#so I think it’s likely to be renewed if he doesn’t die

[spideyhexx]

i have been seconds from getting sick all day thinking about this being a series finale simply because it doesn’t get renewed even if he doesn’t die

I think it’ll probably get renewed tbh (I feel fairly hopeful on that) because it brought in so many viewers since tom got a little bigger so !!!

[heliads]

Can you do Peter Pan x reader OUAT? Peter goes to the modern world with Emma, Snow, David and them as they are looking for someone. He meets this girl and takes an interest to her. He’s never seen someone with facial piercings, and dyed hair before, they come to realize she is the girl they’ve been looking for.

'magic finds magic' - peter pan

masterlist

Peter Pan is leaving Neverland. Worse, he’s leaving Neverland alongside Snow, Emma, David, and Hook. In terms of traveling partners, this has got to be the lowest of the low. However, the sand in Peter’s immortal hourglass is running out, and his first attempt at prolonging his life with the heart of Henry Mills didn’t exactly go according to plan. It’s this or nothing, even though Peter is starting to wonder if it would be better to just die than put up with these people any longer.

Never in his life did Peter Pan think he’d be working with the good guys. But never in his life did Peter think he’d be dying, either. A few compromises will have to be made in the name of preserving Peter’s everlasting life, and if that means he has to put up with some princesses and pirates for a few days, so be it. In no time at all, his immortal life will be restored, and he can go back to Neverland and put all of this behind him. Hopefully.

Peter was supposed to die back on Neverland. He was running out of time, anyway. He had set up the perfect scheme:  kidnap Henry, disorient the boy’s rescuers on his island long enough to win the Heart of the Truest Believer, and cut the organ out of the boy’s chest if necessary. He’d almost gotten away with it, too, except he was foiled at the last minute. Heartbreaking. So unlike him.

For some reason, though, he hadn’t been left to die in the caverns of Skull Rock. Emma and the others had needed him, for some odd reason, and although none of them trust him in the slightest, they do trust Peter’s single-minded selfishness to keep himself alive. So they claim, at least, and so they had gotten a spell to give Peter one more week of life in exchange for help. If this plan works out, Peter will have a way to continue his immortal life without needing to murder Henry. If it doesn’t, or if he betrays them, he’ll die anyway.

He can feel it now, the pang of his close call with death. There’s a pain in his chest that wasn’t there before, a certain weakness in his lungs. Peter gets tired more easily. He feels– well, he feels like Henry and Emma. He feels mortal. Like he could die at any moment.

Peter has, obviously, thought about double-crossing them, maybe even triple-crossing them, but it’s no use. He feels shakily mortal right now, and Peter does not much enjoy the possibility of his own demise. This is the closest he’s ever come to being beaten, and Peter hates the feeling. He’ll have to play along for now, but after that, he will have his revenge.

First, though, Peter has to do what the others want. They’ve been careful to reveal as few details to him as possible, but the idea is solid. There’s a magical person somewhere in the modern world, in a city far from Storybrooke. This person is like the embodiment of a true love’s kiss spell, designed to renew hope in storybook characters through small acts of power that ultimately drive two needed people together. They’re like a guardian angel of those on the brink of destruction, which is exactly what Peter needs right now.

Peter has plenty of time to mull this over. They’ve forced him into a terrible, small room with awful carpets– an apartment, Emma called it– while they talk out what to do with both him and their missing spell-person. Peter is trying to focus, but he’s getting stared at by Henry Mills again, which is absolutely ruining his mood.

“What do you want?” Peter asks, glaring at the boy.

Henry just goggles back at him. “Don’t you feel bad for trying to kill me?”

Peter snorts. “Why would I do that?”

Henry shrugs. “You pretended you were my friend. I know you like the other Lost Boys on your island, I thought you would have felt bad for killing one of them. I guess not.”

“I don’t feel bad about killing someone so I would live,” Peter says, then wonders why he’s arguing with a child. “Go preach your morals to someone who wants to listen.”

“The others are busy,” Henry pouts.

Peter eyes him unhappily. “And what, I’m your best option for polite conversation? You really are desperate, aren’t you?”

Henry rolls his eyes. “I’d say you’re desperate. You’re the one who’s still talking to me.”

Peter can’t really argue with that, so he deftly changes the topic of conversation before Henry starts looking proud of himself again. “Tell me about our target again. You said you saw them before?”

“Only in a dream,” Henry admits, “but it was a clear dream, I swear. I saw a girl who looked about your age. She seemed like any other teenager, but there was something about her that was different. The way she spoke, maybe, or the glint in her eyes. She was magical, I’m sure of it. She can save Storybrooke.”

“And save me,” Peter reminds him. “That’s the important part.”

Henry rolls his eyes again. If he keeps that up, they’re going to get stuck like that forever. “Yes, I know, you’re only interested in keeping yourself alive. So long as it helps us find this girl, though, I don’t care.”

Peter leans forward. “What’s your plan for finding this girl, then? A little scouting party? This city is big. You’ll never find her.”

Henry shakes his head. “Magic has a way of finding magic. Somehow, our paths will cross.”

“That’s a terrible strategy,” Peter grouses. Why is he entrusting his life to this boy again? He remembers something about having no other options, but it doesn’t seem as good an excuse right now.

“Ask the adults, then,” Henry tells him, and gestures towards the miniscule apartment kitchen, where Emma, Snow, Hook, and David are currently huddled around a table, talking in hushed voices about what to do.

Not wanting to mess with the kid anymore, Peter pulls himself to his feet and heads over. “Tell me you have a plan,” he says.

The adults look up at him. “Find the girl,” Hook says shortly. “That’s our plan.”

Peter scoffs. “You could search this city for months and not find her. What if she doesn’t want to be found? If this girl has any brains at all, she’ll know that people will want her magic and she’ll hide. It’s what I would do.”

Emma sighs. “We don’t even know if this girl knows that she has magic. She’s probably just living an ordinary life, and we’re about to drag her out of it with all of our trouble.”

“Don’t tell me you feel bad for her,” Peter scolds her. “You want this, don’t you? So go get it, or I will.”

Snow tries to tell him to calm down, but David, so quick to anger when it comes to Peter, surges out of his chair. “How about you do something helpful and think with us instead of just insulting us?”

“I will do something helpful,” Peter informs him. “I’ll find her first.”

With that, he lunges for the apartment door, and is out of the tiny room and down the hall before they can stop him. Peter hears the thunder of footsteps after him, but he hurries down the stairs and out of the building. He has the advantage of being quick on his feet; if Neverland taught him anything, it’s how to run when you don’t want to be found.

Peter emerges into the bright sunshine of the city and stops dead in his tracks. He’s not used to the modern world, how the knives of its buildings slash up into the sky, how loud it is with those cars and signs and people. Peter swears he can even see metal things in the sky, soaring along predestined paths. It’s all so much compared to the world he used to know. No wonder some of the others had a hard time adjusting. His mortal heart lets out a pang of sympathy.

The door of the apartment building flies open, revealing Emma and the others hot on his trail. Peter curses under his breath and takes off in one direction, hurtling around pedestrians and shooting down the sidewalk. He heads for smaller streets, hoping to lose them in a swarm of alleyways. The others, more used to the terrain of the modern city, are gaining on him, and Peter is just starting to think that he’ll never be able to shake them when someone grabs him and pulls him into a nearby building.

Peter’s first instinct is to defend himself, but when he isn’t attacked, he realizes that the stranger is only trying to help him. There’s a window just to his left, and Peter watches Emma and the others appear seconds after him. They didn’t see him enter the shop, and keep sprinting down the road in the direction they thought he’d gone. Peter waits a few more intense moments, then decides that he’s lost them for good and turns back around to see who’s gone to the trouble of rescuing him.

He’s greeted with the sight of a girl about his age. She’s eyeing him cautiously, although the corners of her lips begin to prick up with a wicked grin. “Sorry for the rough introduction, but you looked like you needed some help,” she tells him.

Peter lets out a short laugh. “I’m glad to be rid of them, that’s for sure.”

The girl arches a brow. “What, did they catch you shoplifting? I’ve never seen people run that fast unless they were getting chased by the cops.”

Peter narrows his eyes, trying to figure out how on earth he would lift a shop, then decides it’s probably some slang term he doesn’t know. “Something like that,” he says evasively.

He studies the girl’s face to see if he’d answered correctly, and, judging by her impressed grin, he had. “Nice,” she says. “I’m Y/N, by the way.”

“Peter,” he replies. He gets the urge to introduce himself as he usually would– Peter, Peter Pan– then remembers at the last second that Emma had warned him about telling people who he was. Apparently, telling people he was a fictional character in their world wouldn’t go over too well.

“Peter,” the girl repeats. “Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, too,” Peter says, and realizes belatedly that he means it. He feels like how he had at the start of it all, when the Lost Boys had first started appearing on this island, but this feeling is far stronger. He wants to get to know this girl. He certainly doesn’t want her to leave.

“I’m new to the city,” he says abruptly. “Any chance you could show me around?”

Y/N laughs, surprised. “You’re new and you’re already in trouble? You’ll fit right in, Peter.”

He grins, in on the joke a half beat late. “I like to have fun, that’s all.”

“Well,” Y/N says, starting to lead him back towards the door of the shop, “I like fun, too. Maybe we should stick together.”

“I’d like that,” Peter says, then wonders why he’s being so honest all of a sudden. When he sees Y/N’s smile– real this time, not sarcastic or joking, but genuinely because of him– he thinks he knows why.

The two of them step back out into the light. “Where to first?” Peter asks.

“I was going to ask you that,” Y/N replies. “What do you want to do? Sightseeing, maybe? We can get some food, or just talk.”

“Anything,” he says. He’d follow her anywhere. The feeling in him right now is like nothing he’s ever felt before. The pain in his chest, Peter realizes with some surprise, is gone. He feels immortal. Like living in this one moment could last forever.

They end up spending the next few hours together. Y/N shows him around the city, taking Peter to her favorite spots. Peter stares at the vast cityscape and finally starts to understand why someone might choose the modern world over the natural one. He’ll always pick Neverland first, of course, but seeing the world through Y/N’s eyes, it makes sense.

The two of them get along like a house on fire. Y/N’s got this rebellious streak to her that fits in perfectly with Peter’s, well, Peter-ness. No joke is too dark, no sarcastic comment too caustic. They feel the same. Peter doesn’t think he’s ever met someone who thinks so much like him.

As the sun starts to set in the sky, Peter feels his spirits sinking. He doesn’t want to let go of this day, not when he knows it can never happen again. He’s supposed to be finding Henry’s spell-girl, but all Peter wants to do is spend more time with Y/N.

His mood is especially ruined when they turn a corner and find Henry Mills walking towards them. Peter’s eyes widen and he tries to steer Y/N back in the direction they’d come, but it’s too late. Henry lets out an audible gasp and starts hurrying towards them.

“Peter,” Henry calls out when he’s close enough to talk, “We’ve been looking for you all over! Where have you been?”

Y/N glances at Henry dubiously. “Who’s this?”

“My little brother,” Peter blurts out.

At the same time, Henry chimes in, “My friend from school.”

Peter shoots the younger boy a quick glare, then turns back to Y/N. “Both, actually. He’s my step-brother. Recent marriage. We’re still getting acclimated. Our family is a little chaotic.”

“You can say that again,” Henry mumbles. Peter fights the urge to butcher him.

While Peter silently advises himself on why murder would be bad at a time like this, Henry stares openly at Y/N. All of a sudden, the boy’s mouth hangs open. “Oh my gosh, it’s you.”

Y/N’s brow furrows. “Excuse me?”

All of a sudden, Peter feels a sick sensation in his stomach. It couldn’t be. It couldn’t.

“You’re the girl from my dream,” Henry announces. “We’ve been looking for you.”

Y/N looks back at Peter. “What’s he talking about?”

The open, carefree expression, which had been on her face all day, is starting to be replaced with deep, unsettled fear. Peter hates to see it directed at him. “There’s something I need to tell you,” he begins. “Something about yourself.”

“You’re sounding a little creepy right now,” Y/N warns him. “Get to the point.”

“Alright,” Peter says. “You’re magical. So am I. We need your help to break a curse and save my life. How about that?”

Y/N shakes her head quickly. “This is crazy. Magic isn’t real.”

Peter can’t lose her, not like this, so he leans forward and holds out his hand. A ball of light appears inside his cupped fingers, glowing and bright. It’s a simple charm, one of the first he learned, but it has the desired effect. 

Y/N stares at it, transfixed, and when she speaks again, her voice is hushed. “That’s impossible.”

“Nothing is impossible,” Peter says. “Not magic. Not even the fact that you would find me in this city by accident. Magic is drawn to magic.”

Y/N’s eyes slowly raise to meet his. “This is real, then. I have magic.”

“You have magic,” Peter confirms. “Come with us, we can show you. They’re good people, Y/N. You can trust them.”

It’s the closest he’s ever come to honesty. For once, Peter isn’t playing a game. He isn’t trying to trick Y/N over to his side. He just wants her to be safe, and he knows that isn’t through lies.

Y/N smiles at him. “I trust you, Peter. That’s enough for me.”

She reaches over and takes his hand. Now that he’s focusing on it, Peter can feel the slow loop of her magic when they touch. It feels like power, but more than that, it feels like life. A life with her, maybe. A life for both of them.

ouat tag list: @loveanimals0000, @eclliipsed, @w1shes43, @lost-ender

all tags list: @wordsarelife

[holy-puckslibrary]

━ 𝐅*𝐂𝐊 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑.

-ˏˋ. 𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 ˊˎ-

𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 — FWB!matthew tkachuk x f!reader 𝐰𝐜 — 1.7k 𝐬𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬 — "old habits die hard..." — or, your boyfriend won’t fuck you right, so you run to the one person who always does.

𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 — patrons know the chokehold this toxic sin-fest has on me and probably always will... in all seriousness, this is one of my favorite things i've ever published and i am so insanely proud of it. i hope you love it as much as i do <3

(spoiler — not possible teehee)

18+ MDNI — content warnings under the cut.

𝐜𝐰 — profanity, innuendo, matthew’s filthy mouth and lack of morals, cheating (not on matty or the reader), outdated/incorrect information about having sex for the first time, borderline too much degradation, some objectification to add a little spice, unprotected sex w a cheeky creampie (what did you expect from two morally bankrupt individuals written by me, a retired whore?), matthew being a noncommittal, possessive piece of shit joking about knocking people up for funzies

────────────

“D’you think you’re so addicted to my cock because you know I don’t give a fuck what you think about me? Or care if you think I’m a Nice Guy?”

Even buried to the hilt—bare with nothing between you and far too fucking close for comfort—Matthew Tkachuk runs his mouth like he’s got nothing to lose and even less to prove. He’s insufferable, his only redeeming quality being the pulsing appendage threatening to split you in half as you buck in his lap.

With your hands braced against his hard chest for leverage, you drown out his grating voice, chasing the white-hot surges, bolts of lightning leading you to the brink of collapse with renewed vigor.

The sooner you come, the sooner he’s gone.

“All I care about, sweetheart, is fucking you good and hard. Giving it to you like the hungry, cockdrunk whore that you are.”

