#when you didn't even want to be included in the narrative in the first place

[summertimemusician]

*downs four mugs of extra strong coffee with a sigh* So, that new trailer huh?

Too sleep deprived to go full theorist, so instead I'll compile all of the instances/triggers I can remember for each of the Link's journeys to distract myself from from Skyward Sword because boy having patience with the emulator controls is actually driving me batty. But if I lived through Minish Cap, Zelda I, OoT and Majora's Mask then I can probably do this.

Spoilers below I suppose?

Skyward Sword Link/Sky looking for Sun after she fell from the Cloud Barrier even though he had zero idea what was going on because she's his best friend and his main childhood friend and literally killing a god for her after he hurt her with lethal intent.

Minish Cap/Four Swords (Adventures) being fully intent on vibe checking Vaati for turning his best friend into stone, stealing the Light Force from her and then kidnapping and almost marrying her against her will and succeeding, came to care for Ezlo and the Minish later on as something of a happy incident, because they've basically been with Link through all of the journey and I feel like Link helped Ezlo heal from Vaati's betrayal as a result (my headcanon is that even if the doorway is closed, him and Ezlo still kept in contact and Ezlo taught him tricks of the Minish Trade in magical items)

OoT Link lost the Deku Tree, his father figure at the literal start of the darn game, and went to fulfill his last words by meeting the princess, who then asked him for help and Link being Link wouldn't refuse (that's a fairy for another day, I have so many thoughts on these boys), then Saria, his literal childhood friend and adopted sister, being taken by Ganon and to likely a lesser extent Ruto, who I feel he would come to see as friend even with the whole marriage thing. He also cares for Navi, the entire point of Majora's Mask is that he went looking for her at the end of the game, and he came to care for Sheik who is later revealed to be Zelda so of course he was going to kill Ganon and either succeed or die trying (well, did die trying in the Fallen Timeline Branch which was technically the 'True' one, before Majora's Mask, Wind Waker and Twilight Princess were a thing and no I will not let any of you forget that technically the Hero of Time was always meant to die but kicks it in different ways depending on the timeline, give this man a BREAK, he may as well be the Odysseus of The Legend of Zelda at this rate, the powers that be keep screwing him over yeesh).

Wind Waker Link wasn't even related to the Hero's Spirit, Ganon just fucked around and found out with the wrong kid's little sister that Wind Waker Link basically made the fates and gods bend with the force of his fury to get Aryll and later on Tetra back into making him the hero just so he could throw hands with Ganon, friendly reminder he's one of two Links that actually kill the guy, and the plot of Phantom Hourglass is also related to getting his new bestie Tetra back.

Spirit Tracks Link literally only became the Hero because his Zelda asked and they became close friends and likely remained close by the end of the game, plus his mentor and likely one of his main caretakers in his youth was basically mortally wounded during that whole deal, 'nough said.

A Link to the Past Link mainly helps Zelda because it's his uncle's final request, but then later on they actually are show to be close enough for him to invest himself on her safety even without that motivation, see A Link Between Worlds and also the Linked (hah) ending of OoA and OoS. He likely also was willing to help Zelda with the wish because, even with the awful prices and freeloading and lying, he came to care for Ravio as a friend and to a lesser extent Hilda too as she was his main guide through Lorule. Plus Marin, who really was an emotional gut punch for everybody I think (read: I played Link's Awakening as a kid and whenever I go visit a beach and a friendly seagull comes by I immediately get flashbacks, I don't know how they are in y'all's places but where I'm from they're shockingly chill).

The Original Zelda's Link aka Zelda one and Zelda II's main motivation was to find the princesses, though that one is slightly shakier because we have no idea if any of them knew each other before the world basically became an apocalyptic scenario or if it was just to vibe check Ganon again, find his vibes lacking and save the land again so it could start to heal.

Twilight Princess Link had the village children (one of them basically being like his surrogate little brother in Colin) and childhood friend taken by Ganon's minions, man had no idea what was going on or even WHO Ganon was before the game mind you, he was just a farmer herding goats in Ordon, he was just determined to get his family back no matter the cost, then he came to care for Midna and the plight of her people and what Zelda was going through and was specially close to Midna, the real thing that set him off against Ganon enough to go in with lethal intent was when he thought Ganon had killed Midna, so not only was he the source of the suffering of most of the people he cared about, but he also was under the assumption one of them DIED while he couldn't do anything about it, it's no wonder he snapped so hard and was just READY to obliterate Ganon.

Cadence of Hyrule is actually an interesting case, because not only does Link go looking for Zelda when she's trapped in an eternal slumber and then comes to care for Cadence, Zelda actually goes looking for Link too if he's the one trapped, that actually gives them away as pretty close be it as friends or something else.

Hyrule Warriors, boy is it also a complicated one. Warriors Link is a soldier willing to break rank to defend his country rather than to wait around with his fellow trainees, so him and his Zelda weren't close at all before, but I can see them becoming close when Zelda breaks out the Sheik identity as there's more chances for them to fight and interact side by side and then heal after the War of Ages is over, plus Lana and Linkle, though realistically speaking, Warriors Link would probably care about all of his comrades in battle on sheer virtue of not only their time spent on the battle field but also of the after, it's easy to relate to someone who knows what it's like to suffer through the same experience, though it's very likely he'd be the closest to Zelda, Linkle and Impa after all was said and done. They'd all have pretty similar nightmares I think.

And finally BOTW because I honestly cannot remember if Link in AoC actually lost someone close to him or if it's a Hyrule Warriors situation. Boy where do I even BEGIN with this dude (I say, as BOTW has been existing rent free in my head ever since the final TOTK Trailer dropped, honestly an achievement as usually that spot is reserved for Twilight Princess and Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask), okay. First he lost his childhood friend in Mipha when the Calamity first struck, and then the other Champions whom I feel he grew close to with time (yes even Revali), likely his family as we see concept art of a sister and a father, Zelda and finally Hyrule, his life and memories, his entire identity as a person though thankfully he was nudged into getting parts of it back. And is probably going to experience that same trauma all over again in TOTK.

Any other instances and I'll add here but Tl;Dr : All of the Links (except maybe the First Hero, Hero of Men and 10.000yrs Ago Hero, though that one is unlikely if you ask me) probably have a lot of separation/abandonment issues plus very big problems with failure (see Skyward Sword Link, no thanks to you, IMPA. And also BOTW Link who probably has the worst of the bunch) or just failing people in general, and as a result are extremely protective of whoever they consider their person and most likely always need to reassure themselves they're still there and are very dedicated to them as a result, in this essay I will-

[asvtrials]

Hate that I want you

part one      next part idea: @floydsfae tags: @ilovejeansosomuch. @spikedfearn (inspired by) summary: Parting ways with a friend group was always hard, somehow trying to rejoin that group was even harder. Especially when a particular quick-tempered someone is rather bitter about your choices. warnings/tags: lots of swearing. friends to enemies to lovers. Bjorn is a bitter and jealous shit. angst a/n: I'm not very familiar with the Alien franchise so forgive me if there are any inaccuracies. This is my first Tumblr post and I'm not used to writing in the second-person narrative so sadly this is not my best work but I still hope you like it. English is not my first language so please be nice. word count: 2394

“Fuck no.” That was your only answer before you covered yourself with your blanket and sank even deeper into your messy bed.

“Come on, Y/n!.” The muffled voice of your friend, Kay reached your ears under the blanket before she started to pull it away from you.

“Leave me alone.” You whined while trying to hold onto the covers until eventually Kay gave up

She sighed and sat next to you on the bed. “This is gonna be good for us.” She tried to reason. “You think that idiot was your way out? This is the way out.! She shook you a bit under the covers to make sure you were actually listening.

You rolled over, unsure if she actually believed in this nonsense or was that desperate to leave Jackson’s Star. You wouldn’t blame her if she was.

You stared at her for a long moment, brows furrowed. “Who had this idea in the first place?” You asked, surprised that anyone would think this would work.

“Tyler and Navarro. They said they pick-”

“Tyler and Navarro? Damn, they are really getting desperate.” You cut her off with a scoff.

“So, are you,” Kay added.

You couldn’t deny it.

You were tired. Tired of living the same day over and over again. Wake up at 6 am to the same darkness that followed you the entire day, get ready by 6:30 am, and begin your walk to the bus station to take the overcrowded bus that drove all of the workers to the mines.

Thankfully you were able to be transferred to the kitchen, away from the cramped caves. And as sad as it sounded, that was the only good thing that happened to you in a while.

You didn’t know if it was that or the resentful feeling of your fresh breakup but you let Kay pull you out of your bed and push you into the shower. You just knew you wanted to change this overwhelming routine of the past two months.

As soon as you got dressed, the girl led you through the busy, dimply-lit streets and toward an alleyway where the rest of the crew would wait for you.

You didn't know how to feel about this reunion. You haven't really seen them in a while, spending most of your time with your now ex-boyfriend. You were surprised they even included you in this ‘mission’. You figured it was probably Kay and Tyler, possibly Navarro too.

You turned around and were greeted by the figures of your old friends, Tyler and Bjorn.

When they met your nervous stare, you noticed Tyler’s expression mirrored yours even if it was for a split second. He quickly concealed his uncertainty with a smile that reached his eyes.

“Hey, Y/n. How have you been?” Tyler chuckled and pulled you into a hug, startling you a bit but soon enough you returned the affection

“Fine, I guess—” You began but before you could continue a different voice echoed in the empty alleyway, accent thick and tone dripping with accusation.

“We weren’t sure if you'd bless us with your ladyship.”

Of course, it was no other than Bjorn who would make a comment like this. He earned a glare from Tyler but he just shrugged s as if he was just making conversation.

An annoyed smile tugged at your lips as you spoke “Seems like you didn't change. Like at all.”

Bjorn ignored your comment and turned to Kay. “If she's all caught up, we should go.”

You raised your eyebrow at the way he brushed you off but you decided to let it go. “What about Navarro, Rain, and Andy?” You asked.

“Navarro’s fixing some other parts of the ship and Rain is—” Tyler paused for a moment, sending a glance at his half-sister. You followed his eyes but Kay just smiled at you “Busy with her job,” Tyler ended up saying.

“Is Rain all right?” You asked, chuckling a bit at their failed attempt to cover the truth.

“You’d know if you weren’t too busy snogging your boyfriend every chance you got,” Bjorn remarked with a smug smirk. You could feel your blood boiling at the mention of your ex.

“Bjorn! We talked about this.” Tyler warned the boy but he just scoffed.

“What? She was gone for two months and now acts all worried! That’s a load of bollocks!” He argued, gesturing towards you with a huff.

“Oh, fuck off, Bjorn!” You raised your voice over Tyler who was about to cuss his cousin out. This was already hard enough but having Bjorn act like a massive asshole wasn’t something you were going to sit through.

You did abandon them. You were a bitch, and a bad friend, and whatever this asshat wanted to call you but you didn’t need to hear it, especially from Bjorn out of all people.

You just wanted to have a better life, at least as good as it could get in this shitty colony. A future to look forward to and Noa made it look possible. He had ambition and connections and could easily get a better job than most of the Jackson Star residents. At the time you were stupid enough to believe that he wouldn’t drop you. Yet, as soon as he bagged a job in the ‘Office of Colony Affairs’ he dumped you because, in his words, you had ‘different life goals.’

Fuck. And fuck him, and Bjorn and whoever dared to call you a whore or an opportunist. All of you had the same life goals, get the fuck out of here. That’s why you were here. As crazy as this plan sounded, at least you would be doing something to get away from this place.

“I’m not going to apologize for wanting something better for myself!” You snapped.

Bjorn ran his tongue over his teeth, letting out a low chuckle to hide his irritation “So you dropped everyone to get that.” He stated before he met your eyes once more. You didn’t know what you saw in his gaze but it wasn’t simply anger.

“I didn’t drop any of you!” You began, throwing your hands in frustration. “I kept in touch with Kay and Navarro. I asked about all of you! If you weren’t such a dick you’d realize that you made it difficult to talk to you!”

Bjorn remained quiet as if he was trying to come up with a comeback. He tore his gaze away from you when he turned around and mumbled “Whatever.”

“We should really get going now,” Kay spoke nervously, more to Tyler than anyone else.

“Yeah, let’s go.” Tyler agreed noticeably glad that the fight would come to an end, for now at least.

You sent Bjorn one last glare before following Kay and Tyler, but he didn't look all that affected.

The walk to the abandoned warehouse was rather long. A couple of years ago it was busy with workers and clients, mostly to buy components for mining haulers and gear. But right now it was collecting dust and vines so it was the perfect place to get some forgotten parts and tools.

Tyler helped Kay jump over the tall fence while you and Bjorn were already on the other side. You smiled at the sweet moment between the siblings trying to ignore the panging feeling in your chest.

You tried to ignore the intense need you had to glance at the boy next to you but you couldn’t help it. His gaze was fixated on the tall building, holding the cigarette between his fingers. You tried to push away the bitter feeling that cursed through you.

It wasn’t that long ago that he helped you the same way, finding any excuse to feel your skin under his fingertips.

But that was just a childish game you two developed. Flirting jokingly, touching a bit more than necessary to see the other’s cheeks redden and hear your friends groan in disgust. Both of you comfortably balanced on the rope between friendly banter and romantic curiosity.

When both Kay and Tyler landed on the other side of the fence, you began walking toward the building.

You stepped inside and an aerie breeze hit you, from the way Kay started to rub her shoulders you guessed the rest felt the same.

“Bloody hell…” Bjorn mumbled as he walked to the front desk which was covered in dust and some dead bugs.

“Yeah, that’s nasty.” Kay agreed, keeping close to you and Tyler.

“I’ll go check the first floor, someone should check the second,” Tyler announced the plan, staring at the sketch of the parts Novarro drew him.

The group was surrounded by silence, the four of you looking at each other awkwardly until Kay decided to make it easier for all of you. “I can go with Bjorn.” She said cheerily trying to ignore the tension.

“Good, Y/n we’ll go together” Tyler nodded toward you and started walking up the stairs.

Bjorn's loud voice stopped both of you in your tracks. Bjorn tried to sound uninterested even amused as he spoke “I see, you act all tough yet can’t even spend five minutes alone with me. Scared I’ll hurt your feelings, innit?” The way those last words fell out of his lips in such a pitying manner really struck a nerve.

You knew what he was doing. He was baiting you. You saw him do it to everyone, although you weren’t sure if Andy even could understand that he did it just to annoy him.

Still, you weren’t one to give him the satisfaction. You let out a dry chuckle as you rolled your eyes. “Bjorn and I are going to check the second floor” You declared, not bothering to turn around.

“I can go with Y/n?” Kay tried to intervene but neither you nor Bjorn listened as you walked up the stairs.

“Remember, in and out! Be quick.” You heard Tyler’s voice bounce off the walls as you continue your path to the second floor, Bjorn hot in your trail.

