#the ''we have been in each other's orbit this whole time. if it wasn't then we would have crossed paths another time'' of it all

[hairmetal666]

Steve has this bar he loves in Chicago. It's a little bit dive-y, a little bit dirty, but it's quiet. A good place for when he needs to clear his head.

Only, tonight, the place is packed. Music pounding from the jukebox, no space at the bar, patrons at the dartboard and pool table. In three years he's never seen it like this.

He has a second to wonder what's going on before he sees exactly who is going on, and for him to catch Steve looking.

"Stevie!" Eddie Munson cries. He leaps from the bar top, the people below scrambling away from the stomp of his big black boots.

He hasn't seen Eddie in years. Can't actually remember the last time. Max and Lucas's wedding? Robin and Nancy's baby shower?

Steve considers booking it out of there, escaping in the crush of the crowd. By the time he has the thought, though, Eddie's already pulling him into a hug.

He's excited to see his friend. He is! Really. He loves Eddie. But that's kind of the problem.

Steve fell in love and Eddie left town.

Well, maybe it wasn't so dramatic as all that. It wasn't until six months after they packed the last box in the back of Eddie's van that Steve could name his feelings for what they were. And by then, Corroded Coffin were building buzz and Eddie had a huge whole life outside of the people he saved the world with.

Over the years, as Eddie's fame grew, he came around less and now they hardly see each other. They still talk from time to time, Steve still buys all the band's records, and Eddie's still close with all the kids, Nancy and Robin too.

Eddie releases him, those big eyes bright, a pure and genuine smile stretching his face. Steve's stomach twists, heart skipping a beat.

"Gotta be honest with you, man. Never expected to see Steve Harrington in a place like this."

Steve snorts. "There's lots of place I go you wouldn't expect."

Eddie's smile wobbles, Steve thinks. It's gone in a blink, though, and Eddie laughs. "I'm sure you do, sweetheart. Have time for a drink with me?"

Eddie navigates to the bar, returns with two beers in hand. He presses his palm to the small of Steve's back, directing him to the single empty table in the corner as far from the jukebox as possible.

"How's life treating you, Stevie?" Eddie asks after a sip. "Nance told me the store is doing really well."

"It's good, yeah. Finally turning a profit. Wasn't sure about Dustin having us add a game section, but he was right. It's really taken off."

"Oh, he told me," Eddie smirks.

Steve rolls his eyes. "I'm sure that he did. He hasn't let me hear the end of it."

"That tone," Eddie says, voice soft.

"What brings you to Chicago?" He asks to hide the way all the fucking love he feels for this man is bleeding out of him.

"Not really supposed to be," he laughs. "Flight got diverted to O'Hare, can't get another one until tomorrow. Have to make it to LA in time to play a show."

They both know Eddie loves it; the rush, the adrenaline, that comes with performing, to making it to shows at the very last minute. It's how they got here in the first place.

"Working on new music?"

Eddie leans back, dimples popping with the pleased lift of his lips. "Oh, Harrington, you don't even know what we have in store." He leans over the table and launches into tales of rehearsals and writing. Steve drinks his beer and can't take his eyes off his friend, Eddie the sun Steve orbits around, helpless to his gravitational pull.

"So, Stevie," Eddie says, once there's no more to tell about music. "You seeing anyone?"

Steve hides his cringe with a chuckle. Picks up his beer to buy time and finds it empty. "Not anyone of note."

"C'mon, how is that possible? You're easily the hottest guy in this place."

He grimaces. "That's a low bar."

"Oooh, still bitchy after all these years." Eddie snickers, takes a swig from his bottle.

"Shut-up."

"Seems like it's been a while since you dated."

"You interrogating my love life now, Munson?"

"No, not at all. Just curious."

"Okay, who are you dating? Still that guy from People?"

"Gossip," Eddie frowns.

"Anyone else you got your eye on?"

"No one new," Eddie says. He stares at Steve hard for a second, like he wants to dig into his brain, like it holds the answer to all life's question.

"There is someone, then." Steve tries to ignore the jealousy licking down his spine. Eddie isn't his and never will be.

Eddie picks at the label on his now empty beer. "Not--not really." He licks his lips, leaning over the table again. "Is there a reason you don't seem to date anymore, man? It's just--you wouldn't hurt for options, right?"

Steve freezes, trying to figure out a way to answer that won't end up breaking his own heart. "Ah, it's--you know, things got busy with opening the store and everything. Stopped being a priority."

"Are you lonely?"

"Are you?" He snaps before he can stop himself. "Sorry, I'm--sorry."

"Yeah, man. I'm lonely as hell." Eddie answers as though Steve didn't give him an out.

"I--you ever have someone where the timing is always wrong?"

"Think it's a hazard of my profession. Who's yours?"

"What?" Steve clunks his bottle too hard against the table.

"The one that got away?"

"It's--it--I--it doesn't matter."

Eddie's smile is all jagged edges. "Nancy?"

"God, no. Nance and I are good with being friends. No lingering feelings there. Who's yours?"

"Ahh," Eddie sits back a little, eyes glittering with an emotion Steve can't place. "The best boy I ever met. Can't get over him, can't forget him. I think they guys are going to start banning my 'pathetic gay yearning songs'. Gareth's words."

Something in Steve's chest crumbles to dust. There's someone. Has always been someone. Of course. Eddie is beautiful and hot and charismatic and fucking famous. And Steve is--just a guy who runs a struggling bookstore with a couple of his best friends.

"That's--I'm sorry it didn't work out." He's trying to stop his voice from breaking, from giving Eddie any hint of what he's feeling, just knows he has to get out. "Listen, man, thanks for the beer. Great to catch up. You should hit up Robin and Nancy the next time you're in town. I gotta get going."

"Wait, Steve--"

"See you around."

He doesn't wait. He pushes through the people, and races out the door, into the crisp Chicago fall air. He squeezes his eyes closed, practices his breathing exercises, tries to relax the clench of his teeth, ease the screaming in his lungs.

Three steps away from the building is as far as he gets before he hears, "Steve, please wait." A hand catches his hip, holding him in place.

"Eddie, I don't--"

"It's you," Eddie says. His face is pale, stricken. "You're the one who got away, Steve."

"What?"

"I've never been able to work up the nerve to confess. I've been trying for years, but. Too afraid of losing you to tell the truth."

"Years?" Steve's brain is trying to wrap around what's happening. That Eddie has feelings for him? That he's the source of the pathetic gay yearning?

"God, since 1986, at least."

Steve doesn't know what to say; what to do. He's been waiting for this moment so long, and his brain goes on pause.

"It's okay if you don't feel the same," Eddie rambles. "Hell, I'd be surprised if you did, but--"

"You're mine too," the words tumble out.

"What?"

"You're the one who got away. For me. You're mine."

"Steve," Eddie breathes. "Is this--are you serious?"

"Pathetic gay yearning and all."

Eddie's laugh is a bright spot in the darkness, relief and happiness mixed with the hope of what's next.

Steve can't help but giggle. "We're so dumb," he says.

Eddie looks at him with a raised eyebrow before bursting into giggles of his own. "So dumb, Steve, oh my god."

"It's been a decade!"

"Fuck," Eddie cackles.

They collapse against each other, chests heaving with their mirth. As they catch their breath, Steve nuzzles against Eddie's neck, relishing the closeness. It's easy for him to change the angle so their lips meet in a kiss frantic with ten years of longing.

"Your place or mine?" Eddie asks once they part.

Steve laughs. "You think I'm that easy, Munson?"

"Oh, Steve," Eddie smirks. "I know it."

"Asshole." Steve presses a kiss to his jaw. "How many songs did you write about me?"

Eddie smiles so hard his dimples pop. "All of them, baby. Every single one."

Steve rests their foreheads together, body fizzing like freshly uncorked champagne, "Take me home, Ed."

[twilightkitkat]

Do you ever just sit there, thinking about Logan and Wade and them together and what it means?

Thinking about why they're so big right now. Why it took THIS version of them to finally get that formula right?

Because it wasn't like they hadn't interacted in previous universes. It wasn't like they hadn't had crossover comics or episodes where they interacted in animated series of other Marvel characters. It wasn't like this was the FIRST time they'd been together, like it was a new concept.

They'd interacted before. They have a whole backstory together, both Weapon X experiments gone wrong (and right, in a fucked up way). They both had similarities. They both put on a metaphorical mask to hide their emotions, to keep others from seeing how desperately they needed to feel human connection. They both have low self-esteem and low expectations. They both were the ones people turned to when they needed to get the gritty, morally grey, dirty work done that nobody needed to do.

They always had a kinship. In some of the comics, it caused them to become friends. To reach a sort of mutual understanding.

But now?

It took THIS version of Logan—exhausted and grieving and borderline suicidal, closed off from the world—and THIS Wade—desperate and aching to matter like it'd eat him whole—for them to finally come together into something greater. Into not just Deadpool and Wolverine, teaming up for a one-off, but Deadpool and Wolverine, where they're a set. Where Wade takes him home and makes a place for him in his family and Logan accepts it. Relishes in it, even.

They'd always had similarities. But in a fucked-up, high-stakes situation, they were finally able to let down their masks and see them. They finally saw the void reflected in each other's eyes and realized they were one and the same. And they fight over it, sure, but they understand each other and it's so evident in the way they interact. In the way Logan knew just the weak points to hit to piss Wade off. In the way Wade understood why Logan would want to sacrifice himself but refused to let it happen.

It took two men at the end of their ropes, reeling from loss, to see each other at rock bottom and yank each other up and climb together.

And isn't that beautiful?

To meet someone who sees you at your worst, at your lowest, and still decides you're worth it. Who easily shoves past your facade and sees the real you—the grief-ridden, terrified, clawing animal that begs to not be alone—and welcomes it.

Who agrees to make a home with you, in the aftermath of it all, even when one of you gets back what you'd had before. Because you realize that you found what you'd been working so hard all along to save: a home.

And you wouldn't have this without them. You can't go back to your life before, even if you love the people in it. Because you can't imagine going back to feeling cosmically alone, to feeling like people care but don't get it. To going back to starving after finally getting used to eating well.

There's something special about this Wade and this Logan. Something that their other versions wanted, yearned for, but never quite achieved. They were their own individual people with their own lives and friends, but were they ever more than content? Were they ever truly happy with themselves in the way we see these two at the end of the movie?

It's like meeting your soulmate.

You were destined to cross paths in different universes, temporarily entering each other's orbit, but always left unsatiated. Until, finally, finally, you get the push you need. To reach out. To take that outstretched hand.

To latch onto each other and let your orbits shift to accommodate. To push past Wade's cheerful, crass mask and Logan's gruff, closed-off exterior to finally let each other in. Let them be seen.

A relationship is a series of choices. Regardless of your chemistry, regardless of the similarities in other Logans and Wades, it's the choices that matter. You can want for something and still not have it, you can realize you relate to someone without reaching out.

That's why this Logan and Wade are so special.

Because they chose this. Wade chose this Logan, out of all of them, and stuck with him. Logan chose to believe Wade, to not abandon him even after realizing he'd lied. Wade chose to be emotionally vulnerable and reveal his history with Vanessa. Logan chose to break free from Cassandra to help save Wade's World, even if she could silence the voices in his head. Because Wade was more important. Wade chose to show Logan his family, instead of just claiming that he was being noble and saving the world. He chose to be honest, to show Logan who he was. Logan chose to sacrifice himself and Wade chose to do it in turn. Wade chose to call out after him, to not let him go, and Logan chose to turn around, to listen, and to come with him. To come home with him.

They finally chose each other.

[maxwell-grant]

"porous and easy-to-transplant like Spidey's villains" is it just me does Marvel have more of these guys than DC? Like we can just have random buff list villains go after a a variety of different characters?

