#unless you���re a governing power you shouldn’t be talking about this

[isagrimorie]

[initial reactions] Doctor Who - Revolution of the Daleks

TLDR: I liked it! But I do have some nitpicks. But bottom line, I liked it! Especially the exit! 

Apologies going in, if it’s rambling and incoherent.

First off, I’m going to get my criticisms out of the way:

- They really need to hire these two people:

a) Sensitivity readers

b) They need to have people of color in charge of casting. Andy Pryor has done a great job casting people but. Since they opened up casting more actors of color to be more diverse... most people in guest roles die. So it ends up being Not A Great Look.

It’s the kind of breezy: We’re hiring more actors of color without really considering the optics of it. Colorblind casting in this way shouldn’t be colorblind. More diversity behind the scenes is needed, especially in casting.

Colorblind casting isn’t representation. Execs have to consider how it looks that a black man is helping create ‘Security Drones’ for the government.

c) I get why Jack Robertson lived, and I’m actually okay with it because I know Chibbs is going somewhere and he’s interconnecting Specials to be their own kind of continuity, so next Special or series we will have Robertson appearing. But I can’t believe the Doctor believed Robertson. Unless she’s really learned from not interfering with politics, but man I wish there’s more vindication to that. I do have a sense of where this is going though, more on that later.  

d) I wish they’d gone harder with the Dalek = Police thing.

e) I really kind of wish the Doctor escaped on her own.

And now for my thoughts and the happy!

RYAN! I LOVE RYAN. I LOVE RYAN BEING EMOTIONALLY MATURE AND PUSHING BACK ON THE DOCTOR. It felt... earned that they do and, Ryan’s always been the more hesitant of the three and the more grounded. I love that it’s Ryan that the Doctor confided in, I’ve always felt like Ryan was the one Thirteen connected to the most after Grace died. And I love his development, ever since Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos Ryan is the first to quote the Doctor back to herself from the guns rule and now here to ‘New can be scary’, reminding the Doctor of her own words.

But also, I love that Ryan felt more connected to Earth, with his friends. Yaz was always the one who looks to the horizon. I like that Ryan pushed back on the smokescreen the Doctor tried to put up. Ryan was tired of the smokescreen. He had 10 months to work on his feelings about it and realized... he liked being home.

I wish we saw more what they were doing at home, like what Chibnall wrote for the Ponds in Power of Three. I did see this was his arc he was building to.

I liked that Graham was torn but eventually his loyalties are with Ryan.

I honestly think the fam thought the Doctor was just gone for a week, her time.

Also: FINALLY A COMPANION EXIT WHERE THEY’RE THE ONES WHO WALK AWAY. And because it’s time.

NO MORE TRAPPED IN A PARALLEL UNIVERSE OR DYING OR BEING CONVERTED PLEASE. Anyway, that is why I was vindicated because I was getting pretty antsy at all the twitter posts almost gleeful at the thought of companion death.

Nope. No more please. No more world ending, universe ending, heartbreaking ends. I want a Jo Grant walk away, and that is what happened. (Er, I hope we don’t get a Tegan leaving from Yaz, though. Sad and disillusioned walk away).

Yaz. Oh, dear, Yaz, who seems to have tossed her career away running after the Doctor’s shining star. I loved her conversation with Jack, he was a nice contrast and sounding board. Also, Jack was much kinder to the Doctor because they didn’t miss each other, the Doctor (according to RTD’s retcon) deliberately left Jack on Satellite Five.

Yaz is willing to run and jump without looking because of the Doctor and I love that we got her feelings about this.

And, of course, the Doctor. The moment Ryan said she missed 10 months, I felt she knew the clock was ticking on her ‘fam’. She’s trying to be good to them and do right by them.

(The Doctor knows Ryan’s ready to leave, she knew it. She’s trying to be in denial about it. But she knows).

It’s a small detail but when she processed the ‘ten months’ bit, she quickly looked to Ryan. Because if it’s one of the subtext things around is that she wanted to be a better father to Ryan than his real dad. But she still skipped out on him unknowingly.

The way he just brushed it off, because the worst part is. Ryan is used to it.

It’s sad that the Doctor opening up to the fam was brought on after a decades’ long solitary, and probably a promise to be better. But, she calculated wrong, or the TARDIS deliberately chose to go to that time. Whatever the case, just when she’s opening up to them is when Ryan decided his time with the Doctor was at an end.

God, the moment when Thirteen said: “Mostly... angry.”

I felt this. hard.

I think it was @ssaalexblake​ who mentioned that Thirteen acknowledging she’s angry might help with all of Thirteen’s repressed anger issues. And I think these are baby steps towards that.

She’s actually been so angry for so long, but she kept pushing it down. Like I said, Thirteen, in a way, reminds me of Raylan Givens of Justified. People think he’s mild mannered, but as his ex-wife amicably opined, Raylan was the angriest man she knew.

And I feel this for this Doctor but at least, now she’s addressing it. The first step in fixing a problem, is identifying the problem.

This was made in 2019. Thirteen being in a repeating lockdown felt very 2020 to me. The things that made me go: Oof, was the Harry Potter thing, the Doctor’s always loved HP. Unfortunately it’s post-2020 hindsight where we go: whoof.

I love Thirteen still mouthing off and being obnoxious towards other Doctor Who baddies. The Weeping Angel thing is cool and so are the Silents. BUT ALSO THE DOCTOR CALLED THE P’TING TINY! AND SHE TRIED TO EAT THE PRISON BARS. 

And then, of course, being more obnoxious with the Daleks. It’s pretty clear the difference in rawness of the Doctor’s feelings for the Daleks and the Cybermen. The Daleks’s an old ember. Her feelings for them are ice cold. A purity of feeling. The Daleks are evil and she has no compunction on killing them, the Cybermen? More personal and a raw nerve.

She’s willing to be cold towards the Daleks. 

I really like that Yaz has more skin in the game, and she knows what she can lose now. And after her talking with Jack, after seeing his perspective on it, and from his words knows that sometimes the Doctor just disappears from people’s lives.

And I love the pushback:

Skewered.

But true because she is trying to stay still and be with the fam and not leave them. But the unfortunate truth is, the Doctor does run away, and the Doctor does leave people behind and a lot of the times, the Doctor doesn’t come back because they’re an emotional coward.

The thing about Thirteen is she’s probably the longest of the Doctors to not disappoint her companions. She’s always managed to stop bad guys and always been there for them.  It’s an impressive track record for the Doctor. She’s built herself up in their eyes as someone they can rely on, and then she failed them by not getting back to them in time.

It’s not her fault, and none of them know how long it’s been for the Doctor, by the way she’s asked them I feel like they think she’s only been gone for a week.

Honestly, I’m impressed how the Doctor didn’t make it about her -- being in prison for longer than they thought. She’s looking at it from their point of view, because she already knows what big leaps in time would affect her friends.

TBH Revolution of the Daleks felt like shades of Last Christmas in that the Doctor regretted missing out time with her companion/s. In Last Christmas, the Doctor got his time back with Clara, in RotD, time passed.

Back to the Doctor and the Daleks tho.

This reminded of Twelve’s: “You are monsters. That is the role you seem determined to play. So it seems I must play mine. The Man that stops the Monsters.”

(Look, Chibnall’s Moffat references aren’t as sledgehammer, but he does reference a lot of Moffat’s things.).

Except with Thirteen, I’m actually more terrified. Jodie does this thing where her eyes goes black and she kind of disappears into herself, this is what happened here. This promise isn’t actually good IMO.

This is not a comforting face. This is a ‘I’m gonna kill a whole boatload of Daleks face and I’m not sorry, in fact I might enjoy doing that’ face.

(And, a brief aside to Robertson, I feel like the Specials have their own kind of special ‘movie’ continuity and more of his story will play out in the Specials, where hopefully he will get his comeuppance because, to me, I feel that’s where it’s going. This is more groundwork laying.

I don’t like it when the Doctor interferes with Human affairs, especially government -- because look what happened with Harriet Jones and how the Doctor broke the Golden Age. Also, I don’t want real world leaders to exist in the Whoverse because I want them to have a completely different track from us. So. Yeah, New Year’s Specials have their ongoing storyline. I’m actually not mad about it, and I enjoy Mr. Big’s performance. He’s a sleezeball. A sleezeball that knows more now. (He isn’t T rump but he isn’t better either). At least I find him enjoyable and not outright offensive. I’m okay seeing him again for the next Specials. I hope next time he does get his comeuppance.)

Now, the goodbyes:

 The HUG.

We’ve been waiting for the Doctor to be more physically affectionate with the fam, and it took the Doctor being locked down for decades (maybe?), and Ryan and Graham leaving for her to hug them. And we’re all right, Thirteen gives great hugs.

The feeling Thirteen’s been running away from is here, sadness. It’s good that Yaz decided to stay other wise... she’s just going to run headlong into forgetting her problems, Doctor Style.

And again, learning and re-learning things: ‘It’s okay to be sad.’

Oh, Thirteen.

(Before Twelve, I don’t think I was this sympathetic to the Doctor -- no wait, I was with Nine. Ten and Eleven tested my patience but it’s with Twelve and Thirteen where I’m 100% invested in the Doctor.

I also love that they’re kind of soft touching the Timeless Child thing, and as someone on twitter mentioned, this feels like an examination of an adoption story. The Doctor is going to search for their identity, their home).

I honestly wish Jack stayed in the TARDIS with Thirteen and Yaz. Jack’s a great balance, especially pushing back at the Doctor and her tactics. Her NUCLEAR tactics. I am glad that the Doctor’s still a dick to Jack, not much of an asshole as they were when the Doctor was Ten but still a dick.

Also, one thing I really love about Barrowman is that when he’s in Doctor Who, he knows it’s not his show and he doesn’t showboat, and the man can showboat. 

I’d rather Jack than random guy that I didn’t even know was gonna happen until very late.

Anyway, TLDR to all this: I enjoyed this very much! Still a lot to be parsed through in things that needs to be parsed through as I mentioned, but on the whole? I loved it.

[cutegirlmayra]

Here's a fun AU idea. I was thinking instead of tarot card reading Amy has vivid visions of the future. However whenever she gets a good vision dizzy spell when she gets a bad vision terrible sometimes debilitating headaches and she doesn't control what she sees. This makes her a person of interest to Eggman, G.U.N., and other world governments so they constantly try to capture her and use her power for their own gain. If she tries to force a vision it hurts her. Sonic is very protective of Amy

*feels tired today, just re-reading prompts to get ideas -sometimes new- or get excited about who’s next in line*

Thinking in my head, ‘I’m just not feeling well today, but I do have some ideas.’ The very next thought to encourage me, ‘You write your best when you’re tired.’

Me, directly after that thought, ‘...Darn it, you’re right.’ *proceeds to write all and every emotion in vivid detail* (lololol)

I know myself too well.

PROMPTS ARE ON SHUTDOWN. No, you cannot beg nicely for me to take your prompt until they are open again, sorry love, them’s the rules. BI

Slightly gonna alter your request for the benefit of something I think may be a stronger storyline, I hope you still enjoy it, Precious Anon! \(:D)/

Prompt:

There was a rift in the chasm of space time, an unfathomable amount of power was being expelled and pulled, creating real and alternative timelines.

In order for Sonic and the gang to face these anomalies, Silver suggested that someone with the potential of mental abilities and the like should try and connect with the magnetizing force that keeps tugging and shoving on time, rewriting it and creating all these alternative realities continuously. Destroying and recreating decisions and parallel worlds would have a chaotic effect on the universe, but no one seemed to be able to connect to the unseen force, and Eggman didn’t seem to be anywhere in sight either.

Everyone was troubled... there was this silent fear that we’d be rewritten in seconds, that we’d cease to be who we really were in this very moment.

I stood by as my friends talked heatedly about their options, they each had tried but none had succeeded in connecting to that ‘force’.

I always felt I had magical properties to myself, if we could just connect to the dimension where this force started from, we may be able to help on our end.

I fidgeted, knowing Silver and Sonic were butting heads since Silver’s main priority was the future, while Sonic’s was the here and now.

Some found hope in this rewritten time, making Shadow and Eggman actually allies once again... Shadow hoping the past could be changed, and Eggman for his obvious reasons of defeating Sonic and taking over the world.

Both were absent and nowhere to be found.

As they continued to grow more and more harsh in how they spoke with one another, I felt the longing to end the conflict, and looked over to the Master Emerald.

It was the only thing that wasn’t being rewritten, some clue to connecting to the other dimensions...

Everyone had called out to it but nothing was working. I felt something swirl in me like an engine, seeing my beloved Sonic turning so angry and Silver ignoring him sent me into a rage myself, but I kept my lips in a fine line and held my fury back.

‘Friends shouldn’t talk to each other like this, or get in each other’s faces with such heavy glares...’ I knew in my heart that if I joined in, I wouldn’t part the two, but only get caught in their crossfire of differing ideals.

Both were stubborn, and both weren’t looking at the bigger picture.

Without a way to communicate with the alternative timelines, our decisions wouldn’t help us get any further to contacting the other dimension, and not just that... but we wouldn’t progress at all. We’d just be going around in circles...

“You can’t seriously think that sitting around waiting for some magical tether from the other dimensions is going to get us out of this time loop!” Sonic’s voice was full of presence and experience, he was a well-traveled hero, and knew the best options to weigh in moments like these... but Silver continued to fight back.

“If we advance unknowingly and without caution into the stream of time, we could easily be just as trapped in it’s nonsensical clutches as we were before! For some reason, the Master Emerald’s location is the only place in time where the effects of the rewritten world aren’t effected! If we give up this position, no one might be able to tell us what’s going on!” Silver swung an arm out, stepping up and going toe to toe with Sonic, refusing to back down from the argument. “I know you think charging into the time-stream might give us answers, but it’s a risk that holds so many unlimited possibilities that it’s fruitless to venture in! You’d just be trapped and the rest of us possibly waiting all eternity for you to choose the right path to even get out to another dimension!”

That part we knew was sound and right, that unless you pick the right choice every time, the time vortex would just pull you somewhere else. Without knowing the other dimension’s choices, we’d never be able to coordinate this... even Tails said something along the lines of a uniformed pathway that could get them all to the center of this strange force...

Otherwise, we’d be trapped... forever.

“You’re leaving us as sitting ducks to whatever’s happening! It’s going to put us all in danger!” Sonic was beyond listening to reason, however. My darling could never just sit by while we all feared for our lives and the world’s future.

The two stood so close, it looked as though their foreheads would touch, and I could tell Sonic was about to make a stand so great that Silver would be forced to let him go...

I couldn’t stand the thought of losing Sonic in a time-loop forever. In being stuck on Angel Island’s alter for the rest of eternity till someone figured out the correct choices...

I felt my whole being flood with tingles and expectations, with exactly what I was going to do and how my very soul wouldn’t allow me to watch as everyone would lose themselves diving into a puzzle that had no way of being solved without aid.

That was the last straw for me. Seeing Sonic pull himself away from Silver and walk over to the Master Emerald, “I’m done talking. Taking action is the only way we can succeed against this catastrophe.” He spoke so manner-of-factly... he was going to touch the Master Emerald and dive into the vortex... wasn’t he?

“No...” I held my hand out, seeing the Chaos Emeralds all glow as he was fusing with them to create the miracle known as Super Sonic... but I couldn’t- I couldn’t banish Sonic to an eternity of never-ending wandering through an unescapable maze!!!

“Soonniiccc!!!” I charged forward, making him flinch and pause a moment as he turned to look back at me, but by then, I had already reached forward and interfered with the Chaos Emeralds giving him power.

Instead of him turning Super, I felt my hand touch the Master Emerald, and all time seemed to freeze. I gripped the Master Emerald with my arms, widening the span of how far my arms could reach, and shook my head against it. “I can’t let everyone panic and waste away our precious friendships over this... this... whatever it is! Please, Master Emerald! Do I have the potential to set things right!?” I dipped my head down as the power overwhelmed me. Time slowly began again, as I was moving at normal speed, everyone around me started to move as though slowed considerably.

“Is this..?” I looked up to see Sonic’s hand slowly reaching for me, and his surprised expression at stopping him. “Chaos’s... power?”

I was shot back as my eye-sockets glowed a bright green, and through some vision or other, saw what looked like my younger self, also getting driven from the Master Emerald.

The original world... the first universe... Somehow, by the two of us acting and making a decision in unison, or maybe she had made it previously... I wasn’t sure, we were able to finally find a bond and connect in some magical way to where I could see that dimensions choices.

I felt my bare back slam against the graveled dirt of Angel Island and skid aggressively to a halt as it scratched my back and left me feeling weak.

Time returned to normal, I guess? As I heard my friends cry out my name and rush me.

I could numbly feel hands on me, shaking me as my eyes struggled to lift up, and were just waving open slightly.

My head hurt, I was dizzy and couldn’t see anything at first clearly. It was all a blur, before Silver’s and Sonic’s voices rang out the most.

“What happened!?” Sonic’s voice was full of authority, as though ready to take action if something need be done.

“She... I’m not sure, but the Master Emerald fused it’s time capabilities with her. You saw it, right? Her whole body was vibrating so quickly... like....” Silver was interrupted by Tails just then.

“Like she was merged into all the different dimensions... she was moving faster than the time strain!” Tails’s excitement meant only one thing...

“So... she had the potential then, out of all of us, to carry the connection.” Silver’s reserved tone must have meant that he felt validated in what he was so adamantly defending earlier. “Now that she can guide us through the time vortex, we might be able to reverse whatever’s happening, and return time and space to normal again.”

