#they had an enemies with benefits type of situation going on

[yannisdesk]

Arcane: Is it Copaganda?

I talked about this a bit on twitter, but I will type it up here and elaborate (we all know twt is not the place for longform content anyway). My main argument for Arcane being copaganda isn't due to the existence of Caitvi being Enforcers in season 2, it mainly has to do with Marcus, and how his contribution to the narrative is handled.

Arcane makes it pretty clear from the jump that Marcus is corrupt; he was more than willing to use excessive force against Zaunites who posed no threat to him early in Act 1, foregoes due process to strike a deal with an up and coming crime lord to take down four kids, one of which is possibly an age that's not even in the double-digits, then kidnaps a 15 year-old Vi, and throws her into Stillwater, a notoriously horrifying prison, indefinitely (life sentence) with no trial or records - all done so he could allegedly keep her "safe" (more on this later).

Marcus is then showed not only continuing to uphold his end of the deal with Silco, which includes allowing shimmer to spread throughout the Undercity, but also directly benefitting from it, becoming sheriff in seven years or less. He shows some resentment over this, but nothing to the point of actually going out of his way to do the right thing or change his situation. He dies, in a show of overt police brutality, trying to kill Caitlyn and Ekko for trying to negotiate peace for Zaun and justice for Silco's actions.

And what happens afterwards in regards to the greater implications this could have for the narrative addressing state violence and corruption, and how it's maintained through organizations like law enforcement? Absolutely nothing.

You would think Marcus, the literal sheriff, being involved in high-level conspiracy, corruption, and who knows what else, would be a wakeup call to people like Caitlyn who are Enforcers but are supposedly in it for altruistic reasons; and also possibly to the council and Piltover overall - "Hey, there's a serious issue with our law enforcement if the sheriff of all people could turn out like that. Maybe we should clean house?" I'm no fool, I didn't expect Arcane to do a police abolishment plotline because that would be a one-way ticket to getting review bombed by rabid "anti-woke" dudebros who never cared about the show anyway; but the Enforcers are not challenged or elaborated on in the slightest in season 2, if anything they get worse.

Caitlyn knows that Marcus, her boss, was corrupt, imprisoned her girlfriend indefinitely when she was just a teenager, and got away with it Scott-free. Had it not been for Jinx's bridge attack in S1E7, Marcus would've killed her, Ekko, and Vi who'd ran back to try and save them. And he more than likely would've gotten away with that too. But we never see her ponder this at all, not even in season 1.

We're shown Enforcers being horrible throughout first season. The warden, who is an Enforcer, brags about how many times he's brutalized Vi. We're shown Enforcers slamming a Zaunite through glass windows for responding with being called a slur with spitting on their boots, we're shown in the "Enemy" music video that Enforcers slammed young Vi and Powder against gates for random searches and how humiliating that is.

But come season 2? All of that is washed away. I thought they were going to do something with how willing the Enforcers were to use the Grey, but no, not even that's addressed after Act 1. No one from Caitlyn's strike team ever faces consequences for that. Maddie dies because she betrayed Caitlyn, and Loris is killed in the midst of battle against Noxus, but neither of those scenarios has anything to do with their willingness to comply with wielding gas weaponry against an entire population of people. Maddie spying on Caitlyn for Ambessa is treated as a greater crime than her actions in Zaun. Vi has the audacity of going around calling other people traitors as if she also did not comply and defend it. Same goes for Caitlyn, Loris, and Steb.

And as for the rest of season 2, we get glimpses of the Enforcers rounding up Zaunites and participating in martial law, which was brutal on the Undercity, but again, it's never given any narrative weight the way it was in season 1. Come time for the main characters to fight off the new Big Bad™️(Ambessa + Noxus and Viktor) all of a sudden the Enforcers are shown mostly in positive or humorous lights. Gert, who has spent most of season 2 rebelling against them because of their heightened tyranny under Caitlyn, is all of a sudden willing to join them and die wearing their uniform just because one of them behaved like a human for half-a-second. The show ends with Caitlyn and Vi being active members on the force, and that's where it ends.

I believe Marcus is mentioned possibly once in act 1 of season 2 (I'm not rewatching to confirm), but other than that his entire influence is dropped, which is just strange and unrealistic, and is a lost opportunity for Arcane to address this topic beyond the surface. You would think someone like Caitlyn or even Vi, or hell, anyone would at least attempt to use his story as inspiration for a reformist angle, but no, we didn't even get that. Marcus is relegated to a "one bad apple" cliche, which is when cops who get caught up with corruption or brutality are treated as outliers within the system, not reflections of the systems deeper problems; which you'd think with Marcus, being the sheriff, would mean the writers would take advantage of that, but no they don't. The other half to that "one bad apple" saying is "spoils the whole bunch" - there were definitely plenty of Enforcers who were either complicit, just like him, or even worse. But the writers abolished that for whatever reason and gave us this whitewashed slop of a plot with the Enforcers which was equal parts insulting and dissatisfactory. Treating Marcus as "one bad apple" is copaganda, full stop, and that affected the rest of the story. The Enforcers have not even attempted to reform at all; they've just wrecked even more havoc on Zaun and got away with it, and characters who'd you would expect to have something to say about that don't because the writers desperately want you to forget about this aspect of the story because it clashes with their "the devil you know"-centric finale.

[minhyongi]

Loki has killed Thor. It happened in front of the watching eyes of the Avengers and when they finally capture him he is neither denying the accusation nor showing any kind of remorse. It's all clear and cut if not for the fact that Tony knows it wasn't Loki. Because at the very time of Thor's death Loki had still been lying on the warm bed they had shared the night together in.

[shima-draws]

IT'S NAHU TIME 🎉

More info on him below <3

Name: Nahu

Age: 24

Hair color: Orangish-pink

Eye color: Dark teal

Element: Darkness/Dragon

Nahu is THE boy of all time. He's lovable. He's STOOPID. He's absurdly powerful. He's really chill unless you mess with his friends, then he goes apeshit. He's got a boyish charm that every single member of his group is attracted to. He's the official leader of the group and they would do ANTYHING for him 🥺 He's got the sort of qualities that just naturally draw people in and make him someone worth following. He's got that sort of selfish selfless aspect that makes it so he does what he wants (a very "marches to the beat of his own drum" personality) but it always ends up benefiting other people somehow. He doesn't see the world in black and white; if someone is in trouble he'll do anything to help them even if they end up becoming his enemy down the line--that's just the kind of guy he is :"D He's not the type of person to hesitate, and this usually ends up getting him in trouble as he tends to dive into things headfirst without stopping to think, AKA he has no impulse control whatsoever so he's a walking danger magnet. He'll do things his own way and his friends have learned that there's no point in arguing against his decisions bc he'll turn around and do it anyway! They've gotten used to it at this point but sometimes they still question the way his mind works lmao

Despite the fact that he's kind of dense, he's shockingly perceptive when it counts, able to cut through right to the heart of things. Being a dragon elemental probably helps with that since it heightens his senses and makes him hyper aware of others and their true feelings. In the case of Ione this proves especially helpful since Nahu really doesn't have the attention span to properly learn sign language but he generally gets the gist of what Ione is trying to say even if he doesn't understand her entirely. This leads to interesting situations where Ione will say something and mean something completely different, and only Nahu can pick up on that due to being able to read her emotions better ;)

Again he's fiercely loyal, especially to his friends--he views any sort of betrayal on their behalf the ultimate sin, and will fight with his life to protect them. He's got an unwavering belief in all of them, even if the situation seems dire or if they lie to him for his own safety. He loves them like his family and will sacrifice anything for their happiness 😭 This leads to him being very stubborn in some cases.

Nahu has zero knowledge of what personal space is so he���s up in his squad’s business ALL the time. Which they get used to pretty quickly, since he’s so physically affectionate. His favorite thing to do is press his forehead against whoever he happens to be clinging to at the time. Whenever a new member joins and they happen to see Nahu doing the forehead touch they’re like oh hello what?? 😳 Nahu does this most often with Ezio bc Ezio was the first one to join up with him and is the most familiar with his affection. (Also it’s really fucking funny to just imagine Ezio, who is SO stoic and straight faced all the time, casually leaning into Nahu’s touch and knocking their foreheads together. They make me ill) Eventually it becomes a comfort thing for all of them. Since Nahu’s their leader whenever they’re unsure he’ll just look at them and KNOW and come over and lean his forehead against theirs and it’s so soft...

He loves exploring, viewing visiting any sort of new place and just traveling in general as a grand adventure. This leads him to dragging along other members of his group with him even if they protest :"D But it usually leads to something fun happening anyway!

When he was a child, Nahu was very close with another girl his age. They made many plans together, including growing up and going out on adventures, but unfortunately the girl had a terminal illness and passed away (in his arms, no less). This, in turn, triggered Nahu's magic to go out of control, causing the black "stains" on his arms that are basically an irreversible manifestation of his darkness magic. He was a bit self conscious of the way his arms looked at first but now he’s totally chill with it (and. When he uses his powers dragons scales sprout on his arms and glow and it’s sick as hell.)

Due to the trauma of his friend's death, whenever someone in his friend group gets sick, Nahu freaks out and mother hens to the extreme. Generally he's a very carefree person so it's always very jarring for them to see him so worried (since he's always got the utmost confidence in them too). He's just not the worrying type! They end up having to take care of him more than the other way around. It's very sweet (but also sad considering the reason behind it).

Nahu hasn't cried once since before his childhood friend died, and honestly he really hasn't taken the time to come to terms with her death, instead choosing to ignore any mention of it entirely. It's just trauma he's never recovered from, and he stubbornly refuses any attempt in bringing it up, even to his squad. This has definitely caused some tension between him and the girl's father, who just wants Nahu to accept her death so he can move on :"( Nahu just doesn't want to accept it. Despite him being very open with his emotions this is the one case where he keeps a very tight lid on them. When he cries for the first time in front of his friends they flip their SHIT because they've never seen him cry before.

I haven't hashed out too much of his own personal goals yet; I can say tho that he's searching for his mother who disappeared when he was still a baby. His father is a famous adventurer who kinda took off on him as well so he grew up under the care of several others. Nahu's never held this against his father; he's not really the type to care much about that. Instead he finds his father's dream-chasing adventures to be quite inspiring, which eventually leads to him making the decision to leave on his own and find his mom.

Anyway I love him he is THE baby boy ever send tweet

[juliasmesmerized]

Conversations with You

pairings: Josh Washington x F!Reader, Chris Hartley x Ashley Brown (Until Dawn) type: fluff, too deep into the friendship, mutual pining, subtle flirting vibes intended: nervous - The Neighbourhood for the best experience: read part one of this dribble and use word replacer II as y/n will be used. (i can also make a you / y/n-less version, but i just prefer seeing my name for DR purposes) word count: 3091 part 1 | part 2 | part 3

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say." Josh smiled at her comment. He knew she believed in him. She definitely would believe in everybody in the group when it comes to things they're good at.