Oh yes, Marvel absolutely has the advantage when it comes to rogues gallery transplants, it's not even a contest. That's in large part because Marvel existed as a shared universe from the get-go: DC didn't quite jump on that wagon for a while. For most of the Silver Age, there was little to no cross-pollination between Superman and Batman, the existence of the Justice League not really mattering in their titles, where as Marvel was crossover town from day one. They each offer different kinds of narrative real state for their villains to exist in.

The DCU's defining figures, Superman and Batman, live in opposite cities with opposite tones and opposite casts and everybody else has to occupy the space between their two extremes, and most of the other bigger heroes have their own cities: your Star Cities and Central Cities and Hub Cities and Bludhavens and whatnot. Thus most of their villains and villain casts are centralized, and sometimes they even have formal agreements about this kind of stuff. There's almost like a Venture Bros-esque union thing going on sometimes in the DCU where most of their popular villains and heroes are fairly exclusive to one another, with characters like Killer Frost, Gentleman Ghost and Solomon Grundy who transcend this being mostly such due to their heroes being more absorbed and integrated into ensembles than their own adventures.

The major exceptions for these tend to be villains specifically made or set to menace the entire universe, like Superboy Prime or Perpetua or, Amanda Waller this month I guess, and Event Villains are kind of their own thing (and mostly not very good). DC doesn't have a Doctor Doom, in the sense of a big great iconic villain for the whole universe and specific heroes in it who also can and will fight anyone and it will pretty much always be great no matter who he's fighting. They try to make cosmic baddies like Brainiac into those kinds of figures and it never works as well, it always just makes them too generic, there's no spark to the ensuing dynamic. Vandal Savage is probably the closest to one that works and, love the guy, but he's sporadically great and simply not up to the standard this requires.

Marvel, in turn, has been in the business of regularly loaning out bad guys, maybe ever since Sandman joined up the Frightful Four? He wasn't just a one-off thing like that time Daredevil and Doctor Doom swapped bodies and fought, no he was regularly showing up as a villain in F4, in a new costume even. Marvel already started with all of their major defining characters living in the same sandbox, everybody is within a few blocks away from each other most of the time, and so everybody is everybody's problem most of the time, it's the bastardverse and they are all crammed together, and it's not terribly surprising why they fight all the goddamn time. All the major Marvel villains are shooting to rule the same city/planet and destroy more or less the same people and therefore they kinda have to be on a first-name basis with each other, and all the middle-leaguer/second-stringer baddies are getting beaten up by the same people in the same city. Reverse-Flash and Joker going after anyone other than their respective arch-enemies feels fake and perfunctory, but guys like Ultron and Norman Osborn, who also have specific arch-enemies, can transit between individual problems for different heroes and larger-scale problems for everybody just fine. A DC hero will rarely be in Lex Luthor's line of sight unless they are specifically doing something that will piss him off, where as if you are a Marvel hero, it's a fact that sometimes you'll just randomly orbit Wilson Fisk's business and thus you gotta dodge gunfire for it that day.

This especially applies for the smaller-scale villains, not too strongly attached to the hero they may have started out with to the point they become ensemble villains, the ones that easily and eventually become someone else's problem. Your Mr. Hydes and Absorbing Men and Arcades and High Evolutionaries and whatnot, Spider-Man is stuffed with these. Sometimes these characters will click so well with specific heroes they'll achieve wholly different kinds of stardom or characterization (Kingpin in Miller's Daredevil, Brain Drain and Kraven in Squirrel Girl, etc), and sometimes they'll graduate into the position of supporting character or even main character. The peak example of this is Taskmaster, because while the likes of Loki and Venom can claim greater stardom, they did so by becoming anti-heroes and are generally still attached at hip to their heroes of origin, where as Taskmaster is a midcard villain to the bone and it's extremely easy to forget he was an Avengers villain at first, he is just fully A Guy in his own right who will go anywhere and menace anyone for the right price (except Moon Knight, because he is too scary), he'll scale up and down and be everyone's problem until he's not being paid to do so and then it's cool. DC doesn't really have an equivalent to him (they kinda try with Deathstroke but, pfft, please, that guy is a diehard obsessive Teen Titans villain and that's not even the more embarassing thing about him). They have countless midcarders just picking dust within their respective rogues galleries that could easily be migrated elsewhere.

But on the other hand, Marvel doesn't quite have what you'd call a Legion of Doom/Injustice League, in the sense of being able to pair all of it's biggest villains from the biggest corners of the world together in a team-up and have it work. There's been attempts over the years to make things like the Masters of Evil and the Cabal land as such and they never really stuck, the closest you get to an iconic Big Villain Team is the likes of the Sinister Six and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, groups tailored to menace specific heroes or hero teams, or things like The Black Order and the Dark Avengers, ultimately extensions of bigger villains (the Thunderbolts are their own thing). Maybe it's because Marvel doesn't really have a major concentrated dominant heroic force on the level of the Justice League that would demand all their villains to put everything aside to try and stop it (although DC can't really justify the Legion of Doom/Injustice League as an ongoing thing most of the time, they don't exist as a regular thing). It might be a mismatch of priorities, that it doesn't have a Lex Luthor as a a clear-cut Union Chief to properly call in and command other arch-enemies who would be willing to pay union dues and work together to better destroy the specific guys they individually hate. Marvel's major villains are a clutch of arch-bastards all trying to be king of the world who hate each other as much, if not more, as they hate their heroes and the only one who could rise above them to the top leadership position is Doctor Doom, who has no need to be leading or participating in something like this. Loki had to put on a whole charade of pretending to be subservient to each of them in order to pull off the gathering he did in Acts of Vengeance, and that only worked once.

Another obvious immediate answer for why is that, as Acts of Vengeance and other stories have shown time and time again, you kinda can't gather all of Marvel's biggest villains in one place and not include the Red Skull, and thus other villains jumping over themselves to murder him the second he walks into the room. But they've done attempts without him or a significant Nazi villain in the room, and they still largely didn't land. It might be overall that, the point of the Legion of Doom is to force all the separate characters and domains of the DCU to join forces to oppose it and that's why they have to be a threat to the Justice League, with none of it's villains exactly meeting that standard on their own, but Marvel's heroes are already all crammed together in cliques on the same places and fighting/putting differences aside to tackle bigger threats all the time, and so there's not really a point of forcing that through a especially big villain gathering.

There isn't really a unity among the Marvel heroes comparable to the one that demands Lex Luthor to call in all the other arch-enemies to try and break, and the one time Norman Osborn attempted to call in one at the height of his power, it was repeteadly emphasized how stupid he was to expect to be able to gather and control and command said people (and when Namor tried to revive the Cabal for the sake of succeeding where the Illuminati failed, things went even worse for him). In the end, Marvel is just too chaotic for the villains to exist in a centralized ruling body like that, if the heroes can't agree on anything why would their villains be any different.

[baldurs-writers-3]

Horror: A Baldur's Gate 3 Fanfiction Rec List

This week, we have Horror! Check under the cut for seven fics that explore some of the darker and more frightening elements of Faerun, and as always, comment and kudos if you like them!

Hand, Hearth, and Home by ElleKhen (393,131, Explicit) Content Notes: Graphic Depictions of Violence, Body Horror Pairings: Astarion/Male Tav

This fic covers the backstory and in-game story of a warlock who was raised by a shadow-fey-possessed church. After being infected by the mind flayer tadpole, he meets a dream guardian who appears to him as a childhood friend and first love who he thought dead. As his party goes on with their quest, he is also forced to face the consequences of his shadow-cursed existence, and what that means for the people he loves.

Reccer says: I love that this fic is full of visceral, angsty smut and exciting action. But the author always follows up the hurt with comfort. They especially approach the Astarion romance with so much care, and do a great job of writing his voice. Due to the nature of Church’s magic, there are body horror elements especially when the story covers the events of Act 2. This fic expands upon the Shadowlands, Shadowfell, the Raven Queen, and shadow magic as a whole to depict terrifying sequences Church must face with his companions (and lover) beside him. I learned a lot about that particular D&D lore that way, and it made Act 2 feel a lot bigger and scarier than it originally felt.

A Dream of Silence by AbigailMoment (2,683, Mature) Content Notes: possible main char death Pairings: astarion/tav

An interactive story, where you have to save Astarion from a horrible nightmare of worst thing that Cazador ever did to him

Reccer says: Very well written with tons of replayability. Also you get to pet his hair

What Could Have Been by Bella1433! (119,228, Explicit) Content Notes: Dark themes, there are archive warnings Pairings: Tav (named) X Astarion

The maze scene, the race through the city. Astarion is a terrifying vampire lord in this fic!

Reccer says: Vampire lord acting like a vampire lord and being terrifying! Using his powers

The Tyrant, the Assassin, and the Corpse by aqeldroma (3,241, Explicit) Content Notes: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Murder Pairings: The Dark Urge/Enver Gortash

After the Hall of Wonders, the Dark Urge visits Gortash to test him in another way. When she finds someone already in his bed, the night turns predictably violent.

Reccer says: Pre-canon Dark Urge and Gortash pairing, set back when they are testing each other's limits. The horrific things happen to everyone in their orbit, naturally.

Hunger is Satisfaction by CountTavula (25,904, Explicit) Content Notes: Very dark content Pairings: Tav X Astarion

The psychological horror in this is extremely high and surprisingly so.

Reccer says: Its a thriller, psychological horror, not even a dark fantasy most times, just...dread

The Vanishing of Astarion Ancunín: The beginning by Gally (3,526, Mature) Content Notes: None Pairings: None

A glimpse at his last few days of life and the first terrifying minutes of his new unlife.

Reccer says: He wasn't an evil man, he wasn't a great man... he was just a man.

Bathed in Sound by Nikolai_237 (1,005, General) Content Notes: None Pairings: Karlach/Tav

In the Feyweird, not all is dangerous but most is unsettling. For instance, sometimes you find your partner just sitting in the middle of a bunch of floating whale skeletons.

Reccer says: This is my first concept fic for the Feyweird, my psychological horror playground, and for some reason people seem to like it. I enjoy writing creepy stuff and I love weaving horror into my work.

The above fanfic recommendations were pulled from our community for this weekly event. Have any questions about what this is? Check out the FAQ!

Next week, we’ll be returning with a character rec list, this time for Lae’zel! 

[competitivemen]

My elder sister always had a lot of male attention, especially since she started at the local university. Every week it seemed there was a new guy trying to get into her pants. She was quite receptive to it and was masterful at flirting just enough to keep a group of guys in perpetual orbit around her. Unfortunately for her and her would-be lovers, our dad was pretty old-fashioned and kept a close eye on her. He had declared that she would have no boyfriend until she graduated. He knew where she was and who she was with at all times, and he had forbidden her from even bringing a boy around the house. He was paying for her college, and she was still living at home, so she reluctantly obeyed. It frustrated the guys, who lusted after her to no end. The perfect young woman, willing to give it up but out of their reach. For a whole year it looked like no one would have the opportunity to do anything with her. That was until they discovered a way to get to her without raising my dad's suspicion. Me. 

I went to the same university she did and was only a year below her. My dad had really encouraged me to go to the same school. He'd given me a big lecture about how I would be able to 'perform my brotherly duty' and 'help safe guard her virtue'. I'd agreed, if only so he'd leave me alone. I hadn't even been there a week before two guys approached me, asking about my sister. 

"Is your sister Ashley Williams?" Said the guy on the left without even saying so much as a hello. 

"Y-yes. She is." I stumbled over my words and felt my face flush. I wasn't used to talking to such good-looking guys, and them both being shirtless didn't help. 

"Your sister's well fit, mate." Said the guy on the right, a big, dumb smile on his face. 

"Er... thanks?" I said. Not being entirely sure how to respond to that. 

"Listen," said the guy on the left, who I later found out was called Derek. "Ashley said that you had a way to contact her without her dad knowing; is that true?" 

