#glad there's a clarification anyway

[cartoonnonsensegirl]

Idea for an Americanized adaptation of an anime series (guess the anime!)

The answer is in the tags, but read and guess before looking.

Synopsis:

Chelsea Tate is a normal, suburban high school girl whose family runs a local bed and breakfast in a sunny seaside town in Florida. One day, she sees a pop star group on a city jumbotron in Miami and decides she wants to be a pop star too. Follow Chelsea and her friends as they aim for fame and stardom as pop stars!

Starring:

Chelsea Tate, our high-school age protagonist who wants more than anything to be a star. Owns a dog named "Chanterelle".

Yvonne Wadsworth, Chelsea's childhood friend whose family owns a sailboat business. Is a bit of a tomboy and likes to go swimming.

Rita Saunderson, a city girl who recently moved to the suburbs and is gifted in playing piano. She is Chelsea's new neighbor.

Ruby von Kirschbaum, a high school freshmen student who is super shy but loveable. She's also incredibly ticklish.

Hannah-Grace Kaufmann, Ruby's quiet yet sunny friend from middle school who loves reading, but is inexperienced with the latest tech. Her family lives close to a church, and she speaks with a Midwestern accent.

Yolanda Torres, the resident goth girl who has a fascination with all things dark and paranormal. Likes blasting Evanescence on her iPod. Childhood friends with Hannah-Grace.

Maribella "Marie" O'Hare, the rich, fashionable girl who just returned from studying abroad at an Italian boarding school.

Katie Marchand, a surfer girl whose parents run a surfboard shop. Is best friends with Marie.

Diamond von Kirschbaum, Ruby's sister and the class president who apparently seems to hate anything to do with pop stars and fame, or so the rumors say...

[miss-morland]

i hope your partner isn’t more than a year older than you jeez together with the same person for 9 years as a 26 year old? you deserved to be in the club….

1) none of those facts is correct (at time of sending, i just turned 26 today) so i’m assuming this was to the wrong blog

2) we go to the club together

[tothelasthoursofmylife]

Extended endnotes for "The Countess, Destruction"

As I said in the Ao3 endnotes, I ran out of characters and had to cut them a bit short. So, here's the very extended version, all with links, citations, and pictures! (Please read the chapter first before reading the endnotes, of course.)

This chapter was also very much created with the help of Google Maps, Ciel's stink eye, and a bag of devil fruit fruit gum <3

Bridges and Walks

In 1846, Cloudia and Milton take a very long, very weird walk through the city. Mapping it was rather fun, though also a bit finicky because I had to check every bridge’s creation date. Blackfriars Bridge existed in 1846, as did Waterloo Bridge. But Hungerford Bridge and the Golden Jubilee Bridges, the bridges that come “next in line”? No! The former opened in 1864, the latter in 2002. Unfortunately (?), all the bridges between Westminster and Putney Bridge just did not exist in 1846, and that’s why their track looks like this:

(This leaves out their starting point somewhere in the Square Mile where the Salisbury Trading HQ is.)

It’s safe to say that they got one hell of a workout XD They stopped right by Hyde Park, and then, Milton surprised Cloudia by going in the direction of Kensington Palace (up; that empty square is where the palace is) and not back to where Holland House is. (Holland Park was constructed between 1860 and 1880, so I couldn’t use it as a pointer. Holland House is there where the park is though.) Cloudia, herself, went right towards Mayfair. Where Milton went? Well… that’s for another day (and year omg).

I picked Blackfriars Bridge as Cloudia’s favourite bridge because of its significance in The Infernal Devices (in which the protagonists fight against automatons, and all instalments are called Clockwork [Something] heh; that series is also set in the Victorian era, but in 1878). I also think the bridge is very pretty! Love that it is red and white; bridges should be more colourful in general.

I was in London in 2016 for a school trip and really wanted to go to that bridge. Sadly, we couldn’t move around on our own, and I didn’t have anyone willing to go with me. So, I only saw it from afar when we took a boat across the Thames.

(Very zoomed.)

The white-and-red metal bridge did not exist in 1846 anyway. Instead, Blackfriars Bridge was made of brownstone and looked like this:

(Painting from around 1800)

The first Blackfriars Bridge was dismantled in 1860 because it became just too wonky. Queen Victoria opened the second one in 1869. I would say that Vincent and Francis went to the opening in their mother’s stead.

(Extra: When I was in London, we walked beneath London Bridge, and I swear that the damn nursery rhyme’s melody started playing from somewhere! It was very weird.)

Additionally, while the first arc is named the “Inner London Murders Arc,” looking back, I’ve never specified where exactly the Salisbury Villa is located! As there were already attacks in Westminster, Camden, and Islington, I picked Kensington as the villa’s location. It was nice to very briefly revisit a location that was so important in the beginning and that doesn’t exist anymore.

Train Station

The Gare du Nord is the busiest train station in Europe and will soon be the largest train station in Europe too! In 1848, the train station was very busy too, but, by far, not large at all. It looked like this back then:

(Copperplate print from 1847)

It’s so tiny, isn’t it? In 1843, construction began, and two different designs for the train station were proposed. Of course, “management opted to construct the less spacious of the two options, despite the occurrence of stations serving capital city becoming overwhelmed already being a known phenomenon in both London and Brussels.” And that’s why the original Gare du Nord only existed from 1846 to 1860 (seriously, what were they thinking?). They partially demolished it to redo and expand it, and its front façade was transferred to the Lille-Flandres Station. Above is the back of the first Gare du Nord, and this was its front:

(Not that I even got to describe the front.)

1848 Paris

We had originally planned to do a trip to Paris next week, but it has been postponed until next year now. My father is still going next week for a business trip though. Unfortunately, I can’t possibly ask him to find some time to take the worst walk ever through the city with the Gare du Nord as the starting point and take some pictures for me. Thankfully, the chapter is told from the POVs of two characters who have never been in Paris before. They don’t know where they are, so I don’t need to either. Their journey through Paris is purposefully confusing and distorted anyway with all the detours they need to take because of the ongoing uprising. Even if the chapter had been from Barrington’s POV, he would have stopped caring about street names and landmarks at some point anyway; there are just too many other things to concentrate on – like side tables. (Milton, on the other hand, would have rattled down every single street name in his narration. And that’s one of the reasons why we don’t spend any time in his head. (Though this chapter from his POV would have certainly been very interesting...))

Nevertheless, I did consult Google Maps yet again for Cloudia, Cedric, and Milton’s chase through Paris and the others’ way to Cecelia’s house, though in much vaguer capacity than for the 1846 walk.

Cecelia lives in the current-day 7th arrondissement. It was the high nobility district from the 17th century until the French Revolution, and then again during the Bourbon Restauration before losing this status yet again in 1830. Unlike last time, it did remain “the centre of the French upper class’ social life” at least despite losing its political influence. That’s how Paris is divided into arrondissements nowadays:

In 1848, however, the division looked like this:

They changed the arrangement in 1859/60 upon expanding the city borders. As such, Cecelia’s house is somewhere in the 10th arrondissement in 1848, not in the 7th.

Google Maps’ recommended way from the Gare du Nord to the 7th arrondissement:

Newman, Aurèle, and Co. went more west first though and then south. (To keep them relatively safe and me sane.)

On Cloudia and Co.’s side, I looked up where the Hôtel de Ville, the Place du Panthéon, and the Place de la Bastille roughly lie in relation to the Gare du Nord (all are south/south-east to the station), as they are important locations in the uprising. While Cloudia and Co. aren’t exactly going anywhere specific, they are heading south in the worst way ever. (So that it’s easier for me to get them to Cecelia’s house later.) That’s about the path they took:

(I’m joking.)

As I said above, the path they’re taking is very, very messy, and neither Cloudia nor Cedric knows Paris anyway. They could make out the Notre-Dame or the Arc de Triomphe and such; that’s it. (That doesn’t help them though as they’re not going anywhere near any famous, well-known sights.) And because Paris most definitely changed a lot since 1848 anyway, I didn’t need to be super specific with anything anyway. Still, I didn’t want to make everything up, so I went searching on Google Maps for some interesting things they could have passed by.

