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thespianbooks · 4 years ago

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A Court of Nightmares and Starlight //Chapter 24//

Masterlist

(tags: @thron3ofbooks, @df3ndyr, @courtofjurdan, @art-e-mis, @herondamnn, @the-third-me, @im-still-trying-here, @emikadreams, @paytin77, @mis-lil-red, @sleeping-and-books, @lucieisabooknerd, @amandaraey-sunshine, @easy-p-lemon, @azymondias05, @dagypsygirl, @makeshift-utopia) *bold tags don’t work ;-;

I hope this chapter finds you well, and thank you for your patience while I took last week off from posting! Enjoy! ❤️

XXX

I was beginning to feel like this pregnancy would never end, and that I would never sleep again.

As the days stretched on, so did my belly, my skin, and, what felt like, the rest of my body. Along with my middle expanding to a depth I hadn't thought possible, so came the restless nights. From the beginning of my pregnancy, Sebastian had been a gentle glimmer, a beautiful heartbeat that pulsed between my mate and I. After a time, that glimmer was accompanied by light kicks and punches. Now, after a fitful two months filled with little hours of sleep and only growing increasingly uncomfortable by day, my once gentle and calm baby had grown boisterous—especially at night.

"He does hail from the Night Court," Rhys tried to reason as we lay in bed together—another sleepless evening looking to be ahead of us.

"That doesn't mean we never sleep," I complained as he caressed the large expanse of my belly.

His smile as apologetic as he pressed a kiss to my brow, lowering himself down to be eye level with my stomach. "You mustn't be so hard on your mother, Bash. You don't want to be on her bad side before you're born," he said.

I sighed as our son kicked in response, a glimmer flickering through our bond as Rhys watched my stomach; mesmerized as my skin stretched with Sebastian's movement. "I think that was his elbow I saw," he said, touching the spot gently.

My heart warmed at his reaction. "It was," I said. "But you addressing him directly isn't exactly enticing him to settle down in there."

"Right," he said, coming onto his elbows as if he could see our son through my shift and layers of skin and muscle. "Maybe some tea would help you sleep, it could settle you both."

I nodded. "Elain did mix together a new brew for me earlier, and I was able to nap right after...maybe it'll help again now," I said, pushing myself carefully.

"I'll get it for you, my love, you rest here," he said before pushing off the bed-still clad in the black clothes he wore during the day.

I watched him leave and stared down at my stomach, running my hands over it in a gentle caress. The growth I'd experienced in the last couple of months had been exponential, and I was delighted at every check in with Madja when she deemed both of us to be in good health. The midwife, the healer's sister, also regularly attended for my evaluations. She performed her own examinations, using her specialized magic to check on the baby's position and other attributes, like his size and weight—all within the expected range at this stage. At our last appointment earlier in the week, both the midwife and Madja declared that Sebastian had dropped low into my pelvis, head down, which was the correct position for birth. With that assessment, they also determined that I could now go into labor at any time. Although fae pregnancies tended to last up to five weeks longer than a human pregnancy, they assured us that females typically gave birth anywhere in between those weeks—depending on the development of their babes. Sebastian was now fully developed, healthy, strong, and ready to enter the world. Soon my period of nesting would begin and then I'd become reserved in preparation for the undertaking the birthing process would put my body through.

Initially, Rhys and I expected it to happen right away, causing my mate to go on high alert as he remained at my side for every second of the day. According to everything we had been told, as my mate, he would be the first one to sense the change in me. As the days passed, however, they went on as normal with no sign of my diffident state on the horizon. Instead, we followed the new routine and schedule Clotho created for us; meetings and usual court business officially taking place in Rhys's office where I could rest as needed in between work. After matters were settled with the Illyrians, and Mor officially taking her father's place as ruler of the Hewn City, all previous hostility in the Night Court dissipated.

"Elain had the tea ready for you." Rhys said as he re-entered our room, interrupting my thoughts, carrying a tray with a teapot, mug, and covered plates of food.

I pushed myself up with a grunt of effort, eyeing the tray. "What's all this?" I asked as he set the tray on the bed before coming to help me sit upright.

"Well, dinner was hours ago, and based on the past week alone, this is around the time your cravings start." He replied, uncovering the plates filled with an array of fruits, pastries, and a jar filled with pickled herrings.

I beamed. "You brought all of my cravings?"

He nodded. "Even the less desirable one," he answered with a glance at the container of herrings.

Rather than glare at him for his disdain for my cravings, I immediately grabbed the jar with glee. "It's not my fault your son demands I eat these," I countered.

"It's hard to argue that" he said with a smile, his violet eyes sparkling with adoration even as I ate one.

I sighed in content as I ate the entire contents of the jar, Rhys sitting adjacent to me and bringing my legs to rest over his lap as I leaned against the headboard for support. My sighs turned to groans of relief as he began to gently massage my ankles and feet, which had grown swollen recently thanks to walking around with my extraordinary weight.

"Don't worry, they'll shrink back to normal," Rhys assured me, making me realize my mental shields were left wide open for him.

"It's getting harder," I confessed with a sheepish smile. "To keep my shields up, concentrate on work, and lug around this belly."

Rhys nodded his understanding, still rubbing my feet. "You're allowed your discomforts right now my love. In your condition it's impossible to keep up the stamina all day," he sympathized.

"Which is why I need sleep," I said with a frown.

He reached over to the tray, pouring me a cup of the brew Elain had mixed together for me, having found the recipe and ingredients from an apothecary she found at the Palace of Bone and Salt. I eagerly took the steaming mug as he handed it to me, praying to the Mother it would settle my wriggling unborn child enough to afford me a good night's sleep.

"Hopefully with your cravings satisfied and this tea combined, you'll be asleep in no time." Rhys mused, voicing my thoughts aloud. "We wouldn't want you to be cranky during your surprise tomorrow afternoon."

I blinked. "What surprise?"

"If I told you that, it wouldn't be a surprise."

Prick.

He laughed outright. "Regardless, my lips are sealed. Your sisters and Mor have been planning this for months, and I won't spoil it."

I sighed. "I don't actually have to go anywhere do I?"

Rhys chuckled as I sipped at my tea. "No, the surprise is right here in our home," he reassured as he came to lay on his side, setting my feet back onto the bed and propping himself up on an elbow as his other hand caressed my stomach.

"Is the surprise actually for me, or for Bash?" I asked.

"My lips are sealed," he repeated before pressing a kiss to the hand lying idle on my belly. "But I have a feeling you'll enjoy it regardless."

I sighed in mock exaggeration. "I guess as High Lady I have no choice but to attend," I hummed.

"It would be strange not to, especially considering the location," Rhys added in his own playful tone.

"But I expect some recompense," I motioned to my large belly. "For my gallant efforts."

He returned with a roguish grin, "More foot rubs? Or maybe a back massage?"

I pretended to consider for a long moment, dragging it out as I sipped from my tea, before I finally nodded. "Both will do," I agreed.

His dark chuckle reverberated through the room, through me, as he moved onto his hands and knees to level our gazes and pressed a kiss to my brow—staying there for a minute. Setting my now empty mug aside, I brought my hands up to hold either side of his face; both of our eyes slipping shut as he remained hovering above me, breathing in each other's scent. After a minute of relishing each other's warmth, I couldn't help the yawn that broke from my throat as Rhys pulled back with a smirk.

"Let's get you to sleep," he said softly.

I nodded, my eyelids actually feeling heavy as he helped me into a side-lying position; using his magic to wave away the tray of leftover food as well as his day clothes, leaving him in only his undershorts as he lay beside me. It was here, in his continued warmth and lingering scent that I finally succumbed into a much-needed sleep.

XXX

I could still pick up on the residuals of Rhysand's scent when I awoke the next morning—or rather, the afternoon, judging from the way the sunlight shone through the gossamer curtains in our room. I stretched onto my back slowly with a yawn, a new tray of food showing up on the space beside me and a note popping up alongside it. I smiled as I grabbed it, reading the quick words my mate had written.

Have some breakfast my love and come join me in the nursery.

My smile warmed before I slowly pushed myself upright, my stomach growling—a not so subtle indication from Sebastian at how hungry we both were. I took my time eating through the assortment of food Rhys had picked out for me, knowing whatever awaited me in the nursery had something to do with the surprise my sisters and Mor had for me. Once we had returned from the Illyrian camps, following the coup, Elain finally completed all plans she had for the full reconstruction of the nursery, once our sitting room, and recruited Nesta and Mor to see to its fruition. For the last two months it was their project, one they made sure to exclude me from with the promise that it would be ready in time for the baby's arrival. Elain claimed it was an "aunt's only" venture, which I was happy to oblige to thanks to my continued exhaustive state.

Once my appetite had been sated, I tried using the momentum of my legs swinging over the edge of the bed to push myself up to standing...only to have my large belly prevent me from actually being able to sit up at all. I sighed in frustration, but before I could call Rhys through the bond, he was in the room and at my side in seconds.

I scowled as he took both my hands, hauling me up to my feet. "I officially can't even climb out of bed without help," I grumbled.

"Yes, well," he glanced at my stomach with a feline grin. "We saw that coming."

I sighed and ambled towards my armoire. "If you hadn't come, I would've been stuck there and never would've been able to join you for my surprise."

Rhys laughed. "I wouldn't have left you here all day, I promise," he said as he came to my side, grabbing a gown I didn't recognize from the far end of the armoire. "How about this?"

I stared at it as he hung it on the door of the armoire for display. It was a floor length, midnight blue maternity gown with off-shoulder long sleeves. The bust ruched in elegant pleats, creating an elegant sweetheart neckline, and would allow the rest of the soft fabric to fall and hang over my belly delicately.

I smiled at him. "Is it another gown your mother made for me?" I asked softly.

He nodded. "I've been waiting to pull it out for you. I think today would be the perfect opportunity."

"Will you help me into it?" I asked by way of agreement.

Rhys smiled, the rare and soft smile that always warmed me to my core. "Of course, Feyre darling."

After another half an hour spent helping me wash up in the bathing room, changing, and arranging my hair in a simple braided crown, I was ready. I laughed as I caught my reflection in the mirror.

"I look like I'm going to a party," I admitted.

"You are," Rhys confirmed as he looped his arm with mine, escorting me to the other end of our suite and to the double doors that led to the sitting room-now nursery.

Before I could question him further, he opened the doors to the nursery where all of our family awaited us. I barely noticed the smiles on their faces as I took in the transformed space. The once creme colored walls were now painted in a soft baby blue hue, a few clouds painted throughout. A dark-stained wooden cradle decorated with matching soft blue and white blankets nestled inside sat in the middle of the room, a plush carpet underneath and a weaved basket overflowing with stuffed toys sitting beside it. Hanging above the cradle, draped open delicately on either side of it, was a light grey canopy. Tears I hadn't realized gathered in my eyes fell when I blinked at the sight before me.

"What do you think, Feyre?" Elain asked as she crossed over to me, taking both of my hands in hers.

I nodded with a wet laugh, observing the other details of the room—all beautifully and meticulously decorated. "It's beautiful Elain," I said.

"Just wait until you see his closet full of clothes," Mor said with a grin as she came to my side and embraced me. "Nesta and I have been collecting clothes for months."

I looked at Nesta, surprised, but she waved a hand. "It was mostly her and Elain. I organized them according to size," she explained.

"She really doesn't want to admit to the two outfits she actually found because she's worried you'll think they're ugly," Cassian teased from beside her, earning a deadly glare from my sister.

I had been surprised to see both him and Azriel in the room with the others, both clad in the casual clothes we rarely saw them wear.

They wanted to be here for your sister's and Mor's unveiling. Consider this one of the last gatherings we'll all have together before Sebastian arrives. Rhys said through the bond.

I smiled briefly at my mate, squeezing the hand that held mine and turned back to the others, when suddenly the Night Court insignia caught the corner of my eye from the wall to my left. I paused before walking over to it, taking in the tapestry woven from the deepest black to exist and the iridescent silver thread shining like liquid starlight as it shaped the Night Court's insignia.

Void and Hope.

I touched it gently, marveling at the feel of the velvet texture—remembering how it felt exactly as it had that day I saw it in the weaver's gallery. Back then I had no idea where I would hang it, but seeing it here now, recalling the emotions it stirred in me then—the realization of just how lucky Rhys and I were to both return from the war with each other and how far we had come since; the realization of wanting, more than anything, to start a family with my mate as soon as possible. I couldn't think of a more perfect place for it.

"It was Rhysand's idea to hang it up here. What do you think?" Elain asked with a gentle smile, remembering the day she had been with me when I bought it.

I nodded and turned back to my mate, my eyes burning as I rested both hands on my belly. "It's perfect," I repeated, knowing he heard the initial sentiments in my thoughts.

"You're welcome, Feyre darling," he purred in my ear as he returned to my side and pressed a kiss to my temple.

Mor clapped before I could get lost in his warmth, and grinned. "Alright, now it's present time!" She declared.

I blinked. "Present time? It isn't my birthday." I said, confused.

"No, but it's almost his," Mor said as she rubbed my stomach affectionately. "So, we're having a little celebration in honor of his arrival," she explained.

I looked at Rhys, but he simply shrugged. "It is a tradition among the fae, much like the parties thrown for a mated pair."

"We didn't have a party when I accepted our bond," I argued, my face flushing as I realized just how much I had become the center of attention.

"Which is why we all get to celebrate you now," Mor countered with a grin. "It's not every day a High Lady gives birth to a future High Lord."

I opened my mouth to argue the case of Viviane, but was surprised when Amren was the one to cut in. "The Winter Court does things differently than we do, girl."

I surveyed all their faces; Mor, Elain, and Cassian looked the most eager, but even Azriel, Amren and Nesta seemed earnest in wanting to commemorate this moment—one of the last we would all have together during my pregnancy, before Sebastian was born. Given the last arduous several months we just endured, unable to really relish in welcoming his arrival or spending that much time together in a casual setting like this, I knew now our chance.

With another glance at my mate, who dipped his head in approval, I sighed in mock exaggeration before I nodded at Mor with a genuine grin. Her face lit up with delight before leading me over to the rocking chair on the other end of the room.

"You too, Rhysie," Cassian said as he nudged Rhys forward. "You're the dad, so we have a few things for you too."

"Feyre is the pregnant one. She's been doing all the hard work, and I've just been watching," Rhys avowed.

"You've done more than that," Nesta claimed, and Elain nodded in approval as they both began gathering the presents that had been hidden in the closet.

Azriel came and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Technically, as the expectant parents, all of these gifts are for both of you, as well as your son." he reasoned.

"Yeah, so come sit with Feyre and let us shower you with gifts," Cassian insisted with a crooked grin as he pulled up a chair and placed it next to mine.

Rhys looked taken aback by his brother's words, and even Nesta's, as he glanced in my direction. He was the one used to indulging the others, as High Lord he saw it as part of his duty—to accommodate his friends, his family, but now he was the one being tended to.

I smiled as I reached a hand out to him, the other resting on the apex of my belly as I sat in the rocking chair. "If I have to endure this, so do you," I teased.

He half-heartedly rolled his eyes, a feline grin on his face as he took my hand and came to sit beside me. I squeezed it gently, glancing at my stomach as that once-gentle glimmer flickered through us both and down the bond.

XXX

The sleep I had found that night was short-lived. While the tea I had drunk the night before had done wonders at calming down my lively babe and had helped me once again succumb to the embers of slumber, I felt a strange sensation in my nerves.

It wasn't like the panic or fear triggered by nightmares, but rather a gentle buzz that thrummed under my skin. I couldn't place the name for what exactly I was feeling, but it felt reminiscent of Calanmai, or when I had felt the early traces of the bond between Rhys and me. I felt that tug on the bond now, despite Rhys sleeping peacefully at my side, and felt it over and over until I slowly and carefully hoisted myself out of bed. In spite of the effort it took, I didn't struggle as I had earlier, the gentle buzzing seeming to cause a light adrenaline rush. I padded across the room as quietly as I could manage, as to not disturb my mate, and over to the double doors that lead to the nursery.

