#like there are already people shitting on the endgame and the game has been out for less than 24 hours??

[soupandsorcery]

went in the dav tag, largely just to look for gifs to reblog and to see other people's rooks, and it's just half the fandom being like 'this game is so fun 😄' and the other half divided between being mad that the game is too woke, the game is not woke enough, or (insert character here) was massacred either by the art direction or the narrative.

anyway, i will probably ramble my thoughts some, so if you're so inclined, block #dav and #noah plays dav

[genericpuff]

The Kiss Bet Episode 172 - Hot Pot and Venting About How I Want My 70 Cents Back

Okay, look, this isn't a post I was expecting to make today but it's something that just happened and I have to fucking talk about, so let me preface this with some context.

I had to buy coins recently and because I switched to using my iPad for reading comics on, I got a "new reader" type deal from Webtoons for a coin bundle that got me like 100 coins for $5; because technically it was a 'new account' as Webtoons operates their in-game currency model on apps, not on actual emails (meaning if you use the app on an Android phone and then switch to an Apple iOS device, they're technically two separate accounts which you sync the reading data between via the account info linked via the email, therefore they have two separate coin wallets).

So with more coins than I knew what to do with, I decided to start FastPassing The Kiss Bet again, which I had recently stopped FP'ing around the S3 mark, as it's recently devolved back into the "will they won't they" trope, but instead of between Sara-Lin and Joe, it's between Sara-Lin and Joe's younger brother (the "true endgame") Oliver.

Now I don't mind the ship in essence. Joe was definitely not gonna be endgame, it was always gonna be Oliver, anyone who's read any amount of romance before - especially high school romances - knows how this shit tends to go, and The Kiss Bet isn't exactly trying to be groundbreaking or subversive in any way, it knows exactly what it's about and what it's trying to accomplish.

But it's almost become a little too good at this. Because in playing the "will they won't they" game for so long with a character that we know is endgame, it's basically been weeks and weeks and weeks of-

That said, after I caught up on the recent FP episodes, it seemed like stuff was finally moving a little bit. We were finally meeting Oliver's mom and his stepdad who he has a fractured relationship with, Joe was finally getting with his true endgame girl, Vicky (who's totally not an exact genderbent version of Joe lmao) and Sara-Lin was finally realizing she had feelings for Oliver.

And then the newest episode came out, Episode 172 - Hot Pot and Venting.

CAUTION: FASTPASS SPOILERS FOR THE KISS BET OFFICIALLY BEGIN HERE!

Already I was a little petty over the title like "lmao ok clunky title but whatever". I swept it off as not a genuine criticism, just me being a nitpicking asshole over what's essentially Fluff: The Comic.

The episode cost 7 coins, which is about roughly 70 cents, albeit closer to a dollar for Canadian readers (here's something they don't tell you about Canada - our Monopoly game currency is just as fucked as it looks) and that's where I'm gonna get into my second disclaimer that I need to be perfectly clear about (and it'll be what we get more into later on in this post).

I understand the principle of paying for art. I understand fully that many of these webtoons are being produced on tight deadlines by creators who often can only afford 1-2 assistants, if any at all. I understand and fully agree that creators deserve to be paid for their skills, time, and efforts, not just as creators working on the hellsite that is Webtoons, but as artists in general who deserve to make a living the same as anyone else. Anyone who follows my stuff here knows I'm an artist myself so I would never debate the ethical necessity of paying artists for their work.

However.

I can say that, and also agree with the people who have stated in discussion circles such as on /r/webtoons that a lot of the comics that have started charging 7 coins have been suspiciously delivering less comic since. And it's not even so much in the literal panel count, the liquid volume of these comics have remained the same, but the calorie count has dropped significantly. Food metaphors aside, what I mean is that despite many of these comics maintaining their 40-60 minimum panel count requirement, they have in fact reduced the actual amount of content that happens in them, and The Kiss Bet's newest episode is a stark example of what I mean.

I am going to start by posting only post three panels - three panels that literally sum up the entirety of Episode 172 and what it chooses to spend its time on.

That is it. That is literally all that's established in this episode. I'd tell you to go read it yourself, but honestly, this is genuinely one of those rare times I can honestly say that a 40+ panel episode is not worth 70 cents and you'd be better off, and that's saying a LOT when these episodes are only priced at the cost of a gumball. At least Lore Olympus has entertainment in how bad it is most of the time, Episode 172 of The Kiss Bet is just nothing. You will literally get more substance and flavor from an actual gumball.

Literally every other panel in this episode is either repeating the same dialogue (Sara-Lin saying the same thing multiple different times to express how Oliver is holding her hand or how his stepdad is a dick) and then Sara-Lin and Oliver staring at each other. Over. And over. Again.

I am not joking. I did not cut anything out in that sequence. That is where the episode ends. Complete nothingburger, seemingly cut off right as it was just getting started like Cait Corrain's career.

Out of the entire episode, there were 45 panels. So I can safely assume Ingrid's minimum panel requirement is at least 40 per episode, that's me assuming the best that she didn't exactly meet her panel minimum at 45 panels on the dot.

Out of those 45 panels, there were:

Two actual unique backgrounds that weren't gradients or just a single piece of furniture

4 separate panels of Sara-Lin freaking out over Oliver holding her hand and wondering if he even noticed

10 panels of Sara-Lin staring at Oliver either dumbfounded or asking him to repeat himself (or apologizing over nothing)

5 panels of the characters saying nothing

11 panels of Sara-Lin repeating information in different ways that could have been accomplished in half that time

Two separate occasions of Oliver getting Sara's attention from off-panel, literally formatted the exact same way both times (and both followed by reaction panels of Sara-Lin staring at him dumbfounded)

Way too many panels of Sara-Lin blushing in response to Oliver being an asshole tbh like literally this guy's a douchebag, Joe may have been the "out of her league" love interest but at least he was nice and didn't treat Sara-Lin like someone who just bought a Husky as a "starter pet" ???

Again, I don't usually like being a dick about the coin costs, and I definitely don't like being a hypocrite in telling people they should pay artists for their work while simultaneously posting their paywalled content like this, but I think there does come a point where it feels more irresponsible for people to not be aware of what they're about to pay for and how little they're going to be getting. This episode is literally one of the best - and worst - examples of how far the romance genre has fallen on the platform - when it's not being overtaken and oversaturated by problematic series that romanticize abuse and sexual assault, it's being dragged to death with the most boring executions of tropes that everyone has seen before and is only exciting for anyone who's never read a book or watched a romance movie, period.

And here's the thing where I do approach a bit more "hot take" territory, but every time I see this argument come up about episodes not being worth the coin cost, I see others who rightfully argue that 70 cents isn't that much to pay for what you're getting - weekly episodes of work that are usually always delivered on time, with more panels than you would ever typically see in a free to read comic.

But here's where I take issue with that argument, as much as the principle of it is sound, it misses the overall point: readers are paying for entertainment first and foremost, so can anyone who's actually paying for regular refills on their app currency step away from this and truly call it "entertainment"? Nothing was gained. The comic had 45 panels to say something, anything, and managed to not even squeak out so much of a word. Even the silent moments have no substance, they just reiterate information that we already know.

Do we really need another panel of Sara-Lin blushing at Oliver? We've known for weeks now that she has a crush on him. Do we really need another panel of Oliver getting Sara-Lin's attention? What is this actually showing of their chemistry? What is being shown here that hasn't been shown numerous times - with and without dialogue - for weeks now? What does the comic have to show for itself after four seasons?

Another point of the "it's just 70 cents, don't be an asshole" argument that people seem to miss is it's not 70 cents. It's $1. Because if you want to buy a single episode of the Kiss Bet, you can't just pay for the individual episode in isolation, you have to pay for the coins first, and $1 is the absolute bare minimum you have to pay to get 10 coins, which will only pay for one episode of a 7 coin series - of which there are many now, basically any series that's 40 panels or more will cost 7 coins and, shocker, those are the series that WT will tend to promote most, you'll rarely see the 5 coins series in the banner ads, and that's not even getting into how there are more and more series cropping up that have 5+ episodes behind FP rather than the traditional three.

So if you're someone who's (almost definitely) keeping up with more than one series? You can't just pay the $1, you have to pay at least $5 for 50 coins, and that will NOT go far anymore or cut as evenly as it used to when just about every series is now 7 coins. Webtoons knows fully well what kind of game they're playing by making the new coin cost an uneven number while still offering increments of 5/10 in their coin bundles. They undoubtedly want you to be left with an uneven number so that you'll be easily lured into buying more coins so you don't 'waste' the uneven amount you have left that isn't enough to buy the episodes for the series you want to read. Obviously this is more speculation and not fact, but it's a common business model and with the series that have adopted the 7 coin count model (rather than starting off with 7 coins outright) such as The Kiss Bet and Lore Olympus, it's becoming abundantly clear that either the creators or the platform itself is encouraging these series to meet their panel minimums with as little content as possible in order to get more money out of readers who are barely even being drip fed actual entertainment and narrative progression, let alone spoon fed.

