#it's gonna be one of these plot points that exists because the book needed them to exist and everything else took shape around it

[liesmyth]

did john decide which of his friends would be the necromancer and which would be the cavs when he brought them back from the dead, or was that random?

I wish we knew for sure! John's friends ending up 50/50 adepts vs. non-necromancers is obviously one of TM's premises and was done for doylistic reasons first and foremost, but I don't think we have enough elements to conclusively interpret it as intentional in-universe.

Putting aside any kind of authorial intentions, this is what we know:

» The rate of necromancers as part of the population hovers around 30%. John's core group being 50% adepts is way off from that, and could point to manipulation, but also we're working with a very small sample size. Think about how it's very possible to get head five times in a row when flipping coins; probabilities are much less accurate on a smaller scale. I don't believe it's out of the realm of possibilities that a group of 10 people had exactly 5 necromancers in it.

» Harrow's birth. The Reverend Parents made sure she would be a necromancer by manipulating the embryo with thanergy. It's clearly not a known practice among the Houses at large, and John calls it "a sort of Resurrection" — implying that he could be able to do the same with thalergy. However, this doesn't confirm that he actually DID.

In the same conversation, John says, "This was all different before we discovered the scientific principles," which I think is also worth noting. The fact that he understands NOW how you could get an embryo to grow into a necromancer doesn't mean that he had that knowledge at the time of the Resurrection. It also doesn't mean that the same identical process would apply to making formerly-dead-people into necromancers as they got brought back to life.

It could very well be that necromancy was a generalised side-effect of the Resurrection that affected some people more than others; or it could be that John DID do something different when bringing back some people that conferred them necromantic aptitude. Even if it's the latter, I don't think we can take for granted that 1) it was intentional and 2) he fully knew what the side effects would be.

» Ulysses and Titania. Counterpoint! It's also worth noting that John's "test cases" turned out to be one (1) adept and one (1) non-adept. Like I said above, this could still be a random bi-product of the Resurrection... but given Ulysses and Titania's whole everything, their dichotomy reeks of control group. They are a big point in favour of the "John did it on purpose" column.

Still: I still don't think we can tell for sure that John knew from the moment of Resurrection that he was giving some people death powers, and how that'd turn out in the long run. Like I said above, he could have done something different when resurrecting Ulysses vs. Titania, but it doesn't mean that he knew what would happen.

(Obviously, this argument only makes sense if we assume that Ulysses and Titania were among the very first batch of resurrected. I personally think they were, but obviously it's not confirmed)

» The inner circle. From NtN

I could only trust the inner circle. My scientists, my engineer, my detective, my lawyer, my artist, my nun, my hedge fund manager. My diehards. The ones keeping the lights on.

Putting aside the fact that Lyctors exist the way they are because Tamsyn needed them to exist, and looking at the Canaan House necro/cav pairings from John's point of view: why not give ALL his friends magical powers? That's something I struggle to wrap my head around, for about half a dozen different reasons.

Mind, I don't think John picking and choosing who gets to be a necromancer is that far-fetched, but from a #character point I find it less likely than the alternative (he didn't do it on purpose but turned it to his own advantage). IF it turns out to be canon, I'd be really curious about what the watsonian reasoning for it, beyond "this needed to happen."

Most meta posts I've seen that take for granted John picked and chose his future necromancers ascribe him a level of foresight, knowledge, and long-term planning that I simply don't think he'd have had at the time (not to mention the mental lucidity). To quote HtN John again, "[he] had never been God" before. I truly think he was winging it at least 60% of the time.

[svnnykokoro]

I'm sorry the tags are so long and so many lmao

cats is a great example of a show that doesn't work as a movie because all of the magic of it is in the live performance (the costumes, the dance numbers, the absurdity of it all) and dear evan hansen is a great example of a show that doesn't work as a movie because the show sucks

[achaotichuman]

ACOTAR Discussion

Okay, so recently my mutual @sonics-atelier posted this fic Perfect To Me (which is so fucking amazing, I cried, go read it rn) and in this fic, they write about Tamlin developing an eating disorder (specifically anorexia) since his body changed after starting to get Spring back on its feet. And it started me down a whole rant about fictional characters being the pinnacle of beauty standards, specifically in relation to what they're bodies look like. So, to save my mutuals the long spam texts about my thoughts, I'm gonna post em here.

General trigger warning- Discussion of a variety of eating disorders, body dysmorphia and Cassian.

SJM covers disordered eating within ACOTAR, it happens specifically to the female characters. And this is something, I have a huge problem with. That might seem like a massive asshole sentence, but let me explain my thought process.

These eating disorders are not well respresented, they do not further affect the plot, they only serve to be an outward appearance to the male saviour characters that something is wrong, and they never appear on the female characters in a way that makes them any less pretty, in fact, I would say, the resulting skinniness from said disordered eating, is the desired result. By that I mean, yes I think SJM writes her female characters starving themselves to make them fit the female beauty standard.

This is very evident with Nesta, who somehow miraculously only grows thinner in the waist and hips when she is starving herself. But still has massive breasts which Cassian makes a point of oogling, despite noticing how thin she is everywhere else. Instead of taking Nesta's not wanting to eat anything and turning it into a plot point for her character in which she learns to take care of and eventually love her new Fae body, SJM decides to further starve Nesta, but Cassian limiting her sugar intake, so she reminds the same 000 size in the waist.

Now, onto what really, truly makes me angry within SJM's series. Character's gaining weight, rather than losing it.

This happens once in the series. It is one singular comment, that put me off Cassian forever.

"You need to get out in the practice ring, brother. Don't want your mate to find any soft bits."

This comment was from Cassian to Rhysand in the third chapter of ACOSF, after looking Rhys up and down pretty much.

May seem like a harmless jab to a lot of people, but take into account all of the context around it.

Cassian had just been eyeing Nesta's body-clearly suffering from the effects of long-term starvation, like a hunk of meat.

They had just won a war not long ago-still coming down from the stress highs that would have no doubt been enough to put any normal person in bed for a month.

Rhysand had only recently found out about Feyre's pregnancy, if I remember correctly-would have also found out about the risks, and would be dealing the extreme stress that would be causing.

It would be incredibly normal for Rhysand to gain weight because of all these factors. Not to mention this being the first (and I'm fairly certain) only time, SJM's mentions a male character gaining weight, and it being in such a negative light, could only suggest she, and thus Cassian, find the idea unappealing or perhaps downright abhorrent.

Which really fucking pisses me off.

Most of her female characters have experienced a form of anorexia throughout the books as a trauma or stress response. And it never exists to go further than making them more conventionally attractive.

Now further on her male characters, not a single one of them ever has an ounce of fat on their body. Weight gain is entirely out of the question, even when it should be the obvious occurrence due to whatever change in their situation.

Now this also brings me to another problem I have, which also leeches into fandom behaviour.

We all love Tamlin's tits, ofc, ofc, but muscle behaves like fat if its not being actively flexed. Tamlin's pectoral muscles are no doubt incredibly strong, and would, probably be able to crack a nut (no pun intended) if flexed. But if they werent, they would be soft and squishy. No one talks about THAT THOUGH DO YOU???

Not to mention, that, Tamlin is a beast creature, wandering the forests, not training or exercising properly, and is only gouging on the carcasses of animals he kills. This could be an excellent time to lean into weight gain, and the intense feelings of guilt, and body dysmorphia that it brings.

Lets also discuss Gwyn, a traumatised young woman who fled to the Library in order to live a life of peace. She has never trained a day in her life before becoming a Valkyrie, why is she so skinny?

It's never mentioned Gwyn having any kind of reaction to her trauma that affects her eating (as far as I remember) and I think it would be far more interesting to delve into the effects grief and the lose of a dear loved one has on the body and ones eating habits.

Lets talk about Elain, who is said to use baking a coping mechanism, why is she skinny? This is the perfect opportunity to delve into a character binge eating, then extreme guilt from the times where they were in poverty, and purging. But finding comfort in food because food = wealth, wealth =safety.

And in the end, a character can be fat and be happy. Why do we have so many characters that are so thin at the end of their books?

