#he is actually in a polycule relationship!

[ceaselesswatchersspecialboy]

i need to hear those thoughts, pretty please,

Okay this is a very late reply, but I finally feel as though I can word the thoughts I have regarding them. I want to preface this by saying that all my talks of Jayvik being queer coded stem from my own personal aroacespec perspective. I don’t perceive all forms of close affection and devotion as romantic, but the visual coding regarding Jayvik, and Meljayvik leads me down the path of ‘this is something I personally interpret as romantic’.

MelJayVik is such a deeply fascinating relationship to me because I think a lot is gained from their relationships in the series by looking at them through a polyamorous lens. It may be my own bias, I’m willing to admit that, but the dynamic feels as though it was written to be Poly.

It begins with the obvious queercoding between Jayce and Viktor, and the visual and thematic parallels between them:

Both are written as representative of Jayce’s choices, which can be simplified down to politics and science, and as characters, they inform the choices Jayce makes, and the consequences of those choices, while simultaneously being their own well-developed characters and having their own agendas. I would argue the way it’s written and depicted in the animation, taking into account a lot of the animator’s personal romantic agenda regarding Jayvik, feels akin to the setup of a typical romantic love triangle.

Two people harbour feelings for Jayce, and Jayce is given the decision between the two of them, but that to me is where the similarities between them a love triangle ends… because Jayce never actually chooses. I know some may argue he does because of the final scene with Viktor, but I don’t perceive that as the case at all.

Jayce clearly has a deep love for the both of them, seen so clearly in his actions.

With Mel and Viktor, he truly feels like he can take on the world.

Jayce struggles to balance his life between politics and science because he wants both. He wants Mel and Viktor to be important in his life, but he isn’t capable of managing that, and his own biases and privilege do begin to damage his view of the system and his relationship with Viktor, and Mel does unintentionally worsen that divide. It’s why I love the polycule so much honestly — to me it isn’t just slapping three people together to stop any ship wars, no, it’s a genuinely complex and nuanced dynamic that has initial struggles and hardships.

And to claim that Mel doesn’t care for Viktor is said in complete ignorance of the source material. Mel does come to perceive Viktor as important. Initially, she does ignore him, and treat his presence as secondary to Jayce, but that changes once she recognises the flaw in her actions and how close she was to becoming like her mother. In the final scene of season one, she smiles at Jayce and Viktor. In the beginning of season two, she says that Viktor will come back to ‘us’. Not just to Jayce.

It feels tragic almost. They could have had such an interesting relationship with Mel now wanting to connect to Viktor, but she shattered the chance of that happening. The same way Viktor’s magic repels and rejects her, he does the same.

And god don’t get me started on their magic parallels. For as much as I criticise season two, this is a compilation of my thoughts on MelJayVik in canon, and so I am willing to analyse the way they’re portrayed in season two, and the fight scene in the council room In particular makes me violently ill.

It feels intimate on both ends.

I know people focus especially on Jayce and Viktor’s scenes, and I get it, the scenes between them are particularly intimate

However, both Mel and Viktor and Mel and Jayce also show intimacy in that scene. The way Jayce holds Mel after the fight, despite their previous ‘break up’ scene, and how even though there’s conflict between them, they still can’t help but handle each other with such care and affection. It’s just how they are.

And to me there’s something equally horrifying yet beautiful in the way Viktor bypasses Mel’s own magic, no longer rejecting her, but being intrigued and fascinated by her.

“The arcane stirs within you.”

They are connected by something more than just flesh, more than just physical, and that’s kind of insane to consider.

The tragedy of Mel regarding this is she loses both of these people: the man she knew, and understood, and allowed herself to be vulnerable with, and the man she wanted to know, and to understand.

So here’s how the Noxus spin-off can fix that and canonise MelJayVik! <- lying to myself.

[drawotion]

Hi, is Fiquinn single?

(Fiquinn:) "If you want that~"

[apollos-boyfriend]

apparently i never learn my lesson so. a quick familial relationship chart of the eggs and their parents.

[pepperpixel]

“Those thoughts of past lovers, they'll always haunt me

I wish I could believe you'd never wrong me

Then will you remember me in the same way,

as I remember you?”

BABY WE BUILT THIS HOUSE, ON MEMORIES!!!! ITS MORE BETTY AND MAGIC MAN ART TIME!!!! AKA PepperPixel is completely obsessed w the dynamic of two people dealing w very similar trauma finding understanding and solidarity in one another!!!!! GHGHG JUST. I LOVE IT. I LOVE THEM. SO MUCH.

[can-a-tuna-fish]

Shaking my coin jar at you and pitifully offering up morsels of my vague richjer content.

[malpractice-husbands]

They had to kill Amber, because otherwise Wilson and House would finally get mentally healthy and even acknowledge their feelings and that just can't be, we're only in s4!

