#pre romantic analogical

[pitchsidestories]

one kiss is all it takes II Laura Freigang x Reader

masterlist I word count: 1616

a/n: Hi, it's inspired by the request here, we hope you enjoy it. <3

Home games in Frankfurt were always something special to you.

But then again, you would never complain about away games either. You knew your traveling fans could make any stadium feel like you were playing at home. You liked that it gave you a few days to only focus on the upcoming game and leave your worries back in Frankfurt.

At least you would be focused, if someone would not point their camera at you once again…

You lifted both your hands, trying to shield your face from being photographed.

“Laura, stop it.“, you groaned. Why did she always have to have that stupid camera with her, even on the pre-game walk?

The young midfielder slowly dropped her analog camera and caught up with you: “Come on, it’s just a photo.“

“You always say that and then I see my face all over your instagram photo dumb account!“, you rolled her eyes at her.

Laura shrugged, a slight crease appearing between her eyebrows: “They always look good so I don’t know why you’re complaining.“

“Good? Sure, Freigang.“, you replied while you continued to walk.

“It’s true. Ask the others.“

You sighed reluctantly before turning to Sara Doorsoun who walked right behind you. Knowing her, she probably had been listening to the whole conversation, so you only asked: “Sara, what do you think?“

The German defender smirked slightly: “With the amount of pictures she is taking of you, I’d say Lau has a crush on you.“

You could not stop the involuntary laughter that came out of your mouth: “Good joke, Sara. She does that with Syd and Klara too.“

“Sure.“, Sara answered, unconvinced.

“It’s true. You don’t have to sure me.“, you warned her.

“I’ll sure you until you see it too.“ She gently bumped her shoulder against yours.

“The only thing I see is that Lau is the most annoying person on the team.“, you commented, your gaze fixed on Laura who was already a few steps in front of your again and back to taking photos of her other teammates.

Sara raised one eyebrow as she looked at you: “You think Lau is the most annoying person on the team?“

“Yes.“

The defender grimaced upon your answer: “I feel like you don’t hang out enough with the youngsters.“

“I agree!“, Shekiera Martinez’ voice piped up right next to you. “You’re always the first one to leave any party or team event.“

“That’s not even true!“, you protested.

Nicole Anyomi, looking effortlessly cool as always, gave Sara a look: “Right, maybe Sara is even quicker now that she’s seeing someone again.“

Saras cheeks turned slightly red: “Rude!“

“She’s got a point.“, you agreed with the young striker.

“Maybe.“, Sara slowly admitted.

You felt bad for your friend, so you casually distracted from her: “Also, that’s not the topic right now.“

“Right, this is about Laura and you.”, Sophia Kleinherne reminded your temmates with a mischievous smile on her lips.

“No, this is about Laura being annoying with her stupid photos.”, you rolled your eyes at her. You loved your teammates, but sometimes you wished they would care more about themselves than others, especially in this situation.

“You’d miss something if she would just stop.”, Lara Prašnikar threw in with an amused twinkle in her eyes.  

You let out a frustrated groan. Was this so hard for them to comprehend why you didn’t like what the blonde hobby photographer was doing.

“Not really. I like to keep my social media presence private, but she keeps posting me.”, you tried to explain your thoughts to the fellow players.

“Because she can’t stop thinking about you.”, Sara remarked, through the words her romantic being shone through which annoyed you even more.

“That’s stupid, Sara.”, you scoffed at her. Despite your protest, the sentence of the defender would haunt you through the day. Even when you laid down in the hotel room during the break, before you all would travel to the stadium. Could there be some truth to the older woman’s observation? She was never that far off when it came to love, except when it was her own heart which was so breakable unlike yours.

pictogangg why are you hiding your face, pretty girl? @y/n'sinstagramaccount

“Hi, y/n, did you see Lauras post?”, you shrieked while Barbara Dunst asked you this, you haven’t heard or seen her come into the room you shared.

“Yes, I did, Baba.”

“Don’t murder her before the game, okay?”, the Austrian joked laughing.

“Okay, but she needs to stop posting me with such captions. I’m serious.”, you sighed, pressing a white pillow to your chest to underline your frustration with Laura.

“Oh, everyone knows it’s just a joke.”, Barabara reassured you in a warm tone.

“I don’t like when people make fun of me.”, your mouth was formed to a pout.

“She’s not making fun of you.”, she disagreed seriously.

“What do you mean?”, you looked at her in honest curiosity.

“It’s just teasing. She’s waiting for a reaction.”, the midfielder told you in a matter-of-factly voice.

“Isn’t me being annoyed reaction enough?”, you wanted to know from your teammate who was a good friend of the woman who loved taking photos of you whenever she could.

“You mean the one where you’re pouting and ignoring her? No.”, Barbara shook her head.

“Oh.”

“But that’s something for after the game. Want to go and grab a coffee from downstairs, before we go to the stadium.”, the Austrian changed the topic cheerfully.

“I do.”, you told her while she was already on the way to the door, leaving no further room to think about what Laura exactly was waiting for.

Frankfurt won their away game with a hard-fought 1:0. You were relieved that you got the three points because it meant that you secured your spot as the third in the league and in the Champions League qualification. From the way your teammates celebrated around you, you could tell they felt the same way.

As you watched on, Lauras face appeared in front of you. A few stray hairs had escaped her slicked back ponytail during the game.

“Y/n? Good game.”

“Thanks.”, you replied politely.

It was clear to you that the midfielder was not yet done talking, so you waited for her to continue.

Laura took a deep breath: “Also I deleted all the pictures of you on my instagram account as you didn't seem to enjoy them.”

This revelation took you by surprise: “All of them?”

“Yes, I thought that's what you wanted all along.”

“I did. But all of that seems a bit… drastic, don't you think?”, you asked, trying to put your confusion into words.

“No. See you, y/n.”, Laura replied and turned around to leave.

Surprised, you watched her for a moment before you called after her: “Laura.”

The midfielder stopped in her tracks, looking back at you: “What?”

You bridged the gap between the two of you. The things your teammates told you were circulating in your brain.

You gathered all your courage and said: “If you like me, just say that.”

Lauras eyes widened for a second before she admitted: “I wanted to kiss you the whole season… when I scored against Barca, at every team event, when we secured the third place today… but I guess I've to accept that you don't feel the same so deleting the pictures was the first step.”

You were taken aback by her reply. There were a million things you wanted to say but what came out first was: “You should have said something instead of taking these stupid photos.”

“I hoped that way you would notice the person behind the camera.” Laura bit her lip subconsciously.

“I only noticed how much I hate being photographed!”

Your teammate studied your face: “I don't get why. You're just so beautiful and interesting. I love capturing you on film.”

You could feel the heat rise in your cheeks: “Just don't, Laura.”

She nodded slowly: “Okay, I‘ll respect that in the future.”

For a moment, you did not know what to say. She looked beautiful, standing in front of you and apologizing.

“And maybe I'll make an exception for you sometimes. Maybe.”

“Wait, what?” Her eyes immediately brightened.

“I do like a few photos to be honest. They carry some memories.”, you admitted with a shrug.

“Do you have any favourites.”, Laura asked in a genuinely interested tone.

“Laura, I don’t want to talk about the stupid photos right now.”, you groaned, hiding the face in your hand.

“What do you want to talk about instead?”, the blonde responded.

“This is why I hate it. You’re always busy with photography and never focus on the moment.”, you told her frustrated, you never felt the gap between you both by two years, you’re being the older more than in this moment.

“I guess there’s a truth to your words, but when all is over, I want to remember everything and pictures help with that.”, she confessed passionately.

“Can you just shut up and kiss me already.”, you begged her, at this point your patience has been gone, leaving only the yearning for the younger player to touch you.

Much to your surprise Laura did stop talking immediately and pressed her lips on yours, giving you a heartfelt kiss making sure you both would never forget the first one. Little did you know that a lot of firsts would follow afterwards. For now, all you and her did was enjoying the moment.

The first kiss would be one of your favourite memories. In your mind it was like a framed picture, you’d come to love to look at especially on bad days.

pictures are from pinterest.

[vidavalor]

Hello lovely! I'm wondering if you have any thoughts about Maggie in Final1 5? Isn't it weird that she wants to go back to talk to Az and Crowley while Nina's working? Something about it feels off to me.

Hello right back. 💕 There's chamomile mint tea and shortbread since we're on a Maggie theme, if you'd like some. Maggie's behavior from that scene on is super fucking weird, I agree.

Before the milk run-- when Maggie becomes the only involved character whom we lose track of a bit during The Final 15-- versus how she behaves when she returns is so strange as to be something that I consider maybe additional proof that things are not at all what they seem to be in The Final 15.

On Maggie and Crowley's weird Final 15 behavior, a possible meaning to all the allusions to robbery in S2, and what Maggie and Nina might be able to tell us about what happened at the end of S2.

TW: brief mentions of show's non-consensual possession/rape analogy.

Think for a moment about how truly weird Maggie's request for her and Nina to go back to the bookshop in that moment actually is...

It's only been a matter of minutes since Maggie and Nina were basically hostages in the bookshop who were almost killed by Michael and Saraqael. Crowley saved their lives in getting them out of the shop maybe, what? It's been a minute since I rewatched that bit of it but it couldn't have been more than 15 minutes prior?

The beings in the shop but for Maggie and Nina are supernatural and so left magically without using the door but while we the audience know that these people are no longer in the shop because we were watching it, Maggie and Nina do not know that. When Maggie suggests to Nina that they go talk to Crowley and Aziraphale, they have no way of knowing if the beings that just tried to kill them are still in the shop. They didn't even see Aziraphale leave with Whoever Derek Jacobi Is Playing yet because Nina was all "where's the other one?" to Crowley when they arrived back in the shop.

Maggie is literally like: Nina, I know you opened the business you own late and are the only one working right now and have a line of 20 people waiting for their morning, pre-work coffee but what if-- just hear me out-- we just made them wait an indefinite amount of time to voluntarily go back into the place where we nearly died a matter of minutes ago that could still be full of the people who wanted us dead and we did this for no other purpose than just to tell off my beloved adopted godfather and his partner, who just risked harm to save both our lives? And to maybe then also stick our noses into their love lives in return or something?

I mean... WHAT?!?! lol

Consider, even, how even more weird that is when Maggie, just *prior* to having gone to the mini-mart, had never been more on the same page with Nina and never more understanding?

She sacrificed her own want to go sleep behind the counter of her shop to offer to help Nina. It's a big moment of change in their relationship and shows a lot of growth for Maggie. She's gone from someone who is caring but has a tendency to only think about how things make her feel to seeing things from Nina's perspective. She's matured through the season into being someone more ready to be a partner to Nina. Maggie offering to help Nina with her morning rush-- and Nina accepting the help-- is the sweet, romantic moment showing that these two are heading in a positive direction, both individually and together.

When Maggie gets back with the milk, though? After she's been out of our sight for a few minutes? She's behaving very differently.

