#nobody there so they must be seeing things

[arcane-ish]

@embershroud108 I never read that scene as "this is proof that Piltover sucks and didn't learn a thing" (for that we have Caitlyn's line about cycles of violence continue and nobody ever learns anything "we are doomed to revisit the error of our ways… spark ever more conflicts…")

To me those angry glares to me are just ... realism? Arcane isn't a centrist fairy tale that says "we will have an outside threat and after that everybody will get along", it signals "people pull together for an external threat, but shit is still hard".

At least I'm pretty sure the creators thought of that scene as a tribute to gritty (emotional) realism. I'm ready to knock on the selfish council members as much as anyone, but at the same time, is it really that surprising that they aren't psyched to have Sevika there? The whole story of season 2 was about how supposedly the Pilties are so scared by the continued terrorist attacks that they are willing to be in favor of all kinds of big measures from granting Zaun freedom, to state of emergency, to inviting in help from an enemy army.

Because the show spent so little time building up Piltover asking for Zaun's help we must assume that Zaun coming to help must have come pretty out of left field. So if there was bad blood before, why would it be gone immediately?

And that is on top of the council members having monetary interest in not wanting to share power with anyone. Which again, realistic.

History is full of examples of people banding together against a common enemy and yes that changing things, but also it doesn't magically make the previous conflicts disappear. Maybe it gets buried for a while between the blanket of unity but then festers underneath. ie both Poland and Ukraine generally agree they hate Putin, but they still have quarrels. Or a lot of ex Soviet States were held together by the idea of fighting the fascists together, but old rifts broke out more or less violently as soon the central power weakened.

(or to give another example, black people fought for the US both in WW2 and in Vietnam, important civil rights laws were passed at various points in history and they did make some difference, but they also didn't magically fix racism, doesn't mean that it wasn't important)

To me when people complain about Arcane being too centrist it sometimes read they were hoping to get a pro-revolution fairy tale. As if a pro-revolution fairy tale wouldn't also be pretty disingenuous and unrealistic and really for factual reasons, not just "well obviously centrists hate revolutions and don't see the upsides".

(IMO Arcane is passively centrist-y because that likely reflects the comfortable life position of its primary creators the most. Leftist often like to pretent that any centrism is some sort of conspiracy by the powerful to keep people away from revolution rather than spending any time considering why people might arrive at this position on their own terms (ie because they are receivers of other people's propaganda or because they genuinely thought about it and decided it was the best option) . Of course if you are pro-revolution any "I would rather focus on the people I love rather than dedicate my life to a cause" is a threat. But people make those decisions all the time, for variety of reasons. And if you want people to not make that choice, you have to understand why they make this choice and offer counter options)

Oh those nasty glares and head-shake… The dynamic of oppression is far from over and I hope Sevika keeps on fighting for Zaun’s sovereignty.

A single seat in the council to represent Zaun is a goddamn joke…

[surveillancy]

Good day/night! If the request are still open, may I request something about your last fic of Shadow milk "Sweet words" ?

Basically Y/n with the same accent but this time they're singing like a whisper so not him or nobody could hear them

But Shadow milk was listening without Y/n noticing

Thank you so much! ★

"sweet melodies" - shadow milk cookie x reader

✧︎‬‪‪ ‪‪✧︎‬ ‪‪✧︎

shadow milk cookie wasn’t looking for you. not this time.

for once, he had no grand scheme, no elaborate trick to set into motion. he had simply been drifting through the spire of deceit, trailing his hands along the twisting walls, letting the shadows shift and coil in his wake. it was boredom, he told himself, just boredom that led him to your door.

and then he heard it.

soft. fragile. a breath of melody so delicate into the air that it almost slipped past him.

he stilled.

you were singing.

oh. ohhh.

his grip on his staff tightened, his fingers curling against its surface. a slow, wicked grin stretched across his lips as he pressed himself against the cold frame of the door, tilting his head just enough to drink in every note.

it was mesmerizing. you were mesmerizing.

that accent of yours, already so intoxicating, became something otherworldly in song. every syllable was dipped in honey, laced with a weight that sent shivers crawling down his spine. it was a sound that shouldn’t exist, something too lovely, too pure, too-

he swallowed hard, ignoring the way his heart clenched. no, no, he was the trickster here. the one who watched and laughed and spread chaos across the world. and yet…

here he was. entranced.

you had no idea he was listening. you must have thought yourself alone, unaware that every whispered note sank into his very soul, branding itself into him like an unforgiving flame.

he was utterly, hopelessly enthralled.

and then... your voice cut off. a moment of silence. then...

"…shadow milk cookie?"

ah. you had noticed.

for once in his long, long life, he was at a loss for words.

your eyes met his, wide with dawning horror, while his lips quirked into something smug, but... oh, his face were burning, wasn't it? his pupils had dilated, and he felt warm, too warm...

but he refused to let you see how much he had unraveled. so he did what he did best.

laughter spilled from his lips, his usual mockery, as he pushed off the wall with a slow clap. "well, well! what do we have here?" his grin was sharp, but his voice was breathless, still clinging to the remnants of your song.

"a performance so divine, and i wasn't even invited? truly, i am wounded!"

your face burned. you sputtered something that only made his grin stretch wider because, oh, there it was again, that accent. he leaned in, impossibly close, eyes glinting with something far too indulgent.

"you really should sing louder, my dear. why keep such a delightful little secret all to yourself?"

his voice dipped, teasing, knowing. "unless, of course… you were hoping i’d hear?~"

you shoved him away, flustered beyond reason, and fled before he could say another word.

but oh, it was too late. the melody was seared into his mind, looping, echoing, haunting him in the most delicious way.

and he would never let you live it down.

‪‪✧︎‬‪‪ ‪‪✧︎‬ ‪‪✧

r︎equests: open!

sorry for not posting for so long, life's been super chaotic so bare with me while i try to get back in the groove of things again (:‬

[ms-demeanor]

So the thing with my job is that we're three companies in a trenchcoat. What happened is that a couple of very wealthy guys who used to work in tech decided they were going to buy up companies and mash them together into a bigger company, which is a not-uncommon way to grow MSPs.

We're going to call the first company the Fluffy Bunnies. They were a very stable, white-glove-service MSP with 10 employees serving 30 high-end clients in San Francisco. They have existed for 16 years but got bought out two years ago.

The second company are the Scrappy Mutts. They were acquired about a year ago. They were a moderately stable group handling around 90 medium and small clients in orange county and san diego, they had 7 employees.

The third company, my company, are the Strangled Bats, and were acquired seven months ago. We were a sinking ship with 5 employees handling 185 medium and small clients and one very big client in Los Angeles.

I'm going to call our current company Frankenstein Inc (FI).

All but two of the Scrappy Mutts have left FI. So when we are talking about people who are "familiar" with the 90 clients from that group, it is one tech and one office admin. We have lost a few clients from that group because when FI took over, the service level changed (turns out the previous owner was providing a lot of free services and free computers, which FI will not and should not do).

All but one of the level three techs from the Fluffy Bunnies have left FI. We have several level two techs from the Fluffy Bunnies still on the team, and they make our white-glove, tier-1 san francisco clients feel very well cared for but there's no real account management going on. We have several big clients from this group who are shaky.

Nobody from the Strangled Bats has bounced. None of our clients have bounced. Gary not only trained us to suffer, he trained our clients to actually pay for their services.

