#so about this son that I apparently have-

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Hey. Hi. Hello. Today I learned about the existence of 15th century Welsh poet Gwerful Mechain and that she apparently has a surviving work of erotic poems.

Please. For Christmas. For Yule. Please tell me more because I can't read Welsh.

Heh heh. Oh, Gwerful Mechain is the absolute best.

(Quick housekeeping to keep the post manageable - I previously wrote about things like cynghanedd and cywydds and englyns and such here, so check that if you need an explanation.)

What's fun is that we don't know a ton about her, because not a lot got written down about people in her time. Her surviving work covers a 40ish year span at the end of the 1400s to just into the 1500s, but we don't know when she was born or died or anything like that. We know her parents' names? And that she was from Mechain, hence the bardic name. And that she married a guy and had a daughter, something which actually does mark out her body of work as different from her contemporaries; being a wife and mother, she couldn't do the usual bardic role of travelling the country to spread news and play at courts. This means she doesn't have any of the praise poetry that a lot of male bards produced about the lords that hosted them.

But, there's stuff we can piece together about her. For one thing, she was not just literate (not a universal skill for anyone at that point, but especially for women), but she was astonishingly well-read and had what appears to be a classical education, given her poetic references and traditional Welsh meters. For another, her work often had recurring themes of religion, sex, and women's rights, sometimes all at the same time.

At the point Gwerful was active, Welsh bardic culture heavily featured ymrysonau. An ymryson is like... well, I hesitate to say "sort of like a rap battle" after the way everyone and their dog now thinks that's what the Mari Lwyd does, but they were like a cross between a rap battle and the publication war between two rival academics. A bard would write an englyn and publish it in the local parish newsletter. Another bard would see this, and write their own englyn about how stupid the first bard's englyn was, and publish it in the same newsletter. The first bard would see this and retaliate. The second bard would retaliate to that. And on and on it would go, like a printed tennis match for all the parishioners to enjoy, until someone wrote a conclusive verse OR until someone went "Lol, you got me good there" and bowed out with dignity. Sometimes, these things were fucking vicious; but other times, they were just banter between two bards who knew each other and were enjoying the chance to keep their poetic skills in tip top condition.

Now, Gwerful was an active and enthusiastic participant in ymrysonau. We have many examples of her work from these. There are two of particular note that I'll list here, each against a different bard:

Dafydd Llwyd o Fathafarn. Mathafarn and Mechain are not so distant from one another, so no real surprise that these two locked horns a lot, but the impression I always got from their ymrysonau is that they were good mates, actually. These fell into the 'banter' category more often than not. Dafydd was a Welsh Nationalist who was hoping for a Welshman to rise up and throw off the yoke of English oppression, and most of his work is about that, but he turned up the filthy erotic shit for any ymryson with Gwerful because BOY HOWDY was that her specialty. IIRC she did occasionally poke fun at his Welsh Nash leanings, especially his obsession with Mab Darogan (OLD Welsh idea that translates to the Son of Prophesy - the Arthur-style figure that will one day drive out the English overlords), but mostly their ymrysonau were incredibly beautifully-written odes that could be summed up as "Dafydd, my man, my good friend, I mean this sincerely: suck my entire clit".

She often won.

Ieuan Dyfi. God, what a fucking asshole. This one was not banter. Gwerful played for blood with this prick.

We actually would know nothing about Ieuan Dyfi if not for Gwerful Mechain, because it was her poetic response to him that meant his only surviving poems made it to the modern day; that, and the record of him being brought before a church court where he admitted adultery with Anni Goch, a married woman. Oh, and the record of him being brought before the law courts at Liverpool, accused of domestic abuse and gambling? If I remember right?

Two things to know that set the scene for what came next:

One of Gwerful Mechain's surviving poems is an englyn considered to be possibly the oldest extant poem about domestic violence written by a woman: I’w gŵr am ei churo (To the husband who beats her)

Dager drwy goler dy galon - ar osgo I asgwrn dy ddwyfron; Dy lin a dyr, dy law’n don, A’th gleddau i’th goluddion.

There are a lot of translations for this one to try to keep its poeticness, but this one is pretty good:

Through your heart’s lining let there be pressed, slanting down, A dagger to the bone in your chest. Your knee smashed, your hand crushed, may the rest Be gutted by the sword you possessed.

She has others, too, that deal with sexual assault, and something scholars often note about Gwerful is her remarkable knowledge of the law as it pertained to women's issues. So she was not, you see, a woman with a high view of a man accused of domestic violence anyway.

But then Ieuan Dyfi wrote five poems about Anni Goch, the married woman he'd fucked, each more "Wow dude, she said no" than the last, culminating in I Anni Goch; a full cywydd of misogynistic Medieval-incel bullshit about how false and evil women are, which listed all the false and evil women of history including classical and mythological figures.

And. Well. Gwerful had some views.

Her responding cywydd - I ateb Ieuan Dyfi am gywydd Anni Goch - basically blasted the guy back into his own impact crater and disintegrated him. What she did with it, essentially, was to mirror his cywydd. Where he'd gone "Isn't it so true how great men throughout history have always been brought low by women, amirite lads? Here's examples", Gwerful went "Isn't it so true how 'great men' throughout history have behaved appallingly and fucked up through their own actions and then somehow managed to blame women, amirite lads? Here's examples." Where his examples had been historical figures, so were hers. Where his had been classical, so were hers. Where he went Biblical, so did she.

And what's so interesting about that last one is how pointed she was with it - for some reason, in his big list of evil women, Ieuan Dyfi did not go for the most obvious and low-hanging of fruit (no pun intended) - he doesn't cite Eve. In response, Gwerful also sidesteps the most obvious and low hanging of fruit - she doesn't cite Mary. In so doing, she makes it clear that she doesn't even need to.

There is no record of him responding to her. IIRC, there is a record of him doing three years in prison.

But! Outside of all of that, the big thing Gwerful was known for was her erotic poetry. You'll be unsurprised to hear that it wasn't written for shits and giggles - much like today, women of the time were told that most of their value was in their looks, and they had plentiful insecurities about their bodies. Gwerful wrote her erotic stuff to confront those insecurities and shine a light on the issue. There are so many examples of this, but far and away the most famous is definitely Cywydd y Cedor - roughly translated, 'Ode to the Vulva'. Though I have also seen it titled Cywydd y Gont - Ode to the Cunt. It's such a shame that the English language is literally, physically not capable of cynghanedd, because it means unless you learn Welsh you will never understand the beauty and the lyricism of the piece, and how it elevates and undercuts the content at the same time; but it's a joyful, masterful, irreverent work that uses the fancy language male poets were forever dedicating to the rest of a woman's body and applies it squarely to the vulva. In fact it basically opens with "Men are cowards, describe more cunts or gtfo" before launching into its main subject matter. The last line is pro-pubic hair, too, like I really must stress how much Gwerful Mechain would have to offer Tumblr if you could speak Welsh. This is probably her most widely translated piece, though, you can definitely find English versions. Although you can tell how blushing and reticent the translator is - and therefore how sanitised their translation is - by whether they've called it Ode to the Vulva/Cunt, or Ode to the Pubic Hair.

Needless to say, the original is not sanitised.