During S2, Maggie is shown to be a pretty guileless character. She might have the occasional judgemental moment but she's not deceptive or tricky and she really wouldn't hurt a fly. When Maggie comes back from the milk run, though, her insistence on Nina dropping everything and going with her in that moment is not just weird behavior but manipulative in a way that could not be more out of character for Maggie.

Nina has been in an abusive relationship where she was afraid of displeasing Lindsay. Maggie is aware of this, as it's been the subject of multiple conversations between them throughout the season. So, when Maggie gets so bizarrely insistent on Nina dropping her work-- her livelihood, her purpose, her job-- to meet Maggie's demands in that moment? When this isn't an emergency of any kind and isn't at all time-sensitive and there is no objective reason why Nina should be halting her job to do what Maggie wants in this moment? Maggie is being controlling in a Lindsay-like way. She keeps at it, knowing that Nina will give in and agree to go with her because Nina is used to doing that with her partner.

Nina hesitates and isn't sure whether or not to go with Maggie for a moment and I don't really blame her? This is the complete opposite behavior to Maggie before she left for the mini-mart. Maggie is suddenly acting quite a lot like her polar opposite-- the Lucifer-and-Heaven-paralleling Lindsay.

Maggie is also literally on Nina's shoulder like a devil the whole time in the scene in which she's convincing her to step away from the shop and go across the street with her to the other shop for a chat and...

...listen to what we just said there...

...it's a parallel to the thing that Whoever Derek Jacobi Is Playing is doing with Aziraphale, is it not?

So, what happened on the milk run?

Who did Maggie run into at the mini-mart that we couldn't see in the ending of S2 without it giving the game away? I wouldn't be surprised if, on this mirror-happy show, on the other side of learning in S3 that it was The Devil with the coffee in the bookshop in The Final 15, we also had a scene that showed that, while on her milk run, Maggie had a run-in with Sister Teresa's killer.

Did Hastur possess Maggie as part of Satan's plan? Was the idea to use Maggie and Nina to further trip Crowley and Aziraphale towards disaster to get Aziraphale? If so, it kind of half-worked. I'm not convinced that anything Maggie and Nina said to Crowley really mattered-- I think they weren't telling him anything he didn't already know or feel and that it's largely misdirection for the audience. What was effective, though, was the impression Aziraphale got upon seeing them leave as he was coming in.

Maggie and Nina being back in there at this weird time and then rushing out with smiles and comments like that they were "just leaving" and they were sure Crowley and Aziraphale had "a lot to discuss" seem to have led Aziraphale to assume that Crowley had asked them to come back and to the conclusion that he must have done so to tell them of his intent to ask Aziraphale to marry him. It's Maggie and Nina leaving the shop that reinforce to Aziraphale the idea that, when Crowley stands up afterwards, takes off his glasses, and says he supposes he has "something to say", that Crowley is only trying to communicate a proposal and not a plan.

It's what helps-- big time-- to lead Aziraphale to not listen for a shred of coded language for the entire scene. Neither he nor Crowley are listening for that with one another, which is why neither of them can truly understand what the other is saying, but Aziraphale's part of that is really fucked to Hell by the presence of Maggie and Nina in the shop when he came back. That's all pretty suspicious since Maggie was out of our sight for a few moments and came back fixated on the idea that she and Nina needed to go to the bookshop right that very moment and that it couldn't wait.

The Final 15 is a dark parallel to The Baby Swap plot and Maggie and Nina are full of shadows of Sisters Mary and Teresa to a point that the final shots of both of them in the series are mirror images of the final shots of their S1 characters. Nina looking through glass at Crowley departing is the last shot of Sister Mary both in 2008 and 2019, while Maggie's last shot?

To me, it's one of the most eerie moments in the entire series because of how much it visually resembles Sister Teresa's death.

Basically two minutes after we hear about The Second Coming... in the same season where Maggie and Nina's partial-vavoom gives way to a (possessed?) Gabriel saying: the dead will leave their graves and walk the Earth once more... we are shown Crowley and Aziraphale's apparent adopted goddaughter unresponsive on the counter of her shop.

Is Maggie dead?

Is Maggie asleep, like we were led to believe she wanted to do earlier in the episode? Maybe. Is she comatose/unconscious? Maybe. It's just that, best I can tell, she does not take a breath during the shot which I feel had to be intentional on the part of Maggie Service, and she's in the same position as we last saw Sister Teresa in S1...

Then, there's the robbery theme and how Maggie and Nina foreshadow so much of the end of S2 back in this scene here:

In Good Omens, the shop is the character. Maggie is, symbolically, the records she sells. The show also explains that Maggie's shop used to be a part of the bookshop. Now, there are three characters, not two, who are A.Z. Fell & Co.: Aziraphale, Crowley and Maggie. At the same time, Aziraphale is also The Small Back Room. The shops are intertwined as the characters are, essentially, family in the story. The fate of one is the fate of the other, which makes what Maggie and Nina foreshadow when talking about Maggie's shop while trapped together in Nina's not just the fate of Maggie's shop in S2 but also of the bookshop.

Maggie says that if she can't close the door to her shop, someone could walk in and take records. Maggie is the records she sells so, symbolically, this means someone could take Maggie. We got a bit of a preview of that when Shax appeared to get into her mind during the attack on the bookshop and Maggie also became the one who unintentionally "let the robbers in."

These robbers, Maggie frets... they could empty her till-- take all her money on a literal level... take her mind, or maybe even her life, on another. (Not to mention the now chill-inducing use of money-related words and coins with regards to the paralleling Crowley...) These robbers could take forcible ownership of Maggie's shop-- so, of Maggie. Maggie's shop was born of the bookshop... so, they could take forcible ownership of the bookshop, too.

Not just the physical bookshop, though that, too. The symbolic bookshop. Which is not only Aziraphale but Crowley and Aziraphale.

But, if The Small Back Room was originally part of the bookshop, then the bookshop really isn't just Crowley and Aziraphale-- it's Crowley, Aziraphale and Maggie.

If the robbers come for the bookshop, they've also come for The Small Back Room because it is all born of the same, symbolic shop.

Is that what they did?

Is that why Maggie is last shown to us non-responsive in her shop?

Now, Nina's even more foreshadowing reply:

Nina said that, if she owned a record shop, she'd be more concerned about "someone breaking in and leaving more records behind."

What are records? They're the literal records in the musical and old film sense that Maggie sells, yes, and also Maggie herself. They're also books, like what Aziraphale sells, and Aziraphale himself. But they're also a third thing that's very much of note in S2.

They're also the life's work of a scrivener, like what Muriel does.

Nina foreshadows someone breaking in and leaving "more records behind"... which is exactly what happens in The Final 15.

Elspeth's graverobbing. Bildad stealing Job and Sitis' wine and food. The 1810 Clerkenwell Diamond Robbery. Aziraphale having the missing Shakespeare Robin Hood play in the box in 2.06. The robbery-based fantasy Aziraphale was telling Crowley in Lockdown: ...the other night, when a couple of young lads broke into the back and tried to steal the cash(cache)box!

The Final 15 is a robbery.

The last two episodes see the shop attacked during The Meeting Ball and into the next morning. Aziraphale is robbed blind of his entire life. Characters are taken hostage. Signals for help are tried and fail. The cop, it turns out, was a stooge for the robbers. Whoever Derek Jacobi Is Playing broke in through the open door and robbed the place blind, as Maggie foreshadowed. As Nina foreshadowed he would, what did the robber leave behind?

More records. Muriel.

To rob, as we know, is to steal. It's to plunder or strip a place from someone through force and/or violence. That is why it was once, in addition to being descriptive of physical goods stolen from a person, also a word that was used for rape, for which non-consensual possession has been analogous since the show's first episode. That is why some of us think that the music goes insane on the look to Crowley in the scene below. Satan is robbing Crowley-- forcing him to identify him as The Metatron to Aziraphale and the angels and to let Aziraphale go alone with him.

Satan attacked Crowley in front of Aziraphale and, while Aziraphale pretended he didn't see it, he did, which is why he led "The Metatron" straight out the door in an effort to get him away from Crowley. Because, speaking of characters behaving very weirdly... anyone have a better explanation for why guard dog Crowley sat in that chair like he couldn't get out of it and encouraged Aziraphale to go alone with a guy who once tried to kill them? It just doesn't make any sense unless his words are not really his own and there's only one character we've seen do that to him.

And if Crowley's not the only one behaving out of character, then what else happened to Maggie at the mini-mart but something similar?

What happened in The Final 15? Satan robbed the bookshop.

He and The Metatron don't give a toss about the shop itself and plan to destroy it alongside everything else once Armageddon gets rocking. They're there to get Crowley and Aziraphale out of the way for Armageddon by dividing and conquering. Just because we've yet to see blood doesn't mean this wasn't robbery by force.

Satan took hostages at the start-- letting the ones go he didn't care about go and keeping the ones most likely to influence the shop's owner: Crowley and Muriel.

Satan and The Metatron sacrificed Muriel to their plan, not caring if Muriel explodes along with the shop when they kick off Armageddon a matter of *checks watch* basically any minute now after S2. We think Muriel is better off in the shop at the end of S2 but I'm not totally sure they are. I think it actually might be one of the most dangerous places to be in right now. The bookshop didn't burn down this time-- it was burned as safe space in every possible way. It's a crime scene.

The Metatron and Satan are here for revenge. The Metatron is letting Satan have Aziraphale to get Crowley and Aziraphale out of the way for Armageddon. There is no real job offer-- it's all Satan tempting Aziraphale into falling. Satan's revenge on Crowley and Aziraphale is to force Crowley to help him take Aziraphale right out from under his nose. That's the start of it, anyway.

Besides Armageddon and daring to have a relationship and a sense of self outside of the demonic collective of Hell what is Satan really pissed at Crowley and Aziraphale about?

His kid. Adam. Crowley and Aziraphale helping Adam against him.

If Satan has been lying in wait, still very, very angry at Crowley and Aziraphale for turning his son against him and if he's now here for revenge, then who else besides Aziraphale is then most in peril here?

Yes, my Job-and-Sitis-paralleling poppet... your big, cross duck and your kids are most imperiled here and S2 showed us that your kids are not just humanity writ large but, specifically, Maggie. The Small Back Room is of the bookshop that is you and Crowley. Maggie is your Adam. Will Satan come after your daughter? It's a concept posed in your paralleling/foreshadowing story earlier in the season... actually, it was also the entire plot of that paralleling story earlier in the season as well...

I feel like not going with Ennon and Keziah's theories on Satan's behavior is probably the best way to form a Good Omens theory 😂 so I'll stick with the idea that Satan very much would dare leave a revenge body count of Crowley and Aziraphale's adopted kids, as the Job minisode proved he'd do even with the spawn of "God's favorite human", let alone anybody else.

As, speaking of foreshadowing lines, this is really even more S2 than it was about S1:

Satan will even have a whole pseudo-philosophical chat about it with you first, amused that he's standing in a place called Give Me Coffee or Give Me Death and ordering a coffee while the plan is likely for this place, the women making him the coffee, and everyone on this street and on most of the planet to be dead by tomorrow.

