#he has me rotating his character in my head CONSTANTLY

[djevelbl]

"Have fun you guys!" Actually goes CRAAZYYY when you spawn a wither rIGHT ON TOP OF YOUR ENEMIES--

[mediumgayitalian]

fic rec friday 14

hi!! welcome to fic rec friday. every week, i pick five fics i have bookmarked and rec them with a little review. check them out!

at last (i see the light) by @theroyalsavage

Of a tower, a missing prince with the sun in his hair and the ability to heal with a touch, and a terrible-dangerous-very-bad bandit who’s never been all that good at being very bad, dangerous, or terrible. An AU based off of Disney’s Tangled.

IVE BEEN W A I T I N G FOR A SOLANGELO TANGLED AU OMG. and this ATE. was so fucking good. obviously bc its theroyalsavage but still omg. sorry for harrassing u btw. but i LOVE this. nico as flynn pov and just fucking reluctantly smitten from the beginning.....oh i know that's right

2. a letter to the moon (it is not brighter than you) by @theroyalsavage

When his kingdom is plagued by a series of unsolvable murders, Prince Will Solace must confront several things: tragedy, helplessness, and the dizzy-sweet inevitability of falling in love.

is this, like the author's note indicates, reminiscent of bbc merlin? yes. and so i LOVE. rivals to friends to lovers my BELOVED. royalty aus my BELOVED. and honestly yall should be supporting my royalsavage agenda purely by her titles like LOOK at these. my heart hurts like

3. In the darkest grays by @izlaria

[The sun bursts, clouds break.] Nico di Angelo loves in color. This is something that Will Solace has always known.

hi. i am obsessed w this fic. a nico character atudy that is disguised as will character study that IS a will character study........something something they are braided strings of fate something something....also! sally jackson my love!! she is everything to me and of COURSE she would show up here!! i am also obsessed w longtime pining will like is it even a solangelo fic if will has not been in the trenches since he was ten years old

4. eudaimonia by @forochel

Nico watched Percy wave his arms excitedly at Annabeth and breathed through the habitual twisting of his stomach. For a moment, he thought of walking over to them - ever the masochist, he thought wryly to himself - but then Annabeth threw her head back in a laugh, and Nico dismissed the thought. There would be another time and another place. ** Diverges SLIGHTLY from canon in that Nico does not confess to Percy right off the bat - he gets the chance to heal, find himself and a place to stand in camp, and form friendships. Also, attempts to fix the whole Solangelo shoehorning thing.

AUTHOR IF YOU ARE STILL ACTIVE. FOROCHEL IF YOU SEE THIS. I AM BEGGING. KNEES ON THE GROUND HANDS CLASPED ROSARY CHOKING LIKE A NOOSE. PLEASE. PLEASE UPDATE THIS SERIES IM BEGGING. I KNOW IT IS UNGRATEFUL BUT 20K IS NOT ENOUGH. THIS IS N I C O S VOICE. LIKE ACTUALLY. dude it KILLS me this is HIM 😭😭😭 i cannot get over how wonderful this is and how FRESH....like this came out right after boo! it was fresh in ur mind!! and you went CRAZY like this is SO SO GOOD!! this fic is CONSTANTLY rotating in my mind and i am constantly thinking about the path it carved.....hve never gotten over it ever

5. Baby Satyrs and Charming Boyfriends by @biancadiangeno / @fiestiest

Nico di Angelo had absolutely no idea how babysitting works, and Will Solace was having way too much fun teasing him to actually help out.

this fic is so silly and fun. i love it!! and the ending made me giggle will needed that humbling

thank you for joining me this friday!! happy reading!!

[sunshine-zenith]

You opened up a can of worms with that post detailing Peri's apparent horrible taste in men and now I'm gonna subject you to my ramblings about it.

Like with peridale I see it as completely one-sided from Dale's end and he knows that Peri hates his guts but it doesn't matter to him.

With perirep it's more of an on-and-off thing (situationship?). And when things truly did end for good, Irep wouldn't really be over it and tries to get his attention.

The point I'm making is that I then thought about Irep x Dale and how that would just be a really terrible rebound. I think I saw one post about Irep being Dale's crooked lawyer to contrast with Peri being Dev's babysitter and how they interacted in the Battle of the Big Wand that inspired this.

But poor Dev man, everyone wants to get with his godparent.

Yesssss, I love all this — Dale and Irep rebounding with each other screams disaster, and a human AU where Irep is the corrupt lawyer totally works

Between baby Peri spending months trying to befriend the guy who was actively trying to kill him in the original show and Cosmo specifically wording Peri quitting on Dev as “he said you two were on a break, he was waiting for you to call!” I 100% see Peri as the type of person who, upon seeing a red flag, goes “I can change him”

In all scenarios involving him and Dale, I imagine it starts with Peri trying to get custody of Dev while not breaking any human or fairy laws — he just needs to be Dale’s spouse long enough to legally adopt Dev, becoming his legal parent and not just a godparent or stepparent. Dale almost certainly would be as bad a significant other as he is a parent lol, but he’d still be blindsided by a breakup/divorce. At some point, Peri realizes that underneath Dale’s layers of negligence, greed, and corruption, there’s more layers of trauma and daddy issues, and he can’t help but get invested

It isn’t worth it, but at least he gets Dev and (if he plays his cards right) some hefty alimony out of it

As for Irep… calling them a situation ship is perfect tbh. There’s so much history there, so much genuine positive and negative feelings on both sides. I deffo headcanon that they at least dated in the past (again, Cosmo’s wording about Peri waiting for a phone call felt very specific — possibly unintentional projecting, like that’s how Peri and Irep’s last attempt at dating ended). If you think about it, there were probably times where Irep was the most consisted person in Peri’s life (he ended up low/no contact with his parent after they retired and he basically lost his big brother. I can’t see Irep necessarily being his rock throughout this, but he was probably at least a steady figure).

I really love all the fanart of Peri and Irep co-godparenting Dev and I lowkey hope that if we do get a season 2, we get at least one episode with them doing that — it’s both incredibly funny and incredibly wholesome to think about

That said, I agree lmao, if they’re officially done done, Irep would be significantly less willing to accept it that Peri. Shoot, I’m pretty sure that’s a little bit the point they’re at in the episode Irep is reintroduced in — Peri barely gives Irep the time of day and acts smug when he brings Jorgen onto the scene, and attitude that probably comes from years of having your emotional investment in someone tossed back in your face

As for your last point, yes yes yes I am rotating Dev’s face when he realizes his godparent has such trash taste around in my head. He absolutely openly judges Peri and is constantly mortified. If you’ll tolerate me being wholesome for a moment, though… we see that between Dev stealing Hazel’s hat to protect her and him going back to save her from Vicky that Dev is actually very protective of the people he loves (a character trait I do plan on taking advantage of in my fanfics). I love the idea of him getting to the point of being protective of Peri. He’d see the type of people Peri dates and decides to sabotage those dates, possibly with Hazel’s reluctant help. It drives Peri up a wall, but let’s be real, it’s almost always justified lmao

(Cupid, whose known Peri since he was a baby and was likely an uncle figure to him, probably sees his pseudo-nephew as a disaster, but at least it keeps him busy)

[lilies-n-slander]

Hazbin Hotel would be so much more interesting if charlie’s naïveté and surface-level kindness were treated as the actual flaws they are and didn’t work. Heads up, this kinda just turned into a text wall of charlie neg and ranting so don’t read if you don’t want to see that.

How she currently is, she just doesn’t make that much sense in the setting. I’ve seen ppl say that charlie is a fresh take and contrasts the edginess, but I just don’t see how she is possible. You’re telling me she’s been in hell for 200 yrs but still has this childish and naive personality, is still disgusted by the sinners being cannibalistic, violent, and even just horny, and is so detached from those she calls “her people”? She was born in hell, shouldn’t that make her more used to the sinners’ depravity and not less? She doesn’t seem to have a good grasp on what the sinners want or how they behave. It would make more sense if the show leaned into the toxic positivity white savior nepo baby angle (or rather, actually portrayed it as a *bad* thing) and rather than naïveté, her ignorance was out of self-centeredness and/or lack of true empathy for the other sinners. She would be more interesting as a character too imo.

She looks down on the other sinners (and honestly so does the show?? When she’s showing lucifer around and introduces him to her friends, they’re framed as unappealing as a joke… these are the characters the audience is also supposed to care about.. and many of the bg chars, such as the cannibal town residents, are portrayed as simple-minded brutes), there’s a lot of condescending “….ooookay” type of lines and she constantly has to think of nice ways to frame the clearly negative things she thinks about others. So why does she want to save them so much? The more reasonable explanation is a sense of white savior-ness than actually caring about them.

She’s eager to excuse whatever sir pentious did (which I’m assuming she doesn’t know?) and let him in, despite how he makes the other residents (including her own gf!) uncomfortable. And yes I say excuse, because she never inquires about his past sins or discussed him repenting. It seems to start with sorry, but also end with sorry too. This could’ve been made interesting if she simultaneously looked down on but also excused all sorts of heinous acts. Like val is the most openly manipulative and scummy character, he licks her arm, and yet she’s still apologetic about ruining things (Side note, if she’s genuinely apologetic, then she’s actually an idiot because why is she talking to the boom-mic employee *while they’re filming???*).

She doesn’t know what she’s doing and has no concrete plan but gets incredulous at ppl who don’t blindly trust her. Angel has to leave in ep 4 and she gets SO frustrated over it, like you seriously expect everyone to drop all of their other commitments for you? She has her webster definition notecards for the meeting with heaven and has to improvise and rely on angel being good at the club but she gets mad that lucifer isn’t 100% behind her plan?

Also, trust falls? Really? Then she goes “why isn’t this working? We’ve tried everything!” But on that note, the actual episode portrayal is kinda exactly what I’m going for. Not only do the trust falls not work, charlie says, “I love all of you so much,” pulls her puppy eyes, and only vaggie catches her. It’s surface level and shallow, and does not win anyone else over.

In contrast, vaggie’s attempt at building trust, throwing everyone into a battle, *actually works* (despite vaggie only being in hell for 3 years and being heaven-born, she already knows how things work better than charlie!) and yet charlie talks about it as though it already failed. She says “we work best as a team,” with the underlying message being “I can’t trust you to do things on your own.”

If she was waiting so long to reconnect with lucifer, then why hasn’t she called him in years?? Altho I’m currently rotating lucifer in my brain so I might be a bit biased

“If angels can do whatever and stay in the sky” they can’t?? Your dad is RIGHT there. I. What

She has a power dynamic with every other character except lucifer since she has her demon powers, not to mention she’s giving them a place to stay. When vaggie says she appreciates that charlie doesn’t use her powers, charlie doesn’t say “it wouldn’t be right,” she says it would be too *mean.* But if someone pushes her buttons, who’s to say they wouldn’t slip out (see her flip on a dime after val hits angel. Obv it’s justified in this case, but it shows that she’s willing to use her powers on sinners)? Again, it would be interesting if the show actually leaned into this angle. Imagine if she put on a nice front, never swore, seemed genuinely touching and understanding, but the second someone annoys her she annihilates them and becomes threatening and violent. Then she turns around and is nice again. Too much like alastor? idk

Also, many characters refer to her by calling her lucifer’s daughter, so clearly ppl know that if they cross her they’ll face his wrath by proxy (this also fits in thematically with what lute tells her in the first episode, that she’s exempt from the exterminations bc nepotism privilege). So realistically, everyone else would be a bunch of sucking-up yes-men bc they’re afraid of her. Which they kind of are when push comes to shove?

