#we as in people who actually (unfortunately) have it

[beneathsilverstars]

A lot of people headcanon that Siffrin was something around 12-14 when the island disappeared, which does make sense. But it’s common enough fanon that I wanted to go back and figure out what’s actually canon!

Lots of evidence and math under the cut, including various things to consider when creating your own hc timeline, but tl;dr:

If we stick to only textual canon, then Siffrin only needs to have been old enough to row a boat, which I would guess to be 6-8. If we take into account the ranges id5 gave for everyone’s ages during canon, he theoretically could’ve been anywhere from 6-25 when the island disappeared. Or if we adhere to everything id5 has said, then he was a “teen” when it happened, so, 13-19.

Siffrin: I ran away from home once! I just didn't want to eat my veggies. And so I took our boat! Got to the beach, rowed away from the shore a bit. I was going to come back right away, I just wanted to scare my parents a bit! I started to row back towards the shore... And then, I...

People often assumes this means Siffrin was fairly young when they left. However, that relies on two assumptions, which are fairly reasonable, sure, but assumptions nonetheless: that they were young when this happened, and that this is when the island disappeared.

While throwing tantrums over vegetables is a stereotypically childish activity, chafing at strict or even well-meaning rules doesn’t belong exclusively to children. There are parents who continue treating their kids the same way even as they grow into teens and even full adults, before they move out or even just while they visit. Which is very frustrating for the kid! So imo it would make perfect sense for a teenager or even a young adult to go, “I can’t believe my parent is still trying to control what I eat like I’m a blinding 10 year old. If they won’t treat me like an adult at home, maybe I’ll prove my independence by leaving for a bit!”

It’s also possible that the event this dialogue refers to ended with Siffrin returning safely home! It’s fun to say that his story trailed off at the moment that the island was forgotten, but it’s possible he only stopped the retelling there because the curse kicked in, just like it would for any childhood memory. Maybe he didn’t get cut off from the island till he ran away for a second time. Maybe he was just on a regular, fully-sanctioned outing when it happened. Maybe he was even with other people. Who knows! Siffrin sure doesn’t!

(Edit: It’s word of god canon that the veggie event was the island’s disappearance, but it doesn’t necessarily affect our timeline anyway.)

I think the only thing this story proves is that Siffrin didn’t leave the island until after they were old enough to row the family boat. Unfortunately I don’t know for sure how old that would be. I did some research and found a couple posts about 6-7 year olds learning how to row, but one of them was using an inflatable raft, and the other was on a rowing team, so I don’t know how the difficulty compares. Young children really are quite good at picking up their parents’ hobbies, so I think even a 4-5 year old could learn how, but they may not be physically capable of handling an adult-size boat. It really comes down to a question of core strength / endurance. Found some posts saying the weight of the boat doesn’t matter as much as the weight of the oars, though, so maybe old fashioned boat vs modern inflatable raft doesn’t matter that much…? So maybe it would be possible for a child to row a small wooden skiff at around age 6-8. Probably not for long, but that just makes it all the more realistic for them to drift farther than they meant to and then struggle to return to shore.

So: Siffrin was at least 6-8 when they left!

Bonnie: I think my village was really close to it!!! My sister said it was all everyone could talk about for weeks!!!

If we assume “my village” means Bambouche, the island disappearance would have to be after Nille ran away with Bonnie, but still long enough ago that Bonnie doesn’t remember it directly. If we define “preteen” as age 10-12, then the longest ago this could possibly be would be 12 years. On the other side, I think it’s reasonable for a 10 year old to not remember a major (but personally irrelevant) event that happened when they were 6, meaning the closest it could be is 4 years ago.

If we follow WoG (word of god) age ranges, then Siffrin is in their “mid to late 20s”, which I’ll define as 24-29. Subtracting our 4-12 years ago range for the island’s disappearance, Siffrin could’ve been at youngest 12-17 and at oldest 20-25. If we stick to only TC (textual canon), I think one could interpret Siffrin as anywhere from 18-35, which would mean they were at youngest 6-23 and at oldest 14-31.

Of course, “my village” could also mean wherever Bonnie and Nille lived before running away. I think the youngest age at which it’s likely for an adult to remember a personally-irrelevant event from their childhood is maybe 5. Nille’s WoG age range is “late teens to early 20s”, which I would define as 16-23, which means the disappearance could be 11-18 years ago. Combining this with our 4-12 range gives us 4-18, meaning WoG Siffrin could have been at youngest 6-11 and at oldest 20-25.

But if we’re only going off of TC, we can say Nille’s as old as we want, so the disappearance just has to be at least 4 years ago for Bonnie to not directly remember.

Isabeau: This article says there's no record of him anywhere... Up until he appeared out of thin air sometime in his adulthood. Looks like he lived in the city of Corbeaux for a few years before he became the King...

According to the change god statue exposition cutscene, the King started his rampage “almost a year ago now”. The way Isabeau says the bit about Corbeaux kind of implies that the King lived other places before that, but not to the point that it’s unreasonable to say he didn’t. So if we define “a few” as 2-4, then the soonest the king could’ve appeared is 3-5 years ago, meaning the island disappeared at least 3 years ago. We already said it has to be at least 4 years ago, so this doesn’t change our math.

How old were Nille and Bonnie when they ran away? How old was Sif when their home got zapped?

id5: Both were teens.

Womp womp, there it is. WoG says 13-19!

But while we’re here, here’s a summary of everything you might want to consider while creating your timeline:

Siffrin must have been at least old enough to row a boat. I’m not an expert in boats but I think it’s reasonable for a kid to be capable of rowing at age 6+, but a 6-8 year old may struggle to maneuver the oars of an adult-sized boat, and wouldn’t be able to row very hard or for very long. Doesn’t necessarily take much effort to get far enough for waves and currents to take you farther, though.

It’s WoG that the veggie event is the island’s disappearance, but if you’re going off of TC, the disappearance could have happened later instead. And a dramatic disagreement over veggies could theoretically happen at any age! Its causes could also range from rather practical (Siffrin is extremely picky and his parents are worried about his health) to pure power struggle (Siffrin just wants more choice in what he eats but his parents just want him to follow the rules they’ve set).

Since the King lived in Corbeaux for “a few” years before his nearly-a-year-long rampage, the island must have disappeared at least 3 years ago.

Since Bonnie remembers Nille telling them about the gossip surrounding the island’s disappearance, I doubt they would’ve forgotten the gossip itself if it had happened somewhat recently. (I think it must have been at least 4 years ago.)

If Bonnie’s reference to “my village” means Bambouche, the disappearance must have occurred after Nille ran away with them.

If Bonnie’s reference to “my village” means wherever they lived with Nille before running away, then the disappearance could be before Bonnie was born. But it would still have to be when Nille was old enough to pay attention to the gossip and remember it for a while. (I think she must have been at least 5 years old when it happened.)

According to id5, Siffrin is in their mid-to-late twenties during the game, and Nille is in their late teens to early twenties.

According to id5, Siffrin was a teen when the island disappeared, and Nille was a teen when she ran away from home.

You can do whatever you want forever, including contradicting textual canon. ^^

[pamillie]

I feel like the more I surf the Dandandan tag, the more I come across people grossly misusing the term “fan-service”.

Here’s my take no one asked for.

(A read-more for descriptions of SA, etc)

The depiction of nudity, the SA, and the bodily violation shown in Dandadan are meant to make viewers uncomfortable at times, but are also meant to convey humor or terror or to be relatable.

I think the story exists in this balance between being whacky and goofy and not taking itself seriously while also having these very mature moments with depth.

The murdered girls in the bound spirit that Turbo Granny was guarding. The exploitation and violence that Acro Silky experienced as a woman- just as the two most prominent examples in the anime so far (there are so many more in the manga).

But time and time again, the teenage characters themselves are not being overtly sexual. Sure, there’s ball jokes and awkwardness and the like. But it’s never escalated to the point of making the characters seem horny or perverted.

I think Dandadan is a lot of things. It’s wrong to say that it’s totally and intentionally a gritty and symbolic metaphor for sexual violence just as it’s wrong to say it’s nothing more than a stylish battle shonen or a raunchy romantic comedy.

