#while ''he will make things worse for everyone including you'' is excellent at motivating people who want shit things to happen

[juney-blues]

the main selling point of another term for biden is "there are worse options." this is not a particularly inspiring campaign platform but people get mad when you point that out for some reason

[bythenineshards]

What Tamlin retcons are there, exactly?

@worldsnotsaid has excellent and incredibly detailed essays about this topic. I'd advise going to their blog and reading their stuff.

Recently, someone made a post (I don't remember who, but after I get done with this post I'll find it and mention them in a reblog or comment or something. But in it, they mention that any and all of Tamlin's behavior could be classified in the same boat as the behavior of all the Fae Males (cringe) in this series. He's not human and more animalistic. So something like Tamlin losing his temper when Feyre's wellbeing is threatened and threatening violence is pretty on par for the Fae. Cough cough Rhys loses his temper when Feyre's wellbeing (aka the ignorance he placed her under) is threatened by Nesta and he does what? Threatens to fucking kill her. It's all just Maas deciding whatever Tamlin does is bad but if Rhys does the same thing for the same reasons, he's good.

But you asked about recons.

I'll give you one that really grinds my gears. Tamlin's behavior Utm. A lot of people, Feyre included, like to twist what Tamlin did into something that it wasn't. And Maas thinks we're too stupid to notice. In Acotar, when Feyre shows up Utm, Tamlin has no power and is subservient to Amarantha. He is literally the same as everyone else (except Rhys). While Feyre does the trials, Tamlin is emotionless. Right? He gives Amarantha nothing. Thus keeping Amarantha from finding ways to hurt Feyre to get a reaction from Tamlin. He is saving her from torture.

Something like this sorta happens in PotC 3, don't judge me, but it shows what happens when you fail to deceive your opponent. Elisabeth and Barbossa go to Singapore to enlist the help of Sao Feng. While debating the situation, Sao Feng reveals he has Will. Barbossa pretends they don't know him. Sao Feng calls their bluff and goes to kill Will. Elisabeth gasps. This gives Sao Feng the upper hand. One tiny noise and favor falls to Sao Feng.

Tamlin holding this act for three months is actually a super effective action to show the reader that Tamlin cares. He knows this is going to be bad as is. He doesn't want to make it worse for her. In Acomaf, this is twisted as "He did nothing to help me" which is utter bs. The motive was clear in Acotar. No matter how much Maas wants you to believe this new angle she's pulling out of her ass.

The next part of this retcon is the last night before the final trial. Feyre complains in Acomaf that Tamlin did nothing to help her Utm and all he wanted was to fuck her. First off, shut up Feyre. In Acotar, she was down to clown. In fact, it's been a while, but I'm pretty sure she initiated it. He had no power Utm until Feyre solved the riddle. He had no idea what the trial was. And why would he do something as selfish as to leave everyone there to suffer? Why would he start asking a bunch of questions? It would draw attention to Feyre. You know, that person he's trying to protect by pretending not to care? Wouldn't anyone get sus that he's asking about that human he supposedly doesn't care about.

Also, within a book like this, it's pretty common to reiterate to the reader and MC what they are fighting for right before the climax. In Feyre's case, it's freeing the love of her life. So the reminder for Feyre of her goal before the climax is a climax (...sigh... Even I'm not proud of that and I'm an unabashed monster fucker). Having her get one final moment with Tamlin the night before the last trial is a reaffirming of her goal. Was it dumb in that situation? Yes. If this was a was a movie, I'd be sternly saying how stupid they are. Should it be twisted to make Tamlin look bad? No. Realistically speaking, with everything we know about the situation, it's unlikely he had anything to offer her other than to show her how deeply he cares for her. To show that despite pretending not to care, he does love her. I'd also point out that Maas never really has any other...methods of showing love other than sex. Her relationships are as shallow as a kiddie pool in July.

It can also be interpreted that he has faith in her to finish the trials. Which is refreshing and funny, considering if she didn't literally have the answer handed to her in the second trial, she and Lucien would be dead, and the Courts would be trapped forever under Amarantha. Honestly, besides the Wyrm, she's basically handed everything. But I digress.

I hope this was enlightening.

[anxiouslyfred]

Dear Self Esteem

Summary: Roman writes to characters from fiction in an attempt to build his self esteem.

/\/\

Dear Barbie,

Life is difficult and I've no clue how you have excelled in so many areas. You constantly become your best self, or take control over a situation to resolve it and I'm faltering behind everyone.

I've tried so many times to reinvent myself in a way that will get me respect, that I'll be able to look in the mirror and believe I've done something great, but that either leaves me feeling like a fraud, or exhausted from the bouncing between a million different views none of which can I truly agree with.

I know I am a mere male in your wonderland of female empowerment, but even doing things to support my friends and family fail now and I feel simply lost.

For now I'll look to your films and dolls and try to find hope that if I keep creating and dreaming I will manage to find that wonderful tomorrow.

Yours dreaming, Roman

/\/\

Dear Rapunzel,

You are so lucky to live in a land of fairytales and clear villains in your life.

Some days I think half my family are villains, but others I know they are just people trying to do the best they can with the information and views that they have. Even when you're double-crossed you are able to understand and either fight the villain doing wrong, or bring them back to good with a song and kind words.

What do we do when right and wrong, good and bad are not quite as simple as that?

I simply don't know where I should look. There are no lanterns in the sky for me to chase.

Yours despondently, Roman

/\/\

Dear Dreamers

I know you are out there, watching Thomas's videos, sometimes joining in with them. You are what make this career we've formed so special, so wonderful. I know, I remember saying all those years ago that I was on a solo quest to love myself, but loving the people I create for is definitely a step in the right direction.

Thomas see all those wonderful creations you make based off our ideas and those our friends suggest to include in this series and I simply adore it all. You're such a creative company, and I just wish I could feel included among your ranks.

Yours in wonder, Roman.

/\/\

Dear Aurora,

Even the most wonderful dream must be woken up from at some point. I hope that yours was lovely, especially since you don't wake up screaming as people sometimes do from nightmares.

In all honestly, I've been retreating to dreams and trying to sleep more recently. Remy claims it's unhealthy, but life is a horror that I need safety from. Perhaps it's worse to simply be a part of a person, because even the agency I have over myself feels limited. Everything must be for Thomas and the life he deserves to have.

I'm not sure what that life is from all the views different parts of him hold, and as the dreams that are meant to motivate Thomas, that leaves me floundering. I wish I could flee back to a castle barely remembered from childhood. Perhaps I would find the answers or have an unknown curse destroy me there.

Or at the very least I could form one in the imagination, perhaps leave a message for Virgil or someone over what I'm doing. That will calm any worries they have at least.

Yours pondering, Roman

/\/\

Dear Aurora,

I usually don't write to the same character twice, but Virgil came after me.

He was angry at the very existence of this adventure and claimed that I don't get to duck out without saying why at least. He barely even acknowledged that it had to be true loves kiss to wake me up, let alone enough to confirm whether his love is platonic or romantic. I'd built in a knight who would save me after a while but he never got the chance to show.

I guess I can still find dreams in the waking world to bring me hope.

Yours hopefully, Roman.

[agent-cupcake]

As a resident Claudefucker, I know am curious to know what our fave charming schemer is doing during this Mafia!AU. He'd look lovely in a suit.

~It was quite the headline when Godfrey Riegan died. The details are a little hazy, a little convenient, but people don't talk about that sort of thing. Car accidents are common. Tragic, but not unreasonable. There’s no reason to smear a man’s perfectly respectable political career for the sake of some sensational gossip.

~In the right circles, however, there was a huge uproar, questions about who was going to take over the Riegan family when the elderly boss Oswald died. The Riegan’s had been dominating Leicester for quite some time, but a lot of people began to predict that the Gloucester family was going to move in. They had powerful friends, it seemed. Friends with money, no less.

~Claude Riegan, grandson of Oswald, appeared out of nowhere just when he was needed. Stories of the lost daughter Tiana still circulated, sure, but there were still a lot of questions about Claude’s origins when nobody except Oswald were able to vouch for him. He obviously had military leadership experience—his skill with guns and ability to lead was just too excellent for any other explanation—but he dismissed the question out of hand. There’s no documentation of him, either, leading some to wonder if even his name was false. But Oswald said he was family, and that was that.

~Claude was quick to establish himself, in any case. Despite his cavalier attitude, his efficacy in overhauling the power dynamics of Leicester were profound.  

~He decided, first and foremost, that the way to win the people over was to invigorate the local culture, which had seen a sharp decline as a result of new laws that were unfavorable to business, Adrestia’s growing market monopolies, and the bad reputation of the red light district Ailell. This included some perfectly legitimate campaigning and some under the table type schemes. 

~The result was a flourishing Derdriu Street. While it lacks the prestige of Enbarr Square in Adrestia, it welcomes entertainment that would be considered too “low brow” like comedy, trendy new restaurants, and music venues. Even better, all of it is built on the recently cleaned up river. The Riegan family is involved in all of  it, of course. 

~Casino owner Claude. This exists solely to thirst but maybe it was preexisting and he took it over due to its poor management? If there’s going to be gambling anyway, it should be done right. The extra money’s not so bad, either. But, Claude lounging in a big leather chair in a dark blue blazer with gold brocade, his white shirt unbuttoned low enough to see enough his chest. Enough to make you drool. Enough that you’d definitely get caught staring and probably called out for it because he can’t help himself. Claude with his elbows on the arm rests and fingers folded in front of him as he considers you, gold rings winking because he’s just that ostentatious and appearances are important. Claude asking you how you feel about taking risks in a way that really feels like it has nothing to do with cards, staring at you with a friendly smile that doesn’t meet those calculating eyes—eyes that you know will pick up on every tell. 

~Claude also struck a deal with the Kupala Distillery. They’d been fighting to keep hold of their historic business for years, and Claude offered to help them with that. You know, not for free, but he’s good at making deals that leave everybody happy. 

~The second biggest thing he tackled was the drug trade. For the most part, no one family had ever had a complete handle on that market. The Goneril’s had a hold over the docks for years, but the Edmunds had been moving in and working with the Gloucester family to bolster their power. Distribution was scattered and hard to keep track of as it ultimately circulated wherever there was a profit to be made. Looking at it like this, Claude decided that the only way to fix things was to take control over all of it. In his line of work, shady things like the drug trade are impossible to avoid. At the very least, if he has control over it, he can ensure the product is clean and expel far more unsavory ventures.

~Through these escapades, Claude was able to make alliances with all of the major families. A lot of them had only remained loyal to the Gloucester family out of fear so as soon as they had an alternative, they bolted. This has an unfortunate side effect of revealing how his power is perceived. Every day is a balancing act for Claude. He allows each family to function as they please as long as they’re aware they do so at his mercy. It’s better to keep friends than to control enemies, but even that requires a delicate maneuvering of power.

~However, Claude likes the conflict. He enjoys the game and he especially enjoys winning the game. There’s a certain level of his excusing amorality for the sake of his family and Leicester, but there’s an equal part of him that understands his wrongdoings and deals with it separately. He wouldn’t hold to the naïve “ends justify the means” idea to excuse himself, but he would still argue that his actions have value and are even necessary. If it weren’t him, it would be somebody a lot worse than him. That’s probably something that would linger in the back of everybody’s minds whenever they shook his hand or paid their respects, whenever they began to think of how easy it would be to take him out. Fear, too. So far, Claude’s never done anything shockingly bad, only what was necessary. But with his power and intellect, it’s always a question of what he could do.

~If someone asked him that, Claude would smile that friendly smile and tell them that he would do anything to see his vision made real. Whether or not that’s true remains to be seen. 

~Luckily, Claude’s not alone! Hilda is the stereotypical crime family princess. She joined Claude because he offered her freedom from the overbearing control of her father and brother. Her skill in manipulating everybody around her combined with her reputation as a ditzy rich girl makes her fantastic at gathering information, assuming Claude can get her to do so. But, as long as he’s not being too forceful, she’s surprisingly motivated to weave her way through social circles and charm everyone. Although she would never say it, the order he brought to Leicester, not to mention the entertainment, made everything a lot better for her and her family. Plus, she likes being useful after spending her entire life watching Holst give his heart and soul to family while she did nothing. Ultimately, the information she provides is essential and her relationship with Claude is one of the few either have that’s built on trust, respect, and loyalty. That said, sometimes even Claude gets a little shiver as he watches how easily Hilda can manipulate people.  

~Lorenz was one of Claude’s most disdainful detractors, although a part of that was jealousy. Claude just swept in and did things that Lorenz had been waiting and planning to do once he became the head of the Gloucester family. Even after being on the receiving ends of such vicious attacks, once Claude undeniably had the upper hand in Leicester, he went behind the Gloucester boss’s back to Lorenz and told him that they were going to be friends or enemies, it was Lorenz’s choice. Not threatening him, just pointing out that the fall of the Gloucester family was inevitable under his father’s leadership and that Lorenz didn’t have to suffer for his father’s sins. Probably over mimosas and brunch. Lorenz is proud and has no appreciation for Claude, but he’s not stupid. After they worked out their disagreements and more or less accepted each other, Lorenz and Claude became pretty close. Claude knows that having someone to openly and aggressively disagree with him isn’t a bad thing. Not only that, but Lorenz’s a solid ally with a better grasp on some of the things Claude has difficulty with due to not being a native. Lorenz is willing to admit that Claude is a good leader.

~Marianne is well educated in the realm of the law and political action. The reason the Edmund family saw such success despite their lesser status was because of her adopted father’s genius. which he made sure to share with Marianne. She is invaluable in aiding Claude on the perfectly legitimate side of his business, and helping him hide his tracks for the shady stuff. Raphael is the muscle. Lysithea is a computer genius. Being a sickly shut in with issues that only recently saw treatment, she’s on the Mr. Robot level of hacker mode activated. Ignatz is an architect which is useful since so much of Claude’s power is in the property and infrastructure. He also designed a lot of places to have some neat-o hidey holes. Claude loves buildings that have secrets. Leonie is manages a lot of the physical and pettier side of the work. If someone’s stirring up trouble, she’s likely to pay them a visit as a warning before Claude has to get involved. She used to be a mercenary but being on Claude’s payroll is a lot better of a gig.    

~As for the suits, one thing is very important. Claude would not, under any circumstances, wear something tight on his thighs. I actually kind of like the idea of him going for a 1980′s style modernized. In his post timeskip outfit, he’s already got a hint of that going on with how oversized his outfit looks. The 80′s (rightfully) gets a bad rep for fashion, but it’s also very iconic with those wide-collared suit jackets, matchy-matchy three piece suits, sportscoats with a fun patterned shirt underneath, open blazers, pleated pants with an oversized jacket, and—in particular—the trend of summer suits in shades of tan and cream with colored shirts underneath. Then, combine that with a pair of Ray-Ban Aviators and a topless convertible and you’ve got a distinctly recognizable mob boss who doubles as a devastating heartthrob. I’m not saying he’d do a 1:1 recreation, but you’d definitely see references to the fashion of the era in his outfits. He would wear oxfords or ankle boots. Whatever it was, they’d have to be comfortable. He also doesn’t shy away from jewelry. The earring, of course, and rings when he's feeling particularly decadent. When he’s wearing his shirts unbuttoned Claude could possibly wear a gold chain. I mean, what are you gonna say, no? That gold doesn’t look gorgeous against his skin? That it’s tacky? You’re talking to the man who wore quilted pants. Claude’s not afraid to stand out because he knows he will anyway, nor is he afraid to be seen as unfashionable because he doesn’t particularly care about trends. I also enjoy the idea of him emulating the 80′s as someone who didn’t grow up in a western culture and thus mainly saw things through the lens of movies. Whatever he wears, however, he would look very handsome.

[ellenoir]

@alkalinefrog suggested that I publish the headcanons I wrote with her in response to her escape room ask. I didn't wanna postjack but I thought I might as well share.

Including some of Alka's own thoughts and contributions, stylized like this! I copy pasted her words directly from the chat we shared, but some of mine have been elaborated on because they were my own statements and I had some other things to add!

It takes a little while, but eventually, L mentions that there might be a way to beat this without resorting to asking the Taskforce. Nobody knows of their shame except, of course, Watari. Once L explains his idea, Light is completely on board.

The three, even Misa, come back with Mello, Matt and Near for some support and area coverage. Misa was determined to see this through when she saw how much this meant to Light!

"Besides. This will be an excellent learning experience for them -" "Round two motherfuckers let's go." "Light, do not curse in front of the children."

"Fuck yes let's do this." "Near, do not encourage him."

It's pretty much canon that Near is a worse pottymouth than Mello is. Chickenshit President.

Mello drops like a solid loud F bomb here and there, but Near sprinkles it into his regular speech completely nonchalant lolol Oh man, Mello would be ON BOARD with Light's aggressive haunted house redemption arc I love the idea of L calmly chiding his boyfriend for being a bad influence on the kiddos All three of them take to Light like ducks to water tho 😭♥️

It's a matter of pride to Light and he's not afraid to let that show. He thinks that's an important lesson to instill in the children anyway - take pride in your abilities and if someone insults you, come back twice as hard.

L disagrees with this as a lesson. Mello points out the hypocrisy of that.

"Yes, but that means I have firsthand experience."

"If you don't think we should be learning from this, why are we here?" Matt asks at one point. "Oh, I read that these make for excellent teambuilding exercises. Aside from that, I just don't think you should be learning from Light's aggressive grudge keeping." Mello stares for almost a solid minute.

"Aight imma head out." "Mello come back here." "Nope." "You must get over your feelings with Near." "Bottlin' it." "Mello please."

"where's the door" "Mello that's the point, we have to find it together" "GODDAMMIT"

L's like "don't worry, this will be great practice for when you collaborate on cases---- Light you're doing that wrong" "Screw you L" "Please" All three kids "..."

"Mello, you must learn to put your emotions aside for the good of a case. It's an invaluable skill." "Like when you let a man be killed cause it made Kira react?" "Did it work?" L actually allows himself a smug little smile as Mello fails to come up with a response to that.

Near notices how Light is quietly fuming at that statement. Interesting.

Near goes "Light, what do you think about the Lind L-----" "Let's go kids, this room isn't gonna escape itself!" Near: side eyes

It's a journey of Self Discovery for all of them!

Matt learns that he can hide behind anyone and get some sort of comfort from them because he has the Saddest Face when he's scared. Light gives this most easily, because he already has experience as an older sibling. He lets Matt grab onto the back of his shirt and puts his arm over his shoulders. They could pass for half siblings, L notes.

AWWW

Near gains a whole new vocabulary of Japanese curse words following Light around

Near learns that ghosts are, in fact, quite frightening when they're in front of you. They were never nervous or worried about stories or even movies, but seeing them in person is quite different.

Near also learns that they're not good at figuring out where the clues have been hidden, but once they have them they're good at figuring out how to use them.

