#my main problem is that they age her up when she's still 16 (16!)

[euphoricmood]

in the books Cinna (the genius) makes every single piece that katniss wear a statement. the more obvious being the burning gown to mockingjay, from compliance to the literal symbol of the revolt. i wish they'd been more attentive to that in catching fire, the little girl in love dresses up until the announcement of the games. it would have been more poignant that the black sets she wear all movies long. even if the reason is that they aren't different by much from the uniforms of the games. or to the workers in the mines. because she's a pawn, all the times

[flemingology]

Hi !! :D Following your most recent post I wanted to request smth for Jessie . Basically reader is not used to celebrating Christmas since she had problems with her family growing up which lead to them never celebrating it in their household . Cue to now where Jessie and her are spending their first ever Christmas as a couple , Jessie invites reader to her parents’s for Christmas and it becomes the first time reader gets to celebrate it ? Just really fluffy mostly (idk if what I wrote made sense English is not my first language 😭)

home for the holidays ─ jessie fleming x reader

part of my christmas series. full masterlist here!

in which: jessie and her family are determined to change your mind about celebrating christmas

warnings: talks of a poor youth, poverty, financial issues, dysfunctional family dynamic but also lots of fluff, i promise

wc: 4.6k

a/n: first part of the christmas series! combined a couple drafts of jessie taking reader to celebrate christmas with her family. hope you enjoy!

Growing up, you missed out on a lot of things due to the precarious financial situation of your family. Your dad had incurred a work-related accident when you were three years old, leaving him bedridden with permanent spinal cord injury. Your mum worked 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, trying her hardest to muster up the money to take care of both you and your father. Nonetheless, your family struggled. You never experienced any of the traditional things that most kids did; no birthday parties, no holidays, no trips to the zoo or an amusement park, and certainly not Christmas. You dreaded the Christmas holidays. It confronted you with the dysfunctional family dynamic, never having the money to buy presents, let alone decorate the house.

The longer you found yourself in the terrible conditions in which you grew up, the more you promised yourself that you would try and break that vicious cycle. From the age of 16, you started looking for a job. You struggled, a lot of employers judging you based off your background, but eventually you managed to get a job at a local supermarket on the corner of your street. When you weren't at school, you were working, and when you weren't working, you were helping your mum with household chores. You didn't have any free time at all, but you kept reassuring yourself it would all be worth it in the end.

By the age of 20, you finally felt like you could look forward a little. You had finished school at 18, and now had been working full-time in the supermarket for 2 years, still helping your mum out with the household and even giving a big part of your income to her to help out with dad's care. Besides that, you opened a savings account for yourself, where you put the remainder of the money you made every month. You felt like you were slowly but surely creeping out the vicious cycle, paving the way for yourself to have a more positive looking future. You didn't have to take things day-to-day anymore. You started doing some charity work for OHOH: Oregon's Harbor of Hope – an institution caring for the homeless people of Portland. When you weren't on the clock in the supermarket, you went out there to help the volunteers. OHOH worked on giving homeless people a safe space, a community, and the essential services they needed to stabilize their lives.

You stumbled across the organization while browsing on the internet on a library computer, and you'd felt the fire in your belly to help them. You wrote down the address on your hand and went to check it out the following day, opening up about your past experiences and about how you thought you could aid OHOH. They took you in, welcomed you with open arms, and you had been one of the main volunteers there for the past three years now. But if anyone had told you that you'd meet the love of your life at one of their fundraisers, you would've never believed them.

OHOH organized fundraisers on every first Friday of the month. They were open for everyone who wanted to come check out the institution and help out – whether that be financially or actual engagement. That's where you met Jessie. Jessie, who also stumbled across the organization while scrolling through her socials. Jessie, who was so eager to help the local community. Jessie, who you bonded with the first time she came around and then she just kept coming. Every first Friday of the month she'd be there, claiming she was just there to help out, but she knew deep down that there was more to it than just helpfulness.

Jessie and you got talking on her first time visiting OHOH. You took it upon yourself to show her around the place, explaining her the ins and outs about the services you offered, Jessie listening to you with care and intent. Before you even realized, you started opening up about yourself to the Canadian. Conversation flowed easily between the two of you and you felt at ease, Jessie not judging you for any of the things you opened up to her about. It was late into the night when you two wrapped up, the only two people still hanging around at the fundraiser. You had an early shift in the supermarket the next day and you already knew you'd curse yourself for staying up late today. Jessie lingered a little while you locked up, and you caught yourself stealing a glance of her every now and then. You said your goodbyes then, parting ways with Jessie's promise that she'd be back next month.

And she was. And then again the next month. Jessie and you had grown closer over her past couple visits. You felt something warm and fuzzy coursing through your body every time you talked to her, a foreign feeling you'd never experienced before and you didn't really know what to do with it. Things with Jessie were easy. It felt like a fresh start, like a blank page ready to be written on. Jessie, on the other hand, cursed herself every time she left the fundraiser without asking for your number. She was in her head about it, thinking she might just be reading in to things, but she couldn't deny her feelings for you anymore. Not when your touch seemed to linger a little bit too long after she pulled you into a hug, not when you memorized the way she drinks her coffee after only making her one once, not when the way you said her name would make her stomach flutter in ways she'd never felt before. So she promised herself that next month, she'd ask for your number. And if you then didn't seem to be on the same page, well then at least she tried.

When next month came around, Jessie found herself trying to make an extra effort to look good on Friday. She usually wasn't really one to be very bothered about her outfits, but she caught herself standing in front of her wardrobe a little too long for what was just a fundraiser she'd been at multiple times. After a quick shower and freshening up a little, she made her way over to Portland's city centre, expertly navigating the roads to a place she'd visited frequently enough to know the way by heart. She noticed you from a little while away, talking to some of the other volunteers by the entrance. You spotted her too, giving her a small wave from across the street, which Jessie readily reciprocated. She scolded herself over how excited she got over the little gesture. She quickly made her way over, greeting everyone before eventually finding herself opposite you. You engulfed her in a hug, the embrace a welcome barrier against the cold Portland wind that nipped at Jessie's skin. "Hey. Thank you for coming," you mumbled against her, slowly pulling back from the hug. "Always."

You went through the motions, as you did every month. Talked to newcomers, caught up with old visitors, gave tours and explanations on what you did at OHOH. Jessie busied herself, talking to people here and there, sharing experiences with the people of Oregon. It was a welcome change for her, being somewhere where nobody really knew who she was. To be taken as herself, as Jess, not so much as Jessie Fleming – the Thorns and Canada midfielder that everyone seemed so eager to get a piece of. That's one of the main reasons she was so fond of you. You didn't know who she was. You hadn't found out yet either, or you were just very good at hiding it. It never came up in conversations, either. The only time Jessie spoke about football was the first time you met each other; when you asked her what her hobbies were. Football. A hobby. If only you knew. Jessie realized that she'd have to tell you at some point, but she liked the calm for now. The comfort.

As the night furthered, you two started gravitating towards each other more and more. From fleeting glances whenever you passed her with a new group to guide around the building, to quick conversations in between catch-ups, to full on spending the last hour of the fundraiser tucked away in a slightly more quiet corner, talking to each other like it was the easiest thing in the world. Neither you could deny the feelings that were starting to build inside you anymore. The fuzzy feeling remained, and now your skin felt tingly whenever Jessie's touch was on you. It excited you, really, but it made you oh so nervous. Scared, even. You'd never felt this way, not in your 24 years of doing life had you ever felt like this about someone. You didn't know what love was. Your mum loved your dad, you could see that, but that got lost in the dysfunctional dynamic of the family. Platonic love isn't something you experienced either throughout your youth, your peers had never been fond of you. You'd gotten used to that, grown accustomed to being alone. Not lonely, though, you didn't mind being alone. But this was different. Jessie made you feel all kinds of things and she made being alone feel like the worst thing in the world. You wanted to be around her, be alongside her, be with her.

You'd noticed a nervous touch in Jessie's behaviors that night. A little more restless than usual, a little more jumpy, much less controlled. Controlled. Jessie was always controlled. Although, that's what she thought. She liked being in control. In control over her thoughts, emotions, her behaviors. But the way she was fiddling with her fingers, the way she kept tapping her feet and how she seemed to stumble over her otherwise so composed words, you knew something was off.

"Are you okay, Jess?" You'd just locked up the building as the fundraiser came to an end, another successful evening wrapped up. You'd been building up the courage to ask her the question all evening, much as she had been trying to build up the courage to ask for your number – unbeknownst to you. You glanced at her over your shoulder when she didn't give you a reply. "Jess?" You raised your voice a little bit, seemingly startling the freckled Canadian. "Hmm?" She cocked her eyebrows, a nervous glint in her eye. You chuckled and made your way over to her, stalling opposite of her. "I asked whether you were okay. You've been a little... off tonight, or something? I don't know. I just wanna make sure, you know." You carefully approached the subject, not knowing if you were just overthinking things or if something was genuinely up.

Jessie cleared her throat. "Uhm, yeah. Yeah, I don't know. Bit off, I guess," she said distractedly. "You sure?" You decided to pry a little, inching closer towards her, your fingers nearly brushing hers. She chuckled, a small smile tugging at the corners of her lips before she met her gaze again. "Yeah, it's fine, I promise. I think- I've just been in my head a bit this evening, I'm fine." A frown painted your face as you listened to her words. "Mhm, okay. You wanna tell me what it is? I hope I didn't do anything to upset you." You wracked your brain trying to think of a moment in the past couple hours that could've possibly upset the Canadian, but you blanked.

"No, no, God, no, it's not that. Please, don't worry about that," Jessie chuckled before continuing, "it's not you. It's me, I swear." You cocked an eyebrow at her. "'It's not you, it's me'? Really, Jess?" You couldn't contain the uneasy feeling that started to grow inside you as the conversation progressed. It seemed like Jessie didn't want to talk about what was bothering her, but she gave you just enough of an insight to keep you on your toes – it was almost annoying you. "No, fuck- I'm making it worse." Jessie rubbed her hands down her face and lifted a hand when she saw you were going to speak again, ordering you to wait. "I've been in my head tonight, yeah. But it's nothing to do with you. Well- in fact, maybe it does. But, not like that. You know? I'm just-" "Jessie Fleming, what are you trying to say? Get it over with."