What I think it does strive to be though is universally relatable. Women and girls can (unfortunately) relate to the depictions of SA we see through Momo. Young men and teenage boys can relate to feeling worthless or useless based on a perceived lack of masculine traits like Okuran does. Or the feeling that they have to craft a likeable or palatable persona just for others to value them- despite the grief or loneliness they’re experiencing privately- as Aira and Jiji experience.

And not for nothing- I think the point I keep coming back to when I try to explain the appeal of Dandadan to other people is how it captures how SIMULTANEOUSLY traumatizing and precious being a teenager is.

Puberty is inherently traumatic. Going about life as a child only to suddenly be ogled like an adult, when all the while you haven’t even come to terms with the changes going on with your body? It’s terrifying. It’s vulnerable!

Is Momo still ‘valuable’ after being called a slut or being pursued by older men? Is Okuran still a ‘man’ even if he lost his junk?

People keep saying that ‘the story could be exactly the same with aged-up characters and then it wouldn’t be gross’ but I disagree. The story would NOT be the same.

Because something else you gain with puberty and growing up is a radical and empowering acceptance of yourself. It’s this scary uncharted territory of deciding who you are and how you want to be perceived by the world. It can be a rejection of who you were before or boldly asserting who you’ve always been. There are other times in your life where you will change or develop but there’s a reason coming of age stories set from around 12 to 17 are so timeless and universal.

The fact that Tatsu is telling this genre-bending subversion of a story in a generic high school setting is actually the most genius part about it in my opinion.

It takes itself just seriously enough to be emotionally gripping and realistic while also reminding you that the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to you probably wasn’t even that bad- you were just fifteen.

So anyway- stop calling it fan service. And just accept that stories about puberty deserve to exist. Especially if they can accurately portray both how hilarious and traumatic it actually is.

[true-lavender]

Hi guys

I'm bringing you my personal bookmarks now

No joke first svsss fic I've read. One of the rare Bingjiu fics I enjoyed. I am not fond of the ship but this fic gets it.

Summary:

Luo Binghe has been having trouble truly breaking in that dreadful Shizun of his. A wife's suggestion to use pleasure seems intriguing, but the dreams waiting for him when he's done are not what he expects to find...

I think this is one of my favourites, if not THE favourite SVSSS fic. It's so intriguing as a concept and it has great potential to get Shen Jiu some help and gift him a happy ending. It's also really intriguing because reverse transmigration always is.

Summary:

PIDW reader Shen Yuan is transported to the world of the novel he loves to hate in order to meet his favorite protagonist. Rescuing the scum villain was definitely not on the agenda.

This one is soooo... I never thought the author would update it again but here we are. It's angst heavy with great potential because Shen Jiu is forced in a situation where his issues have to be resolved.

Summary:

All he had in the nothingness was his memories, and his regret. And it seems nothing can absolve him of these regrets, not even Meng Po's soup. So instead he gets a chance. A chance to absolve them himself. Only when he becomes whole will he be ready to move on. Rated M just to be safe in case it gets darker later. Work's title changed cause I thought it was more apt. But then I kept the first title anyway.

Great concept, unfortunately it hasn't beem updated since i bookmarked it which is a real shame, I like the way the fic was developing towards.

Summary:

Shen Jiu opens his eyes marking the beginning of his third life. He didn't want to live a third time. After both his first and second lives gave him no hint of comfort, he just wanted to rest in death. But now he's back again in a child's body, curled up in a narrow alleyway of a bustling city, clothed in rags and full of bruises. Shen Jiu didn't want a third life but he'd be damned if he lets this chance go to waste. So he grits his teeth and gets up.

Short but it hits the spot well. Truth pollen is ALWAYS fun with Shen Jiu.

Summary:

Shen Qingqiu (unwillingly) goes on a mission with Liu Qingge. Of course, this results in disaster, and now they're trapped in a cave with a bunch floating particles that may or may not kill them. Or, Liu Qingge messes things up, Shen Qingqiu pays the price, and they both deal with the consequences.

In case you hate happiness, this one might be for you. I think I cried to it actually. It is NOT a cozy read. It hurts like a bitch. He0s haunted by ghosts of people he had killed.

Summary:

"You should have let Haitang die with me."   Shen Jiu is haunted by the ones who hurt him.

WILL UPDATE THIS LATER

Hey.... I've MANUALY sorted like 3k of fics for original shen jiu (yes I'm desperate okay) on ao3 and read through the ones I liked the premise of so... I'd like to ask any people active on tumblr if they'd drop their own favourites where shen jiu's past is in one way or another exposed to others (preferably to his martial brothers/sisters but other people can be exposed to it too). I just love reading reactions of people who thought the way they treated shen jiu is completely fair and just, people who even dared to paint themselves as some kind of heroes for 'keeping him in line' or 'putting a stop to his shameful behaviors' to see that the world isn't black and white and that shen jiu isn't either, taht he is, in the end, only human, someone who had made mistakes, who had suffered, who had tried his best so many times but it was for naught, a person who is capable of smiling it just seems the world doesn't want him to.

I'm just loosing my marbles slowly, this obsession of mine with this man is making me insane. I wanna reread best fics I've read without having to go look through 3k of fanfics again on the off chance my filtering had failed me and excluded some fics.

[blueteller]

Out of all the bad people in the story, i dislike Director Ma the most. Reading about krs sitting quietly in his chair trying to get a day off to see cjs & lsh hurt alot. Why do you think krs didnt do anything to get revenge on Ma?

Oh, I absolutely agree. Director Ma is THE WORST. The kind of emotional manipulation this man did to KRS? Disgusting. Utterly repulsive.

I was honestly so glad that it was OG Cale in the side-story and not KRS who heard him say... that, but unfortunately, the fact that Director Ma DARED to try guilt-trip OG Cale!KRS for taking a VACATION of all things, to his face, when we all know that OG KRS was a workaholic who rarely ever took days off? It means this sort of thing wasn't new. For all we know, this could have been a regular occurrence in the office. Not this line specifically, but this… general dismissal of KRS's feelings, while simultaneously taking advantage of his emotions and sense of responsibility. It's the "He's not even crying during a funeral" all over again. Those freaking monsters at the Company, how freaking dare they. Just thinking about it makes me angry.

Now, about your question. Why do you think KRS didn't do anything to get revenge on Director Ma?

I actually considered it in the past. We know Cale is someone perfectly capable of taking revenge and getting even. So why would he let this jerk get away with such behavior when clearly he had enough power in the Company to make a difference?

Here are some of my theories.

One, it could be that Director Ma was useful. You might remember, during the Sealed God's Test arc, Cale mentioned knowing the leaders of the shelters and remembering how he was used to asking them for help and cooperation in the past, with much struggle. Director Ma might have been one of many, many individuals that KRS tolerated "for the greater good". As long as he was only a jerk to KRS as a Team Leader and left his teammates alone, I imagine KRS did not think much about his own hurt. He was too practical. If Director Ma was evil like, let's say, Adin, and was planning harm to other people, Cale certainly would never let it go. But a common… jerk, for the lack of a better word? He could have shrugged it off easily.

Two, maybe it was because Director Ma was a senior. Cale is actually really, really Korean in that aspect. Multiple times in the story Cale had a habit of considering how he should treat his seniors. He even remarked about the White Star that "I don't care if he is a total senior, that guy is a crazy bastard from now on". So, the simple cultural habit of respecting his seniors could be at play here. Yes, Director Ma was way out of line with his words, but those were the words of a senior. So even if Cale understood that it wasn't fair to be treated like this, he might have felt obligated to accept it because of the traditional Korean values of social hierarchy.

Three, maybe it was a sense of helplessness. One of the moments that struck me really hard in the flashback when LSH & CJS died, was the fact that "no one told KRS to wipe his nosebleed". Once KRS lost all his friend, he felt isolated. Without anyone to defend him. Director Ma wasn't the only a**hole he had to deal with on a regular basis in the Company. Perhaps, due to his depression, KRS simply grew used to such disrespectful treatment until he accepted it as a norm. Which is really freaking sad, but I could see it happening. I really do think that transmigration snapped Cale out of a 10-year-long streak of depression and workaholism. …Well, maybe not the second part, heh.

