#i would lose my mind if they ever made a sequel

[hysterialevi]

BADGE 1247

[bee-ina-boat]

Character who is frequently infantilized by fandom: is put in a complex stressful and traumatic situation where they have to make hard choices that not everyone will agree with, thoroughly exploring the complicated parts of what its like to be a person

People for some reason: they're 100% terrible and I hate them and everyone else should too. They ruined this character.

[scribeofmorpheus]

Dragon Age Veilguard: Love, Wisdom and Pride

A very long Dragon Age post!

Warnings for: Veilguard Spoilers, Solavellan spoilers.

Okay, so I will preface this by saying that this ‘analysis’ primarily focuses on Solas’ arc; both romanced and unromanced. It isn’t intended to be a romanticised analysis, though it is very much enamoured with how a romanced Solas and his relationship with Lavellan foils (and informs my reading/reception of) that of Solas and Mythal’s relationship in Veilguard. There is a relationship I will address that I feel does parallel Solas and Mythal! Scroll down to “Reading Between the Lines” if you wanna skip my little intro below. Spoilers follow.

Truth be told, I wasn’t ever expecting much in terms of actually getting a sequel to Inquisition. The game dev market went through a tumultuous reshuffle before the remake madness breathed life back into many studios. Bioware game sequels (Mass Effect Andromeda) were underwhelming and not as fleshed out since the EA acquisition. I absolutely believe Bioware would have been shunted had Mass Effect Legendary Edition not been so successful. EA’s reputation was always lacklustre and underhanded, but laying off or losing several head writers attached to Bioware with almost two decades of work under their belts was the biggest red flag. Trevor Morris not being asked to return in exchange for a ‘bigger name’ was also a grave warning that returning to the atmosphere, ambience and world of Thedas that we knew was getting further and further away from a plausible reality. And on top of that, there’s the fact Solas was never intended as a romance interest during early development of Inquisition.

Solavellan seemed doomed!

Despite this, I still held out hope for a sequel, but I feared we’d always be in permanent Solavellan/developmental hell. Heck, I’m still waiting for a Beyond Good and Evil sequel—the game released in 2003! So, actually witnessing people play Veilguard, seeing reactions to it, seeing memes and gifs and essay pieces (like this one), it’s like my community has awoken again, and I never thought I’d see the day. Yet I am not blind to the fact we were robbed of so much potential. I knew thing’s wouldn’t live up to re-emerging expectations when Dragon Age: Dreadwolf was rebranded to Veilguard—the shift seemed to imply less of a primary focus on Solas (and apparently, according to the artbook, the early concept art proves this implication correct).

Things seemed even more dire when the devs revealed there was no tapestry mechanic. I had only one hope: that with the Inquisitor’s confirmed return, we’d get at least some form of catharsis for our Inquisitors (Lavellans and otherwise), if we couldn’t get the conclusions to so many storylines present in each of our worldstates. My main fear was that they’d go the clichéd Ultimate Sacrifice route (which happens anyway, but in a way that makes thematic sense given the stakes and heavily blighted worldstate).

Suffice it to say, there was a lot of evidence that Veilguard would disappoint me in the end. But it hasn’t. It hasn’t lived up to the many expectations and marks of excellence that the Dragon Age world built itself into with the first three entries, that’s for sure, but I am also just so deprived of conclusions, of endings (whether it be because TV doesn’t exist in a sustainable format anymore or that comicbook movies are made with a sequel in mind, never letting anything just “Exit Stage Left” gracefully; or the fact we live in a regurgitating content cycle with late-stage-capitalism where anything remotely profitable gets turned into a caricature of itself: Squid Game, Star Wars, etc.). The cycle is so exhaustive that I am actually at a point where I can say I am content with the ending we were given (on a Solas/Solavellan front), Veilguard gave me relief, and beautiful, achy pain to boot. Though I would absolutely be disappointed by both the "non-romanced Solas" endings, given that Solas winds up either "dying alone, forever" or turns to Tyranny.

Now onto the actual review of that Solavellan ending, Mythal and themes of Love!

Note: I have only gotten the ‘best’ ending in my first playthrough, but I also thought the consequences of not maxing factions would be more… dire? Another note, pls, if your romanced Inky swore to stop Solas, how does that ending differ, if at all? Let me know, I’m dying here!

Sidenote: I’m working on writing another review about my views on the ‘sanitised’ worldstate, the new companions (and why I think Varric was the wrong choice to have as an advisor in the game, given that the Inquisitor or Morrigan would have been more impactful; and not to mention that Cole or Briala should have been companions), removal of the tapestry and what it means for the future of stories in Thedas (The Story We Lost is such a poignant compilation of the sheer volumes of lost lore and depth that I honestly think I won’t go as in-depth on that review as this one), and why I think Veilguard is my final entry into Dragon Age.

Reading Between the Lines: What Pride Hath Wrought

One thing is for sure, Trick Weekes flourishes when writing within the ambiguities and complexities of meaning. This makes every word uttered by Solas so great to dissect, he's a god of lies not because he 'lies' but because he's so careful with how he phrases things, what he holds back, and what he reveals.

For instance, the famous Trespasser exchange where Solas mocks his own follies with sarcasm by saying:

“What is the old Dalish curse? May the Dread Wolf Take you.”

Then a softer, more saddened and beaten-down Lavellan replies:

“And so he did.”

This irks him. Because he then realises in that moment that he absolutely did take advantage, but for some reason he frames it around sex rather than power because that’s easier to address than the latter. And he rejects the notion, even though he brought up the expression he knows to mean nothing close to a sexual inuendo for being ‘taken’, and yet he has the gall to try and derail the conversation by pivoting and saying:

“I would not lay with you under false pretences.”

When I first had this dialogue exchange, I was baffled, because did this mean that there was another meaning to ‘Dread Wolf take you’ that Dalish clans lost through the years, or was it more of a self-deprecating joke Solas had with himself because he, the Dread Wolf, romanced (took) a Dalish Inquisitor (away from her people’s beliefs, histories, past), and he found irony in the saying?

On the surface, “wouldn’t lay with you under false pretences” could simply mean “we didn’t sleep together” or “we did sleep together, but I wasn’t taking advantage as the Dread Wolf, I was simply Solas in your presence”. But I have recently thought of a more… ambiguous reading.  Lay could have been used in a milder, more vulnerable way; to mean to be at peace, to be completely vulnerable, as if to sleep. In that sense, the phrasing becomes: “I could not be at peace with you because I was living a half-truth”.

I absolutely think the moment he feels he is truly beyond hope is when we see his expression of abject horror as Lavellan shouts: “I would have had you trust me!”. He realises then that he did fuck up, he did take the choice away from her because he thought he knew better, him and his pride led to a decision that hurt someone close to him, and he could finally see how wrong he was, how alike the entire situation became to Mythal’s treatment of him. Especially if Lavellan asks to go with him. Because he can see that despite the hurt, the lies and the betrayal on his part, Lavellan still wishing to join him draws too close to his first regret: following Mythal.

Whether he likes it or not, Solas’ love which could burn like a bonfire was directed at a powerful woman—a Herald, an Inquisitor—and inspite of her greatness of character, it still shaped her into someone willing to follow him on his dinanshiral out of love, much like he left the Fade and took physical form for Mythal. So now whenever I hear Lavellan shout “Var lath vir suledin”, Solas replying with “I wish it could, Vhenan,” changes drastically with the Mythal reveal, knowing he always walks away from the Inquisitor in Trespasser.

“I wish it could, Vhenan” sounds heavily like: “You would regret me, as I regret Mythal, and I cannot bear for that to happen us.” More poetically, it could read as: “I wish our love could overcome a duty that has lasted an incomprehensible amount of time, I wish I could change my nature, but then I’d be twisted into a demon, like the spirit of Wisdom in the Dales; and yet again, I would become your regret.” These two readings are very, very romantic. Realistically, given what we know of his kinship with Felassan, and how they were comrades and friends for centuries (“A story unfinished. His back turned!”), and given what we know of the complexity of Mythal’s will that presides over the creation of his very being, and yet he was still able to muster the strength to kill a fragment of her to fulfil his mission,  “I wish it could” was most probably a lament: “Do not ask me to hurt one of the two women I’ve loved on this journey, because if it ever came to it…” he would.

Knowing what I know of Solas, of how he was able to convince himself that Varric’s death (avoidable as it was) was just another necessary step, that it was just another sacrifice, another loss that would be worth something only if he completed his ritual, I have no doubt that Solas would also be able to rationalise hurting Lavellan (which is why in his mind, turning away from her, breaking her heart, leaving with no explanation and aiding her in Trespasser so she could live whatever few years remained in “relative peace” is actually an act of preserving that love). I partially think the reason he reveals the truth in Trespasser (especially for a romanced Lavellan) is in the hopes his ‘truths’ will push her away. But on a deeper note, I think he also thinks of it as some twisted form of repaying her for loving him to the point that he could have almost forgotten what it was to be the Dread Wolf, to just be with her as Solas, that night at Crestwood. Maybe his harsh truths would push her to the point where she’d give up her love for Solas, now that she knew he was the Dread Wolf, freeing her from the shackles of their love. He’s very self-flagellating, all about self-sacrifice for the ultimate goal, the ends always justify the means, he will endure any pain and punishment as long as Arlathan returns in the end.

What is his love of a mortal compared to the despair and loss of an entire empire? Solas views himself as selfish for falling for her, and that nearly broke him, if he was selfish enough to leave the dream of Arlathan behind for her, what would that do to his spirit then?

In his way of thinking, perhaps telling the Inquisitor the truth is a way out, a rationale they can use to justify stopping him or to make it easier to hate him as the Dread Wolf rather than love him as Solas (someone he hasn’t been in so long).

‘Masking’ as the Dread Wolf

During Trespasser, the Inquisitor has every right to despise Solas after all they’ve learned, and I think he half reveals the truth as a tactic so the Inquisitor can have an excuse to hate him, to be driven to anger and have less pull over his choices, once they learn the truth. Solas is particularly skilled at making other’s play the role that makes his own choices seem inevitable, he orchestrates a lot of events to play out in a manner where it's easier for him to talk himself into bringing down the veil.

He goads Elgar’nan to anger easily. He inspires the spirits to fight for him to the death as a necessary distraction during the war. He absolutely allows the Inquisitor to speak to him one last time so he can offer insight, yes, but also so he can easily frame his actions as just and inevitable. But, Oh boy does he get in for a shock if the Inquisitor shows empathy towards him, it scares him because he’s become accustomed to being seen only as the Dread Wolf. To be understood? That gives way to remorse. And remorse gives way to doubt. And he cannot doubt his purpose, twisted as it is, it is all he has left of his former self. Without it he would most likely change into something different. Someone he doesn’t recognise.

This fear intensifies more so if a romanced Lavellan asks to go with him, and in that case, he takes command and distances himself away (rejecting the help of someone close to him; the chance for a possible betrayal; the chance at another Felassan or Mythal [x]; the chance to twist Lavellan outside of her purpose, in this case, the purpose would be love/empathy) but not without showing remorse at having sacrificed yet another relationship for his crusade.

“Ir abelas.”

Sorrow for what cannot be is at the heart of why the Solavellan romance is so powerful, especially because even though both Solas and Lavellan love each other passionately, love alone cannot be enough when faced with regrets. Love would ultimately be stifled. Corrupted into something else over time. And so, for Solas, having loved and lost tragically is better than having loved and corrupted.

He will not do to Lavellan what was done to him, even if it is her choice, because she knows so little, her naivete cannot close the distance of a millenia’s old sea, and it would hurt him immensely to take advantage of her kind heart [x].

By leaving, he keeps her heart pure. And the yearning! Knowing the love is there, but on its own it cannot be invulnerable to corruption, so it is better to lose it than twist it. Ugh! Him leaving Lavellan is the ultimate show of love! IT IS A WISE DECISION. A rare glimpse into pure wisdom. Which is why he kneels beside Lavellan in Trespasser, he does not “Stand Tall” in the face of Wisdom’s heart. He kneels beside her. And when he stands tall again, he is Solas once more, filled with regret, and once through the eluvian, he returns to masking as the Dread Wolf.

Sidenote: It’s especially confounding that Veilguard allows Rook to push the Inquisitor to save or stop him after you’ve reached act 2 despite your world state choice (I think this was done in case they feared the Inquisitor wouldn’t stand by Solas after everything he was revealed to be responsible for in Veilguard, however it doesn’t work because the Inquisitor wasn’t an advisor, Rook never told them what they learned from the wolf statues, so having a stranger hold the ability to make Lavellan keep her promise or not rings hollow). Personally, I wish the Inquisitor’s presence had more weight in the non-Solavellan endings, too. I wish the Inquisitor could end up being the last friend/former love that Solas destroys (if you don’t collect the wolf statues) which then prompts Rook to fight him because Solas’ last tie to empathy failed to redeem him, that the Inquisitor falling is the last straw and Solas snaps, choosing to be a villain in the hopes of being stopped because he can’t stop himself, and not the ‘I am a God’ ending they gave us. Same for if your Inquisitor vows to stop him. I also wish the Inquisitor was the one to do the wolf statue missions. Would have been a nice secondary protagonist mission like the switching perspectives between Kratos and Atreus in GOW: Ragnarök (the old guard and the new; Inquisitor and Rook). I would have loved if they dedicated more dialogue to Inquisition days too, which is why I think Cole should have been a companion (if he wasn’t recruited, he could simply be a compassion spirit that ‘follows’ the greatest pain in the Fade that yearns to be healed, giving a compassionate viewpoint to Solas’ folly; recruited Spirit Cole could have a greater connection to Solas than even Varric, seeing as Cole was most likely a literal representation of Solas rewriting his own history by preventing a spirit from becoming too ‘real’; Human Cole would have a deeper connection to the world of Thedas, and could have been a great tool to prove how change was inevitable, not always a bad thing, and inevitably out of even Solas’ control. But alas, we live with what we are given! Even Imshael could have served in this role! Spirit/Demon of choice and it wasn’t incorporated into the game that supposedly asks you to make the greatest world-changing choice ever; redeem the Dread Wolf or end the age of the Evanuris entirely?!

