#honestly i actually looked up to Rick - both as an author and a person

[dreamstar-moonlight]

I have a lot of feelings but these guys summed them up pretty well imo

The issue is that some fans look at the show as "something Rick made" rather than "a show" and then turn around and look at the movies as "something that Rick did not make" rather than "the movies". Like, we're never going to have a good conversation about what makes a good adaptation unless you kill the author and leave him in the ditch.

The movies function great as movies. The show functions as shit as a show.

Not to even mention the weird ass cult of personality around Richard Riordan in the PJO and adjacent communities. People constantly and rightfully critique him for being shit at writing queer stories without turning them into 2023 Tumblr post, being horribly stereotypical at writing POC (and especially WOC), being biased as hell in writing women (which became even more obvious now that the show is out), being really weird about the cultures he chooses to "represent" (read: appropriate from and profit off without giving back), as well as his overall views, whether they are in the books or surround his space as a writer. Riordan isn't your kind Uncle, he's a millionaire that genuinely does not give a fuck about you. It's unhealthy to have such a strong parasocial tie with a straight white rich man that has in some way failed nearly every community he tried to write about (aside from the "community" of straight white people).

Whoever Riordan was when he wrote the first five books (hint: he was Not Rich), he no longer is. He lost fucking track of what made his books good because he barely writes his own stuff anymore because he's no longer putting in the effort. He doesn't need to, he's rich. He knows there are countless of fans that will "read it anyway" and "watch it anyways" and otherwise engage without considering pirating.

Media that has the least input from him (the movies, the musical) score as being better at capturing the spirit of his own books, and that should tell you something.

P. S. The first five books hold some sort of place in my heart, but I consider the rest of the franchise money-grabbing, clout-chasing trash. Mysteriously enough, his best post-PJO books are (likely) ghostwritten.

[lemonhemlock]

I did not get into Game of thrones when it first started airing. In fact, I waited until it was long past it's heyday (around s6 or 7) to check it out because the marketing and the conversation surrounding it misled me into thinking it was nothing more than "grimdark" bullshit. As one famous YouTuber sarcastically called it "hot fantasy that fucks." So, I avoided Martin's work for literal years due to the impression that I got from online reactors and show-only casuals who did as you and a few others have described as his work being fundamentally misinterpreted.

Fortunately, I overcame my hang-ups, purchased the books (even the supplementary material) and fell down an entire rabbit hole of ASOIAF which led me to recognizing that this world he spent decades creating is far more complex than what had been portrayed onscreen. Regardless of the possibility of the books remaining unfinished (which I am fine with, personally), what George has created is a genuine work of art that I imagine took a tremendous amount of time and energy. So, for so many people online to behave like children and throw tantrums because they feel entitled to him (ew) instead of ushering forth more reasonable conversations and legitimate debates about the nature of his situation frankly makes me look at this fandom with a heavy dose of skepticism.

It is truly baffling to hear even professional critics and see articles describing George as being "ungrateful" or "unprofessional" when it has been well-documented just how often authors get locked out of the adaptation process and left to the wayside as consultants. Look at what happened to Rick Riordan and Christopher Paolini! George R.R. Martin is not the only author to have qualms with how a multimillion dollar studio has mishandled his creative work, and to act like he should remain silent just because he's amassed a certain degree of wealth is quite frankly, ridiculous. He shouldn't have to settle down, be grateful, and stay quiet because the greedy corporate executives and their media drones will get offended by actual criticism that could alter the perception of the adaption being revealed as mediocre for having departed from the source material.

TLDR: authors should be allowed to speak up about their art being sacrificed for commercialization.

Thank you so much for this message, anon! This needs to be talked about more, because I don't think a lot of commentators truly understand the vulgar, late-capitalistic sheen that seems to set in and slowly poison any ASOIAF adaptation. It honestly baffles me how quick some members of this fandom are to rush to the defense of, what is essentially (let's not be kidding ourselves here), a cashgrab by a giant corporation to the detriment of the actual artist and the actual creative foundation behind it.

Why else would "MAX" (if that is even their name) make another (or several other) ASOIAF adaptations? Not to stay true to any philosophical aesthetic vision, as it has become more than apparent with Season 2, but to increase shareholder profits by appealing to the lowest common denominator. Even the basic premise has been shifted in order to address popular trends and satisfy the mindless consumer that doesn't want to engage with anything deeper than their favourite tropes, prettily packaged:

from a story about a doomed ouroborous family superimposed on the pitfalls of feudalism, with villainy and heroism to be found on both sides, it has been simplified and reduced to a narrative that exalts white feminism and disqualifies anyone who opposes its girlboss protagonist. This is Sheryl Sandberg's version of Fire and Blood.

Truly, I think Sara Hess did (unintentionally) outline it the best: "civilians don't matter in Game of Thrones". They don't matter in Game of Thrones, but they matter in A Song of Ice and Fire. The entire heart of the series is contained in Septon Maribald's speech. The writers "kind of", must have forgotten, though.

[moa-broke-me]

honestly I have a rant locked and loaded but I don't know if this is something anyone else has noticed so I'm gonna lead with a question:

Have you noticed Rick Riordan's work has become less... Idk... Human lately? As in, leaning more into the symbolic and abstract, particularly when it comes to his characters?

Because I certainly have. I made it to, like, chapter 6 of TSATS before I had to quit because I just couldn't get into it, and even I noticed.

Like... Idk, the whole reason I'm thinking about this was that one post going around explaining that, yes Octavian is flat as a character, but when you start to view him as a symbol of neofascism, then everything clicks into place. And I think that analysis is good, don't get me wrong! It's actually a very well written piece. I wish I had the link to it at the moment so you could all go and read it for yourself.

However, the series doesn't really lend itself to that kind of symbolic, metaphorical thinking. Like there is metaphor in the series, yes, but I don't think there's ever been a human character that's treated as a straight up *symbol* for a certain concept. At least, not frequently enough that it's established as a pattern or even a possibility in the readers' minds.

Notice how I said *human* character. That's important, we're putting a pin in that.

Now, as an aside, I do think that the post could be misinterpreted as 'if you give octavian a backstory or a redemption arc in your fic then you're basically a fascist' and, no. I'm pretty certain that's not what the author of the post intended, don't get defensive and don't delete your blog.

Personally, I think his characterization could also be explained as him being someone who turns to a dangerous, destructive ideology because deep down, he's desperate for unconditional love, and he feels the only way he can get it is through force. Playground bully mentality, basically.

And if you'll notice, though both explanations tie into fascism, mine still emphasizes the humanness of Octavian. Because, well... He's human.

See, my theory is that the gods in the series are basically everything I've said the human characters aren't. Metaphors for different concepts, and how people see those concepts. It's barely even a theory, it's basically canon, but it's something that I feel needs to be pointed out for this analysis to make sense. Like, Zeus is the god of authority, so the way he acts is reflective of the way that human authority figures do. Hades is the god of the underworld, so like the underworld, he's dark and gloomy, mostly ranging between the gothic serenity of asphodel and the burning rage of punishment, though he can be kind, even nurturing at times, like Elysium.

This leaks out in more one on one interactions too. The whole reason Dionysus was so hostile to and dismissive of Percy the whole series is because his only experience with alcohol had been hostile and dismissive. Hera's nice to people at first, but makes it clear that she doesn't extend that kindness to everyone, just like a lot of 'looks good on paper' families (including Annabeth's own stepmother). Eros publicly humiliates Nico, because he sees love, his own love in particular, as humiliating.

And it seems, now, that Rick is shifting away from writing these characters as humans, and moreso how he'd write a god. Which may be why the books are starting to go downhill.

or maybe I'm fulla shit who knows?

[thesungod]

ok so I took a peek into TSATS and I see what u all mean when u say its out of character 😭 like, a lot of the narrative IS relative to various characters and such, like Nico's trauma, overcoming it, other things I haven't read yet, but the way it's written, and the way the characters go about portraying it... it doesn't even feel like Rick picked up a pen and wrote it. like, obviously he did, but you just can just tell the co-author really took the lead on this one.

like -

Nico thought Mr D looked like he was about to explode from excitement, and it was honestly a complete delight.

since when the fuck does this man smile 🤨 like yes, obviously he's a fully sentient being with emotions and shit. ik he feels happiness, he just expresses it differently, and this just seems so... forced? it's less the grumpy-lovable but still an asshole Mr D we all know and kinda love, but more-so a diluted version of him? like someone comparing a stick figure to a Van Gogh piece. it just don't work 😭

‘My two favourite demigods have returned,’ he said, and he held his arms open and embraced both of them at the same time.

this man hugs??? like, his kids and wife / lovers, sure. but he's like the most demigodphobic person ever 😭 he'd be the person to let the other hug him, pat him on the bag, scowl and say "yeah-yeah" and then shove them off. like??? (at least in my brain he is)

‘Favourite?’ Will said into Mr D’s armpit. ‘I thought you didn’t even like demigods.’ (SAME 🥴)

and then he goes on to say "fuck all u, but like, u 2 least of all" so that's pretty in character for the most part, but still

like this book don't look bad by any means, it just feels... offshade. off white to white? 1st cousins. expectation v reality. a Van Gogh baby vs an actual baby (google them, they're horrifying)

but yeah, no hate to the book, it just doesn't feel like Rick even touched it, yk? and I haven't even read a single chapter. that was me skimming to see what the fuss was about 😭 and what's up with some of the books using these quotes '' instead of ""??? it's so hard to read.

anon i’m so sorry i completely forgot to get this ask out of my drafts even if it was answered!!

i hope you’re still around!!

and i 100% agree, after reading tcotg i’m convinced rick riordan didn’t- touch tsats with a ten foot pole.

i was very willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and say the book was a team effort when it came out but there’s simply no way that’s the case. my man lied. the writing style is so different and the interpersonal relationships between characters feel so off😭

don’t get me started about the humor because tcotg had its flaws but it was literally laugh-out-loud funny in some moments. had the difference been written on purpose- like, the authors wanting to characterise Nico and Will as kinda lame people- that could have been an interesting choice (i maintain my headcanon that Nico is only ever unintentionally funny), but i really doubt it was.

and why would Mr D hug and smile and coddle Nico and Will like… it’s giving self indulgent fanfiction where everyone adores the author’s favourite character. which, i mean, if you’ve ever read my Apollo fics you know that I get it, but a published book should be held to a higher standard imo!!!

tsats did not have to be a masterpiece but it was too OOC for me to enjoy.

still, i’d advise you to read it for yourself and find out!

[imaginethat0327]

Kay let’s do this *cracks knuckles*

🎱 My beta is the one with access to ao3 so I can’t see the stats 😅

🍓 I think I started writing fanfiction when I was like, eleven, I just didn’t know the terms for it yet. And I’m honestly not sure what triggered it other than me wanting to see scenarios with characters I liked. I think my first fanfic (which I never finished) was about the Young Justice crew going to DisneyLand??

🌵 https://open.spotify.com/playlist/64OXW7AK5ULeSPEKzgdtNp?si=5WEu21W6T0Or_BRXkCHCKw&pi=u-eINmVchcTp-l. (My fav instrumental playlist ❤️)

🕯️ 1. Just… it’s a 1. I don’t do it nearly as often as I should because I hate it 😂

🛼 - 🏝️🩺🔥🧟💀

🥑 @isyhawk 100%. If I contacted another then it would be @rurus-kadoo

🥤 I think this is supposed to be fanfic authors but I don’t read fanfic anymore, so I’m going to say Rick Riordan, lol.

💌 … 84. But it’s legit all spam which is why I haven’t looked at them yet 😂

🌻 @nyxcentury

��� Always would prefer OG characters as opposed to reader inserts

🧃 Personal lore that I haven’t shared before… uh, I sang the national anthem at one of my sister’s gymnastic meets one time.

🎲 Fatigue, mental or physical

🍄 Every spring, avians get a nesting urge where they’ll start crafting one out of blankets, pillows, clothes, and little trinkets or items that they’re fond of. Both Tango and Scar inevitably end up finding themselves in the middle of these nests at some point or another and even if it gets in the way of their projects, they can’t bring themselves to try and break out of it because it would make their partners very sad. So they’re both just kind of stuck being coddled and cooed over for a week and they both secretly (on Tango’s end) and not so secretly (on Scar’s end) adore it.

🧸 Aside from the logging stuff that I like, then reaching out and talking to me :) because then we’re friends and I’ll be obligated 😂

🪐 I’m on course to graduate college early, I have a pretty good living situation, and I have a ton of new online friends that I’ve been talking to/playing Minecraft with

📚 “Redbubble” and that’s it. I was going to make a password but I forgot, so now there’s just a note with the word “redbubble” in it

🍬 Deku is actually kind of dumb when it comes to fighting and how much effort he puts into stuff. Looking at a villain and going “I’ll beat him by trying even *harder* is dumb. Bakugo agrees with me. It ends up with Deku recklessly hurting himself and potentially hurting others. Real people, most of the time, can’t give 100% and then just decide to double their effort on a whim if stuff isn’t working out. I always thought it was kinda stupid and also very unrealistic/potentially a bad message. Granted, I haven’t read a lot of the recent manga, but if the fight scene with Deku in the third movie was anything to go by, he hasn’t learned.

🔪 I’ve tried to figure out the exact nerve/blood vessel that needs to get pinched for the Vulcan neck pinch to work. I don’t remember if I found it or not. Other than that’s it’s been a lot of “how do I kill someone in XYZ way” 💀

🦷 If you get a bloody nose, tilt your head back and get a twisted piece of tissue and stuff it up there. Then breathe gently in through your nose. The gentle airflow will clot the blood wicked fast. Be careful pulling the tissue out though otherwise you might take the clot out too.

❄️ I want James Patterson to write me a steampunk fantasy book

🌿 Give yourself a little bit of a break, but then find someone to talk about your project too. Even if it’s just recapping events, talking about stuff usually gets me back in the spirit of things. Also, at least for me, I have to make sure I write just a tiny bit every couple days, because big breaks may lead to the fic getting abandoned.

🥐 The Australian dude talking about the attack dogs and then he makes an impression “and they came bounding over -“ makes me laugh every time.

🏜️ Any comment that analyzes character relationships or plot elements makes me indescribably happy. All comments do, but those are my favs

🍦 I honestly can’t think of a character that I legitimately hate. Maybe it’s because I know they’re supposed to be unlikeable because they are a character??

