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#pre-canon . SAVIOUR
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Dead Boy Detectives: Fic Recs
My latest hyperfixation is Dead Boy Detectives, so oc I've been reading and commenting on a ton of fic. And it's been really nice because the response of the authors has been so warm. I don't think I've ever gotten so many replies so quickly! Also, the fandom has inspired me to actually start writing again for the first time in two years and I've got a great idea for a fanvid. (Any tips on how to make one would be appreciated! 😅)
So in tribute to the lovely fandom, here's a fic rec post (nearly all payneland):
in this city there's a thousand things I want to say to you by laiqualaurelote
Edwin has a sexual awakening and it blows Charles' mind. And other things. Very funny and well written. Also features minor Edwin/Cat King and Edwardian flirting.
I also highly recommend the saviour of the broken, the beaten, and the damned by the same author, which is a kind of multiverse!Edwin fic? Featuring Edwin dying? And Niko time travelling? Trying to save time? Anyway, interesting to see Edwin alive, ageing and in different periods of time/his life.
For the First Time Twice by MmmCookies
Amnesia fic! Charles loses his memories and thinks he and Edwin are married. Very cute (tandem bike date!) and well written, though Edwin's point of view still manages to be angsty. Also, the yearning is off the charts and the most recent chapter turned up the heat.
I guess you're stuck with me by Punny_Puck
AU in which Edwin and Charles actually got married pre-show. Funny, cute with a sweet marriage proposal prequel. Instant comfort fic.
Dance the Night by Gruoch
The gang are hunting an energy-sucking vampire that targets beautiful people, so naturally Edwin MUST disguise himself as the hottest girl in London. This one starts out fun and campy then takes a hard left turn into Serious Business. Prepare yourself for emotional moments, worldbuilding and some really excellent horror.
Long Past Time by sanctuary_for_all
Charles proposes to Edwin post canon. It's a short and sweet established relationship fic with some cool worldbuilding about ghosts and their ability to shape their clothing/appearances.
lay my hands on heaven by Opossum_Subatomic
I had to include a PWP and this is a great one. Extremely well written, in character and romantic. And explicit, obviously.
Data Points by Asidian
Edwin learns to cuddle. It's a production and completely adorable. I love a fic that explores the difference between the boys' physicality and this one's really on point. The writing and characterisation are great and it's nice to see Edwin taking care of Charles.
I also recommend Lanterns In the Dark, which sets the scene for Charles and Edwin's first meeting with some gut-wrenching details about Charles' homelife and Edwin's escape from Hell.
When I Was a Young Boy by flowerbritts
A Good Omens crossover and AU in which Aziraphale is Edwin's adopted father. Family reunions and revelations abound. Also, Edwin gets to be a teenager and slam doors while shouting, as he deserves.
The author has also written Wait, I'm Coming Too, which is a very sweet post canon 'Charles Worries About Edwin and Realises His Feelings' fic inspired by that 'Edwin reading Heartstopper' fanart. Both fics deserve more love!
A Slight Miscalculation by kantigone
Idiots in Love and Didn't Know They Were Dating. Crystal and Niko are the real MVPs, for real. A treat.
Terrible at Keeping Secrets (5+1) by ASingularSadSoggyPringle
Interesting demon!Edwin AU. Charles is a precious cupcake in this fic and Edwin is mostly the same with some Darker moments. I loved the concept and the author adds in some great, creepy details.
somaesthesia by perexcri
Edwin's journey from being touch-averse to touch-starved... at least when it comes to Charles. Palmistry is involved. I loved Edwin's characterisation and the unresolved sexual/romantic tension was on point.
And possibly I like the thrill (of under me you quite so new) by Leandra
Edwin explores his sexuality and re-negotiates his relationship with Charles. Meanwhile, the gang take on the case of a ghost who wants them to matchmake his still-living lover. Crosses over with The Sandman. And Edwin gets to be confident and flirty as a treat.
Always by How You Doing (FancyMeetingYouHere)
Hurt/Comfort fic in which Edwin has a traumatic flashback to the doll-head demon spider and Charles looks after him. Charles reading Good Omens to Edwin is a nice, meta touch.
Made You Look by Baby_Spinach
The agency are hunting an incubus that decides to take on Edwin's appearance. A repression explosion ensues. Fun fic.
Shape Me by dearheartdont
This one's actually a character study of Charles and his mixed race Indian heritage (so no Edwin) and it's so well done. It's also part of a series in progress about Charles growing up in the 80s with all the racism and homophobia that that entails. I look forward to seeing where it goes.
The Most Tender Place In My Heart by coloursflyaway
Edwin shares memories of how he fell in love with Charles, who figures out his own feelings in the process. It's super sweet and involves fun pre-show flashbacks and defintely deserves more attention!
I also loved Won't Fear Love by the same author, in which Charles takes Edwin out on dates and breaks the cuteness scales. And shout out to Good Enough which is the first fic I bookmarked for this fandom! 🥳
Anyway, thank you to all these amazing writers for making this fandom so special! 🥰
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mysterycitrus · 7 months
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The only thing that comes to mind is during Lost Days when he goes and kills the head of a child traffickering ring and it’s noted he got the kids somewhere safe. Maybe Generation Outlaws? That’s the only instance in which he’s directly supporting kids (albeit Villains in the making but kids none the less) I know of. But for everything else like sex workers or community support, I can’t think any off the top of my head, someone with more knowledge/read more of Jay might have better instances
to the best of my knowledge there are two canonical instances where jason mentions children — both pre-flashpoint, and both written by judd winick. like u said the first is lost days, where he rescues a group of children from a trafficker and hands them over the law enforcement. the second is his “don’t sell to children” speech, which personally ranks with those anti drug commercials from the 80s and 90s. he does also say he’s taking cuts from other revenue (mentioning prostitution) but there’s like….. nothing about protecting people or restorative community work or anything
tbc i am not an avid jason reader by any means (esp post 2011) but it does really annoy me when people try to start arguments about jason where they insist that his violent actions are justified because of the other things he does, which may or may not exist and range from being the saviour of crime alley to single-handedly supporting rehabilitation services in gotham. it’s very confusing. like, bruce is the one doing those things in canon. that’s a very, very important part of his character, something that puts him in opposition to jason. obvsly it’s easier to like a guy who’s beloved by children in theory but lbr in a fight a kid is gonna pick batman over a drug lord with a silly hat
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n33dlew0rk · 3 months
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Only Love
rated G | 1052 words | cw: very much anachronistic lol, also changed lyrics bc gender is silly | tags: post-canon, everybody lives, pre-steddie, no beta we die like sleep-deprived dysfunctional adults 
for @steddie-week prompt 'trade' (day 4)
A few months after his slow recovery allowed him to start playing again, Eddie found himself improvising as a guitar teacher for one Steve Harrington: PTSD buddy, appointed saviour, babysitter extraordinaire, former King, currently Eddie’s biggest crush to date.
It started suddenly mid-autumn, after the third movie night in a row the two of them shared at the Munson’s new trailer and umpteenth time he found Steve’s fingers tracing the frets of his acoustic guitar.
“She doesn’t bite, y’know?” Eddie said with half a smile. 
The reverence with which Steve usually stared both at the instrument or at Eddie himself when he was practising, was one he could only translate as belonging to someone who’s been denied the exploration of whatever hobby was not deemed sufficiently dignified by an uptight parent.
That, or Steve was acting like a teenage girl crushing on a rockstar and Eddie really didn’t think this was the case.
Steve blushed, like a kid caught in the act. 
Eddie chuckled, put a hand on the other man’s shoulder and gently squeezed it. If the contact lasted one little second too much to be completely platonic, that’s none of your business.
“Come on then, take her down”, he smiled. Steve’s eyes widened like the proposition was the most absurd thing ever to leave Eddie’s mouth.
When Eddie’s eyebrows flew to the ceiling trying to emphasize his invitation, Steve finally mustered the courage to grab the guitar’s body, slowly lifting it up from its support on the wall.
He was a surprisingly fast learner. His big and already calloused hands were excellent for the more complicated chords. He had a good ear and wasn’t particularly fond of music theory, something Eddie’s chaotic study path could very well relate to.
Weeks passed and Steve slowly started taking the guitar home with him. At first only when Eddie didn't have time for a lesson or when Corroded Coffin was rehearsing. But gradually the instrument was practically fused to Steve’s shoulder wherever he went, like a little bird leaving the nest to find its way in life.
Sometimes Eddie put his fingers on top of Steve’s to suggest a better position or correct a chord and Steve would look frustrated. Or flustered, maybe? Maybe both. Eddie kept reassuring him every time, guiding the other’s hands gently, telling him he was doing an amazing job.
By the spring of ‘87, Steve was able to play about ten covers with ease and even a few duets with Eddie when he felt bold (which, granted, wasn’t that often).
After a particularly hot summer afternoon spent poolside at Steve’s, Eddie was strumming on his unofficially ex-acoustic guitar and watching the sun set slowly. 
“I should probably buy one of my own”, Steve said, mortified, walking towards him with two cold beers in hand.
“Nah”, smiled Eddie. “I miss her, but I can feel she chose you”, he chuckled. “Plus, I’m happy you’re keeping her, makes me feel like I did something good honestly”.
Steve gave him a tentative smile, his gaze shifting from the guitar, to Eddie’s eyes, then roaming on his face, to his hand on the neck of the instrument and, finally, to the floor.
“You did.” He sounded sincere, grateful. After a beat, he straightened up, but he was still not looking at the metalhead. “What if I trade you something for her?” Steve managed to say in a small voice. 
Eddie cocked his head, now curious. “Well now, Stevie, she’s royalty this one, you know?”. His hand slowly caressed the warm wood of the guitar affectionately. Then he lifted his gaze to search Steve’s. “I’ll need something valuable in exchange”, he smirked.
Steve looked at him, blushed suddenly and just nodded, his expression shifting to one of absolute focus. He extended one arm, gesturing Eddie to pass him the guitar and sat down beside him, leaving the beer bottles aside, his legs reaching the clear water of the pool below. 
A thousand thoughts crossed Eddie’s mind. It wouldn’t have been the first time Steve played him something, but he looked nervous. So Eddie bit his tongue, kept the teasing for himself and smiled encouraging at the other man.
The backyard was quiet around them as Steve murmured something under his breath and positioned his hands on the guitar. He took two deep breaths and then he started playing.
He plucked the strings intently, creating a pretty upbeat melody.
Eddie felt pride rushing through him. Steve was good. He learnt a lot in the past year, practised in every free moment he got and this was the product of his hard work.