So many of these characters also have near no stability, their diet would not doubt be changing constantly from the inconsistency in their living situations. Which should to lead to drastic changes in their body. This could be a very interesting way to explore body dysphoria. Hating seeing yourself in the mirror even if you just survived battle, because you can hardly recognise yourself. Changing so much in the mind and not even having the comfort of your body being the same. Especially with Nesta and Elain being Made against their will. I honestly believe Nesta's starvation should have been her hating her new Fae body so much that she just wants to destroy it. Her healing, should have been learning to love herself, no matter what body she is in.

In the end, your body is you, but you are more than your body. Bodies are such incredibly fascinating tool, and people don't always have to like what it looks like to care for it. Bodies can be smaller, bigger, stronger, they take your brain wherever it wants to go. But they are not all of you. And that should have been what especially Nesta's journey could have been.

Anyway, this is incredibly sensitive topic for a lot of people, so I do really want to open this up to everyone. What are your thoughts on this topic? Do you think SJM's portrayal of eating disorders is justified, or do you think I'm wrong on any of these points? Let me know in either the comments or the reblogs, I would be happy to discuss it.

[mamawasatesttube]

Hey I don't know if you've answered this before but what do you think of Superboy: The Man of Tomorrow?

the most painfully mid comic i've read in a hot second 😭😭😭 i will say porter had a decent grasp on kon's character voice, but that's... about all i can say for it. i really wanted it to be good, but kenny porter has a pretty heavyhanded writing style, to me, and the theme he chose to go all in on for some reason was "kon is an immature teenager who needs to grow up", which ... would be great if that hadn't already. uh. happened? a lot? in the 90s?

in some ways, it's not porter's fault that fucking bendis established kon being brought back into continuity in the stupidest way possible. but porter really got my hopes up in issue #1 by acknowledging that kon's situation thanks to bendis was extremely fucked up, only to then drop the ball entirely and pretend his only issues were caused by immaturity, instead of horrific things like "my existence was erased from the entire universe" and "superman, who i love dearly and idolize as my hero and who gave me my name and called me his family, doesn't know who i am anymore" and "i grieved for pa kent after he died, and now he's right there what the fuck", etc. which like, i'd be less miffed about if porter hadn't STARTED with kon being upset that "this world has already moved on without me" before doing that whole nothing "he needs to be a MAN" plot.

it also just seriously exacerbated to me that dc just doesn't want you to think hard about what their continuity is anymore because like... man did kon even die at this point? is that just retconned away? he's supposed to have a statue in centennial park next to superman's. but no one on the street in yj19 knew who he was? does that statue exist or not?? does everyone just think thats some random guy ??? and sbmot really could have picked up the threads on this kind of narrative dissonance and done something interesting... but instead it just. acknowledged them and then went "ANYWAY!" which was really just not the move, to me. if ur not gonna do something with that then why bother mentioning it at all, yknow???

but my biggest gripe w the book by far. by FAR. is that "what if... the anti-imperialists fighting an evil empire... were the REAL bad guys" is such a tired and stupid and centrist plot. this was nothing. we had a whole setup for kon to be the clone rights guy and instead kenny porter just washed it all down the drain with a heavy dose of mid, boring centrism. they didn't even deal with the empire that was enslaving and killing people by the end??? they just got ""cyborg superboy"" (lol) blown up and the other two core four knockoffs put in green lantern jail. like. the fuck was this??? this is nothing kenneth do you hear me we could have had something and instead you dropped the ball SO HARD. smh!!!!

but hey, at least it gave me some pretty kon variant covers to display on my desk, so. small wins!

[ride-thedragon]

To say something on the topic, it's one thing to not like the Daemon and Nettles romantic relationship plotline. You have every right. It's another thing, however, to reduce Nettles to that plot line and want to take away her entire narrative arc and give it to someone else or remove it (that doesn't make sense).

Daemon is not her father. You know why?

Because Nettles is most likely not Valyrian and Daemon was in the Stepstones at that time.

Daemon is also not her father because she's an adult who's lived alone her entire life. She doesn't need one.

Nettles isn't Rhaena, Baela or a COTF. You know why?

Because she simply isn't. There is not one inclination in the books that she is and in the show the only reason it's popular in the fandom is because you think black character are interchangeable and don't value their stories as individuals. Rhaena is already set up as the dragon rider she is in the books. Baela is already fighting. The five white children of Rhaenyra are never interchanged, but these three girls (one with no relation) are?

That doesn't make sense.

Daemon and Nettles were most likely romantic or sexual. You know why?

Because Daemon has a repeated pattern of behaviour. Something he repeats with Rhaenyra, Mysaria, and Nettles (even Laena to an extent)

Because Daemon is a weird man, and it's Westeros where weird men thrive. One of the arguments with her is literally that she isn't as young as the girls he slept with before. His morality isn't up for question.

Daemon would because she's a young dragonrider.

Nettles isn't going to be written out. You know why?

She's important to the narrative. One of George's favourite characters that he parallels with Daenerys, lives on past Daemon and exists before him, is one of the most anticipated adaptations and is the question in the narrative of Targaryens and their control over dragons.

I'm not going to argue on these points or even push them anymore. At this point, if it hasn't stuck, you're writing fanon and want it to be canon. I'm not gonna deter you all. Just leave her alone and write fan fiction. Or at least pretend to care about her outside of him.

[whywoulditho]

I'm glad, that DC writers are changing constantly and therefore the characters are protected from the Bat-family. The Bats are the cancer of DC comics. There wouln't be any independant characters anymore if they could gez their grubby hands on the other DC families

That's another way to look at it.. I agree that they're trying a bit too hard to connect every character to the bats' storyline. so you might have a point there. maybe it would create more bad than good if they let batfam authors interfere with the other storylines... but i still wouldn't call the bats the cancer of DC. I think if you took the bats out of DC, it would lose like half of its charm and quality.

with all that being said though, i still think the biggest problem of DC romances (or comic book romance in general) lies in each run having separate authors. think about why harley x ivy worked. it's because both of those characters already existed before they got together. both of them were loved villains and later anti-heroes, they both have their own story, their own past and their own redemption arcs. they're both INTERESTING. and when DC made the risky choice of making them a couple, it worked.

i'm not saying it would work with any other characters, or that they should make all their major characters date each other. but if you want to explore romance in your comics you have to give the readers an actual relationship, involving two realistically written and interesting people. not a major character and their accessory love interest. that's my issue with tim x bernard, or jon x jay. no one will get attached to, or even invested in, these relationships because we don't know anything about the love interests. they're just some random people. even if you try to give them personalities they will still not have a story outside of their relationship with the major character. bernard and jay were only created so tim and jon would have someone to kiss. it's hard to care about them, and therefore their relationship. they're just boring romance side plots.

you can introduce a character with the sole purpose of making them a couple with one of your major characters and still make it work, like batman and catwoman. you can create chemistry with a new character just as well as you can with already existing ones. but i think we need more of the first option. less last minute love interests and more people falling in love. i think what makes DC special is that they show us so many different versions of their major characters, we get to see them grow and change (take notes, marvel) so it wouldn't be off-brand to see already existing major characters, like superboy and robin, ending up together. not when it's DC. to be honest i think it would be like super iconic of them to do that. and i also think that DC fans would much rather have their favorite characters end up with the kind of person they went through hell and back with instead of like, a random citizen. tim and kon have so many parallels. they're both people who didn't have to be heroes at all, but still chose to do it. they both struggle with carrying a mantle too big and the fact that they were not chosen for it makes them even more insecure. they also have a past together, they're close friends, they would take a bullet for each other. so much potential. dont even get me started on damian and jon. those two are like, literal mirrors of their fathers. they have huge legacies on their shoulders and they're like quite literally the only people that could understand one another. again, so. much. potential. i'm not saying they have to be together, but if DC was gonna write romance for these characters I wish it could have been with each other.

[cherries-in-wine]

My thoughts on Colleen Hoover:

okay hear me out: colleen hoover is for the people who skipped their fan fiction phase.

Hi just a warning this contains spoilers for colleen hoover books and English isn't my first language so I apologise for any mistakes. These are just me sharing my thoughts feel free to disagree just please don't be mean about it.

So I read a few of her books because I love torturing myself and just wanted to feel something (also my cousin was obsessed with her) and honestly I don't regret it because now I have valid reason shit on it. 

