#this is why most of humanity would end up dying on the ship with the crew

[generouskittentidalwave]

Please gods I'm on my last nerve

Me: "Wow, as a greek buff it warms my heart to see a new telling of Odysseus's tale in the modern era, as a form of a musical no less. It's so good :DD"

Meanwhile you fuckers in every comment section I am forced to bare witness to: "Well Eurylochus actually did nothing wrong it was all Odysseus's fault" "Odysseus gave his name to the Cyclops" "Odysseus should've never assumed a leader's position" "Odysseus-"

Me: "...."

Me: "Come here, yes you there reading this tumblr post who also listens to Epic the musical. Listen to me closely, VERY closely. If you become TOXIC like the percy Jackson fandom can be, like these commenters here, I will PERSONALLY grab your neck WITH MY BARE HANDS through the screen and TIE IT around YOUR HANDS AND FEET like a CARTOON so you will *NEVER* BE ABLE TO MAKE STUPID COMMENTS LIKE THAT IN YOUR LIFE *AGAIN*

[deva-arts]

Testing out CSP Assets hehehe

The city can be pretty beautiful with enough distance and a nice view.

Oh. I forgot what kind of story this was.

She ends up short circuiting the main terminals and letting it crash into a processing facility. Then she takes a stress nap and worsens her insomnia.

[honeycreammilkshake]

"you are me."

i have a lot of thoughts on this whole scene, both shipping and non-shipping ones. the relationship between yuuji and sukuna is honestly the most fascinating and complex one that i have seen in anime, and one of the reasons for that is just how much these two actually understand each other, which i don't think a lot of people realize. yuuji and sukuna see right through each other, more than anyone else does, and i think that's why their bond is far more personal than it seems to be.

yuuji and sukuna are enemies. they hate each other for their opposing ideals and characteristics. yuuji is caring, empathetic, protective, kind, and willing to put his life on the line for both friends and strangers. sukuna is narcissistic, self-absorbed, indifferent to suffering, murderous, unfeeling, and unconcerned with any life other than his own. they seem to be polar opposites in every way, so why would yuuji say something as contradicting as "you are me" to sukuna?

i think it's widely overlooked just how complex yuuji's character is. he's overall a "sweet" person, but he isn't very stable (he has been described by quite a few characters as being a bit "crazy"), he has a high tolerance for disturbing or gory things (he took learning about curses and fighting them very easily), he doesn't question the danger he's been put into (he actually runs headfirst into it), and he can be really violent and vengeful as well.

this is all explored very well in his confrontation with mahito, where he also says "i am to you" to the curse.

why are these scenes so different? mahito and sukuna both killed people yuuji knew and cared about as well as strangers that yuuji would die to protect. shouldn't yuuji be approaching sukuna with the same hate, disgust, and vengeance that he shows to mahito? shouldn't he be lashing out and making sukuna pay for all that he did?

why is he showing his "crazy side" to mahito but not to sukuna?

to give some context to this scene with mahito, the curse wanted yuuji to accept their similarities. and, in the end, yuuji did.

yuuji is acknowledging that he serves as nothing more than a weapon to keep killing the curses of the world, perhaps with no other deeper purpose than that. just like curses only exist to bring misery and prey on humans, yuuji's sole existence at this point is just to act on the orders of sorcerers: to keep eradicating curses and eventually help kill sukuna by dying with him. he doesn't need more meaning or roles than that.

but sukuna doesn't see yuuji as just another cog. he doesn't respect yuuji, true, and he loathes to give the brat any kind of credit. but he knows yuuji is the only one who really, truly cares about sukuna's devastating impact. the death of innocent strangers doesn't affect others quite as much as it does yuuji (even nanami in the vs mahito arc noted how much yuuji cared about the suffering of others).

and many of the other sorcerers are also not as horrified or repulsed by sukuna's actions as yuuji is. in fact, sorcerers and curses alike look up to sukuna. gojo actually seems to respect the king of curse's lifestyle. it feels like yuuji is really the only one to truly despise sukuna for his actions and ideals.

and sukuna knows this. sukuna knows how much the suffering of others gets to yuuji. which is why he gives yuuji such special treatment: he saves a unique brand of torment just for yuuji that he doesn't really give to anyone else.

sukuna intentionally returned control to yuuji's body just for yuuji to witness the massive damage and death that sukuna's domain expansion caused. it killed thousands of people, innocent strangers included.

it led to yuuji breaking down, even wishing for his own death. but yuuji is strong and, deep down, sukuna knows this. yuuji doesn't give up and instead uses his rage to fuel his fight with mahito, where he snaps and shows us his vengeful side. he doesn't need any other reason than mahito being a curse to want to kill him, over and over. that is yuuji's purpose. which seems like an uninteresting and boring one to someone like sukuna.

but for all that sukuna keeps calling yuuji uninteresting and boring, he shows a lot of investment in yuuji's growth and in their fights.

he's even invested enough to show disappointment when yuuji lost to choso. (if he thought yuuji was so weak, why did he seem so bothered by yuuji's loss here?)

and then sukuna looked surprised and curious when choso got hit with some kind of false memory empathetic attack that included yuuji in it. he's having a lot of strong reactions to someone he claims isn't interesting enough for him.

sukuna also loves to aggravate yuuji, somehow knowing how to provoke a strong reaction from him.

there's a lot of interesting things about this scene, one of them being that yuuji refers to sukuna as a "curse" which is technically untrue. sukuna is a sorcerer who used a set of cursed objects to send his soul into the future, but he isn't a curse himself.

but to yuuji, sukuna is nothing more than a curse because he doesn't show any sort of positive traits. sukuna's mindset reflects that of a curse since he only exists to please himself and loves to cultivate the kind of negative emotions curses are born of (fear, hate, jealousy, selfishness, etc).

there's also a clever reference to sukuna being a cannibal through yuuji saying "let's see if you can chew up me and my suffering." yet what we've seen throughout this story is yuuji essentially cannibalizing sukuna by eating his cursed fingers, which he calls the taste really gross. so i wonder... what would yuuji taste like to sukuna?

every human has a unique taste but all of them are fleeting to sukuna. there's no actual meaning or savoring to it. it's just a way for him to pass the time until death.

both yuuji and sukuna are cannibalizing as a form of destruction. but while yuuji is eating the cursed fingers so that he can hold all of sukuna inside of him for them to be exorcised together, sukuna was eating humans simply because he wanted to. he ate whatever he wanted because he was at the top. he is an apex predator with no real rivals or threats. it was for a completely self-absorbed and depraved indulgence while yuuji is giving up his life on this plan to save others.

yuuji and his suffering is the complete antithesis to how sukuna's eating only serves himself. which is very interesting to see when yuuji challenges sukuna to "chew him up." yuuji is proving to be more predator than prey and is far more of a challenge than sukuna wants to admit.

but maybe something about yuuji's resilience does please sukuna? maybe he actually finds worth in yuuji never giving up?

though he still underestimates and discredits yuuji's strength, he actually looks impressed with yuuji and seems even a bit eager to take him on again.

for someone who claims to find yuuji not worth his time, sukuna is showing yuuji far too much special treatment that he doesn't give to anyone else. he even calls yuuji a specific name (kozou) that he doesn't use with anyone else. others are just various offensive terms, but only yuuji seems to have a name just for himself.

sukuna is a really contradicting and complex character, and his relationship with yuuji really shows that.

i've seen a lot of anti-sukuna sentiment after his death, and i understand why a lot of fans hate him and celebrated when he died. however, i think a lot of fans have this somewhat inaccurate view of him being nothing more than a static villain with zero complexities and no chance of any kind of character development.

some of sukuna's most underrated and interesting traits are that he is actually pretty smart (he has an overall plan and is making all the right moves to get there), he's cultured (a poetry snob who hired a chef just to cook him humans instead of eating them raw, and perhaps he even knows more about flowers than he lets on), he shows respect to those he deems worthy and even seeks to learn from them, and he might not actually be the most "evil" person in jjk (which I consider to be kenjaku, but that warrants another post).

overall, sukuna is and has always been more than what he first seems, but a lot of fans don't want to see this or they overlook it.

after sukuna reveals he was an unwanted curse of a child, there was pushback against fans who interpreted this line as sukuna having a tragic backstory that explained his current self.

i understand why these fans don't want sukuna to be a sympathetic villain and i've read posts on how gege writes his villains to be intentionally unsympathetic.

from here (https://x.com/soukatsu_/status/1520796590612566022)

sukuna is the perfect example of a villain that is unsympathetic. he is horrifyingly strong, lives as he pleases, murders people for fun, is a literal cannibal, acts and appears monstrous, and makes our protagonist yuuji suffer over and over again. he represents exactly all the ideals and traits yuuji despises and the two of them are fighting each other because of this.

however, one thing i want to point out is just because sukuna is completely unsympathetic now doesn't mean he couldn't have had an actually tragic past that made him into this.

i believe that sukuna was seen as a curse from his birth on. much like how jogo wanted curses to be the true humans (sukuna calls this jogo essentially wanting to become human) sukuna became purely curse-like to escape being human. whether or not you empathize with him is irrelevant, because after he became the king of curses, sukuna has committed countless irredeemable horrors that even i, as a sukuna fan, don't ever want him to be forgiven or easily justified for doing.

having a tragic past doesn't justify his crimes, it only provides a catalyst for them. it explains why he, who was born human, became more of a curse than some curses are. you don't need to have sympathy for him after that. just like he has no sympathy for those he considers weak and inferior, he has no more reason to be a tragic character.

a lot of people acted like sukuna potentially having a tragic past that turned him into the monster he is now makes him "uncool" or "uncharacteristic" of himself but, to me, it makes his character all the more detailed without changing the fact that he is still purely "evil" and irredeemable.

but does this all make him incapable of character development?

i personally believe that yuuji has been affecting sukuna throughout the whole series, especially in these last few chapters.

i recently came across a post on reddit on why sukuna could never be more than a static villain character. one of the arguments was that gege never intended for sukuna to have any kind of redemption arc.

