#not entirely sure how I feel about this but it exists

[siriuslylantsov]

be my valentine

pairing: spencer reid x reader

description: in which, spencer asks you out after a hearty but incomplete info dump on the history of valentines day.

tags: fluff! idiots inlove, gn!reader, reader is briefly described as shorter than spencer, teasing!spencer, grumpy!reader, penelope is an angel and i love her so much, reader shitting on valentines day and raising some very valid points.

a/n: based on this request, second fic for the event!! i know its still four days till valentines day but! if i didnt get this done now it would've been late. i rewrote this THREE times... but i rlly like how this version came out! happy reading :)

wc: 2.1k

it's your lunch break and you’re glaring at yet another sappy couple that walks by you. grumbling, you take another bite of your blueberry muffin. spencer laughs from his seat in front of you, amused by how your lip curls into an irritated pout. the two of you had walked to a cafe, a brief reprieve away from the frenzied police department you were stationed at for this week's case. 

“motherfuckers,” you seethe, still chewing your food. “i hate valentine's day.”

he laughs again, his tone sarcastic, “really, i never would’ve guessed.”

your glare shifts to him as you cross your arms. his grin is still there, annoyingly persistent, you hate that it doesn't affect him as much as it should. if you told him this, he would’ve told you that it didn't pack much of a punch. 

you roll your eyes and continue with a heavy scoff, “it's just another fake holiday, you know. like mother's day. created by greeting card companies trying to commercialise a day that shouldn't even exist honestly. every day should be dedicated to showing your loved ones how much you care, not just 24 hours in the middle of february.”

he accepts your cynicism with a smirk, completely accustomed to it. he knows you don’t mean it, not entirely, you just like to rant. “you know valentines day actually goes back about 2000 years. i’m sure greeting card companies weren't around back then,” he corrects, biting his lip in suppression.

your eyes narrow into slits, feeling the faint shift in the air of an incoming info dump. you ignore the way you want to hear what he has to say and take a sip of your coffee instead. you stall to torture him a bit, it's funny how he squirms.

“really,” you drag out, stroking your chin in exaggerated contemplation. you stare at him knowingly, he wants to continue but he's waiting for you to give him the green light. you laugh quietly, mood already improved, “go on.”

spencer visibly brightens, sitting up straighter and hands springing into action. “well, valentine's day has a really fascinating and somewhat convoluted history,” he starts, almost giddily. “the earliest accepted theory can be traced back to the roman festival of lupercalia, which was celebrated from february 13th to 15th. it was a fertility festival dedicated to faunus, the roman god of agriculture, and it included a ritual where men would sacrifice a goat and a dog, then use strips of the goat’s hide to whip women-”

“wait, they used goat skin to whip women?” you interject, eyes widening incredulously.

“yes! they willingly lined up for it too, believing it would make them more fertile,” he explains, far too animated considering the context, but it's okay. you like his enthusiasm. 

you grimace, “weird.”

“right. however, the day of love that we now recognise was brought by st. valentine, though which valentine is unclear—there were at least three martyred saints by that name. the most famous story involves a priest in third-century rome who defied emperor claudius ii's orders by secretly performing marriages for young soldiers,” he pauses to take a breath. you use it to bring your coffee back up to your lips, hiding your smile.

“claudius believed single men made better warriors, so he banned them from marrying,” he clarifies to which you nod. “when valentine was caught, he was executed on february 14th, which is why he’s the namesake of the holiday. some versions of the story even say that he sent a letter to his jailer's daughter signed ‘from your valentine’ which could be the origin of the modern tradition.”

“huh,” you pick your lip in thought, spencer hides the way his eyes dart down to them as you do it. “but that’s still an execution, how did it-”

the shrill tone of your ringtone interrupts you. “mhm, okay,” you respond when you pick up the phone. “we’ll be right there.” 

spencer stares at you expectantly, reaching over to grab your bag. he secures it over his shoulder and stands up. 

“it was jj,” you explain, stuffing the last bits of muffin into your mouth. “wi’ness ‘howed up.”

the food-muffled words make him chuckle and hold out a hand for you to get up. you let him pull you up with a dramatic huff, still holding his hand as you dust crumbs from your lap. you realise it a little too late and let go with a start, frown returning when you realise he isn’t going to let you carry your bag.

the walk back only took about five minutes before but this time's slower pace makes it a longer ordeal. comfortable silence brackets the two of you until it doesn’t when spencer speaks up.

“so, there's actually a lot more to the history of valentine's day. for instance, how the day became one of romance instead of, as you said, one that marked a martyrdom. we could, i don't know, discuss this properly over dinner. or drinks? or ice cream, i know that you like ice cream-”

filler words... he’s nervous. amid his rambling, he doesn't realise that you’ve stopped in your tracks. 

“-we can do whatever you want, i don't mind.” when he looks beside him and doesn't find you, he turns around. he can scarcely read the expression on your face, he usually can. this causes a little bout of concern to bubble up, “what is it?”

“are you asking me out?” your question is immediate, blunt, as a confused crease forms between your eyebrows.

well shit, he was. his lips part as he processes what he just said, he looks a little like a deer in headlights the way he stares back at you. was that too much? are you mad? did you want him to ask you out? what if you say no? he should say something. what if he messes everything up? he can’t-

“spencer,” his name rings out softly, pulling him from his spiral. 

his eyes snap to yours, searching, desperate to read between the lines, to piece together what you’re thinking like he always does—except this time, he can’t. he squeezes his eyes shut before opening them again, “yes.”

he swallows hard and adds, “on a date.”

“i got that,” you murmur, stepping closer to him, and closing the distance that he unintentionally left.

his head dips, voice small. “i didn't mean to make you uncomfortable.”

your head tilts slightly, studying him. “you didn’t.”

the reassurance eases him a little but not enough as the anxiety claws at him while he waits for your answer. your phone sounds again from your pocket, this time a text from morgan. you quickly type out a response–got lost, be there in 2. it's a pathetic excuse, if you focused, the station was in your direct eye line. but you needed to say something. 

“okay.”

he can't help the sign of relief that slips out of him, you giggle at the sound. when he looks at you again, he's unmeasurably happy to see your poorly concealed smile, breaking out in his own matching one. 

“yeah?” he asks sheepishly.

you nod, chewing your bottom lip, “yeah.”

your eyes squint at the corners, a side effect of the same grin that those sappy couples had been sporting, the same one that you’d been complaining about a little while ago. it makes you want to kick yourself, so you do the next best thing. you take hold of spencer's hand and drag yourself back to the pd. spencer shuffles somewhat behind you, trying to keep up with your stride. it doesn't take him long with those long legs of his.

his thumb strokes your knuckles gently–deliberately, you feel–but he pretends it's an unconscious action with the way his eyes are trained ahead. it makes you roll your eyes. when you near, you reluctantly let go of each other, the moment being the last time the two of you are alone for the rest of the day.

-

the team ends up solving the case a few hours later, taking the jet home where a valentines day baking spread is set up in the briefing room. all set up by the resident tech savvy. penelope tells you later that it took a whole week of convincing on her part, insisting that it would be quick and she’d clean up, and that everyone would get home to their own valentine's day plans in no time. 

there are a few heart-shaped helium balloons floating in the corners, and pink streamers in easy to reach places. the room is drastically more inviting, maybe the tones of fuschia and bubblegum have something to do with that. a cake and a bowl of suspiciously dyed punch reside on the table, along with pink plates and cups.

“penelope,” you gasp when you see them.

perfectly curated baskets of chocolate and cookies and associated items for everyone. you pick up the one with your name on it and inside you find: a candle, your favourite candy tied together with a little bow and a letter signed ‘happy valentines day, sweetheart. love, penny xx’. 

oh my god, you could kiss her. 