I stepped inside and admired the sight as I had earlier, touching the cradle gently as I approached it. My chest tightened a bit as I tried to imagine a swaddled and sleeping Sebastian laying in it. I often saw the baby version of what the Bone Carver had shown me in my dreams; of Rhysand holding and cradling him in his arms—a miniature version of himself with some of my own features mixed in. I sighed contentedly as I grabbed a soft blanket thrown over the edge of the cradle, folding it neatly before placing it on the bedding. I surveyed the rest of the room, suddenly finding a few imperfections in the decor, or in the supplies that had been laid out, and before I knew it, I was rearranging the different areas of the room. I started with the cradle, folding the different types of blankets according to size and type, before moving onto the changing station and began organizing the different creams and ointments we might need for that messy business. With the words and lectures of our healer and midwife in my head, specifically on how we would care for and tend to Sebastian once he arrived, I now felt compelled to make sure that I was adequately prepared.

"Look who's being a mother hen now," my mate said from the doorway, his voice a husky mixture of sleep and amusement.

I turned to look at him, a stuffed toy in hand from my work of rearranging the basket of toys sitting beside the changing station. I felt another flush return to my cheeks as he came to my side.

"I couldn't sleep," I admitted as I looked at the toy; a bear with cloth wings Nesta claimed had been hand-sewn by the clothier shopkeeper Emerie, from the Windhaven camp.

"I see that," Rhys said softly, hands coming to hold my stomach. When he felt no answering glimmer or movement in response to his touch, he smiled. "But it wasn't because our little one kept you awake, it seems."

I paused, realizing he was right. Sebastian had remained still, asleep, despite my movements and the tug I had felt on the bond. "No. It was...something else, I think. I fell asleep earlier, but then I woke up with this overwhelming urge to…" I looked around the room, trying to voice exactly what I felt. "Clean?" I tried.

Rhys's violet eyes warmed, starlight smoldering as a hand touched my cheek gently. "Feyre, darling, you're starting to nest," he said.

My eyes met his, astonished, realizing what this meant. "Oh," I whispered and looked down at my belly.

Nesting was the first indication of my body readying for labor. It was an expecting female's first instinct, the midwife had told us, because she would want to make sure her home was aptly prepared for the arrival of her newborn. This period could last anywhere between a few days to a week and would follow with all other instincts cooling into a withdrawn state; a necessary final stage before the laboring process began.

I let out a shaky breath as Rhys caressed my stomach, his brow coming to rest on mine as those sparkling violet eyes stared into mine. "It's okay, Feyre," he reassured. "If you're nervous."

"I'm a little nervous," I confessed. "Not just because I know there will be pain, but because...we'll finally get to meet him."

I stroked my stomach gently as I went on. "After all these years of trying, after the last several months we've had...we're finally going to hold him in our arms. He won't just be what we've imagined him to be, what the Bone Carver showed us...he'll be real."

Rhys brushed away a stray tear as it fell down my cheek and held me as closely as he could, my large belly pressed against the hard planes of his, resting between us.

"Yes, he will," he whispered before claiming my lips with his in a lingering and sweet kiss as my eyes fluttered closed.

"We're having a baby," I whispered after a minute, my lips still lingering on his.

I felt him smile and he pulled back to meet my gaze as I opened my eyes again. His thumbs stroking my cheeks as he held my face.

"Yes, we are, my love, and I don't know how to thank you for this...this gift, this life you've grown inside of you," he said, his violet eyes now lined with silver.

My hands came to take his wrists gently, bringing his hands to my lips in a brief kiss before letting them go so he could hold my waist. "You can start by helping me organize this room...and bringing me some more pickled herrings?" I asked with an abashed smile.

Rhys threw his head back in a laugh, pressing another quick kiss to my lips as he nodded and sketched a quick bow. "As my Lady wishes," he said with a wink.

I laughed along with him as I looked down at my stomach, giving it a gentle touch as I wondered just how much longer it would actually be before Sebastian occupied this room.

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gerberbabey · 4 years ago

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euphoric | one | JJ Maybank

a/n: this post isn’t showing up in the tags and idk why😔😭

ive linked both the outfit and the makeup look, and will continue to do so in the future. this is mostly bc im not rlly good at being descriptive sorry 😔 . For the aesthetic and looks in particular i might link a lot of Cierra Nia, cus her vibe and fits are very much what i had in mind. (when it comes down to it a lot of the inspiration im going off of is very Kali Uchis, Princess Nokia, and SZA.)

ik that this kinda cuts into the inclusivity (w aesthetics and fashion sense at least, bc i understand that some of these outfits might not be smth other people are comfortable wearing), but even w the concept ill try my best to widen the range of outfits as i go forward

the chad bit is inspired by @yourlocalauthor

also... im lowkey loving Isaiah as a character and i might invest in him more than i planned to lmao.

summary: You get ready for dinner with the Cameron’s but you meet a certain Pogue instead.

masterlist | previous | next

warnings : cursing, lack of pogues and action (i gotchu next part tho), also terrible writing

one - ♫ Only in the West by Yeek ♫

After being told that you would be interacting with people in just a few short hours you’d rushed off to your designated room. Your parents were generous enough to leave name signs on the doors (likely for the movers to put your belongings in the correct rooms) and you tore yours off the front before you slipped into the room, closing the door and locking it behind you.

You took in the room for a moment. It was already pretty much furnished, just not decorated or arranged in a way that you would like it to be. Everything was just kind of there, from the bed sheets to the vanity that you actually couldn’t really complain about.

Your suitcases had been placed at the foot of the bed and you moved to open the one that contained your makeup. You transferred your makeup products onto the vanity before a buzzing at your waist made you pause.

“Oh shit,” you pulled your phone from where it was being held against you by the waistband of your shorts. The FaceTime caller ID had “that bitch maddy ” displayed at the top of the screen and you cringed because she was probably pissed that you hadn’t been responding to any of their texts. Pressing the answer button you pulled out the little seat of your vanity and leaned your phone against the mirror.

“Oh shit, she answered!” BB’s voice echoed out of the speaker of your phone and you let out a laugh.

“Are you serious dude, we’ve been trying to contact you for hours,” Maddy drawled out, clearly annoyed.

“I just got to the house Maddy.”

When it came to your group of friends, Maddy Perez was someone who constantly sought for attention. This wasn’t shit talk either, it was just the fact of it. You’d been friends with Maddy for nearly your whole lives and something that she loved was praise and attention. You were one of the few people who knew how to keep up with some of her antics. You were also one of the few people capable of calling her out on her shit without her lashing out at you for it (Although the topic of Nathaniel Jacobs was one she seemed to be especially hard headed on).

The girls started to talk over one another, Kat’s voice drowned by the energy of Maddy and BB. You nodded along as you moved around in preparation. You’d stripped off the top you had flown in, tossing it aside in irritation and instant relief as the sweat that was being trapped in by the fabric immediately began to be cooled by the touch of the air conditioned room.

“I mean what the fuck right?” Maddy concluded her story and you could only imagine Kat rolling her eyes.

“Maddy the longer you complain about Nathaniel the more I begin to tone you out,” you admitted and Kat let out a laugh.

“Daaaamn,” BB drawled out from somewhere off screen.

“What the fuck (Y/N) you’re supposed to be on my side,” Maddy was clearly angered by your comment, you could hear it in her tone.

“Babe I am on your side. I’m on your side no matter what the fuck that psycho does. I just really don’t need to hear about what he does because it doesn’t change anything,” you leaned in close to the mirror to focus on your eye make up. You looked over at your screen for a split second and from Maddy’s body language alone you knew you’d eased her irritation.

“So (Y/N) how’s North Carolina,” Kat question, emphasizing North Carolina with a misplaced old-time cowboy-like accent. You’d only spoken to the movers from earlier so far but people from North Carolina and the Outer Banks in particular didn’t seem to have a distinct type of accent.

“It’s…” you leaned back to look at yourself and shrugged, “sticky.”

“Sticky?” Kat laughed and Maddy let out a small ‘ew’.

“Yeah. Yeah it’s sticky.”

_____________

It took nearly two hours but you’d finished getting ready and damn did you look good. You’d ended the call with the girls after they showered you with compliments and sentiment and you find yourself letting out a heavy sigh to try and release the tension in your chest. You missed your friends. You missed being a short drive away from Maddy’s house. You missed Kat and BB laying around in your room arguing about one thing or another. You missed sleepovers at Cassie and Lexi’s house. You missed heading out to the gas station and talking to Fez and Ashtray (which was an experience mind you). You missed the suburbs and not being on an island all the way across the country.

You missed all of this and you hadn’t even been on this island for a day.

A knock on your door interrupted the growing weight you could feel throughout your body.

“(Y/N), are you ready? We’re gonna head out soon,” your mother’s muffled voice called to you and you nodded before realizing she definitely could not see you.

“Yeah I’m good just give me a second!” you called back.

“Ok,” her voice drifted off and you took one last look in the vanity mirror, concluding that you definitely needed a full body mirror in this room.

For tonight you were dressed to ensure the weather on the island knew it could fuck off. Maddy had pleaded for you to wear one of the dresses/outfits she’d gifted you at your farewell party (although you’d specifically told her not to get you anything, you also weren’t gonna complain about the amount of money she’d made Nate drop just to get you presents). So there you were, dressed in a dark purple, suede-textured, bra top with a long pleated skirt that was a lighter, softer shade of purple. You accessorized with two different chains hung around around your neck, a purple bucket hat, a small light purple shoulder bag, white socks bunched at your ankles and silver sneakers. The look was topped off with your makeup matching the purple color scheme.

Concluding that you were good to go, you made your way out of your room and then out of the house. You took in everything as you passed it, from boxes that were yet to be unpacked to new pieces of decorations your old house definitely did not have.

“Y’know sometimes I wonder how it feels to need to take 3 hours getting ready,” Isaiah drawled from where he was leaning against the car, scrolling through his phone. He’d dressed in some cutoff tan pants and a polo with a logo that you couldn’t make out on the left breast.

“It would really help you out,” you shot back and he scoffed.

“My look is effortless ok, I have natural beauty-”

“Oh, natural beauty bullshit-”

“I’m not the one with layers on my face-”

“Say that the next time you wanna use my face masks-”

“Ok ladies! You’re both absolutely gorgeous,” your mother interrupted your bickering as she made her way outside, “Do you wanna know how I know because you both got it from me,” she struck a pose and you let out a laugh while your brother rolled his eyes.

“(Y/N) are you not gonna bring a jacket?” your dad questioned as you slid into the car. You blinked at him before turning to Isaiah who shrugged.

“You’re not serious,” you stated and your jaw dropped at the serious look on your dad’s face, “Dad you can’t be serious, it’s so hot.”

“(Y/N) you’re not even wearing a shirt, it would give me peace of mind if you had something to cover yourself up.”

See now, while your family got along well, there always was something within families wasn’t there.Your dad’s opinions always seemed to clash heavily with you and your brother’s (yours especially). The man disapproved of Isaiah’s group of friends and lack of participation in sports. The man also disapproved of your friends (aside from Kat and Lexi) and heavily disapproved of your fashion sense and the outfits you tended to wear. He usually didn’t have to see any of the outfits you wore considering he was at work practically all the time, but he always had something to say when he was present.

“Man people are walking around shirtless and stuff dad it’s fine,” Isaiah tried to defend you.

“I wasn’t talking to you Isaiah.”

Your dad was also the only person who didn’t call you or your siblings by your nicknames.

Isaiah rolled his eyes.

“Ok ok, it’s fine,” you’re mother piped in, “here (Y/N), you can have this cardigan,” You gave her a look of disbelief and she only shot you a pleading one back. Her expression alone told you, ‘please, just leave it’. You grit your teeth and snatched the cardigan from her, slouching into your seat aggressively as your dad nodded and started the car. Bea continued to watch whatever show she had preoccupied herself with and from the corner of your eye you could see Isaiah’s hand clenching and unclenching on his lap. You couldn’t see his face but you wouldn’t doubt he was as pissed as you.

_______________

The Cameron house was packed with people.

Well, not the house itself, but their large backyard was crawling with people. When Bea had told you that you guys would be heading to the Cameron’s for dinner you thought it would’ve been with the Cameron’s and the Cameron’s alone.

“Welcome to your welcome party!” a man walked up to you and your family and you and Isaiah shared a look.

“Ward, you didn’t have to do all this,” your mother laughed and the man waved off her concerns before giving her a hug in greeting.

“This was the least I could do for my new business partners. Now, this must be the (L/N) kids,” the man, Ward, turned to the three of you and Bea stepped up with the confidence that surpassed you and your brother’s.

“Hi I’m Bethany, but everyone calls me Bea!” she introduced and Ward let out a joyful chuckle.

“Nice to meet you Bea, I’m Ward Cameron. I work with your daddy.”

“I know,” Bea said matter of factly.

“Oh, well then, it’s still great to meet you. And you two are…?” He trailed off offering a hand out for your brother. Isaiah stepped forward, taking his hands out of his pockets and shaking his hand firmly.

“Isaiah,” he greeted with a nod and Ward nodded back.

“Then you must be (Y/N),” Ward guessed and you nodded with a polite smile.

“It’s great to meet you three. I’ve heard a lot of good things about you kids,” Ward praised and you tried not to roll your eyes. There was no way your dad was bragging about his kids and you assumed your mom just talked about your antics. She loved talking about your guys’s antics. Bea was likely the only one who actually got any praise from either of your parents at this point.

“Well there’s food on those tables, take as much as you want. Seconds, thirds, go crazy,” Ward motioned to the long tables displayed with food, buffet style, “Bea there’s a few kids over there who I know would love to make a new friend,” Bea ran off at that, “and you two. My daughter Sarah and my son Rafe are somewhere over there with some others your guys’s age. I know you guys definitely don’t wanna hang around when the old people start talking,” Ward laughed and your parents chuckled while you tried to hide your wince with a smile.

Ward ushered your parents off, leaving you and Isaiah to stand awkwardly looking over the crowd of people.

“Wanna go get food?” Isaiah offered and you nodded eagerly.

_____________

Kiara was on enemy territory. If there was one thing she definitely had not wanted to do, it was go to a Kook party (in Sarah Cameron’s house nonetheless) to welcome a new Kook family, but her parents practically threatened her. Now she was here, trying to avoid all the Kooks (i.e Sarah) while her parents mingled with other parents. Kie had done a pretty good job slipping off so that she wasn’t forced to talk to any one and was sitting on a chair that was basically hidden away from the rest of the crowd.

‘SOS. god pls get me out of here’ She texted her group chat with the other Pogues and threw her head back in irritation as she waited for a response.

“Y’know I think I just saw Chad, Brad, Tanner, and Hunter over there,” a voice she didn’t recognize startled her and Kie looked up as you and a tall boy made your way over to the spot she’d claimed. You were laughing, your cardigan sliding off your shoulders and both of you had a plate of food each.

“Yeah, they’re waiting for their homeboys Bryce, Brock, and Tucker,” you shot back and the boy barked out a laugh.

Kie smiled as she caught onto the jokes you guys were making. Yet her smile dropped as she realized that from your unfamiliar faces and your unique sense of style she could tell you two were two of the new kids from the new family. Aka the new Kooks who moved into Figure 8. Kiara’s phone buzzed and she looked down at it.

‘want us to crash?’ Pope had responded, though from how it was worded, Kie could bet that JJ had sent the message.

As down as she was for that, her parents were in attendance and they’d probably ban her from ever seeing her friends again (not that something like that would stop her).

“Hey uh,” Kiara jumped and looked up, making eye contact with you and your brother, “Oh shit sorry, we were just wondering if we could sit here?”

“Yeah no, go ahead,” Kiara motioned to the empty chairs.

“Thanks,” you smiled at her and Kiara admired your makeup now that you were much closer.

