#never really got acknowledged or processed in canon

[ceaselesswatchersspecialboy]

spent a good hour reading up on your Not What He Seems AU, it’s such a perfect mix of angst and whimsy! Ford waking up to find 30 years have passed in the blink of an eye is is the kind of body horror terrifying i eat up, as an avid enjoyer of time travel and its inherent tragedy.

i got a few questions, if you’ll indulge me:

- what kinds of tattoos you think Bill has gotten over the years? i think i saw some arm bands in one of your pieces, but i’d love to hear if you have any specific ideas for placements or images. if he’s doing it for the safe pain experience, i’d think there are some pretty big/detailed pieces involved? and do you think the pain helps ground him somewhat, to find and fit better in the boundaries of the body?

- in the show, Stan feels a lot of guilt for stealing his brother’s identity and he kinda thinks of himself as a fraud, an actor. do you think Bill ever feels guilty for the same? or would he just miss Ford a lot, without the Stan-specific aspect of pretending to be “the better one”?

also any fun tidbits you’ve been rotating in your head lately! it’s impressive how specifically it seems like you’ve thought out how Bill’s presence would affect the canon show events, while trying to keep them as unchanged as possible. also StanFraud is the funniest, most perfect thing I’ve ever heard!

Thank you!! I’ve always enjoyed writing horror based on human response, so Ford’s perspective is probably one of the most fascinating to me in this AU, although, all of it is fascinating and enjoyable to explore, really!

— I haven’t worked them all out yet, but I know for a fact he has a tattoo of the Cipher Wheel on his back, the arm bands as you mentioned, a hyper-realistic tattoo of his ribs where his ribs would be (if that makes sense), and eyes on the back of his hands. Honestly, I’d be open to suggestions for him! I imagine him having some more grotesque, detailed tattoos that reflect the nightmare realm as well. And yes, the pain definitely helps ground him. It also gives him a sense of control as well, in a situation where he has none.

— If he does feel guilty, it’s a complicated kind of guilt. I don’t even think he’d fully process that he’s feeling guilty. It’s this sort of gnawing feeling he can’t get rid of, and it starts the longer he gets to know Dipper and Mabel — he never really felt it before that. He absolutely misses Ford though. He can’t define that feeling either. I’ve said before that he looks at Dipper strangely, and that’s because Dipper reminds him of Ford in certain moments, eager for discovery!

He and Stan never really talk about it, but the have both acknowledged missing Ford before.

Bill’s response was vague though, not an ‘I miss him too’, but an ‘I think I do too.’ He isn’t sure what to make of that.

Bill Cipher doesn’t feel remorse, or miss people, he does everything with intention and he’s never made mistakes. Or, that’s what he’s meant to be. Maybe he has gone soft.

And Tidbits! I have a few! Not as many as usual, only because Arcane’s been taking up a bit of my brain space lately, but I hope these shall suffice anyhow:

(And quickly, thank you again, I think way too hard on all the small details and how Bill’s presence would have a knock on effect. It makes me happy to see it get noticed!)

— In the early days of Bill being trapped, Stan obviously doesn’t open the Mystery Shack, and ends up having to take a few odd jobs around town instead. He’s earned a bit of a reputation for being a decent handyman because of that, and even now, old timers of the town will still come to Stan if they need something fixing, especially cars. He complains about getting too old for it, but he never says no. Money is money! It’s also interesting to think about how the little things would impact his relationship with the townsfolk and how they view him. He’s always been Stanley to them. He’s never had to pretend otherwise.

— I’ve toyed around with making the Blind Eye a bigger threat than they are in canon, being as the kids would have no reason to look into Old Man McGucket. I’ve also toyed around with McGucket ending up slightly different to canon, his mind still broken, but his motivation different, with him being aware early on that the man he sees isn’t Ford, and is in fact the beast he fears and tried to erase from his mind. A more antagonistic Fiddleford who’s been trying to get rid of Bill for years now would actually be really fun? If I can make it work, and make the Blind Eye work in this way, I’ll lean into it! For now though, it’s just an idea I’m throwing around.

— Vague ‘episode’ idea that exists within my brain is Bill accidentally starting a mini cult again after telling some sort of lie that catches on, and it ends up being a Mabel-Bill bonding plot-line as she tries to convince him to just be honest before this whole cult thing gets taken too far. I also love the idea of Bill making a comment about this being like 1952 all over again. He makes comments like that all the time. Surely he’s just joking!

— Another vague ‘episode’ idea I have is Bill taking Dipper and Mabel to the supernatural underground market of Gravity Falls under Stan’s nose, trying to prove he’s the cooler Uncle, and that he can handle the two kids by himself. This goes about as well as you’d expect. Stan isn’t too happy to find out Bill got Dipper and Mabel in trouble, as he tried to get them to do more and more risky things.

— Bill will sometimes start speaking in Euclydian without realising, especially when it comes to cursing, and no one knows how he’s making those sounds with his mouth. Stan’s actually started picking up some of the meanings in context and can roughly gauge what Bill might be saying.

[ashesrebirthed-a]

"Only two years?" Easily distracted from heavier matters at hand, Ruby's interest - as well as her demeanor - perks up at that. "I can't imagine that. I've never even been out of town." Which was half of the cause of this rift to begin with. Every time she'd tried, something always seemed to get into the way. Granny's fault or not, it had Ruby nearly clawing at the walls to get out on her worst days.

Unfortunately, she's just as quick to deflate again. "I didn't start it." The answer is a petulant one, she knows - but she's so tired. Of being labeled a troublemaker, irresponsible, a slut; whatever else everyone thinks of her, Granny included. Of always being the one in the wrong, no matter what she tries. Still...

"Maybe you're right. Maybe she doesn't mean anything by it, not really. But, living with her - it's different than just knowing her, Emma. I've never had parents, only Granny, and she's harder on me than she is with anyone else. And I don't - I don't know what to do with that." Her voice trembles as she chances a glance back up, blinking back tears threatening to spill out. At least if they fall, she's already washed her makeup away - not that the thought is really all that much of a comfort. "I don't know what I ever did so wrong to make her like that."

❛ i think if anyone understands more than you can possibly imagine , it's me. i've rarely stayed in the same place. regina keeps using it against me. my longest stay was in tallahassee --- &* even then , that was only for two years. ❜ a huff of a laugh escapes the blonde as she looks away , towards the baby blanket draped on a kitchen chair. ❛ i always rented apartments that were already furnished. my longest commitment is probably to my car. never even had a pet because i felt too bad about traveling. ❜

emeralds drift back to ruby , roaming her face for a beat. ❛ there's nothing wrong with figuring yourself out. just ... maybe snapping at granny wasn't the right call , though. i know she means well. ❜

[casscainmainly]

Have you read the recent chapter of boy wonder? I feel like it ties nicely with what you were talking about recently like robin, the mantles relationship with poc and batman

Adding your second ask here: "And also robin as being able to be a symbol for the collective and community. Sorry for being so scatter brained I sent the other ask without completing my thoughts😭 I was really interested in how you'll react to the recent chapter and hearing your thoughts on it. I'm not really good at analysis but reading yours are always fun"

I'm really happy you sent this ask because I've been meaning to read The Boy Wonder for ages and I never got around to it, so this was the push I needed!

You're spot on that so much of issue #5 connects to what I was discussing in my Duke Thomas and the Robin Mantle post. In fact, Damian giving the R symbol to the would-be robber directly parallels Duke giving the symbol to Daryl:

The Boy Wonder #5 / Batman (2011) #45

In both, they view Robin as a connection to their families and to the wider Gotham community, as the grounds for both individual and societal change. And honestly this makes sense, given that Damian is the predecessor, both chronologically and spiritually, to Duke's Robin.

Damian as a character of color is fraught with difficulty. The set-up of his story invites a dichotomy between the evil, Asian, brown-skinned Talia and Ra's, and the kind and caring White Wayne family. Morrison's demonisation of Talia is symptomatic of this issue. This is something The Boy Wonder mentions, too; Ra's is aggrieved not only at Damian betraying him, but at Damian siding with a rich White man, the opposite of every ideal he was raised with.

But in The Boy Wonder and in canon, the dichotomy is not so simple. Boy Wonder has Damian acknowledge both his 'demon' and Bat sides, with the social movement aspect coming from his mother, not from Bruce. It's also important to anti-racist readings of his character, as well as a general understanding of Damian, that he did not need to learn compassion. He already had it - one of his earliest moments in Morrison's run is feeling devastated at failing to save Sasha. People saying Dick taught Damian to feel things are missing the point: Damian already felt things, and what he learned from Dick was how to process and use those feelings.

(It's also important that Damian's first Batman was Dick, the first Robin, and retroactively the first Robin of Colour.)

Damian as a character moves from the restricting, White-centric legacy of the Batman into the freeing, colourful legacy of Robin. Another parallel to Duke and We Are Robin:

The Boy Wonder #5 / We Are Robin #1

Robin has always stood for youth, but this notion of the future starts with Damian (as Bruce's heir) and flourishes in Duke (as one of Gotham's many heirs). They are the future, which means the future is a place of colour.

One thing I liked more in Boy Wonder than We Are Robin is that Damian starts the movement, whereas WAR has... Alfred (this is a bad move for many reasons but this post is too long already). Damian credits the core moral principle - wanting to change the world in a communal way - to Ra's and Talia, which shows that Damian's morals do not come from the Batfam. Once again, the Robin mantle is not only a connection to the Bat, but a connection to the wearer's original/other family, as it was for Dick and Duke.

In all three cases, the other family is a family of colour. This is why I think Dick works better when his Romani heritage is acknowledged; the Dick-Damian-Duke lineage is a nuanced exploration of the ways kids of Colour navigate the White world, in which Robin functions as a celebration of difference and a rebellion against assimilation. It's a progressive journey: Dick is White-passing and has mostly lost touch with his roots, Damian (ideally, when Talia is written right) equally loves both sides of his family, and Duke is unapologetically, unequivocally Black.

Which is why, though I enjoyed Boy Wonder overall, I'm extremely puzzled why Duke wasn't in it. Like, Damian just started We Are Robin!!! Why would you do WAR and not include WAR characters? Merle could've easily been Duke, and the comic would've been richer for it. (Also why is Babs here?? She says like two lines and is not part of the Robin legacy. Steph being Batgirl or Robin would've made more sense).

I can kind of understand Duke's omission (though this comic pulls so much from We Are Robin it feels like it owes Duke a cameo), but Dick's role was strangely small. It seems like Damian didn't start as Dick's Robin here, but that point is so essential to his character that once again I'm puzzled. There is so much more to be done with Dick, especially with the last issue being a meditation on the Robin legacy.

But it was still a fun read, and Damian is so adorable throughout I can't be mad at it. I hope this post makes up for how long it took me to get to this ask!!

[wetcatspellcaster]

Metapost: "The Ascendent"

**this is a meta for my fic, Pieces Still Stuck in Your Teeth, and NOT a discussion of the BG3 game canon in any way. If you try and make this into a disk-horse, I will BITE you**

(spoilers under the cut for Chapters 1-23 of Pieces Still Stuck in Your Teeth).

So... remember in the Chapter One endnote when I said I was a Spike/Buffy fan first, and a person second? x

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In more seriousness, there was a number of fictional seasonings/ingredients that went into creating what I felt was the villain of a Gothic horror, and what I felt could turn the Ascendent into something that was both 'fixable', and something I enjoyed writing.

