#so they're just the latest iteration of it

[dirhwangdaseul-archived]

this is so funny but sadly i just think it's just the world that is filled with shitty parents and considering how much of thailand's culture via bls rests in proving your worth through capitalist accomplishments to other people thus the making of children becomes sth out of sculpting art and objects rather than any actual parenting

At this point, I'm starting to think that there is a surplus of sh*tty dads in Thailand (***looking at you, Chanon and Win's dad) 😑

[comicaurora]

In the latest trope talk you used Odo as part of your examples. I think You've talked about Star Trek: The Next Generation before but not Deep Space Nine and I just had some questions about what you thought about the show.

What did you most/least enjoy about the series?

What did you think of DS9's syndicated episodes compared to contemporary trek's (TNG, VOY) episodic nature?

How do you feel about the Dominion storyline as a whole? Did you feel like it went against Star Trek's utopian future?

Which characters stood out to you the most/had the most engaging development?

What do you think gagh tastes like?

Any other thoughts about the series?

Oh man, DS9.

I have this very consistent pattern of thinking that the star trek I have most recently watched is the best star trek. When I watched TNG it was the best because of its standout episodes that let Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner show off. Then when I watched Voyager it was the best because Janeway was incredible and 7 of 9's arc was a beautiful iteration on the "inhuman character explores humanity" star trek trope. Then when I got to DS9 I was like "Oh, so this is what actually good Star Trek looks like." I do think I'm actually right this time, though.

I think they really took advantage of how different the core premise of the show was from previous Star Treks. Because the setting was very consistent, the episodic variations on the formula weren't dedicated to seeking out Weird New Shit, but to focusing on the characters and their dynamics with one another. Correspondingly I think the best thing in the show is the character writing and how everyone's arcs are built up. This was something I think they were building towards with the previous series; TNG would occasionally have character-focused episodes, but for the most part everybody on the ship operated like a well-oiled machine, inputting the Weird Thing Of The Week and outputting a solution. Voyager destabilized the formula by yeeting the heroes halfway across the galaxy and well outside the safe confines of federation space, so you got a lot more opportunities for drama caused by limited supplies or existential despair, and a lot more character-driven conundrums without clean or flawless solutions. DS9 is kind of the apotheosis of this shift away from "seek out new life and new civilizations, boldly go etc etc" because instead of our heroes briefly interacting with Bajor and then fucking off into the end credits, they're sitting right on top of a planet undergoing tumultuous social restructuring after the end of a long and horrible military occupation, and they're there for 7 seasons. Because they aren't following an adventure-of-the-week formula, absolutely everything they do has consequences they have to deal with later down the line, and that lends itself very well to longform character arcs.

I liked the Dominion storyline well enough, and I think the existence of an evil space empire to fight doesn't preclude the Federation being a utopia. Utopias are internally perfect systems, not worlds that have absolutely no conflict. I think the part of DS9 that does undercut the utopia is the whole thing with Section 31, but I think that's part of a very intentional move on the writers' part to highlight that Section 31 is not as necessary as they think they are, and that doing all this stuff unethically is a moral concession and a shortcut that demeans the principles of the Federation. That's part of why I like that they serve as a nemesis to Doctor Bashir, who has very personal reasons to despise the idea of taking the easy way out.

Character-wise, I have very predictable favs. Jadzia Dax is fascinating to me, and I love the way they play with her past lives and centuries of experience to create this very layered character packed with plothooks. Also I have very simple tastes, and "woman fills narrative Man Role trope and nobody is weird about it" is an itch I so rarely get scratched despite how not complicated it is. Jadzia gets to be a swashbuckling romantic hero with a tragic starcrossed lover; she gets to be a wise yet cheerful mentor to Captain Sisko; she gets to be a noble warrior honoring debts from a lifetime ago. And I adore how her dynamic with Sisko plays out over the seasons - another completely uncomplicated trope I so rarely get to enjoy, male and female leads who are profoundly ride-or-die for one another and have absolutely no interest in making out. I am still so mad about how Jadzia gets iced, but that doesn't mean I don't like Ezri, and there is something very beautiful about how when she gets Dax'd and her existence becomes an absolute mess of confusion and conflicting memories and she doesn't even know who she is anymore, her single point of stability is Sisko.

That said, Garak is probably my overall fav. The man is an absolute drama hound and since he's not technically main cast it's a rare treat to get him focused on. He is so much fun on a rewatch when you can see exactly when and how he's lying and when he's telling the truth in a way that everyone thinks is lying, and what I think is most interesting about him is how absolutely everybody else on the station has him figured out. There's this "I know he knows I know they know" loop underlying almost every interaction. Everyone knows he's a spy, he knows everyone knows, and they're all just vibing anyway. It's like his entire character is built on telling the truth in a way that sounds like a lie, to the point where it always manages to surprise people when he does something absolutely ruthless. He's been saying he's a bad guy the whole time! People seem to keep forgetting!

Also, fun fact, the very first chunk of DS9 I caught was the back half of the episode "The Wire", and when I was mentioning this to my dad, I was like "yeah I don't remember their names but these two guys seemed extremely married-" and he immediately went "oh, Garak and the doctor?" so that's very telling I think

[muddyorbsblr]

timeless

See my full list of works here!

Summary: While doing some research to help out Mobius on a 'moonshot project', you and Loki come across a startling revelation about your lives. All your lives.

Pairing: TVA!Loki x TVA!Reader

Word Count: 3.5

Warnings: some talks of smutty times, but overall this is just fluff [let me know if i missed something!]

Things to be aware of: established relationship, talks of soulmates, references to my other stories

"I really don't get why you're in here bugging me for something to do, Y/N," Agent Mobius chuckled, shaking his head as he thumbed through another folder's worth of records that he hadn't told you quite yet what they were for. "No high-level variant threats have been reported, timelines are--well, they're relatively stable. Things are quiet for a change. I say enjoy it while it lasts and go on a vacation or something with Laufeyson. Just don't--"

"Don't cause any Nexus events, yes yes, Mobius, we know." A smile broke out on your face at the sound of Loki's voice cutting off the TVA Agent, your cheeks nearly aching from your grin widening when he walked up behind you and long arms wrapped around your waist, pulling you close. "Thing is we already have partaken in quite a handful of adventures across the timelines, indulging ourselves in the…numerous pleasures and luxuries that they have to offer."

One look at how you were reddening with the implications of your boyfriend's words had your fellow Agent scrunching up his face in feigned appalment. "Time and place, you two, jeez."

You and Loki shared a confused look when an analyst from another table yelled "And you did it at my birthday dinner!" and rendered Mobius into a cackling heap, laughing into his sleeve to muffle the sound.

"Anyway…" you spoke up, making the grey-haired agent look back up at you. "Are you sure there isn't anything we can help with? Doesn't even have to be high-level, I'll literally take up a timeline reset caused by a woman at a grocery store grabbing a can of peaches instead of a can of mangoes, I'm getting antsy here."

"Alright alright fine," he sighed, motioning toward you and the god behind you. "It's something of a moonshot but we've been trying to find proof of the existence of soulmates throughout the timelines, so we need concrete cases that no matter the circumstance, no matter the obstructions between two souls, they always find each other and they always end up together."

"You mean like in that TV show where they've got fairytale characters in like Maine or something and there's this couple that constantly goes--"

"I'll find you, I will always find you," you and Mobius said at once, causing you both to break out into laughter.

"Exactly like that," he confirmed when he calmed down some. "Preferably without the cheesy catchphrase because in case you do find one I would actually prefer to not include in my report that all soulmates have some line they tell each other that's so cheesy it's pungent."

"Right so…soulmates, no cheesy lines, across the timelines. Got it." You gave him a little salute before you went off to the shelves, holding Loki's hand as he followed a few steps behind you.

"Darling we have been scouring through files for hours. Perhaps it's time to report back to Mobius. Tell him that every pair we've found so far have broken the pattern at some iteration down the line. The most we've come across is a pair that were together for five iterations of their lives before the sixth showed they never even met in that lifetime."

Your shoulders slumped over when you placed your latest folder on your pile, of failed attempts, just about  half the size of Loki's own little mountain of case files. Maybe he was right; every possible lead you'd found all ended up a dud, and that alone would be proof enough that this was all a wild goose chase of an assignment for Mobius.

Then again, he did call it a moonshot, so the realization didn't smart too much.

The frustration you felt began to melt away the moment Loki's hands touched your shoulders, leaning into him when he started working at the knots that he found with expert precision. "Okay, you're right," you sighed. "Let's go tell Cubey his moonshot's a single needle in a city of haystacks."

He placed a kiss to the top of your head, using his seiðr to stack the case files into neat stacks arranged by file number. "Thank the Norns that ridiculous magic dampener fractured some when the timelines diverged," he mumbled, chuckling into your hair. "Now how about I bring us to a nice hot spring and we could simply…enjoy one another's company?" You let out a giggle when his hands traveled down your sides, lightly grasping your waist and pulling you against him.

