#nothing to do with anti kara

[remythologise]

zero and yuki is a deep cut, people suffered

not to be anti-feminist on main but looking back Yuki was annoying as hell and Zero deserved better. having said that #grateful to know I had good enough taste to ship Zero/Yuki even if I had bad enough taste to engage with that series at all

[narraboths]

“You got anything to tell me about yesterday’s interview, Ponytail?”

Being cornered by one’s editor is rarely a good sign. Being cornered by a harried Snapper Carr one month into her tenure as a rookie reporter would be enough to give others nightmares for a month. Maybe ulcers. Kara, though, she’s been having a great week, and she’s not about to let anyone ruin it.

“Nope.” She pops the p a little. Something about Snapper’s moroseness always pushes her to be spitefully chipper.

“Nothing out of the ordinary?”

“Not at all.”

“Hm.” Snapper nurses the thought with that dour, toothachey look that Kara’s come to learn is directed at her just as much as it is a sign of his general displeasure with the world. He pulls out his phone, jabbing at the screen. “So do you mind explaining to me why my cub reporter is on the front page of every gossip rag from here to Metropolis as the Mystery Blonde Caught in Luthor’s Web?”

That can’t be right is immediately the tip of Kara’s tongue but it freezes there, along with the incredulous laugh threatening to burst out of her, because Snapper is shoving his phone in her face and–

“It’s not what it looks like,” she blurts out, instinctively, then winces at her own choice of words. Great save. “I was just being considerate.”

It’s true, really. She was only holding the door open for Lena as they left L-Corp (Lena was on the move the whole day, they did half of the interview in the back of her Range Rover, flitting between offices), and it only happened that Lena’s hand fell to her forearm, a completely innocent gesture, as innocent as Lena’s smile, as the way she swayed a little closer, saying thank you as she strode by. And sure, Kara may have felt mesmerized for a single, fleeting moment, suddenly so deeply flustered by the gentle weight of Lena’s hand that she almost cracked the door handle in two, but who wouldn’t? Lena Luthor just has a remarkable presence. Why are they letting paparazzi camp out at the L-Corp doorstep, anyways?

“I’ve never seen Luthor that affectionate with anyone.” Snapper eyes Kara suspiciously, his face screaming why you of all people, bumbling rookie who can barely even spell?. “I’ve never seen any of the Luthors affectionate with anyone at all.”

“Guess it’s just my natural charm, sir.” Kara flashes the most annoyingly innocent smile she can, then squares her shoulders. “Did you actually read my article?”

There’s a beat of silence, Snapper staring daggers at her. Then finally, finally, he lets out an annoyed huff.

“Of course I read it. It’s going out first thing tomorrow.” He pockets his phone, then rubs his face with a tired motion. “Make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

“You got it, boss.”

-

It happens again.

It happens again a bunch, really. (Kara at the L-Corp gala, at Lena’s table, the two of them in lively conversation, shoulders pressed together – she was telling me about L-Corp’s new green energy initiative, sir –, the fond smile and almost-teasing tone when Lena calls “yes, Miss Danvers?” at her press conference – she’s just nice! It’s not a crime! –, the candid of them on the CatCo balcony when Lena’s in house for her cover shoot, Kara gesturing excitedly and Lena leaning against the railing, hanging onto every word, a jacket two sizes too big wrapped around her shoulders – you know it gets cold out there. At least there’s no photos of her wrapping the jacket around Lena, their hands brushing together, the faint blush along the lines of Lena’s throat. That’d probably look pretty suspicious.) Snapper’s face takes on increasingly vivid shades of purplish red.

“Do we need to go over the meaning of journalistic integrity again, Danvers?”

Kara decides to take graduating from “Ponytail” as a win.

“We’re not– it’s not anything untoward,” she shoots back, arms crossed, only slightly blushing. In anger, certainly. “I’m doing my job. I grilled her on L-Corp still holding a contract with the government for anti-alien defense systems that Lex negotiated, just last week. There’s footage.”

“Yeah,” Snapper grinds his teeth so vehemently that Kara’s afraid he might crack a crown. “Footage of her hugging you in the hallway afterwards, too. What the hell were you doing?”

“She just thanked me, sir.” The vein on Snapper’s neck looks ready to burst. Kara makes a mental note to recommend meditation at a less belligerent time. “She said my question made it possible for her to make a public stance and really send a message.”

Snapper looks like he’s nearing an aneurysm.

“Hell, Danvers, that sounds even worse!”

It sounded pretty great, actually, Kara thinks, after the borderline unprofessional row they had in Lena’s office when Kara first broached the subject. It felt pretty great, too, not just Lena’s declaration, her renewed commitment to reject everything Lex and Lillian stand for, but the warmth of Lena’s pressed against her, her lips brushing against Kara’s cheek, the low murmur of “you’re such a wonderful friend” in her ear that gave her such a strange shiver. At least that much thankfully escaped the prying eyes and cameras.

“Either I don’t go near her, or CatCo continues to have the leading stories on one of National City’s most high-profile citizens.” She gives Snapper the steeliest look she can muster without letting her heat vision flare up. “And my covers are currently bringing in our biggest numbers. Sir.”

Snapper grinds his teeth again, but his shoulders sag just a touch, and Kara knows she’s won this round.

“You’re on thin ice, Danvers. Back to your desk.”

Kara complies with a grin and a thumbs up, and decides to take a break half an hour later, when Alex forwards her an article titled Bosom Buddies: Lena Luthor Out And About With CatCo Gal Pal with a subtle mix of skull, knife, and eyeroll emojis. She does save one of the photos, though, the one where Lena’s head’s thrown back in adorable, delightful laughter.

-

“Can you explain this one, Danvers?”

Snapper doesn’t look angry this time. No, he’s strangely calm, somewhat elated, even, slamming a whole bundle of newspapers down on her desk, jolting Kara out of her reverie. Half of them are National City publications, Kara vaguely notes, but there’s Metropolis and Gotham and Central City in the mix, too, as if it was the story of the century. Must be a slow news day.

“Of course, sir. I think the proper term is ‘first date’?”

To her greatest surprise, Snapper barks out a laugh, loud and gruff.

“You’re now barred from any future reporting on the Luthors or L-Corp,” he tells her, not without a touch of satisfaction. If Kara hadn’t been walking on sunshine for the past thirteen hours, twenty-eight minutes and forty-one seconds, since the first tentative press of Lena’s lips against her own, she might’ve felt a bit miffed. “Cat Grant’s setting aside a little time later in the afternoon to chew you out personally.”

Kara nods happily along. Withering tones and grim disapproval, the usual spiel, as if anything could dull that buzzing, electrifying feeling coursing through her body since last night, the weightless, feverish joy that grips her every time she thinks of Lena’s last text and everything can’t wait to see you again tonight could possibly entail.

“Yessir.”

“Congratulations, Danvers.” Snapper raps his knuckles against her desk. “Let’s spare each other the heartburn from now on.”

- 

(Kara shows up with a hickey on her neck and the headlines of Lena Luthor Packs PDA With New Girlfriend the next day. Snapper refuses to look her in the eyes for the rest of the week.) 

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

Crisis on Infinite Earth's, Lena's POV

On a ship filled with hundreds, maybe a thousand people, Lena is alone. She feels it keenly as the anti-matter wave draws ever nearer, and Alex draws Kelly close where they stand on the other side of the bridge.

She imagines countless others doing the same throughoutthe ship, maybe even reaching for strangers in the absence of their families, perhaps already lost when Earth was destroyed.

How fitting, Lena thinks, that she leave this world as she lived it. Alone. Solitary. The sparse periods of companionship brief and too often based on falsehoods. But she didn't enter this world that way. She had a mother, one who loved her until the day she died.

She reaches for that warmth now, digging deep inside her mind for the memory of it. But to her shock, the hand she imagines reaching for her in the final hour doesn't belong to her mother.

It belongs to Kara.

Surprise is the last thing Lena feels before she's rendered into nothing.

[mariacallous]

The presidential election called for January 2025 in Belarus will be the “reappointment of Lukashenko by Lukashenko himself,” exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said during a panel at the Halifax International Security Forum on Saturday. 

Aleksandr Lukashenko, who has led Belarus for the last 30 years, announced plans to seek a seventh presidential term back in February. Tsikhanouskaya ran against Lukashenko during the last presidential election in 2020, sparking the biggest anti-government protest movement in the country’s history. The government responded with a large-scale crackdown on dissent that forced tens of thousands of Belarusians to flee abroad, including Tsikhanouskaya herself.

Commenting on the upcoming vote in Belarus, Tsikhanouskaya underscored that this will only be an election in name. “We all understand that in dictatorships, this ‘event’ dictators are holding is a circus, it’s imitation, it’s ritual, but it has nothing in common with elections. In our case, it will be the reappointment of Lukashenko by Lukashenko himself,” she said. 

Of the six nominal opposition candidates registered ahead of the 2025 vote, two have already dropped out of the race and publicly endorsed Lukashenko. Commenting on the lack of genuine challengers on the ballot, Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza, who moderated the panel in Halifax, said Lukashenko “learned his lesson” after allowing Tsikhanouskaya to run in 2020. 

Tsikhanouskaya also warned that the Belarusian authorities are trying “to destroy” any remnants of dissent inside the country ahead of the vote. “The repressions we’ve been going through for four years have intensified. We see how the KGB [the Belarusian security services] and the OMON [riot police] are already practicing how to suppress any uprising,” Tsikhanouskaya said, adding that Lukashenko’s recent threat to shut down the Internet in order to prevent protests is “a sign that he feels very fragile.”