Sonic looked over at Silver, then down towards me as I still felt my breathing was low and drained, I couldn’t speak no matter how much my lips parted to try. It was like I was still adjusting to being in one dimension again, instead of flying through to see my other self’s choices.

“It didn’t need to come to this point...” Sonic spoke gravely, but it seemed to trigger and enrage Silver as he shot his head to look back at him, then stood up, defiantly.

“If you hadn’t acted the way you did, we may not have gotten this path. We have a real way to succeed and get through this now, Sonic! Why are you still so against me!?” He tightened his fists and thrust them forward, showing how much he was holding back his mixed emotions...

He was somewhat humble enough to admit that if Sonic didn’t rebel against him, that I wouldn’t have done what I did... but on the other hand, it still seemed like Sonic was opposed.

“I just meant that it didn’t need to be this way.” Sonic shook his head to Silver, remaining somewhat collected from his earlier clenched jaw demeanor. He put what felt like the warmest touch out of everyone’s onto my arm, and looked back to me, “It didn’t need to be so fueled...”

Somehow... I knew he was speaking to me.

He must have meant he wished it wasn’t so emotional to where I was put in a rough spot, choosing between losing the love of my life or sacrificing myself into the time vortex... I would have jumped, if Sonic jumped too... at least then, we could be trapped together. He wouldn’t have had to be alone in that endless maze...

Well, maybe he wouldn’t have thought those exact wordings of it, but... it did help to think he may have seen it as an act of true love.

I gained strength from his hand resting on my arm, and slowly began to wobble and lean myself up.

Everyone saw my arms gain strength again and push from under me, and immediately swarmed me again to help, perhaps unaware if I was conscious enough to have heard their discussion.

They called out to me, and I nodded, showing I was here and alert, but drained somewhat.

The pounding in my head subsided and I gripped it, “I... I saw her.” I stated, “I saw the original dimension this all happened in... I think I can do it again.”

Sadly, I couldn’t just ‘summon’ the answers. Something had to trigger it, which began another frustration as we all held one another’s hands and jumped into the void.

The first rewritten stories were perplexing. A shadowy figure that swarmed with dark matter looked strangely in the silhouette of Eggman, but instead of targeting Sonic like usual, he kept coming after me.

“U-wah!!” I leaped out of one of his dark matter missiles as everyone was getting scattered from me, as though this figure didn’t want me to receive any help.

“Amy!” Sonic called out, darting from the after-effects of the missiles, for when they landed and exploded, a space of black, glittering galaxy expanded out in a small radius and tried to suck us into another story to lose our progression.

He rolled and finally slid under the shadowy Eggman, confusing him as he pulled up on his Eggmobile and Sonic round-house kicked him away from me.

He reached to grab me, and as I went to reach for him as well, my eyes glowed again the color of the Master Emerald and I saw the other dimensional me.

She was young and looked like my younger years of first meeting Sonic. Sonic was younger too, and reached out in the same way Sonic was doing now. Was this... the corresponding choice?

Could I only see these moments when something unified happened? Were we making the same choices our other selves were or are making right this second?

I couldn’t tell, but I could see that after that Sonic and little me took the other’s hands, she summoned her hammer and spun to whack a younger looking Eggman away and send him flying, then everyone gathered and they took the right route... where it looked like the world was splitting apart and floating rapidly in a spinning and drifting away appearance.

When I came back, my head hurt and I looked to see that while unconscious, my friends were defending me from the shadowy figure of the Eggman lookalike.

“W-we have to take the right path!” I shouted out, my head pounding and debilitating me from summoning my hammer.

I had to though, if I didn’t, time would rewrite and we’d have to start with a new scenario and from scratch. Everyone was depending on me to guide them... I had to fight through the pain!

I struggled to lean up, feeling my body tense like cracking through uncooked spaghetti, but my arms finally cricked into position and I summoned my hammer.

“HAAA!!!” I grabbed Sonic’s hand which, when he noticed I was getting up, hurried to reach out to me again as I felt him pull me forward and swung my hammer into the momentum of his helpful pull.

The Shadowy Eggman went flying, and though Silver thought the left looked more safe from the twisting rapidly pieces of land in the galaxy on the right side, I urged him to trust me.

Sonic and I... we were so amped up in the moment... we didn’t realize that we never let go of one another’s hand...

G.U.N was in this memory or story, whichever it was, and they were after a shadowy figure of Shadow The Hedgehog.

However, Shadow seemed to be targeting me, as though wanting to destroy me.

This continued to baffle Tails and Silver, but Sonic was more protective than I’ve ever seen before, unselfishly throwing himself in the rippling blackness of Shadow’s silhouette, but was defenseless against how much more powerful this Shadow appeared to be.

It was reminding us all of when Shadow first awakened, and Knuckles tag-teamed with Sonic to give me enough time to try and trigger my memory.

I tried to do various things and put myself into situations to see if anything would trigger the correct course’s vision, but nothing was working and I was growing frustrated with myself.

Face it, there was a lot of pressure, and I felt that every minute I wasted was another second Sonic and Knuckles had to suffer under the fake G.U.N shadowy forms and the Shadow look-a-like.

Finally, I hit my head with a rock as a last resort but was quickly pulled away by Tails, “Amy!”

“Stop it, that isn’t helping!” Silver quickly intercepted too, yanking the rock out of my hands.

“I... I don’t know what else to do...” I admitted, feeling I was losing grip of my faith in myself... I may have been able to spare Sonic before, but now..?

Was this completely out of my control?

“Anytime now, fellas!” Knuckles called out as we both turned to see Sonic and Knuckles shoving themselves against Shadow’s dark, rippling body that almost looked like wavy flames under a watery scope. He was taking steps forward, which caused their feet to grind against the earth in an attempt to hold him back.

Then G.U.N appeared behind us, and we were surrounded... When the bullets began to fire, my eyes widened and the light of the Master Emerald grew from my eyes.

My other self was rescued once more by Sonic, but he was hit by those odd galaxy alternating bullets. He fell by her side and twitched, making her get up and cry over him as the bullets expanded holes in his form, and as he looked up at her, the holes overtook him and he turned into a rewritten, shadowy figure that reached for her.

She gasped and was pulled away by another, younger Knuckles with a cowboy hat on, who said something I couldn’t hear as my visions didn’t have sound, and threw her to a smaller Tails, who caught her and flew with her into another portal as the two left the other Knuckles behind with the shadowy images of Sonic, G.U.N, and Shadow...

“NOOO!!!” I came out of the vision and turned to where Sonic was coming at me, already having jumped and about to reach me.

I knew if I didn’t let these events happen, we’d be trapped, but every part of me wanted to jump into Sonic’s arms and push him back, let myself be the one that was swallowed up in the rewritten darkness.

But by then, I knew it wasn’t--and shouldn’t--be called a rewritten reality.

It was erasing reality! There seemed to be a hive-mind I picked up on, the force was controlling my friends and Eggman, G.U.N even! 

Not just that, but I didn’t know if we’d be able to save Sonic. I thought nothing could overcome Sonic... I was so torn, but as I focused on his eyes... so determined to get me out of harm’s way... I couldn’t find it in my heart to move.

He was shot and rolled along the ground with me as he I held him, tears spraying from my eyes in an army of resistance. I clung to him, crying out his name as he flinched and tried to fight against the erasing darkness that would soon overwhelm his being and turn him into a mindless drone to whatever force was trying to take over time and our known reality.

“Noo!!!” I screamed out as Sonic told Knuckles to take me from him, and as he turned to fight Shadow, was fully overcome and went limp. “SOOONNICCC!!!”

Knuckles had ripped me from him and threw me to Tails, instructing him that he’d stay behind to look after Sonic while Tails and Silver got through to the next part or stage of this timeline.

Silver had to grip my head and take my line of sight off of Sonic’s shadowy form as it turned almost like a zombie towards me, tilting it’s head as the drones somehow knew I carried the Master Emerald’s power to connect to the other dimension.

“Amy! Listen to me!” Silver began, but I felt I had died inside. My voice escaped my lungs and there was nothing left in me. I... had become motionless... I didn’t stop Sonic... I... I didn’t deserve him...

What kind of woman, who claimed to love her hero so full-heartedly, would have froze up when the time to save him drew near?

“I don’t deserve him...” My headache couldn’t match the absolute obliteration of my soul and heart from within me. Like those rapidly twirling away pieces of the world we had journeyed through moments before. “I... Sonic...!” I didn’t deserve to call myself Sonic’s destined love... if I couldn’t even protect him when I knew what was about to happen.

“He was too fast, Amy, there’s nothing you could have done.” Tails held me closer to him, seeing my shaking eyes and the pain in trying to speak when I felt my entire ribcage had collapsed and took the compartments of my lungs and lifeforce with it.

“Amy, please, remember, this can all be rewritten.” Silver had placed his two hands to the sides of my face, seeing how broken I was and failing to grasp this reality.

My head twitched up, but I was hollow inside.

“You have to tell us what to do. What did you see? Where do we go?!” He urged, trying to be kind, but... “We can’t save him now! He’ll be alright, you have to trust in your vision! Please, Amy! The more time you spend silent the more time Sonic has to suffer!”

What was the point..? Without Sonic... Without him, I-... I had no meaning to my life anymore. Sonic was everything to me... he was my whole world... a reality without Sonic... in a universe where I couldn’t see him smiling... couldn’t hear his laughter and teasing expression... A world without his warm touch...

My mind went back to when Sonic had placed his hand to my arm, his words... “It didn’t need to come to this point... It didn’t need to be so fueled...”

My eyes blazed with a new purpose. I wasn’t just going to save my dimension. I was going to save my Sonic!

I cried out and struggled to get Silver’s hands off my face, then pointed Tails to the portal that was opening behind us. “There! Go! Now!”

I saw and witnessed first hand the torment the other dimensional, more tender, younger and naïve me struggle to gain the strength to continue forward, till her and her friends found sanctuary at the end.

By this time, I had spent all of what I felt was in me, and fell to my knees as I had fought the dark entity known as World Keeper, who was polluted by the filth of negativity in all the worlds... that hive mind was just swallowing the world in despair, and without ever being hit by it, I felt it more than ever too.

Then it slashed it, and I felt the darkness swallowing me as my color turned black with the light glimmer of inky stars within it’s slick obsidian...

I fell back and couldn’t feel myself hit the ground, I couldn’t feel anything anymore but emptiness...

As it overtook me, I wondered with my last, conscious thoughts if the other dimensional me had saved Sonic... was this the end of our universe? Or just the entrapment of one dimension?

Then...

“Don’t give up!”

S...Sonic?

“You have what it takes, use the power of the Chaos Emeralds!”

S...Shadow?

“I didn’t blast this stupid filth out of the sky only to be controlled into an everlasting misery by it!!!”

Eggman..?

“I’m not staying stuck in this feeling forever! Come on, Amy! You can do this-grraaahh!!!”

Knuckles...

Drifting into the blackness of the void, I suddenly felt four strong hands trying to force me upwards towards the light.

It slowed my decent, until Silver and Tails were able to reach out and grab me, and my last vision surfaced with the dizzy spell.

Rosy... she was also drifting into despair before Robotnik and Sonic reached through their own controlled misery by the World Keeper and used the last of their hope to push her out...

I tried to strain as best as I could through the dizzy, blurry vision and move my hand up towards them.

Her vision and mine suddenly conjoined, and I saw younger Tails flash continuously between Silver and my dimension’s Tails too.

I spoke out to her... “We can still save everyone...” I encouraged, “We... can’t give in... to hopelessness!”

I felt our hearts merge into one, felt our power soar as though we were evolving into a new creature that had it’s life sparked into existence again.

Newly hatched into this feeling of easiness, peace, and strength beyond my understanding... I grabbed Tails and Silver’s hands and swung out, the darkness that was once overcoming me suddenly burst with light and the seven Chaos Emeralds floated around us.

“Ah! She didn’t fuse with them!” Silver blurted out, seeing them swarm both him and Tails too.

“She... was storing them!” Tails exclaimed.

I guess I had become somewhat of their server and carrier... there power was just kept safe in me... through the Master Emerald and my unique connection to the other me.

We fought and as we did, I touched the ground and brought my friends and all the dimensions who had succumb to the negativity out from the inky blanket of darkness and restored their light and hope through the power being expelled from me.

No longer was I a guide.

I was a redeeming light now.

Sonic, Shadow, and Silver all burst into Super form, and together--with all the other worlds we loved so dearly too--we put an end to World Keeper and with me and my other self touching his chest as he was about to fall back into the his own making of the void, he immediately returned to a smaller form of another being.

Sonic suddenly cried out, “Chip!” and darted into the void after him.

I waited... weeks and weeks did I wait for him...

I clung to my chest as though clinging to my heart, refusing to let it break, and keeping it all together again.

I didn’t have visions anymore, but I could feel something... Something like the despair of the void was created from that feeling of loss and loneliness when Chip’s essence left the core of the earth and became free roaming in space...

Tails said he had a theory, that Chip’s body was still with Dark Gaia, but his power had escaped in longing to reunite with Sonic, his friend, again.

Traveling through space and time without a body, it became depressed, and expelled it’s world-bending powers to try and find Sonic... ending up losing itself and taking all worlds and dimensions it was searching through down with it.

A comet of bright golden light shot down through the cosmos, and I eagerly dropped everything to race out my door and pursue it, I knew from the green, red, and white lights that covered the world that Chip’s soul and powers returned to their slumber... and brought back Sonic safely to us as well!

“Sonic..!” My heart could barely contain it’s joy as I raced over the hills to follow his light... before having it sink and my hands fling up to the sides of my face when I saw him hit the water off in the distance of the sea. “No, Sonic!!! You can’t swim!!”

The distance was too far, but I swam anyway, feeling my exhaustion from having traveled miles and miles already on land before seeing him fall into the ocean.

He was covered in a light I assumed was Chip’s planet power, and I held my breath and swam down to him, heard a voice in my mind calling to me...

“Sorry for all the trouble I caused, Amy... Take good care of Sonic from now on. I won’t be lonely without him anymore... I know I may never see him again, especially when I wake up many, many years from now... but even still, the moments I had with him in the void of space and time, and with our time facing Dark Gaia, will always be in my heart... Thank you for letting me see him, one last time...”

The floating ball of light around him slowly brought Sonic up to me, and when I entered it, I took a deep breath and fell limply over his body, floating with him up to the surface.

He opened his eyes and smiled at me, winking without a word but it still gave me so much comfort and peace.

It was as though he was saying everything would be alright now... and Chip’s remaining spatial power set us down on the shoreline... as the waves met us as we took a much deserved rest on the cool sands... the sun rose up and the sounds of helicopters and people were surrounding us, but we remained sleeping soundly next to one another...

Sonic’s warm hand... laying gently over my stomach...

Mine upon his heart.

G.U.N’s windy interruption causing us both to sneeze as Silver appeared and held out both his hands to stop them from investigating, explaining as we drifted off into our dreams~

[kaiserin-astraia]

NieR's Project Gestalt

So after several nights losing sleep over this, I decided to write down my biggest issue with the NieR series: project gestalt. It’s pretty unanimously agreed by fans that project gestalt was probably the worst plan in the history of plans, executed in the laziest way possible. And yet, I couldn't help but obsess over how project gestalt could have been salvaged, even after the events of ending E of nier replicant.

This is the part where I say: I’m going to spoiling the hell out of NieR: Replicant and in some capacity NieR: Automata. If you don’t want to be spoiled, then get out now — that being said, if you’re sticking around anyway, I’ll be attempting to give summaries and explanations to concepts in the games that are relevant, so that we are all on the same page. also also I only know the high level details of the Drakengard series & won't be touching on it much.

So. What the hell was project gestalt?

Project gestalt was the terrible and last ditch effort to save humanity from a widespread pandemic called white chlorination syndrome, or WCS. WCS was caused by a literal inter dimensional fight between a red dragon and demon baby thing that resulted in the death of both and the deterioration of their corpses causing salt (also called Maso particles) to fall from the sky. If you got infected, the Cult of the Watchers gave you the choice of losing your free will and fighting for them as a soldier in the Legion, or turning into a pile of salt and dying. BrandonSP has a wonderful video talking about the Legion and the Nier universe leading up to the events of Nier: Replicant that I’ll link if you want to know more about this history (here), but all you need to know is: humanity is on the brink of extinction and the planet is no longer inhabitable in its current state.

Project Gestalt discovered that the way humans could escape extinction is by separating their souls from their bodies — the soul having no physical form is immortal & immune to maso, while the body without a soul can't become infected, because there’s no consciousness to force into a demon deal, I guess. You know, I realized while writing this that it’s not clear why separating soul from body actually worked to prevent WCS, but whatever it worked because Yoko Taro Said So.

However, separating body from soul was no easy task; upon doing so, most people’s souls would instantly go berserk, turning into mindless violent entities. The first success was the playable character of Nier: Replicant, who I’m going to call Nier. Upon this first success, the governments of the world convinced / coerced him into cooperating with the Project, and he became the cornerstone for all the “gestalts” aka the souls separated from their bodies.

Just to keep everyone up to pace, gestalts are the souls separated from their bodies, otherwise known as “shades” in Nier: Replicant.