If only you could have silenced the little voice in your head when you were just seconds away from him whisking you off to Jökulsárlón or Hakone, clad in a dark emerald bikini that your lover would peel off of you as he made good on his promise for you both to enjoy each other's company.

"I can nearly hear the thoughts forming in your mind, darling," he cooed, pressing his lips to the back of your neck, chuckling against your skin when you wordlessly confirmed what he'd said by slumping over again. "What is it?"

"Just one last try?" You wouldn't ever let yourself live it down if you'd gone down this road and not looked at this particular set of files.

He let out a sigh, his slightly cool breath tickling your skin before pressing a tender kiss to the back of your head. "One last attempt. And if we reach another dead end--"

"You can whisk me away to any destination of your choice and have your wicked way with me," you finished for him, letting out a little yelp when he brought his lips to the spot between your neck and shoulder, playfully nipping at the skin.

"What a deliciously reckless promise, my love," he teased, smirking against your neck when he proceeded to lightly suck at the sensitive skin and you had to bite your lip to muffle the whimper that slipped through your lips. "I look forward to collecting on it in a short while."

He rested his chin on your shoulder, still holding you close when you called out for a bit of assistance on your final hunch. "Minutes?"

Your eyes squinted to adjust to the sudden brightness when the orange hologram appeared on the desk in front of you. "Well hello there, lovebirds. What can I do for y'all?" she asked with a small wave of her cartoonish stick arm.

"Could you pull up our files?"

"Well sure I can, Y/N! How much of your files are we talking here?"

You shared a look with Loki before you answered, "All of them?"

"Before I hand 'em over, I think it's best y'all know from the get go that you're about to deal with thousands of files. It'll take a whole lotta time before you can sort 'em all out," she cautioned you both, already giving you a digital visual of how many files she'd already begun to pull up.

"Minutes, as I've come to understand it, we variants apparently have all the time in the world," you countered, shrugging your free shoulder and giving the living hologram a little smile. "We can take it."

"Alright well suit yourself," she comically shrugged both her hands before making the files that were already on the table disperse and go back to their original locations throughout the library shelves before stacks upon stacks of folders materialized in their place. All of them sectioned off into two sides. "Have at it, y'all."

You picked up the first folder from the stack closest to you, your brows knitting together already once you read the name on the file. "Minutes, I don't think this is mine, it says Eve but that's not--"

"Your name?" she finished for you. "Darlin', Y/N is your name in this lifetime--Well, the lifetime you came from before your Nexus event, you get what I mean. The file you're holding is from another lifetime, heck, might even be from another timeline. But one look at that file and you'll see that that's you. All of these are you. Doesn't matter if you're goin' by a different name, the soul remains the same."

The air left your lungs when you opened the folder to find a picture of you with pale skin and matted ivory hair on the front of the file. Only thing was that this version of you wasn't quite human in her lifetime. In fact centuries of it were spent as a vampire.

A few moments later she spoke up again. "Well then that's my cue. Happy sortin', y'all!" And then she disappeared. Leaving you and Loki alone with your couple thousand files each to rifle through.

Had you been there on a different objective, you would have spent a bit more time thumbing through the pages that detailed the life of this version of you, rubbing elbows with numerous prominent figures throughout history and having her fair share of trysts with a handful of them. But your only focus was her most prominent affair. Her great love.

When you reached that page, you felt yourself go breathless once again looking at the picture that stared back at you. "Loki," you breathed out, holding out the file to him so he could see for himself. The god's eyes widened at the photo in front of him. The ebony hair may be matted and the skin somehow even paler than his usual complexion, but there was no denying it. This Eve's companion throughout her years, this Adam, was another lifetime's iteration of Loki.

He began to rifle through his own stacks of folders, finding the one that had the same variant number and interlocked his and your folders together, starting a new stack at the center of the desk. "If you're right, and this yields the moonshot result that Mobius has been searching for, you can pick the destination and have your wicked way with me."

"Why Mischief, how reckless of you," you said coyly, batting your eyelashes at him. "What if I wanna tie you up?"

"It's endearing that you believe you could, my darling." He lightly poked your side, quickly pulling you into his arms the second you started wriggling and giggling in his direction. "But if that is truly what you want then I can promise not to break out for an hour."

"Two," you countered.

"Ninety minutes."

"Deal."

"Now if I'm right and this leads to another dead end, I whisk you away to any destination of my choosing for a fortnight, no tempads, no missions, and not a stitch of clothing on this glorious form of yours." His lips skimmed the side of your face, pressing a kiss to your cheek when you let out a squeal at his finger deftly undoing the top button of your shirt. "Do we have a deal, my love?"

"Okay okay," you relented, turning your head to steal a quick kiss before bring your attention back to the folders you were about to sort through. Before you could pull away, his free hand went up to the back of your head and deepened the kiss.

"What if I told you I've been plagued with visions of stripping you bare and laying you out on the desk before me? That I'd been thinking of enjoying every delectable inch of you as if you were my own personal dessert board?" You let out a gasp at the lustful image his words had conjured in your mind, allowing him to easily lick into your mouth and turn you into putty in his arms the moment your tongues met.

"I'd say I'm not surprised," you breathed out when he pulled away, placing your hand over his before he could undo a third button from your shirt. "But the faster we get this done, the faster oneof us will be at the other's mercy and maybe you can even bring that desk fantasy of yours to life." You pressed another quick peck to his lips before managing to wriggle your way out of his embrace, jutting your chin at his side of the desk. "Pick a file, Mischief."

The next file had you and him initially on opposite sides of the Battle of New York, your story starting in Stuttgart when he had clones force you down on your knees and the injuries from that encounter permanently damaging you. A handful of times throughout the day of the actual battle, he went out of his way to save your life, ensuring your safety from a fatal fall and even the Hulk; the document even had a mention of him asking Thor of what came of you after he was apprehended because you weren't among the Avengers that saw him off to Asgard, only to find out the true extent of your injuries. Then he found himself back on Earth to serve his sentence and falling in love with you, using his magic to undo the physical damage that he dealt you. And then you two went on your own adventure to have 'do-overs' in places that held bitter memories for him, from Stuttgart to Asgard and even the balcony in Stark Tower.

Another file saw Loki as an English baronet named Thomas Sharpe, and you as his final wife and a sort of partner in crime. Initially you teamed up to play a dangerous game of sneaking around his ancestral home to gather and send out evidence that would put his incestuous and murderous sister Lucille behind bars, and somewhere along the way you two had genuinely fallen in love with one another.

You then found a good handful of scenarios where you both lived in the Avengers Compound, having a bad case of mutual pining and both of you being too hesitant and overcome with doubt that neither of you made a move until the situation practically forced you to confess. One even involved you photographing him for an Avengers calendar where he stripped for you during his session.

"Yeah, this definitely sounds like you," you joked when you showed him one of the pictures from the photoshoot in question where he laid on his side on a white bed wearing nothing but a pair of white boxers. When you opened the next file, you let out a whiny groan out of sheer frustration and disappointment.

"Darling, that is a sound I only wish to hear when I elicit it from you. What's wrong?"

"Might as well just lie down on the table right now because there's no way this isn't a dead end." You waved the file in your hand in the air.

"Much as I would thoroughly enjoy claiming this particular prize, perhaps we need not be so hasty, my love. Tell me what would be such a hindrance that you'd be ready to give up your theory--"

"Place of Birth: Asgard," you read out, cutting him off. "Born to Lady Sif of the Warriors Four--"

"Alright well Sif would surely have some choice words with me if I courted you but--"

"And the Crown Prince Thor, God of Thunder." You gave him a look as if to say "This is why", the realization dawning on him as well that yes, this would be the dead end that would grant him his victory. And yet for some reason, you decided to keep on turning the pages. "Gotta be honest, though, I thought that what would break our streak is if we never met in these--Oh what in the Game of Thrones Targaryen nonsense is this??"

"What is it?"

"The streak isn't broken yet," you croaked out, the disbelief entering his eyes as he frantically started searching for his corresponding variant file. "We were married for two and a half thousand years."

"I surrendered my claim to the throne of Asgard for you," he declared in astonishment. "We have children in this timeline." His voice began to hitch at the end, making you immediately close the distance between you to lace your fingers together.

"Looks like even something as monumental as being your brother's daughter couldn't stop us," you noted with a little smile, breaking out into a full grin when your comment made Loki exhaled in a rather loud chuckle that traveled across the library. You took your two folders and interlocked them, adding to the pile in the center. "Let's keep going."

It was several hours later that you two had finally found your way back to the desk that Mobius occupied, the more tenured agent pinching the bridge of his nose and rubbing at the inner corners of his eyes in clear frustration.

