reaches for the pitcher again, and she lets him pour more into the cup before her head slumps against Neve's shoulder.

For a moment, the three of them who are sober sit (or crouch or stand) locked in a moment of awkward silence. Arsinoë is never this touchy, at least not when Davrin's around. And even if it's different when she's in private with Neve and Lucanis, it doesn't make her behavior less strange.

"Lucanis," Neve asks finally, when Arsinoë seems to show no further reaction, "What is going on?"

"Rook is House de Riva," the Crow replies as if that answers everything somehow, then adds "They're famous for their poisons, at least since Viago became Talon."

"Esma too," Rook mutters from Neve's shoulder without opening her eyes.

"And the Talon before Viago had a knack for them as well," Lucanis agrees, hand back to hovering over Rook's knee as if he's still uncertain his touch will be welcome. "Though not as much as Viago."

"She said something about daily doses of venoms at the breakfast table," Neve remembers. She looks about as happy about that as Davrin feels.

It takes effort not to turn that discomfort back on Lucanis, but it wouldn't be fair to snap at the man when he's looking at Rook like that. "So what... Rook was more sensitive to the tea because she grew up being poisoned? Is this some kind of bad interaction or-"

"No." Lucanis replies, the reconsiders. "Well, some of it, maybe. But that's not why she was asking about Viago."

Davrin's hands twitch with the need to grab Lucanis's overly decorative lapels and demand a clearer answer, but Neve-

"She's afraid of being punished. Her teacher is a poisoner, and she let herself drink from a tainted cup."

Neve's voice quavers on the word punished, unable to hide entirely behind her normal stoicism, but her eyes are hard, with a glint like steel. Davrin just feels cold again as Lucanis nods in confirmation.

"Yes. Crow houses do not all train their Fledglings the same, but none of them tolerate stupid mistakes. If a de Riva found themselves so easily poisoned, without even checking, I would not doubt that the next cup from their seniors would be punishment and lesson both."

"Bastards," Davrin bites out, thinking of Uncle Eldrin and the berries. The cramps and hallucinations had been the lesson, not the preface for more punishment to come. Intense punishment, if Rook's reaction isn't just the heightened emotions caused by the tea.

Lucanis is still looking at Rook with those wounded eyes, still not-quite-touching, even though she seemed to relax when he shed the cape. But the resignation has crept back into his voice like a weight, and he only shrugs at Davrin's swearing.

"Thus is the life of a Crow. We can't afford to make mistakes. Our teachers know this."

"You won't do it twice," Arsinoë agrees, sound almost like she's quoting something. "Because you remember." Sitting up just enough to sip at the cup again, she still hesitates, eyes fluttering as she glances at Lucanis, waiting for his nod of reassurance before drinking.

Davrin's gut churns at the careless way she says it, at Lucanis's total acceptance.

(He was the one who poured her the tea. It was his idea to ask Emmrich about the truffles.)

"Well." Neve says. "I dare say we've all learned some things today. No need to tell Viago. Or anyone else."

"No," Lucanis agrees.

Rook gives a little sigh at that before her hand darts out to catch Lucanis's. "My head still hurts," she complains.

Davrin turns towards the staircase immediately, suddenly sure he wanted to be far, far away from all this. "I'll go find Emmrich. Assan-"

But the griffon had dropped into what Davrin recognizes as a guarding stance, as if set to protect an injured member of the flock. Well, for once Davrin has no compunctions about leaving the feather brain behind with the Crows. And Neve, of course.

"Assan can stay here as chaperone."

He takes the stairs two at a time, all but bolting towards Emmrich's study. The last glance back before he darts into Emmrich's hallway, he sees Neve helping Arsinoë pull Lucanis out of his crouch and towards the little two seater.

[henke-penke]

time to wrap this bad boy up

Niagara brawls

Blaineley has entered the chat

The pairs for this challenge are; Alejandro-Courtney, Noah-Sierra, Tyler-Blaineley, Eva-Gwen. This is also the order they complete the challenge.

Alejandro and Courtney are killing it. I know that in canon Alejandro said it'd be unwise to appear too strong early in the merge, but here he has a secured alliance so I think he can show off a little more. Courtney did well in canon, all things considered, and with a partner who respects her, she's unstoppable.

Noah and Sierra would be nowhere near as good but they'd still be a solid duo. Especially since Sierra is free of the canon Cody-curse and can properly lock in.

Tyler and Blaineley... yikes.

Eva and Gwen = Toxic yuri let's go !

The votes end up being tied: Eva (Alejandro, Courtney, Gwen, Tyler) and Tyler (Eva, Noah, Sierra, Blaineley). There's no way Tyler's beating Eva so, bye bye king.

Chinese Fake-out

With the alliances now being tied for numbers, Blaineley becomes the swing vote. Something she's well aware of and thus doesn't make an alliance with Chef.

In my head both alliances come up with the same plan; one/two of them will focus on winning, whereas the other will work on convincing Blaineley to join their side.

For the Alejandro-Courtney-Gwen alliance it's the former who does the convincing, because not only is he good at it but the other two aren't fans of Blaineley and can't readily hide that distaste like Alejandro. (We get some small bits of them having beef here and there to solidify this).

For the Eva-Noah-Sierra alliance it's the former's job to focus on the challenge. Noah will argue that there's no way he's going to convince anyone of anything, to which Sierra will point out that they're two on the task and that if Noah can take his wine-aunt-energy up a notch then he might end up being more likable than the rest to Blaineley.

So then on the wall Blaineley will get to the rickshaw first, but instead of Chef pulling her it'll be Alejandro and Sierra bickering over who gets to do it. It sorta ends with them both pulling it, but in the middle of an argument they'll step on one of the landmines and Alejandro is sent flying. Cue Sierra looking around like "Oh mi gosh, where did he go? Anyways-"

(During the race Eva will also pull a real bro move and throw Noah the last bit, hurling him straight into the gong because I think that'd be hilarious.)

Courtney wins the challenge. Though during it we get wine-aunt Noah, who is actually successful in getting Blaineley to like him. Which means she has picked her side.

Before voting, the Eva-Noah-Sierra alliance plus Blaineley gather, ready to finally say bye-bye to Alejandro. Except, Blaineley has other plans. See, while she does favor their alliance, she will only vote with them if they vote for the person she wants gone; which would've been Courtney, but since she's immune she'll settle for Gwen. ("You guys vote with me. If not, I'll just join the other guys, who will be more than happy to send either one of you home. And I don't wanna do that, because you guys are far more tolerable. So, what will it be?")

(Let Blaineley be nasty and threatening please.)

The trio is obviously frustrated with this, and Eva might even go for an attack when Noah stops her. Before either she or Sierra can say anything, he agrees to Blaineley's terms; they'll vote for Gwen.

When he's questioned about it later, Noah will reason that while he's pissed off at her, Blaineley's plan isn't necessarily dumb. Getting rid of Gwen means getting rid of an ally to Alejandro, meaning he'll be one vote weaker and they'll be four against two. ("Alejandro has believed he's in charge of this game since day one, let him sweat a bit before we take him down.")

Voting arrives and with four votes against her, Gwen takes the drop. HOWEVER, she's not going alone, Blaineley is disqualified for a technicality with the second chance challenge. And we are down to our final five.

African Lying Safari

Another episode in which Eva is absolutely thriving.

In the meantime, Alejandro and Courtney are locked in to the extreme. They have to win, and they have to win together. Somehow. Because they know they're both targets and have the numbers against them.