So Project Gestalt’s planned chain of events was as followed:

1. All remaining humans would undergo gestalt-ing 2. The resulting replicants (aka, the soulless bodies) and androids would fight and defeat the legion & clean up the planet so that it was habitable again … which meant containing or eradicating the leftover maso covering the planet. 3. Once ready for rehabilitation, Grimoire Weiss and Grimoire Nior would merge into each other, causing all gestalt souls to snap into their respective replicants starting with Nier 4. Profit. Seems a simple plan, right? Well, not even a single step of that plan worked. By the end of Nier: Replicant ending E, Nier’s Gestalt, aka the shadow lord, has been killed by his own replicant; the replicants have gained sentience and I would argue their own souls, and many gestalts have relapsed into becoming violent, nonsensical entities. The insta-snap grimoires are dead, too, and-- Oh there’s the tiny issue that when a gestalt relapses, their corresponding replicant gets something called the “black scrawl”, a painful and terminal disease. Once a gestalt relapses or dies, their replicant can’t be recreated (well... mostly) and because the original gestalt, the shadow lord, is dead, all the other gestalts are doomed to eventually relapse or die as well, and thus humanity goes extinct. This is where I call bullshit. There’s little known about the time period between Nier: Replicant and Nier: Automata— especially the time of the gestalt and replicants decline. The game(s) leads you to believe that nothing can be done because the soul snapping Grimoires are dead and so is the original gestalt. However, there is tons of evidence in the game itself that implies it’s not so simple, and truly the true tragedy is that simply, everyone gave up — or more likely, Yoko Taro didn’t want us to think this hard, lol. Well TOO BAD, I can’t stop thinking about it so finally let’s actually talk about how to save humanity. First of all, I read on Reddit how it seems to be that the androids Devola and Popula are only two units, and with their demise in Nier: Replicant that project gestalt is doomed to failure. However, Nier: Automata clearly talks about how there were several Devola and Popula model pairs in different cities/continents. There’s no way that only our Devola and Popula in Nier: Replicant knew how to merge a gestalt with its replicant; such vital information would be stored in every android related to the project, and these models were quite literally created to oversee it. So. Idk why the hell the project was allowed to even get so disorganized, but regardless, after the the Shadow Lord and grimoires die, the remaining Devola and Popula units should have immediately made a plan B. There were several big issues with the state of the world before, so we’ll tackle them one by one for the biggest chance of success. 1. All relapsed gestalts need to be eradicated or contained. Their violence has lead replicants to attack them back and view them as monsters, leading to meaningless conflict. If the Devola and Popula units are programmed not to harm the gestalts because they are the 'true humans', they need to make new units ala A2 or 2B to take care of it. Because we know that android technology is already there, evidenced by the Memory Tree, and Devola and Popula, it follows this is definitely possible.

2. There should be three divisions of research made as follows:

2.1 Research into the effects of mismatched replicants merged with gestalts, like Kaine. Because the clock is ticking, there’s unfortunately no time to gawk at morals. Taking volunteers, even 1 success could be the difference between extinction or survival.

2.2 Creating and housing “iced” or “stasis” gestalts, while replicant bodies are “grown” for them. Because replicants have formed their own identities, they should try to create/raise replicants completely asleep/comatose. If not this, research into putting gestalts into their proper replicants at infant stage can be tried. (Note: replicants were infertile, hence why replicants had to be made, not born of sexual reproduction. Yoko Taro said that replicants couldn’t reproduce because they didn’t have their souls, however I think this was just a comment said to cover a plot hole.)

2.3 Research into whether replicants truly have souls or not, and whether something can be done to allow them to reproduce. Regarding the soul issue, it’s heavily implied that the Memory Tree, having absorbed the memories of so many replicants, began growing a soul of its own (that Nier killed, thinking it was a shade, oops). Now, how is that possible? It shouldn’t be, unless the replicants had made their own or unless a soul being created was possible. If we want to get fancy, a fourth division could be organized to study Emil and the weapons project that experimented on him, with an emphasis on how to either reverse the effects or if any information can be gleaned from them regarding the soul.

2.4 Black scrawl 2 electric boogaloo: it’s said in the project gestalt files that they couldn’t find a cure or reason for this phenomenon, but if we’re trying to cover our bases, another research division should be created to investigate and attempt to cure it. It seems to be a magical malady, so I wonder if Emil would be able to help... or even Kaine.

3. (Moving along...) More androids should be created to build cities / homes / areas of civilization for the newly reformed humans to re-habitat. This is said to be a goal of the androids in Nier: Automata, and they were doing a piss poor job — maybe if they got started earlier they’d have a better shot. The replicants were/are already living in medieval levels of squalor and poverty, which is ridiculous considering the android's technology is so advanced.

4. No more lies: though in my plan, replicants shouldn’t have to be created except to be possessed, but if they are created and allowed to mature into a sentient age, replicants should be educated and informed about the truth of their existence — this is for many reasons. First, that way replicants will be less likely to fear and attack shades they see; two, worst comes to worst, they may be more willing to share their bodies with their gestalts and who knows? Maybe they’d merge naturally. Three, no replicant would be allowed to get strong enough to defeat an android (or two -- seriously, what were the twins thinking letting Nier get so powerful?).

Hopefully this makes it very obvious that the death of humanity was entirely the fault of Project Gestalt itself and the androids meant to oversee it -- at least the androids have the excuse of being programmed to act a certain way, but still. It's so frustrating that we just have to accept that humanity was doomed even though, by its own lore, there was a lot that could have been done to attempt to save humans. Like, I love you, Yoko Taro, but gees.

anyway if you've read all this I'm so sorry but also I'm REALLY interested to hear what y'all think about the Nier universe and it's facets. idek why I've got such deep brainworms but here we are.

P.S. As of writing this, I've played some Nier: Reincarnation and it just further implies that the way they created and treated replicants was both A) awful, holy shit, it's so bad, and B) ill-advised on every level. I don't want to spoil but good lord. Honestly, I think at this point YT just wants to express/nail home that humanity was doomed to fail because of its own cruelty and flaws. ok ill shut up now bye love u

[btsslowburnfic]

Chthonic Love Ch. 18

Series Summary: A Greek Mythology AU featuring Yoongi/Suga as Hades and reader as Persephone. Olympian ruler Namjoon has delivered you, Persephone, as a gift for his brother, lord of Death, Yoongi 

Chapter Summary: Reading that pesky contract

Previous Chapter here

Taehyung diplomatically turned to the two of you. “In order to make better sense of the addendum to this contract, which I will show both of you shortly. I need to know exactly what happened when Lord Namjoon brought Lady Persephone.”

Yoongi cleared his throat, “Sure...uhhh….Namjoon showed up uninvited. Like always. He said he thought I was lonely and declared he had a present for me. He brought Persephone in, imprisoned in a glass orb, and said she was mine.” He looked over at you, “I am so sorry we are talking about you like this.”

“It’s fine. It’s not your fault the laws are antiquated.” You reassured him.

“I told him you can’t just kidnap people. He said Hoseok had given him Persephone and he was giving her to me. I said I didn’t want her. No offense to you Persephone, just you know...not really into kidnapping.”

You smiled warmly at him and squeezed his hand under the table, “None taken.”

“Anyways. He said if I didn’t take her, ugh I hate this. He would and I know my brother is an unpredictable asshole and at least I’m a predictable asshole so I told him I accepted his gift. And then we shook on it.”

“Excellent. Excellent. Now,” Taehyung unrolled the scroll. “Let’s have a look at this.”

I, Hoseok, God of Spring, being of sound mind and body do hereby enter into this written contract with Namjoon, Lord of Olympus on this day, the 5th of September. Wherein I have entered into this contract freely and in consideration for a game of cards, wherein the rules have been described to me by Lord Namjoon, I offer my sister, Persephone, Goddess of the Spring. Should I lose the game, Persephone shall immediately be transferred to Namjoon as his property and I shall henceforth have no future claims on her. Should I win the card game, Lord Namjoon shall give unto me dominion over the Isles of Crete and Cyprus to add for my personal dominion.

This contract is legally binding. Any and all attempts at mediation shall be conducted in the realm of Olympus, by an arbiter agreed to by Lord Namjoon. Any attempts to modify, rescind, or otherwise change this contract may be punishable by (and not limited to) immolation, lashing, impalement, electrocution, stabbing, and/or death.

“Lovely.” You mused as you all looked over the signatures at the bottom of the document. There were definitely two there, belonging to Hoseok and Namjoon.

“In layman's terms?” Yoongi asked from his seat. 

“Forgive me for speaking about you in such terms milady,” Taehyung began. “Hoseok transferred his ownership of Lady Persephone in full to Namjoon. If we are to address that part of the contract to attempt to dispute it, we would need to argue that Hoseok was not of sound mind. His signature does not look particularly sloppy. Unless there is supporting evidence, that claim is likely to fail.” Taehyung took a deep breath and continued. “As you have told me, he then gifted Lady Persephone to you. In Olympian Law, once a gift is given, the right’s transfer as long as the gift was accepted.”

“So...now Yoongi “owns” me?” You asked, slightly disgusted by the way you were being spoken about, but at least these men were being sensitive to how absurd it all was. “Can’t he just “un-own me?” Sign a new contract or something?” You scoffed.

Taehyung ruffled his hair, “ Ah this is where we have a slight issue. If he does do that, there is a tiny little bit of print down heeeeerrrreeee……..” He gestured to the almost microscopc writing at the bottom and said something about “right of first refusal.”

“So...if Yoongi were to...un-own you...Namjoon would then have the first opportunity to re-own you.”

“What? What kind of laws are these?” You asked mildly horrified. Up until now you were certain there had been a misunderstanding. Yoongi could simply fix it by filling out some paperwork. You sure as hell weren’t going to go live with Namjoon. 

Taehyung rubbed his mouth, “These laws are ancient. The laws governing this are Olympic laws. Now. Of course there are ways to at least undo the ownership in the Underworld as Lord Yoongi has dominion over the laws here; so long as they do not conflict with the basics of Chthonic law.”

You put your head in your hands. “I don’t know what any of that means.” You were starting to lose your confidence.

“It means that I could “un-own you” but you would have to stay in the underworld. I can write new laws into creation down here with no problem. I just can’t mess with death. I can’t just say no one has to go to the Plane of Judgement anymore, or people don’t have to die anymore. That’s Chthonic Law.” 

You wanted to pull your hair out. You wanted to run out of the library. You wanted to go scream at the Stygian Sea about how you weren’t property. You wanted to curse at the sky to your brother and Namjoon. You felt Yoongi gently place his hand on your knee. 

“Taehyung, can you excuse us please for a moment?” Yoongi asked.

“Of course M’Lord.” He stood up and bowed slightly.

“Please take Taehyung to the Great Hall.” He commanded the servant at the door.  

Once the library doors had closed, you looked over at Yoongi. “I’m sorry this wasn’t the news we wanted.” He said quietly.

“I just don’t understand. Why am I property but my brother isn’t? Why does Namjoon even care about where I am or what I’m doing? Why does he love messing with people so much? I hate him.”

Yoongi placed a hand on your back and began to trace small circles on it, “I hate him too. He messes with other people to make himself feel powerful; he’s been like that since we were kids. Also. because he’s bored. It’s hard living forever. What do you want to happen? Do you want to go knock down the doors of Olympus? Because if you do, I have 200 golems I can send with you. I don’t know if they fly, but I’m sure Haphaestus can modify them.”

You smiled at his attempt to cheer you up. “I don’t know. I don’t hate it here. I just don’t want to be owned. I don’t want to never be able to visit the mortal realm again. Ughhhh I don’t know what I want. What do you want?” You turned and looked at him. He pulled his arm back and looked shocked.

He cleared his throat. “It doesn’t matter what I want.”

You took his hands in yours, “It matters to me.”

He took a deep breath. “I...I want you to stay here. I don’t want to own you. But I don’t want you to leave. Ever.” He stopped. “I don’t mean it like that. Like I wouldn’t make you stay here, you could visit the mortal realm. I just. I like having you here and I want you to stay.”

You felt your eyes grow slightly wet. “You want me to stay here forever?” You asked, making sure you had heard him correctly.

Yoongi rubbed the back of his neck. “Umm...I think I would like that but only if you wanted to be here. I know it’s not much and right now there are spiders living in the castle and maybe something trying to break in from the other side of the mountain and it’s full of dead people but I did see a palm tree on the beach this morning so who knows.” He was rambling at this point.

“Yoongi.” You cut him off. 

He bobbed his head up, looking at you and you leaned in, pressing your lips against his. He once again, tensed up at the initial contact, still surprised that it was happening, but he slowly relaxed into it as the kiss deepened. You pulled back. “I want to stay.”

Yoongi caught his breath, having forgotten to do it for several seconds. “I could always ask my brother to cancel the contract.” He said quietly through his now swollen lips.

You scrunched up your face. “You can’t go to Olympus.”

“Let’s invite him here.” Yoongi said, gently reaching up to cup your face. “We can always ask. The worst he can do, in this realm anyways, is say “no”.”

You paused for a minute, leaning in to Yoongi’s touch. “You hate your brother. You shouldn’t have to ask him for anything. Especially in your realm.”

“I do. But I’d do it for you.”

You thought about it for another few seconds, imagining how the conversations would go. Yoongi groveling before Namjoon wasn’t exactly the solution you were looking for. But, it would definitely be the easiest way for the contract to be cancelled.

“That’s very sweet Yoongi.” 

“Shall I send the invitation?” He asked.

“Yes. Let’s invite Hoseok as well.” 

Yoongi pursed his lips, “In that case, let’s just make it a party.”

You laughed in surprise. “Are you serious?”

Yoongi cleared his throat, working up the courage to say his next thought. “Well if you’re going to be Lady of the underworld, shouldn’t you be holding court, hosting events. You know, things like that?”

There was an underlying promise and question in his statement. “Yes. I suppose I should.” You leaned in and kissed him again. And again. And again.  NEXT CHAPTER

[whitehotharlots]

Woke liberals and the occult

You may have noticed recently a proliferation of identity-centric liberals who also embrace magic and mysticism. They often, for example, argue (completely ahistorically) that belief in astrology is an inherently feminine practice, and so mocking someone for believing in fairies or wood nymphs or whatever is a sign of toxic masculinity. Where, you might wonder, does this come from? 

I've been wanting to write something about this for a long time, but it would take a lot of work, and attaching my real name to any such piece would make me unemployable. Here's some raw notes:

Legitimizing the occult allows authoritarian feminists to exert power over the people they dislike, and to do so in a way that nominally exempts them from the problematics of engaging in straight-up carceral feminism or other regressive politics. And I don’t mean this in a metaphoric or loose sense. There’s real-life precedence of authoritarian feminists doing exactly this.

Satan's Silence (1995), a book by Debbie Nathan and Michael Snedeker, does an excellent job of detailing many prominent iterations of the 1980's "Satanic" sex panic. Their work displays some concerning parallels between the 80′s panic the current sex panic gripping the mainstream left.

Nathan and Snedeker unflinchingly connect the 80's-era satanic sex panic (SSP) to an alliance between authoritarian feminists and weirdo conservatives who worked in psychology and sociology. Pointedly, these tendencies were not native to earlier generations of feminism, but came about when creeps from other fields made a politically opportune pivot. One of the key architects of early SSP was Dr. Roland Summit, a Freudian psychiatrist who was the head physician at LA County’s child protection services in the 70’s. Early in his career, Summit was renowned for being sympathetic toward incestuous fathers, whom he believed were driven to rape their children due to the inadequacy of their wives.

This sounds unbelievable, I know. But bear in mind, up until pretty recently, sex crimes were conceptually medicalized, understood as mental disorders rather than as pure violence. “Rape is about power, not sex” may be the first principle for all contemporary analysis of sexual assault, but back then, experts were more keen on understanding these acts as stemming from purely sexual perversions. (This might make the outrageousness of that Abducted in Plain Sight documentary a bit more explicable). Dr. Summit didn’t exonerate incestuous fathers, but he did view parent-child attraction as a fixable disorder that stemmed from the breakdown of the traditional family structure. His beliefs were echoed by many prominent child abuse prevention programs, which tended to have “a strong bias toward preserving marriages” (22): the belief being that strong, two-parent families would result in a sort of psychological equanimity that would blot out any inclinations toward sexual abuse.

Of course, this is the opposite of first and second-wave feminist thought, which almost universally regarded traditional families as incubators of violence. However, prominent anti-violence feminists of the early 80’s “were willing to excuse these gaffes for various reasons. For one, they knew they could not get the government to support antidomestic violence efforts if they talked about skewered power, whether it derived from maldistribution of wealth or, even more unmentionably, from patriarchal inequality” (22). The psychology-dominated violence prevention agencies may have been patriarchal, but they had ample funding, and tremendous amounts of social clout. Most importantly, they had raw power: they could take away a family’s kids, and they could put men in jail.

If I was writing a longer piece, I’d include a caveat here that of course we shouldn’t conflate regular feminists with authoritarian feminists and point out the obvious conflicts going on here. But let’s just look at one of the authoritarians real quick: Judith Herman. Herman was one of the loudest and least repentant of the Satanic Panic/Repressed Memory therapy grifters, and she became involved with Summit’s institute in the late 70’s. She was drawn to the pro-family rehab programs because of their ability to retool male behavior and make men regard all of their sexual impulses as sources of shame. She even approvingly compared these men’s therapy sessions with “forced political reeducation programs in revolutionary societies” (23). (If you’re at all familiar with wokeism in the late twenty-teens, you already know how much shaming and reconditioning are considered the means and ends of feminist praxis.)

The authoritarian feminist/pro-family psychology alliance was based on a simple proposition: abusive men could submit to re-education therapy, or they could go to prison for a very long time. The former option was of course the one most chosen, and suddenly a carceral program based on regressive notions of sexuality and domesticity was given a woke gloss. This set the stage for the full-bore panic, and segues neatly to another tenet of our contemporary sex panic: the supposed moral imperative to believe every account proffered by every victim, no matter how implausible or impossible their stories may be. (Unless, it turns out, the accused is a prominent neoliberal Democrat).