"You still got nothing, Cubey?"

"One of these days I'm gonna find a name for you that's just as annoying, Y/L/N, just you wait," he groaned, his posture visibly slumping when he saw the interlocked stacks of folders that you were carting around. "What in the name of the Alioth is that?"

"We found one," you proudly stated. "Proof that soulmates exist and…only some of them have a catchphrase."

"That's just one?!" he boomed, immediately getting shh'd by a more elderly analyst a few tables behind him to which you and Loki shh'd her right back without missing a beat. You nodded your answer to Mobius. "So what's the catchphrase?"

"I was made to be yours," you began, letting go of the cart to hold your hand out to Loki.

"And I yours," he finished, lacing your fingers together before draping his arm over your shoulder and pulling you closer to him.

"Wait a damn minute," Mobius said suspiciously, pointing a finger between the two of you. "Are you two trying to tell me that the first and so far only case of soulmates we have on record is--"

"Us," you finished for him, nudging the cart in his direction with your foot. "Every single lifetime on every single timeline accounted for."

"What about your own?" he questioned. "You both mentioned that you'd never met your timeline's version of each other prior to your Nexus events."

"Well see that's the thing. These files only cover everything prior to a variant's Nexus event, or what the events were in their own respective sacred timelines. We met each other after our Nexus events. So maybe our souls never found each other in the lives that we left behind because…we were meant to find each other here."

"Huh…" he mused, looking carefully at the two of you. "Could be. Nice catch, you two. I knew I made a good call giving you a partner, Loki."

"My darling mortal is quite brilliant," your lover beamed, pressing a tender kiss to the top of your head. "I believe I owe you a debt of gratitude for our introduction."

"Well, you really don't have to but if you feel so compelled, I'm willing to take a jet ski and a vacation to Miami if you two can swing it."

"We'll call you if anything serious pops up, just keep your tempad charged," you shot back, extending your free hand toward him to shake. "But really, Cubey. Thank you. For introducing us. For vouching for me and making sure that I didn't get pruned during my trial with Rennslayer--"

"Otherwise you might have crossed paths with that one-handed variant in the Void and who knows what nefarious and depraved intentions he would have had with you," Loki interjected, resting his head on yours.

"You have a Captain Hook variant?"

"Nah it was a president," Mobius answered with a wave of his hand. "Got his hand bit off by an alligator."

"So…a Captain Hook variant."

"Yeah, you know what you're right. Loki has a Captain Hook variant. You'll meet him soon enough when you get sent on a mission to the Void. Loads of highly dangerous variants usually find themselves there when they try to escape processing."

"If he even dares touch you I'll divest him of his remaining hand," Loki grumbled, once again pressing his lips to your temple. "That heathen can find his own variant of you. You're mine."

"All yours," you beamed, bringing your joint hands to your lips to press a kiss to his knuckles. "And speaking of…we're off for a few weeks, Cubey. We have a date to get to."

"Please don't get arrested for indecent exposure. Or public fornication," the senior agent groaned. "That's a timeline I'll need therapy for if I have to be the sorry ass to reset it."

Neither of you responded other than a little wave and a thumbs up in his direction as you walked away, the god giving you a dimpled smirk as you two made your way to your shared apartment.

"Where shall we head to first, little mortal? A hot spring? Or perhaps a nice scenic tundra? Or perhaps a cherry blossom forest? I can already picture your beauty with the backdrop of the falling petals…"

He stopped listing options when he saw you shaking your head, mirroring his smirk with one of your own. "Bedroom first. And give me your tie. You owe me ninety minutes."

A/N: I'm so glad to finally get this out for y'all to see! This was originally supposed to up weeks ago for something but some of my own revelations were made (translation: I got bitch slapped in the face by reality) which led to the postponing of this story. Anyways, I hope y'all liked it even if it is kinda cringe and silly. I'm always gonna be cringe and silly, so manage expectations accordingly. 🥴🫡

Also if you got all the references within the files (except the OLLA one that's a freebie) I officially love you. 💖💛

'everything' taglist: @sailorholly @loopsisloops @imalovernotahater @coldnique @loz-3 @huntress-artemiss @salempoe @vickie5446 @athalialaufeyson @lokiprompts @kats72 @kikster606 @evelyn-kingsley @lokixryss @thomase1 @mischief2sarawr @peaches1958 @lovingchoices14 @lunarnights95 @goblingirlsarah @iamlokisgloriouspurpose @creationsbyme @maple-seed @mjsthrillernp @ladyofthestayingpower @mygfloki @sititran @glitterylokislut @ozymdias @fictive-sl0th  @lokidbadguy @mochie85 @silverfire475 @joyful-enchantress @elizabethmidnight2017 @holdmytesseract @smolvenger @gigglingtiggerv2 @lokidokieokie @lunarnights95 @superficialdomina @anukulee @kmc1989 @november-rayne @goddessofwonderland @buttercupcookies-blog

[snovyda]

In the cultural context and in the historical context, Russia has been attacking Ukraine for hundreds of years. This is just the latest iteration. This is embedded... Russian sense of ownership of Ukraine is embedded in Russian literature, Russian education, and so the idea that Putin just came up with it is absurd. I mean, just historically, this is clearly part of Russian culture and Russian history. This is just what they do. This is not the first time they're trying a genocide [in Ukraine]. So obviously it's not just Putin, that [would be] just ignoring history.

Peter Pomerantsev

[dualityvn]

I dunno if this counts as mild bullying but I could absolutely get behind an MC that's UT! Keith's rival in all his areas of interest.

"Oh Keith, and the lovely Seraphina. You're both looking amazing as always. I can't wait to see you at the cat show award ceremony as you take second place to me and my Dandelion. Again!"

"Keith, darling! Those roses you're growing are simply sublime. They're almost as lovely and fragrant as mine."

"Fancy running into you here, Keith. Oh you're also getting the latest installment in this book series? Too bad, handsome. I've just bought the last copy."

Until finally,

"It seems we've tied for first in the baking competition. I suppose... We could go celebrate at that cafe we both seem to enjoy so much. If you want? *blushes a little* I mean, you're the only one who ever gives me a challenge. I can't remember the last time I spent so much time thinking about a person."

Keith makes me unwell in all his iterations.

This sounds so cute, I love it. And I'm sure he'd accept your invitation, while trying to pretend it's not a big deal to him (it is).

[littlesparklight]

The year Hektor, as well as Paris, got married.

(I, too, wanted to do a lineup of the main Trojan royal family/the children of Priam and Hecuba. So, here it is! Nineteen sons as the Iliad decreed, plus a handful of daughters. Everyone's loosely grouped (or not) according to in which set of multiples they were born. Lore and secrets under the cut.)

I've tried to only use names that either explicitly are called offspring of Priam and Hecuba, or implicitly so by the Iliad saying they're legitimate. The only exception being Chromios and Echemmon, of whom the Iliad doesn't say either way and who in later sources are named as sons of some mother(s) not Hecuba. I've ignored this, prioritising the Iliad's non-specificity. Partly because I'd long since decided they were sons of Priam and Hecuba when I realized that other sources made them not so. Of course, the Iliad doesn't name enough sons, so the rest come (mostly, exception Idaios) from Hyginus' list via cross-referencing with the Bibliotheke, to assure I picked names from the former the latter didn't say were illegitimate.

Everybody's ages and the timeline used does rely on ~5 extra years between Paris coming back with Helen and the Achaeans landing at Troy.

Ilione and Laodike are both already married by this point. I don't think we actually know how Bronze Age proto-Thracians were dressed, so I just tried to deck her out in something a little different from the rest.

Paris gets a white leopard pelt to make it a little more ~extra. The half-wrap sort of thing he's wearing about the hips technically come from a few hundred years later, I think (if I remember correctly), from the neo-Hittite era, but shh.

Eurydike is Aeneas' wife in the Kypria (so, she's equivalent to Kreusa), and though we don't know whether this Eurydike was a daughter of Priam and Hecuba, but I'm going with that she was (as Creusa was made so as well).

I've gone back and forth on how old Polyxena is supposed to be, and initially she has been a twin with Polydoros (mostly because I liked the matching names), but for my latest iteration I went with making her part of another mortal-demigod twin pair with Troilos as often happens, because of how her story intersects with both Troilos and Achilles. You can really see who Troilos' father is. :)

The number of daughters in addition to the Iliad-given nineteen sons have been decided by going by who has been given as Priam and Hecuba's daughter in some source, and then adding on Eurydike to that list.