Four, there could be complexities to his relationship with Director Ma. KRS worked over a decade in the Company, after all. Perhaps there was something in their history that made KRS unable to act against him. Blackmail, for example? I don't know what kind of blackmail would work on KRS of all people, but. Perhaps it was simply emotional blackmail. Maybe KRS felt guilty over being Team Leader, because the spot was meant to be inherited by CJS. Maybe Director Ma helped him in the past and KRS felt like he owed him. Who knows? 10 years is a long time.

Here, there's my answer. None of those reasons make Director Ma's treatment of KRS justifiable, of course. But it would explain how such a dumb person avoided getting utterly annihilated... Because we all know Cale could have done it with ease. But relationships between co-workers can be complicated, so.

...Let's all be glad OG Cale got to avenge KRS by simply being himself 😂

[chrystal-ink]

Shadvent calendar Day 24

Shadow x GN Reader

Mistletoe

Shadow was never one for PDA. in fact you two barley held hands whenever other people were around if he could help it. however, tonight the cocktails were flowing and the spirit of Christmas was in the air.

The two of you had managed to miss each other all night. getting wrapped up in conversations with other people, giving out gifts, and avoiding the mistletoe hung ever so delicately in the living room for all to see. You were consciously avoiding it knowing that Shadow did not want to kiss in front of a room full of his closest friends, coworkers, acquaintances, and sonic.

Still he looked so nice in his tux and you knew that he had been eyeing you all night. but attraction or not you were going to respect his boundaries, you would just have to make up for it later.

Shadow on the other hand was craving the touch of your lips right about now. Denied their rightful place upon his earlier in the evening his distain for witnesses was thrown to the wind. You looked incredible tonight and the world needed to know that you were taken, that your lips were for his and his alone.

unfortunately he was caught up in a meaningless conversation with one of his coworker's and he could not get out of it. he had to do something and quick. signaling to Rouge he requested her to get him out of there.

Luckily they had been working together for so long that she understood immediately what he was trying to communicate. Not wasting a moment Rouge swooped into the conversation ending it with grace.

"What do you need Hon?"

"I need to get over to Y/N, I have a matter that needs addressing"

"Is this about those lips you've been staring at all night?"

"I don't see how that's any of your business bat, but yes."

"Fine, I'll help you, but you have to do it over there." She pointed to the mistletoe hanging in the center of the room.

"What? Why?"

"Why? well you two have been together for so long and yet I've never seen the two of you give each other more than a peck. I just want to make sure you're doing it right, for Y/N's sake."

"You are a pain you know that right?"

"Just looking out for you doll."

Shadow weighed his options for a moment, if he tried to make his way across the room he was sure to run into more people and have to engage in more meaningless conversations. it would take at least an hour to get to you, and even then he would have to wait for your conversation to end before he could even attempt to kiss you.

Still to kiss in a crowd was one thing, to do it with everyone watching was another.

He gritted his teeth it wasn't like him to shy away from anything and he wasn't about to start now. He needed your lips and fast so reluctantly he agreed.

"You wont regret this, I promise." Rouge responded happy her little negotiation worked. She took out her phone and texted everyone her plan, all they had to do was get you under that mistletoe by any means necessary.

❄️

You were mid conversation with Amy when her phone went off.

"That's weird who could be texting you right now? everyone we know is here."

"Don't worry about it, it's nothing." she reassured quickly putting her phone away. "Say, why don't we look for some more of those delicious crab puffs I think I saw some over there."

"umm okay, I guess we could."

But before you could actually turn to go the opposite direction Sonic interrupted your conversation.

"Hey Y/N How's it goin? Say, is that cocktail for me? Thanks!" He took your drink and bolted across the room before you even had the chance to react.

"Hey!" you whined before following after him, it was a confined space and with all the people there he couldn't have gotten too far.

You followed him almost to the center of the room before he stopped turning back to you your drink still in his hands.

"What's the big idea? you can't just do that at a party."

"I had it under control Sonic" Amy called finally catching up to the both of you.

"Yah, but I was faster."

"What's going on you two?"

"You'll see." sonic replied "Sorry about this" He gave you a gentle push. Stumbling backward you almost fell thankfully, a pair of hands steadied you before you could reach the floor.

"Hey." shadow looked down at you giving you a handsome smirk.

"Shadow? thanks, but how did you-"

"Everyone! looks like we have our first two lovebirds under the mistletoe!" Rouge announced "Why don't you give them a round of applause?"

You looked up and saw the offending branch right above where you and Shadow were standing.

"Oh no, we don't have to if you don't want. I know you don't really like this stuff." you apologized.

"Don't be ridiculous, It's tradition." Shadow said grabbing you by the chin. "And besides with the way you look tonight I want everyone here to know you're mine."

And with that he kissed you it was passionate, full of love and devotion. he was getting the touch he so craved and he didn't care who saw it.

Once your lips had parted and crowed died down a little you looked into his crimson eyes and smiled.

"You know, you could have just asked for a kiss my love."

"Yes, but I wanted to make this one special."

You giggled placing your hands on his chest.

"Well then love, You accomplished your mission"

You gave him another kiss each of you smiling against the other's lips before rejoining the party hand in hand.

[coffeegnomee]

All About You

This is about to be the most meta analysis post of my life, but something that has fascinated me the most about lifesteal recently: chat is the 38th member.

As a live stream story, lifesteal is always going to be affected by the live audience, the streamer reading messages, talking back and forth, sometimes doing what chat wants. This is the streamer-chat dynamic. It's natural, it's part of the story.

But something that has fascinated me particularly since season 4, particularly post zam's break s5, and Particularly in s6 since I've started interacting on tumblr, is just how much chat influences the lore and how much we influence each other.

At each of these moments there was a shift in the PrinceZam streamer-chat dynamic.

Season 4 was a lot of anti-lore chatters. People who blah blah blah'ed it up whenever Zam went into a spiral about what he should do. It heightened the feeling of isolation and confusion, especially as some chatters (shoutout van) tried to gently encourage zam in his decision making, giving counter points to the negativity. Unfortunately it often just lead to more confusion as chat was split 50/50 on almost every decision.

In season 5, after the break, there was a reset of the mod team to the team we have now (knowing most of you are here potentially reading this is weird.) These were the best chatters of s4, the ones who became highly invested in Eclipse, and lifesteal in general, and Zam in particular.

In season 5 the hivemind of the mod team getting excited about lore was hilarious to watch. Half the team reprimanded backseating of the rest of the mod team (shoutout meep), the other half lored it up (shoutout chips), everyone loved it. 'Credit to the artist' was born as direct quotes from chat made it into the character.

Read that again: Direct Quotes From Chat Made It Into The Character.

That is weird.

No longer was it simply the mind of PrinceZam forming the character of Zam, as we watched and reacted, but chat itself became an integral part of the lore (these are his amends. make him repent) forming and shaping it, right alongside Zam, into what that season became.

In particular the conversations as the Joker (specifically the Jumper yap in your president doesn't care about you) brought out comparison after comparison to past seasons of princezam as chatters brought up and compared jumper to zam season 3. This sparked a huge renaissance of past season analysis of Zam which became heavily integrated into the final months of the server, with zam to minute, with minute bringing up his own inspiration of season 3 zam, and with zam musing about how each character approaches what past seasons mean to them (concluding, iirc, that they remember it but it doesn't matter to them. tell that to s6 zam lol).

In season 6 the dynamic has shifted again. Credit to the artist has died down, usually in favor of admitting he's reading a suggestion from chat, but the back and forth conversation, reading out specific messages, from often the same few people (shoutout arch and van and citrus (hi citrus)) has flourished more than ever (also shoutout the new chatters. there's been a turnover again and a lot of new names who are consistently affecting the lore)

Right at the end of season 5 I began interacting on lstumblr and writing and reading posts. It came from the end of season conversation about The Mering essay, Barrier Blocks: a breakdown of lifesteal in 22k words about season 4 and conflict. It wasn't the first time that essay and the story of Eclipse Federation was brought up and analyzed on stream as Zam encountered head on that his darkest time on lifesteal was the defacto fan favorite story of the server.

The analysis of the chatters was being shared with the streamer and therefore, the character. These were the seeds of thinking deeply about his actions in s4 and s5 and how he actually felt about them and not just moving on and forgetting.

And then something else started happening. Maybe it happened often before, and I was just not aware of it; I do remember a few times in s5 the mod team referencing and asking zam questions about his character that they had talked about or mused over between each other on discord. So it was happening to some extent, but particularly since starting to hear your opinions and analysis about the story on tumblr, I'm seeing a new trend in s6.