“I’m Isaiah by the way, but call me Zaya,” Isaiah raised his hand before motioning to you, “This is my sister, (Y/N).”

“I’m Kiara, but most people call me Kie,” Kie introduced and you and your brother nodded. Kiara’s phone buzzed again, drawing attention to it.

‘kie want us to come get u?’ John B texted. Kie quickly picked up her phone so she could respond, she glanced between her phone and you and Isaiah before deciding.

‘nah it’s ok’

‘?’ was the immediate response from Pope and Kie could almost hear the confusion.

‘met the new kids. theyre cool so far’

‘If you say so. But jj says dont fall for it’

Kie rolled her eyes but could understand the sentiment. She told them not to worry about it before putting her phone off to the side. You and your brother had started a different conversation while Kie had been otherwise preoccupied. Kie watched and listened to you two talk, justifying that it wasn’t eavesdropping since you’d come and sat with her in the first place.

“That sounds dumb but ok,” you offered and Isaiah scoffed.

“I mean I looked up if there was one around here but there isn’t so what else am I gonna do.”

“Sorry, what isn’t here?” Kie interrupted, curious about the context of the topic. Isaiah glanced at you before turning to Kie.

“Skate park,” he answered, “There isn’t one in the Outer Banks so I could just street skate, but there’s nowhere to drop in. But I was also thinking of just going somewhere and bombing a hill.”

Kie wondered if she was losing her mind. She knew there wasn’t a skate park on the island, the closest one was on the mainland. Most people who skated rode on longboards rather than actual skateboards and as far as she knew most people in the OBX just preferred to surf. But what had lost her was “drop in” and “bombing a hill”.

“Closest skate park’s on the mainland,” Kie confirmed and your brother seemed to deflate.

“You skate?” You questioned and Kie shook her head.

“I’m a surfer. Not much to do when you live out here,” she joked.

“No shit?” you asked and Kie looked up in thought but shrugged.

“Well me and my friends, we usually either surf, or we go out to the marsh. We swim, drink, smoke. Either out at the marsh or just at my friend, John B’s, house. Sometimes we throw keggers. Have bonfires. We usually know how to occupy our time,” Kie wondered why she was speaking to these two so comfortably.

“Parties?” Isaiah questioned and Kie winced.

“Aside from keggers, people on the Cut don’t really throw house parties. The Kooks are always throwing stuff like this though,” Kie nodded over to the event that was meant to welcome you and your family in the first place. You glanced back at the party/gathering that you’d practically forgotten about. Since you’d arrived you and your brother actively avoided interacting with the teenagers all dressed like they were pledged into Kappa Beta Who Gives a Shit.

“Sorry, Kooks?” Isaiah questioned.

“Oh um...Kooks are like the rich people, anyone who lives in Figure 8. Boarding schools, trust fund money, private tutors,” Kie explained.

“So...we’re Kooks? Because we live out here?” you questioned incredulously. Kie nodded her head and you raised a brow. Sure, you weren’t poor, you’d already established that. Back in California you lived just a few houses down from Cal Jacobs, who owned practically the entire town. You acknowledged that you were definitely more financially privileged than some people, but you’d never had the luxury of going to a private school (shoutout to East Highland) or having a private tutor. And even with as much money as your parents seemed to make, the idea of a trust fund was laughable.

“OBX is kinda split. John B always described it like...two tribes, one island,” Kie smiled as you and your brother gave her deadpanned expressions, “So y’know who the kooks are, but the other half are the Pogues. Basically the bottom of the food chain. Pogues live on the Cut, the poorer side of the island. Kooks and Pogues don’t really get along.”

“I’m gonna be completely honest with you, that’s like the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” you stated bluntly.

“Wait is this like...Soc’s versus Greasers? Like The Outsiders?” Isaiah questioned and Kie’s eyebrows furrowed at the comparison.

“You're telling me your whole island follows basic labelling like it’s an 80s high school movie?” you questioned in a state of shock and all Kie could do was nod. Kooks and Pogues and even Tourons were just something people knew growing up in the Outer Banks. She’d never really let it sink that other people probably found the concept ridiculous.

“Do you have bad experiences with...Pogues or something,” you questioned and Kie shook her head firmly.

“Nah, I’m no Kook. They’re entitled, narcissistic, assholes.”

“So you’re a Pogue? Then why are you here?” Isaiah laughed and Kie slumped in her seat.

“My parents forced me here. I go to school with these assholes...but I’d never be like them,” Kie shook her head as she caught sight of kids she recognized from the Kook academy. Her family was less upper class, and more working middle class if she really thought about it. Unlike a lot of the highly privileged Kooks, Kie knew what it was like to need to work for the money they had.

“So then how’s being a Pogue going for you exactly?” you questioned. Deep down you knew that you probably shouldn’t have been entertaining this whole Kook vs. Pogue thing but you’d also never encountered an entire county of people that was so blatantly classist.

“Literally great. I surf all day, I get to hang with my friends. The best part is that it’s away from all of...this,” Kie motioned to the crowd that you had separated yourselves from, “Speaking of, we’re actually having a kegger tomorrow. Would you guys be down to come?” Kie looked between you and your brother.

“Uh yes, please,” you were quick to answer and Kie laughed, “Honestly I was preparing myself for the most boring fucking summer of my life, but I’m really glad we met you,” you admitted.

“Definitely won’t beat back home though,” Isaiah mentioned and you groaned. The thought of missing all the parties that were probably being thrown back in California made you frustrated.

“Man don’t remind me.”

“You guys moved here from California right?” Kie asked so that she could keep herself in the loop. It wasn’t hard to pick up that you and your brother tended to go off into little conversations of your own but she understood that it was probably because neither of you knew Kie and therefore didn’t know what to bring up in conversation. Kie was an extroverted person but this was something she noticed Pope doing a lot.

“Yeah, LA actually,” Isaiah confirmed, “Definitely not ‘Paradise on Earth,’ but...”

“There’s no place like the Outer Banks,” Kie said, though the sarcasm dripped from her entire being.

“Meh,” you shrugged off with a tone of disinterest and Kie laughed wholeheartedly.

_________

The three of you ended up talking for the entirety of the night. Kie was determined to stay completely hidden away from the rest of the party’s residents, meaning she had kept herself planted in her chair for quite literally the entire time you guys were there. Isaiah, being how he was, had gotten up a few times to get more food or to grab something new to drink. He had come back with something for Kie each time.

Kie was interesting, she led the conversation a majority of the time and constantly kept it flowing. You appreciated someone who could work past awkwardness and still keep up a conversation. You ended up exchanging phone numbers and social media and had talked about a whole lot of shit; from keggers, to your outfit, to how moving felt. Isaiah and Kie had even gone on a pretty long debate about music, (something about the top 5 albums of all time, or was it how meaningful a playlist was? or maybe it was about whether it was ok to separate an artist’s actions from their music?).

Kie was a down to earth, do shit for herself, actions speak louder than words kind of girl. She spoke her mind about everything she was passionate about and though you weren’t preaching about sea life and turtles, you could obviously understand where she came from with her frustrations, you’d just never really met anyone who was so deeply passionate about it.

The feeling of your phone vibrating against your leg took your attention off of Kie.

“Hello?” you answered it and Kie paused.

“(N/N)! Where are you?!” Bea’s voice screeched and you furrowed your eyebrows in annoyance.

“I’m with Zaya, we’re sitting by like some trees, I don’t know.”

“Mom says we’re leaving right now!”

“Bea stop yelling,” you said firmly, “Ok, we’ll just meet you guys by the car then.”

“Ok!” your sister yelled and before you could snap at her she ended the call. You shook your head and put your phone into your bag.

“We leaving?” Isaiah asked and you nodded as you gathered yourself and your belongings. Kie began to clean up as well, standing up and helping you and your brother out while you gathered up the empty water bottles and cans of soda. Now that Kie was standing you could see that she was actually a little taller than you originally thought.

“It was really nice meeting you Kie,” you said sincerely and Kie smiled. After the three of you cleaned up she helped lead you guys toward the front of the house without having to deal with whoever was left over at the party. You wondered for a moment about how she was pretty familiar with the layout of the home.

“I’ll see you guys at the kegger tomorrow?” Kie asked.

“Uh, where’s that gonna be again?” you questioned as you spotted your family’s car.

“Oh it’s on the Boneyard,” Kie explained and you only stared at her blankly, “Ummm, y’know what. I could just pick you guys up?”

“Yeah for sure,” Isaiah said and you tried not to think about how weird it was going to be arriving at a party at the same time as your brother. That was something you tended to avoid doing when you were back home considering you usually went with your friends.

You and your brother bid Kie goodbye. You’d never been the type of person to initiate hugging, so when she gave the two of you a wave you found yourself just waving back awkwardly.

Now you were settled in the car, heading back home after a ridiculously tiring day. Bea was going off on a tangent about one thing or another and Isaiah had fallen asleep, wedged rather uncomfortably against the car door. You were texting in your group chat, telling them all about Kie, Kooks, Pogues, and everything in between.

You wondered if you could finally get a dog.

taglist: @sspidermanss

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gayregis · 4 years ago

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(1) I didn't mean to trigger anyone with the sex question. and still I can't see how one's personal disgust for such a natural and beautiful (as we agreed) thing automatically justifies calling people names. and also, the fetish? I get it, but wasn't the point of said monologue more philosophical and less personal? people fetishize danger because it's the natural defense mechanism of the psyche. addiction is #1 problem for Regis, sure, but he was a serial killer. he is in no position to complain

(2) ofc we should keep in mind character's main problems, but is being sexualized really as important for regis as his addiction? or his socialization? you don't like him having sex because it's discomforting somehow, but he had relationships with the brothel maman and a succubus, and we should assume that it wasn't at all sexual? succubus has a primal need to feed on sex and she dealed with it with regis by drinking herbal tea and watching tv shows about how asexuality rules? idk

ok im gonna break this down because it’s quite long, just skip to the end paragraph if you want a consise answer

I can't see how one's personal disgust for such a natural and beautiful (as we agreed) thing automatically justifies calling people names.

i’m not disgusted by sex / sex-repulsed. that’s of course a personal thing to share, but it seems to be what you are insinuating. all i said is that i do not want to see p*rn that i have not consented to seeing.

but yeah i am gonna call these people names when they are unable to interact with any character/media without only making nsfw content of it and not considering anything else about that character/media. and when they don’t tag their content and post it w/o filter so that anyone who may not consent to seeing random porn can stumble across it, on a site that literally banned adult content months ago as well as has a large population of minors.

i’ll be trying to talk to someone about regis lol or find non-sexual content about him and ALL I GET is porn and sexual takes. it’s fucking annoying

and also, the fetish? I get it, but wasn't the point of said monologue more philosophical and less personal? people fetishize danger because it's the natural defense mechanism of the psyche.

it’s vague as to whether it is only philosophical or personal, but those philosophizing typically do not speak about issues relating to their species without it being at least a little bit personal.

addiction is #1 problem for Regis, sure, but he was a serial killer. he is in no position to complain. ofc we should keep in mind character's main problems, but is being sexualized really as important for regis as his addiction? or his socialization?

okay first of all, i disagree with the statement that regis was a serial killer, lol, in baptism of fire, he mentions that the victims of higher vampires are rarely killed.

i think what you are trying to argue is that regis being sexualized in-universe is not a main issue for him, and you’d be right, it’s not a main issue in-universe. but if you had been following my points at all, you’d understand that i am speaking about how he is treated out-of-universe by the fandom. him having issues regarding addiction and socialization in-universe is not relevant at all to the issue of him being overly sexualized by the fandom. this argument holds no water.

he had relationships with the brothel maman and a succubus, and we should assume that it wasn't at all sexual?

i will explain a little about how i feel about regis’s canon female love interests: i’m gonna preface this with: why does anyone have to make a man and woman have a relationship. is that really necessary. come on.

i like how you brought up the queen of the night (assumedly, because i don’t know what you mean by “brothel maman” except maybe “brothel woman”) when her being in charge of a brothel was literally an addition / interpretation by CDPR and not in the books, like. who is oversexualizing women and vampires now. in the books regis just says it was probably / it was something serious but she left him because he continued to be an alcoholic. (of course, she has no canon name given in the books, and “queen of the night” is just a title she has. i don’t really care much about names and her real name is probably way longer than that. but i think it is a nice touch that regis’s name means king, and hers’ is queen, so i continue to call her this, i also call her “queenie” because i think it’s cute :3). i think they are both gay and were just trying to be heterosexual because it seemed like what they should do since they were already friends, then they had too many disagreements and fell out.

i think for the succubus, that was an annoying addition by sapkowski to give everyone in the hansa a heterosexual partner thus reason to stay in the fairy-tale duchy. plus the idea of “she’s a nymphomaniac, he’s an alcoholic!” is incredibly cringe to have as an idea of why they would be a good couple. and why must regis be shipped with a woman to be happy? even more cringe.

and we should assume that it wasn't at all sexual? succubus has a primal need to feed on sex and she dealed with it with regis by drinking herbal tea and watching tv shows about how asexuality rules? idk

“we should assume” ? you can have your own headcanons, i do not dictate what you believe! don’t be bothered by my headcanons if you disagree!

i think it would be super fitting if their relationship wasn’t romantic or sexual though, because the witcher is all about breaking fantasy tropes. you know, there’s a vampire that drinks no blood, so why not a succubus that doesn’t have sex with men?

the idea that succubi rely on sex to like, feed off of energy, is totally a tw3 conception, the books never said anything about that. for all we know, they could function like higher vampires and not need sex to survive, they just enjoy it like others do... though i think if they had to exist like that, then i would quote colin robinson from wwdits, with “i don’t live to feed... i feed to live” ... but yeah also having a whole character/fantasy species that is like. “a woman but she NEEDS to have SEX otherwise she will DIE” is pretty annoying lol

for me personally, i have headcanons that she was experiencing compulsory heterosexuality and regis just spoke to her like, so are you really having sex with these men because you want to or because you feel like you’re supposed to? and i think it would have been nice for natanis to speak with a man (a “man” ... heh... okay the post about regis’ gender is an entirely different post) who doesn’t just see her as a sexual being, much like regis gets to speak with humans who don’t consider him a monster. THUS CUE VERY FUNNY MONTAGE of her trying to sneak into human society to fit in and interact with humans (i don’t disagree with the tw3 design of succubi, so we can roll with that. she wears a hat kind of like sile de tancarville’s tw2 design to cover her horns, lol). idk how this turns out, i think she just starts fucking the noble ladies instead of the noble men, and then the noble ladies don’t want to complain anymore.

you don't like him having sex because it's discomforting somehow, but

i literally don’t even headcanon regis as asexual (okay, maybe in the scientific sense because my vampire headcanons are elaborate and i think it’s more interesting than heterosexual coupling) ... like you are literally sending asks to someone with the URL gayregis (although i know you can be gay and asexual simultaneously) ... i am not against regis having sex like, AT ALL, lol. i just do not find the content interesting and i do not want to interact with it because if you followed my blog / saw my pinned post(s) you’d know a large portion of my content about regis is family oriented and also about him being a mentor to angouleme, and i shouldn’t have to like, explain my family trauma to someone with an anonymous identity to get you to understand why seeing this character in this specific way is important to me and why p*rn of him squicks me out. why are you mad that i do not want to see p*rn that i do not consent to seeing? it’s my own business.

