#which is cool if you like variety obviously but for me it's just kind of annoying

[miharuhebinata]

wait what the fuck, why are there no death note pop up parade figures 🤨😑

[yellowcabdriver]

desperate

pairing: yuuji itadori x f!reader

genre: fluff

a/n: i quit my old soul-crushing job and i’m desperately trying to finish off all wips before i start my new job svdndjsj please enjoy 🙏🏻 live laugh lovesick yuuji 🫡💕 very shamelessly got inspired by this post

nobara said yuuji shouldn’t call you.

“you don’t want her to think that you’re desperate, right?”

yeah, maybe.

but here’s a thing that a considerate friend that is nobara didn’t take into account.

yuuji is crazy about you and he is indeed very desperate for you and your attention. he is filled with joy and excitement whenever he hears your voice – it’s almost pavlovian, very embarrassing. or at least could be, if yuuji cared enough. his pride is a small price to pay to have a wonder that is you in his life.

but yuuji has to admit, maybe nobara is right. at the end of the day you two are not dating (yet, as yuuji very much hopes). you two are not even very close friends (yet, again, as yuuji hopes).

yuuji’s finger lingers over a call button under your name embezzled with a variety of heart emojis.

“at least text her before calling, you know, it’s kind of a new etiquette these days, not to call someone unannounced,” yuuji remembers nobara’s chastising. it makes yuuji hesitate. of course, he doesn’t want to seem like an ignorant bumpkin who isn’t aware of social cues. what if you’re busy? which you probably are because you are so smart and cool. and you are definitely a great texter (even if you weren’t, yuuji wouldn’t know any better because he is that much in love).

with a sigh, yuuji slides over to messages and starts typing rather pathetically “hiiii how are you???” while fighting the urge to add like a gazillion emojis to express himself better. nobara is really getting into his head, yuuji sighs. this is hard considering he is not exactly an overthinker (that would require having more than one thought and his only singular thought right now is you). a text is better than nothing, sure, but yuuji really really really needs to hear your voice. so he rushes back to his contacts and gathers every ounce of willpower to press on your name.

after almost painful eleven seconds you pick up. yuuji’s breathing hitches a little when he hears your sleepy “hello?”

he wants to throw himself from a window.

he forgot it’s almost 3 am.

“hi, um, hey. sorry, you’re asleep.”

what an absolute mess.

“well, not anymore,” you softly laugh. yuuji, though embarrassed, is so happy to hear your laughter.

“sorry.”

“it’s okay, yuuji. did something happen?”

well, kinda. obviously, yuuji’s not going to tell you that he’s just so down bad for you that he called you up in the middle of the night for no reason.

“no, nothing, i- i’m sorry, it’s nothing urgent, i better call you tomorrow.”

“are you sure? i mean, it’s…” he hears you scramble. “three in the morning. it has got to be an emergency.”

it is, just not a conventional one. yuuji violently shakes his head and then remembers that you can’t see him (why is he such a fool when it comes to you?)

“no, no, i’m sorry, i screwed up. i forgot that not everyone stays up late like me. go to sleep. sorry.”

“stop apologising, it’s all fine. okay, i’ll believe that there’s no emergency. but you better call me tomorrow to confirm that you’re okay.”

yuuji’s cheeks are burning.

“yeah, of course. sorry again.”

you laughed.

“good night, yuuji.”

“good night.”

yuuji’s fingers shake when he types the first message.

“sorry, i actually didn’t mean to call you.”

delivered.

yuuji’s eyes are not leaving the screen beaming brightly into his face.

read.

his palms are suddenly cold.

dot, dot, dot.

“it’s okay,” followed by a smiley emoji and a thumbs up. such a you thing to send. for a minute he contemplates going to sleep and maybe die from embarrassment in his sleep but something takes him over. before he can register it, his fingers start typing.

“fuck it”

delivered, read.

“i did mean to call”

delivered, read.

“i wanted to talk to you”

delivered, read.

“to hear your voice and your laugh”

delivered, read.

yuuji can physically feel the blood rushing away from his limbs when he sees three dancing dots.

“i want to hear your voice, too.”

yuuji’s head is spinning as he fights the urge to jump around the room while smiling at his phone like a madman. megumi and nobara for sure would be disgusted at this sight. he is so ecstatic that he almost misses the next message.

“ft?”

his long calloused fingers dance across the screen to quickly type “i’ll call you”.

he rushes to facetime.

you pick up almost instantly.

yuuji looks at your face, traces of sleep still present in your expression but he can see – and it makes his heart flutter – that you are genuinely happy to see him, too.

you both spent a few intimate moments staring at each other’s badly lit faces, glowing under the dim lights of your screens in the dark, until yuuji finally finds the courage to break the silence.

“so… did you sleep well?”

you quietly laugh and yuuji falls in love even harder though he thought it wasn’t possible. he can’t wait to tell the gang that being desperate pays off, and oh so well.

and what does nobara know anyway.

[ohnoitstbskyen]

hello mr skyen... might i ask for opinions... for an elise thing im doing

Oh, this is interesting! I am not 100% sure what kind of opinion you're looking for - is this meant to be a skin idea or a full-scale redesign of the character? I'll give you some thoughts, with the caveat that these are off-the-dome impulsive reactions, and whatever I bring up is not meant to be prescriptive "this is wrong do it different" criticisms, they're just me bouncing ideas off of what you are presenting.

If anything I say is useful, then hooray. If it is not, or if it misses the point of what you are trying to do, please discard it without a second thought.

Bringing in some 1920s and 30s fashion energy is an interesting idea. Elise is meant to be this high society socialite who has literally been around for centuries and killing people, so there is definitely a solid idea in using an aesthetic which would be olde timey to modern eyes, but also a bit anachronistic and odd and instinctively a bit out of place in a high fantasy military state like Noxus. I think that's really interesting, and definitely more interesting than the somewhat directionless black leather lingerie her base design keeps her in.

We're playing around with gender presentation it looks like, which I think is a really solid play. Elise is generally presented as a fairly standard type busty sexy video game babe in League of Legends, with Legends of Runeterra opting to show her as a bit more spindly and flat chested. I think her general archetype definitely requires a level of sexiness, sensuality and seductiveness, she is an archetypal Black Widow character, but I don't think that means she necessarily needs to be stereotypically femme in body and presentation. Plus, the LoL universe has more than enough classic femme fatales already, anything that adds variety would be good.

I very much like the red and black fashion - she looks very credibly like an eccentric Noxian socialite, especially in the first two outfits.

I kinda feel like I'm missing something up around her collarbone and chest? A necklace? Tattoo? Cosmetic? I can see the idea of having the collar be exposed flesh for the allure of it, but I feel instinctively like it's conspicuously "empty" next to the highly made up and elaborate makeup and hair, and then the fashionable costuming.

Given that Elise is a transforming character, you could futz around a bit with her proportions? The shoes extend her legs by lengthening into points already, which is a good thing to carry over from the base design, but I think given the importance of long spindly legs to spiders, you could push it even further. think something like Bayonetta for example:

additionally, you could use something like a wrap-around collar, or a necklace, to play around with extending her neck, too, to make her even taller, and push a bit into the uncanny if you want. covering the neck up makes it easier, in my experience, to lengthen it without it looking too obviously odd.

it sort of depends on the impact you want her to have though. very tall, very slender, very long proportions are striking, and carry a vibe of the ethereal, maybe slightly mystical. height also often codes for power.

if you want her to be a more down-to-earth presence in her human form, though, especially if you want her to pretend to be harmless and/or vulnerable as part of her seduction and manipulation play, making her shorter is usually a better shortcut to achieving that vibe

hm... what else...

Well, the spider leg spikes on her arms are cool - I really like the idea of concealing them as some sort of high fashion eccentric accessory, although it's not 100% clear to me from the art here exactly how they are attached to her?

I really like the fashion design of the middle idea. I like giving her trousers and going right up to the edge of letting her have a naked upper body. It's a good way to play with the tease, I think, the allure of almost seeing what is hidden.

I'm not 100% sure about the green markings on the body. on the one hand, she DEFINITELY needs something Shadow Isles coded in her design, since that's where she draws her power from, on the other hand having it that much out in the open feels maybe a little... obvious? at least in her human form?

Of course, this again depends on the intention with the design. if you're designing this as a design to appear in League of Legends, whether as a champion update or a skin, then making her source of power obvious on her body is actually crucial, it's really important for in-game visual language. If it's for something like an appearance in Arcane, you could probably dial it back a couple of notches and make it more subtle.

Like, maybe the same idea of glowing tattoos that light up when she uses her powers, but they are subtle little spiderweb patterns on her skin that look like elaborate decoration when not in use? something like that?

anyway, that's all I can think of as a reaction just off the top of my head. this is really cool, I hope you keep working on it!

[theaceace]

While Dream was hanging out in the fishbowl, a few dreams and nightmares that (like the rest of the Dreaming) think Hob would be the best thing to happen to Dream in a long time and also that Dream has abandoned them all, go and start bothering Hob in the waking world

But because they're dreams and nightmares, it kind of manifests as (usually awful) hallucinations. Specifically of Dream, a lot of the time (look they're trying to get their lord's attention by needling his human, yes it's stupid, no they don't have any better ideas)

And Hob, with the same attitude that's carried him through 600-odd years is like 'well I guess immortal life is already so goddamn weird this might as well happen' and just rolls with the fact that he is having hallucinations now. Learns some coping mechanisms, gets really good at not reacting to them even when horrible terrible things are happening

So when Dream finally does get back and goes to see Hob, he's just like oh cool I'm seeing things again, thought I got over that like ten years ago, ah well got a lecture to finish, better get on with it and barely even glances at Dream

Dream, of course, reacts to this like 🥺 like the sad wet cat he is, but also maybe this is a bad time. His friend is shaping young minds, he's very important and busy, Dream can come back later

So he pops back into Hob's life that evening when most people are, if not asleep, then at least at home. Hob's in the New Inn (of course) but it's quiet enough that Dream thinks maybe Hob will talk to him this time

Absolutely nothing. Like sitting across from a brick wall (and because Dream tends not to be noticed if he wants, and he very much doesn't want to be perceived while he begs forgiveness from a mortal, people's eyes just kind of skim over him, which isn't helping with Hob's assumption that he's a figment of Hob's imagination)

Dream is feeling very, very cold. None of the gentle things he's been saying to Hob have got anymore reaction than his hand tightening slightly around his marking pen (Hob is waiting for something horrible to happen, as it so often used to when he imagined his stranger, and is getting more and more tense the longer it doesn't)

Eventually they're the only ones left, even the bar staff have gone home because it's Hob's pub and he has a set of keys. So finally, FINALLY Hob looks up and is like 'oh, you're still here. We're still doing this, then' flatly

Dream: I thought I might - (he was going to say apologise) Hob: yes alright get on with it, the sooner you start the sooner you can piss off again (thinking this is a vision here to torment him) Dream: ...very well. I understand, and you need not worry, I shall not trouble you further. Only, let me ask, one final time: do you still wish to live? Hob: (well it's never gone down like this before, at least I'm getting some variety in my waking nightmares) what sort of bloody stupid question is that, obviously yes! Dream: I am. Pleased to hear that. Goodbye, Robert Gadling

So off he goes, leaving a bottle of wine that he pinched out of someone's dreams on the table. Hob scoffs, rolls his eyes and goes to bed

And panics the next day when one of the bar staff asks where the super fancy wine came from, and also who his friend was last night, didn't get a good look at him, but I don't think I've seen him before?

