#this is purely for my own reference and if anyone wants to know the timeline i go off for my fics

[coolunspokenforname]

I am genuinely unsure of the moon knight timeline, but I do have a headcannon timeline (definitely wrong) of what it is that I usually use in my fics.

1987:Marc is born

1997-1999: Steven and Jake show up

2003-2005: Marc leaves to join the military (the reason I put the 16-18 years range is because, technically, it is legal to get emancipated at 16)

2005-2007: When Marc is kicked out of the military (date depends on when he joined, I'm thinking 2 years between joining and getting kicked out)

2010: After getting kicked out I'd imagine that Marc spent a few years trying to maybe live a normal life. However, since he was kicked out of the military, it was pretty much impossible for him to find a job. So, by 2010, he has become a mercenary.

2014-2015:Harrow is no longer Khonshu's avatar (I feel like there would be a very short gap between Harrow quiting and Marc becoming avatar)

2015:Marc becomes Moon knight (+Layla's dad dies)

2016:Marc Meets Layla (instead of apologizing he falls in love)

2020-2024:Marc and Layla get married

2025:The events of the show happen

As mentioned before, this is just what my mind has come up with, and I wouldn't be surprised if it is disproved by the show. However, this timeline makes a lot of sense to me, so that's what I am using.

[prettyinpwn]

Hi! I don't remember if anyone asked this, but do you have any headcanons about Shermie Pines?

Ah, see, this is the part where I totally self-promote share this wonderful, totally not owned by me ask blog reply: https://askthestans.tumblr.com/post/756343677567336448/hey-stan-can-you-tell-us-stories-about-your

But here's a full summary of my headcanons on the guy:

Older brother to Ford and Stan. I know the timeline's screwy with that baby in the background of ATOTS, but I personally just headcanon that that's some other baby and Shermie's not around in the house because he's off in the military.

I definitely picture him being in the Navy. I picture he's got sailor's tattoos. And actual cool ones, no offense to Ford.

I can't find the reference for the life of me, but I swear to God I once read from Hirsch (I think it was a tweet?) that Stan learned the "you cuddle up to a girl, knock her up, suddenly your life's fallin' apart" oddly specific joke in Little Gift Shop of Horrors from Filbrick. Going with my headcanon that Shermie's the older brother, that means he's the oops baby.

Because of that, and Filbrick's general suckage, Shermie struggled a lot with his dad like the Stans did. I think like Stan, he wasn't especially exceptional - or at least in a way that could make them money like Ford's brains - and Filbrick might have projected a whole "my life fell apart after I had Shermie" thing on the poor guy. So... I don't imagine Shermie got along real well with Filbrick. I also headcanon the large gap in years between Shermie and the Stans as Filbrick's hesitation to have more kids. I think Caryn would have wanted more, and eventually convinced him to have another (and whaddaya know, two for the price of one!), but Filbrick all over just gives me the vibe of a guy that never wanted to be a father, and Shermie knew that even as a kid, so he felt rather unwanted.

In terms of personality, I see Shermie as like... a straight laced golden retriever. Like a pure heart of gold "sees an old lady struggling to walk across the street and gets out and helps her" type guy. Being Mabel and Dipper's grandfather, I think he shares Mabel's optimism but Dipper's sense of right and wrong, which is what makes him a bit of a square (see the Ask the Stans post linked above). Even so, he's not outgoing like Mabel, he's introverted like Ford and Dipper. Like... people picture introverts as moody and quiet with dark thoughts, but when Shermie's quiet he just has happy fantasies like his granddaughter, Mabel (except replace hamster balls and hot boys with, idk... probably baseball or a movie he saw one time and loved).

I see him as a family pillar of support type guy, too. As the older brother in a poor family, I think a lot of responsibility was put on his shoulders. He definitely helped run the pawn shop (though Filbrick got irritated whenever he gave too generous of a discount), and made extra money on the side for his family with a side job. Going into the military was not his choice - given the era, it was probably a draft - and he sent his money home. Caryn probably did Tarot readings on him every night between his letters home hoping they always turned up positive.

He sent little letters home to Stan and Ford, too. He'd make Stan promise to protect Ford for him since he couldn't while he was out at sea, which is what inspired Stan to be such a protector. Then, he made Ford promise to help Stan with his homework like he used to, but once again, couldn't while in the Navy. And he'd tell them about his "epic ocean adventures" to gloss over the horrors of what he was actually going through, which I like to headcanon partially inspired their obsession with fixing up the Stan-O-War so they could have epic ocean adventures someday like their big brother. It wasn't until they were older that they realized, oh... yeah, he wasn't swashbuckling with pirate ghosts in the US Navy. :(

Physically, I think he's the one who looks the most like Caryn. Stan and Ford are like Filbrick short king copy+pastes, but I picture Shermie more tall and lanky like their mother, and has her aquiline nose. Coloring-wise, he's a Pines: brown hair and brown eyes. And sailor tattoos, can't forget those.

I feel like he had to be a pseudo father-figure to the Stans because of Filbrick. Filbrick wasn't the type to teach them how to ride a bike or play a sport, scare "monsters" out of their closet, bring them home for dinner from the beach, etc. Like he fulfilled more of the emotional role of a father to them that Filbrick couldn't.

With Stan, I think he played defense for the kid against Filbrick. I don't think Shermie would have directly gotten angry with Filbrick, especially given his golden retriever-ness and the era, but he defended Stan in little ways. Say Stan broke something, Shermie might have stepped in and tried to smooth things over before Filbrick could get angry. But boy oh boy, if he saw anyone else picking on Stan (or Ford, for that matter), better watch out. He might be a golden retriever, but he's still a Pines, so he's got that whole, "Mess with my family and I'll send you to the hospital." thing going on.

With Ford, I think Shermie was like Stan to him, protecting him and generally trying to make him not feel weird for his polydactyly and nerdiness. While on the surface I think Shermie and Stan might have bonded more because they had more shared surface level interests, I think Ford really looked up to Shermie, especially since Shermie was - as an introvert - the closest to Ford in personality in their family. Shermie wholly supported his love of weirdness, even if he didn't understand what the hell he was talking about half the time, and often would go along with him and Stan on monster hunts as kids just to make sure they got home safe, even if he had no interest in the paranormal himself.

As far as flaws, I can see him having inherited Filbrick's temper and absolutely hating himself for it. Like normally he's a sweet, happy-go-lucky guy, but when he blows up he feels like such an ass afterwards because it reminds himself of his father. His golden retriever personality might have been a way of him trying his best to form an identity far, FAR away from Filbrick, so when parts of Filbrick come out, he feels gross. The Stans look the most like Filbrick, but Shermie - for as nice and sweet as he is - inherited more of Filbrick's bad personality traits than they did.

When Stan got kicked out, Shermie was out at sea and their mother hadn't told him about it, feeling awful she'd let Filbrick just kick Stan out. So when he got home, he was like, "Where the hell is Stan?", and Caryn had to tell him. Shermie always blamed himself for not being there to play defense for Stan like he always had in the past, but at the same time, he was P I S S E D that Stan broke Ford's science fair project. And given that Caryn felt guilty and didn't want to speak against Filbrick and Ford's opinions, and Filbrick is a dick, and Ford was still freshly wounded from the whole fight and disappointment... well, he got a biased view of Stan. He felt so betrayed by Stan for decades for having "hurt" Ford and the family. I think this would explain why he wouldn't have gone to Stan's "funeral" later on. Cue him feeling like an asshole after the events of Gravity Falls and Stan and Ford and/or the niblings tell their grandfather what went down the last three decades.

Even so, I think he tried to find Stan afterwards in his drifter grifter years, but to no avail. Stan didn't want Shermie to find him and disappoint him, and all the evidence Shermie did find seemed to prove what Ford and Filbrick said about Stan, so... :(

He worked in the IRS for his career after the Navy. It made Stan barf when he found out. But Shermie just wanted a good old normal family life and a boring job after what he went through in the war.

As for the way he interacts with Dipper and Mabel, just... pure cuteness. Picture the most stereotypical sweethearted grandfather. Stan and Ford are like the cool old relatives, but Shermie is the big softie old relative. He buys Mabel craptons of arts and crafts and knitting supplies for birthdays and holidays, and he buys Dipper whatever paranormal stuff or video games he wants. He fully sees Dipper as like a little Ford and a lot like his own son (D&M's dad), but he loves Mabel too, of course.

If I think of any more, I'll be sure to add them to this post. :D

[sixsix680]

Are you interested in getting depressed? Guess what, Sifysal lore is here!!!!!!!!!!!!!

eh but let us start with some less dark information first

SIFYSAL the time patroller, hero of Conton City. Female pure blood saiyan, currently in her late 30s. Named after Salsify. Her hair kinda representing those roots?? Kinda?? Nearly 5'7" tall. Adopts the canon game cleared XV2Cac power level, which means above GODs. She is now living in the city.

I like how the XV1Cac was summoned, so yeah, I keep that. It was supposed to die with the planet during Age 737, but the Supreme Kai of Time summoned her to become a member of the Time Patrol for years now.

Sifysal is often described as being either excessively calm or keeping a poker face all the time. Like a doll, she is heartless and emotionless. Arrogant, distancing people, doesn't care about much of anything, workaholic, can't stand to be idle. Not a good chatter but she mostly doesn't refuse tasks and instructions coming from anyone.

Warning for...cannibalism, a lot of ouchies (physical and mental) and idk, there's no happiness

Riiiiiiight. Read my ideas first, It will all make sense later.

I really like their race's innate lack of warmth, no love, no sympathy, and no guilt, nature is brutal. I like it even more when some individuals can learn those if someone educates them, or even realizes their own sin. Warmth enters someone's cold heart, how overwhelming that can be? (HUGE majin vegeta reference) And what if, no one is there to guide them in this situation?

Highly talented, she used to be a mid-class warrior, just an ordinary Saiyan. Enjoy fighting, killing, don't give a damn about others. Totally normal saiyan.

Until her entire squad encountered a natural calamity during a mission to conquer other planets. All they can do is remain in that deserted world, with different levels of injury.

Not to mention that they must eat to survive. Survival of the fittest, that’s what everyone says. Engaged in combat, dragging their battered bodies to determine who in this circumstance deserves to live, in the most saiyan way possible.

The outcome is clear. Everything is done to survive this scenario, even if it involves munching someone who used to fight along your side.

Hunger, greed, sin. That void consumed everything. The emptiness that cannot be filled. She stares at the night, the stars. It's cold here outside. And too quiet. If only they hadn't destroyed this place, they wouldn't have to face the problem of food. There will be more consumables other than piled-up corpses. Perhaps this is their retribution. Living, but in hell. Maybe, just maybe. If they are not so murderous, will they deserve a better ending? She counted. Counted those bodies, those stars, those lives that she had taken away since she existed. Until she can't even count days.

She was there for five years. Can't remember how time passed. A different icejin has become the new emperor which discovers the disappeared squad while checking on past assignments. What is his name again? The only thing she remembers is the fact that the new one is way smaller than the previous one.

She resisted the idea of returning to her role as a warrior later applied for a transfer to the emperor ship as a technician. The blood in her body would not allow her to die, pride, of course. That would make the lives she took meaningless too. Such a sinful race of people, isn't that right?

What was it again? That day. Everybody was instructed to return to their planet.

Oh. Look. A star. The warmth. This is the end of everything. Looks just like the sun, isn't it?

The story is supposed to end there, but not this time. It should have ended that day, but she once again escaped death. Only one day before, she vanished from the timeline. The home planet and people were gone. What's the point of this?

Everybody knows what comes after. Xenoverse2 canon story.

Up until now, she acted as a hero, whether she wanted to alleviate her own sins or to make up for her past mistakes by saving more people.

Every time she stops, she can't stop thinking about those memories so she keeps distracting herself with tasks. She can describe her past calmly, but can't bare the silence. Therefore, she stays in the center of the city even if she doesn't have work.

A walking, hollow, machine. Pretends to be a savior.

Something about her mentor(s):

Although black is not an option to be a mentor, I don't think those two will be apart so yeah.

Aside from the part where they are my favorite, don't you think a sinner and judgmental gods are a good match? Even if she won't admit it, she actually agrees with what they say, even the part about not being worthy of forgiveness.

Hate how annoying they can be.

DID I JUST WRITE A FRICKING ESSAY ????????????

[horrorscoupes]

speaking of hush

i know the “hush is a shade” theories are already RIFE on here, but i wanted to suggest my own idea for some variety :] (timestamped as always)

as an avid lover of the sovereigns and all of their shenanigans, there have been a few things gnawing at my thoughts for quite some time:

1. if the sovereigns under the river used the inversion as a feeding frenzy to glean more power than they typically would get from the natural progression of death via the river (“Was this your plan all along? Not to invade—but to feast? How much stronger will this harvest leave you? How long before something greater than Shades breaks loose?” [All Along 30:36]), then why, almost two years later, havent we seen ANYTHING else about that?

2. When Min’ara and E’Laetum are discussing the things that “lie bound in Death” they say this particularly interesting thing: “Their Prima seeks freedom from their prison.” “Give him a new prison instead.” [Held by Ancient Gods 5:29] which, of course, has always been assumed to be referring to one particular sovereign separate from the bunch

obviously this could be way off the mark, and i’m totally game to accept it if i’m wrong here, but i wonder (since they very easily created daemons and then, once rebelled against, experimented on humanity until they created vampires and empowered humans) if during their time in jail under the river, the sovereigns began to create something else. brachium refers to something “greater than” the shades that ravaged the E&E games during the inversion, which leads me to believe he was either talking about the sovereign themselves escaping OR that he referred to something else created by the trapped sovereigns to use kind of like they use shades to carry messages out of death (“Crafted, by what lies beneath the River, made out of the magic they siphon out of the waters. When they first climb back into the realm of the living, they’re weak. Running on pure instinct, draining anyone close to sustain themselves. To build up their strength. If they get enough, they become tangible, like this one. And if they get even more—a lot more, really gorge themselves… they start to actually remember their purpose. To be a messenger. An envoy. A voice, for what lies beneath.” [Blakes Truth 13:30]).

it’s been two years since the wolf/vamp storylines have seen the inversion and still we haven’t heard anything about the re-emergence of the sovereigns, because i really don’t think that the power absorption was solely to start breaking out. obv we don’t know where hush falls on the timeline just yet, but i think the fact that we also don’t know where certain people (project meridian cast, vega, regulus, blake to an extent, etc) were the night of the inversion is ALSO very important and interesting. <- i can talk about how weird and intriguing it is that we haven’t seen anything past inversion for vega and regulus for hours </3

so, if they’re using all the energy for creation rather than destruction it would have been incredibly smart to leave hush core-less. he isn’t a daemon, and without a core he has no threads linking him to aria. this means that not only can his powers be tethered to the metric fuck-ton of power that the sovereigns just absorbed by killing 1500 empowered people, in order to “rift” (idk what to call it. or if he did at all. anyways) he wouldn’t have to pass through the meridian at all.

so if he IS a new creation of the sovereigns forged from their power and energy, then it would make sense that E’Laetum and Min’Ara may want a bite out of him. they are starving and rotting away alone between terra and aria, and he is looking like a snack. which brings me to my second point: do E’laetum and Min’Ara want someone to bring them hush (in this theory a piece of the sovereigns waning power) to tide them over and perhaps lure a sovereign out of death? that’s a little bit of a stretch (and so is my theory linking hush and project meridian), but think that it’s something we could all stand to consider.

