#they would have a higher chance of being legitimate

[hermioneismyrealname]

Does anyone ever think about how a threesome would have just solved the problem? Leanor and Rhaenyra did try... I'm just saying a certain someone could have helped to you know... Just saying.

[impish-baby]

Hey, could I have more HIWTHI content please? Possibly with them finding out reader would write in their journal a lot, possibly hinting towards reader having large amounts of self worth issues, and instead of them leaving because no one notices them, reader left because they feel like a burden?

I’m particularly interested in Marcus and the twins reacting.

Also, please make sure to take care of yourself. I love all of your writing, but no one will ever blame you for taking a break. Also, please stay hydrated.

-🌙

👀 close to something that would happen canonically actually!!

HIWTHI cast's reaction to reader's journal

(Trigger warnings: reader's struggles with self worth, mentioned/referenced suicide)

Marcus feels like a complete and utter failure as a father. No matter how cold or stern he is with his children, he does love all of them with everything in him. So the fact that you feel like a burden? That you felt like a waste of space in your own home? He hangs his head in shame.

Doesn't even bother with asking why you didn't speak up, he's well aware that this is his own shortcoming. It's his fault, that's the simple truth of the matter.

Once you are back home, you're required to start therapy. He'll even let you do in person instead of online if you promise to actually give it a shot, Marcus legitimately wants (needs) you to get better. He has no delusions of their being an overnight change, and so he tries to go at your pace.

There's lots of long conversations, firm reminders that you are loved and of value no matter what. Especially at night, he'll sit at the end of your bed and tell you how much you mean to him. He'd go on until he's blue in the face if that's what it takes for you to believe his words.

Clara refuses to believe what she's read for a long while. She knows it's real, she has the proof held in her hands. Just... her child, her baby, was struggling with almost the same thing she was. And she didn't know. She didn't know and now they're gone.

If she wasn't worried about reader before, she's actually terrified now. The worst outcome is going through her mind, because really, what was stopping you from doing something dangerous? Clara is constantly eyeing the news, fear eating her alive.

The next time she sees you, you're getting the tightest hug. The woman sobbing into your shoulder, thanking whatever higher being that her baby is safe.

You aren't allowed to have sharp objects, unportioned medication, or anything that could be used to harm one's self anymore. Clara doesn't care, she's not leaving a chance. She knows what it's like being in that state of mind. She'll be dammed if she doesn't start acting like a mother should and protecting her child.

Jack is bawling his eyes out right away. The pen ink in your diary smudging as his tears hit the paper. You...oh god..

He feels like the shitiest person on earth, he doesn't deserve to call himself an older brother. He knew Jaiden had his struggles, and now this..

He pockets the journal. Jack reads it as some form of punishment. You suffered with this, he'll suffer with it too. When you're back home, he's trying his best to include you in everything.

Movie nights, board games, he comes up with anything and everything so you can spend time together. See? He has fun with you, he likes hanging out with you, you aren't a burden..

Theo feels bitter, resentful. At your parents, at themselves, at the fact that you felt that way. His resolve to find you becomes ten times stronger, there isn't a single doubt in their mind that you need to come home.

Much like Marcus, they'll affirm how much you're loved and wanted any chance they get. Theo cages you in their arms and mumbles praises for what feels like forever. They'll even go into morbid detail about how everyone fell apart while you were gone just to prove how needed you are.

Jaiden is tempted to rip the pages out. He goes through a rollercoaster of emotions.

At first, he's pissed. That you didn't say anything, that you didn't do anything to get help, that you just sat there and felt fucking miserable for years-

He's ashamed. Deeply, deeply ashamed.

It feels.. awkward between you. Jaiden stares constantly, like he's never seen you before. When he finally breaks down sobbing, he's willing to beg at your feet if you'd forgive him for being such a horrible big brother

[itsabouttimex2]

Hahahah! The little healer stall sign says

itty-bitty-healing-comittee!

Here to heal you today!

Little Healer Headcanons

Sun Wukong, MK, and Mei

(That is so damn cute to think about- lil’ Y/N all dressed up like a mage/nurse behind their stall, but only their eyes peek over the rim cause they’re short af)

The Great Sage personally “finances” your little (probably unlicensed and illegal) stand by scaring off any cop or Karen who wanders by to try and cause trouble. He’s your number-one supporter at any given time, always on standby with a snack or hug to cheer you up.

It’s not uncommon for a client to lean over the side of your stall for a better look at what’s inside, just to find Ol’ Sun Wukong lounging on the ground.

When the king isn’t busy scaring people away by “accidentally” getting into their faces and pushing them around with a strength beyond their comprehension, he’s babying you.

Trying to, at least.

You work so very hard at your little repurposed stall, a handmade banner strung across the top, red crosses and flowers painted on the sides. It’s clear to Wukong that all you really want to do is help as many people as you can, however you can…

“But you can’t do that if you don’t take care of yourself,” he’ll remind, using legitimately good advice as an excuse to drag you off for mid-day snuggles.

The Great Sage will gently force you to practice basic self-care, even if it means dragging you back to Flower Fruit Mountain on his cloud for a hot bath and a cozy nap. Expect him to extend your “vacation” afterwards by asking for help with a few of his monkeys.

He is so, so good to you, in the worst way. A part of him knows that it’s wrong to load you with junk food and soda, but when he sees you all worn out and shaky on that wooden stool you have to stand on to see over the stall, his self-control fizzes out and the Great Sage is bolting off to “buy” you a horribly unhealthy combo meal from the nearest fast food place. (He steals it.)

And when you’re all tuckered out from a day of hard work and a belly full of sugar and grease and deep-fried fat…

Sun Wukong scoops you into his arms and starts the journey home, right back to where you belong.

Oh, how this kid loves you. MK is always lounging around the corner of your wooden street stall whenever he gets the chance, kicking back with a copy of some Monkey King sponsored magazine or playing Monkey Mech on his phone- it’s a great chance to just lounge around and genuinely relax.

And sure, there’s some concern from his friends and family about how MK seems to suddenly be prioritizing protecting a blatantly illegal street stall over his job and work as a hero…

“Saving the city can wait! Y/N needs me to find a rare herb so they can make an antidote!”

Yeah, you definitely come very close to first in this hero’s heart. He doesn’t outright abandon the city, nor will he put you miles above his desire to protect it- but you are extremely close to being the most important thing in his world.

Just… a cute itty-bitty “sibling” that MK can’t help but to cherish. At first.

As the seasons go by, though… you start being a strange sort of living coping mechanism. An emotional crutch. As his anguish compounds and stacks higher by the day, MK starts using you as an impromptu and unlicensed therapist, trauma-dumping whenever you aren’t tending to a customer.

Being too young and naive to shut down these conversations, you can do little more than fidget and squirm while you try to soothe the worst of MK’s sorrows.

And he misinterprets these awkward consolations as genuine care on your part, which leads him to repeat the process again and again and again.

As MK slowly builds himself up, he in turn breaks you down- entirely on accident.

If he knew that the constant barrage of fears and worries were grinding you down, MK would absolutely turn the valve and shut himself off. He’d go right back to closing himself off and shutting up about everything that’s torn a hole in his heart.

But he doesn’t. You don’t know how to tell him.

So on and on he goes with these traumas, head in your lap during a slow day, right when you finally crack and start to cry.

Good thing you’ve got a hero on standby to cuddle your tears away.