I do have an alternate arrangement for ages/births (basically to be used in versions of fics that use the funeral games as background for how Paris gets reunified with the rest (when he's 16 instead), which is one where Kassandra would be old enough to have been cursed by Apollo right before Paris comes back, though this one gives the ages for the last year of the war: Hektor, 40 Ilione, Laodike, Antiphos, 38 Helenos and Kassandra, 36.5 Paris, 35 Deiphobos [Kreusa/Eurydike, Pammon and Polites], 34.5 This would also work out to have Deiphobos younger than Helenos, as some versions note as he is a strike against him in his fight over Helen with Helenos, who is said to be older.

[freebooter4ever]

ok i've been taking a break for the past half hour and doing research on the pens locker room, trying to figure out how i wanted to design my own version of geno's 'stall' (is that what it's called?). i love the circular shape it feels very king arthur

first, there isn't a lot of internet documented history on the various eras of the locker room design??? which seems sad

don't get me wrong the latest iteration is pretty epic but as far is i can tell, it hasn't changed much since at least 2013? i do not envy whoever is cleaning this place. thats a lot of sweat over the years.

second, im enjoying seeing little details that i had no idea existed, being a new fan and all. like the puck wins count???? crazy. these guys have a visual representation of how they're doing in the season right up there on the wall glaring judgmentally at them? im so glad im not in sports. i would not survive.

especially when the HISTORY of these pucks is on the walls.....like damn. talk about pressure. anyway 2011-2012 thats one of geno's best seasons right? :)

this is what I wanted. mesh, hooks, I need to figure out how i want to make this look cool.

i find it really funny and endearing that the thing these guys do to relax in down time is a playful version of their own job....

also im not sure about this like:

are they assigned a razor??? you get traded to the penguins and suddenly you're not allowed to use your fancy expensive specialized razor? is this a normal thing in hockey????? do they have group shaves for special events like the playoffs? hockey players are fascinating.

i dont know why but i never considered that the pens have actual lockers in addition to the little seats in the main locker room. this makes total sense. i dont know where i thought their clothes and stuff went. just disappeared into the ether i guess.

anyway definitely a necessity, the hot tub. it looks a little sad and lonely in this photo. it needs a hockey player in it.

racks and racks of gear???? again this makes total sense but never occurred to me. also maybe helps explain why geno likes to switch up gloves, look at all them, damn. i do wonder about helmets still - geno's looks so unique and he's been using the same design since at least 2009.

ok im guessing this is an away locker room and i have only one question: do they bring a little 'logo' carpet to roll out every time they go on the road? thats amazing.

if you read all that, nice! here's a shot of geno with his jock out:

very important locker room research. bonus the earliest pens locker room photo of geno i could find:

shy beautiful boy ^_^ (also he looks so young and vulnerable its hard to believe that even back in 2008/2009 he already had so much responsibility with so many grown adults making demands on his entire career)(like he went through all that AND is still playing in the league with three cups under his belt? thats fucking awesome)

[transingthoseformers]

Okay, cause see, now I have QUESTIONS.

Does Cybertron have schools, or high schools? Do they have societal norms? Do they have popular kids, bigoted people? Does homophobia even exist there? Do they think there's Cybertron versions of traditional people that would probably call Mirage or Bumblebee their own version of slurs for having human partners??

And while we're on this topic, does anyone ever question if Cybertron has their own versions of mental health disorders we have on Earth? How do they treat them?? Do they even treat them????? Or is it just non-existent because they're robots? But they have the compacity to feel love and shit like that, but there's no such thing as Depression, Anxiety or BPD over there?

Like what are the societal norms over there? What are the class types over there? Because we all know Mirage was definitely some rich kid but what about Bumblebee?? And Optimus? And my girl Arcee?? Like what were their lives before all of this??

LIKE THESE ARE THE QUESTIONS THAT NEED TO BE ANSWERED.

You also have to account for the war and how badly that's fucked everything up

Because

From everything I've seen in various continuities:

There are academies and stuff

Bigoted people do seem to exist on Cybertron, though often in unfamiliar ways

Homophobia does not seem to exist in say IDW, (iicr), can't say much for other continuities but I personally like to think homophobia would be rare to nonexistent on Cybertron

(though, in IDW it seems to be rare to marry and considering idw Sentinel there might be a Thing against other bots having life partners in general. Or sentinel might just be the dick in the room and it's rare rare to hate on others having romantic relationships on Cybertron)

I don't think they'd have existing slurs for organic x mech relationships as it's just That Plain Old Unfamiliar, but I can see mecha getting nasty about it. Especially given how common anti organic sentiments are in various continuities

Cybertronians 200% have mental health conditions, we see it in a decent amount of continuities (whether it's meant to be a ✨character quirk✨ or they actually want to talk about mental health or if it's The Latest Haha Joke; Please Laugh™��� /s)

How they treat them seems to vary across continuity because I think they just... Don't in some continuities, and that never goes down well. At least in IDW we can tell there's a focus in psychology and these guys have at least one competent therapist. But in IDW there are Many Horrors and it's very willing to show us them.

We know in Aligned there was a caste system before the war, which went not well. We see in IDW there's Functionism which dictates social class by altmode. In tfa there's Whatever The Fuck Is Going On with civilian frames v Warframes. The role of Prime is usually a big deal (though it's superseded by Magnus in tfa) (the matrix of leadership is often involved, but not always). Though everything usually goes to shit once the war starts

We don't know enough about Knightverse to fully place Optimus's origins (iicr), but he just seems a lot younger and less big of a deal than some other iterations of him so I have a few ideas what he Wasn't

I can definitely consult tfwiki for more specifics on Knightverse lore

[witchofthesouls]

Imagine if June was like a Hellsing though, specifically the OG/Ultimate anime iterations. A lost relative whose father changed their family name as a way to protect them from the horrors that tend to follow their bloodline. June honestly thought her past wouldn't catch up to her so soon.

Too bad an 5 year old Jack decided to open the door to Alucard and Sera one night. June's family being the last Hellsings means that the two vampires get passed down to her. Moving constantly definitely would be a thing during Jack's early childhood with Jasper being the latest and surprisingly longest current location.

Also I can't resist the image of Alucard being a menace to both factions. Miko would terrorize him in return. Lol

I haven't given a thought as a Hellsing since the ending was too good to mess with it.

But I do have thoughts of a Castlevania crossover where June (and Jack) being the last remaining Belmonts, and currently being hunted down by an old friend/battle companion after a massive breakdown that lead to June completely retreating from the modern world.

A lot of divergence here:

Team Prime is aware of the stranger things that go bump in the night as in Agent Fowler, but that was once handled by a different division that went rogue. A TFP version of Sector Seven.

Raf notices something (or too many somethings) with a substitute teacher, and starts down the rabbit hole that leads him (and Miko) to the Autobots.

The substitute teacher is a dhamphir who's attempting to find another way to contact June. Which leads him to the Autobots and manages to convince them of an alliance because who better to fight the undead than the undead... and a Belmont Hunter.

Definitely an Other!AU has well. I'm dragging the "humans into Cybertronians" trope because 1) I love it, 2) you can pry fantasy and supernatural settings out of cold, dead heads, and 3) that was the entire meltdown between June and her old friend. June got granted immortality via alien, magic doohickey, and been refining her magical training with an anchored apparition of Quintus Prime.

(Quintus willingly bonded himself to Earth because of Megatronus' descendants and as reparations since the Quintessons attempted to invade a far more active Earth. It failed.)

Details are still iffy as I'm torn on a lot of things:

When was June born. Because I could do a culture shock between the Victorian girl and an ancient Prime hermit with both dealing modern-day outside their time bubble.

Did June do a full retreat or still ventures occasionally into the world?

The extent of June's training and what happened to drive her into Quintus' hidden space.

Teenager or adult June?

How the hell sparkling!Jack come to be. I could do a fae!father or wrangle Soundwave into the vicinity with the classic "alien differences includes reproductive habits" concept.

The terms of Quintus' imprisonment. Is it something like a shop proprietor dealing with knowledge and wishes? Is he stuck in a sealed and self-contained dimension and acts a neutral party for various Others? Is he attempting to dig after Megatronus or acts upon his brother's last actions: Unicron's perpetual imprisonment?

M.E.C.H.'s involvement with the supernatural. Just how much awareness does Silas has on the undead, or is a department handled by other agents?

If the second is true, then does Agent Fowler have ties, or will Team Prime get another liason/diplomat as well?

Potential tension, especially if the department is highly secretive. Not just Agent Fowler and the liason but even with the Autobots. They can advise, but should the 'bots ignore them, then they're on their own.

But I definitely want the Belmont whip to a Primal Artifact (Megatronus'), and for Quintus and June to have grandpa-granddaughter vibes.

