#should I start sticking a lil bit more towards canon ???? i mean ???

[beifong-brainrot]

your analyses of Lin came to mind the other day when I saw someone post about how “Lin should be able to smack Korra at least once.” And like. It’s not just one post, it seems to be a common ‘jokey’ attitude in the fandom, and…it’s really interesting how much the fandom loves Lin acting violent and aggressive towards everyone - particularly against Korra, who acts in a similar “aggressive” manner but not nearly as shitty (imo), but the fandom seems to despise her for it.

So I was wondering if you have any thoughts specifically on Lin and Korra’s relationship? Both in canon and how the fandom treats them?

Oh yeah, I think I've seen that post! I've honestly been wanting to do more Lin metas but have been holding off because back when I posted a lor of Suyin defences I got a not insignificant amount of nasty anonymous asks, and I know that Lin is beloved by the fandom so while I make my passive aggressive comment from time to time, actually dwelling on the subject is a bit of a gambit.

Honestly, it's not even that I dislike Lin. I actually enjoyed her character a fair amount when I first watched the show and was totally on board with the fandom loving this character. But eventually I got so tired of the constant takes about how everyone in Lin's life is soooo mean to her and how she never did anything wrong and she's secretly just a lil bean , she's just a biy grumpy guys.

And, oh, the jokey comments about how Lin should be allowed to smack Korra, a teen, who, in my opinion gets smacked around fairly enough in the show. Or how she should be allowed to curbstomp Tenzin, despite us knowing very little about their relationship other than the fact that Lin atatcked his house and misused her power as a police officer to terrorise his new partner. Or how Suyin, a woman who has gone through so much to change and become a better person and still keeps ger heart open for those who hurt her, should die or be killed.

Like yeah, they're jokes, but they speak to how the fandom quickly takes Lin's side in most situations, even when there is more nuance to the situation. I think taht due to tlok having such a large amount of violence and fight scenes ans perhaps due to the personality of Korra herself, the fandom has normalised Lin's aggressive and often physical behaviour. And because most of the characters are teens, Lin's immaturity as a person doesn't stick out too much.

But Lin isn't a teen, like Korra or Mako. She's a 50+ year old woman and a fucking cop at that. She should know better. I think one of my favourite questions Lin's character mames me ask is: "how long can you cling to your trauma before its your responsibility to strive to do better?".

This isn't to say that Lin is a horrible person. I'd actually say she's a pretty good person. It's obvious she cares and she can try to be empathetic when the chips are down. But her lack of emotional maturity makes it difficult for her to actually act on her feelings when not in a life or death situation.

Ultimately this is what I like about Lin as a character, her duality. A very protective and thoghtful person, who has stagnated in a shell of anger and aggression.

And I think Lin's relationship with Korra ilustrates this duality perfectly.

I do enjoy Lin and Korra's arguments due to their chemistry and the excellent voice acting. But like it is still an adult yelling at and holding an actual grudge against a 17 year old. Who is already under a huge amount of stress.

I also think that we often forget that in her tiffs with Lin, Korra often starts off with a suprising amount of calmness and grace. She often attempts to actively connect with Lin and express her point through conversation, despite this being sonething Korra markedly struggles with.

Korra : But there were some thugs threatening a helpless shopkeeper, and I had it ... Lin: [Aggressively.] Can it! You should have called the police and stayed out of the way. Korra: [Slightly pleading tone.] But I couldn't jut sit by and do nothing. It's my duty to help people. See, I'm the Avatar.

[...]

Korra: Wait, Beifong? Lin Beifong? [Excitedly.] You're Toph's daughter! Lin: [Seriously.] What of it? Korra: [A hint of amusement suppressed in her tone.] Well then, why are you treating me like a criminal? Avatar Aang and your mother were friends. They saved the world together.

Through the first season, we're lead to infer that Lin's unfounded animosity towards Korra has something to do with her grudge against Tenzin. I can see this not only due to Tenzin's association witg Korra as her teacher and the son of the previous Avatar, but also due to some similarities between Korra ans Tenzin. They're both people saddled with a major responsibility and legacy, who struggle with forming their own identity due to that legacy. Plus, the comic we got about young Tenzin is essentially 1 to 1 Korra's first day in republic city.

Side note: can we stop demonising Tenzin for leaving Lin? I'm pretty sure it's not confirmed that Tenzin left her purely because he needed to have children. And honestly if after he broke up with Lin, she damaged his home, used her posution to terrorise his new partner, and held a grudge for 11+ years, I'm honestly not to sure what to think about their relationship pre breakup. ESPECIALLY with how willy nilly tlok plays with female on male abuse. No, I'm not saying Lin is an abusor, but there may be other factors we need to consider. I mean Lin does outwardly laugh and sympathise with Korra throwing Mako's desk across the room which is the Makorra abuse moment ™️

Though I also adore the implication in B3 that Lin is also reminded of Suyin by Korra. This also is a comparison that makes sense. Korra and Su were both young, rebellious women who had to leave home to find themselves. Both had tendency to be sarcastic and were opinionated and had a habit of defying authority etc.

And I think this may be even more of a reason why Lin has such an aggresive vendetta against Korra and also why she's so controlling in the later seasons. Particularly when she gets on Korra's ass at the party and says that Korra is "nothing special" feels targeted towards Lin feeling like Suyin got special treatment.

Lin being controlling towards Korra can also be seen as her trying to compensate for when she tried to similarly control Su, but Suyin ended up defying her. (While I see a lot of people bring up parentification between Lin and Su, I'll lean more towards it being a very intense rivalry)

Either way, Korra reminds Lin of people who have hurt her and the hurt she seems to cling to in some parody of comfort in familiarity.

This is one of the most visible patterns in Lin I see. Her absolute abhorrence of changing her mindset. She holds a grudge against Tenzin for over 11 years. She holds a grudge against Su and Toph for longer than that. She is so horrifically resistant to even touching the idsa that Suyin had changed as a person. And even after her and Su make up, the moment the opportunity arrises, Lin is back to typecasting Suyin as the bad guy.

People say that Korra was too harsh in The Metal Clan when she called Lin out.

Korra : Su's right. You're never going to change. You're always gonna be a bitter, lonely woman.

And yeah, it was objectively an incredibly mean thing to say and Korra was quite out of line. But she's not wrong. We see Lin struggle with making human connections, we've deduced that her grip on the past makes her hold grudges against people she's never met. We see her be immature, aggressive and emotionally closed off. If she were a healthy individual outside of Zaofu, I would encourage her distancing herself from Suyin. But clearly whatever coping mechanism Lin has is leaving her pushing people away and treating teenagers like her peers.

Like something clearly needs to change.

And I think that's another reason why Korra and Lin are such a fun duo. Because Korra goes through so mucuhchange herself. She shanges the world, she changes the lives of her friends, she changes herself.

And that's something Lin desperately needs and yet fears all the same. This also makes it even more interesting that Aiwei, a member of the Red Lotus who embody that "change" concept was a vital part of Lin and Suyin begining to reconcile.

And I think Lin knows this, to some extent. She knows her coping mechanisms are flawed, but she doesn't want to acknowledge this. But I need to talk about Lin's babystep trail of an arc in a different post.

I was gonna say that Lin and Korra are also similar but honestly other than their tempers and tendency to terrorise their tallass ex boyfriends, there isn't much there.

I still find Lin and Korra's relationship to have some sweet moments. I loved Lin and Korra's moment of kinship afterthey both lost their bending, how gently Korra grabbed Lin after she passed out in Zaofu, how Lin helped Korra get up the stairs after she was paralysed.

I think that one of the reasons they argue so much in B3 partocularly is because they care for each other quite a bit. They just embody two polar opposites. Korra- change and danger. Lin- stagnation and protection. Of course they'll fight.

----

I don't exactly like how fandom treats Korra and Lin's relationship because it always feels ao watered down. This kinda extends to the entire Krew too. The 'Lin is like the Krew's mom' thing. Because on the jokey surface, yeah, i see it. Female authority figure who makes sure they don't get into trouble. Plus fandom has a tendency to forcefully assign cishet traditional family dynamics to found family.

