#or reducing an entire murdered family to one kid who's only referred to as the son of two unrelated characters. and whose survival

[llycaons]

truly do find 'perfect' sweet little kids who exist to be cute and protected extremely boring to the point of aggravation but alluka DOESN'T fit that description because she's been neglected and isolated her whole life, she is soul-bonded with a horrifying (to many) and nearly omniscient being, she is endlessly sweet and loving to really only one person, and she STANDS UP TO that person when he hurts someone else she cares about!! she may not have a lot going on but her character and personality contrasts her situation so much to make it really striking. and I'm a sucker for close brother/sister relationships!! so sue me!!!

[dothwrites]

13 and 20

13. and 20.--Detective AU and Teacher AU

---

Castiel represses a sigh as he stands up straight. His spine pops as he subtly stretches out the kinks in his aching body.

He'd thought that he was a reasonably fit man, but bending over and scrubbing at filthy floors and tables every day is playing hell with his lower back.

The bell rings, and Castiel curses under his breath as he moves back against the wall. Less than thirty seconds later, all of the doors near him burst open and a flood of teenagers courses into the hallway.

Castiel's had a lot of unpleasant assignments in his life, but going undercover at Carver Edlund High School is among the worst. He thought that he'd seen some of the worst that humanity had to offer: murderers who cared nothing for the pain of their victims, kidnappers who plunged families into turmoil for years, robbers who were willing to kill just in order to get a few quick bucks. But upon seeing the horror show of the cafeteria after a group of freshmen finished lunch, Castiel has to start reevaluating his list of atrocities.

The tardy bell rings, and Castiel sighs as he steps out in the hall. He rolls his eyes at the debris that the students have left behind and grabs his push broom to start clearing it away.

Going undercover at Carver Edlund wasn't Castiel's first choice of assignments, but with several students ending up in the hospital due to drug overdoses, something drastic had to be done. Castiel's job is simple: gather as much intelligence as he can about where the drugs are coming from. If possible, he's to find the dealer and shut the whole production down.

In theory, it's a good assignment. Success here would mean a potential commendation, maybe a promotion if the operation is big enough. But the reality of the situation is much different. Castiel's been masquerading as a member of the maintenance team for a little over a week, and he's no closer to finding the source of the drugs than he was when he started.

His captain had ultimately decided to send him in as a member of the janitorial staff for access reasons: as a janitor, he has keys to every door. Not even lockers are safe from him. There's no place in the school off-limits to him. Unfortunately, it also means that his opportunities for questioning potential suspects are limited: no high school student wants to have long conversations with the janitor. He's reduced to sweeping around gaggles of kids, hoping that they'll just so happen to let something slip.

His plan hasn't worked. So far, he's learned about the latest TikTok challenge, who's rumored to have slept with who, and who on the football team is getting suspended, but drugs? Either these kids are savvier than he gives them credit for, or they don't know anything.

"Oh, sorry, 'scue me... Oh. Hi, Steve."

It takes Castiel just a second too long to respond to the name. Part of that is because he's still not used to answering to his cover name, and part of that is because he's still not sure how to act around Dean Smith.

He braces himself before he turns around, but that still doesn't prepare him for the sight of Dean Smith leaning against the wall. Looking at him is like looking into the sun, if the sun was in a dingy hallway with flickering florescent lights and questionable stains on the floor. Even with those inauspicious surroundings, however, Dean Smith, with his sandy hair, vibrant eyes, freckles, and bright, crooked grin, stands out.

"Hello, Dean." Castiel allows the hint of a smile to cross his face. He'd called Dean 'Mr. Smith' exactly once before Dean had put a stop to it.

"Oh, no," he said, grimacing in distaste, "I get enough of that from the kids. Just Dean, man." Castiel hadn't argued, and the slightly stuffy Mr. Smith became Dean.

"Another beautiful day cleaning up the debris of the world?" Dean gestures towards the small pile of dirt and dust that Castiel has managed to collect.

"It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it," Castiel answers.

No doubt his superiors would be screaming if they could see him right now. Zachariah, his Captain, would sneer, You're there to catch drug dealers, Novak, not to play nice with pretty boy teachers, but Zachariah isn't here right now. Plus, it's not like Castiel's making any headway on the drug dealers, so he might as well indulge his crush with a guy who's miles out of his league.

Dean is the kind of good-looking that gets noticed by modeling companies in the line at the cafe. Castiel has found himself wondering, more than once, what a guy like him is doing substitute teaching. It's obvious that Dean is smart, and he doesn't doubt that he could have a job doing whatever he wanted. Still, Dean's being a substitute teacher works out well for him, so he doesn't complain. Not if it means that he can be just a little closer to him.

Maybe if Castiel wasn't undercover and wearing an unflattering jumpsuit with the name 'Steve' stitched across the front pocket. Maybe if he were dressed in his customary suit and had a badge and gun to flash around. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

"Don't talk to me about dirty jobs," Dean says, his voice entirely too low and insinuating for the circumstances. Heat blooms underneath Castiel's collar.

"Well, I'm not sure what else to talk to you about," he confesses. He resents the broom handle in his hands.

Dean shrugs. His smile is still carefree, but there's something else in his eyes when he says, "What about any books that you've read lately? TV shows that you've watched?" His eyes flash to Castiel's, and his tongue flirts with his lower lip as he asks, "Restaurants that you'd like to go to?"

Castiel's heart stutters. For a second, it sounded like... But that can't be right. Dean can't be inviting him out. Guys like Castiel don't go out with guys like Dean. That's just the way the world works. Maybe if he was Detective Castiel Novak, but now when he's Janitor Steve.

He takes a second too long to answer. By the time that he's managed to figure out that Dean is serious, Dean's expression has shuttered. He flashes a painfully fake smile at Castiel. "Hey, man, don't worry about it. I'll catch you later, okay?"

He's turning to go, and fear grabs at Castiel. He knows that if he lets Dean walk away, then everything will change between them. No more jokes, no more stolen conversations in the hallways. They'll become nothing more than vague, uneasy colleagues, at least until Castiel's assignment ends and he disappears forever from Dean's life.

The indignity of his assignment and the frustration of his ineptitude rises in Castiel, and bursts out of him in a quick call. "Dean!"

Dean turns around. Hope flickers in his eyes before he hides it. "Yeah?" he asks. The carefully blank tone in his voice is like a knife twisting in Castiel's chest.

"I like Italian food," Castiel answers. He offers a hesitant smile towards Dean, hoping against hope that Dean will accept his overture.

After a second, Dean's smile spreads slowly across his face, as bright as the sunrise. "Yeah," he says, nodding slowly, "yeah, I think we could do that."

---

Dean's heart dances in his chest as he walks away from Steve.

He did it. After weeks of ogling and tentatively flirting, he finally asked out the hot janitor.

Steve is a lot more than a pair of pretty blue eyes and a five o'clock shadow that makes Dean's lip yearn for stubble burn, though. (Though Steve does fill out a jumpsuit better than anyone Dean's ever seen. One day, he was lifting a desk onto the dolly so that it could be moved, and Dean thought his eyes were about to pop out of his skull. Between the thick thighs attempting to pop the seams on his pants, and the biceps rippling, Dean hadn't known where to look.) Steve has a wicked sense of humor, an innate sense of kindness, and he's caught every single one of Dean's literary references (the pop culture ones, not so much. Seriously, who's never seen Indiana Jones?). There's more to Steve than meets the eye, and Dean's itching to peel back the dozens of layers.

He ignores the tiny voice in the back of his head (which sounds like an alarming mix of Sam and Bobby) saying Don't get too involved. This is a temporary thing. Dean frowns and tries to tell the voice to shut the fuck up.

He's only here for as long as it takes him to figure out who's bringing drugs into the school. At the first viable lead, he'll be yanked out, and Dean Smith, substitute teacher, will die, to be replaced by Agent Dean Winchester of the DEA.

Because of the environment, there are multiple law enforcement agencies working on this case. There's state police, the DEA, and maybe even a few FBI agents sniffing around. It's naive to believe that there aren't other agents working in the school, but he hasn't come across any yet that he knows of. He's not entirely sure; he lets Bobby deal with all of the inter-agency bullshit. He has his mission and his cover, and Bobby, as his handler, can navigate every other pitfall.

Beyond small talk and leading conversations, Dean hasn't tried to get close with anyone. Every smiling face could conceal an undercover agent or a dealer. With suspicion everywhere, it's best not to succumb to temptation.

Which makes his attraction to Steve all the more intriguing.

Just thinking of the other man sets off a series of fireworks in the pit of Dean's belly.

This is probably a terrible idea, doomed to failure, but Dean is going to enjoy the ride while it lasts.

Whistling, he goes back to the classroom and prepares for his next class.

[ragingbookdragon]

So Live A Lie, Just Tonight, And Burn Out Bright

Batsis x Hal Jordan One-Shot

Word Count: 3.8K Warnings: Explicit Language, Mature Themes

Author's Note: I decided to compile that one Batsis "story" into one doc, and I added the alternate ending for the one anon who asked! Enjoy! -Thorne

**********************************************************************

“Alright, easy sis, easy,” he worried, watching her carefully for signs of pain flickering across her face as he helped her off the bike.

She scowled, managing to drag her injured leg forward. “Quit nagging. I’m—ngh—fine.”

“You’re on emergency oxycodone and you’ve got a broken femur,” he retorted. “I’m nagging until you’re in surgery.”

“Ugh, stop reminding me.”

Someone hauled her off her feet with a quiet, “I’ve got you.”

She grunted in pain laying on the gurney. “Thanks, dad.”

“Miss Wayne, are you alright?”

Her eyes found Alfred’s. “I’m good. I just ne—motherfucker!” she yelped, glaring at her father who was squeezing her thigh. “Hey! That’s broken, jackass! Quit!”

Bruce grunted. “You need an ORIF now.”

A pinch in her arm made her twitch and she turned her attention to Alfred who was uncapping a needle. “Alfred, what’s that?”

He shook his head. “Nothing to worry about, Miss Wayne.” Smiling, he stuck the needle into the line. “You’ll feel better when you awaken.”

Her vision blurred rapidly, “Gonna take…a nap…now…” her head lolled, and Bruce met Alfred’s gaze.

“Call Damian. He’s got the steady hand we’ll need.”

***

“How’re you feeling?” Jason asked, setting a cup of juice on the bedside table.

She blinked slowly, staring at her fingers. “Why are my fingers like this?”

“Like what, Queenie?”

“Bendy,” she replied, flexing her fingers. “It’s fuckin’ weird.” She looked at him. “I feel weird.”

He snorted, nodding at Dick and the others who were walking in at the sound of her voice. “You’re on hydromorphone, sis.”

“Hydro—what-what?”

“Hydromorphone, sister,” Damian said. “It has increased your threshold for pain and reduced the perception of it.”

She stared at him like she hadn’t heard a word come out of his mouth. “I didn’t understand a single goddamn word that you just said.”

Snickers sounded around her, but her head was up in the clouds and she rested back against her pillow. Her family gathered around her, sitting up on the bed, and suddenly she cocked her head up, squinting at each of them.

“Sweetheart? What’s wrong?” Bruce inquired.

“Where’s Dick?”

“I’m right here, sis,” he answered, pressing a kiss to the back of her hand. “What’s up?”

“Why’d you break up with Kori?”

His eyes widened. “I—what?”

“Kori. Tall alien with the shooty-hands.”

“I know who she is. What about our breakup?”

“Are you kidding me? That woman is spectacular, and you broke up with her. She’s gorgeous, wicked intelligent, fantastic in bed and—”

“Wait, back up there,” he interrupted. “Good in bed? Did you sleep with, Kori?”

“Oh yeah, totally. I was her rebound after you.”

Dick blinked while the others cackled. “Have you…have you slept with any other exes?”

“Of yours? Or in general with the family’s exes?”

“Wait,” Jason said. “Have you slept with any of mine?”

“Did you date Artemis?”

He shrugged. “Sort of?”

“Then, yes.” She looked at Bruce. “I slept with Selina too, but to be completely honest we were both drunk and I don’t think either of us remember.”

“I uh—” he started, then quieted. “I didn’t know you were gay, sweetheart.”

She let out a ‘pfft’. “I’m not.”

“Oh, you’re bi, then?” Dick smiled and she shook her head.

“Nah, I like the wine but not the label.” She grinned. “I’m a lover of people.”

“How many superheroes have you slept with?” Tim questioned and she pursed her lips.

“Uh…I dunno…kinda lost count.”

For a moment no one said a word, then Jason asked, “You know how we call Dickhead the fuck-boy? Can we refer to you as that now? I think you’ve topped his count.”

Her eyes narrowed into a glare and she pointed at him, though she was seeing double, so it was entirely possible that she was pointing at the wall. “Keep that up and I’ll sleep with your best friend again.”

“You slept with Roy?!”

“I was talking about Kyle, but Roy works too.”

“OH MY GOD! IS THERE ANYONE YOU HAVEN’T SLEPT WITH?”

She thought for a moment, then offered, “Diana. But I asked her out last weekend so it’s up in the air until our date.”

***Part Two***

There was only one rule that everyone collectively followed in Wayne Manor and that was: no excessive noise until after twelve P.M. It was mostly influenced by Alfred who’d more than once pulled out the shotgun but surprisingly, mornings were usually calm and quiet. Keywords: “Were” and “Usually”. There were some special cases.

An ear-splitting scream shattered the silence of the breakfast room and in an instant, everyone was jumping from the table, sprinting towards the staircase to find out what was quite possibly murdering their eldest sister. As they neared the staircase, they came face to face with her as she stood behind the banister, her hands gripping the railing until her knuckles started whitening.

“Sis, what’s wrong?” Dick worried, already starting to come up the steps, Jason and Tim close behind.

“I’m late,” she whispered, and they leaned forward.

“What was that?” Bruce inquired, brows furrowing, and she looked at him.

“I’m late.” Her voice was firmer this time.

He blinked. “How long?”

“Two months.”

“Wait, what’s going on?” Jason questioned, shaking his head and she scowled.

“My period’s late, jackass.”

She wished she’d taken a photo of their faces, because nothing would ever amuse her as much as the way their jaws went slack, eyes widening in total shock. Running a hand down her face, she groaned, “Oh my God. I knew something was up. I completely forgot about it.”

“Sooooo…” Tim drawled out with a recovered grin. “Who’s the daddy?”

Her eyes narrowed and she shot him a glare. “Shut. Up.”

“C’mon sis, someone—some guy did it for you.” Jason quipped. “Who’s the lucky man?” he paused, seeming to remember something. “How many superheroes have you slept with in two months? That have dicks, of course.” She clenched her jaw and his eyes widened. “Oh no. Oh no…is it, Roy?”

“It’s not Roy!” she hissed.

“Kyle?” Dick offered and she shook her head.

“No. I’ve only slept with one guy in the past two months.”

“Who was it sister?” Damian quizzed, placing his hands on his hips. “I have yet to meet anyone acceptable for you to populate with.”

“Thanks Damian,” she griped, then groaned. “Oh God, I know who it is too. And I wish I didn’t.”

“Why’s that?”

Her eyes found Tim’s. “Because we were drunk as hell after a League mission.”

“Who is it?” Bruce grunted and she met his gaze.

“You’re not going to like it.”

Something passed between them, and his eyes narrowed. “Please don’t say that’s who you slept with.”

She nodded, pressing a hand to her face, hiding her embarrassment. “Mhm.”

“You slept with him?”

“Unfortunately.”

Jason looked between his sister and father. “Wait, I’m confused. What’s going on?” A snort sounded beside him, and he looked over, seeing Dick in tears. “Why are you crying? What’s so funny?”

Dick cackled. “SHE SLEPT WITH HAL JORDAN!”

Another round of slack jawed brothers appeared in her sight, and she hissed. “It was an accident!”

“YOU’RE HAVING A BABY WITH HAL JORDAN!” Dick gasped, starting to drop to his knees from laughing so hard. “OH MY GOD, YOU SLEPT WITH THE GUY DAD HATES THE MOST!”

“You slept with Hal Jordan?” Tim gagged. “Ew.”

“Sister, I am disgusted in your choice of partners for children.” Damian noted and she scowled.

“I hate all of you.” she looked at Bruce.

He sighed heavily, a defeated father…or maybe a defeated grandfather. “I’ll go call Hal…and order prenatal vitamins.”

She ran a hand down her face. “I’ll call Leslie and get in for an exam.”

“Holy shit,” Jason gasped. “We’re gonna be uncles!”

***Part Three***

He shifted the phone to rest between his ear and shoulder, hands busy pouring coffee into his cup. “Hello?”

What are you doing right now?

“Bruce? Is that you?”

Answer the question, Hal.

He rolled his eyes and frowned. “Well, it’s nine A.M., I’m making a cup of coffee. I know bats are nocturnal, so this might come as a surprise to someone like you, but rest assured it’s a normal habit for us normal folks.”

How fast can you get to Gotham City?

“Willingly?” Hal chuckled, setting down the coffee pot to grab the phone. “What’s going on?”

I need your…help…with something. And I need you in Gotham as fast as you can get here…please.

He almost dropped both the phone and coffee mug. “Did you just say you need my he—” the line went dead with a click, and he pulled the phone from his ear. “Asshole,” Hal scowled and shoved the phone in his pocket, before putting the mug down. His body flashed green as he suited up and he sighed. “Can’t believe I gotta go to the land of the living dead at nine A.M.”

***

He rubbed his temples as he disconnected the call, barely suppressing the sigh that wanted to escape him. “Are you mad at me?” he heard behind him, low, scared, and worried; he shook his head.

“No.”

She leaned against the desk, staring down at the side of his head. “Are you disappointed in me?”

Bruce sighed this time. “At your basic lack of common sense and sleeping with a team member despite the fact that I’ve told you time and again that inner-team-dalliances only end badly? Yes.” He turned his eyes to her. “But for being pregnant? Never.”

“Doesn’t seem like it, dad,” she muttered, crossing her arms over her chest; he watched them lower to hold her stomach.

“I think Hal Jordan’s an idiot,” he stated. “If it seems like I’m upset, it’s because he’s going to be my grandchild’s father and I’ll have to be nice to him now.” She huffed a laugh and he reached over, placing a hand on her arm. “It’s going to be okay, sweetheart. We’ll take care of this.”

“I know, it’s just…” she sighed. “I never expected this to happen.”

“No one ever does,” Bruce answered. “Have you contacted Leslie yet?”

She nodded. “Yeah. I’ll go see her around three.” Grunting, she muttered, “Figured if Hal got here in as soon as possible, we’d have enough time to sit and talk about this before we went.” She ran a hand over her face. “God, I can’t believe I Hal knocked me up.”

“Please don’t say that,” Bruce griped. “I don’t like that phrase.”

“But that’s what happened, dad. I got knocked up by Hal.”

“Why do you hate me?” he scowled, dropping his head into his hands. “How did this even happen?”

Sighing, she recounted, “After the mission in Brazil, Hal invited Barry back to Coast City for a drink and Barry invited me.” She shrugged. “I didn’t wanna be rude even if I am typically antisocial, so I accepted, and we got there and found a bar. After a couple hours, Barry had to get back to Central and we just decided to keep drinking.”

She grunted. “Hell, by seven thirty we were already gone so we got a ride back to his place and he offered to let me stay the night and one thing led to another and—”

Bruce raised his hand, effectively silencing her. “I can infer what happened after that.” He rubbed his temples. “Let’s just wait for Hal to get here, yeah?”

“Yeah,” she agreed, falling silent.

***

Alfred cleared his throat. “Master Jordan, is here, sir.” They both looked up from the Batcomputer at the test pilot.

“Thank you, Alfred,” Bruce said, and the butler nodded, ascending the steps.

Hal walked towards them. “So, what’s the deal? Why do you need me?”

Bruce looked at her and she sighed. “Actually, I’m the one who needed you to come here, Hal.”

His brown eyes darted to hers, a flash, a recognition of something and he nodded. “Aright. What’s up?”

“Dad…give us a moment?” he nodded and stood from the Batcomputer, walking to the medical section on the other side of the cave. She waved Hal over. “You might wanna sit down.”

He did, albeit suspiciously. “Why are you acting so…weird?”

“Hal,” she said, then looked at her hands. “I’m…ah crap.”

“What’s wrong?” he asked, brows furrowing.

She took a deep breath and admitted, “My period’s late and there’s a good chance I’m pregnant.”

For a moment, Hal didn’t say a word, then he burst into laughter. “Oh, that’s hilarious!” he held his stomach and wiped his eyes. “That’s a good one.”