Maggie is the only character who actually asked for coffee using that exact word in S2.

[elminx]

Energy Update: October 2024

October is a “9” Universal Month [10 (October) + 8 (2024) = 18 = 1+8=9] in a “8” Universal Year. In numerology, “9” is the number of completions and endings. For some, big projects will finally be coming to fruition. Others of us may be dealing with endings, for good or ill. This aligns with the month’s astrological energy, which includes our last solar eclipse in Libra in this lunar node cycle and some significant planetary shifts.

The Set Up

We begin the month with the Sun and Mercury in Libra, Venus in Scorpio, Mars in Cancer, Jupiter in Gemini, retrograde Saturn and Neptune in Pisces, retrograde Uranus in Taurus, and retrograde Pluto in Capricorn. By month’s end, the Sun and Mercury will have moved into Scorpio and Venus into Sagittarius. Additionally, Jupiter will have retrograded, and Pluto will station direct. Mars will also have entered its pre-retrograde shadow in Cancer.

The Nitty Gritty

The month begins with a bang with a solar eclipse at 10° Libra on the second. Otherwise, all eyes are on Pluto, who is on its last legs in Capricorn for the next two months, and Mars, who is entering its pre-retrograde shadow. These three events not only set the tone for the month but will ripple through the rest of the year and into the coming one ahead.

Our Lights: The Sun and the Moon

The Sun will spend 3/4 of the month in the cardinal air sign of Libra and the last bit in the fixed water sign of Scorpio. This is our last Libra season before our lunar nodes switch to the Pisces-Aries axis in January of 2025, and we all have one final reckoning to meet around the themes of independence vs. togetherness. We’re coming out of a pandemic that highlighted both ends of this spectrum: on the one hand, we all felt the loneliness and isolation of the quarantine times, but on the other, it took a considerable amount of working together to create and distribute novelle vaccines to the entire world. We all got a deeper glimpse into how big and how small our lives really are. How interconnected, but also how separate.

I don’t mean to downplay this event or the trauma it has caused us all, but instead, to emphasize its complexity. What I have found the most fascinating about these past four years is how differently people experienced and synthesized these moments—sometimes even people who lived in the same house as one another! When somebody we loved could understand our experience with the pandemic, we felt more connected; when they did not, we felt more isolated.

Although this certainly isn’t over, it IS a good analogy for what is happening inside all of us and what is being highlighted by this last Libra eclipse on the Aries-Libra axis. All of us, every human on this planet, have a baseline of where we fall on the individuality to connectedness scale. Some of this comes straight out of our natal birth charts – Aries, often, are quite independent, and Libras are most certainly not. But our backgrounds, experiences, triumphs, and traumas all shape who we are and what we are comfortable with. We have all been forced to look at where we fall on this scale; we have all been weighed, and some of us have been found wanting. I don’t mean to imply a universal right or wrong in this regard, but there may often be for a certain place at a certain time.

Then you have two choices: You can adapt, or you can leave and find a place that is more to your liking.

Because the Aries-Libra axis is one of independence and connectedness, relationships have been on the hot seat for a long two years. Many of us really had to consider whether what we were doing (and with whom we were doing it) was worth the sunk cost. I don’t just mean Big R Romantic relationships here, either. All human interactions are relationships. Some will be worth every effort we put into them. And others were never worth our time.

All of this will come to a head leading into our solar eclipse on 10/02 because Libra is the sign of relationships and togetherness. This is a mixed energy eclipse as it involves the energy of a new moon conjunct to the energy of the South Node, our axis of past-facing fate. Also, our two relationship signs (Venus in Scorpio and Mars in Cancer) will be in a wide grand trine with retrograde Saturn in Pisces. Many people will ask themselves, “Is this really meant to be?” and likely coming up short. Because, after all, is ANYTHING truly meant to be? This astrologer says no, not that way anyway; that’s just not how fate works.

But this isn’t a post about synastry and how we fulfill lessons in each other’s lives. It’s about the cosmic, often overdue, realization that you cannot live for another person – you must live for yourself. That’s the lesson of our North Node in Aries, and we’re almost out of time.

Some relationships will end in and around the solar eclipse, that’s just the way of things. It may be hard, and it may really fucking hurt. But people who can’t agree on what a relationship means, who can’t bend and align to live a life together with interconnectedness rather than codependence, well, they really aren’t meant to be, aren’t they?

I know that there are some Libra types out there who have never learned this lesson and who are very mad at me for writing this. What can I say? I have an Aries moon. That’s my bias. Do you know what yours is?

This new moon is a 5/5 moon.

7 (Libra moon) + 7 (Libra Sun) = 14 – 1+4 = 5. 5 (Libra new moon) + 9 (October 2024) = 14 = 1+4 =5.

5 is a bit of a warning, a conflict number. This aligns with the energy of the eclipse pretty seamlessly. It’s not that what is meant to be is easy, per se, but when you are well aligned, you can get through conflicts easily. Pay attention to that during the eclipse and the days surrounding it.

Otherwise, our Sun squares off with Mars in Cancer on 10/14, which will be a rough-and-tumble fighty sort of day. Be ready to get into it, or step the fuck out of the way. You might be able to channel this cardinal energy into a project if you’ve got a well-aspected Mars in your natal birth chart but don’t push your luck with other people during this time. The Sun’s trine with Jupiter on the 13th may smooth things over, but only if you’re especially lucky. (Jupiter is retrograde and in its exile, after all)

Our full moon on 10/17 falls at 24° Aries and will pull in a lot of energy from our Sun-Mars square and our total solar eclipse last April through the Moon’s conjunction with Chiron. Our solar eclipse was at 19° Aries and was part of a major stellium between the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, and Chiron. Now slow-moving Chiron is still sitting at 21°, holding that wound.

This is an 8/8 full moon.

1 (Aries Moon) + 7 (Libra Sun) = 8. 8 (Aries Full Moon) + 9 (October 2024) = 17 = 1+7 = 8.

8 is the number of the ouroboros and the infinity sign; it is a reminder that what comes around goes around. Everything that goes up must come back down, and vice versa. Expect the highest highs and the lowest lows on an 8 moon, which is a double 8 moon. You can work with the Stength card or the Wheel of Time in the tarot to further this energy.

As the Sun prepares to exit Libra on 10/22, it forms a quick square with Pluto in Capricorn, repeating the theme of endings this month. Pluto is the planet of death and transformation, and he will be in Capricorn for a scant two months more for the next two hundred years! If you couldn’t put it down on the eclipse, do it now.

This energy will shift rapidly as we exit our very last eclipse cycles and enter Scorpio season. Things may get dark and moody, but they will certainly feel less fated as our luminaries pull away from our lunar nodes.

Mars

Mars gets near-to-the-top billing this month as it enters its pre-retrograde shadow on 10/04. This retrograde will occur between 06° Leo and 17° Cancer, so the switchover from cardinal to fixed sign will be in the hot seat for the next seven months. You read that right: 7 months from 10/2 when Mars enters its pre-retrograde shadow to 5/2 when it exits its post-retrograde cycle.

I feel like we’re in for a reminder here. All retrogrades happen in three stages as the planet will pass over the same points in the horoscope wheel thrice: first in forward motion (the pre-retrograde shadow), secondly when moving backward in retrograde, and thirdly as it moves forward the final time in its post-retrograde shadow. This is why (how?) retrogrades tend to bring with them our deepest lessons: any aspect that Mars makes with your chart will happen three times in the next seven months.

I will explore this energy more in my Mars retrograde Update, but the transition from cardinal to fixed signs is one of actualization. Cardinal signs are the searching signs and the first signs of the season. Fixed signs are the root signs; they take what the cardinal sign has uncovered and plant it/make it solid. Mars is the planet of action. Retrogrades are a time of re-s: we get to rethink, revise, revisit, renovate.

Mars will be in the pre-retrograde shadow phase for the entire month. During this phase, Mars will be in aspect with all of our personal planets and Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Chiron. Because this astrological event lasts for seven months, we can acknowledge the Sun, Moon, Mercury, and Venus as a part of this story. However, we know they will be across the horoscope and into Taurus season by the time this transit resolves. Our outer planets and Chiron move much slower; they are the meat of this retrograde cycle.

This is looking ahead a lotta bit (but this will go until May 2025 so stay with me here), but this theme of hoovering on the edge between two planets (which Mars will now embody) has been in place all year as Pluto moves back and forth over the line between Capricorn and Aquarius. Now, looking ahead to 2025, Uranus will do so on the line between Taurus and Gemini and Neptune between Pisces and Aries. On top of that, our lunar nodes change signs in January!

Mars can get a little bit off of its game when so much is going on. Mars is also in its fall in Cancer., where it will be all month.

If you don’t know where to turn or what path to take, know you are right on time. It’s frustrating AF, I’m sure, but it is a part of the process. As we transition into this new era, many of us are finding that the ground underneath us has shifted. What made sense before may not make sense now.

You can consider these next seven months our planetary adjustment zone.

Things to remember: Cancer is considered the fall of Mars because the crab doesn’t move in a straight line. The crab is also known for holding on for dear life, so maybe work on loosening that death grip (you know what I mean if that is intended for you).

This will affect everyone because Mars is one of our personal planets. Mars is also the one personal planet that is beyond the Earth, which means that it works a little bit differently from Mercury and Venus. Mars isn’t tied to the Sun, which seems important to note here. These are the people that will be most affected by our Mars retrograde. Note here that you may have more than one and each compounds.

Anyone with Sun, Moon, or Ascendant between 00-06° of the fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius) or 17-29° of the cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn) with additional emphasis on Cancer and Leo/conjunctions

Anyone with Mars in those degrees of any sign (but the ones listed above most specifically)

Anyone with Mercury of Venus in those signs/degrees

Any Aries or Scorpio Sun or Moon

Anyone with a Mars dominant chart

Anyone with a luminary or personal planet between 00-06° Aries and Sagittarius or 17-29° Scorpio and Pisces

I’ll get into what this means more as we start working through this transit (I have seven months to write about it, apparently), but it’s time to become aware right now. And to give yourself grace is your work – whatever that means to you – happens more slowly.

Mercury

Mercury will be in Libra until the 13th when it enters Scorpio. In Libra, it will square off with Mars in Cancer, which may make the days around the 6th challenging and bitey. The next day, it will trine Jupiter in Gemini, so this likely won’t have any lasting effects.

Before it enters Scorpio, it will square Pluto on 10/13. I think this may feel like a bit of a release. This is the last time Mercury will square Pluto while Pluto is still in Capricorn. This day may feel somber, as if the hollows are extra hollow. You can work with that.

Mercury in Scorpio trines retrograde Saturn in Pisces on 10/22, reminding us of where we’ve been and how far we have come in the last four years. This will sit better with some people than with others, and it may be a deeply emotional day for some. At the end of the month, Mercury meets up with Neptune and Uranus as it begins to make moves to switch signs again. This could be intense for some, but it will mostly pass uneventfully.