“Lukashenko is still afraid because he sees that Belarusian people are not giving up,” Tsikhanouskaya said, pointing to the organizational efforts of those living in exile. “We restored our media, we restored our civil society [abroad], and we have many networks of volunteers inside the country who provide us with information. [There are] people inside Lukashenko’s system who are leaking insight for us, so he is afraid of being betrayed constantly.” 

At the same time, Tsikhanouskaya acknowledged that people inside Belarus are unlikely to protest the 2025 vote openly, given the regime’s preparedness to suppress dissent. “I don’t want people to sacrifice in vain,” she said.

These so-called elections will not change anything politically for the Belarusian people. Lukashenko will not become legitimate in the eyes of Belarusians and I see consensus among our democratic partners that they will not recognize him [as president], that they will not return to business as usual. But we have to create more pressure. 

Tsikhanouskaya expressed concerns that the plight of political prisoners and ongoing repression in Belarus have become normalized on the international stage. “We have to remind the world that these things are happening and that it’s not normal,” she said. 

Belarusian citizens living abroad are still under threat of transnational repressions, ranging from physical threats to problems renewing their documents, Tsikhanouskaya added. “We can’t renew our passports because embassies are blocked from doing their job. And very soon we will have at least half a million stateless [Belarusian] people,” she warned.

Asked her advice for voters inside Belarus, Tsikhanouskaya urged those who are forced to take part to vote “against all” (a ballot option Russian voters “haven’t had in years,” Kara-Murza pointed out). “The regime forcefully makes people go to the polling stations, so we’re asking people to [vote] against all candidates,” she explained. “If people want to boycott — boycott. Because nobody is going to count people, nobody is going to count votes, so it’s senseless.”

Tsikhanouskaya also urged democratic countries to back Lithuania’s recent request to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate alleged crimes against humanity committed by Lukashenko’s government. “I’m really waiting for big, powerful countries to support small Lithuania in this case; to show that you’re not looking to see what Putin or other dictators will say,” she said. “Don’t let dictators feel impunity.”

[havendance]

New Comics Time!

And it's a long one this week. Lots of comics. I might poke my head in Harley Quinn or Powergirl later for completion/curiosity purposes but I wanted to talk about a lot of these now :)

Detective Comics #1090 - The flashbacks in this issue are far more interesting in my opinion that the present day which is like 'oh no, another serial killer!' While I do think that it's hilarious that Taylor is having it so Thomas Wayne saved Joe Chill's life back in the day (A plot point that would be right at home in Batman: Year Two where Bruce is busy agonizing over the fact that he's planning to kill Joe Chill with the same that killed his parents), I still can't help but be intrigued by the themes of unseen consequences of well-intended actions that he seems to be setting up. Between Thomas saving Joe Chills life, and the fact that I can't help but get shady vibes from Scarlett Martha Scott's anti-aging stuff and offer to Bruce, I'm interested is seeing where this goes

Art-wise, previously, Mikel Janin's art has always had this too-smooth feel to it that made me think of cgi or cell-shading and it just didn't work for me. This time, with him doing his own colors, there's still some of that smoothness, but he's also some texture to it that has vastly improved my enjoyment. We really are in the middle of an age of these bright, technicolor comics and I really like it.

Action Comics #1072 - I do appreciate the flashback we got to explain Mon-El this issue as someone who is not familiar with Superman lore. Kon and Kenan continue to be fun while the adventure in the Phantom Zone continues. For the backup, I continue to really love the art--especially the environment this issue. Plot wise, my curiosity about the prisoner and the nature of Kara's mission is building. I'm a little worried that the tension is getting build up too much and when we finally do get answer's it'll be a disappointment, but we shall just have to see.

Green Arrow #17 - Most of this issue is taken up by cleaning up the last of the double-agent Green Arrow plotline that I largely did not read. I did enjoy the start of Condon's run though. I liked the atmosphere it was setting up and the sniping between Ollie and Batman was very enjoyable. I am interested in seeing more of this new costume. The mask makes him look younger.

Superman #19 - Okay, the moment where both Clark and Lois ducked into the same broom closet to go out and save the day? That was cute. I think my main take-away from this issue was that I really don't know a lot of the current Superman status quo because, like, Lois Lane as the Planet's Editor in Chief? The whole Supercorp thing? Luther's amnesia. I've got nothing on any of it. Part of being a comics fan is rolling with the punches though. I'll probably keep seeing where this story goes, but I think it's also getting prone to being dropped as I wander off.

Absolute Wonder Woman #1 - This was so good. I admit, that was I was doubtful when I first heard the announcement because, I've found in my experience that Kelly Thompson writes fun comics but ones that don't necessarily grab me. I think this best thing of her's I've read, honestly. Diana as an exile! I am also obsessed with Circe being the one to raise her. "How you fall in love with a child is by raising it." It's hitting the same beats for as one of the best parts of the Messner-Loebs run which was Circe as Donna Milton and how she found herself getting drawn into Diana's orbit. The things you do, the people you surround yourself with. That matters for your character. I just loved seeing that redemption there for her.

I love what this is setting up in terms of Diana setting out to try and find who she is and what was hidden from her. There is this mission that is tying her to an origin and people she's never gotten the chance to know. It leaves me really hoping that we get to see her reunited with the Amazons at some point.

The art was also gorgeous. Bellaire's colors were knocking it out of the park as always. Those long horizontal panels I really like, but I did leave wishing I could read this on paper. I am just a little tempted to go out and start getting this in floppy form and we shall see, but also, I am spending this money of dcu infinite and trying to not buy a ton of comics weekly on top of that so I'll probably try to just hold out for the trade instead.

The Flash #14 - This is looking like it's going to be such a fun story arc. Vacation to Skartaris!--I am not the Warlord fan, but it still brings me joy. Not sure if I'm really feeling the artist for this, but the lettering continues to be top notch for this series.

Nightwing #119 - I am a fan of this creepy puppet-master type villain it looks like we're going to get. Fun archetype. I do like the setup we're getting here and the DickBabs banter is top notch. (As a side note, while I know Barbara isn't back to all of her post-crisis glory, I really do appreciate Oracle popping up everywhere in comics again especially coming from the new52). Interested in seeing where it goes!

Green Lantern: Dark #1 - Another comic I checked out because I could, and unlike the werewolf Batman one, I think this one's going to be a keepr. The fantasy vibe that this had was very fun. I like how it played with stories. I also really liked the art. It had this very nice sketchy feel to it.

The Question: All Along the Watchtower #1 - I really liked the opening sequence--that spread of the watchtower? Beautiful. That being said, there was a lot of set-up in this issue. It felt like most of the time was spent having Renee follow Wonder Woman around and have stuff explained to her. This is a new setting and this is also a lot of the introduction to the Watchtower that we're getting prior to Justice League: Unlimited #1 afaik, but I also can't help but feel that there could've been a more efficient way of getting this information across. Say, a map, or a casefile, or even Renee explaining it to the reader rather than having everything explained to her. I think what I really wanted was Renee taking more of a lead, and I hope that we do get that next issue now that all the set-up's out of the way.

All of that being said, the supporting cast is shaping up to be very fun. I was admittedly, holding out for the Huntress, but I will not complain about the Blue Beetles + Batwoman! I am looking forward to seeing how that team unfolds. Art-wise, I don't think I really have much to say, but I did really like the text-boxes that the robot guy had. Nice touch right there.

[karaspal]

glad we spent three out of the ten pages on karen. truly added nothing to the story.

also, i’m bothered kara didn’t know what crime the prisoner was on trial for, yet still agreed to escort them to jail. sorry, but kara would literally ask all the details around the case to make sure she stands by their decision + she’d run a background check just to be sure. kara can be very anti-authority so the fact that she trusted them enough to do the job no questions asked doesn’t sound like her.

[moistvonlipwig]

hypothetically if i just sent you every heart in that ask as a lovely littlel rainbow…??? :D

I'm assuming for Supergirl again? ;)

I cut out a few that I just didn't have an answer for at all. The rest are under the cut. Again, kvetching about a CW superhero show awaits.

❤: Which character do you think is the most egregiously mischaracterized by the fandom?

I have had to click out of so many fics because they feel the need to get in a throwaway dig at James that often has absolutely nothing to do with his canon characterization. ("He was only interested in Lena because he liked the prestige and perks of dating a billionaire!" No??? Wrong??? Do not pass Go??? Do not collect $200???)

🧡: What is a popular (serious) theory you disagree with?

I don't agree with the idea that Kara is some sort of "genius" just because she's from Krypton. Being from a more '''advanced''' society (which is a thorny and problematic label in and of itself) does not make you ''smarter" than people from a '''less advanced''' society (see what I mean? Thorny and problematic). Living in a society with hyper-advanced technology doesn't mean that you know how that technology works or the fundamental principles that underlie its construction, especially if you are 13 years old. Also, even if you did, that is not inherently a more valuable form of knowledge than, say, knowing how to make dumplings – a skill I'm sure Kara herself would say is incredibly valuable, and which Kryptonians do not possess.

