#i was thinking this and i saw someone on twitter also mention this choice having to be made

[matchacreamlatte]

What if, when Lu Guang figures out how to change Cheng Xiaoshi’s death node, he realizes that there is two timelines where cxs can live. One where Cheng Xiaoshi and him can continue living peacefully in the time photo studio. Or another where he’s not present, but Cheng Xiaoshi’s parents are alive and never left.

[vivelegalite]

dear dead boy detective (especially paynland) enjoyers: have you yet heard of the biggest gift bestowed upon the fandom so far, aka jayden's charles playlist? the one he mentioned in interviews? well, he dropped it on twitter at 19th of may. and man, do i have stuff to say about it.

there's a lot of 80's bangers, for sure, great to get into the mood and character, but some of the choices...

i'm gonna focus on a few of my favourites, songs that made me go insane when i saw them. honorable mentions: - category 1 (so devoted the lines blur): ain't no mountain high enough by marvin gaye and tammi terrell, there is a light that never goes out by the smiths, inkpot gods by the amazing devil - category 2 (family life): family line and summer child by conan gray, seventeen going under by sam fender, matilda by harry styles, father by the front bottoms - category 3 (being queer in the 80s): smalltown boy by bronski beat, boys don't cry by the cure - category 4 (there's no heterosexual explanation for this one): good luck, babe! by chappel roan, yellow by coldplay, fight or flight by conan gray (is this about monty? the cat king? i need answers!), the prophecy by taylor swift, arms tonite by mother mother, sweet by cigarettes after sex, head over heels by tears for fears

this list is by no means complete or comprehensive!

and now, the songs that made me go the craziest: (they're predominantly in charles' pov as it's his playlist)

found heaven by conan gray

the only reason this song made it into the list and not the honorable mentions instead of smalltown boy is that it makes almost the same point, just so much more explicitly. i don't think i have to say much about it, it's a story of a young person griping with their queerness, being forced to leave home, a common theme of the playlist. "you're in love, you found heaven" when he chose edwin over his own afterlife, heavily implied to be heaven, and built his heaven with him on the mortal plane? ouch! (and we see this same notion repeated in another bop from the playlist, heaven is a place on earth by belinda carlisle).

2. like real people do by hozier

"i miss kissing" charles rowland, 202X romantic meaning aside, the verses show a sort of a common understanding the boys have around the manner of their deaths and their lives before it. we already know from the show they don't really talk about it, with edwin not knowing about the severity of the abuse charles suffered. it feels like one of them saying "let the past be past, we're together now, yeah?". but also, jayden: can there ever be a platonic explanation for this? ghosts can't touch, can't feel, so they wish they could just kiss like "real" (alive?) people do?

3. flaws by bastille

not the most romantic song, but i absolutely love how well it fits their dynamic. despite his edwardian brand of repression, edwin truly is the one that's more open about his feelings (recognising of course that in this case, the bar is so low it's in hell. haha, get it). edwin has worn his flaws upon his sleeve, and charles has held them buried - eg. bottling up all of his anger and resentment towards his family and his own death. the song presents a very sweet outlook, in which their flaws are brought up to the surface (for example, charles' outburst against the night nurse in episode 4), but they learn to accept them as they are, an extension of themselves.

4. a pearl by mitski

you know it's gonna get intense if there's a mitski song in the mix.

the song is about a person who finds love in their partner, someone who treats them way better than they've ever been treated - and yet they cannot bring themselves to reciprocate the affection ("it's not that i don't want you, sorry i can't take your touch") despite reciprocating the feelings themselves because of the trauma. charles is known to bottle things up ("you're growing tired of me and all the things i don't talk about"). the person in the song recognises the love the other person holds for them ("you love me so hard and i still can't sleep"), which reminds me of charles' response to edwin's confession. not a "no", but a "maybe, as time passes".

5. fair by the amazing devil

this one made me genuinely gasp when i first delved into the lyrics. it's simply so sweet, such a genuine and domestic portrayal of love. at first i thought it was way too open about being a love song (normal text instead of the subtext i'd be used to) for jayden to choose it with edwin in mind, but... there's no one else it can really be about. it's far too domestic, too "established" to refer to crystal. refers to a relationship that's laster for a longer while.

the narrator in the first verse is a person deeply in love with the other person, someone who loves to make his lover laugh and simply drinks in their presence. the "he" in the song i believe is charles, while the "she" refers to edwin. edwin promises to fight off anyone - or any feelings pulling charles down (we can see this in the first episode: "you ever think... what if death did catch us? she'd force us to go to the afterlife and split up" "i will make sure this never happens."). charles feels left behind by the world (seeing as he clings to crystal at first, refering to her as "someone their age who's still alive") and believes edwin to be so much stronger than he's ever been. i'm not going to break down the song verse by verse, but if you read it yourself while subbing out "he" for charles and "she" for edwin you'll see just how sweet (and... strangely very in character?) the song is.

6. work song by hozier

if the previous song made me gasp when i saw the lyrics, this one made me go "NO WAY" out loud when i saw the title. the first one verse is just pure toothrotting sweetness, but the chorus is what i want to draw attention to:

when my time comes around lay me gently in the cold, dark earth no grave can hold my body down i'll crawl home to her

HELLO? charles, who keeps escaping death and afterlife to be able to stay with edwin? charles, as he literally takes his last breath with edwin right there, choosing to be by his side rather than move on? charles, who keeps choosing him despite night nurse's promises and threats? charles, who literally crawled through hell for him?

verse 2, to me, can be interpreted as referring to when charles died. edwin found him at his worst, and he "woke" up with his presence comforting him. he was shivering due to hypothermia and his injuries. edwin didn't ask him about what happened or pushed him, he simply listened. the lines "i didn't care much how long i lived, but I swear, i thought i dreamed her" are pretty self explanatory.

in verse 3 we still see the same attitude of "damn the afterlife, at least we have each other" as charles portrays througout the series. they're free, and heaven and hell are simply words to him.

7. orpheus by vincent lima

i literally have no words for this one. it fits too well. if you want commentary for this one, just... i don't know, rewatch the staircase scene.

8. francesca by hozier

(cracks knuckles) this is the big one. the album francesca is from, unreal unearth, is based on dante alighieri's divine comedy, a fourteenth century poem about a man venturing into hell, purgatory and eventually heaven. the eponymous francesca is one francesca di rimini, a woman who was politically married off to a man older than her, called giovanni malatesta. francesca didn't love him, and eventually fell deep in love with giovanni's younger brother, paolo. the two carried on with the affair for years, before being murdered by giovanni upon his finding out. francesca and paolo are mentioned in canto v of the first book, inferno, as two souls damned in the second circle of hell, lust. their punishment is to be permanently locked in a hurricane, swept away by the winds the moment they manage to get close enough to touch one another.

as opposed to their portrayal in the poem, the song is from the perspective of paolo, explaining that no matter the punishment, he wouldn't change anything about his life because he got to know, and love, francesca.

the first verse brings to mind the scenes in hell, especially on the staircase ("do you think I'd give up? that this might've shook the love from me? or that I was on the brink? how could you think, darlin', i'd scare so easily?" as an echo of charles' "sorry. no version of this where i didn't come get you"). "my life was a storm since i was born, how could i fear any hurricane?" could relate to charles' tumultuous family life, an assurance that nothing he has to deal with while by edwin's side will faze him given the things he's lived through. no, despite everything he's suffered through, charles wouldn't do anything differently - because his (admittedly shitty) life led him to edwin ("i'd tell them, put me back in"). we already know charles would choose him over heaven, willingly sacrificing his own afterlife to stay with a boy he's known for hours, someone kind enough to keep him company as he drew his final breath. all of it - his father's abuse, his schoolmates' bigotry, the pain of his own death, as well as everything he's gone through since - he'd do it all again, for edwin.

"for all that was said of where we'd end up at the end of it" could be taken as an allusion to the fate the boys would meet at "at the end of it", when they're finally caught by death and separated, or as more of a general "if you sin, you will go to hell when you die" (up to you to decide what the sin itself would be - an interpretation that would work with other songs on the playlist is that one such sin would be same sex attraction). then their hearts ceased, they never knew "peace", nor did they want to find it in death. their deaths were too soon, them being ripped away from life, but even though it would break his heart: charles would ask to do it all again.

the outro, i think, beautifully pulls it all together: heaven is not fit to house a love like theirs.

to wrap it all up:

jayden, what were you cooking in there? what do you know??

[starchytart]

pinch me or wake me up, from this cursed daydream

Drawing this mainly because i saw a comic on twitter (i completely forgot what its from im so sorry) where the artist is drawing sketchy head instead of gore to depict someone getting shot point blank. Immediately remind me of Rosamund's prince face not-yet-decided when they try to look for him in timothy's books. (as in, at the core a picture is not made by flesh and bone, i think that works really well considering how neverafter works)

But other than that he has been in my to-draw list since forever. BIG fan with how things resolved in ep 17. I think its so cool that the fairies thought they have chance to taking back control of her narrative with that offer, when really, by having choices in the first place rosamund already won, even though neither of them really ideal, but at least whatever it is it would be her decision. (Of course one also could argue that with those choices being unfair, it was not really choices at all *insert that cow with two path meme* and i am just being delusional and you might be right, anyway im going to ignore this)

Also, I love how even until the epilogue when everyone is getting back what they gave up, Rosamund's part didn't really mention that she met his prince again. This makes we never really have official design for him (which is crazy like whoa his face was never decided even on meta level), and I think its perfect to capture how "and they live happily" works for rosamund. you get what i mean??, when romance just become one thing among other parts of her life rather than the whole point of her story. Its still there, if you want to, but the matter isnt as suffocating. It would be really easy for brennan and siobahn if they made the end one extreme of either "oh she got his prince back" or "oh she doesnt need love at all actually" and for them not do that feels really refreshing for me.

(I can go on talking how rosamund lost 100 years of her life and finally living the mundanity of learning and making friends are also so important, not to mention with snowwhite and their shared fate etc etc but then i might never stop asdjsldmsk i love neverafter so much)

[halfratsalready]

The Unhinged Jack x Wanderlust Conspiracy Board Explained

A few days ago I posted this silly conspiracy board I made for a slideshow night with my friends where I talked about how Ubisoft loves to deny Jack x Wanderlust and everyone seemed to like it so here’s an in-depth (and I mean in-depth) explanation of everything on it.

We start, of course, with Si’ha Nova and the Traveler, and Wanderlust wearing his dad’s cape at the beginning of Canned Heat because it’s super cute.

And you can’t talk about this ship without the moment from Majesty that perfectly mirrors the moment from Save Your Tears because genuinely why would they do this if they didn’t want people to ship these two? (Rainbow flag added for ✨flavor✨)

I also thought it was worth mentioning that the only time we ever actually hear any of these characters speak across all 14 lore playlist maps is literally Wanderlust calling out Jack’s name.

And now it’s time for the part that I like to call Ubisoft’s crusade against a monster of their own creation (because look at those last two points and tell me they didn’t do this to themselves. You can’t.)

Now in making this I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe Ubisoft isn’t being as harsh on the ship as we’ve been thinking, because “they’re such good friends” and “best friends” with a thumbs up automatically reads as very sarcastic and joking to me, like all the memes about “historians will say they were close friends.”

Then there’s the infamous in’s and out’s New Years post, but what I hadn’t picked up on until I saw this screenshot from Twitter is that the inclusion of “normalize being evil” on the in’s list is rather suspicious and that, according to Just Dance, “this was posted by Night Swan’s army.” So I feel like that’s worth mentioning, because it casts a different light on all the other things on the lists. As in including Jack Rose in the in’s list since he’s the only one she didn’t corrupt yet and she wants to do that this year? And putting stanning Jacklust on the out’s because she’s evil and doesn’t want us to have nice things? Not too sure but hey, if someone better at analyzing things wants to look into that, I’d be down to read it.

(I also think it’s worth mentioning that “worrying about getting a Megastar” is included in the out’s list when the tweet just before that one is encouraging players to get Megastar on Zero to Hero, so some more contradictions there, but that might not mean anything, given that Night Swan’s whole thing is perfection and I feel like she would definitely be in favor of worrying over getting Megastar.)

