#im so invested in their dynamic man...

[a-selkie-abroad]

barely structured vader and piett thoughts

man i love piett and vader so so much. something about the mutual respect.

Piett shifting from respecting vader mostly out of fear and because he is a Professional and that is his Boss to genuinely respecting him and being willing to be loyal to him, even over the emperor.

vader respecting pietts professionalism and competence and how he treats vader like... well not an equal in terms of rank but an equal in terms of reason. saw him as more then the terrifying fist of the empire. he promoted him four ranks not just because he happened to be in the right place at the right time (although that made things easier) but because he was Competent and Professional even when vader literally killed a guy across the ship on videocall

i love that vader lets piett glimpse him with his mask off. that he let him live.

i like to think that right after luke chose to jump instead of joining him, vader had a Realisation. a Moment. his actual son would be more willing to die then to be by his side.

and not killing piett for the rebels' escape was his actual first step in the path of redemption. luke rejected him and it made him re-evaluate himself and his actions and instead of lashing out as he is prone to do when shit happens he spares piett. he lets him live. he may have refused to kill luke as his final act but his first step in that direction, of making that choice to go against the emperor after kneeling at his feet for 20 years, it starts with piett and vader's respect for him

i like to think that after that moment post bespin where vader spares him piett starts trusting him a lot more. stops shaking in his boots every time he needs to be in the same room as him because he sees that vader trusts him and respects his competence and as long as piett is competent, as he always is, he can garentee he will be safe. and thats where thier mutual trust and respect really gets going now that the "he might kill me at any moment" fear factor is removed

[shoutmonishere]

I miss my boys so very dearly,,,,,

[brofightiscancelled]

fighting yowai....

[this-is-captain-handsome]

I reached the 30 tag limit LMAOO

Hi! I saw on one of your posts you said that you used to be a stucky shipper. I actually started off as a stony shipper but then absolutely fell in love with stucky but I like both . I was just wondering what made you "jump ship" on stucky lol. Sorry if this comes across as annoying or anything im just curious!

Hey! As you can see a couple of people have asked me this over the last couple of weeks and I’m really lazy and haven’t got around to responding yet, but the people deserve an answer so here we go. Before we start a quick disclaimer: I’ll only be talking about the ships themselves, not the communities or any of the discourse surrounding them. This is not a ship-bashing of any kind and please do not take it as such, it’s just my own personal experience surrounding these characters and these relationships. 

 Buckle your seatbelts kids, this is a long one.

I first got into Marvel c. 2015. I’m European so I’d never really watched any marvel movies before that, I watched Age of Ultron on a plane and remember being vaguely aware the Steve/Tony was a thing (what is pretty interesting is that to this day I have no clue where that knowledge came from) but was mostly just excited by the superhero stuff. I then got home and watched The Winter Soldier and fell in love. I love the Winter Soldier, it’s probably still one of my favourite marvel movies (it got kicked out of its top spot by Black Panther last year unfortunately) and to me no other marvel movie could hold a torch to it at the time. So I came onto tumblr, searched up The Winter Soldier and was just inundated with Stucky stuff, as expected. I rolled with it, got invested just from constant exposure (it was also around the height of the Stucky ship) and as far as I was concerned, that was that. I was super into Stucky for almost six months and was pretty much your average shipper, I didn’t understand stevetony, loved Steve Rogers, was close to creating a Stucky sideblog wit some ridiculous pun as my username, I was gone over this ship.

Then one day, I sat down and read the man on the bridge by boopboop on ao3. You’ve almost definitely heard of it, but it was the most popular fic in the Steve/Bucky tag on ao3 at the time (for some reason I had just never got around to reading it until then, it was long and I didn’t have the stamina I have now). It was your pretty standard Stucky fic, Steve gets Bucky back, they have to deal with his trauma which results in Steve and Bucky declaring their long lost love for each other etc. etc. What was different about this fic, was that it was all told from Tony’s point of view, and since Steve and Tony were on the same team at that point, their dynamic was a huge part of the fic. And I found myself falling completely in love with Steve and Tony’s dynamic. I went back to the fic for this post (and god it is a good fic) and pulled up the first couple of chapters and instantly just found so many instances of that dynamic

(grade A stevetony arguing over each other’s safety with a side of flirting from Tony)

(Idk why but the image of Steve and Tony not going to sleep, but rather staying up and brewing coffee together was such a vivid one when I first read this fic, I still remember it to this day. )

(Tony picking Steve flowers while trying to desperately play off that he didn’t aka. Tony caring while trying desperately not to care)

(Everyone knowing that Steve would definitely come to Tony, apart from Tony himself.)

Now obviously, this is a stucky fic and I went into it knowing this, but I found when Steve and Bucky finally got together I felt honestly a bit bored, a bit cheated. I had no idea why at the time. I remember very clearly x-ing out of the fic at the end and feeling really uneasy, I came onto tumblr, went straight back into the Stucky tag and all was well.

When I next went back onto ao3, I started out with a couple of oneshots in the Stucky tag, but for some reason it wasn’t working for me anymore. I remember sitting there, a little bored, not at all invested in this relationship and just missing something. I figured I was probably missing Tony’s presence in the fic and so filtered in Tony Stark’s character tag. I read a few of those and all was well but I realised the same thing was happening as had happened in man on the bridge, the moment that Steve and Bucky got together, the fic lost something for me. Desperate at this point, and a little annoyed at myself I conducted an experiment and went into the Steve/Tony tag on Ao3 and as they say, the rest is history. If you go onto older posts on my main blog there’s a pretty drastic, almost overnight shift c. January 2016. I have to admit, I expected Civil War to be a conversion so I enjoyed stevetony without consequence for five months, while still labelling myself as a Stucky shipper because I expected to be pulled back to Stucky after civil war, the reality was that somehow I came out of civil war shipping stevetony harder than ever before. From there, I spent two years reading my way through the stevetony tag on ao3 and finally set up this blog in 2018, with a really obscure reference as my username and it’s been stevetony til I die ever since.

I just couldn’t read Stucky anymore. That’s what I mean when I say on this blog that stevetony has ruined me for every other ship, because it has. Steve and Tony’s firecracker dynamic pulled me away from what was fast on its way to becoming my favourite ship in 2015, all because they had a bit of banter on the side in a fic. It’s kind of depressing really, the sort of hold that Steve and Tony’s dynamic has over me, 

It’s strange you say you fell in love with Stucky, I fell absolutely out of love with it. I have thought a lot about how I ended up falling into stevetony and why I was so drawn to them instead of Stucky in the first place and I think it all comes down the the story itself. To me, Steve and Bucky’s relationship carries much more weight as a friendship, I still have no doubt that Bucky is one of if not the most important person in Steve’s life, but having that be a lifelong friendship is way more powerful and impactful to me, (especially since what I know I misconstrued to be Steve’s obsession with Bucky is actually Steve’s obsession over the past. I’m not saying Bucky isn’t dear to Steve and he does want to obviously rescue him, but looking back on it there’s more to Steve’s obsession with Bucky than just love, it’s a fear of change and it’s him desperately trying to hold onto a past that’s gone.)