And that's not even getting into the fact that knowledge itself isn't the same thing as intelligence, which is a hard-to-define concept that has been historically used and still is used today in deeply problematic ways, but which I would argue is more about creativity, imagination, and the ability to generate new solutions to problems given the resources and education available to you than it is about simply knowing stuff. I certainly wish we got to see Kara display her resourcefulness, knowledge, & skills more often on the show, but fandom's insistence that she's actually way smarter than all these silly backwards primitive humans because she's from a planet that's made certain scientific advancements is incredibly fucking weird and frankly strikes me as the product of a colonialist mindset.

(I also just kind of think it's an uninteresting take on her character? She already has so many incredible abilities and interesting character traits, why does she ALSO have to be a "genius" who can rival Brainy & Lena in scientific thinking?)

💛: What is a popular ship you just can’t get behind, and why?

Supercat, for all the reasons I listed in my other post, and Sanvers, because the whole whitewashing thing is really egregious to me and also the way they were written just kind of grated on my nerves. Also Agentcorp. No real reason, I have no zingers to deliver about it. I just don't see it.

💚: What does everyone else get wrong about your favorite character?

You and I have already talked about how I don't actually think Lena has a "one-strike policy", and how the only person she actually cut off after only one strike was Andrea, whose betrayal came at a time when Lena was extremely vulnerable. I believe I've also mentioned to you in an ask that I think people read her politics wrong -- a lot of people classify her as a conservative when she is, IMO, clearly a libertarian, hence her pro-business, pro-gun, anti-secret government agencies, generally socially progressive views. (Additionally, one of the quirks of Supergirl's casting is that they accidentally cast all of Lena's past friends/lovers as people of color, which has some truly fascinating implications about Lena's racial politics.)

🤍: Which character is not as morally bad as everyone else seems to think?

Lena is the obvious answer, although the real truth about Lena is that she is, actually, quite morally all over the place, it's just that she's not any more morally all over the place than anyone else on the show. Andrea, also, I think gets a bad rap from some people and from the show itself, which I talked more about in my other post. Um...I don't think Clark is a bad person for leaving Kara with the Danverses? To quote one of Once Upon a Time's most repeated lines, he gave her her best chance. He wasn't ready to parent her and he knew it -- I think that takes real integrity to admit, actually. Does that mean Kara can't have complicated feelings about it? Of course not, but I don't think it's fair to say he "abandoned" her. Placing a child in a loving home is not "abandoning" them. It's quite the opposite.

(The Clark situation admittedly gets worse post-Crisis when suddenly he has two teenage sons who would've been born around the time Kara's pod landed, which means maybe Earth Prime Clark was down for being a parent but just didn't want to parent Kara specifically, which is much more dubious. But also, Crisis was very bad, so I prefer not to think about it.)

💔: If you had to remove one major character from the series, who would you choose?

I guess it depends on if my options are "remove them vs. change how they were written" or "remove them vs. keep them as is"? If I have to keep them as is if I don't remove them, then the clear answer is Mon-El, whose presence I would argue damaged the show more irrevocably than any other writing decision.

If I can change how they were written, that's a different story -- Mon-El in the comics is a cool character and I think the show could've adapted his story in a genuinely interesting way. Imagine if, in S2, Kara had discovered a pod with an amnesiac child inside who appeared to be Kryptonian. Not only is she now just a little less alone, she now has a chance to make amends for her inability to take care of Clark! Except then we find out -- he's not Kryptonian, he's a Daxamite. The same species as Kryptonians, but they left Krypton ages ago (or were driven out -- perhaps the stories Kara was told as a child didn't tell the entire truth) and are known to be isolationist and xenophobic, with a particular hatred for Kryptonians. The Daxamite boy (who Kara named "Mon-El") gets accidentally exposed to lead, and Kara must banish him the way she herself was banished. Then, S3 comes along, and would you look at that - the Legion of Super-Heroes is here from the future! And their leader is none other than Kara's adopted baby brother Mon-El, now grown up and with all his memories returned to him. Cue drama! (While I'm making up a version of Supergirl that didn't exist, I'd also like this version of Mon-El to be Asian. We truly didn't need more white guys on this show.)

So if I were allowed to rewrite characters like that, I'd have to opt for getting rid of a character who wasn't just executed poorly, but conceived poorly as well. William is a pretty obvious choice, as they clearly only created him to be a love interest and had no earthly idea what to do with him when that didn't work out (or, well, at any point in time, actually). Even when the show moves him away from his S5 misogyny and his (kind of baffling, given how little effort she puts into the job he values so much) late S5-early S6 interest in Kara, the only character trait they can think up for him is "baking", which kind of says it all, really. Winn, I feel, is also extraneous; even if you get rid of his misogyny in S1, I just don't think we needed a nerdy white guy character. Lena and Brainy have the scientist role covered. So, IDK, either of them, I don't care lol.

💕: What is an unpopular ship that you like?

I already talked about Guardiancorp in my previous post and that's probably my only actually unpopular ship. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

💀: If you had to choose one major character to die, who would you choose?

I don't think killing characters off truly fits with the vibe of the show, which is one of a long list of reasons why William's death was bad. If I could instead put a character on a bus, it'd probably be J'onn -- they clearly ran out of ideas for his character partway through the show (and David Harewood frankly seemed to run out of interest in portraying the character as well). Which, honestly, that usually happens with older male mentor figures in shows about young women coming into their own -- look at Giles post-S5 on Buffy, for example. IMO both M'gann and Malefic (both of whom actually did get put on buses to Mars in the show proper) would be much more interesting Martians to have on the show full-time.

[my-name-is-markus-with-a-k]

About me:

Markus stan with a heavy preference for the revolution route. If you don't like Markus, this is not the blog for you. The url and pfp should have been your biggest hint.

Avid RK1K, Norkus and Connorkus shipper.

This blog is Connor-lite outside of rk1k and Connorkus. I love him but I get sick of seeing his face everywhere all the time.

Occasional gif maker. Reposting gifs is not cool.

Reblogs > likes. But DO NOT reblog from me if you have nothing nice to say in the tags.

Markus, North, Josh, Kara, and Alice haters are blocked on sight.

Anti Reed and Reed900. Like what you like I dont care but I will bitch about it occasionally. Also, don't add Reed content to my posts. I will hard block people who do.

Sometimes nsfw. I'd prefer no minors to be following me but do what you want. Just beware.

[admiraldeltafleet]

ALL Chapter 13 Closing thoughts

Normally, I would have done this in the author's notes at the end of the chapter, but I was feeling too much from finally getting to the end of my very first fic, and also I think I may have had too much to say it might not have all fitted. Anyway, I'm doing it now, so consider this your spoiler warning for my fic if you haven't read it. If so, I would definitely consider doing so, especially before you read this bit, as it discusses the final chapter https://archiveofourown.org/chapters/149705248

So, with that out of the way, let me get into this. This chapter has always essentially been about establishing the new status quo after the tumult of the past three chapters. Everyone had gotten started on their healing journies by chapter 12, but some of them (cough* Alex *cough) still had some ways to go. So, I had to give them enough time not only to finish those journeys, but also to settle into the new way of things once they had done so (and wrap up whatever lingering plotlines that were still hanging).

Honestly, I'm not totally someone to reckon with the fallout of things outside the scope of the fic I am interested. There is a lot to be said about the press and public's reactions to what's happened in this fic and many others, wrangling with keeping Kara's identity secret from her coworkers or the DEO and government. There are dozens of inconsequential actions that any number of the characters do that could be overheard or witnessed that would have far-reaching repercussions, but I don't really dive into them unless they directly interest me or there is something I want to directly address. So yes, someone could totes have seen Kara superseded out of CatCo and figure out her identity or some rando at the DEO overhear Alex call Kara by her name instead of Supergirl, but will probably never happen in my fic because I don't care about that sort of thing.

Now, you may be wondering why I am bringing this up. I bring it up because that is exactly what I am doing in the opening of this chapter. Normally, I wouldn't really bother with any sort of negative outcome between Kara and the government, or at least wouldn't give it it's own dedicated scene. The reason I did this time is specifically because of a fic I read some time ago that never sat right with me. I won't say which, and really this isn't about why that fic is wrong (I don't think it's wrong at all, it just didn't jibe with my personal interpretation of the character, nothing more, nothing less. Everyone is free to write how they please). Anyhow, in that fic, Kara did something similar to what she did in chapter 10 of my fic, and when the president started talking down at her about it, she just let herself be cowed and was like, "yeah, won't happen again. My bad.). I certainly understand this reaction, especially in the context of how Kara can be in both Canon and Fanon, but that's not my Kara. My Kara stands her ground, especially when it comes to Lena. I will admit beyond that, I do deeply enjoy this scene, and I don't regret adding it at all. I did also briefly set it up back in the beginning of chapter 4 when Kara the president's visit (just more so that they had met, so it wouldn't be out of the blue when they talked again in the end)

Another thing from this scene that's more of a mention and less of a feature, but you just know that Lena made Kara a kryptonite resistant suit, and I don't know why the DEO never invested more effort in that. I have a series of headcanons about Kryptonian powers and Kryptonite, so let me know if you want to know more about that, as it is directly involved with how it works in my writings, and also how things like how anti-Kryptonian and anti-Kryptonite technologies work.

Let's talk about titles. For the longest time, I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to title this fic. This is legitimately one of my greatest struggles. I seem to be able to name other people's fic pretty well, but when it comes to mine, I just don't know. For the longest time, my WIP title was Supercorp Secret Marriage which just doesn't make any sense as an actual title. Then, for another long stretch of time, I thought the title was going to be Prime, as the crux of the fic is really when Kara goes Prime mode to rescue Lena (I'm not super duper familiar with the comics, but my understanding is that there are some comics where the supes get a ridiculous power boost, and they are typically called supergirl/man/boy prime. Could not be quite right). Anyhow, that was the best I could really think of, but it never sat quite right with me. Partly because I think it's sort of boring, and also because I was petrified that someone would somehow guess where the story was going, and I wanted to do my best to shock everyone.

