#like the rest i can forgive i guess they can be up to interpretation

[smol-soop-spoon]

tsh fancastings be like:

-yassified henry winter

-Most Mid Looking Man richard

-the most coquette, femme, long-haired, full face of makeup camilla in dresses and skirts

-uuuuhh here's this redhead handsome guy i found on pinterest ig

-dudebro bunny, handsomeness depends on whether this person likes him or nah

-somehow a blonde guy that looks Nothing like the camilla actress (handsomeness also quantified on personal preference)

[sexlapis]

What if y/n and toji got into an argument and like the fans can tell and then they make up 🤭

awwww yesss :(((

making up

actor!toji x actor/actress!reader

parasocial relationships, making up, petnames (‘kid’)

actor!toji masterlist

*

fans don’t know what happened, but you and toji seem to be so…distant all of a sudden.

one day there were clips of the two of you on set, being all touchy and giggly and happy but then the next…you two hardly touched each other, we’re clearly avoiding one another and barely a glance was spared between either of you.

you and toji’s fanbase had no idea what happened and, being the people in a parasocial relationship with two actors that they were, they descended into panic and chaos.

rumours started flying around the internet, claiming that you and toji have broken up, that the “tojiyn ship has sunk” and “rip tojiyn”. accounts dedicated to you and toji as a couple were in tatters and dispair, threatening to close their whole accounts if this rumour was confirmed. many of your own fans were upset, but others were hoping for this rumour to be true, as they didn’t even think toji deserved you anyway and they had no shame in letting that be known. this could also be said for toji’s fans - they were happy to see you gone so that they could be delusional and hope to have a chance with the toji fushiguro. hell, even some body language interpreters jumped in to analyse the clips of you and toji. it was crazy to say the least.

your mangers had to call you both out on it and they told you both to suck it up and stop making things difficult for yourselves.

the reason for the argument?

it was a silly thing really.

you were just tired and stressed out from work. you didn’t mean to shout and snap at toji even though he was being kind to you. but you did. you’re sure he didn’t mean to shout back at you either. but he did. you didn’t really want to storm out of his house and back to your apartment. but you did.

and you both have barely spoken since.

tears well up in your eyes as you sit on the ledge of a sidewalk outside the building you’re filming in, cars blurring past you, fluorescent lights streamlining across your vision while you hold your head in your hands.

i guess i’ll be working overtime tonight.

the sky is dark and the streetlights suddenly come to life, casting a golden glow around you.

you sigh, resting your head on your knees, mind still stuck on toji.

“hey.”

a yelp leaves your mouth. you turn your head and- speak of the devil, there stands toji with his hands in his pockets, looking awkward and uncomfortable.

“toji! you hiss. “you scared me!” you look away and back at the busy street.

“right- sorry ‘bout that,” toji seems flustered when he huffs out his words, scratching the back of his head and puffing out his cheeks before strolling and plopping down right next to you, “‘think it’s time we talked, kid.”

guilt stirs up in your chest and you pick at your nails, “m’yeah. maybe…”

toji sighs and scoots closer to you, placing his hand over your fidgety ones. he smooths his thumb over your knuckles.

“look, m’sorry, alright?” toji utters softly, his eyes tender as he looks into yours. “‘shouldn’t ‘a shouted at you. i was a fucking dick.”

you bark out a slightly tearful laugh and blink out the glossiness in your eyes. “yeah, no, it was my fault too. i was an asshole. you were being wayy too nice.”

you look at him and he’s smiling, a dimple appearing on his left cheek.

toji looked so sweet, in his cosy, black winter coat and beanie.

humming, you slide a little closer to him, holding your hands out, “forgive me?”

toji scoffs and basically lurches forward, tugging you onto his lap in your arms as he litters your face with kisses, making you cackle and flush.

“yeah, kid, i forgive ya.” toji speaks and places one final kiss on your forehead.

*

the next day, photos of you and toji sitting on a sidewalk and cuddling flood the timelines of your fans, who (mostly) rejoice in the clear reconciliation of whatever unknown incident took place.

a/n: yeah actor toji is so back woohoo

[nalyra-dreaming]

i dont know if this is already asked, if so just ignore the ask! I love both Lestats from show and books. But I feel they have quite different personalities. Many times it feels like a very different character. Maybe its just me? I know in the books there is a big shift between the first book and the rest in that regard, but I think show Lestat doesnt match IWTV book nor the rest in terms of his personality.

I know a big part of it its because S01 and S02 is a distorted tale. And real Lestat will be different S03 forward. Thats not my concern. The question is, do you think Lestat personality will match book Lestat from now on? Will he feel like its the same impulsive funny naive child-like full of love brat prince ? Or are they creating another version of Lestat that is different from the books and also different from S01 and S02? ( In the sense, the POV will change sure, but it still not /quite/ like the books? )

I think Sam will make very sure we will get the ... let's say "correct" Lestat as soon as we get the real Lestat.

Remember, at SDCC 2024 he said that we had NOT seen the real Lestat yet.

But... nonny, forgive me, but Lestat isn't "funny naive child-like full of love" throughout the chronicles??

He battles severe depression and body dysmorphia, fights for his agency, often, reframes the abuse he experiences as love. He tries to convince himself he's evil because his existence just does not make sense, the guilt is eating him alive, he hides his pain behind a deliberately superficial behavior pattern at times. He is impulsive, yes, but naive? Hardly. He loves, deeply, defiantly, but he has PTSD from his turning up to the last books. Throughout the chronicles he fights what happened to him, namely that he was

"Chosen for his looks, raped into darkness, abandoned right after, forever and desperately trying to get past that superficial and harrowing judgement."

I'm putting this into quotation marks, because I said this before, 1,5 years ago. He was chosen for his looks, and the event he himself calls the "cosmic error".

I don't know which books you've read, or which circles of mutuals you are in.

I know the fandom likes to joke about how dumb Lestat acts at times, or his (supposed) illiteracy... As someone who was kept from knowledge myself and had to fight to get to it I find that hardly funny, especially since Lestat is actually highly clever and reads a lot, and can also speak a lot of languages. Oh, and of course he is the author of most of the VC 💀 And I don't find his wildly flailing depression-fueled actions dumb either.

But I guess that is a matter of taste and interpretation.

(I'm not saying that you think that, I'm just saying I do not.)

Lestat is a brat (at times, and I mean, that title was given by Marius, right), and he is capricious, and full of love, yes. He is also full of pain, and guilt, and battling it constantly. And hiding it constantly, too.

That is why I keep saying that I am thankful for Anne for writing those last three books.

Because at the end, in Blood Communion - they (not only Lestat) do find some peace and acceptance. And themselves.

As for the show, as said at the start - I trust Sam to deliver Lestat, even more than I trust Rolin etc to write him. See the monologue in episode 6, for example, where he made sure of it being clear he was forced. Etc.

He will give us "Lestat".

I'm not sure it will be the one you will be expecting?^^

But that will remain to be seen/shown.

[icedragonlizard]

I'm probably going to be obliterated for this, but I'm bold enough.

I think it eventually deserves to be said, anyways.

Consider this the follow-up to a post I wrote a few days ago.

For clarification, I'm not at all trying to say that the whole Mecha Knight thing in Planet Robobot wasn't messed up. Overall, it was messed up. Yes, what Susie did to Meta Knight was indeed quite bad.

But it's very clear that the Kirby fandom has absolutely blatant double standards when it comes to this sort of thing.

While it's understandable to find enjoyment in milking angst out of such an incident, I believe that people exaggerate Mecha Knight.

Some people love to go on about how Meta Knight suffers from horrible medical trauma after Planet Robobot. About how much he hates Susie's guts, will never ever forgive her, and wants her to die. About how this was basically the worst thing to ever happen to him.

But if I'm being honest, I don't think Mecha Knight was that much different from all the times that King Dedede has been possessed.

Where's all the talk about Dedede being traumatized from all his possession incidents? Hello?!?!? Do people just act like he's not that traumatized or that he easily toughs out his possession incidents while Meta Knight was just messed up so darn bad by being a robot?

Actually, I have seen people talk about Dedede being traumatized by Dark Matter, but it's absolutely nothing like talk about Mecha Knight. Still double standards.

To be fair, I can somewhat understand the big discrepancy of how Mecha Knight is treated compared to Dedede's possessions. After all, Meta Knight is quite literally the Kirby's fandom blorbo (aside from Magolor, I guess) and turning someone into a robot against their will can very much indeed be a lot more nerve-striking in comparison.

But was Mecha Knight really truly so much worse than Dedede's possessions? Does it really deserve to be treated like it's such an unfathomable, unspeakable, harrowing tragedy... compared to Dedede's incidents being treated like they're no big deal at all?

... In my opinion, no.