There Hob is. Screaming internally, because he's only gone and fucked it all up and now he's NEVER going to see his friend again

(obviously he does, probably because one of the nightmares finally confesses what they did to Lucienne, who tells Matthew, who speaks both fluent Dumb Human and Dramatic Fucker Dreamlord and manages to get the two of them in the same room long enough to talk it out)

[lorynna]

i would consider myself a radical feminist also and i agree with the vast majority of your views. honestly i am just curious why you think aromantic/asexual people don't exist or shouldn't be labeled. i don't mean this as hate i'm honestly curious to know if it is part of most radical feminist views

if you can accept someone who is lesbian, and knows for themselves that they aren't at all attracted to men, why would you not accept someone who realizes both that they aren't attracted to men and they aren't attracted to women? (obviously very different identities and experiences i'm just wondering why some people can be trusted to know who they're not attracted to and others can't)

Hello anon, thank you for asking so kindly.

I am going to try and explain what my personal opinion on the topic is, as well as I can, and please keep in mind that I don't speak for the radical feminist community but just for my own views.

First of all, the definitions I have read of both terms (aromantic and asexual) so far aren't really specific, differ from each other at times and leave open room for interpretation. The gendies meanwhile continue to preach "everything means something different to each person" and "it is a broad spectrum" just like they do with gender, which according to them is so complicated and unfathomable that you have to ask each person identifying with it seperately, to know what their gender means to them.

The first thing that comes up when I google the definition of both terms displayed below (just as an example of what I mean):

Like, what do "sexual feelings" all include and to which extent does "little romantic attraction" go?

I do think that people who fit the mainstream criterias for being asexual or aromantic exist, I am not trying to say that it is naturally impossible to experience no sexual or aromantic attraction to anyone. I do think it is really really rare for this to authentically occur though, and that a lot of people identifying with these labels have experienced some kind of trauma or are doing it because it has become a trend.

The thing I most dislike about these labels are not only their inconsistency in definitions but also how much they are starting to get pushed online = trend. In my personal experience I have seen not only online but also offline how younger kids and teens start to pick up on these labels without knowing what they truly mean, because they are "cool" and just like gender it is starting to become a similar trend. Seeing who publicly identifies as those labels, it is again mostly the demographic of teenagers who are going puberty and the several different, crucial developmental phases that come with that.

Since you are asking if this is a common radfem belief, I cannot say. There surely is a variety of opinions, however I have seen some good takes from which I remember being said that a person doesn't need the label of "asexuality" or "aromanticism" as an excuse to not participate in dating culture or to not engage in sexual relations. It should just be common sense to not ask strangers about their dating lives and not ask "why" if they say they are not dating or having sex as if it was something unusual.

Also answering to your last question of "why I don't trust those people to know who they are attracted or not attracted to" is not what I am trying to do insinuate by questioning/criticizing the labels they use to describe said attraction. It is not about me trying to say "I don't believe you, you are lying" it is "why do you need those labels". I just don't think it adds anything valuable to society and it's getting more mainstream each day. Now even with teenagers using those labels when they haven't had the time to figure out themselves as a person yet. It just looses its meaning.

I've seen women going through long periods without having partners (radfems participating in male seperatism for example) being asked "oh, so you're asexual, right?" or "oh, so you're unable to form a romantic connection?" because people start assuming, forgetting that there are so so many reasons why people might not have partners or might not want to.

Again, people who truly are not experiencing any sexual desire or romantic desire are really rare but through so many people mindlessly adopting the label it looses it's meaning because it gets more broad in definition and everyone continues to define it for themselves. "Yeah, I am asexual but sometimes I have sex. Like once a month but that's barely enough so I must be asexual." Like... you might just have a low libido and that's totally okay! Why do you feel the need to label yourself as asexual? Is it easier because of your partner's expectations, maybe? Is a simple no not enough for them?

"I'm 15 and I haven't had a crush on anyone so far. I actually think boys/girls are ew and I can't imagine kissing anyone, like ew saliva. Also the girls/boys in my class are so annoying!!" And no, I've heard statements like this several times before. I mean, give yourself some time you're only 15.

Why do we always have to slap a label on top of everything and why can't we just go through life saying "yeah at the moment I really don't feel like having a partner, I don't want to date or have sex. Maybe that will change someday, maybe not and either way it's okay, I'm open for change. " but we have to say "oh yes, I'm an asexual aromantic without doubt and that won't change, that's my identity" and then when that changes we get an identity crisis realising that oh, maybe that wasn't me? Who am I now?

It all boils down to me not being able to take those labels seriously anymore, which is why I reacted so sarcastically in the post you're probably referring to, where I talked sarcastically about those terms.

"labels are different for anyone"

like no.. to define means to limit, to define means to exclude people who don't meet those criterias and that's okay, that's what makes labels and words meaningful = contributing to a conversation of mutual understanding instead of having to first discuss what each person means by using one and the same word.

Like I can't go outside in a clothing store saying "oh I want a red dress" and when she shows me a red dress I then say "oh that's not red for me, that's yellow by my own definition." How do you expect everyone to effectively communicate by leaving the option open for everyone to seperately define one single term??

But as we know, the gendies aren't fans of definitions.

[helenofsparta2]

kind of related to your post about zoe just now but: what do you think of the hunters in general? I've got a lot of thoughts on them myself.. most of them not that positive lmao lots of "could have been good, but very poor execution" and "sounds cool on the surface, but very questionable when thought about more"

First of all, thank you for the question :)))

Oh god, this might become a slightly longer post, because I have a lot to say about the hunters of Artemis.

From what you’ve written, it sounds like we might have a very similar opinion. I personally think they are one of the worst-written parts of the original Percy Jackson books. I love their idea, I love their basic concept, but their execution was pretty atrocious.

There are four main points regarding them that I want to talk about.

The portrayal of Artemis (though this one is by far not as bad as the others)

2. The behaviour of the huntresses

3. Bianca

4. Lacking Development

Artemis

Now, I know that the gods and goddesses of the Riordan verse, are sanitized caricatures, and shouldn’t be compared to their actual myth versions. I think everyone in this fandom has at least heard some well-founded criticisms regarding the portrayal of Ares, Athena, Aphrodite, Apollo or any of the other gods.  

I even understand why Rick Riordan made most of the decisions that he did. Obviously, the gods had to be sanitized for a book series primarily aimed at children, and, to be fair to him, even if their characterizations are a far-cry from their myths and sometimes overly stereotypical (Aphrodite), they are fulfilling the roles they have in this story as deeply flawed, but powerful individuals, because of whose careless mistakes and pride demigods, and other ‘lesser’ beings have to suffer.  

And I actually do not hate Artemis’ portrayal that much, if we exclude the behavior of her hunt, and the initiation of Bianca. Her taking Annabeth’s place in holding the sky and her loudly arguing against killing Percy and Thalia at the winter solstice was a great portrayal of her being a patron goddess of children, and the idea of including the hunters of Artemis as a group of girls, both from mortal and immortal parents, who have been hurt by the world, and found a safe place with one another is actually really great. Generally, whenever she appears in the books, I have the feeling she is handled with far more graze and respect than a lot of other godly beings.  

However, as someone who very much loves Greek mythology, I just want to point out some small parts, which are not entirely accurate, though, again,  I understand Rick’s reason for omitting them in the context of what he wanted to do with her character and the hunt , and I acknowledge that even in ancient times, there existed a variety of different interpretations of the gods.

(Please note, that while I read original sources like the works of Diodor, Apollodorus, Hesiod, and Euripides, I am not a classicist, and that my knowledge of the greek gods primarily stems from personal research and my own interest. If anyone knows more about Artemis, please feel free to correct me if necessary)  

While Artemis is primarily the goddess of the hunt, and in later interpretations of the moon, she is not only the protector of girls, but the patron goddess of children in general and a goddess closely linked to childbirth.

Yes, she expects her followers to remain chaste, but to say that she is completely against men would be a grave mistake. Male followers of Artemis did exist in mythology, most famously Orion, who later became a constellation, and Hippolytus, the son of Theseus and the Amazon Hippolyta.

So, her cold behavior towards Nico and her degrading words towards boys in general is an attribute primarily added by Rick Riordan.

Though, like I said, I understand making certain changes to gods and goddesses, or rather choosing different interpretations of them to have them fulfill a certain role in a book series, so Artemis portrayal itself doesn’t bother me that much.

But if we’re talking about the hunters themselves, things easily take a turn for the worse.  

The behavior of the hunters

Now, I understand the hunters point in the story.

A huge theme of Titan’s curse is to explore the difference between old ideals of what heroism entails and the modern take on it, represented through Theseus and Herakles on one side, and Percy on the other. The hunters, and especially Zöe, represent a group, who have suffered through the actions of those old, primarily male heroes, and have developed a strong bias against all boys and men as a result. A bias, Percy is supposed to break in this book.

This, in itself, is a pretty awesome concept. But, like I said, the execution mostly failed.

Most of the Hunters of Artemis in Titan’s curse were written without any nuance, without development and without any sense of self reflection.

To express it plainly, they completely suck. And that hurts to say, especially as someone who is asexual-sex-repulsed and aromantic, because, like I said, they could have been an absolutely amazing part of the overarching story and theme of the book series, but with the way Rick Riordan wrote them, they suck. They’re insufferable.  They’re a group of immortal teenagers with a superiority complex, who act the way right-wing republicans and trump supporters think feminists act like.

They’re completely antagonistic towards the campers at camp half-blood for absolutely no good reason, act really childish and immature, and their overwhelming bias against every male character, especially Percy and Nico, is just plain annoying and goes to a point, where it makes them act like absolute idiots and assholes.