But on a deeper level, acting as if Lin were a mother to the Krew is in my opinion, a bit of an insult to mothers everywhere. Because Lin acts less like an adult and more like a... slightly older teen? Which makes sense, we see that very little has changed in how Lin approaches young people since she was 22. She treats the Krew like peers, bickering with them and making snide comments, but then pulls the authority figure when she wants something. That's like the worst type of adult.

[This is ironic because my mom is actually very much like Lin and this is probably why I gave her so much of a pass when I watched tlok the first time]

Lin is a big sister/aunt figure to most of the Krew at best. Maybe except Mako but he has his own demons and is making himself a son figure whether Lin likes it or not.

But Korra is basically Lin's stand-in for her sister and they both act like it too. They act like me and my sister tbh. And Asami and Bolin barely interact with Lin anyway. There's more ground to posit Su as Bolin's potential mother figure!

Lin is a fascinating character to me, but fandom tropes have sorta ruined her for me. I came into the fandom really liking her character but ended up sorta jaded to seeing the same questionable takes about her over and over again. It just makes me see how little her potential is explored in the show. The writers failed Lin, not by not allowing her to 'win' against Su and Korra and Tenzin and whoever. They failed her by not giving her the storyline she needed. The storyline for which the main catalyst, Korra already was at the centre of the board. They half assed Lin's storyline and now literally every character who so much as looked at Lin has to pay the price.

[Ooh wow symbolism Lin glaring at Zaofu, Suyin's home, but actually glaring at her own reflection.]

I now realise that I have gone on for way too long and got hotrifically off topic, but I hope I have explained at least a few if my thoughts?

[leasey-peasey]

If I had a nickel for every time someone made Lumine a mother, Id have three nickels which isn't a lot but it's funny that it happened thrice.

Jokes aside, could you elaborate on Lumine being a mother?

Please don't feel forced to answer this ask.

HI I LIKE TO TALK ABOUT MY THOUGHTS SO BET!!

so this idea is partly because i’m in a constant state of “aww babies” and partly because i really like to hurt my own feelings with angst

so my thoughts will be kinda unorganized with this but please bear with me

so cause i get a little obsessive with my hyperfixations and works (fics) i need to know everything about the background of characters so i can really understand them to make them more interesting

and the twins don’t have a whole lotta canon lore on them, like yeah they have the alien thing going for them and the implications that they are immortal beings that isn’t really touched on but totally should be

so i really made up a whole lot of their background from theories i both read and came up with mixed with a bunch of headcanons because it’s canon until proven otherwise

so for lumine being a mom:

her and aether’s world was full of immortal people and was destroyed either by war or some form of apocalypse or something so they travel to other worlds maybe trying to find one that replicates the homey feel they had when they lived on their home planet

i imagine they were rather young, as in young for their people vs young as in our/teyvat standards. to me that’s between 500-700 years old, and their aging/maturing is sorta similar to elves from dnd only they continue to live until they fall in battle, vaguely Highlander style only they don’t have to be beheaded to die, they can die from a stab wound or something

but i imagine that they found their peace/new home at one point, not exactly early in their travels, but much much earlier than teyvat if that makes sense? like, they were traveling for at least a few hundred years before reaching this planet

so finding the similar feeling in this new world they land in, the two decide to make it their new home

now this is because i like angst and there is nothing more tragic than losing your child imo

but lumine totally fell for this person on this planet, and despite them being mortal, this was the twins new home so she pursues this romance with them and they end up having a single child (daughter and i call her Étoile because that means star and it kinda sorta fits the light names of the twins) together

well the both of them (étoile and the partner) are mortal, so lumine watches them grow older until they eventually die of natural causes (and she probably has grandkids so that line kinda continues on that planet) and she hates the feeling of losing them, especially her baby, so they (the twins) end up leaving that planet

this starts their “we’re only here to observe” thing so they continue to travel from world to world, still searching for that feeling of home in each one, but deciding to stick to themselves instead of getting involved with others because that only ends up hurting them in the end

but yeah, plus i feel like it adds more to her and paimon’s relationship (i chose lumine as the traveler when i started playing so to me she’s the canon traveler, and i use that in my fics)

because yeah, they’re best friends and have a big sis/little sis relationship, but if lumine also sees aspects of her daughter when her child was young in paimon then it adds more ✨flavor✨ to them

plus paimon does act sorta childish, like a talkative toddler yk? but it would add to her fun lil protective attitude towards the mysterious flying pixie creature that is paimon

i also think it adds more potential and character to lumine in fics because she probably really loves children and despite the pain behind the memories of her daughter, she wouldn’t want to forget her, so seeing bits of her (common traits in children) live on in other children kinda wooshes her a little?

but yeahhhh~

[ginnyzero]

Completely Harmless Ch. 63

Completely Harmless An SSO SilverGlade Re-imagining Story (Or Fix it Fan Salt fic) By Ginny O.

When Lily and her friends wanted to buy horses and were directed to the Silverglade Manor and its myriad of problems, they didn’t expect to start a revolution. They were just a bunch a stable girls. Completely harmless. Right?

A/N: Things are only canon if I say they’re canon. Pre-Saving the Moorland Stables compliant for the most part. Posted in its entirety on my website. Posted in 2000 to 4000 word bits here. Rated T for Swearing Word Count 177,577

Chapter Sixty-Three Rescue Time (but First Needling Mr. Sands)

Lily took another slice of lasagna. “This is actually decent lasagna.”

Mr. Sands’ brow twitched.

“Did you get the recipe from Catherine?” Lily asked.

Alex and Justin left. Justin giving a tour guide type of spiel. Lily figured he wouldn’t s how Alex anyplace sensitive. Which was fine. They didn’t need to see anything sensitive.

Mr. Sands stared at Lily.

She continued to eat. “When are you going to tell that poor boy that you killed his mother’s friends?”

“He wouldn’t exist if I hadn’t.” Mr. Sands frowned. “His father hid his heritage from him.”

“Hmm, I’m not sure how telling anyone that your grandmother is the Baroness of your district but we can’t associate with her because your grandfather, her ex-husband is an immortal alien who wants to take over the world is going to go over well.” Lily licked the fork suggestively. “I mean, there are May December romances, and then there’s you.”

Sabine and Jessica snickered.

“You know quite a bit more than you should.”

“What can I say? I have a face that people trust.” Lily shrugged and continued to eat. “You smile. You nod. You let them talk. People love to talk about themselves. The Baroness though, she was a tougher nut to crack. She doesn’t do talk. She does actions. Deeds. So, was it something you did or didn’t do that tore you two apart?”

Mr. Sands snorted. “Don’t be foolish enough to think I had any feelings towards her. She was a means to an end, no more. She didn’t have what I needed.”

“Hmm, it’s interesting to me that you were able to contain Anne, but not Lisa.” Lily stuck the fork into the lasagna.

“Oh, they fought,” Jessica said.

Sabine smirked. “But not enough.”

“You don’t need a Dark Rider,” Lily mused. “So, why keep Anne imprisoned?”

“Elise is not my recruit.”

“Oh, contingency plans.” Lily nodded. The name Elise sounded familiar but she couldn’t place it off the top of her head. “Clever enough.” She finished her slice and set down her plate. “I’ll go catch up with Justin and Alex. They might need minding. And I’m the one they think is the flirt.” Lily pushed her hair back over her shoulder strutting from the room.

She found Alex and Justin pretty easily.

“Hanging out here all day sounds like a bore,” Alex said as they wandered around a large room.

“There are plans to be set in motion,” Justin said. “And it’s not that bad.”

“No place to ride. No elbow room. Everyone on top of each other.”

“Sounds kinky,” Lily spoke up.

Alex jumped. “Don’t do that, Lils.”

Lily checked her phone.

Alex strode away from Justin. “Wait, wait, wait. At least you know what you’re waiting for I suppose.” She jerked her head to one side.

Lily waited to make sure Justin had his eyes on Alex before looking where Alex had indicated. A book rested on a book stand.

“The day is important. All the generals agree that to do it early would only bring disaster. The Keepers are too fixated on their prophecy to be paying attention. And without the other Soul Riders, they can’t stop us even if they wanted to.”

Lily walked towards the book slowly.

“They’re down to one now,” Alex said and shifted her weight. She moved towards Justin. “We’re going to be together, no matter what, baby.”

“You and me against the world,” Justin said.