The fandom stream snipe:

When someone in chat innocently brings up something I damn well know was talked about on here just the day before.

Some analysis about a previous stream. Some wishful musing about interactions we hope to see. A tidbit about a previous stream that was unresolved.

And it changes the lore just as much as Planet is known to change the lore by talking to Zam.

The two instances that got me really thinking about chat being the 38th member were recent:

After 4c betrayed there was of course a lot of discussion and the general consensus was the we would love to see another 4c and zam conversation. Especially after 4c gave kab the disc, and zam did the short confrontation of him with derap. Multiple people, I mean it was on everyone's mind, wanted another interaction.

And when the timing was good, chat struck. Or should I say, van cooked. After Zam wrote signs about kab and wondered what to do about his interactions with her, someone mentioned 4c, and the door was opened to talk about what we were all wondering about. Van delivered, nearly single handedly driving the conversation towards talking to 4c, musing that it felt unresolved. When zam got distracted by demi talking about his base, van brought the discussion back around to 4c and the rest of chat started cooking too, innocently encouraging a second conversation. And Zam /msged 4c to talk.

It would not have happened without chat.

The second was yesterday: talking about Leo potentially being a mole. I had analysis, I know zy had analysis, I think others did as well. But until chat started bringing up fandom analysis, zam and derap were not sus of Leo in the slightest. Zam was only partially suspicious about Mapicc wanting to kill Flame, but he only thought of it in terms of letting Mapicc down.

And it got me thinking; at what point are we stream sniping ourselves? It's not really stream sniping (though the 4c one gets very close) because it's based on our own analysis, and usually just based on zam's streams, or doesn't include knowledge that isn't known.

But that Leo analysis was lifesteal spoiler walled. It was, by default, something that was kept hidden from lifestealers on tumblr (though less for zam and more for anyone else), though, as a theory, is it really a spoiler? But as a theory, is it really meant to be seen by the character? Unless we were a member and wanted to tell our teammate we thought something was up?

It's an interesting conundrum. Our analysis is a hivemind of hyperfixating viewers who Think about lifesteal all the time, rewatch streams, watch everyone and know how everyone is likely to be thinking and acting, breaking it down, reading each other's analysis and cultivating a deep web of theories and hopes and dreams about this lovely server of ours.

And that holds weight. All the minds of the viewers pushing together to have an affect on the server. Honorable mentions are our opinions/analysis on lskab that ran rampant in chat for that like month, and, in the opposite direction, mer's rewatch of s4 ending in a "i wish zam could talk to vitalasy again" post which plausibly reignited the deep dive thinking about that season and then culminated in this past saturday's stream!

Would PrinceZam the character ever have wanted to talk to vitalasy nearly half as much without the love of the fandom (not just mer) for eclipse federation that persists to this very moment nearly 2 years later?

We mighteswell be a member on the server asking zam to talk to someone!

Not to give us a big head.

I'm in no way criticizing these actions. I don't have an opinion either way for when it's too much. It's part of the medium to have a chat. Lifesteal would simply not be lifesteal without the audience interaction and this influence is hardly new to the story. One could say the ls story never got started until the audience cared enough about the story as story to have an opinion on where it should go.

And it's the same with the server members: they have to care about the story enough to log on and be in the story. And then they start affecting it and the story is created.

[utilitycaster]

Inspired actually by me nonstop thinking about the Young Witch Solving The Disappearance Of Her Neighbor's Cat In The Alps tweet since last night and a number of other unrelated posts I have been thinking about the concept of maturity in media, because I think there's a lot of different dimensions to that. It's a series of spectra, rather than a binary, and if you use the terms "mature" or "immature" you can quickly realize that a lot of our societal metrics for what's adult-appropriate vs. child appropriate are very skewed in specific and in my opinion untrue and unhelpful directions. This could honestly be a 10 page essay and I may very well write that when I'm on break but just to give you my outline here:

Stimulation - is it grabbing your attention with bright lights and loud sounds and fast action, or do you have to actively focus? Action films can be just as "jangly keys" as children's animation despite being an "adult" work, whereas something like Mad Men can have vivid colors but would bore a child to tears in terms of pace and action. However, and this will be an ongoing theme, you can have a very choppy, fast-paced narrative that is complex and a very slow and dull one that is incredibly simple and childish.

"Ratings" Subject Matter: Sex/Violence/Profanity. This is the one I think is most misleading, because you can have an incredibly puerile R-rated film, and you can have an immensely complex narrative without any of the above. [note: I have zero patience for people who act like sex and violence are inherently unnecessary wastes of time; they are merely things within a narrative that can be executed well or poorly, but it is true that something can have a simple plot and constant bright lights and stimulation and essentially be big old jingling mobile for infants but there's a sex scene in it so it's Adult Now. Unfortunately a lot of people are like "and this is why YA is inherently better" which we shall see is not the case.]

Other Difficult Subject Matter (I don't have a good name for it, but to give examples, death, racism, genocide, abuse, serious or chronic illness, etc). This one is tricky because all of the above are topics present in works for quite young children, because they can experience all the above or have someone close to them experience them, and fiction is a powerful teaching tool. Obviously the nature of how this is presented varies, and later points will cover it, but while in my opinion the simple presence of these topics says nothing about the work's level of maturity on its own I'm including it because you do get people who think that children should be shielded from all the above and would consider the mere inclusion of those topics as inappropriate. They're wrong, but it's definitely an axis of judgement/categorization that exists.

Adult-level processing of information (probably a misnomer in that teens can do this but like, teens read adult books all the time, and as Tumblr has shown us, many adults cannot do this): does the narrative require you be able to pick up on subtext? Do you need to understand what is relevant to the story and what isn't? Do you need to be comfortable with or at least able to tolerate not knowing entirely what is going on right away? Do you need to have a sense of irony? Is there an unreliable narrator?

Adult-level processing of moral complexity (in my limited, not a parent or educator experience, I honestly think teens do better with the information processing than this, ie, this is one of the last things to develop; also Tumblr is even worse): does the narrative require you accept that sometimes things are unfair and will never be fair? Do you need to accept a story in which the Quote Unquote Bad Guys walk free without real consequence? Do you need to accept a story in which no one's actions are entirely defensible or in which no choices are easy and clean and harmless? Do you need to attempt to understand an alien perspective? Is there senseless tragedy? This incidentally is how you separate out the children's books from the adult books on topics like illness or catastrophic events; a lot of children's books end with a message of "it's hard and sad, but it will be okay eventually" and focus on very relatable POV characters which is understandable! But, to use an example as someone who went to a Jewish school with a robust Holocaust education, elementary schoolers read Number the Stars in which the (entirely fictional) Jewish family escapes to Sweden; middle schoolers read Night in which Wiesel's (real) father dies painfully in front of him.

None of this is to say that escapism/cozy fiction/whatever you want to call it is bad - I am not interested in a diet entirely made of thorny moral quandaries and no happy endings. I enjoy a stupid turn off your brain action movie, or a fluffy romantasy. But I do think that a demand that every ending be happy and that Justice Be Served in every story is no less immature than saying "ew, there's kissing in this???"

[catmeow06]

Going to rant about how Blitzo x fizzarolli DID have potential to be a cute ship but got ruined by Viv by not putting the effort into making them like actual childhood friends

So ever since the circus episode we know that blitzo and fizzarolli knew each other since childhood and while childhood friends to lovers is not a problematic or weird trope (hell it’s one of my favorite tropes) how the way Vivzepop write it came out very creepy and confusing…

starting off with we NEVER see or hear fizz mention anything about his parents which implies that they are dead or abandoned him and blitzo parents have been taking care of him since birth which makes him blitzo and Barbie adopted brother

and look I’m not saying it’s not wrong to have long time childhood friends to lovers but if you don’t show or explain what happened to other character parents or at least show that they had a non blood related person taking care of them and not their friend parents then people are going to think they are related or half siblings and not childhood friends

then there’s Barbie wire being non existent due to lack of blitzo not having scenes with his sister but having more scenes with fizzarolli it makes those two look like brothers it’s not until oops where we find out blitzo fall in love with him and even said “would it be weird if we makeout right now”

and last we have blitzo basically ruining fizz life like let’s be real shipping someone with a person who caused them to lose their limbs is pretty much weird

In conclusion maybe they would be a cute couple but unfortunately viv fucked it up and now there’s no way to ship them without getting yoai inc*st anime vibes from the two

[radioactive-earthshine]

@ahi-kakariki

Without getting too deep into an essay about this, the bullet point version for why many comic fans dislike the "Lex DNA thing" is as follows;

1.) It is a retcon to an already established canon lasting almost a decade when the reveal happened. When Kon was first introduced DC was under an editorial mandate that there could only be ONE Kryptonian in the main continuity - Clark. So every single "Super" you see (Supergirl, Superboy etc) are not Kryptonian. How Kesel got away with Kon was by making him a "clone" from Cadmus that they originally thought was Clark's but was revealed to actually be completely unrelated to him at all. This was quite a bummer to Kon but he got over it and still wore the S shield with pride. One year later, he finds out who his genetic doner actually was - Paul Westfield who was your typical unethical dirtbag scientist/ceo. This really bummed Kon out but again, he got over it because he knows he is not Paul Westfield.