You entered a room as soon as you reached the second floor. By the numerous boxes and shelves filled with dirty items, this was clearly one of the storage rooms

“You search the right side, I'll search the left side,” You said when you noticed Bjorn still walking behind you.

“Don’t tell me what to do” He quickly retorted.

You let out an exasperated sigh and walked to the right side instead, ignoring his snarkiness.

Neither of you talked for a long while, putting equipment that seemed useful in your bags or simply looking through the dusty machinery.

Bjorn was the first to break the uncomfortable silence “So how are things with your boyfriend.” You didn’t miss the way his tone changed to a mocking one at the word ‘boyfriend’ but you chose to ignore it.

You stayed quiet for a moment, not sure if you wanted to answer. “We don’t have to talk.”

“Come on, I’m trying to be nice.” He spoke over the loud noise of his hand rummaging through some drawers and you could practically hear his smirk.

A groan managed to slip past your lips before you said “We broke up.”

You heard Bjorn’s movements come to a halt momentarily followed by a breathy laugh. “Can’t say I'm surprised you dumped that twat.”

You remained silent once again only saying a drawn-out “Yeah”

“Wait a fucking minute.” Bjorn laughed, walking closer to you, a smug smirk spreading on his face “He dumped you!”

The amusement in his voice made your anger flare up once again causing your face to contort in irritation but you tried to ignore it and just get the job done, practically slamming the drawer shut.

“Why did he dump you? Did he find someone that matched his status? He did get promoted to a whole-ass desk job” He snorted.

You tried to be calm, you really did but all of it was so recent “Can you just shut the fuck up for once in your life?” You exploded, making his eyes leave the shelves and focus on you. “Is it really so funny that I was dumped?”

Bjorn stared at you for a long moment, before turning to continue searching. Obviously not without a sarcastic comment. “It’s funny that he dumped you but sorry, didn’t know you were so in love.”

You closed your eyes and exhaled through your nose to try and keep your cool. “As if you know what love is?” You tried to keep your voice from shaking with anger.

Bjorn met your scowl once again but to your surprise, his expression didn’t match yours. Unlike yours, his eyes didn’t hold any rage but something that made you unable to look away as he moved closer to you, looming above you.

“I know you two weren’t.” The low tone in his voice had you breathless for a moment.

Does it even matter if you loved Noa? Falling in love was never the point.

“You don’t know anything” You spat out, your voice as intense.

He raised his eyebrow at your words, staring down into your eyes “Really?” He dragged out the word. “You were in love with that asshat? You really want me to believe that?”

“I don’t care what you believe, that’s none of your fucking business.” You bit back, taking a step closer. You wanted to remain unbothered by how the corner plush lips tugged up but the warmth that spread through your cheeks was impossible to ignore.

“You’re not answering my question.” The almost gentleness in his voice quickly disappeared as he laughed, his breath hitting your face. His fingers slowly reached up to flick a strand of your hair mockingly.

You were about to slap away his hand when you heard Kay’s voice from the corridor.

“Guys, where are you?” She shouted.

“Uh—we’re here Kay” You yelled back, stepping back from Bjorn. You really didn’t notice how close you two were standing.

Soon enough Kay’s figure appeared in the doorframe.

“Glad to see you didn’t kill each other” She joked. “We found the thing Navarro needed, we can go.” She announced.

You hated how your eyes met Bjorn’s even if it was for a second, and you hated the feeling that erupted in your stomach even more.

[genericpuff]

What are your thoughts on the whole Hestia x Athena thing in LO? Personally it always infuriated me with how hypocritical it was of them to date each other despite them both being members of/Hestia being in charge of TGOEM. It especially annoyed me how Hestia constantly told Persephone that as a TGOEM member she can't date anyone but later saying that her relationship with Athena doesn't count. I give some credit to Artmeis for calling them out when finding out, but it wasn't enough

The hypocrisy is one thing but it at least could have been expanded on as a plot point (Hestia didn't even have the spine to return the coat and apologize, Artemis had to do it ???), but what REALLY ticks me off is that Rachel clearly tried to include queer rep through Hestia and Athena who are two traditionally aro/ace goddesses. So really all she did was erase their original queer identities, both of which are still massively misunderstood and argued over whether or not they're "real". And shit, we even see that in her old asks that lesbian sex "doesn't count" and that asexuality is somehow just a sliding scale / stepping stone towards "becoming" another sexuality (in this case, gay).

Like... you can be asexual and also still be romantically attracted to the same sex, "becoming gay" doesn't automatically erase someone's asexuality. Artemis can be gay and aroace. Lesbian sex is still sex and isn't a "loophole" to retaining one's virginity. To be fair, the whole "vestal virgins are flaming lesbians because you can be a virgin and still have hot lady sex" thing came from an anon, but like... she doesn't do anything to challenge that idea in LO either, if anything it's reinforced through Athena and Hestia using their relationship as a "loophole" within TGOEM (and the narrative never actually stops to analyze that.)

And then the cherry on top is Rachel removing the sexualities - sometimes even entire character identities - from canonically or commonly-accepted queer gods and giving them to others. Crocus is no longer a lover of Hermes, but a one-dimensional nymph who was killed as a plot device and then never spoken of again. Ampelos is no longer a satyr loved by Dionysus, his name now belongs to Psyche, a heterocis black woman who doesn't know how to read and has been basically forced into slavery. All of Aphrodite's children who ranged in gender and sexual identities are now replaced with one-dimensional cutout characters with no specific labels or characterizations beyond the translations of their names. Eros has been reduced to the "gay best friend" whose first introduction into the story is inebriating a 19 year old girl with the intent of dumping her in an older man's car. Apollo has been turned into a generic big bad whose only goal is getting his hands on Persephone and nothing else, with zero nuance to his actual characterization or plot arc, he's just "the rapist" who conveniently becomes a pawn in some bigger nefarious plan that makes zero sense. Dionysus and Achilles have both been turned into babies.

If Rachel wanted queer rep, she was already in the right place. The entire Pantheon was her oyster. But instead she managed to go the complete opposite with it and not only erase the queer identities of Greek gods in LO, but went the extra mile of egregiousness by replacing those queer gods with token-queer stereotypes and one-dimensional characters who are just there to say they're gay for the brownie points before being shoved back into the closet. They're out, but they're still not seen.

[bibibbon]

Considering everything...MHA never left chapter 1. One thing I heard and I agree is how Izu is a static, stagnant character. He wanted to be a hero...why?

I always ask this. We can agree he wanted to help and deep down be part of a group, which yeah I can see this as a dream for a lonely abused kid.

But what was his plan? He didn't have a quirk...well, entering in UA was impossible? He could work as a quirk analyst (or is that a job which lives only in fanon?)

Assuming he has no means to enter in UA without a quirk....well, why linger on an impossible dream?

He got a quirk...by sheer luck.

He never own it in the sense we never saw Izu use 100% of ofa. We never saw him reach the max. We never saw Izu as a shonen hero fighting the big baddie.

He lost the quirk...

And spends 8 years alone working as a teacher...

Did he wanted to have a suit?

His "friends" cut contact with him for 8 years (saw people especulating how the last part, the iron suit, could be Izu delulu...I agree) and there more heroes than villains, why are they so busy they can send a hi, how are you? To the guy who lost his arms to stop shig?

I digress.

So for 8 years...he was alone, quirkless and forgetten. Then boom iron suit than only BK and am chip in.

Did he wanted the suit?

Are him and Am even closer? Bc why am made this a secret for 8 years.

Also to conclude...no, Izu couldn't have start this story as a quirkless hero (he is not Batman or Tony Stark)

Izu is still on chap 1.

The author is just end the story and move on.

Hi @mikeellee 👋

I have said this for quite a while but yeah Izuku is a pretty static character and doesn't change at all actually a lot of his change includes his character regressing to a much more bland and unlikable version of him which annoys me to no end.

I have always thought that izuku wanted to be a hero to 1) fit in and 2) to help people however, I do wish that canon would explore that a lot more and why Izuku even looked up to all might in the first place.

One of my prib with MHA is that izuku doesn't actually plan to do much or doesn't have the steps to complete his goals in the beginning. What I mean by this is if izuku was aiming for the hero course then why did he not train himself physically? It makes no sense at all why he didn't do that (Izuku is smart that should of been one of the first things in his mind) and I still think that izuku didn't train because the narrative was waiting for all might to come along and whip him into shape or something of the sort.

Quirk analysis and being a quirk analyst seems to only be something in fanon MHA as any character that does quirk analysis in canon ie izuku and shigaraki are looked at weirdly by others which doesn't make sense. I do think that with the development of quirks and the quirk singularity theory that izuku could of entered a career surrounding quirk analysis and production of support items.

I think that a part of izuku didn't truly believe in himself and the fact that he could become a hero so he may of relied on his intelligence to at least get him to general studies which means he would still be able to get into UA.

We did see izuku use 100% of OFA during the overhaul arc (no he used 100% of OFA not the other users quirks) but it wasn't without harming himself and the last arc also proved that izuku never made OFA his own quirk since he still thought of it as a precious gift all might gave him that he had trouble of letting go (this just further shows how underdeveloped izuku is)

What bugs me the most is that izuku never tries again he simply is defeated and accepts defeat by fate but when he does teach in UA he still goes by his hero name as they call him "deku sensei" so I do think a part of him wanted to grasp on to any sense of identity he had that was just fading away.

Heck Izuku also ends up looking like he doesn't actually exercise anymore meaning that he simply gave up which I still find ridiculous. So I think he gave up and was simply mourning the fact that he can't be a hero so when given the chance he simply takes it and doesn't look back.

Izuku and all might were never close in canon and with the knowledge that all might lives abroad now I think they have definitely lost contact as Izuku was surprised that all might even came to Japan in the first place so yeah their relationship seems pretty nonexistent at this point to me.

You know me I personally do think that izuku could be a quirkless hero whether that be him getting into the support course and making his own gadgets to use (UA can support him they have a lot of money) or that be him literally changing the definition of what it means to be a hero. I have also talked about it in another posts but I do think our opinions are quite different when it comes to the idea of quirkless heroes

[stayteezdreams]

Finding out BF!TXT are Supernatual Creatures {scenarios}

Scenarios: Finding out your boyfriend is a supernatural creature

Pairings: Soobin x Gn!Reader; Yeonjun x Gn!Reader; Beomgyu x Gn!Reader; Taehyun x Gn!Reader; and Huening Kai x Gn!Reader

{Stray Kids Version} {Ateez Version}

Warnings: n/a

Requested by: @otakutrash669

A/n: Not me low-key wanting to write full-fics about some of these (mainly Soobin and Yeonjun's)??? There are probably a lot of stories and myths surrounding the Imugi, so I went with one that fit my personal narrative for these headcanons

Words: 2k

Soobin (Fallen-Angel):

Soobin was a guardian Angel who fell by choice.

He wanted to live as a human so he left his duties as a Guardian Angel, but once mortal still had remnant powers.

When he met you, he was drawn to you and felt as though he needed to protect you.

It turns out you were one of his destined souls to protect, but you were left alone when he chose to become human.

He decided to keep an eye on you, and accidentally met you when he saved you from being side-swiped by a car.

You ended up becoming friends, and Soobin ended up falling for you fairly quickly after that.

Not long into your relationship, Soobin decided to tell you about his past and what he was.

You obviously thought he was joking, but he proved it with one of his powers (teleportation).

You were stunned but in awe.

He expected you to feel betrayed or scared, but you weren't.

You trusted him, even after he told you he abandoned you when he became human.

"But you came back to me."

"Yes, I did."

He showed you the rest of his powers, and told you many stories of his life as an Angel.

You become somewhat withdrawn after some time and Soobin grew worried.

After pressing you for answers, you admitted that you felt unworthy of his love after learning about what he was and what he had experienced.

But he reassured you he loved you more than anything and found himself to be the unworthy one.

"I have never been drawn to someone like this. I have never loved as deeply."

You started referring to him as Angel, which to others was just a cute pet-name, but to you two was an inside joke and secret.

Yeonjun (Fox/Familiar):

Surprise! You are secretly a witch, you just don't know it!

The only person who does is Yeonjun.

You met Yeonjun one day when he just showed up at your work place.

He started to linger and you often caught him watching you. You thought he was handsome and mysterious.

Slowly he started to talk to you, and you became friends, but not for long before he asked you on a date. Your relationship grew from there and you started dating.

When you started to spend more time at each others houses, you started to pick up on odd things.

Things you needed or wanting suddenly being nearby. Flickering lights when you get upset.

Yeonjun somehow always knowing when you needed help.

Not to mention a fox you noticed lingering in your yard a lot, who seems to watch you.

"I think I'm being haunted."

"Or maybe its something else."

"Like what?"

"Magic."

You started to think Yeonjun knew something you didn't and grew suspicious.

He began noticing you growing uneasy and figured it was time to tell you.

But one day, it all came to a head when you woke up to find everything in your room floating, including you.

You and all of the objects fell to the ground and you called Yeonjun in fear.

When he appeared faster than humanly possible, you knew he had to know what was going on.

So he explained.

He was a familiar without a witch, and one day he sensed your magic trapped in your body and wanted to help you find it.

He explained everything, and how he had slowly been using his own abilities to draw the magic out of you.

You were confused, and took this as him tricking you, fearing he was only with you for the use of your magic, and that he didn't actually have feelings for you.

Yeonjun admitted that at first he had no feelings for you, but wanted to get closer to your magic.

A familiar without a witch often felt useless and alone, and their magic increases once they bond with a witch.

But he had truly fallen for you early on, and wanted to be with you while helping you to discover your magic.

You weren't sure what to do, so you asked him for some space.

A week passed and you had come to terms with your newfound abilities, and were curious to learn more.

You also found that you missed Yeonjun, even if you weren't sure you could trust him.

But you accepted that he was the only one who could help you. So you reached out.

He was happy and enthusiastic, but you told him you still needed time to decide if you wanted to be with him romantically.

He understood, though was saddened by this.

So, he waiting, while he helped you to discover your magic and acted as your teacher and familiar.

You knew your feelings for him were still prevalent, as were his.

Eventually you gave in and accepted you wanted to be with him.

He was relieved and ecstatic, and promised he would never keep anything from you again.

Beomgyu (Imugi):

The Imugi is a large magical water Serpent, that after 1000 years can choose to become a full-fledged dragon.

However, there was one, who chose to become human instead.

When Beomgyu finally did become human, he adapted very quickly.

You met at school, and thought he was a bit odd, but cute.

He often seemed to be unaware of many simple or well-known things. And often asked a lot of questions.

He told you he had just been sheltered his whole life and you took his word for it. Not asking too any questions for fear of bringing up painful memories.

Yet at the same time, he knew about niche things you had never imagine he would know about.

You became friends and then after a few years, gave into your feelings.

The two of you had only been dating for a short time when Beomgyu decided to tell you what he was.

You thought he was just making a weird joke, but the more time that passed and he didn't reveal it was a joke the more you grew uncertain.