And then there's the waiting. The goddamn waiting. So many of these series guilty of siphoning their content off through a hose that they're deliberately standing on are designed intentionally with the most egregious cliffhangers in mind to keep their audience hooked so they'll undoubtedly FP next week. Do you know what that amount of waiting does to a comic? To its readers? First off, it artificially extends the actual pacing of the comic to make it feel longer than it is, when in reality, many of these plotlines are happening in a vacuum of very short bursts of time. Case in point, Lore Olympus is commonly confused for having a plotline that takes place over the course of months, when actually when laid end to end in order of cause and effect, many of its subplots - including the romance of Hades and Persephone - takes place over the course of days. This over-inflates the plotline's actual depth and, even worse so, it makes it harder for readers to keep up with information that's being delivered, as it often takes weeks for that information to actually go anywhere - so by the time it does, many readers have straight up forgotten about it.

It's absolutely not okay that so many of these kinds of series are normalizing literal slow burning for an audience who's paying to be entertained. It's not a "slow burn". It's just slow, and deliberately so. It's absolutely NOT FUN to follow a comic that does not go anywhere week after week. It's frustrating. And before long, it starts to feel like gambler's fallacy, where readers have to essentially gaslight themselves into paying into it more and more convinced that it has to pay off eventually, based on a promise that was never actually made, only assumed in good faith. And readers should not have to fill in the bulk of the content that isn't happening with their own imaginations, which is something that happens a LOT in these series that spend so much time on the characters just staring at each other and saying nothing. It's not 'plot' to just draw characters blushing and have your audience fill in the rest of it entirely on their own. This is certainly a technique in writing, but in the case of The Kiss Bet and other comics like it, it's much less of a valid technique and more just flat out manipulating your audience into falling so hard into the sunk cost fallacy trap that they don't notice they're being robbed blind by the plot that hasn't actually happened - and they've been paying for that financial and emotional robbery out of their own pockets and brains every step of the way.

Again, I do not care about the coin cost in and of itself, seventy cents IS still an incredibly cheap price for weekly updates of a series that has to put out so many panels each week. But as a reader and a customer, I should not be leaving these updates with less information than what I started with. And I'm someone who's incredibly old school by webcomic standards, there are comics that I follow that have updated 1-2 pages a week for over a decade that manage to do more with their limited pages than Lore Olympus and The Kiss Bet manage to do after entire hiatuses filled with pre-production time.

Why does this page of Alfie manage to move both the intrinsic plot of the titular character as well as the external plot that's going on around her in one page made up of 5 panels better than what The Kiss Bet can do in 45?

Why does this page of Tamberlane manage to convey more information about the world's lore and the people in it in a way that's emotionally driven and clearly affecting the characters without outright info-dumping than what Lore Olympus has managed to spit out onto its plate since S3 started over a year ago?

How does Tales from Alderwood manage to be more entertaining and convey more meaningful storytelling through its characters in a single page consisting of zero dialogue than what The Kiss Bet can convey in its silent panels of staring, blushing, and repetitive stuttering?

Why are the creators who are relying entirely on their own efforts, resources, and ability to generate income through community interaction and support putting out better work with less panels and on slower schedules for FREE than what we're seeing from professional creators on a professional publishing platform who are being paid to do this as their job?

There's this saying in the tattooing industry: good work isn't cheap and cheap work isn't good.

At this point, 70 cents is not a 'bargain' as many people like to argue in defense of the creators. And while I do want to have good faith in the creators who don't pull this shit, the creators who clearly go above and beyond to do what they do in the pursuit of storytelling and polishing their craft to be the best piece of work that it can be - the comics that are worth paying 70 cents and beyond for - are not the comics that Webtoons is promoting to people. The creators of the works that genuinely deserve more than 70 cents per update are being left to fend for themselves without support from the platform, while those that aren't worth the price of even a flavorless gumball are consistently winning the Wonka Golden Ticket lottery.

The cost of 70 cents is relative. For some works it's a genuine bargain. For others like the The Kiss Bet and Lore Olympus, 70 cents is not a "bargain", it's not a "good deal", it's exactly the value of what you're paying for - cheap work that isn't good.

[valle-de-sombra-de-muerte]

Homestuck Reread: Act 4, Part 4/4 (p. 1865-1988)

Read the previous post here.

Oh boy it's the final stretch for this Act. I want to take a moment to express my appreciation for all the new followers I've gained over the course of this reread. I have 60 now, which is incredible. Thank you all!

With that said, this post will contain some... sticky subject matter. I wonder how many of you will choose to dip after this.

[CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of incest starts below the second image]

Oh my fuck it's the ectobiology section. Out of all the convoluted and frivolous mechanics in Homestuck, this one might be the worst in my opinion. Worse than the adventure game jokes cribbed from Problem Sleuth, worse than the punch card alchemy and other ponderous Sburb mechanics... I'd say it's worse than the time travel shit, but this is actually more of a subset of that. So yeah, time travel continues to be the worst thing about Homestuck, and shit like this and the bunny subplot are prime examples of that. But my ire is fully directed at ectobiology at this moment.

The stuff I mentioned before at least has a purpose; they parody needlessly complicated video game mechanics. But ectobiology doesn't have a purpose. It's not funny, nor does it serve the story in a meaningful or even interesting way. So why does it exist? Is it to drive home the point that these select individuals are the "chosen ones" by Sburb? If I had to hazard a guess what Hussie meant by that...

Earth is a vile place and must be destroyed, so sayeth Sburb. Everything living on it is flawed by extension, so its chosen destroyers must be fully disconnected human society and the planet itself. These destroyers have been plucked from the aether and reconstituted from bullshit plot slime in a faraway part of time and space, ensuring that they are unquestionably divorced from anything from Earth, and therefore pure.

Now that I type all that out, it's no wonder none of the kids were all that shaken up about bringing about the apocalypse. Considering that they're essentially game constructs with no actual ties to humanity, it really throws away any sort of conflict and sense of sacrifice brought about by destroying the planet. All the innocents who perished in the meteor showers? Eh, fuck them! They were all NPCs anyway. All hail the slime people!

Okay, I'm sure this wasn't Hussie's actual intent, but if there's no grander symbolism at play, what else is there? None of this adds anything to the plot. The fact that the main cast are non-humans is never touched upon and the whole thing reads as superfluous sci-fi garbage. The only significance the meteors carrying the babies had was that John's Nanna died from a meteor strike. But it was already suggested way earlier that she died because she was crushed by the Colonel Sassacre book.

That was a perfectly serviceable, slightly comedic death befitting of a family of jokesters. There's no need to escalate it and involve a giant meteor.

One other thing I take umbrage with: because the cast were all birthed from the same slurry, this means that Dave and Rose are now """related""". They aren't related by blood, no, but by slime. Which, in the eyes of Hussie and the fandom at large, means the same thing, I guess. Even though they never grew up as siblings, lived separate lives in different parts of the country, and only met online as strangers before developing a (very flirtatiously charged) friendship, the fandom treats them as if they're flesh and blood brother and sister. It boggles my mind. Why is this being treated as legitimate? Did Hussie plan all along to take the two characters with the best chemistry only to pull a Luke and Leia on us? Why would he write them like that if this was his endgame? Does he just have an incest fetish?

I wouldn't doubt it because themes of incest are actually quite pervasive within Homestuck. And that's without even mentioning how Hussie developed an alien race that fundamentally relies on incest to reproduce. Ectobiology creates several relationships, incidental or otherwise, that tie nearly the entire main cast in a complicated web of pseudo-familial dynamics. Like John is actually the kids' progenitor/father because he's the one who brought them all into existence. So even if he isn't related to Rose or Dave by genes or slime, he still gave birth to them in a sense.

I've even seen people say that since Betty Crocker/The Condesce was Nanna's adopted mother, that makes the Egbert/Crocker/Harley/English family tree "related" to the Peixes trolls, so any ship with that combination is "incest." What if I told you that Feferi is related to all the other trolls via bullshit slime mechanics as well? I guess that makes Johnkat incest too. And if John is Dave's father... gasp! Davekat is also incest!? It's over folks, burn everything down.

Anyway, I don't acknowledge Rose and Dave as biological siblings because I don't treat being born from a vat of slime as the same as being birthed from the same womb. That would be treating ectobiology as valid and sensible, which I refuse to do. I don't want to lend Hussie's fixation on incest any amount of approval. All I know is that the trolls are made of the same stupid plot sludge and nobody cares if you ship them. There are no humans and trolls: only slime constructs. Either everyone is related or none of them are. You can't have both.

In the end, none of this matters. The world would be a much happier place if we all collectively agreed to forget ectobiology's existence. If this ruffles your feathers, just block me. Don't come at me because I'll just ignore you.

So Grandpa Harley had time-traveled forward to the future and into Sburb before returning to the past, living out his life on Earth, and dying. Fucking okay I guess!

At least this answers the question I had that yes, Mom Lalonde knew what she was doing before entering the game because Grandpa told her everything. Same with Bro and Dad, it seems.

Ah yes, Dad x Mom. A relationship that ends nearly as soon as it begins. Let's put this right alongside the Exile love triangle and DaveTav in the "relationships that are teased but never manifest into anything meaningful" pile.

"Ackshually, everyone was born from a vat of slime on a distant meteor and sent back to Earth to live out their lives!" - the ramblings of an utter lunatic.

Like god fucking forbid the kids be normal people placed in extraordinary circumstances.

The babies all gravitate to the things they'll have a connection to in the future. Nanna gets her son's hat, Bro gets Cal, etc. Dave clings to Maplehoof, which doesn't seem like a clear connection. Except... that's Rose's horse, isn't it? Ohhh. It all makes sense now. 😏

This exchange is a top 10 Karkat moment for sure.