Those ingredients were:

Spike and the idea of 'soulless' vampires in the BtVS canon - do I like this conceit of BtVS worldbuilding and how it's used in the show? No. I think it often underlines how bad Whedon is at writing romance. BUT I do think it gives Buffy this free pass for which vampires she can/can't like or adopt, and I needed some of that for my protagonist. I need a 'I can fix him' moment - BtVS has those in fucking SPADES.

Howl's Moving Castle (this one was accidental, I'm still mad at myself but I can't deny it's there) - man conducts magic ritual for power, removing an essential part of himself in the process that needs to be returned

Picture of Dorian Gray (the idea of an exterior staying pristine while something hidden suffers and decays)

Curse of Strahd (the soulless in Barovia, which I mentioned in Chapter 23)

The idea of default moral alignments in D&D. I have a whole chapter arguing against this in my thesis (mostly bc it's often applied to entire races) but I was fascinated by creating a set of circumstances where I feel like a default moral alignment is valid, actually. 7,000 deaths seems like a good set up. I wanted to imagine a being that was trapped within a default moral alignment, and the laws of its very being prevent it from being good no matter what it tries, and it knows that (this kind of creates a feedback loop with the Spike/Buffy stuff)

The parts of the BG3 canon I took and REMADE (I'm stressing this throughout, I was making a horror story and a horror monster your honour):

Astarion conducts the Rite of Profane Ascension with scars on his back, but has to scar Cazador's back personally, suggesting that um... the Rite REALLY SHOULDN'T BE CONDUCTED BY SOMEONE WHO'S GOT THOSE SCARS. Cazador wasn't going to do it that way, is all I'm saying!!

The idea that Ascended!Ending Astarion is a concentrated version of certain traits that have persisted throughout his story - his flirtiness, his understanding of sex as a mechanism and expression of power, his use of a façade as a mask for trauma he refuses to acknowledge.

The lines alluding to dissociation in the brothel foursome, post-Ascension.

The idea that Astarion seduced Tav to survive or protect himself- in my case, because I made the Ascendent empty save for Astarion's survival instinct, the idea that he would gravitate towards Tav as one of his default modes to potentially survive made sense to me - this is why it becomes an obsession.

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For me, when writing, the Ascendent is a few things:

An intensification of vampirism in a different, fucked-up direction. Yeah, A!Astarion, you can walk in sunlight and you can eat and drink and don't need blood. But you are still a hungering maw of emptiness that feels like it will never be whole or close and connected to the living - just now in a wildly different, metaphysical/existential direction! Welcome to depression, alienation, and otherness!

A soulless being, that knows it is soulless - that initially was very happy with its life but then as the years passed, increasingly spends its every waking moment knowing there is something innately wrong with it that it can't seem to shake, no matter how much it engages with life and all the pleasures of life. (see the 'every meal without savour' speech)

A magically literal metaphor for Astarion's dissociation in moments of extreme trauma, up to and including the fight with Cazador - essentially, the moments when there is nothing but a performance or an exterior, because the self/soul are suffering and they cant' come to phone right now

Astarion's survival instinct. As I say in Chapter 23 - Mephistopheles thinks it is an empty body, who's performance is trying to deny the reality of it's own existence. Rosalie, who has a bit more understanding of Astarion, sees that the performance is not just a coping mechanism but one of Astarion's main modes of survival. The Ascendent is Astarion's survival instinct/techniques for endurance, without any soul or person behind them to protect. This is how I tried to tie in the flirty, hypersexual persona and wrap it with a bow.

I wanted a monster that was undeniably scary, and monstrous to me (oh? you can't fit in or be happy no matter what you do and no matter how hard you try, and you think there's something intrinsically off? how's that autism diagnosis going Emma) but that I also felt sympathy and true sorrow for. I needed to have motivations for him chasing after Tav that I could write meaningfully from and sympathise with.

Not only has Astarion used Tav as a life-raft once before, they've also proven to be the most secure thing he's ever clung to. Of course a rabid survival instinct Astarion would become obsessed, and see them as a potential solution to the problem (this was then intensified by Rosalie also being a walking, overbearing moral compass, and having bound him in a contract in the first week of living, accidentally - a lawful good immoveable objects meets a default moral alignment unstoppable force.)

...Because I also wanted that moral alignment spice!! Wizards of the Coast, default moral alignment is fucked up actually!!! Imagine something trying so desperately to be good - literally being bound in a pact and having been told to be good - but the laws of the universe and its very essence are like "nah mate, we kind of want to destroy and annihilate everything, we're neutral evil personified". That's scary!! that's fucked up!! that's what a birth from 7000 deaths gets you!!!

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So, now for the actual timeline, for people who aren't interested in my silly musings but mostly just want answers lmfao.

Rosalie makes the decision not to intervene in Cazador's mansion, making it seem like she'll support whatever decision Astarion will make there.

Rite of Profane Ascension happens. Astarion conducts the ritual, rips his own soul from his body, the Ascendent is born with literally zero context. Mephistopheles is fucked in Cania, because a bunch of stuff has just gone wrong.

(oh, by the way, the Ascendent knows Infernal as a default language. Bc it's born from an Infernal rite.)

The Ascendent is now default neutral evil, and feeling some kind of way. Rosalie and him break up. He's supposed to have everything, but the one thing he thought was a done deal - his most stalwart suppporter - just rejected him.

Netherbrain defeat (the Ascendent is not invited. Imagine being an all-powerful, hypersexual survival instinct vampire, and your ex-girlfriend neither wants you for sex, nor your power.)

Rosalie accidentally binds the Ascendent (a soulless devil) in a pact demanding that he never kill anyone, when that's literally what the Ascendent's new existence/new default moral alignment is driving him to do. Then, she fucks off and goes into hiding.

Well. The Ascendent can just get another wizard, to help him learn all of Cazador's secrets to cope [Hemlock is recruited].

The years go by! The Ascendent is doing sooooo well. Everything is great, guys! I'm rich, I'm beautiful, I have lavish parties and lots of sex - why do I feel nothing? I'm a vampire perfected - I have no hunger for blood, I can walk in the sun, I can enjoy all the freedoms of a living, breathing man - why do I feel like I'm starving? Why does everything turn to ashes in my mouth? I have friends - oops, I've sabotaged all those friendships with my innate neutral evil destruction. Why can't I feel anything? What's wrong with me? I'm doing everything right? Why doesn't it feel that way?

Also, I can't kill anything to feel better about it, because my hidden ex-girlfriend bound me in a pact.

In this time, to reflect the gradual degradation of the Ascendent's happiness and it's increasing awareness that it is something Other and innately wrong, the reflection starts going weird. Starts going strange. Starts getting a bit fucked up. Almost as if, when he looks in the mirror and sees a person, *nothing* should be what's there. Imagine being a spawn who couldn't see your reflection, and then a vampire who could see it's reflection, but knows that they're innately empty. Knows there's nothing there. I'd freak out a little bit about it as well tbh, I'd go a bit tooth and claw and elongated jaw about it.

The Ascendent finally admits that's there must be something kinda fucked about it. Life just ain't working out, lads. He starts looking for any and all impossible cures that will help with the malaise in his soul (and that innate essence problem, caused by default moral alignment). These include: more bad decisions, such as a house in Cania bc the Ascendent is hoping he'll feel more at home with devils than he does with mortals. All it does is make him feel more isolated and alone.

But eventually, he settles on two things! - Wish (Hemlock's idea), and Rosalie (the Ascendent's idea). Clearly, we just need Rosalie back! Her leaving is actually what fucked him up in the first place - none of this existential bullshit! She fixed us one, she can fix us again.

But looking for Rosalie hasn't worked out. In order to get a shot at her, the Ascendent goes and bargains for his own soul from Mephistopheles. Mephistopheles, adding a new sheet in excel titled 'what the fuck happens when i give this soulless monster a soul to play with?', agrees and starts tracking his new data.

Obviously, just putting the soul back in yourself will fix you. But the Ascendent, the nothingness living inside Astarion's body, will die. Taking the soul back would erase itself. The Ascendent - who is survival instinct personified - would never do this.

So instead, it starts interviewing and cannibalising the soul. Bc a soul is what it needs, this is the closest it's ever felt to being alive. Bc it's made this all about Rosalie, he thinks he's found his solution. The chase is making him feel alive again. It's true love, lads! not the soul.

Wish auction happens - the Ascendent is beaten to the punch by some unknown (hot) wizard.

This avenue cut off, the Ascendent makes the decision to try and win Rosalie back.

Astarion advises that to make her come back to the Gate, he should murder a bunch of people. Because this comes from the soul, not the soulless devil nothingness, it circumvents the pact.

...The events of Pieces begin!

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And finally - the Ascendent tries to destroy Jar!Starion for many reasons in Chapter 19:

The Ascendent knows that it dies, if the soul and the body get reunited (or is that constant high alert survival instinct just no longer needed, because the problem is fixed? you decide.)

The Ascendent values Tav above itself. Tav is going to fix them. Astarion believes he could never fix himself.

Dissociation - that soul isn't me. I'm here, looking at my soul. If I get too close, it'll kill me.

Self-hatred - that soul isn't me. That man made a mistake, and I've had to live with the consequences. He doesn't deserve to live, for what he's made me become.

The knowledge that Rosalie/Tav will only ever want that version of him, not the one that's living and breathing, that sees itself as the most wretched, fucked-up version of itself. So... give them no choice. They have to deal with me and love me at my worst.

And if the Rite didn't work - if the version of the Ascendent walking around isn't the best one, and the one people want... what was it all for? Why does the Ascendent feel like this? Why does it have to suffer?

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....And, that's my little meta post! If anyone has any questions about the timeline or any motivations at any points in the fic, I'm obviously more than happy to explain things via ask/comment, as always!

TLDR: I just wanted to make a Gothic horror. I wanted a dark romance, fucked up obsession vampire/mortal dynamic, but I also wanted a situation that was scary for both Astarion and my Tav. I personally think an Astarion who is so dissociated and separate from reality that he feels that in his bones daily, is scary. It's the lingering impact of the traumas the Rite and those 7,000 souls embodied.

I was literally just trying to make it a horror, for everyone involved.

[officialbruciewayne]

Under Alleytown

Summary: Bruce's Events of the Last Few Hours of Drama

Please mind these content warnings and stay safe:

Canon-typical violence

Minor Unsafe Medical Procedure

Forced but non-sexual nudity

Intimacy Coercion (Joker)

Gotham, Bruce thought. Holding onto that one, brilliant clear thought in the fugue state Wilson had left his head in. I am still in Gotham.

He couldn't be completely certain. The false Batman he had held his ground against- a barely trained, but Lazarus touched bulk of muscle and rage - but Ra's apparent heir, the meticulously trained and fiercely intelligent, Altair tipped the scales. All too much like Tim, Bruce acknowledged as he was driven down and still and finally, into that smoke-streaked limbo between alert and not conscious anymore.

He tried to count the turns. Restraints blunted through his armor. Pain a throbbing storm that ran down his temples into the ocean of his body. Captured glimpses of where he was being brought. Struggling to name this particular part of the city, but recognizing it.

Gotham, he repeated, as he was brought into a terrace house that would probably fall down in a gust of wind. And then. Shining and clear. Alleytown.

Except. Here was the thing.

When exactly had there been a Lazarus lake beneath Gotham's Eastern Boroughs?

Not a pit. A chasm. The seething green being fed and fattened with green-rusting pipes. An underground, cavernous lake. Dread gnawed in his gut as he was shoved past the lake- usually such primordial places, not this... this industrialism?

