#pre war eras intrigue me so

[allherfaeriesmeetinjuly]

obsessed with russian “doomed” music and german expressionism art rn

[vhs-rs]

Since the paintings were shared in their full glory the other day, I decided to go ahead and elaborate a bit further on this - but also simple enough that its just this one image lol. 👍

Thoughts?

Also some side notes / tangents to this:

The Star and the Moon collector appear to be presenting the Starchild (our collector) to the others (the Planet and the Sun collector). Despite how little detail there is in such a piece, you can tell they are proud of this little gremlin and enough so to introduce them.

Trailing slightly off of the previous note is the fact that every portrait has the Star collector alongside the main focus being each collector. @kickfwip and I think it’s depicting the Star collector gathering everyone together to tell them of the news - as the planets are in a line with the sun, and the Star is seen around the Planet and then right in front of the Sun. Likely that all of these depictions from the right side of the hallway are pre-titan war era events and whoever it was that disappeared (I think it was the Planet) really pissed the collectors off.

I am 100% definitely most absolutely very much certain that the Sun collector is the Grand Huntsman - tho the credit for that understanding and realization goes to @sepublic :) - and the Moon collector is the one that was responsible for trapping the owl beast in a scroll. The Moon being the one to trap an owl of all things is what really pulls me in deeper on this, like why did they do it? Of course there was some kind of lengthy chase that had been happening as implied by the lines spoken, but why??? Man if only we had time for 20 more adventures…

The Sun really said, “No you’re doing it wrong. Let ME show you how its done,” and then proceeded to slay. I don’t know why but the fact that my homie turned into a buff cult leader capable of genocide is really intriguing in comparison to whatever the Moon was doing. 😭

[rallamajoop]

Cultic Iconography in Resident Evil Village

As the kind of nerd who loves all the creepy artwork you can find decorating Miranda-shrines around the village (like, just check out that one of the half-skeletal Miranda hovering in the graveyard and just tell me that isn't metal AF), I was on the lookout for the original image assets while poking through the game files. I'm hardly an expert on Catholic or Orthodox iconography (plenty of which is creepy enough just to begin with), but I adore how you can see all those elements being twisted and appropriated by Miranda's cult. You'll find these six pictures plastered all over the village in various combinations.

So you can imagine how thrilled I was to find a whole extra batch of unused artwork in the same set!

Lest you doubt these were all meant to go together, they all hail from the one big compilation file ‒ I've just cropped them out separately for ease of viewing. For all I know, maybe some of these were used somewhere in the game and I just never caught it (and if you have spotted any, please let me know!)

But taken at face value, our unused images consist of one picture of the megamycete, a 10-winged-madonna figure (why limit yourself to just 6?), a side profile of Miranda herself (possibly excluded because it shows off a little too much of her real face?), two images of dead crows, and (strangest of all) a man holding a goat head.

That last pic especially stands out ‒ and not just because I could (and, indeed, now have) legit write you a whole essay on just the significance of the goat's head motif as a protective symbol in the village (seriously, it's everywhere from the Goats of Warding to the symbol on the shield of the Maiden of War statue), so I'm going to be all over any new example. But who the hell is that guy carrying it? No other image centers anyone but Miranda herself as an object of worship. This looks more like someone's taken a generic pic of the likes of St Francis of Assisi hanging out with some animals (it's a theme, you can look it up), then just cut the poor animal off at the neck for added creep factor.

So do we take it that this guy was, at some point, meant to be another key figure in Miranda's cult? Or was generic-saint-with-animal-plus-extra-squick all they were really going for? Was it drawn before the writers made Miranda the cult leader? Or could this even have been intended (as the goats themselves seem to be) as some in-universe, pre-Miranda relic of an earlier era?

Also interesting: he appears to be holding one of those ornate staves you can also see in the fire and skeletal images of Miranda above (and can also find in the field near Luisa's early in the game, before they're all replaced by charred, semi-crucified corpses). Did that symbol predate Miranda too? Fascinating, either way.

Those two crow pictures may be even more intriguing still. I'm sure we all remember that spooky batch of dead and/or hanging crows Ethan discovers at the start of his descent into the village, but thereafter nothing like that is ever seen again. Given that Miranda herself is so closely associated with crows, it's reasonable to wonder if this very-literal murder-of-crows was in fact some act of heresy by an unbeliever, deliberately hidden out in the woods.

But if images of dead crows ‒ including one hung in the very same position ‒ were at some point intended to appear alongside other images of Miranda-veneration, then presumably veneration was always the intent for those dead crows out in the woods. Suffering is, of course, a key part of the stories of so many saints. And perhaps crows are sacred only in the same way that the goats are: ideal candidates for ritual sacrifice.

Much as I love all the concept art you can already unlock with the game, I'd pay good money for a proper artbook going into all this kind of design work. There's clearly so much more that went into the concept art stages of this game that I'd love to hear more about.

And while we're at it, here's a nice big version of the standard winged-fetus symbol too:

[unpopularwriter25]

*Barge in through the door quickly* I GOT A REQUEST! A CUTE ONE TOO!! AND I REALLY REALLY WANT IT 100% fluff!!!

OK, so I want a Michikatsu/Kokushibo x Reincarnated! Modern! Reader. So the plot is: Reader got Reincarnated in kny as Michikatsu's fiancée with kny memories n all, you can bet that she can and will tease Michikatsu with modern comebacks/slang words. Or maybe teach him some too!! Also this is pre-yoriichi one, basically one before Michikatsu become jealous of Yoriichi.

I want this into Angst... Kill Reader off in the middle of story!! LET MICHIKATSU BE SAD! AND HE TURNS TO DEMON!!!!! but here's the twist, since Reader's soul not in this world— She got Reincarnated again!! With all her memories!! And after like, years (200 years for Koku, and 17 years for Reader since she reborn again) the both meet each again~ cue Reader punch and lecture Kokushibo for choosing becoming a demon, of course they still get along well... bonus if Kokushibo ended up proposing Reader again (Boi needs happiness).

I kinda want an ending of where Reader and Koku ended up being Tanjiro + Nezuko 2.0. I MEAN, IMAGINE CHIBI KOKUSHIBO IN A BOX!!! That and Reader & Kokushibo ended up helping the demon slayer crops beating Muzan's ass!

Thank youuuuu!! Also the moment I got this idea, I just HAD to send it to you xD

Once again you're coming in with the 10/10 request! 😂 I hope you enjoy~!

Eternal Vows: The Rebirth of Love and War

Warnings: Mentions of death.

Summary: a modern soul reincarnates as the fiancée of Michikatsu in the world of 'Demon Slayer.' Despite their joy, tragedy strikes, leading to her death and Michikatsu's transformation into a demon. Two hundred years later, she reincarnates again, and they reunite, determined to fight Muzan together. Their enduring love and unique bond bring hope to the Demon Slayer Corps as they face the ultimate battle.

