#im just so tried of seeing the wars on fictional character

[kstarlitchaotics]

It's funny to me on how people are still doing the childish thing about the whole Kori vs Babs thing with Dick

I don't know the full background with the comics but I do know especially in the early runs that both girls turn their backs on Dick at some point and whether it was on purpose or not people tend to forget about that and still do the whole vs thing don't get me wrong while I love both girls and enjoy the ships just remembering that at the end of the day I rather have Dick single than seeing him miserable and the fact most majority fans don't see this makes me even more sad

[importantstudentbusinessspy-blog]

Cold-hearted Wolf

Tags: Angst, fluff, arranged marriage, eventual smut, cregan is repressed and mean at first, then falls for the reader.

Master list

Pairing: Cregan Stark x Martell princess reader

All fiction, the reader is a made-up character. Im a long-time reader, but first-time writer.

Chapter 1 - Every decision Cregan Stark made was with a heavy sense of duty to his people. And this union, this upcoming wedding with the Martell girl, was no different. In his mind, you were just a pretty decoration, spoiled by the sun and riches of Dorne.

The skies over Winterfell were gray. The Martells of Dorne had arrived, bringing with them a warmth that was foreign to the North.

Cregan Stark was a formidable figure, trained to rule and fight from a young age. Past generations of Starks ran in his veins. Every decision he made was with a heavy sense of duty to his people. And this union, this upcoming wedding with the Martell girl, was no different. He saw it as a political move. In his mind, you were just a pretty decoration, spoiled by the sun and riches of Dorne.

You, on the other hand, were a bright-eyed girl. Though you have been trained in combat since a young age, as per Dornish custom, you had always been drawn to beauty – not war. The tales of the dashing Northern warrior had you intrigued. Since your announced engagement, you had imagined him with the ice of the North in his eyes and a heroic presence. And as the two of you finally met, you weren't disappointed. He was every bit the man of your dreams.

"You're as handsome as they say, my Lord," you offered with a smile and a bow, your voice tinged with genuine admiration.

Cregan simply nodded, taking you in. You were dressed in a gown the color of a sunset, your bare shoulders and collarbone a bit too revealing by Northern standards, and he could see the goosebumps lining your skin.

You began to second guess your wardrobe as you felt yourself shiver. Your maids tried to warn you of the exposed dress, however, you had told them that it would all be worth it once he sees your beauty.

You overheard a snicker come from the crowd. One of Cregan’s men, unable to resist, whispered loudly, "Looks like the sun forgot a few places."

You blushed as Cregan turned to give the man a deadly look, and the man's smirk instantly dropped.

Cregan’s icy grey eyes fixed on you again. "It's quite cold in the North, princess.”

You chuckled nervously. ”Yes, my lord. I seem to have forgotten.”

Instead of reciprocating your attempt at a joke, he took off the wolf hide around his shoulder and wrapped it around you. You accepted the warmth with gratitude.

“Perhaps in time, you'll learn to dress as befits the wife of a Stark." Was all he offered.

The words landed as a sharp jab. Your smile dropped as you looked down at yourself. You had tried, tried so hard to look beautiful for him, to make a good impression. Instead, you felt the weight of his disappointment.

The ceremony that followed was quite somber. Cregan was stoic. He did his duty, saying the words, making the vows, as did you. But there was a distance between the two of you. As the festivities went on, and the music played, he had not called upon you once to accompany him to the floor.

As you sat, your excitement slowly faded. You felt out of place. And as the night went on, you couldn't help but wonder if this marriage of convenience would ever know genuine affection.

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

On the morning after his wedding, Cregan woke up to an unusual sound – he could have sworn he heard footsteps echoing outside his window. The chill air from the cracked open window mixed in with the fire in the hearth as he rose from his bed of furs. He looked to his side and stirred when he didn't see his bride's sleeping form beside him.

His loyal dog stirred beside the bed. "Easy, Grey," Cregan whispered, his hand soothingly running through the thick fur of his pet, who settled back down.

A glance out the window revealed a figure descending the roofs of Winterfell. As Cregan squinted against the early morning sun, he saw a figure in tight riding leathers, hair escaping from the hood in a braid. The figure turned to assess the distance to the ground, and beneath the hood, he recognized your distinct features. Unaware of his gaze, you scaled down the tower.

Panic briefly gripped Cregan at the thought of you falling. However, as you maneuvered with ease, his concern turned to curiosity. "Where are you going, princess?" He asked no one in particular.

Quickly dressing and concealing his identity with a hood, Cregan descended the stairs of the castle, avoiding working servents to sneak into the barn.

In the quiet darkness of the barn, Cregan spoke softly to his horse, Storm, as he saddled him. He clicked his tongue, guiding the horse as he followed you out of the castle.

Amidst the early morning silence of Winterfell, Cregan spotted you again, tossing a rope around one of the gate's stone columns. With a graceful swing, you scaled the wall before landing nimbly outside the castle grounds.

Cregan urged his horse onward, determined to follow your path.

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

Having successfully snuck out of the castle (your gymnastics instructor was right in saying you would someday need the skill), you now stood behind a railing, quietly overlooking the jeweller at work in his shop.

Yesterday, the same jeweler had gifted you a stunning silver bracelet, crafted to resemble a viper wrapped around your hand. It occupied your thoughts pretty much the whole night, lighting the desire for a matching one for your other hand. Your early morning escapade confirmed the jeweler's location, and here he was—the handsome man, strands of grey hair falling on his forehead as he worked.

"What are you doing?" A voice whispered behind you.

You gasped, jumping to face Cregan, who leaned against the window with an air of anger, clad in riding leathers, his hood hiding part of his face. His eyes roamed over you in suspicion.

You blinked in surprise to meet his gaze. "My lord," you said, questioning. "Did you follow me?"

Raising a single brow, Cregan responded, "Merely concerned over my wife's reputation, what with the sneaking out of castle grounds, out of our marriage bed, no less, in the break of dawn."

Noting the harshness in his words, you retorted. "I don't see why there has to be an issue, given that everyone in Winterfell knows I belong to you anyway."

Something stirred within him at your words, and he took a couple of steps forward, backing you against the railing.

"That's right," he murmured, his voice low so as to not get you two caught. "It will be good you remembered it as well. Do you often sneak away into strange men’s homes?"

You, over your haze since last night, were unimpressed, maintaining your composure, responded, "Should I be alarmed by your sudden interest in me?"

Cregan, feeling oddly aggressive, leaned in, his lips dangerously close to your ear. "Alarmed or not, wife, I am the one who will leave a lasting mark on you."

Your heart sped up, and you felt an odd warmth in the pit of your stomach where his hand lay. You were a princess, after all. No one had ever spoken to you in such a commanding tone before.

You let him pull you through the window, and the two of you took his horse to find your way back to the castle. Neither spoke during the ride.

[writingquestionsanswered]

So Im currently trying to write my first big story - big as in I'm trying to make it a book - But im overwhelmed with what to do:

I want to write, but first I have to work out the acts and plot. But to do that I have to do some research as it's historical fiction. And that's where I'm failing, because I'm making very slow progress and it's frustrating. It also takes away the last of my motivation.

Do you have any tips on how I should proceed now or what might help?

(I might want to add that I'm working full-time outside and often can only work on weekends on it)

De-Motivated by Story Research Prior to Plotting

Research prior to plotting can be overwhelming and frustrating, so here are some tips that might help:

1 - Start with a General Summary - Before you worry about plotting out scenes and figuring out the different acts, try writing a beginning to end summary of what you want the story to be. Don't worry so much about specific details like dates, places, proper terminology or events, etc. Use general terms to fill those in. It might look something like this:

[[ SPOILERS for the novel Outlander by Diana Gabaldon ]]

A former English military nurse in the 1940s travels to Scotland and inadvertently travels back in time, to the 1700s, via standing stones near the inn where she's staying. There she encounters a band of smugglers and is taken captive and brought to the local laird's castle. Despite the suspicions of the laird and his war chief, they see her value as a healer and she settles in as the castle's healer-in-residence. During this time, she tries to figure out a way back to her own time, but also forges a friendship with one of the smugglers she patched up when she was first captured. Eventually, she is summoned for questioning by a British captain (who happens to be an ancestor of the husband she left in the 1940s) who suspects her of being an English spy, and the highlanders try to protect her by having her marry the highlander she patched up. Despite her attachment to her new husband, she runs away to the standing stones but is caught and imprisoned by the British captain. Once she is rescued by her new husband, they return to the castle where she gets wrapped up in a witchcraft accusation and narrowly avoids being burned at the stake. Finally, she and her new husband travel to his family castle, but since her husband is a fugitive, he is captured by British forces and taken to prison. The nurse is able to rescue him with the help of some of his clan, and they eventually escape to France.

[[ END SPOILERS ]]

While this is a fairly complete beginning to end summary of the first book in the Outlander series, it leaves out a lot of specific details related to time, setting, world, character development, etc.

However, going through this summary, it would be easy to see places where research needs to be done. Just looking at the first part of the summary, we can already see a lot of questions we could ask about specifics:

A former English military nurse in the 1940s travels to Scotland and inadvertently travels back in time, to the 1700s, via standing stones near the inn where she's staying.

-- Who is this woman? (Where is she from, where did she serve? Why does she go to Scotland?)

-- Where are the standing stones? What do they look like? How do they transport her back through time?

-- Specifically what year in the 1700s does she travel to? What is happening during that time?

This would give you some ideas about what, specifically, you need to research. Breaking it up in this way not only makes it less daunting, but gives you specific things to research instead of trying to learn a bunch of unnecessary data.

