#haha this is just me just showing off the cool armor i made for my adaar inky hahaha

[grapecaseschoices]

i hate to see you leave but i love to watch you go

[dreamycloud]

💚!!

Thank you, @mirilyawrites, for the prompt! The idea came fully-formed in my head and I just ran with it haha. You can’t tell me that a Wanda variant won’t try to get to Loki one day. Anyway, True Love’s Kiss / Magic Kiss / Healed feels like it was made for Lokius. I don’t make the rules. (Also on AO3).

Yggdrasil was red. Poisonous red, infecting the branches of the multiverse. Every TemPad in the organization emitted a beeping alarm. Mobius spit out his hot cocoa, spraying the papers on his desk, and had to cover his eyes as the emergency lights flashed on the floor.

The multiverse is in danger, came Miss Minutes’ voice over the intercom. No evacuation is required at this time, but y’all please stay alert for forthcoming developments.

Heart pounding, Mobius pushed back his chair. His plans for the day had been to fill his gut with processed sugar, and [maybe] get ahead of the Kang investigation on Branch 5089, but now?

“Damnit, Loki, what did you do?” he muttered to himself, making a run for the elevator. He used his boot to hit the right floor. His TemPad went off with a message from B-15 telling him to meet her in the old Temporal Loom control room. Of course. That was where he was already heading.

When he arrived, he hadn’t expected to see anything different from the soulless expanse of space beyond the gangway. The dead end, he called it, because no amount of squinting nor O.B.’s drone probes revealed the path to the multiversal tree.

“Mobius, you’re here!” O.B. said when the doors opened to the control room. He was sweaty, sleeves rolled up, but smiling just the same. “Can’t do this without you!”

“Funny, ‘cause I’m only good for moral support these days,” Mobius grumbled, ready to berate himself for not being useful enough to help O.B. beyond handing him a fresh piece of chalk for his equations—when he realized the room was awash in red.

His breath left his lungs in a rush when he looked out the window. No longer was there just empty space. The gangway stretched outward, abruptly ending, but there was a rip in the Space Beyond Time. Through the rip he could see Yggdrasil glowing red. They could simply walk right into it without a fuss—a terrifying prospect, considering Loki himself never dared open the door to anyone, let alone his friends. This was not the god’s intention. Something was beyond wrong.

“Get me a suit,” Mobius barked, his cheeks flushed with adrenaline. He ripped off his tie, giving himself more air. “I’m going over there.”

“We don’t need suits anymore,” B-15 said, showing up in full Hunter armor, with new embellishments to mark her as the Leader of the TVA. She grimly fisted her pruning stick.

“She’s right,” O.B. said, looking up from one of the consoles. “Once we’re all here, let’s go. We don’t want to delay.”

“Who else are we expecting?” Mobius asked. He shifted his weight, eyeing the rip in case it decided to close up on them while they stood around talking.

B-15 only smiled. Grim, determined, but in control.

“We” turned out to include Casey, arriving out of breath with a pack of gadgets O.B. cooed over, probably asked for by the genius. D-90 showed up in his armor and bearing a set of handcuffs. A TimeDoor opened, smooth as silk, and Sylvie stepped through, wearing her usual houndstooth coat, knives twitching in her fingers.

“You owe me,” she mouthed at B-15, who huffed in response, and Mobius fought hard not to roll his eyes.

They gathered, eyeing each other as O.B. opened the blast doors. No temporal radiation. The air was cool. No breeze. A whole lot of nothing if you didn’t count the glowing red tree beyond the rip. The sound of their hurried steps across the gangway rang in Mobius’ ears. There was no gap between the end of the gangway and the stony, gold-fissured ground at the End of Time.

Sylvie went first, stepping over the glowing rip and planting her right foot on the stone. “Safe,” she said, stepping all the way in. They followed.

Mobius was sure Yggdrasil was a glorious sight when it was healthy. But red was never a favorite color of his, and it made his eyes water as he looked up and saw the branches twisting and stretching over his head. Whatever infected the branches hadn’t put Time at a standstill, but it was still wrong. “Loki’s lost control,” he said, offering Casey a hand as he crossed over.

“Seems like it. Loki’s magic is green,” O.B. said.

Mobius gasped. Right. Right. “That’s it, O.B.! This is someone else’s magic. And I know exactly who.”

Sylvie turned in a slow circle. “Share with the class?”

“The Scarlet Witch. Wanda Maximoff. She’s the only magic user I can think of who could go toe-to-toe with Loki. She’s bent reality to her will before. She’d do something like this to get what she wants.”

“What does she want?” B-15 asked.

“What else?” Mobius muttered. “Her boys.”

They made quick work heading for the center of the tree where the branches thickened and gathered together like a trunk. And just as Mobius suspected, they found the Scarlet Witch treating the branches like pull n’ peel Twizzlers, checking each one for the variables she wanted.

“Stop,” B-15 shouted, twisting the pruning stick on. “Put down the branches!”

The Scarlet Witch did no such thing. Her eyes were luminous, half-crazed with want, her mouth twitching like a tick. “Why won’t you leave me alone? I only want my family back. It’s just such a little thing. Who are you to come between a mother and her children?”

Mobius shoved his way to the front of their group. “Where’s Loki? What have you done with him?”

The witch released a toneless laugh. “He wouldn’t give them to me, so I pulled him off the chessboard.” She flicked her hand and the branches in the trunk parted.

Loki, God of Stories, sat on a throne in the center of the trunk. His arms were spread, fingers curled on nothing, because the branches he must have been holding prior to his confrontation with her had twisted around his wrists and forearms, binding him rather than the other way around. His horned crown hung crooked on his head. His skin, dyed red from the lights, looked sickly. His chest rose and fell, but he looked like he was sleeping. Not a peaceful sleep. His cheeks were hollow, his body slumped like melting wax on the throne.

“He is powerful, and he is clever,” The Scarlet Witch said with a curious little smirk, “but everyone has a weakness. I saw a pain like mine in him. He’ll never unbind himself from my spell.”

Mobius felt a fury like never before boil under his skin. “What. Did. You. Do?”

“It’s cute,” she said, peeling away another rejected branch. “He’s alone at the End of Time. No friends. No family. No one who would choose him first. Call me cliche, but I put him to sleep forever. Only true love’s kiss will wake him.”

“Fiction,” O.B. whispered, lowering the gadget Casey had handed him.

Mobius shuddered. This wasn’t science. This was magic, and the laws that the witch used to bind Loki had to be obeyed to free him. But how impossible was that? Did Loki have a true love, or was he as alone as he always thought? Mobius felt sick, seconds away from bending over to vomit his hot cocoa.

“We don’t have time to play your games, witch,” Sylvie said, putting her knives away only to summon green flares of magic at the tips of her fingers. “Back away from the tree. Slowly.”

The Scarlet Witch’s eyes glowed red. Her smile turned into a snarl.

Fear crawled up Mobius’ throat. All his research, those mindless hours spent in the Archive, came back to him in a flash. He remembered what she was capable of. He watched the footage of another variant of the Scarlet Witch mow down the Illuminati. He couldn’t handle seeing his friends die the same way. He wouldn’t let it happen.

“Wait,” Mobius said, stepping in front of Sylvie, his hand out, pleading. Reasoning. “Wanda, listen to me. We work for the TVA. The Time Variance Authority. We study time. We protect it. O.B. can run an analysis of the branches faster than you can search them. We can find a branch for you.”

Her eyes still glowing, fingers claws, she yelled, “The hell you can!”

“You’re looking for a branch with two orphaned boys, twin boys. Billy and Tommy. They need their mother. We can unite them with you,” Mobius said, breathing hard, hands shaking, though his voice was soft and calm as ever.

Something about Mobius knowing their names broke the Scarlet Witch. A cry burst from his lips. The red glow in her eyes gave way to tears.

“I understand you,” Mobius said, slowly approaching her, his eyes never leaving her face. “My boys were taken from me too. Sean and Kevin. Good boys, mischievous scamps. I’ll never see them again. Can’t even recall what it was like to be their dad. But you, you’re different. You could never forget. I want you to have them back. Can you trust me? Trust us? We’re not your enemies.”

Wanda took loud, gasping breaths. She collapsed to her knees. She looked up at him with her tear-streaked face. “Who are you?”

“Loki’s friends,” Mobius said with a soft laugh. “His family.”

Mobius wasn’t sure how much time passed, and how long it took for D-90 and B-15 to cuff Wanda and pull her to her feet. Mobius just remembered resting his hand on the small of Wanda’s back, whispering comforting words, sharing her pain, borrowing it to properly mourn the loss of his own boys in the moment.

“We’ll take her back, put in her in holding cell until we find her a new branch,” B-15 said, her grip firm on one of Wanda’s arms.

“You’ll see them real soon,” O.B. promised, bending down so he could look in Wanda’s eyes.

Wanda went quiet, pliant, as B-15 and D-90 walked her back through the rip and to the TVA.

“Tree’s still red,” O.B. said, standing next to Casey.

Sylvie scrunched her nose. “Loki hasn’t woken up either.”

He wouldn’t. Not with that damn magic kiss hanging over their heads. Mobius felt something hard and splintery grind together in his chest. “Looks like Sylvie’s up now,” he said flatly.

Sylvie startled. “Me? Why me?”

“You’re his girlfriend,” he said, stabbing himself with his own words, even as he flung them at Sylvie. This wasn’t something either of them had discussed, mainly because Sylvie kept to her chosen branch and wasn’t all that talkative when she got dragged into TVA emergencies. But he remembered how she and Loki’s hands linked in the fight against Dox, how easily they read each other with just a look across a room. There had even been a kiss at the End of Time, which thinking about always made Mobius’ gut squirmy. But this wasn’t about him. Waking Loki up was the goal, his own heart be damned.

“Eww!” Sylvie’s face screwed up like she’d sucked on a lemon and she dry-heaved. “I’m not his anything. Let’s be clear on that. I made the mistake once of kissing him and it won’t happen again.”

“Do you want him to stay sleeping forever?” Mobius yelled, losing his cool.

“Do you?” O.B. said, gently, breaking the tension.

Mobius narrowed his eyes, confused.

“It’s your turn, Mobius,” O.B. said. He made it sound like a fact.

Casey smiled behind his hand. Sylvie crossed her arms, waiting for Mobius to catch up.

Mobius stepped backwards. Threw up his hands. “I’m not… I can’t be.”

“Who else, if not you?” Sylvie said, impatient.

Who else? Mobius looked at his friends and found no escape. They all expected him to kiss Loki. A vicious ache he’d buried long ago came crawling to the surface. Kissing Loki. The big dream, the delusion he never acted on before. Even now, rescuing Loki with a kiss seemed like a role written for someone else. But he had to try. How he wanted to try.

With a sharp nod, Mobius turned on his heel and made his way up the jagged steps leading to the throne. His heartbeat drowned out his thoughts. He licked his lips nervously. It was second nature to cup Loki’s jaw with shaking fingers. The god’s skin was hot—not a good sign—and his breath stirred Mobius’ mustache as he leaned close.

Loki was hollow-cheeked, hot as a fever, limp as if someone had cut the strings above his head.

“Please,” Mobius whispered, squeezing his eyes shut in a prayer, and pressed his lips to Loki’s. The kiss was brief, polite. He drew back, only to find a pair of green eyes looking back at him.

Loki drank him in greedily. His voice cracked with disuse. “Mobius?”

“Hi,” Mobius said with a small, kinda insane laugh. He pressed his forehead against Loki’s.

“Hello,” the god said back.

Mobius shivered when Loki gripped his shoulders, fingers spreading and stroking him through the fabric of his jacket. But he was savoring Loki too, rubbing his thumb along the underside of the god’s jaw, brushing his ink-dark curls away from his sweaty face. “You were under a spell,” he said, forcing himself to explain, just in case—

“Ah, yes. True love’s kiss,” Loki said with tired amusement. “The witch told me all about it before she cast. Something about movies and fairy tales. I couldn’t follow. Midgardians.”

“You don’t look surprised,” Mobius swallowed, suddenly nervous, “that it was me.”

Loki dragged his hungry eyes over Mobius’ face. “It could only be you, love.”

Mobius whimpered. Love. He called him “love.”

One hand slipped through his silver hair and curled there, bringing their mouths closer. “You were kissing me,” Loki said, a gentle reminder.

The tree was still red. The god’s skin, feverish as a soup pot boiling. Mobius rested one knee on the edge of the throne for leverage and pulled their mouths together. The kiss was so sweet it gave Mobius a toothache.

But just as fast, it turned ravenous, pulling at each others’ hair and clothes, tongues searing as they met inside the god’s mouth. Loki’s skin slowly cooled under Mobius’ hands. The hollows filled. He came beautifully to life under him. Loki sobbed into his mouth, grabbed him harder. Mobius wasn’t about to let go.

Behind his eyelids, Mobius saw the red melt away to green.

[otakween]

Digimon Tamers - Episode 51 (final episode!)

Yay! I enjoyed this finale. It was basically like the inverse of Adventure where instead of the kids having to go back to the real world it was the digimon having to return to the digital world. It was probably not as emotional as Adventure because the goodbyes were kind of abrupt, but it was close enough. I feel satisfied :^)

Notes:

Exciting title card is exciting. Gotta love it when the final episode switches up the intro for dramatic effect.

Sakuyamon's armor bursts off and her hair streams out when she gives Cyberdramon her power. I was kind of giggling at how fanservicey that was (I wonder if it awakened anything in anyone), but it was nice to see Ruki and Ryo finally cooperating and Ruki respecting Ryo as a teammate.

Lots of flowing hair in this episode: Sakuyamon, Ruki and Juri all get this treatment. Honestly it kinda made Ruki and Juri look really similar in my screenshots (see below), whoops. Other than that, they looked nice.

They probably just look more similar than normal here because of Juri's serious expression.

Nice of the holy beasts to show up and help, but they barely showed them (you could only see them fading into the distance). I wish they had the budget to animate them more up close because then their heroic moment would have had more oomph.

Why did Juri suddenly have 90s anime eyes in that one scene? She looked so cute lol (Culumon too)

Nice to see the less powerful, more defensive digimon save the day in this with Culumon using a barrier on Juri and then MarineAngemon doing the same for everyone to get them out of the D-Reaper bubble.

I laughed out loud when the goddess monster moaned it's way into the pit. Why was that so goofy sounding? Totally took away any cool-factor for that thing

Now that I think about it, when MarineAngemon saves the day, Hirokazu, Guardromon, and Lopmon did not need to be there. Guess they just wanted to participate haha

Poor Jian and Terriermon have to spin super hard to revert the D-Reapers power. The little "momantai" with swirling eyes was super cute.