Mello learns that he could make a better escape room because God these hiding places are so obvious. They're also good at figuring out motives and profiling people.

Mello knows People, Near knows Application. Analyze and utilize. L decides that they must be better advised on how to work together.

Misa learns that when kids are clever and well behaved, she actually quite enjoys their company. She thought she didn't like kids because she's used to them being loud and obnoxious and poorly behaved from her time in America, and she didn't really observe children in Japan because their quiet and proper manners let them slip under her radar.

Misa ends up bonding most of all with Near due to their being odd ones out in their trios. Mello is very confused as to why the goth chick is so fond of Papercraft Child. For all of their differences, they end up quite good friends, and Near even gets Misa to help them with the puzzles as a second pair of hands and willing ears.

Mello ends up ignoring a lot of Near's advice outwardly, but when nobody's looking, he tries what Near suggested because it does make sense. "Hah! Got it!" "Well done, Mello, what was the answer?" "..."

Upon exiting, Light throws his arms up in the air and lets out a bellowing cackle that leaves everyone mildly concerned. Except for Matt. Matt's still clinging to him. Matt does not care that his new Big Brother has mildly concerning habits.

[anxiouslyextroverted]

Why Tommy and Dream need to team up for an MCC

IDC. DISCDUO LONG AF THREAD TIME

So basically, there's a split on who wants Dream and Tommy to team for mcc and who doesn’t. I’ve seen many people want it badly, and many people despise it.

The argument against it is that Dream won’t work well with another leader. And Tommy won’t work well with another leader.

But the thing is that Tommy has let his teammates lead before, take battlebox and parkour tag in MCC14. He is slowly adjusting to be able to do that.

And the stuff about Dream doing bad with another leader just isn’t accurate.

“Perform better with someone I can go back to back with I think. I make risky plays.” Tommy also makes risky plays.   “If they don’t pay off and there's not another “leader” then usually it hurts a lot worse than if there is if that makes any sense.”  He implies that he wants another leader on his team, another captain.

The two in sky battle, survival games, battle box, tgttosawaf, and parkour tag would absolutely dominate. (But esp in sky battle and sg)  Both pull off extremely risky moves that end up going usually right.  Dream and Tommy are both excellent strategists and leaders, but Dream is a lot better at following through with a strategy and organizing it properly, while Tommy is better at morale.

Here are there averages (not including MCC14 and onwards) btw ------------

(it wouldn’t be that hard to balance a team with them on it)

--------------------------- Dream and Tommys weaknesses in MCC

Dreams reasons for falling flat in some MCCS, is because there has hardly been anyone on his team to motivate him (we got this MCC15 with Sapnap and Michael which is a huge exception) It was hard for anyone really to pop off in MCC14 Green guardians because you had no one in it that could keep the morale up and support.  Dream takes MCC very seriously and can get deeply upset when things in it go wrong. Now compare that to MCC14 red rabbits, Tommy constantly brought it up, with help from Niki too. When Tubbo was sad and saying they would lose, Tommy snapped him out of it, in the most aggressive way, but it still helped a lot. He was the one to tell his team mates not to give up and just look at what things went wrong in ace race, he bounced back immediately.

Tommys reasons for falling flat in some MCCS, is usually because he isn’t in a strong enough team and the strats that he pull are a little too risky sometimes. And with games like Battlebox, and parkour tag, he really needs someone to help him with a better plan.  Dream is extremely good at those games and help. Tommy also can get stuck making a lot of jokes and not taking the game seriously, but Dream would be able to help him tone down the bits.  Tommy has actually stated recently that he really does want to win MCC, so it does make sense to just put him with Dream yk?

----------------------------- Dynamic

Everyone in the mcyt community should know that their dynamic is really good... Dream well, was quite close with the people on his MCC14 team, as well as some people in the past as well. The dynamics he has with them aren’t based on a competitive spirit. Wdym I mean, is basically they are friendships, with emotional connections and many experiences, but thats really all it is. The exception of this is Technoblade and Sapnap.

Tommys friendships are pretty much the same, not really that competitive or based on minecraft skills. Apart from Technoblade..  So what I’m saying is Tommy and Dreams dynamic is not only funny and they click really well, but it also is something like a teacher and apprentice kind. There are many times where Dream has taught Tommy PVP and many many times where they have had war with each other on DreamSMP, its the fighting kind of friendship that would do well for them on the same MCC team, where they would be able to work well together because both are competitive and lovers of PVP and the have the spirit of MCC. Both have the passion to win. With both being good at pvp games.

Another thing that people say is that they are going to argue with each other.

Even though they are known to do that in the DMSP and even in just regular streams (because online personas). They have hardly had any conflicts before irl, they tend to get along quite well, and can bounce off each other.

If Tommy and Dream were to argue about something in MCC, both would listen to each other and understand the different point of views, Tommy already would be listening to Dream because he knows Dream comes up with good strategies, and in turn Dream has witnessed Tommy pull off some really good plays before. An argument over what strat to do, would last about 3 seconds with both just going with whatever strategy made more sense. They might even just switch up the strat.

IF they were arguing with each other over the seriousness of the game (Tommy making jokes) (Dream being serious) then Tommy would tone it down, he doesn’t like genuinely making people upset, and we know he doesn’t like making Dream upset because Dream has said before that Tommy worried that he was upsetting him. In the very rare chance that Tommy played up the rivalry with Dream for a bit then he still wouldn’t purposely throw MCC, instead just try to out play Dream.

--------------------------------

Anyway, if you’re still not convinced that they would work well together on an MCC team just remember that Dream logged onto dream smp on an alt account just to copy Tommy and annoy him. And Tommy went along with it. if that isn’t a sign of a good af dynamic then idk what is :)

[raguna-blade]

Persona 5, Makoto, And Cops

So, like...We can all agree that it's weird that Makoto want's to be a cop in the game right? Aside from general cop bastardry irl, there's like precisely one police officer in the entirety of P5 who's at all a clear cut good guy and even he basically just says out and out, super explicitly that the cops are like...Not great.

At BEST, at BEST, they ensure the laws are followed, but that doesn't always equate to justice being served, and it is hilariously easy for them to be made into tools of opression, and to be made into stooges of people who want to do wrong.

Like Zenkichi out and out says “You really shouldn't be a cop.”

But Makoto still want's to be, despite knowing this, despite agreeing with this, and it's a weird gap right? Of perhaps everyone in the group, she should know best how following the rules and laws can lead to people doing pretty screwed up things if her little stint stalking and then blackmailing joker and company.

And she's just a student council president you know? It's not like she has anywhere near the same authority as a police officer, and unlike Chie who (for sake of argument here) has pretty objectively Upstanding Excellent Cops in her neighborhood except for you know the one who decidedly wasn't but P4 isn't really dealing with Laws and their problems, so them not leaning into law enforcement is a problem makes sense. Dojima is a just dude trying to do his best and even here the only other cop of note is uh...A straight up monster who abused his position of authority to get away with terrible things.

But back to P5, like...The game isn't subtle about it's feelings about law enforcement. Every Single Shadow is represented in the field by varying kinds of law enforcement operative types. Guards, knights, actual cops, prison wardens, etc etc. The Ultimate Big Bad basically posits that humans can't follow the rules and for that need to be severely punished and so laws and rules more or less end up being the big bad foe here.

The motivation to be a cop is well...Painted as whole heartedly misguided at best. We never get to know anything about Makoto's dad, and he's her inspiration for that goal, but at the same time, we get to see the other daughter who I think it's safe to say ALSO had him as something of a goal and...Sae also doesn't exactly come off as a perfect avatar of justice here either.

She very clearly WANTS to be, no doubt, and the massive shock of the games events does change her trajectory, but she's been deep down in the swamp of the system and she knows intimately that well...It's a shit show at best.

So i'm circling back to it as...Why? What's the deal here with what the game is going for theme wise? The idea of internal reform I suppose is being suggested, but the game's also make it remarkably clear that that actually won't work.

I'd say even textually, not even dipping into subtext, the game is out and out saying that you cannot reform a system from the inside like that when it's that far gone. Between P5 and P5S it's made abundantly clear that even what is functionally in a metaphysical sense a hard system check of things going out of whack law wise like the phantom thieves (what with their flipping of the table) they can't actually solve the problems of the system itself being super fucked. At best they can stop it from going full on malignant, but the cancer is still there. If the people don't actually band together to overturn things that are broken, especially when it is well within their hands to do, it's not going to improve, it's not going to get better. It's a delaying action at best.

Like the Phantom Thieves can't save everyone. Akira Konoe bluntly makes it clear when he asks them and the PT can only really go...No we can't. If we knew sure, but we don't possess the ability to do that. It's outside our ability entirely to do so for everyone.

So...Back to Makoto then. It's abundantly clear, I think, that she's very much of the mold of she want's to be a cop to protect people. That's what the job description is, even if that's not what it is in reality. And I think we can at least say that she's not so naive by this point to think that if she goes in she's going to be able to reform things, not by herself. It's worth noting that her intended goal is to become a Police Commisioner, and basically form her own police branch under her rules and regulations which...Fair. Fine. There's something to be said for being an apt demonstration but it doesn't actually fix the problem at it's core does it?

Which I think pushes this into the funky grey area of things because I don't think she's precisely...Wrong to want to do this. As stated, I think the games make it abundantly clear that one person on their own can't make radical and deep changes. You need people and momentum and everyone willing to work and all that.

Certainly, I think, it would be tremendously easier to reform an organization if someone in that organization is willing to make calls against what they're doing presently. But by the same token, it's also clear if you're entering an organization to try and change that organization it's uh...Not precisely a good bet. Now there's something to be said for being willing to try it I think. While the game doesn't exactly indicate how it'll go, we can imagine that following the events of the game that Makoto wouldn't be crushed under the weight of it all and change for the worse....Though the question of if she'd be able to make her goals a reality are a different question. She has allies in that fight for sure, between Zenkichi, Sae, and (from all indications) Kaburagi, there is at least some element of reform at play, but it's also well...

The big ass conspiracy didn't exactly come out of nowhere no? And the cops at every level more or less were compromised to some level or another, and this includes these prospective allies.

But then, I guess this goes back to the Phantom Thieves themselves. They're not able to actually fundamentally fix the problems at play. They stop the worst excesses certainly, the most terminal aspects of it, although in doing so they are very nearly destroyed outright and with barely a thought. In that spirit, Of doing what you can with what you can it changes the read on the decision at least somewhat.

The Daughter of a well decorated cop, sister of a particularly well known ex prosecuter now defense lawyer, in addition to being a top honor student type, certainly gives her a bit more leverage to attack the problem, especially in the sense of getting into a position to actually change things. To say nothing of Joanna.

Taking her awakening quote into consideration

"Have you decided to tread the path of strife...? Very well. Let us proceed with our contract at once. I am thou, thou art I... You have finally found your own justice... Please... Never lose sight of it again. This memorable day marks your graduation from your false self..."

and the general story the game presents of Joanna as one who rose to the top of the organization she was in and shook it to it's core (doesn't particularly matter how true that is in reality, merely what the game says for this instance) it's clear that indeed that's her gambit, if not the specific trickster archetype she's supposed to embody (as opposed to Joker's completely outside the law rogue, Anne's Femme Fatale, or Morganna's Layabout by Day Vigilante by Night as off the cuff examples), of someone who appeared to all eyes to be a harmless simple part of the system until it was simply too late for them to do anything about it.

There is a solid arc there, and a story to be told, and I think in that light makes the continued ambition make sense especially given what we're shown of well...Uh, everything to do with law enforcement in P5.

Now if they actually communicated that idea WELL is um...probably a different story. I think it's there to see, but I can easily see this being overlooked if this was the actual intent. Though, thinking about it, the way the various trickster archetypes are shown to function isn't quite as clear as it could be, though I think there's something to say for looking into that.

Later though.

[shippostshitpost]

“Boyfriend” does my make up challenge part one.

“I need a boyfriend….” Izumi Midoriya mutters more so to herself.  The greenette was normally content with her life as it was, but she had made the mistake of looking at the tending makeup challenges. She, like any streamer, wanted to make sure she kept up with what was trending. It just so happened that  with Valentine's Day coming up everyone was doing the “my boyfriend does my makeup videos and streams.” 

She never really considered dating. Growing up she was the quirkless kid on the playground, the living punching bag. Kaachan may have backed off but that didn’t mean everyone did. So dating never crossed her mind. Then when Kaachan gave her the idea to start her own makeup channel and talk about heroes her life became busy. She would pick a hero, work on a basic analysis or break down a singular fight. She would spend days making sure she had the look planned out and enough allowance if she needed to pick up something. Then one for all entered her life, crash training had dissolved any free time she had left. Attending UA it was only that much worse. No, she never had the time and she didn’t have the time now. She scolded herself for even thinking about it. It couldn’t happen. 

And even as she told herself that, she found herself drifting away in her own mind as she watched what had to be her 20th video in a row. Her favorite are the videos with the shy boyfriends. They always seemed anxious and worried, like they truly valued how important make up was to their girlfriend. They would apologize and fidget, even going against the rules of the challenge to check with the product was for.  She also enjoyed the joker ones she called them jokers because they seem to make a joke out of everything. They openly admitted it they knew absolutely nothing about makeup and we’re just winging it. She thought it hilarious the ways they would use some of the products. Sometimes it be brow powder as an eyeshadow, and then they would be confused as to why it wasn’t super pigmented. One guy, and she wasn’t sure how this happened, tried to use liquid liner and lipstick. It was the only time his girlfriend said absolutely not. She couldn’t help but imagine if she had a boyfriend like either of those. Given that she herself was pretty shy, she wasn’t sure A shy boyfriend would be a good idea. But she did like the idea of a bold boyfriend with a good sense of humor. She could imagine herself pushing him away as he tried to insist that a product was for one thing when it was for another. The two of them laughing as he reminded her that he knew nothing about makeup.  The third category a boyfriend she came across were the ones that seem to know how to do make up. In one video it was a Gothic boyfriend, he was amazing with the eyeliner. She was almost jealous of how well he did, she still couldn’t get her eyeliner to be a sharp as his was.

“...Or a girlfriend…” she sighed, letting her mind jump. Her favorites included, the shy bashful girlfriend who is good at Sweet looks, lots of pinks and soft blues maybe a little bit of purple here in there and a lot of white. And maybe some face jewels, the kind that were stickers you could get at your local crest store. Not the glue on ones, never the glue on ones! She had tried that once and regretted it. She also loved the challenges we’re both girls were doing the others makeup. They will do matching looks based on famous couples or even TV shows they liked. She also had a soft spot for the girlfriend that just couldn’t do makeup. The one who had the more natural look that wore the red flannel, and combat boots. The lumberjack girlfriend. Izumi giggled at the idea but swooned all the same.

She pulled at her bottom lip muttering at several hundred words per minute. Her thin bows were pulled tight together while freckled cheeks were dusted pink, her green hair slightly messy as the curls broke away to do as they pleased. She was completely oblivious to the world around her, and the fact she was in the common room.

1-A was in utter shock. Had she really just said that? Izumi Midoriya wanted a boyfriend? Or girlfriend? She wanted to date? They could hardly believe what they were hearing! It would be a lie to say that none of them had tried. Bless her heart, the green haired girl was a bit dense. She was incredibly intelligent in matters pertaining to heroism. She excelled in strategy, went above and beyond when it came to quirk history, she could tell you anything you wanted to know about any quirk including her own, using this knowledge to try and dominate the battlefield. But when it came to other people, and subsequently romantic interests? She seemed to know nothing or maybe she was just ignoring them? They found it hard to believe that she would brush off their feelings  without acknowledging them. And she always seemed worried about hurting people's feelings, no they had decided that she was just oblivious.

But now? This was a complete game changer. The poor girl didn’t realize what silent competition she had set for her classmates. And there wasn’t a single one that wasn’t taking it seriously. While she scrolled away day dreaming the class seemed to be planning.

Tenya Iida of course began devising a strategy. Being that they were close he knew her schedule, her common interests, and when she had free time. After all regardless of romantic attraction he didn’t want to intervene with her personal schedule. And certainly not with her school or training schedule!  Though he did have the advantage of being a class representative, meaning he could easily ask for her help on something. What exactly? He wasn’t sure. He also began scrolling through her social media trying to find things she might be excited about they could make great conversational topics. As well as sending a text to his older brother. Izumi was a woman not a girl, he couldn’t expect her to swoon over any position he held nor his family name. No, he would simply have to show her that he was a superior option to the rest of his competition.

Ochaco radiate confidence. Izumi was her best friend, and have been since they started at the prestigious hero school. If anyone knew her it wa Ochaco! She knew it would be effortless to get her attention, she could simply ask for a little help in a class here or there. If there was one thing she knew about the mumbling angel, it was that just by being her friend she could gain the attention she wanted.

Tokoyami began conversing with dark shadow. The two were trying to figure out a strategy to show their little ray of light that the darkness was a safe place to be. Tokoyami was always a little anxious about his power, but he wasn’t about to pass up an opportunity to win the girl of his dreams. He could already see them strolling in the moonlight, him dressed in a dark cloak and her in a pure white kimono. The thought alone was enough to motivate him. He would write her poetry, letters, and pay her compliments. Traditional love languages were the most effective.

Mina was already working on a playlist. She and Midoriya enjoy the same music, and it just so happened that a new album had dropped. They could listen to it together Mina would have the opportunity to show her that she could be the fun girlfriend. The girlfriend that she could let loose with.

Momo  wondered if she even stood a chance against the others. She was more shy, and really lacked the confidence that Midoriya seem to carry. Then again that wasn’t always a bad thing, after all Momo could be the shy one, and Midoriya could be the outgoing one who had all the confidence. She began to daydream about that dynamic, they would surely be the cutest couple on campus.

Kaminari and Sero had decided to work together. After all, they were both very aware that she was out of their league. But maybe if they could both get her laughing she would choose one of them. They also didn’t mind if she chose both.

Shouto didn’t even bother to think about it. He didn’t want to think of the how, he only thought of what would happen after they got together. Surely if they got married he would take her last name. And they would be the power couple of UA. He would show her how deep his love was, using both of his powers to rise to the top with her. He would be a good husband unlike his father. 

Kirishima, well his plan was simple. He was aware of how strong she was, and the fact that she didn’t really need a man to complete her. She wasn’t weak or fragile and had more than once kicked his ass. No his strategy was to show her how well they work together. That they could be an unstoppable team.

While the class plotted,  and Izumi watched her video, Katsuki had a moment to reflect. He wasn’t unaware of the intentions of his classmates. He had always known that half-and-half bastard had a thing for her. And it wasn’t hard to figure out that almost everyone else did too. But where did that leave him? He was under no illusions, he had put her through hell and made her life miserable. She didn’t owe him forgiveness and he wasn’t going to ask for it. he wasn’t sure how he felt about her, she was his childhood friend. And he did truly believe that. Regardless of how he felt, he wasn’t going to let anyone in that room just try and waltz into her life. They would have to get through him first.