ALSO sidenote: i think that hush surfaces after the inversion while D.U.M.P. is still spinning over all of the deaths and distrusting the Chorus, hence why the deaths of several “articulates” (erik tell me what this means NEOW) seem to be going completely ignored/unnoticed. during the aftermath of inversion, D.U.M.P. and the Chorus are not friends, and it would make sense for them to overlook d(a)emon deaths while they’re still trying to decide if the Chorus knew that the inversion was coming

sidenote #2: the spellsong, which i’ve seen people questioning, has been defined as the binding between magic users and magic/daemons and aria/magic users to one another/magic to the world. to Me it seems like a somewhat broad term used to fill spaces, since no one in universe really knows where magic came from in its entirety. daemons use the term most often in canon, describing it as something they can “hear,” hence why i defined it as the binding between magic and the world. (“I can hear them. Every voice in the spellsong going silent. Every emotion being felt inside this… trap.” [Voices Gone Silent 5:08], “Your kind is a part of the Spellsong. Our harmony. And even if time has made some of my people callous, we still feel the loss of any voice, be it demonic or human.” [Comforted by Your Demon 14:15], “Most of the Chorus was… genuinely horrified to hear what had happened. They’d felt those losses. Heard those voices in the Spellsong as they went silent. Our people don’t always get along, yours and mine. In fact, I’d go so far as to say they usually don’t. But there’s a bond there that neither of our people can deny. And in those that I could read, they felt that pain.” [Consoling an Elemental and an Incubus 27:27], and “When you bit into him and he bit into you, your blood met each other’s cores. Each of your spellsongs met a counterpoint.” [You Bond With a Vampire 19:45]) <- these are the ones i found on short notice, i would be beyond thrilled to add more quotes to the collection

this is by no means me trying to shit on other theories, i think it’s so wonderful that we’re all here guessing. stay curious

[nothingenoughao3]

Hello, I read your fic Dreams in the Necromancer House and just wanted to say I'm really enjoying it. The images are so vivid, I don't know how you do it. And so I was wondering if I could ask where did you get your inspiration from. As in, if you add references about certain books or history or traditions where do you find them? Wikipedia? I'm just curious about how to do research. Specifically the tag that says Lovecraftian cults, tbh I have no clue about the H.P.Lovecraft universe. I just think it's really interesting.

Also, I am probably going to read it again because I'm sure I've missed out on some details. Anyways, have a nice day.

Hey, thank you for the thoughtful ask! This is the sort of question writers dream about receiving.

Here is the not-so-secret and not-so-glamorous process for how I compile references for my works (not just this one--this L4D2 series took a LOT of research, and so did that one SuperBat fic).

For me, the earliest creative process is kaleidoscopic: I'll have multiple scenes that don't seem like they all fit together spinning around in my head, and "the plot" is what happens when I try to make them all line up and become one coherent thing. Usually, there are the Scenes Of Pure Inspiration which arrive out of nowhere, followed by the Scenes Of Pure Necessity that have to happen to support the Pure Inspiration, and then one or two Scenes Of Damn Wouldn't That Be Cool that come up as I play different scenarios out in my head. Once it's over, I'll probably discuss the Scenes Of Pure Inspiration from "Dreams" more in detail.

Then I start doing outlines. Yes, I construct outlines for my fanfics, just as I do for my original works. There are far too many tiny moving parts in a story for them not to be contained in an outline--even if you move them to a different spot later, the damn things'll get lost in the sofa cushions if you don't keep them in a container of some kind. (I hope this metaphor hasn't gotten away from me.)

Dreams has three outlines--the one I wrote while still generating ideas, the one I wrote to establish timelines more firmly, and then an annotated one that has all the references I've sprinkled throughout the story. So I do consider this to be a vital part of the process. There will be a fourth notation file I generate when I do my final editing pass after it's all published, too! That one will cover me stating stuff about character histories and little story details, so that (for an example that really happened) I don't have Armitage giving a flask of whiskey to Herbert which later turns into a flask of Everclear.

Now where does the research bit come in? For me, when I do my extremely-detailed outline or when I start writing.

For details regarding history, science, politics, and the like, I generally rely on Googling, same as anyone else (excluding results after the year 2021 if I'm not finding what I need). Better than this, though, is books. I used to collect books that were writers' references--one of my favorites was a guide to poisons, both "the most likely poisons used in a murder mystery" AND "how to design your own poison/toxin/venom". Also guidebooks for TTRPGs, sacred texts, gardening guides, etc. I currently have a book series called "The Home Doctor" that teaches you how to do baseline veterinary and human medicine (according to the early 1900s). I don't have that because I plan on using it for its intended purpose, but I did use it to research a L4D2 fic where someone's leg gets amputated--and I even had the characters in the fic owning those same books!

What really matters for a story like Dreams, though, is thematic feel. I think folks will forgive me if I were to mention a musical band that didn't exist in 1987/8, but far less so if I didn't nail the feel of 1987/8, or of cosmic horror. So while I am writing a story, I immerse not only in the source material (if it's a fanfic), but also in music, movies, books, comics, and etc. that "feel right". I'll draw off those media for further inspiration, because let's face it, creativity is knowing what to steal and how to steal it. (I didn't say that--Tarantino did.)

The key here is that I don't stop interacting with research and creative works when I'm not writing. I'll flip through my books or go down a rabbit hole of "what the hell is THAT scientific concept about" or learn about magical rituals every day that I can. If the compilation of research material looks easy or fast when I do it, it's because I'm always doing it and I know how to narrow it down!

For Dreams, I could go "Oh, here's a list of all the stories and movies and etc. I want to build off of" because I already had all of those things in my mental wheelhouses. If you wanted it, here is a specific list of the actual non-Lovecraftian works that thematically support and inspire Dreams in the Necromancer House:

Prince of Darkness (1987)+

Hereditary (2018)*

The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals (2019)

Stir of Echoes (1999)

Mandy (2018)

Skeleton Crew, Nightmares and Dreamscapes, and Everything's Eventual by Stephen King: specifically, "Nona", "1408", "Mrs. Todd's Shortcut", "Gramma"+, "Autopsy Room Four", and "That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is In French"

Black Butterflies and Heatseeker by John Shirley: specifically "Cram", "Tahiti In Terms of Squares", "The Almost Empty Rooms", "Woodgrains"

The King in Yellow by Robert Chalmers

Twin Peaks

Music: "We Will Commit Wolf Murder" by of Montreal, "Leather Jacket" by Ben Folds Five, "It Must Have Been Love" by Roxette, "Over & Over" by Rio Romeo, "No One's Around To Help" by JerryTerry

The Arkham Horror board game

"The Mysterious Stranger/An Angel Named Satan" from The Adventures of Mark Twain

And since you were asking about Lovecraft's universe, here are the stories that went into this particular tale. All of his stuff is treated as being in the public domain, so you can easily find it on sites like Project Gutenberg or wikis:

"The Case of Charles Dexter Ward"+

"The Thing on the Doorstep"+

"The Dunwich Horror"+

"The Colour Out of Space", as well as the film adaptation Color Out of Space (2019)

"Pickman's Model"

"The Call of Cthulhu"*

"The Shadow Over Innsmouth"*

And of course, "Dreams in the Witch-House"+

The ones marked with an * are the most detailed stories regarding what I mean by "Lovecraftian cults", and the ones with a + are good demonstrations of wizardry/magic systems that supported this work.

[lunar-serpentinite]

Introductory Post

Hello ~ I'm Cloud and welcome to my blog !

My pronouns are they/them ! I don't really have hard no's for gendered terms used to refer to me .

I'm a '02-liner (meaning i was born in 2002) and from Southeast Asia . I am currently in uni studying Geology and I use my spare time to think about my hyperfixations <3

I'm neurodivergent and I usually vibe on my own but I'm open to chats ! I'm bad at replying though so don't be afraid to bump up messages

I've been on Tumblr since 2012 but this is the first time I have ever tried to be more active instead of keeping in the background .

Fuck JKR !!

Free Palestine, Free Congo, Free Sudan, free everyone who has suffered and are currently suffering under a capitalistic, warmongering white supremacist society . Never stop talking about the genocides and human rights injustices currently happening around the world . Share, save, boycott, educate, donate when and if you can !

Current Fixations / Interests / Fandoms

Harry Potter (specifically the character himself, as well as Drarry)

MXTX Novels

Percy Jackson

ATEEZ

Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail

Disclaimer

(Especially for those who are particularly focused on Harry Potter canon and/or certain dynamics.)

In my headcanons and posts, I will stretch canon pretty thinly. I will rewrite and redo huge chunks of what we know as the Harry Potter canon. This includes huge changes in the history, the timeline, and the ethnicities of a lot of characters (read: majority of the characters we know in my AU are now BIPOC). Everything I am doing is purely for my own enjoyment and I just wanted to share the things I made with anyone who wanted to have a read.

I do not follow any Marauders fandom headcanons nor do I consider myself part of the fandom . This means my Lilys and Jameses will have vastly different friend groups than what you're used to if you're from the Marauders fandom .

If you're particular about dynamics, I am a fixed DMHP account . I don't post NSFW on this blog since I focus on worldbuilding and more SFW character building, but I'm just throwing this out there :3

Have a good day ! (My AUs under the cut)

Current AUs

Nandhini's Legacy - my main AU and the reason why I made this blog in the first place ! This is a Harry Potter AU where the Potter family are South Indian (specifically Tamil [James] and Telugu [Lily]) and the Black family are SWANA . New elements in the story include entirely new fancasts for the entire cast, the introduction of a Magical British Museum (the new primary antagonist besides Lord Voldemort), OC siblings for characters like Harry and Pansy, and several timeline changes .

Related Links : Families Masterlist, Fancast, Main Tag

pls ask me abt this au i have so much to say

Son of Hecate Harry AU - a PJO x HP crossover AU where Harry was born to Lily and James but with the additional blood from Hecate . In this AU he was taken away from the Dursleys by a satyr and raised in Camp Half-Blood . By the time he arrives at Hogwarts, Harry has already undergone one quest and is only at the institution because of another prophecy (not Trelawney's) . He is accompanied by fellow demigods and witches Yurika Haneda (Slytherin, Hermes) and Poppy Caxton (Hufflepuff, Athena)

My Mortal Companion - the AU in which post-War, Harry retains his title as Master of Death and believes his next destiny is to be the sole Unspeakable in the Death Room since he's the "only one who could do it" . Features Harry's relationships and dynamics with various psychopomps and death deities of diverse pantheons

Related Links : Main Tag

Favourite of the Fae Harry AU - an AU where Harry is highly favoured by the Fair Folk of Great Britain, but only in the way a human might highly favour what they deem a particularly cute pet . Includes tidbits of Harry being his mother's son because Lily was their previous favourite, and Harry having difficulties with socialising in the "proper" human way because he was used to the constant transactional socialising of the Fae

[protagonistheavy]

I think my opinions overall on AI art fit firmly in the area where I'd piss off everyone simultaneously.

It's become that sort of issue where I know generally what side of the argument I'm on, but while my direct oppositions have arguments that are rather predictable for their stance, it's the people on my own side that I'm constantly hearing the worst arguments/misinformation from. There are unfortunately a lot of people who oppose AI art for pretty much all the worst possible reasons.

I think the anti-AI side of things can benefit a lot from understanding why people would use AI art instead of ~hiring an artist~, and then arguing on that playing field. Because if I see another argument that just boils down to "see??? if you just spend part of a lifetime practicing art and then schedule most of your life around it, you can make art too!!! easy!!!" i'm going to blow up into smithereens. Not everyone is a full-career artist, nor do they intend to be; I know that's hard for a lot of artists to comprehend because their whole life has been about drawing pictures, but other people are busy with other things. Some people do not have the time or energy to add a whole new craft to their capabilities -- even less people want to do that just so they can make an icon for a website they're making, or to create a book cover for the book they're writing, or whatever. If your argument to anyone of these pro-AI people is that they should just start learning to draw, please just shut the fuck up, you've failed to understand the core basic reasoning why people find AI art appealing: extremely quick production, passable quality, and the only person you have to work with is a computer, not a human being that has their own schedule, passions, etc. to consider.

This isn't a pro-AI argument I'm taking either, I'm just sick of seeing these terrible arguments coming from people I should theoretically agree with. So much of this mindset is pure gatekeeping of all visual arts, and from a position that is bound to fail; this technology isn't going to disappear, and there's plenty of uses for AI generation that isn't just wholesale stealing art from people. It's going to be used more and more, especially as industry artists learn how to utilize it in conjunction with their own abilities.

Man seriously, BOTH sides I think have GOT to accept that AI art generation is never going to reach a point where one prompt gets you the perfect picture. To me it seems like its best use is for creating outlines or references, or filling in non-vital indications of details. You still have to be an artist to then take that image and manifest something unique from it. The companies behind AI art generation really want you to believe that it can do that, that you just put in one prompt and out comes a complete picture, but it really doesn't work that way -- it's a boogeyman concept, that one day we're just gonna have computers shitting out all of our visual elements in the world, and no artist will ever dare lift a pen again in such trying times. Professional artists are already adapting to the new tech and learning how to use it as a tool for full-scale projects, rather than just a novelty to spit something out in 20 seconds. It's very much overselling the capabilities of AI art to believe that this is the bad timeline where all artists go extinct and their talents are simply never needed.

Now I do have some fears about AI art and how it will effect artists in the industry, and how some corporations will try to use AI art in the sloppiest ways possible. It will be a turbulent time, but far from the dark age of creativity that some people are expecting.

[amplexadversary]

Utena Movie thoughts

Oh, I recognize this architecture, it's UC Davis's The Death Star, but with a little more acrophobia thrown in for good measure!

And the shadow chorus girls now have aliases and a radio show. Okay.

Also Short hair Utena? Pretty dapper I've got to say, though I'm more used to the long hair design.

Whereas Jury's hair got even longer lol

Oh, we're getting out the "Ultraman references" early, I see. (coming back to this observation, the crosses are in fact relevant later in the film)

And Utena actually knows Touga ahead of time in this one.

See, if I had given in and watched the dub, I'd probably be bitching about repetitive dialogue, but the sub merely feels like it's determined to teach me today's vocabulary word in Japanese (mind, this is a JOKE. The word is dropped so frequently because a whole lot of anime is being compressed into less tha 90min)

Ah, I see this is the version of events after Touga has an encounter with RL Stein's Cuckoo Clock of Doom; if Utena had been childhood friends with Touga in the show's timeline Nanami would have pushed her off a building.

It's a but weird seeing Anthy with her hair down outside of a worrisome emotional scene. I don't like how they straightened her hair either. And no glasses? At least she's less passive in this version?

Yeah, I don't know about the hair thing. In the original, the long-haired Utena and the shorter (appearing) haired Anthy prevented the main pairing from having too much of a butch/femme dichotomy. Anthy feels very off model throughout this entire thing (Utena too, to a lesser extent.)

Well that's certainly an... efficient level of composite-charactering from Shiori's summary. The movie really makes Shiori much more two-faced as well. And Touga less. Not sure how I feel about that.

Okay my joke about Touga being in an RL Stein book was not in good taste given just how much we're doing composite characters here, but I'm not going to remove it. That elevator scene was well done, I have to say.

Speaking of "efficient," the film does not hold on to its cards nearly as hard as the show does (proportionately speaking). I guess the intent would be for people to have already watched the show. (yeah no they were building on the end enough that they wanted to Get There as quickly as possible)

I have nothing to say about the first "scandalous tape" that I haven't already said about Nanami. As for the second... I think they manage to show a lot more while showing a lot less, particularly when you realize that that fizzy tablet is NOT alka-seltzer (I think the reason why the writers made it fizz is again to draw attention - this time to the tablet going in Anthy's drink)

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

Okay so we're working with a much more uh, figurative scenario compared to the show. The climax has something to say and it does so basically purely through metaphor.