Initially, one of the owner/investors of FI was the CEO. When he brought on the Fluffy Bunnies, he told them they were going to be the leadership and guidance for the company. He told them how he wanted the finances handled and set rules for some procedures. When FI merged the Fluffy Bunnies and the Scrappy Mutts, the Fluffy Bunny management had to scramble to figure out how to distribute workload when they quadrupled the size of their customer base and had to figure out how to merge contracts from the Scrappy Mutt clients to their system. This did not go well.

Because that didn't go well, the CEO hired a Professional Services VP and later a Project Manager. The PS VP got fired about a month after the Strangled Bats came onboard, and the Project Manager had only been there for a month at that point.

About a month after his VP was fired, the project manager looked at what a tire fire the acquisition of the Scrappy Mutts and the Strangled Bats was, and started organizing an acquisition process that we are putting in place for the next acquisition, because the owner/investors very much want to keep acquiring other companies.

Since the Strangled Bats have come onboard, ticket distribution has been shot to shit and MOST clients are unhappy with how we're meeting SLAs.

Because of this, the owner/CEO hired two outside execs, one of whom is a CEO with fortune 100 experience to replace him. These two execs have now been at the company long enough to flip on a lightswitch and see the cockroaches scrambling around.

The Fluffy Bunnies are middle management. They want things to move smoothly and customers to be happy. They are more concerned with service outcomes and dropping everything to make clients happy than they are with stability. The Fluffy Bunny response to the cockroaches is to say "yes that is quite unpleasant but we must overlook that for the moment to make sure our customers feel seen." The Scrappy Mutt reaction to the cockroaches is to go "yes, those do seem to be squirmy things, but I am currently chasing this tennis ball (being run ragged by being the only one who really knows 90 clients)". The Strangled Bat response is "yeah okay I eat cockroaches I guess I can grab those and do everything else" because we have been forced to do exactly that.

I thought I was signing on to a company where I'd get to be a Fluffy Bunny or at least a Scrappy Mutt. I am tired of being a Strangled Bat. But if I can't be a Fluffy Bunny then I can at least take care of the cockroaches because the Fluffy Bunnies are pretending they aren't there and they're busy chewing through our cables.

The new exec team doesn't want us to be fluffy bunnies or scrappy mutts or strangled bats working together at Frankenstein Inc, they want us to be normal human employees of a normal human company that is one company with one set of standards and one way of doing things instead of three companies in a trenchcoat. They are in the process of putting these standards into place, and the friction I am experiencing comes from techs on the ground chafing against change, but it ALSO comes from Fluffy Bunny management.

We have one fluffy bunny who is very hesitant to make decisive action and who doesn't want to bother the CEO. The issue is that they are the main interface with the CEO and I report directly to this person. The CEO is my grandboss and if I reach out to him directly I'm overstepping. This fluffy bunny is a yes-man who gets things done by working 70-80 hours a week instead of escalating or delegating and is unlikely to initiate change when it comes to things like "we need to have a drastic reassessment of how we document the hardware we've sold." The OTHER fluffy bunny manager is supposed to be doing service assignments and wants to be a manager, but does not like being told to act more professional, or working one weekend a month, and when you ask this manager for help the response you get is frequently "I don't care" or "ask the other bunny." I don't report directly to this person, but they have oversight over my tickets and can assign me to projects.

I don't want my outlook on the new execs to be too rosy, but it's such a tremendous relief that other people can see the cockroaches and understand that they need to be addressed. I do genuinely believe that the new execs are looking to promote based on how the team responds to the changes they're implementing, and how people tackle the issues that are coming to light, but they're still business dudes in a business setting and there's every possibility that I could work like crazy until my next review and get a "Great Job" sticker and a cost of living raise (which, hey, still better than Gary, but not good enough to set myself on fire for). Given that these guys have been the only ones to put their money where their mouth is in regard to my employment situation (new CEO is why I got my raise, and because I was making so little before it's still not a huge dollar amount but it was a 15% raise which is not nothing) I'm inclined to trust them at least a little. Buuuuuuut I'm also definitely documenting all the shit that I'm doing and I'm maybe also starting a separate document of when I needed something from fluffy bunny management and ran into a brick wall, because the exec team is very firm that i need to escalate through the bunnies.

I will say, if there's anything on our side, it's inertia. Changing MSPs is a huge giant miserable headache so it takes a lot for a customer to bail on us and we do have a solid customer base. Now we just need to make sure none of their goddamned servers implode because the fucking fluffy bunnies configured RAID 5 with no spares because "my fucking server blew up and you didn't have any plan in place to keep me up and running" is absolutely a reason that companies will drop MSPs.

_____________________

The whole server drive situation was because I was trying to wrangle bunnies; it fell into my lap before my pay raise and title change and after that (and the raid 5 panic) I couldn't get bunnies to escalate it or take it seriously and had to start dragging bats into the mix. The CEO has been very clear that this shit is a cockroach and needs to get handled but I'm not supposed to go around my bunny manager to alert him to cockroaches. My bunny manager's response to the fact that the server was RAID 10 (which was checked and confirmed by a bat) was "Wow that's so funny, I wonder why the system was reporting it wrong in the first place? That's some pressure off, huh?" and that's why I was losing my shit yesterday.

[voidofthevoidmv]

Bill Cipher, except he genuinely CANT LIE.

Like, at all. Legitimately he is incapable of telling a lie.

Like sure, he can certainly dodge questions, or maybe create a loophole or two- But if you were to ask him a question directly with no way of avoiding it- HE HAS NO CHOICE BUT TO BE HONEST. And this fudges him over on multiple accounts.

And when he’s trying to dodge questions to avoid giving away his secrets or intentions- I want you to envision the scene from Shrek 3, where Pinocchio is being interrogated by Prince Charming concerning Shreks whereabouts- See here and he’s just RAMBLING-

Now, despite everything, this doesn’t change much. He still has flattery tactics and is careful with his worlds- Despite all his smarts Ford can still be blinded by his own hubris. So the whole portal thing goes down similarly to canon… Untill the portal incident happens.

With Ford stuck in the portal, Bill had no way of rebuilding it seeing that nobody would be willing… Aside from STANLEY PINES who is at a loss at what to do. The perfect willing assistant in rebuilding the portal. And bill wouldn’t have to lie that much cuz their goals really do aline somewhat… So, the demon tries to strike a deal…

This is when shit hits the fan for Bill.

And hey, let’s even go as far as to exaggerate the whole “Must return his half of the deal no matter what” portion of Bill’s deal making abilities. With this in mind, let’s take a look at EX CON STANLEY PINES who can sniff out a bad deal in no time- Due to his years of experience on the streets. And being the con artist that he is, Stanley being confronted by another con artist who can only tell the truth and also is confined to whatever deals they make… Well, this can only go well for him.

So Stanley tricks Bill- As he would in most dimensions if you get my gist. While Bill is offering unlimited knowledge in exchange for Stan’s compliance or something- Stan can easily twist Bills words against themselves and long story short- Bill is now trapped in Stanley’s debt and is confined to… Hmmm…

Let’s say he’s stuck constantly possessing a little magic 8 ball. And whoever shakes him, he’s forced to admit information to. A seriously bad deal on his part, an extremely great one on Stan’s part. So, Bill must help Stan get on with the portal without any sort of escape…

What’s even worse is that as time goes on, sometimes Stan even uses Bill as one of his ATTRACTIONS. (Honestly, Bill is lucky. Stan had been seconds away from binding the demon to a Zoltar machine-)

And time passes just as it would in canon, that is, untill the little pines twins come around to stay for the summer. And while I haven’t thought too hard about what the episodes looks like as I imagine it all doesn’t change too much- However. One thing that inspired this whole thing is how the kids are first introduced to bill- Something like:

Stan: Here kids- Meet Bill. This guy will answer all your pesky little questions.

