#that obviously most of us knew it wasn't true lol

[bandzboy]

i get that, to most of us, dating rumours are silly and shouldn't have that much importance in the industry but the truth is idols lose careers simply because they are dating or might have dated. it's not like we don't want to stop being an issue but if there's anything we have learned this year (in the worst possible way i might say) it's that it's still very far from stopping from being this big event.

companies let these obsessive fans control the narrative too much because they don't wanna lose money so they basically do what they wish even tho, it's an insane request. we can make jokes and think it's silly at best but unfortunately, this industry won't change their stance on dating anytime soon

[trippinsorrows]

Hey Ari! That last chapter of LTYE has me curious if you ever considered giving Solana a 'normal' childhood or background story? It's just all so sad, and I wonder how different her life could have been if she wasn't born to such a evil man.

hi!

this is an interesting question.

warning: long ass post literally no one asked for, but i don't know how to stfu clearly.

i actually went through a couple of different scenarios and even plots for this story. i knew i wanted to tackle abuse, sexual trauma, and/or mental health, so most touched on some aspect of one or more. a couple that, obviously, didn't make the 'cut', so to speak, are as follows:

solana being a nurse who is secretly in a relationship and married to roman, but they live separately and only those closest to him even know he's with her/married for safety reasons. her relationship to and with him eventually gets 'exposed' i.e. is exposed by someone and she's attacked by his enemies and miscarries as a result (she hadn't had a chance to tell him about the pregnancy). thus a lot of the story would focus on their healing from that.

roman meets solana who works as a waitress at a restaurant and is almost instantly intrigued by her because she randomly comes up to him and serves him pie because he looks like he's having a 'bad day.' (she's more bubbly and not as nervous in this iteration) he's not used to this kind of friendly behavior. his intrigue results in him randomly coming to see her and a relationship/connection forming. there were two options here where she has a baby from an abusive ex she escaped where roman would develop a bond with her and the child or where xavier (i know) is still her dad and arranges a marriage between her and someone who is an equal pos which roman is not here for obviously. some other things lol

there was also a similar one to the above where solana was forced into an arranged marriage with seth's psycho (no offense seth girlies) ass, they have a baby together, but he's abusive. he's deep in the hole in the bloodline and one night roman and the gang break into his house, demanding to be repaid. well, obviously, his gambling ass ain't got it, so roman, unaware of just how bad shit is or that seth really don't gaf about her and the baby, takes solana and the baby as 'collateral' that seth can 'get back' when roman gets his money. welp, feelings grow and obviously roman is like 'i'm never sending you back there' and yeah.

and one of the last was solana taking care of her two younger sisters, the youngest being a half sister. still piece of shit xavier as the father who was abusive and had the mom killed (a secret as well) and solana stays around because one sister is only like 15, and the other is lik 5. she refuses to leave her sisters, and xavier won't let solana take them. well, xavier stays true to his piece of shit nature and plans to sell off the 15 y/o with some illegal arranged marriage and enter the human trafficking world which terrifies solana, so she risks her life and approaches roman to ask him for help and/or a loan smuggling her sisters out of the country and into mexico to escape their dad. she'll then return and work for him, indebting herself to the bloodline. roman is like fuck that and just moves solana and her sisters into his house until she can figure out a better plan or whatever. and obviously, feelingssssss.

so.....yeah. 😩 my creative process is....a lot when it comes to story creation, clearly 😭😭😭😭

[moonlight-tmd]

ok so I was thinking about the Amica bond (specifically bout bee & bulk) and how it's kinda like the Conjux bond; while they can feel each other's presence and emotions it's faded, like they can't fully understand it but it's there. idk it's my take on it. anyway, say that the rest of team prime doesn't know of bee and bulk's Amica bond.

how funny would it be when bee senses that bulk is in trouble and without warning dashes straight towards where bulk is (and vice versa). the team would be so confused on how both bee and bulk know where the other is at random given moments of danger without a signal/warning/comm. or anything

Lol yeah, just Bulkhead suddenly stopping mid-sentence and driving out of base and everyone's so confused and then he comes back with semi-dented Bumblebee.

It just keeps repeating- tho it's most often Bulkhead who leaves and comes back with Bee than Bee with Bulkhead. (little man's got troubles for days-)

I never knew how Amicas worked so i came up with my own idea of it; it's like the Conjunx sparkbond but not that intense- as in they have a vague idea of what the other is feeling (sad, happy, scared, etc) but there is no exact emotion pointed. Amicas also don't feel what their other is physically feeling, for example Conjunxes would feel each other's pain if one was hurt and would react too, the one's emotions can also affect how the other feels. And while Conjunxes can send like, a short visions of what they see to the other thru their bond, Amicas only have a feeling of where to go in order to find each other. There is this presence both parties have of their significant other in them but with Amicas it is very faint. Like, Conjuxes have ot touch Sparks in order for the bond to form. Amicas are made with light emmiting from the baren Spark- there is no physcial bridge for the energy to flow and form a strong bond, hence why Amicas' feelings are muted in comparison to Conjunxes.

I imagine it happened after the Wasp incident when he replaced Bee. Bee was sad and a little disappointed than none of his friends noticed it wasn't him. Not even Bulkhead- at least not at first. Wasp was fooling him a good while before the big bot finally noticed something was off.

Bee and Bulkhead had quite a story together- the big bot tried his best to befriend the minibot back at bootcamp but never succeeded, the yellow bot just kept pushing him away. Only after one of the rougher encounters with Wasp, Bulkhead found Bee sitting all alone crying. Bee argued to leave him alone but Bulkhead didn't and they talked. It turns out Bee was depressed and most likely suicidal from all the torment from Wasp. That one moment is all it took for them to become nearly inseparable.

Soon enough Bulk got to learn Bee's true nature as a prankster, he pulled a rather malicious prank on Sentinel and was having one heck of a fun time with it. Then Longarm came along and Wasp was deemed a traitorous spy. The trio had a good time together until Bee got kicked out. Bulkhead was short from getting the degree so Bee secretly hung around the ship until Bulkhead was out and he got him a job as a repair bot in the same squad.

It was after Wasp came and impersonated Bee Bulkhead felt that it was time to do something. They became Amicas, life-long best friends.

It sure as hell was awkward at first but they got used to the new feelings pretty quickly. And obviously, they did not bother to tell the others about it.

I think the team only learned that they were Amicas when they were trying to find Bee after they split up to scout the forest for some mission and Bee did not come back on time. They were in the middle of talking about what he must be doing when Bulkhead spoke up with a disappointed yet concerned face. "He's in trouble again."

He didn't answer any immediate questions, just started walking in a direction and yup, sure enough Bee was fighting for his life with the weird non-sentient insecticon creatures Blackarachnia conjured up out of nothing again.

"You two aren't telling us something here." Ratchet was fed up with this, it was primus-knows-which-time this happened.

Bee and Bulkhead were just like "Didn't you tell them?" "No, I thought you told them?" "What? No I thou- oooh I see what happened." "Oh.. Yeah." "Yeah, we forgot to tell you."

"Tell us what??" "We're Amicas." And Bee said that so nonchalantly before talking about what he found so far. The others were literally bewildered while Ratchet facepalmed. It was unreal how they took such a big commitment as something on the same level of importance as a reminder to take out the trash, for example.

I think Bulkhead would be so used to covering for Bee when he gets in trouble he know immediately when he did a prank and is on the run from consequences. Like, he'd be minding his own business painting in his room when all of a suddent he'd get this phantom feeling of adrenaline and he knows. He's just doing the little countdown and Bee bursts into his room begging to hide him quickly. "No I didn't see him, although I think I saw some yellow speeding down the hallway a moment ago." Bulkhead said when Optimus came to ask about Bee with some oddly and overly sparkly spots on his plating.