Debonair attitude. Sly confidence. Vulgar demeanor.

Filthy fucking mouth.

You were warned about Matthew Tkachuck. Repeatedly. Warned about him and his complete lack of a filter, about his total disregard for anyone’s feelings but his own. His aversion to commitment, to monogamy, to propriety.

All the things that repulse you about the man lounging on expensive hotel sheets beneath you—as you do all the work—lure you back to him in equal measure. He shouldn’t turn you on, but that’s exactly why he does. He’s all wrong, wrong, wrong.

Which makes him just right.

“I bet if your fiancé walked in right now, you’d just keep riding me. You wouldn’t even notice, would you? After all, you haven’t cum yet. And that’s all you care about, right? Using my cock to get your rocks off because Billy Boyfriend’s too scared to give you what you really need. Lucky for you, I’m not a fuckin’ pussy. I don’t treat you like a fragile doll because I know you’ll take anything I give you—and beg for more. I treat you like what you are, not some chaste little princess.”

You’ve been with Bill for nearly a decade, engaged for more than a year. It’ll be a spring wedding, probably. If the venue pans out, and the caterer finally calls you back with a final quote.

Perfect on paper.

He doesn’t pay attention to you the way he used to. Just throws money at the problem until he can bury himself in work again, undisturbed by you or nagging obligation.

Flowers for being three hours late, a necklace for missing dinner entirely. A trip overseas when he had to go into the office on your anniversary.

But he’s nice, so fucking nice it hurts, and more loyal than the Golden Retriever he wants to adopt after the honeymoon. After you’re settled into a custom-build nestled comfortably in the suburbs and far away from the city. White picket fence, manicured lawn, barely-there speed limits.

It's all so nauseatingly idyllic. So perfectly attuned with what you thought you wanted, what you spent your childhood coveting.

All your single friends are jealous; your committed friends are resentful. Your family loves him, and even though you’ve got a fucked up way of showing it, so do you.

And he loves you too. He’s just busy. It’ll be different once we’re settled, he says. You try to believe him, though not as hard as you should. You tell yourself it's because he doesn’t either.

Bill’s gotten lazy. You’ve gotten bored.

You’re no angel, and never claimed to be. You just want to feel good.

Matthew barks out a dry laugh, almost like he can read your mind.

“You haven’t been since I first got you on your knees at his birthday party. And definitely not after I popped that sweet cherry you were so adamant about saving for him."

Bill doesn’t fuck you. He never has.

He makes love to you. It’s that romance-novel tenderness that got you here in the first place. Slow, sweet, and nearly devoid of passion. It’s so gentle you have to think of him just to come.

How he fucks you.

How tightly he yanks your hair, craning your neck until it aches. How hard he kneads and smacks your ass, bullying the skin until you sob. How deep his cock reaches. And how he takes, takes, takes without forethought. How could you accept a lifetime of only tame rutting in the face of Pavlovian depravity?

It’s awful, and it's so profoundly selfish, but his everything has you in a bind.

Matthew’s everything is ruining your life.

An uncharacteristic wave of guilt and sadness washes over you, and before you can catch yourself, you’re staring down at the engagement ring. The band constricts, digging into your finger like it's out for blood when you glimpse the indentation it left behind on Matthew’s peck. You wince, then choke down the shame lodged in your throat, screwing your eyes shut to will it away.

“If it's bothering you that much, take it off. I’ll keep it safe for you.” —wink— “I can’t imagine the weight of a rock like that, especially one you don’t even deserve. But, if you actually felt as guilty as you claim to, you wouldn’t be this wet on another man’s cock. Don’t play saint now. You’ll ruin the fun.”

You can’t do this right now; you can’t have this worn-out fight. So, you say what you always say even though you’ve long since stopped trying to mean it.

“You keep saying that, sweetheart. We should stop. This is the last time. But no matter what you say, you always come crawling back to me sooner or later because I have what you need. Because I’m not him. Because I fuck you better.”

His words light you on fire. You hate it, but how deeply your body enjoys them is undeniable. How tightly you squeeze and flutter with every degrading line, choking his cock as you use him to satisfy your own perverted needs. How his brutal honesty, his refusal to let you forget your zealous participation in the affair for even a second, arches your back and hardens your nipples.

Even without all that evidence stacked against you, the blitzed-out look on your face says it all. One look at you and everyone would know just how right Matthew is.

“Shut the fuck up,” you growl.

You say it for the sake of saying it. To know, when you curl into Bill's side tonight, that you said something to deny his assessment of you.

But the last thing you want is for him to shut his mouth.

Not right now, not when you’re right there—

“You can’t hide from me, sweetheart, and you can’t lie to me. You can’t fool me, either. I see right fucking through you. It terrifies you—and you love it.”

His raspy voice swims freely through your hollowed-out mind. It unwittingly thumbs through every unforgivable memory, like some sort of pornographic Rolodex.

Matthew’s hips grinding against yours in darkened corners and dive-bar bathroom stalls and poker tables.

His hands fighting against hard-earned sweat in the foggy backseat of his car, battling to find purchase anywhere he can so he can keep rutting with reckless abandon before you’re expected home.

His fingertips burrowing into the sides of your throat, hard enough to bruise, hard enough to silence, hard enough to hurt.

Him spilling inside of you, ropes painting the sacred place white with no remorse or expectation of responsibility.

Matty’s hand over your mouth, urging you to be fucking quiet as he pistons in and out, in and out, keeping you pinned against the bathroom door, against the only thing standing between Bill and the worst discovery of his apple-pie life—

Old habits die hard.

Especially when it’s one that always feels that fucking good. No matter how lecherous or immoral.

Or how badly the betrayal would hurt someone underserving and innocent.

“Even if you walk down that aisle and take his last name, you’ll still belong to me. Wedding or not, this pathetic, weeping cunt belongs to me. But it’s all gonna be okay, though. Don’t you worry that pretty, empty head. I don’t mind sharing my toys. Especially with someone who could never compete.”

You can't compete where you don't compare.

He doesn’t want to be your boyfriend. He doesn’t want to be anyone’s boyfriend. He isn’t the Relationship Type. He doesn’t even want to be exclusive. That’s part of his appeal, no matter how fervently you deny it. He doesn’t want more than pleasure—primal, deviant pleasure—and that’s all you're looking for.

That's all you need.

“Where do you want my load, dirty girl?”

“Inside. I-Inside me, please, Matty.”

“Right answer.”

The burst of warmth is like getting a perfect grade you didn’t earn. Or feeling the cash your sibling gave you in exchange for not ratting them out sitting in your back pocket. It's hard to feel bad about the wrong you’ve done when the payoff is so deliciously worthwhile.

Matthew twitches, still hugged by your sensitive walls, and you shudder.

This is the high you chase every time you bend your morals until they splinter. The still nothingness that lays beyond the denouement, where everything is glowy and the pit inside you appears not-so-bottomless for once. The lack of expectations and obligations. The sheer freedom that stringless pleasure, that sensual self-indulgence provides.

Matthew doesn’t owe you anything, you don’t owe him anything either, and neither of you pretends otherwise.

And you sure as fuck don’t trip on his dirty laundry every time you walk into the bedroom.

“If that doesn’t take,” Matthew flicks his hips in emphasis, “…let me know when and where you want your wedding present, sweetheart.”

You don’t answer. You push his hands away and roll off of him unceremoniously. But he keeps talking.

Matthew is always talking.

“Oh, and before I forget, would you be a dear and let Billy know I won’t be able to make it for his bachelor party? I don’t know why, but I have the oddest feeling that something desperately needing my attention will come up.”

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[caffeinewitchcraft]

Fate and Mercy and Dead Girls

Summary: Sometimes, when things go very wrong, the Chosen One gets a wish. That’s where Danielle comes in. (Tagged with Blood, violence, child death)

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Danielle is cursed.

This battlefield is nice. It’s early afternoon and the breeze that comes from the forest to the east is sweet. The fighting has only just begun and the scent of blood is still hovering at the edge of her senses. It hasn’t erased the taste of the dead girl’s last meal – bread sweetened with honey – yet. She’s used to storm clouds the size of mountains roiling overhead, the electric sting of lightning against her skin, the crash of blades against armor and arrows against shields. The sun is warm and honey-sweet against her cheek and there’s no fighting going on right now. There’s only the low murmur of voices from all around and some muffled sobbing.

If she weren’t waking up in the body of a dead girl, she’d call it picnic weather.

Time to pay attention.

“—Chosen One is dead,” a man says. His voice matches the weather more than the situation. Calm. Even. Gentle. A wave lapping at the shore before the tsunami. She can feel his aura undulating through the ground, dark and demanding. Demon King? Mad Emperor? Dark Lord? One of those types. He projects his words over the renewed sobbing. “Do you see your folly now, honorable knights? The wasted months of defiance? You were never going to defeat my army even with years and seven fabled soldiers at your mercy rather than the one. Here, the day of your final rebellion, your Hero lies dead after only one volley.”

Hero. Danielle is cursed, she shouldn’t be feeling pity for anyone but herself. But there it is, the familiar bile in the back of her throat, the prickling of her eyes, the tightening in her chest. This dead girl was their Hero. They made her their Chosen One. From the feel of it, they didn’t school in her magic or train her in swordsmanship. Her muscles are burning from death, yes, but also from overexertion.

What do you want? Danielle asks. All of the right systems are under her control now. The ground is cold against her back, the girl’s tiny curls a tickle against her face. The air is sweet underneath the scent of a dying blow and she can hear the conversations around her clearly. The Dark Lord is still gloating, giving the knights their time to mourn and his own forces time to ready the next attack. Sweetheart, what do you want?

The girl’s soul shudders. I-I’m not dead?

The arrow pierced your heart. You’re dead.

A dizzying swirl of emotions cloud the girl’s next words. Grief-sorrow-panic-relief-fury-horror. Danielle has to reinforce her barrier between her soul and the girl’s to avoid being swept away by it all. All of the dead girls Danielle is called to are strong, and this one is no different. Danielle can’t hear her clearly over the roar of her emotions, but this one is talking very quickly.

…live…wanted to…please…save…

Danielle peeks out from under her eyelashes. It’s bright for a battlefield, but there’s a familiar red staining the ground as far as she can see. The armored feet of both sides’ soldiers are about thirty feet away, a hazy barrier of magic holding them apart.

“Let down this barrier!” Knight David screams. The girl’s knowledge flows into Danielle’s mind like a spring. He’s the head of the kingdom’s number one knight squad, a former S-rank adventurer, and a mentor to the Hero. He bangs the hilt his sword against the Dark Lord’s barrier. It crackles under the assault and doesn’t break. Knight David swears. “You’ll die for what you did! She was just a little girl!”

Another memory: Knight David didn’t think of her as a little girl. He gave her a woman’s sword that took her a month to learn how to lift, much less wield. He told her he had faith in her. He told her she could do it. When she asked how, he pushed a curl behind her ear and told her victory was fated.

The Dark Lord laughs, the sound like the tide retreating into the sea. “Is the kingdom so hard-pressed for soldiers they bring children to the battlefield?”

“She was Chosen,” Knight David says. There are genuine tears in his voice. “Nobody wanted that for her. Nobody.”

“She was nobody,” the Dark Lord says. The magic barrier trembles and he smirks. “Just as you’re about to be.”

Knight David’s magic sets his sword ablaze. “You’ll pay for this.”

The demons chitter behind the Dark Lord, straining against his commands. They want blood. They want to attack. They saw the Hero fall and they’re emboldened by her death. They’ll tear the humans apart.

In contrast, Knight David’s forces aren’t so sure. Knight David’s teeth gnash and he swears at the Dark Lord, but his men look from her body to each other. It was so quick. So fast. Did they demons hold greater power than they were told to kill a Chosen One so quickly?

“Prepare yourselves,” the Dark Lord says. The barrier fades.

“To the death,” Knight David swears.

Danielle presses again. They’re running out of time. What do you want?

Save them.

The words roar through Danielle’s temporary body. Save them. Her magic ignites like coal in a furnace and she gasps, steam escaping from her lips as a dead girl’s heart restarts.

“W-what?” someone whispers.

Danielle opens her eyes.

It’s not a very big war. There are maybe thirty combatants on the side of the Kingdom. She assumed from the girl’s memories that they’d all be knights, but there are adventurers mixed in among them as well as the occasional wizard. They’re all kitted out in the colors of the Kingdom though. Armor painted with the Royal family’s crest, bandanas with the fallen star motif embroidered on, red tassels on their weapons. Maybe they don’t have the Kingdom’s army behind them, but they have the King’s favor.

The Dark Lord is the only one who’s managed to keep his mouth shut after her sudden resurrection. His side is comprised of dark wizards in tattered robes and nearly a hundred demons. Danielle can see wolves the size of horses, goblins with wooden clubs, and vampires hiding in the tree line.  It looks impressive, but the girl’s memories tell Danielle a different story.

This is the last stand for both sides.

“The Hero lives,” Knight David says through bloodless lips. He’s younger than Danielle thought, his beard only just touched with silver. His eyes shine wetly and he raises his sword over his head. “THE HERO LIVES!”

Knights, adventurers, and wizards lean back and scream their jubilation to the sky. Some of them weep openly, staggering as close to her as the Dark Lord’s barrier allows with their hands spread wide as if to embrace her.

The Dark Lord is silent as the kingdom’s forces rejoice. He looks like a human though he’s gone to great lengths to hide that fact. His long, black hair is twisted around his horns, emphasizing them. His clothes are as tattered as his forces’ and there’s dried blood staining the hem of his cape. His nails are long and painted an unending black that makes them look like talons.

If it weren’t for the depth and darkness of his magic, he wouldn’t register to Danielle as a Dark Lord at all.

“Hero,” the Dark Lord murmurs. His red eyes gleam a beat before his pupils swell, turning them black. He doesn’t raise his voice above the noise, but magic makes it so Danielle can hear him easily. “Killing you quickly was the last mercy I had for you.”

“Mercy,” Danielle says. The word echoes from her involuntarily. She pulls the arrow from the dead girl’s chest. The wet and meaty sound of it finally silences Knight David and his allies. She coughs and tastes blood.

“The fates have seen the justness of our cause and protected the Hero,” Knight David says into the silence.

“Fate,” Danielle echoes and coughs blood again.

Knight David doesn’t hear her. His chest swells. A talented orator, he knows just what to say to erase the horror of her death and reinvigorate his squad. “Dark Lord -no! – Demon, you’ve lost.” He points his sword directly at the Dark Lord. “You just don’t know it yet.” The knights cheer.

Oh, Danielle thinks, he knows it.

The Dark Lord stares down the length of Knight David’s blade impassively. His lip curls into a sneer that must look truly demonic to the knights of the kingdom. But from her vantage point, Danielle can see the way his clenched fists tremble. The barrier wavers imperceptibly and then holds. The Dark Lord can’t sustain it for much longer, not if he wants to have enough magic to fight.

As soon as it falls, the kingdom will strike. And, with the Hero on their side, they’ll have the conviction (and the magic) to take on a thousand demons. The Dark Lord only has a hundred.