2.) Being unrelated to Clark ties more into the greater Superman narrative in that revolves around adoption and immigration. It was important that Kon was unrelated to Clark by blood, and yet Clark still admitted that out of everyone who wore the S-Shield, he felt the closest to him.

3.) Eugenics. Geoff making Kon a Clex clone might not have been such a bad idea if he did anything with it that wasn't just eugenics and pushing the narrative that "bad genes" exists. Again, Kon was already related to a scumbag and this was not pushed as a narrative - he had his moment and got over it. With Lex, it kept coming up over and over again.

4.) Stagnation. While TTv3 absolutely did have profound character building moments for Kon, many feel that the retcon did more harm than good. While it did add drama and interest, it kept coming back as a plot for Kon to grapple with over and over again. It also ended up more as a joke or a prop to Clex as a ship in many circles that put some bad tastes in people's mouths. We also had a phenomenal build up in Kon's solo series before TTv3 that touched on some themes of scifi, clone rights, body autonomy, dehumanization and corruption within the government and scientific institutions - most of this was dropped in favor of everything else Geoff was focused on.

5.) 50% Clark and 50% Lex is not a clone...

There are certainly other reasons, but these are the main ones that comic readers keep coming back to why the "Clex clone" bothers them (if it does.)

Naturally, it doesn't mean that this retcon is absolute garbage and if you do enjoy it you're out of your mind, because there is worthwhile story in this. It's just unfortunate that Geoff didn't or couldn't do something other than what he did.

For more context I urge you to read Superboy 1994!

Still my favorite piece of Superboy lore. Geoff Johns made his headcanon, canon when he wrote Teen Titans and decided to make Conner Kent have some of Lex Luthor's DNA.

[spotsandsocks]

🎅🏼 + Breakfast if it sparks joy 💛 xx

Hello Meegs so happy you’re joking in the festive shenanigans of Spotty’s Christmas stocking. Breakfast you say… well u don’t like to go the obvious path all the time so see what you think about this 😉 around 700 words of silly fire fam ridiculousness and a pinch of Buddie. 😘 hope you enjoy it.

Eddie joins his team at the table and before he’s had time to put his coffee cup down he regrets it.

“It’s boring!”

“Excuse me!”

Hen and Chim stare each other down. Eyeing the two of them nervously then making eye contact with Buck on the other side of the table all he gets is a shrug from his best friend.

Hen also shrugs but while Buck’s was confused hers is defiant and unrepentant. She’s clearly planning to stand by her statement. In fact she repeats it, slowly. An obvious taunt to her best friend.

“Bo-ring!”

Chim looks like he’s about to have a heart attack.

“You take that back! It’s a classic! Cla- sic!!”

Hen shakes her head with a smirk.

Not sure he actually wants to know Eddie asks anyway.

“What are we talking about?”

Buck’s the one who answers

“Some old movie I think.”

Chimney’s outrage changes direction.

“Some old movie … you think?”

Buck’s eyes flick from Chimney back to Eddie’s a little desperately.

“Isn’t it?”

Chim collapses face down onto the table muttering to himself, the only word Eddie catches sounds like ‘uneducated’

Hen’s sniggering, “ just not my kind of movie.”

Chim’s head lifts “at least you’ve heard of it, seem it!” Then he’s back down despairing about his brother in law.

He catches Hen’s amused eye and mouths ‘what movie?’

She replies just as silently, “The Breakfast Club”

Now it’s him shrugging, he’s seen it. Not his favourite film but it's ok.

So three very different points of view here - clueless, passionately enthusiastic and completely disinterested. He should have gone to sit with Saunders or Weiz.

“Not my fault I’ve never heard of The Lunch Club”

“Breakfast! Breakfast Club! Buck come on!” Chim sits up then stands up, looking upset. Unfortunately he then turns to Eddie.

“Eddie?”

“What?” He tries to delay the inevitable but it’s no good.

“It’s a classic right?!”

“It’s…” faced with a tricky situation, Eddie reminds himself he’s been brought up to be honest even when it’s difficult. Anticipating trouble he tells the truth anyway.

“Ok.”

Hen laughs out loud and Buck still looks blank. Chim’s face goes blank.

“Fine, obviously none of you have any taste so I’m going to go and find some more civilised people to have lunch with.”

And with that he takes his plate and leaves.

Watching him go, Hen goes back to eating her salad. “Don’t worry, he’ll get over it.”

“Pretty sure Maddie’s never seen it either.” Buck mutters to himself and Eddie’s glad Chim has already gone so he doesn’t get any more bad news on one day.

“I’ll put it in the list.”

Eddie smiles across the table and Buck smiles back. They both enjoy the time they spend together going through the list. Personally Eddie’s glad Buck’s not seen so many movies, the list is fairly long now and it’s a wonderful excuse to spend time together, sitting close together on one of their couches.

“Maybe we can watch it on Friday?”

“We could but I thought we were watching Jaws.”

Eddie has high hopes that Jaws will make Buck jump a few times and he’ll be able to tease him but also offer a comforting hand on his leg or knee or at least move a little closer to him. It’s a classic move as well as a classic movie.

He notices that Hen’s fork has stopped halfway to her mouth. She’s staring at Buck. “You’ve never seen Jaws?! Now that’s a classic!”

“Nah, it’s not that good if you ask me.”

They all turn to look at Bobby who’s just sat down. Hen’s face looks not too dissimilar to Chimney’s when Eddie had joined them.

“Excuse me!” Hen sounds rather like her friend did too.

Bobby shrugs and Eddie catches Buck’s eye and makes a small gesture with his head to indicate they should leave. Buck nods and stands up and they both edge away from the table as surreptitiously as they can. They needn’t of bothered because Hen and Bobby are locked in a ‘discussion’ about the virtues of Jaws.

Which means that when he sits next to Buck on the station couch no one’s there to notice or comment on how close they’re sitting to each other when the whole couch is empty. Buck doesn’t mind the lack of personal space and if he doesn’t mind neither does Eddie. He listens as Buck calls Maddie to warn her Chim might ask her about some old weird movie he likes and Eddie smiles and looks forward to his next movie night with Buck.

Inspired by my daughter’s reaction to the breakfast club. She loves 80s movies and was not impressed with it at all 😂 I also had never seen it till last year when I watched it with her. So we are Buck and Hen combined and I send my apologies to all the Chim’s out there 🫣

[bekolxeram]

Unfortunately, I don't have the means to donate this time, (Stupid expensive health issues🙄) but I'd still like to express my gratitude to Bucktommy and this fandom for the occasion.

Not that my life has ever been sunshine and rainbows, but 2024 has been particularly difficult for me. I started the year the sickest I've been for years, then one of my uncles passed away in February. He was 88. He had been slowly succumbing to dementia for quite some time, so almost everyone agreed a cardiac arrest was a blessing in disguise.

I wasn't close with him, but my mother was, and naturally, I had to spend pretty much the entire March accompanying her to all sorts of traditional ceremonies for the dead. All my uncle's children, my cousins, came back from abroad as well. They enjoyed hanging out with me back when I was a toddler, but then I slowly grew up into this weird, moody kid of few words, and we kind of drifted apart from there.