(Actually, I should also say - this one is also a response piece, probably, but in this case to a bard who lived a century earlier - Dafydd ap Gwilym, the absolutely legendary and uncontested king of Welsh romance poetry. He wrote a poem called Cywydd y Gal - Ode to the Penis. I have only just put two and two together on that.)

As a final note, I should say that my personal favourite Gwerful Mechain poem on this subject, mind, is actually I'w morwyn wrth gachu - to the maiden who is shitting. It's an englyn written in Gwerful's customary high poetic form, but it is what it says - it describes a woman taking a shit, and farting as she does. Beautiful and magical and disgusting and banal, all in one go:

Crwciodd lle dihangodd ei dŵr - ’n grychiast O grochan ei llawdwr; Ei deudwll oedd yn dadwr’, Baw a ddaeth, a bwa o ddŵr

Funnily enough, it's hard to find a good translation for this one lol.

My attempt:

She crouched where her water escaped - creased From the cauldron of her heat; Her two holes were arguing, Shit came, and a bow of water

Eh. It's so bland in English. Honestly, if you could read Welsh...

Anyway, if anyone reading this can read Welsh and wants to read some of Gwerful Mechain's stuff - including some of the pieces she was responding to in the ymrysonau - you can find a load here. Otherwise, I hope you enjoyed!

[respectthepetty]

The beginning of Your Sky's seventh episode could've been the end of the series for me because the boys waking up in the bed with Rak in pink and laying all over his boyfriend would have been the perfect way to wrap this up!

But nooooooo! I, and Fah, must feel pain first!

So even though Fah is in full Blue Boy mode and Rak is IN PINK BECAUSE HE LOVES FAH, Rak decides to hurt us all and keeps his distance from Fah.

Thankfully that is not the case for Black Brooder Real who seems to be trying to make that love connection happen with Red Rascal Hia after seeing him naked in the shower.

So it makes it painfully clear the different dynamics happening simulateously at the table.

And everyone notices.

But once they return from the beach, it's back to black business.

Well, someone is still thinking about his Red Rascal . . .

Which is why when shit goes down in the club, Real jumps in front of his man to protect him from harm.

But personally, I think they should've let James & Co handle it and not have requested the group pay half the damages since this was not any of their fault but instead that grubby scheming man's.

But then again, Fah was dealing with his own queer rights moment.

So it's a bummer that Rak didn't tell Fah that he loves him when he was tending to his wrist.

But it's okay, because he was wearing Fah's blue, so I already know that Rak loves him. Fah doesn't, but I do.

So maybe that's why the show tried to make me feel bad for Oh doing *ALL THE THINGS* by having him confront his mother for being self-centered and uncaring, and by trying to convince us that Oh truly believed he had a chance with Rak even though it was extremely clear he did not but if Fah doesn't realize Rak loves him, how was Oh supposed to know? You know? No?

Anywho . . . he gets his own little happily every after in the form of a cutie patootie with glasses!

And I know it's love because he hands Oh a pink handkerchief to wipe away his tears, but apparently only I understand the colors, so Oh will never realize he is loved now just like he never knew that Rak did not love him.

But Rak's buddies get the color-coded assignment, so Pink Person Joy has a pink straw, Green Guy Type has a green straw, and Yellow Yal Rak has his yellow straw when Rak decides to confess his newly-realized feelings (even though I've been knowing).

But Lee is playing color games with his purple straw!

Which doesn't surprise me because he was acting like he didn't even know his brother and Rak were actually in love even though he has been doing the most to make sure his ship sailed this entire series like constantly playing middleman between them!

But I think both Fah AND Lee are Blue Boys just like their dad who can't even take a proper rest from work.

So of course his two loyal sons fly overnight to take care of business for their dad.

And I'm sure that's why Rak's family, who are magically wearing blue, will love Fah once they get to know him.

But first this Yellow Yal needs to do what he does best and communicate his feelings.

Because Fah loves him for exactly who he is.

A bright ray of sunshine in his blue sky.

[bitstitchbitch]

*spoilers for the dragon prince seasons 1-7 ahead*

okay, but in runaan’s pov (and forgive me if I get anything wrong here),

he goes off to kill a king and prince and… brings his daughter along. His daughter gives them away so he makes her stay behind (probably to save her life tbh) but she goes anyway and tries to convince him it’s a big mistake while protecting the adopted son of the king he’s there to kill. So then Runaan fights his own daughter but she gets away with the adopted son.

So, runaan goes back to his job and kills the king, and the only weird thing is that the king kind of squawked at him in the end? People do strange things when they are about to die though so he doesn’t think too much of it. but because his daughter betrayed them he gets captured and then trapped in a coin by an evil mage. And he gets stuck in an in-between state of unfinished business for two years before his daughter comes and saves him.

and when he’s finally free, the adopted son of the king he killed is there, and also dating his daughter? And he can’t be mad about it because the adopted son is a mage (but somehow not a dark mage despite being human) and helped his daughter save him.

So while runaan is healing up, he has to watch his daughter date this ridiculous human (who actually doesn’t show much of a grudge towards runaan for murdering the king). But soon enough the boy goes to help his brother - who runaan was also supposed to kill.

and at this point, runaan just wants to go back to his lover, but when he’s finally well enough to travel, his daughter is like “actually I’m very sorry but we have to go back to the place where you were captured and trapped in a magic coin because I promised”

so runaan goes only to be yelled at by the prince, now king, that he failed to murder and is arrested for murdering the original king because unlike adopted son this son is very angry. A few days later, his daughter saves him with the eventual help of the adopted son / annoying human with the nerve to date his daughter. But it’s fine, he finally gets back to his lover. It’s a bit of a process to get his daughter unbanished, but after that everything should go back to how it was

except because adopted son went against his king brother to help runaan escape, he is now hanging around and make inane comments about how pretty the silver grove is and making out with runaan’s daughter. And, apparently, planning on having ten kids with said daughter. Yuck

but after only two weeks of the boy’s interloping, suddenly they find out that the world is at risk of ending. And now runaan is going on a road trip with the adopted son of man he murdered / potential son-in-law only to find that the person they were searching for is already murdered and then runaan has to save the boy’s life from an evil mage (different one, btw)

and then once the evil mage leaves, the boy (who runaan has really only known for a few weeks) declares his intent to commit dark magic to trap the evil elf trying to destroy the world, but makes runaan promise to assassinate him as soon as he does dark magic so that the evil elf can’t control him. Runaan agrees to this despite probably knowing that it would break his daughter’s heart

so they go back and the adopted son is standing there ready to cast the spell and runaan is standing there ready to shoot him when Runaan gets attacked by the dark mage and thrown to the ground. Thankfully things still work out and the people who runaan care about (including the adopted son, who unfortunately wasn’t spared from using dark magic but isn’t at risk of being controlled anymore) make it out alive

so anyways, after things calm down and wanting to clear his name, runaan goes to the young king and submits to his justice. The young king forgives him, with difficulty, then asks a reasonable question. “Did my father have any last words?”

and runaan has to tell this young, twelve year old king that the last sound his father made was a squawk. Only this seems to have real significance for the people in the room and now there’s a very real chance that the person you assassinated isn’t actually dead but, somehow, swapped bodies with a… bird???

but we don’t actually know because the next season isn’t renewed.

anyways, runaan had a rough time of it

[coreancitizen]

Can I just say how much I appreciate the ending of "Blossom"? It was so satisfying. There was nothing vague or "understood" about the leads' HEA. None of the side characters I liked got killed in ways that didn't serve any purpose other than to pile on a last-minute dose of angst. It was all contained in the final episode, no need to hunt down extra clips on the interwebs.

