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[whenmemorydies]

Sydney won't take Shapiro up on his offer

We all know that Sydney has the technical skill, the people smarts and the good business sense to find work outside of The Bear if she so chose. By the end of season 3, she's being pursued by one chef in particular (Adam Shapiro of Ever) to join him as he opens his own restaurant.

While she could leave The Bear - serving Carmy right for his treatment of Syd this past season - I don't think she's going to be jumping ship to Shapiro anytime soon. This is based on the conversation that Syd had with Shapiro in 3x07 Legacy. That convo had some call backs and call forwards that speak to a misalignment of values when it comes to running a restaurant together. Lets get into it.

Joy, collaboration and control

First, Shapiro tells Sydney that he wants to run his new restaurant but he doesn't want to cook all the time:

This contrasts to Carmy and Syd's discussion in 2x09:

Carmy: You still love to cook, right?

Sydney: Yeah.

Carmy: Yeah?

Which is followed by their cheeky chat about omelettes with boursin, chives and ridged potato chips (oooh fuck).

So we know Sydney loves to cook.

Carmy does too, even though we know he may not think its fun. Recall his convo with Richie in 2x01 Beef:

Carmy: This shit's not fun for me. (I swear he's saying this and not what the subtitles are saying lol)

Richie: Yeah, but you love it.

Carmy: That doesn't make it fun.

Still, there's the joy - the fun - we know that Carmy and Sydney have when they menu plan and cook together:

We also know from season 3 that both Carmy and Sydney are head down in the kitchen at The Bear. They're both overseeing the cooks, plating and running expo.

Contrast this with Shapiro who wants to run things but doesn’t want to cook every day. I’d go so far as to say he may not love cooking enough to want to keep doing it. Ultimately, Shapiro wants the control that comes with restaurant ownership but doesn’t want to take part in the creation - in the collaborative process - required to build his restaurant’s vibe (recall him telling Sydney it could be whatever she wants it to be in 3x07 Legacy):

Like @freedelusionshere has said repeatedly: Sydney craves collaboration. She did it all on her own with Sheridan Road. She's does not want to be running things on her own again at The Bear. She's reticent about relying on Carmy because as an only child and someone who ran her own business, she's used to being self-sufficient. Post 2x02-season-2 Carmy who bailed on the restaurant to numb himself with Claire and season 3 Carmy who's gone full Michelin-mode, icing her out of so much of the planning is probably giving Sydney even less reason to let herself be vulnerable enough with Carmy to fully rely on him. She indicates to Marcus in 3x05 Children that the idea of relying on someone is scary for her.

Given what we're shown in episodes 3x02 through to 3x04 prior to the above admission from Sydney, its almost certain that the "someone" she is talking about is Carmy.

Still, Sydney knows what she and Carmy can do together based on their frankness with one another in season 1 and their collaboration in season 2. She knows what Carmy promised her in 2x09 Omelette: that he wouldn't let her fail and in 3x01 Tomorrow: that he would never leave her to do it all by herself again. (OK we know he's gone in the entirely wrong direction on this in season 3 by fully taking the reigns himself…but the man is able to course-correct (remember how he made things right with both Marcus and Sydney in 1x08 Braciole?) and I hope he does this early on in season 4).

Above: Carmy reassuring Sydney in 2x09 Omelette that he won't let her fail and that she's not alone this time. Below: Carmy's vow to never leave Sydney to live a life apart from him run the restaurant alone again in 3x01 Tomorrow.

But Shapiro is not offering her any of that. He's letting her take the reigns - and consequently, the fall if anything goes wrong with his new venture - and I'm pretty sure that reality: that the buck for an entire restaurant with a full suite of staff is going to stop with Syd, is even more terrifying and misaligned for Sydney than what is happening at The Bear.

What Sydney doesn't know (but may suspect from Shapiro's offer to give her full control of the restaurant with precious little reason to - how did this man even get her phone number to begin with?) is that Shapiro may have a history of throwing other people under the bus to take the fall for his mistakes. Recall that the first time we are introduced to Shapiro in 2x07 Forks, he is yelling at the crew at Ever about a smudged plate:

After time-costing the effect of the smudge (47 seconds!), Shapiro insists that whoever caused the smudge own up to it. When no one does, he yells across the table at Richie's guardian angel, Garrett:

Shapiro: Fuck you, Garrett!

Garrett: Yes, chef. Fuck me.

Later in 3x10 Forever. we learn that its actually Shapiro who's known for smudging plates (initially from a guest at the dinner who makes a crack about smudges after Shapiro introduces the first dish of the night, and then from Luca in Ever's kitchen):

What's notable is that Sydney is present for both of the above smudge gibes. So while she may not know that Shapiro has a habit of blaming his staff for what are likely his own mistakes (RIP Garrett), she is made aware in 3x10 that the dude is sloppy and notoriously so.

Does it matter if Shapiro is a mess in the kitchen? Honestly, I wouldn't give a shit (lol) BUT I'm not the one pursuing a career in the restaurant industry. Sydney is in this business because she loves cooking AND because she wants to be inspired. This is the same woman who sought Carmy out at his family's old sandwich shop after trying one of his meals. She wants to be the best and she knows that in order to do that, she needs to learn and work under the best. Or the most excellent. Same diff.

Does Shapiro meet the standard that Sydney has for a mentor or collaborator? I don't think so.

Inheritances

Cutting back to 3x07 Legacy: earlier in their convo, Shapiro tells Sydney that he wants to start clean and he doesn't want to inherit anything (presumably from his current job with Chef Terry at Ever):

This is meant to be Shapiro addressing Sydney's concerns from 3x04 Violet when he catches her as she's leaving the train station:

Sydney: It's been a long month [at The Bear].

Chef Adam: Ah. That bad?

Sydney: No, just-- Restaurants.

Chef Adam: Yeah. Right? Why do we do this to ourselves?

Sydney: 'Cause we're crazy.

Chef Adam: Yeah. What was this month's crazy?

Sydney: Um. The kind that's inherited.

Chef Adam: *Nods emphatically* Understood.

The trouble is, as Carmy clearly lays out for us later in 3x07 Legacy, restaurants are built on inheritances. They're ancestral, like a family tree:

Carmy: Like, um, something would start somewhere, and then, uh, people would take that thing and then they would take it somewhere else. So, all these parts of an original restaurant, they would end up at a new restaurant and that kind of thing. That would happen over and over again. And then all these parts of all these restaurants, they would sort of-- You know, they would find each other. And then new people would take those parts and they would put 'em into their restaurant. And the whole thing, it would, um-- It would start to happen all over again.

Marcus: So, like a family tree or something?

Carmy: [looks to Syd who has her back to him, closing her locker] Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

In the context of family, we inherit things from our ancestors whether we want to or not. These things can be genetic (like skin colour, hair texture or the shape of an eye), psychic (intergenerational trauma, you old dog), economic (inherited wealth? I don’t know her), religious or cultural (like a well-loved dish passed down in families).

Some of these things are obviously strengths, even gifts of a kind. Others are challenges that we need to meet. None of them can be ignored. To do so - to start "clean" without trying to work through and integrate our inheritances, good and bad - is done at our own peril. In season 3, this is what Carmy has been doing: he gives little time to the good lessons he's learned from mentors and collaborators like Thomas Keller, Andrea Terry, Daniel Boulud, Mikey and Natalie Berzatto, Michelle Berzatto, Pete, Richie Jerimovic, Gary Sweeps, Ebraheim, Manny, Angel, Marcus Brooks, Tina Marrero and Sydney Adamu, and latches onto the toxic behaviours and practices of David Fields and his mother, Donna Berzatto. To his credit, Richie rightly pulls Carmy up on this in 3x03 Doors (You're not fully integrated!).

When Shapiro says he wants to start clean and doesn't want to inherit anything, he posits a future where no lessons are learned and where no joy or pride is passed down. This is a future without memory. And to quote A.S. Sivanandan (and my tumblr username-sake):

When memory dies, a people die.

Or to put it another way: living a life without memory, without history, is no life at all. Its living in a decontextualised void or vacuum. And neither voids or vacuums hold the requisite components for supporting life.

