#making the first one of these in 82 years because i so very much want to hear him say 'cunt'

[blue-ravens]

[nanabansama]

Tsukasa Is Tsukasa

Recently I discovered a poll asking if people thought the Supernatural Tsukasa and the Red House Tsukasa were different, and the results surprised me! A majority of voters thought they were not the same. Not only that, but I've seen many people in the fandom start believing they are separate people, if they hadn't already believed it before.

I think this stance can very easily be explained by the scene in Chapter 111 where Amane comes to the conclusion that the Tsukasa who went missing isn't the same as the one who came back:

While people might be divided on the details, the conclusion is basically the same: whatever that is inside of him, it's not Amane's brother.

And I can see why they think this! In fact, it used to be a popular theory back during the release of chapters 78-82 when we didn't know the specifics of what happened. Heck, we still don't know many of the specifics...and many people continued believing the Tsukasas were different anyway!

There's decent evidence to support this, too. When Tsukasa returned, he had sharp teeth and supernatural powers. He knew that Kunishige's wish was that the head priest would die. He's demonstrably different from the innocent little Tsukasa that sacrificed his life for Amane.

If that wasn't enough, even his own mom came to the conclusion that Tsukasa wasn't her son! This is basically the same conclusion Amane comes to in Chapter 111. That's 2/3 of Tsukasa's family members thinking some evil entity is larping around in his skin--not a good look!

In any case, while I could try and convince you guys there are two Tsukasas and the Tsukasas are different, that's not what I'm here to do. If you read my blog you already know I'm 100% on the side that Tsukasa is Tsukasa and always has been, and nothing AidaIro has shown me so far has been convincing enough to change my mind. In this post, I am here to argue that the Red House Tsukasa is the same as the Supernatural Tsukasa and that he merely works in tandem with the ancient god living inside him.

1. Chapter 82

This is the chapter when a lot of people dropped the theory that there are two Tsukasas, including me. (Yes, I used to believe there were two Tsukasas--people change!)

Kou and Nene had determined that the Red House Tsukasa was the real Tsukasa and that the one Amane killed was a fake. They come to this conclusion because this Tsukasa was trapped in the Red House for 50 years and acts a lot nicer and sweeter than the one we know.

The issue is, Kou tells this Tsukasa that Amane is going to kill Tsukasa and die at the age of 13...and unbeknownst to Kou, the seemingly innocent little Red House Tsukasa is EXCITED at the idea! Tsukasa, thankful to Kou and Nene, helps them escape the house but stays behind. This scene is when a lot of cool stuff happens.

First, we learn that Tsukasa wasn't actually trapped in the Red House and he always knew how to get back home, but that he never left because he was worried about what would happen to Amane. However, once Kou told him that Amane wasn't happy after Tsukasa left and that Amane kills not just Tsukasa but also himself, Tsukasa realizes he doesn't know that much about Amane and wants to learn more. The most shocking part of this scene to me was that Tsukasa's excitement at dying was very similar to the lighthearted way the Supernatural Tsukasa brings up his death with Amane.

Second, we see Tsukasa not only has the entity he sacrificed himself to to save Amane stored in his chest, but that he holds a conversation with it.

The entity being shown in his chest is actually a popular argument for the "Tsukasa isn't Tsukasa" theory, but I feel this scene proves otherwise. Tsukasa is not the unwilling host of this entity, as one might expect, but instead almost treats it as a friend. They have a sort of symbiotic relationship going on, and Tsukasa makes the decision to go back wholly of his own, despite them both knowing how to get back the entire time. He even says "let's go back TOGETHER," which supports the idea that they work together and that it isn't simply piloting a Tsukasa meat puppet.

We can argue Tsukasa is the victim to the entity's machinations, that the entity needed Tsukasa to do it willingly or that the entity took full control of Tsukasa after he succumbed to the flames or what not and tricked him, but so far AidaIro has only shown cooperation between these two characters. It's not unreasonable to suggest that Tsukasa gaining supernatural powers after he comes back isn't a sign that he's a different being entirely but that he's just working with one.

2. Mother Doesn't Always Know Best

This one will be a quick section, but considering Mother Yugi is basically the origin of "Tsukasa isn't Tsukasa" I wanted to cover why I think she's wrong.

In Chapter 79 Kunishige recounts how Mother Yugi took Tsukasa to their shrine because she thought her son was possessed by a demon after being spirited away. Kunishige thinks she's crazy at first, and so do the priests, who find nothing wrong with Tsukasa. Put a pin in that btw.

However, Kunishige later learns she was onto something because Tsukasa is not only an incredibly unsettling child but he correctly predicts the death of the head priest of the shrine and tells Kunishige his wish, for the head priest to disappear, would be granted tomorrow. This proves Tsukasa has otherworldly power, since he knows Kunishige's wish without Kunishige telling him, and also might have the ability to grant wishes, something the entity in his chest is shown to be capable of.

Now, I personally think the fact that the priests found nothing wrong with Tsukasa is HUGELY in favor of my theory. I understand how you can argue that the entity somehow avoided detection because it's powerful, or because there was nothing left of the original Tsukasa or something, but I still think the fact the priests detected nothing wrong is extremely weird. What if that's because Tsukasa is still in control?

I think the fact Mother Yugi was convinced Tsukasa isn't her son and wasn't persuaded otherwise is important, too. In fact, I think it might directly correlate with the conclusion Amane makes in Chapter 111. I think Amane is more or less coming to the same conclusion his mother made, something he hadn't wanted to believe at first but eventually, finally, succumbed to. I have to imagine his mother's insistence that Tsukasa wasn't Tsukasa left a big impression on Amane, and it's something that's bothered him for years.

I can't exactly blame them both, either. By the time Tsukasa came back, he'd lost a lot of his innocence. Keep in mind that they think Tsukasa was gone for six months. Any normal 4-year-old kid might have been traumatized by leaving his family for six months, but Tsukasa just acts creepy and possessed. And despite him meeting Nene and Kou 50 years in the future, it's possible it really was only six months for Tsukasa! Time worked differently there. Still, it's not hard to see how the extreme circumstances he was in might have changed him. Not only was he stuck in a haunted death house, he later learns the wish he granted for Amane wasn't Amane's true wish and that Amane kills Tsukasa. This is all pretty life-changing information, and when you tack on the fact that he's buddy-buddy with an ancient man-eating god, it's really not that surprising Tsukasa has changed so dramatically, especially when he's still at the tender age of 4.

3. Behavior

For something that's supposedly replaced Tsukasa entirely, it certainly gets very personal with Amane, doesn't it?

I said before that Red House Tsukasa in Chapter 82 acts similar to Supernatural Tsukasa. How they find delight in death. But I don't think this is the only point of similarity between them, either. In Chapter 81, Red House Tsukasa is under the impression that Amane hates him.

In Chapter 111, after Amane tells Tsukasa he hates him, Tsukasa tells him he already knew that.

Mind you, this line comes seconds before Amane comes to the conclusion that Tsukasa isn't Tsukasa.

Think about it. Tsukasa tells Amane that he knows Amane hates him, echoing a sentiment that the Red House Tsukasa shares. And Amane, after hearing this, comes to the conclusion that this Tsukasa is an impostor.

Isn't that... really sad?! I mean, I'm not going to say that Amane's whole reasoning for Tsukasa being a fake is that he thinks Amane hates him, but...before this scene, Amane was saying he couldn't destroy his yorishiro because he cared about Tsukasa too much. And for Tsukasa to say something he's thought ever since Amane pushed him as a little kid, and for THAT to make Amane say he thinks Tsukasa is fake... it really shows they've never understood each other at all.

Tsukasa's never been shown to get extremely upset about being hated by Amane, either, so you can't say Amane is right just because Tsukasa is laughing in Chapter 111. Tsukasa initially seems shocked when he was pushed, and overall seems a little sad about it in Chapter 81, but he still remarks that Amane hates him with a smile. He's selfless about it. And later, when he learns Amane kills him, this feeling gets more complex. Despite Kou's attempts to convince him otherwise, I think Kou's reveal only made Tsukasa more convinced that Amane hates him, and this is shown in Chapter 111 when he laughs about it. It's just a funny joke to him at this point.

I...genuinely cannot reconcile this behavior with Tsukasa being a fake. I just can't! Why would the entity be this personal with Amane? Why would it share opinions that the supposedly "real" Tsukasa had? If AidaIro really is trying to write a story about a little boy being replaced by a supernatural entity, then they could at least do a better job of making them act different. TBHK makes it clear that supernaturals can experience human emotions just as strongly as actual humans, so it wouldn't surprise me if the god has its own personality and feelings, but for them to just...be the exact same as the human it replaced? I'm not buying it.

There is no difference between the Red House Tsukasa and the Supernatural Tsukasa that can't be explained away by the fact that people change as they grow older. Everything about Tsukasa's character arc as I've presented it is completely logical.

Conclusion

With so little info on the ancient man-eating god, it's kind of impossible to reach a proper conclusion at this point. All we really know about its personality is that it hungers for flesh and will grant any wish in exchange for it. With this in mind, it's incredibly easy to see why people think the god and Supernatural Tsukasa are one and the same, especially when the cast tends to treat them as such. I could just as easily write a post in favor of them being different as I could of them being the same.

And I think this is what AidaIro ultimately wants! I think AidaIro wants us to second guess ourselves. If I know anything about Aidairo, it's that they like to keep up on our toes and shock us with surprising twists. Who really knows what they have hiding up their sleeves?

Still, I feel the theory that the god replaced Tsukasa raises more questions than answers, and I hope I managed to explain my side of things.

[inhonoredglory]

I think it makes sense to say that angels as ethereal beings in heaven are sexless but if one or two spend 6000 years on earth BEING male-sexed human bodies it no longer makes sense. As people keep recognising, eating food, drinking and driving fast among other things are all deeply embodied experiences and these have fundamentally changed them as people. The whole Jesus story is the same deal, being embodied human is transformative. We live in a time when the concept of embodiment is deeply unfashionable and Cartesian dualism is entrenched, where endless body mods and casual drugs and careless manipulation of core human physiology is enacted with barely an afterthought for deep-reaching and irreversible consequences, but it's a deeply sick framework for seeing the world

(In response to this meta about ineffables and romance/asexuality)

First of all, they don’t have “male-sexed human bodies.” They are literally "sexless unless they really want to make an effort” (Good Omens, 1990).

Like all of Neil Gaiman’s angels and demons (see The Sandman), Aziraphale and Crowley have no set genitalia, don’t (by default) engage in sexual activity, and they don’t always present or dress as male through history (although they often do).

critical-gemini-hero (excerpt): "Good Omens is the first big show I’ve seen to basically avoid transphobia all together when the opportunity presented itself, and even say fuck you to the gender binary as a bonus." Neil Gaiman (excerpt): "Thank you! That was definitely what we were going for." (source)

So no, they quite literally do not have “male-sexed human bodies” and they do not ascribe to human gender norms.

In addition, what you are suggesting is that “being in a male human body” equates to “feeling male” and “feeling sexual” because “the body dictates internal experience.”

There are literally millions of people, actual human beings living in physical bodies, who (despite living in culture) still DO NOT feel that the gender assigned to their bodies is reflective of their lived, internal experience. Merely having physical attributes does not mean you have a corresponding internal experience. You can be forced by your parents, teachers, elders, peers and everyone else to FEEL a certain way because of your “sexed human body” but it won’t make it true inside you.

If one's internal experience were so unimportant, then we wouldn't have 82% of transgender individuals consider suicide (source) because of the stigma of trying to get out of the norms assigned to them because of their "sexed human bodies."