Conversely, I feel like adding a romantic element to Steve and Tony’s relationship enriches the story being told, if you look at something like civil war (either MCU or 616 tbh) in the context of Tony being desperately in love with Steve, it makes a lot more sense, especially with things like The Confession in 616 or the stuff brought up in that strange conversation in the conference room in the MCU. There’s lines from Steve like “I’m home/you gave me a home” or even straight up “he loved you” and his tormented behaviour throughout infinity war and endgame that just really makes you wonder, not to mention lines from others like “you two still gazing into each other’s eyes/sounds like both of you got into bed with the wrong people” and they did have to share a bed at Clint’s farm after all lol. The tragedy of their story is heightened if you look at it through the context of them being absolutely in love with each other, just never having actually got around to telling it to each other’s faces. This tragedy is heavily implied in The Oath/The Confession in 616 when they confess their deepest darkest secrets to the other’s comatose/dead bodies, and apparently it’s always been that they love the other person. Actually you could easily introduce a romantic element by making relatively few changes to the MCU, but that’s a post for another time (I have a long and comprehensive list in my notes app on how little you actually need to change to make that happen, it’s literally the matter of a few lines of dialogue and one major story change at the end of IM3, an interesting thought exercise to say the least).

Finally, there’s a quote that came up on my dash the day I made that fateful venture into the ao3 stevetony tag, “your soulmate isn’t someone who comes peacefully into your life. It is someone who makes you question things, changed your reality, somebody that marks a before and after in your life. It is not the human being everyone idealized, but an ordinary person, who managed to revolutionize your world in a second” to this day, it resonates so strongly with me about stevetony. It’s everything I love about this ship just compressed into a quote. 

So yeah it was basically a bunch of happy coincidences, but thank god it happened. As a writer, stevetony has taught me so much about character and dynamic, stuff that is honestly invaluable. When you have long fics that basically detail the day by day life of Steve and Tony post-civil war in rural Italy and consists of them sleeping, crying and working through their repressed feelings (looking at you @silkspectred ), it is the characters and their unique dynamic that drive the entirety of the story. Steve and Tony, in the hands of a compelling writer, can keep me hooked over a frankly embarrassing number of words. I still have a bit of a special place for Stucky in my heart really, it did start me out in marvel after all and it was one of my first ever ships, but your first love is only so good until you meet your true love, not to get all sappy but stevetony has completely destroyed my ability to ship anything else. I might get a bit flirtatious with some other ships, like sambucky (I still love Bucky, and I love Sam!), or the riverdale ships (beronica and jarchie or bust), or even the game of thrones crack ships (daensa til the day we die), but I’ll always come back to stevetony.

So yeah this escalated into a far longer post than I intended to make but I’ve never really spelled out on this blog how or why I ended up jumping Stucky to Stony when I know it’s usually the other way around. I guess it just comes down to stevetony catching me out when I least expected it, and never having let go of me since. 

[sorcerersandskillusers]

Card Meanings in the new, The Day I Picked Up Dazai art.

Ok so im currently still in shock that were getting new day I picked up dazai content so bare with me, but onece again Asagiri has included playing cards in his art so of course I have to break down what they mean.

Lets start with side A (the right side):

First we see a joker:

While Gogol is the obvious fit for the joker, the card also describes Dazai extremely well. He is almost always acting like the fool in any given situation, even in the mafia he loved to be as weird and funny as he could as well as tease and annoy the people around him, something jesters famously did.

In fact, his dynamic with Mori is very close to how a king and a jester used to work, where the jester was the only person who was allowed to openly mock the king and would usually heckle him. They also played a key part in psychological warfare, which we see Dazai specialises in.

I think the whole; wit, intelligence and unpredictability kind of speaks for itself.

Next card is the four of spades:

This one is also really fitting, it shows how after the day I picked up Dazai side A, Dazai settles into his little routine of going to bar lupin with Oda as well as how he finally has someone who he can trust and be comfortable around. Finally, it is a clear message of optimism, something Dazai never shows before he meets Oda.

Next the two of hearts:

This one is pretty obvious, it's Dazai and Oda spending time at bar lupin. It actually fits so well, there's not much I can say about it other then how it shows the love and care Dazai and Oda had for each other (platonically)

Now for Side B (prepare to cry)

The first card is the three of spades:

Whyyyyyyyyyy... why Asagiri. This one is also fairly obvious but it has multiple meanings. It most clearly represents Dazai suffering in side B as he has to run the mafia without odasaku and live in utter loneliness while destroying all the connections he never got to have for the sake of a friend he never got to meet.

“It was hard,” muttered the young man. “It was really hard fighting Mimic without you in the organization. I had no choice but to take over for Mori and make enemies of everyone around me to expand the business. Everything I did was for this world’s—”

It also represents the moment on the platform where he nearly tells Odasaku the truth and goes with him to bar lupin, the horrible decision to abandon everything for Odas future

The next card is... the ace of spades:

The ace of spade has many meanings, most of which involve change or transition, but by far its most famous meaning it death. I really don't think I have to explain this one, Beast Dazai having the card of death has a pretty clear meaning.

But the ace of spade does have a secondary meaning, and this one is a little more hopeful, as it shows Dazai passing the safety of this world onto Atsushi and Auktagawa.

Finally, (it's a bit hard to see) we have the ten of diamonds:

I want to focus mostly on the highlighted part because it's what really applies to BEAST Dazai, he lived his whole life to create a world where what matters most to him, that Oda gets to be happy and write his books, becomes real. This card doesn't apply to Dazai directly, more to the fact that he made succeeding in his mission his only priority and discarded everything else.

Bonus round Odasku card; the king of clubs

the only card thats seen on Oda's section and one that clearly represents Odasaku as a character.

"King of clubs represents a dark man, who is loyal and kind. He is a good businessman, shrewd with money and investments, but isn’t selfish. In fact, the King of clubs is a very devoted father, husband and citizen. In a broader sense, the King of clubs encompasses idealized qualities of a fatherly figure. This card is universally considered as a very good omen."

I feel like this sums Odasaku up very well, the devoted father and loyal friend parts are just him to a t.

(this is also the card I think best represents Fukuzawa)

Right, I think I got everything, if you disagree with this or find something I missed, please reblog or comment with whatever you want to add, or send me an ask. I love discussing, and hearing other people's views as long as they're respectful.

If you add something, please add it in the post not the tags, so I can reply to it (or in the tags if that makes you more comfortable)

[beddybites]

Tengen's wives often get pretty neglected by the Fandom. So, I wish to give them some love. All 3 of them, definitely, hold a lot of personal trauma, but especially around children. They would have probably been told that they must give birth to a lot of children for their future husband and were 100% taught how to be mothers, making them perfect to care for baby Obanai.

Suma specifically would take a lot of pride in doing that, as she would want to be a mother. Her being super invested into caring for him, as if he were her own child.

Makio and Hina, less so, but both always being willing to jump in and help.