Meta Knight shook off roboticization pretty quickly after the second Mecha Knight fight. He's then quick to get on top of the Halberd while the rest of his crew gets it up and flying. Funny how it's that instead of him just sitting there crippled and helpless after the robot armor breaks off of him. I dunno about you guys, but he looks fine!

While I myself do imagine that he'd certainly have been somewhat messed up and traumatized by being a robot, and while I do imagine he would be mad at Susie over it for a while, I sincerely don't agree to the extent of how some people depict it. It didn't ruin his life like some people think. It hurt him, but not ruin him. He's been through bad stuff before. If you ask me, it's more like a "regular Tuesday" for him instead of being the absolute total life-ruining experience for him. He's been able to heal from the incident and is doing just fine.

And for the record, I don't buy into the "Meta Knight hates Susie SO MUCH and wants her dead" headcanon. I don't necessarily headcanon them being friends, and I think he was initially angry at her, but his anger at her slowly fades in my opinion.

Can we please not overlook some of Dedede's possession incidents? Let's not pretend that Taranza is an innocent little guy and that he hasn't hurt Dedede before. Although I believe that being used like a puppet by Taranza was far from Dedede's worst possession incident.

I like to imagine that Dedede suffered from true traumatization from 2 out of the 3 times he's been possessed by Dark Matter, as well as the time he's been possessed by Fecto Forgo during Forgotten Land.

He's been able to heal and get better, but it did hurt him at first.

Dark Matter lowkey turned his stomach into a set of jaws, and then formed a giant unnerving eyeball onto his stomach. That had to hurt, methinks. It also wouldn't help if one were to interpret that Dark Matter was preying on Dedede's flaws, making him easy to possess.

When Dedede was possessed by Fecto Forgo, he was ordered to hurt his own waddle dees. He couldn't have felt good about that afterwards, especially with how much he's shown to care about his waddle dees to the point he goes out of his way to save one singular waddle dee from the stampeding Beast Pack after he's been freed.

In my opinion, if Meta Knight has been messed up by Susie, then I think that there's no way Dedede hasn't been a little messed up one way or another by the Dark Matter and Fecto Forgo possessions as well. While I certainly believe he's been able to heal and overcome them, I think he was hurt over them initially after they were over. For me, it's basically the same of how Meta Knight had a phase of being traumatized by what Susie did to him until he's come around to heal.

I prefer to think that the incidents are similar instead of just "OMMGG poor meta knight was screwed up so darn bad, and dedede's possessions weren't really a big deal, they were much much less bad."

And I don't at all call for anyone to hate on Taranza, Dark Matter, Fecto Forgo, Yin Yarn or anyone else that has possessed Dedede. They don't deserve that, in my opinion. Just like how I think Susie is honestly not deserving of the level of hate she's received for Mecha Knight.

Was Mecha Knight a messed up incident? Yes. But let's not pretend that some of Dedede's possessions weren't messed up as well. Mecha Knight is certainly more nerve-striking... but from an objective standpoint, it's not significantly worse. And I think Dedede has overall faced more trauma than Meta Knight has, since the former has been possessed much more times. Sorry, but I don't think one robot incident outweighs multiple possession incidents. I just don't.

HAL doesn't at all appear to treat Mecha Knight like it's so much worse than all of the times that King Dedede has been possessed.

Oh wow, this is getting a bit long, but yeah that's basically it. I just felt like it needed to be said that it's almost absurd that Meta Knight being turned into a robot once is all it takes for the fandom to metaphorically riot on the streets while ignoring Dedede's possession incidents.

I'm well aware that I might be playing with fire while writing this. But I'm bold. I'm gonna brace myself for however some people react to this. Not sure if it'll get to the point where I'll be forced to delete this.

The double standards in this fandom gets on my nerves.

[nicosraf]

What was ur thought process into making or developing Samyaza?? Or all of the watchers..I’m like 50% into the book and he’s hypocritical to me like he makes these back handed remarks abt azazel having a man but like does it matter cause you all are sinners in the eyes of god and it seems he wants to get rid of everybody on earth so far

It seems like most of the watchers still hold some type of bias towards the “sinners” of Heaven for being a “whore” but you guys aren’t even in heaven (and won’t be treated the same when u return) and you guys are doing the same thing :/ even having tons of babies like did you guys even think abt this being a possibility???

I feel like this is an unpopular opinion but I kinda dislike Samyaza it seem like after everything that’s happened he still doesn’t try to see different view points on life on earth apart from his. He chalks up Armoni not particularly liking his wife (that he was practically forced to marry) as just Armoni being his usual distasteful self. :(

I may just have to reread a couple of pages to try and understand Samyaza or any of the the watchers. But I LOVE your works and I think they’re amazing and I didn’t want this to come off as passive aggressive I guess I’m just confused abt some of these characters since I don’t think like they do

I realized this just seems like a rant but still you’re writing is AMAZING💕💕💕 you’re really inspiring as a writer 😋

a&m spoilers

Hello! I'm curious if your thoughts have changed since you sent this ask, but disliking Samyaza definitely isn't a minority opinion!

I think almost all my betas disliked Samyaza at the start, but they all liked him by the end. I think, for most readers, Samyaza is hypocritical, selfish, and etc., but the amount he suffers by end makes it so that.... well, yes, Samyaza might be a bit aggravating at times, he definitely didn't deserve any of what happens. And he does change as a person, at least I think so.

The story of Enoch sort of lends itself to the interpretation of a husky, tortured fallen angel who sweeps a beautiful woman off her feet and has to choose between her or God, his Father. I like to say this is the version of Samyaza that I would have been able to write if I wasn't as gay as I am, but my reasoning for not making him that is a little more complicated.

I like writing hypocrites, and I liked the idea of an angel that saw his struggle similar to a woman's, feeling a solidarity with her instead of just sexual attraction. One part of Enoch that always struck me is the passages about the Watchers crying and begging Enoch to talk to God for them. I thought the angels being unsure or not really knowing that this would make God as mad as it did was interesting. I liked the idea of him being an angel associated with water because of his role in the flood, so I made him a lesser angel of healing. I can go on and on.

In my original concepts of A&M (YEARS ago), I intended for Samyaza to be much more of a bad person, almost an antagonist to Azazel. But as I outlined, I started falling in love with this version of him.

Btw, it's okay if you dislike Samyaza and even dislike him after finishing the book. Not all characters have to be loved, and Samyaza would agree with you that he doesn't really deserve anyone's love or forgiveness after what he's done.

I can talk more about the Watchers if you like! I really like all of them :') Thank you for the ask! I'm happy you like my writing. I hope you enjoy the rest of a&m

[therealpactcommander]

Commander Week Day 4 - Elder Dragons

- This is very rushed, I had writer's block all day lmao. It's literally six minutes to midnight rn.

“It’s done, Champion.”

“Anyone on comms? Anyone seen Braham?!” Thorne yelled into his communicator, fuzzy heat behind his eyes. That was a large amount of magic that just got released, and the magic radiation that had leaked from Zhaitan alone had killed so many soldiers.

Rytlock’s voice broke through the static. “We haven’t found Ryland, either-”

“I don’t CARE about Ryland!” Thorne screamed before he could stop himself, trudging through the snow. He turned the corner and gasped. “There he is! Braham!!”

Thorne dug Braham out of the snow, sighing with relief when he stirred.

“I'm— whoa... How am I not dead...?”

“You did it,” Thorne chuckled, trying to keep his voice steady.

“How many did we lose?” Braham groaned as he forced himself to sit up.

“Not as many as you would think,” Thorne’s voice wavered. “We almost lost you-”

“I'm good, Commander.” Braham interrupted. “I know I did what I had to do. Just need a second to remember... myself.”

Thorne took another breath, trying to keep himself calm. “The spirits… are they..?”

“They kept me from falling off the edge. ‘Wasn't easy. They're gonna need time to recover.”

“You need time, Braham. To rest. To heal.”

Braham smirked. “You are the biggest hypocrite I've ever met, Commander.”

“Ryland, give it up—”

“Settle down! It's over!”

Thorne looked over to Salem. “Can you go help Rytlock?”

The young charr nodded, running towards the drop point.

“The past few days are a blur. If not for the Spirits— and you— I'd be another body on the battlefield.”

“Don’t say that.” Thorne growled. “You don’t remember anything? Anything at all?”

“Just glimpses. The Spirits did all they could to shield me from being completely overtaken by Primordus.” Braham shook his head. “But what I remember— the things I did— I don't think I can ever forgive myself. No one should.”

“That’s not true.” Thorne growled. “I’ve done worse without being a dragon cha- okay, without being unable to control myself.”

“I guess…”

“And… the prophecy…”

“Prophecies have a way of being right and wrong at the same damn time. I guess it's how you interpret them. I don't know. Either way, this ‘norn of prophecy’ ain't gonna waste his second chance.”