Dipper: …Grunkle Stan, you named your magic 8 ball Bill?

Stan: Huh? Nah, he was called that when I first got him. Also Bill is just this all-knowing demon thing that I trapped inside of that ball in like… What was it- Was it- 85? Bah whatever-

Dipper: A demon…

Mable: *Eyes sparkling* Can I shake it???

Stan: *Tosses the ball casually* Sure knock yourself out kid.

Mable: Woahhhh…

Dipper: What is that thing… Is that… A triangle?

Stan: Welp. I’ll let you kids have at it- OH YEAH. He can’t lie so there’s that.

Or something like that. Haven’t worked out the kinks yet, but I think in this scenario Stan lets the kids mess around with Bill sometimes in hopes that the knowledge he possesses can help prevent the kids from like- Getting themselves in danger or something. And once the kids realize that they can just twist their words in order to make Bill slip and give helpful information- Well I can only imagine their shithead grins as Bill curses to the heavens. Dipper and Bill will banter a lot, with Bill obviously doing his best to break this pre-pubescent boys self esteem but it only assists in Dippers character development. Meanwhile, Bill and Mable can be lowkey chaotic and he could even respect her antics- If not for her whole “empathy and emotions” thing. (Perhaps a teensy bit of character development in places… But if Bill is a master of anything in any dimension, it is DENIAL-)

I think weirdmaggedon might still happen and there will be this whole rift thing and stuff- it’s still relatively similar. Maybe a different ending? Or another deal? Who knows. But this was just a silly thought I had- I can only imagine the names if I decide to invest time into it.

Magic 8 Bill AU? Or something? I might make some art for it if I’m being completely honest- Just a funny thought yk?

[womanofwords]

Everybody's Favourite (Part 9)

Two days. Two days straight of you crying your eyes out and begging for your dad and your aunts and uncles. All efforts to get through to you were angrily refuted.

"Y/N, you can't keep pining over Penguin," Bruce said. "He had you kidnapped and was prepared to ask for a ransom."

"Oh, grow up! You didn't even notice I was gone! Hell, you avoided me when you did see me! So stop trying to take the moral high ground with me! Treat me the same way you all did when I was seven and leave me alone!"

"You don't have to be so defensive, baby bird!" Dick pleaded. "We're just trying to make up for lost time! We want to get to know you!"

"Don't call me baby bird! Only Penguin calls me bird things! You're copying him to make me like you, and I won't!" you snapped. "Leaving my room was a mistake, clearly. Goodbye." You rushed up the stairs, sobbing.

"I should have known that they wouldn't want my contact immediately," Bruce said. "I just didn't know how volatile they would be."

Alfred, now back from visiting his daughter, sighed. "Sir, I watched the . . . debacle unfold over in England. Please allow me to talk to Y/N," he pleaded. "We had a positive relationship."

"Of course. You'll get further than we did," Dick said.

Alfred knocked on your door and sighed. "Mx Y/N, your family is doing their best to express their remorse for their previous mistreatment. Please try to hear them out."

"They're going to forget, Alfred. They always do! They'll forget and I'll get left behind! Papa never forgot about me, and neither did my aunties and uncles. They were always so kind."

"Y/N, your aunties and uncles are criminals. Here, you are safe."

"No, I'm not! Damian's here and he's sicced Titus onto me for fun!" you pointed out. "How am I safe with him around?"

Tim appeared out of nowhere. "Well, if you really want to get away from the little hellion, then I'm your ticket out! You'll go on a walk with me to clear your head. It must be so claustrophobic in your bedroom. Put on some clothes and come outside with me. We could both do with the exercise."

You weighed up your options. Sure, you need a break from these obsessed nutcases, but it wasn't like Tim was going to be any different. This was most likely a ploy to get you to open up.

"Hey! Don't call me a hellion, Drake, especially in front of my only blood relative!" Damian was there in a heartbeat, katana in hand. The same katana that had cut you before. You slammed your door immediately.

"Nice going, prick! I almost had them!" Tim scolded.

"They're my blood relative. You have a family. Go and find it, if you even can."

"Go and find yours, brat." Tim and Damian began fist-fighting in front of your door, and you closed your door with a quickness.

(PAUSE)

The next day, Stephanie stole their idea and went for a walk with you. "You know, I know what it's like to be disappointed in my father," she said. "You do know who my father is, don't you, Y/N?"

"No." You shook your head. "You never told me."

"Ah." Stephanie chuckled, embarrassed. "Well, my father's name is Arthur Brown, better known as Cluemaster. He's one of the villains Batman faces."

"So, your dad's a bad guy, too?" you asked. "Was he nice to you like Penguin is to me?"

"No, honey," Stephanie said, heart breaking. "Villains aren't nice to anybody, including their daughters. Nobody's safe from them."

"That's not true! Penguin was nice to me! He helped me make a penguin-themed ice cream place! And then Scarecrow watched cartoons with me, and Bane did workout sessions with me, and-"

"Y/N, don't you get it? Penguin lied to you!" Stephanie grabbed you by the shoulders and shook you. "You're not going back there, mark my words!"

"But I want to!"

"Leave them alone!" a passerby yelled. "We all know what you're like, you know! All Waynes are heartless! Screw you!"

"You don't know anything about me or Y/N!" Stephanie shouted back.

"We know none of you gave a damn when they got kidnapped! How terrible do you have to be for a kidnapper to be kinder than you guys?"

People started to gather at the commotion as Stephanie verbally battled the mob. She put herself between you and them, holding your hand tightly in the hopes that it reassured you.

It didn't.

"Deadbeats!"

"Abusers!"

"You guys are literally worse than the Joker! Here, have a Joker shake!" A purple shake flew through the air towards Stephanie's face from the hand of an angry protester. Stephanie stepped back just in time.

You, however, got hit in the face by a blast of blueberries and blackberries, everything going silent. You could have heard a pin drop as you wiped the shake off your face. They were waiting for you to do something, anything.

"Did I do something wrong?" you ask the crowd, eyes watering. "Why does everyone in Gotham hate me?"

Everyone broke out into fights. Some attacked the pitcher of the drink, others stayed focused on Stephanie.

"How about I call the police to take us home, Y/N?" Stephanie suggested. "It's scary out here."

"OK," you agreed. "I don't like being outside any more."

(PAUSE)

"Are you kidding me, Steph? You let Y/N get hit in the face by a random citizen's drink?" Barbara shoved that day's edition of Gotham Times into Stephanie's face. The picture was of you drenched in drink while Stephanie was behind you (not a good look), while a headline screamed at them.

Wayne Kid Uses Neglected Sibling As Human Shield

"So much progress . . . gone," Dick sighed.

"How are they supposed to trust us when we can't protect them?" Damian growled. "You're ruining my chances of bonding time with my only biological sibling!"

"You do that all on your own," Dick muttered.

The Wayne family wasn't the only one with flaring tempers. Over at the Iceberg Lounge, Penguin crumpled up an identical copy of the Gotham Times in anger.

"It hasn't even been a full week, and they're already allowing my little bird to be in harm's way," he growled. "Nobody hurts my little dove."

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9 <- You are here

Taglist: @tinybrie, @enchantingarcadecreation, @hopingtoclearmedschool, @sh4rk-k1d, @prorpy, @angelicbear, @sulleha, @sirenetheblogger, @omgfangirlland, @heather-hutchcroft, @wannaflyaway, @jaybunsblog, @sugarrush-blush, @redkarmakai

[bonbonly]

Sooooo first of all you haven't seen me here imagining things for lando bc I was not, somebody took over my account and i'm sending this thot to you bc it would be a shame to not share whatever my friend has cooked up there (it started out as a charles thot but the more my friend thought about it it fit better to a certain papaya twink than to our reigning ferrari princess) ANYWAY...