The sun cast a warm glow over the peaceful countryside, the air filled with the gentle rustling of leaves and the distant calls of birds. In a quaint village nestled among rolling hills, Michikatsu and his fiancée walked hand in hand. The reader, a modern soul reincarnated into the world of 'Demon Slayer,' couldn't help but smile at the simplicity of this era, a stark contrast to her previous life.

"Michikatsu," she said, her voice playful, "have you ever heard the term 'YOLO'?"

Michikatsu glanced at her with a puzzled expression. "Yolo? What does that mean?"

She laughed, the sound light and carefree. "It means 'You Only Live Once.' It's a reminder to make the most out of life."

He smiled softly, the corners of his eyes crinkling. "You always have such peculiar sayings."

"Oh, just wait until you hear about 'selfies' and 'hashtags'," she teased, earning a chuckle from him.

The days passed in a blur of joy and contentment. Michikatsu's admiration for his fiancée grew with each passing moment. She brought a sense of wonder and excitement into his life, her modern slang and comebacks a constant source of amusement.

One evening, as they sat beneath a sakura tree, she began teaching him more about her world. "So, in my time, we had these things called memes. They're like... funny pictures with captions that people share."

He raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "Show me how to create one."

Grinning, she picked up a stick and drew a crude image in the dirt. "There, that's the face. Now you add a funny caption. Like, 'When you realize the Demon Slayer Corps is after you.'"

Michikatsu laughed, the sound rich and full of life. "You have such a vivid imagination."

But fate can be cruel. One fateful night, the village was attacked by a powerful demon. Despite their efforts, Michikatsu and his fiancée were separated in the chaos. As Michikatsu fought valiantly, his fiancée was struck down, her lifeless body cradled in his arms.

"Why?" Michikatsu's voice broke with grief as he held her close. "Why did this happen?"

Her last breath was a whisper, "Remember... YOLO."

Her death shattered Michikatsu. Consumed by sorrow and rage, he turned to Muzan Kibutsuji, seeking the power to avenge her. In his anguish, he became a demon, losing himself to darkness.

Two hundred years later, in a bustling modern city, the reader was reborn. Her memories of Michikatsu and her previous life remained vivid. At seventeen, she felt an inexplicable pull towards the past.

One evening, as she walked through an old forest, she stumbled upon a familiar figure. Kokushibo, now a powerful demon, stood before her, his six eyes widening in shock.

"It's you," he whispered, his voice a mix of wonder and regret.

Without hesitation, she punched him in the arm. "What the hell were you thinking, becoming a demon? YOLO, remember?"

Kokushibo's expression softened, a sad smile playing on his lips. "I never forgot."

Despite the centuries that had passed, their bond remained unbroken. They spent hours talking, sharing stories of their lives apart. Slowly, Kokushibo began to heal, his love for her rekindled.

One night, under the same sakura tree, he knelt before her. "Will you marry me again?"

Tears filled her eyes as she nodded. "Yes, Michikatsu. Always."

Together, they joined forces with the Demon Slayer Corps, their unique bond and combined strength a powerful weapon against Muzan. Kokushibo, with his diminutive form and chibi-like appearance, often rode in a specially crafted box on her back, a sight that never failed to bring smiles to their comrades.

As they stood side by side, ready to face the ultimate battle, she looked at him and grinned. "Ready to kick some demon ass, my love?"

He nodded, determination burning in his eyes. "Together, always."

And so, Michikatsu and his fiancée, now united once more, became an unstoppable force, their love and strength paving the way for a brighter future.

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

Do you know anything about gallifreyan marriage and dating? I’m a huge dr who fan and a friend asked me about it but I don’t have much information myself and I couldn’t find a ton of information either aside from a few bits about gallifreyans marrying members of other species. I wouldn’t be surprised if there wasn’t much information Given that gallifreyans don’t typically have the same family structure as humans but I thought I’d check and see if you could come up with anything

How does marriage and dating work on Gallifrey?

Gallifreyan relationships, steeped in tradition and influenced by duty, are a crushingly hierarchical blend of strategic alliances and personal connections. Dating may or may not be a thing, and marriage ceremonies are also very vague.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Cultural Norms and Practices

Gallifrey, being a highly advanced and conservative society, has its own unique set of cultural norms. For Time Lords, especially those involved in the politics of Gallifrey, relationships are influenced by their duties and responsibilities. Given their long lifespans and the political nature of society, relationships are often more strategic or functionally based rather than romantic, serving to strengthen allegiances and bring together Houses. They often approach relationships like a chess game, with each move calculated for maximum advantage.

Gallifreyan family structures are complex. Traditionally, Gallifreyans were "loomed" into existence - a form of asexual reproduction - which cultivated a very different cultural approach to family and relationships. However, in the pre-War era, Gallifreyans have biological children, so have a more conventional Human family structure in the new age.

💍Dating and Marriage Conventions

Time Lords are often somewhat detached from normal human emotions, which affects their approach to marriage and dating, but despite all the political manoeuvring, some have married for love.

The ceremony of marriage itself is again a grey area. The bride/groom traditionally both wear white (which is intriguing when you think white is the Gallifreyan colour for the personification of Death, but hey ho), and long hair is braided, and that's about all that's known.

There is no information on what courting Time Lords may regard as a 'date', or even if Gallifreyan date nights exist. However, there are clubs and dives in the Low Town one may like to explore, but for the more discerning couple there are plenty of upscale restaurants in the major cities, one of which is the Palace of Arcadia (may I recommend the dactyl eggs?). Other potential forms of Gallifreyan date nights are available.

🏫 So ...

So while very little is known about the practicalities of marriage and normal dating conventions, there's a lot to be said for the culture surrounding it. Marriage is unlikely to look like it does in various Earth cultures, and there may be a special ritual involved that could include the weaving of biodata or psionic connections, but the rest, as they say, is confetti.

Related:

How do Gallifreyans flirt?: How Gallifreyans approach flirting.

How should you court a Gallifreyan?: Advice on dating a Gallifreyan.

What are some Gallifreyan wedding traditions?: Expanded look at how weddings might work on Gallifrey, both in ceremony and legalities.

Hope that helped! 😃

More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A →😆Jokes |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired 😴

[magicalmischel]

WIP TAG GAME 🌿

rules: make a new post with the names of all the files in your wip folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have wips

thanks for tagging me @regulusrules ! 💖

I have a lot of wips too 😂 most of these are for BBC Merlin, a few are for classic who. I hope I don't forget anything, I keep a list but I haven't updated it in like a year 😂

BBC MERLIN WIPS

The Crystal Hunters; 45k

a canon era time travel fic with merthur and morgwen, set during the Great Purge. There's lots of plot, magic, crystals, old castles and running.

Layers of Dusk; 17k

a darker fic where Arthur dies and so Merlin tries his hand at necromancy

Give Me Your Hand, I'll Give You Mine; 1300 words

canon era, merthur, magical injuries caused by the great purge and a magic reveal.