Shapiro's wish for no inheritances also reminds me of this promo still for The Bear which @thoughtfulchaos773 posted about recently:

This is a shot of Carmy in the kitchen in Empire. The writing on the wall next to him reads:

Its only after we've lost everything we're free to do anything.

This quote was likely written by Chef David Fields who made a living out of terrorising his staff, getting them to subtract everything from their lives until their world revolved around his kitchen. Recall him telling Carmen in 3x10 Forever:

Chef David: So you got rid of all the bullshit, and you concentrated, and you got focused, and you got great. You got excellent.

The "bullshit" here being Carmen's entire existence outside of work. Fields allowed no inheritances from any of the staff in his space. The result? A team likely suffering the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder and god knows what else.

Sydney is not about voids or vacuums. She is not about living a life without context. She has shown us time and time again that she listens to history and does her best to integrate it. My favourite example of this is her building an entire fucking kitchen in The Beef's parking lot when the restaurant loses power and gas.

Despite her own trauma from the world of catering, she remembered the lessons she learned there (particularly around innovation and resourcefulness) and she saved the day - and The Beef - from ruin.

Now while Carmy is struggling to integrate in season 3, he has never shied away from inheritances in his work. The most salient example of this is the sandwich window at The Bear which still serves up the Italian beef sandwiches that his family is known for. Something tells me that if it had been Shapiro in Carmy's shoes, he would have nixed that idea completely.

The devil is a snake

And finally, unrelated to any life lessons inferred from the show is the allegorical warning about Adam that we are given in 3x01 Tomorrow.

Recall this scene in the third season premiere where Carmy, Luca and Shapiro are shucking peas at Ever.

Its clear Carmy is working at a speed that Luca and Shapiro find it hard to match. Shapiro is seen looking over at Carmy's tub of peas and whispering fuck in surprise/jealousy:

The camera then dips to Shapiro's tub of peas, which we can see is running low compared to Carmy's.

There are also what appear to be three apple slices on Shapiro's cutting board. They only appear at his work station. Carmy and Luca do not have anything other than peas in front of them.

We know that almost everything we see and hear on screen in The Bear is intentional and I reckon these apple slices are no different. So what could they mean?

The Bear utilises a lot of Biblical imagery and narrative and I think these apple slices continue in that vein. In the Old Testament of the Bible, there is the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Eve is seduced into eating the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil by a serpent. In Western retellings of the story, the forbidden fruit is often described as an apple. As a result of this deception by the snake, Adam and Eve are booted from Eden.

Back at The Bear, we have three slices of apple on Chef Shapiro's cutting board. I think these represent three attempts by Shapiro to tempt Sydney to join his new restaurant (i.e. get her to eat the forbidden fruit that will result in her getting booted from The Bear and the life she's built there)

In season 3, Shapiro puts his offer to Sydney twice: once in 3x07 Legacy and again in 3x10 Forever:

I suspect that Shapiro is going to try one last time to get Sydney on side in season 4, but she'll turn him down. Eve might have trusted a snake but Sydney's got better instincts lol.

Now whether she will stay at The Bear is another story and one entirely dependent on Carmy getting his shit together in season 4. But the way I see it, Sydney certainly won't be leaving her found family in order to join Shapiro. I mean who has time for disloyalty, smudges and snakes when you have people to feed and make happy?

[qoldenskies]

Yello

I just found your fic series yesterday and I have been seriously enjoying it. I mean, not the psychological trauma part, but just how well written it is. I love how your mind works.

But no spoilers! I read Miner's eulogy, but I've only gotten to chapter 7 of Clipped Wings.

Anyway, I came here to say that since this is definitely before the movie and will definitely affect how the timeline of the show coincides with everything, I've come to see just how much of the movie actually does intertwine with the story, and how it affects how I view some of the scenes now.

Of course, I have no idea when he's gonna get better enough to where he's gonna be fighting alongside them on missions again. And the ark with Shredder and the Krang is definitely coming soon in the timeline of their lives right now. Buuuut, I do expect for us to maybe have some "just cause" because there is no way that they're gonna be leaving the lair anytime soon unless for just for getting stuff for Donnie. I mean, do we really think they're worried about the FOOT CLAN right now? We can act like all that is many months or many years from now because Donnie is definitely not gonna be okay by then.

So, anyway, whenever any of that ends up happening in this world, I like to think about the Krang bus and Technodrome scenes from the movie. In both instances, Donnie loses his battle shell. He protects Mikey with it and has to lose it to be able to control the ship with his bare back. Which, like, ow? Seeing the movie through the eyes of this story, there are definitely a lot of places that just would not exist because of the condition of Donnie. But god.

The extra worry that Mikey has about Donnie's shell? The protectiveness? The question of "are you sure?" before he takes it off?

The part where him and Mikey are trapped in the Turtle Tank? The utter terror on Donnie's face, in the fetal position, the fear of being crushed and suffocated, just like in the closet...

When Raph comes out of that cocoon swinging at Leo? The same way he did at Donnie? Donnie having to his big brother in that state again, with pure rage in his eyes? Rage at his family? Raph not being in control of himself? DOING EXACTLY WHAT HE DID TO DONNIE TO LEO???

MY GOD

There's probably many other parallels and little things that I haven't thought of yet, but that's what first comes to me. I don't know if you already realized the things and even wrote some things based off of the information we have from the movie. Anyway, I just wanted to vent that out. This au has me in a chokehold. Kudos ❤️

THE MOVIEEEEEE YEAHHHH there's been a bunch of talk about how the movie would go in CC since i have no plans to cover it, but hrhghhh i could really see some of those scenes recontextualized by what donnie goes through here. although personally i think raph being kraangified would hit him a lot harder than it would donnie, who wouldn't have the same kind of proximity to it. because raph has a lot of trauma from what he ended up doing to donnie, and doing it to ANOTHER one of his little brothers would SERIOUSLY mess him up. some people have asked if the choking in particular was an intentional parallel and my answer is actually nope, it was just an extension of the whole uhhh canary/breath metaphor, that and all the damage to his chest (even when raph let go he couldn't breathe!!!). but it would hit a lot harder with the movie's events in mind, its the second time raph would do that to one of his brothers!! oh my god he would be so fucking guilty!!!!!!! man...

someone hassss written their interpretation of a part of it, with the idea that donnie's the one to jump into the prison dimension because it works better than leo arc-wise >:3 (hi seasidefantasies im plugging your fic again. still insane about it) you dont have to be caught up to CW in order to read it, it doesnt contain any major spoilers!!! oooh you wanna read it so bad oooooh (hypnotizing you)

honestly since CW is planned to end on new years 2022 i kind of see everything in BN:NY and forward just being pushed back quite a while, not for any huge canon reasons it just makes more sense logically. since everything around the S2 finale/with the shredder just kinda HAPPENS to them, i could see BN:NY happening at pretty much any point they're all out of the lair together lmao, and once some stuff works out i dont think donnie will want to stay cooped up forever, he's gonna be kind of desperate to be "normal" for the sake of making his family feel better even to his own detriment i feel. i cant say anything too big about the changes because there's some stuff with ninpo that hasnt been revealed in the story, but ultimately i dont think it'd be all that different!! the destruction of the lair would be more cathartic than anything else at least lmao

[mrpuzzlessimp420]

Mario Simulator (Joke Fic)

Chapter 4

Warnings: Attempted Murder/Murder, Brainwashing, Kidnapping

Ships: Marware, BatteryAcid (Mr Puzzles x Orange Juice)

Tomorrow is another day,

and the day after that is another day, and the day after that is another day, and the day after that is another day.

SMG3 repeated this to himself as the days went by, trying to real himself out of going insane, but it only further contributed to his insanity.

What started as a couple of failures of plans led to thousands, no billions. Why was he even doing this in the first place? He honestly couldn't ever remember due to how long it had been since that fateful kidnapping and blackmailing.

At some point, they tried matchmaking Orange Juice to someone else but unlucky to them, they chose that Box Club Leader which did not end up well. He still had nightmares from that piece of cardboard sealed in a jar of orange juice. That club leader was a freak... and not in a good way.