🥝 oh dear god we’re getting real here… em, I’d say I don’t lie a LOT, but I do have a bad habit of lying about myself and my day-to-day going-one because I don’t want to feel like I wasted my day or did something wrong. For example, I told my mom that I did a good job hydrating yesterday when the only liquids I consumed were cups of coffee 💀

🦋 Umm… truthfully, I’ve been debating my value as a person/friend/sibling recently. How much joy do I actually bring to other people. How productive am I actually being. How much good am I actually putting into the world. How many of my interactions are me just clinging to the hope of validation as opposed to me focusing on others and their lives. 😥

🦴 no singular piece, but music and lyrics usually do

🍅 Imagine, for the love of god, go back and reread and edit your own writing. Stop word vomiting onto the page and expecting your beta to catch every little thing. Also, learn how to be CONCISE. Stop waxing poetical about every little thing or you’re never going to finish anything!

🐚 Depends on the surprise. Twists in movies are great. Friends showing up out of the blue are great. Random changes to pre-established plans make me want to cry.

🪲 “How are we going to kill it now?” Xisuma sounded a bit breathless from the heat, and when Cleo turned to look she saw the admin popping the cap on a fire res potion. “We can’t fight it while it’s in the lava. We have to draw it out.”

“If we try to fight it in here, we’re going to be killed by the blazes immediately.” Bad agreed. “We need to get it outside.”

☁️ I wanted a name that was whimsical - and the sort of dreamy, enthralled concept of “Imagine THAT” worked really well for me. Also I was really into Imagine Dragons at the time 😂.

🐝 Okay - I’m going to miss people, but I love every single person who’s read my fics and reblogged my post. For a few specific people: @rurus-kadoo - I am in awe of your creativity and your musical talents, and I’m so thankful you have shared them with me. I’ve loved chatting about music and making playlists with you. @isyhawk - My pen pal, you’ve taught me so much about life and you’ve helped me talk through some kind of heavy stuff, and I’m always going to be grateful for that. I love being pen pals with you ❤️. @red-carter - I’m so happy that you reached out to talk to me despite it being scary. I appreciate your openness and your kindness and I love getting to say good morning to you when I wake up.

🌸 I do have pets! An eleven year old golden doodle named Casey, and an almost 2 year old mini bermadoodle named Jojo. Pictures at the bottom!

🎨 Not sure if I have a fav piece, but anything by Applestruda, Hybbart, and Noxolotl is incredible

🧩 Anything with bad grammar/spelling/formatting is an immediate turnoff for me.

Pictures!!!:

Writers Truth & Dare Ask Game

🎱 ⇢ post your AO3 total stats  🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction?  🌵 ⇢ share the link to a playlist you love 🕯️ ⇢ on a scale from 1 to 10, how much do you enjoy editing? why is that? 🛼 ⇢ describe your latest wip with five emojis 🥑 ⇢ you accidentally killed somebody, which mutual(s) do you text for help? 🥤 ⇢ recommend an author or fanfic you love 💌 ⇢ how many unread emails do you have right now?  🌻 ⇢ tag someone you appreciate but don't talk to on a regular basis 🐇 ⇢ do you prefer writing original characters, reader inserts, or a mix of both?  🧃 ⇢ share some personal lore you never posted about before 🎲 ⇢ what stops you from writing more in your free time?  🍄 ⇢ share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings 🧸 ⇢ what's the fastest way to become your mutual? 🪐 ⇢ name three good things going on in your life right now 📚 ⇢ what's the last thing you wrote down in your notes app?  🍬 ⇢ post an unpopular opinion about a popular fandom character 🔪 ⇢ what's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project? 🦷 ⇢ share some personal wisdom or a life hack you swear on ❄️ ⇢ what's your dream theme/plot for a fic, and who would write it best? 🌿 ⇢ give some advice on writer's block and low creativity 🥐 ⇢ name one internet reference that will always make you laugh  🏜️ ⇢ what's your favourite type of comment to receive on your work? 🍦 ⇢ name three good things about a character you hate 🥝 ⇢ do you lie a lot? what's the most recent lie you told? 🦋 ⇢ share something that has been on your heart and mind lately  🦴 ⇢ is there a piece of media that inspires your writing?  🍅 ⇢ give yourself some constructive criticism on your own writing 🐚 ⇢ do you like or dislike surprises? 🪲 ⇢ add 50 words to your current wip and share the paragraph here ☁️ ⇢ what made you choose your username? 🐝 ⇢ tag your biggest supporter(s) and say one nice thing about them 🌸 ⇢ do you have any pets? if you do, post some pictures of them 🎨 ⇢ link your favourite piece of fanart and explain why you like it 🧩 ⇢ what will make you click away from a fanfiction immediately?

[dysfunctionalmaki]

To Realize

Main Masterlist

Pairings: Natasha Romanoff x Fem!Stark!Reader

Summary: Natasha's been connecting all the dots about how she feels about you, it's up to her to how she'll handle the situation.

A/N: This was supposed to be a oneshot until... I wanted to base it on the whole Black Widow movie :"))

Warnings: none, let me know if there's any.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆

Your last interaction with your father didn't go well, he simply told you that Secretary Ross is now after you and Natasha after helping Steve, and Bucky to get in the Quinjet while T'challa was after them.

Quickly tackling the king of Wakanda on the ground, while Natasha shot something at him to give Rogers and his friend time to take off, as soon as the jet flew away, you removed your arms that are restraining him.

"Your father will hear about this, and you too Miss Romanoff." The exact words that came out of T'challa, and now you're on the run with Natasha, considered as a global fugitive.

Your father looked at you with disappointment when he mentioned that Ross will be chasing you and the latter, you looked at Natasha before she took your hand and leading you out, taking you to who knows where.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆

"You miss your daddy?" Natasha spoke while driving, you chuckle at her words then resting your head against the car window. "Hmm, kinda, so what are we doing here in Norway?" You ask the latter.

"Well, you've noticed that Ross is after our asses after assaulting the King of Wakanda, and helping Steve and Barnes escape the airport, I believe we should lay low, right?" She propped her elbow by the window, resting her head on her knuckle as she drives with one hand. "Oh? I didn't know that." You replied sarcastically, making Natasha roll her eyes.

"What I mean is, why Norway of all places?" Now you're kindly asking, arms crossed over your chest and slowly drifting off to sleep, exhausted after hours of traveling, without Daddy's private planes, sports car, and Quinjet also.

Natasha noticed how your voice softens, a long yawn coming out of your mouth, and quickly glancing at you. "Ross has no jurisdiction here, his boys would stay away from here for the time being." She answered, you softly nodded and replied with an 'okay' almost a whisper with how silent it was.

In a split second, you're already fast asleep at the passenger seat, both arms hugging yourself and your head resting against the window. Nat maintained her eyes on the road as she attempts to reach for a blanket she stashed in the backseat, after few shifts in her place, the Russian managed to grab the cloth.

She gently placed the soft blanket over you, and now focusing herself on driving, for some reason, she has always felt this warm feeling in her heart when she's alone with you, adoration maybe?

Your peaceful state while you're in deep slumber, and hearing your soft snores as she admires the view of the landscape, she would offer everything she has just to stay like this most of the time.

The thought caught her off-guard, why would she want to spend all of her time with her friend's daughter? She shrugged the thought off from her mind, she knows what love feels like, she felt it with Bruce until Hulk decided to drive off somewhere they won't find him.

She did get sad because of it, but she chose to move forward and move on, successfully removing any romantic feelings for Banner, focusing on her work as an Agent and an Avenger.

But why is she feeling this way with you? Her heart melts when she sees you getting all excited when you've successfully upgraded your techs, how she would automatically smile when her eyes would catch you smiling, and how she feels warm when you're there to ease her mind when a mission didn't go as planned.

She's now connecting the dots, using the silence and peace surrounding her, she got time to think about herself and her feelings towards Tony Stark's daughter.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆

After half an hour of the drive, you slowly wake up from your nap, looking around the surroundings you're in the middle of the woods, Natasha's still driving. "Good uhh... Evening?" You greeted Nat with your groggy voice.

Natasha stopped the car beside the safehouse, which is a caravan and you don't mind, you can't really call your father to get you a 5-star hotel to stay in. "Did you manage to replenish your energy?" She asked, unbuckling her seat belt and you did the same.

Getting out of the car, she has her gun out and you also have one on your hand, staying alert until both of you heard a loud snore in the room. Natasha immediately returned to her relaxed posture before heading into where the sound belongs, and she found her contractor sleeping.

Kicking his foot that is off the bed, the man immediately woke up. "You're sleeping in my bed." Natasha commented, "I'm not even under the covers." He replied, then his eyes trail at you, awkwardly looking away noticing that the two seemed close.

"I've got what you asked for, fake IDs, drivers licenses, and some VISAs, also for Miss Stark too, just like what you've told me to do." He says as he handed out the fake identifications to Natasha, while reading, the Russian frowned upon what she just read. "Really? Fanny Longbottom?"

"That is a legitimate name." He defended himself, them Natasha handed your fake IDs, taking a good look at them and you're amazed about how real they seem to be. "Thank you...?" You softly spoke.

"Rick, Rick Mason." He introduced himself, and you shook his hand also introducing yourself, with little chit-chat soon after the man left leaving you and Natasha alone.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆

An hour has passed it's already dark out, you're currently sitting by the front door, knees up to your chest, and you already felt homesick, Natasha's company is nice honestly, but the feeling of being far away from your father and home sucks.

Natasha looks at you while you're way too busy gazing at the woods, she knows you aren't used to this type of setup, running away from authorities, and far from home, she felt bad for you.

She walks up behind you, making sure you're aware of her presence before placing a hand on your shoulder. "I'm going to watch a movie on my laptop, feel free to join me, I'm also eating the ice cream we bought at the convenience store earlier." She softly spoke before leaving you alone.

Minutes after, you finally stood up from where you are sitting and closing the front door, almost dragging your way to Natasha. Two bowls of ice cream in front of her, and her laptop already on, she was waiting for you.

You placed yourself beside her, head resting on her shoulder then she plays the movie on the screen, lazily taking a spoonful of the cold treat in your mouth, and eyes glued on the screen, but you weren't paying attention to the movie, you're spacing out.

"Hey, Y/N? Are you okay?" Of course, not, Natasha knows damn well you aren't okay, she thought that it's a dumb question. "Of course, why wouldn't I be?" You answered just like your father, she paused the film and causing you to look at her. "No, you're not okay, and that's okay." She says before taking you into her arms.

You're surprised actually, Natasha isn't usually the one who initiates physical contact but here she is, her arms wrapped around your body. You needed this, you needed to feel home and somehow being hugged by Natasha feels like it.

Burying your face at her shoulders then you knew you're melting in her arms, it almost brought the tears out of you, as if her touch is enough the lift the burden you've been feeling.

Natasha feels like home.

You try not to think anything about the affection she just gave, but damn, you think you'd go batshit crazy if you won't get to experience this again.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆

Let's be clear here, you've had a crush on Natasha while she's still Natalie, then as soon as Fury revealed that she is some secret agent, you were so amazed that you started liking her, though she didn't contact after that.

You weren't part of the Avengers initiative, but you did join them in the battle of Sokovia, but she and Banner have a thing going on, so you've decided to set those feelings aside. Which you successfully did for a few months, and after Bruce flying who knows where maybe you can make a move?

So you did, you would jokingly flirt around Natasha, and your father would give a questioning look then you slowly back away, but you were also a great friend to Nat, it's just that you can't seem to get all romantic with Natasha.

Just as much of a playboy your father is, that's all his, you suck at this type of thing, so Nat probably thought you're just a caring and affectionate person.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆

You gently pull away from Natasha's grasp, and she looks at you with her emerald eyes. "Better?" She asked, placing a hand on your cheek softly caressing your skin. "Much better, thank you." She smiled with your answer, the next thing you know is that you're way too close to her, and you're looking at her plump lips.

This would be a perfect time to make a move.

You hold the back of her hand that is on your cheek, slowly closing in, and Natasha is leaning closer, so near that you could feel each other breathing, just when your lips were about to touch hers... the power died.

Nat cleared her throat and awkwardly moving away, removing her hand away from you and she stood up. "I'm just going to check the power generator." She says before going outside.

Her face turned red as soon as she was out of your sight, she got way too vulnerable with you, she almost kissed you but she sure knows she's going to like it but no, not at a time like this.

She tried to get the power back on, only to find that there's no more fuel in the generator, she came back inside finding you eating ice cream in the corner, and probably waiting for her to come back.

"I'm going to a gas station, do you want to come with me?" She asked, you nodded before getting off your ass and bringing yourself into her car, there's this awkward tension between the two of you, and as soon as she started driving, the silence swallowed the two of you.

"Can I turn the radio on?" You asked her, she simply nodded while eyes fixated on the road, you played the radio, and Sia's Cheap Thrills came on. "Damn, even here? When is this song going to die?" You commented.

Natasha taps her fingers on the steering wheel according to the beats, despite hearing the song over and over whenever you would turn on the radio, you still liked it.

Midway through the song, you felt chills on your body, and as soon as you look at the window beside you, suddenly you see an RPG heading towards the car.

"Nat—" Before she could react it has already hit the car causing an explosion, now the vehicle is hanging on the edge of the bridge, and with one wrong move it'll head straight down to the water. "Ooh, fuck that hurts." Hissing as you try to collect yourself and trying to fight the headache it caused.

Natasha on the other hand is in pain and boy, she's mad. "I'm pretty sure Ross has no jurisdiction here, and you should know that I'm a better shot when I'm pissed off," Nat spoke before firing few bullets at the person, you look at her and biting your lip, finding her hot.

"Wow, that's hot..." You spoke under your breath but Natasha heard, glaring at you. "Really? At a time like this?" She says, before heading out of the car when you tried to get out Nat stopped you. "How long can you hold your breath?" She asked. "Last time I beat Sam it was a good 4 minutes and a half."

"As soon as this psycho comes close enough, I'll push you into the water, it's not after us." She says you look at her as if she's speaking lies. "Nat, I'm not leaving you here–" before you could protest, you felt her lips against yours it was quick but you know damn well, that Natasha kissed you.

"I'll meet you down there, I promise." She says before a shield comes charging towards her, and managed to avoid it, yet it hit the car, now you're falling off the bridge and you suddenly noticed a small case on her hand.

You quickly got out of the car before it could hit the water, then you swam heading to safety where the one who ambushed wouldn't see you.

Closing your eyes hoping that Nat would come back to you in one piece, there's no way you'll let her die after kissing you, of course, you wanted to fight but your body just wouldn't.