But he remembered it. Acknowledged the immensity of the cavern, hollowed below Alleytown. Ready to make his report when he got loose-

And he would get loose. He had to get loose. His kids were out there. Dickie was out there. Facing down Slade Wilson who had been both obsession and obsessed. Nemeses were tricky things. And Ra's was involved, Ra's was involved in this.

He was needed. His city needed him, his children, the boy in the concrete box who had done nothing wrong except be a Robin in another universe.

This intel was crucial, but Bruce couldn't stay here. He would tear himself to pieces to escape.

Ra's was a cautious opponent, a few centuries of your own machinations built a healthy suspicion, so Bruce was unsurprised to be stripped. His belt (and pockets, and hidden pockets, and hidden batarangs, and the collapsible sword) had been removed from his person as soon as he'd been contained. What surprised him was that he was not being offered an ostentatious robe, and possibly even Arak, before Ra's deigned to speak with him.

Instead, Bruce was showered down in a tiled room that was stark. Freezing water making his teeth grit, and thoroughly inspected for sub-epidermal trackers- which were removed to confirm their deactivation. A process he 'enjoyed' without anesthetic.

And Ra's never showed himself.

The Joker did, freshly sane from the Lazarus pools- Bruce was beginning to suspect the large one was being fed by a number of sources, though again... questions. He'd been brought by a hooded figure- but one Bruce could now place as Altair -and left with Bruce in the tiled room.

The Joker was not a pleasant companion. All smiles and taunts and guilt peeking through now and then, frustration. Sanity didn't really endear him to Bruce, but he could at least understand. And with little left to hope for, he'd asked, voice raw and honest:

"Help me and let me go," asking with all he had, pride eating a hole inside him, "work with me, Joker."

Jaybird. Jaybird. He was working with the Joker.

"Why should I?"

"...because it's me asking."

Don't think about what that means. Don't think-

"Can I get a kiss?"

Nausea erupted bright and scalding in Bruce's stomach. The drop in his gut. Disgust folded itself away with the shock, and Bruce weighted his options.

Jaybird. The Joker's harassing him in laughs, echoes, a shadow of himself burying a fist in Bruce's gut mid-fight. Jay.

"...yes."

He had to get to the boy in the concrete box, Jay's son. To Dick, suspended like a bird on a string. Tim with his dangerous and potentially obsessive alter-ego. The League's long claws reaching for Damian. The Joker shooting darling Babs, beating Bruce's son to death. The wide breadth of the Lazarus waters he had seen.

He had to.

"Eh, your lips are kinda crusty… No thanks."

Bruce loathed the deep disappointment that bubbled up. The noxious seethe of it. He was still trapped here.

[aingeal98]

Thinking again about the al Ghuls and how DC deliberately tanked it's own writing to turn them into ooc cartoony villains because the anti Arab racism post 9/11 was just too potent for them to resist. You take a villain whos love for his family is one of his core characterisations, he's sexist and evil and runs a cult but he forgives his daughter every time she betrays him to help Batman. He lost his godson fighting nazis in world war two, he wants Batman to be his heir, to be family. Because he respects Batman's mind.

And DC looks at this and gives him a Jewish daughter who Ra's left to die in a concentration camp because in Death and the Maidens he found the Nazis to be useful allies. Nazis, who not even Joker would team up with. Who Ra's had talked about fighting against in older continuity. Whoever came up with that plotline needs to never work in comics again.

Nyssa tortures Talia into insanity and turns her into a willing member of the LoA who believes in Ra's vision for the future. Because it wasn't bad enough to assassinate Ra's, every single Asian character in DC had to be one dimensional racist evil villains. It's no coincidence this was the time period they tried to make Cass Cain evil too.

In Cass's case, the backlash to the awful writing forced them to retcon it. In the al Ghul's case, Morrison used it for Damian's story as if evil Talia and evil Ra's who didn't care about his family at all were always canon, and not just a disgusting racist retcon. And now it's the go to characterisation for them. Talia drugging Batman is still what a lot of dc fans assume is canon, even though it was retconned. And there was no reason for it to exist in the first place other than racism.

For DC to actually fix the al Ghuls, they'd have to acknowledge that Talia was brainwashed into being evil, and come up with some retcon for Ra's oocness. The Lazarus Pit is right there as an excuse. Robin Son of Batman managed it with Talia.

But instead DC seems to be working off the impression that their shitty writing for the past 15 years was the character's natural state. It's why "holding Talia accountable for her crimes" doesn't work any better than holding Cass accountable for all the terrible things she did during the garbage evil era.

DC needs to hold itself accountable instead of the characters. More of Ra's Talia and Damian bonding. Ra's runs a cult he is not a good person and it's a good thing that Damian got out but if you can't show that without relying on racist stereotypes and 00s character assassination then why are you even a writer lol. More clarification that what the Ra's and Talia did was not in character for them. Less "I helped torture baby Damian as part of his training but I felt really sad about it." That's never been what gave the al Ghuls their complexity.

Basically, stop trying to add nuance to the racist post 9/11 al Ghul characterisation and just give us back LexCorp era Talia and pre DATM Ra's. You're one of the top two comic book brands in the industry surely you can find someone who can make Damian's backstory work without destroying the rest of his family in the process.

[teaspoonnebula]

Hullo, I am so sorry if this ask is a weird one but. You are in the fandom for a long time, and I need to know, is it me or is the ACD SH fandom *not* insane?? Everywhere else where I've been, I see people turning on each other, fighting over characters and the morality of liking them and not liking them, telling people to go kill themselves and here. I have been in this corner of Tumblr for a few months now, and everybody seems normal? Am I just not deep enough yet to sew the drama, or is this really just a place where people hang out to enjoy something together??? Are we just too old of a fandom to do this?

(feel free not to answer if this is too weird or anything)

Sorry my reply got really long. I've broken it up with memes in the hope that it makes it more readable.

I've been in the fandom for a few years now, and I don't have much to compare against because I've generally avoided fandom spaces because they seem pretty intense (and I've not had a piece of media grab me quite like this before) but yeah it seems pretty chill?

I think there are lots of possible reasons why.

It might be that the fandom skews a little older, with lots of people who have enough life experience to know how to de-escalate tension when they encounter it, and when to walk away from the keyboard.

It might be that there's a century-old understanding that we're all playing a silly tongue-in-cheek game with characters from magazine stories that were never supposed to be analysed this way. Remember the term "canon" as used in fandom circles was invented by Sherlock Holmes fans (specifically my boy Ronald Knox) as a joke, a deliberate cute misapplication of a term used for discussing the Bible to something frivolous. Not taking yourself too seriously is very baked into Sherlockian culture.

I sometimes get glimpses from other fandoms of this puritanical attitude that to like or not like a character or a piece of work is somehow a moral act, and I find that... bewildering. A bit scary. To be a fan of Sherlock Holmes is inherently to love something dearly which also contains things which should be hated: racism, sexism, imperialism. I think that fans tend to be people well used to approaching literature with the level of nuance required to process that dichotomy. To acknowledge it rather than hide from it.

It might also be because it's public domain. A big blockbuster movie or pastiche by a celebrated writer is precisely as legitimate as every fanfic on Ao3. Or the CGI movie where they're gnomes. Or a slightly wonky point and click game someone is obsessively making in their spare time (...coughcougheveryonewishlist 'The Beekeepers' Picnic' onsteam) Sherlock Holmes belongs to everyone equally regardless of how much money and power they have, which is why I love it.

Like, I love him as a character, I love the Victoriana, I love the mysteries, but the #1 reason I've gone gaga over Sherlock Holmes these past few years is the joy of loving a thing which isn't controlled by a corporation and which does not exist to make money (anymore).

I'm not saying there's zero drama because I think when you get a bunch of people passionate about something there will always be a little drama. I'll see things like the jostling of people who are very protective of asexual readings of Holmes and people who are very protective of gay readings of Holmes, things like that. Feelings can run high when personal identity is involved. But I've never seen anything got too vicious.

Errrr yeah idk if you wanted an essay as a response but you got one!

[rainboneish]

i see some people on tiktok and twitter acting like gojo not getting memorialized is the only logical conclusion to his arc to either

1) symbolize how no one really understood him and/or could reach him or

2) he shouldn’t be an exception and no other sorcerer got a funeral/memorial either, that’s just how sorcerer society is

and while i firmly believe there is no objectively correct way to end a story, the attitude some of those fans are showing trying to act like everyone who wanted something different is less media literate than they are is annoying me so time to bring up reasonable counters to those arguments:

on 1): complete understanding isn’t a prerequisite for affection and/or grief. Multiple characters (Yuji, Yuta and Shoko at the very least) are shown to have some amount of care for him and them wanting to lay his body to rest, or at least offhandedly mentioning that it was done does not contradict their lack of complete understanding of him in any way. Yuji himself says that he will never forget Gojo (Yuji is also arguably the only character really given closure about Gojo’s death in the story through that flashback (with the exception of Satoru Gojo (hehe see what i did there) and the other deceased characters in 236)

In fact, one could argue that them not fully understanding that Gojo wanted everyone to move on from him and “forget” him would have been reinforced by them grieving him

(I don’t personally think that them processing his loss in a healthy way (read, all the studies about how funerary rites are important to a healthy grieving process) would be contradictory to his wish but since people want to argue that that’s why it was done i think it’s fair to bring up the counter)

on 2) this could easily be solved by having the characters honor all of the recently deceased. (Nanami, Yuki, Choso (what better way to mark him accepting his human side like Yuki told him to)) People keep bringing up how none of the sorcerers got a funeral (as well as Todo’s speech in Shibuya about how they live in through their comrades) and while that is correct (in fact, Todo’s speech represents the whole reason why the last couple chapters are named after Gojo’s dream of a reformed jujutsu society, a dream that his students are now carrying out for him, one of the main issues with traditional jujutsu society (and consequently one of the reasons that lead do Geto’s defection and the formation of Gojo’s dream) is the fact that sorcerer lives are treated as expendable, the fact that sorcerers aren’t given the time and support they need to process the trauma they are put through on their missions.

Part of letting the kids experience their youth is also giving them healthy coping mechanisms and while i am not someone who believes that every character needs a “therapy” ending (hence why i’ve been yelling about not wanting Gojo (who is satisfied with his own death and afterlife) to come back to life to un-learn all of his unhealthy coping mechanisms and his (partially self imposed) isolation as the strongest) i do think getting time to acknowledge and process their losses is part of that.