At first, she doesn’t help at all during the war and lets everyone else fight for her. Doesn’t want to get her hands dirty ig, even though all of this was caused by her in the first place. She only starts fighting at vaggie’s urging.

Like husk points out, every meeting charlie has with the angels makes things worse for all the sinners. Despite lucifer’s warnings that the meeting with heaven won’t work, and against vaggie saying to calm down, charlie basically picks a fight with heaven at the risk of *everyone else EXCEPT HER.*

What were charlie and lilith doing to stop the exterminations before lilith took her 7 year leave? Hell, what was charlie doing during those 7 years? Why does she have 0 connections outside of vaggie, who she only met 3 yrs ago? Why does she have to introduce herself to rosie, rather than her already knowing her name?

Also in ep 7 she says to alastor “I can’t believe how you can do exactly what you told me you would do!” (standing by and watching everyone fail at redemption) almost like she wasn’t paying attention to him at all.

“Why would vaggie hide that she was an exterminator” -> Rosie asks “how did that make you feel?” “It made me mad and doubt if she loves me” like I get it, it was a betrayal, but IS she stupid

Ready For This is charlie manipulating a town of ppl to join the army. Her pitch includes “on the way to the hotel the scenery is nice and you can make friends :3” and “have you ever wanted to die for a cause? Notably I myself am spared from being killed but uh that’s your problem.” Alastor pipes in that you can eat the angels and that’s what actually moves the crowd, because he understands them.

Her perspective on violence and where she chooses to draw the line is really confusing. Why does she care about sinners being violent to each other if they’ll just respawn? She stops alastor from beating up sir pentious at an arbitrary point, but is fine with him eating and presumably killing the gangsters who come after mimzy. (Edit: forgot to point out yet another example, that she was fine with vaggie tossing sir pentious and angel off the balcony but stops her from tossing niffty as well for no reason.) Why is she so apologetic to the angels actively killing sinners but was distraught over vaggie having partaken? Why was she opposed to the CANNIBALS being eager to eat the angels and saying “idk, they seem kinda murder-y” WHAT. What? I’m struggling to even begin to describe how ignorant that is during a WAR. What did she think was going to happen, that she wouldn’t have to fight anyone herself? Why did she stop her dad from killing Adam but doesn’t react strongly to Niffty finishing the job? If it mattered so much to her, the lack of reaction seems strange to me.

Isn’t it just so poetic that her weapon in the war is a shield that she uses exclusively on herself, which she hardly even needs due to her contractual immunity?

Why doesn’t she think to use her powers to build and maintain the hotel? That doesn’t require any violence or domineering. Yet when lucifer comes over it’s run-down and falling apart. Or ask lucifer to help her build it? She was concerned that asking for the meeting with heaven was such a big ask—why not start with this small thing? Father-daughter bonding.

Why does the show end w lucifer + the sinners congratulating her, and in particular, rebuilding the hotel? Hell doesn’t know that sir pentious got redeemed, so from their pov charlie’s idea didn’t work at all.

Can you tell that I’m writing this while I’m rewatching the show?

Aaand that’s that. Her char has always come off to me as somewhat condescending/fake, but I keep finding more and more things to dislike about the way she’s been written. Unfortunate. Honestly tho I might enjoy watching her more if I read her through this lens. You could probably write a similar post for most/all other chars in the show, limited only by the amount of screentime they get lmao

[kradogsrats]

Schrödinger's King in the Bird Box

Time for a return to the single topic that most torments me in this entire franchise canon: is Harrow in the goddamn bird or not?

Except not really. I'm not going to go over the evidence again. I've done it before. Almost everyone has done it before. It has only gotten stronger. At the absolute minimum, an attempt was made to put Harrow in the bird. That's not really disputable. I admit it. It's over.

This is actually the second time that I've struggled with narrative cognitive dissonance regarding a real core factor of this show (like not "what's the deal with Archdragon reproduction," but something that is clearly supposed to be thought about with the intent that it will eventually make sense), and eventually managed to rotate it so hard in my mind that the way I wanted to see it slipped out of my grasp and I saw it the way it's actually intended. Ironically, I think I may have been thinking about the Ocean arcanum at the time.

Anyway, what previously always bothered me about this question was mainly two things:

It would have a devastating impact on Ezran's character development if Harrow reappeared during s1-s3, but the timeskip and arc of s4-s5 made it so it would also be deeply weird for him to reappear before the show ends.

If Harrow is in Pip's body, both Viren and Pip's subsequent behavior, as well as how Pip is treated by the narrative on a meta level, make absolutely no fucking sense.

But... if Viren doesn't know whether the spell was successful or not? If we are meant to not know whether the spell was successful or not, because it's not going to get resolved in the show itself?

If we accept that the earliest point with any chance of the hooks for this plot being set is late s7—because yes, Aaron Ehasz would do an exact beat-for-beat repeat of Zuko and his mom—that both puts Ezran far enough in his growth for it not to be threatened by the "real" king returning, and keeps Harrow out of the loop for long enough that it doesn't really make sense for him to do anything but step down from the throne in favor of Ezran, anyway. As for Viren and Pip's behavior, if the show isn't going to advance that plot much further during its runtime, there's no reason for us to be constantly reminded of it. The setup has been made, and they can just let it stew because it's not actually relevant.

That being said, Viren's behavior actually does make a lot of sense if "is Harrow in the goddamn bird or not" is a question that is also tormenting him. To that end, I'll be doing some digging here on the nature and context of the body-switching spell, Pip/Harrow's behavior post-swap, and what the hell is going on in the Harrow section of Viren's dark magic dream.

The Spell is Made Up (Unlike All Those Real Spells)

First of all, I think there's been some long-term incorrect assumptions made about the body-switching spell. It's not a known spell: this is Claudia and Viren essentially flying by the seat of their pants... but we rarely stop to think about how that contextualizes the rest of the discussion around it.

The initial plan is to find the assassins and ambush them before nightfall. As Soren points out and Viren himself confirms: if they fail, the assassins will be unstoppable under the full moon and Harrow is as good as dead. Claudia decides to put her mind to that problem, so naturally she stops to flirt with Callum in the library and gets the inspiration for the spell from something he says.

(Fun fact: none of that happens in the novelization. Zero amount.)

She brings the idea to Viren, and they develop the spell from there. It's not really clear if Claudia actually knows whether something like that would be possible, but Viren does know that transferring the essence of a person can be done—he's got a nice little coin collection that proves it.

As for the snake, there's no way Viren "acquired" a two-headed soulfang serpent because he has a book somewhere on how to use a rare, malformed specimen of a dangerous Xadian creature to switch people between bodies. He probably thought "that's weird, but could be useful," or maybe whoever sold it to him just had a great sales pitch. A non-trivial amount of success at dark magic is in having access to rarer and more powerful reagents than your competition.

Anyway, what this means is that Viren has absolutely no idea what success looks like for this spell, particularly when using it on subjects of different species. When he describes it to Harrow, he is 110% talking out of his ass. He sounds like he knows exactly what the spell will do and how, and I think a lot of us kind of fell for that. He needs to sound confident, because if he admitted that he doesn't know if it will even work, with a possible failure condition of "snake eats your soul," well... a) Harrow rightfully wouldn't go for it, and b) he'd look incompetent, which is the worst thing ever.

When he goes to Harrow's room, he casts the spell... but did it work? I think that whatever it did, it did it in a way that Viren can't tell whether it worked or not. Maybe both Harrow and Pip passed out. Maybe Viren just didn't want to hang around for the aftermath—in the novelization, when he exits the room and runs into Callum, his eyes are still black from spellcasting.

Activities of Dr. Pip Harrow, Ph.D.

Probably the thing that has always bothered me the most about the entire Harrow-Pip theory is that yes, literally everything in the lead-up and immediate aftermath of the assassination points to that being exactly what happened... and then the narrative lens of the show completely drops the rope. Pip doesn't even appear in the novelization until Viren's pre-coronation scene, which is funny given his looming presence over half the scenes with Harrow in the show.

Pip appears exactly twice after the assassination—once in s1 and once in s2—otherwise he goes completely ignored. He's not in the background of Viren's office, or the throne room, or Harrow's bedroom. No one ever mentions him ever again. Ezran never mentions him again, in the show or in any supplementary materials. You'd think the boy who can talk to animals might have some interest in his dead dad's beloved pet... but who knows, maybe Pip has always been an asshole and Ezran's actually like "thank goodness I never have to speak to that dude again."

Anyway, in all of Pip's appearances, he behaves like... a bird. A trained bird—Harrow can rely on him not just fucking off—but he doesn't demonstrate human-like intelligence the way Bait does. That being said, Bait is essentially a main-cast character (at least as much as, say, Corvus... maybe even Soren) while Pip is a plot device, and even then it takes until well into the first arc for Bait to show the kind of complex reasoning and initiative that separates him from an unusually smart dog. Pip's human is also a stressed-out king, rather than a rambunctious ten-year-old, so he's probably a bit more sedate overall. I would personally bet, given the way the show has progressed with regard to Xadian creatures, that Pip is as intelligent as Bait.

The point of that is: even if Harrow's consciousness is occupying Pip's body, he's not really doing anything with it. He's pissy, sure:

But is that Harrow's pissy-ness or Pip's? Even if Pip is only as intelligent as a trainable bird, that's plenty intelligent enough for both grieving/confusion that their human is gone and holding a grudge against obvious assholes. Viren cages him, but is that because he flipped out and got bite-y? And was it Harrow flipping out, or Pip? Or is he caged just because Viren's of the general attitude that animals belong in cages? Those who fail tests of love... We just don't know.

A lot of us also, to circle back to assumptions about the spell, have tended to think of a body swap between Harrow and Pip resulting in Harrow flailing his arms around wildly and screeching... but again, we know literally nothing about this spell, nor do we actually know anything about Harrow's behavior after Viren leaves his room. Maybe his body sat catatonic on the bed until Runaan came in and shot him. Maybe Pip, being intelligent, was able to maintain the facade—once everyone's in the heat of battle, it would be hard to notice even significant deviations from normal behavior. Even if "Harrow" appeared to fight only halfheartedly, or give up entirely... well, he hasn't been the same since he lost Sarai. Maybe the spell only partially worked, and only half of his soul is inside Pip, with minimal or no influence over the bird body's behavior.

