#so in getting rid of that the characters feel less appealing

[aloonaram]

This artwork (link below) is giving me sooo many ideas for jayvik x hp crossovers, especially post s2 …. I used to be SUCH A FIEND for harry potter crossover fics (still a fiend for crossover fics in gen) and it would be so cool if like after jayvik get zapped away by the stone they come out the other side in the hp universe and then have to learn how to navigate this world where magic exists?? But in a different form from the arcane and its revered in a way?? and an entire secret society and school exists just to teach kids magic?? And in this school theres no tech, no engineering?? Plus not to mention all the political bs as well omg

And how would they get involved with the school in first place…maybe they pop right into the school? I wish i remembered more from the books bc i feel like theres totally an event i could use but I just can’t remember much outside from like the first two books 😭

If anyone wants to brainstorm with me feel free bc like i said i loooooveee crossovers and now that im finally on break (and i have adderall now) I think i might actually start some fics

Art is here btw

[tinydefector]

Hi, since the requests are open, could you write brainstorm x human or perceptor x human SFW/NSFW at your discretion. I just read your book "Human's effects" and I really liked the way you wrote brainstorm. Have a nice day.

Human effects 11 - Brainstorm

So I'll be doing more of these with characters, and if I have another part asked for Brainstorm on this series, it will be a smut piece.

Brainstorm x Human reader

Warnings: light lust mention

Word count: 2.7k

Masterlist

Brainstorm masterlist

Human effects masterlist

__________________

Brainstorm's optics focus on the data pad in his servos, a hum resonates from him along with a small chirp as he filters through the multiple different subjects he had been doing research on. His processor aches from the amount of engex he had consumed the cycle before while at swerves.  The seeker haphazardly pays attention as he walks down the hallway of the corridors of the ship toward the lab, his optics flicker when they lock on the one of  liaisons, very specifically the Ambassador that he along with many others from the night before hand had been ‘fantasises’ about. 

 

 He had so many questions he wanted to ask them in person about human biology but in honesty didn't know where to start, they were an organic species, bipedal mammals who in many aspects were very similar to Cybertronians. His optics linger on them, taking in their frame type, tone and all up rather visual appeal. He could understand why humans were so sought after on the black market, they were soft and rather plus from what he could observe. 

" heya stormy" they call out with a smile as they make their way over to him. Brainstorm jolts from his musings, systems heating with embarrassment at being caught distracted by his thoughts, his engine lets out a hitched whine as fans whirl. But their smile seems warm, non-judgmental, and he relaxes fractionally, they didn't have the ability to read his processor, he was fine he rationalised to himself. 

"Ah, greetings, Ambassador!” He attempts to mask the fluster that was creeping across his plating, wings twitching lightly. "Lovely sol to find you up and about, I wasn't expecting to see you down in the labs this Cycle." He pauses with a. Raised optic rid wondering why they were down their way, they normally didn't make it a habit to visit the scientist. 

“ picking up some equipment Nautica got for my team, she's been helping a lot with our long range transmitter and also with us getting supplies on Ultra Magnus' request” they hum while carrying a small crate. 

His field radiates enthusiasm, if they were down here at that moment perhaps they had some time to spare him for his own pursuit in knowledge.  "Might I beg for a moment of your time? As Cybertron's chief scientist, I was hoping to inquire about Human biology if you had the time. our records only have some much information on your people and i believe a lot of it is rather outdated, if you'd feel comfortable sharing it could offer insights aiding our alliance." He asked, it was worth a shot and if they Were to busy he could always ask one of the other humans.  

They give Brainstorm another sweet smile as they begin walking beside him towards his destination, they hike their crate of equipment highter as to keep grip on it. "Sure I'm happy to answer questions, it's not like I have much going on at the moment, last I heard Megatron and Mags have Rodimus doing my paperwork as punishment for trying to take Rikko Asteroid surfing.” they laugh as the words fall from their lips. Remembering the look on the speedster face when he had more reports dropped on him. 

“ but if we are gonna play twenty questions you better make it fun!" They tease in a singy song voice. Brainstorm's optical ridges curiously curiously beneath his faceplate at the human's playful jest. He lets out his own amused chuckle at the idea of Rodimus suffering even more paperwork, he didn't envy the Captain and even less so the aching processor he was most likely nursing after the drinks from the late cycle. 

"Scientific inquiry as a game, eh? Now there's an intriguing proposition!" His wings fluttered, promptly intrigued with the idea. Data collection through entertaining exchange sounded rather fun compared to the normal exchange he had with Perceptor. A mischievous lilt crept into his tone as he slowly matched their pace walking together his optics flicker down to them taking in just how small they were compared to him. They just met his knee plating joints. humansWeren't nearly as small as a lot of Cybertronians were lead to believe. He remembered the first time ever seeing them he was quite taken back over their size originally expecting them to fit into the pal of his servo. But seeing them in real life had made him realise a lot of what he believed or old records were rather incorrect over humans, and their biology. 

 "Very well. First question: what gives you energy - nutrient paste, energon, the taste of victory?" His visor gleamed roguishly the last question was more a tease but he found it amusing to watch their reaction. The liaison lets out a hearty laugh at the first question. " hahahah oh by the stars, you really don't get alot of human Visitors do you?. So most of what humans as a whole eat is a mix of meat, fruit and vegetables. We need a mixed diet due to being an omnivorous species, but it varies person to person" they explain, giving his leg a gentle nudge with their elbow. 

Brainstorm cycled his optics,parsing this new data on their nutritional requirements with keen interest, it also gave him more information to jot down later.but he is utterly fascinating that a species derived sustenance from multiple organic compounds rather than a single standardised fuel source. "Meat, fruits and vegetation, you say? Truly extraordinary." He made a note to research Earth's ecological climate zones and harvest periods, he was rather interested in seeing what earth produced, Earth had become one of the largest suppliers of energon when cybertron was being rebuilt as it was a common occurring element on earth, it became the main trade source between the two planets.

"What about cybertronians? Do you guys only consume Energon or do you have other things, i know earth supplies quite a lot of energon to cybertron but do you guys only consume it ?" As they returned the query, he waved a languid hand. "Energon in its various forms comprises the bulk of a Cybertronian's fuel intake, though rarely do we consume it in its raw state. Refining introduces necessary additive alloys and minerals to suit an individual's frametype and occupation. Medics also develop specialised fuel mixes for patients. But we do consume other elements, oils, metals and crystals are other necessary for different platingsor frame types " His wings fluttered in delight talking about the different compounds of energon and how it was used. He was no chemist but did enjoy dabbling in creating different flavoured energon.

 "Recreational enjoyment of other sustenance is not unheard of, however. Certain sensory-inducing additives have been experimented with at social gatherings, such as High grade, energex are a subcategory of energon which has a different effect on a processor compared to casual energon, med grade and such" he hums while explaining the different types of fuel, from the causal to the luxurious. 

“Ah so similar to Alcohol for humans, that's quite amusing actually and explains why Rodimus tends to look like he's hung over” they chuckles again remembering how dead on his feet he looked that morning when they had met for a meeting with the command.

“Oh I wasn't aware humans also had similar, but yes energex and high grade have a rather intoxicating effect and lossens intakes while in group gatherings.” He replies. As they make their way into the laboratory. Perceptor is off in the distance and shoots them both a look as Brainstorm slowly lifts them up onto the bench. Before continuing their conversation. 

“ you mentioned something about chemists, what do cybertronian chemists do?” The Ambassador asks while they place their crate down and begin engaging in conversation once again. Brainstorm felt Preceptor's optics tracking the pair curiously as he began another explanation. “Chemists tend to have a range of different fields, the easiest way for me to explain would be to say that Swerve is a Chemist” His optics shimmer in delight as they trade back Information with the human sitting on the bench. 

“I thought Swerve was a bartender?” They reply with a tilted head, their brows pinch in an almost adorable expression to Brainstorm. He has to keep his engine from making a whine at the adorable look. His EM field dances with interest for them. 

“Indeed, chemists work with making, distilling energon and other substances. So in one way Swerve is a chemist but so is Ratchet but they make very different products” He explains. 

“That's so cool, almost like being a human chemist, baker and bartender in one” they hum as they take in the new information they were learning. His optics linger on their hands for a moment before he decides to change the subject of fuel sources. 

"With your permission, I find human epidermal structures utterly absorbing," he began. "The intricate pigmentation patterns, tactile sensitivity... might I?" A single digit hovered millimetres above a forearm, awaiting the liaison's consent before even the faintest contact. It takes them a moment to register the terms from Brainstorm but once they realised he was asking to examine their arm. “Oh sure just wait a second” reply before rolling their sleeves up, hold their arm out to Brainstorm to look at. It catches Preceptor's attention as he raises an unamused optic at how brasin Brainstorm was being.

 "Also heads up you don't need to treat me like glass, humans are pretty resilient so you're not gonna hurt me by touching me unless you're actually trying" they inform. "My thanks for the clarification, as I explained earlier, a lot of our records on Humans is rather outdated, however I'd rather not cause you harm" he responded gently, servos dancing over their arm gently as he takes in the man different markings, patterns and colours that mark their skin. It's highly fascinating to him and he found another reason he believed humans were sought after. It wasn't a subject of cybertronian history he liked but he was interested in learning why humans were so sought after. Soft, pliable, small and would have mostly been very docile. It sent a rattle up his spinal struts as he tries to push the thought a side. 

A single digit traced the patterns of tactile receptors watching the way the little bumps spread across their skin in a visual response to his touch. "Fascinating... your epidermal sensory network far surpasses initial database entries. I've never seen such colours either its stunning" His field pulsed appreciative curiosity as he traced the lines and marking that look like they are hidden under the Ambassador's skin, it makes him wonder how far the marking go but decided it would be pushing it to try and see more, but he knows he will be fantasising about tracing the markings. 

From the corner, Perceptor cleared his vocalizer. "Yes, human biological studies hold fascinating merit. Brainstorm, do refrain from unnecessary experimentation." The other bots voice calls out as he shoots Brainstorm, another disapproving look. 

Brainstorm dips his helm respectfully as he pulls away lwtting the Liason pull their sleeve back down. "No disrespect intended, Perceptor. Merely exploratory observation. Scientific progress warrants cross-cultural exchange plus we need to also rework our old records on human functions, biology and culture." His visor brightened, dispite Preceptor's tone Brainstorm was thrilled with the new knowledge he had gathered just from this meeting.

"Oh don't worry Percy. I doubt Stormy brought me here to experiment on, plus he's curious. I can't say I'm not also curious about you guys either, Earth doesnt have alot of information on Cybertronians outside of the small stuff we had from when you guys were stuck on earth. So i'm happy trading information because we are both interested in learning about each other's people. " They shoot back at the other scientist. Preceptor's optic ridges pinched ever so slightly at the human's familiar tone, though he made no further protest. If they felt at ease with Brainstorm's studies, who was he to force caution upon willing participants? "See that your... observations proceed responsibly," he calls out, it's aimed at Brainstorm but the seeker does not fret too much. 

The two continue chatting between each other trading information with small jokes between them every now and then. The liaison kicks their legs back and forth on the table. It gives Brainstorm the opportunity to truly look at them and appreciate how soft they are, a lustful thought crossing his mind and EM field pulsing lightly which makes Perceptor snap his helm to look at them again. Perceptor narrowed his optics warily at Brainstorm. :. Brainstorm a word.: the other scientist states through comms which makes the seeker go ridged, wings flickering in discomfort. 

Clearing his vocalizer loudly, Perceptor took a deliberate step forward. "Perhaps we will catch you another Cycle Ambassador, Brainstorm and I have much work to attend to, and we wouldn't wish to keep you any longer" he interjected coolly. For his part, Brainstorm cycled a ventilation and reined in his field, hed just had Perceptor call him out on it and the embarrassment was showing with each flutter of his wings. 

The Liaison gives the two scientists a wave once they are set back on the ground. "Well I'll catch you both another time, I'm going to go talk with Swerve about energon, you have me rather intrigued to learn more " They call out lifting their crate back up while heading to the door. Once they had left the Lab it had Brainstorm shifted warily under the weight of Preceptor's dissecting gaze. 

"The human liaison has graciously undertaken representing their kind aboard an unknown vessel to foster cooperation between species. Jeopardising such an auspicious start through any misguided impulse would severely damage relations." 