"Eh yeah, I told her that if she ever wanted to talk to someone behind dad's back, she could have them go through my phone. Dad doesn't track the content of the messages, just who they are from." I was taken aback that Ashley had already told some guys, since I'd only talked to her about it a few days ago. 

"Excellent, mate." Said the guy on the right, who I'd find out was called Brad. He stretched out his hand. "Give me your phone, and I'll drop her a line." 

"Fuck off; I'm the one who's going to be chatting her up." Derek said, knocking Brad's hand out of the way and squaring up to him. "It's obvious she wants me." 

"In your dreams." Brad said, pushing back against Derek. "Ashley wants to get with a real stud, not a loser like you." 

It looked like neither was going to back down. They seemed to be flexing their muscles at each other, and I was worried they would start swinging punches. "I-I'm sure we can all come to an arrangement." I said, not being able to take my eyes off their bulging muscles. 

Derek noticed where I was looking and smirked. "It looks like your sister's not the only one interested. I'll tell you what. If you let me use your phone, you can lick my chest. That's the sort of thing gay guys like, isn't it?" 

I was momentarily stunned at his suggestion. But I couldn't deny that I wanted to wrap my lips around his chest muscles. Meekly, I handed my phone over to Derek. He gave me a smile and thrust his chest out, offering it to me. Not needing any extra invitation, I bent down to run my tongue along his chest muscles. 

"Dude, I can't believe you're letting him lick you. That's pretty gay." Said Brad, who was staring at me as I bathed Derek's muscles with my tongue. 

"If it gets me access to his sister, I'll let him serve me however he wants." Derek said as he sent a text to my sister with my phone while I worshipped his muscles. Having finished his message, he tossed my phone back to me. "Forward me the reply, and I'll let you service me again when I send the next message." With that, he walked off, leaving Brad in disbelief and me still desperate to continue worshipping him. 

Brad recovered quicker than I did. "Well, if that's what it takes to get in Ashley's pants, I suppose I've got no choice." Brad turned to me; he was running his hand across his six-pack. "I'll offer the same deal. Hand over the phone, and you can give my abbs a few licks." 

I didn't say anything. I simply handed him the phone and began worshipping his abbs. 

It only escalated from there. Ashley began an extensive correspondence with both guys, which meant they were constantly coming to me to send their replies. Both were aware that they were in competition for her attention, so their offers to get at my phone steadily increased. Derek would get ahead by offering to let me suck his toes, only for Brad to counter by letting me clean his post-workout armpits. 

Ashley wasn't aware of what her suitors were doing to get to my phone. She was just grateful for my facilitation of her flirting. Her ignorance meant she didn't realise what she was doing when she declared that the guy who messaged her the most would be the guy she'd be most interested in. This sent Derek's and Brad's competitive efforts into overdrive. In no time at all, they were letting me sniff their crotches through their underwear or letting me stick my face between their ass cheeks multiple times a day. All in an effort to send more messages than their rival. 

It finally came to a head when both of them came to use my phone at the same time. I knew they were tied in terms of the number of messages sent and that Ashley had promised them that whoever had sent the most messages by the end of the day could come over to her house. (Under the guise of being my friend to get past our dad.) Both men were determined to finally get physical access to Ashley and be the one to take her virginity. And I was fully prepared to take advantage. 

When they approached me, I was down on my knees, looking up at them. I gave them a shy smile. "I'll give my phone to the guy who lets me suck their cock." I said. 

Any hesitation they'd once had about letting me serve them had long since melted away due to my tongue and their determination to get with my sister. Both of them responded by pulling down their pants to reveal their already hardening cocks. I took a moment to marvel at the two straight cocks in front of me. Both were bigger than mine, and I was of average size. Derek's was slightly longer, but Brad's was slightly thicker. 

Derek stepped forward first, thrusting his cock against my cheek. "Go on. Suck my cock. Get it nice and ready for your sister." 

"Back off, mate." Brad said as he stepped forward, knocking against Derek's hips and positioning his cock against my other cheek. "He's going to be sucking my cock, and I'm the one who's going to be getting with Ashley." 

Both men began jostling against each other, trying to get in a better position to slide their cocks into my mouth. 

In order to stop them from escalating into a full-blown physical fight, I grabbed their cocks. With one cock in each hand, I quickly stroked them to full hardness. It did the trick in stopping them from fighting, as they were too absorbed in the hand jobs I was giving them. 

Bringing their two cock heads together, I began licking and teasing the tips with my tongue, eliciting curses from them. I made sure to suck on both of them as equally as possible, not wanting to show favouritism. 

Each of them tried to gain the upper hand by grabbing my head and thrusting their cocks forward, past their rival's, and into my mouth. But each time the other would not give up ground, jerking my head back towards them and thrusting forward to deny their foe any deeper access to my mouth. I had to stretch my lips more than I ever had before to keep both of their tips in my mouth. 

After neither could gain an advantage, they began to grow impatient. "He's such a fucking tease. He's going to keep stringing us along." Derek snarled, apparently not directed at me but at his competitor. 

"True that, man. He should make up his mind over who's cock he wants for him and his sister." Brad said. Sharing a look, they both withdrew from my mouth, causing me to let out a whine at the loss of their cocks. 

"Times up, slut. Choose which cock is going to be taking your sister's virginity." Derek said. "Yeah, no more stringing us along; make your choice." Brad added. 

I was paralysed with indecision, wanting to serve both. I honestly couldn't choose between them. It was in that moment that my sister unwittingly came to my rescue. My phone buzzed with the distinctive tone I'd set for Ashley. I quickly snatched it up and read the message she'd sent. It was for her two suitors. I read it aloud for them. 

"Hey boys, what's keeping you? I've been so horny waiting for your sexy messages and I haven't received even one from either of you! Did you forget that I said whoever sends the most messages by midnight gets to come over? Well the game is still on! Just thinking about it makes me so wet. I need the best man to take my virginity so step it up boys!" 

The effect on the straight men as I read the message was obvious. Both had started to jack off while I'd been reading, and both were now harder than I'd ever seen them before. Their faces were also completely different. Before, when I'd served them, they'd at most expressed arousal at my attempts to get them off. Now they showed almost animalistic lust. They were straight alphas who had been teased with what they truly desired: pussy. I realised in that moment that I'd never truly be able to have or satisfy either of them. I was and always would be a mere means to an end for these straight studs. I'd never been harder in my life. 

Realising after today they would have no reason to let me serve them, I quickly came up with a way to get as much straight cock in the time I had left. "Whoever is currently fucking my face gets my phone until they cum. Then the other takes over until they cum. We repeat until my sister's deadline." 

Derek reacts faster than his rival. He plunges his cock into my waiting mouth, snatches my phone from my hands, and immediately begins texting my sister. I'm in heaven, sucking on the long, straight cock lodged in my throat. I bob my head up and down his cock, trying to make him feel as good as possible, but he hardly even grunts as I take him to his base, too engrossed in his conversation with my sister. 

Brad stands scowling at Derek's side. His fists clench; he too is engrossed in the text conversation, ignoring me completely. He starts muttering in Derek's ear, and at first I can't hear what he's saying, but Derek's grunts grow louder as Brad talks to him. I hear snippets of what Brad is saying; words like 'tight', 'pussy', and 'virgin'. I realise he's talking dirty about my sister to get Derek to cum faster. It works. Derek let out a moan of release, and my mouth was flooded with his sperm. I try to swallow as much as I can, but it's too much, and his seed spills out of my mouth. 

Before Derek can completely finish cuming or I can fully suck his cock clean, Brad yanks my head off of Derek's cock, shoves him out of the way, and rams his thick dick down my throat. He's grabbed my phone as well and is messaging my sister furiously, trying to catch up. I get to work sucking his cock, not caring about my rough treatment; I'm just glad I've got another straight cock to suck. 

Derek adopts Brad's tactics right away, whispering in his ear about what a slut my sister is and how good her pussy would feel. He also has his own tactics. Grabbing the back of my head, he holds me down on Brad's cock until I'm gagging on it. It sends Brad wild, and after the third time Derek holds my head down, my spasming throat and the latest message from my sister send him over the edge, and he dumps a load down my throat. 

They swap me back and forth for hours. The time they spend fucking my throat becomes longer and longer as their balls are drained more and more. All the while they text my sister, try to get the other off, and ignore me as much as possible, only interacting with me with their cocks or with a hand on my head as they direct me to suck their rival off faster.

Finally, it reaches midnight. Both Derek and Brad are spent. My sister says she'll count up the messages and let us know who the winner is tomorrow. They give me back my phone, and stumble off, arm in arm. Despite it all, it seems that competition has allowed them to bond. At least until they find out who's won. 

I sit there exhausted, covered in a mix of their cum, my throat raw and sour from being fucked for so long. I've cum multiple times in my pants during the hours I've been servicing them. I'm still hard as a rock, and as I reach to get myself off one last time, I receive another text from Ashley. "Hey bro, still counting up the messages. I'm excited to let the winner come over but I do like both guys and I'd want the loser to stick around. Maybe have some fun with him after. Could you take care of him? Let him know he still has a shot. Thanks bro x" 

I cum in my pants, envisioning how I'd take care of the loser while he waited for my sister. I text my sister back. "No problem sis. They'll do anything for you."

[faceofpoe]

The way Identity Crisis was supposed to give some depth to Emerie and instead just kind of made her... shallower. And reduced her final reflection moments to the civilian version of "Good soldiers follow orders."

"Just doing my job" the hell you were.

She had depth. They made such interesting animation decisions with her but subtle, her reactions to the things going on around her. The look she gives Hemlock in s2e14 when he loses patience with Crosshair - is she reacting to discovering an unknown sister out in the galaxy, or is she reacting to his "all clones are my property" declaration?

She does bad things - she is doing her job/following orders/etc. Echo calls her on her shit.

But she comes across as a rather conditioned victim herself, at least initially (and I do think this impression was severely undermined by Identity Crisis). Crosshair demands her access card - "it won't get you outside"; but Nala Se's datapad will get Omega to a hangar? There's very much a vibe that she's just as trapped as any of the prisoners, but almost doesn't recognize it or fully appreciate it. She tells Omega she's safer in Tantiss than "out there" - in the jungle, or in the broader galaxy?

She cares about Omega's wellbeing in the way she knows how, which is the same way she tries to spare Crosshair suffering needlessly: do what Hemlock says, cooperate, do your job, follow orders, and things will go as good for you as they can (there's no escape). Her hesitation to call security down on the lurca kennels, she wants to spare them both the punishment of the attempt. And then rationalizes it with - it just won't work, you can't escape, better you're punished in here than dead out there.

The look on her face when Omega gets indignant on Batcher's behalf - you don't know she won't survive, she deserves a chance.

Like - that was where the root of her questioning her situation felt like it ought to be. And then their successful escape from the planet? Builds on that! Your reality has been turned on its axis, Hemlock is not infallible, escape is possible, there's a life worth living beyond this mountain and one Omega and Crosshair were willing to fight for!

And then we get to Identity Crisis and... we need Emerie in the orbit of the children (because the Vault was not whatever the Emperor visited in e3, it was the galaxy's worst daycare). So actually, now, despite keeping her away (and never mind all the scientists already working in the vault), and her own attitude of "best not to ask questions" actually sure, why not, be chief scientist. It's like we suddenly portray her as closer to high level subordinate than... almost prize pet clone weird vibe it felt like we had before.

Her entire turnaround became solely 'torturing and experimenting on grown men was one thing but discovering the top secret basement daycare is a step too far!' and it just - falls flat to me. And she was on my bingo card for being the topic of Identity Crisis! Just... not like that lol. Part of it maybe felt like she and Hemlock were both sort of testing each other that episode, little furtive glances but... nothing really came of that either. Hemlock just says 'yeah sure leapfrog over all the other scientists on the project you've earned my trust' when she wasn't even allowed to know the truth of the project until now?