You can't risk losing Natasha now.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆

Next Part: To Remember

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Beth’s Template in S11

Okay Bethyl Enthusiasts! Here goes!

I’ve been promising to talk to you about exactly what I think will happen in S11 with Beth’s arc, and that’s what I’m going to do today. I’ve had a basic idea of things for a while, now, but these bonus episodes and their epic symbolism have really kicked things into high gear. They’ve helped me see things more clearly and even helped give me a more definitely (disclaimer: though still somewhat fluid) timeline for how/when it will all happen.

So, of course we all hoped to see her in ep 22. But if he we had, it would have had to have been in a coda. Like a preview of some kind. Because they didn’t quite get to the part of the story where I’m expecting to see her. But I’ll get into that in more detail.

So, we’ve been saying for a while that we think she’ll come through Eugene’s storyline, so that’s what I’ll be focusing on here. Because that’s specifically what I think we’ll see in S11. @wdway has found a TON of Beth symbolism around Eugene. She did most of her investigating and reporting over the long, CoVid hiatus, but I haven’t gotten around to posting much of it. Maybe I still will. We’ll see. There’s been so much to talk about lately.

Let me also state that, while I firmly believe we’ll see Beth in S11, I don’t think we’ll get to the point where Daryl will see her. And yes, that kinda sucks. But they probably won’t have their reunion until the spinoff. I know the Bethyl reunion is what we’re all waiting for, but hey, at least once we see her, we’ll know it’s coming, right?

So let’s start by going through the relevant template.

I’ve mentioned parts of this before, so I apologize if any part of it is repetitive. But it will help you if  you understand not just what I believe we’ll see, but why.

So, let’s return to 6x08/09. At the end of 6x07,  the church fell and all the walkers got into Alexandria. Eugene ends up in a garage with Tara and Rosita. They can’t get into the house connected to the garage because the dividing door is locked. After a discussion between the two ladies about whether they’re going to give up hope or else “do something,” Eugene offers to pick the lock and they get inside.

Inside, Morgan was keeping Creepy Wolf Dude (who I’ll abbreviate CWD) in the basement. He brought Denise (Beth proxy) in to patch up his injury, which she does. Carol wants to kill CWD and tries, but Morgan stops her. He’s on his “all life is precious” kick and ends up body slamming Carol, so she passes out. But when his back is turned, CWD also hits him over the head, so Carol and Morgan are both down for the count.

Just then, Eugene, Rosita and Tara enter, but CWD takes Denise hostage and leaves.

Everyone with me?

Okay, let’s start with Denise. Because of the way she died, Daryl’s reaction to her death, and AALLLLLL the Beth symbolism around her, she’s clearly a proxy for Beth. So what I’m going to argue is that this little sequence is a foreshadow and template for how she’ll be reintroduced into the show. Notice how Daryl isn’t present in any of these scenes. So again, this is how we, the audience will see her. Not how Daryl will first see her. Kapish? Okay.

So, I think Eugene unlocking the door to a new place represents him finding or “unlocking” a new community. Kinda like the one he, Yumiko, Zeke, and Princess are now in the process of discovering.

How did we come up with that? I honestly don’t remember in detail. Like I said, it’s something we’ve discussed for a long time. I think we started with Denise=Beth and worked backward from there. It kind of feels like out of all the members of TF, Eugene will see her first, but then she’ll be taken away from him right away.

Now, he’s in the midst of discovering new people/a new community. A few other pieces of evidence for this:

1)      Before they run into the garage, right after the church falls, Eugene gets on the radio and calls for help. Remember, Daryl hears him? So that parallels to Eugene talking with Stephanie via the radio.

2)      If you go through the dialogue of Rosita and Tara in this scene and compare it to dialogue in the scene in 10x16 between Yumiko and Ezekiel (the scene where his horse dies) the parallels are ridiculous. They aren’t the exact same lines of dialogue, but the meanings and chronology of it is almost exact.

3)      In terms of Denise = Beth, before she patches up Creepy Wolf Dude, she says to him, “show me the wound.” In Rick’s dream in 9x05, we heard Beth’s voice say, “What’s your wound?” It’s almost like they were trying to show us that Denise = Beth and that this template would play out with her return.

Okay, I hope that’s all clear. Shit’s about to get really interesting.

Before we continue, I want to remind you of THIS POST I did about 5x09. If you haven’t read it, I suggest doing so. I talk about the radio voice in 5x09 and how it talks about “attacks against the republic.” We couldn’t have known what that meant before, but now it’s clear that it’s a foreshadow of the CRM and the CRM war, which won’t happen until the spinoff.

It’s super interesting because Andrew Lincoln was the radio voice (he’s currently with the CRM) but he has his English accent. (I’ll tell you why that’s important in a minute. It wasn’t a casual or irrelevant choice on the writers’ parts.) So if that suggests Rick being with the CRM, which he is, it’s kind of interesting that Beth’s voice, singing “Struggling Man” also comes out of the radio at first, before we see her sitting there singing it. That suggests that she, too, will be with the CRM and part of the CRM war. None of Ty’s other death hallucinations spoke from the radio. I’m just saying.

The voice there even mentioned brutal attacks against the republic, including setting people on fire and hacking them with machetes. And that’s important because that’s just what the wolves did at Alexandria, and in the above template, we have CWD taking Denise (Beth). So it’s all interconnected.

But even so, I’ve had a hard time nailing down what it means and what the story line will actually be when Beth return.

Enter episode 10x21 and @bluesandbeth​’s inspired research.

In ep 21, Carol snoops around in Daryl’s room and finds the book “The Golden Age of Piracy.” Now, I’ll admit I didn’t look into this reference very extensively because I THOUGHT I knew what it meant. We had a “pirates” reference between Daryl and Carol in 10x01, when they first discussed leaving together on his bike. Since we already know they’ll be leaving together for the spinoff, that conversation was a foreshadow of what will happen in the spinoff. And if you’ve been following my posts,  you know that I see their whole arc in the bonus episodes (6x18 and 6x21) as a foreshadow of that same story line. So to me it was just another confirmation of the spinoff arc.

Then @bluesandbeth contacted me because she’d been looking into the Golden Age of Piracy book. She looked up the author and found out some interesting things. This author is real and basically wrote two kinds of historical books. (X) Books about piracy, and books about the American Revolutionary War. The author wrote a book called Greene and Cornwallis. (X)

Yikes! Yes, Greene is a real person and a patriot who stood against Cornwallis in the Revolutionary War. But what are the chances the writers use an author who just happens to have written a book with Beth’s last name in the title?

Historically, Nathaneal Greene was George Washington’s top general and right hand man during the war. I’ll come back to him. For now, it’s enough that he shares Beth’s last name.

I immediately hopped online to see what @bluesandbeth​ was seeing and look for more. And boy did I stumble upon a treasure trove!

I noticed a second book by this author called Swamp Fox. (Full title is Francis Marion: Swamp Fox.)

Now, you may wonder why that caught my attention. It’s not anything I ever posted about. It has to do with Leah. While me and my fellow theorists were discussing her and episode 10x18 endlessly, we noticed that Leah often wore a fox-fur scarf:

We conjectured back and forth about what it meant. Foxes, just like most animals, can have many different symbolic meanings depending on what culture you’re looking at. They’re often seen as sneaky and wily and deceptive, so we wondered if it was a reference to the writers “deceiving” us because Leah is a hallucination. But that was about the best we could come up with.

Well, when I saw the title of Swamp Fox, I immediately thought of Leah. And of course symbolically, Leah = Beth. So I decided to investigate.

And guess what? When I started reading about the Swamp Fox book, all the stuff from the S6 template above and the 5x09 stuff about Beth being part of the CRM war started clicking into place so fast, it made my head spin.

The Swamp Fox is about Francis Marion, a real man and patriot who also fought against the British during the American Revolutionary war. He’s the guy Mel Gibson’s character in The Patriot is based on. He faced down Cornwallis (one of the main British generals during the American Revolution) and was awesome at guerilla tactics and staying hidden. You know, in the swamp. Hence, they called him Swamp Fox.

Does that sound familiar to you? Think about what Andy Lincoln/Radio Voice said in 5x09 about Guerilla warfare and attacks against the Republic. You could describe Francis Marion’s military career any better if you tried.

And then I went to Wikipedia to look up general information on Marion and pictures of the British flag are all over the place.

Okay, this is another thing that won’t be very familiar to you because I haven’t focused on it much. In one of the episodes of TWB, Julia Ormond’s character is at home and we see a huge British flag hanging on her wall. Not surprising, given that she’s British. But it was such a huge, blatant symbol, and the camera focused on it for so long, that we figured it had to mean something. We just didn’t know what. The best we could figure is the colors (blue and red) and the fact that there’s both a huge X and a T/cross on the British flag.

Well, I now know what that symbol represents in TWD world. Reading about Marion and seeing the British flag on his Wikipedia page made it all make sense to me.

In short, Francis Marion, a.k.a. The Swamp Fox = Beth. She’s going to be the second-in-command general/guerilla warfare expert against the CRM. That’s why they had all that stuff in 5x09 when we saw her and heard her sing. The reason for the British flag is that Julia Ormond’s character = Cornwallis.

Read up on Francis Marion HERE.

(This is also why I said it’s important that in 5x09, they had Andrew Lincoln use is British accent for the radio broadcast. It’s meant to be from the point of view of the CRM, which symbolically represent the British in the template.)

So they’re using the American Revolution as a loose template for how the CRM war will go.

Back to Nathaneal Greene of Greene and Cornwallis? Yeah, same thing. Greene was George Washington’s direct under-general and right-hand man. Kind of like a…second or new sheriff? In the CRM war, George Washington = Rick and Nathaneal Greene = um, Greene (Beth).

More on Nathaneal Greene HERE.

But here’s the thing. None of that is going to happen until the spinoff. So why am I talking about it for S11? Well, it has to do with Charleston.

You can look this up on Wikipedia for more details, but Charleston was an event that was huge for Francis Marion. It was Charleston, South Carolina in that case. And it was a stronghold that the colonists were holding against the British. Then one day, the British attacked and took everyone there as prisoners of war. Marion WAS stationed there at the time, but he wasn’t there when the attack happened because he’d BROKEN HIS ANKLE in an accident and left the city to recuperate.

Okay. Anyone recognize Charleston in terms of Eugene or TWD world?

When talking to Stephanie over the radio, he got her to finally tell him where her settlement was. Any guesses? Charleston.

Now, in this case, it’s Charleston, West Virginia, but I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the writers went with the same name, even if it’s a different state.

So, here’s how I think it will play out.

I don’t think Stephanie’s group is actually the Commonwealth, or at least not the major, Commonwealth city everyone knows from the comic books. They DO have the white storm trooper guys, so I think they’re linked to the CW somehow. Like maybe they’re a branch of the CW in the same way Grady might have been an outlying branch—or at least in communication with—the CRM.

So again, maybe they’re PART of the CW, but they’re not living with the main group.

So, I think Eugene’s group will be taken to Charleston in S11 (that should happen next) and they will see Beth there. I have no idea if Eugene will recognize her or not. Given that we still don’t know what went down during the missing 17 days after Coda, and Eugene was hurt, we don’t know if he actually saw Beth at all or if he was out during that time. I’ve agonized over this a lot, but understanding this new template, I’ve come to realize that it doesn’t really matter. Maybe he’ll recognize her. Maybe he won’t. But either way, he’s not going to be in the same place with her for long.

I think soon after Charleston will be attacked. Now, historically, it was by the British, right? And because Julia Ormond’s character = Cornwallis, it’s got to be the CRM who attack Charleston. And we’ve seen them do this with other communities in TWB, so it makes sense.

But here’s where I had the S6 template wrong for a long time. Because CWD takes Denise, I thought a group would attack Stephanie’s community and take prisoners, and Beth would be taken with them, while Eugene and the others were left behind. 

But because of the Marion/Swamp Fox/Charleston thing, I think the opposite is true. Sounds like Eugene and co will be taken as prisoners by the CRM. Why did they do it the opposite way in S6? Because they couldn’t have had all the Alexandrians taken and Denise left behind. It just wouldn’t have worked for that S6 storyline. The point is mostly the separation. Eugene gets into a new place, briefly sees her, and then they’re separated.

So Charleston will be attacked and all the people (probably including Eugene, Yumiko, and Zeke) get captured by the CRM. If Beth is Marion, then she won’t be there when it happens.

I’m wondering if she’ll be out in the woods, hunting or getting supplies or something, and this is where she’ll step in the bear trap, injuring her ankle. That would fulfill all the bear trap symbolism around her, including Alone when she stepped in the small game trap. Just a guess on my part, but I think it’s highly likely.

Even if I’m wrong about that detail, I think she’ll be away from the Charleston community, just as Marion was, when the CRM captures the people there.

This is why it doesn’t really matter whether Eugene recognizes her or not. If he doesn’t, and they don’t realize they know the same people, she won’t know that Maggie and Daryl are (relatively) nearby. I think at this point she’ll go to try and rescue the people from the community who were captured (if she’s been with them for awhile, there are probably people there she cares about) and that’s how she’ll run into Rick and first cross paths with the CRM.

She and Daryl will meet down the road at a later date.

Even if Eugene DOES recognize her and she knows about TF, I still think she’s going to go try and rescue her friends before attempting to go to D.C. because they’re in more immediate danger and she’ll have some loyalty to them.

So, this is what I think we’ll see in S11. And I have no idea where it will cut off. Maybe the last thing we’ll see with Eugene in S11 is the fall of Charleston. Or maybe that will happen in episode 2. I really have no idea.

But I’m going to mention one other thing before I stop for today. I know this is getting wrong.

Who is Creepy Wolf Dude in this template? I mean, the wolves attacked Alexandria, so we could assume it’s just the CRM, and maybe a particular person in the CRM. Might be.

But rewatching 6x08, something caught my ear.

Morgan and Carol were arguing about whether or not to kill Creepy Wolf Dude, right? She keeps saying he needs to die. Morgan keeps saying no. And then we have a really interesting conversation.

Carol (talking about wolves): They made us kill. We had to stop it. I had to stop it.

Morgan: Where there’s life, there’s possibility. Even if we never let him out—

CWD: I’d get out.

Morgan (talking over him): Even if we never let him out, he could know what he’s done.

Who else killed and made TF kill? And rather than killing this person, they put him into a cell, vowing never to let him out. But he got out?

Negan! They’re basically talking about Negan’s fate after AOW here.