Jessie took in a deep breath, trying to compose herself, before she opened her eyes and a waterfall of words left her mouth. "Wouldyoumaybewanttogivemeyournumber?" You slightly tilted your head and gave her an amused look, cocking an eyebrow when her gaze fluttered down. "Jess, I couldn't make much of that, I'm sorry." You couldn't help the chuckle that crept up your throat, you'd never seen the Canadian this unsure. "Would you maybe want to give me your number?" Your eyebrows raised in surprise as you took a moment to process her words, but Jessie assumed your silence was your way of denying her request. "I mean, you don't have to, really, I was just asking because- uhm, because, you know, things for the fundraisers and stuff. It's okay, honestly-" You cut Jessie off by a placing a hand on her chest and searching for her gaze that was flicking everywhere but to your face. "Hey, take it easy. Take a breath, okay?" Jessie's eyes were filled with concern but she did as you asked, feeling her chest expanding and deflating a couple times underneath your hand. "I'd love to give you my number."

Safe to say that you and Jessie struggled to find your way with one another. You, not used to romantic love, or love in general, you struggled with accepting Jessie's affection. But in the end, you made compromises, communicated with one another about what worked and what didn't, and you had been in a relationship that you could only describe as perfect for the past 8 months. Jessie and you complimented each other. You fit together. She got you up when you were down, and vice versa. You learned very quickly about her career in football, something that took you completely by surprise when she told you. You adjusted, you compromised, and it worked. You were happier than you'd ever been.

Your first big argument with your Jessie didn't come until December, near Christmas time. Jessie insisted that you came with her back to Canada to celebrate the holidays with her and her family, but you insisted on staying home. You didn't want to be a bother, and as much as your girlfriend had tried to convince you that you wouldn't be, the thought remained firmly planted at the forefront of your mind – whatever Jessie did, not helping to get rid of it.

You'd told Jessie about your upbringing. How it hadn't been the best, how you'd missed out on all the traditional things. You never went into much detail, not wanting to relive your past, preferably living in the now, but Jessie knew. That's the reason why she always treaded very carefully when approaching the subject, not wanting to pry or ask too much leading to you closing yourself off. It wasn't until after one particularly rough night with your girlfriend – the both of you spending the best part of 30 minutes fighting about the whole ordeal – that you thought it was best to just get it over with and tell Jessie why you were so reluctant.

You told her about how you spent most Christmases at home. No Christmas tree or Christmas lights because they would cost too much, no Christmas films because renting one was way out of the budget, never any fancy meals as the holidays were just another period of trying to survive off stale bread and canned vegetables. You told her how you'd felt jealous in school, embarrassed even, your peers gushing about the presents they received or the family dinners they went to, while you had nothing to bring to the conversation. Not that they wanted you to be part of it, anyway. You explained to Jessie that you just didn't know how to celebrate Christmas, and that you didn't want to be a burden to your family and to herself. You didn't know how to replace those feelings of resentment with new ones, forever feeling guilty at how much better you had it now than then.

The Canadian assured you that she understood, but she also saw an opportunity that she was ready to take with both hands. She tried convincing you one more time to come with her, how she would make sure to take care of you and be gentle with introducing you to all the Christmas traditions. That you didn't have to worry about her family, who always seemed to think 'the more, the merrier' when it came to these types of days. You'd met them before, twice, when you accompanied Jessie on her occasional weekend going back home, and you knew they liked you. It wasn't that that you were worried about, it was more so that you just didn't know how to act during these types of days. What do you do? Say? What do you wear? Should you get something nice or do they prefer you to just wear something cozy? How do you behave? What presents do they want? Many questions and so very little answers.

Eventually, after some more raised voices and a lot of frustration, you agreed. Agreed on accompanying your girlfriend to Canada, the prospect of being with her and her family much more enticing than having to be on your own in your shared apartment for 3 weeks. When you finally, albeit reluctantly agreed, Jessie couldn't wipe the grin off her face even if she tried. She gently cupped your cheeks and leant her forehead against yours, pressing a soft kiss against your nose. "I promise it'll be good. It'll be so much fun and we'll take everything slow. Your pace, hmm?" She pressed a couple more kisses against your nose, before leaning down and pressing a gentle, fleeting kiss against your lips. You exhaled deeply and closed your eyes, leaning your forehead on her shoulder. "Yeah," you sighed, "yeah. We'll be fine. It'll be fun." Jessie sensed the hesitance in your voice, and promised herself then and there that she'd do everything in her power to make the holidays a fun time for you.

Traveling to Ontario wasn't that bad. No delays, no abundance of traffic, no problems with baggage, your 3-week getaway had gotten off to a perfect start and it did wonders to relieve you from some of the stress you'd been dealing with the past couple weeks leading up to this trip. Jessie and you had hired a car to drive yourself from the airport to her childhood home. You could've taken a cab, but figured it would be easy to have an extra car at home for if you wanted to go somewhere, just the two of you. You'd been in London before, but Jessie was adamant to reintroduce you to all the spots she'd shown you around before, insisting that it would be a completely different vibe now that everything was decorated for Christmas. The drive went smoothly, your plane arriving a little past 8 meaning you just about dodged the flurry of evening traffic. Your eyelids were growing heavy in the car, exhausted from the long plane journey, and with the low hum of the engine and Jessie's fingers tracing soft patterns on your thigh, it didn't take long for you to doze off against the car window.

You didn't wake until a few hours later, when Jessie put a hand on your shoulder and lightly shook you to try and wake you from what had seemed quite a deep sleep. "We're here baby, wake up," she whispered, putting a couple strands of hair behind your ear that had fallen across your face. You grunted, eyes still closed but you stretched, sitting up straight and leaning into Jessie's touch. "Tired," you grumbled. "I know, baby, it's late. We can sleep when we're inside, yeah?" You opened your eyes and looked at your girlfriend, who was sporting a small smile on her face. "You're cute when you snore." She gave you a small wink and pressed a kiss on your nose, unbuckling your seatbelt and leaning across you to open your door. Any protests that were forming in your head about how you were not a snorer died in your throat as you felt the cold wind coming from outside nipping at your skin. You hurried outside, any propositions to help your girlfriend with the bags waved away as she carried all three of them comfortably to the front door. You rang the bell, not allowed any time to complain about the weather as it took no longer than a couple seconds for Jessie's mum to open the door.

Michaele sported a beaming smile and her eyes were brimming with unshed tears as she pulled her daughter in a heartfelt embrace. It'd been a while since they saw each other. Jessie opted to stay in Portland after her domestic season had ended, the environment motivating her more to stick to her training plans than if she'd gone home early. She also still had a couple Canada camps to attend to, so she needed to stay on top of her fitness if she wanted to perform. It'd been close to 4 months since she'd been home, and you could tell that it had been weighing on her. Jessie had always been very family-oriented, so her excitement to come back home for the holidays was second to none. Especially since she managed to convince you to come too.

Ever since Jessie introduced you to her family, they took you in as part of the family. Her parents never questioned anything, loved you as one of their own and you managed to bond quite well with Tristan and Elysse. You truly felt at home with the Fleming's, a feeling you never managed to experience within your own family. It lead to a lot of uncomfortable feelings at first, when you realized that you felt more comfortable with strangers than with your own mother, but Jessie reassured you that it was okay. That it was okay to feel those things, to be upset, but that you'd never have to worry about experiencing such love ever again. She'd make sure of that.

Safe to say that Jessie kept her promise of making sure the holidays went by smoothly for the two of you. Your first week in Ontario went by quickly, the two of you re-exploring the city in which Jessie had grown up so many years ago. You visited coffee spots, strolled around her elementary school, went for dinner at her favorite burger restaurant and spent a lot of time with her family. Game nights, movie nights, going out for walks together, you name it. Jessie's family dynamic was so different to what yours had been, it was a breath of fresh air. It was healthy.

Your getaway went by quick and before you knew it, you were reaching the final week of the year. You woke up on Christmas morning with a weird feeling in your stomach. You knew everything would be fine – Jessie assured you it would, but you couldn't help the nerves that were settling in your stomach the moment you stirred from your sleep. You'd bought everyone a present, it wasn't much, but you hoped it would suffice. You didn't want to come empty handed, especially not when Jessie's family let you stay with them for the best part of a month. The feeling of being an intruder in their house had long faded, a heartfelt conversation with Jessie's mother aiding to you feeling at home within their house.

Your girlfriend must've sensed your restlessness that morning and woke up not long after you, pulling you down in a warm cuddle before agreeing to get up together. You made your way downstairs and were pleasantly surprised to see you were the first ones up. Jessie made you and her a steaming warm mug of coffee, before cuddling up with each other on the couch. You looked out across the garden, snow wrapping the town in an icy blanket of cold.

"You wanna make cookies?" Jessie's voice pulled you out of your thoughts. "Cookies?" You weren't opposed to the idea. It was nice to be alone for a moment, doing something together – just the two of you. "Yeah, cookies. I can't say it's a tradition, we don't do it every year, but sometimes my mum makes these Christmas cookies. Her own recipe. They're really good." Jessie raked her fingers through your long strands of hair from her position behind you on the couch, your back resting tight against her front. You craned your neck towards her. "Yeah, that'd be nice."

You and Jessie got to work in the kitchen, combining your forces to try and make sure the cookies would be as good as when Michaele would make them. You followed the recipe step by step, measuring and mixing the ingredients that would soon come together in small, bite-size, Christmas sugar cookies. It made you feel at ease, to have a little moment with just Jessie, before the prospect of what would surely be a busy day. Just the two of you, cuddling up to each other in the kitchen while making something that reminded Jessie of her childhood. It felt good, it felt right, it felt like home. A minute or 20 later, you put the cookies in the oven. 18 of them, 3 each.

Elysse and Tristan had already made their way downstairs, with Jessie's parents following suit only a couple minutes later. You all made some small talk, Jessie now also providing coffee for the rest of her family members. Before long, you all gathered in the living room where the presents would be given out.

"We've got the stockings first, as always," Michaele announced. She opened a bag that was sitting near the edge of the sofa and started giving them round, everyone receiving a stocking with the letter of their first name. What you didn't expect, though, was you to get one yourself. So when everyone had gotten their stocking and Michaele reached back into the bag to get one for you, it was hard to swallow the lump that had formed in your throat. Jessie noticed this, placing a comforting hand on the small of your back as you thanked and hugged her mom. You'd never felt more loved, more part of something than in that moment. You were part of their family, part of their home and everyone wanted to make sure you knew that.

The rest of the day went by so much better than you could've imagined. The Christmas cookies turned out perfect, some more family members came over for lunch, you went out for an afternoon stroll and then you all watched a Christmas movie on the sofa together late at night. You were feeling apprehensive about many things before you both took off to Oregon, but it's safe to say that Jessie kept her promise of trying to turn Christmas into something joyous for you.

