#that boy is traumatised from all the wars he fought

[kingorqueenofnarnia]

Peter, fifteen and fresh out of a bloody and brutal war, sneaking out of Cair Paravel in the middle of the night and going to the river, sticking his head into ice-cold water to shock himself out of a nightmare riddled sleep. Narnia won, but at what cost?

Peter, lying in Susan's bed with his fingers curled tightly into the fabric of her skirts, dried tear tracks on his face and Susan singing quietly in an effort to comfort him. Her fingers pick apart the strands of his hair and he falls asleep only to wake up an hour later with screams on his lips.

Peter, wrapping his arms around an Edmund who has returned from war and murmuring frantic thanks to the Gods for keeping him alive. He presses kisses on Edmund's forehead, cheeks, nose and eyelids, and considers the idea of never letting any of his siblings out of his sight ever again.

Peter, sitting on the High King's throne at the age of thirteen and wondering if he is worthy of this, if he deserves this, if he is capable of this. He is thirteen and barely knows anything about anything and he is High King who should know everything about everything is he worthy is he deserving is he capable he does not know—

Peter, in Lucy's room sitting on the floor with his back pressed to her bed, allowing her to braid flowers into his hair as he stares at the wall. The Victory Parade is in a few hours, but they lost many soldiers and people and Peter has lost sleep and sanity and good friends. Narnia has won but Peter has lost.

Peter, carrying a candle to the Castle Library at two in the morning and pulling out a book about children's fables. He cannot sleep, might as well distract himself. The candle dies down and the sun comes up, and Peter drags himself back to his quarters to get ready.

Peter, who locks himself in his chambers and does not come out for days and days, who refuses food and drink and buries himself under his blankets and stares out the window with blank eyes and slack eyebrows, who does not speak and does not cry and pushes his face into his pillow and screams for the nightmares to go away please I'll do better I just want to sleep please stop please—

Peter, who wants peace and contentment, but cannot help but go to war. Peter, who is quiet and introspective but needs to be loud and abrasive because he is High King. Peter, who wishes he could put down the sword that he wields as easily as he breathes.

Peter, who desires peace, but becomes a God of War

[pyromaniacbibliophile]

If the Marauders chose to survive

Peter who got scouted by Voldemort and actually thought about it and that scared him so much he went to James.

James who took one look at Peter and said fuck the war. I don't care, not now, not when my parents are dead and my best friend is considering the Death Nibblers. Fuck this.

Lily just grinned and asked what took him so long.

Barely out of school and so in love, Remus would have followed Sirius to the end of the earth and Sirius would not leave his brother in all but blood.

Only he wouldn't leave Regulus either.

Regulus who only wanted to protect his family.

Regulus who brought a sheepish Narcissa and her fiance Lucius who didn't think he had a choice, but now he did.

Severus who knew Regulus inside out and only chose Voldemort because who else did he have?

Severus who now had Regulus and Lily and Narcissa and a group of traumatised teenagers planning an escape.

Dorlas and Marlene who only fought for friends. So if those same friends were now staying in the battered old Potter Manor and refusing to stay for a war that wasn't theirs? Well, there was only one place for them.

Mary who had had friends for the first time at Hogwarts. Friends that somehow lasted seven years of school. Like hell were they going without her.

Bellatrix, laughing and wild, the Black Madness hadn't swallowed her up just yet, and really she didn't want to play mistress to a red eyed boy who was madder than her now.

Plans written and and re written.

An experimental potion, courtesy of Lily and Severus, in Orion Black's drink. Orion who then signed over the Noire Manor in Switzerland to Regulus Arcturus Black.

The same potion in Abraxas Malfoy's whiskey, Abraxas who then gave Lucius Abraxas Malfoy the Malfoi Mansion in, you guessed it, Switzerland.

Fabian and Gideon Prewett with an international portkey, their sister Molly and her fiance Arthur Weasley.

Alice Fortesque and her boyfriend Frank Longbottom with defiance and love in their eyes.

Pandora Rosier at the last second, smiling innocently with her best friend Xeno Lovegood. Oh, and her brother Evan Rosier. And his best friend Barty Crouch Jr.

So many who would have been Death Eaters in another life, one where they didn't get a choice.

Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Neville Longbottom, and Draco Malfoy growing up as brothers in two comfortable Manors, with plenty of money, plenty of love, plenty off family and two alive parents apiece.

Luna Lovegood, Scorpia Malfoy, and Ginny Weasley inseparable from birth.

Lyra Black-Lupin, Minnie Potter, and Rosa Meadows-McKinnon sisters for life

Fred and George Weasley being taught Potion-making by three geniuses: Lily Potter, Severus Snape, and Pandora Lovegood.

A family not torn by war.

A family by choice not blood.

[verdemoun]

Truelly intrested in how Jack is doing in the timewrap, like his relationship with the gang, whats his favorite thing in this era. I know in this AU he past away just 3 years after abgail, but in some datas in the game and other theories said he lived enough to write a book; in my headcanons he should have had a friend who fought in WWI who also get very traumatised, and probably being part of one this early mafia gangs from the 1920s. When John argue with Jack about him becameing an outlaw he would just reply " at least i didn't had to go to the army and dying in a horrible way some random battlefield in a senseless war, or surviving and get traumatised for life" then Jack leave the room that got in silence, who heard that probably got curious about the war, hope they were intrested about knowing what heppended in this 100 years they were dead.

I know you said you got a lot of asks but I like to share this ❤

this ask has been haunting because i love jack so much. he is my boy like i just want him to be happy and get a chance to act his age and find fun and happiness. but boy his relationship with john in timewarp is so far away from good. accidentally wrote 1k words so below the cut

jack has almost no memories of the gang. he remembers being told they're not meant to discuss arthur because it upsets his father, and that if he sees 'uncle dutch' around he's meant to stay well away

it is a lot like meeting those long distance relatives who say 'wow i haven't seen you since you were 'this' tall!'

he gets along pretty well with most of them because a) he is a very polite young man and b) they're such a fun group to be around in modern era. damn straight at a cookout none of them care he is technically under modern era drinking age they see him as an adult and encourage him to be an adult in that rdr2 a quiet time style

he wishes arthur was his dad a little bit. he is constantly trying to inch his way into isaac and arthur's father son activities (which isaac encourages and arthur allows)

hosea getting to see how him teaching jack to read has become such a major part of his identity like jack is a nerdy little bookworm and how exciting they both find it when hosea ask about what jack's been reading and jack can talk to someone about books again

the silent assurance of getting to know lenny. lenny being an adult with a job and very settled into modern era with a life so far away from what he was in 1899 who died at the same age as jack. lenny is proof he can get used to modern era and settle and leave the mistakes and trauma of canon era behind in a healthy way

his favorite thing about modern era is without a doubt isaac morgan. having someone his own age who Gets It. even though they had wildly different experiences of timewarping and general lives, being the child of a VDL gang member is a very specific niche they both know too well

also just - time. not having a ranch or to hunt for food, with the gang still helping each other out so jack isn't expected to rush off and get a job all the hours that would have been spend doing ranch work jack can spend exploring his interests, reading, learning about modern era and getting into trouble with isaac but having the actual time of day required to be a kid (he is 19. he is a kid who never got to be a kid)

i think eventually they would have gotten into a screaming match. john getting sick of jack sulking in his room reading and glaring at him like it was his fault he became what he is vs jack seeing how john changed over 3 years to raise addie alone when he timewarped and how quickly abigail runs back into his arms as if john didn't leave them ruined and with nothing when he died. in timewarp au, abigail died at the end of summer 1914 and jack didn't make it to christmas of the same year.

starts with john asking what happened to jack's college fund. jack had already applied to college and gotten rejected very politely on financial grounds prior to 1911, but with the assurance he was extremely intelligent for a young man who lacked formal education.

jack began corresponding with the literature professor regularly (simply because he still craved that paternal bond and quickly came to love having someone he could actually discuss books with instead of just talking at). john began saving every cent he could to have the money tucked away to get jack into college because he always wanted his son to be happy and better than what they were.

jack laughed and said they had to use that money to survive. he wouldn't have gotten in anyway, and even if he did he couldn't leave abigail on her own.

john, maybe drunk or just too frustrated to hold back, snapped he was too smart to be that much of an idiot, he could have gone to college after abigail died and lived a normal life

jack finally losing it. what did john expect? he was going to survive the great war, and then world war ii a few decades later? forget the first 19 years of his life, survive two wars that ended or ruined millions and millions of lives, settle down with a nice wife and be old enough to watch the moon landing on a boxy black and white tv?

he only made it to 1914 and was still devastated by the war - because the literature professor, his one escape from what life was after john died, a canadian who volunteered to go fight because it was a noble cause, didn't even make it to the front line. the ship he was on sank. there wasn't a funeral or burial, just a letter that might as well have read 'any chance of salvation for you is gone'. jack learning that dying for a noble cause was just as stupid as dying for revenge, because once you're dead you're dead

jack admitting he was planning on dying anyway because what else was there the only thing killing edgar ross did was give jack the satisfaction of knowing at least one of them outlived the bastard

john not actually having the words to express he's been there and he knows what that's like, the survivor's guilt he felt over arthur's death and needing to kill micah and how sorry he is jack had to experience the exact same thing

jack still did have a book published and when he found out he was mortified. in writing to the professor over 3-4 years he'd started sending him drafts of a biographical novel heavily based on his childhood memories of the van der linde gangs and sneaking into john's room to read arthur's journal (which john held all those years). when the manuscript was found in the professor's desk, the university was impressed enough to have it published on a very small scale.

isaac morgan, who had a very bizarre morbid fascination with the idea of jack, the little cousin he never got to meet, who exists somewhere across time as simultaneously younger than him but has already reached 19 and killed edgar ross and been executed for it, stole a copy of it from the university's library when he was only 12 and has read it over a dozen times by the time jack timewarps.

jack is horrified because it was a draft and he started writing it at 15 imagine jumping 100 years into the future and finding out something you wrote unedited at 15 was not only published but considered a valuable and significant part of narrative history.

when jack is in a mood, isaac with read excerpts to him and jack will be so overtaken by cringe and trying to snatch the book off him he will forget whatever passing thought was making him depressed

[songmingisthighs]

More commentary and slightly less ranting courtesy of your fave mercenary <3

More answers! :O

All hail random cashier dude for the information he has blessed us with, as traumatising as that info may be

Whoever fought yeo and caused this whole better SQUARE TF UP because we are going to WAR when we find out their identity, if it's not woo then they will be joining him on the list of people needing a BEATING

(Join the cause! It's fun! We have weapons!)

