#just re-alive her totally a thing that can happen

[vexednperplexed]

oh for sure i'm salty they "magic space death"'d allura but couldn't "magic space alive" her. I feel like they could just say oh actually honerva saved her or something and bring her back. they killed shiro and then unkilled him so. And yeah, Hunk deserved better. Pidge's story was over once sam was saved. But these are things I feel like they can fix. I also wasn't there for any of the drama so idk what public reactions were. I just think these are all things that are totally fixable.

I genuinely think Steven yeun doesn’t remember he was in voltron. Like I think if you went up to him and asked him a question about voltron he’d be like “what. What are you talking about.”

NO DOUBT LMAO

[wufflesvetinari]

wyllstarion rec list part 2

[part 1]

hi. i keep the wyllstarion tag open always on a chrome tab in my heart. the theme of this set is "look at the goddamn CRAFT in this thing!!!" as i slam my fist into the ground, weeping

"It's a long road (it's a long walk)" - @acephalouscreature. LISTEN. would you like to read a fairy tale set in hell, starring a guy (wyll) who KNOWS he is in a fairy tale set in hell, and thinks he has all of the tropes figured out despite his inexplicable amnesia? weird how that random handsome guy who keeps offering him dangerous bargains seems to be pretty invested in keeping him alive. this is a fic that drops you straight into the action and trusts you to unpack what is going on--and then unfolds in a gorgeous and achingly romantic way that still manages to play by fairy tale rules to a t!!! featuring deft dramatic irony + Wordplay As Life-Saving Strategy

"a desk is a friend your heart makes" - @jellyfishline. plucked straight from the summary: "Or, sometimes recovery isn't linear and you have to go hide under a desk about it." there are, certainly, many post-canon h/c fics in which trauma reemerges and Character A has to comfort Character B. what you DON'T see every day is such a deft balance between humor and h/c. this fic knows that trauma responses can honestly be a bit ridiculous, and lets astarion work through it while having both genuine pathos AND entertaining dialog. again i say: CRAFT.

"Someone Has To" - @shelbyroundthemountain. i read this last march, closed the tab, kept thinking about it on and off for nearly a year, and then happily found it again this morning. wyll lets slip he did survival sex work a few times before he was established as the Blade. he has no idea why astarion's making such a big deal about it now. i think what stuck with me about this fic was the deft psychology of it: a Thing can happen to two different people and they can come away with vastly different reactions based on context and personality. this is ESPECIALLY true when it comes to things like sex that are so embedded in the *gestures* "we live in a society" of it all

"a sentimental jury" - domoda. ok so this is straight-up a complete, cohesive noir in under 3k words. this is constructed like original short fiction. this has astarion as a parisian femme fatale and wyll as a put-upon but ultimately honorable german interpol officer with ulterior motives (!!). i read this like i watch a film. voice and prose immaculate. i feel fortunate to exist in a world where someone thought to make this. two thumbs up

"sewn in the lining of me" - @duckbunny. hey, so, uh! wyll vivisection fic. h/c, whump, etc--it's gnarly in real creative ways, folks!!--but truly what sets it apart for me is the astarion pov: the ways his own experiences layer over everything, the...half-strategic half-instinctive dissociation he undergoes while trying to save wyll's life, the lovely quiet scene between the two of them at the end. this is a fic where you can feel the Psychology with a capital p in every line of the narration. brutal. very very pretty also.

"his vengeance need not be feared" - antimonian. wyll's ready to kill mizora, he totally is, except maybe the WAY he wants to kill her makes him a bad person?? man, let me tell you. the prose on this thing alone. packed with gorgeous character insights, deftly-drawn relationships, a mizora that manages to be deeply unsettling in very few words, and an astarion being anxiously supportive in the only ways he knows how (murder; hovering). also featuring a strong wyll&karlach friendship + bard wyll!!

honorable mention for the ravengard fans: "At dream's end" by hellbell, which is beautiful surreal prose from the pov of a tadpole-possessed ulder re: his son. not wyllstarion, just need you to know abt it

godspeed, fellow travelers

[1001aus]

When Jason was dead he became a citizen of Pandora's lair, the Acropolis. It's not totally unusual for new ghosts to nest their lairs inside those of more powerful spirits for protection and comfort especially when those more powerful spirits already share their lairs. He never met Pandora personally, but she was aware of his presence.

Then Jason's body reanimates and is eventually picked up by Talia. By the time she throws him in a lazarus pit as a last resort Jason has been a ghost for a couple years when he is unceremoniously yoinked back into a living body.

He isn't a halfa nor is this a possession, Jason really is fully alive. But even a small amount of time as a ghost would change a person and it's been a couple years. This is actually what pit madness is: the aftereffects of taking a being defined by obsession and shoving them back in a body that works in a fundamentally different way.

The lazarus pit also leaves people slightly liminal with increasing effects over repeated exposure. Jason gets all the standard side effects of liminality: a distinct ectosignature which attracts spirits, a tendency toward obsession (made stronger in Jason's case by the fact that he was a ghost), and a slight increase in strength and endurance that happens mostly when not actively paying attention (ex. Jason can take more damage (or rather take less damage from hits) while in the middle of a fight because he thinks he should be able to. Usually he attributes this to having good armor.) But because Jason was actually a ghost and not just dead for a few minutes he also behaves more like a ghost, in particular getting agitated when his obsession or haunt are threatened.

Jason's obsession as a ghost was protection. He needed to be protecting something or someone and that made him fit in well at the Acropolis. For the most part that carried over when he was resurrected, but he didn't have anything to latch onto until Talia pushed him in the direction of revenge while he was already struggling.

His re-entry into Gotham goes more or less as usual with blood and beheadings and one thing out of place: Jason has a patch on one shoulder of his jacket that the bats can't find any information on.

It's marks him as a vassal of Pandora.

(Meanwhile in the Infinite Realms Pandora has contacted Phantom for help. One of her citizens has been taken by force to the living world and she can't make the time to find him herself.)

[dangermousie]

Finished.

God, what a glorious, glorious, glorious ride, a truly solid epic drama in a way I haven't seen in a very long time - there were two other flawless cdramas for me this year - Lost You Forever 1 and The Ingenuous One - but TIO was a smaller scale story and LYF ended in medias res. AJTL was the only complete, epic cdrama this year for me, but oh boy, was it beyond.

First, my two tiny niggles - this is a drama where the 40 episode limit fit badly, like tightly pinching shoes. You can tell how they had to speed and cram to get in the resolutions of dynastic struggles in An and Wu and the war with Beipan. This drama really needed to have been 50 eps. (The cramming also resulted in the sole plot arc that made me go huh - LTG random decision to try to marry Ruyi before he rides off to what he thinks is his last battle and his just as random decision to go "oh well" and agree to release NYZ and then when NYZ shows up before he can be released because he broke out and wreaks havoc, let them walk out. Maybe if they had more time, it would have made more sense, otherwise it felt like an aberration in a character arc that before and after was consistent and made sense.) Second niggle is not really one because it's clearly due to censorship - the last minute redemption of the Wu emperor etc - the writer made is as believable as she could but you could feel the censorship sticky hands all over it.

But those are minor complaints. Overall this was solid from beginning to end, very adult and with secondary characters who all felt real and complex and interesting. A few thoughts:

Our main OTP was incredible. So adult, so competent, so badass but still feeling human. I bought that those two were larger than life legends AND flesh and blood people. And that chemistry!

I loved that this drama allowed relationships to be messy. Yes, we have our epic main couple but I especially loved what happened with Chu Yue and Shisan and LTG and Ying. I loved that neither was an epic romance. With CY and Shisan, I loved that they didn't make him realize he loves her forever blah blah - he was an incredibly consistent character - charming, loyal and utterly clear he's incapable of permanent commitment to a single woman and she never could change that. And yet he died in large part to protect her, and it's in keeping with his character and it makes sense that this solidified her remembering him forever - he's not just the one who got away, but he DIED for her. It's very clear if they both lived, this would have gone nowhere and ended with him wandering off or her moving on wanting commitment from someone who is capable of it, but as it is, it froze the possibility of love in ember.

And I loved the narrative of LTG and Ying. They both come into marriage in love with someone they can never have (Ruyi and YL), they both have similar backgrounds (royals but neglected and looked down upon), they both share the same goals (power but to take care of people) and they really are friends. I love that when we last see them, they have what is a great period marriage - no love but respect and common goals. And she still mourns YL and he probably still thinks of Ruyi but the thing is, I love that the narrative leaves the possibility of them eventually falling in love with each other (or other people) because as she tells him - you think you will always love a particular person but life is long. (And it's so true - she will remember YL until she's old, once again in part because of the unfulfilled possibility of it - but it doesn't mean she won't be able to open her heart to someone again.) It's a surprisingly hopeful ending for them and I love it. I'd totally watch a show where they discover love with each other tbh.