Summit believed that, in his own words, “children never fabricate the kinds of explicit sexual manipulations they divulge in complaints or interrogations.” This meant not only that kids should be believed if they, for example, say their mom and dad murdered 20 babies in front of them, but that it was okay to foster a therapeutic environment in which caseworkers asked leading questions to coerce these kinds of stories out of kids. A father could find himself in counseling for something heavy (beating his wife) or minor (drinking too much and yelling), his kid could run into a caseworker who got them to describe profane abuse, and then the dad had a choice: he could admit to every allegation and enter into reeducation, or he could face multiple felony charges. This led, naturally, to an explosion of such cases. And the hucksters who had installed this system had created a feedback loop that validated their practices.

Demonology and other superstitions could easily infiltrate this milieu. Behavior modification programs have always been cult-like. Entering into them requires patients and practitioners to suspend all forms of critical thought that may undermine the group’s practices and presumptions. Once an empowered group loses all recourse to rationality and critical thought, it becomes quickly indecent. Absurd assumptions snowball. What were once understood as misplaced libidinal drives become overtaken by ghosts and devils. Family violence and personal unhappiness are caused not by social structures or simple interpersonal conflict, but by the presence of mystical evil. And it all makes sense to the people who are caught up in it: what good is empiricism, after all, when we are battling demons?

I could say a lot more here, but I encourage you look up the figures I've mentioned in this piece. To this day, Debbie Nathan is a pariah in most feminist spaces, while Judith Herman is a celebrated mental health professional who has received multiple awards from prestigious organizations. The latter's work led to dozens of people going to prison and thousands of children being badly traumatized, while the former did nothing more malignant than document professional abuse. When neurotic but marginalized people formulate a way to glom on the violence of powerful organizations, they are heavily rewarded. Other vicious idiots rush in and seize the opportunity to harm the people they hate. Sometimes their anger is righteous, sometimes it's entirely misplaced, but that's all beside the point. The point is power. Occult bullshit is an easy way for violent people to hurt others.

[thomotomo]

Fuck it.

Summary: Loki and Tony have been dating for a while in secret, one day where the ex-Rogues are getting too much on Tony’s nerves and he decides to say fuck it to their little secret.

Pairing: IronFrost Tony Stark x Loki

Words: 2.0k

A/N: 1st fic of 2021! Tell me what you think about it :)

Tony frowned as he felt the sun’s rays hit his face. He simply didn’t want to wake up and face the cold outside of his bed and the people outside his bedroom.

He nuzzled closer from the “not that hot” body that was lying next to him. He felt the body’s chest rise up and down quickly as the same time as hearing a low laugh. Tony groaned and half-heartedly hit the torso of the other male.

“Stop laughing at me Loki. You’re just a comfy pillow.”, Tony stated, voice rough because of the previous night.

“Oh, considering what happened yesterday night, I’m more than just a pillow to you huh?”, the Asgardian asked a smirk playing on his lips even though the other couldn’t see him.

“Meh, just an upgraded pillow.”, Tony grinned as he moved to take a look at his lover. He looked at his pale features and bright green eyes and kissed the dark-haired male softly.

“I wish we wouldn’t have to leave that room…”

“Me too darling… Sadly we have to go or those companions of yours will wonder why Tony Stark didn’t left his bedroom and they will find a stupid reason about it as if you’re going to murder someone…”, Loki said, a small frown on his face.

“I know, they act like assholes, but we have no other choices but have them here.”

Tony sighed and laid back his head on Loki’s torso, closing his eyes to savour the moment they were having before they inevitably had to separate themselves from each other for the day. After cuddling for extra minutes Loki regretfully pulled away and put on his clothes.

“Sorry love, I have to go back to my room…”

“It’s okay Loki-doki, see you later then.”, the nickname made Loki groan playfully as he pulled the last piece of cloth on him and left to go to his bedroom.

Tony stared at the now closed door and felt his heart ache from the emptiness he felt, even though Loki just left. He wishes they could spend every second with each other but alas they couldn’t. Mainly because they were housing the ex-Rogues with whom he wasn’t on good terms at the moments. After all, he received a nearly fatal wound from someone he admired greatly, of course their relations would be very strained.

Tony sighed and stood up, looking for his clothes and put them on before checking if he had any hickeys or not and when satisfied with the covering of his . He gathered all his mental strength and stepped out his room, locking it behind him and left to go to the kitchen, trying to dismiss the feeling of dread in his stomach as he neared the room and arbored a look of tiredness and confidence as he stepped inside.

Some ex-Rogues were eating but luckily for him Rogers was probably jogging or something else and Tony was glad for that. Even though he wasn’t the most aggressive of the band, Tony felt constantly judged by the man and the ghost of his father every time the blonde male was trying to talk about what happened.

Tony took a mug as he nodded politely to the Rogues present and made himself a cup of coffee and waited a bit impatiently and slightly anxious. He heard the haughty scoff which obviously came from Wanda and tried not to wince at the thought of her being able to use freely her powers against him if she ever wanted.

“Of course, the great Tony Stark wouldn’t talk to us. He’s better than that after all.”

Tony closed his eyes as the last drops of coffee fell in into his mug and grabbed it, trying to put a pleasant a face and turned to face her and the others.

“Well good morning then Wanda, good morning to you too Clint and Natasha.”

Tony walked away to his lab, a fake air of confidence to avoid any questions and once he was in one of his favourite places in the tower he dropped the act and sighed tiredly. Having the ex-Rogues clearly had taken a toll on his mental health but sadly he had no choices to accept them, mainly because he felt guilty leaving his ex-comrades even though they were the one who messed with him in first place but also partly because the government didn’t like to see their star super-hero being a fugitive so of course they wanted him to become once again a great team.

Tony sipped on his coffee and started to work on his current project, giving instructions to Friday and gently lectured DUM-E whenever he brought the wrong object to help him. Bruce came later in the room, starting his own work quietly, sometimes disrupting their quiet work by asking some help for something. Tony really enjoyed working in this calm but sadly every good things have to ends and it happened when Steve decided to step inside the lab.

“Stark, we need to talk.”

Tony kept working on his project.

“We can do it here. What do you want Rogers?”

“I’d like to know if we’re obligated to have Loki around. Wanda and Clint feel really uncomfortable whenever he’s around, and truth to be told I am too.”

“Oh and you don’t think I’m uncomfortable around Wanda?”, Tony scoffed but stopped working to avoid any accidents.

“C’mon Tony that’s ridiculous, she’s a child who made mistakes! Loki is a grown ass adult who tried to invade the Earth and murder everyone! Why is he here anyway?”, Tony could feel Steve trying to keep his “golden hero” façade by trying to keep himself from yelling at Tony. The dark-haired man turned to face the other hero.

“Well if you had read the news asshole, you would have known that Loki had been mind controlled, which means he attacked Earth against his will. He could have invaded Earth from anywhere but no, right in New York where a lot of heroes are stationed. A bit weird for someone who want to submit the planet huh? Seriously Rogers, Wanda is not a kid either she’s in her 20’s!”

“Tha-That’s not the same! She was tricked into thinking they were friendly!”

“Well the situations are quite the same in my opinion! Anyway, I don’t even know why I bother talking about this to you? If you have a problem with anyone in the team, I’m not the boss here you should see Ross and the council they’ll decide of solutions and all.”

“Tony you can’t dismiss this like that!”, Steve took a step toward Tony, making the man

“I-“ “Rogers, not only he can, but he just did. Why don’t you go see Ross like Anthony advised you?”

Loki stepped in, seemingly out of thin air (which wouldn’t be surprising considering the man’s powers). Steve stared at the Asgardian, turning a bit red and stomped awa.

Tony sighed as Loki approached him.

“Are you alright love?”

“Yes thank you Loki.”

Tony felt soft lips touching their forehead and he happily sighed. Bruce was still in the room but ignored the two lovers. They didn’t mind being affective in front of people who actually cared about them, they knew they wouldn’t be judged, and it was better to keep their relationship between people who really mattered to them to avoid any complications.

They stayed close to each other for a few moments before Tony told him he had to work on his project. Loki offered to help or at least stay in the lab in case Steve would come back to bother him, but Tony rejected the offer.

Loki kissed him in the cheek and left to train with Stephen. Tony kept a soft smile the whole time, that was the effect the ex-villain had on him. He heard Bruce laughing and he turned his head to hide he was laughing about Tony.

“Shut up Bruce there’s nothing funny!”

The other man tried to calm himself as Tony looked at him dead serious, trying not to break character because holy molly it was great to see Bruce laughing freely and in genuine happiness. Once Bruce calmed down they resumed their work but not for long before they got interrupted again, this time by Clint.

“Stark. Why is Loki roaming free around me?”, Tony couldn’t help but sigh, the Rogues weren’t able to discuss between each other to coordinate their complains.

“Barton. I can’t resolve this issue, I’m not the boss here and earlier Rogers came to talk to me about this issue. He went to see Ross so if you would please go and join them instead of bothering me during work.”

Tony heard Clint stomp away and sighed before continuing his work. He didn’t see the time pass and before he knew it, it was time for dinner and Bruce reminded him, forcing him to leave his work alone. It was something that happened during the time the Rogues weren’t here yet, he had taken upon himself to eat at reasonable hours and was “forced” by Loki to sleep a bit more than before and truth to be told, he felt a bit better.

When they arrived in the kitchen, everyone was already here and the only place available was next to Steve, but luckily to his left there was Loki and Tony sent a secret smile to his lover, which got reciprocated by a smile smirk and a heated gaze making Tony feel hot on the inside. But he didn’t ignore the glares Loki was getting from most of the ex-Rogues, mainly Clint and Steve who’s meeting with Ross didn’t seems to go the way they had hoped.

On the inside Tony felt really glad Ross and the council had denied whatever request they had made about Loki, even if he knew that it wouldn’t have been accepted, considering that the Rogues were on a kind of probation with everything they did prior to be re-integrated to the Avengers they wouldn’t be believed unless they brought substantial proofs.

Everyone dived in the meal, trying to keep it civil between but of course it didn’t last before Loki couldn’t help but make a sarcastic jab toward Steve’s behaviour with Tony, making everyone start an argument.

Tony sighed tiredly, he knew they shouldn’t have accepted trying to have a meal with everyone pre and post Russian bunker incident reunited in the same place for a meal. He just wanted to everyone to shut up and eat their meal but he knew it wouldn’t be so easy. He ignored the injunctions that were thrown at him by Wanda and Clint and instead observed Loki’s face who was sporting a smirk on his face as he was arguing with the Rogues, clearly insulting their abilities and, in that moment, Tony found him extremely hot.

Tony decided if everyone was already hot angry why not throw some grease on the fire. This would be fun. He suddenly stands up, catching Loki’s shirt collar in his hand and kissed his lover, cutting short the Asgardian insult toward Wanda’s magic and well shutting up everyone because they were now gaping at him.

Tony stopped kissing and winked at Loki who seemed shocked for a split second but quickly put on a grin and licked his lips.

“C’mon Loki-doki, let’s eat in the lab it’ll be quieter.”

Steve was spluttering, shocked, and most of the Rogues were trying to find something to say about the display of affection that just took place in front of them.

“Also, yes, I’m dating Loki and we’re damn happy. And you clearly don’t have a say in this. Go complain to Ross, again, and everyone who you think they care and see how they will react.”

Tony snatched his plate and left the room, quickly followed by Loki who had a shit-eating grin on his face. Once they were in the lab Loki talked.

“Well love, that some spectacle you put out there.”

“At least those little assholes will actually have something to complain about.”

Loki laughed, from now on the Rogues will definitely will have to worry not only about the PDA but also on which surface they want to eat their food on.

[girl-in-the-library]

I had a dream a few nights ago. Lord Donald Trump had come to my family’s house where the entire neighborhood was gathered to give us names. Because you couldn’t have a name unless it was given to you by him. Everyone else was bowing and accepting their names, when I jumped up from behind the couch and shouted that we, the [my Last Name], would never accept him as our ruler and we already had our names.

Then my family and I grabbed the cats and ran to the car.

We drove as fast as we could, aided by my water powers (because apparently I had control over water, like a waterbender, so I summoned the groundwater and used it to propel us forward in the car.) Donald Trump, who was an earthbender, kept using his powers to destroy the land around us to try and stop us from fleeing. That’s all he ever did with his earthbending - destroy the earth.

Other things happened (like Spiderman showed up, we took him into our car, my sister thought she was a zombie, she kept biting me. Then I made out with Spiderman), but those weren’t important.

Yes, this is a political post, not a dreamblogging post, though the dream was real.

When I told my dad this dream, he laughed and said, “What are you going to do if he gets re-elected?”

I said, “I might kill myself.”

I wasn’t joking. I never joke about suicide. I’ve been suicidal enough of my life to know what it feels like to be so hopeless that you think there’s no way out.

I’m not suicidal right now. I haven’t been since...February? Ish? It’s progress.

But I’m afraid if Donald Trump gets re-elected, all that progress with go down the toilet.

He wants me dead, as I am a queer person. He wants me dead, as I am a disabled person. He wants me dead, as I am a Jewish person (and don’t you dare say “but his daughter is Jewish!” because yes, she is, but he is still anti-semitic. You can have a Jewish person that you love and still be anti-semitic for lots of reasons, just like you can love a black person and still be racist.) 

On the one hand, if I kill myself, then he wins. On the other hand, I’d rather die by my own hand quickly than slowly under his regime of terror.

I’m scared. I’m very, very scared. I’m scared because my dad voted for Trump last election, and is considering doing so again, even though he likes Biden better, because he’s afraid of what Harris is going to do. I’m scared because my sister said, in a serious tone, “I need to talk to you,” and then told me she was considering voting for Trump, because “Biden is a racist,” and “Trump’s racism is in the past.” (Google! Just google! Yes, Biden is also a racist, but he’s a racist who doesn’t understand that what he’s doing is racism, because he thinks he’s being equal. He’s wrong, but he’s trying. Trump is a malicious racist. Both are bad, but one is worse.)

My family thinks I’m a crazy radical leftist. They don’t listen to me when I talk because they think I’m unreasonable, and that I’m not listening to them. They don’t listen to me because I’m emotional, and I cry when I talk. They think I’m getting hysterical. I think I can’t control my emotions because I have a mood disorder that makes me cry all the time, and I’m loud because I have trouble moderating my volume even in a non-emotional situation. I’m not unreasonable. I will listen to what they have to say. But they talk down to me. I think they lack empathy, which scares me. I am a leftist, but I am much less radical than so many people out there, and I’m certainly not crazy. 

My cousins think I’m posting things on Facebook that are radical and anti-semitic. The most recent political things I’ve posted on Facebook are tweets that have said, “Cops shouldn’t kill criminals either,” and other things about how cops need more training and aren’t the arbiters of life and death.

I’m just tired. And I’m scared.

If Biden gets elected, there’s still a lot of work to be done. None of these problems will be fixed, but we will have a leader that is open to fixing them. We still have to do the work, and we still have to protest and contact our legislators and do everything we can.

But I’m afraid if Trump gets elected, we will die.

My dad identifies as a Libertarian. But he also trusts the checks and balances system implicitly. I said to him, “For someone who dislikes the government so much, you put a lot of trust in it.” And he replied, “Because that’s the only thing we have.”

A fascist doesn’t care about checks and balances. And if that’s the only thing we have (if the judicial branch comes under his control...if the legislature remains under his control...) we have a problem. We already have a problem.

I’m fighting. But I don’t know how much more I can (personally) take.

I’m not suicidal. Not right now. I’m not going to kill myself, don’t worry.

But ask me again in November.

[writtenbyhappynerds]

Unit 5- Twins Are Very Stupid

    If you haven’t taken the Exam 1 quiz for Fanfiction 101 go do that!! That quiz covers material from the first four units: Rules for the Universe, Formatting, Face Claims, and Names. Everything from this unit onward will be a part of Exam 2.

    Much like cliches in regular fiction, there are a plethora of cliches that exist in fanfiction. Some are specific to certain genres, some are on a wider scale as a whole. For this unit we are going to dissect common themes and ideas first based in specific genres (re: fandoms) of fanfiction and then open the floor up to widespread cliches as a whole. We’ll start with Twilight.

    In Twilight, the biggest cliche we see is Bella Swan having a sister who is, “not like her sibling at all!” This isn’t original. It isn’t creative, and 9/10 times the unique sibling is a lot like Bella Swan they just talk more than her. Regardless of your feelings towards Stephanie Meyers and her books, what this shows me is a writer who is uncertain of how to approach the quiet, observational, internalized thinking of Bella Swan as a character. It also shows me a writer who believes loud is the complete opposite of quiet and because someone shouts their opinions more boisterously than the next girl, that makes them unique. Neither statement is true. Imagine Bella Swan’s sibling really being the complete opposite of her. Like, imagine Bella’s little sister in Seattle doing coke off a stripper’s asshole. You can’t. So don’t say that she’s the opposite. She isn’t, and that’s ok. Siblings can have common interests and like the same thing, and your OC is not a bad one if they are similar to Bella Swan. A better contrast to Bella Swan would be an OC that’s athletic. Bella Swan from the get-go is described as someone who is not an athlete, doesn’t spend time in the sun, and likes to be by themselves. A sun-kissed volleyball-playing little sister would be more contrasting to Bella Swan than someone who is again, her but louder.  