They also tried framing the object head for theft but turns out trying to find the correct bag to place it in in a flood of the same black bags was extremely difficult and they ended up getting Boopkins suspended for it. Eh, he was annoying anyway.

He glanced over to his partner in crime, who was violently stabbing a photograph of Orange Juice, his face getting more and more deranged and ecstatic. The bed underneath him was scarred due to the slashes and stabbing.

They were in SMG3's bedroom right now, which acted as their plotting room as they couldn't risk going in the broom closet in fear of being caught.

He sighed, he hoped this would have ended by now. There wasn't much else to try to plan except...

"Hey, Mario?" Mario turned to face SMG3, his face quickly changing from murderous to curious. "What if we try brainwashing?"

"Oooh that sounds very good! But how would we be able to do that?" Mario asked, using his singular brain cell for once.

"Hmmm... I think I have just the thing..." SMG3 said, searching his bedroom until he found a singular remote.

"The YouTube Remote?" Mario asked, tilting his head.

"No, you silly, it's a different remote. I bought it on the black market once. I think the seller called it the "Edit" remote or something like that, I don't know the seller was extremely sketchy and I couldn't even see their face." SMG3 explained, showing off the object in his hand which was black with yellow accents.

"It can basically edit things so I can presume it can overwrite people's memories". He tossed the remote in the air, trying to act cool but missed catching it, leading to it falling on the ground. Luckily, it didn't break.

"Can I use it, pretty please? I swear I won't mess up!" Mario battered his long eyelashes as he went into puppy eye mode.

"Fine. But only after I explain to you how we're going to do it." SMG3 stated, picking up the remote once again and dusting it off.

"Okie dokie!" Mario said, his face excited as he hoped this plan would actually work this time.

"First of all, since it's the whole school assembly tomorrow we'll hack into the school computers and create a live stream of you using the remote and saying what you will overwrite. After that, we will stop the live stream and erase all evidence that we hacked into the school system!"

"Before that, we'll lock Orange Juice somewhere so he can't go to assembly so he can feel so much pain when he finds out everyone hates him"

"And after that, I finally get to be with my true love!" Mario added on, dreaming of his future.

"Yup, and I don't have to do this anymore." SMG3 sighed, grateful that this might end soon

"Thank you so much S-M-G-3!! I wouldn't have done it without you!!" Mario exclaimed, hugging SMG3 a bit too tightly as SMG3 felt his bones crack inside of him.

"Yeah, you wouldn't have" SMG3 patted Mario's head as he ignored how much pain he was in right now.

"All we need to do now is wait for tomorrow," SMG3 said as he lay on his bed, Mario still stuck to him as he felt himself fall into a soft slumber.

The sun beamed on Mario and the Mario recolour as the day approached forward. With both of them waking up shortly after, SMG3 ran down the plan to Mario again, knowing that he probably forgot again.

After they both got ready for the day, they rushed out to the school entrance, earlier than usual as they needed the time to get this done right. They could not deal with another failure.

The first step was getting Orange Juice locked somewhere. The best choice was the Broom Closet as it was soundproof so he couldn't scream for help. Not many students were in the school right now which helped with not getting caught and one of those students was Orange Juice himself as he liked helping get the teachers ready for the school day.

What a goody-two-shoes, Mario thought as he walked in the direction of the object head in question who was right now talking to one of the science teachers, Dr Robotnik. Or was it Dr Eggman? Mario could never remember any of the teachers' names, let alone this one.

"Excuse me Orange Juice," Mario said, butting into the two's conversation, putting on his best innocent act. "I was told by one of the maths teachers that you were needed in her classroom to help out away new supplies with her."

"Oh really? Well, why don't you show me the way? Sorry about this Dr Robotnik, I need to deal with this first" Orange Juice politely said, his charisma and charm leaking out of him like a disgusting pest. He disgusted Mario with how nice and kind he was. As if he was perfect.

Mario, still having his act of sweet innocence on, led the object-headed teenager to his doom, the broom closet. The door was already open and all he needed to do was to push Orange Juice in and lock the door with the only keys it had.

"I don't remember the Broom Closet being open at this tim-" Before Orange Juice could finish his sentence, Mario shoved him in and locked the door quickly before he skipped off to find where SMG3 was.

The second step was hacking into the school computers which SMG3 had already done by the time Mario had found where he was, in the empty classroom Meggy was forced to be in during her Catering classes.

Now all they had to do was wait for assembly.

30 minutes had passed and assembly had just started. SMG3 pressed the record button and Mario got in place ready to say his lines. The spaghetti-loving man pressed the overwrite button on the remote before anyone could do anything about the hacking attack.

"Orange Juice is a horrible horrible person. He has cheated on Mr Puzzles countless of times and kicks puppies for fun. He enjoys content farms and has made several in the past. He also doesn't like Chappell Roan which is very homophobic of him."

The live stream then quickly ended as SMG3 erased any evidence of them tapering with the school system.

They both hoped this worked as if it didn't, they would be in so much trouble.

It has worked. Everyone hated Orange Juice. He was the talk of the school gossip. Mr Puzzles, dramatically broke up with the object head as he cursed the ever-living shit out of the confused man.

But Mario wasn't finished. No. Sure, he could just be with Mr Puzzles now but that wasn't enough for him. He needed to kill that disgusting glass of orange juice and show him that he should have never messed with the Mario. Ever.

So he waited until the day was over and everyone had gone home, even the teachers. Expect for Orange Juice who was in detention for the entire day, even the night.

Freshly sharpened knife in hand, he walked in a stalker-like motion to the door of the detention room. His prey sitting nervously at a lone desk.

His heart beat loudly as he slowly turned the handle of the door, knife behind his back.

"Hello Orange Juice~" Mario said sinisterly, which actually did sound sinister for once as the writer could afford a voice actor. Though since it's in text, you can't tell.

"Oh uh hi? Um, is my detention over?" The teenager asked, looking as if this was his first experience of detention ever.

"Hmm... I'm not sure..." Mario stated, his free hand pointing to his cheek. "Your life sure will be soon" He revealed the knife from his back, his free hand stroking it masochistically.

"W-What?" Orange Juice said, startled and afraid as Mario walked slowly closer to him, menacingly.

"G-get away from me you... You psycho!" The object-headed teenager exclaimed as he pushed the table in front of him to the ground in an attempt to distract Mario and ran towards the door of the detention room and into the halls.

"Oh how I love the ones that run, they give such a thrilling chase..." Mario stated lovingly, as he started stalking the halls, waiting until Orange Juice had run out of energy or into a dead end so he could do the final blow.

Orange Juice ran, ran for his life. His day was not going great so far, to say the least. Firstly he was locked into a broom closet, then everyone started hating him for no reason and he got detention. Now he's getting chased by a sociopath. What's next? Is he going to get indoctrinated into a cult? Wouldn't surprise him at this point!

He turned the corner, his breath rapid and uneven. He had to find an exit. Why was this school so big? It was like hell trying to find a decent exit at this rate.

He suddenly tripped on a shard of glass while running, what would be his left cheek shattered as he fell. Glitch, now he was losing blood? This was not a good time to do so! Especially since that rapid animal is chasing after him.

Picking himself up quickly, he ran and ran, his left hand stopping the orange juice from spilling onto the floor any longer.

Back to Mario, he was drooling like a dog with rabies, his excitement and anger increasing by the second as he searched and searched for that man stealing man.

He dug his knife into the walls of the building, the scratchiness making him feel even more alive. By the Glitch Productions above, this made him feel so much more alive than ever before. The adrenaline, the prey versus hunter mentality, the chase. It felt all so good.

After so long, Mario finally caught up to Orange Juice who had locked himself into a corner with nowhere to run to.

"Looks like the mouse has nowhere to go? Hm?" He asked, his knife glistening in the singular light illuminating this area.

"What do you want from me? Why are you doing this?" Orange Juice's voice was full of panic and prey instincts.

"You don't know? How naïve.." He pushed Orange Juice further into the corner, knife pointing to the throat of the fellow teenager whose breath hitched at the action.

