#this is more of a ramble than a cohesive thought

[ask-impatient-samurott]

Afterword

Hi!

So, ask-impatient-samurott has finally ended, huh? That's crazy.

[Most of this is emotional rambling. xD Jump to the bold parts to see what comes next for the blog.]

God, I have so many thoughts and feelings about the end of my little story here, it's hard to put into words!

I can say for sure that I am so so very happy that I was able to complete a story of mine. Prior to this blog, I created several different little stories. Some with Pokemon, some without. After seeing all of my prior attempts fall through, it's like... healing? In a way? To have finally followed a story to its conclusion! I'm doing backflips right now, can't you see?

I'm thrilled and proud of myself for being able to write and finish off a story somewhat cohesively. xD Even after all of the several month long hiatuses I took WHEEZE

I want to thank everyone who ever interacted with, or enjoyed, or showed the bare minimum of interest in this blog. You, and you alone are the reason why I got this far! Nothing is a bigger motivator than knowing there's at least one person out there who's waiting excitedly for the next installment. ;v;

Ask impatient samurott was started as a mostly unplanned/unwritten/un-mapped-out story, but I knew from the beginning that it wasn't going to have a happy ending. I feel like I have to apologize for that? I'm sorry to anyone who was hoping we'd walk out of this without casualties, but nothing gets me going more than tragedy. So a tragedy this blog was! lmaO

Even with all its jank, weird pacing, and questionable writing, ask impatient samurott holds a very special place in my heart, and I'm happy to have shared it all with you!

Some clarifications, because I know the finale video might be a bit unclear at some parts:

Nema is, in fact, dead.

Kappa's eyes were damaged beyond repair, and she is now blind. She can only really "see" through smelling and recognizing others scents. Bizarrely, she can see ghost-type Pokemon just fine.

All of Valkea's pokemon have chosen to move out of The House (remember that?) and have chosen to live their own lives.

This includes Morelet and Marigold.

Marigold's casual distrust of Kappa has turned into full-blown loathing and hatred.

Morelet doesn't know what to feel about Kappa anymore. He has chosen to leave for now to sort out his thoughts.

The only pokemon remaining at the house are Kappa herself and Mustela. Jean moved in shortly after Marigold and Morelet left. Mustela has taken on an Azurill which she has named Ducktail. (After the hairstyle, not the animal.)

The four currently live together in The House, in relative peace.

Kappa did not regain her memories of the accident, but she fully remembers the events at the Giant Chasm.

Kappa wonders whether she is allowed to be happy, after all that's happened

I am going to leave the last 30 or so seconds of the video up for interpretation for now. Though, I'm sure you can gauge what happened there. ;)

So, what's next for ask-impatient-samurott???

The blog, currently, is completed.

I do have plans to run an epilogue, within the next few months. (After Artfight, lol) It will be a "where are they now" type deal. Your characters would send in asks regarding how Kappa and everyone else are doing, alongside any questions you might have about the events of the blog and anything surrounding it.

I'm excited for it, honestly. ^^

Within the next few months, however, I am going to be making a new icon and header, whipping up a WHOLE BUNCH of new ref sheets for the characters, and just generally tidying up the blog!

Don't worry! I'm not going to drop off the face of the earth after this. If you want to check up on how or what I'm doing, my main blog is @sourdoughdirewolf and I post art and videos there when it strikes my fancy. ^^

If for any reason you want to message me, feel free to hit up this blog or my main hehehe

OOOkay. I think I've said everything I wanted too. Holy yap, Batman.

It's cleaning time for me! Thank you once again for tuning into Ask Impatient Samurott!!

(I'll be sending out a reverse ask call soon, so keep your eyes open for that if you run a blog ohohoho)

[necrotic-nephilim]

I think what I love the most about Reverse Robin AU TimJay is the absolute potential for hero worship with Jason toward Tim. In canon we often forget that Tim didn't really care for Jason as Robin, meanwhile as I never shut up about, Jason has been weirdly respecting and obsessed with Tim since finding out about Tim's existence. So if you flip their order, make Tim Red Hood and make Jason Red Robin, there's so much room for hero worship from Jason.

As Robin, Jason has always teetered that edge of being pro-murder or not. Whether you believe he killed Felipe or not, even in his Post-Crisis introduction as Robin, he almost kills Two Face. Those concepts of lethal justice have always been brewing inside him, just reigned in by Bruce. So if you have Robin!Jason witnessing Red Hood!Tim start killing people and quickly making noticeable change in the landscape of gangs in Gotham, Jason would take quick notice. I think Tim as Red Hood would still be lethal, but there'd be a different application than Jason's Red Hood. Heads in duffle bags isn't Tim's style, even if he kills. I think you'd see something much more akin to that time Tim almost killed Boomerang, where it's such an elaborately thought out set up, it realistically doesn't even look like Tim killed anyone. It'd take months for Bruce to connect this string of deaths as anything other than coincidental, let alone link them to Red Hood. And Jason is wickedly smart, even as Robin. Jason, putting those pieces together before Bruce does and witnessing the undeniable positive change for Gotham it's enacting? Robin!Jason would be incredibly drawn in by that, and then even more-so, a Red Robin!Jason who has to grapple with being replaced to make room for the next Robin would I think, in anger, turn to Red Hood. And Tim would push him away at first, his plans don't have room for a scorned teenager who's trying to get back at Bruce and Nightwing!Damian like this- but I think Jason would wear him down. Prove to Tim that Jason can think on his wavelength.

Slightly related, what interests me about Red Hood!Tim is how it'd implicate his closeness to Ra's. Jason is taken into the League by Talia in Lost Days and Ra's doesn't necessarily approve of Jason's presence, especially not of Talia dunking him in the Pit, but Ra's has always canonically been A Little Weird about Tim. I think in a world Tim dies as the second Robin, it would be Ra's who dunks Tim to preserve his mind that Ra's thinks shouldn't be wasted, and you have the potential for 'apprentice of Ra's' Tim wrapped up in it all, even without him experience the Red Robin arc. So when it's Jason as Red Robin, instead of him going to Ra's when he's scorned by the Batfamily, he goes to Tim. The person he once idolized, because I think Tim would've been Jason's Robin. Smart, competent, a strong legacy to live up to. And now he's back, and he's pro-killing, an edge that Jason has always teetered on and would feel even closer to when he's replaced by a young Dick. I think Tim wouldn't ever be able to get rid of Jason.

Then on Tim's side, I think his reaction to being replaced after his death would be a complicated one. Objectively, being the Robin who believes Batman needs a Robin, he'd respect the logic and know Bruce was always going to replace him eventually. But still, there's always going to be that instinctual emotional reaction of betrayal and replacement. I think he'd view Jason at first with anger and distance, but then, seeing Jason as this street kid with begrudging potential, I could see Red Hood!Tim testing Jason. Constantly throwing things at Jason, seeing how he reacts, if he lives up to being Robin. Tim has a need for analyzing people, understanding their strengths and weaknesses. And he seems the Robin mantle very uniquely, he'd need to have it proven to him that Jason can handle it.

So you would have this dynamic of Jason hero worshipping Tim, slowly believing in Tim's methodology. While Tim is at first dismissive of him, but then starts to test him, see what makes this kid tick. And I think the TimJay potential of Jason trying to prove himself to Tim could be Neat.

