#please don't go: alice

[luxilonn]

please don't go | bunker au

"can we go outside now" by crewlin.

read it HERE

[silver-dragonborn]

Draft: Right Hook

please do not repost or reblog

This is just a little something I concocted because I wanted to write Rhaenyra going absolutely feral and snapping. I'll probably have the final version done by next week.

Rhaenyra did not hesitate under the shadow of the dagger and punched Alicent on an instinct with her right hand (just like how Daemon taught her), gasped as her knuckles jarred against the Queen's delicately soft cheek, and sent a jolt of pain to her shoulder. Chaos erupted as Alicent collapsed in a heap of green skirts with a squeal, dagger clattering, and hair twisting across her cheek now bloodied by the full set of rings on Rhaenyra's fingers. Alicent looked up at Rhaenyra in a daze, blood leaking from her nose and her split lip, and for an instant, she had this strange expression. Hurt, yes. Angry, of course. But more afraid than either one. Like the look Rhaenyra had herself, maybe, when that horrid woman had commanded that Joffrey be brought to her.

"RHAENYRA!" Viserys was roaring now, face red, eyes bulging with outrage, but Rhaenyra was miles away, eyes never leaving Alicent's, she bent down and slowly picked up the dagger, fingers curling around the hilt. Hard. "No, father," she said, her tone an eerie calmness that cut through the chaos. "She attacked me, your heir, with a knife and I was given no choice, but to defend myself and my sons." Alicent was trembling now, the bloody smear Rhaenyra's rings left behind now fully bleeding. 'It will scar,' she thought distantly feeling a curl of satisfaction in her gut. 'Was this how Alicent felt when she insulted me again, and again within the walls of my own home?'

Rhaenyra's eyes slowly slid across the stunned faces of her father's Kingsguard, taking note of their reactions before stopping on Aegon himself, face pale and trembling. It was time to put an end to this. "You have a choice, brother. Family," she pointed to herself, "Or treason," Rhaenyra pointed the blade's tip at the fallen Queen who was still too stunned to scream and demand punishment. They were Ladies of King Viserys' court and Ladies did not fly at each other with knives or throw punches like brawling soldiers, but it would seem Driftmark had unpeeled the hidden layers of the Hightower's savagery and Rhaenyra's carefully hidden fire.

"Viserys, please, our children," Alicent bleated, but Rhaenyra would not be swayed by her tears. Even the most pitiable posed a threat and her old friend had proven time and time again that she would not stop until House Targaryen was torn apart.

"Family or Treason. Choose now, little brother."

"I-I.."

"CHOOSE!!"

Whether it was the realization that his mother had gone too far or the unnatural fire in his sister's eyes, Aegon practically scrambled to Rhaenyra's side and pointed a finger at Alicent, shrieking, "It was her! She spread the rumors! She and Ser Criston! It was them! It was them! They wanted to make me King! Her and Grandfather! They committed treason! It was them!"

Visery's cane clattered, Otto swayed and Alicent wailed.

It would be a long night indeed.

[dgoul]

"gender bent au" what if I hit you with a metal chair.

"gender bent mag" what if I take your internet away and make you think. for once

I see people headcanoning Tim as trans femme. I'm in the crowd cheering for them screeming at the top of my lungs. someone yells GENDER BEND AU? i approach from behind, crouched down.

EDIT I'm not sorry for going insane in the tags. enjoy the rant because I think it's important. 🏳️‍⚧️

[enek-jokanen]

Okay, so....

The alchemy in TMAGP is pretty well established by this point - especially with our Full-Metal-Alchemist Gravity-Boy and his doggo and Celia and Colin's deranged little ramblings.

So. Idea:

-The Alchemy seems to be like, the base 'magic' system in this world if you want to call it that.

-The Fear(TM) part of things almost seems to come secondarily to all this magic ink and odd object stuff going on.

-In fact, most of the statements mostly focus on desire, rather than Fear(TM) as we saw with Ink5soul in ep. 20.

-Now, Celia came into TMAGP most likely through some multiverse shenanigans. We last saw that happen at the end of TMA. With the fears.

Now, considering all this,

-'Hard Reset' seemed to purely focus on alchemy - I wasn't really getting Fear(TM) vibes from it, so to speak.

-The 'Protocol' seemed to purely focus on destroying 'forbidden alchemy', so to speak. Not anything Fear(TM) related.

-The main thing in that episode seemed to be Isaac's pursuit of that odd, messed up alchemy.

This leads me to think that the Fears(TM) were not originally part of the TMAGP universe.

BUT sometime recently, through multiverse happenings, they came in and messed up the alchemy or the entities that provide the alchemy in the TMAGP universe.

In turn, I think this may explain why the OIAR works in the way that it does. Stopping a world-ending scenario where we all go mad or something - as Colin said - now no longer relies on stopping alchemical experiments if the Fears(TM) and the alchemy have merged. No, you would have to use 'Mercury' or 'Sulfur' avatars to cause fear. This is also why they would gather statements - keeping tally of how much Fear(TM) of a particular type has been caused so they know which external to comission to do something next for it all tk balance out.