“I’m not joking, Hal,” she spat. “In the last three months, you’re the only man I’ve had sex with. If I’m pregnant, you’re the father.”

He stopped laughing at that. “Are you being serious?”

“Dead.”

Hal ran a hand through his brown hair and let out a shocked breath. “Holy hell.” She watched him and he gaped at her. “W-what…what do we do?”

“I’ve got an appointment with Doctor Leslie at four. You’re welcome to come along if you’d like.”

He nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I will.” Swallowing thickly, he said, “Does he know?”

“Dad? Yeah. They all do.”

“They?” he repeated, eyes wide.

“My brothers.”

“You told them we slept together?”

She chuckled. “Apparently a year ago under heavy meds, I admitted I slept with Dad, Dick, and Jason’s exes.” She shrugged. “There’s not much I keep from them.”

Hal’s eyes shifted to Bruce’s back. “Can’t imagine the Big-Bat is happy about this.”

“Oh, he’s not. He thinks you’re an idiot, but judging by the look on your face, you already know that.”

He scoffed. “Your dad likes to think he’s smarter than everyone else.”

She cocked a brow. “He is.”

“And it seems like you’re following that strain well,” he shot back, and they glared at each other before cracking smiles.

“If this is real, we’re going to be some parents, huh?”

Hal could sense the fear in her voice, and he stood in front of her, placing his hands on her hips. “Hey,” he murmured. “No parents are perfect. And we’re sure as hell not.”

“If this is supposed to cheer me up, it’s not.”

“I’m not trying to cheer you up. I’m trying to reassure you,” he corrected, squeezing her hips lightly. “We’ll work through this, and we’ll do it together.”

She gazed at him then heaved a sigh and leaned her head on his shoulder. “Thanks Hal.”

“Don’t mention it,” he chuckled, then murmured, “But if we really are going to be parents, should we tie the knot?”

“Absolutely not.”

***

“Hal, for the love of God, will you sit down?” she griped. “You’re starting to make me anxious with all that pacing.”

He sighed, running a hand through his hair before shrugging off his bomber. “I can’t help it,” he retorted. “I hate waiting.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed.” She rolled her eyes. “Leslie’s working as fast as she can. Just sit down and be patient.”

Hal paced for another minute before collapsing into the seat beside her; she took his hand in hers and rubbed her thumb on the back of his hand. “What are you doing?” he asked, and she hummed.

“Comforting you.”

“Why?”

She looked at him. “Because you’re worried.”

“How are you not?”

“I am,” she commented, and he scowled.

“You don’t look it.”

“Well, that’s because I was trained to retain my emotions a as child,” she retorted. “It helps when I’m dealing with children who are scared.”

“I’m not a child,” Hal hissed, and she snorted.

“Could’ve fooled me.”

“You know what? I’m gonna—”

The door opened and their mouths snapped shut as Leslie walked in with a smile. “Good afternoon.”

“Hey Leslie,” she greeted, then glanced at the papers in her hand. “So? What’s the verdict?”

Leslie handed her the file and she looked it over. “Case of irregular period, dear.”

She blinked and said dumbly, “I’m not pregnant?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “Our bodies act up sometimes, even when we’re grown. Irregularities can still happen even now.” Clearing her throat, Leslie added, “But your blood and urinalysis came back negative. You’re not pregnant.” She looked between Hal and her. “With the results, you’re free to leave.”

She stood to her feet, but when Hal didn’t, she tugged his hand. “Hal,” she whispered. “Come on.”

He staggered to his feet. “Yeah, I’m coming.” He disappeared out of the clinic room, and she sighed, then looked at Leslie.

“Thanks doc.”

“Of course.”

***

They were quiet on the park bench, watching the sun reflect off the water and listening to the birds singing in the sky. “So…I guess that’s a relief,” Hal stated, and she nodded.

“Yeah. I guess it is.” Laughing, she said, “I mean could you imagine if I were actually carrying your kid?” when he didn’t laugh, she looked over at him. “Hal?”

He blinked, shaking himself out of his thoughts. “Yeah, couldn’t imagine it.”

“Hal,” she plead. “Are you upset that I’m not?”

“What? No. No, I’m relieved you’re not pregnant, but…” he sighed and shrugged. “I dunno at the same time as scared as I was, I was happy, you know? Ready to step up and be there for you.”

She lowered her gaze to his hands and reached over, placing hers over his and he took it, squeezing. “Well, look at it this way. This was the universe telling you that you’re ready to be a father and this was the universe telling me that I’m not ready to be a mom or your baby’s mother.”

Hal gazed at her for a moment then chuckled. “Yeah, I guess it is.” He squeezed her hand again and climbed to his feet, flashing green as his suit appeared. “Now that everything’s sorted out, I should be getting back to Coast City.”

“Sounds good,” she agreed, standing to her feet.

“Can I drop you off anywhere?”

“Nah, I’m gonna walk around for a bit,” she said.

Hal took to the sky then looked down at her. “If you ever find yourself ready…call me?”

A shocked laugh bubbled in her chest, and she shook her head. “Not a chance in hell, Jordan.”

“Come on, don’t you think it would be fun to have the old Bat call me his son in law?”

Giggling, she waved him off. “Get out of here, Hal.”

Winking, he replied, “See you later, babe.”

She couldn’t help but chuckle and watch him leave, then she shook her head. “Ridiculous.” But a small smile was still on her lips as she headed down the street.

***Alternate Ending***

She gazed numbly out at the water, not sure if she should feel surprise or shock, but whatever emotion she was feeling had completely dumbfounded her. She was pregnant. Her hands had unconsciously pressed tight to her stomach, and she felt sick more than anything. Sick, scared, ashamed, every emotion that came with sleeping with a coworker—and every TV show and movie where the woman got pregnant from the affair.

How was she going to explain this to her family? To her friends? How was she going to face their scrutiny? Pregnant out of wedlock? With the biggest skirt-chasing, arrogant asshole in the galaxy? She’d take the brunt of their scathing opinions. He’d get off scot-free. He’d—

“(Y/N).” Someone’s hand rested on her shoulder, and she blinked, suddenly brought from her stupor and she looked over at him; his gaze was full of worry. “Are you okay?”

Instantly, she felt angry, and she jerked away from him, standing to her feet. “Am I okay!” she shouted. “You got me pregnant! Do you have any idea what this is going to do to us! To our reputations! To mine!”

Irritation etched across his face, and he stood to his feet, getting in her face. “It takes two to tango, (Y/N). We both did this—not just me.”

Her mouth opened to retort sharply, but damned if he didn’t have a point and she shut her mouth, tasting something bitter as she looked away. “I’m going home.”

She turned and his hand shot out, grabbing hold of her arm. “Wait, I don’t want you going alone.”

“Let go of me.” She hissed, trying to pull away, but he tightened his grip.

“No. It’s too dangerous for you to be out alone.”

(Y/N) scoffed. “I think you’re forgetting who you’re talking to Jordan. I’m—”

“The mother of my child.” Hal declared and she gaped at him. “I know what you and your family think of me. I know you think I’m an arrogant asshole and yeah, I’ll admit that I am.” He pulled her to him and wrapped his arm around her waist. “But if you think for a second, I’m going to let you wander around this bat-shit crazy city alone while pregnant, then you’re the one who’s being arrogant.”

He searched her gaze. “I’m many things, (Y/N). But I’m not going to abandon you or shy away from whatever this is.”

She swallowed thickly. “What do you mean ‘whatever this is’? Parents?”

“Us.” Hal said. “Maybe it’s just my big head, but I see the way you look at me. Yeah, I annoy the hell out of you, but you care for me.” He reached up, cupping her cheek. “And I care about you too. More than just what teammates should for one another.”

(Y/N) didn’t know what to say, because he did have a point. Hal was an annoying prick who at many times provoked her into physical confrontation, but on the other hand, there was nothing she loved more than fighting with him, because she knew he found it just as amusing.

Her gaze lowered and she felt tears well in her eyes. “I’m scared, Hal.”

“I know. I am too,” he murmured. “But we’re going to get through this.” He tipped her head up, catching her eyes once more. “We will get through this. Together.”

(Y/N)’s lips wobbled, and she tried for a lighthearted comment. “Isn’t fraternization against the rules?”

Hal grinned. “Only in the military.” He winked. “Last time I checked—we’re not in it.”

She laughed, leaning forward, and pressed her forehead to his. “How’s everyone going to react to this?”

He shrugged. “Probably with shock. I mean about me getting a girl pregnant? Not likely. Getting you pregnant? More likely.”

“Shut up.”

“I think we should consider getting married though.”

(Y/N) pulled away and stared at him. “Excuse me?”

Hal looked at her. “(Y/N), we should think about getting married. I mean, we’re gonna have a kid together. Might as well tie the knot while we’re at it.”

She merely blinked and spun, walking off. “Nope. Not happening. I’ll be your baby-mama, but I am not marrying you.”

“Hey! Wait up!”

[troquantary]

Edward Cullen: That Boy Ain’t Right

So I was doing a reread of @therealvinelle 's collection of Twilight metas, as one does, and in "Edward, Denial, and a Human Girlfriend" she mentions that she doesn't believe Edward is sane. I thought, "ha, yeah, he's definitely not," and also, "but wait, what does that mean exactly, please say more about that." But since she's already inundated with asks, I've decided to use my own head-muscle and explore this idea. (TL;DR: I start out more or less organized, synthesize some points Vinelle has made across several posts (and have hopefully linked to them all where relevant but please tell me if not), touch a little on narcissism, then take a hard left into the negative effects of being a telepath.)

Just a couple things to note at the outset, though. Theses have been written already (probably) about Edward as an abuser. Edward being insane doesn't negate that at all; he's definitely an asshole and just...a disaster of a human being. (I find it more funny than anything, but YMMV.) I'm also going to try to avoid talking specifically about mental illness and how it relates (or doesn't relate) to abusive behavior -- that's territory I'm not really equipped to discuss, like at all. My starting point is "Edward has a deeply warped perception of reality," not "Edward has X disorder."

So: deeply warped perception of reality. The evidence? Goes behind a cut, because my one character trait is Verbose.

Vinelle provides a great example of it in the post linked above, which I'll just quote because she does words good: "[Edward] keeps acting like his romance with Bella is a romantic tragedy, and all the cast of Twilight are actors on a stage making it as sublime as possible." Edward's the one to pursue Bella, but he does so with the full belief, from the very beginning, that it will never last; Bella will "outgrow" him, go on her human way, and he can spend the rest of eternity brooding magnificently over his too-short romantic bliss. [Insert premature ejaculation joke.] Turning her is never an option, even though Alice, Noted Psychic, says that romancing Bella will either end with her dead (exsanguinated) or dead (vampire).

This framing, where he's a dark anti-hero in love with -- but never tainting! -- the pure maiden and eventually leaving her in a grand, tragic sacrifice to preserve her soul? It's fucking bonkers. Bella isn't a person to him in this scenario. As Vinelle points out, Bella's never really a person to him at all; he falls in love with his own mental construct, cherry-picking from what he observes of her behavior and her responses to his 20 (thousand) Questions to convince himself that she is the ideal woman.

Bella's not the only one who gets the projection/cardboard-cutout treatment. Edward sees everything and everyone through a highly particular, personalized lens. He filters his entire reality, which we all do to an extent, but the thing with Edward is that he starts with his conclusions and then only pays attention to the evidence that supports those conclusions. Often that evidence consists of what he admits in New Moon are only "surface" thoughts -- but recognizing that limitation doesn't keep him from taking those thoughts as representative of what people are. Edward then becomes absolutely convinced by his own "reasoning" and won't be swayed from what he has decided is Objectively True. It's obvious with Bella; it's also painfully obvious with Rosalie. (Vinelle explains this and brings up Edward's raging Madonna/Whore complex in the same post, so refer to that again -- she's right.)

He also catastrophizes. Everything. Bella's just vibing in her room, rereading Wuthering Heights for the 87th time? She's gonna be hit by a meteor, better sneak into her room while she sleeps. Bella's going to the beach with the filthy mundanes their human classmates? She's gonna fall in the ocean. Jasper's cannibal pals are stopping by for a visit, but know not to hunt in the area? DISASTER, DEFCON 1, ALSO FUCK YOU JASPER FOR EVEN EXISTING IN MY AND BELLA'S SPHERE YOU UNSPEAKABLE BURDEN. Edward must believe that Bella is vulnerable and in near-constant peril, to support the reality he has created in which he is the villain turned protector and maybe?? hero??? (!!!) for his beloved. So when the actual, James-shaped danger arrives, he goes berserk, snarling and flipping his shit and generally not helping the situation. His fantasy demands that Bella remain human, so instead of doing the very thing Alice, Noted Psychic, assures him will neutralize the threat (and not just a threat to Bella, either, but to Bella's family and any other human James might decide to include in the "game"), he vetoes it immediately, no discussion. Bella Must Not Turn, and he sticks to those guns despite James nearly reducing her to ground beef, despite leaving Bella catatonic with depression (but human! success!) in New Moon, despite Aro's order and his family's vote and, let's not forget, Bella's clearly and repeatedly stated desire to be a vampire. It's going to happen. But he doesn't accept it until Renesmee busts out of Bella like the Kool-Aid man and the poor girl's heart finally, unequivocally stops.

Sane people don't behave this way. I don't want to slap labels on Edward, but I can't help but note that he comes across as highly narcissistic. He's the only real person in his universe, the lone player among us NPCs. That probably has a lot to do with him being frozen in the mindset and maturity of a seventeen-year-old boy, but I think it's also just...him, on some fundamental level. His failure to connect with others and recognize them as full, independent beings with their own wants and priorities isn't like Bella's failure -- she's badly depressed. Edward is...something else, and I get the sense that his sanity has been steadily deteriorating over time. And a cursory google of narcissistic traits turns up some familiar-looking stuff. He's self-loathing, yes, but also grandiose; he hates himself for the monster he is (and hates most vampires besides Esme and Carlisle for their monstrosity, too) but still feels superior to humans, to the extent that he felt entitled to human blood and resented Carlisle for depriving him of his "proper" diet. He eventually returns to Carlisle, but he's far from content -- the beginning of Midnight Sun finds him in a state of ennui, bored and dismissive of (if not outright disgusted by) everyone around him, that has apparently persisted for years and years. He doesn't play the piano, he doesn't compose, he doesn't enjoy anything...at least until Bella comes along and then he becomes obsessed to a disturbing degree with her and his new, romantic tragedy spin on reality.

[Next-day edit: I’m not sure where else to fit this in, but the way Edward casually contemplates violence against people who have, at best, mildly annoyed him is...chilling. I have a hard time writing off his strategizing how to murder the entire Biology class as a result of bloodlust -- it’s so calculated, nothing like the blackout state of thirst Emmett describes when he encountered his own “singer,” and that is probably the default for when a vampire is extremely thirsty. But even ignoring the Biology class incident, Edward still does things like consider, with disturbing frequency, how he might grievously injure or kill Mike Newton, all because...Edward considers him his romantic rival (despite Bella barely giving the kid the time of day). He thinks about slapping Mike through a wall, which might be an amusing slapstick image, except as a vampire Edward’s actually capable of turning this boy’s skeleton to a fine powder. So it’s, y’know, kind of sick when you think about it.

But even worse than that, when Bella tells Edward about how she flirted with Jacob to get at that sweet, sweet vampire lore, Edward chuckles and then, after dropping Bella home, flippantly observes that now that the treaty’s broken, why not genocide? I’m not even kidding, it’s right there in Midnight Sun; he seriously thinks about the fact that he’d be technically justified now in wiping out the entire tribe because a teenager tried to impress a girl with a spooky story. That is fucked. Remember, Edward was there with Carlisle when the treaty was first established. He knows how remarkable it is that they even came to a truce in the first place, that it was only ever possible because Carlisle is...well, Carlisle, and that it marks a pretty significant moment in supernatural history. He doesn’t care; he doesn’t respect it, or he’d never think something like “Ha ha, if I went and killed them all, I wouldn’t even be wrong. I mean, I won’t do it, but I’m just saying, I wouldn’t be wrong.”

Again: not the thought process or behavior of a sane person. (Or a person that respects life in general -- sorry Carlisle, big L.)]

Finally, whether he's a narcissist or not, I think the fact that Edward has constant, unavoidable access to everyone's thoughts is a powerful contributing factor to his instability. He can tune out the mental noise to an extent, but he can't stop it -- so he comes to rely on it like another sense. This causes issues with disconnect and lack of empathy, of course, but there's another facet to this shit diamond: he's basically experiencing a ceaseless flow of intrusive thoughts. His narration in Midnight Sun suggests that he "hears" the words people think, can "see" what they visualize in their mind's eye, and can sense the emotional "tone" and intensity of their thoughts. Therefore, perceiving Jasper's thirst through his thoughts makes Edward more aware of his own, "doubling" the discomfort. This would be a lot to deal with even from just his immediate coven members, but Edward gets all of this pouring into his head like a firehose on a day-to-day basis because the Cullens live right alongside humans. I know Meyerpires have galaxy brains or whatever, but that's a ton to process.

Besides the compounding effect on his own thirst when he "feels" the thirst of others, Meyer never suggests that Edward has difficulty separating his own thoughts from other people's; even when he was newly turned, he recognized Carlisle's "voice" in his head as Carlisle's. That would create a whole different host of issues around identity, but it looks like Edward's escaped that particular torment. However, I can easily imagine that what he does experience is just shy of unbearable nonetheless, with an eroding effect on his sanity over decades. He can't sleep to escape it; he's on a dishwater diet and probably (like the rest of his family) experiencing a perpetual, low-grade physical discomfort due to his thirst never being fully satisfied; and he's around far more people than is the norm for vampires -- even discounting all the humans, his own coven is unusually large -- meaning more noise.

Honestly, it would be weirder if he were all there, considering.

And even though I feel like I lost a sense of structure around where I started ranting about telepathy, I've written like 1.5k words about Edward fucking Cullen and I think that's enough for one post.

[imaginaryskeleton]

Hey who wants to watch me ramble about how Toriel is a bad person? No one? Cool I'm gonna anyway

TW: mentions of emotional abuse, physical abuse, gaslighting, murder, brief mention of war

To preface: I personally have an emotionally abusive mother. Toriel's behaviour does not sit right with me for several reasons due to personal experience and trauma, so it hits very close to home for me

Frisk's age:

This is important to know so we know how what Toriel does affects Frisk.

Frisk is clearly old enough to understand dating. This is evidenced by their flirting and the dates they can have with Papyrus and Alphys. I'd say this makes them a minimum of 10 years old, more likely 11. Frisk is also still young enough to be referred to as "child" by Toriel and "kid" by Sans. From this, we can assume they are under 16.

Frisk is a pre-teen/teenager, still a developing child.

Toriel's behaviour towards Frisk in the ruins:

Toriel's goal when going to destroy the exit to the ruins is to keep Frisk in the ruins for the rest of their life. She says herself that the ruins are very small and they don't take long at all to get through. Locking a child away from the world like that is extremely damaging, not to mention the implications of distrust you convey by doing so. That's straight up controlling, possessive and abusive.

Toriel also gaslights Frisk when they are in the basement hallway leading to the door. "I am only doing this to protect you" is textbook gaslighting, trying to convince Frisk they cannot possibly know what is right for themself, and that Toriel knows best and is doing nothing wrong since her intentions are good. Sound familiar to anyone who's watched Tangled? "Mother knows best"

Toriel is also willing to fight, and therefore harm, the person she has come to consider "her child" which is outright abuse. Understandably, fighting is considered differently in monster society as it is in human society, but she brings Frisk to the edge of death (she doesn't avoid them in her attacks until they are on 3 HP) in order to try and keep them in the ruins with her. This one speaks for itself.

Not to mention Frisk is human. They don't belong with monsters. They likely have a family on the surface, friends, a life to go back to. Forcing them to stay underground is cruel. Especially since human biology is not made for staying underground, we require sunlight and clean air.

Humans also require interaction with other humans, especially children. Given, monsters are sentient and just as intelligent and feeling as humans are, but I feel it would not be quite the same, and only being around monsters for the rest of your life would probably mess with your head a little.

Frisk needed to go home. That was never an argument that could be gone against.

Toriel's behaviour towards Asgore:

Toriel does nothing to ever actively stop Asgore from killing anyone. She simply ran away and hid.

"Oh but thats the entire reason she wants to keep humans on the ruins" I hear you say.