#ask #anon #regis #Anonymous

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unproduciblesmackdown · 5 years ago

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i was gonna send an ask like "have you considered: 'anger is a type of geography' + 4x11" and then i checked and you actually had! but if you feel like considering it More then here's a free space

oh thanks for these Layers of Allyship re: humoring my repeated [anger geography sign tapping] and checking for things and then sending me asks about it all to invite yet more Consideration.........yeah i feel like i mentioned it at least once in tags or smthing lol??? but here comes yet more consideration / giving it an In The Text post if that doesn’t exist already yet either

the Anger Is A Type Of Geography Quote From Hanif Abdurraqib in question for everyone’s reference:

anger is a type of geography. the ways out of it expand the more you love a person. the more forgiveness you might be willing to afford each other opens up new and unexpected roads. and so, for some, staying angry at someone you love is a reasonable option. to stay angry at someone you know will forgive your anger is a type of love, or at least it is a type of familiarity that can feel like love.

like, yeah sure what with winston originally talking to lauren and mafee about this and taylor Happening to walk in on it, he probably wasn’t necessarily planning to go off on his Indignant Monologue to taylor right then and there, but the fact remains that he was willing to do so, and i definitely think that that wouldn’t be the case if he didn’t have this Respect for them and think that they have respect for him in turn, and if he didn’t also think that that mutual respect is holding hands with mutually valuing each other. like, he wouldn’t say it if he didn’t think taylor might actually listen / consider what he says, and he wouldn’t even Want to say it if he didn’t give a shit about them, because he’s not just complaining about “um i simply ask for more money,” it’s about the fact he Feels Disrespected by the implied deprioritization of tmc employees and that the way this (false lol) choice is presented to them being Unfair and disingenuous. like, you could (and im sure most viewers do) interpret the other stuff he says as just him backing up his “Pay Me” argument when all he really cares about is the Pay Me part, but a) that’s not how We roll and b) doesn’t make sense with winston being just as happy as anyone else in 4x12with taylor Apologizing re: many of these 4x11 points, despite them not saying they were gonna change the Bonus situation lol, and c) it Does make sense to think that the Mutual Respect between taylor and winston matters to him due to [see: the rest of this post]

well wait lol first of all yeah sure the money Must matter to him b/c nobody could possibly be in the world of High Finance as a passion project (except for taylor apparently lmao cuz i mean we know that the Real reason they are determined to stick with hedge fundery (and involved in the first place) is b/c they are the best part of the show and elevate all the other Lesser Elements of it as well) and also we can figure that this was probably winston’s first year working a Big Time Official Job and he doesn’t have the savings that other ppl might when they’ve been in the business multiple years, and this seems to be backed up by lauren referring to him as they guy who’d be the First One Smothered by either taking a bonus cut by 40% or not getting that bonus at all until a whole other year, which, like he seems to also imply, is also Unhelpful in that surely these investment finance people turn around and invest their own finances, and Bonus Now is better than Bonus Then b/c.....interest....Long Shares.......and also just like tfw you want your job to pay you.......but anyways Seriously [next paragraph]

cuz winston *must* be working at Taylor Mason Capital b/c he really values working with taylor more than, say, wanting a job that will make him the most money, or will necessarily look the best on a resumé if he’s just looking to up his stats, b/c yeah, this is sure an unlikely opportunity for him where this is what we’re assuming is his First Fancy Job and he’s getting to be the Top Quant right out of the gate, but he must also know that like, it’s still like “oh so you were head quant at a brand new fund :/” and also he must know that there’s a Risk with said fund and he might even end up having been head quant at a new fund that burned out really quick, super impressive........and, we Know that winston *knows* how good he is at what he does, even though he keeps getting dunked on for that like he’s sooo conceited lol like. he IS that good, sorry!!!! why should he downplay it, we don’t actually see him being one of these shitheads with a fragile ego trying to prove themselves Superior or whatever.....ANYWAYS yeah the point being that, winston claiming to have a lot of offers already in the interview might very well Not be any kind of bluff, and he’d surely know that he could rise through the Quant Ranks quickly enough at some other fund even if he started out as anything but Our Main Quant at those places.......and if Getting Tf Paid Top Dollar was really his primary concern, “go with the brand new hedge fund which doesn’t have Established History / Experience / Clout and has the one big investor but who knows what’ll come next and any business that Just opened is not your safest bet even if you trust in your own skill and in that of your ceo and you Know that even if you’re not immediately destroyed, funds will be tighter / of a Lesser Amount than at a bigger established fund”.........the now-dramatic-irony of him talking about how those Tech Firms Out West pay guarantees, not bonuses.........like, when he was trying to get onboard with axe cap, he was obvs interested in trying to leverage to get Paid more, which is like, not necessarily winston wanting to be a trillionaire but also just how stupidly everyone’s supposed to like Play The Game of negotiating / leveraging / calling your employer’s bluff to get a certain starting salary / get a raise or whatever, dumb as hell baked-in Requirement........discuss your wages with coworkers gang!!! anyways. and but Also winston makes it clear when interviewing for axe cap that Working With Taylor Mason has appeal, even if he’s flippant about it, cuz he’s flippant about all of it cuz that’s his shtick here.....

like, when it’s Taylor Alone who calls him back eventually, he’s fine with meeting up with Just Them, and later on meeting up with Just Them (and the other quants, rip) again, and agrees to work in this lil basement evidently Not on axe cap premises b/c he’d been at axe cap’s offices and this is Not That Place......and yeah him talking about taylor selling axe on using his algorithm in kompenso sure implies that winston has this whole time Assumed that all of this was still ultimately in the service of axe cap.......and he was apparently fine with reporting to Taylor Alone and not getting to rub elbows with any other higher-ups, and he’s obviously pleased well enough with a “good work :)” from taylor and isn’t like “hey be sure to tell axe & co i did this singlehandedly etc” or anything, and he’s not really complaining about the whole “work in this lil basement Not at axe cap hq with taylor mason dropping in at least once to check on you and that’s about it” situation, which obviously is hardly that “You’re A Valued Axe Cap Employee” treatment one might expect if they wanted that.....winston’s glad that taylor called him, he’s trying to appeal to them and what *they* want to see rather than how he tried to go for what he thinks [a place like axe cap] would wanna see like he did in the interview, he’s showing up at this weird basement rendezvous to be on a 3 person quant team of taylor’s, he’s fine to not only do this on his own but also accept those increased demands that make it a [fifty(? or 15, either way) phds would work on this]-Level task, and then he’s glad just to have taylor’s approval at the end of the day.......they Wouldn’t have been able to promise him any leverage of “please do your best work on this” with like, promotions / clout within axe cap or axe-cap-levels of Lots Of Payment b/c like, well taylor wouldn’t outright lie anyways but also Especially wouldn’t if they wanted to keep this quant around for tmc, so winston must never have been asking about that kind of thing

and then, bless your Missing Scene fic but there’s zero canon content re: “uh how/when did taylor break it to winston that this algorithm was for their own fund actually and btw do you want to work for that fund instead,” but presumably it went smoothly enough, he was already happy to Effectively work for them alone apparently even if he still thought that yeah, he was working for taylor who was working for axe........just Yeah altogether it’s evident that “Working With Taylor Mason” must matter more to him than “working with any Other big name financiers” or “getting paid as much as he can get” or “raking in that clout asap to leverage with Other jobs or just like, in general.”

and then of course you have the fact that taylor is Recognizing his ability by calling him back and offering him this job, going “despite your demeanor your skills are superior” and “those other two were sweet, but you’re more talented, i need you,” [praying hands emoji], and giving him this Second Chance and entrusting him with this Solo re: building this algorithm which, unbeknownst at the time to him, is really this linchpin of their hopes & dreams of launching their own secret fund here, and really they must’ve been planning from the start to keep him around if he succeeded b/c it’s not like the algorithm and their whole planned Quant Department wouldn’t continue to be integral to the fund’s success, it wouldn’t really be ideal to have this guy be the one to build an algorithm to reel in an investor who’s working in.....wait for it......billions of dollars here, and then be like, okay bye dude. they must Know how good he is same as winston knows how good he is, and him being Head Quant from the very start was surely never just about mase cap having precious few employees at the very start of things....they could’ve like given him that Lead Position temporarily or whatever, they’re ceo. but they really do value him as like, maybe he doesn’t have the ideal ~personality~ for what fucking ever, either for being Properly Assertive and Impressively Flashy like axe cap might want, or just easy to work with, which taylor would care more about than axe cap would lol, but yknow, they value his Abilities and surely they must also value his efforts re: I Promise To Try and re: his really singlehandedly making that brilliant amazing algorithm which evidently did the trick as they hoped it would

and then......dare i get to the Emotional part of things, the Interpersonal....the anger and the love...............

i mean already when winnie n tay are having their post-math-meetup meetup, aka the first time they’re meeting After their disastrous really-first meeting aka the Interview, you have winston taking a way more grounded approach to this “yeah i want to work for you please accept me” process which is obviously in response to what he thinks Taylor wants from him based on the mess of the interview, evident thanks to winston telling them that he’s been thinking about all of that.......and i mean, part of taylor’s whole thing is they have that grounded approach pretty much always lol, (or try to....Want to...), but they sure seem to Also be bringing this effort to Accommodate him based on the hot mess of the interview, wherein yeah they wouldn’t’ve expected to have to ever interact again with this person they were dunking into the trash (and of course from that Meta Perspective, the scene when originally written was meant to be winston’s only appearance ever), but they really seem to also be bringing a more dialed down approach, letting him talk first and going along with his “you ever done math meetup” intro until he’s the one who changes the subject, and i really see that Head Tilt as a sympathetic one lol, not necessarily like “awww :’0″ levels lmao but still like. they Know he’s likely to have some [emotional vulnerability] re: what last went down between them since they weren’t especially gentle with him then, and they like, demonstrably give a shit about that fact lol. they’re also not just wholly swinging in the other direction to make up for it or anything lol but they’re Also making it clear that, yknow, they’re willing to work with him For Real, not just in this “are you willing to work for me, y/n, okay great” way, but in this way of [winston making an effort to make things easier on taylor] and [taylor making an effort to make things easier on winston] which is already playing out here between them.

and the whole matter of winston’s seemingly genuine Dismay at messing up even part of this exchange, i.e. the “[wince-ston] damn it, sorry,” like, sure maybe he just really wants the job, but [see: everything above about how he Must primarily want to work with taylor re: wanting any of these jobs lol] and, after all, he “oh shit, sorry”s @ them when he’s well-established as their Head Quant in ep 4x08 and generally shows this directed-at-self displeasure at thinking he’s messed something up even without some clear “your (potential) job is on the line” element......he just Doesn’t Want To Disappoint Taylor Themself, doesn’t need some particular fear of further repercussion behind that.

and speaking of Lack Of Fear, you Know we love to point out how kompenso (and really winston’s :/ + “sure, why not :\”ness at the end of 3x09 lol) demonstrates that winston isn’t afraid of taylor either as an [intense and unusually-demeanor'd person who Does apparently strike people as Scary(tm) sometimes lol] or as this Esteemed Rising Star Axe Cap Higher-Up or simply as his de facto boss.........he’s not raring to tell them that the other quants bailed b/c of his own disapproval lol, but he’s honest as soon as they deduce as much, the tone of “fine, yes, big time” + his standing up to get even closer to them instead of just shaking in his desk chair like :c pls forgive me obviously does Not convey that he’s terrified of them, and then the rest of that interaction jsut being like, ugh god so fucking essential, they’re both able to stand face to face and be like I Am Looking Directly At It / I Do See It re: each other, both of them just continuing to be Honest and Direct with each other, God.....taylor might’ve swatted his metaphor away but he was not all that put out, and then they’re Using His Own Language by bringing it back three seconds later, like, yeah sure at this point they have a vested interest in this individual quant (the only one left lol) accepting this Demanding Task, but a) they’re not exactly playing it cool on that front, they Just said “i need You,” it’s unlikely that this is just some all manipulative tactic here by encouraging his metaphor after all lol and that’s hardly their style anyways even if they Can be strategic(tm) about things, and b) they’ve Just Previously adopted his own words lol with winston having said “as for not being a dick” and taylor saying “you backslid into being a dick” (combining His Phrasing with Theirs aka “if you promise not to backslide”....god!!!!!!)

and so then yeah to top it all off winston even ~pushes his luck~ lol by being a lil deliberately rude re: his ex-coworkers lmaoo, and you get taylor’s Reaction to being sort of tested here to be Closing Off Their Expression (speaking of....their tiny lil Eyebrow Twitch when winston infers that he’s making something to pitch to an investor.....god!!!!!! a) winnie n tay and b) emmy) and making it clear that their interest in him acting Easy To Work With was a practical matter......winston watching them go up the stairs, taylor looking back at him as they Ascend and he gets back to his desk.....jesus

the point being!!! they vibe with each other so well by Kompenso already and just *get* how the other operates and communicates and Neither Of Them are offput by the other, Neither Of Them are unwilling or uninterested in meeting each other where they’re at, and each exerting this effort to really work with each other........and how winston is Not intimidated by taylor as either someone who’s so ~weird~ and can be so Intense, or as someone who is his boss lol........which yknow we always also point out as Important re: tayston developing from this point, where taylor would be careful in how they approach winston about fwbship but would feel like it was even reasonable to consider it in the first place thanks to not having to feel like oh he definitely wouldn’t feel comfortable being honest if he wanted to say no / wasn’t sure

also Yeah It’s Billions but winston freely swearing with the F-word when they’re assessing the completed algorithm, which taylor has no reaction to lol.......the both of them being Hyped about this algorithm lol, like, Of Course they’d both be, but it’s fun :)

and then 4x03, with winston not acting terrified about there being potential Algorithm Problems, and taylor making sure to be like “don’t you dare blame latency” lol like which obv he May Have been planning to mention lol since he’s intending to give this technical answer rather than throwing out his Front Running / Interference Theory like mafee then does.....fun little moment too anyways.......taylor Allowing winston’s tangent about being cassandra and emails and “it’s pronounced owned,” like, they’re not raring to Interrupt / cut him off even if it’s Not obvious what he has to say is absolutely crucial and considered relevant by everyone else, and they’re not telling him he’s a stupid idiot and wasting their time or anything else before sending him away.......imagine. and just think about the beauty of winston very intently / earnestly saying his “i’m cassandra: Always Seeing The Future” right to taylor.