Now onto the next segment: I want to talk about Solas’ regrets and how I read the ‘love story’ between Solas and Mythal, and why Lavellan (and what she represented) wasn’t enough to get through to him (and that’s a very believable thing, that’s what makes their love both tragic and epic!).

The High Price of Redemption

A romanced Lavellan has the most agency to see through his guises, if she resolves to save him, but even she cannot undo the shackles that still bind him to Mythal—the binds that twisted Wisdom so far from its purpose it became Pride, even when he burned (Mythal) from his face. (Likewise, A close friend Inquisitor who promises to save him is most likely a parallel to Felassan, again, they cannot undo the shackles of regret either.) I fully believe the vallaslin had a deeper magic than simply marking one as being committed/devoted to an Evanuris, I think it linked them magically, and since Solas was the first to burn the vallaslin away, he probably wasn’t as good at severing the link on himself as he was for other elvhen, so maybe a part of Mythal’s will still lingers in him, twisting him to Pride still.

In Veilguard’s final confrontation, I love the intention of showing how Lavellan approaches Solas slowly, as she doesn’t know who she’ll be faced with up those steps, Dread Wolf or Solas. But when she speaks to him, trying to get him to change his mind yet again, forgiving him for his wrongs, we are reassured that Wisdom hasn’t been completely consumed by Pride despite everything we’ve witnessed in the game because he bows his head at her in reverence as he apologises.

He shows humility towards her. He elevates her and her enduring love as worthy of his respect, but he does not consider himself worthy of hers. Thus, Lavellan pries open the door to acceptance but his heart is still not enough. Which is why love alone cannot turn the tide. He’s too broken to accept it. He doesn’t think he deserves it, so the only way out is through; to continue the ritual, to prove he was right. The shackles persist. Varric’s death weighs on his conscience now more than ever. Possibly members of Rook’s team too if they died on his crusade. But he is vulnerable enough for Morrigan to approach, and now Rook can use Mythal’s essence to make the final push. The only way he could be with Lavellan, the only way he could atone for the past and shed the weight of his armour (his crushing duty to the Elvhenan) is as Wisdom, fully restored, unbound by mistakes.

“Ar lasa mala revas.” He could only find absolution once Mythal (the angered and more brash essence of Mythal, the one unchanged by Flemeth and all the human women’s lives she’s been shaped by, but the closest iteration to that of Mythal in Arlathan, the version that he perceives as having every right to be angry at him for turning his back on her, for not going that last final stretch with her and subsequently, not being by her side when she died) severed the final connection: facing his regrets, showing humility and apologizing, while not taking away the blame but sharing it.

What is Benevolence without Wisdom if not Hubris?

We know Elgar’nan was twisted to Tyranny during the war, and I saw a post somewhere where someone wondered what led to his corruption, and what he was before (leadership/command). Likewise, Mythal was not above corruption.

So far, I’ve seen a lot of takes on Solas’ ties to Mythal, the power dynamic of being a student/disciple enamoured (could be romantic) with the benevolence of Mythal, but not how Mythal’s purpose was possibly also twisted towards hubris the moment she asked Wisdom to turn physical and build weapons from its knowledge, twisting it to Pride. Without Elgar’nan’s tyranny to rally against after the war with the Titans, Mythal would most likely turn a similar route, seeing her ruling as “necessary” for the people: “If not me then who?”. And that is a very short stop and quick drop to “I am your all-powerful ruler, I liberated you, and only I can guide the way”. Benevolence twisted by hubris can easily turn to Tyranny too, only one more subtle, a kind of cultish indoctrination compared to violent subjugation. If Solas had not turned his back on Mythal when she chose to be Evanuris (a god over her people) then they most likely would have made the worst (best) pair in the Evanuris. Pride is the Seventh Deadliest Sin. But imagine Pride next to Godhood?! That is frightening. So, when Solas burns the vallaslin, walks away and works against the Evanuris, I believe that he also inadvertently stops Mythal from becoming a corrupted version of herself. The sorrow at having lost her closest confidant and “love” grounds her, keeps her saintly in Solas’ mind, and in some ways, perhaps saves the Elvhen empire from a worse fate than him erecting the veil to begin with. But neither of them ever consider this. And I think that sort of self-blindness perfectly encapsulates how flawed both Mythal and Solas are. Now onto love.

Solas and Mythal – a Love too complex to simply classify as mortal ‘Love’.

There’s no doubt Mythal and Solas shared a deep bond, one that definitely had love in it, when we hear Mythal calling him ‘love’, without the possessive ‘my’ in front of it, it’s easy to misconstrue what type of love they share. A small nitpick, but like a thorn, it applies sometimes just enough pressure to change a perspective. Not calling Solas “My love” but instead choosing to simply use “love” works within those wonderful ambiguities/complexities that Weekes thrives in.

If one started out as a spirit, it’s safe to say concepts like familial bonds, romantic bonds, and blood ties mean little to nothing. There is no one type of love and there is every kind of love all at once. It is only once physical bodies are introduced, that physical touch, the ability to stab someone in the back, to kiss out of affection, to hug out of empathy, to strike out of anger, that love now becomes this twisted thing too. There are no spirits of love because spirits always possessed love, but there are demons of Desire (Gluttony) and of Rage (love denied).

I believe, from DGL’s acting skills, his soft whisper, his almost submissive smallness in the breadth of Mythal’s already soft voice, that Solas was in love with Mythal, devoted as a student, beguiled by her benevolence, content even in her shadow, and possibly star-struck. He was in love with someone who doesn’t have the possibility to love him back the same, it is not in her nature to love those beneath her in the same intensity that those who look up to her do. It’s like a priest being in love with God. The priest can devote themselves, sacrifice everything, but a God will always love their flock equally, but they can still play favourites.

Benevolence cannot be enamoured with Wisdom because to be truly benevolent they must possess Wisdom but there is also Pride to be had in walking beside benevolence, but they can never be on equal footing. Likewise, Solas’ love is not reciprocated entirely by Mythal, but she does love him back in her own way. While Mythal is definetly Solas’ first love, layered and complex, it is also strangled by regrets and twisted by uneven scales of power. It would never be a nurturing love, only a consuming kind.

When he speaks of Mythal during the Solavellan ending, he calls her his “oldest friend”, much like what Mythal says, (paraphrasing) “would you have me be angry at my oldest companion whose experienced so much with me”. Because friendship is perhaps the easiest way to describe their companionship. They went through many iterations, one certainly holding romantic tensions (specifically from younger Solas), but ultimately, with that much time shared, kinship/friendship becomes the easiest to surmise. You can love your friends, fall in love with them, fall out of love with them, only to love them again, be disappointed in them, etc.

Media today is flushed with romance as a linchpin for driving a hero to make dire choices, and that has warped our perception of how a platonic/non-romance-based relationship can be all-consuming, and sometimes more impassioned than strict romance. But, to make it easier for people to understand Solas’ motivations, it's easier to see their love in the light Taash sees it (an unreliable, somewhat “still juvenile” narrator, in that they are still growing into themselves and their culture and the world): “They were doing it”.

However, Bellara, a companion whose entire companion story is linked to her strong, deeply character-driving relationship with her brother (platonic love) refutes that reading by saying (paraphrasing here): “We don’t know if their ‘love’ is the same type of love we tend to think of in a masculine and feminine relationship.”

Felassan’s letter after the Mythal Dragon fight alludes to Solas having been in love with Mythal, but nothing about how she felt. This is why I consider the Solas/Mythal relationship to be more of a one-sided romantic love, but a requited ‘love’ relationship for them both.  

A parallel I find so compelling: Solas and Mythal vs Briala and Celene. Solas and Briala both hold deep emotions for people in great power with the ability to end a tyrannical cycle of subjugation, enslavement and classism, yet for both of these ruler’s charisma and well-meaning intent, they often are swayed to side with tyranny. For Mythal, that was Elgarnan, the Evanuris who made all the other’s worse tyrants; as well as her own hubris for believing her presence alone could dampen the ravenous hunger for power that the rest of the Evanuris held at the small prospect of leading the Elvhen in a time of confusion (being a North Star is hard when all the other lights around you aim to blind the flock into submission). For Celene, this is more about the nuances of retaining favour, pull and power over other noble families, their backing (be it financial, political or simply cut-throat), and their support so she can be the ‘lesser of two evils’ compared to Gaspard’s warmongering personality and Florianne simply being a puppet with no backbone. Both Briala and Solas are turned to pawns despite their immense strength and compassion for their respective elven plights; Briala is rendered a fangless lion (for lack of a better metaphor) if she is reunited with Celene, whereas if she is chosen to puppet Gaspard, there’s every likelihood her story could parallel a ‘power-mad’ Solas if he’d been tethered to Rage (at betrayal) and not Regret (at having not rejected Mythal when she asked him to take a physical body) throughout his tenure as the Dread Wolf.

Solas and Lavellan – a Heart that was never intended to be Given/Taken

Now I will compare the lack of possessives in front of Mythal’s “love” to Solas declaring Lavellan as ‘Vhenan’ and then ‘Ar lath, ma Vhenan’ vs ‘Ar lath ma vhenan'; again, the coma is the thorn, the pause that shapes the quiet unsaid things we can deduce. In the Trespasser cutscene DGL puts the pause after “Ar lath”, even though the subtitles construct the sentence with Vhenan as a proper noun since it’s a nickname often used by Solas: “Ar lath ma, Vhenan”. But I believe Solas actually says “Ar lath, ma Vhenan”.

With “Ar lath, ma Vhenan” the stressor is after the pause, so the line reads: “I love [you], my heart.” And with “Ar lath ma, Vhenan” it makes even less structural sense but can be inferred to mean: “I love you, Heart”.  

The possessiveness of “My” is what definitively differentiates the love Solas feels for Lavellan as one more of the romantic side, it is a love of yearning and desire and a wish to have one last good thing that is pure and incorruptible. The one thing he had left to give. His heart. But that does not mean his heart is enough! The rest of him is still bound to the love of Mythal that was twisted through the ages. That changed him. And given how Pride often comes before a fall, I absolutely understand why Solas is actually very brash and ill-considering when he’s romancing Lavellan (“The kiss was ill-considered”/”It would be kinder in the long run”/”I wanted to show you what you mean to me”). He's on a precarious cliff during Inquisition. His first plan failed. He's allowed ancient elvhen magic to fall into a blighted Tevinter magister's hands. Literally everything the Inquisition did could have been for nought if the Mark had fallen to the wrong person. Things could have easily fallen apart for Solas too, so why not indulge in something trifling and fleeting? Execpt it wasn't trifling. Nor was it fleeting. And when he saw that the fall could potentially not happen, that the Inquisitor could do it, save Thedas and retrieve the orb, he was struck by the gravity of his brashness, of letting impulses control him instead of acting according to a plan. But it was too late. They'd both fallen for each other.

Solas didn’t expect to form entanglements within the Inquisition. He was committed. He was angry at the world, “walking through a sea of tranquil”, called flat-ear by the Dalish that later chased him from their village when he proved he was the Dread Wolf. He was despised by people who looked like him. Spirits were constantly being abused and turned into demons. People erected monuments to heroes who slew demons. Mages were caged. Elves were subjugated. The empire fell. Humans razed the lands with their wars and petty squabbles of succession. The darkspawn tainted the land. The dwarves would never dream. Solas awoke to the worst possible fate; in his eyes, it was all his fault.

So when he kisses Lavellan in the Fade, impulsively, he isn’t kissing her there because it is less ‘real’ than if they kissed while she was awake, it makes it so much more real. He’s kissing her in the space where he is most himself. Where he can shed the body he was forced to build and trap himself within, the body of Pride. He is acting on the impulses of an enlivened Wisdom spirit that does not consider tomorrow, for the first time in a long time. It isn’t a long game with Lavellan, like so much of his life has been about always thinking to the future, always considering the outcome, machinating, scheming, the wiles and woes of every trickster god in mythology. It’s being in the moment with her that is all-consuming. It lowers his guard, leaves him vulnerable, and when she enquires about the Fade or spirits or histories, he gets to be useful as pure Wisdom again.

Lavellan challenging him when he first shows animosity or irritation towards the Dalish (a prideful act), and then him being taken aback when she explains that maybe the Dalish could be shown another way (making him consider her words, being given a morsel of wisdom back, reminding him of his old self), these are all small moments where Solas can begin to see springs of hope in the broken world. And that’s terrifying. It means he’s destroying not just himself, but the memory of Mythal and Arlathan too, all for the love of a woman who fell for an apostate.

The best, most genuine unmasking of Solas for me is during Wicked Hearts, when he’s tipsy on wine, has no inhibitions, and revels in the intrigue, the gossip, the dancing, the music (something we now know is important enough to have an entire music room in the Lighthouse), the sex! He is at his most relaxed, and then he asks Lavellan to dance, not caring about how it would look for the “Inquisitor’s serving man, Solas” to be intimate in a fucking Orlesian palace with the Herald of Andraste, right after stopping an assassination attempt! He finds comfort in the world of Thedas at that moment. Something he rarely shows so outright.

When he takes Lavellan to Crestwood to confess, I believe removing her vallaslin wasn’t entirely just for her, it wasn’t just to free her from slave markings or to simply reveal a form of a truth he wanted to tell her, it was to resolve himself of what his first purpose was supposed to be, what she distracted him from. Removing the vallaslin had been something he’d done for the slaves of Arlathan, it was what earned him the mantle of Dread Wolf. When he removes Lavellan’s vallaslin, he resets.