I did love that no character (except possibly Prince Danyang) got everything they wanted even if they emerged alive. They got some and had to give up some.

I loved what it had to say about having to be worthy of your power and position - you are not owed fealty by birth but you have to earn it. It was a surprisingly anti-imperial show for a recent cdrama.

All the deaths of our faves gutted me, none as much as Yuan Lu's. Oooof.

As to the ending, I can tell people are gonna have fits but I like it. I love many an ending legendarily reviled in cdrama fandom (Princess Agents and Novoland Eagle Flag have perfect endings in my opinion; I realize that opinion, especially about PA is enough to get me throttled in certain quarters but it is what it is) and I came to cdramas back when pretty much every costume cdrama ended horrifically tragically - think of the endings of the Chinese Paladins, The Myth (for a long time my n1 drama even though it made me cry so hard I threw up, ending-wise), The Young Warriors, Little Fairy, even Lan Ling Wang, Glory of the Tang Dynasty and Bu Bu Jing Xin if we are going somewhat later. I mean, one of my favorite dramas ever is Royal Nirvana and that ending is like drinking a thermos full of depression. This is nothing.

Honestly, I would have been fine if the ending for our OTP really was them dying pretty much together, in their different battles. That hint that they are alive and living with their kids is lovely and welcome, but I'd have been fine without it and it raises a lot of questions (though if anyone could fake their deaths and survive that sort of thing, it would have been them so fair enough.)

Anyway, this is basically my love letter to this drama. It was amazing and I am so glad I watched it.

[rubykgrant]

I need to re-do some of the others and finish the rest, but I think these three are definitely the solid designs I want to stick with for the RVB Monsters AU~ The Blues are (mostly) Ghosts and Werewolves, while the Reds are (mostly) Zombies/Undead and Vampires.

Tucker's deal; he is unknowingly sort of a "monster slayer chosen one", which makes him mildly immune to certain effects of monsters/supernatural creatures. He can see ghosts all the time, which is why he was totally just used to Church. He gets hit with a "werewolf curse" at some point, but it doesn't do much to slow him down (though, he does get some wolf ears). I gave him a wolf pauldron/clawed gauntlet, and I like how this very serious armor is just right on top of his fancy club outfit. Even though roses are red, roses are also very romantic, and there is the Beauty and the Beast symbolism, so his shirt is two-toned shades of aqua/teal, with a swirling pattern of golden roses in shiny thread on one side. In general, he's got all the extra senses and strength boosts of werewolves, but none of the weaknesses (later on, an evil tries to create an "invincible chymera monster" using a drop of Tucker's blood to be a secret weapon... the result is literally a baby monster, and Tucker eventually decides he's just gonna be a dad now. Crisis adverted~)

Church is a ghost (because he ALWAYS is). Normally, he manifests looking more "alive", and thanks to his trademark memory loss, he forgot he was a ghost at all. When he does remember, and figures out his own spooky powers, he visually looks more haunted (shades of blue and white, with a semi-transparent skeleton). Sometimes without thinking about it, he will accidentally make electronic devices either malfunction, or suddenly work properly. He also has a tendency to cause extreme cold spots

Tex is a dullahan (and yes, she's a little inspired by Durarara!!). Some jerk was trying to use weird magic to bring his dead wife back to life, and instead, Tex happened. Usually, she hides the lack of physical head by wearing her biker helmet. Some of her abilities involve causing good/bad luck, but if she makes something VERY lucky happen, an equally UNLUCKY thing occurs as a result (usually tripping her up at the most inconvenient moments). She'd rather just power-through problems with her physical capabilities, and not worry about the math involved with spooky powers

[miimo96]

A Mermaids Sacrifice

1 of the many things I see brought up a lot, is How Will TBHK end? Now Normally I usually don't do these here, but I just have the feeling as to how I think the story of TBHK will end, and I think you may not like the answer. (MANGA SPOILERS AHEAD duh) 

⚠️THIS TOOK OVER 9 MONTHS TO MAKE ⚠️

Judging by how this series works, It's obvious that we're not going to get a happy ending, but rather a somber one, this story is about a Girl falling in love with a Ghost, no matter how you look at it they're romance is Doomed from the start and with a reputation of knowing to BREAK their audience, you can tell aidairo  is far from ever ending things happily. So here's how I think TBHK will end.

Ever Since the Reveal of yashiro's lifespan being cut short, hanako has been doing Everything in His power to Delay the inevitable, at 1st only wanting to make yashiro happy in her last moments, Until  realizing His Love for her and wanting to “Save” her at all costs (as seen with the Picture perfect arc and even going as far as trying to sacrifice her best friend Aoi in her place) with surprisingly  more and more issues occurring in the process, the Harder he tries, the more problems occur and yashiro seems to notice this, hence why she offers to stay in the far shore with him, everything that happens seems to be stemming from her Fate. This series is known for being quite Dark, and I don't mean that by saying  that  it's tragic or anything, I mean that it's Sad. The entire series deals with a lot of dark topics and  often finds a way to always end on a somber note, especially when it  comes to the seven wonders and their backstories, So with a story structured like that, it's obvious there's only 2 ways this series could end.

OPTION 1: THE BAD ENDING: yashiro's  memories get Erased 

Before the Events of the recent Chapters, I initially thought that this series would end with yashiro losing her memories; Something that always  bothered me about the series is How hanako mentions that the only reason yashiro is able to contact him, is because she's  near death, And that normal people like Aoi can't usually summon him, Ever since then, hanako's doing everything to save her, and I think THAT'S the problem. Because he keeps trying to prevent her fate, bad things keep happening, and judging by the recent chapters, I think the Clock keepers know this, hence why they put them  on trial, it's the trial of yashiro's fate and how it's affecting the school, technically hanako is breaking the Canon and they decide to go back and change things, with the Newest chapters resulting in the New timeline we see now, but that left the question: What exactly did they change?

 Well what if it was her meeting hanako. If the Clock keepers changed that she never met hanako, then her destiny COULD change, if she never met hanako then she never would've made her wish therefore she never becomes his assistant, and that she never destroys the yorishiro's and isn't on the path to dying, yes all of her adventures and memories with hanako and kou would be erased, but in the end she's alive and that's all that matters, and knowing hanako, I think he would be fine with that if it meant Saving her. he would be alone, yes, but she's safe, she gets to live a full life, and that's all he wants; It would be somber but fulfilling ending, one  that's not Totally depressing, with her Dying.  Plus we LITERALLY almost saw that happen with the severance arc when hanako tried wiping her memory, So there's a good chance that it might happen again, (Side note, and this is after re-reading chapter 112, But I Was TECHNICALLY right, I mean sure it didn't exactly play out as I thought it would, but I WAS PRETTY CLOSE, although instead of it being due to the  fact that yashiro never meets hanako because she never made her wish in the bathroom, it was because Hanako DOESN'T EXIST, he never died therefore he Never became the 7th wonder, so my theory was right, it was just in reverse ^^; ) an ending where yashiro gets to Live, but at the COST of cutting her ties to Hanako, along with her memories. In my opinion, I think that would make for a really good ending,  1  of letting go and moving on, however, there's another option, and that's if YASHIRO dies.

OPTION 2: THE SAD ENDING: Yashiro's Sacrifices herself  

Now This is the ending I don't want but it seems to be the 1 we're heading towards, are u ready? (Inhale...sigh) Yashiro HAS to Die no matter what; The entire premise of TBHK has been built around yashiro avoiding her Fate, with hanako Doing EVERYTHING to keep her alive, even going as far as to try and have “GOD” extend her life by destroying all the yorishiro's, however, that Exactly seems  to be the problem; in Chapter 95 Sakura Reveals the reason why yashiro's lifespan is So short, saying that Yashiro's lifespan is set to run out once she DESTROYS  every single yorishiro. Up until now yashiro's only destroyed 4 so far I think, basically only leaving hanako's, the Clock keepers and number 6 and 3s left, but idk if number 6 EATING his still counts but anyway that leaves 3 left, so she's basically been on the path to her fate the entire time, and ever since she met hanako and became his assistant. So what if she never destroys them? If her lifespan is so short because of her destroying the yorishiro's, then what if she never destroys them in the 1st place? if she never destroys them in the 1st place then she isn't on the path to dying, therefore the Events of the series never happen, and that's what I Originally thought, Until I realized that It doesn't even matter, Because the whole reason why hanako wants to destroy them from the In the 1st place, is because of Tsukasa, or should I say, the Entity of the Red house. Literally EVERY SINGLE THING that happens is because of that Damn THING, so it doesn't even matter if she destroys them or not because in the end, it will Always find a way to F#$%k Shit up,  eventually resulting in Events playing out, and the thing that Proved that to me, was with how  in Chapter 117, Teru kinda confirms this when  he talks about how the Clock  keepers could just easily reset the New timeline. Saying that because they've already changed things once, who's to say they won't change it again? After all the Only reason why the wonders exist, is to keep balance and order between the humans and Supernaturals, and to keep the Other seven wonders in check, and since they don't exist in this New timeline, there is No telling what could happen if Events ever DO playout again, leading to the Situation we are at now, and he's kinda right in away. To put  it “Simply“ The New timeline is LITERALLY a “What if” scenario of What if Tsukasa NEVER Left the Red house, resulting in what we see Now with hanako now becoming Evil, Tsukasa still being a vessel, and the entity still trying to cause Chaos, I think, it's still kinda hard for me to understand what the Entity's whole goal is, and what it's Really after in the end, So if anyone has the answer as to what the Entity's WHOLE DEAL IS, that would be pretty helpful.  