Zöe’s behavior at the meeting to decide who should go on the quest to save Artemis is a pretty good representation of everything I dislike about the hunters.  

She doesn’t want to take campers with her on the quest, even though the oracle plainly stated that them working together was the only way for them to succeed:

“You’re missing something as usual,” Thalia said. “Campers and Hunters combined prevail. We’re supposed to do this together.”

“No!”, Zoe said. “The Hunters do not need thy help.”

Immediately afterwards, she makes fun of Silena Beauregard (who is around 14 or 15 at the time, might I add.):

“Percy is right,” Silena Beauregard said. “Two campers should go.”

“Oh, I see,” Zoe said sarcastically. “And I suppose you wish to volunteer?”

Silena blushed. “I’m not going anywhere with the hunters. Don’t look at me!”

“A daughter of Aphrodite does not wish to be looked at,” Zoe scoffed. “What would thy mother say?”

And then, she decisively refuses Percy’s help for the quest, even though he is objectively the best person for the job. I really can’t reiterate enough that Percy is the most accomplished hero present at that meeting. He has successfully led two quests, one to stop a civil war between the gods, the second to recover the golden fleece. Even in comparison to Thalia, Percy is more accomplished and has gained more respect within the mythological world.

As I walked back through the city of the gods, conversations stopped. The muses paused their concert. People and satyrs and naiads all turned towards me, their faces filled with respect and gratitude, and as I passed, they knelt, as if I were some kind of hero. (The lightning thief)

Yet Zoe refuses his help to save the goddess she serves and increases so the risk of failure, simply because he is a boy.

“Oh,” Grover said, suddenly aware of the problem. “Whoa, yeah. I forgot! Percy has to go. I didn’t mean… I’ll stay. Percy should go in my place.”

“He cannot,” Zoe said. “He’s a boy. I won’t have Hunters travelling with a boy.”

Another huge problem in their characterization is their immortality. Here I want to focus again on their ongoing beef with camp half-blood, because, yes, while the campers also act pretty antagonistic in return, I think it’s important to note that most kids at camp half blood are between the ages of 10 and I’d say maybe 17 years old, while the huntresses are immortal.

Now, it’s obviously possible that most of them are still teenagers and haven’t been part of the hunt for that long, but considering the fact that Zoe is over 3000 years old, and could very well be older than most Olympians, the chance of most hunters being older than at least 30, is pretty high, which makes their behavior seem even more ridiculous.

And obviously the whole situation with Bianca paints the hunters in the worst light possible.

Bianca

There are already some pretty good and detailed posts on tumblr regarding the subject of Bianca and the hunters, so I don’t want to dig into this subject too deeply, because this post is already way too long, but you can’t possibly write about the hunters without mentioning her.

The hunters, especially Zoe and Artemis convinced Bianca to join them in a moment of huge distress. Bianca was a twelve-year-old, vulnerable girl, who just found out she was a demigod, almost got kidnapped by the manticore, and watched a girl fall down a cliff, yet they expect her to swear allegiance to them after only a couple of minutes of knowing them.

They paint her this beautiful picture of having no responsibility and a new family, telling her exactly, what she wanted to hear without giving her even a moment to breathe or give her time to talk to her brother or fully think this through.

I want to point out that at this point in time, Artemis had already decided that she needed to go after the monster alone, and knew, that her hunters would spend some time at camp half-blood. But instead of giving Bianca these couple days/ weeks to accept this new reality of the mythological world and get to know both camp half-blood and the hunters, she wants an answer at this very moment,

Yes, Bianca’s answer was rash, and yes, I do think it’s rather cold that she didn’t first talk to Nico about it, but it’s pretty plain to see that she was overwhelmed and pretty much manipulated during this entire conversation.

Later, Zoe decides to take her with her on the quest, even though Bianca is completely unprepared for it. She is probably, aside from Nico, the most unprepared person in the entirety of camp half-blood to go on a quest.  

I don’t think I have to explain how terrible of a decision that was.

The hunters are objectively the worst thing that could have ever happened to Bianca and the main reason why she died.

Lacking Development:

Now, all of this, every single flaw I just pointed out, could have actually worked out, if there would have been some sort of change in the hunters’ way of thinking and an acknowledgement that their opinions on boys and males in general are misguided and lead to more harm than good during the course of the books.

Especially after their actions led to Bianca’s death.

Them seeing how much love Nico had for his sister and how much he suffered from her death could have been a great moment for some character development.

But nothing happened.

Camp half blood and the hunters grieving together at the end of Titan’s curse for both Zoe and Bianca could have resulted in a genuine moment of friendship between the two groups, leading to understanding and change.  

But nothing happened.

The only person who took responsibility for Bianca’s death at the end of Titan’s curse was fourteen-year-old Percy. The only person who cared enough about Nico to search for him and make sure he was safe, was Percy. The hunters didn’t care at all. Took no responsibility whatsoever.

All that happened at the end of that book was that Thalia became a huntress, and that Zoe and Artemis acknowledged Percy as a hero.

This, while admittedly, a great moment for Percy’s characterization and also somewhat for the character development of Zoe, had very little effect otherwise.  

Because, in the end, Zoe and Artemis treated Percy as if he was the exception. As if they had been only wrong about him, and not boys in general. They didn’t revisit their line of thinking, they didn’t self-reflect and they didn’t acknowledge that their bias was utterly flawed, and that they should treat male demigods generally better.

She (Zöe) grasped it contently. “You spoke the truth, Percy Jackson. You are nothing like… like Hercules. I am honored that you carry this sword.”

Then, she (Artemis) turned to me. “You did well,” she said. “For a man.”

Percy Jackson is fundamentally a story about the circle of abuse, and, Percy specifically, breaking that circle, but nothing of note happened with the hunters.

Because even if Zoe had confronted her own bias, (and there is admittedly an argument to be made that she did) she would have been the only hunter to do so. And she died.

Thalia becoming the lieutenant of the hunters as someone who is best friends with Percy and Grover, and who misses Jason more than anything, could have confronted this distorted line of thinking, but the other hunters remain pretty much unchanged in the last Olympian and The Lost Hero.

There were hugs and greetings al around- or at least Thalia was friendly. The other hunters didn’t like being around campers, especially boys, but they didn’t shoot any of us, which for them was a pretty warm welcome. (The last Olympian, chapter 10)

“Oh, no way,” Leo said. “We’ve been sitting in a cave and you get a luxury tent? Somebody give me hypothermia. I want hot chocolate and a parka!”

Phoebe sniffed. “Boys,” she said, like it was the worst insult she could think of. (XXXVI Leo, the lost hero.)

Conclusion:

So, yeah. They had huge potential, both as individual characters and as part of the overarching plot and theme of Percy Jackson, but their execution was absolutely abysmal.

The only possible positive thing I could say about them is that they are at least better than the Amazons (though that is not particularly hard)

I hope my rambling was understandable, it's already pretty late:')

[rando-d]

Ultrakill Review: Turn Back Now

"Better late than never ammiright chat"

Ultrakill is one of the best shooter games I've ever played. I'm am no expert on shooters, I've played a good amount. I hate "tatical" shooters, which is why shooters like Valorant have repulsed me, whereas games like Fortnite and Team Fortress 2 have been my addiction. Heck, even in 2016, I liked Overwatch (obviously not anymore), but there was a time. Because "tactical" shooters just equate to camping around in one place waiting for someone to fight you, and doing anything energetic or running around the place is severely discouraged and games like those actively avoid rewarding players for risky play.

Tactical Shooters Suck, Ultrakill isn't one

Games like Team Fortress 2 and Fortnite are so insanely fun to me because those are shooters that ENCOURAGE you to fight people and have a risky playstyle, while giving players the option to camp, it moreso discourages it and grinding through entire lobbies feels just so satisfying. That being said, you can probably guess that Ultrakill would easily be something I would fall in love with, and you'd be perfectly correct on that. Ultrakill is everything I love about shooters, with 0 of the problems. Heck, this may be even my favorite shooter. While I'm not particularly good at the game, it is so insanely fun, and dying in the game always feels like my fun and not some sort of unbalanced enemy or really weird game design choice.

Combat

Of course, the game isn't finished and has 2 more chapters out of its 9 chapters, but those last 2 chapters could be awful, and I still would love the game. I have most of the game here. I could just ignore those last 2 chapters (again, assuming it's bad, which is highly unlikely). One of the reasons that it's unlikely is due to the games great combat system, I criticize games for cheap combat a lot, if you're making an action game, you need some good combat, and it takes a lot to impress me on that department. Ultrakill did just that. Impress me. It has a wide variety of weapons to choose from, and every level of the game's somehow feels designed around those weapons. There are so many different enemies, each with their own unique weaknesses, good play and risky movement where you utilize all the tools at your desposal is rewarded with style points, just seeing that "ULTRAKILL" combo sign hits different.

Movement

Ultrakill, while simple in terms of how you can move around the map, is really fun and gets the job well. In the beauty of its simplicity, you can perform lots of cool tricks that made me feel like an edgy teen all over again. Again, the style point system works well and constantly dashing to the goal in a short period of time while making sure to kill all the enemies and doing it all in a style is a pretty daunting and time consuming yet fun goal to achieve for all levels. Not a single level in Ultrakill kept me bored aside from the secret missions. And yes, the movement is somewhat simple in Ultrakill, and while I have seen that there is cool stuff you can do, I can't help but feel that I wish there's a bit more that could be done to improve the game's movement and add more to it while not taking away from its simplicity.

Presentation

We're in an era where people yield nostolgia to things like the N64, and PS1, but honestly, I'd compare this games graphics to Doom, that's despite the fact that the game goes out of its way to tell you that it's inspired by PS1 graphics. The game also goes out of its way to make its creatures disgusting and egregious to look it, really conveying hell's warfare to you well. The game does a great job at conveying some of the story through its environment. enviormental storytelling is always a great way of helping to tell a game story. The music is also great, the chaotic nature of the game just blended perfectly with the music style of Breakcore, I would not pick any other genre of music for a game of the kind, especially the boss themes, that's when the game really locks in. But, I will say, while all the enviorments do a great job of distinguishing each other while keeping the games disturbing feel, that can't be said for gluttony. It honestly was a bit too gross to look at, but apparently, the games developer stated that won't be of concern since he's planning on redesigning it, which I'm looking forward to.