Bee put transparent glitter in his polishing paste. Okay, that one is funny, he has to admit.

Also, i think Bee would try to do the whole Amica rite with Sari after she gets upgraded. He'd aks Bulkhead first if he was okay with it- even if there was no need, according to Bulkhead Bee can have as many life best friends as he likes and vice versa. So yeh, Bee takes Sari for a fun day, just them 2 and then does the whole 'you are important to me' rite. He kinda has to teach her how to reveal her Spark-Heart thing cuz she's still learning about her techno part. And so- tadah! Those two are also Amicas.

And yeah, i think that's it. Thank you for the ask!

[irrealisms]

this might not be the type of question you’re looking for, but my understand is you’re a convert or at least someone who has become more devout over time. I was wondering if you were willing to talk about your faith journey? Obviously I know it’s a personal thing so I’m not looking for any prying details, just whatever you feel most comfortable with talking about!

this is a good question! prying questions are actively encouraged lol

i'm a convert! i was baptized on easter 2022, here are a couple pictures from that:

this was ... about two or three years after i started getting serious about Catholicism? uhhhh actually i should back up some more

i grew up nominally methodist but in practice my mom didn't believe in God and treated it as a convenient place for me to make friends and participate in a kids' choir and such and i picked up on this (and stopped going at some point, i don't even really know when, i think sometime in middle school). i also had my own elaborate mostly-animist theology that treated Christianity as blatantly laughable. in retrospect a lot of the theology was bc i heard voices a lot as a kid lol, both "this is what they tell me is true" and "i need a worldview that accommodates the experiences i am having". i feel a little weirder abt talking abt me-as-a-kid having delusional tendencies bc it was i think within the range of "imaginative autistic kid"? but i ... never grew out of it, and a lot of them are recognizably the same tendencies that got me labeled as delusional as a teenager-adult, so. shrug. i grew up with a familiarity with Christianity but not specifically Catholicism and it was never serious.

in high school i had, mmm... very varying theologies most of which were pretty shallow and focused on whichever girl i was currently in love with lol. but i was still drawn to Catholicism--i first observed lent in 2017 after Many years of flirting with it--and when i saw/experienced angels (2015? ish? ...arguably you could argue for 2007 but i do not think those were angels) i knew they were angels and was unsure how i saw it but definitely flirting with a Christian view of them. i did know that whatever view of them i took, they were important, they were serious, they were--the most important thing that has ever happened to me, that i have ever witnessed. they were beautiful and incredible and terrific in the sense of inspiring terror. and then i got put on antipsychotics about it within the year lol! the antipsychotics were uhhhhhh quite bad for me & then in 2019 i got off of them and embraced Catholicism more wholeheartedly. "so why the 3-year gap between that and getting baptized" uhhhh a few things going on there honestly? it took like a year or so to like. reconcile myself with Catholicism. i do/did actually struggle a lot with a lot of it--trying to figure out how i felt about hell and the problem of evil was ofc the biggest hurdle but i'm also side b and that was uhhhhhh not a painless process for me. which i can talk about any of that if you want but i talk about that less unprompted? and i prefer to talk about it in a conversation rather than just On My Blog, if that makes sense. but people should feel free to dm me if they're curious or want to talk more about any of this!

this....still gives a 1-year gap between Reconciling With Catholicism and Starting RCIA. this is because... i've been kind of eliding it with usage of "i" but at the time the body that currently uses "i" was Two People. and one of them (kit) was Catholic and one of them (sofia) wasn't. we ... talked about this with a priest a lot and he was helpful for a while but then he recommended me to a Catholic therapist who on her first session with us informed us that we were faking and she didn't believe us but even if she did then she'd just be focusing on trying to integrate us and get rid of our "doubting part". so we didnt go back to her and we (especially sofia) raged for a bit at the whole thing. as a result, for a while kit was kind of resigned to just ... not getting baptized, not getting to take the Eucharist. but in 2020-2021ish we sort of . integrated? not fully and i suspect we've been...splitting apart again more recently. idk! idk. anyway we eventually got integrated enough that we felt confident in saying yes, I believe in God, and have that be a true promise for the full body-soul. and we started RCIA in 2021 and got baptized in 2022 and now we're here! the angels aren't back. i hoped they'd come back when i got off antipsychotics, and-- they haven't. the belief has, the knowledge that they were real, but i haven't seen them again. i don't know if i'll get to see them again before i die. i hope they will, but i also know i don't need them anymore. it's a test, i think. i just have to live up to that test.

[atlasisreal]

YOU WERE AT *WHAT*????????????????????

yes it's true. the atlasisreal deep lore is that I attended dashcon in 2014.

that me 💕

anyways if you wanna hear my recollection of dashcon it's under the cut.

i was literally just a teenager at the time but seeing dashcon ads on Tumblr I was like. it's in Schaumburg??? like 30min from me??? I HAVE to go this is going to be the coolest thing ever. I love Tumblr all my mentally ill friends and supernatural gifs are on that website. I bet they're gonna have the coolest party ever.

LMAOOOOO

so i asked for the dashcon tix for my birthday! it was for me and my best friend (who attended and even cosplayed Homestuck with me despite not knowing anything about it) and my mom, who was mostly excited about staying in the nice hotel and swimming in the pool. I was so hype for this. anyways we get there and as people have previously talked about vis a vis dashcon, it was so hilariously underwhelming. the first thing you had to do was walk into the registration hall. I think most people have seen pics but they had written "Welcome DashCon" or something to that effect on the ground using blue painters tape, and the hall was empty asf which was really funny because they had set the table up aaaaaall the way at the back so you just got to walk across this big empty hall towards ONE PERSON sitting at a table (who in retrospect I'm pretty sure was the 19 year old they'd foisted this thing onto). she was super nice at the time though so shout out to that interaction.

we pretty much immediately headed for the only actual show floor area, which was the artists alley. if dashcon attendees are hard to find, I'm sure dashcon exhibitors are fucking unicorns bc there was... maybe 30 booths, if I'm being very generous. that being said, I got to meet nd Stevenson at dashcon! he was really nice, and complimented my cosplay. it's kind of fun to get to say I met the artist and author behind nimona and lumberjanes and she-ra at fucking DASHCON lol. hopefully next time I meet him it will be as a fellow professional comics artist huh who said that

gotta take a moment here to stress something. dashcon was very poorly planned and executed. this is true. BUT. the atmosphere, especially on the first day, was so joyful and connected. everyone was so stoked to be at THE Tumblr convention. all of us were weirdos who liked the weirdo website enough to show up in person for all our weirdo friends. We were all exchanging urls and taking big group photos and going to grab lunch together. people were very open and friendly. and I know that's my perspective as well, obviously there were plenty of things going horribly wrong behind the scenes, but having only been an attendee, it really wasn't the worst experience.

anyways so the day was fun and weird and a little boring because dashcon had fucking nothing going on but anyways so the scamming part. they called everyone into this main ballroom and stood on a little stage up front and were like "HEY IF WE DONT RAISE $200,000 THEYRE SHUTTING US DOWN" which definitely did NOT break my tiny little idiot baby heart. I definitely was super self aware and knew this was a dumb scam and I definitely DIDN'T cry and run to the hotel pool to tell my mom. she however immediately went "they're scammers and we paid for our hotel room so whatever lol". my bestie gave them $10 and after the fact was (rightfully) SUPER pissed about it because she WAS smarter than me and figured out the scam thing faster.