(Looking at Megumi especially, he might have kept distance between himself and Gojo, and fanon portrayal of their relationship often makes it deeper than it is in canon, but Gojo was still the most consistent adult mentor figure he had in his life, and he experienced Sukuna killing him with his body, a letter isn’t gonna cut it i’m afraid… Megumi’s character arc in general is one people are criticizing and i do to some degree agree that while him freeing himself from Tsumiki specifically being his sole motivation is something, him immediately finding new people (Yuji and Hana, the latter for guilt reasons) to base his reason for living on is a bit… but that’s part of characters not needing to have a perfect therapy ending i guess…

people like to bring up that Nanami, who has been dead for a while now, was also never shown getting a funeral but characters were shown processing his death once the fight was over, both through the conversation between Gojo, Shoko and Ijichi and through Ino requesting and using his weapon in the fight against Sukuna. Yaga’s death was also discussed between Gojo and Gakuganji (changing his conservative outlook) as well as as a motivator for Kusakabe

While Yuji was definitely shown processing Gojo’s death (in chapter 265 and 271) the characters i personally would have liked to see processing/commenting on Gojo’s death the most are Yuta and Shoko,

Yuta for “i will share the mantle of becoming a Monster to take some of the load of Gojo-sensei” reasons (all this talk about how concerned everyone was about what it would mean for his humanity to have to take over Gojo’s body and then we don’t get a single panel about how he actually felt about it after the fact)

and Shoko because we get all these glimpses of her caring about him in her own way (most notably the “i was there too, wasn’t i” moment as well as her stress smoking during his fight against Sukuna, and in a way still being his closest and oldest confidant, even if they never connected the way he did with geto (hence why he felt comfortable leaving the letters for Nobara and Megumi to her, as well as being the reason why he was a little miffed at her lack of reaction to the body-switching plan). Shoko isn’t an emotional character, she is very desensitized to the death and injury of people around her, but the scene by Tsumiki’s grave and her comment about Geto’s body confirms that she (to some degree) considers it an honor and a privilege to be able to give them post-mortem care. I never wanted a scene of her crying over his body or anything, but a scene of her standing by his grave (which could have been inserted between the Tsumiki grave scene and the panel of her throwing away her cigarettes) would have done enough for me.

People like to make fun of everyone asking for a funeral by saying “sorry y’all didn’t get a ten page funeral with everyone crying about Gojo”, but personally i would have been happy with a single panel showing his grave/ossuary with an epitaph (possibly the same for Geto so we finally get confirmation that Gojo’s (and the Hasaba twins’) wish of having his body put to rest was fulfilled, especially after those panels in 270 sowed more doubts), maybe a couple extra panels of the characters i mentioned earlier

also not to be extra brain rotten stsg but Gojo being put to rest in a way where he is with suguru (Shoko being the person most likely to make those arrangements for both of them and also being the person who knew how much they meant to eachother the best) or him being memorialized together with everyone else who fell in those past couple months would symbolize that while he might have been lonely in life, he is not lonely in death (just like he wasn’t lonely anymore in the airport scene in 236)

what i haven’t seen people bring up much is that sorcerers as a whole are said not to be religious. Despite the heavy buddhist themes in the story, sorcerer society as a whole is described as secular, something pointed out by the chairman of the star religious group. On the world building front i think it would have been interesting to know how they process their dead, past the general vague description of “shoko handling bodies” and “having to make sure the body can’t be misused/the sorcerer won’t turn into a curse after death”. Maybe that’s my little goth heart but i really would have liked to know, we see people end up in the morgue but no one really knows what happens after that. Maybe everyone (whose body can be recovered) is cremated and disposed of in some unknown location (Greek cemeteries have “bone digesters”, big pits where bones are put if the family doesn’t rent an ossuary/claim the remains after the lease on the grave plot is up, maybe it’s something like that), maybe there are ossuaries like the one pictured in the Shibuya OP (it’s still unclear to me how much input Gege had in those), maybe the cremated remains are given back to the family on a case by case basis (especially for people from non-sorcerer families who might have religious beliefs). Either way, it’s something i think would have been interesting to know, plus lack of big funerary rites doesn’t really mean the characters can’t think of/mention their deceased comrades.

now i’m not saying everyone who has a different opinion on this is wrong, again, that’s not the approach i like to bring to media analysis/commentary, in fact this whole rant is prompted by my distaste for people doing that, but that is what i personally would have liked to see to call this a 10/10 ending for ME

[jackwhiteprophetic]

Hello ! Hope I'm not bothering you but I just wanted to share something you can ignore it if you want. It's regarding buddie, a lot of people (and rightfully so) have been scared and frustrated that we didn't get at least a smidge of hint towards canon, but I think they can't ever give us that because if they even hint it as there is no going back it would be like a train going full speed and breaking down everything in it's path. Everyone will know this is it no stopping and im pretty sure if (when) they do buddie they either gonna use a full season to build it or surprise us in the best way possible. So while I was also sad and frustrated I'm holding on to that.

Sorry I saw a lot of people thinking since we didn't get a hint it was doomed and with all the drama and all the hurt in the fandom as of late I wanted to share a but of light :)

Have a wonderful Sunday and thank you for being you :)

Thank you so much!!! This is such lovely message and don't apologise for 'bothering me' with anything or sharing your opinions ever!!! Even if I disagreed with you you are allowed to have a voice and discuss things with people, I'm sorry that sometimes these spaces can be hostile.

I COMPLETELY agree with you, I didn't really think they would do buddie canon this season or ever before S7, and now it feels wayyy closer than it's ever been. We barely got hints for bi buck (in a canonical and acknowledged way, like in interviews and stuff. I mean we have had bi buck hints for seasons but that didn't mean they were going to canonise it).

Sometimes I have to step back and look at what was done this season:

- Buck was confirmed to be bisexual

- it was established that Buck's main concern with having kissed a man was what Eddie would think, and what it would mean for them, and that Eddie and Chris are more important to Buck than other romantic interests

- Buck and Eddie were all over each other when drunk and Buck ripped off Eddie's shirt and they danced with drag queens and dressed as a queer coded couple, and argued over who was Crockett, the heavily bi coded character (if I remember correctly?)

- the Buckley parents AND Diaz parents are aware of Buck and Eddie's closeness

- Eddie goes to Buck with problems with Chris, relationship problems, and Eddie corrects Buck when he is self-deprecating

- Eddie and Buck do karaoke together in a Madney centred episode.

- OS confirmed in an interview that Buck was probably attracted to Eddie in 2x01.

- Maddie is massively aware of Buck's confusion about Eddie, and how important they are to each other.

- Eddie calls Buck when he can't communicate with Chris. Or when he thinks Buck can be something for Chris that Eddie can't, but he's not threatened by it. This is a cyclical plot in the season, so it's been massively highlighted to the GA.

- Eddie is self-destructive and Buck stays.

- more metaphors through lasagne, kitchens, doors.

- Eddie has not processed his relationship with Shannon and has to evaluate who he is without Chris and the Diaz parents now, who represent Eddie having built himself into a person for his family and who he's expected to be, rather than who he wants to be.

- Eddie's inability to recognise how shit he is at dating women is literally damaging his soul.

- Eddie knows can't have Shannon back, he can't get another version of Shannon, he has to stop hiding in the shadow of a life he never had

- Bobby/Eddie parallels are heavily shown, and we had Athena/Buck parallels in 704, when both of them had to explore their identity and commitments to the people around them.

Not sure if this is all coherent sorry but I hope some of it makes sense!!! Tysm for your message, have a great day!!!

[the-unconquered-queen]

With Blades 2 coming to an end, I just wanna get it off my chest that I'm really not a fan of how they wrote Nia for a great part of this one, particularly vis-à-vis the way they wrote MC. I know I've been saying some stuff along those lines for ages now, but it hasn't left my mind so now I'm gonna actually get into it.

For starters, I think a lot of the issue with Nia's writing was captured pretty well in the tags of this post, particularly on point 2. Like I've said, Nia unfortunately falls into the category of a Mary Sue in that every "flaw" she's given just serves to elevate her to perfection. Hell, even when corrupted—when a person is supposed to be in their most volatile state—the worst she does is be snarky that first chapter (she is aggressive toward MC at one point before this, but it's neither acknowledged nor repeated later). After that, she is entirely normal, just not as much of a pushover, and while I much preferred shadow!Nia, I do think that this really undermines the whole gravity of corruption and b2's emphasis on shadow-light balance, since shadow!Nia comes off as quite balanced already, especially compared to other corrupted characters we've seen.

But here's the thing, that post that got me thinking is months old, and we have gotten more story since then, and what I have noticed is that Nia does, in fact, have one real flaw in canon, but it's the one flaw she's absolutely not meant to have: Nia in canon can at times come off as self-absorbed. She either makes things about herself or doesn't stop people from doing this, and there are multiple examples of it. There is the instance in Riverbend when MC is taking a moment to finally try to process Kade's capture (which, following their own capture, they never got the chance to process) and Nia derails the conversation and makes it about her own grief and is comforted by MC and Mal. Another example is the moment on Gerhard's ship when she vents about the pressure she's been under and lets MC comfort her without at any point considering that MC might have been under similar pressure.

And don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with a character putting themselves first. But when the book doesn't waste a single chance to tell us that Nia's character is the complete opposite and that she is chronically incapable of not being considerate 25/8, it's quite contradictory. I mean, you can even call out Ethan Ramsey, PB's golden boy, on making things about himself at some point in OH, but because, unlike Ethan, Nia is written for you to consider her super sweet and wholesome and perfect, the Blades MC actually contributes to this by performing mental gymnastics to turn something around to be about Nia.

Which brings me to my final point: Blades 2 pushed MC to the side to revolve around Nia, but MC is exactly the person they meant for Nia to be, by virtue of the dissonance between showing and telling. They tell you that Nia is selfless because she always puts everyone else first. Well, I can and did name examples showing the contrary, meanwhile, MC is the one who was been through the most traumatic ordeal and is constantly checking in on everyone else without expecting and without receiving much of the same courtesy in return, even apologizing to Nia because she was "carrying all that weight on her own", never mind that MC always has the weight of the world on their shoulders. They tell you that Nia is the heart of the party, but they both told and showed us that everything fell apart without MC.

Even some of Nia's most defining character traits, MC has in similar measure. Nia sees the best in everyone? MC can be the #1 believer in Aerin's redemption after all the shit he pulled. Nia is trusting to the point of naivete? MC literally trusted Valax while she outright told them at every turn she would turn on them at the first opportunity, and was genuinely hurt by the betrayal. Miss me with MC calling Nia "our better self".

Every trait that they've gone out of their way to tell you Nia has they've shown twofold in MC, which is why it's so exasperating to me that they reduced MC to the conduct through which other characters' (particularly Nia's) stories get told while their own is an afterthought. I am by no means saying that two people can't have similar traits or that two people can't be good people at the same time, but there is something about praising these traits in Nia when, based on these, MC should be held to a similar standard. Instead, they relegated MC (main. character.) to a supporting character in Nia's story, elevating every trait that MC possesses only in Nia while ignoring them in MC to the point that many scenes felt frustrating to play.

[raleighrador]

There is no real Star Wars, it is all real Star Wars

I have never much cared for debates over what "real" Star Wars is.

I don't particularly care what George Lucas (or any author) intended or what he (or anyone else) has said in interviews.

I think this is because I got into Star Wars when I was a literal child and the thought of reading reviews or watching interviews didn't occur to me until I was in way too deep; and I was always a huge fan of the EU - I quite literally read every single published novel - and enjoyed them just as much as the movies.

So for me Star Wars always went beyond some kind of narrow "canon" and was always inclusive of basically whatever published (slop or otherwise) material I could get my hands on.

I have also always been very comfortable picking and choosing what I enjoy and care about. I have no issue with a book or move being bad/not to my taste/not in line with my preferred interpretation and just... not really caring about it.

Any long running & expansive fictional series will inevitably throw up mixed quality and contradictions. Even with a single author. The good thing is literally none of it is real so who cares.

In fact this gives readers/consumers a lot of freedom. We are under no obligation to engage with all of it or try and build some kind of perfectly synthesised "correct" interpretation that takes into account absolutely everything that has ever been portrayed.

No one (despite what it sometimes feels like) is marking your homework. There is no pass or fail. You can't enjoy something incorrectly.

How fandom - and I have in the last few weeks been far more active on Tumblr, the only social media site I post on - interacts with Star Wars does bizarrely feel like some kind of peer reviewed pseudo academic process.