And guys, that’s CRAZY. I think CWD = Negan.

And I have more evidence for this.

In the TTD after 5x09, I remember that Nicotero was on it. And they were talking about how intrigued CWD was by Denise. I think it was Chris who said something like (and I paraphrase), “I guess it wouldn’t be right to say he fell in love with her or anything…”

And Nicotero corrected him and said CWD kinda did fall in love with Denise. Maybe not in a lifelong, deep, abiding love like we see with Bethyl/Glaggie/Richonne/Etc., but he’d never met anyone like her and he was intrigued by her. He fell in love with her as much as a killer like him could fall in love with someone.

Then, in 7x16, we had Sasha’s death. We went on and on about all the Beth symbolism around Sasha in that episode. It was ridiculous! Kind of like these bonus episodes had been. And Negan…kinda liked Sasha. I mean, I don’t think anyone would have described it as falling in love, but he liked and respected her. Said she had beach-ball-sized lady nuts and he truly respected her and was sad to see her die.

So I think these are both templates that point to what will happen next.

(BTW, Eugene was present for a LOT of Sasha’s final episodes.)

The main reason we always thought Beth would show up with the Saviors is because of the Negan (bat, actually) symbolism around her. But if she and Negan have a major arc together or interaction later on, all of that will suddenly make sense.

So again, I’m not sure if we’ll see this in S11 or if it will come later, but I think after Charleston falls, Negan and Beth will somehow meet (maybe he leaves the communities at some point) and have a lot of scenes and episodes together.

All right. I’ll stop there. Do I know any of this for certain? Of course not. As always, it’s subject to change. Especially the details. And the instant I see anything that changes my thinking or makes me realize I interpreted something wrong, I’ll let you know.

But my biggest point is that this really SHOULD be the next thing we see with Eugene’s group. Of course, this is TWD and it might still take us 8 or 10 or more episodes to get there as they have a lot of things to focus on S11. But it’s coming. And soon.

Remember that S11 is scheduled to start in June. So we don’t have long to wait. (Yay!)

Thoughts?

[echo-three-one]

The strongest lead toward Shepherd that will lead them to Nero. (honestly I can't think of better summaries lately. I hope you're still enjoying THE ROAD SO FAR (CUE carry on my wayward son)

Table of Contents

Previous Chapter : If I Remember Correctly

Chapter 22 to another story made by Ray (echo-three-one) Comments and Reviews appreciated! I hope you enjoy! Love you all ❤️ Look how far we've come!

Going Dark - Part 1

"Alex"

Safe House 110197, Brazil

Alex woke up to the smell of Samantha's shampoo. God, she smelled so beautiful. He thought as he shifted his position carefully, trying not to disturb his sleeping girl.

Samantha caught wind of his actions and turned back to him. 

"Good Morning." Alex greeted with the most wholesome and lovable smile he could ever conjure. He could see Samantha actually blush at his smile, meaning that his charm still worked toward her even after all those times.

"Good Morning… you-" She greeted back but Alex immediately met her lips with his, turning a simple morning greeting into a hot make out session. Samantha ran her hand across his arm down to his chest, pushing the tough muscle as her eyes slowly closed, enjoying the way Alex's mouth moved inside hers.

"I wish I could just sit out this mission and stay here with you…" he mused, tapping her nose and smiling.

"You go out there and fix the world, hero. I'll be here when you get back." She winked as Alex slowly got up and left the room, his eyes never leaving hers until he was out of sight.

Alex stepped out of the stairs to the view of Price complaining about the water. Roach was already shuffling to the kitchen to satisfy their Captain's needs. This gave Alex the chance to check on Maxine.

"How are you holding up, Maxine." He asked.

"What's wrong, lass?" Price inserted sipping his morning coffee.

"Hey Alex, Captain Price…" She greeted, her voice was shaky but she looked like she had the courage to respond.

"I had a strange dream last night… I believe it was one of my memories." She spoke softly. Price and Alex's face lit up.

"That's good news!" Alex cheered, shaking her shoulders and quickly withdrawing his hands as soon as it felt awkward.

"Good on ya, lass. Cheers to that!" He raised his mug and nodded.

"Captain Price." Another familiar voice interrupted behind them.

"I have intel on Shadow Company." Ghost announced, everyone fell silent and they immediately gathered around the command center. Soap and France followed as they walked down the stairs together.

"Three addresses in three separate London Apartments." he informed while typing furiously across the keyboard. The map had three yellow blinking dots, two of them were close to each other while one was far away.

"Intel says they're not sure which of these had a Shadow Company residing in it. They're most probably on leave and might be armed." Ghost added, showing three faces of men which were presumed targets for intel.

"Where'd you get these? They look like very classified information." Price asked, crossing his arms and looking at Ghost.

"Let's just say I know someone." he replies smugly.

"And why would we follow such a lead?" Jack added, making the situation very awkward for the rest of the team.

"Is this…" Soap tried to insert.

"Yes, Soap. It's interpol." he finished. The rest of the team looked at each other.

"They wanted to investigate more on the Shadow Company. But since they aren't authorized to act on it, all they do is gather information. Which is frustrating-" Ghost complained but got cut off by Price.

"They're asking for our help because we're rogue. No rules, no anything…" He stated the bitter tone in his voice was too clear.

"We can't just casually fly to London, right? Who's helping us?" Alex stated the larger problem at hand. If this lead is solid enough, they have to act on it.

"Nikolai could fly us in. I could pull a few favors from S.A.S. but they're going to have to be sneaky to let us land there. We can't forget the fact that we're fugitives. I mean, Shepherd only put Me, Alex, Soap, Ghost and Roach on his list." Price said.

"My dream of being wanted came true in the worst way possible." Soap cracked a joke to lighten up the mood. It obviously worked except for Jack, who always never gets the humor.

They continued briefing, planning the route that they would take saving the most time. Which weapons to use and other protocols to follow. 

~

"Saving the world once again, my hero?" Samantha leaned on him as he continuously flicked Soap's lighter.

"Stop calling me that. I'm no hero. I'm just trying to set things back the way they were." 

"Like what heroes do." Samantha chuckled sitting next to him and rested her head on his lap.

"My Dad probably misses me so much." She sighed, looking at Alex as he looked down on her, his fingers played with her hair.

"If we could find the perfect time, we could tell him you're safe. It's unfair how the whole world thinks we took you as a hostage." he complained.

"Well, when you think of it I really am a prisoner here." she mused as Alex's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Then once his brain cells finally agreed, he smiled and laughed.

"Oh I get it." he reached for her hand and put it close in his heart. 

"You're trapped in here aren't you." they both laughed.

"That's so corny, right?" Samantha giggled.

"Yeah. It is." Alex replied as they continued to spend the rest of the few hours they had together before flying to the Majesty's domain.

LONDON

UNITED KINGDOM

Price wasn't able to land on the S.A.S. base, but they did assist the rogue team to land on an open area not too far from the base and Nikolai seemed to be fine with it. The team borrowed MacMillan's jeep and took the road less traveled to the city. 

Everyone looked alert and worried, this was a risky move but it was all they had to get to Shepherd, to get to Nero.

They drove as fast as they legally could, knowing that their faces wouldn't be recognized by anyone until Ghost distributed his extra skull masks, which allowed them to move freely across the streets of the nearest target location.

The first apartment room was located on the third floor, that meant they had to ascent two flights of stairs without raising suspicion. Ghost immediately worked his way to the basement and disabled the lights.

A quick flicker and the building's lights immediately shut off, making some of the tenants scream in surprise. It was time to move.

The team slowly crept the stairs, their steps were light enough that they could only hear faint creaking. Price led the line as they cleared the hallway all the way up to the third. 

Alex was behind Price as he saw the target room's door was slightly ajar. It's either they're lucky he forgot to lock it or they were too late. Proceeding with extreme caution, Price swung the door open and continued to scour the room for the guy. 

"Right door, clear." Price announced as everyone scattered around to look for intel. Jack searched the closets hoping that clues were left behind inside pockets. Roach looked for the drawers while Price and Alex looked for clues of possible escape. 

"Someone's going up to this floor." Soap whispered as he signaled the team to remain quiet. He was by the door on lookout for the team.

Complete silence. Alex could only hear his breathing and his heartbeat as the person walked past the hall, not minding the open room he just passed through.

They took a few more minutes of intel gathering until they ultimately decided to call it off. It was a dead lead.

"Two more houses." Ghost announced as the team silently regrouped by the car where Nikolai was waiting. The lights immediately returned as soon as they set foot on the vehicle.

"I sure hope we get something from the next house." Roach wished as they drove to the next location.

The second location almost had the same layout. They did the same plan but this time Alex and Soap switched roles. Guard duty was significantly harder when it's dark and Alex did his best to heighten his senses. 

Signs of struggle were heard from the inside and Alex assumed they finally identified one of the targets. He could hear the person's groans and struggles as well as his team working hard to constrain the person.

"Ghost. It looks like they got him." Alex reported as he could hear Ghost working on something. Then in just a flash, the lights turned back on along with a loud booming sound of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up". Alex entered the room and looked at the poor guy being surrounded by his squad. He was trying to scream for help but Rick Astley begged to differ. 

"We're just here for one simple question…

WHERE. IS. SHEPHERD?" Price roared. The guy didn't easily give in. He just shook his head and continued to struggle free. Jack immediately pulled his hand and placed some pliers in between the hostage's fingers.

"Isn't that a little bit too harsh?" Soap whispered to Roach, who just shrugged.

"What's harsh is that they used an innocent daughter as bait." Jack slowly squeezed the pliers making the hostage scream. 

"AAAAAAAAAH." He squirmed making the rest of the team hold him tight. Alex had his eyes set on the door as neighbors started to complain about the booming music.

He squirmed enough that it activated something in his pocket, a smartphone whose light shone through the fabric of his pants. Then in a flash, a small scale EMP blast rendered the whole building quiet. All electrical devices were disabled and Alex and the team found themselves kneeling as the loud ringing triggered their ears.

None of them were too quick to react as their hostage looked like he wasn't affected by the blast. He bolted toward the exit and Alex attempted to grab him by the foot, only for him to effortlessly shrug him off and stomp on him, causing him to roll in pain.

From the corner of his eye, he could see Soap follow along with Roach, who were still holding their ears and wincing from the pain of the ringing. 

Next Chapter : Going Dark - Part 2

Notification Squad my Beloved

@samatedeansbroccoli @smokeywhalee @enderio @whimsywispsblog @beemybee @ricinbach

[beeblackburn]

The Anti-TBR Tag

I was tagged by @books-and-doodles! Thank you! And poor you, for I am a long-winded bastard.

1. A popular book EVERYONE loves that you have no interest in reading?

On general principle, I feel like the really popular stuff (Twilight, Throne of Glass, Divergent, The Mortal Instruments) ends up being stuff I’m inherently not going to be attracted to and some of them have their own hatedoms going on, so going after them in detail would be punching down (though I don’t particular like any of the above). So I’m going to try to go off the beaten path with these seven:

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab = nothing against her personally, though I heard her The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue was baaaaad, but apparently, she’s similar to Sanderson in the magic system being better than the characterization and I heard her writing’s got a white faux-female empowerment sort of thing going that I’m growing increasingly... discontent of by itself. I might try it out later, but I also got hundreds of books to drill through first and I’m in no rush.

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo = I’ve been increasingly getting the sense that Six of Crows was a flash in the pan, Bardugo’s style more defined by fun than genuine substance. And given a rather scathing review that points out unearned shifts in characterization, lackluster supporting cast, and two really uncomfortable exploitative sexual assault fantasy scenes (one of which was underaged!), I’m gonna say no.

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik = I generally like Novik! She’s a very solid writer to me and I’ve bought most of her books, so this is purely me not taking to the Wizarding School genre. Sorry, Novik, "a twisted, super dark, super modern, female-led Harry Potter" isn’t the selling point it once was, and even then, I probably wouldn’t have taken to it. Especially when I’ve already got The Gray House by Mariam Petrosyan to read.

The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson = I’ve got mixed feelings on Mistborn looking back: it’s hardly the worst of his oeuvre (Elantris is that and was admittedly his first book) and The Final Empire took a few narrative risks that I admire, I also found the resulting books a tad juvenile and I don’t take to steampunk, genre-wise. I’m not even that much of a Sanderson fan, so I’d rather just read the summary for all I care.

Storm Front by Jim Butcher = given what I’ve been told about The Dresden Files’ lessening of noir roots past the first few books, how it later became more flashy-and-bang magical, and how it’s pretty sexist early on (and from what I’ve been told, doubled down on it later on and having worse treatments of its female characters), I’m in no particular rush to read them. The urban fantasy genre on them only turns me off more.

The Doors of Stone by Patrick Rothfuss = hahaha, I’m sorry, I did read The Name of the Wind, and read select parts of The Wise Man’s Fear, but everyone, instead of waiting and devoting your time for this book to come, I would suggest reading Fitz, Who Is Actually Good and Can Wring More than Disgust and an Eye-Roll out of You in Robin Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings, given she is far better at characterization than Rothfuss.

Anything by Paul Krueger, Sam Sykes, and Myke Cole = fuck all three of these men and the idea that I’ll pay for their stuff. While I can’t demand any of you not buy from them and I’ll hardly claim to be a saint in terms of ethics, purchase-wise, I would beseech you all please don’t buy from these three authors who have a history of inappropriateness.

2. A classic book (or author) you don’t have an interest in reading?

Charles Dickens = look, I know his word count is padded because of serial installments back then, but I’m sorry, I wasn’t that impressed by the child-sanitized versions of Great Expectations and Oliver Twist. They were easily some of the most boring of out of the child-sanitized classics I read. It was the pictures that kept me going and barely at that. No thanks.

Emily Brontë =  look, if I wanted shitty people being shitty to each other, I’d much rather read Joe Abercrombie because at least I’ll get some intentional dark comedy out of dumb shitheads being terrible to each other (Best Served Cold comes to mind). And I know we’re not meant to like these self-destructive people, but I’d rather not hate everyone that much.

Alexander Dumas = Three Musketeers really didn’t age well, just from the TV Tropes page and I’m not really looking forward to an adventure that goes out of its way to valorize its protagonists being adventurous assholes who dueled, drank, and womanized harder than anyone else and we should commend that because they were men. Ugh.