It wasn’t, however until Steve started singing that Eddie actually listened.
Steve’s voice was soft, shy, a bit unsure. Eddie didn’t know the song, so he figured it must be something either original or too hit-pop for him to recognise. 
Darling, you're with me, always around me Only love, my only love Darling, I feel you under my body Only love, my only love
Something in the way Steve immersed himself in the music, told Eddie that this was something really important for him, personal.
Give me shelter, or show me heart Come on, love, come on, love Watch me fall apart, watch me fall apart…
A love ballad then, uh? Eddie felt a pang in his stomach but ignored it. It’s not like he could ever be on the receiving end of words like these. 
Steve gained confidence by playing and lifted his gaze to meet Eddie’s, now singing directly to him.
And I'll be yours to keep A wind in the shadows, whale song in the deep A wind in the shadows, whale song in the deep
The piece was simple and went on a few more times between gentle notes and the lyrics. Steve adjusted himself while transitioning to the closing bridge of the song and for a moment there, lost between Steve’s words and the honey of his eyes, Eddie forgot how to breathe.
Only love, love, love Only love, love, love Only love, love, love Boy, show me heart
Come on love, love, love Come on love, love, love Come on love, love, love Watch me fall apart
Come on love, love, love Come on love, love, love Come on love, love, love Boy, show me heart
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humandisastersquad · 3 months
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say what you will about the timeless child plot but it a) provides a way to keep the show going Forever without writers having to pull another regen cycle or smth else out of their ass to explain the doctor going past their limit again and b) didn't actually retcon any of the tv canon, given most of what was revealed is all pre-hartnell, and also gives writers another massive sand pit to play with.
contrast this to rtd's big retcons of bigeneration and sutekh Being Here The Whole Time, which actually do change established canon, despite making no sense if you think about it for more than a second,, but sure, It's All Fine just because Russell "The Saviour of Doctor Who" Davies did it 🙄
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kemendin · 5 months
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Epilogue
Or, I finished my first playthrough of BG3 and had many emotions (still processing) and many thoughts (also still processing), so here are some Kem ramblings on chosen endings and what happens post-game in Dhamari canon. Under cut because major spoilers of course!
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So, for anyone curious, here's how things turned out, and these are fairly unsurprising I'd imagine:
Astarion did not ascend. I tried it for kicks, and I hated his ascended self lol. And Dhamari wouldn't have gone for the 'replace one tyrant with another' idea.
Gale did not claim godhood, BUT nor did he actually give the crown to Mystra - it was left in the sea. As Dhamari said, "If Mystra wants it, she can damn well fish it out herself."
Wyll became the Blade of Avernus, and went romping back to the Hells with Karlach. Go be badasses, guys!!
Lae'zel became the new Comet, and went sailing off to be the saviour of her people.
Shadowheart turned her back on Shar and went off to explore Faerûn and her new faith in Selûne (and got custody of the owlbear).
As for Dhamari and Gale... I had to do a lot of pondering on their ending, both in terms of in-game choices and how things ACTUALLY play out in my brain. While I’m very entertained by the idea of ‘Professor Dekarios’ I don’t think Dhamari is cut out for city life. So the short answer is, I went with the ‘I’ll marry you but I won’t live in Waterdeep’ option and they go off adventuring again instead.
The long version is, of course, more complicated:
Initially Dhamari is all 'yes of course I'll marry you and go back to Waterdeep with you' because frankly he's got no idea what to do with himself post-Netherbrain destruction. But that goes kinda not too well overall, for several reasons:
a) He really has no idea what he's getting into with the whole wedding business, because drow don't DO that. So while Gale's making all these plans and sending out multitudes of invitations, Dhamari's list consists of Wyll, who can't come, and Jaheira, who probably could, and he's just very overwhelmed by all the grand ceremony notions.
b) He's jealous of now having to share Gale with Tara and Mrs Dekarios and probably half of Waterdeep, because Gale's of course rather well known, and even more so after saving Baldur's Gate. Gale knows everyone and Dhamari knows no one, and he feels like he's being perceived as this odd little drow blemish on the local wizard celebrity (whether or not this is actually true is up for debate).
c) After the relief of no longer having a brain death sentence and the pressure of saving the world wears off, and he's had a little chill time, he starts feeling incredibly restless again. He's never had a point in his life till now where he wasn't scared or in danger or both - he has no idea how to live a life that doesn't involve fighting to survive. Unfortunately, in absence of obvious threats, he ends up on some mental level fighting Gale instead - lashing out with confusions and uncertainties he doesn't know how to cope with.
So within a month or so things get very tense between them, because Dhamari is rather terrible at communicating his problems to other people, but eventually they're forced to hash all this out. The end results are: a much smaller wedding than originally planned, Gale declining the offer to take a teaching post at Blackstaff Academy, and soon after the wedding they pack up and go adventuring again for a while so they can spend some time together that's ACTUALLY just the two of them.
At some point - dunno yet if it's pre- or post-epilogue reunion get-together - Dhamari visits with Jaheira, and she invites him to join the Harpers. Dhamari's felt a sort of half-conscious connection with the Harpers for a WHILE now, since finding the executed patrol of them in Grymforge (that's a whole other ramble/fic in process lol) and so when Jaheira makes this offer he's like '...huh yeah I could do that'. It gives him a much needed sense of purpose in life, gets him out and about and not quite so latched onto Gale every hour of the day. So when he and Gale take breaks from adventures and chill in Waterdeep for a bit, Gale can be doing his wizardy stuff with his wizardy friends, and Dhamari does whatever Harper business needs doing around the city.
So things aren't always perfect between them, and frankly these two will always find something to argue about because they ARE such different people. But they love each other, and they learn from each other, and as far as they're concerned - it's a happy ending.
Random tidbit - I really like that in the route I chose, Gale retains the mark of the orb. I think that despite what it was - a death sentence - Dhamari's actually rather fond of it aesthetically, and even sees it as a reminder - to both of them - that Gale survived. That Gale chose Dhamari, chose life, and it was the right choice.
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le-trash-prince · 2 months
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....apologies in advance for how unhinged this is probably gonna be.
no real need to talk about what kinks babe and charlie have since the show did it for us 😌
North and Sonic, in the bedroom, with a camera. it's canon to me. also when they're even just hanging out with the rest of x hunter they'll send each other ~sexy~ photos. my headcanon is that before they even got together they'd like. review/critique each other's thirst traps, and more risque photos.
ALSO I like to think that they think as the young cool hip members of the team they should be having wild freaky sex all the time but most often they end up having sweet vanilla sex. they're like we bought all those toys/outfits/paraphernalia for NOTHING.
since rewatching the show I've been having A LOT of peteway feelings. service! top! Pete!!!! sorry but that scene where Way is all whiny and pouty and Pete just takes care of him is printed indelibly into my mind. Pete has almost kind of a saviour complex - he clearly still thinks of Kenta as his responsibility even all those years later - which works very well with a Way who needs someone to build him back up from being broken. (and Pete also makes Way get a therapist)
I think they both like using - or specifically Not using - their powers in bed. Way for sure likes that he doesn't HAVE to say what he wants, Pete can just know. but definitely sometimes Pete makes him say it. and to make sure Way doesn't get frustrated and use his powers on Pete his hands have to be tied up you know?
also have NOT stopped thinking about body worship and Way getting overwhelmed by it since you mentioned it.... GOD.
anyway hot rich housewife Way😌as he deserves😌no chance Way can cook BUT as demonstrated in the show he very clearly understands food as love SO. consider Way (more atticwife than housewife in this s2 AU scenario but Way would love it) checking exactly when Pete is getting home - of course Pete is always hurrying home these days, but what can you expect, he's heartbroken obviously he doesn't want to hang out - and making sure he's either ordered dinner or put together the pre-prepped meals Pete gets delivered from a variety of different services so nobody notices he's going through twice as much food as he should, and has it ready and waiting on the table for when Pete gets home. and maybe as a thank you Pete rails Way over the table too. just as a sign of gratitude, you know.
okay I know we've talked about the polycule and kinks but all over the place so let's try and consolidate lol.
Winner likes it when people pay attention to him (obviously!!) but turns out he also gets a little hot when people ignore him completely. also he likes to use his height/size to his advantage (also just to be a little bit of a dick you know for fun) like instead of leaning down he'll make the other person go up on their toes.
do you think Winner's into being gagged. I don't think he's into being tied up but he can certainly appreciate it when someone else is EVEN THOUGH it means they can't touch him back. thought about humiliation but does Winner have the ability to feel that.
is giving blowjobs a kink because it's like Dean's favourite thing (consider the different ways the other three treat him when he's on his knees <- I have thoughts but this is already so long lol) aside from the OBVIOUS FROM SPACE praise kink. <- genuinely my brain derailed for a bit here thinking about Dean's praise kink I'm coming back now I'm normal. Dean would also be down to be a hot rich housewife I think as long as everyone tells him how pretty he looks and how well he did whatever housework.
Kenta ALSO has a praise kink and - as you have delightfully talked about - very much enjoys being tied up. more than anything Kenta likes doing a Good Job and being told he's doing a good job. also. body worship but they have to walk a fine line and not lean into objectification. also I think Kenta should pick Kim up. maybe while Kenta's wearing pretty lingerie and his collar!
Kim likes to collar all his boys!! and they love it too. we love gentle dom Kim 😌 who sometimes likes to just get wrecked as well. he likes to take care of his boys! I still very much enjoy the headcanon that he demonstrates that it's okay to like something by having it done for him first. he likes tying people up and driving them out of their minds with how good they feel.
all four of them are stupidly possessive over each other idk if it's a kink so much as they're all just a little unhinged. well it's a kink if they're Into It I guess and for suuuure at least one of them is.
uhhh also since Winner and Dean hooked up a bunch of times pre-canon in the bar bathroom the first few times they sleep together sober feels kinky. okay I'm stopping now.
first of all i'm obviously seconding everything we've talked about before
yes, i think the whole world is aware of charlie and babe's kinks by now ^^
oh north and sonic absoLUTELY have a cam kink. north probably goes through ten levels of crisis wondering if it's okay to jack off to a picture of your bro in lingerie except he can't STOP thinking about it. also i feel like north would be a crier.
ldfgdfg they WOULD be into experimentation just for the principle of it, but mostly they just want skin to skin contact and giggles and cute outfits
pete is 100% a service top and he spoils way both in the bedroom and outside of it, but i also think that further down the road, he would admit to wanting way to use his power on pete in the bedroom sometimes, just so he can stop having to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders.
i really need to see way in an apron and nothing but an apron if he can't cook he can be the dinner please and thanks
i think winner is maybe a little into being gagged. i feel like he runs his mouth so much he's asking for someone to shut him up. also i think he does experience humiliation, which is part of why he hates babe so much bc he doesn't know where to direct that energy. (edit: also i think winner would look great in a muzzle)
dean giving blowjobs and being told how pretty he looks and how good he's doing is probably his favorite thing in the world. i bet he'd have to goad kenta into being rough with him bc kenta would be so restrained unless he's properly pissed at dean
yes i think kenta should pick kim up and oh, sorry, my brain is derailing thinking about benz riding garfield. uh yeah anyways something something he's not allowed to come until kim does
kim deserves all the doggies 😌😌😌
the foundation of this ship in my mind was them being a little bit terrible and unbalanced. i just know dean is into getting down with strangers on the dance floor just so at least one of his boys can drag him off and mark him
"sober feels kinky" gdfgdfg FOR THEM IT WOULD LMFAO
also i think alan also has a praise kink and jeff loves to exploit this. he'd also be into cuffing alan's wrists to the bed. i can't picture alan suggesting anything that wasn't vanilla, but i feel like every single time jeff suggests trying something, alan is so absolutely into even just the thought of it.