She lets them leave. Each one convinces her to let them go and she just waves them off and tells them not to return. Toriel knows the underground. She was the Queen. She could so easily guide any humans through it and to safety if she truly cared. Instead, she's so stubborn about never seeing Asgore again that she lets them walk to their deaths without protection.

She also tells us at the end of a pacifist route, that her solution to breaking the barrier would have been to kill the first human that fell after Chara, take it's soul, then go to the surface and take the other 6 human souls to break the barrier. So her entire plan is literally the same as Asgore's except she wants to kill 6 in front of other humans, likely risking the start of a second war. She claims her idea is more "peaceful" but it in no way reduces the amount of deaths that must happen. Her logic makes no sense

Plus, if she truly believes in that plan, she would have stayed with Asgore at least until he killed the first human after Chara, and keep trying to convince him. She did not. She left almost as soon as Asriel and Chara died when Asgore made up his mind about his plan (which personally I view as kinder, since it does not involve killing humans in front of their own kind).

Tl;dr:

Toriel is an emotionally abusive, controlling mother and gaslights Frisk when they just want to go home. She's also a hypocrite and has no better norals than Asgore, to whom her anger is completely illogical considering she holds the same plans he does just in a different form

Not to say you cannot like Toriel. I love goat mom, especially how she's written in fanon and in fanfiction. But in canon, she is not this angelic good mother she is painted as. She has flaws and should be looked at critically

[basket-of-radiants]

now that you've decided what nightblood is we can finally have the domestic au of ur dreams: two asshole roommates, their preteen children who won't stop bugging them, and their cat. and all those other losers i guess maybe

Oh my god, I was going through my very old asks, and how could I have missed this, this is literally the best thing ever, you’re right this is the domestic au of my dreams. Alright, here we go, a disaster family comprised of Szeth, Nale, Lift, Nightblood, and a cat. Actually a dog and two cats. Everyone’s backstory is basically the same, but they’re all retired now except for Nale. (And yes those other losers definitely all exist in this au, let me know who you care about.) 

If you’ll permit me to crib off of wtnv for a moment, Nale works for a vague yet menacing government agency wherein he has full authority to carry out whatever actions he deems necessary with zero oversight. He still works through legitimate bureaucratic channels whenever the need arises, but he has contacts in pretty much every institution willing to expedite paperwork for him with zero questions asked, and Nale has figured out that he can do pretty much anything legally so long as he knows what forms to ask for. He does. He’s basically memorized the entire legal code and memorized every obscure law and loophole in existence. Some didn’t think it literally possible for a brain to hold that much information, but he impresses. Nale’s actual job description is similarly unknown, but whatever it was before, it has unfortunately morphed into parole officer for a hitman, a thief, and a child with a criminal record that claims he’s a mass-murderer.

Szeth’s story is about what you’d expect. He knows a dozen languages and a hundred ways to kill a man. No one knows anything about him aside from the mysterious “assassin in white” suspected of carrying out multiple terrorist attacks and high-profile assassinations. I dunno, Szeth killed JFK or did 9/11 or some shit, wait no those aren’t modern enough examples, but he’s done some shit with that level of publicity and conspiracy. The kinds of crimes he pulls off are seemingly impossible to both perform and survive all the while escaping without his identity being revealed. He’s probably got a massive following in the serial killer fandom. Szeth lives his life following anonymous instructions sent to him remotely, and he keeps texting back for them to please stop making him do these things, and they don’t stop. He hates himself and wants to die, and he can’t for the life of himself figure out why no one’s stopped him yet. If only he weren’t such a criminal genius. One time he almost died and it was great, but then he woke up in a hospital to see a man and a kid waiting for him. Nale explained that he’d mined the data off of Szeth’s phone and knew everything about him, and complimented his criminal efficiency and his capability to follow orders so precisely. Basically he’d like to offer him a job. Szeth is like “wait seriously” because he’s still a murderer and Nale explains that from his phone history it’s clear that Szeth himself never had bad intentions, and it’s the thought that counts. Nale offers him a deal wherein Szeth will remain in his custody for a duration and work for him in exchange for no other legal recourse. His idea is to eventually make Szeth a field agent for his institution’s mysterious purposes, but for the time being Szeth really isn’t fit for that, so for the time being all he has to do is look after the kid.

Nale had intentionally sought out Szeth. (Everyone had, but he’d gotten to him first.) Lift on the other hand was a pure accident. After her mother died, Lift was resistant to entering the system, and so she hid from the government, surviving off of stealing food and clothes. When she got older, her shoplifting got a bit more bold. On her streets Lift is a legendary skater as well as being a pretty good thief. She and Nale crossed paths by accident, and she tried to steal his wallet without realizing who he was. Unfortunately she didn’t have her board on her at the time to do some sweet moves and then get out of dodge. He arrested her on the spot, but unfortunately his jurisdiction is different from that of normal police, and he had to file additional paperwork before he could hand her off to the local authorities. He took her to one of his local offices and handcuffed her to his desk while he filled out the papers. She kept making a bunch of requests for food and was so annoying about it that he acquiesced. Talking with her mouth full all the while, Lift completely dismantled his current psychological state, reduced him to tears, and hugged him, by which point he was a bit too attached to her to just arrest her. Still, she was a criminal whose whole lifestyle revolved around stealing, so he couldn’t just let her go, but he made her a deal and offered to take her into his personal custody instead of handing her over to the system. Lift was confident that it wouldn’t be too hard to run away from one person, and besides, it’d be funny to see how high she could get his grocery bills.

Nighblood is a pre-teen kid whose record ties him to hundreds of murders, none of which seem to be provable however. Nightblood mostly talks a lot and plays a lot of video games. Nale briefly looked into his past after he found him, but overall was too busy with his vague yet menacing government work to really focus on him. He decided it was best to keep the kid close, however. He didn’t have the time for babysitting either, but he would figure something out. Upon picking up Szeth, he found he was not psychologically fit for field work whatsoever, so he found another way to makes him useful while he was recovering. Nightblood also can’t move very well on his own, so Szeth has to stay with him at all times.

On the streets, there had been a dog that always followed Lift around. It was easily frightened by everything, and it would whine at her whenever she did something dangerous, but it always came back to her. Additionally, there is a cat that is incredibly shy and is pretty much only ever seen from afar, or off in a tree, or under something. For some reason Szeth refers to it as his cat. Nale apparently has a cat too, but no one has ever seen it, and he really doesn’t seem like an animal person, so it’s sort of hard to believe it actually exists.

Nale put up Szeth, Lift, and Nightblood up in his flat. Due to the mysterious nature of his work, he has to travel a lot, so typically it’s just Szeth and the kids. Szeth and Nightblood are always together, of course, because Nale said they had to be. Szeth will talk about his problems and Nightblood will show him the game he’s currently playing and will say “that’s really sad Szeth, but watch me do this cool move and destroy all these evil guys!” They talk a lot, that’s basically all they do these days. They’re both very fond of Lift, but she is understandably creeped out by two murderers, and she sneaks out of the house all the time. For her, yes her housemates are super messed up, but Nale stocks a lot of really good food and is barely ever around, so so long as she seems to be present and to be staying out of trouble, she can actually do as much trouble as she wants so long as she’s clever about it. One time as she’s sneaking out, she notices Szeth staring at her and she panics for a bit, but he’s like “no you can do what you want, I literally don’t care.” That ingratiates him slightly to her, so she does try to have conversations with him. He’s such a mess though. Nightblood offers to show her his video games, Lift is like “you think that’s cool, come outside and watch this” and then she does a flip on her skateboard or something. Nightblood has idolized her ever since.

When Nale is around, Lift bothers the hell out of him while Szeth follows him around doing pretty much whatever he asks of him while Nightblood keeps tugging on Szeth’s clothes and whispering questions to him. Ever since that first time with Lift, Nale has been unflinchingly stoic, but he lets Lift do whatever she wants and gives her anything she asks for. The same is true for Szeth and Nightblood as well, although Szeth tends not to make unreasonable requests, and whenever Nightblood is about to, Szeth whispers to him that maybe he shouldn’t bother Nale about it. So instead Nightblood bothers Szeth to ask Nale about it. Lift is just having fun exploiting this setup for all it’s worth. They’re all incredibly familiar with each other.

Basically this ends up as Nale being a super important government person with an unlimited budget which he ends up using to indefinitely house three criminals. Also in this au, Nale wears a suit, Szeth wears a hoodie, and Lift wears a baseball cap.

[silvergeek]

Debunking Misinformation About Kamala Harris

Most of the misinformation regarding Harris is valid information that leaves out the bigger picture, context, and details. They're snapshots rather than the full movie reel, if you catch my drift. I've read that she has been over-targeted because she is an easy target. People (all people - because racism is systemic and it embeds itself deep) have strong, implicit bias against Black people and against women ("misogynoir" they call this). Plus, many folks will *more willingly* eat up negative information without fact checking. The slew of widely believed misinformation about Kamala Harris - even from progressives all of diverse backgrounds - is due in part to strong, implicit racial and gender bias. In other words, it's real easy to get rumors going about women using fractions of truths. People will believe them. People are less likely to fact check them (especially as thoroughly as I just did). This is because of bias. Even PROGRESSIVE folks are guilty of this. 

Not long ago, I posted a meme defending Kamala Harris to racist and sexist bias. It was loved and hated - pretty divisive, which is unsurprising for something as simplistic as a meme. I apologize. For all of those tumblr accounts that reblogged the meme with flagrant misinformation about the VP elect... I am going to rectify what I did with thorough, sourced information. 

Also check out this twitter: https://twitter.com/blackwomenviews

Debunking Information: 

Claim: Kamala pushed a law that forces schools to turn undocumented students over to ICE 

 The Real: Kamala Harris has consistently been a supporter of sanctuary status and a champion for immigrant rights. The false claim arises from a change in how undocumented youth arrested for felonies were reported to ICE. Kamala Harris was not responsible for nor did she push for then Mayor Gavin Newsom’s 2008 unilateral decision to modify his policy to include reporting undocumented youth charged with felonies to ICE. Previously the policy only applied to undocumented adults. Newsom changed the policy in response to reporting that San Francisco had been footing the bill and illegally flying Honduran youth accused of dealing drugs back to their home country as well as sending them to other parts of the state. The statement that writers have taken out of context to inaccurately use as evidence Harris pushed for a change was a statement in response to the scandal over the illegal flights. Harris stated, “While detained juveniles are under the custody and control of the juvenile probation office and the court every city agency needs to work together to balance our obligations under federal law and the sanctuary ordinance to solve crimes and put the offenders behind bars.” The statement was made prior to Newsom’s policy change and from the contemporaneous reporting it is clear that the policy was not a collaborative change.

 (Ref: https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/ILLEGALS-CALLED-COURT-S-PROBLEM-3206302.php)

A fact checker wrongly accused Kamala Harris of being untruthful when she said that the change by Newsom had unintended consequences, but in fact the elected Public Defender Jeff Adachi made a similarly statement that the policy resulted in unintended effects when discussing it a year after it was implemented. Adachi stated “When this policy was put into place, the intent was to deal with what was then identified as a specific problem with Honduran youth,” Adachi said. “But we’re seeing this policy affecting youth who have lived most of their lives in San Francisco, are in school and make a mistake.”

Claim: There are multiple variations of the false claims levied at Kamala Harris over the Kevin Cooper case such as: withheld DNA evidence to keep a man on death row; denied DNA testing to exonerate a man on death row; kept a man on death row despite DNA testing that exonerated him.

The Real: Kamala Harris played no role whatsoever in the Kevin Cooper case for several reasons: 1) Convicted of four murder counts in 1983, Cooper had exhausted all of his court appeals in November 2009 which was prior to Harris taking office as AG; 2) Cooper’s only recourse left was clemency which is solely within the Governor’s powers. (Ref: https://miro.medium.com/.../1*IWka2R0J2hUcUR70rh6iBw.jpeg)

Governor Schwarzenegger first denied Cooper clemency in 2004 then again in 2010. Cooper requested clemency from Governor Brown in 2016 which was not granted. Governor Brown issued an order for new DNA testing in December 2018 shortly before leaving office. Governor Newsom expanded the testing in February 2019. Testing is still ongoing so claims that Cooper has already been exonerated and was held in prison despite of it are false.

Claim: There are many smears and distortions about Kamala Harris’ anti-truancy record including: false claims about laughing about putting parents in jail if their kids missed school; locking up parents; targeting poor families and people of color.

The Real: Truancy has been a prosecutable offense in California since 1977. Kamala Harris made the decision to tackle the elementary school truancy crisis in San Francisco after discovering that 94% of homicide victims were high school drop outs. Tackling truancy was not about punishing or prosecuting parents (which was a rarely used last resort), it was about providing parents resources needed to get their children in school.Kamala Harris did not lock parents up. A widely circulated HuffPost Editorial painting Harris as a truancy zealot contains many distortions about her record on this issue. The most egregious distortion is using a woman by the name of Cheree Peoples as a horror story of Harris’ doing when her case was a result of a local Orange County program. More details debunking the article can be found here. Kamala Harris achieved success in lowering truancy in San Francisco by 20% during her tenure. As AG, Harris created the Bureau of Children’s Justice which formed private/public partnerships to increase resources available to educators and parents to reduce truancy. (Ref: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1181175579837632513.html)

Claim: There are various versions of the false claims that Kamala Harris: blocked the release of prisoners; kept prisoners locked up for cheap prison labor; kept prisoners locked up for slave labor; refused to address prison overcrowding; kept prisoners locked up to fight fires for cheap.

The Real: The false claim arises around one specific court filing by one of the 1,000 attorneys (Patrick McKinney) working for the CA DOJ . The role of the CA AG office is to represent various state agencies in litigation and in this case the state agency was the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The court rejected McKinney’s filing on behalf of the CDCR, therefore prisoners were not in fact kept locked up despite earning 2 for 1 good time credits. Kamala Harris was not involved in the court filing nor aware of the filing prior to a news report. With over 20,000 cases per year in the Civil Law division alone (resulting in exponentially more court filings) it would not have been customary for the Attorney General to be involved in a case that only required the expertise of a mid level Deputy AG III that was several levels of management below the Harris’ level. (Ref: https://www.calhr.ca.gov/state-hr.../pages/5730.aspx)

Claim: Oversaw a state prosecutor falsifying a confession to get a life sentence and then destroyed the evidence.

The Real: This claim is in reference to wrongdoing by Deputy District Attorney Robert Murray of Kern County. The Attorney General oversees 4,500 employees including over 1,000 lawyers, but the AG does not supervise local District Attorneys and their deputies. In 2013, prior to trial during plea discussions, ADA Murray admitted to falsifying a translated transcript in the case of Efrain Velasco Palacios who faced 5 counts of lewd and lascivious acts against the 10 year old daughter of his live-in girlfriend. Palacios was facing 8 years for the 5 counts and was not charged with a crime that faced a life sentence. Superior Court Judge Staley threw the case out due to Murray’s misconduct and Palacios’ attorney being removed from the case for allegedly saying his client did not have a viable defense. The judge’s decision was appealed, arguing that Palacios could still get a fair trial with a new counsel. The judge’s decision was upheld on appeal. In 2015, Efrain Velasco Palacios plead no contest to lew or lascivious acts and unlawful intercourse with a 13 year old girl and was sentenced to 4 years in prison.

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A quote that is backed by sources above and further sources down below:

"On the DNA case. This wasn't a case of Kamala actively trying to suppress the evidence. I believe the defendant was asking for the DNA evidence to be reexamined years later using newer, more reliable, methods. Problem was there was some bureaucratic rule that wouldn't allow it in the DNA department or something like that. 

The jist of it as it applied to Kamala was there was a department within the CA DOJ that was denying the testing, and to my knowledge it was never directly raised with her till after she was out of office. She has since called for him to be given access to the testing, and I thiiink he got it. But like I said I'll try to get more detail tomorrow.On jailing black men disproportionately and coming down hard on cannabis, these are examples of folks taking statistics for the entire California criminal justice system and placing blame solely on Kamala. 

Yes, black men made up a disproportionate share of prisoners in California during Kamala's tenure as AG. That was the case before she was AG and that is still the case today. It's terrible, but it's not really fair to put the effects of the entire system on Kamala. AG's don't have sole authority when it comes to law enforcement. Kamala made efforts to curb this; through reentry programs, not enforcing the 3-strikes laws, being the first AG in the county to require her officers wear body cameras and take implicit bias trading, etc.

The problem is she only had authority over the California Department of Justice. The bulk of prosecutions and incarcerations happen at the local level, with city and county DA's and police. She could not direct them to take the same steps she was taking, all she could do was try to set an example. But the law being what it was, those DAs and police had the authority to be as stringent as the law allowed (which was very very stringent). But if you look at the statistics in the areas Kamala had authority over (and again I'll try to find citations tomorrow) you'll see that she actually reduced incarcerations.

The same goes for marijuana incarcerations. People point to the 19k marijuana convictions that occured while she was AG as evidence she was a avid warrior in the War on Drugs. But that is the statistic for the entire state, and the bulk of those convictions were at the local level. And even still, over all Marijuana convictions across the state fell every year she was in office to eventually there being only like 900ish across the entire state in her last year. She obviously doesn't get all the credit for that decline, but it's another example of people manipulating statistics to fit their narratives."

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Examples of things she did to improve the criminal justice system as DA & AG California: 

Kamala Harris announces police anti-bias training program

California’s attorney general announced a statewide training program aimed at getting police officers to avoid having built-in biases compromise their ability to enforce laws fairly and with appropriate force.

The announcement Friday came as Kamala Harris outlined the results of a 90-day review by her agency that sought to find ways to strengthen the trust between police and the public following recent slayings of unarmed civilians by officers in cities across the country.

Harris also said that under a pilot program, of Justice Department special agents would be outfitted with on-body cameras similar to those worn by officers of some local forces in.

Source: https://www.mercurynews.com/205/04/17/california-kamala-harris-announces-police-anti-bias-training-program/

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continued: SAN FRANCISCO / D.A. won't pursue death in cop slaying / Harris fulfills campaign pledge with decision.

San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris said Tuesday she will not seek the death penalty against a man accused of killing a San Francisco police officer over the weekend, a decision that legal experts say is rare if not unprecedented in California.

The death penalty was restored in California in 1978, but The Chronicle's review found only limited documentation about the outcome of cases before 1987.

Focusing on 90 cases since 1987, the newspaper found that prosecutors sought the death penalty in nearly every case in which a suspect was arrested.

source: https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/SAN-FRANCISCO-D-A-won-t-pursue-death-in-cop-2767716.php

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ALTERNATIVE SENTENCING GAINING ACCEPTANCE

Back on Track, a San Francisco program for first-time young adult drug offenders, involves job training, apprenticeships in the building trades, G.E.D. preparation, money-management skills, child care and other features. Because failure to complete the program means the defendant goes right to jail, the recidivism rate has been less than 10 percent. Back on Track costs $5,000 per year per participant, a significant reduction from the average cost to incarcerate someone, which can run anywhere from $20,000 to $40,000 or more.

source: https://psmag.com/news/alternative-sentencing-gaining-acceptance-23551

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She also helped spread this program:

L.A. County Jail launches program to keep inmates from coming back.

source: https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-antirecidivism-jail-20150311-story.html

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She was the only AG to investigate big banks for their role in the mortgage crisis.

Without her the national mortgage settlement would be watered down promises rather than the guarantee it was.

source: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/business/how-kamala-harris-finessed-a-foreclosure-deal-for-california.html

In 2012, Harris helped win a massive, $25 billion settlement with Wells Fargo and other financial institutions for foreclosure abuses:

"As the fraud was being uncovered, many of the AGs were yelling 'Settle, settle, settle.' They just wanted to get their hands on the money," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who during the negotiations was setting up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for the Obama administration. Warren has endorsed Harris for U.S. Senate and has appeared in one of the attorney general's campaign ads. "[Harris] was the one who said 'No, we have to do better, and we have to investigate more. Too many families have been destroyed by the crisis and the illegal activity of these banks.'"

In 2012, Harris also helped push through a bill in the California Legislature that offered homeowners some of the strongest protections in the nation against aggressive foreclosure tactics by banks, which was credited in part for a plunge in foreclosures in the state. The measure also gave private citizens the right to sue financial institutions if they violated the law.

Shortly after taking office, Harris created a mortgage fraud task force that not only assisted with the mortgage settlement, but also went after financial firms that targeted homeowners facing foreclosure. The task force also took legal action against the banks and financial ratings firms for the massive losses that California's two giant public pension systems, the California Public Employees' Retirement System and California State Teachers' Retirement System, sustained after unknowingly investing in securities that included risky subprime mortgages.