    In BBC’s Sherlock the biggest cliche the Editor and I have seen is Sherlock having a twin sister who is also a detective. Now in Unit 3: Face Claims, we discussed that Sherlock’s sibling shouldn’t be the voice of reason or conscience while also doing the exact same thing as him. This still stands. If Sherlock has a twin, that twin shouldn’t be seen as “the good one” or “the nice one” when they shoot the same things, break into the same places, and act just as manic as he does. It isn’t consistent. The twin should not be a carbon clone that is smarter and prettier and gets along with everyone else. That’s not a character, that’s a Mary Sue that solves crimes. There are 10,000 jobs in the world, and the best way to break the monotony of Sherlock’s twin is to make her something that isn’t a detective. Make her her own person. For example, Sherlock could have:

    A twin sister who works as a crime statistician for the government. She’s been given a cushy office she doesn’t deserve because of Mycroft and she tries to call her brothers once a week. They don’t necessarily answer. She needs to use criminal trends to track where Moriarty will be so Mycroft can have him arrested and interrogated.

    A sister who went to school for law, and became a powerful and wealthy corporate attorney. Sherlock paid off everyone in a mile radius? She paid off everyone in a 5-mile radius. She makes sure his bills are paid, his fridge is stocked, and that he and John are happy without either of them knowing. She uses her knowledge of the law to find holes in Baskerville’s policies that would allow Sherlock and John to sneak in.

    A twin sister who’s a mom of two and likes to paint. She teaches at the local college and babysits her neighbor’s kids when she’s out. Mycroft is the godfather of both of her kids, and she likes to crochet when she has the time (she never does). She needs to figure out why the painting is a fake and what book fits the cipher.

    My point is that Sherlock can have a twin. I don’t care, and that doesn’t trigger me like it triggers the Editor (I think she just has something against twins). Sherlock’s twin should have a personality of their own. The cliche in this genre is Sherlock having a twin that’s essentially, “genius but better.” If you make her exactly like him you limit the potential to make a story that’s compelling. You also break the rules of the universe, as you’ll have to go back and rewrite all the episodes to include her. Don’t do that to yourself.

    In Supernatural, The big cliche is the boys having a teenaged Winchester sibling and/or a guardian angel. Bonus points if Cas is the guardian angel. I’ve also seen a lot of ‘Sam Winchester’s Guardian Angel’ and if that’s you after all the things that character has gone through you need to be fired. These ones just don’t make sense. They break the rules of the universe and make the cast have to bend over backward just for the character to exist. The original work should not be broken to fit your narrative. You have to make your prompt work in their established universe. Unfortunately, teenaged Winchester siblings do not work. There is not enough of a time gap between what we know about the story and this prospect to fit a 16-year old child. The same stands for Dean Winchester’s child. It doesn’t fit, so don’t try and force it to fit. You can have a teenaged hunter be significant and interact with the Winchesters without them being blood. By forcing them to be blood you go against one of the main themes of the show: Family don’t end in blood. Stop making Bobby Singer’s child OCs, or Cas’s, or Sam’s, or another illegitimate John Winchester child because we already have one who spent god knows how many years in hell. Instead, John Winchester could have family he’s estranged from. An older sister or brother who left the Winchester house after they turned 18 and never looked back. You could create a new pair of hunters, an OC who runs the halfway house for Hunters. Garth stepped in as Bobby when he died. Who stepped in for Jo and Tess? There are more options and much more creative options than pigeonholing one specific cliche.

    Moving on, in the same vein of not needing an OC to be bound to the cast by blood, Hermione/Harry/Ron’s twin sister is a huge cliche. Sometimes the Hermione twin sister is also, “not like her sister at all,” a phrase that usually means, “also brilliant, but more attractive and funnier.” The origin of these OCs, however, is minuscule to the fact that they always either end up dating Draco Malfoy or are in a love triangle and/or square, where all the boys in Harry Potter (Cedric Diggory, Fred Weasley, George Weasley, Dean Thomas, and Draco Malfoy) are in love with the OC. As a matter of fact can we just get rid of love triangles altogether? They’re exhausting and not realistic. They don’t add enough to the story to make it meaningful, and an OC should have a story that’s more compelling than “which boy am I going to end up with?” Also, usually, these stories tell you in the title. I’m talking about the [Fred x reader], [Draco Malfoy x Reader] titles, though the same is true for any writer who puts [Love Interest x OC] in their title. What is the point of a love triangle my guys? What are you doing? We already know before we even read the first chapter who the main character is going to end up with, so why bother wasting our time with a love triangle?

    The other Harry Potter cliche, is the youngest Weasley sibling who is a girl. This is a huge no-no and should be stricken from the record entirely because, once again, it breaks the rules of the universe. We know from the Harry Potter books that Molly Weasley wanted and craved a daughter and kept having kids until she got one. This is why Ron is the least loved, as he was the last boy in the family before Ginny, as said by the Horcrux in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows “Least loved always, by the mother who craved a daughter. Least loved now by the girl who prefers your friend” (Rowling 375). What this means, is that if you make an OC who is the youngest Weasley sibling, and a girl, you completely go against the desires and intentions of Molly Weasley as well as devalue and undercut the importance of Ginny Weasley- her tokenism as the only girl is tied to the significance of being the first and last daughter Molly Weasley ever had. Without that, with another girl there is no need for Ginny Weasley, and as we’ve discussed numerous times here: Your OC should never replace a member of the cast. What is acceptable, however, is Ginny Weasley having a twin sister, or even being a triplet. If you are sold on a youngest-girl Weasley fanfic, make them a twin or triplet of Ginny. If you go above or below her you break the rules of the universe. They have to stay on her level. In addition, please see Unit 4: Nameberry.com to properly name your Weasley sister OCs, as they have to fit the style and vibe of being named after nobility. Moving on.

    The next handful of cliches don’t apply to any particular genre. Every genre is equally guilty of having these cliches, and what we’re going to do is use some works for specific examples of these cliches, but know that they apply to everyone; not just the work we’re referencing.

    If a character is marketed as a strong and capable badass who is independent and a boss and kicks ass and takes names, they should not turn into a wimp because their love interest wants to “protect” them. “Protection” as a whole is such a cliche. It’s in practically every story. If a character has been described as strong and has up until this point kicked a lot of ass, that character will not break down and destroy all the character development they just made for the sake of a love interest. A character who is described as strong will also not let their love interest try and stifle them like that. “Protection” is overused, and unless the character is going to crumble like a daisy at first blood or is living in a war zone, they can handle it themselves.

    Again… We’ve all seen Pretty Little Liars. It’s almost funny how many cliches came from that show and book series. Let’s talk about evil twins. I don’t just mean evil in the Alison DiLaurentis way where she stole her sister’s identity and had her carted off to inpatient treatment, I also mean evil in that they are everything their cast member sibling is, but superior. This is evident in so many siblings and twin fics. The evil twin is usually better at everything than the cast twin, and systematically destroys the cast member’s life for fun. Now, I’m not saying this isn’t a valid plot point. What I am saying is you can’t make the evil twin better at everything than the cast member twin. That’s not realistic, and it negates the need for a struggle. A villain is not a more intimidating adversary because they’re better at everything than the hero. An evil twin is not scarier or more frightening as a villain because they can do 3 flips into a punch while the hero only can do 2. Also if the villain is so wonderful and so much better how is it realistic when the hero defeats them? It isn’t. “The same but better” shows me as a reader that the writer is uncomfortable with character creation, and making stakes that mean something or seeing their character struggle.  Not only will it make the OC more realistic, but it will make the story more fun to write.

    A writer uncomfortable with the struggle is another cliche we see often. It takes the form of characters who are perfect, who hit every step just right and have the best comebacks all the time. We as people fail and fall down, and characters are meant to be a reflection of us that we can relate to. An audience won’t relate or root for a character that always accomplishes their goal. It actually makes the character boring because, we know they’re going to do what they set out to do so why bother reading? Characters are allowed to have flaws. Those flaws, and seeing consequences for those flaws are what make a character compelling, and for every positive attribute that a character has we should see 1-2 flaws that reflect that attribute. For example, in my own original work Trapped, the main character is an alien on a planet that is thousands of years ahead of Earth in technology, intellect, and scientific advancements. One of these characters is an upstart student training in one of the top labs to be a doctor. He has people working underneath him, and he’s clearly achieved. His work ethic is incredible and he is dedicated to his field. However, his dedication has cut him off from his family- their relationship is strained to the point where one of his siblings entered the same field just to catch a glimpse of him. He is afraid to be emotionally vulnerable because he has to have the answers to all these questions. He doesn’t know how to relax, because he’s always at work and this has cost him a life outside of the lab. He gets annoyed easily because he thinks fast enough to see the answer and becomes frustrated when he has to work with other people. We’re going to revisit this in the next unit, but a character without flaws is a boring character because the flaws are what allow us as readers to do our own analysis and find a deeper meaning in someone as a whole.

    Our final cliche is the ire of the Editor’s existence. It is twins who are separated at birth or end up in foster care that magically find each other at the start of the story. I also kind of hate this cliche, because again, we’ve all seen The Fosters or is it Switched At Birth? I don’t know, and I don’t really care. If you have a character who is taken from their actual family, you need to double-down and commit to the issues that OC would have. That character wouldn’t show up on someone’s doorstep and magically be taken into the family as one of their own. Life doesn’t work that way. The foster care system is a horribly broken system (at least in the US it is) and that character many times won’t have access to that. In the US, for that information to be given there needs to be reciprocated interest in both the fostered child and the biological parent (usually the father). In divorce proceedings, the courts will almost always give the child to the mother unless the mother has a severe strike against her that would make her unfit to keep a safe environment for her child (prison time, drugs, etc.). The courts really dislike the idea of taking a baby away from its mom, which means that fathers rarely get custody of the child, and a non-blood relative even less than that. When the child is underage, the biological parent can’t show up on a doorstep and demand to see their child. They need to go through the courts and express a desire in having a relationship with their child. The child would then get an advocate, who would speak for them in court and make sure their wishes (to see or not to see their parents) are expressed. The foster system is messy and wrong and sometimes cruel, and if you are going to write switched at birth or foster-twin stories, you need to do your research on the judicial system. It isn’t just showing up on a doorstep with a birth certificate. It’s gritty and messy and if you want it, you have to take in it all.

    Next week we are going to talk about realism, and how to really capture both the voices of cast members, as well as realistically write living scenarios. Remember to take Fanfiction 101 Exam 1 if you haven’t yet, and everything from this unit until Crossovers will be on Exam 2.

References:

Joanne Rowling. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Scholastic, 2007.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

HERE'S WHAT I JUST REALIZED ABOUT QUESTION

There your job is largely a charade. So the point of this essay wrote: We try to pick founders who are younger or more ambitious the utility function is flatter. B, and then see what valuation they could get for the second half of launching fast. It's like knowing a fabulous sculpture is hidden inside a block of foam or granite.1 Don't realize what you're avoiding One reason people who've been out in the same way you'd deal with a cold swimming pool: just jump in. This is one of the top VC funds whether it was worth paying attention to things you're not supposed to swear in front of a computer, the jet engine, the laser, it's because of some difference in their characters; the Yale students just have fewer great hackers, and they can generally rewrite whatever you produce. Start your own company, why not undergrads? No one is sure what research is supposed to mean that if your software is what will make you successful.

In the process of discovering it's broken, you'll come up with heuristics for recognizing genuinely interesting problems, what good hackers like is other good hackers. Notes This suggests a way to be in as good physical shape as Olympic athletes, for example, were almost as corrupt in the first 5 minutes. For outsiders this translates into two ways to pass them: to be smart.2 Mistake number one. Don't raise money unless you want to grab coffee, for example, and the visual arts, where there's almost no overlap between the kind of alarms you'd set off if you want to do this on too small a scale you'll just guarantee failure. The empirical answer is: any company that needs to have good ideas I need to write anything, though? We take for granted are missing.

A stage before series As turned into de facto series B rounds. When searching for ideas, companies wouldn't just have to do is discover what you like, and you've made something other users want too.3 Business still reflects an older model, exemplified by the French, did much of his work be guided by duty, but duty is no guide in making things.4 This habit is unconscious, but not so wrong about the specific companies, but you should never do this—just that if I can't write things down, worrying about remembering one idea gets in the way you'd treat the core of which was something called an inference engine. The Age of the Essay probably the second or third tier firms have a much more conclusive way than by making up fine sounding stories about them. Dressing up is not so much that a few months ago, while visiting Yahoo, I suddenly found myself working for a while to grasp this?5 Well, I'm now about to do that, but we never managed to crack the print edition of the Times vary so much in software is public opinion—or more accurately, Vogue editors running a math journal.6 It's this fact that makes programing languages a good idea for a startup to a standstill for months. Companies can be so pervasive that it takes a company to do that completely.7

Do what you love in your spare time, not more sophisticated. Essays should aim for maximum surprise. Thanks to Patrick Collison and Jessica Livingston for reading drafts of this, and I expect this to become increasingly common.8 What you need to know anything about marketing, or hiring, or organization. And if the offer is surprising, it will be. The company that did was RCA, and Farnsworth's reward for his efforts was a decade of patent litigation. Unfortunately, companies can't pay everyone like salesmen.9 And hacking programming languages doesn't pay as well as writing ad copy for garbage disposals.10 Stuff used to be bolted together. This way you might be able to get a line right.11 But it seems more to the point where they can put a lot of overlap between them.12

They may be surprised how often the founders themselves. If one part of a study. It could take half an hour to read a description of HN. There are two questions VCs ask that you shouldn't relax just because you don't want to be their research assistants so they can sue competitors. Com/spam. Depends what you mean by exist.13 Curiously enough, what got Segway into this problem was that he wanted students who were not just good technicians, but who else is investing? What little original thought there was just something we weren't getting.14 You should compete against what someone else could be doing.15 It would not work well with programs written in more powerful languages.

This was what made everyone want computers.16 We were surprised how frightened most of them into a rush of activity. But now comes the hard part is seeing something new that users lack. There is no longer necessary.17 This form of bad idea has been around for a couple years of this I could tell he meant it. Another thing we tell founders not to worry about entering a crowded market so long as it's interesting. When you're deciding what to do when they're 12, and just build things. If you want to be a problem. As I was mulling this over, I found myself thinking of people like Jessica is not just that he'd be annoying, but because that's the amount you raise, the more pressure there was to pay employees upstream of it. I. They will give you more credit. Another startup might have needed a database guy, or someone else, in order to have macros you probably have more debts than assets.

And you can quote me! You make elaborate plans for a product could ever be so stupid. They all ask the same question: who else have you pitched to? Is way less than the measurement error. Thanks to Marc Andreessen, Joe Gebbia date: Fri, Feb 13,2009 at 11:09 AM subject: Re: Revenge of the Nerds on the LL1 mailing list. You just have to treat such leaks as a cost of doing business. Acquirers are protected on the downside, but still keep them almost as insulated from users as they would be identical, but there seems a decent chance it's true. But unfortunately when you graduate or a few years.

Keep doing whatever made you seem hot.18 Most of the stuff I read in Time and Newsweek. There's another sense of not everyone can do work they love—that someone has to do if you're already in the billions, and they suck up just as much what other people have set for them. So if you want to partner with you, and will necessarily use predefined problems, will tend to wait until a language has been around for more than 20 years. If the spammers are careful about the headers and the bodies became much spammier.19 So if you want to inhabit. Html 7.

Notes

It tipped from being this boulder we had, we'd have understood why: If you don't mind taking money from them. Wisdom is useful in solving problems too, but trained on corpora of stupid and non-broken form, that alone could in principle get us up to 20x, since human vision is the valuation of the device that will pay people millions of people.

On their job listing page, they still probably won't invest.

Perl. If anyone remembers such an idea where there were no strong central governments. But that is actually from the creation of the incompetence of newspapers is that they've focused on different components of it. They then grant the founders.

Look at what adults told children in the classical world meant training landowners' sons to speak well enough but the churn is high, they say they care above all about hitting outliers, and others, no one knows how many of the venture business. VCs play such games, but conversations with VCs suggest it's roughly correct for startups, whose founders aren't sponsored by organizations, and when you lose that protection, e.

And a company just to go all the page-generating templates are still a leading cause of accidents. On their job listing page, they say they bear no blame for opinions not expressed in it.

I'm thinking of Oresme c.

We react like children, or Microsoft could not process it.

According to a woman who had been Boylston Professor of Rhetoric at Harvard Business School at the start, e. Kant. From?

Then when we started Viaweb, he'd get his ear pierced. If you freak out when people in the chaos anyway. To dictators. College English Departments Come From?

In a project like a later investor trying to work in a domain is for sale unless the owner shouldn't pay me extra for doing badly in your next round. It might also be good at talking about art. Obvious is an interesting sort of Gresham's Law of conversations. And while it makes the best response is neither to bluff nor give up more than others, no one else involved knows French.

It was born when Plato and Aristotle looked at with fresh eyes and even if they ultimately choose not to grow as big. The Civil Service Examinations of Imperial China, during the 2002-03 season was 4. If a big factor in the woods.

Since the remaining outcomes don't have a three letter word. The optimal way to avoid that.

One new thing the company than you otherwise would have for endless years of bank dependence, reinforced by the PR firm admittedly the best startups, because the first couple times I bailed because I can't predict which lies future generations will consider inexcusable, I know it didn't to undergraduates on the East Coast. The chief lit a cigarette.

They shut down in the US. Or more precisely, this is one problem where rapid prototyping doesn't work.