Viren does appear to take some precautions in case Harrow is alive inside Pip. The cage, for one... but he also has nearly all subsequent important conversations outside of his office. Like I said earlier, Pip's cage isn't rendered in the background of any scene, but since he escapes from Viren's office I'm assuming that's where he's been. Even if Pip was just out of frame in every scene in Viren's office post-assassination through end of s2, the only things he's seen are... Viren eating butterflies, and the conversation between Viren and Claudia about the mirror and her side mission to bring the egg back at all costs. He doesn't know about Soren's instructions to murder the boys. He knows about the mirror and Viren's obsession with it (which he could have known before), but he doesn't know about Aaravos. He may know that Viren stole his seal but only if Viren was stupid enough to stamp the letters with it in front of him (which... look, he could be). The only things he's really learned are that a) his sons are alive, and b) Viren lied to him and the egg is alive.

Now, realistically, if we were meant to hang on to the is-Harrow-in-the-bird plot thread because it's going to be significant within the scope of the show... I'd be expecting to see at least one cut to Pip glowering at some point during all these machinations. If it weren't for the mirror and Aaravos, I'd expect Viren to be yelling all his monologuing at Pip, too. But the show does none of that. Instead, the next time we see Pip, we see him peace-ing out of the show for at minimum the next three seasons, and possibly the remaining two, as well. If Harrow's in there... why? Did he go to find Callum and Ezran himself? It's not actually clear that he knows Ezran can understand animals, so it would be reasonable for him to think Viren is his only chance at ever not being a bird again. Maybe he thinks that chance is gone with Viren's arrest and would rather not spend the rest of his life in a cage. Maybe he really isn't in control of the body.

Back to Viren, though: since Pip refuses to demonstrate any behavior that could be taken as distinctly Harrow's, Viren actually has no idea at any point whether Harrow's in there or not. He doesn't know if Harrow lived. He doesn't know if he succeeded or failed. It's a constant reminder that he's almost, but not quite, in control. Almost, but not quite, good enough to achieve what he wants.

It probably drives him absolutely insane.

Did You Think You Were Somehow Getting Out of This Without Me Mentioning Kpp'Ar?

Just kidding, it's finally time to talk about Viren's dream. We've gone two entire seasons and a two-year timeskip without any mention of Harrow or Pip (though those maniacs dropped the fucking snake basket on us as an incidental but obvious prop early in s4), and then suddenly we get punched in the face by Viren's subconscious.

First, though, I do actually need to point something out in the scene with Kpp'Ar. Bear with me, I promise this is relevant.

Viren sealed Kpp'Ar's soul in a coin 12-ish years ago, and the coin has been sitting collecting dust in his secret dungeon for... some amount of that time. Now he opens the door and finds Kpp'Ar standing there, free—and I will note that I don't believe Viren actually knows how to free people from the coins, or whether it can even be done. His reaction is surprise, followed by suspicion and wariness:

When he encounters Harrow—dead—his reaction is horrified shock, which is fair since the last time he entered the room that way there was no surprise body chilling out waiting for him in it:

Then, when Harrow speaks to him, suddenly alive and unharmed, he drops straight into relief:

Some of this is undoubtedly due to the differences between Viren's relationship with Kpp'Ar and his relationship with Harrow. With Kpp'Ar, after that initial moment of confusion, he's absolutely determined to not show a single hint of ignorance or weakness—this is a trick, or a test, and a passing grade in "light verbal sparring with the mentor you're pretty sure you remember betraying" is a thing that is both normal to want and possible to achieve. For Harrow, who he wants so desperately to call him brother, who he walked into this very room ready to die for, before everything went horribly awry—he not only immediately and willingly goes to his knees, he literally prostrates himself.

... I'll give everyone a moment to get all the innuendo and suggestiveness out of their systems, because that's not the point. This time.

What is the point is that Viren's reaction to Harrow isn't disbelief, but relief. Hope. Kpp'Ar is supposed to be in a coin, and Viren immediately questions how he got out. Harrow is supposed to be dead but Viren doesn't give a second thought to how he's not. Fortunately, Harrow helpfully explains:

Fun fact: back in s1, we don't actually see Viren actually taking action against the assassins. We don't even see evidence that he re-entered the room at all—it's only Soren and Claudia who participate in Runaan's capture.

I haven't actually touched a lot on the complex shit going on for Viren, emotionally, throughout all of this—I mentioned it's was probably driving Viren insane over the course of the first two seasons, but let me elaborate. If Viren successfully switched Harrow and Pip, that means Harrow survived... but he expressed his feelings on the proposal in no uncertain terms, and there's a good chance he will literally never forgive Viren. I don't think Viren thought far enough ahead to consider how to get Harrow into a human body again, but I do think he's dragging his feet on it a little because if he can work things to his advantage—unite the Pentarchy against Xadia and follow through on the war Harrow was avoiding—he'll prove to Harrow that he was right all along. Any chance of that flies out the window with Pip at the end of s2.

If the body-switching spell failed, it means Viren essentially killed Harrow himself. That's the reality I think he grows more and more resigned to over the course of s1 and s2, when Pip remains unresponsive. He had no choice but to take the best chance at saving someone he loved—but this time, instead of saving Harrow, he murdered him.

In the dream, Harrow has not only survived, but credits Viren with his survival. He doesn't just dismiss Viren's show of remorse, but makes his own apology to Viren. He calls Viren brother. After an impossibly long nightmare, everything is okay. All is forgiven. Maybe there was nothing to forgive, in the first place. Maybe Viren was right all along.

Then it all turns sinister with the callback to the coin incantation, and we have a sharp return to reality:

The cinematography here treats Pip a lot more like how I would expect him to be treated in s1/s2 if we were meant to know he was actually Harrow. There's focus actually on him, instead of just other characters' reaction to him. He "speaks"—as I noted in another post—in raspy sounds very unlike his songbird chirps from s1. This is absolutely Harrow as Viren actually left him—even if he's not dead, he's in a warped prison of dark magic, a perverse mockery of himself.

Oh wait.

Harrow-who-is-both-human-and-alive was never an option, and what we've got now is mirror images of Harrow-the-dead-human and Harrow-the-live-bird, and they're going to do to Viren what he did to them.

Now, it's not that none of this makes sense if Viren knows for sure that Harrow is in the bird... but it makes a lot less sense and has less emotional resonance. If Viren knows Harrow survived as Pip, he'd be more likely to question Harrow's human form than his survival—the way he does with Kpp'Ar. He might be more guarded, expecting hostility—which, I will note, is what he gets when Pip enters the scene. Instead, because until now he believed that he actually killed Harrow in his attempt to save him, he's so relieved to see Harrow alive that for that one moment he loses all pride and is ready to beg for forgiveness at Harrow's feet.

Since legitimately none of this makes sense if Viren didn't at least attempt to put Harrow in the bird, we're left with Harrow maybe or maybe not alive, Viren having maybe or maybe not been the one to actually kill him (gonna be a fun one with the Runaan context), and a plotline that is definitely not going to be resolved in the remaining two seasons of the show. I'd be kind of surprised if they even did any more setup for it (like Callum/Ezran finding out it's a possibility, or even a hint drop like Runaan being all "it was fucking weird, he just sat there" or something) outside of future supplemental media.

Conclusion

Either Harrow is alive and in the bird, with the future intent being to do a spinoff story The Search-style, or we're in for a huge bummer of a "actually, it was Viren all along who killed Harrow, therefore Runaan is a good guy and we can all be one happy family" pile of absolute bullshit. Yes, they said Harrow's dead. Harrow's body is dead, we knew that all along. There's a note in the artbook that Viren was actually going to rip the shroud off at Harrow's funeral in order to publicly prove it's his body, because that is an extremely normal thing to do.

The show just treats it extremely weirdly because, even as the only person with any chance of knowing, Viren is in the same uncertain boat as the rest of us. (Actually more uncertain than the rest of us, since he's not genre-aware.) Also it's another chance to torment Viren emotionally, and they'd never pass that up.

Thanks for coming to my absolutely ridiculous TED Talk on this topic, I hope this screenshot now does as much psychic damage to you as it does to me:

[galaxythreads]

hi,

I'm fascinated by ur Loki works, and since I'm currently rereading all my favourites I wanted to ask about your general headcanons for Loki, and your opinions on all the movies and appearances Loki had. Basically, could you please talk about Loki, because i feel like my idea of Loki and your idea of Loki are similar. bye!!

"Do you want to rant at me about your favorite character?" I mean. do you want my first born?

general headcanons:

there's this scene in Loki: Where Mischief Lies where Loki has a throwaway line that talks about how it never matters when Thor hits him even if it gets violent and it rotates around in my head like a microwave all the time. Such an interesting concept that Thor took things too far but Loki never said anything because that's Just What Siblings Do TM

Loki's hair is soft to the touch, not greasy, because I will die mad about loki's hair in ragnarok

loki steals clothing. This is something you can see in all my fics, he's constantly stealing things from everyone.

Loki is ace, never had sex, and isn't interested in changing that. I don't think he's aro, I think he is interested in romantic love to some extent, but I think sex is just mid to him

loki's magic pokes at all five senses. It's something you can see, taste, hear, touch, and smell

loki got "food poisoning" a lot as a kid because his body was made for jotun stuff and like. asgard doesn't have that

Loki has a moral code, and there are lines he won't cross

loki doesn't lie that much, people just gave him the name because he's shifty and it was a rumor that was started by thor that he lies all the time

loki and thor's relationship has only gotten more complicated as they've gotten older and they have the brain chemistry to process things better, look at their childhoods and go, uh, bro, wait a minute

frigga wasn't a very good mom to loki, even though she tried

Loki can cook

loki uses magic less now that he's older, not because he's not good at it, but because he just like. he uses more subtle magic, and he doesn't need to turn his magic into a glowy show when he could just punch you in the face

loki is a man of few words

loki being captured and watching him lose his mind is straw that broke the camel's back for Gamora, who left shortly after he agreed to help thanos

loki wasn't mind controlled per se in the first avengers, the scepter was just affecting his feelings, but not more than anyone else? Loki was just genuinely tortured/coerced into this by thanos and they didn't have to force him to do anything. he was too terrified to say no. scepter was just an added bonus to cement the control

loki absolutely has permanent spinal damage from his time with thanos

I have a bazillion of these i could literally go on for ages.

---

thoughts on movies:

Uh. Okay. um. How do I say this without getting slain? I...do not think, objectively, that any of the Thor movies are good movies. I think they have fantastic concepts, and wonderful characters, and I adore poking at them, but I think one of the reasons that they're so beloved is because of their potential not because of what they are. People love thinking about what could have been and what they wished happened, because there's very little that's actually satisfyingly completed about the films.

Because the Thor movies are not...It. You kind of have to go hunting for outside material for pieces to be connected together and thor 2 has lots of issues that not even thor 1 could have dreamed of, and Thor 1 is just. A disaster, narratively. I think Thor 3 is definetly the most well put together movie, which sucks because it's the one that botched the characters beyond repair. You either have good characters and awful story or fantastic story and terrible characters with no inbetween.