Verdict

Ultrakill is one of, if not the best, shooter video games that I have ever played and pushes the genre of indie shooters to major new heights. I'm excited to see the game's story end, and I'll continue to replay the hell out of it for the future, it's one of the most addicting experiences I've ever had the pleasure of, you should turn back now because this game will throw you into a loop which you won't be able to escape, trying to break through that mess is crazy.

[imbecominggayer]

Writing Advice Part 2: Disability And EVIL

Disabled adults are adults and because they're adults they have a wide variety of morality and characters since humans are an exceedingly diverse group with even more diversed existences.

WRONG!

No. No. In reality:

👿👿DISABLED ADULTS ARE EVIL, ALL EVIL!!!!!!! 👿👿 According to certain writers!

When writers take communities and existences such as the facial difference gang or the intellectually disabled doers this results in horrific portrayals of "demonization". Obviously, people with physical disabilities are often portrayed horribly. I will mention them in the facial differences saga. The only reason I am specifically talking about facial differences and intellectual disability is because physical disability and facial differences tend to overlap while intellectual disability is a common yet undertalked form of representation.

Demonization: it's just like what it sounds like. Disablity always equals evil

However, the ways that facial differences gang is demonized is different to how intellectually disabled doers are demonized.

THIS BECAUSE OF A COMMON ASSOCIATION aka

Good = Beautiful/Handsome, Evil = Ugly

For future reference, when I say ugly I mean "not conventionally attractive" and when I say beautiful I mean "conventionally attractive". Afterall, Harvey Dent is attractive. That's a fact.

A popular example of this is the James Bond franchise which has stocks full of villainous characters with various limb differences, scars, and other such things. These ugly and bad characters fight against the cool and handsome James Bond

Literally, the association between evil and "ugly" is so ubiquitous that when a character becomes disabled they also become evil. The transition between being law-abiding handsome attorney Harvey Dent and evil insane "ugly" Two-Face is marked by fire/acid.

Let me tell you, there is no link between being a bad person and being not conventionally attractive. I'm not saying you can't write bad people with facial differences but they're not bad people because of their facial differences.

Secondly, Facial differences aren't only scars. They are often congenital. There are hundreds of different kinds of facial differences. This was just to talk about the fact that most people hear "facial difference" and think "scar".

FOR INTELLECTUALLY DISABLED DOERS, their evilness comes from their supposed "mental status as a six-year old". For the purposes of clarity, I am just going to say that's not how intellectual disability is labeled and move on.

Because of their supposed "mental status" 🤢, they have no ability to guage morality. They're " *derogatory term* who does evil out of ignorance"

Firstly, intellectually disabled people can learn things, like morality. Especially, if we are talking about the majority of intellectually disabled people who have to mild-to-moderate intellectual disability. Either way, there are hundreds of education prgrams designed to help people in learning about things from periods to childrearing to reading to everything necessary for life.

Secondly, intellectually disabled people aren't children. I talked about that in Part 1 named Writing Advice: Disability And Infantilization. Check it out, it's fun.

Thirdly, intellectually disabled people exist in the real world. If you want to write a character who is intellectually disabled, you can ask them for assistance. There is nothing stopping you.

CONCLUSION: No matter what disability someone has, that shouldn't stop them from being human. You can write disabled characters as evil but disabled characters should be evil not because of disability but regardless of disability. Evil Doesn't Equal Not Conventional.

[warcholica]

i really like the how the olgimskys designs in the first pathologic play around with material. obviously – mainly with fur.

big vlad has his huge fur coat – it's very much in spirit of his hes bourgeoisie caricature like design. it's arguably not the best looking and i dont think that's intentional – his coat in patho 2 is clearly supposed to look very cozy and nice. i actually like how symmetrically the fur falls in the upper back of the original design. it's charming. overall the coat really emphasizes this very old school idea of wealth.

it reads to me clearly as fashion, not as an uniform – alexanders outfit is very elaborate as well, but it does read very, well, governorish. vlads quite extravagant compared to the other rulers.

and that design philosophy is not really typical for pathologic, i don't really think it is – grief does fall into it a bit, but that's all. it makes vlad stand out in some really cool ways, as he has an unique silhuette. it's kind of insane how well theyre able deal with a character that has to overpass the barriers of their standard design. everyone knows that his face in p2 is like. insanely well made. but did you maybe notice how good his voice acting in the original pathologic is? ridicoulously good compared to like. anna. it really makes me wish they decided on more variety regarding other characters. oh well.

let's talk p1 kapella because shes obviously a showstopper. besides her obvious cuteness, i like how much it focuses on jeans as a material. it is, i think, a symbol of wealth in her case. i am polish and for me there was always this idea floating around than during the PRL period jeans was considered to be a luxury good.

(here it is represented in ryszard zamorski's sculpture "playboy"-- a pop art image of a smiling man covered in jeans from head to toe. fun. hip. well-off)

and so she is draped in jeans, just like her father is draped in fur – her wealth manifests clearly as well.

its also worth noting, that she has fur details on her collar too. that plays into the visual identity of them as a family – she is his daughter, she is a successor. i love her biig satin bow. so cute. makes her look like a very pretty rich girl. old-school wealth with a modern-ish twist.

and i think you already know where i'm going with this. yeah... vlad jr does not have any fur element in his p1 outfit. i like to overinterpret that.

like in the context, i feel fur represents mainly wealth – but it's also worth noting that it's a material foreign to the setting. i really like the spindle touch quote from p2

and i think it works for fur in p1 as well, although, obviously, every textile material comes from outside town.

but whats fur outside of that? lets think fur as a symbol a cruelty that also connects man with nature. fur as a terribly sensual material. ​

and vlad doesnt wear it: what are the reasons for that?

1. hes working with dirt. it would get dirty

2. he doesnt really like looking wealthy – hes not like the other olgimkys! the unusual simplicity is, to me, kind of reminicent of what victor is wearing – and vlads a successor to victor. in utopian ending hes supposed to tame maria/nina a little with his normalguyness. when you choose to do an utopian ending as artemy, he notes that maria will be dangerously wild without a husband

3. i think he denies himself luxury. because of how his shed looks i think hes an utopist that separates himself from the reality of his feelings – and so he separates himself from such a sensual material. but thats reallly a material for another, much more headcanonish post in which i will incorporate fragments from czesław miłosz's biography. i will make that one when ill play p2.

and btw: its a strange model, right? but i like it, i actually really do. i like how obviously blonde he is -- it is a soft callback to victoria. hes similar to her. her son.

also, i dont think it was intentional, i like how big he is in game. it feels like there is too much room for his soul in this body and so it echoes. i have the same feelings about like. ross from friends so thats more like a throwaway point.

it does manage to make him very much like a bussiness man – and vlad sr in his bourgouise caricature swag is very bussinessmannish as well. so maybe in that way he takes after him too? just a bit.

this is all very surface level analysis, but i do think about it a lot. i think p1 managed to communicate what it wanted to do with those characters very clearly through visual language.

[infamous-if]

✮ FAQ ✮

hi, it's amy!! i did not expect this kind of reaction and there's a lot of questions-- so much more than i expected--which has made me very happy. i've mostly left them on a rolling queue so if your question hasn't been answered yet, it's coming i haven't ignored you :)

there's been a lot of repeat questions about some things so this is just a quick FAQ to clear things up and not clog the dash with the same answers.

CONTENT WARNINGS?

This post is spoilery, but content warnings for the game here.

Will we able to choose X, Y, and Z?

Pertaining to the band, I will make it type-in and customizable as much as possible. Right now you can:

Choose your band's name.

their genre

the name of your song and the theme (as of right now, the theme will be choice-based so i can have the variables and write accordingly)

whether your band has a unifying 'aesthetic' or you guys all wear whatever you want on stage

you'll be able to occasionally write lyrics, it'll be a combination of typing in and 'filling the blanks' and if your MC is co-songwriting, it'll also be choices

your band's approach to their image, whether they're underground or mainstream, kid-friendly or 'devil music' according to parents (lol)

and more. i really want infamous to be as customizable as possible.

Pertaining to your MC:

the usual stuff is customizable: (name/surname, appearance, height, pronouns, gender identity etc)

personality and public image is up to you. customize whether you're controversial, whether you have strong stage presence, whether you're a fame/money hungry social climber or a passionate ~artist~ etc etc.

The things that are set with your MC:

their age is set. where your MC was born and raised up until middle school will be headcannon, but they are American. The state in which you grew up after that will be headcannon. no matter what, you grew up with seven and you met your bandmates freshman year of high school.

your MC idolizes G and Misfit Alley. They will think and feel like a fan, at least in the beginning, and that can't be changed. Of course, whether you maintain a cool face or go crazy and act like a fan is up to you.

your MC cares about Seven. They were your best friend since you were 11, so it makes sense. Of course, you can choose whether your MC wants to mend the relationship or is just as angry, and even if your MC has accepted Seven is their past and they need to move on, but Seven isn't someone MC just doesn't give a fuck about. it wouldn't make sense.

Do we have to engage in an affair to romance G or Victoria?

Yes.

MC is a doormat/loser/isn't as talented as everyone else!!

You're wrong.

I will not be answering about this anymore.

Read.

What is a sub-romance?

It’s the same as a romance except your decisions do not influence how it ends and it is controlled by the narrative. I have full control on whether the romance succeeds or fails based on what the narrative requires.

Do we have to [insert anything about Seven]?

Lol, these are prob the most frequently asked questions but you do not have to hate Seven the way they hate you. there's going to be a variety of approaches toward seven.

but they will hate you no matter what! at least in the start of the route.

you can

be former friends and then reconcile as lovers

be former friends and reconcile as friends

be former lovers and reconcile as friends

be former lovers and reconcile as lovers

be former lovers/friends and not reconcile at all

Why are they like this? Why can't they be like [this]?

Yes, I have gotten this question already 😭 i really want to be clear that these characters aren't completely moral people. they will do problematic things (obviously not bigoted things, dw) they will fuck up, they will be toxic, they will probably (emotionally) lash out at MC sometimes (and MC can do so in return). i just want to make it clear now so i don't surprise anyone when the story gets more plot heavy.

they will also engage sexual acts, do drugs, drink, party, do terrible shit yk...

that's showbiz, baby !

Do we have to engage in [insert sexual or immoral behavior here]?

Nope.

Attitude wise, your MC can theoretically be a pure glittery unicorn who has never had a mean or immoral thought in their life.

Is NSFW allowed?

Yes.

Can I call August [insert gendered term here]?

Nope!

Do we have to have a crush on Orion?

No.

Do we have to romance anyone at all?

While this is a romance-centered story, I'm going to insert a non-romance platonic play-through for people who just want to play with the fame parts. Soo no.