Plus there’s the pretty popular belief that they’re just pointing out how stupid of a ship name Jacklust is, but I’m personally not at all sold on this being the reason, even if Jacklust is a stupid ship name. (I told my friends the ship name during this presentation and one of them said “Really? Wanderrose was right there.”)

Lastly, I threw Night Swan in there because of the theory that Ubisoft is denying Jack x Wanderlust because the Traveler is Jack’s father. Now, I have opinions about this theory and I hope it’s not true for obvious reasons, but I feel like if it is, it’s a serious oversight on Ubisoft’s part.

Firstly, if they’re half siblings why did they recreate the move from Save Your Tears in Majesty? Seems odd to have half siblings recreate a pretty iconic romantic duet moment.

There’s also the fact that we can clearly see that Wanderlust takes physical traits from each of his parents - his mother’s blue skin and his father’s dark hair. If the Traveler is Jack’s dad, why don’t they share any physical characteristics? At the very end of the beta for Sweet Dreams (spoiler?) we see Night Swan with green eyes, unlike the yellow eyes she has in the rest of the dances we see her in. (While this could just be an older design choice, I personally interpreted this as meaning that her eyes were green before she went evil and then they turned yellow.) In all of his character artwork, Jack’s eyes are green, which I take as meaning that this is a trait he got from his mother. So I personally feel like it only makes sense for his father to have red hair (and we’ve got plenty of options to pick from with that criteria).

But hey, that’s just a theory… I don’t need to finish that part, you’re already thinking it. Thanks for reading my insane ramblings!

[ingravinoveritas]

So al was asking ppl to ask her questions as her Fridays are so dull while her partner doing a play. Doesn't she find when she wiv michael it dull cos usually shows it or the other way round and then the bird one I found interesting cos since when have we seen Ms be protective over Al we haven't seen him speak or defend his relationship of what the journalists or ppl say about his relationship of what was said on weds where she defended it and and put a insta story about it we all know he loud but protective I think if he had to choose to protect or save someone it would be david hands down not al

What ur thoughts love to hear ur take on this

(Grouping together for ease of answering. @hyperfixating-rn-brb's Ask is referring to the last screenshot.)

So, I saw this as it was happening on Friday, and...yeah. I'm not sure what the impetus behind this random Insta AMA was (perhaps PR suggesting that Anna do something to counter her rash of recent off-putting social media posts?), but whatever the reason, choices™ were definitely made with some of (well, most of) her answers.

I think what struck me about the ones in these screenshots is how they’re lowkey insulting to Michael, but all in different ways (and not overtly, but passive-aggressively, as hyperfixating-rn-brb mentioned). It also seems odd that AL is currently in London, one of the most dynamic and attraction-filled cities imaginable, yet acting as if there is nothing to do on a Friday night. (Because Michael (and/or Georgia) aren't there to entertain her, I guess?)

Leaving that aside, the entire way this happened was just strange. A lot of the questions felt very boilerplate ("Are you currently reading anything?" "Who is your biggest inspiration?") and almost like they were planned in advance (I think at least one actually was from someone AL knows personally, IIRC), yet interspersed with enough "wacky" questions to give the impression of it being this spontaneous Q&A thing.

As for the answers in the screenshots above, I saw people on Twitter getting outraged over the "girly" question on Saturday, but predictably for all the wrong reasons. In particular, I noticed people once again blaming Michael/David shippers for it, but just from the wording alone, my feeling was that whoever sent in this question did not seem to be a shipper at all. "Girly" has a very specific, borderline homophobic connotation to it (akin to someone asking Anna if she "acts dykey" around Georgia), and while I know English is not her first language, I don't think that meaning is something AL would have missed.

So, no, it's certainly not a great or appropriate question by any means. But the bigger issue, at least in my opinion, wasn't so much "Why would someone ask this?", but rather "Why would she post this?" Because Anna is a grown woman who could have very easily just ignored this question altogether. Instead, she chose to draw attention to it, and to react in much the same way as her "vagueblogging" from the other day. It was as if the purpose in sharing it was to show people what she has to "put up with"--either from the fans or from Michael or both.

That's the other piece of this--that she shared this question with seemingly no regard for how it makes Michael look, or whether it would or could be embarrassing to him. It immediately made me think of this tweet from Michael two years ago, where he chose to answer a question in such a way as to deliberately not embarrass David (further explanation can be found here). It's something that seems so small but means so much, and that you'd think would happen effortlessly for someone you love. So the contrast of that to Anna posting this was striking to me, and it was further compounded by her answer to the "favorite bird" question.

Again, it's almost unsurprising at this point. Anna has previously made unflattering comparisons between Michael and Cousin Itt, a Hobbit, and Hagrid--among others--and now we can add a cockatiel to this list. What’s weird is that the question itself had nothing to do with Michael, so there was absolutely no reason to bring him into it...and yet. It felt like name dropping for the sake of name dropping, which just seems like a weird thing to do when she's been dating him for five years now. Did she think we forgot? That we needed a reminder? Whatever the reason, this definitely seemed like such a strange choice, and another instance of passive-aggressively putting him down under the pretense of a compliment.

(A note about the "protective" part, as I noticed that was particularly mentioned in this Ask. I would agree that there are a lot more overt/visible instances of Michael being protective of David--many of which I have talked about on my blog--than of Anna. That does not mean I don't think he is protective of her, however, but that there is a distinction between the two. It is possible to be protective of someone out of a sense of responsibility and obligation, and those are not necessarily bad things. But it's very different to being protective of someone not because you feel like you have to be protective, but because you want to be. Interpret that how you will...)

Finally, I just need to mention that one of the questions AL was asked was about Georgia ("Is Georgia secretly holding you hostage?"), and what I have hardly seen anyone talking about is that Georgia reshared that Insta story a short while later...and added a song called "I'm Trapped"...

I just...was this meant to be shady on Georgia's part? Who, exactly, is "trapped" here? The subtext and potential implications can go in so many directions here that it's hard to know where to start, but...yeah. The optics of Georgia resharing this story and adding that song in the middle of AL's Insta Q&A were and are questionable/cringey/unintentionally hilarious on multiple levels.

So yes, that is my take on the events of Friday night. As I've said before and will again, I know I could be totally off the mark here, so I'd love to hear from my followers as to what you think. Thank you for writing in! x

[crumblinggothicarchitecture]

Re: Ana "because news about it never reached them, suggests that Swift's PR was actively squashing them. "

Yep! They definitely wanted to avoid liability and was able to spin most of the bad press because -wait for it- US swiffers dont read Portuguese. Most of the articles discussing the death of Ana (and the injuries of over 1000 fans and the death of the robbery victim before the show) were in Portuguese as many of the rightfully critical sources were Brazil based. This gave swifts team the upper hand and could just say whatever she wanted because who's gonna google translate when they can absolve mother immediately. Swift/her team claimed she contacted Ana's family privately, the family (I believe her cousin and sister) replied to the announcement on twitter that she did not. Then she actually reached out and invited them to take a pic with her. Yknow with the woman who was responsible for their relatives death. PR also released all sorts of Travis lovey dovey, and holiday plan articles. The only things I've seen in English were random relationship bullshit and some article that mentioned how frizzy her hair looked in Brazil. It was 100% a coverup; I think they knew they'd be liable for negligence and distanced themselves as much as possible. While still making tons of money.

Also I'm sure it's obvious but she's racist as fuck and does not care about her fans of color. She wouldn't even stay in Brazil during that bit. She flew to one of her houses every night. Not white af Scotland though, they need to hydrate ✨✨

Oh yeah- I also saw a lot of cover up stories. I saw so many fans posting to insta about how out-of-breath Taylor looked- yet none of those people were talking about the literal death and hospitalizations occurring around her. They were only talking about how hard it must have been for Taylor Swift to sing in those conditions- and "omg look how much Mother cares about us"

Gimme a break-

I wish I never see another article about Taylor Swift's hair being frizzy ever again! or another article about her stupid football boyfriend.

Swift sure does use the media to cover up her shitty life choices a lot for someone who also claims the media is constantly bullying her.

Dear Taylor Swift, which is it? Are you a victim of the media- or do you have enough media outlets in your pocket now to keep you forever absolved of any wrongdoing?

Can you imagine that your family member just died at a concert- and the Musician of that Concert essentially went "Whoops, how about a photo-op? That's enough recompense, right?"

How utterly crass- Shameful.

Anyway- yeah I am also getting bad vibes from the fact that she's been so caring about people in the USA and UK- yet everywhere else it seems like she just doesn't care.

Bad, Bad, Racist, vibes from that one.

[deilmo]

Elgar'nan's true origins

One Tweet has me going crazy.

It was a twitter post talking about how Mythal was as much a voice of justice as she was a voice of vengeance and-

I found it strange that Mythal was associated with both Justice and Vengeance when Elgar'nan was also the god of Vengeance. It was weird to have them both embody the same virtue. And if we are to believe the gods are spirits, what's to say Elgar'nan was ALWAYS Vengeance?

I looked at his codexes, especially the one of his origin because it's the most complete and-

"Elgar'nan was furious at what his father had done and vowed vengeance. He lifted himself into the sky and wrestled the sun, determined to defeat him. They fought for an eternity, and eventually the sun grew weak, while Elgar'nan's rage was unabated. Eventually Elgar'nan threw the sun down from the sky and buried him in a deep abyss created by the land's sorrow." Codex entry: Elgar'nan God of Vengeance

This seem to confirm that Elgar'nan changed into Vengeance rather than being born as Vengeance. But the codex doesn't mention much HOW Elgar'nan was before turning to vengeance.

So I went digging. We know that the same "demon" can be corrupted from different spirits, (ex: Wisdom and Faith spirits can both turn into Pride) meaning Elgar'nan didn't have to be a spirit of Justice like Mythal. With that in mind I went searching what kind of spirit could embody the "opposite of vengeance" in the known spirits.

The one that stood out the most to me were Honor and Valor, in media they are usually pitted against Vengeance: vengeance usually has no honor nor valor in those depictions. So those two known spirits could work BUT-

We know spirits are twisted from their purpose by something that is so against their nature that they change. It could work on Honor and Valor. But knowing what twisted a demon can help us identify what it was. (Think Solas saying forcing Wisdom to fight was so against its purpose it twisted). And the legend does give us the reason of Elgar'nan's wrath:

The sun, looking down upon the fruitful land, saw the joy that Elgar'nan took in her [earth] works and grew jealous. Out of spite, he shone his face full upon all the creatures the earth had created, and burned them all to ashes. The land cracked and split from bitterness and pain, and cried salt tears for the loss of all she had wrought. The pool of tears cried for the land became the ocean, and the cracks in her body the first rivers and streams. Codex entry: Elgar'nan God of Vengeance

Reading that made me think it echoed more with a spirit of Compassion, like Cole. Powerless, Elgar'nan could only watch as his father (the sun) burned his mother and her work to ashes. It could be that powerlessness over someone's suffering was what twisted Elgar'nan into Vengeance.

Another possibility is in Mythal's origin. When she rises from the sea to make Elgar'nan see reason after he imprisonned his father into an abyss:

It was at this moment that Mythal walked out of the sea of the earth's tears and onto the land. She placed her hand on Elgar'nan's brow, and at her touch he grew calm and knew that his anger had led him astray. Humbled, Elgar'nan went to the place where the sun was buried and spoke to him. Elgar'nan said he would release the sun if the sun promised to be gentle and to return to the earth each night. The sun, feeling remorse at what he had done, agreed. Codex: Mythal the Great Protector

The further we are going down this thread and the less my hypothesis have hard proof, but i'm just covering all bases and possibilities. This highlighted section made me tick because it has very specific word choices: Humbled. He was not calmed or appeased, he was humbled. Now we have no proof of such spirit existing but Humility IS a virtue, meaning it could be a potential spirit unknown to us at this point.

The last and least supported possibility would be that Elgar'nan was a Mercy spirit. We have no proof of such spirit existing, and there is nothing in any codex that could hint to us to that. The sole reason I'm mentionning this is because Mercy is the closest antonym we could think of to Vengeance (when excluding Justice).

Mercy is more or less literally a kindness that allows you to forgive someone who has wronged someone (usually you), Vengeance on the other end is punishing someone that has wronged someone (usually you). Those two concepts cannot co-exist. You cannot give mercy when you are filled with thoughts of vengeance.