“Game on extras, may the best man or woman win…” He thought with a smirk. This was going to be fun. 

[yoursummerfrost]

Hogwarts House Sorting: Lucifer Characters

After hemming and hawing for weeks, I finally decided to commit to making this character analysis. I’ll be using the @sortinghatchats​ system of house sorting because I really love how much nuance it allows for!

You can find excellent explanations of the system on their blog, but a brief explanation for the un-initiated: Primary houses explain WHY a person does things. Secondary houses explain HOW they do them. Frequently, people may model another house, meaning they borrow that system or approach, but will fall back on their “true” house when the chips are down. Additionally, people can lose touch with their house(s) in a process called burning/falling/petrifying/stripping. Without further ado, here we go! Sortings under the cut. [Spoilers through Season 4].

LUCIFER MORNINGSTAR. I’ll start with Lucifer’s secondary, which I think is more straightforward. Our chaotic Devil is a Slytherin secondary through-and-through. He’s at his best when he’s improvising by charming other people, waltzing into a drug dealers’ home base, or paying off a traffic cop. While he can look like a charging Gryffindor or a favor-dealing Hufflepuff, these are ultimately tools that Lucifer uses to be a more effective Slytherin.

At first glance, Luci looks like a Slytherin primary, too. However, I actually think our titular Devil is a burned Hufflepuff primary who resorted to modelling Slytherin when he Fell. In fact, Luci’s character arc over the course of the show is to un-burn, a journey that starts even before he meets Chloe in the pilot. Hufflepuff and Slytherin primaries are both loyalist; the main difference between them is in the scope of their loyalty. Slytherin primaries prioritize a smaller circle of people whom they have decided to prioritize. In contrast, Hufflepuffs believe in the innate value of people, and seek to prioritize people based on need or a sense of what is fair–in Lucifer’s case, this revolves around the basic right to free will.

Hufflepuffs tend to burn when the world has treated them so unfairly that they end up believing that caring about everyone is an impossible goal. Facing this rejection, they narrow their circles and start to prioritize looking out just for themselves, or a few loved ones. This often comes with a sense of shame: if the Hufflepuff were a better person, they could be kind to everyone (and remember, being kind doesn’t mean being nice). Lucifer is constantly asking himself this question. Is he a monster? Can he be a good person? In the pilot, his first interaction with Amenadiel includes asking, “Do you think I’m evil because I was born that way, or because dear old Dad decided I was?” 

At the beginning of the series, Lucifer mostly looks out for himself and, to a lesser extent, Maze. However, even in the pilot, we see glimpses of his inherent sense of justice and compassion for humanity. His interactions with Delilah (and his reaction to her death) set the stage, and his work with the LAPD–beyond his fascination with Chloe–continues the trend. Linda says it best when she tells him, “I think you’re starting to enjoy seeking justice for the good ones.” He only punishes people who have betrayed his innate sense of what is kind and fair–people who hurt other people–and he detests when someone takes away another person’s choice.

This isn’t to say that Slytherins can’t have this innate sense of fairness and compassion; it’s that a Slytherin would still put their “own people” first when the chips are down, and feel good about that decision. A Hufflepuff would feel like they’ve done the right thing when they put the collective good first. When Luci gives Marlotte her own universe at the end of season 2, he’s prioritizing the good of the world–and God and all his siblings in Heaven, estranged they may be–above keeping someone he loves very dearly: his mom. It’s a pretty significant character moment that this is the moral act which gives him his wings back.

Similarly, Lucifer’s pivotal decision at the end of season 4 also shows his Hufflepuff primary. He makes a huge personal sacrifice by going back to rule Hell, and hurts Chloe and his other loved ones to do it too. At the end of the day, Luci wants to do what’s best for humanity, even if it’s at cost to his inner circle. The flip side of this is the very Slytherin decision he makes at the end of season 3 which triggers the reappearance of his Devil face: killing Cain. Lucifer has killed exactly two people, both for the Slytherin motivation of protecting Chloe. Now, we can argue that Luci’s Slytherin model actually served him pretty well here, and the show generally wants us to support Luci after these difficult choices. But the key is in his reaction, which is an intense level of guilt uncharacteristic of someone who genuinely believes that the ends justify the means when it comes to protecting the people they love. 

For our true Slytherin primaries, we need to look no further than the occasional murder-buddies, Maze and Dan.

MAZIKEEN SMITH. Maze is a classic Slytherin primary through and through, and she petrifies over the course of season 3. Her Slytherin primary clashes with Lucifer’s Hufflepuff primary as he slowly un-burns; she can’t understand why he cares so much about humans and why he would change for them. It also explains why she’s so betrayed by his refusal to take her back to Hell: For Slytherin Maze, Lucifer refusing to prioritize her must mean that he cares about her less. For Hufflepuff Lucifer, he has to consider the good of the system–and taking Maze back to Hell could endanger everyone else by angering his father. Plus, it would break up the family!

At the beginning, Maze’s circle consists of herself and Lucifer, and she’s willing to go to any length to protect him–including almost killing Chloe and siding with Amenadiel to bring Lucifer home.  While her stance on humanity ends up changing, it’s primarily because she finds some humans that she happens to like–Trixie and Linda, first and foremost, though she adopts more as the series goes on. She tells Chloe, “I’m glad I didn’t kill you,” not because she suddenly decides murder is inherently bad, but because she ends up looking at Chloe and thinking, ‘This one is mine.’

Maze petrifies when she slowly loses everyone in her circle besides herself. This starts by Linda and Amenadiel lying to her and spirals out of control when Lucifer refuses to take her back to Hell. “None of you deserve me,” she tells him, and suddenly finds herself with no one to protect but herself. However, Maze un-petrifies at the end of the season; the first step is when Amenadiel shows her compassion, but she ultimately finds her place again when she rushes to save Linda from the bluffed threat from Cain.

Maze is a Gryffindor secondary. She’s at her best when she charges head (and knife) first into situations. However, she also has a Ravenclaw model that, similarly to Lucifer, she uses to make her a more effective Gryffindor. Maze collects weapons and fighting styles in a very Ravenclaw-fashion so that she can be the best possible torturer and bounty-hunter, but when trouble arrives, she’s not going to stop and make a plan–she’s going to kick trouble’s ass.

DAN ESPINOZA gets along with Maze so well because they’re both Slytherin primaries. Dan’s willingness to feed Warden Perry to the mob–and his lack of remorse afterwards–because Perry is a scumbag who hurt someone he cares about is clear evidence of his primary. He also knows exactly where to look for a little backup in Maze, who’s always down to offer him the means to his end. At his “Detective Douchiest,” Dan is leveraging his Slytherin primary to justify his bad behavior. He’s loyal to himself, after all, and throws himself into his work to avoid being attached to anyone else. However, Dan’s primary is also a strength. It makes him fiercely loyal and dependable to the people he loves–willing to do whatever it takes to protect them, or get them the revenge they don’t believe in getting for themselves.

Speaking of throwing himself into work: Dan is a Hufflepuff secondary. He’s a hard-working detective who keeps his head down–which makes him clash with his Gryffindor ex-wife, Chloe, who would rather make loud, controversial decisions in the name of justice–and puts in steady hours to chip away at his goals. When he’s in a good place, he puts a similar work ethic into the people he loves. When he’s in a bad one, he hides behind his work and detaches from the “human” side of his secondary.

CHLOE DECKER. Like I just mentioned, Chloe is a Gryffindor primary who desperately wants to pretend that she’s a Ravenclaw. Her Ravenclaw model–attributing morality to the legal system, carefully considering the facts when making decisions–can serve her well, and she falls back on it when she’s trying to wrangle Lucifer’s Slytherin antics. However, Chloe’s real strength has always been following her gut–occasionally to the point of self-righteousness. This also explains her base moral conflict with Dan, who both prioritizes people over ideals. A similar conflict could exist with Lucifer, but Luci is constantly encouraging Chloe to trust her instincts–he values her true primary more than her model. She has an innate sense of right and wrong that she has to fight very hard to overcome, and things normally go worse for her when she does. 

I’m talking about the clusterfuck that was early season 4, obviously. Chloe sees Lucifer’s Devil face at the end of season 3 and is faced with a reality that her Ravenclaw model was stubbornly refusing to accommodate; she has a gut reaction of fear that tells her to run away. This initial need for space wasn’t actually the issue. I think that, if Chloe had met anyone besides Father Kinley, things would’ve been just fine. But when she meets Kinley in Rome, Chloe is manipulated into ignoring her Gryffindor instincts. Her heart is telling her to trust Lucifer–that he’s a good person who she loves. However, Kinley manipulates Chloe into trusting an external source of morality instead: his twisted brand of Catholic pedagogy. What restores Chloe’s conscience is tossing out everything Kinley tries to tell her and realigning with what she feels, which is love for Lucifer.

Chloe is also a Gryffindor secondary, although her Ravenclaw secondary model is more useful and stable than her primary model. Like Maze, she borrows the thoughtful planning and skill-collecting of a Ravenclaw. Chloe tackles cases by examining every angle, carefully interrogating suspects, and weighing the pros and cons of every solution. I would hazard a guess that most of her colleagues assume that Ravenclaw!Chloe is all there is–especially because she seems so much more sensible that her reckless partner. But if we dig deeper, Chloe is more than happy to charge into situations with a stubbornness and bravery that’s nearly unmatched. When push comes to shove, Chloe will take a psychologist on a date rather than wait for special permission to speak to a suspect, leverage Lucifer’s impulsivity to shake down perps, and stand between Lucifer and Cain’s henchmen while daring them to shoot.

AMENADIEL.  Our resident solider of God is a little harder to pin down than most of the others for me, primarily because I really want to know more about his time in Heaven before the series started. Amenadiel reads either like a Ravenclaw or Gryffindor primary, though I lean towards a stripped Gryffindor. This is complicated by the fact that Amenadiel was stripped long before he realizes it during season 2. Stripped Gryffindors learn that they can’t trust their own moral compass and have to find a new system to follow instead. I think this happened to Amenadiel when he was still living in the Silver City, perhaps around the time Lucifer Fell, if not before.

Amenadiel functions by being his father’s loyal solider–by doing exactly what he’s told, because it’s supposed to be the right thing. He labels his brother as selfish, reckless, and evil despite harboring a clear love for him at the same time. This cognitive dissonance exists because someone else taught Amenadiel that he should believe those things about Lucifer. He survives in Heaven by falling in line–essentially adapting his father’s party line, like a Ravenclaw would. The issue is that a Ravenclaw would be satisfied with adapting such a system, and would not struggle as much to revise this system later if they found it inadequate.

In contrast, Amenadiel is constantly struggling to figure out what’s right. He’s horrified by his own behavior during season 1, causing him to Fall from angelhood and lose his wings and powers, but can’t seem to re-orient himself. He tries on different hats–first being like Lucifer, then following their mom instead of their dad, and finally trying to follow their dad again–but nothing ever feels right. Amenadiel’s greatest comfort is found in the realization that angels self-actualize. Once this realization comes, Amenadiel learns to trust himself again and regains his wings once and for all.

Amenadiel splits himself between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw secondaries and somehow manages to fail at both. (I say this with love). This is mostly because, I think, his Gryffindor primary is so stripped that his HOW is too detached from a WHY that makes internal sense–this leaves him ineffective and lost. Looking at season 4, though, I think Amenadiel is a Ravenclaw who models a Gryff secondary. While he’s still up for a Gryffindor-esque charge into the fight, Amenadiel approaches Linda’s pregnancy and impending fatherhood with a desire to learn as much as he can and make a better world for his son.

LINDA MARTIN is a Ravenclaw primary who briefly falls when she sees Lucifer’s Devil face, then promptly picks up herself back up and builds a new moral system for herself. It takes her about a week and she’s fairly satisfied with the result, even when her emotional and physical fears flare back up and she has to baby-proof her ceiling. Pre-fall, Linda believed in a system of compassion and warm skepticism, which made her an excellent therapist. She liked to think she might be reincarnated as a chameleon. She enjoyed the process of questioning the world. During her fall, Linda found her current system incapable of accommodating the simultaneously massive and personal scale of Divinity–and post-fall, she builds a new system that largely looks the same as before but, as Amenadiel helpfully points out, contains “different questions.” 

With Linda, we’ve finally found a straightforward Ravenclaw secondary, no modelling to be found. Linda likes to plan for trouble, and she flounders when that opportunity is taken away from her. She’s constantly trying to remind people that she’s not that kind of doctor, and while she lets herself get swept up into Lucifer’s schemes–like breaking God out of a psychiatric hospital–she’s never comfortable in that kind of situation and the decisions she makes impulsively don’t tend to work out well for her (see: the resulting interrogation from the ethics review board). 

ELLA LOPEZ is another “double” house, and our second Hufflepuff primary. While many people who have a strong religious faith can be seen as Ravenclaw primaries, Ella’s connection to her faith is driven by her innate love for humanity. She believes that people–including the Devil, who she says gets a bad rap–are basically good and deserve love and kindness. After Charlotte’s death, we see that Ella’s response is not to lose faith in her approach to life like a Ravenclaw might–instead, she resents a God who she thought shared her Hufflepuff morals and clearly doesn’t, if such senseless bad things can happen to good people.

Her Hufflepuff secondary is a fairly classic kind, combining cheerful work with an interpersonal warmth that endears people to her. Ella’s natural charisma is a sweet, understated variety that makes even Azrael, the Angel of Death, want to look out for her. While Ella rarely leverages this consciously–and her lack of desire to do so feeds into her charm–there are multiple points in the series where people casually go to bat for her. Two prime examples are when Charlotte tells off Pierce in an immensely satisfying fashion and when Lucifer scares Ella’s brother straight.

CHARLOTTE RICHARDS. Oh, dearest Charlotte. So much of her time is spent in a existential crisis that she’s another hard one to pin down. but I think she’s a Slytherin primary. When Charlotte finds out about the Devil of it all, she doesn’t run like Chloe, and she doesn’t have to reconstruct her view of the world like Linda does. Instead, Charlotte struggles to understand how to be a “good” Slytherin. Pre-trip to Hell, it’s implied that Charlotte lived fairly selfishly, extending her Slytherin circle to herself, her clients, and perhaps her children. Post-Hell, Charlotte is rocked to her core by the realization that she was not living free of guilt.

Now, some could argue that this means Charlotte isn’t actually a Slytherin. However, Slytherins aren’t free from other aspects of morality just because their first priority will always be their chosen people. Charlotte prioritized protecting criminals who she knew did terrible things, and she put herself first to an extent that many people would feel guilty about, even though most would agree that it’s good to put yourself first sometimes. When she’s trying to become a “good” person, Charlotte initially tries to give up her Slytherin ideals entirely. She quits her job and joins the DA’s office, trying to more like the cheerful Hufflepuff Ella.

This ultimately fails; it simply isn’t her. But Charlotte finds success–and a tragic redemption–when she learns that there’s more than one way to be a Slytherin. She turns some of her Slytherin loyalty outwards, towards victims and survivors of domestic abuse as well as new loved ones–Dan, Ella, and Amenadiel. She’s willing to go to great lengths to protect the people in her circle, which is still a very Slytherin motivation, but one that she feels much more at peace with in the end.

As for Charlotte’s secondary? Look, anyone who steals a dude’s motorcycle while cheerfully informing him, “Don’t worry, it’s for God!” is probably a Gryffindor. I don’t make the rules here.

MARLOTTE. The thing about being a Hufflepuff primary is that people matter, but not everyone has the same definition of “person.” At first glance, the Divine Goddess might look like a Slytherin primary. However, I argue that she actually values all “people” equally, it’s just that she considers Celestials to be people, and humanity to be both too foreign and simple to matter. (This logic is, by the way, the same reasons Hufflepuffs are no less capable of racism, homophobia, etc. than anyone else). 

Goddess’s primary goal is to reunite her family, sans God, and she’s willing to roast a bunch of humans on the Santa Monica Pier to do it. Humans are fundamentally expendable–except for her “favorite human,” Dan, who essentially gets a loophole when she spends enough time with him and stops seeing him as “other.” But Goddess doesn’t consider any Celestial to be expendable. She’s not willing to harm Luci and Amenadiel, even when she realizes that they were planning to betray her. She doesn’t value herself more than she values her children, and she doesn’t play favorites. If she did, she might be content to try and stay on Earth, or to wage a war in which some of her children (i.e., the ones who didn’t side with her) died. If Goddess were a Slytherin, it would be possible to “kick” people out of her circle, like Maze does when she petrifies. Instead, Goddess’s natural state is essentially inclusive, much like her son, Lucifer–they just have a pretty substantial conflict over who gets included.

Goddess is a determined Ravenclaw secondary. When she needs to make things better with Lucifer, she learns how to make “cheesy noodles.” She throws herself whole-heartedly into learning  how to live as Charlotte Richards–including reading every legal book every, apparently. While she’s certainly cunning like many Slytherin secondaries, Goddess actually doesn’t function very well without a plan. Things fall apart for her pretty quickly when she runs out of time in her body and has to make decisions off the cuff. Unlike Lucifer, who works best when he’s under pressure, she needs time to set up her course of action.

EVE is another difficult one to sort because so much of her characterization is about not knowing how she is. This makes her primary fairly obscured, and I hope we’ll see more of her in season 5 so I can revisit this sorting. For now, I’m going with a Gryffindor primary. Eve is motivated by doing what feels good–whether it’s leaving Heaven because she’s tired of being someone’s wife or convincing her boyfriend to punish people. She has an instinctive solution to every problem–even when logic says, ‘Hey, maybe don’t release demons from Hell?’ because she knows how things should be–and that’s with her and Lucifer together.

The reason she clashes with Lucifer is that while Eve’s primary is about ideals, Lucifer’s primary is about people–whether he’s operating on his Slytherin model or his true Hufflepuff primary. Lucifer cares a whole lot about other people’s desires–including Eve’s–but he doesn’t care that much about his own if they hurt other people. Interestingly, Chloe and Lucifer have this same idealist vs. humanist conflict; Eve and Chloe just have very different flavors of Gryffindor morality, and it turns out that Chloe’s ideals match up with Lucifer’s Hufflepuff values more of the time. Furthermore, Chloe comes to accept Lucifer’s Hufflepuff-ness in a way that Eve doesn’t. Chloe actually prefers Luci as a Puff–her Gryffindor righteousness says that they should protect other people, which is the same thing Lucifer wants to do.

