#it does change from time to time but the main ships are pretty solid

[rockwgooglyeyes]

warning!! this gets really long lmao - talking about themes in Arcane season two - arcane season two spoilers, kind of obvious but need to clarify. i dont talk about shipping in this at all btw! i have ships i like but like that's not here nor there, not relevant for this imo

I was watching an Arcane analysis video and while I wouldn't really go out on a limb and say that "I know what season two was about" like the themes and stuff because the themes found in a work are, inherently, going to be subjective and up to audience interpretation, and obviously, I'm not going to say that "I know Arcane's themes better than anyone else," I don't, that's not what this is about, but I would argue that season two does have a few universal themes. Some of those are carried over from season one, being relationships and love in general, what we are willing to do for love, but there are some that are focused on more so in season two than in season one.

This might have been said before- I don't really touch the analysis/meta side of the fandom, so I am sorry if I'm retreading old ground. Additionally, while I don't think that season two was nearly as perfect as season one, I enjoyed both and I think they were both solid, enjoyable seasons. The writing in season two was not immaculate but it was not bad, either. If not held in comparison to season one, I doubt it would be judged so harshly. Nevertheless, that's a whole other can of worms, and one that I would really rather not open.

Back to the themes- my argument is that, if season one is about siblings (sisters specifically), trauma, and change, then I would say that sacrifice, love, and the consequences of death, are the main themes in season two. These are all themes that are present in season one (Vander's sacrifice for Violet & Powder, the consequences of Vander & Silco's deaths, love is relevant w/pretty much everything) but they are focused on more heavily in season two.

These in particular are seen but not limited to Jinx's sacrifice for Vi at the very end, Heimerdinger's presumed sacrifice for Ekko, (the more sacrifice oriented ones), Jayce choosing to save Viktor, Caitlyn's fixation on Jinx and her descent into tyranny, Mel being forced to kill her mother, and Singed's obsession with keeping his daughter alive (the consequences of death).

These are the themes that stuck out to me as the biggest because, while there are the more philosophical, overarching ideas of fate and evolution and the multiverse, that's not really something that is widely accessible and they are themes, yes but they are not through-lines for every character. I mean, the fate one could be argued, General Medarda fated to be taken down by family, Jinx and Vander both fated to die, Viktor fated to fail (unable to achieve Hextech dream of helping the undercity, unable to achieve glorious evolution), etc etc, and I would say that fate is probably the trickiest of these themes to really dissect because it is carried out as expected as many times as it is subverted. It's also not really what I am trying to address here lmao

I would argue that there is the consistent theme of the consequences of death, which I know is a little bit of a long theme, themes are supposed to be one word most of the time, but I can't just say that this is the theme of "grief" because it's not just grief. It is about what people do in response to the death of their loved ones. Arguably, that could be what the whole season is about, really. Jinx is reeling at the death of Silco and her starting the war with topside, she has a death wish and she wants to "repent" in a way for killing Silco and for choosing to embrace being "Jinx" which is something she doesn't see any way of coming back from. She finds a will to live in Isha, who gives her a purpose and a reason to stay alive, and that gives her the ability to eventually attempt reconciliation with Vi. Caitlyn is screwed up over her mum's death, trying to maintain the relationships she once had in the face of all of her new responsibilities as well as the war looming, and with her preexisting obsession with Jinx being twisted by her mother's death, she wages war on Zaun and attempt to locate Jinx. In this manic grief, she forces Vi to make decisions that Vi isn't able to truly make (asking Vi to become an enforcer) and she kind of ends up burning all of her bridges, irrevocably changed by her trauma. Which, y'know, fair. At the same time, Vi is dealing with the death of "Powder", finally giving into Ekko's philosophy and vowing to hunt down her sister, which she isn't really able to do without Caitlyn there as a guiding light because Vi is fragile as it is, so when that relationship implodes, she throws herself into the deep end to avoid having to actually think about anything. That's interrupted by Jinx and then both of the sisters face a twisted version of their father, Vander, and try to process that.

Viktor is one of the most difficult ones because his story is so deepy intertwined with Jayce's, they have separate arcs but they are woven so closely together that they are nearly impossible to discuss without mentioning the other. Viktor is fatally injured by Jinx's missile and Jayce breaks his promise to destroy the Hexcore and using said Hexcore to save Viktor's life. This is two different sides of the "consequences of death" because one, Jayce's actions are the consequences of Viktor's temporary death, he acted rashly and in desperation, in a successful attempt to save Viktor's life but on the other hand, it gets into the consequences of death because, why was Viktor saved instead of anyone else, such as one of the council members? Why save Viktor instead of Caitlyn's mother? The consequences of Viktor's death was Jayce once again showing how devoted he is to Viktor specifically, against all odds, and choosing to defy death for someone he loves, which against the natural order of things and directly sets off a series of events that Heimerdinger warned of, and also, that Viktor was scared of.

When he returns, Viktor is himself but he is influenced heavily by the Hexcore, at the same time. He isolates himself and creates the utopia he dreamed of making with Hextech thanks to the powers of his Hexcore. He drives Jayce away on purpose, at first, but the more people who are added to the Hexcore, the more detached he becomes and the less he is trying to distance himself from Jayce. Jayce goes through the whole multiverse shenanigans and comes back grimy and determined to stop Viktor.

The arc for Jayce and Viktor in this season kind of mirrors Vi and Jinx, a bit, with the way that Jayce keeps choosing Viktor over and over, similarly to Vi choosing Jinx over and over, and like Vi hunting down Jinx, Jayce has a period where he turns against Viktor. At the same time, it's different, because it's almost as if this is the same arc that Jinx and Vi could have had if Vi did shoot Caitlyn and play along with Jinx's rules, because Jayce is finally absorbed into the Hexcore with everyone else and resolves most of Viktor's conflict by not giving up on Viktor. By choosing Viktor over everything else. By telling Viktor that even if he can't achieve his dreams, that doesn't make him broken, that his imperfections make him beautiful.

Ekko's story around the themes, I think, is more about the way that the butterfly effect works, how little choices make a big different, and how things could have gone if only things were different, as seen in his multiverse episode. That ties into the consequences of death via showing what could have happened if Vi were the one who died instead of Vander, how that would have impacted their family and their relationships, how it changed the trajectory of the plot overall. Additionally, Ekko is one of the characters grappling with the most grief at the very end, having lost Heimerdinger, who was a mentor to him, and Jinx, who he loved.

It's fascinating how Ekko's story shows specifically his response to loss (Heimerdinger) was to take action, make a practical choice. But also, he latches onto one of the most important people in his life who is still alive, Jinx, and while he is focused on saving the world, he's devoting a lot of effort to restoring Jinx, too, which isn't exactly the most practical decision he could be making. Jinx is notorious for her volatility and Ekko has seen that first hand, yet, he pulls her out of the gutter and will not let her give up. So, while he's more tertiary when it comes to sacrifice plots (Jinx and Heimerdinger) but when it comes to love and the consequences of death, he's pretty focal, as his story ends up largely being about his love for Jinx, his love for the world, and how he deals with Jinx's death and Heimerdinger's death.

I don't want to talk about Heimerdinger I don't like him I don't care.

I could talk about Mel and her relationship with her mother as well, the way it parallels Caitlyn's relationship with her mother, but this post is long enough as it is, so if I talk about that, I'm saving that for another day.

[my-rose-tinted-glasses]

We Are

A lot has been said about this show over the last 15 weeks. And despite what some people seem to think, most of it has been positive. I tend not to write much about shows in general, and stick to making pretty gifs of the shows I really like. The fact that I made exactly one set for the entire duration of this show should tell anyone who's reading that this will not be glowing review of the show. I'm not going to be mean, but if you loved the show and don't wanna do read someone with a different opinion, I beg you to stop reading. Also sorry if this is less than coherent but I'm tired so I won't be re-reading this a hundred times like I usually do before posting. Which also explains why I don't write a lot here.

We are - the story

One of the things that have been said about this show is that it lacks a plot. I would agree that the show as whole does not have single plot, but a series of plots. At it's most basic definition a plot is a series of events that shape a larger narrative. In the case of a linear plot there is a major plot line that follows the narrative from beginning to end with changes throughout. I'm not going to go into it, there are several ways this can be done depending on the type of narrative but most commonly it goes, beginning, rising, climax, falling, resolution. Now there's no such thing in this show as a whole. No single plot line. There is however several plots inside it, and these different plots do follow their own lines throughout the show. Every couple has its own plot line. And if we could only watch one couple at a time as if they had their own separate show, it would look just like any other bl, although it would certainly not be all that original. I think the friendships are what ultimately brings it all together but that by itself is not a central plot because it basically remains unchanged throughout. It's the anchor but it's not what moves the narrative forward.

We are - the ships

Once again, if you are a die hard fan of these ships do not read any more. Before I talk about them individually I just wanna say that @italianpersonwithashippersheart made an excellent point here about the fact that since we were familiar with most of the ships here, the show had an easier job in making us care for them. All the couples had their own storyline, with different stages of their development happening at the same time. And for the most part the show didn't have to spend a lot of time selling us on the relationships. It made use of a solid, reliable product that could be repackaged and resold. This is not necessarily a bad thing nor is it a new thing. It's thai bl.

Phum & Peem - The main couple. And in my opinion the least interesting one and the one most wasted here. Look, PondPhuwin are good together, this is their third show as a couple so they are a solid bet. So why not give them something with more depth? Why did I have to watch them exchange longing looks for the better part of this show? Don't get me wrong, they are great at it. Pond specially could teach a class on how to stare lovingly into Phuwin eyes. But lord was I tired of it. I mean, I'm sorry but I was fast forwarding through some of their scenes together because I've seen them all. I didn't count them but the amount of times they fell into each others arms must have been some sort of record. Sure, Phuwin is great at the facial expressions, Pond's hair ir gorgeous and he should be doing shampoo commercials, and yes, they can pull off the 'you're the only person in the universe in this moment and time loses all its meaning when I look into your eyes' thing. But enough is enough.

Q & Toey - It's fine. They're fine. They're actually much better than in My School President. Both of them I think improved a lot in their acting. But their story didn't do much for me. I enjoyed Q's change after they were boyfriends, I thought it was fun, but the drama before that, I thought, was so forced so I was not really all that invested. Also not a fan of the jealousy plan even if it did give us some entertaining moments with the friend group. I don't know, they just didn't click for me.

Tan & Fang - Is Tan one of the most adorable simps we've had in thai bl? YES. Did the boyfriend moments of this couple make me grin like an idiot 80% of the time? YES. Did I believe in the reciprocity of this relationship from the start? NO. Tan was the only reason that this relationship had me invested. His loud and unapologetic love for Fang filled the gaps in this particular love story. But the way it started made me have to work extra hard to believe the rest of it.

Chain & Pun - They were my favourites from the start. I waited 15 weeks for that kiss. Was it worth it? honestly, probably not. But at least they delivered in the end. That scene was everything I could've wanted from those two even if I wish it had happened sooner. The change in casting might've been the reason why it had to be this way so I'm not complain about that because ultimately I really enjoyed their story. Marc delivered as usual. Poon was so endearing to watch and his face is lovely. They remain my favourites and I wish I had a bit more time with them.

We Are - The friendships

This is what kept me going. When the episodes dragged and I found myself a bit bored, there was a big group moment and it brought me back to the show. When this show started, in my monthly breakdown I said I thought that @bengiyo comparing watching this show to watching the actors IG reels was a good way to describe the experience. But for me that wasn't always a bad thing. Just like with the couples, the fact that I knew these actors and they knew each other made me feel more connected to those ensemble moments. They felt very natural and grounded, and ultimately I could relate and be touched by them. I think that it's the show's biggest strength.

Well, this got longer than I expected and I never really know how to end these things so in conclusion. It was good fluff, with good friendship moments and solid acting from the couples. I will however forget most of it by this time next week, specially with the amount of ql's I'm watching at the moment.