"Maybe I'll be your saint this time and tell you myself." The knife dug into the object-head's throat slightly, the sour blood peeking itself through and onto the floor.

Mario kicked Orange Juice into the wall, his foot firmly planted and keeping the teenager in place. While doing this he took his knife away from the other's throat and grabbed both of his hands on it.

"This wouldn't have ended this way if you had never stepped in the way of me being with my one true love, Mr Puzzles"

He made a downward motion with the knife towards Orange Juice's heart and...

KILL HIM [SUCCESS]

KILL HIM [FAILURE]

KILL HIM [SUCCESS?]

[fandom-trash-xl]

EPISODE 6: LIGHTNING

In which I feel things about Glorio

We start the show with no major losses or harm from the ship crash and, in typical Toriyama gag manga fashion, the companion piece to the fart joke, a poop joke. And not just any poop joke, a poop joke that helps the plot by conveniently keeping Goku out of sight when the Gendarmerie stops by.

We do have confirmation about the collars being third Demon World exclusive and Panzy having one past her scarf. The Gendarmerie doesn't seem to bat an eye at this being the princess, but they at least don't charge her any taxes.

Goku's hair is "too resilient" to be pulled back out of its normal shape- there goes the ponytail Goku dream.

Back on the road (well, sky), we get some casual lore talk. We're still keeping the Kais/Glinds being born from trees- which Goku takes as Shin being basically a plant and that's why he only seems to drink and not eat.

Arinsu, Shin, and Degesu (in that order) are all from the same tree and therefore siblings- and they free pick their gender! Love to see it!

Shin is the only of the trio to not stay in the Demon World due to differing ambitions. Considering his name feels like an odd one out, he might have changed it after leaving.

The gang camps in a "safe" cave for the night and Panzy has a cozy looking centipede sleeping bag. After a nice campfire dinner of millipede pate and Glorio continuing to be dodgy as hell when it comes to answering simple questions, our cool emo boy steps out to take a call...

AND HE'S WORKING FOR ARINSU

Like, I knew he was suspicious day 1 but wow. Why does my assassin theory sound more and more likely?

However, there's no time for rest! Turns out a very hungry cow- I mean, minotaur is lurking in the cave. Glorio takes charge, but Goku seems a little skeptic that he's up for the task and becomes curious about just how strong Glorio is...

Dang it, Goku, I thought you were making a recovery in Fight-holics Anonymous. He's even doing half a Frieza deal by offering to fight with only one hand.

Glorio's pulling off some fancy magic spells- the one-finger beam, what I thought was almost going to be a Death Ball, you can't keep doing this to me, man. Some electric energy styles too

My squishing on unusual Dragon Ball characters has found a new target, officially.

Meanwhile, the minotaur is feeling like chopped liver and we get a full glimpse of Super Saiyan- with how long he was yelling, I could've sworn he was about to go for Super Saiyan 3, which would've been absolutely gutsy considering he doesn't even know how 1 fully works in his small state.

Apparently, there's something suspicious about Glorio's magic and strength that Shin's not telling us... Oooh....

Now, we get a quick cut back to Team B! Bulma's work is done on the ship- and just in time, Vegeta's getting antsy.

However, I knew something was up when A) they were so sure this was how they were getting there after the show made a whole point about Hybis and B) Bulma didn't seem to be coming along, even though she's in the opening and ending. It seems that going to the Demon Realm wasn't in her initial plan, so she's likely getting roped along when they do make the journey.

And sure enough, the spaceship hits an unexpected snag! Don't worry guys, a silly little guy is on his way to help!

Looking at the next episode preview, we don't get many clues, but it seems we might be getting more lore on the collars!

EPISODES WITHOUT KNOWING HANVI'S WHEREABOUTS: 6

Honestly, I'm just keeping this counter for the bit and this feeling that I'm going to be sorry for removing it if we get a random cameo for no reason out of the blue.

[cressthebest]

Tender Curiosities, Baby! thoughts pt. 2

chapter 2:

1. barty being referred to as “bartemus” only further confirms why he chooses not to go by that name. jesus christ, it’s a bad name

2. his father just straight up called barty gay. like, unprompted, not even with malice. wtf guys.

3. 😑😐😑😐 blink blink. why is barty straight up just deciding to be straight because he wants to spite his dad. that’s wild (i promise i love this fic)

4. barty meeting regulus <333 they’re brothers your honor! they love each other!

5. “Every time they locked eyes, he’d forget how to breathe, and Barty found himself working overtime to make Evan smile.” GAYYY

6. barty going to reg when he runs away <333333333 i love them so much

7. the origin of barty pretending to like tea for reg 😭😭

8. they may be criminals! they may murder people! but barty asks for consent when having sex with evan! and i love him for it!

9. awww barty, it’s okay if you’re gay. you’re father can be right about this one thing. it’s okay. don’t keep doing this to yourself

10. barty is literally like, i’m not gay. but i’m gonna sleep with you sometimes. but in a straight way. and i’ll also live with you. and keep you in my life forever. cause you make my life worth living, in a straight way of course 😑

11. god, i finally see the appeal of rosekiller. one of my favorite ships now, yall

12. barty 😭😭 this is getting ridiculous. evan left for a bit and he’s like, “evan broke up with us! as freinds!” like oooh you’re so close there buddy. try again.

13. regulus is so british 😭😭 “oh dear. i’ll make some tea.” jfc that was so funny to me.

chapter 3:

1. evan, my dear. distance and time will not remove your crush on barty

2. Orion is sick! fuck yeah!!!

3. oh no. sirius left reg. i knew it was gonna happen, but it hurts so bad

4. “I’m sorr–congrats-ry?” DYING. that’s what evan says when regulus says orion is dying. like jfc he’s so silly

5. evan and barty have a job with regulus now!!!!!!!!!! i can’t wait for them to be business partners forever! and no one dies 😊

6. YALL!! REGULUS IS MAKING HIS PLANS FOR *THE* HEIST

7. BARTY WAS SHOT ON THE JOB??? i feel like i knew this was gonna happen, but i’m still shocked

8. god, what’s crazy is that reg is having flashbacks to when sirius was shot. he’s saying stuff like “i won’t leave you again”. my BABIES

9. “if you ever talk to me about Sirius like that again, Evan, it’ll be the last thing you ever fucking say to me.” HOLY SHIT that’s crazy. i’m pretty sure reg just threatened evan’s life

10. 😳😳 reg was fucking barty’s doctor. that’s wild

11. the people who shot barty no longer have fingers 😦 wow

12. !!!!! reg is on the phone with james for the first time

13. oh my god. i love seeing james and reg meet from the other perspective this time. reg fixed up his hair and dressed up to meet james 😭😭

14. evan and barty are planning on being together forever!! (not yet as partners, but we’re getting there)

15. THEYRE KISSING AGAIN

16. WAIT WHAT evan just told barty to fuck off. oh my god

[leiawritesstories]

20 Questions for Writers!

Thanks for the tag @writtenonreceipts!! <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

21 and counting 👀

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

226,575

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Primarily for Throne of Glass, but I'm always open to writing for more fandoms :)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Chef Rowan

Fly The Black Flag

Until Proven Guilty

Wild Proposal Stories

Quarter After One

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes!! Comments are one of the best parts of being a writer/creator and it makes me happy to both receive and give them.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Probably Late-Night Dances, which involves MCD🫣🫣 or really any of the handful of fics I've written where a character doesn't make it.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Oooh maybe Fly The Black Flag? I kind of borrowed the ending from POTC but changed some things, and a little while later, I was able to write a sort of epilogue/outtake where Rowaelin have a child, and it was super fluffy and cute and heartwarming.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

No? I don't think so, this community is genuinely wonderful and so supportive :))

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes I do, hehe. I've only ever written F/M explicit content

10. Do you write crossovers?

Well......sort of. I like to sneak in characters from the other SJM books if it's possible and if it works, and once upon a time I tried to write a crossover fic that has since been abandoned 😂. But if it's ever in the cards, I'd love to properly write one!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Also nope, but that would be so cool

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Possibly 👀👀👀 @mariaofdoranelle