And hello, church close to the station! I loved that it’s named Saint-Vincent-de-Paul and that it existed in 1848 too! (Was completed in 1844) The nearby square didn’t though (1862), and that’s why they pass by the church and nothingness with weeds (I have no idea what was actually in that place in 1848). I wanted to have them pass by the Montholon Square too as I saw that speck of green on the map, but it didn’t exist until 1862 too, so I dropped it. (That made me wonder if there are more squares/parks that were created in 1862? Anyway.) The church is the only actual thing on their way. Beyond it, all is made up.

June Days Uprising

The most difficult part to write. As I said in the Ao3 notes, I wanted to include an actual historical event into WotQ and I ultimately decided on the June Days Uprising. I live in Germany and only went to school here, and all we learn about French history in History class is Louis XIV and Louis XVI and the French Revolution. Because of this, I wasn’t really aware before I began planning this arc in 2018 that there was a lot of back and forth with France being a republic and a monarchy. E.g., the July Monarchy (start 1830) only just ended in February 1848 and France became a republic again. (And that merely lasted until 1852.)

Back in 2018, I went to a public library to look a few things up but couldn’t find much. I’ve been holding onto that note though, and it did give me a nice little timeline at least! The times were super helpful (start: 12 a.m. on the 23rd, end: 11 a.m. on the 26th); with that, I set out to make the first outline of Arc 4. (Unfortunately, I forgot to write down the book’s title then!)

When it became time to write Destruction, I couldn’t find a lot again, but two sites proved helpful.

With them and the Wikipedia article, I wrote Destruction’s first draft and finished the first revision round. Before I started the second, however, I remembered that I could just (mis)use my university library access to get more sources – and so I did! I found two books. A History of Modern France by Jeremy D. Popkin had a good little section on the Uprising, and Revolutionary Republicanism: Participation and Representation in 1848 France by Samuel Hayat is mostly about all that led to the revolution in February and what happened afterwards. I didn’t have time to read the entire book and only read the section that was just about the June Days Uprising (“Defending the Republic”). (And as Cloudia and Co. are thrown very suddenly into that situation and are also outsiders who are focused on many other things/their own problems, they couldn’t have known/didn’t keep up with everything that led to the June Days anyway.)

With that new knowledge, I rewrote a few things during the second revision. That ranged from adding details like women’s participation in the revolt and the distribution of posters to toning down everything a bit.

I read that “Blood ran in the streets, more even than in the 1830 Revolution” and "June 1848 had unleashed the most sanguinary fighting that had yet been seen on the streets of Paris" and assumed the fighting was at 100% basically from the start. But I also wondered how the insurgents could seize the entire eastern half of Paris within about half a day, considering who they were up against:

Even with the fact that Cavaignac “spent a day bringing in 30,000 regular troops from outside the city, while the rebels constructed their barricades,” that seemed odd to me. And then I read the insurgents were allowed to take the city, and it all made sense.

(From A History of Modern France)

(From Revolutionary Republicanism)

I reduced the number of soldiers and bodies the characters encounter as well as the overall destruction and fights a bit, cutting out sentences here and there, without making it too tame. It was still a messy, bloody fight, just not as much as it would become a few days later. I added Cloudia and Oscar’s conversation about the lone guard during the second revision too; I was sure they would notice that something was just off about the situation.

I also treated the June Days as a “rebellion of despair” first and then set out to correct it. I’ll just put pieces of Revolutionary Republicanism here instead of trying to explain it myself.

(Not that any of this is (much) evident in the chapter anyway.)

All in all, I hope I didn't mess up too much writing this aspect of the chapter.

Others

Rowan calls Oscar’s wife “Trudy Livingstone,” but she was only known as such socially. Trudy never legally took Oscar’s last name and kept her own.

The "star in the corner of the envelope" thing Milton tells Cloudia is something my old pen pal and I used to do! We were each other's only pen pals, but we still did this as a little secret "code." (She's the daughter of the person who inspired Milton's "phantom heart pain when it rains" btw!)

The picture I used for the cover is a map of Paris in 1800. (The site’s next-dated map is 1864. I didn’t look at any while writing the chapter as neither of them is close enough to 1848. They also aren’t easy to read…)

This is the final “running/fighting” chapter. The logistics of Nebulous/Mimes, Locomotive Run, Destruction gnawed at my energy a lot. I’m so happy to be done with them, omg. Now, the “Stuck in Paris” chapters begin! (The June Days last until the 26th, and it’s currently the 23rd. Leaving the city and returning to Nanteuil-la-Forêt isn't the easiest right now, especially with injured people!) No more moving around hectically for a while! Hurrah! (Cedric needs to get Cloudia through the city first, of course…)

[alli-minium]

HEY EVERYONE SOMETHING SUPER IMPORTANT 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️

ONE OF MY BESTEST FRIENDS IN THE WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD JUST RELEASED HER FIRST SINGLE IM SO PROUD OF HER

SHES SO TALENTED AND KIND AND SWEET AND ALSO MY WIFEY SO GO LISTEN NOW

[wafflesthewombat]

I'm the gaffer (so like lighting and stuff) for my classmates and mine first short film this semester and lemme just say when my professor tries to read the lighting diagram I just submitted he's gonna be just as lost as I was making it... so very very lost

I DID MY BEST THOUGH and that's what counts (and also my grade)! I'm just not cut out for gaffer lol I can't wait to be literally anything else

[aspacewar]

We’ve hit peak D&D brainrot gang, it’s infiltrated my dreams

[aradassbadass]

I just loveeee duke lord he’s so fine 😭 Could you do one of him breaking his celibacy for you bc yall are dating and he’s in loveeee

yes of course *duke voice*

you couldnt help but smile as you watched duke and davo argue as he tried to get him to leave.

“nigga you get a lady and act like a nigga like me aint ya day one boy ill tell ya.” davo said standing hands on his hips.

“nigga shut yo punk ass up.” duke said opening the door.

“oh so you kicking me out, nigga you aint worth a damn” the darker man said shaking his head as he walked out of the door.

“you know you aint have to do him like that now.” you said a small smile on your face as the handsome chocolate man walked towards you.

“yes like hell i did.” he laughs standing mere inches in front of you reaching a large hand out grabbing your cheeks and pulling you in for a kiss.

“i guess.” you mumble between kisses.

“ i need to shower though love bug.” you say as he finally pulls aways.

“you mean we need to shower.” he corrects as you hop down from the stool and walk towards the bedroom.

“oh you gone get in with me mr dennis?” you tease going through the bedroom.

“yes lawd.” he says hot on your heels.

you giggle as he closes the bathroom door behind him hurriedly pulling off his shirt.

“you better not pee on me.” you say turning on the shower, voice serious before bursting out into laughter.

“man what the fuck dont be weird. im a grown ass man fuck i look like pissing in the shower.” he says.

“oh shut up.” you say taking your top and bra off all at once.

a smile finds your lips as you see duke standing there staring.

“you like what you see?” you say walking up to him pressing your naked body against his. instinctively his lips goes between his lips as he nods wrapping his arms around you.

“im knowing.” you giggle pulling away and stepping into the shower letting the warm water cascade down you body and just when you thought the feeling couldn’t get any better you feel dukes large body press up against yours.

“let me wash you baby, you can relax.” he says grabbing the body wash. you are happy to take him up on his offer and you stand there as he lathers the soap between his hands and then onto your body.

he starts with your back, massaging your shoulders then going to your waist.

you moan at the feeling letting your muscles relax and leaning back into his body.

“thats it love let, me take take care of you.” his murmurs softly in your ear.

you close your eyes as his hands wrap around your waist and begins to lather up your stomach. its intimacy like this that kept your hormones at bay.

you went into this relationship knowing that duke was celibate and that wasnt a problem with you seeing as you didnt have a particularly high drive anyways. well then you didnt but now was totally different, all it took from him was a look a slight grab even some words he spoke sent shockwaves straight to your core.

his hands grazing your nipples bought you back to reality.