and in 4x08 they build on his metaphor Again after having just Validated him despite everyone else really wanting to do the opposite lol......i “lol” but would everyone else lay off a little Lol......his self-reproach upon Registering that disapproval / oh-no-i’ve-messed-upness again.......then despite winston Standing Right Beside and then Sitting Right Behind taylor they don’t really interact l o l .....we have taylor being all “why is He so happy” and silently observing his Solo “i won” moment, rip, but also congrats.....and then i suppose that covers the Prior To 4x11 stuff lol

just......even re: the relative little we’ve Seen between them up to that point, winston might not have intended to talk to taylor right then, and he might or might not have intended to eventually talk to them in front of anyone else, but You Know He Knows that taylor listens to him, and that he doesn’t have to like, say things in what other people think is The Right And Effective Way to talk (even by billions’s fucking off the shits standards on that front lol), because taylor Does care about what he actually means and what his actual intentions are, not just “oh that very direct/honest thing you said Seemed rude whether you intended it or not”.......the “sad” after his yngwie malmsteen metaphor was the only time they’ve critiqued something like that lol and they then used that metaphor, So, and they’ve copied him calling himself a dick lol, and they built on his Sword metaphor, and they’ve just always been interested in Understanding him and communicating effectively with him, not in trying to get him to communicate differently or just making sure he knows He Should Feel Bad about how he Does communicate, though god knows the latter is something that everyone else seems to be somewhat #about. god knows some axe capper would have that “are you finished?” simply be the Purely Rhetorical intro to their barrage of Dunking-Upon insults, although it sure seems possible that that could’ve been sort of gently dismissive enough anyways to Encourage winston to not be finished even if maybe he would’ve stopped there otherwise.....but everyone else follows taylor’s lead in Not Actually Interrupting Him at any point, despite all the 9_9 and >:| as it were, and like, even though taylor then lets this whole thing end just with mafee going tf off on winston and bullying him into deferring and would-be deference, b/c winston might have this amount of moxie and he might be honest and he might not be scared of taylor (or anyone else here really) but he’s obviously not that assertive and definitely not that aggressive, he’s self-loathing, he’s easily put out, and all of this just bolsters how much it means that he communicates so well with taylor, b/c they’re Not interested in anything that would be counterproductive to actual effective communication but which might be “productive” if they had a goal of wanting to twist his arm about anything or pressure him into acting a certain way or just fueling their own ego or sense of superiority, axe cap style. they Value all his actual input and they have this respect for him where they don’t Want to bully him even if it’s not that difficult, like, yeah mafee was being mean to him for sure and trying to insult him into simply shutting tf up rather than like, actually responding to any of his points or doing anything but reinforcing them, but also winston has been Put Out by milder [negative responses] too, it’s of course more than just “i respect you too much to like, yell at you and try to diminish you”

and Frankly Winston Was Right and he may have been Indignant and he may not have been ~polite~ about it (though like, relative to how he is generally this Direct And Honest, there’s also not all that much evidence he��s deliberately trying to add some extra servings of Rudeness or anything) but once again like with the “as for not being a dick, i can’t absolute guarantee it” moment and the “fine, yes, big time” moment, and the “im sure it’ll go faster without the dead weight; Whoops ;)” moment, and the [talking about the algorithm problems] moment, and him freely jumping in with the “this plan might get us killed (not literally)” and “it’s b/c it sucks that they had to decapitate their dad, also not literally lol....although...” remarks, he’s just like, never afraid to tell taylor something that sure might not be the most pleasant for them to hear, and sure might not be something they Want to hear. and what’s Honest is that he’s Angry about this, and they won’t want to hear that and that they will even less want to hear his Honest Thoughts about why this is unfair, but he’s willing to say that to them, and even though we were like “haha boy winston if this isn’t fixed big time you might wanna quit :/” it’s also like, he must’ve trusted them to not wanna just fire him for lack of reverence to his ceo, and we can Juxtapose this with a) the scene that we’re set up to juxtapose it with, wherein a group of axe cappers carefully tell axe he’s being dumb as hell and might fuck all of them over, and axe tells them all to shut the fuck up b/c He Is Their Sun and he can do what he wants and get the fuck out of here, and we can also juxtapose it with b) winston being jumped on immediately in The Interview for ~lack of reverence~ to the potential employer, putting on this cocksure hotshot act (trying to..) and daring to express confidence in himself and be like “i should be interviewing you” / you should be selling to Me lol......jump to 4x11 and winston is caught off guard, he’s not putting on any kind of act, he’s not trying to appeal to anyone, sure mafee might turn it around on his [last we checked, the quant hates himself]ness, but this wasn’t about Winston Lashing Out b/c he’s angry at himself, he’s angry at Them for not valuing him, for what he perceives as them not even *really* giving them the option of the 60% Now approach, which sure seems to be justified seeing as apparently nobody but lauren goes for it and after winston invokes the Peer Pressure / pressure to seem Loyal / Committed by deferring, mafee immediately uses that [social pressure] to crush his dissent........where was i. right like. winston’s truly just Mad At Someone Else this time, he wouldn’t be here if his self-esteem was so low that he was immediately ready to just accept and absorb this treatment, and he Knows that taylor will actually listen to him which is their fuckin Mutual Respect thing and who tf else does that for him all the time, and he knows that taylor doesn’t value their own ego above everything else Unlike Some People, and he knows that he can be honest and get an honest reaction and that their honest reaction to his honesty is not “ugh you’re stupid / annoying / rude / etc,” b/c he’s Not, and that might be everyone else’s idea of him to some degree, but taylor Gets him better than that

and then you don’t quite have taylor being obviously Angry back, but they’re not exactly thrilled, and letting mafee go off on winston / effectively telling him they expect him to consider That the response and in turn respond back to that, can sure be interpreted as an expression of something a little short of pure goodwill and best intentions towards him here lol......again, i lol through the pain.......winston only has further reason to be angry, his Complaints weren’t resolved in the least and he came in all “i feel disrespected” and surely that’s only been doubled down on, b/c this isn’t Just “pay me goddamnit,” it’s really also just about the fundamental respect itself, which he figured that taylor cares about too, and so this would be something he could appeal to / expect them to earnestly.....he feels like none of them are being valued more than this feud with axe cap, he (maybe) feels like said feud is causing the quants’ work to be deprioritized in favor of more elaborate schemes based on “what will screw axe over specifically,” he feels like he’s not being valued as a Very Important Employee, he feels like this False Choice thanks to Social Pressure is insult to injury, like they’re not supposed to get a real chance to question this. boy i’m really just going off talking about any and all aspects of this huh, where’s the Anger Geography core here

well here it is: winston doesn’t ever talk to taylor in any more Filtered way due to them being his boss / him feeling a need to be more careful around them, if anything, they’re the one person he can be Least filtered around, b/c they care about What He Actually Means and aren’t all hung up on whether his communication style seems gratingly weird / wrong / offputting. winston isn’t bringing any particular leverage to this situation, yeah sure he pointed out He’s Valuable but he also did that in the interview with even less leverage and in the basement when he thought he was just working on some weird side project for axe cap in this remote quant dungeon - he’s counting on them to just Listen To Him and care about what he means, same as he always does and like they’ve done thus far. and he’s Temporarily Burned by this, which is tragic, but then 4x12 happens, and who knows if taylor and winston talked between these scenes at all cuz billions sure won’t say at all, but either way winston sure seems to pick up on the fact that taylor is responding to his Complaints here, the implication they were taking a too-axe-esque approach to them now answered by taylor deliberately differentiating themself from axe, and asserting that they Do value their employees and their contributions, and that taylor has this responsibility to them, and maybe Had gone astray there with the revenge jag but aren’t actually interested in that being the core of everything.........winston is Validated and we realize it and he seems to realize it lol, he definitely Was listened to, and he sure wasn’t like fired or anything, he Could Be Angry with them and that wasn’t going to lead to taylor wanting to sever even the Professional relationship or anything like that. sure seems to be no grudge held between them during the “q is for quantitative, babey” scene there lol and yeah it’s billions and shit moves fast / people will roll with A Lot of mistreatment apparently (see: winston also does not seem to harbor any grudge against mafee here lol but who knows) but the Fact Is, here they are, having found A Way Out Of [Anger], after having had this altercation which wouldn’t even have been possible if Winston hadn’t felt it was possible for them to interact like this, for him to be mad and be honest about that anger and the hows and whys of it and for that Not to be a dead end between them or something that could shatter the relationship entirely. and he was Validated!!!!

and guess who i also love to quote and paraphrase lol i also think of mariame kaba talking about interpersonal Conflict being possible Opportunities in a relationship, because working through said conflict can allow the relationship to grow / deepen / strengthen. which sure seems to Hold Hands with this idea: that you can Be Angry with someone because you already know that won’t break the relationship, and that even if you don’t already know that, going through that experience / process of Being Angry with someone and coming out the other side together will show that the relationship can handle that / will have involved gaining tools to be able to handle that going forward. and really like, we’ve seen winston Forgive taylor’s anger at him right off, and that may not be the sweeping heights of love but it came from Understanding (and....low self-es steam probably lol) but no really, he Shows that he understands why they reacted like that by behaving in this way that he figures is more in line with what they actually want, just talking and being direct with no boxes or [wags] or standard boring interview questions or posturing, showing he’s willing to work with them in the “please hire me” and “i’ll try to Behave” ways lol........and taylor is offering their own patience and sympathy and restraint and Understanding and willingness to bend.......things are happening on an emotional plane between them here.

and then after winston chooses to be on board with mase cap, and after he’s worked for them so long that it’s comp time baby, and after these few Sample Interactions we’ve seen in which taylor doesn’t cut winston down or show contempt for him and they continue to directly or indirectly validate him, winston can be Angry with them and taylor can (definitely Sorta) be Angry back, and winston surely even Stayed Angry after that scene in 4x11, and he didn’t quit, and was that [terrible self-esteem actually lol] or was it him believing that there could be a way out of this state of anger between him and taylor? both?? we get to decide!! b/c he’s sure not Validated and Vindicated until later lol.....what does he sit there on that couch alone in that room and Think in those moments...........and then once things Are better resolved, they have this whole [episode of conflict] in their history, and like is the whole Point of all of this, that’s hardly necessarily just some awful and unfortunate thing.......their relationship can survive something like that, and the conflict sure sparked this kind of Genuine Interaction between them which couldn’t have happened if winston just shied away from all this / kept it to himself because he didn’t think taylor would Listen or Care or Understand.

and it’s Not Just About The Money, and even when he expresses that he’s upset about this perceived disrespect / not being valued as an employee, we Know that he’s not someone who’s got this need to feel superior to everybody else / like he’s always Winning, and we know he’s not after Maximum Clout, but he does want to Work With taylor and he evidently wants to feel valued By Them, who does happen to be his boss and does have this avenue to potentially treat any employees unfairly. and we know that winston *knows* in this objective way how good his work is, and both winston and taylor have acknowledged that yeah, His Work / professional quantly ablities have value, so winston Knows he should expect for that to be valued in the form of “your quantributions are important and you’re getting paid to reflect that”........and that he feels like he’s for once not being Allowed Honesty re: everyone supposedly being pressured into deferring is like..........what do he and taylor have if not earnest, open communication b/c they both value and respect what the other Really Has To Say!!!!!! that’s winnie n tay and it’s also tayston.

which, speaking of which, Sidenote: when it comes to tayston hcs we generally have this as a “they’re not currently doing Their Thing at this point anyways, and maybe the fact that that’s been ended (and they Haven’t been talking through this particular conflict yet) is adding to the tension / anger / feeling of not being valued hahaha rip” deal lol, but also if they Were still currently in their fwb/[???]ship like obviously this would spill over and probably require an at-least-temporary halt to give everyone some space seeing as it’d be a little impossible to truly completely Set That Aside in the recent aftermath l o l ......but despite the lingering tension / awkwardness that would be present whenever they Do next meetup [imagine: an I Was On The Phone With You, Sweetheart phonecall prior to 4x12′s scene?? wrow] the layers to that ensuing sex lol......reunion sex? makeup sex? not-hate-sex-but-maybe-still-needing-to-vent-a-lil-Emotional-frustration-maybe sex? maybe all of the above and more

ANYWAYS even i don’t know why this is so long, and also it’s 7am. i definitely think that winston trusted taylor and the Relationship between them to be able to handle Anger (his, for once, lol) and for that Anger to even potentially be something Constructive. and he was right. and in 4x12 he’s there with them at the very end, wearing the tmc logo, standing behind them in the hellhole which is axe cap hq, knowing that taylor is the one person (here, certainly) who definitely Gets and who’s Got him, who’s asserted this loyalty and commitment to him after he’s certainly done that re: them, and once again winston definitely has this Choice to be here with them just like he must’ve had that choice to join up with their fund in the first place, he’s never been trapped with them or forced into alliance with them, and we just Know that he’s not choosing to be here just for Linkedin reasons / what’s best for career advancement and/or for raking it in as best as he can manage and/or for gaining clout and status or whatever, and we sure never see him reaping some kind of deluxe treatment/benefits just for being closely associated with taylor / having their approval. everything we see points to winston caring most about what happens between him and taylor and that he gets to work with them and that he’s here because of that mutual respect and value for each other.

and really, the show also repeatedly tells us that winston Does basically have these world-class abilities and *is* that valuable, and we know that winston Knows how good he is, and he must’ve legitimately had all those offers and known that he’s really good enough that these places Should compete for him. he must’ve known that he has this Potential here and all of these options laid out in front of him, and he takes taylor’s call and shows up in a basement for them and singlehandedly writes an algorithm good enough to found their fund upon and he follows them there when now he’s got this Proof of just how incredible his work is and could’ve leveraged that anywhere else. but his relationship with taylor has always had this personal aspect to it and the fact is that, even with his choice of Paths laid out in front of him, he chose and keeps choosing the geography of winnie n tay. Love. thank you and goodnight

#time to attempt a nap!!!! Them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!#winston billions #tayston #nothingunrealistic1

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camelotpark · 6 years ago

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http://thisdiscontentedwinter.tumblr.com/post/182179304312/in-which-camelotpark-falls-in-a-whole#notes

These are just some of the terms under your dumb as a box of scotts

"because Stiles isn’t a fucking idiot." (when directly comparing him to Scott and thereby calling Scott a fucking idiot)

"You have to be smart to be at Peter Hale levels of villainy. I’m not sure Scott could think his way out of a paper bag if someone gave him a flashlight and a map, TBH."

"But you know what else is brainless, and also as canonically smart as Scott?

A box of rocks."

Each of these quotes go far beyond just his academic success and instead talking about his intelligence as a whole so you're "I'm just calling him academically challenged" is bullshit. You are calling a latinx character "dumb as a box of rocks" when canonically he was shown to outsmart men I'm sure you consider his superior in every way. Just because you didn't like how he did it doesn't take away it took intelligence and skill to do it. Something the show clearly acknowledged he had and something you have worked hard to strip him of.

"And given that Scott’s bad grades are being mentioned as early as the first few episodes, how do you account for that? "

“Second verse, same as the first!"

Once again your tag goes far beyond his academic intelligence and into you thinking he is as dumb as a bag of rocks (your exact words) as a whole so trying to pull the "he failed classes" tactic now is a weak attempt to save face. A stereotype that most latinx deal with is assuming that they are stupid because they aren't "as smart" as their white counterparts and "because Stiles isn't a fucking idiot" shows you sure as hell think that despite canon showing Scott is more than capable of holding his own

I'm sure instead of just saying "Okay,maybe he had academic troubles,but that isn't a measure of his overall intelligence" you'll just dig you'll heels in more and swerve to prove this latinx character is stupid because you (a white woman) judge Scott (a brown latinx) for not knowing what every single english word means. And yes, that stupid bestiary thing comes up in the tag a lot so you use a latinx's grasp on the english language to call him stupid. You know he speaks english (as you often complain that him not speaking spanish can prove he's not a latino in canon) Yet you used him not understanding one word to prove your point, I would ask if you know that's a racist stereotype too (latinos not speaking the english language well), but it's clear you lack a lot in understanding racial bigotry beyond just hating someone for their skin color or calling them a slur.

Of course trying to attack my own intelligence because I misspelled words is tactic you used and clearly show a pattern so I'm not surprised. It's a easy lazy way to try and discredit someone because your defense for your actions are paper thin.

"I know that you never said fandom wasn’t an open place for self-expression and that we all have different tastes. Because clearly you don’t believe that, right??"

You damn right I don't believe that,not for a second. I'm a poc in fandom and have been for a long time. Teen Wolf is not my first dealing with this culture and I've seen poc fans driven from fandoms in droves because their "open-place for self-expression" was attacked. Because they dare challenge the racially bias way a poc character was treated. See, when you say "Open place for self-expression" what you mean is "Let me do what I want, let me paint this poc how I want, and I don't care if it hurts poc fans to see the characters that look like them judged more harshly by fandoms then their white counterparts. You don’t like it,don’t read it."

Then of course those poc go to safer spaces and we have people like you and StickeyKeys and the rest of your crew going "I can be here and say what I want because this tag isn't just for you to celebrate your character it's also for me to let you see how awful he/she is" See, the problem is that you don't want poc to have their space just for them. You want to be in every single part of it and eventually it makes poc fans leave the fandom completely.

An article that dared to celebrate Scott and put him in a space of queer-coded that moc are hardly ever in with fandom was attacked mercilessly and his character was demonized once again. The article never once bashed Stiles or any other character,but of course a place to celebrate a poc had to have people tell everyone exactly why that support was wrong.

A “they do it so I can do it too” is not a reason, it’s an excuse.

Your blog has literally condemned Scott for switching out a white man's cancer pills as evil and cruel when that white man has attacked him repeatedly. Has stabbed him and plainly said he would kill Scott's mother. Scott was painted as non-heroic for potentially killing a man who has tried to kill him before and would have gladly killed Scott's mother. Let's ignore that Donovan telling Stiles he’ll kill his father and attacking him is all the justification you need to say Stiles was not at fault for what he did.

