#it really is the fandom i end up circling back to in the end when i need something chill and comforting

[benevolenterrancy]

My art summary for this year! One standout piece for each month... so it was a little maddening when I had one month with a bunch of good pieces and then a few months (october...) where I did almost nothing

And a tally of the fandoms I drew for:

Hogan's Heroes, somehow, is still in the lead of my most prolific fandom! Given how deep I've been into the MXTX novels lately I thought it would have been overthrown, but nope, Hogan's Heroes still wins first in my heart this year apparently!

The other fandoms I drew at least a couple pieces of art for this year were Torchwood, MDZS, TGCF, MASH, Doctor Who, Rat Patrol, Sherlock Holmes, Cybersix, Les Mis, bandes desinées as a collective unit, A Marvellous Light, and Xena. The numbers for people who are interested

and fandoms I only drew a single piece or doodled for were: Banjo-Kazooie, Between the Lions, Detective Conan, Dr Domino, Dimwood Forest, Dragon Age, Firekeeper, Good Omens, Helluva Boss, Hitchhiker's Guide, Leisure Suit Larry, Lupin III, Miss Fisher, Ninjago, One Piece, Once Upon A Time, Penumbra, Pippi Longstocking, Planet of the Apes, Pretty Woman, RWBY, Spy x Family, Transformers, and When the Angels Left The Old Country!

...I do nothing if not dabble, apparently. That dashboard osmosis game certainly gave me a chance to draw for a lot of interesting things

[sailorsally]

People can hate Misha as much as they want but the reality is that none of the other actors on SPN, including Jensen and Jared, have done an ounce of what Misha did to make fans feel welcome and supported over the years. Misha, to this day, remains the only cast member from the main cast who will not shy away from discussing any topic fans want to talk about.

Yes, Jensen & Jared will of course also answer questions but only to the extent of it being their job. It'd be easier for Misha to behave like them, just to show up to a panel, give politically correct answers, bag the money and go home. But that's not the kind of person Misha is. He really cares about the fandom and thinks of it as his group and friends so it is especially sad when so many people cannot seem to be able to return the friendship back and will indeed do their damnest to always take everything he does or says in a bad faith, misinterpret things he says on purpose and insult him on daily. That is not how relationships work, parasocial or not. The anonymity of the internet gives a lot of people the cover to show their true colors and at the end of the day fandom drama is fandom drama but I'd be lying if I said I'd want any of these people in my circle irl either.

[prettygirl-gabi]

Title: Plus One

Rating: General Audiences

Warning: panic attacks

Paring: Paige Bueckers x fem actress reader

Fandom: UConn's Women's basketball

Summary: it's was a joke til it wasn’t

It all started as a joke. I had no idea who to take as my plus one, so I did what any rational person would do—I tweeted.

"So... I need a date for my first movie premiere. @paigebueckers, what's good? 👀"

Then I posted the same thing on Instagram with a picture of me fake-proposing to an Oscar statue from set. It was meant to be lighthearted, a little funny. I had been a fan of Paige for years, and UConn fans were relentless. I figured a few of my new followers from the movie might hype it up for fun.

What I didn’t expect was for it to blow up overnight.

My notifications were chaos. UConn fans, my own fans, random sports pages—everyone was tagging Paige. Memes. Edits. The whole internet was basically playing matchmaker. It was both hilarious and terrifying.

Then, the next morning, I saw the notification.

paigebueckers: "�� Sounds fun. You still need a date?"

I had to reread it like five times.

She DMed me. Paige Bueckers actually DMed me.

It felt surreal having Paige Bueckers, actual basketball star, knocking on my hotel room door. She looked casual but effortlessly cool in a tailored lavender suit, her blonde hair pinned up in a way that made my brain short-circuit.

"Ready, superstar?" she grinned, offering me her arm.

Somehow, I managed to function enough to get into the car with her. We chatted on the way, and I tried to act like I wasn’t internally freaking out. But the moment we pulled up and the cameras started flashing, my body locked up.

Paige got out first, then circled around to open the door for me. I wanted to move. I really did. But my chest tightened, my hands shook, and suddenly it felt like I couldn’t breathe.

"Hey," Paige’s voice was soft but firm as she crouched down, reaching for me leaning into the SUV. Her hands gently cradled my face, thumbs brushing over my cheeks. "Look at me, okay?"

I barely managed to lift my eyes, but hers were steady, grounding.

"Breathe in," she instructed. I did. "Now out."

I followed her lead, mirroring her slow, measured breaths.

"You’re good," she reassured me. "You belong here. And I got you, alright?"

I nodded, and she gave me one of those easy, Paige Bueckers smiles that could probably end wars.

"That’s my girl."

Somehow, I managed to get out of the car and onto the red carpet, Paige right beside me. The rest of the night was a blur of flashing cameras, interviews, and surreal moments, but Paige was the one thing that kept me grounded.

After the premiere, we ended up at an In-N-Out in full glam, eating burgers in the parking lot and laughing like we’d known each other forever.

That night, we exchanged numbers.

We kept in touch. At first, it was casual—texts, FaceTime calls, inside jokes. But then it became something. Paige was the person I called when I was stressed, when I had good news, when I just wanted to talk.

So when my second premiere came around, I didn’t post a joke about needing a date. I didn’t have to.

Paige texted me two days before:

Paige: "I’m free that night. Wanna go together?"

Me: "Like… as my date?"

Paige: "Well, duh. I thought we established that at In-N-Out."

I didn’t even know how to respond, but I smiled at my phone for an embarrassing amount of time.

Somehow, Paige and I had gone from a joke tweet to walking the Met Gala red carpet together—as wives.

She looked effortlessly stunning in a soft bule, black, purpleish,pink, grey suit, her marble-finished wedding band catching the light. I had a sterling silver set with an emerald-cut chocolate diamond that Paige had picked out herself.

As we walked down the carpet, photographers caught the moment we intertwined our fingers, flashing our matching rings. The buzz around us was deafening.

Then came the Glambot.

Paige pulled me close, her hand resting at the small of my back. The camera glided toward us in slow motion, and just as it reached the perfect angle—she kissed me.

Soft, warm, perfect.

I could already see the internet losing its mind again.

But at that moment, I didn’t care about the cameras, the fame, or the flashing lights.

All that mattered was Paige. And the fact that somehow, a joke tweet had led me to the love of my life.

---

■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■

-Thank You For Reading!🩵🩶

-prettygirl-gabi🎀✨️

[fluentmoviequoter]

A Manly Guard Dog

Requested Here!

Pairing: Tim Bradford x fem!wife!reader

Summary: You've been asking your husband for a dachshund, but he tells you that you need a manly dog. When the K9 unit gets a new recruit, Tim reevaluates his view of dachshunds.

Warnings: teasing/banter, pure fluff

Word Count: 1.2k+ words

Masterlist | Tim Bradford Masterlist | Request Info/Fandom List

“Tim?” you whisper over your dimmed phone screen. “Are you asleep?”

“That depends,” your husband Tim answers. “Why?”

“Look at this.”

“I’m asleep.”

You roll your eyes at his poor attempt to avoid talking to you, even though it is the middle of the night and he has to be at the station in the morning. Despite feeling bad for waking him up, you know he’s awake and need to ask him something important.

“Tim, it hurts,” you add.

“What hurts?” he asks as he sits up quickly. After he pushes up onto his hands, Tim leans toward you and reaches over you to turn on the lamp on your nightstand.

“Look,” you repeat, extending your phone toward Tim so he can see the dog on the screen. “It hurts because I don’t have one of my own.”

“A dachshund? We’re back to this again?” Tim asks incredulously.

“Tim, I want a dog.” Your words are emphasized by your pout, but Tim only grunts as he turns the light off and lies down again.

“If we ever get a dog - big if,” Tim murmurs, “it has to be a manly dog. One that can protect you when I’m not here.”

“We can train a dachshund to be a guard dog,” you argue. “They’re vigilant, loyal, vocal, and easy to train. Tim, it would be perfect and so cute!”

Tim tosses an arm over your waist and kisses your temple before he responds, “Go to sleep.”

As you move closer to him to do just that, he whispers, “I love you, but we’re not getting a wiener dog.”

“Tim, Tim, Tim!” Lucy calls as Tim exits the locker room the following morning. “Oh, you’re not going to believe this.”

“Then don’t tell me,” Tim deadpans.

“So, there’s a new K9, right?” Lucy begins as they walk toward the bullpen.

“And you’re telling me.”

“The trainer brought Officer Fuzz over. Cutest name ever, I know. But when we heard that they were working with a new breed we thought it would be a husky or something. It’s not. It’s so much better. Guess what it is, Tim!”

Tim stops in the middle of the bullpen. A crowd of officers surrounds the K9 trainer, and between two cops, Tim can barely make out the shape of…

“A dachshund?” Tim asks loudly.

“Yes!” Lucy cheers. “Isn’t it awesome?!”

“I can’t believe this.”

“C’mon,” Lucy urges, pulling Tim along by his arm. “Meet Officer Fuzz.”

Tim squats to pet the friendly dog and shakes his head at the tiny K9 vest he’s wearing.

“Nice to meet you, Fuzz,” Tim mumbles. “My wife’s never going to let me hear the end of this, pal.”

“Bradford,” Wade calls from the other side of the circle. “How would you like to take them out for a ride along?”

Tim stands as the trainer adds, “I’d love to join one of the best officers in the field to test Officer Fuzz’s progress.”

“Sure,” Tim answers through gritted teeth. “But are dachshunds really worth anything in a job like this?”