It's revealed that part of sealing the digital world and real world connection means that all the partner digimon have to go back to the digital world, but first they revert to babies! Omg the baby digimon were so cuuuute ;w; Guilmon was a lil bean and hearing the super-serious Renamon's baby voice was great too.

We got a cheesy "Primary colors' insert song that I'm guessing was sung by the VAs, looking forward to giving that a closer listen.

It's interesting to think about what having digimon in the real world would even mean if there are no threats. They just hang out slice of life style? Are there any mon shows like that where there's no fighting? Sounds cute but it probably wouldn't sell as many toys lol.

This poor background child with huge ears:

I was like "gah! Why is there an elf in their class??"

Glad they didn't end with a silly "and then 20 years later they had all the babies" epilogue. Open-ended is best. Good for the imagination and good for the franchise if they ever want to do more with these characters.

All in all, this was a good kids show. It didn't blow me away or anything, but it was probably stronger than 02 at least. Since no one talks about the other series I can only assume it's all downhill from here -cries- Nah, JK. I'm looking forward to checking out everything else. But first, video game and manga time baby! :D

[chromochaotic]

Reads of 2023 Part II (so far)

i was sad i couldn't fit all the cover pictures in my Part I post without it going off the screen, so might as well split it into 2 posts! update as of 6/11!

thoughts/reviews:

Heaven Official's Blessing: Volume 1

It's happening! My friends have been deep in this author's works/fandom for a while now, I'm pretty late to the party... Well, I guess I've dabbled in some of the animated/live action content that's out there for the different series. Anyway, this was a fun read! There's something so lush about historical dramas that definitely comes through here. When you add in the bits of humor and adventure, the whole story is really refreshing.

Even though the translation is still a tiny bit unprofessional, it's clearer than other options, haha. I was able to get a way better sense of the world and characters on this attempt (I had a good time watching the animated show! But as my friend put it, the season moved lightning fast, so it brushed over a lot of things). I don't have any other real nitpicks, other than like... the odd sexism that pops up now and then. Lmao

I am ofc in love with the main characters... They invented love... They invented devotion... I'm also delighted by the pace of things! Their relationship has managed to be both teasingly slow (like, the gradual reveal of Hua Cheng's true identity) but also very satisfyingly forward (the escorting!! the painting!! the righteous anger!!). Excited to see where things go with them, and the rest of the cast! (3.5/5—would be a 4, but the translation still kind of hampers things.)

Naomi Vandoren's Forest of Light

The second art book I bought from this artist! Same thoughts as before; for a quick browse, this was a refreshing little collection. Her style is just nice and soothing, with some fun surrealism/dreamscape vibes thrown in.

I'm not sure I'll buy any more of these, since the book didn't add quite as much insight into the works as I was hoping. Plus some of the concepts don't really resonate with me/seem that well researched...

I think one of my favorite things included was this abstract work the artist did—she wrote that she started with random watercolor mark-making, and then turned that into a piece. Those were very cool explorations! (2.5/5)

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Last Olympian

Done!! With the series! (Unless... It looks like there might be some followups to the main story?) I understand why the darker tone got dialed up, and other than the excursion with Nico, why the story kind of broke from the wacky-roadtrip vibe of the others. It made sense, while still keeping some of the lighthearted narration from the others, which was nice. I think what I appreciate the most about the series is the fun it has with its world. (Side note—I watched the movie based on the first book recently, and I can only assume it didn't do well! Bc omg, it completely missed the mood of the books. Instead of lingering on the whimsy, they focused on... making Grover a very cringey stereotype? Nah.) (ALSO??? THEY CUT OUT MY DAUGHTER CLARISSE????? THE AUDACITY???????)

I think my biggest gripe with the book was the very weird way the Annabeth-Percy-Rachel dynamic was handled. Like, it just got kind of tiring after a bit, especially with the way Annabeth acted so uncharacteristically catty at times. Plus, like, Percy's off falling in love with Calypso after like 5 minutes, the girl is right that he's kind of flighty. Rachel's ending also felt, just... eh.

Other than that, I was very into the last book!! There were some really moving character moments, like, Nico struggling with his place in the story, everything we learned about Luke... AND THE BIGGEST MASTERSTROKE OF ALL!!! I have been waiting to scream about the sapphic Patrochilles take??? At the end??? Clarisse has two hands and she can hold both Chris's and Silena's. She was moved to go into battle!!!! For her!!!!! She defeated one of the most terrifying foes in NO ARMOR just with a SICK ASS SPEAR and I LOVE HER. Anyway no notes, except they better do Clarisse justice in the new adaptation or I will riot. (4/5)

Secrets of the Oak Woodlands

Ooo I'm out of practice doing these reviews... Mostly from a funny cocktail of outside factors slowing me down, but also because nonfiction can be such a slog for me to get through. Tragic, because I do want to learn more ecology, I'm just... bad at it. Anyway! Bought this book on a fun West Coast road trip, I think I picked this up in the Sequoia National Park gift shop? The writing itself is great, especially how it tackles some pretty complex concepts in a way that's approachable. The book doesn't feel like Baby's First Nature Guide, but it also doesn't completely lose me when it explores why coyote populations actually rise when they're hunted or why Oak Mistletoe is a keystone species.

Even though the watercolor illustrations in the book were lovely, I sort of wish the visuals could have focused more on the tougher scientific concepts being explained. Like, instead of the illustrated "anecdote" of a quail sitting sentry, it could have been good to have a cross-section diagram of an oak gall or something. I guess it's always hard to balance interest and clarity in scientific writing, though. Overall, I think this was a pretty good eco-starter book! I'm just a square peg trying to force myself into a round hole, reading these nonfiction books. (So... 3/5?)

The Dragon's Bride

Hoo boy... Hoo boy... Listened to this audiobook at the recommendation of my friend who's very into erotica/romances. Which was an adventure, for me! To start with the good points, I really like the founding premise of this whole world/story. Deals with demons walk that perfect line for me of intricate and taboo power dynamics—and at the same time, the author satisfied my inner hopeless romantic by making all the demons (that we've met so far, at least) morally viable! So yeah, the world building and characterization is really nice, tbh.

I think my two sticking points are the smut itself, and that I didn't find these particular protags very compelling... It's interesting comparing this to, say, an above-average smut fic. On the one hand this has better prose, but on the other hand the smut veered into being a little too flowery now and then... (not to say all the sex scenes were like that. Uh. There were some choice ones.) I also personally found the frequency of the sex scenes a little ridiculous, but for most people that's probably a positive! ��� And then, when it comes to the main characters themselves, I think they were well-rounded and the dynamic itself made sense. The personalities just aren't the kind I normally latch onto, though—they're not my blorbos, you know? So, where I'd go into a smut fic already attached (and therefore more into the smut itself), these... I could take it or leave it, haha.

That said, this installment did pique my interest for others in the series. I'm curious about the one with the succubus........ And the one with Eve..................... Those tidbits seem more up my alley. :] Also, the voice acting was pretty fun, tbh. They got separate VAs for Briar and Sol, the two POV characters, and they knocked it out of the park (even/especially in the smut scenes)! (well, except for a very funny instance where the guy VA had to voice Briar's lines in a smut scene in a Sol POV chapter. Damn, did he try.) Might pick up one of the other installments... if they come out on audiobook! (3.5/5)

Legends & Lattes

Another recommendation!! From a different friend! Apparently this book is popular on booktok but since booktok sounds like a cesspool (not really—pls don't come for me) I'm glad I didn't know that going in. As a purveyor and avid consumer of slice-of-life fluff.......... I loved this!!! First of all, the main character is My Kind of Girl, and exactly the kind of character I want to see getting a happy ending. Then, the rest of cast provided so many different kinds of delight—the warm Found Family feeling of a grumpy kind father figure and an adorable little Creature baking actual cinnamon rolls and a prim but secretly dorky girlfriend and and and—so many greats! Even the antagonists were enjoyable, in their way.

Hmmm... for the negative part of my postive-negative-positive sandwich, I think I'd just echo what I've seen in a few other reviews—I could have done with a teensy bit more of the romance. Or I guess, more of the cuteness of it? All we really got was a little bit of lead-up and then a big get-together, but I feel like the romance scenes I like most (shy flirting, a tiny bit of pining) got sort of skipped over. It's not a huge negative! Especially for this story, which seemed like it hit exactly the balance the author intended. Yeah, I might have just had the epilogue cover the main ship being cute and in love, instead of the little righteous vengeance scene that we got.

So this was a perfect little comfort listen (audiobook again! with really nice acting done by the author himself!). I saw other people calling the first chapters slow, but tbh I loved the steady, hopeful mood that came from all that straightforward hard work happening and then paying off. A great story, if you go in with the right expectations! (4.5/5) (P.S.: also this article touches on some other L&L points that I think explain why it resonates so well in post-pandemic life) (P.P.S. now I'm trying to parse out why I liked this book so much more than House in the Cerulean Sea... I think part of it is that the cast felt more respected? Like, it was more than just The Most Special-est Pretty Boy and his Plucky Boyfriend Fix Fantasy Racism)

[moon-ursidae]

THE MANDALORIAN 3x05 SPOILERS

i wasn’t gonna do posts like these tonight but it’s lowkey easier haha ANYWAY THE PIRATE HERE WE GO

hmmm talkin about the darksaber in the recap👀

okay hold on they’re really shifting focus to bo katan and showcasing how good of a leader she is. and how she’s merging pretty well with children of the watch and the covert. and how she’s the only one that’s seen the mythosaur.

idk how i feel about it tbh

bc there’s so much fucking potential for din djarin and if that gets thrown out the fucking window for someone else to take over i’ll be pretty pissed

but i don’t know this is just me speculating

we’ll see where the season goes

ANYWAY

nevarro!

lmao the piece of the fucking ig statue missing

whoever is doing the va for gorian shard has a really cool voice

also sounds familiar

greef has grown hella i like it

OOOOO THIS INTRO IS COOL

this psychedelic music playing goes hard

I SAW DEBORAH CHOW

WAIT I HAVEN’T WATCHED REBELS BUT ISN’T THIS ZEB? is that what his name is?

KANE AHHHHHH

katy m. o’brian is so attractive holy shit

she knows exactly what she’s doing by stepping into this fucking office

moff gideon never made it to trial?👀

hmmm

IMPERIAL WAY OF THINKING HAHA TEAAA

she’s scary bro oh my god

poor greef dude he worked so hard to rebuild nevarro and it’s being destroyed in front of him and the citizens :(

HOLD UP HOW THE FUCK DOES TEVA KNOW WHERE THE COVERT IS

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH BO’S SHIP

blue boy💀💀

GOD DIN WALKING THROUGH THE MANDALORIANS WAS SO ATTRACTIVE

teva’s a real one

sorry i’m giggling at the way that they have to hold the fucking forge hammer to have their turn to speak in front of the covert

like i’m just thinking about how funny it is that it’s basically “MOM SAID IT’S MY TURN. SEE? I HAVE THE HAMMER IT’S MY TURN”

oh god i’m scared of what paz has to say bc he’s gonna be good at convincing the covert to not help nevarro

or i’ll be surprised who knows

one tiny foundling that means more to din than you’ll ever know

damn i knew he was gonna argue

oh? oh??

spilling tea at the function??

he had me in the first half i’m not gonna lie

DIN DJARIN NAME DROP WOOO

again, showing bo’s leadership and tactical skills

“you can be heroes” YEA WE CAN BE HEROES JUST FOR ONE DAYYY

the school is the cantina again :(

i’ll never not smile like an idiot when i hear that fucking flute cue signaling my beloved din djarin

“i like those odds” NABSHSJDHKAKSGDKSBWKBDLWBSOSBSOSBSKDBKFBWOWHDKSJWKDBDLWBSPSBWKDB

YELLING

YELLING

THERE ARE SO MANY MANDOS THIS IS SO COOL

they’re also hella attractive

i have a type lmao

again, i’ve missed din djarin showing these bitches up when it comes to dog fights

“din, what’s your position?” HEARING HIS NAME BEING SAID SO CASUALLY STILL THROWS ME OFF

paz really said “hold my beer” goddamn

THAT’S A BIG ASS BLASTER

oh shit’s lowkey goin sideways

LMAO “he’s above you! he’s below you!” AND THEN DIN TAKING HIM TF OUT

oh my god the armorer is about to fuck shit up

the n1 is sexy but i still miss the crest

god i love the music

oh shit they really have a ton of land now

OOF THAT SHOT OF DIN NODDING AT KARGA?? H O T

the old covert :(

AND THE OLD MUSIC AHHHHHH

i’m seeing a lot of parallels from season 1 here 👀

“remove your helmet” HUH??

HUH??????

I AM CONFUSION

god kate is so pretty

“you have walked both worlds. you are the one who can unite us.” not din?? the one that holds the darksaber??

they’re really setting this up huh?

AND NOW SHE’S OUT WITHOUT HER HELMET ON??

“bo-katan walks both worlds” WAIT A DAMN MINUTE. WAIT. A. DAMN. MINUTE.

like every plot line they set up for DIN to have is being erased??

it’s all being moved to where those are now bo- katan’s plot lines??

she’s going to unite the mandalorians?? why does din even have the fucking darksaber??

she walks both worlds?? so why the fuck did din risk his life in the mines to redeem himself after the armorer cast him out for being an apostate???

the sudden switch up??? i-

HUH???

“she can bring all tribes together. it is time to retake mandalore.” why the fuck did they set this season up like din was going to do this.

the titular character is being moved to the sidelines in his own show??

they really said “din’s gonna move boba fett to the sidelines in his own show, so now din is gonna get moved to the sideline by bo katan in his own show”

idk i didn’t really like it tbobf either, as much as i love din. but that appearance and that story arc from tbobf where he got grogu back should have been saved for this season.

i’ll save that shit for later i still gotta finish the damn episode

whatcha find there teva?

details are classified???

new republic is pretty fuckin suspicious

NEW REPUBLIC PRISON TRANSPORT

SO MOFF REALLY NEVER FUCKING MADE IT TO TRIAL

damn this is lowkey graphic for disney w the bodies floating

WAIT I’M SO CONFUSED

TAKEN BY MANDOS??

fuuuck he’s gonna be suspicious of din’s covert

shhhiiiiiiittt

i still haven’t finished clone wars or watched any of rebels so i have no idea who these mandos could be other than death watch

i’ll find out! ONTO THE NEXT EP

[enderspawn]

Has a jrwi pokemon au been thought up. I need to give this thought to my sister so she can come up w their teams for me she's very good at it but I still wanna know if it's been done before

there hasnt been one to my knowledge, BUTTTTT i did actually. come up w some jrwi teams myself a few months back or so in early july but never shared them. ill put them under a cut for Myself to brag/ramble abt my decisions and thoughts

but also anon: even if there was one pre-established, who cares, yknow? you can make your own either way, thats kinda the fun of it. god knows i love to Make AUs then do nothing w them, bc brainstorming them is the fun for me. even if someone else already did it, you can do it too!