“fuck” you mumbles as he began to massage your breast.

the motion wasnt new to you as he always did it but something about it was different, it felt more sensual than usual, and then you noticed the feeling on your lower back.

your eyes shot open and you tried your best not to tense up but its like he sense it as his hands stopped the motion.

“im sorry baby, got a mind of his own.” he says a light chuckle.

“oh no, dont be sorry love its ok.” you soothe “glad to know im not the only one feeling needy.” you say the last part slipping out of your mouth before you realized it.

he’s quiet for a moment “baby i always feel it but now i need it.”

his words catch you by surprise, “ you need it?” you say turning around to finally face him, hoping for clarification.

“i love you and im ready to give you all of me.” he says a certain tone of seriousness in his voice.

“all of you?” you repeat.

“all of me.”

his words set you on fire and you slammed your lips into his. you moan into his mouth as he wraps around you and pushed your back against the cold tile of the shower, his hips rutting against you.

a moan escaped your lips as his fingers went down and began to rub between your folds, your wetness turning them slick in seconds.

“ you wet as fuck for me baby, you been wanting this huh.” he quizzes lips momentarily pulling away from yours.

“yes, fuck ive wanted this for so long.” you mewl your hand now the one in motion. you wrapped your hand around his length, the sheer girth sending what felt like electricity to your core. he began to rock his hips into you letting a slew of deep groans slip past his and your lips.

“fuck.” he says speed increasing and his kisses becoming progressively more sloppy. you begin to move your hands with his strokes. you can feel him twitch before he abruptly stops.

you yelped as he wordlessly turned you around and now your breast are what is rubbing against the cool wall.

you feel his leaking tip rub between your ass before you feel him squat a little and then he is sliding into your aching entrance.

“ah.” you moan as he stretches and fills you to the brim.

“fuckkk.” he groans halting inside of you. “this pussy too tight baby.”

youre too drunk on lust to respond you just let out a mewl as he begins to slowly thrust into you. you can feel every vein on his dick as he almost entirely pulls out of you and then slowly pushes back in.

duke bites his lips as he plunges back into the wetness of your pussy. he wanted to go slow and savor every second and inch of this but he knew he wouldnt last a minute if he kept that pace up, so he started to slam into you wrapping his hand around your chin and pulling it back causing you to arch deeper.

you cry out in ecstasy at the feeling, all the months of yearning and craving him- this was making you feel more connected than ever with him.

your own hands goes down and rubs your swollen clit and within seconds your gushing all over his length.

“fu-“ he moans pulling out of you and you feel his warm seed splash on you back.

your at a high you never felt before and all you can do is smile before his baritone voice interrupts you, “and no that wasnt no piss.”

you cant help but burst out laughing and hope that this was the idiot you got to spend the rest of your life with.

[iridescentmirrorsgenshin]

I’ve been so excited for more sumeru content! We were treated with an odd textual mystery but now we’re being fed again! I love this cast so much, so i've broken down my thoughts having finished nahida's birthday event <3

the birthday surprise for nahida is so sweet and so well deserved, and I’m so glad we’re finally get to celebrate it in-game especially after her birthday letter last year

dehya getting inspiration for the birthday surprise by talking to dunyarzard… yeah, I know what you are

candace, my beloved, hangout when? It was really nice to spend some time with her one on one, and to see her being a pro haggler due to her efficiency in being a guardian, enough so that she bested dori? Amazing, capable, practical, I love her

candace’s ancestry is so !?!?! interesting to me, and the fact that her being a descendant of the people of king deshret is something that I would love to see explored in relation to the temple of silence? hoyoverse... i am begging... (also the traveller for once not have access to some mystery power,, its funny to me, candace is the main character here)

cyno seeing hat guy and saying, oh sethos has talked about you, as if cyno hasn’t already technically met hat guy in the Interdarshan championship… no, instead cyno knows him through sethos talking about him, oh……

haikaveh’s first appearance being labelled as ‘suspicious’ because they are having a private conversation in an alley is something that is so… sethos’s voiceline is so relevant here I fear, okay queercoding <333

Alhaitham telling paimon that her jumping to dark conclusions says a lot about her mindset, it’s FUNNY!! But I am making parallels to kaveh’s mindset pre-and-during a parade of providence, I am once again asking for clarification hoyoverse, kaveh second hangout pls

HAIKAVEH FLASHBACK!! Making a record I see, with a flashback in their home in cyno’s second story quest, and now in port ormos, there’s just something so special about getting to see these little fragments into their daily lives together

The line ‘Like I said, that's not it! We have more than just a heartless, transactional relationship... You're overthinking the whole thing!’ is VERY interesting, since we’re given no context as to what this is about until alhaitham’s following line, this reads as kaveh’s perspective on his and alhaitham’s relationship, and I think that’s um interesting(!!) given his previous thoughts on why Alhaitham offered him a place to live!

Sick… I think its sick…. Kaveh yapping to alhaitham about mehrak coming up with wild theories, Alhaitham says that mehrak could feel extorted, and then calls out kaveh being in port ormos and having found him, while he’s supposed to be working,,, as if he hasn’t been ENCOURAGING kaveh the whole time??  Can you say fond!!!

Kaveh wanting to show Alhaitham his proposal, and Alhaitham saying that he thought kaveh is confident in his abilities, is something that is so gentle and supportive

kaveh replying by saying that he does have confidence in his abilities, but he wanted to confirm something with Alhaitham anyway, and then pursuing this further by seeking alhaitham’s opinion on his proposal – it’s so notable on kaveh’s part how much their relationship has progressed, as he now actively seeks Alhaitham out!!

Kaveh wanting to show Alhaitham the plans for the route of the flower carriage, saying he’s glad to have run into him, reminds me of an odd textual mystery where kaveh says he’s been looking for Alhaitham everywhere, and them serendipitously meeting in port ormos is giving ‘the universe is playing tricks on us’, a destined reunion, how can I be normal

Every single time we see haikaveh in canon hoyoverse is insistent in furthering their intimacy, wdym kaveh programmed mehrak to recognise alhaitham’s voice!?!?!?! This scene further establishes how important mehrak is to kaveh, and by kaveh wanting to have mehrak recognise and know Alhaitham as he knows kaveh is something that is so soft I think

Mehrak leaving to go and find coffee beans, okay youre a family we get it, the haikaveh coffee motif is something that is so meaningful to me, I’ll have to make a post about it at some point!

Faruzan showing her ‘true senior’ status to avoid being caught by nahida and scolding kaveh, for him to be :(((??? i love them

kaveh lies about not having the plans, and then uses Alhaitham as a scapegoat - ‘The plans... Oh, I almost forgot! My friend has them! That guy's always causing trouble, hahaha... I'll fetch them in a bit.’ Kaveh’s friend?? His FRIEND?? We have officially come full circle from kaveh denying this association in alhaitham’s character quest! I have MANY thoughts about this!! I’ll share them when I get the chance!

Nahida offering kaveh guidance and advice is something that is so <3333

King deshret and goddess of flowers lore mention!!! Also candace having heard their voices because of the power of the wedjat eye is !! intriguing to say the least, since they seemed to be planning the birthday celebration, just like the cast in the present. cyclical occurrences, oh im sick. The wedjat eye being placed in the custody of the temple of silence makes me hopeful for a future event exploring the temple of silence in more detail (im hanging on by a thread)

The fulfilment of sethos’s and the wanderer’s voiceline about each other. wdym people told sethos to fetch the wanderer because they know that they have a personal relationship?? Sethos saying he knows the wanderer pretty well now, commending him on his achievements, and the wanderer giving in and following sethos to the celebrations because sethos asked?? Sumeru… I know what you are!!!!!

Taking a picture to commemorate the moment of happiness in place of the wedjat eye and nahida saying that experiencing everyone’s kindness and warmth was like being a bird tucked in a nest, contrasting with her motif of a bird locked in a cage, now she is safe and secure? This is so beautiful?

This event was so fun to play through! Seeing characters from other sumeru quests, the exploration of sumeru’s history, and the development of characters and events that could lead to future storylines, I’m so grateful for being fed <3 HAPPY BIRTHDAY NAHIDA!!