3. An author you have read a couple of books from & have decided their books are not for you?

Leigh Bardugo = like I said, I feel like Six of Crows (and Crooked Kingdom, to a lesser extent) was a flash in the pan and she’s been increasingly running on fumes ever since then. Good and fun with a decent eye for characterization, but hardly revolutionary, considering how I think Crooked Kingdom isn’t quite as good as Six of Crows, and the less said about Shadow and Bone, the better.

Neil Gaiman = I’ve read some of his stuff (and I didn’t quite see the hype over his writing, but liked it decently enough) but having heard that, in his Sandman run, he wrote in a transwoman solely to get killed for an emotional ending and how he defended that choice for awhile left a battery acid taste for me to read more. He’s a formative part of people’s childhoods, so I don’t blame anyone for being fans, he’s just not for me.

Steven Erikson = really nothing against the dude, I’m sure he's probably a decent guy, but I didn’t take to Gardens of the Moon at all and skimming Deadhouse Gates and Memories of Ice (which were admittedly better) made me realize its prose was something I would need a hard and sharp shovel to crack through, and the darting around of many, many POVs made me feel not invested in anyone.

4. A genre you have no interest in OR a genre you tried to get into & couldn’t?

I’ll answer both because I have the time:

I’m not interested in romance, mostly because it’s an entire genre built around the build-up. It’s usually the story about the beginning of a relationship, not the relationship itself. I’d genuinely like to read about the story of a romance that doesn’t stop shortly after the hook-up or before the honeymoon period ends. The City Watch parts of Discworld by Terry Pratchett, The Memoirs of Lady Trent by Marie Brennan and The Sharing Knife by Lois McMaster Bujold all have romantic elements that are relatively undrenched in melodrama or frills, but none of them are pure romances, which is a huge problem. I can take romantic subplots in fantasy, but I can’t take the genre as-is.

Urban fantasy is a genre I’m not against having my mind changed on liking, but right now, I generally find it insipid, a shortcut to good world-building, short on great characterization, and an excuse to lampshade and pretense to being above fantastical clichés in a tongue-in-cheek attitude while still committing to them. I do genuinely like Rivers of London by Ben Aaronvitch, but that’s really the concession I can give the entirety of the genre. I took a crack at Rick Riordan and Cassandra Clare’s stuff, but it didn’t feel like my sort of thing. Again, would like to be convinced, but I’d much rather read a domestic or slice-of-life fantasy set in a more overtly fantasy world than the urban one. 

Also, sci-fi, but I’m trying again with the Wormwood trilogy by Tade Thompson, An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon, and either the Imperial Radch trilogy by Ann Leckie, or the Teixcalaan trilogy by Arkady Martine. I snoozed through Azimov’s Foundation and generally bored myself of hard sci-fi books, so I’m hoping contemporary sci-fi changes my mind on the entire genre.

5. A book you have bought but will never read?

A book I personally bought? Honestly, Traitor’s Blade by Sebastien de Castell. No particular reason, I just bought it at a closing-down sale at a branch of my bookstore on the cheap because the cover looked nice and didn’t really take to its blurb. I heard good things though, so if anyone else wants to read it...

I tag @vera-dauriac, @xserpx, @autoapocrypha, @kateofthecanals, @turtle-paced, @insecticidalfeminism, @secretlyatargaryen, @helix-eagle-hourglass-nebula, @xillionart, @jovolovo and whoever else that is following me and wishes to do this tag (I’d like to read your posts, so please tag me! :D)

[marswr1tes]

what do you mean, "you love me"?

requested? yes / no

request: I wanna make a request for Leo Valdez pls anything angsty and lovey// Hi, about the Valdez imagine—I didn’t have anything specifically in mind just something angsty and romantic and stuff! I can’t find a lot of stuff on Leo and he’s my favorite // Actually an enemies to lovers Leo imagine would be rly cool now that I think about it

pairing: leo valdez x gn!reader

author's notes: hey ,, hey ,, how y’all doing....i’m so sorry i took a very long leave. after i got out of the hospital from being sick, my grandmother almost died from brain fluid leaking, and then i fell into a depressive episode, and a whole lot of shit happened so i couldn’t write. it’s honestly kinda pathetic of me though lmao, i should’ve gotten this out way earlier than i did. anywho, this is set around a week after july 4, you can decide the year x. also you'll have to forgive me if i got some things wrong, i haven't read the books in a while oops(i found the header here) ((ALSO THIS IS SO SHITTY AND SO RUSHED IM SO SORRY))

warnings: shouting/yelling, non-consensual kiss(but it's okay, because the person being kissed was okay with it)

tags: @stylishharry

word count: idk man i didn’t count lmao

═════════════════════════════════════════════

peaceful dreams. you finally had peaceful dreams. well, sorta. you were having a dream about the second titan war -which wasn’t peaceful, believe me- but in the grand scheme of all demigod dreams, this was on the more relaxed side. you were currently fighting an empousa with your friend, rose , but just as you were about to stab it, the scenery had changed, and your older brother jake loomed over you.

"y/n." he shook your body. "y/n, wake up." you shielded your face with your arms and rolled over.

“what is it now?" you asked him.

"it's chiron. he wants you at the big house, says you're in big trouble. i think it has to do with the prank you pulled last week." you groaned. last week, while everyone had gone to the cookout and firework show, you had "rickified" every cabin, except for yours. every single cabin,building, and any place you could stick pictures, had been completely covered in pictures of rick astley. and while it wasn't your best prank, you had a very fun time watching everyone think they had found the last of the pictures, just to be met with more. needless to say, chiron was upset. wanting to get in further trouble, you hauled yourself out of bed and to your suitcase. you then grabbed an outfit and headed towards the bathroom to change.

~

inside the big house, you were met with two unfriendly faces. one belonged to your favorite centaur, chiron, and the other belonged to your least favorite person to exist, leo valdez. there actually wasn’t a good reason you disliked the guy. for gods’ sake, you barely knew him! at first you thought it was his face, but after thinking about it-though you would never verbally admit it-he was attractive. anyway, there you were, in front of chiron and leo.

“so,” chiron began. “both of you are here for chores. first you’ll be cleaning the stables, then you’ll be cleaning the armor and weapons, then you’ll be deep cleaning all the cabins while the other campers are out, and then you’ll be coming back here to clean the big house. i’ll be giving you the list in case you forget, and come back here if you have any questions throughout the day. understood?” you nodded. leo slightly adjusted his tool belt before opening his mouth to ask a question.

“we’re doing this all together?” chiron nodded.

“of course. i couldn’t imagine why you wouldn’t be.” he answered. then you piped up.

“could we split the list in half and work separately but still get everything done?”

“while that could work and i suppose i’d be pleased with the outcome, part of the punishment is working together. i’m not blind, you two. i know you dislike each other. and anyways, wouldn’t it take longer to do on your own?” leo and you stayed silent.

“well then, off you go, children. and leo, dear, before you go, your belt please.” chiron said.

“my what?” leo looked back at the centaur.

“your tool belt? hand it over.”

~

and so you went, to the stables and to the arena, to the cabins and back to the big house, cleaning and organizing everything without a word shared between you two. or rather, leo tried to make small talk, but you ignored him and moved away. finishing up, you put the mop back in the closet, before you dusted your shirt off and headed off to your cabin to freshen up for dinner. as you grabbed your comb off your nightstand, there was a knock at your door. assuming it was rose coming to walk you for dinner, you ran over with a smile on your face. opening the door, that smile immediately dropped.

“go away.” you said. and then you slammed the door on him. leo looked hurt, but he got over it, and he knocked again.

“just go away, leo, no one asked you to talk to me.”

“i’m not leaving.”

“please just go.”

“no, this isn’t up for debate. i’m staying.”

“what the fuck is your issue? what the fuck do you think you’re playing at?”

“i- what?”

“is this some sort of sick game to you? is this funny to you, leo?” you asked angrily.

“i don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, y/n?”

“the fact that you never seem to think of what’s going on through my head!”

“seriously, what on the gods green earth are you saying?”

“i love you, okay? i love you, i love you, i love you! and i’ve loved you since you camp to camp! i love the way you fix your hair, i love your smile, i love the way you jump around when you get excited, i love the way your eyes light up when you talk about something you’re passionate about, i love the way you play with those trinkets of yours, i love the way when i rant about something you actually listen, even though i’m not talking to anyone but myself and even though we’re supposed to be enemies because no one has ever cared about me that much before. i love you and you don’t even notice. and that drives me up the wall.”

“what do you mean ‘you love me’? i see the way you look at grayson. i hear you giggle when they say something flirty to you. i see how flustered you get when they smirk at you. i notice these things, y/n, i notice. and i notice that i’m never on the receiving end of these actions. oh my gods, i wish you looked at me like that. like i’m the only one that’s for you. like the world could be ending but at least we’re together.”

“did you ever stop to think that i was doing it for you to be jealous? because funnily enough, i did. i thought i could distract my own jealousy and anger and pain by becoming obsessed with grayson. i don’t know exactly what i expected from it, but i know that i didn’t expect to imagine that me and grayson’s interactions were ours.”

“...did you really?”

“of course i did. and i meant every word of loving you too. i truly love you, leo. and it’s kinda weird i’m saying this because i know you’re not supposed to drop the bomb this early on-“

he interrupted you with a kiss. his lips were chapped and tasted a little like chocolate.

“i love you too, y/n. and i’m sorry about all the things i caused.”

“don’t worry about all that, because at least we’re together, eh?” he grinned that perfect smile of his.

“at least we’re together.” he said, then placing his lips back onto yours.

[mismashedsocks]

 so riordan made a half assed lame excuse on his lazy/racist writing on piper yesterday and on top of that he made another one on samirah and i’m muslim so i am going to talk about it

damn i’m so sorry these people have been pushing you past your comfort zone about your wildly popular racist caricatures of minorities that have great impact on your young, impressionable target audience. while its fine that if he takes a break for his mental health he still needs to deal with these problems you can’t just take a break and hope they go away.

why does he think everyone is bullying him. if they talked in all caps, cussed at you, or didn’t stop bothering you, i’m sorry they’re just trying to get you to realize how racist your books are, which you keep refusing to believe. i can believe that a few of them were doing it for attention, but it couldn’t be the majority. and my god, god forbid people want you to write your books the way you preferred, without racist stereotypes. 🙈

you can set your boundaries but you keep ignoring the people, you don’t listen. like you put yourself out there as a writer you are open to criticism

why does he keep doing this to seem like the good guy. you give excuses and don’t do anything and just say that its up to you, you can think whatever you want 🥰🥰. like its such an obvious excuse not to take any action.

i’m sorry but no matter how many muslims you��ve interacted with you haven’t gotten the full experience and last time i checked teachers aren’t the kids best friends soo uhm. anyways the rest of it is just him telling his experience with muslimah students so its just there.

so uhm you just said your students ‘unwillingly’ become an ambassador to everyone she knew’. and then you went to talk to them about islam to make sure you were TEACHING THEM YOUR SOURCE MATERIAL CORRECTLY. i’m sorry imagine. these are kids not some scholars you go to consult. there are so many muslims all over the internet and youtube sharing their experiences for you to access on how to ‘represent their experience’ correctly. you’re the teacher here. picture this:as a muslilm, i teach at a public school and while teaching about Christianity in class, no i would double check or some dumb shit with the students. like educate yourself i’m sorry. anyways apparently he blames his mistakes on himself then goes on to deny he ever made any mistakes i can’t.

so this is a blatant lie. 99% of muslims i’ve met have never read all of sahih bukhari and sahih muslim. usually only scholars do that when they are studying islam for YEARS. and FIVE different interpretations of the quran on top of that. ok so sahih bukhari is 9 books that are over 300 pages each and sahih musilm is 7 volumes with also about 300+ pages each. and then the english versions of the quran are 600 pages. and he claims he read five of them. i’m so sorry but no he didn’t. he writes books so fast and he released mcga around the time toa was being released almost one book per year so he did not have a lot of spare time. the rest ig i can let slide. also and if he did do all of that why does he make so many mistakes in writing samirah. and even IF you accept his excuses reading ALL of this source material is great for teaching your class or whatever but not for writing a modern day muslim. you don’t need to lie to us rick ❤️

most of this is just describing what she’s like but his writing did also add in the model minority, smart kid trope. like no they don’t have to be a terrorist or a A+ student who is the best at everything. there is a middle ground to their personality. 

i actually used to love his rep in sam. that’s how i got into the series. i saw a hijabi girl on his website. i got excited and read all of his books. i loved piper, leo, hazel, percy, annabeth, sadie, carter, nico, everyone. now that i look back i was younger and didn’t see anything wrong with it back then. its great that he tried to portray minorities but he did it so badly and now is just denying the faults that his now older readers are trying to tell him.

hey, uhm didn’t you read all of sahih bukhari and muslim? hmm i didn’t think so. anyways the way he dealt with it honestly wasn’t that bad. but the whole ‘whoops’. like why does he keep portraying himself as the innocent old white man just trying his best.

honestly how he wrote samirah as a hijabi was the dumbest thing i’ve ever read. its is totally fine if she wasn’t hijabi, many muslim girls aren’t, and that is their choice. but he decided to make her like a weird middle ground. it was so lazy and inconsistent. in the first book she says she wears it when she needs to, like in situations like going to the masjid. this was fine, since many muslim girls do that. then in the next books she wears it all the time except when she’s in valhalla for some reason. hijabi girls take of their scarves when they’re at home or with family, but making her claim the entirety of vallhalla as her family. that was just demeaning and stupid to me. it takes away its value. and i fucking hated that last sentence. for hijabis, their hijab is important and not a toy or weapon or a MAGIC ITEM. and then on top of that she would have to take it of to hide. he could’ve made it anything else. her hijab isn’t some token item istg.

i love how he admits that they are a big problem and abusive and usually engage with child marriages. i’m relatively he doesn’t understand what the people even meant by it. the practice is a problem that isn’t supposed to be seen in a nice light. the only possible way it could be slightly ok is that if ADULTS agree they 100% do not want to choose who they want to get married to and let their parents choose, and both sides agree. samirah was a child and he decided to make her wedding life decided since the age of 12. and it was ok because amir was conventionally attractive and she loved him. WHAT IF SHE DIDNT. this literally is a dangerous arranged marriage. and arranged marriages are not ok, and mostly perpetuated by victims of it who will end up passing it down their family lines. my parents got an arranged marriage and I HAVE NEVER SEEN THEM DISPLAY ANY SIGNS OF AFFECTION. arranged marriages are not a trope that your can turn around to be a quirky personality trait for your characters.

i’m sorry that’s not how arranged marriages work. most likely if she said something her grandparents would have shut her done and continued with the marriage, as that is what you usually happens. do not portray the small amount of consented, ‘happy’ arranged marriages as the majority. it is a huge problem that many desi/middle eastern cultures are trying to erase. even on top of that he writes situations where she’s going to be in trouble for acting up and ‘jeopardizing the marriage agreement’ and that her grandparents think she’s ‘lucky that she could get the fadlan family to agree to marry their son to her’. these statements are often used in forced and dangerous marriages, so don’t try and justify your actions. if you wanted to show traditional customs in a positive light, there are so many richer parts of samirah’s culture you could’ve focused on and you chose arranged marriage. 😻 all you’ve done is given parents and authority figures a westernized resource to justify arranged and forced marriages, especially with the minimal explanation on how the marriage isn’t forced in the actual books. and yes, your books do condone child marriage samirah is clearly deemed into this marriage ever since the young age of 12. she lived her life knowing she would marry amir. no one has only one crush throughout their life. imagine how she would’ve grown up. sorry you only consider opinions that align with those in you mind.

i’m going to be honest i did like that one scene it was written nicely and accurately but the explanation he gives just ruins the entire thing. the way he just if this strikes you as islamophobic, or samirah as a hurtful, uhm no explanation i just disagree 😽. the way you wrote her is a hurtful stereotype sorry you can’t see it.

oops, you did. too bad you don’t want to do anything about it.

why do you think people are painting you in a negative light, so many of your characters are written on hurtful and negative stereotypes. people aren’t painting it that way, you need to calm down w your ego and listen. dang i’m sorry your best is giving half-assed excuses and not actually doing anything. i’m even more sorry people are mad that a highly privileged author that has a lot of influence is done talking about his racist depictions of minorities in his books. 

dang must be lucky to take a break from the social media, imagine what all the minorities you wrote about have to go with everyday weather they are on social media or not. people aren’t bullying you this is valid criticism you refuse to listen to.

fuck you

obviously these are my opinions do not judge every muslim based on what i’ve said come to me if you have a problem with it

anyways support jewish, muslim, black, brown, asian, hispanic, indigenous, lgbtq+, disabled, and other minority authors and creators.