Can we be friends with Soft Violence?

Yep, you can befriend the members of Soft Violence.

Seven and Avina.

I won't be answering questions in terms of Savina and Avina's relationship as that is spoilery. But I will say that Seven is an RO and the MC is the main character. No false advertising here :)

So we can end up with Seven?

Yes.

Do we have to?

No. You can end the story hating or ignoring Seven.

Can we romance multiple ROs?

Yes, but there will be a point where you can only romance one RO outside of the G-Vic-MC poly.

Can we romance G and V individually?

Yes.

Can we romance Rowan?

As of right now, no plans for that!

Does every route have angst?

Yes. August has the least.

Can we write songs about the ROs/will it be acknowledged?

Yes and yes.

Subromances?

Dakota, Blake (you meet in the prologue) and E (you meet in chapter 2) are sub-romances.

There’s (possibly) one more.

Be warned: sub-romances are at the mercy of my writing.

Who the f**k is Dakota?

Spoilery!

Will you be having a plan for the next update?

As of right now, it's a release-when-done deal. Maybe if my life is more organized I'll actually have plans set lol! I'll try to keep things updated as much as I can.

Can you add [customizable thing]?

You can suggest it but I can't guarantee it will be added!

Does choosing a bus lock you out of Seven's romance/stay for the whole game?

The bus you choose stays the same the entire story and no, it does not lock you out of a Seven romance. Really you'll just miss some 'bus exclusive' scenes.

Can we draw the characters or imagine them differently?

Do as you wish and imagine them as you wish! So as long as you do not whitewash them.

Can we write fanfiction?

Sure! I just won’t reblog or interact in order to protect myself!

Twine?

In the future and if I ever learn to code twine.

You don't answer my questions.

Sorry. I don't mean to ignore your ask. Or it's spoilery and I can't! Sometimes I also miss mentions. I try my best to see them all!

This is problematic for me.

That is the point. I will not be sanitizing Infamous. Apologies in advance!!! 🙏

I don't like [this].

Don't read it :)

[Suggestion]

I listen to them all! Doesn’t mean I’ll add them though :)

[Music Rec]

Even if I don’t reply, I do see it and add it into a queue to add it to the Infamous master playlist! I love song recs!

[Any praise or kind words or jokes]

i am so grateful and even if i do not reply (to avoid spamming), i read it all ! (and giggle to myself)

Do not:

request things rudely please. I take into consideration all requests if they are said politely. It doesn’t hurt to be kind :)

whitewash my characters of color

follow or engage in infamous if you are under 18 ! <3

✮✮

thats all i can think of now, but i know there's more i just haven't noted them. if there's any more i'll make sure to add it here, if you guys have any questions that weren't answered pls send them my way and thanks again for your interest!

[allwormdiet]

Shell 4.7

Thank god, characters I can tolerate

This whole situation feels really dire, Bakuda's immediately establishing herself as a different kind of threat than Lung or even the Wards and Glory Girl. The Undersiders can't fight their way out of this one

Yeah this was fucking crazy fast. She went on a recruitment drive and got a ton of bodies, willing and unwilling (which we're getting to) in like a week, and turned the storage facility into a death trap to boot. She's alarmingly good at what she does.

This is a really creepy and cool beat for Bakuda

...Shame she's still wearing a Bomberman costume as she's doing it

God but her variety of bombs are so disquieting. Black hole bombs, time stop bombs, liquefy bombs?

God this is so fucked, what a horrific situation to be put in as a civilian. What a horrific situation to face for the Undersiders; do they have it in them to crack an old man upside the head if it means living a little while longer?

(Also come on, you don't have to specify that it was an Eastern language, just say she doesn't know what the language is)

God this is terrifying. Like, we've seen this isn't the same kind of cape fight as before, Bakuda did most of her work before the battle even started and turned the whole battlefield into her asset; Lung didn't have the chance to do that and the only thing the Wards did along these lines was Vista, which was improvised and also more about defense and disruption than offense and terror

God this is such a dire situation. I know I've said some variation on this a few times but what a dramatic moment of escalation. Bakuda makes herself into such a massive, deadly threat, not just with her power but with her command over others. Obviously I know they're making it out of this alive, but for the life of me I didn't know how until they actually pulled it off

Current Thoughts

I like the threat escalation that comes with Bakuda. Serial escalation is a recurring issue in a lot of stories, and that might end up the case with Worm, but for now it feels like a very reasonable domino effect. Bakuda was holding position while Lung was there to boss her around; Lung isn't there to boss her around, which means that the bomb Tinker is free to do what she wants, and oh look it involves a shitton of bombs

This was a nail biter for fucking sure though, let's keep going so we can get a whiff of catharsis before too long

[calicohyde]

This is a bit of a weird question, but you're the only one I know about who regularly posts about pirates of any kind (admittedly on your other blog) so I figured I'd ask you: what's some stuff you'd want to see more of in pirate fiction? I'm fucking around with a pirate AU for one of my projects and that made me curious - @transman-badass

TL;DR bullet point lists, bolding for emphasis

Necessities:

even if not going for historical accuracy, make sure character designs accurately represent the setting

queer pirates, in particular trans/GNC pirates

POC (Pirates of Color), in particular Black and Indigenous pirates

pirates with body types befitting their lifestyle

religious diversity

Why did you pick pirates if you're not...

commentating on capitalism, colonialism, class, and "crime"

incorporating pirate legends/superstitions in some way

see above points about diversity

Things I personally want to see:

revisit points on diversity again

antivillains

dramatic irony

song and dance

vulgarity

narrative questions built to have no answers

a wider variety of genres; instead of sticking to action/adventure, fantasy, and romance, try a slasher, slice of life, or heist (etc)

More detail on these points + unintentionally effusive praise for Pirates of The Caribbean and Black Sails under the cut.

This is a bit of a (perhaps?) unexpected answer, but my favorite pirate media (that I remember rip) is actually the original PotC trilogy!

While I love the explicit queer representation in Black Sails and OFMD, as well as the political thriller aspect and social realism + commentary of Black Sails, and I'd obviously love to see more of that, they lack some things the first three PotC movies have that I just really fucking love. I don't think any of them are exclusive to pirates necessarily, but I do think a lot of them are particularly well suited to them, and in some ways when they're not incorporated I personally feel like something is missing.

The og PotC trilogy does have its own political aspect and commentary, it's just a bit less confrontational than BS. I wouldn't say it's so subtle as to be a subplot though, it's still a - if not Thee - primary driving factor to the overall narrative and its plot. In my opinion, no pirate media is complete without some aspect of anticapitalist/anticolonialist/antiassimilationist sentiment at its foundation, even if the pirates are not necessarily heroic or righteous - or are downright wicked (derogatory) - in any other way. Pirates make for the perfect antiheroes, antivillains, and villain protagonists, and the latter two are far less explored than the former. And truly what is the point of having a character cast of primarily career thieves if not to say some type of something about the constructs of money and crime?

Another thing is the incorporation of traditional pirate legends/superstitions! I certainly will not be able to find it at will, but there is a post on this site that I wholeheartedly agree with about how cool it is that PotC has a different set of accepted realities depending on who's territory the story is in - i.e. pirate legends are true when the characters are where there be pirates, but aren't on colonial land. There are also pockets of extra depth to the story and characters that only really occur to you if you look at the work through the eyes of someone who exists within the pirates' world, such as Elizabeth's Kiss of Death At Sea.

It also of course ties in perfectly with the allegory; the further colonialism/capitalism spreads -> the smaller pirate habitat shrinks -> the less magic there is/the more reality is confined to only what Is and can no longer extend to what Could Be, shown most directly by the beached Kraken and Jack's response of "The world's still the same [size], there's just less in it." Which in that particular context also reinforces the above highlighted built-in moral ambiguity/acknowledgement of the beauty and necessity of things that may harm you (or pose a challenge to your conquering power), in that only the movie before the Kraken was a direct threat to Jack, and in fact literally killed him, but he still recognizes its extermination as both an indication of worse to come and as a tragedy in its own right. Also shown really well in how an "incorrect" pirate-drawn map can get you places that, when using an "accurate" colonial-standard map, don't exist. And how Beckett can't get Jack's magic compass to work for him even though he knows what it's supposed to do, only a pirate (or pirate-to-be like Norrington) can use it. The Power of Belief in this way is and always will be my number one homie. I got slightly off topic and just started talking about PotC. Anyway.

The dual accepted realities allow for really great dramatic irony as well. Gods and monsters and cursed treasure and impossibly fast and unsinkable ships and the undead are all real, and the audience knows all that based merely on the setup, but to the characters it's a shocking twist. Black Sails has some dramatic irony that I really love as well. The audience knows that Black Sails is a Treasure Island prequel, and they know the culmination of the featured historical events, but the characters don't. I eat that shit up and it's fucking delicious every time. And I also love that good good opposite of dramatic irony in these too, where the audience will never know something the characters do. BS does it through a well crafted metafiction narrative and unreliable narrators. "A story is true, a story is untrue," and this story acknowledges itself as a story - one told by conquerers, liars, visionaries, and warrior poets. We will never know what "really" happened, and we're not meant to.

Anyway even if pirate legends aren't real or *shrug emoji* in-universe, I again think pirate media is incomplete if a few aren't textually present in some other way.

Back to representation stuff. As I said, while Black Sails and OFMD have it pretty good, there should be way more queer pirates, and in particular trans/gender-nonconforming pirates. I'd specifically like to see a portrayal of Mary/Mark Read as being trans/fluid/whatever, rather than "disguised" or "mistaken" as a man (if the piece features historical figures). Equally so, there needs to be way more racial diversity in pirate media, in particular Black and Indigenous pirates. Probably most of the famous Captains you could name off the top of your head were white Englishmen, but there's a lot of evidence that a high percentage of pirates were not. So tbh I think this is less of a "feels" incomplete thing and more of an IS incomplete thing.

Likewise, there should be more body diversity and religious diversity. These things are obviously inaccurate and a Choice to exclude anywhere, but again imo an extra level of dumbassery to exclude from a pirate thing. Model/movie star body types should be rare; we need to be looking at athletes and laborers when designing Golden Age sailors. We need to be taking into account the available medicine of the time period and the lasting consequences thereof, as well as more of the (known) cultural ideas about body differences, neurological differences, sickness, and death. And as for religion, there seems to be vast swathes of people who think once upon a time everyone was either a Christian (be that Good or Bad) or a Savage (whether Noble/Mystic or not). And that is SO deeply fucking annoying - to say it in the blandest, most diplomatic way possible lol.