[little-eldritch-gremlin]

Kind of random but im uhhhh I just want to dump this here because i have The Nighttime Zoomies™ and it seems like the general consensus from my previous post is that the HN fandom here has somewhat chilled out soooo-

Weirdly enough, as much as I've become disappointed with HN, to the point where I have a weird amount of trouble calling myself a "fan," there's a few things that it did for me that I also can't help but thank the HN franchise for.

Like a really good example is that I used to hate reading and writing with an absolute passion. Like I could only read graphic novels and a short novel occasionally but that was it. And I did like writing at one point but that got harder to enjoy as I got older and I just couldn't do it anymore. But thanks to the HN books, I realized that I don't actually hate it! Just when its for school-

I've also met some really cool and talented people here from this fandom in particular and it's honestly really cool seeing how creative and devoted some parts of this fandom are, and like yeah it has it's Moments™ (/neg) but it's still nice seeing people enjoy HN and talk about it even through the less than pleasant stuff that goes down here occasionally.

It also, for better or for worse, taught me about the importance of maintaining your creative vision and that PRIORITIZING MONEY OVER YOUR EMPLOYEES WELLBEING IS BAD ACTUALLY- (granted that was something I already knew but still. its good to keep in mind.)

So yeahhhhh uhhhhh... Thanks HN. Thank you Carly and Nikita for keeping me hyperfixated for uhhhhhhh fuck about 4 years now? 5? god damn I feel old anyway goodnightdayafternoon-

[arsenicflame]

hey does anyone wanna bounce bellhands/they all went to pirate school together ideas with me? im trying to figure out the missing pieces of my personal set up and it might be easier with someone else!

[apollosdrunkenmixup]

From what I understood of a two hour mutual infodump (I received kratos: god of war lore, he received greek myths)

Kratos is god of war bc he killed Ares (and a lot of other people/gods).

In better news no one is gonna tell the gods about this fuckup of a post bc you’ve assigned Hermes to a comedy club instead of his usual messages lol

this website’s easy watch. *dangles a bunch of greek gods like keys*

[thedoodlebuggo]

john doe design progression throughout the season! design choice explanations/rambling below the cut

okok so. it was time for a redesign because after S5 i just couldn't really see the big hat working, not after his projection scene with the witch. it just wouldnt have the same effect if he looked like this jhsagdf

so! a redesign was in order, and i wanted it to change with his character so. here it is. woo!

SEASON ONE -i love the broken mask thing a lot of people use in their designs, and i wanted to use it for season one to play into the "unknown" elements of john's character

-that's also what the more smokey elements play into as well. his form isn't wholly defined, like his character--especially in season one.

-HIS CLOAK! a little worse for wear and covered in ash, courtesy of his time in the dark world. i also wanted it to be darkened and messed up because i didnt want it to be immediately obvious that the original fabric was yellow. one, cause the dark world erased his memories and identity, and two! because i didnt want him to be able to look down and see yellow fabric, what with his not knowing around all the references to KIY in season one. like this

SEASON TWO

-new cloak! after discovering who he is and his brief reunion with KIY, he gets a new cloak. but he's changed now, so--patches! i wanted it to feel handmade sorta because these changes, he worked for himself. he had help and influence, of course, but the humanity he's slowly gaining is his.

-also the mask is gone! we know what he is now

-he's also got some definition now, some lines in the face. os now he's loooking a little more humanoid, but still has a ways to go

SEASON THREE

-mostly the same as S2, but the colors have shifted more to gold than yellow. he's off; he won't fit back with the king. he's changed! woo!

-a bit of damage from the dark world, but nothing too crazy

-getting some more definition too! he's learning a bit more about who he is and who he wants to be through the choices he makes.

SEASON FOUR

-he's got a nose!! and his claws are shorter! woah! just more human development

-also getting some more patches. covering up fixing some of the damage from the S3 DW trip

SEASON FIVE

-claws are gone and he's got developed human features! wahoo

-more structural design change in the cloak. its kinda hard to see here so. better image for reference

-it's also almost entirely patchwork now. he's built his identity brick by brick and his cloak is meant to reflect that.

-still smokey because he's still got room to grow and also i thought changing it to hair would be too sudden of a change but i dont want him to be bald either so

-also smoke is just cool

-lily patch! i feel like this one is kinda self explanatory. i wanted to move the placement so i could put a patch representative of arthur in its place, but i couldnt think of anything that would look cohesive w the rest of it so. keeping the lily where it is! over his heart. :]

-also in his S5 design i think he wouldn't wear his hood up as much cause. well he knows who he is now, he isn't going to hide that. and there's not really much unknown left about him anymore, so

[iguana-braces]

That sub!Jayce post really popped off, huh?

Ehehe okay here's my rambly thoughts about it (I'm literally sitting at work clocked out writing this instead of going home because THOUGHTS)

Building my theory off of this post:

And this one with all the examples of how Jayce's love language is clearly physical touch

*Disclaimer: there's a lot about season 2 that irked me in terms of plot and characterization so this is me retconning a little bit and picking and choosing what examples make the most cohesive argument. Like, in season one they're like "Jayce has this brotherly relationship with Caitlyn and him and Mel have this deep, meaningful relationship" and then season two was like "No more relationship building, it's time for trauma now" but, I digress*

First things first, he's a people pleaser. He does what he's told, clearly (against better judgment but like). And he's clearly committed to the people he cares about. HE BROUGHT VIKTOR BACK FROM THE DEAD (AND THEN KILLED HIM) AND THEN DIED WITH HIM AGAIN. You can't tell me that wouldn't translate to an "I'll do anything for you" attitude in the bedroom too.

I already did the bed gif but I also have to draw attention to the following:

Okay but season two, post-horrors!

Mr. Dopey Heart-Eyes McGee is NOT the one calling the shots here.

Season one Jayce? That man is whipped. One glance from his partner and he's on his knees like it's a religion. Whoever you ship him with! Mel, Viktor, both, a secret fourth option--

He spent an indeterminate amount of time alone, in the bottom of a pit. He's touch-starved but also! Traumatized!

Imagine, if you will, that he survives the astral plane. Imagine he goes to find Mel, or Viktor also survives, or imagine your own y/n, OC insert scenario here. Whatever floats your boat.

In such scenario, and in the aftermath of his self-awareness epiphany where he realizes that yeah, he's kinda been used (by everyone really), I think that in regards to any potential sexual relationship, he would have to become more dominant, more in control of the situation. Especially if it's with Mel, since he does pointedly blame her, or even Viktor, who has literally shaped the course of Jayce's entire life since he was a child. The man needs to set some boundaries with people and good for him.

So I think dominant, scruffy Jayce does have a time and a place.

However, I don't think he'd stay that way forever. It's kinda like him trying to be a politician-- it's a different role that he can pull off, but it doesn't fully scratch his itch.

BONUS HEADCANON: Wouldn't it be just so interesting if he survived the astral plane and goes back to whoever, and while he's looking for comfort and reassurance and all that physical contact he's been deprived of, he realizes that he really doesn't like people touching his head.

I hypothesize that in regards to canon relationships, Mel and/or Viktor, once they regain his trust and show that they're not trying to use him again, he's 100% going to be simping for them even worse than before. Like, that relationship would've gone through the fire and only come out stronger on the other side. You might even say it's been vulcanized.... 🤭

From the on, he can go back to letting his walls down around them and letting them be the dominant one because he knows there's solid trust and respect there now.

Feel free to agree or disagree 🤷‍♀️ also please feel free to tell me all your thots about this too!!!

He's got all this beautiful hair that needs to be tenderly pushed away from his eyes by a loving hand, but he's a little fucked up from the times Mannequin/Mage Viktor did that little murder mind meld.