[at-the-exd-of-everythixg]

Memes! Part 2

@blind-mutant / @awkward-snake-girl

Mattie: Wyy would I buy a weighted blanket when I can sleep with the weight of knowing I will never be enough

******

Lace: If you date me my sleep paralysis demon becomes OUR sleep paralysis demon

******

Samuel: Concept: you taking me to an aquarium and watching lovingly as I completely ignore you to look at the jellyfish

******

Jen: Your honour my client would like to plead oopsie daisies

******

Mordecai: Be the reason why your local woods are haunted

******

Rhys: I am looking disrespectfully

******

Sal: Your boyfriend hates me cause I'm fruity and dress better than him

******

Hulk: Accidentally indulged in too much "me time", turns out I've been reported missing for over six months and presumed dead by most local and national authorities

******

Mattie: Not to be soft but I would love to make you tea with honey and run you a bath with rose petals and just make you feel like the most special person in the world

******

Pascal: You have lips,,,I have lips,,,interesting,,,

******

Doe: A knife??? Are you flirting with me???

******

Samuel: I'm sorry I pushed evil buttons in the evil lab but that is a you problem

******

Sal: I sent you a heart emoji. Send one back btich.

******

Finn: Being held is actually the most healing thing in the world

******

Rhys: Anyway I want to be rawed romantically

******

Dae: Oh wow....I've got to hands....you've got two hands...maybe we can like....put them together....and interlock our fingers....? only if you want to...aha...

******

Lace: Hanging out with old people rules because after a while they trust you enough to confess murder totally unprompted

Finn: Wait what

******

Rhys: If I had a sexy evil wife who wanted me to kill the king and seize power, I would simply not be a little btich about it. RIP to Macbeth but I'm different

******

Pascal: Hold on I'm having a coherent thought

******

Mattie, slowly removing heart glasses: I beg your fucking pardon

******

Mimi: Oh I am ABSOLUTELY messed up but it did make me funny

******

Edith: Don't like me? Well come and kill me be the change you wish to fucking see

******

Hulk: Wow...being alive is uncomfortable

******

Sal: Yes it is true. I, unfortunately am diagnosed with lovey dovey bitch syndrome

******

Jen: If I were to open a PO box would you send me fan mail?

Wulf: aye

Sal: No

Samuel: I would send hazardous items in an attempt to harm you

******

Skaar: I think memory loss is something I do on purpose by accident

*******

Sal: I miss you

Sal: nvm it was just a moment of weakness

******

Rick: What if I died and came back to life would that be fucked up or would I still be hot

*******

Rhys: Perhaps the only way to truly defeat evil...is with tender and gentle homoeroticism....

*******

Lace: Can't talk rn dude, yearning

******

Mahogany: What if...we blinked slowly at each other...and we were both animals that recognise this as a gesture of trust...

*******

Mordecai: Destroy the idea that I am shaped like a friend, I am actually shaped like a threat so you better fucking run

******

Mattie: It is honestly a travesty you are not being held in my arms rn :/

******

Finn: ok I decided not to be so emotional and overreacting

Finn: Failed

******

Rick: Yeah dude I drink a lot. Drink at parties all the time. Yea you heard right, 9 capri suns. In 45 minutes.

******

Sal: Just because I came when you went pspspspspsp doesn't mean I like you. Fucking idiot.

******

Wulf: Guess what I'm about to get

Edith: On my nerves

******

Red: help!! I was vulnerable and I can't take it back!!

******

Samuel: Losers try to tell me I emit "nuclear radiation", like that's my vibe idiot

******

Lace: Baby boy I won't lie to you, I am not on my medication

******

Mattie: Let's bring back romanticism, I'm tired of bring rational, we are all dumb and we all want love

******

Mordecai: Sex with demons was totally chill until the church ruined it

[weaselbeaselpants]

Hazbin/Helluva are hated for the exact same reason they’re loved:

Before I begin I need to repeat something and that’s that you please, kindly, DO NOT BOTHER ANYONE WORKING ON THE SHOW WITH THIS POST. I don’t care if you’re a fan looking for their opinion or a “critic” looking for their response. THESE PEOPLE ARE WORKING HARD, THIS IS NOT A CALL OUT POST IT’S JUST FAN DRIVEL LEAVE PEOPLE ALONE OKAY?!?!?

okey

Here are the facts of the matter:

Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss are independently produced cartoons made by a bunch of people juuuuust breaking in on the animation market, and/or internet famous artists having fun with the world they’re producing. The creator, like her style or not, is inspired and VERY passionate about what she likes and what she wants. Everyone working on the show is really into it and their work. It’s such a self-made fandom it was technically a fandom first and a product second. Fans feel like they (and technically do) have a say in how the show should be run and what the characters should be.

It is popular enough to attract attention online but not overblown by the mainstream media.

On the positive side all those things mean:

It’s crew is tight-nit and very passionate + stick up for each other and their projects. It’s basically a giant colab. Whether they were preexisting fans/friends of Viv, the people working on it got to work on something they liked and with people they liked.

The animation community is super pumped and excited for them be they fans of the animators or just people who like cartoons and monsters and stuff. They’re positively skeptical and in on the hype cause they want to see more fluid adult animation and more indie projects take off (also 2D)!

It’s fandom LOVES the characters, concept, and story. They are more invested in what the characters could be rather than what they actually are, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing; to love something based on the concepts presented and use it to make AUs, hypotheticals and what not. Cringe all you want at the Onceler fandom (you can) but it is impressive to make all that material from so little!

They’re both edgy and insensitive based on their subject matter alone. And yet, the creators and fans DO intend for the show to be a net-positive: there IS supposed to a be representational aspect to it’s design and it’s audience. Brandon Rogers, the modern John Waters, is a pure shock-humor artist; an example of the sincere but not TOO serious risque nature these shows should have, and BOTH attract a pretty happy and excitable LGBTQ fanbase who hate bigotry.

The creators directly talking with fans means there’s again a sense of togetherness to the whole production. That the creators tell people to ship what they want BUT NOT TO BULLY is really cool + important.

As an aside, they can only say so much and Viv is at this point not 100% of Hazbin or Helluva’s creation. It’s other people speaking for or with it now. Neither pilot is a singular idea and musing of one person anymore, they are stand alone products and they are not immune from critique or favoritism.

Buuuuuuut, there’s a flipside to these things as well:

Beyond NDAs (as an aside, a lot of productions have these I don’t think it’s amoral that Viv had this) the crew is tight. When they hear how a site that they’ve heard through the grabevine hosted the guy who sent Viv rape porn*, even if the critique is from a user who hates that guy, THEY AREN’T GONNA HEAR THEM OUT. And they shouldn’t. They are tired and don’t want to be involved, at best (or want to move on from past drama) and biased towards Viv, at worst. They stick out for each other in the business and also who are you gonna stan if you were in their shoes? A person you don’t know on a forum you’ve seen post creepy shit OR your friend who paid you, promos you, talks to you and you like to work with?

Ask yourself honestly what you would do if someone said:

“hey I’m from [4chan/Kiwi, ED, Tapatalk, Reddit, ect]. I’m sorry for what happened but just so you know-”

I so get the crew just straight up blocking on sight. I don’t CONDONE it, but in a postGamerGate world I understand it.

AND when it comes to accusations made against the VAs, a producer, or one of the artists, and ESPECIALLY the creator - people are gonna just handwave it away convinced, it’s just whining or has alterier motives + again, friends stick together and choose sides...like Brock Baker’s :B

It’s popular so it’s gonna get love and hate. I know critics are not gonna like to hear the later, but it is true. It feels cathartic to dunk on a property when fans are crazy and you feel it’s overrated/bad. People feel good dunking on this mishandled, problematic clusterfugg cause they know not as many people are watching and unironically liking, say, Alfred Alfer ----- (please don’t look that or Emily Youcis up. Here’s the tvtropes page. Do not look beyond this point PLEASE)

Likewise, the clout surrounding the show is biased and detracted form being too mean as well. Everyone can tell there’s a kind of toxic mess under the covers but no one wants to deep dive or prod the details of something people are working on and liking so much, especially not when the loudest detractors are asshats like P.K. Russel.

A lot of merch has been sold and produced WELL BEFORE the rest of the shows or the finalized series/designs have been laid out. If nothing comes of either show it will be bad having all this merch hyping something that doesn’t exist. If it does but is so radically different than the vision in Viv’s and fan’s heads (these are both PILOTS, I’ll remind you) it’s gonna disappoint. I just know it.

People were writing Hazbin fanfics and AUs before the pilot was dropped and have made sequels to both before we have even a clear picture of what the ending is gonna be. People are in love and writing for a franchise they don’t know. They know the idea of it and the version of it in their head, but they don’t really know it.

The fandom can not take criticism. This is bad. Everyone is a critic and inside every critic is a nerdooo ~ ((critics do have fandoms and everyone will like something problematic for reasons)) Fans want to criticize but they’re scared of being ostracized from the fandom and kicked off of forums/servers, which has happened to two underage fans already. **

The fandom feels entitled to their ideas and to the creators’ attention. If it were any other fandom it is sooper cool that creators allow people to ship as they please, but not one that’s currently still in development and whose finalized characters haven’t been figured out. The babies have been sent into the battle field at only a few months old alongside veteran ship/canon/entitled cartoon fandoms like Steven Universe and Rick and Morty. It’s like the scene from mother! where the crowd dismembers and eats the baby.

Viv and has a serious influence on these people so even when her and a bunch of fans/artists are just gabbing about stupid memes on twitter, this invites a slew of onlookers to attack these people***. Despite the influence you can have or say to stop this behavior, it’s waaaay harder to put a stop to it than just saying “hey guys be nice” (Anyone else remember the inner-drama of Brony fandom? Like chuds would even take the word of the AskMolestiaMod to heart when their one goal was to take down the dreaded Essjaydoublewes that threatened their rape jokes).

Fans also have no boundaries. Sea also; Lincar Rox.

Being a netpositive doesn’t mean everything you say or do is devoid of critique. If you make vulgar/shocking adult content it will have fans and it will have detractors regardless of the positive intent. As I’ve said earlier, the problem with Viv’s works isn’t really the content but the context and the presentation. You can say Angel Dust is an inspiring character all you want. To some people that’s absolutely true but that does NOT absolve the fact that the it’s a cis woman writing and glamorizing an abused crossdressing gay man. People are gonna be offended and the creator needs tougher skin about this be it satire, parody, or drama.

*back when they were fixated on Zoophobia, there was a guy on Bad Webcomics Wiki/Tapatalk for the comic who posted art of Viv’s decapitated head getting raped by Angel Dust as a “joke”. Oh! and he also took the complaints the wiki had and made Viv and ED page. The rest of the forum was not happy but yeah that happened. The forum itself is the same as any reddit thread and NOT a hate site, but yeah um Viv has every right to quit after that, sorry.

The evidence is linked here in this google doc, which is why I linked it. (tbh I sympathize with the author but I don’t think it’s their place to say when Viv should have let the world known about the harassment porn )

**the underage fans who were bullied/blocked/demonized by creators are frootrollup1, for doing redesigned fan art, and StarVader from the Tapatalk/BWW forums, who was targeted and blamed by fans for Lincar’s shit. I’m not linking them for fear of their safety.

***The meme and twitter thread that went off the rails is one you’ll have to scroll down a bit through @gamergirluprising‘s post to see.

Okay that’s all.

---

[editingmadness]

Ranking Y/A Series in Order of How Much I Love the Writing (Part 1)

(This ranking is just in my opinion and in terms of young writers gaining inspiration! I love all of these series and believe all of the authors are talented people. This is just to rank how much the writing stands out as so much more than just a dynamic story.)

10. Twilight - Yeah... this is the only series I on this list that I actually don’t like. There’s nothing inherently wrong with it, and I actually have no problem with the romance/angst aspect, the writing just doesn’t do it for me. The books are filled with cliches, repetition, questionable messages, and some honestly disturbing imagery. It’s a fun series if you’re into that sort of thing but I just can’t get on board. 