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juuuulez · 23 days
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Okay but since that anon mentioned your Capulet series, I've re-read it and as I am also re-watching The Last Of Us, I can't help but Invision pre-apocalypse Negan and Reader as Joel and Sarah, esp when the outbreak happens at school, it gave me TLOU ep 1 vibes tbh! <333
ALSOOOO I can just SEE a younger reader pulling a "drugs. I sell hardcore drugs." at Negan if she ever gave him a gift for his birthday or something post-apocalypse!
UM UM UM WHY IS THIS IN MY DRAFTS!!!! WHY DIDNT I POST THIS!!!!!!!!!!! okay lock in for my walking dead infodump
oh wow this is so cute… my TLOU and walking dead obsession go hand in hand so knowing that it gave those vibes is the biggest compliment ever
but can i admit something naughty…….
there’s actually an alternate ending to capulet. like, a “canon” version that goes along with the rest of twd……and i never wrote it because, well, it’s a carl fic, and we’ve already mourned his death once.
i’ll put some stuff about it under the cut, because who knows, maybe one day i’ll write it:
basically, if carl had of died like canon, reader would’ve went a little bit crazy. not terribly so, just paranoid, and probably bitching out even more on the saviours.
when negan’s captured it’s like the nail in the coffin, and she’d basically beg anyone to stick around and help her break him out, but nobody wants anything to do with it: the sanctuary is completely abandoned. she spends days, maybe even weeks, incessantly plotting some stupid plan, but never gets around to committing because ultimately she knows it’s slim.
this is simultaneous to rick going a little off the rails, y’know, cus his son is dead. so, with rick paying less attention, and reader still a giant red question mark on the community? maggie takes things into her own hands.
because she’s not risking negan escaping. as far as she’s concerned, you’re a loose thread, someone who could fuck this whole thing up. but being pregnant she can’t exactly do much about it, so instead, she handballs the task to michonne.
the instructions are very clear: kill her. doesn’t matter how, or where, or with what, just make sure it happens.
michonne spends maybe a day hunting you down. the second you even spot her at the sanctuary, you run, letting her chase you anywhere you can get on two legs.
that doesn’t last forever, for michonne is smarter, and probably quicker. she corners you in this dusty area at the edge of town, finally getting you down to your knees. up until this point, you’ve been a rabid animal, fighting and yelling and spitting.
but she just needs you to listen to her.
because she’s not gonna kill you.
instead? you will go far, far away. anywhere but here. and if you ever showed your face again, if anyone even caught the tiniest whiff of you, you’d be killed on sight.
that’s not a bad deal, though. compared to execution, at least.
michonne takes your bat, deciding that would have to be ample proof that she got the job done. you also hand over that little notebook you always carry, the one with drawings of carl in it.
(years later judith would find this notebook and go down to interrogate negan: before eventually suggesting that he keeps it, for he has nothing that reminds him of you. he declines and says that you’d probably wanted judith to have it).
everyone in alexandria thinks you’re dead. michonne tells maggie, who subsequently spreads the news, taking some satisfaction in telling negan, who’s downright miserable.
because it’s depressing. you had been free, and now you were dead. it was almost animalistic, like you’d been put down, like your life wasn’t human enough.
it was unfair because his mistakes got him imprisoned, whilst yours got you killed. that’s fucked up. but, it’s meant to be fucked up, because it’s meant to be a lesson.
years pass like this.
it only serves as another point of tension between negan and maggie, but that isn’t uncommon at this point.
“you killed my husband.”
“you killed my daughter.”
to which maggie would always say, “she’s not your daughter.”
not entirely untrue, but it still stung.
and now it’s 2028: the unlikely pair has ventured into new york in order to rescue hershel, and have been tipped that there’s somebody who knows the area like the back of their hand.
someone who works for the croat, but never speaks with him directly, and can therefore fly under his radar. a scavenger who travels across cities searching for any supplies that could be of use, all in exchange for safety and protection within the bounds of new york.
aaannnndddd i think you can figure out the rest
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welcometololaland · 6 months
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hello love, R for the alphabet writer asks pretty please? 💖
rae 💜
using this ask to apologise in advance to everyone and anyone but i really felt like doing an ask game so here i am, on your dash.
R: Which writers (fanfic or otherwise) do you consider the biggest influence on you and your writing?
typically, my sources of inspiration include: things i overhear on the train in the morning, internet memes and rogue things that happen to me that i swear would ONLY happen to me. but although i take inspiration from many sources, influence is a different question?
when i started writing fic again, i was deep in the 2021 rwrb obsession and i think my writing was heavily influenced by the work i was literally INHALING at that time.
i think first and foremost i took so much inspiration from @clottedcreamfudge. I mean we all know CCF has depth, but the slightly ridiculous edge to some of her fics felt so on brand for me, and i think reading a lot of the CCF archive taught me to lean into that. the witty dialogue, the pacing, the clever use of side characters to build the story - nailing that is my writing dream.
i feel very inspired when i read any @indomitable-love work because the amount of care and precision written into basically every line of siobhan's fic is incredible. reading ATG was a masterclass in how to take characterisation to another level, and how to build an emotional arc that is hard hitting and makes sense. i had so many 'oh, that really ticked all the emotional boxes for me' moments in that fic. it is truly a treasure.
as we know, i didn't write smut pre-2021. i truly didn't even READ smut. who knows why? anyway i was so convinced i could never write it, UNTIL i read the great works of our lord and saviour aka. you aka. Ms. Rae Rmd-writes Railmedaddy. The ficspiration of the neighbours fic took me out and made me realise like hey...there is actually a lot of skill to this and maybe i could? learn it? and i'm still on that learning journey but i think the think about your E rated scenes is that you weave so much emotion into them - there's a purpose to every smut scene, even if it's a PWP it's driving characterisation in some way. which makes it all very intentional. i find that very inspiring.
i also have to credit @everwitch-magiks for inspiring me every day to be more intentional with my word choice and edit better and WRITE LESS because the amount of stuff evie can pack into a 3k fic is honestly out of this world. but long before i became a ridiculous overwriter, i have been inspired by evie's characterisation (her alex always sounds so perfect to me, in particular) AND her creativity. there are canon fics and then she goes and writes a space AU and also a figure skating AU and magical realism and hashtag soulmates aka. the most beautifully meta thing ever, and a whole fic based around AITA? she has breadth and it makes me kind of mad.
ANYWAY. there are many more but i've already gone on for too long! thank you to everyone who creates stuff for me to read, i know i'm picking up things all the time, and it wouldn't happen if people weren't so damn talented 💜
Fic Writer Ask Game
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Five Fics Friday: August 11/23
Happy Friday everyone!!! Check out today's selection of fics for y'all to start off your weekend!! Enjoy!! :D
RECENT MFLs
Human Urges by topsyturvy_turtely (T, 3,664+ w., 3/4 Ch. || WiP || Tooth-Rotting Fluff, First Kiss / Time, Bisexual John, Gay Sherlock, Cuddling, Hugging, Mutual Pining, Crack Fic, Shy John, Idiot Friends to Lovers) – John hated it. He utterly and truly hated it. He despised himself for it. It was going on his nerves. In fact it annoyed the fucking SHIT out of him. That stupid, always present, torturing urge to be kissed!
cupboard love by simplyclockwork (E, 5,358 w., 1 Ch. || Regency AU || Sex in a Closet, Hand Jobs, Porn With Plot, Dirty Talk, Romance) – Unwilling to adhere to the law forbidding same sex relations, Sherlock and John find a way to skirt the illegal nature of their mutual attraction. Sometimes, risk is its own reward.
The Soldier And The Demon by LipstickDaddy (G, 8,998 w., 6 Ch. || Victorian / Demon AU || Strangers to Friends to Lovers, Soldier John, Demon Sherlock, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Protective John, Protective Sherlock, Happy Ending) – Johnlock/Kuroshitsuji AU - 1879. Captain John H Watson of the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers is dying from a near-fatal gunshot wound in the Kandahar desert; until a demon saves his life. There’s a catch, though; one day, his saviour will eat his soul.
A Case of Identity (Selfish, Private, and Easily Bored) by Iwantthatcoat (E, 18,381 w., 12 Ch. || Post S4, Implied / Referenced Suicide, Oral Sex, Hand Jobs, Bathtub Sex, Sexual Fantasy) – Years later, Sherlock and John reassess their relationship.
Cockaigne by HollyShadow88 (E, 38,566 w., 7 Ch. || Steampunk AU || Pre TRF Canon Divergence, Fake Relationship, Art Shows, Porn With Plot, Case Fic, Developing Relationship, Gay Sherlock, Exhibitionism, Hand Jobs, Coming in Pants, High Heels, Blushing, Blow Jobs, Deep Throating, Hair Pulling, Light BDSM, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Aftercare, Dildos/Buttplugs, Enthusiastic Consent, Anal Fingering/Sex, Painplay, Military Kink, Lipstick, Corsetry, Love Confessions, Mutual Pining) – When John’s contacted by an old uni friend about problems in his new art exhibition, he doesn’t think it will be worth Sherlock’s time. After a glance of the crime scene, however, they’re both pulled into the project in ways John didn’t expect. Will a week of erotic performance art finally be enough to bring them together in the way they both secretly hope? (Spoiler: it’s a tropey fic, of course it will)
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leftnotright · 1 year
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A TEXTBOOK EDUCATION
"This will be a skill-building experience. You've had it too easy. You've had your Family name to back you, and your Right Hand at your every call. It's time you learn to carry yourself, to build from the ground up." Dino Cavallone, the Cavallone Don, fresh out of high school.