Harris' office collected $921 million in mortgage-backed securities settlements with JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup, Inc., Bank of America Corp., Standard & Poor's and Goldman Sachs.

Troncoso, who led the mortgage fraud strike force, said building a criminal case against bankers involved in the foreclosures that led to the national mortgage settlement would have been "extremely difficult." Harris acknowledges as much.

"I too, like most Americans, am frustrated. Clearly crimes occurred and people should go to jail," Harris said. "But we went where the evidence took us."

source: https://outline.com/8cPJ2j

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As DA filed an amici curiae brief in support of DC's handgun ban in DC v Heller.

source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-dc-circuit/1713643.html

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As AG she made clerks begin issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples immediately after prop 8 was overturned.

source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J93691asilw

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Talked about defunding, i.e. shrinking budgets and reallocation of funds, the police all the way back in 2006.

source: https://mobile.twitter.com/adamjsmithga/status/1269761430322139136?s=21

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She has introduced bills to (1)provide a tax credit of up to $6,000 for lower and middle income individuals and families and (2)tax credits for renters. (3)Vox did an analysis of the candidates' anti-poverty bills and Kamala's LIFT Act and Rent relief act have the potential to lift the most people out of poverty, 9.6 million and 7.8 million respectively.

multiple sources:

(1)https://www.bustle.com/p/what-is-the-lift-the-middle-class-act-kamala-harris-has-a-bold-tax-reform-proposal-12606048

(2)https://nlihc.org/resource/senator-harris-introduces-rent-relief-act

(3)https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/1/30/18183769/democrat-poverty-plans-2020-presidential-kamala-harris-booker-gillibrand

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She supports raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

source: https://www.harris.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senator-harris-joins-colleagues-in-support-of-15-minimum-wage-bill

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She has also introduced bills to address (1)bail reform and start (2)body camera programs at CBP and ICE.

Two sources:

(1)https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/rand-paul-kamala-harris-team-reform-bail-practices-n794031

(2)https://www.thebeatdc.com/blog/2018/10/3/kamala-harris-wants-to-establish-body-worn-camera-programs-at-cbp-and-ice

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She supported the FIRST STEP Act, as a first step, but she said would like there to be more prohibitions on private prisons in the FIRST STEP ACT.

"All of the Act’s sentencing reforms should be applied retroactively, and the Act should further expand application of earned good time credits, place more prohibitions on private prisons which profit from the incarceration of individuals, and further limit the use of electronic monitoring," Harris added.

source: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/421719-harris-announces-support-for-white-house-backed-criminal-justice-bill

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She has also supported banning private prisons.

source: https://m.facebook.com/KamalaHarris/posts/10154833054297923

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She co-sponsored Booker's bill legalize marijuana.

Here is an old summary of that "tooth and nail" quote:

So when the judge in question says the AG office "fought tooth and nail" to sustain the false testimony in question, he was referring to the actions of the office under the prior attorney general. Which the judge says in the immediately preceding the quote in the same sentence! "Your office, now under a prior Attorney General, but your office, fought tooth and nail to keep the 1998 sentencing transcript away from the Court of Appeal." Timestamp 32:01. So the quote specifically about Kamala's predecessor but has been used to smear her. 

source: https://thehill.com/regulation/legislation/387101-kamala-harris-backs-booker-bill-to-legalize-marijuana

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On the DNA case:

Kevin Cooper: I won't go deep into the facts on this one because they aren't really the point and because I did a terrible job at brevity with the last case. I'll just note that the origin of this case is 1983. Now, the person you're quoting here doesn't seem to have their facts straight. They don't even align with what is in the sources cited. The NYT article referenced (which isn't even the one cited, here - sourced below - is the actual one) does call her out but does not assert that she "refused" to grant DNA testing. Here's what the article actually says with regard to Kamala:

Kamala Harris, who was state attorney general and is now a U.S. senator, was unhelpful.

That attorney general's office was in possession of the evidence and could have conducted the test. It didn't. And in the NYT article cited in the quote Kamala said she regretted that it did not happen and that her office should have done it. You may not care what she has to say, but she owned up to it. And then she went a step further and she called on the governor to allow the testing to proceed. Not the other way around, as your quote states.

source: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/17/opinion/sunday/kevin-cooper-death-row-innocent.html

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And here is an article debunking a meme about her disproportionately incarcerating black men for marijuana possession. It also debunks some particularly racist and sexist stuff that was out there, so if you don't want to have to wade through that bullshit here is the section on marijuana and convictions:

“IMPRISONED 2,000 BLACK PEOPLE WHILE CALIFORNIA AG” – NO EVIDENCE 

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) shared state level statistics of incarcerations by offense with Reuters via email (it is important to note their statistics are for state prisons and exclude data from county jails). The admissions for marijuana and hashish related offenses for the years 2014, 2015 and 2016 was 581 (page 37 in report also visible here ). Their 2013 data is unavailable, while 2011-2012 data shared with Reuters indicated 921 offenders in 2011 and 505 for 2012 for these drug categories. This adds to a total of 2,007 offenses for the years 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016. This drug offender data was not, however, categorized by race. (Calculations by Politifact reached similar numbers in 2019, here ) 

Mercury News noted that most of the marijuana cases in the state were not prosecuted by the AG, but by county districts attorneys, so the total number for the state is likely a lot higher than the CDCR data. As San Francisco’s DA, the paper says, Harris oversaw “1,956 misdemeanor and felony convictions for marijuana possession, cultivation, or sale”, some of which did not conclude in jail time (here). 

In California, the possession of over 28.5 grams of marijuana and possession with the intention of distributing the drug are considered misdemeanors (here). Kamala Harris is listed as AG in the California Department of Justice (DOJ) data reports from 2010 to 2015 (DOJ reports for 2016 data onward fall under Xavier Becerra, Harris’ successor as AG). California DOJ statistics for 2015 show the number of Black people arrested (not imprisoned) with misdemeanors relating to marijuana offenses was 656 (table 34, page 42 here ), in 2014 it was 717 (table 34, page 42 here ), in 2013 it was 768 (table 34, page 42 here ), for 2012 it was 1,069 (table 34, page 42 here ), for 2011 it was 981 (table 34, page 42 here ) and for 2010 it was 8,985 (table 34, page 42 here ). This totals to 24,211 arrests for marijuana related misdemeanors (the substantial drop from 2010 is likely a result of legislation changes.

see source https://www.cjcj.org/news/5542 

In short, both California DOJ and CDCR reports show that marijuana related arrests and state level incarcerations for Black people during Harris’s time as AG (the closest data to what Reuters assumed the claims are implying) were not reflective of the 2,000 figure stated in these claims.

source: https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-kamalaharris-five-claims/fact-check-misleading-meme-featuring-five-claims-about-kamala-harris-idUSKBN25H2F2

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If you're interested in how she handled Marijuana convictions when she was DA and had a more direct role in those cases, and her record generally as DA, here is a piece by Niki Solis who was a public defender when Kamala was DA. (And if you know anything about local court politics, you know DA's and Public defenders often do not exactly see eye to eye).

source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2020/08/10/kamala-harris-progressive-pioneer-san-francisco-da-column/3334668001/

Marijuana sales cases were routinely reduced to misdemeanors. And marijuana possession cases were not even on the court’s docket. They were simply not charged. Unless there was a large grow case, or a unique circumstance, this was the reform-minded approach then-DA Harris’ office took. The accusations about marijuana prosecutions being harsh during her tenure are absurd. The reality was quite the opposite.

Other quotes from Solis:

“Sen. Harris’ progressive approach did not end with marijuana prosecutions or lack thereof. She co-founded the Coalition to End the Exploitation of Kids. She then spearheaded a task force combating the human trafficking of girls. Upon her invitation, I went to the task force meetings to speak on behalf of one of my juvenile clients. My client, a beautiful teenage girl, had aspirations of joining the military. She was selling her body to earn money when her life was cut short; she was found dead in a San Francisco dumpster. Harris and I talked about my client and the exploitation of young girls happening on a constant basis. Unlike her predecessors, she did something about it. She stopped prosecuting young girls for prostitution — acknowledging that they were victims who needed treatment for trauma and not criminals who needed to be incarcerated.

For those who have heard contrary arguments about Harris’ past work as a prosecutor, rest assured that you are hearing this from someone whose life’s work has been dedicated to the cause of equality and justice. I am the chair of the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office Racial Justice Committee and have scratched and clawed for some semblance of justice in our courts for well over two decades. I grappled with this idea of defending a former prosecutor for a long time, but Harris is more than that. I have to acknowledge the truth and say what I feel is right to set the record straight. Should Joe Biden decide not to select Kamala Harris as a running mate, her track record as San Francisco district attorney should certainly not be one of the reasons.”

[iturbide]

Ever wonder if someone with the wrong crest used a relic meant for a different crest (like Sylvain using Areadbhar) could ever potentially become a Demonic Beast? I sometimes wonder

i mean

mostly i wonder how fast it would kill them

this kind of gets into Part 2 of the Crest Virus so here comes the Science Hat

Now, before we go too far, we’re going to need to talk a little bit about dragons themselves.  As we see from the startling variety of physical forms among them, dragons are a remarkably varied group, but they all share several commonalities, among them the presence of a Creststone.  We can also loosely define three ‘tiers’ of dragon-kind: Sothis, the Progenitor, who according to legend used her blood to create her offspring; Seiros and her siblings, Sothis’ first offspring made with her blood, akin to demigods; and the “Children of the Goddess,” who we could probably refer to as ‘mortal’ dragons.  (Why do we need to differentiate this way?  Because Rhea says in the last chapter of Verdant Wind that she is “the last child of the progenitor god” -- which makes absolutely no sense outside this specific grouping since we know for a fact that Seteth and Flayn both are dragons.)  The major differentiators between the three groups are, above all, lifespan:

Sothis arrived in Fodlan thousands of years ago with enough expertise and technology to engineer offspring from her own genetic material, helped humanity’s rise in technological advancement, ended up going to war with them, and then spent another thousand years trying to clean up from that mess before taking a well-deserved nap.  She was undoubtedly ancient before Nemesis killed her -- and she didn’t even die of natural causes, she was murdered, implying she could have (and likely would have) lived even longer.

Seiros and her siblings were created after Sothis’ arrival in Fodlan, and though we only have one example to go off of here in the form of Rhea, she’s still looking pretty youthful despite being several millennia old, and based on her appearance at Tailtean she’s aged only slightly over the course of the near-thousand years between that battle and the game’s events.  She probably has a finite lifespan, and degeneration is clearly an issue given the events of Silver Snow, but that’s still an incredibly long life.

The last and largest group, the ‘Children of the Goddess,’ have all manner of quirks not seen elsewhere.  This group has the ability to go between a dragon and human form, but can lose that ability in either direction (Macuil and Indech gave up their human forms, Seteth and Flayn gave up their dragon forms -- Seteth remarks in Silver Snow that he can’t transform anymore, but Rhea still can despite not having done so in almost a thousand years).  They also likely have the shortest lifespan and high degeneration risk because of it -- something implied in Sothis’ Red Canyon paralogue, where Flayn and Byleth both have unique dialogues when attacking the “Demonic Beast” (Sothis calls it a “poor, lost soul”).

Generally, though, despite the wide range of body plans and individual Crests, dragons can all be considered part of the same species in that they appear capable of interbreeding with one another and producing viable offspring.  So a not insignificant chunk of their genetic code is technically the same, but different combinations of genes and unique gene expressions lead to individualized traits in dragons.  Meiosis probably plays a big part in this process: pieces of the unique Crest identifiers from both parents are grabbed in the division process, and when they fuse into a complete gene sequence you end up with a brand new Crest rather than two Crests on one individual (so even though canon hasn’t confirmed anything, personally I think Flayn’s mom was also a dragon, hence why she gets a brand new Crest of Cethleann).

Now as discussed in Part 1, dragon blood in human bodies more or less acts like a virus, splicing itself into the human host’s DNA to impart the donor’s Crest.  First-generation Crestbearers end up with extraordinarily long lifespans because of it and invariably have major Crests, as evidenced by Jeralt: Rhea gave him her blood to save him after he protected her, and he’s over a hundred now because of it and hasn’t aged a day in the past 20 years according to Alois (who was effectively raised by the man himself).  Now, from the second generation on, Crestbearers don’t get this lifespan, and inheritance becomes a gamble, especially after a thousand years; meiosis is absolutely bizarre, and what genes do or don’t get included in an individual gamete is completely up to chance, leading to a piecemeal Crest genome scattered throughout the human population incapable of producing brand new Crests the way dragons could.  This scattering of genetic markers on both sides of the genetic equation also leads to variable inheritance in terms of expression strength, with some people wining the proverbial jackpot (like Felix with his Major Crest), getting lucky as carriers (like Ingrid with her Minor Crest), or get the shortest end of the stick (like Miklan).  Invariably, though, they only ever have one Crest.  Even if two people with different Crests have kids together, those children will only have one or the other (if they have a Crest at all). 

What all this is getting at is: Crests don’t want to share a host.  Doesn’t matter if it’s the original dragon or a human, Crests are not things that naturally co-exist with one another.  Pregnancies with Crest-bearers are potentially rife with issues, especially if the parents have different Crests; an embryo with the markers for two different Crests likely self-destructs, leading to miscarriage, while an embryo with the markers for the father’s Crest rather than the mother’s could lead to major health issues for both mother and child should the baby even make it to term, similar to the complications associated with Rh-factor pregnancies where the mother is Rh-negative and the fetus is Rh-positive. (Baby dragons who naturally don’t share their parents’ Crests are technically a nonissue since dragons probably have an easy way out of this: they can lay eggs).

But what happens when you specifically aim to get two Crests on a single host?  Absolutely horrific things.  Lysithea attested that the kids in her extended family suffered and died one by one at the hands of the Twisted conducting the Crest experiments -- which, unfortunately, makes sense when you think about Crests not wanting to share hosts.  After hijacking a host’s systems, a Crest genome also starts producing antibodies to protect the host from infection by other sources; this is still true in second-generation Crestbearers on, who naturally produce antibodies to stave off a new infection -- so if a second Crest ‘donation’ is introduced, the ingrained Crest is going to fight back hard.  The host body’s immune system goes on the attack in an attempt to drive off the invader, destroying cells that have been ���infected’ by the new genetic material in order to stop the spread of the second virus; in cases like Lysithea, where there was no ingrained Crest, both try to claim a foothold and then start attacking one another in a bid for dominance, trying to root the other out so that only one is left.  Most often, this autoimmune response is fatal, tearing the host apart from the inside as their body’s defenses target their own systems as foreign entities; in cases where it isn’t, and the host miraculously survives the procedure to gain two Crests, the internal fighting leads to significant genetic decay and a drastically reduced lifespan rather than an increased one -- which contributed both to Lysithea’s grave life expectancy and her two Minor Crests, despite likely getting infusions of pure blood.

(As a note, the Crest of Flames plays by entirely different rules because it’s so much stronger than anything else; survival is rare even in humans without Crests, and it’s likely the only Crest with the potential to establish itself at full strength even with a pre-existing Crest trying to fight against it, as in Edelgard’s case.)

And all of this finally leads us to the question of what happens should someone with the wrong Crest bear a particular Relic.  Well, Crests don’t like to share bodies.  There’s a major dissonance between the heart and body vs the blood, and while it’s not likely to do (much) harm in the short term, too long with it and the Relic will probably try to straight-up attack whoever is wielding it, possibly causing recoil-type damage each time it’s used, since that foreign Crest is viewed as a threat to the overall system.  In cases where there is no Crest on the user, the Relic is trying to recreate a system, using the wielder’s body as a crux to build a larger form off of; where the Crest is just wrong, they would probably never go full-on Beast, even if the Creststone does activate enough to overtake the wielder, since the whole intention of overwhelming them is to snuff their life out and eliminate the threat to the body system, at which point it would return to effective dormancy once the ‘infection’ has been taken care of.

[hellzyeahwebwielingessays]

The Not-So-Amazing Mary Jane Part 31: AMJ #4.3

Previous Part

Next Part

Master Post

Now I’ve torn perhaps the worst set of pages in the entire story a new one, we can continue with the rest of the issue.

Let’s move onto the next page. 

So Beck asked Screwball to lay off the drones but she’s still having fun. This ‘fun’ involves continuing to harass the paparazzi. I actually don’t have a problem with that. Turn around is fair play and she isn’t hurting them in this specific instance.

Anyway, the Savage Six show up and explain they share the paparazzi’s interest in Sonny Diperna(specifically because he’s playing the Vulture). The Six cut a deal with the paparazzi. They will provide the paparazzi state-of-the-art military grade photo-surveillance gear. In exchange the paparazzi will use this to bring the Six information on McKnight, the movie and it’s location.

Okay, so presumably Screwball’s drones are fitted with camera to enable her to control them with that in mind wouldn’t she be able to observe the Six? I’m willing to let that pass because the Six might be out of sight of the camera or Screwball might’ve called off her drone between panels.

However, how did the Six find these paparazzi? The answer must be that they were following them. The paps were following Sonny themselves and were only stopped at this point by Screwball. So there is no way for Vulture to have known they’d be at this location at this time without having followed them himself.

That being the case then, why didn’t Vulture (or one of his minions) follow Diperna’s car? Why didn’t they follow the drones? Or this one drone lagging behind? Couldn’t Vulture, being a genius, invent some kind of tracking device to follow the drones signal or plant a tracer on them or Diperna himself?

Why on Earth are using paparazzi journalists the best route to finding the location of the set?

I understand that this is a story steeped in the world of Hollywood, but you still need to justify the logistics within that. If Williams wanted a story wherein paparazzi (an infamous component Hollywood) are integral to the story she should internally justify it within the narrative.

Anyway, what exactly is this military grade photo-surveillance gear?

Well, it’s literally just the Vulture’s wings and flight tech. The paps use it to enter the offices of the potential investors from issue #2. They also use it to emerge from the locker of the actor who was originally going to play Mysterio. Wherever they go they take pictures and ask invasive questions about Cage McKnight, in particular about his aggressive attitude.

‘God where to start’ might as well be my catch phrase for this issue.

Let me start off by saying I get  Williams’ intent here. She’s satirizing the invasiveness of the paparazzi. The thing is in an established narrative (which the world of Spider-Man is) if you are going to do a satire you need to do one of two things.

Either you make the satire a self-contained off to the side project (which AMJ isn’t) or you make it work within the verisimilitude of the established universe (which AMJ doesn’t).

In this situation the Vulture wants information on the movie. To an extent seeking the help f paparazzi makes sense to that end, as does outfitting them with technology to make that easier. Butt he technology he gives them is not used logically

I can buy that it’s military grade because S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives (like Peter’s sister Teresa) uses similar technology. But it’s not at all photo-surveillance tech. That’s like calling a jetpack photo-surveillance tech. Even if he was making a weird joke the gear he gives them is not all that helpful.

At best, they could use it to spy on people from high up or follow them. But the Vulture himself could do that or his hired goons could do that. Why does he specifically need paparazzi photographers to do this? They aren’t even using the flight tech for that though. They are just using it to invade private property, presumably from open windows. Then they just harass people by taking pictures and asking annoying questions. Why not have them relay their leads to Vulture prompting him to abduct and interrogate these people? Wouldn’t that be more effective? What does taking photos of them accomplish for Vulture. How could Vulture confirm anything the investors told the paps be legitimate and not something to get rid of them?

Not to mention I don’t even know how that last pap fitted into that locker with the wings…or why he even needed those wings to do that!

Also, this is yet more evidence of McKnight’s reputation being dragged through the mud because of Mysterio.

Also, also this is the first time in story that the name of the movie is actually mentioned. It’s not even the full title either.

On the next page we see Ken holding a press conference, begging Cage McKnight to get the paps off his back as they won’t leave him alone. MJ and Mallorie see the news and realise the Six are desperate and back on their trail. MJ reassures Mallorie that once they’ve finished shooting Ken’s family will be safer.

Meanwhile ‘McKnight’ is telling Deperna about the role of the Vulture. He explains that the Vulture and Mysterio are two sides of the same coin and could’ve wound up the same way. Unfortunately Deperna has to leave for a talk show interview. He figures if he’s being hounded anyway he might as well put the P.R. to good use.

So…Mary Jane is a selfish b-word here.