They have a cute little scene where they indirectly acknowledge each other as friends. It's disguised as strategy and for the game, like "Well it doesn't matter which one of us wins, we're doomed either way, so let's win it together" something like that. It makes sense in my head.

Noah is fighting for his life, but he's still fighting. (He's having fun with his friends he just won't admit it.)

It's canon typical chaos on the Serengeti, but in the end, the victors are Alejandro and Courtney, who hug upon realizing neither one of them is going home.

In economy class we find Eva, Noah, and Sierra being anxious over the elimination, knowing that it's going to be one of them. Sierra will suggest they all vote for themselves and just let what happens happen, but Noah opposes. "We still have the numbers against them." "But they're both immune. We can't vote for either of them." "No, but we can keep them from winning."

At the elimination ceremony, Alejandro and Courtney are ready to say goodbye to Eva. But she won't be taking the drop of shame; Noah is. Because he can't beat Alejandro, but Eva can.

Rapa Phooey

At the start of this episode, Eva and Sierra have a bonding moment that kinda boils down to Sierra expressing admiration for Eva prowess, painting her assertiveness and strength in a way more positive light than Eva is used to outside her friend group. She will return the sentiment, being less awkward than she expected, and commend Sierra's social skills.

They're friends, your honor.

Up in first class we've got Alejandro and Courtney being satly over the previous elimination ceremony.

Rest of the episode plays out similar to canon. Bird hatches, is attached to Eva, Sierra calls it some fuckshit name (NOT Cody Jr. fuck that).

Eva wins, but it's a reward challenge. It's mostly a squad and bonding type episode.

Awwwww Drumheller!

Eva and Sierra must be turned against each other, and Alejandro knows just what to do. Instead of banking on Sierra's Cody obsession, which thank god doesn't exist here, Alejandro will make it appear as if Eva doesn't value Sierra, calling back to the Cody situation in Paris. It's super effective.

While I'm unsure of what evidence he will use, Eva will be able to disprove it in the end, most likely paired with some admittance to her own insecurities and a declaration that they are friends.

Alejandro and Courtney might rock with a similar sentiment to Tanzania where they have to win it together. Although here it will be more relaxed as they observe Sierra turn her back on Eva.

(If Courtney knows of Alejandro's trick, I'm not sure.)

When it comes to the boulder, it's Courtney who gets stuck under it. Eva will come to her aid, but will only help if Courtney agrees to vote Alejandro. ("Are you seriously expecting a friendship finale? That he'll just let you win? Come on. You're smarter than that.") Courtney will refuse at first, but reluctantly agrees.

At the same time, Sierra and Alejandro have their own confrontation where Alejandro questions Sierra's choice of alliance. "I thought you were joining our side, amiga." "I said I'd think about it. Jeez, you're not that hot." "And you think you've made the right choice?" "Considering we've been one step ahead of you this entire time, yes very much."

Sierra still makes her cake, this time as a farewell Alejandro cake in disguise. She blows up the plane and is medically evacuated, saving Alejandro from elimination.

Planes, Train, and Hot Air Mobiles

Reveal of Courtney's betrayal, which she'll defend to hell and back as something she was forced into and that there could've been a chance at a tiebreaker he could've won. But there wasn't, and Alejandro storms off. Courtney yells a bit at Eva before doing the same.

Don't have too much to say about the travel part beyond these three are at each other's throats.

I do want Alejandro and Eva on the train though and I want them to chew each other out and point out their flaws. Leader-on-leader violence if you could believe it.

During the boat race, Courtney and Eva will start chewing each other out, leaving Alejandro to claim the first spot in the finale, and them tying for second.

Note that when the fighting happens, I want there to be a focus on Eva's tendency to destroy things, or even how that's all she does, like Courtney goes as far as saying Eva destroyed her friendship with Alejandro. For the theme of everything, ya know

Aloha, Finale!

Not a fan of pitting two queens against each other but Eva and Courtney are in a tiebreaker. Going by canon in that everybody believes the winner will be determined by a vote of the peanut gallery, Alejandro might feel screwed whichever way it goes, but would prefer a finale with Courtney despite still being hurt.

It is, however, Eva who comes out victorious. (My reasoning being that Courtney is still hung up on her ruined friendship and thus not fully in the game. Her and Eva are pretty evenly matched, but ultimately I do think Eva wins, even without the hurt, but feel free to disagree.)

It's Eva versus Alejandro versus the Volcano !!

Noah and Izzy will help Eva, with Owen having surfed for her during the aftermath. On Alejandro's side we've got Courtney and Tyler as his helpers, and Tyler as his surfer most likely (Gwen would've played for Courtney).

They're evenly matched for the dummy building, but team Alejandro will win it.

Eva gets trapped in the cage to which Alejandro, after having crossed the river, will turn around and say "Guess you couldn't beat me after all."

Eva has an angry breakdown and is ready to give up when the rest of team E-scope comes to her aid. They give their motivational speech in true E-scope fashion (aka kinda unhinged for everybody else) but the main sentiment of focus is Noah circling back to their talk in Australia with the line, "You've made it this far, no way are you giving up now." which is what really sets off Eva.

If she loses, then so be it, but like hell is that lost going to happen with her trapped in a cage. Queen.

On the volcano, we get Alejandro and Eva straight-up fighting. Eva is very much in her element, and Alejandro is more... shall I say unhinged ? Either way, it's an even match to make either winner more believable than just... grabbed the wrong dummy (fresh what the fuck was that ??)

But Eva is the winner in my heart <3

And scene.

That, my friends, was World Tour but with Eva instead of Duncan !

Fuck it,

World Tour but with Eva instead of Duncan !!!

Some plot points I conjured up while procrastinating my illustration

Eva ends up on Team Chris Is Really Really Really Really Hot.

She's almost immediately wary of Alejandro, but will write it off since she's not good with people, so it's likely just her reading into things wrong.

However, this changes in Germany, when Noah makes note of his own suspicions.

Owen is the one medically evacuated in Jamaica.

Team E-scope wins the challenge in London, and because there is no Duncan to capture, Team Amazon loses. And realistically, Heather would be voted out, sad but true

This means that Alejandro is in a bit of a situation, because Noah and Eva are both onto him and they along with Izzy have the majority vote on their team. (Which, they've technically had since day one, but Alejandro wasn't aware of their suspicions of him prior, he didn't see it as a threat)

His best strategy is then to take away that advantage. Because of his interaction with Izzy in the Paris episode, I'm going to say that Alejandro manages to convince her to vote herself, and Izzy leaves in Area 51.

Because of this Team Chris now has to stay on a winning streak where Eva and Noah will try their damn hardest to get Tyler to vote with them. Which will be a fucking task because he and Alejandro are friends.

And quickly for the Amazons. Because there's no Duncan, Courtney and Gwen can properly establish a friendship. Absolutely not without a handful of hiccups along the ride, but it'll be much more stable without him being there and they can actually talk out any issues they may have.

If we're rolling with the canon of Team Victory being eliminated in the first half of the season, then the players making the merge will be; Alejandro, Eva, Noah, Tyler, Courtney, Gwen, and Sierra (Cody is eliminated in Australia I have my reasons trust). Which means that with the addition of Blaineley, we get an f/f couple in the wedding challenge hell yeah !!

Oh and Eva makes final four because she's awesome like that

[burning-sol]

You know what? I realise why the Sinsmas episode is pissing me off so much, it's because it's juggling so many different ideas that it doesn't spend enough time committed to a single one. Let me just break it down the way I see it...