The trainer and Officer Fuzz follow Tim toward his shop, and Tim can’t help but watch the small dog walk happily through the station on his first day.

“If they’re trained right, they certainly can. They’re bred to hunt badgers by tracking scents and entering their burrows. A lot of those skills translate to police dog responsibilities. Basically, because of their intimidating bark, alertness, devotion, braveness and stubbornness - courtesy of their hunting instincts - they’re perfect. Fuzz here can scare a suspect or locate bombs, drugs, you name it.”

“Scare suspects until they see him, you mean,” Tim points out.

“Well, Bradford. Let’s test your theory.”

“LAPD!” Tim yells. “On the ground!”

Behind him, Officer Fuzz barks.

“Is that a dog?” the suspect attempting to steal a sports car asks. “Your car doesn’t say K9.”

“Show me your hands and drop to your knees!” Tim repeats. “Or I can call my K9 partner over here.”

The man seems to weigh his options, then drops his tool and raises his hands over his head.

“Scared of dogs?” Tim asks.

“Police dogs are crazy dangerous, man. Scared is smart, that’s what my-“

“I don’t care who said it,” Tim interjects before he begins reciting the Miranda rights.

When Tim opens the back door of his car, Officer Fuzz growls lowly before barking once.

“Whoa! I’m not sitting by that thing!”

“See the barrier? That’s for your safety, not ours,” Tim says. “Now get in.”

At lunch, Tim pulls his phone from his pocket and begins to type. He hesitates, however, and looks away before he can finish the search.

“Chen!” he calls, waving for Lucy to join him. “Where can I adopt a dachshund?”

Lucy’s eyes widen in excitement before she asks, “You’re getting a dog?!”

“I’m getting my wife a dog.”

“Because of Officer Fuzz,” Lucy states (not asks).

“No,” Tim defends. “No, I just… Dachshunds are a good option for family pets and protection.”

“Which you know because of Officer-“

“Fine, yes,” Tim admits quickly. “Do you know where I can adopt one or not?”

“Maybe you should ask the K9 trainers,” Lucy suggests. “They’ll know where to get a good one.”

“Thanks, Lucy.”

“Sure thing.” Lucy stands to return to her partner, but not before she says, “And I’m glad you’re finally listening to your wife.”

“No, quiet,” Tim commands. “Good. Now, sit.”

“Tim?” you call from the front door.

“Uh, one second!” Tim calls.

He sounds frazzled, and you walk toward his voice before you stop. Tim is whispering to someone, but you can’t make out what he’s saying before the bedroom door opens.

“Hi,” you greet. “Are you okay?”

“You’re home early,” he replies, gripping the doorknob tightly.

You glance at the time on your phone and say, “No, I’m not.”

Tim’s brows furrow as he looks at his watch. He nods, then laughs and locks eyes with you.

“Am I interrupting something?” you ask.

“No, well, yes, but no.”

“That’s not an answer.”

Tim sighs and reaches toward you. You don’t hesitate to step forward and lay your hand on his. With his hand wrapped around yours, Tim leads you into the bedroom, and inside, a brown blur races toward you.

“Tim!” you exclaim as the long-haired dachshund puts its front paws on your leg and wags its tail happily. “A dachshund!”

“Canis lupus familiarias. The K9 trainer that helped me out told me all about them,” he explains.

“Is he…” You trail off, unprepared to hear a negative answer.

“He’s ours,” Tim answers happily. “He’s already been obedience trained and I’m going to work with him to create the smallest but mightiest guard dog you’ve ever seen.”

You pull the dog into your arms and hug him kindly before you lean against Tim’s chest.

“Thank you,” you whisper, looking into Tim’s eyes.

“Sorry I said no for so long.”

“What changed your mind?”

Tim doesn’t answer, and you turn your attention to your new pet, or guard dog as Tim introduced him to you.

“Was it Lucy? I bet it was Lucy,” you whisper to the dog.

“It was Officer Fuzz,” Tim grumbles, wrapping his arm around your shoulders.

“Officer who?”

“New K9 who I’m sure you’ll meet next time you visit the station.”

“I love you.”

Tim kisses your head before he asks, “Wait, me or the dog?”

[seneon]

where they like to kiss you ──── league of villains.

featuring. shigaraki, dabi, mr. compress, twice, spinner, toga. ( no all for one bc i don't like him )

notes. welcome to a draft from july 2024 🔥 adding this to my 'where they like to kiss you' series for my other fandoms

𖥔 ݁ ˖ TOMURA SHIGARAKI

hands. you can't convince me that he doesn't have a hand fetish or loves hands. of course, shigaraki wouldn't associate your hands with the ones he wears. he actually shows a lot of love to your hands, either gently kissing it or quickly pecking it. doesn't matter when or where, he wants to hold your hands all. the. time. this guy doesn't know how to kiss anywhere else, because it's a bit awkward for him to kiss elsewhere. expect little circles and a bit of gentle tracing.

𖥔 ݁ ˖ TOUYA TODOROKI ( DABI )

dabi likes to kiss the top of your head, somewhere where your skin cannot feel his rough lips. this man is insecure when it comes to making contact with your skin. he feels as if he doesn't deserve to kiss you just as much as you kiss his scars or even his lips. dabi loves to rest his chin on your head despite wtv your height is, move down to bury his face into your hair and boom. kiss. shower bro with love afterwards.

𖥔 ݁ ˖ ATSUHIRO SAKO ( COMPRESS )

gentleman gentleman gentleman. compress adores kissing your knuckles along with your forehead. he's so gentle and sweet with peppering your knuckles n forehead with kisses. when he kisses your forehead, he makes sure to cup your cheeks and caress them with his thumbs. let's not forget the fact that he'll probably do the flower magic trick after adjusting your hair behind your ears. WAH HES THE STANDARD HES THE GENTLEMAN FOR REAL

𖥔 ݁ ˖ JIN BUBAIGAWARA ( TWICE )

twice lovesss kissing your entire face. his kisses are really sweet and innocent. like his world just lights up whenever he sees you, running over to shower your face with fluttering kisses. will not leave a single spot on your face unattended. he's so cute too, always spoiling with really cute affirmations that will always make you melt and want to kiss him back twice as much as he did. except he'll probably kiss you even more. it's literally unending...

𖥔 ݁ ˖ SHUICHI IGUCHI ( SPINNER )

the side of your head, aka your temples. he has this thing like, he snuggles his beak nose thingy against your cheeks before he kisses the side of your head. i don't know how that works but he loves pecking kisses on your temple. spinner probably massages your temples whenever you have headaches, one of the cure is definitely having his beak thingy nuzzling your temples for and in comfort.

𖥔 ݁ ˖ HIMIKO TOGA

sweet toga absolutely loves to kiss you on your lips and entire face like her bestie twice. she just loves to see the flustered face you'll always make whenever she pecks your lips. she'll then move onto your face, first kissing your nose then your eyes then cheeks vice versa. at the end, toga will squish your cheeks or playfully pinch it, her tolerance for your cuteness overloading. my girl will also squeeze you into a bear hug that you'll never escape from. you love it tho.

© SENEON 2025 ♱ do not repost, alter, or translate.

[mercuriians]

connect (with you)

synopsis ☆ kuroo’s walls come down after the game with karasuno.

content info — some hurt/comfort with our beloved nekoma captain because he deserves all the love in the world 🙏 SPOILERS for the dumpster battle movie so beware. reader is mentioned to be kenma’s sister a few times.

author’s note — just wanna say hi to the haikyuu fandom :) hope u enjoy this short drabble i wrote, i’ll probably make it look pretty later. lmk if you wanna see more kuroo x kozume!reader in the future.

your lips are on kuroo’s before the locker room door even has a chance to close. his skin is soft and familiar, his kiss eager yet vulnerable. something compels you to reach up, circling your arms around his neck as you pull him closer, tighter, until you’re sure that his warmth has become your own. the sound of his breathing is the only thing keeping you tethered to the ground as your mouths meet again and again. no words need to be spoken.

after years of being together, and even more years of being friends, you know tetsurou like the back of your hand. as if he’s perpetually been woven into your spirit, etched into your heart since the day he moved into the house next to you and your brother’s.

you know that the cheery grin he shot his teammates, the reverent bow he gave to the crowd, and the meaningful hug he shared with daichi at the end of the match were all borne out of three things—his sworn responsibilities as the captain, his earnest respect for karasuno, and the addictive rush of adrenaline.

the moment he left behind the arena’s blinding lights, though, the high seemed to wear off.

yet an aching feeling stayed with him.

when you pour your heart out on the court and play until your muscles feel like they’re on fire, when you devote hours of your precious time towards practicing—towards smoothening out every crack within your blocks, every blemish within your serves, every falter within your receives—and when you imagine the game countless numbers of times in your head until it feels like a memory, there’s a certain type of pain you feel when it’s all over. it’s a sadness that’s inevitable, and yet one that stings so profoundly and uniquely that it becomes a bittersweet moment you’re bound to remember for the rest of your life.

just one more second, one more chance— you think to yourself in a flurry of desperation. because as foolishly selfish as it sounds, nobody ever truly wants the game to end.

that feeling of wanting to remain frozen in the experience is something you yourself are all too familiar with. volleyball, after all, was what gave birth to the connection you now so deeply share with tetsurou.

you suppose that’s why you’re able to pinpoint the exact moment his shoulders start to shake.

pulling away from the kiss, you feel your heart plummet into your stomach before you can even see the tears trickling down his face. something you’ve come to learn about tetsurou is that he rarely ever cries, so when he does, it only makes the sight that much more impactful. wordlessly, you pull him into you once more.

the way your arms firmly, comfortingly wrap around his tall figure conveys a simple but invaluable message that resonates throughout the empty room— “i’m not letting you go.”

quietly, he sobs. you let him.

you barely notice your nekoma jacket becoming damp with his tears. when his crying slowly starts to recede, you break the silence, voice soft and tender. “you were amazing out there, tetsurou,” you whisper. “and there’s three things i want to thank you for.”

withdrawing by the tiniest sliver, just enough so he can meet your patient gaze, your boyfriend tilts his head slightly in the way he always does. his fingers subconsciously trace patterns across the small of your back. “what are they, baby?” his voice is quiet and a little hoarse. really, it’s a miracle that you manage to block out your own shadows of sadness.