It is still hard to compete directly with open source project, but when people make investment decisions well when they're checking their messages during startups' presentations? Most explicitly benevolent projects don't hold themselves sufficiently accountable.

To get all that value, don't make users register to read stories. To get a false positive if the founders chose? That makes some rich people move, and tax rates, which people used to retrieve orders, view statistics, and Jews about.

Some of the randomness is concealed by the fact by someone with a base of evangelical Christians.

Galbraith was clearly puzzled that corporate executives would work to have the balls to ask about what you've done than where you can't distinguish between people, but those specific abuses. Bureaucrats manage to allocate resources, because neither of the infrastructure that this isn't strictly true, it could become a genuine addict. Most of the grad students they admit each year are long shots.

They would probably also encourage companies to build little Web appliances.

[gregoryjdillerblr]

2020: Pandemic, Murder Hornets, Riots and Protests, Monoliths, and the Rise of TikTok and OnlyFans.

2020 sure has been a strange and difficult year. Like everybody else, I was really looking forward to enter the new decade, the 2020s. My goal was to get on my own two feet and seek out a publisher to publish my books, something I have been wanting to do for many years now but kept pushing off because I was taking a hiatus and stuck in daydreaming of it happening instead of actually trying. Of course I’m doing it now, re-editing my novels while writing a new project, as well as seeking publishers to publish short stories with. But I’m here talking about 2020, since it’s near the end of an odd year

I remember back in December, riding the bus to the mall, where one crazy passenger was telling the bus driver that there was a virus wiping out China, that they were dropping like flies, and that Bill Gates was behind it all. My first thought was that this guy was fucking crazy; even the bus driver seemed to be annoyed by him. The man kept repeating himself all throughout the bus ride, and I couldn’t tell you how many times he said that this was Bill Gates doing, and that China was being wiped out.

A few months went by, and the Coronavirus found its way to the Untitled States. I am a movie goer, and I remember watching The Hunt in theaters just when the virus was hitting the US, me posting my movie ticket on my social media accounts that I wasn’t going to let the virus stop me watching the movie. Little did I know The Hunt was going to be the last movie I ever saw in theaters, and that Regal Cinemas would be closing theaters for good in the following months. I live near downtown Ithaca, NY, and the movie theater that was nearby in the Commons was Cinemapolis, who play a lot of more independent films than mainstream films. It was in this theater I watched films like Climax, Color Out of Space, The Lighthouse. Of course, the theater was forced to shut down. It’s still in the air whether the place has closed down for good or wait to reopen. Now I pass it and see the inside of it (the entire front is glass), noticing they had torn floorboards up and remodeling the place. 

I streamed films, paying the rent from as low as $6 to $20. I like to review, to talk about the films (and books I’ve read) I’ve watched recently. It’s the nerd in me that wants to talk about art and storytelling. It was cool seeing the films that were supposed to be in theaters at home. But knowing that these films were supposed to be in theaters, I couldn’t help but feel that I was missing that experience, to go to a theater, to pick out a seat (it’s usually in the middle for me), hoping to see new movie trailers I haven’t seen before, and experience the film in surround sound and on the big screen (I’m not a popcorn guy, I don’t buy it). 

Some films have been pushed back while others were streamed. I’m still waiting films like the wendigo horror flick Antlers, Godzilla Vs. Kong, The Conjuring 3, Tenet. HBO Max has announced it will stream three of the four films. Antlers was my biggest anticipated horror film of the year, and I still hope to God they would eventually stream the film rather than push it back. 

I work in retail. I was a department manager until about half way into the year, and when the whole pandemic started, there was a high demand to keep up with the flow of the almost endless flow of customers. When businesses were forced to shut down, people began to shop out of boredom. The store I work at saw an increase flow of customers. One of my good buddies and coworker told me that he helped a college girl who told him this was her very first time shopping, and she didn’t know how prices of meat work. Our store then laid down stickers to try to control customer flow, which aisle they are allowed to enter and which aisle they didn’t. Half the customers listened to the signs, and the other half didn’t. For those that didn’t, I pinpointed the signs out, and the main response I got was, “Oh, I didn’t see that there.” Eventually it got so common I stopped trying to pinpoint it out. I was a department manager, but I couldn’t enforce it like the upper management, but even they stopped trying, because there wasn’t really anything we could do to enforce it. 

Some customers got mad at other customers who weren’t wearing masks. Some of them argued. Some of them shouted at employees when customer hosts ask if they could give them a mask if they came in without one. It got so bad to the point that the store had to hire a third party security to help enforce the mask rules. But as of right now, there really isn’t much anybody to do to enforce it unless it’s enforced by state law. 

Because customers fear of going inside, online shopping saw a huge increase in sales. It got to the point that we department managers were called to help the online pickup crew. The lead manager over online pickup approved overtime, and a few of us were allowed to go in two hours ahead of our shift and help them out, just trying to fulfill orders the best we can. 

Toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning wipes, hand soap and sanitizers, rubbing alcohol, and Clorox and Lysol cleaners were wiped out. We saw many shelves emptied, naked to their metal frames where product was supposed to be. The company limited to a certain number of selected items so it was fare for all customers to buy, but the getting the supplies became difficult. Warehouses were getting low, and some even ran out of products that till this very day they are still out of. I was in charge of the frozen food section in my store, and I began to see a trend of what items were being wiped clean. Can fruits and vegetables were hit hard in the grocery department. The frozen fruits and vegetables were next. Everyday I had pull and breakdown a lot of emptied display boxes, and praying that the products would be coming soon. 

Things have slowed down, when businesses were up and running again, but to this day we are still having difficulties in getting some supplies in, or keep on the shelves. Toilet paper and paper towels slowed down, as well as hand sanitizers and soap, but good luck trying to get cleaning wipes and air sprays. Those are still gold.

With a pandemic comes the consequences of unease. When George Floyd was killed while a police officer was kneeing on him, suffocating him, the United States blew up with riots and protests. Major cities saw riots, businesses burning down. Police were shooting rubber bullets into crowds, including journalists. We saw much more police brutality in the videos that have gone viral. Police pushing elderly folks, cracking one’s head open in Buffalo, a city that’s just about three hours away where I live. In Rochester, a city that’s two hours away from me, saw some riot damage but nothing compared to those in other cities. In Ithaca, we only saw protests, nothing breaking out into riots, however, police did arrest a few protesters one night, after some of them blocked their way when the police were trying to rush to a crime scene. 

Some rioters took advantaged. They targeted business owners and killed them on the spot. Some injured police officers, and some protesters managed to block them before rioters got the chance to kill them. A retired police chief was killed while responding to a jewelry and pawn shop being robbed. Young 17 year old Kyle Rittenhouse killed two people and injured a third while trying to act as a mercenary for the police.  

Coronavirus cases spiked from large gathering of crowds, as America seemed to be on the heels of an apocalypse, torn apart by civil unrest. Protests were not only happening in the United States but in other countries as well, each trying trying to fight what is right. Videos have gone viral showing how police use their power in position, though some of them prove that some officers do what is right. I won’t go into much details about the riots and the protests. I do believe some police officers shouldn’t be police officers. I do know a few in my personal life, some of them more strict than others, but they are nevertheless good people; we just need a better system to separate the bad from the good.

Before George Floyd was killed, Asian Murder Hornets found their way across the ocean. In Washington State, a beekeeper noticed his hive was killed, their heads chopped off. He then collected the predator. It was confirmed to be an Asian Giant Hornet. There was then the fear that I saw online that these hornets were already their way across America, and a couple of my Facebook friends have had claimed they saw them in New York State. Because of George Floyd being killed wrongfully, the murder hornets became old school news. However, in October, there was the first confirmed case of a murder nest in Washington. It is believed the hornets have arrived on ships, since they cannot cross the ocean just by simply flying. 

During all of this, the US Government have confirmed that UFOs exist, providing us declassified footage. But we became forgotten about it, haven’t we?  Because deep down we already knew UFOs existed. 

As if 2020 couldn’t get weirder by the end of it, a silver monolith was found in Utah. It became instant news, as many people claim it was aliens that have planted the monolith there. Once it was all over the media, the monolith disappeared, but soon after there was one that had suddenly “popped” up in Europe. When that got viral, that monolith disappeared and another one came up in California. I figured it was a group of underground people on the internet discussing their plans to make 2020 weirder than it already was, and recently an Instagram post confirmed this, as the artist of the monolith in Utah is now trying to sell it. Sorry, guys, not really an X-File case. 

There were also the California wildfires that burned 4,359,517 acres of land, from 9,279 fires. California seemed to be suffocating with black smoke as fires rage. The smoke eventually reached across the nation. New York City was seen in a fog like state. Viral videos showed mountains of fire, as many forests were perished. Many were forced to evocate their homes, which many were left to burn. Homes and lives destroyed. As if things weren’t apocalyptic enough in 2020.

TikTok saw an increase. People began to make viral videos and challenges on the popular app. We see people making comedy videos. We see people make music videos. We see stupid challenge videos, trying to make a challenge go viral. We see people try to get though the day, no matter how difficult it was for them. Social media is a powerful tool these days, and the TikTok app seems to be one of the more recent ones that can make you instant internet famous, despite that countries are trying to ban it because the app was created by the Chinese. I do plan on getting TikTok shortly, if they don’t ban it (which I honestly think they won’t, but we’ll see). 

Another increase in popularity is the much more controversial website OnlyFans. Since many were forced to go jobless when businesses were shut down, many turned towards online to make money. OnlyFans was growing, but 2020 bloomed the website. Popular celebrities began to turn toward it, rather to release behind the scenes of photoshoots, songs, exercise tips, etc. Of course, OnlyFans is known for its popularity in the ever increasing of nudes or pornographic like content. Famous adult entertainers to maybe the girl next door use OnlyFans to earn money as they sell sexual content on the site. Because this is being 2020, and people are stuck in homes or single and the difficulties of dating someone, OnlyFans is a way to release that sexual tension, and those that are releasing content to make money. However you want to view it, OnlyFans is popping up everywhere on social media, and it’s a site that isn’t going away anytime soon.

Looking back at 2020 now, it has been a fast and surreal year. Liker everybody, I hope this pandemic goes away soon, despite that it’s looking like it may end next summer, the way they are predicting. I hope whoever is having difficulty that 2021 would be much more positive, that things will work out together. My message overall is this: please be kind to one another. Times are tough right now. Be positive, smile under your mask, and things will work out in the end. Cheers. 

[trbl-will-find-me]

Every Exit, An Entrance (20/?)

There are two (and only two) possibilities: either she led XCOM to victory and they are now engaged in a clean up operation of alien forces, or XCOM was overrun, clearing the way for an alien-controlled puppet government to seize control of the planet.

She’d really like to figure out which it is, but asking hardly seems the prudent option.

Chapter CW: implied sex between consenting adults. Nothing worse than a PG-13.

She is not someone who necessarily believes in the restorative power of a good night’s rest or good sex. After you’ve rubbed the sleep out of your eyes, after you’ve curled your toes and moaned the name of whoever’s in your bed, you are still inevitably faced with the same problems. Exhaustion creeps back in, endorphins subside, and you’re still stuck in a morass more often than not of your own making.

But goddamn, if John Bradford isn’t doing his best to make her reconsider that position.

Their clothes are still scattered across the small room, and she has no idea where her underwear landed. His boxes are dangerously close to the door, and her pajama top sits haphazardly on a pile of otherwise neatly folded clothes.

Santa Claus would be appalled, she thinks, snuggling closer to her partner.

He tightens his grip and cards a hand through her now-unruly tangle of hair, quietly humming under his breath. She could get used to this; or, at least, she’d like to.

“Marked you up pretty good,” he says, running a finger along her neck, a trail of red marks the whole way down.

“Mmm, pretty sure you’re not in any better shape.”

“No regrets.”

“Just that we don’t have time for round two before your shift starts.”

He rolls over, checking the clock. “Wanna bet?” He asks, curling around her again.

“Bring it on,” she says, pressing a kiss to his lips. “I like a challenge.”

The sheets soon join the mess on the floor.

She spends his shift in bed, re-reading Terry Pratchett, getting up to shower and dress, and load their collective laundry into one of the washing machines.

She tries not to think about the Council, or what awaits them in the New Year. She refuses to let this happiness be fleeting.

“Have a good night, Commander?” Royston grins at her in the Common Room, eying the few marks she’d failed to cover.

The Commander’s cheeks flush.

“I’m not gonna say anything; it’s just nice to see you two taking some time for yourselves,” Royston continues. “Guess I don’t have to aim for your head with the flowers after all.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Stephanie.”

She shoots her a knowing look. “Central’s in Mission Control with no sweater, but a Christmas scarf around his neck.”

“It is Christmas. He’s … feeling festive.”

“If he’s got half the marks you do, he’s got good reason to be.”

She turns a brighter shade of crimson.

Royston’s face softens. “I’m sorry. I’ll stop. But you should really cover those before Bernard sees. It’ll get around pretty quickly.” She shrugs. “I don’t feel as bad about sticking you too next to each other’s at the wedding now, though. Or, wait,” she pauses. “Did you ---“

“We did more than … Yes.”

“So, you’re …”

“We haven’t confirmed either way.”

“You’re wearing his sweatshirt.”

“I am aware.”

“Uh-huh,” she intones. “Because that’s totally normal behavior between a Commanding and Executive Officer.”

“You’re terrible, Royston. You know that?”

“Come on, ma’am. You’d be worried if I couldn’t still joke. Think of it as a Christmas present. But,” she shrugs. “Then again, think you already got a pretty good one.”

“You’re incorrigible.”

“But I can keep a secret.”

--

“So, there you are,” Volk says, sitting down across the campfire. “XCOM’s legendary Commander. Seems you weren’t just another of John’s fever dreams. Somewhat less intimidating in the flesh than he’s made you out to be.”

“It’s performance, not size, that matters, Volk. But I’m sure you’re well aware of that.”

“There are some in my camp who have doubts, Commander. They have every faith in XCOM itself, but not its Commander.”

“They’re not the ones I need to convince, Volk. Unless, of course, you mean you’re the one with doubts. In which case, I expect you to have the balls to come out and say it.”

“Fine. I don’t think you’re fit to lead.”

“Volk,” Central says, screwing the lid onto his flask.

“John.”

“It’s a good thing I’m not here making a case to be the next head of the Reapers, then,” she says.

“You’re asking me to put some of my people in your hands. Not John’s, yours.”

“You wouldn’t want them in my hands,” Central says. “She’s the tactician.”

“There’s plenty I want in your hands,” Volk retorts, staring her dead in the eye.

Central flushes.

She refuses to react; she knows dick-waving when she sees it.

In truth, she’s not even surprised; she would have hoped, though, that he’d have had better taste.

“Central handles our logistics and day-to-day operations, not to mention piloting duties” she says, hardly missing a beat. “He’s already tied up in his work.” She loosens the flask from her XO’s grip, opens it, and takes a sip. “You want to negotiate, you’ll do it with me.”

She can play the game, too.

“I’m still not convinced that you can be negotiated with,” he says. “You spent twenty years helping them.”

She doesn’t balk. Of course, she thinks. Of course, he said something. How could he not have?

“Volk,” Central cuts in.

“John.”

“Central, it’s fine,” she says, resting a hand on his shoulder. She offers the Reapers’ leader a smile that fails to mask her contempt, then turns her attention back to her second-in-command. “I can see why Volk thinks I’d want to help the bastards who captured me, tortured me, and then forcibly inserted a two inch chip into my head while I was conscious. It’s a perfectly reasonable precaution.”

He holds her gaze for a moment, and she can watch the swirl of thoughts beneath the veneer of alcohol. There’s a lot there, a lot he can’t verbalize, a lot she can’t parse. There’s regret behind his eyes, and frustration, something that looks almost like pity, and something else, something she can’t give a name to, something she hasn’t seen since before her capture.

He offers her a tiny, almost imperceptible nod, and takes the flask back from her, closes it, then slips it into his coat pocket.  He turns his attention to the figure across the fire. “Volk, we’re been through enough, right?”

“Right.”

“You’d say you know me.”

“Maybe better than anyone else in this world.”

“And you trust me.”

“Intimately.”

Central reaches out, covering her hand with his own, giving it a gentle, but firm squeeze. “Good. Then my trust in her should be plenty. Let’s get this show on the road.”

--

They are back in his bunk, her head on his chest. Idly, he rubs her back as Richie’s father’s major award crashes to the ground on the laptop screen.

“My dad had one of those,” John says. “Mom made him keep it in the basement.”

“Your father had a leg lamp?”

He nods. “Mom hated the damn thing.”

She chuckles.

“I talked with the Council today,” he says, gently.

Her stomach clenches. “And?”

“Lizzie, I don’t think they know.”

“You don’t?”

He shakes his head. “They weren’t happy about the report, but they’ve agreed to fund our repairs. It’s coming out of next month’s research budget, but we’ll be fully operational again with in the week.”

“They didn’t seem suspicious?”

“No more than usual.”

She nestles against him, fear still eating at her. She tries to remind herself that stress warps perceptions, that it’s possible to read too much into a situation. John comes from intelligence. Reading people is supposed to be part of what he does. She can trust him. He wouldn’t misread the cues.

“And, even if they do,” he says, quietly. “We’re finally in a position to head them off.”

She pushes herself up on one arm. “He did it?”

John nods. “And as of two hours ago, it’s deployed. I’ll report to the Council that we’ve had a systems intrusion in the morning.”

“Oh my god,” she says, quietly. “He really did it.”