Like, he put his head in Mel's lap TWICE, you know it would kill the man if he couldn't do that anymore because having someone's hands near his forehead is too reminiscent of... well, basically his death.

[jessicas-pi]

ok first of all. thank you SO SO MUCH for putting your thoughts out there!! The fact that you have thought about this enough to have this much of an analysis is amazing to me. And it really helps me see how my own story reads to someone else! And I just love hearing your thoughts in general!

And please know that this is not ever meant to sound like i'm being all wElL AcKTuAllY, I just get really excited to talk to you about my story and I'm gonna try to not come off too loud but if i do, uh... sorry in advance? just know that if I were saying this to your face, it would be with a big stupid grin as i bounce up and down and flap my hands cuz!!! im talking about my story!! you're listening!!! you have thoughts back!!! i have thoughts about your thoughts!!! let's tell each other our thoughts!! :D :D

Also, apologies if some things in the first bit are vague, I'm really trying to keep this spoiler free for future events 😅

So, first off! There IS a reason Sabine failed to rescue Ezra so many times. And there IS a reason Sabine got to "cheat the system" and save Ezra without a big lesson learned (though the time she truly saved him, she did pass a 'test' of sorts, but, uh, more on that in a further meta.). And there IS a reason that it doesn't make sense for the Force to test Sabine so many times without her learning anything!!

And really, the reason is pretty simple.

It's not the Force.

It's not some all-encompassing cosmic power leading her on a journey to become a better Jedi. If it was, she wouldn't have gone through all of that. Heck, she might not have gone through any of that! And that's why it doesn't make sense for the Force to test her that way.

Because it's not the Force, and it's not a test.

It's the Mythosaur.

It's an actual being with motives, and those motives are---hopefully this doesn't spoil too much, but---primarily selfish. Sabine isn't being guided to a lesson that will teach her how to let go of her attachment. Sabine is being made into a better tool.

And when Sabine finally saves Ezra, it's not because of her own merit. A lot of it does have to do with how she finally lets go of her fear of failing that's prompting her to try to blunt-force her way through the portal and just trusts the Force. But she never would have been able to do it on her own. There are massively powerful Force-aligned beings that are in the middle of a cosmic chess game here. Not exactly against each other, per se, but they have significantly different methods of doing things.

In the end, a lot of the weird Force things that happen aren't really caused by the Force itself. They're caused by...

Well.

If you know you know, and if you don't, you'll find out soon enough!

So, yeah! she doesn't save him because she learns a lesson. She saves him because someone powerful wants her to. and, I admit, she does have a bit of an attachment issue with him!

(But---okay, so I gotta be honest. I'm really, really jealous of how well you write metas. Because they always make sense and mine can be pretty confusing. So I just want to clarify! I am probably definitely guilty of exaggeration in the name of emphasis in this last meta. I probably definitely need to work on that in the future. But for this one, like... please do take the strongest statements in there with a grain of hyperbole-flavored salt!)

Ok, on to more semi-coherence!

I'm just gonna start off this bit by guaranteeing you that this fic isn't gonna go the easy fake-marriage-of-convenience path. It's a funny plot device, it's great for an unserious fic, but as goofy and self-indulgent as this fic can be, when it comes to the actual relationship development? We do things the hard way here. I maaaay be guilty of the fake-couple-on-a-mission thing in a future book though. sorrynotsorry XD

And---ok, so, yeah, the idea of her using his feelings to pull off a BFF-fake-notmarriage thing as a way to keep him close would be very Not Cool of her. But, remember---Anakin suggests the marriage idea, jokingly. Zhaya suggests they do the BFF-oath-of-fidelity vow. But Sabine?

She considers it momentarily and says that it could work, and then dismisses it and says that they'll talk about it later. Because really, with more than five seconds of thought, she takes in the implications of what it would mean to him. In the moment when she's considering it, she thinks of their friendship and of the idea of staying beside him always, and that's tempting---but then she remembers the rest, and discards any vow as something to talk about later. (Later, as in, never. Or, maybe, as in, when they feel the same, and could make a vow in honesty. Because she won't hide behind a lie for something that big. She knows it would hurt him. He's too important to her.)

And, slight topic jump, but I gotta say---this bit you said here?

Not that I think that they would ever stop being friends; but if Sabine doesn't want to a pursue a romantic relationship with Ezra and yet that's something he does want in his life, then she knows that there's a possibility she will become #2 to him at some point, even if he remains #1 to her.

you are SO RIGHT. SO right. Like, not to go too heavily into possible spoilers, but... girl, have you been snooping in my Future Scenes I Wrote Now Cuz I'm Impatient document? Because that's practically a direct quote from Sabine during a Welp, Guess I'm Processing These Feelings About My Entire History Of Relationship Development With Ezra Aloud To A Friend Now conversation.

Also, on rereading my meta, I just realized I definitely needed to clarify something!!

So, when I said that ezra's feelings are soft and silent and hers are tumultuous and fervent, I wasn't talking about, like, a permanent thing for them. That part of the meta was supposed to be about their dynamic immediately post-reunion. I guess what I mean is, like, when they reunite, Ezra's all like "Sabine, hi! Missed you! How are you doing?" versus Sabine is like "oH my fORCE you're aLIVE you're HERE i watched you die so many times i failed you so many times YOU'RE ALIVE YOU'RE ALIVE you're BREATHING I can feel your presence and it feels like home it's YOU you're REAL you're not dead i didn't fail you i didn't let you die i saved you after all there was hope there was always hope I MISSED YOU SO MUCH"

So, like. Not the most healthy mindset to be in! But not a permanent thing, either. And, like... also, kind of understandable? I mean, the last interaction she remembers having with him was cradling his bloody corpse in her arms. that. uh. that kinda messes a girl up, yknow? So she's totally exploding with Ezra-Flavored Emotions right now. Everything she feels in this moment is bigger than what she'll feel later. And that's why she acts, like you were saying---selfishly!

The way she's treating his feelings isn't Average Sabine Behavior. It's Emotional Mess Sabine Behavior. She is completely out of whack here. Not that it's okay for her to mash down his feelings in any circumstance, but it's not how she's going to act once she can take a deep breath and cool down a bit.

Because the truth is that she cares about Ezra. And if she knew he wanted to talk about it, she would do it. She hides from it because it's the easy thing to do, but he's never wanted to talk about it with her before, either. She's trying to do what, as far as she knows, they both want. As far as she knows, he wants to get over it. And... he kinda does!

He likes her. He loves her. He really does. But he also feels that as things stand between them right then, the best solution would just be for him to get past his feelings. It's not like he only likes her romantically. They are friends. There's just this extra stuff on his side, too. So wouldn't it be simpler for him to get rid of some old feelings, than to wait and see if she'll get new ones? It's logical, yeah---but it doesn't mean he can't make himself stop feeling things, just like that.

And in the current moment, I don't think he's thinking about it at all! Sabine's here. She's happy. He's happy. If she did lie about him not saying something stupid---which he's actually pretty sure she did; Force-bonds can be real snitches when it comes to lying---that just means it's not going to be a problem for them! (...right?)

Both of them, I think, are still hoping they can make this work without needing to talk about it. They both like their friendship and they both want to keep it. And they're both afraid of losing each other if they talk about it, but Sabine is just as afraid of hurting him as she is of losing him. It isn't entirely selfishness, on her part. She's trying to keep something that's important to both of them---even if she's going about it wrong.