However, it feels like a peer reviewed pseudo academic process which - and this sounds unbearably arrogant so please forgive me - is envisaged by people who have limited experience of how academia treats textual studies.

My majors were history and literature (and I went to Universities in the Global South that were VERY dubious of the distinction between those two). Literally none of the academics I studied under believed in some kind of single correct interpretation of any text.

Any text. Fictional or historical.

So why would the most massive science fiction IP in history that has been consumed by billions of people, which is the aggregate effort of dozens or hundreds of people lend itself to some kind of single correct interpretation?

In fact kind of a big part of academic textual studies is deliberately re interpreting texts through multiple lenses and logics. Just to see if you can. Just to see if it fits.

Historiography is a necessary element of any historical study & you could argue the same is true for fictional texts. We should definitely keep authors biases and intentions in mind when engaging with a text.

But we do not, and cannot, know the inside of their minds. The idea that even what they say in interviews is somehow a perfect articulation of their "true" intention is flawed.

To whit - if you believe an author perfectly expressed the definitive articulation of an idea in an interview (a spoken format where even if they knew the questions before hand they are giving their answer somewhat off the cuff), why do you NOT believe that a movie script or novel manuscript that they have worked and reworked and edited and proof read and reedited and redrafted for hundreds of hours is any less perfect an articulation of an idea?

So all we can do is acknowledge what we think we know of the author and decided if we care and how much weight to give it.

But the text is the text and the evidence is the evidence. We can weight it differently or dismiss it or whatever we want but ultimately we either believe the text itself has independent value or what are we doing here?

We seem committed to prioritising textual evidence over historiographical evidence otherwise we are in a self defeating exercise. We need not watch the movie, we need only watch cast interviews. We need not read books, we need only read the author's blog.

There would be no viable interpretations of Beowulf because we can't speak to the author.

It defeats the very idea of ideas - that they are independent, transmissible, intelligible, far beyond the reach or remit of the people who had them.

Some are good, some are bad, all are out there, and we can pick and choose as we wish.

So do so.

[sepublic]

Writers’ Post-Hoot!

            As the title suggests, we just had a Post-Hoot with multiple writers from the show! Those present included John Bailey Owen, Cissy Jones (Lilith), Sarah Nicole-Robles (Luz), Rebecca Bozza (ItsRebeccaRose), Mikki Crisostomo, Madeleine Hernandez, Zarch Marcus, Avi Roque (Raine), with Zelda Black as our cameraman! I took notes, including on some cancelled storylines involving characters such as Vee, Odalia, Edric, Eda, and Hooty!

         Firstly, Zach Marcus has been writing on the show since the developmental pilot. It was confirmed Barcus was not based on him (unlike Jerbo for JBO), but he did say Barcus was ‘his’ character. I believe it was confirmed that Kikimora’s alias Miki was a reference to writer Mikki Crisostomo, and we also learned that The First Day had to be rewritten within a day! Mikki revealed she got hired for the show because she wrote a violent sample script in which someone had their rib cage kicked out, which convinced Dana she had to be on TOH!

         The development pilot is very different from the show according to Zach; It had the classic blood smear moment (in which Luz draws herself and Amity together, gets a paper cut, and uses her blood to simulate a blush as improv), and alas will never be released. JBO also said there are three poems in the show that the fandom hasn’t found yet…?!

         Dana was watching and commented a few times, such as when Avi, Cissy, and Sarah were doing the classic “Then why were you so easy to curse?!” line, commenting “Legendary Cissy line”.

         In regards to cut Season 3 storylines, Zach mentioned that there are so many versions of Thanks to Them that they went through (Dana gave a comment giving approval for them to speak on concepts). He revealed there was a version where the kids would’ve piloted Abomaton mechs in the desert…?!

         (I wonder if this is related to Kikimora, who pilots an Abomaton herself and comes from the desert of Palm Stings. Would Amity have helped in the creation?)

         Mikki also revealed Hooty was a Big Bad at one point in the writing process?! He’d have had as many legs as rib bones, poking through, as well as smoke.

         Huntlow was acknowledged as a major goal by Mikki and Madeleine (who kept asking why can’t they be happy???), and Zach joked that Huntlow wasn’t canon but c’mon. We can thank Mikki for writing the haircut that Willow gave Hunter!!!

         Dana was glad to keep the Star Trek reference, since so many crew members are Trekkies. Emmy also alluded to a ‘bog setting’ where the kids fought ‘bog bodies’… Unfortunately, her internet connection wasn’t so great so she cut out a bit and I couldn’t make out everything. But does this mean Belos would’ve reanimated corpses in the graveyard for the kids to fight?! Or the Grimwalkers?!

         JBO liked doing Luz in the human realm, as it was a different vibe than usual; More melancholy but also creepy. He wanted to explore the idea of what if a kid DID go to Narnia, and how that would affect them afterwards, and he’s happy with how it turned out… Same JBO, same.

         Emmy revealed there was also going to be a storyline where Vee was uncomfortable with having Hunter in the house!!!

         Sarah mentioned a question in the chat about the other coven heads, which could’ve been my question actually… JBO says that there was a lot they wanted to do with them, he really likes Hettie in particular. He considered exploring what Darius did to achieve his Abomination transform, speculating it’d probably take a dark sacrifice to do that. In general they wanted to see the coven heads plot with and try to kill each other; Lots of intercoven drama according to Zach.

         Zach also praised those who designed the coven heads; He lamented how designers often visualize concepts submitted by writers as so much cooler than the writers think they can do justice when writing, once they receive them back.

         Zach Marcus was described as the pun man of the writers, and when asked about what Darius’ Penstagram, they all agreed upon Goo Daddy. He was torn between Darius being a luddite, or nonstop posting what he eats, with a reflection of him in something. The writers discussed stuff like a Darius skincare routine, and him getting up every morning like a Disney Princess with animals, except they’re Abominations (fanartists were encouraged to depict this).

         JBO said he would’ve liked to see more of young Terra, Zach wanted to see more of her and Faust! As a reminder, a previous Post-Hoot had him put forth the idea that they were exes until they messily broke up and Terra tore off Faust’s lips and kicked him out, hence him living at Hexside and being so strict as a means of regaining a sense of control in his life.

         Zach also joked about everyone dying in the original Season 3 plans, but they allegedly changed it to a happy ending because the pandemic meant people needed something uplifting! They were barely in the exploration for S3 when they received news of the shortening.

         They joked about Barcus episodes, and also made a point about limitations actually being pretty good for writing, as it encourages writers to cut out the fat and leave the most essential bits. They said it was fun seeing Dana write on spite, and she thinks about a lot of the stuff they do for the story as the mastermind.

         Zach revealed him and Dana disagree on Mattholomule’s name, with Zach insisting it’s Mattholomule; His only compromise is saying his last name is also Tholomule… So Mattholomule Tholomule canon??? Zach also wanted a character named Corvus.

         Eda was a ‘horn dog’ in OG scripts for TOH, breaking hearts and all that. There was an episode with a B-plot in which Eda went on a date with playboy merchant, just so she could get a deal on crow heads, but Disney didn’t want a ‘horny old lady’. Dana commented that it was jut Eda on a date, but Disney was being weird about it.

         The writers also mentioned that they considered ‘Mom Tholomule’ and ‘Dad Tholomule’ in what they called the racing episode (I presume Eda’s Requiem’s B-plot), and they planned Steve and Mattholomule being brothers from S1! Zach joked that if the Tholomule parents showed up, they’d have taken attention from everything, with fans losing interest for Lumity, Raeda, and Huntlow in favor of them.

         They brought up their weirdest failed episodes, such as a race (which might be what they meant regarding the Tholomule parents) as well as an episode where Eda and Odalia had beef. It’d have been based on the Rats! musical poster –the one that gave Raine stage fright- and would’ve had musical elements, but alas Dana doesn’t like musicals herself due to her own experiences with them (which might be the Doylist source for Raine’s own trauma as well now that I think of it).

         Odalia would’ve been one of those obsessive parents, entering an Abomination disguised as a child for the role. Edric would’ve been angry and formed a rivalry with this fake child, wanting to be Momma’s Boy, and it’d end with the fake child getting decapitated and their head sliding off as the big reveal.

         When asked about doing ‘Blaine’ (Belos-possessed Raine), Avi explained they didn’t need to watch Rhys to copy Belos’ inflections, having watched the show plenty. They were surprised about the Blaine development when they went in to voice Raine that day and were told about it!

         When asked about favorite characters to write, Zach said he loved Eda because he didn’t need to go into anyone’s headspace when writing her, it was basically just him talking. Madeleine brought up how Matthew Rhys would charm the entire zoom call with his recording, and Emmy mentioned how twice she wrote for a bloodcurdling scream only for a VA to give more of an Ahhhhh.

         Specifically, Edric would’ve had a more bloodcurdling scream when he broke through his body cast to hug Amity (Zach wrote that, Emmy did the art for it), with everyone agreeing he should be in pain. A ‘piercing scream’ was specified, though Sarah joked about how hard VAs worked, and said a bloodcurdling scream might be done for an Oscar nomination (doing such a scream is taxing due to multiple takes).

         Mikki loves writing Lilith, calling her a big dweeb; Madeline loves Hooty the most, as he’s a wild card and she loves writing those. One example she brought up was in Hollow Mind, when Hooty shut down the Owl House. Madeleine loves it when Hooty goes from zero to sixty in either direction, fully insane.

         JBO also liked Hooty best, as well as King! They referenced the B-plot from Adventures in the Elements, in which Hooty negotiates a drawn body for himself from King, which Emmy and JBO wrote. The actual sketch used in the episode was straight-up one of their drawings, I didn’t catch whose though. Hooty’s dialogue in Eda’s conversation with him (from Something Ventured, Someone Framed) was also written by JBO, with Emmy drawing the bit where his tongue reaches for a fly!

        In regards to writing advice, JBO said to just do stuff, it’s better than nothing; Emmy concurred, it’s still worth it to write it, even if nobody pays you for it. Zach added that for writers, one of their goals is to be more of a tool; Get what they’ve made into the hands of someone who can take it further, it’s collaborative storytelling and writers need to see it from that perspective. Likewise, they mentioned having people read what you’ve written, as they can notice stuff that’s missing that you hadn’t thought of/remembered. Zach hoped for a TOH art book, as he liked a lot of Emmy Cicierga’s visual jokes and hoped people could enjoy them! IIRC Emmy did that one meme of Ariel combining her fish tail with two legs as a solution, so that tracks.

         On a final note, there was a HUGE wave of people commenting about Gustholomule throughout the entire stream. It went unacknowledged alas, but the group also mentioned they couldn’t answer spoiler questions so...

[rjthirsty]

Just Once

Jin/Dahlia (OC)

Words: 3.8k

A/N: I wrote this for Smutember last year. You can find a full list of tags on my ao3 post. Dahlia, at the time, was still canonically MC, but she has evolved since then. CW: Smut, smut, smut.

Jin led Dahlia through the gardens, deeper into areas so overgrown it looked like no one had been there in years. The scent of roses grew thicker as the world around them grew dimmer from the canopy of plant life blocking out the afternoon sun. It was like they were wandering into a wonderland, and Dahlia couldn’t help but look around in awe at the difference this place felt compared to where she had been studying with well manicured shrubbery and picturesque floral arrangements.