Was he secretly a bit crazy? Was his past more "sheltered" than you thought? Or was he telling the truth?

The last option seemed the craziest of them all, but he proved it to you by showing you the remnants of his past serpent-nature.

Meaning, he grew horns and scales appeared across his cheeks, chest and hands.

You were startled and speechless and he was afraid he scared you.

Honestly you were a bit afraid, but not necessarily of him.

Your world had suddenly been changed in the span of a few seconds, and now you knew magic creatures like serpents and dragons existed.

Once the pure astonishment wore away, you grew curious and exited.

And Beomgyu was more than happy to tell you all about the world he was from. Magic, creatures, and immortality.

He made you promise to keep his secret, which you of course agreed too. Though you sometimes wished you could brag about your magical boyfriend to someone.

Taehyun (Vampire):

So many people on your college campus were attracted to Kang Taehyun.

He was mysterious, attractive, and had an air about him no one could really describe.

He was often called the Siren of the campus.

But, there was only one person he was attracted to. You.

You were weary of him, uncertain if you should trust someone like him.

He could sense this so he was cautious in approaching you, befriending you slowly and delicately.

Eventually you gave into his advances and started to hang around him more.

You learned that he was much kinder and softer than he appeared on the outside.

He was upfront about his growing feelings for you, and though you did not mention your own, you felt the same.

Eventually, just as you did before, you gave in and accepted you had fallen for him.

As your relationship grew, you started to become aware that he was hiding something from you. But you weren't sure what exactly.

Taehyun himself, had begun growing restless.

He wasn't expecting his feelings for you to become so strong. He began wanting a future with you, and the more he realized this was impossible, the more conflicted he became.

Eventually, he grew distant, pulling away, and inevitably breaking it off with you suddenly.

Your heart was broken and you needed to know why but he would not tell you.

One day, when doing a research project for your history class, you were going through past yearbooks of your college. A name caught your eye. Kang Taehyun.

Finding the matching photo you were stunned to see he had not only the same name but the same face as your now ex-boyfriend.

The photo was from over 50 years prior. Was it Taehyun's father? Or maybe grandfather?

The more you thought about it, the more you realized you knew nothing of Taehyuns family apart from a few short stories.

You started to put things together in your mind, and as crazy as you thought you might be, you needed to know.

So you found Taehyun, placed the photo in front of him and waited for him to explain.

He knew he could give you excuses, make something up, but he missed you, and hated how he hurt you. So he gave in and told you the truth.

He didn't need to prove it for you to believe him.

Taehyun explained that he didn't think his interest in you would become what he felt was true love, but he knew you couldn't be together forever unless he turned you or watched as you grew old and die.

You talked for a long time and after some time decide to be together, Taehyun knew he would rather be with you than leave you behind.

He left the choice to you if you would let him turn you, or if you would stay with him for as long as you could, mortal and immortal.

The choice is yours.

Huening Kai (Fairy):

Everything about your relationship with Kai was normal.

He was sweet and beautiful and he thought the same of you.

You always knew there was something ethereal about him but you figured it was just your imagination and his general vibe.

So what if animals seemed to never be afraid of him? And the fact that sunlight seems to sparkle on his skin.

So what if you sometimes saw him out of the corner of your eye and thought he had wings, or some type of halo aura surrounding him. It was just your mind playing tricks.

You called him your Disney Prince and he thought it was cute, but you always noticed a peculiar twinkle in is eye when you talked about these things it him.

One day, when you caught him off guard, you found him standing out in the sun, and the wings sprouting from his back were definitely not your imagination.

You stared at him in awe, watching as the sunlight seemed to absorb into his skin.

When he finally noticed you, everything surrounding him disappeared in a second, as if he shut a light off.

You were stunned, speechless, confused.

He approached you cautiously, afraid to frighten you or freak you out.

He was not expecting you to snap back into reality with a loud "I KNEW IT"

You were relieved to no longer be plague with the thoughts that something was wrong with you. And amazed to know you had been dating a....well, whatever he was.

After asking, Kai explained. He was the son of a fairy and a human. Mortal, but magical.

He shared his history with you, and his magic, and the struggles he had always keeping it from you.

He was warned to keep it a secret, told to by his parents to keep him safe. But he loved you, and wanted you to know, but wasn't sure when or how to tell you.

No that you found out he was relieved he didn't have to hide it anymore.

You ended up meeting with his parents and discussing everything, and you promised that you would never tell his secret, and you would help keep it and him safe.

Thought a bit cautious, his parents finally accepted it, and allowed you to stay with him.

Kai does not quite like his knew nickname 'Fairy Princess' as much as his previous one though.

xx

General Taglist: @otsilliak, @brattybunfornct, @bahng-chrizz, @otakutrash669, @tinyelfperson, @pinievsev, @teenyfinds, @everythingboutkpop

TxT Taglist: @thunderous-wolf, @briqnne, @crazyformfics Yeonjun & Soobin: @hongjoongsprincess, @dear-dreamie, Yeonjun: @ye0nvibezzn

-Taglist Form-

[tanoraqui]

Dungeon Meshi Liveblog: Marcille Takes Charge!

You know what, this is actually a very fair answer to my earlier question of "why couldn't the ancients just kill the demon?" Points to you again, Ms. Kui.

Truly I can't wait to see, like, every single Mithrun fight scene in the anime. The whole First Floor Incident is presumably going to be Episode 1 of Season 2, and I'm sooo excited.

.

At first, I thought the Lion was being snarky here, but in retrospect, knowing its whole story and nature, I think it genuinely is just fond of all its former dungeon lords. What wonderful meals they gave it!

.

That said, the Lion DOES have enough personality to Judge Marcille for her aesthetic choices; and I think that's beautiful :) <3

.

MARCILLE, NO! You're showing how corrupted you've become/how you were never suited to this role in the first place by acting directly contrary to explicitly stated themes of the story!

There is, however, something very satisfyingly country-ruling foreshadowy about Laios (and Kabru!) looking down at all of this spread out, though.

.

It IS painful watching Kabru try desperately to play both sides, keeping Laios safe from the Canaries without letting him go side with Marcille. Bud, I'm sorry but you HAVE lost control of this situation. And Laios is smart enough to have put everything together about what happened while he was unconscious, even when you deliberately didn't tell him.

.

[whispering sternly to myself] It's not fealty. It's NOT fealty. It's the start of a beautiful best-friendship which just so happens to include 1 guy looking at another guy and deciding that yeah, he has good potential to fill the king-shaped hole that guy #1 has been searching to fill - but just, like, on principle; genuinely NOT for any personal emotional need. The best-friendship is a completely unrelated emotional need. The ONLY fealting in this story is, so far as I can tell, between Shuro and his ninja squad, because they're from a completely different culture and, tbh, genre of anime.

.

But Laios, conversation is his means and mode! His sword and shield! If he can't talk it out, how is he possibly going to convince you to do anything, including save the world and be his friend?!

.

God I love this. It's this perfect combination of "You are my polar opposite; you love the thing (monsters) that I'm terrified of, and I want to know how so I can do that, too, because I'm so tired of terror" and "You love a thing (monsters), understanding it to the point of being very good at killing it, the same way I love a different thing (people); we are the same and I just want you to recognize that like I do so we can happily vibrate on the same frequency forever."

It's very tragic-funny that Kabru genuinely try to introduce himself to Laios in a normal way, before resorting to taking his entire party to stalk him to dangerous levels of the dungeon and eating monsters. It's not his fault that Laios is completely immune to small talk.

I DO think that every pair (or throuple, etc) of narrative foils in every piece of media ever should at least try making out. At a certain point of narrative foiling, you might as well, you know?

.

Note: Pattadol says she's "reporting" to Flamela, indicating that she's subordinate within the greater Canary structure even though she's 2nd in command of the most superior hunting party.

Also, it seems that the Canaries we know, the senior-most party, are genuinely the badassest of the badass and meant primarily for advanced dungeons including confronting dungeon lords and the demon directly. Tier-3 groups have less experienced guards, maybe criminals as well, and go on more scouting-type missions with no serious combat expected.

.

She's not wrong, she's just a jerk about it!

.

I get where the elves are coming from, I do. It's impossible to tell people people that there's a demon underground who'll grant their every wish while also communicating the dangers of this sufficiently that nobody goes searching for it. Even we the reader, don't entirely understand how bad it can get, how fast, until we watch Marcille do All Of That under the demon's active influence.

HOWEVER, it IS human nature to respond to this sort of thing with "well I/my friend won't go insane." There's gotta be a compromise wherein at SOME POINT far down the 'everything is going wrong in this dungeon' line, they just fucking tell people. They at least TRY. Otherwise they're just rolling their eyes at the short-lived races dangerous ignorance while actively refusing to reduce that ignorance.

.

Again: Shuro is living in a slightly different, much cooler genre of manga than the rest of us. Also:

TEAM TOUDEN LET'S GOOO!!

The best part of this is that earlier, when our heroes were trying to figure out who might help them eat Falin's dragon half, I was like, 'hmm...they liked you, sure, but eating dragons is pretty weird...'

But now we are outright ALLYING AGAINST THE ELVES!

.

Lmao. Classic adventuring party members, baffling NPCs as a team.

.

oh this is cruel. this isn't fair.

.

boys, focus.

.

the comedic timing...

.

lookit, that 30 seconds of desperate verbal flailing actually did help! Kinda!

.

yeah, I DO really like that everyone looks to Chilchuck for his opinion on Marcille's 'make everyone live to 10,000' plan, as the guy with the shortest present lifespan and also the most age-wise of all of them.

.

I Do Not Like This Visual. I Do Not Like the disproportionately large lion with human arms and hands shoving himself out of this book.

.

Not to be pedantic, but I think if you're trying to entice a team of people into doing your will by calling out each of their individual strengths, I think you shouldn't make 2 of them as repetitive as "curiosity" and "inquisitive mind." That's not really what Senshi is bringing to the table anyway - I'd say "care" or maybe "sense of balance." Also, sorry Izutsumi but how tf is her "wildness" contributing to this mission?

.

oh, Marcille, no...

[dsudis]

Adaptive Tea Making

For @domaystic Day 5: Learning Something New.

Dream is human now, and determined to learn how to make his beloved a cup of tea. He just has a small difficulty with time to get over.

___

Hob looked over at Dream, who was perched on a stool at the kitchen bench with his ever-present notebook open to a fresh page, his phone unlocked beside it, and an actual stopwatch beside that. He had a pencil in his hand, freshly sharpened, and a second pencil also perfectly sharpened set beside the notebook.

Hob had secondhand text anxiety just looking at those pencils. 

"Ready?" Hob asked, though surely it was not possible to be more ready than Dream currently was. 

Dream didn't even meet his gaze, his eyes fixed firmly on Hob's hands. "Ready. Please show me, one more time, how to make a cup of tea the way you like it." 

As Dream spoke he wrote on the pristine notebook page: Hob's tea instructions. His handwriting was crooked and crabbed but legible. 

"So--there's water in the kettle already," Hob said, feeling like possibly he was the one being tested. However he made this cup of tea, Dream would continue making this exact cup of tea for him forever. 

Hob was fine with that. Hob would frankly have been fine with continuing to get wildly undrinkable cups of tea from Dream forever, but Dream was determined to learn this particular human skill correctly, and seemed somehow convinced that this time he was going to crack it. 

Hob flipped the switch. Dream turned on a timer on his phone and then wrote down the first two steps: water in kettle and turn on kettle. He also wrote to one side, Phone timer: total length of process and drew a little line beside it to be filled in with a number later. 

They had learned, after Dream had committed a series of frankly baffling tea mishaps including "hot water with no detectable trace of tea" and "oversteeped to the point of activating an immortal's gag reflex through sheer bitterness" and "boiled the kettle dry" that Dream had no real sense of how time passed. It passed how he wished it to pass, in the Dreaming, and even in the Waking he had always been able to nudge reality a bit to make the flow of time conform to his narrative sense or personal convenience.  

Now that he was divested of those powers and operating a human body, the linear flow of time had so far made absolutely no impression on Dream. Hob had had to point out to him things like "if you wake up and it is still dark, it is still night, and you will probably want to go back to sleep until it's light out" and how often meals should happen.  

It was the tea that had made it clear that even telling Dream times when things should happen was not very helpful to him. He couldn't seem to hold the numbers in his head or make sense of them when he consulted a clock. Hob had simply started giving him other ways of gauging the passage of time, teaching him about the sun's position in the sky at mealtimes and when Hob returned from work, and about the activity of people visible from the windows, and which programs on the telly corresponded reliably to morning, afternoon, and evening. 

Hob had spent long stretches of time--most of his life, really--without access to clocks. People nowadays were obsessed with them, and with precise timing for everything, but Dream wouldn't need to worry about being punctual to a work shift or keeping all sorts of appointments. Hob could help him with where precision was needed, and could teach him to get along where it wasn't. 

Tea, unfortunately, was a matter of some precision. When the kettle let out the first gurgles, Hob grabbed the tea canister. "Plenty of times I just use bag tea, but my insufferably posh lover seems set on spoiling me, so," Hob scooped tea into the strawberry-shaped infuser. "This is what we've got in place of a tea bag. Time-wise, either should work the same." 

Dream faithfully wrote down prepare infuser (or tea bag).

"The timing for the kettle will change a bit. A smaller amount of water boils faster. There's a bit over two cups in right now," Hob pointed to the line on the side, "so it takes a little over two minutes." 

Dream wrote down kettle boils and then waited watchfully until the kettle hit its automatic shutoff and consulted the time. Kettle shuts off, he wrote down, and then 2:38 with a tidy little asterisk beside it.

"Infuser goes in mug," Hob narrated. "Pour the water over it, leave about an inch at the top for milk. And start your stopwatch, because this is the bit I couldn't tell you, because I do it by feel." 

Dream started the stopwatch and scribbled down more notes, drawing a little box for the all-important steeping time to be entered. Hob watched the mug, wondering once again how he did know when it was done steeping. He'd tried more than once to describe it to Dream, but none of his descriptions had been at all helpful--as proven by the various disastrous cups of tea--and had only frustrated both of them. 

He wanted to fill the silence, but Hob didn't dare mess this up for Dream, when he was so determined to get this right. Most of human life had come easily enough to him, once he set himself to adapt to it, but tea had thwarted him. Hob was a little worried that Dream was building this up into some kind of epic battle of wills he had to win to Succeed At Being Human. 

Dream looked up at him expectantly and Hob looked back down at his mug, a little worried that he'd gotten distracted--he'd certainly oversteeped his tea enough times for one reason or another--but no, a sniff and a glance told him it wasn't quite there yet. "Almost," Hob said. "Not really a bad cup of tea if you stop now, but not quite." He drummed his fingers, waiting for-- 

"Ah," Hob said, "Now." He reached for the infuser and lifted it out, and the stopwatch clicked at the exact instant it cleared the top of the mug. Hob set the infuser in the sink and then swirled the cup of tea, giving it another sniff to be sure, but yes, that was a just-right cup of tea. He grabbed the jug of milk and looked to see that Dream was intently watching before he poured in a dollop. 