SO. i Attempted 6 person teams for the riptide crew and im p settled w everyones But chip's (i also Attempted to make them feel around the same power level?? you can decide how successful that was)

ALSO,

1. the first pokemon listed is the person's "starter" and 2. everyone other than riptide PCs listed will have teams of 3 bc they're much easier

GILLION ---

shellos: pretzel! she's his starter and also a pikachu situation where she refuses to evolve bc shes Perfect As She Is (and she is right)

altaria: apple! blue bird :]]]]

aegislash: sword and shield for being a paladin! specifically aegislash due to it having defensive shield unlike the previous evolutions, as well as it being either high defense or kinda glass canon feeling fitting

lumineon: by god that is a Fish! thats it

malamar: "oh its a octopus is this pretzel again?" WRONG this is dugon. dark and fucked up aquatic animal time.

cubchoo: ice representation! also being a baby to show his Caring Side as well as teh fact his ice powers are still new/developing since he learned them from caspian (likely in universe got cubchoo as an egg from caspian)

JAY ---

dartrix: jay's starter! its an archer bird, plus i feel like her having an actual Starter Pokemon as a starter is like a privilege thing from her upbringing. i chose dartrix both for balance and bc i think its just a lil cuter

zorua: hey remember the zorua line's Whole Bit. damn thats weird. anyway. zorua chosen over zoroark for balance and Personal Preference man zorua is just cute okay imagine her holding it

fletchinder: represents the ferin family crest! damn those ferins sure can be fire and bird themed

kingdra: i imagine this was Given to her by the navy? like for protection, heres your Max Evolution Water Type. also, kingdra association w hierarchy and "king" and shit.

meowstic: part balancing the team, part Someone here needs the braincells (psychic type). meowstic female chosen not only bc "haha female pc" but also bc female meowstic has a more attack-based movepool where male is support based.

skarmory: Can You Tell Jay's Bird Themed Yet. also, literally made of armor to show being protective and kinda closed off for her Own Safety thing

CHIP ---

mimikyu: chip's starter. both ghost type to represent how hes Haunted but also a poor imitation of pikachu that just wants to be loved and. :)

wingull: he's a sailor man he needs a water type. but also he sucks so its a wingull. like not even a pelipper. cringe.

absol: absol is known to forewarn disasters but bc of that is often associated w Causing Disasters and bad luck and listen i just rlly like chip as my little trauma boy. also absol cool as hell.

ampharos: ampharos is known in universe to act as a lighthouse for sailors! also chip's obligatory Full Evolution to try and balance him out w the others

dhelmise: It's A Sunken Ship Ghost Anchor can i make myself clearer

nidoran: i just think chip has a think for weak little bitch ass pokemon. like i was so tempted to give him so many Shitty Bug Types or whatever. BUT, instead as compromise i gave him a little bastard stubborn baby pokemon... who also has the potential to grow into a Fucking Beast (at least in gen 1) if you give it the time to grow and stick it out.

again, chip's is the one i feel is weakest as a team, but now onto NPCs smile.

OLLIE ---

stufful: they hate him for his Normal Boy swag. also grows into MASSIVE fucking bear w even bigger strength

poliwag: baby boy. small. water type bc they're fucking pirates. (also, can evolve to be a fighting type later)

bonsly: baby boy! again! he's just baby. but like this one cries :(

OLD MAN EARL ---

tropius: haha its the Fruit Pokemon get it

relicanth: obligatory water type plus they're both Old As Shit

swadloon: fucking look at it. they're grumpy friends. they bitch to each other. swag.

GRYFFON ---

pangoro: this is just gryffon sorry.

bisharp: looks the most "bounty hunter"-y, also dark and steel fits his general Aesthetic n vibes

gliscor: actually all of his pokemon were chosen for their power and being Strong and Highly Competent

EDYN ---

mareanie: 1. it looks Like Her in color pallete, 2. its the baby form bc i specifically wanted it to be unassuming and "weak, and 3. it being poison type could be a fun twist depending on how canon goes

goodra: just a Strong fucking dragon type, i wanted the rest of her team to kinda "shock" you w hidden strong pokemon since you'd likely only see mareanie. also haha goo.

jellicent: decent strength water type + ominous ghost typing

MARSHALL JOHN ---

primeape: hes just a fighting type guy to me (i considered the timburr line), plus primeape having the broken shackles around its wrists to symbolize john breaking out of the navy

corphish: this one's like half vibes he just has a little Crab Guy okay <trust me

lairon: strong as FUCK and also tanky, plus steel type in general makes me think of navy and/or combat? it Fits

CASPIAN ---

alolan ninetails: ice type but also design just FUCKS and looks like caspian.

frogadier: this frog is cool as hell and you know it. doesn't he deserve a cool ass chill frog.

shellos: SPECIFICALLY the blue one in a parallel to gillion's shellos! tho i imagine later on it does become a gastrodon.

CAPTAIN LIZZIE ---

salazzle: s-sexy lizard. :]. ALSO bc i feel fire and poison both work as general typings for lizzie, and salazzle being female only is haha girl power

dragonair: i goof'd it in the first one, but in general i wanted a sleek cool look for her team to show how she appears effortless and cool herself.

cubone: naughty blackrose survivors get a Trauma Pokemon for their crimes. anyway remember how cubone is the orphan pokemon? also this is specifically cubone and not marowak to show like the inner child of the trauma

NIKLAUS ---

giratina: niklaus can have a universe controlling god-like being of power. as a treat. mainly i wanted him to be MEGA intimidating, such as the only one w a legendary, as well as the fact giratina (despite its terrifying appearance + power to create dimensions) is technically there to keep balance is a nice nod to how niklaus isn't inherently some Evil Force but instead a neutral party playing both sides.

mega absol: what if i was your "this pokemon causes doom and destruction" theme but Stronger.

espeon: yknow how niklaus kinda comes off as that cat-stroking monologuing villian? this is that cat.

BONUS: PRIME DEFENDERS

DAKOTA ---

hitmonlee: he be fucking KICKIN!!!!

cranidos: headstrong as hell, plus a fossil pokemon (much like bino is part dino!)

monferno: fire type time!! it just Fits Him, plus fire/fighting! i considered combusken instead, since blaziken Kicks but i went w monferno instead bc heehee Monkey (and bobo!!)

VYNCENT ---

morpeko: ignore how this site doesnt have gen 8, morpeko has a Duality feature n shifts forms! also just fuckin look at him

honedge: me when i have a sword and i Fucking Get You. first stage pokemon to represent how untrained the PD are

fraxure: if i didnt give him a dragon id die on the spot. gen 5 just Feels right, as well as a middle evolution since they're kinda the "awkward teen phase" of pokemon

WILLIAM ---

lampent: lichrally ghost fire what do you WANT FROM ME!!!

umbreon: its his emotional support dog. also dark type bc hee hee spooky and its Popular w fans just like william is w fans

abra: psychic type w potential to become very powerful, but rn can only run away or Fucking Die

ASHE ---

spiritomb: ghost spirit tied to a specific item, technically multiple spirits in one item, can be highly dangerous and malicious at times. teehee.

absol: Listen I Just Really Fucking Like Absol's Theming Okay.

alolan ninetails: similarly, this pokemon design just fucks. also i can imagine vulpix as his actual ""starter"" until he found and got stuck w spiritomb and absol started hanging out around him (/threat).

[golvio]

Revisiting the early quests hyping up the Yiga Clan reminded me of one of the really noticeable problems I had with BotW’s writing: the inconsistent and wildly fluctuating tone for the “serious” parts.

The introduction to the Clan most people get is from the guards outside of Impa’s house describing them as “sad souls” who went off the path Hylia laid out for them with pity. Then, Paya’s heirloom quest has them built up as remorseless killers in an organized crime ring, murdering Dorian’s wife in cold blood and being perfectly happy to orphan his daughters now that Dorian himself is no longer a useful informant. If you take on that quest early, odds are the Yiga Blademaster who shows up is going to kick your ass.

And then you actually enter the Yiga hideout and the same Blademasters that beat your ass when you were a lower level now have animations like this:

This isn’t an “uuuuuuuu y aren’t villains cool n edgy anymore like my beloved ‘90s comic books 😭” post. I’m okay with Kohga being silly. I love the concept of a character who’s at once funny and entertaining but also a really dangerous and skilled combatant who uses his clownish first impression to get people to let their guard down. The main problem I have with it is just that the tone is not consistent at all. The clan feels less like the complex, multifaceted organization that arose from a complicated and traumatic historical situation it deserves to be and more like all the scenario writers had great ideas but somehow forgot to get together and talk to each other about how to weave them into a coherent whole. It swings wildly back and forth between them being this scary force of assassins capable of infiltrating even the Sheikah secret service undetected to “Haha, look at these dork-ass losers! They were dumb enough to serve Ganon! Only a total dweeb would be scared of these banana-obsessed clowns!” Which is, y’know, kind of insulting to the Sheikah who actually did have legitimate reasons to be scared of these people based on what we saw with Dorian.

It’s like what bugged me about the main conflict within the Zora. It wanted to tell a story about generational trauma and bigotry, but was so terrified of presenting anything unflattering to the player and the lost kingdom of Hyrule that it turned everyone into goofy, exaggerated caricatures performing for our amusement. The Zora elders weren’t a bunch of extremely traumatized people who needed to heal, they were just a bunch of curmudgeonly old fuddy duddies who were out of touch and needed to get over themselves (Which they instantly did, because of how cool and awesome the player is for putting up with their stubborn old people nonsense. You’re so cool that the hot Zora princess everyone’s mourning was throwing herself at your avatar! Isn’t that awesome?). And Sidon wasn’t allowed to be a character in his own right, doing what he thought could help heal his people while risking a revolt or a forced abdication for breaking the ban against outsiders behind the elders’ backs! He’s just Your Funny Friend Who Encourages You, because he exists solely to get you to your objective at Vah Ruta, and the game never lets you forget it. And the younger generation of Zora, some of whom remember Link before his death, aren’t symbols of the younger generation trying to move forward at the risk of starting a major generational conflict with their parents/grandparents who’re still traumatized from the Calamity because it was practically yesterday in Zoran terms. They’re just funny clowns who put on a show for you and point you towards the bridge where Sidon’s waiting.

It’s like…they wanted the royal advisor seeing the armor Mipha made for Link to be this big, emotional moment, but the writers spent so much time assuring us that we didn’t need to respect the Zora that it felt…like something was missing, emotionally. Like, “Oh, you don’t need to take those old coots seriously! Sure, they’re all mad at Link for something he had no control over, but they’re just stubborn and old! You don’t need to take their cold silence so personally! Just keep your chin up and eventually they’ll realize how stupid they were being for ever doubting you, the great hero who’s come to save them!” And when Muzu’s looking up at the statue of Mipha, there’s not a sense of this broken community coming back together to heal, or a man in deep denial of his own grief coming out of the dark place his heart had been lost in to the point where he treated the little boy he once knew as a scapegoat, and more just him being, “Oh, right! How could I have been so stupid?”

It’s like…these people are traumatized. The Zora are grieving because the apocalypse practically happened yesterday. The Yiga were traumatized by the royal family, who their religion told them they were born to serve, attempted a genocide against them. Both of them are understandably lashing out against a world that they think forgot them, that blithely moves on, unburdened by the grief they caused them, not a care in the world. The game doesn’t want to sit with these emotions because it might make the player uncomfortable, interrupt the hero fantasy, spoil their fun. But in exchange for trying to maintain a lighthearted tone throughout, it just feels like the writers aren’t really respecting their NPCs as much as they should, and deliver a somewhat jarring experience where the emotional pendulum wildly swings back and forth depending on the whims of whichever writer was at the helm when they wrote that quest/sidequest that day.

The whole game is a story about trauma, or at least, it wants to be. The main character himself lost his identity after a near-death experience, either because of brain damage he suffered after the physical trauma he endured, or as traumatic amnesia caused by his mind desperately trying to protect him from the memory of something no one should have to endure. But the game just can’t sit with trauma. It doesn’t want to tie the concepts it introduces into a coherent, consistent theme that spans every inch of the world, every character. It just wants to introduce its cool new UI and have fun. Which…there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that, but can you at least make up your minds about what kind of overall story you want to tell as opposed to spitballing interesting pieces of story ad infinitum?

I’m a little worried about dropping this take, particularly because we all now know that BotW was designed to be the first part of a series, and so suffered a case of what I like to call “To Be Continued Syndrome.” It was built to introduce the world of Hyrule and its new mechanics & concepts to its audience first and foremost, with far less time being spent on the story. For all I know, TotK could resolve a lot of my complaints with what appears to be a stronger focus on story than BotW with more actively present characters, as opposed to Ganon and Zelda kinda hanging out at the castle and not really affecting anything until it’s time to beat the game.

But, it’s like…I’ve seen games at least try to treat their NPCs with more respect and put more thought into their storytelling without having to sacrifice gameplay or exploration, both in big budget and smaller indie titles. I’d like the Zelda series to finally catch up, too. I love the series, and I know they’ve got the potential to tell really compelling stories that don’t treat the characters who aren’t destined to be great heroes like nobodies you can just breeze past. I saw that in Majora’s Mask. I know they can do it again. I hope that’s what they meant when they said they wanted TotK to feel more like Majora in tone.

[actualbird]

Oh god!

I really love the poly headcanons they are so sweet.... (or don't but that's part of it and i think the tot boys+MC deserve all the love the world has to give).

But, liking it or not, our 4 beloved boys are kinda complicated (that's what makes them perfect). Plus I never thought about how people get in poly relationships. So i was thinking, how do you think they all get into a polyrelationship together?