“Well, this ‘norn of prophecy’ is just… glad you’re back.” Thorne’s tail shifted to curl around Braham. “That you're okay…”

“I don't know about ‘okay.’ But… I'm alive.” Braham sighed.

“Don't ever do that again.”

Braham scoffed. “Oh, come on, Commander. You sacrifice your life for Tyria all the time!”

Despite Braham trying to joke around, Thorne was silent in response.

“Commander..?”

A soft hiccup.

Oh.

He was crying.

“Why? Why did you do that?!”

“Thorne- I had to-”

“Everyone I've ever seen as my family has died in front of my eyes, and I- if you-” He put his head in his hands. “You're like a brother to me, Braham, I- I couldn't handle it! I couldn't take it again!”

“Oh… oh.”

“You almost died,” Thorne cried softly. “You almost died!”

“Hey, but I didn't.” Braham said firmly. “We’ll… figure this out. Let's just get out of here first. I have one hell of a headache,”

Thorne wiped his tears with a soft chuckle. “Can I get a Ka-Braham?”

“I may be exhausted and in a state of perpetual self-loathing right now, but that doesn't mean I can't muster up the energy to knock you on your ass, Commander.” Braham laughed before wincing. “Ow.”

“You need rest. Like you said, we'll talk later. I'm going to go help Salem before she tears Ryland’s throat out.”

“Right, good idea. You do that,”

Thorne huffed, standing up and walking through the fallout of two elder dragons. He had killed Jormag, just like he imagined as a child.

He didn't realize it would just make him feel worse than he already did.

[jonathan-cranes-mistress-of-fear]

Hello, I hope this is okay for me to send. I'm one of the blogs you blocked. (First off, this is your good right, and I completely understand and I hope this isn't a breach or invasion of privacy to send this from a different blog)

I always made sure to only tag content of Nolanverse Crane when it's really him and not any other Cillian role because I understand the frustration. And like I said, I absolutely understand that he's not a proper Scarecrow in your eyes. But it kind of hurts to get lumped into a group where I don't feel like I belong (if that makes sense)

Scarecrow in general is my favorite character in any comic related media. Arkhamverse Crane and Audio Adventures are at the top for me, and I also have a deep love for Fear State and little fan interpretations where he's just a funky little freak. My blog is Nolanverse centric atm because I just haven't gotten around to writing fics for the others. (And I'm worried I won't write them well tbh)

But all of that aside, my reason for actually sending this was because I was genuinely missing your posts and opinions on my dash. I was honestly a little worried that I didn't see anything from you before I realized what happened.

This isn't me being angry or petty and please don't think I feel entitled to seeing your posts (I don't want to be THAT person)

I guess this is just me saying goodbye to a pillar of the Scarecrow fandom, and it makes me a little sad

From the bottom of my heart, I hope your mom's recovery goes well and you have a great rest of the day/week/month. And a happy early birthday, Moffy

(ALSO SORRY FOR THIS ESSAY OMG)

A couple of things </3

I THINK I knew who this is. I blocked one person after I made that post. Looking back, that was probably a stupid mistake. I'mma unblock to check when I post this, and you let me know? (I was thinking....oh god I'm gonna get hate from the fangirls and taht legit clouded my judgement. I still fear anon hate)

See, that post was mainly about people I blocked weeks/months ago. I often only block the fangirls, for lack of a better word. I actually made the Cillian post on a whim. I needed some content for the day. (you probably know I upload daily) And sometimes, a little anger is okay. it's a valid emotion. Again, the people I block are more fans of the actor than the character. My main complaint was seeing Cillian stuff, which was not from the movies, in the tag. It just sorta....clogs it up?

Anyway, I can clearly see you're not one of them. If some reason , within the next ten minutes, you're still blocked. Send me the url. I am human. I understand. Mistakes and stupid shit happens. (especially with all I am dealing with irl) (I've been so stressed I think it clouds my brain)

You clearly love the character behind the actor, and I respect that. I think you may have been following me, cus my count went down after I blocked ya. So yeah, I did think that was WEIRD.

I'm sorry if you felt lumped it, it was just an error on my part. I hope you can forgive that.

and ya know, just because I'm not a fan of nolancrane, doesn't mean it's bad. I should reiterate, it brought so many into the fandom. That's great! I still reblog fan content of him. I suppose, the truth of the matter is my autistic brain doesn't do "live action" -- I can't think of one human who could play Jonathan Crane to my expectations. Voice actors yes, Dino Andrade forever lmao

But I just...live of art/comic/animation/games

and anything else feels uncanny. Like now. I dont imagine Crane as a real person. I have no image inside my head unless it's a comic illustration or game render. I Hoooope that makes sense

[autisticandroids]

anyway the thing about sam pov on toxic destiel is like. okay. list of things sam sees from the outside:

i think sam HAS to know that cas has a crush on dean. that seems too obvious not to have at least crossed his mind, and once you think of it it has a lot of explanatory power for cas' actions. sam might frame it in his head as cas is/was obsessed with dean but acknowledge that that has gay/crush-y undertones

this gets crazier the longer cas stayed dead after despair. like if he was dead a couple weeks it's a little like he wasn't gone at all but if our timeframe stretches to months or years that's a lot more time for dean's personhood to narrow down to the single point of "get cas back." which will affect both dean and cas' relationship when he is back and sam's perception of it

don't think sam really has an idea of dean having any feelings for cas. dean's feelings for cas are generally a private experience requiring significant interpretation so sam would not see them. he would just think of cas as dean's best friend

rest under a cut because good lord.

thinking about what sam has seen over the course of the show... he has missed a lot of crucial destiel moments both in terms of affection and also perhaps more pertinently in terms of conflict. like, i love to pull on the thread of the fact that he doesn't know dean kicked cas out of the bunker in i'm no angel, but like he also doesn't know the divorce arc happened. almost every emotionally significant moment between dean and cas has been totally private

so like what has sam perceived, really? well okay. chronological order: cas' behavior in the godstiel arc: cas perhaps being a little obsessed with dean, and definitely having a huge capacity to get his feelings hurt by turbulence in their relationship (with attendant capacity to lash out: sam is dean's bunny and cas will boil him if need be). additionally, in the godstiel arc cas proves himself to be like. extremely lovehungry, in general. next, dean being crazy post purgatory, which sam may or may not have picked up on as related to cas. next, cas defending dean and trying to repair the brothers' relationship in first born. this is something that sam would mostly probably have processed as deeply hurtful to him (sam) at the time, but in retrospect might see differently, especially with respect to the next incident he saw, stairway to heaven, in which cas proves very publicly that dean can do anything he wants to cas and cas will forgive him instantly. it seems like in season ten, see: soul survivor, cas might do some similar go-between buffer shit as in first born? it's less explicitly present on screen but i think the evidence of soul survivor plus cas' behavior in the back half of season nine is enough to speculate that season ten was a lot of that. we don't know how much sam saw in the aftermath of the prisoner; we know he mopped up the blood in a deleted scene but whether cas was still lying there when he came in is up to headcanon. i like both interpretations and haven't really picked one. in season eleven sam would have seen dean mother henning depressioncas and then freaking out over casifer. i don't know what he would have made of those but i do think it would strengthen his idea of the significance of their relationship. next thing he sees is stuck in the middle with you which is like. yeah if sam has been sitting on a hypothesis that cas has a crush on dean that's proof. then he would see the widower arc happen and see how losing cas really wrecked dean and getting him back totally fixed him. then i guess... cas' inability to recognize that he was truly on the outs with dean in absence? cas protecting jack by lying for him pre-absence, and cas standing up to dean for jack's sake in jack in the box/moriah. all of which would put sam in a complex emotional position because like. okay. cas trying to fix things in absence is from sam's perspective obviously foolish. cas trying to protect jack in jack in the box/moriah is also obviously foolish to sam because sam believes that resisting dean is an unwinnable battle but then like... cas kind of succeeds a little? and is definitely in the right. which is going to fuck up sam's head. he's not going to be sure what to do with that. and then cas hiding jack's soullessness pre-absence is going to fuck up sam's idea that cas is too dumb to know better than to behave this way. anyway the end of s14 is going to shake up sam's idea of cas and cas' relation to dean and cas' relation to sam a lot. and then dean's freakout post-despair. that's the evidence sam is working with to perceive cas and dean's dynamic

so the empty rescue goes like this: after the several-months timespan of inherit the earth, once the world is fixed, a year and a bit go by where first dean seems to be in a deep, silent depression and goes days without speaking to sam. and then sam realizes that dean has started researching how to get cas back in between bouts of drinking himself to sleep. sam offers help and is aggressively rebuffed. sam moves on with his life a little for a while, then is finally recruited into dean's obsession and brought into the research and rescue attempts. and eventually it works! after a year or so, cas is stumbling out of a gooey portal on the basement wall and collapsing on the floor

and dean is picking him up bridal style and carrying him to the room they prepared, and sam is just standing there watching this happen

for the next several weeks cas is convalescing in bed and dean is like. he's in there. he's in there all the time. sam knocks on the door once and dean blocks him from even seeing cas through the doorway. he's like. he's gotten territorial

cas is still an angel but he's functionally human for now, it could be months or even years before his grace replenishes enough that he doesn't have to eat or sleep you know

anyway. eventually cas is up and about. and sam sees him. occasionally. but he's still basically convalescent and dean is basically standing over his bed like a guard dog

at some point dean walks into the kitchen where sam is eating his cereal, announces "so me and cas are together now," and just walks back out again, leaving sam to just stare after him

break here because i got character limited. anyway.