She laughed back as the match began. Their hands are all on the keyboard controlling their respective characters. y/n's specific character had her focus on one of her teammates, whoever is most probable to benefit from her presence. to boost their damage and keep their damage consistent. The other support would focus on the rest of the team, mostly Chris, to keep them alive. The other damage dealer creates an ice wall and a one way beam of ice, which means the soldier Josh picked would be the best to support.

He chuckled when they saw the second damage dealer being incompatible with y/n's choice. "Guess you're now truly stuck with me, ms. Support."

She smiled to herself at the fact she'd be with him, but she decided to tease. "I hate it."

"Sure you do." Josh focused on the incoming enemies as he bantered with y/n.

The battlefield was located in Germany. Chris's character was in the front pushing the enemies back under a bridge between two buildings, and Josh was on top while y/n hid behind the wall in order to stay alive; switching between the damage boost beam, being blue, and the yellow healing beam. Chris is the type of guy who shuts up to focus, and he was focusing as hell with the entire team in front of him. Josh and y/n had it quite literally easy.

Still having the blue beam stuck to Josh while he decided to relocate to be behind Chris, y/n sighed. "I kind of regret my choice of character now."

"Oh, why?" There was a little inkling of concern in his voice, but it wasn't a long match to begin with if they don't allow the enemy team to secure the area.

She expressed her feelings begrudgingly. "This is my first game with you both and I have nothing to show for it as this support is literally brainless to play, until you have the entire enemy team running to kill you. Then it's a wild goose chase to fly to your teammates and safety." y/n only remembered her side goal of beating the crap out of these two after joining it.

Josh assured her, he was glad it wasn't anything actually serious, or he wouldn't have known what to do. "It doesn't matter if this is our first game together, we'll have plenty more for sure. You do help the team a lot, regardless of actual kills."

y/n proclaimed in excitement. "Great! Then I'll beat your highest score and get more kills." Almost ready to flex her non-existent muscles, until she realized she was only faced by a screen.

"Can't wait to see-" Josh was cut off.

Chris screeched on the other side. "JOSH!" The second damage dealer and support died and there was only Josh, Chris, and y/n on the map currently. "STOP FLIRTING AND HELP ME! WHERE ARE YOU GUYS? THERE ARE TWO SUPPORTS AND ONE DPS AFTER ME!"

y/n flew to Chris as soon as she could get him in her field vision and Josh used the running ability to get to him faster. "You're a big guy, Chris, you can handle them. We're coming."

She spoke up as soon as the beam connected. "I'll try to heal you up, bring your shield up. When you got enough health, I'll damage boost you to help with attacking against them." Chris obeyed and slowly walked back as his shield was up.

Chris weighed his options and shared his opinion on the current situation. "We gotta wait till the rest of the team comes back. They're also going to regroup."

Josh decided to weigh himself in to allow them information they may have not caught. "y/n, after healing him, come with me. I have my ultimate."

"That's great! We'll just have to wait for our team then so I could be taken care of while y/n's away." Chris cheered, feeling the tide could be pushed against the enemy team.

y/n decided to demonstrate the difference between them newbies and her knowing her way around the map. "Do you know where we could go to catch them off guard?"

Josh took a second to think as he was attacking the enemy team to push them back from Chris as he was being healed. "I was thinking atop the area Chris was?" She linked her beam to Josh signalling that it's time for them to go.

She walked ahead to a secret passage way into a building that led them behind the enemy team. "No, we could actually get behind the enemy team and use Chris and the rest of the team as a distraction."

"Smart thinking, doctor." Josh referenced her character choice in complimenting her.

Josh was getting ready by hiding behind a building along side y/n's character. She still spoke up to prove her superiority. "Mhmm. You can finally see the difference between you and I. I can think of things you wouldn't imagine!"

"Hold your horses, we'll see when you play DPS or tank." Josh pressed the key to use his ultimate, and walked into the battlefield behind the enemy team as she instructed. A full team kill thanks to y/n's boosting and Chris already damaging the entire team.

"Sure." It was long strung from y/n. She took a breath. "As if that wasn't from my critical thinking." y/n sarcastically kept a monotone voice.

Josh began to tease her, but he decided to go a little farther than what he usually would. "I couldn't have done it without you! I will kiss and worship the ground you walk on, you mastermind! What could I do without you, my dear princess?"

She decided to answer without thinking. "Hardy har. That wouldn't even be enough after I scored you the play of the game, lowly peasant." If she let his words sink in, she'd go against his earlier comment and she wanted to be special in his eyes. If staying strong during his playful flirting and jokes means that, then so be it.

Behind the screen, the facade, she was on the brink of shutting the game off. The winning message showed on all three of their screens. Chris began to chuckle and went to message Josh after that comment. Y/n's cheeks flushed and she grabbed her phone straight away.

y/n: AAAAAAASSSSHHHHHLLLLEEEEYYYYYY Ashley: WHAT? y/n: HE CALLED ME PRINCESS? Ashley: HUUUUH? IM GONNA TALK TO CHRIS RIGHT NOW

"Oh, hold on guys." Chris absentmindedly spoke as he closed his microphone. y/n absolutely knew what that would be about.

"Do we wait for him or let the queue going?" Josh almost sounding like he'd peek into her door to ask this.

She thought about about it as on one hand, he could come back super quickly and we'd have found a match, but on the other he could take long and he'd have to reap the consequences of being away. "That's a hard question, I guess the game has been going harder on people who get away from the keyboard in a match. Let's wait for him."

Josh, as if a light bulb came on, put two and two together. "Right, I remember reading that update."

"Mhm." She hummed back, still thinking of their earlier conversation and what Ashley might be doing right now.

Ashley: He'll be you guys' wingman and leave y/n: what? Ashley: I'm making him hop off and sit with me to tell me everything he knows about Josh

y/n jumped at the sound of Josh speaking up, as if he fucking knew what Ashley and herself were up to. "y/n." It's fucking as if he was right behind me as he spoke as soon as i read ashley's message. She thought to herself. Eerie as fuck. y/n: DONT LET HIM LEAVE ME ALONE??? Ashley: oh I heard him call you since Chris put down the headphones Ashley: thisll be interesting y/n: oh my god Ash

"Yes, Josh?" y/n responded, trying her best to separate her current nervousness and his conversation with her.

"Chris told me something a bit back that really had me thinking." He spoke while taking breaths and thinking his words over, which makes his argument more stretched out than it has to be.

y/n responds, waiting for more. "Right..."

Ashley: Im having him explain what Josh is telling you right now y/n: i don't love the fact you guys are talking about us while hearing us Ashley: Im doing it with love I promise y/n: liar ure especially NOSEY Ashley: what can I say? WHAT CAN I SAAAAYYY???

He continued after he trailed off last time. "Yeah, I used to pump him up all the time to speak to Ashley and confess to her, right, and now he's saying I should listen to my own advice." He sounds oddly genuine, something the group doesn't see from the playful flirt.

"Okay?" Still not seeing his point, y/n doesn't comment much.

Josh still puzzled about it, genuinely unsure how to move with his friend's words weighing on his mind "The problem is, I don't get what he means? I go for everything head on. Chris has been busy with Ash and I wanna give them space to adjust, you know."

"You do, but I don't think Chris meant it in that sense. It's sweet you allow them space for them, by the way. Not a lot of people would notice those little things." She spoke up, now mirroring his realness as she realized he was being serious. He seldom opened up about anything at all, and she jumped at the chance to support him.

Ashley: chris says ur right. y/n: what the fuck Ashley: he says he didn't mean it in that sense and josh misunderstood him y/n: omh yall nosey asses i swear Ashley: teehee js ur friendly neighborhood wingman and woman

Josh was kind of taken aback at her comment responding to his question; completely glossing over her compliment. "What?"

y/n explained herself. She placed her hands on her face as she sighed at his emotional immaturity. "Josh, are you inadvertently telling me you like somebody? What you told Chris is really specific to context of love, and if he's telling you the same then you're now in what used to be his boat?" How could somebody be that flirty and that beloved by many girls that he rejects be so oblivious to themselves. Her thoughts were rushing, but she knew she had to focus.

Ashley: HE SO DEFINITELY IS YOU HIT THE NAIL IN THE COFFIN y/n: IS THAT ASH TALKING OR CHRIS CONFIRMING Ashley: oh i told chris to explain later, i wanna hear this. Ashley: update: chris is snickering at joshs stupidity i think he knows that we know that you know ur right y/n: im killing you both istg

Josh sounded a bit over it. "I think I'll call it a night."

"W-What?" y/n stammered in confusion, she was expecting being on for a very long while on this game.

"Chris isn't coming back, if he takes this long then it means goodnight for us all." Josh decided to excuse himself with Chris's impromptu leave.

She didn't know how to explain herself without being vulnerable with him. "Josh-" y/n could see her phone buzz multiple times, but she ignored it to focus on his voice. Her eyes are on the screen, but unfocused.

Josh pushed her away, as he often does with people anyway, keep your friends close from a safe distance. "Forget it."

She blurted out. "No it's fine, I get it."

"What?" Josh's jaw tightened.

"You could be the best person for advice for a certain situation, but literally when it comes to yourself, you are unbeknownst yourself. You helped Chris get her, now it's time somebody helps you. If you try at it without support, you might just lose her." She didn't even know what she was letting slip, but she went with the flow.

Josh groaned. "Goodnight, y/n."

"If that's what you'd like. Goodnight." y/n didn't want to push him, she knew of him well enough that it wasn't safe to temper with him when he declines. He knows himself best, pushing him will make things worse.

Ashley: NOOOO MY RADIO ROMANCE DRAMA y/n: its the fact u listened to all of that Ashley: of course I would what if he confesses to u right then and there y/n: huh Ashley: oh yeah after all of that u think he doesnt like u? y/n: we cant js assume that Ashley: ok im asking chris

As Ashley stopped typing, presumably to speak to Chris, she grabs a box of cookies her mom ordered to her dorm. They travelled without her as per usual, so she's stuck in the university dorms for the break. At least she get free food and free time away from people. A message notification popped up on the top part of her phone and her phone buzzed on the table. It was Josh.

Josh: sorry for cutting you off like that y/n: no harm no foul josh im sorry for pretending like i knew Josh: ironically its the fact you were so correct that made me upset y/n: oh. sorry? Josh: im not here to ask for apologies

She took a bite of the cookie in her hand, and since she was typing with one hand, she was unbearably slow. Fortunately, Josh was also slow in his replies. He was probably thinking through every word sent to her beyond this point. Josh: do u think u could leave ur dorm and we could walk for a bit? i think ill take u up on ur offer to talk things over y/n: sure, its a bit late tho u sure? Josh: yeah ill keep u safe dw, im the one who brought u out anyway. y/n: alr sounds like a plan.