Pausing his tasks, Perceptor affixed Brainstorm with a searching stare, optics bright with both caution and care for his foolish yet brilliant colleague. "I need not remind you of one of your talents, the fragility of organic creatures compared to our frames.”

Brainstorm shuffled awkwardly beneath the Preceptor's scrutinising gaze. His usually nimble processors faltered grasping a suitably cogent response, field radiating discomfort through scrambled modulations. How to explain such rash intrigues ebbing his usually steady rationale? "Ah...you raise entirely fair points, as always, Perceptor," he demurred, fidgeting with a gripper. "To be perfectly forthright - and at the risk of sounding like a sparkling with his first crush - there's simply something innately captivating about these diminutive humans! Their resilience, ingenuity, curiosity..." His plating flustered with static. 

"And I'll admit, it's not just my scholarly interest piqued. Even the most stoic among us seem charmed by our new small friends." He cycled stabilising ventilation. Wings fluttering weakly, Brainstorm inclined his helm. "Brainstorm pleas for the love of whatever deity you believe be it primus or else Do Not Frag the Ambassador!, they are one of our heads, they work closely with our captains and if you mess Slag up it will be your helm" Perceptor groans out as he pinches his nasal ridge.

Brainstorm's plating flared hotly at Preceptor's emphatic directive. "I - of course not, you must think me a complete naïve sparkling!" he sputtered, waving his gripper defensively. "Mere scholarly observation was my intent, nothing untoward, I assure you, yes I'm intrigued by Humanity and the liaison is rather charming I'm interested in the scientific study of humanity, to rewrite the small knowledge we have on them!"  

Venting sulkily, he leaned against the bench servos tapping into the metal. "Though I'll note, my interests seem far from singular. Last night's engex-fueled discussions had a few of us a little too invested in compatibility. All I'm saying is curiosity seems widespread! So while your cautions are well-founded..." His plating flustered again helplessly, wings fluttering as they would when he was interested in something. 

 "Brainstorm we are not doing this" Perceptor states as he turns away from his fellow scientists. "Wait just a klik, Percy - don't think I fail to spot tangled undercurrents in that rigid plating of yours," he pushed, emboldened by this newfound insight. Cycling closer, his field pulsed a teasing nudge against his colleague's. "For all your lofty speeches cautioning restraint... could it be you harbour doubts following your own advice?" He teases only to get a nasty glare from the other mech. but decides it's better to just ignore Brainstorm at that point. “you know Swerve has bets on you, says your a dark horse waiting for a chance to sweet the Ambassador off their Pedes” Brainstorm states trying to get a reaction out of Perceptor. It gets a wrench thrown at him. 

___________________

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[superunnaturalsammy]

Man I gotta say a controversial take..

If you hate Wincest shut up about it ok.

Hear me out, I am not personally a Wincest shipper, it's really not my cup of tea. However, I'm also not a fuckin thought cop and I feel like posting over and over about how much you hate something other people like is stupid.

They aren't real people, I will repeat, SAM AND DEAN ARE NOT REAL. So the whole 'it's immoral' argument is a bit silly, people aren't saying that this is fine in real life, as far as I know Wincest shippers know it's wrong (maybe part of the appeal IDK). These shippers aren't advocating for real life incest they just like the idea of *fictional* characters together stop policing other people's minds.

Another thing, if you hate it so much why are you thinking about it constantly like if you posted about it less you'd probably get less posts recommended about it. It's amazing the way you can curate your internet experience. Simply block people who post content you don't like and block tags of things you don't like. It's so irritating to me, because I will see one overt Wincest post a day but I will see a dozen anti posts every time I open the app. Most of the time I see people bring it up they are antis. I just hate seeing people posting that they wish they could purge people who like a ship from the fandom. Who's next as well, we start with Wincest and then what, Destiel? Sastiel? Sabriel? like again y'all sound like cops.

And lastly, if you don't like Wincest you may need to just find a different fandom. Wincest is baked into the fandom, it's a ship that has existed since the beginning (it may be the oldest big ship in the fandom). There are references to it in the show, it's something that Eric Kripke and Sera Gamble wrote into the show, you can't remove it because it is part of the show. You don't have to like it or ship it or interact with it but you can't get rid of it so either suck it up or leave...

Thank you for coming to my TED talk LMAO.

TLDR: Stop complaining constantly about ships you don't like.

[ganondoodle]

still thinking about how even just the decision to basically act like the shiekah tech never existed is just ... so baffling to me

bc again you could have done all the sonau tech does with shiekah instead, and they were perfect to be explored more in a sequel, why wouldnt you grasp that potential, the literal building blocks for more??

if you are that tired of shiekah tech .. dont make it a fuckign sequel to the game prominently featuring it???? totk doesnt take place generations after botw in which things could have changed drastically, its just a few years afterwards??

you want to reuse the map and get rid of shiekah tech? ok fine take LINK into the past then and the focus is for you to find a way to return; do some neat twist where its revealed that link was the one who sealed gan bc he couldnt defeat him without zelda or something if you dare (they wouldnt)

want less work than that and still reuse the map and get rid of shiekah tech AND reuse characters? ok then make it some alternate universe thingy like majoras mask in which everythign is the same but also isnt, its weird and creepy how characters you thoguht you knew suddendly dont act like themselves, shiekah tech doesnt exist, malice is now miasma, etc, it would give reason to why you feel so much like something about this world is familiar yet also very wrong

as far as im aware every "sequel" we have had so far were either generations apart from the first one, some alternate universe or a different location altogether- in all of which its plausible that things are different, things seem weirdly familiar but also wrong, or that another continent just works different from hyrule

but totk does none of that, its supposedly just a few years after the first game, same world same character, but its BUILT like some strange jumbled mess of stuff from botw and new stuff out of nowhere that just .. doesnt fit, but feeling a strange sense of otherness, a déja vu of something you know but it acts off, like an imposter, thats NOT intentional and it shows, its a mess of botw stuff, from stuff that people missed from the old games and entirely new stuff; i dont doubt it CAN work but the way it turned out is like a mix of 3 different puzzles forced together and being told 'see it fits!' even tho you can clearly see the pieces dont look right in these places

again it feels like a sequel that desperately wants you to forget the first game happened, that anythign from it mattered at all

and that isnt really ... the sense of a sequel? why insist on it being one when it only creates problems? is it marketing?? just like it was marketing to call age of calamity a telling of what happened before botw but then it wasnt that at all and that is still the sole reason why i dislike it? bc i was lied to? totk is like 10000 times worse than that, its a main title and doesnt even have the excuse of yeah its basically an excuse to play all your fav characters in fun ways and the game beign well aware that being its main appeal; what is totk appeal? a toybox with botw aestethic and none of the flavor?

(on a sidenote; the sonau tech doesnt even .. matter? in botw at least calamity ganon was made of shiekah tech parts and him overtaking other tech is a big point, the sonau tech doesnt serve anything but .. idk minerus useless mech? gan doesnt even aknowledge it, he doesnt care, all it is is toys for the player, not link, but the player. the monsters mining the tech materials? what for? gan doesnt give a damn and they dont work for the yiga either??)

i said it before but it gives me the feeling that the way botw invited you to theorize, to look beneath the surface, the way it intrigued you and laid the groundwork for so many interesting things without denying anything.. was accidental? or perhaps put in the game without the directors noticing? i cant stop thinking about them saying sth like "after botw zelda wondered if the kingdom of hyrule needed to keep existing the way it had been before the calamity, but then totk happens" bc it just feels like they realized too late that botw naturally led into questioning the status quo and they scrambled to fit it back into a flat and boring road we have seen so many times before (or even worse really) with totk

zeldas character naturally leads into her questioning and reexamine their history and set of rules? we gotta teach her a lesson of why she is importante god given monarchy girl that has to keep it bc what if evil brown man shows up again for no reason

maybe im grasping at straws here but looking at it this way the sonau .. make more "sense"; the shiekah were a group that was under the rule of the royal family, and misstreated before (oh no look soemthing interesting) so they dont lend themselves well to be used for teaching zelda that lesson- the sonau however are tailored really to be just that; they are a supposedly godly race from the literal sky that founded this version of hyrule, that had tech even more advanced and better than the shiekah, she gets put in the past to meet the perfect god king of goodness personally, also his very fridgy wifey that zelda later replaces in a way, shes put there and treated like family and then gets to see just how evil that evil big man from the desert is, sonia is falcon-punched to death solely so zelda can feel obligated to take over her role, have her new, better 'family' hurt by gan; similarly so raurus sacrifice, look what a noble and good king he is, he payed the ultimate price to lock that evil man away, now zelda you cannot let their sacrifice go to waste, rebuild that divinely good kingdom like it was!!

and even though they go so much out of their way to put the cart back onto the rails of black and white-good and evil in an even flatter way than the old games, it still doesnt feel right, at least to me, it still feels like zelda shouldnt have gone along with all of that, it feels like even her character from botw was walked back entirely, except for the intro, it made her feel like a stranger to me-

because this is a sequel, i know this zelda, she wouldnt act like that after all that shes been through, this feels ... off

and it all just insulting to anyone who cared about botw more than surface level, or the zelda lore in general, i dont even care much about the timeline, but theres alot of lore and themes beyond it that felt ignored, especially so given that .. its a damn sequel, non AU, not generations apart, directly part 2-

but its not.

it even feels very "corporate", put zelda in a dress again, people liked that, put crazy abilities in the game to flashbang people with how insane it is even if its not the best for the gameplay or the story, put a new asthetic into it out of nowhere bc its 'new' and act like its been there the whole time, put gan in there bc people miss him and find him sexy even if his role is just as flat as that of an evil cloud monster-

*sigh*

you know, i saw a post that said aoc was like a bad fanfic (affectionate) and totk was like a bad fanfic (derogatory) and tbh thats like one of the best comparisons/summaries i have seen ..

[logo-comics]

Hi! What do you think about that moment in LN 9 of My Next Life as a Villainess where Catarina considers staying in Ocean Harbor Town if Maria did?

This one:

As a Marikata shipper I was really happy at first because it meant that Catarina wanted to stay at Maria's side as much as Maria wanted to stay at hers. However I also think it was a mistake. Both in the sense that the author accidentally added something that implies Catarina values being close to Maria more than the rest of her loved ones, which clearly isn't his intention considering the rest of his writing, and in the sense that it makes Catarina have a very glaring case of favoritism that doesn't really suit her.

She has known the rest of her friends plus Anne and Keith for a decade (and her parents for all her life considering she's the OG Catarina who got extra memories at 8 and diverged paths) while she's only known Maria for 3 years at that point. Even with romantic feelings it seems a little unbelievable that there wouldn't be a "but my family and other friends".

Part of me wonders if it's meant to represent the usual part of graduating and being an adult? (which would be kinda sad but that's something I could get behind) Like, she already sees her early friend group way less since she got her job so she's used to them not being there as much and leaving the parents' house is seen as the norm in many cultures too. Also there's the fact of finding something she could do instead of being a noble which, aside from the great quantity sweets, doesn't appeal to her. Besides she'd be following someone she really likes, which, also something people usually do.

So uh, what do you think?

I think that while you can chalk some of it up to her blatant infatuation with Maria and the general idea of moving out when one grows up that she'd get more of from her past life than her current life, it can be chalked up a bit more to the fact that Katarina has spent the ten years she's known everyone else wondering which of them is going to be the one that leads to her death/banishment.

While we don't know how much, there is a part of Katarina that definitely hasn't fully let go of the thought that those she loves could one day wish to be rid of her. Even with the confessions of certain members of the harem, Katarina doesn't have that full faith in them.

Maria, in contrast, aside from being her "waifu," is someone who she knows likes her, even if she doesn't understand the nature of that manner of care. Maria in the game is also not the one directly responsible for what happens to Katarina in the original game's endings. Maria is safe to her eyes. Sophia and Mary are tied to Nicol and Alan, and we can safely assume that the characters are tied to the trial scene, given that she didn't seem surprised to see them at the trial. Maria refusing to condemn her there, even more than the others standing up for her, probably had way more pull to her than the others.

Now, let's consider the testimonies in the trial, themselves. There are exactly two members of the original game cast harem that don't call her an idiot in that scene. To his credit, Geordo is one of them. Even Sophia, with whom Katarina regularly holds book clubs, and Mary, who Katarina discusses gardening tips with, both directly state that she is not smart enough to bully Maria. In a move that makes me think he actually could be a good king, Geordo, however, legitimately reviews the "evidence" the other girls had and notes that it's circumstantial at best. He does not, however, say anything about Katarina as a person.