(I really have no idea of how that would happen)

hi, two anons!! im glad you guys liked my nxx team polycule stuff!! i'll answer these in one go, my "headcanon" (in quotes because i think this kinda turned into a character analysis/minific of sorts HAHA) being what first anon asked, How They Get Together.

heads up, wc of this is 1.9k words long so buckle up for a bit of a read jfsjdfkjbf

because first anon, youre right!!! the boys are stupendously complicated which i love so so much but canon has also shown us clearly that each of the boys' quirks and habits and tendencies causes a lot of (mostly played for laughs) friction. the bickering, the backhanded insults, the "im the best one here" preening contests. theyre all SOOOO RIDICULOUS and it is hilarious but yep! the boys r complex!! and that means this beautiful ship, imo, has a lot of phases to get to the actual romantic relationship bit.

how they get together, in my opinion, starts because of mc.

not in the sense that she matchmakes them all, but like.

phase 1 of the nxx team polycule is this:

through being in love with her (which we all know the boys 100% are), each of the boys come to terms with their own flaws and weaknesses. it's very apparent to me in all the story thus far that these boys are flawed as hell, it's very compelling but even more compelling to me is how all of them also do intense mental gymnastics to Not Confront Those Flaws. like, marius is a dickbag always teasing and toeing the line of insincerity, vyn is a controlling mf who always tries to sway situations to his benefit, artem is so repressed to the point that he has genuine trouble with emotions, luke is a self sacrificial bastard and also a huge hypocrite about how no, actually, hes the only one that should be hiding his pain and being dishonest, no dishonesty from other people!! in the beginning of the story, all the boys have their flaws and seem to have just kinda...not addressed how those flaws are harming them and the people around them.

and then mc rolls around and they all fall in love with her. and she sees those flaws and she doesnt let them slide. she challenges the boys in her own ways to see another side of the situation, to acknowledge what theyre doing. she doesnt want to get rid of flaws, thats impossible and also not cool. she just has this beautiful hope for like, all of humanity, that goodness can prevail with the right work. so when she sees her beloved nxx boys, she believes that for them as well.

which leads to phase 2 of the nxx team polycule:

the boys, more aware of themselves, become more aware of each other.

they werent Unaware of the others of course. it's just that they didnt like...truly connect on a personal level just yet. they saw the other teammembers with their emotional armor and flaws and saw a wall that wasnt worth looking past.

but after mc makes them realize that hey, flaws arent the end of the world actually, it's alright and the person behind them may just be worth it, the boys like. end up understanding the others. A LOT OF THIS BIT IS UNINTENTIONAL, ON THEIR PARTS KJDSBFS. like they stumble into understanding each other by accident, they didnt plan it, but over the course of nxx investigations, it's inevitable that they end up seeing the depths of the others. i delve into this a little bit in my fanfic "filler eps of the lost gold" where the boys are just going thru their actions and then trip over another boy's fears or desires and through that, gain a deeper understanding mutually.

and with understanding, sometimes, comes trust.

phase 3 of the nxx team polycule goes like this:

everybody in this team, whether they like it or not, whether they know it or not, has a heart that wants to give love so desperately.

marius lives in a world full of snakes so he cant have his heart on his sleeve for his own protection. vyn wants to be seen as perfect and the heart is inherently messy so he holds it back. artem for a very very long time was focused on work and success and achievement that he neglected his heart. and luke has been giving love all his life in a sense but in a way thats hidden.

all these tendencies that are brought upon their life circumstances results in this: they want to love honestly but they havent been able to do this

until mc. and all of them want to push back whatever fears or patterns their life has instilled in them because they see her and see somebody so unwaveringly good that all their hearts begin giving love to her to make her happy and to make themselves happy as well.

but heres the thing. the boys dont just see mc. by this point, they have connected and understood and come to trust each other as well, and the consequence of that is that They Can See Each Other Now Too, Truly.

and heres the thing. all of the boys are unwaveringly good as well.

one by one, each of the boys realize that what they feel for the other boys in the team starts to...change. yeah theyre all friends, they pick on each other a lot of the time, but the bedrock of the relationship is solid and strong now. but when marius is with luke, marius sees a light inside of luke so bright that he seems unaware that he gives off. when artem is with vyn, artem sees a goodness inside of vyn that hesitates to make itself obvious and known because vyn is scared of getting hurt thanks to it. all of them see the other and their goodness and, unbidden, their hearts want to give love to each other as well.

and because theyre all a bit stupid in their own way theyre like, huh, weird! wonder why this feeling is so familiar! and yet i cant seem to name it...and then they all independently compare these feeling with the feelings they have for mc, a feeling they do know the name of, and theyre like.

WAIT.

THESE FEELINGS ARE...VERY BASICALLY EXACTLY WHAT I FEEL FOR MC.

which only means one thing: theyve fallen in love with everybody else

marius: //goes to his studio to Think and sees that a bunch of his recent art actually had little crumbs of these feelings already, etched into the brushstrokes and scenes. has an emotional crisis about it

vyn: //records a 1 hour long entry in his audio diary to examine and gain control of his feelings but by the end of the hour all he knows is that he wants to hold these people and be held by them

artem: //quite literally just bluescreens, artem.exe has stopped working, sits at his study and slowly, slowly, thunks his head down onto his desk, valiantly trying to ignore the fast pulse of his heart

luke: //manically vents about it to peanut who, by virtue of being a bird, doesnt get it. just keeps talking at peanut to get a grasp of it all and then lies down on the floor, overwhelmed

mc, sitting in her apartment watching some netflix: ...why do i inexplicably feel as if something very, very important has just happened?

phase 4 of the nxx team polycule is basically:

pining: extreme difficulty level

because pining is already hard when ur pining for one person. what more for an additional 3 more people. and those additional 3 more people are pining back.

and all these boys are SOOOO OBVIOUS with their romantic feelings, in their own special way. the way they show their affection to mc starts to bleed into their interactions with the others and everybody can CLEARLY SEE WHAT IS GOING ON, LOL, but also all the boys are too chickenshit to confront it, because if they confront it, what will even happen??? being in love with each other, all of them, thats going to be such a complicated fucking relationship, holy shit. it's 2030, yeah, being a polyamorous group relationship isnt completely unheard of, but sue them, theyre scared.

but mc (who i forgot to mention already knows of the boys' romantic feelings for her, shes just hasnt made a move yet on any of them because SHES IN LOVE WITH ALL OF THEM AS WELL and shes been trying to figure out how the hell to make that work, she cant bear to choose just one of them, she'd be heartbroken over leaving the rest of them behind) sees that the nxx investigation team is now all pining for each other FULLY and she kinda wants to laugh when she realizes whats going on because like, what are the chances? that this would happen? that they all found each other and their feelings fell into just the right place for nobody to be left behind?

theyre all scared, she can tell. and she is as well, she wont lie.

but shes always had a belief that goodness can prevail with the right work.

and love is one of the greatest goods out there.

phase 5 of the nxx team polycule:

It's Time For Communication, Baby!!!!!

the exact scenes of how this happens is a bit vague to me. it could go two ways: mc going to each of the boys independently to talk about feelings, hers about everybodys and his about everybodys as well. OR they have a fucking meeting about it all together and artem literally schedules it in his google calendar, or something.

either way, they like, actually talk about this. starts casual, maybe over a chill date, maybe over dinner at a nice restaurant, maybe over a walk in the park as the sun is starting to set. but where ever it happens, the end result is the same: a heart is laid out bare and it is taken in gentle, grateful hands.

marius: OKAY, NOW THAT THE FEELINGS ARE OUT OF THE WAY, CAN I PLEASE KISS ONE OR ALL OF YOU, PLEASE, IVE BEEN WANTING TO KISS U GUYS FOR FOREVER

vyn, laughing fondly: has anybody ever told you patience is a virtue? we quite literally just talked it all out.

marius: //needy whining noises

artem, embarrassed: ive...never kissed anybody before

luke, embarrassed but trying to play it Cool: ....same here

mc: kissing is great, you two will love it!

marius: awesome, awesome, so is ANYBODY going to give me a go ahead or WHAT????

phase 6 of the nxx team polycule:

i dont want to say it's happily ever after, once they all get together. thats not really realistic.

they all have their quirks and tendencies and habits. and those will inevitable clash against each other. theyll have their arguments, theyll get upset, theyll sulk and be angry, sometimes. but also...

theyll see each other smile and feel like their love shining so brightly. theyll reach out for another's hand and be held in such a way that makes them think that their heart is in a safe place. theyll love each other and theyll put in the work to continue loving each other. because goodness will prevail.

and they all see each other as the most good people in the world.

so whatever happens, theyll get through it together.

[vacantgodling]

🖊🖊🖊, Julissa, San and Chidori !

thank youuuu 🥺🥺

juls my baby haha you deserve so much better 😭 some random factoids about juls: she loves the color yellow (has a yellow phone case, yellow amp, yellow guitar—you get the idea) bc of a near death experience in her childhood involving a yellow elevator. if i say anymore it’s spoilers but she holds that color close for a reason lol. she’s also very bi. the narrative does focus a lot on her attraction to joaquin (bc he’s hot like 😭) but i know from Meta she is attracted to pretty much all the friends she has except rene bc rene has a gf and he’s not really her type lmao. but saul, andres, daisy & joaquin she’s 👀. honestly when i write draft two i think im gonna try to make it More obvious that she’s attracted to all of them lol. in the “it never happened” au they’re a polycue to me. she adores her older sister juvia and would fight tooth and nail for her, but she has an estranged relationship from both of her parents. her original goal at the start of the book is to become a famous recording artist but her dream quickly shifts to i just want to be a one hit wonder. make one great song, get money and fame, then disappear from the public eye. she’s both headstrong and cowardly at the same time—just a girl full of juxtapositions lol

san 🤌🏾🤌🏾 SHE. so, san is a hunter—hunters are the first specialized fighting class that ever came into being in terrae (came about around 450-470 but i cant be assed to pull out the timeline rn) as a response to the decimation and overrun of the first capital city of terrae, argos. hunters are very proud of their heritage and it’s pretty unusual for them to enter guilds but san (and her sister moira by proxy) are some of the few exceptions. hunters are ALL ABOUT DAMAGE BABY. armor? who needs that we die like men. they tend to wear revealing, hardly armored clothes made of leather and hides, decorated with furs, spikes and belts (this goes for all genders—it came about bc when hunters came into being there was a huuuuge shortage on materials to make armor so they just went without and it’s become a tradition at this point). san herself uses a short sword and a whip, usually in tandem. she’s the youngest of the mc bunch, and it kind of shows in her temper 😅. she has a huge grudge against her elder sister (aforementioned moira) and hates being seen as weak. she’s very argumentative and untrusting, which isn’t unusual for someone from eros however san does take it to an extreme. it does eventually mellow out for her as she learns to trust her team but MAN she has them all going through it for awhile lmao

chidorkyyyyy. i’ve rambled about him so much already tbh lol but something i do wanna draw attention to is despite how fun loving, energetic, clumsy etc that he is, he’s extremely good at his job as a train master. it’s like he was born for it in many ways. i get the whole thing of having mcs who are incompetent bc they have to learn and they’re underdogs but i don’t really want that for chidorky? like he’s quite skilled and it’s hard to tell Why bc he’s never done this before yknow! he also has great chemistry with his weapon, torment, which is embedded with cool ass glowing pink gems btw. but i haven’t figured out the entire weapon system i just know it’s one of those “your weapon chooses you” situations. he can be very serious when he needs to be and it throws people off guard tho basically lol

[visualbasicscript]

please please tell me about it !!!

OK SO

There's honestly so many different ways you could take combining mcyt and hlvrai because there's So Much MCYT like you could squeeze a science team dynamic out of any 5 mcyts and the original one made by the gc of people who liked mcyt and hlvrai at the time had it like gordon/wilbur benrey/eret or something but I'm gonna go with my favourite sbi one because I'm predictable and I like sbi so it isn't really mcyt hlvrai more like sbivrai but ANYWAY it goes

gordos feetman - tommyinnit

bipple boper beny - wilbur

dr harold coomer phd - phil

bubye - techno

tommy bahamas - tubbo

and then there's schlatt as gman because heehoo dadschlatt reference and also he's the only one who would wear a suit tie and still fistfight wilbur soot

darnold is? since I'm going with sbi/dsmp centric for this combination darnold and forzen are Hard because they're such good characters and not many people play a Massive Pussy ok so no offense to ranboo but while I was writing this I realised he'd fit perfectly for darnold and maybe even dream wastaken himself would work for Boots Beyblade

if this was as dsmp characters then it'd be foolish darnold and sap 'pig eating pig' nap would be forzen but it's not so ENOUGH ABT THEM

tommy was fun because there was this one half life chapter where the other people who were like Using The HEV suits and training to use them in experiments actually existed and I thought that was cool so I stole that. tommy is a mystery Young age and has been at the actual black mesa site for like half a day to test out the training hev suit which is red for the biggest size and is still Way Too Fucking Small For Him so he doesnt have most of the black mesh plates and just the actual armor pieces over his dumb basketball shirt and it's great. he shows up goes howdy and Touches Shit He Should Not Touch trying to fight mr soot and Res Cas happens. in meta a lot of the bits where wayne is talking to chat isn't cut out so sometimes he'll be like Yo I Just Shot That Guy Poggers In Chat and techno will stare at him like he's insane but wil might play along sometimes

wilburs eldritch stuff is a lot more Low Key and more 'you wish you were inmortal like me bitchboy' like he's just being an asshole cause he hasn't been hit yet but no he is just immortal. it's the same dynamic of I hate you but you are also a Little Funny but please die it's good it's great think that one gorgeous freeman 'jackass'. gorgeous freeman is weird ANYWAYS

tubbo,,, he's tommy even though he's tubbo get it get it funny haha anyways he's very much Tommy Bahamas Coolatta just freakishly shorter, the same gun safety and being the only reliable motherfucker there though the gun safety is played off more as intentionally fucking w tommy and also one thing I'm really proud of is sunkist is a bee named Ribena Ri-bee-na I'm so cool it's great ribena is like a british soft drink it's a staple here but it fits perfectly

COOMER is phil old man old bitch his tones less energetic except for when he's dishing out his Video Game Lines but he's still the violent senior citizen w love not much else to say other than his wife is still current and maybe an alien based off the vortiguant name who knows the underground boxing ring is an anime fanclub

bubbbbyyyyyyyyyyy mr feelgood mr professor is technoblade his stuck up 'i have studied the blade' 'you must train for 100 years' potato war attitude is amped up to 100 for bubby, still v dramatic. there's a whole gag where because techno keeps making so many gd pig puns and his dumb curtain fringe looks like pig ears tommy and a little more knowingly wilbur joke that bubby is the result of an experiment where black mesa turned pigs into humans partially unaware that that's fucking EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED

gman is mr jebediah schlatt who timefreezes for chats a lot more because this science team is a lot more incompetent and also because he's a massive bitch who just wants to snark at tommy while he waits for them to get to xen and the psn scene is replaced with hotpocket scene because it's my favourite wilbur and schlatt monologue while tommys banging his head into the wall waiting for time to move OH AND THE BIRTHDAY PARTY WAS IN NO WAY PLANNED at the very last minute he grabs them out of xen like 'FUCK I FORGOT ITS TUBBOS BIRTHDAY MY SUPERIORS ARE GONNA KILL ME OK PLEASE COME PLEASE COME ILL KILL YOU IF YOU DONT JUST HURRY CMON BIRTHDAY TIME' because that's hilarious

and because I've now just thought abt it ranbers is darnold and he's almost exactly the same except he's a little more self aware outside of devil gun mode and asks tommy abt chat which is like 'oh what the fuck' moment

ok the end maybe more soon I just rushed this because I am thinking thoghtuhghts

[aslitheryprinx]

These are from song titles, but I think these are poggers (I hope, at least)

* And there was life inside "it"

* Can it really be called "Cinderella" ?