the thing about this is that sam would parse this as. the thing is that the information dean has just given sam, as sam understands it, is "i have been in the closet for four decades." like dean has now recontextualized his entire life in sam's eyes. because sam now knows that dean has been In The Closet. sam right now is thinking back over shit like nick the siren and the whole benny debacle and being like. well. and like i think sam might assume that dean is gay? the thing about dean is that like. at this point it's been like six years since dean has hooked up with a woman. sam is still hooking up and having girlfriends but the one and only time dean had a long term relationship with a woman it was *checks notes* lisa. canonically, before lisa, dean had never had a relationship last longer than two months, and after lisa it's pretty much crickets. anyway salmondean are NOT going to have the "are you gay or bi?" conversation and in fact they will probably never, ever again have a conversation on the topic of sexuality. and so sam is just gonna sit there and stew in like, his own pity for dean, and his genuine recognition of the tragedy of dean's situation. like sam is also extremely aware of toxic masculinity and the way dean has struggled with it. he has frequently been the target of dean's toxically masculine bullying, but the thing about sam is he prides himself on not buying into his father and brother's toxic ideas (not totally true, but sam believes it), so the bullying mostly annoys him or rolls off him, but as part of his defense mechanisms against it, he already pities dean because dean buys into what sam recognizes as a toxic and bad system, and sam has to believe he (sam) is better than that in order to not be affected by the ways in which he (sam) is not suited for that system, so he has to look down on dean for buying in, in order to function himself. to be clear i think this is like a perfectly reasonable set of justifications one is inclined to generate if one is living with someone who is mean to one. it's like very much the "he can't help it he doesn't know better." which is i think sam's go to, for justifying the bad behavior of those around him. except with cas it's like "he's too Autism to know better" and with dean it's like "he's too Bamboozled By Our Father to know better." so sam is definitely reacting to dean with pity. but also dean's situation is genuinely tragic (deeply toxically masculine man takes forty years to finally stick one toe out of closet) so sam is very much processing that. and he's kind of in the back of his mind processing it For dean because dean is not visibly processing it at all, but sam knows that the processing must be Happening somewhere

sam never ever ever talks to dean about his relationship with cas. like. sam's not dumb enough to bring it up because he would get his ass kicked

he would ask cas about it though

okay so sidetrack. we have to talk about where cas is at. emotionally. because the thing about this situation is it's like simultaneously great and horrible. for cas. and cas being cas is going to plug his ears to the horrible stuff and only think about the good stuff. the thing about cas in this situation is that like. he's grieving jack. like he is knowingly grieving jack. and missing him. like if dean is resurrecting cas post despair, like. jack is functionally dead, at that point. like godjack is deadjack as far as cas is concerned. so cas is absolutely destroyed about that. and he's also terrified that his grief will be found out. and he also has a lot of background anxieties that kind of come from shit he's repressing. like, deep down, way under the hood, he's ashamed of the divided loyalties. he's ashamed that he has chosen dean over jack in the past, he's ashamed that he is currently right now in some way choosing dean over jack. he feels guilty that jack might in some way be out there and in need of his help and not actually functionally dead after all. and he is unable to deal with the idea that he could miss jack even when he has dean, like he can't deal with the idea that his world can be more than one other person to mold himself around. deepest of all he is so, so angry at dean (and sam!) for what they've done to jack, both in the context of letting jack become god and things before. but cas can't really process or acknowledge any of that. and so he just processes it as a vague miasma of anxiety. like it's very kleinian; cas feels this anger deep down at dean but he represses it and the anger is still there but the only way to see it is cas' like. fear of reciprocal anger. like he's so afraid all the time, and the reason he's afraid is that he's aware that he's angry on some level and he's afraid that dean is also aware of his anger and is mad at him in return. obviously none of this is conscious cas is just kind of anxious for no reason as far as he knows. plus it feeds into cas' anxiety re: he has dean now, and he has nothing else. like he has something to lose, but it's also The Only Thing, so he's clinging for dear life, which is a very anxious position to be in. but crucially cas is trying very hard to plug his ears and shout LALALALALALA to all the bad things and only pay attention to how happy it makes him to finally Have dean. anyway that's cas' emotional state during this fic

anyway from the outside, what sam sees is a cas who is like. quieter than usual, more subdued, but who absolutely lights up when dean comes up. like, from cas' end, dean is his one Safe Topic. dean and his current romantic relationship with dean is one of the few things he can really contemplate without hitting landmines. so from the outside cas would absolutely blossom when asked about dean

another government mandated break here.

oh it's also crucial that sam really doesn't see like. he doesn't understand about jack at all. like he can't really acknowledge the grief and guilt cas should be feeling (and doesn't, from the outside, seem to be), because like, if cas is on the hook for how dean treated jack, sam is really on the hook for how dean treated jack. like sam doesn't really see cas as More Jack's Dad than he is, and if sam is as much responsible for jack as cas is, then sam is doing a much worse job. and if godjack is a kind of death for jack, then that is absolutely sam's fault as well. so sam can't really like. use his logic to work out that cas is probably hiding some feelings about jack, because he can't acknowledge a lot of stuff going on

also like in sam's mind cas kind of won because he's been in love with dean for years? like sam has known about that. and sam understands cas as deeply lovehungry (to potentially a dangerous degree. remember when dean and cas had a breakup and cas lashed out by letting all of sam's hell trauma out of the box and into his brain?) and having been obsessed with dean for years and so kind of having like... won a war of attrition for dean's affection. like cas was so doggedly in love with dean that dean finally decided to accept him

anyway so cas is the person sam can ask about their relationship. and he is curious. and cas definitely gets all sunshiney about it and gives sam a very rose tinted account of things. this is partly because of all the issues enumerated earlier and partly because of like, a power dynamic that cas sees and sam doesn't where sam kind of outranks cas? and cas definitely feels like anything he says will be reported to dean. so he's definitely anxious to give sam a positive impression. this is also related to cas repressing shit, namely all the resentment built up over the years due to how horrendously dean has treated him. like cas cannot acknowledge it in any way but deep down, it's there, and that's another anxiety inducing thing, like the anger about jack. so cas has this nebulous fear of punishment that he can't name or really even acknowledge if he isn't the most grateful possible about how dean is soooo good to him and they're sooo in love. and so that's the face he shows to sam

that's all i've got so far?

[weirdcat1213]

AJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJ HAPPY DAYS AJJAJAJAJA :D YEY TRIGUN BOOKCLUB :D

THOUGHTS :D

chap 1:

-happy days and everything is going to shit...yeap thats trigun

-i just noticed they have separated rooms and that makes me sad for some reason

-i love to see that rem was nice to everyone but was also getting annoyed by that guy, shes not perfect and I LOVE HER

-ngl, im not sure if the other guys did something

-its so cool to see the scientists joking around for a bit but then getting to see them in silence cuz IT IS a weird situation to be in. you are alone in space and something happened "on its own"..... It makes the situation more serious

-LMAO HER FACE I LOVE HER SM

-it hasnt even been that expanded in 98 (im sorry for the spoiler ig) or stampede (YET), but rem is so funny. shes more than a living saint and im glad we get to see more of her here. shes the only mom ever

-NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO RIGHT

-also i thought knives *fixed* the thing, i forgot he caused it lmao

-arent they adorable? :3 pls dont touch them :3

-"it could end in disaster" you dont say....you dont say....

-NOT THEM SAYING YES IMMEDIATELY I WILL CRY

-BABY KNIVES WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU (ik what happened to him)

-"if you can love someone with all your heart then its alright".........im gonna take so time to think about that cuz....yeah, i guess thats true isnt it?

-oh that doesnt age wel...not even story wise but life wise....if we could only talk with each other

-ok so...is that a fucking ghost? and if it is, did she really appear when knives's faith in humanity was at its peak? really :c?

