#tg: to revel

[west-tokyo-incidents]

Huzzah, the second chapter(technically the third, the last one was two that I smashed together)

---

There was a knock at the cafe door.

"We aren't open yet!" Touka groaned and glared towards the door of the coffee shop before continuing to sweep the main room.

"Someone at the door?" The manager stepped out from the back door, chuckling softly.

More insistent knocking followed by a muffled, and yet familiar voice. She couldn't understand what it was saying, though he knew the owner of the voice. Why the hell was- She set the broom aside and went to go unlock the door and let Uta in.

The sunglasses-donned ghoul grinned and waved at her, "Hello~" He stepped in, "Have you heard the news?" He pulled off his glasses and slid into a chair at the counter with a sing-song, "I was right."

"Right?" The manager laughed softly, "About what?" He stepped behind the counter and stood across it from Uta. Touka locked the door back and hopped into a nearby chair as well to listen. Uta didn't visit for just nothing, usually. Especially given that his studio was supposed to open in a few hours or so.

"Feral ghouls are making a move on the city." Uta stated matter-a-factly.

"Feral ghouls?" Touka looked between Uta and the manager, who's face had settled into a frown of concern, "Wait, you mean those stragglers out in the wilderness?" She scoffed, making a face at the manager's seeming concern over them, "A few have come into the city before, they're snapped up by Doves within a day every time."

Uta laughed, "Feral ghouls are like wolves. Alone and starving they're easy to overpower. When they're banded together and starving, now that's a different story." He glanced to the TV that was off right now, "See if it's on the news. I heard about it from someone else this morning. It happened last night, so I'm sure it's everywhere."

The manager huffed through his nose and walked over to it and turned it on. It was the end of a segment.

"...and when we return, we'll cover the shocking news of a prison bus turned buffet for a seemingly new gang of ghouls on the outskirts of the city..."

The picture shown beside the woman in true news-channel fashion was a helicopter-view of what appeared to be someone standing on top of an overturned bus. Then it went to commercials.

Uta made a face and huffed through his nose, "Well, I guess we'll hear the humans' side in a second." He turned back to the other two, "From what I've heard, it started out as an attack from a single ghoul who rammed into the bus and threw it off the side of the road. The police escort cars were crushed with the people still inside, then a hoard of others dove in like vultures and picked the bus clean of everyone inside." He looked back at the tv, still showing a commercial, "And apparently they have a helicopter recording of it."

He'd heard news that one ghoul in particular had been among them. Obviously wasn't the one standing on the bus in the initial image. That someone had bright orange hair and dark skin.

The news came back on a few moments later with a warning.

'The following segment contains images not suited for certain audiences.'

"Looks like they're gonna show the whole thing..." Touka muttered under her breath. The manager just nodded.

There was commentary by the news crew over the video segments, but the three hardly paid attention to that part.

There was no sound from the video itself, but the blurry image was clearly from the camera of an escort helicopter, trained on the bus below. A shape--obviously the red shade of a kagune--slammed into the side of the bus as it was going over a bridge. The bus fell out of view as the helicopter had to swerve to turn back around, the camera wildly trying to focus on where the bus had landed. The police cars that had been following it were attacked as well, roofs caved in as two ghouls had come from above. Uta sat up a little straighter as the camera focused for half a second on one of them. A flash of blue and ram horns.

He narrowed his eyes, but continued to watch as the camera moved to the bus at last. A ghoul was standing on the over turned vehicle, staring into the windows of the bus.

That was the ghoul the image before. As the three watched, he turned and jumped off right as an outright hoard of ghouls poured from alleyways andthe sewers, all seeming to be laughing and whooping and hollering as they descended on the vehicles.

The video ended. Touka's jaw was slack as she continued to stare--unseeing--at the television. The Manager's mouth had pressed into a thin line.

Uta was as straight faced as ever.

"So that's how it happened." The tattooed ghoul hummed lightly and tapped his jaw, "They weren't lying when they said how gruesome it was."

Shock kept Touka silent and the manager seemed deep in thought.

They spent a few minutes like this, until Enji came storming in the door, "Did you all see the-?" He froze as he saw the news on the TV and the expressions on everyone's face.

Uta offered him a smile and a light wave.

The man blinked twice before standing up straighter, "W-Well of course you have! It's unheard of!" He was quickly over at the bar, "Feral ghouls just don't team up like that!"

Finally, the manager spoke.

"That ghoul who knocked the bus over." Everyone stopped and looked at him, "Enji, do you remember him?"

"How could I forget? I knew that little shit wouldn't just go quiet after he fled the city, but I never expected him to come back! Not like that!" Enji pointed fervently at the television.

Touka turned around, "What? Who is he?" She looked back and forth between the two. Uta perked up, not familiar with the ghoul himself.

"One of the only ghouls in the world known to not regenrate. Did you see his missing arm?" Enji exclaimed.

"Oh!" Uta took a turn to speak as he remembered that description, "Of course she didn't, the video was so blurry, you'd have to know it was him to pick it out. I didn't even know." He tilted his head to the side. Then he looked to the girl, "That ghoul was Puck. Known to the CCG as 'The Tiger'. I never met him personally, though." He glanced to the Manager, eyes narrowing slightly.

Silence fell again.

It was long and restless. Touka had so many questions but she couldn't even know where to begin.

No one noticed a sheet-faced Irimi at the door until she spoke, having been there for the majority of the conversation, "They're already in the city."

Heads turned. Stomachs dropped.

"I saw him on the way here. He was moving. I didn't see any others... but I've got a really bad feeling. If he's leading them, then..."

The manager huffed softly, "He's going to get himself killed at last, isn't he?"

"And kill so many others in the process..." Enji added.

Touka didn't know what to think. And neither did Uta.

From the way the other three talked about him, he seemed like someone to be worried about. Almost afraid of.

But also someone they might have been friends with once.