Her whole vibe giving the sense of not really being permitted outside the walls of wherever Hemlock is working at the time and then just - yeah sure go on a Coruscant supply run, whatever, I've got a phone call to get to.

Was straight up shocked she knew how to fly the ship when Echo asked.

Who the fuck is she? Why does she exist, why was she sent away, where did she go, why does she have a last name? How and why did Hemlock snag her? Did she know about Omega before Hemlock started looking for her? Just - nothing.

Her recognizing Echo was *chef's kiss* best moment of that episode. Understanding she wants to do something but needs that extra push/support to figure out how - awesome.

But it really feels like they pulled back from portraying her as a different brand of Hemlock victim and, quite frankly, she deserved some recovery downtime on Pabu too.

(and don't get me started on how much we deserved Crosshair being the one who has to choose to trust her, and they never even got another interaction)

(also don't get me started on the similar 'give me five quick words to encompass this character's morality revelation/turnaround' vibe that was Howzer & Crosshair and "loyalty meant something to me")

[tigreblvnc]

BLUE LOCK MATCHUP EXCHANGE — @butterflyseraph

Your match is...

— Mikage Reo

✦ It wasn't easy; I thought of several characters, but each time I was like, "hmm no."

✦ I figured it had to be someone who wouldn’t make you feel like you were too much.

✦ … So, not someone introverted.

✦ Or someone who doesn’t communicate enough.

✦ We all know where relationships go when one person doesn't communicate enough…

✦ *cough cough*

✦ I think you and Reo make a very balanced duo. He’s naturally sociable, loves approaching people and showing interest in them (not necessarily for personal gain; that’s just how he is).

✦ That made me think of how you tend to appear very open with others at first.

✦ It’s something that can unsettle shy people, but with him, it would only be appealing.

✦ Anyway, if it hadn’t been you, he would have come to you sooner or later.

✦ I can totally see you two as the duo that always has a bunch of friends orbiting around them. You’re the headliners, the queen bee duo of the university.

✦ The good thing is that between you two, there are never any misunderstandings, at least not for long; you express yourselves when something’s wrong, which immediately defuses potential problems.

✦ The trope of best buddies, obviously.

✦ Reo would never make you feel like you’re too much; on the contrary, he’d be the first to spot you in the crowd, grab your arm, and include you in the group. I don’t think there’s ever any ambiguity between you two; it’s smooth, and no one could question your friendship.

✦ He loves your contrasting personality—the fact that you appear quite cute on the outside but enjoy less conventional and niche things. I think he’s interested in those things too because he wants to understand them—and, by extension, understand you.

✦ Whatever you like or do, it piques his interest, and in a sincere way. No hidden motives. To me, Reo is truly someone loyal and reliable in friendship. He doesn’t try to play games—except during a match, but that’s part of the sport.

✦ I like to imagine you playing a soccer video game while he’s actually playing soccer.

✦ That’s probably not the kind of game you play, though; I see you more with games like The Wolf Among Us, Genshin Impact, The Binding of Isaac, or Outer Wilds. But you know, I think those games could interest him in a way too. They’re successful games, and he’d be curious about why. After all, Reo is still a business-minded person.

✦ And if he starts playing, it’s not only to be with you but to understand the mechanics of those games. Maybe it’ll inspire him on the field, like giving him a sharper understanding of his opponents’ mindset. Immersive games often lead to introspection and analysis—making choices, challenging one’s ethics, etc.

✦ In short, things we regularly see at Blue Lock, let’s be honest.

✦ "Physical Affection (giving and receiving, although I do need to be properly acclimated to a person: it's basically my ultimate form of affection)" You see, I think Reo is one of the characters in the whole manga with whom you quickly feel comfortable; he has a very close, very human vibe. Very relatable. So, I have no doubt you’d feel at ease with him quickly, to the point where you’d let him approach you even from behind for a surprise hug.

✦ And it would make him so happy to receive your affection too. I can’t imagine him not sharing affectionate gestures with his significant other, no way.

✦ Actually, he kind of reminds me of a knight sometimes, you know? The one who opens and holds the door for you, the one who tells everyone on the escalator to move to the right so you can go faster. The one who always orders your dish without the sides you don’t like. Those kinds of small, discreet attentions that are incredibly satisfying to experience daily.

✦ I see him as someone materialistic, so all the gifts you give him, he keeps them carefully at home and doesn’t throw anything away, even if they seem completely ordinary or insignificant. As long as it’s from you, he’ll keep it until his death.

✦ (Which makes me think his inheritance might be complicated)

✦ Two little sunshines <3

A word about your match: I first thought of Niko (the "attracted to the realistic, grounded types" you know) but I figured he would be too quiet and solitary for your need to be with others. Lack of communication, as always.

© TIGREBLVNC 2024 | INTERESTED IN A MATCHUP EXCHANGE? CHECK THIS.

[chaikachi]

Listen as a RG shipper who has been burned by other shows with ships I don’t wanna put my tin hat on. But NEO??? Has been using Oscar A LOT to mess with Ruby. And assuming she turned into Ruby to trick Oscar to get the lamp back in V7 👀👀👀 also I just rewatched V5 and when they all have a sit down he just stares at her and Ruby giggles and I’m like “HE THINKS SHES PRETTY AWWWW�� like I’m not calling it shipbait bc I have no idea if they will become Bee levels of canon and I’ll be fine if they don’t. But MAN do they care about each other A Lot in canon to the point where the Optical Illusion character uses them to hurt each other. Like Yang? Her big sister totally get it. Penny? Neo knew when she died with her first body that’s her best friend after or alongside Weiss but Weiss isn’t dead. But OSCAR!?? The guy she only met THREE volumes ago HES the one who shows up? Not her UNCLE or JAUNE but FARMBOY????

Neo ships it (evily) is all I’m saying

I don't wanna get peoples hopes up in case crwby somehow swerves off course or we just don't get to see the end of the show, but I genuinely don't think it's shipbait at this point.

First want to bring up the v5 thing. Yes he stares at and giggles at her, firmly believe that boy had a case of love crush at first sight... but Ruby ends up mirroring very similar tone, dialogue, and body language later on in the fumble scene.

Oscar: Ah, sorry! Ruby: Heh, sorry-

Putting behind a read more cause i'm riled up with new rwby/whole loaf of rg bread zoomies and don't feel very coherent rn aha.

There is a post somewhere on this site that i can't find anymore which goes through all the BB/RG parallels (a shorter copy of it exists here on twitter) and that list since v9 just keeps getting longer.

Like... Sorry, Blake's biggest fear in v3 was that her past would come back and hurt those she loves. She is proven right to fear that when Adam shows up and attacks Yang and then because she can't handle that guilt, Blake runs away??

Vs.

Ruby, being terrified that if she carries on the path she's headed down, more of her friends will die. And Neo uses Oscar (and Little, who strongly parallels him) to prove Ruby's fears right which also leads her to 'running away'? Because the thought of hurting him, of losing him is just something Ruby can't bare????

Bro.

The ship parallels themselves are so specific and are absolutely worth mentioning, but RG itself stands so strongly even on it's own. The narrative orbits and constant, consistent emphasis on how much Ruby and Oscar care about each other is deafening at this point.

Just about everyone in the main cast has gone through huge portions of their character arcs in the previous eight volumes. Except for our protagonist... until now.

The scene we get in v9e8 where Neo uses Oscar as the last nail in Ruby's coffin ties him directly to her fatal flaw. They could have used anyone else. It could have been Yang. It could have been Qrow. It could have been her team partner Weiss. It could have been Blake, someone that's admitted to looking up to her. It could have been Penny a third time.

But. It. Wasn't.

It was Oscar.

Oscar, who was the first illusion Ruby saw when falling. Oscar, who is the only person she's close to that she didn't get to properly reunite with in v8. Oscar, who's absence in the Ever After has been SO STRONG to anyone that's paid attention to their dynamic up until now.

Ruby's fatal flaw is her grief, and by extension, loneliness and guilt. Ruby has shouldered all of this weight for so long alone and every volume up until now shows us that there is one person that made her feel like she was actually on equal footing for once. Maybe not completely alone. That she had someone looking out for her as much as she looked out for them. Oscar. And when Neo, the illusionist, uses Oscar's death against Ruby? That is her first of two breaking points.

I'm sorry - and i gotta emphasize this isn't directed at you so much as a general declaration - but at this point any anti, meaner, or non-believer that tries to tell me there is not very clear evidence in show pointing to RG needs to stop telling me to take off shipping glasses and has to just put like... normal reading glasses on lskd;jlfks

It is just... undeniable to me at this point. Despite still hearing people refer to them as siblings when it's like... if they wanted to emphasize the sibling bond, YANG WAS RIGHT FREAKING THERE!!

If Ruby is getting a love interest in show (cough cough she already has one) there is literally NO ONE else that fits the bill. They wouldn't introduce someone new this late in the game, and of the rest of the remaining cast, she has not been shown as close to any of them in the ways that tie to her character arc as strongly as this one does.

Ruby is the protagonist, Oscar is the deuteragonist. The core of this story orbits around both of them as the the chosen warrior destined to defeat Salem and barer of Oz's curse, respectively. Their individual character arcs also tie to and parallel each other's consistently: Oscar, who is trying so hard to hold onto his identity despite the merge vs Ruby who has spent this entire volume trying to push hers away.

Yes, all other Ruby ships are valid, don't get me wrong. But from a canon, narrative perspective, Rosegarden is the only one that is being pushed this aggressively.

And I can't be convinced otherwise at this point 🤡

[wyrm-in-a-closet]

Science fact of the day- Jupiter!

Jupiter is the big guy of the planets. it's mass is 2.5 that of every other planet combined (which is extra impressive considering saturn makes up well over 2/3rds of that other mass). Jupiter is probably the oldest, too, which is likely why it was able to get so large. Because of this, Jupiter has long been the primary force influencing the other planets, and scientists are very interested in the history of Jupiter and its location in the solar system because of its effects. one theory states that Jupiter formed further out from the sun than its current position, then drifted all the way in to where the asteroid belt is today, and in doing so disrupted the orbits of super-earth planets, which collided and were destroyed, leaving behind rubble which would've become earth and the other rocky planets. This is just one of several theories on Jupiter's past, but I don't really have time to go into that all. nowadays, Jupiter mainly affects asteroids. for awhile, it was thought that jupiter protects Earth from asteroids by sheparding them around and flinging them outta the solar system, but in reality, it actually brings more asteroids down into earth-hitting range than there otherwise would be, so at the very least, it's neutral in the matter. don't blame jupiter for the dinosaurs going bye bye.

aside from how it affects the other planets, Jupiter itself is a very interesting planet. it's actually about as big as a planet of its size and age could be- if you continued adding mass, the planet would stay roughly the same size until about 40% more mass, at which point it would begin contracting due to gravity. Saturn shows this pretty well- it's almost the exact same size as Jupiter (about 8000 km less in radius, which is a lot but less than 10% it's total radius.) however, Jupiter wasn't always this size- its been shrinking for a long time, and letting off heat in the process. Jupiter lets off about 2x the heat it gets from the sun. when Jupiter was first formed, it was probably about twice it's current radius, meaning it would've been far, far less dense, and it would've been exceptionally hotter. it for sure would've been very bright in the night sky.

But even now, Jupiter is still the second brightest object at night, after only Venus (not counting the Moon and Sun). as such, it's had a fairly signifigant culture impact. The Romans and Greeks asigned it their most powerful gods who sat at the top of the Pantheon, although they actually didn't do it first- ancient Babylon assigned it one of their most powerful gods, and that probably influenced Zues and Jupiter's mythology and representation as the planet. In the East, Jupiter was the basis for the Chinese Zodiac- Jupiter has a roughly 12 year orbit, and so each year of the Chinese Zodiac is named after the constillation that Jupiter was opposite from at that time. It's actually possible that a chinese astronomer over 2000 years ago observed at least one of the Galilean moons, observing it as "a star which travelled alongside Jupiter," although this claim is still debated.