Trying to talk about why I don't think the movies are good - objectively, as movies - has never ended super well for me, but yeah, i just. I don't. I don't think they're very good. I can break it down in more detail if anyone is interested, but there seems to exist two opinions on tumblr: you either think thor 1 - tdw is an untouchable master piece or you don't and there's nothing good to say about them at all.

I have endless praise to give the movies, but that doesn't mean I don't have criticisms, because, good lord, they suck in some places. Loki's character arc is the most baffling mishandle of a character that I have ever witnessed, and yes, I mean this from the get go. Connecting thor 1 - thor 2 takes some mental math.

Thor 1: Interesting set-up for Loki's character, I like how careful they are with setting him up to make sure that his arc was clear and the line between victim and villain was really blurred. They did a good job on making him sympathetic, and revealing an interesting concept with him and Thor, even if I don't think it was executed as well as I wanted.

Avengers 1: adore poking at Loki and Thanos's relationship here. I cannot get enough of it. I like writing with the avengers mostly because of all that didn't happen in the movie that I wished had. There's so many narrative secrets that don't get addressed or glossed over and I just want it picked apart

Thor 2: i enjoy seeing Loki and Thor working together, Loki's deteriorating mental stay in prison is always fascinating, and generally tdw is my favorite movie and portrayal of loki. It's what I usually base all my fics off of is how he acts in this movie. 10/10, will sing praises

thor 3: my loathing for this movie has shriveled considerably since i saw it the first time, but i'd still be hardpressed to say i liked anything they did with loki's character. Loki is self-sabatoging constantly, and his character makes no sense whatsoever. he is the village idiot, and like, i'm not really into that.

Infinity War: Honestly, i'm just gonna say it - i really did like what they did with loki in this movie. Like yeah, I wanted him to help and be an important part of the story, yeah, of course, but I also appreciate from a writing perspective what a powerful move killing him off before the credits was. Loki was the Big Bad of the first avengers and murdering him set the stakes amazingly. It carried Thor's entire arc, and it felt like a shroud that was layered over the movie. I know a lot of people didn't like it, but I appreciated what they did with it, and I like the tragedy.

---

Appearance:

not a single scene in ragnarok with him it it did not make me want to chew off my foot, his character design was awful. I will never understand why everyone was drooling over the black suit, it looked like it was bought from walmart and then the wrinkles smoothed out with a flat iron. His hair is greasy af for no reason, all of his clothing looks cheap and ugly. there's nothing impressive or visually interesting about him. the choice to remove his colors so hela can take them will never not be annoying to me even though hela is my baby child

thor 1 has the best hair, in my opinion, but he also looks stupid as hell in his armor. loki's design, to me, works best when it has long lines and it's flowy and/or soft. visually nice:

and like the reason it's visually nice is because it's soft and doesn't make me notice tom hiddleston's hips. The moment i'm aware of his hips i get irritated as hell about it, because idk man, loki just. he does not look good when you're aware he has hips. tom hiddleston is like fine, somehow? i don't know why it doesn't bother me when he's wearing whatever he wants to - i also just like. do not care - but with loki i'm just like. oh good LORD stop making me aware of your hips.

It's why i can't stand his ragnarok suit but would sing praises over the thor 1 one.

It's something that's just like. confounded me forever, because i don't even know why it bugs me so much, but every time i see his TVA outfit, thor 1 armor, or that stupid ragnarok suit i want to shoot a canon ball into the sun.

Give the man a suit coat or do not put him in a jacket. loki has lots of skills but pulling off a jacket is not one of them.

He needs to look haunted, like, in general. Or like an 18th century tired man. it's integral for his character to me.

things that make galaxy happy:

loki soft hair

loki having suit coat or suit coat equivalent

things that will send her into a ranting, unwanted, nitpicky rage

loki greasy hair

loki dressed in jackets

[glade-constellation]

I know I’m getting overly obsessed with a character when I pull out the physical paper and pencil.

So far during the rewatch of TSAMS, I’ve been typing all my notes in Discord. Tonight, though, something was urging me to physically write stuff down. Anything not related to Eclipse was still typed, but Eclipse has officially gotten a spot in our notebook for character analysis.

Like, fun fact, Killcode called Eclipse his child before he did Bloodmoon. Completely unprompted as well. He only called Bloodmoon his child as a bribe to get them on his side. Even threatened Bloodmoon if they ever decided to attack his “son”. Eclipse was obviously Killcode’s favorite before something happened to change it to Bloodmoon. Especially since Killcode didn’t see Bloodmoon as his actual child when they first teamed up. They were just a means to getting Eclipse.

There’s also a moment in a previous episode where Eclipse is acting as Sun to get Moon angry, and says something along the lines of “you’re just like Eclipse”. While it was definitely a poke at Moon, I wonder how much Eclipse actually believes that statement. Moon/Killcode says the line, “I’m a useless hunk of garbage scrapped virus that you had to pry out of your head, in order to ‘not feel so much pain’.” The statement was directed at who he thought was Sun at the time, but sounds an awful lot like how Eclipse felt about Moon. With how Eclipse has canonically been shown to have guilt over his actions, I feel Eclipse internalizes that statement. He subconsciously views himself as useless and a nuisance. Due to that, he acts like he does so he can’t be disappointed if when people don’t like him. He knows it’s wrong, which explains the guilt, but he only sees himself as a bad guy. So why try to be anything different?

Eclipse is constantly being rotated in my brain under a microscope. I need to understand him.

[vanfleeter]

Black Smoke: Chapter 6 - L'Amour En France Part II

Characters: Jake Kiszka x Fem!Reader Warnings: 18+, not for minors. Smut. Public sex (sort of). Penetrative sex. Fingering. Angst. Jealousy. Allusions to death. (as always if I miss anything, please let me know so I can add it.) A/N: Been a while since I updated this series, but inspiration struck when I was rereading this chapter.

Need a refresher or haven't read it? -> Black Smoke Masterlist

Jake is glad this is the last day of this photoshoot with Charles. For the past two days, including today, he has to act professional while Charles makes googly eyes at you. Constantly looking at you. His eyes very rarely are focused towards the camera. It made Jake’s blood boil. The man is married. You are his girlfriend. Not Charles. His.

Even his snide remarks to you made him angry. He’s hitting on you. Right in front of Jake. But he can’t mess this up. If he completes this job with Charles, it can set him up for even more huge clients. But oh does he so badly want to slug him.

The winking and the flirting. That was enough to even make you uncomfortable. But you were there for Jake, to support him. If the two of you can make it through the rest of this final day then Charles will be jetting off to god knows where, not that either of you care anyways.

“I feel like I’m competing for you,” Jake says before chugging half of his bottle of water. “If he wasn’t a client, I’d hit him.”

“Hey, it’s okay.” You say, rubbing your hands up and down the structure of his arms. “And besides, there is no competition. In my eyes, you’ve already won.. You always will.” You stand on your tip toes and give him a kiss.

“I’d size him up, but I’m afraid he’s bigger than me.”

“Hmm, no..” You slide your hand down his front and palm him gently through his pants. “You’re definitely bigger.” He chuckles and leans down to kiss you again. “Now, you go back in there and finish your job. Only a few more hours and he will be gone and we can finally have all the alone time we want without worrying about him lurking around every corner.” You gently rotate your wrist, still cupping him in your palm. He groans and grips onto your hips. “You promised me that we’d do it in the vineyard and I am going to hold you to it.”

His breathing becomes labored and he pushes you against the wall. “If I wasn’t in the middle of this shoot, I’d fuck you right here. Make him know exactly who you belong to.”

A knock comes on the door and he pulls away from you. “Mr. Kiszka, he’s back.” A voice calls through the door.

“Wonderful,” Jake responds with malice dripping on his voice. “Tell him I'll be right out.” He pulls you in for quite the passionate kiss before pulling away to adjust himself inside his pants. “Do me a favor, love. Go on upstairs and get yourself comfortable because in about thirty minutes, I am going to fuck you until every single person within a twenty mile radius can hear you. Then everyone will know that you belong to me.”

You can feel the arousal beginning to drip between your legs. He catches you clenching your thighs together and he chuckles.

“Don’t even think about it. Now go.” He says shooing you off towards the door. Once you are gone from the room, he straightens his shirt and reaches for his camera before making his way back out to the makeshift studio space. “Alright, Charles. Ready to wrap this up?”

–

Rushing up the staircase and reaching the second floor, Jake hurriedly makes his way down the hallway towards the suite. Charles is finally gone and he can finally relax without worrying that he might try something with you.

Pushing down the door handle and nudging the door open, Jake steps into the room and shuts the door behind him. He was expecting you to be waiting for him in the bed, all ready and wet. But instead he finds you passed out on top of the covers with light snores falling from your lips. He chuckles and crosses the room to kneel on the bed. He hovers over top of you and leans his head down to kiss your cheek.

“Mmm..” You hum. Your eyes flutter open and slowly lock in on his face. “I totally fell asleep..”

He smiles and kisses you again. “Does this mean you’re too tired to make love with me?” He nuzzles his face into the side of your neck and presses his lips against your skin.

“I am never too tired..” You smile. He hums a chuckle against your skin before pulling away and dragging you with him.

“Well.. Lucky for us, the staff and grounds people have gone home for the night which means…” He pulls you towards the door and yanks it open. “Vineyard sex.” He wags his eyebrows and drags you down the hallway and down the back stairwell that leads out to the courtyard.

Running down the rows of vines, he pulls you down a random one as he pulls you against his body and kisses you. Pulling away and turning you around, he pinches the zipper of your dress between his thumb and index finger and drags it down your back and lets your dress fall down and pool around your feet..

He slips off his jacket and unbuttons his shirt. He drops that to the ground and works on undoing his belt while you leave kisses on his neck. Shoving his pants down, you glance down to find that he chose to go commando today. His cock is already hard and leaking a little precum.

Laying you down on the ground, he presses his body against you and ruts himself into your center. “I’ll be honest with you, love, I wanted to punch Charles for the way he looked at you.”

“Aw, was Jakey a little jealous?” You say as you lift up your right leg to rest on his hip.

You feel the sting of his palm as he slaps your ass cheek. “I don’t like it when other men look at you.”

“Mmm, and what about the man who owns my half naked portrait?”

Jake chuckles and shakes his head. “He can’t touch you…” He runs his hand up the curve of your hip and over your torso before groping your breast in his palm. “Only I can.” He massages your breast in his hand before pulling back and leaning down to suck on your nipple. A moan slips past your mouth and your fingers tangle into his wavy locks.

Moving away, he reaches between you two and strokes his length a few times before lining himself up with your entrance and slowly pushing inside. There wasn’t a doubt in either of your minds that if there were ground people around, they would have heard you moaning as he guided himself inside of you.

“You.. Are.. Mine..” He says with each rough thrust. “Right baby?”

“Y-Yes.. Jake.. Fuck!”