Just fyi I'm a teenage girl in high school so I'm definitely in her target audience, and here's what I've gathered:

None of her main characters really have a personality. they feel more like shells that the reader can self insert themselves into. The books aren't really about two people getting to know each other and falling in love it feels more as a bunch of tropes and generic scenarios thrown together. I think this is one of the reason booktok girlies act with Colleen Hoover the way I did when I found out fanfics exists. 

It also just reads like fanfiction? like because there's not much to dwell on and they're so easy to digest you can finish them in just a few hours. plus the main characters just feels like y/n: a shell to self insert yourself into, dead/abusive father, just normal girl who finds herself in these situations etc.

Here's the thing about fan fiction though: the reason why it's so fun to read is because you already know the people/characters in it so you can get right into the scenarios and imagines because they don't really need any background or development. 

But the difference is when you write these books you have to develop these characters and introduce them to the readers otherwise I'm just like "I don't even know these people so why the fuck would I care?"

Comparing her to fanfic is honestly an insult to fanfic writers because at least they have the decency to tag their posts properly (calling the abuse, abuse dark themes, dark themes etc) plus they're just so much better.

Colleen Hoover fans will say that she brings up difficult topics in her books in order to defend her but here's the thing: writing about difficult topics doesn't exactly exempt you from criticism + she doesn't even write about them?? they just feel like lazy add ons to spice up the story and add some drama. if you're gonna write about difficult topics you need to discuss and write them properly not just use them to further the plot.

I don't like any of the love interests either. 99% of them are just abusive, piece of shit bland boiled chicken ass people with the unsexiest names I've ever heard of.

Also a lot of these have very much women hating women undertones? I feel like it's the author's misogyny being reflected in her books (extra heart breaking coming from a woman herself). It's very much "you're not like the other girls you're different" kinda themes.

I thought maybe people just enjoyed it because of the smut but the smut is SO BAD oh my god I wanted to kms.

My thoughts are a little all over the place right now (they always are) but maybe i'll update if I remember any more points

thank you so much for reading mwah <33

[adamnablelittledevil]

Reacting to The Vampire Lestat - Part IV (with a bit of spoilers)

Lestat's narration has gotten so much better actually. I mean, I still don't care when he talks about stuff that doesn't have an effect on him, but when he describes things/people that actually do? It's great. It's just so vivid, rich, colorful, sometimes even abstract that simply makes me giggle and kick my feet. When he gets really thoughtful about life, vampirism, existence, religion, morality, feelings, theater, music etc, it feels like borderline insanity, but in a brilliant way? Feels like I'm tasting some crazy drug and tripping, but it's so good? It activates a very specific part of my neurodivergent brain and I love it because I'll also be having those crazy thoughts all by myself with nobody to talk to and Lestat just gets it.

I also love the excess of exclamations on this POV haha.

Sometimes it just feels like a naive child telling things and is kind of endearing.

ARMAND!

Armand in Lestat's words: he was beautiful, ethereal, sublime, exquisite, delicate, soft, perfect, a Caravaggio painting, a Da Vinci painting, an angel, I found myself in him, the possibility of him, I didn't pay attention to [whatever] because I was looking at him etc etc.

Basically calling him the most beautiful thing he's ever seen, really.

Like, I legit MEMORIZED some of them. Lestat was THAT repetitive lmao.

I don't know if it's because the words were so superlative or because Lestat had it that bad or because I have it that bad just thinking about it, but yeah.

I'm not even kidding when I say I need to take pauses because this is kind of unsettling.

I'm so serious, but I feel like reading Lestat's description of Armand has a bigger effect on me than the prettiest person I have ever seen in freaking R E A L L I F E? What the hell, WHAT IS THIS SORCERY?

Lestat, tone it down, I'm begging you.

Been told Armand is really that gorgeous and every character talks about him that way, so apparently he isn't exaggerating... I'm gonna lie down, bye.

It's even worse because I just picture show!Armand because he's even more handsome there so it makes me dizzy.

Also because Lestat won't miss an opportunity to talk about his beauty? He LITERALLY says it EVERY SINGLE TIME he sees Armand. I'm not joking, I swear on my own life. I'm like, OKAY, WE GET IT? ENOUGH!

Armand (Lestat's version) on season 3 will be insufferable and I'm so ready for it. But also not ready yk.

At this point I'm basically just drooling over him and I don't care.

PERFECT casting with Assad. He incorporates Armand like no other. Everyone on the show is talented and I can see them as their characters, but there's one thing or another that I imagine differently sometimes? But not Armand, like, my Armand looks, walks, moves, talks, stares etc the exact same way Assad does it on the show. Every single time. The others are like, 90% or something for me, but Assad is 100% my imagination? It's like he traveled in time, stole my 2024 thoughts, went back to the past, auditioned, got the part and then played it exactly the way I see it today. It's crazy.

Wouldn't be surprised if that's the case, they already have all these possessions going on, what's more to our little satanic show lmao.

Also, great casting with Assad because no man with red-ish hair has looked this good ever. It just doesn't make sense, I'm sorry.

Armand is a beauty God, but also a really good character and I love his lines. Even when I don't agree with him, I just find him fascinating, the role he has on the story, what he represents, the way he moves the plot, whatever the effect he has on Lestat etc...

Armand's moments are never boring. He'll probably piss me off later, but right now I'm having a great time and the book has never been better.

Lesmand's/Armandstat's moments are always heated. The tension is always there. I'm not telling you what kind. Actually, I don't even know it myself. Do THEY even know?

Sam said something about how you're never sure what they are and I think he's right? At least for now. Let's see it after all the books.

They also act like they've known each other forever, have this crazy history that goes through centuries and they already can push each other's buttons... But they actually, like, only know each other for 5 minutes? CHILL?!

They're sort of soul ties/mirrors/foils/two sides of the same coin-coded in an appealing way.

I guess I can say Armand is my favorite character right now. I always read it faster when he's there, I'm always looking forward to seeing him again, I'm fine when I don't see Gabrielle or Nicki, but I'm always like, BRING HIM BACK. I don't know if I should be worried I'll grow into hating him when stuff happens or if I'll just be an Armand apologist lol. I'm scared. But let's wait to see it.

Samssad on season 3 will be delicious. Specially on the 1700s flashbacks. I'm expecting almost, if not EVERY scene of them there to be INTENSE. Great acting potential there.

I really want to see a moment with Armand and Lestat in a church like on the book? Let's take their angelic faces and curls to the next level. Put them in a church, surrounded by religious figures, stained glasses, candles etc. I don't even care what the context will be. They can be talking, silent, killing each other, doing something else, doing all of it, but give me the heavenly visuals. Actually, if they want to film the entire show in a church they can, it would be so aesthetically pleasing. Bonus points if they use Gothic churches because I'm extremely obsessed with them. Bonus points if they use Sainte-Chapelle because I'm kind of even more hyperfixated on that. I mean, it would never happen, but it should *shrugs*.

Btw, the mess Armand made in the house and the way he was reading the books is very neurodivergent of him.

The way he prefers to talk telepathically instead of speaking out loud is very neurodivergent of him as well.

Nicki is soooooooooo doomed by the narrative, omg. Anne didn't even try to hide it.

I'm not really sure how I feel about Nicki except that he needs therapy...

This is probably the silliest comment so far, I'm no longer thinking clearly after Armand's introduction. Sorry, guys. It will happen again.

The next chapter has his name so I'm scared, but also excited.

P.S. Nothing is permanent, opinions might change and this is based on Lestat’s narration, which can be unreliable. I’m reading the books so I can find out more about the characters, what potential events might happen in the show, what I can expect etc. This is my favorite show in the universe, so I want to be as informed as possible. I have no idea if I’ll become a legit fan of the books or not, but so far I’m enjoying it. I’m posting these comments only for fun.

[near-dareis-mai]

Something interesting to me that I think fails to be taken into account of the criticism "the Dragon Reborn can be more than one person or any gender" plotline in the show is that I feel most of the critics seem to mistakenly assume that the show is presenting it as a fact that the Prophecies of the Dragon are flawed, and that the show is presenting Moiraine's personal ideas of the Dragon as ironclad fact.