Not going to lie I have slight suspicions on leo, especially after the info we have on him and yeo having been in some form of contact...

And our poor sweet y/n is gonna need ALL the cuddles from the boys poor girl has been THROUGH IT

I hope the others can help her not feel too much guilt about it I'm not sure there's much she could have done even if she knew what was happening :( poor girl needs some love and care right away

Also I have a possible theory that will likely be proved wrong but imma share it anyway because I'm invested

What if yeo was there because he saw y/n at some point and wanted to talk but then ended up in the alleyway because of whoever that bitch was that fought him???

Anyway I shall continue to ponder as I eagerly await more chapters and the revealing of more information

And because I must mention him - odln!woo was so mad about people calling him basic when he literally is 🤣 basic bitch odln!woo fuck that loser

- Odln!woo hater anon/mercenary

the way the three of them were so blindsided and this cashier just casually dropped an important information on top of an important item bc excuse me miss maam how can you lose a charger and go on with your life 💀

whoever fought with odln!yeo is probably the person at fault so (y/n) should really not blame herself :( BUT YEA FUCK EM AND STICK EM WITH ODLN!WOO WE'LL HURT THEM SIDE BY SIDE

but oooooo you think odln!yeo was apology-blocked ??? that's actually possible 👁👁

odln!woo has no priority, wbk and we're no longer surprised. not even disappointed anymore bc why bother with this asshole

[fumblingmusings]

how old are Oz and NZ supposed to be (in human years) during wwi and wwii in your fic?

Oh! Timeline for the main players. I know I absolutely neglected to say how old the latter two were by the war chapters due to their absence.

Both however would be in the armed forces. Jack fought at Gallipoli and managed to have a Pulitzer prize winning romance with Malta as he recovered which I genuinely want to write one day (I mean not the prize winning part... realistic expectations...); Maia, like her mother, was a nurse, though in Egypt to begin with then France.

She spent much of WWII in Greece. Jack was in Singapore for WWII and spent most of the war as a POW.

Also I don't know if acknowledging Evie is a teenager for a significant chunk of the 17th century justifies how stupid/traumatised she is for much of it but I hope it explains somethings about her emotional state... I'd say the ageing is the same for Arthur too, thinking on it. That is fixed and does not change in my mind.

1600s: Evelyn: 18; Alfred: 8 months

1630s: Evelyn: 19; Alfred: 4; Matthew: 7 months

1660s: Evelyn: 20; Alfred: 6; Matthew: 2

1690s: Evelyn: 23; Alfred: 10; Matthew: 5

1760s: Evelyn: 28; Alfred: 15/16; Matthew 12/13

1780s: Evelyn: 29; Alfred: 17; Matthew: 16; Jack: 2 months

1850s: Evelyn: 30; Alfred: 19; Matthew: 18; Jack: 4/5; Maia: 10 months

1870s: Evelyn: 30: Alfred: 20; Matthew: 20; Jack: 14/15; Maia: 12.

1890s: Evelyn: 32; Alfred: 21; Matthew: 21; Jack: 19; Maia: 17/18 (Maia is at University in the 1890s chapter, so she's 'old' enough to attend at the very least).

1914: Evelyn: 32; Alfred: 21; Matthew: 21; Jack: 20; Maia: 20.

1939: Evelyn: 33; all the kids are now in their early 20s.

1999: Evelyn 34; all the kids are around 23/24. Their ageing for all of them has massively slowed down after WWII. Why? Because I say so.

I know in canon Alfred shot up like a stick of bamboo as a result of the end of the Seven Years War in 1763 and seemingly ages at the rate of a human during those seven years but I do like the slower pace. Zee does grow nearly at the rate of humans though. She's a wee bit slower but she is not a baby for as long as say Oz or Mattie were. Those boys were babies for a good couple of decades each. Alfred was a toddler/young lad for longer than the others. I don't know if there's a genuine reason, aside from that's just what I wanted to write.

[thatgordongirl]

your ghosts ocs sound so interesting!! i’d love to hear more if you ever posted about them!

Yesss I have been summoned

I initially had a naming convention that they’re all namesakes of English kings except for Thomas, but Will was named before I saw the name in a Ghosts episodes. 

Thomas

Fought in the American revolution 

Has a wife named Dolley 

He’s Scottish and immigrated to America when the war started

early to mid twenties 

He’d prefer to just be home with his family 

Unfortunately he doesn’t get that option because he gets shot in the head by a British soldier

No hard feelings though

He’s a pretty forgiving person regardless

He’s the oldest ghost, which is still pretty young by most standards 

He has a little portrait of his wife in his pocket 

Dolley was pregnant when he died, and gave birth to twin sons, Thomas Jr and Henry 

Thomas has a gun on him as a ghost, so he just shoots ghost bullets at people 

But he’s a sweetheart, I swear 

He gives Edward his coat and forgets that it goes back to his body automatically 

Edward 

he’s around fifteen 

He somehow managed to sneak into the Vietnam War 

Edward lives in an abusive household and would honestly prefer to be anywhere 

He thought he was going to be a hero and get himself out of the situation he was in

He watches someone die, which traumatises him 

He gave his jacket to a fellow soldier, someone younger than him, and decided to go back to America 

He gets sent home for his age. When he gets returned, it’s winter and snowing

He knows he’s getting weaker, so he tries to get inside but the door is locked

Edward gets hypothermia and dies outside the door 

Edward didn’t expect to be a ghost, so he mostly walked around for a long time 

Before Thomas found him 

He’s quite mature for his age because he’s been dead for so long, and he already looks older than he is

It’ll never not be funny to me that Edward, a fifteen year old boy, and William, a fifty year old man, have the exact same music culture opinions because they overlap so much 

Charles

Around early thirties 

1870s-80s

Most people call her Charlie, but because she were so antisocial as a child nobody knows she’s not a man when they gets older

Except for her family, who aren’t very wealthy

People just assume she’s a man because she dresses like one for the time 

And her birth name is Charles so people don’t even question it 

She also travels a lot so people don’t have enough time to investigate her background 

She just get invited to events and balls under the assumption 

That’s where she meet ✨Millie 

Who’s a rich man’s daughter and definitely not someone Charlie should be with 

But she ends up with her anyway 

Millie’s father grows increasingly suspicious of her and decides to find out who she really is 

So he meets her brother (who’s also William’s father) and finds out she’s a woman

Basically he’s so enraged by a woman tricking all these men that he tracks her down and catches Charlie and Millie 

Which pisses him off more, so he pays off the local police force and has Charlie tried for some made up terrible offence they can kill her for 

And she gets publicly hung 

Charlie has a broken noose permanently attached to her ghost and makes jokes about it that Thomas doesn’t appreciate 

He’s just happy to have a friend after so long

She still enjoys travelling with the convenience of not having to pay, dragging Thomas all over the world 

William 

he’s born around 1895 with his father dying shortly after 

He joins the war in his early twenties and stays till he dies 

He fights in the first and second world wars 

He really likes to draw and paint

He moves to England and thus has a British accent as a ghost rather than American as he lives there for thirty years

With his boyfriend that whole time 

William becomes continuously worn down by the fighting, he has depression through most of his life 

The end of the war leads to him having a drink, which causes a heart attack

Sort of the war kills him from the inside out 

All the other ghosts like to joke he’s not a real American because of his accent 

He has these really piercing blue eyes that started in the family with Thomas’ wife

Charlie is technically his aunt, but they never treat each other that way 

They both hate his father

William also has a ghost gun, he became a general before he died

He and Thomas have ghost duels 

Anna-Gloria

She’s around her early forties 

Dies in the late 60s early 70s

Anna has a husband who is a grade a dick and she can’t stand him 

Anna had a really hard time getting pregnant, and considers her son to be extra special 

Her son Peter means that she has a living great grandson, James 

Anna is quite proud of that 

She’s a very defiant person in order to have her voice heard

Anna really loves gardening and plants, she likes farming and basically anything agriculture 

One night she goes out dressed very sixties (multicoloured dress and all that) and comes home to her husband absolutely furious

She argues with him but tries to keep her son away

Her husband hits her in the head a couple times and she ends up dying from the trauma 

Anna is untrustworthy of people in death, except for William

They had exchanged letters when she was a young girl

She brags about her side of the family having living descendants to William and Charlie 

She’s quite motherly with Edward, even though it frustrates him sometimes 

She’s the only one with a power of quickening the growth of plants 

Think flowers that bloom strangely early 

Richard 

Born around the same time Anna died 

He dies in the late 90s

Richard is initially timid and stutters when he speaks

His parents are wealthy 

He tries to become a politician, but he can’t seem to get over the social skills portion of it 

He joins the gulf war and meets his future wife Alex, who helps him with his confidence 

He’s like the George III of politicians, completely committed to her 

He gets in trouble with other things like gambling and lying to get his way 

He becomes popular enough after the war to be a successful politician albeit ignoring his family, but his actions get him enemies in the mafia

So they shoot him during a public speech 

In front of his wife Alex and daughter Angelica 

Richard is more used to being a ghost than Anna is, which is odd considering their gap 

He still gets to see his family, who he’s quite proud of 

He looks a lot like William when he was younger

Richard spends most of his time making fun of the other ghosts to compensate for his own panic about certain things 

He likes stealing their guns and causing problems 

[nothing0fnothing]

Not just his teacher! He says offhand that this wasn't the first time a grown adult had sexual motivation they pursued towards him and he acts like he "knows the drill" when his English teacher exposes himself to him. He's actually taken himself by surprise when he runs out of the house. He's never done anything about it before.

He was a sad boy with a dead big brother and neglectful parents who can't stand him, so they pack him off to boarding school after boarding school even though it was apparent 2 schools ago that this method isn't helping. It's all Holden's fault to them, he wouldn't be different if only he tried harder to be the same.