(https://www.reddit.com/r/Jujutsufolk/comments/16vphxl/sukuna_is_different_from_other_strongest/?rdt=36326)

(now, i couldn't find the original source where this interview came from, and it's not worded very well so i'm thinking it's been quickly translated. and there's always missed meanings and alterations to the original message when translations have been made, especially with japanese. i'm also not sure if the "him" being referred to is mahito or sukuna, but i'm assuming it can apply to both of them.)

this post was made about a year ago, so i assume this interview with gege is also a bit dated now. i think gege is intentionally vague in their interviews because they don't want to reveal too much, but my own interpretation of this post is that gege never intended for sukuna to get any sort of redemption because he is incapable of being redeemed through any kind of love.

and i agree with that. i don't want sukuna to get redemption. what he has done is unforgivable and i don't want him to get off easy for it. but him showing character development is not the same as him getting redemption. and him being affected by love isn't the same as him fully accepting it either.

in these last few chapters, yuuji has offered mercy to sukuna multiple times, despite how even he himself considered it to be a lost cause.

as i wrote earlier, yuuji is the only character who really understands how terrible and curse-like sukuna is. he hates sukuna on this fact alone. yuuji told mahito that his purpose is to kill curses, and sukuna - in the end - is nothing more than just another curse.

so why did yuuji suddenly change all that up and show empathy and genuine concern for sukuna in these last few chapters? why was he trying so hard to convince sukuna that they can co-exist?

one of my sukuita-cult friends (flight-of-death) pointed out that during his fight with yuuji, sukuna explicitly recalled his conversation with kashimo about not needing another person to fulfill him.

while sukuna saying he didn't anyone else to fulfill him was relevant during his discussion with kashimo, it's very interesting that he was remembering his own exact words about it while facing down yuuji, who was making sukuna doubt some of his previous statements.

my friend has convinced me that sukuna and yuuji have found a "reluctant fulfillment" in each other. and i think this is proving to be very much possible.

yuuji was alone most of his life. without wasuke there for him, he could have turned into a ruthless monster like sukuna. yuuji has so much physical and emotional strength, but it was the catalyst of wasuke's death that motivated yuuji to use that strength for good. he might have chosen to be selfish and only concerned with his own wants and needs like sukuna did, but wasuke provided the role yuuji needed to be the selfless person he is now.

i think that yuuji, in all his loneliness, found a kind of closeness to sukuna, even if it was unwanted. and sukuna has definitely been affected by yuuji, too.

as sukuna is dying, megumi finally regains control. he notices how sukuna seems to be scared of death.

sukuna genuinely does look concerned about dying. his mouths are in the shape of a grin but are turned upside down and look more like actual dread. for someone who claimed that eating people was only a way to pass the time until death, sukuna now looks unwilling to die.

i think that this shows that sukuna gained some sort of respect for life, even if it was only in his will to keep living. he does seem to want to keep existing, and it's interesting that it's what yuuji offered him.

yuuji was created by kenjaku to be sukuna's vessel. the sorcerers wanted to use yuuji as a vessel to hunt down all the cursed fingers so that yuuji and sukuna would die together. no matter how you see it, sukuna and yuuji were bound to end up either living or dying together. that is their fate. but now that he has more power in making his own choices, yuuji seems to genuinely want to share the kinder fate with sukuna: to live together. and if you think about it, them coexisting makes a lot of sense.

sukuna has been described as a natural disaster, so how can yuuji have any kind of empathy for something as devastating and unfeeling as an earthquake or a tsunami? in truth, the human race has been coexisting with natural disasters since the beginning - especially japan, which has weathered many terrible calamities. yuuji is a lot like the embodiment of the resilience and strength needed to survive such disasters, so i think he's more than capable of handling a life with sukuna, especially if sukuna is far more subdued.

and sukuna being allowed to live isn't redemption at all. though it would be a form of character development for him, it would still be one of the most selfish things he could do, as it would mean condemning yuuji to an indefinite amount of time with sukuna.

but yuuji seems to want that. he is willingly offering up the rest of his life to sukuna, for them to live together.

personally, i don't consider this to be a form of redemption in any way. he is proving sukuna's mindset wrong, not forgiving him. just accepting his nature and still offering a way to coexist.

i think that by offering this to sukuna, yuuji would essentially become that person that sukuna claims he doesn't need to feel fulfillment. but it's clear to me sukuna wasn't satisfied with his life in the past, since he couldn't offer an explanation to kashimo about why he chose to cross the ages as cursed objects. he is obviously lying or beginning to doubt his own words.

and i think that's why he chose death.

accepting yuuji's mercy, finding that fulfillment sukuna denies needing, would be very un-curselike of him and he can't have that. he would rather be seen as an inhuman monster than something capable of accepting love.

so in the end, sukuna is doing exactly what gege said he would: rejecting love and rejecting anything that makes him less of a curse.

but yuuji isn't easily pushed away. he kept coming back for wasuke and i think that if he really does care that much about sukuna, that if he's wiling to live with him even if no one else accepts it, he won't let sukuna go without more of a fight either.

they can still find fulfilment in each other. they are capable of coexisting. and if sukuna decides to make that change, it doesn't necessarily mean he's completely broken character. and if they don't get to survive together in this lifetime, there's still a good chance for change if they're reincarnated.

[niqhtlord01]

Humans are weird: Unlucky Kevin

( Please come see me on my new patreon and support me for early access to stories and personal story requests :D https://www.patreon.com/NiqhtLord Every bit helps)

“Who’s that?”

Jib looked up from his lunch platter and followed the direction of Tiy’s nod to the lone human sitting at alone in the cafeteria.

“Ah, that’s right,” Jib remarked as he returned his attention to his food, “I forgot you just transferred in so you wouldn’t know the most famous human on the ship.”

“You need to stay away from them at all costs.” Jib finished as he took a bite of the Tunga sticks.

“Why? I heard humans are friendly.” Tiy remarked as her interest was now peaked. “They do not look like they are dangerous.”

Jib shook his head. “You don’t get it; that’s “Unlucky Kevin”.”

“What?”

Tiy snickered at the name but stopped when Jib’s expression did not soften. “You can’t be serious?”

“I am.” He replied coldly.

“What makes them unlucky?”

“Everyone around him dies.”

Tiy leaned over to look at this Kevin but Jib moved himself into her line of sight blocking her.

“Don’t even look in his direction.” He cautioned. “You don’t want to be caught in his death field.”

The look of confusion must have chipped away some of Jib’s nonresponse as he set down his fork and decided to explain further.

“That human is called Kevin Donger. He originally served in the 113th tactical terran  legion when the campaign started.”

“The 113th?” Tiy replied, “But I thought they all died during the failed drop on Morgus III?”

Jib shook his head. “Everyone but Kevin did. He was the only survivor and was then transferred to the 43rd mechanized terran legion.”

Tiy’s eyes widened at this news. “Didn’t they-“

“-get wiped out during the Springs Offensive on Hape Prime; all of them but him at which point he was transferred to the 800thdrop force.”

“Who-“

“-got annihilated at the final siege of Ogmar Fortress on Ceptus IV.” Jib cut in yet again.

Tiy sat in silence as Jib rattled off several more distinguished terran formations that this Kevin had been transferred to, and each having fallen to a terrible fate on the battlefield. At the end Tiy sat in silence and only now began averting her gaze from the human as the circumstances finally seemed to catch up to her.

“If this is true,” Tiy spoke softly, “why is he still at the frontlines and on our ship?”

Jib shrugged. “Word was he is being sent to his new assignment on Keff V and we were the only ship heading there.”

“Does that not mean we are in danger of dying as well?” Tiy remarked as from the corner of her eye see saw the human getting up and begin to leave the cafeteria.

“I pray to the gods that we are-“ -------------------------------------

“This is Captain Morris; we’ve found the wreckage of the Temen Song and are beginning our search for survivors.”

Looking out from the bridge view screens Morris was not hopeful of the last part. Strewn across the empty void of space before his ship was the blasted remains of a Terengi transport ship. Its hull was breached in several dozen places and it looked as if its engine components had violently torn themselves free from the vessels superstructure like rockets fired from a launcher.

“Any idea what could have done this?”

Morris nodded sadly at his second in command’s question.

“Judging by the layout of damage I would wager a jump drive failure while they were in transit.” He pointed to the deep gouges that ran along the hull of the vessel. “The engines overloaded and traveled faster than the vessel was capable of keeping up and as a result the engines dislodged themselves from the ship and pulled several power conduits out along with them like removing veins from a body.”

His second nodded. “The sudden exit from jump transition coupled with unstable power fluctuations would trigger a critical overload of the power core.” She remarked as the pieces finally fell into place. “If that is the case I’m surprised even this much of the ship is left intact.”

“I’ve got a life sign reading.”

The pair turned from their command platform and looked over at the scanning officer. “I’m reading one life pod at coordinates 237-954 by 716-719.”

With a nod from Morris the screens of the command deck shifted to focus on the new location. Drifting amongst the wreckage was indeed a lone life pod, battered but fully intact.

“How many onboard?” Morris asked.

The scanning officer took a few moments to confirm his readings before replying “Only one sir; and they’re human.”

[lotstradamus]

i'm loving all your vampire posting lottie! if you're ever so compelled i'd love to hear what you make of the books vs the show and if there are any book things you'd especially like to see done on the show! (also, bookwise, are you a lestat girl or an armand girl or a louis/marius/david/akasha/claudia girl or or or)

as someone who tried to read Interview with the Vampire thrice (THRICE!!!) pre-AMC show revival and simply could not get through it (it is melancholy), I cannot BELIEVE how down bad I am for these books right now. I keep seeing bad reviews on goodreads and girding my loins for each new book expecting the quality to nosedive, but 1 star bitch WHERE? WHERE??? I AM HAVING THE TIME OF MY GODDAMN LIFE

in terms of books vs show, honestly after a point the books are kind of Unadaptable unless they radically change the main cast, vibe and format of the show every single season, and the changes they made to IWTV were good to the point of sending me fucking insane so they can just keep on doing whatever their little hearts desire with the source material imo!!! howmever I DO have some suggestions for the upcoming seasons:

Lestat crying twice an ep (non-negotiable)

I would kind of love it if Lestat is the only character who tells the truth. the most reliablest narrator and normal girl to ever live. and yet every time he says something like "I killed a pack of wolves single-handedly" or "I woke Those Who Must Be Kept by playing violin" or "I snog my mother with tongue" Daniel is just sitting there like "............riiiight."

Gabrielle. Gabrielle Gabrielle Gabrielle. mainly I would like to smash cut to Gabrielle in the middle of really intense Lestat/everyone else scenes and she's just like peacefully sleeping in the ground... strolling through a distant jungle... sitting on a mountain looking at the stars in silence...

EXCEPT that one scene where she pulls up to Lestat's concert like she's in 2 Fast 2 Furious

it'll be interesting to see how they adapt Queen of the Damned because so little of it is actually from Lestat's pov, and all of it is amazing and cannot be cut out: [Stefon voice] the Twins, Jesse, specifically Jesse being haunted in Louis and Lestat's old New Orleans house, everyone hanging out/playing out terrible interpersonal dramas at the Sonoma compound, NIGHT ISLAND...!

I cannot stress this enough: GHOST CLAUDIA.