You love to use the word hypocrisy without realizing you are literally the biggest hypocrite there is.

Of course I can hear the excuse now "Heat of the moment!" "Stiles didn't plan it!" "Scott’s was premeditated!" I'm sure if Scott had just slashed Gerard's throat you would back him up and defend him against accusations he's unnecessarily cruel. I'm sure if Scott somehow got the upper hand on Derek on that ice rink and ripped his heart out you would be the first to defend Scott against people saying his safety doesn't excuse his actions. He should have been “better”

I'm sure to you it means absolutely nothing to put a white man's life over a poc's and paint that poc as bad for taking actions against it, but it means something to people like me because this behavior isn't confined to just fandom. So yes, when a poc brings this up it is amazing how fast that "Open place for self expression" disappears.

"And I’m calling Scott not academically smart because that’s what his teachers say. That’s why he had to go to the parent teacher night."

Once again you literally called him no smarter than a bag of rocks.

"We could also talk about how stereotypes are different all around the world, and that your US-centric worldview isn’t the universal experience and that people from different countries and cultures aren’t ingrained with the same racial biases from birth as Americans are."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignorantia_juris_non_excusat

"Ignorantia juris non excusat[1] or ignorantia legis neminem excusat[2] (Latin for "ignorance of the law excuses not"[1] and "ignorance of law excuses no one"[2] respectively) is a legal principle holding that a person who is unaware of a law may not escape liability for violating that law merely because one was unaware of its content."

The same goes for racism and stereotypes. Just because you are unaware racial bias exist with certain stereotypes does not give you a pass for using them. You learn it, you acknowledge it, and you stop doing it.

"That’s called a metaphor." "And disagreeing with another woman’s opinion is not misogyny"

I'm glad you know what a metaphor is,but nobody said your disagreement with another woman is misogyny (or your disagreement with a lgbtq man is homophobia) The language you used to defend yourself is. You attacked their sexuality to one up them and saying that a woman or lgbtq man is "sucking someone's dick" when all they are doing is defending a character you don't like is key misogyny and homophobia, metaphorically intent or not. And don't think I didn't notice that you didn't mention your homophobia in your reply. You could have went a million different ways to defend your stance. It is disgusting and you were disgusting for doing it. There is absolutely no defense for that action.

See, you say people are moving goalpost when they dismantle your argument and you try and swerve. It's not. I'm saying what I always said "Scott McCall is not as dumb as a bag of rocks and you trying to prove that true is racial stereotyping"

One last thing. I have never said you can't speak on racism, if you see it by all means call it out. What I said was you can't tell other people (especially poc) what is not racist. That is not your right.

#trash from a land down under #anti-teen wolf fandom #fandom racism #fandom misogyny #homophobia

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panticwritten · 6 years ago

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Homecoming

I figure, to celebrate making through the summer, I’ll post one of the scenes I’ve been working on. It’s basically how Connor got back to the Cube three days before An Idiot’s Return.

Word Count: 2,978

Content warnings

Hallucinations

Implied suicidal ideology

Let me know if I missed any!

@asinwolves @avi-burton-writing @infinitelyblankpage @no-url-ideas-tho@marigoldwritesthings @jade-island-lives @ravenpuffwriter @breakeven2007 @spirit-wizard-nerd @steakfryday @alextriestowritestuff @cataclystr0phe @papayawrites @perringwrites @davidvalencia323 @fluffpiggy @cherrytying @aclassilighthouse

If anyone wants on the tag list, let me know!

If you like what I do here, maybe consider buying me a Ko-fi or checking out my Patreon! I love being able to put so much out for free, but this would be a great way to show support and also see cool new content! Most extra scenes like this will be posted there!

I huddle in the corner of a room. Their room. Jess’s room, from home. Sometimes it turns into their father’s living room, but it’s normally the mess of a room that Jess used to hide in. We used to be there every day.

Together.

Now, there are three different projections of them all talking at once. They don’t acknowledge each other—or make any sense—but they’re all enthusiastic and happy to see me. They keep their eyes on me and pause regularly as if I’m actually answering them.

I sent my double back to the Cube.

He deserves to be there more than me. I can still feel the toxic ability in my head. I can’t go back, not if I want to keep everyone safe. From what I know, Jess is recovering just fine without me there.

I cover my face with my hands and slump against the wall.

I can’t tell what’s real anymore. What’s true.

“Even in the square root so tired so good what do you mean damn metaphors im trying ill show them symbolism it was awesome i thought it was good rewriting history, ha—”

“I’m fine.”

The three voices vanish in favor of one that doesn’t quite sound right. Irritated. Tired. Definitely doesn’t sound fine. I don’t move.

“I wasn’t exactly expecting this to be easy. I’m still not sure if I believe I’m talking to the real you.”

I fall to the side when the wall containing the room disappears. I curl in on myself and wait. I need to know who it is. I need to know what new thing the memories are offering me now. If I can ignore it, maybe I won’t have to deal with it for a while.

“How are the boys? I know I said I’d come over, but—”

The voice cuts off, and now footsteps join it. I think I might know who it is, and I don’t know if I can handle a projection of Jay telling me how wrong I am. How I can’t complain because they told me there were better ways to do this.

They told me and they were right.

“Holy shit, I think that’s him.”

I finally uncover my face and open bleary eyes. A figure approaches—sound says at a jog, but I really can’t tell—but I don’t move to greet them. I wait to see what they’ll say. To see if they’ll be nice or not.

“Connor?”

A hesitant hand touches my arm and quickly disappears. They lean close until I can almost actually make out the details of their face. It definitely looks like them. Maybe splinters of Jess project correctly.

“Can you sit up?”

I don’t really want to, but I force myself upright and rub my eyes. Maybe I’ll actually be able to see the flaws in my memories if I can see straight.

Ha.

“Yeah. Yes, D, I found him. Tell j355 to get back on the line.”

A crackle of sound from whatever device they have. I blink at them, but my vision is still blurry. If I give it a few minutes, they should go back to normal.

“I know. Yes. 65%. We’ll find out when I get back.”

“Goodie,” I mutter. “Another daring rescue attempt.”

They still.

“Scratch that. 90%.” They stoop down next to me. “How many times has someone tried to get you out?”

I rub my eyes again while I think on it.

“Lost count,” I eventually say.

“Will you walk with me, at the very least?”

They crouch on their heels with a hand extended to me. If I say no, will they go away? Will I have a minute for my mind to just be here, wherever here ends up being? Just a minute without a projection trying to give me false hope?

I sigh and take their hand. It’s better than being alone.

They reach up with their other hand to touch their ear.

“Make sure no one enters the lab without my express permission.”

They stand and pull me up after them. I’m almost surprised that I don’t sway. They immediately start forward and I follow at their side. I’ll humor them until they phase out like the others. They have good intentions, even if they aren’t real.

“How long has it been since you and Jordan split apart?”

Jordan?

I stare blankly at them and realize my vision has returned mostly back to normal. They don’t look altered at all. That’s almost scarier than if I’d been given proof that they’re just an image. The idea that they might actually be here is too dangerous to entertain.

It’ll hurt more when they turn out not to be.

“The other half of you?” Jay prompts.

They aren’t supposed to know about that. My double went back, he should have returned and taken on who we were to make it easier for everyone else. That’s what I would have done. If they think he has a different name—if they know about him at all—this can’t really be them.

I answer anyway.

“I don’t know. Time doesn’t work right here.”

“If it helps you remember,” they offer. “I’ve been looking for you for five days and he’d been in the Cube for a week before coming to me.”

“About three weeks, then,” I amend. “Why did he come to you?”

“He inherited the power of manipulation. He wanted me to help him control it.”

No.

I stop and let my hand fall out of theirs. There are more and more strikes against this really being them. Of course my biggest fears would come to haunt me like this. A blessing of a rescue coming with the knowledge that, not only did Jordan reject the plan we’d made, he’s still just as capable of relapsing into unhealthy control as I am.

“Connor?”

I shake my head.

“We have to go back. I can tell without even running any tests, you’re unstable.”

They’re so worried. They believe they’re real. That they can get me out. That there’s any way I could leave the memories now. I’ve been replaced, and everyone’s safe and everyone’s fine. That has to be the truth, so they can’t really be here.

“You’re going to fall apart if you stay here. You’ll disappear.”

“Good!”

Their breath catches, and I’ve never seen Jay so scared. Not even when Jess almost died. They stare at me, gaze not wavering when an indistinct voice chatters through their com.

“You don’t mean that.”

“I do,” I growl. I don’t know how long I’ll be able to hold it together if they stay here. “Now leave.”

“You don’t mean that,” they repeat. They speak firmer this time. Either they know something or they’re trying to convince us both.

“Please. Just go.” I take a step back, but they follow.

“If you meant it,” their voice cracks, but their stare is too intense for me to think of them as uncertain. “I wouldn’t have a choice about it, would I?”

Any argument I might have dries up in my throat.

They nod and finally look away. They dig in their coat. Before they even withdraw their hand, a door appears in front of them.

“If I had any sense, I wouldn’t have wasted time talking.” They jam a key in the door and jerk it open. “Thought it might be jarring to go straight back, but I obviously have terrible judgement out here.”

They hold the door open for me, and I stare through it. The fluorescent lights of the lab wink back at me. It could still be a trick. Another trick of the memories to keep me from even thinking about finding a way out.

Still, if this is real, there’s someone unconscious on their floor. They’re too busy watching me to see them, so I cross the threshold without much hesitation.

“Oh, thank god. Did you—” The voice over the intercom cuts off. “Which one are you?”

“Connor.”

J355 sighs in relief as I kneel at beside the limp body on the floor. It’s D, Dirk’s older brother. I don’t even get a chance to check whether or not he’s injured before Jay drops down on his other side and presses two fingers into his neck.

Their sigh of relief calms me down just a little.

“What happened?” they call, turning their sharp gaze into the air. “Where’s Jordan?”

“Gone.”

“What do you mean, gone?” Jay hisses. “Disable the scramblers for ten seconds.”

They turn their attention back to D to press their hand against his forehead. The flow of emotion in the room spikes, a mess of anxiety and frustration, and D jerks upright.

“Holy fuck,” he gasps.

After a second, he scrambles to his feet without looking at either of us.

“Where’d he go?”

“He ran into the memories. I couldn’t stop him, I—” j355 pauses and a soft whir overtakes the intercoms for a second. My ability to sense the others’ emotions vanishes once again. “I’m sorry.”

“Damn.”

D turns back to us, and I can’t quite make out his eyes behind his shades. His flinch upon seeing me is almost imperceptible, but I think he knows it’s me. He doesn’t immediately accuse me of anything, at least. Instead, he turns to Jay to offer them a hand.

“I let slip why you ran out.” He tugs them to their feet, but I don’t wait for anyone else’s help before reconfiguring myself to be upright. “He panicked or something, I don’t know. S’the last thing I remember, at least.”

“He used you to disable my drone,” j355 explains. “Then you collapsed. Christ. I had to check your vitals to be sure you weren’t dead.”

“Sorry,” I mutter. At the slight frown D directs at me, I continue. “I fucked up. This whole thing was pointless and stupid, Jordan wouldn’t even be here if I wasn’t so—”

“There’s nothing you can do about it now.” Jay pushes past me into the lab. They call out into the empty space. “Where are you?”

“Table D9. I fell out of camera sight, so I’m not sure if I’m under the table or—”

“Here.” They duck under a table and pick up a drone. “You shouldn’t have to use one of these soon. Let’s get you up and running again.”

They wander into another room without looking back, so I’m left alone with a vastly older version of Dave than I’ve ever talked to. He looks after them with a deep frown. I didn’t know they were close.

“Hal wanted me to ask if you’d tell him about the memories,” he says without warning. It takes me a second to even realize he’s talking to me. “I have a feeling he’ll just swipe Jay’s files after they talk to you about it, but still.”

He shifts his weight and looks at me over his shades. There’s something unnerving about seeing an aged version of one of your friends. Something strange and uncomfortable, and I can’t help but like him immediately.

“Yeah, I—” I clench my fists until my nails dig into my palm. “Once I convince myself I’m really here, I’ll swing by.”

“Good. No running back out there, right?” He turns back to lab at large to watch the door Jay left through, so I can’t read him again. “A lot of folks would be pretty pissed if you turned right around and got yourself lost again.”

“How the hell did you end up being Jay’s friend?” I grumble.

“Ah, well.” He rubs the back of his neck and makes a face. “I came by after everything with the asshole version of Dave’s bro. They let me bring everyone else, now I always seem to be finding myself back here.”

Huh. Jay’s been holding out on me.

“Then again,” he muses. He tilts his head to look back at me with a rueful smile. “Bro and I have unofficially adopted half the Cube by now. With Jess caring so much about them, Roxy and the Captors hacking into their servers—and don’t even get me started on the rest of The Collective getting all catty about whatever the hell they’re doing back here—all that on top of Dirk and Hal poking around for parts, I’d’ve found my way here eventually.”

What the fuck? The Strider’s are looking out for everyone now? When the hell did that happen?

I cover my face with my hands and lean back against a table with a shaky laugh.

“God, I’m so out of the loop.”

“Wait ‘til you see the map the other kids are putting together.” He ruffles my hair and, god, I think D Strider just claimed me as a part of his family, what the fuck?

My legs buckle, but a chair I distinctly remember there not being catches me. This can’t be real. This is like the Cube I left, but swapped around and made different. I shake my head against the thought, but I can’t keep my mouth from opening.

“We’ve left the alpha timeline.”

D barks a laugh, and even Jay and j355 join in. The sound crowds around me, and I’m scared to move my hands or open my eyes. The prospect of finding out this was another piece of fiction bestowed by the memories is too painful. What would I even do?

Am I even capable of getting out anymore? Maybe I’m just a part of the memories now.

The laughter stops, I don’t know if it even lasted longer than a few seconds, but the silence is worse. It tells me it’s gone. I’m going to open my eyes and it’ll just be dark, maybe another projection of Jess waiting for me to talk to it. The disappointment is already too much to handle, and I haven’t even confirmed it.

Then, it’s not quiet anymore.

J355 whirs and thanks Jay, the distinct sound of a drone buzzing through the air joining their soft conversation. It sounds like D joined them further away, but I didn’t hear him leave. The Striders can just do that, I guess.

“I don’t have a way to track him,” Jay says, finally loud enough for me to make out. “He could already be swallowed in the memories, we don’t know.”

“Any chance he might come back on his own?”

The pause is just long enough for me to answer.

“No.” I uncover my eyes and locate the trio all the way across the room. “He thinks he’s a danger to everyone in the Cube. That we could fuse back together if we’re not careful. Even if we don’t, the two of us in one place with the kind of manipulation we have—”

“Connor.” J355’s voice washes over me, soothing and calm. I rein myself in.

“I’m just saying. He’s not coming back.”

“You’re right, sounds just like Dirk,” D mutters. Jay smacks his arm, earning a shrug. “Just sayin’, you can’t go blaming every little thing another version of you does on yourself. Jess doesn’t even do that, and they’re—well.”

He makes a gesture at the room at large.

Yeah, they’ve got plenty of versions of themself that have done shitty things. They’ve got plenty of versions of themself, period. I don’t know how they manage to keep everything straight or in order. I can barely handle having one.

“Dirk catches himself in the same cyclical thinking.” He raises a hand, stops himself, and starts again. “Or, everyone else catches him and he backpedals. Can he blame alternate versions of himself for doing crap he would never do? Is the fact that he’s scared of doing that a sign that he’s a good one? Then it goes to, thinking he’s a good one might be a sign of a shitty one’s ego, and on and on.”

“We’ve been working on that,” Jay chides. “Jess gets a lot of those guides to break out of negative cycles of thought, they help.”

They go back and forth like this awhile. I guess they’re both pretty interested in the well-being of the younger Striders. They mention the two versions of Dave, but then the alternate version of his brother comes up and the topic is dropped altogether.

The longer I’m here, the more convinced I am that it’s real.