The first idea we're introduced to is one about Stolas' depression but then when he sits down with Blitz we're introduced to the idea of Stolas' poverty.

The previous ideas are what you think that the episode might focus on until you get hit with the Octavia B-Plot. Okay! A-Plot is about depression and poverty, B-Plot is about Stolas not being able to contact Octavia... (I might be using those terms incorrectly, but you get the idea,)

But THEN you get Sinsmas introduced which is about the idea of indulging in your sins, which is shown to be important to the audience because it's expressed in dialogue, right? Wait, no, it's about Stolas's depression/poverty, okay then....

But THEN you cut to the office and we get a Millie and Moxxie bonding scene, so you think, "wait, is there going to be another DIFFERENT plotline introduced into this episode about their relationship??" AND YOU GET MORE ABOUT SINSMAS, multiple shots about the holiday and the idea of indulging in your sins!! So wait, the idea of Sinsmas IS an individual idea from the depression/poverty point? Or isn't it??

Stolas sobs on the phone, there's a very obvious depression/poverty breakdown, but then we get MORE NEW SHIT introduced because it's about Stolas' cheating. And I understand that that's meant to tie into Octavia's B-plot, but there's a subtle difference between that and THIS that adds another layer of shit on top (elaborated on later).

Which, BTW, I just wanna point out how this idea is contradictory to the Sinsmas idea since CHEATING is about INDULGING in LUST - as is established in your PREVIOUS. IMPORTANT. SEASON ONE FINALE... So WHY would you make a character shame a sin that's meant to be in the process of being celebrated which confuses the Sinsmas idea and was also the CORE of the Stolitz will-they-won't-they before now?? If it was to trigger Stolas' breakdown you already HAD the poverty story beat, this is just needless and confusing redundancy??

So then we actually get to Octavia and we get a scene about the idea of Stolas and Octavia not being able to get in contact with each other - the B-Plot - and followed by her introspective song and the discovery of Stolas' pills. And now we suddenly feel like we're back to where we were MEANT to be, with the Octavia B-Plot taking a pause to cut back to the Depression A-Plot. This builds up tension as we naturally feel the two characters drawn together.

And theeeen it cuts to the I.M.Ps and I'm banging my head against the wall because you're like, "Oh! The Millie and Moxxie relationship idea! This is going to be about them!"

But then OH MY GOD a NEW idea is introduced about Blitz wanting a FAMILY WITH STOLAS. I want to shoot someone because the cheating was a set up for Blitz to fantasise about wanting a family??? Is this meant to be a parallel to episode 1??? Am I meant to feel like Blitz has developed as a character?? In an episode that has been about every character OTHER than Blitz???

And then it's meant to be likeee like about Millie's pregnancy because she wants to kill the family instead of leaving them be, but it's also about Moxxie's relationship with her, but it's ALSO about being "demon enough" (WHATEVER THAT IS, IT'S NEVER ELABORATED ON), but it's also ALSO about Sinsmas.

Okay! Okay, back to the REAL plot except- Wait, Octavia walked in??? Wait, so this plot is now about Blitz wanting a family and he's going to bond with Octavia?? No! NO because they don't have any emotional connection and so there is no reason for this scene to exist if either way Blitz was going to know where Stolas went and Octavia was going to end up there as well anyways.

And can you tell I'm tired of writing at this point? Cus I'm losing my mind. FINALLY the A-plot and B-plot that should have been the center of the episode all along gets a fuck ton of screentime and it's beautiful and it's the peak of the episode.

And theeen it's back to Millie and you think, "Okay, so a big part of the pregnancy plot is clearly meant to be about Millie and Moxxie's relationship based on all the scenes we've gotten between them! That means that Millie and Moxxie are going to have some sort of important dialogue-" And then she WALKS OUT on him and she has her emotional moment with her sister! Which isn't a bad thing but need I remind you she isn't even in the center a FULL LENGTH episode, she's from a SHORT... WHY would you NOT integrate Sallie into a proper episode if she's going to be key to a future INCREDIBLY important plotline??

The episode ends with Blitz and Stolas and the credits roll blah blah blah...

This post is basically expands on some of the points of my post about my first impressions, because I just wanted to give a run down of the structure properly so you can understand why this episode is making me feel like I'm losing it. And I get it, if you put in the effort you can get an idea of how all the ideas were meant to tie together... But it doesn't! It's badly written! It makes me want to rip my hair out!

Ideas are established and then sit there uncomfortably without resolutions to them! Like even the shit. That was meant to be the main shit. The poverty and depression stuff? NO conclusion. Stolas says, "you don't have to refer to me as your highness" I guess?? But like, nothing to show him settling in with everyone else in the celebration to show he's like. Poor? And okay with it? By partaking in the holiday of those that are meant to be "beneath" him? No mention of his medication???

Just!! Okay. To understand the way shit in the writing could have been better, let me list some ways you could change the episode to be more coherent or cut down on redundancy if my points have so far not landed.

Establish Sallie towards the BEGINNING of the episode and her dynamic with Millie, and show how that compares to her relationship with Moxxie, and show WHY she would call Sally instead of talking with Moxxie first. If you're going to make the episode about family btw, this would be the point where Millie could bring up HER family and how much she values them or something in order to establish that as being important. Also, use this to explore what Millie and Moxxie's feelings on having a baby WOULD be, so that if there's conflict there then you have more understanding of why Millie made the decision she did.

Use the actual environment in the background of the montage to show the passage of time instead of it suddenly being Sinsmas. Have demons setting up holiday decorations, in the stores put up discount signs about a "Sinsmas sale!" This makes the story flow more naturally, as well as adds characterisation and makes Stolas' depression more real as he's shown to be so absorbed in his own world he doesn't even realise it's the holiday until Blitz brings it up.

Octavia's phone and the device she listens to music on is the same (I checked S1E2 to confirm it), which causes a sloppy writing issue. Like. If the episode is meant to show Stella is controlling and it's not Octavia's choice not to get in contact with Stolas, then you need to explain why she hasn't called him despite having access to her phone when Stella isn't around. If it were me, I would have had Stella lock it in a drawer that Octavia picks the lock on so she can listen to her music. THEN you can keep the original scene, OR (this is what I would have done) have her check her phone logs so you can see not only how many times Stolas has called but how much time has passed. Maybe this could also be used as another reason to drive her towards the closet as she hides from Stella and Andrealphus. Maybe this could be used as an interesting metaphor about her desire to leave but she doesn't know what she's going to do once she picks the lock on the door... Like how she could call her Dad now that she has her phone but she doesn't know what she'll do when she does... Something like that.

DON'T have Blitz and Via meet up if they're not going to interact. That entire scene is fucking pointless as is and I hate it. Either dedicate a PROPER amount of time and dialogue into making Blitz want to and try to connect with Via, or have them not talk at all. Cut out the whole thing about Blitz wanting a family with Stolas honestly, it's just not well explored enough.

Again with the sloppy writing, the gang did NOT need to stumble into a room of weapons to have weapons. That's pointless. They're assassins, they've been established to bring a stash of weapons with them to fights before. I can think of something much funnier where Moxxie is surprised by Loona's transformation and there's a joke made about her being a noble steed and Moxxie pulls out a sword only for Millie to be like, "Why did you bring that?" And Moxxie says something about how it's a posh weapon cus that's his thing. OR you could have some badass impromptu weapons the gang makes from the ice or they use Sinsmas decorations scattered around. IDK.