Anyway, this actually brings me to the whole  theory I have as to How I think this series will end, and it all has to  do with 1 character:  Tsukasa. What if the only way to prevent these events from  happening, is to Stop Tsukasa from ever making that Sacrifice for Amane’s lifespan? if Tsukasa never jumps down that Hole, and never becomes the Entity's vessel,  then the Events of this series never happen, after all it's mainly because of Tsukasa that all this even happens in the 1st place, from getting Amane to kill himself, to getting the yorishiro's to be destroyed, to even causing the timeline to be reset.  If Tsukasa is the main reason behind everything, then the only way to stop it is by stopping him, or should I say, stopping him from THAT POINT, but there's just 1 problem, the only reason why Tsukasa makes that sacrifice in 1st place, is Because to extend Amane's lifespan, if he doesn't do that then Amane will die, and while I do think aidairo is capable of ending it like that, I don't think that will be the case, I think the Only  way this series will end, is if Yashiro ends up sacrificing herself. 

Up until now yashiro's fate has LITERALLY been the Driving force of the story, with her having giving up on an extended lifespan twice now, once in the fake world in the Picture  perfect arc and  another when Aoi was sacrificed in her place,  Yashiro is slowly starting to realize that wishes require sacrifice, both figuratively and literally; So what if it Turns out  that the Only way this series could end, is if Our MAIN character, ends up sacrificing herself, to change the EVERYTHING. Ever since the chapter where yashiro 1st traveled back in time during the Star festival arc, we've had the possible idea of Time travel being an element in the story, and even more so Now, especially with the stuff surrounding the Red house, Clock keepers, and even the Star festival all having a connection to Time, and what's really interesting about that, is that yashiro seems to be the cause of it. In Star festival arc we see yashiro meet baby hanako when she Time-slips for the 1st time, leading to him to fall in love with her and changing his wish from wanting to be an astronaut, to wanting to see her again, another glimpse of this is when yashiro Time-slips again and this time instead meets tweenage Hanako, leading to his fixation with her growing even more, because he REMEMBERS who she is, heck the Only reason why Tsukasa Even  leaves the Red house in the 1st place, is because yashiro or kou (I can't really remember) tells him about the future and how hanako kills his younger brother, leading to him becoming curious and wanting to find out more, resulting in him starting the Events once again. 

 It seems to me that it's All just an Infinite Time loop, 1 where no matter what, eventually things will playout, And  all Because of Tsukasa's sacrifice and yashiro's involvement. Yashiro has Literally been the Driving force of the entire series, so I wouldn't put it pass aidairo if it Turned out that yashiro's lifespan/sacrifice is the Thing that ends up resolving the story; I feel like yashiro will play an important part, 1 where she ends up back time, but at the Point where Tsukasa sacrificed his life for his younger brother, and instead of HIM Jumping down that Hole, it will be YASHIRO instead, resulting her sacrificing herself for AMANE, and probably ending up as the Supernatural. We keep getting so many hints that yashiro will become a school wonder, ESPECIALLY  since  the opening for  TBHK, Has mentions of an 8TH wonder, And ever since I heard about that I IMMEDIATELY thought of yashiro being a main candidate, And with yashiro no longer having her fish form, ya have to wonder: How EXACTLY will that play a part into the story? But the THING that really Sent me on this path that yashiro could end up probably sacrificing herself, was from 1 Specific panel from the VERY 1ST Chapter of TBHK, one that depicts yashiro Transforming into a fish for the very first time.

As you can see this panel depicts yashiro falling in what looks  like, WATER, Obviously to show yashiro Transforming into a fish but the thing that Speaks out to me, is the WAY it's PANELYZED. 

Up until Now aidairo has  lately been reusing old panels and Scenarios for Newest chapters, (I'll pull up some Examples on screen so you can get an understanding of what I'm talking about) however THIS panel has always stuck out to me for an Odd reason, mainly because it DOESN'T match with aidairo's whole Paneling Style, let me explain.  For example if aidairo needs to demonstrate something about a certain character, they'll normally make a small little panel involving little details that people associate with them, for example hanako is always associated with Red camellias, a flower that SYMBOLIZES  romantic love, passion, and deep desire, All things that perfectly represent hanako and his relationship with yashiro. 

Another example would be how they Stylize things, for example, when a character like Teru's on screen they'll Normally add a filter as if to make them look like they were in a shoujo manga going as far as to even add text bubbles that make them LOOK like they belong in a shoujo manga, this is mainly because we are seeing through yashiro's point of view and this how She SEES them almost like “Princely ” however my FAVORITE example would have to be when there's a Serious scene, and the characters will speak in Black text bubbles, or have even a HINT of Shading in said text bubbles, as if to emphasize the WEIGHT and Impact of the conversation. 

This Panel has lived rent free in my head for MONTHS and I never really understood why, that IS Until I read THIS SPECIFIC POST.

Now this post talks about a lot of things regarding TBHK, but the Thing that really Stood out to me was from 1 specific section involving 1 little piece of evidence about the Red house, Specifically, that it was built on top of a Well, and that well just SO happens to be the Same PIT that the Kannagis were sacrificed to.  I don't think it's a coincidence that aidairo made this Specific panel filled with WATER, just to later on play with and create more concepts involving water,  ESPECIALLY for yashiro, a character they HEAVILY associate with water. 

Basically I theorize that yashiro will probably end up Time-sliping again, this time with her going back to THAT POINT, causing her to pull Tsukasa away and instead of him jumping, it will be HER instead, causing not only Tsukasa to still be alive, but Amane as well, and since Amane will never get to meet yashiro at the Star festival, he'll never change his wish therefore he'll never become a Supernatural, and will INSTEAD become an astronaut or a teacher in the end, resulting with yashiro Now becoming GOD or maybe even the 8TH Wonder.  If yashiro DOES Die then That would break the Cycle and I think not only save Tsukasa, but Amane as well, because She would be taking  his place. I know it seems Crazy but if you REALLY think about it, suddenly things start to make sense, and ya know what, it Really makes for a Perfect ending, because now instead of her being saved by hanako, She will be saving HIM, But anyway that's just my theory. whaddya think, do ya agree, or am I just Completely effing CRAZY?

[jaywalkers]

hi róisín, since ur in med, i was wondering : is aftg v medically accurate ?

hihi! i'll preface with that i'm not a med student, i'm a final year paramedic student, but i think my scope and areas of practice fit the antics the foxes get into in aftg enough to comment on it!

i won't talk on aftg's take on medications, antipsychotics or otherwise, because a lot of other lovely people who are far more educated on the topic have written about it! when it comes to aftg's treatment of injuries, though, i do have some things to say.

i'm going to tee up a couple of examples of frontline medical treatment in aftg and make some comments on them! granted they're very messy, but i hope they're understandable enough.

from the best, to the worst:

kevin's hand

i don't think it's unfeasible that kevin was back to playing capacity two years after his injury happened — while i think that his hand was probably severely fractured, and there was likely different fingers involved too, with good surgical intervention (which he was likely able to access) hand fractures, even complex ones, can be healed enough in 4-6 months.

the ligament injuries would be the more pertinent, and i think those would be the more pressing concern for him outside of the healed bones, considering ligament injuries can cause chronic issues not limited to pain. i would be surprised if abby was the sole medical provider for the foxes, because while she does appear to be a well-rounded sports nurse, kevin probably would have needed to work with a dedicated physiotherapist and/or a hand specialist to get the use of his hand semi-back to normal.

other questions abt kevin's medical problems? please observe here

2. neil's wounds post baltimore

when it comes to how these wounds are treated by medical staff, i have no concerns. the hospital neil is brought to by the FBI seems to have treated the wounds well and left him to sleep off any negative follow-on effects from the chloroform. the only thing i have qualms with is the implication from the hotel scene that the hospital has put an adhesive dressing over neil's burn on his cheek, which is a big no in wound-dressing — burned skin is very delicate, and adhesives can damage or rip it away with removal. it's why we use glad-wrap in the prehsopital setting for burns, because it's sterile and not sticky!

abby, when she gets her hands on neil, changes the bandages so the wounds can be visualised and aired out, cleans them again, and then re-dresses them cleanly. i have no issues here.

when it comes to how these wounds are treated by andrew, i have only this text from my brother when he first read the series a couple of years ago

throughout the series, including post-nest, andrew is constantly getting his grubby little mitts in neils fresh wounds. he should not be doing that. in particular in the hotel scene he peels away the adhesive dressing over a burn which is just a recipe for tissue-loss, severe pain, and increased risk of infection. i don't know how abby didn't scream because i would have.

just andrew. in general. yikes, my dude. don't do that.