Ever since that year, you hadn't missed a holiday season with the Flemings ever again. And you wouldn't want to have it differently anyway. Because after all, they were your family.

[memysoulandi]

Jason Grace, so much potential...

Actually this goes for the entire lost trio. The AMOUNT of TRAUMA these three had and the potential for character development they had too is UNREAL, yet nothing was done. Let us begin my personal beliefs

Leo:

-Delve into his trauma of his remaining family deciding he was the devil at age EIGHT and refusing to take him in-abandonment issues

-Have his constant feelings of invalid-ness and being the unneeded member of the seven be corrected by giving him CLOSE FRIENDS HE PIPER AND JASON NEED TO BE CLOSER AT THE VERY LEAST and conversations when he realizes he is wanted and needed

-Don't have Calypso storyline in there-he didn't need a girlfriend to solve his problems, if you have it, have it as good friends-another member of his support group

-Make him gay and have valgrace or slowburn/implied valgrace(the two of them pining then like kinda tragic as Leo dies)

Piper:

-Have her lesbian storyline occur in HoO where she's a main character-it's an important storyline for her character that deserves a spotlight and time that ToA couldn't give it

-No Jiper! This relationship was toxic and founded on fake memories-if you're going to do it, do it as a part of her LGBTQIA+ journey and Jason's as well

-Don't have her demonize femininity! She can wear dresses! She can wear makeup! She can present more feminine and still be the same character and her hatred of any and all things feminine is not good representation! Make her a feminist, please! Or at least make her less against femininity as a whole.

-No kaleidoscope eyes! Give her brown eyes and also have her rediscovering her culture storyline as a part of HoO too!

Jason:

-Make him a better fighter than Percy. He has been at Camp Jupiter since the age of three and spent a year with wolves before then. He has spent his entire life in a military setting training, he should be a better swordfighter than Percy 'I show up to summer camp at age 12 to 16 and only really use my sword then' Jackson.

-Give him more powers. Or Percy less. Children of the big three should be equal in potential power, not Percy being OP and the others having lightning or shadows powers some of the time. Percy needs less power and Jason, Thalia, Hazel, and Nico need more. Jason should have more power than Percy as he has had longer to train it.

-Give him a personality. His storyline in HoO should be a journey of self-discovery. He has always been another member of an army, with constant pressure on him to be the best at everything and a strong confident leader who doesn't make mistakes as a son of Jupiter. His entire life has been dictated by those around him. For the first time, he is free of that and he needs to be discovering things like how he likes to dress, his style, his sexuality, his likes and dislikes, and his personality. In my opinion he should be kinda shy with a feral edge, side effect of the wolves, who is always trying to people please. When he stops doing this, he becomes significantly happier and a greater use to the team. Plus valgrace;D.

-Also, make him despise Percy at the beginning. He worked his entire life to be an afterthought that nobody looked for when he went missing for months, while Percy was looked for by everyone after only a few days. Percy achieved everything he wanted in a matter of weeks in New Rome and he was happy and had friends and a life. Percy has everything Jason doesn't. They need to have a moment where they are locked together and Percy goes "why do you hate me" and Jason breaks down because "You have everything I want and you don't even have to try!". This would create a better relationship for them and be the turning point for Jason as Percy hears what he has to say and validates him. Also Jason personality.

-Don't kill him off and continue his self-discovery journey in ToA.

-Make him and Thalia have a closer relationship that in the months between TLH and TSoN, it is implied that they spend time together. He should feel safe with her and they needed more interactions as they are SIBLINGs, god damit.

-Make him and Reyna just friends-she wanted to look for him but couldn't 'cause Octavian(the bitch) and someone needed to be Praetor in his absence.

-Also give him history with Octavian-ex-friends or something give me drama.

[pansy-picnics]

can ask that you spill everything about your Splatoon OCs? 😺

ABSOLUTELY i did not expect anyone to ask to be honest….goodness where do i even begin. Let’s see. I’ll start with my main little doomed love triangle thing i suppose

Cecilia Paek, she/her, 24 yrs old, aka: cece, celia, eight, whore, freak, slut, etc. My agent 8. born in the domes under the name Paek Seo-Mi, but renamed herself to cece post-memory loss. A freak both in the not-safe-for-work sense and just. In general. She says the most unhinged shit in such a passive formal manner. Marina has to consistently tell her she’s not allowed to eat the jelletons. She bites. A lot.

aside from being a freak cece is curious and observant, but incredibly blunt and fierce. In the past Seo-Mi was a much quieter and more repressed person, but hearing the Inkantation awakened a flame within her, so to speak. Cece is incredibly vocal about her thoughts and feelings, and she does not like to be pushed around. although shes always been a very nostalgic person, shes been trying to look forward more often than not. (she was on team future!)

cece has a very mature, almost sisterly presence, and is especially close with neo 3 (ikra) and her pseudo sister agent 4 (yottsu). she also has a daughter of her own, yumi! ikra and yottsu are my friends ocs so i cant say too much about them but ikra is like, basically her and kyle’s adopted kid

Kyle Lastname, (Actual surname to be determined Eventually) he/him, 25 yrs, aka three, cap, kyle, ceces silly rabbit /j. he’s my captain 3. has a stupid ass name bc he’s a stupid ass guy. Basically started as a joke oc but i put him through the Horrors. he’s the malewife of all time.

Grew up the only hearing person in a deaf/hard of hearing household so he’s fluent in sign language. He joined squidbeak when he was like 16 mostly bc he was a MASSIVE FUCKING LOSER with a huge ego who wanted the attention. Now he has Trauma and hates his teen self more than anything. (The egotistical little white kid phase is like, a rite of passage in his family. His little sister is still in that phase.) Now that he’s mellowed out hes just a sopping wet cat. Dating cece and is obsessed with her + will do literally whatever she wants.

Hes a lot more talkative than canon 3, hes the kind of guy who copes with humor all the time. he tries to be cool and mysterious but hes really awkward and gets flustered or worked up super easily. He’s overall a pretty boring guy and thats his charm. She’s barbie and he’s just ken. etc etc.

Hes SO dad coded btw. He and cece have a daughter together, Yumi. Since he was young he spent a lot of time looking after his little sister and he’s basically adopted his protege, neo3 (ikra). he makes me think of RTGame for reasons i could not describe to you, it’s just the energy somehow. He’s my babygirl. My little meow meow if you will (Cece voice)

Victoria Mendoza, she/her, 25 yrs, aka Tori. SHE is the fucked up one. Literally doomed by the narrative. Eye love her.

She comes from a long line of elite soldiers and was a child prodigy, but also the Problem Child. Got expelled from multiple schools for beating up other kids. from a young age she’s been incredibly critical of the octarian society and she was basically your average teen rebel. into alt music/fashion, incredibly vocal about her distaste for the system, fairly closed off with a cold exterior. the only person she truly cared for was Seo-Mi (Cece).

Seo-Mi was quiet and sweet and generally pretty average academically, so she didn’t have nearly as much pressure on her to succeed compared to Tori. the two were childhood friends and teenage lovers. The only ones who truly matched each others freak if you will. When they were little girls they used to dream of escaping to the surface together. this changed when they were about sixteen years old.

the most important thing to know about tori is that she is a pessimist and at her core a Coward. She’s all bark and no bite. She’ll scream her hatred of authority from the rooftops but immediately crumble at the sight of her leader. and as she got older and officially entered her career, she lost hope. she determined the surface wouldn’t have anything more for her than the domes did. she became complacent, while Seo-Mi, who had previously been more neutral, had heard the inkantation and only become more determined to leave the domes.

The two desperately tried to change each other’s minds but they were far too stubborn. both of them were crushed by the supposed “betrayal” of their beloved. Inevitably Seo-Mi left for the surface, eventually being taken in to Kamabo Co. while tori stayed behind to rot.

Since Seo-Mi left, tori became more bitter than ever before. she turns her focus to her career, and her family, but she never truly moves on from the loss. Unfortunately, Cece did. Cece met someone else, she’s started a family, she has a completely new name. she’s essentially a new person. and Tori is still the same.

Canonically i don’t think they would ever meet again and actually recognize each other, but i like to play with the idea sometimes bc if they did they would Hate each other. Tori is completely incapable of accepting that her Seo-Mi has moved on. She is clinging on to a version of someone that doesn’t exist anymore. tori is a deeply self destructive person and will never move on in any sense of the word. Sad!

Also this is Yumi. Age varies but shes like. Very young toddler as of the current timeline. She’s cece and kyle’s favorite surprise (Accident). They’re both freaks and shes the consequences of their actions. She and smollusk have playdates together. She’s obsessed with off the hook but doesn’t realize that her weird lesbian aunts pearl and marina are the same people. She’s baby

[autumnslance]

Normally I'd agree many Final Fantasy games have rather young protagonists. It's because they're usually single-player JRPGs made with the assumption of younger players, and like most Young Adult media, create characters that cater to that, even if it ends up with teens running the world and fighting in wars. And for many players, the first time playing these games is in childhood/adolescence/very young adulthood. So it's YA anime.

Final Fantasy XIV does not fall into that same mold, despite the "Teen" rating for legal and distribution purposes.

The majority of the FF14 cast, including the bulk of the main characters, are between 20 and 40 years old (the Scion Archons, Ishgard Elf Husbands). Many other characters are between 40 and 80 (Ishgard's Counts are all late middle aged to elder dads/grandpas, Gaius is mid 50s, Jehantel and Ran'jit are elderly, all still active). The younger characters (especially with any authority or special position) like the Leveilleur twins, are actually outliers. And the youth of the characters between 16 and 20 years old tends to be plot relevant, where that inexperience and naivety causes problems and drives story (Nanamo's arc at the end of ARR into HW, Alphinaud and the Crystal Braves, Ryne's determination of self in ShB, etc).

Characters have a variety of appearances; some characters in the same age ranges look very different. Varis is only 4 years older than X'rhun but Varis's model shows the stress and disagreeableness of his life a lot more than the RDM trainer's. Cid's in his mid-30s but with the beard looks older--and without it he has a baby face (hair color doesn't matter, cuz they do keep the anime trope of "everyone's got white or silver hair"). Lalafell are designed to be anime-cute halflings so it's hard to tell their adult ages even if they've got facial hair like grandfatherly Papashan. The pad'jal of course look like kids, but the youngest main pad'jal is A-Ruhn in his late teens; all the others are adults stuck in adolescent bodies. E-Sumi is a few hundred years old. Kan-E uses various methods to look older so other leaders and people from outside Gridania will take her seriously as an adult. The padjal introduced in the StB WHM quests is a child, and that's the plot; she's not in charge of anything, or has any particularly advanced-for-her-age skills. She's just a kid having a really rough time.