[hiis-theme]

somewhere out there is an alternate timeline where toby was correct and people actually did hate spamton. could you imagine that. i have to imagine we wouldn't have gotten the spamton sweepstakes in that case which is crazy to think about given how much lore that gave us-

[kakusu-shipping]

I was the sadistic po3 ask and you are so right. I honestly hadn't thought about it for very long its the vibe he gives off initially but the more I think on it the more I realize hes the type to fall little by little and then all at once. The type to call you an idiot and give you advice in the same statement, to notice immediately when you change your hair style or a new shirt. The moment he realizes hes the type to do the oh. oh. oh no. Like thats his vibe. hes a dick but a loving one.

Okay FIRST OF ALL anon that post is almost two years old at this point so. Welcome back. I'm sorry I was so harsh to your Sadistic Yandere P03 concept.

SECOND P03 acts of service Tsundere type is so funny I love that for him. He will deny he did that for you, or if he accepts it he expects gratitude of the highest caliber.

This doesn't feel very Yandere to me though this is very base P03 affection to me. But that's because to me P03 is the least Yandere out of the Scrybes.. and I think that's why the polycule broke up before you arrived??

He was the object of their obsessions, and it was smothering and toxic and terrifying. He hated it, he was scared, he was cadged, he could never do anything on his own or go anywhere without checking in on someone. He never had his own space, never had control...

Yandere P03 would then push that cycle of abuse onto you, take control from you, not forcefully, but just a little bit at a time. Manipulate your space slowly so you have fewer and fewer options on where to go, like shortening a leash on a dog. It takes time. It takes routine.

This though, the acts of service and catering to your comfort, is Post Recovery P03. A P03 who's had time, a LOT of time, to himself, to his space, and found loneliness. He wants you to want to come back, because deep down he needs you, but doesn't want to admit that, because to him it's wrong to need someone. It hits too close to home, make him feel too much like the other scrybes.

He'll give you reasons to want to come back, and it'll remind him of how Grimora would always lend him things so he'd have reason to return. How she'd gift him everything he'd wanted so he'd come back, how she'd loose several matches in a row, and only win the one he'd said was his last game, so he'd stay and challenge her to a rematch

He'll follow on your heel as you wander around his factory because it's dangerous and maze like, and it'll remind him of the feeling of being followed, of being watched, by Magnificus everywhere he went. The suffocating feeling of never being anywhere alone, of eyes that saw his every possible future always on him. He'll deny his affections to you and remind himself of Magnificus doing the same when he'd stumbled into a room covered wall to wall in paintings of himself, in situations he knew Magnificus was not with him

He'll spend time tailoring his game to your play style, making sure cards you like are more plentiful, making sure the puzzles are engaging and challenging, and he'll remind himself of Leshy, the worst of them all, and that cabin full of intrigue. Of story and hard fights and difficult puzzles and nights of "Just one more round" turned three and four. When he floats just above you to feel superior he'll be reminded of the wall that use to be a door that he'd pressed himself against Leshy towered above him, a man who'd say one thing and feel another, who'd played the hero over and over in their games, and revealed himself the villain when P03 attempted to leave

He doesn't want to need you in the same way the other Scrybes had needed him

[casiavium]

friendship ended with Sidlink I'm exclusively a Zelink shipper only now

[tinapaysmp]

I can't believe I'm blocking the fwhimmy tag. Like I love the ship but only in a way that I ship it.

And only in a way how I interpret Count fWhip because only I trully understand his character and nobody understands him like I do /j /hj

But for real, I might unblock it one day. But for now the common portrayal is pretty meh to me.

[chimerical-waters]

On the relationship thing. Are they all... like..... mutually boyfriend? Or is it just Chis mind crushing hard? Are they all just a big weird polycule? Are the feelings at all returned?

It seems weird to call all of of them you boyfriend Chi. Guy just can't handle himself.

or is it like... a communuty shipping thing and you just can't stop yourself from shipping chars together?

"It's none of your business! Ask me something else!"

((Mun here: He crushes on all his friends and is a giant dweeb about it. and yes I like shipping him with friends, but it's also who he is))

[waywardsalt]

there is undeniable opportunity to make bellum x linebeck fucked up but i dont have it in me. im a sucker for it just being fine with a side of like. light nautical crimes against nature but i cant make it toxic or w/e after a certain point. theyre chilling

[soulsxng]

He's amused, to say the least-- a disarming smile directed at the 'fans' as he passed by. The attention is flattering, and hearing people argue over him was entertaining, but...he hoped that nobody got too overzealous. Dealing with stalkers and the like could be such a handful.

[neriyon]

Hey look, an idea I stole from @zylphiacrowley (chain of idea stealing haha), feat. very startled Hawu'li. More details for each relationship under the cut for anyone curious.