Already made my point about Stolas and the poverty idea. Show him settling in with the others during the celebration and him opening up to the idea that he's no longer rich or well respected. The "you don't have to refer to me as your highness" would work if the text bothered to show his mental state properly, instead of him just looking depressed and like he kind of hates everyone there.

Have Blitz PLEASE react to Stolas' depression. Like. Acknowledge it. And share his feelings about it. AND GIVE STOLAS HIS MEDICATION FFS he clearly has clinical depression!! Blitz is sooo head empty in this episode, PLEASE give him more internal thoughts other than :) I'm holding my head in my hands.

And I'm so tired of writing at this point I'm going to stop it there but I hope that was thorough enough to get across my points. And if not then I guess that speaks to how loopy this episode made me that I can't even articulate myself 100% because dear god.

[lost-in-fandoms]

Winter warmers day 23 version 2: small cock(erel). aka a chick. No pairings. About 1.2k words. This is very silly and partially inspired by this post.

It happens on a Sunday, luckily after the race is over. One moment Max is standing beside him, distractedly grabbing his bottle while looking at the data GP is pointing at, and the next he's gone.

GP blinks, startled and confused, as the sound of the bottle falling to the ground gets swallowed by the noise of the busy garage.

He looks around, sure that he will just find Max one step away, but Max isn't there. The mechanics are still there, as is Jonathan, hunched over his notes just two stools away. Everything looks the same it did ten seconds ago except...no Max.

GP blinks again, rubbing his eyes. He knows he's tired, it's been a long weekend at the end of a long triple header, but he is not this tired. There is no way he would just imagine Max being there, especially since the water bottle is still very much on the ground, and there is no way he would just miss Max leaving.

So the only explanation is that Max has disappeared in thin air. Which is not much of an explanation at all.

"John?" he calls, reaching over to tap Jonathan's arm. He's not sure what his face is doing at the moment, but it must be something weird, because Jonathan's expression goes from distracted and mildly annoyed to very focused immediately.

"What's happening?" he asks, reaching for the headphones around his neck as if he's expecting to have missed some information from there.

Except it's much worse, and weirder, than that.

GP opens his mouth, pauses, then closes it again. He knows there is no way to make this sound less crazy than it is, but he would love to find a way anyway.

"Have you, uh, seen Max?" he starts cautiously.

Maybe he is more tired than he thought. Maybe he did miss Max leaving, or maybe he's been speaking to himself the whole time.

Or maybe not, given how Jonathan is looking at him.

"Max? Verstappen? Who was here just a second ago?"

"Do we have other Maxs?" GP can't help to ask back, rolling his eyes a little. Okay, he is acting weird, he knows that, but there's no need to ask stupid questions.

Except, maybe there is.

"He was here, right?"

Jonathan's left eyebrow jumps towards his hairline, as he swivels around on the stool, giving GP his undivided attention.

"Are you feeling okay? Do you need medical?"

Yeah, that's fair. Maybe GP does, because this is absurd.

He sighs, dragging a hand down his face and sitting on the stool right next to Jonathan's.

"I am fine, but..." he pauses again, but it's useless to hesitate at this point. "I lost Max."

The second eyebrow joins the other high up on Jonathan's forehead.

"You lost Max," he repeats, skeptic but not dismissive. Yet.

"I know how it sounds, but he was here right next to me," GP finally explains, pointing at the very clearly empty space near them, "and then he dropped his bottle and disappeared."

Jonathan looks down at the bottle, still on the floor, then up again at GP.

"He didn't step away?"

GP is very grateful for Jonathan for many reasons, but the fact that he is actually listening and not just dragging him to medical is one of them. He doesn't think there would be many people willing to entertain this madness just because they trust GP.

He shakes his head, then points to the bottle again.

"I swear, he grabbed his bottle, and one second later he was gone. He wouldn't have had time to get to the other side of the garage."

Jonathan nods, frowning now, and then he stands up.

"We better find him, then."

And maybe they're both crazy, but it's nice to not be crazy alone.

--

It's Calum in the end who finds him.

When it's clear that Max isn't anywhere around the garage, Jonathan and GP give up and alert everyone else. They still try to keep it on the down low, because losing the current world champion isn't a great look for the team, but it's all hands on deck, spreading around the paddock trying to look as inconspicuous as possible.

Christian gives them an hour before he alerts the police.

Calum finds the chick when the time is running out and they're regrouping in the garage. He bends down to pick up Max's abandoned water bottle, and finds it there, right under the desk, hiding scared in a dark corner.

"Hello, buddy," he croons, trying to not scare the little chick even more. "How did you get here?"

He's expecting to have to do some serious coaxing to get the baby out of its corner, except that as soon as his hand is close enough, the chick is scrambling for it, high-pitched chirps falling from its little open beak.

Calum emerges from below the desk with a ball of agitated yellow feathers in his palm, and a puzzled expression on his face.

"Where did you find that?" someone asks, as he's trying to calm the little chick down, shushing it and brushing its ruffled feathers with one finger.

"Under the desk, right next to Max's water," he explains. As soon as he says Max's name the chick, who had started to settle, chirps again, louder and more distressed than before, pecking lightly at Calum's hand.

It takes them a while longer to understand what it means, and it's actually Jonathan who figures it out.

"Max," he calls, looking at the chick still safely in Calum's hand, a circle of team members around them.

The chick chirps, flaps its little wings.

Someone swears.

"Can you peck Calum's hand lightly if you are Max?" Jonathan asks, maintaining an impressive straight face.

The chick chirps, then pecks Calum's hand. Not very lightly.

Yeah, that's definitely Max, the little shit.

Turns out that someone had slipped a potion into Max's water. Which is a relief, because they could easily find an antidote, and very worrying, because that could have easily been something more dangerous.

As it is, Christian tells the police Max has been found, everyone agrees to be more careful with what gets handed to Max to drink, eat, or even just wear, and GP is the one who ends up with the task of keeping Max safe until the antidote is found.

"Stay," he tells Max, using his best stern voice, when he tries once again to fling himself off the desk to go wander around. GP is not too afraid he will hurt himself falling from this height, even if he's pretty sure Max can't fly, but he's so small, just a handful of feathers, and GP would probably get fired if he lost him again. Would definitely get fired if someone stepped on him.

"Don't make me put you in the cup," he threatens, pointing at an empty cup on the desk holding a few pencils, "you can still pay attention to the data, I'm pretty sure."

Max chirps at him, something surprisingly sassy for a thing so little.

A couple hours later, when Rupert comes find them with a little vial of antidote in his hand, GP is still looking at data and Max is a soft ball of yellow feathers, asleep in the cup.

[sepublic]

IDW Transformers’ take on the war and the origins of the Decepticons was one of those things that was rly thoughtful and interesting to read as a kid (so as the target demographic I guess lol) only as an adult to have some rly troubling implications like the ones you pointed out. I was EXTREMELY relieved that TF One swapped it back so that the Autobots are the low-class miners and the Decepticons were the military (closer to the original cartoon anyway) while still using the IDW comics as inspiration in other ways.

Transformers One is such a strange case for me because on the one hand, it's propaganda. I'm sorry but it's transparently propaganda, it's executives embracing IDW's attempt at "maturity" that well-intentioned or not, inevitably paints the revolutionaries as villains by having them arbitrarily blow up an orphanage, because we gotta demonize revolutionaries who use violence.