Each and every day starts with Mei prepping you for a long day at your “job”, and damn if the dragon girl can’t dote.

Special attention is given to your hair, little jeweled pins clipped into place just to give your outfit a bit of (expensive) sparkle- the motorcyclist believes with all her heart that you’ve earned it.

All your clothes are custom-made in whites and greens so that the two of you match, displaying to everyone around the bond she shares with you. Since your hands are so important to the work you do, Mei avoids giving you rings (and loose necklaces, just in case they get caught) and instead settles for thick golden bracelets (with trackers hidden inside) as a “gift”.

She tends to see you as more frail than you really are, so motorcycle rides are uncommon and uncharacteristically slow because Mei doesn’t want to rattle you.

Expect her to loudly and proudly proclaim “This is my little sibling!” whenever she gets the chance- and Mei will actively try to make this heartfelt delusion of hers a reality.

If you’re got a good home life, Mei imposes herself as an “honorary big sister” to justify all the time spent with you, painting herself as the sort of person who genuinely just wants the best for her community by looking out for everyone’s favorite healer.

But the moment she finds something solid against your guardians, this dragon girl blasts it all across social media to justify dragging you away from them- even if puts you in an awful and precarious headspace.

If you’re an orphan or stuck in a very bad home situation, Mei might just get her parents to adopt you- having a hardworking and adorable mage is not only good for the family’s reputation, but offers them a chance to expand their reach by having you lend a hand to influential and powerful individuals in their time of need.

And sometimes it feels almost like you’re being used, but they bring you back home after the work is done and allow you to rest and recuperate in front of their fireplace with a warm blanket (her mother wraps you up extra tight and kisses your forehead) and a cup of tea (her father pushes it into your hands and smoothes out your hair) before they dim the lights and bolt their lavish doors.

Really, you’re just part of the family now.

[rainybraindays]

No but actually, if you genuinely think Debling was good for Penelope or better than Colin because "he cared about her from the beginning" you're actually just silly.

Like first off this man genuinely had no deep connect to her at all. In episode 1 when they initially meet, he's a little flirtatious yeah, but ultimately thats not caring that essentially flirting at a house party, and he immediately couples it with completely ignoring her distress after Cressida rips her dresss and leaving to just not be seen again until episode 3. And when he shows up again, his behavior is very much similar to ep 1, where he proceeds for that episode to entertain both her and Cressida. Because to him it didn't matter which one of them he married, he was going to marry one, point blank. He chose the two most isolated girls in the ton, who had little to no friends, and pit them against each other until one couldn't fake it anymore and he decided "yeah she'll be good enough." You can't really argue he doesn't, because he does nothing to stop their rivalry for his attention until Penelope says she can't continue faking an intrest in birds.

Like his relationship with Penelope is so surface level its not funny, they don't know anything about each other, he seems to have no desire to learn. All he wants is, essentially a socially acceptable fuckable servant. Penelope reveals she loves reading and romance? He goes "damn, well you aren't getting that from me" and then drops the bomb that basically immediately after they marry hes leaving her for 3 years(longer because he will die but whatever) and expects her to be okay with it. Penelopes job as his wife, in his eyes, is to hopefully get pregnant in the little bit of time they spend together, and then to watch over his house. He even tells her he doesn't think he could ever love her, and while Penelope acts fine with that, she is a romantic. Penelope legitimately would not be happy in this relationship, and it would never get a chance to improve because this man is so indifferent and uncaring about his potential bride he's planning to fuck off immediately after marrying her.

He also, very clearly doesn't even respect her? Like by the time they're meant to be getting engaged, you'd think he'd have a higher opinion of her, or some actual faith in her abilities to be a loyal wife when they marry, but he doesn't. He lets Colin cut into their dance, and has no issue with that, likely because he views her similar to how she views herself, a relatively undesirable girl he doesn't have to worry about drawing attention as he was her only suitor, but the moment Cressida mentions they're childhood friends? The moment he puts 2 and 2 together about her actual reason for sitting in the window? He gets pissed, and leaves, seemingly planning to fully ghost Penelope, and when she confronts him to try and calm him down he essentially calls her a whore. For..what? Having a crush before they met? A crush that she thinks at that moment is one-sided, a crush that she was willing to bury to be his good little wife, he sees that and says shes untrustworthy, because he believes she'll cheat on him first chance she gets. And then he fucks off.

If he actually cared about her how some of you claim, her crush on Colin wouldn't matter, and he wouldn't have subtly slut shamed her for it. If he cared even a little, he would have at least shown up later to apologize for his behavior and either wish her well or try and sway her back to him. But he doesn't, none of those things happen because he doesn't see her past the ability she had to manage his estates and give him heirs.

He legitimately doesn't see her any different than how Anthony saw Edwina, and the idea that Penelope should have settled for that? That she should have given up being with the love of her life in order to be with this man that is seemingly considerably older than her, who doesn't care much for her past her ability to do the only two things he actually cares about in regards for a wife? Thats insane, like did you pay attention at all? If he cared for her at all he wouldn't have immediately left society, but he does, not because hes heart broken, but because his ego got bruised and hes pissed he has to start his search again, that his "find the loneliest girl in the room and marry her" plan wasn't a success.

Debling would not have been a good match for Penelope, and she wouldn't be happy with him. And despite what you guys seem to think, Colin has always cared about her, he was just her friend first which isn't a bad thing. He has always defended her, always been kind to her, and he didn't let another man ruin his chances with her.

Penelope got her happy ending, stop pretending she was robbed.

[baldursgate3tempobsessed]

Please let Astarion meet Tav's family and have a younger sibling like 6 be like im gonna marry the prince points at Astarion.

Tav : Sorry, im married to the prince

NO IM GONNA MARRY THE PRINCE

That's so fucking cute kill me. But I just realized AFTER I finished it I read this wrong 😭😭 I read it as "marry" instead of "married" so whoops now it's an asking for your hand in marriage fic.

Also, I'm going to make this a weird little, unofficial, alternate reality, off shoot of this fic to explain away why Astarion can be in the sun without ascending because I am ~lazy~

Quick summary if you didn't read it, Tav serves Selune, gets a blessing for all the good work, and uses it to cure the anti-light issue of the vampirism (but not all of it). It's not a literal extension of that fic but I'm stealing my own plot explanations. That's it! Now here we go:

~

Astarion wasn't nervous per se. He was just... on edge. And the two-week journey it took to get here wasn't helping things, not when it gave him so much time to ruminate in his thoughts. He never expected to be in the position of "meeting the family," let alone in anticipation for asking for someone's hand in marriage.

Astarion wasn't even quite sure how his life got here. He had always fantasized that a life without Cazador would be one of selfish hedonism, not one where he would be legitimately concerned about a damn six year old sibling's first impression of him.

But then you came along, effortlessly shattering all of his grandiose plans with a batt of your eyelashes. Perhaps the entire journey of falling in love was more complicated, but it felt like it was that simple. In hindsight, he never stood a chance against you, but it was hilarious that there was a time he ever thought he did.

All of his prior dreams and fantasies felt like nothing in comparison to just being with you. It had been a year since you both saved the Sword Coast, a beautiful, fantastic year. That had ended with him somehow more in love with you now than when he first confessed. Selune's blessing had certainly helped with that he was sure. He still couldn't quite believe that you would use a god's blessing on him of all people, but gods, was he appreciative. Because being able to walk in the sun again meant that he could live the life he wanted, with no restrictions. He could be the partner you deserved, the kind that a father would happily say yes to when asking for your hand.