If you've made it to the end, thanks for reading. 💜

[harocat]

As a huge love between fairy and devil lover whose favorite couple of all time is XLH and DFQC (love you header btw) I want to watch eastern fantasy what can you tell me about it? All I know is she goes into a game or something? How's the otp? I know nothing can be as good as those two but is it at least the same trope of how much they both adored each other and were willing to sacrifice for each other?

YES you should definitely watch it!

So Ling Miaomiao is a modern woman and the fan of a famous novelist, who just released his newest work, Catching Demons. She speed reads it (she's even listening to the audio of it while in a meeting at work yes queen), and realizes she... hates it. Completely despises it even though she really loves this author's work most of the time. Naturally she gets online to complain about it, and as she's doing so, she gets sucked into the world of the novel where she's in the body of the second female lead, the cruel, sinister, and doomed to die Lin Yu. 'The system' (a nebulous mysterious force that brought her in) gives her two tasks:

Survive the novel to the end

Make the second male lead, Mu Sheng, fall in love with her.

Mu Sheng is the second male lead in the novel, and not only does he end up as an antagonist, but he's literally the one who kills Lin Yu. So it seems an impossible task.

Of course though, it turns out Mu Sheng is rough with a gooey center; a true tsundere. He's love starved and lonely. He has a huge secret that he has to hide from everyone around him, including his beloved sister. It doesn't take much, just a lot of being herself, for him to start falling for Ling Miaomiao.

The game mechanics are the way 'the system' presents the story, so LMM has to try and get Mu Sheng to an 100% approval rating toward her, sort of like an otome game. There's lots of cute little jokes playing on this story mechanic (LMM commenting on 'how good the special effects are', using modern terminology and confusing people).

The rest of the plot is fun too! It indeed involves a lot of 'catching demons', as well as an overarching storyline about a powerful demon who 'cracked the sky' nine hundred years ago and is returning to try and end the world again. The costumes are wonderful, the effects are solid, and the acting is strong. There are lots of found family vibes among the main group and a child character who is not annoying.

Comparing it to LBFAD, LBFAD is more interested in diving deep into the characters and giving them pretty drastic development arcs. You are not going to get quite the character depth DFQC and XLH had, nor really, the relationship depth. And that's okay. LGIEF moves pretty briskly, and it is just a little lighter on the whole (though I know it will still break my heart like LBFAD did). It probably won't totally change your life and rewrite your brain chemistry like I'm sure LBFAD did, but you will have SO MUCH fun and the ship is super lovable and has eaten my brain.

Esther Yu and Ding Yuxi have GREAT chemistry. Esther is absolutely adorable at all times; funny and charming and looking the prettiest she's ever looked in one of the best Cdrama wardrobes ever. Ding Yuxi has puppy dog eyes on LOCK. He's brusque and sad and angry, but he is marshmallow sweet and so earnest as he experiences his first love. They are SO soft, and absolutely, they'd die for each other. So yes, WATCH IT.

[schrodingers-romy]

this can be for any of your selfships (but u kno im also biased but no pressure)

📖💌⚔️!!

Hi melk! Ty for the ask! I'm going to answer these for 💖choso💖 utc bc this got kinda long rip

📖 - what is your s/i's backstory? how does it make them meet your f/o(s)?

JJK!Romy was an extremely mid sorcerer who was in second year with nanami and haibara...essentially not good enough to be super skilled but also not bad enough to die LOL. I spent most of my time being the general dogsbody around the school along with a few individual missions (also bc my technique prevents me from working well on joint missions). I survive shibuya by pure fucking luck which is where I meet choso. I find the others after choso's realization that he is yuuji's brother and everyone is so confused and i have no idea what's going on and its a whole mess. I do have a soft spot for yuuji so we bond as the yuuji protection squad and then we go from there <3

💌 - any major changes in your selfship lore over time? if so, compare how it used to be with how it's now.

tbh I have the most solid rocho lore with the modern au bc shibuya makes me sad...but I will say my technique keeps changing with every jjk selfship bc i can't decide on one solid one

⚔️ - au time! pick an au of your ship that you have thoughts for and talk about it. if you can't decide, pick it randomly.

modern au time hehehehehe where everything is fine ✨ In my main modern au, I am kind of broke and lonely lol. So i end up tutoring my former underclassman yuuji in exchange for choso's food...so I am over at their house every night to tutor the boy and then I stay for dinner as payment. And that's how me and choso meet! How could I resist a caring pretty man who is a good cook 😔 (cue me sliding into the kitchen to attempt to flirt with choso)

[Ask Game]

[phantomss-pain]

I have to know what's your opinion on the silver eyes as a whole?

(Also do you have any headcannons for why Michael just doesn't exist there? (I don't know why but I always find people's reasoning for why he isn't mentioned once funny))

I’m guessing when you talk about silver eyes as a whole you mean the entire trilogy so I’ll just go over each of the stuff there and explain my headcanon for why Michael isn’t there.

Silver eyes book:

Second favourite thing in fnaf in general behind fnaf 2. I love Charlie and her whole storyline. I love most of the characters (Lamar doesn’t count). The fact that it’s such a character driven story is amazing and there are so many scenes where I’m just like this is amazing. William’s reveal, Sammy death scene as well. All of it was perfect. I know a lot of people complain about the pacing but I don’t care. The fact it takes its time is great as it build up everything to the finale very well.

Twisted ones:

I also really like this book. I know people say it’s boring but I disagree. I like Charlie’s whole crisis with Sammy and Henry as I think that makes sense after what happened to her in silver eyes. I like Jessica and Clay here with the two basically being there to say hey Charlie you okay there? I guess the main problem is just the stuff with John as it feels like filler however I do think it adds to Charlie’s current crisis. Buttttt then there is the ending which sets up Forth Closet.

Forth closet:

This book is where the silver eyes trilogy goes off the deep end and I say is the main reason the current lord is a god damn cluster fuck. To give some positives out there I do think John and Jessica being the main characters here work and I like that. The first two chapters are also pretty solid. But then everything just goes down the fucking drain and it’s all because of that god damn twist. Charlie being a robot is so fucking shit. It takes away from her character as she isn’t even her own person she is just Henry’s agony or something like that. It also doesn’t help the fact that the robot kid twist could have worked IF FUCKING SAMMY WAS THE ROBOT KID.

Like imagine if the main plot of Forth Closet is Charlie bonding with this version of Sammy finally thinking that she has someone from her family to bond with only for that to be ripped away as she finally lets go of Sammy and Henry for good. Like the plot of Forth Closet wouldn’t change that much except Charlie can still be a character and have a arc where she has to put down this version of Sammy that has been possessed by Evan or Elizabeth.

Forth Closet makes me angry the same way Security Breach and ruin does lmao.

Charlie:

Charlie in silver eyes is hands down my favourite fnaf character. It’s the main interpretation I look towards when writing for Charlie. I like her helpful shyish nature while being a cool tomboy on the side. Now I think I made it clear I don’t like forth closet’s reveal and I’ll leave it at that.

John:

I think John does get a bad rap in the fandom I think part of that is due to how the fandom doesn’t really like straight ships which I’m not going to get into and trust me I don’t mean it as a diss towards gay ships in this fandom but god fucking can we please stop using Jessica and Charlie to shit on John and Charlie please for the love of god. Anyway John um. I like him. He’s at his worst in twisted ones but he does improve in Forth Closet so that’s cool. (Also I’m really sorry that John basically turned into a slight fandom rant but I really needed to get that off my chest)

Jessica:

I have a love hate relationship with Jessica mostly due to people insisting that Jessica would have been so much better as a love interest for Charlie and using that to shit on John. Which I’m being real that did turn me off Jessica and Charlie as a ship until recently (but my love for the ship went down as saw those takes pop up again and just urg). Anyway I love her personality and I love the fact that she is Charlie’s right hand lady basically. Like can we just get more fics where instead of Charlie being friends with the mci kids and Elizabeth we get more fics where it’s Charlie’s actual friend group in the books and have Jessica and Charlie be the close ones instead of Elizabeth and Charlie?

Carlton:

Funny man. I like his whole thing in silver eyes and is just really funny like I said.

Marla:

I’ve really opened up to Marla recently (part of that is because I am writing a fic with her and Elizabeth together with a friend) I just like her mama bear personality. She’s sweat and needs to be used more.

Clay, Aunt Jen:

Both characters need to be used more full stop. Can we have more fics with Jen talking to Henry or have Clay be the one investigating Freddy’s please. Just give them more attention I beg

Michael headcanons:

My person headcanon is just after Charlie died Mrs Afton just divorced William and in their agreement took Michael and Evan. I think he’s just out there maybe with a girlfriend or a boyfriend just having fun not knowing anything about what William is doing.

[13urningstars]

🎀 RIBBON

𝐎𝐂 𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐉𝐈 𝐀𝐒𝐊𝐒!

🎀 RIBBON - how would they fit into worlds / au's? what au's would you like to try out? what fictional world would they fit / not fit into?

MAN YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW EXCITED I WAS TO ANSWER THIS. I've been enabled. I LOVE au's so much you don't understand it. So i have many au's/variants for cherr, both with canon stuff (show variants including TFP, TFA, Shattered glass, ect) and just basic au's (fantasy, mermaid, ect) so this will be a VERY long post hehhehehe This list doesn't include Cherr's main verse (IDW post war) or her live action verse since i don't know where I'm going with that yet, as well as show variants that i have finished watching but may be added later (including : G1, The unicron trilogy and the prime wars trilogy). I included Beast wars purely because while i might not have finished the series, i already have a pretty solid idea for this variant.

Put under a read more because this is a LONG post

CANON VERSES

ALIGNED

TFP : Same backstory as her main verse. Went on a personal mission to find Optimus prime and his team, eventually finding them after crash landing on earth after her ship got caught and damaged in an asteroid storm. Crash landed in France, and had time to fix up the majority of her ship before ruining into the team while they were on a mission. The teams permanent demolitions expert since wheeljack isn't the kind to stay. The guardian to two human children, Jennie and her babysitter Vera

Rescue bots academy : Would be included as a guest teacher occasionally. She drop's in to bother Joyride (My rescue bot oc), and to give lessons on general safety business (due to her.. experience with explosives), but most of the time she just likes visiting the kids, and teaching them about niche earth things.

Robots in disguise 2015 : Travel's between earth and cybertron, spending most of her time on earth despite the opportunity to go back "home". She travel's around, and ends up coming around to occasionally bother bee and his team once she got word that he was back on the planet. Jennie is 12 and vera is 20 and in college.

CYBERVERSE

While pretty similar to her other verses, cyberverse cherry holds on a bit more to what she was like before the war. A bit more cheeky and mischievous, and just slightly more bitchy and bright. She's as can be and still holds all her normal traits, but she's also just also slightly more willing to dance the line of danger.

WAR FOR CYBERTRON

Pretty similar in terms of everything compared to her main verse. Lore accurate storewide, Cherr stays behind with elita and her team to defend cybertron and dies during the process, but her Beast wars variant would be in this verse as well.

BEAST WARS

One of the pods that fell from the maximal ship, cherr ends up adopting the form of a Galah (pink and grey cockatoo) as her alt mode. She has no original name in this verse, or if she does, no one knows what it is, instead calling her "cherry". Quick and light on her feet, she the maximals eye i the sky along with airazor, and just a BIT of a pyromaniac. [This one's iffy, since i haven't actually finished the series. Im just really attached to bird cherry]

EARTHSPARK

Fun fact! Earthspark was originally her main verse before i switched it to tfp (and then switched that to her post war IDW verse). While the same as most of her other verses in term of personality, Cherr's role is what changes the most in this one. SURE, she's still a demolitions expert, but after having given a proper chance to explore earth after the war, Cherr took it. She travels around the world as basically a tourist, keeping an eye out for any bots making trouble. She knows something's up with G.H.O.S.T, and makes an effort the make things better for the trapped cons whenever she visits any of the detention centers, even if she's breaking the rules to do it. Extra rations, gossip, general company. At one point she got roped into one of the fighting rings in France and became its champion for a year or two before busting out. She's on a personally fueled vendetta to find and shut down any ring she can.