Reborn, the deadliest hitman of the modern era, has a special kind of torture up his sleeve for his dear struggling student. Dino will have to see how well he handles alienation, isolation, and worst of all, class participation. “Now, go on, my useless student Dino. Let’s continue your education.” (Or: Reborn sends Dino to Australia. It goes better than he could have ever hoped.)
Parings: N/A Characters: Dino (Katekyou Hitman Reborn!), Vic Hunt (OC - Original Character), Reborn (Katekyou Hitman Reborn!), Romario (Katekyou Hitman Reborn!)Cavallone Famiglia, Enzo (Katekyou Hitman Reborn!), Original Characters Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, University, Pre-Canon, Financial Issues, Fluff And Angst
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7
CHAPTER 4: AND THEY COME UNSTUCK
The TV - ‘’tele’ as they called it - was playing the morning news on channel 7. Dino had been listening to it since he had rolled out of bed, too sweaty and stressed to get any decent sleep. Fittingly, the news show was called ‘Sunrise’ and Dino had been watching since then, listening to the news and how they spoke about everything. 
There is a fire - ‘bushfire’ - in Penrith, firefighters were trying to keep it under control. Up in New Castle, there was a surfing event. Parliament was discussing the pensioner retirement age. Fundraisers were being held at multiple Bunnings for the NSW Regional Firefighting Service after a particularly bad fire season.
“I think I might pop down for a sausage sizzle,” the blond woman chimed in after the segment, “Been a while since I’ve had one’a those.”
“One’a those,” Dino echoed absently as he moved his pen along a line of text.
Calendar reminder: EDST1001 LECTURE 11:30AM
Dino paused his ledgers and looked at his phone as it beeped on the table. He had spent the whole morning pouring over the few documents he had left from the Cavallone offices, trying to quell that anxiety that bubbled in his stomach and made sleep hard. He only had a few documents left, most of them were copies of the original documents back at the Cavallone. Receipts, mostly, and barters for the last bits of furniture and assets the Cavallone could afford to sell off. 
Everything, spare what was bolted down or irreplaceable, had been sold already. It had left the halls of his home barren. Gone were the antique paintings, gilded statues and handwoven carpets. And gone was much of the Cavallone’s prestige with it. 
A Family selling off their history. 
He sighed and rubbed his nape, free of sweat for the first time since he had landed in this ‘sunburnt land’. That air conditioning truly was his saviour.
Calendar reminder: Meet Vic U-Bar Courtyard 3PM
Dino blinked. Then he gave a sharp heave of panic as he remembered that, yes, he had indeed promised to meet up with Vic today.
Okay. Okay, okay, okay, he was just meeting a friend it was going to be okay he didn’t need to panic like this it was just his only peer friend in years and he wasn’t going to screw this up he promised-
Enzo snapped at Dino’s toe and make him jump out of his minor mental breakdown. 
“Ow!” Dino yelped and yanked his foot away from the turtle. “I’ll go to the grocer’s today, so stop!”
Enzo wheezed at him accusingly before slowly turning and began the long plod to his newly found sunbathing patch. 
Dino frowned at Enzo’s back while cradling his toe until his phone buzzed again, warning him he only had an hour until his lecture. He grappled with his drawers and pulled on his most civilian of clothes, feeling blessedly comfortable in a white shirt and cargo shorts.
One thing Dino loved about university was the lack of uniforms. He didn’t think he’d survive this heat with the blazer, vest and tie he wore in high school. He had barely survived yesterday in that suit-
Dino clapped his hands loudly as if to scare off that memory and the incredulous looks of his classmates. He hadn’t had time to change for his Econ class either, but without a tutorial, he had managed to hide in the back rows of his lecture’s amphitheatre without drawing too much attention.
But he had learnt his lesson: No mafia suits in civilian classes.
Dino rubbed his stomach absently as he made his way back to the living room. He hadn’t been eating well since coming to Australia. Hell, the largest meal he had so far was that KFC with Vic and, as she said, it had enough salt to season the sea. He really needed to go to a grocer.
He hated to admit it, but he was procrastinating going to that ‘Woolies’ Vic had mentioned before. He didn’t feel confident in his English enough to go alone, and Dino had - well, he had never bought something in person before. Everything was done by middlemen, through order or pre-emptively in bulk. He’d never bought a carrot before! Could you buy a single carrot? Or did they only come in 20-kilogram packages? Dino didn’t know what he’d do with 20 kilograms of carrots!
Dino filled up a cup with water and took a long drink to calm his nerves before he thought himself into yet another panic attack on this fine, totally normal morning. He took his pills and proceeded to drink another glass of water to fill his stomach until lunch. 
Dino checked the clock on the wall and quickly shoved the last of his schoolwork into his briefcase. He needed a more civilian bag damn it, he stood out too much with this thing since it was from his high school days.
White tee-shirt, cargo shorts, joggers and a briefcase. What a sight Dino must be.
Before Dino walked out the door, his anxiety beckoned him to apply another layer of antiperspirant deodorant. Sweating so much yesterday had kind of traumatised him. He needed to figure out how to clean his suit.
Enzo wheezed when Dino picked him up off the floor but slid into the cargo short’s thigh pocket without fuss. For good measure, Dino tossed a few of his pellets in too before pressing the velcro shut. 
The trees of Wally’s Walk did little to block the swelter of midday Summer, and Dino pulled at his collar to air out his shirt. He checked his phone again to find his classroom, Building 27, the Lotus Theatre. 
“Fancy,” Dino muttered to himself and moved towards the cul-de-sac end of the Walk. 
There was a crowd of students loitering outside building 27, and Dino was quick to join them, standing off to the side to allow the traffic to flow between. He let his eyes scan the crowd, feeling much more at ease with how he blended in. No one was staring this time. Excellent. 
Dino pulled his briefcase closer and pulled out his phone, content to just scroll on the news apps for the next fifteen minutes or so. He was halfway through an article about something called the Powerhouse Museum of Science being moved to a Parramatta location when he felt eyes on him.
Carefully, Dino flicked his eyes to the side, using his peripherals to see who was watching him so intently. If they were a hitman, they were doing one hell of a bad job. What kind of assassin allowed their presence to be so obvious- Oh .
He lifted his head and waved, smiling with a sheepish relief. Vic stood at the edge of the crowd, and came over when she was acknowledged.
Reborn must really have done a number on him. 
“Oh hello,” Vic hummed as she came to a stop next to him, and Dino didn’t miss the quick once-over she gave him with her eyes. “I see we’re going casual this time.”
“Please don’t talk about yesterday,” Dino withered and Vic let out a laugh.
“Kay, got it,” she assured and shifted her weight again. “So we’ve got the same class again today, huh? EDST101?”
“Yeah, I’m happy we are together again,” Dino smiled, putting his phone away to pay full attention to Vic. “What time is your tutorial? Are we together as well?”
“I’m in the 2 o’clock group.”
“Ah, we are not. I am the 1 o’clock group.”
“Fuck,” Vic sighed forlornly and crossed her arms.
Dino tilted his head when he noticed she was wearing another faded band tee, adorning the same logo and name as the last one with a different design. Maybe it was her favourite band? It was a talking point!
“What, uh, song, is that?” Dino asked, pointing to Vic’s shirt.
“Song? Oh,” Vic looked down at her shirt and opened her arms to show the logo splashed across her chest, Smoking Cucumbers. “It’s my cousin’s heavy metal anarchist band. Don’t really know how the anarchist plays into it, but he insists it does. Gives me a shirt for New Years nearly every year.”
“That’s nice of him,” Dino uttered, “Are they good?”
Vic made a noise and rocked her head from side to side, looking off into the distance as she visibly thought about it. 
“Varying quality,” she decided to say.
“I see,” Dino chuckled, then he shifted his weight and reached for the next topic. “Do you have a large family?”
Family, that was a familiar topic. Dino could talk about Family easy! 
“Nah, not really, I’ve only got a brother. But the cousins add up, you know?” She shrugged, “I’ve got like, uh, six cousins from my dad’s side. The youngest is nearly seven months old, I’m going to meet him during semester break.”
Dino smiled as Vic fished around to show a picture from her phone. A child, cute as a button, was cradled in the centre of a mass of pillows, arms and legs askew like it had fallen asleep mid-crawl attempt.
“Ant’s so adorable. He looks like a fucking blobfish,” she cooed and Dino couldn’t help the snort of startled laughter. “What about you? What’s your family like?”
“My Family is large. The house is always busy,” Dino started, recalling all the faces he was so used to waking up to every morning. Oh, he missed those faces. “I have no siblings, but many uncles and brothers.”
Vic blinked at that and Dino smiled sheepishly, wondering if he had misspoken somewhere. She didn’t interrupt, however, so Dino continued. Talking about his Family was cathartic, and made the overbearing sun, innumerable people and unfamiliar terrain, all seem less horrible for a moment.
“Romario looks after me well. I am sure he is the reason I survived so long.” Not that Reborn didn’t try to stop that, with all those bombs and bullets. “My father introduced him to me when I was young, we have been together since.”
He remembered that day, so many years ago. He had clutched the ends of his coat and fought to stand still, surrounded by five of his father’s Guardians as they stood at attendance for the Don’s return. His father arrived with a teen trailing behind him, scuffed up and covered in grass seeds and dust like he had crawled out from the barley fields that surrounded the Cavallone estate. 
“Brutus means well, but he is, uh, a bad influence,” Dino chuckled, recalling how Brutus had ridden a mattress down the spiral staircase and broke through the railing. “He has been with us for a few years now. Growing tall. Too tall.”
That last comment was said with its fair share of bitterness. Brutus liked to use Dino as an armrest in casual settings these days. No respect!
Vic smiled as he grumbled at the memory, another one of her snorted laughs bursting forward.  
“Are you the youngest, or..?”
Dino frowned more, “Brutus is the youngest. Everyone is upset.”
Vic wheezed a laugh and pocketed her phone before rocking back on her heels and asked, “Anyone else of note?”
“Too many,” Dino hummed softly, “I hope to see them soon.” Then he winced and let out a weak laugh, “Ah, but I am sure they will make me pay back all my missed turns in stable work.”
Vic blinked and then squinted a bit, like she was trying to piece together what he had said. Dino watched her for a moment before it dawned on him: Vic didn’t know about the Cavallone Family’s main stock.