Danielle staggers to her feet. This body is on the weaker side of the ones she has inhabited, but it’s not the worst she’s had to work with. Her legs hold her weight and the heart beats strongly once she uses her magic to patch it.

Knight David grins at her, the fever of battle bright in his eyes. “Hero!” He holds out his hand. “How glad I am to see you alive! Cast your strengthening spell.”

A memory: They taught her to strengthen her allies and nothing else. Training sessions ran late into the night as they pushed her to expand her range, power them up more, amplify magic higher and higher. This girl knows exhaustion more intimately than the affection of another.

Knight David slashes the barrier. He doesn’t wait to see if she’ll obey. Of course she will. This dead girl has never defied him before. She owes him and his kingdom too much. Who else would elevate an orphan to the heights of a Hero? He strikes again and this time his blow leaves a crack in the Dark Lord’s magic that splinters out like a spiderweb. He grins meanly. “Come, soldiers! Reclaim our land! Defend our home! Defeat evil!”

The knights smash their weapons against their shields and bare their teeth. “For our homes! For our families! For good!”

“Kill,” the Dark Lord hisses as his barrier fails piece by piece. He leans towards Knight David like a snake about to strike. A sword as black as night materializes in his hand. “Kill them all.”

“Hey,” Danielle says, “don’t you think you’re moving on a little fast?”

Nobody hears her. Nobody asks her if she’s alright. Nobody cares.

It’s Danielle’s curse to care.

The Dark Lord’s barrier crumbles. The air fractures and fragments tumble from the top and towards the combatants on either side like sparks. It’s ten feet in the air, eight feet, seven feet--

Her magic billows from her like smoke, scorching the grass as it balloons forward. Blood burns and vaporizes under the heat. The wolves are the first to notice it. They whine and back away from her wave of power, cowering behind their lord. Danielle hisses through her teeth and her power surges a little faster, touching the Dark Lord’s magic before the demons can alert their master. She’s powerful enough to do this even with him fighting her, but that would be…messy. She wrests control of the barrier from the Dark Lord. She builds it back up to twenty feet tall and adds new walls. The King’s forces used to be the only ones trapped. Now the Dark Lord turns and blinks at the misty cage that’s formed around him and his army.

The sudden silence hurts her ears as hundreds of eyes follow the scorch marks from the barrier to her.

Knight David’s sword wavers. “Hero…?”

“Your Hero isn’t here anymore,” Danielle says. Experience tells her to rip this bandage off quickly. She gestures to the dead girl’s clouded eyes. “Did you really think she survived an arrow to her heart?”

She can see from their faces that they did. Knight David opens his mouth and then closes it. He swallows hard. He says, “You’re not—” His face hardens. “Who are you?”

The Dark Lord watches her with black eyes, but he’s not still. His power tests her control of his barrier. He doesn’t find a crack.

“You called it fate,” Danielle says. She limps towards them. There’s an arrow in the girl’s thigh she didn’t notice before. She pulls it out without breaking stride and throws it to the side. The furnace that’s consumed the dead girl’s heart churns with rage. “You lot always believe in fate. Makes everything you do look prettier, doesn’t it? More palatable.”

“It is fate. The Oracles of Trilbia spoke of a girl with untold power who would be our savior. We needed—”

“LOOK AT HER!” Danielle roars. She slams a hand against her chest and then holds her palm high overhead. Red shines wetly on her palm. “She was a child! Fifteen summers and you stand there and call her a savior?”

“I ask again,” Knight David says. His eyes flash. “Who are you?” He draws his sword point slowly, purposefully, away from the Dark Lord. He points it directly at her. “What have you done to the Hero?”

Danielle won’t answer stupid questions. “You’re cruel. What you did to her – nothing can justify it. Especially not something as fickle as fate.”

“The Oracles—”

“Should die,” Danielle interrupts. She bares her teeth. “Or at least be honest. If they wanted a child sacrifice, they should have killed her on an altar with their own hands.”

Knight David hits her barrier. It throws him back and he shakes with rage. “Who. Are. You?”

“And you,” Danielle says, turning her attention to the Dark Lord. She holds her bloodied palm out to him. “You speak of mercy. You think giving her a quick death mercy?”

To his credit, he doesn’t deny it or flinch away. He nods shallowly, eyes never leaving hers.

“There was mercy, I’ll give you that,” Danielle says. She staggers towards him and stops just short of the barrier. They’re barely two feet apart when she says, “It was her mercy that she died quickly. Not yours.”

The Dark Lord’s nostrils flare. “I don’t understand.”

“You will,” Danielle promises. Her heart aches. This isn’t the time for that. She stokes the fires of her magic until steam escapes from her lips again. Only then does she twist towards Knight David again. “You killed this girl. You threw her into battle untrained. They may have shot her, but it was you who brought her here. This is your fault.”

“You’re some malevolent spirit,” Knight David says. He sweeps one arm out as if to banish her. Behind him, his forces tremble. “A vile devil come to sow seeds of doubt. Our conviction is firm. Oh, monstrous devil! Release our friend, release the Hero and your end may be swift yet.”

Devil? Danielle loses hold of her rage for a moment. Yes, yes she supposes she is. There are forces at play here that she might call devilish. But being called a devil by him?

Ridiculous.

“Maybe you should pray,” Danielle suggests. She nods slowly, warming to the suggestion. “Yes, that’s what you should do. You should pray the big, bad devil away.” She approaches his side of the barrier and the grass withers under her feet. “Pray, Knight David.”

“Hold fast,” Knight David says to his knights. He raises his sword to her and braces himself. “Do not be swayed by—”

“No, don’t pray,” Danielle says. She laughs without humor, chest shuddering with the effort. “Prophecize. Summon a hero to defeat me. Go on. Do it.”

“You will pay for the horrors you’ve committed today. Wearing the skin of the Chosen One damns you to the furthest—”

“Oh, fine, I’ll do it for you. There will be a knight,” Danielle says. She lurches forward and presses her hands against her barrier. Knight David stumbles back when it moves with her, allowing her closer and closer. She laughs again. “A Knight with red splashed across his breast and his shining sword melded to his hand.”

Knight David chokes on a scream as her words become truth. His sword melts under a sudden wave of heat, the silver-plating dripping through his fingers. He falls to his knees and grabs his wrist, trying to shake his hand free of the molten metal. It cools as rapidly as it melted, and he stares in horror as the silver binds his fingers to the hilt forevermore.

Danielle comes closer and the kingdom’s forces flex away from her like a school of fish in the face of a predator. “And this knight,” she says, “will be a Hero to his people. He will rise through his pain and destroy the devil that wore the skin of the little girl he sent to slaughter.” She spreads her arms wide above him, the sun beating down on her crown, and waits. After a beat she says, “Go on. Make the prophecy come true. Stab me. I’m waiting.”

Knight David keens through clenched teeth. “Y-you monster. You w-won’t—” He breathes in deeply and glares up at her. His feeble attempts to raise his arm don’t move his sword more than an inch. “You won’t break me.”

“I don’t have to,” Danielle says. Her arms fall to her sides, and she looms over the fallen knight. The air isn’t sweet now. The smell of burning flesh is more familiar than blood. “She didn’t ask me to break you.”

“Didn’t ask?”

Danielle turns. Unlike the knights, the Dark Lord isn’t backing away from her. He’s as close as he can get, pressed right up against the barrier. He’s rearranged his forces while she wasn’t looking so that the hardier demons are shielding the smaller.

“Didn’t ask,” Danielle agrees. She taps her temple. “Right before she died, I asked her what she wanted. See, nobody here gave a fuck what she wanted before she died. Fate is fake, but belief isn’t. They believed hard enough that the universe heard their pathetic little prayers for a savior. And, at the end, it took pity, but not on them. No one cared so it sent me. I asked what she wanted. She answered. Now we’re here.”

Knight David shudders at her feet.

“Are you a spirit of vengeance then?” the Dark Lord asks very casually. His shoulders are tense, undermining his nonchalance. He speaks a touch too loudly and very carefully doesn’t look back at his army. “Is that it?”

“I’m what she asked for,” Danielle says. She eyes Knight David’s comrades. There’s a wizard somewhere in there valiantly trying to heal Knight David’s wounds from afar. It’s slow going so she ignores it. “Though, between you and me, I think some vengeance is owed here, don’t you?”

The Dark Lord’s jaw flexes. “It is.” He raises his chin. “And you shall have it. I only ask that you let my people go. They are blameless in all this and only had the bad fortune to follow a misguided lord—”

Howls and screams of protest drown out his words. The demons lunge against his orders, mouths frothing and eyes wide in fear. They don’t want their lord to die, they deny his words, they can’t bear to lose him.

The Dark Lord’s power snaps over them and they quiet all at once, voices stolen by his power.

“Let it only be me. Please,” the Dark Lord finishes quietly.

Danielle watches him with interest. “You would die for them?”

“I return the loyalty I’ve been given.” He bows his head. “I will beg if you’d like.”

“What makes you believe I want your death?”

“I know my part in the Hero’s fate,” the Dark Lord says. His lips thin and he stares down at Knight David with more hatred than she thought possible. “Humans brought her here to slaughter, but I gave the order. I called it mercy to kill a child quickly so she need not suffer. We both know I lied. I killed her to keep her from strengthening the kingdom. No matter how I did it, it wasn’t mercy. It was evil and it was…not necessary. It wasn’t necessary but it was easier than the alternatives and so I killed her. I resigned myself to carrying that sin before I ever stepped foot onto the battlefield.”

Oh. Danielle has to blink very quickly as heat rises behind her eyes. The Dark Lord isn’t lying. He isn’t hiding from the truth of his actions nor is he justifying his hand in the Hero’s death. There is sorrow in his voice and his hands are loose at his sides even though his eyes are watchful, waiting for her to strike. He’d let me strike him down. He will stand there and do nothing while I slit his throat.

“It was wrong,” Danielle says. Her throat aches. “It was wrong to kill her.”

The Dark Lord’s head sinks lower. “Yes. It was.”

“She was a child.”

“She was.”

“She didn’t have a choice.”

“I know.”

“She deserved better.”

“Yes.”

Danielle’s chin trembles. This— after all the dead girls, this is a first. “You did it to save your domain.”

“I did.”

“It was evil.”

“Yes. The most evil thing I’ve done.”

“She didn’t ask me to kill you.”

“Ye—what?” The Dark Lord blinks, finally looking back up at her. His eyes are red again, pupils dilated. “She didn’t?”

“No.” Danielle lets the barrier slip out of her control. She can see the Dark Lord more clearly without the wall of smoke and his eyes are more than just red. They’re red-rimmed. Danielle reaches up with her bloodied palm and cups the Dark Lord’s cheek. He shudders at the chill of her touch but doesn’t pull away. “You had no mercy today, but she did. She knew her power would mean the end of your people. She knew she would not be able to resist the order to cast her spell when they gave it. So when the first volley came, she didn’t run. She didn’t raise her shield.”

“Mercy,” the Dark Lord breathes in revelation. His face crumples. “Oh.”

“She died quickly,” Danielle says. The girl’s memories are so hot that Danielle feels burned. All the dead girls are strong. This one is not an exception. “She knew an evil thing would be done today. She chose. She chose.”

The Dark Lord’s voice is thick with tears. “She shouldn’t have had to. She—No!”

Danielle doesn’t know what’s happened at first. The Dark Lord is staring at her in mute horror. His cheek is stained red but her hand is no longer on his cheek. Then she processes that she’s been hit quite hard in the back. She looks down.

A bloody sword is sticking out of her chest. It retracts with a sickly sound and Danielle finds herself on her knees, staring down at the river of blood gushing from her breast. She let down her barrier to speak to the Dark Lord, face to face. She didn’t think she’d be leaving her back open to the other side. Or, rather, she didn’t think Knight David would recover enough to kill her again.

“The devil speaks lies,” Knight David says. His words are thin with pain. He can no longer raise his blade to the sky. His arm is trembling from the effort of stabbing her but still he faces his forces and spurs them to action. “And lies have no place in our kingdom! Our friend, our Hero died for us! So we could win! So we could prosper! So we could—”

He killed her again.

Danielle surges to her feet. The dead girl’s heart is torn to pieces in her chest, but Danielle’s magic surges through her veins like blood. She rises up behind Knight David and shrieks, “Stop killing her!” She drives her hand through Knight David’s chest and rips out his heart.

It happens too fast for anyone to react. The Dark Lord holds his breath and the world goes still. Danielle lets the heart fall and the thud as it hits the grass is loud in the quiet.

Knight David sways once, twice, and then drops to the bloodied ground.

“You didn’t have to die,” Danielle says. She’s looking at the other knights and adventurers and idiots who believed in fate. She’s talking to Knight David. “Even after everything you put her through, she didn’t want you dead. She was good. She was great. And you killed her for it.”

“Mercy,” someone stutters. Then, another. “Mercy, please.”

“No,” Danielle says. Petulant. Like a child. “You didn’t stop him. Not a single one of you tried. She didn’t tell me to save you.”

They combust before they can run. A long time ago, her power wasn’t as controlled. Her fire didn’t get hot enough fast enough. They screamed back then. Screamed and wailed and cursed.

Her fire doesn’t give them a chance to curse her now.

When it is done and she’s satisfied that nothing but ashes remain, she turns to the Dark Lord. He doesn’t flinch from her though there’s fear in his eyes. Even now, he expects her to kill him. Even now he accepts it.

“Bury her,” Danielle says. The fire crackles behind her. “Clean her body and dress her in new clothes. Bury her somewhere where war hasn’t touched and say something kind over her grave.”

The Dark Lord swallows twice before he can speak. He doesn’t ask if this means she’s going to leave him alive. He understands what she means. He says, “I-I will.”

“She saved you,” Danielle says. She wants him to understand that. “She could have wished for anything. Revenge. Peace. A second chance. She didn’t. She wished to save you.”

“She will be honored,” the Dark Lord says. He breathes in deeply and gently reaches out to cup her cheek, an imitation of her earlier touch. His palm is warm against her cold skin. If he is repulsed by the feel of death, he doesn’t show it.  “I will see to it.”

Danielle closes her eyes. Though she doesn’t lean into his touch, she doesn’t pull away. It is the singularly most affectionate moment she’s experienced in decades, but it’s not for her. “Her name is Samira.”

The Dark Lord releases his breath. “Samira. Thank you for telling me her name.”

Danielle lets her curse sweep her to the next dead girl.

----------------

Thanks for reading! If you’d like to see stories like this or some more serialized stories, please consider supporting me on Patreon (X)! Currently I’m working on the Cinderella retelling I have posted on here :)

See y’all next week!

[shanastoryteller]

happy pride!! dealer’s choice <3

Steve is going to die again just a few short years after waking up in this new world and his death is going to be significantly less glorious the second time around.

“You don’t think he’s going to come,” Duke Rhodes says, tied up next to him and in even worse shape than he is. An unfortunate side effect of not being a sorcerer’s experiment and being nearly a decade older than him, he assumes.

“You do?” he asks, too exhausted to filter himself like he tries to do around him.