TFA

A singer high on the charts who's mysteriously gone missing. Early on in her life, cherry took rossana under her wing, and taught her everything she knew. She holds no preference for sides, a true neutral in this verse. However, something happed, and she fled the planet. She lives in hiding on earth, having stolen some tech and making herself a holoform projector, continuing her music career there. Constantly mistaken for an Autobot.

LOST LIGHT

Instead of staying on cybertron and finding work in the body guarding business, the moment rodimus sent out the invite to join the crew, cherr jumped at the chance. In this verse, she's practically the same as her main, since this is a bit of an "alternate timeline" thing, but she does have more chances to find cool spots to herself. She wander's around a lot, unless she's at swerve's or mirage's. [Haven't actually finished the MTMTE/LL comics, so things may change later on who knows]

SHATTERED GLASS

This is the verse where she's the most different in every sense. She starts out the same of course, minus her paintjob, which instead of pink white and blue, is dark grey purple and red. But over the years, especially during her music career, she gets twisted. A Yearning to be known, to be loved, adored. In this verse, many of the rumors about her in her normal verse ARE true. Yes, she purposefully killed her producer, and yes, her vocal mod is illegal. In this verse, instead of merely projecting her voice, her voice is able to lure in most bots that hear it like a siren, cue the alias (although, whether or not it'll affect a bot, changes on their amount of will, as well as a few other factors). She never left Cybertron in this verse, and thus has a modified version of her design during the contract. Siren in confident and a flirt and just a bit of a pyromaniac, but also cruel to those who earn her displeasure. Her collections are a bit more... morbid here. Your safe really, as long as she likes you enough

AU'S

DECEPTICON

Au where Cherr never got into the music industry, and thus, learning about the war earlier in this verse, joined the side of the cons. She's an under cover spy within the autobot ranks, due to her deceivingly sweet nature. An amazing liar, with many skill's acquired from the streets and unlost during her (non-existent) career, the femme is not one to be underestimated. Due to not having entered the contract, All of her mods are illegally acquired, and her name changed. Here she isnt cherrybomb, no. Here she's known as siren.

[anneapocalypse]

✨🌿🤲🎀☯

(My deepest apologies to the people who sent me asks for this meme which have now been sitting in my inbox for three weeks.)

✨What’s a fic you’ve posted you wish you could breathe life into again and have people talking about it? (or simply a fic you wish got more credit)

You know what, since this question is basically a sneaky excuse to self-rec old fics 😉 ...I'm gonna shout out my main Kimbalina series, Inroads. (It's a series of one-shots that wraps up with a longfic, which probably could have been all one even longer fic if I had planned it that way from the start buuuut I did not that. I still think it's pretty good!) Kimbalina kind of fell out of its heyday once the Chorus trilogy was over, and I understand why, but it's still one of my favorite RvB ships and just favorite ships of all time, period. Writing this series let me explore so many of my favorite things about RvB! War and politics and Carolina and loss and grief and Carolina and women with huge messy complex trauma and anger and trouble communicating. And Kimball. And Carolina. And an ensemble cast of characters who care about each other but still don't always know how to do that right. And Carolina. This series is still really close to my heart, and I'm not at all unhappy with the readership it had! But I won't pass up the opportunity to put it out there once again.

🌿how does creating make you feel?

Alive. Real. Comprehensible.

🤲what do YOU get out of writing?

I honestly feel like writing is something I can't not do. If I wasn't writing fiction I'd be writing something. I think almost entirely in words, and writing is a way of making my thoughts solid. It's how I make sense of myself and life and the world. It helps me remember things and gives meaning to memory. Like not to be dramatic but the answer to what I get out of writing is everything. I can't imagine not doing it.

🎀give yourself a compliment about your own writing

I FINISH SHIT! It certainly isn't going to be perfect, but I can make it a complete Thing! Finishing is a skill and it's one I worked hard at and I'm proud of it!

☯️ how do you think engaging with each other through tumblr, twitter, comments, kudos, creates healthy fandom experiences? How do you deal with that if you’re not a social person/experience social anxiety

I truly do love fandom community and the sharing of creativity that goes on here. It's not just about having an audience for your own work, but about sharing creative energy with others. I might have completely different tastes and interests that someone else and maybe we're never going to read each other's work but we can still enjoy talking about writing and sharing our enthusiasm for our projects and fandoms.

I do think it is important as a creator to learn self-motivation--which sometimes sounds like I'm saying you shouldn't care about getting readers/viewers or feedback, but that's not what I mean. We share our work to find connection, and feedback is a part of that, and I myself do try to be a pretty active reader and commenter and reblogger and reccer! I love receiving feedback on my work, same as anyone. But when I'm actually writing, I don't think about comments that much. I focus on the story I want to exist--the shape it will take, the moments and beats that are meaningful to me. I get excited about the story itself, not about how people may or may not react to it, and I find that a better motivator, personally, than "I need to finish this so I can post it and get comments."

As for the social aspects of fandom, all social media has its highs and lows and I think to engage with it in a healthy way you kind of have to be intentional about it. You get to decide how big a part of your life it is and if it's affecting you in a negative way, it's ultimately up to you to change the way you engage with it.

[kitkatt0430-recommends]

The bookmarking of old favorites from FFnet continues, though between a wasp invasion of my house (cricket wasps, so they're non-aggressive) and the slow transfer from my 6-year-old (almost 7) computer that has been occassionally blue screening to my shiny new computer has slowed down my creation of fic rec lists of those old favs.

But. I do still have recommendations to make. (The descriptions here are my words, to convey my impressions of the fics.)

The Scarlet Shield by Silverlake - First in a series. When Kel finds herself with child, she has to find the determination to continue living her life on her own terms.

The main ship is Kel/Dom, which is probably the only ship I really enjoy for Kel. I see her as being demiromantic - and she's word of god aromantic, which has only just reinforced my headcanon - and her canon friendship with Dom is pretty solid. The rating is T and this one isn't on Ao3 that I can find. The whole series is really good, with new girls joining up as pages along the way and new lady knights inspired Kel's example.

To See Once More the Light of the Stars by Philip S - The start of a series. When Buffy was forced to send Angel to hell to save the world, she didn't send him there alone. She went there with him. And they both come back changed.

A Buffy/Angel series with what is not my favorite interpretation of Xander or Joyce. But it is overall a really interesting premise executed quite well. I think I first read this before I read Dante's Inferno in college, so re-reading it is kinda making me want to re-read the Inferno (and the rest of it, but my copy is packed away right now, probably for the best) given all the references in the flashbacks to their time in Hell.

Most, if not all, the fics in this series are rated M and they're all on FFnet. And there are a lot of fics in this series, though it is incomplete.

Rebel of my Destiny by YarningChick - A few months after her adventure in the Cat Kingdom, Haru is drawn to a hidden part of the local library where an entire created world's fate hangs in the balance and only Haru has the skills to finish the novel. But it's not just the novel's Princess who can travel to the real world and the book's villain has already killed one author in order to maintain his choke hold upon his world…

I enjoyed this one because it was both a post canon story for The Cat Returns, but was also something of an Inkheart fusion. Haru teams up with the Cat Bureau again, this time not to save herself but an entire world and it's a lot of fun. Like most of YarningChick's works, the main ship is Baron/Haru and the fic is rated G. It can be found on Ao3 and I've been really enjoying re-reading YarningChick's works on the Ao3 interface. (I've got a semi-custom version of the dark skin that's so easy on my eyes, even compared to FFNet's own dark mode.)

Of Fur and Feathers by YarningChick - When Haru returns to her hometown, she finds herself drawn into Drosselemeyer's web. As it seems the old storyteller has more in store for Rue, Ahiru… and Haru too.

Another YarningChick story, which combines The Cat Returns with Princess Tutu. It's post canon for both, though it discards a bit of Princess Tutu's 'return to normal' for the people of the town, and does a pretty good job of weaving the two together. It's got a happy ending, but everyone definitely has to work to earn it. It's on Ao3, rated T, and has the main ships of Baron/Haru, Ahiru/Fakir, and Mytho/Rue.

After the Fall by athenaprime - The war is won, but Revan is struggling to accept being lauded for stopping a war she helped start. Bastila doesn't know how to accept the way falling to - and returning from - the dark side has changed her. And what starts as a victory tour rapidly turns into a quest to find Revan and deal with the remnants of the Sith that haven't gone so quietly into defeat after all. Also Mandalorian courtship rituals, which was not at all where Bastila thought her dalliance with Canderous was headed…

This is a long post-KotOR 1 fic that starts with Carth/(female)Revan but eventually also winds up Bastila/Canderous and Dustil/Mission. I remember enjoying it a lot and while I've only gotten about ten-ish chapters into re-reading it thus far, it's holding up well to what I remember of it. Rated T and it hasn't migrated to Ao3 that I could find.

[allthemusic]

Week ending: 25 March 1954

Something a little unusual this week - two of exactly the same song! Normally there seems to be a week's delay, but not here. It'll be useful for comparison, I guess.

Changing Partners - Kay Starr (peaked at No. 4)

Well, this song starts, and I'm happy to hear that it's a waltz. I do like a good waltz, so this bodes well. A lot of slower songs that would be dreary in 4/4 manage to just about pull it off, when you put them into waltz time. I also do generally like Kay Starr, so this is a promising start.

There's a solid country vibe from the backing singers who set us off - I like it, though they're a little too much for my taste. I don't mind some backing singers, but these ones are just quite fussy and overdramatic?

The song's concept is solidly cute, though. It's about some kind of old-timey dance that gets called. As a relatively regular ceilidh attendee, I get the concept, but it does still feel like a relic of the 1950s, when dances would have been a more staple, familiar thing that prospective couples did together.

Anyway, the idea here is that Kay danced with a man as part of this, shared a moment, then had to split - but she's looking forward to him returning: "So I'll keep changing partners / Till you're in my arms and then / Oh, my darling, I'll never / Change partners again". It's a metaphor, see?! Subtle as a hammer, but still quite sweet.

And then these male backing singers come in who are just the dopiest, slowest part of this. Their voices are so deep and stupid-sounding! They give it all this soporific sort of effect - the middle of their part literally had me yawning out loud. Not obnoxiously bad, but I'm not sure how memorable this will make the song, overall.

Another version, perhaps?

Changing Partners - Bing Crosby (9)

Bing's version of this song didn't do as well as Kay's, but I really do like it. It's got quite a different vibe, you're definitely listening to a different song. That was a worry of mine, when I saw that I had a repeat, so I'm glad I can say a few different things about this!

Even from the introduction, it's different - a bit slower, with a gentle sort of violin replacing Kay's backing singers, and then some strummy guitar, that gives way to some smoother steel guitar sounds, once Bing starts singing.

The main difference is probably in Bing's take on it, though - while you got the vibe that Kay was fundamentally feeling romantic and kind of happy to have found her man, Bing's performance is a little sadder. You get more of a sense of the melancholy of it all, and how he's looking for his old partner but hasn't found her yet. The fleetingness of it stands out in a way it didn't for Kay.

It's a much more delicate, understated way of singing, with less obvious emotion in it. It's not that Bing's not singing in an emotional style, but he holds it back a bit more.

The instruments are chosen to highlight that well, too, with some muted trumpet coming in later on, and some minimal, quiet glockenspiel. It's very pretty, and while it's still a bit sleepy, I think it sounds more deliberate than Kay's did.

And then we slow down into the last line, and that's that! Some good stuff here!

Bell Bottom Blues - Alma Cogan (4)

And then the final song is completely new, though it does cover similar ground to the previous two, all about being separated from your partner, and missing them.

That said, the tone is immediately much jauntier, with a cheeky ship's bell bookending the song, and a jazzy introduction letting is know that we're in for a pacy and fairly cheery ride.

Actually, the whole song is really cheery - Alma Cogan's voice sounds so happy and likable. Google tells me she was known as "The Girl with the Giggle in her Voice", and I can actually hear that in this one - a bit like Dean Martin sometimes does, she sounds like she's about to start laughing, but in a good-natured, affectionate sort of way. It's very endearing.