Wrapping your legs tighter around his waist, you push your hips upwards and your walls clench around his cock. He groans, digging his feet into the grass and pushing his cock deeper.

“Oh fuck.. I’m gonna..” He moans, gripping the blades of grass in his hand, his nails digging into the dirt.

“I’m right there, Jake..” You’re sure that you’re leaving bloody scratches down his back as you both dive heart first into your orgasms.

–

“It’s too bad that no one was around to hear me fucking you..” He says as he feeds you grapes that he stole from one of the vines. Setting the bushel off to the side, he leans over and kisses you. The taste of the grapes linger on your lips and he devours it all. He moans against your lips for slipping his tongue out to glide over your swollen lips.

You feel his hand trail down the valley of your breasts and over your stomach before coming to a stop over your center. In slow, languid circles, he rubs your still sensitive clit. You can’t help but push your hips upwards so you can grind against his hand, adding any friction you can to relieve the growing ache between your legs. He pushes you back down and applies more pressure, all while his eyes stay completely focused on your face.

Oh how he loves to watch your face bunch up and twist as he brings pleasure upon your body. He fantasizes framing it in and keeping it in his office to use for when he needs to relieve himself when you aren’t around. Imagining it is different than seeing it with his own eyes.

Dipping his fingers into your entrance, he teases you just a little before sliding his fingers inside. You moan quite loudly and your hands fly to his arm.

“Fuck.. Jake..” Your fingers start digging into his forearm as he accelerates the speed of his fingers, pumping them in and out of you and dragging the pads of his fingers along your walls as he does so.

His cock is steadily growing hard with every pump of his fingers. To give himself some friction of his own, he grinds himself against your side. He feels you clenching around his fingers. You’re getting close. You both are. He hooks his leg around yours and spreads your legs further apart as he keeps bunny fucking himself against your side.

He buries his face against your head, his breathy moans infiltrating your ear as he brings himself and you one step closer to another orgasm.

Soon you’re crying out his name as you begin to fall into your orgasm. As your own warm release coats his fingers, his own is spurting across your stomach. A string of obscenities grace your ears as he rides out his own orgasm and is still grinding against your side.

You both lie there for a few minutes, working yourselves back into a normal state.

Once he’s calmed down, he reaches off to the side and grabs his shirt and wipes your stomach clean of his release before cleaning in between your legs. Reaching down he grabs his suit jacket and pulls it back up to cover both of your lower halves.

“You okay?” He says, noting your still heaving chest.

You nod your head before turning to look at him. A lazy smile spreads across his face and he leans down to peck your lips. Suddenly he’s moving away from you and reaching for his clothes.

“What are you doing?” You ask.

“Come on, get dressed.” He says as grabs your dress.

He helps you get dressed and leads you back through the rows of grapevines before coming out on the other side in front of the wine cellar. “Let’s give ourselves a tour,” He says as he pulls open the entrance door.

And that you did.

While the two of you skimmed the different areas of the cellar, trying the different wines, and reading how each one was made, Jake captured candids with his phone. Just more photographs to eventually add to his gallery.

You can tell that he’s getting a little buzzed. His fingers lightly graze over your hips as you read how the oldest wine made on the property dates back to the late 1700s. The process of pressing it and producing it never changes, despite the many hands this place has gone through. His breath blows over your neck and his fingers begin to softly walk up the curve of your hips and up your waist causing goosebumps to flair up on your skin. He reaches in front of you and sets his wine glass on the ledge followed by yours.

“Jake..” You warn.

“Yes?” He sings as he moves your hair and flips it over your shoulder so he has access to the back of your neck. You feel his lips connect with your neck which shoots a tingle down your spin.

“Let’s enjoy the wine..”

“I am..” He giggles. “You are my wine..”

“And here I thought I was your muse.”

You can feel him smile against your skin and then his hands as they move around your waist and rest on your stomach.

“Jake.. What if someone walks in?”

“Like I told you earlier, everyone went home..”

You can smell the wine on his breath mixed with the cheese he snuck from the cellar’s cafe. “Let me have you here.. Please?”

“You can barely stand,” You note from his weight leaning against you.

“Mmm..” He hums before walking–more like stumbling–over to the other side of the room where a row of chairs are resting against the wall. He plops down and wrestles with his belt to get it undone. “Then ride me.”

A flood of arousal rushes to your center, a blush covering your face..

“Jacob, you are a menace.”

“What can I say?” He hiccups and giggles, palming himself through the fabric of his pants. “I just love you so much.”

You notice a camera in the corner of the room. The idea of fucking each other on camera sounds rather inticing but you just know it’ll bring a bad rep for Jake and his business if someone were to see it.

“How about we go back to the room and I will ride you all night long?” You perk your eyebrows as you approach him.

“But I want you now..” He whines. He pouts his bottom lip and continues rubbing himself. “Please?”

“I’m sure you can survive just a couple more minutes.” You say as you pull him to his feet and zip up his pants. He huffs and lowers his head.

“You don’t love me..”

You sigh, shaking your head as you smile. “Of course I love you. But don’t you think fucking inside of a cellar where people drink this stuff is a little unsanitary?”

He scoffs and drapes his arm around your shoulders and you help him walk out of the cellar and back towards the villa. “I bet you’d let Charles fuck you in there..” He says when the two of you stumble through the doors of the suite.

“No, I wouldn’t..”

“Oh.. But you’d let him fuck you still though, right?” He stumbles over to the bed and falls onto his back.

“Jake, what the fuck?”

“Come on, admit it,” He struggles to push himself up right again. “If given the chance, you’d let him, wouldn’t you?”

“Who do you think I am?” You say as you unzip your dress and toss it off in a heap on the floor. You grab your pajamas and slip them on and tug your hair out from the collar of the shirt. “Charles is such a creep, I’d never sleep with him and you know that.”

“Oh please.. He’s a rich, old dude who could totally be your sugar daddy..”

“Maybe I don’t want him as my sugar daddy.”

“Maybe?” Jake’s left eyebrow cocks and he leans his head to the side.

“So he has his own vineyard and he’s rich.. I don’t need that.”

“Then what do you need?”

You walk over to the bed and climb on top of it before straddling Jake’s hips. “You.” You say as you begin to slide off his suit jacket, your hands softly gliding down his shoulder blades until his jacket is resting on the bed. He carefully takes his arms out of them and you toss it away.

“Careful, love,” He whispers as you ghost your lips over his. “This is an expensive suit.”

“Says the man who tossed it on the ground not too long ago,” You smile as you start to unbutton his shirt the rest of the way and repeat the same process. After his shirt is gone too, he leans back on one hand as he uses the other to wrap around you and press you against the hardening bulge beneath his pants. He thrusts his hips upwards while still pushing you down against him.

Taking the hint, you remove your top, after having just put it on. You reach for the button on his pants and undo it before dragging the zipper down. He chews on his bottom when he feels your fingers graze over his cock as you pull down the zipper.

You hadn’t gotten far in pulling down his pants before his phone started to ring. “Leave it be,” He says as he pulls you in for a kiss. “Whoever it is can leave a message.”

The ringing stops and he rolls the two of you over on the bed, not once breaking the kiss. But the ringing picks up again. “Jake..”

“I’ll call them back..”

The ringing stops again only to start up just a second later. “I think it might be important,” You say as you pull away.

Groaning, Jake climbs off of you and crawls off the bed to retrieve his phone. “Joshua..” He grumbles. “What is it?” He went quiet as he listened to Josh speak on the other end. “What?” As Josh continues, you watch as Jake leans against the dresser. “When did it happen? .. How much ti–” He runs hand through his hair. “We won’t make it in time, I–Can you tell him I love him?” His voice cracks. “Just in case we don't… You did? .. Okay, we’ll be there as soon as we can.”

Pulling the phone away from his ear, he stuffs into the pocket of his pants as he rezips them.

“Get dressed,” He says as he tosses you clean clothes. “Get your things packed, we have to leave.”

“Jake, what’s happening?”

“Just get packed..” He repeats as he rushes around the room to gather everything up. “We don’t have much time.”

You silently do as you’re told and get all of your stuff together and get dressed. Within thirty minutes your things are packed into the trunk of the car and the driver is rushing you both to the airport. Jake is quiet the entire time, keeping his attention focused on the passing scenery. You still don’t know what is happening, even as you get to the airport and through security. The only words he spoke to you was when he said Josh bought you both red eyes back to Michigan.

He finally broke down on the plane and told you. His grandfather wasn’t doing so well and his parents are trying to get everyone back to Michigan. Josh told him that he’s determined to fight until Jake gets back there. He wants to see Jake.

Landing in Detroit some odd hours later, you’re greeted by a solemn looking Josh. The drive back to their hometown is quiet, neither one of you speaking a word. When coming up to their grandparents’ home, you stayed in the living room with his family while he made his way back to the bedroom to see his grandfather.

______________________________________________________________

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[pbear]

Julius Reinberg analysis post because I can't stop rotating him in my head like a rotisserie chicken

(I was going to call it an appreciation post but he’s kind of a jerk. Love him anyways though.)

Lots and lots of manga spoilers so read at your own discretion

Julius is introduced as one of the most skilled wizards in Will's class. He's able to cast one of Elfaria's spells (albeit half as good as her). Another notable trait is his ego. He thinks he's better than others and looks down on them. At first, he's a massive jerk, but the story has him stick around after Will humbles him in their fight, and I honestly love what they do with him even though he's just a side character.

To me, Julius plays a similar to Sion as one of Will’s rivals. Both of them won’t let themselves be bested by Will which also pushes them to improve. The difference is that Sion is much more fair (I think he also kind of has an inferiority complex when it comes to Will but we won’t be talking about that today). As shown later in the manga, Julius isn't afraid to use Will to climb the tower himself.

One of my favorite moments showing Julius’ growth. Edward tells the dwarves to help the wizards even if they may die in the process and, oh look at that, Julius gets a reaction panel. He’s seemingly just as shocked as the dwarves to hear this. And then, he calls out to Gina as one of the monsters attacks, worried for her safety.

Part of Will defeating him earlier was that he had to work in the dwarves' tavern after disrespecting them earlier. And this moment shows how that affected his character. Julius didn't just take his punishment and turn back to his old ways. He came to respect and care about those he previously looked down on.

I think this is the moment that really made Julius intriguing to me because we get see what's below the surface of his character. The choice to not be kind because showing kindness only seemed to bring pain. You find out why he acts the way he acts.

It’s a moment that could definitely make him come as more unlikeable. He admits he likes looking down on others and showing off, but I think it more reveals how on the fence he is about this decision. He’s constantly reminded of when Anna told him how she loves how kind he was. He kept the pendant she gave him when he could have easily thrown it away and fully discarded the notion of ever being kind again. He hates that Will reminds him of Anna. Despite how much he wants to abandon his kindness, he’s reminded of how much it was valued. Julius is a very interesting character because there are times where he falls on one side of the fence and chooses to not be kind, but he also has times where he does because he can’t seem to fully get rid of it.