3. jean

jean. he is the kicked dog of this series and i genuinely don't know how he was alive at the start of the book series, let alone at the end. at the start of the series, he has (according to the EC) experienced not only numerous fractures to various bones, but has had two incidences where he 'bashed his head open on the concrete', and needed 266 stitches total. also ten incidences of waterboarding.

if we break this down: that's two major head injuries, multiple incidences of significant amounts of blood loss, and ten incidences of asphyxial peri-arrest events.

it's further implied by both the novels and the extra content that jean was not given time to heal from these injuries, and instead had to play games. add to that the hours of the nest and the living conditions, and i actually cannot fathom how jean was not yet dead, by either a single incident or the culmination of many. exy is a contact sport. those head injuries, plus an accidental shoulder-check into the plexiglass could have, and should have killed him.

i'm glad he didn't. i think it's important that he didn't. but it is a miracle of biology and the sanctity of his cerebral blood vessels that he stays alive to the end of the books.

---

anyway i hope this all makes a bit of sense! im writing this half-mad with eight hours until my last exam for my 2nd to last semester so i'm running on energy drinks and way too much memorisation work of how benzos work. thank you for the question! and as always, please field more my way i LOVE this stuff.

[ladysternchen]

The Self-Destruction of Elu Thingol

I'm not going to do anything else this meta week but write about my fave, sorry. (Like really sorry, I'm always scared I'm boring everyone to death with always talking about the same things).

But today's a short and very sketchy one, but I feel I need to say it anyway. Even if it is kind of apparent and nothing new.

I HATE how Tolkien left Elu Thingol alive after the wolf-hunt. Like WHY? I mean, the Tale of Beren and Lúthien has a few issues (first and foremost, it totally contradicts the Laws and Customs. Beren and Lúthien would only have needed to fuck in the woods and they'd have been wed nice and proper, with nothing anyone could have done about it. The whole Silmaril-as-brideprice-idiocy need never have happened. But then, we wouldn't have had a story), but this is what so bothers me. Like, this is Tolkien being cruel. but he is that to most of his Silm-characters, so I can't really complain. But... BUT! 😩

Like why let Beren give his life to save an elf, only to torture that elf? Like yeah, I know about Lúthien's famous 'coming back from the dead', but really? Why couldn't Elu die instead of Beren, pay his dept, and later be re-embodied in Valinor? And Beren could have lived out his life with Lúthien just as unbothered by what's going on around them, and if that accursed choice of the Half-even REALLY needed to be, then Lúthien could still have begged to be allowed to follow her husband at the end of his natural life.

Why why why why? Only so that Elu can rue his mistakes, and learn from them, only to lose another child and then die the most undignified death ever.

But I digress a little.

Still I feel that it is fair to say that Elu was never right again after Lúthien's death. He fell into deep depression when she and Beren died, yes, but the real, true blow came when she came back to life mortal. She 'healed' him, and yet took away all hope.

And no, neither he nor Melian were being over-dramatic. Child-loss -even if the 'child' is already grown up- is one of the most profound pains one can experience, not only to humans. Elves should per default not experience that. They do not leave Arda, so even while there is profound grief over being parted from a beloved person, that person is still there somewhere, and there is a very good chance that after some time, they will be reunited.

Can you imagine what it must feel like for such a being to lose a child like Elu and Melian lost Lúthien? Their ONLY child? I don't think that either of them was ever ok again after that.

And yet Elu did something rather peculiar, when presented with a half-starved mortal boy whose mother is a cousin of Beren's- and took that boy in. A noble act, maybe, one to show how much he is repenting of his actions against Beren, but also an act of deliberate self-harm (no, I have no textual proof for this. Yes, I'm still adamant that this is what it is). Because he did not only care for Túrin- he loved him as his son, a boy who must die the same death Lúthien died. I think this is also why Melian never really got involved with Túrin apart from protecting him, and seeing to it that he would be well tutored.

Elu, however, let himself love a doomed child again, and do everything right he did wrong the first time, and still be hurt in the worst possible way- not only by Túrin's death but by Túrin leaving Doriath in scorn, and accepting neither pardon nor apology.

(And yes, I do have this wild theory still that Elu's death was actually suicide. I mean, insulting armed Dwarves is very stupid. But then finding nothing to defend oneself in a SMITHY is... illogical. I still think he wanted to be killed, so he would not have to witness his daughter's death a second time. And when the chance came, he took it gladly. Yes yes, I know there is zero evidence for that and no-one will agree with me there. Be it.)

[thegamingcatmom]

Evil Dead Rise...but gayer

Okay but imagine Ellie aka Maggot Mommy clapping eyes on you and yes there´s this urge to chase and rip and eat your soul and all (she´s still an evil ancient entity after all) but there´s also something else. And she/it doesn´t know what it is because she/it is an evil ancient entity which absolutely thrives on being a lil shithead just for the fun of it (that´s what I love most about Maggot Mommy and it´s what makes her stand out from other deadites imo).

Anyhow, Maggot Momma sees you, sprints towards you, only to stop inches away from your face and start sniffing you. Like, really sniffing you. All over.

It´s starting to get a bit uncomfortable and weird af actually and maybe now´s a good time to get the f outta there but jokes on you - you´re already being carried off, none too gently mind you (Maggot Momma still gotta learn how to human aight so leave her alone) and promptly plonked onto the floor in Ellie´s apartment. And while Deadite Mommy´s still thinking about her choices here (those being: eating you now or later) you snap out of it and actually try to make a run for it.

Only, you failed to notice there´s a whole fucking family of undead…whatever they are. Leering at you, creeping closer, coming way too close and suddenly they´re on top, all snapping teeth and snarling in your face and JUST when you thought this is it-

Maggot Momma´s set her eyes on you first and she WILL start whoopin some asses if the family even thinks about touching what isn´t theirs to devour.

So as the family scuttles off with their tails between their legs (cause Deadite Momma rules) only you and Deadite Ellie remain. But you´re still alive and kicking (for now), so I guess that´s a good thing (kinda)?

I just really LOVE this concept of evil, otherworldly creatures absolutely thriving on wreaking havoc and committing murder left and right. I LOVE evil entities being truly evil and staying true to who they are and what makes them so ASDFNSADFLASDF. They´re just pure evil and long for utter chaos and destruction…except when it comes to a certain someone. When it comes to them it´s more like (not so) little shit mode activated with a healthy dose of “I licks it, I keeps it” and JUST the right amount of sweetness (that being: looking at you rather unimpressed when you reprimand them for brutally slaughtering someone, again.)

Also, they can be the biggest pain in the ass, my god- (you kinda adore it though, almost).

(Btw, Maggot Mommy trying to bring that eyeball back up looked JUST like my cats when they´re about to absolutely explode after they´ve eaten too much cat grass. it´s actually kind of…adorable? Lmao.)

So here you are and for some reason, this demon has deemed you worthy enough to keep around for a bit longer and maybe it´s your smell that ended up being your saving grace or maybe it´s something totally different. Either way, somehow you´ve found your way right into the clutches of this family of…undead beings (zombies?) and The Mother is quite pleased indeed…

So yeah, I guess you could see this as some kind of Tarzan/Jane story? Just really (really) fucked up? And Deadite Momma is trying (and failing miserably) to human.

But also, there would be lots of sniffing and licking involved, just saying.

But also also:

(Ahem...)

So, after some really, really, really long time has passed you´ve come to realize you might not get munched on after all. Maggot Momma still gotta learn the basics of human behavior though, like personal space wha-? (You indulge her moods most of the time though since you quite like being alive and all and you´d rather it stayed that way…)

And it´s even better when Maggot Momma ain´t realizing she´s doing it. With time, being neck-deep into whatever part of you has become sort of a natural response whenever her human is near. Which happens to be quite often since there´s only so much space to be had when you gotta share it with a family of evil ancient entities who hear and see it all. (Taking a piss has never been more uncomfortable.)