I dig my nails into the arms of the chair just to prove I can, then lift my hands to stare at the marks left in the fabric. Cause and effect, it works here. I do it again and again on different parts of the chair, then I stand.

Jay and D both fall silent to look at me. I don’t know what they see, but I know for a fact I’m hyperventilating. I stare at them.

Then I seize a stack of papers from the table I’ve been sitting next to and throw it into the air. Jay objects, but j355 says something I don’t quite catch to shut them up.

I’m too busy watching the papers fall. And they do fall. They don’t just phase out or drop like rocks, don’t warp the air around them or change the surrounding room other than the complete mess they make. The papers fall how paper is supposed to.

I choke out a sound, and I’m not sure if it’s a laugh or a sob until it comes again. This time, when I fall to my knees I do land on the floor. I cover my mouth against the hysterical, hiccupping laughs. There’s nothing I can to about the hot tears squeezing past my eyes.

I’m out.

I’m here, this is the Cube.

Jay and D kneel at my side and try to get me to talk to them, but I can’t. I can’t even begin to find the words. There’s nothing I can say to relate this to them.

I’m home.

#writing #madd #maddart #my writing #connor #the scientist #the collective #connor is very sad #and i feel like this puts a lot of stuff in an idiots return in perspective

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darklydescended · 7 years ago

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RULES

behind the mirror mask

Hi. my name is _____ but you may call me SIA . I have been writing for over eighteen years of my life and roleplaying on tumblr for over six now . I am currently twenty five, have eight tattoos, no piercings, and try to be as cool of a person as i can be. I don't write on skype//kik//aim//discord or any of those fancy cellular platforms anymore unless i really get to know a writer and we click. this is my first attempt at running a multi-muse blog on here but if you have any questions please never,ever be afraid to shoot me an IM or message on here. I promise that I am literally a sweet potato. i do,however, reserve the right to refuse to roleplay with anybody i wish. if you post racial,sexually abusive material such as rape and incest, or other things like that i will unfollow you. They aren't triggers but they are skeevy to me.

NO GOD MODING // MARY SUE // GARY STU

This goes without saying most days yet sadly i always find myself having to make this an actual rule. You control your character and i will control mine. Simple as that.

NO HATE

This is an ABSOLUTELY HATE FREE ZONE. I will not tolerate anon hate or gossipping among my blog viewers or people i roleplay with. I find it salty as hell and I hate seeing people degrade others. PLEASE if you see me WRITING with somebody that you find toxic or upsetting then simply blacklist their url, as i tag every one of my threads with the person i am writing with's url. DO NOT make every other post on your blog about hate or how you find other people toxic or just generally wish to complain or smear somebody into the ground. I will not warn you. I will unfollow you without explanation. Simple as that.

EXCLUSIVES

While i have been against this idea in the past i feel like this is something to bring up on here . If I TRULY feel like our characters click and you are open to it then I will definitely be cool with being exclusive with you. What does this mean? I still multi ship my characters but if you would like to have me as your exclusive pietro maximoff, barnabas collins, etc; and we click well writing then i'm totally cool with that!

18+ // MATURE CONTENT AHEAD

if you have ANY idea who the majority of my characters are - which i really hope you do - then I will consider this my warning to you. THIS BLOG WILL CONTAIN MATURE AND NSFW MATERIAL. Sexual writing will only be conducted with those that are over the age of 18. no exceptions .This includes but is not limited to sex, cursing, blood, violence, assault, discrimation against mutants, and others of the like. I will tag ANYTHING you ask me to as "tw tag" so that way it WILL be picked up via a tag blocker for you. I am here to write freely but also wish for my viewers to feel comfortable when enjoying my blog.

MEMES

Memes are open to be sent in by anybody whether we are mutuals or not. all that i ask is that you please SPECIFY which muse you wish for me to reply to the meme as. The memes are always open to ALL of my characters for answers and i honestly LOVE receiving memes and questions for my characters no matter how prying they may be!! send.them.to.me.

ALTERNATE FACE CLAIMS / FACE CLAIMS IN GENERAL

some of my muses are extremely difficult to find pictures of . yes i could go through the movies / comics / shows / etc piece by piece and screenshot and i do at some points in time but for characters such as dylan piper, gregory sackville bagg, marnie piper, michael emerson, hadley dellahoussaye, and others you will often see a different face claim then what they had in the show or movie . i try to be faithful to my characters but please understand my choice in choosing the face claims that i do .

REPLY TIME

as a general rule of thumb i tend to be pretty slow with writing starters. i am much faster at replying to things i am tagged in as well as memes. i try to be fast at replying but if i have taken well over the amount of time you feel is reasonable in replying then please feel free to nudge me on the im with a reminder. Stuff does get lost on tumblr and while i will try to keep a thread tracker on this blog i do not claim to be perfect. This rule also goes to say if you ever wish to drop a thread with me i completely understand. No harsh feelings. Just let me know. Periodically if a thread has been unreplied to for over two months but your blog is still active i will remind you of our thread via an IM. If you wish to discontinue it i will completely understand.

WRITING / ICON FORMATTING STYLE

I enjoy writing at the very least para roleplays. This is not to say i won't post an ocassional one line opener. I enjoy writing threads with a little more meat to the bone instead of constantly writing 'she looked towards the man and smiled. "hello darling, how are you doing?" she asked coyly". that is very flat and boring to me. I am ALWAYS open to plotting out thread ideas and prefer to do so via IM or messages.

TRIMMING POSTS / LARGER ICONS & GIFS

I am sorry but to keep my dash clean if you write out replies to people and do not trim your posts then i will likely unfollow you. This also goes for if you use HUGE gifs via tumblr's gif option in replies. I would prefer size 100x100 icons or smaller as well as gifs but as long as you are not using the above mentioned methods then i am completely fine. If you are replying via mobile just understand i will trim our thread when i go to reply.

SHIPPING

Never ever ever assume our muses are in a relationship together even if they are in canon. I ship chemistry and highly dislike writing out romantic plots right off the bat without some bit of writing between our characters. please, if you ever wish to ship with one of my muses discuss it with me first. I will respect you and do the very same. Also never force ship my characters. just because you have gaga eyes for one of my playbys does not mean i am your personal sex toy. just no.

MULTIPLE THREADS

I whole heartedly welcome you to have threads with multiple characters I write.

CONTINUING THREADS FROM MEMES

Absolutely go for it! All I ask is that you start it in another post linking the original answer in the new post. If you cannot and you choose to reblog my ask reply, i understand. just understand i will create a new post so i can track the new thread much easier when i reply.

MEMES / M!A / ASKS

Memes are open to be sent in by absolutely anybody. Whether we are mutuals or not. I do not, however, accept M!A's that are sent in. My ask box outside of that is always open to everybody!

REAL LIFE BLOGS / NON RP BLOGS

Real life blogs PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not reblog any of my posts. I like a clean dash and it fucks up my thread trackers when everybody and their brother believes they can reblog my threads. Only my roleplay partners involved in that thread may do that.

#rules

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snkpolls · 7 years ago

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SnK Chapter 95 Poll Results

The chapter 95 poll closed with 1,069 responses. Thank you to everyone for participating. Let’s do this!

RATE THE CHAPTER (1,019 Responses)

75% of respondents had a favorable reaction for “Liars”. Less than 1% expressed extreme dissatisfaction.

I actually loved this chapter! I was kinda meh on the Marley arc at first, but this completely changed my feelings on it!! Seeing everything from the Warriors' perspective is a refreshing change of pace.

Bertolt is the God of Destruction, RBA deserved better, Magath is actually a nice guy, poor Porco has a terrible name and deserves more love

This is the first chapter in the Marley arc I've wholeheartedly enjoyed. I was always looking forward to getting the Warriors' perspective, but the way in which it's been done has been terrible pacing wise, if definitely interesting story-wise; consequently I've had mixed feelings about the recent chapters. But this one managed to really make me feel for the characters and their tragic, terrible circumstances for the first time in awhile.

Good chapter in terms of lore although kinda meh in terms of story development

I liked the chapter, and the Marley thing we are going through, but I would still like to return to the walls

Not the strongest chapter, feels the same kind of "recap-y" that 63 did, but still a solid outing. I'm convinced we're staying in Marley as the main location for the final arc of the series, with the main cast's appearance kicking events into overdrive.

IN A RECENT INTERVIEW, ISAYAMA REFERRED TO MARLEY AS AN “ARC”, NOT A VOLUME. WOULD YOU BE HAPPY IF THE MARLEY PERSPECTIVE CONTINUES FOR AN ENTIRE 16 CHAPTERS? (1,046 Responses)

We are a fandom divided.

I feel guilty about complaining too much but I really am bitter that I have to wait another month to potentially be disappointed again

I'm kinda concerned where the series is going‚ it seems like Isayama's taking it slow as he's running out of time

As much as i am loving all of this marley pov i do crave for just...idk something else. Like don't get me wrong i love finally getting more explorations of Reiner but it would be better to have some variation: like what about bertholht, why is he a warrior?? and annie; is her dad still around?

I can see why Isayama's doing this, but it feels v e r y s l o w.

I can't believe I'm saying this but I kinda miss eren.

HOW MANY MORE CHAPTERS FROM THE MARLEY PERSPECTIVE WOULD YOU WANT TO SEE? (1,043 Responses)

48.6% would like to see the Marley Files end in 1-3 months. 25.8% of the fandom is much more flexible. Judging from the write in comment, trust in Isayama is still high.

I would be happy if Marley took over the whole manga

I want the main cast to reappear, but to see them from the Marley perspective

I would've like to get back to the Walldians by now, but I think I'm good for another chapter or two of the Warriors.

I'd like the perspective to switch between marley and paradis

Depends if Pieck is often seen.

Looking forward to seeing the fall of Shinganshina from the warriors perspective

I'm starting to think Isayama will troll so hard. Marley Arc to the bitter end. Sasuga Isayama.

If this means we're going to remain in Marley for a while, I hope we'll at least get to see something exciting soon, like maybe at the festival. So far we've been getting more information than action, so I'd like to return to that action soon. I also can't wait to learn more about the Tyber family and meet the members.

WHICH STATEMENT MOST CLOSELY MATCHES YOUR FEELINGS FOR THE MARLEY CHAPTERS AS A WHOLE? (1,044 Responses)

Nearly everyone who responded has enjoyed the Marley focus. 39% would be happy with a little more, while 31% liked it but are ready to return to the main cast.

On the negative side, 3.4% said that while it was necessary they didn’t enjoy it. Only .4% said it ruined their enjoyment of the series.

I like the Marleyan perspective, honestly if the rest of the series was like this (with a few chapters focused on the main cast of course) I think that would be great!

I felt the Marley perspective was necessary but I was bored most of the time. And now I'm just desperate to head back to the main cast.

I enjoyed the Marley perspective and I'm fine with more of it but something has to happen because I'm starting to get bored

This series has just been a series of peaks (Piecks?!) and whenever I think that it's surely gotten as good as it can get, they surprise me. The 30 day wait is hellish lately, more so than ever before.

HOW BADLY DO YOU WANT TO RETURN TO THE ORIGINAL CAST ON PARADIS? (1,040 Responses)

While the previous questions have shown we are patient people, a solid 50% would sell their soul, or at least consider it, for a return to the original cast.

Lemme see the main cast again, but keep the best girl

I would still love to know if Jean has grown some ill-adviced facial hair, but I also love the Marley chapters.

I at least want a glimpse of the Walldians post-time skip! I especially want to see Colossal Armin and if amputee-kun is Eren! I'm okay with a couple more chapters in Marley since I trust Isayama that this part of the story will be important (plus the characters are interesting and I enjoy seeing RBA flashbacks), but I just miss the old crew and want to see what they've been up to the past few years!

I feel like in all honesty, I enjoy the Marley perspective but I'd like to see how our 104th cast is doing. I'd really hate for them to do the same thing to Reiner and Co and recreate Shiganshina.

BOI I want to see the original squad again PLEASE

I love the Marley Arc!

Wake me up when the main casts return

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE MOMENT OF THE CHAPTER? (1,038 Responses)

Judging from the write in comments, Pieck is the best girl. 33% of us had a favorite moment that involved her. Seeing the Paradis mission from the perspective of the warriors and the reveal of the Tyber family had 17% and 18% respectively.

tag yourself im zeke being super enthusiastic over pieck

Boooring... except for sasuga pieck. That part made me laugh.

Zeke's subtle way of warning everyone that the room is bugged, and Pieck and Reiner immediatly understanding.

I was excited to learn about the 9th titan, the Tybar family and Zeke praising Pieck. Very heart-broken for Reiner though.

Tired of seeing Marcel get eaten. Its a little repetatitive

HOW MUCH WORSE CAN REINER’S LIFE GET... FROM THE NEW CHAPTERS, WHICH OF THESE IS THE MOST TERRIBLE MOMENT FOR HIM? (1,032 Responses)

Each new event of Reiner's life is like beating a piñata of misery. Everything is terrible and the sadness candy just keeps spilling out. When the piñata is done, they beat Reiner with the bat instead.

Learning of Marcel's lie, immediately followed by Marcel's death, giving him no chance for closure or resolution

Tough one.. but i say his mom's pressure & the conflict of seeing pradise ppl as normal human being & still having to kill them.

I want some form of lasting happiness for Reiner Braun

#ProtectReiner854

Reiner seems to have inherited Ymir's real titan power: the Complex and Depressing Backstory Titan

I would like everyone to hug the shit out of Reigner.

Being Reiner is suffering. Seeing his face the page after his own father refused to acknowledge him as human broke something inside of me. Also Galliard is still a dick but I'm disliking him less.

NEW CHARACTERS MEAN NEW SHIPS. HAVE ANY CAUGHT YOUR INTEREST? (1,040 Responses)

Someone please remind me to never give “Other” as an option for a shipping question :/ I do, however, appreciate that almost 60% of you would like Reiner to have a bit of happiness.

Annie x freedom from her crystal, Pieck x being exactly right, porco x death, Isayama x vague hints, Zeke x tea, Everyone x Happiness (except them motherfucking Marleyans) and my personal notp, Zevi, were a few of the many write in answers.

WHAT IS THE MOST INTERESTING NEW REVELATION FROM THE CHAPTER? (1,034 Responses)

Last month learning the identity of the 9th titan was high on everyone’s wish this. This month we got it. 52.5% were most happy to learn about Warhammer.

At least we know the 9th titan. Just a decent chapter, Not my favorite of this arc though.

Really enjoyed this chapter, did not expect a mention of the ninth Titan. The montage of the Warriors was really awesome too.

Tybur family's new plot introduction is very intersting! I still think zakrus in pradise is shady as hell.. maybe he'll play a role in pradise fall.. pradise cant be too unified. Marley is not unified either.

I'm so excited to see more of the Tyber family. Their brief scene is drawn in an epic and mysterious fashion - symbols of seashells, flowing robes, a man with a clenched fist and correspondingly flowing golden locks standing before a crowd. I expect them to play a pivotal role in whatever comes.

MAGATH IS SO FAR THE ONLY MARLEYAN WHO HAS ACKNOWLEDGED THE WARRIORS AS HUMANS. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT HIM? (1,027 Responses)

Magath is perfectly meh. About 50% of us place him in the dead center between “tiniest gold star ever” and “swell guy.”

Magath is on the Eldians team. He loves and cares about all the Warriors, is possible he loves them as his children...I thought it was cute how he asked them to finish their mission and come home together! Hes like a tsundere "I-Its not like i care about you eldian demons!"

FAVORITE CHARACTER THUS FAR IN THIS ARC? (1,043 Responses)

Reiner wins by a landslide. I think it comes as no surprise to anyone that Pieck has a solid showing with 17%. Zeke came in 3rd with 9.3%

Zeke's unique & bizzarre nature.. immense cruelty + cleverness + immature nature + bizzare obession of games, playing & his twisted concept of fun! This guy is a very interesting mixture indeed.