All this does a good job of offsetting the lyrics, which could easily be a bit slower and mopier in the hands of a different singer. They're about how Alma has the "bell bottom blues" because her beau is a sailor, and is away sailing "somewhere on the sea", leaving her waiting for a letter and feeling lonely "till my sailor boy comes sailing home to me". It puts this song into a category along with songs like Jo Stafford's You Belong to Me, all about women whose men are somehow enlisted, and away fighting / sailing / seeing the world, while they're stuck back at home missing them.

I have a lot of sympathy for it in this case, though - not least because it makes me think of my grandparents. My grandad, in particular, was in the navy, and my grandma talks about him being away for long spells of time, and I always did think about how tricky it sounded! In particular, in the pre-mobile phone days, you really would have been stuck waiting for letters, I guess.

It's at this point that I realise I'm actually bopping back and forth a bit, that's how jaunty this tune is. Even as I think about the logistics of being in the navy in the 1950s, Alma's making me dance a bit, which I suppose is the goal here?

I think the line that cinches it for me, and stops the song veering off into pathos, is the one where Alma's describing how she has to turn down all the other guys who want to ask her out: "I shake my head and refuse / When the fellas come a-callin' / And they want to take me on a date". It's such a funny little detail to include, almost like a little humble brag - I have so many guys asking me out, and I'm not even interested - and then it turns into a more general complaint about all the things she's missing out on "while the other girls are balling". It's funny, and realistic, and I love it.

Well, I hadn't listened to any of those songs before, and I have to say, they weren't bad! On, in particular, stood out, and I'm really looking forward to hearing more of her very distinctive voice. Which of course means...

Favourite song of the bunch: Bell Bottom Blues

[hangingfire]

So I watched that Lost in the Arctic documentary on Disney+/NatGeo last night, and guess what! I have thoughts!

The high-level overview of the Franklin Expedition is useful for anyone who didn't already know a decent amount about it. The cinematography is really pretty and I particularly enjoyed seeing the Whalefish Islands. The footage shot by Renan Ozturk and Mark Synott's NatGeo crew as they sailed up to Qikiqtaq from Maine does give you some flavor of what it might've been like for a 19th c. sailor. (Cold, wet, seasick-making, often terrifying.)

They don't talk about climate change, but it's depressingly clear how little sea ice there is now, particularly when you see the ice and snow in the footage of the Beattie and Geiger expedition in the 1980s. Also, I had not actually seen that footage before, so that was fascinating. It did provide a big jump scare for Bruce, who somehow, despite having lived with me for decades and in particular over the last five years, had never seen the Beechey mummies. That closeup on poor John Hartnell with the livid eyeball is a lot if you've never seen it before.

Points as well for involvement of some of the local Inuit and also a namecheck for the late great Louie Kamookak.

However...

The whole structure of the documentary hinges on a Sasquatch-like spotting of what might have been Franklin's grave by Tom Gross, who flew over an area in the mid-2010s, saw a rectangular thing that might have been a structure, but couldn't find it again and didn't get the coordinates.

So it's all framed as an expedition with these guys going out to this corner of the island where Gross believed he sighted the thing, and combing it on foot, with drones, and ATVs, and there's this whole "WILL THEY FIND FRANKLIN'S GRAVE???" narrative which...

Spoilers: Nope!

And look, if they had, all of Terror Tumblr would have read about it and been yelling about it as soon as it happened.

There was one detail that drove me absolutely fucking batshit throughout, which is this weird conviction the searchers had about the possibility of Franklin having been buried with his logbook.

I am not an expert in all things Franklin or Royal Navy, but I just don't get where they got this idea from. It's not like Franklin was a pharaoh buried with grave goods or some shit. Surely, if they'd meant to leave a log for searchers, they'd have stuck it in a cairn, like the Victory Point note? Or, wouldn't the surviving senior officer (Crozier or Fitzjames) have taken the ship's log? Or maybe they would have left the logs on the ships. I'm not actually certain what the true protocol would have been.

Now, if they were asserting that Franklin might have been buried with private papers or something ... okay, I can almost buy that. But every time they said something about how if they find Franklin's grave, they'll find him with the log, I wanted to throw something.

At one point, Bruce turned to me and said, "What I've learned from this is ... there's no mystery! They know where the ships are, they found all these graves and bones ... the only thing they don't know is where Franklin's actual body is!"

And that's really it, isn't it? Early on in the documentary, Synott said something about the expedition vanishing "without a trace" and I actually laughed out loud because ... fucking hell, y'all, there's two really big Traces underwater off Qikiqtaq and a bunch more at the RMG, and Parks Canada is picking up more every summer.

We know, or can make a solid educated guess about, what happened. There are interesting adjacent questions, for sure! Like the stories that one or more men survived with the Inuit for some years after. And yeah, it would be pretty neat to find Franklin's grave. And it would also be really interesting from a human-perspective-of-history angle to get a more detailed, first-hand description of the expedition's final days.

But the more I sit with this story—and I have been sitting with it most intensely for five years now—the more I think that Bruce is right—the so-called "mystery" ... isn't. It's not a mystery, really. It's a disaster. it's an incredibly stupid colonialist thing that meant a lot of men died in abject misery. And there are many interesting extrapolations to be made from it. But if you're super duper obsessed with the fine details of "but what REALLY HAPPENED", I think you're not seeing the forest for the trees.

Ultimately I feel like there is a MUCH more interesting documentary to be made about the Inuit perspective on Franklin and on European Arctic exploration in general, and their oral tradition and the stories that the qablunaat should have fucking listened to a hundred years ago.

This ain't it. It's entertaining enough, and there are worse ways to spend 48 minutes, and for those of us who write fic about the place, it's absolutely worth it for the visuals. Just take the constructed narrative with an entire fucking saltshaker on the side.

[wazzuppy]

wanted to elaborate a little more and add on to this post, so, yahoo! no clue if this will make any sense because (as usual) i'm tired and in physical pain, but hopefully at least someone will understand what i'm trying to say.

i forgot misako, mostly because she only serves as a love interest for about two seasons and then it's never mentioned again. but she still falls into the same category of "only here to fill a role and rarely gets the opportunity to define herself outside of that"

again: i LIKE all of these characters. i enjoy all of them and i'm only so frustrated because i want better for them. they all genuinely have a lot of potential.

not all of these characters are equal in how well written they are. vania, akita, and pixal are all solid, for the the most part. but regardless, they're all severely underutilized and underdeveloped (which is especially infuriating in pixal's case because she's the only other woman who could be considered part of the main cast).

no, vania and cole are not canon. however, with the framing and the animation of their initial interaction, i find it hard to believe that were absolutely no romantic undertones intended. mostly because ninjago has done that exact scene of "pretty woman exists and makes the man smile" with ALL of its canon pairings. not to mention both jay and lloyd make comments about them potentially being into each other. i dont personally interpret the two of them as anything more than friends, nor do some of the writers accoring to doc wyatt, but if they were trying to make it strictly platonic then they really fumbled it.

and now the big one i wanted to talk about: geo. he's the most subject to change out of everyone listed, because dragons rising is still ongoing and it still hasn't been technically confirmed that he's intended to be a love interest for cole (why does cole keep having all the most complicated to discuss ships?). but the romantic coding, just like with vania and cole, is still there. even if it never goes anywhere, i can't just ignore it. so that's why i decided to include him. now, do i think geo will get more screentime? yes. do i think it'll be anything substantial? maybe. he already has the potential for a character arc outside of cole-- that being his (possible) geckle/munce heritage-- and if they decide to do anything with that than he'll already be leagues above most of the girls. but if is the key word there. and personally? i don't know if i can fully trust dragons rising to pay off that potential. not because i don't think it's capable, but because i don't know if it'll care to. love interests are so rarely allowed to exist without their partner, especially in a series aimed at young boys like ninjago is, and considering the series' track record i'm hesitant to say anything for certain. there is also the uncomfortable intersectionality of this being the first secondary love interest character who may be allowed to have a character away from their partner, and it's a man. that wouldn't be so bad if there were any well done female love interests, but there really aren't. not in the supporting cast, anyways (akita gets close, but her romance with lloyd is so out of nowhere that i don't feel good calling its inclusion well done). but at the same time however, having a queer love interest with that kind of story arc would be huge. it's arguably in an even shakier state than good het fem love interests, with the only show i can think of off the top of my head that does this being the owl house with amity. that's where things get more complicated, because while new types of representation is great, it's hard for me to find it completely sincere if your still struggling so much with another, much more common type of rep.

so, the conclusion? i don't know. like i said, dragons rising is still ongoing and it all depends on where the writers take things from here. over the years and especially with dr coming out, ninjago's writing with its female characters has gotten much better. and it still is much better than a lot of other shows when it comes to this type of stuff. so, i'm more optimistic that good things will be coming than i would be for other shows, and even more than i'd be for ninjago just a couple of seasons ago. seabound and dragons rising have proven that theyre able to handle this well, but they still need to keep it up.

anyways im tired goodnight forever

i don't often like to criticize or complain about ninjago (just bc doing that with my special interests makes me sad), but jesus christ, i am so so tired of the continuous pattern of ninjago introducing a new character just so they can be a love interest. at the very least, nya allowed to be something outside of her romance with the jay, but that's still only 1/7. meanwhile pixal only gets to exist without zane sometimes; akita and harumi (in crystalized) have their romances tacked on for little to no reason; and skylor, vania, and geo don't have enough screen time or strong writing for me to consider them actual people.

and that sucks because i LIKE all those characters and i like some of the ships their involved in, but it's also just,,, SO fucking frustrating as an aromantic person to see characters only be created so they can date another one and do nothing else. especially since most of them are one-off female characters and there's a good chance of never seeing again ever, meaning not only do i, as a woman, lose part of my representation, but that i STILL can't fully relate to them because all of them are/were intended to pair up with other characters.

anyways. sorry for the rant. ninjago is definitely not the worst offender when it comes to this trend, but its still something i think about a lot because the series is so special to me. i guess i just felt like getting it out of my system

[azrael-the-reaper-demon]

This is the first chapter of my new story, The Assistant. It’s about Dantalion, a young, rebellious demon who becomes the assistant to the icy angel of death. She must learn to unlock her true powers before the traitorous Astaroth executes her plot to topple Lucifer and start the apocalypse. I hope you enjoy it!

——————————————————————————

The air was hot, rough gusts of wind combatting the cooling waves of the river. Her mind raced with thoughts of the future, scenes of the cold lord of death filling her head as the river’s breeze cascaded through her white hair. She almost zoned out, locking her eyes on the water before a clattering set of stiletto footsteps snapped her out of it just as suddenly as she had been consumed.

“Dantalion.” A stern voice barked, “What are you doing out here? You’re supposed to be getting ready.”

“Sorry, Miss Adepha.”

“Lady Death will never accept you looking like that. Now c’mon dear, we have much to do and not a lot of time to do it.”

Adepha grabbed her forearm, her claw-like nails digging into Danatlion’s skin. The manager dragged her into the ferry’s empty main hall, then down a winding hallway and into a stuffy dressing room. The smell of perfume burned her lungs as she sat in a tattered leather chair.

“Take your hair down, dear.”

Dantalion begrudgingly did as she was told.

“Now, we have to get you looking prim and proper for her majesty.”

“I know, you said that before.”

The stern demon huffed, “Don’t give me lip, missy. You’re already on thin ice with that attitude of yours.”

“And I’ve told you a hundred-fifty thousand times that how I look is perfectly fine, and that I don’t need some pretty dress to be ‘proper’ or whatever.”

“Lady Death is a very refined woman, she would not want her assistant looking like a common street rat.”

Dantalion felt her blood boil, “I’m gonna tell my father you said that.”

“Go on ahead. He’ll just laugh it off.”

The young demon sighed, looking to the side with a huff.

Adepha grabbed a brush off a nearby table, running it through the ends of the girl’s curly hair. “Here, I’ll appease you, I won’t do any makeup. It’s not like we have time for it anyway.”