I even think its unfair to say he is whiney. He is deeply traumatised. He is so traumatised he doesn't even recognise his own trauma. J.D Sallinger wrote the book when he was freshly home from war, he knew trauma deeply. He was drafted, he fought and he came back different he took that experience and he injected it into Holden. The way he keeps fucking up and doesn't know why, it's obvious he doesn't know what's wrong with him. He loses his confidence in all his exams, bringing himself to write nothing but an apology to his teacher for failing. He tries to help his dorm mate, writing his essay for him but he loses sight of the assignment almost immediately and completes it to a poor standard. He is given one job, to pick up the bag of sports goods when they get off the train. He doesn't. He's constantly failing and he just doesn't get it, why is his brain so fundamentally flawed. He feels so bad but he also knows he can't help it. It's devastating.

Poor Holden is surrounded by people who might understand, who could understand, who he desperately wants to understand and he just.. can't make them. He doesn't have the words to say what he needs to, and nobody he meets has the tools to help him if he could. That's how deeply traumatised people act, even privately educated white boys with rich parents and a sea full of opportunities.

I've gotta admit, I am partial to stories about sad abused middle class kids. It reflects my experience, but it's more than that. At the end of the book we meet the Caulifields and we realise they're not lost or confused or struggling. They just choose to be cold and self absorbed and shit. They have the resources and the privileged lives to reach out to their struggling son and offer help, support, warmth, anything to make it better. They just don't. It's right at the end of the book, where we've seen that Holden is warm and kind and innocent and the contrast is heartbreaking.

It absolutely infuriates me that people read this book and close it believing that because it opens in a private school or because Holdens voice is so quintessentially teenaged it must mean he's just some whiney, bratty, spoiled teen. It's not his fault.

I read this book as a sad, privileged 15 year old girl and it became my instant favorite then I read it again as a sad, poor 22 year old and I understood why.

I think we as a society need to be pushing for a more realistic and sympathetic wide spread analysis of Holden Caulfield. Everyone thinks he’s either some profound intellectual or is just some whiny kid. Holden was emotionally neglected, and it was implied the teacher that he’d trusted SA’d him. That kid wanted to help and protect other kids from the harshness of the world. He was a CHILD. He was whiny because he was a teenager but he had every right to be jaded and hate the world, but he still held out hope that kids could be protected from the harsh reality out there. He was a BABY. He didn’t know where the ducks in central park went when the water froze over. He hired a prostitute and spent the whole night talking to her. He needed someone to protect him. Catcher In The Rye is about a kid that the every adult in his life failed. Throwing money at a kid and offering them no warmth breaks them. Holden was a spoiled bratty kid, but he was just that. A KID. He needed someone to look after him.

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

I'm an American reading your Boris Johnson posts which I think are so interesting and hilarious. I don't know a lot about UK politics and was wondering if you wouldn't mind doing a quick rundown of the Torys and labour parties (mostly bc I want to read your version) but if you don't have the time or inclination I will do my own research! Thank you!

Sure! Okay this is SUPER BRIEF, like I cannot stress enough how brief this is but:

Labour

The red ones. So Labour began in the early 1900s at the point when a lot of workers rights and voting reforms and all that stuff was gathering steam as we moved out of the Industrial Revolution. It was basically a bunch of socialists, trade unionists and others. Then after the last Liberal government in 1923 which was a bit of a disaster, they took over as the main alternative party to the Tories, and have held that position ever since.

Their most notable era was after WW2, where they created a metric fuckton of nationalised infrastructure - the NHS, rail, water, national parks and countryside access rights, etc. At that point there were two generations massively scarred and traumatised by war who had fought for the country, and now wanted the country to take care of them in return. That was the prevailing attitude of the working class of the day, and Labour (PM was Clement Atlee, but the NHS was the brainchild of Welsh boy Aneirin Bevan, he's a good boy is our Nye) cashed in.

Second most notable era, though, was the late 90s - Tony Blair. Our Tony was of Tory stock but changed his mind because he loves Poors. He decided that, to get a Labour government again, the party needed to be more moderate to convince voters, so he should create the more right-leaning New Labour. This has dramatically shrunk the Overton window and moved Labour to the centre-right. It worked - he was the one who took us to war in Iraq, supposedly for those pesky WMD that never seemed to materialise, but like, a few years ago he went on a bland daytime TV chat show and Fern Britton asked him if he'd have done it anyway even without the rumour of WMDs and he said yes. So, uh. There's that. It was all very dramatic, and journalists started demanding to know how this TV presenter had wrung such a confession out of him, and she was like "Well... I don't think anyone had actually asked him before." He’s a full on war criminal, anyway.

And then, recently, we had Jeremy Corbyn in charge. He was remarkable because he's actually a left-of-centre politician, though fairly unremarkable by those standards, but the Overton window is such that everyone promptly accused him of being a communist for saying we should have free internet. In the 2019 General Election he produced a fully-costed manifesto for new public services, and the Tories just said the words "We don't have a magic money tree to pay for all of this, guys, look at our manifesto in which we promise stuff without explaining where the money will come from," and that actually worked because British people are criminally fucking stupid. Meanwhile the Labour party itself hated Corbyn so much it kept trying to ban new members who wanted to vote for him in a really quite dazzling display of corruption. The BBC let a Tory donor publicly announce that Corbyn was an antisemite because he was pro-Palestine, and then that fell into hysteria and became a whole thing on all sides, and then after the General Election he stood down as party leader and Labour promptly kicked him out of the whole party. The whole thing was honestly an absolute fucking shitshow.

Now we have Keir Starmer, ex-lawyer. Sometimes he does okay, but mostly he has all the oppositional abilities of an ice cream wafer.

The Tories

The blue ones. So the Tories are older than Labour by a considerable margin. The original party to have the name (it's Irish and means "outlaw/robber") were a bunch of tedious royalist dickhead Jacobites who wanted to stick with the system of Let The King Rule in the late 1600s, at the point when Let The King Just Be a Figurehead was now the system. In the 1800s they became the Conservatives and Unionists, and then the modern Conservatives around WW1, but oddly and appropriately the Tory nickname has still stuck.

Anyway they are very right-wing, and really rose to power during both world wars. Churchill was a Tory, and he did such wonderful things as sending in the British army against striking Welsh coal miners, and intentionally causing a famine in India during WW2 so the supplies would come to Britain instead. Classy lads. In the 70s/80s Margaret Thatcher took over, and spent her time aggressively undoing all the socialist stuff that Labour did by privatising water, rail, etc, and beginning the sell-off of the NHS. She also decided she hated British working class industry, including the coal mines, and so shut them all down without remotely trying to replace them. This has done untold damage to the working class and poor areas of the UK, chief among them Wales, where two thirds of the working population worked in the mines. We now have areas where unemployment is in the fourth generation, and entire ghost towns in the countryside. Plus, she was BFFs with Reagan, which should tell you all you need to know about the rest of her tenure.

In the modern day, they took over just after the recession under David Cameron, who promptly instigated austerity measures that have dramatically widened the gap between rich and poor and crippled the economy. David Cameron was also revealed to have fucked a pig once while in uni. He held the Brexit referendum to try and convince people to keep him in charge because he thought we’d vote remain, and then when we didn’t, he promptly quit so he wouldn’t be held accountable for the fall out. Theresa May took over and tried to produce a Brexit deal, but couldn’t, because it was literally impossible to get the deal that Brexiteers had promised, so no one liked her offerings. She was voted out via vote of no confidence. Boris Johnson took over and legit tried to force through a No Deal Brexit, which would have destroyed the country but made him a billionaire, and he even tried to shut down Parliament to stop people from blocking him. Fortunately, that was considered illegal, so he had to back down and get a deal.

And he did! It’s way worse than Tessie May’s, but it was, by then, the best option available. Now Brexiteers think he’s a hero who can do no wrong.

And then the pandemic happened, in which he mis-managed it so badly Britain has the second worst death/infection rate in the world, and then... Partygate. And we’re caught up!

Others:

The Liberal Democrats. The yellow ones. The third choice. In theory socially left-wing, financially right-wing, but in practice they’ve been a bunch of tedious power-grabbing turds. Under the leadership of Nick Clegg they entered into a coalition with the Tories and David Cameron a few years back and basically sold out every principle they had, and therefore kind of... provided a buffer against the worst Tory excesses while also enabling other worst Tory excesses, to be honest. No one trusts them anymore, but they are suddenly stealing Tory seats in by-elections throughout the land, because hardcore Tory voters would never go Labour but they MIGHT vote yellow.

Greens. About the only true left wing party available in England specifically, because an English nationalist party (right-wing) is a very different thing to a Celtic nationalist party (left-wing). They have a single MP, I believe, but in areas with a strong following they do have good sway. Primarily environmental, very socialist.

UKIP. Nazis. Only cared about Brexit. Then Brexit happened and it turned out they didn’t actually have a plan for it. They have since lost all their voters, pretty much, it’s very funny. Their leader has never actually managed to get elected to MP.

SNP. The Scottish National Party, and I believe the ruling party in Scotland. They seem tidy enough. Generally left-wing, though not so much about the military, weirdly. Led by Nicola Sturgeon overall (who seems pretty cool, although with the usual politician caveats and also the addendum that I know little about Scottish politics in detail), but their leader in Westminster is Ian Blackford, who has been yelling at Boris Johnson about parties a lot.

Plaid Cymru. The Welsh nationalists! Easily the most left-wing party in Wales - only the Greens really give them any trouble there, and Plaid are actually a little further left. Very socially progressive. They have a fair bit of influence in the Senedd (Welsh Parliament) but are not actually the ruling party. Used to be led by Leanne Woods, who is fab, and was the only person before the last election to tell Nigel Farage on TV that he should be ashamed of himself during a leaders’ debate. Now led by Adam Price, the Westminster leader is Liz Saville Roberts.

DUP. Democratic Unionist Party. A Northern Irish party which, as the name suggests, is pro-Britain and pro-union, very socially conservative. I will not go further into detail here because we really aren’t far from the Troubles (I’m old enough to have grown up with car bombings being a not-uncommon news item) and it’s very, very complicated and I am not Northern Irish, so I’ll leave it there. Currently led by Jeffrey Donaldson. 

Sinn Féin. Irish Republican and democratic socialist party, in both Ireland and Northern Ireland, and the opposite number of the DUP; and again, I will leave it there, as I am very much the wrong person to go into those details. In fact they only had one seat fewer than the DUP in the 2017 election, so it’s hotly contested. Generally left leaning I believe, but with some big exceptions like the topic of abortion. Led by Mary Lou McDonald.