Not only did we get a narration from Dou Zhao about the aftermath of the Empress and Prince Qing's coup attempt, but we jumped forward 5 years and got to see our main couple and their families and friends live happily in this new world they helped create.

After helping reform the court, Jiyong returns to the temple.

Yantang, who gets to live after the emperor gifted him the fabled magic antidote, and Shougu now have an adorable daughter, Lian Jun, who is blessed with a lot of energy LOL. Raising her apparently is more challenging than building a business and more tiring than going to war, according to her exhausted parents.

Chen Jia and Zhao Zhang Ru are husband and wife.

Miao An Su is a working princess and aided by former double agent Su Yan (BTW, whatever happened to General Yan, Yantang's young aide and Shougu's two handmaidens?).

Grandmother reunites with her remaining son, who is very curious how she knows all about matchmaking efforts concerning him. Lian Jun almost spills the beans about great-grandma's spy in their household lmao (of course it's Gao Sheng!)

Speaking of Lian Jun, she and a bunch of other kids go to school with her mom's adviser, Chen Qu Shui, as their teacher. The little boy seating in front of her is no other than the Duke of Ding's heir. Last time we saw him, he was an infant who could only drink goat's milk and whose very presence almost led to the annihilation of Shougu's family.

And we close it all out with Yantang and Shougu finally going on an outing now that their daughter has started school (whether she stays there is another matter) and enjoying a peaceful life away from court.

[nubuckleather]

Also for the kiss ask, eddiejosh and 8 please

on the flip side from my last fill, here’s something happier and fluffier for the evening (and longer! it ran away from me a little bit)

8. … in secret

Josh wasn’t sure what he was doing at the Grant-Nash Christmas party.

“You’re my date!” Maddie said.

“You have a husband,” Josh pointed out.

Maddie raised her eyebrows. “I’ll have a husband again after he sleeps off the peppermint schnapps. Until then, he belongs to Karen.”

“How modern of you,” Josh said with a grin. Maddie hummed in agreement. Her eyes were glittering with levity, or maybe just the reflections of the Christmas lights. Athena and Bobby had really gone all out. They were everywhere.

“Oh, Athena just put out more canapés!” Maddie said, already moving back towards the kitchen.

“What about being my date?” Josh called, but she was already gone.

“Can’t keep a good woman, huh?” somebody said from behind him.

Josh turned toward Eddie Diaz. “Did you think that one through? Pretty sure I could lob a devastating comeback at you of all people pretty easily.”

“But you didn’t,” Eddie replied mischievously, his eyes dancing with mirth. It was a good look on him. “Must be a Christmas miracle.”

“You look good,” Josh said. Eddie flushed. “I mean—you look happy. Unless it’s just that you’re finally able to smile without the weight of that mustache.”

“I am, uh, really happy,” Eddie said. “I don’t know if you heard but—Chris is back. For good. Got on last week. He’s here tonight, actually. He helped Bobby and Athena decorate. You can blame all the lights on him. He’s always loved stretching the limit of how many are safe to plug in.”

“That’s great!” Josh said. “I mean, not his apparent disregard for electrical fires. Him being home. I’m really happy for you.”

“Thanks,” Eddie said. “You know, uh, Josh, you look good tonight, too.” The tips of his ears were bright pink.

Josh felt frozen and hot all over. “Eddie,” he chuckled, “you’re not flirting with me, are you?”

Eddie had a stubborn sort of set to his brow. “Maybe I’m tired of trying to keep a good woman,” he said.

Josh laughed delightedly. “You know, I’m not a very good man.”

“I don’t think that’s true,” Eddie said, entirely too genuinely. Shit, Josh was going to have to kiss him about it, wasn’t he?

Above the general noise of party chatter, Chimney’s voice broke out. “Time for Christmas carols!” he cheered, and then he and Karen launched into God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman and Carol of the Bells simultaneously and not a particularly in tune.

“While everyone’s distracted by that,” Josh said, “you want to get out of here?”

“I can’t go far,” Eddie said. “My son’s here.” It came out of him all giddy. Josh definitely had to kiss him about that.

“Bathroom work?” he said.

Eddie tasted like canapés and gingerbread and joy. Josh couldn’t get enough, so he pushed Eddie up against Athena’s hand towels and groaned into Eddie’s mouth as Eddie cupped his ass. Faintly, he could hear Chim and Karen switching into Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!, but it couldn’t quite permeate their blissful little bubble.

Josh pressed a kiss into Eddie’s upper lip. Eddie nipped along Josh’s jawline. Someone knocked on the bathroom door.

“Dad, are you in there?” It was Chris. Eddie went stiff under Josh’s hands. “Denny and I are gonna take the kids around the block to look at the lights, okay? Maddie and Hen said it was okay.”

Eddie’s mouth moved for a bit without anything coming out. Josh backed up to give him some space. “Sounds good, Chris!” he finally managed. “You watch out for them, okay?”

“I will,” Chris said. “Hey, don’t spend to long in there. You’ll miss the party.”

Neither Eddie nor Josh said anything as they listened to him walk away from the door.

“He’s a good kid,” Josh said, finally.

“I know,” Eddie said.

“I don’t want you to miss the party,” Josh said, leaning in.

“I don’t want to miss this,” Eddie said, leaning in closer.

Their lips met in another heated kiss that went down warmer than Chimney’s peppermint schnapps. It was an excellent Christmas party. Josh was so glad to have been invited.

Send me a ship and a kiss!

Accepting buddie, eddietommy, and eddiejosh

[jeannereames]

This is something entirely random that I’ve been thinking of a lot, but what do you believe Hephaestion would think if Alexander had kids of his own while he was alive? Or even what he thought of his marriage? This probably isn’t something you have evidence for based on historical fact, obviously, save accounts of their bond and general characters. This is more asking for your personal opinions/beliefs. Or just on the characters themselves in your books.

I know he probably expected him to take wives and have heirs eventually, realistically. But if he truly loved Alexander that deeply, to the point they were thought two halves of the same whole, I always wondered what he may feel about it in those situations, or even how he’d interact with the children/Roxana or his other wives in general.

I dunno, it’s just something that’s always interested me. I know I would probably not be able to take it well, personally, so it’s always made me wonder if Hephaestion did.

Hephaistion, Alexander’s Wives, and Romantic Jealousy

Honestly, I’m of the opinion that Hephaistion may have been one of those who encouraged Alexander to marry Roxana (in order to get the hell out of Baktria).

The issue of Hephaistion’s putative jealousy which movie- and documentary-makers return to again and again, creating (to my mind unrealistic) love triangles, owes to some pretty vast differences between Now and Then, regarding marriage and love.

The Greeks got jealous. We have LOTS of evidence of such jealousy in everything from lyric poetry to curse tablets and love philtres. Furthermore, there was nothing remotely like concepts of “When they go low, we go high.” No, when they went low, you were expected to go lower.

Once more, I repeat the ancient maxim for GOOD men and women: Help your friends and hurt your enemies.