-OH ITS MY TIME TO GET SICK :D

-OK NO THATS SO INTERESTING CUZ HERE IS VASH WHO IS CURIOUS ABOUT TESLA AND WANTS TO READ THE REPORT BUT IN STAMPEDE (spoilers coming im sorry) IS KNIVES WHO WANTS TO READ IT. DID HE LOSE THIS FAITH *WAY EARLIER* THAN TRIMAX KNIVES??? HOW TF IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?????

-great....scientific....discovery.....you say......... so the scientists were ready for another tesla situation....

-pls no pls no pls no. you teach her how to speak and then you do that shit. stop

-by looking at the pictures and descriptions we can say that the scans began on her 13th day of life (multiple scans as the chapter mentions), and 87 DAYS LATER they started to ask themselves if that was correct to do from a moral standpoint...87 days. and just after they started to question themselves she started dying. just 10 days later...fuck

-"we have no desire to rest" WHAT ABOUT YOUR "SUBJECT" THO ASSHOLES

-its never not gonna make me sick how they killed a child in 100 days. thats all it took.

-ajjjj :c im fucking sick

chap 2:

-same vash same

-ily rem but no, thats too fucked up to forgive

-knives, my poor baby :c

-"i wish i could cut myself from everything too" oh mood, i mean what

-ok but rem trying to pick vash up and he refusing has to be so fucking heartbreaking for rem cuz thats her fucking child no matter what

-imagine your child who loved you so much rejecting you like that. i would literally shatter

-"you can continue the experiments with us" vash stfu i swear. catch me actually crying over that line btw im not ok

-INTERESTING how rem says she felt powerless (and i get why) but during the whole thing the crew had so much power over her life

-it fucks me up this is a one year old trying to die of starvation. yeah he looks older and etc etc but hes still less than 2 years old. life is pain. why nightow.

-also idk if im interpreting the panel right but i think he *was* going to eat but saw rem in his room so he stopped

-or are those different days? idk

-alright, today you are eating you sick son of a bitch :]

-NO STOP THAT YOU FUCKING CHILD

-the panel being blurry on purpose, 10/10

-hes sitting the same way rem did- oh im ending it all

-i feel kinda weird saying this but i just fucking love that story: the metaphor, how she tells it. it really feels like a parent trying to teach a kid something. its sad but feels comfy. i could literally read/listen to her telling that story of the train in her dreams over and over

-[pause for crying]

-its "separated ways" cuz that talk with rem lowkey divided rem i think. knives would be way different if he had heard what rem said. damn it why did he had to faint

chap 3

-"king of loneliness" pls i want to stop crying

-i know he didnt block the memory, i feel it

-yey creepy knives is here....yeyyy....

-amazing transition btw, gives me the yibbies every time

-HES RIGHT THO MF, YOU ARE AFRAID

-why he looks so cool while being creepy stop it knives stop it

-idk if im understanding it right, but i think knives did the thing he did in the first chapter but for all ships. it comes full circle

-god i hate when hes right

-im sad to say he looks beautiful and epic. also for the life of me i could not say if that plant agreed with him or not

-yknow what i think she didnt agree to that

-age of chaos wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii :D

[i took a one day break cuz the volume made me too sad BUT IM BACK BABY]

chap 4

-yeah ig my baby has been to so many funerals if you think about it

-YEAH TO THE RESCUEEEEE

-wolfwood: you dont wanna mess with this guy he will break you

the guy in question: :c

-aw his cute little and stupid face :3

-i love to see vash having a good time :') god he needed that

-oh man we're getting sad again

-also yes they take those people who did whatever they did but the bartender is also taking vash in, even the demons get to drink there huh, nice

-why tf is this guy so wise, why is he saying what vash (kinda) needs to hear? amazing, im devastated

-wait so the feathers or whatever hurt??? because of the face he made. SO DOES IT HURT???? NO :C

-knives can you not-

-ITS HIM IN ALL OF HIS FUCKED UP GLORY :D

-SHUT UP VASH, GEESUS

-the final panel its so cute and then there's the fucking speech bubble that says "dumbass" its true tho xd

chap 5

-NOT THE FUCKING FEATHER i dont want to go there

-he looks so tired :c

-oh shit i forgot about that panel of his face wth

-OH SHIT WOLFWOOD NO

-OH THATS CREEPY AS HELL YO WHAT

-"the last thing i want to do is be a burden to him" STFU WOLFWOOD AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

-SHES HERE OH SHIT OH SHIT

-"youre the one who needs to be careful" I WILL CHEW GLASS

-FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT

-OH GOD OH NO ITS HIM GET OUTTTT

-elendira ily sm

-thank you wolfwood for saying trans rights lmao

-HES ASLEEP. KILL HIM VASH KILL HIM

-oh no his glasses :c

-ah fuck hes awake noooooooooooo

chap 6

-LEGATO IN THE METAL HANDBAG :D WHAT WILL HE DO

-dont you bring tesla into this >:[

-idk whats happening but KILL HIM

-*sigh* i hate when knives is right

-DONT YOU DARE SAY THAT AFTER STAMPEDE MF :C "if they come for us lets just run as fast as we can" YOU ARE MAKING IT SO HARD TO READ THIS MAN

-also yey he regained his eye :3

-:cccccccccccccccccccccc im so happy that talk was in stampede

-also yeah vash hates knives with a burning passion but EVEN THEN he still was willing to give him a chance and live together with him, i cant do this anymore really

-im picturing legato kind of jumping in his metal handbag to move around as if he was in a sleeping bag cuz i think thats way funnier lmao

-:cccccccccc vash pls

-ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh :c his armmmm

-oh geesus oh god no OH HELL NO

-ohhhhh i see. look at legato being useful lmao /J

-THE ARK IS HERE WOOP WOOP

well that was certainly a volume

[omgkalyppso]

Étoile is an Oathbreaker

I just want to tell you all about my experience. (:

There were two early-game combat scenarios where Étoile almost broke their oath, but I felt like that wasn't a good moment to lean into this change / I'd rather have refought those fights to maintain Étoile's oath of devotion. And sometimes when I return to camp I get Shadowheart to Create Water on the party first so we don't have blood on us for camp dialogue? But one time I forgot and had started speaking to [temporary camp character] and told a little white lie so I could leave to do that, but this also resulted in oathbreaking; and aesthetics (being clean of blood) was not worth oathbreaking, so I reloaded.

Étoile made it to level 8 before I encountered a quest where I decided this was the moment that Étoile would become an oathbreaker, and it's mid arc and feels like perfect timing for it in their story.

If you open this and it's too long for you, you should still be able to press J to skip it on desktop.

Spoilers for Sidequest: Punish The Wicked and for Oathbreaker Paladin

.

Agents of Shar, under orders of a major antagonist (I'm unclear if he actually has Shar's favor or not) were having many people killed both arbitrarily and for the major antagonist some time 100 years ago at least. This included having a barmaid of a major inn / tavern report on people of the village. Anyone who insulted the major antagonist were killed by the the agents of Shar. Before being exposed to this information Étoile met a pale elf (who isn't Astarion) with a white raven, who wants this innkeeper, already dead, to suffer for what she did. You can do some quest things to get her to possess this elf and then have 4 options to resolve the quest.

have her stab herself in his body to atone for what she did

have her stab herself to death in his body to atone for what she did

convince her that it was her fault (she believes she herself was also a victim of the agents of Shar)

tell her it wasn't her fault (this pisses off the elf)

So I picked option 3 with Étoile and this resulted in the Oathbreaker spirit showing up. I guess they want me to forgive her to maintain a Paladin's oath (or "protect" her from this judgment? You can even instigate a fight with the elf over his mission, but what about this woman's victims? And this elf is fucking alive? Shouldn't I be protecting him over the rest of this dead woman's soul?).

I looked it up online to see if I'd missed anything and discovered if you kill him that there's a note on him about returning to the Shadowfell, and between his raven and the gloves he can give you which allow you to summon your own raven, he's clearly a Shadar-Kai representing the Raven Queen? And Étoile would not feel antagonistic towards him.

This quest was worth oathbreaking for Étoile. This elf's safety and sense of justice were not diminished by any other element of the quest.

Unfortunately that doesn't make it any easier on Étoile.

After this, despite Étoile having the Oathbreaker debuff and being unable to use Paladin abilities, I teleported to another area of the map to finish a different quest, and then to and from camp for Sheadowheart to give us a shower. But when I went to camp the fucking Oathbreaker Knight wasn't there and that save was broken.

I had to look up how to fix this.

So while running the game in directx11 and not vulkan, I went back to the save before the Shadar-Kai resolution, played that again so the Oathbreaker spirit showed up and then went straight to camp even though i still had spells and short rests. This worked for me, the Oathbreaker spirit was in my camp.