I want them to do Body Thief. fuck it, why not. must haves are Mojo, a random hunk with a PhD in Sam Reid's mannerisms playing Lestat for 6/8 episodes, Lestat nearly dying 25 times cos he pilots his human body like a drunk muppet, and, most importantly, Lestat BEGGING David Talbot for some old man pussy

oh and an entire episode set on a cruise ship

my favourite scene from the whole of Body Thief was Lestat turning David at the end against his will cos it was genuinely quite awful and frightening but also. um. you know. awooga

if they include Gretchen, then I would like the opposite of my Gabrielle request for everything post-Body Thief: whenever there's a peaceful, quiet scene it smash cuts to the wilds of South America where Gretchen is absolutely stark raving mad on the floor of a chapel with stigmata

I can't even begin to think about how they'd adapt Memnoch, but regardless I want them to keep the scene where Lestat drinks someone's period blood. thanks

also his cunty little lilac-tinted sunglasses that he will not fucking stop talking about

and finally, human Armand getting drunk and falling into the Grand Canal

bookwise, I am a Lestat girl the house down boots... I love his over-dramatic idiot crybaby ass!!!!! although the final page of Memnoch the Devil made me burst into tears and cry my whole face off until I confirmed that Lestat comes back as the narrator in future books soooo maybe like calls to like. self recognition through the other, etc. I do also get a shot of pure joy every time Armand shows up, especially in Lestat's pov. 'ah, there he was, the Botticelli angel, so beautiful. I fucking hated him. we kissed.' sis THEE dopamine.

currently suffering because I want to a) stop reading the series immediately so I can go back and reread The Vampire Lestat, and yet also b) never ever stop reading the series for love nor money. please help me budget this my family is dying

[heliza24]

Please allow me to brain dump all of my episode 5/devils minion thoughts/questions/predictions one more time before the episode comes out this weekend here. Only partially organized into something of a list:

- After the initial aborted interview, Armand is jealous that Daniel is able to connect to Louis in a way that he cannot, and he’s furious that Louis tells him about Lestat. He’s also just angry and frustrated. He’s been trying to make things up to Louis for thirty years, and their relationship has been strained for as long. And he takes it out on Daniel. I imagine the “is that was makes you fascinating?” Could easily be in response to Louis saying something like “I know I should have killed him, like we always kill the boys we sleep with, but he was just so fascinating that I didn’t want to.” And then all the jealousy that Armand has carefully stored away when Louis was imagining Lestat or choosing to sleep with another human rather than him just bubbles up to the surface.

- The more I think about it the more questions I have about Louis and Armand’s relationship (and their relationship to the absent Lestat) at this time. What caused Louis to want to do a first interview in the 70s? What happened between the 1973 and 2022 to change how he describes Lestat to Daniel so much? How and why do Louis and Daniel connect, and what does that mean for why they are repeating the interview in 2022? I am sometimes very guilty of having Armandaniel ship goggles on, I love them so so much together, and most of the further points on this list are from that lens. But I would be remiss to forget that Louis is the protagonist of this show, and that he has always been paralleled with Daniel narratively. So their connection is going to be really important, and i am also dying to understand it.

- Armand’s “I am the quiet you have been longing for” speech to Daniel is the equivalent of Santiago rooting around in his victim’s head before luring them into a willing death on stage. It’s seduction, but a seduction towards death. Armand is trying to peel Daniel apart in his anger. But somewhere along the line he gets too used to looking, too fascinated himself, to kill Daniel.

- I’m sure some of the initial anger at Daniel, and some of the initial anger at Louis, for humoring and connecting with him, has to do with Armand’s engrained respect for the great laws. Louis violates the law about not recording the history of the vampires, by talking to Daniel. He has revealed his true nature and let Daniel live, etc. part of me wonders if that’s why there’s that photo of Armand and Louis carrying Daniel when Louis is clearly being burned by doing it during the day. He made a mess, and his punishment is to do the dirty work of cleaning it up, even if Armand could take care of Daniel quickly on his own if he wanted to. I presume that eventually Armand ends up breaking rules himself around Daniel (not killing him, chiefly) which makes the forbidden aspect of their relationship all the more interesting to me.

- The two examples we have so far of Armand peering into Daniel’s memories (selling porn magazines and sleeping with a girl only if she would cover her face) speak to a combination of sexual shame, cruelty, repression, and desperation. There is something prompting Danny to sell those magazines, whether it be poverty or some hidden trauma. And Armand is familiar with that kind of relationship to sexuality. There might also be something about Daniel’s sexual brashness, as complicated as that might actually be, that feels refreshing after decades of Louis’s simmering resentment. There’s also a similarity between these early Daniel facts and Louis pulling the knife on Paul. It demonstrates a vampire-compatible personality (a certain viciousness combined with certain type of shame) while they’re both still human. And I’m sure that is fascinating to Armand.

- I’m also hoping that we’ll learn a little bit about Daniel’s childhood or backstory. I do feel like he has to be already running from something by the time he meets the vampires. He’s self medicating for sure, and I want to know why. Whenever I write about Daniel in fic I always end up coming back to his relationship to women and mothers/daughters, maybe because his daughters that he doesn’t speak to anymore in 2022 seem to loom large in absentia to me in the Dubai version of his character (especially in the ways they echo with Claudia). His disavowal of his queerness and kind of casual acceptance of the fact that he was a shitty husband does the same thing. The casual cruelty and misogyny of the bag over the head story reinforces this to me. I would love to learn more about this side of Danny, not because I think it’s a particularly good part of him, but because it’s a thing I think we’re missing in our understanding of him. It makes him grey in the same way the vampires are grey, in the same way Louis was grey before he was turned, and I want to understand it better.

- I think Louis begs Armand to stop torturing Daniel; whether or not he and Daniel actually hook up (and I kind hope they do!) I think Louis genuinely likes him. But Armand either refuses or continues to chase/torture/fall in love with Daniel behind Louis’s back. I’m not positive this is what the show is going to do, but I think it would work so well to have Daniel basically be an affair during Louis and Armand’s marriage. that information imbalance would make the drama in the penthouse more dynamic, and I think it would make sense that Armand would be looking for some kind of release, something that was just his, while he was trying to manage Louis’s moods and continued attachment to Lestat.

- I have a kind of more structural question as well, which is- how much they are gonna show us in this episode? Just from a character arc perspective, I don’t think they can end season 2 without Daniel knowing exactly why his memories were erased. That’s his dramatic question; not just what happened to me, but why do I not remember (and what does that mean for me now)? So I suspect that if we only see the first part of Devil’s minion in this episode, the torture and the stalking maybe, but we don’t get to the point where Daniel’s memories are erased, then there will be future revelations in the later episodes about happened in the 1970s. I am also wondering if the episode will be akin to a bottle episode, at least in the San Francisco section, set all over the same night in the same location. This is very play-like, so it would not surprise me if the writers room full of playwrights wrote it this way. And we’ve also only seen images and clips from the one location and the one set of costumes. If that’s the case, and we learn why Daniel’s memories were erased in this episode, that means his interaction with the vampires was actually pretty short lived, and any deeper devil’s minion stuff is gonna happen in the Dubai era if it happens at all. Because of that I either hope that the episode is less of a bottle episode than we’ve been led to believe, or that the bottle episode is only the start of a longer interaction between Daniel and Armand.

- To me Armand is like a dragon, who has been taught through repeated trauma that the only way to get what he wants is to roll over and show his vulnerable belly. Thats his dynamic with Louis; he grants him control even though he is the more powerful one because he wants to keep Louis. But Armand comes in like the monster he is to Daniel, and the fact that Daniel ends up liking him anyway, and doesn’t ask him to dim his power or appear more human or more gentle, is what makes their connection special. That’s what makes generally terrifying Danny early on necessary, the idea that he sees the absolute worst of Armand and is still somehow interested. I hope we can get to the point in this season where Daniel can articulate how attracted he is to Armand’s monstrosity. Based on the critic’s reactions I guess we’re not getting that this episode? But I live in hope that we’ll get that sentiment somehow before the season ends.

- Part of me is scared that the critics who believe that nothing romantic is going on between Daniel and Armand are somehow correct. Like, maybe we just aren’t gonna see any of that at all this season. Maybe if they have a romance at all it will just be in the Dubai timeline somewhere down the road. But then I remember the way Assad plays Armand around Daniel, and the way that he has jumped to Daniel’s aid twice (once in season 1 and once in season 2), and the “Alice wanted to say yes when you proposed but you hadn’t given her a reason to trust you” comment, which to me so clearly reads as Armand talking about himself. Surely those things don’t mean nothing.

- I love the idea that if Daniel and Armand were having an affair, Daniel asking to be turned and made into Armand’s companion would involve Armand leaving Louis, or at least breaking his trust further. That would be a huge leap for Armand because of the ways that he’s committed to and indebted to Louis because of what happened in Paris, and it makes sense to me that he wouldn’t be able to make that leap. Especially if Daniel’s addiction issues ends up transferring to vampire blood. The question of “do you really love me or do you just want to drink from me?” Is such a great doubt for a vampire to have, and I can see it really plaguing Armand, enough for him to not want to turn Daniel. I also hope we get him just in general not wanting to make fledglings because it feels like passing on a curse, and wanting to protect Daniel from the hellish parts of vampire existence by keeping him human. (I wonder if we’ll also see some kind of evolution in Louis and Armand’s relationship that will make it easier for Armand to recommit to Louis. Some kind of demonstration by Louis that he would pick Armand over Lestat if he had a choice? Something else? I’m not sure).

- I do think Daniel asking for the memory wipe himself is the most dramatically satisfying way for it to happen. Daniel being desperate for immortality, and despondent at the fact that Armand won’t turn him, and choosing to forget him instead is just so good. Especially if Armand acquiesces because he can see that his and Daniel’s connection is hurting Daniel and affecting Daniel’s mental health. It would fit with the way that Armand puts all of his partners before himself, because Armand would erase Daniel’s memory to save him, at the expense of his own broken heart. And that broken heart would explain the vacillating coldness and bitterness and affection he treats Daniel with in Dubai. And it would be an incredibly difficult realization for Dubai Daniel to have, that the person he initially thought was a monster because he committed this violation of his mind actually did so at Daniel’s own behest. This would fit with something that Eric mentioned in an interview, that Daniel realizes that he has fucked up two marriages because of the things that went down with the vampires that he cannot remember. What if the reason he could never be happily married was that he was never fully over Armand, even if he didn’t realize it? Heartbreaking. Juicy. The stuff of good drama! This is the other reason I keep reassuring myself that something romantic did happen between Daniel and Armand in the past. It changes the Dubai dynamics in ways that are simply too rich to ignore.

- I also do suspect that season 2 is gonna end with modern day Louis and Lestat being reunited. Lestat has to be around to narrate season 3 after all, and we have that tiny clip of the Loustat hug that feels modern. I’m really excited about that! But my heart breaks for Armand in that case, and I just… really hope that Daniel could be Armand’s safe place to land if Louis ends up leaving him at the end of the season.

[leggerefiore]

Misplaced Emotions

cw: unhealthy relationship, dark content, suicide attempt, self-harm, angst, comfort, pokehybrid au, Hoopa Lear

pairing: Lear/Reader

just making it clear to read with the content warnings in mind.

Your ship had wrecked, leaving only you to float along at sea on the debris that you held on to for dear life. Everything inside you burned with exhaustion as the sun baked down on you. The ocean was more like desert, and you had begun to wonder if you would die painfully. Perhaps letting go and slipping beneath the waves would be a better fate than dying of thirst in the scorching sun. Finally, your consciousness slipped away and you pondered whether you would ever awaken.

You did.