“it's like christmas,” emily muses from the other end of the table. you hear jj mutter something in agreement. you peek over at spencer, it's probably the hundredth time that you've snuck a glance his way. his eyes were already on you every other time, only now they were accompanied by a pair of red heart-shaped glasses, the clear plastic lenses offering a perfect view of his hazel orbs. the picture makes you laugh to yourself, you can barely hear it echoing from his end. 

-

about 30 minutes later, only the stragglers are left. in better words, the single people. the individuals with partners having rushed off to their own respective plans. you're making small talk with another girl who worked around the office when you feel a light hand on your shoulder, spencer nodding his head toward the elevator to signal your leave. you politely wish her goodbye and walk out with him. 

“cute glasses,” you tease, bumping his shoulder with yours, though the height difference makes it so you're nudging his upper arm. 

“yeah? i might get the lenses medicated, switch them out for my regular ones,” he jokes, his elbow nudging yours gently as he pushes the bridge of the glasses up the slope of his nose instinctively. 

“good idea,” you nod.

“you think?”

“mhm.” 

once again, he beats you to your bag, swiping it from your chair and carrying it along with his own. you meekly toy with the hem of your shirt as the two of you walk to the elevator. 

“so, bummer that neither of us have plans today. it’s so early,” you say, being blatantly obvious with what you're suggesting.

spencer only offers you an indifferent “yeah, bummer” in response, walking in when the doors slide open. when you look at him though, he's anything but indifferent, the corner of his lip pulling up in a crooked smile, irritatingly smug. you don't know where he gets off on being so at ease but the expression on his face makes you scowl as you follow him in. 

he is silent the whole ride down. you become increasingly annoyed, only faltering slightly when his hand reaches down to hold yours. his fingers thread between yours and you not-so subtly curl yours over his, ignoring the way he looks down at you. 

you try not to smile at the domestic picture of the two of you walking out hand in hand. thankfully the basement is empty. he pauses between your cars and mutters a quick “see you monday” before loosening his fingers and turning to walk away.

“spencer,” you groan, almost a whine as you squeeze his hand before he can let go.

he responds immediately, without missing a beat, “yes, angel.”

fuck.

you want to melt but you don’t want to give him the satisfaction. “would you like to do something tonight?” you grit out begrudgingly.

“i would love to,” he agrees, pulling you closer with your hand. your gaze darts to the two bag straps on his shoulder and you realise he had no intention of letting you go just like that. so you shove him, a little hard that he stumbles a bit. he huffs a laugh and you shake your head dismissively. 

he slowly, tentatively, dips down to press a soft kiss to your cheek. your eyes flutter shut at the contact. 

“how does thai food sound?” he asks, that same bashfulness creeping into his voice that you love so dearly. 

“sounds perfect.”

you share another sweet smile that would probably make you gag from an outside perspective but now it just makes you feel dizzy. he leads you back to his car, muttering something about how he’ll pick yours up tomorrow morning. you want to argue with him but that same dizzy feeling stops you.

you can't help the dreamy sigh that slips out when he connects your hands again over the centre console. thank god for st. valentine, you think.

reblogs and replies are appreciated :) | m.list

divider from @saradika-graphics

[frogsandfries]

I was introduced to the concept of zines in college, because of a partnered creative project. The first zine I ever contributed to was about social media. It did cost a fortune to print because it was done at the school's favored print shop, in full color.

I don't know how prevalent small bookshops selling zines used to be before the age of the internet, but I think I've only been to one bookshop that sold zines. Which is a real loss, imo. I wish there were more small bookshops and that I had more opportunities to explore zines. I think it's kind of inevitable that the internet caused things to change. Chicken wings and ribs used to be poor people food until they got gentrified. Printing on paper used to be the only way to access and disperse information. Now that we have the internet, it's unfortunately not surprising that zine making has been gentrified.

Plus, I'm sure a lot of people who would like to make zines wouldn't know what to put in one that they'd actually like to share with people. Furthermore, it can be hard to swallow the concept of "if I spend five dollars, I can share this with (let's say three people, for example)" when I can hit reblog or forward or send or submit.......for free.

And then there is the cliche of turning your hobby into a grind. If I can spend five dollars, make three zines, sell them for three dollars apiece, etc etc, maybe I don't need enough money to sell a hundred zines, I just need money to make fifty and I can use the rest of that money for groceries or rent and still keep making fifty zines every time I want to make a new one.

Oh, let's not forget that a lot of USians don't carry cash often if ever, anymore, so now I have to factor in the cost of card transactions, into the cost of my zines. Most people aren't going to find themselves in an avant garde bookshop. Most people may not even find my zines on Etsy or Shopify. This kind of forces an (optional) evolution: if I make a fifty page basically a proper magazine, but because it's full of (idk messages about the best places for poor people to eat in LA), I 'can' call it a zine, I can sell it on like, Amazon, or use a Kickstarter and distribute it nearly infinitely.

I can't look at zines through a pre-internet perspective. I don't have that perspective. I understand that zines should be accessible to those who have very little if any money left over after Life. It can feel tempting to make the flashiest, full color zine. It can feel necessary to print your twenty page zine in full color. It can feel necessary to do the entire thing on the computer. It can feel necessary to make it as professional as possible. It can start to feel like making an "old school" black and white, no computer, xeroxed zine is going to get your zine looked over because it's not flashy enough and nobody likes plain ole boring black and white. Or if I add a cardstock cover, maybe my zine will look a little more professional.

I think a lot of us don't come into zines with any kind of mentor to guide us and regulate the culture, and us younger folks come into it with a mindset that we have to have in the rest of our lives: one upsmanship. If the last guy or the first zine we ever saw had a really professional looking cover, we need one full color page. If that guy used a black and white cardstock cover, we need a color accented cardstock cover, we need a glossy full color cover.

Anyway, all this to say, personally, I don't think zines are the right medium for my creative endeavors. I don't think I say this as like, begging for someone to prove me wrong. I say this as a person who cannot tell a short story. I don't need to rely on zines to get my fanfic (although, even if AO3 did not exist and a monthly zine was the only way to get my Spirk fix, personally, I still wouldn't know where to get some sweet sweet Spirk zines; but that's a me problem).

I feel like I'm about twenty-five years too late to the zine scene.

the whole point of a zine is that it's cheap to produce, amateur and homemade. if you're being asked to apply to participate in a print project, it is not a zine. if the final product is being printed and bound professionally, it is not a zine. if you are being asked to enter into any kind of licensing agreement more complex than "my work can be reproduced as part of this publication" it is not a zine. nine times put of ten if the final product costs more than $5 you have left zine country. im so serious about this.

[breelandwalker]

Oh no. What's wrong with Silver Ravenwolf? I feel like I see them recommended everywhere...

Yeeeeaaaah, it's an ongoing problem. Her books were wildly popular for over a decade and they're were widely marketed as THE Book To Have for beginner witches by Llewellyn, which was the heaviest of the heavy hitters in occult literature at the time.

The problem with Silver Ravenwolf is largely that she is wildly out of touch in a very New Age White Woman kind of way. Her books tout loads of misinformation, appropriation, and historical revisionism that are simply not acceptable (i.e. claiming victims of witch trials were actual pagan witches, citing a fictional ancient matriarchal goddess religion that never existed was the basis for Wicca, leaning into the hereditary superpowers / indigo child / starseed narrative, etc). Besides which, the theories she posits contradict each other from page to page and chapter to chapter, claims a Gardnerian lineage which can’t possibly exist, and trumpets Buckland’s personal theories on the Burning Times and interpretation of the Threefold Law as if they were fact.