We gotta warn kids of the dangers of the violent revolution, because revolution is only permitted if peaceful! Let's just ignore what we were taught about the American Revolution... Seriously, look at the elites' response to Brian Thompson's assassination!

That being said. This is like 95% speculation. But there are clear differences between IDW and Transformers One. So to me, personally, it feels like the writers —Eric Pearson, Andrew Barrer, and Gabriel Ferrari— were aware of the issues of the IDW premise. They were given a basic outline by executives. And so they opted to smooth over the issues as much as they could, work with it, while still being stuck with that basic problem at the end of the day.

So as you've said, I appreciate Orion and D-16 being working-class bots, that they're both coming from the same place. I appreciate the framing of Orion's opposition coming from the concept of Anti-Death Penalty, that no government should have the power to execute people. I appreciate the implications of D-16 siding with disgruntled military soldiers, whose only idea of fixing society is to destroy enemies.

There's something to be said about people who fantasize purely on committing violence, without any of the actual work of rebuilding and keeping things running! That's why Orion's rebellion consists of his fellow miners. I can see the implication, that even if D-16 hadn't gone off, there would inevitably be friction between the High Guard's jingoism and the civilians when Orion reformats things, and bans the death penalty.

...But again, again! D-16 is a black man. Not literally but he's voiced by Brian Tyree Henry, anyone can hear his voice. And his chanting of "Rise up" is juxtaposed with Orion Pax, who is voiced by white MCU star Chris Hemsworth. It feels ridiculous how the movie bends over backwards to paint D-16 as evil with shots of civilians running away from the convenient collateral of his shots, but nothing like that is ever shown with our protagonists and their damage!

B slicing up other Cybertronians is treated as a gag, but Sentinel's life and death matters more than his guards' which is uh. A weird way to frame things. I guess maybe it's because D-16 is doing it out of "reckless anger" whereas B isn't trying to...? But ultimately, the violence of our protagonists is meant to be framed as out of strict necessity, which is something I have to acknowledge.

I can't say for sure what Pearson, Barrer, and Ferrari were thinking. I appreciate Transformers One for smoothing out the edges. But I can't help but see D-16 as a pastiche of BLM activists, of the UHC shooter, because he's willing to be angry and violent towards his oppressors. He's a black man who gets branded and his violence is treated as exceptional and unique because of his anger, meanwhile B's kills are a gag.

There's an irony in that Sentinel's higher-class life is treasured by the narrative, but the lives of his comparatively lower-class bodyguards are worth nothing. The pervasiveness, it felt insidious; It genuinely kept me from enjoying the final battle between Optimus and Megatron, how the narrative wants to be triumphant but the dark undertone can’t be ignored. Call me a buzzkill.

I know people think this sort of trope is meant to be 'nuanced', that it makes for a more 'interesting' villain, one you can relate to and sympathize with. See yourself in. But in the end, you can only go so far in "reclaiming" a stereotype. You can't be in utter denial of the subtext and intention behind it. You can't claim this is actually good writing, I thought we were liking these villains out of spite, not in support of a narrative we think is secretly on our side too!

That executives need a revolution story where the ultimate villain who causes even more violence in the long run is, GASP, a revolutionary who shows people like them no mercy, is telling. There can only be a revolution in media if it shows the elite being deliberately spared at all costs, even to the point of Orion sacrificing his own life (Even if for D-16’s soul), while their own workers like those bodyguards are just fodder.

G1 was not the pinnacle of Leftist media but it was also inoffensive and knew what it was. This is… different.

[aranarumei]

what would separate hirano and kagiura?

so. about that preview of the adult au… I’m sure everyone’s wrecked right now. and I. have some thoughts.

so like, for the adult au to exist at all, harusono sensei has to contrive a situation for both hirano & kagiura to not get their romantic drama in high school, and the same applies for sasaki & miyano. it’d be easy to say that these couples are separated just because they need to be, but i think it’s worth giving them a look. under the cut because i'm being thorough.

for sasaki & miyano, it’s simply that they never meet past their first meeting. hirano doesn’t tell sasaki what miyano's class is, and that’s that. kinda mundane, isn’t it? like… cmon, you’d expect sasaki to try a little harder.

except. well. if there’s any word that defines the sasaki of middle school and most of his first year of high school, I’d say it was apathy. I think sasaki's got a very strange relationship with the idea of force—he uses too much of it on his sister once and subsequently avoids using any kind of physical strength to an extreme degree. he doesn’t break up that fight in the beginning by brawling, and when those kids retaliate he doesn’t hit back (ch 1, 2, and 4 of sasaki and miyano show these scenes, but it's ch 2 of sasaki and miyano: first years that explicitly confirms that sasaki threw no punches) and in a friendly arm wrestling competition he uses basically none of his strength at all (2020 sosenkyo extras). he’s careful in how he speaks to miyano and he feels bad for asking him to quit the crossdressing competition (ch 23, sasaki and miyano). he’s really patient about getting his answer.

in its best form, I think sasaki & miyano's relationship is about Care—miyano is so into his interests and so bright about them, and i think that overwhelming sincerity attracts sasaki, and i think it's a large motivating force in making him a more active person. so in a certain way it makes sense that the way they "miss" each other, in this au, is something that amplifies a negative trait/feeling that exists in the original.

for hirano and kagiura, they don't room together for the next year, and then... they drift apart. but here's what interests me. in the adult au, kagiura gets 61st on his exams. you know what he gets in canon? 60th! that's a difference of one place—the difference is so very clearly not the grades itself, it's internal. @raihanstrapinch suggested that this is perhaps an AU where kagiura took the "one day off" mentioned in ch 19 (you can find the post here) and I think this makes sense for a one place difference! (that one place being the possible cutoff for being able to be roommates again is tragic, though)

interesting is that kagiura says that he doesn't want to look back and regret taking that day off, because then he'll never forgive himself. I think this is exactly what motivates kagiura and hirano drifting apart: shame.

in ch 18 of hirano and kagiura, the topic of "equality" in a relationship gets discussed. kagiura wants to have a relationship between equals, and so that's why they start doing stuff like taking turns waking each other up, and it's why hirano gets kagiura to teach him some basketball. this isn't a new topic, since kagiura's been wanting hirano to be needy with him for a few chapters now, and it's one that gets extended on into ch 24, where hirano makes clear that his 10 seconds is distinct from kagi. reciprocation... it's beautiful.

point is, a lot of hirano and kagiura deals with what hirano and kagiura can do for each other. that's because it's central in establishing their continual understanding of each other. hirano is learning to fall in love with kagi, little by little. they're figuring out their relationship. of special importance is how both hirano and kagiura influence each other in the spheres of basketball and studying.

basketball is obvious: in ch 1 and ch 2, hirano takes care of kagiura so that he'll recover quickly from his cold, and he also helps him handle his loss. it's in ch 17 where we really see the full scope of how it applies to both of them, though: kagiura takes his 10 seconds and gets recharged for practice, and then hirano thinks that he really wants to study right now. despite their differences, hirano and kagiura sharing space with each other makes both of them better at their goals. it's a direct repudiation of the ideas that are floated in ch 11 and ch 13: that kagiura came to the dorm to focus on his club activities, while hirano came to the dorm to focus on his studies. their focuses, then, should naturally be pulled in opposite directions. they might just end up distracting each other.