I think besides that scam thing the other thing I remember thinking was such fucking bullshit was that we would be walking past the ballroom where Welcome to Night Vale was supposed to perform and the line was insane. It was literally SOOOOO many people. I remember being a little bummed that I hadn't gotten tickets which was.... obviously a short lived regret. when they announced the night Vale cancellation I definitely realized shit was hinky.

a majority of the photos I have are from ballpitstuck! there was a Homestuck meetup at the ball pit, but a lot of us had found each other already and had been hanging out in little feral packs of homestucks, so we all meshed super well and basically immediately all became besties. we ended up kind of collectively agreeing to post stuff in the "ballpitstuck" tag, which is hilarious. I actually made fanart at the time! It's somewhere in the depths of my art blog. I've probably posted most of these before but for posterity:

we were cringe. but we were free. no but for real I did have so much fun hanging with the homestucks.

anyways the rest of the con was pretty much just hanging out and watching everything burn from the inside out. my favorite part was watching Tumblr react to dashcon in real-time, because everyone AT the convention was posting about it, and everyone who wasn't at the convention was actively following the updates. by the time we left I just remember being like "I think we've just experienced something very interesting". and now there's a Wikipedia page and a sarah z video about it so.

anyways shout out to my dashcon homies(tucks)

[nerdystarstruckace]

I saw a really interesting mha take. (Not in a good way) The base message of it was 'bakugou telling midoriya to kill himself wasn't that big of a deal because he was 13 and 13 year olds don't understand those words have that effect'. Let's go over why this take defends bullying and actually in the end hurts bakugous character???

Most of my friends know I'm not a bakugou fan (esp early seasons) but even I can acknowledge he had a hell of a redemption. It took so damn long, and yk what? He's still a jack ass sometimes, but he's not a bully anymore. When bakugou bullied deku and told him to kill himself, he was 14 about to turn 15. How do we know this? Well! In Japan the school year starts in April! The entrance exam (which is ten months after the first episode) takes place in February. Soooo, first episode is probably early-mid April so bakugou is Abt to be 15 (April 20th). This makes Bakugou not a 13 year old (lol).

Even if he was 13, it doesn't defend his actions. Now, I've interacted with a lot of Middle schoolers, and not all of them are mean. The ones who are mean know what they are saying when they tell someone (seriously) to kill themselves. I myself was younger than the characters when I started watching MHA, and I immediately knew that was bullying. Don't use the BS of "13 (actually 14/15) year olds don't know better!" Because it makes teens that age seem stupid and honestly? It defends bullying.

Bakugou fucked up with his treatment of deku, his treatment of him was textbook bullying. And to defend that is wild. The person also in their take stated that deku recognized that what bakugou said was wrong but he understood how dangerous it was...so deku who is younger than Bakugou could understand but bakugou couldn't? Bakugous character growth is so appealing because it was a true transformation of a bully. It hurts me to watch bc it reminds me of people in my own life. It is disrespectful to the beautiful character/redemption arc to try to excuse the bullying, and it's disrespectful to victims of bullying similar to this.

I understand loving and defending a character, but you can acknowledge their wrongs while loving them. So while this person with this take obviously likes bakugou, they missed the point of him. He was a bully. He traumatized deku for life, and most likely? He can never 'fix' that, but he can regret it and grow and move on. That is who he is, so to take that away from him is to reduce him to just an entertaining jackass. Anyway, that's my rant on a take I heard! And there's more I could have said but it's already too long lol.(No disrespect or bad feelings to person who said the take)

[livingthedragonlife]

I am consulting the dragon council to ask about your rook. gimmie the goss. (if you are doing the ask game lol, fighting the urge to say all of them i will be back to ask for all the rest if not one else does lmao) The Magician, The Chariot, The Wheel of Fortune, The Devil, The World

thank u!! i love ask games and since im gonna be writing so much with my rook in the coming days i figured i'd better flesh him out lmao

[the ask game in question]

[my Rook, real name Valonril, also Val, I'll be using all 3 interchangeably]

The Magician: What are Rook's thoughts on Solas? Do they change as the story progresses?

So all Val knew about Solas at the beginning was what Varric told him, and since he's Dalish he also knew everything about the Dread Wolf (though not necessarily how much of it was true). Since joining the Veil Jumpers and learning that most of his people's gods kind of sucked, he was prepared to accept that Solas also sucked.

He was proven right, and took every opportunity to snark (he "exchanged verbal jabs" you might say). Later after discovering his memories, Rook started to feel kind of bad for him? Like yeah, he caused all this horrible destruction and hurt tons of people, but these memories wouldn't be here if he didn't want to lock them away forever. He was genuinely grateful for the help at Arlathan, that whole clan would have died otherwise. And then he met the Inquisitor, who loved Solas, and went... okay maybe he can have an ounce of sympathy.

And all of that was completely squandered by the end. The first thing Valonril did when he found Solas again after getting out of Fade Jail was swear profusely at him. He only handed over Mythal's memories because he knew it was the best way to convince Solas not to destroy the world, and just sort of... accepted that he couldn't convince the Inquisitor that he fucking sucks ass. They can be weird and happy together, he has bigger problems than Solas' love life.

The Chariot: How does Rook fight? What are their preferred abilities and damage type?

I picked a rogue with a Veil Ranger specialization and mostly used the electricity damage abilities, which is a me thing, not a Val thing lmao but I'm sure I can manage to work it into his personality anyway

He can dual wield (obviously, class type), but prefers a bow. He wasn't a fighter in his clan by a long shot, so it was smarter (in his mind) to stay in the back while he was learning how to fight after he joined the Veil Jumpers. It just feels better, as the first weapon he ever mastered, and the electricity is also just habit from his time spent in Arlathan. Without the stress of an active combat situation, practicing archery is like... meditative for him, as a guy who is almost incapable of sitting still. Having poisoned daggers is a close second, though, because even if he has to get up close and fight, he can at least ensure whatever's coming after him won't last long!

The Wheel of Fortune: Describe an interesting character moment for your Rook. What made this moment stand out to you?

I feel like I have to talk about the trans stuff. It just completely knocked me on my ass.

So I went in intending to make Val a trans man, which I did, but the quote when you talk to Taash about it the first time, where Rook says, "Something opened up in my chest, like I'd relaxed a muscle I'd clenched my whole life without realizing it," made me cry in real life. Because that's a lot like how I felt, when I stopped denying myself. I didn't expect something so resonant from the option I chose, but it sure as fuck resonated!!!!

Idk there are a lot of great character moments in this game, but that's one I will never be forgetting any time soon.

The Devil: What type of demon is most likely to target Rook? Why?

Despair. And not just because it happened to me in game literally every single time I ever met a despair demon.

As mentioned previously, Rook is a trans man, and not everybody in his life was happy about that, especially not his dad. One of the reasons he left for the Veil Jumpers was that his situation was too suffocating for him to bear staying in his clan anymore. He had to get out, and has a lot of unaddressed baggage because he left without addressing it, on purpose. As much as he misses his clan, he's positive he'll never be able to go back (even though they would, in theory, accept him) unless he can be sure his family isn't around. He dreads the day he ever accidentally runs into them again.

Despair demons see this trauma and go ooo yummy snack!! And then he kills them. And then he has nightmares 😔

The World: What does happily-ever-after look like for Rook? Is it attainable, or just wishful thinking?