Rhodes raises an eyebrow. “I think his champion and his general are tempting enough bait, yes. Listening to their demands and showing up alone is also the most foolish choice he could possibly make, so I’m confident the king won’t be able to help himself.”

Those words would be treason from anyone else, but Rhodes has long been King Anthony’s personal confidant, and the one managing this war for the king from the beginning. Steve supposes that grants the man a certain level of leeway.

Steve is, now and always, exactly what he was enchanted to be. The King’s Champion. From the moment he woke up in a land at once so familiar and so different from his own, he renewed the vow he took seventy years ago. To serve his king and uphold the dignity of the realm so long as a Stark sat on the throne.

King Howard, however, had been an easier man to serve. He’d at least taken the time to meet with Steve, for one, had taken an active interest in the war he fought rather than delegating it and holing himself up in his castle. He’d been cold, and detached in many way from the realities of the war he’d started, but he was a king, and his attention, however brief, had always rallied the troops in a way that Steve admired.

King Anthony at least delegates well, he’ll give the man that. Rhodes does not come from noble blood, something they share, but by the time Steve woke up here it was long past something others were willing to hold against Rhodes. His title of Duke had been a gift from the king. His title of General had been one he earned.

“Steve?” Rhodes frowns, eyeing him like he’s looking for injuries that he hasn’t noticed.

Perhaps Steve is more injured than he thinks, because he doesn’t have the good sense to stop himself from saying, “He did not come for his alchemist.”

He tenses, but Rhodes just sighs, shifting in his bonds as if trying to find a more comfortable position even though if that existed, they would have found it by now. “You hold a grudge for something that happened not only before your time, but for something that Edward does not.”

“Edward is too forgiving,” he says stiffly and doesn’t say the same of Rhodes even though he thinks it often.

He sees the warmth and tenderness and affection between Rhodes and Edward clearly and it galls him that Rhodes has so easily forgiven his king leaving the man Rhodes loves to die. Edward is often trying to coax Steve and Rhodes into a more affectionate relationship, but it’s a hurdle Steve can’t quite overcome.

When he’d first awoken there had been nothing but mourning and determination and another war and then there was Edward. Infuriating and funny and warm and completely irreverent, the only person who seemed to treat him as more than cursed and made his terrible circumstances feel like home. Alchemist, armorer, blacksmith – he seemed to do everything and anything required by the crown and with a speed and skill that left Steve breathless. Rhodes may be directing and managing the war but without Edward’s tinctures and potions and weapons and armor, the war would have been lost long ago.

And when he’d been kidnapped and held for ransom, their enemy demanding the king’s presence to free him, the king had stayed safe in his castle.

Steve understood it logically. He’d had no queen or heir at the time and was the last legitimate Stark. Even if he’d been the type of king who cared about his people, he could not risk himself for a subject, no matter how valuable, no matter how much that subject sacrificed or gave or how valuable he was.

But that was just as true for him and Rhodes as it was for Edward and the king had left Edward to be tortured. They had tried to force him to make weapons, to betray his king, and Edward had refused. Steve saw some of the marks of that torture even now, years later, and he could not bring himself to love a king who did not care for that devotion, who hid away in his castle and let better men fight for his kingdom.

He was not required to love his king, only obey and serve him, and that Steve had always done.

He’d earned his title too. Both under King Howard and King Anthony. Being the King’s Champion did not mean being his friend. Not that was something he could claim to be, when he’d never even met the man.

“The Iron Mage saved him and the Iron Mage serves the king,” Rhodes points out, as if Steve doesn’t know that. “Isn’t that enough?”

The Iron Mage is his battle brother and his friend and yet another pillar keeping the kingdom steady while King Anthony can’t seem to be bothered. He holds the light of a star in the center of his chest and uses magic like a blunt weapon, the elements of the star sliding over his body, shifting and changing metals as he brutalizes the battlefield. Those that had captured Edward had found their base reduced to rubble and the Iron Mage appeared wielding a power that not even Sorcerer Strange could explain.

They said he was Goddess blessed, sent from the heavens as a shooting star to aid the king in his war, to ensure victory for the Starks who ruled by divine right of the Goddess Herself. Steve wasn’t sure of all that. The Iron Mage seemed man enough, for all he was constantly covered in his strange shifting, shimmering metal. His voice came out raspy and too low, as if he was in pain, and Steve often wondered if holding the core of a star was worth the consequences, but he was the last one to ask questions like that, considering what he’d allowed Sorcerer Erskine to do to him. The Iron Mage’s humor was wry and ever present despite that, and Steve often thought that he and Edward would get along, if the Iron Mage could ever be coaxed into spending time off the battlefield with the man he saved all those years ago.

But he couldn’t quite lay that victory at King Anthony’s feet. If anything, it seemed like the Iron Mage had used saving Edward as a way to secure his place at the king’s side, rather than that he’d been sent by the king in the first place. No one had heard of such a mage before that, after all.

“Perhaps the Iron Mage will come for us,” he says instead of answering. It’s possible. But the Iron Mage is supposed to be on the other end of the battlefield by now and by the time he hears of his and Rhodes’s capture, it may be too late.

Rhodes shakes his head. “You need to have a little more faith in your king.”

“Why should I?” he snaps, knowing starting an argument when they’re literally tied together is a dumb decision, but like most of his dumb decisions, he can’t help himself. “When King Howard dragged us to war, he at least let us see his face, he made an effort. I hardly expect a king to take to the battlefield, but King Anthony stays in his castle, with his drink and his women if the rumors are to be believed. Queen Virginia has introduced herself to the soldiers several times but the king has not. What sort of man is he to ask faith from me?”

“Well, I said faith, not trust,” Rhodes says tiredly. “Tony didn’t start this war and he’s doing his best to end it.” It’s rare that Rhodes will slip into the familiar name for the king, but it startles Steve every time, the reminder of just how close the general and the king are, and how little that closeness had mattered when Edward was captured. “Although I’ll grant you that you’re right about one thing.”

Steve is exhausted suddenly, in a way that has little to do with his lack of sleep or his injuries, but he’s too grateful for Rhodes keeping his temper while he can’t to ignore him now. “What’s that?”

“Tony is nothing like his father.”

[jonsnowunemploymentera]

Winter is coming... All men must die... But I don't necessarily think that makes it a pessimistic world, or perhaps not any more pessimistic than the real world that we live in. And we're here for a short time, and we should be conscious of our own mortality. But the important thing is love and compassion and empathy with other human beings is still possible. Laughter is still possible, even laughter in the face of death. The struggle to make the world a better place. We have things like war and murder and rape, horrible things that still exist in the world, but we don't have to accept them. We can fight the good fight, I think, the fight to eliminate those things. So there is darkness in the world, but I don't think we necessarily have to give way to despair. One of the great things Tolkien says in Lord of the Rings is despair is the ultimate crime, that's the ultimate failing of Denethor, the steward of Gondor, is that he despairs of ever being able to defeat Sauron. We should not despair, we should not go gentle into that good night. So winter is coming, but light the torches and drink the wine and gather around the fire, we can still defy it.

So Spake Martin 2013, Sydney Opera House

I remember a poll on here a couple months back asking how people interpreted the title ‘a dream of spring’. I was among those who had a more positive interpretation of that phrase. I still think that’s meant to be more positive than negative; more hopeful than bleak. To me, ‘a dream of spring’ is like Bran’s last ACOK chapter. The world is burning, a little boy is dispossessed, but he still lives. And there’s something defiant about that. It’s the perseverance of the human spirit, even if it’s just the little hope of an 8 year old boy. It seems bleak at first, but Bran said it best when he recognized that while Winterfell may be burned, it still stood. And while he may have been a “broken boy”, he still lives; plus I think there’s something sweet about that scene because from a Doylist pov this is Bran officially starting his hero’s quest so we know upon reread that there’s a light at the end of this dark tunnel. ‘A dream of spring’ to me is like a continuation of that ACOK ending. Winter doesn’t mean that human beings, even in weakness, can’t be defiant in trying to love or hope. Nor does it mean that they can’t find fulfillment in whatever little life they have for however long they have it. IMO the above quote from GRRM also highlights why characters like Jon (spring deity), Bran (the personification of summer and boyhood), and Dany (fire and light and passion) are especially important to the thematic and magical ending of this series. Winter is coming, but spring comes after it. And what is spring is not the renewal of life? And what is a dream if not hope lingering?

[clerical3rr0r]

I’ve finally recovered from the latest episode of Malevolent enough to actually try to analyze it. It got very long and that’s not even all I wanted to say.

Malevolent 45 spoilers under the cut

First of all shoutout to Harlan Guthrie for making me cry. Was not expecting that tonight but I can’t even be mad about it because the storytelling was so good.

Second of all, the themes. Where do I even start?

As soon as they started talking about the Boy Brigade I knew things were going to take an interesting turn. As John and Arthur both point out, we rarely hear about Arthur’s childhood. He rarely thinks about it. It was a very difficult time for him and to an extent he treats it as if it’s best left forgotten. While it was a difficult time for him and it sounds like he has complicated feelings about much of what they were trying to teach him, it was where he made his first friend. That’s a good memory for him, and it always will be. In that and in other little moments there, he said he found hope.

Hope is a large part of this podcast and the entire point of this episode. When Arthur feels apathetic and discouraged by a lack of meaning, John reminds him that they can make their own and Arthur remarks that he feels hopeful. When Malam explains what he does, he says that children represent hope in this world. Hope is what he saw in the fire and what drew him in.

Personally, I’m seeing connections to season 4 when Arthur referred to John as a child. He meant it in the sense that John didn’t have the same emotional maturity as someone who spent decades living as a human, but it also works in the sense that John is so very hopeful. For all the horrors he’s witnessed, he hasn’t let them beat him down. Even when Arthur dies, he doesn’t stop fighting until he rewrites the narrative to bring his friend back to life. He still refuses to accept that Arthur will (probably) have to die eventually. And when Arthur brings up the admittedly good point that they could be on a fool’s errand, John argues that others might have failed, but they wouldn’t. It’s a simplistic, almost childish argument with no real logic behind it, but it worked. It was exactly what Arthur needed to hear.

Even though the fire had been lit for some time, Malam only appeared when Arthur had been cheered up while he was in the middle of talking about a point in his childhood where he found hope. I’m sure Faroe was a part of what led Malam to that fire, but Arthur’s newfound determination seemed to be the main lure.

And, of course, there’s Faroe. We know Malam can and has killed people in service of children. He did not harm Arthur. He simply spoke with him, granting him information and peace of mind. Faroe didn’t seem angry or resentful. She seems to be sticking around of her own free will. She believes in Arthur so much that Malam took notice and helped her help her father. Even after death, her belief in him empowered him to keep going in a tangible way.

If children represent hope, Faroe’s renewed presence has a double meaning. When she died, Arthur’s hope died along with her. All throughout the story, it was an accepted fact that she was dead and gone. Arthur had been without hope for a long time by that point. At least, he thought he had been. But even though Faroe was gone, she was with Arthur the whole time. Even if he couldn’t hear it or feel it, the hope was always there. The hope will always be there.

[localfanbaselurker]

I’m watching Voltron: Legendary Defender for the first time and here is what I have had to say per each season (this is 1-2) (3-4) (5-6) (7) (8)

Pre-Watch Knowledge

->big transformers type robot

->pretty alien girl that looks like princess yue from A:tLA

->they are the epitome of color-coded characters

->space??

->there was crazy people in the fanbase that sent cupcakes laced with something to the creators

->queer baiting (this one in particular got me)

->klance.

->^honestly I only knew that because people were comparing it to zukka and I wanted to check it out

->my friend really likes it

Post S1 thoughts-

->that cliffhanger was crazy imagine they weren’t renewed for a s2

-> i went on tumblr after and youre telling me they made that show IN TWO YEARS?? EIGHT SEASONS. IN TWO MF YEARS?? that is insane. props to the writers bro they fr must of known what they were doing.

->all of these characters already scream “doomed by the narrative”

->my fav characters are pidge and lance

->I definitely did NOT expect yue Allura to be British

->bonding moment.

->^like yeah okay i get it now

-> the healing pods are a very interesting concept. Like, what if you get some ailment that it doesn’t recognize?? Do you just die??

-> genuinely felt so bad for Not Yue. Allura. Allura when they had to remove her father’s memory thing. Like yeah I know the castle was corrupted or wtv but bro imagine. Your entire race is dead. your mom, who you previously knew alive is now most likely dead. You already had to go through losing your father once, and now you have to lose him again. Any sliver of hope you had of staying connected with him is gone, because the entirety of his essence is now gone. She’s stronger than me, I would have never given him up so easily. I admire that about her.

->I also made the horrible mistake of going on ao3 after

yk for gits and shiggles… and when I go to a new fandom I always search by hits to see the classics first yk

…

WHY are you guys so 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓴𝔂… I genuinely shed a tear what. I was flabbergasted to say the least.

On that note the top 23 were about redguy/blueguy getting smoochy-smoochy with each other so I guess that should be a hint as to what you guys like

->the description of the show says the robot (voltron) is operated by “five teenagers” but that shiro guy has to be AT LEAST 25. He is pushing 30 you can’t convince me otherwise.

->for now it’s kinda giving atla except the war is intergalactic and lasted 10,000 years instead of 100.

->all the other characters seem to have a pretty clear background, but we haven’t yet heard about Keith’s backstory, so I want to know (I know now, this was my initial thought)

->shiros backstory/ptsd is very interesting, lots of angst possibilities i see

-> I had an inkling that pidge was…genderly different. (At first I thought she was transmasc)

Post S2

-> WHERE is my man. Where did he go.

-> Pookie please come back. Now. It’s not a suggestion.

->KEITH BACKSTORY I PREDICTED THEY WERE GONNA SHOW US YAY I LOVE BEING RIGHT

-> he’s galra! Soooo much whump opportunity

-> the whole “Allura doesn’t hate you she’s just a little upset to find out ur part of the race that killed off her entire peoples and family and okay maybe she does hate you” scene with keith and hunk is really giving that scene in atla: the southern raiders where zuko thinks katara hates him and sokka reassures him (badly) while he was just trying to get laid w suki.

->^ that’s gay

-> the aliens they met are going to be very important, aren’t they?

->^ oohhh so this is where the “langst” stuff comes from? he’s just kinda insecure i think, but it can’t possibly just be this episode that has that tag so high, unless flanderization is just really popular with you guys, but already suspect that unfortunately

->^Allura high key ate with this

->the “Blade of Marmora” people are definitely gonna be important later

-> the mall episode was soooo fun! fav s2 episode for sure!

->^gay. It’s literally giving “two bros chillin in a hot tub. five feet apart cus they’re not gay”

-> I know of 2 ships now. klance and allurance. I only see the former though, the latter seems more like a running gag/unrequited crush thing (for now i suppose)

-> Coran is an icon. I love that whimsical man. he’s beekeeping age per say.

-> I need pidge to find her brother and father man I feel so bad for her PLEASE DOBT TELL ME THEYRE DEAD ILL LITERALLY DIE.