When, in fact, if you watch Episode 6 closely, what you're actually getting is an argument between two diametrically opposed points of view a) Moiraine, who thinks the Tower prophecies might be innacurate, and who therefore thinks they need to cast a wider net for who the Dragon Reborn is and b) Siuan, who thinks the Tower's prophecies are accurate, and who therefore thinks that they should be narrowing the candidates down according to who prophecy says the Dragon Reborn should be.

So you've got a) Moiraine, who's travelled all through the Westlands, and heard a hundred stories about the Dragon from a hundred different villages, taking the argument that the prophecies of the White Tower can be fallible and that some other prophecy out there might be the one they're looking for. It's natural for her to take this argument, because twenty years of being outside of the Tower and hearing differing stories is naturally going to shape her mind to be skeptical that the Tower is the only authority in this, or that the Tower holds the only right set of prophecies. It makes total sense for Moiraine to put forward this argument.

And then you've got b) Siuan, who's stayed in the Tower, who leads the Tower, who knows first hand the rigorous fact and information storage protocols of the Tower, taking the argument that the Tower's set of the Prophecies of the Dragon are accurate, and that they should stick to identifying the Dragon Reborn using them. It's natural for Siuan to take this argument, because the White Tower is pretty much the only institution to make it out of the chaotic post-Breaking period intact, and from the start the Aes Sedai have shown a vested interest in ACCURATELY preserving information, to the point where the Tar Valon library has a copy of every single book in existence. It makes total sense for Siuan to put forward this argument that the Tower's prophecies will be accurate in a way that no word-of-mouth prophecies passed down through generations in some out-of-the-way village would be.

But, at the end of the day, that's just what they are: arguments. The show presents both Moiraine and Siuan's arguments neutrally, and with equal weight: it doesn't actually take a side. It doesn't actually say that Moiraine is right. It doesn't actually say Siuan is right. Instead, it lets them present opposing arguments for tracking down the identify of the Dragon Reborn, and then the plot moves right along without establishing either one as right just yet.

And the kicker is, by the end of the series, THEY'RE BOTH GONNA BE RIGHT.

Siuan is going to be right, because yes the Tower's prophecies ARE going to turn out to be the most accurate of the prophecies in all the Westlands that Moiraine has travelled to. ALL the Tower prophecies are going to come true, even if the Aes Sedai haven't interpreted them correctly.

And Moiraine is going to be right because there ARE going to be other people with accurate prophecies that will come to light: the Aiel and the Sea Folk. The Sea Folk prophecies of the Coramoor and the Aiel prophecies of the Car'a'carn are going to come to light, and they're going to be just as right as the prophecies of the Tower.

It's just… as a book-first fan myself who watched the show later, I have no idea how we book fans can be mad about this one, and I simply don't understand the criticism that this was a short-lived plot point with little value going forward. The show can only have created this argument if the show-runner has full knowledge of how the book series wraps up, a long-running thread that can only be proven in multiple seasons, rather than just a one-season mystery box. And they've even taken care to set up the opposing ends of the argument be Moiraine and Siuan, the two people who first started the quest together, the two people who first head Gitara's prophecy of the Dragon being reborn. In Season 1, they've set up an almost metaphysical argument between Moiraine and Siuan that can only truly be answered in Season 8 after the Last Battle, at the end of the age of prophecies.

Additionally, they're also foreshadowing an argument that's going to happen between Rand and Tuon near the very end of the series: what do you do when two sets of supposedly infallible prophecies seem to clash, as the Westlands and Seanchan prophecies seem to clash, re: the Dragon kneeling to the Crystal Throne?

What part about this shows a lack of forethought, of not thinking through implications? To me, it shows the opposite. It shows that they're thinking through implications so deeply that they've set up this overarching near-metaphysical argument in Season 1 that can only be truly resolved in the final season of the final episode of the show.

[practically-an-x-man]

some more detailed thoughts about Venom: The Last Dance

spoilers ahead

Two theories about why we didn't get Toxin from Pat Mulligan even though it was teased at the end of Let There Be Carnage:

First, more likely, the writers just didn't see a way to write Toxin into the script and needed a way out of the corner they painted themselves into.

OR, they wanted to leave one more symbiote "out in the wild" since the others all ended up contained at Roswell, perhaps for use as a future villain, plot, or cameo somewhere. So they split up Toxin and Mulligan without confirming that Toxin died somehow, so they can use him again

(it's also possible that the actor's contract ran out, so they needed to kill off Mulligan in some way but didn't want to get rid of Toxin entirely)

On that note. Green is FUCKING COOL and I love the way they take shape. The serpentine, almost underwater way that they move is beautiful, and really brings us something unique compared to the other, more strictly-humanoid symbiotes we've seen. Wish we could've seen some more long-term things from them

I do love all the other symbiotes they brought in, and how we see both comic symbiotes like Lasher and Agony and a few new ones like Green and Twin

I've seen people theorizing that the tan-colored symbiote is Phage, but it's really not?? That one was like a symbiote-Sandman almost, it was tan with big clublike fists, while Phage is bright orange and has spurs along its back and shoulders. It's okay for it to be a new symbiote, guys. Not everything has to be one-to-one from the comics, especially if they're all gonna get wood-chipped in the end

LOVE that we got Agony, and I especially liked the tie-in with the lightning strike and her reaching out to Sadie like she did her brother

Lasher was probably my favorite of the additional symbiotes, I wish they didn't get wood-chipped. I'm glad Sadie survived but I would've liked to see a more long-term bond from them

The xenophages' design is badass, I love the way they move and the CGI rendering is absolutely amazing. They are VERY cool!

Was not as much a fan of how much they obliterated the new symbiotes, I know that's the point and that they're meant as symbiote hunters but it hurt my soul to see so many new and interesting characters just mutilated over the course of ten minutes. The big fight scene was so cool but I wish more of those characters could come back again rather than being killed off so suddenly

I do think Venom will come back. I know everyone's going to say that, but they set up the "viral shedding" way at the beginning and put it in one of those containment tubes... and then Teddy grabbed the tubes

(plus, even if Teddy ONLY grabbed the Agony tube, we do see the cracked-open tube with the cockroach during the post-credits scene. my theory is that the new Venom will bond with the cockroach, scuttle himself along to the bar guy and bond with him, then get his ass to New York somehow)

now for some non-symbiote related thoughts lol

LOVED the opening scene. I think it's going to be a divisive one because of how much verbal exposition there is, but to me it feels like those first two pages of a comic book before the title splash, where we get those full pages with the yellow exposition boxes to outline the story.

The fight scenes were super fucking cool across the board. Again, very comic book. They're using the symbiotes in a lot of new and inventive ways - the first fight that's mostly tendrils, the river fight where Venom jumps from a fish to a frog to Eddie, all of the new symbiotes we see and how they mesh together to hold off the xenophage. It feels like they give us something new with each Venom movie, and that's something I really appreciate. It's not all scratch-and-bite, there's a lot of creativity there!

I don't know if the casting director did this intentionally, but they've definitely blocked out the theories that Venom and TASM exist in the same universe - either that, or Curt Connors and Martin Moon are just freakishly identical in this universe (both played by Rhys Ivans), which I suppose is a possibility

All in all, very curious to see if they decide to go anywhere else with these movies, give us more of Agony and Knull and see if Venom will in fact come back, or if they'll really just leave things here for now. Either way, I respect it. I think they've set up a lot of neat things with this one and would be intrigued by more, but I also definitely respect the decision to leave things here instead of dragging out the series past its dues.

[bonefall]

So sorry if you’ve already talked about her and I just can’t find the post, but I would love to hear about BB!Sliverstream. I feel like the fandom and the books portray her as just generically loving and who’s whole life revolves around Graystripe and their tragic romance… But come on! She was breaking the code to meet him, she’s rebellious! She’s the daughter of Crookedstar! There’s so much potential there for a really fun character. But she ends up being nothing but dead warrior cats wife/mother number one

UNG

I've talked about her before but I'd have to go digging for it, so I'm just going to gush about her and everyone is gonna listen up. Because I love her. I love her so much. I love everything about her and her death and I think anyone who boils her down to just "a fridge wife" needs to read TPB again, and open their hearts and minds to the IMPACT that she had on the entire narrative

Because she DOESN'T just die to give Graystripe man pain. She hits EVERYONE, she drives the plot, she was a really well characterized cat and her death is heartwrenching!!!