* Love inside an empty box

* World is full of wonders (Or "Full of wonders!!!!")

* Near

* Angel's clover

Don't worry anon, they are most definitely poggers! (Both of my current ao3 published works have names based on song lyrics, so that really fits my vibe haha.)

There are so many good prompts here! I couldn't help but write like.... A lot lmao.

CW: dehumanization, themes of child abuse, themes of death. Be safe!

____

And there was life inside "it"

They called it RNB-00. It was the first in a generation of experimental life production using DNA from one of the most volatile creatures in the worlds: endermen. There were no endermen hybrids. The children could not survive, and the birth was volatile, tearing the parents and anyone near them apart with the violent magic.

They would perform the experiment anyways.

An unfinished human embryo, carefully extracted from someone who would be written in the paperwork as a volunteer. An enderpearl, freshly taken from a creature they didn't consider "human" enough to need even dubious content. DNA, taken directly from the brain of the enderman.

They spliced together the three ingredients, cheering when the chimera of enderman and embryo inside its tubes showed signs of life.

But some things are not meant to be done.

Nature is not meant to be tampered with.

The experiment turned south quickly. The specimen convulsed in its tube, growing at a rapid rate. Vibrant purple magic lashed out, dancing through the lab with a vengeance. There were the cries of a newborn mixed with the shrieks of an enderman- then, an explosion.

RNB-00 fell to the ground, the magic pulsing from it too bright to be looked at by the naked eye. A second explosion rocked the lab, this time all-encompassing and final. The building turned to ash and dust and settled around a new crater.

There would never be a RNB-01.

A shape rose from the center of the crater. It was a child from one angle, maybe two or three, with pure white hair, scarred cheeks, and a red eye.

From the other angle, it was a monster. Something not quite enderman or human. Jet black hair, and velvety black fur covered the left half of it. It's eye glowed an unnatural green, not the color of humans or endermen.

It toddled slowly away from the epicenter of the explosion, no memory of what had happened. As it walked, it noticed a mark, a brand, on it's right arm: RNB-00. The child stared, and blinked at the word.

And he named himself Ranboo.

Can it really be called "Cinderella"?

When Tubbo was young, he saw Cinderella, once. Even with how young he was, the story resonated with him. He wished all his stepfather did was give him chores, but he knew exactly how it felt to be unloved, unwanted, forced to stay on the sidelines. He just hoped his fairy godmother would come soon.

When he was a little older, he looked back on the story of Cinderella with nothing but bitterness. He was old enough now that he knew fairy tales didn't happen. There was no "fairy godmother" coming to save him; there never had been, there never would be. All he had was himself and his shitty situation. He wanted to forget the story that had given him such a bittersweet lie, but it was burned into his memory.

As he reached his teens, the anger turned into weariness. It wasn't Cinderella's fault his stepfather was a piece of shit. It wasn't the character's fault that she had help to break free while he didn't. And how miserable he was wasn't Tubbo's fault either, no matter how much his stepfather screamed it.

When he was 16, feeling ancient yet younger than he had ever been, he stopped comparing himself to Cinderella. Cinderella hadn't stood over her stepparent's body with a bat. Cinderella hadn't called the police on herself, showing them what she'd done and then the reason why, covering his skin beneath his clothes. Cinderella had been freed, but she hadn't paid such a heavy price for that freedom.

Tubbo had. Tubbo was far from a Cinderella story.

Love inside an empty box

Tommy's love was dangerous. He learned that at a very young age. Love for him wasn't just a feeling, it was a physical thing, at least to his eyes. He could feel every last drop of care, of love gathering around him like a storm. And just like a storm, when the feeling touched down, it was deadly. People, animals, anything that was touched by the love he couldn't stop feeling crumbled under the weight of something that shouldn't exist.

Tommy couldn't stop himself from caring. But he could stop himself from hurting. Hurting others, at least. Tommy commissioned a solution from a witch with a terrible reputation for cruelty, but a renowned skill with magical crafting. It cost him everything he owned, and some of who he was, but he walked away with an empty box made to hold what he couldn't afford to keep.

For years after that, every time he felt love building up in his chest- his care for friends, the people he considered family, even for strangers- he tore it off of himself and flung it into the box. Over time, the box grew full, bursting at the seams with his love. He learned to discard all but the most precious feelings, keeping those in his overstuffed box that weighed nothing and locking them inside.

But no lock lasts forever. Nothing lasts an eternity.

Tommy was alone with nothing but his thoughts, his box, and the ghost of a brother who was only really that in the privacy of his mind. He let his eyes shut, the box held loosely in one hand. The ghost, not knowing the consequences, touched the box.

And the seams of magic holding it together shattered and the love Tommy had stored away broke free, as powerful and terrible as a hurricane.

If it had been Wilbur, the man would've died as surely as he had when a blade was thrust through his heart. But this was Ghostbur, and you cannot kill what is already dead.

Still, such power has consequences. All the love in the box, far too powerful to be contained for long, spilled over, pouring over and around the ghost and the boy.

Yes, such power has consequences. The boy with too much love and his brother that never was would face those consequences together.

(world is) full of wonders

Wilbur is a simple musician. He travels alone, playing an ode to all of the world around him. He sings to the trees, the sky, the river, the sun, anything he pleases.

Though he knows it's silly, he can't help but imagine they sing back. He tries to match the harmony he hears in his mind, tries to play along with the symphony of nature. He can never keep up, but likes to imagine the world is fond of his efforts.

But even musicians can stumble into trouble. Too caught up in the ballad he played to the tune of the wind, he didn't hear the rattle of bones, the drawing of a bow. He heard only the twang as an arrow released before it pierced through his skull and everything went black.

But Wilbur wasn't gone. He didn't cease to exist, like he always assumed. He felt the cool caress of the void, the gentle brush of the universe against his mind and he gasped. Clearer than he'd ever heard it, he heard the song of the world, in perfect harmony and tune. This time, it sang along to him, to the pulsing of his soul.

Wilbur had no body, but if he did he would weep. He had no lungs, no mouth, no voice, but his soul took up the melody he longed to sing anyways. He sang with the universe until the song became more and more impossible to replicate and he could only listen in awe.

He woke up painlessly, laying on a gentle green field. His guitar was by his side, and his sweater was cleaner than it had ever been. He knew instinctually that he was not in the world he'd came from. This was a new world, a universe untouched, a new song to add his voice to.

Near

It hit him, one day, as he absently peeled a potato over the sink. That he didn't remember if he'd ever touched another person.

Techno had froze for a moment. It was quite the revelation to have out of nowhere. He dismissed it a moment later, memories of how he and Phil would bump shoulders as they walked and talked fresh in his mind.

But all too soon his thoughts turned back to the uncomfortable topic. Sure he'd touched Phil before, but that was through layers of armor and clothing. Had he ever had skin to skin contact with another person? Anything, as simple as a handshake? Hell, even something during battle would count.

He came up empty, and it was driving him crazy.

He didn't need to touch people. He didn't. Having someone he cared about liked close to him was good enough. He didn't need physical contact to reassure him. He never had, not even as a child.

Though that may have had something to do with the chorus of voices he'd had in his head that had kept him on the brink of insanity for most of his childhood. His voices were always there, always with him, so what need did he have for another person's company?

Except he did like company, Phil's especially. And he had it, plenty of it, more than he could ever possibly need. So why did he suddenly feel so off balance?

He asked Phil about it next time he saw his friend. He kept it casual. It wasn't a big deal, he didn't need to worry Phil by letting how much this had bothered him show.

"Hey, Phil, have we ever touched?" He asked. Phil gave him a weird look, then bumped his shoulder.

"Like that?" He asked, unimpressed. "Mate, maybe you should check your own memory before you call me old man again."

"Nah," Techno dismissed, "I meant like... skin to skin. Like a handshake or something."

This actually gave Phil pause. He thought for a moment, then laughed.

"I guess we haven't. Weird. Why?"

"I... Don't think I've ever touched anyone like that," Techno said. He tried to keep his voice steady, but his heart was pounding as he poured out his weakness in front of Phil.

The other man was silent for a long time. Techno could practically hear the shouts of ever??? running through his mind.

Suddenly Phil turned towards him, pulling off a glove.

"Handshake?" He offered with a smile, something sad beyond the amusement in his eyes. Techno rolled his eyes, but he hesitated taking his glove off. Slowly reaching out, as if Phil's hand was a snake that might strike at any sudden movements, he placed his hand in Phil's.

The sensation was like a fire roaring to life on his hand. It didn't hurt, not like a real fire, but it somehow burned. He froze, his brain having trouble processing the bizarre feeling. It was overwhelming, and the best thing he'd ever felt, and yet it was almost a relief when Phil gently pulled his hand away.

"We'll take it slow, alright mate?" He said, nudging Techno with an elbow. The piglin's brain began to work again and he snorted, pulling the glove on again and falling back into step.

"Of course. We can't overwork your old man brain," Techno said dryly, earning him a sharper nudge. He grinned, the amusement softening to fondness as Phil walked just a little closer, letting their arms stay pressed together as they went.

It was strange how you didn't notice you were missing something until you had it. Bare contact was a little too overwhelming right now. So he was right. For now, this was enough. Having his best friend near him was all he needed.

Angel's Clover

There is a special plant that only grows in the land of celestials. An ethereal clover that sprouts from the weary souls that come to rest on the soils of heaven. The souls and the clover flourish in time with one another, tended to by the celestials that walk the lands. It is only a rumor, in the eyes of mortals, but one who walks among them knows it to be true. He is the Angel of Death, and his presence can never touch the sacred halls of the celestial lands, lest they wither and die.

But souls do not always complete the journey, to find their final rest above. Some souls are too broken, too hurt to reach the peace of the celestial lands. It is the duty of the Angel of Death to guide the souls, and it is his duty to heal them so that they may be guided.

In the land of the mortals, there is one place where the clover grows. It is in the humble garden of a plain looking man, who wears a large hat to block his eyes from the sun, and keeps his unearthly wings folded beneath his cloak.

In his garden, the Angel of Death nurtures the precious remnants of life.

[vaguely-concerned]

R-r-r-rewatch thoughts for The Mandalorian S2 Ep2

(or Chapter 10 as they seem resolved to call it)

- can I just express my joy for a moment that in one episode we get peli, the answer to my pleas for female representation in the ‘sketchy middle aged car mechanic’ niche, and a female alien designed with no consideration towards sexiness. (I mean I’m sure there’s someone. There is always someone somewhere on the Internet, is the bitter truth history has shown to us. but it’s not the intention behind the design haha)  

- they do take great pains to deliberately show you boba’s armour several times both in the recap and in the episode itself, so never despair he is very likely still on his way onto our screens once more

- this dude holding the baby hostage wanting specifically the jetpack in exchange is the one (1) break this whole episode gave din lol 

also the Patented Mando Finger Curl of Stress while he talked softly and calmly to not promp this asshole to make a sudden move... the most endearing character tic, I love my space cowboy dad so much 

- fun continuity detail: din is all out of whistling birds now, and you can see it here!

I wonder if he could still use the same mechanism with different ‘ammo’, it’s just not as effective? from the way the armorer spoke whistling birds seem quite rare and it would be an inefficient use of beskar if that’s the only thing it can be loaded with

 - I love how after the last episode, a 50 min epic with a bunch of original trilogy significance and impressive technical achievements and exciting character reveals, I was like ‘yeah okay I suppose that is quite interesting’, and this mess/comedy of inconveniences is the thing that fully makes my brain tip into the obsessive ‘BABY AND DAD SHOW!! BABY AND DAD SHOW!!!!!’ mind state lol

- ah the traditional ‘mando trudging slowly but steadily through the desert’ montage we all love to see (I hope this is going to be a Thing for the second episode of every season from now on) 

Also I assume his suit has some sort of temperature regulation built in and that’s how he didn’t, y’know. die under the blazing desert sun

-

CAT FIGHT CAT FIGHT man I love the jawa. also mando doesn’t even glance over at them, really emphasizing how he’s like. done with this entire day (and it’s all barely even getting started din! i’m sorry)

 yodito’s look in this scene tho... he’s like ‘we’ve Seen some shit lady’ (actually I think he’s staring at ‘dr mandible’ like O___o. it’s been a long day for a lil boy) 

you get to see dr mandible’s cards a few times, so I assume anyone who knows the rules of... sabacc? probably? could figure out beforehand that he was in a bad spot. (the star wars fanbase is one of those where I KNOW the rules exist somewhere, and I know people who know those rules exist too)  

- that sound the baby keeps making -- the ‘boo-a’, sometimes with a p-sound at the end -- if that’s the precursor to him saying any variation whatsoever of ‘dad’ or ‘papa’ or ‘baba’ or even ‘buir’ or anything, I will die. I will sink to the ground in a heap and never get up (the way he keeps seeking out gaze contact with the helmet and seems perfectly satisfied with it too... fasdhfaskdjhl my FEELINGS)

- it seems confirmed in this ep that the mandos who died on nevarro did so while holding off the enemy so the rest(probably especially the children) could get away; some of them appear to have escaped. which I guess is a small relief

- 

frog lady stepping out of the shadows and into our hearts

I like that her firm nod after Peli translates ‘her husband has seen them’ lets us know she understands... basic? is that the common tongue thing in star wars there’s just so many to remember across fandoms lol? perfectly well, even if she can’t speak it. 