In contrast, Maria is the only person to note upon Katarina as a person being too kind to do such a thing.

Despite her inability to notice people are in love with her, Katarina is, in point of fact, extraordinarily observant of people. The author does seem to have lessened her ability to plot to an extent, but that particular aspect is very much still a part of her, as shown by the fact that she knew that Larna Smith and Suzanna Randall were the same person despite how masterful Suzanna is at disguise. Notably, however, she can misinterpret things if she's looking at it through her lens of "I am a villainess." For example, the aforementioned obliviousness when it comes to her romantic prospects.

Katarina also has a significantly better memory than the most tend to give her credit for.

From all of this, while she can accept that her friends care for her, to her eyes, she is still The Villainess Katarina Claes, and they clearly don't think that highly of her if they think she's just too stupid to bully Maria. Combine that with how her mother will chastise her for not being ladylike and critiquing her actions, something born from love but something that clearly distresses Katarina and makes her feel that she's less than worthy of her lot in life.

In essence, Katarina sees everyone who has been around her for ten years as viewing her as stupid and her mother as loving her, but not particularly liking her. She might have experienced the confessions of Keith and Geordo, but those are simply things that happened (the Keith confession is a completely different, disgusting can of worms), and there's almost definitely a part of her that still hasn't accepted that they won't discard her. Contrast that with how she immediately starts listing people that she feels would be sad if Maria was gone.

Simply put, Katarina views herself as someone who could pull up her stakes and go with next to no fuss from most of the people in her life. With that in mind, of course she'd be willing to uproot her whole life to be with Maria, whose first thought about her in that defining moment of their lives was to call her kind, who is willing to fight dark mages for Katarina's sake despite her fear, who was willing to tutor her and wanted to join the Ministry to be by her side.

Why wouldn't Katarina be willing to run away with the girl who unequivocally told her that she wants her in her life forever?

[sciderman]

wade’s not a loser he’s just doomed to lose in love because his type is controlling people who make him feel special because he’s their latest pet project and then it inevitably burns out and he gets hurt because he wants too much to please/to be someone else they like and most of them only want an idea of him 😭 that’s different from being a loser. it’s called being sensitive 😭

😔 see, peter's not exactly like that - in fact, he wants to be largely hands-off when it comes to wade's reformation but wade kind of - in his head, still makes those parallels to nate. it's why civil war was such a huge breech of trust for wade – that peter didn't "trust" wade to make the right decision all by himself.

it tanked wade's trust in himself - his own sense of pride and self-determinism, to have peter kind of - police him in that way.

wade's so apprehensive about this because he knows he's perpetually aiming to please. at the expense of his own authentic self. and it's a curse. wade hasn't really found a sense of self because he's always changing to be what his lover wants of him.

[x]

(and that's where the choker motif comes in - which is actually why i was reluctant to bring the choker back, because i wanted wade to kind of - have overcome this.)

the collar was symbolic for a very, very specific thing. and it's not a positive thing. wade's just a dog (bow wow) - his owner throws a bone, he'll fetch it.

i wanted him to have overcome it - which is why i got rid of the choker again after civil war was over - but - y'know, i guess he hasn't overcome it. it's still there. just manifested in a different form. and no matter how both nate and peter want wade to be honest and authentic - wade's certain that's not a good idea. that, or wade honestly - with his shifting brain terrain, doesn't entirely trust himself enough to know himself.

i think the unfortunate thing with wade is not only that he's unpredictable to everyone else - he's unpredictable to himself, too.

[x]

he doesn't put a lot of faith into himself, when it comes to restraint and impulse control. he's so, so uncertain, all the time. he never believes he's ready. never believes he's worthy.

he's constantly afraid of relapse, and of repeating the cycle, over and over. and i think the reason why wade's unable to evolve is maybe to do with the fact that he's not stopped to think about who he wants to be – he's so concerned with what other people want him to be.

i find it so funny that it's become a focal point to wade's character at the moment, because it was something the original draft of civil war explored before the uncle ben angle - wade was dragging peter for filth over him being too concerned over what other people think of him to embrace his own truth.

oh. projecting, are we?

wade - he just wants to be whatever will be wanted. whatever's in demand. whatever the preferred flavour of the week is. whatever's hot right now. whatever will get him sympathy, get him attention, get him approval, get him love. in fact, the entire deadpool persona was founded because he admired spider-man and wanted to be admired in the same way he admires spider-man.

it's a curse, and he's painfully aware of it.

so he'll put on an act and put on a mask and twist the truth to keep everyone interested. but he alienates people that way too. and for peter parker, who just craves some authenticity from wade - peter parker, who fell in love with the modest wade in swim trunks who put away the mask and lay down his weapons and laid his heart bare on the sandy shores of the bahamas...

for peter parker, it's kind of infuriating. that after all this time, wade still doesn't understand that peter loves wade without all the performances and pretence. wade doesn't need to keep pretending.

peter and wade are both guilty of masking - pretending to be something else to be more socially accepted or more appealing or more (or in peter's case, less) attention-grabbing. but where they differ is that when peter gets close to someone, he has this compulsive desire to unmask and be seen. particularly if he feels safe to do so.

whereas wade still lives in fear of it - every day. sometimes, no matter how close he gets to someone.

[sketchy-the-changeling]

Megatron gets the best moments in that movie. There's a bit of a trend in Western animation where revolutionary characters are villainized to promote a pro-status quo narrative that privileged people are enamored with, do you think this is the case? I personally only think it's like 5-10% true for this movie. I don't wanna sound like a centrist, but I kinda feel like both Optimus and Megatron make good points. Tho seeing Megatron dealing with Sentinel was pure satisfaction. What do you think?

This was what I mentioned earlier when I said there was something I wanted to marinate on with the film: does Megatron fall into that trap of making a villain that has so much of a point that you're questioning why they are even framed as a villain to begin with?

The conclusion I've come to is "no." Here's why.

Note, I will be referring to Orion/Optimus and D/Megatron as both of their given names depending on what part of the story I am discussing.

Also spoilers.

The moment Sentinel is revealed to be a fraud, there is no ambiguity that he needs to be dealt with. Sentinel is the real villain, and the film does not let up on that. Neither Orion nor the film itself ever suggest that Sentinel can be negotiated with or reasoned with. ALL of the protagonists are in agreement that he needs to be rid of because Sentinel sold out his people and manufactured a need for a lower class of Transformers, and the movie ends with the heroes eliminating the need to mine for energon, thus eliminating that need for a lower class, so the film is DEFINITELY not pro-status quo.

While there is one moment where Optimus tells Megatron not to kill Sentinel, it is only AFTER Sentinel is exposed as a fraud and the public knows the truth. I still wish Optimus didn't play the whole "this doesn't make us better than him" card cause his actual argument is "it's over. We already beat him. Our job is done."

And the movie still gives Megatron the satisfaction of killing Sentinel anyway and exacting his retribution even though he (Megatron) is ultimately exiled, so he isn't robbed of his rightful closure.

I think the movie does a good job of showing that the problem with D/Megatron's praxis isn't the fact that he is pro-retribution. It's that he has no long-term plan for the people, and a revolution has to be about the people. D's focus on self can be noted from the beginning of the movie. He often thinks about the consequences of things, but only as far as how they can harm him and his only friend, Orion, which isn't inherently evil so you don't really clock it.

Conversely, Orion is always thinking about uplifting the people, but at first his approach to that ideal is very unrefined and somewhat self-serving. However, you can see him refining his worldview in real time and realizing that it takes a communal effort to bring about change, rather than appealing to the current powers that be. The writers did their best to work around the fact that the maguffin is literally called the Matrix of Leadership to get this point across and while it's not perfect, I think it does its job.

All this being said, it's been less than 24 hours since I've seen the movie, so there may likely be some blind spots in my analysis, so my thoughts are subject to change, but that's where I'm currently at, as of this posting.

[brotherslayer]

Derrick is such an unpredictable and wierd character. I can never really tell what's he's thinking. Maybe it's because I'm reading too much into it, I mean he was only a side character and not a lot of thought is put into the side characters. They're just there.

What do you think Derrick really wants from Penelope. If he just wanted her to love him bach he would have been nice to hear, i think. Does he want her to be completely dependent on him and does he like seeing her miserable.

What about the Duke and Reynold. Do you think they enjoyed seeing her suffer. Why didn't they try to help her. Or maybe they just don't care. Though they seem to care a great deal in the manhwa.

How do you think they would react if they saw Penelope enjoying herself with someone, might be a friend or a long lost family, and Penelope is just laughing like crazy and she's totally ignoring them. Would they be jealous. Sorry if this ask is too repeatitive 😅

This is more of a headcanon. I think Derrick seeks relationships where he can exert control, foster dependency, and provide protection and care. His type would be vulnerable people. Little girls, orphans, foreigners, sex workers, servants, slaves etc. Anyone who could make him feel a sense of superiority. That is not to say he wouldn't feel disgusted by his own nature and try to fight these feelings. What Derrick subconsciously wants is a relationship with a huge power imbalance, where he has all the control and his partner none. An equal marriage with a noblewoman would not appeal to him. For the sake of maintaining his image he would marry a highborn woman but sexually he would feel no attraction to such a person. Someone like Derrick, who never allowed himself to make mistakes or indulge in teenage vices for fear that it might taint his family name, could only feel free if he was with a person whose status was so low that their opinion did not matter to anybody else. A person he could treat however he liked without consquences.

I found it curious that Derrick gave Penelope a bracelet with disguise magic claiming it would make her appear to be a young boy around her age but when she uses it she appears to be a child to Vinter. Not only that but she also starts resembling a younger version of Derrick.

It's a bit strange. Why would the clerk sell a disguise bracelet to Derrick that would only change his age but not appearance? Assuming Derrick was the one going to wear it, it would be of little use if it changed almost nothing about his physical features. It's also disadvantageous to look like a child since it would restrict your movements in the city, prevent you from doing business with adults and make you an easy target of street thugs. That's why I'm wondering if there could be a deeper psychological reason behind the bracelet's magic that is influencing the illusion. The magic makes her look what? 14/15 years old? Is that his ideal age?

You could interpret it that way: Derrick wants Penelope to be eternally <17, which is impossible because you cannot stop the flow of time. The older she got, the more he felt her slipping through his fingers, the less he could control himself, the more unforgiving he turned when she fought him on anything. At that time he didn't need to possess her in every sense, he only needed her not to be possessed by anyone else. So if she just remained in the gilded cage and listened to his every word he wouldn't lay a hand on her. I think that would have been enough for him. But Penelope isn't an object that you can put behind a glass case and expect not to move. Besides he knew she was being abused by the staff. Perhaps he had hoped that she would lash out in such repulsive ways his feelings for her would decrease with every time until one day they were no more and he could get rid of her without regrets?

I view Derrick as a very emotion driven person full of contradictions. Derrick has many different desires that are incompatible with one another. He wants to uphold his outstanding reputation that would surely get damaged if he were to court a girl like Penelope. He lusts after Penelope, but the only way he could obtain her (lifelong confinement) without risking his reputation was if his father were to die making him the next Duke, and as horrible as Derrick is I have to give him that he cares for his family and wouldn't wish death on anyone belonging to the Eckart duchy. Doubtless he wants his father's approval too. Lasty I have the impression that from the day he lost Yvonne he imposed impossible expectations on himself and didn't allow himself either distraction or amusement. In short his guilt prevents him from seeking happiness. Derrick was still living in the past. They all were. He sabotages his chances with Penelope because accepting the fake might mean to him a betrayal towards his real sister. It'd be like losing Yvonne a second time, but this time also killing her and desecrating her grave.

Derrick disobeyed his father once when he took Yvonne to the festival and lost control of the situation when she was kidnapped. That's why he might have devoted himself entirely to his family to atone for it and it could serve as one of the reasons why he needs to be in control of everyone and everything. He doesn't have it in himself to tolerate Penelope's childish behaviour. Derrick worked so hard to make up for it, wheras Penelope can make so many mistakes and still get his father's attention like when she stole the necklace allegedly, but was rewarded instead of punished (her father called a jeweller to the mansion and Penelope wasted a fortune on accessories). There might be guilt, shame, but also anger, even a little bit envy and feelings of unjustness too. Derrick has never learned to cope healthily with negative emotions, he only represses and bottles things up. As a result his "love" got twisted.