First of all, I like the explicit fact that Graystripe and Fireheart are very young at the time. New warriors, almost immediately given apprentices.

In BB, I decided to make this one point where Bluestar bends the code to a disastrous result (in BB, you aren't supposed to have an apprentice until you're at least a year out). Graystripe should not have an apprentice when he's barely out of apprenticeship himself! Young people do dumb and wreckless things, question rules, they do what they want. And he ignores Brackenpaw to hang out with Silverstream.

And it's easy to see why! Silverstream's a self-assured, hostile popstar who is daughter of the leader and PRIDES herself in that. She has a great heart but will not follow rules she thinks are dumb, because she feels she is above consequence.

And she likes Graystripe because he's HONEST. He does what he pleases and if he takes an interest in you, it's genuine and flattering. He's funny! He's good humored and laid back! Fireheart is frustrated by this because he's responsible, anxious, and serious, but Graystripe CAN'T stay serious for that long.

He needs to live and relax. YES that makes him irresponsible and even avoidant-- and I like that a lot! But he loves with such raw devotion, never able to do what Clan Culture expects of him!

So NO WONDER these two ended up as cross clan mates. They're like peanut butter and jelly. Silverstream who feels above the rules and Graystripe who is loyal to people over clan. To them, the Code is a guideline

AND YOU KNOW WHAT?? THEYRE RIGHT!!!!

The code IS flawed!!! This IS a bad fucking rule! Their love IS stronger than this! The "Law of Loyalty" (my bb term for it) EXISTS BECAUSE OF THE SIMPLE TRUTH;

IF YOU LOVE CATS OF OTHER CLANS, AS FRIENDS, LOVERS, OR FAMILY, YOU SEE THAT THE DIVISONS ARE BULLSHIT

And that destroys the battle culture!! We SEE this in TPB, there are several times where cats will back off of fighting Fireheart because he's their fucking friend! He refuses to hurt Silverstream because she's his best friend's lover!!

And when she dies it's DEVASTATING. It wouldn't be the same if Graystripe's choices following her death were about choosing his lover over his home clan!

It's childbirth, as if she's being punished by StarClan for codebreaking! She wanted to deliver her children with her mate by her side, and had a horrible death on the rocks away from an experienced medcat. Cinderpelt blames herself for not being good enough to save her, destroying her confidence for several chapters until she can realize it was never her fault

And after this, Bluestar doesn't punish Graystripe... because she knows how awful it is to lose a mate from another Clan. Her death should be enough; in spite of the baying from the Tiger Clique for a harsher sentence.

Like... what frustrates me most about Silv is how the later books reduced her, for a period of time, into JUST a sweet nicey fridgewife that gives Graystripe permission to move on. She was fierce. She was assertive. She is the person who said, "If the law says my love is wrong, then it's the CODE that's incorrect!"

I wish she kept that ferocity in Graystripe's dreams and memories of her. A voice that would tell him that his heart has never lead him astray, even when others told him he was on the wrong path.

It was nice to see her return to some form with a spike of jealousy in TBC, and for as much as I hated Leopardstar's Honor, at LEAST it remembered she wasn't a sweet nicey waif.

So in BB I plan to change very little. BB!Silverstream was beloved by a lot of people, and people will fight for her name. Her death has a huge, negative impact on Graystripe and he never totally gets over her death, even while he's raising his new family. During TigerClan, her children are stripped of their names and slapped with cruel Dishonor Titles (Stormpaw to Graypaw, Featherpaw to Silverpaw), to remind them of how their birth killed their mother, and that their father is not here to pay for his crimes.

This infuriates her friends and family, and Deerfoot's rebels are joined by them in their guerilla opposition of TigerClan.

[ataleofcrowns]

i don't know if anyone has asked you this before but are there any story/book tropes that you dislike? :D (like; love triangle, "I'm not like other girls", etc.)

Not specific tropes, but actually... the way tropes are used by authors. This is gonna be a minor rant, fair warning lol.

The thing with tropes is that tropes themselves are not bad. They're staples of certain concepts that can be reinvented or utilized in unique and refreshing ways depending on how an author uses them, consciously or subconsciously, straightforwardly or by subverting them.

Hell, sometimes authors don't even realize they're using tropes, but reading their work you can pick out elements that would fit certain ones. I can tell you that when I started writing AToC, I did not think to myself, "Okay, now we need a Chosen One Trope and a Royal Bodyguard Trope, and a Slowburn Trope, and a Friends-To-Lovers trope".

I planned the world, the story, and the characters first, going off what appealed to me personally, without really thinking of tropes. Only later did I recognize the trope-like elements when readers started to point them out to me.

The problem with it is when an author becomes overly reliant on tropes to the point where they center their characters and plot around them. That's how you get artificial, shallow stories that are churned out without thought or passion, especially because it's so easy to market them that way to an audience.

An author who writes about a love triangle that arises from the wants, desires, motivations and/or flaws of their characters, can absolutely do it in a thoughtful, compelling way. The love triangle exists because the character caught in the middle has genuine reasons and feelings for being attracted to two people, and the love triangle in turn can affect the larger story because of that.

On the other hand, an author that writes a love triangle for the sake of having a love triangle? So they can point to their story and go, "hey everyone, my story has a love triangle, come read it"?

Yeah, I'm not touching that story. The whole trend of "read my novel, it has Mutual Pining with a dash of Slowburn Enemies-To-Lovers and Secret Bodyguard in a Coffeeshop AU with shades of [Insert Anime here] [Insert Sci-fi/Fantasy Property here]" frankly drives me up the wall.

What is your actual story about. What are you trying to say. I'm begging you just give me an actual summary of your story without referring to tropes or other media properties. If I wanted to read something like [movie] [anime] [video game], I would literally just go watch or play those things myself!!!

So, yeah, no real tropes that put me off. It's the way tropes can be misused by authors that repulses me from a book, usually.

[super-unpredictable98]

Girl of Another Hour | Garota do Momento AU

Chapter 2: Whispered Love Song

Word count: 3k

Warning: Strong language

Pairing: Beto x OC

[Masterlist]

After getting to know the other guests at the inn, Lydia got settled in her room. She needed to think about what to do next, she had to get a job or maybe go back to England and try to get a gig there, maybe her grandparents would believe her story and let her live with them? Highly unlikely

"Doll, are you coming to the party at the Gente Fina Club? I think you need some fun, you seem so nervous," Glorinha knocked on the door. "Everyone here is going, even Beatriz is borrowing one of my costumes."

"Gente Fina Club? What's that?"

"It's a club founded by a group of friends who are black activists, but everyone is welcome. They promote events, parties, classes… I work organizing the events there until I can open my own beauty salon."

"Ah Glorinha, I don't know. I'm not in the mood for parties, you know? I just got here and I'm not even where I'm supposed to be."

"So tell me the whole story, how did you end up here? And don't you come with 'you wouldn't believe me if I told you'."

"If you really wanna know…" Lydia mumbled. "I came from the future. I'm not from here, I bought a one-way time travel, I'm from 2019."

"You're right, I don't believe you," Glorinha laughed.

"Wow, this even sounds like the plot of that H.G Wells book, The Time Machine," Beatriz, their door neighbor, stopped by her friend. She couldn't help but listen to the conversation as she passed by.

"I don't blame you for not believing me, but do you know what this is?" Lydia pulled her phone out of her suitcase. "There's no signal because it wasn't invented yet, but you can see what's already inside."

"A small… screen?" Beatriz looked at the phone intrigued.

"And there's a photo, who is this boy?" Glorinha saw the picture of Nathan on the phone's lockscreen. "It looks like a mini TV."

"It's almost like that, it's called a smartphone. It's a phone, but I can take it anywhere. It also takes photos, you can film with it, it accesses the internet… the internet is like an infinite library of information inside the smartphones or computers," Lydia grabbed her laptop as well.

"Oh my God! But you have to be joking!" Glorinha gasped while Beatriz examined the device, fascinated.

"It does everything, it's a calculator, flashlight, gives you the weather forecast, you can read the news on it when there's signal, it works as a voice recorder, you can buy things with it, send messages to other people, listen to music, watch videos, it's an alarm clock, translator, it has games…"

"All that in this little thing?" Beatriz smiled amazed. "How is this possible? Show us, show us how it works!"

Lydia showed them some of the phone's functions and even took a selfie of them to show the device's potential.