Family reunions were never awkward despite my gloomy existence though, they had their fun aunt who never ran out of things to talk about. To them, my mother's the life of the party and an exemplary woman, who went through tragedies in life but still manages to come out stronger on the other side, who unfortunately had to re-enter the workforce later in life to support her physically ill husband and her mentally ill teenage daughter.

What they don't know, is that while she's a fun aunt, she's not a fun mother. She was dealing with the stress and frustration so well because she always had an outlet at home. Someone she had total ownership over, officialized by a piece of birth certificate. Someone she could do whatever she'd like to, emotionally and physically, because in my culture, it's simply an alternative, maybe outdated method of parenting, not a crime.

I've had time to process my messy relationship with my mother, I've come to (mostly) accept it for what it is. Watching my cousins all rushing over to my mother with open arms to console her, watching my cousins' children playing around, having fun with her, while my existence was barely acknowledged, was actually more triggering than I expected. It acted as a sobering reminding that not only do I have merely a handful of friends since I left church, I in fact don't have any family left either. They're all my mother's family, not mine.

It was probably the most lonely and isolating experience in my life. It's like I was trapped inside of my head, my head that was gradually turning into a bottomless pit of nothingness.

Then Tommy Kinard drove through cross town traffic just to clear the air in person. He expressed how much he wanted to be a part of a family. Then he took his shot and got the boy in the end.

I just felt... understood. Watching Bucktommy's story play out on screen gave me some rare moments of joy and much needed hope. I felt like if Tommy could find happiness later in life, maybe it wasn't too late for me either.

If you've had experience with depression, you'd know how sometimes getting out of bed, brushing your teeth feels like an uphill battle already. Motivation is precious and hard to come by. I was so motivated creatively by Bucktommy and people in the fandom who resonated with the story just like me, that I wrote series of posts analyzing every scene in S7, I learned how to make gifs to illustrate the humor I found in all of us, I figured out how to edit video especially for my vision of a Brad-nado, I even wrote and posted my first fanfic ever.

And I just love how we refuse to give up hope, even after the breakup. We cried, we whined, then we doubled our effort writing fix-it fics, continuing their story on our own terms. Now, we even manage to raise thousands of dollars for charities in 24 hours in the name of love.

Sorry for the wall of text all about myself, I hope I don't come across as a self-absorbed jerk. I always thought I would never make it to 30, it started feeling like a real possibility in March. What happened instead was that my 30th birthday came and go because I was too busy screaming about Buck batting his eyelashes at Tommy when he was receiving a medal.

I'm sitting here, typing this out, looking back at my 2024 at the end of the year, only because Bucktommy happened and I had the pleasure to cross path with you all. I know, it's stupid, it's just a TV show, but I can't really imagine how my life would turn out if I never had Bucktommy, where I would be right, or even if I would still be at all.

So, thank you, for making life worth living for me again.

[teecupangel]

Little Idea I had!

Desmond ends up in Kassandra/Alexios’s time

The difference between eagle vision and actual seeing through an eagles eyes would be a fun thing to explore. They could be related? Desmond and Kassandra/Alexios, not sure what side of the family they’d be on

How would Socrates and the other Philosophers react to Desmond? A man(?) with knowledge so far in the future. How would it affect Kassandra/Alexios knowing their family lasted so long?

As far as we know (if we take canon in consideration which we totally don’t have to), Kassandra’s only known descendant is Aya and Aya never had any other children after Khemu’s death.

So I propose we go down the Alexios as Deimos route for this one.

Just a one night stand that Alexios doesn’t even remember. They don’t even realize they’re related until some POE springs up and only Alexios (as Deimos) should be able to use it but Desmond can use it too. A member of the Order of the Ancients gave the downlow and explain that they must share the same blood.

And Kassandra not being able to activate it meant that it’s a more complicated blood ties between Alexios and Desmond. Desmond immediately realized that it’s probably because Alexios is his ancestor but he’s not going to tell anyone that.

As for the philosophers… to be honest, they’d probably wonder if Desmond is an oracle of one of the gods, perhaps even Apollo.

Desmond snarks that, if he was going to be an oracle, it would be of Athena (he was sarcastically talking about his connection to Minerva).

Unfortunately for him, this leads people (not really the philosophers but the other people who heard him) into thinking that he’s an oracle of Athena.

And that’s how Desmond gets suckered into the political landscape of Athens, much to his displeasure.

It doesn’t help that he didn’t exactly know any concrete events that will happen around this time to cement the rumors that he can see the future.

The Farm never considered the history of Ancient Greece as important considering Abstergo was a more looming danger in their daily lives.

Hell, the only thing he actually remembers about Ancient Greece is the movie 300 and that event (even if it’s not that accurate to the real thing) was already ‘done’.

But what makes Desmond a possible oracle is his ideas.

Inventions he cannot describe in detail and speaking in riddles like every damn oracle out there (he’s not speaking in riddles, he’s using words that doesn’t exist yet so he has to improvise his explanations) but the ideas he gives are ones that no one would have thought of before.

And that is why Desmond might be the oracle of Athena.

[apoptoses]

So I think there's a real world point and also a meta point here that serve as some kind of explanation, and unfortunately (in my opinion) the real world issue holds the greater weight on why Lestat is the way he is.

In America, we (sadly) really don't study French literature. The great American novel forms the backbone of most schooling, and then the British greats, and more recently scattered works by people who belong to minority/oppressed groups in the US. People know basically of the Count of Monte Cristo, the Three Musketeers, and Les Mis. And most of those because they've been made into films or stage shows. French philosophy is a fairly niche category one would only encounter in college, if then, or via encountering someone well versed in it who introduces them to those works.

(French history that's not exclusively Louis XIV, Marie Antoinette, or the French revolution? Forget about it. We don't learn any of that in school, except in brief mentions, and for the hobby historian French history books are pretty much limited to those topics)

For Anne, who grew up Catholic, those works would have been even more narrow. The Catholic Church has a list of 'banned' works which would tempt one into sin, and during her childhood Dumas and the Count of Monte Cristo was actually on it. Her awareness of Roman and Greek history was due, in part, to the fact that those cultures have biblical ties and thus history books about them were okay'd by the Church.

Then on top of that we have her admission that she struggled to read until sometime after college. Why, she doesn't really say, except to say her mind 'wandered' when she was assigned to read in school (which imo points to possible adhd considering she did take adhd medication later in life). And so she struggled with all reading to the point she didn't actually finish reading some of the works required for her master's thesis. Finishing a single book by Dickens, which she did love, took her over a year. Most of her early knowledge of literature came from stories she heard read over the radio or by her parents. And her later knowledge, which she had at the time she was working on iwtv, was that which she was assigned to read in college- which again, was mostly American and British works.

Which makes the blurring of her and Lestat all the more relevant here: Lestat himself does not learn to read until he becomes a vampire, and even then we don't see him mention reading at all until sometime after his return from Paris. At that point he picked up detective novels which, like Anne, he'd first heard read aloud on the radio.

And so like many underprivileged people who learn a skill later in life and then feel shut out by those who'd known it from their youth, I have to wonder if Lestat himself didn't feel some kind of way about reading and literature and eschewed reading for a good while after picking it up. His own mother knew of his desire to read, even read in front of him, but never shared literature with him and didn't push back against his father when he was brought home from the monastery, where he might have learned to read some.

That's a great wound right here and I wouldn't be surprised if for a time he felt derisive of French literature and those who were well read. Lestat was one of those harecatcher lords, aristocratic in blood but not in daily life, an outsider to the group he technically had the right to be a part of. Anyone who grew up like that would be liable to reject those things valued by those who spurned them, or those they feel like they're outside of. I can picture him in iwtv times sneering at Louis for picking up a book by Dumas and refusing to read it himself, though he very well could have, and mocking him for being a backwater intellectual.

(And sure, in iwtv he knows Shakespeare- but was he reading it, or did he pick it up the way he picked up his lines for his own plays? By hearing them over and over again?)

And you're right, him being so admiring of the British doesn't really make sense at all, unless you look at it from the angle that his pop culture awakening came at a time when British was synonymous with cool in the US. And by that time Lestat doesn't really seem to care for France at all (and why should he? He experienced mostly pain during his brief time in that place, much like Armand has little positive memory of Kyiv: it's all overshadowed by his kidnapping and loss of homeland)

So it's funny because despite his past in some ways Lestat is the most American of vampires. He embodies the American ideal of an immigrant who sheds their nationality, takes up the English language, and submerges themselves in American media. And via that Americanness he can be anything but also in some ways be nothing all at once.