This inability to determine age by looking and assuming isn't just due to limits of the game engine and character creation options; it reflects real life. I met my work team for the first time in person recently; one person looked older than I know them to be, thanks to months of stress and health issues. While all of them were shocked to remember I'm in my 40s as according to them, I "look much younger". Most people are actually pretty bad at guesstimating ages based on appearance, due to the variety of folks' lives.

Speaking of kid characters, many of the children we interact with, like the Doman Adventurers, are between 12 and 14 and act much younger. Khloe has this going on too, with her age "corrected" to 13 (when previously listed as 10), but she acts way younger to me. Most of the actual child characters are treated like children, and it's not until they get to 14-16 (Honoroit, Leveva) that we start to see them treated like maturing adolescents and having some responsibilities, but still young and prone to the kind of choices one expects of less experienced and more emotional youth.

As a MMO, FF14's primary audience is actually adults; teens do play the game, but also age up with it if they keep playing. If a 15 year old began playing with ARR's release, they're in their mid-20s now. Having a primarily adult cast, and treating child characters like children, and adolescents like young people figuring out how young adulthood works, makes sense for this game.

FF14's time bubble is also part of the issue; a developer tool to keep it so they don't have to worry too much about character ages, new models so often, or how long things take in game. Timelines are then intentionally left malleable for the players' benefits, to create our own stories and determine how long things take for our WoLs and their tales. Some folks have their stories pass in real time, some compress it to a year per expac, some expand it out even longer. So the ages the characters have listed in the lorebooks and rarely in game (which is then reflected in online resources), is a starting baseline. Personal headcanons as always should be applied (including changing around some character ages to fit one's own story if necessary).

Also, FF16, made by the same team, has a brief prologue/tutorial section where the main trio is between 10 and 15, guided/trained by adult characters, experience the inciting incident trauma--and then we spend the majority of the game with the main cast in their 20s and 30s. The game also has a mature rating, featuring some sexual situations, lots of violence, and stronger language than other FF games. It's made for adults, and its cast reflects that.

So it is a matter of audience expectations; for a MMO, you're going to have an older and aging player base, and the varied ages of the cast reflect that, as do their varied appearances and experiences as adults. The young characters are treated closer to how their youth should be; still with respect for those in positions like Nanamo, but also prone to errors due to inexperience that drive story. In other FF titles, which were made to be more YA-focused, a teen and young 20s cast were treated much differently. But even in the single-player FF titles, if they are made with adult players in mind, their cast and stories likewise reflect that.

[raisedbythetv89]

excuse the ranting here but just had someone try and argue that a fully evil literally on the hunt for the Slayer (bc he’s stalking his PREY to fight and hopefully kill) Spike - finding Buffy attractive (according to an interview James gave where he talks about that moment and said he embodied the kinds of predatory men who literally are “on the hunt” for real life women in bars) as anywhere NEAR the same level of creepiness as a SOULFUL aka SUPPOSED TO BE GOOD angel stalking and falling in love at the sight of an innocent and crying 15 year old Buffy….

Anti spike/spuffy ppl always try and use that interview to make Spike out to be “just as creepy” as Angel which is always just so embarrassing to me that they don’t grasp the basic difference between one was the most evil and literally is a predator to her prey but buffy is also a predator to spike’s kind so there is even still a balance of power between them even then and he’s literally just explaining how he played the scene to get the attitude and body language right as a predator bc he understands that’s what Spike is to Buffy at that time (literally had zero clue he would ever be a love interest of Buffy’s). And the other who is not supposed to be a predator anymore…. hides his identity as a vampire AND hides the fact that he’s been watching her for over a year is still acting as a predator but instead of stalking an experienced slayer to attempt to fight and kill he is stalking a freshly called still weak and vulnerable slayer who he wants to sleep with aka corrupt.

Angel is supposed to be GOOD yet is still acting like a predator. Spike IS EVIL and so is simply acting as someone who has killed two slayers should 💀💀💀💀 the fact that soulless evil Spike and soulful “good” Angel’s behavior can be compared AT ALL is bad for angel and angel alone bc spike is supposed to be evil and treating buffy as someone he is hunting and as an opponent. Angel is supposed to be HELPING Buffy….

But regardless of all that the argument is James said Sarah is beautiful so of course he played up that angle as well so canonically Spike thinks a 16 year old Buffy is pretty and these people really don’t understand the difference between the two 😭😭

First of all I personally have heard Sarah call herself “not the prettiest” at least 10 times in 10 different interviews - how often do you think the people in her life heard her make jokes or comments about her appearance??? To me that always seemed like James just paying a compliment to his costar who doesn’t understand how literally fucking STUNNING she is by basically being like HAVE YOU SEEN HER OF COURSE MY CHARACTER THINKS SHE’S PRETTY LOOK AT HER!! James literally rizzed his way into a main character and love interest like of course he’s gonna be charming in real life by paying compliments to everyone he can every chance he gets. He had sex appeal and a dream AND IT WORKED 💀 and we also see him have chemistry with practically every person on the show that’s just who he is 😹😹😹

But I also just cannot emphasize how much of a difference there is between finding someone attractive or thinking they’re beautiful vs actually ACTING on it and ESPECIALLY acting on it when you call her friend of the same age “just a kid” and say over and over again how wrong it is and that she’s too young AND THEN DO IT ANYWAY. Like it’s a supernatural show with vampires who are 100 & 200+ years old if angel hadn’t constantly acted like her dad and treated Buffy like a kid and everything is season 3 didn’t happen there could be sooooooo much more leniency with angel and buffy’s age differences and I probably wouldn’t care bc applying irl rules to the supernatural doesn’t make a lot of sense but angel always treats her like a child and says over and over again how wrong it is and THAT is what makes it a problem within this supernatural show bc Spike never treats her like a child or like she isn’t his equal ever no matter what age she is

But unfortunately it makes sense people who like a character whose main personality trait is !catholic guilt! (when he’s got a soul) don’t understand the difference between thoughts and actions and how we should only be defining ourselves and other people by their actions. Because we are not every single thought we’ve ever had both good and bad. If you think to do good things but don’t that does not make you good and if you think to do bad things but don’t that does not make you bad.

So evil Spike thinking a beautiful Buffy dancing with her friends is hot at 16 is not even CLOSE to the same as a supposed to be good angel activity pursuing a relationship with her by breadcrumbing the absolute fuck out of her, manipulating her like crazy and lying to her about practically everything and flirting with her under false pretenses after falling in love at the sight of her looking like a child with her lollipop on the school steps at 15 and then watching her cry in the bathroom mirror as he watches her from the bushes with a smile on his face and hope in his eyes and if you don’t understand that there is literally nothing I can do or say to help you

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

I have a light one that’s kind of dumb.

🐶🐱

AITA for wanting a dog even though my sister/housemate does not?

To start, nobody is allergic to dogs or has a fear of them, she just doesn’t want it.

(if ages and gender are important, we’re both f in our early 20s)

I grew up on a farm with lots of animals. There were always cows, I had goats, there were chickens, ducks, barn cats and of course, 1-3 livestock guard dogs at a time.

When I was 16, I had a senior spaniel who had to be put down due to heart problems. Ever since I have been asking if I can have another dog but my parents have said no.

Around a year ago now I sold my goats and moved out of my parents house into an apartment. The apartment didn’t allow any pet bigger than my little gecko.

Then, about January, my older sister started messaging me with images of houses on a realtor site. So we looked at houses. I agreed to buy a house with her 1) so she could move out of our parents house and 2) because being by myself in the apartment with no real friends wasn’t really that good for my mental health.

To her credit, she did get a kitten from our farm and let me keep it, although I didn’t really want a house cat. The main reason I wanted a dog was for the amount of exercise it would need, and I would have to take it for long walks. Not to mention litter boxes aren’t my favourite thing to deal with. Still, I am glad I have a little animal to cuddle.

Additionally, most of the times when I bring up wanting a dog or getting a dog, it’s either in a jokey matter or it’ll be in contrast to something (for example there was a shady guy hanging around our street the other night and we don’t have an actual alarm for our house, so I went “yknow if we had a yappy little chihuahua it would be an alarm enough” or something like that) to which she will reply something short and growly along the lines of “you’re never getting a dog in my house”

Her reasons she gives for not wanting a dog? Number one, it’s “her” house. (It’s in both of our names, I paid half the down deposit and I pay half the mortgage and bills, and I pay for the Wifi. I’m not paying her rent, we both own it) Number 2, her friend is allergic to horses. (A friend that never comes over to our house anyway, and I understand fur allergies are complicated but it’s a dog. We aren’t anywhere NEAR horses! We live in town!) (this one is also BS because sister wants to buy a farm and have Clydesdale horses) Number 3, it sheds. We have a cat. The cat sheds more than the breeds of dogs that I really like or want. One of my favourites are the Xolo dog. Which has no hair. At all. Number 4, the cat is scared of dogs. (She isn’t. She’s never seen one in her life. I can get her used to having a dog around easily, even if she starts afraid. I’ve done it before when our parents have gotten new dogs around new cats.)

I’m not going to go behind her back and bring home a dog (even though there have been opportunities to get a free puppy multiple time) but I’m not going to stop wanting to have a dog or wanting to get one or talking about what dogs I like.

Our grandparents are moving to town and selling their farm next year, which sister wants to buy with me. I told her I’d like to move out of town into a farm, but only if she let me get either a dog or a donkey to protect our property against coyotes. (Especially considering we both want chickens if we get a farm)

She got really pissy at me about that, and stormed off. AITA here? I think she’s being a little unreasonable. I’m not a bad pet owner at all, I work with my animals as much as possible. I had my billy goat following me around the farm without a lead before I sold the goats, for pineapple’s sakes!

What are these acronyms?