Thedas cannot allow Wisdom to truly exist without fear of corruption to Pride, Thedas the world he was responsible for shaping, literally the Maker of the Veil, and he falls for a woman Heralded as Andraste’s Chosen One, Mythal’s incarnation in the South. The irony. The cruel, cruel irony. The Inquisition is tied to his past, every Andrastian he meets, every Dalish person with vallaslin on their face, every slave or city elf. Tevinter worshiping the dragons that still have the essences of the Old Gods. His heart alone cannot withstand all of the punishing, gruelling, oppressive weight that is Thedas. Even for Lavellan. So he frames their romance as this tragic, short-lived tale that was beautiful but ultimately destined to end. He expects it to pass for her, she’s mortal after all. But he also leaves his heart with her, literally giving her power over the last uncorrupted part of himself. Think Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann at the end of World’s End, but metaphorically. He gives her his heart to safe keep as he goes on a journey that could corrupt a heart, turn it cold and bitter, destroy it.   

Ar lasa mala revas. You are free.

He frees his heart.

Lets it go.

Twice!

So only once he is relinquished of his regrets, once Mythal does the same for him, only then is there “Nothing left except their love”. Because Lavellan still held his heart there was still something left after. Something beyond despair and regret and loss. He had given his heart to her to safekeep. And she did. Lavellan returns his heart to him when he is freed. What Mythal had to break so Solas could heal right again (like a bone), Lavellan casts a splint around so it can be set and heal properly. This is the difference between Mythal’s love and Lavellan’s. Both Mythal’s love and forgiveness broke him, but Lavellan’s love gives him the strength to Stand Tall one last time.

Solas, before Pride alone, as Wisdom (perhaps Solas always meant both Standing Tall and Wisdom, for Wisdom can grant one pride to stand tall for what they believe in), finds contentment with the rare and marvellous spirit that endured (his Vhenan). Wisdom endured because of humanity, something benevolence is beyond.

Bellanaris

When Lavellan offers to go with him, to continue on the dinanshiral that she already considers herself a part of, Solas is legitimately taken aback. His expression is soft yet full of disbelief and awe. He actually stops walking a few frames before Lavellan says this, as if hoping Lavellan would say something to him!

And then she basically proposes to him! “Bellanaris!” I absolutely adore the fact that Lavellan promises them eternity. A vow as sacred as a death right, as protected as an ancient, elvhen, undisturbed burial ground in the face of Orlesian colonialisation. They endured and now they will have an eternity. For once, we have an elvish tale that is not a curse, it is a love story with reunion at its core, where both elves reclaim something precious that was denied them.

Lastly, i am absolutely frothing at the mouth that Solas and Lavellan primarily speak in elvish! And even more feral at the fact Solas does not try to talk her out of joining him (because this sweet talker very well could!). He simply tells her where he is going is terrible. And she shuts that shit down immediately. No repeat of Trespasser. She's standing beside him, the South has all but fallen, whatever ties yet survive are strained, and she has fought the good fight for 8 years. I think the Inquisitor was about ready to leave Thedas behind.

The last decisions Solas makes are of his own volition. Entering the Fade for atonement. Stepping into the Fade with Lavellan (It was confirmed by Weekes that Lavellan’s presence in the Fade prison would fundamentally change it in a way we haven’t seen!). Thanking Rook for giving him one last shot at getting happiness. All his own!

This is the look of a man finally reunited with his wife! So much emotion in ONE frame. God! There’s never been a character like him. A love story like theirs! I’m so happy I got to see this ending. Full circle!

P.S. If you read this far, woah nelly! That’s crayyzeee, so here are some more great pieces: Why it was important for Lavellan to kneel for Solas as he knelt for her in Trespasser in the Solavellan ending [x], and here’s a great deep-dive on Solas as a spirit of Wisdom [x].

[personne-reblogs]

AUTISTIC SWEEP

The shouts of the crowd are fading into white noise. 

The curtains are closing. 

The lights are dimming. 

The air still feels filled with static, though. 

This is a fight Donatello had known he couldn’t win, logically. The competition had been all fun and games, but this challenger was another story. No amount of support or hype could make up for such a gap; the bone deep certainty didn’t leave room for hard feelings. 

Struggling to catch his breath, battle shell against the wall, Donatello looks up from where he’s been getting some rest - not passed out rest, mind you. More like a beauty nap.

He lets out a genuine chuckle. 

Shigeo Kageyama is simply standing there, as he has been for most of the fight. 

“Sweet Marie Curie,” he puffs, keeping his voice level. The roar of the crowd hasn’t entirely died down, but he knows he is heard. “You don’t even have a scratch.”

The one they call Mob is giving him a stare. He still seems a little out of it. 

“You fought well,” he states calmly, and Donnie giggles. 

“Oh, please. I’ve been losing tournaments at home for as long as I can remember. You don’t need to feel sorry for me.”

At that, Mob flashes a grin. “I’m not sorry,” he says bluntly, coming over in lazy steps. “But it hasn’t been easy, either.”

He sits down, legs stretched out in front of him, and Donnie can now see that his breathing is a little heavy. He feels himself get cocky. 

“Well, I wasn’t about to just let you win. If I had to go down, might as well give ‘em a show, right?”

Mob sends him a sideway glance. “You really are all about dramatics.”

“What can I say?” Donnie sighs theatrically, proving his point. “This whole competition is about being swag. I could hardly disappoint.” 

“I don’t think you could," his opponent utters. “You’re very expressive.”

Donnie raises a perfectly drawn eyebrow. This is something he hasn’t often been told. He looks over to Mob, and the tension in the boy’s shoulders makes him hum in thought. 

“I don’t know who’s next, but you are going to crush them,” he provides. When Mob gives him a nonplussed glance, he goes on. “And even if you don’t, it’s still the last one. How good does that sound?”

“... it has been getting a bit much, to be honest.”

“Yeah, this is wild,” Donnie agrees. “Anyway, what are you gonna do with your trophy once you get it?”

Mob’s smile is a little shy, but he seems happy with the distraction. “I don’t know, actually. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten one. What would you do?”

“Well, you see, there was this one time I won the Lair Games…”

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

In the next room, a very proud sensei and three worried brothers are getting impatient. 

The student and the sibling don’t seem to care at the moment. 

The crowd is gone. 

The curtains are closed. 

The lights are off. 

For now, making small talk with a former rival is just enough.

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

EDIT: there is now a sequel!

YOOO IT'S BEEN SUCH A WILD RIDE

Disclaimer: I have never read/watched mp100 and I deeply apologize for making him probably very ooc. Just wanted to celebrate this beast of a match in my own way, which is wishing I could draw and deciding to heave words on a doc instead lol

CONGRATS ON MOB!! The final match between mp100 and undertale is gonna be soooo funny but I think Mob's gonna win this thing like it's nothing tbh (he has my vote at least)

@autismswagsummit thank you for reblogging all that Donnie propaganda, I genuinely think he never would've made it this far without the signal boost!

All my thanks to the Rise fandom for these past few days! You guys have made such powerful content and there's been so much hype I'm shocked. SHOCKED I TELL YOU

[ennn]

IF there is a sequel my feelings for the ending would probably change because i expected more character development for agatha but i don’t see it so i just felt like that was so much missing about agatah and agathario

i heard more about their relationship in interviews than actually saw any relationship on screen and there was practically nothing from agatha there. did she ever love rio?i guess it wasn’t important to answer that and rio was just her crazy psycho ex who wouldn’t stop stalking her for centuries, it was a valid writing choice but it felt very underwhelming

Oh yeah a sequel would totally change / help my feelings as well!

That said, I want to address your points you made — not attacking, I just want to break things down:

We did see their relationship on screen, and Agatha having feelings for Rio

We have seen how Agatha and Rio are together, especially alone together. And the way Agatha behaves around Rio isn't like how she behaves around other people. She loses the theatrics, the more obvious lies. Rio reveals a new side to Agatha and vice versa.

Theirs is a bad romance. Fighting and violence is their foreplay – it's a poor substitute but even in ep 8 you do hear them excited to be fighting each other with magic. If you want a ship that's defined mostly by hugs and kisses and domestic bliss this isn't it.

And also keep in mind that the show has always positioned them as exes. They broke apart for a reason. There is bitterness and anger and pain in their relationship. Neither of them are falling in love with each other. Their relationship is interesting because they know each other so well, including the best ways to hurt each other.

In terms of Agatha's interest: We do see Agatha wanting Rio as Agnes inside the spell – a look into how Agatha would probably feel if she didn't remember why they broke up – and we see her emotional look at the end of episode 1 when Rio leaves.

We see Agatha genuinely embracing and wanting to kiss Rio in episode 4, and how she looks at Rio in episode 5 while on they're flying on brooms as well as how they seamlessly did the hexenbesen with each other.

We didn't get Agatha making heart eyes at Rio with the back few eps but it is hard to get into the romantic yearning mood when you're dealing with the reason you broke up with your ex.

The show has only started delving into Rio as character

I really do NOT think the show wants to position Rio as simply Agatha's "her crazy psycho ex stalker" – I believe the show has set up Rio as a complicated character with depth, in broadly the same way Wandavision set Agatha up to be a compelling character.

Anyone who sees Rio as one-dimensional or just a psycho ex is probably the same sort of person who saw Agatha as nothing but a power-hungry witch – which to be fair she still is, but layers baby.

One key challenge is that Rio is set as the season's major episode 7 antagonist reveal as Death. Just like how Agatha was for WV.

This means that until this finale we couldn't really know much about Rio – not beyond a superficial, limited, or vague level. Because it is Rio's identity and role as Death drives her motivation, her pain, and her tragedy history with Agatha.

Agatha lies and Rio is... not a normal human being

If you took what was happening on screen in episode 8 at absolute face value, without considering the other episodes or history of these characters, I can see why people would think Rio's a psycho stalker ex.

But consider:

Rio looks devastated when Agatha makes her choose between seeing her again or Billy – like this is Agatha knowing what kind of arrangement would pain Rio the most; Agatha testing at what point Rio would bend the rules again.

If you consider how Rio hasn't gone back on her word or told a lie on the show to Agatha, you'd expect that Rio will stick by her promise to leave Agatha alone. That's why it's heartbreaking. Agatha would absolutely back out on a deal but not Rio.

When Agatha says "I want you to stop pursuing me, I want you to stop making my life hell" you have to remember this is Agatha who uses words like weapons, who masks and lies all the time. Making the life of such an asshole hell may also not necessarily be a bad thing.

Rio's only on the Road now because they summoned her. She was honouring what she said about giving Agatha time to get her power back in Episode 1 and just watching.

Agatha is literally a manipulative serial killer who is surrounded by death regularly. "Psycho stalker ex" is a label that really needs to be considered in context here.

The show has underlined how Death isn't evil. It comes for us all. It's what we have in common. Part of a natural order. Rio is an antagonist sure, but only a villain depending on which perspective you take or what the circumstances are.

[hanamukes]

Uika and her inner monster, Doloris

Admittedly when I first watched It's MyGO and Ave Mujica 0th, I didn't really think much of Uika. She and Doloris are presented as such vastly different entities that my brain kind of glossed over her, because I don't tend to go crazy for characters who are presented to us as always being bright and warm. Even when the last episode aired and I saw her undergo the transformation from Uika into Doloris, it still hadn't fully set in for me (though perhaps this is simply because I was busy losing my mind in excitement about seeing Ave Mujica at all as well as the sequel announcement).

But reading the interviews that came out after the anime finished airing completely changed that. Uika is Tomori's opposite in every regard? She has a secret so intense it made her voice actress stand out of her chair and yell when she heard it? I need to know more! What on earth could this seemingly kind character be hiding?

I've been keeping a close eye on her content ever since, and it's slowly making me feel insane. So, in anticipation for the anime, as well as their 4th concert which will happen in December and thus give us even more Doloris lore, I wanted to compile a post on the both of them in which I will present my various thoughts and theories.

Doloris

Uika is, in the most literal sense, Doloris' actress. This could perhaps lend to many believing that Uika is not Doloris, or rather that Doloris is not Uika. At the same time, I want to pose a very simple question.

Who came first: Doloris or Uika?

Timeline-wise, Doloris came first. Can Uika even exist without Doloris? Can she be who she is without us immediately recognizing her as being Doloris? What came first was not "Doloris is a puppet persona Uika plays as on stage," but rather it was "Uika is Doloris from Ave Mujica." This was their intent; to introduce Doloris to us, and then to introduce this girl who has an identical design to her in the anime, who is seemingly her exact opposite. What weight could Uika's scenes hold, if not to tell us that she will later turn into the monster known as Doloris? On her own, without Doloris, what does Uika represent?

Doloris herself talks about wanting to be seen for her true self. Is Uika Doloris' true self, or is Doloris Uika's true self? Which is it that they want us to believe? Which one does "Uika" want us to believe? Which one is Sakiko, or perhaps Oblivionis, trying to convince us to believe? Who is "Uika"?

Our introduction to this character was not a Sumimi scene, or her consoling someone, or a frame of her smiling, or of her expressing her love for music. It was this.

This creepy, disturbing montage of Doloris, covered in blood, inviting someone into her cult. Inviting you into her cult. Inviting you to dig deeper.

Though if you want to go even further back, I would argue our first, true genuine introduction was Black Birthday itself.