Most times, Maggot Mommy is being extra touchy feely just because she knows it makes you feel hella weirded-out (and some other things) though. She´s still a lil shithead after all and that´s why we love her.

Aight so, things have somewhat calmed down a bit (meaning: you´re not in danger of being eaten alive anymore) and the Deadite!Kids have decided that playing “pranks” on you is a good way to pass time. Pranks that give you nightmares. Like sitting in front of you. In the middle of the night. Unblinking. Wearing a grin rivalling Cheshire Cat´s. And what´s with their neck-

A head´s not supposed to do that.

But fear not, for Momma´s there to soothe your fears. And she´s trying, she really is.

But it doesn´t really help your case when Maggot Momma´s speaking to you oh so sweetly in her dark, sultry, demonic voice while the remains of some poor soul - foolish (or brave?) enough to wander her territory - are still sticking to her face, between her teeth, that breath my god-

So after attempting to calm you down, Momma´s decided now´s a good time for that promised ass whoopin.

Which doesn´t help in calming you down either since Deadite!Momma reprimanding her Deadite!Kids for scaring the absolute crap outta you (something only SHE gets to do) sounds like hell itself has opened up to swallow you whole. In other words: it does not sound pretty, at all.

The kids try to make it up to you though. They start to provide for you, even. Only, leg hasn´t exactly been on the menu for you (yet) and that severed head they brought you today didn´t do much for you either.

You actually excused yourself for a minute to go to the bathroom. You´re not planning on coming back out any time soon.

Meanwhile:

(Patience isn’t exactly Maggot Mommy’s strong suit though, so you better not keep her waiting for too long…)

(2 mins later:)

[eleanorfenyx]

I have finished Mysterious Lotus Casebook, and here are some of my thoughts! (Obviously not spoiler free)

The cases are absolutely batshit insane and I loved it every single time they were like 'we totally collected this evidence that incriminates a secret suspect, just believe us and also don't question when the fuck we had the time to do this or when we figured out that we needed to look for it'. 10/10 no notes, that's a hilarious way to have a genius detective. Show us nothing, tell us everything, YES king.

That being said, I could have done with a lot less standing around having the supporting cast repeat whatever Li Lianhua and Fang Duobing announce, maybe in an attempt to make sure their genius is clear for the audience? I get it, but at the same time it felt a little too hand-holdy for me, especially in scenes where LLH and FDB had already discussed their findings between themselves before presenting them to the concerned bystanders. I can read between the lines (or else understand what has just been explicitly stated) without having every conclusion filtered through a slightly different sentence structure to make sure I got it.

Di Feisheng amnesia arc my fuckin beloved

Di Feisheng destroying his 'father' and freeing everyone in Di manor in a vicious act of catharsis that tied nicely into the main Nanyin bug-mind-control-thing narrative my beloved

Di Feisheng my beloved

The amount of times I was like...genuinely surprised he and Li Lianhua didn't kiss is both embarrassing (because I do in fact understand censorship and what I sign up for with these dramas and yet and yet) and numerous enough that I could...possibly...theoretically..write a 5+1 fic of every time I want them to kiss about it. No one hold me to that but it's something I think I'd like to do.

Re: the above point: because what the FUCK was that ending?!!! EXCUSE ME?! I gotta FIX THAT SHIT.

There will come a day when the strength of my hope for an unambiguously happy ending in a queer(-coded? is the source originally bl or is this its own thing?) wuxia drama is rewarded....but it is not this day. I must fix this myself.

Jiao Liqiao's laugh is one of the most annoying things I've ever heard. I was reaaaaally hoping someone would just up and stab her during one of her little evil laughing fits. At one point I was shouting "KILL HER, KILL HER" at my screen because I could NOT take anymore of her (unfortunately, I did in fact have to take more of her).

I still think her insistence on being obsessed with DFS is hysterical when he is so VISIBLY only interested in LLH. Explicitly STATES that his only life purpose is to fuck fight LLH again. Babygirl (derogatory) he is so fucking gay let's get you a nice knife to the gut instead, okay?

I thought the whole Shan Gudao plot was interesting, going from looking desperately for his body -> putting him to rest -> hunting for his murderer -> finding out he's alive/the mastermind behind everything going wrong (which I was proud of myself for realizing before the reveal, I'm normally bad at that) -> thwarting him with sass and superior martial arts at every possible turn -> killing him stone fuckin dead with beginner level skills because he's so up his own hole he can't see that's what's happening - was really fun!

He also has a SUPER annoying laugh he can fuck off

OH OH OH MARTIAL ARTS SKILL OF TRANS YOUR GENDER?! I MARRIED HER SO HER AFFAIRS ARE MY BUSINESS NOT YOURS??? ASKING YOUR WIFE FOR HER FORGIVENESS AND UNDERSTANDING AS YOU LAY DYING AND SHE GIVES IT TO YOU?????? OKAYYYYYYY

The twist at the end that LLH is the one with royal blood was so funny to me. Like it's a good twist and I love that Shan Gudao was just quite literally always a fuckin try-hard loser in ways he didn't even know, but also it was SO funny. Granny coming in clutch at the last fuckin minute with secret knowledge she just literally never shared.

LLH is such a smooth motherfucker. Shame about his insistence on dying when quite literally everyone (bar the people who suck) is begging this man to just live. Just LIVE DAMN IT!!!!! I really liked it when FDB begs him to just consider his own life as important for ONCE and remember that people care about him because YES his self-sacrificing and committment to Chilling Out Farmer Style was not the mercy he thought it was!

LIVE AND GROW OLD WITH DI FEISHENG YOU DAMN IDIOT (the likelihood of me resisting the urge to write at least the one fic for them is zero to none)

Unironically love spitting up blood as a plot device and this show is no different. The Drama. The Panache. The desperation of everyone around you because you have BLOOD coming out of your MOUTH and you are FAINTING. Poison acting up? Spit blood. Someone bitch slap you with their magical palm ability? Spit blood. Get stressed? Spit blood. Get stabbed? Spit blood. It's always good!

Okay I think that might be all I've got for now, if I think of anything else I'll add them in a reblog. I thoroughly enjoyed it, would definitely recommend!

[hiemaldesirae]

Hiii :) it’s me again, the anon who yapped about fanon Vox, I’m here because I need to yap again: I’m kinda worried about season 2

After rewatching season 1, I felt like the stakes weren’t high enough for Charlie & the Hotel. One would think going into battle against Heaven would be devastating and disastrous but the only characters that permanently died were…background characters. I don’t count Sir Pentious because bro is alive and will most likely have a bigger role to play in the story now that he’s in heaven. The hotel was destroyed, yeah, but like minutes later it was rebuilt with the help of Lucifer.

That’s another reason why I feel like the stakes aren’t high enough, they added Lucifer way too soon. How are Vox & other future villains meant to stand a chance against the King of Hell?? I think it would’ve been better if took Charlie a couple of seasons to convince her dad to help her cause.

My main worries for season 2 are about Vox because I can’t stop thinking about him LMFAO. Anyways, I’m scared Vox will be a second Adam, goofy villain that gets killed off pretty quickly and anti-climactically. Vox was already a silly villain in season 1 (sending Pentious to the Hotel as a spy, cheering when Alastor got his ass beat, etc, etc.) so it’ll feel like a waste if they continue writing him that way. I want Vox to be an actual threat and kill one of the main characters PERMANENTLY. Preferably Angel Dust cause it’ll cause a shit ton of discourse since he’s well-loved by both the characters in-universe and the fandom but I don’t think that’ll happen. I just need Vox to lock in 🙏

Don’t get me wrong, I love Hazbin Hotel (only because of Alastor & the Vees but shhh 🤫) but I want the story to evoke emotions from me, I wanna be anxious, I wanna feel hyped, but I don’t feel any of this when things go too perfectly for the main characters and everything goes wrong for the antagonists.