As telescopes were developed and we could observe Jupiter in detail, astronomers noted major cloud bands, and most notably, the Great Red Spot. The great read spot is a massive storm in Jupiter's atmosphere which is just. enourmous in scale. when you see a picture you're like, oh, that's not that big, but the width is wider than the fucking Earth and the whole storm is hundreds of kilometers deep and extends several kilometers above the other clouds. The Great Red Spot has been there since we started observing Jupiter, and is probably a permanant feature of Jupiter- or at least, it'll be there for a long, long time. frankly this thing kinda terrifies me and if there's one thing in the universe thats caused by an eldritch horror it's the Great Red Spot. i dont trust it. honestly this image only sorta does it justice. earth is so fucking small compared to jupiter.

[gatalentan]

HOTEL ROOMS | AO3

Summary: The Young Melissa/Barbara cross an invisible line at PECSA.

She could feel herself sinking into something that might burn them both alive. This wasn't a game anymore.

------------------------------------------------------------------

"Oh my god, I think my feet might actually fall off."

"I told you to wear comfortable shoes, but did you listen? No..."

Mel had been so bright-eyed and bushy-tailed when Barbara had invited her to PECSA with her, a year-and-change into their friendship. "It'll be much more economical if we share a room and carpool," - she'd said - "and also a lot more fun." She couldn't say no to that argument, really - not that it took a whole lotta arm twisting. She was excited about going to the convention in general - it was such an amazing learning opportunity. But it had come at a weird time in whatever it was they had going on.

She'd caught Barbara, on the highway, staring at her just a little too long, acrylics digging notches into the steering wheel, and figured that this was maybe getting a little mixed up for her too. Mel knew she was hot, she wasn't a complete dumbass, had had enough (unfortunate, messy) relationships through high school and college and after it too. She was pretty self-assured about all that. Saw the look in mens' eyes whenever she went into a bar. But as far as she knew Barb was straight. Married, even. Which didn't explain why she occasionally felt, saw, her eyes, intense, on the side of her face, or sometimes, well, her tits, in the break room, like she was a Rubix cube or something that she was trying desperately to solve, like she'd somehow invented gravity, like she'd hung the moon, like she wanted to rip her shirt clean off, her hands knuckling her coffee cup like it was the fuckin' Titanic door. Maybe she wasn't as straight as either of them thought.

She never mentioned it, or caught her eye. But it did stuff to her. Made her wanna preen, a little. Show off, a little. Dress nicer. 'Platonically' (yeah, right) touch her arm, knee, just a little bit longer. Push her luck. Just to see if she could get a reaction outta her. Test how well she could keep up her mask. It was the uptight ones, y'know? It did it for her. The challenge was fun, and this was just a game, just teasing. It didn't have to mean anything. They were both just really, really, enjoying the view.

If she told herself that, it made it easier to live with the fact it was never just that.

So the thought of their bags sitting side by side for a whole weekend was, well, a little terrifying, if she'd been honest, ‘cause this wasn’t part of the game. It’s like they were driving, Thelma and Louise style, towards something else. Entering a third space, not home, or work, but neutral, untested ground, an unknown territory with less rules, no witnesses. The domesticity of it all wasn't lost on her, either. The thought of getting to see Barbara Howard in the wild, outside of her natural habitat, in her pyjamas and no make-up, comfortably away from the pressure of public view… the thought that she was being trusted with that came with its whole, additional, set of baggage that felt so fucking heavy. Like she was being offered something just to see if she'd take it. Of course she would. Every time.

They somehow survived that first day, knee-to-knee at the crowded panels and hand-in-arm in the busy hallways, swapping notes and sharing overpriced concessions at another, foreign, table, orbiting each other like they were somehow still the most interesting people in any room they were in. The baggage was up in their (shared) bedroom, though, and she could feel it hanging over them like a promise or a threat.

By the time they made it back to the room though, after so many hours of travelling and sitting and standing and queueing, she was that dog-tired and sore from her stupid (but hot) outfit that all she wanted to do was collapse and not think at all. Definitely not think.

Melissa peeled off her jacket and flung it on the floor before collapsing in an undignified heap face down on her bed. She wiggled her boots off with some difficulty and kicked them across the room with two loud thunks that would definitely piss off the people in the room below. Ha ha.

"Uggghhhh. Do we really gotta go back out?" she mumbled into the pillow. Her whole body ached. She wanted a hot shower and pizza and wine and clean, white sheets. Well, she didn't know how clean these hotel sheets were, probably better not to think about that. But they were white enough. Better than having to get up.

She peered at Barbara with one eye in the low lamp light; Barbara, who was in the process of neatly removing her blazer and placing it on one of those weird, non-removable hangers in the open closet. Her posture was rigid and upright, looking as fresh-faced and unbothered as she'd ever seen her, like they hadn't just spent the same 10 hours together that had left Mel feelin' like she'd been hit by a semi and probably lookin' like it too. Her ass looked absolutely ridiculous in that skirt, too. What a bitch. So unfair.

"Do you really feel that bad?" Barb turned to look at her, looking all concerned, hands hovering in the air as if ready to fix her. Cute.

"Ehhhhh. I'll live. Little sore." Her ankles throbbed like punctuation. Who the fuck invented heels? An ass man, that's who. Not someone who had to wear 'em all day.

Barbara shook her head at her, tutting, returning to the closet. She knew better than to expect Melissa to be honest about her discomfort.

"Well, technically, no. We don't have to go. It would be nice to go for drinks, though. It's been a long day." She looked at her over her shoulder briefly, smile bright as the sun, looking like it hadn't been a long day at all. "You don't have to come though, if you're too tired." She smoothed down the sleeves of the white blouse she'd worn all day, a little rumpled but still professional, tucked into her purple vest. "But I'd like you to."

Aw, nuts. 

Guess she was going for drinks, then.

What a sucker.

Mel grumbled again, louder this time, kicking her bare feet for dramatic effect and smooshing her nose back into the pillow. 

Barbara clucked at her fondly. "Stop it." 

"Ugh. Fiiiine." She rubbed her tired eyes, and a little eyeliner smudged off on her hand. "Ah, shit. Hey Barb, do I need to put my face back on before we go out, or can I get away with it?"

"Hmm. Let me see." 

Melissa swung her feet off the bed and sat down on the edge of the mattress, self consciously pulling her own dark shirt over her belly. Bottle blonde hair curtained her face in messy strands, which she puffed at to blow away but it didn't do much.

Barb hummed, her eyebrows furrowed a little, taking two steps over from her side of the small room and, with no preamble, no warning, gently pushed her hair off her forehead, tucking it behind her ear to take a closer look at her, fingers landing and making a home near the crest of her jawline.

Melissa's traitorous eyelids slipped closed of their own accord, whole face suddenly slack, her whole body slack. 

“Oh fuck.”

She’d said it, moaned it, before she could take it back. 

Even she could hear how thick with want it was, like shattered glass.

Like she'd been waiting for this.

(She had.)

The panic crested like a wave.

She needed to do something, make a joke, break the tension, apologise, but couldn't, was trapped in space, heart a hummingbird, pinned down in a museum case just by the light touch of Barbara's tender hand.

And Barbara, she didn't say a word, didn't make a sound, and that was somehow worse than pity or shame or disgust, gave her nothing to read into.

But the hand moved, now, in slow motion.

(or maybe Melissa was dying, stretching out her final moments as a last kindness. It felt like dying, or floating away.) 

Barbara's knuckles carved a smooth line from ear to chin and crooked it gently between her thumb and forefinger, cocking her chin up just-so. Her thumb was perilously, dangerously close to her mouth and felt white-hot. If she just parted her lips a little more, she could kiss the pad of her thumb, take it into her mouth.

She didn’t. Because that would be insane. But she thought it, as the tension held, in a loop.

She couldn’t help feeling like a prize, somehow, being displayed, admired, in the crook of her hand for much too long to be easily explained. Like this was an indulgence Barbara shouldn't be taking, being savoured. It did something to her. Something that pooled low in Melissa’s belly, lit her up like a roman candle.  

I asked her to check my make-up. She’s just looking at me. That's all.

Shaking, now, the hand left her chin, beat a matching path along her other cheek, pushing the hair off the other side of her face and over her crown, holding her there in her warm palm. Every hair on her body stood on end in a long shiver, crying out to be touched too. Her breathing was ragged, she knew she must hear it; she could hear Barbara’s, tense as a bow string, as it coasted across her lips in the dark.

"Lovely." Barb whispered into the silence of the room, like she hadn't meant to say it, just an exhale of a held breath, seeming to somehow fill the whole space with it, filling Melissa's ribs and cracking them open. 

It was soft, too soft, like she was being smoothed out. 

She could feel herself sinking into something that might burn them both alive.

This wasn’t a game anymore.

Beyond this point was a conscious choice.

They couldn’t.

Her ring shone in the dark.

“Please.”

“I know.” Her hand, a whisper, a spectre, against her lips, an apology, before falling away.

They couldn’t.

She suddenly felt all of the strain in her body and fell backwards onto the mattress, staring up at her, heavy lidded and her underwear undeniably very, very wet. She felt loose all over, like her marionette strings that held her up had been slashed. 

She could see a whole theatre of emotions playing on Barbara’s face, like she’d become fully unhinged, fighting an internal war that Melissa couldn’t see, eyes not really seeing. It hurt her, badly, to see her hurting this much. To have instigated it, poked the bruises.

“Do you want me to go?” A small voice. Must be hers, because Barbara looked like she might cry. 

“No.” Assertive, determined, immediate. “No, stay. I’m sorry.”

To respond Me, too felt like an admission of guilt, and she was undoubtedly to blame, pushing this whole thing between them too, too far, maybe impassively far, maybe broken beyond repair - but couldn’t burden it, right now, couldn’t take it, couldn’t bear if she’d ruined this, and the shock hit her, then, like cold water, all over, what she’d maybe done, played with fire too recklessly, with a woman with a husband, a man who loved her, let herself get too close, took too much, got greedy. She breathed, but didn’t, not reaching all the places it should, her heart hammering to compensate, curling into herself, the mattress, the floor, the earth.

“Hey, Melissa. Hey. Look at me.” Far off, away. “Melissa, you’re ok, it’s ok. I’m here. I’m…”  a hand, careful, on her arm, not tight, just there: “I’m still here. I’m here. Breathe.”

She tried, she breathed, she counted, she looked at her, her dark eyes almost feral with concern, it pulled her in and out at the same time, slowed the scrambling, eventually, caught her breath, eventually, faded back into the sheets again, hollowed out.

The hand stayed there, a warm weight.

She shifted back into her own body again.

It wasn’t tension that was killing her anymore, it was the silence.

It held all the potential for Barbara to care, to pity having seen what she just saw.

She couldn't take that, right now. Didn't deserve it.

“Do you still wanna go out?”

She punctured it.

Barbara barked out a laugh that sounded like it had been locked away for a thousand years. It rang through Melissa’s body like church bells. 

“I could use a drink.”

“Me too.” She sighed, feeling fully deflated. Somehow, the floor between them felt more even again.

“Room service?”

“Did you win the lottery?”

Barbara just looked at her, where she laid curled up on the bed, for a moment too long, like she almost said, kind of. Then sighed, stretching a smile across her face that was just a little too wide. Melissa knew a mask when she saw one.

“We’ll figure it out.”

They just wouldn't talk about it.

[jpitha]

Dreams of Hyacinth 22

First / Previous / Next

Nick woke up a few hours later. Sleeping in a dusty chair wasn't the most restorative of sleep, but when it's all you have had in the last twenty four hours, you take what you can get. He sat up, rubbing his neck - it feels like he was on his way to pulling a muscle - and looked over to see Eastern gone.