Now, this does leave a few loose ends:

-Firstly, what is the purpose of the Magnus Institute? Was it just using alchemy for bad things? Was it trying to drag the Fears(TM) into this world using the 'catalysts', trying to do so with people that may have been avatars in a world with the fears? (This could fit into why they have that statement seen in 'saved copy', perhaps) but I simply do not know.

-What about Freddie? Are they Jon, Martin, Jonah as many people seem to think? Are they the ones watching or is that just the British Government? Did they come over with the Fears - and if so, why did their voices only appear so recently? Are they good beans or evil beans? Again, I have no idea what to make of it. I think at this point we may not know enough.

-What about Klaus? Lena tried to kill him for some reason - and he did also have some tattoos if I remember correctly. What is up with that? We've heard of him like twice but like-?

So yeah. Just some thoughts after the season 1 finale. Feel free to add or disagree regarding my deranged little rant.

Now it's time to go sit in a cupboard and drink capri-suns till season 2 comes out.

[theriu]

River Reads Midnight Sun

Well met, traveler! This is the starting post for my experiment, wherein I, who have never read the Twilight books or seen the movies, read Midnight Sun (basically Twilight from Edward's perspective) and commentate for (hopefully) your entertainment! I decided it would be easiest to do this a chapter at a time, and my commentary will essentially be a summary of each chapter so people equally unfamiliar with the story can follow along. You can follow or block this experiment with the tag #river reads midnight sun.

I think that should do it! Let's get started with:

Chapter 1: First Sight

In which Edward finds high schoolers very Boring and Inane, and also nearly goes bonkers over a potential snack.

First things first: Can we talk about how gross pomegranates look? Is the cover art SUPPOSED to resemble an optical illusion between a halved pomegranate and a bleeding heart? Either way, EW.

Right, on to business!

Edward is bored, you guys. He is SO BORED. High school is so boring. Purgatory is mentioned, as well as “tedium” and “monotonous.” He really wants us to know how bored he is, even though the word “boredom” is not used until the sixth paragraph. But trust me, he’s very bored. One begins to wonder why the immortal 100+-year-old vampire is choosing to hang out daily in such a boring place, but I’m sure it will be explained.

Now we learn about his mindreading powers! This is also very boring because most of the minds he has to read are petty high school minds. By the way, the inane sheeple chatter in the school mindscape today is all about the new girl! I wonder who she could be! Ed sure doesn’t care! He can see every angle of her face via peoples’ thoughts, and he is NOT impressed. Half the “sheep-like males” are crushing on her. Edward’s disdain for them is palpable, almost as if it's not totally normal and fine for human teenagers to find new things like a new student exciting. We may be witnessing a smidge of superiority complex, which is shocking, no doubt.

Mind-reading as a way to introduce other relevant characters is handy, I will grant the author that! Of course, Ed tries not to mindread his fellow vampires out of courtesy, but he KNOWS what they are probably thinking, and boy is he ready to tell us!

Rosalie: Is either actually super hot or super thinks she is, and apparently this debate encompasses her every waking moment. She only compares herself to VAMPIRES, of course, because humans could never be comparably hot. Related to a stagnant pool. Wow, Ed.

Emmett: Hyper competitive guy who has no new thoughts because he says EVERYTHING he thinks. Compared to a glass-clear lake. I suppose that means Ed maybe thinks he has depth? Maybe? We'll err on the side of optimism.

Jasper: Suffering. That’s literally the entire description.

Alice (who can see the future) introduces herself by beaming thoughts at Ed asking how Jasper is doing. Jasper is not doing well. Apparently he is so ready to eat people that he has forgotten how to Human and is sitting in a corpse-like rigor, because it seems when you become a vampire you lose quirks like restless leg syndrome and blinking? This feels full of potential hilarity to me, but I fear such hilarity will not be realized in this Very Serious Book.

Anyway, back to Jasper, who is SUFFERING. Alice asks if there is any danger. Edward signals no. Half a page later, his exposition about Jasper's problem adds, “Jasper was very dangerous right now." Okay, so which is it?! PICK A LANE, ED

(On a genuine note, I already like Alice; she counters Jasper’s fantasies about eating a girl by telling him her name and a few personal facts in a way that shows Alice makes an effort to know her classmates as more than just The Humans. Yay empathy!)

Btw, Ed’s internal monologue indicates they’re hanging out at this school to build their strength and endurance by being around humans and not eating them, and to that I say REALLY??? You chose high school for that?! The one where you’re SUPER BORED?? GO HANG OUT AT A COFFEE SHOP OR SOMETHING

Ope, plot progression! Bella has entered the chat lunchroom. Literally everyone is thinking about Bella, including Jessica, no doubt the requisite catty high school rival who crushed on Edward previously. She has many disgruntled thoughts about Bella, Bella noticing the Cullens, everyone noticing Bella, etc. Ed, who has been doing a great job keeping us up to date on the general thought processes of the student body, takes this moment to assure us once again how much he finds all of this chatter inane AND petty AND trivial, and he’s definitely going to try harder to block them out (again).