Dantalion didn’t answer, crossing her arms as the woman ran the brush through the thickest parts of her locks, which made her wince harshly.

“Miss Adepha.” The girl spoke up suddenly.

“Yes?”

Dantalion’s expression turned somber, “Do you… think Miss Azrael will like me?”

“I’m sure she will, you are very bright, you have very high potential, I’m sure she will be pleased to have you around.”

“I guess.”

Adepha sighed, “Azrael is a cold woman, but she is not unfeeling, if that makes any sense.”

“It does, kind of.”

The stern demon stopped brushing, “You can put your hair back up now.”

Dantalion put her white hair back up, wrapping it tightly in her hair tie as she stood from the uncomfortable chair. When she walked back out onto the ferry’s lifeless dock, the air around her had turned cold and the sky changed to a deep violet. The land became swampy, with endless pools of brackish muck stretching as far as the eye can see. The old ferry creaked as the river got more violent, the rusted metal exterior flapping like wings against the wind. Scenes ran wild in Dantalion’s mind again, replaying in her head as the smell of death filled her lungs.

Soon, the ship came to a stop, docking at a rickety old port. The young demon grabbed her suitcase from her makeshift bedroom. She dragged it down to the old wooden dock, dreading the long trek through the swamp awaiting her. Her and Adepha began the trudge, being led down a narrow dry path through the thickening trees. Their clothes stuck to their skin as the sauna-hot air beamed down upon them. Adepha’s fiery hair frizzed like an angry cat and Dantalion felt her skin about to melt.

“Who in their right mind would wanna live here?” Asked Dantalion incredulously.

“Death itself, apparently.” Adepha answered off-hand, too busy trying to balance in her heels to give a solid answer.

“I feel like if I make one wrong step, I’ll get eaten alive.”

“Well, considering this place is called ‘The Swamps of Consumption’.”

The young demon peeped, “I’m moving in with a nutcase, aren’t I?”

“She’s one of the more well-adjusted nutcases, actually.”

Dantalion glared, “You’re not helping.”

They continued down the slushy path until they reached a silver stone bridge that looked relatively new, sticking out like a sore thumb in the endless abyss of the swamp. The pair walked across the stone overpass, staring down at the bubbling water beneath their feet as they approached two massive double doors towering high above their heads, connected to a Victorian-style palace. The doors themselves were covered in carvings, with images of hellhounds and ancient beasts scrawled across its wooden exterior. Dantalion felt her nerves rising, her anxiety boiling to the brim as Adepha slammed the doorknocker into the entryway.

There was a rustle from inside the palace, the sounds of arguing filling the space as the door soon swung open to reveal a beast staring them down. She was inhumanly tall, covered in fur, with canine-like features. Her jaws were like a bear trap, two massive razor blades for canines bearing down from her maw onto two bottom teeth that were just as jagged. She ran a hand through her furry head, adjusting her glasses as she stared at the demons on the other side of the doorway.

“Welcome to the Palace of Death.” greeted the beast, “You two must be our esteemed visitors.”

Adepha looked noticeably disgusted, “I didn’t know she employed beasts.”

The creature groaned, “I am Leviathan, Lady Death’s head servant.” She turned her attention to Dantalion. “Here, why don’t we take those heavy bags off of you, dear.”

She barked something in a different language towards a couple other beasts, making them run to her side. One of them quickly grabbed Dantalion’s bag while the other stood there awkwardly, following his buddy back into the palace as Leviathan led the pair in herself.

“So, you must be this new assistant I keep hearing about.” The beast hummed as they walked through the doors.

“Yes, ma’am, I am.”

“I must say, it’s rather exciting to have a new face around here, well, one that doesn’t look like mine at least.”

Dantalion looked around at her surroundings, noticing the horrifically empty walls. “Do you not like them?”

“My fellow species are all idiots,” Leviathan said with nonchalant cynicism. “The fact they haven’t gone extinct is a marvel of demonic conservation, also that no demon dares trek this far.”

“Except for me.”

“You and a few other common visitors. Lady Death isn’t very social, she doesn’t like visitors, except for a particular few.”

“And who might that be?”

Leviathan counted a couple fingers. “Some close friends.”

“You only counted to two.”

“Keep your friends close, and your enemies far away, that’s what I always say.”

Dantalion was visibly confused. “I don’t think that’s how that- y’know what, whatever. Where is Lady Death?”

“Ah, she’s in a meeting with a dead soul. It’s imperative we let her finish.”

“Can you ask her to hurry it up, then? This swamp makes me look like an unwashed dog.” Adepha spoke up.

“I’m sorry your looks are suffering,” The beast answered sardonically.

“What kind of creature are you, anyway?” Asked Dantalion, who hoped to change the subject.

“I am a Nighthound, as are the other beasts you’ll see around here. We once roamed these marshes with reckless abandon, lording with the iron fisted rule of an apex predator! Until they built death’s palace, and convinced us that this was the only way to save ourselves from being eradicated by bullets.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, not fun.” She off-handedly waved. “But, that’s not important now, what is important is that we need to get you ready to see Lady Death.”

“Am I… not ready?”

“Well, other than freshly brushed hair, you look like you just got out of bed.” Leviathan turned her head to Adepha, “Did you not bother to change her clothes?”

“I don’t want to change clothes.” The young demon said softly. “I look just fine.”

“Hmm…” The beast rubbed her furry chin, looking down at her own tattered outfit. “I guess I get your point, though she won’t be very happy about it. You’re probably exhausted anyway. I hear that ferry ride is something out of Lucfier’s torture chamber.”

“It was kinda nice, I liked looking at the water.”

“The water with the screams of the damned and the protruding limbs?”

Dantalion shrugged her shoulders. “I… didn’t see any of those.”

“Eh, you must’ve missed them.”

“Is Lady Death finished?” Interrupted Adepha snidely, much to Leviathan’s chagrin. “It feels like we’ve been walking this one hallway for hours.”

Leviathan gave her a taunting grin. “It’s only been five minutes, maybe.”

“In these heels, that’s basically an hour.”

“That’s not my fault, now is it?”

Dantalion visibly winced, expecting her case manager’s wrath to boil over any second. “I’ll have you know that I work for Lucifer, you disgusting freak, and she’ll have you shot faster than JFK in Dallas!”

“Luci-who?”

“Lucifer!”

The beast grinned. “I’m sorry miss, I have no clue who you’re speaking of.”

“Don’t play dumb with me!”

“Miss Adepha, I think you should calm down.” Dantalion said calmly.

“Fine.”

Leviathan gave the teenage demon a grin. “You’re quite the peacemaker, considering who your parents are.”

“How do you know all that?”

The monster grinned, “You’d be surprised how quickly gossip spreads around here, the other night hounds are like church ladies.”

As the trio kept down the hall, the emptiness of the place started to set in. Dantalion tried to look at her surroundings, but it felt like she was walking in place. Empty walls stayed empty, though as they got deeper into the palace’s annals it got darker and murkier. Finally, the beast stopped herself on a paw, turning on her heel to glance at the two again before they went down a spiraling set of stairs.

“Down here is your room, Miss Dantalion. You’ll be pleased to know that you’ll have one to yourself.” She said with a hint of a bite. “It’s just down these stairs and to the left. It’s the only door in the hall that’s not covered in scratch marks.”

“Scratch marks?”

“Down there is also the servant quarters, but trust me, we don’t get too loud… only on holidays.”

Dantalion made an ‘hmph’ noise. “You guys have holidays?”

“I’ll explain it more later, we should get you down there before Lady Death finishes her work for the day.”

The young demon looked back at her case manager, who had now taken off her shoes.

“I guess this is goodbye, Miss Adepha.” Dantalion whispered somberly.

“Well… not really.” The case manager half-scoffed, “I just got a call that the boat that was supposed to pick me up decided to crash into the rut in the river, and is currently six feet underwater, so I guess I’m gonna be here for a while.”

Leviathan audibly sighed, “Then I hope you two are okay with sharing a room.”

They reluctantly nodded in unison, leading the night hound to open the door to their new bedroom.

“I’ll come get you after her macabreness has finished with the final soul, Lady Dantalion.”

“Thanks.”

Leviathan bowed, giving Adepha a stank eye as she shut the door to the room behind her, leaving the pair alone in the vast space. It was as empty as the halls, with unpainted stone walls lit only by the light of dying candles. The room smelled of burning sulfur, but that was a relatively normal smell in hell’s smokey air. Dantalion sat her suitcase down on the bed, popping it open to unpack her many, many items.

She swiftly hung her clothes on old wooden hangers, placed her assortment of makeup and mirrors on her fancy regal dresser, and lastly shoved the empty traveling sarcophagus under her bed. She laid down on the sack’s soft mattress, feeling her body sink into its embrace as she stayed there for a few moments. Her rest wouldn’t last long, however, as the sounds of a snapping acrylic nail pierced her ear.

“SHIT!” Adepha shouted, throwing her heels on the ground.

“Miss Adepha?”

“I HATE this damned place!” She ignored the girl, “It’s hot, and I’m sticky, and my hair’s messed up, and my nails are broken, and my heels- Oh! My heels, and how in the hell am I supposed to get home?! I have a job dammit!”

“Miss Adepha?” Dantalion repeated with a bit more force, beginning to squeeze a nearby pillow.

“This place is filled with mortal scum and monsters!”

“I think it’s pretty…”

Adepha gave her a glare, “Of course you do, they’re sucking up to you.”

“You did call Miss Leviathan a monster at first sight.”

“Well, that’s what she is! She’s a freak! I can’t believe Lady Death would keep those abominations anywhere near her. If it were up to me, they’d all be fur coats.”

Dantalion was taken aback, beginning to hug the cushion a bit tighter. “Miss Adepha!” She yelled incredulously.

“Can it.” Adepha began to pace, “This place reeks…”

“Smells like death.”

“Yes, because that’s such a pleasant scent.”

The young demon tried to comfort her. “I’m sure it’ll be fine, Miss Adepha. I think you’re overreacting.”

“Overreacting?” She repeated with a venomous bite, “I’m stranded here! Do you not understand that? I’m stuck here in this scumhole until that bitch you call a queen remembers I’m gone!”

“Don’t call Aunt Lucy-“ Dantalion caught herself, her own emotions starting to boil. “Don’t call her majesty a bitch.”

“I’m allowed to call her whatever I please.”

The teenage demon let out a sigh, “Maybe you should rest, Miss Adepha. You’re clearly not thinking straight.”

The case manager scoffed, opening her mouth to shout, but stopping herself halfway. She ran a hand through her fiery hair, letting out a frustrated sigh of her own. “Yeah, maybe I should.”

She laid beside Dantalion on the bed, her breaths shallow and weary as the cloud-like mattress consumed her. The young demon stood from the kip, walking over to her closet to find something at least a little bit nicer. However, it turned out she didn’t have much time, as a slamming knock on the door scared her out of her shoes.

“Lady Dantalion!” Leviathan’s voice barked through the wooden door, “Lady Death is ready for you!”

The teenage demon let out a nervous sigh as she walked out of the bedroom, following the beast back up the hallway.

“Are you excited?” The Nighthound asked with a smile.

“Yeah…”

“That doesn’t sound very excited.”

Dantalion’s hand shook. “I’m kinda nervous, actually.”

“Well, that’s okay, her nightmarishness is a very intimidating figure at first. Trust me, when I first saw her, I was 100% sure she was gonna eat me alive.”

“Oh.”

Leviathan laughed, “Yeah, I was a pretty paranoid puppy.”

“I don’t think she’ll kill me, I’m just… nervous.”

The beast kept a grin, “Yeah, well, I’m sure she’ll like you.”

“You think so?”

“Her grisliness might seem all cruel and scary on the outside, but she’s not like that. She’s actually very sweet.”

Dantalion felt herself calm down slightly, not enough to be considered comfortable, but better than a shaking mess. “I’m glad.”

“Her throne room is right behind the corner, can’t miss it.”

“Are you not gonna go in with me?”

Leviathan chuckled, “Her blackness doesn’t like having too many people in there. It’s a tradition thing.”