Streamer!Lando but also only fans creator!lando. Started out with CoD streams, maybe a bit of Rainbow Six, is decently successful with it. has a blast with his mates online but after some time he's frustrated with it bc he'd love to create something of his own. not just stream and showcase other people's work, do something himself yk?

So he starts a little photography account where he posts some impressions from his daily life and his fans love it but it just doesn't hit the spot for him. Nothing really does until one time when he's about to send some low effort nudes to some random girl he thinks fuck it and puts some effort into it, poses himself, adjusts the lighting, sets up the tripod to get some special angles and what can i say…

He likes it. Loves it even. Loves it more than the nudes he gets back. Just thinking about staging himself gets him hard again. So he does what every normal human being with a voyeurism kink does, opens an only fans. But on the down low. Nobody needs to know that it's him. He starts simple, nothing explicit yet, just his chiseled abs and pecs on display, a bedsheet draped delicately low across his lap, showcasing his tiny waist beautifully, his head just out of frame.

Then he upgrades to videos. the best microphone on the market, catching up every little moan and gasp he makes imagining the hundreds of people watching him jerk off. a high-quality camera recording every little droplet of sweat running down his torso when he's bouncing on a big silicone dick later. Mood-lighting, that makes every spurt of cum on his stomach glisten in the camera.

He does numbers on the platform, skyrocketing to the top 1% of creators in less than a month. He gets off on the thought that maybe some of his Twitch fans are unknowingly watching him on OF too. But he's not afraid of being discovered. He's careful not to mix the two worlds. He has it handled.

That is until you stumble over some pics of an OF creator that look suspiciously like some nudes you got a while ago from a certain high-profile streamer…

- 🍪

well 🍪 anon, you've outdone yourself and for that im going to ask you to start building a house on my campsite (im never letting you leave) can imagine the way your brows must furrow when you glance at your phone, your laptop and then back to your phone. maybe you even hold the devices side by side and notice the same details.

the glistening torso, the veins on his cock as his hands wrap around it. and lets say he - as a streamer - never responded back to you after he sent you those nudes, it was just a small thrill anyway for him so nothing too serious so you raise an eyebrow and think to yourself what would be the best way to get this man's attention again, he didn't even respond to you when you sent him your nudes back!

so using the same name you had on twitch - which was how you even met lando since you had donated a hefty amount to his stream - you subscribe to his OF and send him a donation there, maybe a teasing message only meant for him to see, but the message is clear.

you know it's him. and he might've been a bit confused at first until he finally realized that this was the very girl that made him understand himself better to starting that OF page. he probably smirks, tugging at his curls and thinking about how to approach this because obviously these two worlds have to be separate.

so after one night when he places a plug up his ass, his stomach coated with his cum, he might give you the honor of sending you more personal photos, just for you since you're doing such a good job at keeping his secret. he'll ask for you to send some back and there's probably no conversation going on, no hi how are you? hey what'd you think of this video?

because he knows you're watching each one, knows you're probably touching yourself on your bed thinking its his hand and not yours thats covered in your slick. he has the videos of you himself, your fingers deep in your cunt moaning his name while watching his videos. that knowledge alone is enough to keep him going, as long as you don't try to reveal his true identity.

little does he know that you miiiiiiight be a bit influenced from your own greed to try and make him bend for a more... personal fan interaction.

[smilesrobotlover]

A super out of context thing for Edmund’s brothers. Basically something happened with the second-born Charles and the brothers all split on what they wanted to do. Ares, Louis, and Dante on one side, and Silas, Matthias, and Edmund on the other, while our unbothered chill guy Maximus not taking a side cuz he doesn’t gaf lol.

I’m gonna be so honest, I know nobody cares about these characters who aren’t even in my fanfic, but I really like them. I’m very proud of the designs (at least faces) and personalities, so safe to say I like them a lot 😔

Some info on the brothers for the 5 people that care

Ares is the first born, and is 43 during Love at Twilight. He’s the crowned prince and is the “golden child”. He thinks very highly of himself, and is very aware of the reputation he must uphold. But he does a VERY good job at upholding the reputation. He’s the golden child after all! A perfect prince! He actually loves his family a lot, caring deeply for his parents and his younger brother Charles. But the other brothers are sorta ignored by him. He’s more focused on taking over the kingdom anyhow. Which honestly makes him come off as aloof.

Charles is the second born, 42 during Love at Twilight, and feels like the failure to his parents. He gets second everything, always in his older brother’s shadow. He doesn’t feel like he can amount to anything, even with his younger brothers, he can’t seem to be special like them. Ares loves him, but Charles deep down resents him and everyone else in the family. But cuz he’s nothing compared to everyone else, nobody really cares. He’s just kinda there, and he’s frustrated about this. When Zelda enters the family, he really takes his frustrations out on her, cuz even tho she’s queen, she’s just a woman, right?

Silas is the black sheep of the family. Aged 40 during LaT. Many believe him to be a child born from a different father, and many hate him for it. He doesn’t deserve to be apart of the royal family, he clearly doesn’t belong! Because of this, he comes off as cold and avoids the others, not really bothering to reach out to the others. But he actually is quite smart and has a good moral compass, being very dependable when he needs to be. Quite underrated if you ask me. The queen defends Silas constantly, saying that he is of royal blood and she was never disloyal.

Maximus, Age 36, was born way later because the king and queen had a lot of issues with Silas. He’s a very aloof guy who never takes charge, letting things run their course which makes him chill and also very indecisive, which is no good. I don’t have much on him but he’s very neutral on things a lot, which can be good, can be bad.

Louis, age 34, had become the high priest of Labrynna and is EXTREMELY self righteous. He constantly condemns others and preaches repentance, however he has a lot of skeletons in his closet, he just believes that as the high priest, he’s perfectly fine. A bit of a… bad fella, probably the worst on this list, because he doesn’t come off as bad, which makes him extremely manipulative. Of course, he doesn’t think he’s being manipulative. You just don’t want to see him snap and lose it. I might make him narcissistic but I don’t know enough about that to feel confident in writing it, and people just throw the term around with no issues so… we’ll see? But he’s a very fascinating character to me.

Matthias, age 32, is a very caring soul who really looks out for the youngest brother, Edmund. He wants to watch over and care for the “little guy” and is deeply loyal to those around him. He doesn’t seem to like Charles all that much, and the two argue constantly. Other than that, he gets along with everyone and serves his kingdom in whatever way he can. He seems to be the only one in a genuinely loving relationship with his wife.

Dante is a very materialistic, greedy, and prideful man. Age 30, Dante is highly confident in himself and looks down on others, believing them to be below him. Even his older brothers he finds to be foolish, though he’s a bit of a yes man to Ares. I also don’t have much of him but yeah. A guy.

And ofc our guy Edmund! Age 28.You kinda know him. He’s known as the smallest and weakest brother, having severe asthma, so he can’t do things the others can do. He was also very sickly as a child, hence why Matthias is so protective of him. But he makes up for it with his wit and unique ways to be strong. He’s very pompous tho, and I like him a lot.

[ckret2]

@nebulasreblogs said: Perhaps that 10% Just Some Guy came from that elixir that Jack's father used in an attempt to destroy the Evil, which instead gave it sapience and spawned Aku

I'm forever thinking about the fact that Aku's first ever words were "You! Thank you!" If nothing else, the potion gave him manners.