2 - Learn How to Research Historical Details - My Guide to Internet Research offers some general research pointers (though I probably need to update it, tbh). Also, I have a post specific to Researching an Historical Topic. Furthermore, there are some good books that guide you through researching historical fiction, as well as helpful books about specific time periods that are geared toward writers.

3 - Make Use of YouTube - I can't express enough how helpful YouTube can be when researching historical details. For example, if Diana Gabaldon were preparing to research and write the first Outlander book today, she could find videos about British nurses in World War II, specific places in Scotland where the book is set, videos about the history of the Scottish highlands, video about Scottish highlander culture, videos about clothing and fashion in 18th century Scotland, videos about the history of witchcraft in Scotland, videos about the British occupation of Scotland, videos about 18th century healing and medicine, videos about healing herbs of the Scottish highlands... you name it.

4 - Know Your Time and Dedicate Accordingly - One of the hardest things to remember when researching, plotting, and writing long fiction is that there is a certain amount of time it's going to take you, no matter what, and if you overestimate how much time you actually have to dedicate to your WIP in a given day, week, month, or year, it's very frustrating and de-motivating. One thing you might try is taking an honest look at your calendar for a particular week or month. For each day, subtract the number of hours you'll spend sleeping. Then, subtract the number of hours you'll spend working, commuting to work, traveling for work, etc.. Finally, subtract the number of hours you know will be dedicated to other necessities, like taking care of family, doctor appointments, workouts, etc. This may only leave you with barely an hour a day, but knowing you have that hour to dedicate to writing is important. Not only can you block off and fiercely guard that hour, but you can be more realistic about what you'll get done with the hours you have available in a given week.

5 - Don't Feel Like You Have to Rush It or Figure It All Out Now - We have a tendency to imagine a ticking clock where one doesn't exist. If this is your first long fiction story, especially, there is no reason to feel like you need to get this done post haste. Give yourself grace to take the time you need to get it done. Putting unnecessary pressure on yourself only demotivates you. Instead, try to look forward to that hour a night where you can dive into learning about the time, place, and world of your story. Also, don't feel like you have to know every specific detail before you start plotting or even writing. It's okay to research as you write--as you come to things you need more information on--or even to use placeholders in your first draft, allowing you to go back and fill in the research later.

Happy researching and writing. You've got this! ♥

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[kiriwiwii]

i REALLY need to rant about eichi right now.. cuz im soo tired of people not understanding him at all.

i hate how this fandom acts like he is the ONLY bad person in this game. i mean, he is not a "bad" person but he made a lot of mistakes in his school years and his methods were cruel, i know. but,, most of the enstars characters did bad things. it's just how the game goes.

as the story progresses we can clearly see eichi regretting his actions. and even if he did NOT regret it, we can still like his character since it's fictional and i believe it's okay as long as we don't support his actions.

shu and kaoru also had a bad reputation during the ! era, but they both had good character development afterwards. most people do the same thing to them as well. acting like shu never changed etc. or kaoru even mentions this IN THE GAME how he feels upset when people still care about his past actions.

well- the topic was eichi so let's get back at that... in my opinion, he is one of the best-written characters in the game. his inner thoughts and conflicts within himself are reflected very well. almost all of his motives make sense. people literally have no empathy for him which makes me upset. he grew up in a hospital and tried to live with the stress that he could die at any moment. none of his parents cared about him that much and he was so socially awkward that even if he managed to get out of the hospital he had a hard time making friends. him not understanding people and having a hard time feeling empathy comes from this. he grew up all alone, in a literal hospital room😭

and his intentions were always good. i don't recall a moment when eichi hurt someone just because he wanted to. it was always because he had lots of goals in his mind and since he could die at any moment, he wanted to succeed as soon as possible. that's why he tried to destroy everyone who got in his way. and that totally makes sense, adding that he's also not good with social stuff.

I KNOW he hurt a lot of people. i don't support him. i'm just trying to explain why i think he's well-written. actually, while reading the stories there were soooo many times i hated him and his way of doing things but i believe thats what makes his character so "human". he's very flawed and this makes him interesting, i love that.

also, he did get the consequences of his actions. whenever he did something bad he was aware of it and it led him to depression and hating himself. there are so many quotes of him saying he believes he deserves to die etc... and i remember in ! era, he kept having nightmares about the war and the things he did. so, he did suffer just like the people he made suffer.

we don't see this kind of regret in keito and tsumugi. and another thing- people always bash eichi for the whole "capitalism" thing and the stuff i talked about above, but they never do this to ibara?? I LOVE ibara, but i never saw someone blaming him for some of the bad things he did?? and bro is literally capitalism itself but no one even jokes about it that much😭 im sure there are other characters we can add here. some of them get treated like a baby and no one cares about the mistakes they did, but when it comes to eichi (or shu, kaoru, any other character you might wanna add) they despise him.

sure, everything eichi did was more visible, and it's easier to hate on him. but i believe he deserves recognition and love just like the other characters in this game.

this is it. sorry for yapping can't believe i'm defending this guy out here🙏🏻

[blueiight]

🔥

Do you agree with the (parts of) fandom take that there was "mutual" toxicity btwn Loustat? I'm trying to think of what exactly Louis does that's so toxic that would make it remotely mutual

i think the urge to find “mutual” abuse shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what power dynamics even look like lol theyre just discomfitted theres near zero openings for them to make a black male character out to be be a big brute and self insert into the fictional man of no color. louis is a master of language, and he never actually says ‘i love u, lestat’. people fixate on it for the wrong reasons, or misinterpret ppl pointing the fact that louis never said those 3-4 words as some false attempt at looking for “mutual abuse”.

louis is not withholding, but trying to claim some semblance of power thru his mastery of language. like @lynnenne said:

Over the course of the season, we see that Lestat is hurt that Louis never says, "I love you." On the surface, this seems like a personal argument between them, but it's actually a symptom of a huge structural problem in their relationship. How can Louis ever make a credible declaration of love when the power gap between them is so huge? …Louis could tell Lestat he loves him morning, noon, and night, but it would be meaningless. And Louis knows this. The one time he tries to leave, Lestat beats him nearly to death. When Claudia tries to flee, Lestat tracks her down and drags her home. They're only as free as the colonizer allows them to be. Lestat believes that vampirism will set Louis free, but he won't even set Louis free. Expecting society at large to be cowed by Louis's vampirism is a delusion on his part.

telling lestat “ima boutta lose the last fucking thing i ever cared about”, “u gone always be alone” [an echo of what armand and nicki told lestat in the books..] & insinuating lestat somehow knew the race riot would occur somehow is incredibly cruel if not erring on delusion w the belief lestat could predict racism but do recall lestat was just as incredibly cruel himself. louis tells lestat in the beginning of episode 3 how theyd gore runaway slaves in jackson square, lestat is a crash test dummy in response to the city leaders cracking down on the azalea, treating this enterprise of pimping as a mere “hobby” of louis like a husband talking down on his wife’s “hobbies” as both lestat and louis can both hear how racist the city leaders are.. was lestat tryna take a seat back& let louis kill them himself? yea and also this passivity in the face of men far weaker than lestat was w/ zero of louis’s obligation to ‘save face’ is jarring. so much for “if disrespect was done to u i wouldve killed him myself” hann les? and in the race riot lestat’s even tryna seduce him& have the riot be their anniversary? in wider context , louis saying those words is a lashing out, a response to treatment already present... and theres no equivalent to what lestat does physically to louis in ep5 that we see so far, and i guess that unnerves ppl& makes them want to draw upon mutual abuse theories? which is crazy cuz im p sure them mens of no color yall watch be tearing eachother up& yall have no problem shipping them otherwise w/o mutual abuse theorizing but i digress. imo what louis placed on & has done to claudia is far worse than w/e hes done to lestat but we all know fanon is generally far more sympathetic to fictional men of no color than they are to a fictional black woman... if by toxicity , they mean that lestat along w/ turning louis out [cant find a better way to phrase this] also draws out louis’s vile attributes & fans the flames for louis’s capacity for cruelty [embrace the beautiful things u r & embrace what u r, ur a killer, louis.] that was already there n i wrote this entire think piece for nothing, then i agree. but mutual abuse theories is just😂😂 i just want ppl to embrace we r all here for the problematic yaoi n stop tryna play stan wars.

[aihoshiino]

okay so no idea how i should refer to myself as so: hi!! im the person who had way too much fun writing ai/nino toxic yuri on ao3! i was gonna just lurk (me, tumblr account with privated likes, reblogs and follows) BUT how could i with the promise of people being normal about fictional unhealthy gay women. idk if this is the optimal way to communicate i use tumblr with the sole purpose of following 4 people and digging up ai content

i am honestly so flattered (but also kinda upset at the lack of content on them aside from my own 1k word long oneshot please keep recommending if you find more stuff on them) that you enjoyed and recommended my fics considering i just straight up had no clue where i was going: okay so top priority i want them to kiss —> but also with how things are nino would probably lash out (read: bite) —> ai would be hesitant but also is so desperate that she’d still accept it happily —> this will fuel ninos idea of ai being the perfect, invincible idol —> and then i ran and tried not to trip with the rest

your translations of the side stories and blog was probably what helped me get in to oshi no ko again because even though i am still not over ai being dead i can now listen to someone talk about how great and tragic and sad and miserable she was along with all the other characters so thank you again!

also that ask for ai/nino toxic yuri visions was me lol, thanks for talking about my fic despite how short it was <3, i might de-anon myself at some point but rn im too shy for that

woof, this got a bit long. anyways love wins fr, if there was ever a day where i participate in an onk shipping war it’ll be on the side of them

LMFAO OH MY GOD I'M SO SORRY TO HAVE JUMPSCARED YOU WITH YOUR OWN FIC 😭 WHAT A THING TO SEE ON YOUR OWN DASH....

that said it does make me so happy every time I hear people saying my relentless oshi no posting stands out to them to the degree that it does lol. I guess I'm in a similar place as you where, as happy as I am for it, it does make me a little sad that it feels like there's such little fan interest in lengthy meta and discussion on Ai herself outside of some really banal, surface level stuff. To a degree, I get that with other characters having so much more time on the page and having ongoing arcs to speculate about, but Ai is sooooooooo fascinating to me and it really drives me insane how often I see people make zero effort to engage with her arc beyond her utilitarian function in the story. It also really bums me out how often I see her get reduced to just a stepping stone in the arcs of other characters — even though the manga is literally shaking you right now and begging you to understand and empathize with her more than ever, I straight up see people cheering and crowing about Ruby 'surpassing' her or 'becoming the true Ai' as if this is a good thing and they are not completely fucking missing the point lmao.