Which brought him back to his current dilemma. Perhaps he hadn't seen any of your family members in the time you'd been together, but he had heard plenty. You loved them all to death, especially your little sister. You wrote to them constantly, the mere sight of a letter from your parents enough to put you in a great mood for the rest of the day. He was aware that your mother was supposedly a saint, a fact that your own father had instilled in you often. He knew that they had a wonderful, loving marriage and were both higher ups in the Church of Selune. A fact that Astarion didn't particularly enjoy.

As grateful to the moon goddess as he was, he was aware that you were an expectation to the very normal belief that vampires were bad. And that marrying one was one of the stupidest things you could ever do from an average person's perspective, let alone a Selunite.

Why you hadn't done the smart thing and lied about what he was, Astarion would never know. But he did know that the thought of their rejection over his admittedly sordid history was putting him in a tailspin.

"They're going to love you," You said for the hundredth time, giving his hand a squeeze as you led him up the steps to your childhood home, "You have nothing to worry about sweetheart. I promise."

Astarion highly doubted that, but you were already knocking on the front door before he had a chance to argue. The door instantly slammed open, a beaming child already launching themselves at you before Astarion could process what was happening.

But you were more prepared them he was. You effortlessly caught them in your arms, laughing at their excited shouting, "Titi! You're late!"

So this was the famous Arabeth.

"No, I'm not!" You laughed as you settled her on your hip, "And what happened to my little girl's manners huh? You haven't even introduced yourself yet."

The child glanced over at him, like she was just realizing for the first time that someone else was standing over there. She looked a little shocked at the sight of him, staring at him with wide eyes. Wide enough for Astarion to start to wonder if something was on his face.

He gave her a little wave only for her to bury her face into your shoulder, peeking out at him with her lips pursed. Which was not the best start to the whole making his darling's family actually like him plan.

"Well, as you've probably guessed this is Arabeth. She's just a little shy," You reassured as you stepped inside, muttering a quick invitation inside under your breath. He appreciated that, he didn't need the whole house to be reminded of his... limitations.

"But she'll get over it soon enough," You continued as you called into the house, "Mom? Dad? We're here!"

And just like that they were rushing into the room, acting just as excited as your sister had been. Your mother wasted no time in smothering your face with kisses while your father swept you up into a hug. It was a rather impressive display of coordination, considering how they hadn't managed to knock you and your sister to the floor in the process. Astarion was pretty sure they were both saying something along the lines of We missed you! But it was hard to tell with all of you so tangled up in each other.

It was heartwarming to see, in all honestly. Of course such a loving person would come from an equally loving family, what else would he expect?

Though he certainly hadn't been expecting for your mother to throw her arms around him next. She brought him into a tight hug before looking him up and down, "So you're Astarion huh?"

She turned back to you, grinning ear to ear with her hands set on Astarion's shoulders, "He's so handsome! Selune help us, do you remember the last boy you brought home? He had a nose the length of my arm-"

"And that's enough of that," You said with a strained laugh, pulling your eccentric mother back a few inches, "And we've talked about the impromptu hugs. What happened to asking for permission?"

"Sorry, sorry!" She said with a wave of her hand, "Let me try again. I'm Seliras, and this is my husband-"

"Marcoul," Your father interrupted, putting his hand out for Astarion to shake, "It's been awhile since we've met a boyfriend."

"He's a little more than that," You said with a sigh as everyone exchanged pleasantries.

"We'll be the judge of that," Marcoul said with a sharp but friendly grin, the grip he had on Astarion's hand briefly tightening before he let go, "From what we've heard, you're quite the character aren't you?"

Ah, so the interrogating was starting early then. It was nothing that Astarion hadn't expected. Besides, turning up the charm was his strong suit, even when he was uncharacteristically nervous.

Astarion smiled back at him, "You've heard right. And I'm more than happy to answer any questions you might have."

"Oh gods please don't say that," You groaned, but it was too late. Your parents were already leading him to sit, rapid-fire questions coming out of their mouth.

Where are you from? How did you meet? Are you serious about our Tav? What's your religion? Where's your family? What are your plans?

But Astarion answered them all, with only mild censorship for the child's sake. The child who suddenly couldn't stop staring at him. It wasn't exactly easy to sell himself as a future husband when he was a vampiric ex-slave, but he made do.

It was an overwhelming experience to say the least, but not necessarily an unpleasant one. That was one good thing about trying to marry into a family of zealots, it was a lot easier to convince them of your virtue when you received a personal blessing from their goddess.

By the end of the night, they were all throughly appeased, enough so to get off the topic of him for a moment.

"You look a little young to have a thirty-year old child," Astarion said to your mother. He was actively trying to compliment her for obvious reasons, but he was also genuinely curious. She barely looked a day over 40.

"Oh we breed young," She said with a laugh, "We had Tav in our teenage years. Arabeth came much, much later. Our favorite little surprise. Gods, I can't think of a single person in our family who didn't have kids young. Our little Tav is the only exception to the rule."

"But maybe not for much longer, huh?" Marcoul added with a grin, yelping when you lightly smacked him over the head for the comment.

"Do not start the kid talk again!" You hissed out, cheeks red, "We've talked about this!"

Astarion couldn't help but grin at your reaction, charmed by your embarrassment. Though... the idea of the two of you having children together sure was an interesting thought.

Astarion felt a tug on his sleeve while you were distracted arguing with your parents. He turned, smiling when he saw your little sister standing there, still staring at him with wide-eyes.

She took a deep breath before blurting out, "You look like a prince. Are you?"

"Not exactly," Astarion said with a small laugh. That couldn't be further from the truth, "There's no blue blood in my veins."

She frowned, cocking her head at him like he wasn't making any sense. But then an idea obviously struck her as she excitedly asked, "But if you married a princess, then you'd become a prince too. Right?"

"I suppose?" Astarion answered with a shrug.

"So if I become a princess, and I marry you, then you'll be a prince?"

This conversation was quickly becoming out of his depth. But luckily enough for him you were swooping in to save him.

You laughed at her question, turning your attention back to the two of them, "No offense Bethy, but I'm going to be the one marrying this particular prince."

But Arabeth wasn't having it. She crossed her arms, looking at you like she was the one talking to a child, "You can't. Because if I don't marry him, he won't be a prince. So there. I have to do it."

She looked so serious, her facial expressions incredibly similar to your own. Astarion was holding back a loud laugh as you tried and failed to reason with her, "I can marry him without the royal status-"

"No! I'm marrying the prince!"

Your parents were doing a much worse job at hiding their reactions, both of them opening giggling behind their hands as you came up with a compromise.

"Okay, okay," You said with a sigh, kneeling down to look the small girl in the eye, "How about this? I marry him first. But only until you become a princess. Then he's all yours. Sound fair?"

She thought about it for a moment before nodding to herself, "Sounds fair."

Well Astarion wasn't going to get a better set-up then that. He turned to your father, his nerves coming back for a brief appearance, "I'm assuming now might be a good time to ask what I came here to ask. Though I do promise I only intending on asking for one of your children's hand in marriage."

Marcoul nodded slowly, his face unreadable as he spoke, "I mean no offense when I say this Astarion, but you aren't exactly who I imagined for my daughter."