Venus

While Mars is mired in its pre-retrograde shadow all month in Cancer, we look to Venus to see if we will get anywhere at all. Both Venus and Mars are our two movement planets; their interactions with each other show us how we attract (Venus) and go out and get (Mars) what we want. The world will run a bit smoother when Venus and Mars are better aligned. People will get along better. The two, especially poorly maligned, have indications for war and other human-made calamities.

Venus begins the month in the fixed water sign Scorpio until 10/17, when it enters the mutable fire sign of Sagittarius. As the Morning Star, Venus is at full speed, rushing ahead of the Sun. For as long as the Sun is in Libra, Venus will be our guiding planet, and she will be the intense watery depths of Scorpio. Note here that this is the sign of Venus’s exile as it is the opposite sign of Taurus, its domain.

Venus in Scorpio can be quixotic and demanding. She may not tell you what she really wants but instead, expect the world to read her mind. Monsters are lurking in those depths. She does have magnetism, though, something that Venus LIKES. This may be why Scorpio is the sign of Venus’s exile; Venus loves the power that Scorpio provides her, and that much is clear. The problem comes when the rest of the world doesn’t exactly enjoy how she is yielding that power.

Great responsibility and all that…

Venus in Scorpio trines Mars in Cancer on 10/08, which is generally indicative of lovey-dovey weather. It’s worth noting here that retrograde Saturn is a part of this equation and in a grand trine to them both during this event. Yeah, sure, love might be in the air, but consequences are also on the table. This is echoed twice as Mars has just entered his pre-retrograde shadow. Stay aware of who you cuddle up with during this time; what glitters may not be gold.

If you’ve said yes before and the two of you love getting mushy together, this will be a great day to have a watery date. Real Valentine’s Day energy. But, like with V-Day, it may be better to sit it out of you don’t trust your potential date. And definitely don’t sign any contracts (romantically speaking).

We will still be a bit hung over from our solar eclipse, which was all about the pitfalls of relationships. Don’t do somebody that day just to have somebody to do it, if you catch my drift.

Venus will lighten up some once she enters Sagittarius, but she, too, needs to come clean with Pluto on the way out of Scorpio. Again, some romantic relationships are not meant to make it all the way to November this year. This square with Pluto will be the last time Venus makes a major aspect with Pluto before it exits Capricorn next month.

In Sagittarius, she immediately trines the North Node, again, for the last time before the North Nodes switch signs in January. There are a lot of endings here.

After that, Venus in Sag squares off with retrograde Saturn in Pisces, putting even more tension on the consequences and endings we are experiencing all month.

Jupiter

On 10/09, Jupiter will station retrograde at 21° Gemini. As one of our intermediary planets, Jupiter retrogrades aren’t felt as deeply as those of our personal planets. The days immediately around this retrograde may feel liminal or a bit uneasy, as always happens when a planet stands still in the skies. Jupiter – the planet of expansion – is weaker while it is in retrograde, compounded by the fact that it is in the sign of its exile (Gemini).

Pluto

On 10/11, Pluto will station direct at 29° Capricorn. This is a big shift as it is the final curtain call on our Pluto-in-Capricorn era. In November, Pluto will move into Aquarius for the last time in this cycle. Outer planetary shifts happen very slowly; Pluto changes signs every 15-30 years. It’s the end of an era. Most people won’t feel this personally as this is our outer most dwarf planet, but the effects of this will ripple forward through 2025 and beyond.

The Details

10/02 – Solar Eclipse 10° Libra 10/04 – Venus in Scorpio trine retrograde Saturn in Pisces, Mars enters its pre-retrograde shadow 17° Cancer 10/06 – Mercury in Libra square Mars in Cancer 10/08 – Mercury in Libra trine Jupiter in Gemini, Venus in Scorpio trine Mars in Cancer 10/09 – Jupiter retrogrades 21° Gemini 10/11 – Pluto stations direct 29° Capricorn 10/12 – Retrograde Jupiter in Gemini sextile Chiron in Aries 10/13 – Mercury enters Scorpio, Sun in Libra trine retrograde Jupiter in Gemini, Mercury in Libra square Pluto in Capricorn, Mars in Cancer square Chiron in Aries 10/14 – Sun in Libra square Mars in Cancer, Venus in Scorpio opposed retrograde Uranus in Taurus 10/15 – Venus in Scorpio trine retrograde Neptue in Pisces 10/17 – Full Moon 24° Aries, Venus in Scorpio sextile Pluto in Capricorn, Venus enters Sagittarius 10/21 – Venus in Sagittarius trine North Node in Aries 10/22 – Sun enters Scorpio, Sun in Libra square Pluto in Capricorn, Mercury in Scorpio trine retrograde Saturn in Pisces 10/25 – Mars in Cancer sextile retrograde Uranus in Taurus 10/28 – Venus in Sagittarius square retrograde Saturn in Pisces, Mars in Cancer trine retrograde Neptune in Pisces 10/30 – Mercury in Scorpio opposed retrograde Uranus in Taurus 10/31 – Mercury in Scorpio trine retrograde Neptune in Pisces

[maximumqueer]

In lieu of the second season of OPLA starting production, I want to talk about my mixed feelings on the first season of it.

Because I got into the anime and manga through the live action. So I will always like it at least a little bit for introducing me to honestly my favorite piece of media ever. But now that I'm caught up with the anime and manga, and know the characters and story better, I find myself having more criticisms of it.

The overall narrative is rushed in a way that leads to important character moments being glossed over. Syrup Village in OPLA is a good example. Usopp does a lot less in the live action, most of his big emotional beats cut for what I can only assume were time constraints. Reducing Gin's role to a one time appearance, and the Don Krieg Pirates to a cameo also feels like a product of the limited runtime, and cheapens Sanji's reasoning joining the crew, as we never get that moment where Luffy witnesses him feeding a starving man, and decides then that Sanji will be is cook. Replacing it instead with Luffy seeing him fight and tasting his food. Which in my opinion kinda misses the point of why Luffy wanted him to join. And that was because of Sanji's kindness, which is not nearly as present in the live action.

OPLA also removes a lot of side characters from the islands the main cast visit, making the world feel smaller, and the stakes lower. Like, the reason I personally cared so much about Luffy and Co. helping out places like Orange Town, Syrup village, Cocoyashi Village, is the people that live there who we get to know (in the anime and manga). I feel far more invested actually knowing the names of several of the people and the village, and knowing that their lives will be better after the big bad is taken down. It's not just a fight for the sake of having a fight, but a fight to help out a group of people who need it.

These characters also end up trying to free themselves from the big bad. Them playing an active roll, and not just being used as hostages (like they were in the live action) is just so quintessential to One Piece in my opinion. Having characters native to the island already willing to stand up to the force controlling them, and Luffy's involvement being to aid them, and not just swoop in a save a group of passive bystanders who were simply waiting for a hero to save them, is subversive for shonen (hell just fantasy in general) and having the live action remove that just feels wrong, as characters having freedom and agency is a big overarching theme in One Piece that has been there since day one.

Then there is the characterization. Zoro is probably the most egregious change. Zoro (bur especially pre-ts Zoro) was far goofier than his live action counterpart. And I do think that that level of goofiness is essential to him as a character. Like, I cannot picture OPLA Zoro attempting to cut off his feet, fail, and then decide to strike a cool pose while he is slowly turning into a wax statue. I cannot picture that version of the character beefing with a bird while lost, when said bird is LITERALLY a compass. OPLA Zoro just feels like your stereotypical stoic cool guy, when he is very much not. He is a bit of a loser (affectionate) and to see him be treated like he isn't feels off. Nami and Sanji are closer to their anime/manga counterparts, but are still different.

OPLA Sanji is not pathetic enough. To use an analogy, OLPA Sanji would take off his coat to place it over a puddle so a pretty woman didn't have to get her shoes and feet wet. Anime/manga Sanji would hurl his body onto the ground, and have the woman use his back to prevent getting her shoes and feet wet. They said this change was to dial down the more pervy parts of his character, which is fair. But that aspect of his character only really starts up in a bad way in Thriller Bark. The part of the series that adapted was when Sanji was pretty much only presented as a hopeless romantic who worships the ground all women walk on and would do anything a woman asked of him.

Nami is similar to Zoro, in that she is just to serious. They both lack the whimsy their anime/manga counterparts have. And she just feels a bit more one dimensional in the live action because of it.

As for Luffy. Him referring to himself as a "good pirate" just feels all sorts of wrong. He has never shied away from that label, and never has had any issue with being lumped in with "bad" pirates in the anime/manga. He never was angry about being framed for crimes, but I get the feeling that OPLA Luffy would be more likely to be angry about that, because he is a "good" pirate. This Luffy doesn't feel like he would go on a rant about not wanting to be viewed as a hero. They also made him nicer overall, and this sounds like a weird thing to complain about, but Luffy not holding his tongue and just telling people how he feels about them, positive or negative, is what makes him as a character work. Is what separates him from a typical run of the mill shonen protag. Him being a kind, but not nice and overall blunt in conversation is pretty integral to his character, and I can't help but feel that the writers and directors of the live action were afraid of keeping this character trait because it could make him unlikeable. (despite that fact that he as been #1 in literally every One Piece popularity poll)

And obviously this is not a critique on the actors, I think they did a phenomenal job portraying their respective characters. This is more about how the writers/directors/producers decided to adapt and change the characters.

I kind of suspected that when I watched the anime (a more one to one adaptation of the manga) as well as read the manga (the source material) that I would end up having more issues with the live action. I do still like it for what it is, and I'm planning on watching the second season when it comes out, I just wanted to share how my opinion on it changed after reading/watching and catching up with the anime and manga.