.

The tabletop dnd experience is that all Oathbreaker Paladins are Evil aligned, so I was worried that the game would interpret anything Étoile ever did after this as Evil.

And a friend brought up that in Old d&d before Sword Coast(s?) that only enemy Paladins could be Oathbreakers, not player characters.

And Étoile would have so many anxieties over this: about how reliable they are or not, about how prone to temptations or failed WIS / CHA saves (lol) they are. If they can't be who they are then who will be coming out the other side of their whole journey (wrt the illithid tadpole situation and more)?

How can they save anyone if they can't save themself?

And I've been telling friends about how their mothers were a paladin and a priest; so would their living mother be heartbroken? "Not angry, just disappointed"? Or understanding? (One friend said, have you considered that their mom would also be like "that bitch had it coming?" with regards to the spirit they held in judgment.)

.

Ultimately, the whole journey will leave Aranea (their drow priest mother) with a sense of relief if she just gets Étoile back / to see them again. After that wave of relief though, she would be disappointed — not exactly with Étoile, because she knows that they did and do act with good intentions and a strong moral compass, but partially with them anyway because of how this would complicate their (hers and Étoile's) relationship to their god, and partially with their god and with Paladins as a whole because she raised Étoile for this.

Étoile trained for this. It was a huge part of their lives and Étoile's identity and now it's broken and lost, and while they're still so young. It isn't like a human paladin who might invest 5-10 years of their life into their beliefs, but this was near 150 years in the making and it should have been an investment for centuries of their life. It would be a sore spot in conversation.

.

But that's my emotional support Oathbreaker spirit.

He's very comforting, and treats your Paladin very gently.

Jokes:

Paladin: i'm having a panic attack Oathbreaker: it's literally a non-issue. let me pat your head and you'll feel better

and

Paladin: you mean i can have morality but not in a rigid way, just like outside of my oath? Oathbreaker: you can do whatever you want forever

.

He says he shows up to every Paladin who breaks their oath to guide them. He asks why you broke your oath and Étoile told him that it was because they had to follow their conscience before their oath, that they had to betray their oath to stay true to themselves. He says this was a noble sacrifice.

You ask who he is and he says he is the first to have ever sworn himself to something and broken his vow, that he swore himself to his lord who ordered him to kill thousands of people and when he realized this wasn't for the greater good, he killed his lord, and for this, his people called him Oathbreaker.

You can tell him this was a very brave thing to do, and he says that it was just a decision. Like so many decisions he's made since then.

You can ask him what he did after this, and he says that he used the darkness with a candle of light to help what people he could, independent of good and evil. There was only his decisions, just as you will have yours, and that he will always support you, now that you're on this path.

You can tell him you're ready (or you can ask how you can restore your oath, which apparently is baked into the game for a gold cost. i didn't look into it, it wouldn't suit the linear way I want to play this) and then there's the transformation sequence where he grows 12 ft tall and lays his hand on your head, and Étoile's eyes, grey since breaking their oath, glow gold, and then fade back to grey, and then the Oathbreaker leaves.

So Étoile ended the night conflicted but not having an existential crisis, and realizing they weren't in the worst company.

I wish their eyes had stayed grey? After a long rest I went to Volo to check but they've reverted to their original color.

[prince-of-elsinore]

happy wincest wednesday!! asking folks similar questions on a central theme: what elements of sam and Dean's relationship, or things about themselves as characters, do you think are often done REALLY well in fic? any examples??

(or, salty edition: which elements are often done poorly, in your opinion?)

Happy Wincest Wednesday! What a good but tricky question. It's difficult--impossible, really--to generalize wrt fanfiction, when you consider the sheer breadth of works in Wincest fandom, from early fic to new and every niche of taste besides; and then there are my reading habits, which are hardly representative of fanfic at large.

All of which makes it much easier for me to think of elements often done poorly, imo 😅 (I do get to positives below the cut as well!) The biggest offenders that come to mind are:

for Dean, his lack of boundaries, possessiveness/entitlement wrt Sam, and overriding of Sam's--forgive me for the overused word--autonomy. These are all, to some extent, present in his canon character and important themes of the show, but I find they are often grossly exaggerated in fic. Of course a lot of this comes down to how one interprets canon; if you see Sam as brainwashed/Stockholm Syndromed by his brother from Carver era on, then I guess it seems natural to write a Dean who deviously manipulates Sam and rides roughshod over his sense of self, who rules the bunker with an iron fist. If, however, like me, you see Carver-era+ Sam as coming to terms with his relationship with Dean and how much he not only needs but wants to be with him, and if you view him as the primary agent in his own life decisions, and if you recognize how much (often tacit) power he holds in his relationship with Dean, that characterization becomes nonsensical. Dean does in some ways harden over the years, particularly with his anger, but he still carries an innate emotional vulnerability that is his need for Sam and fear that Sam can and will leave him (he's the only one who's ever walked away from family!). Simultaneously, in later years he has more trust in his partnership with Sam than ever, which includes, I think, trust that Sam will stand his own and be a counterbalance to Dean when need be. Anyway, all that is a roundabout way of saying that I don't think it's in character for Dean, especially a late seasons one, to seriously violate or disrespect Sam, and on the whole "possessive Dean" is a fandom invention.

for Sam, relatedly, it's writing him as too yielding and needy. While I appreciate a rare and earned moment of vulnerability, Sam, even at his most victimized, isn't innately as emotionally vulnerable as Dean for reasons mentioned above. He has a firmer sense of self, even if at his lowest he has serious doubts about his abilities and worth. Except in very rare moments, I don't see him as someone who willingly gives up control. When he seems to "go along" with Dean I see that as an intentional choice, not a weakness. He chooses his battles, and God help (hm, poor choice of words but you get it 😅) the person who tries to cross Sam Winchester when he's drawn a line in the sand, even--actually especially--if it's his brother.

But I don't want this post to be nothing but salt! Here are some things that generally, at least in the fic I read and like, people nail on the head:

Sam and Dean love each other! They mean everything to each other! Even when they're on the outs over something. They are ride or die. Their love is a love that can destroy and save the world <3

They belong together. Especially in later seasons, they are truly domestically committed (whether it's Established Relationship or not). There's no one else who gets them like they do, no one else they could ever feel so comfortable with. "It's always been you"--you know the rest!

They're brothers. First and foremost. Teasing, bickering, one-upping, gross-outing, sniping brothers.

I'm always pleased to see a version of this done well, and many of my favorite fics nail it: how scary and new everything is when crossing that line the first time. Whether you spin it towards fluff or angst, I love those moments of discovery--of each other's bodies, of their own pleasure--unease, awkwardness, giddiness or terror, when a sexual element is added to their chemistry. They know each other so well, but not like this. Everything is so familiar and foreign at once, and how much does it change things? Too much? Practically nothing? I love them figuring those things out together, and I'll never tire of reading it. Luckily there is a feast of such moments in Wincest fic 🍿

Okay examples of diverse fics that I think get all of the above right!

This Next Town by @nigeltde-fic (gentle, domestic late seasons, with a wonderful description of the stunning newness of their intimacy)

The Elko County Adventure by candle_beck (the brothers of it all! The underlying tension and fear and care and love!)

Carry Me Over the Sky by killabeez (for an angstier take--the pure need for each other and the horror of changing things irrevocably)

Baby Blue by edwardina (for a kinky take that may not be everyone's cuppa, but I was surprised by how well it sold it to me--this Dean is right on the edge of over-the-line possessive for me, but works I think because of how surprised he is by his own feelings, and how sturdy Sam remains despite his outlandish and dependent circumstances)

side two, track one by @zmediaoutlet (they're brothers, they're committed to each other already, and then all of a sudden something shifts and they're both in terrifying, thrilling new territory)

Thank you for the ask! Hope you enjoy the longer-than-expected answer and recs :)

[conyferoustree]

So I did this challenge that I found on Pinterest and here’s how it came out

Gender: Everyday - Bo En

Male

Appearance: The Wolf - SIAMES

I’m gonna give him wolf features and I’ll probably dress them like some kinda school bully or alleyway gangster or something like that.

Color scheme: Blow My Brains Out - Tikkle Me

I guess it’s like purple and gray?

Current life: Somebody That I Used To Know - Gatye, Kimba

Probably recovering from a breakup or the loss of someone they loved

Personality: Cabinet Man - Lemon Demon

Like, believes themselves to be superior to other people

Love life: Love you, Love you not - little purr man

In denial wether they love someone. Maybe this could be after the breakup/loss?