But nah—jokes aside, if we're looking at Aku as "90% evil, 10% just some guy," I don't think it was the potion that gave him that 10%. I think that, at the moment he gained life, he was still 100% pure evil. (Pure evil with good manners, but I guess manners must be morally neutral.)

I think it was time and experience. He started out as pure evil—but 17 years later, after fighting Jack, now he's pure evil... plus fear of death via magic sword—which i'm pretty sure is the first trait we see him possess that isn't "evil," "enjoying being evil," or "unexpectedly polite."

A few thousand years later, he's pure evil... plus guy who acts in fast food commercials, plus guy who has learned European fairy tales and wants to tell stories to children, plus guy who hates getting mud on the rug after it's been vacuumed, plus guy who's miserable and whiny and lethargic when he gets a cold, plus guy who does stupid victory dances when his enemy loses his sword, plus guy who knows how to use the phrase "this is a safe space," plus guy who thinks he has an account in the computer but honestly sounds pretty dubious about it and would have no idea how to locate it if presented with the computer, plus guy who hides in bed when he's depressed, plus guy who's unexpectedly stoked to find out he's a girl dad, plus guy who's polite to employees on the phone.

He violates as many promises as he can, and that's evil; but when an injured minion gives him good news, he rewards the minion by repairing his body, and that's not evil. Scaramouche insists Aku will pay off his bills like he's sure it's true, and if he's Aku's #1 assassin, he must have been working for him for long enough to see whether or not Aku actually pays off his debts and rewards his underlings—and so, he must be paying debts and rewarding underlings.

When he takes hostages, people do what he says for the hostages' safety, which means he must not have a reputation for killing all hostages so don't even bother giving him what he wants—which means, sometimes, he must let the hostages go.

He makes choices to be less evil out of self-interest, and I think he probably learned to do that with time. Because if he killed every hostage and never rewarded his assassins, eventually nobody would work for him.

Just within the fifty year span of the show, we see him go from guy who doesn't understand the purpose of stretching and how it works to guy who starts his mornings by stretching. We see him change over time.

The potion gave him life and personhood, and with personhood he gained the potential to be Just Some Guy. But the potion didn't give him guy-ness. He gained guy-ness with experience. He does Evil but now, after several thousand years of interacting with the world, he also just does Stuff. The purity of his evil has been diluted by the mundanity of existing in the world.

(You could also make the argument—as I've seen some people do—that Aku was never inherently evil; rather, he was just an unthinking thing that devoured with no moral alignment—is quicksand "evil"? is a tar pit "evil"?—and thus when he gained thought he could have been anything he wanted. But because he was told from birth that he's evil, that's what he became. The emperor told the poison-tree-monster that he meant to destroy him before the poison-tree-monster announced his name is "Evil."

Personally, I think there's room to textually support the argument, but "normal person comes to believe they're evil because they're told they were" doesn't compel me narratively the way "no this person actually was legitimately born evil" does. The first one is too realistic, it happens, there are people like that walking around right now. There's nobody who's born literally evil, and that fantastical element is what intrigues me. He's literally pure evil... and therefore, what are the limitations on his actions that humans don't have? He's literally pure evil... and therefore, how does he live a full successful life when he has to deal with the consequences of his own actions? How can he be pure evil and not destroy the things he wants to keep? How does he strike that balance, if, unlike humans, he doesn't have the free will to do good? He's literally pure evil... and therefore, is it possible for him to be anything else? How? Would he ever want to be? Why?)

[alexturntable]

Charles can’t fake anything to save his life, hence why we are able to see all the raw emotions and feelings he must be experiencing right now without Carlos constantly at his side. Not that Carlos isn’t going through it because I’m pretty sure he is, he just knows how to hide it well. His interactions with Alex, although funny, lack that something his interactions with Charles had, probably because Carlos doesn’t look at Alex like there’s no one else in the world when they’re together (yet, even though with Charles it was obvious from the very beginning and call me delusional, but I’m pretty sure nobody else is ever gonna compare to Charles in Carlos’ heart).

We know they both can't act to save their lives (we've all seen the shell videos) and no amount of PR training would make them look at each other with such fondness and it certainly wouldn't explain why the fondness is still there now that they're no longer teammates.

I do love the Williams content with Carlos and Alex but what is missing imo is the crazy competitiveness and general weirdness we had with Charles and Carlos. They really did match each other's freak. The way they got super competitive about the silliest things and how they handled the most boring PR shoots is truly unmatched.

Their energy and their chemistry are so unique and there will never be anyone like them.

[anghraine]

Happy WIP Wednesday, y'all! Consider yourself tagged if you feel up to it.

I had fun poking at a femslash Spirk scene that's been percolating in my mind for awhile, from fairly early in the mission, I'm imagining not long before the T'Pring/Stonn romance takes off. (In the AU, S'paak is betrothed to Stonn rather than T'Pring.)

Stonn had his own life as much as S’paak had hers—or nearly as much. Thankfully. Only now and then did S’paak register the nauseating intrusion of his mind through their betrothal link. The connection was too weak and distant for him to see what she saw or know her thoughts, no security risk at all, just a tug, an assertion of himself. It wasn’t done with precision or elegance, though she had a lingering impression of his spoken voice, how it must sound these days. The impression pressed as forcefully into her mind as the fragile bond would allow.  Sa’dzhasifik Raelyek T’sai S’paak, parted from me and never parted. Never and always touching and touched. S’paak, child of Sarek, child of Skonn, child of Solkar … soon, joined. She set her teeth and blocked him from her awareness as much as possible, focusing on her responsibilities. The effort was unpleasant, like fire flashing through her nervous system—their bond, however weak, was not intended to be closed off in such a way—but, as she told herself, pain was a matter of the body, subordinate to the power of reason and will. When the bond had been forged between S’paak and Stonn as children, nobody foresaw this future for her, standing at the science station on the deck of a massive Federation starship. But the fact of it could not be changed. She always ignored the dull throbbing in her head except to grant her captain even greater than usual sympathy. It was on one of these occasions, with her internal composure disrupted by Stonn’s distant intrusion, that she agreed to a chess game with Captain Kirk. “In my quarters, if you don’t mind,” S’paak said without thinking. Kirk just arched a brow, rather as S’paak might have done, had she felt like moving any muscles of her face at all.

“Of course I don’t,” Kirk said smoothly, and they scheduled the game for later that evening. 

S’paak had hoped her headache would have vanished entirely by that time. Stonn never fought her barriers; it was enough to remind her of who she was, what she was, and what he would be to her within a few years. They were already thirty-six; his pon farr would arrive soon enough, even if her human heritage granted her the one grace of freedom from it. At any rate, blocking her sense of his mind should not come at so high a price that the piercing pain of it would linger hours later.

And yet it did, without reason or logic. She did her best to conceal it from Captain Kirk that evening, refusing to allow Stonn to strip this small pleasure from her. If she could have, she would have excised him from her mind altogether while in Kirk’s presence, something in her repulsed by the idea of him having any part in her relationship with Kirk.

Illogical, she thought again. Five months ago, she had never set eyes on Jessica Kirk and knew nothing about her. It was unreasonable for their pleasant companionship to seem more sacrosanct than her years of service with Captain Pike. Nothing, however, could lodge her judgment that it was nevertheless true. She could only accept the fact for what it was.

Kirk was studying the placement of the pieces with an unusual degree of puzzlement. She rarely bothered to hide or perform emotions when alone with S’paak, so here, nothing inhibited S’paak’s observation of her brows pulling together, a line creasing the skin between them.

“Is something wrong, captain?” S’paak asked.