You laid on a beach surrounded by strange, unknown people. The debris you had clung to laid beside you. Those who hovered around were normal in your deprived mind, but a second glance let you take in more and more features. Hybrids. You swallowed. There was nothing you personally had against them, but you were not going to pretend you had not heard stories of feral hybrids attacking humans brutally. Were you on some uninhabited island? The clothes of hybrids seemed quite modern and fashionable, though. You could not even speak. Your throat was so dry.

The crowd around you split when a loud voice called out. You forced yourself to sit up as you watched a lavishly dressed man approach. Horns spread out from his head, which had golden rings sitting on both. A similar ring also engulfed his waist. You blinked. “A human…” his eyes were hidden behind opaque shades, “… Hmm…” He held his chin in deep thought. Another hybrid. Your brain rushed with questions about where this was, but the man spoke again. “Killing you feels like a waste,” he said simply. You felt yourself almost collapse from shock. He chuckled at your reactions and laid his foot on your stomach while leaning down. “Truly a waste… Alright, I'll make an exception in the execution order,” he snapped his fingers. Everyone nodded. “This human may live…” His grin felt malicious, “As my personal pet.”

It was then you realised there were truly worse fates than dying at sea.

~

You were paraded around like some object for scorn. A collar was forced upon you to wear as orders were given to you. It was quite similar to how hybrids were often treated in other societies. You had never found that quite right yourself, and now you found yourself even more opposed. The man who had forced this role onto you was the king of this island, Lear. A Hoopa hybrid. You knew little about them except that they were quite fond of tricks. Lear certainly seemed to be a fan of embarrassing you. While you were technically also just a servant, you were viewed as completely beneath the other ones that worked in the castle. Abuse and ridicule were a common thing for you.

Maids frequently served you bad food or tampered with it in some way. Your clothing was always in horrible condition, too. Everyone seemed to look at you and chuckle, knowing that you were the lowest being on this entire island. When you messed up, aggressive chiding was to follow. You were belittled for being incompetent and routinely useless. Insults were hurled near constantly for any little reason. And, worst of all, some even dared get physical. The trauma of being knocked to the floor and kicked like a rolled up rug haunted your mind. It only stopped when a head servant appeared and told off the assailant. The Honchkrow hybrid had helped you to your feet and checked you for any injuries. He excused you from your duties for the rest of that day, too. It was the only kindness you had been shown since washing up on Pasio's shores.

From everything you saw, it was a paradise for hybrids. A place for them to be without judgement or pain. You were the only human unlucky enough to end up here. Most others were killed. Why you had been spared felt like something far more cruel. This society openly despised you. In truth, you began to wonder what lied ahead for you. More suffering, certainly. It was only a few months in when it started. Mysterious wounds that aroused questions from a few others. You kept your head low and presence small. Eventually, Lear would grow tired of you and toss you aside.

Except, he seemed to never be any less entertained by you. The collar around your neck was nothing but a sign that you had become a pet to him. Having a human under his heel (sometimes literally) was entertainment for him. He truly hated humans, but something so pitiful about you led to a certain sadism from him. He wanted to see you in pain.

Which is what led to you standing on the very same shore you washed up on late at night. It had been exceedingly difficult to escape the castle while going unnoticed, but you had managed it. Now, you had your escape.

You had been meant to die when your ship had wrecked. This was only you embracing the fate you had run from. Stepping into the waters, you shuddered at their icy kiss. You closed your eyes and let the waves take you out further from the land.

~

Your “freedom” was short-lived. Before you could even comprehend it, your eyes opened to a certain Umbreon hybrid maid giving you CPR. You lied on the floor of the throne rook as Lear glared down at you. Water sputtered out of you. The maid stood up and averted her gaze. A ring was grasped in the king's hand.

“There's not any escape,” he said simply, “I don't know what you were expecting.” You felt your eyes burn from both the sting of salt water and tears. A scoff left him. “You should be honoured,” he placed the ring back on one of his horns, “I could have just killed you. Maybe I should have.” You struggled to your feet. There was nothing you could do, was there? A weep left you.

“Then do it,” you demanded, “Kill me.”

He tensed up. His face twisted into a frown. “Absolutely not,” he refused.

You wanted to attack him to force his hand, but your head just fell. Exhaustion was consuming you. Lear ordered the Honchkrow hybrid who had helped you previously to take you to the servant's quarter. He led you away following Lear's demands.

The large man gazed at you with a strange gentleness. He shook his head. “I'm terribly sorry,” he simply said, “… I wish His Majesty would realise this is him misplacing his aggression.” You blinked. His aggression? What did that mean?! Your expression prompted him to continue. “… Did you know that our Queen, his mother, was human?” You felt your stomach twist. “… Her passing was truly a tragedy. How it has effected the young master should be plain to see,” He sighed, “It may be painful, but please try to live…” A large hand gently came to support your weight. “I think only someone like you can save him from this fate,” the Honchkrow hybrid begged.

You wanted to scream.

~

“… Those injuries,” the voice of Lear caught you off-guard, “How did you get them?” He caught your wrist and eyed them from behind his sunglasses. You flinched. The head servant's words swirled around in your mind. How did you answer that? Your lack of an answer vexed him. “Did another servant do this?” he demanded, “I want names. They should know better than to attack you. Sawyer already told me of one incident.”

You flinched. He actually seemed angry at the thought of you being hurt. Lear cocked a brow up, clearly waiting once again for your response. “… It's not from anyone,” you replied, not wanting to explain how you got them. He seemed more frustrated by that, however.

“Then how did you get them?” he demanded. You could not meet his eyes. His grip on your wrist was tight enough to constrict blood flow. Silence still came from you. A sigh left him. “… It seems Sawyer was correct then,” he released you and crossed his arms to his chest, “Apparently I'm pushing you too far.” You felt stricken. Someone was… advocating for you?

“Fine, then, I order you to cease these activities at once,” he snapped his finger, “Your master's orders are final.” You wanted to sigh yourself. His hand came back to grasp your chin. “… No one is to lay a hand on you either,” his voice was low this time, “If anyone dares, tell me right away. I'll handle it.”

He walked off before you could try to question what that meant.

~

You stared awkwardly at the large painting of a woman. It had been under a sheet within a storage room you had been ordered to tidy up. She was truly beautiful… A visage of elegance. Within her arms was a bundle of blankets. A tiny face with nubs of horns on their head told you exactly who it was. It seemed Sawyer had not lied. Lear's mother was a human. A man stood behind her, clearly Lear's father. You wondered what happened to her. Her death must have been tragic.

Your contemplation left you unaware of the world around you. Someone had walked into the room, seeing you simply staring at the painting. It was only as a hand came upon your shoulder that you realised that another had joined you. Turning around, you saw Lear. His sunglasses were off, revealing his eyes. Your gazes were locked together for a moment.

“… You shouldn't be in here,” he said simply.

“I was ordered to tidy up this storage room,” you shot back. Lear's expression became something more exhausted. He shook his head.

“What is their name?” he sounded tired already, “… I don't understand what they get from this.” You told him the name of the head servant you had received your duties from. He seemed annoyed even more. Stepping around you, he gazed at the painting. “… Humans killed my mother,” he said simply, “They brutally took her life because she dared protect me and love my father.” His gaze was harsh as it landed on you. Something inside you felt like it was sinking. Of course… His aggression. Misplaced. His eyes were tired. “Why do you look upset?”

“… I'm sorry,” you said simply, “That's horrible. No one deserves that.” It was generic, but you felt confused as to how it had happened. Pasio lacked humans, after all. His face twisted into a grimace.

“I can't stand this,” he stood up, “Follow me out of here at once. You aren't ever to enter this area again. I will be having a talk with that other servant.”

You almost swore he sounded vulnerable.

~

“… Eat,” Lear's voice carried over the dining hall. You had been called in and ordered to sit at the table. The food in front of you was far nicer than anything you had since becoming trapped on Pasio. It felt like a test. You resisted until his gaze narrowed. “… You haven't been eating properly. Eat.” It was then that you finally began to try the food tentatively. The flavour was truly the best. Soon, you began to eat like you had never been fed before. Lear engaged with his own meal. By the time you finish, he still had well over half his meal left.

He wiped his mouth, “… You will be sharing meals with me once a day.” You blinked. “… I have been informed your food has been tampered with. What kind of master would I be if I failed to make sure that you were fed?” Your mind raced. He had learnt of that… “So, we will be sharing a meal.” You nodded. It… It did not sound so bad. His eating continued in relative silence. You enjoyed the break from your duties as best as you could.

~

Things felt better.

Slowly, life had become bearable. Sure, you were still at the bottom of pecking order among castle servants, but it became understood that you were not to be otherwise harmed in any sort of way. Your presence became something ignored rather than filled with scorn. Work continued on, but Lear seemed more personable. It was becoming something you would dare even say you could live with.

Until, one day, after having your daily meal with Lear, a Bisharp maid pinned you to a wall and placed her blade to your neck. You could not even scream as she pressed it into your flesh and hissed for you not to make a sound. “You're corrupting His Majesty,” she said simply, “… I need to stop you.” You wanted to struggle as the knife began to press into your skin. Your mind went blank. Why? After everything was improving… Her other blade was dug into your side.

This really was the end. Your closed your eyes and hoped it would be quick.

Yet, it never came. One moment, there were blades pressed into you, and the next, there was nothing but air in front of you. Lear stood nearby, holding one of his rings. His eyes were large and filled with rage. You fell forward onto your knees to cry. He rushed to your side, eyeing your wounds. Blood trickled from your neck. An order was barked out from him to someone. You were brought to his private quarters and laid on his bed. Sawyer came and applied gauze to help with the bleeding. You were ordered to remain in bed.

Lear took in uneven breaths. He grasped your chin and stared deeply into your eyes.

“… I'm sorry,” he said simply, “I've done this to you.”

You felt tears burning your eyes. What was this?

“… Let me return you to your old life,” he brought out a ring, “… I can see you will know nothing but pain here.”

“… I don't want to go back…” You mumbled. Your old life… was it better? Lear dropped the ring, utterly stunned into silence. You grasped his hand. “… I… I want to stay here…”

“Really?”

“Yes…”

He sighed. His gaze was oddly soft.

“… I can't let you stray from my side any more…” His hand held your own tightly, “… You really don't understand, do you?” He suddenly met your gaze with a burning intensity. “Are you certain that you wish to stay here?” You nodded. He brought his hand from your hold to comb it through his hair. “…” Suddenly, his hands came forward to undo the collar around your neck. “I relieve you of your duties and role…” He let it fall to the floor. You were shocked when he suddenly cupped your cheek and brought his forehead to your own.

“… Become my lover,” he mumbled, “You can deny me if this is truly too painful. What I have done is unforgivable.”

Somehow, you let yourself say yes.

~

“… So, is it tradition to have at least one human monarch?” you asked Lear while laying your head in his lap. He was reading over a review of an event that he had planned. Life had truly changed. Overnight, you went from the lowest rung in society to the highest. It was clear this decision was not supported, but Lear refused to back down. The king orders were absolute. The servants were still not allowed to be alone with you, barring two of his retainers. You lived luxury like no other – The Hoopa hybrid spared in expense in your happiness. So desperately, he wanted to repay you for the pain he had caused you. Oftentimes, you found him sobbing and clinging to you, pleading for forgiveness. You both still had much work to do, yet a genuine relationship somehow had formed.