"You take the picture and it's there! You don't need to develop it!" Glorinha touched the screen and laughed. "Look, either England is way ahead of us, or you're really from the future! How is it? Tell us how things are!"

"I don't know if I can talk about it too much," Lydia sat on the bed, not wanting to cause a commotion.

"Yeah… if you tell us too much, the future might be different, but tell us just a little bit, please!" Beatriz got on her knees next to the bed.

"Um… gay people can get married in several countries. The United Stated had a black president-"

"A black president? That's amazing!" Glorinha clapped in excitement. "So racism doesn't exist in the future?"

"Well, it does. I think it always will, but lots of people fight against it. I'm not gonna lie and say things are great, but it's better for minorities, thanks to the work that starts now."

"Good news at least," Beatriz seemed happy to know that despite everything, the world would evolve.

"But tell me something… you didn't answer. Who is the boy in the picture?" Glorinha pointed at the phone.

Lydia huffed as she lied down. She didn't even wanna think about that, let alone talk about it, but she couldn't run from the subject forever.

"This is Nathan. He was my best friend and I fell in love with him in 2019. He was already married, so my plan was to go back ten years and win him over before his wife could, but I messed up really badly and now I'm here with no way of going back… so I'm stuck in this time period."

"My gosh," Beatriz frowned, she knew quite well that feeling of loneliness and helplessness. "If you came from 2019, you must have been born when? Late 90s?"

Lydia nodded and Glorinha took her hands, trying to comfort her.

"Not even your parents were born yet then? But look, you are not alone, my friend. If you don't have a family now, we can be your family, right Beatriz?"

"Right," she agreed. "Family is the one that chooses us, but also the one we choose for ourselves."

"Thank you, girls, I'll really need all the support I can get. Look at me, nobody is gonna take me seriously like this. I need new clothes, a job…"

"That's easy, Snow White," Glorinha caressed her friend's colorful hair. "But we'll think of that tomorrow, tonight you need to get a cute costume, we're going to Gente Fina. And don't even tell me you're not in the mood, it'll be a gas!"

Lydia sighed, there was nothing to be done, there was no use in losing her mind. That was her life now, so why not enjoy it?

"Very well, I'm gonna get ready. I have a costume I brought it for a fancy dress party that would happen in 2009, it should work."

In the suitcase, there was a long black wig along with a bodysuit and a cape, her Shazam costume that she wore to the last MCM. She put on the costume, the wig, and did some quick makeup with some eyeliner and red lipstick.

"Oh my!" Beatriz laughed in disbelief when she saw Lydia coming down the stairs. "You are…"

"Fantastic!" Ana Maria murmured. "That's a beautiful costume! Of course it's imported from England."

"I made it myself, Ana," Lydia smiled. "I can make you one too."

"As long as it's decent and not too expensive," Iolanda intervened in the conversation. "Let's go, the cab is waiting."

**

At the Gente Fina Club, Beto was talking to Ulisses while they drank some beer.

"I broke up with Bia," Beto said. "She's too spoiled, snobbish, childish…"

"She's only 17," Ulisses shrugged. "Did you ever stop to think that maybe you're demanding maturity she might not have?"

"Bia thinks she's better than other people, I'm done! I never promised to marry her, but I'll talk to her parents tomorrow. All I know, my friend, is that today there's no crying or lamenting, it's carnaval! Now I wanna move on, I wanna open my heart to the surprises life will bring."

"Like that dolly with the blue hair?" Ulisses chuckled. "You've been completely mesmerized since you first saw her. I'm starting to think you'll glue that photo you took of her above your bed."

"Oh, but that little Brit…" Beto let out a low whistle. "She's gorgeous."

"I think she might be Bloody Mary, we spoke of her and she showed up," Ulisses nudged his friend's arm and looked pointedly at the entrance.

Lydia now had black hair, wore a tight red bodysuit with a yellow lightning bolt on her chest, white cape and white boots. She stood out compared to what the other women wore.

Beto's heart stopped for a moment. She was even more stunning than he remembered. That outfit was incredible, every eye on the room was on her as if she was magnetic.

"Bloody hell…" Lydia murmured when she saw him.

"What is it?" Glorinha asked.

"That man, the blonde one with freckles, I met him earlier. He was the first person to help me out in Rio."

"He's with Ulisses, let's go, I'll introduce you properly."

Before she could though, Beto approached the ladies, taking off his hat and fixing the collar of his polo shirt.

"Hi," he smiled. "What a coincidence seeing you again today. How's your hand?"

"Ah, it's brand new, it's not the first time I need to punch some bellend trying to take advantage of me," Lydia laughed. She didn't want to, but every single time she saw him, her heart raced, the butterflies went crazy in her belly… but no, that wasn't right, it wasn't Nathan. Even if Nathan wouldn't be born for another thirty years.

"Good thing I was able to escape your fury."

"Oh I'm sorry, I was so nervous."

"No, it's okay. You ran so fast, we couldn't even talk. I'm Roberto, but you can call me Beto."

"I am…" she nearly forgot her name, lost in his brown eyes. "Lydia. My friends call me Lyds or Lyddie."

"Lydia?" Beto's eyes widened and he took a step back. The boy that was already pale became white as a ghost.

"Yes…" She furrowed her brows, not understanding his reaction.

"B-but it's Lydia with a D?"

"Yeah, L-Y-D-I-A. My first name is actually Blossom, Lydia is my middle name, but since I don't like the first one, I use the middle one."

"That's a shame, Blossom is so beautiful," he cleared his throat uncomfortably, at least it was Lydia with a D. "But I understand, Lyddie."

He put himself back together after the scare and placed a soft kiss on the back of her hand.

"Doll, how did you two meet?" Glorinha asked.

"We met at the street carnaval earlier," Lydia tried to hold back her wide grin so as not to look too eager. "He came to help when those men tried to get me."

"I've seen you around with Ulisses," Glorinha sat on one of the folding wooden chairs. "And speaking of the devil…"

"Look who's here, Glória Regina," Ulisses leaned against one of the chairs as well. "And the babe who nearly punched my friend."

"The babe just moved from England and is living at the inn with me. If any of you try anything funny with her, know you're messing with the wrong girl and getting a new enemy."

"That's right," Beatriz added, bringing a couple bottles of water. "Now we're sisters from another mother."

"Don't worry, I would never imagine causing any harm to um… her," Beto still had a hard time saying her name, but didn't want that to ruin his chances with such a pretty girl. "Can I have this dance?"

"Of course," Lydia took his hand and they both left.

Glorinha just watched, still a little suspicious of him, as she was of every man.

"Relax, Beto is hardworking, honest, respectful. He's what a good lady might call a catch, he just became single," Ulisses tried to calm her down.

"I haven't known Lydia for long, but I already know she can't get her heart broken right now. She already has too much to deal with."

"Her name is Lydia?" He huffed a laugh. "It's pretty similar to his mother's name, not the best first impression."

**

While they danced cheek to cheek, Beto softly whispered the lyrics in Lydia's ear.

"Quando por mim você passa fingindo que não me vê, meu coração quase se despedaça…"

He wanted more than anything to steal a kiss, but he was very respectful, like Ulisses said, he would never do that without knowing for sure she really wanted it too.

"I wanted to know more about you, would you like to talk outside? It's noisy in here," he asked.

"Let's go," she accepted despite that queasy feeling in her stomach telling her she was cheating on Nathan.

Little did they know, while they went to the balcony, Bia, accompanied by her mother, ditched the fanciest gala in Rio to look for her ex-boyfriend and make up after their fight.

"I can see your colorful hair is hidden," Beto pointed out. "I've never seen hair like yours."

"Where I'm from, it's pretty common," Lydia mumbled. "But I have to admit this wig is pretty uncomfortable, especially with how hot it is."

"Your costume is also amazing, you seem like… like a character from a movie, I don't know. Like you are different from everyone, as if you know something we don't. Where are you from again? England?"

"Yeah, I'm from Wertham, it's in London," she explained, not wanting to give you many details. "But what about you? Do you always come here?"

"Always, Ulisses brought me here for the first time when we were still kids. His parents are two of the founders. Sebastião and Vera still work at home, he's our driver and she's like a housekeeper… a mom, she helped raise me."