“My family breed horses. I will be missing my turns to help in the horse stables. We rotate.”
Vic’s face twitched, then she snorted out, “So, you’re like an equestrian?”
“Uh, I was part of my high school’s equestrian club, yes?” 
The girl sighed through her nose and reached up to massage her forehead as she muttered out, “My God, he’s a horse girl too.”
“Horse girl?” Dino echoed.
“Have you ever watched something called The Saddle Club?”
Dino shook his head and Vic made a dismissing wave of her hand, before turning her head as the crowd began to move, a slow and steady flow of students pouring into the amphitheatre. 
“Time to move,” she uttered and the two of them wriggled their way through the mass of sweaty students. 
Dino winced as a girl's tote bag poked into his arm, and then nearly fumbled his walk as the first step of an incline surprised him. He wheezed and gave a sheepish smile as someone in the crowd gave him a withering glance.
Vic chose somewhere to sit and Dino trailed after her, eager to get out of the river of slow-moving bodies that shuffled along unsurely. They pulled their chair seats down and spent a good few seconds fighting with their flip-up desks before settling down.
“Wow, yours is a bit fucked,” Vic commented as she looked to the hazardous angle Dino’s laptop was teetering on, no doubt only held there by the non-slip pads. 
“It’s…a bit weak. But it will hold,” Dino agreed feebly, trying to realign his desk.
“Nah, nah, mate, not with your luck. Move before that thing snaps.”
Dino fiddled with his desk for a moment longer before making the short shuffle to Vic’s other side. It felt disconcerting, to be stuck in the aisle now. Vic was blocking an easy exit, whether she intended to or not. Dino could feel that anxiety all the way in the bottom of his feet.
Someone behind Dino coughed loudly, before they gathered their stuff and moved a few seats away, still clearing their throat. Dino noticed Vic watch them out of the corner of her eye, a vague grimace on her face.
“But hey,” she uttered suddenly before Dino could ask what the issue was, turning back to idly click around on her laptop to get an empty Word document up for notes. “This way, you’re less likely to get called on for audience participation!”
Dino blinked, then he gave a relieved smile and rested back into his seat. 
“Yeah, that’s…That’s a good point.”
“Yeah, but fuck we’ve still gotta talk during the tutorials. We’ve gotta talk at least once per session to get that twenty percent.”
Dino dropped his head back with a groan. 
Before either of them could say much more, however, the large screens at the front of the amphitheatre lit up with the introduction slide of a powerpoint and a woman took centre stage. The lecture rolled on with the same amount of ease as the others, just another orientation lesson to get the students used to their first week in university and what would be expected of them in the coming weeks. Dino was starting to get more confident with his English comprehension, since a lot of the classes were repeating similar content and using the same phrases.
They were maybe half an hour in, Dino centring all his focus on breaking down the word ‘pedagogy’ when he heard, in the softest and most bamboozled voice possible: “Dino, is that a fucking turtle in your pocket?” 
Dino’s head snapped around and then looked down to see Enzo’s little head peering out from under the flap of his pant pocket, beady eyes peering back at Vic. Dino wheezed and shoved the flap down, trying to cover up Enzo from prying eyes. 
“Uuh,” Dino uh-ed.
“Dino, why is there a turtle in your pocket?” Vic asked again.
Dino fumbled for an answer, before he just shrugged and said, “Well, I, I couldn’t leave him at home alone.”
“But to a lecture?”
“Hey, could you two stop? It’s really distracting.” A young man sitting ahead of them grumbled and Vic quickly tossed out an apology.
Enzo let out a wheeze and wriggled his way to freedom again, head poking out into the fresh air of the air-conditioned amphitheatre. Dino rushed to hide Enzo again, but Vic quickly bent at the waist and cooed in delight.
“No wait, lemme see the baby,” she whispered and pushed the flap away to get a good look at the small tortoise that squinted back at her. “Oh, hello little man!”
Dino watched as Vic reached out and gently pet Enzo’s head with her pointer, grinning like some kind of loon as she did. He thinned his lips in a moment of thought, before Dino reached into his other pocket and produced a small handful of pellets.
“Do you,” he began slowly, unsure but hopeful. “Do you want to feed Enzo, Vic?”
Vic looked up at Dino and utterly beamed. 
Dino kept that in mind: Vic likes feeding Enzo. Good, good, he had a way to socialise now. Enzo truly was the best wingman. 
Dino smiled down at Enzo who was quietly crunching on his pellets. The little turtle squinted up at him. 
  ☁ ☁ ☁
Vic Hunt Class done
Vic Hunt Do you still have Enzo?
Dino Cav Yes
Vic Hunt On my way!!
Dino snorted into his hand and sent a quick laughing emoticon in response. He had already chosen a table for them to sit at for their meeting, a shaded table outside one of the courtyard’s student cafes, off to the side and more isolated than the others. It was most likely for studying, Dino liked the privacy. 
Enzo sat snugly in his pocket happily fed after all those snacks from Vic during their lecture. Dino smiled to himself and patted his pocket, feeling that hard shell. The most secure weight.
“Show me the baby,” Vic demanded as she rounded the corner and dropped herself in the chair across from Dino. 
Not even a hello? Dino couldn’t blame her though, no one could resist Enzo. Spoilt rotten that little turtle was. 
Dino huffed and glanced around, before sliding Enzo out of his pocket and onto the table between them. He stretched his arm out on the exposed side of the table, covering Enzo up just in case.
Immediately, Vic dropped down to Enzo’s height and started cooing, murmuring unintelligible little noises at the turtle. She grinned and giggled as she watched Enzo plod about the table, quietly exploring the area with his usual squint of suspicion. 
“Look at his little feets!” Vic nearly gasped and Dino couldn’t help the snort of laughter. “Oh shut it, Dino. All that talk of horses, why didn’t you mention the turtle in your pocket! ”
“I don’t know… Enzo didn’t come to mind?” Dino offered unsurely. He hadn’t meant to not mention Enzo, it was just that Enzo was such a constant for Dino that he honestly didn’t realise that someone wouldn’t know about Enzo at this point. 
“How did you even get the allowance to bring him?”
…Allowance? Dino blinked. He didn’t know anything about an allowance.
The silence stretched on until finally, Vic looked up, a smile creeping onto her face. 
“Dino, did you smuggle your turtle into the village?” She asked.
Dino thinned his lips before he slowly murmured, “No one told me I couldn’t .” Vic grinned then, something vicious and joyful with so many teeth. “That is to say,” Dino continued, trying to explain himself for breaching university rules. “I need Enzo. I go nowhere without him. I need him.”
Vic let out a soft hum of acknowledgement, before giving a shrug and leant back in her chair. 
“Hey, no skin off my back. It’s not like lil’ Enzo here’s gonna damage the room for the next student. Not like some dog or cat.”
Dino relaxed a bit when she said that, a tension in his shoulders seeping out. Dino admitted it, he hadn’t met many civilians in his time. Most of his social circle consisted of Mafia and their middlemen, the people he knew were utterly steeped in the criminal underworld. 
Maybe it was his naivete getting the better of him, an opinion from childhood he had never had the chance to rectify -- Dino thought of civilians as a rather pure existence. Morally right, law-abiding citizens of the world to counterbalance the presence of the Mafia. 
Dino had broken university policy. A horrified little part of him was sure that Vic would be appalled by his blatant disregard for the established order-
Dino let a long breath out through his nose, slow and steady. It was fine, though. Vic didn’t care. The rules weren’t so cut and dry in the civilian world. Within limitations, of course. 
Vic shifted in her seat, and pulled her computer up onto the table just aside of Enzo. She booped him on the nose for good measure, unaware of the stress Dino had gone through. 
“Anyway, I did a bit of work last night and I think I know what I’m going to be talking about.” She said, and opened a tab to start scribing ideas. “But I kinda wanna talk about your activity. The resources one.”
Dino tried his best to join the discussion as the two began to finally dig into their assessment. Vic scrolled through her document and showed Dino what she had scraped together the night before, which was honestly an obscene amount.
“Uniforms?” Dino asked, seeing how the word was bolded as a heading.
“Yeah, in Australia uniforms are mandatory for Primary and High schools,” Vic explained, “It’s to more of less, stop students from seeing the difference in status. Like if one kid came in fucking Gucci, and another comes in second-hand Kmart. Uniforms stop that shit.”
Dino hummed and thought back to his school, they had worn uniforms too. And they were right, you couldn’t really tell who was from a better Family -- if you were using clothes as a tell. Posture, presence and poise. Those all could tell just how large a gap there was between Families. And the Dons who led them.
Vic continued to scroll to her next point, and Dino scooped Enzo into his hands, thumbing at the edge of his shell to try and soothe himself. 
“I’ve also got ‘homework assistance’ and tutoring.”
Dino’s eyes snapped up from Enzo at the word. ‘Tutor’. God, that sent chills to his very core. 
“People with money can afford to send their kids to better schools, and can afford to support their kids with, ya know, tutoring. Basically, the better off the parents, the better off the kids.”
Dino thinned his lips. It was true, Dino had no doubt that the smaller Families wouldn’t have been even able to dream of having the Reborn as a live-in tutor. He didn’t even want to think about how much of the Cavallone funds must have gone into the little devil-man’s pockets just so he could torture Dino day in and day out for the past year. 
“We got this yesterday,” Dino muttered quietly, almost unwittingly.
Dino could see why Vic wanted to be a teacher, she obviously felt strongly about the imbalances in the education system. Direct action, it seemed very up her alley.
Vic blinked, and then she shrank back in her chair a bit. She gave a huffed little smile and shrugged, sheepishly and kind of drowsy.
“But yeah, that’s just my idea for my part,” she said idly, “And I think it’ll segway nicely into your activity. So, uh, how’re you going with your intro?”
Dino winced, “I have not, ah, started it yet.” Gosh, Vic had already produced all of this and Dino hadn’t even looked over the assessment properly yet. Dino traced the pattern in Enzo’s shell. “English, is, uh, not my strong skill.” 
Vic made a short noise of understanding on the back of her throat, before she gave her own work a look-ver as if to see it in a new light.
“I will have to begin in Italian, and move to English,” Dino said slowly, and Vic waved her hand at him.
“Hey, whatever floats your boat and gets the job done. Do what makes you comfy,” she shifted on her seat and tugged on the end of her shorts before uttering off-handedly, “And, ya know, if you need help, I can lend a hand with those dickish words like ‘pedagogy’ and shit.”
 Vic pointedly looked away from Dino as she said this, eyes fixed on her document that she scrolled through to give her hands something to do. 