And I think this moment also shows Will's strength as a protagonist since he is able to draw out this other side of Julius (this happens with other characters like Wignall and Lihanna too). This boy is so good at seeing others’ strengths. He notices Julius’ resolve and how he follows through on his promises. He picks up on the kindness Julius thought he had left behind.

I'm so sad, HE DIDN'T DESERVE THIS!!! And Will says, "Julius was kind enough to leave us a clue." Despite Julius not believing in his own kindness, his final moments are spent creating a guardian that will help the others find out the truth.

In conclusion, I came to like Julius a lot as a character. He's initially an antagonist, but he grows and we come to learn more about his motivations. He says he only cares about himself and not others, but his actions reflect someone who's hardworking, always follows through on their promises, and can be kind.

[moonflvver]

Gojo Satoru! Btw can you make another gojo fluff? I enjoy your work a lot tho!! Have a great day!! <3

characters: Gojo x reader

warnings: very fluffy stuff, gojo doubts himself for like two seconds but it gets resolved.

synopsis: Gojo likes waking up beside you in the morning.

a/n: I'm so glad that you like my work! Sorry for the late response but in honor of the new season of jjk here's some gojo fluff <3

w/c: 711

Early mornings with Gojo are truly a gift. Sunlight is pouring in through the white curtains in his room as you nuzzle your face into his chest. There’s a light breeze coming in through the windows and it feels as though the two of you are suspended in time for just a moment. Gojo always wakes up before you do and for those few minutes before you start to stir he gazes at your face, hoping to memorize every feature. His eyes run over every curve and dip across the plane of your body, drinking it all in. Right now he’s silently thanking whatever force of fate or mystical being it was that brought the two of you together. He knows that he can be a lot and maybe in the back of his mind he also knows that you deserve better than him. You deserve someone who isn’t constantly away from home, going on yet another mission. Leaving in the middle of the night in order to fulfill the requests of the higher ups.

An inadvertent sigh leaves his lips as his mind continues to rotate the idea that maybe you would be better off without him. And then your eyes start to blink open, and now you’re looking up at him with a smile, and just the sight of you makes his anxiety disappear. He grins at you and says “What are you smiling about?” You sit up next to him and rest your head on his shoulder before you say, “I just like seeing you first thing in the morning, it's nice.” You pause for a moment and then continue quietly, “I think that if I got to wake up with you like this for the rest of my life, I- I’d be okay with that.” You’re not quite sure what it was that made you say that and he’s silent beside you after you speak, and now you’re regretting saying anything at all. Your hands start to nervously play with the sheets, scrunching them up beside you as you look down.

And you know that he’s not one for commitment but you’d hoped that things were different because it was you. And while you’re trying to think of a way to take back what you’ve just said Gojo feels like his heart is going to explode at the thought of being able to wake up next to you for the rest of his life. He laces his fingers in yours, pulling your hand away from the sheets and then he starts drawing circles on your palm with his thumb and he gazes over at you with the most lovesick expression that you’ve ever seen on his face. His eyes are full of desperation, you’re not sure what it’s for exactly but you have a feeling that it has something to do with you.

Any regret you might’ve had dissipates instantly. He just looks at you for a brief moment and then he brings his other hand up to your cheek and of course you lean into his touch. “I want to stay like this…by your side.” He says, and he feels fear blooming in his chest because Gojo doesn’t rely on others, he doesn’t need them. At least that’s what he tells himself. But with you it’s different. He wants to rely on you, and despite the fact that this is new to him he knows that he’ll do whatever it takes to keep things like this for as long as possible.

He takes a second before speaking again and then he continues, “I’ll stay by your side, I’ll wake up next to you for as long as you’ll have me.” You smile up at him again, giving him that same expression that kills him every time. And honestly, he thinks that not even an eternity of waking up next to you would allow him to memorize every single one of your features but he thinks that he’d like to try. So he grips your hand a little tighter and the two of you bask in the moment of time that you’ve somehow managed to capture, free of the outside world. Just you and him waking up next to each other for what you hope is forever. 

[chungledown-bimothy]

Top 5 character dynamics on d20? (Intrepid heroes seasons + side quests; so 10)

oh i love this and thank you for splitting it into the 2 groups, making it slightly more possible lol

point of clarification: the slashes are NOT being used as a shipping indication. it's just faster than using and a million times. in fact, the only one i ship is colin/deli/skarna.

Side Quests:

1- Colin/Deli/Skarna. I don't need to explain this one, I think. Everything is wrong with them and it's painful and wonderful.

2- Squing/Alexsandr. Squing ate over 2500 letters Sasha wrote. Sasha wants to play with his weirdly soft head like silly putty. Every single interaction has me in hysterics, really.

3- Evan/Jammer. EAT TRASH BEAT TRASH. FAMILY ON SIX. Jammer constantly being Evan's strongest hype man is just so great.

4- Chirp/Squak. Emily and Lou decided they wanted to be an iconic, chaotic duo, and my god they knocked it out of the park. The scene where she tells him about her wife and kids?? 100/10.

5- Lila/Jaysohn/Thorn. It was really hard to not say the whole damn party, honestly. But Thorn trying to cool-uncle parent these goddamn nightmares was incredible.

Intrepid Heroes:

1- Amethar/Caramelinda. I wrote a whole fic about their early relationship. I rotate them in my mind constantly. As complicated and painful what we know about them is, what's left unsaid is even more so. (if you just meant pc/pc dynamics, i'm sorry!)

2- Sofie/Kugrash. If I start talking about the million reasons I love them and their friendship, I'll start crying, so. Not gonna do that. But you understand.

3- Pete/Kingston. Pete seeing Kingston as an authority figure to rebel against -> father figure. Kingston not giving Epona Pete's information in the same day that he says that if it comes down to NYC or Pete, he'll pick NYC ten out of ten times. The Voxes, starting diametrically opposed and ending up family, really.

4- Saccharina/Ruby. You can be my queen or my sister, but not both. The prisoners' dilemma. Jet just died, Ruby can't let anyone else in vs Ruby representing everything Saccharina has ever wanted. 100/10 Siobhan and Emily killed me.

5- Pib/Pinocchio. Literally partners in crime. Just a pair of little dudes causing Big Chaos. Pinocchio holding Pib up to Baba Yaga and saying "where the white women at?" is canon to me.

That's a lot of Lou characters oop 😅

[inbarfink]

Okay, this is probably just me being Very Silly but… I think Roleswap AUs are a lot of fun, not just like… as a character design exercise thingy, but as a character exploration and analysis exercise… thingy.

Like, you know, it’s a game of ‘what would this character do if they were in that situation that this other character was in?’, ‘how much would change if those were the circumstances of this character’s life?’, ‘how much do you have to change about a character to make them work in this specific narrative role - and how much you just cannot change without making the character unrecognizable?’

So I’ve had a lot of fun playing around with my Adventure Time Roleswap AUs (you can get a better look at them with the AT Roleswap Tag on my blog). 

And I’ve been thinking if I could do a similar thing for Invader Zim - both because IZ has these clear Four Leads that you can swap around very neatly (actually much more than AT does lol) and… mostly because I’ve been going through yet another of my Literally Can’t Think of Anything but Invader Zim Phases and Roleswap AUs offer an exciting new opportunity to Rotate These Characters in My Head.

(For the sake of clarity, I’ll be using ‘the Alien’, ‘the Kid’, ‘the Robot’ and ‘the Sibling’ when referring to the Narrative Roles of Zim, Dib, GIR and Gaz respectively. So if I’m talking about a Dib-Zim Roleswap I’ll be talking about Zim-as-the-Kid and Dib-as-the-Alien. It might lead to weird turns-of-phrase later down the line, like Sibling!Dib when Dib is obviously always a sibling - but at least I hope it’ll be less clunky and more clear that way lol)

So, yeah, I had some Thoughts and Considerations about the idea of a Zim-Dib GIR-Gaz Roleswap, but all-in-all things fall into place pretty easily. Playing on Dib’s relatively-more-heroic role and his only-sane-man shtick by having him as a kinda Irken Rebel - he might still have the interest in magic and supernatural things that Mainstream Irken Science does not acknowledge, but mostly he’s seeing as ‘crazy’ for such ridiculous concepts as ‘conquering the galaxy just for the sake of it is Bad Actually’ and ‘maybe it’s kinda stupid to pick our leaders based entirely on how tall they are’ and ‘the Tallest are obviously blatantly figureheads and the Control Brains are running the show’. 

And to add insult to injury, it’s not just that his fellow Irkens don’t listen to his ideas - it’s that they don’t even have enough respect to treat him as an actual dangerous enemy of the state. Instead he’s seen as a crackpot and a joke. He’s basically constantly avoiding the obvious Existence Evaluation he deserves because the Tallests keep procrastinating it and pushing it back in favor of more ‘important things’. And, like, it’s not like Dib wants to be executed by the state for the crime of free thought… but it’ll be nice to know that he’s seen as a real threat. 

And of course while he’s better than most Irkens at the whole ‘Space Imperialism is Bad Actually’ thing, he still hasn’t unlearned all of the Irken propaganda about their own superiority (he’s got a Green Savior Complex basically) … and also he's got his own complex about his own superiority. Like, yeah, he’s infuriated by his people’s obsession with height because it’s a stupid illogical prejudice… but also specifically because it makes people disrespect him. When his two lazy and stupid smeethood bullies were made supreme leaders of the empire that was kinda the last straw for him.

Oh, in this AU the Tallests are basically the Same except their colors are switched. So now Red is the sillier and dumber one and Purple is the relatively more competent one. And on one hand Dib is the only Irken who seems to understand how thoroughly unfit to rule these two clowns are but he is also kinda obsessed with making them acknowledge his superiority even though he knows their opinion shouldn’t matter and thus making him the biggest clown of them all, in a way.

I’m still ironing out the details of how he gets to Earth. Something about using his hacking skills to infiltrate Operation Impending Doom 2 to try and sabotage it from within. Then, like, maybe the Earth ‘assignment’ was a trap laid by the Control Brains to get him out of the way. Or maybe he picked Earth because although the Empire sees it as unimportant - Dib thinks it has powerful arcane significance that makes it the perfect foundation for his resistance against the Empire or something like that.

I’m mostly thinking which of these is the snappiest and easiest to explain, but I do enjoy the idea of it being a trap cause it creates the possibility of a “the Alien discovers their plan is a big fat lie” scenario like in ETF, but rather than being utterly despondent and depressed like Canon Zim - Alien!Dib will be joyous and jubilantly validated at the idea that he was considered a notable enough threat to get out of the way with such an elaborate trick.

And Zim as the son of Professor Membrane is also a fun concept to consider. It’s very funny to think of him as still a megalomaniac trying to take over the world while also being just a human kid. He wants to defeat Dib because he sees him as a threat for his world domination plans (maybe not even understanding that Dib is not actually a world-conquering rival) and cause he believes that if he exposes or kills Dib he can get his hands on the advanced alien tech, which is the edge he needs in order to take over the world.