Kirk glanced up at her, dark eyes steady. “I was going to ask you the same thing. You usually play better.” Then she gave a quick laugh. “I hope you aren’t letting me win.”

“Not at all,” said S’paak immediately. “I was simply … distracted. I apologize.”

“You, distracted?” Kirk said, with a flattering degree of surprise. “I mean, no apology is necessary, of course. We can play another time. But S’paak, you can just say no if you don’t want to.”

“I did—as you say, want to,” said S’paak. She could at least thank her headache for ensuring that her expression gave nothing away. “That isn’t my difficulty. I ...” She could not imagine telling Kirk the truth, even alluding to pon farr in her presence, yet couldn’t bring herself to altogether conceal it either. She settled on: “I received a message in relation to a task I must perform in the future, and have been considering how I might approach it. But I would rather continue this.” She gestured at the board.

“I see,” the captain replied, though of course, she didn’t. Even she seemed aware of that, her brows still knitting together. “I hope I didn’t assign this task.”

“You did not. It will be a Vulcan matter, not a Starfleet one,” said S’paak, blinking against the light that pooled painfully around just about every inanimate object in her quarters, and Jess as well. 

Kirk’s voice lowered into sympathy. “Bad news, I’m guessing?”

“Not news,” S’paak said. “But disagreeable, yes. It was simply a reminder.”

“Well, I won’t ask any more, if you’d rather not talk about it,” Kirk replied easily. But her gaze was still sharp, studying S’paak with the flitting, half-subconscious observation of humans. “Actually—sorry, I’m going to immediately renege on that. Are you sure you’re all right? You look a bit off color.” Even in the reddish cast of S’paak’s quarters, and even through the haze of discomfort, S’paak could not miss her sudden flush. “Ah, not literally. I mean sick or unwell. I really can go if you need to lie down or get something from Bones.”

“No. Don’t go,” S’paak said without thinking, her voice still thankfully composed.

Kirk smiled at her and nodded, absently rubbing her palm with one hand. “If you’re sure.”

If you’re sure. You can just say no. With a piercing ferocity, S’paak wished that either were true: that she could simply refuse Stonn’s pon farr, that she could have refused the bond when she was a girl of seven with no concept of what she would or would not find distasteful in the future, that she could turn away from almost anything she disliked with no greater rationale than I do not want to. It was, she supposed, a human failing; but from Kirk, it was also a human consideration, a kindness. Some return felt necessary.

“I am certain,” said S’paak. “I have a slight headache, but it shouldn’t impair me further.”

“A headache?” Kirk said, her expression clearing. “Why didn’t you just say so?—And you can’t take anything for it?”

“Nothing would be helpful. It really is not a great concern, captain,” S’paak said.

The captain looked more obstinate than usual. “I may be no doctor, but tension headaches are rather my specialty.” She lifted her voice slightly. “Lights—Kirk speaking, captain’s override four-two-seven-one. Lights, twelve percent.”

The illumination of the room dimmed so suddenly that S’paak blinked again. She could see the board, Kirk’s shadowed face, but the rest of the quarters were shrouded. It did, in fact, help.

“I’ll be right back,” Jess said, and with no further warning, she hurried out through the doors of S’paak’s quarters.

She was sometimes very human. S’paak had no idea what the captain was doing—not a new form of ignorance, to be sure—and did not care for the fact that she, S’paak, had failed to conceal such a trivial weakness, that she’d allowed Stonn to affect Jess in any way. But it bothered her less than she would have thought, all the more as her eyes adjusted to the lowered lights.

Right back turned out to amount to eleven minutes and twenty-nine seconds, but Jess was true to her word otherwise. She returned with slower, more cautious steps, detectable even before S’paak saw her, attended by a distinctly new smell. It was herbal without doubt, some combination of plants that S’paak’s tricorder could unquestionably have identified, but which she was in no condition to detect beyond the amorphously pleasant scent. As Jess came more clearly into view, S’paak saw that something was cradled between her hands and steaming.

Tea. 

“Here,” said Jess, setting the cup down beside S’paak’s wrist. “You like tea, right? And this one is my favorite for headaches. It might not affect you the same way, but …”

S’paak did not know what to say, but then, the circumstance didn’t require words. She eyed the liquid in front of her and took a cautious sip.

“This did not come from a replicator,” she said, then took another sip. It was very different from the beverages she’d grown up with on Vulcan, and even those her mother sometimes drank, but the blend of mild, half-familiar flavors was pleasant, as was the warmth of the liquid and steam.

“No, my brother sent it to me,” said Jess, sitting back down. “I don’t drink a lot of tea, but he knows I can be … a bit tense at times, and he’s done all kinds of experiments on what’s safest and most helpful for this kind of thing—he’s a botanist, so … well, anyway. Do you like it?”

S’paak drank a little more. Her head still ached, but the gift, the lowered lights, the easy understanding of the woman across from her, combined to settle the intensity burning under her skin. She could sense the thin bond to Stonn’s mind, as ever, but in that moment, he seemed very far away.

“I do,” said S’paak. “It’s helping. I would not have taken a family gift, however, had I known its origin.”

Jess shrugged. “There’s more where that came from. Let me know if you ever want another cup.” Without another word, she studied the board and moved her rook to the middle level. “Your turn, S’paak.”

[partisan-by-default]

As someone who uses Signal every day, I need to explain how totally committed to being an absolute dumbass multiple people had to be in order for this security leak to happen.

Okay, so in Signal if you want to talk to multiple people you have to create a group and give it a name, for example "JD Vance Humps His Couch." You then add people from your contacts to the group. If you are a competent user of Signal, you can then restrict the permissions so that only designated admins can add people. If you are an absolute dipshit whose only job qualification is pwning the libs on Twitter, you would create a group about war plans and not know about or activate this functionality.

If you are in a group and are allowed to add members, either because you are an admin or because the admin was raised on lead paint milkshakes, you then must do the following to add someone:

Click on "JD Vance Humps His Couch"

Scroll down to "Add Members."

Select one or more people from your phone's contact list.

Click "Update"

Confirm that yes, you want to add that member.

This is impossible to do accidentally.

Then, once you have gone through the multi-step process of adding a member, an announcement appears on the screen for literally everyone in the group to see: "JD Vance Has Added Chairry to the Group." This sentence is a line in a single-stream text thread and if anyone is reading their messages they cannot miss it. (If they are not reading their messages, one might wonder why they have been included on the chat to begin with.)

At this point, anyone can say in the chat or privately, Hey JD, why are you adding the bedroom-eyed plush chair from Pee-Wee's Playhouse to our chat about your upholstery problem?

Yet nobody in the war bro chat said a thing about the new member added to the group.

One other thing: Signal is supposedly a secure chat platform, but it is only as secure as whatever else people are doing on their phones. For example, if you send someone a Signal message asking about how to best protect your sensitive man parts against the sharp springs inside the voluptuous crack of your La-Z-Boy, you will later see ads in your browser for La-Z-Boy lube because your browser is spying on the things you do on your phone, even if the tech bros say they are not.

So even if the war bro chat were not full of hires from an affirmative action program for white fascist sycophants who graduated in the top 99% of their class, and they actually practiced basic common sense and literacy in maintaining their war bro chat, it would still be an insecure way of discussing matters of national security.