IF Elgar'nan was a spirit of Mercy, it could also explain why when Mythal couldn't give a sentence in one of her judging, she let Elgar'nan do it. When it was agreed he wouldn't give judgement because his wrath would destroy everything. (Codex: Ancient elven writing & The Judgment of Mythal)

TLDR; Elgar'nan most likely wasn't a spirit of Vengeance in the beginning, but twisted into it. His previous spirit self could be: Honor, Valor, Compassion, Humility or Mercy

[seancekitsch]

Wow, I can get sexual, too: An Adrian Chase x reader fic- Chapter 1

series masterlist here

warnings: eventual smut, masturbation, twitter nude culture, the very slightest dub con but not really just saying this to be safe, mutual pining, idiots in love, perv!reader but also perv!adrian

If someone asked what your vice was, you'd have to say it was something normal, something reasonable. You could be like any middle aged man in Evergreen and say darts and draft beers. You could be like any of the girls you graduated with back in Gotham and say shopping or accidental dates with the Joker’s henchmen that all of your friends had coincidentally gone on- multiple times. But no, you couldn't be that easy or simple. You had to lie and pick one of those options instead of being truthful. You went for something in between, you would say cheap beer and extremely choice but expensive makeup. It's not like you could tell them you were almost addicted to  @mattvtweets tributes and videos. To the point where you made a dummy account with your most racy lewd picture as the profile picture and a Fargo reference as a fake name and you had his account notifications turned on. It's also not like you could mention that it's your favorite coworker under an equally fake identity. 

It's not like you were looking, you werent. You were twitter mutuals with your team, and you were already a bit of a purveyor of twitter nude culture. You’d memorized a few of your favorites and donated to a few of their onlyfans links, but one stuck out to you in a big way. @mattvtweets had a body to die for, slight abs with the cutest tiniest bit of chub, chiseled arms, a nice girthy… clean apartment. 

It took three videos for you to recognize the apartment. The large mirror he stood in front of in every video showed off a lot more than what you think he might have wanted to show, but you saw it all. Specifically, you saw all you needed to see to connect all of the dots. 

It started with a coffee mug. There was one video he posted late on a Tuesday night, one that already had you splayed out on the bed and ready, but you almost closed your legs on your hand in shock at the sight of it. You knew that cup, the one you bought for his birthday, the one you’d fought tooth and nail to find after he said he was a Josh Groban fan and you found out he wasn’t touring anymore for some broadway show. It looked you in the eye and taunted you, so much you could barely focus on the way his lovely chin just barely dipped into frame.

You knew that chin well, sharp and triangular and perfect. It looks the same as when he lifts up his mask just so when you're on a mission. You'd dreamed of kissing that chin when you saw a black and teal bit of fabric pull up to reveal pink lips that would occasionally sip a boba tea or a slurpee from the local bodega as he walked in late to headquarters. Those lips attached to that chin, those lips that you wanted all over you with or without the mask. 

To say you were shocked was an understatement, and to say you were so turned on by your own guilt at continuing to look would be putting it lightly. You came harder than you ever have before that night. It was like an addiction now, watching Adrian Chase wrap the same hand that holds open doors for you, wrap around his hard cock and stroke himself until he comes, sometimes his release even splashing onto the mirror and absolutely driving you wild.

Now that you recognize that chin, you start to recognize the rest of him. How could you not? You'd personally patched up that toned chest before, remembering how Adrian just smiled and blushed while you nervously put your hands on him. Being up close to him without all of his gear was daunting, your nerves in overdrive, even if you kinda have a thing for the uniform too. Ever time you patch up Adrian you find yourself walking away from the encounter flushed and giddy like some school girl with a crush.

It started with that video, where you relaxed again after your initial shock at the revelation. You slipped your hand back in between your thighs, middle finger coming to circle around your clit every once in a while dipping a finger inside yourself before going back to your clit, watching the video on a loop. You tried your best to time your movements to match the movement of his hand on himself, almost like you were doing this together. It was tributed to another user, someone who had posted a nude for this specific response, but you're creative, you can imagine that it's dedicated to you, the three minute video that you can pretend and say he is doing this thinking of you.

You imagine yourself kneeling in front of him, mouth open and ready as you watch him, touching yourself and just waiting for the finale, wanting to taste him on your tongue. Would he be just as vocal in person? Or is this all an act for the internet? You hope he's vocal, you think, as you lose rhythm and speed up your own pace. You press your fingers down a little harder as you speed up, letting his moans be the soundtrack to your own imagination kicking into high gear. 

 Just as you're about to bring yourself over the edge with your fingers, your pinky and thumb precariously holding your phone slip, and that little heart under the tweet turns red. 

Shit, shit shit shit. Fuck. You quickly pull your hand up and unlike the tweet as quickly as you'd liked it, and now your orgasm is ruined.

You panic. You hope it was quick enough that he didn't see the notification from your account. That's how the dummy account was created. Now, with a picture of your cleavage and a fake name, you can like any of these videos you want, and even comment under them if you're tipsy or feeling brave. 

You think nothing of it anymore. That was three weeks ago.

“Hey, Y/n, take a look at this!” 

You don't even have a moment of clarity to understand what's happening before Adrian’s phone is being shoved in front of your face a little too closely. 

“I got Eagly to hug me! And Harcourt got it on camera!”

He’s practically bouncing on the soles of his boots as your hands brush his gloved ones to grab the phone from him. 

Sure enough, the eagle’s wings are draped around Adrian’s shoulders, his face turned away from the predators beak, but beaming. 

“Don’t scroll,” Adrian says, in a tone that makes you think he doesn’t actually care but he knows it’s what people say when they’re presented with someone’s camera roll. You don’t need to, though. The bottom of the screen shows those tiny little previews of what else is previously taken, and you can see a thumbnail that looks identical to the video he posted last night that had you moaning into your pillow and gasping for breath. If he notices your eyes flicker down the the little previews, he doesn’t say anything.

“How long did that take?” you ask, carefully handing the phone back to him so that there are no accidental swipes. 

“Only about two hours, and three bags of doritos,” he responds, clearly bubbling with pride. 

He sits down next to you on the piano bench like everything is normal. You've all but convinced yourself he didn't see a notification from your account on his secret twitter and everything is fine.

But it's not for you, those videos are not for you, and neither is Adrian's presence. Ever since you spotted the coffee mug and his chin, it's like when Neo took the pill in the Matrix. You now know the truth, you know everything that lies underneath that uniform and it's like you can't turn it off. You find yourself little sweatier, a little more on edge now when he invades your personal space; Something you once craved, and now you dread, imagining he can see “I GET OFF ON YOU” written on your forehead in sharpie or something. 

You notice he closes out of his camera roll quickly, and as he plays one of those matching games with those horrible ads, you can’t help but be distracted by the constant banner notifications going wild that he keeps having to swipe away. He focuses on his screen while Harcourt and Adebayo explain how things will proceed, not missing a beat answering questions when they’re lobbed his way, but you can’t focus on anything but the notifications you saw that couldn’t be from anything but his other twitter.

“Dude, what if she’s possessed?” you hear Chris say, and your realize they’re talking about you. 

“If I was possessed I’d attack you first,” you shoot back at Chris, hoping and praying you’d draw the attention anywhere but where your mind was.

Luckily, Adrian starts cracking up.

“She totally would dude, she says you aggravate her! Not that she would win even if she was possessed, I mean, your biceps alone…”

You tune out again now that the attention is off of you. Saved by the Vigilante. 

After a while things die down again, and you all agree to where and when you'll meet up tomorrow for reconnaissance. 

Before you leave you stop by John’s desk.

“Hey, how's my watch coming?” You ask, kicking one of your boots against the steel leg of the table.

“Finished it this morning, actually,” he says, rooting in his drawer until he finds it, “I actually tweaked it so that it can call each of us quicker. Its jailbroken so you wont get a warranty or anything but… it works for what we need. Thanks for being a guinea pig.”

He hands you your apple watch, with your shitty fake Burberry watch strap, a much missed accessory on your left wrist.

You strap it back onto your wrist, making sure it’s just the right amount of tightness and back in its normal place before you push your sweatshirt sleeve back down over it. 

“No, thank you! Really, I’ve been looking to make this thing more useful than closing my rings back in Gotham,” You shoot him a grateful smile, tapping the screen until it flashes back to life, the picture of all of you after the bottling factory incident permanently set as your background now. 

“Yeah no problem,” he says, and then adds, “By the way, you have a lot of twitter notifications.” 

Oh shit.

You thank him three more times before you finally say goodbye to everyone and leave, and its not until you get into your car that you check the notifications on your watch. Luckily, it was just a bunch of notifications that said ‘notifications’ and then just the twitter symbol. Economos didn't see anything.

You didn't have to open any of the notifications to know that they were alerts that the @mattvtweets account had made yet another post. It was basically your kryptonite at this point, the way that you had his alerts on and would save every video in your likes. Your dummy account isn't private, which means that if you were to respond to his videos, he could see it. Which, you've definitely debated doing before. It wouldn't be weird for that account for you to tweet something thirsty at him that would then result in him posting a video specifically for you. Not that he would know it was you, but it was you. Maybe if you were lucky he’d moan your fake twitter name and you'd know it was all for you.

But time and time again, you'd typed out a thirsty ass message, stared at it for a few seconds, and then promptly deleted it. For some reason, you couldn't stand to be just another girl in his replies begging for attention. Beyond that, you’d have an even harder time looking him in the eye than you already do. It’s bad enough the liked tweets of this dummy account are literally every video he’s posted and absolutely nothing else. Maybe one day you'll be brave- or desperate- enough to ask for a tribute, or to send him a nude. You'd thought of subscribing to his onlyfans, but it was no different content, and your google email popped up as the first one to join which freaked you out. You know Adrian knows your email address, and that was just a little too risky. Well, it felt a little riskier than what you were already doing. That's bold, maybe stupid, but you've never considered yourself the most creative.

Your drive home is usually taken in relative peace, eight stop lights and exactly three turns between headquarters and your apartment, and you can usually get about two or three songs in depending on how many red lights you hit. 

You reach the fifth stoplight nodding your head along to the radio when another notification pops up on your watch. Refusing to touch your watch, you drive home with a little bit more fire under your ass.

You’d never had a team back in Gotham, never had people who you could count on or people you would consider close. Associates, yes, but never people you'd meet up with after a job or text or send memes back and forth to, even if some of them have an incomprehensible concept of what a meme is. Adrian has to be your favorite of them, which makes this whole situation just a little more fucked up. You'd hate to break this trust; you know this is a boundary crossed, but this is something he’s never going to find out about. There's nothing that could actually trace the account back to you, you constantly reassure yourself. He can be your best friend and your secret fantasy and no one ever has to know. 

You convince yourself of this in the rest of the time it takes to get from that stoplight to the living room of your home. A condo that was once temporary housing now turned much more permanent, the decor miss matched and weird, but all little memories of your jobs with your new friends and new life here. 

You love your condo, and the life you're building here, and even the shitty frozen dinners you make here every night.

It’s not until you get to change into pajamas and finally lay down for the evening that you get to check those notifications. 

Your stomach drops when you see the newest notification, the one that was posted a few hours ago when you were in the car.

@mattvtweets: Thinking of a certain coworker, should I tell her this one’s for her? 

This video is not like the others, with his hand running over his chest, his abs, the scar on his side where you weren’t careful enough with your stitching one time before finally grasping himself. He’s got his bare leg propped up on the edge of his coffee table and his muscular pale thighs on display with his curly brunette leg hair covering them. Adrian’s really putting himself on display for this coworker, whoever she is. 

God, I hope it’s me, you think as you shimmy yourself into the pile of blankets you threw on top of your bed this morning. You don't miss the way the motion pushes your shorts even farther up your thighs, your free hand running up and down your soft skin, similar to the way Adrian is touching himself in the video.

Adrian in the video keeps running his hands up and down his body, almost teasing himself, almost like he's doing what he wants someone to do to him.

God, what you wouldn't give to be the one running your hands along his body, getting to feel his muscles flex under your finger tips and getting to brush along the soft hair on his thighs and lower abdomen. 

You start to copy his motions, warming your own body as you follow his movement, pushing your shirt up to run across your chest and grab at yourself the same way he’s doing to himself.

You scroll down slightly to like the video, saving this one so that you could keep coming back to it, specifically for that caption.

All of the comments below don't help your little fantasy, either

@user03114: She's so lucky!