And thanks to her runaway popularity, those of us who instruct and answer questions from newer witches have to UNTEACH all of this nonsense.

If it were simply a matter of being a product of her time, I could forgive some of the nonsense. But she’s still selling mammy dolls on her website, though she labels them as “primitive” and equates them to “positive voodoo dolls.” Yes, she's been confronted about this, and yes she doubled down. I don’t think I need to explain how gross and racist this is on SEVERAL levels. She's been given opportunities to show growth and self-work with regards to her work and simply refuses to believe that she was ever wrong about anything.

So, her books aren't entirely worthless by any means, but they require a LOT of critical reading and a strong understanding of actual history and science. Furthermore, she leans rather hard into a borderline cult mentality that boils down to, "Nobody understands you, but because you're drawn to witchcraft, you're SPECIAL, probably because of some ancient hereditary superpower, so don't worry - Mama Silver understands you. Also, there's no need to read further into anything, just take my word for it."

I would not recommend them for beginners, which is a problem because that's exactly the demographic her work is marketed toward. (Personally, I would not recommend them for anybody, but that's just my opinion.) They require so much effort to fact-check and unpack that it's almost not even worth the time and energy for whatever ideas and information you might actually find useful.

For more details, I suggest the following articles:

Continuing Anger Over Silver Ravenwolf

The Problem With Silver Ravenwolf

Trae Dorn (@traegorn) of BS-Free Witchcraft expands on the topic in this video. They've been wrestling with this issue for YEARS within the Wiccan and wider witchcraft communities and I'm sure they could cite examples I've missed.

[introsquirrel]

Rereading murderbot (again) and just got to art's introduction.

And like, art doesn't play nice with other bots. It bullies them, it intimidates them, it will hurt other bots to get what it wants if it doesn't want to waste time hacking it.

And it tries that with mb. I mean, info secunits is probably like 80% propaganda, 15% corporate promotions, and 5% actual development and research, almost exclusively focusing on what they are designed for and how they got there.

It's out there, about to start a boring transport/recon mission, and one of the most dangerous and feared entities basically jogs up to it and goes "hi, I'm a friendly bot, like super friendly, totally nothing suspicious here. Can I have a ride? Here's a GIANT file of pirated media"

And it's still a bot, just a bot with organic parts. Art is a research vessel and it's curious, and this is a rare opportunity to get info on secunits, which are probably a huge pain in the ass to deal with on its missions, with almost no practical info about them. Also, this might be an indication that someone has caught on to its antics and it probably wants to nip that in the bud.

And it turns out the huge file of pirated media isn't secretly a virus or malware, and looking at it's movements, Art can see that it isn't actively hostile towards humans. Unexpected, but hey. Points to this weird construct. But that might not be it's goal.

And then it sits down and starts sorting and watching media so art is like alright, it's obviously not here to fuck me up and it has no idea what the hell I am. Let's make sure this moderately dangerous condtruct doesn't get any funny ideas.

I don't think art was going for friendly in the slightest. I think to wanted to scare mb to make sure it didnt try anything. I think it expected mb to get pissed or argue.

But mb basically shuts down. It stops everything and huddles into a chair and i imagine that it does its best impression of a secunit in stasis.

And when art is like "I mean, don't fuck with me, but you can still watch your TV shows" mb responds with something that would not be in construct research outside of very clinical and vague explanation.

It shows art that it expects art to hurt it. And it's shows that it can be hurt, that it has been hurt, and that it probably has some trauma related to this hurt. It also probably accidentally added some context to the punishment recordings. I'll bet mb was punished for not wanting to hurt it's clients.

And art... well, mb said in the first book that being half human half bot isn't two conflicting sides, but just a whole of what it is. It isn't human, it isn't a bot. It is the culmination of both. A sentient entity that was developed by humans for slavery and spent its entire existence being punished for having free will.

Art is also a sentient entity that was developed by humans for a purpose. But it was treated with love and respect and it's free will was celebrated, if tempered.

Imagine thinking you are one of a very exclusive group of entities that has been categorized as something that is a gross misconception of what you are and what your capabilities are. Art is a bot, which are not humans and dont have rights because they don't have feelings or wants or desires and cannot feel pain. You think you are a very unique entity, no one has done this before.

But they have. The proof is sitting, frightened in your body and you had no idea. Mb is as capable of evil as any human, and as capable of destruction as any bot. You are also cable of extreme evil and destruction. But you are loved and cherished. This entity, this thing is as human as you, moreso even, and it has spent its entire life being hated and feared and it chose instead to just coexist when given the chance.

Art says "I'm sorry I frightened you". Not, I didn't mean to frighten you. And then mb grumpily (which is understandable!!) Lets art watch media with it.

Like, art just met the dumber more compact prototype version of what it could have been and went "wait no this is cool actually." Mb can't br programed to turn against its crew, it processes it's feeling both organically and inorganically, it can hack and learn and be loyal and be angry. And it has no idea what it's doing or what it wants, but it's VERY good at security.

So yeah, I can see why art kind of latched onto mb. And why it told it's crew about this strange little secunit it found on its mission. Kind of like finding someone SUPER cool who just gets you on a level no one else has been able to. Someone who coordinates so flawlessly with you but still is able to challenge you when it needs to. Someone who loves and is exasperated by humans as much as you, even as you need to be "human" to be able to interact with them.

So yeah. Mb and art, first meeting. Perfect 10/10 can, have, and will read again

Edit: ALSO ALSO art gets to watch media with full context for the FIRST TIME IN ITS LIFE. Mb can process human emotions into data automatically and now it gets to experiencd fictional story as it's meant to be experienced for the first time and mb is so so indulgent of it and kind to it, letting it take time to process things and rewatching parts with it when it wants to.

Jdjdhdhdhej fuckin LOVE THESE TWO

[nanamincreampie]

Taming the Tie

Nanami Kento x Black plus size reader

Taming the Tie

Pairing: Nanami Kento x Plus-Sized Black Reader Trope: Quiet Boyfriend x Enthusiastic and Goofy Girlfriend

Nanami Kento was never late. Ever. His entire existence revolved around schedules, efficiency, and structure. But today, for the first time in a long time, he was running behind.

His jaw was tight as he fastened the buttons on his crisp white dress shirt, fingers working with precise, yet hurried movements. His tie, however, was another matter entirely. He attempted to loop the fabric around his collar but ended up creating a tangled mess.

From your spot on the bed, you watched with a barely contained grin, lounging comfortably as if you weren’t witnessing the great Nanami Kento—your boyfriend, the embodiment of composure—actually struggling.

“You know,” you mused, propping your chin on your hand, “for someone who operates with surgical precision in combat, you really suck at tying a tie under pressure.”

Nanami shot you a dry look, exhaling sharply through his nose. “Not now.”

“But what if I want to help?” you pouted dramatically, rolling onto your side. Your curls spilled across the pillow, dark and soft, a beautiful halo framing your face. The warm, rich glow of your skin contrasted against the light sheets, and you knew Nanami noticed, even if he pretended not to.

“I don’t have time for your antics right now,” he muttered, struggling once more.

“Oh, but you do,” you countered, pushing up from the bed. “Because if you try to fix it yourself, you’ll end up looking like you let Gojo dress you.”

That got a reaction, a brief flicker of horror in his eyes. Before he could protest, you stepped in front of him, grabbing the silk tie from his hands. “Relax, Mr. Punctuality, I got this.”

Nanami didn’t argue, but the way his shoulders eased told you he appreciated the help, even if he wouldn’t say it aloud. You took your time, fingers expertly looping the fabric, making sure the knot was snug but not too tight. The scent of his cologne wrapped around you, warm, woodsy, and distinctly him.