He and Davrin go riding into the sunset to go on adventures, seeing the world, and killing monsters for fun and profit. And raising their bird son. And nothing bad ever happens to them <3

Also, at some point, finding someone with the skill and willingness to do magic bottom surgery ("surgery", more like transgender magic) on him. He'd rather avoid blood magic to do it, which is a steep request. It was hard enough to find someone who knew how to do top surgery, he's not sure if it's possible to do something like that without blood magic, but that's something he can look for on his adventures. And for now he can sling the strap

[climbthemountain2020]

So you don't have to answer this if you don't want to be in fandom dramas but I was wondering the way you wrote Calla's story is how you imagined what might've happened to Feyre, if she stayed in her cell all the time.

Because I can't help but think if Rhys hadn't pulled her out and brought her to those parties, Amarantha would've tire her out with tasks and find a way to punish her, would've tried to manipulate her with her guards and let her hear things, Feyre would've gone crazy with the scream of other inmates and who knows maybe those guards would've done more than just let her hear things and torture her physically.

And you wrote Calla's story so painful and my heart aches for her. And since in my head, this is what might've happened to Feyre is making it more heartbreaking and how unfair Amarantha was and the length she would've gone to destroy Feyre...

At the risk of rustling up the discourse, I will preface this by saying that this is only MY opinion when reading the books and then writing my fic! I know there is a lot of disagreement on this, and I always try to be respectful of everyone's individual reading experiences, as well as how their personal experiences reflect those feelings.

For me personally, I think Rhys is much more of a morally gray character than some people might be used to as a love interest/MC, especially in the first book, but absolutely reflected in Silver Flames. I think that he loves Feyre in that all-encompassing way that we adore about him--he would burn worlds to the ashes to keep her safe--but that's what makes him morally gray. His own interests fall above all else; those he loves and cares for fall under those interests, but they're still largely self serving.

Personally, I love this about him, but I also love a morally gray character! It's also why I wasn't surprised about his actions in SF, and I didn't actually think it was a huge departure from his character. He knew Feyre was his ticket out from UtM, and that was his motivation at first. Then, he began to care about her along the way, which, obviously, evolved.

ALL THAT ASIDE (lol) to answer your original question, yes that was my intent in YEWHWM! I'm glad you and some others readily picked up on that. I originally had Calla as a true love interest to Tamlin, but as the story evolved, it quickly became a really interesting way to serve as a bit of a mirror for fic-Feyre, as well as my way of exploring a "what if" situation had Feyre not had Rhys's interference, by whatever methods, Under the Mountain. None of this is to say that, were any of this real, I would condone the actions of this entirely fictional character. However, in a literary sense, I think that this is perhaps the most logical way to set Rhys up the way he is, and I loved playing with that narrative a bit in my fic!

Sorry for the absolute novel on this--it's the English major overtaking my soul and good sense hahah. Thank you so much for reading, and for asking this! I do love to talk about the babies. And I hope you enjoyed reading, despite the heartbreak! <3

[mageofseven]

Barbatos x Mammon Relationship Headcannons

This ship is new to me, but definitely has my attention.

Therefore, I want to explore it more by describing how I see them together.

I will form this more or less like my Poly! series posts, but obviously this will just be for these two and no third partner lol

So yeah! Please enjoy~

•▪︎▪︎◇°●♡●°◇▪︎▪︎•

How They Got Together:

In truth, this was an incredibly slow process, so much so that it makes DiaLuci look like a shotgun wedding.

Over the years, the men just grew an admiration for each other.

Barbatos admired Mammon for his effort into things. The second brother may pretend that most things are a hassle and not worth his time, but in truth gives his best attempt at most things he does.

The butler also admired the young demon for how he looked out for his brothers. Not that any of them notice or give him any credit for such nor did Mammon make any true attempts at getting them to do so.

This wasn't so different to how Barb was; this demon was constantly using his skills to help those around him, mainly Lord Diavolo but he has come to the brothers' rescue quite a few times as well.

This man isn't always thanked and certainly is never reward for his efforts, not even after solving the most dire of situations, but he never looks for such anyway; the problem is fixed and the people involved are okay. This is enough for him.

Mammon admired Barbatos for his skills and how effortless he made it all look. In this man's eyes, Barb never struggled, never stressed out, and was always praised by others.

The greed demon wished he could just be a fraction of the person the older demon was; then maybe his own life would be easier.

Neither man is really sure when that admiration turned into full blown love

Though Barbatos recognized it in himself before Mammon did, by like 200 years.

The butler accepted his feelings for what they were...but chose not to do anything about them.

In truth, the professional man felt is was almost inappropriate to have feelings for the second brother, a man technically a part of the governing body of the Devildom that his lord set up

But also...after all of these years, Barbatos has grown to see Lucifer as a friend. The Avatar of Pride was a good, respectable man so the idea of dating one of the younger brothers the oldest cherished so much felt... disrespectful.

Basically, the butler's mindset was that he couldn't change how he felt about the Avatar of Greed, but he could control his actions here on out.

Mammon took a long ass time on figuring out that he was in love with the butler.

This dumbass literally had daydreams of kissing the older demon just to stop and be like....wait.

Am I....?

Naaaah. 🤦‍♀️💕

When he did let it hit him how strong his feelings got for the butler, the younger man grew so fidgety and couldn't even look Barb in the eyes.

All his brothers knew something was up, but the second brother having feelings for Barbatos was the last thing on their minds.

Barb also noticed this change in him though and became curious about it.

Honestly, Barbatos' mind was on the second brother more than ever because of this.

Then it all made a turn one day in a way neither man ever expected.

Diavolo was over at HoL to work on somethings with Lucifer in his office; it was mostly just for a change of pace and very spur of the moment, but Lucifer handled it in stride like always.

So of course, this meant that Barb was here as well.

The butler had left the two other gentleman in order to make them some tea in HoL's kitchen.

That was when he heard it; sobs from up the stairs next to him.

The butler decide to take a bit of a detour and silently ascended the steps

Just to find Mammon at the top, back to the wall that the hallway shared with his room.

The younger man was just so close; he didn't want to bawl his eyes out in the hallway where his brothers could catch him, but he was so upset that his legs gave out on him and so there he was.

The butler froze at the sight, Mammon heavily sobbing with his knees to his chest and fists rotating from pulling his hair to hitting his head as he mumbled 'stupid' over and over again.

Barbatos couldn't walk away; in his mind, it wasn't even an option.

He continued to ascend the stairs, startling the greed demon; he thought it was one of his brothers coming to make fun of him for crying like a little bitch or something

But when his tearful blue eyes locked on to Barb's concerned green orbs, the man was paralyzed where he sat.

The older demon knelt down in front of Mammon, gently smoothing down his hair as he kept eye contact.

"You are not 'stupid' by any means." Barb told him, now using his gloved hand to brush the tears from the greed demon's face. "You are a man with your own issues, same as everyone else, but your intelligence is simply not one of them...no matter what they say."

And just like that, something changed in both men.

That moment of comfort, of giving and getting affection, it was like each man just got the tiniest little taste of what could be for them

And both found it difficult to stay apart any longer.

What they felt for each other was strong and confusing; it simply overwhelmed them both.

This is why they decided not to tell others about their relationship yet; both wanted to understand their feelings, but also wanted to see if their relationship could ever last.

Dynamics:

The secrecy never really died down for the couple.

Even when they grow to understand their emotions on a deeper level and see that they're both in this relationship for the long haul, their relationship stays a secret.

Mammon has a lot of insecurities and fears, mainly about what his younger brothers will say when they find out

And Barb himself was a pretty private person so he had no qualms with keeping things quiet for Mammon's sake.

The two are really different, not just with their personalities, but even in the the ways they express love and feel the most loved.

Mammon is big on physical touch. Any private moment he can get with his boyfriend, he needs the man to give him physical affection and words of affirmation.