The supposed saviors that will revive the human race aren't even human, they're slime creatures! Beyond the fact that none of them are human, the Superman analogy falls flat because none of these kids are humanity's protectors. They're just following the whims of a game that ultimately does not give a fuck about any of them.

I need "JOHN EGBERT, YOU HAVE ASSASSINATED MY PATIENCE." emblazoned on a banner or something.

Also Karkat calls Superman a "Caucasian alien" and he also refers to a genie as an "Earth Arabian" in an earlier log.

He really knows a lot about different human ethnic groups, for some reason.

I think about "you always call jail the slammer when you are extra angry" on a somewhat regular basis.

Sassacre is killed, but since he was a human, his death is inconsequential. Grandpa, a slime homunculus just like Nanna, is given new life, which is a cause for celebration. This whole sequence is quite morbid with Sassacre's bloody corpse just hanging out in the frame.

But wait, if Nanna and Grandpa are adopted siblings, and John and Jade are their "genetic children"... augh, never mind! This is what I mean when I say ectobiology produces all kinds of unfortunate relationships. I don't want to think about any of this pseudo-incest anymore. How are there people who make it their whole online careers to dissect this garbage so they can harass people about this shit? Don't they get tired? It's giving me a headache.

Rose is even referred to as John's "daughter" in the title of this flash. I'm not just blowing smoke when I say that John is everyone dad. That's literally what just happened.

Now that we're finally done with this segment, I'll cap it off with this: Nothing of value was added with the inclusion of ectobiology. I know I've been throwing around the phrase "waste of time" in these posts, but this bit of worldbuilding is unequivocally, without a doubt, the biggest fucking waste of time in this entire comic.

Woof. Shall we move on?

While Davesprite and Terezi sort of reconciled in their conversation and formed a bit of a bond, Dave doesn't receive her nearly as amicably. Why is she doing the "1S TH1S YOU" joke with Dave when that was a bit she did with Davesprite?

Oh right, because she thinks that same relationship will carry over to "real Dave". She sees them as the same person just like everyone else. Lovely.

Dave thinks he can burn Terezi by repeatedly insulting her blindness, even though it's clear that it doesn't bother her at all. This is really weak, especially when compared to his log with Tavros where he forced Tavros to block him.

Terezi seems to have completely given up on John and now wants to be annoying and nasty to Dave instead. She has officially been downgraded from minor antagonist to obnoxious interloper.

Tavros could only ever enjoy himself when he could escape to Prospit, be mobile, and most importantly fly. Nobody ever wants to talk about how Tavros has a lot of avoidance issues, how he always shrinks away from action and confrontation, and how he copes with adversity through escapism (both in a figurative sense through his interest in fantasy, and in a literal sense when he dreams on Prospit). A big part of his character comes from Peter Pan, the archetype of childlike escapism! IDK man, it sucks to see people reduce him to this lovable, pure-hearted woobie while ignoring the key part of his character.

Just like with Davesprite, Terezi just needed to send the right drawing for Dave's opinion of her to flip. Fantastic conflict resolution right there.

[S] Descend is the End of Act flash for Act 4. It might be the most ambitious flash up to this point. Lots of guest artists contributed here, and it's at this point where Homestuck really begins to feel like a much more collaborative project instead of solely Hussie's work. I don't mean to discredit the music team when I say that, because they've been around since the start, but this feels more substantial since Homestuck is a primarily visual work.

Anyway, Bro slices a meteor in half to save Dave's life, and later has his rocket board transport Dave into the game safely. Chalk that up to his list of noble deeds to try and balance out his dastardly ones.

Jack fucks shit up indiscriminately, so why does he spare WV? Feels a little out of character for him.

The brief Jack and Bro fight is pretty sweet. I'm not a shonen guy, but I'm getting that same sort of energy from this. Knowing that Bro probably knew all about the kinds of monsters he'd have to fight in Sburb, he has probably been training for something like this for most of his life. Had Jack not gotten god powers, Bro probably could've wasted him.

I like to think that Rose's merging with her doomed self is what causes her to act so destructive and nihilistic from this point on. She wants to destroy the game that killed her.

So okay... when Dave and Rose gave John their bunnies for his present, both of them clearly put a lot of thought in their gifts. Dave gifted him a piece of merch from his favorite movie. Rose restored an old heirloom using John's previous gift to her. Jade assembled "a fun and completely ridiculous thing" that has no sentimental meaning and only carries a vague sense of importance.

Does she just not know what he likes? This is less a gesture of friendship and more of her blindly fulfilling the whims of Sburb. I really struggle to see how Jade fits in this friend group dynamic. She's like the weird kid that the others let hang around out of pity.

Waow! After all that buildup with the box mystery, the bunny and Jack are going to have a showdown! Finally we can see what all the fuss is about and why this bunny is so important.

... Or Jack can just fly away and they never fight at all. Cool Hussie. It's so cool how you spent several pages devoted to this plot point only to let it fizzle out like this. Incredible writing.

How much time do you think elapsed between Grandpa bringing Dream!Jade's corpse aboard his airship and gutting, cleaning, stuffing, and mounting her? He probably did it all after he flew off, but I like to imagine him doing this all before that while Mom and Dad just stood around awkwardly waiting for him to finish.

Act 4 had its ups and its downs. A lot of downs. The ups also felt a little bittersweet because for every intriguing story hook like the Exile love triangle, Dave's relationship with Tavros, Rose and her mother, or anything involving Davesprite and doomed Rose, they all amount to nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Homestuck truly is a collection of fun ideas all unfortunately cobbled together by someone who doesn't know how to properly execute them in a story. The colorful art and the kickass music can only serve to cover up the flaws so much before the veneer peels and you see the ugly cracks underneath. I wish we lived in a world where Andrew "writing is easy" Hussie had an editor to salvage the good stuff and throw shit like ectobiology into the garbage.

If it sounds like I'm wrapping things up, think again. This journey isn't over yet. It's time for Act 5! People like to joke about how you should skip all the way to that one, but after everything I've read so far... I wouldn't blame anyone if they did.

Read the next post here.

[eliotquillon]

alex rider for the ask game :3

my favourite female character:

wow there’s just so many women in this series i can’t possibly choose! jk lmao.

for me it is sabina. my diva, my queen, the only character to consistently call alex on his shit and point out that for all his protests he keeps agreeing to do ‘one more mission’….i will never understand why people hate her (other than misogyny lmfao). i will forever be mad about that weird era of crocodile tears—never say die where ahorz turned her into a bit of a wet wipe because skeleton key/eagle strike sabina is so funny and headstrong and willing to give as good as she gets. i think she is one of the most realistic characters in the series (pun name aside) and her refusing to believe alex in eagle strike doesn’t make her evil or a fake friend…it makes her a teenage girl who was being gaslit by an intelligence agency. from sabina’s perspective the story is basically a horror movie: her best friend is being blackmailed and forced into putting his life at risk over and over, and there’s nothing she can do. there was never anything she could do. he chose danger and adventure over wanting to stay safe with her and her family and there was never any point in trying to change his mind because he is always going to be a little bit out of reach. i love her, and i think she balances alex out so well. forever mad that the tv adaptation didn’t have the foresight to realise that introducing kyra (who i love btw don’t get it twisted) and keeping her as a series regular was going to create some balancing issues with sabina, so they just turned tv sabina into a spineless caricature of all her worst traits because they didn’t need to worry about making her likeable like they did with kyra. book sabina i will love you forever.

my favourite male character:

am i allowed to say ‘the ghost of john rider that is perpetually haunting the narrative’. because to be clear it is the ghost of john rider that is perpetually haunting the narrative.

in all seriousness this is so difficult…i genuinely do love whatever the fuck is going on with the unreliable portrait of john that gets drawn throughout the series, but given that his only real appearance is in russian roulette (a book so filled with continuity errors/unreliable narration that for my own sanity i HAVE to assume that yassen is deliberately lying in at least parts of it) i don’t know if he sincerely counts as a ‘character’. although for what it’s worth i do fundamentally think that whoever john really was, he wasn’t a cut and dry ‘good person’ like we keep being TOLD to believe (too much contradiction going on with him for that).

it’s probably either general sarov OR alex himself. general sarov is cut and dry my favourite villain, is in my favourite book, and i could talk about his decision to shoot himself instead of alex (when sarov was 100% on the edge of victory!) forever. he’s such a tragic figure and i always find myself wishing that we’d gotten more villains like him…characters who genuinely weren’t cut-and-dry evil, whose motivations were actually kind of reasonable apart from the fact that the endgame/means to get to it were all wrong. but since i’m probably gonna talk a lot about skeleton key anyway i’ll put a pin in that. ALEX in the meantime…i love him so much. i love his smug one-liners, i love his fits of bad temper, i love that he never does what he’s told. and i also love how wistful he is. there’s a lot of moments, especially in the earlier books, where it’s clear that alex was actually already pretty fucked up from the simple fact of not knowing his parents. he’s been grappling with that big gnawing question of ‘who am i, really’ for a long time. he has so much guilt and shame. killing is for grown-ups and he’s still a child. i never really got into any of the other ‘teen spy’ novels when i was a kid and i think the reason why i latched onto alex rider specifically is because he is such a good protagonist. as an adult he is still so interesting because it becomes so much clearer how scared and insecure he is a lot of the time. i love him.