They could possibly become best friends with Mitsuri through Obanai's situation and find other things they have in common.

i agree!

with the three growing up having it constantly drilled in their head they'll have to carry several children and be strong for their future husband i do think there's some underlying distress and frustration there, and i do wonder if it will help ease that pressure if they were able to help out with someone else's baby-- they didn't have to go through pregnancy or labor, it's not their baby to mother and raise-- they just get to help out and be an anchor of support

i also imagine tengen doesnt pressure them at all. he loves those women with his whole heart. if they expressed anything about not wanting to bare children, he would respect it. they could always adopt, he says. and if they do have kids-- he's not making them do all the work! that man would be a stay at home dad if he could!

i do agree that suma would be the one most eager to be a mother, whereas makio and hinatsuru less so, though they are of course willing to help, and im sure they love being around a baby

an interesting dynamic ive always believed is tengen's wives HATE obanai. they dont really understand him. they see him as hateful towards women and a cruel person toward their husband, though tengen tries to reassure them that isnt the case at all. having a deaged obanai around probably helps reassure them of that. they see how much tengen and obanai adore each other without the wall that obanai's built up, and understand that it's not that obanai hates women-- it's that he fears them

the baby is always crying around them and trying to hide in either sanegiyuu, tengen, or mitsuri-- whoever is holding him at the time. since the baby is scared, kaburamaru is all worked up and hissing and snapping at the girls. they slowly figure out babynai is scared of them, and over time, they gain his trust, and in turn, they recognize obanai truly isnt that bad-- he's just a damaged guy in need of care

so, whenever babynai is visiting or having to spend the night-- if tengen isnt absolutely doting over the little guy-- the girls help out when they can and, in turn, tengen helps them out. if the girls want to play with the baby for a bit, tengen is more than happy to step away and cook dinner or do the laundry

and to your point, ive always seen tengen's wives as being super close with shinobu and mitsuri, and i see that happening here! if we throw babybu into the mix, i just know those girls are FIGHTING over who gets to hold the baby. babybu loves all the girl time!!

slowly babybu and mitsuri are able to convince babynai to let the girls get him all dressed up. insert babynai with the cutest little bows. the girls cant decide if he should have pink or purple (they only have pink and purple because of miss nobu) but babynai wants to match with mitsuri so... pink it is!

[nephalem-da]

was just stalking ur page and omg human bill and the whole monster trope u wrote?? pls consider p2 im so invested.. would love to see it!! <33

The Hunt

Part 2

(Human!Bill Cipher x GN!Reader)

Option 1 won ∑d(°∀°d)

Genre: Dark Romance, Thriller, Psychological Drama

Warnings: Obsession, Manipulation, Captivity, Emotional Distress, Non-consensual behavior, Power imbalance, Dark themes, Possessiveness

Summary: What was once a subtle connection between them has spiraled into a twisted game of control and survival.

The wind howled through the forest, the scent of salt from the distant ocean mixing with the earthy tones of the wild. Every rustle of the leaves and every snap of a twig felt like a reminder of the night you had been caught. Bill’s relentless pursuit of you had ended with your capture—an elegant and cruel trap woven by the man who was more cunning than any hunter you had ever encountered.

At first, you had expected cruelty. Bill was no stranger to games of control, his pursuit of you almost predatory, and his reputation painted him as nothing more than a monster draped in a human guise. Yet, after the initial chase, there had been something… different.

The first few days after your capture had been filled with tension, the cage separating you from Bill acting as a constant reminder of your situation. You had tried to resist him—pulling away from his attempts at conversation, glaring whenever he dared to flirt with you. But Bill didn’t seem to mind your resistance. In fact, he almost seemed to enjoy it.

"Come on, don’t be like that, sweetheart," he had teased, leaning against the bars of the cage that held you. "I caught you fair and square, didn’t I? The least you could do is talk to me."

You had refused, staring at him with silent defiance. But Bill never faltered. He kept talking, kept flirting, like this was all some game to him.

What you didn’t expect was how the silence started to wear on you. How, despite yourself, you found his words oddly comforting. It wasn’t love—at least not then—but there was a strange dynamic forming between you two. Something deeper than prey and predator.

It had been a few weeks since he caught you, and something had changed. The flirtatious comments from Bill had started feeling less like a taunt and more like genuine attention. His smiles weren’t just the sharp, amused ones you had seen in the beginning—there were softer moments, times when he looked at you as though you weren’t just a trophy, but something more.

You began speaking to him, at first short, clipped responses, but slowly more. You were cautious, keeping your walls up, but there was a strange pull you couldn’t deny. His eyes would light up when you spoke, his voice taking on a different tone whenever you gave in to the conversation. Bill Cipher, the ever-cocky hunter, seemed almost… vulnerable when you opened up.

And it was during one of these late-night conversations, the moonlight spilling through the trees, that he made his move.

“You know,” Bill said, leaning against the door of the cage with that familiar glint in his eyes, “I could let you out of there. Let you stretch your legs a bit.”

You raised an eyebrow, skeptical. “Out there, where you have all your lackeys watching?”

Bill smirked, unlocking the cage door with a flick of his wrist. “Nah, not out there. My place. Just us. What do you say?”

The hesitation lingered, but a part of you wanted the freedom—no matter how limited it was. Against your better judgment, you stepped out, and Bill led you through the dark forest to his mansion-like tent set up further into the woods. Despite the luxuries inside, the locked doors reminded you of your situation.

Bill gave you space but stayed close, watching you like a hawk. He acted casual, pretending it was nothing, but the way his gaze followed your every movement told a different story. It wasn’t just attraction anymore—it was something far more dangerous.

At first, things felt… manageable. You could almost believe that the mutual flirting, the teasing, was harmless. That maybe this strange connection between you two wasn’t so bad. Maybe Bill could be reasoned with, maybe he wasn’t as twisted as you first thought. But then the possessiveness started to seep in.

It began with small things. Bill getting frustrated when you didn’t answer his questions right away, his moods swinging violently whenever you showed any sign of rebellion. The way his eyes darkened when you spoke about your past, your freedom, your desire to return to the ocean.

“What’s the rush?” he’d ask, his tone playful but laced with something darker. “You’ve got everything you need here. I’m not so bad, am I?”

You’d laugh it off, trying to keep things light. But you could see the way his smile never quite reached his eyes anymore. The way his gaze lingered a little too long, the way his words became sharper whenever you mentioned leaving.

There was a night when you realized just how far things had spiraled. Bill had brought you back to his tent after another casual day of conversation, but the mood had shifted. His usually playful teasing had an edge to it, a possessive undercurrent that made your skin crawl. When you had tried to walk away, to find some space, his hand shot out, grabbing your wrist.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked, his voice low and dangerous.

You had frozen, eyes wide as you met his gaze. There was something unhinged in his expression, something that made your heart race in a way that had nothing to do with attraction.

“I-I just need some air,” you stammered, pulling your arm free.

Bill didn’t let go immediately, his grip tightening for just a moment before he released you. His smile returned, but it was strained, forced.

“Don’t go too far, sweetheart. Wouldn’t want you to get lost, would we?”

That was when you knew you had made a mistake. You had let your guard down, let him in too close, and now you were paying the price.

It happened quickly after that. One night, something snapped. Maybe it was the way you had distanced yourself, maybe it was the fact that you had finally tried to leave for real. Whatever it was, Bill had caught on, and his response had been immediate.

You had bolted from the mansion, running through the dark woods, your heart pounding in your chest. The ocean was close, so close you could almost taste the salt in the air. But Bill was faster, his footsteps pounding behind you, his voice cutting through the night like a blade.