Jin pulled a sucker from his pocket and popped the candy in his mouth, rolling it over his tongue and letting it click against his teeth as he tucked it into his cheek. His sharp eyes watched the woman in the garden who was completely unaware he was perched near a tree, covered in the shade offered by it from the midday sun. She was absorbed in a book, sitting on a settee, and judging from the way she hadn’t lifted her teacup since he had begun observing her, it was likely empty and she had been there for a while.

Dahlia had come to the palace a few weeks ago and was recognized as Belle for the process of choosing the next king of Rhodolite. It was a custom the kingdom held where a commoner with a pure heart would see the truth in the princes eligible for the throne, and pick who would be next to rule, getting rid of the scheming and backstabbing that had taken place in fights over succession a long time ago. While it had worked for dozens of ascensions, Jin couldn’t help but worry about a repeat of the last Belle.

So, he had taken it upon himself to watch over Dahlia and prevent another series of unfortunate events from befalling such a lovely young woman.

Dahlia let out a long sigh. Jin could tell she wasn’t even aware she was doing it, clearly the studying was getting to her. Deciding it was time to encourage a break, Jin moved back onto the path and leisurely strolled towards Dahlia.

“Now what has a pretty young lady like you frowning so deeply?” He called out before he got too close, giving her time to acknowledge his presence so as not to startle her.

Dahlia looked up from her book and blinked at the sunlight that showered down around Jin, instantly smiling when she recognized him. “Nothing your company can’t chase away.”

“Mm. You’re sweet talking me already. Looks like I’m not the only one feeling lucky we ran into each other.” He sat down on the settee, taking up a spot close enough to Dahlia that he could hook an arm around her shoulders.

Dahlia had grown accustomed to Jin’s constant flirting and friendly behavior. When he set his arm on her shoulders today, she didn’t push him away or move elsewhere like she had when they first were getting acquainted. She’d learned that while he might say some incredibly lewd things, he never physically crossed a line once it was drawn. It was an odd pairing, the way he seemed to respect her (and other women) and yet he was the biggest womanizer she had ever met.

“Jin, if I say good morning to you, you think I’m sweet talking you.” Dahlia said pointedly with a smirk.

“It’s the way you say it; everything sounds sweet when it comes from you. Sweeter than Yves’ desserts.”

“Come on, I know you’re just being nice. No way you’d ever give up a dessert from Yves.”

“For you, I would.” Jin looked down at her with a look that felt more truthful than his usual teasing. He looked… serious.

He was serious. While they hadn’t known each other long, the more Jin got to know Dahlia, the more he felt a desire to protect her and her smile. If something as little as giving her his slice of the pie would keep her happy, as much as he really loved pie, he’d give it to her. It was a small price to pay.

Dahlia broke eye contact, glancing away and tucking her hair behind her ear in an attempt to hide behind her hand. The implication in Jin’s gaze was too much for her to bear at the moment and she wasn’t sure how to handle it.

They fell into silence, despite the awkwardness that she was feeling at his words, the quiet was comfortable. The day was warm and the sounds of the world were soothing. Tension melted off her shoulders and she leaned against Jin, his heat and proximity a soft blanket for her to fall into.

“What do you say we do something a little more active?” Jin murmured above her ear.

Dahlia raised her eyebrows but didn’t look up at him. “Are you propositioning me again?”

“If that’s how you want to take it, I’m willing and ready.” Jin’s smirk could be heard in his voice. “But I meant stretching those legs a bit.”

Dahlia nudged Jin in the ribs with her elbow. “You’re such a tease, Jin. But I could use a walk. I’m not sure how long I’ve been sitting here.”

Jin set his large hand on Dahlia’s head and gently brushed his fingers through her hair, taking a moment to enjoy the way they sat together pressed against each other. Dahlia made no move to stand while he pet her, and he liked that. He was developing a soft spot for these little moments of intimacy between them, and for just a little longer he wanted to stay in this moment.

“I’ve got just the place in mind.” He untangled himself from Dahlia and hoisted himself off the couch. Like the perfect gentleman, he turned and offered a hand to Dahlia, who took it with a smile.

Jin led Dahlia through the gardens, deeper into areas so overgrown it looked like no one had been there in years. The scent of roses grew thicker as the world around them grew dimmer from the canopy of plant life blocking out the afternoon sun. It was like they were wandering into a wonderland, and Dahlia couldn’t help but look around in awe at the difference this place felt compared to where she had been studying with well manicured shrubbery and picturesque floral arrangements.

“Where are we even going, Jin?” She asked in a hushed murmur, feeling the enchantment would shatter if she spoke too loudly.

“There’s this place back here. A long time ago one of the kings built a little hideaway where he could meet his mistress.”

“Why am I not surprised you know that?”

Jin gave an easy laugh before stopping and turning towards her. He placed a hand over his heart and knit his eyebrows together. “I’m hurt, Dahlia. What are you trying to say?”

“I’m saying you are the type to lead women to secluded places made specifically for a tryst.”

“As fair as that is, I haven’t brought anyone here yet. You’re the first.” He smiled and resumed their journey, his hand holding hers and Dahlia felt another flutter in her heart in his promise of her being special.

Jin released Dahlia’s hand and inspected an old looking gate. With a hefty push, it groaned open giving him enough space to duck inside, and more than enough space for her to make her way through. On the other side were the remnants of a secret garden. Benches and outdoor furniture carved from smooth stone were set under a trellis that had long since become a thick veil to block out prying eyes.

Jin and Dahlia both slowly wandered the area. It must have been beautiful once, they could see the original design under the years of miscare. Even now it still held a solemn tranquility. The dappled light that came through revealed several varieties of flowers, not just roses, and there was a soft babbling of water somewhere off in the distance.

“I didn’t know there was a stream near here.” Dahlia whispered in awe.

“I have to say I’m impressed.” Jin spoke in his usual register, but something about his voice felt right in the area, like he belonged there.

“You haven’t been here before?” Dahlia spoke a little louder, trying to match Jin’s volume.

“I never had the reason to.” Jin wandered a few more steps into the shrouded alcove, looking around before his eyes came back to meet Dahlia’s.

Dahlia watched him. Jin was often hard to read, a contradiction between what he said and what he meant. She had spent a few weeks with him and the other princes, and something she had learned is that he often had his own considerate and caring reasons hidden behind acts that seemed selfish and self-serving. But figuring out what those motives were was the hard part, because he painted his behavior as something carefree, not calculating as the case was.

“What’s the reason today, then?” Dahlia asked cautiously. Curiosity had her wondering if everything he had been saying today was the usual Jin, or if the hints at her being special was closer to the mark.

“Isn’t finding a quiet spot for the two of us enough of a reason?” Jin asked in return. It wasn’t really an answer, but another way for him to flirt while creating an emotional distance between them.

He enjoyed his time with women, and he showered them with affection while they had their fun, but he was always up front about not falling in love or making a good time a repeat occasion with anyone. Deep down, he didn’t want to burden someone, or himself with the expectations and heartache that came from relationships and attempting to create a bond with another person. People were complicated and messy, and he knew he was enough of a mess for anyone to easily handle.

“It is… if that is the reason.” She punctuated her words with her doubt.

Jin smirked and crunched the sucker in his mouth, tossing the stick aside as he swaggered over to her. “Think about it, Dahlia. Out here there are no prying eyes, you can let go for a while, stop worrying about everyone watching you and judging you. You don’t have to be Belle. Just a woman.”

The thought was enticing. Comforting even. Her life had been so ordinary before coming to the palace, and every day since had been burdened with expectations of etiquette and requirements of proper behavior. It was rare she had a moment to just exist without the pressures of the task she was beholden to.

Dahlia tilted her head as she watched Jin move closer. “You know I know you’re more kind than you like others to think you are, right? I see through your act.”

Jin laughed. He hadn’t expected her to come out and say it. He had a feeling with the way she looked at him on occasion that she saw the truth of him. That was what Belle was supposed to be able to do, or so they say. But still, he hadn’t thought she’d tell him straight that she knew he put more thought into his actions than he pretended.

“I had a feeling. You’re sharp. And smart. I’m really no match for you.”

“Jin… don’t flatter me. I don’t need you to dress up your words.”

“Alright. You work hard, Dahlia– too hard. I wanted to treat you.” Jin’s smirk faded. He let the charming, breezy mask fall. Care and concern were reflected in his wine-colored eyes. Little did he know this only made him more charming.

“So you took me out here. Just you and me. And then what?” Dahlia slowly laid her thoughts bare, giving Jin the same honesty he was showing her.

“Nothing expected. I can even sit outside the gate if you’d rather be alone.”

“No.” She answered quickly before he could offer any further help in the form of isolation. “Please. I like your company.”

Jin felt a pang in his chest. It had to be incredibly hard to have your life upended and stuck in a place with a bunch of strangers while the entire country’s future was put on your shoulders. He just wanted her to breathe a little, not feel so overwhelmed with her obligations.

He was standing in front of her, looking down at her and she met his gaze. He brought his hand up to her cheek and lightly brushed his thumb against the apple of it, cupping her face in his hand to offer some form of comfort. If she was willing, he would have kissed her. In the arms of a lover, comfort was easy to find. There was nothing a person had to hide when in the throes of passion. But she had turned him down before, and he hadn’t pushed since.

Dahlia layered her hand over his. She was touched with his consideration and thoughtfulness, and a vulnerability was threatening to expose itself from within her. His warmth spread through her, both from his hand and his words that had touched her heart.

Time slowed to a crawl in their secret garden. Two people escaped the responsibilities foisted on them by the world. They stood face-to-face, silently connecting.

“Dahlia… can I kiss you?” His voice was a husky whisper.

She nodded. Her hand ran up his chest, finding the fold in his lapel and closing into a loose fist around it. He was so much taller than her that she leaned to lift on her toes to make it easier for them to make contact. He bent forward, letting her fist in his jacket guide him closer.

The way their lips touched was soft and sensual. A whispered symphony between the two of them. The sound of their shared breath started the sonata. The soft scratch of fabric in Dahlia’s hand as she clutched Jin tighter was the second movement. The rustle of Jin’s fingers through Dahlia’s hair as he moved his hand from her cheek began the minuet. Their kiss blooming into tongues stroking and twining brought on the rondo allegro.

When they finally parted, they hovered near each other. Dahlia sighed and Jin attempted to breathe it in, the sound as erotic as the taste of her. He pulled away after a few seconds, looking into her eyes with desire in his and need in hers.

“... What now?” Dahlia breathed.

“Whatever you want.”

Dahlia kept her eyes focused solely on him. While no sound passed through her lips, the way she was looking at him was telling him so much. She pressed her lips together, keeping her thoughts from being voiced before she was ready to act on those carnal desires. Jin waited, giving her time to work through what it was she needed to before they left matters like this or moved to more illicit affairs.

“Just once, right?” Dahlia posed a question Jin hadn’t expected.

“It’s one of the rules I live by. If that isn’t your thing then–”

“No.” She interrupted. “I want it to be just this once. No expectations beyond now.”

Jin’s eyes went wide for a moment, he also hadn’t expected her to say that. “You’re sure?”

Dahlia nodded, biting her lip. The way her teeth dragged across her rosy lip was arousing in a way Jin hadn’t seen her before. He tore his eyes away to glance around their surroundings, his sight setting on a stone bench. He stripped his jacket off as he made his way to the steady slab, draping it over the weather-worn and time encrusted bench. Then he took a seat, quickly unbuttoning his shirt and untucking it to let it sit loose and open, baring his chest.