Barbatos, very unsurprisingly, is an acts of service sort of guy and sadly (for him bc of his 24/7 job) quality time is very important.

The two grow to understand each other well though and always know what the other needs.

Mammon can be a little slow at times, but this is something Barb has actually grown to be amused with; how long till his boyfriend will get the hint?

Still, some parts can be difficult; Mammon is clingy while Barbatos is independent. Sometimes the younger demon can get bad thoughts in his head that the cool and composed butler doesn't really care about him as much he thought.

Barbatos will always chase away those bad thoughts though; he may not feel the need to be glued to his boyfriend all day, but he still loves the other man deeply and enjoys his company.

The two spend most of their time together on Sunday since it's Barb's only day off (a day off that Diavolo had to force on him hundreds of years ago lol).

Though some days it feels less like a day off and more like an 'on call' day, meaning some shit may go wrong at the castle and the butler may have to cancel their plans in order to fix whatever issues have occurred.

With Barb's job and the secrecy of their relationship, things can be difficult for the couple

But they love each other so strongly that they'd both rather have this than not be together at all.

Overall, Barbatos is a big comfort to Mammon and slowly teaches him to love himself despite his brothers' mean words

And Mammon provides some color to the monotony of Barb's life, something the butler tries to pretend he's comfortable with, but in truth makes life feel quite stale to him.

[tabithatwo]

Love the show and I ain't going anywhere but every. fucking. time. I think about the fact that adult shauna didn't hallucinate jackie notaonce in S2. 😆🤣🙃🙂🤪 the lack of narrative consistency is actually kind of astounding lmao. I've been rewatching S1 interviews and Ella knew it was a 1 season arc from the beginning because it was stated in her contract. WHY would adult shauna just stop seeing jackie. Someone QUICKLY tell me how that makes literally any type of conceivable sense. It's just so stupid and most importantly, AVOIDABLE. WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU NOT PLAN TO KEEP HER ON SIXHSIXJIZXJKXDNID MY HEAD HURTS ! This isn't even the only narrative inconsistency obviously but to me it's the biggest and most glaringly noticeable. I can look past sooooooooo much of it, but not this one. The fact that Jackie wasn't in the flashback health class scene in episode 6 all about the baby. But Jeff sure was lmaoooooooooo 😀

notaonce! so true! pulled me the fuck out of shauna's 2021 narrative. agree with all of this. it would've also been avoidable by NOT ESTABLISHING HALLUCINATIONS THAT WE COULD SEE lol. also it was very very likely a conscious choice, not an ella issue because she's always said she'd do as much as they let her, they had her on option for s2 (and used it for 1996 obviously), and they really dropped jackie's overt presence on shauna's adult life completely. here's hoping praying wishing on a star sacrificing a bear heart to the wilderness for less jeff and more jackie in s3!

[kafus]

what's your personal story with lumineon? i'm really happy to see empoleon, cradily, and fidough here since they're some of my own favorites! - 🦢

ogh ty for asking, i forget if i've shared this before but even if i have i'm doing it again LOL

even though FRLG was my first pokemon game, for a variety of reasons, i consider sinnoh/gen 4 to be my true childhood pokemon games. despite this, my childhood memory is extremely spotty (i am almost 24 years old + i have a severe dissociative disorder, i don't remember shit ever LOL) and so my memories of actually playing gen 4 are very few and far between. but lumineon is involved in two of the ones i still manage to hold onto

in pokemon diamond, i actually completed the natdex as a child, which was an arduous process that took me a Really long time, i don't know how long. i unfortunately no longer have this save file. gen 4 was obviously the dawn of wifi features and i always wanted to complete my dex in FRLG but i couldn't because i didn't have the hardware/games to trade with myself and i didn't have friends (in fact i was bullied pretty severely for liking pokemon, i had to change schools) so when i could use the GTS and trade with people online i got VERY excited about dex completion, and just like, interacting with people. i managed the task with a mix of breeding eevees and evolving them into eeveelutions as trading chips on the GTS and using my mom's yahoo account without her permission to ask for trades from people on fucking Yahoo Answers lol (sorry mom SDJKSD)

i don't actually remember doing most of this, i was just able to put it back together with context clues from my pearl file that survived and things i am just vaguely aware happened but don't actually have Sensory Memory of. BUT what i do remember is that one night i realized i was finally almost done and somehow the finneon line is the one line of pokemon i never got. they were the Final Dex Entries i needed. i did everything in a really weird order and wasn't prioritizing the sinnoh regional dex lol

so i went and caught a finneon and grinded it to evolve it into lumineon. i think the reason i remember this is because i was so close to being done, i was way more impatient with grinding than usual, and then just like. the sheer pride and relief i felt when that finneon evolved and then scrolling through the complete dex list is like nothing i had ever felt before gonna be honest. high point of my childhood

even back then i formed an attachment to lumineon in this moment and i used that lumineon for other stuff in sinnoh. i don't remember how i found this out, but one of the first competitive doubles strategies i ever learned was that thunder always hits in rain, and i knew that my lumineon had rain dance through level-up and i had a luxray with thunder, and i was Obsessed with pokemon battle revolution, so i have a brief memory of spamming thunder with my luxray after setting up the rain with lumineon and being really proud of myself for that (even though there's way more optimal ways to do this that i'm aware of now LOL, cut me some slack i was 8 years old)

this is a really long explanation cause i wanted to really emphasize WHY this meant so much to me as a kid but tldr lumineon was the last remaining pokemon left for me to get the dex entry for in sinnoh as a kid and it was a culmination of a lot of months of work and then i went on to use that lumineon in battles and yeah shoutout to lumineon

[beachy--head]

Hey Nonnie, Hang on...because yur bout to hate Krusta more than you may already (really anyone who is reading this will, if they don't know) Because they completely screwed over Sarah, Jessica, and Jesse. I don't remember the name anymore, because they long ago disappeared and left GA completely. We had a source who either was on set, or had access to someone who was, like a crew member. And this posted was trusted because they had been right many times in the past. This source was rightfully angry because of all the lying and just crappy behavior. They made a big post calling GA out ( that I can't find anymore) What happened was Maggie was a brainchild character that they loved (because she was theirs) but really wasn't being received well. The character never tested well with test audiences, or GA generally. Too many people though she was annoying (wonder why lol) The plan was to make Maggie more popular by pairing her with their remaining "single" most popular male character, Jackson.

For back story, Krista doesn't like April or Japril. She has never made a secret of it, and I think she called them toxic years ago when she came back she also made negative remarks if asked about them or passive aggressive swipes in interviews. I don't know if they are still there, but her likes had negative Japril things as well. And I think Jesse even trolled her once for it with a Sarah pic lol When she took over she wanted everyone to adopt only her vision. We know this for a fact because when she came in she did a blind writing test and fired everyone who she didn't agree with, or more like..who didn't agree with her. The source told us that. And it was also confirmed later when that GA writer who lied about cancer was caught and investigated. She was one of the ones Krista fired, and then rehired for pity and because it wouldn't look good.

Problem was to put Maggie with Jackson they knew they had to nix April/end Japril. GAudience would never accept him with someone else while April was still around. During that season Sarah Drew herself pitched her crisis of faith storyline. It was supposed to be a path to Japril getting back together. They told Sasse that, they lied. And actually when Jesse found out, he was pissed. We know this is true because after we were told, photos surfaced of Jesse meeting with Krista and clearly being pissed. And if you look at things Sasse says knowing the truth, it makes more sense.