Hephaistion absolutely subscribed to that—both the historical man and my character. The historical man apparently made life difficult for Eumenes, at least. And he participated in the torture of Philotas (whether or not one thinks it justified). Near the end of his life, a high-ranking Macedonian official was so fearful of him (and Alexander), he begged his brother, a Seer, to sacrifice and read the omens—and for Hephaistion first. He feared him more.

He was not a man to cross. But notice who he had quarrels with: his equals (or close enough). If there’s any truth to a quarrel with Olympias (I’m dubious for reasons I’ll go into in the monograph), it involved her influence over Alexander versus his own.

Upper-class men and women in ancient Greece, and Macedonia, simply lived very separated lives. Returning to those curse tablets, the bulk of them that involve rivals involve rivals of the same sex. Women curse other women their husbands may be involved with. Men curse other men who they believe/fear their love interest (not always a wife) might favor. If we’re often unsure WHO these people are relative to each other, as we typically have only names, I’ve just not seen much cross-gender cursing, as least not about love. Now, there are literally tens of thousands of these, so I’m sure there are some, but it doesn’t seem to be common.

And I think the reason it’s not OWES to that very gender-segregated nature of Greek life. Women are threatened by other women—not by men. And men are certainly not threatened by women. These are two different spheres. When we do hear men complaining about another man’s obsession with so-and-so hetaira, it’s the SON (or father) who’s worried their love-drunk relative will squander all his money on her.

This is why Hephaistion as jealous of a “mere woman,” even a wife, strikes me as anachronistic—especially by that point in their lives. Maybe in the first flush, he could be jealous, and I do have him initially jealous of Kampaspe in Dancing with the Lion: Rise. But not only does he get over it, he winds up friends with her! (She’ll continue to be important throughout the series, in fact.) He simply needed to know she wasn’t going to replace him.

A wife isn’t going to replace him, especially not a wife married for diplomatic purposes, which is ALL Alexander’s wives, and even mistresses (including Barsine and arguably, Statiera). It would be the same thing with heirs. Hephaistion sure can’t give any to Alexander, so of course he needs Alexander’s wife to do that.

I think, if anything, Hephaistion would have wanted to be involved in helping raise Alexander’s sons/children…just as Alexander apparently intended to be involved with Hephaistion’s. That’s reportedly why he married Hephaistion to Drypetis, the younger sister of his own bride, Statiera (the younger): so their children would be cousins.

For elite classes, there are just a LOT more people involved in raising children than a nuclear family. Alexander’s (and Hephaistion’s) children would have had nurses, attendants, tutors, etc. There wouldn’t have been any expectation that Alexander would “settle down” with his wife and spend all his time with them, like a Macedonian Father Knows Best. Hee.

Hephaistion’s REAL rivals for Alexander’s affections would be competing Hetairoi who might want to muscle in and usurp his influence, or younger teen boys who caught Alexander’s eye, especially if he seemed to be getting too close to one. Pretty Euxinippos was more of a threat (and maybe why he was packed off with the Scythians as an ambassador, at least for a while) than Roxane.

As I’ve said many times, Hollywood really is missing out with Hephaistion when they have him fuming over Roxane (or Bagoas). SO, so much more mileage could be made of the rivalries AROUND Alexander among his top men. The whole Philotas-hatred thing…it’s *juicy*. Eumenes as a bit of a dick at the court, and Leonnatos’s meat-headed arrogance. Perdikkas and Ptolemy sassing at each other. Krateros and Hephaistion. Kassandros like a little weasel back in Macedon. Kleitos cussing at everyone for getting too Persian. There’s the fun stuff!

But that’s mostly not romantic. It’s still about love though: affection.

[lost-in-fandoms]

Winter Warmers Day 8: Holiday baking. Maxiel. About 1.1k words.

When Max asks Daniel if he wants to go with him to walk his mother's dogs, Daniel refuses. He is curled up in an armchair, a blanket in his lap, chatting with Victoria, and he's way too comfortable and warm to think about going out in the cold.

It's not snowing, not really, but the ground is frozen, and there's a humid chill in the air that digs its cold fingers into Daniel's bones as soon as he dares stepping foot outside.

Max just shrugs, not pushing for it, bends down to kiss Daniel and goes to put on his shoes. Daniel does his very best to ignore Victoria's teasing smile and his own pink cheeks.

It's not that Max is not affectionate, or that he doesn't love kissing Daniel at any given opportunity, it's just that usually they can't do it in public. Even if Max wasn't such a private person, they wouldn't want to deal with the shit storm it would cause to be papped kissing, and even when they are in friends' company they keep it very PG, brushing hands and bumping hips.

But it's clear that Max feels safe here, comfortable and happy in a way Daniel rarely sees him outside of their own home, so he apparently has no problem with PDA in front of his mother.

Daniel loves it for him, really, he would love Max to always be this open, but he also wants to disappear under the blanket when both women look at him with matching grins and he has to try really hard to pretend nothing has just happened.

He slightly regrets not accepting Max's invite when a few minutes later Sophie gets up, looking at the clock on the wall.

"I will go make cookies, for when the boys wake up," she says, her accent curling around the words. Then she points at Daniel, "you will come help me?"

And what can Daniel do, if not get up too?

He doesn't want to offend her, or to get on her bad side, if Sophie even has a bad side, especially not when it's the first time they spend Christmas together, so he follows her to the kitchen, dutifully washing his hands.

"I am not much of a baker," he warns her, accepting the light blue apron she hands him, hoping Max's walk will be long enough to allow him to take it off before he's back.

"Just sit, do what I say," Sophie says, shrugging in a very similar motion to her son, before starting to take out ingredients.

Daniel gets tasked with whisking the butter and sugar, as Sophie melts butter and chocolate on the stove. It's peaceful, despite it being an arm workout, and it reminds him a little of helping his own mom when he was little, sneaking bites of whatever she was cooking when she pretended to look the other way.

"He's a sweet boy."

Daniel jumps a little in surprise at Sophie's voice, turning his head to look at her, still fully focused on the chocolate.

"He is," he says carefully, not really knowing where she is going with it.

"Keep whisking," she reminds him, pointing him back to his task. "He loves you very much."

Daniel wonders if this is what Dutch shovel talk feels like. And also wonders why it wouldn't have come a couple years ago, when Max had told her about their relationship.

"I love him too," he replies, still confused but truthful.

Sophie leaves the chocolate to hand Daniel two eggs.

"Those go in," she tells him, grabbing a second bowl to start weighting the dry ingredients.

Daniel luckily doesn't get any shell in, gives himself a second to feel very proud about it, and then goes back to whisking.

"Do you want to marry him?"

Daniel chokes on his spit. He looks up sharply to find Sophie hiding a smile behind her hand, and to hear Victoria giggle in the other room, clearly listening in.

"I..we...yes? We haven't really talked about it," he stammers.

It's not lack of commitment. Daniel knows Max is it for him, he knows he wants to spend the rest of his life with him, but marriage? A wedding seems very complicated to plan, and very tiring to go through with, and he's pretty sure both their families would kill them if they eloped.

"You should," Sophie tells him, taking the now melted chocolate off the stove, drying the condensation at the bottom of the bowl with a tea towel.

"He is..." she pauses, methodically sifting the flour. "complicated. About marriage. He thinks he ruined mine."

Daniel nods, looking down at the light yellow contents of his own bowl.

"It is of course nonsense, Jos and I broke it ourselves, but he is very stubborn."