[yanderes-galore]

Yandere! Jujutsu Kaisen Masterlist

Multiple Characters

Yandere! Ryomen Sukuna vs Satoru Gojo (Ft. Yuji Itadori) (Romantic (Sukuna/Gojo)/Platonic (Yuji/Gojo)) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Yandere Self-Aware! Yuji Itadori + Satoru Gojo (Analog AU) (Romantic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Yandere! Nobara Kugisaki vs Yuji Itadori (Platonic -> Romantic - Rivalry) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Yandere! Satoru Gojo vs CU! Suguru Geto with Sorcerer! Darling (Romantic - Rivalry) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Ryomen Sukuna

Yandere Alphabet - Ryomen Sukuna (Romantic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Yandere! Ryomen Sukuna Concept (Ft. Itadori Yuji) (Romantic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Yandere! Ryomen Sukuna Prompts 2, 31, 42 (Romantic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Yandere! Sukuna with Strong/Defiant! Darling (Romantic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Infertile Falsehoods - Yandere! Heian Era! Sukuna Short (Romantic) [FEMALE]

Yandere! Platonic! Ryomen Sukuna (Platonic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Satoru Gojo

Yandere! Satoru Gojo with Civilian! Darling (Romantic/Platonic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Yandere! Satoru Gojo Prompts 14, 34, 35 (Romantic/Platonic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Yandere! Satoru Gojo Concept (Romantic/Platonic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Yandere Alphabet - Satoru Gojo (Romantic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Better Than Him - Yandere! Satoru Gojo Short (Romantic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

One Long Century Yandere! Satoru Gojo Story (Ft. Sukuna) (Romantic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Yandere! Satoru Gojo Prompts 5, 14, 26 (Romantic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Yandere! Satoru Gojo with Affectionate! Darling (Romantic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Yandere! Satoru Gojo Prompts 17, 2, 36 (Hybrid AU - Darling) (Romantic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Yandere! Satoru Gojo Prompts 15, 54, 38 (Romantic) [FEMALE]

Near Death Experience - Yandere! Satoru Gojo Short (Romantic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Suguru Geto

Yandere! Geto Suguru Concept (Jujutsu Sorcerer! Geto and Curse User! Geto) (Romantic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Could've Been Different - Yandere! Curse User! Suguru Geto Short (Romantic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Yandere! Suguru Geto with Sorcerer! Darling (Romantic/Platonic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Yuji Itadori

Yandere! Yuji Itadori Concept (Romantic/Platonic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Yandere! Yuji Itadori Prompts 23 + 37 (Romantic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Yandere! Yuji Itadori/Sukuna Kidnapping Their Obsession (Romantic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Yandere! Yuji Itadori Prompts 3, 8, 29,(Analog AU) (Romantic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Yandere! Yuji Itadori with Sorcerer! Darling (Romantic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Megumi Fushiguro

Yandere! Megumi Fushiguro with Affectionate! Darling (Romantic/Platonic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Mahito

Yandere! Mahito with Jujutsu Sorcerer! Darling (Romantic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Kenjaku

Like Him - Yandere! Fake! Geto/Kenjaku Short (Romantic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Yuta Okkotsu

Yandere! Yuta Okkotsu with Childhood Friend! Darling (Platonic/Romantic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Naoya Zenin

Yandere! Naoya Zenin with Female Sorcerer! Darling (Romantic) [FEMALE]

Mei Mei

Yandere! Mei Mei with Curse User! Darling (Romantic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Toji Fushiguro

Yandere! Toji Fushiguro with Sorcerer! Darling (Romantic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Kento Nanami

Yandere! Kento Nanami Concept (Romantic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

Maki Zenin

Yandere! Maki Zenin Concept (Pre-Shibuya Incident) (Platonic/Romantic) [GENDER-NEUTRAL]

[analogicalreasoning]

Hey, AnalogicalReasoning, Michael here.

My blog is mostly centered around Sanders Sides ships and pairings, but also the general content of the series, the character lore, etc. As my name suggests, I thoroughly enjoy Analogical (Virgil × Logan) as a ship, but I also make content for other pairings as well! (Mainly Janus/Logan/Virgil oriented, but not strictly those three together–)

I have an AO3! I really enjoy writing domestic fluff, pre-relationship content, and romantic tension. However, on a rare occasion, I write angst and NSFW stories, so explore at your own risk~ I hope you enjoy what you find there!

Here's the link to my AO3:

Feel free to leave suggestions either in my ask box or at my AO3! Hope to see you soon~

[tearlessrain]

Tagged by @dingoat (thanks!!)

3 ships

okay so this is going to be 100% ocs but right now

My Sith Warrior Kalarros and @darth-bagel's smuggler/crimelord Sylvas. look it's basically just canon at this point, I love these two, I love their relationship. it could be argued that it's not really romantic, they're both married to other people and have a few other relationships (all consensually to be clear, they're not having an affair they're both very poly). Sylvas's husband was actually the one who originally set them up for some bdsm shenanigans (because honestly the only reason Kalarros isn't a pro dom is it's never occurred to him to charge for it, and said husband is also a Sith who'd considered Kalarros a friend for years prior to that and trusted him to look after Sylvas and treat them well) and they clicked spectacularly and developed a strong bond over the years. At this point they're so entwined with each other's stories that I've pretty much abandoned my original canon for Kalarros because it's just vastly improved with Sylvas in it lol. they've stuck by each other through some rough times on both sides and consider each other much more than casual play partners by now.

Khatte and another of Bagel's ocs, their bounty hunter Liz. honestly these two are just a lot of fun and kind of happened by accident, we had minimal involvement in this they just decided to develop a mutual crush and now Khatte has firmly entered his femdom era. it honestly wouldn't have worked pre Alliance era, Liz has zero tolerance for his bullshit and Khatte is significantly better at keeping his bullshit in check with some legitimate therapy under his belt. It's fairly casual but probably one of the healthiest relationships he's ever had just because he knows she won't settle for less and he likes her enough to meet those standards. what can I say, Khatte's type is people who could kill him and Liz's type (at least when it comes to men) is "extremely competent but also kind of pathetic" so of course they saw each other and instantly had to fuck.

taking an abrupt turn from SWTOR into BG3, my Durge (or half of my Durge) Ryldimar and @elaphaemourra's Tav Dragonfly. listen I did not particularly even like Durge as a concept until these two happened. [SPOILERS REDACTED I FUCKED UP SOME PEOPLE I TAGGED HAVEN'T PLAYED DURGE YET]

First Ship

I'm honestly not sure? technically this might also be ocs, because I was writing original fiction before I ever got into fandom spaces and even then I've never really actively shipped canon characters from other media that much (I passively ship a lot of things but I don't get that invested yknow?). so it's probably Talon and Iadra, my gryphons from a fantasy thing I started writing in high school and have been continuously developing for the last fifteen years or so. Talon is actually half gryphon, in this world gryphons are shapeshifters and are capable of both assuming a humanoid form and interbreeding with that planet's closest human analog (and also humans, theoretically, though I'm unclear on whether any of them have gotten to earth and tested that, the worldbuilding kind of got away from me and it's a beautiful mess now). gryphons bond for life the way a lot of predatory birds do and these two are completely devoted to each other, and also they have the fun aesthetic element of Talon being about 1/3 Iadra's size when she's in gryphonic form (due to an Incident™, he lost one of his wings years ago and it caused him to be stuck between forms, so he mainly looks like a slightly feathery Guy with a singular wing. about what you'd expect of an oc I made in high school but I love him okay).

Last Song

uuuh the Ken Theriot cover of The Witch of the Westmereland I think.

Currently Reading

honestly I have not been doing a lot of reading lately (been meaning to get back to it but yknow) but I'm in the middle of The Black Gryphon by Mercedes Lackey

Last Film

OG Star Wars, couple days ago my internet went out and that was one of three movies I happen to have on my hard drive (take a wild guess what the other two are)

Currently Craving

Salmon chirashi. I literally always want any iteration of raw salmon combined with sushi rice. fortunately I'm refilling my meds in a few days (to be clear the meds are unrelated to my love of salmon, there just happens to be a really good sushi place within a block of my pharmacy so I get chirashi whenever I need to pick something up)

tagging (only if you want to!): @elvhenyoung, @elaphaemourra, @mercurypilgrim, @darkshadeless, @vampiraptor, @reucrion, @artpigeons, @chaoticspacefam

[foxes-that-run]

Fools gold

As well as posting about it this week, Harry referenced Case of You in Fools Gold for One Direction in 2014. California on Joni Mitchell's Blue also influenced Canyon Moon.

Similar to Case of You, it is about knowing he loves someone who doesn’t prioritize their love and continuing on. Neither 1D or Harry have played it live, though Niaill has. He's doesn't even look comfortable introducing it in this promo holding a banana??

While they are all credited for the song to MTV Jamie Scott indicated he wrote it with only Harry. He posted this photo with Harry wearing the Haylor ring on 14 September 14, they were in LA that day, while Taylor was slaying in this photo shoot in NYC.

Rolling Stone Interview

2 weeks before that photo Taylor's 1989 Rolling Stone interview came out. Which is a bit humble-braggy and possibly from her own hurt and wanting to protect the private she minimised their relationship. She said it's pointless to date if you're not in love and watching her dating has become a national past time. RS said she sounded jaded when she said her life is not conducive to bringing other people into it. She doesn't say much about Harry, but ends that section with saying Style should have been called "I’m Not Even Sorry."

To a hopeless romantic like Harry who wore he heart on his sleeve I can see why he could write a song like Fools Gold. He was much kinder to their relationship in his RS interview for example.

Four

Its on Four which also included Stockholm Syndrome. It released in 17 November 2014, 3 weeks after 1989. Harry has talked about making the album (21 mins) under mattresses in hotel rooms. There is footage that set up at 34 mins into the TV special. In that context, a 20 year old rockstar slipping in an older reference to a guitar ballard about heartbreak is a lovely glimpse of the artist he would become.

Lyrics

[Verse 1: Niall] I'm like a crow on a wire You're the shinin' distraction that makes me fly home I'm like a boat on the water You're the raise on the waves that calm my mind, oh, every time

A crow on a wire is a lonely dark figure sitting above everything, drawn to fly to the shiny Taylor. Taylor calls Harry shiny later in DBATC. Several of Harry's tattoos and songs are about coming home, Taylor was with him when he got the ship tattoo. Here, the rise of the waves is the current that brings him there, what draws him in. This Love makes the same analogy of a high tide bringing Harry back. This is a theme in later songs like Sweet Creature.

[Pre-Chorus: Harry] But I know in my heart You're not a constant star

The pre-chorus references Case of You's opening line: "Just before our love got lost you said / "I am as constant as a northern star" / And I said, "Constantly in the darkness / Where's that at? / If you want me I'll be in the bar"

The northern star is not constant, it moves. In the opening of Case of You, the muse saying "I won't be a constant for you" which leads Joni to drink. Here Harry is saying his muse is fickle.

[Chorus: Harry, All] And, yeah, I've let you use me from the day that we first met But I'm not done yet Falling for your fool's gold And I knew that you turned it on for everyone you met But I don't regret Falling for your fool's gold

Harry goes on to say he is feeling used by the muse, possibly because he doesn't see that his feelings of longing and wanting a great love are reciprocated. But he's not done, and is being constant in loving her. He sees that she is a Mirrorball, and feeling like he was played. With hindsight we know they both felt a little this way, and maybe that sentiment is why he never played this song.

Harry is also a fool in Just a Little Bit of Your Heart (JALBOYH).

[Verse 2: Liam] I'm the first to admit that I'm reckless I get lost in your beauty and I can't see two feet in front of me [Bridge: Zayn] Yeah, I know your love's not real That's not the way it feels That's not the way you feel

In the bridge Harry again says he sees it is reckless to fall for his muse, but is anyway. He is telling himself the muse doesn't feel the same way but it feels like they do. I think in hindsight, knowing they both continued in this way for another decade that it would have been confusing to have a different private and public lives. The launch of 1989 would have been the first time Taylor talked about their love in a real way, and it was minimised in most of the promos with refrains of 'the overriding feeling was anxiety'.