Jessica, was unfortunately collateral damage. They didn't want GA to see the truth of what they did so they figured if they fired two actresses people wouldn't be smart enough to figure out the real target was Sarah, April by extension. April is so much of who Jackson is, but they wanted to push Maggie w/ Jackson to work for Maggie, but knew they couldn't with April still present.

I'm sure budgeting played some role, but ultimately this was Krista and her personal ridiculous dated opinions of two of the most popular remaining OG characters. And one of the only superships Grey's had/has left.

Just look at the show itself, Jaggie was sloppy. Jackson makes comments about her being his sister, they place them as siblings. Jesse made posts about them being siblings. The actress did as well. Neither of them liked the pairing. And I think Jesse was at times almost forced to show support. They never would have done that if it had been any kind of plan. They make APRIL of all people point out Jackson likes (his sister) opps, I mean Maggie. They rip off an iconic Japril bus explosion to do it. Maggie is the one they make sure April thanks for saving her.

Watch how Jesse and Sarah play their scenes during the COF. They play it like they think Japril is heading to a reunion. They gave interviews like it. They made posts that make sense if that was the truth. Sarah and Jessica found out about their firing on Woman's Day for crying out loud. No smart comp would do that to two of their most beloved actresses.

Obviously I can't quote directly, because the person and posts are long gone. But this is what I remember and why so many of us quit GA. And why a lot of us did the airplane surprise in part, because it was so messed up. They lost millions of viewers when they disrespected Sarah and Jessica. And many of us I'm sure will never come back. Krusty is gone now and they wised up and tried to fix Japril. I believe part of that was actually because Jesse used the power he gained and demanded it for his exit. He's gone to bat for Japril many times, and so has Sarah. But they/Krispy did what they did.

And personally, I'm thrilled to call them out on their BS once again for those who weren't around or don't know.

This ask is for the previous anon who wanted more info on the BTS. The screenshots of the post referenced in this ask are here btw.

I'm going to be honest and say that I've already read this and I go back and forth with believing all of it. At times it reads like fanfiction, but at the same time, some of the stuff said would totally explain some things that happened, so I truly don't know. One thing I believe is, like I said, that Sarah and Jesse firmly believed Japril would go back together in season 14.

[trans-mephisto]

Two asks in a row to make up me suddenly dropping off the face of the earth for some time. Yet again this is a question concerning my most beloved blonde bastard, Arthur. How, in your opinion, would Arthur have grown up and acted if he remembered Section 13. Everything else is the same in terms of worldbuilding and backstory. Do you think the Uzais still would've taken him in knowing that he was fully aware of everything done during Section 13 ? Arthur ^wasn't the choosen exwire of his batch since he was in that playroom thingy when the Blue Night went off instead of outside or training like Shiro would have at 15. Would Shiro have taken him in since they are both clones ? Would he still become paladin ? Would he even want to be the paladin, let alone an exorcist ? Would he still hate demons and stick to the rules like canon him did or would he have been more relaxed ? And most importantly, would he still have hated Rin so much ? The main reason he despises him so in canon was bc Arthur thought demons murdered his family and Satan then destroyed the Asylum and caused his amnesia. If he remembered Section 13 he wouldn't have these reasons to hate Rin. If we go with the REALLY fucked up way of things Arthur could even be more open to Rin bc of Satan technically saving Arthur from Section 13 by destroying it. I can imagine a LOT of resentment on Arthur's part for the Order, and since he had no friends from the Order like Shiro I doubt there's anyone to mediate/mellow it out. Everything above ofcourse goes off the assumption that Arthur stayed with True Cross instead of just running off and going AWOL (or god forbid, join the Illuminate or any other enemy of the Order inorder to get revenge for what was done to him)

It's fine! I've been mostly posting on my main blog anyways. But let's see

I personally think he would end up like Shiro? Not personality wise, just how his life would be. Which is basically still being held onto by the Order even if he was "free", since he's obviously a more powerful and stable clone compared to the rest. Not sure if he'd be Paladin, but seeing as Shiro was and still knew about everything going on chances are he still would get appointed that position

Personality wise, I see him being far less happy and open with people. He'd know he's not normal, that he has always had nothing, so he'd probably just be rather uncaring about the world. Ironically, this would make him more mentally stable than he is currently I think lol, so because of that I imagine he'd be less likely to be manipulated and the Uzais wouldn't really have use for him since it seems he was taken in to be shaped into a vessel for Lucifer anyhow

I don't think he'd hate Rin but he'd probably be more cruel than he already is, much like how Shiro was and we see this with a lot of the exorcists in the blue night arc in the past, he'd probably know there really is nothing outside of being an exorcist for him, that any chances at a normal life just probably wouldn't be for him

Honestly I feel like he'd go from a tragic character to being more of a cold "villain", I guess. Not saying there wouldn't be any hope for redeeming him but it'd probably be more difficult if nothing was hidden from him and he knew everything and serving the Order was all he had. Maybe he'd still be friends with Lightning though? I'd have to think on that scenario

I hope my response makes sense, I'm kinda tired atm so I'm not sure if what I'm saying is comprehensive lol

Thanks for the ask though!!

[farlynthordens]

V9 post-reading thoughts

i enjoyed the book a lot. i was all for seeing bisco's wholesome and happy family life as well as red's absolutely soul-crushing and lonely existence. when i started reading, I was surprised that bisco and red get along so soon since i was expecting her to play an antagonizing role for most of it (and possibly try to do things like steal milo away). the cover and pre-release advertising kinda gave that vibe lol

it started off great then fell off for me at certain points in the middle, but then the ending saved it. we also yet again had a last minute plot twist/reveal of the true villain.

n'badu's identity was probably the most confusing part of the whole book and i did have to double back to make sure i understood what was going on. if he's the manifestation of bad timelines, is he a god of spacetime who can consequently only create negative events? it seems that way from when you look back on what n'badu had done throughout the book and what he threatens to do at the ending.

i thought this was going to be the end of the series, so as i got closer to finishing i was very confused how this was going to wrap up. i was pleasantly surprised that there's still going to be one more book. red's character arc is more or less resolved, but she obviously has multiple stakes in the new issues that have arisen so i hope she still plays a notable role in v10. i'm worried there's a good chance red will disappear for good when they inevitably defeat n'badu (see meta section).

i wrote down a couple of gripes/critiques prior to reading the final chapter, but many were resolved by the fact that there will be a continuation + the things cobkubo mentions in the afterword. ex:

i was sad that bisco/milo had zero scenes of just the 2 of them since those were generally the highlight of every other book. however, 9 essentially made red the protagonist and bisco/milo were more there to be HER support rather than the other way around like what we've seen in every other book. cobkubo mentions tho that v10 will be more about bisco and milo's bonds.

we never concluded what happened with milo and he's still stuck in another timeline, so that's yet to be resolved. as well as... like.. you know, everything else... I'm still sad that he wasn't there for the final battle tho.

Meta stuff

Early on we learn that red has never used the choushin bow, but its wish granting power was what I had thought to be the main thing that caused sugar's birth and why she turned out as a literal god, since sugar's powers are the highest form of the choushin ability. So in red's universe, sugar turned out as a normal baby bc red and blue never had that ability. Never being able to use the choushin bow ties into what red realizes at the climax, which is that she never truly believed in [loved] herself. She only fought and kept going bc she thought that's what everyone expected of her. She thought of everyone's love for her as obligations she could never fulfill, rather than seeing that everyone just loved her for herself and wanted the best for her regardless of what that meant in the end.