I’m so sorry for the long ass essay, I would make my own post but I don’t wanna be perceived 😭😭

oh i completely understand ur worries nonny dont even worry about the essay

i definitely feel like theres a Risk of that happening to vox especially since . well. vivz doesnt have the best track record to begin with (cannot speak for hb but the way she deals with some characters and resolves their arcs is. questionable) but i personally think (hope? believe?) that since there are members on the writing and animation team who are fans of the vees that she wont just kill vox off for no reason / comic relief(or any of the vees, really) + also of all the vees vox is probably the most likely to die in a dramatic scene considering how he and al are set up to be character foils and killing him off in the stupidest way would be such a horrific storyline fumble i cannot in good conscience believe that vivziepop would even be able to fathom its stupidity. of course im holding out hope still because if theres one thing ive learnt about the internet its that you do not under any circumstances trust any public figures to make the right decisions ever and this applies to animated shows too.

vox killing someone forever would really manage to cement his place in the storyline as a big baddie, but i do have to disagree on wanting angel dead- personally- and as much as it pains me to say this- i think him killing husk or niffty would have the same effect while not interfering with angels healing arc: in fact itd even further angels healing arc and self discovery, alongside giving alastor a reason to perhaps go toe to toe with vox. (i do think that killing angel off would have an interesting result but it feels like an abrupt and unnecessary move to make, tho it may just be ny preference to want to see recovery arcs fulfilled so those characters can live their best lives)

++re what you said ab the hotel not having enough stakes for the next season, i totally agree- bringing in lucifer feels a bit like a cheap copout and didnt really serve to further **charlies** character arc (arguably you could say making up with her father developed her backbone more but. hm. idk you couldve done that in a multitude of other ways sooo)

[daily-rayless]

AO3 Wrapped: Writer Edition

Got the idea to do this from @deemoyza

Words written this year: 25500

Works written this year: I wrote four fics this year, though two of them came pretty late and haven't been posted yet: "After the First Time" (Aerith, Final Fantasy 7), "Tenuto" (Tales of the Abyss -- I'm counting it as one fic because it's a drabble collection), "Matter Recollected" (Fate, we'll see about that title), and "Mother Paws" (Narnia, we'll also see about that title). (Other fics I posted this year had been written earlier.)

Work Most Proud of: "Matter Recollected". Most of the word count comes from that one, but it was an attempt to tell a bigg-ish story in a short-ish amount of space. I think I did pretty well establishing scenes and the characters' circumstances, then letting them stew in their own angsty juices for a while.

Work with Most Hits: Between the two that have been posted, definitely "After the First Time". FF7 is a much bigger fandom than Abyss.

Fav title: "Tenuto" gave me so much trouble, trying to find something to unite ten drabbles, so I fell back on music (appropriate for Abyss), and the fact that ten is there in the word was a bonus.

Pairing You Wrote the Most For: None of the pairings overlap, though the ArcherHakuno (technically ShirouHakuno) "Matter Recollected" is the longest, so we'll say that.

What Work was the Quickest To Write: "Mother Paws". I was thinking about Narnia while I was exercising (sure, that's a thing that happens) and ideas started leaping out of my brain; so I stopped what I was doing and hammered it out in thirty, maybe forty minutes.

What Work Took You Longest To Write: "Matter Recollected" took about a month, in forty-ish minute bursts every night. "Tenuto" also took a fair bit of time in the editing stage, getting the drabbles down to 100 words.

How Many WIPS do you have for next year: No first drafts. Things are being edited, though, right until they're posted, so we can count stuff from The Muse Trilogy there. Still wondering if I should even post the earlier Fate stuff, and I have one outstanding Abyss fic from a few years ago I might post.

Longest Work of the Year: "Matter Recollected" at 21100 words.

Shortest Work of the Year: "Tenuto" at 1000 words.

Fav character to Write: I really enjoyed dipping into different povs for "Tenuto", including characters I'd never really touched before. But if I'm honest, I love writing for Hakuno, my impression of her as a character is still developing, and she's just a lot of fun. So we'll say Hakuno.

Which work of yours have you re-read the most: Maybe "Tenuto"? Editing was all about repeated whittling.

Total Kudos this Year: 55. (Most of that is for Aerith.)

Total Hits This Year: 497. (Ditto!)

Total Bookmarks This Year: 6

Total Subscriptions This Year: 0

What Do You Listen To While Writing: I tend to listen to my music on shuffle. In most cases, having lyrics doesn't bother me, and I listen to a lot of folk and piano pop, so it tends not to be very intrusive to start with. It definitely helps mentally separate me into a writing mindset.

Fav line or passage: I don't know if I have a favorite, but I like this one: She watches Cloud walking ahead of her, turning to say something quiet to Tifa. She has to pull away from him now. But in the days that follow, she doesn't. Maybe she can't, but she suspects she merely doesn't. She did, after all, warn Cloud that the only thing she was really good at is giving up. Because she knows she'll probably die, and the Whispers still cluster around her and take from her, and the Lifestream, as beautiful as it is, doesn't have the same tenderness of being alive.

[nellie-elizabeth]

Outlander: Carnal Knowledge (7x12)

You ever watch an episode of TV and actively cackle at the events playing out on your screen? I have been in full-on cackle mode for this entire plot thread of this show. It's everything I could have asked for.

Cons:

So, I think sometimes this show's acting is stronger than its writing, by which I mean a stellar performance from Sam Heughan can often elevate a clunky line of exposition, or the genuine passion in Caitriona Balfe's face can elevate an otherwise cheesy moment in dialogue. That remains the case in this situation as well, but there have been a few moments in Jamie's dialogue specifically that felt kind of awkward. It happened last week when he was explaining about not being on the Euturpe, and it happened again this week when he's explaining to John about why he has soldiers chasing him. Just super clunky moments where he's having to lay out basic tenants of the plot for the audience that don't feel naturalistic.

Also - I need to go back and re-read this section of the book again I think, because I was having trouble following the logic of why Jamie needed to drag John with him all the way out of the city. Once he's clear from the soldiers why doesn't he just say "hey, sorry for the light kidnapping, I'm going to run - just say that I hit you and then gave you the slip, and go back home." Like, what extra protection does John afford Jamie on his way out of the city, if the goal is to get a horse and sneak out? It only makes sense if there are still soldiers with their eyes on him who don't want to take him in by force for fear of harming Lord John. A nitpick, but I was distracted by it.

Pros:

But come on. This episode was SO juicy, where to even begin?

I've been really pleased by William's acting this season, I totally believe his distress. He's an inherently good person and, one might think, fairly open-minded and understanding, but this situation is just beyond the pale for him. I loved his conversation with Claire, where she points out that either way you look at it, she is still his stepmother. He's very reasonable and calm with her as he asks for details about Jamie and Geneva, and then when he finally does lose his cool, he storms off and destroys some property but doesn't actually take anything out on Claire.

Of course, later, he does rather hilariously and horribly take it out on Ian. Poor Ian and Rachel sharing the good news of their betrothal, and William says a strained congrats and then turns away, only for Ian to reach out for him with a smile on his face, likely wanting to invite him to the wedding or something, and William just turns around and socks him full in the face. It's darkly hilarious since Ian has no idea that it's coming. Also, this scene is so sad to me because Ian still believes that Jamie's dead, so when William is being all horrified about being Jamie's son, Ian is like "how dare you, any man would have been lucky to be his son." All the while, William could tell the poor guy that his uncle is alive, but fails to mention it in all the excitement. I also liked Rachel being horrified by the violence but also standing by her man when William allows Ian to be arrested.

We also get to meet Jane, a prostitute who William... befriends? If that's the right word? at the height of his despair over the revelation of his parenthood. He's rather awful to her at first, but then later he protects her from being taken by a man who wants to "bugger" her and likes it when the girls don't enjoy it. He takes her upstairs and offers her a night of repose, saying he won't molest her or anything. Jane, who offers William this plain first name in lieu of the "fancy" appellation of Arabella that she uses at work, seems to find William's honor charming enough that she actually does pursue sex with him, even though he's saying that his honor, his word, is the only thing he has left and he doesn't want to abuse it. It's a messy situation, because on the one hand William is saying no and Jane isn't stopping, but on the other, she's trying to give him a kindness in the only way she understands how, and he's so mixed up in the head about what's right and wrong that he doesn't know how to process anything that's happening. We'll see more of this dynamic later, and I'm anxious to see if they make any changes in adaptation...

Last thing before I turn to the juiciest stuff: we do have a moment where Jamie and William confront each other, but there's actually no opportunity for any sort of emotional catharsis or explanation. Earlier in the episode Jamie says he's sorry to John that William had to find out "our secret" and then says they'll find him and explain... but here, Jamie just shoves his son up against the nearest surface and threatens to expose him as a bastard if he doesn't get Ian free from capture. It's Jamie being very pragmatic and dangerous and very much damaging his already completely destroyed relationship with his biological son. Pour on the angst, why don't you!