Tataru: She and Hawu'li are very close friends, all the way from the first days he spent with scions. They like to hang out, talk (mostly gossip) about stuff over tea, and while other scions take to Tataur's big moneymaking plans with a healthy dose of caution, Hawu'li is always ready to go do anything she asks. She's also the one Hawu'li usually goes to when he needs some advice or just someone to listen to his woes.

Y'shtola: I've mentioned this before but she reminds Hawu'li of his older sisters. They used to be on purely professional terms up till ShB, and have since made steady progess to become friends. The two of them can usually be found reading books in a same room or chatting about Y'shtola's research (Hawu'li is always curious to learn more).

Lyse: I actually first marked her as a friend, but then remembered Hawu'li is a Gridania starter so uh, family it is. Lyse has kinda decided to take the role of a caring big sister/mother figure by herself - despite being only 2 years older. These two lively idiots (affectionate) do get along well, and occasionally send letters now that Lyse is busy with Ala Mhigo stuff.

Estinien: "Boyfriend of my boyfriend" haha. They both date Aymeric, so they are part of the polycule together, despite not having too much romantic feelings towards eachother. They do trust and appreciate eachother a lot, and are in some sort of friends with benefits status. Hawu'li's can be a bit much for Estinien at times, but it's pretty common to see them sharing some casual contact which Estinien seems to like after spending time alone. They also share the single idiotic braincell over money related things (do not let them to the market without supervision!)

Thancred: Kinda between close friends and regular friends tbh. I feel like Thancred would get annoyed by Hawu'li's energy levels, but he'd also be smart enough to just dump the catboy on someone else when in need of some peace and quiet. Hawu'li finds him pretty nice and trusts him a lot, but does not really appreciate that Thancred prefers to keep him in the dark about most things - meanwhile Thancred feels he's a good kid but a bit too young and airheaded to be trusted with everything.

Ryne: Cat sees teenager, cat adopts teenager. While not as close as with twins, Hawu'li happily treats Ryne as part of the family and takes care to check in on her regularily after ShB. He often brings her gifts and books, staying over for some coffee and biscuits to talk about how scions are doing. Ryne tends to come to Hawu'li about any relationship troubles, and when she and Gaia start going out he's the first one to hear about it (and congratulate them, haha)

Minfilia: This is an intersting one, since Hawu'li usually befriends everyone quickly (if they want to be befriended). But somehow Minfilia's position as the leader of Scions made Hawu'li kinda hesitant to bother her too much, so kinda like with Y'shtola, their relationship stayed pretty professional. In hindsight, Hawu'li definitely regrets he didn't get to know her more.

G'raha: Boyfriends! As close as can be, spending lot of time together. Reading, talking about anything interesting they've learned, visiting new places, going on dates… pretty much anything. G'raha has great tolerance for Hawu'li's clingyness and doesn't mind some pda, so Hawu'li tends to stick to him a lot. Also just cat things: they will often knock their heads together and even start playfighting every now and then.

Alphinaud: Little brother! While more snobbish during ARR, Hawu'li does see some of himself in the boy, and does his best to keep him safe and help him however he can. Likes to gently tease Alphi (usually with Alisaie), but will be uncharacteristically ready to throw down with anything threatening his lil bro (he may or may not have growled at Fourchenault when he was talking about disowning twins).

Alisaie: Little sister and partner-in-mischief! Like with Alphi, they are very close and protective of eachother, with the exception that Alisaie seems as ready to fight to protect Hawu'li as he does to protect twins. They often tease Alphi together, or go channel their excess energy in some friendly sparring. Or run off to see who can climb some trees faster.

Urianger: Hawu'li likes him a lot, but unfortunately can only understand him like 30% of the time. However he's just happy to sit there listening anyway, and usually Thancred or Y'shtola know to check if he actually got the important parts. They like eachother's company, and somehow just hanging out with Urianger seems to calm Hawu'li down a lot, which has been a godsent to everyone.

Krile: Still a pretty new friend, but one that Hawu'li is eager to get to know more. He is however tiiiiiny bit nervous about it, since Krile and G'raha are clearly close, and he really really really wants to get well along with his boyfriend's close friend. Krile thinks he's a nice lad, and hopes he'd relax a bit and drop the random bouts of overly polite behaviour.

[agena87]

So. What are our thoughts about ice prince (or ice-skater, I suppose) Wolfie? Yes or fuck yes?

(little video of Wolfie spinning in CAS (so you can admire his... outfit. Yes, outfit, what else would you look at?) under the cut)

[codgod-moved]

charlie’s 100 days video has wormed it’s way into my brain and sparked my old Thing with zombie apocalypse aus and now i’ve written out a whole plot outline for a qsmp zombie apocalypse au starring slimeriana + flippa + quackity and tilin