"He got that from you, mama," Victoria says, sliding into the kitchen and sitting down on one of the free chairs, apparently done with pretending she's not listening in.

Sophie smiles at her, unapologetic.

"He loved my wedding," Victoria adds, turning towards Daniel, "and he loves love. He's a romantic, deep down. But he worries."

"I don't need to marry him to never leave him," Daniel says, a bit defensive.

Both women smile at him, Victoria bright and knowing, like he just won something, and Sophie soft and sweet, reaching out to gently pat Daniel's hand.

"You should tell him that," Victoria tells him, making Daniel frown. He's pretty sure Max knows how much Daniel loves him, how much he wants their futures to be together.

"He worries," Sophie says, echoing Victoria's words. "He worries that marriage will ruin you, and that not being married will also do it."

"He's very stupid."

Daniel snorts at Victoria's words, and Sophie frowns at them both, shaking her head. Then she takes Daniel's bowl and starts slowly combining the ingredients.

"He is a very smart boy," she defends, folding the chocolate in, "but he can be very stupid."

Daniel laughs again, and this time Victoria joins him, leaning forward on the table, body folding with it just like Max's.

"I'll tell him," Daniel promises once he's serious again, feeling like he has just done something very right when Sophie just nods at him, offering him a ice cream scoop.

"Do the cookies, I will do the dishes," she tells him.

Victoria steals the bowl where the melted chocolate had been, earning herself another eye roll from Sophie, and Daniel dutifully starts scooping the batter into neat little rows on the baking sheet.

When Max comes home, cheeks red from the cold, Victoria is upstairs, waking the boys from their nap, the house smells like chocolate, and Daniel is waiting for him in the kitchen, ready to be teased about the apron he's still wearing.

[maspers]

I feel like those of us in the Cosmere fandom don't appreciate how the Stormlight Archive isn't a murder mystery.

(Well okay there's a little bit of one in Oathbringer but we aren't talking about that)

It could have been so easy for the death of Gavilar Kholin to have been a murder mystery. Let's look at the scenario, shall we? There's a big meeting and party, where peace is supposed to be declared, and then the King dies. Say we DIDN'T know whodunnit. Gavilar's death haunts the narrative, and every subplot in the story soon ties back to that single driving question of "Who Killed Gavilar Kholin?". Over the course of the story, we've seen the layers slowly peeled off, one by one, revealing a whole bunch of suspects.

There's Dalinar, the King's brother, seemingly a depressed drunkard but was once known a deadly warrior and general.

There's Sadeas, the highprince who is seemingly loyal to the king but is otherwise a backstabbing slimeball.

And there's another highprince, Amaram, who was talking with Gavilar for quite a while earlier in the day.

Jasnah, the King's heretical and highly intelligent daughter, and...

Also the person who hired Liss, an actual assassin, to spy on the event and possibly kill someone else.

Then there's Elhokar, the King's incompetent son who is nonetheless next in line for the throne.

And Elhokar's hedonistic wife, Aesudan, who was apparently enough of a problem that Jasnah was planning on killing her.

Speaking of wives, the King's own wife Navani is soon revealed to be cunning in her own right... and angry with her husband.

Dalinar's sons, Adolin and Renarin, don't seem to have been in attendance, but considering everyone else in the family was there there's no reason they couldn't've been around as well and nobody mentioned it.

There's Eshonai and the other Parshendi drummers, a.k.a. the opposing faction. Eshonai in particular seems to be dangerous.

And her sister, Venli, is also dangerous, was also present, and probably wasn't supposed to be.

At least four of the legendary Heralds are soon revealed to be present as well. The King was planning on betraying Kalak and Nale, Jezrien was drinking with Dalinar, and Shalash was defacing the artwork.

Taravangian, the seemingly weak and compassionate King of Kharbranth who secretly is planning on orchestrating a LOT of murdering.

There's the mysterious "Thaidakar", leader of the Ghostbloods who Gavilar himself thought was the one responsible for killing him.

Since it's a Cosmere work and we didn't yet know Hoid couldn't hurt people, it would be easy to assume he's an available suspect as well.

Gavilar could have even committed suicide, as some part of an elaborate scheme.

A huge assortment of servants and partygoers, all of which could have been the killer. Not to mention the spren (and a seon!), who are soon revealed to not necessarily be as mindless as they seem.

Literally anyone else in the story becomes fair game at first glance. Even though she definitely wasn't there at all, Shallan Davar is revealed to have history with that particular night as well. You can keep going and connect everyone to the murder somehow, at least at first.

And lastly Szeth-son-son-Vallano, a mysterious Shin man in white, seen roaming the halls with a very bizarre sword.

Of course, we all know what happened. It was Szeth, in the King's chambers, with the honorblade. And he did it on the orders of the Parshendi. There's no whodunnit, or even a howdunnit (and even the whydunnit is only partially hidden from the reader, Jasnah's POV reveals Eshonai and the other Parshendi were pretty upfront about why they did it). There's no ambiguity, the death is merely a spark that kicks off the plot into motion.

"The Mysterious Murder of Gavilar Kholin" would have been a crutch. It would have been so easy for Sanderson to use it as a backup sideplot, supporting the other stories and keeping things tied together. There's an AU out there where Kaladin ends up being the amateur detective who puts the last piece together and confronts Szeth in an epic battle in the sky. That could have happened. But it didn't.

Brandon Sanderson does not need to rely on a murder mystery to keep his story standing. Regardless of whether it was intentional or not, he had enough faith in his narratives to make them stand on their own, moving forward beyond the death of one pathetic man. The Stormlight Archive is not about how people die, it's about how people choose to live. So it cast aside its crutch, walked forward on its own legs, and became one of the best dang fantasy sagas in history.

And then, in the ultimate "psych!" moment, things went back around and kept connecting to that night anyway. Like a bizarre episode of Columbo, where everything else around the extremely upfront murder gets revealed instead. Instead of using the murder mystery as a device to support the plot, the entire rest of the story is used as a device to support the account of the murder. So that even though it WASN'T a murder mystery we're thrown by the plot twists anyway.

And then, of course, while we're still reeling from those reveals, the rest of the plot hits us with some more Sanderlanches, because this story is still going. And it was never really about Gavilar, anyway.

It's brilliant. How the heck does Sanderson pull these crazy writing shenanigans off?

[fandoms-in-law]

New Years Visit

Summary: The Harrington's decide to visit Hawkins for New Years and aren't prepared for just how many people are supporting Steve and judging them openly

Author's note: I don't know what this is or why the end of the year makes me want to write about Steve and his parents, but hey, final fic of 2024, Happy New Year Everyone

/\

It wasn’t often that the Harrington’s were in Hawkins, excluding Steve, that is. They had to network or be in their offices in various states and didn’t see much cause to return when being active managers was a priority for them. A good manager of any level was one that was present in the business and knew their staff by sight at a minimum, as Julia Harrington’s father always said.

Unfortunately following that advise meant neither of them were particularly present in their son’s life, but this year, after reading about the murders and the earthquake they’d declined every invitation for New Years parties and reserved the flights back to Hawkins month in advance. They wouldn’t leave their business without them unless they got the hospital call that their son needed them, but needed to check he was okay.