[mechazushi]

A bit of a Theory. {Kaiju Number 8}

So I've been spending some time sketching out this OC idea that I have and her whole thing is that she's like Kafka and is a half Kaiju. Her transformation is supposed to look like a mixture of Bakko (Mina's tiger) and Kaiju Number 8. I'm sitting here looking at the first take on the design and I'm hating it because it's just looking like a muscular Furry in a mask so I decide to add on some extra details to her Shoulders and Thighs/Waist to tie in the fact she's an offshoot of Kn8. As I'm turning design ideas in my head, I decide to have it take on a more samurai look as a sort of nod to the original host of the Kn8... bug? Dragonfly? Mini Kaiju? Progenitor? Progenitor. (From now on though, I'm just gonna use sonicsura's term for the thing and call it Tiny)

And I'm tossing the ideas around in my head and suddenly I'm thinking "Wait. Kafka doesn't have pauldrons in his design? And the Samurai does?" And now I'm wondering why that is? And the longer I'm thinking about it, now I'm wondering why he's wearing a suit in the first place?

(This is the only shot of the samurai that I can get off of Google images, apologies)

Now I can hear what you would be saying, "No shit he's wearing armor Zushi! He can't be caught by the public in that form, less they murder him on the spot!" I understand that is still very much the case and it's of course better to fight alongside a group of people when they aren't actively viewing you as a threat at the same time, so the armor in this case can help him blend into the crowd as he fights.

But hear me out for a second. Traditional samurai armor has a LOT of layers, and if they were wealthy enough (Which most were) they typically had a helper (Though, most were expected to have knowledge on how to put it on/take it off themselves) And I know we joke about Kafka's Kaiju form having a thick ass, but when paired with the idea of someone in that specific form, wouldn't it be difficult to don armor over an unusually shaped frame? Even if the armor was custom made and he had someone he trusted to help him put it on, I still think that the armor crafted would have a distinctly different look about it. So much so that I think that it would show up in history book, wouldn't it? You can't tell me that there wouldn't be a chapter dedicated to an oddly shaped samurai in and around the Meireki era that had notable displays of super strength and agility. He fought to help humans in their endeavor to protect humanity from the kaiju, he had to, at some point, do something crazy and superhuman considering we are just now seeing what that samurai went up against thanks to the latest chapter.

This is where most of my theory is. Kafka's Kaiju form didn't always look like that. My theory is that not only does Tiny function as a biological version of a Numbers suit, something happens at the point of the user's death and it absorbs whatever the user is wearing at that moment and recycles the fit onto the next user. I'm starting to think that in the first iteration of the human Kaiju form, it looked a lot different than what we have now. I'm leaning towards it looking something similar to the Colossal Titan from AoT.

No natural armor, just exposed, heightened muscle. That way, having the samurai armor makes more sense because now he has protection. Now he won't get injured as much as he taps into his super powers and can still move around easily AND blend in with the rest of the soldiers.

While we can't confirm for sure if the samurai is the only iteration of Kaiju Number 8, I'm going to again lean on the Numbers suit comparison and say that Kafka can only see the samurai due to 1) Tiny can sense what they're about to go up against and the Samurai is the most knowledgeable on the subject. Or it's most likely 2) The samurai is the most recent user and it has the easiest time coming to the forefront of Kafka's psyche. It should also be said that it's not said one way or the other whether or not Kaiju number 8, or more specifically Tiny, existed before Number 9's time, only that 8 really hates 9. I do want to point out something that I've noticed from the Kikoru verses 15 fight where she starts seeing her mother, that her mother is also wearing the Numbers suit. Which, I mean, sounds like another No Shit Sherlock situation, but I think it adds something interesting to the lore behind the suits

The suits can still "see" their wearer, even as a suit. While 10 is the only suit that can talk back, the others can, in a sense, invade the wearer's mind (Since the suits don't come with visors) and project an image of the previous wearer's actions, even down to what they were wearing at the time. Which, of course, makes sense because how could they if the suit isn't active any other time. Which brings me to my next question, "What if whatever Tiny is can do more than that?" If it already fundamentally changes the user into a Kaiju, core and all, who's to say it can't also absorb what they're wearing at the time?

And if that IS the case, why doesn't Kafka's Kaiju form look more like a samurai suit of armor instead of the glowing six pack that we get? Here's my ongoing thought. Let's assume for a second that the placement of the core doesn't change from User to User, since the placement of Kafka's core is centered around his heart (Thank you for the breakdown kujoestars). It can be confirmed via logic that the previous samurai is dead, but lets play with the how.

To kill a Kaiju, you hit its core, so to kill a Human shifting Kaiju, you hit its chest. What if the samurai got hit in the chest so hard, he not only died from it, it destroyed his chest plate. So when he died, the only thing that ended up getting absorbed at time of death was his helmet, his face mask, and his pants, leaving his chest open in the next iteration and thus revealing the glowing six pack we've come to love! (And some of us hate, but we ignore them because we don't care, it's glow-in-the-dark abs.)

I don't know about you, but I feel better having said this. Even if I'm going to be called crazy and be debunked seven ways from Sunday. And I'm also aware that this might not be the easiest to follow along, but all this is coming from some half formed thoughts that I had at the tail end of my work day, so excuse the shitty frame work.

(Bonus thought. If this is the case and Kafka dies (IN THE DISTANT FUTURE) he's probably more than likely going to be wearing the defense force suit. If the next reincarnation on n8 puts on a defense force suit (and we're assuming they're going to be even more technologically advanced at this point) what would happen? Would it still read a 0%, or would it give an Error 404 code and say something like "It is not advisable to wear one suit over the other" "Uuuhhh... they're not wearing another suit..." "Huh, that's weird, don't know why THAT could be happening. *Sweating bullets*"

[dracyab]

Crackpot Doctor Who Theory time

I don't necessarily think this is true, but I'm getting an idea out there.

does anyone remember the time lord fob watches? the ones that drove little child me insane about wanting a fob watch. the ones that the 10th doctor used in that one episode with Martha and those shapeshifters so he'd not just appear human, but quite literally be human.

The Master had one too, that's where the Doctor found him at the end of the universe, with his fob watch that had turned him human.

These fob watches, when used, turned a time lord completely human. They didn't just look human, they were human. all scans asserted that they were human, and it was implied that should they not open the fob watch and return to being a Time Lord, they would remain human and age, and possibly eventually die.

For the entirety of this season we've seen much emphasis placed on Ruby Sunday's parentage, but not only that, for the first time in YEARS we're placing emphasis on The Doctor as a parent, the entire season The Doctor has dropped bits and pieces about how he's a parent, and talking about Susan, his granddaughter, for the first time in I'm pretty sure decades.

now this is all to say, I think there's a possibility that Ruby Sunday is The Doctor's daughter, maybe his granddaughter though I doubt that one, or quite possibly even his great granddaughter. suffice to say, I think there's a real possibility she's a time lord.

Consider how much emphasis has been placed on The Doctor being a dad recently. Boom wherein he keeps saying "dad to dad" to the dead dad. The latest episode wherein The Doctor thinks he's found Susan and Ruby asks him about his kids and he says because of being a time lord he hasn't met them yet.

The parallels as well that have been placed on Ruby and The Doctor about how they're both adopted. the first episode they meet it's a big parallel with so much emphasis placed on it, and something they continue to bring up throughout the season.

Then there's the fact, of this figure we assume to be Ruby's mother placing Ruby at the church and then looking specifically at The Doctor. Now, it is possible she was looking at The TARDIS and Sutekh instead. but that also could have been a future iteration of the doctor placing their child at the church for some reason or another, and the reason the doctor looks at the doctor is being they're seeing themself. I think this goes further to say, the figure is cloaked and we have no specific evidence other than the characters belief, that that is Ruby's mother. It also could very well be the doctor without being Ruby's parent, or it could be another time lord placing her there.

However, that moment in time is exponentially soaked in paradoxes or something according to The Doctor. It's a key moment in time and if The Doctor were to go back there time would fall apart because he was already there. There's something causing this moment to reoccur and show itself at other times around Ruby and The Doctor. And maybe The Doctor was already there twice over, or maybe it's just because they're both time lords and this moment is so powerful because of two or more Lords of Time being present.

Anyway there's my crackpot theory that Ruby Sunday is The Doctor's daughter.

[maniacwatchestheworld]

A Basic Guide to Harvey "Two-Face" Dent for Misha stans

With love, from a Two-Face fan who hasn't watched Supernatural and doesn't really intend on watching Gotham Knights.

Now before getting into this, you need to keep in mind that Harvey Dent (at the time of his creation, Harvey Kent) was a character first introduced to comics in 1942, and even within Batman canon, he is one of the most wildly inconsistently written characters. If you pick up any two stories that feature Two-Face in them at random, you are very likely to get two entirely different characters. As such, there are dozens of entirely valid ways of interpreting and writing his character, so what I write here is either based off of general consensus or my own personal opinion on the character.