[benevolenterrancy]

("Always. Continuously. With increasing apprehension, and decreasing hope. I will love you if I never see you again, and I will love you if I see you every Tuesday. I will love you as a corpse loves the beak of the vulture. I will love you no matter what happens to you, and no matter how I discover what happens to you, and no matter what happens to me as I discover this." -- paraphrased from The Beatrice Letters, Lemony Snicket)

[jekkiefan]

jekyon kiss but in fic form

Title: Soft Rain and Revelations

Rating: General

Ship: Jekyll x Lanyon

Word count: 491

Summary:

Jekyll watched the rain run down the windowpane. His chest twisted with fifteen years of regret. He couldn’t let Lanyon go, not again. The pain ran into his veins. It was hot and bitter with time. He couldn’t stand another moment of it. Jekyll glance back to the door, where he last saw Lanyon’s silhouette. He was going to tell Lanyon what he wanted.

(Aka: The Jekyon kiss, now in fic form!)

Ao3 Link Here

[tgcg]

the master baiter

TG: dont be mad

TG: ok thats like asking water not to be wet but

CG: WATER ISN'T FUCKING WET GOD DAMMIT.

TG: look whatever remember when you said you would die for me

TG: is that karkat in the room with us right now

======

CG: I'M DYING "FOR YOU" EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU PEEL OPEN THOSE SHIT-EATING LIPS YOU KEEP PULLED TAUT OVER YOUR DRONING IGNORANCE SHAFT.

TG: heheheh

======

CG: YOUR WORDSLUDGE SPEARS EVERY PARTICLE OF MY BODY WITH PINPOINT STRIDERIAN IDIOCY.

TG: oh shit here we go

CG: A VERBAL BARRAGE THAT PULVERIZES MY FLESH INTO A FINE RED MIST, KILLING ME INSTANTLY. WIPING ME THE FUCK OUT, TO SUCH AN INCREDIBLE DEGREE THAT PALEONTOLOGISTS CAN'T FULLY DISCERN IF A "KARKAT" FUCKING EXISTED IN THE FIRST PLACE.

CG: THEY'D BE SCRATCHING THEIR NUGBONES OVER IT FOR FUCKING SWEEPS, IF NOT FOR THE SHOCKING REALIZATION MERE MINUTES INTO THEIR DEBATES THAT NOBODY ACTUALLY GAVE A SHIT.

======

CG: AND YET THE TEMPORAL DEVICE STILL SWAYS TO AND FRO IN CONSTERNATION. VEXED BY THE COMPLETE MENTAL VACANCY PUT BEFORE IT BY MY HUMBLE SACRIFICE, BOUND BY ITS COSMIC ROLE, BEGRUDGED BY MY UNSOLICITED DEATH CLOCKING IT INTO OVERTIME. IT HAS BETTER SHIT TO DO, GOD DAMMIT! IT HAS A LUSUS AND A HIVE TO GET BACK TO!

CG: "WHAT IS THIS. WHO LET THIS ASSHOLE IN HERE," IT SAYS. THEY AREN'T EVEN QUESTIONS, JUST ORBITAL SIGHS OF AN UNCARING UNIVERSE. A REALITY NOW KEENLY AWARE OF ITS OWN LAUGH TRACK.

CG: AND ITS PENDULUM TEETERS, TENTATIVE IN ITS OWN DISBELIEF AND PROFOUND APATHY.

TG: damn

======

CG: "THIS SCUMBAG ISN'T EVEN GODTIER YET," IT POINTS OUT. THE AUDIENCE FLIPS THEIR COLLECTIVE SHIT, AGHAST AT THIS REVELATION.

TG: hahaha

CG: IT WELLS UP SUCH A THRUM OF FUCKING ENNUI THAT THE TIMEPIECE FLIPS OFF-KILTER, LANDING SQUARELY IN THE "DUMBASS" ZONE WITH A "FUCK IT" LOUD ENOUGH TO REVERBERATE THROUGHOUT PARADOX SPACE.

======

CG: IT THEN ELECTS TO KICK MY PATHETIC FUCKING HALF-CORPSE BACK INTO THE LIVING PLANE AND FORCE ME, VENGEFULLY FROM THE AUDACITY OF MY OWN IDIOCY, TO REPEAT THIS CYCLE AD NAUSEAM

CG: UNTIL EXISTENCE ITSELF FINALLY CROAKS UNDER THE COMBINED WEIGHT OF OUR COLOSSAL STUPIDITY.

CG: BECAUSE WHO THE FUCK WOULD I BE IF I EVER GOT TO HAVE A BREAK?

======

TG: yep there he is thats him offincer

TG: the man after my own heart

TG: thats a karkat brand "soft yes" if i ever heard one and i know my karkatisms dude im a goddamn graduate in karkatology

TG: i got my degree in this shit

TG: im rocking up to our convos with the dumbass black square hat thing cocked 45 degrees

TG: literally incapable of snapping it back kinda by design of the stupid thing but damn if im not doing it anyways im emanating the snappitudes

TG: im rocking my intelligence right now

TG: also water is absolutely wet dude its like the wettest thing on the planet

CG: I'M NOT REPEATING MYSELF AGAIN

TG: yeah you are

CG: FUCK. I AM.

======

CG: I SAID THE LAST THREE TIMES IT'S A CONDITIONAL TERM--

TG: and im saying its common sense like being wet isnt conditional when youre the perpetual thing of wettening

CG: NO

TG: and brother it is THE wet

TG: like following your conditional argument

TG: if water isnt wet then the other water molecules are constantly making each other fuckin wet so its a moot point

TG: great philosophical debate

TG: which came first the water or the wet?

CG: DAVE

TG: think about it all those particles are wetting each other up all the time and shit

TG: its a fucked up display

CG: ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

======

TG: pretty much a perpetual orgy of the elements

CG: DUDE.

TG: that sounds kinda sick actually if you dont think about what it means

TG: h2orgy

CG: HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO VETO THIS STUPID DISCUSSION--

TG: tell me im wrong dude

CG: I'M UNIVERSE-APPOINTED TO HOVER AROUND YOU POINTING OUT EVERY DUMBASS TAKE YOU HAVE FOR THE REST OF TIME.

TG: thats so beautiful to me

TG: i could cry

[moonlightspencie]

hiiii! :3 would you mind write a quick fic with ted or aaron where the reader is a cart girl at a golf course. they meet while the men are golfing and flirting ensues? just smut or fluff or whatever! anything works <3

those tg golf pics came to mind and i can’t help but think of all of the dbf and bfd!hotch fics so…. aaron hotchner it is!!!

pairing: aaron hotchner x reader

warnings: fliiiirting, everyone thinks reader is mad hot & hotch is all googly-eyed

Aaron whistled, looking over the lay of the land for their next hole.