Even if you're not going to go in for much historical accuracy, you're doing a fantastical/romanticized/comedic/etc version, or you're making a whole secondary world from scratch, you really should be figuring out what would be accurate to the conditions you create. If your piece takes place on a frigate sailing the open ocean in the tropics for long periods of time while the nearest land is being colonized by monarchic northerners in an approximation of the 17th century, the characters should reflect that just as much as the setting and plot.

Now for some things I wouldn't necessarily be disappointed about being absent, but that I would just be kinda jazzed to see. First: song, dance, storytelling, riddles, foul language, and bawdy jokes. This kind of goes hand in hand with the legends and all, but is an extra layer that isn't put on enough! PotC and OFMD have some song, and BS as already mentioned is pretty heavy on storytelling both diegetically and as a main theme. I just want more.

Second, I'd love to see a wider variety of genres. We're spoiled for pirate action/adventure, fantasy, romance/erotica, and coming of age. I want to see some scifi that isn't just pirates In Space (not that I have anything against pirates In Space or think it's not scifi Enough, but we're not starving for it). Pirate slasher. Pirate slice of life. Pirate whodunit. Pirate time travel. Pirate psychological thriller. Pirate disaster/post-apocalypse. Pirate slipstream/surrealism. Pirate heist!! Pirate procedural? somehow?? You get it.

I think I've talked enough now wkgoiuwksk.

[thelemoncoffee]

today's post is me rambling negatively- and probably upsetting some people in the process too, but i wanna get this out there before my brain inverts thinking about it.

honestly i don't like how the game treated Kaito's pushing Shuichi to keep being a detective as a good thing.

like- in the games Kaito keeps pushing Shuichi to be the ultimate detective, while Shuichi actively doesn't want to be a detective. i genuinely dislike this aspect of Kaito, he has alot of potential and individual traits that i love- but the game squanders it so much his canon depiction annoys me

with the Shuichi situation, detective work was obviously something Shuichi wasn't actually passionate about- as we learn he only started doing it to feel useful to his uncle- and he's proven time and time again that he isn't the kind of person who can handle the emotional strain the line of work puts on a person. but no matter what they kept making Kaito push him to be a detective anyways and framed it as a good thing despite everything pointing to the contrary .

Ryoma already fills the niche of "character who gave up on their passion due to trauma and needs to be encouraged to get back into what they love again"- we do not need to shoehorn Shuichi into it, especially when literally everything about him makes it noticeably unhealthy for him. i wouldn't have an issue with it if the game treated it like the negative it is, but it doesn't, the game thinks Kaito's pushing shuichi is actually a good thing and positive character growth. and that's my main issue with Kaito, really-

Kaito is a great character concept but the more i think about it the more the way he was used was so fucking shitty. i greatly dislike how they had the potential to show him as a super flawed wannabe hero doing the dumbest unhealthy shit cause he has a heart of gold, but they instead tried to play him as a tragic hero

he should have been called out for his shit more. he should have had a character arc where he learned how superficial his aid tactics actual are, and works up to do really heroic things. which- if you left ch5 as is- would make it a really cool instance of relapse into old bad habits under pressure, he would foil Kokichi 100x better like this too. while Kokichi descends into a paranoid mess, Kaito becomes a genuinely better hero- and Kokichi causes Kaito to relapse while he himself shows his true and more caring nature to Kaito in his final moments

but they didn't fucking do that.

Kaito was the tragic hero who was always right even when he was objectively wrong (read: Shuichi situation), a total hypocrite with zero repercussions for his hypocrisy (read: hates Kokichi lying despite lying more than Kokichi), and every character loved him no matter how shitty he was being.

i know he was intended to be a foil to Kokichi, but when Kokichi's relationships with other characters are more nuanced compared to his, it falls flat. Kokichi had people who liked and hated him to varying degrees, everyone had a solid opinion on him- but Kaito? i don't recall anyone outside of Kokichi, Maki, and Shuichi having any strong opinions on him (unless you count Tenko, but i don't cause her hatred was cause he's a man and not because of him as a person), which makes him feel way more flat compared to the variety of people's opinions on Kokichi and makes their foil connection way weaker

i just think Kaito could have been handled alot better- and i often tend to brush lightly on his problems in my posts that use him as a minor antagonist for saiouma

[haru-sen]

Through the Gates of Horn and Oak

Caught the BG3 Brain Rot AND a deep love of the tieflings, hithero referred to as "my cabbages!" No, seriously, I've been screaming about them like the guy from ATLA.

Anyway, WIP preview, playing with some Tav X Zevlor, which will eventually be some Zevlor X Halsin, and maybe some poly dynamics. Look, I just want to poke sad old men with a stick and then feed them cheese.

This preview has light spoilers for early Act I side quests. I have not beat the game, I'm still in Act 3, so please be mindful of spoilers. This is spicy but not explicit.

“How do you do it?” you grumbled, perched on a crate and resting your forehead on the cool stone table, your eyes closing as you reviewed your day. “From harpies, to bugbear assassins, to evil druid-controlled child-tormenting serpents, how do you keep these people alive? I mean, honestly, Zevlor, I’ve only been at it for like a day, and I’m exhausted.”

Zevlor, the tiefling-wrangler in question, gave a dry humorless laugh. “You assumed it was easy?”

“No,” you muttered. “I’m just gobsmacked by the sheer variety of ways they get into trouble. You have my deepest respect and my most heartfelt sympathies.” You stayed facedown while you spoke, which might have detracted from the authenticity of the delivery, but alas.

About a meter away, Tilses snorted. “Have you met Mol yet?”

“Have I met Mol?” you laughed, and it might have been a sob. “Have I met the future legendary patron of the Thieves Guild, you mean? Have I met a force of chaos constrained in a tiny tief package? Have I counted my purse half a dozen times today? Where do I even start?”

Zevlor groaned, clearly not interested in delving into that subject.

Tilses laughed. “You should have seen the time she-”

“Tilses, it’s getting late: you don’t have to stay,” Zevlor said.

“But-”

“Tilses, it’s getting late: you’re dismissed.”

You didn’t need to use your illithid powers to read the subtext in the room. Small talk aside, Tilses didn’t want to leave Zevlor alone with an outsider. Zevlor, however, didn’t seem worried. It could be that he thought you were trustworthy, but it was more likely that he knew that it didn’t matter if she was here. If you decided to turn on him, her presence wouldn’t make a bit of difference.

You could picture his expression easily, that no-nonsense frown, accentuated by the severity of his hellfire eyes and sharp ridged bones. He wasn’t exactly scary, but he had a quiet dignified gravitas that you and Tilses lacked; the kind of man was used to being in charge. Still, Tilses wouldn’t argue, not with you here.

“Understood, sir.”

Military discipline was a hard habit to shake, or so you heard. You smiled as you as her steps faded in the distance and the stone door grinding open and shut. And then there were two.

“I don’t blame you for Mol,” you said. “Obviously, the circumstances are shaping that one, and it would take more resources than you, me, or the entire Grove has to alter her trajectory.”

Zevlor sighed. “...I don’t think I’m capable of discussing Mol’s future right now.” There came a soft grunt and you didn’t have to open your eyes to know that the tiefling was sitting on the table across from you, just a few handspans away. If you lifted your head, he would probably move away, so you stayed there, the slight dissonance of his aura making your ears ring. You didn’t mind though. Things that might have bothered you a week ago couldn’t really match up to a godsdamned mindflayer tadpole swimming through your brain.

Some tieflings possessed a discomforting presence, akin to knowing you were being stalked by an apex predator, or that feeling of something alien crawling across your skin, or that screaming gut instinct that warned you when truly dark magics were abound. It was an involuntary inheritance, a side effect of being part devil, or at least having their human bloodlines tainted by a Hellish pact. But you knew better than most that biology didn’t override character.

Zevlor was a striking model of an Asmodeus tiefling: deep red skin, sharp features, and a pair of thick black horns twisting out of his skull. From what you heard, that strain got well and truly screwed over by their progenitor devil lord’s plotting.

“Would you like something to drink?” A cork popped and there was the clink of metal cups sitting on the table.

“Is it poison?” you asked. “Because I’ve got some lovely wyvern poison of my own. No need to dip into your personal stores.”

“That would be a poor repayment for all the help you’ve given,” Zevlor said, his tone mild.

You didn’t think he was offended. Hard to say. He was difficult to read, unless you decided to use your illithid powers, but then- People didn’t like it when you did that. You didn’t always like it when you did that.

He poured the drinks, and you slowly raised your head, lured out by your own dry mouth.

Zevlor was standing now, he gestured to the uncorked bottle, which sat beside the cups in front of you, all of it available for your inspection.

“Ashaba Dusk?” you asked, sniffing the common wine.

“It’s not so bad,” he said.

It figured that he liked red wines. You wondered if he smoked a pipe too. “You seem like the type to prefer a Gulthmeran Reserve.” It was a dryer red, complex with stronger mineral taste. Something suited for the palate of a stoic older man.

Zevlor’s lips twitched. “Is that so?”

“Am I wrong?”

“I wouldn’t say “no” to a bottle. But finding one out here might prove difficult,” he said as you chose your cup, pretty certain that none of it was poisoned. After all, they still needed your help dealing with the goblins, defanging Kagha, and rescuing the Archdruid. Logic made rationalization easy, even though you had no logical reason to be here alone with this man.

The wine wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either. You drank it though. Today had been long, and you weren't going to turn your nose up at his hospitality.

The two of you finished your cups and sat in an almost comfortable silence. Your shoulders lowered incrementally and you basked in his calm company. You were on your second round of refills before he spoke again. “Was there something you wished to discuss?” he asked, fixing that burning stare on you.

Your stomach flip-flopped, but you just raised your cup and took a drink, buying yourself a few seconds to compose your words. “Just enjoying the ambiance.”

His brow furrowed, and he looked around the cave, clearly trying to figure out what you were referring to. The air in the chamber was cool, there were a couple shelves lined with books, and the candlelight was warm and golden. There were no fleshpits, no bloodstains, and nothing was trying to kill you. Best of all, you could not hear Shadowheart and Lae’zel bickering. To be fair, Lae’zel sniped at everyone, but Shadowheart got so damn shrill about it.

“Look, my...friends are nice and all, but sometimes they’re a bit much,” you said. “I’m taking a break from being mediator.”

“Ah,” he said. He rested his chin in his hand, thoughtfully. “I can lend you the chamber. Would you like some privacy?”

You winced. “No, no, I’m enjoying the company too.”

“I see,” he said, brow furrowing momentarily. He refilled your cup, sitting on the edge of the table farthest from you.