You see, I don't believe there's any true and correct way to interpret Ave Mujica's songs. The songs are whatever you make of them. That's part of the insanity of Ave Mujica; of never having a proper answer, of always wanting to dig deeper. So I won't say this is that correct reading, but rather one of the infinite possibilities. That said, after watching the intermissions from their concerts as we currently know them, I can't help but feel their first 6 songs perfectly tell the story of Doloris. It goes something like this:

Black Birthday: Doloris' rebirth into her true self. The dyeing of one's purity into corruption. Finally being able to see what was once unseeable (perhaps the light in the pitch black darkness, which she discusses a lot in their stage plays). It's a disturbing birthday party welcoming the new her.

The Two Moons ~Deep Into the Forest~: Now reborn, she finds herself lost in a forest. The play sequence in the last episode of It's MyGO feels reminiscent to this song; Doloris straying into a forest (Loft Moon), while Oblivionis ridicules her, and yet she's so beautiful she cannot take her eyes off her despite the pain of having her heart torn asunder. The song even has imagery describing candles lit on a table, which we can see in the anime rendition of this scene.

Choir 'S' Choir: She's slowly giving in to the insanity of Ave Mujica. This song reminds me a lot of Perdere Omnia; when she finally stops her denial and begins to understand why the others wish to destroy the world. She's letting herself become an esquire, a fallen angel if you will. She hears voices screaming at her, and she knows she's being hunted down, but she keeps dancing anyway. She's testing out her new abilities.

God, You're a Fool: This song represents her inner doubts. What exactly are they fighting for? For whose sake? Why do they have to be in this situation to begin with? If God wasn't a fool, surely everything would be fine... right?

Mas?uerade Rhapsody Re?uest: She's decided she no longer cares about anything. No longer cares how corrupted she becomes, no longer cares to hide her dark feelings. She's just going to fully embrace it all, she's going to let herself be taken by the shadowy jesters. The mask is a part of her now.

Ave Mujica: With her mask as her skin, it's her turn to lure others in. She's going to corrupt you. She reassures you that those with masks will fulfill your any wish, and that even though this is a place of no return, don't worry, there's nothing to be scared of.

It's interesting, because while the songs can apply to anyone (the other dolls for one, and perhaps even the listeners themselves), I can't ignore the parallels between the story these songs are telling, and the story of Doloris as we've seen in the concert intermissions. (Regarding the Utopia single and the ELEMENTS series, those songs were written more to fit a specific narrative, and I don't think they apply to the dolls themselves as directly. That's just my own personal take on them though and is why I won't be analyzing them here)

As for the intermissions themselves, there's a lot going on in them and much of Doloris' dialogue isn't about herself, but I want to go over some general observations:

Doloris uses 僕 (boku). This is significant because she's the only one who has a personal pronoun that differs from her actress; Uika uses 私(watashi). Ave Mujica songs use 私 (watashi) as well, though I don't think this means much in the context of Uika or Doloris because it's just for formality (if anything, it's interesting because it's an inverse of Uika's narrative opposite, Tomori; who uses 私 (watashi) in her daily speech but 僕 (boku) in her songs). That said, in Quaerere Lumina, there's a segment where "Doloris" switches to 私 (watashi), which many found haunting because it almost felt as if those words came from Uika herself, and that she switched back to Doloris after speaking vulnerable words from her heart.

She uses 君 (kimi; "you") in an interesting way. In Perdere Omnia, this referred to Oblivionis. In Veritas, however, she uses this repeatedly in the context of "someone" who she wants to be reborn with. It's someone who extended a hand to her, and who took her mask off her. It's someone she wants to be with for the rest of her life, just the two of them. And at the end, she uses it in reference to you, the audience, who will surely attend their next concert. Who is it that removed her mask? Oblivionis, or us? (Like many things in Ave Mujica, my own interpretation on this is that it's probably Oblivionis, because at its core, this is a yuri band, and Oblivionis is in fact someone who we've seen accept Doloris for who she is)

Each doll has a specific thing they focus on: Oblivionis stands her ground despite everything but also talks about finding things pitiful, Timoris is logical and an observer who wants to be acknowledged, Amoris talks about her lost love and boredom, Mortis talks about peace and quiet as well as the beauty in death. For Doloris, the thing she highlights that the others don't is us watching her slowly spiral into insanity, and particularly as of Veritas, her sense of her own body (as well as this attachment to someone else, as mentioned above). She sees herself as an empty shell, which is true for the others as well, but on top of this she has a fixation on her mask and the relationship it has with her body. It's her skin, and simultaneously, if you remove it, below that you'll find her true, perhaps ugly self. It means a lot to her that someone could love the her that exists without the mask. (Is this intended to be foreshadowing for the relationship between Doloris and Uika, and which of the two of them is her truest self?)

Doloris is an embodiment of insecurity, and simultaneously, she's a ferocious monster when she performs. Rico Sasaki herself claims that she feels like Doloris possesses her when they hold concerts. Her voice is cold, bitter and pained; it's a far cry from Uika's speaking voice, which is so warm and comforting. She is plagued with sorrow, of which she would rather die and be reborn than have to deal with. Her ideal world is simply one of being together with the one who accepts her in all of her ugliness.

Uika

There's a sort of trend to Uika's scenes: when she's around someone else, she waits for them to talk or express emotion before she matches their energy, and when she's alone, she drops the happy idol facade. The very first time we ever see her, she's doing just this.

This is also apparent in two other (coincidentally Sumimi) scenes, where the same thing happens in each: Uika is matching the energy of who she's talking to, but the second she's separated from them by a door, she has an almost empty expression on her face.

(The fact this has happened for both Sumimi scenes, when Uika has so little screentime so every second we see of her is supposed to be precious, has me really wondering just how much she likes her "dream job." Also, I wonder if this is a coincidence: immediately after both of these shots, she looks at her phone and sees Sakiko on her screen which cheers her up (the first is an old text, the second is a phone call))

It's something that on its own feels a bit deliberate, but when you take a certain intermission from their concerts into consideration, it really does become something you can't ignore.

This is the one part of the concert intermissions in which Doloris uses 私 (watashi). This is what many interpret to be Uika's words.

To put this simply, she feels as if she's an empty shell who has to match the energy of the people around her. When nobody is there to give her something to react to, she reverts to that husk. This is exactly the vibe I get from a lot of her scenes in the anime.

(I talked in depth about these two scenes in my Taki&Uika writeup so please do check that out for my thoughts on them, but to recap for this context: it's interesting to me how she looks so "empty" until she reads Sakiko's message (and feels seen by her, thus breaking her out of that state; I also want to mention she never messaged Sakiko first despite having her phone number, which to me is such an explicit example of her feeling like she doesn't exist unless someone else contacts her first that you may as well have a bright red arrow pointing at it), and on the right we can see her matching Sakiko's energy)

And actually, she almost implies as much to Mana directly.

"It's easy for me to sing when I'm with you, Mana-chan." On the surface, this just seems like something she's saying to make her excitable partner happy, to show agreement even though she's exhausted and not nearly as excited as she is. Mana reacts, calling it a compliment. But is it really? Her wording here is deliberate: she can only sing well because she's with her. Because she's being seen by someone else. Watching all of their scenes, I can't shake the feeling that Uika would not "shine" as an idol without Mana by her side. Immediately before this, Mana's happily waving and thanking the filming crew while Uika gives them a more heartless nod. Uika's appeal as an idol is that she's "cool" (this is written on her character bio), so it's not that I would expect her to match Mana's energy in that sense (who's appeal is her energy)... but I do wonder what she would be like in this context without Mana, given she already seems rather tense even with her. (Here's an easily missable clip of her sighing the second she's alone)

What about her comforting Tomori? Surely that was the one scene where she was acting of her own emotions? And what about when she talked to her in the final episode? It's not as if she was matching Tomori's energy 1:1! She reached out to her on her own!

And maybe that's true. However, consider this: that happened after she got Sakiko back in her life. Is an empty husk still just a shell if the one who's there to look at her―and bring her to life―is by her side now?

Let's take a closer look at these scenes though, shall we?

The planetarium. Uika was there to look at the stars, which are reflective of her childhood memories with Sakiko. Then, she finds Tomori, who she recognizes as being from Crychic (because she attended their concert a year ago). I could believe it if she sat next to her because Tomori looked upset; Tomori has subtle facial expressions yes, but it's pretty obvious when she's hurt. She decides to sit next to her, but her seat won't recline (I've seen people point out that she's been there before, so she surely would have known how to put the seat down; I think this is very funny and could be true, though I do want to point out Tomori said "this seat works like this" and Uika was sitting in a different seat than we saw in episode 8 anyway). Tomori helps her and they make indescribable eye contact briefly before they go back to watching the stars.

Then she kept an eye on her when they left and caught her on the stairs. Pretty standard stuff. From the get-go though, she was matching Tomori's energy. This is really subtle and more obvious in motion, but when she's asking if Tomori's okay, Tomori's head dips down twice, and each time Tomori's head dips, Uika's dips down a second or two later to match her.

If it was just once, I wouldn't think anything of it, but twice? Why is she studying her reaction this closely to the point of replicating it?

Then this happens, and I'll just leave my commentary from a year ago because it still applies:

Uika stares at Tomori and the Crychic photo that she saw on their social media comes to mind. She focuses in on Sakiko and Tomori... but moreso Sakiko. This kind of goes under the radar as it comes across as her bringing up stars because she knows it's something Tomori clearly likes and thus could be a bridge of conversation between them, so to speak, but I can't shake the fact that thinking about Sakiko was what prompted her to start talking about the stars she can see in Tokyo. Sakiko, who she was separated from for so long and who she was only able to reunite with in Tokyo.

(As a side note before I continue, this conversation makes me wonder how familiar she is with Tokyo. I'm not well-versed in Japan's geography nor do we really know anything about Uika's personal life, but I do know she lived on an island as a kid because she says Sakiko visited her island. It's also her chat icon)

Another easily missable detail, but when she picks up Tomori's notes, she waits a second for Tomori to give "consent" (via eye contact) before she continues talking. I'll also just mention here that I do think Uika meant what she said about singing being something that conveys someone's heart, and I feel like this was the most honest she was in the entire show.

Moving on to the episode 13 confrontation. I'll be honest, this whole interaction is very weird and as I'm typing up this post I'm still not sure what to make of a lot of it.

Once again, Uika is in the planetarium, this time in the same seat she was in for episode 8 before she met up with Sakiko (starting to see a theme here). Then she spots Tomori and grabs her shoulder, calling her Tomori-chan. Tomori seems confused so she checks that it really is "Tomori" and says they met there before. She does the same thing she did in episode 10 where when Tomori shifts her head, she shifts hers too while she's talking to her.

I like this shot because it feels like she instantly goes into "handsome" mode when she realizes this girl is a fan of "Sumimi's Uika."

This is where this interaction gets weird, because Tomori says she doesn't know who Uika is, and Uika responds with... "I'm glad she doesn't." Huh? Even Anon herself says "Huh?" out loud here. I could not possibly give you an explanation for why Uika would be "glad" that Tomori doesn't know who she is. Why is she trying to get close with her if she doesn't care that Tomori doesn't know her?

Then she asks if Tomori's song worked and Tomori says yes. It still feels like she's trying to gauge her feelings (but for what?). Then she claims she doesn't know Tomori, they just "met at the planetarium before." Anon seems pretty weirded out still. Then she changes the subject and asks if the two of them are in a band. When Anon shows her her phone, which has all the band members listed, she stares at it for a second before asking if she can follow.

(Anon's face being cut off here is interesting to me given this is from Uika's point of view, and really what could be so interesting in that photo?)

The length in which she stares at it makes me think this is likely how she learned MyGO exists, though I can't really piece together what she gets out of this aside from knowing what band Tomori is in. Then she asks if she can follow them and leaves. The whole interaction feels so pointless yet so deliberate: we didn't get closure on Taki's character arc in this episode, but we got this scene of Uika following MyGO's social media account? I'll be interested in seeing how this is relevant later on.

Oh, and the most important part of this scene: Tomori never told Uika her name. Anon is visibly weirded out by this. Of course, this scene is also followed by another shot of Uika not having to match anyone's energy, looking stern as she seems to whenever she's by herself. (She's looking at Crychic's social media page and commenting on how Tomori is from Sakiko's old band, by the way; how did she pull that up so fast? She just sat down?)

Uika and Tomori are narrative opposites. The director for the anime stated that Uika is her polar opposite in every regard. Ricochi also pointed out that while Tomori's songs turn her human, Uika's turn her into a monster. Their episode 10 confrontation was intended to be them meeting before the Ave Mujica ball gets rolling, so to speak, in order to allow them to contrast greater when the sequel comes out.

In general, what I make of Uika's cheerfulness is it's reflective of something Ricochi said in regards to Ave Mujica as a whole: like the moon, she can't shine on her own, but when others look at her, a light glistens from her. It almost makes me wonder if she wanted to become an idol in order to, like she said in her introduction clip with Mana, "make others feel better too" with her songs, at an attempt to mask the fact she can't shine when she's alone herself.

Those are the biggest points I wanted to articulate, so below I'll drop some other observations.

Regarding the flashback scene of Uika and Sakiko as kids... Uika is blushing here when Sakiko is not.

Normally I wouldn't think anything of this, because that's just how the models are (for instance, Sakiko's casual clothes model seems to always have the blush regardless of her mood, while Oblivionis of course doesn't; Uika's model also doesn't have a constant blush), but this scene was hand drawn. It's more deliberate. I don't want to insinuate that this implies Uika cares more about Sakiko than Sakiko cares about Uika because I don't think that's what they meant here at all, just that these specific memories may hold different meaning to Uika than they do for Sakiko. Perhaps more importantly though (and even less obvious) is that Uika's hair looks longer in the shot of them looking at the stars than it was for their meeting and the bug catching. It makes you wonder how much time may have passed between those two memories. (I do recognize this may have just been a continuity error of sorts, but she is wearing a different outfit too)

In Sakiko's conversation to Nyamu, she hints that she got Uika for her band because of Sumimi's popularity. This is interesting to me because in episode 7, she absolutely... glares? at the Sumimi music video.