“… My father built this kingdom for my mother and I,” he replied, “It was supposed to be a paradise where humans and hybrids to live together as equals.” The document was placed down. He sighed. “… My mother would be disappointed in me. How could I lose sight of that?” He brought a hand to stroke your hair. “Darling…” You sighed at the pet name. Sawyer's words finally made sense. Saving him… “I'm sorry–”

You leaned up and kissed him to silence him. Pulling away, you stared into his eyes. “I've forgiven you,” you reminded him, “… You made a big show of how much you loved a human even at the expense of your own reputation.” The wedding had truly been grand. It left no room for doubt with what you were to him.

He became suddenly determined.

“I need to do more,” Lear's eyes went back to the event report, “… Won't you help me?”

Naturally, you would.

[creepypastalover97]

Tumblr: create au ship using your favorite comfort character.

What I give:

Medieval au: Reanimated knight! Rengoku Kyojuro x witch y/n

Author note: if you don't want angst I suggest to stop reading at the angst warning.

Basically Rengoku Kyojuro is a 20 year old single unmarried knight who died in battle in the 5th century. During the process of having his body sent back to his family for burial, there was some "misidentification and misinformation" causing his corpse to accidentally be sent to witch y/n's residence.

Witch y/n is a 21 year old single unmarried women, who is secretly a witch behind closed doors. Dispite arguing for 5 minutes that kyojuro was not her husband, witch y/n is forced to take his corpse for burial due to his body already attracting flies and needing burial fast before it started to rot.

Witch y/n now stuck with a corpse, has to figure out how to deal with it. After an hour witch y/n figures she could just use kyojuro's corpse for a advanced spell she's been "dying" to try out. After 2 tries witch y/n successfully manages to revive rengoku's corpse.

Kyojuro is now a undead Reanimated corpse, who is magically bonded to witch y/n though the spell she used to bring him back from the dead. This means if witch y/n were to die, kyojuro would eventually go back to being a dead corpse due to the spell being broken.

Witch y/n now has a servant to do chores and errands for her, to her their magical bond is "master & servant".

But kyojuro doesn't see their bond as that, to him it's "husband & wife". Reasons being kyojuro died single, unmarried, and a virgin. So having his corpse end up in witch y/n's care and brought back from the dead only convinces kyojuro that they are fated to be together. It also doesn't help that witch y/n is the first thing he saw when he was Reanimated.

Witch y/n isn't sure how to handle rengoku's overly affectionate behaviors, but eventually learns to love them. Eventually she starts to like the idea of kyojuro as a husband.

Honestly the only reasons why witch y/n never married was because 1.) She was a witch, so it made it really hard to find a man who was trustworthy enough not to report her for being a witch and sent off to be burned to death. 2.) men in general were to demanding, of what she should or should not do at that time period.

So kyojuro is a breath of fresh air for her.

Kyojuro is really supportive of her profession as a witch, dispite if some of the spells she preforms sometimes bother him a little. But he does like how some of the magic she uses could be used to heal and protect the weak.

Witch y/n also likes how dispite their relationship now acknowledged as being "husband & wife" kyojuro doesn't force her to take on duties expected of a wife/woman.

Kyojuro just lets her do what makes her genuinely happy, and he is always happy to help her with any tasks she needs done. Kyojuro genuinely believes in "happy wife, happy life" even if he isn't a living human anymore. (He is essentially a house corpse husband now 😊)

That brings me to some slight problems in their relationship tho.

Since kyojuro is technically still a "corpse". He is still technically rotting/decaying and well... smells. After all the spell, witch y/n used only Reanimated his corpse, not his life.

Luckily witch y/n is knowledgeable in plants and herbs and is able to come up with a embalming solution to use on kyojuro's corpse once a month, to keep him from rotting more & to preserve him better.

It also makes him smell pretty😊

Angst warning: mentions of somewhat immortality, watching loved ones age and die, witchcraft accusations, and historically accurate witch burning? And Death.

Due to kyojuro essentially being a undead Reanimated corpse. He won't ever grow old, meaning he has to slowly watch witch y/n grow old and eventually die.

Since kyojuro doesn't age, and was most likely seen the day his corpse was brought though the nearby village, when it was being delivered to witch y/n's residence. It would be a matter of time before someone recognized kyojuro from that day whenever he goes to the village to get some of the things he can't find out in the wilderness for his "wife".

Seeing what is essentially a "dead man walking" would raise suspensions of witchcraft among the villagers. Eventually leading to a nosey villager to following rengoku to y/n's home one day.

While returning one day, after going out to get some herbs from the woods, y/n needed that day. Kyojuro returns to see his and y/n's home in ashes

Worried for y/n, kyojuro frantically starts searching for y/n though the rubble and ashes. Since he is still able to move it must mean y/n is still alive.

Kyojuro eventually finds y/n, barely hanging on to life. Knowing that what was keeping him "alive" was the magic that bonded him to y/n, kyojuro chooses to spend his last moments holding and comforting y/n though her own last moments.

Angst/fluff: happy ending?

When the villagers return to check on the status of the burning of the witch, they are surprised to see kyojuro's now also dead corpse holding y/n's corpse.

After some proper identifying of kyojuro's corpse properly this time, by the local medical practitioner. It was found that kyojuro's family has been looking for his "corpse" after someone accidentally sent someone else missing loved one's "corpse" to their family estate.

Deciding that it was best to return kyojuro's "corpse" back to his family for proper burial, the villagers attempted to separate kyojuro and y/n

But dispite their best efforts, the villagers could not pull kyojuro and y/n apart at all, due to how tightly kyojuro's corpse was holding on to y/n's corpse.

Seeing that their was no other choice, the villagers had to send back both kyojuro's and y/n's corpses to kyojuro's family estate for burial.

Both kyojuro's father shinjuro and younger brother senjuro, were surprised to find kyojuro's corpse holding a woman's corpse, when he was brought home for burial. (they wanted to make sure the right body was brought back this time)

Seeing how kyojuro held the woman, made senjuro suggest that she must have been kyojuro's "maiden" and that it would seem disrespectful to kyojuro in death if they weren't buried together.

Shinjuro who had gotten somber after having his first born marked as missing in battle for 5 years and now officially proclaimed as dead, agrees with senjuro.

Kyojuro & y/n are buried together as "husband and wife" for the rest of eternity. Never to be separated from each other

...ever.

Any way 😊

I hope you guys liked it . This was actually inspired by this:

[super-ion]

The Voyages of the Padua

Chapter 2

(prev | next)

“Oh… I don't think we're in Kansas any more,” she whispered.

The assembly area, predictably, had been vacant when she arrived. There wasn't even any apparent helpful signage about where the hell she was supposed to go next.

What she did find was a viewport that took up a considerable section of one of the walls. What let beyond took her breath away.

The planet was massive. She supposed it was likely near the upper end of what a planet could be, but the Eosphorus was close enough to really drive home just how big it was. Striations of milky brown and white clouds churned below, filling the viewport so completely that she had to press her face against the plex and crane her neck awkwardly to even see the horizon and black space beyond.

It reminded her of milk poured into coffee, right before it got all mixed up.

Was the ship supposed to be this close? Was that why the evacuation alarms were screaming incessantly? She had some vague half recollections of gravity gradients and radiation belts and assorted other general perils of gas giants.

She concluded that it was more than likely not safe to be so close. Weren't there supposed to be navigational fail-safes to prevent this sort of thing?

Well... clearly they had not failed safe.

At least the orbit seemed stable as far as she could tell. She imagined the ship would be doing a lot more screaming and burning and just general dying if that were the case.

Even if she did locate any escape pods or shuttles or anything, what good would they do? She would just be caught in the same gravity well in something a lot smaller and probably less safe in the medium to long run.

But the ship's alarm *was* telling her to evacuate.

Why would a ship lie to a person?

Was she even a person? She thought she was, but she was also starting from first principles, so she couldn't rule out any possibilities.

Her thoughts were getting away from her once more.

Was she always this anxious or was it just all the stims the auto injector had pumped her full of?

“Focus,” she told herself. “We'll figure this out… everything is going to be fine. We'll just…”

Her eyes caught on something she had missed before. There, right at the edge of the viewport's field of view was a ship and a long docking tunnel linking it to the Eosphorus.

It was an ungainly, ugly looking thing, all bulbous protrusions and long spindly spars of comm arrays and whatnot. It looked to be the kind of deathtrap that was always romanticized in the entertainment vids, the kind held together by duct tape and a prayer and somehow simultaneously the most reliable thing out in the black.

Her stimmed up brain, still screaming at her to survive by any means, recognized it as a ticket out of here. Before she could really even think, she found herself jogging towards that one tenuous hope.

The anxiety came next.

How was this even supposed to work? Was she supposed to waltz up to whoever it was and just say, “hey my ship says it's about to die and I don't even know my own name, can I come with you pretty please?”

What if they weren't friendly? What if they were pirates or marauders? What if they said no?

Well, then she wouldn't be any worse off than she was now, would she?

Her mind immediately provided several possible scenarios which were considerably worse than the one she currently found herself in.

She didn't get far down the corridor before the sound of voices brought her to a skidding stop. Somewhere up ahead, at one of the cross corridors, someone was having a conversation.

(With the same detached awareness that had been cataloging details about herself, she noted that she could not remember ever hearing another human being speak)

“...said essentials,” said the voice, dripping with sarcasm. “So that's exactly what I was doing.”

“I didn't mean for you to raid the pantry,” snapped another voice. It was distant, distorted, filtered through a radio.

“I was requisitioning vital supplies,” the first voice argued back. “You don't eat, so you don't understand my nutritional requirements.”

“Tre, just shut down the alarm. You can steal as much food as you want after you do what I'm paying you to do.”

“Already done,” the second voice replied snarkily.

The evacuation alarm cut off abruptly, leaving the ship in deafening silence.

“Thank you,” the second voice drawled. “Now, I want a full catalog of everything on the ship, focus on-”

“Captain! Mina's got something!”

“Elaborate please.”

“Yeah… she's… hey, slow down! That's too fast!”

A pause.

Was there someone else with the first speaker? Communicating by some non-audible means?

“Okay… um… the alarms cut off and she… she hears a heart beat… oh fuck, I think there's somebody here.”

Hears a heartbeat? That wasn't normal, was it? People don't normally hear heartbeats at this distance?

“What do you mean, ‘there's somebody here’? We did a full sensor sweep before docking and it came up empty.”

“Yeah well, Mina smells them, so clearly the scan missed something.”

Smell…

Oh… they were talking about her, weren't they?

She suddenly felt significantly more apprehensive about the potential of interacting with these people. What if they *were* pirates and/or marauders?

“Okay,” the voice on the radio said with calm authority. “Just stay calm and stay put. I'm in one of the forward cargo bays right now, I'll head back your way.”