"the medieval roommates valentine fic" (untitled); 2500 words

merlin is forced to stay in arthur's chambers 24/7 bc of plot. Not sure if I'll ever finish this one tbh

Rhythm of Love; ??k

glastonbury festival fic where arthur returns + musician!merlin. I have no idea how many years ago I started this, definitely pre-2018 though. Idek if I still have the draft somewhere ;-;

Suddenly Flames Everywhere; 77k

;-; i think abt this fic every day and try to work on it at least once a week ;-; i wanted to post it for acbb 2023 but i ran out of time, and then once the deadline was gone, so was most of my motivation 😂 it's a merthur enemies to lovers dragon!merlin soulmate canon au that I care about very very much. pls ask me abt it if you want maybe it'll kick me into working on it more 😂

The Light of Knowledge; ?????k

oof this is an old one. started it way back in 2014 and I'm honestly not sure if I still have the draft saved somewhere. All I remember is a big maze, lots of bad poems that I wrote in like the 9th grade and merthur 😂

Falling into Empty Space (??); 400 words lmao

basically a s1!merlin vs s5!merlin epic fight with time travel to 1x08 bc obviously killing kid!mordred is wrong, right? Right??

"ghost!merlin canon au fic" (untitled); 9k

exactly what it says in the title. damn i need to return to this ;-;

"cat!merlin fic" (untitled), 1000 words

canon era, merthur, magic reveal. Merlin transforms himself into a cat bc of course that is the absolute best way to get arthur to accept magic. it only makes sense in his head lmao

Burn Us Away (But Keep Me in Your Heart); 11.8k

canon soulmate au with a LOT of angst and a magic reveal

"the bird!merlin fic"; 1000 words

first written for merlin bingo 2021 but I never finished it ;-;

No Doubt in My Mind Where You Belong; 12k

a canon era trans!merlin fic with established relationship merthur

"cuddle fic" (untitled); 1300 words

written for fluffalooza 2023 but never finished ;-;

"one bed fic" (untitled); 1900 words

also written for fluffalooza but never finished bc it felt too ridiculous/cracky/ooc, but it might be worth reworking

"the weird tarot crack fic" (untitled); 2.8k

written for tarot fest 2023 but abandoned bc i came up with a better idea for the fest. I remember it was very cracky, I might return to it. Canon era merthur.

i might be forgetting some tbh, I've written a lot of drabbles that I later wanted to expand but never did ;-;

CLASSIC DOCTOR WHO WIPS

"jamie/10 + 11 fic" (untitled); 3.5k

the 10th doctor visits all his companions before regenerating into 11 including jamie <3

"twojamie war games "make it worse" fic" (untitled); 849 words

this is theoretically a fix-it but also i make it much worse first lmao, and i'm not sure yet how it ends either, so is it really a fix-it??

ok and I think that's it!! ;-; i did write a little something for each of the titles but hopefully not too much so if anyone sees this and wants to know more feel free to dm me

i'm not gonna tag 18 people though that's way too many 😂 I'll tag @insane-ohwhyfandoms (good luck) @lair-of-the-dragon @lesbianlefay @invisibility-superiority @queerofthedagger @wolfiery @haventacluewhatimdoing and @twojamie-o-clock <3

absolutely no pressure to do this though of course! 💖

[burberrycanary]

For the fic commentary game...I want to ask about so many lines, but ok. I've narrowed it down to three from Lost Vocabularies..., so you can pick—I'd be so interested to get your author's commentary on any (or all) of them! 💛

He will never forget nine months of stock prices from 1950.

(this is the one I'm probably least likely to get an answer to, which is fine, but I'm so very curious about what Steve did during those months in the past, and a girl's gotta try! 😜)

2. But he sure as hell doesn’t want them back, not so long as Bucky is willing to carry them, whatever they mean to him now—though Steve doesn’t like to think how Bucky must have found them and when.

(Basically, I just like to make myself sad about Bucky Barnes, so hey: talk to me about the dog tags!)

3.

“Why were you always signed up for something? You already took more vocational classes than about anybody.”

[…]

“Trying to impress my dad,” Bucky admits on a slow breath out. “But not in the way he wanted. ‘One of the laborin’ Barnes with a proper education,’ he liked to say. ‘Bastards won’t know what hit ‘em.’ He wanted me to live out that better American life he was chasing. Be respectable.” Bucky gives a faint dry laugh. “Sorry Pops.”

(I know this is more than one sentence...but I'm just endlessly fascinated by Bucky's (and Steve's) pre-war life and especially Bucky's relationship with his parents and how he feels about them now, after everything. So, if you'd be willing to elaborate on that snippet up there (I'm particularly intrigued by But not in the way he wanted), I'd be ecstatic!

(📦&🧼&◼&⬜-🔪)

2. But he sure as hell doesn’t want them back, not so long as Bucky is willing to carry them, whatever they mean to him now—though Steve doesn’t like to think how Bucky must have found them and when.

Crying into our beers over Bucky Barnes should be the name of our band. 😭🍻😭

The dog tags were such a distinctive element in TFATWS that I knew I wanted to use them in this post-Endgame fix-it series that ended up sprawling out to a bigger scope than I originally intended. But the first question from canon to consider is: whose dog tags are they, anyway?

In the surgery flashback from CATWS, we see that Bucky is no longer wearing his dog tags, which means they were taken away by Hydra. And this makes sense since Hydra was starting the process of completely stripping away Bucky’s identity. What Hydra does with Bucky’s dog tags depends on what kind of organization Hydra is, culturally and administratively. While you could write any number of stories here, especially since Bucky, as a specific known recovered asset, isn’t what the Japanese scientists in Unit 731 called “maruta” (“wooden logs”) or what the CIA-run black sites in West Germany under Project Bluebird called “expendables,” you could argue that Zola might keep Bucky’s dog tags for any number of reasons: spite, gloating, pride, or a perverse attachment to his greatest success. But the most rational course of action would be to destroy anything that could identify Bucky as a well-known American soldier—because this era of American history shows you could get away with not just murder but crimes against humanity as long as you played by certain bureaucratic rules. And this is the organization that Peggy Carter built, canonically, and the era that Steve returns to in Endgame—"the dark and bloody heart of the twentieth century [that] beat and maimed all the unsteadiness out of Bucky’s hands long ago." 

I’d argue these aren’t the dog tags that we see Steve wearing when he wakes up in the fake recovery room, which would have been replaced as part of the attempted deception, but instead the ones that he was wearing when he went into the ice, which would’ve been returned once the jig was up: 

Hanging around Bucky’s neck on a bright beaded chain are tarnished dog tags with the raised text turned, here and there, the pale green of copper eaten away by time.

I’ll admit I did look up the composition of WWII dog tags and scanned through some research papers on the corrosion levels in metal equipment used in the Arctic before deciding that I could just take a little literary license here and have Steve’s old dog tags be thematically “tarnished,” which in the text is explicitly tied to the theme of things being transformed over time, but the word also carries the connotation of something that’s sullied. For the dog tags, both meanings hold. 