“You can’t run from me!” he called, his voice wild with frustration and something far more dangerous. “You think you can just leave? After everything?”

You pushed yourself harder, your legs burning as you sprinted toward the cliffs. The sea roared beneath you, the waves crashing against the rocks far below. If you could just make it to the water, if you could just dive in, you’d be safe.

But Bill was relentless.

The wind whipped against your face, the ocean stretching out below, an endless expanse of freedom just out of reach. You stood frozen at the edge of the cliff, your heart pounding in your chest as the salty air filled your lungs. The drop was dizzying, but that didn’t scare you as much as the sound of Bill’s footsteps slowly approaching from behind.

He had never looked this dangerous. The playful teasing, the sly grins, the cocky demeanor—all of it was gone now, replaced by something far more menacing. His blue eyes gleamed in the moonlight, the tension in his expression sharp as a blade.

“There’s nowhere to run, sweetheart,” Bill called out softly, his voice almost gentle despite the manic undertone. “You’ve had your fun, but it’s over. You’re not getting away from me.”

Your legs trembled as you glanced down at the ocean again, the waves crashing against the rocks far below. One leap and you could be free. Free from Bill, free from his possessive gaze, free from this twisted game of cat and mouse. But would you survive the fall?

“Don’t do it,” Bill’s voice interrupted your thoughts, softer now, as if he could read your mind. “You won’t make it. You know that, right?”

You could feel his presence closing in, his footsteps slow but steady, as though he knew you were already cornered. Desperation clawed at your chest. Maybe if you could dive into the water, you could escape his grasp, but your selkie form felt so distant, so unreachable in your panic.

"Why...why are you doing this?" you whispered, your voice hoarse as you turned to face him, your back to the precipice. Bill’s expression softened for a moment—just for a moment—but the darkness in his gaze lingered.

"Why? Because I want you. Because I need you." His lips curled into a smirk, but it didn’t reach his eyes. "You were mine the moment I laid eyes on you."

Your breath hitched. This wasn’t the Bill you had seen glimpses of in those quiet moments. This wasn’t the man who had admired your voice, who had teased you with soft smiles and witty banter. This was someone else—someone dangerous.

"You don’t have to do this," you tried, your voice trembling. "You can let me go. You—"

Bill’s laughter cut you off, sharp and cold. "Let you go?" he echoed, stepping closer until he was only a few feet away. "Sweetheart, you don’t understand. I’m not letting you go. Not now. Not ever."

Before you could react, Bill lunged forward, his hand reaching out to grab your wrist with surprising force. You gasped, your body instinctively pulling back, but the cliff was right behind you. There was nowhere to go. His grip was like iron, and as you struggled, the realization hit you: he wasn’t playing anymore.

"Don’t fight it," Bill murmured, pulling you close, his breath hot against your skin. "You’ve already lost, and you know it."

Tears welled up in your eyes as you stared up at him, your heart pounding in your chest. The man who had once been your flirtatious captor now held you with a possessive intensity that sent chills down your spine. This wasn’t love. This was something far darker.

"Let me go," you whispered, barely audible.

Bill’s grip tightened, his eyes narrowing as he leaned in closer. "No," he whispered back, his voice cold. "You’re mine."

And then, without warning, he yanked you forward, pulling you away from the cliff’s edge and back into his arms. You stumbled, your body crashing into his chest, and before you could even register what had happened, Bill’s arms wrapped around you like a vice, holding you in place.

"See?" he murmured into your ear, his voice dripping with triumph. "Much better."

You struggled in his hold, your heart racing as panic set in. But Bill’s grip was unrelenting, his body pressed against yours as he held you close, his breath hot against your neck.

"You don’t need to run," he whispered, his tone softening slightly. "You’re safe with me. I’ll take care of you."

Safe? The word rang hollow in your ears. This wasn’t safety. This was control. You could feel it in the way his hands clung to you, the way his voice wavered between possessiveness and something darker. You had let your guard down, and now you were trapped.

"I... I trusted you," you whispered, your voice shaking with fear and anger.

Bill’s lips curled into a cruel smile. "And that’s where you made your mistake, darling."

The walk back to his camp felt like a blur. Bill never loosened his grip on you, his arm wrapped around your waist as he guided you through the forest. Every step felt like a chain tightening around your freedom, pulling you deeper into his world, into his grasp. You thought about escaping again, but Bill seemed to sense every thought before you acted on it. His possessive gaze never left you, even as he led you into the safety of his tent.

Once inside, he locked the door behind you with a simple flick of his fingers, sealing your fate. There was no way out now. You were his prisoner once more.

He led you to a chair and forced you to sit, his hands resting on your shoulders as he stood behind you, watching you with that same unsettling intensity. “Relax,” he cooed, his fingers brushing against your skin. “You’ll get used to it. You’ll see. You won’t need anything—or anyone—else.”

Your heart pounded in your chest as you stared at the locked door, the reality of your situation sinking in.

Bill wasn’t going to let you go.

And he had no intention of giving you back your freedom.

Ya guys want an alternative part 2? This time it's fluff and I already made a rough draft of it!!

[jiminy-crickets]

i 'member....

remember the days where i would feel emotions ONLY through fanfiction where i knew EXACTLY what would happen and i could CONTROL what emotions id feel.

the days where the mere mention of sports made me roll my eyes.

the days when i couldn’t name five fucking players.

[couldpolyamorysavethem]

ELIZABETH BURKE, PETER BURKE, and NEAL CAFFREY from WHITE COLLAR

Justification:

"okay listen this might already be in the queue but i sincerely believe the last three seasons of the show would've gone in a completely different direction if peter got that last little push away from his bullshit cop behaviour by neal pulling some grand romantic gesture for him + el. like, come on man, you've already come to peace with legality not being the same as morality after you ran all those cons and let neal cut and run, but he's so convinced the ONLY way to do good in the world is being an fbi agent that he like, actively makes things worse for neal (AND HIMSELF? AND ELIZABETH?) over and over again just so he can preserve the status quo of neal being his CI + while peter's an active field agent. would kissing about his devotion to their dynamic and neal's rehabilitation and peter's complicity in neal's dehumanisation by the state solve that? maybe not! but considering the alternative is neal fucking dying (he got better) about it i think we should give it a shot!

that previous paragraph was more or less me preaching to the choir wrt this relationship but still here's my pitch:

neal is essentially already the third in elizabeth + peter's marriage, with how much he lives in peter's brain during pre-series sequences, how INVESTED he is in their relationship (reminding peter of anniversaries), and then IN the actual series that only increases when he's coming around to their place all the time

each pair within this trio have supporting but distinct relationships w one another that they all benefit from (and they often need the support of all three dynamics to get through Issues™)

that one episode where peter ends up on the run w another fbi agent and neal gets paired up with that guy's CI, and there's just an unbelievable amount of parallels between the two pairs and their relationship, even after its established that those two are in a romantic relationship and peter and neal 'aren't'. like peter says he'd go to neal first if he was ever in trouble LIKEEE

fucking everything about the run up to the finale of season 2 where we hear over and over again that the only two ways conmen end up are with 'one last score' (which inevitably leads to the next, because they can't help themselves), or going to prison. OR, the 'true love' option, where an ex-conman is able to genuinely settle down and go straight (more or less). this 'secret third option' is literally even spelled out to us IN an episode about a trio of thieves (byron june and ford) who meant the world to each other!