She took out a pair of jeans and a fuzzy jacket. The cold weather of the outdoors was not welcoming of anybody used to the warmth of the indoors. It could be snowing, she thought to grab a few more things that would warm her up including a hot coffee. A 'bzzzzzz' sound filled the room as she changed into the improvised outfit. 'Beeeeeep.' She picked up the drink and took it with her.

Y/n stepped outside and walked out of the dormitory walkway to find Josh sitting in the common room.

He stood up and looked at her. "You ready to go?"

"Yep. Let's go." She nodded and walked right behind him.

He was wearing a flannel with a vest. The flannel was pulled up to his forearms. She spoke up. "You are oddly under dressed for the weather."

His hair was messy, he definitely ran his fingers through it whenever he reached a dead end in his thinking. She could imagine him sighing to himself and playing with it to try to take his mind off of things, messing it up further unintentionally. When she came to, they were now outside on university grounds. The place was gated and open for students during all hours of the day.

Josh looked down at the snowy ground and placed his hands in his pockets. "Yeah I didn't really think it through."

y/n smiled sweetly at him, she knew him to be rash at points where he needed to decide on something. "That's alright, here-"

"Truth is!" Josh perked up, cutting her words like a knife and louder than he initially wanted. Causing her to stare in silence, her eyebrow raised. She'd never be upset at somebody cutting her off once in a while, we all have our moments.

Josh cleared his throat and took a moment before deciding to go through with it. "Truth is, you caught my eye a while back. Chris figured it out first and then he became my confidant in this... weird situation." Y/n's mouth went agape, thinking of saying something, but she closed it to listen to him first.

He continued, still looking away from her. Focusing on his surroundings was his best bet in saying all of this. "He tried his best to convince me, but we were friends for a while, it's best to stay that way. I liked our banter." Telling his therapist his woes was already pushing it enough. This was ten times worse and she could tell.

"You joining us without me knowing you would had me appreciating your presence a lot more." She focused on him, his words, his stature, his walk, and most importantly his mannerisms. She knew he had to let this out it seems evident.

He took a shaky breath and y/n took her scarf off. "It made me need to think. If the people around me knew, then I needed to have a reason for it all."

Once he stopped to breathe, she lent him the scarf. He accepted reluctantly, but appreciated the gesture. He whispered a "thanks" and wrapped it around his neck. He closed his eyes to focus on its pretty scent for a moment. "I started regretting all the times I played with Chris alone. I hated thinking this way because of a lot of things. You getting my situation immediately caused my thoughts to go on overdrive."

She caught him between his breaths, now regulated from the warmth of her scarf. "Josh." y/n stopped in her tracks.

He walked a few steps before realizing she stopped, and turned around to her. "Yeah?"

y/n contemplated her words, but since he already confessed at this point, she had nothing to lose. "The reason how and why I joined you guys tonight was because I wanted to get closer to you. You were special from the moment you entered my life." Once he heard her reciprocation, his eyes focused on her moving lips.

"The amount of times you made me nervous-" Her voice, music to his ears, was stopped by his lips meeting hers. He placed his hands on her cheeks to lift her head slightly up. The cold was quickly replaced by imminent warmth. As much as he wanted to be reckless with her, have sloppier kisses, touch her in places that allow him to explore her curves, he didn't like the idea that they were outside. The kiss was short but desperate, she realized he was waiting for this for a long time.

i wanted to end on part two, but i feel like this def needs a third part. im now going to read this with my word replacer. i love this MAN I NEED HIM NOW. id really appreciate opinions on how the characters were written, i never really wrote fanfiction seriously till now. i usually write original work hidden in my endless google drive lol. thank you for reading!

[yetanotherexhaustedalchemist]

I don't know if it's been said or if this makes any sense, but I don't really agree when people say that Odysseus was finally completely rejecting the idea of Open Arms when he shot Eurymachus. Like. That was not Open Arms.

Polites' Open Arms was always about beginning a relationship/interaction with genuineness and a desire for diplomacy and peace. It was never a way to avoid the consequences of your actions. Polites' Open Arms was a way to avoid conflict before it got out of hand, but Eurymachus was just looking for heartstrings to pull on to escape what he had coming. I don't think it's a stretch to say Odysseus knew this. Even if he doesn't understand Open Arms fully, even if he's decided that he can no longer afford to give the benefit of the doubt, he knows that this is not what Polites stood for. And honestly, what could be more disrespectful to Polites' memory than using a hollow caricature of his philosophy in an attempt to get away with everything Eurymachus did? Odysseus knew, and he punished Eurymachus for even daring to try to sully Polites' memory, intentionally or not.

You know who I think really gets Polites' Open Arms, even if they don't know it?

Telemachus.

When confronting the suitors as a warrior of the mind, even after they have done nothing to deserve it, Telemachus gave them a genuine opportunity to make amends. BUT he was also very clear that this was a final ultimatum, and that he wouldn't hold back if they didn't surrender. He put the ball in their court, and when they showed their hand, he acted accordingly.

In some sense, Telemachus is everything that both Athena and Polites wanted to see in Odysseus. Even if he never met Polites, I think it's sweet that Odysseus will be able to see his best friend's philosophy have the chance to grow into what it was always supposed to be. That his son will get the opportunities to be merciful that he was never given.

On a slightly different note, I also think a lot of people assume Open Arms, and Polites with it, to be very pacifistic. I think that's a good and valid assumption/interpretation, but I always saw it differently? Polites might be idealistic, but I don't think he's naive. He's a trained soldier, he went through a 10 year long war. You don't go through that and think that peace is always the solution, or even always possible.

Polites was also a strategist, but a different kind.

To greet life with open arms is, like I said before, to enter each interaction and situation with an honest desire for diplomacy and peace. By showing the enemy all your cards and giving them a no-strings-attached opportunity to reach a compromise, you can minimize the need for conflict before things even get the chance to escalate. Ideally, a deal can be made, and both sides can leave unharmed.

And if they refuse the offer of Open Arms, you've learned a great deal. This situation cannot be solved peacefully, and the enemy refused mercy when they had nothing to lose and everything to gain, so you can expect them to not grant you mercy. Thus, you can't let it get to that point. No more holding back.

All that is to say, I personally see Polites as more of the "be nice first, because you can always be mean later, but once you've been mean to someone, they won't believe the nice anymore. So be nice, be nice, until it's time to stop being nice, then destroy them" type.

I'm gonna go to bed now.

[oph3liatlou]

Heyy,

I‘d love to request a Haymitch x reader fic! Just something wholesome. Some bullet points for the context:

-age gap

-she falls first he falls harder

-enemies to friends with benefits to lovers

-maybe a tiny bit of spice

The rest is totally up to you!!!

— PAST EMOTIONS

@mariechristine00

pairing(s) - soft!haymitch x recovering!fem reader

word count - 801

warnings - mentions of sex (past tense), light bickering, age gap (haymitch is 42 & reader is 27), implied situations.

proofread? - yes.

note from author - why did his flirting make me giggle 🤭 ???

summary - you were rescued from the capitol along with other victors - haymitch is your first visitor and you're happy to see him.

“You don’t happen to have any alcohol on you, do you?” Haymitch asked. He was your very first visitor since you had been brought to District 13 - along with Peeta, Johanna, and Annie. You considered Haymitch as a friend, of sorts…though you two didn’t get along when you first met.

I smile gently when you saw Haymitch was your first visitor. you were definitely happy to see a friendly face. “You think I’d be able to smuggle something like that in?”

“You’d be surprised.” He said, in a matter-of-fact tone. “How’d your visit with Coin go?” He asked, now stepping into your room.

“Haven’t gone yet.” You shook your head. “She thought I’d be in the same shape as Peeta.” And this was true, Coin had said that you should get your rest.

Haymitch seemed to find your words amusing, chuckling slightly before sitting in a nearby chair. "How are you feeling?" He asked, in a much kinder tone than that of how he spoke to you before. He didn't seem like the type to care about other victors' welfare - but he was much more attentive to you since your rescue.

This out-of-character nature seemed to confuse you when you pointed that out to him. "Since when have you started being so nice?"

He shrugged, raising an eyebrow as if he just found your question amusing. "You're not in a condition to be picking fights, are you?"

You scoffed. You two always had this banter going on with eachother but - the tension was released the few times you had slept together.

His grey-blue eyes met yours. "Besides..." He continued. "I've always been nice. To you."

You chuckled at his comment. "No, you haven't. We hated eachother when we first met."

His smirk grew at the mention of your first meeting. He looked as if he had remembered something that amused him greatly - though he kept it to himself. "Maybe, but even then...couldn't deny the chemistry, could we?" He asked.

You gave him a side glance with a soft chuckle. "I wanted to smack you in the face the first time we met - if you wanna call that chemistry..."

"And I would've loved every second of it," He said, his smirk growing. "You have to admit, the physical tension..." He trailed off, hoping you'd finish the sentence.

You smiled looking up from your eyebrows. You had been tracing designs on the blankets of your rather uncomfortable - recovery bed. "I know." You mumbled like a child would have.

"And the times - when we acted on it..." He let his sentence linger again, trying to get you to look over at him - which you eventually did. The playful smile on his expression seemed to indicate that he really did remember - quite clearly - the intimate times you two had spent together.

You met his eyes again and shook your head gently. This wasn't something you wanted to talk about now - especially since boundaries had been set beforehand.

"C'mon. You're telling me you don't remember? I certainly do..." He teased, getting up from his chair and sitting beside you on your bed. "We might've decided not to take it any further, but we both enjoyed every second of it, didn't we?"

You found yourself sighing. "Maybe we should've taken it further." You realized why you had agreed with him on the initial arrangement - you knew there was a chance that you could've been killed since you were helping the rebels. But now you were safe and recovering in the underground of District 13.

His smile grew again at this - it seemed that he had been secretly hoping the same thing this entire time. "I couldn't agree more." He admitted, wrapping his arm around you and pulling you into a small side hug. "It's not too late..." He murmured, brushing your hair off your cheek and leaning closer to you.

You looked at him softly. "I'm not too young for you?" You joked gently. You were much younger than him, maybe by 15 years or so.

Haymitch smirked in response to your question. He mimicked your joking tone. "I think you're old enough to make your own decisions. Wouldn't you?" He whispered, his voice tinged with arousal as he moved his head closer to yours. His warm breath lightly brushed against the side of your face - as a chill seemed to travel up your spine.

You nodded with a gentle smile. "The age difference doesn't bother me..."

His lips met yours softly, before he pulled you even closer to him. You felt his warm body pressed against yours as his hand started to softly caress you hair. He broke away from the kiss with a soft laugh. "God, I've missed you."

You smirked gently. "Show me how much you've missed me-" You paused. "I'll close the door."

read my merged works here!

[temmtamm]

My Favorite

Bradley Uppercrust x Reader

Tw: Making out, a little bit of a toxic relationship but it’s fun, Enemies with Benefits

Note: I NEED THIS MAN SO BADLY RAHHH I HAVE NEVER EVEN WROTE ANYTHING CLOSE TO SMUT BEFORE WHAT IS HE DOING TO ME

—

“Bradley!!”