@daynaxx: get her to make a vid with u luv xx 

@angelbby28x: can i work with you?

It's the comment about making a video with you that fuels your fire. Shit, you think, the things you'd do with him. You've never really been the type to take or send nudes, but if Adrian ever asked you to make one of these videos with you, you'd practically jump at the chance. To be sent these videos directly, to send videos to him.

You slip your free hand below the waistband at the thought of touching yourself on camera for Adrian, of letting him bare you to the masses. Maybe he’d even talk a little dirty; fuck, you’re sure you’d even get hot and bothered by his rambling if he just looked at you the right way. Your middle finger slips through your folds at the thought of him touching you on camera. Would he tease you? Would he keep going until you passed out? Would he be gentle? Rough?

I’ll take anything he’d give me, you think, pressing your fingers farther until you brush over your clit and finally making yourself gasp. 

You scroll back up to the video and start to move, circular motions with your middle and ring finger over your clit, your legs spread wide and hips slightly tilted just to hit that perfect angle.

When Adrian in the video finally wraps his hand around his cock, you finally dip your fingers inside yourself, slowly thrusting in time with how he strokes himself. He strokes his length, a good seven inches and curved slightly upward from what you can tell on the phone screen, from base to tip painfully slowly; this is a real performance he’s putting on, really showing off himself and giving you so much to work with. Its not like you need much though, fingers fucking yourself with barely any resistance. It's almost embarrassing how wet you can get over a twitter video, but it's more the little hints of the man behind them. Even before you found the account he’d left you flustered by simple gestures.

You're able to work yourself up to that peak quickly, only having to loop the five minute video twice before your breath is hitching and you're moaning his name quietly into the cold air of your bedroom. It's the way you can see the smallest bit of his jawline at the top of the screen, you can see the way it clenches and bites back his own moans.

You move your fingers faster as you imagine Adrian above you, clenching his jaw just like that, as he fucks into you, filling you and making you all his. Adrian’s rough hands manhandling you, grabbing and groping you, holding you down as he-

Your phone vibrating from a phone call shocks you out of your near-bliss. Fuck fuck shit fuck shit, you think as you drop the phone onto the bed next to you, the video of Adrian still playing on the screen. Your hand practically tears itself away from you and recoils back out of your shorts so quickly it's as if you'd been burned. As you gasp for air to regain your composure you look at the screen.

Adrian’s calling. 

Before you can really think about it, you're picking up his call and throwing it on speaker out of habit. 

“Uh, Hello?”

“Hey, favorite coworker!" He greets you, not best friend, but favorite coworker works. Favorite coworker could be the subject of that tweet, "I was just- Wait, did I interrupt a workout?”

You pause.

“No?”

Adrian sighs on the other end.

“Well why didn't you tell me you had asthma, silly? I would carry an inhaler with me if you had just told me, not to mention how out of breath you sound and-”

“Adrian, no,” you interrupt him, “What's up? What did you want to call me about?”

He stops, and you can practically hear him pondering on the other end. 

“Oh! Right, I just got done patrols on your side of town. I was wondering if I could come over since Fargo is on tonight and we always debrief after the episode.”

Suddenly you become all too aware of your situation. You're sprawled out on your bed, fingers still soaked in yourself because of the man on the other end of the call, your tiny bedroom feeling all too spacious. And Adrian is asking to enter this space and be alone with you.

“Uhhh, maybe that's not the best idea, Adrian,” you say, knowing you wont be able to keep your cool. 

But then guilt starts to creep in like a tingle along your scalp, because Adrian doesn't answer that.

“My house is really messy!” you offer, hoping that’ll smooth things over. 

Adrian stays quiet again for a moment, and then starts laughing a little too hard. 

“You could have just said that, silly!” he scoffs, and you can picture his face a little too close to the speaker, “Don’t worry about it.”

“Yeah?” you ask.

“Yeah, you can clean tomorrow,” he suggests, before adding, “I’ll bring you back to my place! I’m parked outside of your house anyway, you can just get in the Vigilante-Mobile.”

He punctuates his offer by honking his horn, confirming he is indeed right outside of your condo, and he’s not going to back down on Fargo night. 

“O-Okay, sure,” you stutter out, “just let me make myself decent.”

“Of course, because if we got pulled over you could get an indecent exposure charge. Not that I would mind about indecency.”

“Thank you. Adrian.” you grit out, head spinning for a reason caught somewhere between your ruined orgasm and the way he so plainly flirts without boundaries.

He hangs up then, and honks his horn again once. Groaning, you pull yourself from your position on the bed to get up and splash some cold water on your face.

You're going to need it.

[sweatandwoe]

bioware da:v stuff

Ohhhhhhh, I forgot about it being multiplayer originally urrrggHHGGG nightmare nightmare

EA/BIOWARE execs I hate your flaccid brains.

They do claim to "have a mastery of the frostbite engine now" but an RPG should never have to be forced into that FIFA engine! It looks so "bloomy" & waxy, the camera jerks around to be "immersive" when the character runs. It feels like they were told to keep adding post processing effects so some suit could say he punched it up.

I still hope the gameplay will be fun/wellmade but I have to admit I personally don't care about how heavily the story is going in on elves as the one important™️ race to the world setting.

I'm playing BG3 & DOS2, trying to tell myself I can't compare Bioware to Larian as they are very different styles of RPG studio but oogh more time passes & the more I enjoy the way Larian does it. As an ancient Bioware game fan, it stings.

BIOWARE CRITICAL (I ranted more than I thought)

Frostbite Engine is probably why we also got an art direction change, that feels closer to Fifa. It wouldn't surprise me if that's also where the hair physics comes in, as Fifa does have that. It doesn't look bad to me, however, I saw someone describe it as Pixar-lite and I can never unsee it. Also, the Megamind Qunari was certainly... a choice.

Also Frostbite used mostly for multiplayer games and the scrapped live service/multiplayer DA game, also got used here. From just a lot of elements that I don't wanna go into here (this post is already very long)

I think the combat actually looks fun but I've seen people call it CRPG still and no, it's an action RPG. I wouldn't expect anyone to go and expect BG3 combat (Or story elements). I do wonder if it'll get old quickly though, and also that the monster designs aren't scary at all and look really goofy. The Ui/hud stuff during fights is also pretty messy and I hope they have options to remove things from it at launch.

Putting the rest under a readmore, I went in depth lmao

Elves are taking certain front, but also it feels like in a weird direction. We're in Tevinter, Dwarves have strong relations with Tevinter but there isn't even a faction related to them? Also, we have a high focus on the elves, which is to be expected with the plot of the last game.

But also we're in Tevinter and I haven't seen, ya know, any mention of the slavery, which elves are a major portion of. Like none of the ads talk about it (which could make sense). No articles I see mention it. It feels... weird. Especially given we're seeing Solas' backstory in this game, and how he freed slaves was important to his character but yeah little to no mention of it

That being said I also have heard nothing about the story spoilers, besides what some people posted on Twitter, and it was scraps. A lot of people who just played the first 7 hours, are releasing their reviews and say the story is good, but won't go into details because of spoilers? Make a spoiler video, I'll watch it, but I wonder if Bioware/EA didn't allow the mention of any story elements to preserve "their surprise choices" (and any story elements hardcore fans would get pissed at)

FOLLOWING IS A SMALL SPOILER (TWO LINES) FOR VEILGUARD, I think it's important to see before you buy it but BE WARNED

God this line pisses me off so much

Solas should have negative traits, actually, and make huge mistakes, like he was known to do in the last DLC released, a decade ago. No matter how many plans he has, he usually fucks it up by going too big.

He literally was chumming it up with Mythal, "she was the best of them", yet here he is pointing at (probably) her and Elgar'nan as they become Gods. I think making him fully against the system from the start and not someone who once enjoyed some benefits of the system, even if he didn't engage in the slavery aspect of it, to become friends/rivalry with the Evanuris but as they grew in power, and eventually murdered the only one of them he considered actually good, the light bulb went off in his head, is like, really a big character retcon to me.

Despite how bad they were, Solas didn't want to lock them away. He despised and loved them. He never killed them, he couldn't, either do to his limited power or due to his friendship with them. He loved his People, that he would cast everything he loves, all away for their freedom.

And when he returns, he doesn't even see the Dalish as elves. He think he's failed them and wouldn't care if they all died, if he could bring back the power to restore his People, even if it means bringing back the Evanuris. And if they go "well he was going to break the veil without trying to actually awake/unlock them", that is dumb writing. He understands that they are the consequences that he will unleash onto the world at the end of DAI and that he thinks life with magic is better to bring back the People, even at the cost of the world itself or the People's freedom at that. The People who he doesn't even consider are modern elves. He doesn't give two shits about modern elves, only the ancient ones he's lost. He seems them as his failures and instead of, ya know, actually trying to help them regain their lost cultures and lands he jumps to "actually you all are horrifying, you can die while I regain my own world"

The Elf!Inquisitor is the only elf he truly sees as a person, the potential to be a member of the People in his eyes. Everyone else is a fool or a tool to him.

BG3 and DSO2 are such healing things for the RPG fantatic soul. They have their problems, but the quality is so much higher than I ever expected to see. The way choices actually matter and have direct consequences in the one game vs having to wait until the sequel to see if collecting ten bear asses for that one dwarf lady gets you a special dialogue option.

Larian has got my support always, they made DSO2 so good, that I pre-ordered BG3 all the way back in Oct 2020. I have no desire to ever pre-order another Bioware game, except maybe some remasters.

[trisockatops]

Okay I lied, one more post about the blatant antisemitism that isn't getting as much as attention as the creator's cissexism.

Thread from Unsidhe, Artist&Vtuber|Illust/Live2D OPEN on Twitter:

cw: antisemitism 1 of the 'goblin artifacts' you can find in That Wizard Game is literally just a shofar, a Jewish musical instrument, described as being 'used to annoy witches and wizards'. In it's description is the year 1612, which was when the Fettmilch uprising took place.

This uprising was followed by an outright massacre of Jewish people. If you STILL think it's just "a coincidence based on unfortunate folklore about goblins" and not literally an antisemitism propaganda simulator, fucking BLOCK ME. I want nothing to do with you.

People are trying to tell me "but it's not a shofar because it's painted" like, you're grasping at straws for excuses at this point.

Learning that they wrote 'stuffed with gorgonzola to silence it' about the horn, and finding out that gorgonzola specifically is not a kosher cheese... when they could have just written 'stuffed with cheese' for the Haha Funney Points really says a lot someone had to think.

/end thread

Thread from Yonah Gerber on twitter:

For those saying Hogwarts Legacy isn’t antisemitic, the game devs made it canon that goblins use shofar

“Generally annoy witches & wizards” literally the text in the game is that Jewish practices are just an annoyance like what the fuck

To address the dumbassery in my responses: assume good intentions must be earned. If this was the first time a Rowling property has been antisemitic, that's a woopsie. But it's not.

Here's the facts as they exist: - The object is a war horn - The artifact in the game is located at a place named after a pig & stuffed with dairy products to stop its music - The year of its most famous use is also the year major antisemitic pogroms happened in Germany

If ONE of these things were true, but Rowling & the franchise otherwise hadn't made any major missteps, that's when we give the benefit of the doubt. But I'm not willing to give said benefit when considering all the in-game context AND ALSO prior antisemitism in the franchise.

At a certain point, "benefit of the doubt" becomes "any plausible deniability is sufficient to ignore all context to the contrary" & to me, & to many Jewish folks, we are way past that point.

Hogwarts Legacy is not the first time the Harry Potter franchise has been accused of antisemitism. If the franchise & its creators wanted to avoid further accusations, they could've done some basic historical research to make sure these alleged coincidences were not included.

Once you have harmed a marginalized demographic, it's on your as a creator to prevent *further harm*. If you're using an IP that another creator once used to harm others, then I'm sorry, you do have the responsibility to undue that harm where you can in your own work.

EVEN IF these are coincidences, had the development team made a point to avoid antisemitic caricatures & educated themselves on that history, this wouldn't have happened. They chose not to care. And that's not much better, really.

Obviously I don't know what the team at Avalanche thinks or believes & frankly that's not my business. What matters to me is the end product & that end product either is purposefully antisemitic or was made by folks who don't care if they're accidentally antisemitic.