“You’re close, but I’ve still got the lead,” he noted in good humor. “Good luck on this hole.”

Rossi scoffed. “You just wait for next week.”

Aaron laughed, watching as Rossi’s friend Mark teed up. He heard the beverage cart rolling up behind them as Mark stood, ready to swing. All three turned around, the current swing forgotten.

“I could use a drink,” Rossi noted, starting to walk closer as the cart drew nearer. Then, he paused. “I wouldn’t mind a fourth wife, either, now that I think about it.”

Mark walked near them. “I can’t say I disagree.”

Aaron laughed, though he couldn’t pretend he wasn’t seeing the same thing they were. The beverage cart girl was wildly attractive. He swallowed as she pulled up next to them, a dazzling smile on her face.

“You boys looking for a drink?” she asked, her voice like honey.

“Yes, ma’am,” Rossi replied, walking up to introduce himself as she climbed out of the cart. “I’m Dave.”

Aaron’s eyes were glued to her. Her tennis skirt showed off a pair of legs that had him very distracted. Not to mention the tight top that accompanied it. He stared her down, hardly realizing she’d already helped the other two men and was waiting on his drink of choice. There was a glimmer in her eye and a knowing smirk on her face when he finally noticed she was looking right back at him.

“Uh, just a water for me, thanks,” he said curtly, slowly walking closer.

She smiled again, grabbing a water bottle from the cooler and handing it over. Rossi paid up for all three drinks, insisting that they’d just have to make it up next time. Both Aaron and Mark knew they’d never really have to repay him for it.

Mark started walking towards his tee again with one last lingering look at her. Rossi debated staying, but after noting how she looked at his colleague he decided Mark’s swing would be more appropriate to linger around.

“Um, I— My name’s Aaron,” he said, reaching out a hand.

She took it, and he realized the handshake was a mistake on his part. Her hand was soft and pretty-looking in his own, and he was sure all of his feelings were apparent on his face. She’d already clocked him once.

She introduced herself, giving him yet another smile that had him feeling weak in the knees.

“You must be new,” he stated. “I haven’t seen you around here before.”

“And you’re so sure you’d remember the beverage girl, huh?” she joked.

He smiled softly. “I’d definitely remember you.”

Now, he reveled in the fact that there was a bit of a nervous smile on her face rather than his. She nodded slowly, looking at him through her lashes.

“Fair enough, Aaron,” she said in reply at last. “Is there anything else I can do for you?”

‘So many things’ he thought to himself.

He looked towards the other two men who waited on him. He then reached into his coat pocket.

“I don’t think so, but,” he started, pulling out his card. “If you ever need me to solve a crime or… To buy you dinner—”

“Solve a crime,” she asked with a laugh, taking the card. She looked at it, then back at him with a new, mischievous look on her face. “I see. I might just call you up sometime, G-man.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” he said with a wink, gaining confidence at last.

She smiled once more, then got back into her cart and drove off towards the next group of golfers.

He strode towards Rossi, a new pep in his step.

“And I thought I was the flirt,” Rossi said with a smile.

“Maybe I’m just spending too much time around you,” Aaron replied.

His smile was stuck in place as he hit his ball, all the way through until that night when an unknown number came calling. After that, it lasted all week long.

[definatelymrhyde]

Okay so fun fact, the word ‘bumfuzzled’ was first recorded being used in the 1870s. TGS takes place in the 1880s.

ANY TGS CHARACTER COULD SAY THE WORD ‘BUMFUZZLED’ AND IT SOULD BE COMPLETELY PERIOD ACCURATE.

Any of the lodgers or Lanyon could react to the big reveal by going “I’m completely bumfuzzled, Henry!” And it may not be an accurate reaction for the situation BUT ITS PERIOD ACCURATE.

I don’t know why I’m freaking out over this so much but you could even say the revelation is bumfuzzleing to me

[fanartsandstuff]

So I got an idea-"Accidental immortality " AU.

The idea of it is that using HJ7 for so long messed up Henrys and Edwards body so much that they can change without drinking potion because their body got so much use to it already but it also came with the fact that if one of them get hurt (like get stabed) It automatly heals itself ( Hyde was really happy abaut that one )The process still hurts but only briefly.

So the years go by and everything is alright the canon events of tgs go by , the secret is out and and people in society know that Jekyll and Hyde are the same person. these two get along better so it seems that everything worek out well in the end.

But the years go by and and Henry and Edward still look the same. Everyone is confused why their dear friends look exactly the same.

It turns out that HJ7 not only caused the quick regeneration of wounds but also stopped aging process because of warping their body so much.

The question is what happens next after this revelations?

Smaller things from this Au:

-Jekylls and Hydes blood is now red with slight greenish look

-Jekyll have some grey hair but only because of the amount of stress caused by events before aging process stopped working so the fact that it stopped was less noticeable

-It took sometime to convince Hyde to not getting stabbed just to freak out people with their regeneration

-YOU CANNOT KILL THE SPIRIT OF THE LONDON AT NIGHT YOU MORTAL FOOLS ! - Hyde at some point of getting stabbed once again

I will probably do some art for this AU later so watch out for that

[mejcinta]

The difference between TB and TG is that while TB is convinced Rhaenyra and Co. are Marvel's Avengers™ that shouldn't face inconveniences and always win, TG absolutely revels in the misery and micro-triumphs of Alicent and Co. because we see them as tortured, embattled saints on Catholic stained glass. You feel me?

[h7jfangirl]

TGS UPTADE 🎩✨

Ten years... Ten fucking years happend after tgs first page

After all this time, at least for a momento we were thinking about how the 'first revelation' moment would be, who would be the first person to discorve Dr Henry Jekyll's darkest secret? The real truth beahind Mr Hyde?