ANYWAY!!!! That's enough grumping because the actual point of this response was to say: the Ai posting will continue until I am physically forced to stop!!!! I have so many thoughts about my wife constantly and if I do not share them I will explode!!!

(ps anon pspspspsp if you are ever feeling brave enough to unanon pls feel free to just send me your discord or your socmeds off tumblr if that is less intimidating for u.... honestly that goes for all my oshi no moots in general Please Talk With Me In DMs About My Wife)

[purple-iris]

20 questions for Writers!

been tagged by @sinvulkt in this awesome Tag game! thanks a lot!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Currently, I have a 19 works on AO3, working on making it 20 by the end of this month

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

Im at 131,179 words. Considering I have a few smaller works it makes sense

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I mainly write in the Star Wars fandom and Hetalia (but as of now solely fics that feature my APH Québec OC) But I have fics in the Good Omens fandom, Heathers the Musical, Five Nights at Freddy's Loki (TV), and I am currently writing a Harry Potter longshot

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Ring of Fire, the first part of my Deserter Darth Vader AU

What Are You Waiting For, a tragic Heather Chandler/Veronica Sawyer fic

Whatever's still to come, my Elizabeth Afton Lives au in the FNAF fandom

More beautiful than flowers... , a FrUK fic with lots of flower language.

Truth for the Daughter, where Leia finds out who Anakin Skywalker used to be in my Deserter Darth Vader AU

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I always try to respond to my comments, since I don't get so many, they are always welcome. I enjoy the feedback and the compliments, and I always want to respond! <3

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

What Are You Waiting For is definitely up there, considering one of the character of the main pairing is dead from the start.

I also have two super short fics in french about my Hetalia OC Québec that I consider gut wrenching, but they haven't been read much

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

The World We Knew, my Good Omens fix it fic after the devastating season 2 finale. it definitely has a lot of angst in it too, but the ending is pure fluff!

8. Do you get hate on your fic?

It has never happened, but at the same time I'm not a big author either.

9. Do you write smut?

I tried once, didn't go through with it. It was for a FrUK fic, which I didn't really like and deleted.

10. Do you write crossovers?

Before posting on AO3, it happened, it was a Marvel characters in Hogwarts thing.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No, but once again, I'm not very well known.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I wish!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

Yeah, the Marvel at Hogwarts thing a lifetime ago. And also a historical fiction that never got posted anywhere.

14. What‘s your all-time favourite ship?

Oooh that's a tough one! It varies like each months or so. I think I haven't even written much for it directly, but Anidala!

15. What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

My FNAF fic. I have a super long and detailed AU outline with complexe character growth and tons of family angst with the Afton and Lizzy eventually taking over Fazbear Entertainement, but I lack time. In the meantime, I made a few artworks of it under the tag elizabeth afton lives au if you are interested.

16. What’s your writing strengths?

I'd say the inner monologue and the highly emotional scenes. I love to delve on the psyche and add parallels that hurt just write and use gut wrenching metaphors.

17. What’s your writing weaknesses?

Highly action dense scenes. I struggle with the pacing because I picture it clearly in my mind and can't put it into words.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

It can be nice, but considering that sometime I see it with my own language, French, and with considerable mistakes, it can be annoying. I'd avise to contact someone who speaks that language a bit to crossverify google translate, that's much more fun for speakers

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Surprisingly enough, BBC Sherlock. The fic was on Wattpad and I haven't reposted it, it was a bit mid not going to lie.

20. Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

Not very controversial take, my favourite fic I've ever written is Truth for the Daughter. I've written it in the kitchen, with my own step-dad checking up on me as I struggled with some scenes. It may be full of father-daughter angst but it was written with a lot of father-daughter love. It is dedicated to my step-dad, who passed away last year because of that, and so is Interlude: A son and his father , which I completed not long before his passing. These parental fics just hold a special place in my heart <3

Well this was nice!

To conclude, I'd like to tag : @dreamingamongthestars @yaqamole @claralarmclock @phe-oh-no and any other author mutual I might have forgotten!!

[that-one-queer-poc]

3 8 & 11 for the ask game? hope ur doing okay :)

GOOD LIRD I DIDNT SEE THIS TILL NOW . SORRY :3

i’m putting the summary response first so you know what im talking abt, so this world has 6 types of genetic magic and 5 skill levels for each, there’s the typical air water fire earth, then there’s light, and then there’s a type that can use the first most basic skill level for the other 5. <- those guys are oppressed and genocided, also sort of the light ppl but to a lesser extent. it mainly takes place on an underwater island, that was sunken by magic users during a civil war ABOUT the oppression, unfortunately it was blamed on the oppressed and they were all killed unless they escaped the island.

so the main character of the actual story lives 2 some centuries after that war, the magic racism is still alive and well and it’s getting kinda worse for the light ppl. but holy shit she finds out that she’s half light person!?!??!11?!?11!?? (bc of how the genetics works light is the only magic that someone can have alongside another, she has fire + light) so she tries to hide it from everybody while learning abt her new magic and she realizes she’s been propagandized her whole life. and then there’s conveniently someone from the genocided magic group and he’s from the surface, and she escapes w him back to the surface and (this is where it gets hazyish) joins the rebellion . and also meets her mom who she thought was dead or something. yeag 👍🏽

ANYWAYS motifs. i have no clue how well i’ll execute them but our main girl is not a fan of living underwater so the water is gonna represent death and discomfort and a lack of belonging and such, while the sun (and all other above ground things) are gonna be life and joy and natural beauty. the island is also called sunora and the land it’s off the coast of is monalia, something something sun and moon. and main girls name is solana bc i’m sooo subtle. but it’s gonna be so fun writing her experiencing all that stuff for the first time :3

so the worldbuilding. glaringly obviously atla inspired, also the lost city of atlantis i guess. i promise i’m cooking guys. but also i saw a tumblr post a while ago i can’t find it anymore but it said if you need words for your fiction just take words that describe it and mismatch them. i do NOT remember how i got what i got but it kinda fits the vibes so i’d say it worked. the names of the magic are bowamagia (water, blue) doremagia (earth, green) wiramagia (air, gray) filamagia (fire, red) chromagia (light, gold) and poleamagia (all, purple) also the colors associated w that magic are the color of the users eyes. so solana has heterochromia. bc i am smart and big brained

[enzombie]

Ranking the commanders of FG properly:

⁽ⁿᵒ ʳᵉᵃˡˡʸ ᵗʰᵃᵗ ʳᵉᵈᵈᶦᵗ ᵖᵒˢᵗ ᵈᶦᵈⁿ'ᵗ ᵘᵖˢᵉᵗ ᵐᵉ ᵒʳ ᵃⁿʸᵗʰᶦⁿᵍ⁾

Disclaimer I am ranking them as fictional characters because that's what they are, obviously real-life would rank wildly different. Audience likeability comes into it. The biggest crime a fictional character can commit is irritate the audience, and the murders didn't actually happen. Anyway,

Vivian - the perfect commander to introduce FG actually. she was cool, she was charming, everyone loved her. she made good decisions and dealt with shit well I think. good commander all round. what more do you need. ALTHOUGH my issues with zombie island do impact her ranking because she was a believer in it and I have so many issues with zombie island so overall 8/10 because she was epic and a good leader but her long-term plan was extremely shaky

Chase - I liked Chase. he had to deal with a lot more than he bargained for honestly and that's Carey's fault. also I've said this before but Major didn't help. Major complicated a lot for Chase and he's also the one that gave him the advice that made him go ahead with the OG Renegade execution that made him a villain. honestly I don't have any big issues with Chase. I think he tried his best. I think the circumstances got to him a bit but I don't think he did significantly worse than anyone else would've. I'm giving him a 7/10 because he did the best he could and I can't hold that against him

Major - listen. as a character, I like Major. when he's interacting with Liv and Ravi I'm like 'this guy :D' the moment he's at FG tho. brother. this guy not cut out to be a commander. you cannot lead a military government just because you're the most popular with the bros. Hobbs did a misjudge on that. Major doesn't DO anything. there are actual hatecrimes happening and he's like "we cant do anything about it or it'll look bad :/" like DUDE. like CMON. some of his men were killed in action because of his lax policies and he's like "I can give you their backstories. no justice only backstory." sir I know you're in over your head but a little effort. also I think FG just brought out the worst in Major even before he was commander. not even talking about the child soldiers, just his general character. like go home and play video games with Ravi man you're scaring me :( but yeah that's why we're here at 2/10 because he was too worried about being as uncontroversial as possible to actually do he job

Enzo - READ MY USERNAME AND WEEP. THIS MAN CAN DO NO WRONG AS FAR AS IM CONCERNED. IF HE WANTS TO DO A LITTLE KILLING SOBEIT. HES EARNED IT. but in seriousness I'm not fully convinced he knew what he was doing. props to him for wanting to stick up for zombies and put an end to the hategroups tho. but his way of going about things was.... perhaps terrible? but like he tried to get anyone else to do it. finally decided "be the change you want to see in the world new seattle" and then proceeded to stumble and fall on his face. the effort was there. the civil war didn't help his public image either. in terms of leadership, solid 4/10 because his heart was in the right place, he had potential, but he definitely could've done a lot better (sorry bro)

[vibinglikethat]

my thoughts and feelings about jedi survivor (spoilers ahead)

ok so i've finished the storyline of jedi survivor and i thought i would express my many feelings about this amazing game (in case i wasn't obvious lol, i LOVED it.)

so the game takes place 5 years after jedi fallen order, and of course lots of things have happened between JFO and JS, one of which is the crew went their separate ways and it becomes clear that cal wasnt happy with that. eventually they all reunite and everything is nice and there is hope and then you remember this is star wars and it's set during the empire and so that hope turns to dust real quick and it's AGONIZING.