Anywayyy I have no idea if all this word vomit makes any sense whatsoever! But that's about all I got. And thank you so so much again for sharing all your real thoughts! I genuinely appreciate them, and it's given me Thoughts And Ideas to think about, too!

The Time Heals ‘Verse meta ramble, part 2: In Which I Scream Some More About Sabine And Ezra

Whoo! So! What was SUPPOSED to be a little backstory about The Line from Time Heals All Wounds turned into a massive rant. But that’s over, and you’re all as depressed as I am, and now we get to move onto other stuff!!

(spoiler warning continues!)

So now I’m going to ramble a little bit about the specific relationship dynamic between Sabine and Ezra currently in this because AGH. I just. I gotta talk about it. fair warning, the following rant has no discernible thesis statement and wanders around aimlessly. but hey, that's just how I roll.

Okay so Time Heals primarily follows Sabine. So that’s the lens we’re looking through. And it’s easy to forget that Ezra’s timeline is entirely different from hers. But it is. A story that has taken a year-and-a-half, more or less, for her, has been mere months for him.

Because Ezra died only weeks after the Battle of Lothal, remember?

It’s six months after that, when Sabine gets pulled into the past. It’s months after that when she rescues him. By the time they’re reunited on the Coronet, Sabine has lived an entire year in a galaxy without Ezra in it, and a few months more in a galaxy not knowing he’s there.

She has seen him die thirty-three times. She’s mourned him. She still mourns him. She dreams about his dead body in her arms. He haunts her. To an embarrassing degree, her life is centered around him.

Meanwhile, Ezra’s timeline looks like this:

—he purgills Thrawn into the unknown and Thrawn imprisons him —some weeks later, Sabine kicks open the door to his cell, slaps him, hugs him, proclaims she’s watched him die 32 times, provides no further explanation, and then someone tosses a thermal detonator into the cell and it all goes black —he wakes up somewhere on Mandalore during the Clone War and promptly gets adopted by four tipsy art majors —a few months later, the Force tells him to get a move on —he reunites with Sabine that afternoon and everything's great!

So as of chapter 15 of book 2, which is where we're at now, Ezra’s spent three, four months in the past—missing everyone, yeah, but missing Sabine least, because she’s the one who saved him, and that’s given him a gut feeling that she’s still around. To him, Sabine has been a wistful thought that comes and goes. He tells his friends stories about her and misses her. But he doesn’t mourn her.

Meanwhile, Sabine’s spent over a year believing that he is lost to her forever because she couldn’t save him. (She doesn’t know she saved him, remember? She’s forgotten. It’s all a blank, and she’s afraid to hope.) She is still in the vise-like grip of grief, even if she’s functioning around it. There has never been a moment when she has not been thinking about him. (And in a way, it’s his fault, because he loved her, and he told her so. And she cannot forget it, no matter how hard she tries.)

His feelings towards her are soft and silent. He's content to wait until he sees her again, without aching too badly at her current missing presence in his life. He is at peace.

Her feelings towards him are tumultuous and fervent. She's desperate to see him again and terrified that she'll lose him. it’s like nothing she’s ever felt before. She is the farthest thing from peaceful.

So, while Ezra's feelings may seem to run deeper than hers—he is kinda in love with her, after all—he's also completely normal about her.

Sabine, on the other hand, has been torturing herself with the memory of him for over a year. He's a bundle of guilt and grief and mourning in her brain. Her feelings for him are clear-cut, platonic, and so all-consuming that they verge on an obsession.

So really, he doesn't care about her more. He cares about her differently. But not more.

But—and this is important, not so much for the story, but it's important to me that you know this—Ezra doesn’t know she's changed. He knows the old Sabine, who was his best friend, even if sometimes she was distant. He doesn’t believe she cares about him as much as he cares about her. And he's resigned to that! It’s ok! He’s ok! He’s used to it, he’s used to hiding how much he cares, and nobody else knows. So he’ll go on hiding it and she’ll go on ignoring it and it won’t matter.

But the Sabine that Ezra entrusted his blade and his homeworld to with one last, long look is a different woman than the Sabine that kicks down the door of his cell on the Chimaera a few weeks (a year) later.

And where does the difference lie?

It lies in the fact that she lost him. It lies in the fact that he died in her arms. It lies in the fact that he has consumed every waking thought of hers for months. 

It lies in the fact that she will. not. let. him. go.

She didn’t let him go when he was dead. And now that he’s alive? Now that he’s with her again?

Well.

There is no holding at arms-length. She would clutch his living form as tightly as she held his lifeless body, if she dared. She doesn’t, but she still reaches out to him—bumping shoulders, brushing hands, touching him just to know that he’s there. He is everything to her now. It’s not a love like his. It’s wider than that. It’s relief and joy and comfort in his presence and an impossible dream come true.

If Sabine had been the same Sabine he knew before, maybe things wouldn’t have changed course. If she had gone on ignoring it and he had gone on hiding it, maybe time would have faded his feelings, and maybe she never would have grown any for him.

But in a world where she holds him desperately near, near enough to feel his heartbeat and know he’s alive—in a world where their fledgling bond doesn’t lie dormant and unknown, but is woven strong and glows warmly, tethering their very souls together—in a world where he is everything to her, and she shows it—now that’s a different story. As he slowly finds out just how much he means to her—and he's grown to mean far more to her now than he did before—it throws him off-balance.

And as for her?

Well, this is where my Ramble Part 1 becomes relevant! Because he told her. And she knows. And now that she knows, she can’t look past it like it was never there, because it is there, and glaringly obvious when she looks for it. (She can't stop seeing it.)

The path they've always hoped to take—the one where it goes away and they are fast friends with nothing more between them—is no longer an option. By admitting his love, the other version of himself made it impossible for her to ignore it. By holding him so close, she makes it impossible for him to hide it. (In a way, they've doomed each other.) And she knows he can’t hide it, and he knows she can’t ignore it, so the only choice they have left—besides honest, which is a thing neither of them is ready to face—is to do their mutual best to pretend it doesn’t matter, and not talk about it.

But it does matter, and sooner or later, they'll have to talk about it.