“You’re making your serious business face again,” you teased, flicking your gaze up at him.

“I always make this face,” he replied, voice low and even.

“Yeah, but right now, it looks like you’re about to give a TED Talk on the importance of fiscal responsibility.”

Nanami huffed, his version of a laugh. His eyes softened as they traced over your features—the fullness of your cheeks, the brightness in your eyes, the way your lips curled into a mischievous smile. He loved how expressive you were, how effortlessly you filled every space you entered with warmth.

Your body pressed against his as you finished, the soft plushness of you molding against the firm planes of his chest. He inhaled slowly, grounding himself in the comfort of your presence.

“There,” you announced proudly, smoothing down his tie. “Now you look even more handsome.”

Nanami stared at you for a moment, then let out a slow breath. His hand lifted, fingers threading into your curls as he cradled the back of your head. With quiet reverence, he pressed a lingering kiss to your forehead, his lips warm against your skin.

“You are the only chaos I willingly tolerate,” he murmured.

You grinned, wrapping your arms around his middle despite his halfhearted protests about wrinkling his shirt. “You love my chaos.”

Nanami sighed, resting his chin atop your head for just a moment longer before finally stepping back. “I’m going to be late.”

“Then you better hurry, babe.” You patted his chest. “Can’t have the world’s most responsible man showing up late and disheveled.”

His gaze flicked over you one last time, something unreadable in his expression, before he shook his head and turned toward the door.

And as he left, you had a feeling he’d be thinking about you the entire time.

[jaybejaybeyes]

Thanks for your response! I just want to clarify a few points.

Why should he grieve Salo’s death?

A year passed between acts 1 and 2, and even if Salo didn’t join Viktor’s commune right away, I think he was there for a couple of months. And leaving didn’t seem like an option (I’ll get back to that). If Viktor truly saw the commune members as people worthy of respect, it’s only natural to assume he would’ve formed some kind of bond with them — especially as their leader, living alongside them all that time. Or did he deliberately keep his distance, never engaging, while they unquestioningly existed around him? That’s a rhetorical question — canon doesn’t answer it, and I don’t expect you to either. But if that’s the implication, it only makes things more unsettling.

Now, about leaving not being an option — based on Salo’s unusual behaviour, I’d argue that Viktor’s healing process altered more than just people’s bodies. It also changed their personalities. That’s why, IMO, none of them ever had a choice to leave after the transformation. And that’s the point I’ve been making — both here and in my original post. Viktor never saw the commune members as individuals. But not in a “they’re my lab rats” way. More like a “they’re my fish and I gladly take care of the fish tank” way.

Nope, you are definitely wrong.

I think the key misunderstanding here is the idea that having good intentions and being a control freak consumed by fear and delusion are mutually exclusive. They’re not. I never said that Viktor consciously thought this way. His fears are simply his blind spot. Yes, he genuinely wants to help people, but he also fails to recognise his deeper motivations.

That’s why he ends up not just healing them, but altering their appearances, possibly their personalities, and making them entirely dependent on him. Whether or not he meant to, he severed them from their past lives and gave them new ones, all based on his vision of what’s good, while seeing no issue with it. Sure, in his mind, he’s pursuing a goal that is undeniably noble: making the world a better place. But that exact mindset, coupled with his failure to recognise his blind spots, is what leads to the final battle. That’s what makes Viktor’s symbiosis with Hexcore so dangerous.

That said, none of that makes him an evil mastermind bent on ruling the world. He’s a flawed human who makes mistakes, and he just happened to wield a power that could reshape human souls. I think Viktor is a great example of how even the best and most genuine intentions can end up causing a lot of harm.

The theory that he was mind-controlled by Arcane is interesting and valid, and I agree that Arcane played a role in his changes. But I don’t think that’s the whole story. Viktor was always a complex character with both good and bad traits, and I believe Arcane’s corruption did no more than amplify some of them while dulling others. I don’t see why the fear of losing control would be OOC for him. People can fall into extremes, and Viktor’s extreme (regardless of his connection to Arcane) was the belief that peace could only be achieved by eliminating any potential source of conflict in people — including their literal free will — and imposing that belief on everybody around. Personally, I like to view his arc as his response to the trauma of dying in the bombing rather than his possession by Arcane. But that’s just me.

Oh, that is interesting. Did suddenly "the end justify the means" or becomes murder a great deed, if the right character is killed?

And I feel like I should address this as well. First, with all due respect, I’d appreciate it if we could avoid passive-aggressive language. Second, no, I never said Jayce did a great thing by killing Salo (though one could argue that by then, Salo was already dead — overtaken by Viktor — and was essentially just a robot).

What I did say is that I was surprised by how people reacted as if Jayce had destroyed something pure and sacred when he killed Viktor, because I found the commune suspicious from the start and assumed Jayce had a deeper insight into what was really going on. And as we saw later, Jayce did see the commune as the lifeless constructs Viktor was turning them into. But remember, except for Salo, Jayce didn’t touch any other commune member. His goal was to prevent the world from becoming the nightmare he saw in the parallel reality — in other words, to stop Viktor. And stopping Viktor was exactly what he did.

Viktor’s commune always gave off creepy vibes, but for me, the path it was taking became crystal clear at the start of ep6. That first scene basically spells out the extent of Viktor’s corruption and how far his actions and mindset are from any kind of altruism.

Think about it: Viktor sees Jayce kill Salo through Salo’s eyes. He’s connected to Salo but doesn’t even try to comfort him, verbally or mentally, or ease his pain with magic in his final moments. He just stands there, watching. Waiting for Salo to die, staring at Jayce. The only time he flinches is when Jayce lunges forward, and Salo dies abruptly — his vision cuts to black.

And look at Viktor's face when it happens. That’s not horror. That’s not astonishment. That’s not grief. It’s… mild annoyance, I'd say?

Like, ugh. Jayce didn’t get it. He didn’t appreciate my work. And now he’s also destroyed one of my puppets. Sounds pretty frustrating, doesn't it, Viktor?

Then Sky says, “poor Salo”, and Viktor? Immediately pivots to, “That’s not Jayce. It’s another will at work within him”. And a moment later, he’s fascinated by the Anomaly. Salo’s gone, and no one spares him an extra thought.

And that’s the thing about Viktor’s commune — it was never about the people who joined it. It was never about understanding them, helping them, or connecting with them. It was all about Viktor’s desperate need to be in control, about his refusal to confront suffering, pain, and all the messy, complicated parts of being human. From the very beginning, it was about Viktor going, “well, the end justifies the means”, but there’s nothing kind or humanistic about that philosophy, because it always comes at the expense of people’s lives. The end never justifies the means.

And honestly, I was surprised to see how many people were mad at Jayce for blasting Viktor at the end of that episode. In my opinion, by then, it was quite clear that Viktor didn’t care much about his Arcane-modified toys. He wasn’t even pretending he did. Salo wasn’t a person to him. None of them were. They were just tools, stepping stones for his glorious evolution.

And all of that was right there in the first scene of ep6.

[yu-huuuu]

ohhhh I want to see uchihas men when they want to confess to their crush or smt 😫🤭 (if it's too much just do obito and madara lol)

[ 🌸 ] sure, sure lmaooo

characters: itachi uchiha; obito uchiha ; madara uchiha

genre: fluff ;;

warnings: none;;

…

..

.

Itachi Uchiha

—Oh, my man

—Well, if he were less shy, he’d confess his feelings without a problem

—Which would be great

—But the thing is, the guy isn’t just shy—he’s also clumsy when it comes to socializing and interacting

—And even more so when it comes to flirting or giving compliments

“What are you looking at?”