GOD i can't stop thinking about bode and his betrayal i dont remember the last time i was so fucking shocked over a character's betrayal, i was never shocked with anakin because uhhh yeah he was always meant to be darth vader lol, but with bode??? i did NOT see it coming. it especially sucks because i really liked him. and the fact that he used to be a JEDI???? THAT FUCKING SHOOK ME TO THE CORE. i feel so bad for his daughter OH my god :( she lost her parents at such a young age i want to cry (I LOVE that merrin especially tries to help and comfort her because she can relate im going to sob)

cere junda.....oh man. oh god. my love for cere is endless and im still processing her death (YES I KNOW SHES A FICTIONAL CHARACTER I CANT HELP HOW I FEEL LOL) i actually already kinda knew she was going to die because i saw gifs but i feel like i would have been even MORE upset if i didnt know because OH my god.........the darth vader and cere fight scene was SO cool though like tragedy aside i loved being able to do that omg you cant really properly fight darth in JFO and i loved that you could this time while playing as cere

god cal crying while holding her body wrecked me.....i wont be forgetting that anytime soon, if ever.

CAL AND MERRIN ARE ROMANTICALLY INVOLVED OH MY GOD I LOVE THEM SO MUCH im gonna admit and say i never called myself a cal/merrin shipper but i HAVE loved their dynamic and i love romance so im definitely shipping them now lol (MERRIN BEING THE FIRST TO INSTIGATE THEIR KISS.....WE LOVE TO SEE IT)

greez........i love greez :) i DO want to know what happened to his arm because OH my god wtf anyway i love that he has a saloon, good for him. this game made me love him even more. he just loves his found family :((( AND OH MY GOD HE WAS SO HEARTBROKEN AFTER CERE I WANT TO THROW UP

this is getting absurdly song omg sorry lol im sure im forgetting some things but these are the most significant moments that happened and i wont be forgetting anytime soon lol

also btw i straight up cried during the funeral scene which is the last scene that plays before the credits. the force theme played which probably contributed to my tears lol

anyway the ending was perfect, this game is perfect, the emotional devastation is perfect, the gameplay is perfect, i cannot recommend this game ENOUGH. if you like star wars and souls-like games. if you've read this far please feel free to reblog and say "so true op" in the tags lol

[song-linked-from-nine-verses]

/OKAY so !! Thought process under the cut

to start: the name: Probably the most difficult thing to think of ever. Literally at least 20 names was coined for the math rock band, and none of them stuck---

I wanted something that alludes to canon while staying true to the random/questionable-ness of a lot of indie band names.

I got this name from while talking about the timeline mess that Four, Wild, and Wars all run into for LU. They all have some *thing* about their games that really mess up the timeline when people write LU fanfiction.

On the math rock side of things, I can definitely see the three of them brainstorming a name for their band. One of the features of the genre is odd time signatures. Breaking the normal time signatures, as they would probably say, and, I can imagine one of them coming up with Time Breakers, which eventually leads to Timeline Breakers

The reason I gave Four drums is just that, one time, I thought about Four splitting into four and play 4 rhythms simultaneously, making him probably a polyrhythm god. Warriors... well.. I just... find him attractive.... also I find bass players attractive.......... so

Plus! His game and instrument is underrated, and he would definitely feel that he deserves more recognition (though I have seen more and more fictional bass players that arent just side/mellow type characters by the time of writing this)

His strap being long is because

a. I want to translate his LU design into this au, which means im going to have to think of ways to reference the scarf. His strap will look just like his scarf, and its going to be super long as a result.

b. One time i saw a bassist who puts his straps like that, to quote "Play easier" (although, i saw that months after making his straps a ref to his scarf. happy coincidences)

There is zero reason behind guitarist Wild other than the fact that I imagine breaking strings.

Speaking of breaking strings: One of the songs written by Owen (who used to be in American Football), is No Place Like Home, which has a tuning of DGCBAC, which I have heard would constantly break- in true Wild fashion, I bet he must have tried to tune his guitar as such, and the already old instrument must have seen a horrible fate. multiple times.

All the bands they like are actually 3-pieces, except toe. But in terms of playing, Id imagine they would rearrange an assortment of bands, like Tricot and Suichu Spica, or my favourite Origami JP (GO LISTEN TO ALL OF THEM. Please. *staring* )

about FACGCE: i would meme it when talking about a sad thing, because its the tuning of Never Meant and that song is emo to a hilarious degree (such is any midwest emo songs imo. and i have, historically, find angsty breakups funny- i am so, so sorry). When I first hear the song, i said: This song is so overrated- (NO SHADE OF COURSE! Its one of the pioneers of math rock, afterall)

About 9 Verses: Math Rock band

, or as they call themselves: The Timeline Breakers!

A three-piece, instrumental, math rock/post rock/midwest emo band (these genres are closely related, afterall) who wishes they were a quartet or have a least someone who can sing properly.

Mostly does instrumental covers/ rearrangements of popular songs into math, or rearrange songs so that they can play without an extra guitar. Although, to quote Wild: "I need an extra player, there's not enough OOPHM!"

Wild, Warriors, and Four all can technically sing, but in true indie fashion, it is super rough on the edges.

Players:

Wild: Guitarist. Will meme in the middle of the song. Still dealing with the lost of his old band, the Champions. Is the one who started this band, and loves the (in his words) "jumpy, bouncy but also can be solemn and somber of math rock". Never Meant was his first introduction to the genre as a whole. Hence, he always breaks his strings and constantly have to replace them.

Warriors: Bassist. Plays bass like a guitar actually. His straps is superlong but, in his words, "He likes it this way." Super flashy and likes to show off while playing. Also will meme in the middle of the song. He feels like his instrument is super underrated, but instead of trying to just play as a guitarist, he'd much rather show people the importance of a bassist.

Four: The drummer. Has to handle these idiots, although that's not to say he isn't a gremlin himself. Has beat the other two in the Polyrhythm Heaven level multiple times. His family business is in cymbal smithing and he also owns a 3D printer.

While they all like math rock, each prefer a different flavour

Warriors: Think, the early albums of Elephant Gym. Bass-driven, bouncy math rock, lots of stuff for him to show off, plenty of tapping.

Wild: Hyakkei, slow, enjoy the scenery style. Not exactly Math, they lean toward Post in terms of genre, but who cares, Wild vibes with them the most.

Four: Definitely prefers toe. Creative drums, probably one of the most well known bands of math rock. Uchu Combini is a close second. Cheerful, joyful music, curious sounds, perfect for looking down and checking bugs. Although, he definitely does not understand the lyrics.

[sixofpomegranates]

spencer was too busy talking to morgan that he didn't see you also being too engrossed in a conversation and as you pass each other he literally smacks you in the face bc his hands are moving so much. "im ok Spencer, really" "uh, your nose is bleeding"

♞𝙲𝚒𝚗𝚗𝚊𝚖𝚘𝚗 𝙱𝚞𝚗♘

Pairing: Spencer Reid x gn!Reader

A/N: Okay! This one is SO SWEET and I even managed to make a GN!Reader!!

CW: Fluff | Mentions of Blood, Pining, Apologies, Consumption of Food,

**********

*picture does not describe the looks of the reader* **********

When we weren't on a case, work was basically always the same. Paperwork, paperwork, Morgan teasing Reid, lunch with Penelope and JJ, paperwork, paperwork, paperwork. You could say, by now I knew the drill.

For today's 'How can I annoy the boy genius enough that he starts sulking for the rest of the day?' Morgan had decided to walk into the bullpen and announce that Star Trek and Star Wars were the same and basically just Dr. Who with more 'Space Toys'.

Needless to say, he had gotten Reid to ramble for about twenty minutes now. Poor baby's throat must've been so dry from all the talking but he just couldn't stop himself.

Morgan had tried to get him to stop talking and throwing his excitedly fidgeting hands but yeah, once he was in this special space of sharing his knowledge, he didn't stop unless rudely interrupted. That had actually been the first lesson Hotch had taught me when I started working for the BAU a few months ago.

Interrupting Spencer rudely was the most heartbreaking thing I had ever seen, he would get so insecure that he barely allowed himself to talk afterward. Afraid he would say too much again.

So I had set up an 'Interrupting Spencer'-Jar.

You're being a meanie to the smart boy? You're gonna put in a dollar as punishment and at the end of the month, Reid would get the money or the chance to invest it into his favorite Donuts, chocolate glaze, and sprinkles.

The sweetest thing was that he would use the money to get everyone something they liked. Not just himself. The pretty boy was simply too pure.

Okay, I'll admit it. I might've had a decently sized crush on him. But hey! Can you judge me? That long light brown hair, hazel puppy eyes, and cute smiles were absolutely irresistible. And I am not even going to start about his personality.