Aziraphale and Crowley have lived in history long enough to know how varied and complicated the concepts of gender AND sex have been historically. As spiritual beings, I think seeing how much humanity has varied in its ideas on sex and gender only confirms to them how unlike humans they are (with humanity’s obsession with genitalia, sex, reproduction… food, shelter, warmth, breathing––all things that angels and demons do not need to survive).

They love humanity, they love its pleasures and inventions, but they are still very much detached from it. Looking like humans definitely doesn't help them feel like humans at all. (Look at how they talk about us!)

What are we, sniffer dogs??? They don't know what we feel like on the inside or how our biology works (we sure ain't sniffer dogs) because despite some surface appearances, they don't have the same internal experiences as us. Despite being here since the dawn of time. Despite looking like us in many ways.

They can magic up clothing and sideburns and eldritch heads to scare trigger-happy corporate men, and yet somehow gender and sex (as specifically Western-binary concepts) are something they'd totally get down with?

Also, your line of reasoning imagines people having no internal motivation or desire and suddenly get a tattoo and start to become a “bad person” or something. Yes, of course changing our bodies can affect our psychology, but our internal identity much more often influences our bodily choices than the other way around. I'm taking the drugs because I'm already depressed. I'm getting the tat because I want something cool on my body. I'm taking testosterone because I want my inner identity reflected in some ways on my physical body.

[tearsofcalamity]

wriofucker's fine by me lol unless u have another nickname that'd be both as accurate & funny!

i wasn't too clear earlier; i think our mandatory education goes up to 9th grade, and then it's like a minimum of 4(ish) years for a uni degree. so it's not all that different lol

nahh im telling you i had one macroeconomics class once and it fried my fuckin brain. only reason i could stand it was because the professor was too right-brained for his own good (he'd start his lectures with a song he liked. i wrote a bunch of barely-relevant shit abt environmental pollution on the exam—he was super passionate abt it—and he just let me pass<3 loved that guy). ik i said it before but good luck on ur studies!! im sure you'll absolutely kill it out there. and, thank sm! i actually finished the short story assignment last night but im too scared to submit it jdhdj

im so glad you've got more kaveh brewing omg he's so<33 bit of a shame you're not into kavetham (they make me bite & scream) but that's just fine; more kaveh/reader for the world! except the world is me and nobody else<3 can u imagine teasing kaveh in public, maybe he's even all nice & plugged up, and you're warning him not to let a single person figure out what's going on bc he's for your eyes only<3 but it's so difficult and you're relentless and it feels so, so good... he doesn't even care about people finding out anymore, but he wants to be a good boy for you... phew. lord have mercy

HAHA WRIOFUCKER IT IS THEN!! happy to have a named anon :D

ohhhh I see I see! okay yeah so it's pretty similar just a few differences! I think the only reason I'm surviving my business/econ work is cause I've got a math-wired brain lmfao. I've got autism ("high functioning" but I don't really like that term for it, I think the more acceptable one is "low support needs") and I got the "math autism" as my friends put it so that's probably a bigger part of it. I like making spreadsheets and working out equations HAHA, also thank you for the well wishes I actually just found out I passed calc 2 with an 82% so I'm very happy about that!! I'm glad to hear you got your short story done as well, sounds like you're moving through it all good <3!!

HONESTLY I don't hate the ships (like either kavetham or haikaveh I think they're different? like some shippers put the top's name first or something?? I'm not 100% sure) like I TOTALLY see the chemistry don't get me wrong, I think it's mainly just that I get so sad seeing like nearly 0 kaveh content without alhaitham included. I love both of them but kaveh's got such a unique and deep story too, yet people often just kinda treat him like an accessory to alhaitham likely cause he's 4 star and haitham is 5 star so it turns me off of the ships a bit </3 still though that's so true MORE KAVEH/READER!!!!

oh don't even get me started on teasing kaveh in public there's so many ways you could do it and each one would make him squirm more than the last... shove a nice little vibrator deep inside of him, remote controlled of course, and enjoy watching his knees practically buckle every time you up the intensity. ooh, maybe he's giving a one-time academic seminar for some kshahrewar students and you just stand in the corner, grinning at him all the while while he shakes and tries his best to keep his voice level, praying his face isn't as red as it feels...

or play around with him in the tavern, sit right next to him and brush your hand along his inner thigh while he squirms, not sure whether he wants to move closer or further way from you... this one's easier to hide since his flushed cheeks could easily be attributed to a bit too much to drink, but once he's grabbing at your wrist to push your hand into his bulge at last, he knows by your stare that he's messed up. I mean, he hadn't kept his promise to be good, had he? guess you'll just have to rail him over his workbench back at home when he least expects it! (totally ignore his needs/pretend he's not acting super horny when you get back at first, though, he'll be so good for you when you finally do bend him over)

[cruesuffix]

How would the crüe spend Micks birthday? How do you think he spent his birthday in the 70's? (With Whitehorse, post divorce 😔)

can the headcanon girl make a stunning comeback?we’ll see with this one!

Ok…in order to get back into the good graces of the general public, I’ll give you the mick mars birthday bonanza special!🎉🎊

So, i’ll probably start with whitehorse headcanons…you know just to match up with the timeline

- as we all know, mick moved into the whitehorse house once he separated from his wife, so he probably spent most of his birthdays in the band…with the band. now these assholes were very much broke and struggling so i feel like the most they’d be able to do is like buy a cupcake and put a little candle on it as a birthday cake. (but he’d still appreciate it, because at least he has somewhere to be on his birthday)

- his present? getting to stay in the house and live there of course! i think jack would probably take him out to the bar as a present. he’d only be able to buy mick one singular drink, but at least they could watch whatever band was on that night together.

- oh also this band would totally make fun of him, constantly teasing him for “getting older.” just the idea of their kid guitarist aging just makes them laugh cause he’s like 24 with a moustache and two kids, he’s practically already a middle aged man. he already looks the part at least. also they would totally give him birthday beats…so try to imagine four guys ganging up on this little ass ginger haired man, punching the shit out of his gangly arms. (i’m sorry peepaw but it’s just a bit funny ngl)

- also i kinda like the idea of harry and mick having beef, so like harry’s just passive aggressively like “oh, happy birthday…how old are you now, 85?” (even though mick was like one of the youngest members of the band during those times lmaoo)(also, if you’re wondering why im headcanoning beef between harry and mick that’s because that might actually be canon, mick in an interview quite literally said that harry had always bothered him…though harry did help finance one of the bands mick had been in after whitehorse so…maybe one sided beef ig, ok anyways sorry for the lore dump)

- there’s not much birthday celebrating for whitehorse tbh…they’d just treat it like another day. hell, they might even do a gig too, and maybe they’d make a reference to it being their guitarists birthday just so mick feels extra special that day.

The Crüe however…now that’s a different story

- when the band first starts, mick doesn’t tell them when his birthday is. when they ask all he says is “oh, you just missed it.” and nothing more.

- finally, around ‘82, someone finally gets him to tell them when it is (probably tommy, we all know he’d annoy the old man until he snapped). if he manages to tell (possibly Tommy) before his birthday, he’d probably rally the others into trying to do something nice for him. if it’s in the middle of a tour they’d probably celebrate backstage and surprise him with a gift. If they have a day off, they’d try to save up enough money to bring him to a restaurant.

- when they get more established, the celebrations become more elaborate. mick never wants to make a big fuss about his birthday (it’s just another reminder that he’s getting older)…too bad the Crüe don’t give a fuck! during the girls era the boys would definitely bring him to a strip club and pretty much set up a nice little lap dance for the old man (like i can imagine them dying of laughter at micks face when he realizes what they’ve done)…omgggg

- also, side headcanon but i can’t get rid of the idea of tommy accidentally making mention of his age (something like, “34 years old, how do ya feel?”) and then micks automatically turning around and threatening to leave and everyone’s trying to calm him down (cuts to vince going “tommy you promised you wouldn’t mention his age!!” and tommy in the background yelling “I FORGOT!!!”).

- also their gifts would become more expensive the more famous they got. guitars mick could only dream of getting, a motorbike, vacation getaways (because lord knows this man needs one with the crue around). he’s almost entirely too embarrassed to be given such expensive things and every year he keeps telling them to quit getting him things…and every year they keep ignoring him.

- they’re almost always on tour so they’re always celebrating his birthday on tour, backstage, maybe a nice dinner after a show. i like the idea of all of them huddling in one of their hotel rooms and just lighting a cake and singing happy birthday and watching in delight as the guitarist squirms in embarrassment about all the attention being on him. it would be the one and only day he lets them be as overly affectionate as they want to be towards them. as long as he can pretend it never happened after.

- now this probably couldn’t happen irl but check this: maybe the crue hasn’t acknowledged micks birthday all day. they’ve continued on like it’s a normal day. this doesn’t particularly bother mick…sort of. he is surprised the band forgot, because they sure didn’t last year! but, he pretends like it doesn’t bother him. does he wish they’d just hurry up and remember and like get it over with. (he doesn’t realize he feels forgotten, he just thinks he wants to hurry up, sing the song and eat the cake…no babes you want them to remember you exist and secretly…maybe you do want that extra affection??)

- anyways, they get onstage and start the show, and mick has to push his feelings of unease down. they really don’t remember? he pretends he doesn’t care and continues on with the show. halfway during the show they have their first break and mick is walking offstage to go wipe his face, fix his makeup, maybe have a drink or two (or four…he needs to relax and forget about his own feelings about the whole thing!) until he hears vince say his name. he looks back and sees him beckon for him. this has never happened before, so he’s automatically walking back onto the stage. vince introduces him (as if he needs to at this point) and then announces that it’s his birthday. mick is automatically shying away, trying to tell vince to stop, but before he can, vince says something and then music starts playing.

- before mick knows it, the entire crowd is singing happy birthday to him, while a couple of staff members wheel in a three tiered cake. he’s quite literally speechless. nikki and tommy walk in with the staff and they all sing together. mick is in complete and utter shock. those fuckers managed to pretend they’d forgotten all about his birthday while planning this whole thing out. all he can do is stand there with his mouth wide open as they all finish the song and the crowd starts cheering. all he can say when the mic is passed to him is; “oh my god I can’t believe this! thank you so much!” he’s like profusely thanking the audience, while pointing at the rest of the band and going “you bastard you tricked me!” of course he’ll thank all the members for this after the show (the last thing he needs is to get teary eyed on stage (someone has to keep up the “evil tough guy” schtick!). then the band takes pics with the cake, tommy wipes frosting on micks face, they all taste it and then throw chunks of cake into the audience. once the celebration is done, they continue the show. afterwards, mick lets the band hug him…as a thank you for everything ofc! (if you really want the emotionally repressed bastard to have feelings…maybe he sheds a little tear or two and talks about how that was “the nicest thing anyone’s ever done!” for him. but ofc, he’ll pretend that never happened…unless someone took a pic of the occasion!)

omg who wrote a whole damn fic in here?? (pointing at myself.) i guess it’s extremely important for me to redeem myself, but i probably yapped a bit too much! this one was real fun, i love thinking about a man who probably didn’t like celebrating his birthday much surrounding by ppl who want nothing more than to give their old man a good time. i know the crue celebrated nikkis birthday onstage once, but im not sure if they were able to celebrate any of the others birthdays onstage as well. i would also like to state i had top era in mind when writing that last (lengthy) headcanon…but tbh you can just imagine any other era too. anyways i hope you enjoyed this one, think of it as a distraction from that slop i posted like two hours ago!

[blackcat419]

Rewriting HotD: What to Keep and What to Change

Season 1: Ages of the Characters

(poll at end of post)

One of the biggest changes HotD made to Fire and Blood was changing character ages. Many did and did not like the change for multiple reasons, from Alicent and Rhaenyra, who are now the same age, to characters' ages that are inconsistent with the timeline given.