“Right.”

Dantalion took a deep breath, looking up at the massive doors that led into the quarters of death. The door was lined with murals, all painted with shades of crimson and black. She slowly opened the gate, taking a step that echoed through the mostly empty room. She could hear her own heavy breaths as she entered the space with trepidation, the only light to guide her being that of a dying candle, just like in her own room.

“Step forward.” A cold voice hummed from afar, leading Dantalion towards it like she was in a trance. The teenage demon anxiously walked through the room, her own footsteps bouncing off the walls as she got closer and closer to the embodiment of expiration. Soon, the figure began to approach her, a dark silhouette towering in the dim light before her features finally came into view.

She was a head taller than Dantalion, her snowy white hair up in a loose ponytail, with a vibrant rose clipped in its mane. Her sharp red eyes looked down at the teenage demon, her tail whipping back and forth as she adjusted the collar on her dark uniform.

“You must be Dantalion.” She spoke with a stoic glare, her voice quiet yet stern.

The young demon hesitated, “H-hello- I mean, good evening! Good evening, your…?”

“Please, just call me Azrael, or Thanatos, or The Arbiter, or the Grim Reaper, or Santa Muerte, or-“

“Uh…”

Death hummed, “Lady Death is the easiest to remember. I have so many titles and names now, it’s like every human has a different thing they call me.”

“Well, what’s your real name?”

“Azrael, that’s what my mother named me.”

Dantalion’s eyes widened, “You had a mother?”

“You seem a bit surprised.”

“Well, y’know, I always kinda thought you just-“

“Happened? What, did you think all creatures were immortal until I came along to take their souls?”

The young demon laughed anxiously, shifting her eyes around the dim, empty room. “Yeah, kinda like that.”

“No, actually, I had an entire existence before I ended up stuck in this infinite loop of torturous labor.”

“Torturous?”

Azrael’s face remained stoic, “It’s not as fun as it used to be.” She gave Dantalion a look, “I was hoping you would help with that.”

“Really?”

“It would be far better than spending every waking second alone.”

The young demon stared at her own feet. “I’d think anything would be better than that.”

“Loneliness is both a blessing and a curse, more often a curse.” Lady Death walked back towards her throne, grabbing a fire-engulfed weapon from its holder. “However, this isn’t about me, is it?”

Dantalion’s eyes went wide as the white flame lit the darkness of the room.

“This is my scythe. It burns with the flames of Tartarus. If you touch it, I will feed you to the servants.”

“Yes, ma’am.” The teenage demon answered with a nervous bow.

“Put your head back up.”

Dantalion anxiously did as she was told, feeling Azrael’s cold fingertips brush across her chin.

“You’re here to learn, yes?”

“My father told me I’d be here to be your assistant.”

Death chuckled, “Your parents are politicians, natural born liars.”

“What do you mean?” Dantalion raised an eyebrow.

“You ask a lot of questions.”

“I’m a very curious demon.” The younger one responded with a bit of a bite.

“I’ll tell you tomorrow.”

“I’d like to know now.”

Azrael whipped her eyes towards her. “Now I know why they warned me about you, that smart mouth of yours does seem to have a mind of its own.”

“I’m not being ‘smart’, I’m just asking for information.”

“And I told you that I would tell you tomorrow. You have to be patient.”

Dantalion huffed. “If my parents were lying to me, I’d like to know why.” She spoke now with a hint of desperation.

Azrael didn’t respond, putting her scythe back in its place and turning her back to the girl.

“Did you hear me?” The young demon raised her voice.

“I did.” The embodiment answered softly.

“Then why won’t you answer me?”

“Because I told you I would tell you tomorrow.”

Dantalion felt her hair raise, “I wanna know now.”

“Dantalion-“

“I said I wanna know now!”

Azrael scoffed, her eyes staring straight through the girl as her eyebrows furrowed. “Quit whining like a petulant brat. I said you would learn tomorrow, and yet here you are acting like a child. What? Do you think you’ll die in your sleep?”

“I-“

“No, I’ve had enough of you for the night. Go to bed.”

“It’s only 7:30.” The girl said incredulously.

The death demon flicked her wrist, turning on her heel and sitting back down on her throne. “Then sit in your room and scream for all I care. As long as it gets you out of here.” She gave her one final glare, “And next time I see you, you better be wearing something nicer than your pajamas.”

Dantalion let out an angry huff, storming out of the room with bullish footsteps.

“How’d it go, Miss Dantalion?” Asked Leviathan with her signature grin, however, she received no answer. She watched Dantalion storm by like a whirlwind before poking her head into the death demon’s chamber, seeing her lounging on her throne with an unfazed expression.

“I see you, Leviathan. You can come in.” She barked.

“Lady death, what happened?”

“Don’t pretend like you didn’t hear it.”

Leviathan sighed, “I did, but it was only part of it.”

“I messed up. I tried to approach her like an adult, and it seems she couldn’t handle it. The girl’s a bull in a china closet.”

“I could’ve told you that by the file, your macabreness.”

Azrael groaned with annoyed apathy, “Stop calling me that.”

“Right.”

“Anyway, it seems my efforts went haywire.” The demon spoke with a waving hand, “She certainly takes after those parents of hers.”

“You did tell her they were lying to her.”

“Was I wrong?”

Leviathan bit her lip, “Well…”

“She deserves to know the truth, I think. The girl isn’t a fool.”

“You also called her a petulant brat and told her to go to her room like she’s a little pup.”

The death demon’s expression remained unchanged. “She was acting like one.”

“Don’t you think you’re being a little too hard on her? She’s just been through an eight-hour boat ride with an unpleasant wench and got dumped in the swamp with nothing but a suitcase. It’s probably the first time she’s this far away from home, cut her a little slack.”

“And make her weak? I don’t think so.” Azrael scoffed, “The last girl died because she was unprepared. I’m not repeating the same mistake twice.”

“But Miss Dantalion is of far superior blood to her, she’s a bonafide prodigy by genetics alone.”

The death demon rolled her eyes, “Of course, the beast lectures me on genetics.”

“Why are you being so obtuse?” The beast said with a bite, “I just want you to be nice to her. She’s just a scared kid.”

“And so were you, and yet here you are, doing just fine.”

Leviathan scoffed, “If you’re just gonna be rude, I’m leaving.”

“Stay.”

“Why?”

Azrael let out a sigh of her own, “I’ll admit that I lost my temper a little.”

“A little? You made her cry.”

“I just think-“ The death demon caught herself, letting out a begrudged sigh. “Just tell her I’m sorry.”

“Really?” Leviathan asked, a bit taken aback by the shift.

“Yes. Tell her I lost my temper and didn’t mean what I said.”

The beast stayed serious, “Maybe you should tell her that.”

“Why? She probably hates me.”

“And she’d probably hate you more if you apologized like a coward.”

Azrael rolled her eyes, “Fine. I’ll do it tomorrow.”

Leviathan watched the death demon walk back to her throne, sitting down with her legs crossed as she seemingly went back to her endless work. The beast let out a sighing huff, exiting the room with her head hung low. She walked back down the long, straight hallway, paying no attention to the world around her as her vision tunneled. Her feet moved like a machine, unconsciously leading her through the corridor and down the spiraling stairs, towards the only door without the signs of servitude.

“Miss Dantalion?” Leviathan spoke softly as she knocked on the door. “Are you okay?”

There was no answer, not even a sign of movement.

“Miss Dantalion, I know her grimness was rather cruel to you, but she’s not like that, I promise. I want you to be happy here.” The beast pleaded.

It was then when she heard a faint clatter, the sound of a foot hitting the stone floor as the pitter-patter got louder and louder. Then, the doorknob began to rattle.

“What?” Dantalion groaned tiredly as the door swung open.

“I’m just checking on you.”

“I’m fine.” The teenage demon answered quickly.

Leviathan gave her a warm smile, “You should get some rest.”

“Is that an order?”

“No, just a suggestion. You must have had a long day.”

Dantalion smiled weakly, “Yeah, I have.”

“I promise she’s not like that all the time.”

“You said she was sweet.”

The beast laughed awkwardly, “Well, you know, my perception is a bit biased.”

“‘Sweet’ my ass.”

Leviathan hummed. “She’s just being a bit icy.”

“A bit?”

“I’ve seen her be worse, if that’s any consolation.”

Dantalion put her head down, letting out a dim chuckle. “I guess it is.”

“Just don’t worry about her- OOMF!”

Leviathan staggered as Dantalion threw herself into the beast’s arms, her eyes widening as she felt the teenage demon squeeze her furry ribcage. She carefully put her arms around her, reciprocating the hug as a longing silence filled the air around them.

“Have a good night, Miss Dantalion.” The servant whispered softly, slowly letting the girl back away into her bedroom. Dantalion didn’t speak, her sniffles saying more than words as she waved goodbye, shutting the wooden door behind her.

She walked back to her bed, ignoring Adepha’s stares. The young demon laid back down, covering herself up tightly in her blankets as the warm embrace of sleep began to consume her.

One day down, who knows how many left to go.

[sayovc]

Other than haino what other genshin ships do you like?

lmao fun fact, before haino there were few ships i was really crazy about. in fact almost all of my genshin reading before haino was kaeya and diluc (ragbros, aka not the romantic version of the ship, just a lot of brotherly angst lol).

also please note that all characters and ships mentioned are of legal age.

my main romantic ships outside of haino are xiaonyu (xiao/ganyu), guili (guizhong/zhongli), thomaya (thoma/ayaka), kaebedo (kaeya/albedo), deskas, and ittosara (itto/sara)

some ships i have soft spots for are zhongven (zhongli/venti), xiaoven (xiao/venti), chiscara (child/scara), scaramona (scara/mona), alberose (albedo/sucrose), thomaluc (thoma/diluc), thomato (thoma/ayato). dainther (dain/aybss prince!aether), kaelumi (kaeya/traveller!lumine) and xiaother (xiao/traveller!aether). with dainther, i strangely only ship it if it's abyss prince aether (and i don't really ship dain/abyss princess lumine which is kinda weird ig). i do read fics where the other traveler is used (kaether/xiaolumi) but i tend to default to formers.

i also adore wakazuha (kazuha/ayato), it's slowly making its way up to a main ship, with the assumption they're both adults (i'm quite certain kazuha is an adult, since he can drink).

i semi-like jeanluc (jean/diluc) and kaejean. they're alright lol, i just wouldn't go out of my way to read it. personally, i hc that kaeya had/has feelings for jean but never said anything because jeanluc were so obviously in love with each other and kaeya didn't want to hurt his brother.

also i guess this is crack/rare pair? but i've recently started entertaining the idea of raiden makato/zhongli. i read an archon trio (venti/zhongli/ei) fic and it mentioned zhongli and makato used to date and so now it's kinda stuck in my head lol.

[smells-like-mettaton]

Tali’s Alphys-Centric Fic Rec List

I’ve been meaning to make this for a while!! All fics are oneshots unless marked as a series or with a chapter count.  Thanks to everyone who recced several of these to me on my 12am begging-for-alphys-fics post dfdksdl. These aren’t in any particular order. The “notes” section is my commentary about each fic. No fics are based on full AUs (ex. underswap, horrortale, etc). The only endgame Alphys ship included is Alphyne, though most of the fics listed are gen. Hope you can find something you enjoy here!

Extra Credit by FriedCatfish

Rating: G // Word count: 1,206 Summary: Undyne loses track of time watching anime. Set before the events of the game. Notes: Cute Alphyne oneshot! Short and sweet, very nice characterization

world comes pouring through by feralpheonix

Rating: G // Word count: 1,655 Summary: Alphys reunites with some old friends on the way home from taking care of business. Notes: 2nd person Alphys pov but it surprisingly works? A small moment with Alphys, Bratty, and Catty, which I literally NEVER see content for so it was really refreshing!! Takes place at/near the end of the pacifist route.

white lies to the dead by MiniNephthys

Rating: T // Word Count: 580 Summary: Alphys walks through Waterfall, talking to someone who's not there. Notes: Queen Alphys ending; Alphys “talks” to Undyne after she’s been killed. Hits me right in all the emotions ;;

Found Soul by LibraLibrary

Rating: T // Word Count: 1,331 Summary: Self-worth is a slippery, fleeting little devil, and the bastard flower that killed you isn't helping. Takes place during the final fight of the True Pacifist run, following Alphys from one purgatory to the next. Notes: Very angsty, definitely make sure you’re ready to handle Alphys’s suicidal thoughts, but a very good read! I love seeing the Lost Soul battle from her POV.