14. What is your all-time favorite ship?

Rowan x Aelin. They will never not be an OTP.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Probably The Only Option, which has a whole plan/outline and some notes for the plot but will probably never be anything more than what it is. This also happens to be the fic that sparked my main idea for an original novel, so it might never be more of a fanfic, idk.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I honestly don't know lol. I think I can write family dynamics/kids pretty well, but I grew up with a bunch of siblings so it's kind of easier for me to write sibling and family dynamics. I'm also the proud (?) owner of an inner angst monster that I call Frederick, and he's very very good at having ideas for making situations painful 🤭

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Definitely consistency. Even in oneshots, I'm prone to forgetting what I wrote earlier or if they're linked oneshots/in the same setting or world, I tend to forget or change details about the setting, which just bothers me SO much. And don't even get started on how horribly inconsistent I am in long fics 😭😭 like, I'm a hella planner, but somehow I'll be rereading old parts of a draft (hello, Until Proven Guilty) and realize that there are big glaring gaps from the earlier parts to the later parts and just cry over the plot holes.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Love it! If the language is significant to a certain character, particularly to their background/development, I love to see dialogue in another language. Wish I spoke better in the other languages that I sort of know (Spanish/tiny bit of Italian) so I could incorporate it into writing. I think it's also super super amazing how some writers can create original languages.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Bloody Jack Throne of Glass! Started writing and never stopped lol ;)

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

i had a whole lot of fun writing DILF Rowan, which came from a prompt. also really really enjoyed The Assassin and the Princess, which is a sort of alternate canon reimagining.

some tags if you want: @mariaofdoranelle @elentiyawhitethorn @tomtenadia @house-of-galathynius @rowanaelinn and anyone else who wants to!!!

[atowncalledher]

can i be brave

It's a half finished song about burnout and sunk cost fallacy, using the Synthesizer V AI voicebank Mai

I threw this together in literally two days 1) because I've been working on a really big project recently and need something different 2) because I want to share my music and that's scary but I want to do it anyway with stuff that I don't care about too much 3) because I have a huge problem with not finishing things and I want to try and fix that.

So I made this, planning for it to be decidedly mid, and then I started writing lyrics and was like "oooh wait this has so much potentially". But I'm putting it here anyway, even though this is very rough and doesn't do the ideas here justice at all because I'm being brave.

[disappointingcabbage]

I’m gonna lose it my in progress live reaction to episode 1 deleted itself. im gonna try to remember what I said and then finish the episode

TDP Season 7 Episode 1 live reaction below the cut, beware spoilers for anything and everything in this episode and proceed at your own risk

kosmo emo poetry moment lol

“I’m back and no one knows hehe >:)” aaravos, my dude, that’s not gonna last long you’re the size of a fucking building someone will notice

oooh funky new intro animation

Ethari?

HOLY SHIT ITS HAPPENING

nvm runaan isn’t back in the silvergrove yet his flower is just floating again

Ethari doesn’t believe he’s alive :(

The jump cut from Ethari being like “no he’s definitely dead :(“ to Runaan being a nightmare patient and trying to convince Rayla and Lujanne to let him leave the moon nexus because he needs to get back to his husband Right Now is peak comedy

Also lujanne’s bf just being able to scoop up this twink like a fucking cat and put him back in bed is amazing actually

Aww rayllum fluff, cute!!

Aaravos shut the fuck up challenge impossible

Terry calling aaravos out for being a manipulative bastard is amazing actually

Claudia I get that you miss your dad but he’s died like 3 times now let the man rest

I don’t buy aaravos’s whole “viren may be stuck in the in between as a ghost bc his death was too traumatic” thing for one second

Callum found Soren’s dragon plushie in the castle ruins

I love that Callum and Soren are just allowed to hug it out and cry we need more shows like this that show men healthily feeling and expressing their emotions

This scene is brutal though. I almost cried

Fuck all the way off, aaravos

No no no no no stay away from the moon nexus leave Runaan alone he’s been through enough

Where the fuck would you even get a moon primal stone

What do you MEAN, “invert the moon nexus” what does that even do??? Stop pissing on the moon you’re not Eggman >:(

aww sorvus

Ok I think I covered the stuff that tumblr dot com deleted on me time to finish the episode

KOSMO WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE INTENDS TO RELEASE THE DEAD AMO- ohhh he’s bringing back Leola. Fair enough? Maybe? I don’t know the Bigger Implications of that as it pertains to this magic system?

Hell yeah Astrid!!

Aww Aanya’s cuddling Bait!!

Soren ily

Ezran going full vengeful mode is unexpected but fair tbh. That said, um, sol regem’s already dead so I don’t think his revenge quest is gonna last all that long.

That said if Ezran of all people shows up in a rage while Aaravos and Terry and Claudia are still there it’s gonna be both funny and scary

Oh Callum and Corvus are going to the valley of the graves instead. That’s a smarter decision.

Aanya is such a good friend.

An archdragon’s bite, you say?

I’m just picturing Ezran chucking a poké ball at aaravos and zym coming out of it and just chomping this motherfucker on the ankle

“It will be better to be a bit less conspicuous” sir, once again, you are a fucking kaiju. I think that ship has sailed.

Your footsteps literally cause mini earthquakes I don’t think you’re capable of stealth

Did this motherfucker just become an evil lion turtle????

No he just transformed all his extra body mass into an island and became Normal Sized. That’s not any less weird.

Oh my god why is he giving me Dr. Frank N Furter vibes

ough shapeshifting disguise. I liked the tidebound better but he’s probably going with earthblood to match Terry

I know he did not just hit on Claudia. Absolutely the fuck not.

Runaan angrily shoveling grubs into his mouth is not what I expected but it’s really funny

also apparently he’s going to Katolis with Rayla. That’s… a choice.

Aaravos needs to get way better at planning stuff out because it took Callum and Corvus all of two seconds to see the massive dragon skeleton in the valley of the graves and the new island that just mysteriously popped up in the lake

What if zym bit a rock on the island

oh fuck he picked a human disguise and now he’s gonna infiltrate katolis. Ah shit.

Aaravos’s human form looks. Uncomfortably like your average fanart of Gerry from TMA.

Nvm he’s leaving I guess

is that a fucking Snow White apple?

Aaravos really has like a -1 stealth lmao like dude why did you use Callum’s name your human sona doesn’t know him

Thank you Corvus for being the voice of reason

Thank you Ezran for not continuing to be counterproductively angry after finding out Sol Regem is dead

Rayla’s back!! With Runaan! I don’t to his return to katolis is well timed like at all but he sure is here

Oh no ezran’s still mad

Understandable but dude now is not the time

I really don’t want acab to include Soren :(

Astrid why did you just look directly into the fucking sun immediately after removing your blindfold

That’s it that’s the episode I guess

[myheartalivewrites]

20 questions for fic writers

Thanks for tagging me @bitbybitwrites @kiwiana-writes @cha-melodius I continue to be emotionally withholding from my WIPs so this was a fun little distraction.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

15 and I realised tomorrow is the anniversary of the first fic I ever posted! Might do a little celebration post about it.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

259,263!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Red, White & Royal Blue ❤️🤍💙

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Confirming the mad recency bias in RWRB fics, they are all my most recent fics, all published from August onwards with the exception of the last one, hospital cupboard hook-up fic my beloved:

Deep Blue

In His Wildest Dreams

Just Like That.