Alex rested her hands on his chest. “That’s right.”

Justin frowned and turned his head to look for Lily.

Alex put a hand on his cheek and turned his head back to look at her. “Justin, look at me. I’d burn the world for you. You used to feel the same. It’s still in her.” She rubbed a circle on his chest.

Lily snagged the book and stuck it in the back of her pants under her trench coat. “Do I need to tell you two to get a room?” She leaned against the stand.

Alex flushed. “Are any of these generals hot so we can get Lily her own May December romance?”

“Only one person can rule the world, Alex,” Lily said. “And it’s going to be me.”

“Yes, yes, all hail the Queen.”

“I keep moving up in the world,” Lily murmured.

“Empress even. We can be the Empress’ advisors.” Alex grinned. “Ruling sounds so tedious anyways. You need a champion. I take champion.”

Lily snorted.

Justin rolled his eyes. “Garnok is going to rule. Not us.”

“I guess I better figure out a way to kill Garnok,” Lily said dryly.

“Come on, you have to be here for one reason or another. Show me.” Alex took Justin’s hand and tugged him away.

“Fine, there’s a control room. I can show you that,” Justin said. “It’s just a bunch of screens and drones though. There probably isn’t anything very interesting going on.”

“But it will kill time,” Alex said.

“Ugh, don’t talk about killing time,” Lily groaned. “You want the entire world to fall out of whack.”

Alex winked at her and urged Justin forward.

--

Evergray polished the keystone with a rag. “Keystones truly are a thing of wonder. You wouldn’t think a thing of such humble origins would be able to part the veil of space and time.”

Linda double checked the tuning of the harp like Lily had shown her. It was mostly nerves. She turned her head.

Horse hooves clopped against the stone of the path echoing into the Dale.

But not one set of hooves, multiple.

Elizabeth Sunbeam, Rhiannon, Avalon and a host of druids in robes and hoods swept into the Dale on horses of all colors.

“What is going on here?” Elizabeth asked.

Avalon cleared his throat. “I told you to leave, brother.”

“Tsk, as if I listen very well,” Evergray said and coughed.

“Linda,” Elizabeth scolded. “I thought better of you. Evergray isn’t to be trusted. He’s a thief.”

Linda stood up holding the harp in her arms. “He’s been more honest than you have been.” She lifted her chin.

“What is that?” Rhiannon nodded at the stone in Evergray’s arms.

“You don’t know.” Evergray shook his head. “Twenty years and all the new recruits are base ignorant. This never would have happened while I was chief archivist.”

“Evergray, you have violated the terms of your exile,” Elizabeth said. “You were warned what would happen if you ever returned. We have come to take you into custody.”

“I see how you are, Elizabeth.” Evergray turned his head and coughed. He looked back at her. “You’ve come full circle then.”

Elizabeth flushed. “I don’t know what you mean.” She straightened on her horse.

“If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be so mad. Come, now, we haven’t actually answered your questions.”

More horse hooves echoed in the Dale, this time, they were alone.

A grey dapple horse with a white mane appeared at the end of the Dale.

The druids murmured and moved aside.

“Concorde,” they whispered and murmured to each other.

Concorde trotted between them. He lowered his head to Linda. “Soul Rider,” he murmured.

Linda pressed her forehead against his. “You’re safe and alive.”

“What do you need me to do?” Concorde asked.

“Make room, make room,” Evergray said. “I believe this is our cue.”

Linda quietly explained to Concorde the plan.

--

Alex had managed to wheedle Justin back to the horses.

“It’s time,” Lily said.

“Justin, baby, your lips look super chapped.” Alex grabbed his chin.

Justin tried to move his head. “They’re fine.”

“No. They’re definitely chapped. Can’t kiss you with chapped lips,” she said. She took out the chap stick and popped the lid off with one hand. “Hold still.”

Justin’s eyes widened and he leaned back. “Alex.”

She smeared it onto his lips before he could say anything else or get away.

Justin stilled and stared ahead barely blinking.

Lily reached into her saddlebag. “Catch,” she said and tossed potions at her.

Alex caught them and opened the first one over Saga’s rump. “There, there, boy, you’ll be yourself in no time.” She hurried over to the other horses.

Lily juggled the other three potions. She poured them over the backs.

“Last one,” Alex said.

Lily tossed it to her.

Alex poured it over the back of the horse.

Lily went for the halters. “Ten minutes, and counting,” she said.

Justin blinked and rubbed his eyes. “What happened? Where am I?” He looked around. “What’s wrong with Saga?”

“Saga’s going to be all right, give her a few minutes,” Alex darted over to him.

He stared at her. “Are you wearing lip stick?”

She flung her arms around his neck. “That’s my Justin,” she said tears in her eyes. “You aren’t going to do this to me ever again. No more mind control from evil grandfathers. You hear me Justin Moorland. I can’t go through this again.”

He wrapped his arms around her. “It’s all so fuzzy. Except there was lots of lasagna.”

Alex laughed and hiccupped. “Of course you remember the lasagna.”

“Tasted like mom’s,” Justin mumbled.

“Justin, I need you to help Lily get the horses to the gate.” Alex cupped his face. “Can you do that?”

“Sure,” Justin said. He rubbed his face. “I’m just, there’s this fog.”

Alex handed him the chap stick. “Apply if you think you need more.”

Justin looked at it. “For the record, my lips aren’t chapped.” His hand closed over it.

“Sure they aren’t.” Alex kissed his cheek. She went to Lily’s saddlebags and grabbed her tools and the keystone.

“Five minutes,” Lily said.

“On it.” Alex jogged off.

“Help me get them saddled. They probably won’t fight you.”

Justin nodded.

Together they saddled the horses who tried to move away, but the further time went, the less they fought.

Justin tightened the last girth as the first spell broke over the horses.

They tossed their heads and locked their legs.

“Easy, easy,” Lily said. “We’re going to get all of you out of here. Come on.” She grabbed the reins of Nimbus and two of the others.

Nimbus took charge.

Justin took the other horses including Saga.

Alex had the gate mechanism ripped open and was fitting the keystone inside fitting the wires to it.

Lily took the book out of her pants back and put it in her saddlebag.

Alex flipped switches.

Justin’s brow furrowed.

Alex pushed the lever up. The entire rig hummed. Purple energy swirled around.

“Stop!” Jessica shouted. “They’ve opened the gate!”

Lily got on her horse.

Alex selected a horse at random and mounted.

Justin got on Saga.

“Run!” Lily shouted and Nimbus vaulted forward jumping through the portal and running flat out, the two horses behind him.

Justin urged Saga forward. The other horse followed him.

Alex gave the running Dark Riders the finger and her horse, not willing to be left behind even if the way ahead was pink energy ran after the others.

They ran as fast as they could down the winding floating stone road, jumping the gaps and through the other portal.

Alex jumped through the portal into Pandoria. It fizzled and snapped shut behind her almost taking her horse’s tail.

Justin stared around. “Where are we?”

Lily moved into view, Nimbus’ wings pressed tight over her legs. His horn gleamed in the odd light. “Welcome to Pandoria.”

--

The Soul Horses moved into their positions at the bases of the statues. They looked upwards. Magic swirled around them and they became more than what they were. Starshine’s grey mane and tail turned electric blue, a crystal horn jutted from his head. The end of it gleamed with pink light.

At the base of his statue, magenta light filled the carvings making them grow brighter.

Meteor was no longer just red. He was the red of the Harvest Moon and scattered with crater markings with moving clouds. His mane and tail white gold and glowing. His beard curled under his chin.

The magenta light swelled in the carvings of the Moon Soul Horse Statue and lit up the Dale.

Tin Can stomped his hooves. They turned cloven, like a deer rather than a horse. Lightning swirled around his bronze body and crackled in his golden mane and tail jumping off in jagged sparks and spears.

The lightning jumped from him to his statue. It turned pink and crept up every leg and around the body lighting up the carvings.

Concorde spread his glowing white wings. His coat had turned silver with lighter white gold spots. A feather fell from his wings, drifted down and fell at the base of the statue. A rainbow flared around it and then it turned pink and disappeared. The carvings glowed pink.

Linda carefully shifted the keystone into place.