I like some of the changes. Aging Rhaenyra up so she's not nine at the start of the show is very good because we got Miley Alcock as young Rhaenyra. I also initially like the friendship between Rhaenyra and Alicent that then goes sour - Not what they've done with them in the last episodes of S1 and all of S2 - as it adds more drama and emotions for these two characters. The part I don't like is how messed up the timeline is.

Referencing this chart for A Wiki of Ice and Fire I created a handy dandy little chart to show how messed up the timeline got.

From this, we can see that the show pushed the timeline back instead of aging up characters. This keeps some of the original age gaps like between Rhaenyra and Daemon but forces the extra four years of the fire and blood timeline to be condecended.

I want to propose a new timeline that allows all 24 years of history between Aemma's death and Viserys' death to still make sense without needing any character cut. This timeline will also keep who is older than who as close to the same as possible from the books.

The first step is to figure out how old Rhaenyra can be. Rhaenyra's mom, Aemma Arryn, had her first pregnancy and miscarriage at the age of 12 in 94 A.C. If this were to be made Rhaenyra's birth year then she would be 11 or 12 years old (depending on the day of birth) at the start of the story. Lets look to Aemma's mom, Daella Targareyn. Daella marries Rodrick Arryn in 80 A.C. and dies giving birth to Aemma in 82 A.C. We can push Aemma's birth back to soon after Daella marries Rodrick, adding 2 extra years to the timeline allowing Rhaenyra to be born in 92 A.C. easy allowing her to be 14 at the beginning of the story.

Laena and Laenor do not need as much complicated timeline shifting as Rhaenyra did. Their mother, Rhaenys Targaryen, married in 90 A.C. when she was 16 and gave birth to Laena in 92 A.C. Laena's birth can be bumped up to 90 A.C. making her 15 when the story starts. Laenor is two years younger than Laena in the books but he's older than Rhaenyra. Laenor can be born a year after Laena making him the same age as Rhaenyra when the show starts or be born 2 years later making him 13 when the show starts.

For the kids, I decided to bump them all up a year in age. Viserys marries Alicent in 105 A.C. making it very easy to add a year to Aegon's age. I also moved Rhaenyra and Laenor's marriage up one year so the two are betrothed and married in 113 A.C. This makes Aegon II 23, Helaena 21, Aemond 20, Daeron 16, Jace 16, Luke 15, Baela and Rhaena 15, and Jeoffrey 13.

Aegon and Viserys will keep their original birth years of 120 and 122 for they are 9 and 7 respectively. Jaehaerys and Jaehaera also keep their birth year of 123 so they are 6 when the story stars. I also wanted Maelor to be older than 2 so I aged him to 4.

The main question left is how old should Alicent be? She's pretty easy to age down to Rhaenyra's age or she can stay older than Rhaenyra and Laena. I'll leave it up to you, dear audience.

[the-girl-who-didnt-smile]

RANTING ABOUT YAMATO D. ONE PIECE

This turned into my most obnoxious rant of all time.

…So I logged on because I was gonna go on this rant about how Yamato D. One Piece is not a fucking trans man. But tons of people smarter than me have already explained this.

I feel uniquely qualified to speak on this because I am transgender. I’m half White, but I know a thing or two about Japanese culture… 

It is so fucking cringe that people think BOKUKKOS are trans men!!!

It’s all white people too!!! I’m not judging trans people in the Japanese diaspora (or, from an Asian country that Japan colonized). But the white people are really not helping… A lot of them aren’t even trans too!!

Do I really have to explain why Yamato D. Hottest Bokukko in Fiction would be a terrible example of a trans man? 

How much more obvious do you have to make it that you think trans men are women?

If you want to see an actual good example of a trans man in manga, look no further than Sechs D. Battle Angel Alita:

This dude disappears for a bit and when he comes back later, he’s a guy now. 

Nobody gives a shit because it’s the future. 

Also, gender transition is really good in the future… He has a fully functioning dick, balls, and Y chromosome now… He was under 5’ before this, now he’s over 6’... He is arguably the real protagonist of Battle Angel Alita Last Order… This man really is living the dream!

…But as I say this, I also think it is totally fine to theorize that Yamato is transgender. 

How I do explain this? 

I think it is really toxic to insist that Yamato is trans in canon, but that it is equally toxic to put people down for theorizing that she is trans. 

Literally… the most memed thing in the entire One Piece fandom is the insane fan theory that Sir D. Crocoboy is secretly female-to-male transgender, and he gave birth to Monkey D. Luffy. Boys, I’m not even agnostic on this one… I’m just fully atheist. I think this is the craziest, most noncanoniest theory ever, but because it’s One Piece anything is possible… There is a nonzero probability that the Crocomomists are actually right.

With this in mind, is it really that crazy to speculate that Yamato will later turn out to be transgender? Imagine this: At the very end of One Piece, we find out that Yamato met up with Emporio D. Ivankov off-screen, and she’s just a guy now. Would anyone really be that surprised by this? The same fandom that memes the shit out of Crocomom and thinks everyone is secretly Rocks D. Xebec’s son… Is this really that insane of a theory? 

I just think people need to stop insisting that Yamato “is” trans (as in, “is trans in canon; you’re transphobic if you disagree”) but it’s totally fine to make theories, or non-canon headcanons.

* * *

It just dawned on me that I genuinely do have a potentially “interesting” perspective on this, given that I am transgender and also familiar with Japanese culture. I worked for a Japanese company for several years!

…Well, I’m going to reiterate points that smarter people have already made, but here goes:

Being a radically different culture from the West, Japan has different media tropes related to gender. 

Yamato is the trope called “Bokukko” (ボクっ娘): https://dic.pixiv.net/a/%E3%83%9C%E3%82%AF%E3%81%A3%E5%A8%98 

If you cannot read Japanese, here is an English language description of the trope: https://the-dere-types.fandom.com/wiki/Other:Bokukko 

Yamato is also the trope of “girl raised as boy”. This is a very common trope in Asian media.

One of the most famous examples of this in Japanese media is Rose of Versailles. 

The main character is named Lady Oscar. She is not transgender, but a woman who was raised as a boy. 

Compare Lady Oscar

With Yamato

Don’t their hairstyles look a little similar? 

When Yamato first appeared, I thought to myself, “Is it possible that Yamato is inspired by Lady Oscar?”

She actually is!

On June 6th, 2019, Oda actually confirmed that he took inspiration from Rose of Versailles. 

“I finished reading Glass Mask, so now I’m reading Rose of Versailles. Oscar was a woman?!”

Yamato was revealed in 2020. 

This is why I refer to Yamato as “she”. It is not to “misgender” her. She is not transgender, but Oda’s take on “Lady Oscar”!

I think people outside of Japan have this perception that the Japanese fandom is transphobic, but this is not true! Well, not entirely true… Of course, there is a side of the Japanese fandom that is transphobic, but this is also true in the West. Much like the Western fandom, there is also a side of the Japanese fandom that is LGBT friendly!

Yamato’s gender even caused confusion in the Japanese fandom. In the side that is LGBT friendly, there is some discourse surrounding whether she should be considered “transgender” (トランスジェンダー) or “genderless” (ジェンダーレス). 

The general consensus is that Kikunojo can be considered “transgender” (トランスジェンダー), while it is better to describe Yamato as “genderless” (ジェンダーレス). 

Why Kikunojo is “transgender” (トランスジェンダー): 

This phrase “I am a woman at heart” confirms that her gender identity is female.

This is reflected in her Vivre Card: 

The Vivre Card reads:

性別:男（心は女）

Literal translation:

Sex: Male (Heart is female)

心 literally means “heart”, but in this context it means gender identity. 

This is how the Vivre Card confirms that Kikunojo is transgender.

Why Yamato is not “transgender” (トランスジェンダー): 

Rather than saying “I am a man at heart” or “I am a man!”, Yamato says “Kozuki Oden was a man, right? So I became a man, too!!"

Yamato does not properly have a male gender identity; rather, she literally identifies as Kozuki Oden. 

Oda also describes Yamato as Kaido’s daughter (娘), and her first person pronoun is “boku” (僕). This is noteworthy, as most of the male characters in One Piece use the pronoun “ore” - including Kozuki Oden! This makes Oda’s intent obvious: Yamato is not “transgender”, but a “bokukko”.

This too is reflected in Yamato’s Vivre Card: 

The card simply reads: 

性別:女

No difference from any other female character.

If Yamato was transgender, it would say this instead: 

性別:女（心は男）

We can also tell that Yamato is not transgender from the way she is drawn.

Here is Yamato standing next to Kikunojo:

Oda draws male characters differently from how he draws female characters, not just in terms of body type but also face. Because he is respectful of transgender people, he makes this decision based on gender identity (心). You can discern a character’s gender identity through the visual language of the manga.

Kikunojo’s eyes and facial structure are drawn like a female character. It is a very respectful portrayal. 

Yamato’s eyes and facial structure are also drawn like a female character. If Yamato was a trans man, this would be disrespectful. But because she is not transgender, this is how Oda visually communicates that Yamato is a woman.

A lot of people point to the Vivre Cards as definitive proof that Yamato is not transgender, but I also think the comment regarding Rose of Versailles is definitive. If you’re familiar with Japanese fictional tropes, it’s pretty obvious that Yamato is not transgender. 

Rather than being transgender, Yamato can be described as “genderless” (ジェンダーレス). “Genderless” (ジェンダーレス) doesn’t exactly mean the English word “genderless”; rather, it describes a Japanese cultural trend where people defy rigid gender norms without being part of the LGBT community. It isn’t LGBT representation, but this “genderless” (ジェンダーレス) representation is also important in Japanese media.

Let’s compare Yamato with Sechs (Battle Angel Alita).

Unlike Yamato, Sechs can be described as “transgender”. 

Previously I showed what Sechs looked like in his new body, but this is what he looked like at the beginning of the manga: 

In terms of appearance, it is obvious that he is physically female. But his style, movements, facial structure, and even body structure all appear more masculine. 

His speech is very aggressive and masculine, including his first pronoun “ore” (オレ) which is actually written in katakana to convey the roughness of his personality.

When he reappears a few volumes later, he looks like this:

He changed his body to match his gender identity. Nothing about his pattern of speech changes, because he always had a male gender identity (心は男). Yukito Kishiro was WAY ahead of his time with this one...!

As I’m writing this, I can totally see why this confuses people, especially if you can’t read Japanese. But if you’re going to engage with Japanese media, I highly recommend learning Japanese. Japanese is such a different language from English, a lot gets lost in translation.

At the same time, I don’t think it’s inconceivable that Yamato might change her gender later on. This is gonna blow your mind, but writers can change their mind about a character in the middle of writing a story. It is clear that Oda did not originally plan for Yamato to be transgender, but he could change his mind about this.

If fans were describing this as a fan theory, I would be supportive! That’s actually a fun and interesting theory.

Really, what I object to is this weird “fandom tyranny” that happens on both sides. It’s harmful to be like “You are transphobic if you don’t think Yamato is transgender” but equally harmful to be like “You’re so stupid and not allowed to think Yamato might be transgender.”

Both of these sides contribute to negative perceptions of transgender people in Japan!

Can we just respect each other’s opinions without trying to impose our own?

Thanks for coming to my TEDx Talk!