Wait, oh my word, was that a line of HUMOROUS BANTER between the Cullens just now?! I have renewed hope for this Very Serious Book!

So Edward is the vampires' mental scout who checks for people suspecting he and his family are inhumanly weird (as opposed to acceptably weird), and naturally he does a brain scan on Bella. Oooo but he’s not hearing anything! And now they have locked eyes! Her eyes are very odd, because of the DEPTH of them! Already, Bella is very Frail and immune to mindreading and somehow has “deeper” eyes than I guess any other human Edward has met in his 100+ years? Ed, I think you need to make eye contact more.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled torrent of inane high schooler thoughts! Amazingly, they are all still focused on Bella and being attracted to or jealous of her, because of course real high schoolers are all Inane and Tedious. (The one exception is Angela, who is busy thinking about homework. I like her, she seems normal.) Jessica is being catty again, and what’s this?! Ed suddenly has this STRANGE URGE to SHIELD Bella from this nasty girl! How very odd and unusual! Especially from a guy who very clearly finds all human teenagers Inane/Petty/Trivial! Bella must be special, except she is also “very unexceptional." Also, Ed is highly frustrated that he can’t read this girl’s mind, despite him constantly reading her like a book and her having “deceptively communicative” eyes.

Rosalie breaks Ed out of his frustration-driven contradictory spiral, and they all go to class, Ed casually mentioning his two medical degrees in an internal dig at his biology teacher (again, why are you hanging out at high school???) Naturally, Bella shows up and the only seat available is the one next to Edward, because Plot everyone is subliminally terrified of him. Ed has a moment of panic wondering if not hearing one girl’s thoughts means he has a vampire disease and is gonna lose all his mindreading, and then he has another moment of empathy for Bella having to sit next to the Scary Vampire.

Then she walks in front of an air duct, and Edward is suddenly overcome with INTENSE BLOODLUST THE LIKES OF WHICH HE HAS NEVER EXPERIENCED BEFORE!!! He wants to eat her SO BAD, you guys! He spends roughly EIGHT PAGES brooding on how badly he wants to eat her, noticing how delicious she smells, crushing the underside of a desk with his intense self-control grip (but having the presence of mind to “destroy the evidence” by rounding out the finger-shaped hole he just made), analyzing the logistics of eliminating a roomful of witnesses and whether to do so before or after eating her, seeing his monstrous reflection in her eyeballs, angsting over how bad he will feel when he murders a bunch of people, plotting ways of murdering her that WON’T result in collateral damage, questioning Bella’s sanity for daring to SHAKE HER HAIR IN HIS VICINITY, angsting about how disappointed his wonderful adoptive dad Carlisle will be (aww, that’s actually sweet), stubbornly deciding “she can’t make me,” hating Bella with the fury of a thousand suns for daring to smell so delicious, and shutting off his breathing so he has at least some self-control, which does sound uncomfortable but I applaud the effort.

Then class finally ends (for him and for us), and he goes and hides in his car. Which, honestly, relatable.

The car timeout helps restore his sanity, and he determines he does in fact not need to kill her and that hating her guts for smelling like an eight-course dinner probably isn’t fair! He just needs to avoid her as much as possible. Bless your heart for your optimism, Male Lead of a Paranormal Romance Novel.

The solution he comes up with is to charm the poor secretary (who keeps having to remind herself mentally that he’s too young for her, which, augh) into switching him to a different sixth-period course. Bella chooses this opportune moment to walk in, which he doesn’t notice until her DELICIOUS SMELL is blown over him (I question why someone with such advanced senses can only notice powerful smells when he is downwind of them). Edward’s Amazing Vampire Vision kicks in, allowing him to once again see his Monstrous Face in the reflection of her eyes, despite her being over against the wall. He briefly contemplates double homicide, then . . . uh . . . gives up on changing classes so he can walk away. This doesn’t feel like a long-term solution, Ed, but Kudos for the self-control.

The chapter wraps up with him jumping into his car (it’s the end of the day, so the others are waiting for him) and breaking the speed limit out of the parking lot. Alice uses Future Sight (it’s super effective!) to see that Ed is either going to book it out of Forks (the town) or go and murder Bella in her house. I once again have reason to like Alice, who orders him not to do it, adding that it would metaphorically kill Bella’s dad. He drops them off and races away again, not yet sure if he’s going to tell Dad Carlisle that he’s leaving or going to go eat the delicious new girl. And Scene!

Well, that wasn’t as painful as I feared, so huzzah! I kind of appreciate the internal look at his thoughts and how his mindreading lets us see other characters even when they can’t talk. Got a bit long at times, especially with how Inane and Petty and Trivial high schoolers are to Edward! LOTS OF DETAIL about how badly he wanted to eat Bella and possibly murder all bystanders, which I guess does go to show how bad the bloodlust is, because dang! (But why do none of the others have this reaction to her yet? Maybe they just don’t have classes with her. You must be this close to the Bella to ride the maniac vampire train!)