Because of this, red put the weight of the world on her shoulders and wouldn't accept losing or running away from what she thought was "her destiny". But she failed to save her universe at every opportunity she could have technically had, bc she didn't trust in herself or she doubted the love of those around her (like when she chooses to not kill blue). the timeline could have been saved had she gained the choushin bow, realized her true powers (and thus removed her achille's heel of the souls's power burning her when she used it), and/or if sugar was born as a god, etc.

when we learn at the end that red's timeline was just a copied reality and that she, everyone she knew, and everything she ever experienced were "fake"... my question was then "WAS it really all fake?" n'badu doesn't explain why he made the dark timeline, but i felt the implication was just that it satisfied his own desires of seeing 'bisco' suffer, since that was never able to manifest in the main timeline.

even if red's reality wasn't meant to exist, i don't think that makes her or her experiences any less real than bisco's. she is still a living, tangible being. and as we saw towards the beginning when n'badu tried to overwrite the main timeline, bisco too had begun disappearing in a similar way to how red did when she attacked n'badu. if all timelines are subject to be rewritten like that, then i don't see why one would be lesser than the other.

HOWEVER. framing red in this way makes me worried that she is going to disappear. i expect that in v10 she'll be around as a deuteragonist to bismilo, but in the end they're going to defeat n'badu and cause her to stop existing. it would be a very bittersweet ending, since bisco had invited her to be part of his family. another bit of evidence for this is the v8 epilogue... where in which red of course doesn't show up (cobkubo had not even thought of her character yet at that point).

there is a possibility tho for v10 to end well for red. since the antagonists are gods who can rewrite spacetime, sugar (freed from n'badu's control) may be able to completely remake red's timeline herself and allow her to live happily without rust/n'badu's existence.

re: the "do you love yourself?" bit from cobkubo's afterword:

milo is very confident in himself, bisco is unsure. i think this is exemplified by the parallel scenes of them trying to summon their special bows with only their own power. milo is able to summon it because he is extremely self-assured in who he is and what he believes he can do (thanks to bisco always believing in him/learning from bisco that he is a capable mushroom keeper). HOWEVER, this sometimes leads to moments of over-confidence that rebound negatively on him in some way. summoning the mantra bow completely exhausted him and put him in potential danger because he didn't have someone to share the burden of it with.

bisco was not able to summon the choushin bow at all because he needed someone else there to believe in him. he even specifically says "I can't do it without milo" because milo is the only person he's used that bow with/knows milo is the one who believes in him most of all. having red - functionally, himself - be there and say she believed in him opened up a new path to strength. it showed what he could do if he simply had the heart to believe in his own self.

Final thoughts

my initial impression upon finishing the book is that it probably ranks somewhere in the middle of my overall favorite volumes (maybe between v6 and 8?). i definitely enjoyed reading it a lot, the events felt more coherent than 8, and it surpassed my expectations in multiple ways. i'll prob have a more solid placement once i think on it for a bit longer.

positive/high points:

I think v9 has one of the strongest openings of any volume. the first 4~5 chapters were really good. I think the middle was a bit weak at times, but then the final battle saves it.

Has a pretty big cast of characters, both new ones and old ones who are brought back, but it was handled well and it didn't feel confusing. i think my summary probably made it seem more confusing

Red was overall a good and very enjoyable character. I liked getting to see/learn her backstory in pieces, because each new bit of info is a new sadness gut punch. she's also badass in the final battle.

I thought rust was a good antagonist. you could say there's not much dimension to him since he's just a ruthless and (literal) robotic murder machine who loves to see people suffer. but i like it. the whole point of red's dark timeline is that everything has gone to shit and is as terrible as could be, so rust matches that mood pretty well. not every villain has to be DeepTM

Continued the themes seen in 7 and 8 well, such as the idea that you should feel free to live your life the way YOU want and not feel burdened by others' expectations.

From re-reading thru the summary post and thinking back on the events, i felt like there were a couple hints to n'badu being the Real Bad Guy sprinkled throughout the book that i didn't notice during my initial read. in hindsight, this was not a complete surprise like the v5 ending's kurokawa reveal for example.

negative/low points:

I really disliked having bisco nerfed for most of the book by being turned into a kinoko. I feel like this detracted from the emotional impact of the conversations he and red have during this time. there surely could have been ways to showcase red's character than by eliminating bisco's usefulness to the plot for anything other than talking.

Related to above, while in kinoko form bisco often felt uncharacteristically goofy.

N'badu's speech pattern is annoying

Bisco self-cest hint at the end???? red isn't cool being kissed by milo but kissing her alternate reality self is just fine. it isn't cheating if it's with yourself.... i guess.......

other things of note:

This vol brings back citymaker, lifemaker, AND mantras with lots of new skills showcased for each one. i wouldn't say it was confusing, just maybe excessive.

We get a new tidbit of jabi lore

Domino comes back and gets to have a scene where she fights and is very cool. it was also fun learning her personality a little more since we don't really get to in 3

Salt is mentioned a couple times but literally does nothing the entire volume. i know he's just a normal kid in a story full of god-like powers, but they didn't even give him a single spoken line

[queefinginmybasement]

In defense of Mal

Everyone in the Descendants fandom LOVES to shit on Mal 24/7 and although I understand part of where they are coming from, they turn a blind eye to the possible reasons behind most of her actions. Here are a list of things people like to criticize her for and my take on them:

(Potential TW? Slight mentions of abuse, being taken advantage of, drugged, being killed)

She's a bully

Now yes, in the first movie and in the first book Mal is a little bitch, but she has reason. Mal is Maleficent's daughter, (AKA the worst villain in the land) , do you think she was brought up surrounded by kindness? Obviously not. Mal was raised to be evil so obviously she's going to do "evil" things.

Even if we put the fact that she's Maleficent's daughter aside, she was also raised on the Isle, a place where any sort of kindness was scene as a weakness and could possibly get you killed.

Do you think that someone who spent 16 years in an environment where they were taught to be vicious and cruel is going to drop all that knowledge just because they spent 5 minutes in Auradon? No.

She ran away from her issues with Ben instead of talking to him about them

As previously stated Mal is the daughter of Maleficent who was born and raised on the Isle. Do you think she was taught how to communicate her feelings? No. If anything she was probably faced with some sort of abused (verbal or physical) if she tried to oppose Maleficent.

It's pretty evident that the villains aren't the best parents (Cruella for example is canonically a child abuser). And although there was no mention of Maleficent being abusive in the movies, (unless you count in D1 when Mal briefly describes Maleficent getting extremely angry as a hint towards some type of abuse) , we can only assume based on what we know of her character and the little we know of her as a mother that she wasn't the greatest (also Mal was seen flinching more than once throughout the films which could be hinting towards something).

So you take an potentially abused 16 year old girl and throw her into a relationship with THE KING OF AURADON where she is obviously going to feel pressured to live up to some sort of expectation and expect her to have 10/10 communication skills? Yeah ok.

Mal drugged Ben

While yes, this is technically true, the way people write out the situation is sorta extra. I've seen multiple people say that mal was using Ben, that she continued to give him love potion cookies after the enchanted lake, Ben doesn't really love Mal, etc. Which if you payed any attention to the movies you would see is false.

Ben knew Mal spelled him yet willingly chose to be with her. He had multiple opportunities to get rid of Mal if he wanted to but he didn't because he loves her and vice versa. Yes, at the beginning she was using him to get to the wand, but those of us who payed attention to the movie watched her fall in love with him and realize that being evil wasn't what she wanted.

l've also seen a lot of people say that "Mal never told Ben the real reason she spelled him". How do we know that? We don't know everything that went on between films so how can we assume she never told him. Mind you, in D3 Audrey knew the truth seeing as she used it to taunt Mal meaning that it is a known fact. Unless Audrey somehow secretly found out that information and was using it against Mal (which I HIGHLY doubt) then that must mean that her true intentions behind spelling Ben are known to the general public.