You can justify his world-conquering-obsession as, like, him growing up under the pressure of living up to his father’s legacy and he figured the only way to escape Membrane’s shadow is to go totally against everything he stands for, or that he’s subconsciously seeking revenge against the world and humanity for taking away his father's love and attention, or that he’s hoping that if he becomes an Actual Threat to the world, his dad will have to pay attention to him for a change ,or maybe it’s just ‘Zim is Just Weird Like That’. Or probably some combination of all of the above.

GIR and Gaz slot pretty effortlessly into their new roles. Sibling!GIR could be literally Zim’s little brother, or like, some genetically engineered dog monster Professor Membrane made in an afternoon. But personality-wise there’s no need to change much outside of maybe needing to tone a human version of GIR down just a tad because a human child has some biological, legal and physical limitations that GIR would otherwise lack.

Robot Gaz is basically like ‘Dib stole and reprogrammed a SIR Unit to have Free Will, still somehow struggles with the idea that Free Will means she can disobey him as well’. Pretty much as soon as they landed on Earth she acclimated better than Dib did and developed a fondness for Earth’s junk food and video games. She generally does her own thing and doesn’t really listen to Dib’s schemes to develop Earth’s defenses or harness some sort of supernatural forces against the Irken Empire or foil Zim’s plans or whatever - but mostly because disagrees with Dib’s methods and attitude rather than his goals. 

She does prefer the Earth over the Irken Empire and she does have some affection for Dib despite also finding him so annoying. She just refuses to cooperate with plans she thinks are frivolous or stupid or plainly just for Dib’s ego. When push really comes to shove, when she actually believes Dib and/or the Earth is in danger, she would come to help… usually.

So yeah, that Roleswap works pretty smoothly, but the problem starts if I try to do the two other sides of this Roleswap cube. the 'Invader GIR' and 'Invader Gaz' scenarios. This is where I get stuck... And the thing isn’t that the characters aren’t complex and versatile enough - I actually think the IZ characters are pretty multidimensional in their ridiculousness. 

It’s just that Dib and Zim’s psychology are really designed for them to play the roles of Protagonist and Antagonist - they’re very much defined to their very core by how driven and motivated they are and how much they want to take center stage. Zim's so self-obsessed he pretty much has to take over any narrative you place him in. And like 50% of Dib’s psyche can be summarized as a terminal case of Main Character Syndrome. Meanwhile, while GIR and Gaz have their own motivations - but GIR’s are generally too wild, capricious and frivolous to actually motivate a Plot, while Gaz’s very much defined by how mundane all of her motivations are. So you really have to work extra hard to make sure Zim and Dib, even when relegated to the sidekick role, don’t still find a way to steal the show.

Honestly, doing Zim as the Robot is actually something I think I can make work. If you just play up a few of Zim’s wackier elements - and especially his blind obedience and dedication to his superiors (which in this case would be Alien GIR), I think you can get a version of Zim that is recognizably Zim while still sticking mainly to the Wacky Comic Relief role.

(And for the record, Robot Zim is a modified SIM Unit, which is a Standard Issue Minion. What does the Z stand for? The Z stands for ZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIM, obviously!)

Sibling Dib was kind of a weird journey for me because at first I thought I had an easy solution for it - just Bill-fy Dib! Keep all of Dib’s bolster and UFO obsession stuff, but minus the fact that he can actually recognize an alien standing in front of his face. Probably because he just doesn’t want to admit his sister found an alien before he did - he just refuses to believe GIR is an alien and going off his wild-goose chases against his own phony conspiracy theories.

But… I think that idea is, like, too effective at keeping Dib away from the limelight? I mean, that would basically relegate him exclusively to Comic Relief and someone Gaz could have conversations with and very little plot relevancy. And I think we should be able to do better by Sibling Dib. Some way to keep him away from the Main Character Role, but still have him as a relevant and useful character from time-to-time?

Putting GIR in any sort of lead role is the much bigger problem. Like I said - GIR just too deranged and too uncontrollable to hold most plotlines, even on Invader Zim. And I can imagine grounding him just a tad, you can do, like ‘alien Invader comes to earth in order to conquer it - realizes he likes junk food and stupid TV so much that he doesn’t want to do it anymore, but still lacks any real concerns for human life or morality’. You know, I’m imagining wacky misadventures that are basically in the spirit of ‘what if SpongeBob SquarePants lacked any sense of right and wrong’ - and that will be a viable narrative, but I’m worried it’s getting too far away from the sheer id-like essence of GIR.

On the Kid corner, obviously you can make narratives in which Gaz and her motivations move the story along - Invader Zim Canon did it multiple times. It’s more of a question of how much we can keep this up. Like, okay, this is purely me and my stupid personal hang-ups. But what I’m looking for is an AU that really feels like it could be its own standalone show, and obviously it’s not going to be the same as Canon IZ - like the Invader Dib roleswap is going to have a slightly more standard heroic narrative compared to the total Villain Protagonist setup of the canon - but I want to make sure everyone fulfill their new Narrative Roles to the level you can imagine a Variety of Episode Plots that fit the 11-minutes-and-occasional-double-length format of IZ. 

And with Gaz being really defined by the fact that she cares more for being left alone or the mundane things in life or enacting terrible revenge in the name of the mundane things in life than for any of the sci-fi shit or saving the world- it kinda limits the amount of plots she should be willing to participate in and/or requires a lot of extra Set-Up to explain why she’s emotionally involved in the plot. 

I mean, I can certainly imagine a story about a hedonistic would-be Invader making a bizarre harebrained scheme to get his hands on a ridiculous amount of tacos which somehow spirals into attracting the ire of some scarily competent and spiteful little girl by, like, interrupting her Super Mario Odyssey speedrun or something and so she causally takes down his whole operation. But that sort of setup works better for a sort of hyperformulastic show like ‘Phineas and Ferb’- and ‘Phineas and Ferb’ is lovely, but Invader Zim really benefits from a wide variation of plots and episode structure. 

(That’s also the problem with a Tallests-Zim Membrane-Dib roleswap. Although the idea of an P&F style sketch starring the two lazy goofball Invaders who are just trying to get their incredibly obnoxious and megalomaniac boss off their back and are repeatedly accidently foiled by a brilliant hypercompetent child genius who also somehow remains consistently oblivious to the fact that they are aliens trying to take over the world is very Fun and I should probably do something Separate with it later)

And then there’s the idea of a Zim-Gaz GIR-Dib roleswap which is… I don’t even know where to start. That’s pretty much what that one body-switch-themed guest issue of the IZ Comics used basically because it’s the one that breaks the show’s premise the most thoroughly. The show’s most ambitious and least competent character swapped with its least ambitious and most competent and the most grounded character is swapped with the most unhinged. I am still really stuck on how to make it work?

The only real idea I have for now is maybe taking inspiration from Alien Gaz from that aforementioned comic issue’s characterization - not of Gaz-as-Zim, but of Zim-as-Gaz. Something about an Alien Invader who is genuinely invested in conquering the planet but also she keeps getting distracted? It’s hard to really say when, like I said, that’s really the only thing I have right now. 

Perhaps I need to think about all of this a bit more, or perhaps the real lesson of this Character Exploration Thingy is just that those kinda roleswaps just don’t work with the Invader Zim cast?

[cherubchoirs]

Me remembering a random russian proverb and going like "oh. that reminds me of gabe actually"

The proverb in question is "Перед смертью не надышишься" (Pered smert'yu ne nadyshish'sya), literally "Can’t breath enough before death"

It can mean:

"Putting it off won't make it any easier"

"At the last moment, you can not manage to do what you had to do beforehand"

"You can't make up for lost time"

"It's too late for that now"

And it's also sometimes interpreted as like,, "well it's too late for that now, so no point in trying anyway"

And this made me think of AUs/HCs where Gabe actually Dies™️ (and I've pretty much accepted that it's the most likely thing to happen in canon too. who knows for sure tho, maybe not)

Like. He has so much stuff to do, so many topics to think of, so many emotions to go through (esp if he has Feelings™️ for V1, or anyone else for that matter), but whelp! too late for that loverboy!

And him either desperately trying to do at least something with the little time he has left, OR just. Giving up. Shutting down and waiting for everything to end

And about the "putting it off" part, makes me think that Gabriel must've had at least some trauma/issues related to the Council (about the time when they took the light from him, if nothing else), so it could've been hard for him to go back here, and actually deal with it, face it head on, but he did it anyway because it's not gonna get any easier if he waits

me rotating gabe in my head like in a microwave rn

as much as i obviously enjoy exploring gabriel as a fallen angel, i 100% agree that he's going to die in canon as ultrakill sees the world at the end of its lifespan and that goes for just about everything in it. and on a character level for gabriel, i think it makes sense for the exact reasons this proverb brings up: gabriel has had an end of life epiphany and, like everything else, it is too late now. his world has crashed down around him in his death throes, and all he can do is what is most important in the precious few hours he has left while the rest, all of the personal trauma he must harbor, will now remain forever untouched. but we've already seen whatever gabriel will do with that time remaining will be worthy of it.

the majority of the day he has left has likely already been spent, but he has used it fully to contemplate his long existence and then hearken to newfound autonomy - after which, he swiftly dispatches the entirety of the council to liberate heaven from their rule (the way he chooses to slay the final councilor has interesting parallels now to his execution of sisyphus, and i'm sure that figures into gabriel wishing to right wrongs he can't take back). we know after this he will depart forever from heaven, and his only destination can be hell to meet once again with v1 as he promised. gabriel has so much he could do, so much it could be argued he needs to do, but with his death impending and the very world around him crumbling with it, there is actually very little left for him to do realistically. gabriel is leaving a life full of regret that he will never remotely understand because he has no time for it, but he's ensuring that whatever can be tangibly, immediately addressed is. his life will never be put into context for him, but his death will be.

because gabriel leaves behind a cruel, bloody life that he once thought to be one of supreme order but is, instead, a mess. his time spent serving god had wronged so many, it had likely constantly gone against his own internal morals (that he no doubt punished himself over and over for, torturing himself over sins he now understands were compassion) - yet those feelings don't matter because ultimately he upheld god's will, he carried his banner of violence against humanity, and now there is no one to confront or repay with god and humans all dead. and under the rule of the council, he became a dog he must be disgusted with - they were not god, they never held that ultimate authority that at least he may have been able to shift the blame onto somewhat. they were angels just like him, perhaps higher in rank but not his ruler and certainly not his maker, yet he conformed to their every order, he furthered their political gains again at the expense of his morals. secretly he cared for those in limbo. secretly he cared for the ferrymen. secretly, perhaps, he was some kind of friend to hell. but then the council came and he obeyed them as unconditionally as he had god, reining terror on the citizens of hell and becoming their blight after ripping minos's crown from him as judge of hell. these are the festering regrets he will never account for, will never make reparations for - they are all dead, and he is dying.

so what can gabriel do except address his death and what brought him to it - a poor substitute for making sense of an entire life now left undone, but he seems to working within what he has instead of giving into panic or despair. and all he has left, all he has time for and all he knows he can manage in the hours remaining, is going to see v1 one last time. i'm sure with this, gabriel has a definite goal in mind: i think foremost is fully immersing himself in his feelings for v1 and just what this machine did for him. ultrakill, despite all appearances, is a love story in many ways, and i strongly believe gabriel's feelings toward v1 will be woven into that theme. he wants to feel his love as fully himself and now that he has realized it, to wrap himself in it after the revelation has occurred and allow it to flow through him with acceptance. it happens through a fight, of course, but what i don't know is what gabriel's ultimate goal for that fight will be - does he want his last act to be stopping v1, to have them die together in a sense, or does he desire to be killed by v1 rather than letting that loss of light take him? maybe gabriel would be content with either, but i think of him as a character with now well-defined ideas of what he wants, so i believe he's more likely to want something concrete.