“one,” you whisper, fingers reaching out to gently wipe away his tears, “thank you for being the best captain this team could ever ask for.”

“two,” you continue, leaning in to kiss away the tears that remain, before a small smile pulls at the corners of your lips, “thank you for helping my brother fall in love with volleyball.”

“and three,” you breathe out, your vulnerable gaze meeting his own, lips inching towards his once more, “thank you for being as strong as you’ve been, and for carrying the world’s burden on your shoulders when none of us could.”

when you finish your heartfelt confession, tetsurou’s hazel eyes glaze over with a fresh wave of tears—this time, however, it’s for an entirely different reason.

and this time, he’s the one that kisses you first.

[acatwithstockings]

Controversial Good Omens Takes and HC bc I like to see the world burn. (The last one will make you question my sanity)

I prefer Bond obsessed Crowley over queen fan Crowley. Don't get me wrong, it's cute and the fanarts with him and Freddy are always a treat HOWEVER it just doesn't line up with my reading of the text and Bond obsessed Crowley is right there. I mean he literally got petrol ONCE to get the promotional bullet hole transfers that he put on his Bentley.

Personally I hc Crowley as tech illiterate. Hear me out. So in the book he basically gets tech gadgets (his watch, his computer, his stereo) bc they are stylish, not bc they are practical. Literally his stereo is missing something critical yet still works bc he believes it should. So I think he is just great at pretending to know how tech works and things just seem like he does bc he believes that's how things should be. Actually he doesn't even know where to set his lockscreen. His phone just never dared to not have the correct one. And yes I know he hacked a few computers for the M25 well jokes on you, in that one deleted scene he does all those theatrics to bring down the phone network only to ultimately dump coffee over the server. He literally could have achieved the same thing from home. His hacking back in the day probably involved braking and entering and switching out the storage mediums manually. Not very tech literate if you ask me.

Aziraphale on the other hand is surprisingly tech literate, he is just a few decades behind. This one needs another explanation. So basically Aziraphale knows how things work, could probably explain to you in excruciating detail the program structure of any given application. He just struggles with graphical user interfaces and doesn't like non tactical inputs. He prefers to start his programs via console commands and probably finds it silly that people stopped memorizing where their files went. He'd probably run circles around any expert once given woefully outdated tech. So basically he understands how the fundamentals work and what's under the hood, so to speak, but he just really doesn't see the point in making it all work via pretty pictures and without clicky keys. I mean he still files his very accurate taxes on an Amstrad (was it an Amstrad ? Idk old computer, currently too lazy to look up which one he has)

(this one is probably not quite as controversial) No human in modern times will recognize what they are and remember it. So basically even tho Madam Tracy literally got possessed by Aziraphale, and had things explained to her, she probably forgot about the incident right after or if she remembers she believes Aziraphale to be a ghost and would not recognize him if she ran into him again. Simply bc that would fit her interanized world view better. Something, something about the human mind finding 'rational' explanations for the things they have been through. So basically Aziraphale and Crowley are real dumbasses when it comes to pretending to be human but they don't realize it, bc they just assume they are good at it and reality makes sure nobody proves them otherwise.

This here concludes the HC portion of this post. Turn around now, beyond this point only literary and fandom takes can be found pfff

The novel has the better ending. Don't get me wrong I love the show and the body swap. But you win some you lose some. Personally I think having their headquarters even attempt to execute our two idiots takes away from the overarching theme of the story. The whole point of having angels and demons be involved and having hell and heaven be dead set on the apocalypse is to basically frame humanity as the driving force. Aziraphale and Crowley are useless and so are their headquarters. They are detached pencil pushers obsessed with the illusion of control without actually having any. They follow their plan bc that's what they think they have to do, without ever considering the thing they have been entrusted with. They have as much of an idea what's going on as everybody else but make a point about pretending they the answers. They are all powerful but in the grand scheme of things barely move the needle. Them just pretending everything was fine and not punishing Aziraphale and Crowley to keep up face bc it's easier to pretend that THIS was the great plan after all, is hilarious and fits their role in the story better in my opinion. Then again they got more involved in the show so their role shifted slightly anyway soooo ehhhh.

While we all (hopefully) have disavowed Neil Geiman at this point, there is a conversation to be had (and a bit of unpacking to be done) on how much that person influenced and shaped the Good Omens fandom as it is today by positioning himself as the defacto authority over the story for DECADES. It actually insane how far back this goes. Just look at the Terry Gilliam adaptation that never happened. NG posted more about it than official sources despite also being on record stating that he doesn't want to be involved with another adaptation attempt at the time. Going as far as mentioning it in a completely unrelated context on occasion. That dude literally reshaped the narrative around the whole of Good Omens whenever it seemed to give him browney points. He even had a habit of dropping in other Terry Prattchet properties in a very strange way (in retrospective) and sure we know the two of them were friends and we can't judge their relationship bc we were not there BUT it's just very funny to see how Sir Terry had a consistent narrative the times he mentioned Good Omens on record, while NG not only talked a whole lot more about it, constantly, but also seems to reshape the narrative continuously in small ways.

(This point will make you question my sanity) There are influences from the 1992 movie script that made their way into the TV adaptation we finally got and possibly shaped the discussion about the sequel. Examples of that are Crowley's habit of snapping/him having anger issues , the concept of them being punished, Adam's dialogue with Satan, the starting point of the sequel/S3 aka Crowley being no longer affiliated with hell while Aziraphale is still affiliated with heaven. There are a few other things that are not in the novel but make a first appearance (as far as we know of bc I don't think we will ever get to read the script that was written in collaboration before the shit!script) in that version of the story. Sooo yhea you can say there are at least some subconscious influences.

[jjwolves]

Hello! Your writing's great! Um... Sorry, just a bit unsure because I don't normally request things in fandom spaces... If it's okay with you, could you write something platonic with DBBQ Ena where the reader:

1. Has a hard time trusting her salesman side.

2. Is scared of her meanie side.

3. Can't help but have a squish (that's platonic attraction) on her?

Basically just... The reader doesn't wanna feel like Ena's solely just trying to sell them something nor do they want her to be angry/insulting towards them... Also, gender-neutral reader please. ._.

If you can't or don't want to write this, that's completely fine! Have a nice day! óuò

DROOPY LIKES YOUR FACE ✦•··············•✦•··············•✦

What: 5 Headcanons of ENA the Worker X Reader (Struggling Platonic)

Who: ENA the Worker from ENA Dream BBQ (By Joel G)

How Much: ~700 words, ~3 mins

Warnings: Slight Language

You’ve been working with ENA for a while, and you’re pretty sure that you understand the pattern now. Froggy usually orders you and your partner in crime to go out and squash any problems which need squashing. You do your best to get the job done, and when there’s time, you try to find some reprieve from the crushing reality that this is probably going to be your job forever. You try to talk to ENA. You think that you’d be up for getting drinks later, but it’s hard to get along with her at times.

You two could be friends, you think, as you march through the realm of the carpenter and do your best to avoid any saws which would saw through the room you’re traveling through and send you into the abyss surrounding the tower. Adjusting your tie, you glance over at ENA as you walk. She’s chipper (heh) and red as her head swivels to face you, body unaffected by the movement like an automaton. “The ambiance here is palpable! Would you be willing to buy a jar of it?” Thinking on your environment, you make a joke—don’t you mean pulpable? ENA takes a moment to process before startling you with a switch-up. “CAN IT!” You jump and look away, returning to your nervous tie adjusting. At least she acknowledged it.

ENA is able to get through a door while you wait and idle about near a mouth on the wall that sucks on lollipops endlessly supplied by you suit’s pockets. Hopefully it’s too busy tasting raspberry and rootbeer-adjacent chemicals to notice that your work buddy is intruding in its domain. It takes her some time but eventually she circles back to you and you can stop feeding the thing. “You’re a good worker.” ENA smiles inscrutably. You’re thankful for the compliment, but you wait for the catch. She follows through. “And good workers know amazing deals when they see them. Would you be willing to trade a few lollipops for this stylish ribbon I found?” Should have known.

ENA makes you anxious sometimes. She doesn’t mean to, probably, but she ends up doing it anyway. Once in a while you’ll drop something or tell a ‘potential customer’ something less than flattering—but true—about your services. After the tool hits the floor or the words are out your mouth, you tense up, hoping that she wasn’t around to hear that. You look around. All clear. That is, until you look directly in front of you to see ENA wearing a jagged frown and holding a megaphone. “THAT’S ANOTHER INFRACTION! ARE YOU TRYING TO GET US TERMINATED!?” You jump back and apologize profusely, tripping over yourself. ENA’s face straightens into something more neutral, however, after your blubbering has subsided.