...Which makes you wonder how she really felt looking at it. In any case, I don't think it was just for the fame because you don't exactly call somebody and tell them to help you forget everything if it's just for the money. That's a pretty intimate thing to ask somebody, and especially for Sakiko who up until then had been actively avoiding speaking anything from her heart. We also know that Uika does the lyrics for Ave Mujica, so we can truly only make guesses as to what transpired between their talk and the final episode...

Oh, also, when Sakiko calls Uika, she blushes. Which feels pretty notable to me when seconds beforehand she was in "cool, kind of broody idol" mode.

As for the last episode...

When Nyamu asks if she can go to Uika's place, she says yes! It makes you wonder how close she is with everyone by this point, and also what her home life looks like.

This one is sold on the voice work, but she sounds super happy to get to see Sakiko.

This also happens at the end of the episode, when she asks if she can ride the train home with Sakiko despite the fact she got there in a cab. I wrote my thoughts about this here, but it is interesting to me how it implies she might not know about Sakiko's home life at this point.

For this line, it's not lost on me how similar this dialogue is in reflection to what Doloris says in their stage play immediately after; with Oblivionis talking about them being dolls, and Doloris questioning her every word. It's as if she'd turned into Doloris the second she put her mask on...

Tying it all together

What's striking to me is that in all the trailers for the Ave Mujica anime―which by all means will be where we learn more about Uika―we've only seen one shot of her.

The rest have been Doloris. From this we can presume that the doll lore from their concerts will be relevant to the actresses, we just don't know to what extent.

It's scary really, because... seriously, even if Uika does feel like an empty shell, there's more to it than just that. And despite all of my analysis up until this point, I have not a single clue what her actual deal could be. Even after I post this, I'll continue to watch her scenes over and over, trying to piece things together with what little we have right now.

I'll be very interested to see both Doloris and Uika in the upcoming anime, and in what ways the lines between them are blurred.

[deuxcherise]

Collar Crimes: Cat Burglar

C/w: Unhealthy behavior, cat boy oc, yandere OC, yandere male, gender neutral reader, reader is a bit of a blank, fluff (?), mentions crime, mentions alcohol, includes cute cat pic for reference A/n: So I had read that weasels are just like cats, especially when it comes to bringing back a hunt, and… I haven't written about a cat boy yet… That's like the first animal people usually write about… So now I did! And this is kind of a sequel to Weasel In. Enjoy~

Masterlist | Part 0, Part 1, Part 2 (you're here!), Part 3 (1/2)

You have made peace with the fact that you will never live a normal, peaceful life ever again. Not with how Eris had somehow weaseled his way into your everyday.

It was just… easier, really, letting Eris do what he wanted so long as he didn't take things too far. With your 9-5 customer service job taking its daily heavy toll off of your social battery, having to pretend 8 hours a weekday of being this peppy, happy-go-lucky person you aren’t so you can pay your bills. The economy isn't so kind to the average person after all.

“I'm really serious, (Y/n)! You should let me install some cameras!” Eris insists.

“For the last time, no,” you answer. “Aren't you watching over my house now?”

A redness appears on Eris's cheeks and he begins poking the tips of his fingers together. “Y-yeah… about that…”

You raise an eyebrow.

“I… I got a job! A high-paying one too! Actually, you should quit your job now and just let me take care of you!”

The heck? What happened to being a stay-at-home maid for you–not that you wanted him to! This is completely the opposite of what he proposed to you about a few weeks ago!

“No. What's with the change of mind all of a sudden? What job?” you ask.

Eris bites his lip and looks away. “Just thought it would be better…”

-----🔔-----

[Yesterday…]

“Really? And what did your ‘lover’ say?”

Eris slaps his buddy on the shoulder. “Quit it with the air quotes. (Y/n) loves me and I love (Y/n). I didn’t get rejected. It's only a matter of time before (Y/n) fully accepts me. I just need to… get rid of all those flies.”

“You mean customers?”

Eris slams his fists against the wood of the bar, shaking the iced alcohol in the cups next to them.

“Don’t you get it!? They're taking advantage of (Y/n)! I can't let them ruin (Y/n)’s life like this! Did you know (Y/n)’s losing weight nowadays? Not eating properly, not sleeping properly–I'm the worst! I need to speed things up or sooner or later… I'm going to…”

Eris covers his face and starts crying into his hands. His friend attempts to comfort Eris on the back, before an idea comes into his head. He says, “Why don't you get a job? If (Y/n)–”

Eris immediately pauses and raises his head to glare at him with vicious eyes.

“–Sorry, your lover. If you get a job, then your lover can see just how reliable you are, right? Some people are more into that.”

The light in Eris's eyes appears brightly, his face softening as he is enlightened. “That's–Oh, thank you, thank you, Ollie! I was right to come to you for help with my problems. You're the best!” he says, grabbing some dollar bills from his pocket and slamming his tip down for the bartender before leaving the club swiftly. “See you next time!”

The bartender swipes and pockets the money before resuming wiping the glass. She looks at her boss and raises an eyebrow. “You aren't going to stop him?”

Ollie smirks and takes a sip of his glass, raising a finger. A second later, Eris comes back in and sits back down next to Ollie with determination in his eyes. “Ollie–”

“Yeah. You can start tomorrow.”

“Really???”

“Yeah. Consider it a favor, as a trusted friend,” Ollie says, rolling the ice ball in his cup. “Now, what kind of job are you looking for?”

Eris thinks for a moment. “Need anything with security?”

Much to the bartender’s confusion, Ollie shrugs and says, “Alright. Bouncer it is. Dad was looking to retire anyway. 4pm on the dot. Shift ends at 10, when Lyn shows up to take over, 10:30 if you take a break.”

“Great! Anything else?”

“That's it for now. Your lover must be coming home soon, right?”

“Right! Okay! Thank you so much, Ollie. Owe you one! Bye! See you tomorrow!”

Ollie raises his glass as Eris once again exits the club. The bartender gives her boss an incredulous look. “Sir, with all due respect, Mr. Eris is…”

Ollie chuckles. “Ah. Well, you've only just met him. Back in the day, when it was just the two of us against the world, I was the brains and he was the brawn. Completely unstoppable…” he sighs, placing his cup down with a little more force than expected. “What kind of person do you think (Y/n) is to turn someone like him into such a pathetic simp?”

“... Who knows?” the bartender answers.

“... Tch.”

-----🔔-----

For the first time in a very long while, you went to bed by yourself.

…..

You had wished him good luck on his new job, which he took as immense praise. You were honestly pretty happy for him. Now he'll be too busy to commit crimes. Maybe he might even be too busy to bother you!

….. 

It wasn't like… you missed Eris, in fact this is better for the both of you! You aren't even lovers or anything like that!

…..

It's just that… you may have… accidentally… gotten used to the way Eris's head curled up under your chin, the ways his arms wrapped around your torso, the way his legs tangled with yours, and how he'd sometimes murmur stupid things like, “I love you” or “Marry me” in his sleep.

…..

Whatever! You roll and face to the other side of your bed that strangely feels a lot bigger than you remember. You squeeze your eyes tightly, trying to will yourself to sleep.

Creeeaaaak.

You quickly sit up straight, expecting to see Eris when instead you face some stranger, glaring down at you with illuminated eyes.

Next thing you know, the stranger has you back down on your bed with an iron grip wrapped around your throat. Tight enough to be uncomfortable but not enough to cut off your air supply.

“Huh… I don't understand what he sees in you.”

“W-who?” you croak, grabbing at their arm.

The intruder narrows his cat-like eyes at you, pupils moving erratically as they scrutinize you. “I could so easily kill you right now…” he spits, before letting go of your neck, “but I won't. Only because Eris is my friend.”

The moment he lets go, grab your neck and massage the forming bruise, inhaling all of the air you can get as you absorb the situation.

Eris?? Oh great! He's not here to snugg–be your hugging pillow as per usual, and now a friend of his came all the here who knows where to threaten you? For being associated with him? Great. You're glad at least this one isn't strangely fascinated by you. It's a nice change of pace from the usual…

Ollie is somehow strangely fascinated by you. You're more quiet and lackluster than Eris had described you to be, like right now probably lost in your thoughts. Are you really Eris’s type? Eris, the type of person who just chases and strikes whenever and whoever he pleases? You don't look afraid of him at all, and it pisses him off. What's with that blank face of yours, huh??

The intruder looks pissed off for some reason, with how narrow his eyes are and the way he hisses under his breath. You try to think of words to say to the intruder, only for your stomach to make its announcement with a grumble.

“You want something to eat?” you ask, nonchalantly.

“.....”

You don't wait for him to answer as you flip off the blanket and head out of the bedroom.

“Oi! Wait a second! How dare you walk away from me!”

You pay him no mind and open up the fridge, revealing a few plastic-covered dishes made by Eris for you to eat over a span of several days. You ignore the pang in your chest as you grab one of them out that had rice in it to reheat a portion of it in a bowl in the microwave.

Ollie stands a distance from you, brows furrowed at how ridiculous this situation is. A stranger just broke into your home, without a key, and you're here just offering to feed him? What the fuck…

As you wait for the microwave to finish, you suddenly feel nostalgic about how you met Eris.

It was a few months ago, when he broke into your apartment the first time. You had been very afraid when you discovered him at that time, shrieking at him and threatening to call the police, before your rumbling tummy decided to add some unneeded humor to the situation. Too tired and famished, you had no choice but to let Eris feed you some food he had been making.

Ding!

You sigh, taking out the bowl of Eris's home cooking and settling down on the couch with a pair of chopsticks before munching on it.

The audacity. Didn't you offer him a bite earlier? Wasn’t that bowl meant for him? Why are you eating it by yourself!? Ollie heads over to the couch and hisses at you before he snatches the bowl from your hands.

“Excuse me??” you snap.

“Hmph!” He takes the chopsticks and starts shoveling down the rice and toppings, much to your horror. Once he's licked it completely clean, he throws it onto the ground without much concern.

You stand up. “Hey! What the heck are you doing? Don't just throw stuff on the ground! No manners, tch.”

You were less angry about the bowl and more about the fact that he ate Eris's homecooking before you go to today. How dare he??

Ollie flinches, having not expected your voice to reach as loud as it did. He watches you walk past him, crouch down, and pick up the unbroken bowl and pair of chopsticks to put in the sink. Your face is visibly angry, different from your blank face and nonchalant attitude earlier.

Ba-dump. Ba-dump.

As you're washing the bowl and chopsticks to reuse and get some more of Eris's cooking, Ollie eyes a photo on the coffee table in front of the couch. It's a picture of a child version of you and two adults, presumably your parents.

He smirks.

When you had turned around to look at him, you found him missing with a window open. Oh, the guy has finally left. You quickly close the window, taking relief that the weird guy has finally left. As you make yourself comfortable on the couch again with a new reheated bowl of rice, you look towards your coffee table–

Oh heck no...

[dangermousie]

Honestly I think you're one of my favourite kdrama bloggers on here and I'm curious: what are the kdramas you consider to be perfect? Like top to bottom not a single flaw seen. What's the best of dramaland for you?

Awww thank you! I love this type of ask too!

Any list of mine is gonna be of course vvv subjective (I am not a romcom lover for example) and I can guarantee you that the moment I hit post, I am gonna lose my mind because I will remember I forgot something.

Also, no flaw by definition excludes some of my faves where there are a few minor flaws but the rest is so amazing it doesn't matter (The Legend First King's Four Gods comes to mind - the first ep ie prologue set 1k years before the main story - is a lil cheesy. But the rest is so good I don't even care and same for My Dearest where I'd perhaps remove the final amnesia bit but it's a perfect drama otherwise with the rest so good I don't even care. So perhaps they should be listed.)

But anyway here are are some dramas where I have not seen a single flaw, perfect dramas.

Mawang (also known as The Devil or Lucifer) - probably the best kdrama dealing with revenge ever made - the damage, the driving need, the destruction of self and yet destruction of self without it. To really explain anything about it would be spoilery so all I am going to say is it revolves around an icy lawyer with a secret, a hot headed cop chasing a string of murders, and a librarian who can read past events by touching objects or people. The way I cried. The way I stared in shock as it ended. The sheer perfection of it all - the acting, the relationships, the writing. I get emotional just thinking of it.

IRIS - yup, an action drama. I am not much of a fan of various sequels/spin-offs (involving different characters, you do not need to watch anything else if you watched IRIS or to watch IRIS to watch the others) but the original is amazing. Sure, it's an actioner. It's also an amazing character study of a person taken apart and trying to put himself together, of past tangling, of people passing or failing tests set by life. It's just - AAAAAAAAA also yet another drama I bawled for hours over.

Train - Yoon Si Yoon is a cop slipping between alternate universes in search of a killer seems like a procedural with a side of scifi but it's more of a meditation on love and loss and what drives us to keep living (or not.)

Someday - hands down the most obscure kdrama on this list, this is a tale of four people whose lives intersect - a mangaka seeking inspiration, a sort of private detective hiding unimaginable trauma under his sunny demeanor, a manipulative yet childlike psychologist and a business minded friend of the last one, the sanest of them all. When people discuss healing dramas, this is the one that comes to mind. My favorite is the detective's arc because it's one of those trauma sunshine things where he's coping, coping, coping and then...stops.

Empress Ki and 6 Flying Dragons - if you watch only two long sageuks, make it these ones. They are smart (esp 6FD), and they are such amazing complex character studies of people being hollowed out by power. The OTPs are amazing and what I love but the character study is even better. And both are epic in all senses of the world.