And with that, I have earned a much-deserved break before delving into CHAPTER TWO: OPEN BOOK! I’m sure Edward will totally succeed in his plan to skedaddle out of Forks and never see Bella again! Stay positive, Ed! =Dd

Chapter 2->

[generalkenobitrash]

spoilers for ep5 of hotd s2

I was genuinely sickened by the scene of daemon and his mother 😰 what were the writers on. i was genuinely keeping my hopes for rhea royce to terrorize daemon with a rock. or atleast a hallucination of viserys giving daemon all the validation he ever wanted. BUT HIS MOTHER??? either way, daemon being a miserable fuck is honestly funny. he can't control people with fear anymore and he can't fucking deal with it. i am starting to be intrigued by criston cole. i still greatly dislike him but i recognize that it's the writing. i have a feeling he's become more solemn because he knows that aemond intended for aegon to die, but he feels that if he tells alicent, it would only be worse. the conversation between alicent and criston was interesting. their dynamic has changed and i would genuinely like to see more. hugh hammer is proving to be an interesting character. i like that we can see the plight of the smallfolk through him. i love love love love mysaria and rhaenyra together. jace is taking charge, truly shaping himself into the incredible asset that he was to his mother's council. but he looked so tiny at that table. GIVE ME SABITHA FREY. and kermit. and benjicot blackwood. alys rivers is still serving and brewing weird potions. i adore her, to be honest. i was so relieved we didn't lose jeyne arryn in the end. i can see why she and rhaenyra are related lol. i really really hope rhaena will flourish in the eyrie and find her place in this. the baela and jace scenes are also lovely. they're betrothed, they're supposed to rule after rhaenyra and i love that they're becoming a team. elinda massey is struggling so hard keeping up with this targaryen bs but she still does her work like the loyal queen she is. i have not seen the leaks, but i hope by the end of the season we will have the sowing of the seeds. i loved how there was some playfulness emerging between mother and son as they spoke of it. aegon saying "mummy" broke my heart. i dare say, thus episode was interesting. the character work done here was intriguing. too little gwayne hightower unfortunately.

lol i forgot to add the tags

[dirtytransmasc]

what do you think of the relationship between alicent and rhynaera?

its so complicated and messy and I have such a love/hate relationship with it.

I think Alicent has always loved Rhaenyra, whether it be an active love or the love of clinging to what is no more. she loved Rhaenyra even when she hated her and owed her no kindness, cause part of her was holding onto the memories of when they were young and hoping that maybe, just maybe, one day she could get a shred of that back. she has been hurt, used, lied to, and abandoned by her. she's been spit in the face by Rhaenyra. Rhaenyra is a threat to her children's lives, and yet part of her can't fully let go.

her end of the bond is frayed and charred, picked apart, irreparably damaged, one loose thread away from snapping, but still holding on despite it all.

I think there is so much pain shrouding Rhaenyra and everything she encompasses in Alicent's mind and its a pain Alicent has learned to tolerate, she swallows it down and finds herself standing up for Rhaenyra when no one expects her to, when she is bound by nothing but her own good faith and love to do so.

with Rhaenyra, I think she tends to keep her eyes forward, to avoid looking at the bones of her past. She knows what she's done to Alicent, she knows the friendship she lost, she knows she has to keep moving. she had loved Alicent when they were young, she had wanted to flee her life with her, of course she was in love; but now that love is dead and it won't come back to her, so she best move on.

after she hurt Alicent and earned her mirth, she seems to try and avoid her all together, resenting her. she's continued to do things that put her at odds with Alicent, has continued to face her anger, only growing her own resentment.

unlike Alicent she moves away from her, she doesn't come to her aid, she just sorta... lets her float to the back of her mind, but the pain of that loss is always there.

her end of the bond is withered and dusty, untouched and ignored. its sat in the attic of Rhaenyra's mind and heart, uncovered every now and then.

Driftmark put a great gaping wound of distance between them. their hatred and pain and resentment boiled over. Rhaenyra finally stepped farther than Alicent could even pretend to be ok with, she couldn't defend her this time; she had claimed her son's eye, she had trampled over her once again, she had hurt her and she was tired and could no longer let this love prevail over her. Rhaenyra was finally confronted with her true anger, one she felt she didn't deserve. they hated each other in this moment, and for a long time after.

but after years of being apart, Alicent letting her own anger cool once more and falling victim to her fond memories, seeks to reconnect, while Rhaenyra is still trying to move forward, to keep walking, to ignore these recurring memories of a better time. they speak kind words, they have this moment where you can see the hope in Alicent's eyes, that maybe they could be together once more, to any extent.

This hope urges Alicent to protect Rhaenyra and her children's lives at the council meeting, sends the page with Otto to the peace terms meeting, has her telling Aegon to not rule with cruelty against his sister. this again isn't a hope of decency we really see from Rhaenyra.