I'd love to know what he read after his return to Auvergne and the establishment of the Vampire Court, and if he returned to his 'roots' so to speak. But sadly he's too busy dealing with kidnappings and replimoids for us to hear much about that lol

Armand, Haussmann, and Paris:

The thing about Paris that's not really discussed in the VC books themselves is the Haussmann project.

In 1853 Napoleon III commissioned Haussman to completely renovate Paris. The plan was to tear down all of the old structures and rebuild the city; reorganizing the streets and reshaping them to accommodate more green spaces, and replacing smaller buildings with taller apartment blocks in more uniform style.

The Paris Armand knew when he arrived as the coven master and which he came to know as the theater leader would have looked something like this:

Dark, winding streets leading off wide boulevards and short, leaning buildings.

The Haussman project would see all of these places systematically torn down, occupants removed to other areas of the city while new buildings were put in their place. In some areas workers were destroying and rebuilding things 24 hours a day.

At this time Armand would have been living at the theater on the boulevard du Temple, Paris's street of theaters:

This dagguerotype shows the boulevard in 1838. This painting, in 1862, looks much the same:

But by 1863 all but one theater on the street had been destroyed, and that was only because that theater was on the opposite side of the street shown in the painting. How and why it wasn't pulled down, I don't know- no information on it seems to exist, just like no explanation for the very small handful of other old structures that were left untouched.

That theater, the Théâtre Déjazet, still exists today. But it was established in 1770 by Comte de Artois, so while it could have been Anne's inspiration for Armand's theater it's not the 'rickety wooden rat trap' that seats 300 that Lestat describes in TVL.

Anyways, knowing all of this, I think it makes even more sense why Armand so quickly grabbed onto Louis and was ready to run away with him at any cost.

Armand, who'd been kidnapped from the monks, who'd had his palazzo torn out from under him, who'd established something of an existence under Les Innocents and was then ripped out of that world when the cemetery was destroyed. Who was watching the city he'd finally come to know get systematically torn apart. Everything that was familiar to him was being taken again.

So why not let Louis burn the theater? He arrived in Paris in 1870, just as Haussman was dismissed. But the work of destroying and rebuilding Paris was set to carry on. Chances were the Theatre de Vampires would be next, and if that were the case there's no way the crypts beneath the place would remain safe and undiscovered.

And if he'd stayed where would they go during the renovation? What would they do? What would the point be in continuing trying to run a coven he was bored of and a life he didn't care for in a new location?

Armand was going to have to begin again somewhere- better that be with Louis, out in the world, than roaming a now unfamiliar Paris. And even though he didn't burn the theater himself, allowing/instigating Louis to do it still gave him more control than letting a stranger come in at some unpredictable moment to demolish things all over again.

(And what of Lestat, what does he feel about these changes? He never could have shown Louis the Paris he knew and loved, which existed when Louis was still mortal- that Paris was largely gone)

Chances were Anne might not have known most of this at the time she wrote interview or even TVL. But I think it still makes a lot of sense and brings up a point about Armand and immortality that I don't see brought up much- that not only do vampires lose every mortal they've ever known, but with time they also see the destruction of every place they've ever known or loved.

(ps: I'm not an expert on this topic or anything, so if anyone does know why some buildings were unchanged or has any interesting historical info to add by all means please, reblog and add it on!)

[twig-tea]

2024 Tumblr Top 10

tagged by @lurkingshan here and @neuroticbookworm here, thank you both! This really reminds me that I need to do a real pinned post at some point.

If you want to generate your own, you can use this link! I used the link to find the posts but wrote this below because I thought reflecting on the posts would be fun.

My GL rec list (covering everything through to Feb 2024), which I'm very happy about taking first place. If you want GL recs, check that out first, and then feel free to browse my #GL recs tag.

The admittedly shady post from October calling out the director of the Addicted Heroin Thailand adaptation for (a)making weird choices and (b)defending them as artistic. But I stand by my anger about this. Censorship is not an aesthetic!

The non-novel-spoilery reaction post to episodes 1 & 2 of Love In The Big City which was also from October, but which honestly stands up for my reaction to the whole series. What a gift of a show.

A quick pitch for Akaya is in Love with Hiroko from July. This one hurts! I was so ready to cheerlead for this show and did several times, but the penultimate episode made me wary and the finale really upset me, to the point where I didn't end up writing about the finale, so I'll take the chance here: Don't make a show about two self-aware lesbians, one who has been comfortably sexually active for years and one who is super horny for her, and have them get together as adults and yet be celibate for a year out of "respect". Is the message that sex between consenting and enthusiastic adults is not respectful?! GTFO. For the record I can be respected with orgasms, thank you.

The episode celebrating the messaging in the finale of Let Free the Curse of Taekwondo from November. Glad that this is here between the previous entry and the next two, because this is a good balm for the pain. LFtCoT landed the ending and gave us all a giant hug while doing it!

The list of things I was thinking about at the end of Wandee Goodday ep3 from May. Another disappointment for me. The things this post shouts out are still things I like about this show, and reading it again is a reminder of where the back half let the first half down (not taking seriously some of the things we were told to take seriously in the first few episodes).

An early post about Love Is Better the Second Time Around from March. Another show that did not land everything, in this case because it felt like it tried to shove in a complicated conflict in the last two episodes that they didn't have time to handle. But I still love those early episodes and all of the interplay between Miyata, Iwanaga, and Shiraishi.

My clown theory for Every You, Every Me also from October, which ended up being correct! I've never been more happy to be right, I liked this reveal for the show so much.

In February I wrote this thesis about the state of Thai BL looking at data from 2022 and 2023, which I have been meaning to go back and update since I think Shan as usual was feeling the start of the wave and we needed more data to see the change actually play out in 2024. I now no longer feel (as I did in this post) that things haven't changed, I do think they have this year. But I need to crunch the numbers again to prove it to myself (and everyone else) though. Stay tuned!

In July I did a round-up post about the various theories surrounding Century of Love, and whether Vee and Vad were the same person. Turns out San did wrestle with this as I'd hoped but the show itself felt like it lost steam and copped out around this, unfortunately. At least we'll always have fox demon Offroad and grumpy old man Daou's collarbones thanks to this show.

Special shout-out to @lurkingshan because two of the posts above are answers to asks she put in my inbox that spawned project posts. Shan knows what the people want to hear!

Tagging @italianpersonwithashippersheart @benkaben @ellsieee @colourme-feral @pigglepiephi @impala124 no pressure tags and apologies if you've been tagged already!

[qodlysinz]

Wild Goose Chase

—The Day of the Jackal—

Pairing: Alexander "Jackal" Duggan x Reader

Summary: The Jackal has competition for best underground sniper. He doesn’t care at first, but then you start stealing his clientele, and he grows competitive. The stakes grow higher with each passing assassination and you find yourself enthralled by what the Jackal was capable of.

Word Count: 1,173

Tags: second person pov, no gender specific pronouns are used, depictions of blood, mentions of guns and violence, fighting, swearing, reader's nationality isn't mentioned, reader is a sniper and is pretty much self-taught, reader goes by The Reaper

A/N: Oh em gee I am back with another Jackal story 🙈🙈 since a lot of people liked my other one, I’ll write another because this guy is so difficult to write and I want to broaden my horizons. Reader and Jackal don’t technically interact but I might do a part 2 if it’s requested :)

You didn’t care about the bodies you dropped. You had a job, and you followed through. It was nothing personal, it hardly ever was. You never killed for yourself, it’d draw attention. You weren’t stupid enough for that.

After four years on the job, you’d made quite a name for yourself. However, in those four years, you never hit the same city twice. It was somewhat stifling—turning down good jobs with good money just because of where they were located, but you valued your freedom more than a cool million dollar hit.

Once you hit the one year mark, where, apparently, you made your presence a bit known, you earned the moniker ‘The Reaper’.

Somehow, you managed to never be suspected. You supposed a few years in theater and drama school paid off quite well.

Currently, you were leaving the scene of the crime; some quaint city in Boston. You were walking down the street when your head turned to a store, an array of TVs playing the news. The red band stretched across the screen read: GERMAN POLITICIAN, MANFRED FEST ASSASSINATED THIS MORNING.