- mando might be running low on ammo for the pulse rifle, if the fact that he hasn’t replaced the missing cartridge on his... bandolier belt thingy is any indication

ETA: actually ignore me this has been a thing since the literal first episode of the show my brain just had a hiccup lol

- so baby seems to use a little bit of the force to pull the eggs towards him -- I wonder how often he ‘taps into it’ or if it’s always ‘on’ in the background for him. if so I guess there’s no wonder he’s so hungry (but also... kid you can’t end this lady’s entire family line like that one cat who singlehandedly made extinct a whole species of bird! D:)

- din so rarely gets openly angry, he just gets passive aggressive and grumpy. and that’s probably not the healthiest way to deal with things but I love him

- frog lady reacts so strongly to when din sends the ping when nothing else woke her up, I wonder if she can hear more frequencies than a human

- 

hello darkness my old frieeennnddd

- 

proof nr 1508 that din does not starve this baby you guys, he even has his own little tray just the right size for him! as it happens the baby simply seems to prefer eating things that are... still alive in some capacity. which, uh. maybe they can invest in some form of non-sentient crickets or something for him to hunt down and.... oh dear

- 

Look how they massacred my boy

By the way I finally managed to put into words why the Razor Crest -- and particularly the way it keeps getting beaten to hell and back and patched up again --  is so symbolically important and meaningful to me in this show in this post over here! it’s always a great relief to me when I can finally understand what the hell I’ve been going on about all this time and this was one of those lol

-  honestly if it weren’t for frog lady and (more importantly) the baby I think there’s a slight chance din would’ve gone ‘well I had a good-ish run of it for a while there’ and just let the ice claim him haha   

- “Why don’t you come over here and give me a hand. Make yourself useful” This is the one time in the episode I think he crosses the line into just being a dick for a moment (but noticeably the baby isn’t just a little hurt at this reaction, he’s clearly surprised and confused, which means this really does not happen often. after the time mando’s been having recently I guess a moment’s snappishness is understandable haha. he does follow up right after with being much more responsive and attentive when the baby toddles away from him, so it feels like it’s going to be okay)

also the ‘boo-ap’ sound is there again when he’s trying to get din’s attention. just sayin’ 

when din comes over to see the footprints baby makes a declarative little meep like ‘see??? I did tell you!’ haha

- it is very funny that mando is using all his technology meant to track down dangerous bounties in the grungy depths of the criminal underworld... to find a naked lady just chillin’ in a hot spring 

- 

cue the ‘father is evil?’ memes fsadfda. actually the funniest thing about this moment (apart from the fabulous finger acting) is that din actually snatches a few eggs out of the baby’s reach more subtly right before, and that baby only whines for ALL OF ONE SECOND before he goes to sniff around for other food possibilities fkadfhjkds. from my experience with human children he’s a lot less prone to tantrums. yodito doesn’t get mad, he gets even 

- baby running towards din through the hatching spiderlings like ‘DAD I FUCKED UUUUUUP’, din’s little strangled ‘ngh’ sound as he picks the baby up and watches all the creepy crawlies come out... *chef kiss* impeccable 

(that little ‘ngh’ and the soft shocked ‘ah ah AH!’s from when he goes flying at the beginning of the episode... pedro pascal and his voice work for this character gives me so much life. in some ways din has this sort of dignity and grace and in other ways he uh extremely doesn’t. he gets to be cool but also vulnerable in ways a lot of male main characters don’t and it’s probably why I love him so much) 

btw here is that moment when din moves to hold the baby tightly against him with both hands as the big spider appears, because it gets me right in the heart... it such an instinctive thing of holding on to the dearest thing you’ve got before something bad is about to happen

fdsafhsdakjlfhsdkjlhfsdajhf oh my god the baby is clutching din’s finger with his little hand during the chase!!!! 😭😭😭

this FUCKING SHOW has just WEAPONIZED putting in small details everywhere to convey the love and tenderness and attachment felt by a little muppet doll even where only weirdos like me will frame by frame their way through the video to see it I am so MAD

- frog lady going ‘fuck this’ and bounding along is  e v e r y t h i n g 

- din is an amazing shot, though, he doesn’t seem to miss a single one in this whole scene (then again there’s something to shoot at basically everywhere one can take aim so lol)

-

baby hiding behind/half hugging din’s boot as he tries to get the doors closed hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I can’t breathhhhheeeee 

honestly every single one of the baby’s proximity seeking behaviours in this ep has me on my knees 

- it’s very unfair to play the heroic happy mando music like everything is going to be fine and then have a huge fuck-off spider drop down from the ceiling and break it off mid-tune, the mandalorian, you have trained me in certain ways and now do you betray me??? how can I trust again

- the camera work in the scene with the new republic guys gives such a good sense of the discomfort of being judged from on high by someone or something you can’t really see -- the glare of the lights blocking out everything in the shots from din’s pov makes it feel like a tense interrogation (the new republic dude who is actually dave filoni has such a look of fondness as he watches din tho it’s kind of sweet)

- ...oh no I think baby was actually considering munching on that dismembered spider leg YODITO NO JUST EAT YOUR KRAYT DRAGON BABY

- hngh this is a weird filler episode and it has my entire heart. I suspect we might get some episodes of a more stationary baby between active ones like this -- you can tell a little bit in this episode that especially having him running around fast is quite difficult to have look natural, they likely save that effort up for when it best serves the narrative  

[incorrigible-groupie]

Actually, the ends weren’t that bad (a TPN/TOA essay)

So.

There are two series that ended recently and which had a lot of impact for me but also a very controversial end, like there are some wars between fans who argue about if the end was good… or not.

And me ? I really want to believe that The Promised Neverland (the manga, obviously) and Trollhunters have very coherent ends.

You’re probably wondering « why putting these two together ? » and I have a reason, multiple reasons actually. Of course, there will be spoilers of The Promised Neverland and the entire Tales of Arcadia saga (Trollhunters, 3Below, Wizards and the movie Rise of the Titans).

First, Promised Neverland. 

And mostly the character who made a lot of people cringe even before the last book : Emma. Cringe because, for some fans, she isn’t someone you can relate with because she isn’t realistic… in every sense of the word.

She is too perfect or at least too perfectly programmed for the plot whisky is not entirely true ! « She is too kind ! » well… maybe not ? I don’t think all her actions were driven by kindness. 

She is too clever to be the naive kind of kind. 

And don’t tell me that if she was that clever, she would have noticed that her orphanage was a farm because… she probably was in denial. Also, how would she imagine that monsters were waiting for them outside ? Maybe she didn’t see, maybe she didn’t want to see. But anyway, when she discovered the truth, her first thought was to get everyone out. EVERYONE.

Of course, there are her family, she won’t let them… but she did have to let some of them because it would have been too complicated, so that prove that she isn’t just a naive idealistic.

She wanted to fight, first for her family, then for every kid of every farm, because that wouldn’t be fair if her kids stayed alive and not the others. Then she also want to save every monsters, because that wouldn’t be fair since they didn’t choose to have to eat meat.

This is not about being kind, this is about being fair. This is about responsibility and guilt.

Emma doesn’t want to save everyone because everyone deserve to be saved or something cute like that, she would have killed less people or monsters otherwise.

She wants to save everyone because she doesn’t want to feel as bad as the people, as the monsters who hurt her and her family. She doesn’t want to be a monster.

When she understood, and ONLY WHEN she understood what it means to hunt, she realized how thin was the line between her enemy and herself so she doesn’t want to live knowing people lived horribly because of her. 

She didn’t want to live with that on her conscience.

And… I think this is kind of selfish ? She doesn’t do that because it’s right, she does that because she wants to be better… I don’t know. She took a lot of risks, for her and for a friends just so she won’t feel that guilt.

But the others don’t care that the mutants die, only Emma who is really clever like I said before understood and was like « yeah so no we need to find a solution or it will haunt me for the rest of my life ». This is more like a perfectionist thing that a kind thing.

Which is… logical for a character like Emma.

Really the characters in the manga are very well-written, especially Isabella who has such a dignified way to die. It was a good end for her, very symbolic, even if I’m very sad about it. When she betrayed the blond guy, I was pleasantly surprised but at the same time it made sense like, it’s very consistent, everything is consistent even if we started with a complex project. Ending the meat industry ? Save all the children ? And Isabella’s end shows how the real villain of the story are the one who benefit from the system (which says a lot about our own society).

But Emma, actually, became « queen » of the system when she made the new treaty, she literally created a new system so… welcome responsibilities while she was only 14. Will she benefit too ? Or even take advantage ? But how could she after everything she learnt, and mostly after so many people sacrificed their lives so she could reach her goal ? Did she deserve it ?

How could she live with that on her conscience ?

The answer is : she can’t. She isn’t that strong. She isn’t that positive. She isn’t that perfect.

And destiny (haha) gave her a solution on a silver plate. Not by surprise like a Deus Ex Machina since we knew there would be a counterparty which won’t be too violent because Emma cleared the path. This was an equivalent exchange. THIS IS LIKE FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST ! (By the way, why does everyone think TPN’s end was too easy while in FMA, the best manga of all time, the solution to get Alphonse’s body back was in Ed’s hands… LITERALLY !).

Anyway.

The demon offered to lose her memory, thinking she would refuse because she would be alone, separated from her family which is… euh… stupid… I mean��� have you seen Your Name ?

People who are meant to be together will find each other.

Moreover, Emma was so relieved because it was solving all her problems : nobody dies, everybody goes to the other world, nobody sacrifices themselves, and the guilt she was afraid to live with ? Gone. I think Emma was also relieved to be like « yes, I have a second chance, now I will live a normal life ». And it was selfish because it seemed like she said « so guys I will send you to another universe I know nothing about after I brought you into this mess but now you will deal with it yourself everyone ! ». That was… a little cowardly ?

And the worst was that every encounter she made, every lesson she learnt, she lost them…

Well, thinking about that…

TROLLHUNTERS !

Trollhunter’s end was… hard. And gave me a bitter sensation since not only we said goodbye to our favorite characters but we also genuinely said goodbye to the show. Even if we wanted to watch the show a second time, it was kinda deleted (along with Anton Yelchin acting…) ? 

Yes, it’s hard… but isn’t it ballsy to do a scenario like this ? And we could have expected this, it’s not the first time we talked about time travel in this saga. And for gods sake at the very beginning of the movie there were a lot of things that shouldn’t happen. The train’s crash in New York, the Titans probably crushing people, the bridge being destroyed, and all that jazz… Can you imagine how Jim should have lived with all of this besides everything else he had lost ? And then, Toby died (which affected me more than I imagined).

But it’s not Toby’s death that made Jim want to change everything, it was just the last straw. The last thing that wasn’t supposed to happen. After all, if it was written that Jim was given another chance, if Naru saw that Jim would have to get back, to go aaaaall the way back, there must have a reason, or multiple reasons. Do you think humans could live normally after everything that happened ? Do you think humans and trolls could coexist ? I’m not sure, not after that kind of damage. And Arcadia was destroyed ! The HeartStone, the center of the universe, was destroyed too ! I think even if Toby survived, the end wasn’t that bright…

And the time-travel wasn’t a Deus Ex Machina either because otherwise it would have been a « and then BOUM everything is back to normal and everything is ok » situation, which isn’t… 

We don’t know what will happen. 

Jim will do everything so it’ll be okay but maybe he will make some mistakes. Vendel may not survive, maybe they will take more time to kill Gunmar, Aaaaaargh may be turn to stone again… we don’t know. And I think everyone in the fandom is pissed because of that. Because we don’t know. And I do understand : this is not the end, not a conclusion, not a great finale, more like the beginning of something we won’t get to see (like a legacy?), which is both great and very very sad for us. I hope Dreamworks will do comics or books…

But also, I doesn’t mean that nothing will be like before. There is a lot of things Jim has no control of. For example, what happened to the extraterrestrials, Jim knew nothing about it so he can’t change a thing. And for the wizards too. And when you think about it, what happens in « Wizards » has to happen. Jim won’t be a troll during that arc but it will happen anyway, it’s supposed to happen because it’s the creation of the Trollhunter, the creation of the Amulet ! And Jim has no idea of what will become because he wasn’t really there.

What is supposed to happen will happen.

Friendship or love, it will happen. Even the relationship between Jim and Blinky, even if Jim isn’t the Trollhunter. OH, SPEAKING OF WHICH.

Choosing Toby as the new Trollhunter is a super idea. Toby will accept his role right away. Toby will love his new destiny. And since he will have Jim’s help, he will be okay. Jim doesn’t want his friends to get traumatized again (I mean it’s cool to learn stuff but do you really need to suffer for that?)(I’M LOOKING AT YOU AGAIN, EDWARD ELRIC), so he will do what he can so things don’t get too heavy. And you know, maybe he want (AND DESERVE) to give a bit away. He probably give the Amulet to Toby because he knew Toby is brave enough to fight even without powers… and because he was tired to bear the Amulet ? Anyway, like I said, everything that is supposed to happen will happen and if Toby isn’t the right Trollhunter, the Amulet won’t choose him.

AH ! And don’t forget that Jim doesn’t need the Amulet to be a Trollhunter ! This is literally what the show wanted to teach us, guys ! If you forget it, it proves that it’s not only the characters who had a reset…

A reset…

Holy guacamole this is exactly like Undertale. This is Undertale’s principle. Jim is Frisk who after taking a Neutral Route wants to do a True Pacifist Route ! This is so cooooool !

Except that, exactly like in The Promised Neverland finale (well, not exactly but like a reversed version of it), Jim decides that everyone forgets everything that happened and take the guilt off their shoulders, as heavy as an armor. He erased everyone’s guilt, except his. That is far from being selfish or cowardly.

It’s the opposite ! These two shows which don’t have a lot in common have finales being negative pictures !

And Jim’s end isn’t perfect either because he still has the world on his shoulders (a little less because he isn’t the Bearer of the Amulet, but still a little more because he knows what happens if it goes wrong). 

He is still the Young Atlas because even if the characters in the shows won’t live the same thing, they will still be the characters we knew, the characters we saw growing, the characters as brave and as strong as we used to see : like in Undertale, « despite everything, it’s still you ».

And to everyone who says to me « yeah but it will go wrong because when Merlin shows Jim the future where he isn’t the Trollhunter, it was shit », well : NO.

Jim stays a Trollhunter, he said so ! And I mostly think (since the moment I saw this episode) this all thing was an illusion, not a real future, because Merlin is a real piece of garbage and I was only sad for Douxie when Merlin died (otherwise, I would have celebrate it). And I think Jim knows it too, that it wasn’t real.

By the way, I hope they will find another way to not say « For the glory of Merlin » anymore, I loved the new version of the Amulet in the movie (AND JIM LOVED IT TOO).

All of this just to say that : these endings, even if it’s very frustrating, make sense.

Of course, saying goodbye to so many things I cared about for years make it difficult to assimilate it, but that also means that I really loved it.

And in the end, it showed these two characters flaws, these perfect, pure, way-too-nice characters with too many responsibilities and a huge desire to survive, but who are being selfish for once by taking a clean start.

But they’re doing it with their pockets full of determination… proving how humans they are.

And I really will miss them.

Ready ? Set ? Go !

[middle-class-trash]

Rise of the Titans liveblog!!!

that intro made me unexpectedly emotional

So if Blinky is narrating, he can't die, right? Right????

BRO THE SUBWAY SCENE!!!! We're getting right fuckin into it!!!

Steve, my son!!!

I wish Toby wasn't a constant punchline 🙃 it just makes me not take his character seriously

CLAIRE!!!!!!