Dino blinked, then quickly said, “I don’t want to be a bother!”
“Nah, no, it’s ‘right,” Vic insisted lazily, and took a drink from her thermos. 
Dino could hear ice rattling around inside. God, that was a good idea.
Vic and Dino leant across the table to look at Vic’s computer screen, organising a file for the project. Vic pulled up a powerpoint and wrote ‘SOCIAL CLASS IN EDUCATION by Dino, Jessica and Vic’.  
“Great, that’s enough work. I think we’re due a break,” Vic said and closed her computer.
Dino decided not to point out the fact that they had only been ‘working’ for a total of maybe 10 minutes, and that the most progress had been naming and sharing the group slideshow. 
“Okay,” Vic said suddenly, breaking Dino out of his thoughts as she stood up. “I’mma go get some lunch. You coming?”
Dino grabbed Enzo up off the table and stuffed him into his pocket. Vic stared with wide eyes before she glanced between the pocket and Dino’s face and asked, “Is he, uh, always in there?”
“Usually, I keep Enzo in a breast pocket,” he answered, before patting his chest and added, “Over the heart.”
Enzo’s shell was practically indestructible. Nothing short of Reborn’s Chaos Shots could pierce it. 
“Aw, that’s fuckin’ sweet,” Vic chortled.
By the time Dino and Vic sat down again, they were balancing their chosen meals in their hands. Dino carefully slid his salad and chips plate onto the table, and watched Vic quickly slurp some of the excess butter chicken gravy from the edge of her plate before doing the same. Vic wasted no time in drumming the tabletop with her hands until Dino ‘produced the goods’.
Enzo immediately stole a whole leaf of lettuce from Dino’s salad.  
“ Smettila, Enzo! ” Dino scolded but didn’t try to take the leaf away from the happily munching turtle. 
Vic smiled at the little turtle before using the handle end of her fork to tap on the side of the bottle of water Dino had bought. It was wet with perspiration and creating a puddle on the table with every jolting tap; just as shiny as Dino was.
“Drink, mate, you’re sweating buckets,” Vic urged with a frown. 
She was right. Dino wiped his chin with his arm and grimaced as sweat just smeared on both sides. Dino was as shiny as a newly minted coin, and the back of his shirt clung to his spine, two shades darker than the rest of it. He made an expression of great sensory discomfort as he sat forward to try and peel it off. Australian heat was very different to the Sicilian summers Dino was used to.
“Yes,” Dino murmured and took a sip from his bottle. By the time he put it back down, more than half was gone. 
“You gotta be sun-safe, or I’ll slip-slop-slap a bitch,” Vic warned. Dino stared at Vic for a long moment, before the girl reeled back a bit and asked, “Wait, you know about the slip-slop-slap sun thing yeah? Or is- wait, fuck of course that’s an Aussie thing.” 
Dino smiled as the girl rubbed her face in a mixture of frazzle and embarrassment. 
“I, uh, will be ‘sun-safe’,” he said, “I do not want to be ‘slip-slop-slapped’.”
Vic blinked, and then she grinned with teeth. 
“Okay, but what’s up with the horses?” Vic asked and then spooned a generous helping of rice into her mouth. 
Dino paused halfway through another guzzle of water.
“The horses?”
“Yeah, like, you breed ‘em, right? What for though?” 
Dino quickly swallowed the water that had dammed up in his mouth. He settled back in his chair and smiled a bit, idly spinning his bottle on the table with his fingers.
“Uh, we- we breed them for… Well, every job. Labour, farm, carriage, show. We used to make war horses.”
Vic made a sharp whistle of surprise and leant her cheek against her hand, elbow on the table. Dino stared at it, her elbow on the table, for a moment, before he pulled his eyes up. 
“Warhorses? So, this is like a tradition thing. Family business?” 
‘Family business’. Dino withheld a snort, he smiled weakly and said, “Yes, for at least ten generations.” 
“ Whew, that’s some old blood,” Vic wheezed.
Dino smiled and remembered the history walks down the legacy hall. Walls adorned with past Dons, and those faded faces of the nameless patriarchs who tilled the fields and corralled wild horses long before the time of the Cavallone Famiglia Mafia. 
“We are proud of our horses,” Dino said, an undeniable truth. But it was an undeniable truth also that- “Horses, however, are not very- very, useful. Today.”
Vic winced, “Ah, yeah. With cars and all.” She took a slow bite of her curry and tilted her head. “So with all those horses, surely your family, like, races them? Got any cool ones…” Her voice trailed off as Dino’s face pinched.
Dino ran his thumb along the edge of Enzo’s shell, the little turtle squinted up at him. 
“We are banned. No Cavallone horse may race in Italy.”
Vic thinned her lips and scraped her wooden, disposable spoon along her plate, drawing a random shape with the orange, butter chicken gravy.
“Can I… Can I ask why? Or would you rather just, ya know,” she made a waving motion with her hands. “Not talk about that.”
Dino let out a frail burst of a laugh that was equal parts bitter and vindictive.
“We kept winning.”
Vic paused, and looked at Dino. Looked at the way Dino’s smile had gritted teeth in the corners.
Vic gave a bark of laughter. 
“So instead of beating you fairly, they booted you?” She asked and leaned forward. 
Dino took in a sharp breath. Despite her tone, her smile wasn’t playful. It had an edge to it. Annoyed. Frustrated. Angry. Vic was angry. For some reason. 
But, Dino quickly scanned her over, not at him. Always good, always good!
“Cavallone horses are hard to beat. Very,” Dino explained and Vic scoffed hard enough that Dino thought she hurt her throat.
“Look, unless you’re doping your horses, I don’t see why you should be kicked.”
Dino shrugged, “Our horses are special.”
“I’m not fucking surprised! You’ve been working on them for over ten fucking generations!” 
Vic pinched the bridge of her nose, before Dino watched as Vic clenched her teeth, her biceps, her forearms, her fists, then all the way back up again. Then, like she was suddenly exhausted, Vic slumped back into her chair, shoulders sagging under her loose shirt. She let out a long, slow sigh through her nose. She smiled and started cooing at Enzo.
Dino stared, baffled. What the hell had happened there? Had she gotten so upset that she had to actively calm herself down?
Dino shifted in his seat. He looked down at his salad -- slowly being stolen one leaf at a time by Enzo -- and bit down on the need to smile. 
Vic was upset for him. He didn’t expect that to feel so… Nice. Validating.
“So you can’t race in Italy,” Vic hummed, tone low and almost dragging itself out of her mouth. “Why not race in a -- fuck I don’t know horses,” she tilted her head back and waved her spoon around, “Melbourne Cup is a horse race. Why not race here? Or does the ban keep you?”
Dino reached for his fork and ate a mouthful. He realised what he was doing only halfway through: buying time. 
Did the ban keep the Cavallone from racing outside of Italy? He didn’t know. 
The ban had been his grandfather’s greatest shame. The Eighth Don of the Cavallone hadn’t been able to fight off those little Dons who had climbed on top of each other to seem taller and tip the scales. The beginning of the end for the Cavallone, really.
After that, the Eighth had fallen to illness and Dino’s father had taken the reigns as the sole heir. Everyone knew how that ended.
Dino nudged an olive and watched it roll across his plate. Enzo stole another leaf with a satisfied ‘crunch’ .
Dino had never seen a Cavallone race on a track before. 
Could he? Did he dare? Enter his Cavallone horses into civilian races? How close could he get to the civilians when the Mafia were so careful to keep that strict divide? 
Hell, even their resorts were Mafia and Mafia-adjacent exclusive! It took a whole boat or plane to get to the separate island . 
Dino swallowed the leaf, long gone mushy in his mouth. 
But if it worked? If he dared to start racing their Cavallone-style bred horses -- if it worked? 
Break the tradition, break the rules, break the bonds of debt that tie down the Cavallone. 
“Good idea?” Vic asked, a lazy smile on her face. “You look excited. Practically chomping at the bit.”  
Dino looked up, he hadn’t realised he was grinning.
‘Never race a Cavallone.’ Time to bring that old saying back.
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c0rinarii · 6 months
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WELL! I have just concluded the game that i bought on impulse bc i was hyperfixating on some of the characters (guess who!). I have A LOT of thoughts, but i'll start with some nutshell character thoughts and pairing shenanigains. Spoilers below!
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That 4th tier deserves a bit of elaboration
Juro: He is, at his core, a blank sheet of paper. A mild sandwich with no seasoning. And I like how this game handled that fact bc he was someone more prior to this, but he's given a new personality so he can rest from being so self-sacrificing (if he's anything like the juro izumi from 2 loops ago). He's in the "they're there" tier for a special reason, bc he's kind of meant to be just There.
Renya: Despite being there just to help the audience answer some questions regarding the fucked up narrative of the story, I think what gives him a leg up from the "They're there" tier is his lowkey hilarious relationship with Ryoko. He is perplexed and lowkey salty about how short their relationship lasted no matter how hard he tries. He tries to not gaf as much as Ryoko does but he still does. Ei calls him out on this. Its so so funny.
Megumi: HER NARRATIVE ON GRIEF WAS VERY WELL DONE and if it werent for the spaghetti bullshit of an ending the epilogue was, I would be soooo so intrested how she'd handle moving on from Izumi. I find the concept of Juro/Megumi much more bearable with Juro now having one sided feelings for Megumi while Megumi considers giving him a chance or not. That wouldve been a great closing to their relationship instead of. just getting toghether with no qualms! yeah juro i totally wasnt mouring a dead version of you in that simulation. lets kiss.
Miyuki: I KNEW YOU COULD SAVE THOSE KIDS WITHOUT INFLICTING SEVERE TRAUMA. Sadly aside from "saviour from above" themeing with her, theres nothing much outside of that. While im greatful she was there, she is just there in the end. But her efforts give her a leg up from that tier.
Chihiro: The concept of a very peeved elderly woman stuck in a pre-schoolers body is a funny one and im just extremely glad that 13SAR is not big enough that sobposters arent using her at large to fufill their degen fantasies. Aside from that shtick though, nothing else. Thats literally a baby
Moving onto the canon main pairings!:
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I saw someone calling HijiOki queer-bait and i can kindaaaa see why when basing it off the epilogue. Yeah they havent seem to progress much past 5 years and are at best still at talking stage while some of the others are literally married with kids (oh i'll get to that.) But I like to see it as the only pairing with realistic progression past. everything thats happened. Aside that they're just very funny!! Love their dynamic, will be rooting for them no matter how long it takes.