9. Divergent - I LOVE the divergent series. I know the trilogy gets a lot of shade for being so similar to the Hunger Games, but I honestly don’t see it. When you look at the grand scheme of Dystopian Literature, with books like The Giver, Fahrenheit 451, and The Maze Runner, it’s pretty easy to see that all books in that genre have a lot of similar elements, and play off each other as humanity’s views of the future grow and change. I don’t believe that The Hunger Games and Divergent both utilizing a faction system (something that is really a play on the divisions that already face society today), is a mark against either book. However, the writing in Divergent simply doesn’t stand out, and I think the grand reveal in Allegiant could have been handled way better. The characters are great, though sometimes underutilized, and I like the world-building up until book 3, when it sort of caves in on itself as the result of a convoluted plot twist. Overall, a great series, but far from remarkable writing-wise.

8. The Heroes of Olympus - I decided to separate HoO from PJO because I feel the writing is dramatically different in each, mainly due to the shift from first-person to third. And admittedly, I like the 3rd person less. I think it relents some of the humor that the original series contained and puts more emphasis on the setting and character interactions, which is fine, just personally I found it less entertaining. However, this is still a great series that I read and reread to this day, and the personalities of the characters remain as stellar as always and the highlight of the series.

7. A Wrinkle In Time - This series is truly something special. It contains a poetry that’s can be hard to find in Y/A novels, and everything from the word choice to the dialogue to the message are just flawless. I remember being so entranced by the series the first time I read it, and scenes appeared so vivid in my mind that I still think of them almost every day years later. Now, it reminds me of something written by Tom Robbins. The only reason the series is not higher on this list is that I found it to be, in certain parts, a bit convoluted (especially for a Y/A series), and I also was simply less entertained by it than almost every other mention on this list. Whether that was due to it’s lack of humor, satirical nature that I didn’t appreciate when I read it as a child, or the fact that it doesn’t have a major fandom to get invested in, I'm not sure. However, it’s still a great series that I highly recommend everyone to read. 

6. Percy Jackson - And now, we reach the OG. Percy Jackson remains my favorite (Y/A) series to this day and I could not be more excited for the release of the Disney+ TV show. The humor, the characters, the greek references, the easy-to-understand history lessons, the relatability of Percy as a main character... all just magnificent to read and hold up even more with each reread. I love Percy’s sarcastic inner dialogue, which is so familiar if you are reading the series for the first time as a quirky 10-12 year old with a big imagination, as most of us probably did. I ranked PJO in 6th not because there is anything wrong with the writing, but because compared to the series in the top 5, it’s simply less poetic and mesmerizing in prose. The books, while entertaining, do not contain the same understated genius as a couple others and I don’t find them particularly inspiring, in terms of making me want to write while reading. Still, I absolutely adore Percy Jackson and will forever applaud Rick Riordan for the masterpiece that he has given us.

Part 2 Coming Soon!

[qaraxuanzenith]

On Representation: A review of The Tyrant’s Tomb

It’s still too early to go to sleep and I have nothing better to productively do, so: time for me to rant angrily about representation.

IMPORTANT WARNING: this will include some (probably minor?) spoilers for The Tyrant’s Tomb by Rick Riordan. Since I’m pretending it’s a review of that book even though it is really just my angry thoughts about representation that were prompted by it. There will also be (definitely minor) spoilers about a character in Rick Riordan’s Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series.

Edit: this rant is long, in addition to the spoilers, so please (but actually, please) read it after the cut.

Okay. First of all: I enjoyed The Tyrant’s Tomb. I’ve been loving the Trials of Apollo series, and this is no exception, and I’m excited for the next book. But.

I have ranted, a lot, about representation before, because I so rarely see Jewish characters in books not written exclusively by and for Jews, and even rarer do I see observant Jewish characters in any media not created exclusively by and for Orthodox Jews. And obviously, I want to feel reflected in at least some of the mainstream media I consume.

The important preface to this rant is a quick review, though I have discussed this, too, before, of the intense pleasure and pain brought on by reading the character of Samirah al-Abbas in Rick Riordan’s Magnus Chase books. Samirah was almost, almost, almost the Holy Grail of “observant religious character” that I had described, almost to a T, of what I am constantly seeking in media: she was a major character, whose religion was a major part of her life in tangible ways throughout the books - from wearing her hijab, to observing modesty in her interactions with her fiance, to performing heroics while fasting for Ramadan - and yet who was characterized well enough that her religion, while inextricably an important part of her life, wasn’t her entire character, either. It was beautiful; it was magnificently done.

And it broke my heart. Because God knows observant Muslim people have deserved Samirah for so long; but her existence on these pages only drove home to me that what I was looking for was possible and yet, impossibly, I still didn’t have it. Samirah was fantastic, but she still wasn’t the representation that I was looking for: I wanted, and still want, those traits, but for a Jewish character, in whom I can see something of myself. I want Samirah, but I want that for me, too.

Flip ahead a couple years (and a few more representation in media rants) to me picking up and reading The Tyrant’s Tomb. I’d pre-ordered it in the summer, while ordering a few books as a birthday present to my sister, and promptly forgotten about it, so when it arrived, it was like a delightful gift from Past Me.

I started reading, and I was so, so excited when the character of Lavinia was introduced, right near the beginning of the book. Right away, Riordan telegraphed that she was both Jewish and queer, with the Magen David necklace and her interest in a female dryad. I was primed and ready to both love her and see myself in her.

And then I was let down.

Now, before I dig deep into the many ways in which Lavinia was a complete and utter disappointment, I want to offer an important caveat, referring to my preface about Samirah. I don’t want to give the impression that I’m castigating Riordan for trying, when so many other mainstream writers don’t. At least he made her canonically Jewish on-page, rather than hiding behind a Jewish-sounding last name and then declaring it to be the truth off-page (looking at you, Rowling and Anthony Goldstein). At least there is a Jewish character in his books (looking at... almost every other mainstream YA fantasy series I’ve ever read not written by Jews).

But the thing is, we raise our expectations of people based on what we know they are capable of. I’m a teacher; a level 3 “Meets Expectations” is going to look different for my academically-struggling student who is working really hard to improve, as opposed to my bookworm student who started the year off by turning in a long and erudite personal essay.

Most of those other mainstream YA fantasy writers, I don’t have any expectations of. Whereas Rick Riordan, the man who created Samirah al-Abbas: I know exactly what he is capable of. Which is why it hurts so much more that, when it comes to a Jewish character, he falls so strikingly short.

I’ll be fair: I wasn’t expecting a second, Jewish Samirah from him. That wouldn’t be reasonable. I would like that, someday, from someone, but that will have to be in someone else’s book; it wouldn’t make sense for Riordan to retread the exact same ground, and I understand that.

And Lavinia didn’t have to be observant - as I’ve recognized, he already has Samirah for that. But I was hoping, expecting, for her to be something more than Jewish In Name Only. (Strike that: she may have been Jewish on-page, but Riordan never even used the J word. He wrote around it. Why? I don’t know. Presumably not just to disappoint me.)

So what’s wrong with Lavinia? And how could he have done better with her?

Great news: I’ve got a bulleted list to help with that, starting with the simple and working our way up.

To start with: her last name. I’ve been going over and over this dozens of times, and I still can’t quite work out why, for his one Jewish character, Riordan decided to give her the last name of one of the most famous Jewish speculative fiction writers, and then (a) never once acknowledge this connection, and (b) acknowledge that she shares her name with a famous Jewish... fictional dancer. Why Asimov, if he wasn’t going to say anything at all about the Asimov?

Continuing with her name: her first name. I get that Riordan likes to give Romanesque names to the Roman demigods, but this overlooks the fact that the demigods are almost always named by their human parent; and while Sally Jackson had her reasons for naming her son after a Greek hero, most Jewish parents will give their child a Jewish name, if not the actual name of a recently-deceased relative. But okay. Fine. I wouldn’t want to mess with the thematic naming in the book; but how about a name that evokes the intersection of Roman and Jewish history: Salome, or Salome Alexandra, for instance?

Speaking of that intersection of Roman and Jewish: I’m still too relieved at finding a Jewish character, any Jewish character, in his books, to be offended that this Jewish character ends the book as a centurion in a Roman army, but - she should be. Lavinia should, at some point in the book, have expressed discomfort at the Roman side of her heritage, as it intersects with her Jewish culture and history. And it would have been so easy: throughout the book, Lavinia has problems with authority and with the structures of the Legion in particular. Just once, she could have defended that rebelliousness - honestly or not - with a reference to how the Roman legions once destroyed her people’s Temple, razed her homeland, and subjugated her people with an exile that is still, in many ways, ongoing to this day. Not in so many words, obviously; I’m not asking Riordan to write it the way I did. Just something like “Yeah, well, Roman Legions and Jews aren’t usually a good mix.” Or here’s another way she could have expressed her Roman discomfort: in that conversation about awkwardness. Instead of “You want awkward? Try telling your Rabbi that you’re taking a girl as your date to your Bat Mitzvah,” she could have said: “You want awkward? Try being a Jewish demigod.” “You want awkward? Try being a queer Jew in a Roman legion.”

SPEAKING OF THAT INSANE AND PERPLEXING COMMENT ABOUT RABBIS AND BAT MITZVAHS, I have so so so many problems with that line:

First of all, given the premise that Lavinia as written is very clearly not an observant Jew by any means or interpretation, and does not appear to have any Jewish community ties, it is strange to me that she speaks about having a rabbi. Typically, people who have a rabbi are either (a) observant people who go to this rabbi with religious questions, or (b) community-oriented people who see the rabbi of their community (or another chosen spiritual leader in their chosen community) as their rabbi. Lavinia appears to be neither, so why “try telling your rabbi that...” and not, say, “try telling the rabbi at your shul that...”?

Okay but forget whose rabbi this is: why is she telling the rabbi about her date? Why is that necessary? For those (like Rick Riordan??) unfamiliar with what a Bat Mitzvah is: A Bat Mitzvah is actually the term for a (female) person who has reached the age of religious responsibility in Judaism, and it happens automatically when a girl turns 12 (and for a boy - Bar Mitzvah - when he turns 13). But okay, I’ll stop being so pedantic, and agree that Riordan, and Lavinia, were obviously referring to the party that is commonly held to celebrate this milestone. But that’s all it is: a party celebrating a milestone. Although there is often a prayer service and/or a Torah reading, there is no ritual aspect to a Bat Mitzvah celebration. Other than, again, perhaps the prayer service / Torah reading, there is definitely nothing you would need to inform a rabbi of. You would definitely not be telling the rabbi about your guest list, unless the rabbi is your parent/guardian / the person paying for the party.

But never mind who she’s telling about her date: did you miss the part where I noted that a Bat Mitzvah is for a girl turning twelve. Speaking as somebody who has celebrated a Bat Mitzvah for myself, and who has attended many such celebrations as a guest, I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt: you do not invite a date to this event, whether you are a guest or the girl of honour. For one thing, you are twelve. Twelve is too young to be bringing dates! For another, you’re going to a party full of twelve-year-olds, where there will be maybe a prayer service and then a nice meal and then probably a bunch of twelve-year-olds bopping around to some obnoxiously loud music. I get Lavinia’s trying to let us know she was already very gay when she was twelve, but that does not explain bringing a date, female or otherwise, to her own Bat Mitzvah. Just ask the girl as a normal guest and then awkwardly ask her to dance, for heaven’s sake!

In conclusion, that entire sentence made no sense, and it really only accomplished two things: (a) it gave me the impression, rightly or wrongly, that Riordan knows absolutely nothing about Judaism; and (b) it strongly implied, unfairly, that rabbis in general are homophobic, which it why it was so awkward for Lavinia to tell her rabbi about her nonsensical date.

Throughout the book, Lavinia’s big crusade is ecological safety, protecting the nature spirits and the environment, and the homeless people living in the park who would be impacted by the Emperors’ attacks. It would have been so easy to infuse this important aspect of her personality with her Jewishness, by just letting her throw around the term “tikun olam” in that context. It would have absolutely fit with the culturally-not-religiously Jewish air he was clearly going for, and it would have made her seem 10,000% more authentically Jewish to me, with just, my God, two words added to the entire book.

You want another way to make her seem more realistically, three-dimensionally Jewish? How about, oh, I dunno, her one Jewish parent? (By the way: it has not slipped my attention that Lavinia’s one Jewish parent is her father, meaning that except by Reform definitions, she’s not, technically, Jewish at all; just canonically connected to Jewish culture. Are paternal Jews who consider themselves Jewish valid and Jewish? Of course. Am I nonetheless extremely disappointed that he’s managed to water down the Jewishness of his one Jewish character in 20+ books in this additional way? Absolutely.) Apollo showed great interest in asking her about her father, the famous Asimov... dancer (I’m sorry, I still can’t get over that he named her Asimov and did not make a single reference to Asimov; is Isaac Asimov the only Jew he’s ever heard of or something???). She could have alluded to his Jewishness. “Yeah, Sergei’s still mad that I stopped coming to our Asimov family Seders.”

Instead, other than the absurd-and-mildly-offensive rabbi-and-Bat-Mitzvah line, what is the only evidence we have that Lavinia even is of Jewish descent? Ah, yes. The thing that got me so excited in the first place, as - or so I thought - a hint of Jewishness to come: her Magen David necklace. Except of course, Riordan only ever calls it a “Star of David,” because - okay, that’s what Apollo would call it in his narration, and of course Lavinia never said a word about it, despite all the times she played with it. Never explained where she got it from, or why she wore it, or what made it so important to her. So it had no sentimental or cultural value conveyed to the reader. It was just a visual cue to tell us: “Jewish character.” It was as anemic and anodyne a way of making her Jewish as the Menorah-on-the-Mantelpiece trick that I’ve often complained about in TV shows that want to suddenly establish a character is Jewish - except worse, because at least with a Menorah on the mantel, we’ve got the implication that somebody lights it (if it’s a Chanukiyah) on Chanukah. This is just a star, on a necklace.

In conclusion: Lavinia could have been great. She could have been a queer Jewish demigod, passionate about nature and about tikun olam, complex and uncomfortable with her role as a Jewish person in the Legion despite her absolute commitment to helping her friends survive the attack and defeat their dangerous enemies.

Instead, she was a disappointment. She was characterized well, for what she was. But what she was was a girl with a necklace. A queer Roman demigod with a famous dancer father.

I started this rant expecting to call her Jewish in name only. But she wasn’t even that.

Perhaps it’s unfair of me to call Lavinia a disappointment, from how anemic her Jewishness was. The real disappointment in The Tyrant’s Tomb was Rick Riordan.

[crossbows-and-moonshine]

Lunacy Fringe (Chapter 13)

I’m coming back today as I’m posting this to add this author note. I finished this story guys. Chapter 19 will be the last one and I just finished it. I just need to edit it. I feel sad it's over but I’m excited now this book is closed so I can start the sequel to Let The Flames Begin because I’m so hyped to get on with that one now.