[butididntpourthewhiskeys]

I’m just scared to post it on here because people will send me so much hate for believing that stuff/ bringing it up on here…./ I mean we talk about stuff from gossip sites, we’ll just take it with a grain of salt but I’m so curious

okay I can share some things she said to me, after I cried her ears off for an hour about my own boyfriend lol. I was there for almost 2 hours! Please take all of this with a grain of salt and remember that none of this might be true / has to come true / have any meaning:

I didn't tell her that we spoke about a superstar (this woman is 82 years old) so I presented both their birth charts as "friends of mine" lmao and right away she was like "does your friend struggle with anxiety and panic attacks? because my hands are shaking and my stomach feels super upset, does she have stomach issues?" lmao accurate

she said Taylor has a lot of trauma and mistrust inside of herself and that has been an issue from the first day in the relationship. However, she learned a lot and got better in time. Still, she is the one that starts drama in the relationship (which was due to her insecurities)

she said she felt drawn to Joe because he was the first man who didn't react to her shenanigans. Like, she could go up the wall and he'd be like "okay babe, I'll take a shower and we'll talk later when you calm down" lol and that was like a first for her because before Joe she only dated people who didn't have enough confidence to stand that - so his quiet confidence and how he reacted towards her and challenged her was a big factor in their love

she said Joe really changed her in some aspects. Like, she has been wronged in the past but she also knows that she has wronged some people (didn't give any details) and that Joe taught her to apologise and admit her mistakes to others in a way she didn't do it before.

what gave me goosebumps is that she was like "did she break up or him? did she tell you it was her who ended the relationship?" I was like????? she goes "I almost feel like she wants people to know that she broke up, but it was him. She would've never broken up with this man" - mate I felt like puking 🤢

she said that Taylor holds a lot of grudges against people/things/being wronged in the past and for Joe this was the one thing where he felt like she didn't really grow up. Like, he doesn't care about these sort of ego things, but she does (which I get, I mean she's a legend) and so he didn't understand why she would always get so upset about things and people. It's almost like she's a very intense and temperamental person and he just wanted them to enjoy life and be happy (so it's like they struggled with an energetic imbalance together)

what almost made me cry is that she said "wow, this break up is killing her." and then she was like "she needs you to be there for her because this is the biggest wound of her life so far, this one goes deep." 🤮

then she also talked about Joe's communication issues and that because he never reacted to her emotions, he kind of triggered her insecurities of her thinking "he doesn't react to me because he doesn't love me"

she said Joe was clearly the one pushing for children and family and she felt like he made her choose because he wanted her to slow her career down - but not in like a toxic way. She was like "he just understands clearly that her job has such a big impact in her life right now, there's no space for him or children anywhere" and then she was like "what does your friend do for a living? I get really intense energies" LMAO I was like... yeah she's pretty successful in her job lol

she said that she feels like Taylor might want to make him jealous in the next weeks/months but that the door for him is sadly closed, because he's the type of person when if it's over, it's over.

what touched me is that she said that overall for Taylor's life, this is one of the most important lessons, because his purpose in her life was to teach her to let go of her grudges and understand that ego isn't that important. And she said she will realise this down the road and even though they won't be together she will reach out to him and say "hey, you were right back then, and it might took losing you for me to get it, but thank you for what you taught me" 🥹 so like, in the long run she thinks Taylor will be super grateful for him and see his role in her life

overall she said they had a great connection, but it couldn't work out in terms of family etc cause he was here to teach her this one important lesson + he needs to work on his communication

she thinks Taylor needs to focus on her career for the next few years because this will ultimately bring her to the place she actually belongs

what was interesting is that she was like "is there someone at work who she used to fancy a while back?" 😅 so apparently there's someone in her life she knows/works with and who she wishes could be different in a way (not sure how she meant it) but that the good news is that this person will become exactly what she always hoped for in a few years. Like, all the qualities she wants in a husband/partner/father. So apparently it's someone she works with. But it takes a few years until that person has actually evolved enough basically

Taylor has to take care of her health 🙃 she was like "she has stomach issues and needs to get it checked out"

She said Joe gives off dad energy and that's what she is looking for in future partners, like someone calm and caring

I can't remember anything else. I was there for almost 2 hours so.. don't mind me if I forgot something

[bratshaws]

through the hourglass 107. brb x oc

a/n: 👀👀👀👀

pairing: plus size!oc x rooster

warnings: none.

goodness gracious (pls read this one to know more what this fic is about!!)

chapter

1/

50/51/52/53/54/55/56/57/58/59/60/61/62/63/64/65/66/67/68/69/70/71/72/73/74/75/76/77/78/79/80/81/82/83/84/85/86/87/88

/89/90/91/92/93/94/95/96/97/98/99/100/101/102/103/104/105

/106

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-

Beatrice tried to mask her grimace once she showed up at Marcus’ studio. It wasn’t because of him, but she was feeling really ill and nauseated from last night, maybe they shouldn’t have eaten that chili, maybe she should’ve gotten something lighter instead.

Because her stomach was making her see double, and the bright colors surrounding her were only making her situation a bit worse. She tried to hide her discomfort as Marcus explained everything, sometimes even putting a hand in front of her mouth because that nausea was intense and she feared she’d just blow at any second.

Nicole was happily playing in the playpen Marcus set up in his office, something he really didn’t have to do but he adored her as much as Bea and Rooster did. He was the honorary uncle, the honorary rich stylist uncle who gave her daughter tiny brand toys he got from PR packets over the years.

The Valentino rubber teddy bear was probably the cutest thing she had ever seen…and it was the first time ever too. Black with pink eyes and a bow tie with the ‘V’ on each side, in gold thread that shone whenever Nikki moved it. Her daughter just vocalized when playing with it, she didn’t have a lot of stuffed toys - in fact Rooster’s blue teddy bear was the only one that Beatrice kept in her room since she was so young - so when Marcus said he researched what babies her age could have,Beatrice was more than honored to know that he found something safe for her daughter.

And seeing Nicole have so much fun while playing was enough for her too.

She hoped it’d make the nausea pass, but it was a bit complicated. She also was having a hard time focusing on what Marcus was saying, because she was trying to not die right in front of him. Maybe it was something they added? She never had this issue with chili before, it wasn’t like there was something that happened.

Plus Rooster was feeling so good, maybe it was something in her making her feel so sick.

Marcus, who was very observant, removed the bright colorful glasses from his eyes and furrowed his brows, “Bea,what is the matter? You appear…” he moves the frame in the air,trying to find words, “You appear…confused, or upset…or both.”

“Huh?”

“Are you okay,darling? What’s wrong?”

“Oh, ah,I’m sorry Marcus.” she laughs softly, “I just..I think yesterday’s dinner is kind of messing with me,so…I’m okay.”

“Do you want to sit down?” his whole demeanor changed, “Tea? I can get you tea- Trinity! Bring us my personal selection!”

“W-No!” Beatrice holds her hands up, “No,no! No, water is fine, in fact I prefer it,Marcus. Please.”

The stylist narrowed his eyes but sighed, “Very well, get us the Swedish one.”

Beatrice almost told him there was no need, but chose to just sit down on the chair closest to Nicole’s highly expensive playpen, blinking when she saw her daughter playing with a Versace rattle now, “Um…Marcus.”

“Yes, darling.”

“I…could be very wrong.” she laughs nervously, ‘But um,brands don’t do baby stuff, do they? I mean,from what I’ve seen with you and from what you told me?”

Marcus places his glasses back on the bridge of his nose, pushing it up to his brows with a elegant finger, “Well, they don’t darling.” he says casually, “But I told them that I have a lovely little girl whom I adore and I’d be more than happy to see her enjoying the best in life.” he smirks at Beatrice’s face, confusion slowly turning into surprise and then absolute shock. He holds up a hand, “Ah ah ah! No take backs,darling. I adore you three, you know that.”

“But–”

“Sssh, no no,” he taps her nose playfully, “No take backs,it won’t hurt me to give my favorite people gifts…besides,I don’t have nieces or nephews and since you and Evelyn will be the first of my friends to have children, why not?”

“Does Evelyn know?”

“Of course not,she’d be worse than you if she found out.” he laughs gleefully, grabbing the teal colored bottle from Trinity’s gloved hands alongside the long flute that would usually be filled with champagne, “There you go,darling.” he pours the water and Beatrice blinks at how clear it really is, she could almost see her own past with how beautiful that water looked, “Enjoy it.”

“Thanks,Marcus.” she grabs the flute delicately, bringing it to her lips and blinking at how expensive water could taste. But besides that, it did help her stomach because it slowly settled once the cold water hit it, her eyes closing as a sigh of relief broke out of her.

Marcus crosses his legs once he sits down on the velvet chair in front of Beatrice, “Better?”

“Yes, thank you,Marcus. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, darling.” he waves his hand off, rolling his eyes, “We all get sick…you said there’s something you ate,yes?”

“That and some personal stuff.” she laughs gently, placing the flute on top of the mahogany desk as she leans back on her seat, the papers filled with her own designs were fixed together almost as if it was a Tetris game, “And I got,” she moves her hand, “I got nervous I guess, and my stomach is now feeling it.”

“Oh, goodness, you cannot stress darling. You know it gives you wrinkles.” he pats the corners of his eyes for emphasis, “And makes your brain scream. We already go through so much in our daily lives, there’s no need for more.”

Beatrice smiles thankfully, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and sighing once her body feels comfortable enough for her to speak, “Well,I’m sorry about that, um…so, from what you said everything is good,right?”

‘Yes, darling.” he points a manicured finger to one of her drawings, “It’ll be marvelous and remember: there’ll be no photographers, no paparazzi,nothing, there’ll be only us having a good old time as friends and to celebrate the launch…and obviously,show you the pictures.”

She flushes a bit but smiles more, “Thank you,I know it’s not what you are used to but-”

“Darling,I’m so tired of the vultures that surround me.” he tilts his head fondly, “I am almost forty, I can decide what and who I want in my party.” he looks down when he hears Nicole vocalize and shake a shoe that looked like a small Louboutin, “I can arrange a baby area if you so wish as well.”

“Oh,no,no, she’s staying with her nonni.” Beatrice smiles, gently combing some of Nicole’s hair back when she looks up at her mother, “Plus,I don’t think it’d be such a good idea to take her there, might be too much for her.”

She says as if her daughter couldn’t handle sleeping through a storm.

Which she did. Twice already.

“Oh,very well, I’m just saying…which brings me to my other idea!”

“Other?” Beatrice blinks when Marcus disappears under his desk, his gleeful laughter being the only answer as he messed with something she can’t see, “Marcus?” more laughter and this time he pushes a small box on top of the desk, pushing it towards her, “What’s this?”

“My new plan! I was heavily inspired by the little princess.” Nicole turns her head when she hears, even if in her mind she had no idea what that word meant she knew it was used to refer to her, “And because I adore her so,I am working on my own baby and kids line!”

“Wait…what?!”

“Yes!Oh it’s so fun! Smaller sizes! SO small! And tiny,tiny socks!” he is elated when speaking, “And I’ve never did anything like this before, so I think it’s so fun and out of my comfort zone,I don’t know why I hadn’t tried.”

Beatrice was so surprised that Nicole, in her six months of life, managed to make pretty much everyone around her feel either inspired or happy. The Dagger Squad loved her - and she didn’t want to tell anyone, but it was obvious her favorite people in the squad were Payback and Phoenix because of how much she liked when they held her - Maverick absolutely adored that little girl to the point that she was sure he’d break someone’s arms if they talked about her. Penny wasn’t that far behind and Shells was doing a great job being the crazy wild aunt that could possibly kill anyone who looked at you wrong while Evelyn was the cool, hip, savvy aunt who knew what to give you when you least expected.

To say that their baby daughter was a light of joy was pretty obvious.

“And of course she’ll be one of the first to receive a full batch of clothes.”

“Oh, ah,” Beatrice laughs softly at Marcus, “There’s no need,Marcus, she’s growing so fast I don’t know if it’d be a good idea to…send her more clothing. I even bought some more since she’s already so big.” Nicole chews more on the rubber Louboutin and then looks around for anything else to play with.