my favourite book/season/etc:

my fave season of the show is s1 fyi. ANYWAY.

as previously mentioned my fave book in the series is skeleton key. it is so many things. it’s a coming of age story. it’s a reverse whodunnit. it’s a story about grief. it is so, so uniquely of its time. alex continuously tries and fails at playing happy families (the pleasures, troy and turner, sarov) and never quite hits any of the right notes in any of them because he doesn’t know what it would look like. sarov would rather burn the world than admit that he sent his son to die in a useless proxy war and that it was his fault. it is the last book that was published before the war on terror started in earnest. i know it doesn’t really add to any of the overarcing stuff going on (no scorpia and no rider family drama) and nor does it have many of the other popular elements of the series (again, no scorpia and no rider family, but also no k-unit, no yassen, no julius, barely any whump, alex is basically beaten fair and square by sarov at every term) so i know this is probably an unpopular opinion. but there’s something so gentle about it. it’s so heartbreaking. it’s the point of no return - this is the first time alex chooses to do mi6 a favour instead of strictly being blackmailed into it. sarov killing himself even though he’s on the precipice of victory just because alex has made it explicitly clear that he will never be his son, that he can’t ever really turn back the clock, just fucking guts me. i don’t think this is necessarily the best-constructed book in the series (scorpia is, objectively, the best IMO), but it is my favourite.

also the american edition is totally different to every other edition and features a completely different version of the cia scenes, primarily to make the special agents more sympathetic and less like they fucking hate a child. which is just so cool. i mean the censorship stuff isn’t cool but the difference in editions is fascinating.

my fave episode (if it’s a tv show):

i can’t remember if it’s ep7 or 8 of season 3 but the tv show’s take on what happened at albert bridge. that episode. it was so, so good. i cannot imagine a better way to film it. i loved the interspersing of present with past and they cast john rider SO fucking well. i have a lot of mixed feelings about season 3 (i thought the decision to veer right back into being very book accurate after doing a pretty good job of making it explicitly clear that this was a retelling/its own distinct spin was…confusing) but that episode was perfect. i also really like s1ep8 (because i’m obsessed with kyra).

my fave cast member:

if we’re talking about the show again: marli siu as kyra. she is so fucking cool. and also adding kyra to the show, for all it opened up a can of worms, was the best thing guy burt ever did. i adore kyra so much.

if we’re using cast member to mean ‘recurring main character who isn’t one of my two named favourites’: i have a bit of a soft spot for crawley. i have no idea why, but something about him consistently being described as looking like a second-rate private school teacher forever tickles me. he’s just some guy but he cracks me up for some reason.

my favourite ship:

across the whole AR multiverse of madness, it is probably alex/kyra. i blame them for my sudden het ship renaissance tbh. i was rooting for them like i have never rooted for any heterosexual couple before (although arguably neither of them are het LOL). i think i fainted when they finally kissed in s3.

but if we’re doing book-only (since most of my answers have skewed that way)…hmm. i think i will have a forever fondness for sabina and alex’s invisible string thing they have going on. not friends not lovers but a secret third thing. i also like the toxic yaoi of john/yassen a lot because the fuck is going on THERE. i don’t fuck with alex/yassen because it personally icks me, but like i very much see the vision of yassen recreating the dynamic he had with john but with alex (and the roles reversed). john/yassen most toxic mentorship of all time spread the word.

a character i’d die defending:

sabina pleasure lol. i have in fact made some very snippy posts in the past because like…listen. obviously you are allowed to dislike her. you can dislike any character for any reason. but she has been DISPROPORTIONATELY hated on by the AR fandom. it is pure misogyny. her existence is not ‘getting in the way’ of making any other alex ship canon because sabina/alex isn’t even canon! claiming you dislike her because of ahorz’s bad/inconsistent writing is fair but you cannot say that and then, at the same time, praise the likes of ben daniels (whose identity has been swapped multiple times as a result of bad writing) as your fave character. she reacts badly to the truth in eagle strike but this was not her fault! she was being gaslit! if alex forgave her then i think maybe the fandom can let this go! she is one of the only shreds of normality left in his life and one of her chief functions is to call out alex’s shit and serve as a reality check to him. she did nothing wrong for REAL!!

a character i just can’t sympathise with:

i think it goes without saying that we’re not really meant to sympathise with a lot of these characters, so let me be controversial: mrs jones!!!!

like listen. i’m sorry to hear your kids got kidnapped yeah i actually am like obviously i’m gonna be upset about that innit yeah and tulip you know the only thing is yeah is that no-one can force me to be your mate or anything yeah and i don’t want to be mates wiv you alright? i know mrs jones is meant to be the ‘softer’ option to blunt. i know we are meant to believe, especially in the reboots, that she is better than him. but she isn’t. she talks a big game about how making alex work for them is wrong and that she’s against it, but she is never willing to put her money where her mouth is. she’s the one to goad alex into going to cairo in scorpia rising. in a lot of ways, i think her softer coating makes her a lot more insidious than blunt. this is one of the reasons i kind of went off the tv show towards the end: they made show!jones WAY too nice and sympathetic, and that’s just not who she is.

and don’t get it twisted: i think she’s fascinating. i love her character and her different faces are so, so interesting in a series that tends to stick women in the whore or mother box respectively. but i do not sympathise with her. i like her character, but i don’t like HER.

a character i grew to love:

am i allowed to say sabina again. because it is, genuinely, sabina. it took me YEARS to come around on her and then when i finally did it it was so worth it. but maybe i can’t say sabina for three different answers LOL.

this is genuinely a difficult question because there are a lot of characters in this series that i don’t LIKE but i LOVE in the sense that i find them interesting. i think jack has genuinely grown on me over the years, mostly as a result of the secret weapon short stories. it didn’t seem like it when i first read the series as a kid, but she’s so young, and she is functionally helpless—she wants to look after alex, but she’s an illegal immigrant with no blood relation to him, who at best is another way for mi6 to exploit him and at worst is a way for scorpia to exploit him. i have a lot more sympathy and respect for her now. and on a similar (yet wildly different) note: i hate ian rider, but he has slowly grown into the alex rider character i think about the most. what the fuck was up with him. what was up with him and john. did he know what he was doing when he raised alex to be a child soldier? is there a reason why yassen killed him but spared alex despite both of them being john’s blood relatives? i’m just so!!!

my anti otp:

sorry guys…it is yalex, i’m afraid. like i said: i can see the vision, but i can’t personally get past them meeting when alex is 14 and yassen is in his 30s. even in aus where they meet as adults i still get squicked out. honestly wish i could get over my aversion to it (at least a little) because i have read some FANTASTIC fics that had background yalex rumblings and i’m almost definitely depriving myself of a bunch of amazing fic by not really being willing to read anything where they’re at the forefront, but it’s just not for me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[phantomdialogue]

˗ˏˋ. ݁₊ ✶ ˖ 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐛𝐲 𝐚𝐥𝐢 𝐡𝐚𝐳𝐞𝐥𝐰𝐨𝐨𝐝 - 𝟓.𝟓/𝟓 ☆ . ݁ ˖ˎˊ˗

premise: elsie hannaway needs a stable, well-paying job to escape a life of endless fake dates and teaching undergraduates in order to live. jack smith-turner meets elsie when she's playing the role of his brother's girlfriend… only to meet her again as she interviews for a faculty role at MIT. confused by her separate lives, jack ends up tangled amongst them while elsie deciphers how best to take jack down to get the job she so desperately wants.

couple: jonathan (jack) smith-turner and elsie hannaway

tropes: stem romance, workplace (ish) romance, rivals to lovers, (kind of) one bed, miscommunication

review below!

review:

oh, ali hazelwood, i was not familiar with your game. i am obsessed with this book and this couple and it's one of the few books that i feel like i could reread happily. admittedly, i had picked up this book originally back in january but only made it a few chapters before setting it down and simply forgetting to continue it. HOWEVER oh i wish i had picked it back up back then so badly because whatever reason i set it down originally was completely gone this time around. i fell in love with ali hazelwood's writing and her characters and the warmth and authenticity of the world she builds.

jack. smith. turner. holy shit. he's my number one book boyfriend of the year. that's crazy for me to say out loud because i've read 3 emily henry books this year but jack smith-turner did something to me. he's hot. he's smart. he's selfless. he's kind. he's a little tortured. he's just the perfect example of all the things that make up a good book boyfriend rolled into one. his relationship with elsie is truly so fun to read and seeing the way he understands her on levels she hasn't been understood before just continues to make you long for a fictional man. the way he cares so deeply about the people important to him in life makes you love him even more and i wish i could read another book with him in it.

elsie hannaway. i loved elsie. she felt so real and relatable (almost painfully so) and like someone you could meet and know in real life. she wasn't the annoying kind of fmc where she's insecure and unsure of herself just because that's "who she is" but rather because she has reason to be. watching her be uncomfortable around jack who is so sure of himself and encourages her to be solely who/what she wants was wonderful. her banter with all of the characters but most specifically jack is so well written and feels natural for them. she's a bright light in the book despite how dark she feels inside.

overall, this was a very pleasant surprise to end november with and i only wish i had read it sooner because it's truly that good. i'll have to go ahead and do an ali hazelwood binge to end the year and i'm already looking forward to her next book in february!