Sadly Spencer was extremely shy and very reserved around people when first meeting them, and even befriending him had taken me way longer than it normally did. But that was okay, maybe something would work out between us, or I would continue to be friends with the sweetest cinnamon bun in human form I knew.

Looking up from my book, I could see Morgan getting this one vein of annoyance on his temple, the one he usually got before becoming duchy to our friend. Quickly I got up, still reading my book because this chapter just started to become interesting, and walked over to Spencer's desk, so I could collect the fine for interrupting him.

Stopping next to Spencer, I could hear the rasp in his voice from all the talking. "All I am saying is that Star Trek is science fiction while Star Wars is a science fantasy. Star Trek focuses on technology and its possibilities. Meanwhile, Star Wars-"

Just as I was about to find out if my main character would finally confess her love for the morally grey – but nonetheless handsome – antihero, I started seeing stars.

Through all his eagerly waving with his hands, Spencer had hit me in the face. A solid hit, might I say. I hadn't thought that skinny sweetheart could hit so hard.

My hand instinctively rose to my face and I looked that Spencer in shocked surprise. He looked back at me completely mortified. Hands still in the air, mouth slightly open, and eyebrows looking like they were about to jump off his face and escape to Mexico.

"[y/n]," he exclaimed, voice becoming high pitched like a chipmunk's. "I am so sorry. Oh my god. I am so, so sorry. I didn't know you were standing there!"

He looked like he was about to cry from the guilt he felt, so I moved my hand from my face and powered a gentle smile through the pain. "Don't worry," I assured him. "I'm fine, Spence. Really."

Instead of calming down, however, he became even paler and started to frown, while Morgan swiftly walked to his desk. "Uh, [y/n]," Reid whimpered. "Your nose is bleeding."

Was it? I promptly touched the spot of throbbing pain in my face, and when removing my hand again concluded: Yep, I was bleeding...Come to think of it, I actually also felt a little dizzy.

Spencer seemed to have noticed this, as his hand quickly grabbed me by my shoulders and made me sit down on his office chair. Taking my book from my hands and laying it on his desk, he kneeled down on the floor in front of me. As Derek came back with some paper tissues, he quickly took them, pressing them on my face to stop the bleeding.

I wasn't sure if it was the sight of Spencer kneeling on the dirty ground for me, although his germophobic heart must've been running miles and he already thought about burning his dress pants, or the concussion he had given me, but I giggled a little.

"I'm okay, Spence," I tried telling him again, making him shake his head.

"I am so sorry. I- I would never-"

I laid a hand on his shoulder to make him stop apologizing, "It was an accident. Not the first time I took a blow to the face. FBI, remember?"

Our eyes met and I swear to god this would've been one of those adorable moments you read about in novels, wouldn't there be about twenty tissue papers shoved into my face.

I grabbed them from Reid and was just about to tilt my head back and wait until the bleeding stopped, when he jumped up, hand moving to my head.

"L-Lean forward," Spencer said shakily, brushing over my back like he tried to clumsily comfort me. "Never tilt your head back. That could cause blood to run down the back of your throat, and you swallow it. It could irritate your stomach and cause you to vomit."

Well, it was romantic for a second at least. I'd simply re-write the rest of it in my daydreams.

*****

Until lunch, my nosebleed had stopped and I was more than relieved to find out that I hadn't accidentally bled onto my book. It was a collector's edition cover and I swear I would've burned down the freaking building if I'd messed it up.

Reid still apologized to me every time our eyes met. And honestly, I would lie saying I didn't enjoy the fact that he seemed unable to look away from me.

Sure, I would've liked it better if it would've been for my lovely looks and not for almost breaking my nose, but again, that was a job to fix by the daydreaming department in my head.

When I came back from lunch with JJ and Penelope, I sat down on my desk, noticing a little yellow sticky note on my laptop saying 'Sorry' with a sad-looking smiley drawn next to it.

I couldn't help but giggle. Spencer had probably no idea how perfect he was to me.

Then I registered the small, baby blue carton with a bamboo fork next to it. It was from a bakery in DC, one of those new, trendy ones you had to stand in line to get in. Opening it curiously, my eyes fell onto a still warm, deliciously smelling cinnamon bun.

A cinnamon bun from a cinnamon bun.

I wanted to thank Spencer before eating it but his place was empty, therefore, I closed the box again and walked into our break room. Still no Spencer. But instead, I found Morgan, probably texting some woman he was currently wooing.

"Hey, have you seen Reid?" I asked, grabbing his attention and suspiciously sweet smile. "No. But he left something on your desk for you."

I nodded. "Yeah, I know. That's why I was looking for him." Morgan shrugged. "Well, if you already know... He's parking Hotch's car."

"Okay," I said confused. Spencer didn't like driving, and then also driving someone else's car? "Why?" I asked, making Derek chuckle.

"He spend his whole lunch break driving to that bakery you and Garcia were talking about the other day. He wanted to get you something sweet, so you don't hate him."

Butterflies scattered in my chest, "I could never hate him. Especially not for something so little."

Taking a bite from his sandwich, Derek chuckled. "Pretty boy's crushing really hard on you. "

"Not funny, Morgan," I said a little annoyed, getting myself a cup of coffee. Penelope was the sweetest person in the world but a freaking tattletale. She had definitely told Morgan about my feelings for Reid.

"I'm not joking," he insisted. "Which sane person would spend over an hour on a workday getting a cinnamon bun for a friend?"

"A sweet one?" I answered sassily, having him shake his head. "Suit yourself. Then pass out on pretty boy."

No chance in the world that my feelings for Spencer were mutual. I would've noticed it by now, wouldn't I? This was just a prank from Morgan, causing me to key his car later.

Just as I was about to walk out of the break room, I could see Reid hurrying back to his desk, quickly stopping by mine to lay a white flower next to the cinnamon bun on my desk.

"He really is a pretty boy, huh?" I asked practically into the air around me, watching Spencer sit down in his place, brushing his hair out of his face, and straightening his tie in an effort to not look like he had been on the run for the last sixty minutes while I was on my break.

Morgan nodded, mostly still staring at his phone. "Wouldn't call him that just to be mean. I may tease him but I like that little nerd."

Maybe – and I really hated to admit it – Morgan was right and Spencer was crushing on me. He was too sweet and definitely too shy to ever ask me out, especially now that he had given me a concussion.

Turning to Morgan, I asked, "Do you think he would go out with me if I'd ask him?"

He let out a grunt, shrugging, "You'd be risking killing him with a heart attack from the excitement but maybe he survives it."

Rolling my eyes, I started walking out to the bullpen. "Thanks, Morgan." "Anytime," he called after me with a laugh. "Go get him, tiger."

Back at my desk, I stopped and looked at the flower there. A dahlia. My favorite. Biting my bottom lip to stop myself from smiling like a fool, I grabbed my sweet dessert and the fork, walking over to Spencer.

"Hi," I greeted him, leaning on his desk while he tried appearing like he hadn't stared at me the whole time, putting a stack of files from one spot to another on his desk.

"Oh, Hi," he answered, already starting to blush as he saw me holding the small carton. "I- I hope you like it. How- How is your nose?"

"Completely fine," I smiled, making him frown. "Are you sure?" I nodded, "One hundred percent."

He mirrored my nodding for a moment before I could hear his stomach growl. His blush deepened and I realized that he had really, absolutely done nothing else than trying to make things up to me.

"Thank you for the cinnamon bun, Spence," I told him. "But you didn't have to starve yourself for it. I'm not mad."

"I- I just was really sorry. Still am." "I know." Staring down on my carton, I asked, "Hey, how about we share it?"

He quickly shook his head. "No, no. It's yours." "It would taste better if we'd both enjoy it," I insisted, grabbing my chair and sitting down next to Reid.

Splitting the cinnamon bun in the middle, I handed him the fork – sticky hands made him a little nervous – and ate my half with my fingers. It tasted amazing and I started to understand the hype around this bakery. Fluffy, sweet, and delicious... Just like Spencer.

"Hey, Spence?" I asked him, making him nod his head in acknowledgment because he had just stuffed his mouth with a big piece of the cinnamon bun. God, he made my heart flutter.

Taking a deep breath, I asked, "Do you think you'd might wanna go out with me sometime?"

His chewing stopped and he looked at me stunned, swallowing the content of his mouth almost choking on it. "Like- Like a...?" He sounded hopeful but unsure, so I nodded unable to hide my foolish smile.

"Like a date," I answered, making him giggle.

"Yes, I- Wow. I am so glad I hit you in the face!" With that he stopped smiling for a second, afraid he had just messed up.

But it reappeared as I began laughing. "Yeah. Me too."

[aengelren]

1,5,6,7,8,11,12,13,15,16,17,20,22,25,26,27,28,30,31,34,35,36,37,50

Smash or pass mike or nicoolo

♡ Thank you for this ask (im late as ever)

Note: I will make a more detailed post about my thoughts on 139 and the ending and esp Eren. But I lightly touched on it below

Smash niccolo

What was your first impression of the show?

I was shocked, did not expect such a perfect first episode. unlike many i know, i got attached immediately. Like i imagines the pain of seeing my mom be in a such a situation and how i would feel so helpless. unlike Eren, i wouldn't be able to go on

Who was your favorite character originally? Did it change?

it was Eren, it's still Eren. I used to be much more attached to Mikasa than what i am now though

Who was your least favorite character initially? Did it change?

Annie, Zeke and Bertholdt. Changed my mind on Zeke heavily and now i love Bert. Still don’t like Annie. Don’t like pieck either

Favorite season?

Can’t choose, love them all but s1 always has a special place in my heart. S3 part 2 was seriously the best experience I’ve had with fiction along with declaration of war in s4 part 1 PLUS!! S4 part 2 Eren plottwist and the “two brothers” episode

Favorite episode?