The other title I briefly considered was The Day the Sun Fell to Earth. This falls in the same line as a title surrounding chapter 10, specifically in reference to how brightly Kara was glowing as she descended to the DEO, it looked like the sun was falling to earth. I thought that might have required a bit too much of a leap to put together though (I did include it as a bit of a fun reference in this chapter, regardless of the fact no one would really get it but me). This title and the previous had the same flaw in my mind though, because while that scene was really the keystone of the fic, the title only related to that one scene and had nothing to do with anything else in the entire fic.

This is something that was bothering me the entire fic, from the time when I barely had the outline completed. In the end, as you all know, I went up going with At Long Last. These words are from the very final sentence I wrote for the whole fic, and as soon as I wrote them I knew that I had my title. Because, while the first scene of chapter 10 was what I built the fic towards and around, there is so much more to it now, and this sentiment fits so perfectly with what I had already written about Kara's thoughts and feelings about the secret that I was once again struck with the idea that I couldn't have planned it better had I tried.

The build up of this theme really started in chapter 2, before Kara even got together with Lena (as a brief aside, this makes me feel like I'm in school again writing a book report using quotes to support my argument, except for I wrote it and I'm explaining my own thoughts instead of someone else's). I'm just going to post the timeline of quotes as this theme develops.

Chapter 2:

If only he [Kal] would let up on Lena, she thought her life might be perfect, or at least as close to perfect as anything could ever come with the gaping hole the loss of her planet had left within her.

Chapter 3:

“So, it falls to me to preserve my culture, my language, my people, but I feel like I am failing them. For so long I have held them tightly in my heart. No matter how much I love Earth, how much I love the Danvers, Krypton has always been my home. Now, Krypton isn't my home anymore, you are,” Kara pulled back to look at Lena with pleading eyes, “Does that mean I've failed them?”

Chapter 13:

“There‘s a time you might have been right, when that's what I would have seen, but that was before I met Lena,” Kara said, her tone almost wistful, “She helped me accept that Krypton was gone, but still with me. For years while I was in the phantom zone, then on earth, I struggled to even comprehend the death of Krypton, the loss that it caused me. There were times, even after I had been on earth for years that I would wake up and forget what had happened, despite the fact that I had watched the whole thing with my own eyes. “Some days in that moment just before I opened my eyes, I expect to see my bedroom, to be able to look out over the skyline of Argo and see the red skies beyond it, and every time I woke to see our bedroom in Midvale, or my apartment, every time the window showed me National City's skyline and skies of blue, I broke all over again. And while I love you, I truly do, and Eliza, and everyone else I had on earth, it couldn't plug the whole that the loss of Krypton had made.” Kara paused for a moment, looking out of the window with a far-off expression on her face, as if in that moment she was seeing the cityscape Krypton out past the glass, but it lasted for only a moment before she continued speaking, her attention returning to her sister as she did so, “Then I fell in love with Lena. She was the first one to even come close to filling the void within me. She learned Kryptonese, not to help me acclimate easier to earth, or from some sense of idle curiosity about where she had come from, but because she knew how much it meant to me, how much it gladdened me to hear it even while it tore the scars off my wounds. Little by little, piece by piece, even before I realized she was doing it, she filled that void, until one day there wasn't a void anymore, there was only Lena. The pain was still there, but it was no longer debilitating. I no longer woke in the wrong bedroom, or on the wrong planet, I woke up to her.” ... “What I want, more than anything,” Kara said, bringing Alex's attention back to her, “Is for my family to accept my wife. I didn't need the black mercy to tell me that.” ... Kara looked around, her friends and family surrounding her, laughing and joking, drinking and playing. Lena was tucked into her side, completely at home amongst everyone, her wife was laughing openly at something her sister had just said, and finally, at long last, everything was perfect.

This theme is really what brought so much of this fic together in the way it did, and it weaved throughout my preferences to form new headcanons and all the lore about Kara and Kryptonians that helped me so much to sell this story. I love all the ideas that came from this fic so much that they have just become my default settings for Kara and Krypton going forward. This is my Kara, even more so than the one I came into this process envisioning, and I think that theme was much more worthy of the title than just that one scene (I still adore that scene though, don't get me wrong, but even it is so much better in light of the headcanons this story helped me build).

Well, I've already written so much, and I haven't actually even started reading back through the chapter yet, so I think I am going to do that so I can go back to the more "normal" word vomiting I usually do.

If anyone was curious exactly what Kara was implying when she was talking to the president right at the end, she was totally telling her that while her disguise might have been fooling everyone else, it was not fooling her. Kara totes knew she was an alien, and if the president was going to go mucking about in her family, Kara was more than capable of firing back. It might not be a morally great action, but I've always viewed Kara as someone who's family comes first over anything else.

Something else about this that no one may realize though, is that Kara does still hold them to a high standard of morals and behavior. There is one little tiny word choice that really shows that in this conversation she has with the president. When Kara is laying down the law, she says, "...if the DEO or any other agency of the government does come after Lena without valid reason." Notice, Kara specifically says, "without VALID reason," and that is an intentional word choice by both her and me. Kara would not let anyone, not even Lena, do anything morally corrupt or villainous and let them get away with it just because they are her family (She also does say this with complete confidence that Lena would never give valid reason though). She would probably still prefer to take care of it herself than let the government step in, but I digress. I talk about things like this a lot as absolute, but these are more guidelines for me, and I totally might bend them for certain fics in the future to get out an idea I have though.

I threw Lucy into this scene for no other reason than because I wanted to. Really there was nothing else behind it.

You all just know that Lena was waiting for that moment at game night where she finally got to stake her claim in public, really hammer it home even though everyone technically already knew. Speaking more on that scene, as much as I don't like certain characters (James and Mon-El) I do try not to take out my biases, valid or not, on them in my writing. I did definitely sideline them since I didn't care to write much about them than was needed, but I don't feel like anything I wrote about them was either untrue to their character nor unrealistic in an effort to justify my choices. I stand buy it. Actually, as a matter of fact, I almost convinced myself that Mon-El wasn't as bad as some of the things that sort of get glossed over in canon. In the future, I may just exclude them from my fics, though without Mon-El in this one, we wouldn't have gotten that scene where Lena was possessive and jealous.

As much as I don't necessarily care for Winn as a character (I don't dislike him, but neither do I have any particular fondness for him, nor do I think he should have come to the DEO in season 2 (hence I brought brainy instead)) He did do me a solid in this chapter and chapter 5 by giving me a path through some difficult-to-write interactions.

So, I will readily admit that I definitely just brushed CADMUS and Lillian aside without much thought or wordcount. I never really cared too much about that plot by itself. It was definitely the B plot. It only really served to push the secret relationship agenda forward by butting Kara and Lena into odd spots where the cracks started showing a bit (by making Kara act up, so that Alex would notice it essentially), then obviously they put up a big part of the plot by getting Lena arrested. After that was done though, their role in the story was over, so off they went into the sunset without much fanfare.

I love the little call back I had to chapter 3, when Alex was thinking about Kara and Lena, and she was like, "I bet if Lena pushed Kara she would just fall over. It's a ridiculous thought though." I cackle every time I read that part, no matter how many times it's been.

I could probably write a full TED talk about every paragraph in this chapter, and every other chapter for that matter, and I think this post is already ludicrously long, so I will try to only hit the main parts I wanted to address here, and maybe pick up some of the other bits when I do the further posts I have planned.

That being said, there is maybe my second favorite scene in this entire fic that I've yet to say anything, and that is the moments between Alex and Lena after Lena saves Alex from the kidnapper. I won't lie, I definitely lean a bit more towards Kara than Lena, but this scene is something that I just love more than I can express. I love to see that protective side from Lena that we are used to seeing from Kara, and Lena finally got to say her piece after so long spent holding it in. It was very hard to get that scene to flow well and I spent at least an hour writing just those few lines of Lena's dialogue. I think part of it may be that Alex just seems to never be held accountable for any of that. Some of the scenes I included in the flashbacks were just to justify having Lena bring up all these points and hold Alex accountable for it, and don't even get me started on that threat she leveled at Alex. I wrote that and it still gives me the chills every time I read it. I love literally everything about this scene, down to the smallest detail.

Anyway, I think I am going to call this here. I still have some plans to go back through and make a few more posts. There are still quite a few details and such that I packed in there that no one has, as far as I know, noticed. I wanted to go through them, since I love them, and bring them to everyone's attention so they can enjoy them like I do. Secondly, there is so much that I feel I learned in answering everyone's questions, where I feel like I know twice or thrice as much about all the characters and their motivations than I did when I started, and I want to parse back through all that. If I may brag for a moment, I think my greatest strength as a writer is how cohesive everything is, and by answering all the questions you had I learned more about my fic then I know when I posted it, and I love just how perfectly it all fits. Anyway, if anyone actually made it this far, let me know if any of that is of any interest to you

[marcusrobertobaq]

soo what kind of headcanons do you have about what happens after the successfull revolution + connor army? like what are all the characters doing? what will the world look like? will androids rule over the humans?