You take a break with your coworker (friend?), making sure to hide away from Froggy so that he doesn’t see you two slacking. It’s awkward and silent until your coworker speaks up. ENA looks thoughtful when she turns to you. “I apologize for the behavior of my employment.” She fidgets with her hands. “I’ve never really invested in a friend before… So please forgive me as I update my software.” Feeling a gentle smile on your face, you say that it’s alright. You’re both working on getting along better, after all. “Speaking of which. Friend. Earlier you had complained about not having any, ‘iced coffee’, as it were. Consider this a payment towards my forgiveness.” ENA reaches to grab something from her invisible item-space. You begin to say that she doesn’t need to pay you anything, but your words die as she places something in your hands. It’s coffee, frozen into a cube the size of your head, attached to the end of a freakishly large popsicle stick. It’s practically a warhammer. You’re baffled. ENA is quick to go white at your reaction. “DON’T LAUGH! IT ONLY COMES IN VENTI! God DAMNIT!” ENA throws her hat down in a fit of rage. You’re thankful for the strange gift from your even stranger friend.

A/N: You have a nice day too, Anon! Geez, guys, I'm sorry if you send in a request and it takes a while to get to it. I try to work down the list of requests by date and there's quite a few (which I am very thankful for). I do try to make every hc list or story very richly detailed, so it takes time to get done. The fics would lose what makes them special if I shotgunned them, haha. Stay tuned, and if you have a request you really really want done ASAP then you can always commission me! Comms take priority after all. :o)

[raayllum]

Anyway I did my 2nd watch of the season after sleeping / with the end in mind and it totally worked for me, especially with the understanding that there is 30% of the story left (and thereby Callum and Rayla's arcs aren't Over and room for more growth/plot had to be left open) and watching with the ending in mind.

I'm not upset that this is where Arc 2 ends, in some ways because it's sort of like season 2 of Avatar where Zuko doesn't join the Gaang in their 2nd arc (book two) because from a character basis he really wasn't Ready to do that / they had more story to tell, so I don't think with what they're doing it would've made sense to rush it in TDP. Nor do I think any of the previous set up for other outcomes (i.e. possession fight, salvation, etc) were wasted. Merely that TDP likes to do layer upon layer, and also have foreshadowing come back once (so you think you're safe) and then twice. I also don't think that Arc 2 resolved all the threads (i.e. Rayllum and greater good conflict / Aaravos & Callum) and ended them, and instead nudged them forwards in interesting ways for continued future exploration. I'll probably write more about the specifics later if this post doesn't get unwieldy or condensed with them for now.

In the meantime, these were things that I found really clicked for me on my 2nd watch through for S7 and with Arc 2 in general:

1) Arc 2's overarching focus on the Archdragons / the finale resolution with it.

We had a focus every season on at least one of the archdragons, with Zubeia (S4-S7), Luna Tenebris mentions (S4-S6), Rex Igenous (S4), Domina Profundis (S5), Sol Regem (S5-S6), and Avizandum mentions (S4-S5).

With that in mind, while I'm sure Aaravos' intentions was for no one to know of his plans ahead of time (7x01)... his actions also led to Callum and co. making connections to all the other Archdragons that they could pull on to bring everyone back to Lux Aurea, and Aaravos could destroy them (with no real consequence to himself, as his spirit was now free and his body could reform), taking a massive swing at the Cosmic Council's grand order that'd been enforced by the archdragons. He said the elves and dragons would fall hard... and now the dragons have, with the Cosmic Council being next (and thinking that the real focus on the Cosmic Council would be predominantly in arc 3 was, I believe, the general fandom consensus anyway).

AARAVOS: Now this is familiar, isn't it? Hasn't this all happened before? Arrogant fools. Again and again you make the same mistakes. (7x09)

Suitably, though, the Archdragons sacrifice themselves to protect all of Xadia, making amends for past / previous actions in their own way (narratively). They upheld the Cosmic Order, and then chose to break it.

Now, Aaravos will be returning to a world where there are no archdragons, and the only thing that can destroy his mortal form again would be the Nova Blade or some dark magic spell to take his spirit (but more on that later).

This also caps off S7 being about the destruction caused by one Archdragon (Sol Regem) and then the salvation through sacrifice from the other four as the finale. It comes full circle, but without repeating the cycle.

It also seems like the Nova Blade hasn't actually ever been used, as Aaravos states in 7x07:

She could have used the blade to destroy me, but chose instead to help imprison me. To spare me.

Or if it has, it still has a massive consequence that Zubeia is familiar with (the wielderdies if it's used to kill someone?), given that she is worried when Zym (and Ez wielding the sword) appears, intending to use it:

I'll also talk a bit more about why I think Aaravos designed 7x09 to be a win-win scenario for him no matter what when I get to Callum's section, but in the meantime...

2) Rayla's arc

Listen, y'all know I wanted Rayla to save Callum, like a lot, and thought there was a good chance she would if he was possessed again. However, neither of those things happened (also circumstances were crazy) and it was built up throughout the seasons, as well as in S7:

RAYLA: We can't save everyone, Soren. There's too much at stake. (4x05) RAYLA: But I can't help you yet... because right now, the world needs me. Callum and Ezran need me. There's a great evil returning to Xadia and we have to stop it, at any cost. (5x01) RAYLA: It hurts me to know they're trapped like this. It's agonizing. But our mission comes first. The world is in danger, and you can trust me to stay focused. (5x04) RAYLA: No, Callum. I want to help my parents, but I won't let it bias me. (6x01)

The season 7 setup is most prominently seen in S7 during Rayla's trial, in which she emphasizes that the assassins' deaths were not in vain due to the subsequent impact on the world as a whole, and in how their assassin pledges were upheld in their own way:

Life is precious. life is valuable. We take it, but we do not take it lightly. All of your lives were taken. But your sacrifices, they weren't for nothing. Callisto, you pledged your breath for freedom and we freed ourselves from an awful, pointless war. Andromeda, you pledged your eyes for truth. And we found the truth, a truth that changed the world. Skor, you pledged your strength for honour, and now humans and elves have finally begun to treat each other with honour again. And... Ram. You pledged your blood for justice. But what is justice? The king died that night. A life for a life. Is that justice? How much suffering is enough to paid for the mistakes we've made? I don't have the answers. But I'll carry you with me, all of you, forever.

So it made sense for her assassin oath to come back in some manner ("My heart for Xadia"). She had to honour her team's sacrifices by being willing to make her own (killing Callum and herself by symbolic extension), partially because her and Callum's "ride or die" dynamic had become a "ride and die" dynamic": this was his plan and his choice, and the alternative was to let him succumb to a fate worse than death AND to let Aaravos destroy the world through his hands.

And I get why this feels kind of backwards, because on the one hand, it seems like Rayla made a lot of progress, even questioning the validity of her own suffering for mistakes she / choices others have made, which is Huge!

And yet she's willing to suffer, and sacrifice Callum. The paying the price motif is even brought back in Aaravos' dialogue with the archdragons ("And what will your sacrifices buy?"). So what gives?

Well, I think in a lot of ways Arc 2 was Rayla learning to accept and ask for help (S5-S6), that she wasn't alone (S4, S7), and working to come back every time she leaves (S4) but... still being prepared to leave:

and still with sharing or acknowledging her own burdens not being her instinct.

There's a reason we all went "Rayla refusing to sacrifice Callum would be Character Development" after all. I also think it's quasi-similar to Rayla leaving after S3. She had a lot of opportunities to learn that she didn't have to do everything alone in arc 1, but those lessons didn't stick; in a similar fashion, Rayla had opportunities throughout arc 2 to learn that she doesn't always have to sacrifice something, but with Callum being increasingly sacrificial... Those lessons were there, but didn't stick. The other side of her sacrifice arc is not resolved.

With that in mind, I wanna talk about our favourite dorky mage, and then maybe arc 3.

3) Aaravos' Grand Plan & Callum's Corruption

This is a little hard to parse out just because we don't know what Aaravos' next step / goal was in bringing about Eternal Night (presumably to get the attention of the Cosmic Council, but who knows). That said, a few things I'm chewing on:

Aaravos, as previously discussed, found the most effective way to rid the world of (presumably) every Archdragon other than Zym

Aaravos, for whatever reason, wanted Ezran to have the Nova Blade, which Aanya even sets up for us in 7x09

Aaravos knew all along that Callum would turn to dark magic to take him down.

AARAVOS: Very soon, your brother will embrace dark magic to save those he loves. EZRAN: I suppose you've seen that written in the stars? AARAVOS: I have seen it written in his eyes. (7x07)

Furthermore, he wanted to have Callum be corrupted again, gave him the apple in 7x01 as the first attempt. The apple corruption was lampshaded with "Is there anything I can do to help?" + identity/name motif. Aaravos was actively goading him into dark magic in 7x09, even when he knew there was an assassin ready to kill Callum (Runaan), and smiling even when Callum began the spell (once Rayla had stepped in).

As of S7, Callum has been called (and not disputed being at least partially) a dark mage, used Viren's staff and now has it in his possession (and we still don't know why it was never supposed to be used again), and has a white streak. The willingness to go that far "has always been a part of" him and is now permanently reflected in his character design.

Secondly, we know that Aaravos' game with his pawns is not over, due to the secrets of the cube being ongoing (but confirmation in 7x09 that it indeed points towards Elarion) and due to framing with Claudia.

While I did consider that maybe Callum's pawn intro imagery had come back around in the conversation in 7x06 featuring the cube so heavily (!!) and then Callum choosing to do dark magic to stop Aaravos and save everyone as his destiny ("The one I write myself")... He's still corrupted, Aaravos is still going to come back in 7 years with Callum as a vessel, and the Key to the Book (metaphorically to literally the Book of Destiny) is still unresolved.