However you twist this, there's a tremendous lack of care going on here, & a choice to perpetuate cruelty that didn't need to happen.

Don't yell at folks in my mentions who genuinely don't understand the layers of context here. This is a great education opportunity. Block the obvious trolls, I sure am, but some folks have only seen a piece of the whole, & education is the best solution to ignorance.

Deleting my last tweet because I saw the point on Mastodon, but I can no longer find the post. I don't want to share what I can't currently verify.

To add, though: - The shofar is located at the Hog's Head (aka pig) Inn - The music of the shofar is prevented because a wedge of gorgonzola was used to stop the music, & while many cheeses are kosher, that one is not Take from that what you will.

/end thread

Thread from moby dickgirl on Twitter:

// CW: antisemitism; discussion of Islamophobia Concerning Gorgonzola (expanding on a comment in Yonah's thread) N.B. Once again, I am speaking as a gentile

It's a really common trope in right-wing propagandistic fiction for the "heroes" to desecrate the graves of religious enemies by putting profane items in them. The example I'm most familiar with is endless post-9/11 masturbation about putting pig products in Muslims' graves

I understand that there's a prohibition, deriving from a law given by Moses at Sinai, on seething a kid in its mother's milk, and that this is generally interpreted pretty broadly as meaning having meat and dairy in the same meal, or otherwise combining them, is unkosher

Some cheeses are kosher. Traditionally, Gorgonzola is not. This is because the production of Gorgonzola requires the use of a complex of enzymes called rennet. Using animal-derived rennet to make cheese is unkosher because of the prohibition mentioned above.

Now, this doesn't always apply to Gorgonzola today; you can get Gorgonzola made with non-animal-derived rennet which I understand may be kosher. However, this was unequivocally not the case in 1612. Gorgonzola made then would have been made with animal-derived rennet.

It's also been noted that the year of that goblin rebellion is 1612, the first year of the antisemitic purge called the Fettmilch Rising in Frankfurt. Both the real Fettmilch Rising and the fictional rebellions may have been based partly on allegations of financial misconduct.

There is, however, a shorter path. A distinctive quality of Gorgonzola — unique to it as far as I can tell — is that it's made with unskimmed milk, that is, milk with the milkfat still in it. The German word for "milkfat" is "Milchfett" — "Fettmilch" with the syllables reversed.

(I've heard that "Fettmilch" is literally a dialect German word for "unskimmed milk," which would make the link even more direct, but I don't have a sufficiently comprehensive German–English dictionary on hand to confirm this. German speakers are welcome to chime in.)

/end thread

Not to mention that the basic plot of the game is suppressing the rebellion of a canonically oppressed race that has always been an antisemitic caricature (hooked nose, beady eyes, hoard money, apparently control the wealth, manipulative, sneaky, greedy). We didn't need to look far to find the antisemitism, and yet here it is, ratcheted up times ten.

[asherisawkward]

What did you think of Season 3 and its episodes? Also, do you think fans who weren't satisfied with Belos, Caleb, or Wittewife being ungrateful? I saw on Twitter that people who are upset are because Philip, Caleb, and Wittewife got more compared to other characters. Also that we didn't need to see a flashback because we already know from the Hollow Mind portraits what happened. Finally, what do you think of the Wittewife interpretations? How do you interpret her?

Get ready, because you’re in for a doozy of a rant, because Season Three was full of mixed feelings for me.

Thanks To Them:

I loved TTT because it felt incredibly suspenseful and horrifying to watch Luz and Hunter search for Philip. The exploration of Hunter’s personality and interests are heartwarming, and I can completely relate to him about wolves. It’s also interesting to see the ways Hunter grows and reacts to his Grimwalker situation and the similarities between him and Caleb.

Masha was obviously amazing, and I loved their depiction of the Wittebane Brothers’ Tale. I did notice that the local legend supposedly took place about twenty years before Gravesfield was reported to have been founded on the sign. That may be a sign that their story was incorrect, but who knows.

What really interested me was the implications of the story. Philip was an orphan with very little connection to his parents due to losing them when he was very young. Clearly, he was heavily dependent upon Caleb for his sense of safety and security, as well as his stable point to interact with the world. With Caleb leaving with Evelyn, Philip must have been left traumatized and terrified.

And Caleb…If Evelyn truly wasn’t evil, then he abandoned his brother by choice. It doesn’t really matter if he thought he’d be better off. His brother needed him, and he left.

Evelyn shares less of the blame, in my opinion, because Caleb might not have mentioned that he was an older brother or spoken of Philip. I tend to imagine her as a kind but spirited person who likely made Caleb realize there was more to life than the strict rules of Puritan society. She would likely have been a friend before they became lovers.

With that analysis done, I’ll get back to TTT.

During the possession scene, I was pretty conflicted. The animation was beautiful, and the voice acting was amazing. But I feel like it was needlessly cruel to Hunter to possess him, scar him for life, kill his therapy animal, and re-grow his hair so that he looked like his Ortet when his whole arc was about becoming his own person and learning he is not Caleb. Additionally, I’m mildly bothered by the writers making him want to carve palismen like Caleb when he had already demonstrated interest in sewing.

For The Future:

Philip’s travels were so interesting. It was horrific to watch him slowly fall apart as he desperately searched for a new body, even possessing an unfinished grimwalker to try to do the job. Some story boards and behind the scenes content revealed that Caleb and the Golden Guard ghosts were, in fact, hallucinations.

This was extremely impactful to me because it indicates that Philip had some inkling that what he’s doing is wrong, but he has fallen into the sink cost fallacy: the idea that something can’t be wrong because you invested so much time, energy, and resources into it. To put it simply, his guilt is driving him mad, but he has to continue because he knows there is no redemption for him.

New Hexside was okay. It was mildly annoying due to the change in tone feeling forced and disrupting compared to the extremely serious tone of Philip’s section. It was cool to see the way society had turned out for those who survived. I adore that it was an absolute mess, because it’s incredibly accurate for something run by teenagers.

I disliked the bit with Kikimora because it felt like a retcon of her arc in Kings Tide. She had been so obsessed with pleasing and serving someone in the pursuit of approval and greater power that she forgot she was also in danger from her hero’s plans. To restate it a way I’ve heard, “she was so focused on the boot she had on others’ necks that she didn’t notice the one on her own.” It was very gratifying to see her get retribution against Philip and play a part in saving the Isles. So FTF felt like a backslide to her.

Boscha was an interesting parallel to Philip in feeling abandoned by someone she cared about. So she attempted to force that person to stay. However, she is able to move on and accept that things have changed. It’s what would have happened if Philip had been able to let go, and I like that.

Willow’s breakdown was understandable, but not handled the best, and I dislike that she was “saved” when she doesn’t really like that sort of thing. It would have been better if Hunter and Gus had talked to her and let her slowly unload her feelings instead of being “saved” by Hunter.

I also dislike where their arcs end with them holding pinkies. Don’t get me wrong, I think that Huntlow is adorable and has a lot of potential. I just think that should be dealt with after they are more emotionally stable.

King and the Collector’s story was the least interesting to me, though I think the “new” Collector is adorable. I loved the dynamic they had as a somewhat malicious and irreverent being that will poke and prod at anything for some amusement. It really made him feel like a threat, and I liked that.

The new interpretation revealed by the interactions with King was sweet but less compelling to follow. I would have found it much more interesting for King to help him slowly come to understand human/demon/witch morals and the way what they did was wrong.

Philip’s tricking of the Collector felt like a little bit of a stress, but potentially in character as someone who was desperate to regain the power he had likely lost due to Vee. King’s dialogue for that bit felt kind of forced, but I can excuse it.

Watching and Dreaming:

Oh crud, here’s the real doozy. Watching and Dreaming was the biggest let down for me. It was stunning visually, and the animation was fluid as a whole. It looked amazing, and I was thrilled with the episode the first time I watched it. But the more I thought on it, the more issues I’ve found.

I thought the nightmare sequence was going to be far more significant than it was. I was hoping for a deep analysis on the ways that Luz and Philip mimicked each other in their desire to be the hero, protect the people they care about, and escape the unsatisfactory reality that they had previously lived in.

I thought we would see Eda face and potentially live out some of her greatest fears. Maybe she would accidentally hurt King or Luz. It would have been interesting to see her grapple this during an intense battle that would decide the fate of the Isles! It was disappointing for that to be over in fewer than ten minutes without any of the depth. I don’t really have much to say for King’s nightmare sequence.

On a far more minor note, I disliked Philip’s design during this episode. Yeah, Kaiju Philip was interesting looking, but he doesn’t carry any of the same weight or fear that he used to. The lack of detail and speech from him felt off, because he is a character who puts so much weight into words and manipulation, and we never really get to see him.

I also dislike the way that his color scheme changed. I really liked the dark green and glowing blue thing he had going on. It felt like ooze and rot, like the decay and destruction of a person’s very soul until it’s so twisted it’s no longer human. The lighter green feels sickly, and it gives me the same feeling I get when I touch a grainy eraser. I shudder, and I don’t know why. However, that’s about all on Philip’s design, now to the more major concerns and thoughts.

Luz’s death would have been far more effective if she had died more slowly and if people had noticed she was dead. Without anyone else acknowledging it, I just felt kind of hollow for the whole thing.

I thought that Papa Titan was cool, but I really dislike what he did to the narrative. This fight was set up to be horrific and challenging, that it would take every ounce of the characters’ strength. And King’s parent just kind of took that away.

Additionally, she denied all the buildup that was put into Philip’s character. Philip was set up to be tragic and sympathetic. It implied that anyone could become an extremist and hurt others because they got in too deep, and I related to Philip a lot as a character, as well as Hunter. To see him called just plain evil was disrespectful to the rest of the work put in and everything Wittebro fans hoped to see.

Some people believe that the backstory we got was sufficient for Philip’s character. Respectfully, I disagree. The pictures that were in the background of Hollow Mind were exactly that—background. It implied a tragic character that went off the deep end when he lost the only person he loved.

It suggests that, in a better world, Philip could have moved past his biases and the manipulation he experienced the way Boscha and Caleb did. He could have had a happy ending and been the person that Luz thought he was. By saying he was just evil and ignoring his backstory, Papa Titan and Luz do the exact same thing that Philip does: dehumanize the enemy and say that the group/person should be killed without remorse. It also dehumanizes or hurts those that connect with him due to religious trauma or other reasons.

It feels wrong when only a scene ago, Luz was telling the Collector that things weren’t that simple. But now, they magically are.

Papa Titan also breaks all of the themes that were set up earlier: the idea that you have to choose yourself, that there is no divine being that is going to make you special, and that Luz got where she did because she was open minded and hard working. By making the Titan gift her the runes, it discredits all the hard work she did and supports Philip’s comment that the reason he couldn’t get glyphs easily was because the Titan was making it difficult (as opposed to him being a closed minded individual who couldn’t connect to the Isles).

Luz didn’t really have a choice, and it’s never really addressed the way that the found family theme is ignored as a result of her being chosen. It also implied that all the growth she did over the previous two seasons was pointless, because she was the chosen one.

After that, the tone is distinctly more action based and exciting as opposed to the horrific and stressful encounter I was expecting. It felt like the fight wasn’t being taken seriously by the characters or the writers, and it made it hard to stay invested or take the stakes seriously.

The fight could have been the whistle Hexsquad taking on Philip and supporting each other. Hunter could have helped get people out of the way when they were being attacked. Gus could have distracted Philip and help people escape or even left him open to attack. Willow and Amity could have grappled him and harmed him. Camila could have given it her all with the bat. It could have really pushed the theme of community and connection and the way they impact people.

Finally, I want to talk about one last thing: Philip’s death. I laughed at it the first time I saw it. It was amusing and more than a touch satisfying, but it’s not what Philip deserved.

Philip was a tragic, hurt character who sacrificed his health, his morals, and everything about himself in the pursuit of protecting humanity from witches. He was evil and irredeemable, and I do not want him to be redeemed.

I wanted him to learn that it was all for nothing and that his guilt was justified, that he was fed lies by the people he admired and told what he did was right when it wasn’t. I wanted to see him break down at the knowledge of his actions and their consequences, the sins he committed. Then, I wanted him to die.

In later watching, the scene where Raine, Eda, and King stomp him to death feels cruel. I agree that he needed to die, but Philip couldn’t fight back. It doesn’t feel like something that good guys would do. And Luz just watching them do that felt wrong.