Some people even go to the lengths of accusing Mal of taking advantage of Ben which is insane because as we saw, she refused to even kiss him while he was spelled when she had multiple opportunities.

These are only some of my many opinions on the many things people like to say about her. Maybe I'll do a part 2 if I'm up for it we'll see lol.

[ace-the-fox]

OMG I ALMOST FORGOT IT WAS RARE PAIR WEEK

So, again, as a surprise to no-one, I've settled for Frandrew. BUT I'm going to (probably, though I MIGHT do a quick doodle instead for the free day lol) write all the prompts. Bc I've been doing exams and it was just kinda easier lol.

So without further ado...

Day 1: Kisses!

"Andrew, I need your help."

Andrew lowered his book just enough to reveal the bored look in those otherwise sharp green eyes. He quirked up an eyebrow. This ought to be good. Any and all of Frank's requests were often ridiculous ideas he spontaneously came up with that he required Andrew to help him carry, against the brunette's better judgement. Andrew wasn't sure why he went along with anything Frank said anymore, but he still didn't turn him down now.

"Go on."

Frank inhaled a breath, almost wincing now. Andrew lowered the book completely. It was odd how unsteady the usually overly confident and bold blonde was. Maybe this wasn't going to be too ridiculous after all...

"You know how I've been dating Sam for a while now?" Frank started.

Andrew just barely managed to mask a look of disdain as he nodded. Samantha Greenwood was Frank's most recent conquest in finding his one true love. Andrew had been used to this system for years now. Frank would talk up a girl, they'd date for two weeks and then Andrew would get a call (always at some ungodly hour for whatever reason) from a teary Frank that they'd broken up. The mourning would last for a week and then Frank would be right as rain and more than ready to start up the whole cycle again.

But, this time, his and Samatha's relationship had been... going well. They'd been together for a month now, which, in terms of Frank's relationships, was nothing to scoff at. And, as much as Andrew kicked himself for it, he wasn't as happy as he thought he'd be. Even for someone he considered his best friend.

He wanted to be happy for Frank, he really did. But he also knew, having realised it for the past for years now, that he so badly wished he could take Samantha's place (and the girl before her, and the girl before her...).

"Well, I kinda read her texts- NOT on purpose," Frank continued. "They were just open and I was feeling curious-"

"You mean nosy?"

"Whatever, man. Anyways, she's really holding onto having her first kiss with me next date."

"Okay?"

"Which would be my first kiss too."

"Okay...?"

"But I've never kissed a girl before."

"Oka- Wait, what are you getting at here?"

Frank inhaled a breath, shoving his hands in his pockets awkwardly. Unsteadily, he presented his request to Andrew. "Well... you've basically been getting action since you came out the womb, right? So, you must have... kissed... a girl?"

Andrew shot Frank the classic "you can't be fucking serious" face. Frank immediately backed down, with a sheepish expression.

"Heh, no, you're right. You probably wouldn't have-"

"I have. And what?"

Andrew hadn't. Well, obviously. Other than something vaguely resembling flirting she had enacted with some of the girls that were far enamoured by him (often in front of his father, to keep up his oh so definitely straight image), he hadn't been that romantic with anyone. He had no real experience that could help Frank.

But the idea of Frank needing his help with something so intimate... It felt a little bit creepy of him, Andrew couldn't lie to himself, but he also just couldn't stop himself.

Frank started bouncing, like an excited puppy. It was strangely adorable, Andrew thought. "R-Really?! Could you give me like... like, a crash course, or something?" Then he forced himself to yield a little. "I-If that's not too, like, weird or anything..."

Andrew smirked, just a little, though he knew he really shouldn't. "No, not weird at all," he fibbed. "Though... we might not be better off doing it quite so immediately."

Frank nodded, completely understanding. "Do you want me to, uh, call my mom? See if I can swing by yours after school?"

Andrew nodded. Neither one bothered to mention asking Andrew's father. It'd be a no, for one reason or another, if they asked. Usually, however, Frank just kind of showed up at Andrew's house and Paul just politely let him stay. The older man always tried to play it off as him being simply gentlemanly, but both boys knew that Frank's stern, no-nonsense business woman mom intimidated Paul more than he'd like to admit.

Andrew ignored the tender, beginnings of a flame beginning to lick at his belly as he nodded in agreement. "Yeah... See you there."

***

"Okay, so..."

"So."

Frank stared at Andrew. Andrew stared back. It was so strange. They had been friends since their very first year at Appleton and, here they were. Staring at each other like strangers locked in an escape room. Andrew might have laughed if he wasn't trying to subdue the stabbings of nerves in his belly.

"So, who did you kiss, anyways?" Frank asked, with a new smirk on his face and a raised eyebrow.

Andrew jolted. Shit. That seemed like such an obvious possible question he probably should have prepared for. He stuttered embarrassingly for a few seconds.

"She was... just a date my father set up for me last year," Andrew shrugged, not entirely a lie. There had been a date, but it had been short and miserable and the furthest thing from romantic. In fact, if Andrew remembered correctly, the girl had ended up in a huff because of it.

Frank shrugged. "Makes sense. Still, not exactly a true love's kiss or anything, huh?"

Andrew grit his teeth, hoping his jaw didn't show as being too tight. Love. Frank was in love with Samantha, of course. The same way Andrew loved Frank, even if he really shouldn't.

"Well, you asked me for help, so are you taking it or not?" The question was really just intended as being another sarcastic quip of his, but had a little more bite to it than initially intended. Though fortunately, as per usual, Frank was too good to either notice it or directly call him out on it.

"You're right, you're right," he merely shrugged, a little too easily for their current situation. Though, if Andrew knew the man well enough (and he did) it may as well have been a front. "So... you gonna give me some pointers?"

"Well, that is what I had initially considered..." Andrew started. It wasn't, not even for a moment, but Frank didn't need to know that. "But... kissing is a little too tactile for simple words, I figured."

Frank began to pink up, already seeing where Andrew was going with this. "Oh! Uhh..."

Andrew sighed, feeling like smacking himself in the face. "Yeah, no, I know. You don't have to, I just thought that it maybe... No! Just forget it–"

"I'll do it."

Andrew's head whipped up to stare at the blonde in bewilderment. "What?"

"Sure, I'll kiss you. Just for practice... right?"

"Right."

Andrew shifted, in his space where they were both sat on his bed. He inhaled a deep breath, trying to figure out how to make something up that would make it sound like he truly knew what he was doing. "So, you just... close your eyes, lean in slowly – bending your head a little to one side, so your noses don't bump – and gently press your lips against hers. Softly. Tenderly."

Andrew was going more off his guilty pleasure romance novel descriptions than anything real. But that hardly mattered when he fluttered his own eyes closed and, within seconds, Frank's lips were on his. Andrew felt the gentle scrapings of stubble against his fair skin. Pressed back into the kiss ever so slightly (just giving Frank a more realistic demonstration, he told himself). Resisted the urge to grab onto him, as though he were a lifeline. God, he tasted so sweet. Like one of those cookies he had in his lunch...

They parted after a few short moments, but they were the best moments of Andrew's life. They both looked at each other, a little shell-shocked. They had really just done that.

Frank quickly averted the brunette's gaze. "I, uh... Was that... right?" he asked awkwardly. He sounded endearingly like he did when Andrew had to tutor him in maths, if a lot more anxious about it.

Of course. Your lips feel so good. You're so handsome. I love you. Date me instead. Marry me, even–

"Not bad," Andrew nodded, with a smirk. "Could be improved though. Why don't you try again?"