You studied the map of Elturel on the desk, while sipping your unpoisoned wine. And then a thought occurred to you much too late. “Oh gods, I’m intruding, aren’t I?” you groaned. “Look, don’t feel obligated. I’ve found a ton of great hiding spots in the Grove. I can take a dip in the sacred pool. There are some very private corners in the library. Hell, I can even go camp out with Mol.”

“...Don’t do that,” Zevlor grimaced.

“You’re right. She absolutely doesn’t need access to wyvern poison. I’ll go sit with Dammon. Aside from the hammering and the smithing, he’s pretty quiet.”

You’re not intruding,” Zevlor said, forcefully. “My hosting skills are simply rusty. I...welcome the chance to practice.”

“Oh,” you said, a smile tugging at the corner of your mouth. It wasn’t a believable reason in the least, but it did seem that he wasn’t trying to shoo you out. At least, you felt more confident that you were not unwelcome.

Zevlor studied your face. “How do you find Dammon’s company?”

“He’s a good kid and so cheerful in the face of everything that’s happened. I’m impressed by his attitude and his skills,” you said. “He’s helping me keep my tiefling in good shape.” Karlach was a certified badass, but she still needed extra special care. Gods, now that you thought about it, tieflings were like exotic fish, it was a real struggle to keep them alive.

Zevlor nodded. “We’re lucky to have him.” He set the empty bottle down and looked over his shoulder at the worn down storage crates, clearly considering the state of his supplies. He was a lean man, and while the kids were small, it was clear that the adults weren’t letting them go hungry. He likely didn’t have a lot to spare.

“Oh! I’ve got a bottle of Ithbank in my pack – the good kind.” You quickly dug into your bag and pulled it out. You were considering trying to bribe Asterion with it, but honestly, he would probably just turn his nose up at the unimpressive offer. You rummaged around your supply pack and found some cheese wedges, ham, a loaf of sourdough bread, and the treasure you scored while exploring. Looking around furtively, you pulled a small ripe sunmelon out and winked. “I know everyone is eating apples, but I’m sick of things trying to poison me-”

“You’ve mentioned poison very frequently today. How often does this happen to you?” Zevlor asked, looking concerned.

“Well, just this week-” You tried to think back. “The bandits, the goblins, some traps, the swamp apples, Nettie-”

“The healer?” Zevlor sounded alarmed.

“Yeah, because of the whole parasite infection thing,” you muttered, the wine loosening your tongue. Only a select few knew that you were carrying mindflayer tadpoles, and he was one of them since you had to explain to him why you were able to just walk into the Absolute camp without raising the alarm. “Look, the point is, I’m put off apples for awhile.” You pulled out a clean food knife – not a dagger, people applied all sorts of deadly coatings to their weapons – and eyed the cheese.

Zevlor rose and brought over clean plates and more cutlery. There was an economy to his motions, a careful precision to everything, no wasted movement. No tells either. This man tried to keep his cards very close to his chest.

It was very different from the first time you met, when he was shouting orders and coming down from the post-battle fury and the loss of one of his charges. Rage uncoiled all those carefully suppressed feelings and destroyed self control: you understood that feeling all too well. The contrast was interesting, you liked watching him.

You made a nice little plate cubes of cheese and ham, slices of bread, and cut your half of the melon into long wedges. Zevlor made a neat sandwich and chopped his melon into bite-sized chunks. This time you poured the Ithbank while Zevlor watched.

He took a sip. “This is nice. Thank you,” he said quietly.

“It really is,” you smiled, biting into the melon and getting some down your chin. The flavor was honey sweet, the flesh luscious and crisp under your teeth. You happily licked your fingers, slurping down the juice. Fuck, these were so much better than apples, and absolutely worth fighting a bunch of bandits for.

When you looked up, Zevlor was staring down at the table.

“I’m being messy, aren't I?” you muttered, wiping your mouth off. The heady combination of too much wine, sweet melon, and the company was making you sloppy. “Sorry.”

“No, no, you’re fine,” Zevlor coughed and poured himself some more wine, averting his eyes. He carefully bit into his melon cubes. His tongue flicked out and he licked his lips, closing his eyes. “That is delicious,” he murmured, his voice a low rumble, his tail swishing behind him.

Satisfied that he was enjoying his fruit, you devoured your slices too quickly, eating them down to the rind. When you looked up, Zevlor was only half finished, clearly taking his time and really savoring the experience.

“These are better than apples,” he said, glancing down at your empty plate. He speared a chunk of melon and extended his fork. “I don’t know if I can finish all this though.”

A damned lie if you ever heard one, and between Wyll and Asterion, you heard a lot of creative truths. You took a swig of wine and met that burning gaze, your breath catching. “I’ll take a bite,” you said. “But you clearly aren’t eating enough. You really should take better care of yourself, Zevlor.”

You leaned forward, delicately took the melon between your teeth, and pulled it off the tines. You gave the utensil a light parting bite, never looking away from Zevlor’s face.

He swallowed audibly, but his hand did not shake and he did not draw back. He just watched you with narrowed eyes, his jaw clenched, those sharp nails digging into his palms, his tail snapping from side to side. That tension was familiar. You remembered a similar strained look back when he got into a confrontation with that asshole mercenary. Maybe you were pushing him too far.

“Have I offended you?” you asked a little sheepishly. You did just take his food from him while insinuating that he was bad at taking care of himself.

“No,” he said gruffly, his voice an octave lower. “But are you going to claim that you don’t know what you’re doing?”

You smiled, lowering your eyes in amusement. “I’m just enjoying the ambiance.”

Zevlor gave a low exhalation, those orange eyes burning intently as he regarded you. “The situation is difficult enough,” he said, his voice harsh. “Hells, teasing an old man is cruel.”

You blinked. “I’ve seen you fight, Zevlor. I’d hardly call you old.” You met his gaze. “And teasing is only cruel if one doesn’t intend to follow through.” You stood, the wine giving you a cocksure recklessness that you would not possess sober. You leaned over the table, nearly nose to nose with him, baring your teeth in a grin. “I’ll deal with Kagha tomorrow. We’ll figure out the goblins after that. And then, if you’re still interested, let’s do something about it.”

Zevlor stiffened, his eyes widening, his lips parting in shock.

You took a swig of the Ithbank, and slammed it down next to him, lifting one of those calloused hands to your lips. You brushed your mouth against the inside of his wrist and then caught his index finger between your teeth. You sucked it down to the knuckle, tasting the blended salt and sulfur of his skin and the sweet stickiness of the melon. The heat of the digit made you want more than this, but you had to be careful with those sharp nails.

Zevlor’s nostrils flared, those brimstone eyes burning as he gritted his teeth, your name a hoarse curse in his mouth.

“And if you’re not interested,” you said, lowering his hand gently. “That’s fine too. It’s entirely up to you. We can just blame the wine.”

And with that, you turned on your heel and left, before you did something really stupid. It didn’t matter though, the fire was already in your veins and the taste of him lingered on your tongue.

Fic posted on AO3 now.

[ewesless]

My humble answer is...

I LOVE IT.

(Romance-y stuff first then the section below that is…other activities)

Content Warning for any other readers: Canon x Canon, Crossdressing, BDSM Dynamics, tons and tons of personal interpretations and almost a fic outline

MY FRIEND, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE??

At first glance someone might think, "They're too unalike, they have no common interests. Barbatos is too cool for him and Levi hates him because he's successful, confident and widely respected." And one would be wrong!! The main things they have in common are Gaming, Sewing, Creating Artwork and Cooking (in that order only because Levi's still a hobbyist and Barbatos's love of baking and cooking is on par with Levi's fanatical love of Ruri-chan.)

Barbatos may not be into watching anime or reading manga, but he buys merch for Diavolo and is supportive of a substantial number of things Diavolo does (which extends to Levi hehehe) but he is a major gamer. In two different events (Cyber and Smash Devils) and in a variety of OM daily chats he games with Levi as well as plays his recommended games (and Levia-chan gets his little scaly ass handed to him when they play!)

One of my favorite scenarios for them developing into a couple is that Levi finds out what an awesome sewist he is (HDD 2021 card "An Amazing Outfit for You" and Belphie's Plushie card are two examples) and is awestruck. "PLEASE teach me your techniques! What is your secret?!?" But Barbatos doesn't just teach him, he makes him things too! Costumes, does his Makeup, Props, plushies and food replication!

I headcanon that Barbatos takes Diavolo and Leviathan to conventions too, they could absolutely group cosplay. Barbatos is a gamer so we know they already chat and hang out online, and Barbatos has been to his room multiple times now so it's not implausible that they'd like to hang out 1 on 1 too. (In Otaku Podcast Mini Barbatos scares the shit out of him by how familiar he mades himself with Levi's room and the secret box he has) If LEVI lets someone not just touch his things and explore them (oop lol that sounds….) but lets him rearrange his things and even advise him on what to do about them you know that is some deep, deep, trust and approval. He admires him a lot too, he experiences jealousy and idolizes him too so we know that Levi already has strong feelings about him!!

I think that whenever Barbatos would show him approval or acknowledgement it would direct hit something deep inside him that is painfully wounded and mend a little crack in his heart. I think Levi needs to impress others, but won't admit it. He's too caught up in the "normies can kick rocks! Get rekt! I don't care what those people think!" but he obviously felt the pressure of Barbatos's expectations to a degree near that of Lucifer's because he was almost in tears from the stress of working with them (he chose them!) during Luke's Birthday in 2022. So I think making him proud of him or surpassing his expectations (Shrodinger's High/Low expectations lol) would be important to him. I don't really read Levi's (or anyone else's) romantic options and don't go out of my way to read his cards, so this is mostly based off of my interpretations from events and storylines. I don't feel confident in my characterization either. Somebody is going to hate on me for that some day. I can feel it.

Oh, but back to the topic. So they start hanging out in order to do sewing and that leads to talking about all kinds of things and warming up more. Levi is like, "Wait what?? You mean…he's not as intimidating and far above us as I thought???" Barbatos cooks for him whenever he gets hungry or has already prepared bentos and other anime themed foods and teaches him how to recreate/copycat for him too. So as they bond Levi accepts that he really is a friend of his and not just his big brother's coworker/the Royal Butler/Popular Guy and humoring him. He subtly starts to tell him about his interest in crossplaying too (Legendary Dame, HELLO~) and while that's not really something Levi HIDES (he did) that Barbatos responds positively and supportively (Diavolo too, he cosplayed RURI and Barbatos cosplayed Azuki-tan in support and to show their appreciation for Levi and his interests in the S2 Anime!)