My backstory headcanon is that Sam, who was the executor of Steve’s will and his chosen next of kin, invited Bucky to go through Steve’s surprisingly few personal effects for anything he wanted to keep before Sam donated the rest to museums. All Bucky took was the last, unfinished, mostly empty, little notebook and Steve’s old dog tags, which he restrung on a new chain. That’s it. That’s what Bucky is left with as a stranger in this strange land of the present. 

In the first glimpse Steve gets near the end of Still Left with the River, he interprets Bucky wearing his old dog tags as indicating that Bucky never stopped caring about him, which is true—Bucky kept on caring a whole hell of a lot. This is Steve’s “it taught me to hope” moment in the text that helps push him toward being honest with Bucky about how he feels after several decades of alternating between pining and grieving, pining and grieving. How many times has the worst already happened between them?

There is always an end to the line where the same big black pit is waiting. And eventually Bucky won’t crawl back out.

But the dog tags are deliberately ambiguous as a symbol, since they equally represent the grief that we see Bucky struggle with in TFATWS. They are Bucky’s chosen gesture of mourning when Steve buries himself in the past. It’s telling that even after Steve returns, Bucky doesn’t take the dog tags off or offer to give them back to Steve again. Whatever they mean, they’re Bucky’s now. And Bucky on some level continues to mourn a faith between them—ineffable and up to that point mutually committed to despite the worst the world could do—that Steve broke when he decided to go back to the past and which returning doesn’t unbreak. Because that’s the problem: “Time only moves in one direction.”

(“There’s a creepy stone somewhere that says otherwise.”

“Exactly.”)

Significantly, over and over, these fraught identification tags are described as occupying the space between Steve and Bucky:

Tipping Steve’s chin up with his thumb, Bucky kisses the blazes out of him while the old dog tags swing a little on their glinting new chain in the space between them.

How Steve left is still very much between them throughout this whole series. 

The scene where the dog tags are revealed as Steve’s is significant:

...Steve’s old dog tags swinging in the space between their bodies; then the warm tender weight of Bucky’s forehead, pressed just off-center against his chest, overlapping with the light touch of metal and the pooling chain; [...] Bucky pressed close, and his face hidden.

The contrary actions of Bucky pressing close but still hiding is how Bucky has chosen to deal with the complicated emotional situation Steve has put him in—the combination of intimacy and distance that shades through most of this series. Bucky is trying to both protect himself and give Steve a good-faith chance to do better. Bucky’s strength and generosity win out in the end, because that’s who Bucky is at heart: the bigger person in a way that has nothing to do with being tall or strong or healthy. But part of the problem of any post-Endgame fix-it is that no one fight or confession or “being shoved in a closet together” shortcut could solve these emotional sticking points. 

Steve really did that. Whatever his reasons or motivations, which this series digs into a lot in the subtext, in the moment Steve meant it. And there’s no way to undo the choices that have been made, not without recourse to an ethically flawed concept that’s the opposite of living: because trying to undo past losses is exactly what Endgame gets wrong by attempting.

Fuck Endgame: the only way out is through. And by “through” I don’t mean Steve passively playing white-picket-fence house with Peggy through the ugly back half of the 20th century and then getting some sort of science-fiction second chance for a life with Bucky, once all that’s over. That’s doubling down on the flawed ethics of Endgame.

Life is a process of making choices, over and over. And living with the consequences. How you live with them is another ethical choice you get to make, over and over. That’s the constant and inescapable ethical action inherent in being alive.

This series is deliberately full of minor characters with losses just as profound as Steve’s: loved ones gone, former ways of life lost, all the small gathered-together pieces that we each painstakingly build into a life vanishing, whether bit by bit or calamitously all at once:

Her face lights up. “Thanks, I make them myself. I’m thinking of going to fashion school, maybe. Textile design. I’ve already died—fuck being scared, right?”

Between war, the Blip and the Return, she has lost every member of what was once a huge family. And life just keeps going on.

“Yeah,” Steve says. “Fuck being scared.”

Or:

“Been walking since Greenwood Cemetery. I can’t get to where any of my people are buried so you know what I’ve decided?”

Steve gives a hum, meaning what’s that?  

“I’ve decided to collectivize. Every grave on earth with the first name George is my boy’s. I’ve claimed every Elizabeth—in all forms—and Rachael, Robert and Joseph. Never cared for my husband’s people so I don’t bother with them. But I’ve got some favorites down in Greenwood picked out for my boy. ”

“I’m sorry for your losses,” Steve says, quiet, and thinking briefly of his own most recent dead. He doesn’t add, I know what it’s like to let grief triumph over reality. “So you visit.”

“Every day that I can. Lots of graveyards in this city. But Greenwood is nice. All the flowers and so forth.”

This is a story about grief.

Steve is trusted with great power to help set right wrongs the Avengers did during Endgame, setting all these other timelines on roads to destruction to save their own. And in the face of the temptation of that great fantastical power: the possibility of easy facile answers to unsolvably hard problems about change and loss so many people equally have to confront and hurt over and struggle with—all the time, right now, forever, constantly—Steve Rogers falters:

Preemptive—that idea is never going to seem right to him. But isn’t that what he’d tried to do when he’d stayed in the past? Get the preemptive good life by side-stepping the possibility of more loss? Because, for him at least, one way or another everything that mattered would have already happened.

And still the same old story at the bottom of whatever idealized notions got papered over top: trading other people’s lives for your own security.

He’ll never know whether, if his plan had worked, he would have stayed in the past for good.

And now he’s got to live with that.

If the dog tags in this story stand for anything, it’s living with the consequences.

You can make mistakes. We all do, individually and collectively. But there’s no undoing the past—not even in the MCU’s confused theory of the multiverse. All you can try is to do better: to make right what’s been put wrong as much as you can; or find things that are good and help them be better for more people.

There are deliberately four apologies offered in Lost Vocabularies: two from Bucky and two from Steve. But this is the climactic and closing apology that echoes the same language used to introduce the dog tags into the narrative: 

Pushing Bucky back, he touches the tarnished dog tags where the raised text has turned, here and there, the pale green of copper eaten away by time.

“I’m sorry,” Steve says, meaning a whole lot.

Bucky’s response, “We got here,” deliberately sidesteps the question of forgiveness and is designed to be read in two ways. The first reading challenges the relative significance of the past—we reached here however that happened—while the second rejects the past more completely: all we actually ever have is right now.

The thing is, Steve has been angry his whole life and he’s trying so hard to be a little more grateful for a change. 

He’s been doing better and he’ll keep on trying.

But there’s still just so much to be angry about everywhere he looks, from the past all the way through to this moment, burning up in front of him right now: this crawling-forward world that should be better, and isn’t, and won’t be unless people step forward to shoulder the hard slow work with no one to punch and no climactic battle you win or you lose.

This sort of work requires the splendid terrible patience of the tide eating away at a face of rock: mighty and irresistible, but wearisomely slow.

You gotta do the work. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.