Dream's eyes narrowed slightly and then he nodded and wrote down a specific liquid volume that Hob was sure was in fact precisely correct--Dream's spatial skills were laser-accurate and slightly unnerving.  

"And a spoonful of sugar, because I'm feeling like it today," Hob said. "I do honey sometimes. Sometimes two spoonfuls of sugar." He stirred in the sugar and sipped. "And that's--" 

Dream clicked the timer on his phone and recorded the time, then picked up the phone and tapped rapidly at it. "Tell me that the water should boil about now," Dream said, and held out the phone like a reporter's microphone. 

"Water should be boiling about now," Hob parroted obediently.  

Dream nodded, tapped at the phone again, and said, "Now tell me the tea is ready."  

When Dream held out the phone, Hob said, "Tea's ready, love." 

Dream was startled into a smile at that addition, and asked, "How is it?" 

"Just right," Hob said. "But if you--" 

Dream shook his head, still smiling, and went back to tapping at things on his phone. "These things are amazing, you know?" Dream said. "I thought I would have to learn magic, but these are like little prosthetic memories. If you work out all the steps, you can make it do all these things for you. Well, not for you, you don't need it. For me." 

"I mean, I'd be lost without my calendar and things," Hob said. He'd never thought of technology to solve Dream's difficulty with time. He'd thought it was just more clocks all the way down, there. 

"Watch," Dream said, and then, to his phone, "Computer, making a cup of tea." 

"Acknowledged," his phone replied, because Dream had watched possibly too many sci-fi movies with Hob at what had turned out to be a formative time in his life. "When there is water in the kettle, turn the kettle on." 

Dream mimed flipping the switch on the kettle. 

Nothing happened, since Dream was still a good yard away from the kettle. Reminded, Hob ran some more water into it and put it back. He was sipping his tea again and nearly choked on it when his own voice came from Dream's phone. "Water should be boiling about now." 

"Computer, wait," Dream said, and the phone was back to its Computer voice when it said, "Acknowledged." 

"In case there is more water in the kettle," Dream said. "If there is less, I will be able to tell it to skip ahead when the water boils." 

"Computer, resume," Dream added to the phone. 

"Prepare the infuser, then pour boiling water over it." 

Dream mimed dropping the infuser into the mug, then pouring the water. "Computer, steeping." 

"Steeping," the computer said, sounding slightly stilted like it had had to assemble that word from individual sounds instead of having it pre-recorded.  

"I'll be able to use this for anything to do with timing," Dream said, scratching down more notes in his notebook. "I just have to set the intervals and key phrases, and optionally recordings for specific announcements, and then I will be able to do things that need timing. As long as I have my phone. Possibly I should get one of those watches." 

"That's no trouble, then," Hob said, pulling out his own phone to order a watch to sync with Dream's phone. "And you know I'm always happy to be your speaking clock, love."  

Dream came around the bench and kissed him, curling a hand around Hob's on his mug. "I shall feed you your lines when I need them," Dream said, and somehow it was desperately romantic and made Hob so proud he could cry, knowing Dream knew that Hob would always be glad to help him do things in his own way. 

He opened his mouth to try to say it, his heart almost too full for words, and was cut off by his own voice from Dream's phone. "Tea's ready, love." 

[Now on Ao3!]

[dmmdipodcast]

Is there any obvious reason *why* McCaffrey included a second variety of female dragons (green) instead of just going with the idea that the gold dragons are female and all the rest are male? The greens are deliberately not allowed to reproduce, so unless it becomes a plot point somewhere, the only function of green dragons being female seems to be introducing the "(male) dragonriders frequently get really horny for each other (as a direct result of their psychically bonded soulmates wanting to have straight sex)" aspect that McCaffrey didn't actually seem to want and has all kinds of follow-on implications. (I suppose maybe she just wanted an excuse for *all* dragonriders to periodically get the super-horny-due-to-dragon-sex effect to drive the weyrs' unusual norms and didn't think through the genders, but that seems like a *really* big and hard-to-overlook detail when she made it literally all male riders other than for gold dragons.)

What an excellent question! The short answer is that no, there really isn’t an obvious reason to do that, and this is the kind of ANNE, WHY?? that made us want to start this podcast in the first place.

As for the long answer... I (Tequila) think most likely she had two competing narrative priorities and this ended up a sort of awkward compromise position

McCaffrey clearly wants Lessa to be the Only Gold Dragonrider circa the start of Dragonflight, both for Special Unique Protagonist reasons and because she wants Lessa to be very alone at the weyr at first so that she can triumph later. Having (almost) all male riders is a feature and not a bug.

Your point about Everyone at the weyr getting an opportunity to be horny. McCaffrey doesn’t want the mating flights to be unusual or up for discussion; she’s building them in as an unquestioned norm of Weyrs and part of what makes them notably distinct from Holds. This means she’s gotta have other female dragons.

There’s also the possibility that she felt it would be unbelievable to have such a drastic skew in gender ratio; diegetically, dragons were bioengineered, and green fire-lizards do lay eggs. It’s implied that green dragons could lay eggs, but chewing firestone makes that impossible, so Weyrs have deliberately chosen to keep greens in combat rather than have them reproduce—Dragonsdawn leaves it ambiguous but suggests that gold dragons were deliberately designed not to be able to chew firestone successfully, unlike greens. Sky Dragons, by Todd McCaffrey, does have green dragons laying eggs, and he "cowrote" it/consulted with Anne McCaffrey, so even though We Don’t Read Those it can give a rough sense of what she considered canonical.

Or perhaps McCaffrey wanted to emphasize how special and fancy gold dragons are by giving them a hierarchical advantage over other female dragons; she certainly seemed to replicate that in her writing about humans, where she frequently surrounds her compelling, complex female protagonists with cardboard cutout female supporting characters who range from “evil slut” to “mom” to “whiny gossip.”

Lleu points out that McCaffrey puts a lot of narrative focus on her central cast, especially in Dragonflight and Dragonquest, and doesn’t actually engage much with the background characters. She stated at one point (extradiegetically) that green dragons are 50% of the population, but if you count up the dragons we meet on the page they’d be more like 20% and most of that comes later in the series. So it’s not totally implausible that she really didn’t think about it until after Dragonflight and then she’d backed herself into a worldbuilding corner and couldn’t dig herself out!

More specifically, the moment that introduces green mating flights to the series is the beginning of Dragonquest. In the context of the book’s overarching plot, T’reb is being used to set up Kylara’s later transgression of not paying attention to Prideth and taking her out of the Weyr when she was close to mating. There’s also some Gender Politics at work here, insofar as the homophobia of the way this scene is handled (and for that matter some of the portrayal of green riders throughout the series) involves portraying gay men as effeminate—hysterical, in this case—and so distancing them from the “fully male” bronze riders Dragonflight focused on. T’reb works as foreshadowing for Kylara because he’s gay and so, in this homophobic schema, not-quite-a-man.

If we want to be generous to Anne, having the Weyrs be full of men having sex with men (especially introduced in this extremely dramatic way) also serves to really drive home how different Weyr sexual mores are from Hold and Craft ones, which we as readers expect will align with generic popular culture pseudomedieval feudalism (and which largely do so). The scene with T’reb and B’naj then also brings Weyr sexuality into the (commoner) public sphere (and this is I think a nontrivial part of what the Weyrleaders are concerned about), in keeping with the way the series as a whole is obsessed with the management of sexuality.

[justanotherhh]

alastor aroace semiotics: symbols/metaphors/codes (oh my!)

thinking about some of the aroace subtext, both in terms of what's definitely intentional, and things that one can pick up on within the burgeoning field of "what the heck does aspec (in this case aroace) semiology even look like in (this particular) narrative?"

there's the really obvious one of course "ace in the hole." funny as well, because ace in the hole could also reference Alastor being the card you play as a hidden advantage (potentially hinting that Rosie knows that Alastor has his own agenda and supports that, like she does in the song). Of course "Alastor is ace" is the main point of the joke, because it's a sentence that comes a little out of nowhere, and clearly confuses Alastor, because he doesn't know Stuff

2. secondly, there's the pilot episode's placing Alastor first next to and then on top of the Ace of Spades. tbh if this was an accident, it sure was a serendipitous one, because the Ace of Spades not only refers to being ace, but specifically aroace (with Hearts meaning alloace, Diamonds meaning demiace, and Clubs meaning grey-ace <- t Ace of Diamonds/Clubs are a more open to interpretation, I've seen some also use them for demiromantic and greyromantic)

3. Body language! Alastor's reactions to being propositioned or involved in a sex joke, or having to listen to romance talk ranges from discomfort (glitching), to blunt refusal/shutting down of the conversation, to boredom/distraction. I haven't made a study of Alastor's body language in detail, but I'd be interested in how his smiles potentially shift when around very sexual and/or romantic discussion, regardless of whether he's the centre of that (but probably moreso if he is). I think this would come more to the fore in future seasons if there were examples beyond Angel Dust, who also made Husk uncomfortable in the first half of s1, but Alastor -- especially in the pilot -- had very visceral reactions to Angel's "flirting/joking," moreso than anyone else, until Angel had really gone too far with Husk in ep4 (and he come onto Alastor as strongly/invasively as he did with Husk)

4. Speaking of Angel... Alastor not being present outside of a flashback in all of episode 4, and not in episode 6 either. Both episodes featured sex heavily, including Angel showing off one of his pornos, and the gang going to a sex club. Also, Valentino was in both of them (makes sense, seeing as they were Angel-centric). I wonder what Alastor feels about Valentino's whole... existence. He's also the only main s1 hotel character to not be involved in the trust exercises that lead them to the bondage/SM club. this has nothing necessarily to do with the character, but he's very much placed outside of sexual scenarios and places by the writing/plot, which is fun to notice, especially in the first two examples, as his not being in the episodes isn't actually explained. No Alastor in the sex episodes, because his fourth wall sex repulsed senses were tingling?

5. boundaries and power fantasies. that is, Alastor is a character who has very clear boundaries and ways of enforcing them. from blowing up Sir Pentious when he grabs his coat, to noping out of any space he wants to, to seizing the narrative from Vox and telling the story on his terms, to shadow tentacles (ironic), nobody touches him emotionally/physically unless they're allowed. Niffty, Rosie, and Mimzy so far appear to be the ones who have crossed into that "allowed" space the most, but considering he lets everyone (barring Lucifer and Husk, who don't want to) hug him in the finale, some of those barriers are coming down, which is another interesting analysis to make at some point

these boundaries aren't all entirely healthy either -- the way he lashes out at Husk who seems to actually be trying to look out for him (which suggests that Husk is emotionally close-ish to him, enough that he didn't realise he was overstepping), and the way he breaks down in the finale, shows that his inability to be vulnerable in front of others is... not actually a good thing. I wrote a whole bunch about how this part of Alastor's writing play into a very aroace-in-feel narrative for him, but suffice to say... a story about someone with boundaries that seems to be completely absent of "romance/sex will fix you" is refreshing. and very aroace coded

there's also a power fantasy in the idea that one can simply bend the space to avoid ones boundaries being trampled over. to be able to either nope out of a room or to make oneself so terrifying that nobody would want to try to get up in your space... it's got a little smthinsmthin of a "wish it were me" in there. being repulsed means an often constant erosion and invasion of boundaries, from people making your disgust and/or obliviousness the centre of their sex jokes, to being hyper-scrutinised and challenged every time you do or don't let someone into your space in whatever way, or challenge their notions of what's "allowed" as an aroace person. sometimes you just want to say "Demonic Powers Be Upon Ye" and be done with it

6. An Absence. most often aspec narrative is defined by an absence of allo-narrative. that is, Angel Dust, Husk, Charlie, Vaggie, Cherri, Sir Pentious, Lucifer, are set up as allo-figures with romance and sex featuring more or less in all of their stories. the only hotel residents so far who don't have that going on are Alastor and Niffty, and Niffty's story has yet to have the foundations laid out for beyond the very bare bones, and she flirts with others (her "bad boy" preference). whatever Alastor's journey is, it's not coded as alloromantic or allosexual in any way, whether through casual jokes/flirting, or a longform romantic and sexual relationship exploration, with the possible exception of...

7. Vox. the characters that Alastor seems closest to in this story are Rosie, Mimzy, Niffty, Charlie, and Husk (with the mysterious figure that owns his soul looming in the back as well). out of them, none of them are coded as anyone he's sexually or romantically involve with or heading in that direction. the last figure in Alastor's life that's very heavily figured so far is Vox. And Vox is obsessed with Alastor in a way that absolutely can be read as a bad one-sided break-up/jilted stalker type framing, with Alastor gleefully recounting his "no" when talking about their past, and otherwise putting Vox out of his mind, while almost all of Vox' big character moments revolve around how much real estate Alastor takes up in his mind (literally, considering his error message is all Alastor messaging)

Vox being a figure who is symbolically the trampler of aroace boundaries is a very good way of showing Alastor's total disinterest and even disgust (depending on whether or not he knows that Vox was/is into him), and can act as a future potential interesting barometer for other characters to be "less" invasive, but still not quite getting it to begin with (see, Angel Dust's casual flirting, Charlie's tendency to see everything from her perspective, who knows how Cherri and Lucifer might fit into this equation, and generally the sex-and-romance framing of a lot of the other narratives)

8. I talked about aroaceness being a humanising factor to Alastor in my other big ol' post I did, just want to mention it here as well. so far it exists somewhat as a Potential, in the sense that we're firmly in s1 and there's still a lot of ways this could all go, but I think it's worth mentioning as a form of foundational signposting work that's been done for his character

he's more on the dark grey end of the grey scale of all of these characters, he's manipulative, sadistic, cruel when he wants to be, petty, selfish, likes being the centre of attention + is easily rankled when he's not, and presumably he went to hell because he killed people for kicks <- these traits are not unique to him, considering the setting, but what is is the beginnings of a storyline exploring his particular relationship to vulnerability and power and why those things are a part of him in the way they are. this from the perspective of someone who is aroace (and possibly repulsed) instantly adds a potential sympathetic nuance to who he's become, similar to the layer of power fantasy mentioned above. both of these turn his narrative from a cautionary tale or a villain-played-straight (haha) trope into something much more interesting

with the semiotics of aroaceness already in place, these affect how we read the foundations for the rest of his narrative and where it's going. quite simply, it's one of the biggest factors right now that make all his other story beats more resonant and interesting, depending of course on where they take it...

9. his smile. since we've gotten deep enough into meta territory now that we're in hc/future theorising country -- the smile is of course a mask, that's known to everyone. there's a lot of future opportunities for how to utilise that alongside aroaceness-as-theme-for-him. aroaceness, or just "someone where there is a noticeable lack of romantic (and hinted at sexual) interest," is usually coded through a certain shallowness. a pathologisation of behaviours -- which is another deeper analysis post to make at some point (jeez there's so many). Alastor is off-putting, yes, but he's also very confident and charming when he wants to be, he can put people at ease despite themselves (see, Charlie). It's a very interesting mask to give someone who's aroace, because it makes him complicated, rather than a simple ableist "point at the weirdo with no friends, that's our Outsider/killer."