Instead of ceasing production and finding a way to deal  with the threats to Ken and his family she’s content to just keep going and thereby continuing to endanger them. And to be clear the word used is ‘safer’. Not safe. Ken and his family will still be in danger…from super villains.

What.

The.

Fuck.

I shouldn’t have to spell this out. I shouldn’t even need to refer back to part 16. But I will anyway.

Mary Jane would never prioritise making a film over the safety of innocent people.

She especially  wouldn’t considering she’s been the victim of stalkers and unwanted press attention herself. Back in ASM #521-522 MJ had her big stage debut, a night that was ruined when a paparazzi started a story about her having an affair with Tony Stark. This slander reduced her to tears.

Compared to what Ken is going through, MJ’s experience pales in comparison. So why is she so unconcerned about him (let alone his kids) when they are being harassed and in the crosshairs of super villains?

Additionally, Ken and these rich investors are being harassed by people in glorified jetpacks. We see that Ken at least has bodyguards. Can this handful of paparazzi shutterbugs really not be handled by the authorities It’s not like they are particularly stealthy, couldn’t the cops see them flying away and shoot them down? They aren’t wearing armour or anything. And given how they are civilians using illegally obtained military grade hardware isn’t that grounds for getting S.H.I.E.L.D. or the Avengers involved?

I grant you neither Ken nor the investors might be aware the tech is military grade but at the same time that technology is not publically available so surely someone would suspect it’s illegal for them to own and use it? They wouldn’t even need to know that it’s technology used by a confirmed super villain like the Vulture. The mere fact that no civilians have ever used tech like that would be enough grounds for the victims to ask the question at least. Additionally, I don’t know the law of L.A. but isn’t it fairly common in America for someone to use gun or force if their property is invaded? Fuck, they aren’t wearing masks can nobody identify them and report them to the police?

How have these paparazzi losers been evading comeuppance for all this time? Shit, Ken in the above page has a racket, just hit  them! One of the investors was shown trying to do just that on the previous page.

And if MJ knows these innocent people are in the crosshairs of super villains why isn’t she doing  something to protect them? Call Peter, the Avengers or ask Peter to call Cloak and Dagger again. She’s simply content for these people to be mentally and potentially physically harmed provided it’s for a few more days.

Except it won’t be.

They won’t be safe, merely safer. Even if they wrap up filming in a few ore days, how much longer will it be until they finish post-production and then from there actually release the movie. All the people being harassed will still be in harm’s way for all that time; as will the crew. The Six don’t merely want to stop the film being made. I’m sure Vulture is opposed to anyone being paid to play him on principle. I’m sure he’s opposed to a Mysterio biopic on principle too. But the bigger issue for him is that it will be released to the general public. He’s going to want to stop that and has plenty of time to try.

During this time Ken, the investors, the crew, former crewmembers and the loved ones of all of them (like Aunt May or Aunt Anna) are potentially going to be in harm’s way. There is no guarantee the Six will stop after the film is released either. Surely MJ must consider some of the Six are capable of holding a grudge. If they don’t like something about the movie they may well continue to target anyone who worked on it or was associated with it.

The only  ways to serve the greater good here is to either placate the Six somehow (e.g. by not making the movie) or by neutralizing the threat they pose (e.g. by capturing them). Instead MJ and Beck are simply running and hiding when there is no reason or justification for them to do that!

Moving on, the stuff with Diperna is dumb.

Beck claims that ‘Mysterio’ could’ve ended up just like Vulture if circumstances had gone differently. Except…they did. They are both bitter, egotistical, selfish criminal murderers who happen to be genius inventors. It makes sense for Beck to not view it that way of course. Anyone reading the script where Mysterio is framed sympathetically might not even see it that way. But I personally have a suspicion that Williams herself honestly views it that way. As in, she honestly thinks there is a huge difference between where Vulture wound up vs. where Mysterio wound up. There is, but it’s a nuanced difference, not a two sides of the same coin sort of deal.

Finally Diperna is going to a talk show to promote the movie. Isn’t that a massive security risk?

The paparazzi are already hounding him, the Six are after the movie and he’s one of their bigger targets connected to it. He knows this. MJ and Mallorie know this. But they are still going to let him leave the security of the set and go to a location where surely his attendance has been recorded. Or at least some people know about it?

But of course MJ isn’t concerned, merely excited that he’s going to promote the film. The film that’s name dropped again, but still not with it’s full title.

On the next page we see Sonny’s interview; with an obvious Conan O’Brien stand-in. 

At the interview the host asks Sonny about the rumours regarding MJ. Apparently, an anonymous source claims she’s a terror to work with on set. Sonny dispels these are totally untrue. This enrages the Six in their hideout, who admit sending blind items to the press about MJ was a dumb idea.

I have to concur with Tarantula, it was a stupid idea. What the Hell was it ever going to accomplish?

Best case scenario, MJ’s reputation gets slandered. Then what? The people working with her will know it’s bullshit and do nothing. MJ herself will know it’s bullshit and maybe get very upset.

But anything beyond that relies  upon MJ being so upset she (or a representative of the movie) would appear in person publically. Except MJ is aware the Six are after her and the movie, and the Six know she knows. Therefore no one would appear publically in order to safeguard themselves and the film.

Okay, maybe  the Six really believe MJ is that stupid or that incapable of controlling herself. But in this day and age why the Hell would she ever need to appear publicly at all? One social media post or a phone interview would enable her to respond to the rumours. Maybe the Six are hoping for that, the plan being to use technical wizardry to then track down the location of the film somehow. 

But the film already has social media accounts. We learned that last issue. Clearly if they have been trying that route it’s not been working. So why would they attempt to coax MJ into posting online? And as for a phone call, there is no indication they’re going to use that to find MJ. It wouldn’t even be a reliable plan as they couldn’t possibly know what journalist she’d talk to and therefore not be prepared to trace the call when it comes in.

No matter how you slice it this plan is idiotic (and thereby out of character for Vulture) and accomplishes nothing beyond being petty.

I’ll also add I am personally not keen on MJ being as famous as she’s being implied to be in this scene. I prefer Peter and MJ to at best be modestly famous if at all. It keeps them more down to Earth that way.

On the next page Vulture implies the asinine slander attempt was probably his idea. He then goes on to claim that aweul rumours would’ve forced MJ to surface. I’ve already addressed why this is dumb and OOC for Vulture.

He then tries (and fails) to justify his almost-as-bad idea of arming the paparazzi to find the set for them. Back on TV, Sonny claims the difference between Mysterio and Vulture in the movie is that Beck cares about redemption whilst Vulture doesn’t. This further fuels my theory that this distinction is Williams’ own perception of the characters.

Also, one of the paparazzi approaches Vulture with a picture that delights the old bird.

On the next page we find ourselves with Peter at an ESU lab, where he answers a call from MJ. 

He says he’s not great and very confused. He says it might be confusing for her too depending upon the context of the photo she sent earlier. The photo in question is of MJ in Spider-Man’s costume. MJ explains that she’s filling in for the Spidey actor who quit then tries to explain about working with Mysterio.

Unfortunately something important is happening in the lab and the scientists are demanding Pete’s attention. He asks to leave but reaffirms their arrangement for a video chat the next night. Sadly, MJ says goodbye as Peter hangs up. Just then Beck calls MJ over so they can rehearse her Spidey scene.

They begin with the Electro fight choreography MJ learned earlier. Abruptly the fake Electro attacks surprising MJ.

So let me get this out of the way. I do not know if Gomez or the inkers or the colourists were putting extra effort into these pages or not. Regardless, the result is simply stunning. I’m not being ironic or sarcastic in the slightest. Seeing MJ in Spider-Man’s outfit looks superb and I think Gomez was having fun depicting it. It’s something that cosplayers, fan art and covers have depicted to no end for decades and (IIRC) this is the very first time it’s happened in canon. Maybe that was why these pages pop as much as they do.

Or maybe Williams and/or Gomez just found the idea sexy. The dialogue certainly implies Peter might. Much like issue #1 stuff like this is where Williams on AMJ shines. She can capture many of MJ’s personality traits very well and among those is her flirtatiousness and the sexual chemistry she has with Peter. So kudos on that front.

As for the rest of this page, I should fully disclose I’m woefully behind on my comics. The last ASM storyline I read (as of this writing, but not necessarily of this posting) was the 2099 centric one. So I do not know if Peter’s dialogue is reflecting events that were contemporary at the time of AMJ #4’s release. Nor do I know if it made any huge mistakes in doing so. Maybe the dialogue was supposed to just be funny/cute because seeing MJ dressed as him was weird. Or maybe there is some big event in ASM that has thrown Peter for a loop. I just do not know, so inform me if I’m missing something.

Apart from that there is little to say about these pages. It just represents systemic problems with the story by this point. MJ shouldn’t be lying to Peter. It’s stupid for MJ to be playing Spider-Man.

As the rehearsal continues MJ realises Electro was just an illusion. Mysterio begins lecturing MJ on Electro’s abilities and critiquing her fight choreography, specifically her speed. MJ says she’ll just practice until she can do it as fast as Spidey. Mysterio though lectures that she doesn’t understand how frustrating it is to fight Spider-Man. He begins explaining how he dodges before his opponent commits to an action. How his webbing gives him access to another plane of movement (which MJ chimes in on). How his experience fighting the Sinister Six enable him to predict their movements

However, Beck clarifies that Spidey doesn’t always win because he’s noble and virtuous. Rather because ‘he’s good’. He asks MJ to try fighting again as though she wanted to really win. Mysterio continues to lecture, stating Ock is nothing without his suit so MJ shouldn’t be afraid to get up close and personal. They then begin rehearsing to fight one another, with MJ admitting she can feel Beck pulling his punches. Finally Beck tells MJ that if she compromises Vulture’s harness he’s just a vulnerable old man.

Elsewhere Vulture eyes up Charlie as he walks alone at night. The entirety of the Savage Six (which really seems like overkill) confront him. Charlie folds immediately and promises to tell them where the set is.

The positives of these pages amount to Williams demonstrating a good grasp of some of Spider-Man’s fighting technique. Ironically she echoes some of my own points from parts 21-22.

Let’s also be charitable and say MJ wasn’t being strictly serious when she said she’ll be as fast as Spidey. But if Williams intended that to be serious that’s real silly. No human can be as fast as Spider-Man.

That’s where the positives and charity ends though.

Let’s start with the fact that Mysterio has all this knowledge about the skills of Spidey and his foes. Does MJ not think Beck such a good observer is rather dangerous given his history and abilities?

Isn’t she concerned that someone who has tried to harm her lover on multiple occasions (and is demonstrating  such attempts right in front of her) has such knowledge of how he fights? Isn’t she unsettled that he is referring to him as infuriating? Does she not even raise an eyebrow that Beck is showing her all this and has yet to express any  remorse towards Spider-Man himself? Spidey being the man he framed as one of his first major crimes and whom he nearly killed in very recent history?

Apparently not.

Furthermore some of his assessments are not accurate.

‘Ock is nothing without his suit’???????

Otto doesn’t wear a suit. He has a harness with tentacles attached. And even if that’s what Williams meant it’d still be wrong. I’m not going to bring up obscure stuff like Otto’s long forgotten force field from the 1990s. Nor even the fact he can still throw a mean punch (see his debut). It’s the fact that the guy is dangerously intelligent. That’s one of the most famous things about him and he even tells you that in his name; Doctor  Octopus! How many times has he created an invention or outsmarted his opponents. MJ and Mysterio were both witnesses to his formidable intellect in ‘Ends of the Earth’ alone!

And as for the Vulture, his harness really isn’t everything. He too is clever, crafty, nasty, his wings are razor sharp and his current outfit has equally sharp claws. Anyone just looking at him should be able to tell the strength and flight his harness provides isn’t the only thing that makes him dangerous. I’m also pretty sure that Beck would know enough about Toomes’ personality to know he’s not just a harness old man in a harness, but I admit I can’t think of any examples for that off the top of my head.

The foolishness doesn’t stop there though.

Beck’s off base about Otto and Vulture but also arguably about Spidey as well. He says Spider-Man doesn’t win because he’s noble but because he’s ‘good’. This is a contentious criticism because it depends upon how you interpret that line. Beck/Williams’ intent might’ve been that Spidey is skilled, he is ‘good’ at fighting. Which would be perfectly fair. However, if that was not the intent then the dialogue doesn’t make sense. Being noble/virtuous and being good (morally) equate to functionally the same thing. The writing has been so all over the place in this series I honestly wouldn’t put it beyond Williams to make such a mistake. But even with the benefit of the doubt, she or the editors should have tweaked that line so it’d simply read better and avoid all confusion.

E.g. “But Spider-Man doesn’t win every time because he’s noble and virtuous. He wins because he’s a good fighter.”

Moving on, I already talked about how dumb it is for Beck to not simply use his illusions to finish the movie. But this page really brings it home because he is literally using very convincing illusions of Spider-Man to show MJ what to do. Just use those! Why waste time and effort on practicing with MJ so she can do this when you are obviously going to use your illusions to map over her body anyway?

From MJ’s POV though she’s wasting all this time practicing to film the final scene (which still needs to be finished in post-production). Isn’t that yet more time she’s endangering Ken and his family? More time during which they are coming to some form of harm? By convincing him to use his illusions she’ll speed up the process a lot and thus reduce the time they are at risk. But she’s been selfish throughout this whole amn story so why stop now I guess.

And hey, it’s not like the process is taking as long as it realistically should take. Just look at how quickly MJ has learned fight choreography and how to move like a gymnast. That last pose is very impressive for someone with no super powers, no formal training in gymnastics and at best some very basic self-defence classes…God…

If Beck wants someone who can nail fight choreography, move fast, gets what it’s like to fight Spider-Man and is agile why not use Screwball?! She’s been performing gymnastic moves for no reason in almost every one of her scenes. True, she has a female body build, but so does MJ!

Finally, Vulture targeting Charlie is a perfect illustration of what I’ve spoken about before. Charlie was a loose end Beck and MJ idiotically left dangling. Shit, Charlie himself was a moron for not considering he’d be a target.

So all in all this issue was another fine fucking mess.

I’m not even morbidly curious as to how the arc will end next issue. I just want to get it over with.

P.S. Peter still hasn’t shown up in spite of six of his enemies being very publicly on the loose and nearby his girlfriend.

P.P.S. The fact that MJ’s scene as Spidey involves her just doing action stuff further proves how they never needed someone who could really act. Just someone who could pull off stunt work. Making MJ’s role as Spidey even more redundant.

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Master Post

[ssaalexblake]

I am, as they say, That person who has a huge ass pile of books to read that i’ve had, in some cases, for years, but i saw the new Suzanne Collins book was out and got an e-copy and read it immediately, you know, as you do when you have a huge pile of books to get through. 

anyway, spoilers, definitely ---

I’ve never actually read a Book where the whole story was from the perspective of a terrible protagonist, i have read books where there have been spare chapters from the perspective of villains, but never has the villain been the Protagonist before in my experience. And this protagonist was showing danger signs of a seriously pathological narcissistic personality from the opening world building chapters, and it only got worse and worse as the stakes in his life got higher and higher. 

And here’s the thing, i Know people were immediate and vapid in attacking Collins for this when the plot summary were released, and i will admit, my eyes rolled so very much at the immediate assumption that this was a story to make you sympathise wigh him, because, simply, i’ve read the trilogy. Collins’ doesn’t even make her Hero characters that sympathetic a lot of the time, with the exception of Prim and Rue, whose literary function demanded them to be symbols of purity and innocence, practically everybody else is in a shade of grey. The victors we love all have blood on their hands, even Peeta, who is also a symbol for non violent ideals, is corrupted by the narrative. This is not a series that is particularly nice to it’s cast of characters, even when we are meant to Like them. 

But now after some brief fandom browsing i am now just going ‘wtf’ at the idea that people are Still holding onto the idea After having read it that, just because a story is about a bad guy, the author Must somehow be endorsing their actions. I’ve literally never read a story with a more unsympathetic protagonist. What a Disgusting person. 

This story revealed that the villain is a pathological and possessive narcissist who is very much the hero of his own story, but sure as hell nobody else’s. 

I also noted that people have been commenting that the book is too Coincidental in its references and that it made it a bad story, that they were just for clout. That Snow is in 12. The lake. The bakery and so on and so on, and that it put people off and seemed just a grab to keep people interested, but the thing is, it’s a Ballad.  This isn’t ‘the novel of songbirds and snakes’, it’s ‘the Ballad’. It plays out, contextually, with the deliberate knowledge that all the readers have read how this story ends in the trilogy, as one of the covey’s songs. 

I’m not sure how to phrase it, but i feel like viewing the story and plot itself as more of a folk song or limerick is the best way to look at it from, it’s not Meant to be a novel. It’s a Ballad. The literary devices in two such storytelling methods are very different, in a ballad i would Expect this type of thing which is fair because the book is named a ballad. In a novel i would find it a bit too coincidental, but i don’t think that was how we were supposed to look at it. 

That all aside, i never actually had any feelings for Snow beyond the literary device he embodied, the power so vast and beyond you it is hopeless to even think of defying it. Now i have Many feelings about Snow, namely, that i actively hate him now. 

This book may actually play out as a cautionary tale about being careful of narcissists, actually, and taking care to make sure they do not end up amassing too much power. 

I would say Collins portrayed Snow as a mixture of the old Nurture versus Nature debate, his absolute lust for total control to no longer be the victim of something as horrific as the war was Clearly a case of circumstance... If he had never been in the war, he would not have felt the sheer powerlessness that has led to his absolute need for control. 

There is also the other angle of his nurturing that plays into this, his Absolute sense of entitlement as a Snow. He was born a Snow, not some lowly normal capitol family, or worse, one of those ‘district animals’. In his mind, what was rightfully His was stolen from him when they lose the business in the war because of district 13, he got bit in the ass by capitalism, hilariously. His family’s business went under, and the loss of income from it took them from hero to zero, but he though he was Owed his money and status by virtue of his birth and did not see how fragile the perch of his wealth and status was even After the perch had been toppled and he was left penniless. The presence of irrefutable evidence that nothing but access to more dollars provided his life style did not even break through his entitlement. 

But i mean, there are a lot of entitled capitalists in this world who think that just because they Used to have money and a thriving business means they are entitled to always have that, and while it makes them not that great, it doesn’t exactly make them Monsters. But here’s the thing, you also cannot claim that Snow is not just naturally a self centered narcissist. That is just a personality trait, and it is This that makes the above a horrifying problem. 

When somebody else is harmed, it is about how it will effect Him. The tragedy in being assigned district 12, girl, was not that a girl was being stolen away to be murdered, but that he got stuck with one of the kids unlikely to win. Tigris’ implication of what she may have had to do to keep their family operating was first and foremost about how uncomfortable and disgusted it made Him. Other were reduced to utter horrors to survive the war and he judged them for it, all the while, he only escaped such a thing because of a crime his grandmother committed (looting was, technically, illegal). Clemmie maybe needing him? It wasn’t about her or her life, it was about how it might effect Him (to a point, it is fair to fear for your own life in such a situation, but most would bother to feel bad about it). This is just a handful of examples, but there are many, many more. 

He is also Horrifyingly possesive. He, Literally, is a textbook case of an abusive boyfriend who kills their girlfriend because they might have priorities other than him. Lucy Gray may not be dead, i was not left with the impression he succeeded in killing her, but the deal sealer is in the attempt, not whether he succeeds. The entire narrative in his head towards his relationship with lucy contains every danger sign i’ve ever been warned against in men. He wishes to Own her, not love her, and that he was literally given her life on a plate as an experiment did not help with his narcissistic entitlement. His family and friends (though, he did not have friends) all assumed he loved her and because they said it he assumed it was true. But it was possession he was feeling. 

He did not help Lucy out of the goodness of his heart, it was self serving. It was self serving the entire time. Us, having knowledge of his internal monologue are aware of his self centered intentions, but the characters around him, unaware of this, treat him as if he is a good person because they assume he has charitable motives. He very much does not. Him comforting Clemmie was, every step of the way, for his own benefit. He Certainly was not the saint Sejanus thought he was. 

But he still Believes the people who tell him how great he is!!! Narcissist. 

he is, in short, a right piece of work. What a monster it takes to get your ‘brother’ executed for treason and manage to make it about himself in about an Hour. What a monster it takes to attempt to do that to Lucy Gray. What a monster it takes to get the Plinth’s only child killed and take his inheritance and power out of a sense of entitlement and continue calling the grieving mother ‘ma’. 

Anyway, brilliant character building. I Hate him. 