Speaking of sageuks, Slave Hunters (also known as Chuno) about a former nobleman who's a slave hunter now, an escape slave who used to be a general, and a slave woman masquerading as an aristocrat is my favorite sageuk of all time - a love story, a character story, and a story of the dispossessed, this is smart and grim and hopeful and just - if there was ever a perfect sageuk, this is it.

The Princess' Man and Flower of Evil - ie Moon Chae Won loves a feral mess and goes MINE! TPM is a smart emotional sageuk, one of the best out there and FoE is a study of love and trauma.

Something Happened in Bali, Padam Padam, A Love to Kill, Spring Waltz, Thank You, Snow Queen, That Winter the Wind Blows - old school melodramas (perhaps not TY so much, it's more complicated in genre) that push people to the limits to expose their deepest selves.

My Country the New Age, Hong Gil Dong, Rebel the Thief Who Stole the People, The Crowned Clown, Return of Iljimae - they focus on class in period setting (just as Chuno did) and make me care and think.

Worlds Within - seemingly about lives of studio workers, this is a rare drama where you feel you are peeking at real people.

Gloria and Family Honor - 50 ep drama where I'd remove nothing and that feels so intimate.

W Two Worlds, Extraordinary You, The Moon in the Day, Live Up to Your Name, Queen In Hyun's Man - high concepts that improbably work and make you think and feel.

Secret Garden, City Hunter, Healer, Sungkyunkwan Scandal, Faith, Tale of the Nine Tailed, I Hear Your Voice - just a wonderful good time.

Gaksital - take a bad guy, make him your protag, slowly redeem him and put him through hell.

Bad Guys - a bleak take on revenge and truth but also a damn good time at the same time somehow.

Beyond Evil and Cruel City - about cops but not really. About forgiveness, love and limits.

Come and Hug Me - brought me back to kdramas. A love story and trauma story and a bit of a thriller. It's everything.

Beauty Inside, Last Scandal, City Hall, My Girl, Delightful Girl Chunhyang and Hometown Cha Cha Cha - it is very rare for me to love romcoms. These few make the list. They also made me cry so make of it what you will.

Shut Up Flower Boy Band - the only time I liked a teen drama.

Capital Scandal and Chicago Typewriter - masterpieces dealing with the 1930s revolutionaries.

Que Sera Sera - if you love dysfunction and intense shipping, oh boy!

I am sure the moment I hit post, I will remember something else, but this will do for now.

ETA: aaaaaa Damo!!! My very first sageuk and what a way to start!!! Perfection.

ETA2: Arang and the Magistrate! OK Shin Min Ah is in an awful lot of these...

[oliver-quick-ens-my-pulse]

Emotions sequel to Lust

Sebastian Sallow x f!Reader

Summary - Anon request for "I will give you my soul and both kidneys for more Sebastian smut 🥲🙏🏻 The day he calls me a “good girl”, I can die peacefully 😂"

Word Count - 1,736

Warnings - 18 + smut, characters aged up, dark!Sebastian, angst, slightly non-consenual consent scenario

A/N - I can die peacefully 😂" okay i messed myself up writing this one 🔥🔥

Sebastian felt the guilt and anger building up now that he felt sober, there were battling it out in his gut. He felt guilty about his intentions behind the potion, but at the same time he still felt angry that that was what it took. Angry at himself for not being more forward and angry at you for the same.

Your legs were relaxed around him as he layed on top of you, you forced him to look at you, "What is it Sebastian?" Your voice was soft and tired.

He sucked in his bottom lip and had a hard time making eye contact, "The potion. I - I crafted it for you and got too wasted and drank it myself."

In your post-sex brain it took you a few moments to process what it was he had just said. You felt the wind get knocked out of you and you felt completely betrayed. You let him make you vulnerable and it was all basically a lie.

You sat up quickly, shoving him off of you and clutching the bed sheets to your chest, not caring that his cum was getting all over it.

"No, Y/N, wait," he grabbed your first as you attempted to get away, but he tugged you to keep you in place.

"I still - I still wanted this. I know you did too. Merlin, you come here every day and it's all I can do not to ravish you. You walk across town like that every morning for me." You could see the arousal returning to his face. He was all pupils and flushed cheeks.

You tore your arm from his grip and stood up with tears dampening your eyes, "Then why didn't you ever? Why use some stupid position, trying to take advantage like that? I am a person Sebastian. In case you haven't noticed I'm the only one you've had for a long time."

Your voice was bitter as you left the room to scavenge for a new set of clothing and clean up the mess that you were. You couldn't decide if you were mad, hurt, scared, or all of the above. The saddest part was it's not like you couldn't have guesses the whole thing was a setup on his part. And you just stupidly fell right for it.

You collected yourself in a hurry and rushed out back to where you lodged with Sirona. You didn't want to think about Sebastian or be near him or talk about any of it.

You woke up the next morning after having spent a long day battling with yourself over what had happened. At this point you honestly hoped things would shift back to the normal they had been, where he's just busy drinking and leaving you alone. If you were being honest, that probably started the second that you left and he wouldn't even remember what happened.

So, you decided to approach the day like normal. You did take a second look at the reflection of yourself in your mirror before stepping out though. He is still a man, not an animal, he had seen other women in his life in sleeping clothes and not acted like it was anything to blush at.

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on who asked, Sebastian had layed in his bed for the rest of the day without a drop of alcohol. He felt like he was losing his mind because he couldn't stop thinking about you. He felt like a 13 year old boy again, rubbing one out every hour as images of you flashed through his mind. But the images were certainly not as innocent as they used to be.

You seemed so upset with him, but you weren't complaining at all as he dragged you around the house, tearing through your clothes and ravaging your body. You weren't the innocent player you thought yourself to be and he refused to accept it.

You said to him that he should have made a move and just been up front from the start, so that's what he was going to do. He was going to unleash his deepest, darkest desires on you.

He slept restlessly that night with his new plan in mind unable to focus on anything else. He had never craved someone in the way he craved you and after having had a taste with you, he was ruined without you.

He knew Sirona always let you stay at her home she kept here and it wasn't hard to find. It was always possible to find out someone's business here if you wanted to.

He rose early in the morning, probably way earlier than he'd been awake in months if not years. He knew you always came to him just before the sun started coming up so that it would be light by the time you did make it.

Everything in Feldcroft was spread out and people liked their space. Sebastian's home was located on a reasonable little plot of land that offered privacy with the wild shrubbery and trees taking root wherever they pleased.

He decided that he would wait for you in a private spot at the front of the property. He had taken to cleaning himself up and putting on simple thin night clothes just so nobody found him wandering around indecent if they were snooping.

An old oak with a thick base was where he waited for you, it was just private enough for his dirty thoughts.

You were sleepy walking up to the familiar scene before you and that's how you got taken off guard. A hand came down over your mouth and you had no time to react before being carried off with someone pressed against your backside.

You felt the rough bark of the tree as Sebstian pressed you up against it, rubbing himself against your backside and talking low into your ear, "I told you you were begging for it coming over like that. This is what you wanted from me right?"

He bunched up the skirt of your gown and wasted no time dipping his hand between your thighs causing you to cry out in surprise.

"I see you didn't change anything. There's still nothing beneath here but a needy cunt," he used his fingers to spread your lips and your vagina open, betraying you with wetness, "see? You're much too empty, there's a leak we have to do something about."

He pulled his hand back to spit on it before not-so-delicately applying pressure to your clit. His other hand had remained clamped to your mouth so you hadn't had the chance to say a word, but he whispered to you as he removed it, "You're going to be a good girl for me and be quiet right? You don't need everyone to know you're letting the town disgrace fuck you."

Your breathing was heavy as he removed his hand you drew blood from your lip biting it and trying to stay quiet. He let you rest for just a moment while he used both hands to pull the dress over your head discarded it on the ground.

You whimpered when he continued his assault on your sensitive spot, being unable to deny how good it felt and how turned on you were. He placed kisses on the soft skin of your neck before he took a good look at your full exposed figure.

He inhaled sharply, "Fuck, everything about you is perfect. And you're all mine out here, so exposed and engulfed in the pleasure of it."

You felt a bit ashamed at how close you were to the brink of an orgasm, but couldn't stop yourself from begging quietly, "Sebsatian, please don't stop. Please - "

He sunk his teeth into your shoulder and everything felt like it was too much; the rough bark on the tree, the pleasurable pain of his bite, the white hot feeling bubbling over form his rough finger tips.

Sebastian pulled you into his body, away from the tree as he clamped a hand over your mouth to cover your cries of ecstasy. You fell apart on him whether you wanted to or not, eyes squeezed shut tightly while he holds you close enough to force you to feel his solid cock.

"That's right, just like that. So quick for me today, you understand the urgency since the sun's about to come up right? You can't let anyone see you like this."

He let go of you and you stumbled forward, catching yourself on the tree to find steady ground. Sebastian wasted no time pulling his pants down to start stroking his swollen cock, wrapping a hand around his balls and squeezing them.

"Would you prefer to my balls slapping against your ass with every thrust or do you want to look at me while I ruin you."

You sheepishly turned around to meet the wet sounds of him jerking off. His cock was red and swollen and you couldn't keep your eyes off of it every time he pulled towards himself and the head peaked out of his foreskin.

He approached you and squeeze your backside, indicating for you to jump so he could pick you up and fit impale you between himself and the tree.

You wrapped your legs around him and he kept his eyes glued to your face the whole time he rubbed himself across your entrance. He entered you slowly at first, shuddering at the sensation of how good you felt.

"I love you, Y/N," his words were low and husky before he crashed his lips into yours with desperation and started fucking you at a much more aggressive pace.

You could feel him stretching you out and his pelvis was bumping against your still sensitive clit with every buck of his hips. Your arms were wrapped around his neck and you met his lips, tongue, and teeth mirroring his intense desire.

"F-fuck, Y/N,"

"Cum for me Sebastian, please," you whined, "finish making me yours,"

"I - I'm close - just for you. You're such a good girl, such a good little hole," with that he finished inside of you, fucking you until he couldn't catch his breath.

He rested his cheek against your shoulder as he continued to hold you up against him.

"That's what you wanted right? I told you I couldn't stand it anymore. So I took you."

[wanderingblindly]

ok this is so broad BUT i absolutely adore your questionably homo guidebooks series and love the way you explore gender, shame, and desire in the two sequels, and i just would love to hear more about your thoughts on it, literally whatever you want to chat about (writing process, characterization in certain scenes, anything) 💕

(this is for the directors commentary ask prompt)

oh my goodness this is such a hard one because the whole gender thing is like... so intuitive in my brain, I'm!!! Going to try my best to get it into words. Thank you so much for asking about Oscar's Guide and the Stockings sequel!!

Lando and being a Girlfriend

We must preface all conversations around this with like... obviously all things exist In A Society, all things I write are formed by my own experiences or perceptions of other's experiences, YMMV, etc etc. Now. The girlfriend of it all.

I think it's all rooted in the the contrasts within Lando's character: he's confident in the right scenario, painfully aware of his inexperience in others; he's got dating experience, but not in a way that really applies to Oscar at all; he's used to being the boyfriend and having a girlfriend, but not having... a boyfriend, because what does that make him? Obviously it makes him a boyfriend too, but does it leave room for....?

So to someone like Lando, to someone that's used to playing a """""man's""""" role in a relationship, someone who's at a sensitive spot in their life, there's a really strong appeal to feeling protected and taken care of; and, as someone with that limited experience, he associates those feelings with being a girlfriend. It's the best frame of reference he has.

On a more macro level, outside just Lando's experience, there's also a sort of possessiveness that comes from being someone's girlfriend. Whether or not that's a good thing is an entirely different can of worms of course, but perhaps Lando likes the feeling that Oscar has a claim to him no one else ever has. Lando's been boyfriend before, but he's never been girlfriend -- he's never wanted to be someone's girlfriend. There's a novelty and also a sort of like uhhhhh new level of virginity to the entire thing that appeals to him.

As for the shame angle:

Lando's always been a man in a masculine sport, a masculine environment; even if he's always been teehee haha funny about it, even if he didn't really have any qualms about dating a guy (because it's my AU and i make the rules), I still wanted to explore the sense of anxiety that can come with learning new things about yourself.

Oscar Piastri has made him lose his fucking mind.

Lando blames Oscar for it! He's so unwilling to admit that perhaps he's always had these feelings about himself, he just didn't feel safe enough to explore it, that he has to blame it on a third party! The anxiety runs so deeply that he refuses to see how these urges could have been something that only cropped up out of a deep feeling of safety rather than some sort of depravity.

His stomach churns at the thought, at the look he can see in Oscar's eye, at the way he feels like a teenager – all parts of him indescribably misaligned and out of place.

Another concurrent theme I wanted to hit on was the idea of stunted sexual exploration as a result of belated sexual realization. The first fic, Lando's Guide, implied that Lando was uhhhh.... a non practicing bisexual. He was into me, he'd flirt with men, but he'd never really done anything with a guy. As a result, both 'halves' of Lando's sexuality are at different points of maturity: he's an average twenty something when it comes to women, and almost adolescent when it comes to men. He's more innocent, more sensitive, more inquisitive rather than assertive -- and I think this specific moment of anxiety and shame highlights both the disparity and the consequences of it.

All of the shame is so beautifully balanced out by the deeply rooted trust in their relationship, I'd just like to add in there lol. Like, Lando wouldn't be able to wallow in this shame in the first place if some part of him, even if it's incredibly small, believed that Oscar would make him feel better.

There's also probably another angle here!! Add to the list:

Lando's self esteem and self image.

Lando's pretty vocal about not actually caring much for his face at all irl. Though I don't hit on that confidence (or lack thereof) frequently in this fic, I'd like to image that there's a connection between that and his fondness for Oscar (someone he trusts not to lie, someone so earnest, someone he adores) calling him pretty.