Fears: Blue Lips - Regina Spector

I’m assuming it could be the idea of growing up (this is sort of how I interpret the song)

Family: Useless Child - Kikuo

Maybe his family called him useless or treated him badly

Thoughts/mindset: Mouthwash - Kate Nash

Believes that nothing will pull them down (I think) and that everything will be alright in the end

Motives: Fine - Lemon Demon

Wants to turn his life into something good and calm

Backstory: Lemon Boy - Cavetown

Used to be bittersweet till he met someone (What if that someone was the person they lost?)

Significant other: Skeleton Song - Kate Nash (THIS SONG ALWAYS FOLLOWS ME)

I actually don’t know how to explain this, but maybe that person used to be his friend, but then something happened between them and he tried to kill them but hesitated to do so. And in the end that person could have ended up dying in some way.

So kind of what it could be:

Mc used to be the bittersweet, hated child of the family, often being abused and called useless and stuff. And then one day, he found someone around the same age as him. Someone that could help him, support him, actually love him. That someone was in a gang of people who also accepted mc, and eventually, mc and that someone start to get closer till they develop a crush on each other, as much as mc doesn’t want to admit it because of what his family would think and bla bla bla. Eventually, mc decides to run away with the person and they live happily as a couple alongside the gang. One day, everything changes. The person he loved  did something that affected mc and that he couldn’t forgive. So then mc tries to kill the person but hesitates when they’re about to do so. Later that person dies of unknown reasons (maybe sewerslide) and mc is incredibly affected by this.

He starts being afraid of growing up and losing the rest of the gang, and so, he begins training to the point where he considers himself to be unbeatable and that nothing will pull him down. He mainly uses this to defend the gang (maybe there’s a small scene where mc gets attacked by other people but then mc sorta kills them in front of the rest of his gang). After some time, mc meets another person and they start becoming friends. Mc starts gaining love for that new person, but he isn’t ready to let go of the past someone and he denies his love towards the new friend like how he did with past person, mainly because he doesn’t want to get attached and later lose new friend. Everything he can do is hope that it will all be ok in the end.

This made me realize that my playlist is very messy and I have a complicated music taste

(I still gotta find some names for everyone. I’ll post art abt this character later)

[emulation-0]

eh i feel like that analysis you rb’d misses the mark on gojo’s character tho … he goes the entire manga clearly being someone who thinks (the important) shit through and it’s kind of assumptive to say based on the last few chs he then rushes to the battle with sukuna because of his own flaws. i mean its just my 2cents but it’s realy interesting how we can all interpret things in such different ways, cause op of that post seems to say that gojo sending inumaki and panda to geto is based on a flimsy conviction, but i always interpreted that as him 1) knowing geto so well he has an unshakeable confidence that his plan would work and 2) being logical about his plan to the point of being cold (sending 2 of his students to get beat up or worse). i think that “logic to the point of being cold” has been the way i’ve interpreted many of gojo’s actions (esp since geto left, but he’s even brash with riko before he warms up to her). but anyway even if i don’t fully agree with op’s characterization i def don’t like that he’s taking on the role of the strongest yet again to the detriment of the narrative, and the man has a million unfortunate death flags regardless. to me this all has just read as shitty writing from gege, but even still, i feel like “gojo dying” or “sukuna dying” would be kinda a cop out ending to this fight. i want something more interesting and less predictable to happen but idk if incan ask that from gege lmfao. idk why im typing all this i love nuance and talking. i would love to hear ur thoughts if you have!!

pls forgive me im no good with words or responding to asks efdjksfjsdlhjgksdf but ill do my best 👍

i see what ur saying that the past few chapters seems shitty writing but the op of that post gives gege the benefit of the doubt that all of this was on purpose lol. gojo is a guy who thinks important stuff through which is why the past few chapters feel very ooc: him going on his own again, saying things would be better with gakuganji leading the higher ups, presumably him murdering the rest of the higher ups even though he said that would do nothing. these are all things that gojo outright refuted at the beginning of the manga or things that gojo learned wouldn't help him after hidden inventory. it all seems very counterproductive cuz none of these seem like things the gojo we know would do. its not necessarily the op's characterization but rather a possible explanation why gojo is acting the way he's acting

cause op of that post seems to say that gojo sending inumaki and panda to geto is based on a flimsy conviction, but i always interpreted that as him 1) knowing geto so well he has an unshakeable confidence that his plan would work and 2) being logical about his plan to the point of being cold

personally i disagree with this? of course that was him being logical to being cold but he said that was about trusting geto and geto responded "trust? i didn't think we had any of that left" or something like that. even if it was a calculated action on gojo's part there was always the possibility of something going wrong, especially based on something like trust that they had broken between them before. or maybe im reading what you said wrong? because i guess youre saying that it wasn't a flimsy conviction because gojo trusted geto, which in that case i think what the op meant wasn't that his belief in geto was flimsy, but rather had a flimsy foundation, because trust is something that can so easily be broken

but aside from that yes!! i definitely agree that it's not right that he's taking up the mantle once again and everyone is relying on him. it's a regression from what he said when he was getting sealed that he had faith everyone would be okay, and there is a recurring theme that being alone/doing things alone leads to ruin. i dont want gojo to die but i definitely want and expect him to lose, because otherwise it seems all his character development and all of this build-up was for nothing. i still think the end of jjk will result in an upheaval of restructuring of jujutsu society if not the eradication of cursed energy which i guess go hand in hand? and if gojo wins now he can just kill kenny and replace the higher ups with his people but in the end that wont make everlasting change in anything. im sure someone better and more well-versed in politics than i am can make the comparison with government and elections but as it is i might as well mention the metaphor (allegory? idk)

its not really fair either to any of the characters. gojo cant be relied on solely to fix everything especially when currently his solution lacks the complexity needed to really really fix things and seems to focus on whats directly in front of him. and like i guess thats par for the course his opponent is sukuna he kind of has to focus on whats ahead of him idk what his plan is for after that but like. idk what im trying to say 😭ANYWAY MOVING ON. its not just unfair to gojo to have everything on his shoulders, its also unfair to the kids to have everything on their shoulders. because as well as 'dont fight alone' its also been 'the problems of adults should not be children's responsibility'. if gojo dies then we come across this problem as well. so i agree with you i hope this battle doesn't result in either of their deaths but something more and better!!!

anyway i hope this is comprehensible 😭i love nuance and talking too feel free to ask whatever you want!! (but pls dont expect much intellect from me fjhajhfshjkfdjhfsfk)

[the-void-writes]

Secrets of Lockhart Manor - Painted Fire

Thank you @flashfictionfridayofficial for providing the prompt, and for @jacquesfindswritingandadvice for giving me this idea. I admit, the prompt comes in closer to the end, but I kind of liked how this pre-relationship scene plays out.

Val wandered into the room on accident while searching for their crew mates. They could have sworn that this area led to bedrooms or parlors. Instead, it opened up into a big room with a beautiful red-stained window. Easels and stools filled the center of the room, and Val could smell the rich paints that stained the drawers and brushes.

Canvases of all sizes rested against the easels, filled with vibrant colors and wild shapes that Val had only ever seen in dreams. Streaks of yellow and orange, clashing like flames in a hearth, and dark silhouettes flying across the shadows of their painted homes. They were strange, unnatural… and oh so beautiful.

The door clicked open behind Val, and they were suddenly face-to-face with Cyrus. In the red-tinted sunlight, his deep green eyes shone like precious jewels. His smile was always warm, in contrast to his smooth, pale skin.

“Val,” he said, “forgive me, please. I left this place a mess.”

Val shook their head. “No, sir, I’m the one who’s intruding.”

“Not at all, my friend. You, more than anyone, are welcome in the art room anytime.”

His soft, elegant voice had Val hooked on each word. They wiped their clammy hands against their trousers, trying to hide their flustered face from him.

“Are these your paintings?” they asked.

“Yes, they are. I’m not a professional, I admit, but I’m trying to learn.”

“Cyrus, they’re beautiful.”

His eyes flickered with joy. “Thank you, Val.”

They ghosted a finger over one of the canvases, painting the air to match the flames. A smile grew on their lips.

“You’re very gifted, I can tell,” they said. “If I had to guess, I’d call it Abstract Expressionism.”

Cyrus grinned. “Your mind never ceases to amaze me.”

Val cleared their throat, praying that their heavy heartbeat wasn’t too obvious. They tried to change the subject.

“Can I ask what you painted?”

His smile faded away as he stared into the oil-painted flames.

“Memories,” he said weakly. “Feelings, fears— everything from that night.”

Val looked into his eyes. “The fire.”

“Painting eases the nightmares. I draw what I remember, but so much happened there, and whenever I try to capture it all—” He gestured to the canvas. “It’s fire and ash.”

His face looked heavy, filled with years-worth of pain. Val didn’t even think before taking his hand, squeezing it gently.

“I won’t press for details, and I’ll make sure the others don’t, either— but if painting ever stops helping you, I’m happy to listen. It doesn’t have to be for the show.”