So Levi dresses up and is all blushy and nervous and feeling excited and happy because he's just so COOL about this!? AND GIVES MAKEUP ADVICE THAT EVEN ASMO HADN'T KNOW??? (Dame card) And the first thing Barbatos does is tells him he looks cute and wears it well, he compliments his dress and makeup! (Or beautiful, depends on whether he's in a magical girl outfit or if he's cosplaying someone elegant like the Kuudere Elf Queen Seraphina)

So after this, one thing leads to another and Barbatos crossplays with him (He self vowed that Legendary Dame was never again, but I am going to just say that that doesn't mean he's banned from other elegant femme attire) Levi doki-dokis like crazy! So now he's down bad for Lady!Barbatos, "B-but that's just because of the character he's portraying, right?? I don't have a crush on my big brother's co-worker/the Royal Butler/The Popular Guy????"

Barbatos got so excited about sewing for MC and dressing MC up that not once, but twice he gets carried away and starts taking measurements or holding clothes up to their figure (promptly apologizes and then we can't even acknowledge it) So maybe that happens with Levi too and now that Levi has doki-dokis when Barbatos gets that close to him HORMONAL EXPLOSION~. "Ooooookay, that definitely isn't just because of the character he was cosplaying" lols anxiously

Where this goes is going to be non-specific because I love endless possibilities, but definitely gets intimate. Possibly the first time they get frisky is while in cosplay (Levi is like a teenage boy in a 30 year old body, I swear. And then you have Barbatos who pops off with those romantic and suggestive dialogues to tease like WHAAAAAAAT??? So, he would totally egg (lol unintended) him on and turn him into a flustered sweaty mess without even taking his own clothes off.) 70% probability of while couple cosplaying a yuri or yaoi ship, but they go all the way as themselves and after a barrier is overcome (Levi's self-esteem and his doubts about whether the person he's into is ACTUALLY? FOR REAL??? SERIOUS??? You're not just messing with me and going to humiliate me and then gloat about it because I'm a socially awkward otaku loser and you're a hot demon butler whose effortlessly perfect?) So it would be a combination of shame/comfort and hurt/comfort…maybe?

Their first anniversary gift from Barbatos would be a fully custom designed outfit for them to wear, there would be a necklace or other jewelry included in a hidden treasure way and it would have an engraved message on the back/inside along with a handwritten letter. Levi's would be a physical photo album with their cosplay adventures and outings/pilgrimages/foodie tours and one-day vacation photos with sweet notes and memories written on the backs of them. (I'm not very good at this type of romance tbh, but memories and keepsakes are important to them both)

On a side note they have SO MUCH KINK CHEMISTRY. Levi wants to be bullied, humiliated, called names and degraded? Barbatos is absolutely brutal with all of this, and probably has Dacryphilia to some extent (cough MAMMON) He would not be against-- on second thought this part got too explicit. [SNIP]

He would be creative at this in subtle ways, even during normal group conversations, that would leave Levi speechless and doki-doki'ing. On the flipside, Barbatos praises and shows his gratitude in significant ways so this would extend to intimate activities and he is a very attentive lover/dom who anticipates the needs of others so he would give Levi aftercare and approval tailored to each scene, "feed and water" him (Barbatos…why did you word it like that before?) and then tuck him into bed with a goodnight kiss. (Barbatos doesn't stay overnight of course. He has a Diavolo at home to think of after all and Diavolo is prone to mischief and misbehavior when he is away.) He would also discipline him and use a reward system that also subtly helps strengthen Levi's resilience and build his self-esteem.

Since I headcanon they both lay eggs (Barbatos is a salamander dragon Demon and Levi is a snake dragon) if Levi previously didn't go through that as an Angel (due to contrivances on my part) he would definitely be hiding that or in denial and Barbatos is observant as hell. That can lead to anywhere can't it ^^;

Well, now I'm embarrassed and idk how to sign off ;w; Oh wait, yes I do, Ballz! (inside joke)

[nellie-elizabeth]

Outlander: A Hundredweight of Stones (7x11)

It really is the best shit in the whole series, no joke...

Cons:

The one bigger thing I was noticing in this episode was that it was lacking a sense of time passing - it was unclear to me how long it had been since news of Jamie's death reached them - how many days between then and the wedding, how many days later are they going to that dinner party, how many days later does Jamie show up? Because it kind of feels like it happens within a week, but I remember it was a bit longer in the book. This also contributed to some strangeness of pacing in that big final scene, where Jamie shows up and clumsily explains that his luggage was on the Euturpe but he himself was not. So much of that final scene was lifted from the book entirely, and it's a great scene, don't get me wrong, but it all happened kind of choppy and strange. I think we get some time in Jamie's POV in the books or something, so we have a bit more context for why he's being chased by soldiers? But maybe I'm misremembering.

Last week they did this thing where when Claire hears the news that Jamie's dead they have her kind of dissociate and hear things repeated in her mind and out of order/choppy. It was... kind of cheesy but the strength of the acting carried it through. They repeated that technique during the John/Claire scene in a way that I did not enjoy... I didn't think seeing John on the floor embracing Claire and then cutting to him standing up saying "I will not mourn him alone tonight" was very effective. I could have used a bit more variety and less repetition and out-of-order editing in the little snippets that followed. I think you could still have captured the drunken despair without leaning so heavily on the editing tricks like that.

Small note, but it's hilarious to me that Brianna actually knocked Robert Cameron out cold with that hit. It didn't look like she connected hard enough for him to be down for the count. Also in Roger's plot thread, I feel like he and Buck should be putting together by now that maybe the reason they came to this time is because of the older Jeremiah, and that means Jem isn't here. But that doesn't seem to have occurred to Roger at all, which is strange.

Pros:

Ian and Rachel get another good outing this week. I love that Ian explains about Emily and there's a moment where of course Rachel is alarmed to learn that Ian had a wife and that she's still living, but she accepts Ian's truth with an open mind and tells him she loves him and kisses him at the end of the conversation. I loved it, very sweet!

I also just thought Ian overall was so perfect this episode, the poor guy mourning two fathers at once, basically. That scene where he goes to Claire and basically says goodbye in case she wants to go back to the future now, really made me tear up!

We get to see Brianna at last, and we get to see her realize a horrible truth: Roger is gone, and Jem isn't in the past after all. Dun dun dunn!!! I'm excited for Bree to be reunited with her son, and for her to deal with the Robert Cameron situation once and for all. Not much more to report here, but I'm glad we're seeing movement on this story. Same as with Roger and Buck, we see them getting closer to Roger's father as they track down the provenance, so to speak, of the military ID tags. It's so cool seeing Roger on a scavenger hunt, even though we know he's not getting any closer to his original goal.

Obviously saved the juiciest stuff for last - I just think both David Berry and Caitriona Balfe deserve all the awards for this episode, they both play abject despair SO well. There are too many good moments to count, from the wedding ceremony where John rushes through the part about "love and cherish" because he doesn't know how to say those words like they're the truth, to Claire taking a big pause to stare at William before she finishes her vows. To William and John's conversation, where William laments that John would sacrifice his happiness and his reputation for the widow of a "groom" who betrayed the King. John stares at his son, the son he raised, who is of Jamie's blood, and even as his face is etched in grief, tells him that he has all the happiness he could ever need. Then they hug! And it's so sweet!

We have Claire contemplate suicide and then just lie in her room positively wailing out her grief, which is so hard to watch and listen to, while downstairs John gets completely wasted and cries staring at a chessboard and the empty chair across from it, his face wet with tears... and then we get the two of them embracing in a sort of deranged drunken passion, with John burying his head in Claire's lap and then Claire thumping him on the back even as she pulls him closer...

The morning after scene was exactly what I wanted it to be. So much of this is lifted straight from the scene in the book, and they really just linger on the two of them, nothing fancy in the edit, and let them have this strangely intimate while also awkward conversation. John's speech about the deer, and his relationship to his lover, is so lovely. And the way he says "think about the deer, my dear" as he leaves her in bed is just like... okay, I know Claire is grieving Jamie and I know John is super gay, but still. If I were her I would have swooned just a lil' bit.

I also really liked the romance-framing of Claire descending the stairs in that gown, and the moment when John takes her hand and finds she's put her wedding ring back on, so that the one from Jamie and the one from John are side by side. (Point of order, in the books I think she wears Frank's ring on her left hand in Jamie's on her right, but whatever.) In a romance novel if these were the two leads, this would be a swoon-y moment where she accepts him and decides to present a united front. Here, it's so much more fraught - what must John be thinking, seeing his ring beside Jamie's, on the finger of a woman the have both married and now shared a bed with? Talk about a mind fuck.

The Richardson stuff was never my favorite story-line in the books but I do love the indulgent trope-i-ness of Claire and Richardson discussing treason during a dance, and Claire's parting line of saying she won't betray his secret because they are on the same side... even while she also affirms she will not spy on her husband's family. You go, Claire. I'm sure this won't come back to bite you at all. I also loved William and Claire getting a bit of bonding time at the party, as well. Fun fact, in the book William calls her "Mother Claire" after her marriage to John, and it's very sweet.

So that ending scene: you've got the great moment when Jamie's voice calls out "Claire!" and John and Claire turn their heads in unison towards the noise, disbelieving - you've got Claire running into his arms, you've got the look of resplendent joy and shock on John's face. One adaptive change I really loved was that John says "your son is due here any minute" and William overhears it and that's what triggers the big reveal. In the book, it's simply that the physical resemblance between them is so striking that once an adult William Ransom is staring James Fraser in the face, there's simply no way for him to doubt the truth. Since they can't actually pull that off here, having John say "your son" was a wonderful alternative. Because it makes sense that John would be indulgent in that moment, that he would look at Jamie and forget to be circumspect. That he would take the rare moment of calling William "your son", almost as a way of saying "our son." I mean, that's my head-canon anyway. John's not really in his right mind in that moment, and it costs him big time.

Big kudos for the William performance here too, the hushed way he says "god damn you, sir" and then the look on both their faces when he shoves the rosary into Jamie's hands... oof. William feels, for understandable reasons, like his entire life is effectively over now, and I got the sense of how huge a problem this is for everyone just in those scant few moments.

I could go on... this half of the season is pushing me closer towards doing a whole big Outlander series re-read, which I totally do not have time to do... but this is the good stuff, it's so juicy! I'm so pleased with the amount of time we're spending on this portion of the story, I feel like getting the full sixteen episodes this season has really helped out the pacing issues that had been happening in some other recent seasons.

8.5/10