"Dad don't-"

"Darling, let him finish," Astarion gently interrupted, his eyes still locked with your father's.

He took a deep breathe before continuing, "That said, I've never seen her so... herself with someone else before. So yes. The two of you can marry. On one condition."

"Anything," Astarion said instantly, nearly giddy at the fact that he was so close to the official yes, "Just name it."

"You have to have the wedding here," Seliras answered for him, a massive smile on her face, "No ifs, ands, or buts."

"And I get to be flower girl!" Arabeth chimed in, her past indignation completely forgotten as she climbed all over you, "And there has to be chocolate cake!"

"Oh gods, help us," You groaned, but Astarion was already nodding along. He couldn't give less than two shits where it happened or who was involved. He could scarcely believe that it was happening at all. But that was the last thing he had needed.

He already had the ring, the most amazing person he could ever fathom being with. Who actually wanted him back.

Now all he had to do was ask.

[characteroulette]

Okay here's a thing I thought about recently

You can tell the new writers didn't know what to do with Apollo because they kept trying to give him new gimmicks / motivations both times. First he's suddenly got a bestie he'll go insane for. Then he's got a whole secret childhood in a different country.

Meanwhile, Phoenix is RIGHT THERE with 7 years of unused time!! And they give him nothing. Not a single new thing is added to him. Worse, they even revert him to his original trilogy bluster and pretend his days as the cold poker player don't exist or matter. They actively take characterisation away from Phoenix.

Because Phoenix is the self-insert, right? Obviously, he can't have too much detail on him, he's here for the player to project themselves onto. It's not like he has his own wild characterisation (changing his entire life trajectory to meet his friend he knew for like 3 months of his childhood again, willingly and seriously cross-examining a parrot, refusing to elabourate on his past to the point of pretending his old friend is legitimately dead). It's not like he's grown at all from those experiences and should be less prone to falling to despair about his cases going off the rails (6-1 is the biggest offender to me in this regard; I get this is a higher stakes gambit than he expected, but my dude this is the first case you cannot throw out the despair pose like that it lacks any emotional impact and actively takes me out of the moment).

It's just very telling to me that, instead of utilising what possibilities they have (7 whole years!!), they pretend it's a complete blank for Phoenix. It may as well have just been a blink of an eye, it doesn't matter for him. It's less missing time and more just a single step over the issue.

Also this is petty but "King of Bluff"??? Why would that be his name. I hate this. Call him the "Turnabout Terror" he's THE Turnabout guy!! Any Prosecutor worth their salt should know by now that when their case seems to be going their way and they're close to that Guilty verdict, that's when they need to be afraid. That's when Phoenix Wright pulls out the most bullshit small detail and flips everything on its head. Pray he does not accuse you of being involved because it's a 50/50 chance he will tear open your secrets to reveal what crimes you are guilty of. Acting as if the guy who focuses in on the smaller details and is 90% of the time right on the money is lying his ass off is just wild to me. He may be putting on airs that these details are more important than he initially thinks, that he's flying by the seat of his pants, but his track record does not lie. The hoops we have to jump to be the underdog at all times is wild when we're inherently underdogs just from our profession alone, especially in this world.

Anyway yeah. Weird they chose to fuss with Apollo's character and story twice over when Phoenix is right there, with empty time to fill in, and yet he has negative character growth instead. Very telling of them.

[37-children-of-the-dreams]

PSA WARNING: Asaba Harumasa’s Agent Story Part One

CW: Child exploitation, suicide and talks of suicide, and a bittersweet ending.

So I did Harumasa’s Agent Story knowing that it’s not going to be a happy one. Yet, I was not prepared for what the writers had in store for his Agent Story.

Now, if you think Lighter had problems, you’re about to question what is wrong with the writers because they upped the ante with Asaba Harumasa.

(Sorry to the next S rank male, but the devs might torture you next)

Now, the story starts off lightly and a bit sad because Harumasa wants to be on sick leave, and then it’s revealed that he was abandoned as a child. Is he an orphan? Might as well because those people shouldn’t be called parents anymore.

Then, after a few fights into his story, we learn that he knew Seth and his brother from their academy days, though it seems that Asaba did not have a good relationship with Seth’s brother and that might’ve contributed to why he acts mean to Seth. If you did Lighter’s Trust Events, you would remember that Asaba and Seth did not get along when dealing with Lighter, Asaba even going as far as to tell Lighter to report Seth for what happened. And now you know why.

And then the fight with the child who turned into an Ethereal. It was bad. Asaba is shook and Seth drives it harder. We had no chance to save the child.

And then you meet this guy. You will want him dead and gone to HELL.

More lore about his master. It hurts him to think about him. He wants answers and has been finding him for years.

I didn’t get much pictures from the start of his second part, but the ones I did get, it’s just horrible. The reason being that you and Asaba meet THREE more victims and Asaba knows what they’re going through because it’s his past that they’re going through. And one of them is suicidal.

He studied a bit of psychology. Good for him because it does help with trying to deal with trauma.

The writers need a ton of awards, higher pay checks and a million vacation days. They legitimately deserve it. This is highly realistic and true. There will be days when you’ll think of why you’re still alive when the world is just suffocating you but then realize that everyday you haven’t died is you being a survivor of your worst thoughts. It’s hard, and it is highly annoying to keep hearing people telling you to be happy when you don’t want to feel like it, but one more day of living for a tiny reason is better than nothing.

We get back to Seth and the other guy. All I can say is, I advocate murdering people that uses children as science experiments and lie to their face about it. Also, I don’t like the other guy because he’s okay with children dying for medical advancement. I get that they won’t live for long, but it’s not right, and we all should try to be like Seth in this topic.

I know this is a secret test of character, but this is why, despite his naivety on some topics, Seth is a good boy. You can trust him to save your life.

May the bad blood end today. Seth passed his test.

Shoot him. Take him to HELL.

[evenmyhivemindisempty]

Based on the previous ask about the Boyd (were)wolves: the Boyds as vampires

Ooh this one is so fun! For this, I’m gonna assume a few things about the nature of their vampirism: that beyond some basic hypnotism they don’t have any special powers ala IWtV, that they’re affected by the standard assortment of crosses, garlic, direct sunlight, that they need an invitation to enter a house, that they’re stronger/faster than the average human but not to the point where a very well-trained human wouldn’t have a chance, and that they need blood, but it doesn’t strictly *have* to be human blood.

Steve Murphy: Steve really doesn’t like feeling like a social outcast in any way, and being a vampiric fiend is pretty distressing to him! Steve thrives on feeling like he’s doing a good job fitting into society, and doing his part for his country, and this throws all that hard work down the drain. After this happens, he tries to keep up his normal life for as long as he can, which… isn’t actually that long, considering the DEA often needs him on the field. In daylight! After that I think he holes up somewhere and goes the vigilante route, hunting down narcos when he needs a meal.

Donald Pierce: I think Pierce gets a supply of blood bags from Gabby and immediately sets to work figuring out what’s happening to him. I bet he would leave A-T (probably realizing that a company that does unethical and non-consensual human testing might decide to make *him* their next subject), and he ends up utilizing his vampiric abilities in a new, less corporate, mercenary career. I think he’d actually be kind of hyped about his superpowers - weirdly, I bet it actually makes him more chill; he’s genuinely more confident and doesn’t feel the need for his usual hyper-aggressive posturing to convince people how scary he is.