I did not expect myself to like SekiFuyu this much!! I do agree that Iori ESPECIALLY deserves more story outside hanging with gals and crushing over Sekigahara (not to say i didnt like it!!), but im very glad that the story subverted my expectations! I want them to be happy first and foremost, but i feel like the added angst from Iori realisng that she was a clone of THE Chihiro Morimura wouldve made this ship just a little bit more peak. Aside that, I support Iori shoujoisms and Sekigahara finding love and happiness.
I think my rating on Nentomi will change the more I ruminate on it. MeguJuro would be bumped up above RenRyo IF they didnt immediately fall in love after those 5 years and have Megumi still "thinking about it" while Juro goes "pleaaase :(" bc i think Megumi deserves to tease him a lil and think more about What the hell happened. ShuuYuki is the worst case of comphet between a lesbian and a looser bisexual ive seen.
Now.... the elephant in the room.
Ive talked to moots about how much i abhored the ending at first. Aside from the Darling in the Franxx-esque cop out, you expect me to believe that some of them just. got toghether after everything?? without any processing of What The Hell just happened?? nothing at all?? god
Im not the one to usually complain about comphet bc yeah its something i hate, but it usually doesnt sour my experience of consuming media so much. But god this is where its one of the main reasons why an ending is ruined for me. I hate hate HATED some of the epilogue scenes, esp with Nentomi and Shuuyuki bc of the straight people "my wife sucks but i love her" humour it radiates. ugh.
I would've loved a much more... bleak? more bittersweet?? outlook on the situation? after realisng everything is not real and you are basically the 15 adam and eves left to recreate human civilzation... that would be a pretty fucking huge thing to grapple with. I just wished that they had more complexity with this ending. Or! just stick with the fact that they're forever trapped in space colonies left to deal with the horrors of their situations and the mistakes of those in the past. Sorry for bring a tragic yuri enjoyer, but the overbearing dread and loom from the simulation story was what really made me intrested in 13SAR. To see it just solve itself with little drawback was so lame.
I read the George Kamitani aimed for 13SAR to have a mecha and shoujo hybrid story. While that's honestly an awesome concept, im sad it means that he can miss out on more complexity when intepretting the narrative when it comes to certain relationships (shoujos can be complex too!) I also heard that the game was meant to be at least 3 times longer that it is curently which is. wow. Its a shame that so much content got cut out 😭 bc i feel like a bit more time with these characters is all i need to make my verdict more positive.
As a bonus, i'll include a crackship tierlist too! Alot has changed
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I miiight need another few days or even weeks to compile another thoughts post bc theres definitely more things i wanna talk about (the narrative structure, Tamao, 2188 theories, themes of japanese imperialism-). But so far, im gonna let it ruminate for a bit before picking it back up to analyse
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22degreehalo · 17 days
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Aaaaand I finally return with my next update for the Summer Fic Reading Challenge by @ficreadingchallenge!!!
And the end really is coming up, hahah... But I hope I will be able to finish the whole card before then! :)
Reviews/links under the cut~ Ships include Yuki/Kakeru, Aegon/Larys, Dirk/Jake, Archie+Jughead gen, Kirk/Spock, and Aegon/Helaena!
Domestic/Curtain Fic Like Fireworks in the Night Sky by PrincelyHairdos (86k, ongoing, Yuki/Kakeru) Uaaaaghhhhhhhhh OTL I really can’t recommend this fic enough if you want to fuck yourself up!!!!!! Yes, there’s the pining, and the achingly-sweet relationship between the main two boys, but they’re both in relationships at the start of the fic, and the story explores every little beat of the pain and awkwardness and tension of that premise!! None of the characters involved are bad people, and the story is equally sympathetic to all four of them, but Yuki is very much just forcing himself in his relationship with Machi (comphet up the wazoo), and although Kakeru and Komaki sincerely love each other, he and Yuki so obviously have this long-standing unintentional and unaware emotional affair going on that just gets more and more in between them! I chose this theme because so much of the Yuki/Kakeru relationship revolves around how comfortable around one another as uni students living in the same dorms; they’re not actual roommates, but they may as well be with easily they share their space, and it’s that pre-established and on-going easy domesticity that provides all the delicious, awful tension in their actual official relationships!
Rarepair Last Hope by Yarwrit (1.4k, Aegon/Larys) Of course for this theme I had to use a ship that I never possibly would’ve considered prior to that final episode of the show :’D But this fic was exactly what I wanted: Aegon’s despair and Lary’s quiet support; Aegon’s rationally skeptical of his sincerity, but so desperately needs some sort of a real friend, and the commonality between them as two disabled men rings true. Larys might well still just be manipulating him (I mean, that’s certainly at least part of what’s going on), but his attraction, at least, is real, and meaningful <3
Space AU it’s only a canvas sky by Mayleavestars (9.2k, Dirk/Jake) I really struggled with this theme for a while because I’m not much of an AU reader and all the space AUs I could find just felt like normal fics with a hand-waved set dressing. This fic was my saviour: the vaguely Star Trek universe setting relates perfectly to the long-distance communication Dirk and Jake had in canon, allowing for a dynamic that perfectly supports their canon personalities and relationship while giving enough of a twist to the formula to justify the AU. Oh, the pining; the rituals!
Angst love story (but it's platonic) by sharksarewaterdogs (2.8k, Jughead + Archie gen) Another soulmate mark fic, and another fun twist! Jughead's angst is super believable, not just worrying about himself but how Archie would feel to know that his soulmate is an aro/ace guy. But Archie is so sweet, and once the shock wears off, their friendship really does shine through! I always love to see a-spec fics with at least a lil non-fluffiness, and this was nice and cathartic <3
Author’s Oldest Fic The Word Withheld by j_s_cavalcante (12k, Kirk/Spock) Of course for this theme I had to go with one of the chronologically oldest ships I’ve been into, and what a beautiful fic I chose for that!! I have memories of AOS fic about Spock Prime encouraging his younger self tom seize the day and make the most of the time he has with Kirk, but applying that plot to TOS gives it all the more resonance given the way things turn out in the canon timeline. The quiet intimacy between Kirk and Spock is on full display here, and perfectly reminded me why I once read so many fics about these two <3
Bittersweet/Unhappy Ending lost innocence. By ProjectFreelancer (1.4k, Aegon/Helaena) :’( These two deserved so much better… Among all the longfic in this fandom I was soooo happy to see this shorter and more melancholy missing-scenes type fic, elaborating on this relationship we haven’t gotten to see nearly enough of, with a particular focus on the actually pretty damn traumatic circumstances of their marriage!! It ends on a positive note for the whole family… but we already know how this story ends. :(
And that's all so far!!
Of the spaces left, I have a definite fic in mind for 'Enemies to Friends / Lovers' (it's just a matter of finishing it first; could've done that before making this post but I've delayed long enough already :') ), and a potential something for Take Your Fandom To Work and Secret Relationship. I didn't expect that last one to be difficult given how much I love the trope, but maybe I just need to try some other pairings... And I've always figured it wouldn't be too hard to find something for Whump once I get in the mood, heh.
So with all that, it'll just be a matter of which of the random non-recced fics I've read recently I should use for the Free Space!! n.n
(Also ahhhhh I really did expect to ask for another card before this thing ended... but that'd be kinda pointless now, huh :'D)
(Also? Yes, I have indeed managed all different ships for each square so far. :'DDD No idea how it's worked out that way, but I can't bring myself to stop now!!)
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ladyniniane · 10 months
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Rating: G
Fandom : Fire Emblem Three Houses
❧ Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd & Original Female Characters
Tags : #Pre-canon #Family Fluff #Bittersweet #Mentions of terminal illness #Grandma Blaiddyd was a queen regnant #because Fodlan needs more queens regnant #Dimitri being the sweetest kid ever #Here we care about the dead and nameless mothers #Women Being Awesome #Women In Power
Résumé/Summary:
Petit Dimitri et sa mère rendent visite à la grand-mère de ce dernier, la souveraine retirée. Dans la douceur de l'après-midi, l'ancienne grande reine et le futur roi sauveur partageront un moment de tendresse hors du temps.
Little Dimitri and his mother visit his grandmother, the former sovereign. In the calm of the afternoon, the former great queen and the future saviour king will share a sweet moment out of time.
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scoobydoodean · 1 year
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as a long-term cas girl and heller i want to say i am living for your destiel takes. the way some fans woobify cas drives me insane though i do think it's influenced by how the show treated him at the end. but i strongly agree cas needs to be dean's saviour and pre-decided a romantic relationship was impossible. people don't talk enough about the fact there's a massive age/culture gap between them in which cas has more power in virtually every way (if this were a m/f pairing with a human woman there would be more discourse about this imo, destiel is the m/m version of this very popular interspecies romance trope). anyway as someone who is not even a dean girl it's apparent to me that castiel is NOT a safe person for dean to love since EVER (if one interprets dean as repressing romantic feelings it's because that'd cause him even more pain than cas has already brought him).
🙏 The show absolutely treated Cas terribly, and one of the most frustrating things for me is the lack of resolution to his need to fall on a sword—how he is always trying to martyr himself and that... isn't resolved. Leaving that character note—letting it stand—is very much like letting Dean die young and bloody. Like. They both got ends they predicted in some sense, coming from a part of themselves that thought very lowly of their own worth as individuals? And I think that's extremely sad. Like. He got to confess his love and I love that, but at what cost, you know? I would absolutely love to see a canon resolution to that storyline that's satisfying and allows Cas to heal and grow out of the unilateral, lone wolf decision-maker situation.
Yeah Cas literally beat Dean bloody in an alley using his superior strength, and large swaths of destiel fandom think that's hot and it's just a big joke, but then loose their fucking minds with rage when Dean in season 10, under the influence of the MOC which is actually altering his personality, beats Castiel up using his now superior strength. The whole thing is just stupid. I actually think the age and cultural gap is something Dean struggles with a lot, and uses to excuse Cas's actions a lot, thinking he just can't understand him. Like. Dean knows Cas cares about him. The rest? It's just confusing. Like. I don't accept the actors feelings as being established canon or as forcing certain interpretations, but Jackles kind of implied he plays Dean this way—that Dean isn't sure what the things Cas does mean because he doesn't know if Cas is coming from things at the same frame of reference as him or if Cas is thinking about things from some weird angelic perspective... and Cas's actions give Dean a lot of reasons to be confused. He gives Cas a LOT of leeway over things I would have made a way bigger deal out of I think partly because of this.