Magenta light swelled at the base of the broken statue and raced up the carvings of the stairs to the gate. Pink light swirled around like a galaxy, small at first but growing until it stabilized into a door.

Elizabeth’s voice sharpened. “Is that the Harp of Aideen?”

Linda cradled the harp in her arms. She moved to the base of the stairs and plucked the strings. And with the music, she sent her heart after it.

FOR THE ACCOMPANYING IMAGES PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE MY WATERMARK AND CONTACT INFORMATION. THANK YOU. I get it. Some of you might get excited and want to see this stuff in the game, especially the clothes, tack, and pets. However, the only way I want to see this in the game is if I get paid for it. If I see it in the game and I’m not paid for it, there will be hell to pay. You think I’m salty. I’d be angry. Personally, I’m not going to send this info to SSO. If you do, leave my contact information there! Don’t give them any excuses to steal.

Now, I’ll know you haven’t read this note if you leave me comments about how ‘salty’ I am about the game and if I hate it so much I should do something else. I am doing something else. It’s called Mystic Riders MMORPG Project. Mystic Riders however is a very baby phase game. You can check out our plans on the game dev blog. (Skills, Factions, Professions, Crafting, Mini-Games, 25+ horse breeds!) If you know anyone who would be interested and has money or contacts about game making, direct them to the blog.

[sasusaku-on-the-brain]

Out of everything you’ve written, what lines are you most proud of? Finished or unfinished works 😁

Funny thing: I was actually reading through some of my older, older writings today. Huh. What a coincidence.

Thank you sending in for this absolutely beautiful ask. Seriously, It really made me so happy to write this. I have been agonising and trying to make myself write today but couldn’t, this realllly helped with that.  ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

Since you said “Lines” I’m going to choose more than one. ;)  

They aren’t in any particular order, the numbers are to keep track, this isn’t a ranking, definitely not, that’d be so stressful to do, haha. 

Warning: super long and excessive screaming :D 

Fudge. I realised I have been doing this for like 3 hours??? It was like 3 when i started and it’s now. 5 something. Wow. It didn’t feel that long. 

1. This is from a published work, (and we burned, like Icarus), a Grindeldore canon compliant fic where I just explore their relationship. I love and proud of a lot of lines in this one, but there’s one line in particular that stands out.

Line: The curtain fell; Albus stood in victory as the world cheered.

Reason: It’s kind of hard to put into words, but I absolutely love how much layers it has?? Like. There’s so much different ways that this line could be interpreted and I love that. Especially where I put it in the text. It looks like it’s a proud moment for him, he finally defeated the Dark Wizard but...it’s not. Also: “the curtain fell” Gellert surrended, Albus never bested him. I have More Thoughts but I suck at writing meta, so. I will leave this here. 

2. This is a unpublished piece of work, no title, a Sam&Rowena fic. It’s a cute thing that came to me when reading this fic on tumblr where Rowena calls sam, wee!sam which sparked an idea where Rowena sees Sam’s childhood photos and calls him that. 

Line: He blinks, glances up from his book open his lap and she’s—smiling, not mocking, or flirty, or even sly, mischievous but genuine, small and so very soft. It makes Sam’s eyes widen and his heart turn in his chest.

Reason: A SAMROWENA FIC. Mostly that reason. FINALLY GOT SOME WORDS FOR THESE TWO. YAY. Ahhhh. Anyways. Other than that: it’s so cute and soft and i just love it. And also because I was cleaning when I got hit by words and it was unexpected and I absolutely love how it turned out?? 

Also because lol I might be projecting on to Sam about his lil crush on Rowena. 

3. Unpublished. Another samrowena fic! because I’m super proud of these, I have been wanting to write these two for so long and finallly did!! No title, a canon compilant missing scene in 14.07 or .08 based on that line where Sam is like I called Rowena. 

Line: And she wonders what the problem is this time—Castiel? Or perhaps, Dean? Now that would be a delight. 

Reason: It was so fun to write, even cracked a smile and lil laugh. Also I think that i captured Rowena’s personality in here, which makes me super proud. 

4. Published! Bruised, A Jack fic into his thoughts when he escapes the  ma’lak box. (For some reason, I really love writing about this time.) Line: Jack can hear the Devil and knows what being buried alive feels like, knows how small, dark, cold spaces can kill you slowly without you dying at all.

Reason: So proud of this one. Especially the “can kill you slowly without you dying at all” *Incoherrant noises* Fudge. It’s soo good. And such an impactful ending. Just. I freaking love it. Gives me a lil chills everytime I read it. 

5. Published! Do titles count?? Because I’m going to choose one. It’s a Merlin canon compilant (again) fic that kind of looks at Merlin&Morgana’s relationship from Merlin’s view. It was absolutely, totally unexpected. Didn’t know where it came from, but I love it. 

we smiled, not knowing of the storm that would take everything (the storm that was us)

Reason: Okay, so. I was a bit stumped on the title, nothing was coming to mind. Reread it a few times, browsed through my sideblog to find some quotes... couldn’t find the One. So I was like first thing that comes and it was this?? and IT FITS SO PERFECTLY. I was agonising over if I should do the “us” pronoun or change it to a “me”. Still don’t know which is better, I’m leaning towards “Me” now. Anyways, wow. I’m still shocked at it freaking fits this fic so well. Perfectly sums up my fic.  Morgana and Merlin were such good friends and I looove how their relationship took a down fall. I’m weak for the FriendstoEnemies thing and I think that I caught this hear. How no one could have known that Morgana and Merlin would both be responsible for that Tragedy. And by no one, im including myself too.

6. Published! Another title one from another Merlin fic. Haha, seems like my Merlin Fic Titles are Such That Good. It’s that one from the Merlin kills himself, post-canon.

even the stars go cold eventually Reason: Apart from it being absolutely perfect for my fic, haha, it didn’t take much time for me to choose a title for it and because I love writing about stars and this particular one sticks with me. Especially with how it just goes so well with this fic. 

7. Published! A severus-centric fic, Cold feet, where I do a kind of character study on him in that era after the first war. This fic is a super messy but ahh, I love it very much. This one was so hard to choose because i’m proud a LOT of lines in here. I just love writing him. 

Line:  (It's a metaphor. It's a foreshadow. There is no clean break, there's jagged wound where his fist meets his reflection. A mess of blood and glass on the floor, fractions of his reflection as he steps over it. It will never go away.  The scar and the blood stains. It's easy covering it up, cleaning away. No one else knows. All it takes is a swift movement of a wand, a whispered spell. But - you will remember. You won't forget -- can't forget.) Reason: The layers?? I freaking love stuff like that. 

8. Unpublished. Hinny fic. literally the only line I have in this WIP. Thinking it’s in HPB where they started to date? Quidditch practice. Inspired by an art I saw here in Tumblr. 

Line: Harry grins as he catches her eyes from across the field, a burst of warmth  in his chest. Always seeing Ginny made him inexplicably happy. 

Reason: First ever hinny thing that I wrote! Also because I just love writing about Harry being absolutely smitten and in love with Ginny. 

9. Unpublished. A 8.19 deanbenny fic about that part where Dean calls Benny to ask him of a favour. 

Line:    Cut that out now, Benny interrupts You can tell me more when I get to where you are. You don’t sound...so good, brother.

Reason: I can HEAR this in Benny’s voice. Also ahhh, that last part with the eclipses. *Incoherrent noises* Benny’s so concerned about Dean when Dean is the one who’s going to ask Benny to kill himself to go back to Purgatory, a place the he wanted to escape, to get his brother that was hell-bent on killing him. Which seems like a totally Benny thing to do, even if Benny doesn’t know that yet. He’s got some suspicion that *this favour* is not going to be great for him. 

10. Unpublished. That  Heaven Jack & Kelly fic i mentioned when talking about Current WIPs. Aka: me making on that promise of writing fics about them because there’s BARELY any. 

I’m really excited to write this one, i have ideas on what to put in there which are going to be so fun to write. 

This was hard to choose, because I love almost everything I’ve written so far. 

...Damn it. I was supposed to be choosing a line, but apparently I’m writing now. OH. I just fixed a problem I had!! 

Line:  She’s here, not alive, but not dead either like before, cold and laid out on the bed. She’s moving, smiling at him, like—in that video. Except he can reach out and touch her. Feel her warmth, her heartbeat as she envelopes him in a hug. 