[nofingjustaninchident]

ᯓ★ i hate you more pt.3

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟

pairing jason grace x roman!reader

summary well, he should be dead, and she’d gladly kill him

warnings probably cursing, third person writing

now listening to bad blood by taylor swift

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟

Chiron invited them inside, sending Drew back to her cabin. y/n was glad when the girl walked away - her excessive touchiness with Jason had been grating on her nerves, as was the fact that she didn't even understand why it pissed her off so much. 

Especially because it shouldn’t, since they apparently hated each other so much. 

"Follow me," the centaur said. "We have lemonade." 

Grapevines covered the walls of the living room, running across the ceiling as well. y/n wasn't sure how they were able to grow inside, especially given the season, but they were leafy green and bursting with bunches of red grapes. 

The girl looked up at a stuffed leopard's head hung above the fireplace, so real-looking that its eyes seemed to move. It snarled at Jason, and she felt him nearly jump out of his skin next to her. 

“For the gods’ sake-” He muttered under his breath and y/n had to stop herself from snickering.  

"Now, Seymour," Chiron chided. "Jason is a friend. Behave yourself." 

Chiron threw a sausage to the leopard, who snatched it up and licked his lips. "You must excuse the decor," Chiron said. "All this was a parting gift from our old director before he was recalled to Mount Olympus. He thought it would help us remember him. Mr. D has a strange sense of humor." 

"Mr. D," Jason said. "Dionysus?" 

"Mhm." Chiron poured three glasses of lemonade, though his hands seemed to tremble slightly. He and Jason carried on a conversation about the old camp director and Seymour's origins, y/n watching in silence. She could tell that Chiron was wary of her as well, though he hadn't recognized her the way he recognized Jason. She supposed that was a good thing, giving the conditions - he had said Jason was supposed to be dead. 

"So, Jason, y/n," Chiron said. "Would you mind telling me – ah - where you're from?" 

"I wish we knew," Jason sighed. “I mean, i don’t. Maybe she does and just don’t want to tell anyone.”  

That earnt him a smack in the arm, which was nothing but passive-aggressive.  

y/n let Jason tell the story, only chiming in when he left out a detail or she needed to speak from her own experience. Chiron didn't react aside from nodding encouragingly for either of them to continue. 

When Jason was done, Chiron took a sip of his lemonade. "You only remember each other?" he asked for clarification. 

Y/n nodded. "Sadly, yes. Just names, but still." she muttered, looking over at Jason briefly. "Everything else is... blank." 

"I see," Chiron said. "Well, you must have questions for me." 

"I have one," y/n spoke up. "Any reason in particular those... naiads? Is that what they're called? Is there a reason they talked to me or...?” 

Chiron regarded her with inquisitive eyes. "They talked to you?" 

y/n nodded. "Yeah, one of them just... stood – can i say stood if they’re underwater? Anyway, one of them stood there and told me to just breathe." She tried to push away the memory of the human-like thing telling her to take a breath underwater. "Is that... normal?" 

"No," Chiron confessed. "That's highly unusual - naiads are typically friendly, especially the ones in the canoe lake, but they don’t usually talk. Well, at least, not that anyone could understand, anyway. The only person they talked to was...”  

With his pause, y/n looked expectantly at him. “The only person they talked was..?” And something Annabeth said came up to her. “Was it that guy that Annabeth talked about? Uh- Percy, right?”  

Chiron’s expression got somewhat darker, but he managed to cover it up. “Yes, Percy. He's one of our oldest campers now, but he’s missing.”  

“Oh.” y/n muttered. “Sorry.”  

“It’s no problem, child.” Chiron assured. “It wasn’t your fault.” 

But what if it was? 

"In any case, that indeed is strange," Chiron said quietly. "I will have a talk with them. Until then, it may be best to steer clear of the lake." 

"That won't be a problem," y/n muttered. 

"Do you have any other questions?" Chiron asked. 

"Uh, yeah," Jason admitted. "What did you mean when you said I should be dead?" 

Chiron studied him with concern. "Do either of you know what the marks on your arms mean? The color of your shirt, Jason? Do you remember anything?" 

Jason shook his head. "No, nothing," Jason said. 

"Do you know where you are?" Chiron asked. "Do you understand what this place is, who I am?" 

"You're Chiron the centaur," Jason said. "I'm guessing you're the same one from the old stories, who used to train heroes like Heracles." 

"And this is a camp for demigods," y/n said, "children of the Olympian gods." 

"So, you believe those gods still exist?" Chiron asked. 

"Yes," Jason answered immediately. y/n felt the same confidence, though she didn't know where it came from. "I mean, I don't think we should worship them or sacrifice chickens to them or anything, but they're still around because they're a powerful part of civilization. They move from country to country as the center of power shifts - like they moved from Ancient Greece to Rome." 

"I couldn't have said it better." Something in Chiron's voice had changed. "So, you already know the gods are real. You have both already been claimed, haven't you?" 

"Maybe," Jason answered. 

"We can't remember," y/n said. 

The leopard on the wall snarled, and Chiron studied them for a moment, waiting. y/n realized after a moment that Chiron had switched to another language, and she and Jason understood it fluently. 

"Quis erat-" Jason faltered, as if the language was automatic. "What was that?" 

"You know Latin," Chiron observed. "Most demigods recognize a few phrases, of course. It's in their blood, but not as much as Ancient Greek. None can speak Latin fluently without practice." 

y/n frowned, trying to wrap her brain around the fact that she could speak Latin, of all languages. Why couldn’t it be french, german, maybe? It felt so familiar on her tongue as she spoke it, the same as in her ears when Jason and Chiron did. 

"I taught your namesake, you know - the original Jason," Chiron said. "He had a hard path. I've seen many heroes come and go. Occasionally, they have happy endings. Mostly, they don't. It breaks my heart, like losing a child every time one of my pupils dies. But you two are unlike any pupils I've ever taught. Your presence here could be a disaster." 

"Thanks," Jason muttered. "You must be an inspiring teacher." 

"You should look into motivational speaking if you get bored here," y/n grumbled. 

Chiron sighed quietly. "I am sorry. But it's true. I had hoped after Percy's succeeded in the Titan War and saved Mount Olympus, we might have some peace. I might be able to enjoy one final triumph, a happy ending, and perhaps retire quietly. I should have known better. The last chapter approaches, just as it did before. The worst is yet to come." 

A heavy blanket of gloom seemed to rest over the entire room. 

"Okay," Jason said. "So - last chapter, happened before, worst yet to come. Sounds fun, but can we get back to the part where I'm supposed to be dead? I don't like that part." 

“Why not?” y/n asked, rolling her eyes as she looked at him with annoyance clear on her eyes. “I like it very much. Sounds appealing, doesn’t it?” It was as if the tease just had to leave her. She didn’t understand where all that came from.  

“Oh, fuck off for a moment.” He grumbled and flipped her off.  

"I'm afraid I can't explain, my boy. I swore on the River Styx and on all things sacred that I would never..." Chiron frowned. "But you're both here, a violation of the same oath. That, too, should not be possible. I don't understand. Who would've done such a thing? Who-" 

Seymour howled, his mouth freezing halfway. The fire stopped crackling, its flames hardening like red glass. 

Everything seemed to just... stop. 

"Chiron?" Jason asked. "What's going-" 

Chiron was frozen, too. Jason and y/n stood up, but Chiron's eyes didn't waver. His mouth was open mid-sentence, and he sat there, not blinking or even breathing from the looks of it. 

"Tell me you're seeing this, too," Jason whispered, reaching for y/n’s hand instinctively. 

She squeezed it tightly, not even noticing at first. She glanced down at it, and decided to stay holding it. It was the only sign that they both weren’t crazy. "Frozen centaur? Yeah, I see it." 

Jason, a voice spoke. y/n. 

A dark mist poured from Seymour's mouth. Storm spirits, she thought, her free hand going to her pocket and taking her key out. She and Jason both summoned their weapons. 

The mist shaped itself into a woman in black robes. 