And I Feel Fine by Masu_Trout

Rating: T // Word Count: 1,685 Summary: The fallen human is human is fast approaching The Core, and Mettaton is ready to finally take the stage. Now, if only Alphys would stop worrying so much. Notes: Alphys & Mettaton friendship in the no mercy route, but manages to be surprisingly not depressing. Mettaton POV but definitely still deserves to be here. This fic does a great job of characterizing them both and it’s always great to see Alphys working in her element.

Experimentation by pickledragon

Rating: G // Word Count: 1,531 Summary: Alphys is, above all, a scientist. She may watch anime with religious fervor and make horrible Undernet shitposts in her free time, but she is good at her job. She knows what they say about her, behind her back. But when she stands there, time open before her, she resolves to collect data. Each experiment, intentional or not, brings new opportunities to change certain variables and observe others. Alphys is a scientist, after all. Notes: THIS FIC. it’s technically part of a series but it stands on its own (it’s the only one i’ve read by this author). EXCELLENT alphys characterization and writing style. Some Sans & Alphys friendship too which is always stellar. If you didn’t gather from the summary, it’s an alphys starts to remember resets fic.

Memory by Ash_yeet

Rating: T // Word Count: 19,962 // Chapters: 5/20 Summary: It's been two years since monsterkind have joined the humans on the surface, and Alphys is happier than she's ever been. But things can't stay great forever. She starts having nightmares, lapses in memory, flashbacks to things that have never happened. She hopes it will pass... sans is doing his best to adjust to life. When Alphys reaches out to him about her nightmares, he doesn't expect much. He quickly changes his tune. Someone is trying to come back. And they aren't what they used to be.sans and Alphys are trying to move on. But there's one thing they forgot: No matter how hard you try, you can't run from your past. Notes: I’ve only read chapter one so far, but it’s been really good! Looks like it’s going to involve Gaster in some way. Says it’s on short hiatus but was updated in April so doesn’t look abandoned.

Hot and Cold Blooded (Alphyne series) by perniciousLizard

Rating: varies by fic, usually G but a few T and one E // Word count: 36,516 // Works: 18/18 Summary: This series is a place to put all my Alphys/Undyne stories that aren't part of another series. Notes: this series has something for everyone; you can pick and choose which works to read. Most are feel-good fluff and humor, some hurt/comfort too. Some connect to the author’s Sansby series (which i also can’t recommend enough)

When Life Hands You Enantiomers by Kaesa

Rating: T // Word Count: 2,739 Summary: Alphys has a half-finished tile maze puzzle, reams of useless data, and a bunch of piranhas that can't tell the difference between lemon and orange scent. Sans has donuts. Notes: ONE OF MY VERY FAVORITES. Fun puns, science, alphys & sans friendship, piranhas, the opportunity to actually understand organic chemistry references,, it’s so good and fun

Friendshipping by AyuOhseki

Rating: G // Word Count: 4,564 Summary: Sans finds Alphys's secret Sans/Grillby RPF. This won't get weird or awkward or anything, we're sure. Notes: Hilarious Alphys narration, great characterization, it’s just so silly and warms my heart. I love terrible fanfic writer Alphys

social links by simplycarryon

Rating: G // Word Count: 2,525 Summary: Friendship's pretty neat, or so your video games and anime dictate. But you are not an anime protagonist, and you're not sure you know what friendship is any more. Notes: more solid sans & alphys friendship :D

See You Another Time by decamarks

Rating: T // Word Count: 18,500 // Chapters: 1/14 Summary: “Have you ever thought of a world where everything is exactly the same... Except you don’t exist? Everything functions perfectly without you.” Alphys spent a lot of time thinking about what it’d be like to start over. It wasn’t fair for someone like her to escape consequences. She knew that, yet the thought never left her mind—the thought that maybe, just maybe, she could get another chance; that she could abandon her life, her failures—everything—and start anew. But that would never happen. Sometimes, Alphys wondered. Would the world be better off without her? When unexplainable anomalies appear and begin to warp the world around her, Alphys discovers something she was never meant to know: the identity of the former Royal Scientist, and how he met his demise. Doctor W.D. Gaster vanished without a trace; he was erased from reality after an experiment ended in disgrace. Forgotten by the world, shattered across time and space—it’s like he never existed in the first place.And Alphys can’t imagine a better fate. Notes: This is a monster of a first chapter but definitely worth the read!! So much good stuff happening already. I’m a total wuss but I still love the cosmic/existential horror bits going on so far. Great Sans & alphys friendship and Undyne & alphys friendship so far.  All the amalgamates also feel incredibly well written. Can’t wait to see more of this one

(And here are a few of my own Alphys-centric fics as well)

Seventh Time’s the Charm by Taliax

Rating: G // Word Count: 1,519 // Chapters: 1/7 Summary: Six bad "dates" Alphys has been on, plus one that is actually pretty good. Notes: Alphys is my favorite and I love giving her a bad time. First chapter is a “date” she has with Sans. Next chapter which I have in progress is going to be Papyrus. (Alphyne is still endgame of course.) Set mostly before the events tof the game. Get ready for lots of second-hand embarrassment sdlfkjds

Support Character by Taliax

Rating: T // Word Count: 1,814 Summary: If Sans is determined to fight the human, Alphys is going to make sure he's prepared. Notes: Sans & Alphys no mercy route friendship, based on the headcanon that Alphys was the one to give Sans the powers/magic he uses to fight the human.

it's your best life (if it's the life that you're living right now) by Taliax

Rating: T // Word Count: 4,046 Summary: Through messages saved to Sans's phone, Queen Alphys gets a glimpse at lives that might have been.  With so many possibilities... how did this timeline go so wrong? Notes: Sans & Alphys friendship, Queen Alphys ending, mostly angst/hurt/comfort. I’m really proud of this one and it uses my main headcanon for how Sans knows about resets.

The Trans-Underground Alphys-Carrying, Match-Making Road Trip by Taliax

Rating: G // Word Count: 5,713 Summary: From her secret security camera, Alphys gets too invested in Sans's relationship with the voice behind the door.  This wouldn't be a problem if Mettaton didn't decide to take her ship into his own hands. Trying to catch up with a battery-powered robot is hard work, but telling the truth is even harder. Notes: This is a really silly fic with some hurt/comfort sprinkled in. Has some Soriel and Papyton in the background. Has some Alphys & Papyrus friendship as well which is always underrated in my opinion.

[makeste]

some meta about Izuku, Katsuki, and trust

and choosing to trust is the real bridge that goes to accepting that person as a part of your live again and what the offender has to earn. I think the interesting aspect of Deku and Bakugou's relationship is that Deku has always trusted Bakugou, and I would say more than he had forgiven him at the start of the story (where he does show more frustration and resentment towards Bakugou's behaviour and see him as a jerk) but despite that he can always trust Bakugou to him himself, attested to

the fact that Deku feels very confident about how Bakugou will act or what Bakugou's true motives are and probably the reason why he always sees Bakugou as a hero despite his hurtful behaviour is because Deku 100% trusts Bakugou even if he's doing something disagreeable or that will hurt him. Knowing someone and trusting is not exactly the same and I see it as trust because of Deku willingness to be co-operative. On Bakugou's side he is mistrustful of Deku and thats where the communication

breaks down and there has been plenty of meta exploring why Bakugou has deep rooted problems around Deku and his journey is him taking accountability of that and changing to be a better person. While understanding and miscommunication get their fair due I think trust and mistrust are the true bedrocks of the bkdk river bed because that allows for how they can still be so connected despite the miscommunication (with Bakugou mistrust is mixed with some trust) because of knowing.

anon I really enjoyed this, thank you for sharing your thoughts! I concur with just about all of this, and this ask got me thinking a lot about the nature of trust, and how it applies to Izuku and Katsuki’s relationship.

I think a lot of people’s reactions to reading the sentence “Bakugou and Deku have always trusted each other” would pretty much be, “???” and “lol what.” like, yeah, sure. they trusted each other so much that Bakugou decided that throwing a tantrum for ten years would be an appropriate reaction to Deku trying to hold his hand. classic Trust, right there!!

lol but I honestly think this is true, though. it’s just that there are different... levels?? types?? of trust. let’s go with types. there are different types of trust, and what makes Izuku and Katsuki’s relationship so interesting to me is that it’s kind of the opposite of what these fictional rival-type relationships usually are. it’s basically the difference between knowing, and understanding.

okay so first of all let’s back up here to make sure we’re all on the same page. we’re defining trust as “firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone”, which is the Oxford Language definition and which works pretty well for me. you’ll note, btw, that the current relationship between Katsuki and Izuku more or less meets all four of these criteria.

reliability - both boys regard each other as dependable and are willing to rely on each other in a pinch (although Izuku is currently having some difficulty with that, but that’s another topic for another day).

truth - both are honest with each other, though not completely honest (this is the aspect that Katsuki still needs to work on, as he’s currently hiding his desire to atone).

ability - neither of them have any difficulty with this. Izuku admires Katsuki’s ability so much that he’s made it his own gold standard since childhood, and Katsuki respects Izuku’s ability enough that he made him his main rival, and never doubted that Izuku was qualified to receive OFA and become All Might’s heir.

strength - as with ability, this is another aspect of trust that neither of them has ever struggled with. in fact, a lot of their relationship struggles happened specifically because Katsuki never doubted Izuku’s strength, but feared it because he didn’t understand it.

so yeah. there’s a lot more trust between them than most people realize, I think. but the thing is that the type of trust they have is based more on knowing than understanding, and that’s where so much of their conflict stems from.

when I say knowing, I’m talking about the kind of awareness that comes from familiarity and experience. this is the type of trust that’s difficult to take shortcuts with, because it mostly just has to be accumulated over time. this is all about learning what someone is like through observing them and being around them. and it’s just as much about being known as well, because at the same time that you’re learning who the other person is, they’re learning about who you are. and that’s where trust starts to work its way in. it’s the slow unveiling of who you are, and laying it on the table piece by piece over time. and every time another little piece of you is revealed and accepted, and every time you accept one more piece of who the other person is in turn, that trust increases a little bit more. this type of trust takes a long, long time to build up, but in exchange the foundation it creates is pretty much rock-solid and nigh-indestructible.

understanding, on the other hand, to me is more instinctual. it’s about empathy and insight. and the interesting thing is that it’s possible to know someone for years upon years, and yet never truly understand them. and on the flip side, it’s also possible to understand someone within minutes of meeting them, even if you know almost nothing about them. if “knowing” is about learning who someone is, I would say that “understanding” is about learning why they are who they are. this type of trust isn’t necessarily always mutual, but it does necessitate forming a connection with someone. because empathy is such a critical component of it, it’s basically impossible to understand someone and not form an emotional connection to them in some way. this type of trust can be far more powerful and intense than the “knowing” type of trust, but the flip side is that it can sometimes be less stable and easier to break.