There are also a shit ton of others, like, but those are probably the main ones to be honest. But, like America, it’s really a two-horse race in Westminster.

(I should also add that the Celtic nations are all partially devolved to a greater or lesser extent, which adds quite a bit of complexity.)

[mcyt-kalopsia]

Someday You’ll Understand - SBI

Here’s an SBI (Techno x GN!Reader and SBI content) blurb I thought about a lot. Happy 200!

Warnings: angst, some strong language, and war

Theme: You and Techno think back on your lives thus far as you give advice to a young Tommy.

Characters: c!Techno, c!Tommy, c!Wilbur, Y/N

A/N: This literally took me a week to write fully because I’ve been so burnt out. I hope you all enjoy.

“Y’ever fought other people?” The little blonde asked Y/N and Technoblade, playing ‘war’ with little figures on the floor of the home. The older two shared a look, though it didn’t stop the piglin hybrid from answering anyway.

“Yes, we both have.” 

Y/N couldn’t help but remember. The wars were the worst part of their life, having ripped their friends and family away. The only person that had managed to not be killed or imprisoned and always made their way back was Techno. They fought together countless times, and that’s why they were together as of now.

The first war Y/N had fought in, they were all shaky and would constantly insist that they couldn’t do it. They couldn’t go against people they once called their friends. Of course, Techno didn’t want them dead, and talked them through it. It was the only way.

“Y/N, listen to me, okay? I can’t have you die because you won’t fight. You said you would do this for us, and you can’t back out now. Got it?”

“You don’t understand, Techno! I cared about them- I still do! I’m not like you, I don’t forget about the good things about a person I used to know when they fuck up!” They dropped their sword at their feet and teared up. 

“Look, I get it. You don’t want to hurt them. Unfortunately, Y/N, things aren’t always puppies and rainbows. Look around you! Look at what they’ve done! They tear everyone apart and start wars just to fight for the memory of something that can never be the same. They fight for a place that no longer feels like peace and friendship and freedom. They’re torturing themselves by holding onto that stupid place.” He sighed, taking a deep breath to calm himself. “Look, you can either fight for the greater good, or you can turn against me too. What’ll it be?”

Of course they had chosen him. He was the only one to stay true to himself and his word thus far. 

“Y/N, we’re your friends, remember? Why are you fighting alongside the enemy? Don’t you want L’Manberg back?” 

“I don’t plan to fight for something that’s tearing us all apart. I want to see this place in ashes,” Y/N replied, shaking as they swung their sword. They’d been killing old friends all day. They just wanted to go home, but instead they chugged a potion of strength and moved on. 

Little Tommy looked up at his brother, a mix of interest as well as what could possibly be described as sadness crossing his features. “Well, why? Why did you fight?”

Techno sighed, sitting down beside Tommy and picking up one of the figures. “Well, when disagreements form, people like to make it all into a big deal. I made things into a big deal. When you disagree and don’t talk it out, it can lead to fights.” Setting the toy back down, the pink-haired male looks up at Y/N.

“Were you sad?” The blonde boy also looked toward Y/N as they sat beside Techno gently, taking hold of their boyfriend’s hand and sighing softly, a sweet smile taking hold of their features, to avoid the urge to cry. 

“For a while, yeah,” Y/N explained, “so keep your friends and your family close, okay? Make sure you never have to fight with them. Make sure that, when you argue, the first thing you do is talk it out. Okay, Tommy?” 

Tommy nods quickly. “But... why does talking help? Does talking really do anything to avoid getting killed?”

Wilbur walks in quietly, a look of concern on his face, as both Y/N and Techno struggle to come up with an answer that’ll satisfy but not traumatise the little boy. “Dare I ask what’s happening in here, guys?” 

Tommy stands, bounding over to the brunette. “Wil! I was wondering about wars and stuff. Like, you and Techno and Y/N have all fought in wars ‘n stuff, so does talking really work to avoid them?” Wilbur’s expression sours slightly as he picks up his little brother and places him on his hip. 

“Sometimes, but there are occasions where no amount of talking will get you anywhere closer to avoiding it.” 

“Why?”

“You ask a lot of questions, Tommy. It’ll all be clear to you when you’re older though. Someday... you’ll understand.”

[xhanisai]

AU where the current holders of the miraculous have dreams about the previous holders

- They only dream about the holders before them- not the holders before the previous ones (for example, say Laila is the current holder of the butterfly and the holder before her was Maya. The holder before Maya was Ali. Laila will only dream about Maya whilst Maya have dreamt about Ali).

- The dreams are in the POV of the previous holders; you would only see things that are happening through their eyes and have no control over their bodies. You will also feel the same things the holders are feeling. The dreams are only possible if the predecessor before the current holder has passed away.

- The last holders of the Ladybug and Black Cat miraculouses were Bridgette Zhōu and Felix Gray (The PV predecessors of Marinette and Adrien). They were born in England and fought and died during the end of the second world war in 1945. 

- Bridgette went by as Ladybird whilst Felix went by as Black Cat. They were sixteen when they received their miraculouses by Maître Fu.

- So Marinette, ever since gaining the earrings, would dream about Bridgette and the events that unfolded during her time. Adrien would dream about Felix on the other hand. 

- At first, both were confused and horrified by this, especially after having to witness the brutal battles and war in first person and not having the power to help the way they want. They wouldn’t dare to mention this to each other in the beginning, unsure on how to approach the subject and completely traumatised too.

- They are quick to mature, especially in their civilian lives. Alya has noted that Marinette often wears a distant, sad look on her face, as if she’s weighed down by the burdens of the world.

- Nino was also quick to realise the tired yet determined gaze that Adrien wore, as if he was burning with the desire to protect everything he treasures as well as grieving for the things he’s lost. Though, the boy is an excellent actor and it’s really hard to see him unless you’re Nino. 

- Since Marinette is far too distracted with coming up with plans and connecting dots to find out who le Papillon was, she’s not able to see how deep the changes were within Adrien, mainly focused on protecting her loved ones, especially her Chat Noir.

- Adrien on the other hand keeps a constant close observation on Marinette. She’s one of the few people out there that he really likes and cherishes so seeing her becoming more distant and tired and sad also upsets him.

- He starts to suspect about Ladybug’s civilian identity, especially after Plagg noting that he’s fallen for Marinette and LB for the umpteenth time. 

- Marinette is also in love with both Adrien and Chat Noir (though she doesn’t like to admit the latter). She doesn’t make any attempts on romancing because she fears that it would be taken advantage of by le Papillon one way or another.

- Chat Noir is only a little flirty with Ladybug, also held back from the past holders and the current villain from fully attempting to romance her. Adrien is still soft and sweet with Marinette, always making sure she’s relaxed in his presence (Though, strangers can see that the feelings between ladynoir and adrinette are mutual).

- Both Adrien and Marinette love to spoil their kwamis with all the sweets and cheese the little Gods desire. The duo couldn’t fathom the guilt and trauma from their predecessors so how were Tikki and Plagg dealing with all the lives of their past holders? 

- The bond between Tikki and Marinette and the bond between Plagg and Adrien is super, super strong.

- What finally causes Ladybug and Chat Noir to snap and communicate with each other regarding the dreams is when they finally dreamt about Bridgette’s and Felix’s last moments. These moments were the most haunting and painful out of them all.

Bridgette laid in a distraught Felix’s arms, a fatal wound in her chest, an ugly crimson growing on her clothes, yet a soft, subtle smile rested on her lips. With all her energy, she mustered up the strength to cup the sobbing boy’s cheek, as if Big Ben wasn’t being bombed to smithereens behind them and as if they weren’t surrounded by walls of deadly fire.

“Please...don’t close your eyes...don’t leave me...you’re going to be okay,” Felix choked, leaning into her touch which only grew terrifyingly colder and colder. He has to save her...he has to!

“D-Don’t cry, my sweet love,” Bridgette attempted to grin further and cooed at her lover, blind to Tikki’s vice grip on her blood stained school uniform and Plagg’s gape of horror. “I...I need you to run, Felix. Please-”

“What!? Don’t be ridiculous! I’m not leaving you! Not now, not ever!” He held her closer to him, tears cascading down his usually stoic face and mind scrambling for a plan. “I’ll save you, like always! And no one will dare to hurt you again-”

“Please...you’re already hurt. Please, live for me...”

“Bridgette...there’s no point in living if you’re not there with me, and that’s final!”

.

- Unfortunately, the duo met their demise from a direct bomb. Fu and Marianne had no choice but to take the miraculouses off their corpses as they were on the run, no time to mourn for the poor teens. 

- Because of this dream, Chat has vowed to protect his Lady, no matter what, to ensure that she never has to go through the same pain as Bridgette (and also so he never has to mourn for another woman he’s loved with his everything).

- Ladybug has also vowed to ensure that they would never get into a situation like that, ever. The last thing she ever wants is for her partner to go through that pain. 

- Sometimes, Marinette would find herself clutching her chest, as if she’s been shot, only to realise that they’re phantom pains from Bridgette’s fatal wounds and battle scars. Sometimes, the pain is enough to make her blackout. 

- Similarly, this happens to Adrien too. Especially since Black Cat often got hurt during the war when fighting against the opposition. 

- Both Marinette and Adrien have seen this happen to each other, not only as civilians but as their hero identities as well. They’re both 100% certain of their suspicions regarding the identities but are yet to address it.

- They get into arguments when Chat keeps on sacrificing himself. Both of them wanting to protect each other so badly, it hurts. The horrors of their predecessors’ lives and failures branded into their souls. 

“You are the most important one out of us both! You can bring everything back to normal! Of course it makes sense for me to take that hit for you-”

“We are a team! I can’t do this without you and you know how much I hate seeing you die before my eyes over and over again!”

“But you bring me back every time-”

“That doesn’t stop it from hurting, you stupid cat! How would you feel if the person you love the most kept dying in front of you!?”

- After accidentally blurting out her confession, Ladybug attempts to run away, only for Chat Noir to hold her back by the hand. He then gently hugs her from behind, face hidden on the crook of her neck.

“I do know how it feels, Marinette. I do...” Chat held onto her tighter when she gasped, waiting until she relaxed before he carried on. “Every time I dream about that night, I feel Felix’s pain as his Lady died in his arms. I feel his guilt, his self-hatred, his grief, his heartbreak...everything.” 