“Yeah, stay calm. I can stay calm on the haunted fucking ghost ship.”

“Mina, please tell them to calm down. I'll be there in five.”

She didn't know what to do. Did she really think she could say hello to these people? If they were even people?

It seemed like less and less of a good idea to talk to them.

She took a step back and her hip bumped something. She turned just in time to see a tool box, previously sitting abandoned on a crate, tumble to the floor. Wrenches and screwdrivers and a gamut of other tools she didn't know the name of hit the ground with a thunderous crash.

Somebody screamed. She wasn't sure if it was her or the person in the room ahead. Maybe both?

She stared at the spilled tools in numb horror. Well, if there had been any lingering doubt that anybody knew she was there, it had certainly been erased.

A moment later, she heard a hushed voice replying to something she couldn't hear.

“Hell no, I'm not going out there.”

A pause. Yes, she was definitely missing half of this conversation.

“No, you totally can. This is extenuating circumstances.”

Another pause.

“No, you… why? Because I'm small and fragile, damnit. I'm a salvage access specialist, not some fearless space explorer from one of your trashy romances. I'm not equipped to deal with crazed maniacs on abandoned starships.”

Crazed maniac?

“Please just take a look and see if it's safe? Pleeeeease.”

She scrabbled at the floor, searching for the biggest wrench she could find. Everything was fine, perfectly fine, she just needed something to hold… just in case. Her fingers closed around cool metal. There, a nice big one with plenty of heft to it.

This was fine, totally…

Everything was not fine.

The thing that stepped out into the hallway was not human. Sure, it was roughly human shaped, it was even wearing slightly modified human clothes. But it was as if someone took a human and stretched them out. It hunched slightly in the corridor, its head almost brushing the ceiling.

That in itself was not particularly strange as far as she could tell. No, it was the too long fingers that ended in sharp claws, the bony tail that whipped anxiously behind it, the digitigrade feet that ended in toes with even more claws.

The face was nearly human, but strange enough to set off all sorts of alarms in her stimmed up limbic system. Large eyes, entirely black scanned the corridor while large pointed ears twitched, also scanning. It sniffed cautiously at the air.

When it saw her, it went completely still. She had the distinct impression of a predator catching sight of its prey… a fox sighting a rabbit. And she was the rabbit.

She dared not move, her fight or flight response stuck solidly in freeze.

The tenseness of the encounter was shattered by a loud tone over the ship's announcement system.

“WARNING! UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL DETECTED ON BOARD. PLEASE SHELTER IN PLACE WHILE SECURITY COUNTERMEASURES ARE DEPLOYED.”

“Tre!” shouted the voice on the radio. “What the hell did you do!?”

“I didn't do it!” the person still cowering in the side corridor shouted back. “There's an external party-”

She didn't catch the rest of the conversation. The… whatever-it-was was distracted by the back and forth over the radio and she saw her opportunity. She bolted as fast as she could in the direction most away from the creature.

Was she being rational? Probably not. She just needed to run. Survive survive survive survive

She didn't even know what survive meant at this point. The quiet rational party of her brain recognized that she was reaching the early stages of the crash.

She was so caught up in her prey animal instincts that she nearly careened into a figure as she blindly rounded a corner. She came to a wheeling stop as her addled brain tried to make sense of the sight in front of her.

They weren't human. But they also weren't creatures. The two figures were spindly looking androids. They regarded her with blank faceplates of black plex that faded to transparent over glowing red lights that ringed an optical sensor.

Where the hell had they come from?

Then she noticed the Eosphorus mission patch or logo or whatever it was on their chassis.

And then she noticed the clunky pistols they had trained directly on her.

Ah. Security countermeasures. This stupid ship could afford to have security bots, but not helper bots to assist amnesiac cryo sleepers. Typical.

“UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL IDENTIFIED. SURRENDER TO SECURITY OR NON LETHAL FORCE WILL BE EMPLOYED.”

Unauthorized personnel? She looked over her shoulder, but she was completely alone.

Oh, it was her. She was unauthorized. That was good to know.

[acourtofthought]

Reading the books, i kinda "understand" Vassien, the trope of inmortal and mortal love can give us a really interesting story to read and tell, however, i have three things against this ship: 1. Lucien and Elain being mates and having more hints of ending up together, 2. Jurian and Vassa have more build up, i mean, the queen and her general, like Nessian, and 3, the most important one, Sarah J Maas alredy told us a story about an inmortal and mortal on the ACOTAR series, specifically in ACOWAR (The same book where supposedly Lucien and Vassa have more build up).

And is...

With Andromache and Mor.

A Human Queen who falls in love with a High Fae. Yeah, both of the pairings follow differents themes, however, unless SJM makes Vassa a high fae (Something she doesn't want, she want to be queen of the humans lands with her mortal body back) or turn Lucien into Human/mortal (Which would ruin all his build up for being Helion's heir and possibly high king), their story will end up in the same way Mor and Andromache did, with the human getting older and dying while the other grieving their death

I really don't know why people only focus on the pair and not on the overarching plot of the story. Looking it with common sense, if Lucien remains inmortal and Vassa mortal, the relationships between the human realm and Prythian can get better. Lucien finding ways to retribuite all of what the Fae did to the humans, and protecting them too.

I don't know, but looking it from a far, i thinks the band of exiles relationship is more like Dorian, Chaol and Aelin, rather than Lucien and Vassa ending together while Jurian is the third wheel or something.

I agree with all your points. I also think there's a big difference between a mortal / immortal pairing like Elide / Lorcan and those who believe in a Vassa / Lucien endgame. Lorcan was pretty much over everything he had done in his immortal life, he wanted no further part of it. He had come into his full powers, used those full powers for death over the centuries and was over it. Lucien is just getting started with his story. His powers have not fully developed, Sarah has been hinting at his having the markers of a High Lord, and as you said, the possibility of him being in the running for High King. He's just getting started and is leaning in the direction of Prythian while Sarah continues reminding us that no matter what good he's done in his help of the humans he's still the odd man out. She's given us wording that shows how it's Jurian and Vassa who are two sides of the same coins with the same vision for the humans, how Jurian and Vassa are at one another's throats, how Lucien is breaking up Jurian and Vassa's arguments. Lucien is being placed as the interloper in all of it. There is nothing to suggest Lucien wants to remain in the human lands for good and nothing to suggest that Vassa has any interest in living in the immortal lands. You mentioned it above but it's an excellent point, the pairings only work so long as the possible future plot connects them and only Lucien and Elain are being connected to Spring and Day while Vassa's connection to the human lands was solidified in the novella.

[eisforeidolon]

Hellers are twisting Jensen's words around because they don't like what he said,

"He doesn't think Cas's confession is something that needs to be solved. Cas said what he needed to say. It was a long time coming, it was heartfelt and beautiful. But there's nothing to solve. Dean took it in and then lost one of his closest allie and friend. The acceptance of that happened when Dean sat on the floor. He lost one of his brothers in arms and one of his closest people. When they come back, it just understood."

First, a sampling of posts with screenshots and links of some of the creative reinterpretations they're already self-soothing with, for context: [X][X][X]

It's bad enough now, because we already knew they were obsessed with cherry-picking things completely out of context and twisting themselves in knots to insist D/C, a totally real most epic romance ever was obviously happening off-screen the whole time. Because that's totally how storytelling works!🙄 So why wouldn't they insist Jensen saying Castiel's dying blather doesn't need a resolution means Dean already turned into the YA romance protagonist from their fanfic realized he was totes in lurve with the angel and reciprocated offscreen! See, no resolution needed! The thing is, though, I believe Purcon is one that has a stricter video policy so I expect this to end up even more broken-telephoned in a couple of months when there's no video to dispute whatever they're making up by that point, which I expect to be pretty wild.

What Jensen reportedly said fits exactly into what Castiel actually said in Misha & Beren's tapdancing on the line of legit queerbaiting the audience Castiel's goodbye speech. The whole climactic reason the Empty could come take the angel away was because he realized that just ~*feeling feelings*~, without having anything come of it, was enough. Regardless of whether you interpret those feelings as romantic love or the kind of all-encompassing self-sacrificing love the Winchesters have, feeling that way about somebody is happiness in itself (even if they don't feel that way about you). So yeah, whatever kind of love you read that to mean? There's nothing to inherently resolve there. Castiel put his feelings out in the universe, and Dean listened and moved on with his life. The thing that was "a long time coming" was Castiel's resolving his struggles as an angel living among humans trying to understand emotions and friendship. It's "clear text" that Castiel said I love you (whatever kind of love you interpret that to be).

Hellers are the only ones who desperately need there to have to be a resolution to that scene, because the only interpretation in which a followup would be necessary? Would be if Castiel's speech was romantic AND Dean also had romantic feelings. They can pretend they suddenly don't understand what a resolution is or that one magically (like the entire rest of their supposedly canon ship) happened off-screen so it'll be already happening in the revival as much as they want. It doesn't change what the scene actually was or what Jensen actually said, any more than the rest of their waffle ever has. They're just happily lying to themselves and each other all over again, setting themselves back up for more eternal disappointment. It's like a Peanuts comic strip, except they are both Charlie and Lucy with the show and creators as the football.

They want to crow about Jensen not explicitly saying the scene wasn't about romantic love somehow being him changing his mind (again), but that's absurd. He knows some people interpret Castiel's feelings as romantic and are very invested in the angel being a queer character. Putting aside whether what's in the text deserves that, going out of his way to tell them they're wrong about someone else's character? Would be a really bad look given the sensitivity of the topic. And he doesn't need to do it anyway, because whatever Castiel's ~*feelings*~ are, it says nothing about what Dean does or doesn't feel. Which he directly says is that Dean lost "one of his closest allies" "one of his best friends" "a brother in arms" "one of the closest people to him". It's pretty clear - if you don't tie yourself in knots pretending he's sending you secret signals about what he REALLY means if you only listen to half the words he said.

[katealpha]

Hot Take

I ship Raya and Sisu over Raya and Namaari. Here’s why!

• The biggest reason. Sisu has an adorable, scrimblo human form that she can change into at will. Raya’s got the best of both worlds.

•Sisu and Raya would be around each other much more often, depending on what you’d have Sisu doing after the events of the movie. In my headcanon, Sisu went right to Heart after helping relieve Kumandra, and effectively became Raya’s roommate. Namaari on the other hand is a princess of another land and having her own responsibilities, may not have as much time for Raya.

• Sisu has nowhere near as much negative baggage as Namaari. Namaari is partially the reason why the Druun returned to Kumandra, and half of the reason why they were nearly screwed forever, with six years in between these two events of the two hating one another’s guts. Personally I’m not too sure what kind of romantic relationship could spawn out of those events. In Sisu’s case, Raya spent a quarter of her life trying to find her, and all her life fascinated and revering her. When she’s woken up, Sisu isn’t exactly what Raya had in mind, but she’s still the first positive social interaction Raya’s had in literal years.