I think Alicent loved Rhaenyra, under it all, but she did, even when it kept getting her burned, she learned to love the flame. Rhaenyra loved the idea of Alicent, entertained the idea only in her mind, but decided moving forward, furthering her own life, leaving the bones in the closet came first.

they were damned by Otto and Viserys, they were damned b Rhaenyra's anger towards Alicent, they were damned by the years they grew apart.

I don't think there love died quickly or painlessly, it died over the course of years, screaming out in agony. Alicent fostered that pain, learning to love it in her own way, Rhaenyra cut it away from herself.

[victorluvsalice]

-->And then it was Family Dinner Time! I had everyone head down to the kitchen (Victor and Smiler taking advantage of their teleports, while Alice super-speeded and Marm hovered), then Alice and Victor each grabbed a plate of turkey while Smiler had some plasma fruit and Marm sat at the table, just happy to be included. XD Everyone proceeded to have a lovely chat over supper, with Victor expressing his thankfulness to Smiler and Alice hers to Victor while one of the cats snoozed nearby. :) I do love it when I can coordinate some proper family time for this lot!

After two plasma fruits and some invigorating conversation, though, Smiler decided they wanted to go dance to their radio again – as everyone was pretty much done with the grand meal, I allowed this and sent Marm to play yet more chess while Alice and Victor shared a few final words over the last bites of their supper. Victor finished first and transportalated upstairs to have a shower and hit the sack, while Alice gobbled down the rest of hers werewolf-style and got put on plate-cleaning duty. I then checked in on Smiler and decided to have them check the latest video trends – which just so happened to include singing videos. An idea sparked in my mind, and I turned to their streaming drone –

And then realized “oh hey, there’s a battery upgrade on here I never finished.” So I had them start that first –

-->Only for them, and everyone else, to get interrupted by the house making spooky noises. *grumbles* I think that’s my least-liked part of living in a haunted house – the fact that every time it makes a noise, every Sim stops what they’re doing to freak out. You’d think they’d just get used to it after a while! *shakehead* Though I suppose I should check to see if any of them have the “Brave” trait – maybe that would help?

-->Anyway – once everyone was done having their “what was that??” moment, they all resumed their activities as per my directions. Alice cleaned up the plates, then let out a somber howl to reduce her Fury before heading to the barn to cut the amethyst she had on her into a spire so she could charge it and help her and Victor recover their energy sleeping even faster; Victor watched the fish in his and Alice’s bedroom for a bit before heading back to bed; and Marm went and took a nap on one of the front porch couches (I was like “sir, your charge need is BARELY DEPLETED”). And Smiler finished the battery upgrade on their drone before stowing it in their inventory –

And then flew into their party barn loft area to set up a recording of them singing some pop music on their big-ass karaoke machine! :D Because what the hell, I thought it was fun. :) I left them powering out the tunes while I peeked in on the others –

-->And found that Alice had once again decided showering in the rain was better than doing what I’d told her to do. I huffed and had her go back in and resume her spire…

And then promptly had to send her out again because her werewolf instincts were insisting she be outside, whoops. Which was fine, because as it turned out, shortly thereafter the house made MORE spooky noises, and everyone was knocked out of their current activities AGAIN. *rolls eyes* Once the freakouts were once again over, I had Alice go back to cutting her spire while sending Marm to play more chess (had to get him up to Logic level 3 for his aspiration) and Victor to start a new song on the piano (I’d had him scrap the old one because I was half-sure it was bugged). Smiler I just had end their video (I mean, when the house itself is commenting on your karaoke, it’s time to stop), then head back to their room to load it into the video editing station for, well, editing. XD They got through the initial edits and adding effects (while I tried and failed to have them do some last-minute “Being Thankful” with Victor to quickly fulfill that tradition – for some reason, they kept insisting they couldn’t teleport into the study in bat-form) –

And then Harvestfest ended, and with it, the playsession! I wrapped up with everyone having had at least a DECENT holiday (Victor, Alice, and Smiler all got “Awesome,” while poor Marm got “Over” because they could only fulfill two of the traditions – you’d think a Servo would just ignore the “Grand Meal” one because, well, SERVO, but nope! But he was happy enough to ignore the “Decorate” tradition because he’s Lazy, go fig), and Alice having successfully created her amethyst spire, getting up to level 4 of the Gemology skill in the process, nice. :) I put that on the grid to charge, sent her to bed, and left it there!

And that is that! Whew – long session to be sure, but a good one, I feel. :) Next time, we clean up the last of the mess left by those damn gnomes (who at least all ended up back in the greenhouse where I can easily move them back to where they should be), and get ready for another food sale, this time in good old Copperdale! See you then!

[purpletrashcans]

Things in Universe City are not what they seem

~Universe City Podcast, Radio Silence

[alfhildr-the-word-weaver]

I know it's a little belated, but I'm not ready to move on to Christmas music just yet personally. If you know any other good Thanksgiving-themed songs, please do tell me in the notes! I'm always looking to expand my holiday playlists and Thanksgiving is definitely the shortest on holiday-specific songs.