Lifting his head, Noir turned Ladybug around, his frown deepening from the tears that ran down her cheeks. He then brought his lips to one of her eyes, kissing away the tears with a softness that would rival even a mother’s touch to a new-born’s skin.

“I’m sorry I made you feel that way...I love you so much that I can’t bear to see you die, ever,”

- From then on, they come to a compromise that they’d work as hard as possible to keep either of them from dying for each other.

- It’s hard and difficult but now that they have each other in their civilian lives, as well as letting Alya, Nino and Marinette’s parents into the secrets, the burdens eased. Fu allowed them to do this, knowing that the burden is too much for a singular person to handle on their own. Together they all became one excellent support system.

- Thankfully, there are pleasant dreams from Felix’s and Bridgette’s lives as well. Such as: first time meeting, ballroom dancing, walking in the gardens, etc.

[cemeterysgirl]

ㅤㅤsasha's obsession with sailor upon his return had grown unhealthy. a sick spirit, finally finding someone sick, too. it wasn't like she had far to look, her hunting grounds limited to this house for all but one day of the year. she'd missed him when he'd gone, but the stories of his turmoil disgustingly excited her. she had spent her nights sat awkwardly, and invisibly, across from his parents as they fretted over their sons wellbeing; getting off on the tales of war. but now he was back, sailor instead of christopher. and she didn't plan on letting him go again. a teensy, tiny part of her felt bad for lying. for not telling him who she is — what she is. that after tonight, he'd have fucked a ghost. sure, she felt as real as any other living girl, and her body, luckily, worked in ways that meant her nymphomaniacal tendencies remained, even in death. and poor sailor was about to be her new way of satiating her needs. she had her fun on halloween, had it with hot guys she lured by sitting on the wall that separated sailor's front yard from the sidewalk. but she'd been waiting for sailor — six long years. how traumatised he'd come home had only further served her ulterior motives; but, first and foremost, sex. cold, pale body ached for him; hooded, inky eyes bright with lust as she batted thick, long lashes down at him. " mhm, pretty, right? " soft, wet, glistening folds, anticipation and arousal pooled between parted thighs. she held the wet lace of her thong to the side for him as his fingers explored, head having fallen to one side; dark, unruly locks partially covering perky, ample breasts.

ㅤㅤthe pressure of his thumb had moans pouring like an unkept tap, previously gentle hold in his hair only growing tighter in a bid to hold him in place. trapped between her thighs. a pretty place to be. she wished he could stay there forever, that he'd never leave this room, this house. just like her... " i'll eat my words when you eat my pussy. " a challenge he was seemingly capable of fulfilling the second his tongue was gracing her at long last, eyes fluttering but she fought to keep them open — she wanted to watch. no, she needed to watch. especially after all this time, all this waiting... it was impossible for her hips to not rock up and into his mouth, especially when she watched as fingers were introduced, slipped inside with the aide of how wet she'd gotten. " oh, fuck— sailor—.. " back arched and moans never ceased whilst his tongue encircles swollen bundle of nerves. " just like that... " fingers combed through his hair to grip at the nape of his neck, greedily holding him in place as hips pressed into him until his face was buried against her cunt and his fingers inside it, covering his nose and cheeks with her arousal. " i bet you're fucking rock hard just from tasting me... " the sounds of her wetness filled his childhood bedroom, empty hand lifting to brush dark locks out from her face; a smug, yet blissful smile, gracing her plump petals as she watched him work. " tell me how good i taste... how you've been waiting so long for my pussy— just a good, needy boy, coming home to finally make me cum for you... " fingers loosened their hold on his hair as she spoke, pearly whites toying with her lower lip as she brushed the fringe back — wanting to see his pretty, pretty eyes. " my sweet, kind sailor. who knew you'd be so good with your tongue? "

𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆   𝐆𝐎𝐎𝐃   𝐂𝐀𝐌𝐄   from   coming   back   home,   or   so   he   thought.   filled   to   the   brim   with   a   dread   that   could   never   be   expressed   with   his   words   the   very   minute   he   step   foot   on   the   doorstep   of   his   childhood   home.   knew   he'd   be   faced   with   his   father,   who   would   be   full   of   nothing   but   i   told   you   so   &   now   you're   finally   a   man.   a   frustration   that   beat   hard   against   the   confinements   of   his   chest   -   one   that   could   never   seem   to   be   silenced   no   matter   how   hard   he   fought   against   it.   took   it   all   for   what   it   was,   because   his   mother's   happiness   meant   more   to   him   than   whatever   empty   nonsense   came   out   of   his   father's   mouth. 

the   differences   within   him,   after   all   he'd   endured   overseas,   was   staggering.   sure   that   sasha   had   picked   up   on   it,   too.   part   of   him   wonders   if   her   perception   of   him   has   been   violently   skewed   by   the   stark   contrast   -   but   those   worries   are   quickly   silenced   by   the   way   she   traps   him   between   her   legs.   maybe   he   should   feel   bad   for   this   -   whatever   their   relationship   was   -   because   he'd   never   be   able   to   give   her   anything   normal.   although,   something   tells   him   that   she   was   never   genetically   composed   to   settle   for   anything   considered   normal.   and,   fuck,   was   he   one   to   cease   to   complain.   she   felt   like   heaven,   despite   being   her   one   way   ticket   to   eternal   damnation. 

even   in   a   moment   like   this,   with   her   displayed   perfectly   in   front   of   him,   he   thinks   of   that.   hell.   heaven.   where   someone   like   him   goes   when   he   dies.   he   hopes   that   if   hell   is   anything   like   the   feeling   of   her,   that   he'd   make   it   there   when   his   time   comes.   a   horrid   thought.   a   horrid   feeling.   it's   all   silenced,   because   he'd   much   rather   find   salvation   between   her   thighs   than   fear   the   outcome   of   when   he   dies.   his   hands   reach   out,   fingers   spreading   her   apart   to   watch   the   way   she   glistens   beneath   the   dim   light.   his   mouth   waters,   every   nerve   ending   sent   ablaze   at   the   mere   sight   of   her.   his   mouth   ghosts   over   her   sex,   emerald   gaze   peering   up   at   her.   “keep   callin'   me   clueless,   darlin'.   it's   been   about   six   long   years   of   me   not   havin'   you   like   this.   you'll   eat   your   words,”   whispered   against   flesh   as   his   thumb   gently   grazes   against   her   clit.   watches,   intently,   the   way   her   body   reacts   to   every   touch.   every   kiss.   every   word.   the   feeling   she   elicits   within   him   is   nearing   intoxicating   -   and   he   hates   the   way   it   seemingly   drives   him   further   into   a   madness   that's   unfathomable   for   him.   his   tongue   gently   dragging   against   her   folds,   savoring   the   taste   of   her   heavy   on   his   tongue.   running   faint   circles   around   her   swollen   clit   only   for   his   fingers   to   find   solace   inside   of   her.   to   feel   the   way   she   wraps   around   them   drives   him   further   -   consumed   by   this   insidious   desire   to   simply   swallow   her   whole. 

[dottiechan]

ICEBREAKER Pt. 7

Read on AO3 (link in bio)

Part 1 | Part 2&3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7

Pairing: Crosshair x Reader x Hunter

Wordcount: 2325

Summary: Bracca is nothing more than a blur. But in the midst of this chaos, there are flashbulb memories, vivid snapshots of moments that will be etched into your mind for the rest of your life.

Warnings: cursing, anxiety, injuries

You're sitting in the corner, mute. Everyone is tired, exhausted beyond belief in the belly of a rusting Republic warship, decommissioned just like you should be. You're all waste, fighting for scraps of individuality in a world that only values witless cooperation. Tech once called the Empire "the very death of critical thinking," and you wonder if he meant it literally. If he meant himself too, and his army of identical brothers, those ticking time bombs with switches sewn inside their heads. If he meant Wrecker grabbing him by the throat before trying to kill you. If he meant Crosshair's blind obedience to an Empire that could never love him back as you do.

Your hand glides over your tender arm, and you wince. You will be bruised, the imprint of Wrecker's hand will bloom purple on your skin, like a strange flower. Your back will be painted blue and black and purple too from where it kissed the ground after he threw you across the med bay. You don't know how many times you will be traumatised before you can find some semblance of peace in this godforsaken Galaxy.

And when you look at Omega - sweet Omega, struggling not to fall asleep, holding Wrecker's hand, hoping the man who tried to kill her a mere hour ago would wake - you somehow manage to feel even worse.

...

It takes time, for them all to undergo surgery. You look at their shaved heads, their confused faces as they look around. They won their own freedom, fought for it too. You want to imagine him here too, in the middle of this quiet victory over the unconscious, silver hair shaved on one side, shaking fingers placing a toothpick between soft lips, uncertain eyes searching for yours amongst his brothers. You want Wrecker to put an arm around those sinewy shoulders only to evoke a scowl on that beloved face.

Wrecker gazes back at you sadly when he notices you staring.

"On your feet, soldier," Hunter extends a hand to you with a small smile on his face. But you know him well enough now, and you see through his façade. You know just how shaken he is, shaken down to his very core. You take his hand and let him help you up. "Are you going to be okay?"

"Yeah, don't worry about me."

"You know that's not something I can do."

"I'm fine, I promise. Completely functional. I'm not the one who's just had surgery," you tut gently, taking his bandana from him when he tries to put it back over the bandage on his head. You're as careful as you can be, ignoring the stabbing ache in your arm as you fix Hunter up, gently brushing his short pieces of hair in the front back over the red fabric once you're finished tying a knot. "There. Good as new."

He catches your hands before you could withdraw them, and upon realising that most are distracted by Rex's and Echo's conversation, he holds them to his heart for a little while. His forehead comes to rest against yours gently, but at first you're not sure if he meant to do that, or if he just bowed under the great weight on his shoulders. But his eyes are searching your face now, and his breath ebbs and flows in harmony with yours. You've seen many soldiers do this before, brothers sharing a peaceful moment together before facing death on the battlefield. The Mandalorians call this a Keldabe kiss. But in his mind, Hunter just simply calls it arriving home.

"We'll be okay," you swallow thickly when he pulls back, placing a hand on the side of his face.