[marble-running]

okay hopefully this will not break your inbox this time so long as i don't send 30 images again

Yuri #1 - Anhane

very yuriful. their first (indirect) meeting is when kohane sees an performing, and wishes she could be as confident and passionate as her. this is actually what unlocks their sekai (vbs has some fate shit going on long story) and they get isekai'd into it although they don't remember that or meeting each other. kohane gets lost and ends up in an's dad's cafe some time later, and thinks an is really cool, but she runs out as soon as an starts talking to her. she comes back a week later because an's performance left such an impression on her, and they talk for a bit, then sing together, and an decides kohane is the one for her, so they become partners. i won't spoil the entire main story for you lol so i'll leave it there.

anyway over the course of the game (not in much depth) kohane starts to pick up skill very quickly. she's very naturally talented, moreso than an. once kohane starts getting mentored, an begins to worry that kohane will get too good for her, and leave her behind as a partner. kohane is unaware of all this and herself has some concerns that she's not as confident or impressive as An, though this isn't as much of a problem as an's abandonment issues. anyway they do work things out in the event the vampire yuri card is from.

for some other stuff. kohane is implied lesbian, she's very attracted to an in the second wedding event, and shows attraction to other girls too (mainly haruka). an is also implied lesbian, and her card story for the anhane/minoharu date night event suggests that she's like. legitimately dating kohane. a later card story suggests this too. haruka says that this is the first time an has ever acted like this with anyone, and the way an's parents act around kohane is almost as if she's an's girlfriend.

Yuri #2 - Minoharu

^ moment that is very important to me they're actually my favourite ship in the game. haruka is the one who inspired minori to be an idol, and she has been a huge fan of her for years. however when she meets haruka in person only to learn she quit being an idol, she decides she has to bring back the haruka she's always looked up to. haruka helps out minori with some training and advice here and there, but still doesn't go back to being an idol. it's only once minori finds out what caused haruka to quit, resolves it, and then puts on a show for her does she convince her to become an idol again. basically minori is able to remind her of why she loves performing so much, she just needed to see this person who she impacted so is so endlessless positive and full of love and passion. minori also reminds haruka of the person she looked up to and got her to be an idol but that's important later and i could go on about it for a long time but i think your askbox has a word limit.

minori is also like. very explicitly in love with haruka. not just like a celebrity crush like she's legit crushing on haruka really badly. there's just SO MUCH of it please check the tvtropes homoerotic subtext page for proseka i spent ages on the minoharu folder when i was 16. oh yeah also implied lesbian, though i tend to just assume its canon for her (and an/kohane/saki). it's implied that haruka reciprocates minori's crush to some degree but she's a bit dense sometimes.

Yuri #3 - Shizuai

first off i am still not over this card. okay so airi and shizuku first met when shizuku was new to the industry. shizuku was upset that she was a burden to the other girls in her unit due to being an amateur who didn't even intend to become an idol (some friends signed her up without her knowledge but she attended the auditions and passed). she was starting to cry, so airi gave her a towel to clean up with. this towel is shizuku's bonus item for gameplay purposes.

however, airi also harboured some jealousy at shizuku over time, since shizuku kept getting promoted and was incredibly popular and got lots of opportunities, whilst she essentially became a tv star instead of an idol. when shizuku quits because she wasn't enjoying being an idol anymore, airi lashes out at her. however this is resolved pretty quickly, and they both decide to become idols again for eah other, since they are each others' idol.

they're like. very clearly in love with each other. airi is attracted to shizuku and bought all the magazines she did photoshoots in and compares shizuku to a swan etc etc but shizuku says some REALLY gay shit sometimes like she has this whole monologue about airi's hands in airi's 3rd event and the card above is her returning a "magic spell" gesture airi did for her years ago. also i showed you the romeo and cinderella 3dmv so you get the idea.

Yuri #4 - Emunene

they are very important to me. emu is super friendly and affectionate with just about everyone. nene is her total opposite - shy and has a sharp tongue. there's multiple times early game however where rui (#1 emunene supporter) points out how nene has started acting differently around emu, she's smiling and laughing more, and is the only person she won't leave on read. in emu's first event nene wants to cheer emu up when she's sad, specifically saying that she wants to see emu's smile again. they become a lot closer over the course of the game, and nene's standoffish attitude around emu and slight annoyance at her going on outings with her completely disappear. they regularly go to each others' houses to watch movies or play video games or go shopping together now. they have an event where they enter a gaming contest together which is where this card is from. nene is also the first one to comfort emu when wxs is at risk of breaking up.

in emu's third event the vocaloids list off emu's favourite things as all being activities she does with emu, with luka going as far as to say that emu loves nene. nene gets flustered and tells them they're just regular activities for them. anyway they got "very good friends"d in the official english translation so you know they're gay. also it's loosely implied that they both like girls. they are very cute and very gay and emu clings onto nene in one area conversation to the point nene is blushing and then they share parfaits together and also got one together ON WHITE DAY.

yuri #5 - polyneed

DO NOT SEPARATE. theyre so devoted to each other it's actually sickening. okay so. they've been friends since elementary school, and then decide to form a band because ichika wanted to play some miku songs. when they're walking home one day there's a meteor shower, and decide to keep playing in the band and spending time together forever. ichika has like a baby gay realisation that she wants to be with them forever here and it's what causes their sekai to form. this yearning shit gets serious. anyway as they get older saki is moved to a faraway hospital, shiho cuts them off because she doesn't want her reputation affecting them, and honami cuts them off because she doesn't want to be bullied. when saki gets out of hospital she decides to get the band back together, and this is the plot of the main story.

anyway post main story the gay yearning shit gets serious. so shiho wants to go pro but the rest are pretty casual about the band. shiho is offered to play for a different group, but leoneed are willing to uproot their lives to stay with shiho. shiho also realises that leoneed is the only band for her. the gacha for that event is called 4=1. the event song is called one and starts as 3/4 time but switches to 4/4 time. the card above is from this set. it's all very domestic and happy leoneed life together forever. oh and then in the ichika event that just ran on en last month they reaffirm their promise under the stars. its shakespearean the star motifs here. okay so their recent world link event was insane. i need to waffle. they have this magic flying subway train in their sekai now. and it won't open. but then it opens for shiho but she won't board it until the others are there. because she only wants to go for her dreams if they're by her side. and then at the end of the event they all ride the train together. what the hell.

okay so saki's like. very implied lesbian. there's several indicators that she's into girls. tbh everyone in this game likes the same gender it's a japanese idol mobage they're all gay. fanservice or something. anyway is there a polycule implied in the funny miku taptap game.... i dunno? considering the industry, no, considering honami's self intro where she "sounds like she's confessing to them" and causes them all to blush, maybe. maybe the leoneed writers room is bad at writing friendship and thinks this is "girls hanging out" when it's actually "sapphic yearning off the scale". honami is also ship teased with another girl but i'm not going to put that in this already. ahem. very long ask.

Yuri #6 - Mizuena

okay now here's complex yuri. kanamafu is more yuri than them but alas i am not as invested in them and this ask is also a free pass for me to talk about my favourite prsk ships (minus the two yaois) and brainwash you with my agenda. okay so i've already explained the deal with mizuki and ena on that massive google doc i sent you. so despite their teasing, mizuki really does appreciate ena, and she thinks she's talented and values her art. while kanade is actually the one who saw true worth in ena and her art, mizuki still is supportive of ena.

ena->mizuki is about trust. ena sees that something is troubling mizuki. there's something on mizuki's mind and they won't spit it out. ena wants to know, she's not the most patient person alive, but she decides not to pressure mizuki and tells her she'll wait as long as she has to. but although ena puts her full trust in mizuki, they lie to her and tell her that they'll tell her eventually when they don't plan on it at all, still scared of what will happen when ena knows, and scared of losing ena (and n25), who they didn't even realise viewed them as a true friend until she said it in that moment. mizuki's second event still tears me up to this day it's definitely worth the read and i'm very excited for the anticipated mizuki comes out event in october.

oh yeah also it's implied they both like girls. you already know the deal with mizuki i used they/them here for the most part just out of clarity.

anyway those are my top 6 project sekai yuris. not in order i have all of them ranked equally except minoharu because some ships are more equal than others. if you have any other questions about project sekai shipping please ask me in my askbox or dms i need you to get invested in this game enough so i can ramble and you can comprehend it lmao

[readychilledwine]

do you ever feel awkward writing for Eris? I saw your poll about doing an SJM bad guys week, so I'm guessing not.

Warning - This is going to become SJM critical. Please know I am not anti any of these characters. I am, however, critical of SJM as a long-time fantasy reader.

You answered your own question in your ask there, friend.

I do not have issues writing for Eris. The main issue the fandom has with him is the situation with Mor, and here's my stance on that:

We have an issue with the timeline around this incident, so I will make my judgement call when SJM does her eventual retcon and fixes it.

We know Eris is younger than Mor and Rhys, who are around the same age. Mor was sold to Autumn as Eris's bride at the tender age of 17. When Helion is giving us his gorgeous monolog talking about his love for Momma Autumn, we find out that she and Beron were married young and had barely been married for two decades around the start of the first war. Meaning Eris was around 19 at the time.

This passage from Rhys is a little hazy and unclear, but from how I and several other people took it, he was around 28 at the start of that war, meaning Mor was also around 27 to 28. That makes Mor at least 8 to 9 years older than Eris. Meaning, he potentially was a LITERAL child when he and Mor were engaged. He would have been around the age of 7 to 9 and already had the mindset to fear Beron.

This where I am going to look SJM critical. She is great at a few things, creating plotholes by retconing, and fucking up timelines due to her retconing.

Let's say she retcons to correct that issue. We still know Eris is younger than Mor by a year or two. So, let's say he was 15 to 16. At 15 to 16 years old, I want you to think about what you would have done in this situation:

You are a young prince or princess. Your father is a known abuser and racist. You all have just found out your betrothed has sullied themselves with a person your father considers below all of you, and you know it was done to get out of a marriage she did not want to be in. You and your men find her on the border of your father's court, beaten and with a nail in her womb. Here are your options:

1. You take her back to your father, the known racist and abuser. Thus making her, in reality, his problem. You have witnessed how your father likes to handle his problems. You also know he's angry and embarrassed this female made the choice to sleep with a lesser born bastard Illyrian over marry his high fae princeling.

2. You cannot risk touching her, so leave her somewhere her friends can find her without risking her or them having to enter Autumn. This will allow her to go home, where she is safe, and heal.

In both scenarios, Eris could not win. He either took Mor to his father and risked her death and was blamed for that, or he left her knowing her friends were more than likely coming and be blamed for that as well. He was now the villain in Mor's story regardless of what actions he took, and he was that villain as a teen. A literal child. As a child he picked to allow Morrigan life. To allow her to live without being trapped the way he and his mother are.

Eris, in theory, made a selfless choice. He made the choice to damn himself and his reputation for the sake of Mor and as he says, it cost him..