A Man Takes His Sadness Down to the River (The Consolation of Philosophy)

[sitp-recs]

HP Rec Fest, Day 21

Today’s is hands down of my favourite prompt from @hprecfest, what a banger! I love being wowed by thought-provoking fics and it was a pleasure to reread these two all-time favourites for this post. I really hope more people will feel intrigued enough to check these out! On a side note, I won’t be posting any recs for tomorrow’s prompt (day 22: a fic that hasn't been updated in 10 years or author stated it was abandoned) as I haven’t read unfinished works in years and I completely lost track of the ones I’ve read in the pre-AO3 era. See you again on Saturday!

Day 21) a thought-provoking fic:

Drarry

And Save Me From Bloody Men by @blamebrampton (T, 10k)

Draco Malfoy once watched others fighting to stop the world falling apart. This time, he's not just watching.

why yes, I’ll be screaming about BB and this particular fic until the end of times, thank you very much :))) this is easily the most thought-provoking fic I’ve read in the HP fandom and remains (frighteningly so) current and relevant despite having been written well over a decade ago. the world building is phenomenal, my jaw dropped as I was introduced to this fascinating post-war dystopia full of disturbing political allegories. it’s brilliant and depressing all at once. my heart belongs to this redeemed Draco who’s so capable and tough, trying to do the right thing for once; his chemistry with Harry is instant and deliciously uncomplicated, but a war romance is inherently angsty and this will tug at your heartstrings. so many feels! I loved seeing Draco’s side relationship with Ernie, the trust and camaraderie between them is sooo good. Draco’s character development is truly fascinating to watch and believe me when I say you are not prepared to face this thrilling yet devastating ending. it will make your heart race and blow your mind just like the rest of this witty, fierce and sophisticated commentary. an epic classic that definitely deserves more love and more obsessed readers to join me and @tackytigerfic 🤝

Rare pair

Help Wanted: God and Executioner by pir8fancier (Snarry, E, 20k)

The war is raging on and Harry learns that there are no right choices.

yet another grim and brilliant wartime fic, this one delves deeper into the brutal reality of war tragedy and loss. love the poignant dialogue, so very honest and in character, and the way the sexual tension builds urgent and insistent but still organically. there’s so much going on, so much hurt and grief all around, that seeing Harry and Snape disconnect and find comfort in stolen moments before (or more likely after) the storm hits is very cathartic. I loved getting immersed in their dynamics and conversations. the dialogue is so good but I must remind you that this is not a happy fic, although it has its tender moments. Harry’s loneliness and search for punishment are devastating but there’s also understanding, intimacy and worshipping sex (!) which is everything we want and need. if you’re a Snarry fan I highly recommend giving this a try and then checking all of pir8fancier’s catalogue bc they’re a fabulous author!

[teddybaeran]

4 and 5 and 7 and 9 for Mix! 😁🤍

Squeee, thank you!

4. What did they do before they became a crusader? Did they have a job, an occupation?

Answered just now, here!

5. Do they have a family? If so, what kind? Do they miss them? Do they still have hope to see them again?

How could you ask me this 😭 Yes, yes.... hitting hard right away, I see....

Mix had a family. He had two sisters - one older and one younger. He had two parents. They were noble, but in a place where nobility often had strong opinions and always argued about them. Where funds should go, who should be in power, which wars to fight, which animals to protect...

The problem was that as time went on, other families began agreeing with each other, and Mix's did not. They became the outliers, the only ones disagreeing with everyone else. Today, Mix wonders whether someone was influencing the rest but couldn't get to his parents, and who they might have been. But at the time he was just a child. He focused on his lessons and his hobbies. He loved getting out of the house... using his horseback riding skills, survival, and archery and pushing all three to their limits for solitary excursions with no company but his horse. Gods, did he love these trips.

Until he came home from one and found his entire family dead. Their bodies not even removed - like walking into a crime scene. Frantically he checked them all, tried to save them, but it was too late, he was too late.

So, the question asks, what kind? Well, yea. There are many kinds So, after his pre-game Rambling Era, throughout the game, he builds his Forged and Found Family. First with Lann he decides he can treat the guy as a new little sibling who can't survive without being bonked on the head periodically. Then Ember - he swears he will protect her like he failed to with his original family. His heart breaks for her almost more than it does for them, and he will protect her with his life. His dedication to her knows no bounds. Woljif he can't seem to make heads or tails of - what I do know is that Woljif successfully convinces him that he needs protecting, but Mix overpivots and sticks Woljif away from combat and even lockpicking to protect him. Poor guy gets no treasure. Sosiel, Mix respects so much and sees him as a peer in many ways but who should still be protected, especially from himself and from needing to break any rules from his god. Daeran.... Mix instantly warms to Daeran before even meeting him, just from hearing about him and their similar stories. He wants to pull himself and Daeran towards each other and even recognizes some of his own old coping mechanisms in the beautiful and complicated man. But it's their first meeting, when Daeran decides he will join the fight without even being asked to, because he can tell he is needed, that Mix falls for him, seeing him as not only someone to protect with his entire being, but someone who actually deserves it and doesn't demand it. After the Hulrun events, Mix swears to listen to Daeran no matter what. So what family role does that give Daeran? Well I suppose love interest. But we'll see, I'm not that far in the game yet. But suffice to say that Mix is already consumed with affection for this beautiful, lonely guy.

7. Is your KC religious? If yes, which deity do they follow? If not, what is their view on religion?

Mix does respect some gods. Erastil was a hard decision, as he respects Erastil's role in the past of protecting mortals. Of course, their common interests also intrigue him - hunting, spending time in nature... But Mix wouldn't worship a god. He's just not built that way, obeying things without questioning why, without finding his own solutions that may or may not please said god. He really values his independence and always has. Even though he regrets how far he's taken it in the past, he doesn't regret it enough to give up his independence fully. Well, not for just anyone.... 👀

He doesn't judge those who are religious any more than he judges those who blindly follow laws...... And of course, how he feels about both depend on the laws/gods they choose. He will be careful around them all.

9. Do they have hobbies beside the crusade? Any passions or skills they have?

Mix studies a lot, honing his skills. One topic is anatomy, so he can heal. He doesn't use magic to do it, he studies and learns and carries around tools for healing. It would be nice to be able to prevent death. Another would be practicing his riding, shooting, even sometimes he practices close combat in case he ever needs it.

He also has a passion for jewelry. Mostly - depending on his era and mood - he will wear spiked jewelry, though sometimes he loves elegant pieces. He enjoys browsing shops, picking things out for himself and loved ones. Does Mix seem down? Take him shopping. He also likes making his own jewelry - metalworking is a passion of his in a lot of AUs but I haven't decided yet if it fits in WOTR...

I already talked about this a lot, but he loves going out into the wilderness and just spending alone quiet time enjoying nature. Exploring. Discovering. Sitting by a fire on a mountain or on a beach. He might enjoy it with a loved one too.

Is it a hobby to stay up all night, ready to fight the demons of your loved ones' dreams? Maybe. He always has hot chocolate ready...