"We'll be okay," Hunter echoes, pressing his cheek into your palm, but if there's anything he's learned today, it's that he can never truly be sure of that.

...

"This is it, boys."

Rex almost looks reluctant, as if being around the Bad Batch has rekindled fond memories he's not eager to part with. This used to be his life, being surrounded by his brothers, saving the day. And while he feels satisfied, this victory leaves a bitter taste in his mouth when he realises that in the grand scheme of things, he's barely changed anything. One family saved, but countless others lost. Like his own brothers, for instance; his own stupid, stubborn, loyal brothers, buried on a bare rock of a moon. Their loss left a hole in his chest bigger than the crater their crashed ship indented on the planet surface, and saving your squad is like a bandaid over a blaster shot to the heart.

He allows his gaze to linger on Echo for a while, the last man he's known well to survive, the last nail in the coffin of his grief. He looks so different now, and yet for a moment he expects Fives to materialise behind him. Dominos attached at the hip, his very own double trouble, the dual curse that followed him everywhere. He used to grumble about how they behaved all the time. But he loved them, he loved his little brothers with all his heart. And look where that love got them.

Fives is not here, of course. Rex never dared ask where they buried him. He's heard rumours of unmarked clone mass graves, but he was never brave enough to accept that truth. That's why he and Ahsoka buried their own dead with dignity, marking an extra grave along the rest, empty but reserved still.

His gaze finds you then, eventually. The only one who isn't a clone here in this rusting medbay, the sore thumb sticking out, the lost one with sad eyes who's seen too much for a civvie. He saw the way Hunter held onto you just now, how you shared a quiet moment in the corner when you thought no one was watching. He promised himself he would do this for Fives, that he would tell you if he ever saw you again that he talked about you even months after that one night at 79's. That he called you the one that got away, that he jokingly said he was saving himself for after the war when he could ask you to marry him. Fives was always full of shit, and no doubt half of what he said were just jokes, but he knows he cared about you still. It's apparent that you're a remarkable person, easy to grow attached to, but twice as difficult to forget.

He wants to do this for Fives. He wants to tell you, he wants you to know that the man who ultimately saved the ones you love loved you in turn. But you already seem like you've been through enough and he hasn't the heart to put you through this as well.

You catch him looking at you, and you muster a small, tired smile. "Take care, Captain."

"Ma'am."

I'm sorry, Fives, he keeps repeating over and over in his head as he turns to leave.

...

The deck is about to collapse. It is the only way you even have a slight chance of survival, you know that. And yet you feel stuck in this very moment, unable to move, deer in the headlights, shaking from head to toe.

The squad is whole again.

You'd like to believe you wouldn't know what would happen if you approached him, if you tried to pry his helmet off and look into his eyes. You'd like to believe he'd let you, you'd like to believe he would listen to your pleas, that he would stop this madness. Order his troops to stand down. Come home with you.

You'd like to believe. But all you can think about is Wrecker, out of his mind and yet still so terrifyingly present somehow, grabbing Tech by the throat and throwing him against the wall before coming for you.

And you know Crosshair would gun you down without hesitation.

"Crosshair... Please don't do this. We can help you." The plea escapes your lips before you could stop it, however. Crosshair tilts his head towards you, and even though you can't see his gaze, just knowing that his eyes are on you is like being struck by lightning. How long was it since you last saw him? How long was it since he last gazed at you, and you at him? He seems almost as frozen for a moment as you, and you allow yourself to believe he's still in there, raging against the control of the Empire. You don't know what it was that you two shared back on Hoth, but you know it meant something. It had to. And judging by his consideration, and the hesitant way he shuffles a step closer to you, you know he must remember too.

But he moved too quickly for Hunter's liking, and he's by your side, trying to shield you as much as he shields Omega. Whatever moment you and Crosshair just shared is over. You can tell, by the tightening of his shoulders, by his stance turning defensive once more. You got through to the real Crosshair for a second. But the menace - like some demon possessing his body - is back in control once again.

"Crosshair, wake up! You're being controlled by an inhibitor chip." Hunter's reasoning falls on deaf ears now. It is over. You should accept it, but you can't. But at least you're not the only one who can't admit defeat.

"He's telling the truth. The Kaminoans put chips in all the clones. Remember what I told you in the brig?"

After Omega's spoken up, a stretch of silent tension follows. You're all nervous, weapons aimed, caught in a death trap with no way out but down. And yet you're holding on, you're still holding on to that last shred of hope that your words will finally get through to him. That you can finally put down the cross you've been bearing and rest.

"Aim for the kid."

You don't know how many times you can be traumatised before you finally give in. But you make room for one more, and the day is far from being over yet.

...

You're going to be sick, but you know you can't be. You've treated a thousand gruesome injuries before, but somehow a partial blaster burn to the chest will be your final straw, you can already tell. You gingerly lay the bacta patch across the scorched patch skin and flesh as your fingers tremble like a new recruit's. The internal damage was thankfully minimalised by his armour, but this is still going to take some time to heal from.

You don't know how long it will take for you all to heal from leaving Crosshair behind once more. From losing Omega.

When your breathing starts bordering on frantic, Tech nudges you aside and takes over, but you can't leave. You sit on the edge of the cot, and clutch Hunter's hand in your clammy ones. You can't lose anyone else, you can't, you heart wouldn't take it.

When he finally comes around again, the look in his eyes are so hurt you finally give in to the urge to cry.

"I guess I can't hold the mission on Bracca against you anymore," Hunter rasps through his pain, trying to ignore how choked up and panicked the thought of losing Omega makes him.

"No, you really can't," you agree quietly, wiping at your eyes as you try not to let your anxiety get the better of you. Not when you're supposed to be Hunter's comfort, when you're supposed to reassure him.

"This is the only thing I ever want to wake up to," he whispers, a weak hand reaching up, longing touch ghosting along your features. He's dying a little inside every time he fails, swallowing the shards of every heart he breaks as atonement. They're jarring his insides, leaving him breathless every time he moves. And yet he keeps pushing on, even now, even when he feels worse than he's ever felt - all because of you. You're his only remedy in this fucked up world, the only person who still makes him believe there can be a happy ending for you all. He loves his brothers, but they're just as guilty and cynical as he is. He understands why he can't pin all his hopes on a child, but for some reason, he can't make the same exception for you. His voice is quiet, but it's obvious his head is clear when he speaks next.

"Cyare."

A little to the side, Tech finishes checking the medical scans for the last time. Hunter's condition has been stabilised, and for now, all he can do is look into the bounty hunter who took Omega. He casts one last look at you and Hunter, hand in hand, eyes glued to each other's face, and he sighs.

"How's Hunter?"

"He'll live," Tech answers, placing a hand on Echo's shoulder. "We've been through a lot over a rather short period of time. I think they've earned a moment of peace alone though, wouldn't you agree?"

Echo's face rarely reflects the emotions inside him, but now an endless kind of sadness perches itself on his features as he nods and follows Tech to the cockpit.

"They deserve a lot more than that. Hell, we all do."

...

Crosshair would agree with that sentiment now as he's patched up at the medbay of an Imperial flagship, alone aside from the medical droids. His head is killing him, his thoughts are sluggish, but the pain in his chest is not only from his injuries. He keeps remembering you, over and over again, your beautiful face, the way you said his name as if he mattered, as if he still belonged to you. And you left him behind anyways again.

If he heard Tech's and Echo's conversation now, he'd agree. He deserves better too.

[whispered-into-the-void]

the order that superheroes show up in a world matters. Not just the order that movies come out in; the presence of heroes in a world makes a massive, masive difference. And to prove it, let’s look at The World’s Finest; Batman and Superman.

In common continuity, it’s considered canon that the entire Justice League are, essentially, the second generation of superheroes, with the first being the Justice Society of the 1940s, who - depending on the canon - even trained several members of the modern JLA, including Batman and Black Canary. The presence of these caped crusaders inherently shapes the attitude of the world and other heroes going forward; a Batman who’s been inspired by the Wildcat and Doctor Midnight is going to be far less dour and grim than he would be otherwise. Young Bruce Wayne, seeing the murder of his parents and deciding to become a vigilante to prevent that happening to anyone else, has very different motives when he’s seen the example of prior protectors of Gotham than one who hasn’t. In my opinion, if Bruce didn’t have the example of the JSA, he wouldn’t be the league member who’s best with kids; I guarantee that Snyderverse Superman wouldn’t exist in the form he has if he had the example of the JLA behind him.

Now, let’s compare this to something more like the New 52 or DCEU, wherein these characters are all the first of their kind. Batman is the first masked protector of Gotham, Superman is the first caped superhero with a public presence. honestly, for all my misgivings about the DCEU, I think the internal logic holds; a world where heroes appear out of nowhere in the 21st century is the sort of world that attempts to legislate them out of existence, that creates a task force of superhuman criminals in case they turn against the government. but, you still have to reckon with the difference between a superman-first and a batman-first world.

A world with Superman as the first public superhero is one of hope. When Central City reports a scarlet blur that’s stopping bank robberies and saving lives, it’s citizens will look to Metropolis and think, “we’ve got our very own Superman!” it’s a world where Hal Jordan returns from Oa and realises that it he’s already got allies on Earth. it’s a world where anything is possible, including a man in a bat costume fighting side-by-side with gods and aliens.

In contrast, a world where Batman has been operating for a while is going to have been darker, more serious, more upsetting. Again, I think BvS, while being a horrendous film, got one aspect right; when Bruce has had to deal with so much loss, so many psychopaths trying to destroy Gotham, this superhuman vigilante is going to look like a threat. honestly, I don’t think a post-Death In The Family Bruce would join the Justice League, let alone found it. honestly, I think Knightfall or Killing Joke would be hard to move past for him. I feel like the best way to work BvS Batman would have been to make him more like current earth-3 Owlman; having him ambivalent to Clark, with just a demand to “Stay out of my city.” a zero-tolerance policy on other vigilantes and superhumans in Gotham, especially after seeing what happens when he lets someone else suit up to try and do what he does.