We though about Laynon, because he is the main love interest of the story and also a protagonist himself

We though about Rachel because she cares so much about Mr Hyde

We though about Jasper because he may understand Henry's situation

And we though about Frankestein

And today, Monday 12, 2024. We finally have the anwser

She really said 'New grandson unlocked'

Victoria Frankestein, was the one who had the honor to be the first person to know about Dr Jekyll's secret, a secret he is been keeping inside for two whole years, a secret so delicate that could destroy his life in the wrong hands...

But Frankestein isn't the wrong person, maybe not the best netheir but not the worse

And this is how the chapter ends, and by Sage's words we can tell we are getting closer to the CLIMAX of the whole story.

If we think about it, in this moment she dosen't have any idea of who Mr Hyde is. For her, Henry just suddenly transfromed into a blonde with green eyes

She could think anything right now! Here some ideas

Frankestein would think that Edward is the real scientist/person and Henry's identity it's his experiment, something that Hyde may like it a little too much...

Frankestein thinks that Henry made a experiment to change the body's looks and she is fascisnated with it because it's perfectly done

Frankestein understands that Henry is Hyde but thinks he did this to himself just to impress her, and she would feel proud for turning Jekyll in the 'right path' of the mad scientist

Or maybe she dosen't even think that's actually Henry but that she found some kind of random creature that take's others indentitys

Whatever she though on that moment, it will not go anywhere because Creature is right there, and they met Hyde before

Creature will explain who Mr Hyde is to Frankestein, so that's the moment when she will realise that Henry it's not the man she belive he was (Maybe she will apologise for her behaviour towards him) or idk, this looks like the start of their official 'redemption arc' in their relationship, where both characters finally can understand each other in a real way

Think about it, Henry will not have to pretend being 'the perfect doctor' that he thinks he needs to be with everyone, something that Frankestein hated of him even before he could even talk to her. Now, Henry may have someone that can understand him completely and knows whats the real hell is been through all this time, that remenber, he is been going through this all by himself without anyone to actually talk to.

Think on a more positive light, it would be sweet to see Frankie treating Jekyll and Hyde nice like she does with the logders, or mostly Hyde (Not hating Jekyll really, Hyde is just happend to be her favorite) and the rest of the society seeing it like;

The logders: oh, They are getting along now!

Robert: oh no, they are getting along now

But well, whatever that happens I just hope THIS IS GONNA BE AMAZING AAAAA

Okay, good bye now! (⁠｡⁠•̀⁠ᴗ⁠-⁠)⁠✧

[leclerced]

so imagine this

landoscar teammates who SO aren’t in love with eachother and they makeout and sleep tg right but they are JUST homies TOTALLLYLYYYYYY and then lando gets a crush on his new assistant and he wants to ask her out and she spends a lot of time with the boys , imagine oscar’s assistant is her bsf… and so she kinda has a crush on him too and she is willing to admit that oscar is such a pretty boy and so lando goes to ask her out right but he doesn’t feel like it’s fair to ask her out when he’s doing shit with oscar so he casually tells her when he asks her out “oh and btw i’m sleeping with oscar and like i don’t wanna give that up-“

-🪼🪼🪼

ugh imagine lando and oscar are making out one day lando’s pulls away suddenly to ask, “uh would it be okay if i ask my assistant out?” oscar makes a face and says “dude, i’m not fucking HR why are you asking me?” lando explains that he’s asking oscar if its okay because they’re messing around, and they kinda go back and forth figure out what messing around means and how lando would explain it to her and they come up with teammates with benefits. then lando tells him he doesn’t know if she’ll say yes because he knows she likes someone else. oscar being a gossip, asks who. lando begrudgingly tells him it’s him she likes and oscar is definitely gloating over it. he’d ask how lando knows and lando’s pointing out how he always catches her staring at him, how she blushes when he talks to her no matter what he says, and how she literally told lando she thought he was the cutest driver on the grid. can see him having a secret crush on her but she was off limits in his mind because she’s lando’s assistant, but now that him and lando are fucking and lando’s talking about dating or fucking her… it changes things.

her finding out her two crushes are fucking ?? she’s so shocked and turned on by the revelation she can’t speak bc she’s picturing them together. lando thinks he shouldn’t have said anything until she suddenly stutters, “um, i-wait i’m confused, are you asking me to date you, or you and oscar, because you’re already dating him?” and lando hadnt considered that as a possibility, he kinda planned on dating them both but not for them to date each other which seems unfair now that he thinks about it. he tries to explain that they’re not dating and she just stares blankly at him and is like “ok so you do everything a couple does.. but you’re just teammates? yeah right.”

[west-tokyo-incidents]

Hi you now have more context for X as a character!

---

Uta hesitated before riveting the final piece onto the mask before him.

Normally he handled his commissions in his own vision of the person who came in. But this one was different.

He hadn't even heard the door open, much less smell the ghoul that entered his studio a few minutes after he'd closed. That alone was enough to make him suspicious when he turned to see the figure in is doorway. Though its face held innocence enough, its sclera were pitch and a long blood red tail moved slowly behind it; a simple Bikaku. And as for a gender… he couldn't tell; flat chested with a simple tank top, as well as long, ill fitting pants. Its hair was long and wavy, but nappy and not well taken care of. Its face had sharp lines, but was as androgynous as the rest of it. He wondered, briefly, if they were homeless.

"Sorry but the studio is closed." His posture stayed neutral. He'd dealt with cannibals in his studio many times before, this wasn't a concern. But the ghoul pulled a tattered sketchbook from its jacket and laid it on the counter, keeping its distance as it slid the well-worn book towards him. Just as cautious as he was, apparently.

It was open to a specific page of a mask concept sketch. It was simple, but odd. The face was blue and plain, save for four eyeholes covered with a fine black mesh for visibility outwards, but not inwards. A swift glance up at the ghoul, standing so still at the end of the counter, showed a lack of said extra eyes. But he looked back to the drawing, his eyes drawn to the most prominent feature. Two long, onyx horns curled off of either side of it, like ram's horns.

Simple enough... Too simple, really.

"I can do it." He sighed, "Though I wish you'd come earlier. I closed a little while ago."

The ghoul looked down at its feet and nodded. Their arms moved behind their back; apologetic. Uta felt a wave of exasperation, but motioned the ghoul over, "Alright, come over here and let me take some measurements."