He loves listening to music, especially with a beautiful view. Ready poetry. Getting lost in his thoughts. Appreciating art, especially if by someone he loves or on a topic he finds intriguing or important.

HHHH and so much more, to be honest >.<

[jounosparticles]

Hello o/ i just finished midterm im finally free orz.How are you doing?

I want to asked what do you think about Fukuchi?like his relationship or morality anything in general.Hes such an interesting character i wish ppl talk about him more.

hello! i’m pretty good! finished a read through bsd beast today (fantastic novel btw) and will work on some writing tonight i think!

i hope your midterm went well!! feel free to tell me about it if you’d like :) i’m interested

and ty for asking about fukuchi! i have lots to say about him.

fukuchi - my opinion

first off i will preface this by saying i USED to be a fukuchi hater. he used to really piss me off but looking back it was 100% biased towards the characters he hurt and i didn’t think too much of his motives. i actually really like him now and believe he’s very underrated.

for starters, i LOVE his design. the face scars especially really tie everything together. i also like his silly moustache hehe

his role as a hunting dog was really great and i hope we see more of that—some sort of pre-DoA scenes where we see the hunting dogs work together so i can look into their dynamics more. it seems that he genuinely was a good leader and cared for his squad. he was fun and lighthearted and seemed to be kind to his subordinates.

i really hope we get some sort of scenes where we see him interacting with the other members of the DoA, flashback scenes or something. we only really seen him interact with bram. i feel he would have gotten along well with sigma, since neither of them are bad people. in contrast i want to see him interact with fyodor and nikolai for the very opposite purpose.

i somewhat sympathized with fukuchi when he was fighting atsushi and akutagawa, his view on war clearly messed him up a ton and he just appeared to have a bad approach to solving what was right. i regret to admit i think i let a lot of the general perception of fukuchi hinder my opinion on him here. i understood his motives to a degree but couldn’t like him for that (which has since changed).

i wholeheartedly believe fukuchi is a good person. he is severely traumatized from all the war he had to deal with, which altered his perception on a good approach to solving things.

assuming he is around 45 years old, he would have received the warning of the war at the age of 9. imagine being a small child and realizing you have to save millions from dying? yet throughout it all he kept a great composure and was kind to others. the scenes where he was with fukuzawa as a child showed he was a good kid despite the huge task he would need to complete. this displays immense courage.

now more onto the DoA era.

notice how he turned everyone into vampires instead of just killing them? partially this was likely to build an army, however i assume part of it was to keep people from dying. he doesn’t want any more bloodshed and did what was necessary. he never told anyone about this though, there’s a good chance bram would have been more willing to help had he been open about the plan. maybe?

the way he treated bram wasn’t great though. it would have been cool to see him talk to bram about it and they work together. of course bram didn’t really seem to care too much about humanity before meeting aya, so he may have not agreed.

fukuchi was also incredibly smart for trusting fukuzawa to do what was right. it really shows their bond and how they knew each other. i’d love to look into their dynamics more, especially the scene where fukuchi tries to convince fukuzawa to go to war since there was a ton of symbolism there.

fukuchi and jouno’s bond also intrigues me. we know he invited jouno to the hunting dogs with the goal of him joining the DoA yet jouno was too influenced by good to be able to do it. i wonder if fukuchi would have told jouno the truth in the case that he agreed to join? or did he assume jouno was willing to be a ruthless killer? id like to think that fukuchi believed jouno had the morality to keep the agency safe despite being supposed to act evil; since fukuchi didn’t actually want them dead. ill make a longer analysis about this idea soon actually since it has the little gears in my head turning.

his relationship with tachihara is also interesting to me. i haven’t thought too much into it, but i believe fukuchi said something along of being disappointed in tachihara’s "betrayal". it makes me wonder if maybe he had hoped tachihara’s morality had changed in the mafia so he would never need to face him in battle? i’ll have to reread the chapters and look into this more.

his relationship with teruko also is one that makes me quite sad. she looked heartbroken as she had to kill him. she was also the only one he told other than fukuzawa about his real plan (as far as im aware). they were definitely close.

in the end, fukuchi’s reveal of the truth and everything he had been dealing with for so long made his actions make a ton of sense. he was just a person with a huge responsibility who tried to save things as well as he could. i really wish he could have gotten closure on the world he saved (if he is truly dead). he’s a fantastic character and has a ton of depth. i only scratched the surface here. maybe i will need to make an "in defence of fukuchi" essay at some point.

[broomsticks]

Heyy! I was wondering, can you help me out with some drarry recs? I read a few drarry fics YEARS ago and honestly don't remember them at all, and the past few years, I've only read marauders era fics. I want to explore drarry a bit, but in a lot of the fics i try out the pairing seems kinda illogical. Yk like the fic just pushes them together bc it's a drarry fic but it doesn't really make sense beyond that. Maybe I've just had bad luck. But that's why i wanted to ask whether you have any recs that could get me into the pairing again. I think i mostly want canonish stuff (no crazy AUs), and lengthwise im alright with whatever, but a longfic would be nice!!

so first off - thank you for thinking of me hahaha, but I'm not the best person to ask because I don't read a ton of Drarry! (I say that and it's my third most bookmarked ship, behind Wolfstar and Jily.) it's not a ship I'm particularly wild about either, for similarrrr reasons to you it sounds like (not a huge fan of postwar redemption arc and if I'm going to read that I usually would rather read lightning gen femslash, and most of the AUs tend to read sorta 'any two guys' to me), but I have read a bunch I enjoyed and I do have a couple faves:

Listening for the Angels by @hawksquill // 12k, M

The trials are over. Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy are in Azkaban, the Ministry has seized Malfoy Manor, and Draco is banished to live among Muggles. His exile brings Draco more than he ever bargained for: a Squib therapist, Muggle friends, a new career, and a mysterious pen pal who helps him come to terms with what it means to grow, heal, and make amends.

lmao I know I just said postwar redemption not my jam blah blah, but the writing of this one is just lovely. it's Draco-centric and more pre-slash gen than relationshippy, but the character growth is so well done.

.

What We Pretend We Can't See by @gyzym // 131k, M

Seven years out from the war, Harry learns the hard truth of old history: it’s never quite as far behind you as you thought.

the plot. the relationships. the conflict. the humanity. I remember this one totally sweeping me away! gyzym also wrote one of my favorite aziraphale/crowleys (build me a city, call it jerusalem, 3.5k, T), pre-show/dated 2012, give this a try if you'd like a quick taste of their writing, it's what motivated me to start reading that Drarry longfic!

.

I found the sentient house magic intriguing in this one:

The Claiming of Grimmauld Place by bixgirl1 // 75k, E

When Grimmauld Place begins fighting against Harry’s ownership of it, he decides he needs help to train the historic home — but little does he expect that it’ll be Malfoy who’s most suitable for the challenge. However, as Malfoy and Harry get closer, Harry comes to understand that expectations aren’t always the best path by which to guide his heart — and in the process learns just what is needed to make a house a home.