Ultimately, I feel like these characters, and their world, works best if they’re not the first. if Bruce Wayne is inspired by prior vigilantes, but escalates it into a war, not just against the man in the street, but the ring-leaders who don’t have to get their hands dirty; if Diana knows about the world of mortal men, and the heroes who fought beside her when she first was pulled into outside conflict; if Clark is welcomed by a world accustomed to costumed heroes like Green Lantern and Hourman. you can have them be long-retired, so you still have the first Oan GL return to Earth shocked at the other superheroes, but the world of these figures, IMO, should be used to their likeness.

honestly, if it were me? have the Justice Society get struck down by some anti-cape legislation in the 60s or so, to get them out of the picture. Long enough ago that they’re known, but half forgotten, with the stories of Gotham’s protectors being told by promising surgeon Thomas Wayne to his young son Bruce. it can mobilise the government and police against new supers, like Batman and Superman, while the public are still inspired and proud of their heroes. Bruce can be partially motivated by the belief that, if the heroes were still allowed in Gotham, they might have saved his parents; Superman by the tales of brave men standing up to injustice at home and abroad. Barry Allen can be inspired to take on the name of the long-missing Scarlet Speedster that once called his city home, and the JSA can inspire the disparate heroes to form their own Justice League, just in case.

The knowledge of what supers would have meant to him could inspire Bruce to take in the young circus boy, tragically orphaned, and help him find justice for his parent’s killer, only to (YEARS later) take on the mantle of Robin, with a street kid, young detective, two heavily-traumatised child assassins and the daughter of a C-grade villain all eventually joining him. the League can renovate the Hall of Justice, to provide a symbolic meeting ground and safe haven for all. and it sets the stage for all manner of other super-teams, from the Teen Titans to the far-future Legion of Superheroes.  

[dewitty1]

Fic Recs Wrap Up - June 2020  (੭ˊ͈ ꒵ˋ͈)੭*⁺˚. * ･ ｡ﾟ☆ﾟ

you, a violent desire by alpha_exodus @alpha-exodus

The Amortentia was an accident—but only the first time. Rec post

The Power of Three by Queenie_Mab  @mab-speaks

Harry has been seeing Luna, Mind Healer, for twelve years. Recently his repressed homosexuality resurfaces in a way that turns his world and his family upside down. Rec Post 1, 2 

Finite Incantatum by Alysian_Fields

What should have happened after 'Half Blood Prince'! It’s the autumn after Dumbledore’s death, the Death Eaters are steadily gaining power, and Harry and his friends are desperate to find the remaining Horcruxes. But then Draco Malfoy arrives at Grimmauld Place, traumatised, starved and drained of all his magical ability. It falls to Harry to show the Slytherin how to adapt to his new way of life, never guessing that Draco has a few things to teach him in return. Rec Post, (1st )

Two Playboys on the Pitch by Professor McKitten

Harry's a famous Quidditch player. Draco's the Healer for a Quidditch team. They're both known for their wild ways, but what happens when these two playboys meet after several years apart? Rec post 1, 2 

Double Edged Sword by Romaine

Harry thinks his life has been planned out, but the night he comes of age changes everything. Now there are decisions to be made and a path to be chosen, and the choices before him will change the lives of everyone he knows. But when destiny calls, Harry finds himself ready to listen.

This is an epic story of the love between Harry and Draco. Join them as they journey through their life together, through the good times and the bad, facing obstacles both external and internal, and see how they come to be who they were meant to be. Rec post 1, 2

Who we are in the shadows by Quicksilvermaid @quicksilvermaid

What happens when you’re forced to become the very thing you despise?

Ex-Auror Harry Potter, tossed out of the Ministry for something he had no control over, has been looking for a way back to his former life. When he comes across Draco Malfoy in the criminal underbelly of Wizarding London and in need of protection, Harry figures bringing him in to face the Ministry's justice is his ticket back to everything he's lost.

But nothing is exactly as it seems. Not even Harry himself. And as he gets drawn further and further into Malfoy's world of honour and deception he finds himself questioning everything he thought he knew—about his childhood nemesis, the Ministry job he misses so much, and most of all, about himself.

What happens when you’re forced to see that you were wrong? Rec post

Celestial Bodies by shiftylinguini @shiftylinguini

“An astrological anomaly induced bond,” Harry repeats, deadpan, as the Head Healer of the Magical Malfunctions ward finishes announcing his prognosis.

“Space magic,” says Draco, tapping long fingers irritably against the arm of his chair. “You’re saying we’ve been zapped by space magic.”

The Healer huffs. “That’s rather simplifying things, gentlemen.” Rec post

Pensieve For Your Thoughts by fencer_x @fencer-x

Ostracised from the more discerning social circles after the war, Draco decides to spend his final few months at Hogwarts attempting to ingratiate himself with the Boy Wonder in the hopes he might be able to salvage his reputation in the doing. But when has anything involving Draco trying to be Potter’s friend gone right, really? Rec post

Darkest Before the Dawn by dualwieldteacup @dualwieldteacup

The last thing Draco wanted was to show up at Harry Potter's door, cursed blind and holding a boxful of his friends Transfigured into snakes, but here he was.

Between breaking the curse, adjusting to life without sight, and teaching his Defence Against the Dark Arts classes, Draco's got his hands full. Being forced to live with Harry Potter might just be the death of him.

This is a story about the bonds of friendship, fairy tale endings, and learning to ask for help (even from Gryffindors).Rec post

The Seeker by kedavranox @kedavranox

Draco’s position with the International Association of Quidditch has always been tenuous, but that may be about to change with Harry as his source on the biggest case of Performance-Enhancing Potions doping of the decade. But Draco soon learns that things are not as they seem, and he has to find a balance between his commitment to the IAQ and his evolving relationship with Harry, as they uncover secrets that even Harry has fought to keep. Rec post

(◍•ᴗ•◍)♡ ✧*。

Here are some other great fics you might enjoy! (ﾉ^ヮ^)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧

Stain of Silence by brummell (actualite)

After the war, Draco serves out his sentence in Harry Potter's house. rec post

Some great art that @sultania for this fic here.

We Take Care of Each Other by keyflight790 @keyflight790

Draco has been having panic attacks for years, until his best friend, Pansy, welcomes him into a whole new world. And he thought being a wizard was neat. Being a dom was even better. Art post by @mad1492

Suited and Booted by DeWitty1 & drarrymehome @drarrymehome @dewitty1

It's Draco's fortieth birthday and he's planning a huge muggle-themed party to celebrate. Draco is taking the muggle theme very seriously, and has meticulously researched high-end muggle fashion for the occasion. Unfortunately for Harry, this means being a victim of Draco's bold fashion choices and his strange new interest in a muggle singer called Harry Styles, who Draco claims looks a lot like his husband.

In other words, Draco wants Harry to wear a pink floral suit for his birthday and Harry isn't having any of it. Rec post

Super Rich Kids by trishjames @thusspoketrish

Draco Malfoy has become disillusioned by the glitz and glamour of the scandalous lives of the Post-Second Wizarding War Pureblood Elite. Enter: one existential crisis, one group of cynical friends, and several terrible, terrible decisions. fic reveal, rec post, Art post, 2nd art by @junk-ren

Helix by Saras_Girl

Seven months after the end of the war, Harry is feeling lost. Fortunately, he is about to be offered an unexpected and sparkling chance to find himself again. art post by @una-png

Away Childish Things by lettered @letteredlettered

Harry gets de-aged. Malfoy has to help him. Art post by @miakagrewup

Things Worth Paying For by MalenkayaCherepakha @malenkayacherepakha

After leaving post-war Britain for Paris, Draco is finally happy, with friends and a job he loves. But then his newest client turns out to be Harry Potter, and everything changes. Fic claim post

I hope you all enjoy the fics for this past month! Sorry this was posted late! OOPSIE!  (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧ As always, thank you so much for following, reading and sharing! I appreciate you! See you soon with  more recs!

xoxo Carey

ヾ(◍’౪`◍)ﾉﾞ♡💜💙💚💛❤💗💕💖

[zuzuslastbraincell]

For the salty ask game: 6, 10 and 16? <3

6: Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated?

I never used to like kataang or maiko much, but I’m good with the former and really like the latter now.

while I’m still not a big fan of the kataang (without wanting to write an essay: ember island players ruins it for me), I’ve softened on it a lot largely just from seeing the content for it on here. they’re just honestly very sweet? I don’t know if it’ll last for practical reasons, but the idea of aang & katara offering each other hope from the beginning and until the end is just lovely. 

as for maiko, I absolutely love the strength of mai & zuko’s dynamic (platonic or romantic) just from their boiling rock interactions alone. I feel like a lot of early s3 maiko very much demonstrates that they have some communication difficulties to work through together (thinking about the beach in particular here, but also the ‘are you cold?’ scene, as well as the break-up via letter interaction, that’s the big one) and in a sense mai represents part of zuko’s ‘ideal’ life as a perfect prince that he realises that he has to break from in the first half of s3, but I’ve come around to the idea that if they spent some time working through their communication issues they could really have something lovely? I do also think mai deserves a short break from the stifling culture of nobility/time to explore herself first, but after that? totally could work. like, i’m personally really attached to the gay zuko headcanon and always have been but a lot recent mutuals are maiko shippers and i’ve become very attached to maiko as well because of them (in parallel universes of course).

16: If you could change anything in the show, what would you change?

so many things....

1. less racist, more sensitive worldbuilding. crucially better south asian rep, clear south asian rep. this also means including removing the caricature of guru pathik and changing the design of combustion man (and p’li) not to include a reference to shiva. the show’s philosophies and vocabulary owes so much to south asian culture and the lack of representation in that aspect alone is shocking.

2. references to the fact that there are some air nomad survivors / descendents in hiding in various and that being a late s2 / s3 subplot. (maybe aang is still the last airbender tho? but certainly his culture won’t die with him). the culture isn’t perfectly preserved / has changed with time and enduring hardships, some things have been lost, but there are still survivors clinging on, proud. maybe it’s this community that helps with him the avatar state, not a random guru? or they could help him with his s3e1 dilemma about ‘blending in’, as many of them have discarded certain aspects of appearance in order to hide? i feel like this could add so much to aang’s arc in the latter half of the show.

3. better writing of the white lotus, with the white lotus as a international resistance org that operates in all nations, that uses old man’s pai sho club as a front. they’re introduced as opposing the dai li in ba sing se, as trying to organise resistance in secret, have ties to some local revolutionary/radical factions as they have a long standing rivalry with the dai li (& part of the reason the dai li side with azula is to crush the white lotus and resistance to their reign). iroh is not grand lotus but merely gets recruited in s2, as part of a redemption arc.