[lieutenant-teach]

Meeting Cyare’s father (or Anakin Skywalker doesn’t like his new son-in-law very much)

(Anakin doesn’t go Dark, everyone lives, everyone’s happy. No Sequels, rehashed Heir to the Empire instead of the OT. DinLuke, minor Anidala, CodyWan, HanLeia)

Din was really relieved about his helmet on, but then he remembered that the Jedi can feel other people’s emotions. No luck, then.

His cyare’s father’s eyes were trying to burn a hole in his head.

– Let me get it straight, Luke. A Mandalorian bounty hunter. – The voice could cut the stone better than a lightsaber.

– Mum likes him, – Luke was smiling, but Din saw him tensing for a fight. A cybernetic hand squeezed his.

– I didn’t raise my only children to give them away to some criminals, - Skywalker-senior stood up from the couch and started walking back and forth. – First I have to agree to allow my princess marry some smuggler…

– Han did help us to stop Thrawn.

– … and then my son wants to partner a bounty hunter, - Luke’s father wasn’t listening to him, anger coming off him like waves – Din was certain he wasn’t Force-sensitive, but one may not be to feel the Dark Side emanating from Anakin Skywalker at that moment.

Din remembered Luke’s words before ‘meeting with father’s half of the family’: ‘My Dad will become angry, I’m sure – he didn’t react to Han well, too – but don’t worry, he’ll cool down’. The warning rang in his ears when he saw Skywalker-senior for the first time: tall, with a rich mane of greying curls, but still very handsome former Jedi assessed him and made up him mind immediately. ‘Not worthy’. Now they were sitting on the softest couch Din’s ass had ever been on, in the richest living room Din’s eyes ever seen, and ‘officially’ letting Din into a very branchy Skywalker family tree. Or, trying.

– Dad, I’m almost thirty, I can decide for myself. And Din’s a hero of his own – he kept Grogu save and sound, stopped Moff Gideon, and also saved the town of Mos Pelgo from the krayt dragon…

– But a bounty hunter! – Skywalker-senior cried exasperatedly. – And, to add to it, a Mandalorian! It is all your fault, Obi-Wan! – he suddenly turned to Luke’s uncle, quietly watching all this until this moment.

– Wait, why? – the man was older than Luke’s father, gray hair and beard and mischievous twinkle in the eyes. So far he hadn’t said anything, but Luke had said his uncle would be supportive. Now it was time to find out. – My fault Luke fell in love?

– With a Mando! – Skywalker raised his voice. – Who in this family has a thing for Mandos?

– Do not speak about Satine like this, – Obi-Wan’s voice became steely, – and anyway, Cody is not a Mandalorian.

– He is a clone of a Mandalorian!

Din started to lose the thread of the conversation. He even wished he had a Jedi ability to speak telepathically and could ask Luke what the kark was going on. He shifted his head, trying not to be very obvious in his confusion, Luke caught his gaze and shrugged.

– Do you really think I taught Luke… - Luke’s uncle sighed. – We have been here before, Anakin. Luke is an adult, he can think for himself. If he brought young Din Djarin here, then he is certain in him and his own feelings. Did your fits of reality rejection change Leia’s mind?

Luke’s father breathed in and out heavily, clearly holding himself from harsher words, but reluctantly accepting the truth.

– Maybe, you should just talk to Din? – Luke’s uncle didn’t look happy, but so wasn’t Din hearing this suggestion.

‘Let me talk, – Din remembered Luke’s words. – When Dad started being… um… not very nice to Han – critical of sorts – Han started talking back. It escalated, some chairs were flying around, Dad and Leia exchanging angry remarks – Dad said she deserved better, Leia insisted she loved Han – and Han himself wasn’t making everything easier. It took two professional negotiators – Mum and Uncle Obi-Wan – to calm them down. Still, Leia and Han are happily married and have a son. So it’s just an unpleasant procedure you have to endure’.

– Maybe, he would take the helmet off for starters? – Poison in Skywalker’s voice could kill a bantha. No, a herd of banthas.

– I cannot, - Din was glad his voice didn’t tremble. He wasn’t afraid of the man, but watching a family drama, and, worse, being the reason of it didn’t feel well. He didn’t want to cause a rift in Luke’s relationship with his father. – My Creed prohibits me to.

– Veery convenient, - Skywalker smiled a tight and unpleasant smile, ignoring pleading and exasperated eyes of his son. – We’re a family now, you don’t show your face even to your family? Luke, have you seen his face?

– Dad, now it’s rude. Of course, I did. – It was obvious Luke was holding well, but his patience wasn’t infinite, too. – It’s only for immediate members.

Technically, after realizing the existence of different Mandalorian Ways, Din wasn’t sure he couldn’t do that. After all, taking off helmets didn’t make Bo-Katan Kryze or Sabine Wren less Mandalorians. But even if he would – not for this man.

The door slid open, a man quietly entered the room and stood behind Luke’s uncle’s armchair, resting his elbows on the chair back. Could he be Boba Fett’s relative? Because he was a carbon copy of Din’s friend, albeit much older. An intricate scar was winding its way from his temple down around his left eye.

– I am being quite nice! – Skywalker protested, dragging all attention to himself. – I can’t believe Padmé actually said ‘I like this guy, let’s take him in’.

– You know, I agree with you, - the probably-Boba’s-relative suddenly said. Luke’s uncle turned to him with puzzled expression. Luke looked disappointed. – The kids take after their mother in their bad choice of life partners.

Skywalker seemed about to blow up. He grabbed something from his belt that appeared to be a black respiratory mask and pressed it to his nose and mouth. The mechanical labored breathing sounds filled the room, Skywalker was drilling the man with burning eyes.

– Now, Cody, that was harsh, - frankly, to Din’s mind, Luke’s uncle didn’t look apologetic a lot. Luke sighed, his shoulders relaxed.

– I thought you were serious! – he even laughed a little, then gather himself again. – Dad, you do realize your approval or disapproval won’t change anything?

– Unfortunately, - Skywalker’s voice also sounded mechanical. – I believe no one in the galaxy or farther is worthy of my children. – He signed. – I guess I have to work with what we have here. – He shot a look at Cody, who smiled in return, and this smile was ‘I know you know I’m right, and I unashamedly love it’.

– Very well, - Obi-Wan clapped his hands. – Now as everything is settled, - Din clearly heard ‘Anakin is settled’, - we can share some stories and know each other better, right, Din?

Luke looked at Din with shining eyes. Din signed quietly. This look was worth all these awkward minutes.

[musingmeaninglessly]

Watching Across the Spiderverse w/ Lo'ak & Neteyam (ft. Spider)

A/N; Since so many of us crossover into both these fandoms, I came up with this fun idea. Also, it was kinda inspired by the cute human drabbles that @littletrippyyhippyy writes! Hope y'all enjoy, I made myself laugh writing this, at least 😂

Warnings; Bit of swearing. Spider loses it. Lo'ak's a dummy. Spoilers for both movies, I guess??? Human reader. Kinda proofread.

Summary; You convince Neteyam and Lo'ak to watch Across the Spiderverse with you. They have some questions...

"OH. MY. GOD."

From your sudden verbal outburst, it's safe for the Sully brothers next to you to assume that you enjoyed the movie.

Across the Spiderverse, to be exact.

"That was incredible!! You guys liked it, right? Of course you did! You loved it! Tell me how much you loved it!!" you ramble, excitedly jumping up from your seat on the couch, turning to face your two Na'vi friends.

It had all been Jake's idea. Ever since you arrived on Pandora five years ago, his sons had become more interested in learning about human culture, from different foods to pop culture. The Sully patriarch had a feeling that their interest had piqued because of you specifically, but that was an avenue to be ventured down another time.

The brothers had happily agreed to watch this movie with you, despite having no idea what a spider is or why it should be attributed to any man. But, they couldn't turn down any time spent with you.

After begging Norm to somehow source the long-awaited sequel to Into the Spiderverse, you had ushered them over to the shack through the comms system. Whether you believed in the deity or not, you thanked God for Norm and his ways. Wi-Fi on Pandora was sketchy at best and just about held up for the odd email. Yet, somehow, Norm had got a hold of the new cinematic release so that you wouldn't have to suffer through streaming it.

And for you, it had been so worth the wait. You had loved every damn second. When Into the Spiderverse came out, you had been preparing to leave Earth. It was crazy to think how much had changed in the five years since you arrived on Pandora, a theme that had been mirrored in the movie.

Whipping your head round from the projector screen, where the movie credits rolled, Neteyam and Lo'ak would've marvelled at the joy lighting up your face if they hadn't been so damn confused. Neteyam looked as though he were about to say something but was continuously rephrasing it in his mind. Whereas Lo'ak just came straight out with it, amber eyes narrowed. "I'm confused..."

"By what?" you scrunch your face up. You had taken time to explain the whole premise of the Marvel universe to the brothers. Apparently they hadn't caught on just yet.

"Everything. Why could that Miles guy walk upside down? Why were there so many man spiders? And when will he kiss the blonde girl??"

"Lo'ak, I explained it all to you! Miles got bit by a radioactive Spider in the first movie, couldn't save his uncle Aaron, and you should know the rest!" you flop in between the brothers in an over-dramatic way, resuming your seat from earlier.

Lo'ak's brows knit together in a childish sort of way, but he smirks teasingly. "I can't ask questions now? Not my fault your dumb human movie makes no sense... OW!"

Neteyam's slap up the side of Lo'ak's head puts him back in his place. You exchange an amused glance with the oldest Sully brother, before giving Lo'ak a nudge in the ribs.

"Shut up, skxawng. Not my fault you didn't pay attention! The movie was amazing, right Neteyam?"

Neteyam looks a little caught off guard as you ask his opinion. In truth, he's a little confused by the story too, but he had paid better attention to your precursory Marvel lesson.

"It was...interesting." he muses thoughtfully, before Lo'ak cuts him off.

"I got another question! Why, Y/N, did you blush whenever that big guy came on the screen?"

His shit-eating smirk would have annoyed you if your thoughts hadn't been redirected to your favourite hunky Spider-Man.

"Oh, Miguel?" you ask before sighing dreamily. The brothers watch you in amusement as you resemble an ice pop melting in the August sun. "He's yummy..."

"Gross! He was a jerk!" Lo'ak exclaims. "He looked like he was about to explode he was so huge! Is this really what you human girls like?"

Grabbing the remote from you, Lo'ak rewinds the movie to a still of Miguel, immediately wishing he hadn't when you squeal in delight. As you do, though, he not-so-subtly flexes his biceps to compare with your animated crush.

"You got a way to go, bro" Neteyam chortles, eyeing his brother's lanky arms in amusement. Lo'ak just rolls his eyes.

"Whatever. That guy was an asshole. Did you see the way he yelled at Miles?" Lo'ak waves his arms around and it's honestly amusing to you how invested he appears to be in the movie.

"Kinda reminded me of you and your Dad..." you tap your chin in thought, grinning at the sputtering sound of laughter that comes from Neteyam beside you. Once again, Lo'ak scowls, but it doesn't stop you adding, "...on a good day..."

Neteyam loses it then and there, his usual coyness replaced with hysterical laughter that forces him to reach for the Co2 ask around his neck. Even Lo'ak cracks a small smile at your quip, and soon you're all laughing together.

That is, until the moment is interrupted by your human brother from another mother.

"Hey guys! I got snacks for the movie, I can't wait to see i-"

Spider's eyes widen with betrayal as they land on the rolling credits on the screen. His jaw drops, as do the snacks that he's holding. You can only bite your lip and stifle a laugh as his focus turns to you, pointing an accusing finger. "YOU."

"Spider, I'm sorry but you took too long!" you leap up, backing away from him. He's taller than you, after all, and evidently pissed. The sight makes Neteyam and Lo'ak snicker a little, although they are a bit worried for you...

"You watched the whole damn thing without me!" Spider is not far away from throwing a hissy fit, and it takes everything in you not to explode with laughter. Hands outstretched, you look as though you're taming a wild mountain banshee. At the moment, Spider certainly resembles one. "YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I LOVE SPIDER-MAN, Y/N! WHY DO YOU THINK EVERYONE CALLS ME SPIDER?"

"I thought it was because of your hair, bro..." Lo'ak teases, truly testing your resolve where laughter is concerned.

"BRO-"

"Let's calm down..." Neteyam chuckles, standing up to try and calm Spider down in his big-brotherly way, "We'll watch it again, right Y/N?"

"Of course!" you squeak, growing a little nervous at Spider's impending wrath. So much so that after hiding behind Neteyam, you dart towards the door, giggling as you run away from the taller human boy.

"Y/N! YOU. ARE. DEAD!"

There's a mad chase, but the Sully brothers look at each other in amusement as they hear your high-pitched laughter resounding through the corridor.

"Looks like we're watching the man spiders again, bro..." Lo'ak turns to his brother.

"Yeah, looks that way..." Neteyam grins.

[katyawriteswhump]

dragon's hoard excerpt...

My first ever WIP Wednesday!

This is part of a prequel to ‘Dragon’s Treasure’ (E-rated and churned out for monster-f**cker May so dead dove warning for monster sex etc!) Absolute zero pressure tags for @medusapelagia and @sidekick-hero, who asked about this one weeks ago… before it got totally postponed by monster may and the more-E-rated-than-originally planned sequel! ETA: fic now posted here

…

Steve really wished Eddie would stop disappearing into dark corners of the cave, so he could at least enjoy looking at that skin-tight-PVC-clad butt. “Look, man, I think you’ve got a problem with the hoarding. We’ve all been a little tense since we, uh, saved the world, and—”

“I’m not tense. You need to relax, Honey. You’re gonna love it here, as much as I do.”

“Whatever.” Steve was relieved that Eddie was finally throwing attention onto him, stalking over. “Can we make out already?”