Cap Hatfield: Cap appoints himself his family’s protector, and spends generations watching over his family and their descendants. He stays pretty isolated in the woods, mostly hunting animals and the occasional trespassing human.

Clement Mansell: Oh, he thinks this is the coolest thing that’s ever happened to him. Plus, he’s already a night owl, so it’s not like it’s really impacted his schedule! He absolutely uses his newfound powers to commit all sorts of crimes - the hypnotism is great if he wants to get Sandy a Tiffany diamond necklace, and being able to throw around most anyone that comes after him is a pretty helpful thing as a career criminal! He absolutely thinks he’s in a vampire romance too - he turns Sandy, Sweety, and Raylan all in pretty short order.

The Corinthian: Being a vampire is actually a big downgrade from being a nightmare! It’s all his usual powers, but with a bunch of weaknesses he never had to worry about before. The hypnotism is kind of nice, but I don’t think he uses it - he likes the challenge of seduction, of getting someone to welcome him inside. He’s kind of miffed he’s now into blood and not eyeballs - it’s ruining his MO! There’s now a higher chance he might let his victims live though - and I bet after a while he realizes he kind of likes having a few recurring lovers to feed on.

Eli Klaber: Aw, Klaber totally becomes a glamorous femme fatale vampire ala Carmilla. He uses his hypnotism to get himself expensive things, sets himself up in a big isolated manor, and rents out rooms to humans. It’s actually a legitimate business and he makes decent money (plus he gets a nice supply of prey delivering themselves right to him!), but he’s dreamily hoping one of them will fall madly in love. He’s more likely to have that gothic vampire romance than Clement is, actually.

Ty Shaw: Ty is less happy as a vampire than a werewolf. The first time he gets a whiff of his little sister and gets *hungry* makes him so appalled. I think Ty does eventually make it work - sets himself up with a job that lets him work the graveyard shift - but he doesn’t trust himself around his family anymore, and moves away.

Quinn McKenna: Quinn is so good at being a loner vampire! Maybe he camps in the mountains for a few months! Maybe he squats in an abandoned warehouse for a bit! It’s actually kind of nice! He doesn’t have to talk to anyone! And no more child support payments either! Technically, he’s dead!

[axvoter]

Blatantly Partisan Party Review XIX (federal 2025): Shooters, Fishers, and Farmers

Running where: for the Senate, VIC and TAS; for the House, 7 seats in NSW plus Lyons in TAS

Prior reviews: federal 2013, VIC 2014, federal 2016, VIC 2018, NSW 2019, federal 2019, federal 2022, VIC 2022, NSW 2023, WA 2025

What I said before: “Exactly what it says on the tin. The SFF will water down our successful gun control laws, support environmentally destructive policies, back the mining and logging industries, and be a brake on urgently-needed climate action.” (VIC 2018)

What I think this year: The Shooters are primarily an NSW party: they were founded there in 1992 and it is where they concentrated most of their energies in the 1990s and 2000s. They did field some interstate candidates at federal elections, but it was only in the 2010s that they began contesting state elections elsewhere. Since their first NSW state election in 1995, the Shooters have won one seat in the NSW Legislative Council at every election except 1999, and they seemed to be on an upwards trajectory in 2019 when they won three lower-house state seats too. But that soon imploded: one of those three quit, party leader Rob Borsak made offensive comments about her, and when he would not apologise, the other two also walked out.

The Shooters have never been able to turn their success in NSW state politics into success at the federal level, and when they have picked up seats in a couple of other state parliaments it has been thanks to preference harvesting through Group Ticket Voting (a system abolished for Senate voting in 2016, so that voters today have full control over their preferences at federal elections). They have held 1–2 seats in Victoria since 2014, and had one in WA from 2013 to 2021; this was briefly two in 2016–17 after a Liberal defected. The Shooters' statewide tally at a couple of those elections in Victoria and WA would be good to win a seat legitimately under the at-large proportional system used in NSW and introduced this year in WA. Those specific Victorian and WA elections, however, had multi-member regional divisions with higher quotas to win a seat, and the party would almost certainly not have won seats had above-the-line voters been free to allocate their own preferences.

I say all this partly because I enjoy writing electoral history in these reviews, but mainly because I find it a bit bizarre where the Shooters are running candidates this year. Although they are standing in seven (mostly regional) seats in NSW for the House of Representatives, they have not submitted a ticket for the Senate despite this state being their home turf and where they would have the best chance—if a very improbable one—of scoring a seat via a good regional campaign. It’s unlikely they will even make the two-candidate-preferred count in any of the seats they are contesting, let alone win. They contested just two of them in 2022 and got 5.31% in Farrer and 6.37% in Riverina. Meanwhile, they are running Senate tickets in Victoria and Tasmania. I’m surprised not to see the Shooters stand in WA given their history in this state, but after the hiding they got at the state election, not even faintly competitive despite the small quota required to win a seat on the Legislative Council, perhaps their campaigning energies are at a low ebb.

The party’s policies are what you would expect: reckless attitudes about gun ownership, rants that fishers are victims of “green government and bureaucracy gone mad”, and a lot of anti-environmentalist/anti-Greens rhetoric. Like just about every right-wing minor party since 2020, they talk about covid and healthcare with language about “freedom” in the hopes it will secure votes from cookers and conspiracists. And I find it fascinating how pro-mining they are. This is not the party for farmers who are anxious about the effects of resource extraction on their farms and the watercourses on which they depend, despite some lip service to the idea that mining “must never be allowed to permanently affect prime agricultural land or water systems”.

The Shooters’ climate policy is contrarian drivel that sows doubt about established scientific facts by repeating worn-out talking points on natural climatic change and hand-waving about the inevitable side effects of having a human population of seven billion. They insist that any policy on climate change should “not unnecessarily restrict the activities of farmers, resources, transport, manufacturing or any other industry”. Basically, even if there is evidence of serious human-induced climate change that they are willing to accept, they want to play no part in responding to it. It’s the climate policy for Homer Simpsons everywhere asking “can’t someone else do it?”

Finally, I wish the gun-toting right would stop uploading their policies as PDFs (yes this includes you, Katter’s Australian Party) and just put their policies on a normal webpage.

Recommendation: Give the Shooters, Fishers, and Farmers Party a low preference in the House and a weak or no preference in the Senate.

Website: https://www.shootersfishersandfarmers.org.au/

[decepti-thots]

Ultra Magnus for the headcanon asks, please!

Headcanon A: realistic

I think that while the existence of the Magnus armour stuff is officially only known by a very tiny number of people in Autobot high command, it's not nearly as unknown in an unofficial sense as one might assume, and a not insignificant number of people with some amount of security clearance and/or regular interaction with Magnus know about it and gossip. Obviously we have two concrete canon bits of proof for this (Bumblebee shouldn't know, but was told by at least one Magnus armour wearer, and Ratchet guessed despite never being told), but I think it's gotta be something that over the years has spread enough that it's a little bit of an open secret tbqh. The guy keeps dying and then popping back up with a noticeably different personality. Any medic treating him has the same opportunities as Ratchet to notice. They're robots where the concept of a loadbearer is a clearly known possibility and the propaganda possibility is not that hard to infer! I feel like the number of people who guessed that something was up cannot be anything close to zero, or even just a couple higher ups. Like. It's been gossiped about. You know.