“Oh…” Marcus frowns, then his grin returns, “Very well,I’ll save it up for the next babies.”

“HUh?”

“I mean,” he props his chin on top of his interlaced hands, “You do plan on having more kiddos,right? You and your pilot.”

Beatrice’s cheeks flushed red, an embarrassed little giggle breaking out of her as she retucks her hair behind her ear, “Um…” she clears her throat, feeling the words get stuck in there while looking to the side, “One day,maybe. We aren’t in a hurry, Nikki is just six months too and Roos is busy with the Navy and such.”

Marcus hums, pursing his lips as he smiles, “Okay! Well,I’ll still keep them saved up for you!”

“Mama!” Nicole breaks the conversation, and Beatrice is so thankful for the distraction, to show her mother the other toy she got, “Abuuh buh ah!” it was a monkey, of course it was a monkey, from Moschino with bright colors and a huge head that undoubtedly made Nicole think of her own monkey back home.

Beatrice smiles, picking her daughter up when she crawled over to the small gate that held her back, being sat on her mother’s lap as she nommed on the new rubber primate, “Thank you,though. I really appreciate it, you don’t have to but…you know.”

‘Oh darling,you have to stop saying that.” he smirks,”I adore your little family.”

“I know…we appreciate it.”

“And I adore how in love your husband is with you, you two are a fairy tale in real life!” he clasps his hands together, “It’s adorable!”

He wouldn’t be the first one to say that either.

Beatrice just laughs again, still blushing, “Well, he does make me feel that way-” her alarm goes off and she sighs, “Oh,I gotta go Marcus,I have to meet with Penny and Shells at the bar reall quick.” she looks back at him in question, “We ah, we are finished,right?”

“Yes, we are.” he smiles, “But oh, let’s just wrap it up.” she thought he meant the papers and the meeting, but no he meant the many brand toys that Nicole played with. His several assistants just flocked into the room and started packaging everything, everything in front of them with the exception of the playpen.

“There’ll be more when you visit me the next time,”

‘Wait,more?Marcus!”

“Sssh, darling,” he smiles, “Those are gifts for the little princess.” they are all inside beautiful sleek black boxes with large red ribbons and Beatrice could only stare wide eyed.

“I-I don’t even know how to take all of those home.” she murmurs, “I-I mean you–” the knowing look from Marcus was enough to answer, “You are going to send the ones I can’t take over to me.”

“Hmhm! “ he bites the end of his glasses while holding his arm up, then gestures to her body, “Oh I need to send you the dresses too, I know you’ll love to see them. Trinity! Please write that down! Bea needs her dresses.”

Beatrice could only watch wide eyed. Never in one million years she’d ever think she’d be here, standing next to Marcus Beverly - who is her friend now -, helping him with the new launch and being one of his models. One of his favorite models that is.

And that she’d still work at the Hard Deck and be happy doing it.

She bites the inside of her cheek to hide her smile as she follows Marcus and his flurry of assistants out of the building to her jeep. One of the male assistants even holds her bag for her as she unlocks the car, both her and Nicole watching as they put everything inside - almost perfectly aligning each box - and closing it once they are done.

They all say their goodbyes to her and Nicole, the little baby smiling happily when theirs voices get higher when referring to her. Marcus stands outside next to Beatrice, inhaling happily before turning to her, “Well, darling, you must go and so do I.” he air kisses her cheeks while holding her shoulders, “I will give you a call before the launch party, yes?”

“Yes, of course Marcus.”

He smiles fondly at her, before turning his gaze to Nicole, “Goodbye little princess.” he coos, gently kissing her tiny hands and smiling at her happy giggle, “You enjoy your time with mommy, yes?” Nicole laughs louder and Marcus drops her hands from his, “Goodbye darling, have a good day!”

Beatrice watches as Marcus flourishes back into the building, his clothes shining and hair still in place even with the wind outside. She gives him one final wave before the doors closed and she’s left standing with Nicole next to her car “...well…” she laughs, looking down at the little girl in her arms, “That was fun,huh?”

“Ah!’ Nicole’s vocalizations were only sounding more and more like actual words as time went by, “Come on, let’s…” Beatrice frowns when she feels the nausea again, “...not eat Mexican food again so late, oof, I feel awful.’

-

Rooster talked to Maverick, because he wanted to solve this once and for all. They sat away from everyone while in the cafeteria, because they needed privacy and needed to talk about things over.

It was a quiet conversation, as private as they could have, but he knew his uncle appreciated it. Pete’s eyes glazed over with tears but he was trying so hard not to cry, only offering the younger pilot a tight smile and a tap to the hand to show that it was solved, he didn’t need to worry anymore.

And things went back to normal, well, as normal as it could be.

“You are coming to the Christmas party,right?” Rooster asks after taking a bite of his pizza, while his uncle sips his soda “At Bea’s parents.”

Maverick slowly places the soda down, tapping his fingers on the table’s surface as his jaw moves, “I…I mean yes,” his nephew arches his brow at the hesitation, “I don’t know,Brad. I hadn’t…been to a Christmas party in…a very, very long time.” he licks his lips, “How many people will be there?”

“Well, let’s see.” Bradley looks to the side as he things, slowly unfurling his finger as he voices out the family members, “Her parents, her siblings, her nephews and nieces, the dogs, it’s possible her aunt will be there, and maybe her uncle Roberto with his wife and sons…so…” he counts each finger, “Around twenty-five people?”

“Twenty five?”

“You saw most of them at our wedding,Mav.” he shrugs, “Plus, you like parties. And music.”

“Twenty five people,” his uncle rubs his forehead while looking wide eyed to the side, “I…I can’t buy all of them presents, Brad.”

“I told you don’t have to,Mav-”

“Yeah, but isn’t that the polite thing to do?”

Bradley chuckles a bit, “Listen,it’ll be fine and…” he looks down at his hands, “We’d really appreciate it if you showed up…even if it’s for a little bit, you know? Bea especially wants you to go because she thinks it’d be good for you…and Penny said yes already.”

“She did?”

“Way before you.”

Pete huffed softly, in a way it was supposed to mean how annoyingly happy he was because of that woman. He just tsks, then tosses his hand up, “Yeah,well, okay…I’m going.” he huffs, “But are you sure I don’t need to bring gifts?”

“One hundred percent.” he says with a grin, “It’ll be like the first time I met them too,Mav. I didn’t bring a lot and I got…a lot…so you better be ready for that.”

‘What,wait, I am going to get gifts?” Rooster nods, “But I can’t give them back, that doesn’t make much sense.”

Rooster laughs, “Well,” he looks down when his phone starts to ring, “Well, you better get used to it and– it’s Bea,I’m going to answer it Mav. Give me a few minutes.” his uncle just looked stupefied by that, not even looking when Rooster walked away.

“Hellooooo gorgeous.” he drawls, leaning his shoulder against the wall, “You rarely call me, is everything okay?”

“Everything is fine! Well,a little,I’m a bit sick.”

“Sick?”

“I think eating chili so late was a mistake, blegh.” she laughs softly, “I’m okay though,lying in bed a bit, just got back from talking to Penny and Shells and Nikki is keeping me company. How are you though? You okay? Did you talk to Mav?”

“I did,gorgeous.” he looks back to where his uncle was, “We’re good.” but before she could exclaim how happy she was, he cut her off, “Wait, you are feeling sick, do you need me to bring you something? Some meds?”

“Ummm…I dunno…maybe? I just hope I get better until I go to the bar. I’ve never had issues with food like this before. I’m not throwing up or anything, but you know, it’s really annoying.”

“I know,gorgeous.” he whispers, “I’m going to Rizzo’s then, get you some pastries,” she makes a noise of discomfort, “Something light?”

“I might just have juice, I’m not feeling like having anything.”

“I can–oh. Oh. Oh I had an idea.”

“An Idea?”

“I can’t tell you yet but…I will…have to stay with Nikki tonight.” she makes a confused noise from the other side, “Can’t tell you why, but I know you’ll feel a lot better once I do what I have planned.”

“...you know, you can be very dangerous.”

“Yes,gorgeous.” he laughs, “Yes I can.”

[muzaktomyears]

Mimi and Yoko

[written shortly after John's death] “…After years of battling to be noticed and fighting desperately to be first, now the opportunity has arrived! The centre of notice and attention. At what a cost! Seemingly reveling in it, not a sign of emotion as far as I could detect in conversation on the phone. It will go on. Doesn’t she realize the real centre of attention has gone? She knows she was tolerated because of him. God knows nobody would have heard of her… Meanwhile, all I know is he’s gone and at times I think I’ll go mental. Some days I am more or less able to go on, then I’m devastated and lost… (...) It was through that conversation that [Mimi] began to recall the early years of John and Yoko. “You wouldn’t believe how quickly he changed. He was as different as night and day, just like that. It was almost as if she’d put a spell on him.” (...) [Mimi] adored [Sean] almost from the beginning. He was amazingly intelligent, she said, and she loved talking to him on the phone. I have no reason to believe that adoration didn’t continue until she died. I remember one story she told about Sean. Apparently he had lost his first tooth so Yoko told him to put it under his pillow and the tooth fairy would come and give him money for it. He followed her instructions and came out the next morning, disappointed that he’d received American money. He had hoped for foreign coins. Mimi took that as an early indication of his intelligence and that he would grow up to know exactly how to handle money. (...) [May '82] “I’m hearing a lot from Yoko. I seem to have phone calls nearly every other day. She says she’s very busy. No doubt she is but underlying it all I think she’s realising that without her making an effort etc. nobody will bother much. She needs to be noticed and like an old witch I sense loneliness. Seems next spring Strawberry Fields will be planted. She wanted me to go over for the opening. I can’t give a definite answer. The whole thing may come to nothing. She suggested if I like it over there, would I consider living there as that’s what John wanted. I think I’m too old to do that. I could have one of the flats in the Dakota… (...) [Feb ‘84] “Perhaps you heard of Yoko’s visit? She came here with Sean, and – dear God – bodyguards! Incredible in this country! She had announced she was coming to see me, so of course the damned press were here from 8 a.m. asking to see me, but I refused. They were persistent, knocking and asking for me but I stuck it out and refused. Meanwhile they sat at the door and waited. What was annoying, they got the address and nobody knew where I was until then. Then the retinue arrived and photographs – of Yoko and Sean. “Sean – the dearest little boy. Another John in every way – self-confident and sophisticated, taking photographs with timing on the camera and his arms around me. Left me a little letter with kisses and hearts and ‘God bless Mimi’. I simply could not get over him. We were all taken with him. “With Yoko also was a woman reporter, didn’t say so until she came and sat beside me and asked why I refused to see reporters. I said because they are all liars, then she said ‘I’m on a magazine’… So, if she writes she won’t have anything pleasant to say about me. When she got back to NY she phoned and didn’t seem very pleased when I said I still had nothing to say. So that was short and sharp. Her name was Barbara. I didn’t get the surname. So look out for her article if you can. She was with Yoko everywhere. Came over and went back with her. And – the bodyguards – dear God-" Mimi truly adored Sean, and by the mid-80s was warming considerably toward Yoko. I mentioned how I thought it a bit odd that she would bring a reporter with her when she was coming to see her dead husband’s family for the first time since his death, but she merely shrugged it off. “She can’t help herself.”