Can’t choose i have too many

In your opinion, who had the greatest glow up?

Him but he’s always been beautiful. But Eren has always been pretty. Can’t say the same about Armin and Jean so them too ig

Worst glow up?

No one (maybe someone but I won’t say it hehe, it’s a guy)

One thing you’d change about the story?

Story is actually perfect and I’ll never consume anything close to it. I’d want to see more Eren pov & more of the Jaeger household when they took Mikasa in. Like when she told Eren about the scar etc

Controversial opinion?

Eren rawdogs every Aot character in terms of everything (shouldn’t be controversial but Aot fans are<)

Would you go to the AOT world? What would your role be?

I would say yes but then immediately regret it lol. My role would probably serve as fodder or clinging onto someones hip

What twist genuinely surprised you?

Eren’s “death” in episode 5 of the show, Bertholdt and Reiner’s reveal+Eren orchestrating his whole life

What was the hardest death for you?

Okay so for anime only, it’s Carla, Sasha and Erwin. The saddest one is a manga spoiler

Original uniform or timeskip uniform?

Original cuz green is my favorite color but the new one is sexy

What character grew on you?

Zeke, Ymir, Historia, Magath🙄 and Gabi(?) in some episodes. Reiner and Bertholdt too and i remember Levi growing on me after Erwin’s death

Who would be your best friend irl?

Eren and Armin and Ymir probably:)

Who would you hate irl?

Christa perhaps?

What’s your favorite of the 9 titans? Would you be willing to be a titan shifter?

My favorite is the Attack by far, just how it embodies freedom and keeps moving forward. Basically Eren in a titan. I would be if i lived in their world

Who would be the worst person to be paired with on a group project?

Ymir(freckles) and Gabi

Favorite trio?

No one compares

You're at a bar, list five characters you’d trust to hold your drink. Who’d you trust the least?

I’d trust Eren, Mikasa, Armin, Hange and Jean

I wouldn’t trust Pieck

Is there a character you really see yourself in? Why?

In Eren i see what i want to be. Mentality wise. I kind of have the same mindset, wanting to know more about the world and purse beyond our knowledge. Difference is: he does it, he tried. And I don’t. I also think i used to relate to Mikasa? Like just for loving to unconditionally

Did you read the manga? Do you have a favorite panel / scene?

Yeah, I’ll make a separate post abt it

Character(s) you’d love to share a beer or two with?

Grisha, Erwin, Zeke, Keith, Sasha’s dad

Be honest, what did you think of the ending?

SPOILERS⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️

Thematically perfect, like actual perfection. Only “problem” was execution in some scenes and it was a bit rushed. They’ll fix that in the anime so it’s all good🙏

My thoughts on ch 139 Eren: now to Eren. We can see in ch 121, Eren says “I’ve always been me, since birth”. In chapter 73 we hear him talk about freedom in a possessive way. In chapter 1 (before his mom got eaten and he got the Attack titan) we can see him obsess over not wanting to live like cattle. The thing with Eren is, he’s always on pursuit for freedom. Yet he’s never satisfied, because it’s never what he imagined. That is because he has a negative view on freedom. So what does this lead to? An obsessive pursuit. When Armin asked Eren why he did it in chapter 139, Eren said “I don’t know”. Now this, is the most miss interpreted line in Aot. The line wasn’t meant to be taken literally. He says “idk” because be doesn’t know, he doesn’t know why he was born with such a need to move forward and find freedom. He doesn’t understand his obsession with it. Read ch 121 and 73 and you’ll notice it. Even if he “doesn’t understand it” it’s still clear as day for him what he wants. That’s what adds a layer to it & makes his choice of path intentionally convoluted for us viewers to understand. The manga never highlighted Eren’s actions as heroic, and Armin didn’t speak on behalf of the world. Eren was declared a devil in the eyes of the world before he ever did anything. Then he proved them to be right. But in the eyes of his friends? He was still Eren. They ALWAYS talked about how wrong it was (except Jean) and Armin didn’t exactly thank him for it. It was more of a brother to brother farewell. Eren and Armin’s relationship was severed at the ocean. They didn’t share the same view on freedom. While Armin sees beauty, Eren sees a threat to freedom. When Armin asked why, he was trying to understand. “Why Eren?” “Why did u want it? Why have u always wanted it?” And it’s simply Eren’s nature to be destructive. Aot is a lot about nature vs nurture and the origin or life. What do i have to support that Eren’s nature is destructive? Well, he carved out his own tragic path in life by sheer will. He was raised with love but ended up thinking differently than Zeke who was raised to think the way Eren does but instead has the mindset that Eren should’ve had. If he were to be normal. Which is where the nature vs nurture argument plays in perfectly. Furthermore, Eren acknowledged his unhinged nature. One that he’s always battled with. He understood that if he weren’t to be stopped, he’d never free Ymir. He’d join his like a slave to his will forever in void. Which is why he trusted the task to Mikasa, stopping it before it was too late. To summarize it, 139 was perfect for Eren’s character and nature. I can’t imagine anything else being fitting? The Aoe stories just make him the average shounen mc who wants revenge. Eren grew past that in ch 91 and later in chapter 123 AND chapter 131. The only thing i want is more Eren pov. I want to know more about what went on though his mind so people (obviously many) who don’t understand his nature, might actually do.

you know, people love to complain about the ending and “wanting more” yet they fail to realize what we even got, lol. People still don’t get why Eren did the rumbling. They still don’t get that he’s always been this way, or how insane he actually turned. Nor to they understand the point of: as long as humans exist=conflict exists. Another thing, the titan curse did NOT come back😭like I’m sad that stupid people consume Aot. Shocker: Ymir did NOT love Fritz. She thinks she did. So it’s not Stockholm syndrome either. People love to analyse hidden messages but apparently when it comes to the ending, the thinking skills just suddenly disappear.

Let me make something very clear, if your reason for hating the ending is because Eren didn’t put his dick in a woman. Log out for me. there’s a reason erehisu fans were a minority. And it’s not because Isayama “portrayed them as—🤓” “drew a sketch of Eren and Historia🥺” “said in a interview🥱” no. By that logic, i can make up the same arguments saying Eren was in love with Reiner. majority ship Eremika or Eremin. I’m gonna be honest, I don’t understand where eh came from since the timelines never even matched? And Eren has always leaned against Mikasa so? But ig that’s why the shippers are a minority. Now, I’m not against any legal ship, (or if you do ship them) but if you’re mad Eren didn’t cream pie then your comprehension skills and miss-directed expectation of the series is beyond embarrassing. There’s a reason every EM knew how the story would end even before the last chapters and we were right🤷‍♀️

“Imagine being so unable to admit that your interpretation may have been wrong and/or so unwilling to change your mind that even when the author himself tells you "that was a bad take" you'd literally rather come up with an insane conspiracy theory without evidence to justify that you were actually right the whole time and no, it was the source material itself that was wrong!”

Isayama was 19 when he started, I’m 20 and i can’t imagine. The story us perfect and I’m sad people who use the term “chad” even get to have an opinion on it. At the end of the day, if they want “chad”. Eren did kill his mom and dad. Basically his whole family. He did face death without a blink of the eye. But he had a heart to heart with his best friend after they ignored his state for the past 4 years, he relived every horrific memory ever and omg 😱 “Eren is ruined” no. I love him more to feel broken about him finally letting himself be vulnerable. After all, Isayama did say

“for the last chapter, Eren came back”

Beautiful

[ectonurites]

can anybody please explain the appeal of tim drake because ive been into the batfamily for a while now and tbh im really confused on why people like his character so much compared to the other robins. like they all have their own thing going on and he just... doesnt?

Have you read his Robin solo? Because if not and you want to try to like him but just don’t understand why people do, that’s what I’d recommend. That and like, Young Justice 1998. 

Because Tim definitely... does have his own thing going on. Maybe not in the same way as the others, but like, there’s a reason he has a 183 issue long solo comic that ran for like 16 years: he was fun to read about!

But I will give some more specific thoughts on the subject as a Tim Drake Appreciator™ (this got long im sorry)

The appeal of Tim (especially early on Tim) is kinda the fact that he’s this more normal kid. For a while that is his ‘thing’. He was basically designed to be a self-insert (he definitely became more than that along the way, but from the start he was meant to be relatable) in a different way than how Dick and Jason had been before him. 

Like the role of Robin from the start was this way to create a character young readers could identify with more, could see themselves in more. And Dick and Jason did that, but they still had this element to their lives and stories that was more... unattainable for the average reader. Dick was a circus prodigy, Jason was either also a circus prodigy if we remember pre-crisis or if we go with his post-crisis story he’s this street-wise orphaned kid who had a really tough life but still went on to be a hero anyways. Obviously those lives are relatable for some people, but those’re definitely not as broadly recognized as common upbringings especially not by DC trying to market to the ‘average’ kid/young teen.

But the creation of Tim changed the game a bit. Dick and Jason were these aspirations a kid could look to like ‘wow I want to be cool like that!’ but Tim was a Robin designed for kids to look at and go ‘wow, his problems and civilian life are just like mine AND he’s a hero, I want to be cool like that!’, ya know? Tim was... just a clever kid with an average life who managed to connect some dots and had enough drive to want to fix things he saw were a problem, he didn’t have the same kind of heightened drama backstory the others did. The Robins that came after Tim definitely didn’t have this idea of relatability in mind the same way either. Unfortunately Steph’s time as Robin was much more of a marketing ploy than an actual like... decision to make her Robin, so it’s hard to really fit her into this conversation. But Damian from the start was first of all initially created not to be Robin but just as the son of Talia and Bruce back in the 80’s, but when he was later reimagined into the character that would become Robin he had the whole ‘raised by and is the heir to the league of assassins and is the son of batman’ thing going on still. He just was not supposed to be relatable that same way, he was a character designed with different things in mind.