The "world" here resents Anthy for getting out from under Akio's thumb, blames her for his (accidental lmao) death, because why should she get to leave? (I appreciate Shiori's dialogue here in trying to be the person who "deserves" to get out. She frames it as a competition she must win, a race, a zero sum game where only the fastest to leave gets out. When that is uh. not the case but very much how some people treat it IRL, so that's pretty clear.)

And Utena's role. She fails in the show. She does not rescue Anthy, Anthy has to leave on her own.

In the film. Uh. Utena very much goes with her. But she does so in a way where she's not able to directly help; Anthy has to drive.

Honestly I'm sure there's more to say here but I'm kind of reeling from the spectacle of Getting Changed By The Big Machine, set to a juiced up version of the Absolute Destiny Apocalypse theme song.

Look, you're not going to get an "A" essay on the first watch of a movie with that scene from someone who

Um

is really into the vehicle/body horror thing that a certain other anime has going for it.

Look does anyone honestly expect someone who gives the *non judgemental but knowing look* to the Nanami Cow Episode to not have their own deviantart-tier kinks?

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

I think I see what's ultimately going on with the movie. It's asking the audience to do a LOT more heavy lifting dissecting the metaphor of what's going on, adds another layer of fantasy on top of the fantasy, and gets much farther away from the literal in order to play up how fraught Anthy's Power Word: Leave would be.

And in exchange for that we get a less bittersweet, but still open ending, and an actual Utena/Anthy kiss.

[voidpacifist]

god is an author

DISCLAIMER: this is not to preach at anyone what they should or should not believe! This is purely me divulging into my thoughts about the God I grew up learning about and how I've come to terms with their existence. If that intellectual exercise is totally your thing, please enjoy :)

I've been sitting on this one for some time now, simply because I don't know very many people who study their own theology and pick it to pieces for fun, nor do I know very many people who are interested in theology in the first place. In fact, many people I've met, while not turned off to the idea of an existing and all-encompassing higher Somebody or Something, don't seem to like discussing the topic at all. And as someone who has recently come to confront the fact that their christian values may not even be considered "christian enough" anymore, I have begun to understand the discomfort with the subject matter.

But that brings me to the crux of why I began thinking about "God analogies" in the first place. See, the less I wanted to discuss the semantics about God's existence, the more my brain pushed back with different ways of looking at their existence. Namely, the way we compare them to different human archetypes - God as a father, God as a mother, God as an artist, God as a holy physician, etc. I was having trouble finding one that really and truly encompassed all the facets of their existence while also mirroring pieces of our (human beings) existence. After all, I was taught that we were made in the image of God, so what analogy was best? What analogy would set my mind at ease?

And then, of course, when I discovered the joy found present only in creating, I came a little bit closer to the "right" analogy. For a while, it was easy to think of God as simply a creator, but even that felt too simple. It didn't answer my questions about the problem of evil being allowed to exist, nor did it set my mind at ease about other philosophical and moral quandaries I'd been having. Would I be cast into damnation for allowing myself to feel about women as I did about men? Would I still be a christian if I didn't think of God as a father but rather as a genderless (or all-gendered) being? Would I lose my faith if I allowed myself to question the structure of the religion I'd grown up in? No, calling them merely a creator still left too many gaps in the analogy - a mere creator with no further pretense didn't necessarily account for anything moral, only for creativity itself.

It was a start, because humans are naturally creative creatures, and if we truly are image bearers of a higher power, then that comparison makes sense. But at this point, I was obsessed with narrowing the parallels down to something much more specific to my particular paradigm. Lo and behold, it was right around the time that I arrived at this platform of exploration that I began thinking of them as an author.

Point one: God is an author because they exist outside of the timeline.

When speaking about time as a concept, the first thing that I personally think of is the scene from season three of BBC's Doctor Who where David Tennant's incarnation of the Doctor says, "When you look at it from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly...timey wimey...stuff." And in reference to our human experience, he's incorrect in that regard. We spectate the passage of time from cause to effect to cause to effect. Rinse and repeat. Time is cyclical and linear and a progression.

And, time is entirely out of bounds as well.

Think about it with the fact in mind that the closer to the planet earth that one is, the faster the "clock moves." This is a phenomenon known as time dilation. It's seen in all sorts of scifi films, most prominently depicted in Nolan's Interstellar - time progresses at a far slower rate for the main character, and by the time he makes the return to his family, his daughter is already experiencing the final moments of her life. Decades for her have only translated to maybe two years for him.

Furthermore, if we think about the universe being in constant outward expansion, we can only assume that outside of it, past the edge of matter, there is no time. This brings to mind the concept of eternity, as well as the conundrum of how eternity can simply be. In eternity, everything has already happened and nothing has happened. The same can be said in regards to what is and what will be. How it can be all or nothing all at once is something we are incapable of understanding, because it breaks the rules of our conditions of existence. But for a being such as God? For someone or something that is in charge of all the rules and regulations of everything in the material plane? It doesn't break any rules then, because God is not governed by the rules of our existence - they are exterior to us.

How does that tie back into authorship? I'm so glad you asked.

(And if you've made it this far, thank you for sticking with me through my extremely heady tangent on the rules of time as a concept.)

It ties back into authorship, because every author exists outside of their characters' timeline(s). If time is contained within a story, then eternity is merely outside of that, with the author. James Dashner is not constrained by the events or progressions of The Maze Runner series. J.R.R. Tolkien is not contained by the end or beginning of Middle Earth in Lord of the Rings. In the same way, God did not "begin" when the universe began, because they wrote the universe into existence. If they began with the universe, that would bring up the question, "Who made God?", which would unravel with the knowledge in mind of God being all-powerful.

Points two and three: the problem of evil and the issue of free will.

Firstly, evil. The problem of the existence of good and evil is one that has left many in quite a scramble about how to justify God's existence when abhorrent things are also allowed to occur. And I'm not here to say that I have the definite answer, or that any emotions about the matter are invalid. I simply think this explanation is one that works, so I'll explain it to the best of my ability.

But before I explain, I'll have theological debater Cliffe Knechtle offer some further insight to the age old question, "Why would a loving god allow so much suffering?"

His answer is quite long, so I've condensed it to his first two points for the sake of remaining concise: the extent of God's power, and the concept of free will.

"[But] as a follower of Christ, I have to think, first point: Genesis chapter one records that when God created this, God saw that it was good. When God created that, God saw that it was good. So God did not create evil, suffering, and death. But in Genesis chapter three, we read how human beings rebelled against God, and when we told God to step off, to get lost, to remove his act elsewhere, he partially honored our request. And when God stepped back, chaos, destruction, and death entered.

"So you and I were not born into a fair world. You and I are born into an unfair world. Not because God created it that way, but because the all powerful God chose to partially limit his power by creating me free. If I hall back and slap this man and turn to you and say, 'God made me do it,' I'm a con artist, I'm a liar. God gave me a hand for the purpose of loving and respecting this man. But because I have a free will, I can roll this hand into a fist and send it crashing into this handsome face. If I have the audacity to say God made me do it, I'm a liar. I have a free will. And you and I live in a world where there's a tremendous amount of suffering, evil, and death. That's a direct result of human irresponsibility. Remember - when we human beings rebel against God, God steps back and evil, chaos, suffering and death enter the experience of humankind.

"Now, why? Why did God choose to create us with free will? Ultimately, I do not know. 'Well, come on Cliffe, it would be better if we didn't have free will. We wouldn't have evil and all this suffering and death.' Yeah, we also wouldn't have love. Because in order for it to be real, love has to be free. If it ain't free, it ain't love. If he's been dating somebody for the past two months, and she has said to him, 'I love you,' and tonight his dad calls him up and says, 'Son, I've been paying her one thousand bucks a month to date you,' he'd be royally bummed out. Why? Because you cannot manipulate or force love. And God created us to live in a love relationship with himself. You cannot force love.

"'Oh, but God's all powerful, he can do anything he wants.' No, that's not what the Bible teaches. God cannot make square circles. God cannot make two plus two equal five. And God cannot make himself exist and not exist at the same time in the same way. Impossible. When the Bible says that God is all powerful, it's means he's all powerful over his creation. But obviously, what he's chosen to do is he's chosen to limit his power and give us free will. And that's why you love, and that's why you enjoy it so much when other people love you. Because you know they don't have to love you. You know that they freely choose to love you."

Let's digress and digest.

Oftentimes, when the topic of free will comes up, it turns into a conversation of two extremes - of God as a puppeteer or of God being entirely absent. In order to address the middle ground, we need to explore a new idea: what if our ideas had their own free will? More specifically, what if the people we derive from our imaginations (original characters, imaginary friends, etc.) had a free will of their own?

Fellow authors can attest to knowing a character they've constructed so well that at some point, it becomes less about planning what the character will do, and more about understanding what the character will do. With regards to God as an author, they know us so well that though we have free will, every action we take as people still remains within God's plan, or in this case, "the plot" of our story in this existence. God, existing as they do outside of time, is the constructor of the story we're in and thus, knows us well enough to have both left nothing up to chance and given us the freedom to choose. It is by their will, but it doesn't make us robotic or mere vessels to be filled by command after command.

Which then brings us to the involvement of God when it comes to evil. Personally, I believe Cliffe encompassed this point beautifully: whereas God has limited theirself to allow us our free will, they have also therefore allowed bad things to be present in our timelines. With the further knowledge in mind that nothing is left up to chance (though everything is still up to us as human beings), this also means that evil has a purpose. For whatever reason, whether it be for demonstration or illustration, evil adds depth to the story of our existence in a way we cannot understand. If we understood it, I rather do think we'd have a glimpse into the mind of God theirself.

Point four: God is an author because they know the end.

Now, when it comes to the end, such as where we go when we die or how the world will eventually burn or freeze or result in some other disaster, we have a lot of trouble talking about it. We stress about the little details of what it's like to cease existing. Is there a blinding light before walking through the pearly gates? Is there utter darkness and then nothing, much like falling asleep? Is there a way to even conceptualize it? Do we all get expedited into a lake of fire?

It's admittedly terrifying. And also one of those things that people either preach loudly and proudly about or clam up at the thought of it. In my humble opinion, if we're all just characters with no knowledge of what happens at the end of our story, then we have no reason to be telling others where they're going either. That's up to the author and the character. All I can hope for is that the end will be satisfying, in a way that fully encapsulates the essence of each player and arc.

It brings me to my last point, which isn't a point really, but moreso a question regarding the existence of Jesus: is it God inserting theirself into our story, or have we simply been part of their story the whole time, with Jesus as our glimpse at the one who wrote us into being?

Personally, I think it's both. Because if we are the image of God, as well as created by them, then our story is both perfectly ours and perfectly God's.

[cathchicken]

I think I need to clarify a few things from my last comic. I posted this on reddit as well, earlier today, and I think the mention of non-toh subjects sparked some confusion/discussion. So I want to make a few things clear and go over what I probably messed up on. Sorry, it got a little long, but if any of you were from the reddit post/indulge in dimensional/multiverse theories, you may appreciate this:

- So, a lot of people mainly pointed out how I sort of fumbled the definition of the Kardashev scale. I am aware the scale specifically ranks a civilization’s use of power, NOT how powerful the civilization is. The collector was a pretty bad person to rank, and I was also aware of that, which is why I tried to explain that my ranking of him was just a VERY rough one. He is only an individual, and we have seen so little of his capabilities in general that I couldn’t possible try to theorize how his species would function. I think the confusion spawned from my terrible wording in the comic, as the collector references his physical powers, and then directly moves on to the Kardashev idea. In my head this was a separate thought, but when I wrote it, they weren’t even separate sentences aha. My bad!! Also, someone smart pointed out how we don’t even KNOW if the collector is even a species, or if he’s actually a rando just blessed with really powerful abilities. All in all, adding the kardashev scale in the comic and frivolously ranking the collector was sort of pointless... a fun sort of pointless, but I can see where you all are coming from. Sorry about that!

- Other people discussed my mentioning of the term “god” and what the definition of a god is. So, this idea is ENTIRELY up to your opinion, to be honest, but to make the comic less confusing, this is how I see it: An actual god, in reference to this comic and potentially other things I may talk about, are 10th dimensional beings (or higher) that, essentially, are all powerful, exist in all timelines, exist in all physical places/universes, all at the same time, and can manipulate whatever they want. Now this to some will sound ridiculously silly, which is why I even talked about it in the comic. This definition is not the actual Wikipedia or dictionary definition, it is just my own idea. It is not inherently real, it is just theoretical. Hopefully I made that clear... people in the comments started to reference other “gods” (and when I use quotations, I do not mean they are wrong, just not relevant to the definition I previously explained) in media, like Greek gods. I hope I didn’t offend anyone by trying to explain I wasn’t really talking about them, and just expressing my own idea, but I have a feeling I probably read some responses wrong and a lot of confusion came out of it. Other definitions of godhood in media are not more “incorrect” than mine, I was just trying to explain that the comic was taking place in a universe where my definition was inherently real. I added it for fun, not to challenge other people’s beliefs/ideas. My mistake by sort of just going off about how I personally like to see these dimensions instead of clarifying they were only my opinion, didn’t help either. In conclusion: these were my little headcanons I made up, and I didn’t mean to offend anyone, so I also apologize for that!

- One last little thing: I added string theory at the end purely for jokes. I thought “oh haha string theory is supposed to take place in 11 dimensions right?? hah what if the collector knows about that too”. So yeah, I REALLY didn’t think about how string theory would even be connected to the universe, and I am also not an expert on it either. If that bothers you... I don’t know what to say, but I’ll avoid talking about it in future posts so I don’t mess things up. I should educate myself first!

Alright, that’s pretty much it... I know me making a post about this is silly, but I am just as invested in theories like higher dimensions and multiverses just like you guys. If anything, talking about this stuff is actually pretty cool! You guys are like me :) And learning more about these things and revising my theories is probably a good thing too. This was a silly little toh comic, and I only wish to continue making more silly toh comics!!

[oviids]

pls share some of your spn fic recs 🥺🥺

ok, a few things first:

followers and mutuals who do not have supernatural brainworms, kindly avert your eyes

i don’t normally rec or even read much fanfic any more but this is a CRISIS ok (cont.)

there is so. much. content for deancas out there and i have incredibly high standards, several ancient ao3 bookmarks, can speedread, and want to spare you guys the experience of wading through it all.

i also have a section for spn femslash since I was pretty into that back in the day (sadly a lot less fan content for this :/)

I don’t really like au’s or pure smut (I honestly usually just skim or skip those scenes) so if you’re mainly looking for that kind of thing this probably won’t be very helpful to you. jsyk.

i’m not great at describing stuff but i’ll do my best, i’ll also try and add tw’s when neccesary.

i wil try and keep updating this with any other decent fics i find, feel free to rec stuff too since i’m like 7 years behind.(edit 1/25/21) this is getting looooong so i’m going to start making another list on my spn blog rather than update this one

(edit 1/3/21) since this has gotten pretty long i’ve added rating/approximate word counts and marked my particular favorites with an asterisk.

Dean/Cas fic:

So Says The Sword*** - explicit/85k. FUCK its good...au/time travel where dean is not pulled out of hell by cas and says yes to becoming the michael sword. honestly could serve as an alternative to actually watching the show, if you want to get into dean/cas without actually doing that to yourself.

Fata morgana.*  - teen/6k, pst s9 finale. very bela centric and i love it, she finds cas looking for dean in hell.

Redemption Road -misc/600+k. an incredibly long fic from a collaborative writing group back in the day. canon divergent from the end of s6 on, has a cool take on godstiel and the leviathans, as well as the lovecratian mythos connection. ngl when i reread it i only made it about 28% in but imo the casual reader can actually stop around there, the rest concerns a lovecraftian apocalypse that is still good (i think i don’t remember it very well) but not required to enjoy the first half. if you prefer i have an ebook version i can send you on gdrive.