something that's fascinating about the preview of the adult au is that, after waking up, kagiura demeans himself by saying he essentially has no self-discipline / control. here it's in the context of getting basically blackout drunk, but I think it also reflects how he might've felt back then, getting that grade. he didn't have the self-discipline to balance both studying and basketball well enough, in his own opinion, and since he feels like he didn't try his very best at it ("one day off"), I think he might have concluded, personally, that it might be best to pull back. it's not the first time that kagiura's drawn back, after all: he was like this when he started reacting too much to hirano's touch, and he's still like that because he keeps carefully calculating out his 10 seconds. as hirano says in ch 23, he looks annoyingly miserable when he's like this. he worries so much about crossing the line, about not being as good as hirano thinks he is... to me it's perfectly reasonable that there's a world where kagiura retreats.

in their character descriptions for the adult au, it's noted that hirano is mostly taken up by studying and doesn't socialize much, while kagiura doesn't really talk to anyone outside of basketball-related matters. i think this really shows off that idea of the adult au kind of expanding on a theme that gets introduced in the original, but in a negative direction: instead of balancing and positively influencing each other like they do in canon, here hirano and kagiura have retreated solely into their own focuses.

i think hirano is genuinely rooting for kagiura's success in basketball. he's always so impressed by his passion for the sport, so I think here, along with kagiura's self-inflicted withdrawal, he'd probably rationalize to himself that kagiura's working hard on basketball, and it's... good for him that he's doing so. honestly he seems kind of slow on the uptake with emotions in general so even if he did circle around to thinking about reconnecting, he might've already graduated and it would've felt too weird for him. i also think that, to sort of mirror kagiura's own hard work with basketball, he'd also work hard on his studies. in some strange way, they're still powering each other forward.

[color-coded-bear]

My cats <3

Another old doodle originally posted to twitter. I will say, my Shen Qingqiu design has slightly changed since I drew this, but not enough for me to want to redraw it. =w=

Some notes about my designs:

There's actually not much to say about my designs themselves, as I feel like they're rather run of the mill. HOWEVER...

I have this little head canon that played a part in how I drew these,

The head canon is that Shen Jiu had RNF (Resting Nice Face).

And Shen Jiu learned early on to make his expression mean and cold, because it was a good tool to scare people away. And he never actually stopped, even after ascension. Partly because of habit, partly because he felt it was still necessary.

Shen Yuan, meanwhile, had the opposite problem and had RBF (Resting Bitch Face).

Shen Yuan learned to make himself look nicer and warmer, mainly because his parents pointed it out. His parents worried he'd struggle to make friends because of it, so he learned to do it in order to reassure them. Eventually he just got into the habit of changing his expression whenever he went out, and the habit followed him post transmigration.

As a result of these combined facts, after Shen Yuan transmigrates, Shen Qingqiu accidentally ends up looking much nicer.

When SQQ-Y uses his "lofty and unapproachable immortal" persona, he uses his resting face. Because he forgets to take into account the fact that while Shen Yuan's resting face made him look unapproachable, SQQ-J may not have been the same. So he never quite notices that his persona isn't as lofty and unapproachable as he believes it is. Not only that, but after breaking the OOC lock, it doesn't take long for SQQ-Y to accidentally get back into the habit of making his expression warmer whenever he goes out. He'll stop when it's pointed out, but otherwise he'll be out and about all happy looking and be none the wiser.

I like to think that if Shen Jiu transmigrated into Shen Yuan, he'd have a similar problem.

Except he'd accidentally(?) make himself look angry/scary af.

[angeliquexoxo]

"What are they like?" - General Resident Headcanons

PART 3

last part on how I think the residents would act in the mansion ←⁠(⁠*⁠꒪⁠ヮ⁠꒪⁠*⁠)

THANK YOU ALL FOR THE SUPPORT ON MY PREVIOUS POSTS 😭

As always, this is creepypasta content - expect MATURE CONTENT (swearing, talks of trauma, murder, etc!)

Clockwork

THIS GIRL. If you read the other parts of this series carefully, you would know that Clockwork has been compared a lot with other residents like Jeff. To put it simply, Clockwork is pretty much like the Joker rip-off of the mansion except she's way bolder.

Clockwork is not afraid to say what's in her mind, and doesn't care if she's committing insubordination towards the proxies. She also doesn't stand down easily- she'll continue to put up a fight literally and figuratively.

She's the only woman in the mansion who's constantly brawling with the other residents. Clockwork gets riled up easily- this causes her to in some cases act brashly. She's always ready to swing first to be honest.

Very loud and vulgar. Clockwork swears a lot to the point every sentence she says has to at least have one curse word. Is also the type to not hold back when it comes to insulting people. If Clockwork likes you, she'll be merciful, but if it's someone she despises- she'll use their insecurities or something sensitive about them and use that to insult them.

She's surprisingly not in bad terms with anyone in the mansion. Clockwork doesn't hold grudges, she may seem immature but she has a brain and knows how to use it well. Because of this, she knows that it's smart to make her housemates as long-term enemies.

She considers Jane as a close ally. She doesn't like using the term friend a lot mainly because she's worried about regretting her words. Do not expect her to be all buddy-buddy with any of the male residents. She doesn't care if any of them went through the same shit as her, she will never give her trust to any man.

Clockwork doesn't hang out with Kate or Nina. Kate is too much of a stuck-up, while she just hates Nina's vibe. Clockwork likes hanging out with Jane since she's the only one who can talk some sense into her. Jane is the only resident in the mansion for whom, I guess, Clockwork has a soft spot. If you look at it in a specific way, Clockwork is a bit like a dog for Jane. Not in a bad way, but for some reason, that's how I view their dynamic.

She's a strong woman. Clockwork is the strongest of all female residents, followed by Jane. She has more upper-body strength than strength in her lower body. She's still a fast runner though.

She's not as feminine as Nina or Jane but also isn't as masculine as Masky or Hoodie. Clockwork is right in the middle. Her hair is messily chopped and is about shoulder length maybe even longer by a bit. She doesn't care about the type of clothes she wears. Just give her a shirt and pants that fit her, and she'll be alright.

Homicidal Liu (and Sully)

Out of all of Liu's alters/alternate identities, Sully is the one who fronts the most. Sully only comes out when the host (Liu) is experiencing a strong emotion or when his trauma about his family mainly his brother is being brought up. Sully fronts during these situations because he thinks Liu will get soft thus making him very vulnerable. On some occasions, Sully will front when his host is on some missions, specifically when the targets are families who knows too much about the mansion.

When Liu is the one doing the killing, he will always stop by at an abandoned church that's not too far away from the mansion. He won't say a prayer, he will just sit on one of the pews, staring endlessly into space while holding a broken rosary.

He still has some humanity in him probably the most out of all of the residents tbh. Liu will only present himself as friendly to people who are obviously not threats. However, he can be intimidating when he's with people who are obviously annoying.

He's fairly close with Nina and Kage, maybe Jane too. After seeing both the impact and damage his brother left on Nina, he was the one who picked her up and made her stronger. Liu sees Nina as a younger sister, the little sis he didn't have growing up no offense to Jeff. Liu bonds with Kage like he's with a kid, like a fun student and teacher bond except Liu isn't teaching shit to Kage. Basically Liu tried to guide the demon to the right path? However he just accepts that Kage enjoys hanging out with Sully more. Liu tries to be on friendly terms with Jane but Sully tries to break it off between the two of them. Sully knows that there's something off with Jane and to protect his host, Sully will make it obvious to Jane that he does not like her.