I really think it was more just DC’s 90′s era younger-audience comics in general that tried to push that relatability thing (like in YJ how Cissie even after quitting the team stays a major character as a civilian throughout, and the civilian aspect that’s super present in Bart’s 90s solo too, etc), but later in the 2000’s that idea was definitely pushed to the side in favor of... putting in even more dramatic superhero-y stuff.

And the other thing that’s... such a more normal thing but it actually made him unique here, was that Tim’s dad was still alive until like 2004 (so 15 years into Tim being around as a character). This gave Tim a lot more typical ‘family school girlfriends normal life etc’ problems on top of/in contrast with his superhero problems. These just manifested in very different ways than they could with the other Robins because of that unique situation with a living civilian parent who doesn’t know about hero stuff (until he did find out which lead to that whole Unmasked thing, but there was only the brief time around War Games & Identity Crisis where Jack knew Tim was actively Robin and he was... still alive) Tim also had his life at school expanded way more than most other Robins, like, he had such an extended supporting cast of civilian friends which is a really interesting thing to read about (and the fact that he hasn’t had that stuff since the New 52 I think really hurts his character)

And then related to that loss of his dad... Personally another thing about Tim that really interests me is how a lot of things were more... his choice. if that makes sense. A lot of characters in the Batfamily were struck with tragedy/extreme trauma before they became heroes and that’s what spurred them into this life of becoming heroes. Tim’s situation wasn’t like that at all! When he first got involved in everything during Lonely Place of Dying, the only tragedy he’d experienced was watching Dick’s tragedy happen. Which sure yes traumatic obviously, but that’s not the same as how pretty much all the other Bats had gone through these very personal losses or other sorts of very first-hand personal traumas that served as motivators. Tim didn’t start to experience those things until after he got involved in the hero life, and aside from his Mom’s death which was more of just an unrelated incident (that technically happened before he was officially Robin but it was during his time training to become Robin), pretty much all these other tragedies and things... would not have happened or been experienced by him had he not become Robin. 

That’s not me placing blame on him or anything like that, because god no that’s not how that works, but it’s very interesting because from his point of view he definitely feels that guilt because he knows him being Robin played a role in a lot of it (Thinking specifically about in Adventure Comics #3 when Kon even says “I know what guilt does to you” to him like it’s... it’s a thing with him!). His dad was murdered because he was Robin. He only met Steph and started dating her through being Robin, and thus he would not have experienced the loss of his girlfriend dying like that had he not been Robin. Tim met both Conner and Bart through being Robin, and would not have had a personal connection to them when they died otherwise. The whole Bruce’s death thing after Final Crisis, like. I could go on honestly, that was only talking about losses not even his own experiences nearly getting killed, but yeah, all these personal tragedies were experienced by him specifically because he chose to bring himself into this life, which I think in turn plays into how throughout his comics you see him go from having this really optimistic view on things and being really hopeful to seeing him at that low point he reaches by the time of Red Robin. (thinking about that one post that points out how Tim started out in the 90′s as an optimist and Steph a cynic and by the time they were Red Robin and Batgirl in 2009 they had switched outlooks...) 

I also think that him having had such a great team book with the original Young Justice can help contribute to people liking him. His friendships with the rest of the core four and that team in general are really compelling. (and that’s something like again when looking at the other Robins, while Dick had the Titans ofc, Jason never really found footing with a team outside of like one mission with the Titans and then We All Know How Damian’s Teen Titans Stuff Went. Steph also only ever really worked with a team outside the batfam on very brief occasions) and even though I’m not as big of a fan of the 2003 Teen Titans run that came after YJ, people who read Young Justice and also that could follow and be attached to those same characters over a pretty decently long period of time. 

Idk man, I don’t really have an ultimate point here i’m just rambling. I can definitely understand not seeing the appeal to him right away (honestly i’ve been into Batfam since like 2013/2014 and Tim did not become one of my faves until 2020) especially if like... idk when you say ‘into the batfamily’ that can mean a lot of different things. If you’re reading more like the bigger events with the batfam sure Tim can kinda fade into the bg a bit, if you’re more talking about fanon the fanon version of him is prettyyyyy uhhhhh not really the same as how he was in pre New 52 canon, if you’re mainly reading New 52 era Batfam stuff then that Tim I also don’t understand the appeal of bc thats Not My Boy, if you’re interested in a different member primarily and only familiar with Tim when he shows up in things focused on that other character then it’s easy to not really understand the appeal right away bc he’s more there to support that character rather than shine in his own right. 

I think it’s also worth mentioning he’s just not everybody’s cup of tea, and that’s totally fine. Like, these are fictional characters and sometimes you just will vibe with a character and sometimes you won’t! idk if this helped at all or even made sense. but yeah. I just think he’s neat 😌

[dylanobrienisbatman]

Omg give us ur rant abt hating d*rklina as a ship.. im petty

Okay Anon, so i saw this the other day and I wasn't in the right headspace to answer but i am now!

So to start off, I am firmly in the ship and let ship category. You like a ship, i don't care. That doesn't mean i won't rag on the ship itself but I don't send hate, I don't really engage with shippers from ships I don't like, and I am liberal with the block button and the blacklist feature. Cultivate your tumblr/online experience, y'all. You don't owe anyone on this hellsite (or any other) a damn thing.

However, I REALLY do hate d*rklina as a ship, and I have a big problem with the way the shippers talk about it, so I hope you were being serious about wanting a rant because here it goes.

As for the ship itself, i feel like the reasons I dislike it are pretty obvious and standard. It's abusive. He is her abuser. He manipulates her. He spends months grooming her and gaslighting her, intentionally trying to get her under his control so that when he literally enslaves her it will go over easier. He never actually loved her, he wanted to use her for her power. It's not complicated, it's not really 'up for debate', that is the way its written, and the author has explained that that was the intended interpretation of her work. I mean he literally sexually assaults her in the second book, and straight up tells her he's going to kill everyone she loves so that she has no choice but to fall to him because she is completely alone in the world. He threatens to skin her alive in the second book when they're on the boat, he has no problem torturing her to get Mal to do what he wants. That's not love. He does not love her. It's pretty black and white, its explicitly written as an abusive relationship. The point was to show how easily powerful men can manipulate and abuse young naive women who don't know any better and try to see the best in people. Alina 'fell' for the version of Darkles Sparkles that he intentionally created to try to control her. Nothing he told her was true, from his backstory, to them both being 'the only one like [each other]' (hello, baghra), to using Genya to convince Alina that Mal had abandoned her, everything he did was manipulation so that he could get her under his control. It is not a romance, it is not 'a ship war', d*rklina is not written as romantic. He is her abuser. Full stop.

There is also the point about him being just a generally horrible person all around. He's not morally grey. He just isn't. He sold an 11 year old into sex slavery, forced her to stay in that situation so he could use her, and then mutilated her when she defied him. He also groomed and abused Zoya, because he saw that she was exceptionally powerful and wanted to use her the way he wanted to use Alina. He enslaved Alina. He blinded and mutilated his own mother. He is a genocidal maniac. He shows no remorse, he doesn't care about anyone but himself and his own power. He is not the type of character that should be romantically shipped with anyone. If you like him, that's absolutely fine! One of my fave characters ever is Kai Parker from TVD. Dude was a straight up psychopath. He tried to kill multiple pairs of toddlers. He brutally murdered his pregnant sister AT HER WEDDING. He is a HORRIBLE person. But I think he's a brilliant character. But do I think he's a good guy, do I want him anywhere near any characters in that show in a romantic way (ehem b*nkai)? Absolutely fucking not. Being a fan of a villain character is fine, but fucking own that shit. Villains can be SUCH good characters, but they're still villains. Erasing the bad they've done so you can justify putting them in situations where they WILL harm the people around them because you can't level with yourself about the bad things they've done doesn't make you 'woke', it just makes you look like you don't understand the media you're consuming.

Which leads me to why I have such a problem with the way D*rklina shippers engage with the ship. They simultaneously wanna say "oh we know it's toxic/bad/abusive/etc., that's why we like it!" and then also they try to claim that it should be endgame, they romanticize scenes where he is abusing her (and by romanticize I mean they literally try to frame his abuse as romantic, not like "oh yeah my ship is interacting!!". those are different things. You can be excited about ship interactions without trying to say that things he is doing to her are actually romantic), they try to argue that he is morally grey/misunderstood/etc., and they straight up try to lie and say he's not her abuser.

If you wanna ship an abusive ship, own it. Be straight up about why you like it. It's okay to be into dark shit, y'all. It does NOT make you a bad person to be into dark shit. But this idea that fiction doesn't impact real life, and that people can't call the ship out for what it is is a problem is a very troubling trend in fandom. Nobody is saying you can't ship it, do what you want. But this idea that these people are 'oppressed' because fans of the show/book continue to point out the facts about the way the story was written and how the relationship is actually presented is fucking insane. Someone saying that D*rklina is abusive is not calling you out, they are stating a fact. It's the story as it was presented. You trying to say it's not makes it look like you have no reading comprehension. And this idea that 'well i'll be on the lookout for evil shadow wizards in real life lol' is such horse shit too. His shadow wizard powers aren't the issue. He is a powerful man who grooms and abuses young women. You're telling me you lived through the Me Too movement and you wanna act like thats not a real threat that young women face every day? You're telling me that you can't see that the actual real life connection you're supposed to be making here? Okay, well you should maybe deal with that and come back to me, because that's an issue.