I also Love the world building, the confirmation that Reaping Day is on July 4th, the idea that in the beginning even the capitol citizens thought the hunger games were barbaric and depressing and that they had to be won over by a propaganda campaign of dehumanization and entertainment. The idea that mentors were once capitol citizens, that it went wrong so they erased it from history but cherrypicked the parts that worked. 

I found Dr Gall or whatever her name was gravitating towards Snow interesting, because people who are like that Naturally gravitate towards people who prove their world views right, and by all rights Snow does turn out very much like her (admittedly, with less an interest in science), who is to say she in turn was not less of a monster in earlier life but grew into it as well? She saw something in him and nurtured it with poison. 

This is getting increasingly more random, But i love Peeta’s highjacking now. I was never against it, but it was never the plot for me, but now i am So into it. Because Sejanus is Very peeta like, that idealism. And how satisfying it must have been for Snow to finally be able to crack into that and destroy it because he has the Power to do so now. 

On the flip side, I actually now wish we had Peeta perspective chapters, because there is a compelling argument to say Snow and Peeta have their similarities, too. I mean, their defining difference is that Peeta is a good person, but they have the same talent for sheer manipulation as each other, Peeta manipulated hunger games audiences into keeping Katniss alive longer, Snow did the same with Lucy Gray. They are both deeply charismatic, generally liked by their peers, popular, are sabotaged by small groups of people who hate them for reasons beyond their control. They are inversions, same coin, different sides. 

The sexual slavery of the victors is now a more narratively interesting thing, as well, because snow is, in this book, Disgusted by the idea of any kind of sexual impropriety (not My opinion, but he considers it impropriety). He is disturbed by Tigris’ implication she may have had to engage in it. Was what he did to the victors merely a case of his disdain for district animals and wishing to subject them to the most degrading thing as possible? How did he get from A to B here? 

Seeing the very first career pack was interesting, too. I wonder if the stronger districts started to band together in the games from realising the strategy had advantages or of the capitol subtly Encouraged the behavior themselves. The latter seems more likely, considering they were the ones out for a good show. 

I was interested on canon confirmation on the peacekeepers, to be honest. I’ve seen fic discuss where exactly they come from, but to know they are made up from less wealthy capitol citizens And district people after either money/a way out of their assigned district’s profession or both was a nice lore drop. 

I know it’s not Confirmed Tigris is the same Tigris who played a part in mockingjay but... it would be so wonderful if she were. Being brought down, in part, by she who nurtured him. Tigris loved Coryo because she thought he was somebody he was not, so when and how did she find out who he Really was? 

In the end, i find the idea that this books Shows us Snow created the country we see in the trilogy through the reasoning that A) humanity is terrible and will always fight and try to destroy each other  and that B) he decided that if point A was true, he’d amass enough personal power to make sure he would Always be in control of the fights and come out on top of them utterly Fascinating societal commentary, most of which is not really my lane to address so i won’t (also, it’s fairly obvious). 

But the idea that Snow was one of the capitol ones who sees the district people in a more favourable light simply because he’s at least willing to admit they’re not zoo animals is Stunning when you put it in context of all the things He does to them. He’s not even close to the worst one and look what he did! 

In the end, i think Collins has fleshed out this world and made it more horrifying than it was before. And Panem is meant to be a reflection of our own society’s failings. This book was not to say ‘oh Snow was an actual person so wasn’t That bad’, it was trying to say ‘Snow was an actual person and is Very much terrible’ because the idea is this series is a highlighted reflection of the real bad in our own world. If the monster Snow is cannot be relatable to a real person, how is it any kind of societal commentary at all? He cannot be one dimensional and totally evil from the womb if you want the story to actually say anything. 

I also did find this story relied on Collins’ previously seen not necessarily realistic world from the original books to make its point, and i did not expect that to be a deal breaker for so many people considering the story from the trilogy relied on its audience’s skill to read into the meaning rather than the literal at times as well, but i stand by my assertation that the title is meant to be an indication of the type of narrative the book observes, it is a song, which is a very different style of story than that in any other kind of media. 

[firebirdsdaughter]

Over Analysis ‘The Gawas will be the Death of Me’ Stage 1: The (1st) Fight

Okay. So. This is gonna be a long post, so I will condense it immediately. Are we ready?

Who am I kidding. Absolutely not.

Warning: rambling be below this point.

We start out w/ Hiden Manufacturing being blown up. Not much to say here other than Fuwa being fond big brother is sweet, Yua looks awfully chill for standing in the ruins of an exploded building, and Jin is doing his best Ankh impression (Nakagawa, honey, I love you, but there is only one Ankh). Until Aruto says:

Jin is surprised a complete stranger is showing more concern for his family than he has been.

I know I complain about Aruto’s characterisation a lot, but I liked this (enough that I think it should have been what Jin brought up when talking to MBR). Ignoring, for the moment, my other issues and pretending that this friendship developed how it could have, this would be a really great scene, esp considering the stuff Jin did previously. Aruto wanting to save the other three in contrast to Jin’s decision to just sacrifice them would be an interesting thing. I wish we got more on it, honestly. It was one of the ways they could have developed from each other. Either way, this comment has an effect on Jin, and when shit starts exploding, he takes off on his own.

MetsuBouRai, meanwhile, are brooding about the MBJR base bc the Ark isn’t talking to them. Raiden’s angry, Naki is dejected, but Horobi is just… Sitting there. Watching, I believe, the same thing Yua is watching on her phone during this stuff, going by the animation.

Naki says this, but it cuts to each of them. Horobi’s head actually turns slightly, while Raiden looks morose for a moment before laughing bitterly and taking out his frustration on that mind hacking helmet (which breaks yet again). Raiden’s always been the most expressive of the three, but Horobi’s reaction also feels import bc of how long he’s been under the Ark’s control, brainwashed into believing that the Ark was the path to saving HumaGear. He’s never once been able to consider the Ark might turn on them or abandon them. Naki and Raiden haven’t been under so long, so while they’re still hacked, they don’t have the same mindless devotion. Naki can question and Raiden can be mocking. But this feels very much like a ‘wait, what?’ moment for Horobi.

… That his conditioning has to immediately reject, insisting that the Ark will come back for them, is really going to save HumaGear. Oh, sweetie.

*I know that the show (? Or at least most sub groups) are referring to the Ark as ‘he,’ I’m just stubborn and like saying ‘she.’ Being voiced by Charden Flamberg won’t stop me.

Jin shows up, announcing, ‘you’re wrong’ and that the Ark can’t be trusted (when did we stop saying ‘the’ Ark?), and it looks like he didn’t stop to shower or anything en route. Come to think… How would he repair that suit? Anyway, he spends the majority of this scene looking right at Horobi, who…

… Doesn’t react. It’s Naki who says something. Jin and Horobi just… Stare at each other. Raiden looks like he thinks he’s interrupting. Lots of tension here. It’s up in the air whether Horobi doesn’t know how to react, or if he actually can’t in the state he’s in at this point. The Ark’s being going at how he processes situations w/ a chainsaw for years, he may be completely unable to figure out how to respond.

Horobi doesn’t even move… Until Jin starts apologising. I don’t we ever saw Baby Jin apologising for anything? Not even when he didn’t get the Mammoth Key back. All three of them seem confused by the apology, but it’s enough to get Horobi out of his game of statue. Obviously he doesn’t think raising the Ark is something to apologise for bc of his enforced loyalty to her. But he doesn’t seem to consider Jin to have to done anything worth apologising for.

As for Jin, this is a moment that makes me inclined to buy that he’s realised he fucked up. I would have appreciated going into that a little more, bc wtf dude, that plan was a clusterfuck even aside from the whole ‘murder my dad for being brainwashed,’ but this ep heavily indicated he realises what he did. And boy is he paying for it.

Jin talks about the plan to destroy the Ark, then goes very quiet and walks up level w/ Horobi, and the shot closes in on the two of them again. It takes him a second to actually look at Horobi… My guess is bc he knows what he’ll see.

… And the award for an absolutely terrible plan goes to… But in all seriousness, Nakagawa Daisuke, everyone, the kid can act. The way he says it, and how he kinda seems to be wavering on his feet, gives the impression he’s just barely keeping it together. I’ve debated about him saying this point blank like this, and on one hand, ouch, on the other… Given my interpretation that Horobi views lying as a human thing and absolutely detests it… Jin might be hoping being straight up w/ him will work better. Or maybe he’s hoping to gauge Horobi’s reaction, bc rather heartbreakingly…

… Horobi doesn’t seem bothered in the slightest. In the hopes of keeping images to a minimum, I didn’t include another thing I noticed while going through—Naki doesn’t look back to Horobi until he starts talking, but just seconds before Horobi speaks, Raiden’s gaze switches to him, w/ that kinda concerned look. Just before he talks, Horobi’s head also turns like he’s glancing at the other two, but it’s hard to tell, he’s out of focus (oh, so painfully much), which is actually a little interesting considering he’s being totally calm about his son saying he was trying to kill him. Is it bc the idea of the Ark failing never occurred to him? Or… Does he have so little self worth that he’s completely indifferent to the idea of his death? To me… Probably both. Horobi has lived his entire life for other people, has been brainwashed into a tool of the Ark—and we see what happens when he wavers or tries to be something else later in this ep. While the idea that the Ark would betray them has never been able to occur to him, he’s shown multiple times to be completely calm about the possibility of dying, and this is Jin saying he was going to kill him. But Horobi doesn’t even seem surprised. He just accepts it.

Which I have to feel like is the reaction Jin expected. Why he was so reluctant to look up, bc he knew Horobi would just be… Blank. Bc he knows what the Ark has taken from Horobi, and now he’s actually facing the fact that he made it worse.

When you tell your dad you were planning to kill him and he doesn’t even care. But seriously. He doesn’t even remark on it. Horobi doesn’t care about his own life to the point Jin can point blank say he was planning to kill him and Horobi won’t even blink, much less get upset. Jin’s guilt here, to me, likely isn’t just ‘I helped the Ark rise and now everything is shit,’ but also facing the fact that he’s… ‘Re-reduced’ Horobi to being the Ark’s mere puppet again, esp right after Horobi was actually starting to have some clarity. Gotta wonder if he’s flashing back to that ‘why did I do that?’ moment in episode 35?

I made a comment about Horobi being out of focus when talking about Jin planning to kill him… He comes abruptly into focus when Jin brings up Aruto. Is this about Soreo’s data? Aruto talking about him wanting to be Jin’s father? I have opinions about the way Aruto is talked about in this scene and the things Jin chooses to bring up, and mainly… I just thought this was curious. And… Sunagawa has a very nice profile, so sue me. ^^; (you have no idea how many of these shots just turned into ‘I think this shot is cool! I may share some at the end of this).

When Jin says Aruto can defeat the Ark, Horobi isn’t happy. But he… Looks around weirdly while talking? Starts out looking at Jin, then looks down like he does when he’s thinking, then back up at Jin by the end.

… I have nothing else for this. What? An excuse to use more pictures of Sunagawa? … Leave me alone!

Look at Nakagawa hunching again. Is that to fit everyone in the shot, or is he just doing that?

Jin persists and Horobi… Shouts. And then he doesn’t just shout, he dives forward and grabs Jin’s collar. It’s hard to see in my crappy screen shot, but Jin seems surprised by this, and w/ good reason, Horobi’s not usually emotional. I believe this is only the second time we’ve ever heard him shout… And both times were at Jin about humans. Trying to reject what he possibly sees as their growing influence over his son.

… I wonder. What makes him so desperate to make Jin stop in this moment? Their dynamic may have shifted w/ Jin’s revival, but Jin’s still the person… Well, second to the Ark, he’s the person w/ the most influence over Horobi. Aruto and Fuwa both made slight headway, but when it comes down to it, Jin is Horobi’s, well, singularity point. Why react this way? Even at this point, neither Naki or Raiden were jumping at it. Did the Ark’s engrained influence just want to reject the words, some personal experience w/ humans. Is it the words themselves, or the fact that they’re coming out of Jin? It’s more emotion than he showed on the subject of his own death. Honestly, maybe more emotion than he’s ever shown. Is he rejecting blasphemy against the Ark… Or what he perceives as human influence and control over his son?

But then something interesting happens.

At first, Horobi is clearly furious—but then…

… The Ark… Abruptly stops hacking? Not… Technically weird, but pretty suspicious considering that immediately after…

… Horobi abruptly… Goes back to being passive. He even lets go of Jin’s suit. Did the Ark do something? Giving direct orders or not, he’s still connected. Or did he just not know what to do once he got in there? He and Jin stare at each other for a moment. Did his soft spot for Jin kick back in?

He keeps this much calmer attitude, and is even still looking down when he speaks again.

Who are you trying to convince and why, Horobi?

Jin has apparently forgotten how ‘hacking’ works. Being right on the second point doesn’t excuse the first one, sweetie.

Is it important that it’s just them in this shot? I’d like to think so. My theory is that this whole scenario actually stole something very personal from them that’s never going to really come back, the chance to be a proper family, for Jin to grow up as a child and for Horobi to actually be a proper father. Is the implication that they are ‘HumaGears’ to each other? Until pried from my cold dead hands (break my fingers, Takahashi, break them, I dare you), my interpretation is that Horobi’s actions next time are centred around wanting a world where Jin will be completely safe (someone please tell him there’s no such thing, bc there isn’t, before it gets him killed), that while the goal is safety and peace for all HumaGear… It’s his personal motivation to do it for Jin.

Either way… Putting aside the question of whether Jin is actually as free as he seems to think he is… I was waiting for him to say this to Horobi. Bc hell yes, Horobi deserves to be free of the Ark, and Jin should know that better than anyone. She had Horobi under closer control than anyone else, bc she wanted/needed him to manipulate Jin. He was her tool to move her pawn. And that’s fucked his mental state to hell and back.

Horobi isn’t even able to respond to the concept of ‘free,’ It’s Naki who steps in again.

Jin keeps going, and eventually brings up dreams. I don’t know if that specifically has to do w/ Horobi’s reaction… In my theory, assuming he actually remembered a bit about his past, I can def see ‘our own dreams’ setting of ‘Ark bells’ and making him compulsively reject the notion.

Interestingly, he turns slightly to face the corner before speaking further.

… Well don’t that just sound robotic. ‘Brainwash victim’ alarums go off again.

Jin has another small somber moment. This one feels less ‘messy emotions/wracked w/ guilt’ and more just… Sad. Regretful, too, but not the same exactly? This isn’t so much ‘what have I done?’ anymore as ‘I did this.’

He failed to try at all before. That’s not me being mean, that’s me saying I think that’s what’s going through his head. He might not be thrilled about fighting Horobi as Horobi, but bc he let them down before, he has to power through.

Naki: Do you think they’ll notice if we back towards the door?

Raiden: Trust me, I’m thinking about it.

They fight and Jin loses. Horobi’s got experience, a positively self-destructive lack of self preservation, and I do think Jin was holding back. Making himself fight Horobi as the Ark is one thing, he can just tell himself it’s the Ark, probably easier to be like ‘Horobi can’t be saved’ like that, too (even though Jin bloody reconnected them), but fighting Horobi as Horobi… That’s something else. Esp w/ the knowledge that Horobi is so blankly devoted to the Ark right now bc of something he did.

Jin kinda tries to shuffle away as Horobi approaches… I don’t blame him, that’s Takaiwa Seiji. Don’t fuck w/ Takaiwa Seiji.

Horobi says… But then just stands there, perfectly still, giving no indication that he intends to move, for another ten whole seconds (yes, I counted). He says that, but then doesn’t do anything. Almost like he’s hit a wall. And he has, hasn’t he? The Ark’s influence over him wants to erase anyone who defies it… But Horobi himself has shown multiple times that his actual instinct is to protect Jin. So what does he do when he has a chance to destroy someone vocally against the Ark, but… It’s Jin? He freezes, apparently.

Jin looks up at him like this, kinda pleadingly, and I like the idea that he’s looking… Essentially, for his father. Hesitation, feeling. Any reaction. But while I do see Horobi freezing as a sign of his inability to follow through w/ the threat… It also shows he has no idea how to follow that up. He can’t get beyond the instinctive ‘don’t do this.’ So he just starts playing statue again. That’s gotta be rough for Jin to see, esp w/ the knowledge that he contributed to rendering Horobi this messed up. Again.

When he sees nothing, he looks away again. Maybe trying to gather nerve in the face of the nigh zombie-like state he’s seeing his father in. We cut a few times between him and Horobi as he starts talking, between Jin being more emotional, and Horobi’s continually blank countenance.

Jin doesn’t look back up until he asks if killing him is something Horobi wants. This expression doesn’t read hopeful either way. Does he want Horobi to indicate it’s not, bc he wants his father to still care about him, or does he want Horobi to be upset that he tried to kill him, to show some sign of self worth/preservation? Hard to know, but it’s definitely pleading again.

Naturally, the first words that come to Horobi’s mind. And, yes, it is. The Ark wants detractors to disappear. But in this situation… That conflicts w/ what Horobi himself truly wants. And he reacts. He’s directly confront ed w/ a contradiction, w/ the realisation that the Ark’s will hasn’t completely replaced his own. He’s conditioned to follow the Ark’s will no matter what, he doesn’t want to kill Jin. He’s in disagreement w/ the Ark’s will. Big no no. What he’s saying ‘no’ to is a little unclear, but I like thinking that he’s realising he doesn’t want what the Ark would want. It’s also interesting how the focus shifts from him to Naki and Raiden. Presumably, they are effected by seeing Horobi be uncertain about the Ark’s will, and that contributes to everyone’s reactions.

I love Jin’s reaction to Horobi lowering the bow. He makes this emotional little sound, and watches the bow for a moment before looking anxiously up at Horobi—looking for a reaction again, if there’s anything more. But Horobi’s just… In a daze. I still don’t know if Jin is relieved by this, or if he was hoping Horobi would be personally angry at him. Kind of puts me in mind of a moment from Prince of Persia where Dastan tells his brother that the dagger rewinds time and then stabs himself, and when his brother uses it and tells Dastan he died right in front of him, Dastan’s reaction is a breathless ‘you used it!’ from the relief that his brother cared/trusted him enough. Jin’s reaction kind of makes me think of that, amazement and relief and even kind of gladness that he matters enough to Horobi that this would actually cause his father to waver from his brainwashing. Which, while really sweet and a testament to what Jin genuinely means to Horobi, is also heart breaking and shows off just what the Ark (and thus Gai, by creating it) took from them, that this is how we see that Jin is important to Horobi. It should just be bc he’s his dad, bc hugs and family times. But the Ark took that from them. It shows that Horobi cares about Jin, but it’s also glaring show of what they lost/missed out on bc of the Ark.

There’s also something else about Jin’s reaction if you look closely at his hands.

His right hand shifts, lifting up slightly, like his first instinct was to reach out to Horobi, try to solidify whatever’s happening—but in the end, he doesn’t commit, and…

Horobi wanders off, in some sort of confused trance. We don’t see his face at all here.

It’s been pointed out to me that these two are always reaching out to each other and never quite making it, and… Accurate. Feels like yet another example of just how badly they’ve been fucked over and what was taken from them. I just really hope they finally get to connect before… Whatever happens.

[a-confused-turtle]

Thoughts about The Rise of Skywalker

I wrote this a few days ago and have been trying to find the courage to post... AGH. Here goes.

Spoilers Ahead.

I was apprehensive walking into the theater for this film. I found myself daring to be hopeful, which I think I rarely do. Getting your hopes up only to have them thrown right back in your face hurts. It hurts a hell of a lot. Lately, I’ve experienced a lot of disappointment - primarily in myself. I’ve been depressed, anxiety-ridden, and overwhelmed with my inability to write because of all that. That’s partly why The Rise of Skywalker hit me so hard today. I have so many feelings, thoughts, and questions about it. This movie stretches across generations (both fictional and real), connecting them all into one culminating event. I’ll do my best to keep this brief. I don’t really expect many people to read it, but thank you if you do... I’d like to get writing again and this seems like somewhere to start.

From the beginning, I wanted a freaking redemption arc. I’m not kidding. From the very first scenes of that tall angry boy brooding in his edgy mask, I wanted that. And I wanted it to be different than Anakin’s, we deserved a complex villain. Honestly, who doesn’t want to see that people deserve second chances? That being said, I have never been a Reylo shipper (I’m referring to Rey and Kylo Ren here). I definitely ship Rey and Ben Solo now though.