Edited to add, I know everybody says this, but please reblog for reach! I'm largely fishing for more songs to expand my Thanksgiving Playlist so the more people see this, hopefully the more suggestions I'll get. Also, even if it's not your all-time favorite thanksgiving song, you can still drop it in the notes :) Thanks, and happy belated Thanksgiving!

[itsclydebitches]

Me finishing S2 of Alice in Borderland: Wow!!! God, what an emotional gut-punch. The Land wasn’t some sci-fi virtual reality or any of the other cliches Mira was peddling, but rather a limbo where the games represent the characters fighting for their lives in the real world. And sure, an afterlife-esque explanation isn’t the most original, but often the most common endings are common for a reason. And this one fits perfectly. Rather than a cop-out “They were already dead from the start,” I interpret the games as being their actual deaths and those who had the will to live (alongside some inevitable luck and, as Karube points out, help from others) end up pulling through in the real world too, rather than the real world dictating what happens in the games. Which means everything we witnessed still keeps its emotional significance. We get that perfect, happy ending without erasing their hardships because the hardships are what got them that ending. It turns out they were really playing the games for the same reason they always have: to survive. And everything else seems to near perfectly line up with our explanation. We know now why some characters hung on despite numerous, horrific injuries and others perished from comparatively minor stuff. It’s not just a suspension of disbelief on the audience’s part, but an in-world representation of who is fighting the hardest to come back from the brink. If the Land is a limbo--one seemingly created for this specific tragedy--we know now why people are arriving at different times (their hearts aren’t all stopping simultaneously), and the limbo decays as fewer victims of the strike arrive and more make their choice, slowly eroding as it nears the point when no one else will need it. We see those who choose to test future “players” before inevitably passing on themselves. We see how even though Anne “dies,” Kuina deciding that they’ll go back together gives her the strength to pull through her surgery. We know now how they’ll meet again and become friends! That’s also just an awesome example of how you can kill a trans characters for the “realism” (everyone in that fight came out the worse for it) without actually removing her from the narrative/denying her a happy ending. We understand what the woman meant about those not being fireworks. We have a resolution that actually allows the survivors to return home in a way that makes sense (seriously, if people just popped back into the real world having remembered the games, wouldn’t they be talking about it?) while still keeping the core of what they learned. None of them need to remember the exact events because they’ve maintained both their newfound hope and just enough residual connection to recognize one enough and re-establish those bonds--perhaps an explanation for what we’d otherwise call “fate” or “soulmates.” They played the game of life and they won. They get to live! All they wanted was to do extraordinarily normal things together and now they can!! Walking out that door and the cards blowing away is the perfect endi--

AiB:

Me: what.

[doctahpants]

Inspired by @autumn-doodles charming Dogtors and Meowsters, plus chatting about knitting the s12 Doctor Who scarf (12? years ago) I've started knitting again.

It's SO soft and fluffy (and actually nowhere near the nightmare I thought it might be to knit with!)

This will be Thirteen's head. I also have the yarn to make Twelve.

[musicrunsthroughmysoul]

Who the fuck makes a list of the best "female" punk bands (where "female punk bands" means fronted by women and also bands of all women, but not all bands on the list are bands of all women) and FORGETS TO INCLUDE X-RAY SPEX?!?!? THERE WERE EVEN TWO WOMEN IN THAT BAND! I- oh, the whiteness and racism of it all. Oh, it's embarrassing.

Not to mention that no fucking playlist of punk rock should ever be complete without "Oh Bondage Up Yours!" at the very least! How can you even talk about punk music in general without mentioning X-Ray Spex?

[artisticdemon]

Damn you Alice Cooper and your ballads!

One song makes me fall in love and the next one makes me cry! And the one after that makes me fall in love AND cry!

Especially "Baby Please Don't go!"

My soul needs an Alice Cooper album with only ballads. New and old! He is an amazing songwriter!

[senkicho]

speak on it 🙌🏾

I don’t think people understand why Alicent was so bothered by Rhaenyra having illegitimate children as much as she was. Yes, part of it was coming from a place of frustration at Rhaenyra for scoffing at tradition and not honouring her marriage vows, but Alicent’s primary focus was on the politics - and how it put her own children in mortal danger.

Painting: The Execution of Lady Jane Grey

You see, if Rhaenyra had legitimate children with Ser Laenor, then the Greens would have no reason whatsoever to try and replace Rhaenyra as heir to the throne with Aegon. They, in truth, would’ve been usurpers. But as we know, Rhaenyra having bastards not only weakened her own claim to the throne but by it, she has given her enemies a legitimate reason to support Aegon instead of her. Just think about it - nearly every lord in the realm has a bastard of his own. If Rhaenyra puts her own bastards on the throne, it sets a precedent - that bastards can have a claim to a title just as much as legitimate children can. This of course presents a HUGE crisis to the lords who probably have multiple bastards running around, now all potential heirs to his house. Some lords might even have older bastard brothers, brothers who would potentially be better rulers than them if they were trueborn. Brothers who would follow Rhaenyra’s suit and place themselves in positions of great power and usurp their trueborn sibling’s claims. No doubt, this would lead to violence, in-fighting, bloodshed and the potential extinction of houses and bloodlines that go back thousands of years.