4. a subtle iroh redemption arc where iroh realises he cannot simply be passive and perhaps let the treasonous thought ”hm, maybe it would have been better if the avatar fought sozin” cross his mind - he needs to take a more active role in opposing the fire nation, and he joins the white lotus. i think he also needs to reckon quite specifically with the cost of the siege of ba sing se, he needs to make amends to those hurt from it on both sides - be confronted by fire nation defectors who left after the siege because why were their deaths less important that his son’s? as well as encounter how the siege left scars on the lower ring, in a less visible way (untrained lower ring residents formed resistance militia and generally died in huge numbers; plague and starvation greatly affected the lower ring, etc.). no iroh as a moral authority here - he’s morally grey trying to become good. also he doesn’t stick around in ba sing se, he realises the jasmine dragon, as lovely as it is, isn’t true redemption either, and at the end of the series he stays in the fire nation.

5. leading into point 3 (and 4): in s3 the gaang encounters and works with grassroots underground resistance in the fire nation. i think this is a better message than ‘oh the fire nation is a soceity ridden by class division that exploits its poorer / less privileged people and its own environment as long as it doesn’t affect the elite, and turns even its most privileged children into traumatised child soldiers and is indirectly hurt by its own colonialism and imperialistic culture, and that’s deeply sad’ - i think a better message is ‘the fire nation is a society with all those problems and you can do something about it. you can stand up. even though that’s scary.’ this resistance group is around for day of black sun (in fact they’re vital to it) and then you see a key member in boiling rock too.

6. no combustion man. honestly? weak writing. would much prefer zuko attempting to ‘stealthily’ track the gaang on the false premise of a ‘welcome home tour’ where he slips out under night to try and chase them down - this would mostly be alluded to in a few scenes. i also think this would get zuko to realise how much the fire nation itself has been hurt from war. i think the main early s3 plot points e.g. the beach episode still happens, as does the war meeting. i feel like zuko would need extra firepower to be a decent s3 threat - maybe he takes mai and ty lee with him? zuko ultimate lesbian ally takes bored lesbians from the palace for a knife throwing chi blocking field trip kjfshdj i’m joking. but seriously we could also have a combustion bender on board as well as a potential new character (i’m imagining someone like a younger p’li if i’m honest, same age range as zuko), as long as they have a character beyond being a scary assassin. maybe they defect early to the resistance group before the day of black sun, tell zuko they should too (but zuko doesn’t listen)? that’d be rad.

7. the existence of grassroots resistance would basically allow for the series to end with zuko being offerred the crown, but deciding to give it up / end the royal line. rather than a power vacuum, or iroh, the existance of resistance means there are clearly people (i.e. adults) who can fill that space. maybe this is a bit optimistic of me but i would just love to set up a scenario where zuko doesn’t become a boy-king of an imperialist nation and where absolute monarchy doesn’t continue, where there’s a clear shift in system. i understand the narrative power of zuko acknowledges he has inherited wealth and power that has been gained through exploitation and imperialism, and dedicating his whole life to undoing the damage his family has done, but i think he can do this without being the fire lord? in fact not being the fire lord is a good first step. zuko finds another way of doing exactly this.

8. talked about this a lot recently but better toph s3 representation & greater ties to the earth kingdom. also, i’d just appreciate a lot more flavour from the earth kingdom as a whole, and more prominent characters from there?

9. okay i’m not sure there is quite honestly space in the narrative for an azula redemption clearly on screen in as much depth as zuko’s but 1. i’d like iroh not to treat her horribly, thanks, and maybe even try to reach out to her at appropriate moments, maybe we see him (comically) say a lovely warm hello during her s2 appearances, maybe we see her play pai sho with him in s3 while he’s in prison in return for some secret info he’s not actually giving her while he’s not-so-subtly suggesting she should defy her father (but it’s too little too late, he already *chose* zuko in her eyes, and perhaps he did and is only just beginning to realise that) 2. i would like some hope and optimism at the end for azula. her breakdown is truly tragic but it feels like pain for pain’s sake in a sense - i would have loved for the finale scene with zuko & ozai replaced with a scene where someone visits azula and tells them they’ll be there for her and/or they love her. perhaps iroh, perhaps zuko (though i think that one would be more complicated obviously). i would love a post-finale scene where iroh sets up a tea shop somewhere in the fire nation where we see azula out the back, finishing up wiping down/mopping the patio, and before aang goes inside to say hi to his friends, we see them bump into each other - azula bows deeply, a clear apology, and aang accepts it. then we see azula runs off to go hang out with some friends before we follow aang inside as he encounters his own friends.

basically i’d rewrite a lot of s3. i’m dearly, dearly attached to s3, especially the second half, which has some of my favourite episodes of the entire season, but i think it’s flawed.

[grigori77]

Summer 2020′s Movies - My Top Ten Favourite Films (Part 1)

20.  THE OUTPOST – it’s been a great year for war movies already, but summer was definitely where the genre really blew up, showering a TRIO of crackers on us, starting with this intensely rugged actioner about the Battle of Kamdesh in 2009 Afghanistan, in which a small group of American soldiers fought against an overwhelming Taliban force in extremely hostile terrain.  Director Rod Lurie (The Last Castle, The Contender) hasn’t had the most impressive career so far, but he shines here, as does a powerful ensemble cast which includes Scott Eastwood, Caleb Landry Jones and Orlando Bloom.

19.  BIT – the first notable feature from indie director Brad Michael Elmore is an enjoyably offbeat little vampire flick in which small-town transgender teen Laurel (Supergirl’s Nicole Maines) moves out to Los Angeles and gets swept up in the strictly girls-only revolution of local head vamp Duke (Goliath’s Dianna Hopper) and her feminist pack. Maines and Hopper are both phenomenal, while Elmore does wonders with his tiny budget and really pays off on his film’s intriguing ideas.

18.  DA 5 BLOODS – Spike Lee’s latest joint must be the most tripped-out and subversive Vietnam War movie since Apocalypse Now, letting his politically-charged mixture of reportage and personal drama run riot with particularly colourful results as we follow a group of ageing black Vets on their journey to retrieve the remains of a fallen comrade and a fortune in illicit gold. The cast are uniformly excellent, particularly Delroy Lindo as traumatised hothead Paul, while there’s a magnificent turn from Chadwick Boseman in one of his final roles.

17.  THE LOVEBIRDS – director Michael Showalter reunites with Kumail Nanjiani, star of his indie hit The Big Sick, for this riotous screwball comedy in which lovers Jibran and Leilani (Nanjiani and Insecure’s Issa Rae) find their faltering relationship tested to breaking point when they’re forced to prove their innocence after being framed for murder by a corrupt cop.  The laughs come thick and fast, but there’s an endearing warmth that adds emotional heft to the story, bolstered by the leads’ palpable chemistry.

16.  UNHINGED – Russell Crowe brings every motorist’s worst nightmare to life as Tom Cooper, a deranged psychopath who harasses struggling divorcee Rachel (Slow West and Mortal Engines’ Caren Pistorius) and her son to increasingly terrifying extremes after one bad day leads to a road-rage misjudgement.  The overblown revenge thriller plot works best if you don’t think about it too much, but the incredibly game cast give their all and director Derrick Borte (The Joneses) keeps the tension cranked up to breaking point.

15.  THE NEW MUTANTS – the last ever Fox-based X-Men movie slumps into cinemas with little fanfare after a series of increasingly lamentable delays with an inevitable sense of Marvel Studios going through the motions out of mere obligation to what was once the franchise that MADE them.  It’s truly criminal treatment because this is a CRACKING film, the property taking an intriguing swerve into horror movie territory as five young mutants trapped in a shadowy government institute are terrorized by their own worst fears.  The Fault in Our Stars’ director Josh Boone shows a surprisingly sure hand with the superheroics AND the scares, but the film really belongs to its uniformly excellent young cast, particularly Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams as shapeshifter Rahne Sinclair and Anya Taylor-Joy as fan favourite Illyana Rasputin.  It’s another worthy mutant-fest, which makes it all the more heartbreaking watching with the knowledge that, now that the X-Men and their ilk have been officially folded into the all-encompassing behemoth of the MCU, it’s the opening chapter of a new franchise we’ll never get to see …

14.  BECKY – ambitious indie directing duo Jonathan Millott and Cary Murnion have been on my ones-to-watch list for a while now (ostensibly after their horror comedy Cooties but mainly thanks to supercharged single-shot action thriller Bushwick), but they’ve really outdone themselves with this left-field survival horror, in which a pack of neo-Nazi prison-breakers led by brutal genius Dominick (a cannily cast-against-type Kevin James) find themselves up against something they never bargained for – Anabelle: Creation star Lulu Wilson’s eponymous, unexpectedly lethal 13 year-old girl.

13.  THE VAST OF NIGHT – despite its far more understated, super-low budget origins, there’s a strong dose of Super 8 in the DNA of this astounding debut from writer-director Andrew Patterson, an intriguingly ambitious first-contact sci-fi thriller set in small town America in the 1950s.  Some Kind of Hate’s Sierra McCormick and newcomer Jake Horowitz are the endearingly sparky core of the film, putting the rich quick-fire screenplay through its paces while Patterson displays uncannily sophisticated flair behind the camera.  I can’t wait to see what he’s going to deliver in the future …

12.  IN SEARCH OF DARKNESS – not just the best feature I’ve watched so far in what’s already been an unusually strong year for documentary films, but one of the best I’ve watched in a good long while, this epic examination of ALL the key horror cinema releases of the 1980s and their enduring cultural impact makes for undeniably engrossing viewing.  Despite clocking in at OVER FOUR HOURS, it never outstays its welcome, with writer-director David A. Weiner’s fascination for the subject proving overwhelmingly infectious.

11.  GET DUKED! – four wayward teenage boys are pursued by gun-toting aristocratic psychopaths in the Scottish Highlands while doing their Duke of Edinburgh Award (well, it was that or Borstal) in this gleefully OTT comedy masterpiece from debuting writer-director Ninian Doff.  One of last year’s major festival hits, it’s an absolute riot, a blissfully unapologetic non-PC laugh-fest powered by a quartet of astonishing turns from its young leads and brilliant support from Eddie Izzard, Kate Dickie and James Cosmo.