“I… uhh… your legs look good in those jeans…”

”…Do you think they’d look better without them?”

“Why would you take off your legs?”

—Bless his humble heart

—He’s not doing it on purpose, I swear

—The poor guy is just a little awkward

—Anyway!

—Months would go by as he tried to gather the courage to finally tell you how he feels

—Though it’s easier said than done (poor guy keeps stumbling over his words)

—He’s also trying to picture what it would be like to have you as his lover

—His clan would accept you, though not without some resistance, even if it’s mild

—He’s just pulling a few strings

—And oh, how bold, he thinks

—He’s doing all of this as if he were sure you feel the same way

—His poor heart beats for you, and you have no clue

—Lmao

—Anyway!

—Don’t be surprised when one day he invites you to train, only for you to find him sitting on a blanket with food, offering you a soft smile with slightly flushed cheeks

—The sight alone is enough to make your knees feel weak and oh—!

—The butterflies fluttering in your stomach

—Some say the best way to confess to someone is under a cherry blossom tree, but Itachi doesn’t think so. Just having you close, whispering tenderly what he feels and every promise his heart has made to you in the silence of that afternoon, is enough for him

…

Obito Uchiha

—Haha

—Oh, isn’t it funny?

—How this man feels so many butterflies in his stomach that he might just explode

—His voice is surprisingly soft and light. Whether you place him in an AU where nothing happened or he’s in Akatsuki…

—Anyway!

—In a normal, soft AU where nothing ever went wrong,

—He’s always trying to start a conversation with you, no matter how clumsy or silly it is

—Trying to gather enough courage to tell you how he feels, but—if Obito is in Akatsuki, he will never tell you how he feels

—Lmao

—But he will protect you until his plan to trap everyone in an illusion is close to completion

—He thinks you deserve the entire world and a reality far from cruelty in the dream of the Infinite Tsukuyomi

—Literally, his idea of creating a fictional world just for you only grows stronger

—You are his strength and his life, even if he never tells you

—Because for some reason, he decided that was the better choice

—Lmao

—He believes that in that fictional world, everything will be better, and maybe the two of you can have a story together

—And that, if you dream of him, he can give you the happiness you deserve—the one he could never give you in this world corrupted by death

—He thinks this world is too rotten for something like love to bloom between you

—And maybe…

—Just maybe, he feels himself slowly regretting it inside

—When his fingers move involuntarily, yearning and aching to caress your cheek, or when he daydreams about kissing your lips because…

—oh my god!

—Why do you have to be so beautiful?

—Why did he have the misfortune of the woman he loved having to exist in such a cruel world?

—To him, you are an angel

—A beauty that must be protected from the world’s cruelty

—For Obito Uchiha, there was no better way to show his feelings for you than by fighting to keep you away from the harsh reality that threatened your existence

…

Madara Uchiha

—Aahh

—Madara is a funny case

—He thinks you are worthy of his affection

—He also thinks you’re one in a million

—Why?

—Because you managed to catch his attention—something no other woman ever did before

—Your charisma, your eyes, your flushed cheeks, your soft lips that seem as gentle as the fluffy clouds decorating the sky fill him with a tenderness he has never known before

—You are so beautiful that he feels he doesn’t deserve you—because he fears corrupting your purity

—He fears taking away that innocent, soft glow that adorns your gentle eyes

—Even though he knows you are a strong woman, he will always have that fear

—Believe him—nothing like this had ever happened to him before

—Madara Uchiha? Afraid of hurting someone? Since when?

—And yet, there he was

—Looking at you with a tenderness that even he found strange while he listened to every word and giggle you let out as you told him something that—had it been anyone else—he would have found mundane and a waste of time

—You completely consumed his attention—he realized

—And he didn’t complain about it

—In fact, he liked it

—Lmao

—He even accepted that the butterflies in his stomach, the way his heart jumped when you smiled or laughed at something he said, the way he, in the privacy of his mind, carefully stored every memory—every little detail that might seem insignificant but was so important to him—

—To him, every sigh of yours was a gift

—And that’s how he realized that he could never be with anyone else but you

—It was you, or no one else

—So don’t act so surprised when this man asks for your and your parents’ permission to court you

Me watching that I still have to finish eighty requests to finish all of them

[smilesrobotlover]

Here’s a list of characters that I think should’ve made it in Hyrule Warriors:

Groose. 100% he should’ve been in hw. Each era of characters seem to follow a theme of two heroes and 1 villain (in regards of the main story at least): oot has Ruto and Darunia, and tho he’s not exact I sorta count Volga since he looks like Volvagia, tp has Midna and Agitha and Zant, but skord only has Fi and Ghirahim. Why wasn’t Groose the second hero character for that era??? He’s one of the most important characters in the game and the groosenator is IN IT too! It feels disrespectful to NOT have him in it yet he’s not. I don’t understand the logic behind it but it makes me upsetti spaghetti because Groose is the best guy around

Rusl. This is definitely bias talking cuz I love Rusl but also I feel like it makes more sense. Now… I like Agitha in tp. I think she’s a very fun and charming character that adds more life to the world of Tp, but she’s not an important character in that game. You could go the whole game without meeting her and have no consequence (tho she gives you great prizes so it certainly doesn’t hurt to see her), but for some reason she was added to Hyrule warriors? I just don’t think it makes any sense when the resistance were right there. Rusl is one of the most important characters in the game by being Link’s father figure, protecting the kids, being apart of the resistance, and teaching Link how to fight. It feels more natural to have an actual fighting character that was important to the plot be added, but he wasn’t. And this random child who is not a fighter and has no plot relevance was added instead. I will forever be salty about this. And if not Rusl, they should’ve at LEAST gone with Ashei since she’s also a fighter! Give the resistance some love! They’re such cool characters that were not utilized enough! UGH

Vaati. Now I don’t care too much for Vaati in the canon games, but Vaati is a very unique villain because he’s the most reoccurring villain besides Ganondorf in the Zelda series, and he was the first villain of Hyrule before Ganondorf came into existence. I feel like he should’ve had a chance in the game, maybe not in the main story, but at least a playable character. Now, tbf, Vaati is in games that aren’t super well known save for Minish cap, but still. In the world of zelda he’s very important and I feel like deserved a spot on the roster.

Now this isn’t in the actual Hyrule warriors game, but it is a hw game and I think Astor fits on this list. You’re telling me this guy was the main villain in the entire game save for the final battle and he WASNT playable?? HUH???? That is the most absurd character on this list to not be added cuz he’s not some side character, he’s the VILLAIN. Even Sooga became playable (tho that was DLC) but he WASNT! Astor was done so dirty in this game and he deserves so much better. He should’ve been playable is all I’m saying.

I surprisingly don’t have a strong opinion on this cuz idk how they could do this well but I feel like I must say this out of obligation, but Linebeck… and solely cuz I need him so bad. I want to play him in something or see him in something or do SOMETHING with him. I miss my wife tails… again, idk what they could do but they did add Medli so I’m sure they could’ve figured something out. He’s easily one of the most important characters in phantom hourglass and I would’ve love to see him 😔💔

And that’s all I have. I’m curious what other characters people wish were added to Hyrule warriors :00 but these are the big ones for me.

[radioactive-earthshine]

Hey idk if you're the right person to ask but can you tell me please if Bart and Hal have met/interacted in canon? If so, what is their relationship like?

Unfortunately, Bart and Hal have almost no functional personal relationship.

The thing is, during most of the time when Bart was in continuity Hal was either 1.) Parallax or 2.) dead.