Oxford Days

Tumbled Down and Tangled Up

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes! Comments are the best thing about ao3 and pretty much the only reason to post my stuff online! I feel boring sometimes, like I'm replying the same thing over and over, but it is SO true that every single comment means so much to me and I hope commenters know that

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don't do unhappy endings. The closest I've come to not a HEA is Don't Wanna Be A Fool For You which is still a happy ending lol, but I didn't go into the future and left them only JUST beginning to recover from all the angst

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Oh, tricky to decide this. I'm gonna go with Down By The Water, simply because I go deep, DEEP into their happily ever after in the epilogue (it is 12k of a 63k fic which should give you an idea of just HOW deep), even though it’s still quite… yearn-y.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

No, though I did get some intense emotional responses to a few chapters of Deep Blue, which... well, they were supposed to hurt, but it was A LOT. Never have I used the 😬 emoji that much.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Hah, yes. A lot of it. All but one of my fics are E and even that one has got a smutty end scene I didn't publish and might post around the holidays. A Christmas treat for a Christmas fic! I'm not sure what 'what kind' is really supposed to mean here, so: very explicit but always emotionally relevant to the story, and particular in long fics I like to use the, ahem, smut progression to show how their feelings and the relationship is deepening.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

No

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not as far as I know 😬 Only tumblr posts 🙄

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Oooh, someone asked me if they could translate Deep Blue to Spanish, so I'm excited to see that (but it is 76k so it might be a while)! That would be my first though.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Oh, firstprince, no doubt. Alex and Henry have my heart.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I absolutely REFUSE to say I won't finish something. I plan to finish all my WIPs.

16. What are your writing strengths?

This is hard to answer, but I think I'm good at building tension, both in the overall story developments, but also within paragraphs and scenes, playing with sentence length etc. At the very least I like how I do that!

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Yikes, pulling no punches. Sometimes I get bored of writing all the 'getting to know you' dialogue, and get fed up of writing banter. It’s the kind of thing that tends to get me blocked on a WIP. I find it quite hard, possibly because Alex and Henry banter so much it feels like it's all been done before. Oh, here’s Star Wars! Oh, your dog’s name is stupid! Etc etc.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Love it. I have one WIP currently which has some French dialogue, and my French is middling at best, so I'm going to have to ask for help with it, but I'm not there yet.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

RWRB ❤️

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

IMPOSSIBLE QUESTION. I reserve the right to change this answer, but right now it's Down By The Water, I literally fell asleep last night wishing I had time to go reread it.

Phew, that was a lot! No pressure tagging a few friends who might want to play: @indomitable-love @historicallysam @14carrotghoul @cultofsappho @celaestis1 @suseagull04 @heybuddy-drabbles but open tag if you too wan to join!

[crazy-ache]

Fanfiction Ask Game

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 21

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 184,514

3. What fandoms do you write for? ACOTAR (my current obsession), and I used to write quite bit for Avatar: The Last Airbender (back in the DAY with fanfiction.net and livejournal.com just to show my AGE), and I have dabbled briefly in GOT haha

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?  

when destiny keeps calling (Zutara, ATLA)

the other side of mercy (Zutara, ATLA)

surround me (Zutara, ATLA)

Call Me Selfish, Call Me Wreck (Elucien, ACOTAR)

Dear Lucien, Dear Elain (Elucien, ACOTAR)

Major love to my old Zutara fandom.

5. Do you respond to comments? I didn't always understand the importance of doing it and I used to be very shy in fandom, but now I do my best to always respond! I have made friends from engaging on fics on Ao3 which I love. It makes the writing experience feel like a community event which has been really fulfilling.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I usually leave on a hopeful note, but I did write water can heal, water can break which was slightly Zutara with anti Kataang vibes and the implications of the ending break my heart because they were aligned with the canon for Katara. I basically was so disappointed by the absence of her story in LoK that I needed to explain why it wasn't her fault and her own internal heartbreak about it.

Call Me Selfish, Call Me Wrecked is happy but also has my special mix of angsty-HEA. 7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? All of them LOL. But maybe Courting Lucien Vanserra because I was just in a silly goofy mood when I wrote it. But I also still technically need to write the epilogue....shit....

8. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Oh! I used to not. @zenkindoflove influenced me lmao. Now I am getting better at it. So, yes, I do. I'm going to call it smut-with-lots-of-feelings.

9. Do you write crossovers? I have not!

10. Have you ever had a fic translated? No, but please tell me if you do LOL

11. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Oooh yes. Me and @zenkindoflove have written two works together. I highly recommend it to anyone else considering it. It was some of the most fun I had writing in a long while- a true creative experiment. We basically have our own "Canon" universe of crazykindoflove that we have established in our heads. It helps we very much have the same tastes.

12. What is your all-time favorite ship? Zuko/Katara was the ship that started it all for me. It taught me fandom obsession, fandom community, it spurred a life-long passion for writing....I think I have to give it credit where it is due. Elain/Lucien is getting up there. Their book might be the very thing that puts them into the number one slot.

13. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Divine Punishments....the multi-chapter fic I had grand plans for that I abandoned after the first chapter LOL.

14. What are your writing strengths? Metaphors. I can come up with a damn good metaphor. That's my poetry background coming into play. My writing is very lyrical, descriptive, and introspective. I love finding a beautiful metaphor that just perfectly describes an emotion or situation.

Because were she to ever wear the dress, those stitched sunflowers, with their bright yellow petals, would be a declaration to the whole world exactly what his heart intended. That she was the sun and he was the humble sunflower, forever loyal to follow her, forever in adoration of her shine; for the sunflower only grows facing the sun’s light, in an eternal chase of her orbit. It didn’t matter where either of them moved, he would be there, waiting to bloom at her smile. 

Like damn look at this. I still think about this one LOL

15. What are your writing weaknesses?  Plot LOL. I was a oneshot girl my entire life and could never tackle multi-chapter works with elaborate plots. Until ACOWAR (Elucien's Version)!!

16. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I'd love to incorporate my Spanish but haven't had a reason to yet in a fic.

17. First fandom you wrote for? ATLA!

18. Favorite fic you’ve written? This is really hard. Several are near and dear to my heart. But I'm going to say ACOWAR (Elucien's Version). Because I'm really proud of the quality of the writing, the interesting take on Canon AU, the characterizations, and the time spent mapping out the chapters. I'm halfway through and it's already been beyond rewarding.

I feel as though everyone has been tagged on this one, so feel free to steal and share!!!

[calicosimgirl]

Another tag!

another tag post, this time by the amazing @roos-bowl-o-soup & @victoriaplaysims and if you don't follow them yet, you're missing out on their content! thank you once again for the tag!

Favorite three ships: i'm sorry but ymir x historia/christa will always be my fav, called it the moment i saw them together :3 i don't ship too much (sorry, i'm not really into fandoms atm) so i really can't think of others..

Last film watched: encanto! have been mostly watching anime, but i plan on the barbie movie this weekend, since I spotted it on hbo!!

Last song listened to: damn u by yena, honestly listening to all her songs at the moment.. good morning really pulled me into her fanbase..

Currently reading: a manga called the apothecary diaries / kusuriya no hitorigoto, can't wait for new chapter ugh

Currently craving: oooh, idk why but lately i've been munching on mint balls again.. they're legit that, balls of mint… so good…

Relationship status: happily taken! been together 3,5 years and we got 3 cats together - 2 from before we met, 1 we got together for our anniversary <3

Favorite color(s): PINK! also a good black/grey, can't go wrong. i also really love pastel colors (think soft blue, green, pink etc)

Last thing googled: how to get tumblr to support javascript in a theme ;_; still waiting for them to approve

Current obsession: oh god, palworld. i'm having so much fun exploring the world and finding new pals..

Tagging some cute mutuals (don't feel forced to do these, if you don't want to!) @illuminated-foxx @tipsy-clouds @bakersimmer @serendipitous-deer @simmerbeans

[kuwdora]

oooh @limerental has me thinking about Dijkstra and that reminded me that i never dumped my Dijkstra ramblings on tumblr. my discord peeps just end up going 👀 when i show up every three months and braindump my nonsense. I thought about cleaning this, but I am too tired and will never share it if I try to spend time trying to make it a Post with annotations to the specific books. So you just get a my rambly galaxy brain take of how a Chancellor Dijkstra could rebuild Redania. Anyway, here we go with some fantasy worldbuilding.

TLDR; Chancellor Dijkstra legalizes drugs to replenish Redania's treasury after the war. References to the Eternal Fire and migration patterns that one could extrapolate based on the events of Nilfgaard's second invasion, and Dijkstra's experience working in the criminal underground in Novigrad.

I've thought a lot about what kind of problems Dijkstra could face in a postwar Redania and what other kind of change could be on the table.