So after the last Christmas party they’d arranged for their offices, and a few too many delays ensuring Richard had left ways for everyone to get in touch just in case and Julia had double checked she was bringing her latest beauty products they were on their way, hoping Steve would have at least told them if there had been any property damage earlier in the year. Their attempts to call both when the earthquakes occurred and to let him know they were coming home had gone unanswered so far, with the voicemail message being rather unusual in that it cursed someone listening in and didn’t ask for a message to be left at all.

“Who are you and why are you here?” A girl called, spotting them pulling in when she’d been skating further down the road as they passed.

“Richard and Julia Harrington, who are you, young miss?” Richard answered pleasantly, despite her demanding approach.

She looked at them frowning, and hissed as she tugged a bag off her shoulder and it caught in her braid. Julia almost stepped forward to help and compliment the fiery colour of it but paused at a glare. “Babysitter, you didn’t tell us not to visit. Over.” The girl muttered into a radio barely removing it from the bag.

“Why would I? Just come in.” The reply soon came, a light in their entryway turning on despite it being a bright day.

The girl huffed, rolled her eyes and faced their front door with crossed arms, even as she replied into the radio now out of the bag, “So you’re telling me this wasn’t anticipated?”

“Max, who’s out there that he’s backed away from the door?” Another girls voice came through the radio now, sounding cautious.

“We did try to let Steve know we’d be visiting. We wanted to confirm he’s okay and getting time away from our business took a while to arrange.” Julia tried to explain. “How did he disable the ability to leave a message, do you know?”

The girl turned to her with a heavy sigh. “Will and Dustin, am I cursing you for Steve’s parents visiting unexpectedly because they couldn’t leave a message, or should I curse Murray?” She said into the radio again, but smiled at them now. “Hurt Steve and the town will be after you, but if you are here to check on him, that’s fine, come on in.”

They shared a glance, uncertain what to make of this unknown kid taking over greeting them and inviting them into their own home. “Okay, can I know your name? Especially since it sounds like you’re close to our son.” Richard asked, trying to figure out what manners would be best used if this was how they were greeted.

There were more voices coming from the radio now, but the girl didn’t seem to be listening to them as she opened the door to their home and let them all in. “Steve, they’re just here to check on you apparently.”

“But we were having a party tonight.” He mumbled to the woman stood beside him. “Hi Mom, Dad, didn’t expect you home.”

Richard chuckled, hoping that would alleviate some of the tension, “We’ve been told. It’s been too long since we’ve come to see you though. How are things?”

“Things are great, we’re rebuilding Hawkins and are you going to cancel the Party because we really should tell everyone sooner rather than later if so. I’m Robin by the way, what are your names?” Robin greeted, patting Steve’s shoulder and speaking rapidly as she came over, holding her hand out.

“I’m Julia and this is Richard, how many people is the party for?” Julia shook the hand, silently grateful that some expected manners had been shown now, “Would you mind if we joined it since we’re here?”

Robin paused at the question, before carrying on speaking quickly, “Well it’s just family, or the party and their families, I guess, so that’s; Me, Steve, the kids, so nine, Eddie makes ten, then their parents and Holly so Wheelers, Sinclairs, Mrs Henderson, Wayne, Party parents, Did Murray say he’d make it? What about Argyle?” She glanced over her shoulder, counting off people on her fingers, “Forgot Jonathan and Nancy too, so about twenty-three I think? We didn’t invite Mrs Mayfield, did we?”

Steve looked at her, heading into the kitchen before leaning back around the door. “If you’re staying you don’t have to hover in the entryway Mom, just come through. Sorry I’ve changed the place around a bit, assumed since I hadn’t heard from you that I could make the place mine a little.”

“I’d be shocked if you hadn’t, son.” Richard followed him through, noticing the pictures dotted around the sides and a few things scattered on the counters beside serving dishes set out ready to be filled for the party. “Robin called all those people family?”

“We’ve been through a lot together and someone had to stop the kids getting themselves killed.” Steve half explained, focused entirely on finding a page from the notes spread about. “Just twenty, Nancy said she’s not comfortable with parties here so asked Jonathan for a night at the Byers and Argyle missed his flight and doesn’t think he’d get here on time driving. I bet he just doesn’t want to do that drive again, especially alone.”

Robin went to say something in return but was stopped by Julia’s gasp and rapid movement to Steve’s side, “You were hurt? When?” She asked, and now Richard spotted what she had, a healed scar just under the collar of Steve’s sweater.

Steve pushed her hand down gently, “During the earthquake. I got caught in some stuff trying to help out. It’s fine. I thought-” He cut the words off, blinking over whatever he’d been about to say. “I thought the hospital would have called you, but Joyce and Hopper had suggested having someone in town be my emergency contact when I got to know them. They didn’t call you, did they?”

“No, Steve. Were you injured badly?” Richard asked.

The noise Steve made in reply wasn’t understandable, but Robin was nodding, “Not as badly as some of our family, but we’ve got a miracle worker and some damn determined kids who pretend they don’t need the amount of help they should get.” The words were pointedly called over her shoulder.

“I’m coping perfectly. I can even skate.” The girl who’d met them called back before coming through, trailing one hand on the wall. “I’m Max, by the way, and Sorry for being one of the reasons Steve put off getting his injuries properly treated.”

“Wasn’t planning to mention that, thanks Max.” Steve huffed, nudging Max’s shoulder, “So are you staying for a few days? I offered for everyone to stay after the New Years party tonight, is that still okay? I think there’s still enough beds made up.”

Julia smiled at him, “Of course it’s fine. This should be more your home than ours given we’ve got plenty closer to the offices we have to oversee.”

“Stevie! Got some brats demanding they come over early, want me to drag them somewhere to get rid of this excess energy?” A man called from the entryway just seconds before four boys appeared in the kitchen, each staring at the Harrington’s as if judging their worthiness.

Steve watched them for a moment, before calling, “Through here, Eddie. My parents came back for a visit and I think they’re trying group intimidation for something.”

Richard chuckled again, getting a glance from his wife. It was something of a nervous response since most of his associates and staff thought the chuckle meant he was more genial and it reduced their fear more than other nervous responses he’d had when first leading a business years before. “I didn’t realise you’d become so loved, or that coming to visit and hopefully catch up with my son would involve so many people checking if they’ll let us.” He said, glancing around the kids in the room and back to Steve.

“Nancy said she’ll come by tomorrow to pick me up and talk with you then.” One of the boys said.

Steve groaned, “They’re my parents, can we stop with the threats?”

“I’m not going to threaten them. Hopper will do that for all of us.” One of the kids stated.

A man had appeared in the doorway and laughed at the comment, “Pleased to see you exist, Mr and Mrs Harrington, I’m Eddie and these shitheads are going to introduce themselves now.” He waved, voice changing slightly as he spoke to the kids.

~

Richard collapsed into the sofa in their room, “So, guess we’ve missed a lot.” He said on a sigh.

“And we’re not being told how much,” Julia agreed. “Also apparently everyone believes I travel with you to stop you cheating.”

“What?” He sat up, turning to her.

She laughed lightly, “Robin asked me about it since it’s one of the things Steve hates being compared to you because of. Small town gossip at its worst almost.”

He relaxed back for a moment, thinking over everything they’d heard over the evening, “Only almost because of how Eddie was spoken about?”

“Yep, also are we mentioning to Steve that we saw their kiss?” The question was offhand, but that had been the reason they weren’t downstairs still, saying goodbye to all the guests even if they hadn’t really played hosts over the evening.