(it also hearkens back to the humanising factor, in that his shallowness isn't because he's aroace, it's because he doesn't know how to be vulnerable with people as the person he is in a world that is incredibly amatonormative and focused on sex)

His smile can be unnerving, but it can also be disarming, give others the illusion that he's in control, make it impossible to guess his emotions (etc. basically what he said to Charlie)

so quite simply, his smile as a twisted distortion of society's demands upon people. he's not being abrupt, aloof, asocial, unkempt, or all the things aroaceness is often stereotyped as. he's performing the most acceptable normative person you can imagine. his surface is unscratcheable because of normative ideals

it's a very fun, unique-to-this-story way of potentially telling an aroace narrative. I'd be interested in what it takes to make him drop it (if he can, or if the story takes the route of accepting that he can't -- the man who laughs kinda vibes) and whether that will tie into a piece of his story that itself takes on aroace proportions (perhaps related to worrying for others in a non-romantic way, perhaps in relation to being able to or being forced to be vulnerable in a non-romantic/non-sexual way, etcetc).

Potentials:

we haven't seen him around the aro/ace aroace colours yet as far as I can remember, which is a fun, easy way to signpost (see, Vox flashing the bisexual flag on his screen)

since we've had an "ace in the hole" joke, I think we could have an aro/arrow-based pun in there as well, maybe even as a deconstruction of when they're used in romantic ways -- (no aro going through his heart, too aro for cupid's arrow, idk I'm spitballing here) or as literal arrows in some way. also someone's gotta call him aces at one point, right? just cos? I feel like the "<2" emoji might be too niche (heck, maybe all of this is, but that's part of the point -- all of this should be ways we're able to signpost aro and ace and aroace characters), but there's characters who know modern emoji and online lingo

other asexual symbols I know of include stating a preference for cake or pizza over sex and/or dating and the black and white rings (worn respectively on right an left middle fingers, although since they only have four fingers in this world...)

I've really enjoyed "clueless cannibal about modern lingo" Alastor comics, including the one about serving cunt and the one about eating ass both by @nouverx. it goes nicely on from his being confused about "ace in the hole," with that HH style sexual comedy. there's a whole bunch of that one could play with

speaking of slang, confirmed bachelor has often meant gay, but the aro/ace community and the gay community has overlapped as long as anyone has been non-conforming. @creepysora suggested a gentleman never kisses and tells, either as Alastor being unaware that it's actually about sex, or as an aware deconstruction of the phrase that gives him the space (similar to confirmed bachelor) to sneakily go, "go mind your own fucking business 😊!" I'm sure there are others that could fulfill a similar purpose of allowing Alastor a certain kind of old-timey buffer

similar to the episode of Bojack Horseman that had Todd visit his girlfriend's parents (both Todd and his GF are asexual and not out to her parents), which depicted allosexuality from the perspective of asexuality as something nonsensical and Other, perhaps having something from Alastor's POV in which he's the observer of the rites of romance and/or sex in a way that shows their strangeness when one sits outside of their tenets

would kind of like to see him killing/hurting people for being pushy, either when alive or dead. I already see a lot of potentials for his past as a serial killer to be framed from an aroace POV, but I especially like this idea, similar to how Hannibal often targets people for being "rude."

more on what I was saying about aroaceness as a humanising trait -- more on how this affected him in life, how he feels about Vox's consistent obsessive behaviour, how it potentially makes it harder to imagine his place in a group setting like the hotel (which is rapidly being paired off into romantic couples -- often a nightmare scenario for aromantics), more on how potentially learning these words or something better to describe himself can make it possible for him to assert boundaries without shutting everyone out to a large extent, and also, tbh, to put Big Expectations onto a story that's barely even started, I hope that none of this takes away his less savoury traits necessarily. I hope he's still kind of an asshole, but simply that he is grounded in himself enough to be able to really believe in Charlie's work/aims and support her in them for more reasons than his own ends, and can admit to really caring for something

reiterating: I am interested in how his smile-as-mask will play into all of this

Any symbolism, metaphor, coding, and straight-up telling I've missed in the show itself? Any you'd want to see in upcoming seasons?

[opposums-love-arson]

Scream Queen Book 1: Conventional Final Girl

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Stu Macher x Reader x Billy Loomis

Okay so basically let's just cut to the chase, the main character "(y/n)" is Sidney Prescott's little stepsister, yeah? Well, what happens when she takes Sid's place as the final girl? A whole lot. Disclaimer: All rights reserved to the copy righted owners of the Scream franchise. The only creative input I had in this fan fiction was the part of (y/n), almost everything else can be found in the movie. Follows the movie very closely. I mean the actual movie, not the script. Obviously switching out some parts to fit the narrative. It takes a couple of chapters to really get it kicking but I promise it gets good. *NO SMUT* these are still high school students and I do not want to overtly sexualize KIDS! And if you make the argument of "I'm not a kid" I'm 18 been there, done that, don't try it.

  "Hello, who is it?" I asked into the large telephone. 

"No one in particular..." Sounds like another one of the boys' prank calls.

"Okay Mr. No one in particular, any reason for the call?" 

"No reason in particular, just wanted to talk." 

"Hmm okay then talk," I said as I swiveled around in my chair.

"What's your favorite scary movie?" The raspy but oddly pitched voice asked. 

"Oh I've got plenty but you might want to sit down, it'll take a while." 

"I've got time." 

"Ya know, stuff like Halloween, Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw. Then there's creature features like The Thing. B-horror like Slumber Part Massacre or Sleepaway Camp." I finally finish my rambling when I hear my step sister and her boyfriend in the other room. 

"Do you really like scary movies?" 

"Oh yeah definitely but I think it's mainly because of my step sister's friends?" 

"Oh yeah?" 

"Yeah, I mean I always liked horror but they really got me into it. Especially our friends Randy, Billy and Stu, they're crazy about that stuff!" I said as I flopped down onto my bed. 

"What's a pretty girl like you doing with all those guys?" 

"They're not a lot of guys, if anything it equals out our group," I said, completely avoiding the whole 'pretty girl' thing... that was kind of weird. 

Hearing a knock at my door completely startled me. 

"Oh um hey I have to go but feel free to call me back anytime," I whisper into the phone quickly placing it back on the body. 

It was obvious the person on the line was saying something before I hung up but I didn't bother to listen 

  In popped Neil's head from the other side of the door. "Hey kiddo who ya talking to?" He said as he looked around. "Hm? Oh no one, what's up Neil?" I asked, now back in my desk chair. Neil was a good guy, I'm glad he and my mom started dating, they actually just got engaged! I think I was more excited about it than my step sister, Sindey, she's still grieving. "Just got done talking to your sister, I'm going to hit the sack, remember I'm not back until sunday. Cash on the table and call if you need anything," He said waiting for me to say something. "Alright got it Neil, have fun at the expo!" I waved him off before he closed the door. 

  My mom and I didn't move to Woodsoro until she really started dating Neil. It's always just been her and I for as long as I can remember, but it feels good to be part of a complete family again. I missed our old home at first with all my friends and family but Sid quickly took me under her wing. I met all of her friends including Stu, Tatum, Randy and Sid's boyfriend Billy. I'll admit it was weird at first because they just saw me as the little step sister but once Randy and I went on a ranting debate about which was the real pioneer of Slasher; Texas Chainsaw or Black Christmas, it got a lot easier. Even though Stu and Billy were pretty cute I'll never be used to Stu's wild energy, nor Billy's slightly shady behavior.

  The next morning didn't go quite as expected... There were reporters, cameras, and news vans posted up all around school. Sid and I were freaked the moment we got off the bus. She was looking around bewildered by everything going on until we spotted one woman in particular, Gale Weathers. To say the least, Weathers was a total bitch towards Sid's mom's name. 

"Can you believe this shit?!" We heard a voice pop up from behind us. Sid totally jumped. 

"Tatum, what is going on?" Sidney asks, waving her arm out to the school. 

"Yeah, since when was Woodsboro flooded with reporters?" I looked over at Tatum, crossing my arms over my chest. 

"You don't know?" Tatum asked both of us, a hint of amusement on her face.

"No," Sid and I said in unison, still confused. 

"Casey Becker and Steve Orth were killed last night," She said with a harsh but light tone just above a whisper. 

"What?! No way!" Sid softly exclaimed. 

I was too shocked to say a single word so I just listened. 

"And we're not just talking killed, we're talking splatter movie killed. Ripped open, from end to end," Tatum talked about it with entertaining ease, like it was just gossip. 

I think I'm going to be sick. 

"Casey Becker, she sits next to me in English," Sid said looking over at her best friend. 

I think you mean sat, Sid. I thought. 

"Not anymore," Said Tatum with a wobble of her head. 

She went on saying, "It's so sad, her mom and dad found her hanging from a tree. Her insides on the outside." Shoving her hands near her stomach. 

"Oh my god," Sid said as she reached for the back of her neck, probably to feel the goosebumps that appeared. 

"Do they know who did it?" I finally asked, feeling the urge to know. 

The two looked over at me with Tatum saying, "Fucking clueless, I mean they're interogating the entire school? Teacher, students, janitors." 

"They think someone at school did it?" Sid asked

"They don't know, I mean Dewy was saying this is the worst crime he's seen in years. Even worse than-" Tatum paused when I nudged her side, "Well, it's bad." She finished. 

The bell signaling the start of the first period rang.

"C'mon Sid, we gotta get to class..." I said as I lightly grabbed her hand, giving it a slight reassuring squeeze. 

"Yeah, alright..." She responded, removing her hand from mine. She's just going through a lot right now. 

  Sitting through the first period is weird when you have a seat that was right behind a dead person. Not Casey Becker but Steve Orth. He'd ask me for a pencil or notes every day because he forgot his. Claimed it was because of football practice. Soon enough the five minute bell for next class rang. A class that didn't have any dead students.

  Walking to my locker to rotate my books I was blocked by none other than Stu Macher. 

"Hey, (y/n)," He drawled out my name with a big smile, "Whatcha up to?" 

"Getting my books Stu, same thing you should be doing." 

"C'mon, you're not still upset with me, are you?" He asked with a fake pout 

"Yeah actually I am Stu!" I shouted in a whisper 

"I couldn't help myself, I mean look at you?" He said as he squished my face. 

Swatting his hand away I said, "That's no excuse!" 

"You can be such a prude," he said as he leaned his head on my locker. 

"No, it's called being a good friend with a balanced moral compass that can see when her friend's boyfriend is about to cheat with her." I huffed as I slammed my locker door. 

"C'mon, (y/n)! You can't stay pissed forever! You'll come around eventually!" Stu shouted after me. 

"Like hell I will!" I shouted back. No matter how abundantly clear my feelings for him are, I would never do that behind Tatum's back.

[gingergofastboatsmojito]

Like clockwork

Knowing that I nailed every single prediction except the awards bc the time span covered in S3 was too short for the restaurant to even be considered for one (YET) and the apology, which he thought about making to C but chickenshit at the last minute forcing her character to lurk around a little longer next season, unfortunately.

And also knowing that S4 (which I always considered ENDGAME) might be finally the one where they get those awards and end the show on a perfect note, makes me incredibly happy because even though I do think S3 is the weakest so far, I also fully expected everything that happened in it, except the low Sydney screen time, compared with the excessive Faks screentime, which was the biggest bummer of all times.

I think that Storer is straining along the “non-Sydcarmy” narrative in the right-hand column and leaving about a million Sydcarmy breadcrumbs in the LEFT-HAND COLUMN, so he’s putting all the money on the endgame and that is why most people, including critics, and non-sydcarmy truthers feel underwhelmed after all the build-up excitement and high-expectations that had been forced around it. The critics are mixed, BECAUSE you didn't get exactly what you wanted, both truthers and anties, whereas I got exactly what I assumed I was gonna get from Storer, a TWIST that he will resolve in S4.

As I always said, my ONLY priority is getting my SYDCARMY ENDGAME, not putting Syd’s happiness above all, not even the restaurant getting a star, although IK it will at some point, not even Carmy finding happiness in any other place that is not that meadow Sydney. Etc. I don't play that game. I only want those things to happen in a Sydcarmy context, hopefully, but not necessarily, explicitly, not in a Lalaland kinda way.

What Storer did was open the game enough for a potential Clairmy endgame to happen, which last season seemed impossible, now he forced the narrative to make it fit in S4 if he wanted to. That’s why everyone is soooo underwhelmed, except me. Because I trust my intuition in the left-hand column which is what allowed me to nail all the predictions so far to the letter. Including Carmy being an ass to Syd and Syd not going anywhere, even when offered a way out of The Bear (the restaurant and the man).

And due to this accuracy in predicting Storer’s behavior, I still, like always, feel Sydcarmy is a S4 dish. Fully endgame material. Nothing has changed for me after watching S3. If anything, that belief is even more cemented in my mind now.

Storer is still right on schedule and the Sydcarmy clock started ticking more than ever, exactly as I anticipated HERE. I even nailed the "no sorry sign" thing, which is what we need to watch for in S4, as soon as it happens, we will be out of the woods.

I don't come from a place of wanting to get my needs met or wishes granted by someone as cruel and infuriatingly brilliant as Storer, that would be too naive on my part. I know what to expect when it comes to his writing and he's the Zodiac Killer for me, he can write the perfect crime, and the perfect plot and twist it in ways I can anticipate but no one can control in terms of layout and order but himself. He's a perfectionist and a control freak, incredibly talented piece of shit(sounds familiar?). So I work with what he serves me. I expect from him nothing but asphyxia first, to then give me breathing room for a few scenes, and then take it away. That's what this season was. The chokehold. The lack of oxygen. He's depriving us or making us think he will "on the table", while "under the table" the conversation or unspoken dialogue is the following:

Syd didn't sign The Bear's agreement, and neither did she sign the poaching contract, she's stalling both because she leads with her heart, not her head, which woulda made her get the hell outta the restaurant that has her name nowhere to be found in the reviews that are all about Chef Berzatto, where her business partner is a fucking robot she "can't babysit anymore" and who explicitly told her he's about to crack and where she dreads going to work every day. I mean NOT EVEN THAT CAN MAKE HER SIGN THE POACHING OFFER. I wonder why...

Carmy is still breaking the vow he made to Syd under the table: "You deserve my full focus". He's focusing on getting that bullshit star for her, he's focusing on the bully chef that used to torture him in EMP and ruined him mentally (because according to him it's that asshole's fault, not his own upbringing, and responsibility for having stuck around his bullying and not standing up for himself back then) while Syd is seating right next to him and Luca is flirting with her (I'm OK with that btw) and he's still blaming other people for the choices he made or the things he FAILED to do, instead of taking full responsibility and changing them, which I'm sure he will in S4 and I never expected him to do now because that process IRL for anyone takes YEARS, maybe DECADES, so...