“This sniper managed to shoot 3,815 meters, that’s 12,516 feet or 2.37 miles for those who are not familiar with the metric system. Authorities are calling this shooter The Jackal.” The news reporter stated, her hands folded over one another as she spoke. “Unfortunately, no one had gotten a good look at the shooter, authorities are doing their best as we speak.” Her co-anchor added in.

You stared in disbelief—3,815 meters was almost impossible. Not literally impossible, but damn near impressive. You’d heard of The Jackal during your time as a… mercenary… but you weren’t all that interested in what he did. There were probably thousands just like him. But 3,815 meters was something to gawk at.

“This damn world…” croaked an old man beside you. You quirked a brow, “I’m sorry?” You asked, letting out an awkward laugh. The man turned to you and spoke with a straight face; “these people, killing the ones who actually give a damn about us. Don’t they care about the youth of our nation?” He sighed and shook his head.

You deadpanned, blinking. “Right…” you, begrudgingly, agreed. “This damn world.” You smiled weakly at him and walked away. “This damn world for letting selfish, ignorant asses like you do anything you fucking want as long as you’re white and a man.” You muttered under your breath, not even audible to the man that was most likely hard of hearing. He looked older than your oldest grandparent, and that was saying something.

Though, the Jackal was probably both white and a man. But that wasn’t important.

What was, was that no one was talking about you dropping another fascist in Boston. The whole reason you were even in town. You bit into your cheek with a grimace. You weren’t usually all that competitive, but now you were. A guy who goes by Jackal is suddenly taking all the credit? Who even goes by that ridiculous moniker as an assassin? It’s fucking shameful. If you’re gonna be a killer, at least have class.

Jackal. The goddamn Jackal out-bested you. Some jackass (pun intended) named after something that couldn’t decide whether or not it wanted to be a coyote or a wolf.

God. Now you pissed yourself off.

You decided to do some research when you got back to your hotel, looking up some of the best snipers who could have made that shot (maybe if you were lucky, you’d gun him down and be on top). But, of course, as a hitman, he was excruciatingly hard to come across.

By this point, you were headed to Europe for yet another job. Given your research, a lot of the Jackal’s work originated from Europe, so you might as well head into his playground, ruffle his feathers (or, fur?), and maybe have a good rival to compete with. That’d be fun. Or maybe you were just a wee bit unhinged and eager to one-up this guy.

But then. That was when it happened. Tallinn, Estonia.

An attempted hit was made on Ulle Dag Charles, but was compromised the moment one of Charles’ own men ruined it. Since it wasn’t a done job, The Jackal was definitely in town somewhere.

Ironically, your target was a woman named Bianca Pullman. Apparently, your guy, stupid fucking Jackal, had this British agent on his ass since Munich. Some place in New York hired you to kill her so his job would be easier.

She, of course, followed him to Estonia, and you followed her. A game of cat and mouse. If the mouse was a highly dangerous being capable of killing anyone and everyone with a single bullet from miles away. This only made the game more exhilarating to you, if you were honest.

Yet, as the days pass, Pullman gained more and more security until she just.. stopped following the Jackal altogether.

That is what you’d say if you were a gullible idiot.

You called in a few favors (few… hundred… favors) and did detective work; allowing you to find out the Jackal’s real name. Maybe if this whole hitman thing doesn’t work out, you’d have another option.

Alexander Duggan, a member of the British army. He was believed to have died on the field, but come on. You weren’t stupid. You had an uncle who faked his death to evade his taxes—this guy probably did something similar to brush his identity off the earth. Because who in their right mind would accuse a dead man of terrorism? What would they do? Lock up his gravestone? Coffin, maybe? Hell, Duggan was believed to have been blown up. Army guys are normally smart, and he probably planned ahead and staged it if he was smart enough to be in the game as long as he’d been.

Duggan was a man of many names—many lives. It would be difficult to track him down from here. From this point on, you weren’t even sure why you were so enamored by his skillset. Like, sure, two miles to shoot some dick in the head is impressive, but seriously? Tracking him across all of Europe? It wasn’t like you were trying to put him to justice like Pullman. Maybe it was just the mystery behind it all? You did love a good mystery novel…

Irrelevant. He was just an amazing sniper and you felt… threatened. That’s exactly it. He was too good, and it threatened your own abilities, so, like one does, you needed to hunt him down, kill him, and take the mantle of Most Badass Hitman.

Then, curveball, you got your hands on the facial composite drawing of the Jackal.

And… for fuck’s sake.

You fucking knew him.

You’ve seen him around before.

Sure, it also kind of resembled a 1980s gremlin… oddly enough… but no doubt, you’ve seen someone who looked like this before.

“Charles Calthrop.” You whispered.

[chrystal-ink]

Shadvent calendar Day 23

Shadow x GN Reader

Christmas Party

The party was in full swing by the time the two of you arrived. Rouge never being one for subtlety had spared no expense for her party. Elegant strands of garland and lights hung on the walls, a large christmas tree perfectly decorated stood grand in the center of the drawing room, perfectly bloomed poinsettias were placed through the halls. It looked like you had walked into a Christmas palace.

Servers went throughout her home offering hors d'oeuvres and cocktails curated just for that night. and most impressively a string quartet played in the living room serenading the partygoers with beautiful renditions of all the classic holiday songs.

"Welcome, I was getting worried the two of you wouldn't show. how's my favorite couple?" Rouge greeted as the two of you walked in.

"Sorry were late we ran into traffic."

"Shadow I'm surprised at you, thinking you could get a lie past me." Rouge teased.

You giggled in response. "Sorry Rouge it was my fault I was having a little wardrobe malfunction."

"Oh no! you have my fullest sympathies" Rouge responded with deep concern. "But it looks like it all worked out you look great, not as nice as me of course, but I have the advantage of knowing my decor."

"well no one can compete in the fashion game with you Rouge you're truly the best."

"Oh you flatter me too much Y/N."

Shadow couldn't help but smile as the two of you spoke. The two people he was closest to enjoying each other's presence, he never thought he would feel like that again after Maria and Gerald. he was glad he was wrong.

the three of you chatted for a while before Rouge had to go off on her hostess duties leaving you and Shadow to yourselves. unfortunately your alone time was short lived. it wasn't before too long Amy found you and whisked you away, something about the charcuterie board, leaving poor Shadow to his own devices.

He never really liked parties too many people and far too much chatter, he was perfectly content just sitting in the corner and watching everyone interact. However, a blue hedgehog had other plans tonight.

❄️

"Can I just say Y/N you look amazing tonight" Amy said handing you a cocktail.

"aww thanks Amy"

"You and your date really do make a fine pair"

"enjoying your handywork are we now?"

"what? I don't know what your talking about"

"Well as I recall, you and Rouge worked pretty hard setting us up."

Amy laughed "Well could you blame us the two of you are just so perfect together."

"Well I can't argue with the results, Thank you Amy."

"You've already thanked me enough, every time I see the two of you together you always look so happy. I don't think I've seen Shadow smile this much and so bright too. Seeing the two of you so in love just warms my heart so much You're just so perfect together."

You smiled at Amy "Well I'll toast to that. And if you need me to return the favor with you know who I'd be happy to oblige."

Amy giggled "I might have to take you up on that someday."

🎄

Shadow watched you and Amy laughing together from across the room, the sound drifting to his ears. He loved your laugh the way it could make a silent room into a symphony, and you just looked so beautiful whenever you laughed. He smiled at your beauty.

"Woah! Shadow are you actually smiling? I didn't know that was even possible." Sonic said as he approached the black hedgehog. "Are you happy to see me?"

"Go away sonic."

"Oh I see, staring at Y/N are we? let guess you have a crush on them don't you?"

"Y/N and I have been dating for quite some time now It's a wonder how you lack such basic observation skills."

"I'm just messing with you Shadow, but I haven't seen you smile like that in like, ever."

"I'll say" Rouge chimed in "It's nice to see you happy like that though it's a good look on you."

"I Agree" added Sonic "But I think infinite might get a little jealous."

"He's been dead for several years he'll get over it."

Sonic laughed " Wow smiling and cracking jokes Y/N Really does bring out the best in you don't they"

Shadow once again looked over to you, at the same time you looked over at him and smiled, he smiled back.

"Yah, they really do,"