[saintsenara]

estuary

read from the beginning here

masterpost here

severus snape/lord voldemort explicit graphic depictions of violence | major character death

in our first chapter, we've seen the story begin with lucius malfoy, a train, and the romantic hiss of power.

more notes under the cut.

our story begins on new year’s eve, 1976.

it is set, then, in a period when muggle great britain and northern ireland were not having a great time. the seventies saw the country beset by blackouts, strikes, out-of-control inflation, mass job losses, infrastructure collapse [snape’s miserable experience on british rail was the standard - it is depressing, then, that contemporary britain’s privatised rail companies manage to be worse], the grinding threat of sectarian terrorism, and truly horrible fashion and design choices [snape’s bell bottoms! my heart!]. 

a common refrain in political commentary at this time was that britain was the ‘sick man of europe’, and cokeworth - an industrial town whose heyday was the victorian era and which has been declining ever since - is a typical lesion on the sick man’s face. the description of it in half-blood prince - with its grimy canal and crumbling mill - is familiar to british readers as a common image of the post-industrial britain of the 1970s and - especially - 1980s. the industrial collapse during this period which non-british readers are likely to be most familiar with is the coal mining industry, owing to the major wave of miners’ strikes in 1984-1985, during the tenure of prime minister margaret thatcher; but the cokeworth of this story is a cotton town - which means that its decline during this period is calamitous. by 1980, a british textile mill was closing every week.

and this economic situation led to specific youth subcultures which will exist on the fringes of scylla and charybdis - above all, the skinhead movement, some adherents of which snape encounters in this first chapter. while the skinhead movement was not automatically right-wing or white-supremacist [and while many british skinheads were inspired by black british movements such as rude boy subculture], the skinheads snape meets are neo-nazis - aligned with far-right movements such as the national front [which reached its highest ever vote share in british elections between 1974 and 1977]. the fascist movement in britain was particularly politically visible during the 1970s and 1980s, clashing with anti-fascist protestors in often violent circumstances, and cokeworth - which, like other towns of its type, is likely to have gained a substantial immigrant population from britain’s colonies and former colonies during the 1950s and 1960s - would fit the profile of somewhere where state inaction was exacerbating decline and driving up violence.

this muggle social context will be prominent in scylla and charybdis - even though it is, primarily, a magical narrative. in particular, this story will examine the parallels which the canon series draws out between 1970s muggle britain and its magical cousin.

above all, it will examine a reading of the first war which is very close to my heart: that the best historical analogy for the first war is the troubles. i think this primarily because i am northern irish [and, specifically, northern irish, catholic, and from a family whose political sympathies could be accurately described as irish nationalist], but also because so many of the references to the first war in canon allude to things which happened during this conflict. the voldemort of the first war is a paramilitary leader, rather than a politician; his organisation primarily operates in terms of assassinations targeted against state actors, especially civil servants and those connected to the wizarding world’s equivalent of the police and army, with periodic random attacks on civilians; he appears to issue pre-warnings for these attacks; and he is not allowed to use his real name on the airwaves. [this - the broadcast ban to which republican organisations were subjected - is an innovation of the 1990s, but i am absolutely convinced that all the you-know-who stuff in canon is a reference to it.]

the ministry of magic’s response, too, echoes the response of the british state to violence in northern ireland. the show trials of prominent death eaters - and the fact that many suspected death eaters, sirius black prominent among them, seem to have been imprisoned without trial at all - alludes to the internment campaign operation demetrius; the brutality of azkaban echoes prisons such as the maze and portlaoise; the increasingly hard-line wizarding politicians of the period have muggle counterparts; the aurors are ordered to shoot to kill and appear to do so with absolute impunity, much like the british army.

i am not, of course, saying that i think the death eaters are right [i’m also not saying that i think the ira were - at least not unambiguously], but i am saying that the social and political context around voldemort’s rise to prominence in the 1970s can be reasonably understood as sectarian, and that it should be understood as considerably more complex than the canon narrative of good versus evil allows it to be.

in particular, scylla and charybdis will examine the multifaceted ways in which prejudice lives alongside poverty, hopelessness, and resentment, and how disaffected young men are easy to radicalise into violent movements of all stripes - from far-right muggle skinheads, to loyalist or republican paramilitary groups, to the death eaters - by the potent combination of a persuasive ideology, a cause which is perceived to be righteous, and a sense that they belong somewhere and are being listened to. this chapter gives a sense of how.

because it is undeniable that severus snape’s background - and the ways in which his childhood poverty affects him in both the muggle and magical worlds - is absolutely central to why he becomes a death eater.

scylla and charybdis will examine social class in the wizarding world - and how this interacts with blood supremacy - in considerable detail throughout the narrative which is to come, and this chapter is no exception. snape finds himself exactly as unwelcome in the lestranges’ family home because he is poor and has a regional accent as because he’s a half-blood. he finds himself unwelcome in hogwarts for the same reason; the james and sirius of canon do not target him because he’s a half-blood, but nor do they target him because of some righteous desire to stamp out blood-supremacist sentiment. they target him because he’s poor. and this is why he draws a parallel between james and sirius and rodolphus and rabastan lestrange - to him, they’re both pairs of posh bullies. that their ideologies have a vast gulf between them is not something which snape has [at this point, at least] the capacity to understand.

something i have been recently wondering about is whether working class wizards usually attend hogwarts - after all, it’s not compulsory to do so before deathly hallows. the average hogwarts student is extremely well-heeled, and people like mundungus fletcher and stan shunpike who are coded as working class give off a vibe in canon which suggests that they exist outside of the old-school-ties system which binds most of the primary and secondary characters together. if this is the case - and i personally suspect that it is - it would explain why someone like snape was such a visible target for classist bullying. he’s going to be perceived by the posh as a bit of an upstart, coming into a space which is not primarily intended for someone like him and refusing to perform its conventions to its arbiters’ likings.

because, while i don’t think hogwarts is a fee-paying school, it is the primary maintainer of the wizarding world’s incredibly restrictive class system. everything depends - for hogwarts’ students - on the relationships they make while within the castle’s walls, which evidence of insider-status, such as name and background, helps enormously with establishing. snape - with his muggle name and his accent and his poverty and his lack of interest in playing the game - has no chance of fulfilling his enormous ambitions.

unless a patron takes him on.

snape’s reasons for becoming a death eater aren’t fully fleshed out in canon. jkr has said since the conclusion of the series that he was attracted by the opportunity to accrue power, which voldemort obviously has in spades, and also that he felt the death eaters would offer him somewhere to belong.

i think it’s worth examining the class implications of this. becoming a death eater allows snape access to a social circle which would otherwise exclude him, therefore giving him a privileged position in the wizarding economic, political, and legal system [tell me that the reason he gets off on the charges of being a death eater aren’t connected to dumbledore gaming the old boys’ network of the wizengamot…]. but - crucially - it also allows him to transcend the restrictions placed upon him by his class background, and achieve power - pure and simple.

and he is offered this because lord voldemort’s relationship with class is incredibly interesting. in canon, he clearly rejects the patron-client relationship offered to him by horace slughorn, when he refuses his attempts to set him up with a career in the ministry and, instead, chooses a job he gets himself [that this never occurs to either dumbledore or harry - with their pureblood surnames - should not surprise us…]. but he also takes a muggle aristocratic title, and clearly delights in making his wealthy cronies address him by it.

that element of vindictiveness is clear in how he plays with class in order to undermine lucius malfoy in deathly hallows - ‘carelessly’ piling up his expensive furniture and emasculating him in front of his peers - and it is also hinted at here, as voldemort instals himself in the servants’ quarters and makes the lord-of-the-manor - who is absolutely aware of his real name and background, i have never understood why dumbledore is so certain nobody else is - bring his guests to him there.

and this, i think, offers an understandable insight into one of the key aspects of snape which this story will explore: that he is so dismissive of lily’s concerns about the death eaters because he sincerely thinks that voldemort, one of the few people in wizarding britain who doesn’t think the patronage system is a good thing, will help her too. after all, we are told in canon that the dark lord did try and recruit james and lily - which i am certain was at snape’s request - and my personal view is that, despite what canon suggests, there must be some muggleborns somewhere in voldemort’s organisation.

that there would be is due entirely to voldemort’s capacity to attract. this is underplayed in canon, particularly in the second war, when voldemort’s physical appearance becomes straightforwardly horrifying and his purpose in the text becomes primarily mystical - although canon also implies that his charm is superficial - but i have always thought its omission from the main narrative naive. the voldemort of scylla and charybdis is extremely and genuinely charismatic, and this charisma is making him a political threat that the ministry looks increasingly unlikely to contain.

he is also attractive in another sense.

this voldemort is less horrifying-looking than he is described in half-blood prince as appearing in the 1960s - although some of his canonical physical changes are present already. this is not just a choice for shipping reasons - although snape has been happily seduced by the fact that this voldemort still has a nose - but because i think it’s important that voldemort looks like a politician, and that his charm is backed up by his physical appearance.

and snape is very much sexually attracted to him. [so, too, is dumbledore - the idea that he fancies the adult voldemort is something i’m wedded to, not least because so much of their relationship is based in the fact that dumbledore thinks he’s like grindelwald.] although the man on snape’s mind is - without a doubt - sirius black. yes, all the hints that snape has a major thing for him are intentional. [and i think they’d make a great couple!]

snape’s struggle with his sexuality will be a key theme in this story. so, too, will the way that his relationship with his sexuality interacts with his relationship to his gender, and how this in turn interacts with his class. the canonical snape is something of a feminine-coded character, and i wanted to explore the idea that his embrace of this as an adult is a conscious choice - after all, the canonical voldemort is also rather feminine, and the version in scylla and charybdis, with his florid handwriting and habit of collecting pretty trinkets [the shells, seaglass, and paperweights will be worth keeping an eye on], is no different. that voldemort’s gender performance - and the fact that all pureblood men are somewhat effete - is such a change from the working class masculinity snape has grown up around is yet another reason he is hooked.

for now, though, snape is still the ultimate fish-out-of-water in the world of the posher death eaters. even lucius malfoy, isn’t entirely sure what to do with him.

[snape and malfoy’s friendship will be explored more in later chapters, but i do think that his grumbling in this chapter about malfoy is good-natured - whereas he’s genuinely afraid of rodolphus lestrange.]

it’s suggested in canon that malfoy was one of voldemort’s key recruiters during the first war, and that he was the reason several characters - snape among them - became death eaters. there are two other disaffected young men who will feature in this story whom malfoy will be responsible for: barty crouch jr. and regulus black.

but they have not yet been recruited. snape has.

as sirius says in order of the phoenix, voldemort doesn’t just march up to people’s houses, bang on their front doors, and ask them if they’d like to become a death eater. this chapter shows what the recruitment process looked like for snape, as someone who was recommended to the dark lord rather than someone who applied outright through his family’s connections.

in particular, it looks at how voldemort makes use of the muggle world to cover his activities, something i think is really underutilised in fan-fiction. we are told in canon that both of voldemort’s wars had a colossal impact on muggle society, but the narrative never really explains how. in scylla and charybdis, we will see a vast network of squib and magical agents embedded across the british state and within the muggle world. the various old men who sit in pubs and vet new recruits are just the start.