Headcanon B: while it may not be realistic it is hilarious

Due to spending two years in direct collaboration with Verity, he has a baffling knowledge of the very specific segment of Earth pop culture that appeals to a teenage girl from the USA in like the late 00s/early 10s. Specifically a rebellious nerdy one. He legitimately knows more about it than he ever knew about Cybertronian popular culture. This never comes up until he offhandedly mentions some random thing within earshot of Swerve that is so incongruous it causes him to mentally bluescreen. How the fuck do you know about that Magnus. What the hell.

Headcanon C: heart-crushing and awful, but fun to inflict on friends

Magnus is going to carry the guilt of dismissing Rewind's insistence Dominus was somehow alive the whole time with him for the rest of his life. The realization that Rewind was right but they confirmed it too late for him to do anything about it until the very second it was too late, in a time and place where Magnus was present and might have been able to make a split second decision that helped if only he was there, must be such a fucking thing for him. Let alone that as Ultra Magnus, if he had believed like Rewind did, he'd have possibly had the resources to get answers much, much earlier, if he'd tried.

Realistically, he had every reason to assume Dominus was dead. Rewind was being unreasonably optimistic, especially when the comic implies that Minimus was cut off from the literal sparkbond they had in a way that in any other situation would be definitive proof Dominus was dead. But he wasn't! And he missed every chance to intervene by like, the tiniest margin. You have to assume that on some level he's got some fucked up feelings about that.

Headcanon D: unrealistic, but I will disregard canon about it because I reject canon reality and substitute my own

I know Roberts said he thinks that Megatron becoming an Autobot without all the code-test stuff that Tailgate went through wasn't an issue because realistically, Megatron would know it back to front. I don't even disagree with him, I absolutely believe that he would, it makes sense. But it's objectively too fucking funny to imagine Magnus putting Megatron through the 'you WILL listen to my three hour lecture on the syntax of this one sentence being Extremely Legally Important' gauntlet and I simply choose to believe this did happen but off-panel and Magnus absolutely kicked his ass about it in terms of sheer Knowing His Shit about it. Way too funny to pass up tbh. Megatron thought he knew and understood it very well (and to be fair: he did, compared to every not-Magnus person), but he got grilled. Magnus quite enjoyed rebutting every single interpretation Megatron had by way of ludicrous pedantry.

[a-twistedheartslonging]

In your nonhuman AU, would the humans at NRC have to be scared of their beastie classmates legitimately trying to eat them? I imagine being smaller and more defenseless would make them easy targets. Also, could you elaborate on your prior statements about humans being sort of a status symbol due to being rare?

Making threats of eating those related to an animal lower one the food chain than one's self is common, but actually killing/eating someone is very much not legal, plenty still have that animal urge to take a bite out of someone and you look particularly nice to bite to many. But unless you meet, like, a serial killer you're mostly fine, humans are still considered people, though many still have it hard.

Still, someone having done it is harder proof and more common in places in the coral sea, the mers have their own culture and way of doing things. Who's to say a regular shark didn't do it? People going missing or getting eaten by a dangerous sea creature isn't uncommon there. There's always someone going missing during the mer version of Halloween, like the twins said. As a result, you would be in more danger in water than on land unless you make friends with something more dangerous.

Now the status symbol thing?

Humans in particular are very few, the beasts were always better suited for living in wonderland, particularly the humans without magic didn't have much of a chance, especially in wars like what happened with the valley. Over time their numbers kept dwindling.

Now, it's common for higher class families to want to hire beasts of more rare breeds to work for them since it's another way to show off status as a result. To have someone so rarely seen, they become valuable, simply because people decided that it's a big deal to have it. Similar to something hard to get suddenly becoming worth a lot simply because some rich guy decided it was valuable, now everyone else wants it so they can be cool and show off.

Another less nice part is...well, fetishization. Plenty of humans are odd-looking to them but in a pretty/cute way. Those soft faces and softer bodies without claws or fangs to defend themselves, cute round little ears, soft, thin skin with no fur, scales, or feathers to protect it. Such weak instincts and sense could get them killed so easily. Are humans truly weak? Though not as strong as most beasts, no. We of course have always found a way to survive, but it's hard to fight against certain stereotypes and preconceived notions and people will believe what they want.

I guess some look at humans and get that similar urge that we get when we seeing a cute weak little creature and want to keep it and take care of it. Though unfortunately others view it as something they can easily hurt for fun and play with.

Attraction-wise it conflicts with what many look for in a mate since typically you want someone strong to breed with but...humans just have a certain allure. Plus, males of a lot of species, when courting one of their own kind often have to deal with aggression and the possibility of being eaten, it makes sense they would want to go for the less dangerous option, humans.

[wriheart]

Darling and the Charming Siblings

Part three of my Ever After High rewrite let’s gooooooooooooo. I am so excited to finally get these ideas out of my head and into writing.

All of my Ever After High posts can be found here if you haven’t read them, the previous two posts explain the world building and a bit about the magic of Ever After.

So, as mentioned in my original post, the fairytale children are not, in fact, born from their parents, but instead from a magical tree that is planted upon the completion of a story. The major reason I did this is because of…insest. I know, I know, the show kind of explains it away with that one episode where the charming kids are explaining “we’re not related to that charming family or that charming family” yada yada, it never made sense or sat right to me. If all of the kids are supposed to be the descendants of fairy tale characters, Apple and Daring should be siblings. So when coming up with ideas for my rewrite, that was the most major aspect of the original that I wanted to change. So here we are.

My solution still had two problems though: a) if the charming siblings were raised by their fairytale parents, they would all be raised separately, and wouldn't have that sibling dynamic, and b) if they were raised by their fairytale parents they would be raised side-by-side with their love interest (like if Apple and Daring were raised in the same castle), we would still have insest-adjacent bs.

So, I fell back on my nobel family idea that I came up with for the villian kids: there’s a nobel family who raises all of the Prince Charmings. So Daring, Dexter, Darling, and the other charming brothers all grew up in the same home. Out of all of the noble families, the family who has raised every generation of Charmings is the most renowned.

Darling is a little different from her brothers, however. She was not born from a fairytale tree. Instead, she’s the legitimate child of Cinderella and Prince Charming.

For this fanfic (if I ever write it), one of the major themes that I will be exploring is the classism present in the world of Ever After. After all, you have the royals who find themselves born into a happy ending, and the rebels who are stuck with gruesome fates and taught from a young age that they have to go along with it. Then, you have the students without a destiny who are treated like mere extras hardly worthy of anything.

Now what does this have to do with Darling? Well, the fairytale characters are not supposed to have children, after all, that’s what the trees are for. So when Cinderella gave birth to a daughter, Emperor Grim was not happy. But Cinderella is a royal, a queen who has otherwise followed her destiny to a t. By taking her daughter and sending her to be raised by the most prestigious nobel family, it is a slap on the wrist punishment for Cinderella’s offense. If a villian survived and had a kid (or anyone who wasn’t a royal made the same mistake as Cinderella) their punishment would be much more severe. So Darling being raised by the Charmings shows how those with higher up positions are treated differently from the rest of the population.

(It still sucks for Cinderella, don’t get me wrong. To occasionally see her daughter when she visits EAH to see Ashlyn, catching a glimpse of Darling is painful.)