Her face was hooded, but her eyes glowed in the darkness. Over her shoulders was a goat-skin cloak, falling down her back and brushing the floor. y/n recognized the cloak for some reason, and she knew somehow that it was important - that it was much more than a strange fashion choice. 

Would you attack your patron, Jason? the woman chided. Her voice seemed to echo in y/n’s mind, bypassing her ears entirely. Lower your swords. The two of you. 

"Who are you?" Jason demanded. "How did you—?" 

Our time is limited. My prison grows stronger by the hour. It took me a full month to gather enough energy to work even the smallest magic through its bonds. I've managed to bring you two here, but now I have little time left, and even less power. This may be the last time I can speak to either of you. 

"You're in prison?" Jason questioned, still not lowering his sword. "Look, I don't know you, and you're not my patron." 

You know me, the woman insisted. I have known you since your birth, Jason. 

"I don't remember," Jason said. "I don't remember anything." 

No, you don't, she agreed. Neither of you do. That was also necessary. Long ago, Jason, your father gave me your life as a gift to placate my anger. He named you Jason, after my favorite mortal. You belong to me, Jason. And unfortunately, she’s way too useful to be left behind.  

"Hey!” y/n protested.  

"Whoa," Jason said, ignoring her completely. Something told y/n that this was something he often did. "I don't belong to anyone." 

Now is the time to pay your debt, she said. Find my prison. The girl has the key to unlock me. Free me, or their king will rise from the earth, and I will be destroyed. You will never retrieve your memories. 

"You stole our memories?" y/n asked, her eyes narrowing at the hooded woman. "And you want us to help you?" 

You have until sunset on the solstice. Four short days. Do not fail me. 

The dark woman dissolved, the mist curling into Seymour's mouth. 

Time unfroze. Seymour's howl tapered off into a cough. The fire crackled to life and Chiron continued, 

"—would dare to bring you here?" 

"My guess is the lady in the mist," y/n muttered. 

Chiron looked up at them in surprise. "Weren't you just sitting... why are your swords drawn?" 

"I hate to tell you this," Jason said, "but I think your leopard just ate a goddess." 

He proceeded to Chiron what had happened when time froze. 

"Oh, dear," Chiron murmured. "That does explain a lot." 

"It does?" y/n asked. "Care to fill us in?" 

"Please," Jason added. 

Before Chiron could say anything else, the front door to the Big House blew open and Annabeth and another girl, a redhead, burst in, dragging an unconscious Piper between them. 

"What happened?" y/n asked, rushing over to them with Jason close behind, both of their swords abandoned on the coffee table. "What's wrong with her?" 

"Hera's cabin," Annabeth gasped, like they'd run all the way to the house. "Vision. Bad." 

The redhead looked up, and y/n saw tears on her cheeks. "I..." She gulped. "I think I may have killed her." 

                           𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟 

The redhead – who, later, y/n discovered to be named Rachel Dare – had not, in fact, killed Piper. She was still breathing, though she couldn't seem to wake up. 

Ophelia didn't like the sight of the girl so pale and sickly, as if Hades himself had come up to the mortal world to take away her soul but forgot to do so. y/n was positive she didn't know the girl, not like she knew Jason, but they had survived a battle with storm spirits and a chariot crash within the span of just a few hours - things like that bonded people. 

Chiron put his hand on Piper's forehead, grimacing. 

"Her mind is in a fragile state. Rachel, what happened?" 

Rachel shook her head slightly. "I wish I knew," she said. "As soon as I got to camp, I had a premonition about Hera's cabin. I went inside. Annabeth and Piper came in while I was there. We talked, and then- I just blanked out. Annabeth said I spoke in a different voice." 

"A prophecy?" Chiron asked. 

"No. The spirit of Delphi comes from within. I know how that feels. This is like long distance, a power trying to speak through me." 

Annabeth ran into the room carrying a leather pouch. 

She knelt next to Piper. "Chiron, what happened back there - I've never seen anything like it. I've heard Rachel's prophecy voice. This was different. She sounded like an older woman. She grabbed Piper's shoulders and told her-" 

"To free her from a prison?" Jason offered, looking at y/n with a grimace. The latter was still staring at the girl laid down in front of her, wondering what she could do to help – or rather, if she could really do anything to help.  

Annabeth stared at him. "How did you know that?" 

Chiron made a strange three-fingered gesture over his heart, like a ward against evil. y/n tried to ignore the unsettling feeling it gave her. "Jason, y/n, tell them. Annabeth, the medicine bag, please." 

Chiron trickled drops from a medicine vial into Piper's mouth as Jason explained the vision he and y/n had witnessed of the woman who claimed to be Jason's patron. 

"Does this happen often?" y/n chimed in when he was finished talking. "Supernatural phone calls from convicts demanding you bust them out of jail?" 

"Patron," Annabeth said, looking at Jason with a frown. "Not your godly parent?" 

"No, she said patron. She also said my dad had given her my life," Jason said. 

Annabeth's frown deepened. "I've never heard of anything like that before. You said the storm spirit on the skywalk - he claimed to be working for some mistress who was giving him orders, right? Could it be this woman you saw, messing with you?" 

"I don't think so," Jason said. "If she was my enemy, why would she be asking for my help? She's imprisoned. She's worried about some enemy getting more powerful. Something about a king rising from the earth on the solstice-" 

Annabeth looked at Chiron, her face losing its color. 

"Not Kronos. Please tell me it's not that." 

Chiron was quiet for a moment, checking Piper's pulse before he finally answered, "It is not Kronos. That threat is ended. But..." 

"But what?" Annabeth asked. 

Chiron closed his medicine bag. "Piper needs rest. We should discuss this later." 

"Or now," y/n said with a frown. "You said the greatest threat was coming. The last chapter?" 

"You can't possibly mean something worse than an army of Titans, right?" Jason asked.  

"Oh," Rachel said, her voice small. "Oh, dear. The woman was Hera. Of course. Her cabin, her voice. She showed herself to Jason and y/n at the same moment." 

"Hera?" Annabeth looked downright murderous. "She took you over? She did this to Piper?" 

"I think Rachel's right," Jason said. "The woman did seem like a goddess. And she wore this- this goatskin cloak. That's the symbol of Juno, isn't it?" 

"It is?" Annabeth scowled. "I've never heard that." 

Chiron nodded. "Of Juno, Hera's Roman aspect, in her most warlike state. The goatskin cloak was a symbol of the Roman soldier." 

"So, Hera is imprisoned?" Rachel asked. "Who could do that to the queen of the gods?" 

Annabeth crossed her arms. "Well, whoever they are, maybe we should thank them. If they can shut up Hera-" 

"Annabeth," Chiron warned, "she is still one of the Olympians. In many ways, she is the glue that holds the gods' family together. If she truly has been imprisoned and is in danger of destruction, this could shake the foundations of the world. It could unravel the stability of Olympus, which is never great even in the best of times. And if Hera has asked Jason and y/n for help-" 

"Fine," Annabeth grumbled. "Well, we know Titans can capture a god, right? Atlas captured Artemis a few years ago. And in the old stories, the gods captured each other in traps all the time. But something worse than a Titan...?" 

"Hera said she'd been trying to break through her prison bonds for a month," Jason said. 

"Which is how long Olympus has been closed," Annabeth said. "So, the gods must know something bad is going on." 

Jason sighed, a look of frustration on his face. "But why use her energy to send y/n and me here?" he asked. "She wiped our memories, plopped us into the Wilderness School field trip, and sent you a dream vision to come pick us up. Why are we so important? Why not just send up an emergency flare to the other gods - let them know where she is so they can bust her out?" 

"The gods need heroes to do their will down here on earth," Rachel said. "That's right, isn't it? Their fates are always intertwined with demigods." 

"That's true," Annabeth said, "but Jason's got a point. Why them? Why take their memories?" 

"I'd like to know that myself," y/n muttered. 

"Piper's involved somehow," Rachel said. "Hera sent her the same message- Free me. And, Annabeth, this must have something to do with Percy's disappearance." 