He posed a couple of questions, but the ghoul stayed silent, shaking its head when he asked it simple yes or no questions. To others, it simply pointed at its throat.

Mute? Perfect. Yet he kept his demeanor cool. He even offered a notebook for them to write in, but they simply denied it. Once he had everything he needed, the ghoul tore out the mask's page in the sketchbook, leaving that page on the counter before slipping out the door as silently as it came in.

In short, he knew nothing about the person that would be behind this mask. He'd had difficult customers before but this one almost felt impersonal. Sure, he'd made the face more angular and gave it more dimension than just a flat mask. The horns were his favorite part, but the face looked so... empty. No mouth, no detail. He leaned back after finally putting the piece on and crossed his arms with a huff. He was not happy with this work at all, but he'd been glared at when he suggested small changes to the design. He knew he'd do a better one just to satisfy his need to elaborate on the design. Leave it as a display piece in his studio. As it was, he stood and draped cloth over the mask.

He picked up the yellowed page of the sketchbook and looked it over again, the paper covered with notes of his own around the design. The ghoul had talent in sketching, he would admit, but their visions seemed to be on opposite ends of a spectrum. He turned back to the covered piece and shook his head before shoving the paper behind his counter.

The ghoul who'd commissioned it likely wouldn't be back for a few days.

---

It wasn't long before the ghoul came back. And again it managed to slip by him. Now he turned at the sound of fabric rustling and a voiceless gasp. The ghoul was already at the mask, having uncovered it. Thin, pale hands drifted over the edges of it, as if cupping a loved one's face. Its eyes widened and an expression like joy swept over its face.

Uta couldn't help but smile to himself. Even if he hadn't liked making it, he'd made something come to life for this ghoul and it looked about ready to cry. Its Bikaku curled around itself as its fingers danced across the horns.

Fingertips curled beneath the edges of the mask and slowly lifted up, sliding it free of the mannequin. It held it to its chest and hugged it before looking to Uta with a grin. They slipped on the mask immediately afterwards, and Uta slid over to help them fasten the back of it. As it turned to look up at him, the mask brought an almost unnerving stoic feel to the ghoul's face.

Money was happily passed from commissioner to artisan, but Uta laid a hand on the ghoul's shoulder before it dashed out the door, effectively stopping it.

"Forgive me for asking, but why this design in particular?" He motioned to the mask. Its body language brought the mask to life in a way he hadn't considered. Like a part of it had been made whole. It dug out the sketch book again and held up a new picture; this time of a creature. Ram-horned, with the exact same face as the mask. It was tall and thin with four spindly arms and long legs like a deer. A long tail like the commissioner's Bikaku trailed behind it. Its skin was a pale sky blue with four eyes staring at him. Watching him, it seemed. The ghoul tapped the picture, and then it pointed to itself.

"That's… you?"

It nodded before putting the book away again.

"That's… interesting." He'd heard of such things as 'otherkin' or some such from his human interactions, but he'd never truly met such an individual. How curious. It gave him a little bow as thanks and to excuse itself before turning to slip back out the door. He really ought to add a bell to that.

A light laugh left Uta's lips and he scratched his head for a moment as he looked at the now-empty mannequin.

He returned to his workstation, walking up to a mask he'd been working on back there in his spare time. The remake of the commissioner's. But now, looking at it, it seemed uncanny; too complex. Now that he knew what it was, he sat down to take it apart; he can use those parts for other masks in the future.

[lukas-broken-bow]

SPOILERS FOR THE NEW TGS PAGE ‼️

so like. the reveal, amirite? to be perfectly honest I don’t see what Frankenstein has done to be a betrayal. this is a revolutionary step for the field and she’s incredibly excited to share it with others who she knows go passionate about mad science. sure, it’s really bad timing, and sure, she probably shouldn’t have done it by tying hyde up and making it almost like a show, but that’s the drama of it all, and she’s so excited that she probably hasn’t fully thought the consequences of announcing this revelation through. I understand why she’s gone and told everyone completely, because I’ve done this sort of thing in the past too. sure, the action itself was bad, but I have trouble distinguishing what is and isn’t something to be kept completely to myself unless it’s been explicitly outlined that I can never tell anyone completely. yes, this has caused problems in my life before, but those actions aren’t inherently a betrayal. she’s just excited about science!

[ask-unstuck]

Are things different on alternia in this au? Because rose is just outwardly wearing her blood color and I think canon karkat would have a conniption at the thought

TG: I do take Precautions to avoid the Revelation of my True Hemocaste, of course. Sometimes hiding in Plain Sight has its Advantages.

TG: Persecution over Religion is an understood sort of Persecution, you see. I may be ostracized, but I won't be hunted like a Cholerbear like I would if my Mutation were to be known.

TG: As far as anyone else knows, I am nothing but a Particularly Heretical Rustblood.

[cannoli-reader]

Hello Cannolli, your metas on the Wheel of Time books are always very well thought out and constructed, and you've clearly given a lot of thought to the series as a whole. I was wondering if you have any ideas on what RJ's plan for Egwene's AMoL arc and story would be? For all the other characters I can see the writing on the well, the clues and foreshadowing, and together with what can be inferred from BS's books about RJ's notes get what I think is a good aproximation for what would be their final arcs and ending. Except for Egwene! I've always had a hard time understamding her character and Sanderson favoured her so much that I have a hard time discerning what came from him or from the notes! I've found your analysis of her character very interesting and enlightening and so wanted to hear your thoughts on this! Thanks in advance! (No hard feelings if you're not up for answering this tho!)

With the caveat that I have a limited and spotty awareness of Jordan's notes, and so my answer is based largely on my projection of her arc and established characterization in the series, I would say her end was probably where Jordan intended, but Sanderson's path to get there, somewhat different.

"(No hard feelings if you're not up for answering this tho!)" - I found this amusing, because I am always down to go off at length about WoT, among other topics. "Up for answering this"? How could I not be? How hard could this be? The results of seven hours and two drafts later are under the cut.

First of all, when speaking of Jordan's intentions, I generally refer to all three of the final books together as aMoL since that was his plan, to finish the whole series with one book. So I would have to take Egwene's story from where it left off in KoD.