So naturally, any lord who would be fearful of this playing out would naturally ally themselves with the trueborn children of House Targaryen - Alicent’s children. Whether the Greens want it or not, Aegon, Helaena, Aemond and Daeron would become unwilling figureheads for rebellions against Rhaenyra. These rebels would rally themselves around Alicent’s children, demand them to be crowned instead of Rhaenyra, and of course, Rhaenyra would have absolutely no choice but to execute her half-siblings, to save herself and her children. Whether Alicent’s children want it or not, they are living, breathing, constant challenges to Rhaenyra’s throne.

It’s the exact predicament Mary I of England faced - a Catholic queen who had just deposed her Protestant cousin, the Lady Jane Grey, Mary had no choice but to order 16 year old Jane’s execution in 1554. Despite having Jane imprisoned, rebels kept on popping up around England, all marching on London to dethrone Mary in Jane’s name, even though Jane herself was oblivious to what was happening because she was behind bars and had already relinquished her crown and declared for Mary. Mary was hoping to restore Catholicism to England and was planning to marry a foreign prince so she could provide England with a Catholic heir - but she knew so long as Jane lived, Mary, her future children and England would never know peace. So she reluctantly signed Jane’s death warrant, causing the death of one of England’s most tragic figures.

This would be the fate of Alicent’s children if Rhaenyra ever ascended the throne. No matter how good willed Queen Rhaenyra would be to her siblings, it wouldn’t last. The minute the first lord lit the beacon of rebellion and openly called Rhaenyra’s sons illegitimate usurpers of Alicent’s trueborn children with no right to the throne, Alicent’s children would’ve been executed. There’s absolutely no way Rhaenyra would ever chose Aegon, Helaena, Aemond and Daeron’s lives over her own living children - what mother would?

[a-simple-spiders-oc-dump]

The Kiddos From Universe 1 At Calypso Water Park

so one of my favourite character-building exercises I like to do is figure out how my OCs would act going to the theme park I used to go to a lot when I was in high school - Calypso Water Park. and while I've done this for the Realm Kiddos before, I haven't done it RECENTLY, and especially not since the canon shift. so fuck it!! we ball!!

Lydia is very much the Mom Friend of the group. She's the one who makes sure everyone's brought everything they need before heading out, and the one who pesters everyone to put on sunscreen (on Trinity's behalf). She's not the biggest fan of a lot of the slides, but she'll go on the smaller ones, especially if they're two-person slides and only one member of the group wants to go on 'em. Otherwise, she spends the day relaxing in the lazy river and spending time with Trinity to make sure she feels included. Probably gets a stomach ache from eating ice cream and then immediately getting roped into going on slides.

Sinclair is ADAMANT about going on literally every single slide in the park, probably bragging the whole time that these slides are child's play for them. In reality, they're fucking terrified of slides like Adrenaline (basically a straight drop), and completely chicken out at the Aqua Loops. They do get very competitive during races the group have on the Fast Track, and eventually it's just Sinclair and Sydney doing the ride over and over again until one of them is the definitive victor. The two bond afterwards over their bruised stomachs and somehow managing to steal the entirety of their meals (because both of them decided the food was super overpriced and thus it was stupid to pay for it).

Cynthia is largely just trying to keep track of everyone, since that's just instinct for her at this point, but after some time she starts to relax and do what she wants. I think the wave pool would be her favourite attraction, and she'd spend a bunch of time there just seeing how long she can last against the waves in the deep end of the pool (probably having a friendly competition with Dylan to see who can last the longest at least once.) She doesn't care too much for the slides, not because she's scared of them - they just don't really interest her. Still has a relatively good day against all odds!

Dylan is going fucking EVERYWHERE. He's doing Fast Track races with Sydney, Sinclair and the twins. He's going on Canyon Rafting with as much of the group as he can gather in one place. He's lounging in the lazy river. He's surviving the wave pool with Cynthia. He's eating a big hot dog and then immediately going back into it and then needs to rest on one of the lounge chairs in front of the wave pool because he gave himself a stomach cramp. Dylan is in his element here and he's having the TIME OF HIS LIFE. I think he might end up going into a bit of a funk for a few days afterwards because he got so much serotonin from this trip that he simply cannot get in his daily life. Plans on making this an annual event the second they leave the park at the end of the day.

Morgan loudly complains the whole time everyone is planning this excursion, calling it a waste of time, saying it's dumb baby shit, asking to stay home... But then everyone gets to the park and they learn that Morgan has a well-hidden thrill-seeking side. Sinclair TRIES to go on every slide in the park, but Morgan SUCCEEDS. Although, this comes with a downside... There are multiple slides that require two people that only Sinclair, or worse, Sydney are willing to go on with her. She definitely bullies Sinclair over being scared of the Aqua Loops and rubs it in their face when she does it, like, "see? I survived the big scary plastic slides. coward." Sinclair will probably seethe over this for the next week.