It's kinda difficult for me really thinking about a post-canon scenario itself but I think I got some basic stuff in mind.

[ALERT OF BIG ASS TEXT]

So first off all I think it's just the beginning of a quite turbulent period in US, both economically and legally. The androids start taking Detroit, like, the whole city after they took from Belle Isle to Downtown. I also must remember even if we got a sympathetic public opinion doesn't mean everybody is suddenly chill about androids, it's quite the opposite. The majority is either neutral or negative about it but now there's a big enough supportive crowd

Everything in the city is kinda "dead" for some months due to the androids not working anymore, the humans who stayed in Detroit are kinda worried but some folks think it's a good message to Cristina and CyberLife the androids taking Detroit

We got some looting and troublesome folks on the streets in the first days but after the android leadership reassure they won't bother patrol cops as long as they don't attack androids out of nothing there are few cops patrolling around

Yep, I do hc androids took HQs, including where the mayor (who ran away for safety) stays. After very few days the android leadership wanted her back so they can talk, very few people from the staff stayed during the event of Nov 11th

Some people in some major cities are trynna escalate hostility towards androids due to the whole "first they took our jobs, took a city now they wanna get paid for it?" sentiment. Anti-Android groups will always be Anti-Android groups. Difference is now there are Pro-Android groups to point out hypocritical discourses

[Kara Captured] Kara and her crew are in Detroit after being saved by the rebels. For now they're just walking from place to place to stay, maybe the androids are even turning the camps into bases and they stay there for some weeks. Alice discover other android kids and start developing ties with 'em even tho everybody is kinda shy, Luther is always there more closely

Kara and Luther managed to get in contact with Rose again somehow after few days

After the battle was over androids were finally able to decide what to do with the ones who fell in battle. There's no one to bother 'em bout looting CyberLife stores for supplies. They managed to bring some back to life, other ones weren't that lucky. I like thinking they managed to brought Josh back to life

[Kara Leaving Detroit] Kara and her crew are in Rose's family house in Canada, they stay mostly inside the house or in empty places they can't be recognized, but usually no one really recognize 'em or detect weird things on 'em ID, still they were recommended to not leave tracks

But they ain't the only ones that made across the border. I guess they stay there for some good weeks waiting what the Canadian suits will decide about the android situation, considering Detroit was taken by the androids. At the same time they're happy they escaped the confront Luther is worried they may be trapped in there for the moment, totally dependent on Rose's crew

The androids may have sent a "violent" message with the assaults on the camps but a considerably amount of people supports 'em. They usually leave the androids alone but some folks like helping androids getting fixed or even clothes - these people are usually people that dislike Cristina's acts

Markus finally got 3 days of peace waiting for the gov to seek dialogue while the internet is in total chaos, he realizes his rebellion started a political polarization "war". Simon and North ain't surprised

Markus broadcasts another message saying humans shouldn't see androids as the enemy cuz guess who started the whole problem? Exactly. It's part of a new tactic of trynna get more human support and put 'em against the gov and CyberLife, after all humans and androids share the planet, they WILL have to cooperate

Suits just don't know where to start, what the androids want and how modifying laws is something that people need to sit down and think about everything. Not to mention they're kinda desperate cuz androids got the economy hostage and lotta stuff in the country is just not working cuz androids refuse to work

First step was considering androids a new species on paper, and also the right of owning things related to 'em wellbeing and being able to refuse orders, just a temporary change (a first deal) - that's where the conflict starts as lotta people dislike the idea of androids receiving a relatively "good" compensation for labor. And also what's attached to the fact now androids are considered people (in the "rights" sense) as a non-human person

We got people divided, politicians wanting to farm votes, tech specialists worried suits don't know how to deal with things, especially without complicating things for humans as androids even if people they're still computers. There are riots, protests both pro-human and pro-android all over the world. Pro-humans are actually more pissed at the fact the top brass never listened to 'em own people but now they're moving everything as fast as possible for androids

Pressure was made in CyebrLife letting android related supplies in androids hands but there's this thing called capitalism and they kinda want androids to pay taxes and pay for 'em products if they really want to be considered people. They often use this narrative to manipulate androids against humans in a subtle way, ofc using politicians

Connor is alive and helping some new Jericho folks, the androids he converted got a positive image of him and often sees him as a leader or sorts. I dare saying some may develop a crush on him

He's now trynna figure out what CyberLife's next step and this is exactly what North got in mind

Thing is our friend here doesn't stop and stay in a specific place, he likes walking around alone analyzing just for fun and also cuz he thinks he may be a high value target, so it's more difficult catching a moving target. With this he kinda met lotta people (humans and androids) in the neighborhoods. But he usually stays with the androids in Downtown (up until they start going more north and northwest in more quite places) and sometimes talk to Hank to know how's he's doing (considering the events from LCC and CLT)

Connor explains his situation and everything he discovered bout CyberLife to Markus, North and Simon and they all agree they gotta be the ones making the moves first considering CL is powerful and got lotta corrupt politicians on 'em hands. But they still worried CyberLife may try something using Connor again

CyberLife is now in a tight situation considering they lost deviant Connor, and the fact everybody saw the android marching on TV makes more difficult for 'em to just send another Connor in uniform

Markus got a bit ? after Connor told him he was gifted to Carl...and that Kamski was the one doing it. Ain't a relevant topic in the moment as they're trynna deal with the politicians in the table of diplomatic negotiations but they're both curious about it

Jericho leadership starts getting in contact with other android rebel groups first in the state of Michigan and later other cities like NY and Chicago

Even with all the pressure I hc it took around a year to get some papers with basic things actually made, like, altering Android Act and some other constitution lines to add androids as a person

It was actually funny cuz there's the whole "are non-deviants considered people? Or they still just machines, products?" and Markus and North hated the idea of choosing who deserves rights based on what humans think a person should be. They tried forcing CyberLife to unlock all non-deviant androids from the handler system but faced quite a resistance at first

They had lotta reunions with the president, some secretaries and the mayor in Detroit and they often ended up without major progress due to the nature of what androids were asking and the consequences. I think divided people making noise outside was what made things go more slowly. Let's not forget about the elections factor here.

This New Year's Eve was def a different one, but I guess by december we already had more people on the streets, a decent number just having 'em business as usual after few months but still not the average movement at all

A deal was made where all androids that escaped to Canada are to return to US. If Kara escaped there I like thinking she returns. I honestly don't know what to think about it in a smaller picture cuz I just don't know how the Canadian gov would react and if they would start accepting androids there based on the events from Detroit

Markus didn't want get involved in all this political mess but he was the leader, the face and he wanted to be a present guy instead of just recording videos and making broadcasts like some sorta "I took your city hostage, pay this price and we let 'em go". North knew the country was in a fucked up way and that it could mean terror for humans (economically and politically) and that they should use it at 'em favor. They had all the time in the world, still they didn't want to make innocent people suffer and be equal to the same gov that forgot about 'em

Kara can't help but watch the news and Alice is also always curious about why things are so complicated, she feels kinda sad. If she's in Canada she can't help but want to explore this new world she's in with Kara and they know

Hank left/got fired from the DPD after everything that happened, he couldn't just work for an Anti-Android org like that anymore, he and Chris were the only ones that were positive about androids, all the other rest thought androids were make things difficult in the city.

[In the verse where Hank punch Perkins] the guy indeed pressed charges against Hank. I still don't know what he's doing after this whole thing, maybe just at his home or trynna help the androids with donations

Basically androids are still fighting for 'em things even after months, humans too. It'll be always be like that until people get used to androids fighting for something, I guess. Some places are more chill than others

Android psychology and physiology became a quite relevant theme and people wanting to make some studies about it, especially deviancy (CyberLife is alert on this one). Techies will be techies.

Androids didn't get the right to vote until 2040, the year the new Android Act was finalized and also... I think it's the presidential elections year? I don't remember. The country is still trynna recover from the 2038 events

There are still conflicts in the labor kinda thing as androids are computers and almost no one wanna pay former slaves but they also recognize paying a human can look more "expensive". I think a deal was forced to be made where androids receive very little money or worked the double and it created a whole ass conflict cuz what about android care and all this thing? All machines need care and shit, but at the same time what happens to humans? This conflict still a thing even after temporary measures

Markus also wanted humans to have jobs instead of everybody using androids, an equal balance but some suits probably didn't see this as something very positive but let's not forget the androids got the upper hand in the negotiation tables

Well, I guess that's all for now. I really ain't got a long term thing in mind as it's something I feel like sitting down and studying so u make better scenarios but I think u get the idea and where I'm going.

[fazedlight]

At which point do you think lena would not have gone down a dark path after knowing kara is supergirl? I think lena would have forgiven kara more easily before the kryptonite vault search

I think there are basically three potential eras for Lena:

Early on, Lena would fully understand the need for secrecy. This was basically the point of writing Synthesis - Lena was never mad about the secret itself. I think there are ethical questions starting in early season 3 where Kara really should've told Lena before getting so close to her (and some of this is more due to the season 5 retcons than the original writing), but there was very little time between "Kara definitely should've told Lena" to the kryptonite incident, so I'll give Kara a little leeway there.

The second era for Lena is where she would've been (rightfully) angry and hurt about how Supergirl treated her/the vault/etc, but not had a villain era. That's part of why I wrote Darkness in All Things (season 3) and No One and Nothing (season 4) - I think if Lena had found out in those seasons, she still would've been fighting for the good guys, despite being pissed at Kara.