Reason: The line I just re-wrote. Okay, i freaking adore it. It really goes for my heart. It’s the first ever time that Jack’s hugged his mom. I AM SO HAPPY FOR HIM. Oh gosh. It’s such a special moment. There’s some parts to here that I want to add and change but I do really love how it is now. Jack’s thought process---FUDGE. Damn it. I had a new thought to add: that moment where he sees the shifter change into his Mom. I forgot about it. 

11. Unpublished. Can’t believe I FORGOT about this one. It’s that SPN Deathfic where Dean carrying Sam’s dead body everwhere with him, that one that I was screaming about on here.

Line:  Woah, woah. He barks out laugh as the body slumps heavy over him and he stumbles. Says, Easy big guy and smiles again, quietly. Fond. Threading a hand in the hair. Sam. Sammy. Holds and breathes for a moment.

Reason: *Incoherrant screaming* I love, love how I wrote this?? Like. Wow. I captured Dean so well?? Just. Mindblown that I wrote this. If...I were to rank these, not that I am, this would deff be in the top half. 

The basis of the fic: Sam’s dead, but Dean doesn’t want to let go; he’s in denial. And this moment. It really captures that. AND ahhhh. DEAN. It’s such a Soft moment but so SAD because Dean, HES DEAD. THATS NOT YOUR BROTHER, STOP MAKING ME WANT TO CRY. Fudge. Sorry, I just have a lot of feelings about this one. Still can’t believe I FORGOT about it. ...Damn, I really want to write and edit this one now. 

12. Unpublished. That klelijah fic I was on about where I Have No Idea What This Is About Except HARD DESCISIONS AND SUFFERING. Lol, it’s the title of the Doc.  Funny thing: This was actually inspired by you. Well, the forhead part I mean. In that fic of yours, the s3 era flashback. "Did his brother not remember? Had he forgotten that bloodstained morning in the forest, the touch of Elijah’s forehead against his? Had he forgotten their hands clasped together, warm and covered in grave dirt? Had he forgotten every day since, with Elijah by his side?" - quoting this here because I love it so much. 

Line:  “Brother,” He says, the word said as if it pains him, and it does, bites heavy into his tongue, draws blood. Nothing he can’t heal. Pulling Niklaus down closer to him, pressing their foreheads together in an echo of a memory, a promise, his hand tight on Niklaus’ neck, he begs. “Don’t make me do this. Please.”

Reason: *Incoherrent noises* tHe LaYErS. Ahhh. I really love this so so much. Okay, so. No idea what this fic is about BUT. Brother: Word pains to say: Niklaus is his brother: draws blood: Nothing he can’t heal: Does forhead thing: “In echo”: Shoot, can’t remember the quotes but the forhead signals like no matter what, they’re brothers: And HOW AFTERWARDS ELIJAH BEGS ‘DONT MAKE ME DO THIS’  THIS WHOLE SEQUENCE. IM. ---- HOLD ON. FUDGE. I JUST CRACKED WHAT HE DOESNT WANT HIM TO DO.  FUDGE. FUDGE. IM SCREAMING. OH MY GOD. *GASP* IT GOESS SO WELL WITH WHAT I WRITTEN BEFORE. FUDGGGE. 

Sorry but FUDGE. I need a moment to sit down and proccess this while SCREAMING BECAUSE HOLY HECK I’M. 

I really want this write this now. WOW. 

Okay, that’s all for my fics. Since you said “works” I thought I’d also talk about my poetry and orginal writing, I never did before and I’m using this time to shamelessly gush about my poetry. :D  If anyone wants to check them out, I do have a side blog on here: drop.of.evanescence BUT also I usually post on https://theprose.com/Yuki where’s there’s so more. 

13. Published! Title: Laying in sorrow It was inspired by a pintrest pic. Line: and here we curl inwards with our backs bare

Reason: I LOVE this one. I freaking love how I worded it. I was thinking about anything when I wrote it but OH that TITLE. It came to me and I just realised that. In sorrow, in pain we curl into ourselves, well. Not everyone, but. Some people do, to hide from the pain and IN DOING SO YOUR BARE IS BARE WHICH IS LIKE YOU’RE VUNREABLE. Sorry, if i’m not making sense btw -- my thoughts are like that, haha. 

14. Published! Title: Where It hurts It was for a challenge on Prose where we had to re-write a piece of this other user, Undermeyou. and her WRITING. Wow, it’s so so so good. Btw, I actually won the challenge, which was awesome. :DD Fudge, re-reading this. I forgot how much I loved it. This one...was hard to choose. It has SO MANY good lines that I’m proud of. 

Line: It was Sunday 15th. The window was open and I remember the cold air on your face. I remember your smile. You red-faced, cheeks hollow as you tried to gobble the stars. 

Reason: ahhhhh, the WAY i wrote it. This whole thing is better as a whole, makes it’s impact and is wayy better when you read the whole thing togather so that’s why it was hard to choose. BUT OH this part. Freaking love it. 

15. Published! Title: Alignment of the stars. Inspired by a prompt: world in your pocket. And also another super hard one. Cool fact: that undermeyou person I was talking about earlier? She made a spoken of this on insta! It was amazing.  Line: Fifteen-years later, you can still feel the laughter of his soul rippling across your chest.

Reason: *incoherrent screaming* THAT ENDING. It gave me chills when I wrote and read it. IT WAS SUCH A GOOD WAY TO END IT. LIKE. WOW. I AM SO PROUD.

16. Published! Title: Untilted. Yes, that’s the title, I know. ANOTHER HARD ONE.

Line:  The sunlight is flooding in and it should be beautiful, how it spreads like honey across my red covers. I choke up. It's so beautiful, it’s terrible. I want to throw up. I reach my left hand out and I am somewhere else far away. In that place: another hand reaches back and tangles with mine and there is warmth and buzzes of bell chimes. Here: only silence and coldness meets my trembling hand. 

Reason: Shbjajxsa. THE DESCRIPTION. HOW I WROTE THIS. *INCOHERENT SCREAMING* it’s SO GOOD. Fudge. 

17. Published! Title: touching the world with bound, trembling hands (baby, you’re unravelling)

Well, it’s not. A line. But A small fic that I did, i’m so proud of it. It’s a small, little short story about a person going up and singing publicly despite their fears and made me smile and laugh. It was a surprise for me and i adore it. And yeah, lol I know, the title is cheesy. 

18. Published! Title: i swear, there’s a lesson here (somewhere) I was pretty stumped with my poetry here and tried a different style! inspired by some tumblr post i saw. it came out really well. ANND ANOTHER HARDD ONE. 

Line:  we’re pressed against the books shadows, dark things in the dark and i’m in love with you but i have never seen your face 

Reason: lol, at this rate I’m going to choosing all of my end lines for all of my poetry. THEY’RE JUST SO GOOD. AHH.  "and i’m in love with you / but i have / never seen your / face" CANT BELIEVE I WROTE THIS. FREAKING LOVE IT. I love the tone and just how it SOUNDS. 

19. Published! Title:  Winter’s smile This one i found lurking in my tags over at evanescentrain inspired by this post but....cant seem to find it right now, damn tumblr. 

Line:  how do you capture forever with your hands?

Reason: Lol, another end line. This is going to be a Thing isn’t it? oH I love this one, such an wow question...it gives me feelings that i can’t explain... just. makes me sit here in silence and think. What a way I ended it. Wow. 

20. I have SO MANY poetry and stuff that I’m proud of and want to babble on about, but.... I’m noticing this is getting really long so. I will this one my last. And since I’ve been talking only about Published ones. I will do a unpublished one!

No title.

Line:  It was a long, very long moment that I felt that he would take his sword to my heart and I would die or he would leave without another word, leave with a piece of me to somewhere where I can not get it back. A piece of myself inside  his hands. It was a terrifying thought.

Reason: ahhh, i really freaking love this. especially that LAST LINE. A bit backstory to what this is about: a person telling some guy about the evil they did, it comes out, randomly, because he says “you’re a good person” to them but they get annoyed, angry, say “you don’t know me” and....it’s like something is cracked open and they spill. First time they told someone their thoughts and what they did, wasn’t actually evil or bad. They just thought that. THIS PART. When I was writing it, it left like an impact on me. 