TLDR; think about how much it'd Hurt in a Good Way for Callum and Rayla to both know she would've sacrificed him for the greater good (fulfilling her end of foreshadowing from 6x03) only to be smacked in the face that Callum refuses to sacrifice her in Arc 3 with the other side of his ("if you ever have to choose between me and the greater good...").

The fact that the Cube canonically points towards Elarion, which feature stories about "a fair exchange of beloved for beloved" after a season in which Aaravos mandates "Your beloved is an assassin who cannot kill" is just the cherry on top. It also means that both Callum and Rayla have accordingly hit the 50-75% wavelength of their arc(s), with us now having a definitive basis for her being willing to that sets up more clearly her being not willing to in the future, the circumstances we'd need for a possession fight re-established, and the cube beat still on the table because the cube itself is still waiting to be plot relevant.

Rayla always follows Callum's lead ("Say the word and I'll go back into that tower with you") and reflects him ("Who told you that?" "You did") and the lessons he teaches her about love. He'll pave the way, and she'll follow, and then their arcs will come to a close.

We just had to get here first.

Conclusion??

Anyway I hope you enjoyed, I want to do a bigger Arc 3 predictions post (the ruby project, Evrkynd, Claudia, Harrow, etc.) sometime soon, but I hope in the meantime this brought some potentially needed assurance, excitement, or another perspective to consider.

[tealvenetianmask]

I want to take apart the use of the word, "dramatic" in the fandom a little and try to understand why it gets applied to Stolas so often and not to Blitz. Because, honestly, they both sort of are . . .

If dramatic means "oozes emotions and makes the audience feel something for them." Both have really intense emotional moments in the show.

The truth is, they also both hold back quite a lot though. (So maybe neither is dramatic?) There are tons of examples, but to save space, here's one of each. We see Stolas forcing his face serene in the middle of a drunken crying session in Apology Tour, and we see Blitz leave rather than let Stolas see him cry in Ozzie's.

And they BOTH don't let the people in their lives see that they're hurting. Stolas wears a mask for Octavia, and Blitz wears a mask for . . . everyone in his life, really . . . Until recently, both wore masks for each other pretty much constantly too. But when they're each alone, we see the truth.

Okay, so obviously it comes down to presentation, right? Specifically gender presentation . . .

Stolas gets judged as dramatic (and even whiny or self-absorbed in anti circles) because he laments in deep, lofty ballads, with make-up dripping down his face, which is honestly such a win for all the grown-up emo kids watching. He relates to soap opera protagonists and wants to be chased after while he's boarding a train. He reads romance novels.

In short, when he expresses emotions, when he consumes media about romance . . . he's being traditionally "feminine." (A note: this is also why he's often portrayed by fans as "the woman" in the relationship- and that can have its own problems, since, yes, this is a gay relationship between two men, and regardless of gender presentation, neither needs to be "the woman.")

Blitz on the other hand . . . well. He's not masculine in every way either, is he? He loves to crossdress for fun work. When he's enjoying his down time, he's watching two cutesy horses kissing.

But he expresses emotions in ways that are socially accepted as masculine. Namely, anger. It's not dramatic to do any of this, is it?

He calls listening to love ballads "gay . . ." oh, and he uses the same insult for Stolas . . . you know . . . trying to talk about emotions with him. So, for better or worse (worse- this is a bad thing), he's pretty deeply entrenched in society's expectations of masculinity. Or anyway, he performs it more convincingly than Stolas does. Well enough, it seems, to convince some viewers that he's 1) just an asshole with no depth and/or 2) just a chill and badass regular dude man.

But here's the kicker. NEITHER of these characters are wrong for having emotions and expressing them. It's a good thing actually.

In the world of the show, expression heals. Singing helps Stolas process the changes in his life. His decision to tell Blitz how he feels WILL ultimately help them both with their character development. Blitz ends up happier than he's been in a long time and manages to repair a friendship after 15 years apart once he explains his emotional experience to Fizz and cries. Accepting some emotions other than anger in Apology Tour (even if he's far from finished processing them) enables Blitz to grow profoundly as a person.

This blog is in favor of being dramatic.

[himluv]

Man. Woke up to some absolutely rancid developments in the fandom this morning. I haven't had coffee yet, so bear with me:

Dragon Age: The Veilguard came out almost EIGHT MONTHS ago. Even before launch, the negativity was there — art style complaints, "women aren't allowed to be hot," complaints about the OST, etc. – but once the game was out, the shitstorm really got rolling.

Every article suggested to me was about how "woke" Veilguard was, always with thumbnails of Taash, as if their mere existence in a video game was cause for outrage. Within DAYS, Metacritic user reviews were at a 3 vs. a then aggregate score of 85 from critic reviews. And almost EVERY negative review talked about top surgery scars, Taash, the use of the word nonbinary, and how the character creator didn't allow for "hot" enough female characters.

I ignored it then, because that sounded to me like typical Dude Bro™ capital G gamer bullshit. I stayed locked in and played Veilguard through to the end in less than a week. I loved it, and I was unabashed in my love for the game then, posting about how much it affected me, what I loved and what it gave me to think on. I immediately started another playthrough and began writing fic a few days later.

As of this writing, I have written 254,000 words of fanfic since November 13, 2024. When I tell you I love this game... Let that be the proof.

I thought, surely, as the newness wears off and the spotlight fades, the conversation around Veilguard will change. And... I guess, it did. It got worse. A very vocal subset of fans – of whom I would previously have considered myself a member – decided that this game and its treatment of our sad little meow meow (affectionate) was a personal attack. "Fans" started talking about the developers like it was celebrity gossip and wrote honestly brutal and horrible things about NORMAL PEOPLE doing their JOBS!

Things were circling the drain then, and I read the signs well. I blocked some folks and merely unfollowed others, some I'd been following since the start of this blog back in 2017. We disagreed about Solas in Veilguard in basically every way, to the point where it was negatively affecting my love for the character. I extricated myself quietly (not that I'd been a huge presence to begin with).

But, I'd spent the majority of 2024 consuming all the Dragon Age tie-in media. ALL OF IT. And Veilguard relies on tie-in media a lot, So, I started posting about that, and how Veilguard did a good job, actually, of using that media and how having read the books/comics only heightened my experience with the game.

That went... poorly. I blocked some folks who accused me of things I didn't say and who clearly weren't reading my analysis with any sort of positive intent. I was Wrong and my interpretations were Wrong and how dare I have the audacity to love a video game of a franchise I have been hyperfocused on since 2009??? Apparently the game is bad and my reading analysis and comprehension skills are Bad and I should be yelled at for it.

(y'all, I went to school for English/Writing, am a librarian by day and a professional specfic author by night... like. You don't have to agree with my analyses, but... this is what I do???? I read things and think about them and write about them and help others do the same???).

But, I blocked and moved on with my life. And I have been absolutely PROLIFIC with that block button. And I've largely avoided any backlash (yes, backlash – to deny its existence is willful ignorance and, frankly, dishonest) because of my willingness to block any and every shit take I've seen on this site.

I've stayed in my corner, loving this game with an absolutely beautiful community of folks who encourage and nurture creativity. Word games, prompt tags, weekly events. It is a wonderful place to be a Veilguard fan.

But, it HAD to be a carefully curated corner, because even a step outside of this bubble was filled with so much hate, and ANY attempt to engage or interact with a Veilguard positive lens was met with complete vitriol. And it has just agitated itself into a rabid froth of cruelty. Not just toward the game, but devs and fans.

Dislike of a game fermented into personal attacks against people who LIKED A VIDEO GAME and didn't think it deserved to be shit on so badly that an entire development team lost their jobs. That people pointing out how VITAL the queer rep in Veilguard is in THIS moment shouldn't be attacked. That pointing out how the game focuses on community action and smaller, personal stories of hope and perseverance is actually REALLY IMPORTANT RIGHT NOW and shouldn't come with a risk of being doxxed.

Eight months. It's been eight months of this behavior and it is only getting worse. I'm not sure what I wanted to say with all of this. I'm mad. Worried for my friends. I'm disappointed. And also... man. I still love Dragon Age. Have loved Dragon Age since 2009. Nothing that happens on tumblr will make that less true.

But, if you don't love Dragon Age any more... maybe... move on? Find something you do love? Because, as angry and disappointed and worried as I am... I'm also sad. I'm sad that so many people are seemingly obsessed with something they don't even like. That's no way to enjoy life. We only get so many days on this planet and spending them so angry and hurt that you want other people to be angry and hurt... it's sad. Not in a like... pathetic way, but in a genuine, heartfelt it-makes-me-feel-sad-that-others-feel-like-this kind of way.

[kinardsevan]

martini shot

inspired by that brand new interview with ButWhyTho. louliver | rated t | 1.4k

“Love of my life? Really? You just had to use those words?” 

Lou chuckles as he settles his phone on the counter, rinses off his toothbrush. 

“Well, good morning to you, too, Gorgeous,” he replies, dropping his toothbrush into the cup it gets set in each day and lifting the hand towel to his mouth, swiping away any remnants of paste left on his mouth. 

“Love? Of my life, Louie?” Oliver’s voice grows more irritated with each word. “Do you need Ryan to remind you what it was already like for the fandom?” 

Lou chuckles again, picking up his phone off the counter and walking back into the bedroom. He heads over to the closet and opens it, glancing around at his options for the day. He doesn’t have anywhere to be, and although Oliver has work, he should be around at the end of the night, even if it’s late, so while he doesn’t want to be too formal, he also doesn’t want to look so casual that his boyfriend thinks he isn’t trying. This thing between them isn’t really new anymore—it’s been almost a year since it started, and more than six months since they put a label on it— but he knows that the answer to keeping something feeling fresh and safe is by continuing to breathe life into it. 