Much like Ella, Eve uses a Hufflepuff secondary to build connections with other people that she can depend on. However, Eve leverages those connections on a much more conscious level than Ella ever does–in fact, it’s essentially the first thing that Eve ever does, both in her life and in the series. She starts by connecting herself to Adam, trying to be the perfect wife. Then, she leaves Heaven and seeks out Lucifer, relying on him to help her accomplish her goals. After getting dumped, Eve jumps to Maze instead. She’s a particularly effective Hufflepuff because of her Slytherin model, which allows her to adapt to whatever the other person needs her to be (see: the entirety of “Super Bad Boyfriend.”) You could make the argument that Eve is actually just a Slytherin secondary, since the “chameleon” aspect is so central to how she functions. However, Eve has a level of discomfort with her constant mask-wearing that a Slytherin secondary probably wouldn’t. In fact, deciding to part ways with her Slytherin model and figure out who she is represents Eve’s big character moment at the very end of the season.

MARCUS PIERCE/CAIN. I saved Cain for last because (in my opinion) he’s the closest thing to a pure antagonist that we have on the show, but frankly even that’s debatable [EDIT I FORGOT KINLEY EXISTED LMAO]. Anyways, Cain is a Slytherin primary who has been petrified for so long that he’s ready for a hard-out on the whole immortality thing. The only person in his circle is himself–we see, mostly in flashbacks, that this is because he’s tired of the pain that comes with losing people he loves. Cain only wants to live again once he adds Chloe to his circle and she reminds him what it feels like to have people to live for.

The neat and/or horrifying thing about Cain is that he’s a fantastic example of a truly insidious Hufflepuff secondary. His entire Sinnerman persona revolves around crafting a network of people and resources he can depend on. When Luci and friends put his back against the wall after the death of Charlotte, Cain doesn’t resort to charging, improvising, or leveraging his own skills. Instead, he calls up a bunch of people who owe him favors and are too terrified to betray him, and they do all the dirty work for him. It actually very nearly works, too. 

[troped-fanfic-challenge]

Who will be on the CHOPPING BLOCK!?

Eight fics were written following a [Dystopia] theme, including [Partner in Crime] and [Bed Sharing], with a Character focus on [John Murphy]! Voting determined the 4 who would continue on in this competition…

We had eight (8) INCREDIBLE fics this round, but, unfortunately, not everyone can move on to the next round. In this round, four (4) authors are on the CHOPPING BLOCK! Thank you so much to all the authors who participated, and, to the authors who were Chopped, we hope you’ll consider joining future Chopped events, and we are so happy you decided to be a part of Chopped Madness!

Our reviews can be found under the cut!

The four authors who have been Chopped are:

@probably-voldemort​: don't mess with the flow, oh no (stick to the status quo) [Murphy x Clarke] [Rated T]

Qualifying Round Fic: to dream about a life (where you’re the shining star)

Round 1 Fic: something more than momentary

@she-who-the-river-could-not-hold​: Survivor’s move [Murphy x Emori] [Rated T]

Qualifying Round Fic: straight on until morning

Round 1 Fic: and the road gets tough

@justbecauseyoubelievesomething: even heroes have the right to dream [Murphy x Emori] [Rated T]

Qualifying Round Fic: seeds in silence (exploded in riot)

Round 1 Fic: into a cloven pine

@captaindaddykru​: poison but tasty [Murphy & Josephine] [Rated M]

Qualifying Round Fic: When the party’s over

Round 1 Fic: venus, planet of love was destroyed by global warming

—-

Now that you have been Chopped, all the fics you’ve written in Chopped Madness have been revealed and you can post about your fics! Don’t forget to tag us!

But don’t be discouraged if you were Chopped this round (or unable to participate)! We’ve created a non-anon collection, where you can submit your fics if you would like to write for other rounds, keep pace with the writing period, etc, in a non-competive way! That’s where you’ll find us!!!! We’d love to read your fics and will gladly share them on our tumblr! The non-anon collection can be found here! To submit your fic to the collection, simply enter ‘chopped_non_anonymous’ as the name of the collection when uploading your fic!!!

Non-Anon AO3 Collection Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Chopped_Non_Anonymous

To all the remaining Chopped Madness Authors, we hope you’re excited for ROUND 3, which starts TONIGHT, 12:00am (EST) April 2nd!! Please be sure to check our google doc for theme and trope explanations! Good luck!

@probably-voldemort​

Mod Review: This was a really cool concept that fit both divergent and high school musical together in a really cool way! All character choices worked and were so fun to see! “People were split into Cliques, signified by the colour of the pendant around your neck.  Red for Jocks.  Green for Nerds.  Blue for Artists.  Orange for Stoners.  They had real names, proper ones, but Murphy didn’t care enough to remember them.  No one called them their proper names before Graduation, anyway.  Your Clique determined everything: where you lived, where you worked, who you loved.” Such a great way to world build right away! Murphy and Clarke teaming up was so good! Such an interesting way to wrap the HSM conflict in with the factions! We liked that you hinted at the darker elements of your dystopia, like mentioning the patrols passing with guns, and how Murphy was wondering what factions they were in! It added a lot of depth! Murphy dressing up like a Nerd instead of an Artist when he went to Clarke’s house was a great way to give us an image of the different factions, very well done! We also loved the touch of Murphy secretly being an Artist, and Murphy not caring! Not being allowed out after curfew was a great way  to enforce a bed sharing trope! The ending left us wanting more! Will there be a revolution? Will Clarke become an artist?! We have to know!

@she-who-the-river-could-not-hold​

Mod Review: We loved the world building in the beginning, showing us how the world looked and felt through Murphy’s eyes, showing us the people in his building and all that. Very nice touch, especially all the little nods to canon Settings and Characters!! This dystopia is so cool! The concept of the Judges is super scary, and we’d love to know more about this world! We really loved that you had Murphy harbouring a fugitive! It was such a cool ‘crime’, and it allowed for the focus to be on them as a pair rather than anything else, and it was a nice character focused fic! Also, Emori just being in his house when he got home? Excellent. Memori as Exes was SO good!! It added a level of angst and also seriousness to the fic, because them being together was hard for Murphy, but also he obviously still loved her, making the stakes so much higher! “How long had it been since he had last seen Emori? Probably their breakup. It had been an ugly one but he couldn’t help but think to himself that she looked just as beautiful now as she had then.” This quote really pulled us into the Exes plot line, because pining is always a good idea in a fic! The characterisation throughout was PERFECT! We loved that you weaved Emori’s hand into the fic, Murphy noticing it was wrapped up and acknowledging it was because she was running with people who didn’t appreciate her the way he did was so good. The bed sharing was excellent! 1) murphy… bro… clean that couch!!! And 2) the rom com of it all! Them being rigid and awkward! So good! And such a great ending! A daring escape is always a great plot line! What happened to them, we have to know!

@justbecauseyoubelievesomething

Mod Review: This was an amazing concept, and so fun to read!! We really liked how you tied in the canon plot of Murphy bailing and giving up, while everyone else kept going, it was a nice character touch that helped you weave in the world building in a nice way. Murphy having powers, and trying to quiet them however he could, not wanting the burden of those powers felt super in character, and added a really cool dynamic between him and emori! Speaking of Emori, her power was SO cool!! Such an interesting choice and so well used in the story! We really enjoyed how they kept constantly saying the wrong thing to each other, it really added a nice level of angst, especially in such dire situations when any conversation could be their last! Murphy’s reoccuring dream being about Kane was such a nice way to weave his power, the plot, and the emotional stakes together in a super cohesive way!! The use of the canon settings as settings in your story was awesome! Shallow Valley sounded beautiful! We especially enjoyed the description “Almost paradise. If you could ignore the armed guards stationed on key street corners and the sniper rifles peering through second story windows. A shiver runs down Murphy’s back.” Such a nice way to show tension! Future Emori showing up at the end was SO angsty!! So well done! And Murphy finally having to open back up and use his powers, even though it terrified him, was such an emotional scene, and it gave way to a very cool scene where we got to see Murphy really using his powers while self sacrificing. Such a good ending, and an overall wonderful fic!

@captaindaddykru​

Mod Review: This concept for a ‘crime’ was so interesting! It tied in so nicely with the dystopia itself, and the motivations for Murphy and Josephine, being so different, added a really nice layer. Josephine’s reason and Murphy’s reason also allowed for an exploration of the impact that this world has on different types of people, which was very cool! Murphy and Josephine have the best dynamic for reluctant Partners in Crime, and Murphy as the narrator makes it even better!!! “Josephine just smiles slowly. “At first I was going to go all Rumpelstiltskin--““Bless you.”” -hilarious. We loved the imagery of everyone living on islands due to rising sea levels! Eerie, and a little timely, but SO cool! Very nice world building! Emori being sterilized because of her hand, SO creepy and terrible. Such a nice touch that makes the world seem even worse. Josephine’s introduction is so good, so cavalier, so unbothered, but underneath so much fury just festering. A great exploration of her character! Her reason for wanting to take the baby sort of changing every time Murphy asks, getting a little closer to the truth before she finally divulges everything, was such a nice way of exploring her and their world! And also… SHE STOLE MORE THAN ONE BABY?!?! We were super impressed with how you were able to weave such intricate backstories for all the characters into this fic! Bellamy cheating the test, Josephine’s whole story with Gabriel, Murphy’s reason for being unable to have kids, and Emori’s storyline too! SO interesting, we’d love to know more! And your ending was so good!! Them being unable to sell the baby because everyone knew whose baby it was was an excellent touch, and the “wait, you guys are getting paid” was so funny!!! “Pointedly, Emori looks to him and Murphy’s smirk grows slowly. He already has a partner in crime, and he has to say she’s much better at it. “Nah, you can keep her.”” Such a great memori moment to tie the fic up!

[spideyy-girl]

Hope ~ Peter Parker (pt. III)

Summary:  Y/N gears up and gets ready to go into battle, determined as ever to get her best friend and the love of her life, Peter Parker, back to her after 5 long years without him.

Fandom: MCU

Warnings: bit of swearing as per usual, depictions of violence, fighting, blood, death, and other gory scenes, angst and fluffy at the end. THIS DOES NOT FOLLOW MCU CANON! EVERYONE WHO HAS BEEN SNAPPED WAS AGED THE SAME AS THOSE WHO WEREN’T, SO PETER IS STILL THE SAME AGE OF Y/N, AND THEY ARE BOTH AROUND 21!!!!

Word Count: 10100 (28 pages wOAh)

A/N: finally, the long-awaited finale for Hope is here! Thanks to everyone who showed so much support for this series I love every single one of you honestly! Lmk if you guys want an epilogue? cause I don’t wanna be done with this series yet lol

If you haven’t read the first two parts, I would suggest looking through them before reading this!

PART 1 ~ PART 2 ~ MASTERLIST

~~~

Y/N walked towards the large platform in the middle of the room with the remaining of the Avengers, all in their rather cool looking matching time heist suits. She had to admit that she felt pretty badass, walking alongside the world’s mightiest heroes, going off to save the world like it was any other Tuesday for them.

After the young girl found out the formula of time travel and showed it to Tony, they had created a steady device and explained the idea to the team, which everyone quickly agreed with. They had been split up into three teams to go back in time and gather all six infinity stones before Thanos could find or use them. The teams were split up into Natasha, Clint, Nebula and Rhodey to get the soul and power stones, Thor, and Rocket to get the reality stone (or ether I guess), and Scott,  Bruce, Tony, Steve and Y/N to get the Time, Mind, and Space stones.

The team now stood on the platform, putting their hands together as Steve performed his motivational speech, Y/N clung onto every word, still shocked that she got to suit up with them, and also a bit nervous. But she knew that she had the proper training if it came to it and if worse comes to worst, she has a quick solution handy in her pocket, one that she’s been carrying around for years.

“One round trip each. No mistakes, no do-overs,” Cap spoke as he looked around at everyone in the circle. “Most of us are going to a place we know; that doesn’t mean we should know what to expect. Be careful, look out for each other.” Y/N looked beside her up at Tony, who smiled reassuringly at her. “This is the fight of our lives, and we’re gonna win. Whatever it takes.” Steve finished his speech as they separated hands. Y/N looked over at Nat and gave her a smile, to which she returned.

“See you in a minute,” she says winking over at her mentee. She rolled her eyes but laughed. Suddenly the machine above them started to whir and spin around, and the mask on Y/N’s suit came up to cover her face. She felt her breathing start to go heavy but soon relaxed as Tony gave her hand a squeeze. She felt her body being compressed down into the size of an atom and swept away into the quantum realm, trying to control herself and following the lead of Tony just in front of her.

Before she knew it her feet hit the ground below her and her knees buckled from underneath her. As she regained her balance and looked up, her eyes went wide as she took in the scene in front of her. Just a few feet away, she saw the original Avengers, formed in a circle and gearing up for the infamous battle of 2012 against Loki. Y/N almost let out a squeal, remembering watching them do their work on the news when she was younger.

“You alright there?” Tony asked as he gave the girl a teasing smile. “You look like you’re about to explode.” Y/N shook her head but smiled back.

“Yeah I just, wow I was such a fan of you guys when I was younger,” she said as she watched on as they parted ways and did their own thing to take down as many aliens as possible. She then looked back up at Tony and smirked, one that reminded him of himself. “You guys were so much cooler back then. Now you’re all like, big old grampa’s.”

“Woah!” Tony said, giving her a playful look of pain as he grabbed his heart as if she had stabbed him with her comment. “Ouch, you know I understand why you would say that for Cap, cause he’s literally like, 100 years old but for me?”

“Guys we have to focus here,” Bruce caught their attention before Y/N could come back with another snarky comeback. “God sometimes I wonder how the two of you arent’s related, you’re like the same person nowadays.” Tony rolled his eyes, looking back out onto the street.

Before they could try and cross the street to get to the Stark Tower, a giant and raging green Hulk came down from the ground, pounding robots into the ground and flinging them around like ragdolls. As the group looked back at Bruce he covered his face, embarrassed of what he used to be. Steve told Bruce and Scott to find Dr. Strange and the time stone while he, Tony, and Y/N went up to the Stark tower to get the mind and space stone. As they got in and saw the past Avengers, Steve departed to get Loki’s staff, containing the mind stone, while Tony and Y/N worked on getting the Tesseract.

Y/N hid out in a small conference room out of sight, since Tony didn’t want her directly participating in the mission, much to her demise. She opened her laptop, which she disguised as a briefcase. She quickly typed in the password before pulling up multiple programs on the small screen, including a camera view from Tony’s glasses and a controller for a small robotic device she’d use to slip around without being realized.

“You sure this is gonna work, kid?” Tony asked quietly through the comm, causing Y/N to roll her eyes.

“Yes, Tony. I’ve been working on this model forever, I know what I’m doing,” she sassed back, looking through a small camera on the spider-shaped device she originally created with Peter. “Just remember I’m the reason we’re all here. I’m not just a pretty face, Stark.”

“Yeah yeah,” he mumbled as he watched his past self pack up the Tesseract in a briefcase. “Ok, spider-girl, release your little spiderling.” He says dramatically as the spider crawls from his pocket and makes its way onto the roof. Y/N chuckled at the nickname before focusing on controlling the spider-robot, the decoy lowering itself onto past Tony’s shoulder without anyone noticing. She couldn’t help but let out a little squeal at her excellent work. She watched through the small cam as the Avengers (excluding Hulk, who was told to take the stairs) made their way into the foyer of the building.

Tony watched along as his past self walks along with the other original Avengers and Loki. Alexander Pierce and his crew walked towards them as present-day Tony gave Y/N the signal to drop down. Y/N dropped the spider drone into Tony’s beard and then down onto his chest, the almost microscopic robot slipping through and into his arc reactor. She explores for a while until she finds what Tony had told her would cause the distraction.

“Is this really a good idea, Stark?” Y/N asked worriedly, not thinking of the consequences until then.

“Yeah, sure. It’ll only cause me to go into a tiny cardiac distract,” Tony stated casually, and Y/N’s eyes widened immediately, stopping the robot.

“What?!” She says, shaking her head. “Okay, no. No no no no no. I’m not gonna do this, we can figure out something else it’ll be fine.”

“Y/N, hey, calm down,” Tony says, his voice going lower. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. I mean I’m still here, so that’s gotta mean something right? If I died I wouldn’t be here.” Y/N scoffed at his words, but still, her hands were shaking, not wanting to hurt someone she had gotten so close to. She couldn’t bear if anything happened to him.

“No shit, Sherlock,” she whispers back into the comm, but loud enough for him to hear it. He rolled his eyes and continued to watch as Pierce tried to snatch the case away from his hands. “Time’s running out, Y/N. Pull my pin!”

“Okay, okay, give me a second.” She said as she maneuvered the tiny device to the said area with a small pin that helped keep everything in the arc reactor together. “But if you die, Tony, it’ll be your funeral. Literally.” She comments back to try and defuse the tension she felt. He quietly gave her another reassurance before giving the signal. With the small metal pinchers, Y/N pulled the cord in the arc reactor and through the other camera through Tony’s glasses she saw past Tony fall to the floor just as Pierce was taking the case containing the Tesseract from his hands.

The metal case fell to the floor with a hard clank and 2012 Tony followed soon after it, shaking slightly on the floor. Pierce and his crew members, as well as the other Avengers there, kneeled down beside him and tried to figure out what was wrong.

The small metallic robot climbed out from Tony’s reactor and pushed the case over to Tony, who was disguised as a staff of security. He discreetly picked it up and began walking away from the scene as medics began rushing to help the famous billionaire on the floor. What they didn’t know was that they weren’t as discreet as they thought.

“Good job, kid. Meet me in the alley, I’m gonna-” but was cut off as a big green angry hulk burst through the door, knocking down Tony and flinging the tesseract out of its case and down the hallway. The bright blue square landed right at the feet of Loki, who looked down and quickly picked it up, using its powers to teleport him out of the tower as people were too distracted running in terror.

Thor tapped his hammer against Tony’s chest, causing him to stop shaking and blink frantically, looking at his surroundings. “Where’s the case?” Y/N heard him ask. Her face dropped as she moved to drone to look all around the room, finding no clue where the Tesseract or Loki himself was.

“Fuck this,” she mumbled, working her computers to try and get into the security tapes, looking for what might’ve happened to either of them. “That wasn’t supposed to happen, was it?"

Tony sat himself up on his elbows looking around to see people screaming and running away from the Hulk, who was screaming about no stairs, and to his other side, officers looking for Loki and the Tesseract. “Shit.”

Y/N quickly packed up her computers and put them back into her bag, running out to meet Tony at the alleyway where they had come in. She found an abandoned car parked beside it and saw Tony already sitting in its head in his hand as he observed the destruction outside.

“What the hell happened, Stark?” She said as she got into the back seat. “We had the Tesseract, where did it go?” Tony sighed, closing his eyes as he responded, trying to keep calm.

“I don’t know what happened, Y/N,” he said tensely. “I know we had it but now we don’t, okay? Something happened, I don’t know what.”

“Well, you better fucking figure it out!” She yelled, her ears going red as she got more angry by him not seeming to care. “Did you not hear what Cap said? No do-overs! We fucked up so what are we gonna do now!”

“I don’t know what we’re gonna do!” He screamed back turning to face her. He sighed, running a hand down his face and closed his eyes. He stayed silent for a bit, using the silence to calm himself down. He knew she was only acting like this because she was scared. And honestly, he was too. “But we’ll figure something out. I promise. Everything will be okay.”

Y/N gulped to hold back her screaming, not wanting to rant to him about every little thing that had already gone wrong, and how she was starting to lose hope. Then Cap jumped down from a balcony, one hand propping up the shield while the other gripped Loki’s staff.

“Cap,” Tony caught his attention. Steve saw them in the dirt-covered car as he walked towards them. “We’ve got a bit of a problem here.” Y/N scoffed, shaking her head as she let her stress get the better of her again.

“A bit of a problem?” She asked sarcastically. “More like we’re in deep shit!” She said getting out of the car and slamming the door shut with surprising force. Tony rolled his eyes. Steve looked between the two, his eyebrows scrunching up in confusion.

“What happened?” he asked, looking at Y/N. She laughed ironically, starting to pace along the alleyway.

“We lost the goddamn Tesseract is what happened!” She said as she aggressively kicked a piece of debris on the ground. “It’s gone and now the plan isn’t gonna work. We don’t have enough Pym particles to go back again. It’s over, we’re done.” She leaned down and sat against the wall, leaning her head back.

“Are there any other options with the Tesseract,” Steve asked, causing Y/N to roll her eyes at his always enthusiastic goody-two-shoes energy.

“No. No there’s not,” she said annoyed as she stood up and walking over to him. “You said it yourself, there are no do-overs. If we use that last Pym particle, we’re never getting home.”

“Well, if we don’t try, no one else is going home either,” he stated. Y/N sighed, squeezing her eyes shut as she leaned against the car. She knew he was right. But what was the use of going back again to get the stone if they couldn’t get back in the present to put it in the gauntlet?

“I got it,” Tony said suddenly, getting out of the car. Y/N’s head shot up as she stood up and followed him as he got out of the car himself. “There’s another way to get the Tesseract and acquire new particles. We’ll take a stroll down memory lane. Military installation Garden State.”

“Why were they both there?” Steve asked, causing Y/N to look between the two as they continued their conversation. Tony shrugged.

“They were both there for a…” he trailed off as he thought. “I have a vaguely exact idea,” he defended himself. Cap gave him a look, the same one he gave Y/N when he caught her doing something she shouldn’t have around the compound or when she sasses one of the other team members a bit too much.

“How vague,” he asked.

“Woah, okay, what’s going on?” Y/ finally butted in. “What are you guys talking about? Where are we going?”  She asked eagerly as they started entering in the time date and coordinates.

“Correction, we’re going. You’re travelling back to the present to give this to the others,” Tony said as he handed her Loki’s staff. Her eyes bulged out as she stood up straighter.

“Tony, I can help. I’m not letting you guys go alone, I’m coming with you,” she stated strongly as she put her suit up. Tony shook his head.

"I trust you with this, kid, okay? get back to home base, we’ll be there by the time you get back.” He said as he and Steve put up their own suits. He took her hand and entered in the present-day coordinates to get back home as she looked at him like he was crazy, which she currently felt he was.

“What?! But Tony-!” She started, but before Y/N could argue, she felt the ground sweep from under her feet and she was being sent back to the present day, Loki’s staff still held tightly in her hand.

As she regained her balance, she looked around the room, seeing that everyone had their respective stone’s, including Tony with the Tesseract. But something seemed off. She did another swift headcount of everyone and realized someone had to be missing.

“Where’s Nat?” She asked, looking around at everyone’s confused faces before looking at Clint, whose eyes were red and glassy. She watched as he looked up at her, shaking his head slightly as a fresh tear rolled down his face. Y/N felt her chest tighten as her mouth opened slightly, letting out a shuttering breath. She knew that face, she wore the same expression five years ago.

She felt tears well up into her eyes, not even thinking of losing a mentor, someone she considered family during the process of getting those who were snapped away back. She felt tears starting to form in her own eyes as regret and sadness took over the whole team.