Darling does not know she is Cinderella’s daughter. For all she knows, she’s the daughter of the nobles who raised her. She’s Lady Darling Charming. In addition to the prestige noble families gain for raising the next generation, their children have a higher chance of being accepted into EAH when trying out. So Darling tries out and is accepted. (I’m not yet sure what destiny I’m going to have her try out for but it’s something where she’s a damsel in distress or something along those lines.)

Even though she’s seen as a lady by most, growing up with many, many brothers means she was roughhousing from a young age, and since they grew up with her, her brothers don’t care that she’s a girl and they’ll happily train with her.

When it comes to taking control of her own destiny, Darling is playing the long game. She would rather be taking sword fighting lessons instead of learning how to be a damsel in distress, but in a world where destinies are framed as life or death, she knows that for now, as much as it pains her, she must keep her head down.

That doesn’t mean she’s doing nothing though. Since the moment she arrived at EAH, Darling has been exploring. She knows the castle like the back of her hand: every secret passage is known to her and she uses that knowledge to her advantage. Blondie may be the one who loves finding gossip, but Darling is the one who truly knows everything that is going on at EAH.

So, of course, she knows that Raven is trying to break free of her destiny. Darling is willing to do anything to help, even if it means traveling into the cursed world of wonderland.

Daring, Dexter, and Darling are the three main charmings, but I might have to create a few more charming siblings to tell the story. There are so many tales with princes, and with at least four princesses in need of a prince (Apple, Briar, Ashlynn, and Holly) it makes sense to come up with a bunch more. Plus, I think it would be fun if the charmings grew up in a house with twelve other siblings.

Anyway, I’m trying to keep the characters mostly the same. Darling appears shy and soft-spoken, the perfect lady, when in reality that’s simply a way for her to disguise her rebellious intentions until the time is right. She’s curious, inquisitive, and a lover of adventure. Dexter is very self-conscious. Compared to his other brothers, he isn’t very good at the typical prince things, and yet, he has to be. He can’t fail his fairy tale. He’s constantly under pressure, and the things he thinks about himself are very harsh. Daring is also under pressure, as the prince with the most famous destiny. He’s constantly risking his life to save those around him before his destiny is even started. He sacrifices his own time to constantly be the one people turn to when there’s a foe to be vanquished, so he’s never really taken the time to simply be by himself and enjoy what he wants to do. He copes by constantly making sure his appearance is perfect, because even if he’s feeling tired on the inside, his charmingness must persist.

————

All EAH AU Posts

[adhdasfuck]

Russian PsyOps

I recently became aware that a certain user might be Another Russian Operative trying to sway people into not voting or voting third party, this one even said to vote for a non-Trump republican candidate (imagine being any progressive person at all and advocating progressive voters vote for a conservative, that'll show em, NOT).

So I looked into the third party candidate this person endorses:

Jasmin Sherman

I went through a few of the pages on Jasmine's website and have concluded that they're totally fucking full of shit.

They want to keep the death penalty and offer the options of morphine overdose and FIRING SQUAD as the federal standard to make it "more efficient" instead of simply abolishing it like a true progressive, since there are so many cases of innocent people receiving this draconian punishment.

They also want to GET RID OF SSI. They want to replace it with UBI, but congress WOULD NOT pass UBI, and running on any platform that abolishes SSI for any reason at all is a huge FUCK NO! I'm on SSI and shit is hard enough already. What SSI needs is greater support from the government, for the asset limit to be changed drastically or gotten rid of, and for people who are on SSI to not feel like they CAN'T GET MARRIED OR THEY'LL LOSE THEIR BENEFITS. What we don't need is for SSI to be gotten rid of because "it's inefficient and ineffective" are you fucking KIDDING ME?

Also because their platform of UBI was mentioned on their page about abolishing SSI, I looked at their page for UBI and it's completely out of reach. They are advocating for us to implement a system NOT A SINGLE OTHER COUNTRY HAS PASSED. NONE OF THEM. There isn't a snowball's chance in hell that this would get out of the senate alive. They can't even pass the bills to expand SSI and increase the amount of money we receive a month to be higher than 30% of the fucking poverty line.

This is a much more minor problem but they have Minnesota misspelled as "Minisota" on the UBI page, which is such a small problem, but something that should have been noticed very quickly because the graph it is in is supposed to show legitimate data to uphold their UBI proposal.

In short: This person is not progressive, this person is paying lip service while acting as an obvious Spoiler (a spoiler is a third party candidate who pulls votes from one of the other major parties, this is how Bush won the first time). And Russian PsyOps are back on this website trying to encourage genuinely progressive people who don't know any better to vote for someone who Will Not Win because it "feels better" than voting for a democrat.

Sorry it has to be this way, but take it from me, someone who is from Minnesota, with the highest voter turnout in the country, and also some of the most progressive policies. If you want a third party candidate to win, you START LOCAL, and build the presence of the party up from there. That's how we got an Independent for Governor in the late 90s and early 2000s. And you should participate in your local elections both in years like this and for the midterms! You have to Stay Involved for it to get better.

Conservatives worked for decades using that "frog in a pot that slowly heats up til it boils" method of introducing their fascism. We have have a great opportunity here to vote in progressive candidates who can help us push the needle back towards sanity and caring about people. It's going to take SUSTAINED EFFORT. We have to shout at our candidates to do the right thing, but the other side won't even listen, so this is the side we have to choose. Palestinians have LITERALLY SAID Harris is the better option here.

So go out and vote. Not just this election but every election. You CAN make change, it is going to be slow, but that time will pass anyways, so why not start working for a better future?

[moretheta]

in the weeks since, it's felt like the whole beyond's secret prince baby reveal has sort of overshadowed the other, equally interesting IMO question of who amongst the guards could be secret beyondspawn. i have my own theories, and i've seen some others mentioned offhandedly, but im curiously to know where the general consensus is. keep in mind that the criteria of a beyond child should be:

born to a kakin mother

probably under the age of 30

awakened to nen at birth

has been training to be a kakin royal guard/ soldier their whole life

talent with nen made it easy to land a higher-tier assignment (so likely not a foot soldier... unless a foot soldier is specifically resisting promotions to stay out of the limelight)

so for these reasons I've eliminated Volksen, for instance- we know both from her internal narration and from the fact that Sodom was able to teleport her back to the hideout that she is not awakened to nen (if you want to argue that she somehow wasn't awakened at birth or is being suppressed or however, pls feel free). I've also seen talk of characters like Bill or Beleriante- i.e. confirmed Beyond spies from the hunter association- because as far as I can tell they are not from Kakin. Feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments/tags, it was legitimately difficult to find discussions on this subject on reddit or whatever so I'm eager to hear more perspectives.

and again this is specifically amongst the guards/kakin royal army.

keep in mind there are most definitely multiple on the boat (although we don't know how many will actually appear in the story) and i wish tumblr polls let you pick a 1st 2nd and 3rd favorite option bc i think there's a chance more than one of these guys is right.... but alas.

my personal pick is Babimyna (i'll do a post on it at some point), Salk, and maybe perhaps Theta. (For plot relevancy purposes I wouldn't object to her being the beyondspawn, but it's just that I like the idea of her just being a normal ass person facing insurmountable odds. Same goes with the Volksquad tbh.)