[fruitsaladc0wboy]

Can I hear about your D&D party who hates eachother soooo bad?

anon I am kissing you on the mouth

hokay the OG (as we call them) has been a rotating cast of a whole bunch of characters over the course of Six Fucking Years (which is CRAZY to me. we play them sort of on and off but that’s bonkers that we’ve been playing some iteration of them for that long) but the current iteration (known occasionally as Five Guys) is andal, skillet, rax, kettle and my character trinket! they all fucking hate each other. but also they love each other. they’re so much.

trinket was originally the villain from a one shot I ran six years ago that my party hated so much they decapitated him at the end. it’s ok he deserved it. so then about a year later one of my friends that was in that campaign was like “hey. what if we. stitched his head back on. and you played him as a pc” and I was of course like SAY NO MORE so now he’s going through a post-resurrection redemption arc and is mostly just sort of grumpy and depressed now.

they really are just the perfect combination of characters to make a party that Fucking Hates Each Other though. every time we play them we spend most of the session arguing and swearing at each other it’s great. but also they love each other they’re the worlds most fucked up found family. skillet and andal are the people who killed trinket in the first place so as you can imagine that relationship is. COMPLICATED. andal and skillet are actually very close friends but andal is kind of a cunt so they still argue a lot. trinket and kettle are best friends and have been for years but kettle annoys trinket like it is his fucking Job. rax keeps trying to flirt with both kettle and skillet while The Bastard Brigade (andal and trinket) scream in protest because that’s GROSS. we are all constantly yelling and threatening to kill each other while simultaneously making sure the others don’t die. I hate you so much you’re the worst thing that’s ever happened to me but also please don’t die that would be horrible.

they mean everything to me

[you-are-my-neverland]

writeblr introduction

this is my fifth-hundreth time doing this, but i wanted an easy introduction that i could update without many frills, so here goes.

introducing....me!

online, i go by star! (she/her)

college student majoring in foreign langauges, with a chinese (mandarin) concentration and a linguistics minor

i hope to go into literary translation of some sort, but we'll see how it goes

in my free time, i like to watch asian dramas, listen to music, and read; i also dabble in video editing

i talk about the above and more on my main @astarlightmonbebe, which i also follow from

when it comes to writing, i love reading/writing

character driven stories with lots of complicated relationship dynamics (give me more of we-used-to-be-close, estranged or otherwise multilayered found family/sibling relationships, fated to be but hate it, etc)

magical realism, especially coming-of-age

low or middle fantasy

lore/mythology/religion (love folklore, legend, especially ones that change, grow, and are more real than they seem)

what i'm working on (current as of august 2024)

wip: godhood

naying yue’s father has been missing for three years. after stabbing her bff/lover in the eye and getting expelled from college, she decides to celebrate her twenty first bday by killing herself. however, her plans are derailed when she is attacked by monsters, rescued/kidnapped, and told her father abducted her as a young child, and that her real identity is the heiress to a powerful family who is part of the mysterious Outsider World…

new adult low fantasy inspired by/incorporating wuxia elements

drafting book one right now; will likely be at least three books if i get there

comic sans ppt

other ideas bouncing around

a high school sports wip revolving around a sport called cyclone, where biking meets medieval jousting to create a very metal sport. gil reyes, once a cyclone prodigy and now on limited time, finds himself dumped and kicked out of his cyclone crew. a street tournament with a cash prize and a claim to fame leads to him starting his own crew, recruiting the scholarly sprinter, aadya; high school dropout and underground stunt rider/racer, yama; the duo of sprinter winnie and bruiser jade; a rural girl with brute strength and a boxer’s instincts, elle; and a brilliant time trialist who knows nothing about cyclone, pazu.

paper tigers

status: constantly rotating around in my head on a hot plate

when moonlil acang's father, the warlord of the north, dies in a violent explosion of which the only survivor is a mysterious girl he has apparently brought back from the mountains, moonlil is forced into a position he's never wanted. setting inspired by 1920s china/chinese history. featuring: grave robbery, complicated siblings, mythological elements, and a dose of revolutionary, imperial, and military politics.

the phosphene phenomenon

status: sketching out the details, potentially plotting

three years after witnessing a total solar eclipse and falling into a coma, diyu wakes up to find himself with New Eyes and a ghost attached to him. lalita's been dead for years, but she knows nothing but her own name. tasked by death to help other spirits move on before she, too, can find her afterlife, lalita and diyu have no choice but to team up, along with sunny, the one person diyu has never been able to stand. featuring: a super intense rivalry (swear), self discovery journeys, ghosts and mental illness, agents of death, and so on.

previously on here i’ve successfully completed the first drafts of two wips, fairbone and the metamorphosis of the lost (tmotl), which still occasionally pop up.

i’m not always the most active, especially during the school year, where my focus is on trying to write a few words a day if any at all, but i’m always excited to hear and interact with other’s work!

[yumester]

sending this back to sender. i need a full dissertation on pAInter STAT

Oh, look it's the silly mutual once again in my ask box, wailing and screaming like a drenched kitten or that one generic male character from the hit game going through the worst experience ever— (gets shot)

Anyway, here's my opinions on The p.AI.nter from the hit Roblox game.

You know the drill, putting a read more for my and everyone's safety.

Fucking character of all time, man. Not including Sebastian! We hate Sebastian in this house! 🗣

They made this shit in the lab and called it straight up cocaine for lore heads. And by lore heads I mean me homie!! /j

Gonna mainly go over each label but might go into detail later on so watch out.

Everyone but me is wrong about them <3: I mean this in the nicest way possible. Pressure fandom has already failed miserably at the characterization of Sebastian. We've seen it all, to people anime boyifing the hell out of his visage, to the literal creators having to ward people off by adding changes to the game's data by removing voice lines. Man is not your big monster hubby with a tortured soul. Okay, maybe he is a tortured soul, but more literal than that and less likely to cry on your shoulder or even give you the benefit of the doubt to hold you at arm's length. Anyway, I've seen some people babify the hell out of p.AI.nter as well, and it sucks. I'm sorry, but it's true. It is not your friend, guys. It just wants to paint.

they got done dirty but the creator/s: Okay IDK if you've even peered at the recent updates or uploads from the main creator, but it was shown that p.AI.nter will be updated to be killed at some point. I don't know if they already patched that through the other day because, for one, I haven't played the new update. And, two, I think anyone who tries to do so is a dumb bitch because all p.AI.nter does is trick the player with fake doors and has turrets in occasional rooms (yes, the turrets can be annoying at times but who cares). In my head, I feel like the entity adds some charm to the existing enemies you face during a play through. And removing those elements just feels like a waste. Technically speaking, you only get to The p.AI.nter's room in a certain percentage. Though I will say it makes sense in canon why you would be able to destroy it as Urbanshade as talked nonstop about removing any and all adversaries that get in its way, mainly Sebastian (Unfortunately and thankfully, in Sebastian's case, Sebastian can't be killed). But, I will also say, The p.AI.nter's document, however tragic that it is, kills me at the fact how they handled its owner's death. Like really? Accidentally killed with a rifle to the head because of some dumb guard, no less. If I was that sentient AI, I would no doubt feel endless dread and sorrow. Though, then again, The p.AI.nter is already had several moments of killing itself and been depressed while under Urbanshade's care.

ADOPTION PAPERS ADOPTION PAPERS FILING THE ADOPTION PAPERS: I won't bother writing a whole paragraph, so take this GIF of p.AI.nter as Edgar instead. <3

i am constantly going insane rotating them in my brain like a fork in a microwave: I can not overstate how much I love this little guy. I don't talk about it much nor articulate the words in discussing this freak like I wish I could. But The p.AI.nter is a character that resides in my head twenty-four, seven. Like I'm writing a fanfic about Sebastian right now—well before you sent this, but all I've been thinking about is this dumb AI. Its relationship with Sebastian. Its overall role in the story of the game and so forth.

the popular ships for this character suck: OKAY, OKAY! I know I reblog and sometimes like content of The p.AI.nter with Sebastian together, but that's mostly because I find ship art in general to be an endearing thing to look at from the views of a consumer. However, canon wise it just doesn't… click is all I'm going to say. I DO LOVE THEIR DYNAMIC, HOWEVER!

constantly listening to songs and mentally holding them up like a paint swatch: To be fair, I'm always listening to music, I'm a music junkie at heart and, brother, this shit is breakcore!

I WANT TO STUDY THEM LIKE A COCKROACH: All I'm saying is robotic characters growing sentience is a form of love in video game writing, baby. Also, like I loved The p.AI.nter even before friendly fire update. But y'know me, when it hit beta with its new voice and new face with the MS Paint program that has scratchy line art, circles for eyes and wobbly smile—I was ecstatic! I'm not an engineer or a computer nerd by any meanings, but I wouldn't give to be in Pressure for a spell to like look at inside and out in a non-sexual way of course LMAO.

whats wrong with them (affectionate): SO, SO MANY THINGS! MAINLY URBANSHADE </3

#LETTHEPAINTERPAINTFREELYCHALLENGE

not enough screen time: Maybe this is the me that “likes this character a normal amount” talking, but it makes me sad that The p.AI.nter doesn't say much when you visit its enclosure in heavy containment. Like, you visit Sebastian's shop, and he has like hundreds of dialogue, all of which include snide remarks and shouting at you. It's freaking Gianni I get people! But anyway, my man deserves a little more, thank you. <3

they've never done anything wrong in their life <3: Watch this video from 1:25 and 2:23 and tell me I'm wrong.

my opinions would be received by most fans as akin to hitting a wasps nest with a baseball bat: i shan't say...

This is the best character in the work: Discounting the most integral character, Sebastian fucking Shoelace, we have The p.AI.nter! Yippie!!! My blorbo, my absolute bestie, my man who hits me in the ass with high grade turret bullets to only die to the next room, my “locks me in a room with my wife as we discuss divorce papers and play 7 minutes in heaven” wingman. <3

Anyway, thanks for coming to my TedTalk!