If you are already a Two-Face fan who is reading this, I'm not trying to diminish your preferred way of interpreting the character and would be perfectly happy with discussing our differences in opinion in a separate post, but here I'm just trying to make a somewhat digestible guide to his character for newbies based off of my own perception of him and what I've heard about his character from Gotham Knights and what might appeal to his fans. If you disagree, you're welcome to write a similar post about him yourself.

Overview

Harvey Dent is Gotham City's District Attorney. He's actually a legal genius and savant. (He is also just generally DAMN smart when written well!) He became District Attorney at a very young age (~26 years old, making him the youngest District Attorney that Gotham has ever had,) and is the best damn lawyer in all of Gotham! At his best, he was locking up criminals left and right no one could stop him, and this ended up ticking off Gotham's criminal underworld. As District Attorney, he would work alongside Batman and Commissioner Gordon to make his convictions stick, which is something other District Attorneys before him couldn't do. For this, the public loved him. This also makes Arkham Asylum and Blackgate Prison exceedingly dangerous places for him to be, as a good percentage of their residents are there because of him.

Harvey Dent is Bruce Wayne's best friend. Sometimes they are even childhood friends! At the latest, they became friends after Bruce had already become Batman, but usually they are long-time friends, sometimes meeting as kids, though also often meeting in college. (They both went to Gotham University.) I think there are some iterations where they're even college roommates! They tend to have been very close in college. Regardless of when they met, they found kindred spirits within one another as they each sought to bring justice to this city that they love in their own ways. Because of this kinship, the two got extremely close and were the best of friends before Harvey's incident.

Harvey Dent is an abuse survivor. When he was a kid, Harvey's father would beat him and his mother. But his father made a game of it. The details sometimes change a little, but in essence his father would flip a coin. If it landed heads, he would beat Harvey. If it landed tails, then he wouldn't have to be punished. The coin was heads on both sides.

Harvey Dent is neurodivergent. Most iterations of Two-Face have OCD and many (but not all) are plural, presumably with some form of Dissociative Identity Disorder. It is generally thought that his childhood abuse caused him to have these conditions. After leaving his father's control, Harvey was able to get a handle on his OCD tendencies and deeply suppressed his one other disassociated identity. However, if Harvey experiences high levels of stress or anger over a prolonged period of time, that could make these two conditions show themselves again. When the incident that melted half of his face off happened, these conditions came back to stay. He is indeed legally insane. But this is because of his OCD (specifically how he flips a coin to make all of his decisions), and NOT because of his plurality! Note: Plurality is more common that you probably think it is. It's estimated that 1-5% of people are plural. I've also spoken to at least 2 people who are plural or system members that dearly love Two-Face as a character. Two-Face is very unusual as a system (you are a lot more likely to find a system of 12 members than one of as few as 2), but I have no doubt that systems that work like him are out there. Because of all of this, I try my best to be sensitive and understanding towards plural people at all times while in this fandom space. I can not speak for them as I am not plural myself, but I am always trying to listen to plural voices and learn from them. I would ask that while you're in this space that you try to do the same. All of the plural people and system members that I've spoken to and know want to be thought of and addressed to as different people, and therefore I try to think of Harvey and Two-Face the same way that I would a real plural person, and see them as different characters. When I say "Harvey Dent" (full name) I'm usually talking about the general character and in-universe legal identity or the body. When I say "Two-Face" I usually mean their shared criminal identity or Harvey's "dark side" as this is the generally accepted way to refer to him by. For the sake of this post I will try to generally refer to "Harvey's dark side"/"Two-Face" (the character) as "Harvey's associate" or "the Associate" to more clearly differentiate him from Harvey. Harvey is Harvey.

Duality and the Number 2

Since Harvey and his Associate have OCD, they get compulsions and obsessions that they can't entirely control. In their case, they have a particular fixation on the concept of duality and the number 2.

They often theme their crimes around the number 2, be that having them take place on the 2nd or 22nd of the month and starting at 2:00 am, the locations having 2 in them like 2222 Doubleday Street or the Second National Bank, or conceptually relating the to number 2, like kidnapping twins, or stealing two-of-a-kind, matching artifacts. If the scheme can do two things at once, like receiving a payout AND killing Batman (killing two birds with one stone), that's even better!

They think in very dualistic ways and try to apply those themes to themselves. Harvey is good, the Associate is evil. Harvey is clean and calculated, the Associate is messy and unpredictable. Harvey is friendly and polite, the Associate is mean and rude. The Associate might also do things that he knows Harvey wouldn't for the sake of 'balance' or being Harvey's opposite. They might also try to apply this duality when it comes to their relations to other characters. Batman is good, they are evil. Batman represents order, they represent chaos. Whether these statements are actually true or not may not reflect the reality of their characters, but they want it to.

Expect lots of puns around the number 2 and for them to get agitated when other numbers that don't relate to the number 2 to get brought up.

The Coin

The origin of Two-Face's coin varies between iterations. The original story from 1942 had it as a piece of evidence. It was the good luck charm of a mob boss that Harvey was trying to put away and was a piece of evidence that placed said mob boss at the scene of a crime. This mob boss was the same one that tried to melt Harvey's face off. Harvey would keep the coin after the incident, for some reason. Later on, the coin was rewritten to previously belong to Harvey's father as I wrote about above. In this iteration of the coin's backstory, Harvey's father gave Harvey the coin and Harvey kept it as a good luck charm.

The coin is usually a silver dollar, minted in 1922 and has the heads side on both sides. However one of these heads has been defaced and is all scratched up, making the coin fair again. Clean heads is considered to be the 'heads' side and is often referred to as 'good heads.' The scratched side is considered to be the 'tails' side and is often referred to as 'bad heads.' Harvey and his Associate feel a kinship with this coin, Harvey being represented by the good heads, and the Associate being represented by the bad heads.

Often times their OCD leaves Harvey and his Associate unable to make decisions and so they have a compulsion to flip their special coin to make their decisions for them. This will sometimes be used as a tie-breaker between Harvey and his Associate- if they get good heads, they do what Harvey wants, if they get bad heads, they do what the Associate wants. Other times when it comes to more neutral decisions, good heads will represent yes and bad heads will represent no (Example: Do we talk to this person? Good heads, yes. Bad heads, that person can fuck off). However most famously, they flip the coin to choose the morality of their actions with good heads being they do the moral thing and bad heads meaning they do the immoral thing. They are known to flip their coin to decide whether or not to kill. Good heads, the person lives. Bad heads, the person dies.

Because of their compulsion to flip their coin to make decisions, they will often end up doing things that they don't actually want to because the coin told them to. This also does occasionally lead to Harvey and his Associate helping Batman out and actually doing the right thing.

About the cooler Harvey (aka "Harv", "Two-Face", "Big Bad Harv", "Harvey's Associate" or "Harvey's dark side")

In plural terms, the Associate usually starts off as a Protector- a system member that protects other members of a system from harm (external or internal), but has become a Persecutor- a system member who does harm to others, be that to the body, other system members, or people outside the system, often because they think this will somehow help the system.

It is very likely that the Associate also holds Harvey's anger and trauma, and may have experienced the brunt of the abuse they have been subjected to. Because of this, the Associate is known to lash out and hurt others.

Before Harvey becomes Two-Face, his Associate will sometimes come out to the front, but only a little. He may pop up when Harvey is under a lot of stress for a long period of time or when he gets exceedingly angry. He may also come out any time Harvey gets into any kind of physical altercation with someone.

Where Harvey usually keeps his temper under control and is not likely to fly off the handle, the Associate has MAJOR anger management issues! The Associate WILL fight you with his fists if you provoke him enough.

The Associate is NOT nice! He is mean and cruel and sadistic. He is usually more brutal and violent than Harvey. Where Harvey might want to do things nice and clean, the Associate isn't afraid of letting things get messy. When they kill, you can usually assume that the Associate was the one to pull the trigger.

The Associate HATES Harvey for suppressing him for so many years. The Associate tends to see Harvey as weak, ineffectual, and a coward, unable and unwilling to do what actually needs to get done. For this, the Associate does not like it when Harvey gets to front and will often do what he can to shove Harvey into the back. Because of this, Harvey may not be seen fronting for long periods at a time.

The Associate and Harvey are often seen to be co-conscious and may co-front.

In many iterations of these characters, Harvey has often tried to get rid of his Associate, but it never tends to stick.

The Associate often REVELS in their compulsions where Harvey is upset and disturbed by them.

While the Associate is often a viscous and cruel thug, that doesn't mean that he is entirely unsympathetic. The instances of him being genuinely sympathetic are rare, but they are out there! Therefore he should be thought of as more than just an 'evil alter ego.' Just like real life Persecutor system members, they shouldn't be considered to be purely malicious and evil, but should rather be a character who deserves understanding and help just like any other system member character would!