Someone Who's Feeling For Me* - mature/45k, s12. they run into lisa braeden and dean thinks cas is into her while cas thinks dean still likes her. treats lisa way better than the show ever did and the miscommunication is pretty funny rather than annoying.

a turn of the earth - mature/95k. time travel fic where cas from s10 keeps showing up in deans life from a few years before s1 to right before the hellhounds take his soul.  slow burn, good character study, and at one point cas punches the dad in the face and it rules.

On the Wings of War - teen/85k, canon divergent s5. dean accidentally becomes the Horseman of War. plays fun, fast and loose with biblical lore, michael has some rights.

Named - mature/95k, alternate s5. EXTREMELY blasphemous in a fun sexy way. manages to predict metatron almost to a T. there’s one major character death and its literally jesus christ, everyone is very sad about it and it sets the rest of the story rolling. an alternate interpretation of cas’ mission to raise dean from hell which had me on the floor. ngl its kind of misogynistic at points, but its from 2010 and tracks with late oughts-2010 spn (sorry anna the author did you dirty here:/).

The Girlfriend Experience - explicit/15k. uhhh i don’t normally rec or even read smutty stuff unless someone i know is specifically asking for it but this has stuff like sam trying to be a good ally and dean thinking holding hands with cas is ‘kinda gay :/’ minutes after having gay sex with him.

i crippled your heart a hundred times - explicit/19k, s8. cas confesses his feelings and dean spends a long time getting his head out of his ass about it. truly hits different after the actual confession, despite being written six years early it feels like its actually what could have gone down more or less if the writers weren’t talentless demons who hate us.

My Roots Take Flight** - mature/125k. reverse au where cas is a hunter and dean’s an angel...OR IS IT???? an alternate retelling of s4. tw for briefly being set in a psychiatric hospital/the hospital being mentioned somewhat frequently throughout the fic, plus more references to torture in hell and heaven than usual.

The One Thing You Can't Lose* - teen/4k.you know those posts about how cas is a super-strong super-tough ancient warrior but he just lets dean tug him around because he likes it? thats it thats the fic.

Hands, From Which All Things Are Built - teen/14k, post s8′s ‘goodbye stranger.’ cas is on the run with the angel tablet but keeps in touch with sam and dean by text, he and dean still manage to be terrible at Actual communication.

Autrement, Danger - or, The Account of an Exceedingly Long Day - mature/30k, post s11. a monster that takes the appearance of your soulmate leads to some wild miscommunications and dealing with years of repression, also dean gets to see cas’ true form which is always cool. tw for non-graphic mentions of underage sexual assault/sex work.

Down to Agincourt - mature/explicit/900++++k, endverse continuation. endverse!cas survives his encounter with lucifer and discovers another time-displaced dean from s7. i’ve only read the two of four parts but its really good, veeeeery slow burn, has a lot of fun oc’s and takes a rather surprising but (imo) entertaining and intriguing turn into Hellenic history and mythology. usual tw’s for endverse/endverse!cas but nothing graphic, it’s actually pretty light-hearted (relatively speaking of course).

Nothing Equals the Splendor** - explicit/8k, THEE finale fix it fic you’ve been waiting for! posits that the entire final episode was just a (very bad and lame) djinn’s vision.

like moses and batman and james dean - explicit/31k, post s8. explores dean’s trauma and internalized homophoba from his technically canon experience with sex work and its impact on his relationship with cas. the sex work itself isn’t really shown in any detail but it’s still a relatively heavy fic.

Crazy Diamonds - explicit/25k, s4/alternate s14. fresh-out-of-hell dean and dean from 10 years in the future are displaced from time and sent to each other’s present.

where the weeds take root - explicit/30k. au where the men of letters kick them out of the bunker and they accidentally move out into the country, get over their codependence and semi retire. featuring chicken coop building, sam volunteering at a dog shelter, gardening, and blissfully mundane domesticity.

No Resting Place - teen/6k. djinn dream fic, switches back and forth between cas’ dream of being married to dean and retired from hunting to the aftermath when he wakes up. tw for brief mention of suicide since, y’know, djinn dream.

any port in a storm - mature/52k. post s8 finale. cas and dean have to pose as a couple going through a rough patch for a case and actually deal with their emotional baggage, cas struggles with being human and metatron is up to stuff.

all this and heaven too* - explicit/7k. in the author’s own words ‘...a love letter to every trans person who ever projected onto Dean Winchester.’ absolutely unzipped me emotionally and theologically, its just. so good. tw for very brief mentions of internalized transphobia/dysphoria.

Because it is* - mature/6k, finale fix it. killing chuck does not bring back anyone back and the winchesters spend a very long time dealing with what they’ve lost, cas and dean SOMEHOW still manage to have signifigant communication issues even after the confession. tw for suicidal thoughts/brief attempt.

Vena Amoris and Other Old-Fashioned Bullshit* - teen/4k, s6. when cas fell for dean it automatically soulbonded/angel married them, shenanigans ensue when dean finds out during the angel’s civil war. funny and actually written back when s6 was airing so cas is still (or at least pretending to be) kind of an OP asshole which is fun.

Rinse, Repeat - teen/3k, s8. angsty character study of cas as he’s reprogrammed and trained to kill dean. not really dean/cas since its just cas’ pov of canon events but its beautifully written and ends with him snapping out of it through the power of love (also now a canon event!).

Emergence - explicit/59k, canon divergent after s11. dean meets a hunter he only recognizes as their friend claire novak’s missing father, but soon realizes he might be the answer behind the mysterious void in his memories and feelings (aka everyone’s memories of cas are completely wiped away for three years).

Cuckoo And Nest - explicit/10k, early established relationship/character study, cas tries to figure out how he fits into dean’s life and space in the bunker.

Build a Home* - teen/20k, canon divergent s12. sam and eileen are cute and turn the bunker into men of letters/hunters hq and everyone but cas moves in, mutual miscommunication issues and pining ensues.

Down in the River - teen/5k, early s8, cas prays to dean in purgatory while sam and dean try to figure out a way to get him out.

Teaching Poetry to Fish* - mature/52k, ?? BC through the entire series/canon divergent s14 and 15. retelling of crucial scenes throughout the shows timeline from cas’ pov, feat. actual fish and poetry.

the minor fall, the major lift - gen/4k, post confession/finale fixit. dean goes into the empty to save cas and runs into several old friends (and enemies).

With the Kisses of His Mouth* - teen/3k, gen later seasons. dean and cas keep kissing by accident.

Remaining Grace - explicit/109k, alternate s6. au where cas asks dean for help with raphael and dean, of course, does. tw for temporary major character death/semi-graphic depictions of alcohol withdrawal.

The face of heaven.* - teen/10k, au, dean is a regular guy and cas is a fallen star (think ‘stardust’, kinda).

Stories Are Made of Mistakes*  - teen/5k. newly human cas has trouble getting used to a human body and humanity in general, but still figures out that he and dean are A Thing before dean does.

Hurry Up And Wait - mature/21k, canon divergent s12. a fairyland and quite possibly LOTR related case comes up and dean goes full fanboy, mary is introduced to the wonders of the peter jackson adaptions, many references and comparisons (including between cas and dean’s ‘friendship’ and arwen/aragon). also charle is still alive and has just been doing fairy stuff this whole time.

There Are Many Things - explicit/28k, s9. cas is extremely lonely/touch-starved and trying to figure out this whole human thing, as well as where he and dean stand after being kicked out of the bunker.

It's A Long Life to Always Be Longing - teen/40k, post s11 finale. amara helps dean by putting him in a magical coma so he can finally get some much needed rest and show him possible futures for him, sam and cas. meanwhile sam and cas go on a roadtrip (or several) to find componets for a spell to wake dean up. really good sam and cas friendship, they actually talk about their shared lucifer trauma and stuff.

Non-Photo Blue - gen/2k, s4/5/alternate s5. fifty moments from cas’ memories of dean.

Tall Grass - explicit/57k, canon divergent post series. cas becomes the ultimate plant dad. feat the wayward sisters gang, cathartic character growth, fun oc’s, domesticity, and lots of actual botanical info-dumping.

on vessels - no rating/gen/2k. established dean/cas, cas tells dean about how he used to imagine what it would be like to have him as his vessel.

search for tomorrow on every shore* - teen/11k, post-finale (extremely derogatory). some angels in jack’s new heaven act out and dean gets temporarily resurrected in 2003 and runs into his younger self.

Architecture of the Minotaur’s Heart - explicit/45k, very canon divergent post s1. dean’s new house seems to have a life and mind of its own, while in his dreams he sees glimpses of a world and apocalypse that never came to be and an angel that looks strangely like his mysterious neighbor, cas. loosely inspired by the book house of leaves (which i highly recommend for fans of weird horror).

The Distance Of The Setting Sun - explicit/17k, post s5. established dean/cas relationship, team free will finally takes advantage of cas’ abilities to go on vacation around the world.

diamond star halo - teen/5k, s11. dean lets cas use him as a temporary vessel while he recovers from rowena’s spell, sam is a long-suffering third-wheel.

Make Known** - teen/16k, s6/7. dean struggles to understand how cas could have become his enemy and whether he ever truly knew him in the first place.

blunt little instrument* - mature/1.4k, post finale. dean finally confronts his father in heaven, very cathartic.

my heart a compass*** - teen/10k, post confession. the empty forces cas to re-experience his most regretted moments while dean tries to snap him out of it and bring him home.

A Crash Course in Someone Else's History - teen/11k, s6. cas from the very start of s4 is brought forward in time by s6!cas to distract the brothers from his and crowley’s plans.

The Cuckoo Father - mature/8k, s7 au. the woman who found cas in the river post-leviathans does not marry him bc he was sent to her by god or whatever, but actually identifies him as jimmy novak and sends him back to claire and amelia.

The Dead Dean Clause* - teen/5k, post alt s5 ending. team free will celebrates surviving taking down lucifer by getting blitzed, cas lies to a cop and gets an impromptu driving lesson. title/description sound dark i know but it’s actually very funny and light.

Suck It, Judy Garland - mature/20k, s12 (after the ‘i love you...i love all of you’ episode). cas and sam have to pretend to be a couple for a case and dean is NOT happy about it.

By Daylight and In Dream - teen/16k, s5. pre-dean/cas, dean invites cas to use his dreams to hide from the other angels. tw for very brief mention of a memory/dream of alastair sexually assaulting dean.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven - mature/22k, post-canon. an actually happy (if sometimes bittersweet) heaven endgame written several years ago, though some details are rather eerily similar to the show’s ending.

heaven is a place on earth* - teen/2k. dean’s pov of some of the times cas left him behind throughout the show, and one alternate ending where he finally gets to stay.

I Cleanse The Mirror - teen/20k, alternate s6. dean’s body is stolen by an ancient elemental and his soul has to hitch a ride in cas’ vessel.

an exploration of gender; angelic*** - mature/4k. *oscar isaac voice* lets get into angel gender politics!! aka cas is trans.

Zenith - explicit/33k, s9. after 9x06 an angry witch curses cas with the ability to see supernatural beings and human souls.

La cucina. - gen/3k, alt s9. dean goes wild helping a newly-human cas find out what kinds of food he likes, or the early s9 domesticity we deserved!

Dean Winchester, Cocksucker at Rest***** - teen/7k, post-finale. john and mary finally come over for dinner and john reacts to dean/cas in a rather predictable fashion. SOOOOOOOOO good omg, its so funny and a little sad and very very cathartic. part of a series that has a few other really good short fics.

The Way You Didn't Go - teen/5k, s15. coda to 15.09, dean has nightmares about the moc!cas timeline.

On Drowning - teen/28k. dean saves cas after he nearly drowns, they both try and deal with the physical/mental fallout (aka the fic where thee iconic “you only touch me when you think I’m dead or dying” originates). tw for realistic depictions of drowning/triage/misc medical information.

The Thirty-Six Questions That Lead to Love* - mature/13k. claire has dean and cas pretend to be her gay dads for a case and they play the titular 36 question game, get mistaken for swingers, and birdwatch, among other things.

Assorted F/F stuff:

Deep Breaths* - mary/ellen, au where mary said no to azazel’s deal and let john stay dead, still becomes a milf.

Like Rebel Diamonds - krissy/claire, they become hunter gf’s on the hunt for cas to kick his ass for taking jimmy. not-so-stealth dean/cas as well.

To Ash and Bone - anna/ruby, same author as the previous fic (p much all of her stuff is good from what i recall). au where ruby is a witch and helps anna when she’s cursed.

Holy Clockwork Angels - jo/ruby, STEAMPUNK au with very cool worldbuiilding.

At Day's End - jo/anna (my fucking KINGDOM for more jo/anna content, the dean/cas parallels are allllll there), au where they are both at the camp in the endverse and gfs.

these posts - ok so not actually a fic but i’m now obsessed with this hannah/meg dynamic.

Tagelied - mary/ellen, the true story of how ellen got into hunting before angels interfered.

Hell's Bells** - meg/abaddon, alternate s8/9 where meg survives crowley’s attack with sam’s help and teams up with abaddon (who she has a sk year old crush on) to take back hell.

The Ecstasy of the Rose - anna/ruby, anna travels back in time to escape heaven and becomes a signifigant part of ruby’s old human life.

Angel Underground - anna/jo, kind of an urban fantasy au with a very intriguing premise (sadly its very short, i’d love to see more if this ‘verse).

Clover, Flame - billie/mary, billie was always the reaper that showed up to take mary after her death(s) over the years.

Drag Me To Heaven - anna/ruby, a variant on the ‘last night on earth’ thing with dean.

Come Home* - jo/anna, canon-divergent au where anna is the new waitress at the roadhouse and helps jo set up a (probably not really) haunted house for halloween.

[phoenixyfriend]

Quinlan and the Interdimensional Ingenues (except not really)

Context: SW Suddenly Omegaverse AU (Original Post), Interior Design (Nesting Divots), Chrono Rating: T+ Relationships: Anakin & Obi-Wan, Quinlan/Obi-Wan

This is like 90% cuddles and scenting that’s a few steps to the side of a/b/o standard. There is a lot of non-sexual licking. It’s a little odd, but I’m assuming that’s what you’re here for. It’s also over 5k words, so, you know. There’s that.

Note: “Ternary” is to the number three as “binary” is to the number two. Binary gender/sex refers to IRL male/female distinctions, and ternary refers to alpha/beta/omega. Gender and sex are much more complicated than is touched on in this particular fic, and trans identities exist within both the binary system and the ternary system. (More notes at end.)

-----

“Sorry to tell you this,” Quinlan says, sliding into the room as quickly as he can, “but we can smell omega distress from several rooms down the hall. What the hell is going on?”

“We’ve having a lot of feelings,” Kenobi says drily. He’s on the couch, looking damnably normal, and Skywalker’s got his face shoved into his master’s neck. Kenobi’s fingers card through the curls, and it’s... well, it would be easy to tell which of them was having said feelings even if Quinlan hadn’t already been able to tell them apart in scent.

“I’m distraught,” Skywalker moans, mushing himself somehow closer.

Kenobi’s eyes go to the ceiling, and he visibly prays to the Force for patience. “I know, Anakin.”

“You think I’m being dumb.”

“I think you’ve had a few months to prepare for this, but that your reaction is understandable nevertheless,” Kenobi says carefully. “Quinlan, would you like to take a seat?”

He hops the back of an armchair in a way that earns him a long-suffering, fond sigh. Quinlan grins encouragingly. “So, do I get to know what this is about?”

“I’m having trouble keeping it out of the Force, but at least I can do that,” Skywalker mutters. He does not lift his head. “I can’t control the scent stuff.”