‘a piece of myself inside his hands. it was a terrifying thought’ DAMN. I FELT THAT. It hit me deeply. 

[butchedyke]

(for the char thing) stanley uris, mike hanlon, and patty blum

migz!!!! i’m sorry i abandoned this in favour of video games and capitalism i hope i can make it up to u uwu

this is mostly going off the movies but there’s occasional book and miniseries input- i’ve only read the first few chapters, a few wikia pages, and some character meta from the book and i’ve only seen the miniseries once vs the however many times ive watched the movies in the last 2 months so don’t expect consistency between canons

 (also i’m gonna put these under a cut because this post got really long)

stanley uris

How I feel about this character:

there is a reason i use the tag baby boy for stan (and also for miniseries eddie)!!!! he’s my favourite loser other than eddie and i want to like. hold him and make sure he’s happy and healthy and i think stephen king should treat his characters better.

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

patty!!!!! their relationship in the book makes me so happy and anyone who’s ever spoken to me about stanpat knows that i am at all times thinking about how she calls his car sedanley.

that being said, i respect stenbrough, stanlon, and streddie but overall this is a stanpat household

My non-romantic OTP for this character:

stan with all the losers but especially richie! which isn’t very original since they are literally best friends but their dynamic!!! good!!!! i’ve not been able to stop thinking about that one scene from the miniseries where richie introduces stan as “this is stan the man uris, he’s a jew,” partially because it’s fucking funny because who says that richie what the fuck, but also because stan just instantly follows up by saying that richie has a high metabolism which makes him hyperactive, and maybe it’s because the miniseries is campy and a little bit shit but the delivery of those lines makes it seem like they do this a lot! they have these introductions ready to go! and i love the idea of them as a platonic package deal even if we don’t get to see much of that in the movies

My unpopular opinion about this character:

i don’t think i really have any? i tend to follow people who hold the same opinions as me tho so i have no idea what’s popular outside of that dshfk

i mean i do think fics that save eddie but not stan aren’t really fix-its and going off the amount of fics where stan’s still dead i guess that’s somehow an unpopular opinion? i know everyone’s focused on reddie rn but god like. stan is right there can we stop ignoring him pls

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

i mean the most blatantly obvious answer here is that i wish he didn’t die! he should’ve gotten to go on his holiday and rail/get railed by his wife and live to meet his friends as adults, catch up on the 27 years they didn’t get to be with each other. he should’ve gotten to have kids, once everything was over, and they should’ve been able to grow up with 5 extra uncles and an aunt bc u can’t tell me the rest of the losers wouldn’t be deeply embedded in their lives. i just wish stan had a chance to be completely, 100% happy without the underlying terror of his childhood.

on a smaller note i also wish we’d gotten to see more of his interest in birds in the movies bc like. he’s babie. and who knows! maybe would’ve helped stop the perception that his entire personality is just being a bitch that hates richie jshfd

mike hanlon

How I feel about this character:

part of the reason i wanted to read the book was for more mike content because i adore this lil farm boy and the movies. well. y’know. :). characters who just openly and whole-heartedly love their friends and go straight ride or die like 10 minutes after meeting them have my whole heart! he’s so smart and so kind and just wanted to protect his friends as best he could even though he dragged them into this whole mess bc he doesn’t want to lose them again!!!! mike deserves the whole world and if his way of getting that is by getting out of derry and getting to know that his friends remember and love him and each other then that’s all i want for him.

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

i wasn’t overly set on any particular mike ship until i watched the miniseries and saw the homoerotic bike montage and now i’m fully on the hanbrough train. choo choo.

just like with stan i support stanlon but endgame hanbrough is just. it’s right there in the text. bill didn’t divorce audra for nothing in ch2.

My non-romantic OTP for this character:

this also kinda ties in with the last point, but jane @billdenbrough opened my eyes, in the middle of a very in-depth conversation about audra’s minion strap, to the world of best friends mike and audra who are both with bill which is both galaxy brained and an incredibly good concept which i think about a lot

also i think mike and ben could’ve had something Incredibly soft if mike wasn’t treated like a background character in the first film and a quest-giving npc in the second one :) :)

My unpopular opinion about this character:

i headcanon mike as gay, i have no textual evidence for this, i just think he’s neat. i think it’s a pretty popular opinion that the movies treated him poorly? and i also think that in ch2 he was just trying to protect his friends in a scenario that did not lend itself at all to protection. drugging bill and not telling the others about the full ritual might not have been the best thing to do, but he was in a goddamn bitch of an unsatisfactory situation, and he was trying his best to save his friends no matter how impossible it may have been.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

i uh :) i don’t know if anyone’s figured out yet :) that i wish many things had happened with mike in canon :) :) the first film doesn’t give him much but the second film just infuriates me completely tbqh! he’s basically entirely there to push the narrative (his dialogue doesn’t even sound like dialogue! it sounds like prose explaining the plot and the next steps the characters have to take!), or to drug and lie to his friends. i wish they’d kept his backstory the same, that we’d actually gotten to see him find his token, that he’d gotten a token relevant to him as an individual rather than the group, that we’d gotten a flashback for him, that he was given more screentime and development across both films, like... i wish he’d been treated like the other losers and not a plot point.

i also wish we’d gotten to see him on his travels post-canon, seeing the other losers, and just generally actually getting to be happy- we see the start of it but god i just want to see him having a good time outside of derry.

patty blum

How I feel about this character:

if she were not stan’s wife she would be my wife. we don’t get to see much of her in the movie or miniseries and that is a fucking crime!!!! i’ve already mentioned sedanley but like. sedanley. i’ve read patty’s bit in the book and that’s all i need the other 1100 pages can get fucked, she’s just here to watch family feud and love stan which i can confidently say is a huge fucking mood

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

STAN. i guess i already talked about this before but i’ll keep going!!! my love for stanpat overwhelms my usual distaste towards straight relationships bc they’re so good!!!!! the fact that they’re really the only happy relationship to come out of the 27 year gap and they love each other so much and so like... wholesomely? but they still blow each other’s backs out on the reg and it’s what they deserve.

also i sometimes think about patty/audra as like. kind of a crack ship kind of a “i’m a lesbian and i’m desperate to see lesbians” ship. i haven’t thought about it in depth i just want to plant the seed

My non-romantic OTP for this character:

stan introducing patty to the losers and patty becoming an honorary loser is my weakness!!!! patty being comfortable enough to rib richie (and richieandeddie) with stan, but also vice versa going along with richie’s bits. patty and bev getting close because as much as st*phen k*ng and co push bev as One Of The Boys(tm) there’s just something in having another woman around that can be refreshing especially when they’re both bicons. patty and mike enthusiastically sharing holiday pictures and tales of their trips. patty noticing when eddie’s having a bad day, whether it’s anxiety or lingering trauma, and supporting him through it, regaling him with stories about stan and what essentially amount to dad jokes (sedanley!!!) and making sure he knows he’s loved and supported by all the losers. patty, the teacher, and ben, lunchtimes-in-the-library ben who never outgrew his love of reading, nerding out over shit that the others don’t really know about. bill telling patty all about what stan was like as a kid in that way only bill can, richie chiming in with crude comments sometimes but noticeably keeping quieter than usual, and patty returning the favour, telling them about the last 27 years, and not even richie makes a single joke when everyone tears up (because he’s tearing up the most). stan sitting there the whole time not even bothering to point out that he’s right there because it’s enough for him to see the romantic love of his life and the platonic loves of his life bonding, and yeah, maybe it was worth sticking around for.

My unpopular opinion about this character:

i don’t know if this is unpopular but patty pegs. that’s all.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

more patty. let me see my wife.

[mittensmorgul]

7.22, There Will Be Blood.

It took the monsters to crack into Purgatory, so it takes a monster to shove the bad things back... But there's some interesting things that happen along the way that also call back to s6-- like the girl pretending to be an innocent who all along was working for the Alpha Vampire, like the little monster boy Eve created as a trap for Sam and Dean in 6.19.