“Here’s the difference, Gorgeous,” he comments back as he pushes polo after polo aside in his closet. “Ryan, possibly unlike Eddie, is actually straight. Last I checked, he gagged at the suggestion of making out with you on the car ride back from when we shot the funeral procession. Like, full-on, nearly puked right in front of me, Kenny, God, and everybody.” 

“That’s not the point, babe,” Oliver whines in response. Lou grins if Oliver is already giving way to terms of endearment, this will be an easy hurdle. 

“No, Gorgeous. The point is that if I’ve learned anything in the past year, it’s that I don’t want to hide how I feel about you. I know we talk about keeping things quiet outside of our social circles, and that’s fine. We don’t have to tell the whole world when they don’t know us from a hole in the ground. But I’m also not going to lie or feel like I have to backtrack when I’m just speaking my truth.” Lou pauses for a moment to let his words sink in. His gaze stops on a gray long-sleeved henley. It might get too warm for it, but based on what the weather is supposed to be for the day, he’s not overly concerned. “Make sense?” 

Oliver is quiet for a few moments, but Lou is so attuned to his various nonverbal sounds at this point that he’s not worried. Eventually, the younger man mutters a drawn-out ‘yeah’ with a sigh. 

“Bu-but still, babe,” he croons after a moment. “Love of my life?” It seems that each time he repeats the phrase, his voice pitches higher, and it only makes Lou grin more each time. Between the two of them, Oliver might be the more hands-on one, but Lou is definitely more generous with his words. That’s not to say that he isn’t aware of how Oliver feels—he very much so is—but he’s definitely the one who’s more comfortable saying it twelve times a day versus Oliver’s three or four. 

He grabs a pair of jeans out of the closet and tosses them up on the bed along with the shirt, setting his phone down nearby. 

“Does me saying that out loud bother you,” he asks, genuinely curious. 

“No,” Oliver admits on a breathy exhale, calm as a cucumber. “I think it just…puts things in perspective.” 

“In a bad way,” Lou questions as he pulls his shirt over his head. He’s not actually expecting Oliver to say no or get overly sentimental about their relationship, but when the photographer gets introspective like this, he likes to pull as much out of the younger man as he can. 

“Not at all. It’s more that, actually, hang on. Can I see you?” 

Lou’s phone chimes down on the bed, signalling an attempt to initiate FaceTime. He picks it up and accepts the video call, shifts a few things around on his bed so he can tilt his phone up at the right angle for them to see each other before finishing pulling his shirt down. Oliver grins at the sight—his entire face takes up the frame, and Lou can tell he’s in his trailer at work. A tongue laps across Oliver’s face and Lou smirks. 

“Good morning to you too, Jade,” he states. She lets out a little chuff in response, and Oliver shifts the camera back slightly to let her into frame.

“Good morning indeed,” Oliver replies. 

Lou raises an eyebrow at him suggestively as he reaches up for his jeans and shakes them out. “You were saying?” 

Oliver lets out a breath with a little eyeroll, smirking back at him. 

“I was just saying, like, I know we’ve talked about it before and all, but I didn’t ever really think 9-1-1 was gonna be the place I met somebody. You know?” He turns away from the camera briefly, smiling at Jade as he scratches the top of her head while Lou pulls his jeans up with a little hop and then buttons them before grabbing his phone off the bed and then leaning down over it, leaning his weight into his elbows as he looks back at the other man. 

“I mean you’re not alone in that,” he responds. “I don’t know exactly what I was holding out for before last year, but I think it’s easier to conceptualize that you’re going to meet someone in a work scenario than it actually is to make it happen. Especially when you assume it’s going to be heteronormative. I knew I wasn’t walking into something that was going to put me in a position where I felt unsafe or uncomfortable, given the people in charge. But did I think everything I’d been trying to find for 39 years was going to be packaged in a mouthy—sorry, what is it the kids are calling you right now? Evil British princess?” 

Oliver laughs, shakes his head. “Shut the fuck up.” 

Lou laughs with him briefly, a cheeky smile still on his face, at least for a moment, as he looks back at Oliver. 

“Seriously, though, Oli,” he admits, a bit softer. “I didn’t say those words out of anything other than the truth, and to-…” He pauses, clearing his throat. “Watching you find that range, even in an arguably clinical setting, it’s not fun to watch, and seeing you that devastated over someone who’s technically still alive? Fuck, baby. I don’t- a-and I can’t.” 

When he manages to look back up at the phone and see Oliver’s face, his expression has softened to one of love and understanding. 

“I love you, too,” Oliver says, his tone still soft. “In the ‘chase you into a disaster, put my emotions fully on display, lose it because the suggestion of you hurting without me being able to solve it kills me’ kind of way.” 

Lou lets on a smile as his cheeks warm just slightly. They stare at each other for several minutes until Jade ultimately interrupts again, letting out a whisper of a whine, licking Oliver’s face again. Distantly, Lou hears knocking, and he’s sure Aisha is probably around with food. 

“Alright, Gorgeous. Go have fun. Call me if you have time or if you need someone to pick up the kids. Otherwise, I’ll see you later,” Lou tells him. 

Oliver nods. In the background, Lou can hear the door to his trailer being opened. 

“Send me pictures when you get to Shanna’s,” he replies. 

“Will do,” Lou answers, fully smiling now. He blows a kiss at the screen and watches Oliver pantomime catching it, patting it all over his face. “Love you.”

“I love you, Louie,” Aisha calls out from somewhere behind the camera. The screen flips a second later and Lou sees her waving animatedly, grinning.

“Love you too, Aisha,” he replies with a laugh. The screen flips back around just in time for him to get a camera full of Jade pushing herself entirely into frame before Oliver shifts away, laughing. 

“Olive juice,” Oliver tells him, his eyes wide and pupils dilated. 

Lou nods, mouthing it back, and a second later, the call disconnects. He drops his head against the pillow beneath him with a groan before letting out a laugh. 

“The fuck am I gonna do,” he mutters into the air rhetorically. A few seconds later, his phone buzzes in his hand and he looks up, wondering what else Oliver has to talk about. 

It’s his sister. He shakes his head at himself with a quiet laugh, and answers the call. 

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

So.... Stock image

https://www.vecteezy.com/vector-art/11430941-halloween-black-silhouette-repeating-border

[Referencing this post!]

Yuuup, that’s pretty much the same thing as what we see in the PV… 😅 Same shapes, same pattern order, everything.

Upon further research, it seems this isn’t even the first instance of this stock asset being used by Disney. It was also used for a limited edition Sally-inspired perfume called Rag Doll. I believe it was sold at Hot Topic back in 2013:

It’s a little saddening seeing TWST use stock images instead of like… you know, new assets 💦 This is following a somewhat disappointing trend of TWST animated PVs going down in quality and budget, especially over the years. For example, for the anniversaries:

2021 - 2 minutes long; all students included in highly individualized limited event outfits and movement is dynamic.

2022 - 1 minute long; all students and even staff are included but in standard uniforms, noticeable drop in art and animation quality (for example, look at Kalim and Silver in the flight scene). Animation itself is framed like Yuu is taking pictures of everyone—but really, it’s a convenient excuse to hold on static shots of the photos instead of actually animating them.

2023 - 1 minute and ~40 seconds; only the third years in their school uniforms and Grim in ceremonial robes are featured. Animation appears slow and somewhat clunky. And dear god, that weird panning shot of Malleus and Lilia; that Lilia is practically traced from his live 2D model.

2024 - 1 minute and ~10 seconds; basically a glorified slideshow with fancy effects. Only the dorm leaders in their school uniforms are shown.

Then, looking at the Halloweens:

Terror is Trending - 30 seconds; All students included and dorm costumes showcased. Unique shots and framing. Even Ramshackle Ghosts (who are important in the event story) are shown.

Endless Halloween Night - 4 different versions of the same commercial (including different characters doing the voiceover work), each ~30 seconds each; all students featured. Nice lighting, fierce expressions, varied framing.

Glorious Masquerade - 1 minute and 30 seconds. Several static panning shots, but at least the colors are striking when most other things are monochrome or muted. ~20 seconds at the end dedicated to hyping up Rollo.

Stage in Playful Land - ~35 seconds. Only the 3 SSR boys are featured, with most of the animation being in their head tilts. Less than 10 seconds is dedicated to hyping up Fellow and Gidel.

This year’s event… 20 seconds using a stock image and panning up from it to the TWST logo, no new assets.

I DON’T KNOW, maybe I’m overthinking it 😭 I’m definitely not the first person to notice this though… It’s been a point of discussion in my fandom social circles.

But hey, let’s keep our heads high! It’s very possible that we’ll get a more formal animated PV in the weeks leading up to Halloween. In fact, I’m certain of it since this current PV doesn’t show new costumes or the new twisted character, as is tradition. What we see now might just be a bonus material they’re releasing to really get us excited. Plus, we’ll probably also have an ABEMA stream with more Halloween-related news ^^ Let’s look forward to that!