A sharp echo of a voice rang out through the frat house, an annoyed hiss soon followed it, along with the clanging of plastic balls clicking against each other on the pool table.

Damn it. Not even close to a score.

The man bent over the table scoffed, his brows furrowing as he rose with a slow, restrained pace, keeping himself from lashing out at whoever must’ve had the gall to barge in screaming like that.

Well, he says it like it’s a big mystery…but it’s not. He did this song and dance plenty, plenty of times before.

It was (Y/N). One of the Gamma members that has joined of late. It’s funny, almost. They were only a year in, far away from all the other times spent in the fraternity and yet they have been the one to cause the most ruckus.

“Yes??” He hissed out, closing his eyes tight as he braced himself for the inevitable. His voice was a thin dance between silky and charismatic to ragged and harsh. He still had a front to keep up after all.

Sure enough, it was only a moment’s notice before a familiar teammate reeled around the corner, storming into the game room with a skateboard in hand.

Immediately, their nose scrunched up at the foul smell that resigned in the room. It was a sour pungent smell only brought on by the types of men Bradley surrounds himself with. The reek of beer and other substances having been left out to rot, the familiar sting of weed, and the scent of cheap body sprays and deodorants used to mask the scent on the men…yeah, it wasn’t working. Even with the place baron and empty except for the two, (Y/N) can still smell it distinct as ever.

They shook their head, snapping back to focus as they thrusted the board up towards Bradley, brows knitted together and lips pulled back into a sneer. “Mind explaining this??”

Oh, right. That thing. He forgot he asked Tank to do that.

He turned his head around slowly, looking over his shoulder and through his lashes at the board. Sure enough, one of those signature miniature boosters was latched on. “Well…It’s a skateboard. Thought that one would be obvious.”

“Don’t be a smartass.” (Y/N) hissed, cutting straight through his usual bullshit and thrusting the board into his chest as soon as he turned his body to face him. “I told you I don’t want your stupid tools!! You and your fella’s can cheat as much as y’all want, but I told you to keep that shit far away from my board, man!!”

Bradley stumbled backwards as the skateboard basically got dropped on him. The small of his back hitting against the edge of the pool table, the cold making goosebumps run under his skin and his fur frizzing up.

He huffed, annoyance setting into his expression as he gently set the board down–Not out of care of (Y/N)’s possessions but to not scrape or damage the contraband attached to it. “Hey, hey, hey!! Slow your roll, speed racer. What makes you think I’m behind this? The others are just as guilty as I am.” He purred out, his voice coming out in a drawl as he attempted to smooth talk and weasel his way out of the situation.

Not out of any fear or anything–Matter of fact, if it were any other person who pulled the stuff that (Y/N) has, they would’ve been kicked out a long time ago.

So, how were they so special??

Well…

“Don’t give me that. You know it’s you. It’s ALWAYS you!!” (Y/N)’s hand raised to run a hand through their hair, pulling it back away from their head as they felt their face grow hot with anger. “I keep on telling you over and over but you never listen!! You, you–” They huffed, their head turning away as their eyes glazed over the area, falling silent so they could think.

This type of thing had honestly been going on between the two of them ever since (Y/N) joined.

Why had they even joined in the first place?? Well, that was simple.

They were bright-eyed, bushy tailed, and finally free from their family. They were practically starving for excitement and freedom once they got to college only for…nothing to change.

Talking to people or trying to make friends still felt as harsh as chewing on nails, they had come to realize they weren’t as knowledgeable and perfect in their major as they had believed, and they were just…lonely.

Nobody to talk to, nothing to do, there wasn’t much that could excite and distract them from the depressing reality of their situation.

Well…until they remembered that old skateboard in their closet, a dumb little hobby they had back in early highschool back when they had freetime. Turns out, they were still good at it, just as good as they were when they were younger.

Whaddya know?? One thing led to another and they ended up catching the eye of a certain somebody.

They hadn’t much friends–or anyone really–outside of their family so obviously they fell hook, line and sinker for everything he said.

They believed him when he said that they had a talent, they took confidence in his words when he would praise and butter them up, then eventually when he asked for them to be a part of the Gammas…They accepted.

They wanted to believe him, that they were the best of the best and that if they just accepted his offer, they would be successful, happy, and have plenty of friends.

…Then again they can’t say they weren’t charmed by the idea of spending time with the man as well.

Though, they never expected this. They don’t praise themself as a champion or anything but they have more confidence in themself to rely on CHEATS to win.

What’s the point of playing if you’re just doing it to win?

They should’ve left the moment they figured that out…but they didn’t.

They just tried to be as independent from the practices as possible, to keep their morals and their beliefs honest despite their team.

Clearly that wasn’t working.

“Y’know what??” (Y/N) sighed, taking a deep breath as they did. Their voice fell down a few octaves, still upset but now more quiet and resigned. “I quit.”

Bradley perked up, his eyebrows flitting up as his charismatic smile fell. He shot up from the pool table he leaned against, closing the minimal distance between the two. “Ah, care to repeat that?? I don’t believe I heard you correctly. Surely my favorite player isn’t quitting so soon.” His smile returned, though it was a thinner, shakier smile. Neurotic even. That’s how he got when he didn’t have full control.

“You heard me. I’m tired of this, bradley. My boundaries aren’t being respected, I’m not being valued as a person, and I should've quit a long time ago. I’m done.” (Y/N) crossed their arms and turned their head away, refusing to look at him. If they can't see him, they can’t be…motivated to stay.

Bradley’s face darkened. His hands gripped at (Y/N)’s forearms, the pads of his paws pressing against the plush of their skin. The grip was almost desperate if (Y/N) didn’t know better. “You think you can just waltz up in here and quit?? Do you have any idea how much time and effort I–...We’ve invested into you, you ingrate!?”

(Y/N) jerked back, unfamiliar with the harsher treatment. They were familiar with his snide remarks and cold words, but to grip at them like this was a step too far. They’re many things but one thing they’re not is a pushover.

(Y/N) smacked his hand away, watching as he stumbled backwards. “Oh, like it was much.” They snapped, anger bubbling up once again. WHether they liked it or not, this man had a deathgrip on their emotions. “What time?? The time you spent buying gadgets instead of–Oh, I don’t know–Training??”

Bradley’s eye twitched as he backed up…though not for long as he was quick to step forwards again and jab his finger in their chest. “You ungrateful brat!! You have no idea all the time and effort I have spent on you. Now you just want to barge into MY house and quit?! I don’t think so!!” He sneered, his thin lips pulling back to reveal rows of almost fake looking broad white teeth.

“YOU–” He jabbed their chest again, the tip of his finger’s claw dancing over the skin that protected their heartbeat. “–signed that contact. You are mine. You will compete in MY team.”

“You think I’m scared of you?” Truth be told, their heartbeat did spike at the mention of the contract. Fuck. They forgot about that. This guy really loves to cover his tracks, huh??

“Get your finger out of my face.” (Y/N) huffed, smacking his hand away. He didn’t budge. They gritted their teeth, annoyance along with adrenaline building in their chest. Their hand grabbed at his slim wrist, twisting it away from them. It wasn’t nearly as hard as they could’ve gone.

One thing about Bradley is that he isn’t exactly the strongest man. He has Tank do all of his fighting. A pained yelp left him followed by a hitch of his breath, his voice getting higher and cracking as he quickly tried to jerk his hand away. “You tried to put your hands on me!!” His heart rate spiked, though not out of the same adrenaline (Y/N) was feeling.

“Calm down, prissy boy. I barely touched you.”

He did, in fact, not calm down. His other hand shot up, pushing at (Y/N) and being petty in the way that he tried to hurt them back in any way he could. Hitting, trying to grab at their hair, anything.

That lasted for around five minutes before (Y/N) had enough and shoved him back.

His back hit the border of the pool table once more, his breath hitching and a keening wail leaving his lips. God, he could be such a baby sometime. “You–”

(Y/N)’s hands rested against the tops of his own. They weren’t overly cruel or malicious, just caging his hands against the table to stop his tantrum. They looked up at him, their eyes dark with disdain and just…exhaustion. They did this plenty of times before, they were not impressed by anything he would weasel.

Yeah…He thinks he can start to remember why he keeps them around.

It should be humiliating being treated like this. Someone as high on the social ladder as him, someone who has crazy “Fuck you” money that makes all his problems disappear. He should hate it…but he doesn’t.

If anything, he revels in it. He revels in them. It’s the role they fulfill that makes them so special to him, why they are his favorite player. Dare he say, he likes the opposition they bring. It contrasts nicely with the yes men he is surrounded with.

He swallowed thickly, voice cracking and a raspy whimper leaving his throat as a shaky smile pulled at his lips. “D’aww, C’mon now, you didn't mean all that hullabaloo earlier. You love us and we love you.” He maintained his mask, getting back into his collected and cool persona. He wriggled his hands free, slipping them away to instead drape over (Y/N)’s shoulders. A shit-eating grin pulled at his lips as he toyed and played with the hairs at the end of their neck.

“It was just a small slip up, nothing to get all bent out of shape over. It won’t happen again.” His gaze darted down towards their lips. He darted his eyes away as soon as they landed there. “What was it you wanted? Respect? Fiine, I respect ya’. You’re my equal.”

He pulled them forwards, holding his breath at the way they looked, lurched over the table with their hands on either side of him for stability. His grin widened as he saw their expression falter and their head turning to look away. The good ol’ sweet talk never fails.

“I’m sorry for lashing out but y’know I can’t be without my favorite player. Imagine how lonely and boring that would be for me.” His grin stretched wider.

(Y/N) swallowed thickly, their face burning hot. “Stop that.” They grumbled. “Don’t do this again…” They wanted to stay strong this time. They were drawing their line in the sand.

Bradley just continued, feigning innocence all the while. “Do what?? I’m just sitting here.” He hummed, rubbing the pad of his thumb along the nape of their neck. He melted at the soft warm skin, the feeling only toppled by the way (Y/N) stumbled, their hands now resting on his waist for stability. He felt a lump build up in his throat. “Careful there, friend. Getting too close for comfort.” His nails raked against the back of their neck. He seemed a lot more comfortable in this position than he was letting on.

“Shut up…” (Y/N) muttered, making the mistake of looking down at the man under them.

…Dammit, there was no reason that he had to look so good. This was about humbling him and putting their foot down, not about—Whatever he was trying to spin this into.

…Wait a minute.

A lightbulb sparked in their head…If they were even still thinking with their head at this point.

“Make me–” Bradley’s tease was the last thing they needed. In a matter of seconds they ahd given in and let the intrusive thoughts win, crashing their lips against his own.

Oh, wow. He was surprisingly soft.