~~~

The team had taken a quick break to take a moment to mourn their friend, to some even their family. It was odd to not have Natasha around, making small sarcastic quips at any person in the room when you’d least expect it. Y/N quickly splashed her face with water, making the tears on her face earlier vanish as she went back into the room where Tony had just completed the infinity gauntlet 2.0 and everyone was arguing over who should snap their fingers.

“What do you think is coursing through my veins right now?” She heard as she exited the ladies bathroom just beside the room. She leaned against the doorframe as she answered.

“Cheez Whiz?” she asked sarcastically as she came up to stand in between the god and Tony. Thor looked down, confusion on his face as he pointed at her and she, in return, gave him a sly smile.

“Lightning,” he emphasized. Y/N sucked in a breath and averted her gaze as he looked expectantly at Tony, who let out a sigh as he pinched his eyebrows together in concentration.

“Lightning won’t help you, pal. It’s gotta be me,” she heard Bruce say from behind her as he walked to the group. She listened intently as he continued. “You saw what those stones did to Thanos; it almost killed him. None of you would survive.”

“Well, how will we know if you will?” Cap said seriously. Y/N looked at Tony, who looked down at her and gave her a knowing glance, that showed he knew it was true. Y/N nodded slightly as Bruce continued.

“We don’t. But the radiation is mostly gamma. It’s… it’s like I was made for this.” The team looked around before Tony stepped out and started explaining the rules of the stones.

“Remember, everyone Thanos snapped away five years ago, we’re just bringing them back to now. Don’t change anything from the past five years,” he said and Bruce nodded, looking at his arm which he prepared to hold the gauntlet in.

The team around him suited up. Y/N felt the cool nanotech of her newly modelled suit slide over her skin, occasionally catching a thin hair. The spiderman-inspired outfit was of the colours white, black, and magenta, with fine reflective webbing details along the side of her arms, legs and torso. She stood behind Tony as he created a protective shield in front of them and Clint on the other side of him.

Metallic barn doors shut around all doors and windows in the room and around the compound. Bruce put on the glove holding the infinity stones and immediately began to scream in pain, doubling down to the ground as he struggled to push his fingers together to snap.

“Take it off! Take it off!” Thor said as he stepped towards Banner, who was still struggling to stay upright. Steve held out his hand to Thor as a sign to stop.

“No, wait! Bruce, are you okay?” Steve asked as he looked at the green giant. Bruce continued to moan but nodded slightly. Y/N stood back further as she heard Banner scream loudly and saw his fingers coming closer together and finally the sound of the metal hitting metal in the snap.

There was a surge of power that almost knocked her over, stumbling to catch her balance. She heard a loud thump as Bruce’s body finally collided with the floor, unconscious. Many people ran towards him to help but Y/N just looked around. She felt her feet carry her to the window as they opened again, seeing birds chirping happily outside.

“D-did it work?” Y/N mumbled as the mask of her suit disappeared from around her face. Everyone turned to look at where she was, seeing multiple new birds coming into sight, planting themselves on a nearby sapling. A phone started to ring, and Clint walked over to his cell vibrating on the glass table, a picture of his beloved wife displayed on the screen. He picked it up and started talking to her.

Tony walked over to Y/N, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder, bringing her attention over to him. He wore a giant smile and even looked like he was in tears. He squeezed her shoulder as she let out a gasp, hand covering her mouth as the biggest smile spread across her soft features. She laughed softly, in disbelief but so happy. Tony matched her actions and pulled her into the biggest hug, and she felt comfortable as she placed her head on his chest.

“We did it, kid,” he mumbled into her messy hair, feeling her locks dampen with his tears. “We finally did it. They’re back.” Y/N laughed again into his suit as she pulled him closer and hugged him tighter, closing her eyes as she felt true relief finally wash over her entire being. But of course, that wouldn’t last for long.

Next thing she knew she was being flung across the compound while a missile hit just outside the window. She felt herself fly through multiple layers of brick and glass, piercing her skin and knocking the breath from her lungs. She coughed heavily as the dust from the rubble entered her system, trying to balance herself enough to stand up and analyze the situation.

“Tony?!” She screamed, looking for the older man that she was just in contact with. “Tony?! Cap?! Thor?!” She screamed any name that came to mind, hoping for someone to hear her, and possibly give her an explanation. She was limping, pain shooting through her ankle whenever she out the slightest pressure on it. It was definitely broken. She felt the metallic taste of blood entering her mouth, and she was scared to say she didn’t know where it came from, her now bleeding nose or the small cuts that littered her cheeks and lips.

“Y/N?” She heard a voice say and sighed with relief. From the dust came Clint, holding something in his arms, the Infinity Gauntlet. “Hey, I got you, you’re okay,” He reassures her as he puts an arm across her back and under her arms, supporting her weight so she can walk. “Tony, I’m with the kid, she seems okay.”

“Is he okay?” she asked quietly when Clint found a safe spot. He looked at her and nodded.

“yeah he’s fine, but almost had a heart attack when he couldn’t find you,” he says, offering her a smile before his face went stoic again. “But he’s here. Thanos. He found us.” Y/N’s eyes went wide, her eyebrows furrowing into a line of confusion. She blinked a couple of times as she processed the new information.

“What? But– but Thanos i-is dead? He’s dead! You said he was dead!” She screams as she feels her heart rate quicken, her breath refusing to meet her lips as if it was stuck inside her throat. Clint reached down and held her hand, rubbing his thumb against the back of her hands as a calming method he has seen Tony use on her before.

“I know, I thought he was gone too,” he whispered, looking back at the dark tunnel before turning back to her. “But this is a different Thanos, he followed us from the past.” Y/N felt her throat close up, dark thoughts filling her mind. Fuck. This was all her fault.

There was a sound that came from down the tunnel, almost like a snarl. The pair went quiet, looking towards the source. Clint slowly took out an arrow from the collection he kept on his back, placing it in his bow and shooting it straight down the line, the end glowing up– revealing about ten or twelve alien-looking dogs. Y/N let out a breath as the two scurried to get up. Clint held up her weight as they ran, eventually settling to pick her up as he ran from the dogs.

As they came to a split in the road, Clint threw her to a different path, signalling for her to run and hide as he continued to run down the other path, provoking the dogs to follow him and leave her. Y/N limped down the path, using the wall to support her as she hopped along. Soon she came across a mop of messy hair frantically looking around the rubble.

“Tony,” she tried to say but found that her voice was scratchy and weak. “Tony, I’m right here.” The said man turned around the stress on his face leaving as he saw the girl he was looking for. He quickly wrapped an arm around as Clint had earlier and walked her away from the scene.

“God, hey kid. You hanging in there?” He said, checking the area before leading her to a small space of coverage under a piece of rubble that looked like it used to be the floor. She nodded in reassurance before grabbing his arm and pulling him back up.

“I need you to take me to our lab, now,” she said urgently and he obliged, not even thinking of asking why. He directed her to a small metal door attached to a broken piece of wall, typing in a code on the damaged keyboard before pushing the heavy doors open.

She rushed over to her part of the lab, the barely working glass screen table popping up and she quickly punched in a few passwords before looking in a locked drawer for one of the small viles kept safely there. Tony looked from her face to the small tube, confusion painting his face as he watched her pop the lid, hesitating before bringing it to her lips and gulping down the small amount of dark red liquid.

Y/N felt the iron tasting liquid slid down her throat as she swallowed it uncomfortably, immediately feeling the effects. Her eyesight went black and her head started to spin. She went to grab the nearest object her hold herself up, the dizziness and broken ankle not being the best combination. Tony rushed to her side, grabbing her other arm.

“Y/N, what the hell was that,” Tony said, concern laced his voice as he watched the girl groan, squeezing her eyes shut and throwing her head back. She gulped before answering in short breaths.

“That answer may vary between poison and what I like to call a spider-serum,” she replied, sarcasm still in use through her pain. Tony looked at her with bewilderment in his eyes, as this was not a project approved by him or not even one they’ve talked about. She gritted her teeth together, continuing to moan out in pain as she collapsed to the floor, Tony calling out her name.

As Y/N got her self together, she placed both hands on the desk in front of her nailed into the floor, using it to pull herself back on her feet. She felt everything in her body changing, she could hear the blood rushing through her veins, she could smell the smoke from across the battlefield outside the reinforced metal door, she could feel the small hairs on Tony’s arms tickling her own as he tried to shake her out of her trance.

“Y/N! Kid come on, snap out of it. What the hell was that?” He said as he continued to shake her. She was going to bring a hand up to slap his own away but instead found them stuck to the table. As she tried tugging again, the steal table breaking off the floor while still sticking to her hands. Y/N and Tony looked in shock.

Y/N then began to laugh, her eyes wide in disbelief. She widened her hands and the desk fell from her palms, crashing against the floor. “Holy shit,” she whispered as she looked at Tony, who was looking from the now broken table to her. “It worked! Oh god, I can’t believe it actually worked!” She screamed as she jumped up and down and headed towards the door.

“No no no, what the hell was that?!” Tony asked. Y/N rolled her eyes, still smiling as she impatiently grabbing his arm and dragged him outside towards the fight. She smiled at him, a great look of success overgoing her as she showed him the potion she had been perfecting for the last couple of years.

“Well, I took a blood sample of Peter’s and checked it to see what kind of stuff the spider had injected into him,” she said as Tony gave her a weird look. “Don’t ask how I got it, I don’t really know either. But as I analyzed it further, I had an idea to take the sample and separate the effects of the injection, and used it to create a serum that would give me powers similar to Peter’s, using the poison of his spider to create powers of my own.”

Tony looked at her mesmerized, then looked at the stash of dark red vials in the drawer. He lifted his eyebrows and nodded, impressed beyond words of the young girl’s discovery. Then he paused and looked back at her. “Wait, so you technically drank spiderboy’s blood?” He asked suspiciously. Y/N opened her mouth to respond but didn’t quite know how.

“I-” she paused, closing her eyes and shaking her head. “Okay, no, we don’t have time for this conversation right now. There’s a giant purple grape out that waiting to be slain.” Tony nodded and soon the two headed out the door without any further questions, saluting each other before Y/N darted off at an irregularly fast tempo.

She felt the wind blow rapidly against her hair as she ran through the bad guys, dodging hits with swiftness. Of course, she wasn’t fast like Pietro but definitely was faster than she usually was, which proved to be a great advantage while on the battlefield. Y/N saw Tony, Thor and Steve fighting against Thanos in the background as she thwiped out a web and flew into the air, grabbing one of the Chiari and slamming it into another group coming towards her.

She continued to fight when suddenly she felt a tingly sense that made her head shoot towards Steve, watching as he stood up by himself, his shield broken in his hand, as he prepared to single-handedly fight the titan. Y/N ran towards him when she heard a voice in her comm, that definitely wasn’t from anyone on their battlefield.

“On your left…”

She seemed to distantly recognize the voice but couldn’t quite place it. That is until a portal appeared beside Steve, made of orange sparks that she had remembered. There, the king of Wakanda, T'Challa, his younger sister, Shuri she thought her name was, and another girl who was dressed in a warriors uniform and a shaved head, holding a golden spear stood beside the king.

After that, portal after portal began to form around the atmosphere, with more battleships, superheroes and warriors of all kinds of countries and galaxies appearing through them and getting into their battle positions. Y/N smiled proudly before running up to the giant team and taking her place next to the Wakandian princess, lunging down into the iconic spidey stance and getting ready to avenge the rest of the universe. She looked at Steve as he watched everyone take their places among him.

“Avengers…” he starts as he holds out his hand and Mjolner flies into his grip. “Assemble!”

Battle cries and the sound of machines whirring and flying filled the atmosphere as they ran towards the alien army opposite of them. Y/N flicked out her wrist and grabbed onto one of the giants floating motherships and swung low to the ground, knocking out multiple enemies at once. Once she landed on the ground she continued to fist fight them off of her one by one, like Natasha had taught her for so many years.

But as good as she was doing at the moment, it wasn’t hard for her to get overpowered when a bunch jumped on her back at once, knocking her down to the floor, struggling to keep them from ripping out her skin. She tried to push them off, and successfully webbed some to the ground to keep them off of her, but it wasn’t enough to handle them all.

“Hey, watch out!” A boyish voice sounded through her comms as all the aliens were kicked right off of her, giving her a chance to stand up and fight off the rest, her rescuer standing behind her, back to back, as they both slung down the dogs and threw them across the battlefield. Y/N stabbed some with her pincer things Tony put on her back.

Once they were gone, Y/N grabbed the boy behind her and pulled him into a quieter place as she unmasked herself, looking expectantly at the boy. “Peter?” She said, her voice breaking as she looked at the Iron Spider suit, which disappeared from his face, revealing his unruly curls and a just as shocked look on his face.

“Y/N?” He whispered, disbelief in his eyes as she saw a single tear escape his brown orbs and gently slide down his cheek. He looked the same, but at the same time looked more mature, and she was relieved that he had seemed to grow while he was gone, or else the near future situation would be a bit awkward. “W-what are you doing here?” Y/N giggled a bit, feeling her own hot tears sliding down her dirt and blood covered cheek as her delicate hand went up to grab his own, wiping his tears.

“I came to save you, dummy,” she joked. Peter smiled at her, placing his hands on her waist. Although it wasn’t as long for Peter in the soul stone as it was for Y/N while on Earth since he was in a coma-like state pretty much the whole time, he had missed her honey-coated voice and sickly sweet smile. He had waited too long for this.

They watched each other for a little longer, analyzing the small details that had changed around their faces since the years passed before Peter leaned down and attached their lips together for a very long-awaited kiss. Y/N squeezed her eyes shut as her hands trailed back to rest on the back of his neck, playing with the small hairs at the nape of his neck as she felt the cold metal of his suit brush against her fingertips.

As they parted, he leaned down and pressed his forehead to hers, her sweat mixing with his as they kept their eyes closed and smiled at the feeling. Even though they were in the middle of a war, Y/N has never felt more at peace than that moment while she was in his arms.

Suddenly she felt the fine hairs on the back of her arm and the back of her neck stand up, and without thinking she extended her arms and traps the alien running towards them in one of her webs, throwing it up before pulling it back down to the ground, crushing it.

Apparently, Peter felt it too because when she looked back to him he was already looking back at the now-dead dog. His head turned back towards her, his mouth hanging open a bit as he let out a breath, a beautiful smile painting his lips as he grabbed her face, looking her in the eye.

‘God, I love you so much,“ he mumbles as he brings her mouth up to his again, this kiss a bit more passionate than the last. Y/N laughed into the kiss as she brought her arms around his neck and played with his hair. She pulled him back a bit, their noses still brushing against one another as she pecked him on the lips.

"I love you too,” she whispered, looking into his eyes with such adoration he almost exploded right there with the adrenaline he was feeling just having her this close to him. He smiled wider as he pecked her on the lips; once, twice, and a third time brought her into a proper kiss.