If he just wanted her to love him bach he would have been nice to hear, i think. Does he want her to be completely dependent on him and does he like seeing her miserable.

Was he aware that he fell in love with her at first sight or did he only realize much later on what those feelings meant? He and Reynold have already build themselves up as a bullies, it's too late to take back everything that was said and done. If he tried to make amends and were to confess his feelings, he wouldn't be able to take the humilation of the rejection. Additionally I think of Derrick as an extremely prideful man who is severely allergic to the display of any form of vulnerability. Denying mistakes means an inability to reflect their own actions and no growth. The only option he saw was hiding behind a familiar mask and carrying on with the things he's started, while turning worse and worse with each day, because with the time being Penelope got used to the insults and his usual threats and punishments probably didn't have the same effect anymore. He cannot have her love, but he can have her attention. If he becomes the bane of her existence, it means she's at least thinking about him and he's haunting her just like she's haunting him. Maybe he hates himself a little and uses Penelope as an outlet for his frustrations, maybe he hates Penelope for hating him back when he has successfully convinced her how much he loathes her. He hates her even more, abuses her even more when he has just gotten the result he wanted.

He wants her to hate him, he wants her to love him like a slave loves their master, he wants her to depend on him with the helplessness and naivity of a child, but when she's in need he lets her down every time. He wants her to be shallowed by the earth never to be seen again, yet he panicks when she does disappear and searches high and low for her. He wants her to live as quiet as a mouse and never come under his eyes again. He wants her to never leave his sight and would chain her up in his basement if he could. Derrick would be revolted if she tried to touch him, hug him but he would want to fuck her and mark every part of her body as his. He can never be satisfied. There's no end, it just escalates until someone dies.

Derrick wants Penelope to be isolated, dependent, weak, in pain, completely at his mercy with only himself to help. Does he want her to love him? Ehh...probably? At the same time I keep thinking that if Penelope had a childhood crush on him, he would have pushed her away, shamed her for her feelings and acted disgusted. Honestly it probably would have driven him even more insane. I don't buy it that this 18 year old actually fell in love with a 12 year old. Just like in many cases of incestuous abuse, I would imagine Derrick acting on his desire for power and control. His love is an amalgam of obsession, lust and sadism. Ergo he doesn't necessarily need her to love him back, although he would like it, because her loving him back would increase his hold over her and would make her less likely to fall for anyone else, seek help and flee from him. Fear? yes. Obedience? yes. Love? He has such a negative and distorted view of her I'm not even sure he believes she's a human being capable of love (quite ironic).

I'm a bit torn about that topic. Part of me thinks it doesn't matter to him. As long as she hungered for his affection like when she was a kid and she was trapped with him, he could convince himself he would, with time, make Penelope come round to his way of thinking. Then there is a part of me thinking that a very dark side of Derrick wanted to break og Penelope. Turning her into a vile creature that no one could ever love. Someone who would seek him out and want to be dirtied by his love, because it was the only kind of love he permitted her to have. A nasty little girl that was hated and hated everyone in return and only had eyes for expensive dresses and jewelry. If she were to grow up to be a villainess who hurt innocent people, he would not have pangs of conscience about the things he did to her. Had Penelope become a person deserving of his punishments, he wouldn't feel like a bad guy anymore. And with the blurring lines of victim/perpetrator there would be not enough guilt stopping him from acting on his urges.

You are right he could have been nice to her and she would have loved him (I doubt in a romantic way but whatever), but that's not the only thing he wanted. Gaining her love by acting nice would mean the loss of many things he valued and a betrayal of his principles. Along with that who could guarantee him that his sacrifice would be worth it and she would love him back romantically? Penelope could mark his affection as brotherly, which he would hate to see. Should the first-born Eckart son treat her right, soon the rest of the staff would follow and so would his family. The duke treating Penelope like his daughter would make it much more awkward if Derrick were to collect his courage to ask for his stepsister's hand. Lastly a Penelope who learned self-love and became more confident with the support of her family would make friends and could steal the hearts of many men.

Taking advantage of Penelope would have been easier if she already had a reputation as a thief and liar, and had no one on her side. Even if she was not in love with him, a person who was starved off love since their childhood would do anything for a few crumbs of affection. That kind of person would cling even tighter onto the hand that was offered to them. It'd be easier to sell her obsession as pure love and pressure her into doing things she doesn't feel comfortable with. He ensured her standing as an Eckart would be on shaky ground whilst reminding her that he was the one who could make her life better or worse (like when he temporary took the Eckart name from her). Og Derrick preferred the path where he would have absolute control of her at the price of her sanity over the path where she could be happy but would never belong to him.

(I don't think Derrick was thinking too deeply about it. He just acts on the emotions he feels at the moment. I believe he barely understands himself.)

see also: why I think Derrick liked her (anon ask)

What about the Duke and Reynold. Do you think they enjoyed seeing her suffer. Why didn't they try to help her. Or maybe they just don't care. Though they seem to care a great deal in the manhwa.

The Duke and Reynold were ignorant of her suffering because plot™. Reynold felt schadenfreude whenever Penelope was punished but that was because he lacked context and thought it served her right. If anyone was a sadist and secretly enjoyed seeing Penelope suffer after actively contributing to her pain and triggering her it was Derrick.

How do you think they would react if they saw Penelope enjoying herself with someone, might be a friend or a long lost family, and Penelope is just laughing like crazy and she's totally ignoring them. Would they be jealous. Sorry if this ask is too repeatitive 😅

Derrick would be jealous obviously. He'd either wait until the other person was gone and would talk down on her or he'd want her removed from the scene immediately and would send a maid to bring Penelope to him with the excuse he or father wanted to discuss something urgent. Reynold would unlock a new emotion that he can't quite place. Depending on his age he'd either be confused by this and act like a kid that saw another kid playing with a toy he threw away or he'd just grumble and say something like "I didn't know you could make that kind of face." and sulk. The next day he'd want to get closer to her. The Duke would just be happy that Penelope is finally making friends. Would help Penelope arrange another meeting if it was a girl her age. Would pay her more attention and take her to an outing if it was a man his age (feels lowkey threatened by any potential father figure).

[dotthings]

In the Impala talk Sam and Dean have at the end of 8.03 it’s really clear Sam genuinely actually does not want to be doing this, the hunting. He wants out. It’s not a rejection of Dean, although I get why Dean is always going to see it as a personal rejection, it’s that the way Sam’s talking there, he’s not slightly disassociating like he was doing at the start of S8, this is Sam being honest on how burned out he is and how much he wants the gates of hell closed so that it’s okay for him to stop hunting. Sam was looking at universities.

That idea of getting out, of not having to hunt, is a long running theme with Sam.

It’s also been a long running theme for Dean, and there is a perception that Dean unambiguously loves the hunt and doesn’t yearn for anything else or never talks about something else, or never resents hunting. But that isn’t the case.

They both have that yearning. They both think about it.

Sam is the one who has a hopeful belief he can get out, that this isn’t all there is for him.

Dean otoh believes he’s doomed to die too young and bloody—and it’s tragic he believes that.

There’s perceptions about spn and about Sam and Dean, that it never questions the hunting life, and that again isn’t the case.

Obviously, spn isn’t going to break its own format. So they are going to keep hunting. But the “what if we could get rid of the monsters” or “what if we could get out” is a carrot spn dangled in front of the characters in a cycle. Even Dean in later seasons moves beyond some of his despair and starts talking about toes in the sand.

I like genre and I like monster hunting shows, but the main appeal of SPN—articulated by the people who make the show themselves—is the characters and their emotional anguish and relationships, and shooting monsters in the face provides a compelling canvas for that. Which is why any genre TV show is compelling at its core, it’s that mixture of emotion against a backdrop of adventure.

But SPN canon does not idealize hunting. For 15 seasons SPN has a complex examination of the personal costs and trauma of being a hunter, and it’s about the relationships. It’s about the bonds that form between people. It goes far outside that only being about Sam and Dean’s traumas and Sam and Dean’s relationship.

Dean is in a perpetually complicated, intense love-hate relationship with hunting, he wants to hunt, he also wants other things in his life and resents hunting, he resents the trauma, the grief, he resents the chances he never had, he also finds personal fulfillment in hunting and feels very conscious of the value of the lives they save, the value of the work. The hunting also is a way he copes with hunting—he hunts to deal with the trauma hunting caused. Or he hunts to deal with his roiling emotions, because it’s not all about hunting, there’s people…feelings. Dean expresses his own wish that Sam didn’t have to hunt, or he warns others off the life, or tries to shield them, or tries to talk people out of pursuing hunting. He also resents Sam’s talk of quitting, or tells chosen ones like Kevin, once the veil’s lifted, this your life now suck it up and deal. Dean sees avenues of escape from it, he sees hope, he also sees doors slamming shut and chains. Dean swings like a pendulum.

Dean is not less yearning and or thinking about what else is there than Sam. Dean has dreams and wants, just as Sam does.

Sam has more of a steady wary relationship with hunting. Less of a back and forth in his views. Sam steps up and does due dilligence as a hunter, but perpetually and with less inner conflict chasing that brass ring of “getting out.” Eventually Sam acknowledges all of that, and how he came to acceptance that this is his life. But Sam’s actual reason for staying in, is to hunt with Dean.

Sam is not less family-driven and or heart-driven in his motivation than Dean.

The difference is that Dean personally has a much stronger connection to the act of hunting itself, and it has a different meaning for Sam.

[nfcv-saltmine]

How'd they turn this sexy Bishōnen man

Into this fucker

His breasts are bigger than mine (mind you I'm small chested but wanted a moobs joke) and he's a horse faced whore.

I would give my soul to actual Alucard. I would rip the succubus in half for what she did to him.

Netflix Vania fan service man just let two mostly strangers into his bed, he should have been taken out by natural selection

I personnally would say he's pretty or beautiful more than sexy lol, but yeah. I really don't see the appeal. Even though he has some good shots, not only does he look prettier than usual because of lighting, staging and scenery, but he still has this horse face lmao.

Look at him:

He's okay (when you don't compare him to the og). He's not that good but he's not awful to look at. But... his face looks so weird to me, partially because I don't find NFCV's artstyle to be that great. Ofc it's subjective, and probably easier to like when you don't know or don't care about the games... but I do. And I find him ugly and cheap (i wonder if he would have as much passionnate fans as he does now if he wasn't going tiddies out all of the time)

He looks fine here, might be one of his best shots:

But then...

Ok it might be a little low lmao, since he is supposed to look bad in this context.... or is he? Sure he looks dirty. But he is more tiddies out than ever before and give this "hot mess" vibe to me (like N!Trevor :)). Not only that, but lmao, he is supposed to be neglecting himself.... yet he is more muscular than ever?? What sorcery is this??

That's how he looked in s1. And that's how he looked in s3:

It doesn't make any sense. N!Alucard fans complain that Nocturne got rid of their blorbo's tiddies...

But my guys. S4 gave him a body he didn't even deserve lol. If you don't like this Alucard, how could you like season 1 to 3 Alucard ??

I find it very shallow to praise the s4 tiddies and hate on the twink because it shows you don't care about the character, you just want a fictional man to fuck (good for you but don't pretend it's a show problem lmao). Not to mention... Nocturne!Alucard actually wears clothes. That's why you feel like he has less tiddies. They're hidden under the rich boy clothes he was always meant to have.

I also see comments about how Nocturne "bleached" Alucard when this is literally the effect of the moonlight. This is an artistic choice to match with the scenery. Pretty sure he wouldn't look like this under sunlight lmao.

But the worst part to me isn't how N!Alucard looks, or even how the fans are, imo, overthirsting for him. The worst part is how they took the noble, respectful, graceful Alucard... And turned him into an absolute cunt who is designed to be slutty just to be easier to animate and get fans to thirst for his body and who literally steals the show. ❤️ HE is the one to kill Dracula. HE is the one who gets to be hot and sexy and pretty for the fans. And HE is the one said fans watched Nocturne for. ❤️ Whenever Trevor, Sypha and Alucard stand next to each other in an important moment (when they attack the castle, when they face Dracula, when Trevor and Sypha join Alucard in s4...), Alucard always is in the center. Giving him more important than the rest of the trio. It's a conscious choice made to make you think "ah, yes, this is the main character". I wish I could put more images but Tumblr won't allow me lol.