The hands in their hair tensed and stiffened, an emasculated whine leaving his lips as his eyes shot open. His brain felt foggy, his temple throbbing with the pounding of his heart, adrenaline pushing through his veins and making him feel unable to stay still. He couldn’t help but squirm like the silly little guy he was underneath them…only for a flat palm to press against his abdomen pushing him back down on the table.

Oh, fuck, fuckfuckfuck–

“Mmh…” His eyes fluttered short, him melting underneath the warm, firm body. His hands tightened their grip, clinging onto their hair for dear life before trailing down to grasp at the sides of their face. He pushed forwards, breaking through the barrier and slipping his tongue in their mouth. A humiliating, breathless groan left his lips. God, it was so warm. They were so warm. He needed them. He didn’t care how messy, sloppy, or desperate he probably looked and acted like right now.

He broke away from the kiss, only a hair's breadth away from their lips, his breath fanning over their skin with his brow caked in sweat and his eyes half lidded, heavy with need.

His hands fell down once more, nails raking down their back as he took a minute, breathing heavy and ragged as he had to strain himself to collect all his thoughts into a garbled sentence.

“C’mon…I-If yer’ gonna do it, just get it over with. Y’know you’re my favorite player, right? C’mon, please—“

Bingo. (Y/N) couldn’t help but let their lips stretch out into an uncontrollably broad grin. They took much pleasure in pulling away from him, savoring the weak plaintive cry that left him and how he lurched forwards as if his lips were chasing theirs.

They stepped back, their chest feeling tight and their heart claustrophobic as they saw him sprawled out on the pool table, hands clasping on either side of himself, nails digging into the thin red fabric. His hair was mussied, sweat dripped from his face with his shirt loosened and falling down. They almost gave in right there.

“On second thought…maybe another time.”

Though, seeing that helpless look on his face mixed with sexual frustration and a very offended look was almost just as sweet. It was a small win but a win nonetheless.

…

“I…” Bradley heaved out. “God, I hate them..”

[thekatebridgerton]

Today on another episode of my ' on a scale of 1 to 8 series'

'On a scale of 1 to 8 how well do the Bridgerton love interests handle getting kidnapped by Bridgerton enemies '

1) Kate: handles it the best out of everyone, she provokes her captors, steals a gun, shoots her way out of danger and waits for rescue with her captors tied up and terrified. She's not in danger, she's tired, hungry and pissed off. She's THE danger.

2) Simon: choses to not engage in violence, he negotiates his own ransom because he's rich, they either let him go or he finds a way to steal a phone/ escape and proceeds to call the cops, overall he's pretty chill

3) Michael: chaotic good, he's mildly angry at the situation. He somehow gets out of his restraints, and does a whole home alone booby trap operation on his captors to make them wish they'd let him go when they had a chance. He was in the army so he knows his stuff. He walks out of this, still very annoyed

4) Penelope: mildly agitated but not that concerned about her own safety. She's the type to make a dummy that looks like her, put it in the bed and sneak out of her cell, and run away from her captors. There's a benefit to being used to passing unnoticed, she knows how to be invisible, so she escapes silently. She gets rescued after spending a night hiding in the woods

5) Sophie: she's so far down the list because Sophie actually believes her kidnappers are #people, paid to kidnap her. She's agitated, but she reverse Stockholm syndroms her situation, she makes her captors empatize with her and talks them into either letting her go or putting her up in better accomodations until she gets rescued.

6) Phillip: he's quite agitated and very aware that his best bet is to stay put. So he punches a couple of captors, secretly steals a gun as a plan B, and waits for Eloise to rescue him. I feel like Phillip would rather kill the least ammount of people possible with the gun he stole. So he plays good hostage. The captors do not treat him well but Phillip is honestly more afraid of a pissed off Eloise than he is of his kidnappers.

7) Gareth: he's highly panicked, chaotic evil, going through a series of very not good emotions. He makes himself such an annoying pain in the butt for his kidnappers that by the time he's rescued his kidnappers are begging to be released from their suffering.

8) Lucy: so far down the list because she doesn't actually believe she's being kidnapped, thinks this is a roleplay prank played by Gregory. Her captors think she's delulu because she keeps insisting this is just like her last wedding. Lucy gets rescued and Gregory lets her think she was never actually in any danger, because the alternative would be an annoyed Lucy. And he hates that.

So what do you think of my ranking dear readers? Do you think someone should have been higher or lower in the list? Let me know.

[demonicnarwhale]

Carapaces!!!!

RC / Raptorial Clerk: RC is one of the archivist on Prospit who deals with mainly Prospit's history and keeping things neat and tidy (just in case if it's needed then carapaces can go to him and retrieve that information) there's other archivists for different sections of society like political, economical, etc. When Midnight City happens / fall of the kingdoms he ends up being a librarian teehee

his origins: and due to his specialties being historical archiving, he's in the same department or area as HK and the two are actually hatch friends!!! YAYYYYY!!!! (they are both smiling)

HN / Harbinger Newel: Newel is just the sort of look the outpost tower he's situated at looks like as seen in the small doodle. He just blows his clarinet looking instrument (i giggle since he choses to play the actual clarinet in CMS) when there's some arrival. There's a certain tune he plays depending on what it is. Enemies/Derse army or Prospit army / workers.

WN / Willowy Notary: She's basically some note taker for court records and such. The cloth covering her eyes is a form of "judgement solely based on the case itself" rather than having any bias (that and I wanna continue her lil "no eyes can be seen" thing going on :D. So like she sits in the court room (grinning so wide when i get to share their architecture and infrastructure) and notates what happens and is being said so that if the case needs to be continued/looked at later to come up with the "right" decision they have a reference. Or if there's important documents being signed and such, she's a witness. (like whatever actual notaries do)

MG / Monoceros Goliath: I thought I was gonna be so smart with the first word, tried searching up for a word to describe a horned animal or synonyms for rhinos (cuz haha helmet rhino beetle) but i got no answer(s) and the ones I did related mainly to constellations. Monoceros mainly just being some Greek word for a legendary animal with a horn so like a unicorn. Weeps guys I'm not cut out for elaborate names.

Also she's (so far) a pawn mainly or somewhere near being a rook but not quite there hence being goliath as she's pretty strong/big for a pawn yay. oh yes and she's well aware of innocent lives (aka farmers or pawns that aren't in either army) and so she'll send out a warning or make it known so said carapaces can evacuate/gtfo (both for Prospit and Derse). Like she wants to make it fair and also avoid unnecessary bloodshed. Or something like that cuz overthinking on it makes me think it sounds silly and odd.

Her armor does have some little pearl-like beads cuz why not :) and- and- and it's supposed to be like constellations with the metal engravings (that im too simple minded to give detail to)

Tallest soldier i have and the shortest (also! I had realized that Dynastinae is, THE SCIENTIFIC NAME FOR RHINO BEETLES OAUGRHAUGHRA clawing at my under eyelids (ive realized this while typing this all out <3) so it's either she's MG or DG

SH / Splendorous Headhunter: Basically she goes out and recruits or finds Dersites (who don't already have a job) some role in society that benefits both the community and themselves. Like she's not just going to randomly assign them jobs but try to understand the individual and go suggest jobs. Cuz like, there's of course other Dersites in this similar role (as her) that don't care. But to SH she thinks of it like "why would I make someone miserable, it makes no sense to force someone to do a job they dislike cuz work won't get done at an efficient rate" that and so there's no strikes-

CC / Canorous Clergyman: just listen to this: (and Powerwolf in general please guys oaughh I fucking love this band so so so so so so much)

Midnight Madona teehe i love Powerwolf so much oaugh my goodness (so much so i would've done gone gatekeep em but then i realized. that's corny. and this sorta genre??? is corny on its own in the best way possible, to me :)). but yes im just adding this here because i kept listening to it when drawing this mf

Midnight Madona (Orchestral Version) also the orchestral version fucking ROCKS (and all the other songs they do orchestral versions of) and is what I like to imagine Derse's choir would sound like (the tone or feeling more than the words teehee and of course not with a big ass orchestra track behind ok you know what I MEAN) like do to around the same time stamp as the version above gehehee

I also already kinda explained his whole deal in a previous post. here be CC. But basically, he's more of a figure for individuals to look to either for help or a sense of "oh so this is what we should be doing for our society". So yeah, he's like, the royal family lol, no real political power as he's a lower status bishop. Like, he's a Bishop for the individuals, to ensure they fall in line and yadda yadda support the community and all. Kinda like, a pastor lol

KH / Kinetoscopic Hallucinator: Due to Derse being, ya know, Derse, connections with these fuckassers (horrorterrors) is prone to happen. As we've seen with players and even Feferi having gigglybob and yay yadda Derse Void dreamers yadda. Basically he gets to listen to all the wonderful stories of the past these eldritch beings share with him. Whereas Prospit gets those lil clouds from Skaia to hint at the future. So, he takes the words and stories from horrorterrors as signs of "precautions" or warnings of what may happen in the future. A sort of doomsday gig going on.

Teehe. He still gets to deal with trying to predict Derse's future but that's a bit hard on him so he turns to memorializing Derse's past, and the Horrorterrors give him information that can precede Derse or even what was missed from its history. But it's mainly just them messing with him going "oooh Derse is doomed in the foreseen future! OoooOoooh" and he goes "aight bet" then boom red miles upon ye. Oh and the kinetoscopic thing is just the fact he has his own lil kinetoscope where he enjoys (the process not the actual fact he needs to listen to them) trying to figure out what the Horrorterrors tell him and depicts it as short stories and then draws frames for a lil animation. He just replays them only to get a sense of dread lol. Later on just outcasts himself in his tower to deal with the horrorbobs instead of looking like a loon in front of everyone, possibly to Derse's moon because ahA obvious motifs! of like, the horrorbobs keeping him chained down and yeahhh

It's basically the medium or locations for Sburb/Sgrub but at the moment I'm more focused on Carapace + etc instead of trolls and humans. I ain't no physic astronomer or something so I'll go back and change things up if it's needed but like, I can bs some stuff right??? yeaaahhhhh.

The idea is like I know it's made for the game but what if no game??? It still very much takes after the set up for the medium with Sgrub but woe upon yet.

The locations of Prospit and Derse is why HK (Historiographic Knitter) and KH (Kinetoscopic Hallucinator) are able to look into the future/past. Due to the locations of their respected planets

HK being on Prospit can receive snippets of the future but it's all randomized so it's like she needs to put it all together, or just write down what she sees. She uses these to make stories or piece them together then create textiles for them along with the stories recorded of the past

KH being on Derse, yeah you read his gig.

Skaia: Trying to deal with what the point of Skaia is for both sides. I think I'll go with it's just been so embedded in both societies to either protect or destroy it that carapaces at this point just need to continue what their ancestors had fought for. Honestly, I'm just going to go with Jack Noir doing his red miles thing and destroying Prospit and Derse then killing (almost) all soldiers and the Kings on the battlefield leaving Skaia dormant. (But then whYYyy would he do that in this context)

Midlay: Basically this version's planet of where exiles go and where Midnight City will soon be made.