But for me, the most interesting thing in this episode is the strengthening of the parallel between Bobby's ghost and Cas in his current state. And really, they've been paralleled through the entire season. They both... died, first off. But then came back as either literal (Bobby) or metaphorical (Cas as Emmanuel with no memories) ghosts of themselves. But here's where it gets interesting. They both wanted to help, but were unable to get over their own issues blocking them from actually being effective...

in 7.19, Bobby confronts this and overcomes his fear that "materializing" to actually help will speed his progression toward "Vengeful" status, that participating actively-- the reason he fought to come back as a ghost in the first place-- would lead to him causing more harm than good, destroying himself and those he wanted to help and failing to actually accomplish the mission he returned for.

But in 7.17, we had Cas first confront all of his memories, feeling the guilt of responsibility for what has happened, and afraid and hopeless about being able to make it right. He was afraid to fully engage for fear of failing yet again, and in taking Sam's damage on himself, he did the one thing he could, even if it actively took him out of the game and still left fixing everything else on Sam and Dean's shoulders. It was how he accomplished the same objective Bobby subconsciously did before he fully engaged (which did eventually in this episode drive Bobby over the edge into Vengeful territory, where he lost control of himself and became single-minded in his revenge, running off by himself, hurting an innocent (the maid he possessed) and nearly destroying himself in the process).

Meanwhile, I'm gonna loop in the next episode to this post, because it really does function like a two-parter here...

7.23, Survival of the Fittest:

Because Cas bore witness to Bobby's decompensation, his fear of losing himself entirely, or worse-- potentially hurting the very people he'd sacrificed his eternity for. Yet Cas is still refusing to engage himself:

CASTIEL:  Now, you understand I don't participate in aggressive activity.

Despite his entire garrison having been killed (presumably by the Leviathans). It's just one more ton of guilt to heap onto Mt. Guiltmore. As long as he maintains his distance with "I don't fight anymore" and absolutely sticking to that, he doesn't have to accept the guilt.

DEAN: Hey! [He claps his hands.] Focus. Is Kevin alive? CASTIEL: I don't want to fight. DEAN: No, I'm not – [very calmly] we're worried. CASTIEL: They took him. He's alive. I felt such responsibility, but it's in your hands now. DEAN: Wait. Hold on a freakin' minute. CASTIEL: I feel much better.

Yeah, he feels much better, because he's able to absolve himself of responsibility for any of it without having to actually DO anything himself. But Sam and Dean quickly learn they have zero hope of getting Dick without Cas there to point out the "Real Dick" amongst all the copies. They DO find Bobby, gone completely vengeful and trying to break into Sucrocorp on his own... Cas is becoming more and more obvious about what his true issue is:

DEAN: Hey, shifty, what's your problem? CASTIEL: Do we need a cat? Doesn't this place feel one species short? DEAN: You got anything to say on the topic of Dicks? Crowley was pretty sure that you could help. CASTIEL: I can't help. You understand? I can't. I destroyed... everything, and I will destroy everything again. Can we please just leave it at that? DEAN: No. [He gets up.] No, we can't.

AVOID AVOID AVOID! And here's why. He refuses to help, has disconnected from reality and is hiding in the remnants of Sam's burned soul bits entirely out of FEAR that anything he does will result in more of the same...

Because Bobby couldn't fight it, going vengeful, because that's the inherent nature of ghosts. And poor Cas is at a point where he believes his "inherent nature" is cosmic-level failure.

SAM: Bobby. We didn't know if you’d, uh – BOBBY: Well, you should've. You got the flask. Dumb. You should've burned it right off. DEAN: Bobby – BOBBY: I'm still jonesing to go back... grab some poor bastard, kamikaze 'em going after Dick. It's bad.

But at least Dean knows one thing Cas can do to help without having to fight-- he can take Dean to where Baby has been hidden since the beginning of the season:

CASTIEL: If we attack Dick and fail, then you and Sam die heroically, correct? DEAN: I don't know. I guess. CASTIEL: And at best, I die trying to fix my own stupid mistake. Or... I don't die – I'm brought back again. I see now. It's a punishment resurrection. It's worse every time. DEAN: I'm sorry. Uh, we're talking about God crap, right? CASTIEL: I'm not good luck, Dean. DEAN: Yeah, but you know what? Bottom of the ninth, and you're the only guy left on the bench... Sorry, but I'd rather have you, cursed or not. And anyway, nut up, all right? We're all cursed. I seem like good luck to you? [CASTIEL stares at DEAN.] What? CASTIEL: Well, I don't want to make you uncomfortable, but I detect a note of forgiveness. DEAN: Yeah, well, I'm probably gonna die tomorrow, so... CASTIEL: Well, I'll go with you. And I'll do my best.

So at the end of the day, Cas accepts they only have one chance to get Dick, and that regardless of if he helps or not, Sam and Dean will willingly face death to clean up the mess he feels responsible for in the first place. The least he can do is go with... but what truly convinces him it's worth risking isn't Dean's lil pep talk. It's what he'd been hoping for since he first tried to fix his mistake in 7.01 and what Dean himself told "Emmanuel" in 7.17 that he still couldn't muster for Cas... Dean's forgiveness. Without that, there was no point. This was step one to rebuilding their relationship, and the thing that pulled Cas back toward reality. He finally had something worth risking himself for. It was no longer a hopeless mission to believe that he might one day be able to make up for his betrayal.

The last few interesting things I want to mention here, since this is already a disasterpost, is the oddly redundant way Dean and Cas killed Dick:

DEAN: Oh, you don't think this'll work, do you? You trust that demon? DICK ROMAN: You sure I'm even me, Dean? DEAN: No. But he is. [DICK ROMAN looks at CASTIEL.] See, here's the thing when dealing with Crowley – he will always find a way to bone you. DICK ROMAN: This meeting's over. CASTIEL moves towards DICK ROMAN, but DICK ROMAN grabs him and flings him into a wall. DEAN plunges the bone into DICK ROMAN’s chest. DICK ROMAN gasps, but then pulls the bone out and snaps it in two. DICK ROMAN: Did you really think you could trump me? DEAN: Honestly? [He takes another bone out of his jacket.] No. CASTIEL pulls DICK ROMAN’s head back. DEAN plunges the bone sideways through DICK ROMAN’s neck. DICK ROMAN yells. SAM and KEVIN run into the room. DICK ROMAN continues to yell and gurgle. DEAN: Figured we'd have to catch you off guard. DICK ROMAN’s face transforms into the Leviathan enormous mouth with long pointed teeth and a protruding tongue. He roars briefly before his face returns to normal. He grunts and black goo starts to run from his nose. Waves of energy begin to pulsate from his body in time with a loud, accelerating heartbeat. The energy then appears to concentrate back in his body. SAM flings up an arm to cover his face and KEVIN as DICK ROMAN explodes into black goo.

Like... what even was the point of having two bones? First the "fake" and then the real bone? I mean, Dean didn't have a problem stabbing that first bone into Dick's chest, after all... did he really need the bluff? Was it just for the sake of Drama™? Eh, whatever, it gave us one of the best Cas Faces of all time, so it's worth it, whatever the reason.

CROWLEY: Not to worry. I have a small army of demons outside. Cut off the head, and the body will flounder, after all. Think if you'd had just one king since before the first sunrise. You'd be in a kerfuffle, too. SAM: Which is exactly what you wanted. CROWLEY: So did you. Without a master plan, the Levis are just another monster. Hard to stomp, sure, but you love a challenge. Your job is to keep them from organizing.

Spoiler alert: Sam's about to run away from this job just as fast as cas ran away from fighting...

CROWLEY: That bone... has a bit of a kick. God weapons often do. They should put a warning on the box.

Yeah, God weapons always suck... see the Hammurabi in 14.20 for proof.

But this all sets the stage for the issues that Cas will be dealing with up to the current point in canon after 14.20. It sets the stage for Sam and Dean’s respective struggles throughout Carver era that they finally begin to address in more healthy ways in Dabb era. But all of it is built on guilt, how they each choose to deal with it, and tearing down the barriers they put up to avoid facing themselves truly.