I think that the majority of fictional relationships, especially the ones that become really popular ships, are based more around the latter type of trust because of its intensity and unpredictability and potential for story development. the thing is, both of these types of trust are necessary for a good ship (and when I say “ship”, I’m talking about both romantic and platonic relationships just fyi). if neither type of trust is present on at least some level, then there’s really no foundation to start building up the relationship. so most of the time a ship will start out with one or the other, and then over the course of the story they'll work on building up whichever one was lacking.

and because of how stories work, the majority of the time we’re going to be dealing with characters who at first don’t know each other all that well. and so the relationships we get are ones where the characters first form some kind of emotional connection that builds understanding, and then over time they start to learn more about each other and build up that kind of trust as well. I feel like 90% of ships have this kind of dynamic. it’s the basis for things like enemies-to-lovers, fake dating AUs, and basically any kind of trope in which the characters get stuck somewhere and are forced to spend a lot of time together. it’s good, and it works.

but the fascinating thing about the relationship between Izuku and Katsuki, though, is that it’s actually the exact opposite of this. the premise of Izuku and Katsuki's story is that these are two people who’ve known each other their entire lives, but have almost no understanding of each other whatsoever. they know almost every little detail about each other, so much that they hardly even think about it. but all of their conflict is based on the fact that understanding between them is basically nonexistent.

and to me this is such an intriguing dynamic. the two of them know each other like the back of their hand. they’re familiar with the smallest habits. they can predict each other’s actions. they know how the other person thinks. and they have the kind of trust that comes with having seen the other at both their best and their worst. Katsuki is capable of letting his guard down around Izuku in a way he doesn’t do around anyone else. he cries in front of him on multiple occasions. he lets Izuku call him “Kacchan” long after their other childhood friends have stopped doing so. and even though he fears and resents Izuku’s strength early on, he also subconsciously acknowledges it in ways that even he doesn’t realize (e.g. “don’t you dare get into U.A.,” rather than “you can’t get in” or “you won’t get in”). he knows Izuku.

but he doesn’t understand Izuku. he knows who he is, but he doesn’t understand why. he knows that Izuku is strong, but he can't wrap his head around the nature of that strength. and because he lacks that understanding, this vital aspect of the trust between them is lacking, and is all too easily broken when Katsuki falls into the creek and Izuku tries to offer his help. Katsuki knows that Izuku is a good person, but he doesn’t understand that goodness, that selflessness, and so he’s mistrustful of it.

on the flip side of the coin, however, Izuku has the utmost faith in Katsuki. to him, Katsuki is the strongest, smartest, most capable and most amazing person in the world (aside from All Might). and Izuku, unlike Katsuki, actually does understand his childhood friend at least a little bit. he understands Katsuki’s reasons for wanting to be a hero. he understands that Katsuki is not just mindlessly pursuing strength. he understands that Katsuki’s motivation is about overcoming obstacles and beating challenges. and most importantly, he understands that Katsuki, in spite of everything he’s said and done to Izuku over the years, is fundamentally a good person.

and this is crucial. because, along with the bond of familiarity they’ve built up together over the years, it’s this other, one-sided bond of understanding that is responsible for their relationship enduring for as long as it did despite everything. as you put it, anon, Izuku’s trust is ultimately what becomes the bridge between them. on some level, he trusts in Katsuki’s innate goodness. he believes in it in spite of all of Katsuki’s attempts to persuade him otherwise. e.g. when Katsuki suggests that he go jump off the roof, Izuku is hurt by the words, but he never once takes them to heart, because he knows on some instinctive level that Katsuki doesn’t mean them. and so he grumbles to himself about Katsuki needing to think before he speaks, but aside from that he never gives the words another thought.

Katsuki would no doubt consider this yet another example of Izuku not caring enough about himself or taking himself into account. but it really is more than that. the reason the words don’t cut deep in spite of them being vicious and well-targeted is simply because Izuku knows that Katsuki isn't truly that cruel. and he knows that on a level so deep that Katsuki is never able to break it despite his best efforts. he can’t break it, because there’s nothing to break, because it’s true. the reason the relationship endures in spite of everything is because deep down Katsuki is fundamentally a good person, and so Izuku’s trust, in the end, is based on truth. and so it never fully breaks, and eventually, it becomes reciprocated.

and that’s what their story is all about. it’s two people that have known each other their entire lives, but have to work in order to build their understanding of each other. unlike many ships, they start off already having that foundation of knowing and being known, and so their story instead is about forging that connection of empathy and insight. and it doesn’t come easily to them at all. but they keep at it.

anyway, so thank you again for sharing your thoughts on this, anon. I didn’t even get into the topic of forgiveness, but I agree with you about it being a process of letting go of negative feelings and resentment. I also agree that forgiveness is a separate thing from trust, but I do think trust plays a big part in one’s decision to forgive or not forgive. it's a lot easier to forgive if you have an understanding of the other person’s actions. and it’s also far, far easier to forgive if the offender’s actions are long in the past. and because the latter is now true in Katsuki’s case, that shows a pattern of him learning from his mistakes and not repeating them. which further builds trust, especially in the “reliability” department. and so even though forgiveness and trust are two separate things, they’re still connected. and in many ways, by working to rebuild the understanding between him and Izuku, Katsuki is also working towards earning Izuku’s forgiveness, even though that’s ultimately something that can never truly be earned, but can only be granted.

I’m not sure if I’m really making my point very clear here lol, but basically what I’m trying to say is that while the relationship may have once been one-sided in this aspect, it’s not anymore. it’s mutual, and they’re both putting the work in. and Katsuki is also doing his part without any guarantee or expectation of forgiveness on Izuku’s end. it’s unconditional. he’s doing it because he wants to atone. and he’ll continue to do it whether he’s forgiven or not. and that’s important. it’s important because it shows that the relationship has value to both of them. and it’s important because neither of them wants to lose it. they want to fix it; they want to make it stronger.

and ultimately what that means is that the relationship will continue to endure, despite their ups and downs. because even though it may have started out as something incidental -- two boys who just happened to become friends because they spent a lot of time together as children -- it’s not, anymore. it’s no longer just something that happened, something that just accidentally came together. it’s something that they’re both working to build. they want to trust each other. they want to understand one another. their relationship is no longer something that simply withstood and persisted -- it’s something that is now being nurtured. and you love to see it.

so let's see, how do I even begin to tl;dr this post lol. something something blah blah blah trust, understanding, childhood friends, knowing someone, having faith in someone, being the recipient of that faith, and working to become worthy of it. they're very confused, but they care about each other a lot, and they are good boys.

[gar-trek]

I review killing time (or whatever)

Okay, yes this review has taken me forever and that’s because there’s so much I want to say, and most of it has very little to do with the plot of the book. I cut down a lot of this so you guys could just get to the main point of what I’m trying to say, so I apologize if this is a little brief or incomprehensible to those who haven’t read the book. 

And also, before I get into it, I would like to say rest in peace to the author Della Van Hise, who passed away in march of this year. She contributed a lot to the fandom, especially in regards to K/S fiction, as well as publishing a lot of non-trek related work during her life. 

First of all, if you have heard of Killing Time, there is probably one specific reason for that. It’s the same reason I picked up the book in the first place and why it’s really even a topic of discussion on this site. To put the story quite briefly, Killing Time was recalled during its initial release on account of the book having too many slash elements (aka, the relationship between Kirk and Spock could be read as sexual/romantic). I first heard about the book here in this post where the history of it is worded to sound like one very dramatic mystery. One user (no shade intended here) even goes as far as to say the book was recalled by old Gene himself! Now I’m always one for drama and such, but after reading the book I looked into it a little more, and I don’t think that’s exactly how it went down. 

Here you can find multiple statements from the author herself, in which she tells the whole story. According to her, the book publisher accidentally released an unedited manuscript that was never supposed to make it to the public. So technically the publisher did not recall the book because it was “too gay”, they recalled it because they printed a version that was never meant for the public to see anyway. These were the edits that were specifically requested by Paramount, who the publishers were supposed to go through to get the final okay on all material. And like, yeah, all of Paramounts edits were pretty much to delete any sentence where Spock and Kirk are tender to each other, they were trying to make is less homoerotic, obviously. I understand why this slight distinction may not make much of a difference to you guys, but for me it’s important to note that the book wasn’t recalled because it was too gay, it was just never supposed to be gay in the first place. It doesn’t make that fact any better, but it does make it less dramatic, in my opinion. I encourage you to read the statements from the author on this topic though, because she gives the whole story a lot better then I just did. 

Now to address the main question at hand, does Killing Time depict a romantic relationship between Kirk and Spock, or is it all just hype? (in layman's terms, is the book gay or not?) and to answer quite plainly, yes it’s gay. of course it is. but then to answer less plainly, no. What the fuck do i mean by this? well let me try and explain. 

I read the second edition of the book, aka the censored version, but I also followed along with the first edition (using this great article). The changes made to the book did not effect the plot at all, and were really only minor things. Notably, in the second edition they just kind of left out any part where Spock and Kirk touch each other (and I don’t mean in a sexual way). For example, there is a scene where Spock and Kirk are having a serious conversation in the ships garden. In the first edition, at the end of the conversation Spock places a hand on Kirks shoulder, which Kirk covers with his own hand. In the second addition, all mentions of this simple contact are deleted. The differences between the two are mostly little things like this. There is no secret sex scene or love confession hidden in the first addition. You see, in my opinion, the changes made to the second edition of the book do very little to censor the romantic undertones between Kirk and Spock. That’s because they are ingrained in the plot line itself. 

One very important aspect to this book is that Kirk and Spock share a mental bond. This is something that can only happen between a Vulcan and another when they are extremely close. The mental bond that Kirk and Spock share is so strong in this book, it’s even present when they enter an alternate dimension where they are strangers to one another. There is a romance in this book between two original characters, and their relationship is constantly being paralleled by that of Kirk and Spock. And, maybe most telling, Spock refuses a female Romulan who is very interested in him over and over again simply because Kirk exists. And no, that’s not an exaggeration, here is a line from when the Romulan woman was begging Spock to be in a relationship with her: 

“I need you. The Empire needs you, what more can there be?”

“James Kirk” the Vulcan murmured without hesitation.

That line is in both versions of the book. What I’m trying to say is yes, there are K/S elements in Killing Time. There are many tender moments and lots of talk about Kirk and Spock’s devotion to each other. 

So now you’re asking yourself, Gar, why did you just say earlier that “no, the book is not gay”? Well, that’s because it’s not. This isn’t a K/S book. This isn’t a piece of Spirk fanfiction. Because for as much as this book is about Kirk and Spock’s relationship, it’s even more about Romulans (and more specifically, that one girlboss Romulan Commander from the Enterprise Incident.... bet ya didn't see that coming!) That’s right, the most controversial Star Trek book ever published is at it’s core quite plainly just a Star Trek book. There is weird alternate dimensions, time travel, espionage and lots and lots of Romulans! 

Alright, alright, what I’m really trying to get at here is that yes, if you read into Killing Time there is K/S elements. I mean for god sake the author was a known K/S fanfic writer, that wasn’t a secret by any means. If she wrote their relationship a little more tenderly than most authors would have, can we really be surprised? But writing a K/S story was not her intention here, and that’s not what this is. I think the author put it best herself, so I’m just going to put that here: 

“If people chose to see overtones of K/S in it, maybe it’s because there were overtones of K/S throughout Star Trek itself.”

People will hype up killing time as some secret confirmation that K/S is real and canon, and I really get that. Like, it would be really nice to have some canon acknowledgment of K/S, and I really don’t blame people for acting like that’s what this is. But that really isn’t what this is. And even if there was some kind of love confession, I really hate to break it to you, but the Star Trek novels are just fancy fanfiction and are not considered canon by any stretch (excluding the one Gene wrote himself, which let’s face it, perhaps has the most K/S elements of all). 

If you are looking for a nice story about Kirk and Spock being in love, then I very much urge you to look at Ao3 or similar sites. Skip this, if you want a K/S story, because that’s not what this is. Now, if you’re a huge fan of the Romulan commander from the Enterprise Incident, then my GOD you have to read this. I think this was a pretty solid Trek book. It was no piece of literary genius, but it got the job done. There was a lot of it that I think could have been left out, because it the later half it started to drag horribly, and we got a few plot threads that went absolutely nowhere. I’m not sure I’m much of a fan of alternate universes, as I really really enjoy the established dynamic of the characters, but it didn’t bother me too much. But I mean hey man, there was defiantly parts where I was so invested I couldn’t put the book down. Give this one a read if you’re looking for a pretty interesting Trek book with a little bit of cheeky K/S sprinkled here and there. 

If you have given the book a read, or just have thoughts in general, I’d love to hear them!