To start this off, I have to mention Adam Driver’s and Daisy Ridley’s performances. Their scenes on Exogul are particularly beautiful and enthralling. We got to see their journeys and character development throughout the movie, and then those last scenes of them were so emotive even though so few words were used.

So, let’s skip to the end for a moment: I am SO HAPPY we got that smile. And it’s so fitting that we only got half of it, with the other half obscured by Rey’s head. He felt some amount of peace and belonging and that makes my heart swell. Both of them looked so happy and it was beautiful.

Honestly, I thought the kiss was just as beautiful for the story (after all it gave us that smile). It didn’t feel forced to me, it felt like the characters truly felt that way after all they had gone through...

I know there are people out there that are quite angry about it and how the ‘abusive’ man gets the girl or whatever. I take issue with that (and I’m not normally a confrontational person). Rey initiated a kiss with Ben Solo. That soft, caring man that held her so tight and with such crushing anguish on his face was Ben Solo, not Kylo Ren. Kylo Ren was swept away when Rey healed that wound on the Death Star and when that pokey lightsaber was thrown into the sea. In addition to that, the movies portray Ben as much more of a monster than he really is - from the beginning he was a victim, a manipulated scared boy that felt he had nowhere else to turn but to Snoke. He didn’t burn down the temple or murder his classmates, he wasn’t an Anakin slaughtering younglings. Snoke did those things. He just wanted to belong, and when everyone in his life seemed to fail him he did something much like a form of suicide: give into Snoke’s manipulation and become Kylo Ren. Rey didn’t kiss her abuser, she chose to kiss Ben Solo, a man she felt a connection to, a man that wanted to return to his family but didn’t know how, a man that wanted to be good, and a man that found belonging and comfort with her. The way he looked at her...

Now, with Ben Solo’s death... I felt heartbroken seeing it onscreen. He runs in, looking so much like his father, demeanor and expressions entirely different than anything we’ve seen in the previous films (because he’s not Kylo), and he does it for her. He races in to save a woman he admires and has felt a deep connection with for years. But then, he dies because it’s poetic or because people would not see him as redeemed if he did not... Ben deserved better than that, the Skywalkers overall deserved better than that. (What is it with every romance in Star Wars just falling apart and ending in disaster?) It’s a trope too, redemption through death, one I’m not a fan of because people that want to be good should be able to atone in other ways (An example here of a successful redemption without death is Zuko in The Last Airbender, so we know that it can be done).

I’ll get off the soapbox about that one... Anyway...

While we got a lot of Rey and Kylo/Ben scenes and story (they moved the plot along the most tbh), that left many of the other characters reduced down to much less than they had been in previous movies. Rose is the biggest example. Dominic Monaghan (love him from LOTR) had more lines and was more memorable than Rose in this film, and she was a huge character in The Last Jedi. I wish she had a bigger part in this one. The introduction of more characters, like Jannah, made this aspect weird. First, it was ‘okay these characters will just take a backseat’ but then it became ‘forget them, look at these people you don’t know.’

Poe and Finn should be a damn couple, it’s as simple as that.

Rey’s heritage was an interesting surprise, but it cheapened The Last Jedi for me... That movie went through how Rey was no one in terms of big force using families, and that was pretty uplifting - kind of like Lord of the Rings’s ‘even the smallest person can change the course of history.’ Anyone can save the galaxy, anyone can become a Jedi... Oh, wait. Nevermind. She’s a Palpatine. (Also, isn’t there source material that says Palpatine never had children??? Maybe I’m just affronted by the idea of Palpatine actually getting laid.)

Looking back at these sequels overall, they feel incredibly uneven. Each film possesses its own commendable features... I found that The Rise of Skywalker, however, significantly departed from The Last Jedi. It was hard for me to believe that both Leia and Luke just knew Rey was a Palpatine when they really had no idea who she was when they met her...

The trio was absolutely adorable. I enjoyed the interactions and their different dynamics with each other. In some instances, it felt slightly forced, really just because of the film’s pacing...

Lastly, the ending scene... It felt remarkably unsatisfying and uneven. I thought Rey’s emotions were all over the place, I’m guessing they must have used footage from different takes? It is at least comforting that since Ben’s death wasn’t heavily mourned and he wasn’t present as Leia and Luke were, there has to be something that we don’t know. I do love the yellow saber suggesting Rey has become some sort of a grey Jedi. That’s amazing, and with her surviving, there had to be something to highlight the new balance in the force.

Oh god, I hope that wasn’t too terrible... If you actually read it, thank you.

[empirefire]

BREN; english, masculine  -  derived from the welsh word for ‘prince’ BRENNEN; german, verb  -  burn

as far as i’ve seen, every single time caleb has said his former name out loud, he has said it in full: bren aldric ermendrud. even when talking to the scourger he thought to possibly be astrid, he used his middle name even though the chances the name not being recognisable without it to be extremely slim. he hasn’t referred to himself as bren ermendrud once---either always the whole thing, or first name only, and only the former unprompted.

the name ‘bren’ is also an odd one in itself. it has a quite an on-the-nose meaning for a fire mage. besides the meaning of the english name, also very close to the command form of the german verb for burning. the latter would not have gone unnoticed in a german-speaking village and family, and in association to everything that would follow in his life, feels like a cruel joke by destiny if it was indeed a coincidence.

so, jumping off of a theory i saw earlier  ( edit: found it ! ), allow me to speculate on the possibility that it’s not. that caIeb widogast was born not as bren aldric, but simply aldric, and bren was a name that was given to him or he himself took while under ikithon’s training.

renaming, re-baptising, and calling their new recruits to abandon nicknames and names given to them by their families and friends is not unusual for cults. often, especially in more heavily established religious cults, this is tied to the appearance of freedom and rebirth, the new name being tied to the concept of being elevated to something more than they were born as, the names being chosen through their symbolism and meaning. if we are to look at the scourgers as a political cult within the structure of the empire that needs to stay entirely out of the eyes of anyone outside of it, adopting this particular tactic, especially through apparent personal choice, makes sense.

the reasoning behind caleb’s name becoming what it is apparent, but the names of astrid and especially eodwulf have meanings that could be indicators of their tasks within the group, or how they wish to be viewed.

ASTRID; scandivian, feminine  -  derived from the old norse elements áss ‘god’ and fríðr ‘beautiful, beloved’. EODWULF; anglo-saxon, masculine -   ‘pack wolf’

it would make sense for ikithon to have allowed them to choose their own names as soon as possible, using them as first names when working with one another, as a sign of family, as titles, as the thing that distinguishes them from those not chosen, while working as a means of secrecy once they graduate. it wouldn’t be something forced upon them, but something encouraged to be proud of, a sign of their expertise, a codename they themselves get to choose as they reinvent themselves  ( and are given the illusion that they are the ones controlling that transformation )  under the cerberus assembly. at first, it’d simply be something in addition to what they already are... until it comes time to graduate.

from the way the time spent under ikithon is described, it is obvious that isolation was a big part of the brainwashing the blumentrio went through. even before they were pulled aside, they were being interviewed and put on advanced classes, a practice that would seem as positive encouragement on the surface level but also works effectively in making sure that connecting with their peers outside of the three would be difficult. their homes being outside of rexxentrum, being treated differently than other students, coming from a very small social circle to begin with and at least one of them being the type to struggle with making friends---creating a world where they were unable to form attachments outside of ikithon and one another would not have been difficult. this would still leave them with the few they had when they came to the school, family being the most important one, and severing that last piece of attachment is largely what the graduation process was about.

( caleb only ever calls astrid and eodwulf by their first names. this is a stark contrast to how he addresses himself: even when trying to convey possibly life-saving information to jester, he fails to tell the surnames of the two where even the haircuts they had one and a half decades ago are seen as worth mentioning despite even caleb recognising that information being likely useless by now. it’s unlikely that he’d genuinely not prioritise the surnames of these people over how their hair was cut as teenagers, so the choice to perpetually name them by their first names only strikes as odd. the female scourger they talk to in xhorhas also refers to both astrid and bren by their first names. the former isn’t necessarily that strange, but the latter is: caleb is not talked about within the assassins by his last name, as a stranger, especially a despised stranger usually would be. no, she calls him ‘bren’, reducing him to the name that ties him to the empire---even at the face of caleb using the full name---the same way they both speak of astrid, and how caleb speaks of eodwulf. )

at the end of the training, the recruits have three names: their scourger name, their given name, and their family name---bren aldric ermendrud. during the last stretch of the process, they are led to believe their parents to be traitors, insurgents, everything they’ve learnt by now to despise. when the children kill their families, it is not only out of duty, but out of shame and anger and hatred towards them, the kids arriving to a point where they would do anything to remove that tarnish of not only the empire but themselves too, the thought of their own flesh and blood being two-faced, deceptive enemies being hateful enough to want to kill, poison, burn alive the last people outside of the scourgers who care about them.

after those murders, dropping the family name now synonymous of traitors and the name given to them by those who lied to them, would not even be a question. the name of the scourgers being the only one remaining, the one that’s collected praise and status and magical achievements, the name the soldier chose themselves and was not handed to them by those who would stab them in the back in order to topple the empire.

and the cerberus assembly has an assassin whom no one knows, with a name no one knows, who would rather die than be connected to who they once were: astrid. eodwulf.

[wavemaker9]

I don’t know when i accidentally tricked myself into being so toni/arthur but also i was thinking about the one dw xover with kyle and ivan as amy and rory and then arthur as the doctor and was trying to figure out a good river and i don’t know if it’s an exact perfect fit but toni as river wouldn’t be /bad/. Mainly hard to imagine toni idolizing someone like arthur the way river does the doctor, especially doubting that arthur genuinely loved him because of how important arthur is to the universe + him having other relays over the years of travelling as well. ‘you can’t expect the sunset to admire you back’ matches less with toni’s style, though i will say it’s not IMPOSSIBLE by any means. A, Toni’s self-esteem not being quite so high as normal in this AU because of the same situation of river as being raised as this weapon and then trying to flip his morals wildly and suddenly while also serving a long sentence for murdering arthur. It’s easy to see how that can unintentionally add a ‘i’m not a good person’ factor onto one’s mindset. Also just not just self-esteem for doubt source, but it’d also make sense for toni to doubt because hey he /did/ almost kill arthur that one time. Twice really if we’re thinking about it. Arthur seemed to have not been upset about either time but also yknow. His classic tagline is that he lies, so. Like in GTA AU distrust because of potential hostility is what causes Toni to emotionally distance most relationships so that’d track. Also in defense of the choice, Arthur already isn’t a /perfect/ fit for 11 either given how energetic and playful 11 is, so it’s like whatever. We adjust it’s fine

Anyway, other factors I remembered during work that are very good here:

Toni just being raised his whole life to kill Arthur since he was a baby. Good fucking get him, my boy. Toni just being sly and looser morals in general.

Arthur telling a room full of bad guy aliens that Toni can at least kill 3 of them before X or whatever. Toni corrects, no he could kill 7 of them. Arthur, ‘Seven? Really?’ Toni, ‘For you, Eight.’ Arthur teasing for him to stop it and Toni coming right back for Arthur to make him which immediately gets a countered “well maybe I will” before they have to remember to focus, they’re here to save kyle.

This whole exchange: Arthur: Are you married, Antonio? Toni: Are you asking? Arthur: Yes. Toni: Yes. Arthur: ...No, hang on. Did you think I was asking you to marry me, or asking if you were married? Toni: Yes. Arthur: No, but was that yes, or yes? Toni: /Yes~./

Toni coming back from dealing with a Dalek he thought killed Arthur Kyle: What happened to the Dalek? Toni, coldly: It died.

Not sure if this still applies since can’t have the direct pregnancy plot thing between kyle and ivan, but also. I’m upset at how cursed yet believable the concept “toni as kyle and ivan’s kid” is. We already joke about toni and ivan being a lot alike but take that + kyle’s darker hair/skin, charming personality, and also the spanish factor i added to kyle via summer and it’s like. Upsetting how much that tracks. It’s not even that important because river’s like at least 2 regenerations away from the ‘rory and amy’s baby’ appearance she would have had, but yknow.

Toni just shooting off all the hats Arthur gets because toni’s an asshole sometimes and loves fucking with arthur even if he also loves him

Toni holding kyle back from running to arthur’s side when he’s shot but ALSO unloading his entire gun at the person who shot arthur. Get you a man who can do both.

This bit fits better than the rustralia version of doc/river let’s be honest: Arthur: I’m being extremely clever up here, and there’s no one to stand around looking impressed! What’s the point in having you all? Toni: (teasingly to Kyle and Ivan) Couldn’t you just slap him sometimes?

Toni trying to convince Arthur to do something based on trust and Arthur coming back to grill toni on a bunch of vague mysteries about him. Admits he loves a bad boy, sure, but /trust Toni/? /Seriously/?

The back and forth “oh i hate him/you” from toni and arthur “no you don’t” + Arthur saying toni has a ‘he’s hot when he’s clever’ face. Toni countering this is his normal face??? Arthur ‘yes, it is’ and toni just laughing and telling arthur to be quiet

Toni pulling Arthur into a kiss and Arthur immediately !!! surprised about it because from his perspective, have not done that before so surprising! Good, but surprising!

God just the back and forth flirting + out thinking each other as early toni tries very hard to kill arthur with arthur stopping him at every turn. Toni: Is killing you going to take all day? Arthur: Why, are you busy? Toni: Oh, I’m not complaining.

TONI SLOWLY DE-AGING TO FREAK PEOPLE OUT. not quite as good as the version where it’s ivan + kyle and then the mels version is just sergey but yknow. 

Toni being jealous of himself without realizing it is just very good. Him just growing more bitterly upset about Arthur being so in love with this other person until it’s finally revealed ohhhhhh /i’m/ the other person. It was me all along, whoops! And finally, at Kyle and Ivan’s prompting, helping to save Arthur’s life at that point.

Arthur: We’ve got 10 minutes. Get dressed. Toni: That’s so close to the perfect sentence.

Toni being told by Arthur to get his wrist free from a Weeping Angel’s grip without breaking it to prove that time can be re-written and that Kyle can be saved from whatever bad thing is expected to happen to him in the future. Toni eventually coming out from where he’d been held, shrugging off that he did it, no need to ask how, Arthur asked so he did. (Arthur “[He]’s good, yeah? Have you noticed? Really, really good.”) Until Arthur goes to grab Toni’s wrist to lead him off to their next destination and Toni reacts in pain, revealing he did have to break his wrist, but didn’t want to let Arthur know because he knew it’d only upset him.

Arthur sitting Toni down to ask why he lied and Toni explaining that idea, Arthur doesn’t like to dwell on the pain and the sorrow, to let it show that it affects him. And so, because Toni loves Arthur, he hid the damage to make that easier for Arthur.

Arthur trying to talk Kyle into staying with him instead of letting the Angel take him to where Ivan was taken to. Toni doing the more responsible thing (technically???) and reassuring kyle that he should go be with ivan. Never pass on a chance to get rid of Kyle, even in an AU where you’re family, huh toni?

Though also just. Arthur realizing later that he didn’t even consider how upset Toni must feel because this is also him losing his parents, but Toni doing like before and hiding the damage to reduce the pain arthur has to address.

Toni admitting to being a terrible influence on Arthur, that’s valid. They really should not be allowed to travel together long term, the most responsible choice toni’s made.

Arthur not talking to Toni after Toni’s death because. Yknow. That’d be arthur addressing an emotionally upsetting thing and he just simply will not do that.

Arthur revealing that he could see Toni as the ghost hologram before, but didn’t want to talk to him because he thought it would hurt him too much. Toni offering he thinks he could have dealt with the pain just to talk to Arthur again, but Arthur countering he meant it would hurt /himself/ too much. And he was right.

Technically it shouldn’t be arthur for the ep with 12 but yknow. Fuck it i don’t care, still gonna refer to arthur even if it’d be a different face

Toni calling some other guy as an act “the only husband [he]’ll ever have” and arthur just rolling his eyes SO hard.

Little bits:

Toni /basically/ married this guy’s diamond instead of him.

Arthur: You’re talking about murdering someone! Toni: No, I’m /actually/ murdering someone.

Toni: I’ll kill the lights, you kill the patient.

Arthur “I haven’t laughed in a long time” awh

Arthur “Stop holding my hand, people don’t do that to me!”

Arthur’s frown being audible

Arthur and Toni fighting each other’s attempts to stay behind to try and save a crashing ship before finally just insisting they won’t let the other stay because there’s nothing on that ship that’s worth more than the other person’s life.

[samcarter34]

Victims of Narrative: Mikael

There’s nothing to drum up motivation quite like avoiding schoolwork, so I’m doing another one. This time on the Original daddy: Mikael

Mikael; a villain, but not an antagonist.

 To start with, let’s talk about his backstory. The Mikael who kicks children and whips people half to death? A complete fabrication by TO that in no way reflects TVD.

 “But Nik was not born a killer – none of us were! You did this to us when you turned us into vampires! You destroyed our family. Not him.” – Rebekah TVD 3x09 Homecoming

 “My family was quite close, but Klaus and my father did not get along too well.” – Elijah TVD 2x18 Klaus

 The emphasis here being that it’s all wrapped up in them becoming vampires. Klaus’ fall, Mikael ruining their family all of it. Before, they were all content, a whole loving family. Yes, Klaus and Mikael had troubles, there will be people whose personalities don’t mesh.

 Now, is this to say that Mikael was actually an all loving father and Klaus is just a lying liar who lies? No (well, at least not in this specific instance), as I said, Mikael is a villain; a harsh man from a harsh time. His children loved him, but they also feared him, and that’s generally not something indicative of a father of the year award nominee. But the man who Elijah confessed he should have killed a thousand years ago, the man Rebekah tried to kill in his sleep, the man who hated Klaus just because (WE WILL GET TO THAT) didn’t come about until TO.

 So then, who is Mikael? We first see him as a mysterious figure whose presence scares Klaus into running, both in the flashback to the 1920s, and in modern day. The first real glimpse of him we get is in Ordinary People, when he grows angry at Klaus and Elijah’s play-fighting. This angers him, as he believes that combat should be taken seriously. When confronted, Elijah backs down; Klaus tries to defend it, and gets a swordfight in response. It goes on until Esther, who at first permits it, tells Mikael that he’s ‘made his point’ and to stop. Which he does.

 Mikael is a Viking, and though Plec and co. erroneously assume that Viking refers to the entirety of Norse culture, the fact that he is one means he’s a warrior. He was the guy that went out and fought and pillaged. Which informs a great deal about his worldview. How to treat combat, and how to respond to threats.

 Which in turn leads to his pride, dubbed by Rebekah to be his greatest weakness. Mikael ran once, when his eldest died, because a disease has no form you can fight, there’s no enemy to be beaten, but still it pained him to do it. And so, when Henrik dies, he decides he won’t run again. The werewolves are a physical opponent, they can be beaten, but suppose another child gets sick? Or another enemy comes, one who is beyond Mikael’s ability to fight. He’s been unable to protect two of children, has had to outlive two of his children, and he will not permit another. And so he and Esther come up with a plan. One to make it so that their family can’t lose anyone else; make them immortal. No more running, now they fight.

 Until everything went to hell, culminating in the revelation of Klaus’ true parentage, the casting of the hybrid curse, and Klaus murdering Esther in a fit of rage.

 And so Mikael lost basically everything, his son murdered his wife, and his other children believed that Mikael was responsible. And so he spent the next thousand years hunting. Seeking to avenge his wife, and to kill his son.

 And really, that was what he dedicated himself towards.  TO pretty much erases all of it in order to say that it was the fact that Klaus was a hybrid and not biologically his son that spurred him to hunt down his children -and it was all his children on TO- but that ignores a whole lot, as shown here:

 This scene is incredible, for starters, because it alone manages to give more depth to Mikael than an entire season of TO did. Mikael loves Rebekah, he loves all his children, and Klaus was his only target. In TO, Mikael seems incapable of anything but hatred. The show forgets that pride -not rage- was his defining trait, the pride that prevented him from apologizing to Rebekah, of acknowledging that no matter how justified he felt, he still caused harm to her. In TO, Mikael hates Klaus, hates hybrids, werewolves, vampires, his children, his wife. The only person he doesn’t hate is Freya, who’s a frigging retcon character.