“We probably should, just to let him know we still accept him.” He decided after thinking it over. “Though he’s got other conversations to have before then I think. That boy ran from him soon after.”

Julia laughed again, “But he’ll get the date soon enough. Eddie loved talking about him almost as much as he enjoyed discussing that fantasy game with the younger teens there.”

“No doubt about that.” Richard agreed, still thinking over all the evening and the veiled threats and insults that had been directed at them over how hand off they’d been in raising their son.“Perhaps we should schedule two trips home each year now. See Steve a little more in this life he’s made without us.”

She smiled at him nodding, “That would be nice.”

[jasonsthighholsters]

I am suffering from a horrendous case of too-many-WIPs paralysis

and feel I need help narrowing down what I should work on right now. Synopses for each are below the poll, and any opinions or encouragement would be so, so appreciated

Portrait of a Lady On Fire AU

is really historical fantasy inspired by the movie, because womanhood, gender roles, and oppression are so central to the actual story. Kyle, an accomplished painter and teacher, is commissioned by aristocrat Bruce Wayne to paint a portrait of his son, Jay. When Kyle arrives at the Wayne’s estate, it is revealed to him that Jay has refused to sit for portraits with numerous other painters out of protest of his arranged engagement. Kyle must pose as a companion for Jay, while painting the portrait intended for his fiancé in secret. This arrangement is complicated when Kyle and Jay begin to develop affection for each other.

The Jason-centric Music Character Study

explores the idea of Jason as a musician and a performer, primarily through the headcanon of Talia teaching a catatonic Jason to play the piano by placing her hands over his on a keyboard as an attempt to get a non-fighting reaction out of him while he was with the League. Then, Talia asks him if he remembers this while they’re meeting during Jason’s world tour of Talia stalling him with teachers, and Talia suggests he should attempt to play again, as a way to improve hand coordination or something. This fic will also include allusions/flashbacks to theater kid Jason Todd and the idea that he participated in school theatre before his death, because that headcanon is very dear to me.

The Autopsy Scar Fic

is a much darker Jason Todd & Dick Grayson emotional hurt/comfort fic exploring the idea of Jason having a Y-incision scar because he harmed himself in that pattern. Canon is deeply inconsistent about the autopsy scar. We know from Jason talking to Artemis in Red Hood: Outlaw #50 that the Lazarus Pit removed all of Jason's scars, not to mention that it is unlikely Jason actually had an autopsy, despite having a death certificate. Yet, Jason is occasionally drawn with the scar, and its existence remains a popular headcanon and discussion. This WIP is Jason and Dick having this discussion from an in-universe perspective, answering with the headcanon that Jason harmed himself by giving himself a Y-incision, and was healed quickly by an increased healing factor from the Lazarus Pit.

Social Media Pride-and-Prejudice Crack Fic

is an abomination that came to me in a dream. Jason and Kyle's rivalry, post-Countdown, makes it to Twitter, where their bickering garners significant attention from civilians and heroes, picking up on the palpable homoerotic undertones (because no, Jason, telling Kyle that "it is unfortunate his face is so pretty that no one has ever decked him in it" is not really an insult.) Jason's affinity for Austen is revealed to the public through their tweets at each other. This, by some catastrophic series of events, prompts some denizen of the internet to write "HoodLantern Pride and Prejudice fanfiction," in which the Bats are the Bennets, with Batman as Mrs. Bennet. Jason, in a sage decision, reads it and decides to tell Twitter that, if they WERE in a Pride and Prejudice fanfiction, Kyle should so obviously be Lizzie, and he would be Mr. Darcy. This was apparently the wrong response, and mocking ensues.

5+1 Complaining Fic

Five times Jason or Kyle complain about the other to Donna, and one time they can't bring themselves to complain. This fic features crime-solving, Broadway soundtracks, and the kind of manga that is plastic-wrapped in the store.

5+1 Flirting Fic

Five times someone flirts with Kyle (or worse, and more likely, Kyle is flirting with someone else), and one time someone flirts with Jason. This fic features cannolis, handsome purple aliens, and one Donna Troy, who deserves a long, sunny vacation away from deeply jealous, pining heroes.

[dardinan-ingellvar]

Learning The Sad Truth

After a decade with Emmrich, it's become apparent to Dardin'an that they've truly stopped aging. They had already thought it strange that they looked like they did in their mid twenties with no real change by the time Solas' ritual was stopped, but with Emmrich reaching 60, and looking just that much older, Dardin'an doesn't look 40 at all. Not a thing has changed, and it's beginning to scare them. After learning the truth about their life - that they were a wisp who had taken human form - they'd often wondered if there were side effects. Now, it seems they have their answer.

To be certain, they call upon Keepsake and Curio in private, needing that certainty. "It is a pleasure to see you again, Rook" Keepsake says.

"Thank you. It is always an honor to see the both of you. Hail the Dead...But...I have questions. I know I am not truly an Elf. I was a wisp. Am a wisp, I suppose...And I seem to have stopped aging. I look no different than I did when I was 25 or so...How is that possible?"

Curio nods "I am afraid you are not mortal. We have been observing you, Rook. Your state of being is new to us, but we've seen it too."

"But you are no less fragile. You can still fall in battle no differently than any other. I'm afraid, however, unless that happens, you will far outlive Emmrich...Farther than you perhaps previously planned" Keepsake chimes.

Dardin'an pales and has to take a seat on one of the steps of a tomb to keep their head from spinning quite so much "So...I was right...Shit...I should have let him turn Lich...but Manfred..."

"If it is any consolation, it means he can, in theory, return to you...in time. As you did for him. We may be able to guide that, now that we know more about your condition" Curio remarks

Dardin'an winces "I...I thought I could face his death with my head held high. But I thought I'd grow old with him, relatively speaking. I didn't think-...This is cruel! What am I supposed to do? How do I tell him?"

"He is an observant man, Rook. He already knows. That you love him still has kept him from speaking up." Keepsake's tone suggests this isn't the first time they've had this talk

Dardin'an stands and looks horrified "He figured it out...?! How long ago?"

"Six years...He came to us needing to know why you never seem to change. We had realized by then that you were more unique than previously believed"

With years forming in their eyes, they turn from the spirits. "Thank you...I need to speak with Emmrich..."

Dardin'an send Keepsake and Curio back to rest and goes to find Emmrich in their room. He is grading some projects, so he doesn't look up from his work. "Ah! Rook, dearest! Pass me that tome on the desk beside you, will you? I believe one of my students stumbled on something..."

Dardin'an sighs, and does as asked. They let Emmrich make his notes before they speak.

"...So...You've known for six years..."

Emmrich sits up and turns to finally meet Dardin'an's gaze "Oh...my love, I had hoped you wouldn't realize so quickly...Elves seem to age so gracefully...I thought-..." He sighs. "...Well, I knew you'd find out eventually. I just wanted our time together to be less fraught with concern."

Dardin'an shakes their head. "It's not right! You should be immortal too. I robbed that from you...I should've-...!"

Emmrich stands and hugs Dardin'an close "You gave us a son we could raise together...And what a wonder he is! I'd be so broken without that. Losing Manfred would never have been worth immortality...Even if we could share in it after all. And I haven't been entirely inactive since I realized...I'm trying to find out if, perhaps...I could become a wisp myself after-...Well...after the end. If I can possess a form like you did, or even one like Manfred, and grow into my own again...You won't have to bear eternity alone..."