neal uses the engagement ring he was GOING to give to his TEXTUAL 'true love' in order to pay for peter's ransom that one time and isn't even cut up about it??

also like the episode before that neal and peter switch identities (very well) and neal acts like elizabeth's wife, and the only issue peter (or anyone) has with it is that he's also committing the crime of impersonating a federal agent.

season three finale where peter asks why neal didn't run when he just got the score of his life and the first thing he says is 'you, elizabeth', before listing literally anything else. INCLUDING HIS CURRENT ROMANTIC INTEREST?

also the scene before that where neal immediately folds from his season long cat and mouse game with peter and hiding the treasure because elizabeth's in danger! and peter only believes he's not lying abt any of it bc it's elizabeth!

that one shot in the pilot where neal and elizabeth look up at peter and you can so clearly see he has a type.

literally everything about elizabeth + neal's interactions in s1. get you a girl who sneaks you into her house past dozens of fbi agents so you can talk to your handler personally about being framed for a crime that she has no reason to suspect you didn't do other than believe in your and her husband's relationship!

im losing track of my argument at this point. anyway can someone please knock peter upside the head with some kind of bi awakening for the love of god this homoerotic 'partners' situation has an unbelievably high body count not to mention all the violation of civil liberties and frankly you could've all moved to paris and started a detective agency YEARS ago and this show would become slice of life" - @time-is-restored

[sh0tanzz]

hii can u do sohee as bf?

SOHEE AS YOUR BF based on astrology ~

reminder: this is for fun and astrology is smth I study for a hobby, these are all inferences based off of observations and not exact fact unless I knew him myself !!

Scorpio Sun: The stereotype that scorpios suns are secretive is so played out they're just technically shy imo im sorry LMFAOOO. Once a scorpio fully trusts you or has something they genuinely want to tell you they just keep GOING. And the same probably applies to him especially since his Mercury is in Sag. In the beginning he might seem hard to crack or not one to spare many details but once he's sure of you and you two are officially together and solidified oh he's a plain open book. Ofc he's not gonna pour every aspect of his heart out but being secretive really won't be an issue. He has an aspect of sun and uranus so he won't really act in ways that aren't true to him, his freedom, or expression so he'd practice authenticity even within the relationship so you better be in it for the real him !!

Libra Moon: Similar to Wonbin he'd be pretty considerate and would weigh pros and cons before doing anything to ensure fairness. His chart makes up of placements centered around truth, fairness and morals so ngl being equal+in balance is something he'd want for the relationship. Sometimes there's a tendency for Libra moons to end up complacent or non argumentative to keep the peace but I think it wouldn't be as severe considering his sag placements. Rather than being complacent he'd be pretty passive, he'd be willing to engage in trivial debates and significant convos but wouldn't break his neck to prove his point or show that he's right unless it was absolutely necessary. His moon is sextile his venus so emotional balance is crucial so he'd avoid constant disturbances in the relationship so you two remain in harmony; downside he might become TOO passive and too invested in harmony to where needed conflicts are dismissed or he doesn't express himself fully.

Sagittarius Mercury: So...blunt LMFAOO. Honestly Sohee probably says crazy stuff or is more sassy behind closed doors he has sm mercury aspects even some with pluto and mars. He might be conflicted sometimes, has moments of being super blunt and even saying stuff without thinking and then his libra moon brings him back into peaceful mode and he's like "uuuhm my bad". Probably likes fake arguing or small debates. Makes fun of you most definitely but compared to Eunseok it'd be easy for him to apologize if he realized it was too far or hurt you. Instead of yelling he might talk pretty fast and "word vomit" whenever he's dealing with big emotions or anger (especially with his mercury square mars) and due to this he might go quiet during arguments (if they ever even happen) because he knows when dealing with his outbursts he could say the wrong thing or be hurtful when not meaning to. Likes to be playful and even a bit nonserious and childish in convos and tries to make things lighthearted.

Sagittarius Venus: Sigh omg a bestfriend and boyfriend in one quite LITERALLY. Sag Venus has a hard time settling down because they value their freedom and life path so much and they don't really get into -serious- relationships unless they're genuinely enamored with you and can see you fitting into their expanding life. So once he's with you and realizes he's actually in love with you and it's beyond just flirting and pining he's essentially all in. Freedom will be evident in the relationship and there may not be a super specific power dynamic laid out outside of the cheesy "look at how my gf takes care of me.”. He wouldn't abandon his career for the relationship but wouldn't completely abandon the relationship as a whole either but just know there'd be an attempt to split both. He'd be loving and wouldn't be too restricting, flirts via jokes quite literally he would end up being the funniest man you know especially with that sag mercury on top. He values optimism and change and would implement that into the relationship as well.

Pisces Mars: His Sag Venus paired with his mars could show that he'd be ok with someone being the initiator or taking the lead but would still be ok with wanting your attention and doing things to get it (not in a toxic way ofc) . Like he'd want to impress you with unconventionally/casual romantic things or "best friend dates" that soon lead to more. Aw man he's probably a friends to lovers trope type of man like anton :((. Tbh him having a Sag Venus + Pisces Mars such a chill relationship like I said earlier it'd be just like dating your friend.

[serpentface]

Im very curious about the haidamane family. I remember on your patreon you mention couya being very homophobic, but her brother is in a relationship with a man and is supported by the family. How is their sibling dynamic?

Yeah, Couya is homophobic in a mostly setting-typical way, with some additional layers added from how much she hates her brother and dislikes men in general.

As is typical, she sees her brother’s probable dalliances as both mundanely shameful and spiritually weakening her family against curses (via bodily 'violation'), and resents it tremendously. HOWEVER she defends him for much the same reasons she dislikes it so much- denying it and protecting him protects their family from the associated stigma, and wards against curses and other metaphysical harm. All three siblings are politically prominent in the military and it is very important to her that their status and family name is protected. 

Couya isn’t his main protector though, it’s his sister Faiza who really looks out for him. Faiza also has mostly setting-typical feelings about male homosexuality, but she loves Janeys dearly and is personally invested in his safety and honor beyond just protecting the family name. The two of them have spent their entire lives looking out for each other, and Faiza has sort of a complex about being her siblings' protector. And given she is one of the highest status women in the entirety of Wardin (being a likely candidate for the Odomache) her support is the key thing keeping him afloat. 

She’s the only person who actually knows concrete details about his and Brakul’s relationship, which has allowed her to make (very carefully worded) oaths about Janeys’ status without lying. Lying under oath is viewed as exceptionally dangerous in a metaphysical sense (you are lying to God and will be cursed or damned to a dismal afterlife as a wandering ghost), and oaths (ESPECIALLY from a person of her status) are taken very seriously, so her word means a lot. It's just not enough to stop the gossip.

Anyway, their sibling dynamic is basically this:

Three children are born into a politically prominent family by two different mothers, in an environment of constant competition for the merest crumb of parental love. All become highly ambitious and driven to perform well socially, academically, and militarily. Faiza is the oldest and obvious favorite, recieving highly preferential treatment. Janeys is a middle child and disliked by his parents but given privileged treatment as the only male heir. Couya is the youngest, partly illegitimate (born of a different mother than the other two, retains the family name but locked out of key inheritance), is isolated and neglected, and is also just considered to be strange and offputting as a person (she's most likely autistic, and not exactly existing in a supportive social context).