I think her rise in the Tower would have been a lot quicker. Maybe a montage chapter like in KoD, where she meets the other Ajah heads, with less dramatic results, but making a slightly better impression than she did with the two in KoD. Her serving Elaida, as set up in Tarna's chapter, might bring things to a head, but not with schoolyard putdowns. I don't believe she suddenly has the revelation, conveniently just in time to avoid behavior that would spur Elaida to put an end to her pretentions for good, that she should be trying to unite the Tower instead of driving the factions further apart. Rather, that realization should be more organic and maybe a result of seeing the fruits of her sowing coming to pass.

I don't believe the Seanchan attack would have gone as it did in tGS, where Sanderson seems completely oblivious to the fact that all Egwene did was kill a lot of people without changing much of the outcome. Even her shooting down the to'raken with captives was pretty appalling, since she and Alivia are living proof that being collared is not the end of your life, and the view of channelers as combat assets it is important to deny the enemy is morally repugnant. If anyone is going to be thinking in that manner on the eve of Tarmon Gaidon, there had better be some harsh & immediate blowback. I also don't think Sanderson realizes he had Egwene torture helpless women to death, or that there was any irony or sense of hyperbole in her self-congratulatory stream of consciousness. IF those things happened under Jordan, it should be the spur to Egwene coming to realize that fighting the Seanchan can't be the plan going forward, since it brings out the worst in her and others, and maybe the truce is the best thing for now. During the attack, Saerin actually showed the best leadership, and the kind more in keeping with Jordan's style in the prior books.

I don't know about her rescue, because so much of that is utterly wrong, especially everything with Bryne, from his going along at all, to suddenly brandishing a heron-mark sword, to his reaction to the Warder bond, to Egwene's pompous displeasure with Siuan in the aftermath. Again, I think Egwene was supposed to become disillusioned with Siuan in general during/following her captivity in the Tower, as she works for reconciliation, because Siuan is the worst advisor in the setting since Mordeth. She is the author of the conflict between the Aes Sedai, for her own personal vengeance. There are plenty of signs in the text suggesting that Elaida is not so different from Siuan or Egwene, and the latter in particular takes a lot of actions that mirror or duplicate Elaida's supposed worst crimes against the Tower. As part of her getting her focus on the right conflict, which should have been in parallel with Rand getting his personal issues straight, she should have rejected the whole course of action she pursued from LoC through KoD. She subtly does that in tGS, to a degree, but in a very contemptible way, wriggling out of responsibility for her part and blaming everyone else. Her condemnatory speech to the rebels after she is raised by the loyalist Hall is particularly risible, considering that collectively, the objects of her tirade balked and dragged their heels at doing most of the things she berates them for, and Egwene herself schemed, lied, tricked, maneuvered and ultimately commanded, them in taking those actions. It's the same thing with her histrionics with the Hall when she is raised, the spirit of her ideas in direct contradiction with what she tells the rebels, and her "defense" of Silviana being pure sophistry. The best thing you can say about all that blather is that it paints a picture of a sociopathicaly dishonest and manipulative woman, and might have been intended to show how far lost she has become in the pursuit of her political ascension. If Jordan had anything to do with the scripting of her plotline in tGS, that had to be his intention, to be her equivalent of Rand's behavior after Semirhage gets her hands on him (and his attack on Graendal's HQ & threats against the Borderland rulers are far more justifiable than Egwene's conduct in the Seanchan raid).

For the political side, once she was the consensus Amyrlin, she should have been in the position of a compromise candidate, not the universal hero with the moral high ground (because she has done nothing to earn it, even in the errant perspectives of in-story characters: she has waged war against the Tower, ruined the harbors and her efforts against the Seanchan are not impressive to sophisticated and experienced politicians, who scorn combat as the province of dumb thugs). This should have led to constant frustration in her efforts to make reforms and pursue policies, because after Elaida and after Siuan was deposed for her own high-handed and unilateral actions, the Hall is not going to take the new Amyrlin flexing lying down, especially when she was only chosen because they couldn't stand any of the other choices, or their rivals would never have allowed preferable candidates through. They are not going to agree to major changes to Tower procedures or policies, and they are not going to vote away their own power or toss out checks on the Amyrlin's authority on her say-so.

Jordan's writing is very big on partial victories, and compromises and hard work being necessary to achieve goals, he does not go for dramatic speeches that sway people to give the protagonist everything they want. I believe Jordan's intention in writing the original bargain Nynaeve & Elayne made with the Sea Folk to be a lesson in the costs of high-level political dealings and a warning that the hot streak the girls had been riding for a while was coming to an end, and they were not going to get their way by showing up and asking for it, or with a feat of creative channeling, and that not all goals could be met by driving off the Black sisters or defeating a Forsaken. I also utterly reject the idea that he would simply have the Sea Folk walk back the whole bargain in order to give Egwene a cheap win at no real cost.

To me, Egwene's straw-man debates with Gawyn and Nynaeve about her authority and the effect their recalcitrance can have, make no sense in ToM, because it's simply not an issue, because Warder bonds are firmly established as strictly private, and even one of the strictest sisters can have a Warder back-talk her in the Hall of the Tower without losing face in the Sitters' eyes. Siuan needed 10 years of Moiraine running amok before she started to have political problems, and it was arguably a sign of her own being captured by the system that she put it on Moiraine. There is certainly no real sign that the narrative endorses Siuan's view of the relationship & political issues, since Moiraine feels not the slightest remorse and promptly bails on the meeting to avoid telling Siuan things she is keeping from her. In the story we got, Egwene is getting everything she could wish, there are no problems with her campaign against Mesaana, and the Sitters vote for her proposals for the most painfully stupid reasons I can imagine an educated adult putting to paper. What possible reason could she have for demanding Nynaeve, Elayne and Gawyn jump through hoops to maintain her reputation? That sort of demand makes much more sense in a story where she is experiencing constant political frustration and administrative headaches (Sanderson promptly tossed all the issues with a massive and on-going influx of novices of all ages down the memory hole).