The opening scene with John and Jamie - I was having the most fun staring at David Berry's face as John and just watching all the conflicting emotions. Delicious. On the one hand, Jamie's alive, and on the other hand, John has to tell him that he's had sex with Claire. I just kept thinking about how this whole scene is undoubtedly the most physical contact these two men have ever shared, what with Jamie tugging on John's arm and guiding him around Philadelphia, and then the uh... other kind of physical contact when Jamie is beating John bloody and John is basically egging him on. It's so twisted to imagine what John is thinking about everything that's happening. I love that he refuses to give Jamie the details, I love that he screams "I'm not bloody sorry" when the soldiers are dragging him away. Jamie spends this episode thinking himself the aggrieved party in this situation, and yeah, sure, hard not to see why he would feel that way - but at the same time, John didn't do anything wrong, in going to bed with Claire, did he? Strictly speaking? I also really loved the fact that when the rebel soldiers first turn up, Jamie's first instinct is actually to stop them from taking John. It's not exactly a protective instinct born of affection in that moment, but there's this sense that instinctively, he knows he and John are a thing separate from rebels vs. loyalists. He knows that this is a personal thing between them, and he doesn't want to hand John over into the hands of people who might mean him harm. The moment where you actually feel like Jamie has crossed a line, in my opinion, isn't really with the punching. It's when he gives John over and lets him be taken as a prisoner.

I could go on and on about the exchange between them, so much of this excellent dialogue is lifted straight from the book - Jamie's initial reaction being this kind of restrained and polite curiosity: "oh, why did you and Claire have sex? How interesting, please explain yourself" is sort of the tone here, and John's bewilderment is also such a treat. His incredulous anger: "What do you mean, why? I thought you were dead!" It's just such a treat for me that for all of the book moments that can't make it to screen, for all of the things they could have chosen to truncate or cut, it's my favorite stuff in the world that's getting the full drawn out treatment.

Then the Jamie and Claire scene, which happens a bit differently than in the books - the fact that it happens at Lord John's residence and that they end up having their reunion sex on his dining room table is frankly just... sending me. But honestly the whole scene is delicious, perfect acting from them both. When Claire is explaining what happened, there's this moment where you think Jamie will have to be moved to understand: Claire has just finished saying that she was contemplating suicide, and that John had the look of a man about to throw himself off a cliff, and that she really needed triage in that moment, that John provided her solace when she was at the depths of despair. There's this look on Jamie's face like he can't help but be moved by the idea of these two people being so deranged in their grief that they did this insane thing they never would have done in their right minds. But then, Jamie suddenly asks, quite calm and matter of fact: "did he bugger you?" And it's such a slap in the face to Claire and to the viewer both. Jamie isn't going to be super-human about this, he isn't going to be emotionally mature enough to accept what happened and move on. He's jealous and he's mean about it, and I love the drama there.

I also feel like this scene elevated the weird emotional triangle between Jamie, Claire, and John, even from what it is in the books. Claire has a line about how she couldn't bear to be alone and also she couldn't bear for John to be alone, and she seems so genuinely worried about John and what Jamie did to him. Then there's the beat right before Jamie decides to set aside the matter (for now), where he talks about how at Helwater, when Geneva died and William was a baby, John saved Jamie's life with his friendship. He's drawing a parallel - both of them know what it is to have John Grey hold you together when you're on the verge of falling apart. Another weird twisted way in which each arm of this triangle act as mirrors to one another. So juicy!

Meanwhile, John's eye is a mess because of Jamie's attack, and Denzel gets word that John is going to be hanged as an example, because he's deemed important enough to make a spectacle out of. So Denzel arranges to help John escape. The end of this episode is framed so amazingly and hilariously, with Jamie and Claire having passionate and re-connecting sex on a table, while John is wearing an eye-patch and in utter disarray, running through the woods as a shot rings out behind him. Lord John Grey's No Good Very Bad Day. Somebody give that man a hug.

So yeah. This whole story-line is the best because it takes my favorite character, Lord John Grey, and just shoves him into such a Situation. I love putting blorbos in Situations, I really do. Can't wait for more of the season to play out - we've got a lot of juicy stuff ahead of us, and I'm so curious as to what makes the cut from the books!

9/10

[makoredeyes]

Keep it coming you say? 👀 I saw that tag! I'm ~quite~ bored, so here's a couple questions/whatever they're considered, lol.

Yes, flattery will get me very far here, indeed! To where? I do not know, but whatever, compliments! You deserve them. I'm rather sure my friends are tired of hearing me go on and on about destiny characters, ':)

How's your writing wip's going so far? I'm waiting very (im)patiently for any updates, I've totally not re-read everything forty-two times.. hope their all going well!

A little self indulgence here, but I like to think Andal Brask was the Hunter Vanguard when Osiris and Saint-14 were in, because.. come on, I'm rather sure the time frame adds up. I like to believe before, because their dynamic just seems really fun to me. Lots of great opportunities. (I partly blame that one fanart sylenth-l made of Andal and Osiris for this, it was really funny). What do you think their dynamic would be like?

What do you think it'd be like if the Iron Lords mysteriously came back alive? 👀 I'm talking, SIVA couldn't actually kill them because their ghosts hid in the light in their bodies, and SIVA only goes after non-organic materials right? Maybe it couldn't work it's way into the light, and as long as their ghost + light are intact, = alive. But *only* after the Warmind managed to get control over SIVA and free their physical bodies from harm? It's a thought I had, influenced by a few fics but I quite like the idea. Just imagine, a ghostless, lightless Osiris receiving word that maybe, they weren't as dead as he thought they were. Or Fel and Timur coming back only to realize what happened to Osiris?? Poor Sagira?? Learning lady Efrideet's alive? 👀 (Is that her name?)

Or perhaps, In this one fic, it's Timur and his special, take over your will little stunt he has, was keeping SIVA at bay, I think that's pretty neat too! So many possibilities! (If you were the one that wrote these, I hope you see this as a compliment cause I am not about to go dig through Ao3 to find them xD)

Either way, it'd be like a modern!au of the iron lords, for them at least, hah (I can just imagine Gheleon having a mental breakdown that their memorial involved fighting one another)

I can't really think of anything, but rest assured I will *probably* be back once I'm dome tormenting my poor boy Tevis

Ahaha yeesss YESSSS I feed me I'm such an attention whore lmao RIP XD. (fr tho bless you ;_; )

I am writing! There are longer gaps between posts rn because I have lots going on in my life, but also, because I am working on many fics at once. I counted the other day I have 26 WIPs but six I am actively working on in concert - three for Housefire that are all directly intermingled plot and timing-wise to the point where I'm not even entirely sure what order I'll be posting them in yet, another chapter for Things Found (I am trying to stay 2 chapters ahead with that to make sure I have a cohesive story for it), and two XXX stand-alone one-shots! I should fish out another teaser for everyone soon. I think it'll be one of the one-shots that makes it out next tbh they're the furthest along. But the naughty stuff is also the slowest to get written bc I yanno...can't write that stuff at work, etc. haha. But I've felt a new wind of motivation lately for writing and am picking away at these projects pretty regularly. <3

I'm going to admit I am not very well-read on the hunter squad in general, BUT iirc I believe Andal was Vanguard during the City Age. He was definitely around as I recall his presence in the comics. The problem with that time is that Osiris was largely absent. This was when the Cult of Osiris was gaining traction, and Osiris' obsession with the Darkness and the Vex was really heating up. He was neglecting his duties to the Vanguard (with Ikora often standing in as proxy for him) and he wasn't really paying attention to anyone else. Like. At all. There was a lot of unhappy tension even with Saint at that time. Andal, by all accounts, was a damn good fella though, and while I think just about everyone nettled Osiris, Andal also stuck up for him where he could. Even if Osiris couldn't appreciate that in the moment I'm sure he would come to later. I look at Osiris and see him as he is now, with some hard lessons learned and some hard losses under his belt, realizing a little too late some of the damn good souls he had in his court, Andal included. All of that said, 100% in a lighter, easier setting, a free-spirit like Andal (and/or Cayde...heaven forbid them both together!) would drive a stuffed shirt like Osiris up an absolute freaking wall with pure comical results, hands down.

(a side note, a brain storm, an insane thought that just poisoned my brain - a sweeter moment hidden from time: Andal's guitar and this gift of song Saint has hinted Osiris has....??????! I'm not melting it's just hot in here, right???)

As for Ironsbane and SIVA... I have INDEED put an awful lot of thought into this. Quite a lot. So much. I have my own ideas on ways to circumvent the disaster, O Reader Mine, but you're going to have to wait a while longer for me to write it. :3 (Housefire is, after all, ultimately, a fixit )

*but no SIVA attacks whatever it is programmed to, organic or not: and Rasputin set it on hundreds of Iron Lords and wiped them all out with the sole exception Efrideet and Saladin with the directives “REPLICATE, ELIMINATE, IMMUNIZE” it was not what SIVA was made to do but he deliberately repurposed it into a weapon. (I could go on for years about Rasputin and his darker epochs, but especially his misappropriation of SIVA lol)

** Your mention of Timur and his spooky skills DID remind me of another fic I need to get back to as well OTL TT_TT I still have requests I took in January I have yet to complete. At this rate it's going to take me all year to get them all done and by then I'll be taking more aahaha whuups.