• Sisu’s presence in her life made Raya a better person. The other biggest reason for me is that Sisu simply completes Raya in a way I feel like Namaari doesn’t. In the movie Raya distrusts everyone around her to an almost absurd degree. While her worry is understandable, Sisu is able to get Raya to lighten up and give people a chance after she had previously stated that she’d completely lost her hope in humanity. Sisu’s positive influence eventually got Raya to find hope that her father’s dream could become a reality, and she ended up adopting Sisu’s more forgiving attitude, and let go of the hatred she had for Namaari and her people.

•Losing Sisu sent Raya into a frenzy. While losing her father seemed to have traumatized her deeply, losing Sisu to that very preventable accident Namaari caused made Raya nearly kill for revenge. I think that says something about how deeply she felt about Sisu despite only knowing her for a few days at most.

•Her own death and the consequences of being revived can serve as something Raya and Sisu can overcome as a couple. Some people were bothered by how Sisu dying and coming back didn’t seem to have any consequences. I agree with this sentiment, which is why in my headcanon, Sisu is not only severely traumatized by the event, but has a chronic pain in her heart where the arrow hit her. This in my headcanon is the catalyst for Raya and Sisu forming a much closer bond. Trauma is something Raya knows all too well, and her having to help Sisu overcome it like the dragon once did with her, I feel can not just be very wholesome, but lead to bigger things.

•I just think Raya getting together with the titular “Last Dragon” is just a neat idea. Heroes falling in love with the things they’re sent to find on their quest is one of those tropes I really like, especially when that love is reciprocated, and Sisu is a character that very much represents the love that Raya loses and gains back over the course of the movie.

So that’s that. Personally I’d love to see more Raya X Sisu arts, as well as an official ship name like Rayaari. I don’t have anything against Rayaari, on that note. Raya getting with Sisu is just my own preference, and there are plenty of reasons why Raya and Namaari can work.

So what shall we call this ship? Risu? Saya? Raysu? Siya? Definitely let me know what you think of this.

[t0ast-ghost]

Here’s my thoughts on Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

There’s swear words, star trek, and spoilers oh my!

Start it up:

- “The planet of galactic peace.” Somehow. I don’t believe that.

- This guy on his horse looks like death

- “Let us explore it together.” Come take my hand. Let us take ibuprofen together.

- It’s hard to dislike Sybok when he smiles like that so they have to add in a somewhat evil laugh

- Epic music is a go (Music by Jerry Goldsmith)

- “‘You’ll be able to relax’ you call this relaxing? I’m a nervous wreck. If I’m not careful I’ll end up talking to myself.” Kirk convinced him to come here and now he has to watch his idiot husband climb a rock

- Kirk knows Spock and McCoy are there to catch him when he falls but goddamnit if they aren’t both really tired of his shit

- No but seriously what is with science fiction and thinking ‘yeah there’s a race of cat people’ looking at you too doctor who

- Caithlin Dar is awesome already.. I don’t trust Talbot (edit: haha too bad they’re characters don’t really do anything anyway)

- Scotty narrating is my favourite actually

- UHURA IS AWESOME

- are Uhura and Scotty dating?

- “Admit it. We’re lost!” “All right, we’re lost. But we’re making good time.” Didn’t know I needed Sulu and Chekov to go hiking together but I do

- “Yes uh- yes, we’ve been caught in a blizzard.” *Chekov starts blowing into the microphone* god I love them. He just went with it!

- Bones ringing the triangle out of spite and love

- The husbands sitting down and eating beans. Why would they make star trek about literally anything else

- Coming back strong with the extra wh sound (it was in the last movie when McCoy said whales)

- The trivia panel is telling me that one of the goofs is Kirk calling Tennessee whiskey bourbon and it looks like something Spock would write

- McCoy laughing and talking about Spock’s Vulcan metabolism and Spock indulging by saying he’s also half human and McCoy responding with “well it certainly doesn’t show” to which he knows Spock’ll take as a compliment. Yes I do need old married mcspirk.

- “You know, you two could drive a man to drink.” Then Kirk with all the innocence and nonchalance in the world says, “me? What did I do?” “What did you do? You really piss me off, Jim.”

- McCoy is lecturing Kirk cause he can’t take anymore of his almost dying bullshit

- “I knew I wouldn’t die because the two of you were with me.” “I do not understand.” “I’ve always known I’ll die alone.” I’m about to cry because this is true. He dies in a distant future without either of them. Thinking about it they all somewhat die alone. Maybe Spock was there for McCoy but we never see his death. And Spock dies in an alternate past :(((

- “It’s a mystery to me what draws us together…Other people have families.” “Other people, Bones, not us.” They are each other’s family.

- SPOCK ROASTING A MARSHMALLOW (not sure why they call it a ‘marsh melon’)

- This is the silliest thing they could have possibly put in a movie (this is like a comfort fic but a movie and I am so here for it)

- “God, I liked him better before he died.” McCoy is getting nasty and Kirk is now like ‘well time to sleep’

- “Life is not a dream.” “Go to sleep, Spock.”

- Why is the head Klingons outfit so cunty. Why’re the Klingons so silly?

- They caught Spock in his jammies

- “Well gentlemen, it seems shore leave has been cancelled.” They can’t go on ONE DATE

- Why’re they huddled together on the ship like that?

- “‘All I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.’” “Melville.” “John Masefield.” “Are you sure about that?” “I am well versed in the classics, Doctor.” “Then how come you don’t know Row, Row, Row Your Boat?” Spock makes the most frowny and tired face imaginable. I think McCoy was justified in biting back there cause imagine you wake up, get in a shuttle, and then get corrected. All I’m saying is Spock was being a bit of a know it all (wouldn’t have him any other way)

- “*laughs* I don’t think I’ve ever seen him happier.” McCoy is so jolly in this one

- The yeoman with Kirk’s jacket is played by Shatner’s daughter

- HE ACTUALLY HAS A SHIRT THAT SAYS ‘go climb a rock.’ omg

- That fucking outfit oh my goodness

- “What’s the matter, Jim?” “I miss my old chair.” And then it switches to Spock who’s going :[

- Love how the Klingons all know who Kirk is. Like he’s THAT important

- Aww Kirk can’t write his diary :((

- Their silhouettes are so cute (34:06) (also they look like how aliens coming out of a spaceship look, I just think that’s neat)

- McCoy has to turn on the lights like, ‘stop sulking in the damn dark.’

- “Imagine that, a passionate Vulcan.” What McCoy? You want Spock to be more passionate?

- “This is Captain Pavel Chekov speaking.” He’s so silly for that. But also it’s probably best he doesn’t say ‘acting captain’ as that would arouse suspicion cause as everyone knows the captain is always the first to go on dangerous away missions

- What’s going on? Why is Uhura dancing ? What.

- What. Was. That. Scene. Why.

- “Spock.” “Yes, captain?” “Be one with the horse.” “Yes, captain.” Oookay

- “Hold your horse, captain.” Good one.

- Spock just. He just nerve pinched that horse.

- Spock does not know how to deal with seeing his estranged brother again (yeah I was spoiled) so, “you are under arrest for seventeen violations of the neutral zone treaty.” Is what he went with

- Sybok complimented and then winked at Kirk HE IS TAKEN

- “We’re going to forego the tractor beam and fly her in manually.” “Manually?” “How often have you done this?” “Actually it’s my first attempt.” Personally wouldn’t trust anyone else to attempt that other than Sulu. He is THAT bitch (/pos)

- EXPLOSION!!!!! CRASHHHH

- whooo space stuff! Sorry the photon torpedo just missing as the enterprise went into warp was cool

- Spock’s got a gun!

- McCoy comes out of the ship and is so confused and looks to Spock and Kirk

- Ohhh no. Sybok is gonna do his thingy magic thing to Sulu and Uhura with Scotty watching ‘em from above

- “What you have done is betray every man on this ship.” “Worse. I have betrayed you. I do not expect you to forgive me.” “Forgive you? I ought to knock you on your goddamn ass.” “If you think it would help.” “You want me to hold him, Jim?” “You stay out of this. Why, Spock? Why?” Lots to think about in this dialogue. But I think McCoy offering to hold Spock is him going ‘Jim you’re overreacting can’t you see he’s already remorseful?’ I could be misreading but if you understand it as the idea of McCoy holding him down is so redundant because Spock is strong enough to get out of his grasp easily but probably wouldn’t resist in this moment then it’s just like aughhhhhh

- Also Kirk asking Spock to shoot someone is bad enough. But the fact that it was his brother…

- Kirk is in disbelief. He didn’t know his own husband has a brother (half brother technically. Same Spock same.)

- “Stop it, Jim! Spock could no more kill his own brother than he could kill you. If you want to punish him for what he’s done, why don’t you throw him in the brig? Besides, we’ve got bigger problems to deal with.” Bones not only defending Spock, but also getting them back on track

- Apparently both Gene Roddenberry and William Shatner didn’t like that Sybok was Spock’s brother. Roddenberry didn’t think that Sarek would have a child with another woman (I kinda agree but also Pon Farr would’ve made him become engaged to a Vulcan before he met Amanda, so it’s not completely unthinkable). And Shatner didn’t like it cause it was too much like ‘a soap opera plot line’ but they went with it so that Spock’s actions made sense with the way he acted towards Sybok. I personally like that Spock has siblings he never told anyone about. It’s funny.

- lmao this time Kirk gets to stand on top of Spock to reach something (See patterns of force)

- Spock talking about himself in the third person because he doesn’t want to admit that he couldn’t get out of the brig

- “The bond between these three is strong, difficult to penetrate. This will be quite a challenge.” IT’S CAUSE THEY’RE MARRIED

- It’s funny that- canonically - Sybok can sense a really strong bond between them

- Kirk and McCoy’s ass I mean- oh look it’s Spock. With rocket boots!

- Spock holding onto Kirk and McCoy for their dear lives

- “I believe I overshot the mark by one level.” “Nobody’s perfect.” McCoy keeps saying this to Spock and I think it’s healing. Also flirting.

- They’re lit really nicely

- McCoy is NOT having this “Sounds like brainwashing to me.” You’re so right, back OFF Sybok

- (drawable moment 1:08:17)

- “Your pain is the deepest of all. I can feel it. Can’t you?” OH WAIT WE GET TO SEE MCCOYS PAIN WHAT

- I have no words for this scene. Holy Shit.

- Forced therapy

- Oh they all get to see each others pain cause they’re connected

- Spock gets to see his own birth… why. What.

- young Sarek 😧😳😳😳

- “So human.” YOU FUCKED THE HUMAN SAREK. God he’s such a bitch.

- SPOCK FOR THE WIN!! He’s not leaving

- MCCOYS STAYING WITH HIS HUSBANDS!!! YEAH LETS GOOO! (Personally I don’t think McCoy would go with Sybok at all, but I wasn’t sure what the writers were gonna do and I was scared they would make him leave)

- I know we’ve moved on from this but maybe Sarek saying that Spock was human was like saying ‘he’s got your eyes’ like comparing Spock to Amanda in appreciation. We’ll never know but it’s still a bitchass thing to say.

- Kirk has a plaque with ‘To boldly go where no man has gone before’ what a nerd

- They’re really hot in their uniforms

- hi god

- Kirk wants to ID god. Fair enough.