 Speaking of retcons, on TO it’s repeatedly stated that Mikael burned down cities in his hunt for his children, hell we see him burn down an entire opera theatre. Remember this quote from Homecoming: “I had a hand in creating vampires, but bloodlust was never my intention. Over the centuries I learned to feed from the predator, not the innocent?” The bloodlust, described by Rebekah as being the darkest consequence of what they were because it drove them to kill, and Mikael trains himself to overcome it because he doesn’t want to kill innocent people. At least not needlessly, he is a vampire, an Original, he definitely has the will to kill, but a guy who spent god knows how long training himself to feed on vampires, a guy who refused human blood after being dessicated for a decade, destroys cities willy-nilly for the hell of it? That’s not even getting into the fact that TO shows him multiple times willingly feeding on living people. Again, this is the guy who refused human blood after going without any blood for a decade.

 Oh, and going back to Klaus:

Notice Klaus calls Mikael father in this scene. On TO, when Klaus did that in a flashback during 1x15 Le Grand Guignol, Mikael mocked him for it, derided him for “still clinging to that word.” On TVD? Nothing. Because Klaus is Mikael’s son. The narrative irony, that the child Mikael got along with the least would come to be the one most like him. After all, Klaus wants to be the biggest, baddest, strongest guy out there, and growing up, who was that if not Mikael?

 Mikael was a villain, but not an antagonist, his role in the story was an ‘enemy of my enemy’ type with the MFG. They both wanted Klaus dead. This narrative role allowed for a bit of nuance. Mikael and Klaus were mirrors of each other, and both had their own twisted senses of honour and love. And yes, I do fully believe that Mikael loved Klaus. In their meeting, he doesn’t deride Klaus’ biological parentage, he doesn’t insult him for calling Mikael his father, he chastises him for his “impulse” and calls out the fact that between compulsion, sirebonds and daggers, there isn’t a single person who’s loyal to Klaus who is so willingly.

 The entire meeting is of two family members calling each other out on their failings: Klaus calling out that Mikael always underestimated him, never gave Klaus’ own strength the respect it deserves, embodied through attempting to call Mikael’s bluff. But Mikael wasn’t bluffing, and as far as Mikael and Klaus were aware in that moment, Mikael killed Elena and Klaus’ access to more hybrids. And then Mikael dies, killed by his son, whose strength he never acknowledged. Is it really any wonder that the only response to this is cry, however briefly?

 Mikael’s relationship with Klaus was a focal point for his character, and TO’s complete derailment of it, therefore, had a huge impact on the character. On TVD, Klaus was a villain and an antagonist, but on TO he’s the protagonist (ostensibly anyway, in reality, the deuteragonist to Hayley’s protagonist), and Mikael the antagonist. Now there are two different ways that this could have gone.

 1)   Recognize the incredibly complex relationship between these two and build on it in order to help cement the relative moral nature of a show focused on the oldest serial murderers in the world

2)   Say ‘fuck relative morality and nuance’ and make the antagonist as evil as possible so that by comparison the guy you had choke a pregnant woman for trying have an abortion seem like a good guy

 Three guesses which option the show went with. First two don’t count. Yes, they eschewed any complexity by making Mikael out to be a sadistic psychopath who tried multiple times to murder Klaus BEFORE he ripped out Esther’s heart and blamed it on Mikael. Oh wait sorry, ~choked her to death~ and blamed it on Mikael. As opposed to the intense regret he felt upon seeing Rebekah on TVD, on TO Mikael shows nothing but anger when meeting Elijah, even when he’s ostensibly saying he’s proud of him. On TO, he can’t mention Klaus without saying the word bastard, on TVD it’s never uttered.  On TVD he explicitly states that Klaus is the only one he ever wanted dead, on TO he plans to help Finncent kill them all. On TVD, avenging Esther was what spurred him forward, on TO, upon meeting he screams at her and tries to hit her. Hell, their entire relationship is reduced to a Stockholm syndrome-fuelled abusive horror show.

 And it all culminates in that scene. Klaus has the white oak pointed at Mikael’s heart and asks ‘why?’ Why was he a kid kicking, Klaus whipping, no-good-awful-abusive-piece-of-shit? Why, for Klaus’ entire life did Mikael hate him?

   “I don’t know, I just did.”

 A character’s motivation: why they do what they do. Why they feel what they feel. It’s fundamental to them. Without that, a character could be replaced with an object. They stop being a character and become a macguffin. And TO cares so little for Mikael, the man who created vampires on their vampire show, that they didn’t even bother to give a motivation as to why he was an abusive ass. They retconned him into a complete psychopathic monster because they didn’t have the necessary skill to make us care about Klaus despite the fact that he’s a monster, so why not make Mikael irredeemably horrible because abuse survivor=relatable right? This despite the fact that Klaus was still an abuse survivor on TVD, and they still managed to make him likable without relying on the image of him being kicked as a child.

 On TO, Mikael could have been replaced with literal cancer and the result would have been the same. A source of pain and agony in Klaus’ past that made him feel weak, and he never wishes to re-experience. They didn’t just take away nuance and complexity from him, they took away the most basic aspects. The closest thing to characterization Mikael has on TO is his relationship with Freya, who is a retconned in character from the same season Mikael came back in. The ‘I love you/I hate you/I want you to die/please acknowledge me’ relationship with Klaus built up from TVD goes nowhere. There’s never any further expression of regret from when he met Rebekah again. Hell, the shadow he ostensibly cast over the Originals’ existence is kind of called into question when they can stay in one place for nearly three hundred years, openly referring to themselves as the Mikaelsons the entire time. Everything Mikael was on TVD was stripped away in favour of ‘stock antagonist’ such that his only real points of note are his fighting capability, which is nice to watch but doesn’t make a character, and his relationship with Freya, which isn’t part of the character that got people invested.

[ceasedtimea]

SO, LET’S DISCUSS THE UNCHANGED FUTURE TIMELINE as based on my own personal headcanons, headcanons and plots we cried about with @creatingxdragons​, and examining actual canon based on the bits of chris’ words, his behavioral patterns, memories and the only future episode. note, some of these details can totally be discussed and altered if we’re rping specifically, such as family member being dead.

SOMETIME FROM FEBRUARY 2003 TO OCTOBER 2004. It’s canon whatever happened that ‘turned’ Wyatt evil happened before Chris was born, which obviously means during those twenty months, more likely closer to Chris’ birth, Gideon kidnapped baby Wyatt, and attempting to murder him from the greater good, sentence poor kid to wandering around the underworld alone, fending demons off.

OCTOBER 24th, 2004. Chris was born, and I always assume at that point Wyatt was still missing, which obviously set the mood for the entire ordeal, as well as established the non-existent relationship between Chris and Leo. Chris was the last piper’s child, seeing as nothing proves Melinda was born in UF.

EARLY YEARS. After Chris’ birth, shortly after Wyatt is found. it kind of shapes the dynamic of Chris, rightfully at the time, seeing as Wyatt was fucking kidnapped, being lowkey put aside for the sake of his big brother. It’s a couple of really harsh years for everybody, especially since it takes a long to mold Wyatt, and Leo eventually leaves to become an elder. he’s always present for his eldest son, however, or his family, but never really Chris. After all this horrible drama Leo and piper are no longer together, all cousins but Phoebe’s youngest are born.

SCHOOL YEARS. Despite Wyatt having a lot of issues because of his kidnapping as a baby, they are kind of the formative years for his and Chris’ relationship. Having difficulty with studying, Chris learns ahead to help, a bond is formed to a point a telepathic link is created between the two. Wyatt is an extremely troubled kid though, to a point of continuous family drama. Despite which Piper still tries, and began dating a long time ago, but it’s always met with a lot of backlash. It’s a tough time for the whole family to balance out the bitter reminiscence of the past.

OCTOBER 24th, 2018. THE EVENT, PIPER’S DEATH, CHRIS’ 14TH BIRTHDAY. The breaking point of the UF. after a big fight with Wyatt, Piper and Chris are alone at the manor preparing for the family to come, and putting up decorations for Chris’ birthday to have something nice in their life for once. However, there ends up being a severe demon attack that targets the both of them, during which Piper protecting her son is mortally wounded. Chris who doesn’t know how to heal, can’t save her, and calls for Leo, who never comes on time, calls for Wyatt who’s lashing off somewhere, calls Paige who’s occupied with another minor attack. Eventually, Piper dies in his arms. He’s found by Leo, who finally comes, and soon after Wyatt who sees the scene and runs off. With his plethora of powers, the family splits to either find him or handle Piper’s death. Eventually Darryl calls Victor to the scene, who picks up Chris who’s in a deep shock with a bunch of broken ribs and bleeding, and takes him to the hospital.

2018-2020. AFTERMATH OF PIPER’S DEATH AND MORE FAMILY DEATHS. Victor ends up being the main caretaker for Chris, not because either Phoebe or Paige don’t want to or mean well, it’s just because they still have their own kids, and there is Wyatt who took Piper’s death incredibly badly, and while before he did lash out, now it gets really bad. Leo is officially gone from the picture, and from Piper’s death onwards Chris refers to him by name. Chris on the other hand, barely ever goes to school as it would be expected after what happened, and will continue to happen, doesn’t want to really eat or sleep, feels abandoned by everyone but his grandfather, who eventually becomes the only person that can really get through to him. His high-school experience is as good as non-existent, until it abruptly stops.

Few months after Piper’s death, it’s Phoebe’s turn. Chris is around 14-15. Seeing as the Charmed Ones are officially done, the family is targeted more than usual. This results in a repeat of morality bites scenario for Phoebe, who struggled after her sister’s death and tried to keep her family safe. She is caught and found guilty, with execution pushed by the same men they worked with before. To keep panic from spreading though, magic is not exposed and the execution is hushed under the rug. Phoebe burns at the stake. Not too long after, unprotected and overrun, Coop along with his two daughters are murdered by demons in their own home, leaving Paige the only Charmed One left alive.

Few months after Phoebe, Paige and the twins die too. Chris is around 15-16. They are jumped by demons, with little to none chance of survival. In both cases with Coop and his daughters, and Paige and her daughters dying, Chris is the one who finds their bodies. At that point, he’s been fully living with Victor, however Victor who has been suffering a lot of health problems due to heart failures and tumor, is often times in the hospital. Shortly before exposing magic by Wyatt, Henry takes Henry Jr. and they disappear. Chris is 16. Due to Wyatt’s increasingly worse state and everyone’s deaths, Henry decides it’s better to at least save his son, and disappears off the face of the planet. He’s one of the people who later create the resistance. It’s vital the family dies early, especially the Charmed Ones, not only because Chris said he never got to know his family, but also because Wyatt would have never made a museum for his family if they ever got a chance to fight against him, and not for him.

SOMETIME 2020. THE RECKONING DAY AKA MAGIC EXPOSURE. CHRIS IS AROUND 16. WYATT IS AROUND 18. The day writes itself as the Reckoning Day in the history, as it takes a lot of innocent lives. Wyatt, conjuring dragons and setting demons loose, exposes magic in an act of terror. Chris at the time is with Darryl and his family, seeing as Victor has been in the hospital for the past two weeks. Darryl goes to aid the police, hoping to take Wyatt out without killing him, however Chris can’t listen and orbs to the scene. His presence distracts Wyatt enough that by sheer accident he kills Darryl in a line of fire. Finally, as the chaos ensues, to get shocked Chris out of there, he shimmers them to the new place he secretly prepared for them. Chris, who’s covered in blood and in shock, is visibly afraid and shaken, however does agree to go shower. From there, he orbs away from Wyatt and goes to find his grandfather in the hospital, however learns that seeing what Wyatt had done on the TV, Victor got a severe heart attack and died in his hospital bed. It’s around that time Leo disappears.

First few weeks of the New World Order. The world has slowly descended to chaos and anarchy, with some few exceptions. Chris, unwilling to be around his own brother after what happened, with the few still remaining institutions, only meets with him to help him arrange the funeral for Victor. He begins living on his own, spending a lot of his time locked up in the Manor out of no better options, trying to somehow cope with the layers upon layers of trauma.

Vengeful capturing and Chris’ near death. Around that time, found by people he used to know from his life before magic exposure, who also lost their loved ones during the Reckoning Day, he’s kidnapped and tortured out of vengeance. The main goal is to draw Wyatt out and have him pay, however they go overboard, and when Wyatt does show up with his demons, Chris is nearly dead. They all die, and since Wyatt can no longer heal, when Chris wakes up eventually and sees his brother by him, having no other choice and hoping somehow things can still be fixed, from then he remains by Wyatt’s side.

2020-2023. CHRIS STAYS BY WYATT’S SIDE. HE’S FROM 16 TO 19. Having no other choice but to stay, for three years Chris remains firmly guarded by Wyatt’s side. He lives among demons, witnessing a lot of horrible things that eventually shape him into the person he is. That’s also when he meets Bianca, who’s a bit older than him and one of the top Wyatt’s assassins.

First year aka the adjusting period. At first, adjusting to this new situation and regime is very hard. The world is slowly descending, with its population being largely reduced. Demons roam the streets, and Chris finds himself living with his brother, who rules everything. Sights as demons, vicious murder, torture are a normal daily routine, however Chris doesn’t actively participate in any of those, although listens and watches. It’s met by a lot of backlash from demons, especially the Seer who seems to have the most to say in regards of Wyatt’s decisions. Chris is seen as a liability and someone who holds Wyatt back, and keeps the last shred of humanity in him. Chris still hopes things could be fixed, but the hope quickly ends up dissolving. That period of time ends when Chris, out of necessity and pure instinct, kills a first person who targets his brother.

Second year aka the middle ground. After killing his first person, the air about him lessens, however only a little bit. Things descent further anyway, but Chris still refuses to take an active part. He does go to certain meetings or councils, however, taking in as much as he can, and at times finding himself aiding in terms of advice or simple manipulation. The Seer still considers him a threat though, and eventually to keep himself somewhat safe, he does end up aiding more, at times leading to some bad things happening, and people dying.

Third year aka the deciding year. It’s a year when the tensions rise high enough Chris can no longer refuse to do things, not if he wants to make it in this horrible environment. He begins to be at most councils, with his advice being rather on point, seeing as he’s very smart and observant. He does come up with a poison that helps in terms of interrogation, and leads to a few victories, all done so he can survive among demons and the Seer who clearly wants him dead. At some point during that year he ends up finding the body of his cousin, Henry Jr. It becomes a breaking point in the face of all this horribleness. He doesn’t find out what happened right away, with Wyatt putting it on demons, however a few rogues who corner Chris at some point, reveal it was Wyatt who murdered him. With it becoming too much to handle, Chris provokes a fight and almost gets himself killed in the process. He’s healed by one of the imprisoned whitelighters, however doesn’t wake up for a week, unwilling to come back. It’s only after deciding he needs to be back to handle this, he wakes up. The next few months are spent on active work, and eventually leading to a plan that would allow Chris to escape.

SOMETIME 2023. CHRIS RUNS AWAY FOR THE FIRST TIME. HE’S AROUND 19. With his doing, a big event against the Resistance is carried out, during which things get heated enough he’s left as good as alone. The first time it happens, he trusts no one with his plans, not even Bianca. During that event, Chris ends up escaping from their place of living, something he had limited access too since Wyatt has been making sure he couldn’t leave ‘for his own safety’. He goes into hiding in the Underworld, which now is scarcely visited due to the demons being on the surface. Finding a remotely safe spot, he ends up drinking the second half of a potion he constructed and previously slipped to Wyatt’s drink, ending up breaking their bond which would stop Wyatt from using magic to find him. He confronts his brother about the death of Henry Jr. and everything else in the astral form, buying himself enough time to keep hiding.

2023-2024. TIME AS RUNAWAY, WORKING WITH THE RESISTANCE, FORMING A PLAN. CHRIS IS 19-20. It’s the first year Chris spends as an officially wanted runaway. He is wanted alive, with a high prize on anyone who brings him ‘home’, however many rogue demons, as well as resistance members, simply vengeful people and bounty hunters have other plans. He spends a few weeks forced to hide around the Underworld much as his brother as a baby was. Eventually, he’s found by demons, which he defeats, however ends up getting stabbed in the process. That leads him to search for help in other places.

Working with the Resistance. Have a meta about Chris and Resistance work. Slowly dying, he ends up looking for the resources he learned of when still with Wyatt, and finds Resistance members. He strikes a deal in which he’s healed, and in exchange he helps them fight the forces of his brothers. He’s obviously unwelcome and shunned, even if his presence is attempted to be kept as a secret, but his help of someone who was deeply in it with Wyatt is invaluable, and leads to few very significant victories. All of which aren’t missed by his brother. It’s in the Resistance he finds uncle Henry, who feeling some guilt is the most welcoming presence, whose authority often times keeps Chris from getting killed. Henry gets killed as a lesson and vengeance for Chris’s part. Chris doesn’t stay with the Resistance too long, and when he does, he mostly spends his time in the field. It’s during that time, however, as he’s allowed to have the time apart from the awfully toxic and evil environment, the needed perspective slowly has him forming a plan that would eventually lead him to the past. Meanwhile, however, as some sort of a twisted lesson and vengeance for Chris’ part, Wyatt kills Henry. Chris is the one who finds his body, and he’s the one that buries him. From that he goes back into hiding, at times only allowing himself to contact Bianca. It’s also during that time he first comes into contact with the Valkyries, who later become the key in his plans.

SOMETIME 2024. CHRIS IS CAUGHT FOR THE FIRST TIME. HE’S AROUND 20. Things go a little awry, and as Chris keeps hiding and making a lot of necessary plans for the future, he ends up being captured and brought back to his brother. He spends few very difficult weeks with a lot of different methods used to stop him from ever wanting to get away, including torture or mental games. However, as Chris is rather used to it, eventually with an aid of Bianca, he ends up once again escaping, at the same time finally revealing where her loyalty truly lies. From that point until Chris leaving to the past, they begin intense working on his plan to get back to the past.

2024-EARLY 2026. PREPARING TO LEAVE FOR THE FUTURE. CHRIS IS 20-21. Have a meta about Chris and Bianca. It’s during that time Chris and Bianca, while still deeply in hiding, begin a long journey to prepare Chris’ travel to the past. Seeing as Chris is unwilling to kill his brother anyway, and the act alone would do nothing about the state of their world (which to Chris is a side effect as he really only cares about his family), Bianca agrees to go with it. During that time Chris ends up working closely with the few head Valkyries, not only constructing a plan distracting Wyatt and his demons on the day they would go to the Manor, but also so Chris has a ground to work on when he does end up in the past, which is where the Valkyries came in at the beginning of his time in the past. It’s also when he finally finds Leo, now overrun with madness and locked up alone upstairs with a bunch of dead Elders. In the madness, he only manages to get out of him that whatever has happened to Wyatt, happened before his own birth.

EARLY 2026. CHRIS LEAVES TO THE PAST. HE IS 21. After months of planning, a big event in which many people die is constructed to distract Wyatt and his demons from the Manor. Chris and Bianca used that to sneak into his old home which is now a Museum about his family. It’s when the events of Chris-Crossed take place, and summoning the Book of Shadows, Chris ends up going through the portal to the past, leaving Bianca behind in the future.

EARLY 2003, SOON AFTER WYATT’S BIRTH. CHRIS ARRIVES IN THE PAST. Seeing as he needed time to construct plans with the Valkyries and somehow fix everything up, he did spend some time in the past before showing up in the show. It’s during that time he makes plans with Valkyries that take Leo in so he has time to work, where he sort of fixes himself in this strange world he no longer remembers.

MID 2003. CHRIS SHOWS UP IN THE MANOR WHEN THE TITANS ATTACK HAPPENS. In canon when he showed up, Wyatt was still an itty-bitty baby, and it was really hot, so it’s safe to assume it was the summer. It’s when Leo becomes an Elder sooner than in Chris’ timeline, and Chris becomes the Charmed Ones’ whitelighter in his place, sending Leo to Valhalla.

LATE 2003-EARLY 2004. BIANCA COMES FROM THE FUTURE, CHRIS-CROSSED HAPPENS. CHRIS IS 22. It’s basically around the time the events of Chris-Crossed take place. When Chris does come back to the future, seeing as both timelines happen more or less in a linear order, it’s around mid/late 2026 - early 2027.

FEBRUARY 2004. Chris is conceived, Piper finds out that Chris is her son, and she’s pregnant, Leo goes back to be an Elder.

OCTOBER 24th, 2004. Around that time Gideon attempts to murder Wyatt. The future is changed though, and baby Chris is born, however the big Chris, due to being stabbed with a poisoned dagger by Gideon, dies in the past on his 23rd birthday. His spirit stays behind, unknowingly to everyone, however his body disappears, going back to the future’s Manor, to sometime during 2027, thus ending the Unchanged Future. The echoes of it will remain, though, but that’s for another meta.

THE END.