“Yeah,” Quinlan says, because he’s not sure what else to say. “Do you want me to go get Tano? Might make you feel better.”

Skywalker just whines, high and pained, and tries to curl impossibly closer to Kenobi.

“Anakin,” Kenobi tries. “Anakin, do you want me to explain?”

“I want my--” Skywalker cuts himself off with a choking noise, and then keens. It’s a very omega noise, in the sense that his vocal cords can make it, and non-omegas have trouble mimicking it, and it makes Quinlan want to go over and do his best to fix things in whatever way he can.

(This, everyone is finding, is the truly awkward element to having Skywalker and Kenobi around. They don’t have any experience with controlling their ternary sex instincts, and it makes everyone else react poorly when they do, well, almost anything. They can’t be blamed, considering exactly how inconvenient this is for them, as well, but it’s not a great time for anyone.)

Quinlan tries to keep his own scent pleasant and calm, as soothing as he can make it through the blockers. He doesn’t think it works. “Your what?”

“His wife,” Kenobi says. “Because apparently that was the other way he broke the Code.”

“I looked her up,” Skywalker moans, dramatic as anyone. “She’s already mated and married, in this timeline. To that artist. She’s totally happy and she’s never met me and I’m never gonna be able to work with or around her because I won’t be able to act normal about it and I miss her.”

‘A lot of feelings‘ Kenobi mouths at Quinlan over Skywalker’s head.

“Well, at least it explains the position you’re in,” Quinlan tries to joke. The blank look he gets from Kenobi tells him clearly that the joke didn’t land. “Uh, scenting at the neck like that.”

“Inappropriate?” Kenobi hazards a guess. He doesn’t pull Skywalker away.

“Sort of,” Quinlan says. “You’re family, or as good as, so between that and the need for comfort, nobody’s really going to judge you for it, especially given your backgrounds, but that kind of prolonged neck-scenting for comfort is something kids outgrow in pre-adolescence. It’s only really used for either comfort for extreme emotions, like this, or, uh, between lovers. Post-coital, or during foreplay before, you know, mouths get involved.”

Kenobi grimaces. “Lovely. And what do you mean by ‘of our backgrounds’ in this case? That we have less control, or another factor?”

He doesn’t sound offended. Quinlan appreciates that. “You didn’t have ten years to get that comfort. It’s like... touch starvation, but for scenting. Anyone who knows what’s going on with you, even in the vague sense that doesn’t involve dimensional travel, is going to give you leeway on scenting because you didn’t have that, growing up.”

Kenobi’s grimace doesn’t go away until Skywalker’s breath hitches, hand curling in his master’s robes. “Anakin?”

“I don’t like feeling like this,” Skywalker mutters. “It sucks.”

“I know.”

“And we can’t delay the war much longer, and she was one of the only reasons I stayed even kinda sane through it.”

“I know, Anakin,” Kenobi sighs, running a hand through Skywalker’s hair and, awkwardly as anything, pressing a small kiss to the young man’s forehead. “You’ll have other ways to de-stress this time around. Maybe you’ll actually attend your meditative retreats.”

Skywalker huffs out a breath, in a laugh wet with what might be burgeoning tears. “Shut up.”

“I think you’ve known me far too long to think I’ll ever run out of words,” Kenobi says. He meets Quinlan’s eyes again, but before either of them can communicate about whether Quinlan should leave, Skywalker lurches to his feet, muttering something about a shower.

He’s gone before Kenobi can get more than two words out, and the man is left looking ruffled and confused by his former padawan’s sudden departure. He stays watching the door, and slowly wilts in a way that doesn’t speak well for his state of mind. The man sighs and drops his head into his hands, cradling it with his elbows on his knees, and whatever calm he’d had fades into pure stress, the air curdling with the smell of it.

Quinlan waits, unsure of how to handle this; Kenobi’s Quinlan Vos probably would have known how to deal with the change.

“What am I doing?” Kenobi breathes out, the words almost inaudible from behind his hands.

There are a few moments for Quinlan to consider the many complications and ramifications of getting involved, and then he decides to do so anyway. He stands up and steps around the caff table, and sits down next to Kenobi. He wraps an arm around the man’s shoulders, and brings him in close.

“You don’t have to do this,” Kenobi says, though he makes no move to pull away. “I know you don’t... this is just an obligation. The Council assigned you to gather information and keep an eye out for us in terms of the whole omega thing, since you already shared my heat, and... I know I’m not a friend to you. You barely know me, and the fact that you have to look out for me is something that truly grates. Such care shouldn’t...”

Quinlan waits for him to finish, but he doesn’t.

“I won’t say that they didn’t give me that assignment, because that would be a lie and you’d know it,” Quinlan says. “But I do want to be friends with you. We’re sort of there, already, even if that’s mostly you knowing my other self, and my psychometry, but I’ve seen what a friendship with you could be like, in what you let me see. We’ll never have that same dynamic, because I didn’t grow up with you, and the ternary sex adds an element that changes things, but I do want to be your friend.”

He hesitates, unsure if the rest will make things worse or better, but says it anyway. “As for taking care of you, looking out for you... I do feel a need to do that on an instinctual level, yes, but I can ignore it. It’s an instinct, but one that I, like everyone else that’s grown up as a human or near human in this galaxy, can work around. I am doing more than the minimum the Council requested, and it’s because I do actually like you as a person, and want to know you better.”

Kenobi’s head is resting on his shoulder by this point, tired and heavy, and Quinlan reaches up to brush his knuckles against the beard without looking. His blockers are still keeping his scent down, but the contact seems to make Kenobi relax more. His hands are mostly laced together, and falling into the dip between their legs.

“There’s a way I can help, but it’s, ah... not inherently sexual in nature, but generally only done by those whose relationship is already some degree of sexual,” Quinlan tells him. “To make you feel better, less stressed.”

“I’m assuming you’re not suggesting an orgasm,” Kenobi mutters, dry as anything. He laughs when Quinlan puts a hand on his knee.

“Not exactly feeling it,” Quinlan agrees. He squeezes Kenobi’s knee, and then says, “No, it’s mostly scenting in a way that’s usually only done by lovers; it’s more effective, but very intimate in a way many find uncomfortably sexual, because the amount of tongue involved is very reminiscent of foreplay.”

Kenobi laughs, a little harder, and nuzzles a little. He doesn’t seem aware of the fact that he’s doing it. “Alright, then.”

“I’d also suggest moving to one of the nests,” Quinlan says, and Kenobi immediately freezes. He gives it a moment, and then says, “I know you found it helpful after your heat, Kenobi. The nesting instinct is human here. It’s not shameful. There are people who don’t get anything out of it, but I’ve seen you nesting, and it’s good for you.”

Kenobi shudders and Quinlan thinks he might be fighting down a whine. “It’s a change, Quin. I mean, Quinlan. It’s... it’s just another thing out of many that’s different.”

“And one of the few you have control over?” Quinlan guesses. He tries to purr for support when Kenobi nods against his shoulder, and he thinks the deep rumble is soothing to Kenobi. “I get that.”

“Don’t stop,” Kenobi mutters, and Quinlan can guess he’s blushing about it.

“Into the nest,” Quinlan mutters. “It’ll help convince Skywalker to use it, and he really needs that kind of comfort.”

That’s the line of logic that actually works, and Quinlan isn’t the least bit surprised.

“Fine,” Kenobi sighs, and gets to his feet before Quinlan can offer to carry him or something similarly joking. The man walks to the communal nest at the edge of the room, and then looks down into the barely-used mess of blankets and pillows in the floor divot like he doesn’t even know how to get in.

Quinlan thinks there might be dust, even.

Fine. He can work with that. He’s taken this duo on as a project of his own free will, and he’s damn well going to follow through.

“Want to rearrange it?” he asks, in hopes that he can prompt Kenobi into figuring out what’s wrong.

“I don’t... know,” Kenobi says, frowning in a way that’s more worried and uncomfortable than angry. “I don’t know what’s wrong.”

Quinlan considers it, thinks of how the dust means nobody’s been here, that there’s not even a hint of scent, and then turns and grabs the throw pillows and thick, woven blanket from the couch.

“Wait,” Kenobi protests. “They don’t--”

“We can put them back later,” Quinlan assures him. He holds them out to Kenobi. “Trust me? I may not be an omega, but I do know enough of the theory.”

Kenobi takes the pillows and the blanket, stares down at them and then at the nest, and steps out of his slippers and into the nest. The layer already there is thin, and likely not doing much for anyone, but it’s the bare minimum and Quinlan can work with that.

He turns and scouts the room for spare fabrics, grabs all three of the outer robes from where they hang by the door, and the recently-used dishtowel that only barely carries Skywalker’s scent, and brings them to Kenobi.

“The robes aren’t clean!” Kenobi protests.

“I could grab something from your room instead,” Quinlan says. “Or you could just leave the hems on the outside. But you need more fabric that actually smells like someone.”

Quinlan wonders, idly, if Kenobi would have this kind of reaction to the suggestion without omega instincts at play, or if it’s just the instincts and he doesn’t realize, or maybe that he’s decided to let the instincts happen since Quinlan’s pushed him into nesting already anyway. The man had insisted in perfectly pressing his robes from the beginning, long before their bodies had had a chance to change, and Skywalker had found it normal, so it’s probably, at least a little, just the man’s personality. It probably doesn’t matter, overall, because all Quinlan has to do is sit at the edge of the nest until Kenobi--the person who actually lives here--is done arranging things.

Quinlan takes off another two layers and offers them, noting out loud that he can get them back later when Skywalker can fill in the gaps or something before too many protests can be voiced. Kenobi hesitantly takes them and tucks them in among his own additional layers. Quinlan’s seen enough communal nests to know that most of the placements are odd and not going to work out long-term, but that’s not the point right now. The point is getting Kenobi to recognize the his body, and more importantly, his mental health, rely at least somewhat on nesting now.

“Are you going to come in?” Kenobi asks, belatedly realizing Quinlan’s still outside the lip of the flooring divot.

“Not without permission,” Quinlan says, and sees the realization flicker in.

Kenobi holds out a hand, silent, and Quinlan lets himself get tugged in among the half-stale, half-new nest. It’s not great, but that’ll come with practice. He tucks himself around Kenobi, and rubs at the man’s arms in an attempt to ease some of the tension that’s clinging to every line of his body.

“What now?” Kenobi asks, just a shade more quiet than Quinlan thinks is really required by the situation.

“A lot of the stress you’re feeling is a feedback loop from being covered in your own distress scent,” Quinlan says. “You can shower to handle that, which is what Skywalker is doing, or you can manually remove it.”

“I’d imagine a wet towel,” Kenobi says, a touch wry, “but given that you mentioned tongue earlier, I’m guessing you intend to lick it away?”

“It’s more effective,” Quinlan admits. “Not at removing the scent, necessarily, but it removes enough to help while also generating comfort and relaxation hormones from the close contact, and being scented by a trusted individual.”

“Makes sense,” Kenobi admits. “You, ah, use scent blockers usually, right? Can you, er, scent me?”

Quinlan can see just how much Kenobi dislikes using the words. He tries to keep it quick. “I use a cream blocker over my scent glands, namely at the neck and wrists, since the rest are covered in fabric. It’s... well, it can be wiped off, or also removed orally. Most manually-applied blockers are formulated to be safe for contact with the mouth or genitals. Only really gets to be a problem if there are rare allergies or with specific species. It doesn’t taste like anything, if that matters.”

Kenobi’s discomfort is almost palpable, but Quinlan lets him work through that. This isn’t really something he can make a choice for Kenobi about, and the discomfort is... well, it’s not really the kind of discomfort usually associated with ternary sex and associated behaviors. Everything’s just very new, and comes with changes to the body that Kenobi never agreed to.

“Right,” Kenobi says. “I want to... to at least try it, I think.”

He turns and blushes, eyes anywhere by Quinlan’s face. “I don’t know how much longer Anakin will be. I’d rather he not think we’re, er...”

“Then I’ll take care of that part fast,” Quinlan promises, and is rewarded by Kenobi offering a wrist.

It’s... not sexual. Quinlan knows he has a hard time explaining this to near-humans that don’t have the scent glands, that don’t have the ternary dynamics. He’s had a similarly hard time explaining it to Kenobi and Skywalker. It’s not sexual, just intimate, when he pulls Kenobi’s wrist to his face, closes his eyes, and breathes in the scent of a distressed, uncomfortable, bitter omega that he’s shared a heat with and knows as almost-friend. The smell, this close and this strong, triggers the production of pheromones of his own, and when he feels Kenobi tentatively start pressing kisses to Quinlan’s own wrist, he relaxes. He brushes his lips against Kenobi’s wrist, and then puts his open mouth to it, the slightest press of teeth and his tongue laving across the skin. He hears Kenobi’s gasp, an almost-yelp, and pulls away long enough to press a kiss the the veins under his lips, and to say, “Relax, Kenobi.”

He forces a purr out, low and rumbling, and feels it work on Kenobi just like it did earlier. There’s a tongue pulling, a little dry, to rub away the blocker on the inside of his wrist, and he turns his attention back to Kenobi’s. The scent is even stronger on his tongue, bitter and unhappy, and his body continues to produce calm and comfort as he pulls away the uglier feelings painted on Kenobi’s skin.

More pheromones leak under his mouth, but less bitter. Less intense. He does what he can, opens his eyes and turns and sees that Kenobi is unduly focused on his wrist, mouthing and not quite purring, but oddly fuzzy in the Force. His eyes are closed, but Quinlan’s pretty sure they’d be glazed if not.

“Kenobi?”

“Hm?”

“Guess you haven’t encountered this outside of a heat before,” Quinlan mutters. He shakes his arm a bit, and puts his other hand on Kenobi’s shoulder. “Kenobi, hey, look at me?”

Kenobi pulls away, blinking, and then makes a face. “That...”

“Didn’t like losing control?” Quinlan guesses. The answer is clear enough. “It’s a matter of practice, especially for you.”

“Why did I... it smelled and tasted like... like I was safe,” Kenobi mutters lowly, eyes on the nest instead of on Quinlan. “I’ve never associated any sense with safety other than the Force.”

“You trust me,” Quinlan says, as if that’s not a little terrifying in its own way. He already knew that Kenobi trusted him, but he thinks that this strong of a reaction might make him Kenobi’s most trusted person after Skywalker and maybe Tano. “And since you trust me, your body subconsciously takes cues from mine, when it comes to pheromones. I project comfort and safety, and your body takes it as... not fact, but affirmation.”

“So I won’t react to anyone like this,” Kenobi says, not quite begging for Quinlan to confirm, but close to it. “Just you, and... does that same logic apply to those who aren’t Alpha designation?”

“Yeah,” Quinlan says. “Not in the same way, but familiarity and trust does affect which pheromones affect you, and how strongly. Children are largely unresponsive to aggression pheromones from their parents, by default, since their minds process it as aggression in defense of them, rather than aggression at them.”

Kenobi purses his lips, but nods and looks at Quinlan’s other wrist. “Moving on?”

“If you’re okay with it,” Quinlan says, but he brings his cleaned wrist to Kenobi’s and rubs them together until his own comfort scent is covering up what’s left of the distress. “Take a smell at that and see how you feel.”

Kenobi eyes him warily--he’s pretty sure he hasn’t done anything to deserve that, but allows it because, well, Kenobi--and sniffs at his own wrist. His brow furrows in confusion, and he sniffs again.

“Good?” Quinlan hazards.

“I... yeah,” Kenobi says. He sounds as confused as he looks. “I like it. It’s... the safe thing, again, but mixing with me?”

“That’s how it’s supposed to feel,” Quinlan assures him. “Other wrist?”