As for me being willing to write other SJM bad guys-

It is perfectly normal and acceptable in every other fandom to be attracted to the bad guys and to write dark fanfiction about them. You see it all time in Tolkien, Harry Potter, and (grossly since they are all children) it has resurged in the Percy Jackson fandom. Please have several seats and let me, and the several other people who are excited for it, enjoy my little story about Pollux, my reader, and his heavy cock that sways to and fro.

It's also, as someone pumping out the amount of content I am right now, really nice to get to write a dark fic with a villain here and there for a change of pace, so thank you to everyone who is supportive and open to me doing that.

[nocureocsideblog]

OKAY HI SO I GOT THE REFS IM GONNA POST SOMETHING THAT I WANT A SECOND OPINION ON BUT HERE THEY ARE AS OF RIGHT NOW

long post so putting it under the read more!!!

This is Ro Lilac!!! She’s my main OC and was originally a self insert, until I branched her off into her main character around 2021!!! She’s an A Hat in Time OC. She’s 19 years old and has one sibling, her sister Katelyn, who I’ll talk about later. Her mother is Olivia Lilac and her father is David Stevens (last name isn’t canon yet, I’m open to ideas for his last name), and she has three aunts named Meredith, Veronica, and Susanne. Ro’s a very polite and reasonable person, more interested in finding peaceful solutions to any problem or conflict she may face. If she is forced to fight, she’s quick on her feet and strategic with her attacks, having plenty of experience with self defense. In AHiT, she’s a parental figure to the main three girls (HK, BK, MG) and will accompany Hat Kid in order to protect her during her journey. There may be specific parts of the game where she would be a playable character, but she’s mainly a negotiator/bodyguard. After chapter five, she’ll be a playable character. I’ll go into detail about her role in the game in a later post.

This is Katelyn Lilac!! She’s Ro’s (half) sister (they both hate referring to each other as their half sister, especially Katelyn, it makes them feel like they aren’t as close as they really are), 16 years old, and aroace. She’s essentially the polar opposite of Ro, being energetic and excited nearly 24/7. She doesn’t know much about her father, and prefers it that way. She’ll also be present during the main story of AHiT, although much less active than Ro. She’ll usually be contacted through a phone or some other communication device. During maybe one or two parts of the game, she’ll be playable for a short amount of time, and then unlocked to play as after chapter five is completed.

COMPLETELY DIFFERENT FANDOMS STARTING NOW HAHAHAHAHEHHEHEHHAHEHHEEHAA coughing

she uh….. honestly doesn’t have a name yet i just call her lizard (PLEASE GIVE ME NAME IDEAS HELP). She’s a Parappa the Rapper OC, I haven’t decided on an age yet, and I literally just made her about a month ago. She’s a burnt out college kid with misophonia that moved into Parappa Town from a small town about an hour away to take online classes. She has the deepest voice out of all the OCs I have listed here, and it’s a bit raspy, as if she hadn’t gotten enough sleep the night before. She doesn’t have a major role in the games, especially the first one, since that’s when she first moves into Parappa Town. She’ll have her moments in the anime, usually as a background character, but she’ll have a few interactions with the main group. she is nowhere to be found in UJL, leave her alone she’s taking a nap!!! She’s a lot more active in the second game, acting as a supporting character.

FINAL ONE AND SHE IS A KIRBY OC!!! Specifically the anime, she’d get put in the anime and then like one game like Escargoon lmao. She has the highest and softest voice out of all the OCs that I wrote about in this post. Her name is Anne and she’s 22 years old, living in Whispy Woods. I’ll just copy and paste what her introductory episode would be like lmao here yall go.

Kirby, during a walk with Tiff and Tuff in the forest, drops something (idk what it would be yet maybe some candy if they have a little backpack for snacks) and doesn’t notice. Anne tries to return it while they’re still in the forest but conveniently never catches up to them/ isn’t heard by them. With Kirby now being outside the forest, the place she’s never left in her entire life, she is now forced to leave the forest and enter Cappy Town to find them.

okay uhh if you have any questions or suggestions let me know BYE!!!

[horizon-verizon]

There's something really strange about how HotD allows women to seemingly have power until they actually have to exercise it and maintain it.

The young Rhaenyra fights to be heard but seeks to establish herself, then we jump in time and all her fire has gone out, Alicent denigrates her in the council and in 6 years in DS she has not gained ally for her future council to not speak above her and truly respect her.

Alicent as Rhaenyra's opponent apparently has allies, lords and knights who will follow her (even if it is in the name of her son because exercising power through a man is still power)then we reach her moment of greatest triumph and she... She was left out of the plans and begins to lose more and more influence.

Baela appears confident on e7 but as soon as it's her turn to stand firm on the council she starts to be a scared little girl (which wouldn't be a bad arc because in fact she shares it with Jace in what It could be age discrimination instead of gender, but it's still strange because I'm sure they are already legally adults and AEMOND doesn't seem to have those problems even though some must have objected to a 16-17 boy who may have only strategized in Westeros chess being his main strategist).

Rhaenys has apparently never been afraid to voice her opinion and ruled in her husband's name, so in theory she should know how to deal with men their man·splain and its benevolent misogyny or not. But eventually she needs to ask Corlys for help and be rescued because she's not enough to keep the council in order.

These are our main women and they all express in their plot that women cannot have or maintain power by themselves. Then we also have:

Lady Serena/Sabitha (still confused by the name) who sits at the negotiating table with Lord Frey and Jace in apparent equality. A woman who shows up with several men to shout at Daemon for the Blackwoods without any fear. And Alys and Mysaria whose power depends on what they achieve behind closed doors with more socially influential people.

There is a whole history of women in history clawing and fighting for power and influence any way they could. Henry VII's mother is one of my favorites because she was only the king's mother, not even queen dowager, but she was a constant and influential presence at court, many wives/mothers/sisters of Roman emperors were involved in political intrigues (Caligula's mother had to be exiled for seeking justice for her murdered husband and inviting rebellion, Comudus' mother and Marcus Aurelius' wife when she thought her husband died moved to protect her children by inadvertently causing a political disaster and Comudus's sister thought that power should belong to her and her husband and not her brother, etc) We have, of course, Matilda but there are also Isabella I, Mary I, Isabella of Castile and several of her daughters.What about the power of the consorts? Catherine of Aragon was loved by the fountain even after her death and the legitimacy of her divorce called into question the marriage to Anne and the legitimacy of Elizabeth I, Anne and Parr were well-read women who had a far from insignificant influence. Or Catherine the great? This is a very messy and incomplete list and we wouldn't even have to look at the real world because Asoiaf already has it, I think one of the favorite reviews I read pointed out that Martin managed to show in a world that oppressed women how they were equal in ability and intelligence to men, which made his world misogynistic, but women themselves were no less.

hotD refuses to give us that because every time women have to show real power and not an appearance of it (which is what these women do in the background, Pretend that hey, yes there are women with power, just not any of our protagonists!) is degraded and put in her place carrying a message completely contrary to a supposedly "feminist" narrative.

There is only pain, suffering and the romanticization of that female martyrdom. We don't need it to be a girl power fantasy but at least there should be some nuance, some catharsis and hope because otherwise the message is... Why would you bother leaving the kitchen?

Now, to be clear to any readers: Anon is describing more how the writers have women held back and/or men intervene on for women to have any ability to address or resist other men's pressures: example, Rhaenys and Corlys as Anon said above in that specific scene. This is NOT a in-world character hate spiel!

Getting into it:

Rhaenys didn't directly ask Corlys to step in for her, he did that on his own in the episode...HOWEVER, the WRITING and plot sequence has Corlys have to step in. And I'll add another scene that anon's point reminds me of--Rhaenys didn't know or wouldn't rule Vaemond to just not do shit or face severe consequences....she was the ruling Lady for Corlys in his absence, of course she can order Vaemond around...but she doesn't. (No he can still ignore her, but that in itself would be so much more interesting [and truer to her orig/better character] that she falter in how to address him. Imagine she had ordered him to not go to KL, he goes anyway [thus this is another breach of higher authority], and thus there are TWO levels to his disobedience and duplicitous behavior in trying to become lord against his Lord's wishes and while he's too weak to address such a thing).

I think that we can keep Baela's trepidation as is bc as you say, non, it could be age but it'd also mean her gender and position as a future consort. She'd of course have some "beginning" trouble with addressing the council BUT I think what the issue is 2 things: A) in 1x08, Baela didn't know how to address Vaemond and that's fine, but we need to see progress and that requires more scenes of her growing some confidence. B) those scene before Vaemond's attempt that S1 didn't provide, and thus maybe we could have had a more "fronting"-and-resentful/openly-indignant-but-not-retreating-Baela like we saw then

Aemond has a totally different experience from Baela as a second born prince who was not, at first, to be King or that close to practicing a ruler's power-authority. Despite his position & his belief in his own abilities, he also has been feening for a chance to actually put those abiliities to practice. Other than him being 2nd born, he doesn't experience the layer of misogyny that includes engendering young girls that they can't do a thing AND they shouldn't specifically bc their femaleness is seen as (in)humanely and inherently lacking.

"Alicent as Rhaenyra's opponent apparently has allies, lords and knights who will follow her"--well, in 1x06/07, she tells Larys that she is "alone" and she needs Otto's hand to help her gain more influence in court. Enough to properly intimidate Rhaenyra....but since we don't get to see and witness the actual results of Otto's return to court (Rhaenyra immediately leaves for Dragonstone BEFORE Otto even comes back!), even this is more an appearance of power. Why? Because if Alicent of 1x06 wanted Otto to use against Rhaenyra, and Rhaenyra leaves before he even arrives...what is the point of Ott? Bc Alicent is now #1 bitch at court, at least actively?! Why couldn't we get Otto creeping (not sexual) on Alicent's authority and sorta taking over over her slowly but surely and we see Alicent's quasi-regret in asking him back? Instead we have Otto completely taking over and Alicent totally unaware! Rhaenyra is not there to "negate" Alicent at council, "show off" her "plain-featured sons" (& what...sully Alicent's eyes? or what?), or take possible/present supporting courtiers at court...who we never ever see as you say anon...so Otto comes to court at Alicent's ehest, and she actually doesn't gain much except a man leadign her around more than her making at least some use out of him for use all to WITNESS in key scenes where instead of Otto making announcements at court, it's either her or one of her lackeys....again, this is not about COUNCIL, this is about COURT but why not both with more scenes of Alicent leading court than her at council?

nice pointing out the discrepancy b/t the main lead female nobles vs the fewer side female nobles and Mysaria.