Annabeth looked at Chiron, her eyes narrowing slightly. "Why are you so quiet, Chiron? What is it we're facing?" 

Chiron looked as if he'd aged ten years in a matter of minutes. "My dear, in this, I cannot help you. I am so sorry." 

Annabeth blinked. "You've never... you've never kept information from me. Even the last Great Prophecy-" 

"I will be in my office," Chiron announced, his voice heavy. "I need some time to think before dinner. Rachel, will you watch the girl? Call Argus to bring her to the infirmary, if you'd like. And Annabeth, you should speak with Jason and y/n. Tell them about- about the Greek and Roman gods." 

"But..." 

Chiron turned away, heading out of the room and down the hallway. Annabeth muttered something in Greek that y/n suspected wasn't too kind toward centaurs. 

"I'm sorry," Jason said. "I think us being here - I don't know. We've messed things up coming to the camp, somehow. Chiron said he'd sworn an oath and couldn't talk about it." 

y/n frowned, wanting to add that she definitely hadn’t asked to come to the camp, but she bit her tongue - it wasn't the time. 

 "What oath?" Annabeth demanded. "I've never seen him act this way. And why would he tell me to talk to you about the gods..." Her voice trailed off, looking at the two gold swords lying on the coffee table. She touched Jason's gingerly, like it might be hot. "Are these gold? Do you remember where you got it?" 

y/n shook her head, Jason doing the same. "We don't remember anything," she said. 

Annabeth nodded like she'd come up with a rather desperate plan. "If Chiron won't help, we'll need to figure things out ourselves. Which means... Cabin Fifteen. Rachel, you'll keep an eye on Piper?"  

"Sure," Rachel promised. "Good luck, you three."  

"Hold on," Jason said. "What's in Cabin Fifteen?"   

Annabeth stood. "Maybe a way to get your memories back." 

TAGLIST @maybxlle @sunshine-of-ur-life @liviessun @bellamysnatblida @mp-littlebit @cinemaconrad @eaterof-concrete

[midnightsnyx]

beautiful things p2 | mat barzal

my masterlist & part 1 pairing: mathew barzal x singer!reader summary: the aftermath of the interview. warnings: not edited, a lil angst but mostly fluff! please let me know if i missed anything. word count: 972 author note: i refuse to call twitter X. also there are most definitely inaccuracies but i hope you guys like anyways <3

“Hey, we made it on People Magazine’s Twitter,” Mat says eagerly, and you look up from the journal you’ve been jotting lyric ideas in. He has an endearing and adorable smile on his face as he looks at his phone.

Still, you can’t help but look at him, titling your head slightly “You haven’t been in People Magazine?” 

He laughs but his smile doesn’t waiver. “Not all of us are insanely talented musicians.”

You roll your eyes affectionately and lean over to press your lips firmly against his. The past few months have been nothing but bliss, since you replied to his DM. You were scared to open your heart again after your last relationship but Mat has shown you thus far that if you find the right person, it’s okay to let someone in.

“I don’t know,” you tease, pulling away. “I��ve seen you with a guitar.”

He blushes and tries to hide it by kissing you again. You let him, mainly because you’re enjoying it but also because you don’t want to push. 

You’re floating in pure euphoria right now, enjoying every moment and you don’t want it to end. 

“You’ll come to tonight's game, right?” He asks, brushing a loose piece of hair out of your face and resting a hand on your shoulder. One thing that you’ve learned about Mat is how tactile he is. He always wants to be touching you somehow, whether it’s an arm around your shoulder or holding your hand.

“I wouldn’t miss it,” you promise.

. . .

You love coming to Mat’s games, but some of the girls are still iffy about you which is understandable. You’ve only been dating Mat for five months and you are also in the media which brings a lot of attention. Sometimes unwanted attention. 

You also love your fans but they have a love/hate relationship with your relationship with Mat. Also taking into account his fans, and sometimes it’s too much. Like tonight. 

Everything starts great, there’s not much trouble getting to the stadium, but there are always fans waiting to hopefully get to see a hockey player or get a picture before the game. Someone sees you and then you’re back on Twitter and not the good side of Twitter.

You manage to get to your VIP suite pretty easily, Iris and some of your other friends with you. 

“I’d say I told you so, but you’d probably fire me,” Iris says dreamily, staring at the jumbotron that is showing a live feed of you. You’re not sure if it’s something you’ll ever get used to. You imagine this is what Taylor Swift feels like when she goes to Travis Kelce’s games.

“You just did,” you reply dryly but there’s no malice to your tone. You know exactly how Iris is and you love her for it.

Your eyes go back to the jumbotron, looking to see if they show Mat. You think you can see him on the ice from your current view, but you’re never sure unless he looks up and waves. 

“I’m glad I did, though,” you say and she looks at you for clarification. 

“Message him back. You were right.” 

She doesn’t say I told you so, or say any funny comeback. She just smiles and nods towards where the game has started. 

It’s a tight game and you’re on the edge of your seat for most of it but the Islanders win in overtime with a victory of 2–1, with Mat scoring the overtime goal. You watch the team celebrate on the ice before they head back to the locker room and you pull your phone out, shooting a quick text to Mat letting him know you’ll meet him at his place. With your security and his postgame interviews, it’s usually best to just meet at either of your houses.

You’re sitting with a glass of wine, watching the highlights from other games when Mat gets home. You can hear him drop his bag by the door and toss his keys on the counter before making his way to the living room where you are waiting. Max, your golden retriever is sitting by your feet but his tail starts wagging when he sees Mat. 

“Hey pal,” Mat mutters, bending down to greet the pup before plopping down on the couch next to you. He sighs, staring at the ceiling like he’s thinking hard about something.

“Penny for your thoughts?” You ask, putting your glass on the table and turning towards him. He turns his head towards you and opens and closes his mouth a few times. You’re starting to get nervous when he speaks.

“Move in with me,” he whispers and you freeze.

“Mat-”

“Look, I know it’s only been five months but we spend all our time together anyway. We’re just bouncing between houses.” He reaches out and takes one of your hands, intertwining your fingers together. “Let’s make it one house.”

The thought of moving in together absolutely terrifies you, but when you think about it, he’s right. If he’s not away for games or you’re not doing shows, you’re together and when you think about the future, Mat is standing next to you.

“Okay,” you say and his eyes widen. 

“Really? I thought I was going to have to get on my knees and beg,” he says and you’re not sure if he’s kidding or not.

So you shrug. “You make valid points. Plus, I think Max would like not to be shuffled around so much.”

He grins and leans in to kiss you. “I love you.” 

“I love you too,” you murmur when you pull away and then Max jumps up on the two of you as if he knows a decision has been made and Mat almost falls off the couch but you have never been happier.

tag list: @ilyrafe

[brucewaynehater101]

As someone who is partly deaf, I love that deaf Tim stuff. But hear me out for something that could work for either of them. What if on complete accident when both the Bats and Rouges hear about Tim's disability, the Rouges are the ones who do a better job with not looking down on Tim. Yes they add things to help him, like for Deaf Tim Joker would also use ASL as he monologs to make sure that Tim can understand him or with Blind Tim Riddler makes puzzle rooms themed around telling the difference in textures or he reads all the riddles out loud.

Meanwhile the Bats are. They *tried* ok? But they keep over compensating because they worry about Tim. Unlike the Rouges who don't pull their punches, during training the Bats do start pulling punches and going a little easier on Tim. Dick keeps trying to do things for Tim that Tim knows he can do. Bruce keeps taking him off cases that involve in person investigation. Damian keeps saying things about how all tasks should be left to him because clearly he's the superior one (if it's early Damian, later on when they're on better terms he wouldn't be as assholish about it but also keeps trying to take over tasks for Tim)

I'm really really glad that you vibed with the AU.

As far as your additions, I 100% agree. Having "good intentions" for people can still be harmful and frustrating. That's why, in these AUs, Tim tries to hide his disability until he's able to prove his efficiency. It's dealer's choice whether the Bats choose to acknowledge the evidence or are still doubting his capabilities.