-> pidge is sooooo cool i love her so much she’s literally the pookiest of the pookies

-> Who tf is gonna be the black paladin now. Keith sure as hell isn’t ready for that. maybe Allura?? Cus yk she kinda already leads them a little bit

These are thoughts I had compiled over a while now. I am on S5E3 as of now (07/03/24) but I wanted to document my thoughts either way. I will post on the tag “laura’s first vld”

[sunderingstars]

���━━━━━ ⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧₊☾ ◯ ☽₊‧˙⋆˚｡⁺⋆ ━━━━━━☆

✩ ‧₊˚ ⌞ CHOOSE YOUR FIGHTER! ⌝

sampo analysis m.list

— a silly little overview of different "sampos" i find interesting

— not meant to be taken super seriously or canonically, but can tie in to some of the theories i have

— in the true spirit of elation, these aren't hills i'm willing to die on, just ones that are fun to play around with :3

— feel free to use for writing/art inspiration!

— i add to this periodically as new sampos catch my eye!

— word count: 3k (good lord)

— 🎭s indicate aha!sampo

☆━━━━━ ⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧₊☾ ◯ ☽₊‧˙⋆˚｡⁺⋆ ━━━━━━☆

🎭 sampo "midlife crisis" koski

— at risk of losing his aeon/emanatorhood

— doesn’t find anything funny anymore

— tired of being behind the scenes

— becoming a buzzkill (having “lines” he won’t cross)

— taking drastic measures to improve his quality of life (fucking off to a random ass snow planet to scam people)

note: may lead to a villain arc — sampo "renewed vigor" koski — in which he remembers why he used to love tormenting people, conquers his midlife crisis, and returns to pure elated insanity. this is bad for everyone involved for obvious reasons

🎭 sampo "how're you gonna win if you never take any risks?" koski

— aha took drastic measures to secure their success, either through memory erasure, mortal transformation, giving up power, or all three

— under the radar, civilian aha

— trying to circumvent “destiny” through delusional self-confidence

— enter sampo i mean aha i mean sampo i mean aha i mean s

sampo "ceaseless watcher's special little boy" koski

— not aha but aha definitely likes him

— perhaps an avatar or emanator of some sort

— whether he likes aha or not is up for debate

— can easily turn into sampo "ceaseless watcher get their ass" koski, in which sampo becomes a little too fond of invoking his status as aha's favorite to accomplish his own goals

alternate possibility: he’s aha’s favorite due to his pathetic nature and slutty hip windows, he just doesn’t know it. he thinks his luck is due to his own talent & skill (it is literally outside eldritch forces beyond his control)

sampo "close enough" koski

— not an actual aeon, but rather a vessel for aha’s power or consciousness on varying levels

— perhaps akin to caelus/stelle being a stellaron receptacle

sampo "let's get you back to bed grandpa" koski

— the wear and tear of a long life has taken its toll on him

— despite the infinity of time, he has become out-of-sync with newer masked fools members, who regard him as an “old timer”

— isn’t shown much respect, and is frequently asked why he isn’t as cool as he used to be

— also know as sampo "L + ratio + fell off" koski

— “peaked in high school” energy

— can be either aha, emanator, or similar high status

🎭 sampo "in rehab" koski

— aeonic existence isn’t easy and can, in fact, take a toll on those that ascend from human forms

— he finally decided that maybe he should make a change

— and has thus embarked on a healing journey

— therapeutic exercises include: scamming people, starting pyramid schemes, selling artifacts on the black market, and more!

sampo "ultimate dealmaker" koski

— in a contract or some sort of deal with aha in exchange for power, money, or a combination or the two

— possession? who knows

🎭 sampo "i'm not mad i'm just disappointed" koski

— doesn’t understand why his children have strayed so far

— “where did i go wrong? why do they think this is funny? do they even care about the worm?”

— has the energy of an exasperated parent watching his kids flush car keys down the toilet again

🎭 sampo "horrified creator" koski

— aha & the masks have outgrown their creator (sampo) and have gone off to do their own aeonic thing, leaving him behind

— he thinks it’s all insane, actually, and he’s very disappointed and very tired

— trying to pick up the pieces of whatever mayhem the aha!masks cause

— aha!masks keep him around for fun

— “i should never have laughed at that goddamn baby”

sampo "me and aha kiss on the weekends" koski

— just a silly little guy who has somehow wormed his way into the heart of an eldritch being

— in it for the mind-bending sex

sampo "blasphemy" koski

— technically affiliated with the masked fools but doesn’t subscribe to their beliefs

— thinks aha is a load of horseshit but needs to keep up with what they’re doing to circumvent it

— may have been formerly in a high-ranking position, or just another guy with a mask

— aha probably wronged him or did some fucked up shit in the past and now he has a vendetta

🎭 sampo "stole my fucking thunder" koski

— someone stole aha’s power. that’s it

— sampo is salty

— 10/10 betrayal plot

potential inverse: he’s the one stealing aha’s power

sampo "my boss sucks and i want to quit" koski

— tired, overworked employee of the masked fools

— views aha as a sort of fucked up insane ceo that he wants nothing to do with but is unfortunately contractually obligated to work for

— wants to start a union

🎭 sampo "next in line" koski

— can also branch into sampo "formerly in line" koski or sampo "abdication" koski

— wherein aha’s power or masks are akin to titles or positions that are passed down between different people, somewhat akin to how “crowns” and “kings” work

— in this case, sampo would either be currently in line for this power, formerly in line for this power, or has actually been in power but abdicated or otherwise lost/gave up/moved on from his position

— this could be natural or otherwise

note: this does not have to be solely for aha, this kind of power transfer could work for other high-ranking positions like emanator or organization leader

🎭 sampo "this price was too steep..." koski

— got a bit cocky and wagered his aeonhood

— is now in a Not Great position

sampo "i hate owing people things" koski

— owes aha one

— does not like owing people things

— doing whatever he needs to cancel out the debt

🎭 sampo "i was crazy back then lol" koski

— the universe’s idea of aha writ large is based on an outdated version of their personality

— this always annoys sampo because he has to be constantly reminded of his insane college days before he mellowed out

— the type to reminisce over wine and say “yeah that worm thing was wild. i was crazy back then huh”

🎭 sampo "committed to the bit" koski

— one of my personal favorites

— became mortal as a joke

— ended up liking it a little too much

— doesn’t really want to go back

sampo "worm on a string" koski

— what is a man if not just another omniscient worm destined for tragedy?

— he’s a puppet, basically

— & he just gets wormed around like he’s on a string

— hence the name

— another one of aha’s classic cosmic jokes

🎭 sampo "one of many" koski

— ties into my split consciousness theory

— aha split their personality into multiple people (either as a joke or for a bigger reason) and sampo is one of those pieces

🎭 sampo "yeah i heard aha was super cool and hot and sexy and smart and did i mention sexy" koski

— big fan of the rumor mill

— can’t help but try to win people over to the elation even when he’s supposed to be laying low

— he’s not fooling anyone. just yesterday serval watched him laugh until he cried because a kid dropped their ice cream. he is not slick

🎭 sampo "reverted to babey" koski

— someway, somehow, aha got reverted back to who they were before they ascended to aeonhood

— now sampo is just really fucking confused (and annoyed because mortal life is pretty annoying)

sampo "character creation screen" koski

— aha just had a silly goofy lil day & wanted to create a guy

— so they did

— sampo acts as a kind of controlled character who’s self-aware about his position as a playable character

— or alternatively he was turned loose with no purpose scaramouche-style and is now just fucking around doing whatever

sampo "failed clone" koski

— obligatory clone theory

— aha tried to clone themself. it wasn’t as funny as they wanted

— sampo is the result

— aha realizing sampo was a bit of a buzzkill: “i don’t want to play with you anymore”

🎭 sampo "vicarious existence" koski

— part of the split consciousness theory

— aha sectioned off or created a part of themself that can live in a way they can’t (i.e. have free will beyond the elation)

— similar to the focalors/furina situation in genshin

sampo "trojan horse" koski

— is his own person, under the impression he has free will, but is being used as an unknowing vehicle for eventual Big Aha Moment

🎭 sampo "can't remember shit" koski

— he forgor :((

— used to be aha but doesn’t know that

— most likely erased his own memory in order to accomplish a planned endgame

🎭 sampo "you don't wanna see me when i transform" koski

— dual consciousness theory

— sampo koski as a human is much more rational and reasonable than eldritch-form aha

— sampo likes to stay as sampo as much as possible because he doesn’t like what he becomes when he changes forms

— may lead to a tragic arc where, in order to defend belobog, he reverts to his aeonic form knowing he won’t be able to transform back

sampo "lmao got you" koski

— all signs pointing towards aeon or emanator status are red herrings

— he’s just really good at gaslighting to get what he wants

sampo "whoops i got attached" koski

— fucked off to belobog for whatever reason

— got surprisingly attached

— belobog now has an extremely powerful entity/protector without even knowing it

— “it’s just a weird insane little place. very charming” — sampo, probably

🎭 sampo "elias bouchard" koski

— just a shell for aha, jonah magnus style

— used to be his own person, but got yoinked along the way

🎭 sampo "5d mind chess" koski

— knows exactly what he’s been doing from the beginning

— strategic placement on belobog to meet the trailblazer

— has done a damn good job of coming off as “normal pathetic scammer mcgee” to distract from larger plans

🎭 sampo "just like everyone else" koski

— for whatever reason, aha is insistent that they be treated just like any other member of the masked fools; same rules, same hierarchy, everything

— this results in everyone looking at him weirdly but not saying anything and trying to strike up casual conversation with their literal aeon

sampo "gimme your eldritch money" koski

— the final form of scammers everywhere

— he’s scammed everyone he possibly can, and now there’s only one thing left: to scam an aeon

— chooses aha + the masked fools because there’s a good chance he’ll get stuff just because aha is amused with him

— tries to link aha up with a pyramid scheme

sampo "you should see me in a crown" koski

— either on a delusional self-confident power trip or gunning for aha’s power

— can be aha, emanator, or other high-ranking position, but aha works the best if sampo wants to go all the way up the ladder

— thinks he’s the best ever and can never fail, pairs well with “5d mind chess” sampo like fine wine

— drunk on power/worship

🎭 sampo "wine aunt" koski

— also known as sampo "washed up aeon" koski

— he’s out of the limelight, whether that means he passed on his power, had it taken from him in a free for all, or just wants to retire, and now he’s kicking back with a margarita and enthralling the belobog locals with “hypothetical” scenarios that are actually crazy mind-bending stories from his glory days

— he’s not as great as he used to be, nor does he have the power of a full-fledged aeon anymore, but belobog appreciates him all the same (goes hand in hand with sampo "just like everyone else" koski)

— “geez yeah, ix is so annoying. such a buzzkill, really, that guy even hates knock-knock jokes. i mean, who hates knock-knock jokes? … hypothetically, of course.” — sampo, probably

🎭 sampo "zhongli the funeral consultant" koski

— aha is secretly “dead” but no one knows

— perhaps the masked fools know, but either way sampo has either already faked his death, is currently doing it, or is planning to in the future

— he just wants to retire man, and if that means he has to “fall” then so be it

sampo "just a silly guy" koski

— there is actually nothing special to this man at all

— he’s just a guy. just a silly little guy

— aha is laughing at all of us for even making theories about him

sampo "aha jr." koski

— sampo is a doll created by aha like in the simulated universe occurrence, having the same appearance as aha’s human form and sharing personality & path attributes

— most likely wants to break away from the elation’s influence but doesn’t know how

— views aha as a really fucked up dad

sampo "oh my god i'm in a cult" koski

— raised in the masked fools, didn’t realize how batshit insane they were until a Formative Traumatic Event occurred and he went “oh.. oh no…..”

— estranged from most of the members but still deals with them in the way you do when you hate your family but have to put up with them at holiday dinners

— maybe got to a high position of power before, but left when he realized it wasn’t good for him

sampo "partners in crime" koski

— him & aha are friends, besties even

— knows the risks of working with an aeon but can’t say no when that much money is involved

🎭 sampo "for funsies" koski

— if aha can give the entire universe’s knowledge to a worm for fun, then by god they can give all of their power and aeonhood to a silly little guy randomly for no reason whatsoever (especially if he doesn’t want it)

— constantly fighting against increasingly powerful eldritch control

— “young god”

— canon in my heart

sampo "reality tv" koski

— part of the vicarious emanator theory

— aha gave him all their power and basically watches him like a reality show

— *pokes sampo with a stick* “hey why aren’t you doing anything” — aha, probably

— constant voyeurism

sampo "communism" koski

— part of the dual consciousness and vicarious emanator theories

— one of aha’s emanators that they share their entire path with

— “our” power

— perhaps some sort of memory or consciousness sharing

sampo "horse girl" koski

— “but your dream is to be an emanator”

— “no that’s your dream dad, not mine”

🎭 sampo "aeons anonymous" koski

— aeon in rehabilitation

— wants to start a former aeon support group

🎭 sampo "power receptacle" koski

— in which the masks function as the true “aha” and sampo has given them up or put them away for safekeeping

— “sparkle please please i’m so serious just let me put it back on once. no seriously only once i promise i won’t go insane like last time i’ll be so normal it’ll only be for five minutes please” — sampo, probably

sampo "one-sided hate boner" koski

— man absolutely hates aha (probably for backstory reasons)

— aha doesn’t care at best and at worst thinks it’s really really funny

— “you burned my house to the ground!”

— “🤷”

— “my family is dead!”

— “🤷”

— bonus points if aha makes him an emanator or something

sampo "significant annoyance" koski

— dedicated to being as annoying as possible to aha, whether out of spite, a vendetta, or sheer interest

— aha finds this funny so they let him stick around

— “he graffitied my mask with a bunch of dicks and it took me years to get it off. isn’t he just the greatest little guy?” — aha, probably

sampo "god's silliest soldier" koski

— aha gives their hardest battles to their silliest soldiers

— and that is sampo

sampo "true wild card" koski

— he’s not aha, an emanator, or any higher status

— he is quite literally just That Good as a regular human being

🎭 sampo "cosmic irony" koski

— “man, it sure would suck to be aha the aeon of elation. glad i don’t have to deal with that. i love being mortal”

— “🎭🎉👀”

— “HOW DID YOU GET IN MY HOUSE”

sampo "cult leader" koski

— humility is a facade

— “lines” he won’t cross are a facade

— everything is for the purpose of appearing like the perfect leader (or candidate for leader)

— secretly the most insane out of anyone

sampo "secret agent man" koski

— doing aha’s bidding willingly

— a goon. a henchman even

sampo "tainted love" koski

— aha isn’t the most healthy person to be around, on account of the ten billion cosmic torments jokes they throw around on a daily basis

— guinea pig sampo is TIRED

sampo "sacrificial lamb" koski

— may or may not be aware of his sacrificial status

— created or being manipulated into a position where he becomes collateral for aha doing whatever the fuck they wanna do

sampo "impromptu therapist" koski

— the receiver of many rants and complaints unrelated to him within the masked fools

— becomes the “advice friend” even though this man should never be trusted for reliable advice

— but surprisingly he is the most reliable within the masked fools

sampo "sanest masked fool" koski

— just a long-suffering member of an organization whose followers are some of the most insane people you’ll ever meet

— permanent eye bags for having to put up with them

🎭 sampo "michael distortion" koski

— he was a regular guy once, but ended up absorbing aha’s eldritch power one way or another

— potential assimilation into one form

— aha didn’t expect the joke to joke back

sampo "court jester" koski

— similar to "ceaseless watcher's special little boy"

— the king’s (aha’s) favorite little jester

— and also they make out sometimes

— has a semblance of protection afforded to him by being the favorite (he uses this to his advantage)

— “jester’s privilege”

sampo "try me" koski

— aha is physically keeping tabs on the trailblazer

— sampo is too, but only to swat aha’s hand away like a kid reaching into a cookie jar

— usually a mad dash to see who gets there first

— leads to many situations where they make tense eye contact across the street or smth

— subsists off of pure spite & annoyance

🎭 sampo "favored of humanity" koski

— aha is one of the aeons closest with humanity, and has such developed a more “mortal” frame of mind over time

— eventually if you spend enough time around mortals you might just turn back into one

🎭 sampo "hedonist" koski

— why is he doing any of this? who knows

— who can possibly understand the machinations of what an aeon finds funny

— eldritch humor beyond our comprehension

🎭 sampo "cosplayer extraordinaire" koski

— “so this is my humansona his name is sampo koski he likes scamming people and has slutty slutty hip windows”

— likes to stay in character as much as possible

— kinda like playing a dnd character 24/7

sampo "long-suffering host" koski

— somewhat dual consciousness theory

— aha is just up there, and sampo has to listen to their annoying ass constantly

— can be a joke, chill possession scenario, or necessity for aha due to external circumstances

— may be a side effect of emanator status, or may just be another Classic Cosmic Joke™

sampo "unwilling hierophant" koski

— informercial: how would YOU like to receive PERSONAL and INCESSANT psychic messages from eldritch forces beyond your comprehension?