Although he knows that everything won't be the same as they used to, Liu is still trying to connect with his brother Jeff. Whether it's passing by him, or when he's partnered with him on missions- he will try to make some kind of small talk with his younger brother, to which Jeff shuts down by either ignoring him or by being rudely aggressive.

He's one of the few members of the mansion that actually has some respect for the proxies. Ever since he was a kid, he has always followed the rules and tried to maintain his title of being the "good kid". That phase didn't wear out by the time he became a man and now a slave for doing a faceless creature's dirty work.

Liu is not someone to be messed with. He's not stupid when someone is obviously using him, when he does pick up the signs- he will not hesitate to snap and cut that person off. Sully will sometimes come out during situations like these but he knows that Liu has it covered to an extent.

He spends most of his time either chatting with the residents he's close with or reading a book. Sometimes he'll get tired of socializing and would usually take the time being by himself and indulging in things he likes.

Jane the Killer

I'm gonna give it to you straight, she only cares about herself. Don't get me wrong- she is not a cold-shouldered bitch but if the mansion is about to explode and the Slenderman finally has his back turned on the residents, Jane won't hesitate to run away first.

Jane is the one who has the most secrets and knows the most about the stuff happening in the mansion besides BEN and Kagekao. She actually does a good job in hiding them but pretty much every resident knows that she hides the most.

Jane is probably the most mentally-healthy person in the mansion, and it has something to do with the fact she's a realist. She is aware of the choices she has made and fully regrets going to the mansion in the first place. Jane also fully accepts that she can no longer become a part of society and be normal.

She still hates Jeff. In Jane's eyes, Jeff is still the monster responsible for her transformation and has no plans in forgiving him. She has plans on getting her revenge on him but she's just waiting for the right moment to do so.

Most residents see her as a good friend since she's the type to give good words of wisdom when needed, while others see her as someone who can't be trusted. Like I said, Jane has her secrets and she knows some of the stuff about the other residents, and it's not just basic information like hospital files.

Jane is well-respected. She doesn't disobey orders given by the proxies tho she finds loopholes to some of them, she's not a "punch first, ask later" kind of person either, and she contributes the most to the table even as a resident- always giving her input on serious matters and stuff.

One of the smarter residents too. Not in terms of book smart but street smart. She's very crafty and knows a trick or two about the new world she now lives in.

She doesn't have any enemies besides Jeff. As much as possible, Jane tries to be in neutral terms with everyone in the mansion mainly because she thinks her allies will be useful in the future.

Jane only has close bonds with Clockwork. Ever since they met, they kinda just matched each other's vibe, and no Jane does not spill on the info when she's with Clockwork. Every time Clockwork tries to ask Jane something about the residents and/or the mansion, Jane will always brush it off.

The Bloody Painter

Helen has no interest in anything happening around the mansion. He mostly keeps to himself for two reasons: one, he prefers spending his time on himself doing art, and two, he really has no interest in any of the events happening in the mansion. Fights happening in the hallway? He'll ignore the things being thrown and the yelling. A resident getting scolded by a proxy for not doing their part in the household chores? He will simply walk past them.

He likes doing things in a specific way. Helen has his own definition of what's organized and whats disorganized, you'll see his overwhelming amounts of art supplies all cluttered up on one side of his room and somehow, he will always know where certain materials are. Helen doesn't like seeing his place too clean, mainly because he starts to panic when he doesn't see his things in their usual areas.

He keeps to himself almost all of the time. Helen simply prefers being by himself most of the time, and pretty much all of the residents acknowledge this and respect his space. Some residents will be assholes though and will start shit with Helen. Keep it mind that this artist won't go down without a fight.

Even though he's mostly alone, he does have some bonds with the other members of the mansion. Particularly Jane. She enjoys Helen's talent in art and would often talk about it whenever they have the time to do so. Sometimes they'll about things over tea or when the two have free time, taking strolls around the mansion. Both Jane and Helen enjoy listening to each other's rants about certain topics, but it's mostly about art. If anything, they try to avoid dark topics like death and murder.

Although he's known to be the quiet art dude, Helen is still a killer. Pretty much everyone knows to never mess around with the quiet residents like EJ and Hoodie and Helen is no exception. Jeff learned it the hard way after starting shit with him, he got some stitches after Helen did a number on him.

Helen is considered to be one of the physically weaker residents of the mansion with BEN taking first place. Sure he can kill a family of 4, but he's no match for residents like Hoodie, Liu or even Cody- if he does end up fighting them, he's most likely gonna surrender mid-fight.

If he's not rotting in his room, making art, or having tea time with Jane- then he's out finding a specific material for one of his peculiar artworks. Blood. Mind you that Helen doesn't just get blood from random people like those from missions he was assigned to do. He only gets the blood and maybe the corpse of his muses from people he deemed beautiful by his standards.

He has a lengthy process of killing his victims for his art. First it starts with finding his muse, maybe places like the library or cafes that are located in the less populated areas of the city- then he stalks them. After stalking them for about a week or two, that's when he strikes. He'll first take about 2 large jars of blood and maybe some pictures of his Muse's corpse as a reference for his next work.

Nina the Killer

Almost every member of the mansion would put her under the nickname of "Jeff's fangirl" which WAS true, but after getting herself into the hellhole mansion, she wishes she never had an obsession over the joker rip-off of the mansion. She learned it the hard way through rejection and realizing how terrible her situation is of now being a puppet for doing a faceless being's bidding. Although her Jeff obsession is now gone, she's still, in a way, delusional- thinking she can go back to being normal and you know, be accepted.

Once you get to know her, she's a very nice person despite the killing. Nina is not the type to judge people at all since she knows what it's like to be overlooked or to be written off.

She doesn't express a lot of positive emotions when she's around most of the residents. She'll only show how excited or how happy she is when she's with people she can comfortably express her true feelings mainly because she's scared of people calling her annoying for doing so, which happened before.

Nina would spend most of her time in her room, mostly just doing things to entertain herself like watching movies, listening to music, trying out different fashion styles, etc. She'll only leave her room to get food, when there's a meeting, or when she's assigned to do a mission by the proxies.

Unfortunately, she's not very close with any of the female residents in the mansion. Clockwork finds her annoying with her presence alone while Kate has no plans in socializing with her. Jane is a bit difficult to decipher. She doesn't have it out for Nina not anymore but she still hates her for her stupidity of dragging herself into the mansion.

Nina doesn't trust most of the men in the mansion. Kagekao bullies her and calls her Jeff's bitch, both Masky and Hoodie scare her, She avoids Toby, while Helen doesn't care for her. Pretty much Ej and Liu are the safest in her book. Although he doesn't view Nina as a close friend, he appreciates her for her kindness and polite nature he respects her bc of that. Cody likes Nina because whenever he needs someone to talk to about his experiments, she's there to listen to him. Liu on the other hand, he feels like it's his responsibility to clean up the damage his brother caused. Although Nina's Jeff obsession was all on her, Liu still feels responsible because it's his brother.

Jeff is an interesting case. Before He met Nina, he knew her as a fangirl who stood out because she was on the loose for killing people like him. After she came to the mansion as a newbie, Jeff was... Scared to meet her? Idk how to say it but he avoided meeting Nina during her first few days in the mansion but he was still very curious about her. Was she crazy? Was she a bitch? Did she do it because she was bored? Was she like Harley Quinn? Nonetheless, by the time he ran into her through one of the mansion's hallways, he only felt her stare at him while passing by but looked back at her when she was walking away. He stood back staring at her figure until she turned a corner, disappearing from his eyes.