Cyrus stood tall and silent, slowly wrapping his fingers around their hand.

“Your kindness means so much to me.”

Val smiled shyly. “Well, so does yours.”

He smiled back at them, pulling his hand away hesitantly as he walked towards the window.

“Maybe I can watch you paint one day?” Val asked. “Not when you’re upset, of course.”

Cyrus laughed, soft and honey-like, making their heart beat faster.

“I’ll need a place with better lighting for my next piece. The red won’t do here.”

“What will your next piece be?”

“With your permission… I’d like to paint you.”

Val’s breath was caught in their throat. “You— Oh wow, Cyrus—”

He laughed again. “We can save that for another day, then.”

“No— I’d love to.” They chuckled. “But I get to paint you afterwards.”

“Deal,” Cyrus said with a grin. “I look forward to your interpretation.”

[melrosing]

Anon from yesterday 👋. Sorry irl stuff got in the way. I'm not super well versed in your content but so far I do think you talk about her in a way that isn't "Cersei is an evil bitch just because" and i deff said as much in my first ask. I also fully understand the internalized misogyny in a mother not liking her daughters as much as her sons and that's where you were going with for Joanna. What I noticed when i saw your AU was that BOTH Joanna (her thoughts/feelings) and the AU itself (themes etc) are more outwardly negative and less symphatetic towards her than the others.

And IT'S SO HARD FOR ME TO EXPLAIN THIS VIA ASK BOX but i am basically going to reemphasize what I said before and also say that i think there is a bias for imagining AUs that put cersei in a more negative (and less…idk kinder? gentler? considerate?) light than her brothers whether it's one dimensional or complex and I noticed that in your AU as well, as if she was always doomed to have a dark cloud over her head while her brothers got even a tiny bit of shine and light. I can provide examples if you wish to continue the convo. Anyways I don't mean to overstay my welcome so i'll just leave this as a case of us having very similar ideals but different ways of interpreting them. And btw that other anon was dead ass wrong about what they said about me. Like I promise I don't see her as a sweet angel victim and ignore how ugly and fucked up she is (esp the book version). I am genuinely SO sorry this ask got as long as it did.

no worries, I'm happy to discuss! but honestly, I'm kind of at a loss with what choices I made in this particular AU led you to ask whether I even liked Cersei as a character.

the whole thing (at least where concerns Jaime and Cersei) is based on the conjecture of what might happen to the relationships between the twins and their mother if she had gone ahead and shipped Cersei to Dorne - which, had Joanna survived, I think is highly likely to have happened, i.e. it was on the verge of becoming a canon event. and I think it only makes sense to conclude that Joanna and Cersei's relationship would take a semi-catastrophic hit if it did. like, that is a very heavy thing to do to a seven-year-old, and Cersei has always had a keen sense of injustice and sure can harbour a grudge, so I think she'd take it especially hard.

then of course the misogynistic motherhood is just something that I thought made Joanna's relationship with both Jaime and Cersei more interesting, because it means she can't truly see either of them clearly. in my mind it just makes sense for a Lannister, certainly for the wife of Tywin, and what we know of Joanna makes me feel she had some level of reverence of patriarchal structures. so, threw that in.

and also tbh, it's just more interesting to me than the notion that all the dead ladies of asoiaf would've been these girlboss mums teaching their girls to be lovely ladies or feisty villainesses, like it's just.... so boring to me lmao. like one thing with Catelyn (who I do adore) is that I kind of wish GRRM would go harder on her relationship with Arya. sounds like there's some tension there, old man. well, bust it open!!

so there's my reasoning: I picture Joanna as a deeply flawed mother who, in a moment of both protectiveness and prejudice against her daughter effectively exiles a seven-year-old who won't forgive her for it, and everything else spins from there.

and I guess I just feel like we're splitting hairs a bit here because I don't think I've produced anything that much happier in the AU for Jaime or Tyrion?? like I said of Jaime that he essentially has a distant relationship w his mother for the rest of her life, gets hitched to Lysa in an entirely loveless marriage, and lives probably a quite unfulfilling adulthood. Tyrion in the meantime.... I mean basically all I've given Tyrion is a different kind of abusive relationship with a parent lmao, and a life of isolation and toxic companionship. again, I think it'd be boring to have Joanna purely adore Tyrion or utterly despise him, so why not both.

and idk. I don't think either of the above is me gifting the Lannister boys something I'm refusing Cersei? like sure you could take it that way, but I suppose I'm just surprised that this disparity has struck you so much so that you think I must dislike Cersei to have even written it. you're welcome to provide examples if you like, bc honestly I figured it must be something substantially more than this AU that led you to send me the message - which is why I asked if you had some familiarity with the rest of my Cers posts, I assumed you must've read more than just this AU to make you ask that??

[transhitman]

Honestly I'm sort of obsessed with how the Deltora anime is a case study into how even small details in adaptations can utterly obliterate how a character reads. Jasmine specifically is such a huuuge victim of this and it makes me a bit insane. Like somehow her anime version ends up reading absurdly misogynist despite most of her dialogue and most of the stuff she does being the same as in the book. Forgive me for writing essays about children's media but hear me out for a second.

Ok so to start, Book Jasmine is almost cartoonishly badass. Like she would 100% be a stereotypical Mary Sue, animal companions and all, if it weren't for the fact that she's wildly abrasive and unlikable to a lot of the other characters. And even being hypercompetent in many areas, Jasmine is definitely not overpowered. She is stated and shown to be the smallest and physically weakest of the group. Making the token Girl of the group the weakest would usually end up reading as sexist, however Jasmine does not. She is never truly excluded from any combat or major events because she's weak. As shown during the Rithmere games, she's screwed in a direct contest of strength, but has developed a unique fighting style that evens the playing field against bigger opponents. She always read as a ranger/rogue type to me -- somewhat frail, but very precise, and most useful outside of combat. Which, in combination with the rest of the writing + strong women in the series, is just sort of realistic for someone in her position. She's a really good character imo even if we don't get to see all that much interpersonal stuff between the cast. But what we do get works really well.

But then we have Anime Jasmine, who just like... Is bad lol. Even though she makes most of the same decisions and accomplishes most of the same tasks, she comes off as irrational, annoying, and generally incompetent lmfao. I think part of this is that her anger issues and difficulty expressing herself in the books gets turned into cattiness instead of like a genuine character flaw that causes issues. Part of it is also that for some reason Barda isn't allowed to be sarcastic since he got flanderized into the stoic adult (telling jokes isn't masc enough I guess???), so Jasmine got designated the group funnyman. Which honestly wouldn't even be a big problem if she told actual jokes? A sarcastic, dry wit would totally work for her. But she's just sort of catty for no reason instead of being funny. I do understand that the general tone of the show is a lot lighter than the books as well, so having a really angsty character would go against the more child-friendly direction they went. But there are also others ways they could have changed her while still keeping her general concept and vibe the same.

But the majority of it, I think, is due to the line delivery/visual design. In the anime she's very whiny and like. Cheerful? Which... I guess isn't technically an incorrect interpretation, but it's certainly a weird one considering how much she mutters and hisses her dialogue. Her visual design is, however, completely contradictory to how she's supposed to look. In the books, she dresses in worn-out military-esque clothing, is unkempt, and is -- to some degree -- androgynous. And this physical appearance doesn't really call to mind a huffy kid. In the show they made her dress a lot more brightly, and she's like weirdly sexualized imo? Which is a pattern with the women in the anime. But that's a whole other rant I could go on. Basically, my point is, because of the tone in which she reads her lines and the way she is disallowed from being Actually Disheveled, her decisions are tainted by the misogyny of the writers. You know? Like you can tell that the in-character intent behind her actions is different because the writers themselves view her a certain way. She objects to the monarchy not because she has a strong sense of justice while being somewhat vindictive, but because she's an irrational, emotional Woman. She gets sidelined in fights not because she's trying to find a way out that doesn't involve getting pummeled by a creature 10 times her size, but because she's a weak little girl. Her hating Neridah gets turned into some kind of cat fight instead of the party rightfully being distrustful of her. The whole thing with Doom goes from being about Jasmine's trauma and loneliness, to being about her finding a big strong father figure to... Idk fill some kind of emotional void only a man can fill? Some of the differences are very subtle, but they really do change the entire vibe of the character from "jaded, violent survivalist" to "quirky girl with an attitude" even though the actual events in the anime -- up to book 8 at least -- are pretty 1-to-1 with the books. The weird characterization somehow retroactively makes things that happen in the books kinda misogynist!!! Maybe I'm insane for thinking all this but really do believe it. It's such an odd feature of the writing and it's honestly so fascinating to me. Anyway this is what I think Lindal would look like in the anime