I will say this ship has a lot of a) magical theory, particularly sentient house magic, b) auror partner casefics, and c) mysterious medical maladies, so if that's something that interests you I can rec a couple more!

.

last but not least I know you said no crazy AUs, but you did also say Wolfstar, and I was just rereading this to rec it elsewhere: here's an online romance Drarry AU with HIV+ Remus and Wolfstar raising Harry. Angst, smut, fluff, family... this fic is lovely.

Dragons Don't Know Paradise by @teacup-tai // 51k, E

In 2004, when Remus spends two scary weeks in the ITU due to complications of pneumonia and his HIV condition, Sirius walks around the house like a ghost and Harry finds comfort and strength in Draco through a chat in an online LGBT forum. Harry falls for him, but Draco has a lot of secrets and, before long, will need to come clean—even if he believes that no one is able to understand a dragon. This is a story about falling in love online and about facing the reality of death, but above all, this is a story about hope, finding love and acceptance. (Non-magical / bookshop AU, written for the 25 days of Drarry 2020)

a couple more recs here for Wolfstar + Drarry!

[pyrousred]

The dehumanizing, invisible Body Horror of Hamburger Lady...

So recently I 'discovered' the band Throbbing Gristle after hearing about them and having them recommended for a long time. It goes without saying they're shaping up to be a new favorite band of mine. I loved Pink Floyd and Nine Inch Nails as a teen, so hearing 70s psychedelic British rock that is ALSO a predecessor to industrial rock has me fuckin giddy (and terrified).

Right now, though, I am really intrigued by their song Hamburger Lady, and moreso, the poem? Short story? Pre-internet creepypasta? - that it's based on. For those who haven't heard the song - go listen right now! Here's a link to it.

Can you see it? The pristine hospital hallway? The dim room full of moaning and rattling breaths? The rancid smell that hits you when you open the door? The heart monitor confirming this is in fact a living thing lying on the hospital bed in front of you? The blurry fading in and out of consciousness in the grip of unending agony...

For those who don't know the story, here's the lyrics to the song and the original poem, according to Genius:

Sit with it for a sec, if you can. It really tickles modern horror tastes doesn't it? In a way that feels uncannily ahead of its time. I'm tempted to compare it to one of the better creepypastas or posts from r/nosleep, but it reminds me of a bigger phenomenon that encompasses those things. The internet-era Pandora's Box of personal experiences, particularly the ones showcasing the rare and/or hidden away fringes of human society. The extreme and awful things that happened in someone's hometown, at someone's job. Often dubious in their truthfulness, such stories are numerous enough that some HAVE to be real.

In fact, let's give some credit. As many edgy tall tales as there may be on the internet, it's not hard to find completely real descriptions and images of the most shocking things imaginable online, so in that regard its fictitiousness makes it more impressive to me. It's a product of human artistry, made with intent, with a message - perhaps to encapsulate real events, but nonetheless built from the ground up to be an ambassador to some particular corner of the twisted and awful. And indeed, like any good scary story, there really is a grain of truth.

The writer of the work, 'Blaster Al' Ackerman, was a Medivac in the Vietnam War - note the narrator bringing up 'viet napalms' - and, according to Arthur Magazine's 2009 piece on him, did in fact work in burn wards in the late 60s. So undoubtedly the horror is based on very real experiences.

Kim Phuc, a napalm survivor who was famously photographed as a child in the Vietnam War after she was covered with the substance.

Hamburger Lady, then, is not really about a person. It's about the horrible fragility of the human body, and the perhaps even more terrifying ability of modern medicine to keep an utterly ruined body alive. Breathing, eating, shitting, even if with the help of invasive surgeries and tubes and round-the-clock care. And to what end, the story seems to ask, so that the patient can live on in unbearable pain?

And to me, part of the horror of this story is the utter dehumanization of the titular Hamburger Lady. Burned from the waist up, the features we recognize humans by have been reduced to charred meat, with only her legs to remind us that this has happened to a person. The narrator seems disinterested in the plight of the Hamburger Lady, rather she is a terrible thing that happens to our protagonist - a grisly thing he must interact with.

Some might call this callous, but I think it supports the horror much more than any graphic description - that this person who seemingly still has thoughts and internality, has been reduced to just a disgusting task. Some kind of burn ward wraith that showcases suffering and disfigurement perpetually. There is no chance of recovery, only suffering extended by medical innovation, and eventually death. '...thanks to medical advances, there is no end in sight,' the text says.

unrelievedly, the song repeats hauntingly.

Ultimately this is why, to me, Hamburger Lady moreso represents the experience of encountering this horror as an outside observer. Real burn victims recover. Or they die. One way or another, they leave the hospital. Hamburger Lady is an unending visage of suffering, forced to live as a creature who can only frighten and disgust others, while also being hopelessly dependent on these people to continue living. She is not a specific disfigured patient, she is the idea of one. She represents the task of coming in to work day in and day out and seeing all the unspeakable shapes a human being can be twisted into. She is a sort of deity of disfigurement, of the moans and screams of patients and the unbearable sights that lay stretched out in their beds.

And what a horribly mundane inciting event to this nightmare - a car crash? Something that could happen to anyone? The ease with which she was un-personed, turned into a gruesome spectacle without even a real name, only a nickname based on her appearance, leaves the reader or listener with a sort of paranoia that must come with the job of taking care of her. That this thing who the narrator refuses to even treat as a person, could easily be you one day.

---

When I started writing this post, I fully planned to accompany it with my own drawing of Hamburger Lady. Some fanart, I guess you could call it. If you search online, you can find other artists' take on it and they are all pretty impressive and creepy in their own way.

But, I found myself unable to start. I realized that although there is ample inspiration for making terrifying visual art, what inspired me in the first place about both these art pieces is how graphic and scary they are without showing anything at all.

I first heard Hamburger Lady by Throbbing Gristle on my phone. It was scary, and intriguing enough that I listened all the way through, but it was tinny and stripped of its detail. When I listened to it on my headphones, I was in broad daylight, the white midday sun streaming through a window right beside me. And even then I could not shake the feeling that if I dared look to my side, I would see her standing there, gasping for breath, begging to die.

I could have drawn what I thought I'd see if I turned around, but I could never draw the certainty I felt that she was right there watching me.

[mishkakagehishka]

Growing Up, directory

Fandom: Ensemble Stars!! Concept: an exploration of Mika's past and his growing inner psychology as presented through the celebrations of his 15th, 16th and 18th birthday (or, during his final year before Yumenosaki, first year in Yumenosaki/pre-War era, and 3rd year in Yumenosaki/!!time as calculated by the person who almost failed maths in years 11 and 12) Total word count: 5955

Warnings: implied child neglect, exploitation of child labour, restricted eating and not eating at all, canon-compliant cruel pre-War era Shu, angst-focused look at Mika's past

AO3 link (tumblr links below the cut)

Notes and ramblings: I wanted to, for Mika's birthday, write about his past. I talk a lot about the fact that he seems to have been parentified, and it's just intriguing to me - his life before Yumenosaki. We only know that he grew up in a home and that he was "in charge of" taking care of the younger kids, to the point that he'd have felt guilty if he were adopted himself (even though it seems like a part of him still craved acceptance and a family). I just wanted to expand on that <3 And so, this three-parter was born.