— “geez ew no”

— infomercial: is that a YES?

— “no”

— infomercial: thank you for signing up for our FREE TRIAL service!

— “wait no”

— infomercial: text "NO PLEASE STOP NO" to 69420 to UNSUBSCRIBE from the Laughter’s FREE psychic telepathy service

— “NO PLEASE STOP NO”

— phone: thank you for subscribing to our LIFETIME PLAN of FREE, UNCEASING, TORMENTING visions from AHA THE ELATION. please enjoy your COMPLIMENTARY descent into insanity!

— “god fucking damnit”

sampo "vacant apartment" koski

— possession receptacle that’s no longer in use and is left up to his own devices

sampo "moved to iceland and became a sheep herder" koski

— living off the grid

— only came back because something bad is gonna happen to belobog

— can be aha, emanator, or other high-ranking position

🎭 sampo "undercover boss" koski

— keeping tabs on the masked fools because they’re fanatical

— “what the hell guys this is not what i want” — sampo, probably

— they say or do something and he’s just like “not funny. didn’t laugh”

— y’know when people say “if jesus came down to earth, he’d be disappointed at what people are doing in his name” — yea that’s sampo but like for real

— damage control

☆━━━━━ ⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧₊☾ ◯ ☽₊‧˙⋆˚｡⁺⋆ ━━━━━━☆

© written by sunderingstars. do not copy, repost, translate, modify, or claim my work as your own.

[rolandtowen]

Chapter two (the last chapter!) of my first Cherik fic is live! Read under the cut or on ao3 :)

It's the greatest gift we have: to bear their pain without breaking.

***

     Erik feels like a drowned man. The sudden silence, sudden lack of Charles' presence--no matter how painful--is deafening. He tries to open his eyes but can't. Pressure covers his entire body, blanketing him with anxiety. For the first time in decades, he can’t sense any metal, and he’s lost without the sensation.

     Did he...die?

     Erik. You're not dead. You just have to open your eyes. Charles’ voice seeping into his mind.

     I can't—I’m so...tired.

     You can. Stay with me. Open your eyes.

     Are you sure?

     Always, my love.

***

          Air comes screaming back into Erik’s lungs as his senses flip back on full force. There's something soft beneath him, a hand on his chest, he can hear the fire crackling, Charles breathing shakily. Erik opens his eyes to find himself and Charles on the floor of the study, his head in Charle’s lap. Charles lets out a relieved gasp as he sees his eyes flutter open.

          “You’re back. I’m—I’m so sorry, I should have pulled you out sooner. Shouldn’t have done it at all, actually—”

          “No, Charles. Thank you.” Erik sat up, intensely aware of his renewed senses. How warm Charles’ hand on his was, how blue his eyes were in the yellow glow from the fire. “I needed that. I needed to understand, what I did.” He squeezed Charles’ hand. “And you can’t keep all this pain to yourself. You need to share it with someone.”

     “Funny, someone once told me that a telepath’s greatest gift is the ability to bear pain without breaking.”

     Erik smiled sadly. “That doesn’t mean you can’t have help, liebling.”

     Charles ran one of his hands in Erik’s hair. “How did I get so lucky?”

     “I wouldn’t exactly call myself ‘lucky’”.

     “Darling,” Charles chastised, “remember how we said ‘no demented penance’?”

     Okay, liebling. Just for you. “What was that, that void?”

     Charles hummed, the change of subject not lost on him. "My best guess is that when a telepath experiences someone else's death, their mind doesn't know the difference. Your brain shut down, even though your body was perfectly fine. You basically had to restart your brain."

     "So that's what you were talking me through?"

     Charles looked surprised. "Erik, I haven't been able to connect with you since that memory ended until after you woke up.”

     "I heard you. You called for me to stay. To open my eyes."

     Charles' eyes filled with sudden emotion. "Oh my darling, that wasn't me. That was your soul."

     Erik started. "What do you mean?"

     "Well, soul, heart, purpose, conscience—whatever you want to call it. That's what I think calls from the void. The physicality of your brain stops, and yet...something still called me, and called you. I have no other explanation than that there must be something driving us humans other than electrical impulses. I’m not a spiritual man, but someone called out to me in that void."

     "Who—" Erik rubbed his eyes. "Who did your conscience sound like?"

     Charles smiled wetly. "You, my love. I thought you’d taken off your helmet, but we both know how that story went.”

     Oh, Charles. “How much time we wasted,” Erik gathered Charles in his arms, and Charles settled into the crook of his neck. But you’re here now, Charles said softly in his mind. “I am,” Erik conceded. “And I want to be a proper partner. Your joy, your pain, your work—I want to help you carry it all. As you’ve done for me all these years.”

     Charles smiled against Erik’s chest. Perhaps we can start with joy. Though, I fear you’ve already seen my most joyful memories. You’re in most of them.

     And you are in mine, Erik thought. We have so many more joyful memories to make together.  

[sunlightandsuffering]

“Is that my name… on your ass?” Mikasa screams, a high-pitched wail as she turns around, her hands already moving desperately to cover up the cheeks of her ass in her far too tiny bikini that Sasha had forced her to buy. But Eren is faster, knocking her hands away and casually bending her over the large outside dining table for a better look. He doesn’t even bother to hide his amusement, the pure glee in his eyes as he pushes her bikini bottoms away, letting them bunch up between the cheeks of her ass and Mikasa could die right now. Because despite all her protests and squirming it is in fact Eren’s name on her ass, written in dark bold cursive, nondescript but big enough to be noticeable, Eren. 

It’s a brand of ownership if there ever was one, and glancing back at him his eyes are filled with mirth, that grin of his all too smug. “Oh Mikasa, baby when did you get this?” “It was an accident, i’m getting it removed–” SMACK. 

The sound reverberates over the pool deck, and seconds later the pain hits her, delayed sensation as she realizes Eren’s just smacked her ass with enough force for it to jiggle, her cheeks bouncing from the impact. He leaves a red mark in the shape of his palm as he rubs over her butt, and Mikasa yelps, “Did you just fucking slap my ass–” SMACK! He does it again and Mikasa yips this time at the impact, renewing her struggles, “Eren you can’t just–” “I can and I will, this is my ass now baby,” He rubs over her rear with a possessive hand, soothing over the mark, his expression pleased as he takes in her new ink. “Eren you can’t be serious it was a drunken accident we’ve been broken up for–” Another smack and this time Mikasa growls at him, “Stop it you asshole!” “I don’t think I will, sweet cheeks, had I known you were gonna brand my name on your ass Mikasa I wouldn’t have been quite so willing to let you go, takes a special kind of crazy to get my name tattooed on your ass.” “It was a drunken mistake Eren, we’re over it’s not happening again, we’re too toxic together.” “I don’t think we are,” He hums, ignoring her now, his eyes glazed over with lust now, his thumb slipping to the warm crevice of her cunt, skating over the flimsy fabric of her bathing suit. His grin is downright feral when he finds her fucking soaked, “Couldn’t leave this sweet little cunt waiting now could I? A sweet girl like you, my name on your ass, I’m the most wicked thing about you Mikasa and I think I like it.” 

Mikasa is aghast, how has she let the situation deteriorate so much, they’ve been broken up for two months, life has been healthy, she even went on a date. And now here she is, heart throbbing, pussy wanting and all because she got her infamously toxic ex’s name tattooed on her ass. 

Eren rubs a large palm over her butt, humming in utter delight, his eyes expression gleeful, “ God Miki this makes me wanna fuck you all the more, tell me sweetheart, now that my name is here will you finally let me fuck your ass, be the sweet little anal slut I know you can be?” 

She is so very, very fucked, but maybe just maybe she doesn’t mind…

[queenoftheferns]

Harley, Woodrue, and The Green: An in-depth analysis of Poison Ivy (2022)

(Discalaimer: This is an analysis of vol. 1 -issues 1-6- of the Poison Ivy series by G Willow Wilson, and it doesn’t take any later events into account. This is also over 2,400 words long so buckle up)

Hi!! I watched a video on how to analyse things and was inspired- I loved the first bit of Poison Ivy’s series and had a lot of fun going super in-depth into the writing, symbolism and psychology of Poison Ivy.  So let’s get into it! 

First, to make things easier, I’m going to assign some new meanings to the words “change” and “transformation”.  Although this is not how these words usually work, in this analysis “change” refers to the way you choose to evolve. Change comes from within yourself and is never something forced. “Transformation” on the other hand, is something done to you by someone/something else. It is a violation of your personal autonomy and it erases your identity with a new one deemed as “better” by the other person’s standards. Now. Back to Ivy.

Transformation: What it means to Ivy

This theme appeares a lot in Ivy’s story. Her first instance of transformation is with Woodrue who experiments on her- transforming her body and mind against her will. He’s the one who first introduces this concept of “out with the old- in with the new”- something we end up seeing a lot of in Ivy’s ideology. “Nature is not sentimental” Woodrue says, “the strong consume the weak… this is the virtuous cycle.” The fact that “Virtuous Cycle” is the title of Vol. 1 should tell us a bit about how much Ivy has carried these ideas with her (more on that later).

[ID: A picture from the comic depicting Ivy's flashback to Woodrue's experiment. Narration: "She thinks it's going to kill her." Woodrue: "Nature is not sentimental. The strong consume the weak and then excrete them to fertilize the earth. That is the virtuous cycle. Consume. Digest. Renew." /end ID]

Like many villains (and heroes for that matter), she draws a clear line between her two identities. In her eyes, the identity of “Pamela Isley” represents everything wrong with humanity: she’s shortsighted and can’t see the bigger picture beyond her own emotions and she failed to acheive her goals because of her human need for love and validation. The identity of “Poison Ivy,” however, has embraced her transformation and has let her old identity be completely eradicated. Ivy isn’t human, she’s Greater, More Than human. She can see the bigger picture, the one humans could see if they weren’t so wrapped up in their silly mortal relationships. Poison Ivy is untouchable. 

Until she’s not. Until her body is transformed against her will once again at the end of “Fear State,” but this time not into something stronger or greater. Although Ivy’s anger at Harley (issue #1) is in no way justified, it makes a little more sense when you consider how reminiscent this is of her backstory: changed forever against her will by the actions of someone she loves, cutting her off from her relationships (with Woodrue her green skin and powers/pheremones cut her off from humans, with Harley and Gardner she was cut off from her relationships with plants and the Green), and destroying all of her ideas for what her future would look like. 

[ID: A picture from the comic where Ivy is losing her green skintone and preparing to drink the vial of Ophiocordyceps Lamia. Narration: "Every day I lose a little more of the power of Queen Ivy. Soon enough I'll be back to my old self. As the invincible parts of me die away. But there is one last chance to salvage something from all this. One final opportunity to carry out the will of the Green..." /end ID]

Of course Harley didn’t know that would happen and had just wanted to save her girlfriend, but she, and the readers, can also understand how triggering and painful it must have been for Ivy and that it’s realistic for her to lash out at first. What Harley doesn’t see is this: That Ivy’s spent years hating her past self and seeing Pamela Isley as the epitome of human weakness- and now she’s her again. From here on out, Pamela’s views of humanity as a whole are directly related to her view of herself. She thinks that humans aren’t essential to the environment, so she tells Harley “you saved the parts of me that didn’t mtter”.  She beleives all of humanity must die via the Opiocordyceps Lamia, and although she makes an exception for Harley she doesn’t make one for herself. In her conversation with dream Harley, what they say (“It’s not too late to fix a mistake.”/“I wish that were true.” etc.) could be applied to either humanity as a whole or to Ivy’s view of herself as broken and unfixable. And, as her view of herself evolves, her view of humanity evolves with it. 

[ID: Image one. Ivy and Harley are having an argument after Ivy has lost her connection to the Green. Harley: "We were trying to save your life!" Ivy: "You saved the parts of me that didn't matter!" Image two. A shot of a man consumed by the Ophiocordyceps Lamia. Narration: "Sucking up every resource on this planet until all that's left is a ball of superheated concrete. The only way to save this beatiful marble is to get rid of us. Every one of us. Even me. Because there is only one person who deserves all this beauty. And that's you." /end ID]

To carry out her new plan, Pamela goes “back to the beginning” and steals the Opiocordyceps Lamia from Jason Woodrue. It’s clear she still feels that she needs something from Woodrue in order to be Poison Ivy- after all, he’s her creator. Her breakup with Harley and her plans going forward seem to have grown from her desperate desire to prove that she’s still not entirely human, and won’t make human mistakes. In the first few issues, we get the sense that she would (at this point in her story) rather die than be Pamela Isley again. For her, escaping Pamela Isley means embracing the ideology of the man that killed her. Of course, Ivy doesn’t see it that way, but it’s not hard for us to see in the way she attempts to transform the other humans against their will like what Woodrue did to her. Watching the human’s shock and betrayal fade into awe that the beauty of the Green is reminiscent of how Ivy herself learned to love her connection to the Green despite the pain of her original transformation.