Fiction is meant to teach us lessons. Darkles is meant to teach us something. He is meant to show us that sometimes, powerful men lie to, manipulate, groom, and abuse young women, and we should be aware of that. The story is about a young woman who is sucked into an abusive situation, and then she breaks free and in the end she is able to defeat her abuser. That is a really powerful story, and one that millions of real life women can relate too. To pretend that that story doesn't have real life connections makes you look insensitive and frankly, kind of cruel.

So basically, in the end, my biggest issue is that D*rklina shippers love to spout this nonsense about 'knowing' it's bad and that he's a villain, and 'that's why they like him', and then turn around and try to say that he's not actually the villain, he's not actually bad, and the things he does to Alina that are abuse are actually romantic and sweet. You wanna ship an abusive ship, you do you, but lets not pretend it's anything other than what it is, but romanticizing and normalizing abuse tactics so you can feel, what? morally superior? Cool? edgy and different? That has real life impacts. You are normalizing abuse. Real people will engage with that rhetoric, and it will make it difficult for them to see abuse when it happens to them or the people around them because they believe its romantic or normal to be treated that way.

You wanna be a villain stan? You wanna ship dark ships? Good on ya, but fucking own your shit, y'all.

[commander-diomika]

(Click to Read From the Beginning) Part 7 Pairing: Zolf Smith/Oscar Wilde, James Barnes/Howard Carter Word Count: 1600 Rating: Mature Additional Tags: Slow Burn, 18-Month Time Gap (Rusty Quill Gaming), Opposites Attract, Trans Male Character, Barnes and Carter have a mild D/s thing going on but there's nothing explicit in here

Summary: Wilde opened the Campbell. He genuinely tried to read, but like bubbles in a glass, his eyes rose off the page and over the top of the book. He enjoyed this one, truly, but a fictional romance held slightly less fascination for him than the reality of the one relaxing in his sitting room.

It’s been almost a year and they still can’t bear to take their hands off each other, Wilde thought bemusedly.

Barnes lounged on one of the comfy chairs in Wilde’s sitting room, watching the fire, whiskey in one hand. Carter had a pile of knives and complicated-looking tools laid out on the low table, humming softly as he did inventory and repairs. He knelt on the floor practically between Barnes’ uwabaki-clad feet, and as Wilde walked in, Carter reached behind himself almost absently to pat Barnes on the thigh, finishing with an affectionate squeeze before shifting focus back to his work.

The pair of them had just finished up yet another round of quarantine and, post bath and debrief, had seemingly settled in for the evening.

Wilde nodded to Barnes and went to pour himself a drink then settled in opposite the pair with a book. Zolf was away once again, returning to his old network with the Harlequins to see if they had discovered anything on the simulacra since he’d left their employ. He was due back in the next few days, and the fact that Wilde had timed each deployment so that the other men could do the inspections for Zolf… well, it was just good luck, not good management.

Wilde liked sending out Zolf alone about as much as Zolf had liked the reverse. But that was part of the job. They no longer lived in a world with much room for sentimentality. Besides, Wilde was almost accustomed to the underlying hum of anxiety every time one of the team was away. He was adept at neatly packaging up that fear, that preemptive grief, and putting in a quiet corner of his mind to either be unboxed when the worst happened or discarded if it didn’t.

“Thought you’d already read that one,” Barnes said by way of breaking the quiet. This was often how it was after a mission, by unspoken understanding; conversation carved deliberately out of the soft, the easy, questions neatly avoiding the state of the world or the work.

“If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.” Wilde replied. Truth was, between the enforced waiting between missions and the inescapable breakdown of the global market, books he hadn’t read were becoming harder to find.

Barnes gave a non-committal grunt that said he didn’t know the feeling.

Wilde opened the Campbell. He genuinely tried to read, but like bubbles in a glass, his eyes rose off the page and over the top of the book. He enjoyed this one, truly, but a fictional romance held slightly less fascination for him than the reality of the one relaxing in his sitting room.

Barnes reached out with the hand that wasn’t holding the whisky, and without taking his eyes from the fire, gave the back of Carter’s neck a squeeze; strong grip working into the muscle. Carter’s tune transformed into a low hum of pleasure, hands briefly stilling on his tools.

It’s been almost a year and they still can’t bear to take their hands off each other, Wilde thought bemusedly.

This had been the last thing he’d expected when he’d paired them up together. He had honestly been worried they would both crack after the first quarantine, and either quit or demand someone new to work with. At the very least after the umpteenth round of spending a week in a small room together, Wilde thought they’d want a little space. But here they were.

Wilde felt a strange pulse of guilt. If either one of them died whilst out on a mission- he snapped his eyes back to the book. It was a harsh world. As their handler, it could only be viewed as a good thing that they had become, well, devoted to one another. A strategic benefit, he said to himself, wanting ardently to believe it.

Wilde turned a page without having read a word on it.

“Hey sailor,” Carter said softly. He’d finished repairing his thieves’ tools and was pulling out a weapon-care kit. “Grab your sword, I’ll do her first.”

Wilde fought to keep his eyebrows level as Barnes fetched and handed his sword over to Carter. “Use my whetstone; don’t think yours is quite up to the task.” Barnes settled back in his chair, looking like a man without a care in the world.

Wilde swallowed. They really did feel safe here, safe with one another. If only they all could just… stay here. Hope that the war would not come to their doorstep. If only they could be left in peace, if only there was no threat eating away at the world. If there wasn’t a job to do, Wilde felt like he could just stay here; with these two, and the locals, and be happy.

He could put it all down. And Zolf would be there too.

His dreams used to be much bigger than a life of relative safety and obscurity in a tiny Japanese backwater, but the looming decay of a previously ordered world had a way of shifting priorities.

Carter eventually finished his chores, and then successfully watched the fire for three whole quiet minutes before announcing he was going to the kitchen.

“Don’t be a pest,” Barnes said in a well-practised farewell. “When you come back, I’ve got some shirts that need mendin’ too.”

Carter blew air through his teeth. “I’m not your valet, Barnes,” he replied, and Barnes just raised an eyebrow at him. Walking out, Carter muttered something under his breath about buttons that didn’t even get used.

“If you’ve got anythin’ that needs repairing, I’d get Carter to do it to,” Barnes offered, secure that Carter’s departing comments in no way reflected his actual intentions. “He’s a fair hand with a needle.”

Wilde smiled knowingly as he shook his head, and without conscious thought, a question popped out of his mouth.

“How did you two… happen?”

Barnes looked surprised at the question. Not that he felt it inappropriate, Barnes just wasn’t used to Wilde being confused about the obvious. “Well,” he said, brow furrowed as he tried to figure out how to phrase it. “He just needs a firm hand on the rein, y’know. Didn’ take us long to figure out I could be that for ‘im.”

The noise that Carter had made as he came, muffled in said firm hand, was still remarkably fresh in Wilde’s memory. The sound flashed through his mind as if to punctuate Barnes’ comment.

Barnes must have seen the brief rise of heat in Wilde’s cheeks, because his next comment, mildly spoken, was, “You interested in joining us, Wilde?” When Wilde’s only response was a raised brow, Barnes continued. “I don’t mind sharin’.”

Wilde leant back in his chair, considering this surprise twist of in the conversation. It had been quite some time since he’d been openly propositioned, and despite the languid set of his body, he felt his heartbeat speed up and a slight blush heat his cheeks. A younger Wilde, an unshackled Wilde, would have said yes in an instant. He’s fallen into bed with someone, or someones, for less.

Wilde briefly allowed the beast that was his imagination off-leash. He saw himself, besieged with pleasure. Bodies surrounding him, hands and lips on him, stuffed at both ends, absolutely overwhelmed, worshipped, had.

It was a very nice thought.

But it was more complicated now, without his magic. It wasn’t that he felt shy, or that he thought either of his co-conspirators would react poorly to his… unconventional physiology. It was just that sex for the younger version of Wilde didn’t used to be so revealing. It used to be something he could just fold into his performance persona, slide straight from stage to bed without having to play a single open card.

Skies above, Wilde missed those days. He investigated his drink, calm face hiding the stream of images bubbling through his mind. Somewhere amongst the tantalising and lascivious, were the complex and confusing. Barnes and Carter fucking in the cell downstairs, the very same one where Wilde had been pushed to let Zolf in on a secret truth. An expression of conflicted desire on Zolf’s face.

Wilde couldn’t sort those images into a cohesive narrative, so he put them aside with a dark, self-deprecating chuckle. “I thank you, but no. I was merely seeking satisfaction for my curiosity.”

Barnes nodded, unruffled. Wilde had seen the man fight and had heard him fuck. He knew the energy, the potential Barnes contained, and yet in conversation he was such a mild creature. He was a contradiction. It was almost as though he saved up all that vitality, that power, for when it was needed the most. The rest of the time he simply… switched it off.

Wilde pulled his mind back to business with a sigh, “Besides, if we don’t hear from Zolf in about twelve hours, I’m sorry to say you two will be heading out again. It’s a short turnaround, I know. You should spend it together.”

“For sure, I wouldn’t mind a sleep in a proper bed for one.” With that, the two lapsed back into a comfortable silence.

When Carter returned from the kitchen, he had a bottle of sake and a bunch of grapes. He came up behind Barnes, dangling both his prizes into the seated man’s eyeline.

“C’mon, sailor. Let’s get out of Oscar’s hair.”

Barnes smiled slowly, making deliberate eye contact with Wilde. He wasn’t the sort to waggle his eyebrows or leer, but his gaze communicated last chance, offer still stands, as clear as a sunny day.

With a small smile, Wilde waved them off. There was something like envy bubbling in his chest, over the ease which Barnes and Carter shared with each other.

He sighed and picked up his book.