Also, don't come at me for the timeline for what I do in this chapter. TWD timeline is fucking insane. I researched the shit out of it and even tried to digest a tweet AMC confirmed that makes no sense to me about how little time has passed since the start of the outbreak to Alexandria. So honestly, if this time doesn't make sense, I give no shits. I’m making it up as I go.

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

Carol gasped as she walked into Daryl and Zoey’s house, staring at the girl with a slack jaw.

“What the hell happened to you?!” she frowned, rushing over and setting some ingredients on the counter as the girl blinked her blue eyes at her. She was covered head to toe in flour and the kitchen looked like a tornado had ripped right through the place.

“In my defence, I did tell you I couldn't bake worth shit,” Zoey said sheepishly, giving her a wary smile. Carol snorted and shook her head. To her credit, she had vehemently warned her that she couldn't bake. But Carol had thought the girl was simply being modest. Zoey was a very good cook. Carol had often been invited over for meals with her and Daryl, and Carol was often left impressed with her skills. Baking though, well that seemed to fall short of that skill. When Zoey had baked with Maggie, Carol was unaware that Maggie had given her the simplest tasks to complete after herself finding out just how bad the girl was.

“What’s… you have batter in your hair,” Carol muttered with a wry smile making her blush.

“Look, go upstairs and just shower, get ready for the party, I'll rescue the cake,” Carol said as she shoved her lightly towards the stairs.

Zoey didn't need telling twice. She knew she would fail at the task of baking the birthday cake and she hadn't been wrong. She was happy to get the fuck out of dodge and just get ready. It had been just over a month and things had been going well. Things were calm, or as calm as they could be during the fucking apocalypse. Her relationship with Daryl was blossoming more and more every day and despite the dead walking around, she couldn't remember being this happy before.

They hadn't had sex yet, they were still taking things somewhat slow in that department. It didn't stop them doing other things like a couple of horny teens though whenever they got to bed at the end of the night. They had passed the hurdle of being fully naked with one another. It had been hard for her to deal with but Daryl had been patient. She had done it in her own time and even though she was still majorly self-conscious. He worshipped her naked marked up body with such reverence that she found herself feeling comfortable with him, even with all to see.

Daryl had started being more affectionate with her around others too. Before they were even a thing, when neither of them even knew what the strong bond between them meant, they had both been close, not hiding it as they didn't realise it was what it turned out to be. But once they realised they cared for each other, once they became a thing, Daryl had withdrawn a little in public with her. She hadn't been offended in the least. He was a private person and it didn't take a rocket scientist to see how guarded he was with others, how he kept them at arm's length. Maggie had told her he hadn't been interested in anyone since his group had known him and it made her feel special that he had been interested in her. But with time he started to warm up again slowly, holding her hand, wrapping an arm around her. He even kissed her briefly in the street a few times. All in all, progress was being made and things were looking up.

She still didn't speak to everyone here. She only spoke to those she felt she trusted, which consisted of Daryl's family and a few others. Denise had really helped her with her PTSD and her anxiety and she felt normal again. Something she at one point never thought possible. She also spent a lot of time with Aaron and Eric. Eric seemed to love throwing dinner parties for her and Daryl to attend, double dates he would call them. She really enjoyed their company though and Daryl was always so relaxed when they were with them too. Anyone would have thought there weren't dead people roaming around outside the walls.

Daryl still went out with Aaron but they hadn't brought anyone back yet. Daryl was very fucking good at reading people and the few people they had ventured across he had been firm that they didn’t make the cut to be here. He only wanted good people here. Around his girl, his family, Carl and fucking Judith. He was very selective on who he thought they should bring back and Aaron always listened to him. Zoey was getting better at dealing with the times away from him. Carol and Maggie would always keep her company and even Eric since his husband was the one out there with Daryl. She felt part of the family now, part of the group. She felt cared for and she felt fucking happy.

Today was Judith's second birthday. Of course it was most likely not the actual date, it wasn't like people could pinpoint it. But Rick had been keeping track of seasonal cycles and it seemed a good a time as any to celebrate it. Carol had asked her to make the cake and she had been firm she couldn't do it. Maybe next time she would listen. Daryl was out there with some of the others setting up some decorations outside. They were having a little party on the grass, a celebration of something so pure and wonderful. A little person that would be part of the future here at the community. Zoey loved how the whole community was rallying together to give the small girl a birthday party. Something that was once normal for everyone but now seemed void. She didn't know the date, she had no idea how many birthdays of her own had passed, how old she was now. But it didn't matter to her. Judith was just a child, she deserved things like these.

Once she was done in the shower, she got ready in a pretty black sundress with small purple flowers on it. She still had her boots on though, she didn't really have any other shoes and the ones got on runs were more practical than fancy. She towel-dried her long dark hair, leaving it down and letting it wave up like it naturally did before bounding down the stairs. She sat at the counter whilst Carol did the cake and when they were done, they both set off outside. The community was alive and bustling about as Zoey took it all in with a smile. People were setting up decorations and chairs on the grass and there was a little pile of presents. They were courtesy of the supply team, of course. Glenn had gone out on a run to a toy store just for that purpose. Rick hadn't been happy, chiding him for putting his life on the line to get toys, but Glenn had said he didn't care. The girl needed presents on her birthday. Daryl had also decided to go and Aaron even went with him. The small team had brought back quite a few toys and gifts for the little girl and now she would have things to open and have a birthday pre-apocalypse style.

She saw Daryl and she squeezed Carol's arm with a smile before walking over. He looked up from where he was tying balloons to one of the trees and he grinned at her, unable not to. He always fucking smiled like a dick whenever he saw her, shit was getting ridiculous.

“Ya make that?” he asked curiously as his eyes drifted over to Carol with the cake as the woman made her way over to Rick and Michonne. She snorted, she could see it all over his face that he was shocked at the notion. He was well aware of how she couldn't bake. She had tried to bake for him a few times and each time it looked like a bomb had gone off in a bakery.

“No. I tried but...you know how it is,” she grinned wryly, making him huff a laugh. Once the balloons were secure he stepped closer to her, settling a hand on the side of her neck as he leant down and captured her lips in a sweet soft kiss.

“Pretty girl,” he murmured against her lips, making her blush furiously and duck her head.

“Stop,” she whined with a snort, making him give her a toothy grin. It was a grin rarely seen on the man. A grin even those closest to him had barely seen grace his face in all the time they had known him. Yet now, whenever he was with her he seemed to be sporting it and his family couldn't help but feel anything but happiness for him whenever they saw that smile on his face. She looked up at him with a smile, the pair practically making fucking moon eyes at each other like no one else existed.

“Alright love birds, the birthday girl is on her way over,” Maggie teased as she walked past, poking Zoey in the side and making her squeak as she blushed. Daryl sneered at her playfully and Zoey smirked at him. They kept doing this. Like they forgot they were around people until someone said something. They just couldn't help it though, they seemed to just get lost in one another.

The day passed by without drama. Judith got to open her presents and the community felt lighter than most days, everyone enjoying themselves. Eating the food and cake Carol made and just enjoying the day. Zoey had stuck by Daryl's side the whole time and Zoey had watched with heart eyes when Daryl played with Judith, loving such a soft side to him. He was really good with her and she seemed to love her uncle Daryl. It was dark now as Zoey sat on the steps of Ricks porch watching everyone else. They weren't much for socialising so they kept out of the way but there enough to still feel a part of it. Judith was now in bed and it was just some of the adults milling about chatting and a few of them drinking. They had already worked out who would drink and who wouldn't, not wanting to get caught with their asses hanging out by having everyone shit-faced drunk.

She watched as Daryl walked back over with two glasses in his hands. She smiled adoringly at him as he sat next to her. He’d never get sick of the way she smiled at him, it made him feel damn good. A glass filled with a deep red liquid appeared in her line of vision and she eyed it carefully before looking back at Daryl.

“What's this?” she asked softly.

“Water...the fuck ya think it is? It’s wine,” he snorted. She squinted at him playfully with a huff.

“Alright, why are you giving it to me? I wasn't on the list to drink,” she clarified.

“S’fine, cleared it with Rick. S’just one anyway,” he shrugged, quirking a brow impatiently at her as he continued to hold it out to her. She took it and had a sip. It had been a long time since she had anything alcoholic and she was grateful Daryl had given her only a small glass.

“What have you got?” she asked him as she looked at his glass. It was a little bigger than hers and filled with a brownish liquid.

“Whiskey,” he smirked as he lifted it and she watched him take a swig of it. How did he look sexy even doing that?

“What a surprise,” she snorted. He huffed a laugh and bumped his shoulder with hers. Daryl was on the list. He hadn't asked to be but Rick was adamant he needed to let his hair down and have a break. Since Zoey made progress he was out quite a bit. Either on guard duty, recruitment trips with Aaron or supply runs when needed. He never seemed to stop and Rick wanted him to just have a good time and relax for once.

An hour later and her wine was gone. She wasn't drunk, not even tipsy but she did feel a small buzz and she felt a little more relaxed than usual. Daryl though was a different story. He seemed to have drink after drink, and for a while it seemed not to affect him at all. But she knew he was drunk the moment he had chosen to get up and socialise with people. She followed along, not really talking but watching him with a smile as he laughed with Rick and Glenn and just seemed more openly happier than usual. It was a nice sight to see.

She glanced around the community and looked over at Rick’s house. It made her smile to herself knowing Judith had a good day. It was nice to pretend that the world wasn’t in the state it was in.

“You wanna finish this? I don’t feel so good. I ate way too much,” she heard a voice from next to her. She turned and grinned at Glenn who held out the paper plate with a piece of cake on it.

“How much have you had?” she smirked as she grabbed the fork and shovelled some into her mouth. Carol was a really good baker, she was glad she failed to make the cake. Even if she managed to make one it wouldn’t have tasted anywhere near as good as this one.

“Five or six slices… maybe,” he snorted, making her laugh and shake her head.

“Ready to head home?” Daryl asked her after a while and she nodded. It was still taxing for her to be around this many people and she was tired now. He smiled down at her before he leaned in and kissed her. His kisses in public were usually sweet pecks of her lips. Short and brief but affectionate all the same. This time though, in the state he was in he seemed to kiss her harder, deepening the kiss as a hand wound into her hair. For a brief moment, she forgot about everyone else as she kissed him back, melting into him. They heard someone catcall from behind them and Daryl snorted as he broke away from her, ducking his head a little. Zoey's cheeks turned crimson at the very public display of affection but she didn't have time to be embarrassed about it as Daryl wrapped his arm around her shoulders and lead her home.

He was swaying slightly on his feet and she found it amusing as they walked home. Zoey scooped up the bunny before they went upstairs. She had started bringing the bunny in the bedroom at night not wanting her to be alone downstairs. Daryl always laughed at her for it but she didn't care. She put the bunny down and watched as she hopped over to Daryl.

“Go to bed bunny,” he huffed with a snort, making Zoey shake her head with a smile at him. He liked to pretend he didn't like the animal so much but she’d fucking seen him giving her a cuddle or two.

“Fudge. Not bunny,” she corrected teasingly, making him look at her and quirk a brow.

She wasn't sure if she was imagining it but it suddenly felt like the air had been sucked out of the room at the look he gave her. He looked like trouble and it made her knees weak.

“Uh-huh, is that so?” he asked, a devilish smirk on his face as he slowly walked over. She didn't know she was walking backwards until her back hit the wall and she squeaked. Her blue eyes wide but a slight smile on her lips as he got in her personal space.

“Cheeky lil thing huh?” he drawled as he leant his forehead on hers, hitching one of her legs up as he pressed himself against her. His large hand gripped her thigh and her breathing hitched as she blinked up at him. She was sure if he wasn't trapping her between him and the wall she would just swoon and hit the deck.

He leant down and captured her lips in a bruising kiss and she kissed him back just as hungrily.

“Want ya,” he purred against her soft lips, nipping at them and making a soft moan leave her lips. But as his other hand started creeping up her dress she tensed up and grabbed his wrist. He stopped kissing her but didn't move away, looking down at her with confusion in his eyes. It wasn't that she didn't trust him, she did, with every fibre of her being. Even when he was drunk. But she wanted him to be completely present and of a sound mind when they had sex for the first time, or even did anything sexual for that matter.

“Not tonight,” she muttered tensely, unable to look at him with her pink cheeks. He could feel how tightly wound she was and it made his heart sink. She looked like she was bracing herself for him to shout at her and it hurt him. He let her leg go and leant in to kiss her cheek sweetly before he took a step back.

She looked up at him warily and he gave her a sweet smile that relaxed her completely. Knowing he wasn't mad at her. He was patient and caring with her as he always was, she didn't know why she thought any different. Daryl took her hand and led her over to sit on the bed. He crouched on the floor as he took off her boots for her. He wanted her, Lord knows he fucking did, but not like this. He wanted her to want it, to one hundred percent fucking want it. Not feel forced or pressured or to do it to please him. He didn't want her at all if it wasn't when she wanted it and he hated how she seemed worried he would be upset with her over it.

She watched him with a smile as he removed her boots, loving how he always took care of her. He stood and started to undress and she followed suit. Daryl got into bed with his boxers on and Zoey slipped one of Daryl's shirts on, the one she seemed to have claimed for sleeping in. He never mentioned it though so she didn't think he was upset about it. She climbed into bed and was surprised when Daryl rolled over, curling around her as he snuggled into her. Usually she lay like that with him, her head on his chest. But apparently the alcohol in his system made him needy and she liked it. She grinned to herself as she threaded a hand into his hair and massaged his scalp, making him hum softly and snuggle into her more. She felt tired now after the events of the day and she closed her eyes as she felt herself relax completely lay with him like this.

“Night Zo, I love ya,” Daryl mumbled sleepily, making her body go rigid.

“What?” she asked, her voice a mere squeak. She knew she had heard right but she felt like he hadn't meant to fucking say it. She got no response and she glanced down at him.

“Daryl?” she asked carefully, her response was a soft snore and she huffed that he had gone to sleep after blurting out such a thing. Her mind was reeling whilst her stomach bloomed with butterflies and nerves. She loved him back, she knew that already. But she didn't want to just say it if he hadn't meant to say it. He was drunk, he wasn't thinking. He could have meant to say something else. But now she couldn't ask him because he was asleep. She’d just have to ask him in the morning about it.

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