“Y'know as heartwarming as this moment is, you lovebirds realize we’re still fighting a war,” someone said from behind them. They quickly pulled away, stepping back from one another to face Tony Stark, a smirk on his lips as he examined the blush on the young adult’s faces, bashfully looking away from one another.

“Oh shut it, Tony. I deserve this at least,” she shook her head as she looked at the perfect boy beside her, someone she had known pretty much her whole life and had been in love with for just as long. Peter smiled at Tony and walked over to greet him, excited to see his mentor again after so long.

“Mr. Stark! Holy cow you will not believe what has happened to me,” Peter began to ramble as he walked up to him and started to do his usual over-exaggerated hand gestures. “Do you remember when we were in space? Right? And I got all dusty? Well I must have passed out and Dr. Strange said we went to the Soul Stone and we were in like a coma for like five years, and when I woke up, Dr. Strange was there too and he was like 'it’s been five years we have to go’, and then he started doing that yellow sparkly thingy, uh, that he does and… what are you doing? …oh.” Peter stopped when Tony wrapped his arms around him and pulled him into a tight embrace.

Tony felt such a great sense of relief as he hugged Peter, never realizing that the kid was like his first son until it was too late and having to wait so many years to hear his voice again. He placed a kiss on his cheek, in a fatherly way, and opened his eyes, smiling at Y/N who looked so happy.

“This is nice,” Peter said before they pulled away, Peter turned back at Y/N and smiled at her, his grin reaching his sparkling eyes. Tony patted his shoulder.

“I think it’s time we get back into battle,” he stated, his mask going back over his face as he got his repulsors ready. “You two don’t take too long, and NO funny business.” The pair nodded as he flew back into the air, going to help Banner or the Hulk. Peter turned back to Y/N.

“Wow, this is so awesome,” he said as he walked back to her, holding her arms as he admired her suit, which looked similar to his. “You’re like, my spider-girl sidekick.” Y/N laughed and pushed his chest playfully.

“I’m nobody’s sidekick, Parker,” she said. “But I can be your… partner?” Peter smiled and blushed. He bit his lip as he looked her over again, his grin contagious.

“In what way?” He asked, trying to sound sly but sounding more scared of the answer. Y/N laughed and walked over to him, wrapping her arms around his waist.

“In whatever way you want me to be,” she said, kissing his cheek before putting her mask back on and saluting him before swinging of back into battle. Peter stood there with a red blush crawling up his neck and feeling breathless, his smile growing wider if that was even possible.

“Awesome,” he muttered before his mask also went over his face and he went to go help as well.

Y/N was swinging over the battle, occasionally knocking out an airborne enemy in her way if she had to. She scanned through the people fighting, looking for anyone who needed help. But then her web was seemed to be disintegrated as she fell hard onto the floor, another lazer like beam hit right beside her just barely grazing her shoulder. She saw the witch people? (that’s what Tony called them at least) started to make barriers which she quickly ran under. She looked around for Tony and Peter, but couldn’t see them. Until she heard the latter’s voice through her comm.

“Help! Somebody help!” He said, sounding panicked and she heard his grunts as he tried to fight off the aliens. Without thinking of the possible dangers she ran out to help him, her spider-senses helping her locate him. She saw him under a bunch of the aliens and shot a web up.

“Peter, duck!” She said as she rammed through the enemies, knocking them over like bowling pins. She grabbed Peter around the waist and tugged him into her as she shot a web and took them out, grabbing onto Mjloner which had flown right above.

“Aw, thanks, Y/N,” Peter said as he put his head into her neck, which she couldn’t help but blush at. She thought it was cute how their roles were sort of reversed and he was just so baby.

Y/N continued to ride onto the hammer until she saw that it was heading straight towards one of the flying motherships. Her eyes went wide as she looked for a way to get off. She saw Valkerye, one of Thor’s friends, and called out for her as a warning before throwing Peter up so he could get the gauntlet back to Scott.

Y/N then stood on the small handle of the hammer before using her web to fling herself forward, jumping up to get on top of the ship as the hammer continued to destroy it from the inside. As she jumped off and landed surprisingly gracefully on the ground, she looked up to realize that the ships were no longer firing at them, but at something in the atmosphere above.

Y/N squinted before watching a figure move at lightning speed straight through one of the ships firing at them, exploding the whole thing. Y/N smiled, knowing who it was as she ran down to help Peter up, who had just almost been hit by one of the beams.

“Hey, you alright?” She asked softly as she grabbed his arm and helped him get up, him going to get the gauntlet which had escaped his grip after falling. He nodded, his mask going back as hers did.

“Yeah, yeah, all good,” he reassured as he held onto her shoulder for support. “That was so badass, by the way. When I was like, stuck, you know, under those aliens. And then you came and was like wham! and like kicked them off and then you just sorta like picked me up and then you just like threw me onto that flying horse, which is crazy. But you like saved me and that was so cool. Like really cool. Thanks.” Peter rambled as he looked at her in awe, which she gave a sweet smile in return.

Before he could comment any more someone landed right in front of them. Captain Marvel smiled and nodded at Y/N, as she returned the gesture, and looked at Peter, who was still holding tightly onto the infinity stones. Peter looked at her with wide eyes and in awe.

“Hi I-I’m Peter.. Parker,” he said shyly. Captain Marvel smiled at him, looking between the two teenagers.

“I know,” she said as she gave Y/N a knowing glance. “Hey, Peter Parker. You got something for me?” Peter looked at the gauntlet before looking out at the army that was racing towards them, feeling scared at the moment.

“I don’t know how you’re gonna get through that,” he said as he delicately handed the glove to Carol as the other female Avengers and superheroes gathered together around her. Y/N felt immediately at home and looked over at Peter reassuringly as Wanda landed by her side.

“Don’t worry,” Y/N said with a smile as her mask got on and Okoye, T’Challa’s head of king’s guard, finished her sentence for her.

“She’s got help,” she said, and the group of them began to run like hell towards the growing army, all doing their own thing to slam through and take down the enemy. Y/N webbed them down as they tried to attack her sisters and knocked them over as she swung by. She saw one of the bigger monsters making its way towards her, and effortlessly picked it up and threw it into the rest of the aliens making their way towards her at a fast rate.

As she continued to fight off the enemy, she felt a strong surge of energy pass through her, making her stumble slightly. As she regained her balance, she watched as the aliens that were once running straight for her turned into dust, disappearing into the wind. She squinted her eyebrows, looking around for who had snapped before she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, warning her that something was wrong.

She followed her senses to find Tony sitting against a piece of debris, extremely pale and barely moving, his arm and part of his face burnt off. She felt her breathing stop as she stumbled towards him, muttering his name as she collapsed in front of him in front of all the other Avengers.

“T-Tony? Tony! No!” She said as fell in front of him, going to grab his hand with both of hers. She hadn’t felt this type of heartbreak since 2018 when she had lost Peter, her mom, and the rest of her friends. But this time she was losing her father.

“Hey, kid,” he said so quietly she wouldn’t have heard him, but she was practically hugging him by now, clinging onto him as a silent way of asking not to leave her. As she heard his voice, an ugly sob ripped through her as she buried her head in his chest as a form of comfort.

“Tony, please not you too,” she asked quietly, squeezing his hand so tight that the metal surrounding it had started to cut into her palms, but she could care less. “Not you too, please. We need you, Tony. I need you, and Morgan, please.” She couldn’t even finish before breaking down.

“Mr. Stark? Can you hear me? It’s Peter.” Peter asked from behind her, shocked to see Y/N holding onto him and crying into him. Tony weakly looked up and brought his attention to the original web-slinging spider.  “We won, Mr. Stark. You did it. You did it, sir.”

At the mention of his name, Y/N finally looked up towards Peter, and he felt his heart shatter looking at her already bloodshot red eyes and the tear tracks that were a bright contrast against the rest of her face, which was covered in dust and blood. He walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her, gently pulling her off and into his own arms.

“No, No! Let go, please! I need to help him. Please. No.” Her voice got quieter as Peter held her closely, her back pressed against his chest as they both watched him. Tony looked between the pair, and although it hurt him to see the tears in their eyes, he was happy that they would be able to work through it together. He looked up at Peter and nodded his chin towards Y/N.

“Take… take care of… of her,” he whispered, causing a sob to come over Peter as well as he nodded vigorously, holding her tighter against him if that was even possible at this point.

“Of course, yes always,” he said as he felt salty tears run down at a rapid pace. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Tony.” Tony tried to give him a smile, tried to give him a sign that everything would be okay, but found that he couldn’t.

Then Tony looked at Y/N. He remembered the last time she was like this, and it hurt him that he had to cause her the same pain. But he cared for her and knew that this was what had to happen to keep both of his daughters safe. “I love you.”

Y/N’s head fell as she heard the three simple words come from his mouth, leaning into Peter as she tries to control herself, trying to look strong in front of him, knowing who worried he must be already. “I love you, too, dad.” She whispered and nodded, reaching out to squeeze his hand one more time before Pepper came to his side. Peter carefully pulled Y/N back, her collapsing into his lap and crying into his shoulder as he rubbed her back tried to keep in his own tears to be strong for her but ended up letting go and crying into her soft hair.

“Friday?” Pepper asked, her hand on Tony’s chest as Tony’s hand was placed gently on top of hers.

“Life functions critical,” the AI responded. Y/N felt like she was gonna be sick. She couldn’t think she could breathe, how do you even breathe again? Because she couldn’t quite remember at the moment. She listened to Peter’s heartbeat and used his rising and falling chest as a model.

“Tony? Look at me,” Pepper managed a smile at Tony as he groaned while turning to look towards her. “You’re gonna be okay, you can rest now,” she said as she put a hand on his cheek, gently caressing it before placing a soft kiss to it. And after that, the light on his chest went dim, and it took everything in Y/N not to scream like the day she found out Peter wasn’t coming home for dinner that night.

She felt Peter shaking around her, choking on sobs. She knew he would try and act as a support base for her, and he always liked to put others before himself. But she just held onto him, her hands going up to his messy hair and carting her fingers through the strands as a silent way to tell him that she was there for him too.

The Avengers and other heroes and warriors who had teamed up together to fight kneeled down, showing their respect to another beautiful life taken. The chaos in the warzone had gone quiet, a moment of silence taken in honour of Tony Stark.

And just like that, he was gone, just another figure of history in the textbooks. But to others he was a friend, he was a teammate, he was an idol, he was family. And God knows that he wouldn’t be forgotten for what he was, a hero.

~~~

The funeral occurred a couple of weeks later, only close friends and family were invited at the small gathering at the lake house where he lived with his family. It was odd, walking into the house and feeling so much dread in a place she considered a getaway just days before, a place that brought her such a feeling of happiness and relief.

She sat quietly in a soft chair in the corner, trying to process everything that was happening and everything that would come with it afterwards.  She had just finished watching Tony’s video to his family, which Pepper insisted included her, and felt heartbroken at the thought that it would truly be the last time she saw him, ever again.

“Hey,” his soft voice said as Peter crouched down next to her, a hand on her knee as he gently squeezed. His eyes were red and puffy, just as hers were, and he wore a black and white suit that looked nice on him, though it seemed an inappropriate time to comment on it. “They’re starting the service soon, um, by the lake. I think we should go.” Y/N nodded, standing up from her chair and taking his hand in her own, finding comfort in his warm and soft grip.

The two walked out to the deck, one that she had so many memories on with the rest of the Stark family. Peter brought her to stand beside him and his aunt May, who smiled at Y/N and squeezed her hand. Y/N smiled back, but it came out as more of a grimace. They stood just behind Happy, Pepper and Morgan, as Pepper leaned down and set the wreath onto the lake, in the middle it had Tony’s original arc reactor from 2008, with words engraved into it.

‘Proof Tony Stark has a heart’

She found humour in the words but also wondered why anyone had ever thought otherwise. Sure he was a bit egotistical and petty sometimes, and often took to bragging when it came to being one of the smartest people on earth. But if you had known him like I had, she thought to herself, you’d know that he was one of the most caring people ever.

She watched as it floated away down through the calm river, eventually turning into a speck in the distant, covered by trees and the glistening light reflected off the water. Y/N gulped harshly as she tried to keep her tears in, not trying to break the strong personality she had set in stone for the past five years, but nonetheless couldn’t help a few of them slip from her eyes.

When the funeral had ended Y/N went to greet the others that had attended, wearing her best fake smile as people commented on how sorry they were for her loss and she did the same for them. She had gotten many embraces from people she did and didn’t know, and shared small laughs and memories with them.

After Y/N got tired of talking to everyone she tapped Peter, who had stayed by her side through the whole day, and told him she was going to get a drink of water. Peter had insisted on coming and held her hand as they walked away from the crowd and to the cute lakeside cottage, Y/N had considered home for so many years. On the small bench beside the door sat Happy with little Morgan in his lap, who sprung off and ran towards the girl with a bright smile on her face.

“Y/N! Y/N!” Morgan chanted happily as she ran closer, arms stretched out. Y/N smiled genuinely at the young girl and crouched down, picked her up as she ran into her chest and resting her on her hip. She brushed her nose against her soft cheek and placed a kiss upon it.

“Hi, baby,” Y/N said as she bounced Morgan. Peter looked at Morgan with a grin as well, since it was honestly astounding how similar she was to her father. Morgan giggled and played with Y/N’s hair as they had a small conversation and Peter could only watch on in awe. Then Y/N turned Morgan to face Peter. “You remember who this is, don’t you? It’s uncle Peter!” Y/N said, looking at Morgan and then smiling up at Peter, who felt like he was about to cry again just hearing those words.

“Spidey! Spidey!” Morgan screeched happily as she leaned over and made grabbing hands towards Peter, asking him to pick her up. Peter smiled widely before taking her from Y/N’s grip and holding her on his own hip now.

“Hey there, nice to finally meet you,” he said as he rocked slightly and Morgan placed her head on his shoulder, wrapping her small arms around his neck. Peter felt like he might explode from cuteness overload.

“Yeah. Daddy and Y/N says that-that you is the bestest,” she says as she played with the collar of Peter’s shirt. “You’re my favourite superhero! But after daddy.” She says as she smiled up at him. Peter raises his eyebrows and nods, letting out a laugh as he continued to talk with her. Soon the girl was falling asleep on Peter’s shoulder and the two walked inside to put her down for a nap.

Peter gently placed her down on her bed as he put a few stuffed animals by her side and covered her with the pink, fluffy blanket at the end of the bed. He kissed her forehead as Y/N went to place another on her cheek.

“Love you 3000,” she mumbled in her half-asleep state, and Y/N smiled, feeling tears brimming in her eyes as she replied.

“Love you infinity,” she says as she kissed her head. Morgan smiled in her sleepy state as the two stood up and exited the room, closing the door as quietly as they could to not stir her. Peter pulled Y/N into a hug, rocking them from side to side as he felt her tears start to make his shirt wet, but he didn’t seem to care. He kissed her temple and gently grabbed her chin, guiding her to look up at him as he smiled down at her.

“You know, I love you infinity,” he mumbled as he leaned down to brush against her lips. She laughed, his presence making her feel so much better since he really was her saviour. She shook her head, scoffing.

“You’re such a dork, Parker,” she said as she looked up at him, smiling for what felt like the first time in forever. She didn’t know how he had that effect on her, but then again she wasn’t complaining. God knows she needs a bit of relief. “I love you infinity too,” she replied after leaving him hanging for a while, and she stood up on her toes to press her lips to his, the kiss soft and short but still full of emotion.

As they broke apart, he pressed another kiss on her forehead and pulled her into his embrace. “You know what would make you feel better?” He said into her ear, which she replied with a ‘hm?’, asking for him to continue. “If we went home and binge-watched that Shane Dawson conspiracy theory video you told me about the other day.” Y/N scrunched up her eyebrows and looked up at him, a soft laugh passing her lips.

“Right now? Are you serious?” she said, shaking her head as she jokingly pushed his chest. He also chuckled a bit.

“What?” He asked, taking her hand and backing down the hallway. “C’mon, Y/N, you know how long I’ve waited for this video! You can’t just tease me with it!” Y/N raised her eyebrow as she watched Peter bounce a bit, begging her with his adorable brown puppy eyes to come with him.

“Well, you know what? There’s actually two, and they’re an hour and a half each” she whispered, causing Peter to groan and throw his head back. As he looked back up he was smirking, his tongue swiping over his teeth as he looked at her.

“You’re gonna be the death of me,” he whispered as he tugged on her hand and pulled her away, Y/N following a giggling mess as he brought her to Aunt May’s car and drove them back home, both excitedly discussing different videos and movies and other events that Peter had missed while he was gone.

Even though it meant sacrificing a lot, and even though she was still devastated about Tony and Nat’s death, Y/N felt as if everything would be okay as she lied on Peter’s chest, his strong arms wrapped securely around her as they watched the movie long conspiracy videos together. They exchanged small kisses and soft words, and even feeding popcorn to each other cause they were that grossly sweet kind of couple. And Y/N had finally found her hope.

~~~

TAGS:

Permanent: @phonegalhelp @caswinchester2000

Peter Parker: @britishspidey @deansdeliciouspies @triviaisbop

    Hope: @dee-writes-fics​ @xsweetnsour @underooling @studyxuxi@ibookishqueen @sunflowercth @bucky-to-my-barnes @green-lxght@softrdj @multifacetedfandom @obsessedwithrogertaylor @shayke-and-bake @bellero @spookyanairwin @lizlil @eridanuswave@reinyrei @wishing-wanting​ @dragqueenseverywhere  @creativedogs​ @officialmarvelwhore​ @bolivianchickennugget​ @jarvis-play-despacito @pvachyy @ksmy-99 @venomavacado @triviaisbop @kidensdouble88 @stark-spiderling @autobotgirl15-blog @madampomfrcy

Let me know if you want to be added to the permanent or the peter parker taglist! Also, message me your thoughts on this chapter and if you’d like to maybe see a short epilogue for what comes after!

[inawickedlittletown]

The Magicians - Season Three

(Spoilers)

-

Season Three of The Magicians. God, do I love this show. 

The way that this season was set up was excellent writing. The whole magic is gone aspect as the big problem of the season and the complications that no magic bring was just so perfectly introduced and executed. I love that this show follows up on the consequences of the character’s actions in a way that create bigger problems but also how things aren’t fixed right away. 

As much as I didn’t love Julia in other seasons, I think her storyline has actually been one of the more interesting ones to watch. She isn’t perfect and she’s been through a lot and yet all of it is for a reason and really sets her up into a character that we can love and root for again. That she is the only one with magic annoyed me at first but her journey to wanting the power and learning what to do with it. Loved all of that. 