q & a:

are they endgame? - these two... i adore these two. i think they really become such a strong couple in this book and it's not one where i go away thinking that they've got anything to work on really. we see how much elsie has grown and how much they've grown around each other to encapsulate one another in their lives. jack feels like a very stable mmc where we don't question anything with him. he is how he is and that's not going to change and that's a good thing. i think that they both have such a way with each other and it will keep them as endgame.

did i cringe? - there are some silly physics/stem moments but i think it makes you laugh more than ever cringe. ali hazelwood has some funny character moments but none that stand out extremely in a bad way. they are "quirky" more than being "cringey" and it works for her style and characterization. the little bubble of her books in the modern world is well crafted and feels realistic rather than an uneducated guess at an academia setting.

favorite part? - ali hazelwood has become another author where i'm obsessed with her characters. i loved every one of them. i talked about jack and elsie obviously but i think the side characters also add so much warmth to this book. i adore greg and he's such a great representation of someone on the aroace spectrum. he's so understanding of jack and what kind of brother he is. cece is a fun character to put alongside elsie. they are both opposites and yet work so well together. their moment at the end of the book felt so great in really instilling so much faith in their friendship despite their differences. millicent's relationship with jack brought so much to his character and the story as well. the side characters make the story feel more authentic and realistic in the best way and i truly adored them.

least favorite part? - my one little nitpick is the pacing and even that i'm not truly complaining about. you could see how confused i was when we hit what i figured would be the biggest conflict of the book at only 50% through. but even then, i don't have a full problem with it because i love where the book went after that as well. i think it just makes for a slightly odd feeling at the halfway mark but when you're thinking of the book as a whole, there really is no big problem with it. it's the only reason this is 5.5 stars instead of 6 stars honestly.

favorite quotes (some spoilers here, of course, but minimal):

I’d give everyone the me they wanted, needed, craved, and in exchange they’d care about me.

“Elsie?” My name, again. Said like the universe made that word for him alone.

“Code-switching has nothing to do with erasing who you are and twisting what’s left of you."

“Not everyone wants you to be someone else, Elsie.” He’s wrong about that, but I can smell his skin. It’s good in a way that’s primeval. Almost evolutionary. I hate it. “And I definitely wouldn’t want you to be George.” “And why is that?” He presses his lips together. He’s even closer now. Surprisingly earnest. “It would be a waste.” “A waste of what?” “Of you.”

The electron to my nucleus, constantly spinning around me in the most annoying of orbits.

“Bold of you to assume that the real me is my best hand.” That stupid, crooked half smile is back. “Foolish of you to think it isn’t.”

“Because this is not your character arc, Elsie. More like a . . . character bump.”

"I’d love to know what you’re thinking.” “I think a lot about how much I hate you,” I say with no conviction. “I think a lot about how much you hate me, too.”

I didn’t know who you were till last week. Aside from the girl Jack talks about when he gets drunk.

“I’m at my most comfortable around you,” I say. And then, because honesty: “And also at my least. But that’s because you’re an asshole, and unlikely to ever change.”

“Don’t let me fall asleep,” I yawn into his neck. “We’re supposed to be doing it.” “We are. We’re going at it like animals. Just close your eyes.”

All the Elsies I’ve created to fit all the worlds I’ve inhabited, all the people in them. He’s stripping them off me one by one, like he has since the day we met.

There’s something unsaid in this. Because I want to know your life, maybe, or Because I want to know you.

I wonder if it’ll ever end. I wonder if all these beautiful, momentous things I feel for him will ever settle into something ordinary. I can’t imagine they will.

[flymmsy]

on the scale of 1-10 delulu, how likely do you think some new evil gortash ending being made is?

I think it's 50-50, so I guess that converts to a level 5 Delulu.

Why I think it might be happening

1. The Dialogue Bug - I think it’s suspicious that a relatively simple bug (that has been confirmed as a bug) has gone unfixed through so many hotfixes.

EDIT: It’s a common misconception that Hotfix 18 removed all Gortash dialogue changes but that's not quite the case. Here is a rundown of what's missing.

Now, it really is possible that it is really just extremely low priority for Larian. I just think that this, paired with other things, is suspicious.

2. New Evil Endings - we know Larian is working on new Evil endings but we have no details on what those are. However, the fact that only Gortash’s alliance dialogue has changed (edit: there's a small change in his Boss Fight scene too but its tied to the same file. See link above for a full rundown) and gone unfixed is what makes me think maybe there’s more in the works. Like I’ve said before, the dialogue file that this addition is in is the entire file for that office scene. If they wanted to beef up a Gortash alliance as an Evil Ending, they’d most likely have to edit that file again anyway. So why work on something twice when you can just roll it out all at once?

3. Getting Gortash to the end of the game is not as complicated or involved as people think - Gortash dies once the endgame has already been set in motion. You wouldn’t have to actually add that much. All you’d have to do is have the Emperor suck him into the prism too and have them duke it out, or have the Emperor leave him and come up with some narrative explanation for how he got away from the Netherbrain. Then he’d probably have to have a few lines in your little Endgame Pit Stop to speak to your allies - and that’s pretty much it. The rest, if they really had to go bare bones, can be added via mentions of him in the Epilogue. There’s already files that make some mention of calling on the Steel Watch in the final fight.

4. The Extra Delulu point- Larian has always been responsive to fans. They need to set boundaries, and clearly aren’t going to be adding a lot, but I don’t think the fact that Durgetash has risen to one of the top spots on AO3 counts for nothing. That’s something that is clearly measurable data of fan interest. At the very least, I’m certain it’s made them aware of it, we just don’t know if they’ve made the decision to act on it.

Why I think it might not be happening

1. Larian will only be adding limited content from this point forward - my hopes for any Gortash ending were immediately dashed when I first heard this news, but then revived with skepticism when they mentioned the evil endings. We don’t even know if a definitive edition is still on the table, which is where I initially thought they might add Gortash content. It’s very possible that because of this decision, no new Gortash content will be added. They may have also originally intend to add content, but ultimately chose to reprioritize with this new direction.

2. The Absolute Legend that is Jason Isaacs- It’s always been said that having such an incredible voice actor is a catch-22, because it makes calling them back in to record anything new that much harder due to both budget and scheduling constraints. Now, as I said above, not THAT much would need to be recorded, but even if it is only a little this is a very clear reason why it might have to be a no-go.

3. Gortash’s other content - it’s clear that Gortash was a victim of the cut content stick. We find out way too much about him from only letters and mentions that feel really out of nowhere, but ultimately accomplish the job. I could also understand the writers feeling like if they had to pair down his story to what it is, adding it without any additional backup would feel weird.

TLDR; it’s a total toss-up.

The only people that actually know shit are Larian themselves, and no amount of speculation can actually be definitive. Assume the worst, dream of the best, and hope that it lands somewhere in the middle.

[clandestine-j]

the literal 911 leaker on reddit has already confirmed that buck and tommy are not endgame. They literally said and I quote "No. He's a chess piece that got moved from Eddie to Buck. A catalyst for either of their queerness. I'm saving you time." when someone asked them if buck and tommy are gonna be endgame

This leaker has also gotten everything they posted right as well. They were the ones that first broke the news months before it happened that Buck was gonna be bisexual, so they clearly know many people in production including writers. Since we know S8 is beign written and they posted this today.

so sounds like buck and tommy isn't going to last which i guess is fine but once tommy leaves i'm not watching anymroe. I have no reason to doubt this leaker everything they've posted has come true.

They posted Natalia not coming back, Buck being bi, Marisol being bones, Chris leaving for a time period, Gerrard coming back, like nothing they have said has been false. So now I'm bracing myself and just gonna enjoy Buck and Tommy while we still have them.

Hmm, I don't know much about the -1-1 leaker. I'm on the subreddit for it but I guess I didn't dig deep enough.

I think I could believe that, if this was coming out after they filmed and got scripts. They're still on break right? Like, the info they got, was info after the script had been settled. I've chatted with some friends and they feel like, everything the leaker 'leaked' could've been figured out pretty easily. That's their view. Another view, they just feel like the leaker is saying this to get us Tommy fans to stop talking about and enjoying him.

But also, I don't need Buck and Tommy to be endgame? Would I enjoy, hell yeah!

But my personal issue has never been Buck and Tommy being endgame. Unlike most, I didn't hate all of Buck's previous love interest. I liked Abby for what she was needed for, I didn't enjoy Taylor fully but I get it wasn't all bad. I did enjoy Ali and was sad she had such a short run. And I thought, Natalia could've been cool but they wasted her.

I won't ever stop watching the show because the ship is over but I also don't shame for moving on! If you're not vibing with what you're watching, then do you and don't be feel bad about.

But back to the point, my issue never was Buck and Tommy not being end game.

It was the buddie or bust fans not allowing us to ENJOY the ship. It was the buddie or bust fans, accusing us of being fake buddie fans because we DARED to enjoy another Buck ship. It was buddie or bust fans shitting on Tommy in his tag and calling him a plot device. It was the buddie or bust fans, CONSTANTLY shoving buddie down our throats with a fanon ship while shitting on a canon one. My issue was was the ao3 tags being tagged as Buck/Tommy just so they can dump have him dumed and be with Eddie. My issue was buddie or bust fans getting upset that people didn't include queer Eddie while they shitted on a canon GAY man. My issue was buddie or bust fans pretending as if Buck wasn't a sexually, kinky guy because it's with Tommy now but will write the kinkiest fanfics. My issue was them treating Tommy like this predator or acting like a gay man can't have friends without trying to get with him, while he knows said man is straight and has a girlfriend.