- There’s McCoy in the corner. Losing his religion

- “I doubt a God who inflicts pain for his own pleasure.” YEAH McCoy’s not standing for this shit

- Oh so Sybok wasn’t the enemy. Yeah that’s a good ending for his character. Saying bye to sock and asking for forgiveness

- “Beam up Spock and Dr. McCoy now.” “Now, just a damn minute-” Kirk said that so fast so that his husbands couldn’t argue with him

- “I am a foolish old man.” “Damn you, sir. You will try.” Spock ain’t fucking around. Also he picked up a couple of words from McCoy

- “I thought I was going to die.” “Not possible, you were never alone.” Throw me out an airlock I need some air

- SORRY the immediate moment after that was SO MUCH WORSE “Please, captain. Not in front of the Klingons.” THEY WERE ABOUT TO MAKE OUT SLOPPY

- “Cosmic thoughts, gentlemen?” “We were speculating. Is god really out there?” They were having a nice quiet conversation and it’s a shame they didn’t show it :(

- KIRK TALKING ABOUT SAM??? Oh no he was implying it was Spock

- this ending- I’m not okay.

Unfortunately I really enjoyed this one. William Shatner made a movie that was so shippy and was oblivious to it the entire time.

I know it took a really long time for me to post this one because I wanted to watch undiscovered country first, I haven’t watched it yet but I felt I needed to finally edit and post this one. I hope you enjoyed my silly little thoughts.

Star trekking across the universe. Get that stuck in your head.

Masterpost

[chuplayswithfire]

(genuinely curious what u think) for the most part I have no issue with Izzy dying for plot or whatnot (in fact, it makes me happy that a certain subset of fans didn't get what they wanted), but i was wondering if it was the right tonal end? I don't know if bittersweetness is the right move.

Also, I really think Stede needed to have at least a conversation or something where he displayed that he'd rather go with Ed than pirate. But that's probs a HBO cuts reason

Oh I think it was the perfect tone to leave with. This season was melancholy and bitter and loving and forgiving all wrapped into one and pure sweetness would have been a jarring tone to leave off, when so much of the season was decidedly not simple and sweet.

Izzy dies (moment of silence for all those in mourning/in glee) to further cement the end of the kind of piracy he represented. Izzy is even older than Ed, far more steeped in worries about being a proper pirate than Ed, got to have a narrative journey of facing the greatest consequences of his actions and being offered grace and forgiveness instead, and goes off getting to be the only father figure in Edward Teach's life who decided to stop kicking him while he was down.

We get a moment of acknowledgement, which I know some feel wasn't enough, but honestly? I organized my baby brother's funeral this year. It was hard and awful and the mourning rises up like a tide to crush against my throat and choke my lungs and burn my eyes with tears. I loved him. He was troubled and as Ed put it, often a fucking nightmare. Death doesn't change those messy feelings. Mourning isn't some uncomplicated thing, where the hurts and disappointments and wounds of the past melt away because someone's died.

Stede didn't know Izzy well and didn't like him for most of the time he did know him. They were starting a more amiable relationship. He doesn't know how to compliment Izzy or address the complex feelings Ed surely has about him, so he goes for intense, very intense - and let's be honest, that's incredibly true, but also because it's Stede's awkward social interaction voice, funny.

So Ed is able to acknowledge his feelings - grief, earlier, in all the weeping, and now, complicated relief and acknowledgement - he was a fucking nightmare.

And then they return to the ship, their ship, the ship that enabled them all to grow as people, especially Izzy, and they have a wedding.

A funeral and a wedding - genuinely all they were missing was a birth, to hit the trifecta of human emotional experiences.

I thought the bittersweet tone was perfect. The golden age of piracy is over. That time in their lives when they could imagine piracy going on forever is over. They know their time in the lifestyle they have now is limited, and many of them are setting out to enjoy the rest of it.

And Ed and Stede are staying behind, in solid ground, to build something new in a place where that old way is buried.

That said I definitely wish we had gotten the do-over conversation where Ed explained why he was leaving in last ep (he wanted a domestic life) and Stede is able to express that it was never about piracy, but finding a life where he could be happy, and he wants to find that with Ed.

We deserved that.

(HBO Max, you will fear my unending wrath.)

[lucysarah-c]

What do you think about Levi not mentioning Farlan and Isabel throughout the anime? They were literally his first real friends and family. Even in their deaths he was frustrated. But strangely we don't see any flashback scenes about them or Levi talking about them. It's obviously disturbing to me.

I have an Oc an underground childhood friend that I ship with Levi in particular and I didn't write their story down, but it makes me think that if my character was in danger or if she died with Farlan and Isabel or if she ended up dying long after their deaths, Levi would never remember her or talk about her, just like Farlan and Isabel's deaths, and that bothers me.

I know it's a bit strange to get this kind of analysis-like question since you are a Levi writer's blog. But since I love your writings and I really liked and found comfort in your answer to anon's question about whether Levi likes weak people. Because I am also a person who gets caught up in rumors and doubts whether Levi will like us or not haha.

Anyway, I don't want to deviate too much from the subject and make it too weird. You can answer question if you want.

Hi, sweetie! Oh, I see. Yes, I understand where you're coming from. First of all, I'd like to thank you for saying that you love my writing, and I'm so happy you found comfort in my answer about Levi and a "weak person." It's alright that we get lost in what the fandom discusses too frequently; it has happened to me too. And do not worry, rest assured, I don't find these "analysis questions" weird at all. Though my analysis will never be as good as my close friends', like my friend Sushi who used to have a meta-analysis blog of SnK or Cosmic! They are beyond amazing.

But to answer your question, before I get lost in my thoughts, long story short, Isayama is extremely bad at writing emotional connections in my humble opinion. In my personal group chat with my SnK close friends, we discuss this in great detail at least twice per week haha. In my opinion, Isayama is a writer or a storyteller who struggles to find a balance between keeping the plot going and creating a cohesive society and interrelationships between characters. I personally think that the story was always advancing so fast, full gas, no stop, that we hardly got any real details about the characters that made them human beyond their mere roles in the story.

I always use as an example, if one chapter in the manga or anime started with different panels of the veterans getting ready and sitting down all together for a meeting, we could have seen how their personal chambers were, how their interactions were not only between them aside the presence of the cadets, but we could have also seen how they confront early mornings, if they had paintings of loved ones, flowers on their desks, etc. It would have taken ... 5-10 pages at most, and we could have learned so much. It's something I even keep in mind while planning my own stories; I have an entire notebook of "backstory" for all the characters of Holy Ground, canon or not. So when the time comes around, I can drop little details of their lives here and there because... Let's be honest, has someone ever sat down next to you and said "here, let me tell you my whole life"? No, usually, you get to know someone organically, and that's also what, in my opinion, should happen in stories.

Now, going back to why Levi doesn't talk about Farlan and Isabel. Well, my best answer to you is, sadly, another question. Tell me one scene in the whole anime or manga where Levi was having some quality time with someone he felt comfortable enough to open up and talk about fond memories, be vulnerable, or even crack a joke about some silly hormonal stuff he did as a young man with Farlan. Tell me, I will wait... Haha.

Levi doesn't talk about Farlan or Isabel because he doesn't have screen time to talk about almost anything besides the plot moving haha. I would put my hands on a burning fire and swear that Farlan and Isabel are still extremely important to Levi! And so would be your OC! Don't let Isayama's literary limitations fence your story. That's my best advice; explore feelings that he didn't have the production time for (perhaps he wasn't allowed to write about it because of financial stuff) or he simply wasn't good at it.

Hope that helps!

Love ya!

[alicepao13]

Hudson and Rex S02E02 - Over Ice

Eh, yes that definitely needs to be under the cut because it's long.

It feels wrong that this show had an ice skating episode before a hockey episode lol

"You should keep your dog on the carpet. It's slippier than it looks". He has four legs. And claws.

Charlie and Sarah are flirting over the body again. This is unacceptable (please continue). And we learn about Sarah's figure skating past.

"Who's afraid of little old me?"

The mom was so annoying for most of the episode.

"Enjoying" figure skating.

In the first couple of seasons there must have been about a dozen references about Jesse never going home.

I remember I had a lot of trouble finding the killer in this one. They all seemed very suspicious.

So it's not illegal to be in possessions of steroids, you just get in trouble if you use one while competing for stuff?

Julia's confession to Sarah is a nice scene. And I like Sarah's subtle reaction and support. It's not anything too dramatic, or shallow, and I honestly don't understand why some of the audience react the way they did (imdb reviews can give a hint). Not to mention that this episode gets "wokeness warning" (I can't think of any other way to put it) in backwards countries like... the US. Do you know how ridiculous it is for an episode with a minor trans character to be treated like that in the US while in countries that are a hundred years back in social issues like Greece no one bats an eye? Eh, a lot. (In Greece it aired in a major free broadcasting network and was a bit before legislation protecting trans people had passed, so I thought that we'd be the ones to cut it or we'd remove stuff in the subtitles. We didn't cut it and the subtitles were normal, plus that season was repeated like 3-4 times.)

Sarah: "I'm not a cop". You're not a cop now. In S4 you will be carrying a badge and gun.

Ah, the freezer, finally.

I am simultaneously happy and sad that this shipper moment happened so early. Happy because it was well made and if you don't put crumbs early enough, then who's going to ship it? And sad because, well, imagine this happening in S4 for example. It would have been so good and it would have been laced with an extra layer of angst.

No but Charlie was very quick to panic.

Charlie: Rex, open the door buddy! || Rex: Once again, Charlie, I don't have thumbs.

I love Charlie's detailed instructions to Rex. Sir, he's a dog. You're lucky he actually knew where to go for help. And I have to note that the most helpful suggestion came from Sarah.

Work never ends, not even when you're trapped in a freezer.

Getting to the good stuff. Couples whump, yes please.

How can anyone claim that they weren't meant to be a couple like???

"I guess I peaked early." "Hardly".

Meanwhile, Rex is trying to find the right people who will understand that when he's without Charlie, Charlie is in trouble.

Sharing body heat (and coat).

Jesse: Rex, wait up! || Rex: No, my humans are in danger! Can't those two legs of yours go any faster?

Oh, you know, just chilling.

And then Charlie asks Rex what took so long? I'd have left and locked the door again. Joking, Charlie thanks him afterwards. Just globber him in saliva, Rex, that will show him.

Random thoughts: Charlie's arm around Sarah. Also Jesse dying from all the running in the back, and no one paying attention to him lol

S4!Charlie would have at least knocked Lucas unconscious for locking him and Sarah in the freezer. At least Rex bit him and threw him on the ground.

The following interrogation scene is lookwarm and they don't mention the fact that Lucas tried to kill two more people after that. The jury is not going to like the fact that he moved the body afterwards? What about trying to kill two cops?

I like the ending scene. It ends on a high note. As for the "wokeness", just as I remembered, it doesn't present anything other than that trans people exist. It doesn't make any statements. So, I'm confused by people's reactions yet again.