And lastly, we have Chef Terry being the one who tries to open their eyes with her wisdom and they are both still blinking and being blinded by the brightness of it, they still can't see clearly what she's trying to tell them. Especially Syd, who had a full-on panic attack (her getting stuck in a walk-in while everyone else was on the other side of the door moment exactly as I predicted too). Why would she have that if that wasn't her realization moment? → THE ONE WE, SYDCARMY TRUTHERS HAVE BEEN FUCKING PRAYING FOR AND WILL HAVE TO FORCE HER TO FINALLY FOR THE LOVE OF DOG MAKE HER FUCKING MOVE!!!!

So summing up, like I said, I don't come from a place of expecting Storer to please me, my approach to anticipate his moves is asking myself: How can I get what I want while he gets his way because he will get his way regardless, so why fighting him? He will make me suffer, he will play every single string of my heart and he will make me think I've lost all hope and that is not even worth keeping on trying, on the surface. But under the surface, he will prepare THE TWIST and it's gonna be beautiful, and if I play my cards like this, fully expected. That's exactly what I did and what I got, the thing is that this was THE TRANSITIONAL SEASON, S4 is the RESOLUTION of all loose ends because it's ENDGAME. He's right on schedule as far as I'm concerned.

Bonus track: Sydcarmy breadcrumbs he planted: * Menu (heartshaped and best meal Syd ever had) → which is MEAT. * Her panic attack in the hallway after thinking of Carmy and all the history they have together. * Cicero and Nat asking her to sign the agreement once and for all, THEY ARE ASKING HER TO ENTER THE FAMILY, not just the restaurant. * She not quitting, even though someone offered her an easy way out on a silver platter. She can't quit The Bear, and I'm not talking about the restaurant. Even if she eventually does, Storer made it clear that her heart is not in it, she doesn't want to, otherwise, she would have done it by now. * Carmy NOT APOLOGIZING to Claire. Even if he eventually does, Storer made it clear that his heart is not in it, he doesn't want to, otherwise, he would have done it by now. (He did call her "peace" though, which was a cruel way of Storer giving us truthers the middle finger for having told him that the panic attack scene was his way of telling us SYdcarmy was endgame). We shouldn't trust this, Storer is Storing. * Lastly: In the final sequence (CLIFFHANGER), Carmy gets the reviews that will make or break The Bear, which leads to S4 → if the reviews force Cicero to pull the plug, Syd is free to sign the new contract and start over elsewhere. If the reviews are great (they are not because the menu was called INCONSISTANT) then he has a reason to go to Syd's place and show her they made it! Either way, in any of those scenarios he has the perfect motive to jug all the way to Syd's apartment and find her in the midst of her panic attack and CONFORT HER, which I think will be the opener of S4 and then the whole ENDGAME will go from there. This endgame will include Syd signing something that will tie her to Carm. And this endgame will also feature "Andrea". My only fear is: LALALAND ENDING, and I'll tell you why → COPENHAGEN+CLAIRE. Knowing that MG was with JAW in Copenhagen a few weeks ago, I'm sure that shooting some scenes, even though many said they didn't I still believe they did, leads me to think that Carmy, who is reminiscing of his time in Copenhagen like one of the most beautiful times of his life, can go back there with Claire after apologizing to her and rekindling their flame and after Cicero pulling the plug on The Bear letting Syd off the hook for her to pursue the other option presented to her. This will mean Carmy ends with Claire in Copenhagen somehow, sketching and maybe even fully leaning into his artsy side, who knows? And Syd gets her Star elsewhere, which she will find underwhelming because she wanted to get it with The Bear (the restaurant AND the man). This will pave the way for them to give themselves a second chance eventually if Carmy ever comes back from Copenhagen and chooses her over C. Or something along these lines but not necessarily in this order. Either way would explain JAW and C being in Copenhagen recently and would be a Sydcarmy endgame but bittersweet, not spoonfed and cruel, just like Storer likes it. I hope I am mistaken about this since the Lalaland kinda ending is my biggest fear and it's still fully plausible given S3. Still, sometimes I'm wrong... like when I thought that Richie was gonna quit on Carmy after the walk-in fight and he just stayed to spite him and make his life miserable LOL!

[going-to-ikea-for-the-fries]

I'm sorry for the way I acted and spoke.

No ifs, and, or buts about it. Not gonna try to justify the way I acted.

I was aggressive and uncouth, and I know I definitely hurt people, if nothing else, by being aggressive.

I didn't mean to start a "witch hunt" on any of the blogs involved in the screenshot post, including @soapskneebrace , @groguspicklejar and @glossysoap .

But I know that I *am* guilty of causing a commotion and causing people to view those blogs in a bad light.

I deeply regret the fact I was aggressive, that I caused a commotion/"witch hunt" and that I basically "broadcasted" a bad image of these blogs to my followers (and anyone else who saw my account/posts on the dashboard).

That was wrong of me and I won't try to justify it for any reason. I was blinded by my hurt, but that doesn't make what I did any better, nor does it suddenly make me innocent.

This makes me a gigantic hypocrite, because I did not realize, in my anger/revolt, that I was guilty of doing to these blogs the same thing I was accusing them of doing to Myka.

I apologize if my actions caused anyone to go harass any of the three of you and, especially, the ones that have had to turn off their anon asks, because I assume you got some hate as well. I didn't intend to encourage anyone to speak to you in a disrespectful way, if that was the case.

I don't think any of the blogs involved are bad people. I don't think they're evil. I only wanted them to recognize a bad behavior. Their behavior doesn't suddenly make them bad people. They made a mistake. And I don't want any one of them to think I believe they're a bad person.

My actions came from a place of hurt, worry, and, especially, frustration, at the belief that someone (Myka) who was already not doing well mentally was shown so much disgust and hatred that they were driven to a point of harming themselves for it.

Not just that, but it also frightened me, very much so, to see people be so callous about someone taking their life. I felt like those blogs should take accountability because realistically their actions still hurt another human being. But that doesn't mean they/you deserve harassment or to be treated poorly.

I would also like to add that Gaz erasure *is* a real thing and I whole-heartedly agree that there are plenty of situations of that in the fandom. Have seen them myself and even Activision often excludes Gaz from their own materials. I don't support Gaz erasure in any way.

My hashtag was in poor taste and I know it can and likely will be taken out of context. I enjoy Gaz as a character, love him, and did not intend to ever make it seem like I ever believed Gaz erasure didn't exist. My hashtag, however, spreads a harmful narrative and viewpoint that I don't believe. That is not what I meant when I used it but it is what ended up happening, and for that I'm deeply ashamed.

All I was trying to do with the hashtag was call attention to the misinterpretation of the original post, because it was never meant to exclude Gaz in the first place. The hashtag wasn't meant to say Gaz erasure doesn't exist.

I understand how disgusting that tag is and how easily it can/will be misconstrued, as well as the fact it will give way for bad people to say bad/toxic things about Gaz as a character. I will be deleting the hashtag off all my posts and I appreciate wholeheartedly that you all called me out on my use of that hashtag. You were all correct, and my behavior was wrong.

That being said, I try to be an honest person. I'm not gonna delete any of the posts I made, nor any of the asks I've answered, much less the first post I made explaining my actions. I don't think it would be fair or right of me to delete them and wash my hands of them or act like it didn't happen. I want to be held accountable for this. It happened, I'm sorry, and I'm not going to delete them and hide.

Finally, you're free to call me gullible for believing sheheal when it comes to Myka's death, and I will embrace that, because I'd rather have stood by them and have it be proven to not be true/be a hoax, versus not have stood by them and have it be proven true and feel like I was complicit in it. I know it's selfish of me to want to ease my conscious or feel less guilt, but I don't want to be a cynic about someone's death or pain.

I hope you're all okay, this was not an easy situation to deal with, for anyone involved and I hope you all have support systems in place and ways of clearing your heads. I hope you're all healthy and safe.

All of you are welcome to reach out to me if you need to. We can discuss it more because none of us acted alone and I don't want any of you to feel alone.

[magpod-confessions]

I hate how so many of the women on the podcast are either Literal Cops or like. narratively given the "yes you are correct to be saying this" but are deeply unpleasant about it. georgie is probably the least assholish about the whole matter and i get where she's coming from but she's still a bit of a dick about the cutting jon out of her life for. not quitting his unquittable job? backing out of the supernatural shit that infests his job? I am honestly forgetting exactly what her reasoning is, so I'm willing to cut her more slack. I understand her wanting to be safe. But Melanie, Basira, Daisy? :/ Took Daisy being buried alive for months to get out of the cop mindset. Basira refuses to give anyone ground on any matter, consistently thinks herself completely in the right for anything she says or does. Maybe I exaggerate a bit with that one, but it sure doesn't feel like it. Melanie,,, I REALLY liked her before the Slaughter business, which I get is. Yeah hurting people lashing out at a moment's notice, so on, but even then every argument she enters ends with a comment Mel makes and no one refuting it.

I want to like all these characters. I want the women in the podcast to have been characters I could've listened to for a while WITHOUT getting annoyed at the narrative deciding that their endlessly being waspish towards anyone and everyone was something that should be kept up and encouraged. Didn't realize until writing this out that I felt this strongly about it. 🗣️

a lot of their character choices make sense though . [ aside from basira , she barely has a character of her own imo ] daisy was stuck in her cop mindset because being a cop was the reason she got caught up with the Hunt in the first place , and being Buried for so long snapped her out of it because it basically took the Hunt out of her during that period of time . melanie i will say i have a bias for due to being one of my favourites , but the Slaughter amplified her anger , and gave her a ' reason ' to be so Angry . i can barely remember any arguments she was in so i can't really comment on that , but i do agree that there probably should have been more fightback with her remarks . georgie had every right to cut jon off , especially because jon did not even tell her that he couldn't quit ?? he was bringing horrific paranormal things into her home [ including a clown who steals your skin ] , without any warning before even starting to stay with her that those things might happen . she could have been home when nikola came , and could have gotten hurt because jon didn't tell her anything . plus , iirc , they hadn't spoken since college anyways ??? it isn't like they're close friends or anything , they're exes ! georgie has every right to ask jon to leave her alone . and again basira has barely any character of her own aside from daisy , which i hate and i wish she had more character . - deceit

Sry anon I am so tired rn and Ive gone off abt this before so uhh i like the characters in tma and how theyre written yay hooray bye - rosette

[writergirl2011]

Regarding Hyle Hunt

There's been a little discourse regarding the role one Ser Hyle Hunt will play in Lady Brienne of Tarth's storyline going forward. Some people seem to think that he is her perfect match because they hate the idea that Brienne deserves to have a romance with the man she wants--aka one Ser Jaime Lannister--because that messes with the narrative they want to push, whatever that narrative may be.

Some people think that Ser Hyle Hunt is a more interesting and more remarkable man than he truly is, when nothing he's said or done to this point has shown him to be anything of the sort. Personally, I'm not impressed with a man who set up a bet with his buddies over a young noblewoman's virginity--which was essentially the kiss of death to said young woman, who didn't have much going for her on the marriage mart in the first place. (Don't give me the "men will be men" explanation. That makes you no better than Randyll Tarly.) And his proposal of marriage boils down to: "Hey, baby, you've got an island and a lot of money, I've got a functional dick that's already proven to be fertile. I can close my eyes and blow out the candle. Let's do it." How romantic.

There has been absolutely no indication that Brienne will ever love this man, or even care the slightest for him. Threatening to turn someone into a eunuch isn't playful banter, especially not when said man once bet on her virginity and the last time she confronted someone(s) in that bet, she beat the living shit out of them. She hasn't forgotten, and she really hasn't forgiven. And when it comes to Hyle, she never really will, because in her eyes, what he did was the worst of all of them. He came the closest to winning by doing the one thing none of the others did--he made her feel included, like she might be earning a little bit of respect in that camp. Then she found out it was all a lie.

"But she hated Jaime at first!" Yeah, but that was before Jaime: told a lie about Tarth's wealth to save her from rape; shouted "sapphires" and risked a beating to save her from rape again; risked his own life to save hers by jumping unarmed into a bear pit (with only one hand to boot), and revealed the truth about why he killed Aerys, thus revealing that rather than it being a callous act, he'd saved an entire city of innocents--a noble act. THEN he put his trust in her to find Sansa, gifting her with a horse, armor, and a priceless sword. He gave her the respect Hyle only pretended to give her, expecting nothing in return.

What has Hyle done on their road trip? When Brienne kills the three former Bloody Mummers, I'm curious: how long was Hyle there? At least long enough to see her and Pod burying Nimble Dick, but the way he's described sitting there casually makes me think he'd been there longer. Watching. Sitting back doing nothing while she might've been killed. And we don't know what his true motives are in following her. If she finds Sansa, is he going to help her get Sansa to safety--or is he going to betray her and try to turn Sansa in to the Crown for the reward?

If you want any further proof that she doesn't care about Hyle, think about who she tried to bargain for when Lady Stoneheart was about to hang them all. Not herself, and certainly not Hyle. Podrick, the boy. And when they were hanging, as she was dying. the only person she had eyes for was Pod.

And who did she presumably agree to kill Jaime for? Podrick.

Yeah. She's really going to come around on Hyle.