I think the fic from the OG post has a scene where Babs, Cass, and Tim meet up to discuss the microaggressions they face from the Bats due to their respective disabilities. The sequel definitely has cute interactions between Damian and Tim. Damian refuses for anyone to treat his "rival" as weak or incapable. Peak siblings energy.

The funny part I find about this would be the Rogues accommodating Tim's disabilities just so they can defeat him. If Joker learned ASL for Tim, he'd probably research the hell out of how to look intimidating and scary while doing it (since, depending on Tim's hearing loss, Joker can't effectively utilize the vocal tone skills he's trained to be terrifying). Riddler would treat it as another puzzle and mental exercise (his Riddles would likely increase in accessibility for multiple disabilities as time progresses. He wants to challenge folks by their thinking abilities, not by their ability to test within the constraints placed on them. Perhaps, after his research and new implementations, he even starts targeting schools that unfairly places confines on their students [from both a socioeconomic standpoint and from improper accommodations]).

Anyways, I would love a fic that highlights some of the Bats' treatment of Tim and how not to interact with folks of different disabilities. Stuff like infantilizing, doing tasks for the person without permission, assuming what someone can handle, and disregarding them. It'd be cool to watch Tim try open communication (asking boundaries and what level of assistance the person desires) with all of them. For some, that's all that's needed. They have a clear guideline of "that shit was not okay" and the lines of communication are open for them to ask clarification in the future. For others, they listen to Tim, agree to change, and still pull that shit. I personally vote for Tim getting petty.

I feel like Babs and Cass would be the ones to understand the most that Tim can do anything he sets his mind to (he's so incredibly stubborn that he'd probably even be able to steal LexCorp from Luthor if he was motivated enough. He most likely even has plans already drawn for it ready to implement at any point). Duke would probably understand how others' perceptions of Tim affect him.

I also kill for Tim utilizing WE resources to bring aid and accommodations based on more specific audiences (such as how kids in the foster system, LGBT youth, and those with disabilities [both mental and physical] disportionately make up the homeless population).

I'm rambling a bit because sociology is a passion of mine. I'd get a higher education on the subject if I had the money.

Anyways, I love considering such perspectives in fanfiction. Let me know if there's other stuff I should add to this AU!

[fuckyeahisawthat]

thank you so much for that excellent chani post. i've seen some annoying takes on twitter about how not making her totally devoted and subservient to paul makes her 'unlikeable' and i'm like. buddy. i think that speaks more to how you see women. than anything about her. this chani is very dynamic and interesting to me.

i'll be honest and say i've not read the books. this is me speaking from what i've seen of summaries, but i think giving her a real cause to fight for yet also genuinely loving paul gives her an interesting struggle, and also plays into how the portrayal of the fremen (seems to me to be) more diverse and nuanced. as in, the fremen themselves seem to have more of a push-and-pull to them. the clarification of how different fremen believe differently (the south being more fundamentalist) is a very important thing to include in a movie where you can run into the danger of saying that all adherents to a foreign, islam-adjacent (in coding) religion are all fundamentalists. that can (in less nuanced hands) be a pretty irresponsible thing. so showing that there's also more secular/pragmatic/less dogmatic sectors of the culture seems a pretty good counterweight.

so yeah. this is how i processed it as a movie-goer. and having chani represent that aspect (believing in people over prophecy, action over religion) and having stilgar as the humanized face of the southern peoples (showing that yknow, regardless of being fundamenist beliefs, theyre still PEOPLE with the capacity for love, friendship, honor) makes total logical sense. you're not just "telling" us that there's different aspects to fremen culture, you're SHOWING us by showing different characters who represent those aspects, without demonizing either or turning either into a one-note stereotype.

Thank you! I'm not someone who was a long-term fan of the books before the movie came out (I tried reading Dune as a teenager when I was reading a lot of classic sci-fi but found it too boring) but I did read Dune and Dune Messiah after the first movie came out, both because I wanted to know what happened next and because I wanted to have an opinion on how the movies worked as adaptations.

(book and movie spoilers below and also I basically ended up writing a whole essay in response to this)

My single biggest frustration with the book is that after they arrive at Sietch Tabr and Jessica drinks the Water of Life and becomes Reverend Mother...the book up and skips two years of the story and when we next see Paul he's already got Fremen followers who are ready to die for him and he's in an established relationship with Chani. Oh I was SO MAD when I got to this part. I was like FRANK. FRANK!!!! Did you seriously just skip two years of the most interesting part of your own story???

The thing is, even though I know that Frank Herbert's intention was to write a critique of the idea that oppressed people need an enlightened external (white) savior to liberate them...if you don't provide an alternate explanation for what's happening then you end up falling into some Orientalist tropes anyway. And because, in the book, we don't see the process of how your average background fedaykin comes to trust Paul as a military and political leader, there is nothing in the text to counter the idea that the Fremen are a bunch of unquestioning religious fanatics easily swayed to do violence by belief in a prophecy.

My second biggest frustration with the book is that we're given no reason at all why Chani would fall in love with Paul. While she has some memorable scenes, she doesn't have a lot to do as a character in the book, and she's missing from a whole chunk of the end...because she's in the south...because she and Paul have a baby, Leto II, who's then killed off-page when the sardaukar attack the south. (I'm honestly really glad they cut this from the film, because it never seemed to be given the narrative weight it deserved in the book.)

So you can imagine how happy I was when the Villeneuve movies figured out how to address both these frustrations by tying them together. The fedaykin don't just blindly accept Paul because of some prophecy. They come to trust him because he proves himself as a fighter, and because he starts out from a place of genuine solidarity and humility--which it is possible for him to do because he has no structural power over them at that point. And Chani falls in love with him for the same reason, in that heady environment of fighting side by side for a political cause, and maybe for the first time in a while starting to believe that you can win.

I think the Villeneuve movies improve a lot on what's in the book in terms of how the Fremen are portrayed...when we're with the fedaykin and/or Chani and Stilgar. There we see political debates and discussion and the fact that not all the Fremen think the same way. And we also see little humanizing moments of folks just hanging out, celebrating after a victory in battle and just shooting the shit and being friends.

I do wish the movie had extended this to more parts of Fremen society. If there's one thing I could have added, it would be seeing more of daily life in Sietch Tabr. It makes sense that when we're seeing things from Jessica's POV, she is more distant from and suspicious of the Fremen, seeing them as a force to be manipulated, but I wish we had even one or two scenes of people just being people in the sietch. It felt kind of weirdly empty and not particularly lived-in as a place, and I think they could've easily countered this, with scenes from Chani, Stilgar or Paul's POV, and that would have made it hit even harder when the sietch is attacked.

If there were two things I could have added, I wanted more exploration of the people of the south. Why are they more fundamentalist than the Fremen who live in the north? (We get one line about how "nothing can survive [in the south] without faith" but I wanted more than that.) While I think the movie did a fantastic job of humanizing and differentiating the Fremen we see around Paul, when we get to the south it does backslide a little into "undifferentiated mass of fanatics." Surely the people of the south also have some diversity of political views.

I think there are some interesting threads they could have pulled on in terms of how proximity to direct colonial violence shapes people's ideology. Sietch Tabr is one of the closest Fremen communities to Arrakeen, the seat of colonial control. They have probably had to mount some kind of armed resistance for generations just to keep from being wiped out. I can see that producing skepticism of the prophecy ("well I can't sit around waiting for a messiah but I do have this rocket launcher") as well as resentment at the idea of someone swooping in and taking credit for a struggle that you've put your life on the line for, and probably a lot of people you know have died for. There seem to be some generational differences, too, where young people of Chani's generation put less stock in the prophecy, while the true believers are mostly older. I can see faith in the prophecy coming out of despair--when you've been fighting for decades with no change, maybe you draw the conclusion that only an outside power coming to your aid will make a difference. While the people of the south are still under colonial rule, maybe being generally outside the reach of direct Harkonnen violence (the Harkonnens don't even know they're there) makes the concepts of both oppression and liberation feel more abstract and more receptive to being filled in with Bene Gesserit mysticism. It seems absurd to want more from a movie that's nearly three hours long already...but I wanted more of this.