"Tink, where's Eastern?"

"She's looking at the 'staterooms' Nick. She's looking for the 'nicest' one."

Or at least the one with the fewest books in it.

Hah, good luck with that. Just pick one and my support frames will move the books.

Where though?

I'll find somewhere. I'm six kilometers long, I'm not all books.

Yet.

It's the dream Nick. I can only attempt to reach it.

Nick realized they were all communicating cybernetically before he realized what was going on. "Tink, you can connect into our cybernetic network?"

"Nick, who do you think invented that stuff? All you have is a version of the systems and connections we have. Take it away and an AI is just a BI in a mechanical body. Your cybernetics use exactly the same communication protocols we do. You can chat with any AI in their mindspace or over your network. It's how most of us talk to each other. We'll use OTA communication around BIs to be polite."

"OTA?" Nick was walking down the hall towards Eastern's location. Tinker Toy may be huge, but her living space was sparse and cramped. Other than the Command Deck, there was three staterooms, a galley and a lounge. Raaden's penthouse apartment at the top of Hyacinth One was larger.

"Over The Air. You know, with your voice?" Tink sounded pleased with her joke.

Nick rolled his eyes. He got the feeling that Tink loved joked like that, given how she labeled the display during the fight. "Tink... are you going to get in trouble with anyone for what happend at Hyacinth?"

"Get in trouble with who, Nick? Hyacinth? That ship has sailed. Sol? Who in Sol? You have to remember that over the past few thousand years, nearly everyone in Sol has been at war with everyone else. No love lost there. Hell, our little scrap might get us moved to the head of the line if we wanted to dock at Ganymede One, or one of the Free Cities on Titan. No stress Nick, nobody cares."

"If you say so..." Nick wasn't too sure though. As someone for who crime was defined as stealing trinkets, something as big as getting into a firefight with a whole orbital felt like it should be a bigger deal than Tink was treating it.

Nick found Eastern in the largest of the three staterooms, working with two support frames to move books out of it.

An AI can run all of the operations of themselves when they're a ship, but the fact remains that ships were originally designed for people - BIs - to be aboard. Systems can also be controlled by panels and consoles and stations and sometimes things need to be done on human scale. Most ships and all Starjumpers therefore have support frames. They're humanoid robots that can operate semi-independently or under the direct control of the AI. They help the AI out with tasks that they need arms and legs for. Use of the support frames varies greatly among the ships. Newer ones were designed almost completely to be used without support frames, while older ships make extensive use of them. Tink is very old indeed, and has quite a few support frames running around her taking care of little tasks that she can't easily do - as well as letting her read when she has time.

Nick, Eastern and two support frames spent the next few hours clearing books, vacuuming, dusting and repairing the stateroom. Some of the lights were out and the furniture was all sealed to protect it from the ravages of time. After not too long though, they had a nice, clean - if dated - stateroom.

"Wow, I haven't felt this clean in centuries. I should keep you two around." Tink sounded genuinely impressed. "I had the frames start cleaning the Command Deck too, and I lit the displays. Come up and see."

Nick and Eastern walked back to the Command Deck, and it was completely different than what they ran into just yesterday. The displays were up and showing pertinent information, the two main chairs were up and clean and set up for sitting, rather than high gee maneuvers. There was even extra seats that were apparently folded into the walls that were out and clean. "Tink, it looks so... professional now." Eastern looked around approvingly. "You clean up real nice."

"Hah, thanks Eastern. Just because I'm old doesn't mean that I hold no value, right? Come on, have a seat. Let's figure out our next steps."

They sat in the command chairs and the chairs gently molded themselves around Nick and Eastern until it was as if they were made for them. Nick had to admit he had never been in a chair so comfortable. For a moment, both of them looked at the displays and at the room, marveling how far they had come in just a day.

Eastern looked around and the smile fell from her face. "Tink, how long has it been since you've had a crew?"

"A real, assigned to me crew? I haven't had a crew since I signed on with a polity as an independent contractor. Let's see, the last place I worked for like that was... The Republic of Saturn."

Nick blinked. The Republic of Saturn was a short lived polity that attempted to tie all the free cities in orbit around Saturn and their moons together. Nick had only heard of it because of a history cast he had listened to while bored on Hyacinth. Eastern had no idea what it even was. "I've never heard of the Republic of Saturn Tink, how long ago was that?"

"Oh Gosh, around eight hundred years ago at this point? Right around when the wormhole generators were developed. RoS paid for me to get upgraded when they first became available." Tink either saw or anticipated their looks. "I've had them overhauled since then. They're all relatively new generators, you'll be fine."

Nick let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "I only heard about RoS from a history cast I caught when I was bored. Didn't they last less than a century?"

Tink chuckled. "Yeah, maybe sixty years? They were full of heart, and really tried to make a go of things around Saturn, but everyone was just too far apart and too used to doing things independently. They just dissolved after it was clear that once the then current administrator died nobody was going to be able to win an election to replace her. Rather than devolve into petty in-fighting or worse, a war, she declared the RoS dissolved. She died not two years later too." Tink sighed audibly. "It was a good job though. Everyone was really trying to make it work. It was fun to be a part of something like that. They never missed a payday either, even when things started to fall apart."

"Is that why your staterooms are so nice? Did you carry dignitaries?"

"Oh, no. I mean, I did, but they didn't ride in my staterooms. When I had passenger duties with RoS they would slide in staterooms cubes into my cargo hold. You could slot in an entire hotel and make me a luxury liner in only a couple of hours. I think we did it once, I carried over four thousand people in opulent comfort. No, you're in Captain Nesmith's quarters. Jenny Nesmith was my last human captain. She was in the Republic of Saturn's Navy." There was a pause. "Ancestors, it was so long ago, but times like this is feels like it just happened. I look out at my clean stateroom and fully operational command deck and I expect to see them come in from the lounge or the mess, laughing and talking as they sat down and started work. It's been so long."

Eastern looked up at the ceiling. "Tink, are you lonely?"

Nick could have sworn he heard Tink take a breath, like she was trying to control her emotions. "You know Eastern, if you had asked me that question not two days ago I would have denied it until the Sun went out. But... having you and Nick here, and cleaning up my BI systems, lighting the Command Deck... yes. I was terribly lonely. So, thanks I guess. Thanks for hiring me, thanks for talking with me."

"It's no problem Tink, really" Nick smiled. "I'm glad we can help."

Another breath from Tink. "Okay. Next steps. After what you said about Empress Raaden and what's going on in Hyacinth and Sol you didn't just hire me to book it out of there. Unless you did, which is also fine. I'm happy to talk you anywhere you want."

Eastern looked at Nick. He nodded. "Tink, we're worried. Empress Raaden has already almost completely taken over Sol. She did it by buying it. She owns most of Sold now."

"Using her Voice to get people to give her stuff. I had wondered about that. I'm surprised that the previous Empress, Melody didn't do that too."

"Melody wasn't like that." Eastern was emphatic. "She was trying to help everyone."

"With sixteen or seventeen super dreadnoughts? Eastern, I saw the footage. They were larger than a Starjumper and could go atmospheric. She glassed three cities on Earth."

"I didn't say she helped everyone, she was trying to."

"I mean, killing everyone helps them escape being alive"

"Tink!" Eastern frowned.

"Okay okay, I get it. You liked Melody, and Raaden is more dangerous. And the last time there was an Empress with eyes on taking over, the AI faction came out of the colonies and free cities and attacked them. You want to reach out to the AIs?"

Nick nodded. "That was the thought we had yeah. But, we're two small time crooks from Hyacinth. We figured nobody was going to listen to us unless we got someone on our side."

Eastern continued. "That's why we sought you out. I searched the docking records for the oldest ship connected to Hyacinth. You fit the bill, so we hired you. We had hoped that if you believed us, you might know someone highly placed in the AI hierarchy and help us talk to them."

"I mean, it's a smart plan Eastern, really... " Tick sounded unsure. "But, I haven't talked to any of the other old AIs in decades. Centuries in some cases." Tink sighed. "So you know we don't have like... a country right? No real hierarchy. Every AI is supposed to be as important as any other."

"Sunny and Jameson and Yon and the other AIs we met on Hyacinth would disagree. Yon mentioned there is over one hundred million AIs in known space. Is that true?" Eastern was talking while she was playing with one of the screens on the Command Deck, cycling though the settings.

"I don't know our exact count, Ancestors I don't even know if we've done a proper census. That number sounds high, we probably should do a census - I'm getting off track, sorry. AIs don't have a country, we don't have a ruler, we're all supposed to be equal. It's not true of course, it never was, but that's how we present to everyone else. It's like... If you have a ship you're higher than those who just have a body. If you're old enough that you've had both, you're ever higher up. If you've been around long enough that you've swapped multiple times then you're probably one of the people we want to talk to."

"So who is in charge?"

"That's where it gets tricky. There's probably like ten AIs I could name that someone, somewhere said were 'in charge.' But, if they don't care, or don't want to get involved, it doesn't matter who we talk to."

"Tink, are you stalling? You're giving us all this history about AIs but not telling us who we should talk to."

"Eastern, I'm trying to explain that I don't know who to talk to. I have been out of AI politics for centuries. After Saturn, I didn't want to do anything. I took up cargo because I didn't want to get a body and I didn't want to deal with people anymore." Tink paused again. The room was silent save for the humming of fans cooling the displays. "Nick, Eastern. You were right in trying to find an old AI to be able to have the pull to talk to someone in the AI faction, but you picked me. I'm so old, and so out of the loop that I wonder if anyone will even recognize me."

"Oh Tink." Eastern's expression softens. "I'm sure it's not all that bad. There has to be someone you can call, someone we can talk to. Even if they're not in charge, they might know someone. It's not like we're on a time limit. If it takes a little running around, we're okay with that."

"And look Tink." Nick puts down his pad. "You've done a lot for us. You got us off Hyacinth, you kept us safe. You don't owe us anything. You can drop us off on Parvati and go on, safe in the knowledge we're not mad or anything at you. If you don't want to get involved, drop us off and we'll continue on. It'll be fine."

Eastern nodded. "It really will Tink."

There was another pause. "Ancestors. Are you sure you two are criminals? You're way too nice." She chuckled. "After all that, I can't just leave you two on Parvati, as nice as it is. I'm just... trying to manage expectations. It's not like I can link a beacon to the secret AI headquarters and get a fleet in an hour. We'll figure it out, and I'll get you to someone that can help. It's not like I have anything better to do, and it turns out I like having a crew."

"We're your crew now, not just passengers?" Nick smiled.

"You've been cleaning and moving furniture and you set up a stateroom. They're for crew. You're crew."

"Thanks Tink." Eastern grinned and looked down at the readout. She finally stopped adjusting it and was scanning the area. "Okay. So who should we try and reach first then? Give us the first name you can think of Tink, don't overthink it."

The answer came instantly. "Chloe."

Nick raised an eyebrow. "Who is that?"

"She's an old AI, like me. Used to be a Starjumper back before we had the wormhole generators. She had a nationalistic streak, always thought we should have our own country. If anyone would know who to talk to about a combined AI force, she would."

"When's the last time you spoke with Chloe?"

"Centuries, probably. I know she thought I was silly when I signed on with Saturn." She affected a voice that must have been her impression of Chloe. "Tink my friend, you are throwing your lot in with the wrong folks. You need to direct your energies towards our own nation." She giggled. "Chloe was nice, but always a bit... full of herself. I'll be interested to see if she's mellowed at all."

"Sounds like we have a plan then. Do you know how to reach her?"

"Hmm. It's been a while Nick, but I still have her contact coordinates. Let me link an beacon and see if I get a reply."