[gold-rhine]

What is your fav genshin world quest? And do you think world quests suffer from not including playable characters in them? Or is it better for them to only have NPCs? Like I know some people have critiqued enkanomiya world quest with "where is Kokomi" since this is basically her place.

i think making blank statements like "world quests suffer from not having playable characters" is reductive and short-sighted. i dont care if characters are playable or not if they are well written and if they work within the quest. in fact, some archon quests suffer from having too much playable characters in them. we absolutely did not need ayaka date in inazuma archon quest. i wrote that post about collei bc i think her conflict fits aranara quests perfectly and current npc in that quest has no character and does nothing, except wake up and get dendro vision for free. its not about whether collei is playable or not.

actually enka is one of my fav world quests. and no, it absolutely did not need kokomi in it. and i rewrote entire inazuma archon quest, giving her actual character development and strategist arc, so i'm speaking from kokomi pr brigade perspective.

when we're talking if character should be in a quest or not, its not about whose place it is bc they like live here. its about what they would bring to this specific quest. what are the themes and POINT of the quest. and what is the development arc is for this character, does it fit this quest, what this character's presence would meaningfully contribute.

so like. what is enka about? its about enjou intrigues, its about lies and gaslighting, about how clever assholes like him can frame the narrative to make you see white as black and black as white and manipulate you into doing what he wants. and to echo this, the deeper, hidden narrative, is about meta players perception of the lore. its about how celestia are actually the invaders who conquered teyvat by force and then pretended to be creators of this world and killed anyone who even learned the truth, like orobashi, despite them having heavenly aethetic. how orobashi went to fight raiden knowing he will die as a part of celestia's punishment, even tho before we were told he wanted to destroy inazuma. and the deepest buried lead was that despite us being told that vishaps are evil dragons attacking humans, mindless brutal animals, they are in fact sentient beings, and in fact, real natives of this world who were invaded and then framed as evil for fighting back. like, before enka i didn't give a fuck about vishaps, but after it i became dragon lore enthusiast for this exact reason

at the core of that quest is how kokomi ancestors sucked horribly, mistreated their own people while presenting themselves as glorious empire, and also did horrible eugenics and warcrimes on vishaps, who they KNEW were sentient beings, because they could learn human language and talk. and they captured children of these sentient beings, grafted corrals into their flesh, kept them in captivity in a deepest cave for decades, just to then slaughter them and take the bloodsoaked corrals off their dead bodies to use it to revitilize watatsumi bare earth. and it was repeated again and again, generations of torture, literally soaking blood of dragon children.

and this all is kinda buried under the narrative of "defeating evil monster dragons to save the island", because this is traditional fantasy narrative and its structured like that to obscure the reality from players without ever lying to them. you have all the facts, but you need to realize that YOU are playing the villain here by yourself. just like enjou manipulating the truth without ever actually lying.

so like. what is kokomi supposed to do here. she can't realize the truth and try to make amends, bc at this point of the overall story players are not supposed to understand that dragons are people who were invaded by celestia. they are not supposed to see vishaps as sympathetic yet, enka is the first major lore drop to give this reveal foundation, but the reveal itself only happens in fountaine with neuvi.

and if kokomi doesn't realize the truth, then she's just being duped by enjou like the traveler, which makes her look stupid, and she does what? stands here and listens to the lore? kills dragons herself? so that after fountaine players could look at neuvi, realize that other vishaps are people like him too and go "wait, was kokomi doing warcrimes against dragons????" like, as of now, she has deniability bc like. she's never been in enka herself, she didn't know she's sending the traveler to kill what is basically dragon kids tortured and raised in captivity, for her its an ancient ritual to save her island. but like if you add her to the quest, it fucking crumbles.

tldr; characters should be in quests if they add something to them and have their own development based on quest events. kokomi should have had better written archon quest, she should not have been in enka. i do hope tho they revisit enka in future and then kokomi is here, bc now after dragon lore recontextualization, she can learn the truth and confront enka's legacy

[vespaer77]

I'd like to tell you a story...

... about my first Tav, Shayla Moonsong.

She is a Zariel tiefling, and a College of Lore Bard, and while she wasn't my first Tav, she was the first one to finish the game. I had romanced Lae'zel, Shadowheart, and Astarion in early access, so I focused on her because I was anxious to try a new romance, Halsin. However, because she was created just after full release, her save file was horrifically bugged. I got the cut scenes for Halsin that allowed me to progress his companion quest and cure Moonhaven of the shadow curse, but after that I could get no further dialogue from him at all, even in camp. I was playing with a party limit mod by the time he joined my party, so I never needed to worry about dismissing him from my party, but I did occasionally have difficulty with him following the party. I had to run around controlling him a lot. The only scene I ever got with him once he joined me was specifically his sex scene, after I did the love test at the circus in Act 3. I knew literally nothing about him, lol, so I had to google the answers.

But that was the thing. I knew… nothing about this guy. He was just some hot elf my bard boned, I had zero investment in him other than that. And it became a head canon for me about her - she was a typical bard, slutting her way to the Gate. She slept with the Emperor, she had a foursome with the drow twins and Halsin, and she absolutely played Haarlep's game to get his pass code. And while I'd wished, at the time, I could have had the additional enrichment of a poignant, heartfelt romance, I did enjoy exploring a character that was more free with her sexuality. As a result, though, I'd ended up "saving myself" for Halsin, because I knew his romance would (or in my case should but didn't) open up very late in the game. And I'd shot down all of the other companions fairly quickly.

Including Gale.

Especially Gale.

He was still bugged at the time, and his… overly amorous nature, lol, was widely known to anyone who'd spent more than ten minutes on the internet. So I ignored a lot of opportunities to know him better. And at the time, he was honestly my least favorite character. Particularly because I truly didn't enjoy him in early access. I genuinely found him offputting and way too over the top, and subsequently much of his narrative flew straight over my head.

Like a Boeing 777.

But let's be honest. Because of the nature of his story, and the way he seems to compartmentalize his trauma as devotion, and because of the mask of charm and confidence he wears to convince your character of his usefulness, and the way he tempers his emotions so he doesn't upset the orb, all of these things… the complexity of his narrative is super duper subtle. Or at least to me it was. I was the complete dumb dumb that didn't pick it up from context like we were supposed to.

Until I played my bard, Shayla. The first one to get through Act 3.

I had saved the culmination of Gale's quest in Sorcerous Sundries til nearly the end. Just before all the stuff with the foundry and Gortash. At the time, he was still a checklist item, a box to mark off on my road to the final boss.

So I went into it feeling like this man was probably pretty fed up with me, lol. And then he read the Annals of Karsus and I realized right then just how much I'd taken this character for granted. Because everything about him, his entire personality, shifted right there, and he became… someone else. And everyone else in my party noticed it too. The choice of responses I was given was crafted in a way that made me feel like the writers very much wanted me to notice a change had taken place within Gale. And then I picked a response that was honestly a touch unkind. I don't remember what I said to him, but…

He yelled at me.

"She left me to die!" he said. I remember that part.

And when the camera panned back to me and the party, we were all wide eyed and reared away from him in shock and disbelief that this charming, confident, gregarious, and benign creature was suddenly so… dark. And it was at that moment that a light switch was flipped. The missing puzzle piece was found and snapped into place. Suddenly I understood everything I'd missed up to that point, and it was more than just an "ah hah!" moment. It was an, "Oh my god…" moment. He hadn't become someone else.

We were seeing who he truly was for the first time.

His mask had slipped. Cracked beneath strain. He'd been pushed to a breaking point.

Naturally, because he's Gale, he recovered quickly. But it was too late. I saw him. And then two things happened. I fell in love with him. Instantly. But then I also realized the game was almost over. His romance opportunity had come and gone, there wouldn't be a "confess your love at the last minute" option. And of course his fate at the end of the game was not so kind to my bard either.

I've had big feelings about it ever since.

And then the Hugs mod came out, which only served to further poke my great big ouchy feelings.

I've lived in head canon land for a while now when it comes to Shayla Moonsong. In my head canon, he did end up taking her advice, he did pick an outcome that didn't involve using the Crown of Karsus or the Karsite Orb, and in no way did he become a pulverized cloud of stardust. He ended the game living peacefully in Waterdeep, giving Tara belly rubs and ushering in the next generation of wizards without grooming them for a lifetime of suffering.

But that leaves Shayla herself and her big, unresolved feelings. Feelings that were never processed or acknowledged, as the time was never right between her relationship status with Halsin and the fate of the world resting on her shoulders.

So, what is a bard to do when she falls in love, but it's too late?

Nothing small, that's for sure. And it will probably involve singing.

(I'm planning on maybe two to three chapters for this story, in which she very much makes things worse before they get better, lol. She's still learning. But it's definitely gonna end with some light cunnilingus and good, heavy railing either on a kitchen counter or against a bookshelf. I haven't decided yet. I do hope, if you do decide to read this humble beginning, that you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. And also please excuse my ill attempts at self-effacing meta humor.)

Pairing: Gale / named fem!Tav bard Rating: Smut is imminent (once we get through the foreplay… er, mutual pining) Word count: 4790

Read the story HERE or under the cut

Chapter One: The Wizard, The Real One

"Is there a loan shark in the audience or something?" Jory asked.

"Hmm?" Nelsyn replied, but she didn't look up from her lines. He supposed that was fair. She was busy letting Sara fix the adhesive on the curly teal wig that sat between her horns, and Jory knew as well as anyone on cast that nothing good came from troubling the crew. He let his heavy bear pelt slip from his shoulders as he sat down in the empty chair next to her.

"She's been there all night," he told his friend as he nodded toward the entryway to stage right. "Boss lady. We've been touring this show for months. We could all do it in our sleep, she knows that. Never seen her hover like this."

And there was no reason for it. "The Fall of the Absolute" was a roaring success. The production was Shayla Moonsong's crowning achievement, a media darling, and the current obsession of a whole continent. She'd catalogued volumes of stellar, five-star reviews thus far, and was selling out box offices everywhere she went. The show was the hottest new thing since "Volo's Guide to Sex in the Elemental Planes."

But it wasn't her biggest accomplishment. It wasn't what she was truly known for.

She was the Hero of Baldur's Gate.

She faced the illithid Netherbrain herself, and won.

And the tale they were telling in front of all those people was her story.

Heavens knew the winsome bard had faced far greater perils than watching a chapter of her life play out on a stage.

And yet there she stood, on this most unremarkable of nights, leaning just inside the door frame where she could observe without obstructing. Where she could scan the audience like a scrying eye, searching for… something. Normally she'd be flitting about like a cloud of gnats directing the cast and crew, answering questions, giving orders, helping the caterer, filling water jugs, finding toilet paper, running errands, meeting VIPs. Trying not to go crazy. But not tonight. Tonight she stood very still, chewing her thumbnail and unconsciously flicking the tip of her tail over and over, hard to the left.

And Jory remembered what Nelsyn had said about what it meant when tieflings flicked their tail to the left.

She was clearly nervous about something.

"Well, we're about to do the big emotional number," Nelsyn finally told him, closing the cover of her script while Sara gave her wig a good yank to test the glue. "It's the one all the teenage girls are sobbing over their sketch pads for right now."

She stopped to take a sip of water when Sara bent to pick up her cosmetics case. The girl made a gesture to Jory to give up his seat, and he tripped over his own feet unfolding himself to stand up. Once again he was reminded why he was cast as the big druid, Halsin. Shayla had told him once that while he wasn't quite as tall as the real thing… he was close. He wondered how easily the boss lady's former lover would have fit into that chair.

"This is our first time in Waterdeep," Nelsyn continued, trying her best not to move her lips while Sara applied a fresh coat of pink stain. "She probably just wants to see how it gets received. She doesn't really get to just sit out there and watch, you know?"

"Yeah."

"Could be it," Sara told them both, bunching her eyebrows and concentrating on keeping her hand steady. "Part of it, anyway. That is her favorite character out there, singing his heart out about the bomb in his chest."

"Her favorite character? The wizard?"

"Someone else got a bomb?"

"Please. Everyone knows I'm her favorite character."

"Listen," she replied as she wiped the applicator clean with a kerchief, "you're a good looking kid, and no one hates watching you take your clothes off out there." Nelsyn snorted, but they both ignored her. "A healthy percentage of ticket sales is probably yours, no one's arguing that. But that's not enough for you to game the win."

"Game the w- what?" Jory laughed, his oiled obliques glistening as he pulled the bear pelt back over his shoulders. "Look, I'm not trying to make it a competition or anything, okay? You brought it up. But I literally play an archdruid who carves ducks, sings to squirrels, and adopts orphans. Plus? He looks like this." He swept his hands grandly over his abdomen, flexing muscles most people had only seen in paintings or medical textbooks. "And did I mention he's also her boyfriend?"

"Her ex-boyfriend," Sara corrected him, pointing at Nelsyn as she spoke. "Have you even listened to the song she's getting ready to sing? You know. The one about love? And sacrifice?" She shifted her weight as an intern sidled past her to tidy the table, refill their drinks, and bag up the trash. "And don't tell me you haven't looked at Erik with both of your eyeballs. We've all seen him. The man has eyelashes as long as your forearm. And the biggest, saddest, wettest brown eyes on the face of this planet. He's like a baby cow, okay? I'm just saying." She stood to let the intern past her again, and bent to drag her cosmetics case out of the way. "This is the man she cast to play the lead in the big romantic climax of the whole show. When the main character realizes she's in love and it's too late. She's managed to capture," she pinched her fingers in front of her face, "the very essence of what it means to have sad children mooning over this show for years to come, okay? The baby cow is a cash cow. And he is clearly her favorite character."

"I think the vampire is her favorite character," the intern said, unprompted, as she reached to help Nelsyn out of her seat. "He's everyone's favorite character."

"You're all wrong," Nelsyn told them as she sloughed her way out of her robe with great theatrical flair. The intern caught it before it hit the floor, just as she'd done so many times before. Nelsyn stood with her hands on her hips and a gallant curve to her tail, casting her eyes toward the rafters and beaming a heavily pink-stained smile, resplendent in her artificially distressed leather armor blotted with thick fake blood.

"I'm her favorite character," she said, glowing with certainty. "And it should be obvious. I'm her! Now, stand back and watch while I go make a bunch of little girls cry!" And with that, she grinned devilishly and pranced toward the stage.

But once she was gone, the intern leaned forward and beckoned. Jory found himself instinctually drawn to listen.

"Well, you wanna know what I heard?" she whispered, and her eyes landed on Shayla for only just a moment. Jory nodded out of reflex. "I heard a rumor that someone in the orchestra pit overheard the boss lady telling someone in the box office that there was going to be a special guest tonight."

"What. Like, family?" Jory asked. "I thought she was an orphan."

"Could be anyone," Sara answered him from where she stood, combing through a wig hanging on the wall. "Philanthropist, politician. Who knows.

"Or," the intern hissed, leaning in even closer, "it could be one of them."

"One of who?"

"You know. Them. Thems what was with her, when all this went down."

"Like… like one of the actual…?"

"Don't you two have anything better to do than -"

"Wait. We're in Waterdeep," Jory breathed. He snatched up Nelsyn's script and started thumbing through it, fanning the pages and blowing a strand of hair across his nose. "Isn't… isn't the wizard…?"

Sara dropped her comb to her side and opened her mouth, but stopped and blinked at him instead. A thoughtful look crept across her face. She nodded her head in defeat.

"The wizard's from Waterdeep."

Then, as one, they all turned to look at Shayla where she stood at stage right, still as a statue.

And the music began to swell. The strings stirred the air with sounds as soft and sweet as sunset. The woodwinds sang a shrill crescendo as Erik began to make his famous climb.

And Nelsyn began to sing her famous song.

Before she disappeared beyond the narrow view from stage right, Jory watched her as she raised her arm to reach for him.

The wizard.

And her voice rang out so high and so clear, so heavy with every loss that Shayla Moonsong had ever suffered, with every plea that ever twisted her heart in bitter knots. With every word that ever fell from the mighty pen of their beloved playwright.

Who stood now with her hand at her throat. It bobbed once when she swallowed. Her lips parted and she drew a breath, and a hush fell over the crowd. She settled in to listen with the rest of them.

And her tail flicked once more to the left.

I know I've been unkind to you And I've pushed you way too far And I know in ignorance I forced you To reveal the man you are And I know I've left you with nothing to lose And even less to gain And though I know you owe me nothing Please don't give in to pain

Erik's silhouette was emblazoned across the long, velvet curtain hanging behind the hideously decorated staircase he was climbing. His movements were eery and real, despite their paltry attempts to pantomime a grisly memory that none of them had ever lived. Each step was measured and dreamlike and perfect, like a person caught in a trance or a dead man called home to his rest by a spectral light.