A lot of my thinking is predicated upon the Eternal Fire and the church governance in Novigrad absolutely losing their mind that their man Radovid was assassinated and eventually (somehow?) learning that Dijkstra was behind it but never able to produce evidence of it. which just. leads to anger and other kind of conspiracies and grudges over the years.

Like… Radovid was their guy. their martyr. their mad king they canonize. even if he was or wasn't a true believer, he was Their Guy. I also vaguely remember from the books that the church hierarch also hated Dijkstra, too, so I’m sure the dead hierarch’s followers would also continue in that vein of being big mad at the new Chancellor who is not fit for such a position.

I can’t help but think the church would force Novigrad to levy a shitload of extremely high taxes on goods coming through the port, making it so fucking expensive to get anything imported into Redania or shipped out, which creates a logistical nightmare to try and get anything or out of Redania at a decent price. Everything's gotta come in via Oxenfurt or Roggenvene or something more out of the way.

They economically burn some bridges because Novigrad'll be okay, right?

So Novigrad's no longer the jewel of redania

Or maybe Novigrad/the church ends up suffering some social/economic problems because they need to take it out on Dijkstra and Redania. That means they would look for some friends elsewhere.

They would loosen some immigration restrictions and encourage more wealthy Nilfgaardians to move in and take up places in the civil service and maybe church for those who would be amenable to creating more good diplomatic relations between the city and Nilfgaard. not sure how that really would look, but sort of a thing to spite Dijkstra by having the former invaders sitting pretty in Dijkstra’s backyard.

So Redanian trade is probably fucked up. Dijkstra had to go and beg for money up in Kovir during the books to help fund the war and whatnot so I imagine the treasury is pretty damn empty. Dijkstra also really didn't appreciate having to go ask for money. And I vaguely remember that Redania was able to absorb Kaedwen’s military, I think? At some point in the third war? Maybe? i did a quick wiki check and that looks right but my brain is foggy but if that's the case sustaining more military has gotta be expensive.

Also there are a shitload of current/former/wannabe Eternal Fire knights and bandits cooking a shitton of fisstech it seems every-fucking-where.

Crime lord Dijkstra with experience in Novigrad underworld, maybe sees an opportunity here. To legalize some form of drugs in order to obtain tax on it and create a sustainable revenue stream for Redania’s coffers for generations.

Boom. Dijkstra never again have to o ask for money for anything from anyone. ✊

Maybe start with a 3-5 year plan to get the operation up and running. funnel what money he has into the Department of Alchemy to create an actual program to teach people to cook safely, cook better even.

Maybe enlist some mages to help mitigate some of the worse side effects or help with developing a better fisstech or some other kind of alternative. but then only licensed establishments can sell the drug and we get tax revenue back to the state. then we get drug tourism, too. etc. like. he worked in the crime world for awhile so i am sure he knows the pros and cons of doing something like this better than i would but i like the thought.

I mean. there's always gonna be countryside cooks but maybe over time enough take the deal to go and get certified in cooking this fisstech because it's better than living on scraps in the woods and go legit and the banditry eventually dwindles over the years. maybe creating a whole new generation of wealth for people, too, and whatever problems and exciting things that come with new money folks and whatnot. class division with nobility and whatnot about these guys able to hobnob with the rest of them.

And then i gotta think that Dijkstra’s got some former crime bosses that he’d give a leg up on what he wants to do, and like— him figuring out how to move those game pieces. Because the other half underworld probably won’t be happy that Dijkstra’s now moving in on their market and not letting them in for whatever reason. lots of potential for getting messy. and interesting. but. reform can be a bold thing, right?

I mean it can spin out even more from that, too when you take into consideration the devastation Nilfgaard brought on the northern kingdom's infrastructure. Maybe Dijkstra finally has the people figure out the new recipe but he's gotta scale it up.

There's a bunch of foundry workers in Aedirn who probably no longer have a job because everything was burnt down by Nilfgaard. All that farmland destroyed, too.

So create a plan to encourage those people to come and start a new life in Redania with their skills and whatnot.

Get these people help build some the fisstech producing facilities in Redania. And then we can get some fisstech sold in parlors in every city.

And if you go back to Novigrad and the Eternal Fire, who maybe doesn't appreciate the economic balance of power tipping in different directions now. Also Dijkstra still killed Their Guy who was going to help usher in a new fiery generation of churchy awfulness. Instead of focusing their attention on nonhumans, the ire is recalibrated towards Redanian citizens who had been living in the city and just continue to disenfranchise and disempower them over time in the city to make it unliveable for them unless they renounce their Redanian citizenship. 😦 There's probably a lot more one can spin out from this, and I meant to use some of this for various stories but I just haven't gotten around to it. Like specifically encouraging the mages to return to help with building and supporting this infrastructure and people. Lots of possibilities to play around with.

[ectogeo-rebubbles]

for fanfic end of the year asks

16. (you can list them all or give me a count total of the # of stories you wrote this year.)

😈. (My own question). All the ships you wrote this year and the number of times you tagged for each.

Hehehe yaaaay, more questions, thank you! ^_^ (fanfic end of the year asks)

[EDITED on Dec 31, 2023 to account for my insane December writing binge]

16. fic(s) you completed this year

31 fics!!! 7 of those were drabbles (that is, exactly 100 words long, which is what drabble means), 3 of them were written for a challenge that strictly limited the length to 250 words, and the other 21 were one-shots of varying length. I'm grouping them like this because the word count limitations def produces a different style of fic than when I can just write as many words as I need in order to tell the story I want to tell. XD Anyway, I've also included brief notes after each fic title about which fic is which, bc I can never remember my own fic titles so how can I expect you to, lmaooo.

drabbles

wrapped up in books: the mortifying ordeal & hearts on a shelf (Garashir + books)

your move (Garashir + board games)

With a Bow (Garashir + gift giving)

Presence (Garashir pre-slash + The Wire)

waiting in vain (Sloan POV Garashir)

dirty little secret (ITPM Siskarak)

250-word ficlets

intergrown (Kireiko + the trauma of pregnancy)

all the things she said (Kireiko + cheating)

these sordid kinds of things (Kirawinn + power plays)

the rest of my fics

cover your hand with mine (Garashir fake dating to real dating speedrun)

the next thirty (old married Garashir)

on point like a laser (OMB Garashir)

The Inherent Homoeroticism of Citizenship Paperwork (post-canon Garashir + greencard marriage. by me and @sapphosewrites)

Whisper a Dangerous Secret (Garashir + secrets. also by me and sapphose)

home is wherever I'm with you (Garashir + Garak exile angst + Second Skin)

The Chloe Aka Incidents: nothing to hide & only bought this dress so you could take it off (OMB AU feat. holo!Siskarak and Garashir getting together)

save me from the dark (Garashir + mad scientist Julian bringing Garak back to life + The Wire)

the world will never take my heart (Garashir pre-slash + Julian getting beat up by Jem'Hadar + In Purgatory's Shadow/By Inferno's Light)

uninvited (Sloan vs Garak + Garashir)

sleeping with the enemy (Goran'ashir)

a little less alone (Garak/Odo)

conduit (Kirawinn crack fic + sexual religious ceremonies)

nightmare (Sloanshir + noncon somno)

seat of power (one-sided Disko with Dukat wanting desk sex)

physical (Garashir + infirmary sex)

lose the battle, win the war (Sloanshir + Julian letting Sloan fuck him as part of a plan to bring down s31)

don't rain on my parade (Garashir + OMB + airplane sex + so much cum)

the calm after the storm (Garashir getting together + haircuts + post-IPS/BIL)

expectant (Garashir + pregnancy kink + the episode Cardassians)

😈. (My own question). All the ships you wrote this year and the number of times you tagged for each.

Oooh, I love your question 😈 <3 Here's all the ship tags I used on my fics for the year:

Julian Bashir/Elim Garak (21) Elim Garak/Benjamin Sisko (2) Kira Nerys/Keiko O'Brien (2) Julian Bashir/Luther Sloan (2) Kira Nerys/Winn Adami (2) Dukat/Benjamin Sisko (one-sided) (1) Elim Garak/Odo (1) Julian Bashir/Goran'Agar (1) Elim Garak & Luther Sloan (1) Hippocrates Noah/holo!Elim Garak (1) lowkey unrequited sloanshir (1) (this is the only freeform tag I used this year I'm including, and just because it amuses me ^_^)

[honeycreammilkshake]

hi hi!

oooh I'm having a carrusel of feelings these days with the end of the manga, I joined just a month ago to jjk universe (thanks to my sister) ang got inmendiately attached to SukuIta (these two are precious).