It is sad that Cas isn't a person Dean could confess romantic feelings to if he has them (which—I think he does?), though I think another issue is just that. They are all always doing things. Like. They are CONSTANTLY busy with one thing after another. When would Dean ever have the space to even evaluate that, much less choose if he trusts Cas enough to tell him. Even Cas, on his side, only confessed because it presented an opportunity to save Dean (and die in the process jfc). Otherwise, it seems like he was probably cool with just... keeping silent about it forever? And I think one of the other things we don't talk about enough, is that these dudes are like... fucked up. They have PTSD. They have severe trauma, and there are a lot of emotional issues they are trying to contend with, so when exactly are they supposed to figure out whether they want to be open about romantic feelings and how? They are trying to deal with trauma from being lobotomized and tortured and possessed etc etc etc.
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Longwinded Anon (LWA)✨ gets their own special hotlink and dedicated masterpost✨mainly because im fed up of searching through my whole entire blog when i need to refer back to their asks:
oldest ones first:
ahhh, the first ever LWA ask, a golden post. i remember it fondly. my response as you can probably tell was just sheer incredulity that was sent to me, instant brain crush. anyway, talks about the influence of politico-moral dynamics on GO and how this extends to how we perceive crowley. i promise my responses get more intelligent after this.
more on crowley in terms of his arguably unreliable narrative and questioning the choices he makes as a result. in this i actually answer the first one as well as this.
see now im not 100% on this one but it sure does feel like it was LWA, maybe not... either way, full response/meta on who the second coming might be is linked within, as i elaborated on it more in a different ask.
this one gave me a cardiac arrest because LWA decided to spam me with everything they could possibly think of, it was so fun! so this time they talk about aziraphale and his own flaws as concerns his superiority complex and the damsel in distress nonsense, a bit about s3, the pre-fall scene and how this sets up the boys' dynamic, discussion on how long the boys have liked let alone loved each other, lucifer theory (sob), and who indeed the wider question on the angel that crowley was (AWCW) might have been. i responded with talk about aziraphale's insecurity, crowley's saviour complex, their love languages, aziraphale pre-fall, and (wails) lucifer theory.
talking about the apology dance and forgiveness between the two of them in general, and i added in a sprinkle of talking about manipulation.
here we discussed the whole business of crowley's temptation to get aziraphale to kill the antichrist (still a bugbear that crops up again later on in the LWA timeline), and more on crowley's tendency to push his protectiveness on aziraphale (and aziraphale laps it up). also talking about aziraphale's superiority complex again, and the nuclear miracle.
a little bit on the emerging topic of how GO looks at religiously allegorical literature, and a ✨challenge✨ to find where bits of the book may have been transposed or conceptualised into s2.
LWA kindly gave me their thoughts of where, if it does, the lockdown audio clip fits into the canon, and then more on the antichrist/aziraphale manipulation business and how the boys keep secrets from each other, as well as how it impacts on their individual morals. there's also, fair warning, a little bit of gentle but intelligent criticism on how this sometimes get mistranslated in fanfiction.
so here gets a little critical of the magic trick theory, but also similarly looks at some of the technical and narrative weaknesses of s2, as well as looking again at how lopsided the love-story element gets when we look at the boys' journey through history.
this looks at how GO is not a carbon copy of any one biblical text or piece of literature but is inspired by, and reimagines, a bit of everything.
a wee rant on the 'god ships it' trope and its moral implications. im sorry but it rubs me up the wrong way (but no shade at all meant to anyone who writes or likes it!), and i tried my best to explain why it does.
so this was following the startling (see: i was absolutely blindsided at 4am by this) confirmation that aziraphale did not in fact know about crowley living in his car. discussed why that might be, but also again a bit more on the antichrist shitstorm from s1 and its effect on the trust between them.
shorter one, once again examining the wider thought that the boys have loved each other since eden, and whether or not this actually has any validity when considering the narrative objectively as it's been given to us.
talking about the theme of rescuing, how crowley somewhat forces this on aziraphale and aziraphale plays into it, even though he can save himself - and what this might spell for their future
further ruminations on the holy water argument and what this spells for in 1941 and 1967
after a small absence, LWA came back!!! with analysis on aziraphale's willingness/disdain for forming human relationships, and a bit on the ethics of miracles too!
the one about 1650/aziraphale's stint as a bishop, about (as always) the boys' fumble with morality, and then about what will/should happen to heaven
LWA's ability to draw parallels absolutely everywhere is mind-boggling and im essentially that spiderverse meme pretending that i know what im talking about. this one was about aziraphale and his depiction with halos/aureola
this one was really difficult! talking about aziraphale and crowley's respective approaches to problem solving throughout the whole story, and how they both view the narrative of their relationship (such as it is) throughout history
they keep getting more challenging to respond to intelligently. getting into the nitty-gritty of how aziraphale and crowley operate in the grey, and what they ask from each other
it never ceases to amaze me that LWA actually reads any of my idiotic ramblings but here we are: some really fun (for me anyway) talk about shax and demon/angel abilities in general
talk about actions and consequences - and aziraphale and crowley's difficulty with understanding and accepting them - and subsequently the occasional fandom-blindness to this very thing ("Dead Whale Theory") (genius)
actually think this is my favourite one so far? talking about the extent to which crowley is content existing in the system, and how much he benefits from it, to the point that he doesn't model any resistant behaviour to aziraphale beyond malicious compliance and exploiting loopholes. lots more than that, and honestly i could have talked about this for a fortnight
LWA lurking in my walls again and choosing to haunt me by talking about, if there is trauma to be interpreted from crowley's fall, why would they have even talked about it? so goes into whether they were even friends for the majority of their association, plus some speculation on how crowley chooses to look back on their time together as having been in love for any great length of time.
wise words of comfort re: s3
okay so here is where LWA look closer at nina and maggie mirroring the boys, where their respective interactions are inappropriate (ie. nina's questioning of crowley and aziraphale's personal lives), how free will gets tampered with in their plotline, and where crowley in typical fashion ends up listening to the wrong part of the ep6 advice that they give him :(
AND THEY'RE BACK BABY✨ a long (lol like a month. calm yourself, rhi) awaited return, where LWA chooses to whack me over the head with questioning the power imbalance between heaven and hell, whether there is anything to say that heaven takes human souls in the first place, and why therefore aziraphale might even be told to do the things he does by heaven
and then on a lighter note; where and when would aziraphale have been a garden designer, as per furfur's little book? and if crowley actually indeed has a green thumb (open for debate)
LWA back to discuss a really good post that explored book vs tv canon, how far this extends into the book/tv characterisations, and then how s3 could resolve when the show has largely lost a lot of the political overtones
this one was really difficult but such a great point - compared to the book, aziraphale and crowley's 'issues' are divided up between them, and what results is that they do not understand or recognise how the other sees themselves, nor are they (imo) able to truly completely empathise with the other's position and beliefs (LWA tag was missing but they came back to confirm it was them!)
right i think ive captured all of them (sods law if i haven't, tough shit territory really), and this will be updated as they come in providing that LWA continues to haunt me. feel free to like or ignore, ill be linking this in my main masterpost anyway!!!✨
a spicy one that made me pace my living room a good few times - but an important one in that it goes further again into actions and consequences. love it love it love it
just a little one about how crowley - for all our thoughts on how he's got a finger on the pulse of fashion - might not really know how to dress himself properly
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mindsafe · 2 months
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♫ if HOME is where the HEART is, then we're all just fucked ♫
private, selective, && low-activity multimuse; featuring canon-muses from animanga, video-games, literature, && more; loved && despised by anja ( she / they ); 21+
doing lines of dust && sweat off last night's stage with: @pontevoix, @m-11o // @w4rche1f, @chaoslulled, @herkn1fe // @deiikara , && @calcitration
RULES && ROSTER BELOW || CARRD TBA
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♫ THE WRITER - i'm 27 years old, && i'm a tumblr veteran; i work a full-time job && have passion projects on the go. i enjoy hard cider, fall out boy && my cat. also i can't stop yapping. this blog is mostly to engage with friends ( old && new ) && to appreciate the stories && characters i love; i'm prone to tumblr anxiety && the occasional creative block, but at the end of the day i'm very much LIVE, LAUGH, LURK && can be reached easily OOC; i'm also happy to hand out my discord to mutuals.
♫ THE BLOG - due to the themes present in the source material, this blog will contain sensitive subject matter, as well as dark && possibly triggering content; i will do my best to tag everything appropriately. NOTE: MY VIEWS DO NOT REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE CHARACTER OR THE CREATOR.
♫ WRITING // FORMATTING - theoretically, i prefer paras. that being said, i prefer quality over quantity, && don't expect anyone to pull their hair out trying to match my freak. i stick to formatted small text && no longer use icons out of personal preference; how you format on your end is entirely up to you. my only request is that threads are trimmed && ask memes are carried over to separate threads.
♫ ETTIQUETTE - standard rules apply: no godmodding, don't force ship, respect me OOC, etc. also it's the year of our lord && saviour jesus christ && i shouldn't even have to say this but racism, homophobia, transphobia, proshipping, etc. are all big nonos, && if i catch a whiff of any of that nonsense, it's an instant hard block.
♫ SHIPPING - generally speaking, i don't like to start threads with pre-established relationships unless they are based on canon material, or are discussed in advance; i prefer to ship with people i know && am comfortable with. also, despite being much older than 18, i will not be writing/posting explicit nsfw material on this blog. nsfw mentions might come up and will be tagged.
♫ TRIGGERS - while i don't have any specific triggers per se, it should be mentioned that i am epileptic && would appreciate photosensitive content tagged (tw: epilepsy); if there is something specific you would like tagged, please let me know, && if i do forget, please yell at me to go back && tag it
♫ CREDITS - graphics by @pontevoix ( m u a h )
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ANIMANGA:
devilman crybaby: ryo asuka ( on request )
haikyuu!!: oikawa tooru ( on request )
hunter x hunter: illumi zoldyk ( secondary ) || kurapika ( secondary )
jujutsu kaisen: nanako hasaba ( secondary ) || suguru geto ( primary ) || junpei yoshino ( on request )
kimetsu no yaiba ( demon slayer ): TBA
shingeki no kyojin: kenny ackerman ( primary ) || moblit berner ( on request ) || nile dok ( on request ) || hitch dreiss ( secondary ) || annie leonhart ( primary ) || yelena ( on request ) || ymir ( primary )
LITERATURE // TELEVISION:
game of thrones: TBA
house of the dragon: alicent hightower ( secondary ) || aemond targaryen ( on request ) || helaena targaryen ( secondary )
VIDEO GAMES:
dragon age: TBA
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