The Veil: just asteroids to make traveling to and from Prospit and Derse to be dangerous-ish so it's not like carapaces can just go to the opposing planet and cause chaos. If it's really needed then there's only a handful of carapaces suited for that job.

Dream Bubbles: I know it's thanks to Feferi that they're a thing, so they're not a part of this actual universe, BUT I thought they were just cool to include where I think they'd go.

Green Sun: hi Doc Scratch

In terms of like biology/features of carapaces:

I'm going with Carapaces either being like RC where they got them bug-wuggy/crusty marine life features or like HK with a more chess-come-to-life sort of look, thinking it might just be from the cloning? or however these freaks are made getting fucked over with the system or something, just cuz it could be like "oh it derives from chess pieces but also some bug-crustaceans-alien thing" and sometimes the bug-crustacean just wins. It's totally not so I can shit and giggle with other designs and stuff, what??? no. And then of course carapces can have spawn of their own, but lay eggs yadda yadda and so some of these features can get passed down and such. It's just cloning is used in both kingdoms to ensure there's a steady flow of carapaces to work on the planets or get thrown into battle and yeah.

NOTE AS OF NOW: I just copied and pasted information i had saved on them all and so I will most likely go back and fix things up, or make a new post if it's anything major like "Oh I'm changing this character up" but yeAH

[smhalltheurlsaretaken]

I've said all of this stuff already but I'm pissed rn and it's therapeutic to type it out:

Maul's presence on Mandalore in TCW s7 is NOT a priority. The political situation on Mandalore, while shitty, has been the same for the civilian population since s5, with or without Maul there. Things can wait a bit.

Sure, capturing Maul is possibly time sensitive (since they don't know how long he'll be on-planet), but taking back Mandalore isn't. If Maul leaves before they show up the planet is just as easy to take. Bo-Katan is using his presence as an incentive because she doesn't have the necessary forces to win, whether or not he's there. The situation is only urgent for her because if Maul leaves then the Republic has no reason to help her cause. The situation is not urgent for Mandalore because, again, it's been the same for basically a year - Maul's presence has little impact on the people, his forces are the problem and they have never left.

The Republic didn't "refuse" to help after s5, they just had no more reason to. Almec is still legitimately Prime Minister (accepted by the people) and Mandalore is an independent sovereign system that has spent actual years refusing outside interference. The second Maul bails "helping" goes back to being called "invading".

Capturing Maul is also not even a priority to the Republic (Republic =/= Jedi Order) because Palpatine ordered the Jedi to stop bothering with him in s5. Officially Maul is 'just' a crime lord, and he's not allied with the Separatists or even attacking the Republic. It's well established in TCW that the Jedi don't have the manpower to deal with the underworld anymore. What's the point of dismantling black markets and crime rings if the planet gets bombed into oblivion the next day? Priorities.

The Jedi can't do what they want with Republic resources. As awful as it is, the Clones belong to the Republic. The Jedi can be ordered to pull out of a situation whenever the Senate pleases. (see above)

Capturing Maul (what would be the Jedi's goal going to Mandalore) would really best be accomplished somewhere he doesn't have all his forces backing him up (again, confronting there is for Bo-Katan's benefit because her own goal isn't just to capture Maul but to beat his forces which she wants the Republic to do for her)

The Battle of Coruscant is ABSOLUTELY a pivotal point in the war and the main priority. The second the Separatists show up above the Republic's central seat of power? The political and military capital? The most densely populated planet in the Galaxy? It's time to drop literally everything else. The Senate is there. The Temple is there. A LOT of their troops are stationed there. There are hundreds of thousands of billions of people living there. Even pulling forces out of allied worlds to go help Coruscant wouldn't be a dick move, just a desperate one - nevermind waiting to send troops to a neutral-on-a-good-day-and-more-or-less-enemy-the-rest-of-the-time world.

The Jedi don't even refuse to help.

They don't.

Why am I typing all of this to defend their refusal to help? They don't refuse to help.

Obi-Wan wants to take a hot minute to THINK ABOUT the implications of going guns blazing into neutral sovereign territory to confront a dude who has an extremely personal vendetta against him and is known to set traps of precisely this kind. (And Obi-Wan is right to consider these things because HEY! IT IS A TRAP! MAUL SLAUGHTERS A BUNCH OF CLONES AS A BREADCRUMBS TRAIL TO LEAD SOMEONE HE HOPES TO BE OBI-WAN INTO A TRAP!)

Obi-Wan also answers to the rest of Council, just like every other Council member. Bo-Katan gets pissy that he's not giving an answer right that instant because SHE needs Maul to still be there, but thinking things through is literally Obi-Wan's job description.

And after all this, after the attack on Coruscant and the political considerations, THE JEDI DON'T EVEN REFUSE TO HELP.

The Mandalorian traditionalists' favorite pastime is attempting to kill Jedi. Not too long ago, Bo was right there when Pre was trying to kill Obi-Wan. And then trying to kill Ahsoka. And then allying with the Sith (who notoriously want to kill all the Jedi) on two separate occasions (Dooku and Maul). The Mandos PRIDE THEMSELVES on hating the Jedi. There has never been in canon an instance of a Prequels-era Mando warrior helping a Jedi out for altruistic motives.

Bo-Katan is appealing to the Order's decency (saying that her people suffer etc etc) but she doesn't even have the honesty to couch it as a real, desperate plea for help. Instead she presents the situation as transactional, as though she was bringing anything concrete onto the table. If the Republic comes in, takes Mandalore for her and captures Maul, she has contributed to the effort how, exactly? What has she given the Republic? How many people fight for her is left pretty vague but we really don't see that many of them. Plus it's her planet. Fighting for it isn't her giving the Republic anything, it's still her helping herself. And yet she gets incredibly pissed when Obi-Wan takes time to examine the 'deal.'

In light of the two previous arguments, the Jedi would in fact have been perfectly justified in telling Bo to eat some freaking humble pie.

THE JEDI. DON'T REFUSE. TO HELP.

Sure it's Obi-Wan specifically who okays the operation, before the rest of the Council can make a decision, but do they order the troops to pull out afterwards? Nope. Do they sanction him? Nope.

They do help.

They really shouldn't have let Bo-Katan in charge but hey, they get all massacred after that and the Republic's backing is literally what gives Bo-Katan legitimacy in the eyes of many clans for decades after (see the Protectors' position in Rebels. Her legitimacy stems from SATINE'S and the Republic apparently backing her up as Satine's heir. It's not from kicking Maul out.)

(I love Bo-Katan as a character but as a person she's. huh. a lot. She changed from outright villain to morally gray character because the villains got a lot worse not bc she got better lmo)

So the Jedi absolutely did help afgfdsdfgfdsdfd why are people getting pissy about Obi-Wan - who has a complicated history with Mandalore that involves a loved one getting murdered in front of his eyes by Maul - hesitating to help

They really didn't refuse to help.

They really had every reason to

It would have been perfectly reasonable in fact

Yeah they have a mandate to protect innocent people but there were a lot more innocent people on Coruscant

Innocent people who did want their help instead of yelling GTFO every time they showed up

Because the Mando civilians sure didn't want them there

Oh and also? They didn't refuse to help

[dark-manga-stuff]

Galatea - The Eyes of God

Something I love about claymore is how the abilities that the warriors possess, usually have some type of character or thematic significance. Both of those hold true for Galatea, she is the literal and figurative eyes of the organization which granted her the name “God Eyes”.

With her ability to sense yoma energy from so far away, and literally telegraph conversations, she has one of the most valuable skills for the organization. And in the world of Claymore, the organization is the equivalent of a god.

It’s made clear from the moment we meet Galatea, that she will be an anti-hero character. She walks the line between ally and foe, with her ability also comes with the possibility of manipulating the organization, which she does here, she’s playing the middle game.

Right after we meet her, we get the confirmation that she’s a strong claymore and a top 3 claymore at that. And considering Alicia and Beth’s strength, top 3 is ridiculously good. Galatea is made to be a threat which is why she’s classified as a monster by Miria.

We get our first look at Galatea when Clare goes to fight Riful and save Jean. Galatea is still playing the anti-hero role in where she walks the line between helping clare and helping the organization. This character duality shadows her true intentions for the rest of the story.

Galatea has a strong aura of confidence and a bit of arrogance coming into this. She arrives to capture Clare, but she still decided to manipulate the organization and it’s still unclear what she has planned for Clare.

Galatea being “God Eyes” allows here to basically manipulate the battle, her yoma energy reading abilities allow her to harmonize with her opponent, shifting the battle in whatever direction she desires. The fight all comes down to concentration and prediction.

Another detail about Galatea is just how strong is she? With the yoma power she’s number 1. But what holds her back is that she can’t keep this form for long, the higher her power goes, the lower chance of coming back. The only downside to having this immense amount of power.

Galatea eventually reveals her true intentions as she was doing a personal investigation rather than one for the organization. At this point in her character she works for her own benefit and if the organization gets in the way, she makes a way for herself.

This statement is also made before we’re aware that Alicia and Beth can awaken and go back to their normal states. This is an ability far surpassing and shattering the limitations of yoma energy and holds other characters to a greater standard, a complete change of form.

Galatea allows Clare to walk freely, at first she seems very loyal to the organization. But after spending that time with Clare and Jean, I think she just wanted to test their resolve. She seemed hopeful for another meeting, I love how she keeps up the anti-hero thing. The next time Galatea and Clare meet, a lot went down. Galatea left the organization and went into hiding, as a nun. This works thematically & in characteristic fashion cause her title is “God Eye” and she’s doing the thing that would draw her closest to god which is being a nun.

Galatea only grew stronger through the seven years she was in hiding. She completely destroyed her eyes so now she really lives up to the “God Eye” title. Galatea now relies entirely on her energy sensing abilities. She had to adapt or else she’d be dog food for new claymores. Galatea still remains the same after all that time passed, still calm and collected, she doesn’t overestimate her strength but is aware of her capabilities in combat. Galatea still has a master way of turning a situation into a team fight, even if they started as enemies.

The circumstances in her return are also reminiscent of when she was sent to capture Clare. The dynamic shifts when you are the one wanted by the organization. Galatea is now the hunted instead of the hunter. I love the significance of the second meeting between Galatea and Clare, it shows the massive gap that she put between them in terms of power. Clare surpassed her and she did in fact, stay alive. Clare mastered a flurry of techniques and increased her raw skill.

Roles are reversed and Clare is the one that saves Galatea from an awakened being. Clare is also incredibly poised compared to last time which is a perfect way to show her growth, by bringing back a familiar situation. After meeting Galatea back in the Holy City of Rabona, Galatea isn’t too involved in the combat anymore, her abilities simply don’t match up to the 7 ghosts or new warriors but that’s fine since they are the spotlight of the story. I’m satisfied with the shine she did receive.