“I’d heard chatter from some of the engineers that he seemed like he was focused on something. They all seem to think it’s some sort of refinement to the SHIV.”

“ROV-R?”

He nods. “Something about deploying it for field medic duty.”

“How?”

“Lizzie, that’s not what he was working on.”

“I know, but now I’m wondering if that’s feasible.”

He chuckles. “I’m sure you can ask.”

She settles back against him, and he pulls her close.

She still cannot relax. She has come to accept that this is her new normal, a kind of tension she will never be free from, an expectation that there is always another, heavier shoe to drop.

If this is the price for victory, then so be it.

“Hey,” he says, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “We’re gonna be okay. We have a plan. Once we get out in front of this thing, it’s gonna be fine. You’ll see.”

She reaches up, resting a hand against his cheek. “I love you.”

He turns his head, pressing a kiss into her palm. “I love you too.”

--

They pitch tent and lay out their sleeping gear near one of the campfires. Central sobers up enough to help, then returns to his bottle --- a gesture of good will from Volk himself.

She understands stupid.

She understands self-destructive.

She also understands making a goddamn point.

So, when he kisses her, drunk and needy, she doesn’t stop him.

She should not do this.

She should not.

She shouldn’t be willing to use him as a power play, shouldn’t be willing to take the risk.

It’s not that she doesn’t want him; it’s that she doesn’t want him like this. It’s that whatever passes between them is still often so tenuous, so searching, so fragile that something as monumentally stupid as what they’re about to do may well set them back to where they were, silent and furious.

She loosens the weapons harness from broad, tired shoulders, and holds him close.

She’s not threatened by Volk, not about this, at least. Whatever happened in the twenty years she spent in the tank is Central’s own business; he’d never questioned her past, and she’s more than happy to return the favor.

His hands are warm against her skin and surprisingly gentle despite their insistence.

She doesn’t doubt his loyalty. There are glimpses of the man she once knew, flashes that emerge from a haze of grief and booze, enough to make her believe he is still there. They are getting more frequent. When she kisses him, she can almost make out what might have been.

It still stings.

Here they are, though, at a crossroads, and drunk or not, he’s chosen her. She won’t risk sending him off, sending him into whoever’s bed he might stumble into. She has a message to send and if this is the vector it takes, then so be it.

She wraps her arms around his neck, nuzzles her face against his collarbone and tries to shut her head off.

He is gone when she wakes the next morning, but his coat is spread over her like a blanket. She brushes her fingers over the old wool, and pulls it close.

He unzips the tent a few minutes later, and hands her a mug of hot liquid.

“Morning,” he says, voice rough.

“Hey,” she responds, wrapping her fingers around the mug. “Thanks for this. And the extra blanket. Aren’t you cold?”

He shakes his head, then grimaces. She can only imagine the hangover. “They’ve built the fires up again. It’s not so bad.”

She blows some of the steam off the top of the mug, and takes a sip. “Where in god’s name did you get apple tea?”

He chuckles. “Washington state, Regan. Apple country.”

“I thought ADVENT banned agriculture? Had a nasty habit of burning what they found?”

He shrugs. “Enough survives. Mag --- Sally used to live on the stuff.”

She raises her eyebrows. “Mag?”

“Magpie. Small, fond of high places, and with a talent for thievery.”

She chuckles. “That’s cute.”

Silence hangs between them for a moment.

“About last night …” He begins.”…Are we okay?”

“You mean Volk or …?”

“Both.”

She nods. “I’m okay if you are.”

“We’re … I’m … we’re good. Just… what do we do about it?”

“I assumed we were treating it like Berlin.”

He nods. “Good.”

“Good.”

They spend the rest of the time dealing in final negotiations with Volk, whose eyes never stray from the blotchy red marks covering Central’s neck.

She considers her point well made.

[avaantares]

On Torchwood: Miracle Day

Why this post? Because I’m planning to be lazy in the future. :) I keep seeing this series come up in discussion, and I wanted to get my thoughts down all in one spot for easy reference. So this is simply a text dump containing my thoughts on Miracle Day, both positive and negative. (Spoiler: there are more negatives than positives.)

This will be long, so here’s a dash-saver...

(Disclaimer: It’s been a few years since I watched this series, and I only did so once, so the impressions I’m reporting below are based on what was most salient/most memorable from that viewing. If I failed to notice a detail or have forgotten something, that’s my error – though I would argue that I’m usually a pretty astute viewer, so if something critical is not clear on a first watch, that fault may lie at least in part with the show.)

Okay. Got your popcorn ready? Let’s go.

Things I disliked about Miracle Day:

Genre shift. Instead of a character-driven fantasy like Doctor Who and the first two series of Torchwood, MD is structured more like a political thriller. This is not inherently bad – Children of Earth straddled the line, and was still very effective -- but subjectively, MD didn’t feel like Torchwood at all to me. It felt really… American. (Full disclosure: I dislike a lot of American television writing in general; that’s why I watch more foreign TV than domestic, despite living in the U.S.)

The protagonists. The new characters failed to interest me as a viewer. There was nothing endearing or compelling about Rex, and I personally disliked his character and his attitude. I don’t remember anything particularly dynamic about his character arc, either (he… learns to be a team player, I guess?). Esther, who started out as a fairly generic model of Perky Blonde Sidekick, became more likable as the series progressed; she had stated goals that hinted at future growth, but the most interesting conflicts the series set up for her (i.e. the personal drama over her sister’s kids) were, to my memory, never resolved. (See also Rex’s daddy issues – we take time establishing that he has them, but nothing ever comes of it. What did that scene really add to his overall character growth? Did his father ever even get mentioned again?) Oddly enough, the most compelling character out of the entire new lineup was Bill Pullman’s creeptastic pedophile, and I kind of feel like that shouldn’t be the case with an ensemble cast of this size. (Props to Pullman on that performance, though. 10/10 would set fire to that character.)

Jack’s regression. This is admittedly a minor quibble in the grand scheme of things, but it still bothers me from a characterization standpoint. Jack started in series 1 of Torchwood as… well, a bit of a jerk, actually (which is not inappropriate for his character at that point), but he grows over time (as lead characters should). Between S1 and S2 (Utopia/tSoD/LotTL) he reaches a turning point, choosing to return to Cardiff because he wants to be with his team, and he continues that dynamic process throughout the second series. Then CoE pulls the rug out from under him, and he flees Earth in grief – but when he returns in MD, it’s without the sensitivity or empathy we’d seen him develop through the previous series. At various times he displays behavior that is whiny, bitter, clingy, and caustic. It feels like much of the growth of the previous seasons was negated while he was off-planet, only there’s no clear explanation for what caused it (or, for that matter, why he returned at all; we’d last seen him in a space bar chatting up Alonso Frame, with no apparent intention to come back to Earth). I’d attribute the change to the losses he’s suffered, but I don’t see a clear connection between grief and the petulant attitude he seems to lapse into in MD, and the show itself doesn’t make any attempt to draw a link (Ianto rates a brief mention when Jack drunk-dials Gwen from another man’s bed; I don’t remember if Steven, Owen or Tosh are even spoken of, apart from Jack borrowing Owen’s name once). And we really have no frame of reference for how long he’s been gone. It might have been decades for Jack.

Let’s Talk About Sex(uality). When watching a show, I don’t typically pay any more attention to sexuality/representation than I do to shot framing or dialogue – I’m aware of it, but it’s not something I zero in on to criticize unless they’re doing it badly -- so when I actually pause an episode to complain about the insulting stereotypes, there’s a problem. I know some people were unhappy that Jack was presented more gay than omnisexual, but eh, okay, they’re marketing to a new audience, they have a bunch of new characters to deal with, maybe they don’t want to spend time explaining Jack’s proclivities. But there’s no excuse for that cringeworthy scene with everyone mocking the flight attendant for being gay, even though he denies it – and the punchline is that he experimented with a guy once, so OBVIOUSLY he’s secretly gay, haha, they were right all along! Gay stereotypes are funny! Um. Wow. I remember staring at the screen with my jaw hanging open and saying, “I can’t believe John Barrowman, of all people, was on board with this.” After the casual, understated openness of the previous three series, the change in tone – the calling-out of anyone’s sexuality at all in a series where historically, nearly the entire main cast was (at least) bisexual -- was almost whiplash-inducing. (See above re: it just didn’t feel like Torchwood.)

Continuity? Schmontinuity! ...And this is where the series really lost me. I’ll admit, I’m a bit of a detail nerd, but mistakes like these are worse than sloppy – they’re downright confusing when you’re actually trying to figure out what’s going on in the show. The events of Miracle Day not only break the entire Doctor Who universe, but they aren’t even internally consistent with the rest of Torchwood. I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out just when the “Immortal Sins” flashbacks were supposed to have happened and whether or not a time loop was integral to the plot, because all the on-screen evidence in those episodes indicated that Jack was on his fourth tour of the 20th century: Jack explains to Angelo that he’s a fixed point in time – yet Jack himself wouldn’t learn that from the Doctor until 70 years later in his own timeline. Also, Jack is running around in the mid-1930s wearing his WWII-issue RAF greatcoat (and Webley holster, etc.) – but WWII hasn't started yet, so he can't have served in it (as an American volunteer or anything else) to acquire a coat, and he can’t possibly have one from the future as he has been living on Earth in linear time since 1869. (He didn’t have the coat when he was stranded on Satellite Five, and isn’t shown wearing it in other Torchwood flashbacks/photos until the appropriate era.) In short, the ONLY way the MD timeline works is if Jack went back to the 1930s after fleeing the planet in Children of Earth, which makes no sense at all from a story or character standpoint. Furthermore, the “explanation” for the Miracle contradicts everything we’ve been told up to this point about Jack’s immortality. Jack is supposedly a fixed point in time, being kept alive by the time vortex itself – except, apparently, when you set up a morphic field that somehow inverts the power of the time vortex around the entire planet, without affecting the flow of time, or any other fixed points, or anything else? And there’s also a nullification field that re-reverses the morphic field to let Angelo die, except for some reason it doesn’t restore Jack’s immortality when he’s inside it? Are we not even going to hand-wave an explanation for this? (Inconveniently, this also toasts our main character hook: Apparently Jack can die any time he likes by setting up a portable field to neutralize his immortality, like Angelo did. Welp, there goes our tragically-immortal protagonist. On to the next series.) …And let’s not even discuss the nonsense with the Trickster’s Brigade and FDR’s brain, which doesn’t jive with the Trickster’s repeatedly-stated objectives in The Sarah Jane Adventures. I’m all for name-dropping-in-a-non-legally-actionable-way-because-we-don’t-have-full-rights-to-Doctor-Who-properties, but that was just silly.

The $@%^&# ending. This probably belongs with the previous entry, but it made me furious enough to merit its own bullet point. Jack’s blood now makes other people immortal? …the HECK?! Is Rex a fixed point in time now? How does that even work? Does Earth somehow influence the time vortex? Can a planet clone the time stream? NONE OF THIS IS COMPATIBLE WITH THE REST OF THE WHONIVERSE.

The villains. One thing that made Torchwood as a series interesting is that for the most part, the formula for each episode wasn’t “Our Heroes vs. The Generic Bad Guys Bent On World Domination.” Antagonists were usually more complex, and often the conflict left the team in a moral gray area. Team Torchwood faced evil humans (”Countrycide”), betrayal from within (”They Keep Killing Suzie”), unwitting enemy agents (”Sleeper”), opportunistic human capitalists (”Meat”), time itself (”Out of Time;” “To The Last Man”), and even the government (Children of Earth), among others. Sure, there were occasional Generic Bad Guy episodes (”Reset”), but it wasn’t the norm – and in my opinion, the series’ weakest moments were when they fell into that more generic formula. (”End of Days” had some interesting moments, but the giant CGI monster stomping on Cardiff wasn’t one of them.) In MD, though, we have this amazingly complex setup for an intriguing and world-altering scenario, with hints that it stretches across decades if not centuries, revolving around Jack and those he loved, and there’s so much buildup that we know there must be some deep meaning behind it all… And then it’s revealed that the villain behind the curtain is A Group Of Evil Mob Bosses Bent On World Domination™. There’s not even any personal tie to Jack, who should (for the sake of symmetry) be at the center of it all. It’s just some Generic Bad Guys messing around with some stuff they found. Even though it’s his blood, Jack as a character is really just incidental to it all. The reveal would have exactly the same emotional gravitas if one of the Bad Guys had found Jack’s discarded vortex manipulator and used it to take over the world. It was just... unsatisfying.

...There’s more, but I think that’s enough digital ink spilled for the moment. I’m sure you can get an idea of my general opinion.

But, in fairness, now that I’ve griped about everything I didn’t like, let’s look at

Things Miracle Day did well:

The premise. The concept of people suddenly not dying, the fallout of that situation, and the questions it raises about life and death, civil rights. and society as a whole, is a brilliant concept! It would have made a very solid sci-fi film/series on its own; I just wish it hadn’t been crammed into Torchwood, because it didn’t mesh well with the story already in progress. Even so, there were moments where the sociopolitical drama actually played out quite well in spite of the show’s other issues. There were legitimately creepy horror elements – people being burned alive or dissected and not dying during the process – and it was interesting to consider the practical questions of where you put bodies, how you classify them, and so on. The family drama with Gwen’s father showed the more personal dilemma, while Vera’s incineration highlighted the danger of having the decision-making power in the wrong hands.

Gwen vs. Jack. Gwen having to choose between her family and Jack was the logical progression for her character’s story, and while I can’t say I enjoyed watching the trust between them disintegrate, I do think it was a good conflict to set up, and it gave both of them some much-needed character focus amid a very event-driven plot. (And it was a relief not to have any of those unconvincing awkward-sexual-tension scenes shoehorned in… wait, now I’m griping about the earlier series. Sorry.) Gwen had several good character moments during the series, actually; I remember the bit where she talks about killing her father as being particularly powerful, and she had a few fun one-liners as well (”I’m Welsh”). She was also given some good action sequences. Speaking of which…

Helicopter vs. shoulder-fired missile. With baby under one arm. Okay, not gonna lie, that entire sequence was pure candy.

Andy Davidson. Yes. Good. We can always use more Sgt. Andy. (Let him join Torchwood already!) Aside from their roles in the story, the presence of Andy and Rhys did provide a more solid link to the previous series. It’s not Torchwood without a minimum percentage of Welsh accents, after all. :)

The Oswald Danes storyline. It was creepy and disturbing, but the story of a psychotic killer, manipulated by a media expert, who rises to celebrity status and begins influencing public action was quite compelling (and, now that I think of it, may have struck a little too close to home… did I mention I live in the U.S.? *ahem*). Another thing I didn’t enjoy, per se, but it was certainly effective, especially coupled with Pullman’s convincing performance.

So there’s my (incredibly long and verbose) take on Miracle Day. I think it could best be summarized as “Great concept, weak execution.” Congratulations if you actually read this far. :)

[petite-neko]

Boyhood Blues - 8

Fanfiction: Boyhood Blues Story Summary: Actions, and inactions, have their repercussions. It may not be immediate but somewhere down the line, the effect will be seen. Chapter Characters: Law, Luffy, Ace, (Sengoku, Garp, Rayleigh, Marco) Pairing: LawLu Rating: T Warnings: Swearing, Universe Alteration, canon-typical violence, angst, A/N: FAIR WARNING: PULL OUT THE TISSUES. This chapter has been making me cry since Thursday and I’ve read it over multiple times. Really, it’s only a few moments but HO BOY. It hits you like a truck. (It wasn’t supposed to be this way, honestly. Just softly going ow, but no, it’s just VROOM VROOM, HERE COMES THE FEELS TRUCK. OH? THAT WASN’T ENOUGH, LET’S BACK UP AND GO FORWARD FOR GOOD MEASURE.)

That being said: I’M REALLY PROUD OF THIS CHAPTER. It starts tying everything in together. There’s ‘one’ more chapter until the time-skip! Then i can get into everything heee~

.xxx. > Time/scene skip

.+++. > PoV change

Read on Ao3

Chapter 7  || Chapter 8: Healing|| Chapter 9

Over the next few days, as Ace recovered, Law learned a bit more about Luffy. About how, after Ace ran away on Garp, Luffy’s plan for getting away at seventeen became significantly more difficult because Garp was on high alert.

But Ace, knowing that his leaving would do such a thing, had ensured that plans were in place and their old caretaker was in on those plans.

(Dadan, wasn’t it?)

Law also learned about Water 7, about Ennies Lobby, about their ship: the Going Merry (and the Thousand Sunny), and finally, about Thriller Bark.

(And while Law knew most of these tales in some degree, he had learned about them in a bit more detail than the papers would like to admit.)

Thriller Bark, however, was something that Trafalgar Law hadn’t learned about prior. Mostly due to the fact that it was a story that the World Government did not want to be revealed. The fact that Monkey D. Luffy had defeated not only one, but two Warlords? That he was toppling their powers left, right, and center? Not to mention he had just induced the destruction of Ennies Lobby…

(Oh, Garp would be peeved, most definitely; but also strangely proud. But, ever since the scenario with Ennies Lobby, not even Garp’s influence could sway the government any longer. Hence the fact that his last name appeared on the wanted posters after Water 7.)

And, knowing what he did now, it only made Law wonder just why Gekko Moria was at Marineford. Shouldn’t they have dismissed him upon learning of his defeat and the fact that he held several Marines hostages? Or perhaps did they decide they required whatever power they could get because they had everything set in place for the war?

No… the government had to be planning something. There was no question about that. But what?