The third era is the one we got, and I think the turning point for it is when Lena shoots Lex. Because at that point, it's not just that there was a secret, and it's not just that Supergirl was an ass - it's that Lena had two precious things in her life (even if her brother was deeply flawed... she still loved him), and she sacrificed one in order to save the other. And it was in that moment that she found out that the other was a complete lie. She lost everything, and from her point of view, there was nothing good left in the world.

I don't think her villain era (more of an anti-villain era) should've been anywhere near as long as it was. But I get her kneejerk reaction of "I've been hurt, people are bad, I'm going to try to fix the world about it". Especially since she kept getting hurt and betrayed throughout her life, and never really had a healthy support system.

They really should've kept that era shorter. The brainwashing arc actually makes sense to me, but the Pulitzer arc makes no sense to me given how much time would've had to pass for it to work. I dunno. Just some very weird writing choices all around.

[silverstarssart]

Aru Shah Characters As Taylor Swift Songs Because WHY NOT!

Aru: You're On Your Own, Kid

"You're on your own, kid. You always have been"

From sprinkler splashes to fireplace ashesI gave my blood, sweat, and tears for this I hosted parties and starved my body

Like I'd be saved by a perfect kiss

The jokes weren't funny, I took the money My friends from home don't know what to sayI looked around in a blood-soaked gown

And I saw something they can't take away

'Cause there were pages turned with the bridges burned

Everything you lose is a step you take.

So make the moment and taste it You've got no reason to be afraid.”

Mini: Marjorie

"Never be so polite, you forget your power. Never wield such power, you forget to be polite"

Brynne: Vigilante Shit

"They say looks can kill and I might try. I don't dress for women. I don't dress for men. Lately I've been dressing for revenge."

Aiden: Cardigan

"Cause I knew you. Steppin' on the last train. Marked me like a bloodstain, I.

I knew you. Tried to change the ending. Peter losing Wendy, I. I knew you.

Leavin' like a father. Running like water, I.

And when you are young, they assume you know nothing."

Rudy: The Archer

“I've been the archer I've been the prey Screaming, who could ever leave me, darling? But who could stay? (I see right through me, I see right through me)”

Sheela: The Best Day

“There is a video I found From back when I was three You set up a paint set in the kitchen And you're talking to me It's the age of princesses and pirate ships And the seven dwarfs And Daddy's smart And you're the prettiest lady in the whole wide world”

Nikita:

“Best believe I'm still bejeweled

When I walk in the room I can still make the whole place shimmer

And when I meet the band

They ask, "Do you have a man?" I can still say, "I don't remember"

Familiarity breeds contempt Don't put me in the basement

When I want the penthouse of your heart

Diamonds in my eyesI polish up real, I polish up real nice”

Kara: Anti-Hero

“It's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me At tea time, everybody agrees I'll stare directly at the sun but never in the mirrorIt must be exhausting always rooting for the anti-hero

Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy babyAnd I'm a monster on the hillToo big to hang out, slowly lurching toward your favorite cityPierced through the heart, but never killed.”

+ Ships

—

Lightning Smoulder:

—

Aiden POV: Mine, Champagne Problems, Cornelia Street, The Great War

“Do you remember, we were sittin', there by the water? You put your arm around me for the first time You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter You are the best thing, that's ever been mine

Flash forward, and we're takin' on the world together And there's a drawer of my things at your place You learn my secrets and you figure out why I'm guarded You say we'll never make my parents' mistakes.”

—

“One for the money, two for the show I never was ready, so I watch you go Sometimes you just don't know the answer 'Til someone's on their knees and asks you

"She would've made such a lovely bride What a shame she's fucked in the head, " they said But you'll find the real thing instead She'll patch up your tapestry that I shred.”

—

“We were a fresh page on the desk Filling in the blanks as we go As if the street lights pointed in an arrowhead Leading us home

And I hope I never lose you, hope it never ends I'd never walk Cornelia Street again That's the kind of heartbreak time could never mend I'd never walk Cornelia Street again.”

—

“You drew up some good faith treaties I drew curtains closed, drank my poison all alone You said I have to trust more freely But diesel is desire, you were playin' with fire And maybe it's the past that's talkin' Screamin' from the crypt Tellin' me to punish you for things you never did So I justified it

~

It turned into something bigger Somewhere in the haze, got a sense I'd been betrayed Your finger on my hair pin triggers Soldier down on that icy ground Looked up at me with honor and truth Broken and blue, so I called off the troops That was the night I nearly lost you

I really thought I lost you.”

—

Aru POV: Enchanted, Gold Rush, You’re Losing Me

—

“This is me praying that This was the very first page Not where the story line ends My thoughts will echo your name, until I see you again These are the words I held back, as I was leaving too soon I was enchanted to meet you Please don't be in love with someone else Please don't have somebody waiting on you.”

—

“Cause I don't like a gold rush, gold rush I don't like anticipating my face in a red flush I don't like that anyone would die to feel your touch Everybody wants you Everybody wonders what it would be like to love you Walk past, quick brush I don't like slow motion double vision in rose blush I don't like that falling feels like flying 'til the bone crush Everybody wants you But I don't like a gold rush.”

—

“How long could we be a sad song 'Til we were too far gone to bring back to life? I gave you all my best me's, my endless empathy And all I did was bleed as I tried to be the bravest soldier Fighting in only your army Frontlines, don't you ignore meI'm the best thing at this party (You're losin' me) And I wouldn't marry me either A pathological people pleaser Who only wanted you to see her And I'm fadin', thinkin'

"Do something, babe, say something" (say something) "Lose something, babe, risk something" (you're losin' me) "Choose something, babe, I got nothing (got nothing) To believe Unless you're choosin' me.”

—

Snake Of Death:

—

Mini POV: Midnight Rain, Lover

—

“'Cause he was sunshine I was midnight rain He wanted it comfortable I wanted that pain He wanted a bride I was making my own name Chasing that fame He stayed the same All of me changed Like midnight.”

—

“Ladies and gentlemen, will you please stand? With every guitar string scar on my hand I take this magnetic force of a man to be my lover

My heart's been borrowed and yours has been blue All's well that ends well to end up with you Swear to be overdramatic and true to my lover.”

—

Rudy POV: Willow

—

“Life was a willow and it bent right to your wind (oh) Head on the pillow, I could feel you sneaking in As if you were a mythical thing Like you were a trophy or a champion ring And there was one prize I'd cheat to win The more that you say The less I know Wherever you stray I follow I'm begging for you to take my hand Wreck my plans That's my man.”

—

Hirynne:

—

Hira POV: Love Story

—

“Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone I'll be waiting, all there's left to do is run You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess It's a love story, baby, just say, "Yes"

—

Brynne POV: Fearless

—

“And I don't know how it gets better than this You take my hand and drag me head first Fearless And I don't know why But with you I'd dance in a storm  In my best dress Fearless.”

[malkaleh]

for @miabicicletta a mini companion piece to my ‘it was CJ who was kidnapped not Zoey AU’

Journalistic ‘objectivity’ was a crapshoot at best - at worst it was a fig leaf to hide that you, the superior journalist did not have any bias, honestly you don’t - Samira Cohen learned from the greatest that the best thing you can do, maybe the only thing you can do is genuinely be fair. Don’t pull punches, don’t soft pedal a story but be kind - the foundation of their profession is people and if nothing else, it’s self interest to not be malicious.

The (almost) entire White House Press Corps has left ‘unbiased’ in a previous century about a second after they learned CJ Cregg was kidnapped. She and Katie, Mark, Ikram and Kara from The Guardian have, Samira is pretty sure, wore holes in the carpet and displaced their worry onto well, worrying about Danny.

Of course they are worrying about Danny. The trouble is, well not the trouble - honestly if she had the choice she’d sell tickets to Danny murdering Lewis Warner VI from Fox and eat popcorn the entire time. Sign a recommendation for a medal of honour and she’s pretty sure Jed Bartlet would give him five of them. Unfortunately if he does it now, it’s just going to fan the disgusting things the right are saying. Especially what they’d say about CJ, which is all that Danny actually gives a fuck about.

(Lewis Warner VI has been various flavours of racist (anti semitic, anti black, anti brown), sexist and patronising for years but because he’s the one actual real life example (i.e. wasp) of the caricature of affirmative action he rants about, he’s kept failing up).

So they’ve all attempted to keep Danny well away from and well, it helps to take her mind of everything. Because Samira likes these people. Oh sure, she’s been critical (won an award for it) but they are good dedicated people here in this administration. And now they all have to pretend they haven’t lost a sister and a daughter and Danny has to make an attempt to pretend that he isn’t hanging on the edge of the news of losing the love of his life.

[nikrei]

August Comic Round-Up

Look the thing about the 60s and silver age comics is that a whole lot of stuff happens, but not a lot of things.... accumulate. Knowing what's actually going to be carried forward into the continuity is a total crapshoot. This is why its not my favorite. Some day I will be free of the sixties. I have done this to myself.

Action Comics (286-335) (1962-1966)

We're really getting into the superhorse content now.... Leo Dorfman why must u ship this so bad. Also, Kara's parents are still alive?? That's truly a ballsy move to make Leo Dorfman. With all the interstellar and time travel they're really conscious of the fact that folks from other planets and other time periods wouldn't speak the same language, but they like to side step it in increasingly ridiculous ways. Lois and Clark and Lana all know ancient Welsh. Lois and Jimmy are fluent in Latin. Most aliens they interact with apparently watch earth like it's their favorite soap and have therefore all learned English.