“Sure thing.” Eddie slid a hand to the small of Steve’s back. Steve looped his arms around Eddie, and their mouths clashed in a kiss.

Soon, Steve twisted his fists in Eddie’s hair, mashing them ever closer. Meanwhile, Eddie shoved his hand down the back of Steve’s pants, grabbed the meat of his ass, and squeezed till the flesh sang.

Yeah, Steve was loving it. He worked the kiss till his jaw ached. Christ, Eddie made him feel… Okay, totally turned on, but also softer somehow, more relaxed, even as other parts of him grew rock-hard. And that feeling, which rushed upon him, was as weird and alien as this crazy place. Eddie was right. Steve had been wired and edgy for so damn long…

…and then Steve stopped thinking, because the kiss was mind-blowing. Eddie backed him up against the bars that stretched across the entire width of the cave. He thrust a knee up between Steve’s leg, scrubbing roughly.

Jesus… Yes… There… Oh God! 

Steve was totally losing it. He scarcely noticed that a door in the bars had swung open, and that Eddie backed him through. When they finally broke apart, Steve was breathless, dizzy. He tasted copper, realized his lip bled. He still couldn’t rip his eyes from Eddie, who licked a smudge of Steve’s blood from his own mouth.

That should not be this hot.

“Didn’t mean to hurt you, Babe,” said Eddie. “You okay there?”

“Never better.” Steve shrugged. Meanwhile, Eddie unwound his arms from Steve, took a step back. Cool as ice, he shut the barred door between them, and snapped a padlock closed. 

“What the...?” 

The reality of the situation splashed into Steve, like a bucket of water waking him from a freaky—okay, also smokin’ hot—dream. He shoved his fist through the bars, grabbed the front of Eddie’s t-shirt: “What the hell you playing at, Munson?”

“Just wanted to see how you look. In my lil’ den. With the rest of my pretty stash.”

“Open the goddamn door.” Steve’s voice sounded strange, small. “This real t-twisted shit.” Why was he stammering? He gritted his teeth. “I’ll punch you so hard! This is beyond a joke, man.”

Eddie reached through the bars, grazed his knuckles down the shallow stubble on Steve’s cheek. “Shhhhhssssss.”

The sound trailed off into a hiss, and Steve was… Shit, he didn’t want to fight. He’d still gotten a hold of Eddie’s t-shirt and his fist trembled.

“You’re safe here,” murmured Eddie. “You’ll be safe here at last. I promise you, Steve. I promise.”

Steve’s grip on Eddie loosened and his arm fell away. He should be punching Eddie, grabbing the key, running from this place like he’d got a demogorgon was on his tail. 

He wasn’t.

ETA: fic now posted here

[epickiya722]

6,7,9,10 for the choose violence ask for both MHA and JJK

6. Which ship fans are the most annoying?

For both fandoms, I can find anyone annoying no matter specifically what they ship. Now, if I had to be specific, it has to be people who hate on a ship who are clearly just homophobic.

I recently had been called an "imbecile" by someone over an innocent ItaFushi post and found out they found the ship "diabolical".

Twice, one for each fandom, I made a post about F/F ships and someone had to bring up a M/F ship. Honey, please, I don't care. BEGONE, HEATHEN!

But again, no matter what they ship, if they annoy me, they annoy me.

7. What character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because of how the fandom acts about them?

Okay, for MHA, I don't actually hate Hawks. I'm more so indifferent with him even when he did appear. However, sometimes in fandom, I find his presence annoying. Especially, whenever Miruko is involved. I was recently salty for a week because for the Miruko tags, it his face there and the artwork centered around him.

Like, no, last time I checked Miruko was a bunny woman. Not a blond bird man whose jacket I have a disdain for.

I even once wrote a fic out of spite because someone said something about Miruko and hyped up Hawks and I'm like "She didn't do anything to warrant this slander but alright". Ever since then, Hawks would sometimes be the butt monkey in my fics. I actually was thinking about doing a sequel to that fic, too.

For JJK, it only recently became Yuta. Now, unlike Hawks, I don't actually not feel anything towards Yuta. I do like him.

However, I have a deep seething hatred for those who constantly bash Yuji to hype him up. Yuta is cool, but he is not that fucking cool to bash Yuji. Come on now. I hate it whenever I go on a post anywhere and someone will talk about Yuji's accomplishments or just only mention Yuji and some assholes will be like "well, Yuta this" and "Yuta that". Yuta is rocking the teenage boy version of Yuji's mom's haircut, so stop.

9. Worst part of canon?

Okay, did Miruko have to lose 3 of her limbs? Her arm? I was fine with that. A leg, I was actually confused for a while as to how she even lost it until I went back and saw what happened but I don't think she should have completely cut it off. 😭 Her other arm? Okay... her and Edgeshot are definitely the Heroes who lost the most in the final war. Mind you, Miruko's Quirk has her use her limbs. I'm glad she got her a little bazooka in the end, but she low-key sacrificed a lot more than other Heroes.

I actually wrote a fic addressing that because I'm salty about it. It was my recent Miruko-centric fic.

Okay, for JJK... do I have anything? Nothing really actually aggravated me... okay, I think Choso shouldn't have died. Or Yuki. I think about them and start punching the air.

10. Worst part of fanon?

Where to begin here? I feel like there are so many things.

For JJK, I low-key have a disdain for the first person who misinterpreted Gojo would be a fucking playboy. Like, no he wouldn't be in a committed relationship because he can't be loyal because "he's a man, he has needs" or whatever bullshit reason. It's because he's a jujutsu sorcerer! And one of the busiest ones in top of that! Hell, we just found out what his schedule looks like, he wouldn't have time to commit!

There's also how dumb some people tend to make Yuji. Like... he's dumb, he even admits it but I think it's just more so that he's not motivated to learn certain things and he just thinks he is. He's smarter than what he (and the fandom) gives him credit for.

And some of the memes? Don't find funny at all. I actually got tired of the "Nah, I'd win" memes I kept seeing. And how Yuta would make fun of someone for having "No bitches". That's stupid, I hate it.

For MHA, again some memes I just don't find funny. Recently any meme I see about "Midoriya being a fast food worker", who makes them instantly has me wishing they step on a Lego. And just saying, fast food workers have probably done more for anybody than certain people. Or that "Katsuki stole Ochako" from him is definitely a case of "those are OCs with the same name" because we know damn well canon Katsuki ain't touching Ochako like that with even a ten foot long pole and vice versa on her end.

Playboy Katsuki? Yeah, not really my favorite portrayal of him in fiction like that. I can see him being very popular and having a lot of girl fans because that's canon, it makes sense. But hooking up with a lot of people? And using it as some "escape" or whatever? Yeah... eh...

Also, sometimes I feel like folks want to use that "Black Best Friend" trope on Miruko whenever it comes to Hawks and DabiHawks. Like, she got to be his hype man or something. The idea doesn't appeal to me really.

Choose Violence Ask Game

[merakiui]

AHHHHHH I LOVED THE RIDO FIC SO MUCH!!!

Well in my interpretation, the both of them were copying each other— in Riddle's case unknowingly and I just love the idea that there were implications of Tako, sleazy and disgusting Tako doing Riddle's favorite professor— dare I say his professor, yet nothing was confirmed except for the part where professor was late.

It could be Riddle reading too much on the appearance of the professor that he became so delulu!!! I'm not sure if I didn't understand the fic much (I apologize to you and to my fellow readers, English is my 4th language aside from my birth language huhuhu) but I really liked that you didn't exactly confirm and just gave subtle signs that are up to us if there were something going on or if we were adapting Riddle's pov in the matter, with him thinking to much and became paranoid ever since Tako came unto the picture.

BUT BUT it got me thinking, since Riddle is a goodie two shoes who's a nice and talented young individual. I wonder what his preference really is?

If given the chance will Riddle like the same girl who follows the rules and obedient—perfectly made for him or or would he choose the student who's the exact opposite of who he hoped to have as his own, someone who disregards the rules and instead does whatever she wants?

Back to the fic!! I'm sorry if the structure of this ask is too much, when I ramble too much I forget how to write coherently huhuhu, I love the line where Riddle said that Tako would be the one who'd destroy the professors life but he stated that Riddle would be the one who'd do both. And that's exactly what happened! The part where Riddle finally had enough and thought that Azul was smiling before he died.. I wonder if the sleazy Tako wanted that to happen? He set up the trap where he'd let Riddle's mind destroy himself and the thought that if Azul couldn't have the professor (if professor really was professional and had a strict student-teacher relationship) then Riddle absolutely can't have what Azul couldn't have?

YOU CAN'T TELL ME THAT ITALIAN AZUL ISN'T IN THE MAFIA!!

Love lots to you Mera!! I love all your fics and rambles of twist! It has me foaming in the mouth and I want to inject it into my every being. (⁠◍⁠•⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠)⁠❤

(＞ω＜)♡ THANK YOU SO SO SOOOOO MUCH OMG!!!!! Gently cradling your words and this ask!!!! It means so much. <3 I'm so happy you enjoyed the story and various aspects of it!! I loved writing about Riddle and Azul copying each other. It happens so suddenly that it's difficult to determine which one of them started it, but it's still jarring all the same from Riddle's pov.

And you're correct!!! I decided to leave the relationship between Azul and Reader ambiguous so that readers could theorize whether Riddle's paranoia has any credit or not. He seems like such a reliable narrator in the beginning, but when his obsession gets the better of him and those slivers of doubt and copycat behaviors worm their way in then his own sensible narration loses its veracity.

I'm so glad you liked the line about Riddle ruining both Azul and Reader's lives!!!! I felt like this >:) when I wrote it. Azul knows what he's doing, but he's going to continue being a cockroach rat about it because that's just how he is!!! Truly a troublesome tako... >_< and look what it got him: blunt force trauma. ;;; although Azul was probably prepared for the worst when he stepped into Riddle's room. In my heart, there's a sequel to this fic where it's revealed Azul was indeed practicing Riddle's handwriting to frame him for things he didn't do so the gravity of his crime seems even more severe and premeditated even though it was mostly a crime of passion. If tako's going down, Riddle is coming with him.

Italian mafia Azul....... 👁 👁 oh, he would be so terrible. One day I'll write a fic with mafia boss Azul x spy reader hehehehe.

I think Riddle's ideal girl changes with his character development. If it's keeping with twst canon, then pre-overblot he drools over the demure sweetheart from his hometown who his mother sets him up with because she approves of you and your demeanor. You follow the rules, you listen to authority, you're conditioned to be the perfect wife, etc. After his overblot and once he learns to be more lenient with himself and others, he'd enjoy a more outgoing, rebellious sort of girl. Or maybe he's always secretly admired that type but has only ever scoffed and turned his nose up at you because of your behavior. But now that Riddle's healing and doing all sorts of things behind his mother's back while he's away at NRC (and has the freedom to do so) maybe that type grows on him more than he realized it would.

( ꈍ◡ꈍ) hehe Riddle is so precious. Thank you again for enjoying my work, lovely anon!!!! Sending you all the love and joy and many sweet treats~~

[mixedcontents]

Thinking about how Alan and Alice love each other so much and what they're willing go go through for each other. Alan willingly being trapped in the dark place to get Alice out all his fighting for her and Alice willingly sacrificing herself in the second game knowing she'll be going to the dark place despite her absolute terror of the dark and her wanting to see and capture Alan/Scratch so badly she was willing to make so much of their apartment dark so he'd show up and her depression and grief so bad she probably would have succumbed to it had it not been for Barry who she did not like at all til after she got to know him truly without her husband and Barry loved Alan so much even though he went to hell and back he tried pretending it wasn't real and a reaction to the trauma of losing Alan and he spent the time since protecting and continuing Alan's work (being turned into shows/movies) and yet spent so much of his time caring for Alice in her grief despite his own saving her pulling her out of that darkness until she was able to pull herself out and stand on her own and yet even from across the country busy with Alan's work and meetings to get it perfect so Alan would be proud and happy with it were he there Barry still checks in with Alice daily and is gonna come back at the drop of a hat should she not reply for one day just all the love there and in the dark place we see Alan loving Alice wanting to get back to her and that's reflected a lot in the graffiti but also we see Barry there to like Wheeler Street and whatnot and then Saga and her grandfather and grand uncle and despite not knowing them feeling that connection and coming to love them they do everything to try to help and protect her walking into the dark place themselves her love for her daughter and husband her love for Alex Casey just it may be a horror story but at its heart Alan Wake is really a love story and it has been one of my favorite games since I played the first one and American Nightmare when they first came out 13ish years ago I was finishing up high school and so in love with the game for it's story and characters and unique and incredible game play and I desperately wanted all my friends to play and love it too and i desperately wanted more and then alan wake 2 was worth the wait and not knowing we'd ever have a sequel and then some it took what made the first game incredible and the love the fans had and the story and introduced new mechanics and characters and just built upon what made the first game incredible and more and I love it so much I was going through a really rough time and I was spending most of my time in bed trying to sleep the pain away and my depression getting bad bc i was unable to physically do anything and my mom was getting really worried about me as we waited for my specialist appointments (my mri for my knee is tomorrow finally!) And so I was like what can I do to convince myself to at least get out of bed and sit up for a while so i splurged and bought a ps5 earlier than planned just so i could play Alan Wake 2 cause it was the one thing I really wanted to do little did I know that the game would become the reason for getting out of bed excited for a new day and that it would help keep my own darkness (depression due to chronic pain and injury) at bay truly both games hold special places in my heart and mind for both what they are but also what they mean to me for the horrible things i was going through when playing them for the first time and the way they brought so much light and joy to my life may be a bit silly sounding to some but it means the world to me I truly am excited to play the dlc lake house when it comes out and I'm excited to see where Sam Lake goes next be it Alan Wake or new games I know I'll be happy to play em 💜💛🧡❤️