[terresdebrume]

Actually, speaking of Charles and Crystal's situationship and how it interacts with Charles' trauma, I have some thoughts about their two main scenes (the kiss and the not break up) and I'm going to start with the kissing scene and keep the other one for a different post

Prefacing this with the fact that Crystal is doing her best in a shitty situation with no model for or experience with healthy relationships and while I'm looking at this from the angle of 'this is actually probably fucking Charles up a fair bit' I am NOT here for Crystal bashing (hmu if you want to talk about Crystal's fucked up situation though, girl is Going Through It)

So the thing about the C/C kissing scene is that not only is it more about both of them trying to get the Devlin house out of their head, I think it's also the result of Charles' survival mechanism meeting the fact that Crystal is too in her head to be emotionally available when Charles needs it, and as a result kind of paves the way for Charles' later outburst

As a reminder, the scene goes like this (transcribing this with netflix on):

Charles & Crystal sit on Crystal's bed. Both fiddle with their hands, both are looking at the floor. Crystal: Today totally sucked. Charles: Yeah. Yeah it did. Crystal, glancing at Charles: Mmm, at least it's over now. Charles, still not looking at her, visibly tense: You know I've... [chuckles] Wow. I've been angry for such a long time. He looks at Crystal Crystal, nodding: Mmm. And I'm tired of riddles and spirits and demons and not being any closer to finding out who the hell I am. Charles does a little sigh and relax/deflate. Crystal, looking at Charles: I just want something that's real. Charles visibly makes a decision, then kisses Crystal. Crystal, surprised, rubbing her lips like they tingle: Could you even feel that? Charles: No. Shakes his head. But it doesn't matter. They kiss again.

The thing that strikes me here is that Charles was actually trying to talk about his trauma. He starts the scene wanting to discuss his emotions, something that he probably assumes

Would make Edwin uncomfortable

Crystal will understand because at this point I think he still thinks Crystal is angry like he is

I'm also reasonably sure he doesn't know about Crystal's encounter with David in the house. I don't think Edwin would have mentioned it, for one. Secondly, the scene reads like this is the first occasion they've had to sit down and discuss anything (so no prior catch up) and thirdly, and most relevantly, I think if Charles knew about David's little stunt while he was in the loop, it wouldn't even occur to him to bring up his personal issues.

Again, this is not a diss against Crystal. I think if she realized what Charles was trying to do she'd do her best to listen. Unfortunately, she doesn't realize, and I think what happens here is that Charles' takeaway is that Crystal's ongoing issues need to be prioritized over the recent development with his, because she needs comfort and Charles fixes things both as a protection measure and as a way to be loved needed and appreciated.

So, when Crystal says she needs something real, I think Charles makes a conscious decision* to give her something real and nice that'll take her mind away from the bad places it's stuck in. At the same time, I think he's also sinking into kissing (which he's missed) and being seen by someone his age who's alive so he can tell himself that it's close enough to what he wants for him to be okay...and in doing so, he adds a layer of repression to a very recent re-traumatizing event and precipitates the build up for the lethal confrontation with the Night Nurse.

*Based on the fact that Crystal has expressed interest in the option before. I'm 100% positive the kiss wouldn't have happened if Crystal had been on a hard no from the start.

[sapphire-weapon]

(1) Hey there! I've been totally engrossed in your meta analyses on RE. You've nailed everything I've felt about the Aeon ship but couldn't express. It's tough to share views on Aeon nowadays without backlash. Their dynamic always puzzled me, like I get the trauma bonding and that they care abt each other, but come on, she keeps being part of the world Leon swore to destroy and that's not enough of a red flag for him? (cont)

(2) With the RE4 remake, it looks like they're trying to change their whole relationship, and I'm here for it. It's obvious he's rejecting her, but people blindly try to convince themselves they're a thing. They will look for the dumbest or overanalyze things to prove Aeon is alive and well, but will ignore the devs' clear attempts to show Leon flirting with Ashley. Like it's right there. There's dialogue and everything lol (3) I've got a few questions for you, if that's okay. There are still some things about Ada I can't figure out (though I guess that's what makes her interesting), and I'd love to hear your thoughts. 1. Why does Leon let Ada take the sample? Do you think she knew he wouldn't stop her?

Just for clarity's sake -- you said later that this was about Remake, so we're talking about the Amber, not the Sample.

Leon lets Ada take it for two reasons:

He trusts Luis. And if Luis and Ada had an arrangement, then Leon trusts that Ada's not going to sell the Amber to someone who shouldn't have their hands on it.

He knows what happened the last time he got between Ada and her mission objective: she almost fucking died. Would've died if not for something breaking her fall.

I don't know if Ada knew that Leon wouldn't stop her, but I'd be willing to bet that that was the reason why she namedropped Luis in the first place. She saw the "for Luis" scene; she probably banked on Leon trusting Luis more than he distrusted her.

And she was right.

2. In SW, Ada shows concern for Leon, like her voice softening when she talks about him. She's clearly into him sexually, but do you think she'd want something more than just a physical relationship? (cont.) (4) Could this be tied to her self-perception, like maybe she's pursuing Leon to prove something to herself, maybe a sign of insecurity?

Still talking about Remake, just to be clear.

I'mma be real wit u homie: I don't see what you see here. I've played through SW a few times, but I never noticed her voice softening for him in this way. I saw her speaking at a lower volume because she's talking to herself, but that's because... she was talking to herself.

So the answer is no and no. None of Ada's sense of self is wrapped up in Leon. At all. She has some sentimental attachment to him because Ada gets sentimental about people and things (for reference, see: Ada being sincerely hurt when Wesker rejects her in chapter 3, also Ada honoring Luis's memory and dying wishes for the remainder of SW after he dies), but she has no real concern for him otherwise. He's just a Thing that she wants, and Ada goes after what she wants.

3. What future do you see for Aeon? How could their relationship evolve if it's not just about tension or hints of a physical relationship like in the OG timeline? Do you think Ada will have some character growth, especially in RE6? They tried so hard to show Ada had a heart, and Aeon seemed almost like a couple, but that didnt go anywhere... again lol. (cont.)

Still talking about Remake.

In order:

There is no future for Aeon.

Right now, there is no evolution possible for their relationship, because Ada isn't there yet as a character. She needs to be someone that Leon can actually trust, and she isn't. He explicitly pushes her away in 4 for that reason. Her character change in 4 is a good start, but that's all it is. Ada still has a lot of independent growing to do in order for Leon to even tolerate her, and I honestly don't know when they could possibly fit that into the events of the series. They would have to create whole-ass new games that take place in between numbered titles just for the Remake timeline, and I really just don't see them doing that.

I've said this over and over again, but: we need to see what RE5make does. It doesn't sound like Wesker's just going to let her betrayal go this time like he did in OG, and there's a real possibility that RE5make won't kill him off. It is impossible to speculate on RE6make right now, and I wish people would stop asking me to.

Don't forget that RE6 OG ends with Leon rejecting Ada, too. There's no point to building up Leon and Ada's relationship just to have him reject her again. He's already rejected her now in 4. We're past that. Moving on. There's a real opportunity for Capcom to do something completely new with Ada's character now that they've wrapped up the Aeon melodrama early, so let's just... let them.

(5) Do you think Leon being on his own in Infinite Darkness and Death Island, with no Ada references, means CAPCOM is rethinking the ship in the OG timeline? Could CAPCOM's preference for keeping characters single be part of this (if thats even true and not another random news some fans made up)? or maybe they don't know what to do with them?

RE6 ends with Leon rejecting Ada. It's already been rethought. It's over. It's done. It's been decided. The Aeon arc has concluded. The focus of Leon's character going into the end of his story is now his relationship with the government -- which is where it should've been all along.

If they go back on that rejection in RE9, that's bad storytelling. And I actually trust the current writing staff at Capcom to know that and stick to the script. But who knows, they could always make a fool of me in the end.

I also don't know where "Capcom prefers the characters to stay single" even comes from. I've never seen a source, never read a quote, never been linked to an interview. I'm pretty sure it's shit that fans made up because they're salty their ship isn't canon yet lmao

Thanks a ton for your insights. They've really helped me get more out of the games and improve my own analysis. I'll definitely support you on Kofi! 💖

<3333333333 I don't have a functioning Ko-Fi currently, but I appreciate the sentiment all the same.