That's why I'm so defensive over Buck and Tommy, because they'll cry and run love interest off until the cows come home for buddie but get upset when WE want to enjoy a relationship.

Maybe Buck and Tommy don't last but nothing shows that they're gonna drop him 3 episodes into season 8. I just want to enjoy it. That's it.

So, don't worry yourself too much. We don't know what will happen but we CAN demand, that we're allowed to enjoy Buck and Tommy without them freaking out because people dared to enjoy a relationship.

[sukirichi]

Not me even as a hardcore Sunayn truther eating up the Ex-prince!Rin and computer science major!Tsukki roommates agenda. I just know they would have so many misadventures together. Hell, if Rin isn't endgame, I shall silently hope that you write a one shot of manager!reader x ex-prince!rin.

i have come with an offering of a ficlet of manager! reader x ex-prince! rin <3 inspired by this concept | pls note that this is not canon compliant to the dtd timeline !! or who knows. giggles. 1k wc

Rin lay in bed, staring at the ceiling as his patience wears thin. The clock on his nightstand read 2:30 AM, and Tsukishima’s voice echoed through the room, loud and relentless. The tall blond was deep into a gaming session, his shouts and laughter blending with the sound of rapid keyboard clicks.

“Dude, watch out for the sniper!” Tsukishima yelled, his excitement palpable. “Watch out, watch out! Shit!”

Rin rolled over, pulling the pillow over his head, but it did little to muffle the noise. He tried counting sheep, deep breathing, even reciting poetry in his head, but nothing worked. Finally, with a frustrated sigh, he threw off the covers and marched to his roommate’s desk. It took everything in him to not rip off his stupid headseat.

“Tsukishima,” Rin gritted his teeth. “Can you keep it down? Some of us are trying to sleep.”

Tsukishima glanced over his shoulder, a smirk playing on his lips. “Sorry, old man,” he said, his tone dripping with sarcasm. “Didn’t realize it was past your bedtime.”

Rin clenched his jaw, resisting the urge to snap back. He wasn’t even that old. The blond fucker was just a genius who got into university earlier than everyone else, a fact he boasted of proudly with his nose pointed north. Ass, Rin wanted to say, I used to be a Prince. Don’t think anything can compare with that.

Instead, the words that come out of his mouth are different. Taking a deep breath, Rin pinched the bridge of nose. “Just... try to be quieter, okay?”

Tsukishima chuckled, turning back to his game. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll keep it down.”

Rin sighed, knowing Tsukishima’s version of “quiet” would still be far from silent. Resigned, he crossed his room and picked up his hoodie slung from the back of his chair, keys spinning on his finger, and walked out. The way to the café he worked at was something he could navigate with his eyes closed.

He pushed the door open, the familiar bell above the entrance chiming softly. Instantly, he was greeted by the comforting aroma of freshly brewed coffee – the scent fainter now that fewer people came. It wasn’t his shift tonight, either, but he needed the caffeine boost and a quiet place to finish his essay.

At least, that’s what he tells himself. It’s really just an excuse to see you – his pretty manager who never failed to make his heart skip a beat. It’s silly, really.

He’s pushing his thirties and has been divorced already. Yet each time you smiled at him, calling him Rin (because he’s just Rin now, no longer Rintaro), he feels stupid for the way his body reacts like he’s a teenager all over again.

You don’t notice him when he enters, something he’s grateful for. He clutches his book and makes his way to a secluded a corner, avoiding the counter where you stood. He caught glimpses of you out of the corner of his eye – your surprised expression upon seeing him making him smile inwardly. Damn, he thinks, hiding his reddened cheeks under his hoodie, you didn’t have to look so happy seeing him.

But he guessed you were just like that. Intimidating and scary at first since you’d rarely smiled, but once he got to know you, you were actually sweet under that tough exterior. Manager personality, maybe. You couldn’t have been one if you weren’t fierce in your own way.

Settling into his seat, he pulls out his notebook and pen. A few minutes passed, the soft hum of the café filling the silence and helping him write down more words in the essay he had to turn in for this semester. Then, out of nowhere, a cup of coffee slid gently onto the table in front of him. He looked up, meeting your eyes – tired, sleepy, and a little too warm under the dim lights.

“On the house,” you say, a small smile tugging at your lips before you return to the counter.

Just like that, he begins to feel warm all over. He wraps his hands around the cup, feeling the warmth seep into his fingers. Every now and then, he flickers his gaze back to you, the taste of the coffee and the memory of your smile etched into his brain.

He stays a little bit more after that. He helps you close up and wipe everything, a silent murmur of ‘thanks’ passed between each other. And because he can’t help himself, he walks you home – to an apartment a few minutes away from his university. Neither of you say a word, but none was needed. The silence that stretches is comfortable, and he respects that you’re too exhausted to start conversation.

Briefly, Rin wonders when was the last time he’d experienced such a peaceful moment like this. And when you turn to him, jut your thumb to your place, farewells are exchanged under shy smiles.

He likes you, that much he knows. It’s hard not to. But there’s one thing harder than not liking you, and it’s keeping his little crush just the way it is – an innocent, silly little crush.

On the way home, he kicks rocks on the pavements and feels the weight of his ex-wife’s Polaroid hidden in his wallet, the remnants of a life long gone carried with him everywhere he goes.

Even now, on the other side of the world, in a country that doesn’t speak his language and where he’s truly a nobody, Rin keeps the last promise he’d made to her before he’d left. There’d be no one else after you, he’d once said, and he sighs, picturing his pretty manager’s even prettier smile – the type where your eyes wrinkle at the corner, and your cheeks rise up.

Foolishly, he looks at your silhouette from the window. You’ve removed your scarf and was now stretching your arms above your head, your figure disappearing as you plop down on your bed. You’re so pretty, it hurts, and he can’t fathom if he likes how you know nothing about him at all.

[angstywaifu]

Hi love!

One of the so many Director's cuts I'll ask hehe 😵‍💫

Could you maybe do one for chapter 10 of the lost sister? It has so much, if not all of it is Xaden and Ophelia and just siblings and at this point you know I have a weak spot for them 🥺

And who knows maybe I'll get more questions out of it hehe.

Aura ♡

I can't wait for more directors cuts! So please send more my way <3

Chapter 10. The chapter than nearly didn't exist! This actually came to be from another ramble with someone. All I'm learning so far is good things come from rambles. But yes, this part nearly didn't exist. But I am very glad it does. It gives us a little glimpse into Ophelia and Xaden, but also Ophelia and Garrick pre Basgiath/Rebellion.

So lets get into it!

There will probably be some spoilers for Lost Sister and the books in the below. So if you haven't read my fic or the books completely, you have been warned.

”We’ve always been very similar. Even if we don’t look it.” I say, earning a chuckle out of him.

”I assume the hair colour was something Melgren made you do?” He asks as he reaches out and grabs a piece of it.

You can just tell how much this hurts Xaden to see. As we know these two don't look a lot a like. Ophelia has paler skin and green eyes. So growing up, the only thing that was the same was their hair. Which is why we get such a reaction out of Xaden and Garrick at Reunification Day/War Games when she changes it back with the help of Imogen (side note - Ophelia and Imogen have come so far, proud of them). But know that he did it to her, makes him angrier than he lets on. But by this interaction he's had a few weeks to deal with that. It's such a small detail, but something I wanted to add in.

“You always knew how to read your opponents well. Finding strength and weaknesses. Clearly something I’d forgotten when you kicked my ass on the mat on your first day here.”

As we know this eventually leads into her signet. She can read people well, pick up on those little details very easily. Pick up on their emotions as well. Something Xaden used to his advantage as a kid. She would always pick up on things he wouldn't. Sitting on the side line while he trained, providing feedback on the others. Definitely helped him get better at fighting and reading people's intentions (leading into Xaden's second signet). The boys definitely sent her in first to sus out if they were in trouble or something. Fen could never get mad at her. Well, least till he figures out she's in league with them. Which doesn't take him very long at all.

”Oh come on O, we can all see it. It’s just you two who are to blind and stubborn to do anything about it. Well, more just stubborn now.” You just know Xaden was making comments about this one he figures out their feelings for each other. Ophelia was always smitten with Garrick. She definitely had a crush on him for ages before developing proper feelings for him. Even as young kids she always gravitated towards him. So Xaden would keep his teasing more subtle. But once Garrick fell, and fell hard, Xaden was jumping on the making jokes and comments about it constantly. Definitely led to some fights if Xaden pushed it too far.

But as I said in my last directors cut. He has been there since day one of Garrick and Ophelia meeting. He's the one that introduces them. So even though he is protective of his sister, he knows Garrick only has good intentions. He knows Garrick would do anything for her. Because he's seen him do it multiple times while they were growing up. So next to mama Tavis, he would be their biggest supporter.

But you know once they're all at Basgiath he's just rolling his eyes and muttering under his breath how stupid they both are and how they need to sort their shit out and just get together.

"You know that if you go down this path with him, thats it.”

This man already knows those two are endgame for each other. Big brother Xaden is very much pro Garrick and Ophelia. Though Garrick definitely still gets the shovel talk from Xaden regardless of this fact. Even if it is his best friend, he will dig that grave if he needs to.