If he were actually the friend that Kenobi had grown up with, if he’d actually had a Kenobi to grow up with, he thinks he might have thrown in a few joking pet names by now.

But he’s not, and they didn’t, so he won’t.

He thinks he hears Skywalker finish up in the shower, but Kenobi pulls his mouth to the neck, and mutters that they have some time while Skywalker does something to his hair. Apparently, there are products needed for those curls.

The angle’s going to be a little uncomfortable if they try to get at each other’s scent glands simultaneously, so Quinlan suggests that Kenobi handle getting the blocker off first.

“Why?”

“More convenient,” Quinlan says, and then clasps Kenobi’s hands so their wrists rub together. He squeezes, just a little, a touch of reassurance, and smiles and tilts his head. “All yours, Kenobi.”

The man smiles, brittle, and almost giggles. Maybe Quinlan was doing something oddly similar to his counterpart from Kenobi’s dimension. Maybe it was an inside joke he didn’t know. It doesn’t matter, because Kenobi’s leaning in and mouthing along Quinlan’s neck and throat like a man possessed a half-second later.

Quinlan closes his eyes and threads a hand into Kenobi’s hair, focuses on warmth and comfort and protection, rather than anything aroused. Kenobi slows down, lapping at Quinlan’s neck and inhaling, and in the Force he radiates confusion.

“That’s it,” Quinlan mutters, and Kenobi makes a low chirruping noise that he immediately stifles with an annoyed huff. “Hey, no, those are normal. You don’t have to be embarrassed.”

“I want control over my own body, Quin,” Kenobi mutters, and switches to the other side. He rubs his face against Quinlan’s neck, and it’s another point on the list of things Kenobi does that he might not realize are based in newer instincts. “I don’t like something being wrong with me, and not understanding what it is.”

“Nothing is wrong with you,” Quinlan mutters, using the hand in Kenobi’s hair to guide him into actually removing the scent blocker instead of donating a case of beard burn. “Even going as fast as you did just now wasn’t something wrong. Your instincts got a bit confused, that’s all. You’re fine.”

He purrs until Kenobi is done, and gets that chirruping noise again. Kenobi’s still annoyed about it, but Quinlan’s just happy he’s getting less uncomfortable about it.

“Okay, sit up and turn around,” Quinlan says, and Kenobi eyes him again. “Have I steered you wrong yet?”

“No.”

“So trust me,” Quinlan urges. “Just turn around.”

Kenobi does. Quinlan sits up and rearranges his legs so there’s one on either side of Kenobi, half-bent. He pulls the other man closer, blankets folding oddly beneath them, and wraps his arms around Kenobi’s waist.

He breathes for a moment, chin hooked over Kenobi’s shoulder, and asks, “Good?”

“Oddly so, yes,” Kenobi mutters. He might be blushing. “Er, should I... do anything?”

“Hands on mine, if you’d like,” Quinlan tells him. “We can lie back down and spoon after I clean up your left.”

The noise Kenobi makes is low, affronted in a way that speaks to his ongoing embarrassment. Quinlan ignores it, just gets to work taking away as much of Kenobi’s stress scent as he can, mouthing along the man’s neck and managing a purr that isn’t even forced. It rumbles out of him unprompted, his hindbrain piecing together the relaxing omega in his lap and the safety of the Temple and the pride he’s got in doing this right, the knowledge that Kenobi’s happier than he was an hour ago and it’s all Quinlan’s doing.

He rubs his face along Kenobi’s neck as he finishes up, scenting and being scented back, and is gratified when Kenobi starts purring too. The nuzzling is mostly soft, though Quinlan’s stubble is nothing to Kenobi’s beard; the hairs trap Quinlan’s scent where it’ll do the most good. He follows a hint of mischievous intent and tugs at Kenobi’s earlobe with his teeth, earning himself a little whine. He laughs, and licks the curve of Kenobi’s ear, immediately scenting further.

“Anakin’s going to be back soon,” Kenobi says, sounding almost sleep drunk.

Quinlan switches sides and guides them both down to lie, chest to front, in the nest. He works more slowly on the other side, keeps himself  propped up on his elbow, forearm slipped neatly under Kenobi’s neck. The scent gland at Quinlan’s wrist rests under Kenobi’s nose, right where it’ll have the most effect. His other hand rubs up and down Kenobi’s side, and by the time Skywalker reenters the room, Quinlan’s done with licking the stress off and rubbing his scent into anything he thinks will help. He’s lying fully on his side instead of having his head propped up, and just doing his best to spread comfort through the room through Force and smell. He maybe nibbles at the back of Kenobi’s neck, here and there, because the man has lothcat response, and

“Guys?”

“Over here, Skywalker.”

The kid--not really a kid, but younger than Aayla, still, so he counts--rounds the couch, and sees them among the added cloaks and pillows and blanket. He stares. Kenobi starts to stiffen back up.

Quinlan increases his purring, and rubs his face against Kenobi’s neck, and glares up at Skywalker for good measure. Kenobi can’t see past Quinlan, probably, and squirms. Skywalker tilts his head, and then puts up a finger in a ‘one moment’ sort of gesture. He runs off.

“Anakin--”

“Kid’s fine,” Quinlan assures him, and Skywalker skids back into the room at unsafe speeds, arms full of what Quinlan’s pretty sure are his own duvet and pillow, and falls face-first into the nest. Kenobi jerks back into Quinlan, but Skywalker ignores this in favor of rearranging the nest into something approaching functional. He’s better at it than Kenobi.

Quinlan’s pretty sure Skywalker was more open to these things from the start. It tracks.

“Now Anakin, really,” Kenobi sputters, as Skywalker finishes layering things in the way he thinks is best. Skywalker beams at him, earlier melancholy forgotten for the moment, and flops down to drop his head somewhere near Kenobi’s chest.

“You haven’t been sleeping,” Skywalker says. “This is good for you.”

Kenobi blushes, and Quinlan scrapes his teeth against the back of his neck again.

“Quinlan!” Kenobi yelps, jolting. “Not--we’re not alone!”

“Helps you calm down, though,” Quinlan says, pressing a few close-mouthed kisses at Kenobi’s hairline.

“Different cultural standards,” Skywalker adds, half-guessing but sure of himself nonetheless. He seems entirely too delighted to be here. “You know what? We should invite Ahsoka.”

“She’s not your padawan here,” Kenobi scolds.

“Yet,” Skywalker corrects. “As soon as I get all my psych evals cleared, the Council’s going to promise. She’s basically my padawan already.”

Kenobi sighs, aggrieved in a manner that feels more fond than actually upset, in the Force, and places a hand lightly on Skywalker’s.

Skywalker chirrups and wriggles closer, pressing his face to Kenobi’s tunic with a smile.

“I see someone’s feeling better,” Kenobi notes, and moves his hand up to play with Skywalker’s hair. “The shower helped?”

“Mm-hm,” Skywalker says. “’nd some of the stuff they made me learn in therapy.”

Kenobi hums low in his throat, an aimless vocalization, as he continues to comb his fingers through Skywalker’s hair.

Skywalker blinks, slow and bleary, with a soft and dopey smile, and Kenobi stops.

“What?”

“I like it when you play with my hair,” Skywalker says, almost too low to hear. His eyes close. “Feels nice. Cared for. Family.”

Kenobi freezes, breath hitching, and Quinlan shifts and lifts just enough to see the man is staring at his own hand in confusion and a slight bit of fear.

“Kenobi?”

“I didn’t even question it,” Kenobi says faintly. “I don’t... I haven’t done that since he was just a child, but I didn’t even question it. I stopped myself from commenting that he’s too old to come to his master for cuddles, because he’s not, in this dimension, and I’m getting used to that, but I started playing with his hair like it was normal and it’s not.”

Quinlan puts his mouth to Kenobi’s trapezius, just enough pressure that he’s not biting, just there, and purrs.

It’s several inches away from anything resembling a mating bite, but Kenobi tilts his head and whines anyway.

“Obi-Wan?” Skywalker prompts, brow furrowed. “It’s not... I mean, I’m not going to say it’s okay, since I know we’re both still upset about our bodies being changed without our permission or input or even a warning, but we’re getting used to it. We’re working with it. The hair thing is fine with me, I like it and would have before. And now that you know you’ll want to do, uh, that sort of thing--”

“Subset of grooming behaviors,” Quinlan tells them, pulling away from Kenobi’s neck with a final open-mouthed kiss. He sees the face Skywalker makes in response to the words, and feels Kenobi’s discomfort, so he elaborates. They’ve compared most of what they hear with tookas and lothwolves, so he thinks he knows what this is about. “We’re not exactly going to start licking each other clean--excluding scent comfort, that’s different--like lothcats, but you’ve already noticed that humans and near-humans are more tactile than you’re used to. Most forms of care, especially of partners and children, ends up physical in some way.”

He gestures between the two of them. “You view Skywalker as family, for all that you shy away from defining it, and so naturally gravitate to care. The easiest way for that to manifest when sharing a nest is usually playing with someone’s hair. Since he’s younger than you, and you’ve spent as much time as you have being the adult in his life...”

Quinlan trails off before he can comment on the question of whether they’re closer to brothers or father-and-son. Kenobi’s already expressed discomfort with that topic, well before they started naturalizing to this dimension. Quinlan’s not going to push for Kenobi to acknowledge Skywalker’s importance to him.

(They’ll have to address it at some point, but that’s a job for the mind healers, not for Quinlan.)

(For all that it’s going to impact and be impacted by their dynamics, that much is definitely not Quinlan’s to handle.)

Kenobi shudders in his arms, but doesn’t shake him off, and doesn’t stop Skywalker from burrowing somehow closer. Quinlan settles back in as Kenobi returns to playing with Skywalker’s hair.

“We really should invite Ahsoka, though.”

“Not tonight, padawan.”

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

Additional notes:

I initially wrote “ternary gender,” but found that it didn’t strike true to how I envisioned gender and dynamic playing out among Jedi culture in particular. While the term ‘dynamic’ is used regularly in a more casual setting, Quinlan uses the term “ternary sex” when talking about it in the company of Anakin and Obi-Wan. I view it as a subconscious attempt to keep a clinical view of the ternary sex system present in the omegaverse dimension, in recognition that it’s new and unfamiliar and often unpleasant for Anakin and Obi-Wan, having come from a dimension that doesn’t have ternary sexes or the associated reproductive capabilities, instincts, or cycles.

I’d like to explore how the ideas of sex, gender, dynamic, and so on intersect within the context of this universe, because I think it’s something I’d have a lot of fun working with, but this is not the fic for that.

[im-not-buying-it-ether]

@leesbian42 @teehhhhhhhhhhh @fandomfive39 and @chaoticallyfluffy expressed their interest in my sharing of Marvel Lore

I'm going to stick to some basics and not get into every storyline of Captain Marvel but I will go through general eras and the who's who of them. Now, I am no encyclopedia nor do I claim to know everything about the blorbos, I'm just one of the more well-read of their fans. If anyone else wants to butt in with their own expertise or correct me where I messed up a bit, please do! Better for everyone seeing this post to have something to read up on to save them the hundreds of appearances of these characters, the propaganda, the classic 40's racism, and the shifting timelines and canons!

For starters, I'm just going to stick to good ol' Fawcett comics on this reblog

So, just to get it out of the way, Whiz comic was pure unfiltered Golden age nonsense like most every early comic and thats the magic of Whiz. It was fun and unapologetically so for basically it's entire history, not really getting a chance to modernize thanks in large part to DC suing them out of publication before they could follow the changing trend.

We start in Whiz Comics #2, officially there is no #1, and we meet Billy Batson. He's passing out his newspapers in the rain when hes approached by a trenchcoated man with no discernable features who asks why hes out so late and Billy responds that he is homeless and sleeps in the subway. The man tells Billy to follow him, they get far into the subway and board a strange train that takes Billy to the dwellings of the Wizard Shazam who do a quick lore drop for the kid. Basics are established, Billy is an orphan and his scummy Uncle Ebenezer stole the inheritance his folks left behind.

Shazam gives Billy his powers and sends him on his way, Billy then overhears a plot by some men to take over the radio waves and goes into Whiz Radio to tell the owner, Mr. Morris, what he heard. Mr. Morris is skeptical but tells Billy if he can prove what he says he'd give the kid a job working for him. Billy goes off, turns into Captain Marvel for the first time, and finds and destroys the machine that was going to take over the radio waves, curtesy of the brilliant mind of Doctor Thaddeus Bodog Sivana's criminal scheming. Billy gets his job and Captain Marvel is established.

From then on is a flurry of fun whimsical adventures where Captain Marvel and Billy Batson work as a team to fight evil and protect the defenseless, a point is made many times over that Billy Batson and Captain Marvel are different people. This is shown through Cap appearing semi-translucent to only Billy like a ghost to encourage or help him, times where Captain Marvel and Billy physically were different people, and the Captain referring to Billy as a separate person and vice versa. They basically swapped places.

Before the iconic Big Three of the Marvel family we had the Lieutenant Marvels, named after creators in Fawcett publications, all of which shared the name Billy Batson in the comics. The country livin' Hill Billy, the rounder Fat Billy, and the tall Tall Billy. They took these nicknames when they met because they agreed that our Billy Baston should keep his normal one since he was the most popular with his own show and such, they were soon also kidnapped and strapped to a log on a cutting line about to be split in two and Billy's voice alone wasnt loud enough to go over the sound of the blade to summon Shazams powers so the boys yelled in unison and all got powers. Thus Tall Marvel, Fat Marvel, and Hill Marvel came to be and Billy got three new friends.

Freddy Freeman soon joins the ring when, during a scuffle with Captain Nazi, the villain goes crashing into the water nearby a man out fishing with his grandson, they try and pull him out and the old man is killed and when the boy strikes him with an oar in retaliation he is tossed aside and hurt badly from the blow. That boy was Freddy and his grandpa, the latter now dead while Freddy sits at deaths door. Marvel saves him and tries to bring him to hospitals who turn him away because the boy is a lost cause, so he brings him to the Wizard pleading with him to help him save his life. Shazam advises him to share his power and when Freddy says Captain Marvel he is mostly healed and turned into Captain Marvel Jr. He still has a limp and needs a crutch to get around but that is the origin of Marvels long time sidekick and Billy's best friendship with Freddy Freeman.

What also comes about in this era is the introduction of Mary Bromfield, Billy Batson's long lost twin sister who was swapped with a different kid that died in her care when they were six months old and in an orphanage by one Nurse Primm and raised by the Bromfield family while Billy was put into the care of their uncle after their parents died. Mary was raised without knowledge of any of this and neither was Billy until, while covering a sort of game show segment for Whiz, he's called away to talk to a woman on her death bed who happens to be Nurse Primm herself who admits to what she did and gives Billy a matching locket to help him locate Mary. He returns to the show and realizes the girl there is his sister. He saves her from kidnappers and reveals his identity to her and she wonders that, since shes his twin, maybe saying Shazam would transform her too. It works, and thus Mary Marvel is born! The Marvel Family has its members rounded up!

He's been mentioned before here, but Mr. Morris is the owner and head of Whiz Radio, he also functions more often than not as a sweet paternal figure in Billys life and is really nice to him. He himself founded the station out of his own love for the medium, having been a HAM Radio kid in his time and falling in love with the craft then and there. He does what he can to make the station better and is more than a successful entrepreneur in the risks he takes from his trust in Billy to many times he almost fell for someone's scheme trying to gain more capital or help out the station.

He also has a niece and nephew! Cissie and Pete Sommerly, Cissie being a rarely appearing girlfriend of Billy with only a dozen appearances to her name. Of what few times I do remember her she has been saved by Marvel one time I remember, participated in and won a gardening show, and gone on a sweet ice cream date with Billy. They were a swell couple.