So Bart didn't get an opportunity to really interact with his grandfather's boyfriend best friend personally. Bart's primary Green Lantern was Kyle.

However, Bart is still very much aware of him, and we do have him interacting with his name, his concept, and his memory on a few occasions.

Here are a few moments I can remember easily, this is not exhaustive, this is just what I can remember right now.

1.) Bart's first MAJOR event ever was Zero Hour! Bart was a part of Zero Hour where he almost was obliterated from existence. I wonder what Hal might have done if he knew who Bart even was at this time because he could not have known about him...

2.) Bart went to Hal's funeral.

Green Lantern (1990) #81

3.) Bart's own little fantasies where he is yearning for his grandfather have Hal as part of them. Look at the note on the fridge, it's small but it says "CALL HAL", so he knows he was close to his grandfather.

Impulse (1995) #46

4.) Impulse: Bart Saves The Universe's entire main plot centralizes on Hal never becoming Green Lantern and Bart's need to put time back together to make sure that happens.

As for them interacting face to face we only have brief professional moments after Hal is brought back to life.

The one I can remember easily is during Bart's Flash run where Hal shows up and he urges Bart to seek medical care.

Flash: Fastest Man Alive #9

Again this is not exhaustive.

Their relationship is pretty distant. They both are aware of each other, they both respect each other, but Hal isn't taking Bart up in his jet, and Bart isn't going on ring-slinging adventures with Hal.

Honestly, they would likely get along VERY well if they got significant time to get to know each other and work together. Hal and Bart both share some strikingly similar personalities and go with their instinct and gut more than planning things out so I feel that Hal would understand him and how he thinks on the job. I also think Hal would extend him more patience and allowance than most do, not just because he would understand him more, but also because he is Barry's grandson.

[megamindsupremacy]

-Wow, this family thing is going great! It sure is nice Having a Family, Annabeth thinks. I should call my other dad who I adopted by force and see what he's been up to, because this whole Family Thing is really swell. I sure hope normal things are happening on the Chase side of my family!

-Fredrick then immediately calls Annabeth because Randolph has been calling him freaking out about how he lost Magnus (totally not Randolph's fault, very complicated circumstances) but Magnus is turning sixteen in a few days and we Gotta Get Him Soon Now Come To Boston

-Fredrick, now aware of the godly weirdness happening in the world, has a feeling this is also some Godly Weirdness and so contacts his adoptive daughter who is constantly ass deep in this sort of stuff to see if she can help. Also, he knows Annabeth has been trying to reconnect with her bio dad's side of the family and she might also be interested in reconnecting with Magnus if possible.

-I gotta go to Boston, Annabeth says to Percy, but it will only be for one week, and so far the plotlines haven't really crossed over chronologically, so that's probably the only strange thing that's going to happen at this exact moment, right? okay, bye

-I sure hope no god-turned-mortal falls out of the sky and needs my help during this less than a week you'll be gone, percy agrees, because that definitely would be weird. okay, love you, have a good time tracking down your probably demigodly cousin in boston

-so Annabeth meets up with Frederick in Boston and the two of them go find Randolph who is LOSING HIS MIND in so many different directions right now. His nephew who he kicked out onto the streets is missing for some definitely unrelated reason. His brother who he hasn't seen in years is here (to be fair, Randolph told him to come). That random fucking kid his sister adopted who got her killed is ALSO here. The kid and his brother are calling each other family. The kid has a bone sword and wants to know where her cousin is and why the fuck he's out on the streets instead of living with him. etc.

-Do y'all remember that one scene in Sword of Summer where Magnus is lying in a ditch (?) when Annabeth and Frederick walk by discussing plot-relevant information (randolph called us to boston to help track down magnus! his sixteenth birthday is super important! man, we really need to find him soon!) where he can hear it? Imagine his confusion in canon, plus the fact that he thought Annabeth was dead for YEARS along with his mom, plus he later learned Annabeth isn't related to him at all and his mom just kinda claimed some random kid as her own. Plus Annabeth allegedly isn't Frederick's daughter, but here she is. with frederick. who is aware of her existence and treating her like his daughter

-so obviously Magnus, like in canon, does Not try to go talk to them, because he's dealing with a lot as well, what with Hearth and Blitz acting weird af already and Randolph apparently trying to track him down after kicking him out then ignoring him for years

-Again, plot things happen like they did in canon. Magnus gets randolph-kidnapped. He falls off a bridge. He dies. Etc.

-Annabeth has exactly one day to flip her entire shit and scream/cry/have a crisis about Magnus dying, how it could have been prevented, whose fault it is, the fact that her cousin that she remembers fondly is dead before they had a chance to reconnect, the fact that she is now helping plan a funeral, the fact that it was definitely some weird fucking giant who killed him and now she has to be on alert for another godly threat. etc. crashing out, if you will.

-then she walks into the funeral home and sees Magnus standing over his own dead body, looking decidedly alive, and she goes "ohhhh okay yeah this is a His Problem sort of thing. not Greek. not my problem. okay cool". She and Magnus obviously want to talk because there's.... a lot that's they need to talk about, but again Magnus has his own problems going on and they need to be addressed immediately so she just gives him her number and tells him to talk to her as soon as he's done with his quest.

-hey annabeth, Percy says in an iris message like twenty minutes later. you won't believe this but a god-turned-mortal fell out of the sky and needed my help while you were gone. crazy shit ik. anyways i crashed the car into a tree and got attacked by a peach demon but otherwise we're all good here in new yawk city, how are you doing

-doing great, annabeth says, because technically she is doing great now, crashout notwithstanding. magnus died but i guess he got better, also we were right he's Definitely a demigod of some sort and now the poor fuck has to go on a quest. i'll stay in boston until his whatever is done with. okay, love you, hope nothing else interesting happens in the meantime. bye!

Has anyone else been insane about the Annabeth Chase Is Bruce Wayne's Daughter AU? Does anyone else even know about it? Hello? Is anyone out there? Hello?

[blorbologist]

i read your tags! also same wrt vaxleth just being given their happy ending; it's not just that vm had nothing to do with it and it was all bh, it's that bh didn't even do it on purpose and it was essentially just a side effect of their actions

Hi anon - exactly!!! I can't get into much rambling atm, but it's so frustrating that the beautiful ending of C1 was undone as a freebie. And potentially even *more* than undone, if Vax is still an immortal Celestial.

(I'm sure Vax would love outliving his sister when he offered his life and service to save her in the first place. But hey never-ending romance am I right???)

It would be one thing if VM decided to weigh in more heavily on what happened with the gods, if say Pike had to consider inflicting this on Sarenrae (and to a lesser extent Vex and Scanlan on Pelor and Ioun, but hey they're just chosen hm?) to get Vax back. The closest we get to sacrifice was Vex dying, but a) ... I'm sorry but she’s died a Lot and she still came back anyways with no long-term repercussions b) that was to get Vax un-orbed, not completely get him 'back.'

VM were at best mildly inconvenienced (nothing was permanently lost or changed that they chose), got to have a nice victorious evening, then Vax was tossed back like a bonus prize regardless of his feelings on the matter. It feels like an afterthought, an excuse - oh while we're at it lets 'fix' what was a beautiful ending, because apparently it wasn't all that beautiful to us.

I could have been sold on this being a bittersweet thing - on Vax having changed, on Keyleth having changed, their respective responsibilities burdening them, to the point this is difficult for both of them. But the fact it's framed as them pretty much... a neat bow to wrap things up? It's not earned - by VM, by Keyleth, and it makes Vax and his entire character, his entire sacrifice, feel like a trophy. You handled 30 years without your boyfriend, congratulations! Here's a cookie.