[jams-sims]

So heres the thing about Jin- whoever is writing for Jins story is doing a great Job. Theres something so messy about being in different couples. But being fully into one another nonetheless. (This is usually why casa guys never actually stand a chance. Heres a free idea for itgs have us start in casa and then switch back to the main villa. Our situation back in the main villia is bad and someone has already taken our guy. Etc etc)

Like bro they really tossed in a "sneak a kiss" option and that was enough to get me to click. We only have 2 more weeks of story left and I feel like theres a lot that could have been added. For one we could have been major messy with Jin by having a longer time seperated. You sneak off to meet hik, he pulls you into the bathroom. You guys are always missing at the same time- like be REAL fucking messy about it.

I would have love more writing dealing with Jin finding out that he love physical contact. Just small things like holding hand or being snuggled together. Shit like that would get me acting crazy.

BUT already we are in endgame. An i would love to have just an eposide with Jin while everyone else has drama. That would be so fuckin good- OR at least a short one shot of after the Villa.

Shit steal the name 'After The Villa" This would be preferct to fit into how messy that last part should be. Make it a reniuion and bring up all the mess we did behind people back and being chronically noisy. Jins final question is both good and fursrating because of course this cements who we are going to be ending the game with. But i just need more-

[gaycrunch]

some of the writing in veilguard makes me want to break open a doc and start writing a hurt/comfort/rook needs a hug tagged fic (i already have)

it became glaring after the siege of weisshaupt mission (so spoilers for that) when everyone goes back to the lighthouse and is being all emo because the mission didn't go exactly how they wanted it to. varric says something along the lines of rook needing to help all of their companions and their factions before they can all join together again as a team, and i remember i kept asking over and over, what about rook? they have to check in on all these people, yet no one is asking how they are. they're the leader of the team, if anyone needs to be checked in on, i feel like it should have been them.

rook is literally the "accidentally became important at work n its ruining my life" meme. my rook is just some guy that was put into this position.

spoilers for emmrich's romance, i loved that he asked (and i think other romances do as well?) how rook was doing and said they were worried about them, but it shouldn't take a romance for that to happen.

spoilers for the endgame. and then after rook has learned that varric was dead this whole time and they were being manipulated by solas' blood magic, i was left confused. i guess it was because of his magic, but why wasn't emmrich able to pick up on that? his whole thing is spirits. i've seen other people have similar questions about why none of the companions asked about varric or why rook was fucking talking to themselves about varric, and again, they said maybe it was due to solas' blood magic manipulating them, but if that was the case, why didn't the writing say or show that? i guess they kind of did with how dismissive rook could be once harding or neve talked about it when they find out you've learned he was actually dead, but still, i think it could have been executed better, especially with how neve (or maybe it was harding. i don't remember) says that they just thought rook knew.

i know they said this game isn't getting dlc, but i desperately hope it does. not just because i enjoyed the game, but because it'd be nice to see a dynamic where it feels like the companions actually give a shit about rook. it makes me think of the saying "it's lonely at the top" and for rook, who is essentially at the top as their leader, it sure does seem like it would be lonely.

[loganthrives]

Just going where the hyperfixations take me I guess

Hey y'all, sorry its been a while. Wanted to do a lil personal update post. Under the cut to spare your dash in case you don't want to read my nonsense:

You might've noticed that I've really pulled back on social media lately. Tumblr is the only platform that I check even semi-regularly anymore, and the last two months its been not even a thought in my head to check it for the most part. Like, I went from checking it 2-3 times daily to not checking it for a week or more at a time, and not even noticing the change myself until recently.

This hiatus has only been semi-intentional - on the one hand, I am very easily emotionally impacted by the horrors of the world (ADHD emotional hyperarousal and justice sensitivity), and so I needed to take a biiig step back for my own mental health so I wouldn't go down yet another depressive spiral. That's had some mixed results for me, because obviously I can't just bury my head in the sand to pretend that the horrors are going to go away on their own, and I can't easily stop myself from caring about them either.

Just to be absolutely abundantly clear on my position, I still care about Palestine and want to see it freed from violence and restored. Black lives still matter and will always matter. Free Sudan and free the Congo.

I just... Being vocal about the problems of the world takes a lot more out of me than I myself often realize, and sometimes I need to/am forced to hibernate and rest my voice for a bit. Because I can be loud, and I can be belligerent and unforgiving as fuck when it comes to actual human rights abuses and literal genocide, but I am only one mentally ill and disabled queer person in Canada. I can only do so much and my voice can only go so far.

And, yeah, I know about the US election results. I've been posting a shitton of hopefully helpful links and resources to cure ballots, get your passports in order, and other support and resources for my American friends. I am also looking into asylum in Canada and how that works, and how it might potentially be extended to American expats in the future. I've already got one person I'm inviting to live with me as soon as they can get themself up here, but I might have to do more work and research before I can open my doors for more.

It hurts me on a very deep level that my impact is so sharply limited. I don't even have money I can donate anymore - all my roommates have left and I still haven't gotten this house renovated and ready for sale, so it feels like every month I'm walking on thin ice to make my bills work and still somehow feed myself. Part of me wonders whether I shouldn't just post rooms for rent again but then I definitely can't do the renovation work that needs to be done because it involves tearing out the main bathroom. Can't rent to people legally if I can't give them access to a shower or a tub. I feel stuck and unable to progress.

So, while I've been hibernating on my activism, I've been distracting myself with work and with Final Fantasy 14. I accidentally built a whole community where we do stuff together almost nightly, and its been a very inviting and fun distraction from everything. I honestly enjoy it probably a bit too much, and I'm actually getting to do the endgame stuff and content that I never got to do with any of my previous FCs, either because they were busy doing other stuff like running clubs and venues or because they were hyper toxic and constantly talked down to me about how bad they felt I was at the game. I was never bad at the game I just needed someone who had the patience to help me learn and not look down on me for every little mistake I made, and so I went and found a couple of someones who could do that for me, and now I'm basically running this shit myself.

I haven't been doing a ton of writing, though I've been thinking about my FF14 fic more than anything. Apologies again for anyone who was looking forward to more updates to my Undertale fics, and for all the writing I've promised and failed to deliver on 🥺 I stopped posting updates to Tumblr about my fic because I think most people aren't super into named WoL self-insert fics, but I still post the updates to my Discord.

If you made it this far and for some reason want to hang out with me, here's a link for my old Not Your Doll discord - https://discord.gg/G2QSa3c7wH . Its still active once in a blue moon and I post my fic updates to it, along with my activism rants and any links/things I want to share to either make you smile or laugh, or important info I think should be shared. It is also a mental health/vent space for those who need it.

If you'd like to hang out with me in FF14, my homeworld is Dynamis Rafflesia and I have the Thrives FC <THRVS>, feel free to message me ingame (character name is Logan Thrives) or submit an app to my small FC if you'd like to join up. I'm going to try and run consistent treasure map parties every other Saturday once mogtomes are over for characters who are level 60+ and have at least completed Heavensward. There is an FC Discord as well where I do all my events and things but its not exclusive to FC members and many friends have joined it. I'll give that link out privately to anyone who plays and is interested in joining my community.

Thanks for reading all my nonsense and for still sticking around and supporting me, even though I've been so inactive and quiet. I can't make any promised I know I'm not going to keep, but I do hope to return to writing and to being more active on here at some point. I do genuinely miss it.

Have a Nora pic for making it this far:

My baby girl will be ten years old in January 💜

[eucalyptusace]

First impressions after finishing rebirth

I honestly loved it. I loved the character interactions, the banter and chemistry of the main cast was off the charts good. I feel like the devs really do love the cast as much as I do. Not a single person fell flat, and the stand outs to me were yuffie, barret, and CLOUD especially. My God the way they wrote Cloud made me so happy. It was perfect. This extends to the VAs who seemed to have broken the SE curse of stilted dialogue and anime grunting. However something about Tifa and Aeriths voices seemed weaker in this game compared to Remake.

Red XIII to nanaki voice change was weird as hell and didn’t seem well-justified in the story or his character. It just kind of happens and is really jarring.

I have accepted chadley. He’s essentially a computer so it’s not like he’s really in your way.

Even though the graphics have been complained about ever since the first demo, I haven’t seen many people mention how much more expression has gone into the character models, especially their faces. I went back to watch some cutscenes from the first game and was shocked by how static the faces are. The way scenes are scripted includes so much expressive body language, it really helps to nail the emotion 100%.

Why was everyone passing around the black materia and the clear materia and holy, like sephiroth already HAD it and then gave it to Cloud who gave it back? I don’t really care…. Kind of a weak story beat. But loved watching Cloud lose his shit in the endgame.

I braced myself for a bad ending. I was fully prepared to not take the last chapter seriously. So that’s what I will do. I’m not sure how I feel about the death. My favorite theory is from discord: Cloud killed Aerith and blanked it out. Maybe a long shot but would make for a really satisfying third act reveal. I mean, nobody else saw her die.

I didn’t HATE the zack stuff…. But it definitely killed the pacing for what was basically no story. Like…. I don’t remember anything really happening in those scenes? It was just weird fanfic interludes. Kind of cute though.

It’s kind of funny how 90% of these games are a loyal-but-expanded version of the OG, yet there is that weird little 10% that feels like a tacked on side story involving zack and other timelines that just sort of…. Exists.