[yyh4ever]

30th Anniversary "Yu Yu Hakusho 25th Anniversary Single Record Box" Encore Press [Color Record]

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the "Yu Yu Hakusho" anime series, the very popular and sold out limited edition of the "Yu Yu Hakusho 25th Anniversary Single Record Box", released in 2017, will be re-released in response to the fans requests.

The design remains the same, but the black vinyl from 2017 have been changed to colored vinyl. The box contains eight 7-inch colored singles with 16 songs in total, such as anime theme songs and character songs.

In addition, the duet tracks of Kurama and Hiei (WILD WIND), and Yusuke and Keiko (Omoide wo Tsubasa Shite), which you could only obtain by ordering the box set straight from the Pony Canyon website in 2017, are now included in Disc 8.

Price: ¥13,200 (tax included)

Release: February 18, 2023, in "ANISON on VINYL" (analog record event sponsored by Toyokasei)

Pre-oder: PONY CANYON RECORD SHOP

Benefit: A4 Clear File

If in 2017 the DISC 8 was a bonus disc, this time, those who purchase the box set on PONY CANYON RECORD SHOP will receive a clear file with the 30th anniversary logo and CD jackets as benefit.

Tracks:

Disc 1 [Matsuko Mawatari]

A: Smile Bomb (Hohoemi no Bakudan)

B: Homework Never Ends (Homework ga Owaranai)

Disc 2 [Hiro Takahashi]

A: Unbalanced Kiss (Anbaransu na Kiss wo Shite)

B: When the Sun Shines Again (Taiyō ga mata kagayaku toki)

Disc 3 [Matsuko Mawatari]

A: Sayonara Bye Bye

B: Daydream Generation

Disc 4 [Yusuke Urameshi]

A: FIRE!

B: Join Your Hearts (Kokoro wo Tsunaide)

Disc 5 [Kazuma Kuwabara]

A: Disposition of a Man (Otoko no Junjō)

B: DACHI

Disc 6 [Kurama]

A: Red Rose in the Darkness ~Romantic Soldier~ (Kurayami ni Akai Bara ～Romantic Soldier～)

B: Embracing the Ice Knife (Kōri no Naifu wo Daite)

Disc 7 [Hiei]

A: Turn Your Back to the Twilight (Tasogare ni se wo Mukete)

B: I Hear a Whistle (Kuchibue ga Kikoeru)

Disc 8 [Duets]

[Kurama and Hiei]

A: WILD WIND ~Like the Wind in the Wilderness~ (WILD WIND ~ Yasei no Kazenoyōni)

[Yusuke and Keiko]

B: Turning Memories into Wings (Omoide wo Tsubasa ni Shite)

A good site to check the lyrics and translations of the songs is animelyrics.

[thunderpounce-inc]

Rough draft ref for Cloudy & Orange, my two dumb TFA OCs who still need actual names

Cloudy is actually the transformer in my icon, making the ridiculous facial expression!

There IS a story to go with these guys, though idk if I will ever write it or anything. Said story mostly explores a pre-war spot on the timeline, actually, so there isn't much interaction with cannon characters.

It goes about like this:

Cybertron has a semi-functionist caste system, and Cloudy is a 'war-frame' transformer literally manufactured BY the military, like a soldier ant. Cloudy is an experimental model from a line of attempts at biomimicry, to make soldiers that were even more effective, ferocious, and resourceful than normal

Cloudy is kind of like if the MILITARY commissioned a much more real, much more genetically engineered (which, I would like to note, I headcannon that basically all TFA transformers are genetically engineered; they come in different 'models' and 'upgrades'; and that just sounds a lot like 'we are genetically engineering ourselves and are at the brink of outright cladization' to me) 'cat' 'catboy' than one normally thinks of. Less 'cute NYAH!', more 'scary TIGERboy who could bite your arm off'

also, uh WARNING! (robot) cannibalism is touched on below a bit

Cloudy serves in the Cybertronian military (he was BORN there,,,), during which he is stranded on a ship after a battle goes pretty Bad. Cloudy is the sole survivor of this, and pulled through by drinking fuel from the corpses of enemies (MAYBE fallen allies too, dunno how dark I wanna go). I DO know that even just doing that to DEAD non-transformer enemies would be a big deal, since transformers normally live entirely on inanimate fuels like energon, oil, ect- so I imagine even drinking BLOOD would be indistinguishable from cannibalism to them. Cloudy is literally intentionally programmed to like the taste of blood and this stuff distresses even him (arguably even more so BECAUSE of that)

Eventually the war Cloudy was forged for (most likely conflict with the Quintessons) is won, and he gets to go planet-side while on stand-by. Cloudy tries to do that Civilan Life, but its kind of tough when everybody is smaller than AND and kinda scared of you. He makes friends with this more open-minded motorbike (Orange) while he's there.

(they meet when a disaster of some kind causes a building to collapse, and Cloudy lunges at the nearest way-too-tiny-to-survive-this bot (Orange) to shield them. They get split up after that since Cloudy gets knocked unconscious, and first responders drag everyone off the scene for medical attention. But when Orange next bumps into Cloudy, he's determined to actually talk to him and find out what this 'scary war-frame's' deal is. Which is good, because Cloudy is way too shy to initiate conversation like that, haha)

Cloudy's secret eventually gets out when investigations of the stranding reveal that all corpses had been exsanguinated and gnawed on, all rations exhausted, and Cloudy came back weirdly healthy for a guy who should have starved to death. He's then sentenced to 'you die fighting in the gladiator pits, OR you die right now!' Cloudy gets immediately shipped out to the pits on the spot, and then Orange follows him there because he is a stubborn, loyal little mother fucker.

From there the story is less defined, BUT I know both of them become Decepticons when THAT war breaks out, seeing as both have become quite sympathetic to 'yo the current situation on Cybertron is FUCKED!'

I would also like to note, by 'reptile handler trust-bond', I mean some kind of wacky queer platonic(?) relationship defined primarily by it's foundation of carefully earned trust. I'm not very good in the social department, gonna be honest, but I like animals a lot, so that was the best analogy I had. Cloudy and Orange's relationship isn't romantic, I wouldn't say? It's based primarily in how Orange is one of the very few people Cloudy, who is very distrustful, is willing to trust closely.

[idontwanttospoiltheparty]

About your tag # hot take: this was not a weird thing for him to say imo , can you elaborate on that? thx !

referring to my tags here

Basically, I don't think it's uncommon at all for marriages/very committed romantic relationships to "interfere" with someone's pre-existing friendships, and it especially wasn't 50 years ago. Society values monogamous romantic relationships above all others (save for blood ties, I guess), that's why we have an entire legal-religious institution to certify them; to act like they don't fundamentally matter in how people organize their lives, again especially 50 years ago, is naïve IMO.

I actually find it a bit strange when people imply the only reason Paul should be bothered by the space Yoko was taking up in John's life is because he wanted to be John's romantic/sexual partner.* I mean, it's possible, but John's reorienting toward Yoko was decidedly more than just switching whom he regularly slept with.

*funnily enough I feel like people often have to imply John never really loved Cyn to fully make sense of that theory. Which Is A Weird Take. Unless you're a JP-tinhat who thinks Paul was a "late bloomer" in which case: good on you for having a spicy take. Pls talk to me tbh.

Of course, John was already married before, but he was simultaneously very invested in strengthening his bond with all his band members, to an extent which would still be considered unconventional nowadays. But it seems like, once Yoko came into the picture, he was no longer nearly as continuously invested in this (at least as far as Paul could reasonably tell).

Pre-68, the Beatles + their partners and entourage were an oddly tight-knit group that shared an astounding amount of their lives together, a lot due to the isolation of fame, among other factors. Therefore, it's not unreasonable for Paul to compare his relationship with John to a marriage. We don't really have a word to accurately describe their relationship, although the fact they were actually legally tied to each other and "shared" all their songs makes it an apt analogy IMO.

And that's all without even going into the fact that JohnandYoko were not in the slightest a normal couple with normal levels of commitment.

[emoprincey]

Drabble/ficlet masterpost

Here’s the masterpost of my ficlets and drabbles!! Most of these are short fics under 1000 words, and most aren’t posted on ao3 

Fortunately, Unfortunately

Relationships: Romantic dukeceit

Summary: Canonverse. Janus reassures Remus that he really does love him.

"You own my heart"

Relationships: Romantic anxceit

Summary: Janus is a prince, and a lot of suitors are after his hand in marriage. His boyfriend, Virgil, isn't too happy about this.

The Truth Hurts

Relationships: Romantic anxceit

Summary: Canonverse. Angst. Janus tries to stop Virgil leaving. Then he doesn't.

"How do you get accidentally married?"

Relationships: Romantic moceit

Summary: Patton has some wonderful news (at least, he thinks so). Virgil takes it about as well as you'd expect.

A shoulder to cry on

Relationships: Romantic loceit

Summary: Canonverse. Logan is feeling a bit overwhelmed. Fortunately, Janus is there to comfort him.

Where Loyalties Lie

Relationships: Platonic anxceit

Summary: Janus finds out his best friend is a traitor to the crown.

Feels Like Forever

Relationships: Romantic analogical

Summary: Virgil goes to visit his boyfriend. This would be easier if his boyfriend wasn't the prince, and if he didn't have to scale a tower to see him.

Race Against Time

Relationships: Romantic dukeceit

Summary: Perhaps the middle of a heist isn't the best time to Define The Relationship.

Of Flying and Flowers

Relationships: Pre-romantic logince

Summary: Roman and Logan are both pilots, dedicated to their jobs with no time for a relationship. Why then, is Roman gripped by the desire to do something romantic every time he sees Logan?

The Curious Case of the Missing Jacket

Relationships: Platonic anxceit

Summary: Based on this prompt by @/sleepyvirgilprompts: Virgil can't sleep without his hoodie. When it disappears one day and ignores his attempts to summon it, this becomes a problem.

Stay With Me

Relationships: Romantic moceit

Summary: Janus doesn't know what happened, or even where he is. All he knows is that he doesn't want Patton to leave his side.

Moceit parents au

Relationships: Romantic moceit

Summary: Janus and Patton are both busy parents, but maybe they can make time for each other.

Falling for you

Relationships: Pre-romantic analogical

Summary: Logan is a little nervous about talking to his crush. Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately) Roman is there to help out.

Two can play at that game

Relationships: Romantic loceit

Summary: Logan thinks Janus should get out of bed. Janus disagrees.

Steal a hat, or a kiss

Relationships: Romantic anxceit

Summary: Virgil tries to pull a prank, and it goes better than he could have expected.

Stimming and sparkles

Relationships: Romantic anxceit

Summary: When Virgil gets excited, his eyeshadow turns into purple glitter. Janus thinks it's beautiful.

Always

Relationships: Platonic anxceit

Summary: Virgil isn't doing so well, but there's one Side who will always be there for him.