[i-is-surrounded-by-idjits]

I love the GoT series, especially for its historical accuracies (I could talk about them for daaaaaays), but I get really annoyed with the age gap debate with ships without taking into account the historical setting (especially Sansa Stark and Sandor Clegane). this has annoyed me to the point where I am writing a book to address the social construct just to tear it down.

In the past noble girls were married early. Not usually as soon as they had their first period (although legal), this was usually delayed until 16-18 years due to negotiations (it was a trade deal). However, most nobles would be married before they turned 20, unless they were undesirable for some reason (this could be appearance, family scandal, illness, physical health, disability, or personality), and they would quickly become known as spinsters - we think of spinsters being unmarried woman past middle age, but in the past, this could be used for an unmarried 25 y/o. Reminder that 'paedophile' refers to the attraction of prepubescent children (by UK law this is under 13).

Women married early for biological reasons; they have a short fertility period (while some men can keep fathering sons for decades; think Walder Frey). From first blood to menopause, a woman had to be married off as quickly as possible to ensure they had the best chance of providing as many children as possible. Menopause is currently between 45-50 yrs (with some biological variation), but in the past, this could be as early as 35 - unclear due to natural variation, but health and hygiene contribute to fertile health and the decline would be noted as the end for many noble women.

Men sometimes married later, usually for education, status, or military reasons. So one could expect a man not to marry until in their 20s (of higher social standing). Commoners skew the statistics, as they would marry at any age, and usually more love-matches (no need for social staus debates and political marriages), however, common men would be expected to have a job in order to provide for a wife and family, and so would sometimes be older, but the

If a man needed a wife, say windowed at 30. Guess what, they'd start at the beginning looking for a teenager. There was no point marrying an older woman (if there were any that were unmarried, that is). Widows were often off the cards if they had children as they would still belong to their dead spouse's family, and the social 'undesirables' would still be undesired by a man seeking their second or third wife. For example, Æthelred the Unready first married Ælfgifu - she was 4 years younger and perfectly normal. She died aged 32. His second wife Emma, was 18 years younger (aged 18 at the time) - a much larger age gap and unseemly by modern standards, but Æthelred would not have married a woman in her 30s whose fertility could decline shortly after marriage simply to marry someone closer to his own age.

Childhood and teenagers are relatively new terms. In the past, they were better defined as prepubescent and of marital age (postpubescent). Meaning you were considered almost adult once you could reproduce. To view historical fiction by modern standards, laws, and norms, is a mistake. One should understand the history to better understand the subject material and fictional writings it has inspired.

The best way to understand this is to understand why marriage was invented: to produce legitimate heirs. This is why infidelity was viewed differently for men and women - a man is unfaithful, it is a distraction and a sin, but bastards have no claim. A woman is unfaithful, this brings into question the legitimacy of her existing children, and she has wasted almost a year providing someone else a child. Not such a big deal now, but childbirth was also dangerous; they could literally die due to an affair... even before the husband found out about it. Therefore, ensuring the bride had enough time to produce children was essential. Bear in mind that during the Middle Ages, one could get an annulment for infertility in many countries (and still can) - as this is a breach of the marriage contract.

P.S. - This is historical thinking. I am pro same-sex marriage and believe this should have been legalised when marriage changed the definition to a declaration of love (circa 18th century)... but that's a religious debate for another time.

Back to the topic; Sansa Stark would not see age as an issue really. Although she hoped for a love match (and thus naturally inclined to someone near her own age), socially, she would see nothing wrong with Sandor Clegane based on age. Clegane would have had issues with any attraction until she reached 'adulthood' (before her first period) as this would have been considered immoral, however, once deemed an adult, this no longer poses an issue legally. Lysa was 21 years younger than Jon when they married - she protested this based on age, but realistically she only protested as she had hoped to marry Petyr.

[jmdbjk]

Episode 5: WELCOME!

Beyond the Star, produced by HYBE Media Studio

BTS continues to break records with Butter and Permission to Dance.

Whereas Dynamite was intended to be a feel good song for the fans during trying times, Butter was a little more intentional. BTS did not think they would release another single after Dynamite and the BE album but the pandemic was wearing on so out of many songs that they were sent to consider, they chose Butter. Namjoon rewrote most of the rap and the rest, as we keep saying, is history.

Butter broke Dynamite's Youtube premiere record of peak concurrent viewers with 3.9 million as well as other viewer number records.

Butter debuted at #1 on the BBHot100 and charted at #1 for 10 non-consecutive weeks. "Smooth like butter" became the catch-phrase of the summer of 2021.

And FINALLY, BTS heads to Los Angeles at the end of November 2021 for their first performances with a live audience. The world is still trying to emerge from all the covid restrictions but this is their chance. The U.S. has opened the doors and they go for it.

They will be one of the first artists to perform at the brand new SoFi stadium.

They are going to give it their all because things are still uncertain. Performing concerts with live audiences, being able to perform physically after such a long break and the fear or dread of NOT being able to perform again with an audience was the biggest thing weighing on them. Yoongi seemed optimistic and Namjoon said he hoped so but was afraid of having his feelings hurt again.

They realize their bodies are aging and that before the pandemic, as we know, they were driving their bodies into the ground physically with their grueling schedules.

It was 2 years between performances with a live audience – Love Yourself/Speak Yourself in Seoul, October 2019 to PTD LA, November 27, 2021.

Watching them prepare, as a group, for a major concert is awesome. These behind the scenes are very precious because they now know what it feels like to go through the motions of a live performance WITHOUT an audience.

The quality of their preparation and rehearsals increased. They had time to talk about the performance and production. They changed some things that they previously did during concerts. They said their energy levels were even higher than ever.

(PTD concert remix of Fire needs to be released this year. Just sayin.)

After they finally perform in front Army, they have mixed feelings. Relief, excitement, trepidation that this might be the last time. It was still a time when they didn't know if they'd get to perform again after PTD LA. One thing we learn is that they realized if they didn't get to perform once back in Seoul, that would be it for three years because of enlistment. Enlistment was the wall they faced every single day.

But as we know, the Seoul shows did go on in March 2022 and the Las Vegas shows in April and we also know how the rest of 2022 went.

We see them enjoying some free time in Los Angeles while in-between concerts, something they never got to do before. I think they made the free time a requirement when doing concerts. Their bodies needed to rest.

We see them win AOTY at the AMAs.

It is more serendipity because Namjoon mentioned a little bit before in this episode that he'd thought about quitting until he realized they belonged on that stage and knew that's what had to happen. Jin says the previous 2 years were a time for them to reorganize themselves and they were able to release Dynamite, Butter, Permission to Dance and reach even more overseas fans and make their concerts even more exciting.

Jungkook says they were not expecting to win AOTY at the AMAs. Winning Artist of the Year at the AMAs enabled them to view it as yet another door opening to their future.

Holding sold out concerts in huge stadiums, performing at the top of their game, winning huge awards at western award shows, these things legitimized them being asked to represent their country at the UN and other global and international diplomatic conferences.

I know... they were asked to do this BEFORE they won the Artist of the Year at the AMAs, and BEFORE the PTD shows, and it is because of what they'd accomplished before those things, but it further drives the point home that BTS will continue in the future to be a big player in the music industry worldwide and they already know this.

Jungkook says they aren't sure what the future holds yet but ignoring what's happened is not an option.

Tae says they want to remain the artists who impart a positive influence.

They have finally realized what their purpose is and they are realizing the influence they wield.