And deep deep down, they both know that, too.

~~~

tune in next time for what I expect to be a ramble about a couple specific scenes! unless I write a different ramble first! We'll see!

[appalachiancowboy99]

Special Thank You and WIP Update!

Photos by @restingmadface

Wow. What a year it's been, huh? I know, I know, I'm a month too late for New Years, but I wanted to stop by anyway and make an update post for y'all! I've been wracking my brain for the last couple of weeks, trying to figure out exactly what I want to say here, but everything is far too jumbled for me to pinpoint the exact thoughts in a cohesive manner. So, just bear with me as I try to comb through the mess and pick out the most important bits! 💕😁

First of all, I wanna thank each and every single one of y'all for the love you've given me 💕 It's hard for me to fathom that over 170 of you decided to stick around and give me your continued support! Not to mention over 1,000 of you took the time to interact with After Dark (Hold on a minute while I go CRY)!!!!! It means the world to me that y'all enjoy my little ramblings, although far and few between they might be. Without y'all, I wouldn't have had the courage to continue working on this ole' blog. So, thank you so so so much for each little heart, comment, and interaction- they never go unnoticed by me!

The friendships I've made within this community in the last year will last me a lifetime. I hadn't expected to meet so many kind people and form such long lasting relationships. So, I wanna give the biggest of thank-yous to: @photo1030, @tortureddpoett, @grymghoul, @emerald-ranch, @pinescent-and-gingerbread, @zae-heeyyy, @cassietrn, @moeitsu, @twola, @redwritr, @wipidek, @subpopizzy, @coltermorning, @amorgansgal and so many more that I've gotten the pleasure to interact with over the last year. I love each and every single one of you dearly and I'll always be wishing you absolutely nothing but the best! 💕

Now onto the juicy bits:

From here on out I wanna focus more energy into keepin' y'all updated instead of just having long bouts of time between posting- even if that means a work in progress post every other month! So, I suppose this'll be my first post to start the year off right! I have two current WIPs that are listed on my Masterlist:

A Cure for the Common Cold (ask/one-shot)

The Heart of an Outlaw - Chapter 1: Gone Honeymooning

Both of those works will be out within the year, though, the ask/one-shot will be posted much sooner than the first chapter of the series! There's just so much I got cookin' up in my brain, so thank y'all so much for being patient with me as I flesh these bad boys out! As promised, here's a little snippet from A Cure for the Common Cold:

-

He could watch you like this forever: hair haphazardly pinned up in a bun, wet curls clinging to the base of your neck, cheeks flushed, and eyes fluttering shut as your lips wrap around the red-ripened, fleshy fruit of the strawberry he offers you. Sweetness rolls over your tongue for the first time in what feels like weeks, coming in cresting waves of pleasure with each decadent bursting of flavor as you chew. Though, nothing is as pleasurable as the comforting warmth of his chest behind you, or how his left arm is slung lazily around the softness of your middle beneath the steaming, sudsy water like an anchor planting you right where you need to be.

Lazy, wet kisses brush over the ball of your shoulder, rounding up the supple dip of your neck in a delicate dance of tender passion. It's a subtle shift there, but you feel it. Right there in the pit of your stomach it simmers like a kettle over a roaring flame.

"You like that?" He hums when the soft touch of his lips meets the shell of your ear.

Oh, what you wouldn't give to turn your head and press your lips to his. He's right there, mere inches away from giving you what you want. But there in lies the game: no lip-smacked affection or the smothered press of love's promise, lest you infect him with the very cold that's plaguing you.

A/N: WIP snibbit is subject to change in the final post! Sending y'all some additional love 🤗💕

[cannedbabs]

Rbti rewrite post :] (was gonna be more but I’ve had an eventful day.. will say later ofc)

Closeup of KCB, some more evolution of lore, and my day below cut!

((If I had the choice to redo this bug piece it would be to turn off his glowy eyes. Plot reasons. Also sorry I only ever post sketches, I fear if I do more it’ll sap my energy to get content out at ALL so))

I will say the plot has been wavering a LOT! I’ve been talking with some of my irl friends (all of them have lovely story writing or creative backgrounds which is amazing) and so it’s being patched significantly. Still not 100% finished, that’s why I haven’t made an entire lore post yet!! There’s a lot of loose ends and placement that needs to be figured out. But I feel like it’s only appropriate to state some at least :] you guys have given me amazing feedback and showed interest and I can’t thank you enough!

The “big bad” has been juggled around. I do like BEV, her motives are a little grey and need to be strung together accurately and cohesively. I also don’t want a twist villain, as much as that’s amazing I am not trying to rewrite WIR. Turbo in himself is a “big bad”, always will be, he’s the worst of the worst and completely irredeemable, that’s why the writing is so hard. “How do you put in a big bad that has to contest with one of the worst characters of all time?”

My answer is to make BEV solely target Turbo, and in turn it’s a domino effect for everyone, but then that makes this rewrite a little more Turbo centric than I wanted ((granted it IS because of my bias, but even then I realize he is NOT the main character of the previous movie))

These are out loud thoughts tho!! Def the story is gonna take a route where it’s more Ralph vs(?) Vanellope, where they realize their goals don’t really align but are trying to keep it from the other person (kinda like RBTI actually! But not as ‘drama needs to get in the way to actually make an issue’). Ralph is gonna be taking BEV’s side and Vanellope will be taking Turbo’s side, at least that’s the concept for now!

Talking about my day will be super short. Basically I showed my friend group (who doesn’t have the turbo autism I do, but Turbo has become such a referenced joke in my group. Instead of saying ‘this is my hyperfixation’ we say ‘This is my turbo’) the entire 2hr analysis video (thank you Randomalistic :]) and they loved it! Sat through it all front to back!! And I’m having a sleep over w them tomorrow and having a DnD session yippee!! But that’s the only reason why I’m posting this and not accumulating more for a bigger post.

I AM planning on working on ref sheets and even stuff like a ref sheet for their chat bubbles since they’re all different :] idk this became a super long ramble post idk have some funny WIR-related Jack box things my friend group made you earned it

[cindersnows]

the problem with mitsi (or as i like to call it. mitsogyny)

(context: this was written under a youtube video, which i'm sure most of us have at least seen pop up in our recommendeds, in response to many people taking criticism against the new episode. it has been edited a little to be more cohesive as a somewhat-essay)

ok, i wanted to write out a rant/essay/ramble/whatever sort of summarising the criticism against mitsi's plotline because a lot of the people here seem to be misunderstanding the fundamental issue that people have with it, including some of those people themselves.

first off, an analysis that i think tell both sides of the argument very well which i feel should be read before reading the essay: Mitsi: What Makes A Fridged Character (and why y'all are wrong about it) | an AvA essay by InksandPensblog. i will note: i don't care to discuss whether mitsi was fridged or not and that won't be of much importance in this post. the above link gives some insight into some of the fandom's criticism of mitsi and how she was "fridged", defining common tropes for examples. that's what's relevant to this post.

the main issue with mitsi, in my opinion, is less with the fact that mitsi's a girl and moreso the fact that she's one of the only female-coded character in the series, and that her character's main purpose was to further victim's own development. the other arguably female-coded character in the series is pink, who (like navy) only really exists to explain purple's motivations. i don't have much of an issue with that since they're not meant to be important or sympathised with at all. that's not their job in the story.

with mitsi, i've seen people point out that she has more character to her than just victim's love interest and supporter: she invents rocketcorp, she's smart, she's kind, innocent and helpful. narratively speaking, she shows other creations' relationships with their animators, parallels her innocence with victim's trauma, and introduces victim to the outernet (as most fans call the stick realm).

but most of this things imo are either stretches or invalid arguments. she's not really a 2/3-dimensional character in any way; her main character traits boil down to the fact that she likes to be in service of others with no nuance behind why she likes helping people. she hypes up victim for the villagers, she starts a company with him to share his talents with the world, and she helps him overcome his trauma from alan's torture. all of her main plot beats center around victim: and while technically the sticks are genderless and free to be interpreted however the viewer wants, alan and most of his team see all the main characters as male, and that subconciously affects how they're written. mitsi, the first major female-coded character, spends most of her storyline in service of victim, a character not written as female.