Egwene calling on Nynaeve and Elayne to attend her in the Tower would also create conflict with Elayne. Jordan has seeded too many conflicts between Andor and the White Tower, and between Elayne's two sets of duty, in the series for that not to come to a head in the finale. Egwene's is not the only plotline or character arc where lots of potential conflicts were handwaved away. Elayne is trying to rule one country and claim another, behind two very dubious and fraught coalitions, that are largely loyal to other parties. As awesome & loyal as Dyelin seems to be, she is wrong in every disagreement with Elayne from WH to KoD. Even her support of Elayne at the end is ultimately expressed as an aspect of her conservatism and resistance to change. In Cairhien, she's going to be working with a Red sister who is sworn to Rand, and will see that as two strikes against Elayne, given her anti-Rand policies and positions in Andor. And where she had to suppress and conceal their relationship in Andor, that's going to cost her in dealing with Sashelle and and of Rand's partisans in Cairhien (and there are hints here and there that the commoners and servants and soldiers hold him in rather higher regard than their lords and ladies do). In Cairhien, Elayne herself is a compromise candidate, with the Damodreds and their allies ready to accept her for the father she doesn't remember, their rivals willing to accept her because her name isn't Damodred, whatever remains of Colavaere's allies resenting their own downfall under Dobraine in Rand's name, for Elayne's sake, and some of Dobraine's allies expecting some sort of reward or primacy of place for their efforts in the interregnum. Also, famine. And in the middle of trying to juggle all this political stuff, with the Black Tower conflict heating up in her backyard, and the methods needed to win over Andorans inspiring contempt in Cairhienin, and Cairhienin methods triggering fear of tyranny and intrigue in Andorans, she gets a call in the middle of all this to put everything on hold and dance attendance on the Amyrlin because she can't handle her end, that's going to be when Elayne decides now is the time to draw that line between personal and political authority and responsibility. And Elayne can get away with it as no other ruler in the last thousand years could, because when it comes to Elayne versus the White Tower, the Dragon Reborn, King of Illian and Car'a'carn of the Aiel, and the Lord Captain Commander of the Children of the Light are not going to think twice before taking a side. Right, of course, at the least politically convenient time for Egwene.

With Gawyn, he has been taught, since day one, that in addition to physical protection and military advice, his job is also to tell his principal when she is in the wrong, and that is so not going to fly with Egwene in the middle of all the other problems going on. Sanderson seems to have run with the fandom meme that Gawyn is an idiot, on top of inventing a character issue where he resents Rand over class issues and a sense of heretofore never seen royal entitlement. The funny thing is "I should be the leader and hero, not that up-jumped sheepherder!" is basically Egwene's normal state of mind. So I could see Gawyn going to Elayne at Egwene's behest, or stepping in an volunteering, in an effort to patch things over, and butting heads with his sister, while trying to loyally stick to the party line, because Egwene is pissed that he keeps suggesting her leadership methods aren't the best. Because Gawyn has been taught to be a military commander in what is basically a feudal military structure, which means herding cats on a bunch of nobles to get them to carry out the crown's strategies and campaign plans, whereas up until aMoL, Egwene's political training has been about intrigue and subterfuge, and no so much on coalition-building, and appeasing competing interests.

With Nynaeve, she's generally willing to play along, but that's not always helpful, as Nynaeve is all about the moral with little use for the political. We see what her version of helping with political negotiations is like in KoD where Cadsuane has to rein her in from threatening the nobles with Rand's wrath. Her PoV chapters became much more rare after she broke her block, because she's largely centered and has found her right head-space, that Egwene & Rand are still striving for in KoD & aMoL. And that means she is going to be a lot more confident in calling out the sisters on their bullshit, and have Opinions, however respectfully she might make them known to Egwene, on Egwene's methods. She's been butting heads with Cadsuane for three books. No one in the Tower is going to impress her all that much, and to Egwene, it's going to be like having a loose cannon in the Tower.

I think in Jordan's version, Egwene, around the time Rand is on Dragonmount, and Mat is struggling in the Tower of Ghenji and Perrin is trying to save the Children of the Light while relations with Elayne are at their nadir and Caemlyn is falling to the Trollocs, is going to complete her mini-arc of coming to understand what it means to unify the Tower, to move away from the partisanship that divided it under Siuan and her predecessors, reconcile with the fence-sitting sisters, and after all these problems are worked through, she starts repairing her relationships with Elayne and Gawyn, at the least. Maybe she helps resolve things between Elayne and Perrin as well. I don't think her penultimate climax is going to be simply beating Mesaana and the Black Ajah in direct combat for the Tower, at most that would be a part of the whole unity arc, only tangentially related, in the way that the fight with the Black Ajah was to Elayne's claiming the Lion Throne.

I also think the conflict, if any, between Rand & Egwene at Merrilor is going to be over an arbitrary and nonsensical issue like the Seals, but more the cumulative result of all the baggage they've built up over the course of the series. Egwene is going to be fearing the worst, because I think it more likely that Dark Rand called the meeting intending to lay down the law and crush any resistance to his leadership, but then Dragonmount, whereas he has been observing from the outset her resistance to him and his role in things, and her White Tower partisanship. Their working past that, and coming to accept the changes each has made should be organic as well, the payoff of years of friendship and history, with all their friends in common, from the Two Rivers and Rand's love interests helping to bring them together. It would absolutely NOT be resolved by Moiraine wafting in on a cloud of angel farts quoting Scripture the Prophecies of the Dragon to convince the assembled leaders of the nations to fall into line.

I think the effect of Moiraine's return should have been private and personal, for Rand at least, and maybe Egwene too. And it should have some apologies for how she treated them and used them, because let's face it, she did not go out as a hero, she manufactured a scenario to emotionally abuse and gaslight Rand into believing his weaknesses and shortcomings caused her death, and wrote a letter tacitly blaming him, while also writing one to passive-aggressively guilt Mat into risking mutilation and death to extract her from the situation she contrived to put herself in. In any case, it's nonsense that Rand & Egwene would drop their contentions at her word. Egwene was losing her devotion to Moiraine as a mentor before the end, not least because of disagreements over her handling of Rand, and as Amyrlin, would emphatically make a point that their relationship has changed now, as she does with absolutely every other person she knew beforehand. Part of Rand's epiphany is getting some perspective, and while he'd be thrilled to see Moiraine return, the List should be gone, and only relevance her return should have to that construct is the role she played in turning Rand that way. Her return doesn't solve problems, it's the reward for working past the problems. For Moiraine herself, I think she's learned her lesson as a result of her captivity, and goes into the Pit of Doom with him because she means it now, she accepts that this is Rand's mission and it's his call and she will back him 100%.