Tawky Tawny is the titular talking tiger of the Marvel family, best friends with Billy, has quite the odd origin. Born a normal tiger in India, his mother was killed by a hunter when he was a cub. Later on the son of a missionary, Thomas Todd, adopted the cub and called him Mr. Tawny. When a man in the local village was killed by a tiger the people there blamed Tawny so Thomas fled with the cub in tow, meeting an old hermit who had been a brilliant scientist who made a serum that could make an animal more human so that they might speak. Given to Tawny, he returned to the village and killed the rogue tiger that actually killed the previous man and vocally proclaimed his innocence with the true culprit killed.

When Thomas' father was transferred he was forced to leave Tawny behind, who grew the rest of the way up with the hermit, becoming bipedal and the size of a man with all his tiger features still intact since he'd taken the serum so young. Wanting to join civilization, Tawny boarded a ship headed to America and found himself in Fawcett City, where he accidentally terrified the locals and got placed in the zoo by a confused Captain Marvel. He broke out and incidentally ended up stealing his iconic plaid green suit clothing when he scared the store keep away again, this time having the chance to explain his desire to live with humans to Captain Marvel and get his chance. He became a museum guide but had many other jobs like private detective, clothing model, and actor for a short time before he left that role.

Another icon of the family is Uncle Dudley, or Uncle Marvel as he would fraudulently claim before the kids let him into the family. He found a dairy Mary kept of her good deeds as Mary Marvel and figured out the Marvel Family secret, soon claiming to be their uncle and actually becoming a part of the family because, though a fraud, the man was too lovable to the kids and they went along with his lie. He'd always been more comedic relief than not and had his sweet moments with the family, his running gag being "turning into" Uncle Marvel by revealing his homemade Marvel uniform but never having working powers because his "Shazambago" was acting up. He had a niece as well, Mary "Freckles" Dudley or Freckles Marvel, a comedic relief character in the same vein with Mary specifically. Dudley would found Shazam Inc, where Dudley would work as the Marvel Family's manager.

Last but certainly not least is the Wizard himself, Shazam. Originally named Shazamo, he discarded the O after he representing figure Oggar turned evil, making himself just Shazam and leaving Oggar as a smaller time villain with a grudge. An ancient Wizard who had spent the last few thousand years fighting the forces of evil, he reveals himself as an ancient Egyptian Wizard who had used the powers he bestows onto Billy Batson in his crusade. Soon after bestowing his magic, he is killed by a giant rock from the Rock of Eternity falling on him and crushing him as lightning takes Billy away and back to Fawcett. He remains and reappears many times as a ghost, sometimes through the lighting of a brazier in the RoE but sometimes entirely on his own.

This is the original Marvel Family as they were in Fawcett comics, barring the villains and reoccurring side characters that aren't as important figures to be mentioned here. Newer retcons and additions would add to this roster and take away members as they are quietly dropped from writing, the Lieutenant Marvels dropped almost entirely outside a Multiversity cameo and Dudley getting few modern appearances while characters like Blaze and Satanus are made into the Wizards blood children and Kid Eternity of a different Fawcett publication would be made into Freddy's brother.

I'll get into villains in another reblog attached to the previous post, tell me if theres anything else y'all wanna know!

can someone mansplain the entire history of Billy Batson Captain Marvel, the Shazamily, and Fawcett City to me??? or at least like. . . the main parts

[petruchio]

Gale loving anon here: Okay so here’s my thing about him. And this is purely my assessment of him as a character putting the whole love triangle situation aside. It’s been discussed before that people from the Seam are understood to be POC. Gale grew up as a hugely unprivileged boy who was thrust into the role of a provider for a family at a young age on top of all of the oppression he and everyone he knew faced. He was never shown kindness or mercy by the powers at hand and instead they exploited, manipulated, and failed him at every turn. Thinking about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it’s pretty difficult to grow much mentally or spiritually when you’re lacking the necessary material conditions to allow you to attain self actualization and all of that. Gale wasn’t a blindly enraged, cruel person comparable the true villains of the series. He was freshly an adult and forced into the mines that killed his father and then given way too much responsibility and blame regarding military strategy and action. Why are fully grown military leaders and strategists with years of experience giving so much power to him anyway? Is it so they can use him as a scapegoat when they inevitably cross ethical and moral lines? To me it that sounds like he was used and though I don’t agree with some of the ideas he was behind, I blame the people who put him in that position more than I blame him as a character. At the end of the day he was barely beyond a kid that lost and suffered so much, from losing his father to barely having a single human right to being the one to save and take care of the survivors of the district 12 bombing. The people and environment he was surrounded by constantly changed and all he had to hold onto were is principles and idealism, which he held onto so unwaveringly because it became all that he had left because of how those around him continuously let him down (Not really referring to anyone specific and especially not Katniss, just speaking to systemic failures). People say he represents a metaphorical fire, one that blazed and took out everything in its path without bothering to decipher the good from the bad. I think that’s an incredibly unfair assessment. I understand how people see how he talked about Madge and his view of the merchant class of district 12 and eventually other richer districts and so on, but all he really did was point out the privileges they had that he and his peers didn’t and I honestly don’t think he’s wrong for pointing out inequality and being mad about it. In the real world, when oppressed people speak about the privileges others have that they don’t, we listen and try to understand, not condemn them for speaking the truth. I won’t defend his choices with the more brutal military tactics he was part of but I will say like I did before, he never should’ve been allowed in that position anyway. I know this is getting really long and I’m so sorry but I’ll try to wrap this up now. To me, Gale represents a stubbornly idealistic part of human nature that’s desperately clinging onto the hope for a better world and is rightfully angry at the status quo. He’s doing everything he can to bring that view into reality despite how the powers in control manipulate and mistreat him and even go as far as to make him look like he’s the problem in his own struggle for justice. He’s real and he’s complex and full of understandable emotions and he’s doing the best he possibly can with the horrible hand he’s been dealt. In a better timeline he could’ve been filled with love, kindness, and warmth. But the world never gave him the chance. Anyway I’ll stop here lol and thank you so much if you read all of this, I really appreciate it.

i've been trying to work out how to respond to this coherently because often whenever i talk about gale i feel like i never express myself the way i want to, but i do think he's a fascinating character and i actually really DO like talking about him because i think these kinds of discussions can really help clarify not only the themes of the book but also our own political and social ideals.

so, in an effort to be (at least kind of?) complete in this answer i wanted to kind of respond to your points in order!!

first, you talk about gale not having access to a lot of resources and the conditions he was raised under as being a huge source of why he is the way he is.

yes.

like yeah that's exactly right, and i think that is something that often gets lost in our discussions of gale and peeta: how their worldviews are shaped by their backgrounds. i'm guilty of it myself, because it's one of those nuances that's easy to brush aside when you want to compare their two worldviews as they are presented in the trilogy as a whole. it's common to say that peeta is defined by his kindness and idealism, but it's less common to see that trait placed in CONTEXT of his background. yes, peeta's home life is by no means perfect, but realistically peeta, given his social class, has much more time to dream and to be able to consider moral questions than gale does. katniss points out very early (in what we know to be one of my all-time favorite scenes when she considers if he's crying as a strategy):

"All those years of having enough to eat and hauling bread trays around have made him broad-shouldered and strong."

that's like, one of the first observations we get about him--that he's well-fed. and it's an extremely significant one! it forms a through line to what we see in the whole "piece in their games" discussion in the first book:

"I bite my lip feeling inferior. While I’ve been ruminating on the availability of trees, Peeta has been struggling with how to maintain his identity. His purity of self."

yes, this is katniss, but it's kind of a similar divide you would likely see between gale and peeta had they both been still in district twelve. katniss, like gale, is concerned with basic survival (like you point out about the hierarchy of needs). because peeta has enough (not necessarily nice things, which i've talked about before, but he does have more than katniss and gale. yes his bread is stale but he has a consistent source of food.) so peeta has the luxury to consider these kinds of moral questions, because he doesn't have to worry about where his next meal is coming from. for katniss, she's considering basic survival: climbing a tree, finding a water source. is that what helps her win the games? of course. but it's also what makes peeta such a surprise to her--because she's never really had someone challenge her in that way before, since her and gale are so much alike in their first instinct being those basic survival needs. i would imagine that gale's response to being put in the games would be quite similar to katniss's: where are the trees, how to make fire, how to get food, etc., whereas peeta considers the morality of it all. that's a key difference between them, and it IS thematically important to katniss's eventual choice between them, but it's also informed largely by their class backgrounds. and i think you're completely right to remind us not to forget that in our discussions of the characters.

the next thing you are talking about is gale essentially being used by the rebels in district 13 and having far too much responsibility placed on him as an 18 year old, extremely traumatized young person.

again, yes.

you're spot on, and it's another way the hunger games asks us to look at youth and children and what we expect of teenagers in media. WHY does gale have all this responsibility? it doesn't seem right, like you've pointed out, because it ISN'T. but like they have done to katniss, they've found a way to manipulate him and use his mind for their personal military gain. so, then, are the deaths caused by the bombs on gale's hands, or are they on the hands of the people who asked him to design them? that's an interesting moral consideration that i think gets kind of lost when you reduce it to "gale kills prim." he DOESN'T, not really. it's coin that DOES it, and its coin that even gave him the level of influence to be able to design that kind of a weapon. i'm not sure i'm ready to make a claim on either side of that, but that's the kind of moral gray area where i think the hunger games presents us with something to really challenge our thinking. it's not as if gale walks into the square and shoots prim point blank. it's more complex than that, and that's what makes it so difficult to reconcile.

and these are the kinds of thoughts that i think the hunger games WANTS us to have, to ask ourselves questions like this about the value of human life, the meaning of weapons that have the potential to kill, and what responsibility really entails. is coin responsible for ordering the craft? are the people pressed the button to drop the bombs responsible? is gale responsible for designing the bombs? is plutarch responsible for enabling gale to even design them? how far up does the chain of accountability go? when can we excuse ourselves from the horrors and realities of war and death? if a rich american businessman is invested in a weapons company, is he as responsible for the deaths caused by the weapons as those who actually pull the trigger?

you could argue that plutarch is responsible for the bomb by being the one putting gale in that position, a position he likely shouldn't even have been in in the first place like you point out. that doesn't absolve gale of all responsibility, but it's an important piece of context for his actions that often gets erased in discussions of his character. like his class background providing context for his survival instincts, the adults around him allowing him the level of influence he has provides context for his actions during the war. the frustrating and fascinating thing is, it's not black and white. gale still did what he did, but like you say, it's not as if he was some crazed monster. there's quite a bit of background that's worth acknowledging if we're going to discuss him in any kind of depth.

the third thing you bring up is the scene with madge, and gale's ideals, and this is actually something i kind of want to press back on.

i want to be clear: i think gale is completely justified in his response to the social divides in district twelve, and his frustration with them. i think he's right to be frustrated that, by no fault of his own, simply by nature of being born, he's had to enter his name in 42 times and madge's is in only 7. i've argued before that the issue with gale's response is that he directs his anger at madge, which is what katniss doesn't like in that scene, not the fact that he's angry about the tesserae. she agrees with him about the unfairness of it all, what she doesn't like is that he "took a dig at Madge."

but the thing is! the text tells us directly after that passage that gale actually feels the same way. he knows that it's wrong to hate the individuals that have more than him just because they have more, and he knows that it's all a tool for further oppression:

"Gale knows his anger at Madge is misdirected. I’ve listened to him rant about how the tesserae are just another tool to cause misery in our district. A way to plant hatred between the starving workers of the Seam and those who can generally count on supper and thereby ensure we will never trust one another. “It’s to the Capitol’s advantage to have us divided among ourselves,” he might say if there were no ears to hear but mine. If it wasn’t reaping day. If a girl with a gold pin and no tesserae had not made what I’m sure she thought was a harmless comment. As we walk, I glance over at Gale’s face, still smoldering underneath his stony expression. His rages seem pointless to me, although I never say so. It’s not that I don’t agree with him. I do. But what good is yelling about the Capitol in the middle of the woods? It doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t make things fair."

he's right! he's super right! he sees exactly what the captiol is doing to them, he calls it out, he understands that division is a tool for oppression!! but i think it's telling that katniss sees all this as "pointless" because he doesn't really offer what he thinks they should do instead. you could argue that it's implied that he's advocating for more solidarity between the classes, but the fact of the matter is, since katniss brings this up directly after that scene with madge, it's hard to look at these two moments in direct conversation and not see it as hypocrisy. yes, he responded in the heat of the moment and he knows intellectually that directing his anger at the system at madge herself is ultimately fruitless. but the problem is, he isn't putting his intellectual ideals into practice in his daily life--at least not in this instance. (and yeah, i know, it's reaping day, and yeah, he's probably stressed out about how many times his name is in there. but we're still in a book, and things in books don't just happen for no reason, his actions are part of a larger theme that collins is trying to portray. we can excuse him on a personal level, but i still think this is a significant moment in the books thematically, especially given that it happens right at the start.)

but that's basically what i kind of want to push you on: you say that gale has "hope for a better world" and it's clear that he does. but what isn't clear is what exactly gale sees that better world to be. and i think that's what gets lost for him in mockingjay: he becomes so focused on the destruction of the current world, the world that he hates (justifiably so!!) that he loses sight of what the world is that he's actually fighting for.

and, if i can just make this insanely long answer even longer, i think that's a big part of the reason why gale is so susceptible to coin's manipulation! because without a really, really clear conviction about what he wants to see from the new world, coin's world appeals to him. it promotes equality. social class is erased. the capitol would no longer exploit him. those are the things he wants! so it's easy to see why coin's system would be attractive to him. but at the end of the day, coin's system is just snow's system with new branding: a new captiol hunger games, more authoritarian unelected leaders, more propaganda that exploits the traumatized victors in the name of celebrity and influence.

so yes, gale has hope for a better world. but i would argue that he struggles to define what exactly he wants that better world to be.

i completely agree with your conclusion: in a better timeline he could’ve been filled with love, kindness, and warmth. but the world never gave him the chance. i think that's a beautiful way of framing gale, and a beautiful way of seeing humanity. that we are all, in our own ways, victims of circumstance, and that were those circumstances removed, we would all be filled with love and kindness. i agree with you completely.

it's worth a passing nod to tbosas (which i finally read so i can include it in my analyses!) and snow's alignment with the hobbesian view of humanity, as a brute animal which tends towards violence and war. and snow is proved wrong: he and his world view are literally killed at the end of the trilogy. so that analysis of gale is spot on, again, and it slots perfectly into the broader themes of the hunger games and its view of humanity. humanity will tend towards love: and our ultimate goal should be removing all the circumstances which push it away from that ideal.

[poisonousquinzel]

https://lady-ha-ha.tumblr.com/post/160715688748/is-that-comic-before-the-reboot-and-which-one-is

(I have not read this comic) Is this true? (if so, ivy deserves someone better).

Post

Kay, first off both of those people are Jarley shippers so take everything they say with a grain of salt and then some, cause no. that part isn't about how much Harley loves Joker and will always choose him over Ivy. Literally you can tell ops don't know what they're talking about cause her whole thing in those issues is going to kill him for years of graphic abuse but ultimately falls back with him once she’s face to face with him.

Like wow, congrats on missing the fucking point again but not surprised from people who ship her with The Fucking Joker.

also, ffs, can anyone please have basic comprehension skills and realize that Harley and Ivy are both fucked up sometimes because they’ve got issues and that’s not comparable to Joker’s long ass history of graphic and disgusting abuse.

Harley and Ivy are villains, they're not a wholesome cookie cutter, White Picket Fence, super vanilla ship with no bad moments. They're both bad guys with a fuck ton of trauma that they both have to work through, and have done so at this point. 