there's also the issue of her being victim's canonical love interest. i feel like this statement from alan is important to keep in mind (don't mind the sound effects and edits, this is the only isolated clip i can find at the moment). in particular:

"i just assume that [the ava/m characters] are just a bunch of bros]. i haven't thought of adding any female stick figures but i think it'd be good. i don't want to introduce any romance though, i don't want that to be a theme."

he seems to have changed his mind on that last part, which is fine, but the notable part for me is that he seems to associate female characters with romance from the getgo. before anyone misinterprets this, i'm not trying to call alan sexist or anything. but there's a common issue with women in stories being reduced to just a romantic partner for the male lead, and mitsi falls under this, with her entire character existing to serve victim. (not to mention people will make things about romance whether you like it or not. that's just basic fandom. search up grapeduo or chodark.) even her death is to put victim on the path of vengeance--- it doesn't need to happen to show the extent of tco and tdl's destruction, because that's already made pretty clear in ava s2 the flashback and the earlier scenes showing various characters escaping burning buildings. when you write a female-coded character whose only purpose is to serve a male character, you're contributing to sexist narratives.

a counter i see many people point out with the idea that she has no character is that she does have character traits, it's just that they're generic ones like "kind" and "innocent". the issue is that she has no flaws to counterpoint this; it's not that she didn't have enough screentime. in ava4 for example, we see tsc's flaws pretty clearly; they can be very mean when they want to, they're petty (albeit for a fair reason), they're a little impulsive. this is shown in 11 minutes (from the moment they come alive to the end of the video).

with mitsi meanwhile… she doesn't seem to have any flaws? she helps victim whenever she can. she's nice to all the villagers. her customers all like her and she's a great leader at rocket corp (to note, specifically as part of a pair with victim. they're a power couple, she's barely given credit for her work alone). she has 13 minutes of screentime, or 10 if you count from her waking up in the outernet. there's plenty of opportunities to show her having flaws; maybe she acts a little selfish during tdl and tco's attack, only wanting to help herself and agent smith, or maybe she overworks herself, or feels awkward at having too much attention (and that could also be why she redirects so much attention to victim, she's shy). you could argue that the episode needs to develop victim and agent smith too, but ava4 shows that's easy to do too: just a few seconds dedicated to showing rgyb fighting over who leaves first shows that they can be selfish and childish. it's very easy to insert a moment like that for mitsi.

it's a little disappointing when the first major female-coded character in ava is completely flawless, with no personality outside of being nice and helpful for others.

also, slightly unrelated, check out this quote from mitsi's plushie website: "her white featureless face seems to ooze mystery and feminine power all at the same time." her main character trait, as a woman, is being feminine. it's irritating as someone who's been raised a woman to see her reduced to just her gender. she feels more plastic than a person, like the concept of what a woman should be (perfect, kind, useful) and not an actual character/person.

i would expect more from the writing in the series seeing as it's not just an independent passion project anymore, and has multiple writers that all could've worked to flesh out mitsi, or at least get a sensitivity reader of sorts to point these issues out. it's extremely disappointing and i can understand why people were upset.

tldr: the problem isn't just that mitsi's a girl, or that she's nice or dating victim, it's that she's written in a misogynistic way.

[orengejoshi]

do u write fanfics? i need to GOON 💔

damn brother, you just gonna come at me like that? alright I see you

that's a great question tho! I have indeed thought about writing a fic... for years tbh...

but there's a myriad of problems

well first of all I'm not native in english. that is probably noticeable more often than not. I sometimes even use a translator, I always secretly got google/dict.cc open in a second tab. didn't formally learn english, I just snagged it by proxy listening to American Youtubers and reading manga online. that's why I prefer to ramble a bit in public or to my damn self in private areas than live-texting 1 on 1/in groups; bc I can take more time totally judgement-free. you're gonna see me "typing..." for 30 minutes and wonder wtf is taking this mf so long?!

apart from that there's dyslexia. I can't spell one word correctly without swipe-to-type autocorrect. I think all arguments I've gotten into stem from me mistyping, using completely wrong words, messing up the sentence structure etc

my brain is a single dense cloud of fog that'll occasionally split open to drizzle down a bunch of jumbled thoughts that I could turn into barely cohesive words if I'm brave enough and exude copious amounts of energy.

so my linguistic skills are not up to par. my intelligence lies more in... intrapersonal and existential departments.

unsurprisingly I've thus become a visual artist to express myself.

the catch is... that I understand paperhat, I do.

but I can't seem to draw toxic dynamics. my head is just empty about how to depict it. it's like it doesn't come naturally to me. not without going overboard and making a whole comic that I would likely abandon before even reaching the half mark. I've been given these angelic skills along with the curse that I shall only draw joyous, bright scenes.

however if I could write it... now we're talking.

as a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure that most of my ideas are way too dark and sober. people don't know me like that so I'm petrified about the presumably shocked response when and if I did drop smth like that.

I'm not ready for that... I have really severe OCD (that the internet is making way worse with their anxious tendencies to interpret smth sinister into any and all fiction that is not happiness and rainbows. which seems new to me, idk where this mindset to read so deep into shit is suddenly coming from. I was here 2017-19, left for like 3 years and all of a sudden everybody's fallen off their rockers)

writing domestic stuff is too boring for me... there's gotta be gut-wrenching horrors and drama and tragedy and conflict!

none of this would be PG (which is what I assume you're asking for anyway) I'd just write smut with sprinkles of character studies and a pinch of comedy mayhaps, but I used to do that about 10 years ago and it was so bad. the way I describe these scenes comes off very plump and cringe

I... might. dip my toes into it later this year.

I'll drop a few ideas in the tags... maybe 2 ideas. very roughly. without spoilers, just in case.

[cryptidcat5105]

Empyrean AU

So I've been thinking about Onyx Storm and the reasons we got for Violet's silver hair and my brain decided "what if we just throw all of that out the window for now and give Violet albinism?" And so these mad ramblings came to be. I've got more too, but since I lack any fanfiction writing talents this is probably gonna turn into a series of vague made up lore about dragons, venin and magic itself with some occasional illustrations. Probably gonna name it Sky wielders AU.

Edit: art, part 2 and part 3 :)

Anyway assume there's spoilers for the entire series

I think albinism would be pretty rare on the Continent, maybe people only heard about it from stories and stuff. So when Violet is born and she's white as snow with red eyes I'm sure her parents nearly had a heart attack but quickly adapted.

Fast forward a few years and the Sorrengail siblings are hearing their first stories about dark wielders from Papa Sorrengail and at one point they would just ask "is Vi a venin?" to which Lilith would ban the fables in the house for a few months.

Everything else would go about as normal with Brennan faking his death and Violet getting forced into the riders' quadrant, except Violet gets a patch from Lilith before even crossing the parapet which indicates to leadership that no, she's not a venin, leave her be.(Violet doesn't actually know what it means and it confuses her greatly). She also gets to keep the Fables of the Barens for plot convenience.

I imagine the marked ones would all be collectively losing their shit once she gets in the quadrant, but would keep their distance once they saw that leadership didn't seam concerned, silently seething at the thought that Navarre would let the very thing that got their parents killed freely walk among them.

Xaden is overall just creeped out by Violet's appearance but quickly figures out she's just challenged in the pigment department and not a venin. Once he catches her at the marked ones' meeting things would go pretty much the same as in canon with Xaden adding some pointed jabs at her appearance. "What you lack in physical color you make up with your colorful vocabulary" or something along those lines probably, he still calls her a "violent little thing" though.