This is the end of the thread, Galatea is a fantastic character from being a main player to a supportive member, I loved every part of her involvement in the series. This was a very fun thread to make.

Credits: T Water

[egg-emperor]

You're the expert on Eggman so I'm really curious to hear your answer

If Eggman found that Sonic died (something along the lines of Sonic was killed by someone else or he fell victim to some strange disease) would Eggman be upset that he didn't get to experience killing Sonic himself or would he immediately begin partying and start working on his vision for Eggman land?

I know Eggman would be ecstatic about finally getting to move towards his goals with no obstruction, but I guess what I'm really asking is how would Eggman feel knowing that something else took the life of his greatest enemy and he'll never get to experience the thrill of being the one to do it

(Also, in this hypothetical situation, Eggman did not kickstart the events that led to Sonic's death whatsoever. It was mostly out of nowhere, and Eggman is just finding out about it.)

Aww thank you I'm honored to be considered an expect hehe 💜

I feel his initial reaction is always to be absolutely delighted and burst into laughter because his arch nemesis is dead and that will never be a total downside for him. The two moments we've seen his reaction to Sonic presumably being dead, he's been overjoyed, standing out as some of his happiest moments in the entire series lol

And while technically he was pretty much responsible for both as Sonic wouldn't have been cyber corrupted in the first place if Eggman hadn't kicked it all off, we still got to see how he feels if he isn't the one to really directly finish him off, calling it his "only regret". While he would've preferred it of course, he can be happy about it regardless. It's still hilarious and delightful to him

Though if he had no involvement at all because it was from some other foe that isn't connected to him, or a sickness, or anything else, I could see him being a little disappointed or even mad about how he couldn't get the glory of killing him. Like in a possessive "Hey, that was my prey! I was going to be recognized for my power and brilliance by killing him!" type way-

But overall he'd still be happy he was gone, the benefit of him no longer being around to get in his way remains. Plus he could still get the glory of defeating the rest of his friends if he's not feeling satisfied when he can't take any pride and credit in anything. As long as he gets the sense of accomplishment and bragging rights in other areas, I think he'll be happy enough in the end

So I'd say he'd probably still have the same mindset of when he said Sonic denied him the pleasure of finishing him off. His initial reaction would always be joy and laughter, even if after it wears off, he pouts like "But it should've been me that did it though >:[" and feel a little unfulfilled. It feels like he was denied one of the greatest thrills, catharsis, and satisfactions he could feel

And he could go "Wow sucks that for years I've aspired to put that blue pest down myself and the opportunity was ripped from my hands. I wanted to put him in his place and prove myself before I rid of him forever!" Because let's not forget, the reason he kept Sonic alive in prison in Forces was because he wanted to show him his completed empire before banishing (killing) him

He would wish he could've shown his glorious empire to Sonic and said "Ha I told you I could do it, I was never bluffing! Now the world is mind and my glorious empire will rule supreme and you're nothing before me. Now goodbye forever!" And really rubbed his accomplishment and superiority in his face, then had the glory of killing him himself. That's his absolute dream scenario

Accepting that he isn't ever going to get that could be a tough pill to swallow after years of anticipation and fighting for it but it wouldn't stop it from overall being a great positive thing overall that Sonic is dead. What's done is done, so I think he'd be able to replace it in the end by proving himself to all the rest of those that try to resist him and getting the joy of killing his other enemies himself

l can also see him still thinking it was hilarious if he died in such a lame way if it was due to a sickness or something instead of in an epic battle lol. He might not have been able to prove his brilliance in it but Sonic at least proves his patheticness. Like how I can see him looking down on Maria for her terminal illness and dying by a bullet and using it as a reason to say he's better in both cases

Then he can personally prove his power and superiority by destroying or dominating the rest by himself. He'd know how to look on the bright side of it and find other ways to use his demise as proof of his own brilliance either way. In the end it'd still result in him cracking open a bottle of champagne and celebrating that blue bastard's end and the beginning of his glorious empire XD

So I think the upsides would outweigh the downsides no matter what, as he'd still get what he always wanted with his main dream of dominating the world and building and ruling his empire. It's just along the way defeating Sonic also became a part of it so it can be a bit a bummer- but he won't let that sour the happiest time of his life when the world is finally his, he has an empire to rule!

But I mean hey, maybe Eggman wouldn't want to accept it, to the point he'll go back in time to save him or find a way to revive him 06 style, something so noble and heroic. Like oh my god maybe he actually can't live without Sonic and needs him in his life! - But then it's actually just so he can kill him himself and get the glory and the credit. Dig him up to make sure he gets it lmfao

And he'd still do it in a way that he gets to prove himself, by taking him prisoner for a while while he builds his empire, shows it all to Sonic to really anger him and then gleefully declares that they'll engage in one last epic battle to the death with him, where he plans on finally killing him. That would be pretty fucking awesome. But if he loses and Sonic gets to live on, it'd immediately become his biggest regret!

[genaleah]

It's probably beating a dead pig at this point, but I haven't seen anybody else mention this enemy in the game.

(Under a read more for antisemitism)

This enemy type called "Mr. Pinch" can be found in one of the later levels of the game, in the slum section. He hides in the upper portion of the screen to grab the player and fling them upward. He also pulls a coin out of their back pocket.

I don't think I need to pull up the direct references images, but this guy looks like an extremely antisemitic caricature. I've also seen the same said about the merchant npc "Mr. Sticks", but I think that design is a bit less egregious.

Its just that when you have TWO character designs that look this much like antisemitic cartoons, and their gameplay behavior is about money/greed, there's absolutely no way to wave that off as an accident or fluke. And especially after seeing so many of the creator's racist, misogynistic, ableist, and transphobic comments; I'm not willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on anything.

This whole thing is a huge bummer. I don't think that this situation is quite that same as Hogwarts Legacy, most people didn't go into it knowing anything about this guy's views, and the game had just come out about a month ago. A lot of folks were having fun and enjoying the positive aspects of the game like it's animation, gameplay and music. And aside from this enemy and the racist cheese slime, there isn't much within the game itself that comes across as negative. It's also really easy to miss how bad those enemies are when you're playing, I talked to some other people who had played and none of them had noticed Mr. Pinch's stealing animation. But, once you know about them, it can sour the whole experience.

I've seen a few different reactions to this situation, some people have talked about pirating the game and modding out/replacing the nasty elements, and I've seen other people who are going to stay away from anything remotely related to this game because the entire thing gives them a bad feeling now. I think those are both totally reasonable. But I'd say the barest minimum should probably be to not financially support this game anymore. Avoid buying the soundtrack, plushies, etc, and don't buy it on Steam if you hadn't yet.

[solarwynd]

hot take but pjms are loosing the plot w the never ending album promo comparison debate. its not a jimin-against-the-world type situation, but a members vs bang-sb-jk situation. that was very clear to pjms last year but it seems we’ve gone back on some of that progress. trying to pit the others against each other and nitpick similarities and differences between all of their individual releases actually takes attention away from and benefits the real culprit but oh well.

the levels of demand among the members have always been different that is not new information to the members, their fans, or their management. the real issue (at least for me) is not others members getting “more” or different promo rollout than him. let’s be serious, how did more or less music videos help any of the other members out? what difference did a cd make for most of them? and there are many other examples where the others (except for one ofc) got things he didn’t that weren’t necessarily helpful for them.

all of the members have gotten different sources of promotion, which i actually encourage. what would be the point in all of them doing the exact same thing? at one point, jimin was considered privileged about getting his physical album to be available on the same day as its digital release. then that became a norm for the others.

but by constantly nitpicking normal differences (among 6 members) in their rollouts we lose sight of the real mistreatment or whats actually disadvantageous to him. the real issue is not the (5) others getting different things, it is him not receiving the *level of support that his demand requires*. i dont see an issue with the other 5 getting a little boost here and there, because they lack demand and its only natural for them to expand their horizons and find a new audience that does support them. however, jimin ALREADY has an audience and is not being given the support that corresponds to it (e.g. radioplay, award shows, timely certifications, praise from his own damn label, etc) despite it being actually successful. bottom line, team “global superstar” is the common enemy here and all of the other solos are too busy fighting each other to accept that.

Solos pitting the members against each other is how they’ve always operated though. That’s literally what they all get off on including pjms. Comparing numbers and claiming that the member they stan is better. And while I’m sure other solos do recognize that Bang favoriting JK has had some negative affects on the member they stan, they don’t really have it out for him because they’re main enemy will always be Jimin. He is their common ground. Somebody they can all team up against and hate in unison. But regarding pjms, they still universally agree that Bang and Hybe are the real prime culprits in all of this.

I agree that rapline getting bulkier rollouts in contrast to Jimin hasn’t helped them and I never wanted to have identical rollouts because creatively that’s boring. What I and other pjms have always wanted is fairness at base level, like the CD, playlisting and servicing to radio because we know beyond that most likely he isn’t going to get JK level label aid that would be proportionate to his demand in the states. It’s been established that it’s intentionally set like that by Bang and Scooter.

The MV situation is simply because Jimin asked for a visual and was denied. If Jimin had never mentioned that, no pjm would be stuck on him not getting those 2 extra MVs. I’d just see it as something that I’d also like to see from him down the line. It was never about wanting them because we believed it was crucial for charting or exposure. If all seven members got the same amount of those 3 things, I’d have no qualms on that end. And the numbers made off that would just be left up to who has more interest and that can’t really be helped with how skewed it already is.

Common sense would dictate to any label or management that you’d push what has demand in the market that shows it, but Bang and Scooter are stupid men and Jimin isn’t who they want to push so they half ass everything surrounding him. We all know that already. So it’s not that pjms are failing to see the bigger picture, cause we’ve already come to that conclusion like you said. It just keeps gets rehashed because everytime a member has a comeback and gets something Jimin didn’t get for FACE/LC it just irritates all over again. Can’t really fault us for being annoyed in retrospect. But again, we’ll see how they go about PJM2 because for the other members obviously things have went better for them promo wise and *hopefully* it’ll be the same for Jimin too.

[lemongingerart]

Chapter 3 - Taris (II)

Fic summary: The second arc of my Armitage Hux x OC fanfic, “chocolate cookies and tarine tea”, in which both need to deal with the mess they got into (and with each other, eh eh eh). Involves cookies that won't be eaten and tea that will get spilled. Same goes for certain feelings... they are going to be hungry ant thirsty 😏

You can find the link to AO3 and other chapters on Tumblr in the pinned message on my dash, both for the first and second arc 😊

Rating: Explicit. This is going to be very NSFW. So, Minors, do NOT read or interact. 18+. Family, friends and colleagues, please don’t read this. :’-)

Tags & warnings: TRoS fix-it (kind of), Hux!lives, Hux doesn’t like Kylo, Not a Redemption Arc, maybe a little bit, shameless fem!OC insert (there are cliches but entertaining ones imo), slow emotional burn, medium sexual burn, Enemies to Enemies With Benefits to Lovers, Hux is still a villain don't forget, Virgin Characters, masturbation against the door, pinv, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Awkward Sexual Situations, Past Child Abuse, dubious first kiss, Dom/sub Undertones, Mental Breakdown, Unprotected Sex, wet Hux, that deserves a tag/warning on its own, Minor Character Death

I will add tags as we proceed in the story, please let me know if I forgot one!