Or in this case, a massive papier mache facsimile of a netherbrain hung from a scaffold over the stage.

Please, Please don't do this I'm begging you not to go Please, Please don't do this There's something you need to know What can I do to make you wait Convince a goddess to change your fate Please tell me that it's not too late There's something I didn't say…

"It can't be him, though. Can it?" Jory asked. "Didn't he, like," he pointed a finger toward the stage, "explode?"

"Oh, no. It's just a story, mate," came a voice from behind them. It was Velanthyr, the elf who played Astarion. They rounded the table and perched themself on the corner, placing their white wig beside them as they took a bite from an apple. "She's embellished tons of stuff. For emotional impact. They all do it."

I should have loved you since I met you I should have loved you all along

"That bard she played? In the first act?"

"Yeah?"

"She ain't really dead either."

"Seriously?"

I should have told you that I love you Instead of hiding behind a song

"My cousin met her. Said he saw her play someplace they had dinner."

"No shit?"

"It's true. She teaches music in Baldur's Gate."

Is there nothing left that I can do But fall to my knees and pray

"So what's with her, anyway?" Velanthyr asked, pointing their apple at Shayla while they wiped the juice from their lips with their other hand.

The tip of her tail flicked again, and slowly she wrapped her arms around her middle.

To any god or any devil Who'd keep you from walking away

"She's been acting weird all night," they said.

"S'what we were just talking about."

Please, Please don't do this! Turn around! This isn't right!

"We think the wizard might be out there," the intern told them. "The real one."

"Oh no," the elf laughed.

Please, Please don't do this! Please, I'm begging you to fight!

"Hope he has a sense of humor. It's about to get weird!"

"Weird?!" Sara growled at them, flinging her comb about.

Forget your fickle god's desire I'd cross the oceans, I'd walk through fire I'd conquer all the Hells entire For you And yes, I know you're tired

"The man is getting ready to watch himself die! And I'm sure I don't need to remind you his death is self-inflicted! If there's a chance that any of this is real? That the trauma this man survived is on display? You all need to show a little respect." She shook her head and turned back to her wig. "Shut up and let her listen."

Sara's words may have stung him, but Jory knew she was right. So he obeyed her, and he listened. And for the first time he truly heard the fragile warble of desperate heartache that Nelsyn had worked so hard to craft through her voice.

Come back to me and take your rest Indulge one overdue caress I'll steal the sorrow from your chest And confess, I will confess

But he didn't just uncover a new appreciation for his friend and her level of skill. There was more to it than that. There was a depth to this scene that he'd been missing before now.

There was a meaning. One that wasn't meant for the whole world.

It was only meant for one man.

He could sense it in the vibrant tension bound between Shayla Moonsong's shoulder blades.

And then Nelsyn grew quiet. Everything got quiet. The music made a subtle shift to something low and dulcet, but tense, like a string pulled too tight without snapping. Jory found his feet had led him to stand at Shayla's shoulder. He could hear her breathing through her teeth and he felt compelled to reach out and take her hand.

She took hold of it like a lifeline.

You're everything to me and more You're all that I've been fighting for You're more than just an end to war…

Nelsyn paused after that last note. It was important to the narrative, it was the whole point behind the wizard's story. But her longing would go deliciously unrequited, and would inspire a veritable deluge of creativity from fandom communities everywhere.

Shayla squeezed Jory's hand, squeezed her eyelids firmly shut. She held her breath and Jory could see Erik had reached the top of the rise. There he stood, a straight, unyielding figure gazing off into the liminal distance, resolute.

And he would never turn around.

It wouldn't be long. Any moment.

Nelsyn sang her penultimate line.

And I would give my life for yours…

She held the word so long it nearly sank into Jory's skin. It sent a wave goosebumps to crest over every inch of his body. The orchestra wove their way through their final, sweeping refrain, and the conductor brought them to a close on a plaintive harmony between a flute and an oboe.

And then the light collapsed.

It shrank to a small, pale circle that drew its stark and shining focus on a razor-slim shadow cast against the curtain.

In the shape of a dagger.

Erik lifted it high and turned its point toward his heart.

"Gods preserve me," Shayla mumbled to herself. It was the only sound Jory could hear aside from the sniffs and sniffles of the audience. Collectively they teetered at the edges of their seats, enthralled by a beautiful, mournful man who was counting the final seconds of his life with undaunted stoicism and courage.

Nelsyn could've whispered her final line if she wanted to, but instead it burst from her as a scream.

"Don't do this!!!"

Jory felt it thrum like a shockwave within his own chest, and beside him Shayla flinched. She squeezed his hand even harder.

"Just tell me when it's over," she said to him. And then suddenly there was a flurry of activity.

He took a step back and yanked her away from the door when a small flock of technicians flew in to crowd the space they left behind.

Up high, far in the corner, Jory saw the dagger move against the curtain. And all of the good people of Waterdeep gasped when they watched the blade meet its mark.

"Fire in the hole," a technician murmured beside him, and the spotlight on the curtain went black.

Then a pair of spells were cast that bathed the audience in a blinding aurora. It blazed with ribbons of vivid blues and purples and greens, speckled with myriad glittering white stars.

And an arrow of roaring thunder was launched far overhead. It detonated with such a resounding boom that it shook everything, even the floor boards beneath Jory's feet. It rattled seats and drinking vessels, it toppled music stands, and it made Erik's staircase sway alarmingly as it was wheeled backstage, with him still riding precariously at its top.

Shayla Moonsong's face fell into her hands.

"Go on," Erik sang as he danced his way down the stairs. "Tell me how devastating I was. Don't hold back. Tell me everything."

"You were spectacular, my love!" Velanthyr assured him as they ran to greet him, cradling his face in their hands and kissing him sweetly. "You always are."

"Were they weeping?" he asked his lover, nuzzling their face with his own. "The lights are so bright, I can never see."

"They were drowning in their tears, darling. Drowning."

"Is everything alright?" Sara asked as she approached on her tiptoes, reaching for Shayla's arm. Velanthyr's wig drooped at her side, forgotten. "What can I do?"

"I can't even look," Shayla whimpered through the palms that smothered her face.

"Oh honey," Sara cooed as she pulled the woman closer. And in a blessed act of mercy, she asked the question that no one wanted to ask, but someone needed to. Long before now, before this critical point had been breached.

"He's out there, isn't he?"

"I think I've made a huge mistake." Shayla slid her fingertips down to press against her lips, unable to form any other words. She could only shake her head, her eyes as wide as dinner plates.

"Do you want us to look? See if we can see him?"

"I don't think I wanna know."

"Where is he seated?"

"E6."

"Oh." Sara briefly grimaced at Jory, but didn't stop rubbing circles across Shayla's back. "Front and center. Of course."

"Yep." The way her lips popped at the end of the word only served to emphasize how mortified she was. "Wouldn't want him to miss anything."

"Well, of course not. He's your guest," Sara replied, jerking her chin in a way that suggested Jory had been volunteered for reconnaissance.

"Oh gods!" Shayla raked her claws past her horns to twist them into her hair. "I even told him he could invite his mother!"

"Well that's a perfectly reasonable thing to do, one would think."

Jory understood his assignment. He sauntered away but paused at the door frame. The show wasn't over yet. When the technicians finished collecting their gear, they scrambled off to safely stow their rockets and retrieve the set pieces for the final scenes. They were dragging the staircase away from the main thoroughfare when Corinne, the woman who played the narrator, whipped past them.

"Coming through," she chimed, racing out to center stage, taking her place before the curtains could rise once more. Her final soliloquy would lead them into the epilogue, and would give Jory the opportunity he needed to cast his eyes past the orchestra pit and across the section of seats that lie beyond.

Front and center.

He would only have a minute or two. Sara would need to replace Velanthyr's wig. Erik needed a drink and Nelsyn's makeup needed a touch up. Very soon they would be on stage, the lights burning holes through their retinas, leaving them blinded and oblivious to all but each other and the saga they would spin to its end. He reached up to buckle the clasp on the bear pelt that draped across his shoulders.

For now, it was the narrator's turn. But he was ready. And then the curtains rose.

He smashed his face against the door frame like a cat burglar. A shaft of light swung down upon the stage illuminating Corinne at its center, and Jory peered out into the darkness it left in its wake. He squinted until he found the end of the section behind the orchestra pit, and he started counting backwards from there.

But seat E6 was empty.

Certain he'd made a mistake, he counted back again to double check, to be extra sure.

But he was right the first time.

"It's empty," he muttered out of the corner of his mouth.

"What?" Shayla cried as she spun to face him.

"Yeah," he told her. "I counted twice to make sure I had the right seat, but no one's in it."

"Oh gods." She began to pace, wringing her hands. "What about the one next to it?"

"Which side?"

"Just tell me if you see an older woman."

"Umm, okay." At first he wasn't certain. There was a child on the right side, but on the left was a person who'd stood up, and was bent with their back toward him, like they were reaching for something. "I think… maybe. Yeah. I think so. It looks like she's getting up. She's picking up a bag or something. Is that a cat?"

"Tara?"

"Who brings a cat to a -"

"She's not a cat. She's a tressym."

"What the hell is a tress- holy shit, it's got wings! It just flew over - oh! Oh, I think I see him!"

"Where!"

The tressym sailed through the air to float beside a tall, slender man who was moving quickly up the aisle toward the exit. He wasn't running, out of proper respect for social decorum, but he had the energy of a man who wished he was. His shoulders were hitched up near his ears and he was stifling his mouth with the back of one hand.

And a shiver ran down Jory's spine.

This was the guy. The wizard. The real one.

Gale Dekarios, of Waterdeep.

In the flesh. Right there.

From what little Jory could see, the play had done him justice. He was a very handsome man, lithe and lean, long-legged with a powerful stride, and every bit as comely as Erik had depicted him to be.

Yet it was hard to imagine, through simple sight alone, that this was a man who had once been the Chosen of a god. Or that this was a man who had once vanquished the avatar of Death itself. A man who had put an end to the Cult of the Absolute.

A man who had once made his own decision about whether or not to plunge a dagger into his heart.

But it was easy to see why Shayla would want to stop him. This man clearly meant something to her.

He didn't know what providence deemed it necessary for him to ask. It certainly wasn't any of his business. But the question tumbled out of his mouth, unbidden. Perhaps the gods themselves just wanted to hear someone finally say it out loud.

"Does he know how you feel about him?"

Shayla slumped and let her hands fall limp to her sides. She pulled her lip into her mouth, and her eyes swam with visions of regret. "No," she whispered to him. "It was never the right time."

Oh, how irony could be so cruel.

"You should go after him, then," he told her. "Go quick. If you hurry, you can catch him before he gets to the front door."

"Shit!" she snarled and for a moment, Jory was afraid she'd scurry across the stage in the middle of Corinne's long and emotional speech. There was a wild streak in him that almost hoped she would. But instead, she bolted through the loading bay doors and flung herself outside, presumably to tear down the alley between the theater and the wine cellar to run around the building toward the front.

Nelsyn wandered over to them, sipping cold water from her mug and watching over her shoulder as the loading bay doors swung back and forth on their hinges.

"Jory," she stated flatly. "What did you do."

"What?!" he cried. Sara could only double over and laugh at him. "I didn't do anything!"

"Somebody did something," she said, eyeing the doors skeptically. "And it looks a lot like it was you."

"I'm serious! She asked if we could see him, and I told her yes. That's all."

"See who?"

"The wizard!"

"What wizard? You mean, like… Erik?"

"No!" He stuck out both hands and shook them. "The actual wizard! The real one, from Waterdeep! Yes, he's still alive! No, he didn't explode!"

"Well, everybody knows that…"

"She wanted to know where he was, so I told her, and then she ran out the door."

"Wait. So he was actually here tonight?"

"Jory," Sara accused him, still smiling pitifully at him as she crossed her arms over her chest. "That's not all you said to her."

"But I didn't -"

"You asked her a pretty personal question."

"Where was he sitting?" Nelsyn continued as she took another drink and leered at him over the rim over her mug.

"E6."

"Wow. Front and center."

"Yeah. She didn't want him to miss anything."

"So what did you ask her?"

Jory could only roll his eyes and sigh. None of them had time for this. He dropped his head and pinched his brow between his thumb and his forefinger but when he looked up, he found all eyes were on him. Even Erik and Velanthyr had paused their conversation long enough to turn around and stare. The technicians in the back tried to appear as if they weren't listening, but everyone knew they were. Suddenly, he could feel the heat that was trapped beneath the heavy mantle of his bear pelt.

"I asked her if he knew how she felt about him."

"What do you mean, how she felt…" And through the window of her eyes he could see her mentally calculating every single word she'd just sung. Right in front of the very man it was all intended for. Seated front and center, missing nothing. Her eyes flickered like golden flames.

"Holy shit," she breathed. "Like… feelings? Real ones? What did she say?"

He didn't get to answer. Just then, raucous applause erupted from behind them. The thunderous retort of clapping hands and cheers drowned all other sound, and signaled to them all that their time was up. Corinne came skipping backstage as the curtains fell behind her.

"And that's a wrap for me! Slam and a dunk! Go get 'em while they're - what's going on?"

"The wizard was here tonight," Nelsyn answered her without breaking her eye contact with Jory. "The real one. Shayla is in love with him. What did she sayyy?"

"No," he told her, holding very still while Sara dabbed a powder puff over his face. "She said no. He doesn't know."

"Are you serious?" Corinne gasped, pressing a hand to her heart.

"Well he does now," Sara chuckled, wriggling her eyebrows as she dropped the powder back into her cosmetics case. "I hope she caught him before he got away. He deserves an explanation."

And all around them, activity buzzed. Scenic backdrops rolled by, the intern fussed with Velanthyr's wig on her tiptoes, Sara dug frantically around searching for her lip stain, and the other actors began lining up to take their places. But in spite of the jubilant bustle of life happening all around them, Nelsyn could only stand with her mug in her hands, awestruck by the revelation they'd just been given.

"Sweet tapdancing Asmodeus," she laughed, shaking her head with her eyes transfixed on some far away place. "You mean to tell me that this whole time," she jostled the water in her mug when she bellowed, "THIS WHOLE TIME?! This whole play has been just a great big love letter to some… man?! For months?! And he only just heard it? Tonight? For the first time?"

"I think that about sums it up, yep," Sara told her, taking the mug from her hands.

"That's genius!" She shuffled to her place in line, utterly befuddled, her eyes glassy and glazed. "They're star-crossed, it's perfect! I wish this would've happened months ago! Just you wait, you'll see. When all the little fan fic authors out there find out about this? They are gonna go berserk! People everywhere will pay money for a vial of our sweat! The contents of our chamber pots - we'll be famous!

"Gods have mercy on us all. There might even be a sequel. We'll be touring this show til the day we die!"

************************************************************************