Gotham City Sirens was published between 2009 - 2011, Harley and Ivy weren't blatantly romantic at this point nor had they had anywhere near the development that they’ve had at this point.

Like don’t go into Harlivy content expecting them to be the perfect wlw rep with no flaws during their arcs from BTAS to current time cause that’s just not realistic. They’re both deeply flawed people who’ve got a fuck ton of trauma that they need to (and have) worked through. 

I have talked about the BTAS issues here and this post is good at explaining them too. 

X

X

Harlivy is not and has never been a purely wholesome, goody-goody ship. They’re messy, they have issues, and they have bad moments sometimes, but they both worked through their seperate trauma and came out stronger and better because at the end of the day, they care about each other. 

Harlivy has messy, toxic moments sometimes, but they’re not, and have never been, abusive. There’s a difference between unhealthy moments and a ship being abusive. 

That’s completely different to how Joker acts Constantly, because he does not care that his actions towards Harley are abusive, because he doesn’t give a shit about her. 

He enjoys hurting her. He enjoys ruining her. 

Jarley has always been intended to be written and shown as a domestically abusive relationship.

This is also the first instance where it's directly referenced that there's something more than platonic between her and Ivy, other than the reference in Batgirl Adventures. 

Gotham City Sirens is also not connected to any verses.

This didn’t happen in the timeline we’re in rn with Harley Quinn (2014)/(2016)/(2021).

Comic timelines and shit are stupid and make everything more confusing and awful and I hate it sdfjdksksdkjsd

-

this is gonna be a long post since ops wanna just cut and paste random bits of the issues like jarley stans always do (cause jarley never has good moments that aren’t entirely surrounded by him abusing her) I’m going to show them in full context. *added a keep reading cause it is a lot

(All panels shown are from #15, #18, #19, #20, #21, #23, #24, #25)

So, Harley's entire thing at this point in the GCS comic in that she's been triggered by flashbacks of Joker's abuse and she breaks into Arkham with the intent to kill him.

The entire thing in these issues is showing her smarts and how she knows people's trump cards to get under their skin so she can break into Arkham. 

She’s trained to identify these things in people and she's fucking good at pushing people's buttons. 

this is also just one of my fav Harley covers so I wanted to show it jsdjksdks

“Trump cards. Everyone has one. Places where the armor we build around ourselves is weakest.” 

She’s right. And it’s now shown that Harley’s willing to use those below the belt trump cards if she has to.  

And frankly, I’d say this is worse than what she says to Ivy. And I’m not surprised she did it. She didn’t want to, she tried to get him to just open the door - 

“Don’t make me do this, Aaron. There are some secrets that should stay hidden. Things you should never learn about your own life.” 

but she’s also entirely fueled by rage and the desire to kill Joker. She came here for a reason and she’s not leaving until she’s done it.

“I’m going to kill you. For everything you’ve done to me. All the times you’ve made me feel useless and small. For all the times I will never forget. For all the things I can never forgive. All the memories -”

“Hello, Harley. I’ve missed you.” 

“Memories. That’s all I have left. The past is gone and all I have is... memories. 

Memories.

Memory. 

Gone.

I guess I too have a trump card.”

“Oh, Ivy. You know exactly what my answer is going to be. But you’re hoping you’re wrong, aren’t you?”

She’s also right about this, they already mentioned this in #18.

“How did I become the bad guy?”

“You’re the one choosing a man over her girls.”

“Are you kidding me? You would never say that to Harley, and we both know she’d dumb us in a flat second if Joker called her.”

“Hey! That’s not fair-- Actually, that’s probably true.”

“The difference is, she can’t help it. You can. And she’s working on it. You’re not working on it.” 

“Too easy, Ivy. Too easy. I know your weak spots. Now I just need to push.”

This is exactly what she’s been doing since the starting point of this post. She’s still in that mindset and she knows she can’t beat her on a regular battle field. Neither of them can. 

“Like I said-- You beat me in any level playing field. But I don’t fight on those fields.” 

Harley’s biggest strength as a villain is her ability to completely mentally stall her opponents and learn their weak spots. She wouldn’t win against the majority of the Big Bads if she didn’t fight on a different field than they are. 

so, like yeah, out of context what she says to Ivy seems awful and completely screwed up, and it is, but it’s also built up really well and it’s completely in character for her at this point in her fall during these issues. 

Is what she did fucked? absolutely. It’s not painted that it’s not. 

Ivy Literally Goes To Kill Her For It.

In the end of this all three of them are recaptured by Catwoman and Batman and that’s where we’re starting off at again. 

“Oh, Harley.

The only human I’ve ever called a friend.

To what lengths will I go? Where are my own limits? She is the Strangler fig. And I am the tree, choking underneath. 

Without me, she could never grow. 

But without her, I would fall if I grew too tall.” 

“Will she ever stand by herself? 

Will she ever be ready? 

She is in throes of madness. She sees him, her brain flooding with adrenaline, it makes her excited, nervous, then the feelings start to fade, and she needs more. And more. 

She sees it as passion. She sees it as love. 

But it’s not. It’s addiction. And she’s relapsing.” 

Ivy is well aware of the nature of their relationship. She’s not stupid and she’s been shown already to know that it’s something that takes time. It’s not a one off break up and it’s over. That’s not how abusve relationships work. 

What do I do?

I could use my pheromones to alter her brain chemistry.

I could leave her behind abandoning her to the wilds of her own mind.

I could kill her right now.

Show her how red Nature can be.

There's one other option.

It would require patience.

Even love.

Maybe I'm more human than I want to admit.

"You have one chance to answer this."

I know, if she agrees, she'll be doing it for revenge. For him.

"She put us behind bars."

But maybe if I get away from this place, if I give her something else to think about. Maybe she can break the cycle. But it has to be her choice.

"I'm going to kill her. Come with me."

So yeah, it’s definitely not a just “Harley hurts her and runs off with Joker and it’s just a plain ol’ her choosing him over everyone and that’s that.” 

Jarley shippers love to just reduce all her scenes and arcs down to their “epic love” and shit, but that’s taking away literally everything about her and reducing it down to the 3 panels that they’re “cute” in. Her arc in this part is fucking heartbreaking to read.

And Ivy damn well knows what’s going on with her. She’s smart and she’s the one that’s been there throughout all of this. She found her in the park after he shot her out of a rocket. 

And she knows it’ll take time for Harley to get over and through his manipulation, that’s just how it works with abusive relationships. 

But she’s also not forgiving at first, she’s mad and rightfully so, until she sees the sate of Harley’s cell and realizes how bad her addiction is at that time.

A lot of the unhealthy moments on Harley’s side when it comes to them are directly caused from the effects of being in an abusive relationship with Joker. Because she’s always in this area of her journey in those moments. She’s never fully over him or emancipated. 

And that’s realistic. It’s hard sometimes to be friends with someone who’s in abusive relationships like theirs, having to watch them return to that person time and time again and it’s frustrating after a while. 

I know from personal experience, it’s really hard to watch someone you care about go back or forgive someone that continues to hurt them. 

But abuse victims desperately need a support system outside of their abuser. It’s a crucial part of being able to escape, because when they do try to get out they need someone there or they’ll literally have no where to go but back into their abuser’s arms.

It’s heartbreaking and it’s really rough for everyone effected, but that’s just how it is most of the time. Especially in their case, as they’re not just regular folk dealing with this. 

If she doesn’t have Ivy, Harley has no one else to go to but Joker, on more than just an emotional level. 

She’s lost her job. Her income. Her home. Her livelihood. Her everything.

Most of the time she has no other choice but to return to a life of crime after she’s released from Arkham because she can’t get a job, she’s a notorious criminal and she’s got a lot of issues that don’t just disappear with a bit of therapy. 

She has no other choice but to return to Joker because the other alternative is the streets. At least she knows what to expect with him. 

And that’s not even getting into the manipulation, gaslighting and degrading abuse that he drills into her constantly. 

He’s made her believe she’s not anything without him. That she’s not smart or useful or anything. 

And that’s why it’s so damn important for her to have a support system and why he’s so damn against Ivy. 

Because Ivy is the good voice on her shoulder telling her he’s wrong and that she doesn’t deserve that. 

-

And on Ivy’s side, she’s aware she gets very near cutting off all parts of her humanity. 

She’s a plant goddess, she’s insanely powerful and she feels everything through the green. Frankly, she’s not even on the same playing field as these villains. She’s significanty more powerful than Harley and Joker. 

Her connection to Harley is what keeps her humanity in tack, because despite everything, she does care about her. She was the first person she let in, the first person Ivy called a friend. 

The person that was able to get through to her in #14/#15 when she was losing herself. The one that was able to get through to her that the dude was manipulating her. 

“Ivy, I know you think you love this guy... but you’re just gonna end up strapped to his rocket!”

She had to knock her out for the dude to trust her / not attack them anymore. But Harley got through to her by mentioning how they first met in the park when she saved her after Joker shot her off in a rocket.

And Ivy is understandable turned off towards humans considering her origin and trauma around that. 

She’s got a lot of trust issues.

But both of them work through their seperate traumas over the years because their affection for each other is stronger than the issues their trauma has given them.

-

and also, sometimes, they just have shit writers. that’s an issue overall in comic fandoms. Some writers just fucking suck at getting any of the characters right, let alone LGBT characters, who’re notoriously treated like garbage by DC. 

[veliseraptor]

Okay I'm new to this fandom and I'm a bit confused. Did Xue Yang and Meng Yao know each other? Did Meng Yao free him?👀Do xue yang know he has a parentage that dabbled in demonic cultivation?

congratulations, anon! you have hit the nail on the head of one of my perennial aggravations about cql-canon specific details, which is to say ‘what the hell is the deal supposed to be with meng yao and xue yang in qinghe?’

there is no real indication that they might have known each other except some meaningful side-eyes going on that don’t make a lot of sense in context other than, maybe, pre-flagging the idea that meng yao is ~problematic~ and ~untrustworthy~ I guess? (which, ask me how I feel about the idea that everything jin guangyao does forever is bad and sinister, regardless of timeline, effect, or motivation). but there’s no real, substantive indication (up until the empathy flashback in ep 41, I’ll get there) that they are familiar with each other, or that they actually do any collaborating at that point.

you could definitely headcanon them as knowing each other previously based on the fact that they both grew up in less than ideal circumstances, shall we say, but I don’t think there’s any evidence for it in-text other than aforementioned meaningful side-eyes. in fact, canonically we know where they both grew up locationwise and it wasn’t in the same place. but like, seriously.

(and holy shit this got long, I’ll spare you all with a read more. also: I have broken my usual ‘referring to jin guangyao as jin guangyao always’ rule for the sake of this post given that it is specifically about the era where he is going by meng yao, but it did feel really weird.)

speaking specifically with what we see in text (in episode 10), we see meng yao argue against executing xue yang, but only after wei wuxian has done so first. the next explicit link between them is when meng yao leaves the fight between wen zhuliu and nie mingjue saying that he’s going to go check on xue yang; following that, we’re told that xue yang has escaped and meng yao claims he saw the captain free him.

which is, considering the fact that he’s killing the captain at the time, a highly suspect statement to make.

there’s no reason for meng yao to be working with xue yang at this point! there’s just not! it doesn’t make sense for him even from a purely self-interested standpoint and, again, at this point in canon there’s no actual reason to believe that they have any prior familiarity.

(’but lise what about the flashback-’ yes I’ll get there.)

if you want my personal reading, which I think is compatible with the text as we see it, it goes like this:

1. xue yang quickly notices meng yao as a potentially interesting person. I don’t think it’s about seeing him as an ally or knowing him from anything beforehand - I think it’s about seeing him as interesting and kind of funny.

2. meng yao registers that there’s a distinct possibility of nie mingjue dying and/or the wen sect attacking the nie in force and decides to short-circuit that by just freeing xue yang himself, because he knows nie mingjue won’t do it but if xue yang’s gone then that (at least temporarily) solves their wen problem.

my evidence for this is based around the timing of when meng yao leaves to “check on” xue yang (mid-fight, specifically after wen zhuliu, inarguably a greater threat, takes over from wen chao), the fact that he looks definitely concerned when he does so, and the fact that, given where he is at this point, letting xue yang out otherwise makes no sense.

this does not strike me as the face of a person who is a-plottin some sinister business, and this isn’t a face he’s making at anyone, either; this is pure ‘ah fuck this ain’t good’ expression.

(yes, yes, I know, episode 41 flashback, I told you that we’d get there.)

3. meng yao frees xue yang, probably hoping he can make it as bloodless as possible; xue yang, in xue yang fashion, makes it as bloody as possible; meng yao sees his chance to do something about the guy he has always hated and who has repeatedly undermined him, and who probably also caught him in the middle of an incriminating action that nie mingjue would absolutely not accept as justifiable.

4. xue yang bounces, leaving jin guangyao caught holding the sword and surrounded by several dead bodies.

and then they don’t see each other again until xue yang ends up at jinlintai at some unspecified point down the timeline.

regarding the episode 41 flashback (see? I promised!), the view we get of meng yao talking with an unspecified person heavily implied to be xue yang doesn’t make sense in some very critical ways that also align with the selective editing that nie mingjue’s memories seem to have done on incidents we previously saw from a (presumably) omniscient perspective. many people other than me (see here, here, and here for some examples) have written eloquently about the disparities between the scenes as we see them in earlier episodes compared to what we see in the flashback, and how that suggests at least some unreliability of nie mingjue’s memories despite their presentation, since they are visually coeval with the rest of canon, as equally reliable. 

(what would be different if the empathy flashbacks were in some way visually demarcated, I wonder? it’s a thought. I like that they’re not because unreliability of narrative/narrator is such a theme, but.)

ANYWAY, regarding the section where we see that conversation between the captain and meng yao, now with bonus mysterious feet (implied to be xue yang) - a few things stand out to me.

one: nie mingjue has no way of having seen this - no personal access to what he’s supposedly seeing in his own memory. this suggests the possibility, at least, that this is a fabricated assumption of a memory. (”I believe this happened, and this is how I would reconstruct it happening.”)

two: possibly more significantly: the scene as played here doesn’t fit with canon as we see it in episode 10 itself. the scene with the captain and meng yao, as we see it earlier, includes here several additional lines of dialogue. considering the other discrepancies within the empathy flashback with previously seen canon, episode ten’s version, by virtue of not taking place within a (flashback of a) flashback and within the pov of an extremely biased character, could be read as more reliable.

see also: the flashback with the captain seeing meng yao talking to someone (implied to be xue yang) is placed directly after nie mingjue accuses meng yao of plotting with xue yang - an accusation he doesn’t make in the scene as it originally plays in episode 10. this is another place where there are several lines of dialogue that weren’t present in the earlier version of the scene, inserted apparently seamlessly into the record.

taken together, with the above where it does not make sense to me that meng yao was ~plotting~ with xue yang prior to freeing him as a way of getting the wens off nie mingjue’s back, I’m inclined to think that moment in the episode 41 flashback is a nie mingjue-generated presumption of what must have happened, rather than a factual account of what did.

meng yao’s choices in episode 10 make much more sense - as someone who, if nothing else, is definitely interested in preserving his position as part of the nie sect, but who also values nie mingjue’s life at that point enough to take a sword to the chest for him - if you don’t take that at face value.

regarding the second part of your question about the xue yang/xue chonghai connection - cql seems to indicate that he has some awareness maybe, based on his conversation with wei wuxian in episode 37? at least, he has access to Lore involving the yin iron that others were unaware of

and had one piece in his possession apparently pre-canon.

but honestly that’s a bit of cql canon that I pretty much ignore completely and sometimes forget about, though there are certainly interesting things that can be done with it.