After getting over her obsession with Jeff, she really hates him now. I would imagine her being angry at him very much- totally blaming him for being a slave for the Slenderman and killing all of those victims even before she became a resident.

When she's with people she likes, she'll start acting like one of those weird kids? The type of kids who would geek out on cartoons or any kind of interest? Imagine Maya and Anna from Pen15. She enjoys talking about her likes and dislikes to anyone who's willing to listen, like Cody and Liu.

Believe it or not, Nina likes to help around the infirmary. She wanted to be a nurse growing up and when Liu taught her the ropes for basic First aid, she basically volunteered to help Ej as an unofficial nurse. She'll only do it in desperate times though, Nina's confidence in giving medical help will go down once she sees residents like Clockwork, Kagekao, any of the proxies. Helping Jeff is out of the question.

I'm really trying to do my best to have a consistent posting schedule, but school is really eating me alive rn 😭😭😭

But it's fine now that I'm on Christmas break! 🎉‼️ Thank you all so much for the hearts and reposts, it really means a lot to someone like me who's lowkey insecure about their writing 🥹💕

I struggled a lot writing this last part bc I'm constantly getting blanks for the Bloody Painter hcs, and almost every time I write about 3-4 bullet points about Helen, they're not being saved 💔💔💔 I'm trying my best to rewrite them but everytime it happens I just give up (I feel so bad for one particular moot bc they really enjoy Helen and was looking forward to the stuff I write about him :'<)

This is the reason why Helen has like 6-7 bullets tbh....

BUT ANYWAYS- this series is done! I'm trying to think of a different series I wanna do next? Maybe more stuff about the residents, maybe their bonds with the different residents? Who knowwwsss, I might write something eventually BUT BE PREPARED FOR LONG UPDATES

Again very sorry for making y'all wait! I'm really doing my best and thank you all so much for the love and support💕💕💕 Consider this as a Christmas present LMAOO 🤩

[pillowbugs]

"you lost to the subway bosses? well! great job, boys! though, if you're challenging us now, trainer... let's just say, our sons had to have learnt their skills from somewhere."

submas' parents won the poll! here's a quick drawing of them. if they make eye contact with you, as a trainer, you're probably screwed.

+ some alternate outfits for laylea

had some headcanons but lost steam to draw them out so i'll just dump them here under the cut:

Laylea

a (currently retired) top battler in the pokémon tournament circuit. has high placings in a lot of regional championships under her belt. after retirement, now mostly helps others work with more aggressive pokémon.

a passionate and affectionate woman. some may underestimate her, thinking her a kindly old lady to take advantage of... before she utterly decimates them, with or without her pokémon involved.

speaking of which, she loves battling. she isn't particularly fond of all the usual fragile 'gifts for mom' usually found in stores. so, every mother's day, ingo & emmet give her something she actually enjoys: a good, tough battle. and other things, of course, like a nice dinner, or coming home to help with all the housework, but the battle is the Big Thing. a tradition at this point.

her husband is a short king with a brilliant mind and she loves him a lot.

her kids inherited at least some of her height, so they aren't short, but she's still taller and stronger physically than them. and she loves them to bits too.

youngest of four siblings, the eldest being gym leader / mayor drayden of opelucid city. everyone in this family is super tall and/or super buff, and she's no exception.

a tradition in her family is for the firstborn child to receive an axew egg from their parents... but laylea was indignant about not getting anything special, so she went out to catch an axew herself - her first pokémon, astrid. she does continue the tradition later on with ingo receiving an egg of astrid's as the slightly elder son.

while prodigial son drayden focuses exclusively on dragons, laylea also raises various vaguely draconic / reptiliean pokémon outside her family's type.

she cut her blood family off years ago, however, because... well, let's just say the scars on her body aren't all from pokémon or strangers, and neither are those on her kids'.

in terms of battling, her skill lies in being able to adapt on the fly in the midst of battle; knowing when to go on the offence or defence, when a powerful strategy just won't work and switching tracks to counter the counter, etc.

her design is slightly based off the bw/2 female veteran sprite.

Akito

a former travelling trainer and top battler. like his wife, he has quite a few tournament wins to his name. now tutors others in battling techniques.

while certainly a kindly, reasonable person, he also definitely leans more pragmatic, to the point of being considered, by those who know him, as a bit of a sly trickster, who gets his fun from catching others by surprise.

in fact, in his youth, he was considered quite a polite sweet-talker, except he used his charm mostly to convince people to battle him, so he could win and take their money, which is essentially how he covered all his living costs on the road. it's how he met laylea, in fact, deciding that this rich girl was going to help him top up his funds for the next few weeks... only to get his ass whooped hard.

they became friends, and eventually a couple, after that, though. laylea was moping over people underestimating her as a lady and hence not wanting to battle her, and suddenly this handsome guy around her age shows up asking for a battle? hell yes.

his right leg was severely injured in a run-in with team plasma a few years before bw1; now needs a walking frame to move around by himself, or otherwise the support of his pokémon. or, he can just ride his pokémon around. or just let laylea carry him - she can easily lift him, even considers it good weight training to maintain her strength. he still makes it a point to walk by himself sometimes, though.

he really loves his wife who can beat the stuffing out of everyone (including him) in multiple ways. he also loves his weird wonderful kids.

his mother was from a small town in kitakami, but fell in love with and married a foreigner. the happy couple still stays in kitakami, and akito brings his wife and kids to visit them every year. however, growing up mixed-race in a small, rural, conservative town wasn't a very happy experience for akito, which is why he decided on the life of a wanderering trainer to get out of there.

in fact, akito's mother descends from hisuian immigrants from the pearl clan, forced out of their home by the galaxy team's annexation of the region. so, akito and his parents can speak the old hisuian language relatively fluently, and i&e picked it up at their grandparents' behest to not let the language die out. (which comes in very, very handy later for one of them...)

akito is the strategist to laylea's general; his skill lies in laying out battle plans and combinations to be used in battles, e.g. beat up + justified, consistent speed control via tailwind, hazards + force-switching opponents etc. they make a good pair: akito charts the course, laylea pilots the team.

his design takes cues from the dppt veteran sprite. also, he's bald. ingo had to have gotten it from somewhere.

Some other assorted notes

mom has grey hair turning white, dad has black hair turning grey. mom has golden eyes, dad has silver.

yes, one parent having a krookodile and the other having a togekiss is an intentional reference to the glitch submas mons from a bw beta build.

in fact, this is how i realise that krookodile (ground) + togekiss (flying) = gliscor (ground/flying). it's most likely a coincidence given we were never meant to know about the krookodile and togekiss, and gliscor has a whole other list of genius reasons for it being ingo's ace, but it's still cute.

absol was chosen over lucario as the justified pokémon on akito's team (krookodile can provide the beat up) to 1) not copy cynthia / volo and 2) additional yin-yang theming.

ingo really takes after both his parents (haxorus from mom, probopass from dad + considering giving laylea a flygon as well so ground types also from mom). the way i draw his hairstyle hatless is also swept back similarly to his mom's.

meanwhile, emmet, uh... i'm considering giving akito some bugs to better play into the "seemingly weak but terrifying with the right strategy and direction" theme, but don't have any solid ideas for which ones yet. any suggestions are appreciated. was also considering switching probopass with magnezone (also part of ingo's l:a team and adds electric typing for emmet), but imo the latter is too popular and i'd rather give probopass a chance to shine.