Harvey Dent's Love Life

Just so you know, BruHarvey/TwoBats (Bruce Wayne/Harvey Dent) is indeed the most popular ship that Harvey has. To you people who immediately started shipping the two, just know that you're not alone in feeling the gay vibes from them and that these two do indeed refuse to be straight about their relationship in a lot of the media that they share! Most Harvey fans that I know do indeed ship BruHarvey, and there is some good media out there that have a lot of BruHarvey vibes!

Harvey is often married or engaged at the start of his story. His wife is usually Gilda Gold who (when we know that she has a job) is a very skilled sculptor. She likes sculpting Harvey's face because he's beautiful, even sometimes calling him by the nickname "Apollo."

Gilda may or may not be the Holiday Killer- A serial killer who targets mobsters and kills them on holidays (Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Valentines Day, etc).

In the current mainline DC continuity, Gilda is dead. Harvey is a widower. In previous continuity they had gotten (understandably) divorced.

Other characters that Harvey has dated include Poison Ivy (who wanted to kill him) and Catwoman (who wanted to steal from him). Given that and how Gilda is sometimes the Holiday Killer, and you can comfortably say that Harvey has questionable taste in women.

Harvey falls in love HARD and FAST! As an example, in Batman: the Animated Series, he knew Ivy for a week before proposing to her. He does something similar with a different woman later in the series (a Gilda analogue, so that one partially works out).

Often Harvey wants to have kids. He seems pretty down with the idea of adopting.

Harvey Dent's relations to other characters that may appear

Dick Grayson (1st Robin): They hate each other. Early on in his career as Robin, Two-Face almost beat him to death. Dick has decidedly not forgiven him for this.

Jason Todd (2nd Robin): Not always the most friendly with each other, but have worked together in the pages of Task Force Z (which is a specialized Suicide Squad task force that consists of undead supervillains). In Task Force Z, there were kinda vibes that Harvey was the team dad who was just trying his best (but sucked at his job) while Jason was his angsty son with anger issues. Jason's biological father was killed by Two-Face (he worked for/owed money to Two-Face. He didn't pay back, so he was killed), but at this point Jason doesn't really seem to hold a grudge over it. Probably Two-Face's favorite Robin since he's the second Robin.

Tim Drake (3rd Robin): The story that introduced Tim Drake (A Lonely Place of Dying) was a Two-Face story, so in a way, you could say that Two-Face pushed Tim into taking on the role. (Otherwise I personally don't know much about their relationship.)

Commissioner Gordon: They used to be good friends back when Harvey was Gotham's District Attorney. They used to work together a lot, but now they seem to have 0 issues with the idea of killing Gordon.

Other notes:

He has almost no consistent visual design outside of 'male,' 'face is half messed up,' and 'split suits'. While he's usually supposed to have brown hair and green eyes (to make him look different from Bruce), this isn't always stuck to. Hell! There are a handful of iterations of Two-Face that are black!

Harvey Dent/Two-Face are decently influential characters within popular culture. You know the quote, "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." ...? That quote comes from The Dark Knight (2008 film) and is said by Harvey before he becomes Two-Face and ends up being about him. Also the quote of "He isn't the hero we deserve, but he is the hero we need" relates to Harvey as well, though it's spoken about Batman. Also apparently this is a meme that exists and was apparently popular on Reddit, and I only just now learned of it soooo... Pop culture contributions yay?

Recovery is precedented for Harvey! In his original appearance in the 1940's, Harvey actually decided to turn away from his life of crime for the sake of the woman who became his wife and got his face fixed after she proved that she still loved him in spite of his disfiguration. Apparently in the 1980's newspaper strips, Harvey went on to recover there as well! And he even kept his scars that time! (You can actually read this story on Tumblr here!) However in most iterations, when Harvey 'gets better' he usually takes the turn for the worst at some point and sadly goes back to being Two-Face again. But for the most part, Harvey wants to recover and get better, but his Associate wants them to get worse.

A long post, I know. But I hope that you find this helpful or at least mildly interesting! If you have any other questions, feel free to ask! I'd be more than happy to try and answer to the best of my ability! If you made it this far, color me impressed! And if you are indeed a Misha stan who's new to this space, I'm happy to see you here! I hope you have a good day! Love you!

[nonbunary-does-arts]

Updated Anthro designs! Still not too sure about Saint... but the rest, I'm very proud of! Details about them, and a full line-up will be under the cut!

Also I see some of you, curious about what's up with Monk: and here's your answer: Monk is also Nightcat here! I made these designs before the Watcher was revealed. Also, I promised myself I'd hold back on making a Watcher design until we see their powers.

MONK - He/They

16 years old

Little Brother to Survivor, of course. Gourmand is their Auntie!

Aroace

Transes this little guy's gender.

Aside from being quiet, they're just a sweet lil guy.

They have some pet lizards... one of which is a red lizard named Jewel.

The bag contains snacks!

SURVIVOR - They/them

22 years old

Older sibling to Monk, of course.

Panromantic asexual

Sees a lot of themself in Big Sister Moon... often just sits with her to vibe.

Dating a scavenger named Blue! Only Blue is allowed to use she/her with them.

Found two slugpups while wandering with Blue, and is taking care of them, with Auntie Gourmand's help.

HUNTER - She/it

24 years old

After making it back to No Significant Harassment, Sig realized that Hunter was so fast that they could remove the rot before it became too late.

Lesbian

Why are its legs plantigrade? Well, she was a test tube baby!

Can't really talk, an unlucky strike from a scavenger cut her throat.

It knows sign language though, and have lengthy conversations with Spearmaster, who's like family to her.

Wants to help Five Pebbles out.

GOURMAND - She/her

38 years old

Aunt to Monk and Survivor

Bisexual

INCREDIBLY good at cooking. Can turn basically anything into a meal that can fill you for a while.

Dating Artificer, helping her heal from her deeply broken heart with kindness.

That and she will just hold Arti until she calms down from seeing red.

ARTIFICER - She/her

35 years old

Mother to Bubble and Seafoam, both are deceased.

Lesbian

Gourmand found her about to kill a scavenger. She hadn't even noticed the large slugcat until she was lifted in the air, arms pinned to her sides. Gourmand held on despite all the struggling, giving the scavenger time to escape... but it was only when Arti finally stopped struggling was she set down and talked to.

Under the long clothes, she's underweight.

Nobody really sees her eye underneath her hat... but Gourmand has. It always flusters her when Gourmand compliments her.

She's... hesitant towards slugpups. Her terror of losing her own still sticks with her.

Gourmand helps her a lot... she hopes one day she can repay the kindness she feels as though she does not deserve.

SPEARMASTER - They/it

31 years old

Aroace

Like Hunter, because it was a test tube baby, its legs are plantigrade!

Most messengers have their iterator's insignia on their person. In Spear's case, the amulet on their choker is the symbol of who their creator is.

Working with Hunter and Seven Red Suns to try and help fix Pebbles, or at least get him out of his superstructure before it collapses.... even if it itself is reluctant.

Pretty chatty actually! They and Hunter's conversations can go on for hours.

RIVULET - Any

27 years old

Polyamorous Pansexual

This little guy has been many places, though their favorite places to visit is the region that surrounds the iterator Chasing Wind.

They never stay in one place too long, but they always make sure to visit whenever possible.

Though you see him less than Saint, she's still always willing to tell the latest gossip... Very popular with the Scavenger King's group in the Outer Expanse to learn what scavenger politics are going on.

The only one who knows what Saint is capable of and takes it incredibly seriously.

SAINT - They/them

26 years old...?

Aroace

Quiet. Not mute, just... very quiet. Prefers listening over talking.

Very rarely do they ever show up. But it feels as though they're more... waiting for something.

Really only ever talks to Monk.

Some iterator logs think they saw Saint leaving Sliver of Straw's can... but that's not possible. Saint is still young. Sliver's death happened so many cycles ago....

ENOT/INV/??? - Any

???Adult???

What is even going on with this guy.

Never front facing... somehow.

Hurts for Moon to look at her for too long... other iterators get a malfunction in their systems.

Often found in deep in the Subterranean... most likely getting snatched by Train Lizards.

[spurious]

okay but john having to deal with rodney's ability to rapidly assimilate information and practice it to muscle memory re: weapons training

so i've been rotating this ask in my brain ever since it arrived in my inbox because it makes me think about many many things. (thank you)

here is one of the things i have been thinking:

Rodney thinks weapons training is a waste of his time and unnecessarily militaristic for a civilian expedition, until the third--or is it fourth? Could be the fifth--time that his ability to competently operate firearms under pressure is one of the only things standing between him, his team, and certain death.

After the dust settles from their latest far-too-violent adventure, he goes to Sheppard, not so early as to run into people in the halls, but not so late as to worry (much) about waking him up, and says, "Alright, you win."