[zennyshoneybunch]

Adam du Mortain x F!Detective

Disclamer: These characters do not belong to me, they belong to The Wayhaven Chronicles, an amazing interactive fiction game from #seraphinitegames. If you don't know it yet and enjoy well-written romance games, I advise you to take a look.

This is just a drabble of an idea that popped into my head during lunch time. Fluff. May contain personality/traits spoilers if you haven't read Adam's route yet.

Wordcount: 866

After everything that's happened you'd think staying in the same room as Adam would have little effect on you by now. But that is not the case. As we wait in silence for the rest of the team to join us I wonder if my living room has become even smaller since the last time I sat here. The tension and heat in the air is sizzling, merely from being in the same confined space together.

I steal a glance at Adam, standing with his muscular back to me, arms crossed as he looks intently out the window. I could never understand what he finds that is so appealing outside or if he's just always in surveillance mode. For a moment I think I caught his eyes in the glass’s reflection, but I am probably just hallucinating at this point. 

I force my eyes away from the man that owns my heart and my every thought to look back at the folder in front of me. Stifling a sigh I reach for the pen, when I catch movement from the corner of my eye, a shadow crawling on my coffee table, creeping closer and closer. I slowly look at my side and there it is. Its eight furry legs carry it a few inches closer yet before stopping, as if taunting me. 

My body paralyzes for a moment, my mind freezing at the mere sight of the horrible threat, before my legs are forced into action by springing me up and away from the table. 

The movement as well as the sound of my fumbling legs scattering me away brings Adam's attention to me. In less than two seconds he's already next to me. Not that it would take him much longer than that to cross from one side to the other of my entire apartment, even if he wasn't a super fast vampire. 

“What is wrong?” 

The obvious concern in his voice, no doubt resulting from what I can only guess is my terrified expression, makes me feel even more pathetic about the whole situation. Nevertheless I point a finger at the disgusting creature. 

“Can you… can you get rid of that, please?”

His eyes follow the direction I'm pointing at, his eyebrows lifting slightly as they land on the goddamn thing. It takes him a beat to react, but clearing his throat he walks up to the table with ease. 

“Should I kill it or set it free outside would suffice?”

My brain immediately screams for the first option, but noticing the tinge of amusement in his voice I settle for the latter. 

“Just get it away from me.”

I can't see the look on his face, but there's the slightest shake on his shoulders before he leans down to scoop the beast from the table’s surface with his bare hands - which I'm not embarrassed to admit drew a gasp from me, goosebumps erupting all over my skin at me mere thought of touching that thing. 

Adam proceeds to move to the window to dispose of it outside. Once he closes the window I realize I was holding my breath and I sigh in relief. Adam keeps staring at me with a strange tightness in his expression, as though he's trying not to smile. 

“What?” I ask, my embarrassment making me sound more defensive than I'd like to admit. 

He shrugs, eyes downcast as he slowly walks closer to me. “Nothing.”

“Well, your face doesn't exactly say ‘nothing’.”

He lets out a breath that sounds a lot like an amused huff before raising his gaze back to me.

“If you must know, I was thinking that you are the bravest, strongest woman I have ever met. And I would never have expected you to be scared of a tiny spider.”

There’s a shadow of a smile on his lips and it only makes me feel more flustered, heat flushing to my cheeks. 

“Hey! First of all, that thing was not tiny in the slightest!” 

My outburst makes his smile grow wider, the breathtakingly cute dimples appearing with the sole purpose of making my mind go blank and my heart race. It still amazes me how one single smile from this man holds this kind of power over me. And now I'm flustered for a whole different reason. 

“And… it's not fear, it's disgust.”, my voice decreases in intensity as I avert my gaze, ending in barely more than a mumble. The lighthearted chuckle brings my attention back to him, his expression is soft and his demeanor relaxed. 

“Well, then I stand and correct it, Detective.” 

The tenderness in his voice and the hidden emotion behind his eyes pull at my heartstrings, bringing back those shreds of hope I am always pushing back. We don't look away from each other, instead we smile as our obvious unspoken feelings hang around us. And it's not until we hear familiar voices growing closer that our bubble bursts and we reluctantly move away, back to our previous spots. But this time, as I look at where Adam stands by the window, I am sure I can see his beautiful green eyes looking back at me through the reflection.

✨✨✨✨✨

For this man I don't mind being a 🤡

[synesindri]

how do you think lucifer knew about pop culture and such? like even in season 5 when he was the original version of himself the writers hadn’t ruined yet, he uses a lot of slang and modern idioms. and i guess we could just say bad writing lol but what’s your opinion?

hiii hi lucifer's s5 pop culture references are one of my favorite dialogue writing choices of the show tbh! the tl;dr is that i think lucifer did a lot of digging around in nick's mind while he was hanging out in nick's body, but i'll like, show my work and stuff also lol

so, in 5.01, before lucifer has a physical vessel and is appearing in nick's dreams, there are no pop culture references in sarah!lucifer's speech, and very little slang. the same is true when lucifer speaks to azazel through the sacrificed nun in the flashback in 4.22.

the pop culture references start after lucifer has taken nick as a vessel and has full access to everything in nick's mind and body, not just whatever can be accessed through dreams. he also starts moving more casually and fluidly, with little gestural quirks that imo have a similar effect to the pop culture references: communicating with humans in human-oriented ways that humans will easily understand and that will make him more relatable to them (not necessarily more likable, but maybe less alien, at least)

so, i think the pop culture refs are picked up from his vessels' memories and thoughts! he got in there, he got total, internal access to nick's memories and his body's habits and his speech patterns and stuff, and starting using those materials in his own communication styles. and then maybe also picked some up through exposure once he had the basics down, after he'd been out of the cage for a while

speculatively, i'd guess this was part of why nick was appealing to lucifer as a vessel: from what we see of nick, we know that what he wears looks like he has a job that has him in work boots (so, probably not white collar, and probably therefore has a vernacular more similar to sam and dean's than someone who would be spending his days in a corporate office, for example) and has pretty standard spn-core ways of speaking. having nick as a vessel puts lucifer more in sam's world visually, in speech, and in movement style more than other possible vessels would. he probably knows a lot of the same pop culture sam does, and he probably talks the way people sam is comfortable and familiar with talk — so, if lucifer learns to talk like a human from nick, lucifer also will come across as a familiar, relatable type of person to sam (didn't work too well but like, A for effort). idk if lucifer would have known enough about human class structures etc to be able to identify nick as the right kind of human to learn human culture from in order to talk to sam, so disregard if that seems too circular...but imo it's smart from the writers/costumers/etc, even if it didn't factor into lucifer's choice at all

(all of this makes different angels' characterization really interesting, i think, because some of them do a lot of human-ifying of themselves like this, while others don't. does castiel not do it much for the sake of jimmy's mind/memory privacy, or because he just doesn't care very much about seeming human? what's up with uriel and michael using pop culture referneces but not much human body language? like i know it's largely inconsistency in writing and acting choices for different characters but just assuming it's actually character-based reasons, i love it. and imo it implies that lucifer is very curious about humanity, even though he wants to get rid of them, and is good with rhetoric in that he understands the value of speaking to people in a way that feels familiar (he sucks at rhetoric in some other ways lol, but he was doing a good job on that, at least))

[s1oths]

Just realizing how over time the way I think about the art I'm creating has changed so much over the years.

Only recently now, for the first time in the 3.5 years I've been actually been starting to think about viewership and the emotional impact I want to bring out through the tools, style, etc. in the art rather than the overall skill I want to show. I feel like this has definitely made my art have a more appealing feel to it that it didn't have nearly as much as before.

I think something else that has definetely changed is how precious I am with my art. Today I've been working on a new piece, but I decided I wanted to combine this "painting" style I did but in a full body character in my normal style. I've been really struggling with figuring out the painting/rendering bit, but when I know somethings not working I get rid of it, I go over it, whatever. I'm not precious with my art, because I know if I've done it once I can do it again. This gives me so much freedom to create without worry, and I think really allows me to create much more interesting pieces.

I think my art style will be changing a lot over the next while, I don't even know if I'll really have a consistent art style after this anymore (and won't that be interesting?).

Both who I am and how my art is is changing, and I want to document as much as I can onto Tumblr, rather than my DeviantArt, even though I have roughly 400 less followers here (like 10 or something, compared to the 405 on DA).

This place feels more right though.

Thanks for reading :))

[dragongutsixofficial]

Why you should vote Edelgard for the FE3H tournament

Come on. We all love Dorothea. She's an absolute queen and if it were against anyone else, I would defend her teeth and claws.

Now that that's settled, here's a bunch of reasons why Edelgard should wreck her in the finals:

1- Let's start with the obvious: Dorothea is a bisexual icon. Guess who else is ? Edelgard. What's more, the Crimson Flower route is centered on Edelgard leading a war against an oppressive religious system in order to ensure people are judged based on their own actions and not birth or status; so they can rise up for themselves and decide their own fates. This narrative has resounded with a lot of queer FE3H fans, who find it freeing not to have to conform to the standards of a society who would want to lock them into a certain role. 

2- When you see the Fodlanese geopolitical system as mostly dominated by feudal monarchies, Edelgard's project, though implemented by means you might disagree with, is more egalitarian and gets rid of the old privileges, which is always a good first step when you want to get to a democracy. The fact that she's also the only one to want to step down from power once her vision for Fodlan is put in place reinforces that.

3- Edelgard is also an abuse survivor icon. A lot of CF fans find Edelgard's more radical approach to change a nice change of pace- especially regarding religious trauma, but also familial trauma. Edelgard showed that even an abuse survivor who has to do bad things in order to survive, such as cooperate with her abusers, can and still deserves happiness. For irl abused survivors who couldn't just split from their abusers because the situation is not that simple, Edelgard's gradual taking over of the situation regarding TWSITD provides hope that they can do the same in turn. That they deserve it .

4- Edelgard is an amazing antagonist in routes that are not Crimson Flower. And even for people who dislike her, she is a very well written character, whose moral grayness sets the tone for the whole story. Edelgard forces you to think about if the end truly justifies the means, because she is such a multi-faceted character.

5- She is essentially Daenerys and Daenerys deserved better. Don't let Daenerys down like the writers of Game of Thrones season 8 did.

6- It's what Dorothea would want. She simps for the Empress. She would have a musical written about her.

7- Edelgard's route is the only one where Byleth is explicitely given a choice that can radically change the course of the story. Now don't get me wrong this doesn't mean that Byleth is any less "free" in the other routes ; but it does symbolically give them more control over who they want to be for themself, instead of accepting the role that was meant to be theirs. Then again, highlighting the main theme which makes CF an inherently queer route: finding your identity, while making a found family of people who understand you and love you unconditionally for who you are, not what they want you to be. For people that Rhea reminds of some abusive figures in their lives, Byleth's arc in CF was, as such, especially appealing and not at all a bad route for Byleth.

Now keep in mind this is funny propaganda for my blorbo- don't take it too seriously. I might have also missed some things. But in my opinion at least, best girl Edelgard 50000% deserves this win.

 If you do want to add more, feel free to do so ! =D 

[coolcattime]

Home and Free: Chapter Nine - Be Our Guest!

Characters: Captain Capsize, Sonja Firefox, Skipper Redbeard, Jordan Captainsparklez, Tucker Jericho, Tom Syndicate, Martha the Mystic, Mot Screziato, Alyssa Countybat, Waglington, Farmer Steve, Prince Andor, Jeriah, Lady Ianite (mentioned)

Relationship: Captain Capsize/Sonja Firefox, Captain Capsize/Jordan Captainsparklez (onesided)

AO3 Link

Full Story Tag

Tom had to hand it to the new girl, when she said she could stay in a room forever, she might actually mean it. Okay, so maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, it had only been a few hours after all, but that was more than enough time for Tom to regret volunteering to keep watch. A few hours were far longer than he thought he’d have to wait for her to emerge. He’d never been the best at waiting around, and the years of having literally nothing to do haven’t exactly made him better. So maybe he had decided to wander off briefly, just to do something other than endlessly waiting. He couldn’t have been gone for more than a few minutes.

The problem came when he returned to find the door to the room open. That by itself would’ve been a good thing, but the room was also empty, their new guest nowhere to be seen. And that was more than enough to make him panic. Of course, she’d wandered off the moment he wasn’t looking, that was just his luck. If he didn’t find her, he’d get more than an earful from Martha, which sounded less than appealing after spending most of the last day experiencing one of her lectures. However, he didn’t actually know where the woman could’ve gone, though at the very least he was sure she couldn’t have gone far. So, after her he tried to go.