[hxneylavendxr]

obsessed with my mother's preschool students arguing over whether im a boy or a girl

[winwhenyoulose3]

i think this is a very well-crafted analysis of MCD!Laurance's character and i agree with many parts of it! but i also think it's a very biased take too.

the scene in which laurance approaches aphmau after the aaron-ghost-thing is definetly a telling one. he seemingly has good intentions to see if she's okay only for it to spiral and become something worse. it's fair to say this isn't his best moment at all but i do think it's unfair to this was vindictive and controlling of him..?

something about aphmau and laurance's relationship i often see people say (and something you mentioned) is that he pushes boundaries. physical, emotional, etc. honestly, i can see why people would think that. he kisses her unconsentually and often flirts with her. but nobody seems to mention that aphmau kisses him first. in one of his must vulnerable moments she kisses him unconsentually. and that moment accentuates this cycle in their relationship of miscommunication.

how can someone respect boundaries when there are none set? laurance never forces aphmau into anything she doesn't want, even from the first moment he confesses his feelings he says "I don't expect you to have feelings for me, that would be selfish" (season 1, episode 52, timestamp: 6:33). aphmau's the one who never gives a concise answer, never outright saying she doesn't return his feelings and never will. there's no clear denial. in less eloquent terms, she leads him on.

aphmau didn't owe laurance anything for his sacrifice. it was his own choice to stay behind in the nether. and she did her best for him afterwards by taking him into the village.

but she did owe him something, as a friend: clear communication. she knew he had feelings for her, never denied that she returned them despite him giving her ample opportunities to do so.

the phrases "laurance deserved better" AND "aphmau deserved better" can exist in tandem. both of them deserved better. the issue is that aphmau got her 'better' (aaron, garroth's return), meanwhile laurance was left in confusion because she never once communicated to him that she didn't like him in that way. she gave him hope and never quite took it all away.

"Lets be honest here, he basically abandoned everyone he apprantly "loved", because bro tapped it before he could."

sure, if you look at it from a basic POV. but this really does just boil laurance's character down to his love for aphmau. he doesn't only leave because aphmau is pregnant.

my lovely friend @bucket-o-h put it best with this message:

"The second it's him. The second he's the one that needs that support. Aph is too busy. Cadenza is scared of him and avoiding him. Everyone is ignoring what's going on with him. He's reaching out and nobody is there. He's accused of not being there enough for Aphmau. He's accused of being too aggressive and nobody wants to be around him because he's so angry all the time. Everyone is betraying him. The one person he thought he could trust is ignoring what's going on with him and is moving on and being happy without even considering him. His own brain is against him and everyone around him is convincing him that he's the problem, that his thoughts are the problem, that he is the one thinking them so he is the problem."

there's so much more to look at within this situation and it's pretty unfair to paint him as a "nice guys finish last" character because he's definetly not lmao.

laurance is by far NOT a perfect character. he's implusive and often too jokey and quick to judge people. but one thing you can't fault him for is being a good person at heart? he's kind and caring and loyal, especially to aphmau. that absolutely doesn't mean she owes him anything sexual or romantic in return, but he never gives off the vibe that he expects that anyway? he's happy just to be there for her while he can be.

i'm not going to pretend she doesn't owe him friendship though? he sticks by her side through a loooot of shit, is always willing to help her out and put himself in harm's way. with friendship, that means actually paying attention while your friends are struggling rather than brushing their feelings off to the side for other matters. aphmau talks to vylad and garroth and others about laurance's problems but never does anything other than "keep an eye" on him. there's never a conversation there to say she's there for him or to ask him what's going on in his mind.

he's treated as some sort of wild animal that will lash out if people go to close to him. add that to his own mind struggling heavy with the Calling, and you've got a distaster on your hands. in the end, he doesn't leave because he's upset about aarmau, it's because it's his last way of protecting those he loves from himself.

Ill admit ive never been that into laurence (any his variations really) but something has been really bothering me since rewatching parts of MCD.

What really caught my attention about MCD Laurence is that he starts out as this well adjusted, loyal knightly and charming guy- and then after he becomes a shadow knight you just see this slow decay of him. Like hes slowly losing parts of himself and its causing him to become more and more unstable to the point where by the end of season 2 hes honestly kind of terrfying.

And ALOT of that is reflected with how his relationship with aphmau starts to shift. He goes from this sweet, suave and honestly pretty silly personality, to being so obsessive and vindictive towards her.

Theres this one scene, at the end of ep 95 S2, where aphmau has just essentially seen a ghostly image of aaron and is really shaken up by it. Laurence comes to sit with her and ask her about it. And at first, it genuinely seems like hes just trying to get her to open up so he can support her. But then it quickly spirals into him demanding to know why she cares about aaron so much and why shes greiving so hard for him, like its a problem. He becomes so aggressive and condensending to the point where Garroth has to intervene and he walks off.

In this moment you see how far hes really fallen, he goes from semingly reasuring and gentle, and by the end of it hes disrepecting a dead man, who gave his life to save both his brother and supposed love of his life, who he travelled and fought along side with for months, who close to the end of his life was taking care of an orphan (something he comlimented in aphmau), and hes thowing all of that out the window because hes taken Aphmau's attention, due to the fact he fucking died.

After that happens, aphmau has a conversation woth vlyad where he basically tells her that laurence has to accept what he is and go to the nether or else hes gonna go insane, and that the only reason he came back is because hes "chasing a fantasy". Aphmau responds by suggesting they get cadenza over so that he can be with family, and vlyad says she can do what she wants but implies its pretty much inevitable that laurence is going to hit a breaking point. And hes completely right.

Before laurence even gets to speak to cadenza, he eavesdrops on the conversation where aphamu reveals shes pregnant, and just immediately peaces out, out of fear that hes going to MURDER HER.

Not to mention that in that conversation, cadenza herself tells aphmau not to tell laurence because shes scared of how he would react. He has gotten so unstable that his own sister, who loves him more than anything, can recognise that he is a danger to some degree and shes RIGHT.

All this paints a stark contrast, the laurence we first met vs the man he has now become. Its tragic because its this inevitable downfall brought on by an act that was completely selfless, him sacrificing himself that got him turned into a shadow knight in the first place.

Even this is eventually tainted, his selfless act becomes a selfish one as he seems to cling to aphmau's love and affection as an emotional crutch. Aphmau obviously loves and cares for him deeply, but not in an explicitly romantic/sexual way. And if she doesnt love him the way he wants, then why is he suffering through this? Why did he bother to sacrafice himself at all if theres no reward? Its honestly horrifying how pretty much everyone who loved and respected him, makes what should be incredibly out of place predictions on him, but they always end up being right except for aphmau. She cant accept that hes changing and theres nothing she or anyone else can do change that. Its gut wrenching.

This all lead me to beileve that i didnt give enough credit to his character. I love this. This is the type off tragic story telling im here for. Theres so much more to this character than i ever expected.

Heres the thing.

Why the fuck do laurence's biggest fans seem to just completely disregard this? If you believed a good portion of the fandom, laurence is just this sauve uwu sad boy who was unfairly rejected and ignored by a woman who demamded the world from him.

Im dead serious, i saw people saying that laurence "deserved better than aphmau", that he deserved someone who recognised the sacrafice he made. Which like- there is so much to unpack there.

First of all, aphmau did recognise his sacrafice, she did love him and try to support him in the best way she could, even when literally everyone around her was saying it was a lost cause. She did everything she could for that man and forgave so much of what he did while struggling with the calling and she got nothing but shit for it.

Second of all, no the fuck he doesnt?? As illustrated in the examples above he did not respect Aphmau's boundaries. He did not respect her feelings. And by the end, he didnt even respect her bodily autonomy. Lets be honest here, he basically abandoned everyone he apprantly "loved", because bro tapped it before he could. She loved him so much, but because he wanted something she wasnt willing or able to provide, that being explicitly romantic and sexual attention, he just didnt see it. To try and argue that hes the real victim here, is in the same vain of "nice guys finish last". Him being kind, compassionate and selfless- shouldnt be reliant on whether or not this woman will fuck him or not. That is an insanely misogynistic way of thinking.