Sometime after this incident Violet starts noticing some of the older cadets locking eyes with her and bowing their head. She assumes most of them are either really tired or really high if the red rims around their eyes are anything to go by... until a hyperventilating first year with vivid red eyes corners her asking how to manage pulling from the earth.

Violet is obviously distraught at this but realizes pretty quick that if the both of them start spiraling shit's gonna get ugly real quick so she tries to keep a cool head and figure out what the cadet has done. (For my sanity and plot cohesion let's name this cadet Kate)

Violet: What do you mean you pulled from the earth?

Kate, panicking: Well it was really an accident. Some douchbag tried to jump me and it was self defense really. I don't even know how I did it. The othes said to come to you, since surely you know how to handle this, considering...*gestures at the whole of Violet*

Violet: I... I'm not a venin, I have never pulled from the earth? I don't know how I could possibly help. And who are these others? There's more of you maniacs?

Kate: But your eyes-... Uh, yeah there's more of us and they kinda assume you're a Sage, but I'm starting to realize just how wrong they were and just how screwed I am. *Slides down the wall*

Violet, considering her options, but tucking the Sage comment for later: Does the red fade?

Kate: From what they told me yea...but after one point it's permanent.

Violet: *sighs* I might have something that would probably give us at least some answers if not a cure

Violet than proceeds to have a whole metal breakdown about the existence of venin and how royally screwed everything is. Over the course of the next few days the same cadets that seemed to show an ounce of respect before, are glaring daggers at her and throwing suspicious glaces her way. She also started looking through the fables for some way to help Kate since she was clearly not like the evil monsters depicted in the stories, but rather a sacred and confused 20 y/o with no clue about what she's done.

Violet came to the conclusion that if the power from the earth is bad then the one from the sky is good so what's the harm in suggesting switching power sources if possible. One night Kate agrees to talk with her and they met near the river bank where the marked ones met at the beginning of the year. Kate was accompanied by two others but they looked just as nervous as her so Violet assumed they were both venin as well and looking for a solution just like their friend.

After sharing her theory about the sky and earth they spent the next few hours trying to pull magic from the air around them. They were not successful but at the very least all three cadets were able to sense the power coming from the sky and decided to try some more the following nights.

For maybe a week they all kept trying, some other cadets, even from upper years, all of them venin, joining them sometimes. They were all able to feel the magic but it was slipping their grasp like water.

At one point Kate kinda just gave up for the night and decided to just try and feel the magic around them, to study it in a sense. After a little while she felt a slight trickle of power cooling her skin. She quickly got up thinking she accidentally pulled from the earth again but quickly realized that the earth's power was warm not cold and there was no patch of desiccated land either. She looked around and everyone seemed to be staring at her.

Kate: What just happened?

Other cadet: Dude, I think you just pulled from the sky if you're eyes are anything to go by.

Kate, irritated: Ugh, great! Even the sky gets our eyes red! Awesome!

Violet: They're not red! Take a look at your reflection, they're silver!

Overall excitement spreads through the venin that are part of this little group and they figure out that they've got to let the magic come to them instead of taking it themselves.

Everyone fully stops channeling from the earth and their eyes no longer have any red hues. Instead they have a constant supply of power that feels borderline sentient with how it seems to watch their backs and make them aware of any possible threats. Their eyes also become iridescent and they all figure out they can change their eye color at will (Wink, wink! nudge nudge!). They're a bit weirded out by everything but pretty happy they no longer have to deal with the effects of channeling from the earth.

Her little gathering has been trying to convince her to channel from the sky as well since it would keep her safer in the quadrant but she tells them that she only figured out channeling from the sky as an answer to their problem and it didn't feel fair to do it when she didn't have a serious reason to.

Violet in the meantime starts recording all her new findings and bonding with her squad but not really telling them about what she's been doing, while in the background all the usual things happen, like challenges and the gauntlet except this time Violet has a bit of extra training from the nights spent past curfew so she does a bit better. During the Gauntlet the dagger trick still happens because I love when people win on a technicality. Everyone gets lined up for Presentation and they start marching forward. Quite a few dragons have been lowering their heads and sniffing some cadets, particularly the first years Violet's been helping and she hopes that none of them get torched today. A few dragons have been sniffing at her as well but she just thought it was because of the dragon scale corset or her peculiar appearance. Once they reached the end of the line of dragons Violet saw the golden dragon everyone seemed to be muttering about. It was pacing excitedly on the spot and raising itself onto it's back paws as if to see the line better. The brown next to it looked so done with the golden one and once Violet locked eyes with the smaller dragon, the brown immediately put a foot on the golden one's tail to keep it from bolting into the line of cadets. Violet was a bit concerned about the whole ordeal but she would not question the ways of dragons.

Threshing goes about as well as in canon except when Violet finds Andarna, she's imidiately accosted by a wiggling mess that's sniffing and circling her like she's some old friend.

Once Jack Fucking Barlow and his entourage show up the fight to protect the dragon ensues and Xaden still comes to watch the shitfest, but this time Andarna actually barrels into one of Violet's opponents (just because I would've like it to happen in canon) and Sgaeyl is reasonably concerned because Andarna was way more chill about all of this before Presentation. What the hell happened with being calm and collected, Golden One?

Tairn shows up, scares the shit out of JFB, torches the guy that wasn't already passed out because of Andarna and stops to sniff Violet as well before commanding she gets on his back. Violet starts wondering why every dragon has an obsession with sniffing her but gets sidetracked by Tairn's aerobatics.

When they finally land Violet notices there are a bunch of larger, battle-scared dragons, nearly on par with Tairn, in the clearing that weren't at Presentation, every single one of them had one of her sky wielders between their front legs and she felt a sense of pride at the sight despite the shock of getting two dragons herself.

Andarna continues to be hyperactive nudging Violet this way and that but Tairn didn't look too concerned so she took it as a good sign.

Violet: I don't mean to offend you, but are you excited that you bonded or is there another reason you are this happy?

Andarna: Oh, I'm happy I bonded, alright, but there are other reasons too. Those can wait a bit though, so don't worry!

Violet: Ok, I'll trust your judgement...

Tairn: Wise decision.

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3

[maxe-murderer]

thoughts on the summoning choreo and the LiB's ages

aight so i watched the digital ticket last night and spent way too long analyzing the choreo for the summoning and a) want to ramble abt it cause its cool and b) wanna give my 2 cents for the Lords in Black ages theories (i don't think I've seen anyone mention this but im sure im not the first person to notice)

so the choreo for LiB do at the very beginning of the summoning is like a lot to take in all at once so i didn't take it in all at once and rewatched the same like 10 seconds over and over

so each of the LiB have their own little bit of choreo that's theirs, with Blinky and Nibbly's probably being the most obvious. But they all seem to do the same moves - with some little differences for a few of them - at completely different and seemingly random times. They do all start with "their" move. So breaking down each one, starting with:

Wiggly: The first move Wiggly does and the first one we see in the pro shot. Bent over at the hips, arms out to the side swinging in and out at the elbows. Reminiscent of his tentacles, yknow. One difference I can see with his choreo is he puts the majority of his weight on his right leg with the left out to the side and partially bent - he only does this the first time he does his move, and Tinky does similar but to a lesser extent.

Tinky: First thing he does, the bend down snap up repeat, arms back when down arms out in front when up. First time you see it in the pro shot is Nibbly doing it in the background behind Pokey (roughly 2:01:07). It doesn't make anything immediately jump to mind, other than like, goats fighting.

Nibbly: Since Nibbly has the lollypop prop it looks like licking the lollypop. For everyone else, it's just their right hand sorta sliding down in front of their face. The first time we see this is Wiggly doing it during the line "Wiggly wants his wrath".