"You call her mom? Doesn't your real mom get jealous?"

"My mom… well, that's not something to talk about during a party," he avoided the topic as delicately as he could.

"I get it," Lydia chuckled softly. "So no talking about your mum, tell me about you."

"Well, I'm a photojournalist, I work at a small newspaper covering all sorts of news."

"Seriously? By your outfit, I could've sworn you worked somewhere more posh. I don't think you're flaunting your money, but this shirt isn't cheap."

"I'm not gonna lie… I'm privileged, my dad owns a marketing firm."

"And you don't work there because you're a rebel who wants to follow his own path, right?" Lydia poked his shoulder. "I know what that's like. My parents have a firm too, Daddy is an architect, Mummy is an engineer. I am… a musician."

Beto once again was disturbed, as if it wasn't enough that her name brought so many memories, she also worked with music just like his mother. He knew he couldn't blame the lady for his own trauma, but those coincidences were, at the very least, pretty cruel.

"Musician? Are you a singer?" He asked.

"I can sing, but I also write my music, I play the drums, guitar, piano, I take a jab at the bass sometimes, despite not being that good at it…"

"Wow! How can so much talent fit in one person?" He smiled relieved. "I also play guitar and drums."

"That's awesome! Beto, the next pop punk sensation!"

"Pop punk? What's punk?" He chuckled.

"Oh, nothing, it's something from back home."

"Speaking of home, do you have plans to return to England?"

"No," Lydia frowned. "I don't have anything to come back to. Everything I know, all my life… it doesn't exist anymore."

"Your family, your friends? They're not there anymore?" Beto asked.

"No, but that's not something to talk about during a party."

"That sad look doesn't match this pretty smile," he murmured while he caressed her jaw with the tips of his fingers. "I want to see that smile reach your eyes."

For a moment everything went silent, even the music inside seemed muffled to Lydia in comparison to her own heartbeat. She slowly closed her eyes and leaned in, waiting for a kiss, but instead she heard a high-pitched scream:

"Beto? What is going on?"

"What?" She opened her eyes and was facing a girl who probably didn't even finish secondary school yet, dressed in a classic Columbine costume.

"Oh my God… that's why you argued with me, Beto? To come here at this nasty party fool around with some slutty chav?"

"You have a girlfriend?" Lydia looked at him angrily. "And she's a little girl who's barely out of nappies?"

"No! I don't have a girlfriend!" He started getting a little desperate. "Bia, we broke up before I came here."

"It was a silly argument, because you wanted to drag me here instead of going to the gala. Why did you do that? To cheat on me?" Bia crossed her arms in a petulant manner.

"I am not cheating on you, we broke up!" Beto insisted.

"I think I better leave, I have too much on my plate to deal with other people's drama," Lydia tried to stay strong, she couldn't cry in front of them. That could only be a heavenly punishment for daring to think of any other man besides Nathan romantically.

"No, Lydia! Please, let me explain!" Beto took her hand. "We only dated for six months after she insisted a lot, it was never serious."

"Look… honestly, if you really broke up with this overgrown ankle bite, you better make that clear to her, because it seems the girl didn't understand. Then you come looking for me, alright? Then I'll think about talking to you if I'm not in England yet."

"Who are you calling an ankle biter? You… hussy!" Bia narrowed her eyes facing her rival.

"Hussy?" Lydia turned around, she was way taller and stronger than the girl, she could easily destroy her, but she held back. "Is that an American accent I hear? You’re not better than me. I know you Americans think you are God’s gift to the world, how pathetic. Who the fuck do you think you are? Dirty little brat! First you grow up, then you come talk to me, you stupid cunt!"

Bia was stunned, she never heard anyone talking like that, let alone a lady. The word wasn't even that bad for people in the UK, but in the US it was one of the most vile things a person could say.

"Did you hear what she said, Beto? She cursed at me! This word… it's the worst thing someone can be called!" The girl was on the verge of tears.

"You're the one who started, Bia!" Beto ran after Lydia, but stopped when he saw the look in her eyes.

"Don't even come near me, or I'll show you what's really life to be punched. End this bullshit and maybe you'll have a chance with me."

[a-cloud-for-dreams]

Okay, I caved and downloaded Romance Club😭😭 Does anyone have any good story recommendations? I'm still gonna be on Choices and post Choices content (and finish off the books on my reading list). I just feel like I need to stop relying on one storytelling app

Ugh, this is such a weird feeling! It reminds me of when I switched from Episode to Choices and I had to acclimate to the better quality of stories imao. I just wanna ✨expose myself✨ to more interactive apps and since Storyscape or wtvr doesn't exist anymore this is the closest I can get

And The Haze Will Take Us (UP TO DATE)

Kali: Flame of Samsara (UP TO DATE)

Astrea's Broken Heart (UP TO DATE)

Heaven's Secret: Requiem (UP TO DATE)

Chasing You 2 (UP TO DATE)

W: Time Catcher (UP TO DATE)

Love, Sin, and Evil Vol. 1 (UP TO DATE)

Garden of Eden (UP TO DATE)

Soulless (UP TO DATE)

7 Brothers (UP TO DATE)

Song of the Crimson Nile (UP TO DATE)

Legend of the Willow (NEXT DIAMOND RUSH)

Heart of Trespia (NEXT DIAMOND RUSH)

Psi (NEXT DIAMOND RUSH)

Chasing You (STARTED...)

Sails in the Fog (STARTED...)

Dracula: A Love Story (STARTED...)

Rage of the Titans (STARTED...)

Hell and Highwater (STARTED...)

Shadows of Saintfour

COMPLETED

Kali: Call of Darkness: 9/10; love the MC, the characters, the story progression, the Dozen lore, replayability, etc. but gets a point off for its problematic depiction of Indian culture and Hinduism) tbh it deserves an extra point or two off because I despise the way Remy clearly wrote from a Eurocentric perspective, but this is also the first RC book I read after the slew of mid Choices books so I got attached unfortunately

Theodora: 9.6/10; I got the ending where I was only able to save my soul and it made me sad 😭 the story was well written but there were parts where I was just a lil bored. At least, that’s how I felt initially before I became obsessed with the book. It's objectively amazing etc. but I feel kinda robbed from screentime with the OG characters if that makes sense? Either way the writer did a great job writing them into the plot in later seasons and the MC is so amazing I love her <3 it’s not easy to write the progression of multiple relationships already but to have a different set of likable LIs every season is incredible!

Arcanum: 9.8/10; THIS BOOK WAS SO GOOD omg I love how the plot came full circle and the MC was interesting and well-written (her character design was also top tier). It's such a unique concept for a book I love it. I feel like S3 could have gone by a lil quicker (along with a couple of other nitpicky things) but that could just be because S2 was so full of action

Heaven's Secret: 9.9/10; I just started its sequel, but I was pleasantly surprised at how engaging this book was! I like the gradual progression from being a new student to slowly learning the truth behind your death and about the academy. The final battle scene was super cool, and I feel like everything had a logical explanation (ex. Shepha only having power over light). I also like the different pathways of being an Angel, Demon, or Harmony Bearer (which I was!) it was really fun and seems like a replayable book <3

The Desert Rose: [review pending, check later]

The One Volume 2: [review pending, check later]

Vying for Versailles: [review pending, check later]

Sins of London: [review pending, check later]

Heaven's Secret 2: [review pending, check later]

[onwhatcaptain]

hi i didn’t know what Star Trek was until i came across your fic it’s so. Real. poor McCoy bruh nobody’s gonna know what he went through …I guess it’s not entirely gone, but still. He didn’t get the three socks metaphor.

YOU TRICKED ME. canon divergent LIEEE LIEEEE

The way you omit time travel as a tag is craaazyy (I love time travel) AND AND THE SUNMARY BEING

“About men who love each other” LIKE NOT TWO MEN but all THREE

I do have one question though. If McCoy said “tell him you missed him” and set up the holo night, then in the first timeline had McCoy already gone back at that point and failed?

Hi! So I saw your comment on AO3 (please forgive me if it takes a moment to reply, I have an enormous backlog of comments to get around to after I took a break when the fic ended!) and I knew I absolutely had to ask you these burning questions: how did you find my fic if you didn't know what Star Trek was? What inspired you to read it?