Superman (143-182) (1962-1966)

This set of comics tend to do this thing where there are post scarcity worlds that "have virtually no crime because everything is provided" and the few people who are committing crimes at doing it for the thrill of it..... so like.... tell me ur aware that like 95% of crime comes from resource scarcity and then turn around and slap me with the "all criminals are evil and its a state of mind the only reason crimes are committed is because how evil these people are." Also... anti-evil mindcontrol I hate it.

Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen (59-90) (1962-1966)

Convinced that no comic writer working on a superman title knows how to write romance or chemistry there's nothing there bro! Jimmy and Lucy are just going through the motions, she's dating other people semi seriously he's doing one off dates to make her jealous i cannot be convinced that these people care about each other. She asked him to take care of her dog for the weekend and he literally went over to her place and DID NOT TAKE CARE OF THE DOG!! Tbh they only convince me they car about each other when they are sandra and magi.

Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane (29-62)(1961-1966)

Siiigh, it's about 80/20 haha that uppity lois lane got her comeuppance/competent and compassionate lois. And 95% of it is her being desperate to marry superman. Honestly it's sorta the most difficult to get thru at this point.

World's Finest Comics (124-155)(1962-1966)

Batman and Superman are getting more time to actually interact which is fun. These two are sorta deranged in the exact same way. Seeing the "presents" they get for each other for anniversaries and birthdays, Tim's 16th birthday makes perfect sense and also it's possible that Bruce thought it would be well recieved. As far as backups go, I didn't read Congorilla at all, the Green Arrow backups are getting longer so there's some actual personality shining thru, and hey mom, how come aquaman gets two comics?? (at least for a few issues)

Superboy (89-126) (1961-1966)

Started this run where Mon-el showed up! But uuuhg I'm so bored with the Lana Lang plots!! Ooooh she's scheming up ways to find out his secret identity! Cause that's what women do, they scheme! Schemey schemers gotta teach them a lesson am I right?? I'm so over it.

Adventure Comics (281-341) (1961-1966)

Thank god in issue 300 the back up started being LoSH i honestly hate the bizarro back-ups so much, it's so awful and ableist in a very 60s way ahhhhhhhggg! Anyway now that it's LoSH I'm enjoying it. And oh-ho, at 309 LoSH goes from back up to main feature, nice! All these children are my precious babies now, btw.

Aquaman (1-25) (1961-1966) + Showcase (30-33) (1961)

Omg Mera showed up, hi Mera!! Garth continues to be the most precious fry in the sea. Also they keep getting halfway there about caring about the environment. Like.... the enemy has made a desalinator to prevent aquaman's saltwater fish from attacking him. But. The fact that he has apparently desalinated the whole gulf of Mexico is treated as a tremendous feat of human ingenuity?? That time they cause a gas leak to defend against interdimensional wizards. Its fine things leak into the ocean all the time don't worry about it. The army warns aquaman about nuclear testing sites so he can stay clear of them because they know that the bomb and fallout are dangerous.... but any further reaching consequences are not considered. It's still better than all the runs which really don't care or consider at all, don't get me wrong. One more thing: it was more fun when aquaman was this homeless hick nobody who had never even been to Atlantis and was just calling himself the king of the sea. Now that he's been to Atlantis and was actually elected king it is not as much fun. Tho Aquaman and Mera's blissful matrimony is v fun. Aquababy had also arrived on the scene! I know ur days are numbered, baby.

Green Lantern (11-42) (1962-1966)

Look, this comic is the only one to be normal about non-human shaped aliens and I love it for that. Not even LoSH manages that most of the time, and the super titles super don't. Also Black Hand routinely breaks the 4th wall and directly addresses the readers all the time and it's never remarked on. He's the only one who does this, it's fascinating to me.

Justice League of America (9-33) (1962-1965)

Traditional JLA stuff, wacky and wild but pretty usual. Snapper is the most likeable he's ever been.

The Brave and the Bold (50-57) (1963-1965)

This is where B&B starts being about actual team-ups rather than a random anthology mostly about robinhood/knights/vikings it seems. Got to read Rex's first appearance, which was v fun! Rex <3 Sapphire 5ever!

My Greatest Adventure/Doom Patrol (80-93) (1963-1965)

MGA 80 is the first instance of Doom Patrol, before the magazine is renamed Doom Patrol at 86. Before that it was just an unrelated anthology. Anyway i really like the og team! Rita is my fave but of course Cliff is a close second. Steve can go jump off a cliff.

Hawkman (1-11) (1964-1966)/Brave and the Bold (34-36 & 42-44) (1961 & 1962)

I actually really like the relationship between Katar and Shayera, like, it's 60's flavored but you can actually tell that they like each other as well as love each other. There's a lot of little story beats with them connecting with each other that are very sweet.

House of Mystery (143-155) (1964-1965)

What i expected from the Martian Manhunter stories in a magazine called house of mystery: J'onn J'onzz, police detective, solving mysteries in the city, as a police detective. What I got: J'onn J'onzz living in a cave with a small alien side kick named Zook dealing with magic in rural America. Didn't read the other stories in the anthologies.

I've been trying to read about a year a week, so if I manage to keep that up then I should be able to get back to the 90s in..... 5-6 months?

[russianprotesters]

Vladimir Kara-Murza in interview with Meduza after release from prison:

I knew new even before my arrest that, according to international law , prolonged solitary confinement is equivalent to torture, cruel and inhuman treatment. Moreover, prolonged confinement is considered to be 15 days in a row. I sat in solitary confinement for almost 11 months non-stop. I admit honestly, before prison, before I went through this experience myself, I could not understand: what is torture in this? On the contrary, I thought, you sit alone, no one bothers you, you write what you want, read books - it is certainly better than sitting with criminals in a barracks. Only a person who does not know what prison is could think so. It is truly torture. When people talk about torture, many people imagine needles being shoved under their nails or being hit with an electric shock device. But moral and psychological torture can be stronger than physical torture. And I can say that complete isolation from any human communication is absolutely unbearable. Man, as Aristotle said, is a social creature. We need communication with each other just like food, drink, air. When you are completely cut off from this, then very quickly - I will say frankly - you start to go crazy. You lose concentration, your thoughts start to get confused, some kind of nonsense comes to mind.

I had a big plus when I was sitting in the special regime colony #7, in the EPKT. There was a bridge for the guards next to the bars, and cats would come there - I would talk to them. I'm just a big cat lover, so I felt very warm inside (we have two Bengal cats at home, I haven't seen them for two and a half years. I'll see them soon !). The cats were my only interlocutors in that prison.

A special anti-psychotherapeutic measure for prisoners - at any presentation, any written statement, you must indicate your term. The date April 21, 2047 will be with me forever, do you understand? In the sixth colony, some of the bosses still liked to come up and ask: "How much time do you have left, Vladimir Vladimirovich? 22 or 23 years, remind me?"

Often people who have not been through prison imagine prison guards as some kind of cartoonish villains from movies. But the vast majority of people in the prison system are quite normal. And this is also terrible, because evil in our world is done by the hands of such ordinary people who carry out orders and, as they say, "nothing personal."

Within the Russian penitentiary system, the city of Omsk is a household word. It has the most monstrous, the most hellish regime. I didn’t know that. I remember when I was being transported from Moscow to Siberia last year, first they put me in a sorting cell with other prisoners. We managed to chat for half an hour. And when the guard came and said: “Kara-Murza, Omsk,” everyone around suddenly fell silent and began to look at me with some kind of sympathy. I only understood what was going on when I got there.  I would describe the regime in Omsk as something between a concentration camp and a madhouse. It is a regime taken to the point of absurdity, absolutely hypertrophied. Everything is down to the last decimal point, down to the second, down to the last point. You have to keep your hands behind your back, even if you take two steps. A step to the right, a step to the left – no. An extra movement – ​​no. Constant searches, constant performances – it is very important to keep your emotions under control in prison, but, I admit, it is not always possible when you exist in this. Constant video surveillance. For example, a long documentary could be made about my stay in the EPKT in the seventh colony in Omsk. True, it would be very boring, because nothing happened there, I was just sitting in a solitary confinement cell. But it would be very long - in addition to the fact that two cameras were constantly working in the cell itself, all the employees also had video recorders turned on. Literally every minute was recorded. And you also need to psychologically disconnect from the fact that you are constantly under surveillance. By the way, you can disconnect from this, because it is impossible to live like that.  And of all this, the most terrible, even by Omsk standards, was the prison hospital, where I was sent last. I knew from literature that the camp hospital was perceived by prisoners as a rest. But I was not in the camp hospital itself, I was in a prison inside the hospital - there is also a PKT block for especially dangerous prisoners. The same solitary confinement cell, the same bunk attached to the wall from reveille to lights out. In the entire block, two cells were occupied - mine and another one. And this prison hospital is a separate little circle of hell.  - What makes it the most terrible place? — I don’t even know if it’s possible to describe it in words. The same thing was happening in the hospital, only on a completely exaggerated scale. There were constant searches at every step, literally every 50 meters. Hands behind your back. Face to the wall. You can’t look at anyone. Plus, as a bonus, there are all sorts of medical procedures, not the most pleasant ones - like gastroscopy, when they stick a tube into your stomach. I can't stand that since childhood. They did it to me again.