I’ve had mixed feelings about Alice for a while but this season really made me dislike her. Like Julia a lot of her motives are justified due to what she knows and what she’s been through but unlike Julia, Alice presumes to know what is best for everyone. (Julia was just after personal revenge) Alice to start doesn’t actually want anything to do with the others because she isn’t who she used to be and because she’s done horrible things and as the season goes on, Alice is desperate and selfish. She immediately wants to take Julia’s powers when they are offered to her and she wants magic so desperately that she will do anything including almost becoming a vampire. Alice is also the one that betrays everyone by aligning herself with the library but also with everything she does at the end of the season. And yet she’s also the one that ends up imprisoned by the library and the only one that knows for sure that the big bad escaped. 

I loved that Fillory still played a large part of the story. The fairies made things interesting. They were cruel and horrible and yet all of it came from a need to protect themselves and the Fairy Queen is played by an amazing trans actress so I really grew to love her over the course of the season. They did such an amazing job at connecting what was happening in Fillory with the fairies on Earth. And to then end the season with the Fairy Queen sacrificing herself. That hurt. I think she more than anyone else taught Margo about being a leader. 

Speaking of Fillory, Eliot and Margo as the rulers of Fillory will never not be fun. They give Margo the best dialogue. The whole bear thing and the pro-beastiality thing that ended with her as the High King. That was exactly the kind of humor that The Magicians just thrives on. Also, the whole election thing was comedy gold. The conversation that Eliot and Margo have referencing all kinds of pop culture as code was probably my favorite of any of their interactions and omg do they have an amazing back and forth just always. 

Eliot will always be my favorite character because he’s so very much himself always and yet he is quick to sacrifice himself for the better of everyone and he’s not one to give up easily. And he’s the one that really sets everyone off on their quest when he goes to meet with The Great Cock. But also who else but Eliot should meet that questing beast? Hilarity can just ensue. 

And then we have that whole sequence of Eliot and Quentin at the mosaic. They grew old together. Quentin of course found someone to fall in love with and have a kid with. But also in the midst of all of that we also see Eliot and Quentin kiss and can assume that more went down. And it’s just lovely. Shipping them? Yeah...why not. 

Another thing I loved was the keys and all that they could do. Not always a good thing as we find out when Quentin pulls Poppy out of the water and he has to face his worse self. And poor map maker dies in the process of all of this taking the key with him leading to more problems. Poppy was a bit annoying but I did enjoy her being around and bringing a different energy during her episodes including her interaction with Alice and the fact that she slept with Quentin. 

The thing that really fascinated me this season, though, has to be The Library. We’ve already had encounters with the library before and it’s always been an interesting aspect of the show but getting to see more of what makes it work and that the library itself has an ulterior motive. I really loved the idea of making the library — a place with information that everyone should have freely — in fact the very place that believes in keeping information from people for their own good without realizing how horrible that is. It all seems to come from fear, a fear that Alice shares with the library ever since she was a niffin. But taking away choice and information is never a good thing. 

Harriet being the librarian’s daughter was not something I saw coming but it made so much sense and the scene where they talk entirely through sign language with absolutely no other sounds was beautiful. Not something you see all the time on tv. 

Penny not only dying but then also getting stuck in the library was so hard and painful but I think mostly on the part of Kady. She never seems to get to be happy at all does she? They also never seem to have much for her to do overall. 

I’ve said before I love the musical aspects of the show because they’re just done well. They’re a little gimmicky but in the case of the one in this season it served a purpose especially the arrangement of Under Pressure at the end — such a well done moment with the perfect song chosen for it. It not only brought up the tension but gave us a different type of episode. 

Finding a key in a different timeline was also a nice touch. Not only does it get us a new Penny in the picture but now Marina is also out there somewhere. Maybe she and Poppy can meet up and we’ll see them again soon. Also Quentin as the beast was cool. I loved how Julia solved that problem and how much we see Julia’s power growing and growing as the episodes went on. 

Again, I loved the fairies in this world and I loved how everything connected at the end. We have Julia as a god, the fairies willing to help because of what Julia made possible for them, and then the quest itself ending and leading them to a way to return to magic. It’s one of those things that the writers do really well: bringing all the threads together. They also throw wrenches into things fantastically. By the end of the season magic is back but the library controls it and not just that but the powerful beast was let out in all the kerfuffle and by the time that episode thirteen ends our main characters don’t remember anything at all including their own names and Eliot is a conduit for the new big bad. 

This show is non-stop. Things happen and happen and happen and it’s wonderful and I can’t wait to see how the next season unfolds (although I already am a bit spoiled by something that a lot of people were angry about). But I also can’t wait to keep reading the books. 

[low-budget-korra]

Lets talk about Korra

Today I will speak of her, which in my opinion is one of the greatest characters everr : Avatar Korra.

 At first we see a 17 year old girl who probably had her first contact with a lot of things. First contact with a big city, first crush, first handful of responsibilities, first threat...

It is worth mentioning that since day one, Korra has embraced the role of Avatar with all strength and love. She felt proud of her position and willing to do her job as the Avatar

(look at this precious little thing)

Remember that she spent her entire life locked in a training center, without contact with the rest of the world, so her knowledge of everything beyond the gates where she lived was new.

Right in the beginning  we see her dealing with some Equalists Protestants, which she does not take seriously. And only when she witnesses the power of the leader of this movement, she begins to take the threat very seriously and also, to fear this man more than everything in her life until then.

What does Amon represents for Korra?

I think this question can be easily answered by Korra's simple argument of love being the Avatar. And at least in the beginning of the book one they hinted that her life was just about that, Being the Avatar.

We are not introduced to any friends of Korra, except for Naga, or past boyfriend / girlfriend. Nothing. We only know that this girl is the Avatar. And I would not be surprised if that was the only way she saw herself.

Maybe that's why fight in pro-bending was so important. Not only as a means of socialization, after all it was thanks to the pro-bending that she met her friends, but also as a training and more important, search for identity. I think part of the journey of Korra in the first two books is a lot about that: search for identity.

Then, answering the question, Amon is the only person who can destroy that image, which can destroy Korra. He can destroy it without even needing to kill it. And that's exactly what he does.

In episode 4, we have, in my opinion, the darkest episode of the entire Avatar series. To be honest, I'm sure that if TLOK were a live action series for example, we may have a scene of sexual assault or an explicit threat of this there , because of the power struggle there between those two characters, no, power abyss and the way Amon touch her, her face, without her consent . Some people felt some kind of sexual tension there, no wonder there are people who shiped Amorra (Korra and Amon) back in the day.

That scene is powerful because Amon did not have to sexually touch Korra to violate her. At least, this whole situation served for her to open up with Tenzin over her fears and consequently learn how to deal with them, because I'm sure Korra did not get over what happened there so fast.

Still about Power Dispute we have another character who exemplifies this: Tarrlok. Tarrlok is a rising politician who uses  Korra as a pawn in his goal to seize the power of Republic City. Amon also uses the same trick, after all, the moment he defeats the Avatar, the city would be his.

So we have this young woman who will stop right in the middle of a political power dispute.

Tarrlok also serves as a comparative. While Amon wants to dominate and destroy the avatar figure, not caring about who she is, Tarrlok wants to dominate and use Korra. And this makes me think that, that metal box was made exclusively for her. Like if that shit was for Amon, he didnt know Amon was a bender so an simples cell would be good. I think Tarrlok knew that Korra may ruin his plans so he had that as his plan B.

In the end Korra lost the physical battle but won the ethical battle against both. But at what price? Amon was able to remove the bends of the Avatar. And without them, how could she be the Avatar?

I also strongly believe that one of the final scenes of the season, when Korra is facing a cliff, I believe she might be thinking about taking her life. After all, everything she was, everything she'd trained so hard for, had been destroyed in minutes.

She, with the help of Aang and the other avatars, recovered her bends and with the help of everyone, including her then boyfriend Mako, she "moved on."

In the next one, I used to hate the first half of book 2, but then I came to see with different eyes.

In that first half, Korra is unbearable. Everything she learned in Book 1 how to be more mature, less spoiled and all, was thrown in the trash and she was the same "child" of the book one only worse.

Until I stopped and realized that I was also unbearable and childish like this when I had my bad phases of anxiety and depression, as defense mechanism and keep people away. Returning to Korra, and if this way of acting of her was nothing more than this defense mechanism?

Whether or not she was betrayed by her own Uncle. Imagine, shortly after having your life turned upside down, when you are recovering, trying to recover your image as Avatar and suddenly your own uncle betrays you? Yeah.

"Oh, but she should not have stayed on his side against her father"

Yes, but remember that our, still young avatar, has fallen into the trap of believing and trusting someone just because that person says everything she want it to hear.

In the end, Korra again goes through a traumatic moment when she has her connection with past lives destroyed. We see how it affected her when she apologizes to Tenzin, through tears. And Tenzin, as the excellent master he is, tries to motivate her to face Vaatu again (now merged with Unalaq, her uncle) and so she is able to beat him and secure another 10 thousand years of Light to the world.

In the final moments, we see the (somewhat innocent) decision to reconnect the world of spirits and the world of men. And we also see Korra and Mako permanently end their turbulent relationship, which I will speak more ahead.

Book 3 begins in a more mature, we see all the characters being presented in a more mature way and it seems that Korra, now, has overcome everything that has passed. We have the relationship between Korra and Asami deepening as well, and I will also comment further on.

In Book 3, called "Change" we have a great sacrifice from Korra. Her life goes down a notch when she decides to save the new airbenders from Zaheer and the Red Lotus, the strongest villain she's ever faced.

Zaheer, unlike the other villains, who had not explicitly intended to kill Korra, had as goal just to kill the Avatar. And he almost succeeded.

Not only that, Korra was physically and psychologically defeated. She won the battle but not the war, we can say so.

So book 4 begins and we only come across Korra in the final minutes and she is unrecognizable. We see that, once proud and courageous avatar, in someone depressed and cowed.

I think it's visible that Korra is afraid of being the Avatar again, Toph even tells her that  during the season. And I think it's totally plausible.

Korra's fight against PTSD is one of the most honest and realistic things I've ever seen. Do you think that after a violent battle and almost die, even winning in the end, the hero returns home and everything is okay? I think not.

Not only what happened in the end of book 3 , but i believe that she also has having flashs or thoughts about all her fights and all the traumatic shit that she passed 

Another thing I think is worth quoting is that Korra took 3 years to feel safer and re-embrace her duties as Avatar. It was not 3 weeks or 3 months, it was 3 years. And anyone who suffers from some mental illness knows very well the stigma that is, the fight that is, because everyone wants you to be well in 6 months when the truth is that many times you spend years fighting against this. And this is a pressure that falls on you.

Imagine, seeing all your friends moving forward while you continue "stock in the same place"?

Only after Korra confronts Zaheer, I think that was a way to show her coping with the trauma, she improves to the point of returning to be the great Avatar we know. The once "monster Zaheer" who almost kill her now is some dude in chains who fail at his plans and created an big problem and needed Korra to solve it

One of the quotes that struck with me most was in that filler episode thats a summary of all what happened in the show , and in the part narrated by Korra she says "I was so naive" and the way Janet delivered that line..., with some pain and I know the sadness but at the same time, stronger and more mature ... I think it means a lot.

here in tumblr I think, I saw a phrase that until today marks me that is :

 "The Last Airbender is a story of a boy who becomes a god. The Legend of Korra is the story of a goddess who becomes a girl "

This is strong!

And I get very angry when someone comes to downgrade my baby Korra because she is such an incredible heroine and her journey is also incredible.

The story of how life can be hard and unfair, how it can hurt and paralyze, but there is always a reason to move on. We should always move on.

Korra is definitely not weak, quite the opposite, she is one of the if not the strongest heroine I have ever seen. Korra inspires overcoming.

Now l will let to talk about the relationships tomorrow. I promise 

[tournesolia]

Chaos Lineage Yuma Chapter 6 Translation

All the Violets were put into the dungeon.

I didn't know what kind of discussion

Reiji-san had with Carla-san and the

others who just got captured.

But judging from Yuma-kun's sullen face,

it was clear that it wasn't just a peaceful talk.

Even when I woke up from a light sleep,

I felt like something heaving was

sticking to my chest--

Place : Scarlet mansion – Living room and dining room

Yui : It used to be the time to eat, but Reiji-san and the others are actually in the dungeon, right ?

Yuma : Yeah... They talked about getting the truth out of Carla

Yui : (Getting the truth out of Carla-san... ? I hope they aren't using the hard way, but they surely will...)

Shouldn't you go as well, Yuma-kun ?

Yuma : … Reiji forbids me to participate at the interrogation

Yui : Eh !? Why... !?

Yuma : I was a disturbance. 'Cause even though they're enemies, I didn't shut my mouth and defended them

But do they really need to bother harming those they trapped ?

Shit... It's sickening...

Yui : (Since he's regaining his memories, his feelings got even more cloudy...)

You're worried, right... ? About Carla-san, Laito-kun, Subaru-kun... Kou-kun and Azusa-kun...

Yuma : Yeah... Azusa may be okay since he got used to endure pain

But Kou's self-indulgent, so he's obviously the one who hates being confined the most

Yui : Eh... ?

This is... You remembered something about them, Yuma-kun !?

Yuma : … Ah ? What did I say just now ?

Yui : Ah...

(It seems he doesn't completely remember them. He said those words unconsciously...)

(He knows these two somewhere in his heart but what would make him take one step forward ?)

Yuma : Hey, are you listening ?

Yui : Eh ? Ah, s-sorry

Yuma : Hey... Did I blurt out weird stuff ? What did I say ?

Yui : (Eh ? How should I respond...?)

Choice 1 : You didn't say anything (black roses)

Yui : You didn't say anything. It looks like I misheard

Yuma : Stop lying. You wanna watch me suffering that much ? Aah ?

Yui : I-I'm sorry

Yuma : Tch... Don't briefly apologize. I just wanna know

Choice 2 : You were worried (white roses)

Yui : … You were worried about Kou-kun and Azusa-un

Yuma : Really... ? Why's that ?

– End of choices

Yuma : I know I sound crazy. But I have no idea what's wrong with me

Seriously, what the hell happened... ?

Yui : Well... It would be better for you to not try too hard to think about something you don't understand

Besides, I think you will understand over time

(That's right... So we shouldn't rush. I really want to tell him everything right now, but—)

(There's no point in just telling him. If my blood can help him even a little, I will wait)

(Because I'm sure the moment he gets his memories back will come...)

I know, how about doing something to distract yourself ? It's not good to overthink

Yuma : … You're right. Thinking ain't my role

No matter if I think about those guys or slack off, that won't change anything

Yui : Yes. So let's put that aside and clear your mind

Yuma : Heh, you're being bossy. But that's not a bad idea

… So ? Are you gonna keep me company to distract me ?

Yui : Yes, of course. How about going to the vegetable garden ? We can even prepare dinner

Yuma : Y'know... I expected an erotic answer for a bit

Yui : Eh ?

*Yuma gets closer

Yuma : If I play with you, it'll be the best distraction, right ?

Yui : … ! Y-You mean sucking my blood ?

Yuma : I don't even have to bother telling you. Just so you know, I won't let you escape

Yui : (I don't know if it's true or not, but if Yuma-kun remember something by sucking my blood...)

(There's no reason for me to run away)

… I won't escape

Yuma : Heh, how brave. That's worthy of the lady Eve everyone wants, huh ? Excellent. Then I won't hold back

… But is it worth competing for you because you're Eve ? Who would want some poor-looking woman ?

Yui : Kyaa... !

(Yuma-kun's finger is tracing my body...)

Yuma : Your chest is small, other here too...

Yui : Hyaa... ! Yuma-kun... stop...

Yuma : What ? Do you feel it at that level ? You're sensitivity isn't bad

Yui : Hm, ah...

Yuma : … !

Yui : (… I-I let out a weird voice. I'm embarrassed...!)

Yuma : Hmm... That kind of face you make isn't bad

Yui : No... Wait a moment... !

Yuma : I won't wait. You said you'd keep me company

Yui : (His finger is more... No... My head heats up...)

Yuma : Your sweet smell is getting stronger... Amazing... I can't think of anything else...

Yui : Hyaa... Please, don't whisper to my hear... !

Yuma : Is this place good ? Then I'll suck from your hear. *sucks blood

Yui : Ah, no... Hmm... !

Yuma : At first, it annoyed me, but your cries are good...

It's bad... I can't stop... *sucks blood

Yui : Aaah... Hm... !

Yuma-kun, I'll almost...

Yuma : No, you won't escape. Just keep quiet... and feel my fangs

Yui : (It will drive me more crazy... than Yuma-kun...)

(But I wonder if I will be forgiven for being swept away by pleasure just now--)

Scene change : Orange mansion – Living room and dining room

Shin : I'm home. Phew, I'm tired

Ruki : Good work

Shin : Seriously, big brother, telling me to go spy on the Scarlets and the Violets alone... You push others too hard

Ruki : It's because I thought you were the most qualified for it. So, are there any movements in the other houses ?

Shin : There's something big. You'll be shocked by what you'll hear

… All the Violets got captured by the Scarlets

Ruki : … What ?

Shin : I wonder if Reiji was lucky. It looked like the Violets, who moved first, were incompetents

There's no doubt all the members including Carla are now locked in the Scarlet dungeon

Ruki : I see. It's convenient those cumbersome Violets are sealed away

It was worth waiting for an opportunity, like a snake

Shin : Then... We're finally doing it ?

Ruki : Yes... The supreme ruler's throne only turns the foolish ones into useless tools

Only those who know how to use them should access the throne. And because of that--

I will absolutely get my hands on Eve

Scene change : Scarlet mansion – Living room and dining room

Yui : (Uuh... Yuma-kun completely blew me away...)

(Come to think of it, we're in the living room. It's a good thing no one came...)

Yuma : You usually aren't sexually attractive at all but you make a nice expression when I suck your blood. You were seductive a moment ago

Yui : Wha... !? You didn't have to say that !

Yuma : Haha, you bark often

But your distraction alleyed my thoughts

'Kay, let's go. The number of prisoners increased so we have to motivate ourselves to make dinner

Yui : Eh ? Are you going to make meals for Carla-san, Laito-kun and Subaru-kun as well ?

Yuma : It would be weird if I only do it for Kou and Azusa. They would be reluctant

Also, they're Kou and Azusa's... precious brothers

Yui : But won't your brothers say something... ?

Yuma : It'll go well as long as they don't find out. And you'll help me out !

Yui : Eeeh !?

Yuma : You're the one who told me I'm free to do what I want, huh ?

Yui : … !

Yes... You're right

(He doesn't have ferocious eyes like when I just came here. He has bright and nostalgic eyes)

Yuma : Hey, what's with that smile ?

Yui : I-I'm not smiling !

Yuma : No matter how you look at it, you were smiling

Yui : W-Well... !

??? : … You're noisy

Yui : Eh !?

Shu : You're being annoyingly loud for a while. I can't sleep

Yuma : Shu... You were sleeping here ? Weren't you at the dungeon ?

Shu : The interrogation looked annoying so I skipped it

Yui : S-Since when were you here... !?