Dahlia timidly followed, eyes dancing over his body. She stopped in front of Jin, toying with the collar of his shirt between her fingers. Slipping off her shoes, she pulled the hem of her skirt above her knees and straddled his lap. Her heart was racing faster than it ever had. She could feel the flush in her cheeks, not from embarrassment, but from anticipation.

Jin set a hand on the small of her back, helping to keep her on his lap. “Hang on, hold still.” He said as he slipped his other hand between the two of them.

For a moment Dahlia thought things were already starting since Jin’s hand went straight to where they were connected, but as she felt him moving against her she realized he was unbuckling his belt. She burst into ringing laughter, the tension she was feeling slipping from her like her shoes had a minute earlier.

Jin smiled, watching her relax in his arms. “That’s better.” Seeing Dahlia let go of that coil that had been tightly wound inside her was rewarding on its own. He touched his fingers under her chin, bringing her attention back to him where he could see the light shining in her eyes. “You have no idea how radiant you look right now.”

“I said I didn’t need flattery, Jin.”

“It’s the truth.”

Dahlia lightly gasped, and Jin pressed his mouth against hers. He kissed her deeply, wanting to leave her breathless. She answered back with equal enthusiasm, letting him explore her mouth while she swirled her tongue against his. Jin’s hands deftly undid her blouse, carefully gliding down the row of buttons to pull her shirt open like his was. His large hand squeezed her breast, corset be damned - he didn’t seem to care about the extra material between his grope and her body.

She let out a moan, the pressure and heat from Jin’s firm cupping of her breast began to build a pressure and heat in the pit of her stomach. Dahlia rocked her hips against him, looking for the sweet brush of his manhood against her.

Jin kissed the side of her mouth, peppering smaller kisses down her chin and neck. She leaned back to accommodate and Jin withdrew her teat to end his line of affectionate pecks on her nipple. Her nipple perked, stiffening from the sensation and cool air. Then Jin’s mouth was on it, tongue twirling and stroking as he sucked, squeezing her bosom in his hand.

Dahlia undulated in Jin’s lap, feeling his erection harden from her grinding. She clutched at his shirt, using him for leverage while he ravaged her breasts with his mouth and hands. He moved from one nipple to the other, giving each equal attention, but the adoration lavished on her chest was rendering her frustrated. Her cunt ached, her clit demanded attention, and the relief she was seeking in this clandestine coupling was being held hostage with Jin’s favored foreplay.

“ Jin. ” Dahlia begged. But Jin didn’t relent. He enjoyed the way his name sounded in that heady and desperate voice. He liked the way she was dragging herself against him. He wanted to savor the build up. Until he felt fingers in his short hair and Dahlia tugged his face away from her breasts.

Another surprise he hadn’t anticipated, and he stared at her. She was panting and looked at him pleadingly. He couldn’t help the smirk that tugged at his lips seeing the need in her eyes, the need for him. “Alright,” he breathed against her, capturing her mouth once more.

Jin moved his hand to her back again, offering support for the both of them as he leaned away from her enough to snake his other hand between her legs. He hooked his fingers under her panties and rubbed her slick pussy. Toying with her clit, Dahlia began to moan in earnest. He almost didn’t have to do anything as she worked herself against him, both his hard cock beneath his pants and his fingers inside her underwear.

Dahlia’s voice was growing louder, and he was suddenly struck with the desire to see how loud she could go. It was unfortunate they didn’t have room to maneuver where they were, everything was caked with decades of neglect and he honestly didn’t want to dirty Dahlia’s clothes. He kissed her again and again, stealing her moans to claim as his own. The sound of her was provocative, inviting a haze of lust that blanketed his senses.

Jin dragged his hand from Dahlia’s sex and freed his dick from his pants. He tugged her panties to the side and probed her wet folds with the head of his penis, spreading her lubricant on himself. Dahlia rose to give him room, lifting from his lap to position herself ready to sink onto his cock. He held himself as she rocked his shaft into her, slowly taking all of him and pausing once she had returned to his lap. She throbbed against him, squeezing him between labored breaths.

He took Dahlia’s waist, grasping firmly to lead the dance that was to come. She wove her arms around him, nails grazing Jin’s skin as she brought her hands to his back under his shirt. With the two of them set in their positions, Jin began rolling his hips to pump into her, his hold on her hips guiding and dragging her against him with every receding stroke, and excited thrust.

Dahlia dug her nails into Jin’s meaty shoulders. She clutched at him, desperate to keep hold on something that would keep her grounded and prevent the wave of pleasure from overwhelming her. Jin moaned in response, and it seemed her attempt had backfired as she rolled her eyes back on hearing his enjoyment because of her.

She raked her fingers down his back, and Jin only grew more savage and bestial, his groaning and grunting overtaking her. Dahlia grew louder, too. They built off each other, each sound and movement layering over the previous, rendering them a gyrating mess of scratches and thrusts and gasps and sweat.

Dahlia had lost all sense of reason, bouncing on Jin’s cock and hugging him to her. Jin was in the same state, pushing into Dahlia’s cunt until they were grinding pelvis to pelvis and still feeling like it wasn’t close enough. The marks she was rending on his back called a primal urge from within him to make her his as she was making him hers.

Dahlia peaked. Her back arched and her nails bit into his flesh even deeper. Her walls convulsed around Jin’s dick, animating him further into an unsteady rhythm that drew out his orgasm. His sticky cum roped into her and he throbbed deep inside her, chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath.

He was too high to come down easily, and he nuzzled against Dahlia, not wanting the feeling to fade so quickly. His hands caressed her back, gently petting to try to calm her as well. Dahlia was collapsed on his shoulder, her hands smoothing against the marks she had made on him.

They sat like that for a long time, long enough that Jin had grown soft and when he finally fell from her pussy, they stirred and began disentangling themselves from each other. Neither spoke a word as they righted their clothing, putting themselves back together. Dahlia’s hair was a matted mess, and Jin combed his fingers through it, setting it into something close to presentable. It was a far cry from a proper brush, but it would have to do.

He gently pressed a final kiss against her forehead and took her hand to lead her back through the gardens to return to her life as Belle. Dahlia followed with a soft smile.

[kyouka-supremacy]

Yeah I was shocked at first too how little Atsushi seemed to care about Aku's death and was outright offended on Aku's behalf but now that I'm rereading I can't describe Atsushi post-88 as anything other than "numb" or going through the motions and it get really blatant when you see how animated he got during the most recent chapters

Mmmmhh. I think those two Atsushi pages are extremely interesting, and that we need to talk about them some more. Overall, Anon, I relate to your experience: I too thought Atsushi's reaction to Akutagawa's death was rather indifferent at first, and I too eventually warmed up to it explaining it as loss rather than apathy, a difficulty to process what had happened just yet. But the thing is, before chapter 107 came out, I truly felt like both interpretations - the indifferent one and the numb one - were equally sustained by canon elements and potentially true. I do think that the “indifference” interpretation had canon grounds of its own right and, although it's close to be disproven by the latest chapters, I want to elaborate on that, because I think it's still valuable to reflect over it.

It's reasonable to think Atsushi's reaction was so cold and detached because a lot had just happened for him way beyond what any man could elaborate in the immediate; at that point it still didn't come natural for him to think of Akutagawa as anything but evil, and, even though Akutagawa had just proven in action to be more than a ruthless monster, for Atsushi months of thinking of Akutagawa as the devil incarnate isn't something he could grow out of in a matter of minutes or hours, especially given he still hadn't had the chance to properly elaborate what happened. And yet even when considering all of that, it's still true that Atsushi never asks Ango "why did Akutagawa sacrifice himself?" or "why did Akutagawa die for me?"; he only wonders if there's "some grand meaning to it". He doesn't seem to be pondering over Akutagawa's sacrifice in particular as something extraordinary, but rather reflects about the entire string of events as equally important factors. I find it insane that Atsushi is thinking about the event of Akutagawa keeping his promise over the very occurrence of Akutagawa giving his life to save him, and how even that instance of remembering something good Akutagawa did feels to be only prompted by acknowledging how that allowed him to escape, for the ada to keep fighting– even when thinking about Akutagawa, it seems to be for inherently selfish reasons. It all speaks, to me, like in that moment Atsushi saw Akutagawa like just a piece in the grand scheme of things and nothing more, which is coherent with the dehumanizing perception of Akutagawa he always held; and that's why it made me believe that nothing much really changed even after Akutagawa died for him, because apparently nothing would have been able to scratch Atsushi's quick-to-judgement, close minded attitude.

Then again, this was my main interpretation up to chapter 88 and no further, and back then I probably shouldn't have given that much relevance to Atsushi's words since in that moment he was understandably shaken and unstable. Besides, obviously, chapters 107 and 108, Atsushi hallucinating Akutagawa in chapter 105 is a meaningful element too: the way Akutagawa seems to be guiding him, how Atsushi doesn't seem to hold any fear or hatred or resentment towards him anymore, the way Atsushi places him on top of importance falling second only to Dazai. And it's true that chapter 107's "I know you're still there" and "you still haven't told me why did you save me" are telling enough on their own: of the fact that Atsushi really had a change of heart about Akutagawa, of the fact that he's changed his mind on him. And after all who am I to disagree, I don't wish for anything other than celebrating sskk canon 2k23 ahah!

But the thing is: in the end, to me, it really doesn't matter if that chapter 88 scene specifically is meant to be interpreted Atsushi caring for Akutagawa or not!! What I mean to say is that unrequited-sskk is still a very compelling dynamic and noteworthy concept, and it having canon basis or not is ultimately completely irrelevant.

I've been called out a lot for my unrequited-sskk takes and received a couple of asks and replies already on this, so I really wanted to clarify why I'd stand by that in the first place, and elaborate on why in my opinion that Atsushi scene from chapter 88 really fits the picture. Truth to be told, unrequited-sskk was mostly a June 2022 phase that manifested slowly in later months due to my late posting habit, but I don't feel for it any strongly than requited sskk– I mean, I obviously love sskk, of course I'm also rooting for them to be happy together. But I do think unrequited sskk holds a lot of thematic value, and that's why I think it's very interesting concept to reflect over! More specifically, I think it's very fitting with Akutagawa's character themes of being perfectly unlovable, the miserable and tragic character. This context ties with and reinforces the image of Akutagawa as the cursed character, someone who can only fall for people who are destined to hate him; and the people he loves won't ever be able to see in him anything but a monster, because he is fated to cause repulsion in anyone he meets. Additionally, seeing the character under this light makes his death even more dramatic and heartbreaking: there's some added pain in the knowledge that he's dying for someone he loves, and who is never going to love him back or even see him as human for what matters, and yet Akutagawa deciding to do so anyways. I feel like Akutagawa as the ultimate tragic character, born miserable and died miserable, only ever running after glimpses of happiness without ever the chance to grasp them, forever unloved, forever in pain, is really compelling! Akutagawa doomed to be unloved in life and death, someone whose pain, whose sacrifice and humanity will never be recognized by anyone but the silent audience. It's just a very entertaining concept to explore!!

I also find the unrequited love scenario interesting on the other end, in the way it frames Atsushi, the good one, as fundamentally unable to be compassionate and forgiving with Akutagawa, making out of the good guy a complex and especially flawed person. I like how Atsushi and Akutagawa's roles of good and bad are switched in someone who's unforgiving (unsympathetic), and someone who's miserable (sympathetic). (That is far from wanting to villainize Atsushi– Akutagawa did a lot of unforgivable things to him. He just did a lot of redeemable things also.)