[ID: A scene from the comic where Janet is talking with Ivy while being consumed by the Ophiocordyceps Lamia. Narration: "Janet is part of something else now. Part of the life cycle of this riverbank." Janet: It's so beautiful. So clean. Like starting over." Ivy: "Right? Now you can see it too." Janet: "I want to see everything like you see. Take me with you. I don't want to go back to... to that." /end ID]

She also inherits Woodrue’s view of the natural world as something detatched from humanity with no room for human kindness and love (JW: “Nature is not sentimental”/PI: “Nature isn’t cruel, just efficient”). The same way Ivy unknowingly spreads Woodrues ideology, she is also unknowingly spreading his mind control virus in the form of Opiocordyceps Lamia. Throughout the story, transformation is a force of evil, violating someone’s autonomy in an attempt to make them a vessel for something greater. Yet the creator can never really control what people transform into…

Change: What it means to Ivy

Change is never on the table for Ivy. She is transformed by Woodrue and in turn tries to transform the planet and humanity. In every instance, whether it be about society or Ivy herself, her mindset is always that change is too late. Our life courses are set in stone by our own nature unless we are transformed by some greater force. This is why Ivy seeks out Woodrue after losing her connection to the Green, and why she is so focused on following the “will of the Green” rather than doing what she wants to. She doesn’t trust herself to make the right decisions (she’s been wrong too many times) so instead she wants some Other Force to transform her into someone who doesn’t make human mistakes. This rejection of change and worship of transformation was the basis of Ivy’s ideology. Until…

…Harley Quinn! Seeing Harley in this comic always brings with it a mild sense of disbelief. She seems so out of place within the comic’s mood and aesthetic… and I realized that it’s for a good reason. Harley Quinn is the epitome of change, she’s multifaceted and unpredictable and her path in life is never fixed. First she was going to become a gymnast, but then she was a psychologist, but then she fell in love with the Joker, but then she left him, but then she went back, and just when you think you see a pattern, when you think you know what she’ll do next, Harley does something else. She breaks up with the Joker for good, she falls in love with Ivy, they break up but not really, she starts to become a hero but her redemption arc itself is filled with messiness and unpredictability and all of it was her choice. Sure there was more than a little manipulation on the Joker’s part, but at the end of the day Harley chose to jump into that vat of acid— she wasn’t pushed.

[ID: Image one. A picture from the Gardener Files comic showing Ivy in a cell meeting Harley. Bella's Narration: "After years trapped in an echo chamber of her own dark thought, a woman was place in an adjacent cell. A young woman madle in love with a monster, trapped in a cycle of abuse. Harley Quinn." Image two. A scene from the end of the Fear State saga with Harley and Ivy talking. Ivy: "There's one more thing I need to to..." Ivy pulls Harley closer with vines. Harley: "Hoo-boy... Pammy... I know this is a lot to process and you don't like when I get all meddly... but I'm trying to be a good guy and save the city and junk-" Ivy: "Harley, stop talking." Harley: "Okay." The two kiss. Image three. Harley and Ivy from Ivy's dream in Poison Ivy (2022). Ivy: "I can't. I've gone to far to turn back now." Dream Harley: "It's never too late to fix a mistake." /end ID]

In every respect, Harley’s mere existence is the most persuasive argument against Ivy’s ideology. Although this might seem like a roadblock in their relationship, it’s actually the reson Ivy loves her so much. Harley’s ability to change is everything Ivy wishes humanity (and herself) could be. If more people were like Harley, not held back by societal norms and not paralyzed by the fear that it’s “too late” to change, then maybe Ivy could have more hope for humanity. (I can imagine Ivy, bored and self-righteous, meeting Dr. Quinzel for the first time, thinking she knows exactly what to expect from a young, naive psychologist. Then beginning to fall for Harley as she smashes Ivy’s expections again and again. That’s what a good joke is after all: building up an expectation and then subverting it. Anyways. Back to Ivy).

Ivy's Arc

Ultimately, Ivy/Pamela’s story is about her relationship to her own humanity, and the other characters’ role in the plot is to tug Pamela back and forth between two perspectives: Humanity (and by extension, Pamela) being irredeeamble and in need of a deadly transformation, vs humanity (and Pamela) having inherent value and being capable of changing and turning things around. Woodrue beleives that the only way to thrive in this dying world is to take advantage of the struggle around him to benefit himself. This is reflected in George Holloran, the boss at the packaging company Ivy works at for all of ten minutes (issue #4). Like Woodrue, he accepts the state of the world with no attempt to change anything, deciding to climb to the top of the hierarchy instead of trying to dismantle it. The guys at the bar (#1) also mirror this with their focus on satisfying their own desire rather than treat a woman with respect and (unlike Harley) do not stray even a little from Ivy’s expectations. They and Woodrue represent Ivy’s worst assumptions about humanity: that everyone is ruled by their own desire for power and pleasure and are incapable of changing or growing because of how society has shaped them. 

[ID: A panel of Jason Woodrue as Floronic Man. Woodrue: "This planet is too far gone to save, Pamela. It needs a revolution, but all it wants is a band-aid. So we might as well make millions selling band-aids." /end ID]

[ID: A scene where George Halloran is being consumed by the Ophiocordyceps Lamia. George: "It's just hard, you know? To be the boss. At first you want everybody to like you. Th-then you realize it doesn't work. They hate you anyway. Because you're all in the same system. And the system chews people up. S-so you start to do things you shouldn't because you start to hate them back. You f-figure out that fear is more effective than love. And that's... when it all... goes dark." /end ID]

On the other hand, however, are characters like Jesslyn and Timothy at the packaging company (#4), Carrie at the motel (#3), Jenny Bolger at the restaurant (#2), and of course, Harley Quinn. Other than Harley, all of these characters are people struggling to make meaningful change in the confines of their normal lives under capitalism. Whether it’s through art, human connection, or focusing on a small peice of earth you can control, these people show Ivy what change looks like. It’s not as flashy and sudden as Ivy’s plan to transform everyone, and these aren’t the kind of stories Ivy would’ve known about had she simply looked on the news. But the willingness of all these people to at least try to help the world and each other is enough to make Ivy question her assumptions on the fixedness of human nature. 

[ID: Two panels, one with Ivy and one with Carrie, the lady Ivy meets at the motel. Narration: "It's too early to make exceptions. Yet somehow, that's exactly what I find myself doing." Ivy: "-I don't want to get dirt all over you." Carrie: "Well. Suit yourself." /end ID]

When on her own, Ivy has no particular character growth, but when she is with these people, the good people, or when she has memories of Harley, those are the moments we see her grow and change. Ivy says she has faith in the world while working with Carrie, and her will to live comes back after sleeping with Jesslyn. And of course, everything always comes back to Harley, the love of her life. In the end, Ivy defeats Woodrue not because of her ideology but because he made the mistake of threatening Harley. This is the moment a lot of her developement has been leading up to. She’s lost all her powers, even the ones given to her by the Lamia. Like when she first became Poison Ivy, Woodrue has complete control over her body. Like before, she had trusted his science when she shouldn’t have. Manipulated, weak, and abandoned by the Green, there is barely anything left of Poison Ivy. She is almost entirely human. Almost entirely Pamela. Finally, she has no choice but to rely on her human instincts- her love for, and desire to protect, another human. And it works. Pamela Isley succeeded where Poison Ivy failed because of  her humanity- not in spite of it.

[ID: A scene with Ivy and Woodrue in the comic, Woodure is forcing Ivy to hold a knife to her own neck via the Ophiocordyceps Lamia. Narration: "-simply have to accept that you've failed. Your enemy has won. And no one is coming to help." Woodrue: "And then I'm going to track down your little blonde girlfriend. --And I'm doing to turn her inside out. Not for any scientific purposes. Just because I can." Narration: "But that's not what happened this time." /end ID]

This is what ultimately opens her eyes to how, actually, these human instincts and human desires are what’s going to save the world. Her desire to protect Harley is the same as her deisre to protect the planet, which is the same as Carrie’s drive to save the plot of land by the motel, which is the same as Jenny’s drive to create art, and Jesslyn and Timothy’s drive to reach out to others and support each other in a hostile environment. After meeting a child and sensing the ecosystems he contained, Pamela comes to the conclusion that “we are the Green”. She realizes that our humanity is a feature, not a bug. We were designed to be here, and to love and protect the world and people around us. It’s when some people deny their humanity (for personal gain like Woodrue, or fear and self-hate like Ivy) that we start causing harm. 

[ID: A scene from the comic where Ivy is picturing the faces of Jesslyn, Jenny and the nice guy from the restaurant. Narration: "Home. The only home any of us will ever have. Because nobody without billions of dollars to burn is going anywhere. And because-- after all-- we're not so bad. We can still gorw things. Gardens. Communities. Friendships. Against all odds. I realize, here at the end of everything, that I've been fighting the wrong people. Because it was easier. Easier than fighting the real enemies." /end ID]

[ID: A scene where Ivy is reaching out to a child who's handing her back her scarf. Narration: "--but when I look at this child, I see more than just one individual. We float in our own ecosystem of symbiotic bacteria. We exhale and the trees inhale. Billions of tiny organisms call our bodies home. To the microscopic beings alive on his skin, this child is the entire universe." Ivy: "...We are the Green." /end ID]

In eating Woodrue’s corpse (Iconic, by the way), she shows that she understands now that the blame for what he did to her lies with him, not her. In the end, she tells Harley that she “made me understand that we have to protect what is truly precious.” In other words, helped Ivy understand that protecting people is protecting the Green. She signs her name as “Pammy”, not “Ivy” or “Ives”. Maybe this is just because Harley calls her that, or maybe it’s because the identity of Pamela Isley has finally proven herself to Ivy.

[ID: A comic scene of Harley Quinn reading Ivy's letter (which is also the narration.) Narration/Letter: " --you've made me understand that we have to protect what is truly precious. I love you. And only you. Until the end of the world. No matter what. Always and forever, Your Pammy." /end ID]

If you read this far, THANK YOU!!! I love analysing stuff and hope to put out some more Poison Ivy analysis in the future. In the meantime, I really, really appreciate any comments, questions, or even disagreements. I would love nothing more than to have a conversation about Poison Ivy in the notes.

[anothercrypticnerd]

I’ve connected the dots

The Warrior Nun writers has the BIGGEST brain and big dick energy i’ve ever known in the history of TV Shows

In this essay i will

We know that 7.87 seconds on earth equals 107 minutes in the other realms

So,

7.87 seconds = 6,420 seconds

1 second = 815.7 seconds

1 day = 815.7 days

Michael was in the other realm for 14 or 15 years

Let’s just go with the median and say 14.5 years

Now if we do the math, 14.5 years in the other realms is roughly 6.5 days on earth

Why is this important?

Numbers have a lot of symbolism and meanings in the bible, and some of the most significant numbers are 1, 3, 6, 7, and 12

God created Man on the 6th day, and rest/finished on the 7th day

7 is the number of God, which signifies perfection and completion.

That is why the number 6 is often refers to or related to man, humanity and it’s weakness, imperfection, and sin

Michael was sent back to earth on the 6th day after he went through the arc

With a plan on how to kill Adriel and packed with enough divinium to overwhelmed Adriel’s ability to heal (which can kill a warrior nun too btw)

And they kinda forgot to factor Lilith as a possible obstacle

Heck they don’t even think about possible obstacle, they don’t even have a plan B

What if it doesn’t work? They’ll both be dead and Adriel gets the Halo, What then?

The stakes are too high for them to fail, but they didn’t even think about backup plan

Why?

Because of Reya

Ava has been rejecting this plan from the beginning and has been trying to figure out another way to defeat Adriel

They even had a reasonable plan to immobilize Adriel and lock him away again, for good this time, but No, Reya “showed” her that this is the only way

And so they went through with the plan, which fails almost immediately (maybe if they can place the crown then they’ll succeed, idk), and failed again later

If Michael and Reya are number 6, the number of Man, the imperfection, then Beatrice is number 7, the number of God, Perfection, Completion

The symbolism is there

Mankind falls into temptation and sin, thus breaking their relationship with God, banished from the garden of Eden (to die)

Ava left Beatrice and the other Sisters, falls into Adriel’s trap, almost led humanity to it’s doom

Then only after Ava reunited with Beatrice, a servant of God, she’s finally able to kill Adriel, saved the world, completed the mission

Also, it’s been hinted multiple times that Ava alluded to Jesus, so it’s reasonable to expect that she’ll be back in 3 days

Now here’s the interesting part for Avatrice

Remember the math from the beginning?

3 days = 6.7 years

Ava is 19 at the start of season 1 when she died, and probably only a few months has passed since then, so she’s most likely still be 19

That means she’ll be 25 or 26 when she came back

The minimum age of being a nun is 18, with a postulancy time of at least 2 years max before one can take a novitiate that last for 1 or 2 years.

After completing the novitiate, one may take a temporary vows that last for a minimum of 3 and maximum of 6 years, and only after that, one can request to take a permanent vows or renew the temporary vows

Beatrice graduated from a boarding school in Switzerland, which means she graduated at 18 at the very least, and if she joins the OCS immediately after graduating at 18, she will be 22 when she finished her novitiate and take her temporary vows

Beatrice leaving the order implied that she hasn’t taken the permanent vow, and with her tasked to train the new recruits implied that she’s been in the convent for a few years to be able to reach that level of seniority

So, assuming she hasn’t renew the temporary vows, and it lasted for a minimum of 3 years, then Beatrice is around 25 or 26 of age

They will be the same age when Ava returns y’all

All of the above things i mentioned is very big brain of them because :

1. Beating the blasphemy allegations, if this show gains the attention of a broader audience, there’s a chance that some religious Karens demand to cancel the show for blasphemy or something

2. Beating the age gap allegations, homophobes will find something to hate, nothing new here, now they can’t complain if they pork in season 3

3. Beating the Beatrice breaks the vow and betrays God allegations, like, No, she didn’t, she just doesn’t renew the vow

And it’s very big dick of them to not only making Avatrice canon, but to also make a storyline about how the very foundation of the most powerful religious institution in the world is built on a lie, like bruh

Now we need season 3 to happen for real, because there’s still a lot of things to unravel

[rudystree]

Here's the thing!

Fandoms are always childish and entitled with a bunch of people that act like brats when it comes to plot points and actors. Obx is no different which is very evident with the outburst after the finale.

Fans needs to learn that things they dislike or disagree with doesn't equally unprofessionalism.

Fandoms are an echo chamber though and people lose perspective and grip on reality. It's very obvious when it comes to all the hate Rudy receives. It's completely unfair and unfounded but fans encourage eachother and legitimates it.

It's pathetic and childish if you ask me.

I do think it was always the plan that JJ would die. I don't think it was just because Rudy wanted to quit but I think it happened now because Rudy didn't want to continue on. And honest good for him. Outer banks has become significantly worse and I think less is more when it comes to this kind of tv shows. I understand people are sad and disappointed with him leaving but it's not stanger or surprising. Many main actors leave after a few seasons when they want to move one. I doesn't matter if its just one more season and he doesn't own it to anyone, regardless what fans think. He doesn't own the fans or the series anything beyond the contract and he didn't renew.

I can't comprehend how people don't understand that. I think the drama bts definitely influenced his decision but in all honesty leaving now rather than later was better for him anyway. It's not gonna be any better next season plot wise. I find outer banks wildly entertaining but the quality is not the same aa it was.

As for JJ they did him dirty by making him act way too reckless and stupid in the beginning of part 1. But I've seen people suggest they should have let him go on a surfing trip alone or travel the world (instead of killing him) and that's not only out of character but extremely lazy in my opinion. I don't mind the death at all I prefer the angst and sadness but the arc in part 1 especially felt lazy.