The Guitar’s All Right as a Hobby, John, Kathy Burns (2014)

[sally-mun]

OKAY GUYS I NEED TO RAMBLE ABOUT LOKI FOR A MINUTE BEFORE I CUT MY FUCKING HEAD OFF

Okay I've been losing my mind about this since last week, and with the new episode coming out tonight and SOMEONE still not up to date on episodes so I can have a proper nerd session (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE YOU FUCKER), I'm just going to explode here if y'all don't mind. I probably shouldn't have to say this, but obviously, SPOILERS AHEAD WATCH THE DAMN SERIES FIRST JUST DO IT

So I've had a lot to go off the deep end about now that this show is FINALLY fucking back, but the last episode ended on an extremely gnarly cliffhanger. To be specific, now that Miss Minutes is jilted and has decided to flip on He Who Remains, she cryptically mentions to Renslayer that she knows a pretty big secret about her, but if she tells her, it's going to make her really mad. Honestly, the main reason I find this so intriguing isn't just the inherent mystery of wanting to know what Miss Minutes is going to say; it's moreso just me wondering, what could POSSIBLY upset Renslayer any more than she already has been since the Time Keepers were outed as fakes? The stakes are already pretty fucking high, and from her POV she's got to forge ahead alone because no one else gets it and thus they won't help her. It'd have to be something MAJOR on a scale we haven't even approached yet to derail her from all that. So I brainstormed it in the shower a few days ago, because I get bored while having to wash my hair 82 times, and I had a VERY INTERESTING THOUGHT:

What if Renslayer is ALSO a Loki?

BECAUSE I MEAN... YEAH THAT'D MAKE HER PRETTY FUCKING MAD. RENSLAYER HATES LOKIS. SHE HATES THAT MOBIUS KEEPS CHOOSING TO TRUST AND WORK WITH OUR LOKI INSTEAD OF HER. SHE HATES THAT SYLVIE'S BEEN RUNNING AMOK AND CAUSING HER PROBLEMS FOR ALL THESE YEARS. RENSLAYER ABSOLUTELY CAN'T STAND LOKIS.

And unfortunately I IMMEDIATELY ruined this idea for myself because we know that Renslayer isn't a Loki. At the very end of season 1, B-15 lured some of the other hunters to Renslayer's place on the timeline to prove to them that they're all variants. We got to see for ourselves that Renslayer's just a normal person like the rest of us. She works in a school, and if I'm not mistaken she's the principal. Unless she lived in a VERY different version of Asgard, she's not a Loki.

BUT THAT'S WHY I FEEL LIKE I'M ABOUT TO COME APART AT THE SEAMS. At this point I don't care WHAT the new ep tonight is about to reveal, because I feel like finding out that Renslayer is also a Loki is SO MUCH BETTER than anything else they could possibly say at this point. Honestly, it would explain just about EVERYTHING we've seen so far -- about both Renslayer herself, and about the TVA in general. In her case, revealing that she's actually a Loki would go hand-in-hand with her attitude and habits. She enjoys her position of power and authority, even keeping trophies of her victories, and makes no secret about looking down on those she feels are beneath her. She unshakably believes that she NEEDS to be in charge in order for things to run properly, and that things fall apart without her. You might even say that Renslayer ruling the TVA makes life easier on everyone else... aka, EXACTLY the reason Loki's always given for wanting to rule Earth.

As for the TVA itself, I would've loved the idea that Lokis are just especially well-suited to work there, and that the majority of the staff there are Loki variants. That would explain why our Loki was so easy to recruit, and why he's been doing such a good job despite knowing the least of the main cast! What if Loki was right all along, and he IS "burdened with glorious purpose" -- and this is it? What if Loki has always been uniquely qualified to take on this responsibility? It's definitely a burden, it's definitely a purpose, and depending on his arrogance level he could definitely find glory in it. Lokis being the best candidates to handle this kind of burden could very well be WHY our Loki and Sylvie were chosen for the mantle by He Who Remains. As he pointed out during their discussion in S1E6, he paved the road for them. He made sure they'd make it to his citadel, because he wanted them.

Besides, it would make SO much sense for the majority of TVA employees to be Lokis because Mobius specifically points out that they pick up WAY more Loki variants than almost anyone else. That means they'd have a VERY, VERY LARGE POOL of potential recruits at any given time! It's also been proven that the staff's memories have been manipulated at least twice, so there's no reason for anyone to notice that they've accumulated so many Lokis over the years. There also wouldn't be much opportunity for them to accidentally find out, either, because we know that Loki's magic DOES NOT WORK AT THE TVA. The vast majority of TVA workers never leave there, so they'd have no chance of accidentally awakening any of their magic -- and those that do leave, such as the hunters, spend very little time actually down on the timeline. They show up, arrest the variant, set a reset charge, and get out. Even though they'd have the opportunity to accidentally perform some magic, it's very unlikely that it would've ever come up.

What makes me like the idea even more is that EVERY variant of Loki we've ever seen so far (minus Gator Loki, I suppose) has had black hair. That's one thing that has NEVER changed despite the circumstances; we haven't seen a ginger Loki, for example. All the Lokis we saw during the briefing in S1E2, and all the variants we saw in S1E5, have had black hair to the extent that we could actually see it. (Yes, this includes Sylvie, because we know her hair is dyed. In her flashback to when she was first arrested, she had long black hair.) You know who else has black hair? Almost ALL of the main characters that we know at the TVA! Renslayer, B-15, Casey, and OB all have black hair. Mobius' hair is white, but might it have been black back in the day? Who knows! It could have been! We don't know that it wasn't! And guess who else also has black hair? He Who Remains. Was he a Loki too? No idea! Maybe it's just a coincidence. Maybe it wasn't!

I don't know, I guess I'm just so stuck on this idea because it would just be SO frickin on-point with the very premise of the series. The idea of "what makes a Loki a Loki?" has already been explored a bit in S1E3, and this would be a great way to dial that discussion up to 11. If everyone turns out to be a Loki variant, well, now we have TONS of data on what it means to be a Loki! Plus, imagine the implications that has just for the TITLE of the show! We all thought it was called "Loki" because we're following the story of the Loki we've always known, but it'd have been an amazing reveal to show that it's moreso about Loki as a concept. The twist that the series name itself isn't necessarily about the protagonist would've been a pretty serious mindfuck to me!

I also like this idea because I've heard the complaint about the show that it, allegedly, really has very little to do with Loki in particular and is moreso about the TVA, with the argument that it could've been ANY Marvel character used as the protagonist. The complaint is that it only stars Loki because he has such a strong fan following and it's all just, effectively, fan service. Let me just say right now that I was never much of a fan of Loki as a character until this series, so I'm not campaigning for it out of personal preference. I've always genuinely believed that this show could only have worked with Loki as the protagonist, for reasons I'm not going to rant about in this post. My greater point is, revealing that the TVA is crawling with Lokis BECAUSE Lokis are the best ones for the job would just go to show that this series WAS always about him, and could ONLY have been about him. It would've been a great rebuttal to what Renslayer said to him in court in the first episode, when she told him "It's not your story, Mr. Laufeyson. It never was." Plot twist, it IS his story, and it ALWAYS was!

And it's KILLING ME that the series is undoubtedly NOT going in this direction and now I feel like I'm grieving the episodes we'll never have alskdjFLKSJE;KesKSJFDLSLEi I'm just imagining Renslayer finding out she's a Loki, being VERY UPSET ABOUT IT but eventually getting past it, and then rediscovering her skills with magic. How fucking cool would it have been to see Renslayer going full Norse God against our team?? What if she was especially proficient, to the extent that our Loki realizes he's outmatched? What if the other TVA characters had to rediscover their own lost magic skills, and the only way to succeed was to be their true selves -- to be Lokis -- so they could work together with their different magic specialties? What if that was how they got Sylvie to work with them again, because realizing that they're the same might instill a little bit of trust -- especially since learning to trust and see herself in others would be a step in fulfilling her character arc?

Siiiiggggghhhhh. One day in fanfiction, maybe.

[fattybattysblog]

20 Questions for Writers

Thank you for tagging me @residentdormouse I am procrastinating and this will be a great time filler.

How many works do you have on AO3?

58. I have been posting since 2017.

What is your total AO3 word count?

113,141 I mostly write shorter fics.

What fandoms do you write for?

Outside of Original Works, I mostly post Pokemon fanfic. Though I suspect JJK will overtake that in no time.

What are your top five fics by kudos?

1. The Journals of an Alien Mate - 218 2. An Odd Request and a Dutiful Butler - 82 3. Falling into a Lizard's Nest - 50 4. Shelter from the Storm - 28 5. Supervision - 23

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yeah, I love responding to comments. Getting any comments at all is a big deal and I wanna let them know I saw them.

What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

"Too Late" ends with Hairi bawling her eyes out over the death of her boyfriend.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I think the ending to We Meet Again is very happy considering everything around it. Thalia and Aokiji left on bad terms and run into each other again and at the end they make up and become friends.

Do you get hate on your fic?

When I was younger I got comments calling me cringe, but honestly I haven't gotten a single bad comment since. And those stories are still there sooooo....

Do you write smut?

All the time. Majority of my fics are smut. I love sex.

Do you write crossovers?

No... I'm really not into crossovers.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of. And I do check on occasion when I get paranoid. Honestly, I think because I mostly write self indulgent OC stuff people don't care to.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Almost did once. They asked if they could but then about a year passed and they never did.

Have you ever co-written a fic?

In a sense. I RP with friends and write it out. My boyfriends write on occasion and feed me ideas. I never fully wrote something with someone.

What's your all-time favorite ship?

I don't ship Canon/Canon very often. My top c/c ships are Franky/Robin and Geto/Gojo. i could eat those up for ages.

What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Oeuf, all of them?? Most importantly, this big FF9 fic I have planned. Though I haven't quite started it yet. I really, really wanna write it. Like so much.

What are your writing strengths?

I've been told my smut is really sexy, lmao. I have been told I write fight scenes pretty well too which is awesome cuz I used to struggle with those like crazy.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Finishing things. On a real note, though, I feel that pacing is one of my weakest points.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

If they're speaking another language, why not? If the whole fic is enveloped in that language (I.E. writing a fic about people in Japan) then the whole thing should be in one language.

First fandom you wrote for?

Zelda. But I'll be damned if you find that fucker.

Favorite fic you've ever written?

So far, my favorite fic is Sleeping Over because it's gentle, soft, and very comforting. How Nanami acts towards Hairi despite all her nervousness and embarrassment is precious.

[percyjacksonfan3]

Heyyyyyyy lovely how are you? Read any good fic lately?

Hello my dear! The answer to this is always of course, though I've been pinwheeling through different pairings and fandoms (though what else is new) because I haven't had a hyperfixation since Good Omens :(

I'll list a few from different recent fandoms. My bookmarks tend to be more mature or explicit ratings and longer fics because I love a good established dynamic

Mystrade (Mycroft Holmes x Greg Lestrade from BBC Sherlock)

I've been reading for these two since October now so there's definitely a few for them.

Paperback Writer by meansgirl

Rated E and totaling 82 265 words, this was an awesome fic where it's technically still canonverse only Greg is secretly an erotica author who just so happens to be Mycroft's favourite. So then of course Mycroft finds out.

Human Remains by Saziikins

This series lives in my head rent free and is so wonderful. It's canon compliant and a very slow burn of Mycroft and Greg getting together and then making a relationship work. Rated E, it's got 3 works in it and totals around 900k words, but the second work is a retelling of the first from Mycroft's POV instead of Greg's.

Pater Noster by manic_intent

Another rent free series, this one is Mystrade but set in the Good Omens universe where Mycroft is a high ranking demon and Greg a lower tier angel. So of course after being brought together a very human Sherlock, they fall in love. Eventually. I adored every bit of it, there's 3 works numbering at 26k words and it's so much fun.

Which brings me to some other recent goodies....