After the last chap I can say I'm satisfied cause I'm big supporter of meta cooking for fans and fanfic to full all the holes in the cannon plot. Maybe showing some stories from the terrible Heian era but I guess the autor has plans to make some prequel...

About the mess of the fandom in general:

I guess big part of the problem with some ppl is that they actually get too attached to a secondary character, no matter how op is the character it still secondary (and probably dye terriblely in cannon).

They need to move on, I feel like these fans are the new wave of Itachi/Jiraiya guys.

Btw, I think that the way some socmed are full of reactions and new ppl in fandoms don't help to mantain certain old etiquette and sane distance from the author so I understand a bit why the things looks so messy with the fandom in the last months.

The good thing is that the big majorie will leave after the ending and the decrescend of the hype gonna bring a better space for the artist and the fans who likes meta analysis.

(sorry for the typos eng isn't my first language)

hi, anon. don't worry about the typos at all, i totally understand you and english is overrated.

so glad you joined the cult of sukuita so quickly. sadly though, it doesn't seem very active anymore on here compared to other ships in jjk, and i'm deeply wishing we get a lot more content on this site sometime soon (maybe the new anime seasons will bring more people to our cause?). i'm starting to get a bit embarrassed that i keep making sukuita posts like 3 times every day and i worry i'm yapping away too much on here, but as they say... if you're not finding what you want to find, make it yourself.

to reply to your observations on the fandom, i have to agree. so many new antis, toxic fans, and people intolerant of others' opinions have completely taken it over. it used to be fun to watch people argue about how much they like the characters or tease each other about their ships back when fandoms were much more accepting, but now it's just way too many moral debates with unstable ground to stand on. and yeah... the overwhelming amount of hate sukuna fans and sukuita shippers sometimes get is depressing.

i'm hoping that if you continue to like jjk and sukuita, you'll stay around until times get better here. it's lovely to hear from all the people who like these two cursed freaks, and i'm glad you shared your thoughts with me. hope you've been doing well <3

[hughungrybear]

Me while watching Dangerous Romance Ep 11

1. Before we start, if Name did sacrifice Saifah and set him up to the police, I would advocate skinning Name alive - not only for Saifah but also for the effect of what he did to Sailom 🤬

2. When I grow up, I want to have a bff like Guy (and Auto, as a bonus 😅😅).

3. Again, Kang why were you in that hotel room in the first place? Why were you calling Sailom's phone before the attempted r*pe happened? Why the fvck do you say "it's none of your concern" but still show some care????

4. Oh, no. Looks like Sailom will be forced to withdraw from school 😭😭😭😭 Who can blame him? Poor baby can't catch a break.

5. Sailom!!!! C'mon, forget your pride and use your rich friends (specifically Pimfah) for their money. They are willing to help anyway. You need to graduate to get out of poverty 😭😭😭😭

(Side note: Yes, Asians do value education a lot because it opens doors to opportunities that are firmly shut to those who did not go to uni. It's one of the many reasons why "poor" remains poor, because nobody would give anybody without a diploma a chance to prove and improve themselves.)

Okay, now I'm crying for all the opportunities Sailom will lose as he officially resigns from school.

6. Oooh, Nava is still visiting Guy in the hospital? C'mon, sail already 😭😭😭

7. Saifah!!!! Just tell the truth. Look what your actions have done to your poor brother 😭😭😭 <After 5 seconds> The fvck you doing Name??? Oh my gods, the boss is following Sailom. What more does he want? Saifah is already in jail. Name is not talking. Why do you want to kill Sailom???

8. Oh, look. Kang-"doesn't give a damn about Sailom anymore"-han to the rescue at the exact moment that Sailom needs him 😅. What's your excuse this time? Also, apologies to those who are related to (or are) real ones, but police in drama are rarely useful. Unless they are the effing main character. The universal portrayal of the useleness of police officers in drama and in literature is quite disheartening. Especially when you are reminded that there are police officers who act like this in real life.

9. So, where is Name in all this mess??? Just when he promised to Saifah that he'll take care of Sailom, Sailom gets shot.

10. Sailom asking the right questions 😂😂😂 Also, what's up with that motel room having a huge picture of boobies at the bedside table???? Not to be that person, but shouldn't it be strategically located like at the opposite side of bed? Or the ceiling? You know, for it to properly do its job? 🤔🤔🤔🤔

11. Looks like half of the episode is just flashbacks. <after 5 seconds> Oh, but Kang, you clearly said you are abandoning him. You should have made things clearer much earlier. Sailom, my poor baby 😭😭😭😭 Now I'm crying again. The fvck.

12. Name, use your effing brain. That dude is bound to double cross you and Saifah. You need to plan ahead and get them out of the trouble you put them in 🤬🤬🤬🤬

13. Again, not to be that person but I doubt having Kang by Sailom's side would intimidate the bad guys 😅

14. My GuyNava ship 😭😭😭 Also, it wouldn't hurt for Guy to have a backup plan. Just in case.

15. Shut up with these utterly sweet lines already 😭😭😭

16. Okay, looks like robbery is not the reason why Kang's dad was shot. Seems the motive is political. Also, Name's conscience should be bothering the heck out of him if he is even a halfway decent person. 🤬🤬🤬

17. Ah, Name. That's just stupid. You didn't even have a plan??? The fvck. Also, did Name call Sailom before Big Boss bashed his head in or after (which means, he is still alive)?

18. Ah yes, Name is still alive. Still don't get Big Boss's motivation for wanting to kill Kang's dad.

AAAAAARGH. THE PREVIEW!!!! WHY DID THEY WAIT UNTIL THE LAST EPISODE FOR GUY AND NAVA TO FINALLY KISS???? WHYYYY????

[decaf-mother]

Okay so can you tell me with which Resident Evil or COD character you'd ship me with? Here's the description, else you can ignore this.

Okay so I'm currently doing a bit kickboxing, therefore gaining muscle here and there. Im also 5'9 and I'm female. I plan on getting prescription shades because I'm basically blind af. I'm kind of tomboyish (?), and wild in a way. I'd call myself slightly teasing, flirting and that. Also have an bad habit of smoking here and there. I'd probably force people into watching mean girls or Saw. Honestly depends in my mood. I'm also big on girls support girls but with an punk like add to it. I think I have my days where I'm draining, like either god-complex or completely drained mood, but I try my best not to let it affect my day.

Love your work, bye <3

DISCLAIMER: This is all based on my view of the characters and others are likely to see them differently. If you are unhappy with your result- I'm sorry. <3

-

Carlos Oliveira |RE3 Remake|

Ok first of all- he finds strong women hot. He'd be super impressed by the fact you're into kickboxing. He'd definitely get into it with you.

He vibes with your wild side and tomboyish attitude, right by your side just watching so awestruck, big puppy eyes staring at you.

Flirty? Oh Lord... You two would be going back and forth teasing and flirting constantly, every few seconds you'd have the cheesiest line dropped onto you outta nowhere. Matching his energy back would have him grinning like an idiot.

He's probably not a fan of your smoking habit because it's bad for you but he's not gonna get too on your case about it- it'll just be one of those things that does bug him. Everyone has it in a relationship.

Force him? He'd be so down to watch those movies... Though I feel he'd probably like Mean Girls much more than Saw. (He's watched Mean Girls many times at this point on his own... Shh.)

He's so supportive and if you're struggling he'll be right there by you, he'll have enough energy for you both. Never feel afraid to mention things to him, he's super understanding. (He's a big teddy bear swear to God.)

You definitely will come home to home cooked meals often with him and you just know this man bakes as well and is hella good at it.

"Oooh, babe... You're hotter than this baking sheet."

He's just standing there with a baking sheet of fresh baked cinnamon rolls staring at you.

{I did my best lol}