I am beyond thrilled that you enjoyed the story and so touched that you read it all the way through without having seen Star Trek, but I absolutely have to ask what the story behind this is if you're willing to share with me!

It's definitely still canon divergent in a sort of way! At least in my figurative and literal book if you know the episode that inspired this novel, it would definitely be considered divergent:) I wanted to keep things as spoiler-free as possible to retain the surprise and emotional weight of the story, so I made the decision early on to not tag where the plot or ending was going, which definitely threw a lot of people off! Sorry for the trickery!

I ADORE that you pointed out the summary. I was actually shocked when I was reading this ask, because it was absolutely intentional and a huge part of the foreshadowing, but you're the only reader to my knowledge that has consciously noticed that choice, and you haven't even seen Star Trek!! Amazing!! I have such a big smile on my face right now!

More below because I realize this is getting long already!

As for poor McCoy, it is truly tragic nobody will know what he went through. In Star Trek, a lot of fans (rightfully) emphasize the love between Kirk and Spock, which I feel is only kept alive because of McCoy's quiet love for them both in the background as he takes care of them. In a way, it's a tribute to love that goes unnoticed, unseen.

With regards to your question, it's a great question! And I don't have a perfect answer for it, because it's entirely paradoxical. The first half of the story can only happen if the second half happens, because Kirk and Spock would not act on their feelings without the existence of the holo night and McCoy's intervention. But in the original timeline, they still die even though McCoy's actions in the latter half of the novel seem to exist. It's totally circular. It's expounded on somewhat in Forever and a Day, where McCoy tries to make sense of the same question and concludes that even if he does succeed, they will still die.

McCoy tries not to think about the horrifying implications. The knowledge that no matter what he did, he could not undo their deaths. To live, they would always need to die.

This doesn't necessarily mean that McCoy has gone back before, but it raise some serious questions about metaphysics and leaves a lot unanswered, because the two events now cause each other, and they also contradict each other. I actually took a stab at explaining the metaphysics in way greater detail in the fic originally, but my beta reader (correctly) told me this would confuse readers. So because it's confusing, I later just wave my sci-fi authorial wand to try and convince you to go along with it! :)

"And I like how the paradox makes no sense.” “I reckon it’s not meant to. They never do."

I do have to say, I recommend giving Star Trek a watch if you were interested! I think it's an amazing show. Again, thank you so much for taking the time to read a whole novel about a show you had no idea about!!

[approximateknowledge]

who is sister hindsight?

this is gonna be a long one

so there's this scifi book trilogy called "final architecture" which i *highly* recommend

it's full of weird novel concepts and cool future tech and aliens that feel properly alien, among many other things

but there's one character my mind has fixated on within this sprawling setting, who never actually existed

and to explain who they are ill need to spoil quite a lot of the main plot

so with that said: massive spoilers for all 3 final architecture books ahead

so first off:

SETTING

most species here aren't too relevant to explain what's going on, so ill be focusing on just the relevant ones (so no hivers sadly)

-humanity

-the architects

-the originators

-the hegemony

-the naeromathi

HUMANITY

humanity in the final architecture is a bit of a splintered mess. officially most of it is centralised under the "bureau of human interests" (usually just called "hugh") centered on berlenhof, one of the most populous colonies left after earth got "architected" (more on that later)

in practice hugh holds about as much influence as the HRE did, with quasi-noble corporate houses and independent systems abounding; it's a bureaucratic mess but it's still better than nothing

of course this isn't actually the whole story, because there's also

the parthenon

the parthenon (often derisively known as "pathos" by colonial humanity) is a female-only habitat-bound offshoot of humanity that fully committed to artificial reproduction

crucially they're *not* clones (although they tend to have a certain "look" that gives them away when trying to pass as a colonial), though they are without a doubt eugenicist as hell. their origins are... iffy to put it lightly, but historically they have been on the side of humanity at large, and their technological level has remained slighty above that of colonial humanity. it's complicated but handled well

what the parthenon doesn't have are intermediaries

what are intermediaries?

well, they're relevant for

THE ARCHITECTS

an architect is a moon-sized intelligent crystalline superobject that is capable of completeky reshaping a planet through gravitic torsion in a matter of hours

they can appear from unspace (ill get to it) at a moment's notice and completely obliterate everything in the system they find

crucially they are in fact sentient beings, if unfathomably vast

an intermediary is someone who's able to communicate directly with an architect. this is in fact how the first architect war ended. a group of intermediaries (1 natural, the rest surgically created) *made a single architect aware of their existence*

they didn't even notice anyone was there before

tangent:

unspace

unspace isn't a place but it is a shortcut, and within it you are always alone, except you aren't, because there's always a *presence* too. most of it is completely unnavigable, except for the throughways which act like currents between inhabited systems (they're inhabited because there's a throughway connection)

intermediaries as a side-effect of the architect-communicating were the only ones able to properly navigate unspace before the Eye was built(/scavenged and jury-rigged)

what's the eye?

well at its heart it's a piece of originator-tech

ORIGINATORS

the originators are the ones who "built the throughways" and left "ruins" on a number of planets at the connecting points. interestingly, any planet with an originator artefact on it is seemingly immune from architect-remodeling

all of the previous statements are technically false, but functionally they seem true. what the throughways really are is creases in the fabric of reality as it is change, and the "ruins" are the realspace reflections of the unspace anchors they built to bend said fabric

what the originators really are is the puppetmasters of the architects, rebuilding reality one thread at a time to be more similar to how the universe they came from was

they're terraforming the local laws of physics

now what's the Eye?

well it's a "lens" from unspace into realspace, but if you rig it right it also works the other way around. but crucially matter doesn't exist in unspace, so only the pattern of consciousness goes in to "look" (and the one looking will seem braindead until they come back) (this is relevant)

THE HEGEMONY

one of the 2 truly old alien cultures in the setting; the founding species of the hegemony are the essiel, 4m tall barnacle-looking sessile organisms with a psychological profile that borders on the incomprehensible, but is fundamentally benevolent. their main adaptation against the architect threat is the fact they figured out how to move originator artefacts through unspace without destroying it (normally impossible), which allows them to protect *all* of their colonies; a significant portion of humanity actually voluntarily became part of the hegemony!

THE NAEROMATHI

the other of the 2 ancient "conventionals", the naeromaths had a much rougher time in their early history, and have no planets to call their own; their entire culture consists of massive (half-moon) sized arks that periodically devour entire moons and rocky planets to build more arks (this gave them the nickname "locusts" among humans, even though they look more like if a plesiosaur evolved from a brittle star). the drone swarms used for this dismantling are also their main weaponry, on top of their massive gravitic engines that span the entire equator of their arks (multiple cooperating arks have been known to successfully tear architects apart)

the eye was discovered by a naeromath

SO

near the end of the story, 2 of the main characters dive into unspace via the eye

-idris: artificial intermediary, the surgeries made him unable to sleep or age. extremely frail, lost an arm, almost died like 6 times, his heart is kept going by cyborg roaches (it makes sense in context)

-solace: partheni myrmidon from the first architect war, fully committed to dying on the job

and they reach the center

and they confront the *other*, the thing in unspace, the metaphysical guard dog of the originators at the center of nowhere

and idris needs to go elsewhere in unspace, to prevent a genocide on slaves

and so solace is told to "hold"

this is about 30 pages from the end

i went to bed at this point

and my mind created hindsight

so first:

what happens in canon

idris succeeds, comes back, becomes one with the *other*, his body dies, unspace is safe, the guarddog becomes the jailer, they've won. solace returns after holding long enough

what happened in my mind

idris succeeds, and *can't get back in*, so solace keeps holding, but idris' body still dies. so in the end, solace keeps holding, tames the *other*, unspace is safe, the guarddog guards the other way with a new master, who *holds*

solace *holds*

but remember what i said about consciousness and how it goes in alone? solace isn't coming back. but idris is. and there's still only one body

idris' mind comes back in solace's body. that's sister hindsight

idris comes back in the body of a parthenon soldier and at last falls asleep after over half a century. a mind that remembers being an intermediary but isn't anymore

sister hindsight

a colonial experiment who shouldve died long ago, now in the body of a parthenon vatborn woman, finally at peace.

solace holds, idris died, hindsight remembers.

and hindsight will sleep, and age, and die, at last, while solace holds