The corridors of the castle were far too familiar to him after all this time. They’d already been familiar before the curse had begun, and now being unable to leave the place, they’d almost become maddening. They weren’t quite the same as they had been before the curse, everything seemed darker and just more stretching, though perhaps that was the fact he was so much smaller than he was before. It was confusing, the layout hadn’t changed, but everything felt distinctly different. However, the oddness of the effect of the curse on the building itself wasn’t important right now, finding the girl was. Thankfully, he knew the only place she’d logically be heading. He just had to hope he got to the entrance hall before she left, presuming she had headed in that direction, because if not he had actually lost her.

Now, he didn’t know the girl personally, a fact that he was mostly glad for, but it did mean that he didn’t have a lot of guesses for what she might be interested in finding, except for the obvious guess of her trying to find food. Of course, she had no reason to actually know where the food was, but he assumed heading downstairs would be her first guess. He didn’t like basing it all on guessing, but he really did need to find her. If she tried doing something that would get Fluffles attention, like exploring the West Wing or leaving the grounds, well then there was no way she’d keep her temper under control. He didn’t think there’d be any plan he could come up with to get them to like each other if there was another blow up like earlier. So, he needed to find her and show her the sort of welcome that would make her feel like the guest that she was.

🌹 🌹 🌹

Capsize looked around the darkened corridors, wishing she could rid herself of the lingering nerves as they were kind of dampening her spirit of exploration. Of course, maybe caution was not the worst thing to feel when exploring a magical castle with an angry beast possibly lurking around any corner, but she didn’t want to be cautious. She wanted to feel like herself, to feel brave and not like she was cowering. Though today had been the first time she had felt like herself in quite a while, or at least like she wasn’t being constantly judged for being herself. That thought made a smile play on her face. It almost felt ridiculous. She had been so scared and exhausted, and, if she was being honest, she still was, but she hadn’t bitten back what she wanted to say. Gods, despite everything, that was refreshing.

She couldn’t stop looking at her current surroundings, attempting to find hidden details she was sure were there. The first time she’d been on the stairs, she’d been far too worried to properly take in any of it. She hadn’t known at the time that she was somewhere enchanted, nor would she have been able to guess just by looking around. It was odd, this place had rune enchantments, she had seen it herself, but they weren’t physically carved. It was rather as if they reacted to presences, only appearing when needed. Or at least she didn’t understand them enough to come up with another explanation.

However, despite not understanding how exactly the place was hiding its enchantments, she still found herself examining the details of the place. This place, even with the dust and surface damage, was by far the richest she had ever been in. It was intriguing. This place had the appearance of a royal castle, one in some disrepair, yes, but it didn’t feel like it had been abandoned at any point. Nothing was crumbling or cracked, at least not by her eye. It more gave the appearance that there was merely no reason to clean.

So why didn’t this place exist, neither in her memory or on maps? It couldn’t have just appeared out of nowhere, so why hadn’t she had any idea of its existence until today? Now, that was a question she couldn’t get out of her head. That gave her an answer to find.

Surely, somewhere in this place, there was an answer as to why it was so hidden. And she supposed that even if there wasn’t, she’d find something while exploring that would catch her interest. Even if she was stuck here, this was still somewhere new, somewhere she hadn’t completely memorised. That by itself was exciting. Though she paused as she descended the stairs and found herself staring at the grand doors that made up the front entrance. What was stopping her from leaving right now?

Obviously, there wasn’t anything stopping her from going outside. She’d been told she was free to explore the grounds, but what about beyond that? She took a few cautious steps towards the doors, there had to be something right? Some enchantment that would stop her from riding out the gate. It couldn’t just be her own promise. Of course, she wasn’t just going to leave, even if it was possible. She’d given her word, and she did mean it. Red’s life had been spared and she wasn’t about to go back on her promise. She couldn’t. She wasn’t a liar, wasn’t the person to go back on a deal. Even if she really should. Even if it might be the easiest thing in the world. She sighed, stopping her approach towards the doors. Why was she like this?

“Ah, Miss! There you are!” A loud voice from the top of the stairs pulled her attention back where she had come from. She saw a small flame at the top of the stairs. She approached, moving back up the stairs to see who was speaking. It was perhaps the best description of the day she had experienced that she was not surprised to find herself facing a candelabra. He was as fancy as the previous three alive furniture pieces she had met, and quite obviously was alive himself. The gold was painstakingly carved and detailed to look like a man. Almost too painstaking by her judgement as she’d never seen any trinket with such detail, but here one was. She couldn’t argue against the fact that clearly someone must’ve made one. He looked up at her with a confident smile. Capsize wished it wasn’t such a pain for her to crouch as she felt a little awkward looking down at him, but there was unfortunately little she could do about that. “I didn’t think I’d find you exploring tonight.”

“Oh, believe me, I hadn’t planned on it,” She admitted with a laugh, a little more casual than she had expected to be. She had been fully prepared to remain locked in that room for the rest of the night, possibly even longer. She’d been exhausted, her body ached, and she was sure she’d just fall asleep. Sleep hadn’t come. Instead, she’d begun to feel the itch, acknowledging the impossible to ignore thought that she wanted to explore. It had taken a while. She needed to be sure that the Beast wasn’t going to return, that she wasn’t going to be caught. Of course, she had been caught, but she wasn’t scared of that fact, because, she realised, she had seen the candelabra before. He’d been in the alcove of the stairs that lead towards the cells. So, she’d been right, the light had been moving. He led her to her brother. She hoped that meant she could trust him. “I’ve not been anywhere new in years… I wasn’t about to sit around when I could be exploring. Though I don’t believe we’ve been introduced, Mister…”

“Tom! Tom Syndicate, at your service!” The candelabra spoke with enthusiasm at a volume unexpected from someone so small. He bowed slightly, though the gesture seemed more playful than serious. Capsize couldn’t help but smile, which in turn made Tom grin. This was going to be easier than he thought. He could make her feel like a guest. He could probably help her explore too. He knew all this place’s secrets after all. Then maybe, when they got to know each other a little, he could get her to tell him some of the goings on in the town. Obviously, his own curiosity wasn’t all that important, but who could blame him for wanting to know about the outside world after years of isolation? “And you’re Capsize, you’ve caused quite a stir.”

“I suppose you can call it that,” She said, though she felt quite sure he was downplaying the situation. Causing a stir sounded minor, while she felt the Beast’s reaction warranted a stronger term being used. Yet she still smiled. She’d yelled and fought and said no to something she desperately didn’t want to do, and she wasn’t worried about that fact. She didn’t need to be worried about the opinions of townspeople who didn’t respect her anyway. Despite everything else, that felt refreshing. Sure, maybe she’d rather be back having to constantly bite back her words lest she offend the town hero. Better that than a prisoner, right? But she’d take satisfaction and little victories where she could. “I don’t think Miss Fox would describe it so gently.”

“Well, Fluffles’ has her—Fox?” He cut off his own words at the nickname. Of course, he’d been there when she’d said to call her whatever she wanted, but he hadn’t expected something quite so normal. He guessed a fox was the animal she looked most like, even if the size made the comparison not feel quite right in his head.

“It felt right,” Capsize shrugged. It felt wrong to call someone clearly intelligent Beast. Possibly an apt description given her actions, but still it reminded her too much of Jordan and his hunting. Though the name Fluffles did bring her a little amusement. “If she doesn’t like it, she can voice her complaints with her other ones.”

“Well, I doubt she’ll care what you call her, but speaking of her complaints,” He said, a little annoyed but not towards the woman in front of him. Sure, it would’ve been nice to get this all done and dusted in one night, but he could accept a slightly slower approach. Then she’d nearly ruined everything. Well, maybe that was an extreme way to put the situation, but she’d definitely made things harder. Still, what could he do but continue trying to make this situation work? To somehow break the curse? “I assume you’re hungry.”

“Yes…” She admitted, feeling embarrassed to do so. It wasn’t until after her very clear refusal of dinner that she actually realised how hungry she was. She hasn’t thought to eat after the disastrous ‘date’ with Jordan, and she’d barely eat during. She’d just had enough emotions ruining through up until now that she hadn’t realised that she was hungry. Of course, she’d deal with it, though. She didn’t need to get anyone in trouble for her sake. “But you don’t need to worry about that. I should be able to figure something out.”

“Nonsense! You’re a guest, I’m not gonna let you go sneaking about scavenging for food,” He found her confidence at being able to do so admirable, but he wasn’t going to let her go hungry. He was nowhere near scared enough of the Beast to listen to her orders of starving her. He doubted she really wanted that anyway. If she did, they had bigger problems than this curse. But he wasn’t going to wait for her to calm down to start making Capsize actually feel like a guest. Capsize herself felt a little hesitant. A guest? She really didn’t feel like the description fit, but he spoke with so much enthusiasm that she really didn’t want to object. And she wasn’t about to turn down a meal that didn’t include company she’d rather avoid. She wasn’t quite at the point of actually starving herself for the principle of it. “Seriously, just come with me, I’ll make sure you get the best meal of your life!”

“Well, I can’t turn down an offer like that,” She said, finding herself unable to turn down such enthusiasm. With confirmation from her, Tom began to lead her towards the dining room. As they moved, a quiet settled between the two. Not an uncomfortable one, as neither truly noticed it. Tom was quickly trying to figure out how much he could persuade Martha, who was probably still in the kitchens, that this was a good idea. He could already tell she was going to be a bother about it, want something simple when they could show off and be impressive. Meanwhile, Capsize was once again wondering about the talking furniture. Now, maybe that wasn’t her best idea as she knew that attempting to figure out why they acted so much like people was not going to be a question she could figure out. The amount of magic it would take to enchant objects in such a way, she wasn’t sure that anyone had such power. But someone had to have enchanted them, because the only other option was… well, she preferred not to think about it. Luckily, the walk was short, being over long before her considerations could go anywhere too similar to reality.

Capsize looked around the new room with the same level of curiosity she had the rest of the building. There was still a fear, an anxiety at the end of her mind about the whole situation. If she was being honest with herself, she didn’t feel completely safe. How could she feel safe? There was still a Beast lurking somewhere and she was doing something she had explicitly been told not to do. Well, she’d just have to deal with that if Fox made a reappearance, and right now deal with her mind not being at ease.

Tom looked at her, seeing curious eyes but a hesitant stance. She wasn’t quite rigid, but she was certainly close to it, almost reluctant to move despite clearly wanting to. He frowned briefly. He almost didn’t want to leave her for the short amount of time it would take to get her some food, but he didn’t really have a choice. Well, the sooner he left the sooner he could come back. So, he looked to her with as comforting a smile as he could.

“I’ll be back in a couple minutes. Relax, make yourself at home,” He said, hoping his words would have some benefit to her mood. And after those words he hopped off through a different door, leaving Capsize alone in the darkened room.

She remained still for a moment, staring after him as the light he gave out disappeared. It was only once she could no longer see it that she actually moved. She wondered if she was being too cautious in not wanting to be alone, or not nearly cautious enough in trusting a stranger. She decided that she was closer to the former, if only for her own sake. She had a new room to explore after all, no point in worrying.

The dining room, as she had to assume she had found herself in, was not the most comforting place to be. Mostly because she knew this was likely where she was meant to have eaten dinner earlier. And it felt cold. Not literally, though the fireplace was out in the corner, but rather it just had an air of loneliness. In the centre of the room was a long table, one that as she ran her fingers across it, she got the sense that it had not been eaten at for a very long time. That was perhaps the reason she felt this room was so wrong. Aside from the echo of her footsteps and the shadows cast by the thick curtains hanging from near the top of tall walls sweeping all the way to the floor that cast a dark atmosphere onto the room’s current state, there was a feeling that this place had not been host to joyful meals in the past.

She did not want to remain here. Mostly for the previously mentioned atmosphere, but she felt distinctly like she didn’t belong in this room. It was a feeling she had had throughout most of the castle. This place, even without the magic, was somewhere she should not be. It was regal and beautiful, and she was… well, she was a merchant. She didn’t belong somewhere like this and that brought back all the feelings that had slowly been taking root in her mind back in the town. The feelings of being odd and not fitting in, the kind that made her just feel so utterly small.