Pieck is a great new character.

Tbh the series is kind of getting boring but Pieck is Bae

Reiner has become my absolute favorite character in the series.

LEAST FAVORITE CHARACTER THUS FAR IN THIS ARC? (1,029 Responses)

Reiner’s dad edged out his mom for least favorite character, but the real news is that 24% of people hate Gabi and Porco even more than Reiner’s terrible parents.

Can i just pick both of Reiner's parents?

Reiners father and mother are both trash i'm taking him away i'm his mother now.

Asshole marley soldier who made bomb noises @ the disabled soldiers

Karina Braun doesn't deserve the hates she gets, she wasn't tricking Reiner...she legit believed ths they would live with his father one day, she really loves him and you see her pain filled face when Reiner lies and says "It was hell"

I like Porkboi more than I'd like to admit.

If I was the Colossal Titan I would find Reiner's father and flip him what would literally be the biggest middle finger ever.

Can't stand Porco. Won't ever forgive him for Ymir. Won't ever forgive Reiner or Bert for Ymir either tbh

HAS THIS CHAPTER CHANGED YOUR FEELINGS TOWARDS THE WARRIORS (1,023 Responses)

51.2% say yes!

I'm far more sympathetic to them than before, especially Reiner. That poor boy only wanted to have his family together.

Last chapter changed my views about them.

Not much - this is pretty much how I though things would be once we found out about the ghetto and Marley. The only really interesting bits are the new pieces of info, like the Tybur family and the 9th titan.

I've gone from 100% love to 110% love

I feel that this "arc" is being dragged on for the purpose of readers gaining sympathy with them and for me last volume was enough to make us sympathize with them. I have no patience left for this especially when I know the end is closing and there is more to cover and I’m afraid it'll be rushed or that I would lose interest before we reach that part

I feel invested in Porco against my better judgment... and I wonder...if there will ever be a moment when Pieck is not exactly right as expected... :o I wanna see Bertholt's past!!!!!!

RATE EACH WARRIOR IN TERMS OF HOW THIS CHAPTER AFFECTED YOUR PERCEPTIONS OF THEM

The Winners: Reiner - 840 people view him more favorably Pieck - 708 people view her more favorably

The Losers: Gabi - 151 people view her less favorably Porco - 161 people view him less favorably

I love RBA. Zeke is interesting as ever. Falco looks like he'll probably end up being a character I'll end up really liking, but he's not there yet. Don't really care about Pieck currently. Hate Gabi and Galliard.

Pieck is love

I wish we'd met Pieck earlier because she's everything.

porco the best

Bardlot is best girl

WHICH CHARACTERS DO YOU GENERALLY ENJOY THE MOST (1,032 Responses)

Looking back over past polls, support for the 104th has stayed consistent. The real change is with the vets. In early polls, 30-40% of people preferred them. That number has fallen to 12%. I suspect some have left the series or aren’t interested enough in the story direction to take the poll.

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES (984 Responses)

Tumblr 364 (37%) Reddit 626 (63.6%) Discord 55 (5.6%) Twitter 12 (1.2%)

FINAL THOUGHTS

There were more than 500 additional write in comments. I wish I could publish them all. Thank you for sharing all your thoughts!

I'm still not over the serumbowl and how much the paradis cast showed they're really no better than the ones they're fighting against, so I'm really happy to see the side that's been less favored by the narration so far. Bless the warriors, they're all full of personality and I already love them.

It was rlly heartbreaking when Marcel tells the truth to Reiner and he deludes himself saying: ""wtf are you talking about Marcel? I WAS CHOSEN BY MARLEY, i don't believe you"".The Armored Titan is the only thing hes got...

Next chapter is a recap of the old arcs with Warrior POV I can bet my seafood on it.

This and chapter 94 have been my favorites so far. Please give me more Reiner, more marley, more warriors, more everything. Isayama I love you.

LOVE THE WARRIORS! On a more serious note, im very curious about zeke and his true motives.. what is he trying to accomplish? I also really wish that his relationship with eren can be expanded on. Zeke told eren that he would save him. Does he to some degree care for eren's own life? Or is he just after eren's powers? Regardless, i find zeke fascinating.

Good but background could have been better incorporated with both sides

I'm loving the Marley arc. We need the other side of the coin and this really shows that evil can be grey. Neither the islanders or Marley-Eldians are really bad...they're just all raised/brain-washed in different settings. I really enjoy the added layers fo Reiner.

These few chapters have been really interesting, but I hope to see our guys back on Paradis, unless Amputee-kun turns out to be Eren and the other Survey Corps have infiltred Marley. Would love for the story to continue from that point of view, but with flashbacks as to what happened in Paradis. Really interesting chapters overall, learning about the 9 titans was really hype.

I hope that Isayama gives us an ending almost as great as ATLA. Each character gets a proper conclusion & the entire story is satisfying. I want AOT to go down as one of the top 10 solid anime/manga of all time. I have faith in Isayama but still the future is unpredictable.

I hope we get to see the attack on Wall Maria from the warriors pov next chapter. And I was disappointed that Amputee guy wasn't in this chapter.

More Marley please. Even if some are salty not to see the Walldians, I think it's very enlightening to see Marley and Warrior perspective on this. As would say Bertolt : "no one is at fault" and, in the same time, each side has their fault.

I've been rocking with this arc and loving it, although I've generally had little complaint with any arc of this series, I love everyone :) But I think some development for my favorite characters and their side of the war is backed up by some subtle set-up for the climax of it all. For all that some people are desperate to see the main cast, I think this kind of exploration is necessary, not just for emotional investment, but because it gives us a look at the world the Walldians are so desperate to get to. It shows that the battle is only just beginning; Marley is not the endgame boss, and in fact it might be the only thing standing in the way of total destruction for all Eldians. How do they deal with that? Seeing that from the Warriors' perspective gives it reality and weight.

I am enjoying the Marley perspective, but I'm having trouble with the pacing. These past 2 chapters are moving so slow. And even though Reiner is my favourite character, I wish we wouldn't have such a huge focus on him chapter after chapter. It's becoming a bit repetitive, and I would rather learn more about the other warriors. I am looking forward to seeing RBA's pov of the attack on Shiganshina however. :)

Shit's heatin' up! Woo!

I am such a fuckin' slut for all the Marley stuff. I have been dying to see everything from the Warriors' perspective since the initial reveal of Marley and honestly I live on the tears of everyone bitching about how there's too much Marley. EMA are pretty much...... the most boring characters in the series so I am livin' this up. Give me more.

MORE MEMES PLEASE (and a bit of main cast too)

can i see more bardlot creating titnas???? please answer this one question!!!!!!!

Waiting for Annie to come back. Any moment now.

It's a good chapter, I'm enjoying seeing the flashbacks and the distinction of the Titan powers. On a smaller note regarding that, I wish they'd tell us what makes the Female Titan "female."

Very good chapter, but it feels like one that's setting up for the rest of the volume. I'm looking forward to this festival as well as getting even more details about the warriors' mission on Paradis

Headbutt of Love copyright Isayama

A relatively good chapter, but I reallllllly want to see the main cast again. It doesn't have to be from their perspective, but I just want to see them again after a 4 year time skip.

We will most certainly remain on Marley, but the perspective will soon shift to the main cast when the rest of them arrive to backup Eren and trash the festival in which the Tieber family will present the plan to capture the Founding Titan.

I can see why Reiner had all that plot armour now! Learning more about the warriors (RBA etc, not the new kids :/) has been really interesting and a much needed flesh out of their characters.

I enjoy seeing more of Reiner (cause he's da best) and learning more about his past and the world outside the walls. I would love to see him decide that he's done with Marley and doing things against his moral code (cause let's be real he probably is totally against this shitshow). I know he'll die and that makes me sad so I'm trying to enjoy whatever time we have left with him. ;_;

No doubt next chapter will show the Wall Maria breach from the Warriors' perspective. I only wonder how much of the flashback will be shown in a single chapter.

I hope we get more backstory on Zeke. There's still so much about him that's mysterious. More of him interacting with the other warriors is always good. I really really REALLY need to know what his thoughts on Eren are. Does he still plan on "saving" him, whatever that may mean? And how much does Pieck know?

When will we see giant naked people punch each other again?

I feel sorry for all the warriors but they killed so many people that I cannot see them as pure cinnamon rolls that need to be protected, for me they will always be morally grey.

I love that we are finally getting details about the warriors. This was something long in the making. I can understand where fans of the main cast are coming from, but you just have to have patience until we see the main cast again. For a story like Attack on Titan, which is supposed to be morally grey, we have to have insight on both sides of the conflict. It would have been extremely stupid if Isayama never delved into the warriors background after all the stuff that they had did. The timing of the switch may have been wrong, but I would rather have it now than not at all.

More Marley, but not at the expence of our heroes. It's Shingeki no Kyojin after all; not Yoroi no Kyojin

This arc has introduced the grey into the world of snk, I no longer see any one main character as bad or good because they all have the reasons with them, although perhaps some unjustifiable it still causes me to think about whether this person is a truly bad person or not. It really makes it quite difficult to favour or not favour people, however I do find that it makes it a lot more interesting.

I love these chapters, I really like the depth isayama is going for the viewers to know that this war isn't black and white and it really shines light on the complications of war and who really is the victims of not only war but also being the victims of a manipulative government.

I think this was a very powerful chapter, it had a lot of revelations and hints about the near future events. It is more clear than ever that the clash with the Paradis people is coming very soon. I am not sure how much more of RBA and Marcel heading towards the wall are we going to see though.

I can't shake the feeling that the "Tybur" family is connected to both the Tiber river (i.e. the fertile crescent--Garden of Eden imagery galore!) and Thor's hammer. Isayama likes to pull from both biblical sources and Norse sources for his world-building and I'm curious what's going on with this name.

this might have been my favorite marley chapter (which still isn't saying much but there you have it)

Seeing as I love the Walldians and Warriors equally, I think it's fair to give the Marely side attention. How can we have a dazzling final battle with no build up, including parallels and foreshadowing in this arc? Worse comes to worse I'm sure Isayama would just add the extra chapters he needed to in order to finish the story. Let's enjoy it while it's still being published.

Isayama is trying to make us think that there aren't good sides or bad sides. And he fails. We have already seen the perspective of Marley and they are clearly the villains. Not the Eldians of Paradis. The reasons why the mainland Eldians are supposed to hate Paradis Eldians are absurd. No real life social group/ethnicity is that stupid to believe what mainland Eldians believe. Or what they do to other Eldians.

As usual with every first chapter of an SnK Volume, this chapter was kind of boring, but we did learn about the ninth titan and the family thats been in possession of it. Also, seeing all 6 of Marley's titans on the battle field at once is interesting.

I think this volume will focus on the build-up to the reveal of Amputee-Kun in the present day, whilst also showing the road to Trost from RBA's perspective, which will be awesome

The perspective change felt rushed. I wish everything about the inital time-skip to the ocean had been handled differently. We got no closure whatsoever on so many important happenings and character developments re: serumbowl and basement, and that really frustrates me. The second - 3 year - just rubbed salt in the wound. I want to enjoy the Marley arc, I really do, but this just frustrates me a lot.

Snk? More like Attack on Game of Thrones.

I really do like the perspective of the warriors and as interesting as it is, I just can't get myself attached to the characters, and that makes it tiresome for me. At the beginning I was hopeful, but so far the only Warriors I can relate to are Pieck and Falco and even that's a thin line. I am eager to see them interacting with the main cast though!

This chapter in particular was great. There's so much subtlety in every action and foreshadowing of things to come. We got a lot of interesting info (the Tybur family, 9th titan, shifter memories, TONS of Reiner background, and Porco feels ahhhhh), and also saw how the warriors are operating under the stress that Marley is putting upon them. I especially loved the Zeke's tea meeting. Zeke's aware that they're being monitored and is able to subtely warn the others, who all get it except Porco, and Reiner then saves him from saying something dissident about the Tybur family and possibly Marley. The interactions of the characters are wonderfully done, with a lot of side glances and small details to pick up on. I think Isayama's character development and world building abilities are shining so brightly in this arc. And I can't get enough of the warriors, new or old. Overall, this is swiftly becoming one of my favorite arcs so far. Also please Isayama, stop torturing Reiner, give the poor man a break ;-; My heart can't handle anymore....

Less flashback plz

I just want to find out if Amputee-kun is Eren that's all I freaking want Isa.

I don't want to spend the entire rest of this arc with Marley, but I think it would be cool to first be reintroduced to the main cast through the new character's eyes. Of course, then we'll need to see things from the main cast's perspective again and find out what they've been up to this whole time

Love the new memes. =P thanks pieck and zeke

to be honest, i expected the 9th titan's reveal to be more epic art-wise

I think I am now more on the side of the "Warriors" than the main cast on Paradis and this thinking of mine is keeping me awake at night. I hate Isayama for this because now his "there's not bad or good side in the story" statement hit me in the face. Also fuck I have the need to hug smol RBA and know finally seeing their backstory and situation withe all the hometown and warrior thing was all I was asking for so I am loving this Marley arc but at the same time I wanna see the main cast so badly.

I want to see amputee Kuns plan.

Poor baby Armin is the god of destruction no soft boy :(

I want to learn more of Bertolt's backstory... He's my fav next to Reiner and we know next to nothing on his backstory and motivations.

There won't be an invasion of the island. The islanders will invade, instead.

Knowing each titan's function is good. But I feel isayama could have used the page more efficiently, like not drawing large, single-panel images of titans. I feel it's kinda wasteful to use up your pages that way with not so dense information given out.

Confrontation between Warriors and SC will be super interesting but I'm kind of apprehensive about actually seeing it. It can easily turn into another serumbowl since we don't have clear enemies and everything is relative.

i feel isayama is just making some poor decisions in an attempt to make reiner more likable and while the new perspective is interesting it was introduced far too late in the game

I do find this arc interesting and I would be okay with it going for a lot longer, however I'd hope for a few chapters which go back to the 104th's in between those chapters, just a little show of where they're at during all this, I miss those guys, its been nearly half a year since we had a chapter with them. I love reiner yo he needs to be protected at all costs. But i do wanna know more about berholdt and his family. Please i need some closure on my tol boy.

I can't wait to see Historia again and see what role she will play throughout the rest of the series. To be honest, I'm concerned for her because now that she is publicly known as the queen now, Marley might try to capture her if they find out. And what will Reiner do if that happens? Ymir is no longer around to protect her so now it is his turn to owe something to Ymir. I wonder if Historia will ever meet Porco, I hope she kicks his ass, I will never forgive him for ending such a beautiful relationship.

No one is talking about this but the part where Magath says something about Zeke saying unnecessary things in the meeting has me very intrigued. I wanna know what he means, I'm overall very interested in the role Magath may play in the story. Looks like he is the only one suspecting Zeke at the moment. These chapters have been interesting and I'm in no hurry to get back to most of the main cast, but I would like to see Jean again soon. And Armin.

You know, this was a pretty boring chapter, all things considered. However, I did enjoy seeing Gabi look a bit more "human" for at least a couple of minutes and hope the Falco vs. Gabi bit isn't drawn out for too long (I feel it could get tiresome after a while). Reiner's father honestly surprised me; I didn't think we'd get to see him at all/that Reiner would even be aware of who he was, and yet...we got his perspective and I could not have been happier with what we got. Poor Reiner, but considering his scheming selfish mother (who may also be pretty delusional), it seems fitting.

Pieck and chubby cheeks baby Bertl are the only good things in this depressing arc

Reading Isayama's interview about wanting to change perspective to blur the line between hero and villain made this arc less jarring to me. However, I really want to go back to the main cast. Also, the basement reveal ironically made the series less epic in my eyes. Mainly because the idea of a war

AND FINALLY

As expected of poll-chan, excellent questions!

I enjoy these polls and i have nothing else to say

Come back Momtaku!

<333

#snk poll #snk chapter poll #snk chapter 95 #snk 95 #thank you everyone!

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