Killing him his heart breaking and I'm not super fond of them expressing clear depression and even suicidal tendencies only to kill him but it was the best option imo. It feels alot more honorable then let JJ go on a trip.

His death was sad and his arch was sad but I feel like that was always his destiny (I felt like it from season 1) he's my favourite character but I'm alot happier with him dying than going on a stupid trip.

That being said I wish the scene was different with all them present and not as quick. I wanted pope and john b there but no these writters think romance is more interesting and worth it than friendship despite the core of outer banks.

Finally Rudy killed part 2. He gave it his all in every scene and showed how much dedication he has. I love him and I think he can go so far.

I think jj and kiara could have been handled a bit better from all parts but I always prefered them as friends and wish the only coulpe was Sarah and John B. Maybe that's why i don't care about the lack of jijara and the drama off screen.

They shouldn't have been canon on the first place.

Thank you for being a sane voice. I've blocked at least 10 accounts already!

Perfectly said. Thank YOU for being a sane voice! God knows this fandom needs it.

Rudy did kill it. And as you say, he doesn’t owe anyone anything beyond his contractual obligations which he went above and beyond to fulfil.

The only thing I disagree with is that his death (or rather the way they executed it) was the best option. I understand the writers had a tough call to make in last-minute decisions. But I feel like they couldn’t have given him a worse ending. I always felt his arc was supposed to be one of healing - healing from his trauma, finding family in his friends, learning to be more responsible, more stable, more accepting of love. For many domestic abuse survivors and troubled teens, JJ was a beacon of hope for a better future. I hate the “it was destiny, he was doomed anyway” narrative, even if that’s exactly what the writers argue. They spend his last episodes completely destroying his sense of identity, making him spiral, breaking the peace with his friends, making him depressed/suicidal, and then quickly killing him for no reason. They say they want to convey messages of “never give up!” but JJ never gave up and he still got murdered at the hands of his only real family member. And you’re right — they wanted to sell that dramatic Jiara goodbye instead of giving some closure for the other Pogues who only reunited with him after it was already too late. But not even Jiara fans are happy about it, because how tf did she never even kiss him? How the fuck did she just stand there while her love had a knife stuck in his abdomen? Where the hell is season 1 Kiara? Because that wasn’t her. I don’t know, I’m still angry. Probably always will be.

[naavispider]

opposite AU? The Na’vi are a hyper-intelligent species hundreds of years ahead of humans in terms of development. They thrive of renewable and clean energy, coming to Earth to rid the planet of the humans that are destroying it. Na’vi jake sully uses his human avatar - maybe they managed to figure out semi-permanent transfer - to attempt to reason with the owner of an incredibly large agricultural megacompany in Brazil (and South America in general) that contributes to deforestation to increase their farmland. He meets his daughter (human Neytiri). Na’vi quaritch destroys Neytiris home city, killing her father. And the rest is history.

the Na’vi’s technology utilises their queue in some way - maybe as a power source? Or their machines are just some really advanced biotechnology influenced by the plants in their homeworld. I was just picturing a smooth, beautiful Na’vi cruiser with no steering wheel. Just a mass of electrical wires looking like vines on a dashboard or a chair with a na’vi plugged into it.

Na’vi spider grew up on Earth after the na’vi fled back to their home system (multiple planets colonised). He is shorter - stunted growth due to increased gravity - and always slumped to appear smaller, and still outcast. His greater strength means he hurts people on accident some times. He lives in a megacity with the Sully’s in South America. When Quaritch finds him - maybe he has a human body, maybe another Na’vi one - he thinks of him as incredibly primitive in his views. When Spider is kidnapped (Jake sully leads a rebellion against the increasing colonisation of Earth - more navi are coming planetside after striking deals with multiple countries - Spider has info on the human resistance) he has no clue how to use anything on the ship he is being kept on which is very funny to quaritch.

so I guess this would be still an evil human AU - people like Neytiri, Jake and the kids don’t really give a fuck about the planet. Jake’s reasoning for turning to their side is basically human life is beautiful in its own fleeting way and deserves to be preserved. Tons of hisotry shouldn’t be erased. The planet can be saved while still preserving humanity.

But this doesn’t mean Na’vi are good guys. They are colonising the planet. In areas they set up camp they tear down infrastructure and attempt to restore the local ecosystem - maybe using humans as fertiliser could be a little fucked up plot twist. Any human that draws too near would die. As the “rejuvenation” of Earth begins, population of humans dwindle and are pushed from their homes. I don’t see a reason why Na’vi would use human avatars as their isn’t really an advantage other than being able to breathe 100% of the time - as well as not feeling the effects of increased gravity.

I think at this point - Na’vi have colonised most of their home system - with successful colonies on other planets. So some na’vi may have evolved to withstand higher gravity. the concoction the Na’vi use in order to speed up plant growth creates dangerous megafauna. Na’vi do experiments on earth animals to cross-hybrid them with their strange funky biotech. Meaning Na’vi can pilot them likes mechs. This could help with the increased gravity thing.

Na’vi intererence using powerful gravitational waves to destroy infrastructure could creat similar phenomena as the flux vortexes. These areas could provide na’vi relief from the increased gravity - which is why they erect their encampments are puns the graveyards of cities.

this desperately needs a way to nerf the Na’vi. In the original series - it’s their primitivity and morals that nerf them a lil. They can’t stand up against the absolutely giant machinery and guns the humans use - and they also wont resort to the same tactics. I don’t think there could be an issue with teh Na’vi tech not being compatible with earths gravity - as they would have colonised Alpha Centari already - which is a huge gas giant. The only think I can think of is seasons and irregular weather patterns - Pandora is tidally locked so it doesn’t experience seasons. They may not be prepared for winter - or might freak out once the plants they have just regrown start dying in winter.

This has been in my notes for ages - I remember trying to think of an actual plot point that’d turn this AU into a story but I couldn’t think of anything 🤷‍♀️ any ideas?

Sorry it’s taken me so long to reply! I’ve been terrible at updating tumblr recently ✨ This is really well thought out already! You’ve done 90% of the hard work , which is figuring out the premise in the first place!

Since it’s an opposite au you could focus on any part of the original A2 plot in this setting. I love the idea of Jake having a human avatar, after living his whole life as a Na’vi 😯 I think there’s a lot to explore there but aLso the humans-being-used-as-fertiliser side plot is too juicy to ignore… the only question is who is going to get trapped in the process and need rescuing? 🤨🤨

[wia-tia]

Hikaru’s motivations.

[1]

This is part of a series, you don’t need to read the others, but it might add some extra context:

Part [0]: main post

Part [1]: Hikaru’s motivations

Random intermezzo

Part [2]: Hikaru’s relationship with Yura, Nino, Ryosuke

Part [3]: Hikaru's relationship with Aqua & Ruby

Hikaru and guilt:

I’ll start with a few things I assume are confirmed and I won’t discuss extensively:

-Hikaru loves Ai and Ai loved him back.

-Hikaru is involved in all the murders but hasn’t killed anyone himself.

I also believe he didn’t kill Ai. Across different chapters, he has given us three motivations for “killing” Ai:

153: he killed her out of spite.

154: he never thought that Ryosuke would actually kill her and wanted Ai to feel his despair (he spilled her address while drinking with Ryosuke).

160: he never wanted to hurt anyone (he gave the bouquet to Ryosuke with a smile and blush and didn’t have the courage to meet Ai himself).

To me, the softening of his reasonings as the manga progresses feels like we’re getting closer to the truth. Which is that Hikaru didn’t intend for Ai to die. However, the story leaves it open-ended, so it’s not definitive.

Throughout the manga, he blames himself for a lot of things and carries a burden of guilt. He holds himself accountable for pretty much all the deaths connected to him (Airi, Seijuro, Ai, Ryosuke and Yura [exception being Gorou]), but also the stuff that happened with Airi (implied not only Airi even), making him a character with a complex relationship with guilt. I believe this stems from his interaction with Kindaichi. After Airi and Seijuro died, he took on the burden of living their lives and he reacts similarly when Ai and others die.

I think this burden manifests as guilt, which he feels like he must keep carrying as a link to the dead, especially Ai, whom he loved most. He feels guilty when someone close to him dies and connects guilt to their memory. Once this guilt fades, so does the feeling of their presence. To prevent this, he actively seeks to renew his guilt, especially his guilt over Ai’s death which is the greatest, by involving himself in murders. I think he feels this guilt towards Taiki as well, as he believes Airi’s situation is his fault. (Though, this is unfortunately the only thing I can theorise on his feelings towards Taiki before it goes into fanon territory. The canon hasn’t given us much, unfortunately).

His guilt over Ai’s death, and over taking Ai (and possibly Ryosuke) away from Nino, has caused him to stay around Nino. I think it isn’t healthy for either of them, as they fuel each other’s guilt complexes over these deaths.

I think the white roses are a physical manifestation of his guilt and maybe his love for others, which could be his sincere emotions, and we can see that he carries it around almost everywhere in the manga. I'm not sure about this one. They have so many interpretations. I found this on a flower shop site: "Japanese language of white roses: “purity, I am worthy of you, deep respect, etc. Western language of white roses: “innocence and purity, I am worthy of you, reverence, etc. The words “purity” and “deep respect” in the language of flowers suggest that a gift of white roses will convey sincerity. White roses are also a popular flower for weddings, and are often used in bouquets and decorations at weddings."

Hikaru’s nature & self-perception

Hikaru doesn’t kill himself, even if he wants too, because doing so would end his burden (guilt) and, by extension, his connection to Ai. Death would stop his feelings of guilt, which he relies on to stay connected to her memory. He says he doesn't mind rotting away along with the many lives he's carried on his back, so I think that means he wants to keep carrying this burden/guilt.

While he is involved in the murders, he refrains from committing them himself, so it makes it seem like he’s aware of the immorality of his actions. Tsukiyomi calls him “formerly noble” and he’s portrayed as timid in the movie arc. He only reaches out to his children, when they seek him out, possibly due to shame or guilt over causing their mother’s death. His timidness and guilt would prevent him from reaching out to his children out of his own initiative. He could still have a lingering sense of nobility in avoiding doing the murders himself (even though he’s still involved in them). This self-awareness makes him blame himself, yet he can’t seem to stop involving himself in murders of those he knows to re-experience his guilt and his connection to Ai. Tsukiyomi implies that Aqua, Nino and Hikaru have taken someone’s life for the sake of love, yet Hikaru has only been involved in the murders and hasn’t committed any of them himself. Does his refusal to kill directly, yet constant involvement in murder, mean that he clings to guilt as his last link to Ai? I think this could be a solid interpretation.

From a young age, Hikaru has been timid and self-blaming. This timid nature can be seen in the first line Aqua says, portraying Hikaru’s younger self: “But someone like me …”. It reflects Hikaru’s tendency towards self-blame that we see throughout the manga. Aqua also portrays Kamiki as aware of what was happening when Airi rapes him, though in the flashback of chapter 153, Hikaru looks more confused. I take this as a sign that we shouldn’t fully accept the movie’s portrayal of Hikaru as entirely accurate, but unfortunately, it’s the only thing we get.

Hikaru often hides his true feelings easily through lying and acting to make people love him. For example, during the movie arc, he lies about his favourite food to gain Ai’s affection. He believes it’s the right thing to do, to give up his body and lie, so he can earn love. This is also confirmed in chapter 153, which I think is his secondary motivation to lie, so he can be loved. Even though he lies, he treats his children kindly, showing that he’s still capable of affection. However, I think his belief that he must lie and offer up his body to be loved has hurt him the most.

When he and Ai had sex, he took it as proof that she loved him. But when she became pregnant, (what happened because they had sex) and then left him (saying she couldn’t love him), it punished his only form to get love at the time. This left him even more broken and desperate, yet also more careful in his actions toward Ai, which I think, together with his timidity, is the reason why he sent Ryosuke instead of going himself.

He easily sees trough Ruby’s (147) and Aqua’s (152) lies [for Ruby the lie being that that wasn't her true wish and for Aqua that he doesn't love anyone], yet he believes Ai when she says she can’t love him. This is because, deep down, he doesn’t believe he deserves someone’s love like Airi’s statement in the movie arc: “No one will ever love someone who’s hopelessly empty like you.” He genuinely believes he’s unlovable, fearing that everyone he cares about will eventually abandon him, so he clings to the people who do show him some kind of affection. It makes me sad that the manga reinforces this belief, as Ai is the only person ever shown to truly love him.

Ai is similar to Hikaru as she has her own insecurities about love. She believes she can’t genuinely love others and says to do so would make her a liar. Yet, despite her doubts, she’s honest and her actions reveal her love for others.

Ultimately, I think all these elements tie into Tsukiyomi’s description of Hikaru’s love as: “desire, disappointment and despair.” A desire to be loved, disappointment that he isn’t loved and despair when his only love, Ai, can’t love him and then dies.

Hikaru and fulfilling wishes:

He can also be seen as a kind of wish fulfiller, albeit it does seem a bit indirect I think it can work in a symbolic sense, since many characters express their wishes to him and in some way, they come true.

Yura: “He should’ve just hired a real highschooler.” Her wish is fulfilled when Ruby eventually gets the role.

Nino: she wants no one to surpass Ai. + “I told him (Ryosuke) to die”. -> Ryosuke kills himself and for a while, no one surpasses Ai until Hikaru doesn’t associate himself with Nino anymore, indirectly handing her over to the police and allowing Ruby’s wish to get precedence.

Ruby: she wishes that Aqua will find him and she also wishes to be the best idol, surpassing even Ai -> Aqua does find Hikaru and the narrative says she surpassed Ai (I don’t see it yet though ngl)

Aqua: he wishes for revenge -> Aqua achieves his revenge "twice": first through the movie (more for Ruby than him; but he still worked on it) and again within the last few chapters. He also wishes to "protect Ruby" (*COUGH* to kill himself) -> Hikaru gives him an excuse to follow through on it 😭. I'm still processing his character, they really turned into an unexpected road and I'm confused where we're driving to.

Ryosuke: he wishes to hurt Ai for having kids and no longer embodying a “pure” idol. -> Ai dies

Ai: wished for three things: to tell someone she loves them without it being a lie, to save Hikaru together with her children and for her children to grow up healthy and strong. -> In her final moments, she managed to tell her children she loved them. (A consequence of her connection with Hikaru leading to her death. I don’t really understand if the manga portrays her relationship with Hikaru as bad or not. This could really affect the story’s theme.) Ai’s second wish kinda comes true: Hikaru’s suffering ends after Aqua frees him from it through murder-suicide. It still taints her original hope, sadly enough. Her last wish, though, does come true in a way: the twins grow up strong and healthy, only until they’re 18, I guess. I’m still unsure where the manga is going with Ai. I thought her wishes would get precedence above all, but I guess not. We’ll see in the next chapters.

In conclusion, I think guilt is what motivates Kamiki's actions and he could be some kind of wish fulfiller in a symbolic sense.

Thank you for reading!

[0] [intermezzo] [2] [3]