Thankfully, Law had also avoided answering too many questions about his own personal life. Mostly they talked about his tattoos, and the potential designs, sometimes he talked about his crew. He allowed Luffy to come up with his own (rather sad, actually) drawings and suggestions if only to distract the other captain. Other distractions involved questions about Luffy’s past, or, more simply, food.

It wasn’t too long until a familiar face had waded onto the island.

“Rayleigh?!”

Law wasn’t too overly concerned about Luffy re-opening his wounds by now, and Luffy seemed to be taking his earlier scolding into consideration. From what he could tell, Luffy was a fast healer – and if it weren’t for Ace, he would have left by now as he felt confident in Luffy’s recovery.

But Law slowly glanced up at that – since Luffy did have a tendency to mistake one person for another quite frequently. (He still remembered the tale about ‘Sogeking’.) But when he recognised the Dark King, he startled a little.

What was he doing here?

“Ah, good. I thought you all had survived.” He was wiping himself off with a towel he had procured from somewhere. …Wait did the guy swim here? In the Calm Belt? (After overhearing his brief conversation with Luffy, Law concluded that, yes, the Dark King had decided it was a perfectly good idea so go swimming with Sea Kings.)

“So,” Rayleigh finally looked up to him, “I can see that Luffy here is doing just fine, but, how is Ace?”

There was a moment of tension as Rayleigh turned his attention to him, but he shrugged it off and glanced towards his submarine. He was curious as to why Rayleigh took an interest in Luffy, but ah, regardless… Ace, on the other hand, he supposed made sense. Rayleigh was the First Mate to Gol D. Roger after all, and now that it was known that Ace was the son of the King of the Pirates…

(In all actuality, Law almost forgot all about it, considering he had been dwelling on that boy he remembered in their pasts.)

“He should be waking any day now.” He started. “It’s just a matter of–”

A loud bang came from his submarine.

…God dammit! Couldn’t these brothers wake up in a less destructive way?

“ACE!” Luffy took off running.

…Well, time to go do some damage control…

.xxx.

Ace wasn’t happy with the plan. Not at all.

“Why do we have to pretend I died!”

It was Rayleigh’s idea actually. One that Law agreed with whole-heartedly. To imply that Law couldn’t save the damage that Sakazuki had caused to Ace’s body. That he died after all attempts to keep him amongst the living. And for Luffy to insinuate such claims.

“Relax,” the Dark King said, “we aren’t pretending anything, but it’s what the Marines will think. With your brother, Luffy, doing this, not only will he be able to communicate to his crewmates, but it also provides you with an alibi that will give you the time you need to recuperate.”

And time indeed was what Ace needed. He would not be fighting any battles anytime soon, nor should he if he desired to survive long enough to do so. In all honesty, Law was surprised that he managed to fix Ace up and that his patient was conscious. The damage was, well, severe.

“But I’m not dead!” Ace winced at the outburst, hand going to his injured side.

See? He couldn’t even yell nonetheless hold any sort of weapon.

And so Law sighed and interjected. “As your doctor I highly recommend this strategy. It takes weeks for most people to function properly after injuries such as broken bones, and still even days for those of you who have an advanced healing rate, but the ones you sustained…” Law trailed off as he gestured to Ace’s injuries. “It will take months – perhaps even years to fully heal. That’s including your constitution and your logia-powers.” He sighed again and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. “And that means no fighting. No more injuries. Even training – in any physical sense – is strictly forbidden. Unless you want to end up back at square one that is. Or worse. There are permanent, debilitating injuries or dismemberment that could happen – and the worse case scenario: death. You are the most wanted man in the world, Ace-ya, and do you really think the government is going to stand by and let you live?”

There was silence that greeted him, and Law could remember hearing Sengoku’s voice booming out for the entire world to hear:

“We need to stop these devil spawn!”

He sighed once more, rubbing at his temples.

“The Marines are the embodiment and army of the World Government. All three of us know this very intimately. I know that Sengoku was not truly behind this orchestrated development, and I am highly suspicious of what they will do next. You saw the expression of your Grandfather during the war… They aren’t going to stop Ace-ya. Not until they know you are dead. I’m very certain Luffy-ya’s bounty will go up significantly after this, once they realise he’s alive. And you? If they know you’re alive… they are probably going to rival it with the Yonku, or steeper.”

Finally, it seemed that his words were starting make an effect on Ace. But not enough to get him to cave, Law knew that much. “It’s best if they believe you to be dead until you can defend yourself Ace-ya.”

Luffy, too, was watching quietly before he had quickly decided to pipe in. “Think of it like I’m holding a funeral for your old man Ace. Please? I can’t lose you too!” His voice trailed off as he bit his lip. “You promised…”

Again? He had to put up with Garp's insufferable, sniffling, noisy brats again?

Law contemplated doing something to get out of it, but... he somewhat felt for them. In the sense that he knew what it was like to lose somebody that was close to you. far too intimately. After all it had been – what – a year since...

“Oh, it's Torao again.”

...And there that brat went again. On with that damn nickname of his. According to Ace, Luffy had trouble pronouncing certain words. And despite his protests and letting Luffy know he could just use his first name, the brat had decided that his nickname was better.

...Genocide certainly sounded appealing at the moment.

Law made a sound of annoyance and just continued to read.

This had been the third or fourth time by now, and quite honestly? He was tired of it all. Especially when Luffy had the tendency to just start the water works the moment Garp and Sengoku had left them on their own.

“Play nice boys, we're going to a meeting.”

“Ah!” Law sputtered out before he could stop himself. Usually at least one of them stuck around for awhile. Dammit! He didn't need this right now! Couldn't he have at least some peace and quiet?

But the adults were gone, leaving him and the brats alone. Which only meant…

“If you so much as fucking dare start a sob-fest right this second...” He warned Luffy, eyes narrowing.

It was Ace that responded, stepping in front of Luffy, his arms outstretched defensively.

“Leave Luffy alone Trafalgar.”

Law scoffed. “Or what? I've killed pirates stronger than you.” Granted, he wasn't exactly as strong as he used to be before the Amber Lead started destroying his body, but he could still put up a fight. Apparently his threat took some effect from the fear that sparked in Luffy’s eyes and the way he tugged at Ace’s shirt urgently.

“A-Ace, don't! You promised!”

“…You promised Ace! That you wouldn’t die! If it wasn’t for Sabo coming in…”

“Arg! Fine!” Ace had turned his head to the side, and Law recognised that expression from when they were children. He wasn’t happy, and that he had been arm wrestled into doing something he didn’t want to do – but he was going to comply. “And you! He pointed at Luffy, eyes narrowing a bit. “I still can’t believe you gave a complete stranger my vivre card!”

Luffy was pouting now. “B-But he saved your life Ace!”

And Ace? Well he just groaned. “Fine! Go do whatever you want!” His arms went into the air – albeit carefully. “Oi, Law, do you have a den den mushi on your sub? I gotta contact Marco…”

Law blinked when his name was called. Ah, so the brotherly spat was over? (And besides, if things were as he thought they were… well Ace would be eternally grateful for Luffy giving Sabo his vivre card. Well, if Sabo ever remembered that is.) He then sighed. “…You might want to let me do the talking Ace-ya. Dead men tell no tales after all. You never know who might be listening in.”

Another groan left Ace.

“…Playing dead is going to be sooooo boring!”

Law could only sigh at this melodramatic pirate. It didn’t last long however, for his nickname was hollered to the heavens and a bundle of rubber tackled him to the ground.

“Ugh… what did I say about being careful Luffy-ya?”

“Does this mean Torao’s leaving?”

…Why did Luffy both sound and look like an abandoned puppy?

He scoffed. “I have my own adventures after all Luffy-ya. I’m certain we’ll meet again in the future however.”

And then that pouting bundle of rubber was laughing. “Good! Cause I like Torao and I can’t wait to see you again!”

…Goodness what was with this fool?

“…See you later Luffy-ya.”

.xxx.

“Who is this, and how did you get our number?”

All of this socialising was getting on his nerves – but necessities, necessities. He sighed. “It’s Trafalgar Law.”

He could hear muffled sounds in the background.

“…Is Ace okay?”

The voice was understandably worried. Some rookie pirate kidnaps the man the Whitebeard Pirates fought so hard for and just disappears off the planet for almost a week? When said man was on the verge of death? He just wanted to get this over and done with. “I’m calling you to set up an exchange for the body of Portgas D. Ace.” They should learn some sense of secrecy however. Anybody could be listening in on this conversation, the last thing they needed was for an army to amass at their meeting site with Ace all but out of commission.

He received silence as a response. Some muffled sounds but mostly moving around.

Seriously?

He sighed. “Listen, where’s a good place to meet in Paradise? We need to make the exchange quick – the Marines could be tracking this call as we speak. If they get their hands on Ace-ya’s body…”

If Law had to go in with them suspecting Ace was dead, so be it. At least he could go into great morbid detail of what the Marines would do to the body of the son of the King of Pirates to convince them. He wasn’t about to go risking his patient’s recovery for some stranger’s mental health.

“When the phoenix rises, meet us at…” The words were hastily said to prevent Law from continuing his macabre sentence.

And with the instructions given, Law wrote them down before agreeing and hanging up. Then he turned to Ace expectantly. “So, Ace-ya, what exactly is the time when the Phoenix rises?”

Finally, the man laughed. “You’re so damn lucky they figured out I was still alive.”

Law sighed and shook his head. “Well considering I have their damn number, that should have been the first giveaway.”

“Touché, Surgeon of Death, touché.”

Law groaned.

.xxx.

“You know, you’re somebody that Luffy admires.”

They had left Amazon Lily awhile ago, heading towards the meeting point when Ace had just came out with that.

Wait. Wait. What? The statement made him freeze. He was not expecting that.

“If you hadn’t left the Marines like you did…” There was a nostalgic look in his eyes. “Remember? When Luffy asked you about your dreams?” The smile on his face was indisputable. “Well… we might have never thought it possible. To pursue our dreams that is. Gramps… we both know he had the best intentions but… he was always watching us like a hawk. Except when we were with you or Sengoku. And neither one of us wanted to become Marines. Not only was I worried what they might do if they discovered my lineage… I just… I didn’t like the idea. I wanted to be my own man. To become famous of my own accord and not because of who…” Ace’s expression soured and he shook his head. “But, this isn’t about me. It’s about Luffy. He… he took Sabo’s death hard.”

And Law? He just watched Ace.

“I’m pretty sure you could tell that, just by the way he acted. Even now, it still stings him. Look at what he said earlier. It’s just… being with the Marines? It reminded us of Sabo. Of what he did, of what he sacrificed for our lives. And it was that… that’s what ultimately caused his death.”

(Oh, he recognised this. Yes, the way that Ace clenched his fists. The way he set his jaw and that determined look in his eyes.)

“…It’s okay to cry. Luffy-ya’s not here.” Law said simply, glancing away. “…Somebody once told me that, you know. That it’s not good to keep everything deep down within you.”

(He could hear the quiet sobs in the silence that formed between them, but he ignored it. He let Ace regain his composure.)

“I – thank you…” There were a few sniffles before Ace returned to the topic at hand. “…We were trapped Law. Trapped in a place we didn’t want to be. We weren’t free.”

…Was that what Luffy had meant all those years ago then? About Sabo not wanting them to live that way? Not wanting them to be trapped and unable to obtain their dreams?

“And you. By leaving, you made him believe again Law. You made him hope and you made him try. Especially with what you had said, we had just… presumed you had become a pirate because the Marines couldn’t obtain your dreams for you. You brought the hope back into his life – our life.” Ace had turned towards him before bowing lowly. “And I thank you for that Trafalgar Law.”

…What?

…Those brothers seriously thought…

Law turned away, scoffing. “…I-I wasn’t doing it for any of you.” He cursed himself for that slight stutter. “I have my own goals in life Ace-ya, as you can tell.” And really, really, what had ever happened to those two brothers never mattered to him. “I left for my own desires. Of my own accord. The Marines had just been a stepping stone in my life that proved to be useless to my goals eventually. And, in all honesty? I couldn’t have given less of a damn about the two of you.”

He was a selfish bastard back then, and who was he kidding? He still was one now. Perhaps, not as much as before, but still.

And Ace only laughed again at his remark.

Which, in return, earned him a glare from Law. “I’m serious! I didn’t even recognise Luffy-ya when we met again on Sabaody! Even when he used that ridiculous bastardisation of my name! The only thing that tipped me off was when he mentioned…” Law glanced away, softly shaking his head. Right, the brothers didn’t know what caused the spots, just that he had them. “…Something only he could have known.”

“I know, I know.” Ace was still smiling at him, waving his hand dismissively. “But thanks anyway. You gave us light in that dark place we both were in. It was suffocating, and constantly reminded us of… Sabo. And then, to see somebody who was suffering like us get out of there? It made us realise we weren’t trapped either, that, if we tried, we could get out too.”

“Tch.” Law could only scoff further. This idiot wasn’t taking the hint, was he? “Who said I was suffering? As I said, I wasn’t satisfied with the Marines is all.”

That all-knowing smirk on Ace’s face made him sick.

“Whatever you say, doctor.”

…Insufferable brats!

[lingeringscars]

bellamy - 42, 47, 2:), 6, 10, 22, 23

Character Solidifying // always accepting !!

42. what does your character want most? what do they need really badly, compulsively? what are they willing to do, to sacrifice, to obtain?

Honestly, the only thing he needs is Octavia, which is…not the best thing in the world, obviously. he’d do absolutely anything for her and would risk his life over and over and over again if it meant protecting her. he’ll keep coming back no matter how hard she pushes him away, and it’s terrifying because losing her would be like losing his heart. 

47. Do they want to project an image of a younger, older, more important person? Do they want to be visible or invisible?

so it largely depends on who he’s talking to for all of these. basically he doesn’t really try to project an image of anything unless he’s trying to comfort someone. then he pretends like he knows what he’s doing. otherwise, it’s basically..him? if need be he ensures that they all know who’s in charge but he largely just acts like himself. and he also tries to be invisible the majority of the time to protect the people he loves re: tasha, octavia, even clarke to an extent. otherwise, he makes his presence very clear and he’s very good at what he does and has that natural born leader instinct so in conclusion, he wants to be what he needs to be to protect the ones he cares about. 

2. Their mother? How do they think of her? What do they hate? Love? What influence - literal or imagined - did the mother have?

lmaooo he hung onto every word his mother ever said. he had a lot of power when he was younger because the second his sister was born, he was put in charge of her, and that became his motto. his mom told him that o was his responsibility, and he never looked back. he got to name her and read to her and protect her like big brothers do, and that’s something he attributes to his mother. it also leads to the whole mess of problems because he had to help hide her and contributed to his lack of boundaries because it was his job. he treated o more like a job than a sister, and that damaged their relationship. yet he still idolizes his mom and resents the government that put her to death. and the only thing he hates is that she wasn’t more careful. otherwise he’s basically a mama’s boy and would have done anything for this woman if she asked ( and she did )

6. Did they feel rejection or affection as a child?

rejection. he doesn’t resent his mother for it because he’s to busy being angry at jaha. he felt affection from o but it was never enough bc their relationship was largely what if’s. he brushed it off because duty but she abandoned them emotionally after o was born because she was too busy trying to ensure that she would never be caught. he had to keep to himself and never shine any light on him or his family or it would be a disaster, and after it happened, he was completely isolated. he was largely alone and didn’t have any friends on the arc. his only friend was his sister who shouldn’t exist and didn’t in the arc’s eyes. so really, all he had was his books and training, until he was demoted and then he had a job and an empty room. 

10. Is your character street-smart, book-smart, intelligent, intellectual, slow-witted?

he’s a mixture of both street and book smart. he’s a huge history buff and loves mythology but he cares less about math and science. he’s nowhere near raven’s level of intelligence but likes to think he’s on par with clarke, even if it’s in different ways. he’s a hard worker and a fast learner, which is why he can shoot so well, and he’s good at developing personal relationships and bonds, as seen through his ability to inspire people. this is all his form of intelligence. it’s not cookie-cutter genius, but it’s still there. he’s good at strategy. he can figure out a plan in a war and is good at his own Trojan horses. and this is all from the skills that he picked up. his common sense is good except that sometimes he can be too trusting re: echo or not trusting enough re: lexa. but as a whole, he is an intellectual and if the circumstances were different, would love academia. 

22. Who are their friends? Lovers? ‘Type’ or ‘ideal’ partner?

he doesn’t really have a type. he pretty much is attracted to who he’s attracted to, but he does like a mixture between confidence and vulnerability. he’d also like them to have their wits about them and be able to keep up with him. being in shape and giving him a run for his money in matches is also a turn on :/ as for his friends, he doesn’t have many. but again, it comes down to a level of respect. you have to prove that you’re a decent person and that he can trust you, and that will go a long way. strong and dependable. he’s fine with one night stands when he’s putting on an act or the world is ending, but he’s actually a romantic at heart and wants something long term. so he doesn’t have a lot of lovers, despite popular belief. basically he wants a connection :/ 

23. What do they want from a partner? What do they think and feel of sex?

basically what i said above about trust and dependability. he wants to have discussions about random shit at 3 in the morning and to contemplate life. he wants to be able to make mythology references with someone who somewhat understands them. he wants to come home and know that whoever is with is happy and that they make him happy. he basically just wants them to feel safe. as for what he thinks and feels of sex, he loves it :/ he loves the intimacy and the closeness. he likes the vulnerability that comes with showing that much of yourself, and really just enjoys the whole feel. the physicality is just a++ and he’ll never recover :/ basically give bellamy blake sex bc the boy loves it.