"There is only pain, suffering and the romanticization of that female martyrdom." I mean, there was already much over use of pain-suffering of women compared to men in Rhaenyra's story; problem with HotD is that there was also the stripping down of female rage/defiance/militancy/determination/self-assertion despite some men's most stupid desires. Their own desires for power vs the males' desires to use them for power [again, that example I gave pf Alicent--in real time--realizing Otto trying to use her for his own power trips or just ignoring her & trying to still keep use Otto for her own ends but finding such a tightrope nearly impossible to walk], to be specific. This goes for the Vaemond-Rhaenys thing as well]

"We don't need it to be a girl power fantasy but at least there should be some nuance, some catharsis and hope because otherwise the message is" -- bc of GoT, there is no real message of "hope" for women specifically...as the Dance was always woman-focused, specifically the plight of a woman who has been killed simply bc she demanded the same privileges men had concerning feudal-monarchial authority. There's little-to-no catharsis in Rhaenyra's story--you can maybe find some comfort in her life at Dragonstone after the show is over...oh wait😒--but it is true HotD refuses to handle the moments and spaces of her life pre-end of war that would have showed her both happy and more in control over her body/residence/etc.: Harwin & Daemon, [canonically, both at Dragonstone]; Laena [both Dragonstone & Driftmark]; her own kids,Rhaenys [Dragonstone/Driftmark] -- And I already described more nuanced rewrites for Rhaenys and Alicent

[innerchorus]

Sometimes I find myself wondering why Shapur's mother waited two years before she attempted murder on Isfan and his mother. Or perhaps she tried/wanted to try earlier but was unsuccessful due to Shapur's presence and interference? I'd love to hear your thoughts about it.

Okay, I have a confession to make. This ask unlocked a memory in me and I went to look in my drafts and sitting there was an unfinished post about this very matter, in which I tagged you because I think we had been talking about this in comments somewhere, and I checked the date and it said July 2022 🫠

Anyway, this is going to involve a lot of theorising and definitely veers into headcanon/possible fic backstory stuff, but it's a question I've thought about a lot and there are a handful of possibilities, in my opinion.

My first thought was that to begin with, she didn't know for certain who Isfan's father was. I'm sure there were also male slaves employed by their household, or it could have been any number of soldiers of other visitors that was the culprit. But perhaps in time the resemblance between Isfan and his father became impossible to ignore, or perhaps gossip reached her ears and her suspicions grew to the point at which she could not put them aside.

Perhaps she suspected right from the start, though. Maybe her husband's behaviour gave her cause to; maybe it wasn't an isolated incident. In that case, for someone willing to do what she did it feels like suspicion alone would have been enough, so why wait? One thing that comes to mind is infant mortality rates. Maybe she was hoping that the babe wouldn't survive past the first year or so, in which case there would be no need to dirty her hands.

Or perhaps at first it didn't seem to matter — her own son, both legitimate and older, would be heir.

I don't think Shapur's father would have involved himself with Isfan at all (after all, in not wanting to cause trouble with his wife he was content to ignore her actions in consigning a mother and baby to freeze to death) but I know we've both speculated before that Shapur might well have taken an interest in his baby brother even before he rode out to save him.

So was Shapur's behaviour a factor somehow? Was it his acknowledgement of his younger half-brother that changed things? Did his mother, for some reason, start to fret that one day, Isfan might be the one to inherit everything from Shapur rather than a son of his own, a grandchild that would carry her blood? How would she have felt at seeing Isfan accepted by the one other person she had assumed would also see him as a threat?

(Going down this line of reasoning definitely veers into some potential headcanon territory that I can't recall whether I've talked about before, but essentially something I toyed with was that his mother's fears not only stemmed from Shapur's clear affection and bond with the child but also the fact that she had begun to have her suspicions about her son's preference for men, and worried that given his closeness with Isfan he would be content to pass things to him rather than marry and have children of his own.

At this point, Shapur is 16, a year over the age of majority. I wouldn't be surprised if discussions of marriage had come up at this point in terms of potential matches, especially if he is the only legitimate son. Certainly I headcanon that later on, the main reason Shapur doesn't marry is to protect Isfan's status as his named heir and ensure it can't be contested, but before his rescue of Isfan I doubt he was thinking that far ahead; he was simply fond of his younger brother and did his best to look out for him and his mother. He could have easily brushed off talk of marriage without realising why his mother pushed for it.

Still, overall I think the biggest factor was simply that Shapur's mother hoped that if she ignored what she thought of as a problem for long enough, it would go away. And when it didn't, she opted to take matters into her own hands. The cold simplicity of Isfan's mere existence being enough for her to want him and his mother dead speaks to both her own callousness and the problems with Parsian society in the importance it places on bloodlines, so I've always been a bit wary of diluting that.)

[andi-dromeda]

So this an edit for my combat child au. Basically I asked myself how many Pokémon protagonists could I squish into each other and ended up with Combat Child (Leaf, Lyra, Rosa, Gloria, Juliana), Ethan (who is also Cheren, Lucas, Elio, Calem), Hero (Hilbert, Trace, Victor, Florian), Moon (Selene, May, Serena), and then Dawn is just Akari. She’s the most normal. Other protagonists also are important like Hilda, Nate, Elaine, Chase and Kris. Rip to Brendan ig.

The basics of Combat Child is that she grew up in a simulation, woke up in the future but to her that was her present, then got dumped by Celebi into the past and realised she aged way slower than other humans. She was ten for one hundred years but she was still physically and mentally ten so she was running around committing crimes and beating up people twice her size as Combat Child. Then she ran into Ethan who through shenanigans got her to age normally and from there she ends up having to come to terms with mortality and finally having to grow up.

Another part is the protagonists with multiple names all have time/space powers. Combat’s is she can slow down time, Ethan’s is he can rewind time like reloading a video game, Hero’s is he can speed time up which he mostly uses to give himself super speed, Dawn’s is she can travel through time and space so when she met the pearl and diamond clans she had a hard time choosing between them, Moon’s is she can manipulate space but specifically only her and the other timey-wimey kids aka she can shapeshift and then there is one more timey-wimey kid but they’re a secret for now.

To sum up their personalities in a few words:

⭐️ Combat is a freak gremlin child who’s favourite hobbies are martial arts, vigilantism, helping other kids and fighting rich guys. Her main motivation in life is running from all her problems and destroying anyone who reminds her of Lysandre.

⭐️ Ethan is a child of divorce with severe identity issues who goes to literally space and back for his friends. He’s one of the more responsible ones of the group but just bc he’s normal compared to them, doesn’t mean he’s actually normal. He became a teacher when he was 14, a lab assistant when he was 15 and then an Interpol agent when he was 16. Him and Combat are ride or die for each other but also disagree a lot as I’m sure you could guess.

⭐️ Hero was dumped from the past into the present so he’s the opposite of Combat. Unlike Combat who gave up on getting back to the future, Hero desperately wants to go home. He’s fairly chill and likes to go with the flow but since all his friends’ flows are nuts, he ends up acting nuts too. To be fair tho, before he met any of them he fought eternatus on the original darkest day so it’s not like he’s not reckless too. For the most part he’s content to do whatever Combat’s up to whenever he isn’t looking for a way home. He likes pranks and mischief but equally enjoys slacking off. His favourite hobby tho is cooking/baking. Which is great bc the other two people he lives with are Combat who cooks like Yor from Spy x family and Watcher (Looker’s sister I made up) who only eats healthy. If she could survive purely off of protein powder and kale she would.

⭐️ Moon is chaotic too but her brand of chaos is different to Combat’s. She’s known about her powers all her life and mostly uses them to run off and explore as much as she can. She loves to prank people with her powers but most of all loves exploring and Pokémon. She’s a dare devil and going to ultra space which was basically a dream come true for her. The main thing that sets her apart from Combat is that whilst Combat has absolute blind confidence in herself for the most part and it takes a lot for her to realise she was wrong, Moon’s a bit insecure. She likes to play characters instead of herself because she’s scared that when she isn’t performing she’s boring or annoying.

⭐️ Dawn was a normal girl, living a normal life until she became champion of the Sinnoh region. Then Arceus dropped her into the past to go fix things and she’s forced to learn her powers and save the world… again. She’s more of a reluctant hero than the others. If the worlds in danger, of course she’s going to save it. She’s a good person. She’s just more likely to complain about constantly having to save the world. Like in a Percy Jackson way. Her main motivation is she wants to live a normal life however, she can’t live a normal life if the world’ destroyed so she’ll do what she has to to be a normal girl who just so happens to be a contest star, the Sinnoh champion and Arceus’ chosen.

[thefamilycryptid]

MY HUGE RANT ABOUT SEASON 4

Spoilers ahead

This is going to be really rambly. It it is definitely not all of my thoughts on this season. I did have parts I liked about this season and I admit I sort of liked the ending of the season but I didn’t like the season as a whole and I like complaining so sorry this is long

First is was fat jokes at Diego, which was weird af, especially when he took of his shirt and showed he was RIPPED THE WHOLE FUCKING TIME LIKE NOT EVEN SLIGHTLY CHUBBY BRO WAS SUPERHERO JACKED???

I actually didn’t notice that it was Sparrow!Ben who got sent back with them at first, I was hoping and praying for my good ghost boy. I just kinda hates Ben’s whole character in this

Then it was constantly playing baby shark and NOONE DECIDES TO JUST SMASH THE RADIO??? Like if had played for just the first sequence then someone smashed the radio it would’ve been a bit funny but it took over a whole episode and I HATED IT

CGI vomit???? Constantly????? Also do the blood and guts look plastic to anyone else? Like practical gore usually looks pretty good why doesn’t just feel funky this season?

I liked the Jennifer plot line originally, but I feel like it just became a weird way to shoehorn Ben and Jen into a relationship.

You’re telling me that RAY CHESTNUT becomes a DEADBEAT DAD??? He was genuinely the sweetest guy season 2 and now we’re expected to believe he would just leave his wife and kid (I’m assuming Claire is his Bio kid in this, but even if he’s just her father legally it’s absolutely wack that he would just leave her and Allison).

The Klaus plot line was actually so upsetting this season. Like he screws around in every season but it’s usually tied back to the main plot somehow. But this time it literally just felt like “haha the gay addict relapses after YEARS of working so hard to remain sober”. They wrote it like it was some punchline, like we were meant to laugh about him being “haha funny comedic relief of Klaus never being able to have a happy life” and it didn’t even have any plot relevance?

And then the big one Five and Lila

I genuinely cannot express how disgusted I was with this plot line. The moment I started episode 5 I kept a literal chant of “oh god please no ” BEGGING that it was a fake setup.