Janeys survives childhood by latching onto Faiza and developing a heavily dependent relationship on her, Couya is isolated and in constant competition with Janeys, not only for the position of ‘second favorite child’ but also for Faiza’s attention. She desperately wants Faiza's affection but is also profoundly resentful of her golden-child status. Faiza comes out of this mess the best-adjusted (relatively speaking) and a supportive figure to both her other siblings, but with a sort of martyr/hero complex about it. 

Faiza and Couya- amicable and practically supportive but emotionally distant, with considerable resentment on Couya’s side.

Faiza and Janeys- very close, supportive and enabling. Janeys is heavily emotionally dependent on Faiza, and Faiza (on a mostly subconscious level) power trips on it. 

Couya and Janeys- mutual hatred, avoid each other whenever possible, constantly engaging in psychological warfare when forced to interact, only support each other as far as it supports the family itself. 

also here, have several paragraphs of clarification on Male Homosexuality In Wardi Culture under the cut. Enjoy:

So yeah, in Wardi culture sexual relationships between men are stigmatized to a degree that is largely situational. It’s less the same-gender aspect itself and more a combination of how masculinity and power is conceptualized, especially irt the body. Men can penetrate in sex regardless of the partner’s gender without it being stigmatized (though there are additional cultural standards about sexual moderation and appropriate expressions of sexuality). It’s widely accepted for men to have sex with male sex workers (or eunuchs, though they are not fully conceptualized as men by this society) so long as they are the active participants. Receiving penetration is the source of stigma, deemed highly emasculating and a fundamental violation of the body.

There are strong beliefs about spiritual implications surrounding the interactions between bodies. Even having a nude body gazed at is disempowering on a metaphysical level, receiving penetration much more so. It is imagined as literally weakening the recipient, leaving them more vulnerable to curses or influence of evil spirits/wandering ghosts. This is also why the highest status roles for women tend to involve celibacy- king-sisters outrank queens, being aunts or sisters and having no children of their own, while the Odomache (the most esteemed role in Wardi society by far, deemed a physical manifestation of God) must remain entirely celibate and cannot even be SEEN naked.

Receiving penetration (and the resulting metaphysical violation) is accepted as the way of things for the average woman (and of eunuchs), and this is assumed as a justification for their reduced status in this largely patriarchal society. Receiving penetration as a man is more of an active choice to be 'violated', and thus wildly questionable.

Though the stigma revolves around penetration, it extends to male romantic relationships themselves (even if they involve no penetrative sex). It’s not frowned upon as something like a ‘sin’ to be punished, rather a profound embarrassment, a failure to successfully perform masculinity, indicative of impotence. It should be noted that the cultural conceptualization of sex itself here revolves around penetration, and other sexual activities are not fully considered ‘having sex’ with the same implications. This also means that there is comparatively little stigma for same gender relationships between women, or eunuchs- at worst, these relationships are more a source of gossip and teasing, imagined as the result of an excessive sexual appetite or unsatisfying male partners. 

So bottom line for Janeys and Brakul: their relationship is considered inappropriate because they are men of equal status, it is obviously romantic in nature, and it is assumed they’re full on fucking (they actually aren’t. Which is a whole other thing). It’s particularly scandalous for a politically powerful figure to be in this position. Janeys receives the worst of it, given that he is smaller, younger, and somewhat more ‘effeminate’ it’s assumed by most that he’s bottoming (Couya totally thinks so). 

[inkdemonapologist]

nobody asked but since I've seen a lil chatter on the DCTL Graphic Novel on tumblr too, here's the thread I posted on twitter, speaking as someone who's done a little freelance work as a comic artist, under the jump:

Main thought about the DCTL graphic novel preview is: yeah, I've made designs like that when I was being paid by the page and expected to just throw in extra design work for free and I have a deadline and no time to scour the source material or really put my heart into the design No shade to the artist; every complaint I have about the pages we've seen is that this looks like someone who was just working (quickly) from a script. The artist is likely not a Big Fan, so they only know the info and descriptions they're given. And the artist's portfolio shows they're capable of the kind of designs and dynamics this comic needed. its possible they phoned it in for no reason, but feels more likely to be "not enough time/not paid enough/not given enough info to give it that level of care." Which, don't get me wrong; an important level of craftsmanship and care is missing and im not gonna blame the artist but i AM gonna be a hater abt it lmao It's not just about designs; the convo with Joey is another good example. It's a literal illustration of the things Joey said and did in that scene, but it's missing the point -- that scene is our introduction to the way Joey throws Buddy off-balance. That energy is missing. And that's the sort of thing that needs the script to convey this purpose well to the artist, that needs the artist to have time & freedom to invest in portraying it, that needs time & investment & knowledge to ask for adjustments at early stages and get the page right one more note: begging batim fans 2 think abt the plot of DCTL and realise why "maybe we will not make the creepy guy who dies at the end a black man in this" is perhaps a reasonable choice. like im a fan of poc norman headcanons too but pls recognise this would be a tough call!! anyway, genuinely cannot wait to see how off sammy is gonna be in this lmao. will he be a mid non-design like norman or will he be conventionally handsome or will he get graphic novel dave miller vibes b/c hes an antagonist? will we get the fabled black hair sammy??? i cant wait

TL;DR I strongly suspect this was an issue of not enough time/not enough money. That design looks nothing like the description of Norman, right? Like, there's hundreds of different AU designs of all shapes, colours and sizes that you could create that would still look like Norman Polk, but somehow they managed to make a character that isnt ANY of them, lmao??? So... how could that happen, unless nobody gave the artist a description of Norman? Or if they did, how did that design make it past anyone else, unless there wasn't time for revisions or a system worked out for revisions, unless whoever was managing the comic project thought it was fine if the designs didn't fit with the descriptions in the book? If everyone is doing their job, then the artist is given the information they need without having to go do unpaid YA novel research before they can start drawing. That's why you have a writer adapting it!!

("they should hire fans, a fan would've done a better job" OK BUT THATS B/C FANS ARE MORE LIKELY TO ALLOW THEMSELVES TO BE EXPLOITED AND DO EXTRA UNPAID WORK B/C THEY CARE!! THATS NOT A SOLUTION!!!! THATS A JOEY DREW STRAT!!!!!!!)

Anyway I could yell about this for 15 years so I'm going to shush for now BUT I JUST FEEL VERY STRONGLY ABOUT IT LMAO.