[zaltynn]

that damn ball and chain

fandom: ava: alan becker's animation vs animator

characters: the chosen one and the dark lord

summary: Chosen was prone to episodes where he thought he was still tethered to that damn ball and chain, and would be rooted to one spot in the house. Most times Chosen could deal with them in a few minutes, able to dismiss the hallucinations and flashbacks on his own or cut them off before they really began. Every once in a while they were harder to break. (Dark's POV)

or

ive never gotten over the animator enslaving chosen and chaining him up and i need more fics to talk about it

tags: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Hallucination, Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, The Chosen One Needs a Hug, Permanent Injury, Aftermath of Torture, referring to chosen's enslavement, post ep 3

word count: 2,093

ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/65377144

read below:

Dark could hear Chosen pacing downstairs again. Dark wished he could ignore it, so he could continue tinkering with whatever electrical device had caught his fancy that week (Currently he wanted to make their toaster only toast on the darkest setting but with a much faster timer. Don’t ask.), but it’s been a few hours now and Chosen evidently wasn’t going to snap out of it on his own this time.

It didn’t take Dark long to learn there was only one specific instance that would make The ever-steady Chosen One pace. The older stick was always very still outside of combat, not a fidgeter and capable of keeping to himself for hours on end without a peep.

So when Chosen paced, Dark worried.

Chosen was prone to episodes where he thought he was still tethered to that damn ball and chain, and would be rooted to one spot in the house. Most times Chosen could deal with them in a few minutes, able to dismiss the hallucinations and flashbacks on his own or cut them off before they really began.

Every once in a while they were harder to break.

Dark huffed, throwing his tools down onto his messy workbench. Standing up, Dark took a deep breath, reminding himself not to get too frustrated with something that was out of Chosen’s control. As he left the small lab, he passed the open doors to their bedrooms, seeing both of them were equal parts disgusting. While habitual of Dark (he had better things to do than clean his room), Chosen was usually neat, and that told him that Chosen had been struggling for the last few days. With a curse, he took to the stairs a little faster.

Of course Chosen hadn’t said anything.

While he loved his best friend dearly, Dark was often tired with Chosen’s lack of communication. He’d gotten very used to reading the other’s body language, but a guessing game was still that at the end of the day, and Dark could make mistakes or miss something.

Dark found Chosen pacing in the living room this time. There wasn’t anything out of place in the room, nothing that immediately called to him as the offender for the episode’s cause. The couch was still ratty with a suspicious stain on the middle cushion they refused to sit on, the door to the kitchen was still hanging crooked, and the windows were open with a nice breeze blowing through. There wasn’t anything that even suggested that Chosen had gotten caught on anything; no upturned corner of the carpet he’d tripped on, no blanket thrown askew he’d tangled himself into during a nap (things that had happened before, and Dark now knew to look out for). Chosen was wearing shorts because of the summer heat, so Dark could see clear as day that there’s only an ugly, irritated scar circling Chosen’s swollen ankle (no socks that could have triggered it either).

But Chosen was stuck, limping worse than usual and whenever he tried to exceed the length of the chain that wasn’t there, his foot got yanked back regardless.

Like an animal pacing a cage, Chosen was confined to a small circle of their living room. It was sickening to see that it was a smaller diameter than their ugly ragged area carpet.

A spike of anger strikes Dark. The Animator got away with his cruelty for far too long.

“Cho?” Dark approached, forcing a calm tone into his voice, but Chosen didn't answer.

Dark watched as Chosen made another rotation around the invisible central point in the carpet, and Chosen winced as a particular step hurts, but doesn’t stop.

Dark looked around the room, quickly finding the simple cane he’d stolen from a local pharmacy back when he first figured out Chosen’s limp wasn’t going to go away. Chosen never said anything, but he used the cane on the worst days that made Dark feel like his actions were appreciated.

Grabbing the cane, Dark approached Chosen and held it out for him to take, but the other didn’t even acknowledge him. Dark reached forward and touched Chosen lightly with the cane, trying to nudge the other to take it.

Chosen flinched hard and smacked the object away, sending it flying back towards the door. He made eye contact with Dark, breathing hard. They stand there a moment, blinking in surprise at each other.

“...Dark?” Chosen seems to be only just realizing he’s no longer alone in the room.

Dark frowned, holding his hands out in surrender, “That bad, eh?”

Chosen glanced around the room, finally landing on the central point in the carpet, and tensing up. He shook his head and started pacing again, trying more fervently to leave the circle.

“Cho- it’s not there,” Dark tried, smart enough to not try reaching out and touching him again.

He didn’t get a reply for a second time, and Dark decided he’d try something new.

He knows the ‘right’ thing to do would be to ground Chosen in reality somehow, but it worked maybe four out of ten times and the rest would result in Dark getting increasingly frustrated; and that would only lead to Chosen getting reactionary and Dark lashing out in return, which would make Chosen completely shut him out. Dark wasn’t in the mood for a fight, which sometimes broke out from those situations, as they only served to tug at dark urges in the back of Dark’s mind, telling him to choke his friend out until he stopped breathing.

Dark swears they’re working on the communication thing, but he’s a chronic liar.

“Cho?”

Chosen hummed, still pacing, but listening. They were off to a good start.

“Where’s the ball?” Dark asked.

Chosen froze, turning to Dark quickly. He didn’t answer, watching Dark intensely.

Dark could almost see the gears turning in his head. Knowing Chosen’s propensity of overthinking himself into being unable to ask for clarification, Dark walks up close to Chosen and looks down at the faint circle his friend has drawn in the carpet. Finding the centre, Dark bent down and held his hands out as if to grab something and looked back at Chosen, who’d begun to tremble.

“Am I holding it?” Dark asked softly.

“You can’t lift it-” Chosen almost pleaded, his voice suddenly raw.

Dark knew not by Chosen’s own words, but simply through his actions, the supposed weight of the ball. Chosen couldn’t walk freely while he wore it, and knowing intimately how strong Chosen is, Dark knew he wouldn’t be able to lift it either. Chosen, after all, was stronger than Dark, and he had endured captivity for years before escaping.

But Dark would do anything for Chosen, and hoped that Chosen knew that.

So at the potential of embarrassing himself, he got up from crouching, still holding his hands out as if grabbing the offending object. He acted as if it was heavy, watching Chosen carefully.

“H-How-” Chosen gasped, bug-eyed and leaning away from Dark.

A small spark of hope clawed in Dark’s chest, nigh-on painful. He- Dark’s actually affecting Chosen’s hallucinations right now. He didn’t think that’d work.

He didn’t think that’d work.

“Cho, you got out,” Dark promises, “You’re free now.”

Chosen couldn’t look away from Dark’s empty hands.

Dark took a step back, and Chosen quickly stumbled forward. “Don’t-!” Chosen wheezed, his breath coming faster in panic. He reached out as if to grab the ball but retracted his hands just as fast.

“Let’s take a walk,” Dark suggested.

Chosen frantically shook his head.

“I’m right here with you, Cho. I won’t yank the chain, I won’t stop you from going anywhere,” Dark was the one pleading now, becoming more convinced this method was going to work. Chosen needed the reminder he was free, and Dark was happy to oblige.

“I-” Chosen heaved, flicking his attention between the ball and chain and Dark’s genuine expression.

“I’ve got it,” Dark gestured to his empty hands. “We can go wherever you want, I promise,” Dark insisted, and Chosen looked at him with the most heartbreaking trusting expression Dark’s ever seen.

Chosen seemed to collect himself, and took a small step away from Dark. He stepped with Chosen to encourage him, and Chosen shook as he stepped out with his bad leg. He buckled, grabbing Dark’s arm quickly to stabilize himself and stepped forward again to relieve the weight from his bad leg.

Chosen panted, trembling with the effort. Looking down, he saw that he’d taken a step past the carpet he’s been prisoner to for hours, and disbelieving tears streamed down his face.

Dark whispered encouragement, joy filling him as together they start a staggering walk to the front door. He’s shocked to find his usual frustration over these episodes wasn’t anywhere to be found, just relief that he’d finally found some way to help.

They paused at the door, Chosen rubbing his tear-soaked face with his shirt, hiding in the collar of it for a minute. Dark waited patiently, not moving an inch without his friend’s say-so.

“Do you want to go outside?” Dark asked, unsure if he should press further or if this was enough to coax Chosen to escape the episode.

“Please-” Chosen hiccupped, still trembling badly.

“Okay, but I want you to take your cane, alright?”

Chosen nodded, and glanced around, noting its position on the ground a foot away.

Dark followed his glance, and watched as Chosen stared it down for a solid thirty seconds. “If you can’t bend down-”

“I can do it-” Chosen huffed.

Dark’s tone became stern, “No, you can’t, can you? I’ll hand it to you-”

Chosen’s grip on his arm tightened, and he eyed Dark’s hands, “Your hands are full-”

Dark glanced down, “I can put it down-”

Chosen shook his head.

Dark turned to face Chosen, making the other release his arm. Dark softened his voice, “- it’ll be for just a second, Cho. I’ll get you your cane and pick it right back up.”

He swallowed hard, nodding minutely.

That was all the permission Dark needed. He bent over to put the ‘ball’ down, making sure to ‘place’ it next to Chosen’s foot so he could find it easily and not break the immersion he had with Chosen right now. Taking a quick moment to assess Chosen’s left leg, he noted how bad the swelling of his scarred ankle was, and how his knee was also noticeably swelling. Dark could only imagine Chosen’s hip was also bothering him. If Chosen hadn’t wanted to go outside, Dark would’ve made him go lie down with several ice packs for the rest of the day.

Standing up, Dark squeezed Chosen’s arm for a moment before stepping away to retrieve the fallen cane and quickly returned to his friend’s side, handing it over.

Chosen accepted the cane this time, taking it in his right hand and easily assuming position to use it.