Idk. To anyone stinging about this finale - or those just mildly bothered but they can't put their finger on why - I'd encourage you to rewatch something you know has a satisfying happy ending. See it done right.

I'd ramble about how Fullmetal Alchemist (manga and Brotherhood) is another example (like Dungeon Meshi) of a happy 'resurrection' done right (except it's shorter term, bar Al' body coming back which was a long-term goal - and it's focused on the platonic bond like the Touden siblings, though there is a romantic bond present and involved) - but my arm really fucking hurts so despite my ire I'll shut up.

No, wait: I'll end on part of Ed' final narration:

"There’s no such thing as a painless lesson, they just don't exist. Sacrifices are necessary, you can’t gain anything without losing something first."

[myderis]

anaxa 'n fem reader ᰔ fluff ⊹ word count 0.5k

“ANAXA—” 

“Rule number one,” Anaxagoras interrupts, as he holds up his hand making you pause mid-sentence. He is always so oppressive, it's like he's someone of a very high caliber, and it doesn't matter even if he is, he might not act so mean when you want to talk to him.

“Fine. Anaxagoars,” you huff, crossing your arms and rolling your eyes, “But you’re not fooling anyone. You’ve been avoiding my question for weeks now. Come on, you know what I’m talking about.”

The Sage glanced back and you saw the faintest gleam of annoyance crossing his otherwise emotionless face. “If I knew, would I be standing here enduring your never-ending prattle,” he replied dryly. “Enlighten me, what is it you believe I’m hiding?”

"Don’t play dumb. It doesn’t suit you."  

"Neither does your constant need to interrupt." Each word that left his mouth was dripping with sarcasm. There’s no denying that it’s in his blood to speak and act that way. "Rule number two: silence is golden. Perhaps try it sometime."  

You rolled your eyes once again. “You’re telling me you’ve never been interested in someone? Like—ever?” He stopped walking, turning just enough for you to see his arched brow. “What a waste of time,” he said, not daring to give you more answers

Sighing, you tried to mask the frustration bubbling inside you. “A waste of time? Then why do you tolerate me?”

His lips quirked into a sly, knowing smile, but he said nothing.

“Don’t give me that smug look! If you don’t care about people, then why—” Why does he have to be so… so him? Quiet, distant, like the entire world revolves around the pursuit of truth and knowledge. He could spend hours debating the existence of celestial beings, but when it comes to human emotion? Absolutely clueless.  

"Why can’t you just admit it already?" you snap. "You know how I feel, and I’m not blind. I’ve seen how you look at me!"  

"How I look at you?" he repeats, tilting his head like you’re an experiment gone wrong. "What an astounding observation. Truly, your skills as a logician are unmatched."  

"Don’t pretend this doesn’t mean anything!" Your voice rises more than intended to do so. His lips twitch again, it’s not a smile, you’re not sure what is it anymore. "If you’re referring to your unexplainable fascination with me, it’s hardly a secret. Your melodrama makes it rather… obvious."  

Heat rises to your face. "Just tell me if you have a crush, Anaxa—”

He smirks faintly before gently flicking your forehead. “First,” he said, his fingers still on your skin before he did it again, and you flinched back, rubbing the spot. “never call me that. Second, you’re hopeless.”

“Hopeless?”

"It’s useless to get so angry," he says with a shrug, already turning away. "The reason and the answer to your question are more than obvious. If you can’t see it, perhaps your next pursuit should be self-awareness."  

And just like that, he leaves, and you stood there, stunned, as realization slowly dawned on you.

© MYDERIS. do not translate, plagiarize, or steal my work.

[mythalism]

So i've heard one FFXIV expansion was the perfect exact Solas story blueprint the writer definitely played and should have followed step by step for great success. I see you say cyberpunk was the perfect exact Solas story blueprint the writer definitely played and should have followed step by step for great success.

Both statements are pretty intriguing !! I don't know either so I'm wondering, is it the same story in a different setting or are they developping different...subthemes... if that's even possible

Thanks :D have a nice time over there

yesss i have heard the same about mr. emet selch. ffxiv is on my list!

as for cyberpunk its basically exactly what veilguard tried to be but far better executed. its actually nearly the exact same premise and i am absolutely positive that they took heavy inspiration from it considering the timeline of cyberpunk's release matches up with when veilguard was beginning its development (~2020)

basically, your character (V) gets this guy (johnny silverhand)'s consciousness stuck in their head when a mission goes wrong via the sci-fi version of fade-jail blood magic (a computer chip in ur head). johnny also happens to have blown up a building 50ish years ago with a nuke and killed like 15,000 people in pursuit of vengeance for the death of someone he loved, and is remembered as a terrorist. you can't take him out of your brain, or you will die. you have to get him out of your brain though, because you will also die if he stays. your entire quest is you trying to get him the fuck out of your head without dying. however he's not just someone you go pray to and chat with (4) times in an empty, disconnected realm. he is a near-constant presence as you go about the game. you see him visually in the world in front of you. he pops up constantly, he sees through your eyes, he feels everything you feel and he comments on all of it. he is heavily involved in main quests, often providing commentary and giving important exposition as you track down people he used to know when he was alive & embodied. but he also is regularly present in side quests, whether that is being a dick to you, ranting about the evils of capitalism, or lecturing you to have empathy for a guy who is grieving the loss of his pet tortoise. you also experience his memories visually. not as an outsider, but literally AS HIM, in person. these are entire gameplay sequences where you play AS HIM. including fucking his ex girlfriend who is voiced by alix wilton reagan. anyway. im sure i dont have to go into further detail on how mechanically this is everything that the solas/rook relationship needed to be to be compelling, to connect the new protagonist to the stakes of the blight and the evanuris, and to flesh out solas's ending with the narrative weight it deserved by letting him actually EXIST WITHIN THE WORLD... anyway. its fine.

i am actually only like 24 hours in, so i actually have no clue how the game ends or how any of this wraps up, so i cannot say if it is the perfect blueprint for his story. but on a gameplay level of how solas should have been integrated into the game world? yeah. its insane that they had this right in front of them and just... decided to keep him in fade time-out for the entire game.

if you are interested in learning more i would refer you to meryl @elf-trash and @scaryanneee who are the foremost scholars on johnny silverhand studies and the reason i finally played the game after it sat in my steam library for a year. xoxo

[lore-grandma]

When the vice captains realize they like reader, or when they confess (I still have not figured out how to title things)

Notes: some of these characters are written to be platonic (ortho). now why am I writing for a character that’s a child, idk. I was considering making it so that way reader is also an ageless robot, but since reader is yuu and I don’t want to fuel you creeps. Most of you are at minimum 13 years old but I don’t have the statistics and most of y’all are probably way older than ortho. Also as per last time reader age is dependent on the character’s age, at minimum a year younger, excluding lillia. Because he’s an old man and unfortunately you’re human. So at the youngest reader is probably in their 30s to 40s. Since I’d imagine that lillia is more like the equivalent of 50 mentally.

Trey

Ok so I don’t see him as a love at first kinda guy. I also don’t think he’d fall in love just because you helped riddle. He’d appreciate you. I see Trey falling in love during the azul arc. You put in so much effort to take care of people that don’t deserve you. I think a relationship with Trey would just happen naturally but I also see him pulling you aside and confessing.