A lot of the decisions for Tarmon Gaidon, will, I believe, be made on the basis of the connections and trust built up over the course of the series, and part of Egwene's role would be to legitimize it all for public consumption, by telling people who don't get it, that everything is cool, trust the Amyrlin. For the Battle itself, I could not say, because what Sanderson wrote is the complete opposite of WoT warfare. Instead of heavy emphasis on the fog of war, brilliant plans crashing and burning at the outset, the brutality, and the cost, and especially the chaos, and the lack of control, we got a handful of protagonists playing a strategy game, where every piece moved exactly according to the rules, Mat was in complete control the whole time, and half of the decisive moments were settled in duels. On the issue of Egwene, I do think she would die, trying to do something beyond her grasp. I think Gawyn might die specifically because of an order Egwene gave or a choice she made, which is the strong implication of Egwene's dream of him choosing between two paths that lead to different fates, because of her. As it was, picking a fight with the enemy Forsaken general because he didn't have anything better to do, A. does not fit that foreshadowing, and B. indicates a failure to grow from the again, out-of-nowhere envy of Rand and his role. Telling Galad not to succumb to his own fatal flaw, because it got Gawyn himself mortally wounded, is hardly growth (and why would Galad hate or envy Rand, anyway? At best, his expression of this too-late realization makes Gawyn a shitty sibling for thinking the worst of his big brother). In Jordan's aMoL, Gawyn dying because of Egwene's choice or action (not necessarily error, mind you) fulfils his loyalty arc and forces Egwene to confront a real and personal price, and one that she has not reckoned with before this book. She's considered in the abstract prices for her tactics and people dying from her decisions, but its never come home, especially because she was spared the necessity of assaulting the Tower. Egwene pushed for decisive action, but hesitated over actually pulling the trigger on any such significant acts, and lucked out when the Seanchan swooped in and relieved her of the need to fish or cut bait on the Tower siege.

That's what I think Egwene's arc would come to in the end - a realization that she's only ever paid lip service to meeting toh or the "pay for it" part of taking "what you want", and that the price for her quest for the Amyrlin Seat, and all the dirt she did along the way, using slander against her enemies and false propaganda on her subordinates and allies, declaring war against people she should have been working with against the Shadow, and being a party to perhaps the worst case of "men fighting their own petty battles" with the Shadow looming over the world, it all comes down to what is she going to do with that power and that position. Her rationalization from the get-go, and perhaps even her true motive, though that would denote an incredible degree of arrogance, has basically been to ensure that the necessary steps are taken and the right woman for the job has it. And now, at the critical moment, she has the choice to try to do the impossible to save the world, regardless of the cost to herself, and she can't do anything else. Whether because that is how she operates, to always push, always reach for more, or because she has come to the realization that if she backs down, she was full of shit when she did all the suspect stuff she did along the way, and that all her striving since becoming Nynaeve's apprentice has only been about self-aggrandizement, that she has been taking what she wants all her adult life, but now is being called on to pay for it.

And a flip side to that, is that Egwene, as depicted in the story, who is all about concentration of power on herself, and cares only for accruing more and more power, status or authority, can't survive or have a happily ever after, without a radical change of personality and mindset, without changing into someone no longer recognizable as the woman whom readers love or hate for her irrepressible ambition and determination. To put it another way, Egwene's attitude and mindset are only justifiable in a protagonist of a fantasy story where the fate of the world hangs in the balance, where her drive and appetite for advancement can only be justified as a means to resolve stakes of that magnitude. She is the parallel to Rand, who, as the Chosen One, the prophesied savior, is given a great deal of latitude and approbation for actions that would be unconscionably ambitions or tyrannical in anyone but a man on whom the fate of the world depends (though, ironically, Egwene herself is the least tolerant toward Rand in this regard). It's understood that after the Last Battle, Rand, if he survives, will no longer have the claim to most of his power or authority. Many people swear fealty or promise to follow him, to the Last Battle, as a limiting condition on their service. But such conditions are not applied to Egwene or to her position as Amyrlin Seat. The Aes Sedai who swear fealty to Rand after grossly abusing their power and social position and violating his trust, still only do so until the Last Battle. The Aes Sedai Egwene blackmails with the knowledge of actions taken to help her friend and to further her cause, do not have any such condition that will end their servitude. And Egwene is outraged by Rand's receipt of sisters' fealty. With that kind of mindset and usurpation of power, she had to go. Egwene is the epitome of the Dark Knight aphorism that you die young or live long enough to become the villain.

[markantonys]

when the first 3 episodes dropped i remember seeing some grumbling and Plothole Accusations re: verin assuming the dragon was one of the 3 boys when s1 had established that the dragon could be any gender (though of course, most of the complaints came from readers who were mad about the show daring to suggest Hypothetical Girl Dragon in the first place and are still looking for any excuse to tear into it)

however

a) *moiraine* thinks the dragon could be reborn as any gender despite being a man last time, but that doesn't mean every single person in the world also believes this. i would imagine that the precise mechanics of soul rebirth are unknown enough that everyone has room for their own beliefs!

and more importantly (major TGS book spoilers below)

b) verin is black ajah and probably already knows from ishamael that the dragon has been reborn and is a man named rand al'thor; she may have even been at the darkfriend social when he was talking about it. so, since verin already knows the dragon's gender and might NOT know that moiraine was also considering female candidates, her assumption here that the dragon was one of the 3 boys is actually kinda tipping her hand the tiniest bit and hinting that she's already got insider info on the dragon's identity. (i wouldn't necessarily say that moiraine noticed this, but i did in my rewatch since i have the benefit of already knowing future revelations about verin!)

[azzifudd]

I only got tumblr abt a month and boy has it changed my perspective on them. I always shipped them or thought they had a lil something going on but tumblr??? Yall find everything like if I was scrolling through TikTok and all that kind of stuff I would not be as certain that they are tg as I am now, so thank you for that😭😭

LOL I had a lot of the same revelations when I got on here