Attempting to take her mind off that feeling, she looked down the corridor that Tom had disappeared down. Though it was dark, she could tell it was nowhere near as fancy as the current room she was standing in, or for that matter any of the other rooms she’d been through thus far with the exception of the tower cells. Thankfully it wasn’t similar to the cells. Rather it felt more like it was simply designed to be practical, not needing to be shown off, just somewhere behind the scenes. Now she had been told to wait for the candelabra to return, and she had absolutely no reason to believe it would take long for him to do so. However, Capsize had always been perhaps a little too curious for her own good, and well, she wanted to see where he’d gone. Maybe she’d find something that gave her some answers to the questions about this place that were prickling away in her head.

So, she began to make her way down the corridor. She made a conscious effort to step softer than she normally would, to keep her boots and cane hitting the ground quiet so she wouldn’t be heard by the person she was following. Now she didn’t particularly think she’d be in any trouble for following him, but she wanted to see what she could learn while people didn’t know she was around. The corridor wasn’t long, only taking about a minute for her to see light and hear voices. She slowed her pace more, making sure to stick to the shadows. She knew eavesdropping was never the best idea, but right now she just wanted to quell her curiosity.

“Oh, come on, please, I’m asking for one meal, not a banquet,” The rather annoyed voice of Tom came into focus. Immediately she felt a twinge of guilt. Of course, helping her was causing him trouble. She should’ve known it would, no matter what reassurance he gave.

“Interesting. Let me remember what happened last time you asked me to help you with cooking,” A gruff, heavily accented voice replied. To describe the man as sounding annoyed would be heavily understating how he sounded. She felt pretty clearly though that she lacked context as when on earth would the candelabra have needed help cooking?

“Well, it’s not like that can happen again.”

“Because that makes it so much better!”

“I feel like I’ve apologised more than enough times for asking you to take over that night.”

“No, I think I need to hear it at least a couple more times! If you haven’t noticed I’m—”

“You should really come in, darling. They’ll bicker until the end of time if not,” A woman’s voice cut through the increasing volume of the men. Capsize, who had been slowly creeping more towards the room, completely froze at realising she had been heard. She ended up skittishly entering the room, as if she was a child about to be in trouble.

She found herself in a kitchen, one that was large and well-kept, but not one that she felt was in any way overly fancy. It was somewhere to be used, not to be viewed by guests at all. Though, of course, it still had three talking furniture pieces, which at this point she couldn’t exactly say they were unusual to see. Aside from Tom, there were the two others, lining up with the voices she had overheard. On a large wooden table alongside Tom, was an ornate table clock. Or at the very least, Capsize presumed that she was a clock due to the winding key on the back of her, but her face didn’t have any hands. Though, due to the actual face that was painted onto that of the clock face, she presumed that having clock hands would simply get in the way of her being able to see.

The other was, well, different from all the others she’d seen so far. Had his face not been so clear she may not have considered him being alive at all. The stove, a large wood burner affixed to the wall, was the other talking furniture in the room. All the others she had met thus far had been small, able to move around, but he clearly wasn’t and that… that gave her pause. She couldn’t blame him for being annoyed in such a position.

“Ah, I… How long have you been listening?” Tom asked, realising nervously that she might’ve learned some things that he really couldn’t easily explain. Thankfully they hadn’t directly mentioned the curse, that they were all transformed humans, but they had definitely gotten close and if that information got revealed there was really no taking it back.

“Not long! I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have followed you, I just…” She mulled over her words. She didn’t really want to explain that she’d felt uncomfortable, because the feeling wasn’t something they could fix. However, that left her without any real reason to explain why she had followed after him. “I want to see as much of this place as possible. I’ve never been anywhere like this.”

“Well, I doubt there’s many places like this in general,” Martha said, knowing a place with this level of magic really couldn’t exist anywhere else. She certainly hadn’t found another place like this in her travels prior to all this. Annoyingly, if the castle hadn’t been so impressive and unique in that sense, she wouldn’t have even stayed. Even if she was now frankly sick of being here, she could still understand why someone would find it fascinating. At the very least, the woman was finding something to enjoy in here. Of course, she did need to work something out with her having a meal. “Here, I’ll get you some leftovers—”

“Oh, come on, we can give her something warm,” Tom complained. He wanted to make her feel special. How was he meant to do that with leftovers?

“You really don’t need to go to any trouble,” Capsize quickly insisted. “Leftovers are—”

“Hang on a minute. That accent, where are you from?” The stove cut her off before she could insist on the leftovers being fine. And Capsize looked at him with questions on her own lips. Why on earth did he care about her accent? Well, she supposed he had an accent, but she still had far too many questions about the nature of the objects. However, she decided it was likely best right now to just answer the question and attempt to figure out all her confusing thoughts later.

“Ianerea, originally anyways. I spent most of my life on ships, and then I ended up in the town for the past two years,” She said, now acutely aware of her accent. It was another thing that had been pointed out a lot when she had first moved to the town, though that had thankfully faded over time compared to the other comments. Now she was again a little self-conscious. However, the stove smiled. Why hadn’t either of them mentioned she wasn’t some prissy noble? Well, maybe they had, he hadn’t really been in the mood to listen.

“So, you’re a worker? Not a layabout noble like these two.”

“Hey! I work!”

“Love you too, darling.”

“Yes, I work. Well, I did, not exactly gonna be doing much here,” She said, sure most people would be happier than she felt about not having to work. The stove smiled a little wider. Now he still really didn’t want to cook, which was an extremely annoying state for a stove to be in, but he couldn’t find it in himself to reject this girl. She hadn’t done anything wrong and, like quite a few people in this place, she was a long way from home.

“Alright, I’ll make you something, but don’t go telling Beasty. I’m not in the mood to deal with one of her tantrums,” He said, still sounding gruff, but attempting to be friendly. And Capsize felt, oddly enough, that she could feel safe here.

“Don’t worry, I’m not planning on seeing her at all if I can avoid her,” She said, not being gentle with her tone. She knew what she had agreed to, she wasn’t about to leave, but she also wasn’t going to interact with Fox if she could at all avoid it. Tom and Martha shared a look, one more worried than anything. They needed the two to interact, obviously they had no chance of the curse breaking if not. Yet they couldn’t exactly argue with her not wanting to. Tom had loosely planned for this and gave Martha a nervous smile to attempt to communicate that he had some sort of plan. Martha, trying her best not to doubt whatever he might have planned, hopped forward.

“Well, I doubt you’ll see her much. She’ll likely be in her room for the next couple of days. She really doesn’t come out much,” She said, hoping to be reassuring. And her words certainly were as Capsize realised that she’d likely be free to explore without fear for the next few days. That idea genuinely excited her, something not unnoticed by the others in the room. It was refreshing in a way, to see someone new, even with the reality of everything. “And if you do need anything, don’t hesitate to ask.”

“Thank you, that’s very much appreciated, Miss…”

“Martha, darling, Martha Conway. And this is Steve, my fiancé,” The clock introduced with a smile. Again, Capsize felt an itching in her mind. Where had she heard the name Conway? Why was it bugging her so much? She felt like it was important, else would her mind be so focused on trying to figure it out, but she just couldn’t put her finger on why on earth it felt so familiar. As all her thoughts focused on the same issue, Capsize grew quiet.

Tom looked at Steve as she was distracted, smiling as he attempted to gauge his opinion of her. He had to like her, right? Steve rolled his eyes, how Syndi had managed to get exactly what he wanted was beyond him. Of course, he never could stay annoyed at him for long, even if being asked to cover for him one night had left him literally stuck to a wall. However, even if he did like him, he didn’t want him grinning like an idiot at him while he was cooking. So, with another roll of his eyes, he spoke.

“Take her back to the dining room, Syndi. Martha will bring it when it’s ready.”

🌹 🌹 🌹

The dining room felt less oppressive with company and a lit fireplace, enough so that Capsize didn’t feel uncomfortable eating there as she thought she would. Maybe she was just hungry enough that a warm meal was more than enough to make her feel safe. However, she couldn’t deny that she was enjoying Tom’s company. How long had it been since she had met someone who seemed genuinely friendly and wanted to get to know her? It was nice, even if some of the things he was saying seemed completely ridiculous.

“You’re telling me you’re a cook?” She asked with more than a little doubt in her tone. Now she didn’t exactly want to assume based off of appearances, but he was a candelabra. She felt like that really limited his ability to cook. Sure, he was probably able to heat things up, and she’d seen non-sentient objects move around on their own in this place, but she still couldn’t quite believe that he would be able to cook full meals. Tom grinned, because obviously he knew that what he was saying was true, but he also knew how it sounded ridiculous and that made it all the more fun.

“Yeah! Well, it wasn’t really a job, more of a volunteer thing,” He said, entertained by the bewildered look growing on her face. He knew that if Martha could hear him right now, he’d be getting a lecture about how they’re meant to be keeping the curse hidden. But he didn’t see any harm in what he was doing. He just sounded like he was making things up. Even if she did figure out that they all used to be human, there were explanations they could give that didn’t involve the curse. Oh course, Capsize just found herself with more questions from his statement.

“I dread to ask, but what is your job then?” She asked, more than a little curious. Because logically he shouldn’t really have a job beyond lighting up a room, but she had the distinct feeling that wasn’t going to be his answer. They were all a bit too human like for their tasks to simply be what they were designed for. Tom again smiled a little too widely.

“Champion of Dianite, at your service,” He said with a bow and a flourish. Capsize laughed almost immediately.

“Really? You’re Lord Dianite’s champion?” She said, convinced she must have misheard because, well, it was unbelievable. She leant forward, resting her elbow on the table to prop her head up on her hand. She still wasn’t quite eye level with him, but she was close enough with him standing on the table. He could see the amount of doubt on her features and hear it in her words. He wasn’t quite sure how to take it. On one hand, he had expected doubt. After all, he knew that no one remembered him. However, he still was a little nervous because… well, he had no idea if the forgetting also extended to his god. He was scared that it had, and that in turn he might’ve been replaced. He absolutely couldn’t stand that idea.

“The one and only! Haven’t you heard of me?” He said, making sure to keep his joking tone. Even knowing that she couldn’t have possibly heard of him, she might’ve heard of another Dianitee champion. Capsize mulled over her words. On one hand, she wanted to reject the idea outright. Firstly, she was pretty sure she’d know if Lord Dianite had a champion. Secondly, with all the frustrations Jordan had caused her, she’d rather not think about the concept of champions if she could avoid it. Yet, she couldn’t help but grin, because this felt ridiculous. She wanted to know where this was going.

“I’m afraid I haven’t. In fact, I’m pretty sure Lord Dianite doesn’t have a champion,” She said, maybe with a little too matter of fact a tone judging by Tom’s reaction. He had no idea if he should be disappointed or not. He hadn’t been replaced, there was a comfort in that, but even if he already knew, it was disheartening to hear that he basically didn’t exist. His frown was brief, and he tried to hide it, but Capsize did notice.

Did Lord Dianite have a champion? She hadn’t heard of one, nor had she been told about one by either of the champions or Ianite. However, thinking about the idea caused the same itching feeling that she got when thinking about the name Conway. No, not quite the same, here she was sure she didn’t have the information, but all the same her mind itched as if she should. Now, why was that? But no matter the cause for the annoying feeling of missing something she really should know, she didn’t focus on that, because she felt bad for that frown.

“I mean, I don’t think he has a champion. I’ve met the other two, and I assumed that I’d have met a third if Lord Dianite did have one.”

“So, the other two still live in town?”

“Unfortunately,” She said without thinking. Her eyes went wide when she realised what she’d just said. A level of panic setting in despite how she wasn’t there anymore, it shouldn’t matter that she’d just insulted him. And it was Tom’s turn to be dumbstruck.

“What… Have the champions… done something to you?” He didn’t know quite how to phrase his question, because he almost felt the idea was extreme, but she had sounded so disdainful. What had happened in the years since the curse? Had his fellow champions changed that he’d no sooner recognise them than they’d recognise him?

Tucker was his friend, had been for years. It was hard to believe that he could’ve changed completely even if it had been years since their last meeting. Though he’d Jordan for less time than Tucker… He couldn’t exactly deny that he’d enjoyed his company. Sure, now he had a less than stellar opinion of the goddess herself, but he still had some good memories of her champion. But he’d not seen them in years, meanwhile she had. And her tone, her expression, it left him very little doubt that at least one of them had done something.