Across the vast distances of space, communication is difficult. It's not like someone can call someone else up on any kind of real time communication device. After the wormhole generators were developed, communication times got shorter, but the issue of reaching a specific person remained. What developed out of that was the idea of contact coordinates. Somewhere out in the blackness of interstellar space is an automated relay buoy. If someone wants to reach you, they link a comms beacon to that location, it receives the message, and then the buoy links a beacon to you. It's your responsibility to make sure the buoy knows your current location, but this way, you can be galivanting across space and not have to tell everyone everywhere where you are if they need to reach you. They just need to know your buoy's coordinates. It's not like one would need to change the buoy's location either, so if you gave out your buoy coordinates decades or centuries ago, chances are good people could reach out to you still. Tink knew Chloe's address, so she linked her a comms beacon asking for a meet.

"What now?"

"We'll just hang out here a few days Nick, see if we get a reply. I'd say if we don't hear from Chloe in a week, we won't. We can figure out what to do next after that."

"Oh. Okay."

"What's wrong Nick?"

"Oh, it's a good idea Tink, really. I just..."

"What is it?"

"I was hoping we didn't have to eat twenty year old ration bars for a week."

"Ancestors. I forgot you need to eat. Shit. Okay, hold on, maybe we can signal for a resupply from Parvati. We're in system, shouldn't be that big of a deal. Uh I'm a little low on funds though... any chance you can cover it? You are the ones eating after all."

Eastern laughed. "Sure thing Tink. We got it. Need anything else while we're calling in for a resupply? Don't worry about the cost, we stole a pile of money from the Empress."

Tink laughs. "In that case, yes. I need a few thousand rounds of slugs for the throwers, a rack of missiles - I'll tell you the specs if they're willing to place the order - new mass for the printers, and some spare parts that are difficult to print. My Stardrive hasn't run at 100% in centuries. If I'm going to be out and about again, I should get it fixed."

"Sounds like it's almost a refit."

"Nothing so large Eastern, just... getting me back up to full readiness. I think I'm ready to rejoin society again."

"Happy to help then. Let's call Parvati and place that order."

First / Previous / Next

[juliemolinaz]

Just finished watching episode 8 and I'm still super baffled as to why the show decided having Shin-yu drink the Love Spell potion was the best way for Shin-yu and Hong-jo to truly fall in love. We still could have had the banter, the slowly connecting, the realizing that what they thought they wanted wasn't actually it, and the pushing each other away without Shin-yu being under the effects of the Love Spell potion. I just think the show's point of their destinies being connected together and unable to be broken apart would have a lot more meaning and power behind it if Shin-yu's actions weren't being heavily influenced by the Love Spell potion.

Like, just imagine if Jae-gyeong had drank the potion and he and Hong-jo started dating. Shin-yu thought he was cured (we still don't know if he truly has been, so like just get an MRI already Shin-yu), so he got back together with Na-yeon. But, for some reason, Hong-jo and Shin-yu kept getting thrown into each other's orbits. It could have happened through cases at City Hall or maybe things were happening that Hong-jo needed to cast spells for, but she didn't want anyone to know she that she had a spell book, so she forced Shin-yu into being the one to help her out. We'd get to see their banter and them getting to know each other better. The more time that they spend together, the more both of them wonder if their current relationships are what they actually want. You could also sprinkle in some past dreams for the both of them to wonder what exactly is going on. Since Shin-yu seems like he was attracted and intrigued by Hong-jo prior to him drinking the Love Spell, we could have him be the one to first start catching real feelings for Hong-jo and being his awkward self around her. We can also have him discover that Na-yeo is cheating on him during this time. Hong-jo starts catching her own feels and she starts to realize that she wants a love that is genuine and one that isn't the result of a Love Spell potion. She decides to cast the Disaster Nullification spell to get rid of the Love Spell on Jae-gyeong and since disaster was promised, once the Love Spell goes away, Shin-yu's illness comes back and we get to go into the story of their past lives.

I feel like something like that would be a whole lot better than what we're getting now. Because while Shin-yu is questioning whether he actually has feelings and Hong-jo is starting to develop her own feelings, Shin-yu still is under the effects of the Love Spell, so how much agency does he actually have right now?

[getvalentined]

Angeal for the ask game :D

ANGEAL HEWLEY

🎟️ SEXUALITY HEADCANON: Heteroflexible and biromantic. He prefers women, physically speaking, but could have an intimate relationship with a man. One man in particular.

⚧️ GENDER HEADCANON: Angeal is hard to get a read on, for me, since he's another of those characters who exists in a position that he seems to believe requires a hypermasculine presentation. I read him as cis, but I can see just about anything for him.

💕 A SHIP: Unrequited Angeal/Sephiroth is really the only ship I have for Angeal—I genuinely believe he's utterly in love with Sephiroth, and he never ever said a word about it to anyone.

🖇️ A BROTP: Angeal+Lazard is probably my biggest one, only because the mental image of both of them trying desperately to keep Genesis and Seph in line is so clear in my head it might as well be made of crystal.

🚫 A NOTP: Don't garotte me for this, but honestly Gengeal? I don't like the way he talks to or about Genesis; I've heard people say that they're like a divorced couple, but if anything they read to me as siblings desperate to get out of each other's orbit and utterly unable to escape their shared history no matter how they try. (Given that they seem to both have Gillian's mtDNA based on explanations in-canon, and we know that they can be considered siblings based on Weiss using his connection to Genesis as proof that he's also Angeal's brother in DFFOO, I feel like that's a fairly accurate read.)

💭 A RANDOM HEADCANON: Angeal didn't actually join SOLDIER at the same time as Genesis, and not only because he didn't particularly want to—Angeal is over a year younger than Genesis, and was just too young to enlist when Genny left Banora. It was almost a year before Angeal was able to follow him to Midgar, by which point Genesis had already formed a fairly solid relationship with Sephiroth, and Angeal was more than a little put-out by the idea that his position as Genesis' only friend had been taken by this weird kid with weird hair and weird eyes that Genesis kept clipping photos of from the newspaper. When he got to know Seph, though, he changed his tune pretty dramatically—and fell for him almost as hard as Genesis. This is one of the reasons that he inserts himself between them at every opportunity, not only because he doesn't think they're good for each other, but because he doesn't think that anyone is good enough for Sephiroth, not even himself. And if he isn't good enough to be Sephiroth's one and only, then Genesis (impulsive, arrogant, troublemaker Genesis, who spent days exploring a monster-infested cave system as a boy without a thought of the danger he courted in doing so, who already had everything he ever needed or wanted and still leveraged his obsession over a hero he hadn't met into an invention that garnered recognition in a way that Angeal never could) definitely wasn't. This is how the whole relationship fell apart.

🗣️GENERAL OPINION: I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the saddest thing about Angeal is that he's the only one who couldn't bear to live with himself. I'm not a huge fan of the character as a person, but he's fantastically executed as a character. His story is legitimately one of the most heartbreaking in the series—He had a whole host of people who loved him so deeply as to be fathomless, and it didn't matter. His story is a tragedy not because of how he was made or how he died, but because of why things turned out the way they did. So much of the suffering he went through was self-imposed, and that's the saddest part of all.

(For the character ask game.)

[k00299539]

Animation Brief 02 - Re-Invention in Storytelling

Above: Honse

So I can't really lie about this one, I was in some kind of fugue state this whole brief. I was struggling a lot with insomnia and found it hard to engage with school at all. I actually didn't even show up for like two weeks and learned third hand I was in a group with Summer and Zu, a group for what? I took to Moodle to find out...

Okay I didn't really take to Moodle, I kinda glanced through the brief and surmised we had to make a three minute animation of a classic nursery rhyme. Sounds simple enough.

I'd been in contact with Zu and Summer over Instagram so I wasn't totally lost but I skipped the day where we were supposed to script our animation. This meant I turned up the next day for storyboarding with a script ... but no Summer or Zu. Did I mention our group was literally assembled from the people who didn't turn up the day they put the groups together?

So basically I sat down with pad and pencil and went through the script. My goal was to abstain from editing or embellishing the script and just draw each scene as I read it, keeping track of how many scenes, shots and backgrounds we would need for an animation. I figured once I had the script made visual, the editing and alteration would come naturally.

Above: Boarystoard

Now, what you might be wondering is; "Why are you showing the storyboard before telling us the nursery rhyme?" and I have a good reason for that. I didn't know either. Actually that's not entirely true, I could surmise from the name "Spoon" in the script that the rhyme was probably "Hey Diddle Diddle" but I was beyond confused as to how that became such a sobering tale of war and grief.

At about this time, Zu showed up and I had the answers to most of my questions. As it turned out, it wasn't just a nursery rhyme we were given for the brief but a time period and a genre. So being the lucky number (group) seven we were, we got 19th Century and War Movie in this lottery.

Hey Diddle Diddle is such a fun little rhyme, unlike the all the other groups rhymes, it's a genuine nonsense poem with no accepted origin. To me there's something liberating and anarchistic about that, the reader simply has to accept the mental image of partying animals and bipedal cutlery. I think had I scripted the animatic without knowledge of the genre or period, I would've focused on the fiddling cat and the cow leaving orbit. It writes itself in my opinion; a violin soundtrack to the sublime image of the cow achieving the impossible. But it wasn't to be.

Anyway, in my absence Zu and Summer had collaborated on the story with Summer writing the final script I had received over Instagram with zero context. And honestly, they did a better job than I would've thought possible. Highlighting the line "And the Dish ran away with the Spoon" and turning that into a refugee escape attempt as the impetus for a story was genius. I like to tinker with everything but other than streamlining the story for screen, I couldn't find anything I wanted to change.

Above: Nonsense

Above is the nursery rhyme itself, the initial story treatment by Zu and Summer and the final script by Summer. To briefly explain the beats of the story:

Three competing empires (Dog, Cat and Bull) encroach on a peaceful land.

As the land becomes a battlefield, it's citizens flee.

Among them is our protagonist; Dish and his son; Spoon.

Spoon is tragically killed during their attempted escape as Dish watches helplessly.

Dish is overcome with grief, he formulates a crazy plan to bring down the three empires.

Dish travels to each empire, impersonating a messenger of another. He plays the three factions against each other through false alliances, culminating in mutual destruction.

Dish returns to the site of his son's death and lays down a bouquet of flowers.

If you compare my abbreviated story to the scripts above you can see how I edited them a little bit. I was mostly trying to simplify the story to it's essential elements, half because I think that makes for a better story and half because I wanted to cut our number of shots down to the minimum.

Anyway with both myself and Zu in school for once, we went through both our storyboards and combined them into one, having hashed out exactly how we wanted the story to flow on screen. Summer also did a pass on the storyboard but it wasn't til a couple of days later I got my hands on that version.

Above: Combo Storyboard

Although we still had yet to meet up all three in person, we were communicating the whole time through Instagram. Paul let us know the next step after the initial rough storyboard was make it into an animatic to figure out the timing and begin research for the final storyboard.

Zu did a quick pass on the first animatic in Adobe Animate, although I never actually saw it cause he sent it as an animate file and I couldn't open it lol. I knew from talking to him though that it was the storyboard with each frame lasting for about six seconds on screen to reach the three minute runtime. This gave me a helpful reference for later when I was timing the final storyboard.

Based on Paul's feedback we broke the research down into six(ish) categories:

Landscapes/Background Design

Apparel/Costume Design

Visual Aesthetic/Style

Character Design

Mise-en-scène/Prop Design

Miscellaneous

There was talk of us dividing up the categories between the three of us ... but honestly we mostly just did whatever and pooled our research together in the end. In fairness to Zu and Summer they handled a lot more of this stuff than I did. Summer came up with great costume designs and decided on the cartoon Over the Garden Wall as our main Visual Design inspiration. Zu did lots of research on backgrounds and the 19th Century in general, and handled a lot of the boring work like pinning our stuff up on the wall.