In the end my final take - which is something I've always thought - is that sskk's relationship, and its chance to bloom romantically or not, is mostly dictated by chance: in Beast, they've met in a friendly, non-hostile environment, and they suddenly clicked; but not in every universe they might be lucky. They have palpable chemistry, but it's not granted that will always translate in them getting along more than them clashing and destroying each other. And I guess that's what makes them so fun to fixate on!! How their relationship can take so many different shapes while staying the same. When people ask when sskk would get together, I really think it's only a matter of case. I think it's as likely for Akutagawa to kiss Atsushi on impulse after this arc has ended than it is for them to beat around the bush for years and years to no end. I think it's really a matter of chance that Akutagawa didn't kill Atsushi and join the Hunting Dogs, a split-second decision that could have easily gone another way. I find it cool how their relationship can take so many different shapes and yet the only thing that stays the same is how inexplicably tied they are, how the other makes them who they are, how deeply and intrinsically connected they are.

Tl;dr: Atsushi's reaction to Akutagawa's death, up to chapter 88 and without considering chapter 107 and further, has equal basis to be interpreted as Atsushi being indifferent (uncaring) of Akutagawa or detached (caring in disguise) of Akutagawa; here's what made of uncaring of Akutagawa an interesting scenario no matter the fact it turned out to be wrong; here's why, independently by how much canon basis it has, themes wise unrequited-sskk is still a very interesting concept that should be taken in consideration.

[kimberlyannharts]

LAST TIME ON POWER RANGERS: Ranger Slayer got herself captured by Dark Specter's forces while saving Drakkon's ass. BUT Drakkon makes up for it by saving HER ass from Dark Specter's corruption. BUT, he died in the process. So that means Slayer now has to save everyone's ass. Again. Seriously, this is like the third event where Slayer has to save everyone.

it's Power Rangers Unlimited: The Morphin Masters!

= so Drakkon and Slayer training together is canon, okay cool, book over, I got what I need

= But moving on from that these panels specifically make me crazyyyyy because what do you mean Tommy and Kim together means "happy ending"? What do you mean referring to Kim as Tommy's guardian angel? What do you MEAN redrawing Drakkon's death scene as more intimate than it was in 116????????

= MY STUPID EX-HUSBAND DIED ON ME SO I HAVE TO GO ON THIS STUPID QUEST

= So something cool about these energy beasts - they're all tied to ranger powers! A yellow bear, a red lion and ape, a gold praying mantis, a white rhino, and an orange scorpion. Sure, the latter wasn't TECHNICALLY a ranger power, just a zord, but there's a point to the "the PR universe did have Kyurangers at some point" theorists

= I just like this panel because it's silly. she's got the zoomies

= Slayer continuing to win the idgaf war against literal deities

= and then they founded an animation studio that gave us the Minions. so unfortunately they gotta go

= but in seriousness, I guess this is how we're going to rationalize how the MMs were portrayed in Beyond the Grid versus how they were portrayed in Power Rangers Universe - the BtG guys were a couple specific higher-power ones. It's fine, I guess. I'm still not a fan of the idea of an entire civilization just calling themselves Morphin Masters, though. Just make.....THESE GUYS the Morphin Masters. Why are they ALL the Morphin Masters??????? Now we have to establish a SUB-SECTION of the Morphin Masters!!!!!!!!!

= Slayer holding Drakkon and his death in high regard like this.......god. god.

= oh hi Blue really cool to see you again hope you don't die in the next few pages

= oh well never mind. Guess we're never going to find out why they came back to life, which was their reason for going into the Grid in the first place, huh

= I do like how we're going back to referring to Blue with they/them pronouns. I guess in hindsight we really were just misgendering them for years. awesome

= I'm glad we're fully acknowledging all the shit Slayer has gone through but I will admit my immediate reaction to the "it was fire" line was "she would not fucking say that". Maybe as a teen, sure. But NOW?

Pink: follow me to the orifice

Slayer: .....the ORIFICE?

= oh hey guys, how have you been since you got retconned into existence and therefore have accomplished nothing in the main series

= I know this is supposed to be a whole thing of "ohhhh these guys think they're free but they're still being controlled yada yada" but at the same time as someone who hated the Emissary retcon and wishes that we could have gotten more from the characters as they were before........them being angry over losing what they had is very very good and I wish it wasn't done through "evil corruption magic." It was good with corrupted Slayer because they dedicated an entire issue to it and FREED HER at the end, allowing more time and space for development; here it's just a quick fight scene and in the case of Blue, followed up with death. And slight spoilers here, even if they don't die here, the way the Emissaries have been dropping like flies doesn't give me much hope for their survival if they show up in the main series

= I wonder if this is a reference to how in an early draft for the Ranger Slayer one-shot, the Bow of Darkness was going to be broken in half by Zombie Rita and Slayer would have used it as dual swords. Either way it's fucking cool

= also while the inclusion of Dino Thunder as one of Pink's forms is a simple mistake, it takes me back to those old DT AU fics where Kim became DT Pink. They're canon now guys, no takebacks!

= So turns out the "Illumination" are just a bunch of senile grandpas. Yeah, that's.............the big revelation for where the Morphin Masters have been. ok

= Now let me just say for this story, the Morphin Masters being useless is a fine decision, for the same reason why the Morphin Masters were useless in Dino/Cosmic Fury - you can't have these overpowered god figures show up and fix everything with a wave of their hand. This applies to every story ever - the god-like figure is captured, or dead, or simply doesn't care enough to interfere. It's a very basic and logical choice for a narrative in order for our actual grounded protagonists to be the heroes.

HOWEVER. It's another instance of Boom hyping up these kinds of storylines as groundbreaking revelations of PR's mythos for years just for the actual reveal to be kind of a letdown. Phantom Ranger's identity. Dark Specter being a major villain. The Squadron Rangers. And now the Morphin Masters' current status. All hyped-up concepts that either get rushed or end up secondary to other concepts, and in the end, don't feel like they matter. It's getting to be a bit tiresome, and I'm saying that as someone who doesn't hold PR lore high on her list of reasons I enjoy the franchise in the first place. And it doesn't help here that, as I've said before, it just feels more like a way to stretch out this event to fill its year-long timeframe. By the end of this book, nothing was accomplished except two more Emissaries are dead (not that they did anything before this) and I guess Green and Black will eventually join the fight, so what was the point of it all. Slayer never really believed the Morphin Masters would help them anyway, so it's not like she changed by the end either - Pink was the only one who really developed as a character, and, well......

= Pink quick eat an imaginary Snickers you're not you when you're hungry

= this is the third person Slayer has killed in two books. she's so good at her job

= also you may have noticed that we've killed two Emissaries and they're not turning to stone nor having a giant spider boi burst out of their bodies. It's soooooooooooo cool how that entire story arc meant nothing in the long run

= ugh yes queen swear off religion just like that

= also at this point Drakkon has wielded the power of a Morphin Master and Slayer was offered the position of one. What I'm getting at here is Tomberly are indeed divine figures

[everydayfrimmel]

June 2, 2024

“No Further Threat”

1000 words, canon divergence au, kidfic

Frieren only acknowledges two broad categories of things: those which are immediate, and those which are not. The former are the stuff of daily life; the rest are ignored, out of sight and out of mind. Things will enter and exit the immediate at random and adjustments must be made, but that simple binary has neatly organized her world for centuries, and she depends upon it.

Hunger and thirst and sleepiness are immediate, anger and relief, opponents and allies, her fellow adventurers. Loss and loneliness fade out of immediacy quickly; fondness enters it with equal speed. And change is merely the process of bringing things into the bubble of the immediate.

Like: Himmel, the admiration of strangers, a newfound sense of emptiness when she strikes out on her own. Like: this warm, safe feeling of wanting that humans call love.

Her child is one of those things, a shock that is quickly absorbed into the bubble of immediacy.

He is a very good child, she thinks, and a very quiet child, and his small, sweet face doesn’t look very much like hers. He’s always hiding it from people, curling up like a turtle into the safety of the sling Frieren wears across her chest when she travels with him, and he doesn’t like too much light or noise. Children are creatures Frieren never had much reason to learn about before, but hers is more intuitive to understand than most grown people she knows.

Easier, too. When he is frightened by the dying shrieks of some horrific creature his mother is being paid to exterminate, all she needs to do is pat his head, stroke his wispy blue hair for a moment, and he’ll settle. He trusts his traveling companions like a party member ought to and never scolds or gets testy or complains about the weather.

Motherhood is supposed to mean many things that Frieren does not understand, but she thinks that this - the practical reality of it, what it really takes to care for a baby whose needs are so logical even she can follow them - is something she can do.

“It’s dead,” she whispers, gently rubbing the tip of Hagel’s pointed ear between her thumb and forefinger.

The sphinx that’s been terrorizing a small southern village for months now is a smoking corpse and it lets off a prodigious stench, but it’s dealt with, at least. Hagel whines, close to all-out tears, and she surmises it’s the smell as much as the sounds of a quick but nasty skirmish that are upsetting him.

“So there’s no further threat.”

So maybe babies don’t need logic. Himmel certainly doesn’t think so, whispering - when it’s his turn to keep tabs on the baby mid-battle - that it’s going to be all right, that mama and papa can handle it, that he’s safe and sound so long as he stays in that sling. Himmel gives comfort that goes over the baby’s head just as much as Frieren’s logic but probably does far more to soothe him, and sometimes Frieren feels a little out-of-place when she suspects it might be called for. But it’s the truth, and it’s the best she’s got right now.

In truth, it’s all she’s ever had: the hard truth, an arsenal of magic, and the dumb luck to keep on attracting people to her side who know how to soothe and stroke and caress the fearful and hurting and shy. It feels strange to call herself a mother, because mothers are supposed to be those things, and by that standard Frieren is merely somebody who has a child. Nevertheless, she’s the only one Hagel has.

And he’s never once seemed to mind having a mother whose head is too full of spells and combat techniques to have much room left for socializing.

“Frieren,” Himmel calls, a ways off, tone so pinched she surmises he’s trying not to breathe through his nose. (No wonder.) “Is he all right?”

Hagel is beginning to quiet to a soft, pitiful mewl, the combined effect of Frieren’s patting and their increased distance from the foul-smelling sphinx corpse. (Really, truly, are those things related to water-skunks? They must be.) Frieren nods. “He’s fine.”

Then, with her back turned because even with the father of her child it’s embarrassing to be seen this way, she nudges her nose into Hagel’s soft hair, sniffs (once, twice, fills her nose with a much nicer smell), and then rubs her cheek against the top of his head. It’s soft, tickles a little; it reminds her that he is as immediate as hunger or thirst.

It felt strange at first. Even now, it’s something she has to remind herself: this is her life, her immediate reality; it includes people now. People must be factored in and accounted for, this one especially. No longer can she go off on her own, take risks, think only about the path of least resistance. If she starves, freezes, is eaten by some horrifying creature that crawled out of the depths of the woods to make her life difficult, so will her child. If she doesn’t feed and clothe and soothe her child - and she cannot let herself count on Himmel to do it, ever-optimistic Himmel who never wants to admit that even a half-elf born early in his adulthood will barely have become a man by the time he reaches the necessary end of a human lifespan - then nobody will.

It fills her with resolve she hadn’t known was in her.

“You’re all right,” she tells him. Once more, she pats his head, feels him sink heavily into the sling as his tense body relaxes. “We’re all right.”

Step by step, day by day. That is how the immediate always is: it crowds out everything but now, makes back then and later on irrelevant.

Hagel is a part of that now, something she must see to.

And Frieren has been been alive long enough to know that that much, she can most certainly do.