[tavis-of-bannorn]

dragon age: inquisition relationship scale

the scaling goes from one to five, with a heart indicating potential romantic interest (or sexual partner) repost // don’t reblog!

blackwall ★☆☆☆☆

//He is indifferent towards blackwall really but they don’t really dislike one another. Blackwall finds Tavis to be ungentlemanly, slimy and doesn’t really trust him. The mysterious and misleading aspects of Tavis make Blackwall wary. Tavis knows Blackwall is lying about/hiding something but he doesn’t really touch on it... and he may poke fun at Blackwall far too often. He may think every opportunity to mess with him is fucking hilarious.XD

cassandra ★★★☆☆

// At first their relationship is full of a lot of scowls and smirks. Tavis likes to make really bad jokes just to get a reaction... or flirt just to get a reaction. Cassandra is really too easy to get reactions from for Tavis to resist teasing and being a total dork around. She doesn’t like this of course... she finds him to be skeezy, impulsive and untrustworthy, at first. Over time though... he starts showing his more serious sides and she realizes that Tavis isn’t all jokes and flirtation. He likes her well enough too. He actually comes to like Cassandra a lot the more they interact and god he finds her groans and scowls to be adorable. I think I can go as far to say they have a weird adversarial relationship similar to her and Varric? Eventually it becomes a bit cute and he gets to see what people like her are like... her faith and he grows from it.

cole ★★★★☆

//Tavis is one of the few people that really likes when Cole goes off on one of his mind reading things (unless it’s about his blood magic stuff which he promptly informs Cole to be careful with because he doesn’t want to be... y’know... murdered on the spot). He really really likes Cole and moreover Tavis is extremely curious about him. He has never really had the chance to just... chat with a spirit before so he seeks Cole out a lot. Cole tries to heal his hurts and he is like “NO NO NO like... just tell me about bunnies and kittens... it’s fine”. He spends most of his time asking Cole how he can help while picking Cole’s brain. He just wants to know EVERYTHING about this kid.

cullen ★☆☆☆☆ 

//Cullen is an ex-templar who still somewhat adheres to the order... Tavis doesn’t even try to get to know him... he avoids Cullen as much as he can. He likes his personality, he thinks Cullen is nice but he doesn’t risk his safety in getting to know him better. It is too dangerous... considering Tavis is y’know... a secret blood mage and also does super illegal stuff that the Templars would kill him for and destroy all his work if found out. So... nope... he isn’t going to try. Cullen can stay over there with his pretty face and Tavis will politely ignore him and flirt with him when they happen to play wicked grace.

dorian ★★★★☆ ♥

//Potential romance. In our main verse canon they have done it and gotten pretty close to... romance-ish? But... it isn’t really a romance like Dorian would have with the inquisitor. It is odd tbh... I wouldn’t call them fuck buddies they actually become pretty close emotionally and then it trails off. Tavis cares greatly for Dorian and Dorian him but it doesn’t end up going with the route that Dorian probably wants. Tavis can’t be that... Tavis is a blood mage and has a life of his own where he pretty much needs to hand his life over to to it and involve no romance (especially of a potential Tevinter magister). And... once he finds out about Dorians father and Dorians problem with blood magic... Tavis distances himself for Dorian’s sake alone. It is... actually really sad... it makes me sad because they get on so well. But Tavis doesn’t want to hurt him after that and Tavis just... does his whole... ‘they will forget about me’ thing. It makes me so sad GAHHHH He cares about Dorian a lot but it just... doesn’t work out in the successful romance spectrum. It is full of pain. Maybe with a muse it would work but... in our headcanon it is sad and doesn’t work. They go their separate ways and only converse on occasion as good friends. But there is always that... what came from the troubles of life and social constraints thing.

iron bull ★★★☆☆

//I don’t put him down as an LI because idk!!! Tbh... they have this kind of casual relationship. Tavis might eventually get kinky with Bull but it wouldn’t really go anywhere... it would just be fun because... that is how they are as friends. They don’t get that close emotionally. That being said!... They are really good friends! They get along so well! Tavis loves picking Bull’s brain for info about Qunari and getting his perspective because it’s so incredibly different from his own. He just wants to learn all of the things but Bull hits on him all of the time because he is well... because he is Tavis lets be honest... XD The change in perspective actually excites him and he wants to learn pretty much everything there is about Bull’s people and the Chargers and about Bull himself.On the field he just asks Bull loads of questions concerning Qunari and also flirting with him shamelessly. These two won’t ever stop flirting with each other... it is just how they interact. That doesn’t mean they’re fucking... this is just their banter rofl. Tavis + Bull banter ... Other companions = are you guys doing it... Tavis and Bull... no... but we should. Raise your horns!!! *high fives*

josephine ★★★☆☆

//Poor... poor Josie...Tavis kind of has her wrapped around his lil finger. At the same time he really likes her but haha he is so good at getting her to talk and so good at getting her to consider his requests. He really does take advantage of his charms with her sometimes and it is god damn shameless. Leli see’s this and threatens to beat the ever living shit out of him. (I don’t blame Leli.) But Josie isn’t an idiot... she see’s the genuine aspects within him. She is good at that and they work together a lot actually. They... actually become pretty close.

leliana ★★☆☆☆  

//Legit the ONLY person in the world that scares Tavis. Tbh... he would probably be one of her secret agents just from that aspect. He RESPECTS Leli... so much omg. He thinks her work is underestimated and constantly... (quietly) tells her how he respects her efforts. She still scares the shit out of him though. They could never be friends but business partners. Leli is the only one who knows about his work in the Inquisition btw. He has considered asking her to be one of her confidants as she is the only one (depending on verse) that really knows what his work entails. She still supports him. That was enough to gain his support in turn. But srsly.... She has said multiple times if Tavis leads Josie on she will literally chop his parts off and send them to his best friends. He applauded her for gusto and smirked of course. ... He still flirts with Josie because he can’t help himself. XD But he tries to tone it down because Leli scares the shit out of him.

sera ★★★★ ☆

// Hahahaha it’s hilarious later on. Sera ignites the childlike wonder in him and he gets to just be... an absolute dork with her at all times. It is refreshing and he can just be silly. She really thought some dumb elfy elf would be more elfy. But... Tavis is the least elfy of all the elves in the Inquisition. He doesn’t even shout random nonsense at her like Solas does. When Solas does spout random elven at her ... Tavis knows what it means and quips back giving her a high five. Then promptly plans pranks on Solas with her like lizard bedrolls and putting whipped cream on his head when he falls asleep at his desk.

solas ★★★★☆ 

//Alright so they have some differences at first. Tavis thinks Solas is a pompous asshole even though he himself eschews the traditional Dalish way of thinking it really irritates him how Solas speaks against the Dalish and most elves in general(from his perspective). Of course... this makes it really interesting. Because Solas assumes Tavis is Dalish and Tavis doesn’t deny it because he finds the assumption amusing. That is literally his reasoning. He simply doesn’t deny it and then later is like... no I’m not actually Dalish. Eventually... Tavis is like... yeah I don’t really follow Dalish practices and have do things to actually help my people not just the tattoo’d ones. Then it gets really awkward and Tavis is like jfc Solas... I also can understand pretty much all of the elven you speak... Tavis: "I lied... I can actually understand nearly every elvhen thing you say" Solas: "Truly? I doubt that." Tavis: "You are very sassy." Solas: <sighs> Tavis: <smirks> Like that time you told Sera to stick her lizards up her ass. Solas: <silent> Tavis: <is pleased with himself> Tbh their relationship is one of my favorites because Solas’ biases really get to him but at the same time they can have really interesting conversations. They both have inquisitive and philosophical minds.They love going on about philosophy, history and stories once they get past the personality difference.

varric ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

//Hahaha omg they have so much fun! THEY HAVE SO MUCH FUN! They play cards a lot actually. They hang out a lot. Tavis pretty much drools over his stories and Varric... (lets be honest) loves the attention. They quip, make silly jokes and really fuck with people whenever they can... especially Cassandra. Because how could Tavis pass up that opportunity. He is such an ass. Really these two just mess around and enjoy life together. Tavis and Varric are the nightlife in Skyhold. They gather people together and form the stories.

vivienne ★★★☆☆

//Hehehehe ahhhhhhhhh. They went shopping together once. Just for the winter palace. Vivienne really doesn’t like Tavis at first (no shit).... Is it that surprising rofl... he is wary of her but is willing to experience her weird world, learn and have fun fucking with her.  He loves their shared salt though... he cherishes it. She knows this ... So it is kind of a back and forth mean girls salt fest between them both.