But no they actually did that. They made Lila and Five have a weirdass emotional love affair while suspended in the bullshit time traveling train. I’m gonna break down specific thoughts I have about this incident just bc there is so much I have to say

1. The age gap of the characters. Lila is 35 (ish? Her time traveling is a lot less than five so we can assume she is roughly still 35) and Five is in his 60s mentally while being in the body of a 19yo (him being 13-14 in season 3 and the 6 year agegap). I feel like I shouldn’t have to explain the mental/maturity agegap between a 35yo and a 60yo.

2. There’s also the huge glaring problem of the actors ages. The fact that the writers waited until Aidan was FRESHLY legal to write him into a relationship with an actress 15 years older than him is actually disgusting. Especially considering Ritu knew Aidan since season 2 when he was 16 years old and she was in her 30s.

3. It completely ruins fives character as someone who spent several decades trying to figure out how to save his whole family, into a homewreaker who was completely ready to let his family deal with the apocalypse while he had a cushy old time in a cottage core life with his brothers wife. Five killed thousands of people for the chance to go home to his siblings and I’m just expected to believe that he would throw that away for his sister-in-law???

4. Lila is a kickass independent woman in seasons 2, 3, and in the beginning of season 4. She’s practically a single mother bc Diego’s head is up his ass, shes juggling taking care of 3 kids, having her extended family live with her, AND trying to feel normal again by playing spy in her free time. Yet after episode 5 she is reduced to a “woe is me I’m stuck between two brothers, one I’m married to and have 3 kids with, and the other I just think gets me so well even though he lied to me”. She is slightly redeemed after they get out of the train stop and returns to Diego but it was still gross that it happened in the first place and there are still weird aftershocks

Ok end of Lila and Five rant back to the other stuff

Loved Victor so much in this season btw, the only normal Hargreaves at this point. Wish we could’ve heard more about how he is apparently charming the pants off of every woman he meets, if he and Lila got together behind Diego’s back I don’t think I would’ve even been mad he simply is THAT BITCH and we love him for it.

The five Deli was actually kind of funny to me tbh. I just wish it had gone way differently, like yes definitely like all the Fives that gave up but I wish our five had solved the problem just to spite them all. Because that’s the POINT of Five’s character that he refuses to just give up on problems, even if he has to ham-fist his way through everything until he has the solution and this season just ruins that in him. Where is stubborn till the end Five?? Dead and season 4 killed him 😔

And then there was the ending.

I don’t like it for a bunch of reasons. But the main one was how sloppy it felt. Also a bunch of inconsistencies which I will once again breakdown

1. I didn’t like the whole “we must end our existence to save the timeline” solution. I feel like it’s just massively overdone and lazy writing. I honestly would’ve preferred never getting season 4 over this ending

2. Lila, Diego, and Allison being so worried about their kids being ok without them is such a weird point. Like if you cease to ever exist then your kids won’t have ever been born I think that’s the whole point of not existing???

3. This isn’t a complaint but the scene where Bennifer absorbs everyone else looks really weird to me idk why

The EPILOGUE!

I admit it was pretty cute to see all the characters from previous seasons appear again, I love the Swedes by baby girls.

But how the hell are the children alive when their parents ceased to exist?? Like genuinely how the hell does that work ??

I almost wished we could’ve gotten to see all the scenes from the mothers when they WOULDVE given birth but instead we get to see what happens without Marigold. It would’ve been a nice wrap up if we got to see the scene with Victors mom again but it’s just her swimming with the boy she’s hitting on. I feel like it would’ve been a slightly more satisfying ending that I could’ve forgiven the “erase ourselves for the good of everyone” ending.

I have more opinions so ask me abt them if you want but I promise this post would be a novels length if I said it all so I just wrote the big stuff here lol

[ghostywriter]

My Extensive List of Backstories + Headcanons for the Devil's Nest Gang part 1: Dolcetto!

Born May 4, 1882

At the time of his death in the autumn of 1914, he was 32 years old.

His height is 5'5"

Dolcetto is his last name. He gave up his first when he joined the Nest.

His father is an Aerugonian immigrant and mechanic. His mother is from the islands surrounding Xing. She was a traveler and swordswoman for hire before settling down in South City.

He has 3 sisters-- Two older twins (born 1877) and one younger sister. (born 1887)

He was born in the southeast side of South City and grew up in a slums apartment.

He's always been short-statured and was often bullied for it as a child and teenager. He gets really annoyed when people comment on his height.

He met Martel in June 1890, when he was age 8. She helped defend him from those bullying him and quickly became his best friend. He liked her for protecting him and teaching him how to be stronger.

Upon Martel leaving for the North when he was 14, he stopped attending school as much during a period of depression. He dropped out when he was 16.

Dolcetto was drafted for the Aerugo border war at 19. In training, he met Martel again and they resumed their friendship.

Dolcetto was the one who rescued Martel after she stepped on a landmine. While he was saving her, he was shot in his spine and nearly died, thus leading to his use as a test subject.

He is trilingual, speaking and reading both of his parents' languages as well as Amestrian. He's distinctly bad at reading in Amestrian.

He has dyscalculia which has led him to dislike solving math problems and handling money.

He's trained in both judo and boxing. He hadn't done much training with swords until he'd joined the gang. He likes swords for their extensive history, the skill required to use them, because his mother was a swordswoman, and because one of his older sisters was a fencer. His current katana was a gift from Greed, though he collects additional antique swords.

Cooking is one of his biggest passions, partially thanks to both of his parents having been fantastic cooks who'd taught him. He's especially invested in Aerugonian cuisine and particularly likes hand-making pasta and noodles.

His favorite smells are lavender, sandalwood, rose, and tomatoes. The former two originate from his mother using lots of lavender incense when he was a child.

Martel cuts his hair. She's the only one that he trusts to do it.

He's prone to depression and anxiety, and the main way to alleviate both for him is to constantly stay working. Unfortunately, all of those contribute to his insomnia.

His favorite drink is espresso and his favorite food is udon.

He's a complete snob about tobacco and refuses to smoke cigarettes unless they're his only choice. The first thing that he bought for himself when he got settled into the Nest was his favorite kiseru.

He takes after his father and is very mechanically minded. Whenever anything needs to be fixed in the Nest, they bring it to him and he can fix it very quickly.

He loves cars and working on them, but he also has developed a significant fear of them that's probably caused by the dog genes.

He likes to help Bido with gardening, work out with Martel, dance with Greed, and play shogi with Roa.

He's an incredibly lightweight drinker. He also gets terrible hangovers and has a tendency to be incredibly emotionally volatile when drunk, often crying or ranting to Martel.

He has lots of scars, most notable of which are the ones from knife training with Martel that line his arms and burn scars on his ribs from torture. He also still has scars from being shot in the spine.

He regularly gets overstimulated from sounds and smells, so he's gotten used to figuring out his sensory limits.

He instinctually reacts happily to having his head and neck scratched, and Greed often makes fun of him for that.

He deals with chronic back and joint pain, so his wrist cuffs are for compression. He's also been known to use a cane on particularly bad days.

[lover-of-mine]

I can't find the post you mentioned it in, but I swear you have brought up the power imbalance and age difference with Tommy in Canon calling him kid. If that wasn't you, sorry for wasting time. But I was curious about your thoughts on something.

I'm a believer that the last scene wasn't supposed to be there. The last one was the medal scene, and you know that would have still worked with him coming back next season. I think it was added for extra ick because everyone on the other side just skipped over "kid".

The thing is, it's established that Buck is the kid.

BObby, well we now know he thinks of him as a son. But since season 1 he routinely calls him and only him kid.

Athena obviously has maternal feelings for him.

Hen was his older sister before the real one came. She continues to do this with him even with Maddie.

Maddie.. Well she's a combination of Hen and Athena.

Chim. Older brother before becoming it. Who yes routinely referred to him as kid.

Even to Carla, he's Buckaroo. Heck, the inmates that kidnapped him. He called him kid. Kid is basically established lore to how he's viewed. And yes, they chose to have Tommy say that, and yes, it means something to me, especially when you through the put of place Daddy joke in.

I did mention it, quite a few times actually, but the way you phrased this made me think about the beginning of Buck and Abby actually. You made it click why the joke bothers me so much, because the thing is, the whole age difference was a thing that was made into a joke of sorts with Abby in the beginning, but it never happens in front of Buck or directly from Abby. Carla is in the background calling Buck a boytoy and Abby a cougar, and it's supposed to be cute that Abby wants the hot firefighter who happens to be 16 years younger than her. But Abby is the main character, Buck exists to serve a purpose for her in s1, so he's isolated from the age difference comments, even though Buck keeps giving this boyish energy. Buck very much is the baby of the group. But when you think about Abby, Abby is conflicted by the age difference even though she ends up asking Buck out, so even though the age thing could be a problem, it's not what's actually exacerbating a power imbalance, the thing there is that Buck is more in it than Abby, the age there is not a deciding factor. But when you look at Tommy, the way he calls Buck kid, the way he, in a sense, is making decisions about what he thinks Buck is feeling, like kissing Buck out of nowhere or deciding Buck is not ready by himself and leaving him in the curb, a daddy kink joke directed a Buck as Buck opens up about his issues, ends up being dismissive in a, (I don't wanna say disturbing because it doesn't go that far, but my English is failing me and that's the only word I can think of) it's more than unsettling but it's not quite disturbing, but it leaves a weird taste in my mouth because Buck is never taken seriously, and he wants to be taken seriously so badly he ends up trying too hard and that just makes him crash harder, and, as someone who knows Buck and didn't see enough effort in establishing Tommy as someone who truly cares about him, the "God, I hope so" kinda sounds like he just wants to take advantage of that eagarness Buck has and that's not it. Like, it's so not it. And you may be right to some degree, we did see behind-the-scenes stuff with Lou in the hospital that didn't make the episode, so they made a choice to have that dinner happen that way. But the question is, do they know that joke could be received like that, or did they just think that would be a funny thing to throw in there no one would look at twice? Because the thing is, I don't like Tommy and it got to a point where I'm looking for things to hate, so I look at that in the worst way possible, but if we are assuming intention of creeping people out, we can't exist in a plane where everything about Tommy will be instantly received poorly by everyone, because the joke landed. It's only a problem when you think about it and it was placed there as a throwaway comment. Because, Buck and Abby, it's never supposed to come out as weird, even though Abby used her job to get Buck's number and Buck is still living in a frathouse, so are they trying to make Tommy seem as weird as he comes off to us or are we interpreting things in the worst possible way? There's a balance there that I can't seem to find yet, because the show didn't build enough of the relationship for me to look at it objectively and know.