I loved the dream date at the end between Cloud and aerith. You’re not sure at first if they’re AU until you realize that was them at their happiest selves. The camera poses. It was kind of beautiful and actually made me really emotional. Honestly their dynamic at the end was crazy, the chasing scene was peak. Plus the way everyone is just ignoring Cloud being psycho and dangerous? Like get him tf out the party bro! He feels so much scarier in this version compared to his little block model.

[hello-nichya-here]

How do you think GRRM would resolve the potential Jonrya vs. Gendrya love triangle in the books? I think Jonrya is endgame because Arya has more fondness and closeness with Jon than with Gendrya but other people think Gendrya is endgame (probably because of the lack of incest). Realistically, how do you think Gendry would react to Arya being love with Jon and do you think Gendry will be killed off like Gale from The Hunger Games?

Okay, so there are two different answers here:

Will this potential love triangle even be a thing in the books for it to need to be resolved?

No. Martin seems to no longer want to make Jonrya a thing and has been very clear when saying that Jon will eventually meet and fall for Daenerys (though it's unclear if they'll be endgame).

As for Gendry, I honestly have no idea what are Martin's plans for him. There were hints of a mutual romantic interest and I do think he'll see Arya again, I'm guessing in Winterfell, but them being a couple is not a sure thing.

So yeah, he won't "resolve" this love triangle because it likely wouldn't exist.

Would this love triangle have even been a thing in Martin's original plan for the series for it to need to be resolved?

I don't know if Gendry even existed in this original version, let alone what role he would play in the story and what kind of dynamic he'd have with Arya if they were to meet. In fact, we know Arya would be in a love triangle with Jon and Tyrion. That's how different things were.

To the surprise of no one, Arya would be with Jon because their connection was such a set-in-stone thing that it is VERY clear (and makes them real easy to ship) even in the version of the story we actually did get.

So even IF Gendry and his mutual crush with Arya were ever going to be a thing in that version of the story, it'd likely be a quick, not that significant part of the story, that would pose no real threat to Jonrya, so need for him to be killed off, or go the Gale route and have a major falling out with Arya because he accidentally killed someone she loved through some cruel war tactic that was desgined to kill innocents.

Bonus: My personal opinion on that "love triangle"

I like Gendrya, but come on. It could only ever be a thing in a world where Jon and Arya's connection is purely platonic/familial (which Martin tried to do in the books, but didn't fully accomplish if you ask me) because if Arya EVER had choose between Jon and literally anyone else on Earth, she's choosing Jon.

Hell, even in canon that's already the case. She lets go of everything that reminds her of her old life in Winterfell - except Needle, because it was the sword Jon gave to her.

Jon doesn't give up on making his vows to live on The Wall forever when he realizes life there is shit. He is tempted to break said vows for Ned, Ygritte and even to be Lord of Winterfell, but he always decides against it in the end - except when he believes Arya is in danger.

Any love triangle that involves Jonrya as one of the potential pairings is pointless and inevitably short-lived because Jon and Arya would choose each other the second they realized the feeling is mutual.

[fala-alfredo-pasta]

Just imagine the in-universe forums for who the winner of the "Nagitobowl" will be.

"It's SO obviously Komamiki. The two just have so much in common."

"Nagito's not into girls, lol."

"He has gone on the record in interviews as being pan!"

"Oh please. They put him in an awkward on-the-spot situation. All he said was he admires the hope in people, regardless of gender."

"Sounded pretty fucking pan to me, dude. And we all saw the look on his face when she fell over in that position..."

"Nah. Soumaeda all the way! Our boy REALLY likes to hang around him a lot."

"He's just excited to have guy pals for once. Anyway, Kazuichi isn't into dudes."

"Shark boy is in denial!"

"Seriously guys? This matter was settled ages ago. We all heard that cry he let out* when Chiaki died."

"Our boy can't stay stuck in the past."

"Fuck off. They'll be reunited one day. Komanami 4ever!"

"If there was any of the deceased classmates he had something going on with, it would have been Fuyuhiko. RIP Short King."

"I dunno. That day when Nekomaru cheered Nagito up by helping build up his strength in the gym was pretty wholesome."

"If you ask me, I think there was potential for something with Imposter. When the two opened up about their pasts to each other they really seemed to relate to each other."

"Come on! Sonagito all the way. Nagito still likes to confide with her an awful lot."

"They're just good friends, and it's pretty obvious she already has something going on with Gundham. Besides, rumors are going around that Nagito might be a long lost second-cousin."

"Pfft! That's tame by royal standards. And no reason they couldn't have some poly love going on."

"You're all wrong. Komazumi is endgame all the fucking way. There was clearly SOMETHING going on there in the last two trials. And she's the one beside him the most in post-game Nagito sightings."

"I still think that pining for the Reserve Course boy from before the game was cute."

"What, Hajime Hinata? There's not much to go off of from what little information survived the Tragedy. And if he survived, wouldn't he have come forward by now?"

"Hold the fucking phone, guys. A video just got uploaded showing Nagito confronting that one short Despair. The other Ultimate Lucky Student. There's some serious Foe Yay shit going on."

"Oh great, the Junkomaeda stan's found a new ship."

"No seriously. They're doing a literal fucking tango."

"...What?"

"The Despair planted bombs or some shit and threatened to detonate them if Nagito didn't dance with him."

"Link. Now."

*= See "Spider-Man's Blood-curdling Scream" on YouTube.

absolutely losing my shit just picturing makoto forcing asking nagito to dance like:

Makoto: "Dance with me Nagito or I'll seriously cry! Fr fr! Also I'll blow up this entire building full of people. But mostly I'll cry!!!"

Nagito reluctantly dipping Makoto: *for the sake of hope ಠ╭╮ಠ*

Makoto: *wow I didn't think he'd actually do it lmao*

[thedanceronthestreets]

Ok so, the new episode has evoked multiple trains of thought in my head and although they all are related to the buck/tommy/eddie situation, i think it makes sense to put them down in several categories here:

Overall feel of the show at abc: i'm gonna say that the show definitely feels a bit unsettled after the network change, they seem to have a hard time balancing personal relationship plots and actual firefighter stuff. I know a lot of the cases in previous seasons were silly but they were still believable. The whole cruise disaster thing was just so over the top and now in the last 2 episodes there has been next to no action. The promo for next week's episode looks kinda like absolute mayhem. I do believe the abc team will figure this out and that they just need a little time to get comfortable but it's defo noticeable.

Buck's character: completely removed from his new romantic relationship, i am soooo loving his coming out arc. They've shown 2 amazing coming out scenes and one (and a half) dates and yet the word bisexual didn't even need to be said!!! It just makes sense as a story on its own!! It feels so natural and buck seems so so happy and in love and settled and has gobsmacking chemistry with tommy. I love that we get to watch him make mistakes and get things right while figuring himself out, it just feels so close to real life and i think the writers (and actors) are doing a fantastic job here.

Tommy's character: OBSESSED WITH HIM. HE'S SO FUNNY. And i think he's an excellent first male love interest for buck because he doesn't beat around the bush. He's comfortable in his own skin and is very aware that he doesn't have to give that up for buck despite crushing on him hardcore. I love that he gives buck the space to make mistakes and come to terms with his bi-ness, but not at the expense of himself. He is a great mature influence on buck and i think will eventually help him to become confident in his sexuality in a way buck may have taken way longer to do on his own. Which leads me to ...

The buck/tommy relationship: this is where things start to get complicated. My head says "let's microanalyse every scene in regards to buddie" but my heart says "enjoy how fucking cute buck and tommy are being on screen right now". I DON'T WANT THEM TO BREAK UP. AT ALL. THEY ARE CRAZY ABOUT EACH OTHER. WHIPPED, IN FACT!!! I do think buck/tommy isn't "endgame" per se but i do think they fit so well together, they should be given the opportunity to last a little while at least. Buck needs someone like tommy now who will hold him accountable while being entirely sympathetic. It's a great dynamic that i would be very sad to see go (and so would buck i think because i have never seen heart eyes that intense on that man before....)

Buck/eddie: look. I can't unsee it, just like everybody else. Doesn't matter how cute tommy and buck are, i hold my breath whenever buck and eddie share a scene now. There's some weird shit happening there. I think the writers have been very clever with the latest episode because it leaves buck and eddie on good terms without insinuating what exactly comes next. Buck is completely focused on tommy right now (which is good!) and eddie has his own stuff going on, so a rushed buddie arc would make zero sense right now. As a lot of people have already said, buddie is very much a long-haul game and while we can start to see seeds at this point, i'd hate to rush into it. Cause the slow burn is part of the fun right :D right ????

Eddie: eddie. My silly goose. I love what they're doing with him this season. He seems so much more able to let loose and enjoy himself. He's getting sillier and i love that for him. He also seems to have headspace for new things now.... such as recognising that he's limited by catholic guilt..... which is the number one symptom of being into hot godly women.... right ... right..... I'd probably kill a man to quiz the writers on how they came up with the concept of eddie/tommy. Because that means they've thought about how gay eddie would make sense. They will have discussed his motivations and experiences over the last few seasons and recontextualised them. And mould them into the life of a closeted gay man. Gnawing. Clawing, even.

Conclusion: buck/tommy slay. Hate to see them go. Would love to see eddie be gay and get his own independent coming out arc just like buck did. Want them to be gay buddies for a while. And then see what that makes of the situation.....