Dardin'an tenses "I can't-...Decades without you...."

"...Will be a blink of an eye, dearest. And then you'll have me again. Though, I may be a tad different...But if I find away to lock my mind within the wisp form I take, I wouldn't be quite so different as you are to my first love. I'd essentially be me, reborn"

Dardin'an kisses Emmrich and hugs him back finally "Please find a way. It was one thing when I thought I would only have a few years without you before I could rejoin you...Forever?...I can't face that."

Emmrich melts a little at the kiss and smiles with a melancholy glint in his eyes. "I understand, darling, I truly do...If not for my own mortality, I believe I might have spent all my time worrying over you...Yes, you're immortal yourself, but as a Lich, I would be much harder to kill. You are not. And in our line of work, beyond the Necropolis, there is no reality where neither of us is in danger of passing before the other."

Dardin'an groans "I suppose...I just wish we could stop finding salt to pour in our wounds. Every time we get comfortable, something new comes along that hurts...I came into this relationship knowing odds were high I'd lose you one day. But I knew I'd die eventually...Then I find out I'm a wisp that possessed an infant's corpse, and I'm still not able to really wrap my mind around that...But on top of it all, I'm immortal because of it? Now, I get to lose you, like you lost the person I once was? Get me off this runaway cart...I need a break..."

Emmrich strokes Dardin'an's cheek and sighs "Oh, Rook...Such is life. But we have a good life together, and so many happy memories, adventures, stories to tell...Let's focus on that, while we seek solutions to the problems that arise. It's the best way around all that stress."

Dardin'an nods against Emmrich's chest and pulls him to their bed for a desperately needed distraction to aid in working on moving on from this revelation.

[stan-tmblr]

WTPR Finale Episode Theories:

(spoilers ahead!!)

1. Hee Joo is alive. Worst case scenario is amnesia trope but I don't think they're gonna go with that route

2. Psycho Baek Saeon is also still alive (we still have 2 episodes to go he can't die so early in the game)

3. Baek Saeon's mother is about to get REALLY annoying. I'm telling you she's gonna do something bat sht crazy soon to protect her real son

4. More Yuri and Sang Woo scenes (more like: pls pls pls i'm actually begging)

5. I feel there's gonna be a big face off scene between Baek Saeon and Psycho BSE. There's gonna be a hostage (might be far fetched but I feel it's gonna be the mom?)

6. Apparently BSE is actually the son of his grandpa(?) [i know wtf right, i'm actually— i honestly should've known i mean i've seen this sht before in another kdrama but i'm not gonna spoil in case any of yall intends to watch it. just iykyk hahahaha] so we'll probably know who his real mother was, if he actually has a name or if he'll get to choose his own name i dunno so mamy possibilities.

7. Happy ending 🫶 They're gonna live lowkey, maybe in another country

[dcdreamblog]

So, um... what's the deal with Starman? A friend and I went to this art show the other day and apparently the artist, this Knight guy, used to be Starman? Except I can't conceive of this soul patched, bowling shirt-wearing dad (his kids were at the exhibition, very well behaved at that), being the same guy who flew around with the JSA in that cool starfield pattern costume. And then my friend starts trying to gaslight me about "no, this guy was Starman in 1951" which sounds like some nonsense conspiracy theory. Help?

I'm afraid that what you find unbelievable is simply true.

(A mural of Knight that stands in Opal City to this day)

Jack Knight is the youngest son of Theodore "Ted" Knight and Adele Drew and he is not exactly the kind of man you would imagine when considering the Knight legacy, especially considered how worshiped his father was in Opal City and still is to this day. But life comes out you fast I suppose.

He never WANTED to be Starman, by his own admission he only took the job when his older brother David was killed in a conspiracy put in place by his father's old nemesis The Mist in an attempt to destroy Knight's legacy and Opal City along with it. Jack freely admitted his original motivations were a mix of guilt and vengeful anger.

He fit VERY awkwardly into the role, having never fully seen eye to eye with his father and having deeply unsettled feelings about his late brother and mother. When the chips were down though he served Opal City when she needed a hero more than once.

He didn't stay in the role for very LONG, especially after he became a father. When his own father gave his life to save Opal City one final time, Jack left his Cosmic Staff to his JSA teammate Stargirl and moved to San Francisco where he now lives with his wife, Sadie Payton-Knight and their children, Kyle and Marie Jr. Currently he works as...something between an antiques dealer and a modern artist which is probably where you ended up seeing him.

(A piece of Knight and his some Kyle, done by Knight himself) As you can see above, he is known as being kind of a walking anachronism. Like you said he's always sporting a goatee, product in his hair and is wearing some bowling shirt or other, usually with an obscure mid century reference on the back. He's the last guy you would think of as a superhero, and yet, I imagine that we'd find most superheroes are like that. Secret identities and all.

Really, I say more power to him. Opal City is currently the stomping grounds for Black Condor and the Dibnys, on and off, so its not like they're hurting for defense. Especially since Opal City has the lowest crime rate per capita of the entire country. He's given AN interview, just to get all his cards on the table immediately post retirement and even donated a few of his father's things to this museum and the JSA Brownstone museum, and of course the Starman museum in Opal City proper. Though a lot of artifacts he's keeping "in the family" for what are, I think, very understandable reasons.

As far as my field is concerned, he's affable in person but more or less we try not to bother him. The Starman legacy and the Superhero life took his mother, his brother and his father from him before he turned 30. God knows what else. Let the man raise his kids and wear his Flintstones socks in peace.

And the "Starman of 51" is a story ALL on it lonesome.

[idk-bruh-20]

Irondad fic ideas #157

The spell is almost complete, and MJ knows. She knows Peter's never going to come find them. He's going to let himself stay forgotten.

So as soon as he's swung away she opens her phone and types in the first chat she sees with Peter not in it: "May Parker's nephew the most boring white boy name Tony Stark's son Midtown decath I love him Ned's best friend about to be erased by magic DONT FORGET HIM FIND HIM."

She manages to add a few final notes just for her, to prove to her future self that she's really the one sending the message. She hits send just as the spell is sealed.

It turns out, the group chat she'd written in was the one for "FOS" (Friends of Spider-Man).

When she stumbles across the chat again, large sections of it's history are now blank, and she doesn't remember what the name stands for. But the members are still there: herself, Ned, May Parker, Happy Hogan, and Tony Stark.

So. Two dead people and May's ex boyfriend, who never bothers to respond. At least Ned is determined. And that "I love him" echoes in her head. They both begin to poke at the mystery, not really sure it'll ever be solved.

Little does she know, Tony Stark is not as dead as the whole world believes. And he's very concerned that this random group chat is talking about magic and him having a missing son.

[gingermintpepper]

Writing Apollo-as-a-young-deity is fun because sometimes it involves completely making shit up based on the loose outline of a story told through old poems, prayers and plays and other times it involves researching the totally legit and well documented ancient art of studying sheep livers to make sure your statesmen don't accidentally piss off Jupiter.

In completely unrelated news, if anyone has any recommendations for books about bird augury, that'd be wonderful.

[slymanner]

Look all I'm saying is if that a shadow game can work THAT well and be so well designed story wise and gameplay wise

HE can work