Sydney. is. fucking. ELATED. You just brought the Realm's biggest thrill-seeker to a water park that claims to have the fastest slides in the world! Peak enrichment!! Much like Dylan, she's absolutely everywhere, and it's really hard to track her down. Much like Morgan, she also goes on every single ride in the park, minus a couple because she got so caught up with the Fast Track bullshit. She and Sinclair get to do crime together too, which is just a nice bonus. She does get some weird looks due to her extensive scars, because sometimes people suck, but Sydney Could Not Care Less About This, There Are Slides To Be Conquered And Friends To Compete With Over Stupid Shit.

Trinity is deathly afraid of heights. This means basically every slide is off-limits for her. Additionally, she's pretty self-conscious about her death scar on her neck, and this doesn't help her social anxiety much. Mostly just sticks to Lydia, Dylan, Cynthia or Morgan's sides for the majority of the trip, watching everyone else have fun, but after a bit Bianca and Troy coax her to come with them to Pirate's Aquaplay and she starts to really enjoy herself. The three of them go under the bigass bucket there together (because when you go to Calypso you HAVE to step under the bucket) and the twins keep her from getting knocked over by the water, and it's the loudest anyone's heard Trinity laugh before.

Bianca desperately WANTS to keep up with Sydney but. holy shit. that's a LOT of slides. Her paranoia kinda ebbs and flows throughout the day regarding Troy, because on one hand, More People = More People Who Could Hurt Him, but on the other hand... who'd kill a kid surrounded by so many people?? (The latter reasoning is mostly her trying to fight that shit off with a metaphorical stick for the sake of actually being able to enjoy her day. It... only kind of works, much to her own chagrin.) And, at the very least, the two spend most of their day with Sydney, who Bianca full-heartedly trusts. (Maybe not to keep them safe from over-exertion, but at least to keep them safe from anyone who might try to hurt either twin.) She joins Troy in his gremlin antics at Pirate's Aquaplay, and is the one to suggest that Trinity come and join them to experience The Bucket. She heads to the gift shop early while Troy and Sydney are hanging out and gets everyone surprisingly thoughtful souvenirs from the day.

Troy is that little shit who goes to Pirate's Aquaplay and dumps the mini-buckets on kids' heads when they pass under it. I know this, because I was that little shit when I was a kid, and I know it's exactly the kind of thing Troy would love. A lot of the slides scare him more than he's willing to admit, and he especially hates any of the covered slides because they make him feel claustrophobic, but the big exception to this is the Turbo Lab. Partially due to the theming, partially due to the fact that they aren't super fast or tall slides, and partially because the ones he likes best are ones he can go on with his friends. By and large, though, he's mostly just following the group and joining in on activities like Canyon Rafting and Fast Track races. I like to think he and Bianca also make a bet on whether they can last more than five minutes in the kiddie pool without being kicked out. They barely even last a minute.

Gamma got volunteered by Alice to be a chaperone. He fucking hates it. Not just because it's REALLY hard to keep track of nine humans when they're all going on different rides on different ends of the park, not just because there are more people in the park that day than Gamma's seen in his entire life, but because Gamma has a secret phobia of drowning/being underwater. Being around this much water? That's hell to him. Either Alice or Sinclair has to explain the concept of a "lifeguard" to him to keep him from spontaneously combusting out of stress, and he can't look at the wave pool without his stomach twisting up in knots. Also? He refuses to wear swimwear. He's still in his fucking suit. He only vaguely understands why he's getting strange looks from everyone. Needless to say, Gamma does not have fun, but the humans had a great time and no one got seriously hurt, and once it's all over, that's all that truly matters to him. (He still needs to take a day or two to recover tho, because being hyper-vigilant for that long is fucking exhausting. And by 'take a day' I mean he spends a little more time than usual reading between patrolling the woods and making sure his siblings do their jobs, because Gamma doesn't understand that he can take a sick day without everything exploding, so there's no way he's taking a mental health day voluntarily.)

Alice would fucking LOOOOOOVE to go, but because of the Mechanics Of How Realms Work, she physically cannot. (The humans obviously can't go back to their homeworld, so they have to go to a different Reality in order to go to Calypso, and Alice is shackled to her Realm and the Reality it branched off from. I'm torn between it being a "if I leave I die instantly and I Do Not Want That" situation or "yeah I've got a built-in aversion to leaving this place that's kind of like a primal fear and I'm Not Fucking With That" situation. Could be both!) She still makes an adorable swimsuit for herself just for fun and watches everyone's day through portals while eating popcorn. She also spends a good amount of time talking with Gamma over his communication device whenever he starts getting overwhelmed by the. fucking EVERYTHING happening that day. Absolutely gets him to bring her back a souvenir from the park. (Oh, also, the group circumvents the money issue via Alice basically creating counterfeit money. Hey, they're only there for a day! What are the cops gonna do, track them down across time and space for a couple of forged twenties?)