Cold

Relationships: Romantic anxceit

Summary: Based on a headcanon by @/princeanxious. Janus has cold hands, and delights in using this to prank the other sides. That is, until he tries to prank Virgil.

The World is Ugly

Relationships: Romantic intrulogical

Summary: Remus is a newly turned werewolf, and unfortunately he has to deal with the prejudices that come with that.

Dukexiety high school au

Relationships: Romantic dukexiety, platonic LAMP.

Summary: Remus bumps into his crush. Literally.

Anaroceit cuddles

Relationships: Romantic anaroceit

Summary: Virgil is rudely awoken from his nap, but somehow he doesn't mind too much.

Hypocrisy

Relationships: Romantic analosleep

Summary: Virgil and Remy make sure Logan gets some sleep.

What's In The Box?

Relationships: Romantic logicality

Summary: Patton brings home a surprise.

[ginger-snaps014]

Considering gothic horror’s main theme is the corruption of the sacred, I would say both views are correct and should in fact be read in tandem.

⚠️ Long Post Warning!!! ⚠️

1. Corruption of the Divine Order of the Universe - this is the hubris/ horror of science only read. Man acting as God is part of this corruption. He creates life where he should not. The act of reversing death is also covered by this theme.

2. Corruption of the Family Unit (Specifically the Role of Father) - As used in the book, when Frankenstein abandoned his monster he failed in his duties as a father. His acts led to corruption of the monster’s “family” and monster’s perception of the world. Abandoning and neglecting those you create (rather than caring for your children) is wrong. This is what the critic was getting at. Social responsibility for your progeny. The monster constantly call the doctor “Father” to hammer home the Dr. role.

3. Combined - both these ideas combined create an interesting critique of Christianity and the role of logic in Christianity that was popular at the time.

The rise of the clockmaker God deist interpretation of the Christianity had gained popularity the era immediately predating when Mary writes the book (she wrote between the enlightenment and romantic ears and is considered the founder of romantic gothic horror). Under Deism’s watchmaker analogy, “just as watches are set in motion by watchmakers, after which they operate according to their pre-established mechanisms, so also was the world begun by God as creator, after which it and all its parts have operated according to their pre-established natural laws. With these laws perfectly in place, events have unfolded according to the prescribed plan.” As such, Frankenstein could be seen as a criticism of God himself, or at least God as the Diest saw him. Dr. Frankenstein acts as God when he creates the monster who is intelligent and well thought. Who reads the Bible. Who calls the Dr. Father. Once the Dr refuses to responsibly for and refuses help his creation, the monster comes to decision he will kill Dr. Frankenstein for both creating him and condemning him to live alone (Dr. refused to make a bride/Eve). In Deism, God, our very own doctor, created Adam then left him to fend for himself if a pre-established universe. Leaving his creation alone with no help from the divine, even in times of great crisis. Even in times of famine and war. Meaning he is either indifferent to our suffering (as Dr. Frankenstein) or intended such suffering. When your creator condemns you to Hell and refuses to take responsibility for those actions, the only logical response is to turn away from your creator. To turn from religion. Given that Mary was surrounded by people who held different beliefs (including her atheist Husband), it is not surprising that she would explore religion in her writing.

However, other popular reading of these combined themes concludes that it’s humanity’s own interference with religion that results in one turning from their creator (as opposed to the creator being worthy of criticism). The monster begins moral. As he was created by the doctor, he is pure. It is only upon reading paradise lost (and identifying with the abandoned satan) and Frankenstein’s own journal, does the monster turn from his creator. It is the readings and knowledge of the secular that result in his murderous rage.

For me, I see Frankenstein as a corrupted version of God who abandons his creation, his child. And the Monster as corrupted version of Adam, who without parental or spiritual guidance, lost his path.

Neither is free from the taint of the secular defiling the sacred divinity of the world. The fault lies with both for succumbing to the serpent who wore a disguise of science and of logic.

“It’s anecdotal, but I regularly see Frankenstein’s monster described as a warning against scientific hubris, an alarm about Tampering With Things That Should Be Left Alone™. This I think is quite wrong: I think it is a story about what happens when one fails the (still at the time of writing) radical enlightenment by failing to take social responsibility for one’s actions and interventions. If it’s a warning, it’s a warning about turning one’s back, out of cowardice, on what one creates, not about creating it in the first place.”

— China Mieville, interview with the Weird Fiction Review (via brotticelli)

[birdzflycom]

Unique gifts for your Valentine in the garden

Courtesy: henricocitizen Chocolates and roses have become synonymous with Valentine’s Day, representing customary gifts exchanged on this romantic occasion. However, perhaps this year, you might contemplate presenting your beloved with something a tad more unconventional. Deliberate upon gifting an indoor foliage boasting heart-shaped leaves or blossoms. For instance, Anthuriums present an effortless cultivation experience, showcasing prolonged blooming periods within indoor settings. Their crimson, rosy, or alabaster heart-shaped blooms elegantly emerge amidst lustrous verdant foliage. Optimal growth entails positioning them in well-lit areas, sheltered from direct sun exposure, and administering hydration when the soil exhibits slight desiccation. Another remarkable selection is the florist cyclamen (Cyclamen persicum), esteemed for its heart-shaped foliage and vibrant blossoms. Sporting hues of pink, crimson, violet, or ivory, its blooms gracefully ascend above variegated leaves imbued with hues of emerald and argent. This botanical treasure thrives in cool, draught-free environments, basking in indirect luminosity. Ensure intervals between watering sessions, allowing the substrate to nearly desiccate. The Valentine hoya, alternatively recognized as Sweetheart hoya (Hoya kerrii), often enters the market as a solitary rooted leaf ensconced in a petite receptacle. With time, it burgeons into a trailing specimen, necessitating analogous care akin to other hoya variants. Cultivate it within tepid environs, basking in diffused luminosity and cultivating it in well-drained substrates. Embarking on a string of hearts (Ceropegia woodii) venture unveils a slender vine bedecked with a profusion of diminutive heart-shaped foliage. Tinged with hues of sable and accented by silvery highlights, its allure is further accentuated. Thriving under ample luminosity and nurtured within well-draining soil, it merits hydration when the substrate succumbs to aridity. For novices and seasoned horticulturists alike, a low-maintenance pothos or philodendron graced with heart-shaped leaves serves as a commendable choice. Opt for variegated philodendron assortments such as Brasil or Neon pothos, distinguished by verdant leaves suffused with vibrant lime hues, for a semblance of distinctiveness. Consider procuring or crafting a heart-shaped topiary to add an enchanting touch to your Valentine's Day ensemble. Peruse your preferred horticultural emporium for an array of pre-assembled options or acquire the essential components to fashion your bespoke creation. Essential requisites encompass a receptacle replete with drainage orifices, a duo of trailing plant species such as wire vine or English ivy, and a segment of stout gauge wire or a preformed heart-shaped topiary scaffold. Ivy specimens with diminutive leaves and wire vines lend themselves seamlessly to the crafting of aesthetically pleasing topiaries. Opt for diminutive flora with elongated tendrils for an immediate visual impact. Manipulate the wire to assume a heart configuration, culminating in one or two extensions that traverse into the receptacle. Populate the lower hemisphere of the container with a well-aerated potting medium. Position the topiary frame meticulously, arranging the plants so their stems trail along either side of the heart. Envelop the roots with soil, ensuring adequate hydration, and affix the stems to the wire scaffold. Optionally, embellish with decorative pebbles to enhance visual appeal. For ardent gardeners, gifting the components necessary for assembling a Valentine's topiary may evoke greater delight. Present them with all prerequisites and accompanying instructions, tastefully ensconced within ornamental wrapping. Should you opt for fresh blossoms, it behooves you to maximize their longevity and vibrancy. Scrutinize the offerings diligently, selecting specimens evincing robust vitality. A discerning olfactory assessment will unveil their freshness and meticulous maintenance. Target blooms characterized by an upright posture and ample budding, signaling imminent unfurling. Refrain from acquisitions displaying wilted foliage or mushy stems, indicative of compromised health. Facilitate the recipient's floral upkeep endeavors by furnishing a vial of floral preservatives, supplementing their water reservoir. Encourage the excision of lower foliage and the recutting of stems prior to their placement within a pristine receptacle. In the event roses evince a proclivity to droop post-purchase, a straightforward remedy is at hand. Withdraw them from their vessel, execute stem recutting, and immerse the entire specimen - stem, foliage, and blooms alike - in a basin of tepid water. Allow for a half-hour immersion period before resection and relocation to a sanitized receptacle, replete with fresh water augmented by floral preservatives. Exercise diligence in safeguarding your verdant Valentine's offerings during transit, shielding them from inclement weather conditions. Envelop potted plants or cut blossoms to shield against temperature extremes, refraining from prolonged exposure to excessively hot or frigid environments. Regardless of your botanical preference, the gesture is certain to elicit smiles and imbue your Valentine's week with an extra dose of cheer. Read the full article

[mackthecheese]

Still for the first ask game

2, 5, 20

For art class crush person >:D

You’re devious >:0

I’m going to call him CatRat as a code name because he has a pet cat and pet rats.

(2) When I Truly Started to Like Them:

I’ve always liked him, really. I always thought he was really cool pre-transition when he hardly ever talked. He just got cooler when we met again in high school post-coming-out. He was with his (now ex) boyfriend (whom I don’t like AT ALL (he threatened to beat me up in the theatre parking lot after I completely un-flirtily complimented CatRat)) at the time, so being romantically involved with him didn’t even cross my mind. They broke up and he took it really hard (ex bf was smoochin’ the whole dang theatre and CatRat knew this but was convinced it wasn’t anything serious because “that’s just how the theatre is,” which I can say is only the case about 50% of the time), so I was a shoulder of support for him.

The moment it really clicked that “oh shit I wanna marry this guy” was one random day in English class. He was showing me a video of one of his pet rats named Hourglass cleaning her curly whiskers and something in my brain just switched and said “this is the cutest, sweetest guy in the planet,” and I’ve been head over heels ever since.

He knows I like him because of a long and complicated analogy about bricks and he acknowledges my feelings, but is not open to a relationship at the moment. He was with his ex for a long time and isn’t ready to try again just yet. I totally respect his decision and am more than willing to be patient. If he decides he doesn’t want to try dating again with me, that’s cool too. I just want him to be as happy as he can be and if that means we stay just friends, that’s fine with me. 💜💜💜

(5) My Favorite Ship of Them:

CatRat x self care. He struggles sometimes with putting himself first and making sure he’s hydrated, so I check in about once a day to make sure he’s taking time for himself and drinking water. :)

(20) A Weird Headcanon:

I have no evidence of this, but I am absolutely convinced that he has put his rats on his head like little rat hats before. No way has he never put a rat on his head. He absolutely has. Same with the kittens he fosters sometimes. He’ll be very careful and have his hands ready to catch them if they slip at all. He will put that rat on his head and let it crawl around. Rat. On his head. Yeah. It’s also probably the cutest thing ever. Once again, I have absolutely nothing to tell me that this is true. I just know it is, instinctually.