During this I was mostly refining the story, creating the character designs and finalizing the storyboard.

Above: Summer's Storyboard ... Summerboard

Having Summer's board on hand was a great help when putting together the final version. One of the most fun parts of this project was synthesizing our ideas together, and in that sense Zu and Summer were great to work with. We each had our own distinct perspective but we were all willing to collaborate. We were truly a film making democracy...

Anyway before getting into the final storyboard I first have to go over the character designs. This was an area me and Summer collaborated on, although somewhat indirectly. We both designed the characters and their costumes separately and then I tried to mix and match the two in the final storyboard. Most of the conceptual work belongs to Summer and the actual drawings were me.

Above: Some of Summer's costume designs

Another interesting bit of this project was how often I found that the three us came to similar conclusions completely separately. Like in the above there's a lot of small details in Summer's designs which also appeared in mine, despite us working independently.

Above: A man named Dish

I actually just remembered the above designs which were drawn at the same time me and Zu worked on the storyboards. This was before Summer suggested the Over the Garden Wall aesthetic. At the time I was going for a semi-realistic Naoki Urasawa type design. I love Urasawa's work but honestly Summer had the right idea, simple designs made for quicker drawing which allowed to prototype more freely and really polish our ideas in a way we simply wouldn't have had time for with more complicated designs.

That's also not even mentioning the fact that I think the cartoony designs contrast the sombre tone of the story. If you make the characters too realistic, you run the risk of becoming melodramatic. Animation has a great disarming power and oftentimes stories like ours hit hardest when the audience isn't expecting them to. With this all in mind I set about creating the final character designs.

Above: Honse and friends :)

From left to right we have:

A four high stack of Dish heads for measuring proportions.

Dish from behind sans body.

Dish from the side.

Dish from the front.

Dish from the front after the death of Spoon.

Spoon from the front.

The Cat Emperor.

The Dog Emperor.

The Bull Emperor.

A generic soldier.

The Horse.

The Owl.

I think the design sheet mostly speaks for itself. There are definitely a couple of things I'd like to have done given I had more time, like obviously drawing full turnarounds for the whole cast or settling on a colour design.

A couple of details I'd like to mention specifically; As seen in the older semi-realistic sketch, I really liked the idea of Dish having a distinct, separate design after the death of Spoon, as though he became a different person with the loss of his son. I tried to reinforce this with the gaunter appearance, stubbly facial hair, and the way his hair-swirl reversed direction (probably my favourite thing from the whole project). Spoon's shirt is oversized as it's a hand-me-down from his father. The Emperors have a full-beard split between them, as we decided to kind of code facial hair as evil in this project. The Emperor's designs are anachronistic in general, looking more similar to the 20th century Nazi Uniforms than contemporary 19th Century fashion. This was intended to be a bit of commentary on the nature of evil and how the progress of technology (or modernity) facilitates the horrors of war.

I'm running out of space here, so I'll finish this update in another post.

[no-1-rosalind-lang-apologist]

Taylor Swift Songs That Mention Cars That Are Totally About Phoebe and Silas - Mary's Song (Oh My My My)

i looked at you like the stars that shine / in the sky, pretty lights

"She terrified him. She grounded him. She should have been named after an epithet of the sun instead of an epithet of the moon, because it was inevitable that everything in Phoebe Hong's vicinity would circle her in orbit."

and our daddies used to joke about the two of us / growing up and falling in love

This one isn't really exact. But this has similar vibes to Orion constantly third wheeling with them and being really tired about it. Especially since Phoebe and Orion are pretty each other's only constant family members.

take me back to the house in the backyard tree ... take me back when our world was one block wide

Maybe it's just because we have TPATS or maybe because Phoebe and Silas have such a long history, but I can picture both of them being very reminiscent of the time they spent together in London. Before the trial and both of their recruitments.

i dared you to kiss me and ran when you tried / just two kids, you and i

ok but am i the only one who thinks they would have done this.

well, i was sixteen when suddenly / i wasn't that little girl you used to see / but your eyes still shined like pretty lights

Even though a lot has changed since their initial promise to "do well together," they still have each other. At least in theory, but this song is happy so we'll go with that for now.

they never believed we'd really fall in love

At this point, being around their miscommunication has probably become such a fixture in Orion's life that once they actually get together it might surprise him a little bit.

two a.m. riding in your truck and all i need is you next to me

Obligatory car line + "I just want to do well. That's it." ""Let's do well together."

take me back two the time we had our very first fight / the slamming of doors instead of kissing goodnight / you stayed outside till the morning light

In FHH they are going to fight. I don't think there's a way around that. However, regardless of what either one of them thinks, I don't think either of them would truly leave the other, no matter the circumstances.

a few years had gone and come around / we were sitting at our spot in town / and you looked at me, got down on one knee / take me back to the time when we walked down the aisle

It's either going to be this or an open ending I think.

take me home where we met so many years before

Phoebe and Silas are each other's home in a way that is parallel with every other ship in the Secret Shanghai universe (absolutely insane how this keeps happening). They both feel a ton of pressure to do well while still feeling forgotten by their families. Roma and Juliette both were raised as gang heirs despite not being blindly committed to their sides. Ben and Mars lived together for years. Then there's the whole, "She was not a remnant of his life before who expected a foolhardy version of him," thing for Rosalind and Orion. And the balance between loyalty to a cause and caring about people even when doing so might make you take actions that don't align with The Cause 100% thing for Celia and Oliver.

after all this time, you and i / i'll be eighty-seven; you'll be eighty-nine / i'll look at you like the stars that shine / in the sky, oh my my my

Even though everything will continue to change around them, they will still have each other. Unless Chloe decides to be really mean but shhhhhh

[toppatcivilwarfaceau]

(I forgot to add few more details to this but i was feeling lazy to fix it so I'll leave like this... DEAL WITH IT!)

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This story sets two months after Fleeing The Complex.

__________________________________________________

"Hey... My name is Ellie Rose, current leader of the Toppat Clan, but i wasn't always the leader, i actually stole the leadership to the original leader, Henry Stickmin, we meet each other in the Wall two months ago."

"He suddenly asked me for help so i helped him escape... And he helped me back, but i didn't trust him very much that time because i had a feeling that he was a jerk (Like any other boys i met) so i... Left him there..."

"After that i arrived to the Toppat Airship and Reginald asks me about Henry... I panicked because if i told them the truth they could kill me, so i lied to them saying that Henry give me his Toppat leadership right before he died, i though they weren't going to believe me but... They all fall for it, including the RHM"

"Soon i became their new leader and everything was going awesome! I became feared and respected by everyone in the clan! And i made so many friends! Although... Most of the time i feel insecure hiding them the truth that i left their real leader in a complex, they're my friends and my family and I'm lying to the-"

Ellie's thoughts were interrupted when she heard someone calling her out, it was Reginald, it seems like they were in the middle of an important conversation and Ellie somehow got distracted with her thoughts.

Reginald: Ellie? Are you okay?

Ellie: E-eh? Yeah Reginald, I'm okay..

Reginald: Are you sure? We can take you to the medway if you want.

Ellie: No no I'm fine i swear, i just got distracted..

Reginald: If you say so.

Ellie: let's just continue with the reunion...

Reginald: Of course, as I was saying, once we have arrived, we should be able to launch the orbital station before we get attacked by any government trying to take us down.

Ellie: yeah, but most importantly we need to be prepared in case of an surprise attack, any suggestions?

Toppat #1: Nope.

Toppat #2: Sorry Miss Ellie.

Toppat #3: I think Geoffrey might have an idea.

Reginald: Ah yes! Geoffrey Plump! Our man idea! Has anyone sees him?

RHM: Last time I seen Geoffrey was like two months ago.

Reginald: That's weird, because as far as I know Thomas Chestersire was not seen in the past two months.

Ellie: That's very weird.

Reginald: Indeed, i wonder where did they went...

"Oh you wanna know?"

Everyone turned to where the voice sounded, and for everyone's surprise it was Geoffrey Plump along with Thomas Chestersire and.... Henry Stickmin!?

Thomas: We went outside to took for the REAL leader!

Everyone (except for Ellie): HENRY?!?

Ellie: (💭O-oh no...)

Reginald: Henry?? You're alive?? Ellie told us you died!

Henry: That was a pathetic lie from that dumb redhead! She abandoned me and run away! I was about to give up and let myself scum in the Wall but then Thomas and Geoffrey manage to burst me out of there!

Geoffrey: That's right! *Looks at Ellie* He helped you escape and you just left him!

Everyone in the airship (except for few Toppats) were completely shocked about what they all heard, the girl who has been their leader for 2 months has been lying to them the whole time, they felt angry and betrayed, so mostly everyone looked Ellie with an anger look.

Ellie: I-i can explain-

RHM: Silence Ellie, we already heard enough.

Reginald: And I need to ask you something very serious.

Ellie: (💭I-i'm so dead...)

Henry: (💭Heh heh, bye bye Ellie Rose.)

Ellie gulped and brace herself for her destiny but things didn't go like she thought.

Reginald: Why didn't you kill him instead?

RHM: Yea.

Ellie: (💭E-eh??)

Henry, Thomas and Geoffrey: (💭WHAT!!??)

Ellie: Y-you're not mad a me??

Reginald: Why would we mad at you? What you did was something that I should've done so long ago.

RHM: Yea I agree with Reg.

Reginald: Plus we didn't wanted Henry as a leader in the first place, after what he has donde to Righty.

Ellie: *Sighs in relief* (💭Thank goodness...)

Henry: (💭I should've know those two didn't trust me!)

Reginald: I'm sorry Henry but Ellie's still the leader, she's a lot better than you.

RHM: Yea.

Toppat: Even if she lied??? That's selfish!

Other Toppat: Yeah! She's not worthy of being our leader!

Another Toppat: Yeah! And neither you two are worthy of being Elite Toppats!

Henry: Well now, looks like the entire clan is on my side~

RHM: Grr! Not for long!

RHM in an attempt to attack Henry he suddenly got attacked by Henry who knocked him out with a hammer that he mysteriously got out of his pocket.

Henry: Don't even try.

Thomas and Geoffrey: Wow...

Reginald: RIGHTY!!

Ellie: RIGHT HAND MAN!!

Henry: Someone take this guy to the brig, and has for you two. *Sees Ellie and Reginald* You two will be thrown overboard.

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Ellie and Reginald we're soon in the plank of the airship, very close to jump off, Reginald was very scared while Ellie was trying to figure out a way out of this mess, meanwhile, few Toppats we're giving their opinions about Ellie being dethroned, Reginald being kicked out and RHM being in the brig.

Bonnie: We can't do this to them! It's not right!

Nicole: I know!

Mercudi: I don't like how this is going...

Sven: Yeah! This doesn't really feel-

Sven was soon interrupted by Geoffrey who overheard what everyone said.

Geoffrey: Take any loyalties to the brig! Those who are loyal to Ellie are traitors as well!

Carol: Y-you can't do that! Some of us are Elite Toppats!

Earrings: Yeah! It's true!

Geoffrey: Not anymore, you guys are gonna be in the brig for the rest of your lives!

Back with Ellie, Reginald and Henry.

Ellie: (💭 This is bad...)

Reginald: I-i don't like this! I really don't like this!

Ellie: Don't worry Reginald! I'm gonna find a way to get out of this.

Henry: Oh no you won't! You either jump or I'll kill you!

Thomas: Yeah! What he said!

Geoffrey: You better listen to him lady!

Ellie: Bring it on then!

Reginald: E-ellie be careful! (💭Righty I miss you...)

Henry then got angry and grabbed an gun and pointed to Ellie and Reginald.

Ellie: (💭What am I gonna do??)

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WHOOO I'M FINALLY DONE WITH THIS PART OF THE PROLOGUE! I'll wait for the results in one week so I can start the next part.