"An exploration of Mika's past and his growing inner psychology as presented through the celebrations of his 15th, 16th and 18th birthday", or, in other words, a fic that is supposed to expand on what little we know of Mika's past. That is supposed to showcase more of Mika's psychology, of the various mindsets he has internalised and others he adopted as a way of coping, and further how his mind and psychological state evolved and grew, dare I say, kinda sorta a-little-bit healed with time, in the simplest way:

Part 1 - Forgotten: His 15th birthday, which he himself had forgotten because he was too caught up in work, his mind always preoccupied with the other kids' living conditions to even remember his own birthday. Despite that, the kids love him as a brother, and wanted to show him their appreciation.

Part 2 - Discarded: His 16th birthday, after he was accepted into Yumenosaki and Valkyrie. Although he remembers his birthday this time, he fruitlessly hoped Shu and Nazuna would celebrate it with him. When that falls apart, he hopes Shu merely forgot, wanting to give him the benefit of doubt, wanting to believe Shu would have celebrated with him if he knew - only for Shu to tell him that there are simply more important things to care about than birthdays.

Part 3 - Celebrated: His 18th birthday, celebrated properly, and all that led up to Mika allowing himself be celebrated. The culmination of his personal growth, his coming out of his shell and making honest connections with others.

[loth-creatures]

what's your fav star wars era

early rebellion era for sure!

Obviously rebels is my absolute favorite part of star wars forever but also I NEED more content between revenge of the sith and rebels. Loved Andor so far, frothing at the mouth for s2, I really enjoyed the Obi-Wan show even if it had some short comings, etc. but I've said before and I'll say it again give me literally anything about how the rest of the Ghost crew came together pre rebels GIVE IT TO ME NOW. Trying my best to write some snippet fics on the matter but i simply cannot write the full length novel(s) that i crave hhhhhgn (Ive also read many excellent fics by others but it's still killing me lol) Also also the obi wan show made me really want to know more about how the surviving jedi as a whole found safe havens and connections if only temporarily before being picked off by the inquisitors. Also I'd genuinely like to see more stuff similar to the Solo movie? That movie was..a mixed bag certainly..but it was fun and intriguing and I've been waiting years for them to follow up on what was introduced there like oh you know wtf was Maul doing before he ended up on Malachor??? I know there’s some comics about qi'ra but idk about anything else. I still gotta read the thrawn books too aaaa

Aaand forever mourning that show they never made about the criminal underworld of coruscant or whatever. Idk where on the timeline that was supposed to take place but I assume it was after revenge of the sith? It sounded cool af tho

[heylo-reylo]

it's been years since this happened but how exactly did the anti-shippers get this idea that Rey was Luke's daughter therefore reylo was incest so now the shippers are shipping cousins?

I haven't seen the movie since I saw it in theaters but as far as I know there was no evidence of Luke being with anybody sexually or romantically and same with Obi-Wan Kenobi.

so was there some kind of "evidence" that I missed?

Like I'm honestly confused I have no idea how they got that idea

As far as the rumor about Rey and Ben Solo being cousins, probably the most prevalent reason I've seen stems from the 2018 Star Wars comic Darth Vader #25, in which Anakin Skywalker has a vision of Palpatine using the Force to impregnate his mother Shmi. It's been confirmed by Matt Martin of the Lucasfilm Story Group that this scene is only in Anakin's head, and not meant to be taken as a literal fact (you can read the Twitter thread here), but to this day I see people using it as proof for reylo being incestuous, which it isn't. It doesn't help that there are still a lot of articles and Youtube essays around that cite this comic as revealing Palpatine is Anakin's father, even though we've been shown time and again that Force Visions, Quests, etc. are notoriously unreliable. You can read more about the comic in question here.

I'm with you that there's absolutely no actual evidence for Rey being the child of Luke Skywalker either. I think that because the Original & Prequel trilogies centered heavily on a Skywalker and Darth Vader's "I am your father" revelation to Luke is such an iconic moment, many people expected that there would be a similar reveal with Rey and held to that belief even after the movies demonstrated that it wasn't happening.

Rey being a long-lost Skywalker was always based on surface-level parallels that ultimately served to contrast her character with Luke, not to indicate an actual blood connection (e.g. she lives on a desert planet à la Tatooine and has strong natural ability in the Force.) Some claimed Rey looked similar enough to Padmé that it had to imply a familial link, and others wanted to see the mega OP Luke Skywalker of Legends, who also had a child, brought back into canon. JJ Abrams and Daisy Ridley both said in TFA-era interviews that Rey's parent(s) did not appear in the movie, which ruled out Luke, Leia, and Han. Moreover, we learn early in The Force Awakens that Kylo Ren/Ben Solo is the grandson of Anakin and son of Leia, making him the new Skywalker of the Sequel trilogy, but it seems that even to this day there's a chunk of the audience that wants to ignore or downplay that fact.

As for Rey being a Kenobi, the most intriguing evidence to me (pre-The Last Jedi) was a.) that Ewan McGregor recorded the line "These are your first steps" (heard during Rey's Force Vision with the saber in TFA) and b.) that Rey has a British accent. Besides that, I think the Kenobi theory was just a fun one to consider despite there not being much in the actual movies to go on as far as Obi Wan being shown to have any romantic relationships as you said (RIP Satine.) ScreenRant is hit and miss but this article has a pretty thorough breakdown of the reasons behind the Kenobi theory. And hey, Rey being a Kenobi wouldn't make her and Ben cousins, so while I prefer Rey Nobody it could have been a fun route to explore.

Hope that helps!

[mensajeroseis]

i need to fallout post because my brain is just so neurotic tonight, and it’s like the easiest distraction for me. I’m Living, I’m Laughing, and I’m Loving.

Anyways, vaults are cool. Yet, they are also very boring. Like, very understated environmental pieces. Though I think I mostly mean this towards fallout 4, literally the worst vault atmosphere of all time. Fucking Awful. Aside from the experiments with them and vault tec’s construction mishaps with them making it more intriguing. I think fully, they should’ve leaned into the more sci-fi aspects of it, like Adam Adamowicz concept art. Or at least something more campy, since those concepts are incredibly expansive. And I think it’s something that should be very leaned into in like fanon or whatever. I hate that word. Like if you look at any bunker made during the cold war era and maybe earlier, they have this extravagance or fake reality to them. Consider painted backgrounds of like beaches, or any landscape etc. I think vault tec setting up vaults with painted environments like that in like hallway windows, and that change depending on time of day or season would make vault’s feel livelier. Plus it would be more jarring to vault dwellers because the environments are probably painted after pre war scenes of wherever their vault is located. It would feel like looking outside while riding light rail on a commute. Uhhh I might come back to this later, but that’s all I can articulate right now, I wanna go listen to music and draw