Ineffable Husbands (Crowley x Aziraphale from Good Omens)

Ah, my beloveds. I only listed three here but I have a ton of bookmarks saved for them that I am only too happy to share, should anyone need some recs

Not For All My Little Words by mia_ugly and soft_october

Rated E and about 8k words, this is set post season 2 and is Aziraphale and Crowley's reunion and apology.

you're not a religious person (but) by isozyme

Some snippets of Aziraphale and Crowley over the years. Historical fics for these two are some of my favorites and this fic takes us through some great moments to post season one. Super cute, rated M and nearly 20k words.

post-professional endeavors by darcylindbergh

A look at Aziraphale and Crowley figuring themselves out in retirement, as told from the POV of their poor realtor and other humans involved. I love outsider POV fics and this was top tier. Rated T and about 9k words, it was extremely cute.

Some honorable mentions:

What Spring Does with the Cherry Trees by riosnecktattoo

If you're in the NBC Good Girls fandom you'll probably already know this author, because everything they write is phenomenal, but this fic was lovely. A friends to lovers AU for Beth and Rio that still kept the original characterizations, I can't recommend it enough. Rated E, about 77k words.

Curse of the Green Hag by Moorishflower

A Xedgin fic for DND: Honour Among Thieves. It's a fuck or die curse fic with just enough plot for me to be invested. Edgin is great, Xenk is great, and the smut is great. Enough said. Rated E, 16k+ words.

The Veretian Flytrap by Just_Another_Day

A Dament fic for the Captive Prince fandom, this fic is a great twist on the canon story if Damen and Laurent were an Alpha/Omega pairing. Super in character and has all the greatness of the trilogy itself, I loved it. Rated E (obviously) and is 176k+ words.

Alright, I'll wrap it up here, but I hope there's something in here that interests you! If you want anything more specific (a certain fandom, pairing, rating, etc.) then just let me know and I will have another list for you asap <3

Anyone else with some good fic recs feel free to drop them in the replies or reblogs :)

[ifonlyweknewwhatiwasdoing]

So...I have a question, (if you have the time!) because I'm not new to Fandom at all, but I'm not particularly vocal other than commenting. Like I don't respond to other commenters comments, you know? But is it acceptable (as not the author of the fic in question) to call out a commenter who's comment was solely a "hey will there be more of this?" variety? Or would that make the author feel like I'm then stepping out of bounds or starting a fight deal? Bc I think that comment is really not nice, especially when they don't say anything about the story that is posted! But I also know there's alot of etiquette around commenting and I don't want to upset the author even more you know?

Hello!

I think in this case it very much depends. I'm no expert myself but as someone who has gotten a fair bit of comments on continuing things, I think it depends a lot.

Someone asking me if I'm going to continue something—normally in question form or with a compliment attached—doesn't bother me personally. Now, I can't say what other authors may think but in that case, I assume good intentions.

My problem lies with people who are demanding things—or trying to guilt me into continuing something. Some of my fics are finished, some are not. There is normally a reason that I've not continued with something (as evidenced by my own personal ratio of finished to unfinished fics) and a request to finish it isn't a problem but I don't owe anyone anything.

When I originally joined fandom back in 2010, I loved it because of how community-based it was. I like sharing ideas and hearing ideas and bonding over something that was a big part of my life and I feel like we've lost that.

It's like the Tiktok of fandom to write nowadays. Your goal is to pump out as much content as fast as possible to become a BNF and if you do manage to get there, you aren't touchable (which is very not true as evidenced by the loss we've felt in the fandom in the last two years). I think more than anything it would probably be isolating, though I can really only speculate.

I've kind of found the friends and discord servers that allow me to feel the community that I thought was lost and that enabled me to be able to continue with what I do in a way that worked and felt good for me, but I feel as though for every one of me there's got to be so many people that we've lost who aren't able to find that connection.

So all of this is probably a bit off from your original question, please excuse my tangent but with that said this is what I think;

If you believe in someone, if you believe in what they do, your intentions are good and you feel as though they are being stepped on, by all means step in. If they were on the street you'd have said someone should do something. Just because we are behind screens doesn't change my opinion on that but also, be kind. I think that sometimes people don't understand the etiquette and your words matter.

If someone just doesn't understand something, getting angry won't change their mind and neither will unkind words. Trust me I've been there, where you are just tired of the bad and you snap at one person and more often than not I've regretted it. But that doesn't mean it's not a teaching moment. Stepping in to say something isn't cool—or to assure an author that what someone is doing isn't cool has always been something I've advocated for.

Because as fandom has gotten bigger—and by nature more diverse—you're finding more and more people either don't understand the etiquette or they don't respect it.

So if an author asks for critique. go ahead and give it.

But don't just randomly comment something negative on something provided to you for free. Don't create a place where authors are afraid to post because they might get a comment about 'xyz'.

God knows if you check on my first fic and my last fic there's a huge difference. In only three years, I'm miles ahead of where I was. But what if someone had posted a ton of negative shit and I'd walked away?

That's 82 fics gone from the Star Wars tag.

So if someone asks for you to just walk away when you don't like something, do that.

If someone wants to interact with the fandom, interact with them.

Bring back what made fandom such a big draw and you'll find that it will only get bigger. Whether people know it or not there are more people excited for it than against it. Let's start acting like it.

[ingek73]

Harry and the Press: Read All About It?

A prince of the realm taking on Britain’s biggest newspapers is surely newsworthy? Not if you’re a reader of one of these titles, writes Liz Gerard

Liz Gerard

24 May 2023

In the 45 days from 28 March to 12 May, members of the Royal Family featured on our national newspaper front pages 320 times. These appearances included 133 photographs and 82 lead stories.

What do you expect? you might ask. We’ve just had a Coronation for the first time in 70 years. And we can all pledge allegiance to the new King. And Kate had a go at climbing a wall. And Charlotte had a birthday. And Louis wore blue. And some of them went to the pub and drank beer or a gin and tonic. And Camilla’s a jolly good egg. And Meghan is self-centred. And Harry…

Ah yes, Harry.

Harry flew in from America twice during that period. Once to make a brief appearance at the Coronation; and once to attend the High Court, where he has launched three cases, accusing the Mail, the Sun and the Mirror of illegal breaches of privacy.

He was joined in his case against the Mail by Baroness Lawrence, Elton John, David Furnish, Sadie Frost, Liz Hurley and Simon Hughes. Only Hurley and Hughes were missing from court on day one – 27 March. Quite a big deal, you might have thought. Five very big names, including a royal prince, appearing in court in person to sue our most popular news brand. Imagine the sort of coverage that turnout would have achieved were they taking on the BBC rather than the Mail.

So how many of those 320 front-page items did this four-day hearing account for? Six – almost all on the first day.

The Times and Telegraph both had a main photograph of Harry with a caption explaining why he was in the country; the i and Mirror had puffs – the i referring to the court case, the Mirror ignoring that altogether in favour of the King being too busy to see his son. The Guardian also had Harry as the main picture, alongside a splash that focused on Baroness Lawrence’s assertion that she felt betrayed by the Mail – which has made great capital over the years from its pursuit of her son’s murderers.

But the case was covered inside, wasn’t it? Up to a point, Lord Copper.

The Times, i and Telegraph had page leads. The first two focused on the allegations against the Mail; the Telegraph – in common with the other papers that carried anything at all – went on the line that Harry wouldn’t be seeing Dad while he was here. The Mail, which had described the lawsuits as “a pre-planned and orchestrated attempt to draw it into the phone-hacking scandal” and the allegations as “preposterous smears”, ploughed its own furrow with a page five lead headlined ‘Key witness says hacking claims “false”‘. A private investigator who had told the plaintiffs’ lawyers 18 months earlier that he had acted illegally on behalf of the Mail – “hacking phones, tapping landlines and bugging cars” – had now produced another signed statement retracting it all.

The paper’s owner, Associated, wanted the case thrown out, arguing, among other things, that it was based on material given in confidence to the Leveson Inquiry and because it was out of time. It also applied for anonymity for its journalists “in order to prevent distinguished journalists having their reputations destroyed in the event that the case never proceeds to full trial”. The granting of this application was phrased as “the judge quickly awarded victory to the Mail”. Somehow the factoid that it had been made under the auspices of human rights legislation – which the Mail has repeatedly said should be repealed – did not make it into print.

So much for day one. If Baroness Lawrence was a tasty starter, day two brought a seriously meaty main course in the form of Prince Harry’s witness statement. There were two central features:

The Royal Family had known about phone-hacking, he said, but didn’t tell him and did nothing about it for fear of opening a can of worms. There was even, he said, a private agreement with the Murdoch papers not to “engage or even discuss” the possibility of bringing claims against them until the hacking litigation was over.

His assertion that he had decided to sue Associated because “if the most influential newspaper company can evade justice… the whole country is doomed”. The statement continued: “I am bringing this claim because I love my country and I remain deeply concerned by the unchecked power, influence and criminality of Associated. The evidence I have seen shows that Associated’s journalists are criminals with journalistic powers which should concern every single one of us. The British public deserve to know the full extent of this cover-up and I feel it is my duty to expose it.”

Wow. Just a reminder that this is a statement by a royal prince in documents to the High Court – not a barb thrown out by some bloke in the pub. And he was there, in the flesh, to hear his words read out.

It may be that it shows, as the Mail attests, that he is obsessed. But it surely merits reporting. Apparently not on page one. Only one title – the i – had any mention of the case or Harry’s allegations on the cover, and that as a small puff. The Times had a new portrait of the King, the Telegraph told readers that Charles would be dining with his cousins in Germany. Even the Guardian was too busy with its mea culpa on its founder’s links to slavery.

Most papers ran page leads inside, although the i and The Times did not mention the alleged pact with its stablemates at News Group Newspapers (the Sun and News of the World’s parent company) or Harry’s explanation of why he was suing. As to the two titles whose owners have paid out millions in hacking damages to prevent hundreds of other cases going to court: the Mirror managed five paragraphs in a small single on the royals knowing about hacking; the Sun nothing.

And the Mail? Not a word of those key elements from the Harry witness statement. Instead, it led its spread on its own statement, building on the private investigator’s recantation, with a panel on the side with his “point by point” rebuttals of the claims against Associated. It’s one thing to get your retaliation in first, but this took one-sided reporting to another level.

Harry’s next action, which he watched by video-link, started on 25 April to take on the Sun, which – like the Mail – has always denied phone-hacking. This time his central claim was even more sensational: that News Group Newspapers owners had paid Prince William “a very large sum of money” as part of a private settlement to stop him suing for hacking.

This time the story made the splash for the Guardian and for the Telegraph, which “understood” that the figure was about £1 million. But its headline wasn’t the ‘Prince’s £1m phone hacking deal’ you might have expected, but that the claim had “left Coronation peace hopes in tatters”. There was, however, a spread inside as well, which was more than anyone else did.

The Times had a page lead and the Express a chunky story on its Coronation spread. But the Mail had just a small single-column on page 10 that started “Prince Harry has dragged William into his war on the British press”. The Sun and the Mirror ran nothing. Royal developments deemed worthy of front-page coverage included a chocolate bust of the King and his resistance to having Heathrow’s Terminal 5 named after him.

There was more interest the next day, after the judge said he was troubled by “factual inconsistencies” in Harry’s story, with more prominent coverage, including a small story in the Mirror (albeit on a different angle) and an early righthand page lead in the Mail.

As with the case against the Mail, third day coverage was more limited – the angle this time being actor Hugh Grant’s claim that stars’ homes were burgled at the Sun’s behest. For the third successive day, the case made the front of the Guardian, a page lead for The Times – and not a single word in the Sun. The Mail may have skewed coverage of its own case for the defence, but at least it was there. The Sun, whose lawyers wanted the case dismissed as out of time, just pretended it wasn’t happening and ignored it altogether.