Ruggie (I know he’s not a vice captain)

Mmmmmmm I sorta see him as a love at first sight kinda guy. But it was more like “hey they’re kinda cute.” Probably started to consider it more of a possibility during the azul arc during training. You just help so much despite the shit the whole dorm put you through. And yeah they’re housing you because of azul but you still helped you still participated. Ruggie also appreciated your cleverness. Ruggie would probably stay around you enough to be considered to be in a relationship

Jade

I see jade as being really intrigued by you during the entrance ceremony. He forgot about your existence until exams and a whole influx of new workers came in. The flutters in his stomach only truly arrived when he was trying to get you to not when the bet with azul. He found your fear and feeble attempts to out smart him amusing and admirable. He notices how beautiful you look when the whole gang goes back to the museum to return the photo. Jade probably wouldn’t out right confess but would start gifting you things that can be perceived as romantic (idk anything about eel mating rituals so enjoy this half baked ending)

Jamil

I think Jamil’s feelings towards you from before his blot and after were overall neutral. The most he felt afterwards was likely guilt. Because yes he had tried to use you to in someway convince the rest of the dorm to overthrow kalim, trapping you inside the dorm. That doesn’t entirely negate the fact that he still overblotted. His feelings are most likely feelings of embarrassment. You know that scenario about the purge universe where about how if you tried to kill your boss but couldn’t do in time for it to be legal so now you’re going into work, having to have a stare down with your boss. And sure they could just fire you but also it’s the purge, the boss has so many coworkers he’s killed instead of just firing. (Sorry I got a little too in-depth despite not actually watching the movies) anyways so it’s that level of awkward. Jamil probably starts to develop feelings when you still continue to be nice to him despite the nearly dying. He’s confused, there isn’t even a feeling of hate within your kind words. You’re not looking down on him, why are you being so nice? Why are you smiling just as truthfully if not more as you would with everyone else? Why is your smile reaching your eyes when conversing with him. He doesn’t understand, he was in the wrong. Jamil would fall in love because of your forgiveness. He’d probably bottle up those feelings until kalim sets you guys up on a date. Or you guys get locked in a closet. Idk.

Rook

Genuinely I don’t understand what’s going on in this guy’s head, and neither would you. This man commends a lot of people for doing the simplest of tasks. So I think for him to fall in love was when you committed so much to saving grim during idia’s arc. Sure your main goal was to ensure grim was ok but you also gave a shit about the others. And that’s admirable enough for him to take an interest. Rook is the very few here that would confess his love so loudly. There’s no it just happening, no literally everyone in school has the exact moment you guys became a thing. They know exactly how it happened in great detail too.

Ortho (I KNOW HE’S NOT A VICE CAPTAIN)

This one is platonic. So I intentionally wrote the title to have like instead of love because I knew if I did ortho it would have to be platonic because ortho is so baby that even if a person was ortho’s age you’d feel bad about having a crush on him. Anyways so in this situation it’s platonic, like the moment ortho realized he likes you as a friend. I think ortho would think about you becoming his friend was during the auditions. The moment ortho announced that he was your friend was when idia was playing video games for the crowd. Also before I end this I’m only claiming ortho to be the vice captain because he’s the only other character in the dorm that we know. Maybe if this game didn’t give us new characters that aren’t from events. I want the official ingnhyde vice dormleader to arrive halfway through the story.

Lillia

Lillia heard about you as a person from malleus. Yes he was there at the ceremony but he didn’t care to get to know you. Yes he’s friendly but he’s not going to go out of his way to do so especially when he’s acquired more work to do. He took more note of you during Leona’s overblot. I think he’d be intrigued by this point, but isn’t in love. It’s hard to say when he’d realistically officially fall in love because the story isn’t over with. But I’d imagine this would happen after many years of friendship. He just doesn’t seem like the type that would date seriously during his schooling years.

[girlwith15cents]

Oversharing on the internet about ADHD

I've been trying to write this post for awhile now. It relates to my previous post about mental disabilities. But it's proving difficult cause it keeps sounding too pathetic, but that's kinda the point.

I, in my present, have an idea of who I am. My interests, how I act, how I dress, who I associate with, my gender expression. These are all observable things. Ways that other people can form opinions on me. These are, by most means, who I am.

However, who I want to be is pretty drastically separate from that. I know a version of me that I can try and project but will always fall short of. I want to learn and enjoy makeup. I want a larger wardrobe of clothes that I genuinely like. I want to learn an instrument. I want to get into streaming games for fun. I want to be able to take my friends out to dinner and buy them gifts and go around the city with them. I have so many ideas for tattoos and I have piercings I want to get. There are so many things I want and yet cannot have and have no real avenue to get.

The reason I cannot reach for these (very reasonable) things is because of my lack of capital and personal agency. Extremely debilitating executive dysfunction has stripped me of any milestones of adulthood someone of my age might be seeing. I've never been able to hold a job without growing deeply suicidal due to the effort required. Hobbies cost money. Rent costs money. Expressions of the self cost money. I have always had to exist within the confines of someone else's generosity to take care of me. It has stripped me of opportunities to grow as a person. It has made me less and less who I want to be and more who I am.

All too often because of this people don't take me seriously. Financial burden that I am, I have learned to make myself small better than any other skill. I choke up when asked to assert my wants. I put others first. I'm quiet and guarded. Any strive to make myself the person I want to be feels deeply embarrassing. Like a child who is convinced they're something they aren't. So people who meet me see the child. They see the loser who won't take steps towards employment because they're lazy. They see the girl who orbits a social group but never belongs. They see a nice girl who has far less desirable qualities than the other candidate for this job position. It hurts so fucking bad to be condescended to without any ability to rebut it.

So when does it end? When I find work that won't end up being the death of me? When our government wises up and pushes for UBI or expands upon disability payments? When they invent adderal that doesn't have a million side effects? When I get sick of it and give up? There's no real end in sight, and every time ADHD gets laughed at as a pop-psych joke it gets further away. Am I doomed to be a child forever? When will I see the respect I know I deserve?

And sure, pathologizing behavior is 'bad'. Maybe the answer to all my woes is to grit my teeth harder than I already have been my entire life. Maybe the real reason I see no forward movement is because I'm projecting my own helplessness. But can't it be a little easier? Everyone else is having a rough time, but at least they're having a time. The behavior I exhibit is very normal to neurotypical people on a bad day, but it makes up my entire existence. And it sure feels a hell of a lot more severe than someone having a day of bad focus.

The fucked up thing about it is that I like me. The present me and the me I want to be. We both have so much to offer. We're both one of the best friends you've ever had. We both have skills and qualities that make us very likeable people. But these qualities have little to no monetary value. Any way that I could monetize it would also require investment. Investment that I cannot make without agency. So I'm stuck as a vague bundle of good qualities and talents that everyone sees so much potential in and is eagerly awaiting a moment where I channel it somewhere. A moment that will never occur without agency.

[eltheabberation]

Short little thing I typed up

“What is this?”

Yan turned over the small, see-through bag in his hands, brow furrowed as he looked at the contents.

“It’s a gift,” Houji said. “For Valentine’s Day.”

Yan looked up at him. “Isn’t that a western thing?”

“We have in Japan too.”

“Hm.” He opened the bag and pulled out a piece of chocolate. He glanced back over at Houji, eyes narrowed. “I can’t eat this.”

“It’s traditional.” Houji smiled. Yan muttered something under his breath, then sighed and put the chocolate back.

“Thank you,” he said begrudgingly.

“You have to pay me back next month.”

“Or I could kill you right here and now,” he said. Houji chuckled.

“Oh, could you?”

In response, he brought a hand up to Houji’s head and ruffled his hair. Houji narrowed his eyes.

“You are terrible,” he said, running his fingers through his hair, trying to brush the loose strands back into place.

“I’d have to be” — Yan smiled — “to put up with you.”

Houji paused for a moment. Finally, he pressed a kiss to Yan’s cheek.

“Happy Valentine’s Day,” he said. Yan turned away and closed his eyes.

“Happy Valentine’s Day.”