Blinky: Bent at the hips, circle down and left to right and up. Blinky holds his hands in front of his to make that triangle/diamond over the one eye. Pokey holds his mask in front of his face for this, it looks like Wiggly does either the same hands as Blinky or basically the same but centered on his face, it's difficult to tell, Nibbly and Tinky just have their hands out in front of them.

Pokey: Swapping from facing right, right hand up in front of your face to facing left with the left hand up. Makes me think of Hamlet. Pokey looks at the mask while facing right and his hand when facing left. Everyone does the same with or without whatever prop they have. Tinky and Wiggly put their arms all the way up in a more of a presenting something type pose - Tinky's arms straight up and Wiggly's a bit bent. Nibbly does the move but faces forward instead of looking at his hands - he does this for every move, face is constantly directly toward the audience.

so I do wanna say first that while they do have all the same bits of choreography (just at different times) none of them do it exactly the same. There are small differences between all of them on the same moves (ex. Tinky: some people keep their head up when going down others have their face to the ground. Nibbly always keeping his face forward. Legs bent and feet flexed. Etc.)

Ok. So. The order that each of the LiB do each move is the same for all of them, but they each start at their own move and end on their own move.

The order goes: Wiggly, Tinky, Nibbly, Blinky, Pokey

Its a really fun way to keep the scene feeling cohesive but also super chaotic. It's pretty much impossible to notice a pattern if you aren't replaying the same part specifically looking for if there's a pattern.

As for their ages, I can't say that I actually have any strong opinions on the LiB's ages (I think any sort of hierarchy among each other they have is based on what I can best describe as their eldritch vibes) but this is fun to think about so like.

We all agree that Wiggly's the oldest so basically, the order Wiggly does the choreo as the ages of the LiB. And I think that when we look at it like this it has a sort of like, coming into being as the universe evolves to fill whatever cosmic need there is or smth like that. If you get what I'm getting at.

Wiggly's the oldest, he's clearly in charge and I think is also the most vague if we try to narrow down his "thing" if you know what i mean

Tinky would then be second oldest, I think it makes sense. He fucks with time itself, once you have a world you kind of need time for shit to happen in it

Nibbly next, middle child. He's hunger. As soon as you have life in the world that life will need to eat. And, he's the only one of the LiB who will consistently exist as a physical being outside of the Black and White (at least for a short while) and I think having the middle child be the one to have that sort of ability just sorta works

Blinky is the second youngest. His whole thing is sight. Not everything alive can see but a whole load of them can. Insert some sort of specific connection to the development of humanity. He's pretty satisfied with just having Watcher World seemingly. His brothers all have their domains and shticks already, so he'll just be happy in his corner torturing the shit out of whoever goes to Watcher World. No need to step on anyone's toes, y'know.

Pokey is the youngest and steps on everyone's toes. He both has a pretty nailed-down theme of control but is sorta, messy about it? his two main appearances have his existence in the physical world be directly connected to the meteor to the point of him getting kinda fucked over by it in Yellow Jacket. He's "The Singular Voice", he wants everything to be him, if it's not his voice he wants it dead. He's also the only one who we've seen get scolded by Wiggly. So like, the annoying and loud little brother.

anyway that's it. idk if you have any thoughts tell me. working boys budget breakdown soon to come

[jellolegos]

Can I just say I looooooove your pregnant!Rhaenicent + Syrax fanart ♥️♥️♥️

Do you have any headcanons of what Jace would be like if Alicent helped raise him? I’m thinking the same but now whenever his mom does something stupid his other mom back him up 😋

this about summarises their relationship i think.... (below the cut for a more serious yap)

I don't really have a cohesive thought for all of this but here is some rambling...!

I think one almost impossible to answer as in many ways their relationship with their children and/or parent is so much defined by canon events that it becomes impossible to separate them from it (Ship of Theseus or whatever the kids are saying...). For Alicent that is the fact that her children were the product of marital rape, and for Jace the fact that he is clearly a bastard.

However, as an alicel I think there is something very charming about imagining her in as a father figure, I think that she fits the bill at least more than rhaenyra does: she is overprotective, emotionally distant, and unable to really connect with her children. I also can see it as a natural extension of the way that Otto treats her more as his first-born son than one might expect him to treat his daughter!

As with a lot of my favourite feminine-leaning sapphic characters, it can be an interesting exercise to try to untangle their femininity, and performance of it, from the circumstances which require them to perform it (Caitlyn, Asami Sato, Lena Luthor, etc.). Alicent occupies this very strange middle ground where she is not highborn enough to be able to express discontent with her gender (at least while she is young like Rhaenyra is/can), but not lowborn enough for the rigidity of that role to be erased with the realities of survival, which we see briefly with the relationship between Ulf and his wife in the show.

For that reason, as much as we see Alicent as traditionally feminine, at least in contrast to Rhaenyra who more expressively chafes with it, one of the most interesting parts of season 2 was seeing Alicent unpacks the neatly slotted boxes of 'wife' and 'queen' after Viserys dies. It is one thing for her to read about the knight and the lady, to believe her duty and suffering as a necessary part of her fairytale role as queen, and another to see it in the 'after' of 'happily ever after'. I think a lot of that interior work will have to be shelved for season 3 in favour of the large battle pieces and more political side of the show, but I thought it was a wonderfully contemplative side storyline. I think a lot of the criticism was that the season was 'boring', but I found it to be a very original and wholly unexpected take from Fire and Blood.

I guess to actually answer your question..I would really like to think that Alicent would love whatever kids Rhaenyra had, in a modern universe :) I do, as always, kinda waffle back and forth about Rhaenicent kids, but I think she would be overbearing and strange and love Jace completely. Not that it matters but I have deifnitely been pulled a little to the direction of Rhaenyra carrying the kids!

I kinda love the moments in the show where Jace mirrors Alicent, whether or not it is done intentionally, and wish we saw a little more Jace in fandom (so I decided to be the change I wanted to see in the world!). I would hope that a lot of the angst related to his parentage would be solved in a perfect world too.

[generalleobliviuos]

Ya'll, I was super late to Critical Role. I started watching c3 early to mid 2022 because of random YouTube shorts (also YT had been suggesting the channel for years) and I thought the shorts were hilarious, so I started watching c3. After watching up to the first Malleus Key fight during the beginning of the apogee solstice, and realizing that there was a ton of information/references I was not getting, I stopped watching c3; being caught up to the campaign at that point.

I hadn't watched any of the cr side content at that point, I started watching c1 and wow. I have my opinions on Vox Machina, but I did enjoy it overall. But, it is the only campaign I've watched only once. It was the first story/video series I had cried at in a long time and it hurts too much to try again, even though I want to. There are so many moments in the VM story that just break me, especially yep 114 and 115. I just can't.

I've watched through c2 3 times and have rewatched all of c3 at least 2 times - sans the c3 VM strike at the Malleus Key where Vex died until Pike resurrected her (I was so another twin was gone) - just to keep the canon of the last 2 campaigns cohesive in my brain.

I don't really know what the purpose of this rambling is for other than to get it out of my brain. I love these adventurers so much. I've watched Calamity 3 or 4 times, which has sad endings, but I guess time spent with the characters does matter. Even though I haven't spent as much time with the VM campaign, the hours I did spend there were a lot more than I expected.

I've played something like 20 games of D&D and close if not less of VM:TM, so I don't know what it's like to be attached to a pc and the relationships they've developed, but I can imagine it. And while I don't have the ttrpg experience many have, I have real life experience in having to leave people, move from people, losing people, life being good and not so good.

I guess this is all to say critical role has helped me through a couple of rough years. Not because of the fandom or whatever, but for knowing there are some hard and unfair stories to tell and even though I love the time I spent with it, I may never visit that particular story again.