But most important to me in the context of this analysis- what is there to like about laurence with this interpretation? What possibly sets him apart from the gazillion other brunette pretty anime bois? Am i to gay for this? Is there something im not seeing?

I understand fanon can wildly divert from canon, and i understand that alot of this is probably down to the fact that i find dissecting and critiquing canon more intresting than reinventing it through fanon. Im locked into the Baldurs gate 3 fandom and i had the same experience there (laurence fangirls got NOTHING on Astarion girlies). But both experiences have left me with the same question- what draws you to a character, when all you do is boil them down to their most generic aspects?

I find Laurence intresting cause we are seeing this man crash out and become a monster in real time. And i dont see how he is worth even an honourable mention, when you take that away.

What is there left to be compelled to?

[teh-nos]

i nearly anon'd the thorki non-con fic out of SHAME but in two weeks it's become my third most clicked-on fic of the year, behind only a multichapter fic and a bit of angsty sifki porn lololol

[cjsmalley]

Luna, Tim, and Thestrals:

Tim found the first few weeks of Hogwarts very lonely; nobody wanted to know a Potter in Slytherin, either because of his family’s politics or because of his House.

Harry and his friends had helped a little, chasing the loneliness away for a few minutes or a couple hours but Tim couldn’t rely solely on his brother’s friends for company.

The first night was the worst, he mused as he walked the lawns of Hogwarts; Draco had nearly blown his top when he found out the bullying had already started even then. Indeed, Tim now shared a room with his older cousin for his safety at night.

While he was thinking, his feet moved on their own accord to the Forbidden Forest and he found Luna Lovegood about to enter, with a stack of meats floating behind her.

“Oh, hello, Timothy Potter,” she said in her breathy, not-all-there way, “have you come to see the thestrals? I dare say you should be able to.”

He fell in step with her, feeling oddly safe, asking “What’re thestrals?”

Luna hummed as they followed a well-trod path, “Thestrals are a type of winged horse; but you can only see them if you’ve seen death. Keep up, Timothy.”

Tim had frozen, a bucket of ice-water poured down his spine, “What? How did you—?”

“Did Harry not tell you?” Luna paused, turning to the First Year in concern, “I can—Sense things about people, Timothy. Not a true Seer…story is, one of my ancestresses was a fae…”

She looked very sad, “You…death is all around you, Timothy. I won’t ask, but I’m sure Harry would like to listen if you want to talk. He has death around him too though it is quite different…come along now, we mustn’t keep them waiting.”

Tim began walking again, trailing after her as he thought. His mother, his stepfather dead because of him.

Luna led him to a clearing full of skeletal winged horses, their black hides stretched taut over their bones. Even the foals, for there were two gamboling around, looked close to death by starvation.

Luna walked into the middle of the herd, being allowed, and began handfeeding meat to the creatures.

She smiled and called softly, “Timothy, come in. They won’t hurt you.”

Nervously, Tim joined her and she shoved a hunk of meat into his hand, “Go on.”

Tim fed one of the younger thestrals and began smiling; they were just carnivorous horses. One of the foals came close, intrigued, and sniffed his hand.

Carefully, Tim began petting it.

“They sense your magic you know,” Luna said conversationally, “you must be very closely aligned with nature, wild magic. I have never seen them take to a stranger so.”

And so they talked magic for awhile as they interacted with the thestrals and then Luna led them out of the Forest.

Right into a frantic Harry and Draco, both looking out of their minds with worry.

“Bollocks.”

Wished Away 10

A Mother-Daughter Talk:

“When I first started a relationship with the Doctor,” Rose began, watching the man in question play with her little brother, their pseudo-daughter, and their actual daughter, “a real one, more than whatever the hell we were doin’ before, he warned me. No kids.”

Jackie gasped, “You mean he didn’t want a—?”

Rose gave a bitter laugh, “No, like, literally. We couldn’t have kids. Too different, genetic wise. He’d need another Time Lord or Lady, that’s what the women were called, Time Ladies, ta…Loom a kid with. He may have the parts, Mum, an’ be able ta use ‘em, but they didn’t make or carry babies like humans do. The babies were…best translation is ‘woven together’ by machines out of two separate DNA sources. Then they were given over ta professionals—like foster-parents almost. Nobody raised their own kids… He isn’t even sure how exactly his granddaughter was related ta him, just that she wasn’t a daughter but was a direct descendant.”

Jackie was gaping at her daughter.

“Not even Bad Wolf makes us compatible, even if we had a Loom. “Cause he’s shootin’ blanks…an’…’m sterile too now…”

“Rose!”

“I don’t…my eggs might still be good, but I don’t ovulate or get monthlies anymore,” Rose explained, “’m frozen, exactly how I was when Bad Wolf took me. Nothing ‘bout me can change permanently. I don’t even scar. Haven’t had to cut or dye my hair since then either. My nails don’t grow. I wasn’t ovulatin’ or bleedin’ so I don’t anymore. I never will again.”

“Oh, Rose…”

“I’d do it again,” Rose assured her mother firmly, “even if ya went back an’ warned me ‘bout all this. I’d’ve taken any help I could to save him…We’re lucky Bad Wolf’s so benevolent. She could stuff me inside my own head permanently an’ there’d be nothin’ we could do ‘bout it. Not even the Doctor.”

“Rose…what did you do?” Jackie whispered shakily, “When you first met Bad Wolf?”

“I don’t remember,” Rose admitted, “Bad Wolf says I traded my life for the Doctor’s—Jack’s only alive cause she was feeling nice—the mortal life an’ death ahead of me. All my possible futures as a mortal human woman, gone. I had one thought, Mum; the Doctor. I had ta get back ta him. Didn’t care ‘bout anythin’ else. Apparently, Clockwork says we’re literal soulmates. I’d’ve survived his death but I would—either grieve for the rest of my life or gone absolutely crazy,” Rose smiled sadly, “an’ I woulda…I didn’t have a kid ta hold on for.”

“Me an’ Pete…?”

“Soulmates, or Bad Wolf says; both of them. Just like Pete here lost his Jackie, you lost your Pete. An’ it was some major meddling for you two ta meet,” Rose’s smile turned brighter, “between you an’ me? Think Bad Wolf had a hand in that somewhere.”

Jackie nodded faintly, before questioning, “What ‘bout Jenny? If you an’ he aren’t compatible then how…?”

“We’re not sure,” Rose shrugged, “after her physical, after we got her home, the Doctor took samples; she belongs ta both of us but we’re both still incompatible an’ sterile. Then he took more samples from her; she’s genetically sound, everythin’ matches up where it should. Time Lord DNA’s doin’ the heavy-liftin’, but she registers as partly human too. Bad Wolf’s not talkin’. Neither is Clockwork.”

Jackie gave a slightly hysterical laugh, “Rose, if you told me years ago that aliens were real I’d’ve thought you drunk! Now here we are, talkin’ about gods an’ immortality! While your alien husband—”

“He’s not my husband,” Rose murmured, an old argument she didn’t really believe anymore.

“Uh-huh—as I was saying, your alien husband plays with your little brother, the girl cloned off you both, an’ the girl you accidentally kidnapped.”

Rose smiled again, lovingly as she looked to her family out on the front lawn of Tyler Mansion.

They had come a long way from Hendriks’ basement.

[thevioletcaptain]

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