Epilogue:

I liked the epilogue as a whole, except for a bit on Hunter. The thing with him and Willow was cute, but he didn’t cut his hair again, and he went on to carve palisman. I feel as if it violates everything previously set up about him choosing to be himself, and that makes me a bit sad.

In Conclusion:

I think that the people who weee unsatisfied with the Wittebane lore have every right to be. It was the most impactful series of events for the future of the Isles. It was built up for ages and never carried through. Obviously, my opinion would change if there was a series or movie on them.

Evelyn was “spring” to Caleb, as she introduced him the first life and light that allowed him to be who he wanted to be.

Season Three had amazing animation and visual depiction, but it fumbled on the themes it had previously established and some of the character development.

I am so sorry for rambling/ranting so much on this. I hope I haven’t scared or upset you. Have a great day!

[wangxianficfinder]

Fic Finder

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1. For the Next Fic Finder:

Looking for a time travel fic in which older WWX travels back to past Lotus Pier, the Jiang family then decides it would be better to have older xian be introduced as younger xians older brother. Older!WWX also comes with them at CR in which he befriended LXC and later NMJ and change both of their opinions regarding resentful energy.

P.S I think there was also a chapter where he went "missing" but he was just with the Dafan Wens and just really missed them in his depressed state.

FOUND! MingYu by Fino_Al_Cielo (T, 87k, WWX & LWJ, YL WWX, yunmeng siblings, Fix-It of Sorts, Time Travel, Canon Divergence, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, PTSD, References to Depression, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Suicidal Thoughts, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Slow Burn, Trauma)

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2. Hello! Looking for two specific modern AU fics

A) Posted on twitter where Wei Ying kept bothering LWJ on the length of her skirt (it was a genderbend fic)

B) Posted on instagram. LWJ and WWX were both models, WWX were kidnapped and tortured at one point because of jealous Jin Zixun

Thank you in advance for the help! @hid9884

2A)

FOUND? this thread by @/3neetee

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3. Hi can you help me find a fanfic?? um wei wuxian works at a sex shop and lan wangji comes in to close it down bc his parents own it but end up falling in love where as jiang cheng works at a bar where lan xichen fall inlove w/ him and wei wuxian crazy ex (jenny I think) tries to kill him??

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4. hiii ! i’m looking for a fic where it’s set in post canon, i think, and it’s about wei changze confronting jiang cheng about everything wei wuxian went through. There was a scene where he talks about experiencing being whipped by zidian through wwx bc at his desperate times, wwx unknowingly calls for his parents and wcz was able to connect with him somehow and that’s how he saw the things that happened in wwx’s life. tysm!!! @makkachiin

FOUND! Chapter 24 of Short Prompts by Vrishchika

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5. I'm looking for a shapeshifting fic. LWJ was a rabbit and WWX a fox. LWJ ended up transforming out of stress, and bumped into WWX who took him home on his fox back and later kept visiting him. WWX was also staying in the woods and keeping things at NHS's house. I've searched through my history but I can't find it so I'm scared it's been deleted. @flaxenhairedsamurai

I don't remember what 5 is called but someone else was looking for it semi recently

FOUND! This Twitter fic by @/Zizzani

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6. I'm looking for a modern AU where the characters work in various emergency services. I remember that the first chapters focused a lot on WWX, and I *think* that later chapters switched to a focus on Meng Yao/JGY. I specifically remember a scene where WWX climbs up a stuck rollercoaster or Ferris wheel, and someone he tries to save falls and dies. He was maybe a firefighter? And LWJ was maybe an EMT?

FOUND! 🧡 Like a House on Fire by KouriArashi (T, 82k, WangXian, Modern au, Paramedics, Firefighters, Light angst, Mutual pining, Kid fic, Past drug use, Past child abuse, Families of choice, Domestic fluff)

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7. I want to find a Wangxian A/B/O fanfic It was very long and angsty about Wei Wuxian being an Omega Cultivator where they are expected to be locked up inside. It had a one-sided Jin Zixuan x Wei Wuxian and a really bad scene with Wen Chao. Its no longer in ao3 but i cant remember the author reposted it

FOUND? and the calm is deep where the quiet waters flow (Prologue – Index) (E, 303k, off-screen rape, oppression, violence, sexual assault, grief/mourning, unwanted pregnancy., A/B/O)

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8. looking for a modern au fic, cant remember the title but the description on ao3 had something about a taxi driver noticing a bruise on wei ying and mentioning that the person will hurt him again. there was a suicide attempt i think, due to the jiang family abuse, and lan zhan was his neighbour!

FOUND? like a fox in tall grass by notinamillionyears, starcrushedjewels (notinamillionyears) (E, 93k, WIP, WangXian, Suicide Attempt, Drug Abuse, Past Child Abuse, Strangers to Lovers, Neighbors, College/University, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Depression, Anxiety Attacks, Pianist LWJ, Smoking, Trauma, Explicit Sexual Content, Slow Burn, Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Caretaking, Identity Issues, Age Difference, Power Dynamics, Dom/sub Undertones, Eating Disorders, Mutual Pining, Consensual Non-Consent, Sleeping Together, Suicidal Ideation, Bipolar Disorder, implied manic depression)

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9. hello im looking for a fic where jzx asks wangxian for help and there's a cursed building? and mxy is in it or in the center of it and they rescue him. that's about all i remember sorry. appreciate any help tho ♥️

hello im the last ff anon #9. sorry but the suggestion isn't it. i distinctly remember it being a cursed building, or maybe a watch tower maybe? and mxy was inside it. wangxian are already married iirc also a bunch of jins died in that building i think? bc of the resentful energy?

hello ff anon #9 again. to answer anon's question, mxy isn't a spirit. he's alive in the fic and i think he follows wangxian after he was rescued? i appreciate all the help that's coming y'all are so cool

NOT FOUND! 9 sounds like it might be Aftermath by KouriArashi (T, 57k, JYL/JZX, wangxian, LXC/JGY, canon divergence, fix-it, everyone lives au, romance, developing relationship, family, sibling bonding, light angst, politics, attempted sexual assault, some murder, people talking about their feelings, trauma processing) although the rescue is in a mine not a building

for #9, is MXY a ghost/spirit that needed liberating/sending off?

FOUND? quiet, blooming hours by Sanguis (T, 13k, WangXian, Modern with Magic, Modern AU, Magical Realism, Established Relationship, Married Couple, Family Feels, Background Relationships, Resurrection, Adoption) Idk if #9 could be ...the house is somewhat cursed and the jins are involved but not the way anon describes. Wangxian is established though

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10. Hi, I hope you can find me find this wonderful fic where WWX used an array to make everyone forget about him. He succeeded with his plan but the people who initially knew him (JC, JFM, JYL, even Madam Yu, basically everyone) always subconsiously thinks of him like something or someone is missing in their lives. Eventually, JC, LWJ, and LXC realized that someone must've erased their memory of that person so they tried their best to undo the curse or the array.

FOUND? Remember by Amona (T, 57k, JC & WWX, wangxian, Canon Divergence, self-sacrifice, erasing oneself from history, colored souls, sword spirits, major angst w happy ending, implied/referenced rape/non-con, minor character death, WIP)

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11. Hi, I'm searching for a modern au fic where WWX was gonna have an abortion, and LWJ offered to drive him to his appointment. He said that he'd help him because his mother had no choice or something like that. It's a one shot, I think, not much happens, appart from that.

FOUND! baby let's take the long way home by plonk (Not rated, 10k, wangxian, modern w/ magic, abortion, mpreg, with a twist, enemies to lovers)

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12. Does anyone remember that fic where lwj is a goth DJ at a bar? And wwx keeps trying to meet him or hang out with him? Lwj is ruder than usual I think. I might be mixing up two different fics but in the one I’m thinking of lwj gives wwx a ride home late at night… it’s driving me crazy- I thought I had saved it!

FOUND! The Quiet Room by trickybonmot (M, 39k, wangxian, modern, 1990s, goth LWJ, cellist LWJ, college student WWX, house hunting, dating, clubbing, implied/referenced past child abuse, mental health issues, academic disaster aftermath, getting together, homelessness)

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13. First of all, thank you for all your work, you're awesome!! Second, I'd like to ask for your help to find a fic. it's ABO where omegas are like really rare and sacred in the cultivation world, wwx is an omega but for some reason he hides it until it all comes out about the time he's in the burial mounds with the Wen, and that's when the sects finally believe him and take his side bc omegas always stand for what's right and true or smt. Thanks!!

FOUND! Woven fates by apathyinreverie (T, 10k, wangxian, ABO, alpha LWJ, omega WWX, fix-it, fluff, family, romance, mates) it has the "omegas always stand for what’s right and true," but wwx wasn't hiding it, he just didn't present until he felt safe and then ran into lwj again / WWX wasn't actively hiding being an omega though, but only presented while in the burial mounds.

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14. Hello i'm looking for a fic where wei ying enters a mating run on a dare(or bet) and if you survive the run you get $50,000 if lan Wanji chooses you, you get $1 million. There is also some orginized crime aspects to the fic

FOUND? Five Fifteen by 3neetee (M, 11k, wangxian, rape/non-con, ABO, modern, alpha LWJ, alpha WWX, mating runs, graphic descriptions of violence, dom/sub undertones, light bondage, implied mpreg, dark LWJ, betrayal, smut, dark lans, unreliable narrator WWX) locked

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15. Hello for the next fic finder can you please help me find a fic where Wei Wuxian loses his memories after an accident. I remember WWX and LWJ were engaged and they were going to marry and LQR hired a private investigator and the accuses WWX of cheating and everyone believes him. But it was actually WWX meeting Wen Qing to discuss adopting A-Yuan. WWX keeps it a secret because he wanted to surprise LWJ when they get married with the adoption papers. Anyways after they accuse him of cheating WWX runs out and gets hits by a vehicle and loses his memories. It was a modern AU.

Thank you for all the help you do for us. @mybestfriendisacinnamonroll​

FOUND? (Un)forgettable by Edens_Cat & VividestList (E, 67k, wangxian, LWJ & LSZ & WWX, WWX & WQ, modern, misunderstandings, angst w/ happy ending, kid fic, teacher WWX, single parent WWX, amnesia, protective WQ, protective LSZ, smut)

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16. Hi! I am not sure if this has been asked before but I'm looking for this fic where Lan Yuan grew up as the Jiang sect heir because Jiang Cheng got to him before Lan Zhan. I could remember there are several kids in the Burial Mounds and one of them was adopted into the Lan sect as a healer. And the rest (there were three of them ig???) were basically hiding in the Jiang sect unbeknownst to Jiang Cheng. I really really loved that fic but I can't remember much from it and I want to read it again. Thaaaaanks!!

FOUND? Until The End by abCEE (M, 365k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, war changes people, resulting to OOC, no pinning, Established Relationship, Mpreg, Good Uncle LQR, a little grey LWJ, a bit of JC bashing from LWJ, BAMF JYL, 16 years of yearning, mainly CQL verse but has scenes from the novel as well, LSZ is WangXian's Child, WWX Has a New Golden Core, Canon Rewrite, Happy Ending, Fix-It of Sorts) sounds like this one, but a-yuan is still with the Lan. The kids at the Jiang sect and the healer at the Lan sect match though

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17. I think it was very Nie Huaisang centric and short, but I can’t remember anything other than a few lines near the end where NHS was remembering that JGY hadn’t taken into account that LXC had known him since he was a kid and would trust and defend him.

The line I remember is something like “NHS remembers being passed back and forth between LXC and NMJ like a particularly beloved parcel” referring to LXC practically adopting him as a second little brother.

Thank you!

FOUND! Chapter 32 of Twelve Moons and a Fortnight by stiltonbasket (M, 290k, WangXian, Humor, Slow Burn, Post-Canon Fix-It, Long-Distance Relationship, Epistolary, Love Letters, Family Feels, a-qing lives, teenage romance, Adoption, Romantic Comedy, Happy Ending, Weddings, Case Fic, Parenthood, Politics) you're looking for chapter 32 of twelve moons and a fortnight by stilton basket.