Capsize chewed the inside of her cheek. She hadn’t really discussed her issues with Jordan with anyone besides Red, who had never really gotten it. Maybe because she’d held back the worst of it from him, even if she desperately wanted to voice all her complains. She could do so now, she supposed. However, she didn’t quite feel right sharing her problems with someone she’d barely met. But, if not now, when she was completely free of the judgement of the townsfolk, then when was she going to?

“I… I guess yes. I mean, he hasn’t hurt me, or done anything like that, but Ianite’s champion kind of… well, he doesn’t leave me alone. Ever since he found out that I… follow Ianite he seemed to just get obsessed with the idea of me. He’s never gotten to know me, but acts like I owe him attention,” She tried her best to articulate it, to actually express how he made her feel uncomfortable. Of course, she still didn’t mention certain things as just the idea of them brought a little too much anxiety to her mind. Just thinking about the proposal made her throat feel dry, she didn’t want to talk about that any more than she wanted to see Jordan. And she also hesitated to share about her connection to Ianite. Sharing that fact that had started the whole mess.

Tom did pick up that she was hiding something about her closeness to the goddess, seeing the lack of honorifics when speaking about her compared to when she was talking about Dianite, but he decided it was best not to push. After all, it was probably better for the time being that she kept any connection beyond following the goddess a secret, lest the Beast find out and react in the extreme.

Though frankly Tom was kind of speechless, because he couldn’t imagine Ianite’s champion acting in such a way. Not because he disbelieved her, in fact he believed her more than anything that she was likely holding back most of the actual details seeing how hard it appeared for her to say the words she had. But given that they’d all been cursed for the actions of one person – however cruel and unjustified said actions were – he had expected that her champion would be held to high standard. Well, he’d need to lodge his complaints when this was done with, as much as that may be a terrible idea given that she’d already cursed him once. But right now… right now, Capsize looked beyond sad and he couldn’t let that stand.

“Well, he sounds like an absolute piece of work. But he certainly isn’t welcome here. Only one champion around here, and I assure you, Dianite has much higher standards for his champion than the other gods,” He made sure to have a joking tone when singing his own praises, not wanting to sound like he was ignoring the hurt she clearly felt. And she did laugh. She felt more relief than she ever had in a conversation about Jordan. “But, just to prove that, how about I give you a tour of the place? I can show you all the secrets.”

“Wait, really? I… I’d like that a lot.”

“Well, then, follow me.”

🌹 🌹 🌹

Tom’s tour was not what anyone would call informative, mostly because he wasn’t really focused on the tour part of it at all. Rather he and Capsize had started talking and their conversations were taking the place of any actual information he could give.

“I just don’t see how you came to the conclusion that I’m a pirate,” She said, with an entertained grin despite some actual confusion. He had sounded so impressed with himself for ‘figuring it out’, which left her feeling a little guilty having to correct him. Yet he was quite adamant that she must’ve been some sort of pirate, leaving her as entertained as she was confused by his confidence.

“Well, you’re from Ianerea, that’s where pirates are from,” He said, as if the fact was obvious. He’d heard the stories. Sure, they might be old stories, but there were loads of pirates from there. Capsize laughed a little. The pirate legends had never really died, despite how long it had been since Ianerea had been a pirate haven. “And you said you grew up mostly on ships. Also, you’re called Capsize – that’s a pirate name.”

“I’ll give you that one,” She said, not really able to argue against the fact that her name was suited to piracy. Her parents had been traditional after all. Honestly, they probably would’ve been happy if she had become a pirate. So long as she was good with ships, that was the important thing to them. “But I’m afraid I’m a regular boring merchant captain.”

“Well, that’s close enough to a pirate,” He says, gaining another laugh in response. He’d love to meet an actual pirate, but he did think she was close enough. He hadn’t met anyone who’d spent much time on ships at all, so maybe he’d let his imagination run a little wild. Still half-distracted by his conversation, he noticed they were going past another actually interesting part of the castle. “Oh, and this is—”

“Thomas!” The voice of Martha cut through his words before he could finish. Both Capsize and Tom turned to see the clock standing on a table in front of the corridor Tom was pointing down, as if she had been guarding it. Tom groaned, wondering what she wanted. Capsize meanwhile stayed quiet, not wanting to interrupt before she knew what’s going on. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Giving a tour…? Do you want to join?” He asked, honestly a little confused about what he had done wrong. Clearly, she was annoyed about something, but for the life of him he couldn’t think of what she could be taking issue with. Martha hopped off the table and close to him, really trying to keep herself level-headed. She had to stay calm in front of the girl.

“You do realise where you are, right?” She half-whispered, trying to only be heard by him. Her attempt at communicating the need for discretion was not successful as Tom just rolled his eyes. Obviously, he knew where he was. Did she forget he’d lived here for most of his life?

“Obviously, that’s the West—!” He realised the problem one word too late into his reply. Still, he felt like she was questioning his competence a little. “Well, I wasn’t gonna take her in!”

“So that’s the West Wing?” Capsize’s curiosity was instantly captured. She peered down the darkened corridor of the one place she was told she wasn’t allowed, and therefore the place she was the most interested in exploring. There was something she wasn’t meant to see, which meant she needed to see it. Tom and Martha both glared at each other, both distinctly blaming the other for this situation, and in turn being annoyed that the other could even think of blaming them. “What’s in there?”

“Oh, nothing interesting. You know, broken furniture, dust…”

“Old studies, abandoned rooms,” Martha added as Tom’s mind went blank. They were quick to respond, and far too insistent that there was nothing there. Capsize looked at them unimpressed, not falling for their false smiles.

“If there’s nothing then why is it forbidden?” She asked. She didn’t know if she expected any sort of answer, or if there was one that would persuade her away from exploring the place. Again, the two looked between themselves. Martha sighed.

“It’s mostly the Mistress’ living space. I assume she’s asleep right now and I really wouldn’t recommend disturbing her,” She did consider lying, making up some reason why it was dangerous or unsafe, but frankly she felt the reality of the situation should be clear enough. Capsize did pause. She didn’t want to run into Fox, and she definitely didn’t want to do it tonight. She could be careful, but she definitely didn’t trust her own quietness in an unfamiliar place. It was frustrating. She wanted to explore that wing, she was sure there was something there, but she certainly couldn’t risk it right now. Tom hopped forward again.

“It really isn’t interesting, I assure you. Come on, I’ll show you some actual interesting things around here,” He said, though he seemed less like he was trying to distract her and more like he just wanted her to listen. Of course, that felt very much like the same thing to Capsize at this moment as she wanted nothing more than to step over them and walk straight into the forbidden wing, but she knew that was not advisable. Even if Fox, who she very much wanted to avoid, wasn’t in there, she doubted the two would let her go alone, which would just kill any chance of exploration she had. She had to concede, she was not going to be able to explore the West Wing tonight. So, still with more than a little reluctance, she followed him as he hopped away, though she still looked back at the mysterious West Wing, more than a little disappointed that the clock never moved away from the entrance.

Tom could feel the difference in the mood, the clear fact that she was now with him reluctantly rather than happily. And he knew he needed to say something, because the silence was just growing heavier as he didn’t, but he had to make sure that Martha was completely out of earshot before he did. And once he was sure they were far enough away, he stopped and turned back to look at Capsize.

“You’re planning on exploring the West Wing, aren’t you,” He said it as a statement, because he knew. Frankly if he was presented with a forbidden area of a building, he’d want to explore it too, but she couldn’t. He couldn’t have Fluffles blow up at her again, and if she caught her in there, he couldn’t stop it.

"Not tonight…” Capsize said, technically not lying. She knew there wasn’t much point in any half-truth. He’d clearly seen through her, but she didn’t want to make him more complicit than he already was. If she got in trouble herself that was… well, not fine, but it was better than getting other people into trouble alongside her, or worse instead of her. Still, she felt bad at his sigh. He needed to talk her out of this, he really did, but he could almost feel already that it wasn’t going to happen. She had a look, one that could either be described as determined or stubborn depending on how charitable you were being. Tom had no idea which side of the coin he fell on. “Look, I’ll be careful. I just…”

She couldn’t really explain it. She could stay anyway, it’ll make her life easier, but she needed to see if something was being hidden from her. If it really was just for privacy, she’d leave, she’d probably feel bad afterwards, but she was sure that there was something more. If there wasn’t something she wasn’t meant to see, they wouldn’t all be so quick to try and stop her from entering. She just had to know what it was, to know if it had any answers about the nature of this place. Though maybe, she thought quietly, she just wanted to prove that she didn’t need to listen.

Tom considered if there was any way right now to try and talk her out of it. He couldn’t think of anything, but she said not tonight. That meant he had time on his side. Depending on how much of a mood Fluffles was in, he might have a few days. He just needed to get her to listen to him about this being a bad idea. And while that might be difficult, he liked this girl, he couldn’t let her make this decision that was just going to lead to trouble. As impossible as it seemed at this moment, he was sure if he tried, he’d be able to keep her distracted enough that she’d forget all about the West Wing. So, he put on his best smile.

“Well, so long as you’re not exploring it right now… How about we continue the tour?”

[nanamiscocksleeve]

Hey Ray, how are you? I've read about your flu recently. I'm very sorry and I hope you get better soon. Have a fast recovery, ok?

Regarding confessions, I have nothing much to say. I think other anons already mentioned lots of valid points. Sure- porn fics are obv exaggerated, characters get mischaracterized and ships get pushed down out throats all the time but hey, that's just an average fandom experience, right?

So I'm trying to ignore/filter all the negativity and allow only good, quality content on my dash. Unfortunately, the content is few and not many appreciate writers and artists here on Tumblr. So it's for the best if they'd just change platforms and try their luck somewhere else that offers more positive interaction/involvement. I miss Tumblr reblog culture and nice feedback on dif stories/art. Nothing is the same anymore...

Regarding mischaracterization- it's not a problem to headcanon things, in fact, to each their own. But it's a problem when people openly accept headcanon as canon and unapologetically fight others over inaccurate opinions. It's so beyond me. And the funniest thing- it's mostly minors. Can we get rid of the minors in for-them-inappropriate fandom spaces pls? Tumblr staff where you at?

I noticed that fans of less popular characters are more fun. I'm not that big into Choso you see, but his fans made the whole fandom experience so much more enjoyable. And I don't think that Mahito fans are weird if you compare Toji smut fics (I'm not calling out people but I'm calling out people). Sukuna fans I'm looking at you too...

I'm forever grateful for Nanami, Higuruma, Kusakabe and Shiu quartet. Gege, thank you for feeding us while it lasted. The fics are divine and I understand why Shoko didn't see the appeal in stsg, like girl I get you.

I'll come out and say it- stsg is overrated. And jjk girls deserve more content that isn't ship-oriented.

I think Gege needs to make up his mind because Yuta and Yuji can't exist as two mains at once. Everyone is taking away Yuji's spotlight, but they're dying and dying until nobody's left except Yuji... I don't know how jjk will end.

I miss Yuki and Todo's dynamic and all the funny stuff, I wish jjk was a comedy fr... Gege is writing an idol manga after this one so I can't wait for the things he has in store for us!

Hello! Thank you for your concern about my cold. Honestly, with all of you wishing me to get better, I'm recovering a little faster! 💜💜💜

I agree with mischaracterization, but imo, unless a mangaka explicitly states something, then a fictional character is always subject to having HC's being formed about them depending on the writer. What gets problematic though, is when fans of a writer start looking at those HC's as an actual canon, and now they're picking fights/sending hate to other creators who have different opinions.

Fans of less popular characters tend to be more chill from what I've seen. They just want to talk about their faves and have a good time, and are less bothered with what could be canon or not. They have their HC's and are open to hearing different ones too.

I feel like JJK gave us this genre of 'tired men in suits' which is very appealing, even to us older girlies who are in the same age range as these men.

Stsg being overrated...imo I don't feel that way. I think they had great potential as a couple and I'm filled with sadness at the thought that they didn't catch Suguru's spiral when it happened. I can see them with heterosexual partners too, but I love the concept of Stsg.

The JJK women definitely need content not surrounding ships or smut. Something more action-related or just let her shine in her own right in a fic.

IDK what'll happen going forward...The story is supposed to center on Yuji but it feels like he's constantly being pushed aside. I hope things resolve soon but it looks like Sukuna might win after all this. I'm just sad thinking about it.

I miss the slice of life feel to the story as well but what can ya do...Gege is the mangaka, so he'll do what he wants. But if he brings back Nanami I ain't complaining lol.

Thank you for your confession!