In prison, you lost 25 kilograms. In "The Steep Route," Evgenia Ginzburg, repressed in 1937, тold how after several years in prison, she looked in the mirror and recognized herself only by her resemblance to her mother. How did you perceive your reflection? .. To be honest, I didn’t notice it visually. But I noticed that it became painful to lie down because my bones were sticking out. And it was painful to sit for the same reason. And then I asked to be taken to the medical unit and have my weight measured. Speaking of historical parallels, I then remembered that Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn wrote in “The Gulag Archipelago” that he always found it funny to think about Soviet party functionaries who went to elite sanatoriums to lose one and a half to two kilograms. He wrote: “I recommend the Soviet Gulag. A couple of months, and you will get rid of the problem of excess weight completely.” I can confirm this from my own experience.

When did you realize that you were in for an exchange and not death? — At the very last moment, when they took me to the FSB bus in the Lefortovo yard. It all started last Tuesday, July 23 — it was the longest week of my life, as if a year had passed. Suddenly the doors to my cell opened (I, as an especially dangerous person, had two doors: an outer one, closed with several locks, and an inner one with bars). Two uniformed operatives entered and took me to the service office of the PKT building. On the wall was a large portrait of Putin, on the table lay a blank sheet of paper, a pen and a sample. They said: “Vladimir Vladimirovich, sit down and write.” I looked — and it was a petition for pardon addressed to citizen Putin: “I fully admit my guilt, I repent of my actions,” and so on. At first I thought they were playing a joke on me, and I laughed. But these people turned out to have no sense of humor. I said that I was not going to write anything. The operative asked why. I explained: “First, I do not consider citizen Putin a legitimate president, I consider him a usurper, a dictator, and a murderer. And second, I am not guilty of anything. I am here solely for my views, for my convictions, for my statements against the war.” They asked me five more times, and then took me back to the cell. Two days later, on Thursday, July 25, the operatives come in again. They take me to the same office, but there is another piece of paper there. The operative says to me: "Vladimir Vladimirovich, you allowed yourself to make a statement about our president, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. The conversation was recorded on a video recorder, transcribed in text form, and placed on the desk of the head of the institution, who demands that you write a written explanation." On this piece of paper I wrote everything I think - that I do not consider Putin a legitimate president, but consider him a usurper, that he bears personal responsibility for the death of Boris Nemtsov , for the death of Alexei Navalny and for the death of thousands of peaceful citizens of Ukraine, including children. And that I do not intend to admit any guilt, because the criminals are those who unleashed this aggressive war. I didn't understand what was happening at all. On the night from Saturday to Sunday, from July 27 to 28, at three o'clock, the doors opened with a bang, operatives and a convoy burst in, some in uniform, some in civilian clothes, which I saw for the first time. The prison warden was standing nearby. "You have five minutes, get dressed, you are leaving us today." I was absolutely sure that they were taking me away to be shot, I asked: "What, in the nearest forest when trying to escape, as is customary with you?" They didn't answer.

They take me out into the courtyard, where a silver bus with tinted windows is parked. The luggage compartment is open, they tell me to throw my things in, and then they lead me into the bus. I see that it is filled with the same people in black balaclavas - and with each of them there are people I know very well. The first one I saw was my friend and colleague Andrei Pivovarov. The second was Oleg Petrovich Orlov from Memorial. And the third was Ilya Yashin, who said the phrase I already mentioned. And at that moment I understood everything! Were you able to talk to each other? — It was hard on the bus, but on the plane it became easier to breathe. Unfortunately, we have such a domestic tradition: foreigners get the best, and our own people get only the last bit. Even here they followed this: we sat in economy class, and the foreigners (Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan, Alsu Kurmasheva and Patrick Schebel) were taken to business class. We flew for three to three and a half hours. When we landed, we saw several more planes and two buses from the windows. The FSB officers began to take us out one by one, also by the shoulder. I was the last one left in the cabin. My FSB officer looked at me and said: "Vladimir Vladimirovich, be careful eating there, or you know how it happens." These were the last words I heard from our escorts.

We get off the plane [in Ankara] and go to a bus with tinted windows — about the same as in Moscow. Our FSB guys are there, again hiding their faces behind balaclavas. And two representatives of the German government get on the bus. They have printouts with our photos, biographies, interviews in their hands. They approach each one and check whether it is really us, whether they have been planted with some doubles. It was quite difficult with me: I lost 25 kilograms during my arrest and I am very different from the photos they had. So at first they were very suspicious and started asking questions. But I passed the exam on the details of my biography.

As soon as they boarded the plane, the doors of our bus closed and we were taken to some building, apparently for receptions. There, an aide to the German Chancellor welcomed us back to freedom and told us that we would then be taken on two planes to Cologne/Bonn Airport, where Chancellor Olaf Scholz would meet us. At that moment – ​​and you remember, I was in absolute surrealism – a woman came up to me with a phone in her hands and said that she was a representative of the American embassy and that [American] President Biden would be speaking to me. At that moment, I realized that it was time for me to stop trying to understand anything. I hope that some of what I said was understandable. I have forgotten how to speak Russian - only "Hello" to the guards. And I have not used English at all for two and a half years. My wife and children were in the Oval Office, I heard their voices. It is impossible to describe in words, so I will not even try.

[xxmothangelxx]

Shady Rambles Dislyte Part 6: A Written Movie Sequal

So, I made this post yesterday, and after I was able to make a reddit post that I feel better summarized my point! It may be a tad pretentious in its writing and I do apologize for that, but still, I hope you enjoy!

As a lover of writing and Dislyte, I've always been unnecessarily invested in the story. Funnily enough, unlike most people the story and characters are really my main reason for not giving up on the game – in spite of all the less than favorable updates – so although many argue the story is sub-par, I quite enjoy it. This love of characters and story has made it so I try to keep up with most events. I'll be honest, I stopped playing the game after Valeria's event (and I have yet to read through the ones that I've missed) but I have since completed Cellblock Chaos so I'm making my way back into the game!

Needless context aside, I wanted to discuss the concept of grey morality and why it always bothered me when it was mentioned in reference to the Shadow Decree, it took me a while to figure out why but I feel that I can now put it into words. It is because the Shadow Decree are objectively an irredeemable terrorist organization that have committed human rights violations so extreme, that in a more realistic world Hyde would have been sentenced to death by firing squad upon arrest.

The issue with grey morality and the concept of an anti-hero is a lot of consumers and fans have the false mindset that if a villain has a 'point' then the villain is any less evil. Now, the issue with that therein lies with the fact that morality is less based on thought and more based on action, it doesn't matter if you have a "moral" way of thinking if your actions don't reflect that. This issue can be seen within the Shadow Decree in abundance, many of the characters have seemingly understandable reasons for being members, but their actions within the group contradict their so-called moral standpoint.

For example, many argue that the reason Hyde isn't a villain is because his research is all for the "greater good", he is an ends justify the means sort of person. However, you then have to take into account that Hyde actively partakes in and encourages human trafficking and non-consensual human experimentation. Does it really matter if it is "for the greater good" if you are actively allowing hundreds of innocents to die for experiments that lead to nothing at all?

I am brought back to two events in particular: Brewster and Yun Chuan's. In both events, it is revealed that the Shadow Decree's crimes run deeper than just bothering the Union and stealing their members.

With Brewster, we find out that Shadow Decree actively buys trafficking victims off what can only be described as a black market and experiments on them in an attempt to turn them into espers. These people do not consent, and are nothing more than cattle to them. Few are "successful" like Brewster, with a majority of them dying from the strain placed upon their bodies. Brewster himself was sold by his abusive father and still suffers immense trauma from his time under Kara.

Yun Chuan's hits closer to home however; as someone with many criticisms of the prison industrial complex – more specifically how inmates are treated – to hear that the Shadow Decree makes deals with prisons to experiment on inmates was incredibly chilling. It was one of the most true to life, realistic portrayals of how deep systemic corruption truly is, especially in how it mirrors the real life abuse of incarcerated people globally.

I simply do not see these as the actions of a "morally grey" group of people that only "want the best". I feel that the reason many are quick to slap the morally grey label onto the Shadow Decree is character bounties, most bounties are slice of life stories that show the characters going about their daily business, of course Ophelia and Catherine seem nicer and more likable. Though you then remember that they bombed an orphanage for virtually no reason and suddenly they seem less like good people.

Now, this isn't me saying that you cannot like them or that liking them reflect poorly on you as a person! I for one am definitely a Shadow Decree apologist haha, my top favorite espers are majority Shadow Decree, and I find them to be an interesting group of people with the potential for great storytelling. With that being said, I feel we as media consumers have a habit of becoming so attached to certain characters that we forget that their actions do indeed play a role in who they are.

To be a part of the Shadow Decree is to say that you are okay with human trafficking, human experimentation, terrorism, weapons smuggling, political corruption, prison industrial system corruption, child murder (remember the orphanage bombing that killed Stewart's lover and also a bunch of children?). The Union is certainly not free of skeletons, their rampant negligence shows this, however I cannot feel comfortable saying that they are in any way just as bad or worse than the Shadow Decree based on everything the Dislyte lore has told us.

TLDR: I believe the reason many argue that the Shadow Decree are morally grey, or that they're even a well-meaning group, is because many of the characters have sad backstories, attractive designs, and cute personalities. Though I cannot agree, because I feel that it disregards all the genuinely horrific (and mostly unnecessary) actions of the group; I don't see how people that bomb orphanages and experiment on trafficking victims can be any less than evil.

With all of that being said I would give my left kidney and run over a baby kitten if it meant that Catherine would blink in my direction.