[autisticjoshrusso]

ok ok ok. a post about josh, buck, and maddie at dispatch as promised. (and because i dont feel like writing a whole separate post or repeating myself etc, if im pointing something out as evidence for my autistic josh headcanon, it'll be in parenthesis like this) also this is long because im going basically line by line in some places so just be prepared for that and such.

the first thing i wanna say before anything else is that like... as far as how this conversation fits into the larger narrative, i was fairly disappointed, due to the way that including this scene like this is kinda implying that the racism was fine because of being closeted etc. HOWEVER. luckily for my sanity it is pretty clear that from a character perspective, that's not at all what's being said by josh himself here, and we can be pretty certain that he is not aware of tommy's past behaviors. in fact he has almost no facts or context about the situation, which i'll get into later.

now that the disclaimer is out of the way, im gonna move onto character analysis and will not be touching on what i think the narrative might have meant etc. any further. like this is going to be purely talking about character dynamics and dissecting the dialogue etc.

we start out right away by skipping all the exposition right into a hard cut of maddie reacting to the news that tommy and abby were engaged. LOVE this set up we get right into the important part quickly and we as the audience only have to hear information that is new to us, not the information being repeated back to the character for whom the information is new.

and oh maddie. i love you so bad. she's like DAMN thats crazy, and then makes the obvious turning people gay joke. her energy here is sooo like it didn't make sense until looking at it in retrospect, but she's shocked and invested yet not taking it very seriously as a concern for buck, because well, she's having a baby and this is objectively not that serious comparatively <3 but i do love that she sees buck's reaction and quickly reins it in and is like woah im kidding im not actually being homophobic holy smokes. which. it kinda still is a little. but i think she's allowed <3

and then... josh enters the scene. he apparently only walked in as buck was saying "-kissed a boy" so of course he had to be like huh? gay shit? something gay? boys?? what's going on over here? and i love that for him. and i love that maddie immediately is like oh hi bestie i catch u up to speed on the tea <3 the maddiejosh bestieism is so back we never lose <3 and that fact that she's like. feeding in the facts in a way to dramatically amp up the tale i love it. she really said man the things my baby brother gets himself caught up in are wild.... anyway <3 true sibling behavior is finding the perfect balance between being supportive and being so so annoying <3

and she is supportive still. like when it becomes clear that there's something deeper going on here she does try to help him work through it. and its so interesting to me the way she is sort of seriously contemplating his words and is shocked when josh not only speaks up but is being very serious and equally focused on the problem at hand. it's like... she's trying so hard to figure out how to help her brother with something she doesn't fully understand that having someone else speak up to help them kind of shocks her and boy does that say something about their lives and the buckley sibling dynamic!

side note, the way josh is jokingly like "she didn't bring her personal life to work, unlike SOME people" and maddie's little look of mock offense?? they're so cute i cant handle it.

i also really love how the shots are framed during this conversation. at first, even when she's not talking and is just listening to josh talk, maddie is still in frame, we're still getting her reaction, she's an active participant in what's going on. and then there is the one shot where she's talking and josh is out of frame, hidden by buck, because whatever reaction he might be having isn't important, it's a buckley sibling moment. (he's not an active participant at that point; he's entirely observing and reacting and gathering information, not dictating the direction of the conversation whatsoever.)

it's only when josh gets very serious and it starts to turn into a heart to heart moment just between him and buck that maddie is allowed to leave the frame. it still goes back to her in very brief cuts when her reaction is relevant, but she steps back out of focus and let's josh handle the conversation. and i love that so much. thank GOD someone else is helping buck sort out his problems that isn't his parentified sister or just generally someone more marginalized than him. it was kind of getting irritating to watch, as much as i love buck so much. like dude... the emotional labor. watch it.

and man. this conversation guys. everything about it makes me an insane crazy person. ive already mentioned this in the tags of some other posts but like... its so fascinating because on the surface it is such a cohesive conversation, but when you really break it down and analyze both of their expressions and body language alongside what they're saying, you can start to see the cracks in it. what one of them is saying is not what the other one is hearing, in both directions. they are having two different conversations and i think it's critical to analyze both of those conversations and how they are interacting with each other. what josh says, what josh hears, what buck says, and what buck hears are four entirely separate things happening alongside each other.

the first part is josh trying to get a sense for how serious this relationship is to buck. when buck falters at the question of "do you love him?", he elaborates with follow-up questions that, to josh, define "love" or close enough to it. answering "yes" to those questions is close enough to a "yes" to the question of "do you love him?".

(which. ok. the particular choice of questions makes me insane because they do essentially boil down to "do you prefer this person to solitude and grant them an equal or greater importance to yourself?" which is sooo... it's said from the point of view of someone who greatly values their solitude and would not easily grant someone that level of importance.)

unfortunately, well, buck is NOT someone who greatly values his solitude, and puts other people before himself quite easily. buck would answer "yes" to those questions for basically anyone. josh does not know or understand this about buck and takes buck's answers at face value, while buck is taking this as sort of... it's hard to explain, and i think others have done a better job of capturing buck's perspective already tbh. he's convincing himself that he loves tommy here because josh is unknowingly handing him that information and expectation, and buck loves to mold himself to fit an expectation etc.

and then comes the second part, which... i think this is where it is most critical to realize that josh has none of the context about tommy, abby, and buck and those respective relationships. by his own admission, he didn't really know much about abby or about her breakup with tommy beyond the fact that it was upsetting. he didn't hear the way tommy talked about abby to buck at dinner, and he definitely didn't get to see any of the real fallout and damage to her psyche that tommy leaving her caused.

but buck did! im not inclined to rewatch s1 to get any exact quotes or anything but from what i remember, she either outright said or implied that she was so heartbroken because tommy left her because of her mother's illness. buck is understandably very upset because he understands exactly what she went through and how, unless abby was lying to not out him, he didn't exactly come clean with the breakup, and left her feeling like it was her fault, like there was something wrong with her or she was being weighed down by caring for her mother. he calls tommy's behavior exactly what it is: dishonest and cruel.

but josh doesn't know this. all he is hearing is a young, freshly out bisexual calling a gay man "dishonest and cruel" for having been engaged to a woman for his own protection. and he responds exactly how you'd expect! he reminds him of queer history and the fact that he doesn't really have a right to judge the people who grew up and had to survive in a world that was much less safe to come out in.

(and i said in my other post that's still doing numbers that "pre-Glee/post-Glee" is an actual queer discourse talking point and makes sense that it'd be used here, as awkward and cheesy as it seems, but it's also a win for my television/film/popular media/hollywood culture/etc. as a special interest headcanon. <3 we love to see it)

and it kills me because of course buck is just going to take this at face value and decide he needs to stop feeling the discomfort he's feeling, leading to the subsequent doubling down and over committing that is typical of his unhealthy relationship patterns.