Something about Douxie decking Skrael at the first opportunity is just so sexy of him

Jim is incredibly brave but it's really reckless to go hand-to-hand with a demigod without proper armor

My heart goes BUMBUMBUMBUM when Douxie looks out the traincar window

Sexy traincar tracks spell WHO

THE WRECKAGE AWWWW

Oh my gosh the people stuck in the magic circle because they wouldnt get out of the way

NO NO NO DOUXIE NO

So they were arrested that early?? Jeez

Nari's such a cutie

"None of us will be talking to you" *cut to Toby spilling every bean*

TOBY'S FACE AT THE END HAHHAHAHA

Something about Nari's voice coming out of Douxie's body is so deeply odd

Oh hey, Krel to the rescue

AREA 49 HAKSHDKSKD

"And your mom."

Oh my gosh he's still broken from Wizards 😂

The Guardians are just dead set on pissing off local authorities huh

JIM!!!

STRICKLER?????

BARBARAAAAA

Stricklake supremacy 😌 they both look so good

Claire listening in 😭😭😭 she's so cute

AWWWWW ENGAGED ENGAGED ENGAGED

......does that give them death flags? Fuck. Fuuuuck fuck fuck fuck. It totally does.

AWWW DOUXIE!NARI HUGGING ARCHIE

Aja!!!!

Your majesty!!

Oh yikes, here's that running gag everyone was talking about.. pregnant Steve

Oh hey, Eli's hot now. We been knew 😂

"Mazel tov!" HAHA

Poor Jim needing a bunch of support to walk 🥺 he's such a trooper

I will simply pass away if Blinky dies

I hope Douxie is okay, we haven't seen him in Nari's body and that makes me ✨nervous✨

OH JKJK

Nari is so goddamn pretty

"Only your presence, not your commitment" is such a rapey saying

"Abra-cadabra, buttsnacks" I love that he still says that 🥺🥺 he loves his friends so much

"Do your worst" *cue both Douxie and Nari absolutely screaming in pain*

Krohnisfere? Alrighty then, that's the first mission

"I wouldn't be so sure of that" AWWW

They fixed the amulet???? DUUUUDE

"For the good of all..." 😭😭😭😭

"Or I could lock onto Nari and portal us there" *dead fucking silence*

I hate how Toby's used as a constant punchline.. a penny? Really?

TRAINTRACK MAGIC CIRCLE GO BRRRR

Poor Nari 🥺 Douxie's in so much distress

Oh no, the new amulet isn't working?? Fuckk

That absolutely gorgeous screencap of pissed Aja

Part of me is glad Nari was forced to do this and wasn't actually a traitor

Ice titan awakening sequence? Ice titan awakening sequence.

Oh Nari. Oh sweetie

Oh my gosh she's fucking tied to her titan

Boiling water!!! Or underwater explosion, that works too. Much more dramatic but that's Bellroc's style

Oh wow Steve actually has a bump?? What the fuck???

Oooh, TrollDragons?

Charlie!!!

"We still don't have a trollhunter" Aja, honey, not helpful

"Does he even trust himself? AJA, HONEY, NOT HELPFUL

Barbara being proud of her son 😭😭

OOH fusing excalibur with the armor?

Aja is so full of confidence, it's a good look for her

Steve being preggo is..really fucking weird. When they said

AWWW BLINKY AND AARRRGHHH

Your honor, I love them

OOH IS IT SOFT JLAIRE TIME

Ohhhh it's soft Jlaire time

He's always looking out for his mom 🥺

"I will always be here (head), and here (heart)" just fuck me up fam

Charlie!!!

Zong-Shi?

"Only death will come to those who go looking for it" oh dear

"The troll with many eyes" how does Charlie know Blinky? 😂

AYYY this where the banner that I found first is from!!! it was so cool seeing my screenshot circulate when we were starved for content 😂😂 everyone was posting various rott icons and banners that they got hoping they'd find a new one

Oh dear.. government

Blinky dear they can't understand you

"Holy frijole" Claire I simply adore you

WOW THAT'S PRETTYYYYY

Troll slaves???

So is Zong-Shi this ugly ass pear-lookin ass

Aja chilling with Jim even though she has doubts is an interesting strategic choice

Douxie, AARRRGHHH, and Nomura? Talk about rarepare

NOMURA CATCHING HIM 😭😭 SEXYYYY

DOUXIE RESCUING NOMURA 😭😭😭😭 SEXXYYYYY

If I havent said it yet, the animation is breathtaking

OH SHIT JIM

aaaaand here come those frozen wings

Nari cant be in control of herself, there's no way. She's still tied to the titan for Pete's sake

NOMURA????

Please dont let this be a sacrifice

PLEASE NO

BOTH CHANGELINGS????

STRICKLANDER??????

No on-screen death, so it's not real. No on-screen death, do it"# notbsmejelreal

NO ON-SCREEN DEATH BUT IT'S NOT REAL

THEYRE TALKING AHOUT HIM PAST-TENSE NOOOO

THEY RBOGUHT UP HIS DADDDDDD

"There's no revelation I can give you" is a great way of saying he's not relevant, genuinely

Oh wow this guy's freaky

Ohhhh so the green thing from the trailers and promo photos is the Krohnisfere

Archie to the rescue!!!

"That's my boy!" AWWE

"Claire nooo, no no no no YESSS, I'm free!!!" Blinky, never change 😂

Oh wow, they're already in contact with Bellroc's titan??

Different note, but the titan's designs are just different enough to make them interestun

VARVATOS??? Okay jk somehow it's gun robot lmfao

WAIT NEVER MIND HAHAHAH HI BUD

....if the bridge falls, can't Charlie just fly them across

LMAO he just saw his death?? That is what he wanted to see 🤷🏻‍♀️

It's too early to celebrate, there's no way Bellroc is down after just a few pinches

Yeahhh

Oh dear... is Varvatos in danger?

Claire being the warrior of the group is incredible and sexy and hhnnngggg

Toby is a Hufflepuff. I will not be answering questions

OH WOW THAT'S HOW HE BURNED HIS HAND??? THE HONRGAZEL?????

ARCHIE SAID GOODBYE??? NO NO NO NO NO

Douxie's gonna be a flat mess!!!

God, plus Nomura and Stricklander

NOOOO DOUXIE YOU BIG SWEETIE

Oh my gosh this is the scene with Douxie trying to connect with Nari, it has to be

"I need to try again" AWWW HONEY

That shot of Mexico was incredibly stereotypical

DOUXIE SWEETHEART 🥺🥺

He's trying to hold her hand???? AWWWW

Oh my gosh he's being choked 😳

NARI BABY!!!!

The huggos 🥺🥺

Jim being frustrated is totally realistic

Wait wait wait waittt do they have the entire titan at their disposal?

"There's absolutely nothing all the way out here" cue a titan. Any of them.

And there it is.

CLAIRE SUPREMACY!!!!!!!

White haired Claire? White haired Claire???

Oh dear it's like.. a little over halfway and there's so much left that could happen

COACH. COOOOACH

OH THANK GOD!!! Steve doesn't need another paternal figure dying on him

Time for Skrael to fuck shit up 😬

I find it interesting how Bellroc and Skrael's titans are both bipedal but Nari's is on four legs, much more animalistic

NARI, NOOOOO PLEASE NO

At least Skrael's done????

We kinds knew Bellroc was the final boss but NOT LIKE THIS

DOUXIE SCREAMING FOR HER

NOOOOOOO

No more running. GODDAMNIT

The three can no longer unite but Bellroc can still fcuk shit up

A HIDDEN PAGE??? FUCK THE WORLD IS TO BE REFORGED WITH FIRE

THE HEARTSTONE??????

Oh shit, the explanation for why Arcadia's the center of everything!!

The only heartstone?? Really???? That's scary as shit, trolls could go instinct without a reliable hearthstone!!

EXCALIBUR TIMEEE

JIMMMMMM

Come on honey, you can do it!!

Aja, honey, I love you so much but now's not the time

THE HEARTSTONE???? FUCK DUDE

.......Steve

Eli the midwife?? ...gross

Jim, my love, my baby boy!!!

The nine of them!!!

AWW BLINKY BEING THE BEST DAD

THEY WORK TOGETHER 😭😭😭😭

FUCK YEAH!!!!!!

"Quiet desperation" is a great word for it

Are we coming on to the big final battle?

Ohnoohnoohno they all said the thing 😭😭😭 someone's gonna die. At least one more is gonna die.

HE'S DRIVINGGGG. LOVE THAT FOR HIM

STICKY SPELL TIME!!!!!!

"Some sort of stickum!" Bro 😂😂

I love how he calls them all Trollhunters 😭 throwback to the OG show where the three of them were all called that

Aja Terron supremacy

Oh it's weird.. it's very weird. Why did Steve have to be pregnant again

Oh dear, there's half an hour left.. this has to be the final battle

JIM

Varvatos shielding Claire and Krel 🥺

Fuck, man, people are getting thrown left and right

DOUXIE MY LOVE

Oh here we fucking go, rematch

NEW AMULET???

Jim's about to get royally fucked up

LIKE THAT

FUCK

WHY IS SHE TAKING HIM??? GOD NO

Anti-magic beacon??

Helloooo that's smart asf

This gives Mount Doom vibes

"Embrace your loved ones for the final time" FUCK MAN STOP IT

"I already was" DAMN RIGHT BUD

NEW AMULETTTT

GO GET JIM GO GET 'IM

DAYLIGHT ARMOR!!!!!!

He was ready to just sacrifice himself like THAT

DAYLIGHT ARMORRRRR WITH EXCALIBUR??????? FUUUUCK

Jim being great at combat is just the best fucking thing

Oh fuck. OH FUCK.

STABBED??????

PLEASE NO, GOD NO

FUUUUCK

"I'm powerless" "You get used to it" WE DONT HAVE TIME TO UNPACK ALL OF THAT

JIM HONEY PLEASE DONT DIE

Is that....is that it?? Oh dear god, is that it????

JIM WHERE ARE YOU

I'm calling it now it's too early to be celebrating

Oh god the weird babies

WHERE IS TOBY

WHERE

NO

MY JAW FUCKING DROPPED

NO WAY, NO FUCKING WAY

HE'S GETTING A DYING MONOLOGUE??????

ALWAYS HAVE BEEN, ALWAYS WILL BE

"Itll be the two of us at the end" WHY DOES THAG SEEM LIKE JIM WILL GO OUT TIO

THERE'S NO WAY TOBY JUST DIED

THHERE'S NO WAY

That was sad as fuck but in a narrative way I hope it's permanent

Oh dear, Jim's going back????

Oh shit

WWHAT IS HE DOING

NOOOOO

"I have cherished every moment with you" STOP IT HE'S HIS FATHER

"I FYOU WERE MY OWN SON" STOPPPPPP

WHAT'S HAPONEINGGGGG

CLAIRE

NOOOO

THIS IS WHERE IM SOBBING

THIS IS WHERE IM LOSUNG IT

"Dont give up on me" FUCK STOPPPP

"I WILL ALWAYS BE HERE AND HERE" FUCK IT STOPPPPP

"I would date you for a hundred lifetimes" IS REALLY BEING TESTED HUH

THERE ARE 10 MINUTES ELFT WHAT THEBFUCK

AND WE'RE BACK TO TROLLHUNTERS?.????

HUHHHH

Fuck, man. FUCK, MAN.

Oh, Toby. Ohhhh Toby

CLAIRE 🥺

ROMEO AND JULIET!!!!

Oh my fucking god

"IF YOUD COME OVER TO DINNER" AYYYYY

His smile at Steve 🥺

HE'S HAVING TOBY TAKE THE CANAL???? But wouldnt the amulet still call for Jim?????

"Nothing interesting ever happens in Arcadia" VERY FUCKING FUNNY

Destiny is a gift. Some go their entire lives living in an existence of quiet desperation, never learning the truth- that what feels as though a burden pushing down upon our shoulders is actually the sense of purpose that lifts us to greater heights. Never forget that fear is but the precursor to valor. That to strive and triumph in the face of fear is what it means to be a hero. Don't think. Become.

.......it actually called his name. I can't believe it actually called his name.

The fuck is that ending??? Let Jim REST

[lesbianavatarverseimagines]

You Left Me - Part 1 of 2

Pre-Redeemed!Princess Azula x Reader

Anon Asked:

Could you do an AzulaxReader where the reader grew up with both of the royal children and always kept them in place, especially Azula, knowing that she had mommy issues? As they get older and grow closer, the reader is suddenly declared dead after her war ship is blown up before Azula is named Firelord, which is the last strike to Azula losing her mind during the final battle? Thanks AJ! 

The events will be stretched out so that I can make them older during the canon events!

(A/N: I’m kind of surprised by the requests I got overnight, but I love it! Thank you everyone! I love you guys! The next one will either by Mai, Kyoshi, or Rangi! If I’m up to the task, I may even do all three haha - AJ)

***

It all started with my parents selling baby me to Fire Lord Azulon. Apparently they needed money that bad and wanted me to have a 'better life' knowing damn well I would probably become a palace servant. However, the Fire Lord seemed to take pity on me after learning that I was a firebender at the young age of 2, when I started learning to cook. After I impressively firebreathed at my caretaker, who refused to give me a chili pepper, he immediately heard of the incident and placed me in the care of General Iroh, who was to train and teach me the arts of firebending.

At the impressive age of 5, I’d mastered fire using non-conventional forms. I studied waterbending and airbending forms and used those to make me more effective as a master of the arts. I also took great pride in Iroh’s teachings of the mind, body, and soul. It opened my eyes to the great things I could accomplish if I had the ambition. I was also introduced to Prince Zuko and Princess Azula, the royalty that I'd be personally guarding once my training was finished. They both latched onto to me very quickly, as I had that playful charm, but a powerful aura that made them feel safe. 

***

By the time I hit 8, I was made the personal guard of the prince and princess. 

“You are to guard them with your life and keep them in line, behaviorally and training-wise, Private L/n. They are to respect you as they would me. You know what to do if they do not.” Fire Lord Azulon had told me during my official inducting ceremony. I bowed, honored to have been given a position that thousands of so-called 'masters' fought so vehemently for.

As soon as I was dismissed, I ran to the courtyard where Azula and Ty Lee were doing somersaults. Mai was sitting against a tree fiddling with her fingers while Zuko walked with his mother, Ursa. As I walked over to the three girls to tell them the news, I watched Azula fail to stick her landing. As a result, she retaliated when Ty Lee landed perfectly by pushing her to the ground. I stopped walking once I reached them and gave Azula a stern look.

“Azula, you need to stop being mean to your friends. Just because you’re a princess doesn’t mean that your behavior is acceptable.” I grunted out. She stopped laughing after seeing that I was completely serious and helped Ty Lee from the ground, apologizing after. Azula then skipped over to me and gave me a hug before waving her friend over.

We huddled together for a second before she whispered, “Watch this.” She skipped over to Ursa and urged her to let Zuko play with us. Once he came over, Azula demonstrated the ‘game’ that we would be playing. “We have to try to knock the apple off the other person’s head, like this!”