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18. Hello, can you help find this fic? The back story in this fic is yzy is cheating with wcz and wwx is yzy'son with wcz. After wwx born he was cast aside and yzy pregnant with soon after with jfm as the fathet. Wcz become a rogue cultivator while raising wwx and he meet csr. In the first chapter i think wwx is kinda kicked out by bssr to make him meet with his sibling in cloud recesses and make a peace with them. I think he introduce himself as a-xian (or it is a-ying? But i think it was a-xian). I think that's all i can remember. Thank you!

FOUND! The Undesirable Son by FragranceLotion97 (G, 34k, WangXian, CQL but WWX is Madam Yu's Bastard Son, It goes differently from the beginning, WWX becomes sworn brother with lxc then becomes his in law, LWJ is still whipped, There is Yin Iron, Heavily CQL with a little mix from the novel, Adding donghua into the fandom because i decide to use a lot of things from there)

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19. For the next fic finder: can you help me find a fic where wwx falls in the lake when they’re fighting the abyss, and everyone believes he dies. Weeks (or maybe months) pass, and then he washes up on the shore of the lake, somehow still alive. I think it might have been Lan Xichen pov, and he was blaming himself for losing wwx since he was in charge of the hunt.

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20. Looking for a fic where WWX was Baoshan Sanren’s disciple (I think) and they were doing demonstrations. WWX went through all major sects’. The one I remember clearly is that the Lan style was war

FOUND! Become Tomorrow by  ShanaStoryteller (Not rated, 39k, wangxian, cloud recesses study arc, BSSR's disciple WWX)

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[that-left-turn]

I’m not the anon who mentioned the slightly racist behavior but I am an anon who just saw on Twitter that the actor who plays RJ’s parents saw the hate and racist edits people have made regarding him. Replacing him with a picture of a goat. Removing him from pictures and only leaving Judith. Calling him names. Questioning if he’s Rick’s. Calling Judith the last grimes when she’s biologically not one at all. Nothing is ever explicitly racist it’s the under tones and motives for why you attack a person or pick them apart. And then swearing you never saw any of that happen. This is why when Carylers want to holler about ageism and sexism but lean into racism no one hears us. All of the isms are bad. Not just the one that affects you.

Let me preface this by disclosing that I'm not on Twitter, so I haven't personally seen these things, BUT that doesn't make the behavior any less problematic. If someone reading this has said or done any of the things the anon mentions and isn't sure what the fuss is about, my post attempts to explain why and give some context.

It's long (☕🛋️) with thoughts on racism, parenthood, female friendship and the writing of fictional children, touching on misogyny and sexism, with a foray into (in)fidelity and textual analysis. In other words, the kitchen sink on Michonne and Carol, and their found family. Bring snacks.

Saying things that imply someone isn't fully human (even if you think goats are adorable) isn't nice for obvious reasons, but if it's a person of color, it's also fraught with racist undertones:

During the abolitionist movement, there was debate on whether black people had souls and if they were even human. Abducted and trafficked or bred into the plantation system, slaves were property and in legal documents (slave rolls, wills, and censuses) of the time, they weren't listed by name. There were tick marks for male/female and approximate age. The Three-Fifths Compromise (1787) counts each slave as three-fifths of a person for state representation (in Congress and taxes), which basically means that white people got a bigger say in governance while the enslaved definitely weren't citizens and didn't enjoy equal protection under the law.

Take a moment to consider what that would do to your self-esteem, if you were told you're worth 60% of another human but only insofar as it guarantees their rights to self-determination? You’re just chattel. The 13th Amendment (1865) abolished slavery, i.e. humans could no longer be owned, the 14th (1868) afforded citizenship and the 15th (1870) protects the right to vote regardless of race, color or previous condition of servitude, but these amendments also gave rise to the vile Black Codes and Jim Crow laws. That's the context into which comments on a POC's physical resemblance to an animal or their feral/beastly nature slot.

What's the preoccupation with biological procreation in fandom, especially when the concept of ‘found family’ is the core of the show?

Adopted children are 'real' children, stepparents are the ones who 'step up.' They make a choice to parent—to guide and protect—someone into adulthood. That's not a small challenge. Like Carol said when she and Daryl searched for Judith in the Commonwealth, "there's this person totally dependent on you and you have to hope you make the right choices." Anyone can father a child, but to be a good dad requires commitment and love for said child. Rick chose Judith, i.e. acknowledged paternity. She is a Grimes, regardless of genetic matter. Any other argument is underpinned by misogyny and sexism.

There's no reason to doubt that RJ is Rick's biological son. Michonne was bereft and out in the woods, searching for signs of Rick. Her only company was Daryl who's a brother(-in-law) to her. Grief makes you do some funky things, but this was not the first time these two scoured the countryside in the wake of someone's death. They searched for the Governor after Merle and Andrea's murders—this is how they mourn.

It's incredibly insulting to Michonne to assume that she would either cheat on Rick or sleep with someone else right after the bridge blew up. Remember how angry and determined early-season Michonne was in the wake of her oldest son's death? This is a woman who isolates and internalizes her grief. She's not someone who numbs her pain with sex, so assuming her infidelity—counter to what the narrative tells us about her personality—is extremely problematic.

If we go back to examine the slave system again, after the Atlantic slave trade closed (1808), the plantations had to become self-sustaining. Female slaves were bred, often by their masters or some other white man of influence on the plantation. When the plantation owner then sold that progeny, he sold off his own children. (Sit with that thought for a second, particularly if you think biology is what defines paternity.) Black women's bodies were a commodity. They didn't have a right to consent, or a choice in having their children taken from them.

With Lori, viewers were explicitly told biological paternity might be different, but we also saw a discussion between Rick and Lori where practical paternity was decided. In the case of RJ, we have not been shown any evidence that paternity is anything other than Rick’s. The narrative doesn’t support any such theories because Michonne has shown no sexual or romantic interest in anyone else.

Michonne and Carol have far more in common than what sets them apart. They both lost biological children early in the apocalypse. They both assumed parental roles for other children and lost them. They became fierce and strategic warriors, leaders of the communities. They both saved Judith by killing one or many other children. They both went on a quest to find a man and bring him home.

There's no reason for fans to pit them on opposing sides. We only saw glimpses of their relationship to one another in S9-10, where they sometimes came to issues from different ends. Not unlike how 'real' family functions. Michonne told Daryl, more than once—before he went to meet Carol at the dock and again after the parlay with Alpha, that Carol's place is with them, that she belongs. Michonne was understandably concerned with Carol's lack of sleep, with taking pills and sneaking off on fishing boats, but she inquired about Carol's dreams and tried to communicate that she has to put her responsibility towards the community before Carol's need for revenge.

That's not unlike a negotiation/disagreement between sisters. It doesn’t mean Michonne doesn’t care for Carol. She has a role to play within the family dynamics and towards helping Carol land in a better place, mentally and emotionally. Daryl's role is one of unwavering support and unconditional love. He can't tell Carol home truths and set boundaries/expectations, so someone else has to fulfill that function. Who better than the other woman who has also lost children?

The show, for most of its run, dismissed women's friendships as trivial and they were marginalized to the point of onscreen nonexistence. The women have friendships with men and male friendships are well represented, but the portrayal of friendships between women vanished after Lori died. There was a brief interlude of Maggie and Sasha, but it isn't until we see the remaining trio of Georgia ladies have a conversation in 901 that we start getting regular little peeks at women's familial interactions.

The problem with RJ is that he has no personality. I suspect that the writers' room bumped against the limitations of the actor, so what we see onscreen is an attempt at hiding that. That's why RJ is absorbed by his comics when little Anthony, quite literally, reads his lines. If you can't depend on a young actor to deliver for a story arc, their use becomes limited to 'cute prop' and the trouble with casting very young characters is that you never know how the acting will eventually turn out.

Writing kids/teens is also a skill and one at which I don't think TWDU is very adept. The kid characters have to service the greater storyline, but very often end up dumbed down or become the yoda of the show because the room can't figure out what their function is beyond "plot device." Baby Yoda is endearing because he's an alien and functions within established parameters of the narrative/setting. Hershel and Ginny in Dead City aren't and neither is the French Messiah, Laurent, because none of them feel like real teenagers. They're sullen and obstinate to suit the story engine, but have no character development of their own.

[golbrocklovely]

i mean how sam always seems to have the final say, sam and his new gf got colby with someone they picked, sam dominates opinions during interviews even if colby speaks sam always has the final say, he says things like people shouldn’t live life via a book (talking on christianity whilst sitting next to his christian best friend) but then lives his own life via self help books and preaches them at every chance (whats the difference?). the structure of their videos now are basically everything sam wants to do (rituals and such), it was him and his family who made the financial decisions for the both of them and they share a bank account (this was probably smart when they were 16 and im sure they have personal accounts too)

i also saw people on twitter saying colby looks like hes starting to figure it out. how also sam would not have made it half as far in his career without eye candy colby standing beside him. how sam treated kat and how many colby is seeing similarities with his own relationship with him.

colbys codependent on sam so he would never walk away but i hope sam isnt taking advantage of him or manipulating him in anyway to make colby stay around.

a lot of this isn't really manipulation. at least i don't believe it to be.

sam is a control freak who thinks he's always right/is too stubborn to listen to others. and colby goes along with a lot of what sam says bc one, that is his best friend and business partner, and two, colby doesn't see himself as intelligent like sam so sam's able to get his way a lot bc colby won't rock the boat/trust his own opinions.

it would be manipulative if sam fed into those insecurities colby has and told him "yeah we should go with what i want bc your choices are poor" but colby actively deciding to go with what sam says just bc he thinks his idea is good is not sam being manipulative.

for everything else, i'll break it down how i think it is.

colby was going out with ms singer, k's other friend, before all going out with m. and that didn't work out so that's why k introduced m to colby and they hit it off. that's not really sam playing a part or manipulating colby to date someone just bc. i think that was just happenstance tbh.

sam just talks a lot more than colby. i personally think also as of recently colby seems disinterested in a lot of the outside content they have been doing, and i think that's from burnout and the fandom et large just constantly berating him and it tiring him out.

the christianity/self help thing is just sam being hyprocritical. it's also why i find his argument of not like astrologers to be stupid. just bc it don't make sense to you doesn't mean it's lesser than. i think it's dumb to read a book written by (basically) a get rich quick scheme artist who hasn't had any hardships but knows therapy speak relatively well, and for some reason that makes them qualified to tell me how to live my best life. but hey, to each their own lol

the structure of vids… eh, i think they both agree to that layout. and i think part of that also comes from the comments and what some ppl want as well.

sam's family being involved has less to do with sam and more to do with colby's family just not taking his dreams and career seriously. not to mention, sam's dad was already retired by the time snc were getting started so it makes sense that that man knows a thing or two more about business. and also he tried to be in their lives and it seems as if colby's parents (minus his mother) didn't so again, not really sam.

and the boys, i would assume, have both the business account and their own personal ones. they just talk about and use the same business account more (probably for tax write offs lol).

i do think colby wants time away from the brand and business, but i don't think it's sam's doing that makes him want to leave, at least not fully. i think the over working and the constant long hours/having little to no time off has definitely put a damper on things for colby. and some of that is also tied to sam wanting them both to constantly work and needing to do something "productive" at all times. but i think that's also why they have reduced their work load a lot.

i think in the long run colby will not be in this business as long as sam might want him to be/will be. colby seems about ready to dip out to me sometimes, but i think that also comes from the pressure of the fans and how mean they can be. how invasive they can be. how careless they continue to be towards someone they claim to love. colby keeps a lot inward, and this tied with his own personal struggles (along with his cancer and such), i think colby wants time away that he feels like he can't take. and whether that's bc of sam or other facts is not something we really know 100% about.

i believe they are both very codependent on each other, mostly bc, as they have mentioned, they are the only ppl in their lives they feel they can be 100% themselves around. not to mention every bad and good moment in the last 10+ years has had each other in it, so of course they are gonna rely heavily on one another. i do hope they eventually take some time to be by themselves, away from one another. just to get some space. i don't think that's happening any time soon, unless something major transpires.

but short answer, no. i don't think sam is being manipulative towards colby. i think colby can make his own decisions, regardless of sam. he actively chooses to be with sam daily. i'm sure if he didn't like it he would have left by now lol

[yellowloid]

hello! I saw you made a post on the analysis of the ultracheese and honestly it was such an intriguing read! I read that that you believed golden trunks was an even more meaningful song when related to miles and alex and I would really really rEALLY love to hear what you have to say about golden trunks because honestly its one of my favorite songs

hello and thank you!!! always happy to hear people enjoy my song theories ❤️

golden trunks is one of my favourites too and i was d y i n g to analyse it. it's just such a unique song sound and lyric-wise, definitely in my top three in tbhc.