Taglist: @mylifeisactuallyamess, @morby and anyone who’d like to join 🥰

A/N:    I realized that both Taris chapters are short... too short to read on their own.That's why I decided to review and publish the second part, so at least we get some general ginger 😊

"I need you, remember?”.

Did I really say that out loud? 

Armitage shivered from disdain, hating himself for sounding so desperate. He wasn’t, and by any means this was not the signal he wanted to give the headstrong girl. Who knows what that overexcited mind of hers was thinking now. If she even begins to think she has power over me and tries to stab me in the back… 

Only now, he started to realise there was some truth behind these poorly chosen words. He was completely dependent on Miko to make his risky plan succeed. He felt vulnerable, having to place his faith in her hands. He was supposed to be guiding her with his tactics, hopefully coercing her into doing the right thing and making sure the mission ended successfully. But right now, with the connection cut off, she was out there all by herself and he felt lost, the lack of control eating away the last piece of trust he harboured for a positive outcome. Stars, he hadn’t been feeling confident enough with the plan and her possible lack of abilities in the first place, and this was the consequence. A new level of distress, right on top of his other concerns.

It was already about half an hour ago, when the direct line with her earpiece commlink had fallen away. She had signed him that she was just about to enter the designated building by then, so no doubt the place was shielding off all type of communication.

That left Hux without any means to know what was going on, and he felt empty and way too nervous to his liking. 

Hux started checking the perimeter sensors now, making sure no one was spotting his shuttle with the naked eye. They could mess with clearance codes, but anyone who took visual confirmation of the shuttle would know that they weren't exactly a cargo vessel. Something that should automatically sound the proximity alarm, but you can never be too certain, he sourly thought, aware of how the stress was eating him and making him do irrelevant things.

He sat down in the cockpit’s seat again and brought his hands together, the fingers locking when he rested his forehead on them. He didn’t know what to think, he wasn’t used to just… waiting. How long was she going to take? Every minute that passed made him wonder if things weren't going to work out as planned, or even worse, she was selling him out. Maybe something happened to her, out there in the streets, and he could be waiting here for nothing.

He tried to think about something else, but the only other thing apart from Miko he could focus on, was his anger and spite towards Ren. 

Ren… Resentment was all that he had left. That, and the knowledge that the unguided projectile with a lightsaber and the other officers had always tried to put him aside. That they were out there, wrecking the First Order. But they underestimated him. He would prove that he has what it takes to lead the Order. They will see.

The proximity alarm bleeped, and he only noticed by now that Miko’s location sensor had become active again. He made a mental note that he shouldn’t dwell too much on Ren and the misery he brought to his life and the Order. The self declared lord of the Dark Side shouldn't be plaguing his mind, now or ever, he wasn't worth the attention. 

He swiftly stood up, ready to check on the girl; he was dying to know what happened and if she in fact obtained the coördinates to the Resistance’s base. 

Actually, that feisty girl has proven to be an adequate distraction from these dark thoughts, he realised once again while watching the sensors bleep and pressing the command to lower the ramp. Seems like he should appreciate her company after all. If only not to overthink his sightless situation and drown in his depressing theories. 

Miko was coming into view of the cockpit’s transparisteel viewport, and Hux paused his movement. 

What is she up to now?  He wondered, started seething, when looking at the small cargo container floating behind her.

[lettiegrief]

Summary chapters 18-25 of Qiang Jin Jiu

Li Jianheng organized a banquet that was a disaster for Lanzhou and Ce'an.

Let's do it by steps.

Xi Hongxuan was at this banquet too, but he and Lanzhou, of course, pretended not to know each other.

Everyone agrees that Lanzhou is such a beautiful crystal. Fact.

Xi Gu’an lost the Empress Dowager's favor, which was already expected to happen after the student strike.

“Second Young Master Xi, take off your shoes, and we can use them as boats to play with.”

A moment to talk about fatphobia both in this novel and in other Eastern and Western books. It's very common to see fat characters in a position of evil, being described in a way that causes disgust, repulsion and humor, which, honestly, is very frustrating. I was a fat child, currently I only have a belly with some fat, and if reading these descriptions is already something very bad for me because it affects me personally, I imagine what it is like for fat and obese people. I can't speak for everyone, of course, but the lack of responsibility and sensitivity at these times is still undeniable.

Continuing.

The Donkey Roast was truly horrible. It was Ji Lei's mockery of Lanzhou that ended up hitting Xiao Chiye for free. They were both caged beasts, their freedoms are under the control of others, so of course Xiao Chiye demonstrated his fury, he can exercise his right.

I have things to talk about cezhou, but I'll save them for last.

Li Jianheng becoming the emperor will only benefit the Xiao clan, which fortunately I had already understood. Drawing for me:

Xiao Clan x Hua Clan = enmity/cold war. Because of Shen Wei and Zhongbo, the Xiao clan is under the control of others, Xiao Chiye being trapped in Qudu under the Empress Dowager's control is what keeps Libei on a leash. Xiao Jiming cannot and will not miss the opportunity to put Li Jianheng on the throne now that he has the opportunity.

There are also basically three factions: Hua clan/Empress Dowager and her subordinates; Emperor and his subordinates; Xiao clan and its allies. Ce'an and Lanzhou have the same enemies: Empress Dowager, Emperor, Ji Lei, Pan Rugui and all of the Empress Dowager's employees.

“They can deliver a powerful blow head-on like an iron wall, but they cannot respond with sufficient agility to a battle that involves back-and-forth pursuits. Drag him for too long and the exhausted ones will be Xiao Jiming’s troops.”

Ce’an proved that he can handle this type of situation.

“However, he attacked at exactly that exact moment. How could he have done this if he didn’t have extraordinary vision?”

And that's why he managed to survive (in part). The other party was Lanzhou who sided with him.

“But now, the Emperor no longer wants them, and so these twenty thousand men have become weapons without a master. It's okay if they really fall into the hands of a hedonistic young master. But if they fall into Xiao Chiye’s hands… Then what else is there to stop Xiao Jiming from sending troops to protect Prince Chu?!”

And that's exactly what happened! Ce’an won the loyalty of the soldiers of the imperial army, it was also thanks to this that he had a great victory.

If he was being prudent, then he shouldn't let Xiao Chiye get so close to Prince Chu.

The Xiao clan never intended to be on a leash having to prove their loyalty for life forever. They will do this until the opportunity they no longer need comes (which it did).

Lanzhou was one of hundreds ordered by the Empress Dowager to kill Li Jianheng. All the Imperial Bodyguards were on Li Jianheng's trail thanks to Ji Lei.

So that the holes in the government's financial accounts would not reach the Emperor, someone intercepted Xue Xiuzhuo's memorials. In summary: a budget of X value was created for city X, but the value delivered was Y, the remaining numbers disappeared. This embezzlement of money has been happening over and over again for years. No one knows who took all this money.

And those who know what is going on and who are doing this are clearly Hua Siqian (Hua faction, obviously), Pan Rugui, Ji Lei and everyone else allied with the Empress Dowager. Hua Siqian has power over the amounts that are handed over every year, Ji Lei controls the Imperial Bodyguards and intercepts letters and memorials that are from/to the Emperor when it is convenient, Pan Rugui likes to embezzle money too.

Even the Empress Dowager's influence makes the civil servants pay respect first to the Hua clan and then to Pan Rugui's residence, automatically paying respect to Empress Dowager, Hua Siqian, Pan Rugui and Ji Lei, who are the real rulers of this country. shit. The Emperor is truly just a puppet.

“Imperial Concubine Wei is already half a month pregnant, so how can Prince Chu ascend the throne?!”

The Empress Dowager's side wants a new heir created by her who can serve as a puppet for them to continue their corrupt schemes and influence. The Xiao clan wants Li Jianheng on the throne because that way they can get their freedom. It's difficult to think logically with an imperial policy where no one thinks rationally kakaka

Ji Lei suddenly spoke up. "Commander-in-Chief Qi is far away in Cangjun Commandery in Qidong. The Imperial Bodyguards are responsible for all incoming and outgoing correspondence. Your Majesty, it's time for you to wake up from your dreams!"

And here the battle officially begins.

Hua Siqian looked at Li Jianheng and smiled evilly as he said, "Prince Chu harbored the intention of staging a revolt in the hunting grounds. He even brought a bow and arrows. The evidence against him is conclusive! What are you waiting for? Kill him!"

He says this now and later he says that Li Jianheng is being held hostage by the imperial army. Lost in character lol

"As Viceroy of the Imperial Army in Qudu, I, Xiao Ce'an, want to see who will meet their fates under my blade!"

Just an appreciation of this scene.

"Whoever is able to break my arms and legs, I will not only give him a hundred taels of gold, but I will also call him Master."

"But if you can't break them, then your life is lost.”

It was a crucial battle. If Li Jianheng lives, the Empress Dowager's party would be known as traitors; If he dies, the Xiao clan, Qi Zhuyin, the imperial army and others would be so tied hand and foot that any movement could lead them to the guillotine, or to a rebellion that they don't want to cause because no one wants to die. It's a cold war.

Then there was a thud as the tip of Qiao Tianya's blade collided with a sheath. 

Shen Zechuan pressed his sheath against the other blade.

Lanzhou made up his mind. Thank goodness it was at the most crucial moment, it would be difficult to continue following the tide and be Ce’an’s enemy from that point on. If he didn't turn against the Imperial Bodyguards he would be increasingly trapped by the Empress Dowager.

His back collar was slightly open, and there were still mud stains on his neck. The contrast between them was too…

Very seductive. 

Xiao Chiye watched him. 

What sorcery was this? This man was still wielding a blade to kill earlier, and he wasn't acting like a woman, so why did he think of such a term?

After here, Ce’an spends a lot of time salivating over Lanzhou.

"I beg you." Xiao Chiye sighed. “Sit on my stomach. Don’t sit down anymore.”

MASTERPIECE!!! ABSOLUTE CINEMA!!! HOW MUCH I FREAKED OUT READING THIS SCENE!!!

Ce'an and Lanzhou have a lot in common, both in interests and personality. They fight very well together and have a good dynamic of biting and blowing, dog and cat, etc. I like all of his interactions, especially because Lanzhou is very cynical.

"Continue daydreaming. The political situation has changed. It's time for my Imperial Army to piss on your heads from above!”

The Qidong Cangjun Commandery's banner suddenly unfurled, and he saw that the one in front of the galloping horses was precisely Qi Zhuyin.

Ce’an turned the game around. This battle has been won. Holy shit, these chapters were incredible.