She shot an orange flame at Mai’s head and caught the apple on fire, prompting Zuko to panic and save Mai from catching on fire. However, he ended up tackling her into a water fountain that was behind them. Azula, Ty Lee, and I laughed and started cooing them until they walked away in embarrassment.

***

At the age of 11, we all learned that General Iroh’s son had passed away during battle and that Iroh was coming home. It hit home for me, as Lu Ten acted as my older brother after I was taken in as Iroh’s pupil. Time seemed to pass by very fast until I was suddenly in the throne room of the palace with Prince Ozai, Prince Zuko, Princess Ursa, Princess Azula. Ozai had requested an audience with Fire Lord Azulon to show the advancement of his children’s skills.

As usual, Azula excelled like a master in the making, but Zuko wasn’t at the same level yet. In the end of it, Azulon ordered me to escort the kids out of the room for a private discussion with Ozai.

While we walked out, Azula grabbed my hand and we all snuck back in to listen. I didn’t really pay attention to the heated conversation between father and son, as I was solely focused on the princess’ hand in mine. At some point, a frightened Zuko ran out, but Azula and I stayed until the discussion was over.

We ended up walking to my room, which was between theirs. After I closed the door, I sunk to the floor. I never got to express my grief about Lu Ten’s death because I was constantly expected to never show deep emotion. I forgot that Azula had come in with me, so she watched as I quietly broke down in sobs. It almost surprised me when she sat next to me and cradled my shoulders in comfort, knowing that I was going through a hard time. She didn’t say anything even after I was done and helped me out of my armor and into bed. 

“Get some sleep, Y/n. A lot of things are going to be happening tomorrow.” She said as she walked out and closed the door.

***

At the age of 13, Fire Lord Ozai challenged Zuko to an Agni Kai, making me jump up during the war council to object, as it was my sole duty to defend the prince, no matter who it was to. “No! As my duties pertain, I am the one who will participate in this Agni Kai! The prince shall not be harmed, my Lord!”

Fire Lord Ozai widened his eyes for a split second, surprised that one his most trusted and obedient guards was speaking out against him, during a war meeting nonetheless.

He fumed. “It may be your duty to protect Prince Zuko, but he needs to learn discipline! I will give you a day to train him before the challenge, but that is the only mercy I will give. Now, take him and get out of my sight, Private L/n!”

I grabbed Zuko by the upper arm and pulled him up. I then dragged him out of the throne room that had noticeably grown hotter in temperature.

Once we were far away enough, I led him to the training grounds and punched a purple fireball at him, catching him off-guard. He yelled and dropped flat on the ground, narrowly avoiding the flames. “What are you doing?!”

I angrily got into my stance. I bent my arm to where my right elbow was next to my ear with my fist parallel to the side of my face. My left arm stuck out like a punch, except my hand was opened rather than in a fist. It matched Zuko’s stance since he took inspiration from me and wanted us to have an identical fighting style.

“Fight me.” I growled angrily. “Iroh and I warned you not to speak up during the council, yet you did! Show me what you’ll do during the Agni Kai, Zuko!”

He shakily got up, realizing how angry he’d made me. He got into his stance and sent weak firelashes toward me, not putting enough momentum behind his strikes. I cut through the fire in a rage, not caring that it was burning my skin. How dare he be so weak when he had an Agni Kai tomorrow!

I firebreathed at him with what sounded close to a dragon roar. The flames spread everywhere as my anger only rose. “Y/N!” Solid arms wrapped around me, cooling me down a little bit. Azula yelled through the roaring, “Y/N, STOP! YOU’RE HANDS ARE BLEEDING!”

I listened to her on command and realized that I had obliterated most of the training equipment. Zuko was lying on the pavement again, cowering in fear while Azula held me in place. Wetness ran down my face uncontrollably. My brother would be no match for the general he was to face and I wouldn’t be able to protect him. Another person I care about would die tomorrow along with my honor.

How dare he?!

***

At the age of 16, I was promoted to captain and given my own ship to command. By this age, I'd begun to hate Fire Lord Ozai with a passion.

A while ago, during the Agni Kai, everyone was surprised when they found out that Zuko would be fighting his father rather than the general he spoke out against. When Zuko bowed and started begging for his life as Ozai approached him, I’d gotten up and almost ran on stage until the same solid pair of arms wrapped around me and held me in place again.

“I’m sorry, Y/n, but he has to do this on his own.” Azula had said. As much as I’d grown to love her, I had to disagree. He couldn’t do this on his own. He was a child, as were we.

I flinched away from the memory, focusing on my current mission at hand. I was to find Zuko and bring him back to the capital, as he and Iroh were both apparently traitors. Honestly though, how surprising. You give him a huge scar and then banish him, expecting him to remain loyal to you?!

I scoffed in contempt. Once I completed that task, we were to find and retrieve the Avatar, dead or alive, which was something I was wholeheartedly against.

I sighed and rubbed my forehead as a familiar voice spoke out from behind me.

“Are you just going to sit in here and sulk all day, or are you going to train with me?” I heard Azula say from the doorway of my room. I chuckled and turned around to see her giving me that signature smirk.

Azula was to be the successor of Ozai instead of Zuko, as she was the promising prodigy. Ozai tried turning her into a monster, but I was the line that he couldn’t cross. Part of the reason why he promoted me was to get me away from her so that he could turn her, but she always found a way to be at my side and get my advice. I knew she was a ticking time bomb due to the level of her father's abuse, but I loved her too much to leave her on her own. I wouldn’t let her turn into her father so long as I was alive. And that was what I worried about these days.

I smiled and bowed, to which she snorted. “Of course, O’Princess Azula. We shall duel!”

She came over and kissed my cheek before grabbing my hand to lead me away from my thinking. “I am glad that you think of me so highly, Captain Y/n.”

***

After I’d turned 19, Sozin’s comet was nearly here. I was to participate in the raid on all of the nations and burn it all to the ground. I, of course, wasn't going to do that and had joined Team Avatar to stop Ozai. 

Azula didn’t know that I switched sides, as her father sent me away a couple months ago on a ‘scouting mission’ before declaring her Fire Lord and then declaring himself Phoenix King. I knew that she would be stressed under the weight of the title without me there, so I tried my damndest to go back to her and convince her to switch sides. However, fate decided differently. 

An explosion rocked my ship and soon sent me spiraling into blackness.

I’ll find my way back to you, Azula. Before it’s too late for you.

***

(3rd POV)

As soon as Azula learned of your death, she broke. Her mental state completely broke into pieces right before her.

She banished everyone from the palace and went into a frenzied state, seeing you and her mother everywhere she looked. She’d just got done cutting her hair when she looked in the mirror and saw you smiling. Illusion!You didn’t even have to say anything for her to start crying uncontrollably. Why did the fates have to be so cruel? You should be here ruling at her side!

When she blinked, it was her mother, Ursa, standing in your place, telling her that she was loved. A brush was thrown at the mirror and shattered the glass on impact.

After Azula got dressed and went outside for her coronation, the ceremony was stopped by her annoying brother, Zuko, and Katara, the Water Tribe peasant.

"You want to be Fire Lord? Fine, let's settle this. Just you and me, brother, the showdown that was always meant to be; Agni Kai!"

Zuko agrees to the challenge after seeing that something was off about her.

"I'm sorry it has to end this way, brother." Azula growls out.

"No you're not."

***

Once the battle was over and Azula was in chains, she started thrashing around while screaming and crying. "Y/N!" She sobs. "WHY?!"

Why did you have to leave me?

***

End of Part 1.

(A/N: I hope you enjoyed!! I actually cried a little bit with this one. Azula deserves a redemption, so I'm gonna give her one since they did her dirty in the comics ;). Azula is 18 at the end of this but will be 19 in the next part, while you'll be 20. Part 2 will most likely be uploaded later today 8/15/20!)

As always, REQUESTS ARE OPEN.

[twilightofthe]

Chapter Fourteen liveblog of The Mandalorian Season 2!  Let’s go!!!

Gonna say right now this episode already has VERY large boots to fill, my only prior experience with Tython is when my DM took our party there in the Star Wars RPG I’m playing in atm and we had a blast doing stuff like negotiating peace between warring peoples, finding lost children, visiting and exploring the very temple Din and the baby will be going to, AND we got attacked by Imps and I got to steal and drive an AT-AT.  Idk how to make Tython better than that xD

Ok but here we go, opening scene

Ooooooh we getting the FENNEC SHAND flashback???  (Lol but seriously if she is showing up again I’m all too happy to see my girl Ming-Na but how the fuuuuuck are we going to tie aNOTHER character’s storyline into this season? xD)

Once more I would die for the nameless baby Yodito 

SEROUSLY LOOKIT HIM AND HIS WIDDLE BALL DIN HOW COULD YOU EVER GIVE THAT UP

Welp I guess acknowledging the kid’s name is good parent/child bonding activities

“Bitch that’s my ball you keep taking it”

BABY LISTENS TO DADDY

HE’S HELPING THE BABY TRAIIIIIIIN AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

HEY NO I’M NOT MAD AT YOU AAAAA GOOD PARENT

“Nice lady” lol perfect way to describe Ahsoka

OMG THE SOFTNESS IN HIS VOICE MISTER PEDRO YOU ARE KILLING ME ;_;

“You’re very special, kid” KILL ME RIGHT FUCKING NOW HOW DARE YOU TOY WITH MY HEART--

DIN YOU DO NOT SOUND CONVINCING AT ALL

NOT EVEN TO YOURSELF

JUST ACCEPT YOUR FATHERHOOD GODDAMMIT

“The TRAGEDY???” Oh No

Welp I guess Gideon tracks the Crest and kidnaps Baby in this one waaaaaah

Ok so forest planet like my DM said, but he made it snowy instead of acrid.....

Temple didn’t quite look like the first battle outcropping from Fellowship of the Ring either...

Oh is this another “wave your hand to pull it out of the ground” thingies like the Lothal temple?

DIN DON’T YOU FUCKING DARE JUST ABANDON HIM THERE

Ah ok he’s just doing the seeing stone thing

Oh honey this must be a pain in the ass to deal with the Force when you’re not remotely Force sensitive

BABY AND BUTTERFLY I’D DIE FOR HIM

Oh whoop we have company, not the Imps already?

Ahhh nope just Boba

Wait was HE the one who found Fennec last season???

If Boba’s the one who ends up turning over the baby to the bad guys just know nothing y’all say will make me forgive him for it xD

Fennec I’d kinda expect it from tho lol

I still think the Slave 1 (still a Very Hmmm Name) is the one of the goofiest looking ships, like why is it shaped like that and why does it fly standing up? xD

OOP I guess Baby just needed some pressure?  Glowy stone!

Glowy stone wiiiiith magic forcefield oh dear

Guess this ep’s gonna have Din trying to fight off opponents while Baby’s openly vulnerable and meditating, a la Katara in ATLA season 1

And ultimately fail too oh no....

Lol first thing visible coming out of ship is dramatic-ass cape, this fucking galaxy xD

TEMUERAAAAAAAAAAAA ;_;  Loooook I’m not the biggest Boba fan but I fucking love Temuera Morrison and his perfect voice

Wait he wasn’t the one who planted the tracker on his ship was he?

Looool at least Din’s finally found out there’s deadass like two groups of people he ends up coming across in this story

Hmmm we lookin’ dressed kinda like a Jedi, huh there Fett boy?

Wait Boba why didn’t you just try and ask/fight Cobb for the armor???

Oh so they really aren’t gonna make Boba Mandalorian again?

Oop Boba down for child murder

FENNEC OK I’M STILL KINDA IN LOVE WITH HER

“There’s no need for bloodshed” ok maybe Boba’s had some character development???

PROTECTIVE PAPA GETTIN’ OUT THE WHISTLING BIRDS

God Ming-Na is so fuckin’ pretty

“left for dead” BITCH YOU GOT FUCKING EATEN SHUT UP

Ohhhh does Fennec have some of those special new artificial guts like they gave Breha Organa?  Ngl I’m thinking of using those in one of my fics.....

Ooooop and NOW there’s the Imps

And that looks like enough room for a LOT of Stormtroopers

Oh dear

OH lol I guess Boba and Fennec have it covered

Ok fine Bobs that’s kinda badass

Lol Stormtroopers can’t even aim a mortar 

And STILL can’t properly aim a rapid fire gun either

Dumbass should have moved

Boba don’t steal the armor you’ll just be doing exactly what all the other Mandos are trying to accuse you of

AND DIN DOESN’T EVEN CARE ABOUT ANY OF THIS HE’S JUST DESPERATELY TRYING TO RESCUE HIS BABY ;_; ;_; ;_;

NOOOO DON’T LEAVE HIM

And of COURSE if he had waited five more seconds

Oh I guess Boba’s changing into his armor

Yep there he is

Ooop is that the Boba Fett theme?

THAT STILL ONLY COUNTS AS ONE

Aaaaand of course they’ve got a Star Destroyer 

WAIT ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME

Y’ALL SERIOUSLY TOOK THE RAZOR CREST AWAY

BITCHASSES

Damn but if Gideon doesn’t have a perfectly menacing theme too

Ok Favreau we see them looking more like Iron Man than anything else

Goddammit Boba why’d you make him take off his jetpack

Star Destroyer/Imperial Cruiser same thing, one’s just bigger

Y’ALL SHOULDN’T HAVE MADE HIM TAKE OFF HIS JETPACK

THE FUCKING TOY BALL GODDAMMIT Y’ALL ARE GONNA MAKE ME FUCKING CRY

Ooop at least the beskar’s fine

Yeahhh Boba knows this is at least kinda his fault xD

HAHAHA YEP THE FETTS ARE MANDOS AGAIN

Ohhhh and Jango fought in the Mando Civil War huh????  INTERESTING

Ohhhh they are picking up Ahsoka again

Wait fuck me I forgot, has Ahsoka ever directly met Boba before?

Wait you’re fucking kidding me you’re bringing MAYFIELD back nooooo he was annoying and untrustworthy

I hope Ahsoka bullies him

Dammit Gideon I hope the baby bites you

HAHA FUCKING GET THEM BABY

ok ok ok yeah I know Baby using the Dark Side is bad

OK OK OK NEVER MIND NEVER MIND NEVER MIND THAT’S REALLY BAD THAT’S WHAT THIS BASTARD WANTS

BITCH YOU STOP THAT

GIDEON I FUCKING SWEAR

DON’T Y’ALL FUCKING TOUCH HIM

OR SHOOT HIM YOU FUCKING BITCHES I HATE THIS I HATE EVERYTHING

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

POOR BABYYYYYYY

DIRECTED BY SPY KIDS MAN????  SIR HOW DARE YOU MAKE ME HURT

Okay okay okay fine, yes, Boba was Very Cool(TM)

Damn this was a good episode