Sheppard blinks, gives him what Rodney's pretty sure is just his normal sleepy-eyed look, not a sign that Rodney had woken him, and says, "Well, that's great." He tilts his head, shifts from foot to foot in that restless, hippy sort of way he has. "What'd I win, exactly?"

"I'm agreeing to submit myself to weapons training," Rodney says, impatient. "And we're doing it now because I'm not going to the armory when it's full of people."

"Dunno if I'd call that winning," Sheppard mutters, but he's already slipping socked feet into his half-laced boots, so Rodney doesn't particularly care if he wants to complain on the way.

--

John's won something, that's for fucking sure, he thinks to himself as he watches Rodney's hands quickly and precisely disassemble his sidearm. Rodney had watched John do it once, had asked a series of extremely detailed, rapid-fire questions, and then proceeded to try it for himself four times in quick succession, each iteration becoming more competent, more assured.

"It really is just simple mechanics, in the end," Rodney's saying, and he's been murmuring to himself the whole time, even as John's trying to act casual, his mouth dry and his body prickling with terrible heat.

They're alone in the armory, most of the lights not even on, it smells like metal and cordite and gun oil and John is thinking about doing something extremely ill-advised, something like pressing Rodney up against the shelving and licking into his mouth, or dropping to his knees and seeing what those hands would feel like in his hair, guiding his mouth around a hot hard cock.

"Alright," Rodney announces, jarring John out of his fantasy. He stuffs a hand in his pocket, tilts his hips in a way that he hopes makes things a little less obvious--not that Rodney seems to be looking. He's holding up the gun, a lopsided smile on his face. "Now I shoot something?"

John thinks about stepping in close, about putting his hands on Rodney's thick arms to correct his grip, about being close enough to smell his skin, and says, trying not to sound strangled, "Yeah, Rodney, time to shoot something."

[darkpoisonouslove]

I already mentioned that the final iteration of my latest video is actually version 3.8. Here's the (unfinished, raw and not-colored) ending of the original version inspired by this post, followed by trivia on the final version:

The idea was that Griffin knew the Trix were descendants of the Ancestral Witches and for some reason they were the only ones who could free Valtor. Once they stopped listening to her, she did everything she could to steer events in such a way that they would end up in Omega and free Valtor. However, the Trix, sensing that there's something Valtor is hiding from them, spy on his conversation with Griffin and attempt to gain control of him the same way that their ancestors were pulling his strings. Griffin ends up imprisoning them before they can despite Valtor's refusal to believe that they could pull it off since they're clearly unaware of who he is and what that entails for the power balance between them.

The reasons why I ultimately gave up on this were because a) it was overly convoluted and hard to convey, b) it actually doesn't make sense when you start examining the events and character motivations and c) it moves the focus away from the emotional mess between Griffin and Valtor. I am instead filing this idea away for potential future projects.

Version 2.0 was just an oversight on my end. I somehow forgot that in this AU Griffin only "betrayed" Valtor because the Ancestral Witches threatened her with harm coming to him. I had built this emotional arc about him refusing to trust her after her betrayal which just... doesn't make sense considering the reason why she left.

Thankfully, I did write notes on the story arc I had in mind and reading through them once I'd taken a step away from the project and my brain wasn't running in circles helped me notice my mistake. Which is how the latest direction for the storyline emerged from the clusterfuck of thoughts I had on this. After that I had to tweak certain moments here and there to make the story more coherent.

Now I'll share some thoughts and insights about the final video, this time using gifs instead of stills.

I decided that Griffin can see in Omega, yeah. She can take a page out of Faragonda's book and place a tracking spell on the Trix right before they were taken to Omega so she can see what they're up to in there. I originally hadn't thought of adding the effect to make it look as if the viewers are also looking through her seeing orb but then the revelation hit and here we are.

Idk, I just like how this works considering that it's just the same footage only played in reverse to make it look like she disappears and then reappears in a very quick succession. I used that trick towards the end of the video again when Valtor loses control of himself and starts slipping into his demon form.

I really have no idea what she expected. He has remained with the impression that she betrayed him and, furthermore, she wasn't the one to free him. She just chilled for 17 years while he was literally chilled in Omega. The fact is that she couldn't really free him because the Ancestral Witches took precautions when they forced her to leave by making sure that he will be as trapped as them if she tries something but the Trix being their descendants was enough to free him. However, she's not using her words (for concerns that end up being substantial and completely founded later on) so this was only ever going to go one way.

Sneak Faragonda attack! He did not expect her and Griffin didn't call her either. This part I feel doesn't come through clearly in the video (mainly because I still had no idea what I was doing here and then I had already blocked everything and I couldn't really change it). Valtor basically caught Griffin off guard but Faragonda showed up, having her back as always. Griffin's friendship with the Company was real but she was also very much using their resources to look for a way to free Valtor from the Ancestral Witches. Frankly, she hasn't figured out how she's supposed to balance her relationship with Valtor and her friendship with Faragonda and Saladin yet but she can do it! She will do it! Even Valtor won't manage to fuck this up for her, you'll see!

I am proud of managing this effect, simply. It's been a while since then (this really took forever to make) but I'm sure I tried at least 5 different things here and, believe it or not, this was actually kind of an accident. A lucky one, for certain! Also, Griffin finally figured out she might need to actually clue him in on the truth behind her actions.

Possibly my most favorite moment of the video? Top 3 at least! I would have loved to see some kind of interaction between Griffin and the Ancestral Witches (which is highly unrealistic but they also had the perfect chance for it in Magical Adventure since light magic was extinct and she's a witch, who used to be part of the Company? She should have been there along with Saladin and Hagen at least). Also, I colored the part where Belladonna threatens Valtor separately once before then coloring it along with the rest of the video in order to convey that it's a vision that they showed Griffin. Love the way he reacts to it as well!

He instantly decided that he now has to go and imprison her because she knows his weakness and is too dangerous to be left to her own devices. He's equally repulsed and tempted by the idea that she knows about his demon form. If she can accept him like that and still love him, well... Then he'd have no reason to doubt her ever again. But it's also humiliating that someone else would know about his... situation.

This time she takes a page out of Valtor's book and does his walking-through-walls trick. He really didn't expect that but he has to update his idea of her abilities. It has been 17 years, after all (not to mention that he's on her terf). I just love how he traps her and she escapes right under his nose only to proceed to attack him. She's sick of his bullshit.

My initial vision for this was different as I was considering showing Griffin falling (using the footage from 1x19 where she jumps off a ledge (completely needlessly, might I add) to save her students) but that wasn't going to work so eventually I settled on this. It works super well as a Valtor PoV sequence since he wouldn't see exactly what she's doing and I am quite proud of it!

Griffin is well and truly done with his shit here. She didn't go through all the trouble that dealing with his outbursts is only for him to not believe her feelings just because of his own hang-ups (about his demon form) rather than for any rational reason (she admits she's given him justification to doubt her). And she holds her ground when she catches a glimpse of his demon form, which she hadn't seen until now, but she is done trying to convince him if he will undermine them both on every step of the way.

This doesn't need much elaboration per se. Admittedly, he seems to be having mood swings in this part of the video but the truth is that he's decided to take her at her word that she wants to be with him again. If she steers off path once more, he has all the tools in his disposal to course-correct her. It'd be a waste to ignore how powerful she's grown, not to mention that she truly didn't bat an eye at the sight of his demon form. He's eager to explore the opportunities this situation has to offer so he admits he's willing to believe her if she's willing to prove her words by quitting her (completely deserved) attacks on him. (Who started this, Valtor???)

[sheyshen]

i think the main issue i'm having with veilguard atm is that they're sharing too much. there's too many things too many spoilers (no matter how minor) too many reveals and peaks that it's kinda dampening the hype so close to release. before the peak at the CC keep people were theorizing what might be important what might come up. there was talk and people looking forward to getting their hands on the game and CC and now there's just disappointment especially from people who don't really like solas all that much. we knew he'd be a focus in the story (since it was called dreadwolf originally after all) but with the preview having such small things and the focus just being "did your inquisitor kiss him? did they want to save him?" for sure feels like a reduction of what the inquisitor was in the previous game and how they could impact veilguard's story to "does solas like like you y/n." (which feels ironic honestly)

idk. i'm still looking forward to playing but seeing the 180 from so many fans after the latest reveal is quite something. I'm not saying BW should be secretive about the details, especially after a decade of development, but yea i get how so many people have kinda started losing that excitement for the next iteration of the series after having the previous 3 be so interconnected in little personal ways and now knowing this one won't be. while i get there's a lot of choices that have been made across the games that wouldn't make sense to import, what was the point of including the inquisition portion of the keep? just to have a little sheet of what options you made? that's it?

i'm sure this has been said a million times but just kinda getting my thoughts on it out. the game will probably still be good, the story fun, the gameplay engaging, but it does feel like they're going for a sort of reset of the series with this one and i can understand the mixed feelings about it.