Without a word, and Chosen’s gaze burning into his head, Dark bent back down to pick up the ball again. ‘Holding’ it again, Dark gave Chosen a confident smile, “See? Just a second.”

Chosen relaxed a small bit, and turned to open the front door, without glancing at the ball again. Dark took that as a huge victory.

A light breeze greeted them as they stepped outside together, the warm day shining almost too bright to bear. Chosen closed his eyes and basked in the sunlight, more tension bleeding from his frame.

Dark grinned, and waited for Chosen to close the door behind them and take the lead. He grabbed hold of Dark’s arm again, a soft grip around his elbow this time as they took a slow pace down the path from their home.

As they walked, Dark slowly dropped his hands to his sides, letting go of the pretend-ball. Chosen didn’t really seem to notice he’d done so, so focused on the cadence of his own steps and placing his cane properly for each one.

They were still within view of the house when Chosen pulled to a stop, releasing his hold on Dark. He was heaving from the exercise rather than from emotional distress now. “...Thank you,” he whispered, his voice weak.

Dark gave another of his wide grins, and threw an arm over Chosen’s shoulders. “Anything for you, Cho.”

Soon, they’d go back inside, Dark having to take on more of Chosen’s weight as his leg tires from all the walking that irritated it, but for now they’d enjoy their freedom for a little longer together.

[storybookprincess]

back in 2020 i made a really close internet friend. we messaged all the time, video called, sent each other christmas & birthday gifts, wrote fics for each other, the whole shebang

after about two years, though, we fell out of touch. it wasn’t due to a disagreement or anything like that — we just both started new jobs & got super busy around the exact same time & slowly drifted apart

i still thought of her often, but figured that our friendship had simply run its course. that’s just how it goes sometimes. i missed her, of course, but it seemed insurmountable to reach back out after so much time had passed

until last week, when she messaged me out of the blue because she ended up in a new fandom and stumbled across a fic i had written for it a DECADE ago & wanted to reconnect. and we’ve been messaging like crazy ever since

it’s just really wild to me. this fic was a silly little oneshot i wrote when i was in high school — in many ways, it was a lifetime ago — but it came full circle in the most unexpected & magical way. to paraphrase the mountain goats, the things you do for love really do come back to you one by one

[faceofpoe]

On the highly contentious unraveling of Cassian Andor (and how season 2 is at its heart about his relationship with Luthen).

(This has nothing to do with justifying or not fuck-all about Rogue One Cassian beyond getting him to that beach, I'm an Andor girlie just working my head around what we've built and where it's going in the context of the show).

I had a lot of issues with arc 1, and some of those issues (like ducking around pillars at a wedding to have the hey we're gonna have to murder that guy talk or, why is Kleya even here?) are not going to go away BUT as someone whose brain wasn't exploded by season 1 until seeing the full big picture come together (Rix Road, beloved), I promised myself a full season rewatch to try to recalibrate.

I haven't rewatched yet, but let's have a 75% recalibration now that arcs 2 and 3 have led us where they have to much fandom furor, and mulling how we bring this whole thing together.

Which brings me back to: this season is at its heart about Cassian's relationship with Luthen, and his acceptance at the end of season 1 that Luthen was right, he's going to die fighting the Empire - so either kill me right now, or put me to good use fighting these bastards for real.

Season 2 came to us with a gigantic ask: engage with the negative space. We have to imagine how Cassian went from big wet bambi eyes above to Mr Earnest-Reassuring-Come-Into-The-Circle with Niya. Mr Empire's-Most-Wanted is sneaking into top secret facilities and doing it with confidence and -

Shit goes instantly sideways. This isn't even the right ship, did anybody know that?? (they didn't, obviously they didn't, they don't know what's gone wrong, and this is really important I think about the fallout of this arc). Cassian's off having a terrible time while Luthen and Kleya are spying and drinking on Chandrila and he doesn't check in and this isn't normal.

It's been a year+ since season 1. Partagaz tells Dedra she's been on the Axis hunt for "almost two years" I believe so presumably we've jumped decently down the calendar year for the 4bby arc.

I have a lot of feels on how Cassian's arc one story should have had more time to breathe, to make the losses punch harder at the end by showing him leaving home, etc, but perhaps that is also the point -

He's good at this; he's accepted his pact with Luthen, one day he'll die fighting - but they're tucked away safe. Brasso's looking out for everyone, Brasso who he tasked with looking out for Maarva if he could. We're meeting him on the high point of thinking he can have it both ways and... perhaps not fearing what happens back home, if this mission or that is the one from which he doesn't return. They'll pull through. This is perhaps his era of: the Cause comes first; we take what's left. And he's balancing it, or thinks he is anyway.

Dashing off home and having found that unraveled while he was having The Worst time on Yavin - captured by, theoretically, allies -

The balance is upended, and cue crisis of faith. Not in the Cause per se, but in Luthen. He gave his own life up to Luthen but now the situation has changed on multiple levels. He's rattled by the failure on Kleya & Luthen's end on Sienar, doesn't have Brasso, doesn't have this illusion of safety on Mina-Rau, Bix and Wilmon both get involved, but Cassian isn't handling it well. There's no "take what's left" when she's right there in the line of fire too. Bix questions his decisions in the field, Luthen... his exchange with Kleya in 2.6 is telling.

"This isn't the piece we need."

"We knew that already."

"I thought seeing it in person would make a difference."

Cassian is not the operative he was where we met him with Niya. Sending him to Ghorman is something of a confirmation of something they've clearly been realizing/discussing. Luthen going to check on Bix/put her to work/whatever was the deal there - this seems very much Not The Norm by her reaction, they don't have a lot of face-to-face contact I would guess - he's doing his own assessment of just what is the situation here. (In the most dickish way possible of course, my problematic beloved.)

Cassian's at this complicated intersection of having lost this comfortable place where he can risk and trust his family's safety. Luthen and Kleya are having their own meltdown over how chaotic their operation has become. Cassian... is probably thinking about that bad intel for Sienar and wondering when the next catastrophic fuck-up that isn't his fault is going to cost something else while Bix is over here being the far better adjusted one about just what war looks like and how unreasonable his mentality about her presence. And I'm really curious if we're meant to read in the sudden appearance of "I have friends everywhere" that this was an effort to avoid another experience like the Maya Pei Brigade.

And then Luthen asks him to see about stoking the flames on Ghorman. (I'm still trying to decide how I feel about the sort of 'having it both ways' aspect of Ghorman and provocation and 'it never mattered anyway the ending was already written.')

And Cassian says: "I'll sit this one out." He doesn't take the order, he decides he wants no part in it. And that is where the final fracture in kill me or take me in finally happens.

He doesn't trust the vision anymore. Doesn't trust that the inevitable tragedy will be worth something in the end. Is this fighting these bastards for real? And is starting, perhaps, to wonder if it was worth it at all, to walk back off that ship to Gangi Moon.

And somewhere in the next year, Cassian starts to come to terms apparently with the fact that he doesn't trust Luthen with his life anymore. But he's not quite all-in with Yavin and Draven either. He's maybe still grappling with the acceptance, or inevitability, or not, that the fight will claim his life in the end - and he's lost his faith in Luthen spending it well. Sometime in this time gap after arguing over Ghorman, the fallout with Cinta, getting shot and struggling with recovery... it unsettles him into retreating, ducking Luthen's calls, until Wilmon turns up with compelling incentive.

[insert Force-ex-machina plot here to heighten his internal struggle]

And at the root of their conversation before the Mon extraction is basically Cassian refusing the assertion from 1.4 - this end is not already written. His own decisions matter. Arcs 1 and 2 only validated his teenage understanding that rebellion is pointless and all they'll do is fight themselves one way or another and, Ghorman has validated his plea with Maarva that she can't beat them. People stand up, they die.

And he has a very similar sort of conversation with Luthen as he had with Maarva and gets much the same response. Still work to be done. Luthen doesn't ask Cassian to stay, but he gives him the "I can't go." They're done. Cassian's done.

[I have quarantined the unfolding of the Bix departure in my brain, Bix's story is now Tether, sorry, I hate it so much, and it could have very much worked without the Force healer Force-ex-machina of it and probably with different timing, anyway]

Anyway Bix pulls the "if you leave, it won't be for me."

So we the audience know of course that Cassian is going to stay. Ironically, perhaps, in a far less make-my-own-decisions friendly capacity within the military hierarchy than he ever was with Luthen. And it will be interesting to see how we meet him at the opening of arc 4. He's presumably got Wilmon and Vel and Melshi and K2SO. He's finally seen the Rebellion pull together; Bix ripped away his fantasy (and it is a fantasy, he knows it's a fantasy because it's played out already on Ferrix and Niamos and Mina-Rau) that there's somewhere safe they could get away from it all.

Will he trust Draven & co to spend his life for good again? Or perhaps he simply can't bring himself to care so much either way after all of the turmoil surrounding Ghorman and the fallout and Bix. Orders are orders and good soldiers follow orders and here he is now, slapped into a uniform with a rank on his chest (idk if he ever actually wears the uniform with rank insignia between all the amazing coats in R1 but you get me) and he'll play the part because what else is there?

But Luthen is still out there, against just about every prediction for how this season would unfold. Luthen is the one puzzling over Ghorman and Dedra, demanding the endgame. Luthen isn't finished.

And I guess the question is, since we know how this ends - what is the force the propels Cassian along to Kafrene to kick off the final mission?

Just a soldier following orders?

Or are we going to wrap this back around to that s1 claim and that pact and the extension of broken trust and give Luthen something of a chance to earn it back (possibly posthumously), in sending Cassian along to the meaningful death he promised?