(as always, disclaimer: this is just a fan theory and everything i'm gonna say is 100% subjective. i'm not claiming it's the Real Meaning TM of the song bc 1) songs can have multiple meanings depending on the lens that is used to analyse them and 2) we'll never actually know what alex meant by writing it. we only know it's the closest thing to a love song in the album, featuring a conversation between him and someone he's falling for. nothing else is set in stone.)

but let's get to the actual analysis, shall we?

to me, this song is about miles. 100% about miles. the person he's talking to, and the person he's falling (or has already fallen) for is miles. there are theories going around on the internet saying it's about taylor or even louise, which are both??? kinda senseless theories??? first let's talk about taylor: why would he create that same sense of secrecy (that is present in songs such as the ultracheese) in this one, if it were a song about his (at the time) girlfriend? why would he add that 'we're friends but i'm falling for you' vibe (that we can find in diwk too) in a song about his current partner? why would he admit to fantasising about that person (keyword: admit, like it took him some time to come to terms with it) in a song about his so of literal years? tbh it doesn't make any sense to me.

and then louise... a bit more plausible since it would at least explain the secrecy if he was cheating, but then again, still doesn't really make sense. what's with the wrestling references. i don't think she's a wrestling fan, and if she is, she's never publicly shown she is. not that she needs to, ofc, but... you know. this theory usually comes from twitter fans who can't even bear the idea of it being about miles, because god forbid someone ever mentions the idea of alex and miles being a thing!!!! so really considering the source of this "theory" is twitter i wouldn't give it much more thought lmao

so now onto the lyrics...

"last night when my psyche's / subcommittee sang to me in its scary voice / you slowly dropped your eyelids / when true love takes a grip, it leaves you without a choice"

this is such an interesting and powerful opening verse to a song. it's so cryptic, and at the same time so blunt. he admits to being a victim of night-time overthinking, that moment when you keep tossing and turning in bed and sleep just won't come to you, dooming you to unwanted thoughts, realisations and fears coming together to haunt you through the night. he's scared of those voices in his head, whispering all those truths to him that he doesn't even want to consider; his mind is being flooded by snaps of the person he's maybe trying not to think too much about, but at the same time he knows it's a losing game: there's no choice to be made, no power held over the images that keep shooting through his mind. he also seems to realise something about the person in question: the possibility of them being his "true love" (or, similarly, him being this person's "true love", hence them admitting to fantasising about him). once again, this is extremely important because he rarely ever refers to love so directly in his songs, and i don't think it's a coincidence he does it here as well as in the ultracheese. having no choice could also refer to him finally coming to the realisation that - despite the fact that he's still so scared of the whole situation - he can't run away anymore. there's no choice, he has to acknowledge the facts because they're all there, hiding in plain sight. there's no way he can escape the truth, and that terrifies him. but he does acknowledge it, as he sings:

"and in response to what you whispered in my ear / i must admit, sometimes i fantasise about you too"

i can just so easily imagine him and miles sitting entirely too close to each other in some booth at a bar, the unspoken boundaries of friendship getting blurred as too much alcohol gets in the way, and miles leaning closer and closer to him just to whisper in his ear that he sometimes fantasises about him in ways friends shouldn't. or as they rehearse their songs right before/during the eycte tour, which always reminds me of this quote:

MK: I remember, one time Alex came up to me and said "I want to see how you spit, while singing "sick puppy" in Bad Habits. I called him a madman afterwards.

AT: Yeah...

MK: But he was right. No one else would say something like that to me, It was beautiful.

AT: You see, Kasia, I just tell Miles about my fantasies, and he tries to fulfill them, even when they are very kinky, like in that case.

(full interview here)

or even during concerts, since we all know how much they loved whispering god-knows-what to each other during song breaks, then proceeding to giggle and flirt with each other like they weren't being watched by an entire crowd sksldklsh. they seemed to be self-aware of this, as they also used to take the piss and play with interviewers when asked about it:

Interviewer: What sort of things do you say to eachother on stage?

Alex: Dark, twisted and very private things.

Miles: You'd think we were freaks if you knew some of the things we talk about on stage. We talk about weird things that don't really make sense to anyone else.

(i think this is from nme, i haven't been able to find the original interview but you can read something more here)

however, imo alex admitting to fantasising about the other person in this song makes his confession so heartbreaking. a while ago me and @jewellersstunts were talking about the fact that it's just so easy to imagine miles whispering something like that to him, maybe during a concert, and him being taken by surprise + generally bad at expressing his emotions through spoken words + him being insecure about their situationship and his identity and just... not saying anything in reply. maybe brushing it off as a joke, when in reality they both knew it wasn't. now, following the fandom theory of them still being friends but having some kind of falling out after the eycte era due to the unclear nature of their relationship - miles getting serious and alex chickening out -, let's fast forward to a couple of years after the tour. when things aren't the same anymore and alex is there, all alone by himself, dwelling on the past, on what once was and what could have been... and him finally finding the courage to give miles a reply through the veil of song, because that's the only way he could ever really be able to express his emotions in some kind of neat fashion (+ i think a similar development was also featured in one of WeirdChick333's fics which as we all know are the canon milex bible so there's that)

i also can't help but think of miles' own album when i think of this song. whereas golden trunks is filled with regret and it's like saying "i didn't give you a reply when you said it, but i'm saying it now. it probably doesn't change anything though, and i'll have to live with that for the rest of my life", coup de grace as an album (and may i say, ESPECIALLY wrong side of life which is my absolute favourite miles song ever) is like saying "yeah you didn't say anything then. you broke my heart and and you keep breaking it every single day, we fought so much and nothing is the same anymore, but i don't care because i want you and you want me, so can we please, please try again?". i think that's really telling of their personalities. tbhc as a whole has a very pessimistic vibe, even though it rarely ever addresses private matters that directly (with golden trunks and the ultracheese being the most direct songs, but still being incredibly cryptic and mysterious). cdg is sad and angry and heartbroken about a nasty breakup, but in general i'd say it still holds some kind of hope for that relationship to be salvageable.

but i'm digressing. let's keep going:

"the leader of the free world / reminds you of a wrestler wearing tight golden trunks / he's got himself a theme tune / they play it for him as he makes his way to the ring"

the reference to wrestling (and possibly to something that actually happened) could be a way for alex to make it clear, even to miles himself, that this song is about him. if it were indeed something that actually happened (them watching a wrestling match or the news, and miles pointing out trump's similarity with that wrestler), then when miles listened to the song - if he still had any doubts - it'd be irrevocably clear to him that alex was talking to him. it'd be some kind of secret code, an inside joke between them turned into a way for alex to make sure miles knew. (also lmao at the twitter fans going to great lengths to prove this verse is about taylor or louise when they've never expressed any interest in wrestling while miles has been a big fan for ages. @ amtwitter bffr)

now, i don't remember if he's referring to an actual wrestler that wore golden trunks as part of his costume and that reminded miles of trump, but the mention of wrestlers in general also reminds me of a very interesting addition by @reconciledviolence729 to my ultracheese analysis. she said:

"For some reason I got fixated on the line: “And dress like a fictional character / From a place they called America / In the golden age.” I can’t help but think how Miles dressed as Ric Flair, who was a significant persona during the “golden era” of American professional wrestling (which is often considered at least somewhat faked aka fictional)."

going back to golden trunks, this verse also introduces some kind of indirect commentary on politics, which is present in other songs from the album and which continues in the next lines:

"in the daytime / bendable figures with a fresh new pack of lies / summat else to publicise / i'm sure you've heard about enough"

(quick aside: "bendable figures" could also be interpreted as a very suggestive image. not gonna elaborate any further on that)

in this reddit theory it is suggested that this mirrors the "breaking news, they take the truth and make it and fluid" verse from american sports, and i think that's a very interesting parallel. however, this part also introduces a contrast to the opening line (last night / in the daytime) which hits us with a sinister dilemma. we like to think that the (often pessimistic) conclusions about our life that we come to at night aren't to be trusted. nighttime does that, it tends to fuck with our rationality by making everything seem scarier, more threatening and disheartening than it usually is. our minds tend to lie to us at night. but here he says that the "fresh new pack of lies" comes during daytime. so what's more trustworthy, night or day? the scary, truthful voices of night or the blatant lies of day? he doesn't give any clear answer to this question. he just leaves us with the doubt, instead bringing the song to a close with newly-found courage:

"so in response to what you whispered in my ear / i'll be upfront, sometimes i fantasise about you too"

the difference with the previous "i fantasise about you too" line is obviously the use of "i'll be upfront" instead of "i must admit" - which is such a slight change, but it's still so important. the use of 'must' and 'admit' imply a certain degree of forceful admission. he finds he can't hide it anymore, and has to at least take notice of it in some way. he doesn't necessarily want to admit it, because he wishes he could still keep that confession to himself. on the other hand, saying "i'll be upfront" is so powerful on his part. he not only acknowledges the feeling, but he takes a big breath and finally comes forward, announcing it without any second thoughts. he finally finds the right way to actually reply, even if it took him so long to do it. and yes, maybe it won't change anything, but this song is a way for him to send out a message, and the fact that he managed to write it and include it in the album (despite never being able to play it live - which makes it even more sus) is a testament to how much of his heart he put into it, how much deep emotion and reflection and courage it took him to be able to compose it and sing it. and that's exactly what makes it so incredibly special.

[thevelaryons]

Did you see the news that the Sea Snake show is going from live action to animated. HBO had to make the changes because they’re going broke and don’t have enough to make another live action show.

Well, I wouldn’t say HBO is “going broke”, though yes there does seem to be some kind of financial issues happening with how the company is outsourcing its shows to other streaming platforms. Changing the medium for a show, from live action to animated, would help to cut down the potential costs associated with it.

Though the people behind the Sea Snake show’s development might also be considering whether it would be a good investment or not. The idea was put forward around the time HOTD first aired. But as of yet things have been mostly stuck in limbo. Personally I have my doubts whether this show will be made at all.

In order for HBO to believe a travelogue show will be a success, it would need to have enough of an audience interest behind its lead character, which as we see, it does not. I mean, when was the last time you saw any fan content for show!Corlys? Although he may be one of the 5 main characters in the story of the Dance of the Dragons, his presence in the fandom is kind of nonexistent if you think about it. Whenever some post on twitter or wherever goes viral, it’s always about some other character not Corlys. While book!Corlys does still get content that hones in on his characterization, the majority of the content made for the show version of the character isn’t even about Corlys but just him being used as a prop for other characters (and tbh that is almost how the show presented him so you can’t even really blame fans for having that interpretation).

Especially when you take his show characterization into account, there’s very little to like or even make sense of: he’s shown to be quite politically incompetent and also someone who abandons his family every chance he gets. Apparently doesn’t care enough about his own son being murdered (meanwhile book!Corlys wanted vengeance for Laenor’s death and refused to allow any harm to come to Addam). Not to mention, HOTD does tend to suffer from a “tell, don’t show” problem so while we do get characters referring to Corlys as a great seafarer, what we’re shown is quite the opposite: in the Stepstones episode we get Corlys fighting on the ground like a foot soldier while his fleet is burning in the background. Tbh his presence in that battle was not even needed because it wouldn’t have changed anything. Meanwhile, in the book, Corlys was credited with 50% of the victory through the effective command of his ships. In the second war in the Stepstones (which didn’t even happen in the book), he ends up nearly drowning. I blame that heavy, impractical armour he wears. Not sure why he’s even depicted as such (the books even have some quotes about the impracticalities of armor at sea). No wise sailor who’s spent so many years of his life at sea would wear such heavyset armour that increases the risk of drowning but show!Corlys apparently does.

Even in the bts material, it’s mentioned that the other nobles look down on Corlys and don’t really want him around due to his lowly background. Whereas book!Corlys was described as a man who was well respected even by his enemies. While many of the writing choices made in HOTD are highly questionable, for Corlys specifically, it does shortchange him because he is supposed to be one of the main characters. It’s hard to see him as a character for whom a standalone show, whether live action or animated, would be a big success.