(and then at the end of the speech josh has to literally announce that he's leaving DSJFHJKDSKJ. because walking away/ending conversations is so awkward and difficult and the easiest way to mitigate that is to lean into the Dramatic Homosexual Stereotype mask or whatever <3 i've long been of the opinion that josh is someone who uses the behaviors associated with queer men and queer masculinity as the blueprint for his neurotypical mask, which is why he often comes across as being just a little bit off from the Funny and Bitchy Gay vibes that it seems like he's going for. and boy did his exit from this scene just reinforce that headcanon so hard!)

they wrap the scene with a little bit more levity too which is kind of nice to like. move on from that. because it got kind of heavy there for a second.

overall i do like what this scene accomplished, but like i said at the start, i think it has some really unfortunate implications that weigh it down for me. still, always nice to get more josh content, especially when it's pretty consistent with his character as established AND not at all related to doing his job. we got to see him and maddie being goofy and maddie being allowed to let someone else deal with buck's problems for a second. and the whole thing was very well shot! excellent camera work going on throughout.

i don't actually know how to end this post so yknow. im gonna make a dramatic exit now or whatever <3

[renarines]

bit of a ramble because im rereading farseer again but honestly i read a lot of sad scenes of various books and go "oh, that's sad," and feel myself get a little melancholy for a character i won't see again, or a heroic death or whatever. like i recognise its meant to be a 'sad scene' and it'll give me a pseudo feeling of sadness, but nothing that sticks, because i always have that knowledge that it's just literature.

but genuinely no scene has wriggled under my skin and made me feel such genuine emotion and pain as the beginning of assassin's quest (spoilers ahead), when burrich gives up everything to re-raise a boy who is not his son who is barely even a boy, he's a man, but not even that, and he not only brings him back from the dead but brings him back from every dangerous precipice that followed, trained him like a puppy so that he might see through the eyes of a man again, drank with him, cheered on his recovery, lived haunted by the injuries done to fitz that he couldn't prevent. the man who was his son in every way that mattered, the boy who he could never save just well enough. and when he's picked him up and dusted him off one more time fitz turns on him, fitz spurns every single facet of burrich's life, he turns away from his care and tells him he should have left him in the grave. and burrich has to gather himself. and then he returns to his son and says i have to leave you now, and it is for your own good, and this time i cannot clean your wounds and watch over you and it is not because you hurt me but because you hurt yourself. and then he just Leaves like that. and you know its coming and you just have to watch it, knowing that its for the best but theres no way that can be true and it hurts like a fucking catastrophic bleed oh my GOD i could write for days and days and days about the dynamic between these two. this scene fucking KILLS ME still, i just read it again and again and again and curse robin hobb for ever making me invest in these two because it hurts with more human emotion than any piece of media has ever stirred within me

[kawarikisaki]

Okay! So with the new case finished up I'm ready to talk into the void about it.

Starting with the fact that this case has made me reevaluate how strong Hakuba is.

Cause I have always thought of him as being somewhat strong, but lo and behold he can just lift a whole Kaito and keep him on his shoulder for several minutes (it was six pages, and most of it was dramatic deduction time, which is usually not particularly fast dialogue) without any signs of being encumbered by the weight. He does adjust position a few times (his hand moves between panels so either he's adjusting or he's rubbing Kaito’s ass, I'm eating well as a Hakukai shipper but I'll take the innocent explanation) but there’s no sweat, no wince, no commentary about Kaito being heavy. Like, yeah, a fireman's carry is an effective way to carry a person. However, the average person is still going to struggle to lift someone that's a similar size to themselves.

Also, while im sure his assertion that he was going to walk him to the police station was just him being cheeky and bantering... he didn't seem to have any intention to put him down any time soon. I'd like to think that he was waiting for Kaito to call him out on it then make his escape, but if Kaito hadn't he'd have probably kept it up till the deduction was done then walked over to Nakamori-keibu and said something like, "this is Kid by the way, can you handle him from here?"

Anyway... Hakuba strong actually? I have decided to think so.

Can I just say I love all the little faces they make at each other? All the bois, not just Kaito and Hakuba. Granted, the character interactions and shifting dynamics have always been my favorite part of dcmk.

But like....

Hakuba bending down to talk to Conan. Kaito looking to proud of himself when he pulls out the 'hey did you consider it could actually be suicide?' While Conan’s in the background like 'oh shit oh shit oh fuck'. Conan and Kaito both thinking they had Ran Convinced, but she was sus.

Speaking of sus, I think Hakuba figured Conan out.

Sure, that last page had him back off from it and be like, "You got in contact with Shinichi and had him help." And that explaination works but... its an explanation that just makes less sense the more you think about it.

Even if I give the benefit of doubt it doesn't make sense to do it the way Hakuba explained, because if Conan contacted Shinichi to help then why would Conan be acting as the middle man? It'd introduce unnecessary delay to have Shinichi hear what's happening via phone, then Shinichi tell Conan his response, and Conan bowtie it to Kid, and Kid say the lines. (Realistically speaking the way they actually did it should also have this problem, but adding a step like this when in theory its completely unnecessary to have Conan as the middle man beyond just contacting Shinichi is just going to imcrease the delay.)

That said I can actually kind of see how that could be a conclusion he reached from this interaction:

Hakuba, at this point, knows that Shinichi is Kid and that Conan is helping him by supplying lines, but he hasn't figured out the details. So when he notices that Conan reacts before 'Shinichi' that's him reaching that conclusion that he brings up later about Conan being so invested that he was mimicing Shinichi’s expression and attitude.

I don't think he fully believed that, though.

Looking at the information that we know he had:

1. 'Shinichi' is Kid (and also Kaito Kuroba using his real face)

2. Conan is supplying Kid with lines.

3. The lines Kid is saying are from the real Shinichi.

4. Conan gets worked up if you say something that Shinichi would be worked up about

5. Conan has gadgets. (Hakuba is at least aware of the bowtie having speaker/microphone function, bit arguments could be made that he’s aware of the voice changer and also the sleep needles from the events at sunset mansion)

6. (Bonus) In a previous case Hattori had been upset with Hakuba being the representative 'detective of the east' but was completely fine with Conan taking that role.

I think he figured out that Conan was Shinichi, but that he wasn't certain until he brought up 'the real Shinichi' during the deduction and saw Conan begin to panic. I think he had mentioned it purely to get a rise out of Conan and see how he would react, and upon getting his answer he played along and gave Conan an out to jump on because if he exposed him here he wouldn't get the answers as to how this had happened.

And I feel like this read of is is reinforced by his final lines expressing that he understands why Shinichi/Conan would help Kid for the sake of solving the mystery because it's a detective’s nature. Hakuba gets it because he’s doing the same by helping Conan get away with his deception in hopes that doing so will help him get answers to the mystery.

Thats how I've decided to view things anyway, though it is possible that im partially blinded by my hope that he continues to be relevant.

[weepingtalecowboy]

omg i just saw your post about everyone being afraid of bruce and yes damn it

like that man cannot go on 'parenting' like that without there ever being consequences

idk anything about canon (and im not about to invest money and time just to see some rich dude abuse his kids) but ive been thinking about all the things he did and how everythings gotta be so much worse without Alfred (even though there seem to be some instances where he was there and still didn't do anything - did he die before or after gotham war??)

i like the bodyswap + timetravel idea and bruce being confronted with the pain he caused and trying to make it right, but i kinda really want everyone else to realise that he's hurting them and for them to get together and just. idk kick him out of his own house. or city

Yes that would have been fun but unfortunately without Batman Gotham literally is falling apart and they all are in a situation where they literally can’t kick Bruce out no matter how much they want to (therefore creating a dangerous and unbalanced dynamic because they can’t do anything but endure him being an asshole because Gotham is at stake)

Which is why if he loves them he should ship them away as far as physically possible like to the other side of the world so that his enemies don’t hurt them anymore

But Bruce is selfish and can’t bare being alone but he also isn’t a good parent for them all making him oppressing and dangerous

Because Batman without Robin is a monster but he also is constantly hurting them be it accidentally or purposely

He is a monster no matter what he does

If he has robin he will hurt him enough to leave him

If he has no robin he starts hurting himself and the citizens of Gotham

It is a limbo straight from hell