Harry’s next homecoming was what the Mail called his “blink and you’ve missed it” trip for the Coronation. He may have gone back to California swiftly after the ceremony, but he hadn’t finished with the courts. For just under a week later, on 10 May, a third case started – against Mirror Group Newspapers. And this time it wasn’t a preliminary hearing, but a proper trial, expected to last seven weeks. Harry wasn’t in court for the opening speeches, but was lined up to give evidence, possibly for as long as three days, in June.

The two key features of the first day was MGN’s admission of, and apology for, a single instance of illegal information gathering – by the People – that it said was worthy of compensation, and the assertion by lawyer David Sherborne that it was “inconceivable” that Piers Morgan was unaware of phone-hacking under his editorship. This claim had been made in one of the previous cases and was, indeed, the subject of two identical Guardian front page headlines.

Morgan – a former Editor of the News of the World and the Daily Mirror who now presents a show on Rupert Murdoch’s Talk TV and writes a column for the Sun – had (coincidentally?) just recorded an interview with the BBC’s Amol Rajan in which he was asked about hacking on his watch. He said he didn’t know how to hack a phone (even though he had written about it in his autobiography and is reported to have explained how to do it to a Tony Blair aide), and that he was unaware that hacking had been going on at his papers. He also declared that he wasn’t going to take lectures on privacy from Harry and Meghan, who had, he said, constantly invaded the Royal Family’s privacy.

What did our papers make of all that? Apart from the Guardian, only the i and Telegraph had anything on the front, in each case a puff. The i took the ‘Morgan knew’ line, while the Telegraph went with ‘Morgan mocks Duke’. The FT had the earliest inside coverage with a five-column page two story headlined “Mirror accused of industrial scale illegality”. Everyone else pushed the story back as far as they dared. The Sun, Express, Mirror and Star all went on the apology, while The Times and Mail both majored on the defence line that stories Harry claimed were the result of hacking had in fact been fed to journalists by members of his family and royal courtiers.

As for declarations of interest, The Times mentioned Morgan’s current role with Talk TV and listed Harry’s other cases against the press, but did not note that News Group Newspapers shared its ultimate ownership by News Corp. The Mail also mentioned its own case in its coverage. The Sun did not say that it, too, was being sued by Harry. The Express quoted a Mirror spokesman as saying “MGN is now part of a very different company” but did not add that that company was Reach, owners of the Express (and Star).

Only the Guardian, The Times and Mail bothered to print anything about day two of this trial, when Sherborne told the court that Morgan “lies at the heart” of the claims. The Times and Mail both led on the Mirror contentions that stories put down to hacking might have been leaked by a palace aide or the result of an interview with Harry. The Guardian went on Morgan “approving” the illegal blagging of Prince Michael of Kent’s bank details. The reporter allegedly given the assignment was Gary Jones, now Editor of the Express. The Times and Mail did not include this in their stories; the Express ran nothing on the case that day.

But nobody reads print newspapers any more. Dead tree news is dead. People get their news online. So what about live coverage on the day the Mirror trial started?

Broadcasters featured it prominently; independent websites ran live feeds. The Times, FT, Independent, Guardian and Telegraph all had it among the top four stories online. But scroll as far as you could on the Sun, Mail and Mirror home pages and you would find not a word. Click on the ‘royals’ or ‘celebrities’ tabs and you’d find Kate and George and Charlotte and Sophie, and more Sussex bad-mouthing, but nothing on the trial. Only by searching ‘Harry and High Court’ did the Mail offer agency reports of the case on a page called ‘wires’, which has no tab or link from the home page. This is what you call burying bad – or inconvenient – news.

By day 45 of this little snapshot, not one single national newspaper had presented to its readers a full and fair account of any of the proceedings in the High Court.

The Times and Telegraph came closest, but the rest were either partisan, deliberately blind or uninterested. The Guardian, which of course uncovered and doggedly pursued the phone-hacking scandal from 2009 and blew the whole thing open with its Milly Dowler bombshell in 2011, played the cases up, while most of the others tried to play them down.

When you have such high-profile litigants taking on the country’s biggest news brand – actually accusing its journalists of being criminals – it is worthy of proper attention. When you have a royal prince claiming that the heir to the throne accepted £1 million in hush money to stop him taking the second-biggest news brand to court, it is worthy of proper attention. When you have the King’s son accusing one of the country’s most prominent television presenters of overseeing industrial scale law-breaking, it is worthy of proper attention.

There are those who accuse the British press of a culture of omertà, a reluctance to acknowledge, let alone confront, malpractice within the ‘club’, even by rivals. They will be able to cite the Harry coverage in support of that complaint. Regardless of whether they are right, this widespread refusal to face challenges to our industry is troubling. But more so is the fact that it raises the question: if reporting of these cases is so unreliable, what does it say about what we are served on everything else?

Meanwhile, the vilification of Harry and his wife continues apace. The day after the Coronation, the anti-Brexit author Edwin Hayward tweeted that he had logged more than 100 negative stories about the couple on the Express website in the space of 72 hours.

These papers know full well that the press has hounded Harry since boyhood and that he blames the tabloids for the death of his mother. But now they brush all that aside as ‘other people’ and ‘all in the past’. It is absolutely in all of their interests to discredit the prince as he stands up to them in court – and they are doing their damnedest to avoid letting their readers know why.

This is an extract from ‘Royal Reporting: The Media and the Monarchy’ edited by John Mair and Andrew Beck. It will be published by MGM Books on 1 June

[scrunkore]

Scrunkore Media "Thread" 2023: Part 7 (FINALE)

the scrunko core is dragged into 2024

77) Barbie (Movie, 2023)

What a wildly meta take on the most famous plastic doll in the world, this movie is a pink-tinted ride from start to finish with a lot of words to say about the patriarchy and consumerism, and it does it in such a strange way that I honestly have mad respect for. It's easy to see why it popped off so hard, it was fun and had very explicit political theming, as well as that banger Ken song. Very quirky movie that I enjoyed. [4.5★]

78) Sonic Dream Team (iOS, 2023)

Maybe I would have enjoyed this more had I played it on a device that ran it a bit better, but still, this was a pretty nice surprise drop from Sega's mobile game developers. You wouldn't expect an Apple Arcade exclusive Sonic title to have levels as fun as these with characters that play fairly well, but here it is, and I'm here for it. Short but sweet, a nice experience that doesn't offer much but what it does have is pretty good. I will say, some characters do sound kind of bad, though. Maybe they need better directing on the next one. Also I like Ariem, do more with her please. [3.5★]

79) Bocchi the Rock! (Anime, 2022)

Every social anxious gay girlie's favourite pink blob really is that pathetic, but honestly the show is pretty real about it once you look past the delightfully expressive nonsense going on with her animations. Genuinely like how joining a band doesn't magically improve Bocchi and she's still a nervous weirdo like a lot of us are or have been, but instead she just makes slow progress with a support network around her. And it does help the show's case that it's just a fun watch with some really good music, drawing inspiration from the likes of Asian Kung-Fu Generation (the main case are named after them lol). I was a year late to Bocchi, but now I totally get it. [4.5★]

80) Pokémon Violet: The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero (Switch DLC, 2023)

Pokémon DLC seems to be their "thing" now, and I can't complain because this stuff is genuinely pretty good, though not as exceptional as the main game. Fun new and returning creatures in brand new environments from different parts of the world, being a new part of whatever the Japan stand-in is called as well as the ocean around Unova (which they really have been pandering to), along with a genuinely pretty solid character arc for the new boy Kieran and a nice supporting cast. I don't think this DLC as a whole is anything mindblowing, but it adds some substantial new content to what is one of my favourite games in the series in spite of everything it has going against it. There's an epilogue to this coming too, but that already "leaked" because they left it in the game. Oh, Game Freak. [4★]

81) I'm in Love with the Villainess (Anime, 2023)

Himejoshi of the world rejoiced, for the series they have been gassing up for ages finally made it into anime form, and it was really quite good. What is initially just a silly romantic comedy about a girl who is just extremely gay for the villainess of the game world she was reborn into ends up having some pretty genuine moments with discussions of homophobia and sad backstories that hit. What I hope to be able to call the "first season" covered a nice amount of content and ended on just the right note to get you wanting more, and overall it's just very gay and very good. Helps that the light novels' author seems like a real one too, she's interacted with fans in every language she's able to and I'll have to read her original work. [4.5★]

82) Doctor Who 2023 Specials (TV, 2023)

Doctor Who is back, and they brought back an old showrunner and even an old Doctor for a bit to pretty entertaining results, along with introducing the next Doctor in a divisive but interesting way. I will say, some odd decisions were made there, but I don't really mind too much, as the special episodes released within the last couple months of the year were really fun adventures. Concluding a story that's over a decade old, introducing genuinely good trans rep, finally going back to a classic-era villain just to kick his ass, it's great to see. I think Wild Blue Yonder was the best of these, being perfectly weird as good Doctor Who often is, but they were all nice. Christmas special showed promise for 2024's upcoming series too, May can't come soon enough. [4★]

82.1) Doctor Who: The Daleks Colour Special (TV, 2023)

A curious addition to the 60th anniversary of the series was a cut-down edit of the Daleks' original serial from the 1960s remade in colour with unnecessary inclusions of music and some odd choices of what to trim from it. I'm not sure it was very good, but it was nice of them to bring back a frankly ancient story in a new way. An interesting experiment, perhaps.

82.2) Doctor Who: Liberation of the Daleks (Comic, 2023)

Apparently they want you to read this if you want to know what happened to the previous Sonic Screwdriver, which is kind of funny because that's not actually that big a deal within this rather silly story. It's a short and weird comic plot featuring a virtual multiverse of different quirky Daleks, yet another excuse to have them in something because they weren't in the main specials. I kinda liked it, though, it was fun enough.

83/84) Scott Pilgrim (Comic, 2004-2010)/Vs The World (Movie, 2010)

Took me long enough to get into this series, and yeah it is actually pretty good. Shitty people bumbling into improvement is something that does require reading comprehension to enjoy (lol) but this is a good story where you're obviously supposed to know Scott and indeed several of the other characters have and do make a lot of mistakes. The movie does make this worse as well, kinda skimming over most of the comics' storyline, but it's well-directed so it's good enough if you want to watch it. Really has fun with it, and the series is in fact quite funny especially with how pathetic the lead character is. I do recommend reading the comics, it's a series with a fun vibe but also they say the R-slur a few times because it was the 2000s so watch out for that. Luckily other media in the series avoids doing that, because by the 2010s most people figured you shouldn't say that. [4★/3.5★] 85) Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (Anime, 2023)

I can't believe they actually made Rebuild of Scott Pilgrim and that's not really hyperbole, this new Netflix anime based on the series does a great job of both deconstructing and fleshing out the source material in some really nice ways. Characters previously treated largely as jokes in the movie especially (poor Roxie) get a lot more thought put into them and many of the cast end up happier. I don't want to spoil a lot, but this is some good stuff that comes at everything from a different angle without sacrificing too much of what made the original stuff stand out. Might be my favourite of these. [4.5★]

86) Neo Yokio (Anime, 2017)

This show is so fucking stupid, so naturally it's the last thing I watched in 2023. It's some vapid rich person hipster shit but I think it knows that, and a lot of the comedy comes from that, but I feel some of the funny stuff is unintended too. Frankly it's hard to tell what angle it's going for, and it does have one kinda transphobic Ranma 1/2 parody, so I'm not sure if I'd recommend it in good faith, but it was a good thing to just mindlessly watch and laugh at from time to time. I'll watch the Christmas special at some point. [NEO YOKIO★]

And thus, the media "thread" comes to an end. That sure was a year in my life where I consumed media, I can say that much. Maybe for 2024 I'll be better at keeping up with this thing, but no promises. Still, this was fun enough.

Last part