Still, I do think they managed to improve on a lot of things that frustrated me or are simply dated about the book, while keeping the political thriller/war drama/epic tragedy elements that I think are the heart of the story, and in some cases drawing them out more clearly and effectively than the book did. The best kind of book-to-film adaptation imo is one that has a strong point of view in terms of what the story is About, on a large-scale thematic level, and is not afraid to change individual elements of canon in service of telling that story the most effective way possible in a cinematic medium. While there are always things I want more of, I feel like Denis Villeneuve really, really understood the assignment in terms of the overarching themes of the the story and he delivered so fucking well.

[arcaneconfessions]

Saw a post on here saying something similar but I can’t find it, but anyways, I feel like sometimes the shipping and shipping discourse seems to overshadow any actual critique or engagement with the show itself. And as someone who doesn’t really engage with shipping beyond a casual level, it’s SO annoying.

Season 2 felt very fanservice-y to me, like it was jangling yaoi and yuri keys in front of the audience to distract from the extremely questionable writing choices they were making. Like the writing equivalent of corporations using fandoms and memes and a cheap rainbow logo and merch during pride month to get on your side and become relatable to a gen z audience, even though at the end of the day they're not relatable at all, and all they want to do is sell you something all while using the shadiest practices possible behind your back (I’m sorry you can so tell my unending grudge against Duolingo here LMFAOO). The most frustrating part was that it lowkey worked. I remember when season 2 first ended, all everyone could talk about was ships! I get that people were likely still processing it and perhaps couldn’t immediately get out their coherent analyses (that’s fair honestly, I’d rather they sit on it rather than forcing out a half-baked analysis like a watery shit), but I felt like I was going insane for the first week or two. I’m better now but honestly I think whether you ship it or not, most, if not ALL the relationships this season were fumbled horrendously, and what confused me is that somehow people still saw that as a win. I get that it’s exciting whenever a ship or interaction you wanted to see so much gets canon content, and these ships DO mean a lot to people, that’s true, and I’m glad people are able to find joy and comfort in these ships, but.. Idk, to me it felt like they weren’t even the same characters anymore and they were barely allowed to exist or have their own arcs outside of their respective ships (cough, vi and Ekko) :/

For clarification, this is in no way saying you CAN’T enjoy shipping (I’d be a hypocrite lmao) as I think in certain contexts it can def enrich an interpretation of the characters or the work itself (also,, aside from the intellectual aspect, it’s just fun to mash characters together like Barbies sometimes idk what to tell you. That’s what fandom is for), I just don’t like it when these characters are barely allowed to exist outside of the ships either in text or in fandom, or the shipping consumes the ENTIRE conversation. It’s standard fandom behaviour, I know, especially when there’s a lot of young people in there who don’t yet know fandom etiquette and how to engage critically with works in general, but it’s still annoying and childish to me and it gets on my nerves (insert disgruntled old man shaking fist at sky gesture)

Sorry for the rant (needed it tho tbh) even tho I know that’s literally what your inbox is for but I LOVE your blog and seeing all the different takes and perspectives on here, it’s very fascinating to watch and I’m glad people have a place to unapologetically express their opinions ^_^

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[wyervan]

hellooooo

I was wondering if you had any tidbits of lore regarding your Yuletide boys besides what you've already shared here and in the SS discord? i just think as a concept they're soooo cool and their designs SLAP asgdkfgsadkj

also totally unrelated but how do you feel about people writing things for your aus? like is it okay as long as it's kept simple, short/doesn't assume too much with the characterizations?

also also not your secret santa! I'm just shy >_<

hiiii! Glad u like them :3

it’s funny because the concept came to me mid-sentence while I was typing my intro into the SS discord. I was like “hmmm what do I put on my wishlist? Slasher Au would be cool but what about something more seasonally rela—KRAMPUS.”

Hmm one thing I probably won’t have the time to draw anytime soon but DREAM about depicting is Sunta’s (ty again @velbsy ) reindeer sleigh. 🦌

It’s a massive bronze chariot with intricate metalwork motifs on the siding. There’s plenty of room on gold-thread embroidered cushions for it to fit the metal man himself and all the presents for the good children, all packed neatly into piles of bags, boxes, and bows. It’s bedecked in golden bells and the reins are of sturdy dark brown leather.

And attached to those reins—the reindeer! Nine shining, steaming fully clockwork bronze automaton reindeer. Just as alive and animated as their bestial counterparts—but without the messiness, much to Sun’s preference 🙂‍↕️. Though they still bite sometimes. They do NOT get along with Moon.

Now knowing myself, I would be spending hours on every little cog and glinting metal detail if I were to attempt to bring this image into reality. Oogh, i can already feel how I would render the metal antlers 🤩. Alas, the idea must be shelved for now. My schedule is terribly stuffed for the rest of the year.

Oh and to answer your other question: if either of my AUs inspire you in anyway, please please please feel free to let the creative energy flow from you unbidden without worrying about being occ or anything else.

I mean I am absolutely here if you have questions about how I think my characters would react to certain situations or if you just wanna ask for clarification or detail. But I’m also super curious to see what people take away from my designs standing on their own!

Thanks for writing in, secret not-santa ✌️ 😛

[phoenixisobsessed]

I'M SO GLAD I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO HATES TFO SENTINEL

I would only buy the toy so I can chuck him across my room grhgsgrghr

I would rip off his head like a barbiedoll

This is how he’d be if I had him. Holy fuck. A message to everybody who simps for him: I am extremely convinced you all have deep rooted unresolved trauma. Xoxo hope you get better soon heart you all. It’s one thing to have a degradation kink and another thing to be attracted to an asshole piece of shit egomaniac who will love nobody but themselves, manipulate you as well as be just a little bit upset that slavery isn’t allowed. Anyway goodnight y’all sleep well and dream about ANYBODY but this man I am begging. I’m not usually one to judge who people simp for but oh my god 💞 you guys genuinely worry me hahahhahaha!!!!!!!!

(Edit because erm somebody brought to my attention: I don’t hate Sentinel Prime as a character. He’s actually an amazing character. Love the depth of it. Sometimes we need a truly evil character. I am just expressing the fact I do not understand genuinely liking him ✨ just quick clarification. Because yes, I do hate him, because he’s designed to be a very unlikable guy deep down. Doesn’t mean it’s a bad character. Sorry if this post seemed too mean idk erm. Also Edit 2 rq: I tend to write my posts very non thought out and just write whatever comes to mind when I am writing it, (and also always VERY lighthearted, not very serious. I hate being rude and mean generally) and now reading it back, I realised this may have seemed like a personal attack on Sentinel Prime enjoyers. I have accidentally expressed my confusion as hatred. I know this is probably not an excuse but oh well, I’m just trying to clarify. And I won’t edit my previous words because eh, whatever. Just wanna let you know, I’m not judging anybody for liking him, I won’t hate on anybody for liking him, I even like most of the drawings I see of him that are absolutely loving on him, I just don’t understand why somebody would ever like him. Does not mean I am saying you are an awful person for doing so. Pure confusion. Trying to understand. Please help me. Sentinel enjoyers please educate me here why is he so great I want to understand. Apologies for any sentinel enjoyers who felt personally attacked by this. Y’all just keep on loving Sentinel please don’t let anybody stop you but tell me why I’m begging I am so genuinely curious.)

[narfin-frood]

hey guys!! thought id post a little clarification for my sparse activity after my four days of constant activity!!

i've got a day job and a very involved personal life, so a lot of my week is spent worrying about those things, which makes my responses take much longer than they otherwise would. the reason i was so active from the start was my four day weekend, which is Not a very common occurence. i promise i'm reading your asks and i'll respond as soon as i can, but if i try to do it at work it ends up rushed and clumsy, and i don't wanna post things that i'm not fully confident in posting!

also, i'm doing the au/normal fanart entirely for fun, so if something seems off or inconsistent, that's why!

anyway, i'm really glad you're all so interested in what i've put out, and i hope to keep posting as much as possible, but it's been so incredibly hectic lately that it may take a while to get into another groove. i appreciate everybody who's stuck around!