Shu : Who knows ? I woke up because you started to moan loudly

Yui : T-That was quite a while ago... So you were listening all this time !?

(I thought no one were here but Shu-san was listening... I'm embarrassed...!)

Yuma : Ah~ah, he listened to your disturbing voice

Yui : D-Don't say that... And Shu-san, it's not good to eavesdrop !

Shu : I listened whether I liked it or not. And whatever you do doesn't matter to me. More importantly--

Stop looking after the enemy now

Yui : Eh... ?

Yuma : … What's that, all of a sudden ?

Shu : As I told you, you'll only get into trouble if you go against Reiji... You know it better than anyone

Reiji spared you for now but I don't know what will happen if you keep on doing that

Yuma : It's not like I want to go against him. But... this is wrong

Shu : … Wrong ?

Yuma : I've been following Reiji's orders, but something feels weird recently. At that time too--

*flashback

Reiji : … Yuma

Yuma : What ?

Reiji : You must be glad to have a good excuse this time. However… There won’t be a second time

Yuma : … !

*Reiji leaves

Yuma : Tch... That Reiji guy... He knows and gave me a warning

*end of flashback

Yuma : Reiji's my older brother, for sure. He's smart and I depend on him. But...

Was really my brother like that ?

Yui : … !

Yuma : Of course he kills when he has to. But there's also times when he doesn't choose that option in order to keep people alive

And yet, he tried to get rid of Kou and Azusa, like he wants to crush even insects...

Shit, I can't say it well... !

Yui : (There's a conflict inside Yuma-kun...)

Yuma : I don't know why but I can't rely on him !

It got worse when I talked to Kou and Azusa !

Shu : Hey, don't be so loud

Yui : Yuma-kun, calm down !

Yuma : There's no way I can calm do--

… Uuugh...

Yui : (… ! Don't tell me it's the dizziness again ?)

*Yuma gets a flashback of the Mukami's living room

Yuma : … Guuuh !?

Shu : Hey, what's wrong ?

Yuma : What... was that... just now... ? Why... ?

Yui : Yuma-kun, calm down. Everything's fine...

Yuma : … uys

Yui : Eh ?

Yuma : Those guys were waiting... I was back... from the garden...

Shu : Who are “those guys” you're talking about ?

Yuma : Kou, Azusa... and... and who ?

Who was that guy... ?

Yui : (He can't remember Ruki-kun...?)

Shu : … You're tired. You're taking care of that woman and the prisoners, and you fought the other Violets

Take some rest now... I'll do as if I haven't heard what you said

*Shu leaves

Yui : Ah... Shu-san...

(It's fine, Shu-san isn't going to tell Reiji-san... So now--)

Yuma-kun... Are you okay ?

Yuma : Ah, yeah... I kind of lost my mind... Sorry

That dizziness disappeared. I must be tired as Shu said...

Yui : Yes... That's right. Let's go to your room to rest ?

(He recovers his memories little by little. But he didn't reach the last step)

(This step being Ruki-kun...)

(His bond with Ruki-kun completely disappeared right now...)

Hey, what do you think of Kou-kun and Azusa-kun ?

Yuma : Ah ? What I think... ? They're enemies but... Well, I don't feel hatred towards them

Yui : … What about Ruki-kun ?

Yuma : That Ruki from the Oranges ? I told you before. I can't stand that guy

Yui : I see... You're right

(Just as I thought, only his feelings about Ruki-kun are completely missing)

(They were so close, and yet...)

(Ruki-kun isn't present in his heart...)

Yuma : H-Hey... Why are you crying ?

Yui : … Eh... ?

Ah, sorry... Nothing sad happened, and yet... I wonder why

Yuma : You...

I immediately wiped my tears and

smiled so Yuma-kun wouldn't notice.

However, the tears overflowed one

after another and they just didn't stop.

This bond they always had disappeared.

Amongst the memories of his brothers sleeping

inside Yuma-kun, only Ruki-kun is missing.

I didn't know how to get this memory back.

Chapter 6 : End

[bloodraven55]

Why Rooster Teeth Aren't Queerbaiting with B*mbleby (and Why They Won't Keep Teasing Blacks*n As Well)

This is going to be my last somewhat salty post for a while, because I want to have a fun time this hiatus enjoying the nice wholesome parts of this fandom and being hyped for Volume 7 instead of dwelling on the garbage parts of it. But I'm aware that there is a small contingent of people who still think that Rooster Teeth are just queerbaiting with BB for various reasons, and I want to address that.

There are numerous factors that mean it is incredibly unlikely that Rooster Teeth are queerbaiting with BB. For a start, let's consider their track record in RWBY with LGBT+ representation.

Pilot Boi. He was originally planned to be revealed as gay but they removed the line because he died in the same episode and they didn't want that to be the first open LGBT+ rep in the show.

Ilia. The first canon LGBT+ character. Even though she starts as an antagonist it's made very clear in the show that her feelings for Blake are not in any way part of her motivation for the questionable acts she takes part in--if anything her feelings for Blake are presented as partially influencing her to do the right thing--and even though there is a clear moment where she could have been killed off in V5C10 she not only lives but redeems herself and is a valuable asset at the Battle of Haven.

The Cotta-Arcs. Happily married same-sex couple with a lovely child who willingly help the protagonists out.

Scarlet as revealed in the manga and later confirmed canon, plus either Coco or Yatsuhashi as will be made official in the After the Fall novel. Much smaller examples but they show that RT aren't hesitant about adding more LGBT+ characters.

This should make it fairly clear that RT have taken a very positive approach to LGBT+ rep in RWBY so far. They've proven that they want to handle it well, and so it would be frankly ridiculous if they suddenly dropped the ball so completely with BB.

And that's the thing. Almost everyone at RT has been vocally supportive of BB. Both Miles and Kerry have said they like the ship, Arryn and Barb have been on board since basically the beginning, and even the friggin' CEO is Tweeting about how RT is "a fan of any project involving a Bumblebee" now. The RT podcasts recently have been full of unnecessary teasing about "bizzy buzzy friends" and how "[Yang] threw both Bumblebees in [Adam's] face" and "some things were planned from the beginning."

There was a goddamn Valentine's Day card and the other cards in the set had canon couples from RT's other shows.

Not to mention Kerry's comment to "watch the show and find out" because "it's going to be in the show" when he was asked if Blake and Yang are now a couple. That's literally code for "yes, but I don't want to spoil it, so wait and see it with everyone else." If it wasn’t happening then why wouldn’t you take that obvious chance to say so and avoid the inevitable huge backlash you would get if you don’t shut it down?

Nearly all of this has been around the end of V6 and since then, which makes it pretty obvious that RT have changed their approach to talking about BB. They've always been open about being fans of it, but they never hyped it up even remotely this much before even though it's been one of the most popular ships basically since the start. That should tell you that there's a reason for the sudden overwhelming focus on BB from them, and it's because it's happening.

RWBY's an extremely popular show, but BB is far from the only cause of that, and so they simply don't need to bait the LGBT+ viewers to maintain their audience. The tiny number of people who will drop the show over it being canon will be easily made up by new viewers drawn in by such a great canon LGBT+ relationship between two main characters.

To summarise so far, even if their excellent backlog of LGBT+ rep in the show isn't enough to convince you, then there's the fact that it flat out doesn't make any business sense for RT to queerbait with BB, because the shitstorm that would follow if they did would be so much worse than a minuscule amount of pathetic homophobic whining.

And I haven't even covered the most blatant reason why they aren't queerbaiting with BB. Not only do a number of LGBT+ people work at Rooster Teeth--including Arryn and Lindsay, two members of the main cast--but it's patently ludicrous to think that Arryn, a bisexual woman, would knowingly bait her own LGBT+ fanbase. It's not a coincidence that she's talking about BB like it's canon now when she was also the one to warn people that the song Bmblb didn't automatically make it canon a couple of years ago. It's because she knows it's happening; hell, she literally said she checked with the writers that it was before freaking out over it.

In conclusion, there is absolutely no logical reason why RT would queerbait with BB, so the chances of them doing so are infinitesimally small. They very clearly want to do right by their LGBT+ fanbase, and they've passed the point where BB could not happen without it being queerbaiting. They didn't need to hype it up so much over the past few months, but they did, and there's a reason for it (and it's not that they're baiting).

If you're an LGBT+ person or BB fan who was worried that it could be a queerbait, I hope this helps reassure you.

And if you're someone who claims that RT is queerbaiting simply because you don't want BB to be canon no matter what, then quite honestly it is disgusting that you would hope for an underrepresented community of people to be wilfully hurt in that way, and you should be ashamed that you want Rooster Teeth to sink to the same level as you. I'm sorry if you don't like B*mbleby, but that isn't an excuse to wish that kind of harm on RWBY's LGBT+ fans.

Finally, I want to quickly tear down the idea that RT are just going to keep teasing both BB and BS without committing to either one. Nope, that ain't gonna happen either. The backing for BS doesn't even begin to compare to the backing for BB in canon, and given Miles has liked several Tweets about how pointless ship wars/people attacking each other over ships is it seems pretty clear that RT are as tired of the drama surrounding it as most of the fandom.

Only one of those two ships is going to be made canon, and it won't be Blacks*n. So love it or hate it, accept it or scream random bullshit about it to make yourself feel better - BB is what's happening, and at this point nothing is going to change that.

[the-light-followed]

THE LIGHT FANTASTIC (1986) [DISC. #2; RINCEWIND #2]

“What shall we do?’ said Twoflower. ‘Panic?’ said Rincewind hopefully. He always held that panic was the best means of survival; back in the olden days, his theory went, people faced with hungry sabre-toothed tigers could be divided very simply into those who panicked and those who stood there saying ‘What a magnificent brute!’ and ‘Here, pussy.”

Rating: 5/10

Standalone Okay: No

Read First: ABSOLUTELY NO.

Discworld Books Masterpost: [x]

* * * * * * * * * *

If The Colour of Magic is a bad place to start reading Discworld, The Light Fantastic is 100% worse.  Not because it’s bad, because it’s absolutely an improvement on its predecessor.  It’s just that The Colour of Magic ends on a cliffhanger (only in the metaphorical sense; in the literal sense, Rincewind has just fallen off the cliff).  The Light Fantastic picks up exactly where it left off, with only a little exposition or explanation to soften the shift from one to the next.  I tend to think of The Light Fantastic as more like The Colour of Magic: Part 2, Now We’re Getting Somewhere, because, well, now we’re getting somewhere.

Folks, we finally have a cohesive, over-arching plot! We have stakes greater than “let’s not get killed by this latest thing that wants us dead!”  We have purpose, and drive, and successful barbarian heroes so old they lack teeth and have to make dentures out of diamond, and I love absolutely every bit of it!

In what will quickly become obvious is the norm for him, Rincewind’s life continues to be a series of upsetting things happening one after the other.  Some highlights from The Light Fantastic include:

Being forcibly teleported (back) onto the Disc by the parasitically-attached Great Spell living in his brain, after falling over the Rimfall.  Reality is completely rewritten to do this, but everything remains exactly the same except Rincewind’s new position clinging to the top of a pine tree.  (Twoflower gets dropped back onto the Disc as well, but that seems mostly incidental.)

Going to the land of Death while still alive, picking up his mostly-dead friend, and running right back out to the land of the living.

Camping in the mouth of a giant troll the size of a mountain, while being held captive by mercenaries.  Somehow only the mercenaries end up dead.

Being attacked by wizards and Things from the Dungeon Dimensions, and fighting said wizards and Things in life-or-death battles.

Using the most powerful magical book on the Disc, possibly the most magical item full-stop, and then afterwards, allowing said item to be eaten by the carnivorous sentient Luggage for safekeeping.  Rincewind ends up owning the Luggage before the end of the story—so technically, he still has this wildly dangerous book.

Oh, and saving the world, of course.  He also does that.

I love, love, love the way Pratchett writes ‘heroes’ vs. how he writes his protagonists.  Absolutely none of his protagonists are the stereotypical hero, and his stories are better for it.

Quick sidetrack to define terms: when I say ‘stereotypical hero,’ I’m talking about the kind of lawful good protagonists you see in most high fantasy adventure stories or superhero comics, the stuff with worldwide or even cosmic stakes.  They’re typically well-trained or have some kind of special skills, or they acquire special training/skills along the way.  They almost always set out specifically to save the world, and typically do not have any ulterior motives beyond it being ‘the right thing to do.’  Usually, they’re strong and rugged manly men with impressive jawlines.  I’m talking Aragorn from Lord of the Rings.  I’m talking Captain America and Superman.  I’m talking the real Boy Scout types.

Truth, justice, and apple pie—or whatever the regional-specific pastry of choice might be!

Pratchett’s heroes are not that.  They’re cowards.  They’re scared or confused or unprepared, or making the whole thing up as they go along.  They’re fools, alcoholics, con men.  They’re salty old ladies and know-it-all young girls.  If there is a stereotypical hero-type character, they’re going to be a foil for the actual main character, and they won’t stay perfectly pure and uncomplicated for long—I’m thinking specifically Carrot, though we’ll talk about him later when we get to the City Watch books.  

Here, what we get is Rincewind.  And he is as far from a stereotypical hero as it is possible to be, probably because he would have started sprinting full-speed away from the thought before anyone finished saying it out loud.  Rincewind doesn’t save the world because he suddenly found his courage, or developed bonus superpowers, or found some kind of magical sword to do the fighting for him.  (He actually found the sword back in The Colour of Magic, hated every second of it, and got rid of it as soon as possible.  Goodbye and good riddance to Kring the magic sword.)  He hasn’t secretly had the courage inside of himself all along.

Rincewind saves the world because he’s got nowhere left to run, and that’s excellent.

I’m going to save a lot of my rambling about Pratchett’s deconstruction of the concept of ‘heroes’ for when I get to Guards! Guards! and later City Watch books, since Carrot is, like I said, both the main example and the central thesis.  But it is very important for everyone to understand: for me, nothing is more satisfying from a literary perspective than knowing that, at the end of the Discworld series, coward and hero-only-by-accident-or-mistake Rincewind is one of the two people in contention for the spot as ‘ultimate savior of the world, the universe, and all of existence.’  The other is a teenage girl.

Honestly, the only reason I think Rincewind might edge her out for the title is because he technically saved a slightly larger slice of reality with this whole escapade.  In Tiffany’s defense, I’m 98% sure she hadn’t been born yet when this whole thing went down, so we really can’t blame her for not solving it first.  If she were there, she’d have it handled, and that’s just objective truth.

But Rincewind.  Rincewind.  At the end of The Light Fantastic, the dude’s spent two whole books screaming and running whenever something tries to kill/maim/eat/threaten him.  The audience has absolutely figured out by this point that while he’s smart and sarcastic and surprisingly speedy, he’s totally useless in a conflict.  His priority is saving his own skin, not dashing feats of derring-do or whatever it is heroes are supposed to do.

And yet with the end of the world looming, his back against the wall, and no real place left to run, when the Big Baddie demands that he give up the last Great Spell, the one last thing preventing the immediate destruction of everything and everyone, we get this from Rincewind:

“If it stops anywhere, it stops here, thought Rincewind. ‘You’ll have to take it,’ he said. ‘I won’t give it to you.’”

And that’s it.  That’s what saves the world.  Not a stereotypical hero, not a hero of legend, not a mythic champion showing up for a final glorious battle—it’s a Pratchett hero.  It’s an everyday guy, a coward and a failure, dragged in by accident and against his will.  It’s an average person, nothing really special, who looks at something that he knows is wrong and that he’s sure will hurt him for disobeying.  And yet he still says no.  It stops here.

Even rats fight back, as Rincewind himself says.

This is the moment that really sells me on Rincewind’s character, every time.  Even before Pratchett was really taking Rincewind or the Discworld seriously, even while the whole thing is still one massive joke more often than not, he’s still given the readers a POV character who feels believably real.  He’s scared shitless, he’s tired, he’s sarcastic, and he doesn’t want to be there.  But that’s too damn bad, because he’s the one there, and if he doesn’t do this, no one else will.

And maybe Rincewind’s not Superman, but he still does it. He succeeds, he saves the day, and—despite everything—he’s somehow the hero of this story.  Screaming all the way, maybe, but he still gets it done.

[Paul Kidby does incredible Discworld art, including some of the amazing cover art for the books.  You can find a lot of it on his website— www.paulkidby.com.  This one,The Colour of Magic, stars Rincewind, Twoflower, and their dramatic escape from the Wyrmberg.]

While we’re on the subject of heroes, we can’t skip over Cohen the Barbarian, who makes his debut here in The Light Fantastic. Now, Cohen is technically a hero, but this is still not in the ‘stereotypical hero’ sense—it’s literally his job.  It’s the thing he writes in the little box marked ‘Occupation’ on his tax forms, or at least it would be if he actually paid any taxes.  Or if he actually wrote things down.  

For Cohen, being a hero is how he makes a profit and pays the bills, and he is very, very good at it.  That’s 100% objective truth, and I know that for sure, because the man is old as the hills and still gets into life-or-death fights about twice a day, and that’s the sort of thing that gets you dead very quickly if you aren’t very good at what you do.

But Cohen still isn’t a stereotypical hero.  He does a lot of looting and pillaging, and his body count over the Rincewind books is—wow, it’s up there.  It’s a real doozy.  It’s hard to call his work heroism when it’s hardly a smidge to the left of repeated, outright murder.  I’ll probably circle back around to this in Interesting Times and The Last Hero, because there are some really interesting points made there about the ways that Cohen and his contemporaries play at heroes and villains like they’re a sort of performance they’re putting on rather than a moral act or a choice made out of necessity. But I will say now that putting Cohen in the same storylines as Rincewind really does put both characters into a more complex and interesting light.  Rincewind, the coward-not-hero, and Cohen, the fearless warrior, can kind of play off of each other.

It just goes to show Pratchett’s grasp of people as people, and not unidimensional cardboard cutouts.  Nobody’s always right.  Nobody is always wrong.  And real people don’t always stand up to perfect, pure concepts of what we think they should be.

Also, since Cohen is about a billion years old, we get little gems like his toothless lisp before he picks up some dentures, a concept that Twoflower brings with him from the Counterweight Continent.  (Or, as Cohen calls them, dine chewers.  That, friends, is a pune, or a play on words.)  Also, because he’s Cohen and therefore a dramatic bastard, the dentures are solid diamond.  It’s not as if the man can’t afford it, I guess?

I do want to take a little side trip into some other new details that pop up in The Light Fantastic, specifically the more in-depth stuff about Unseen University and the wizards.  The wizards are a lot of fun in the early Discworld books, specifically if you’re really bloodthirsty, because up until Ridcully arrives in Moving Pictures there’s quite a lot of turnover in Unseen University staff. The wizards are backstabbing bastards early on, and it’s almost jarring to compare the shifty, power-hungry jerks in The Light Fantastic and Sourcery to the fat, lazy hedonists they’ll become. We do get an impression of them as a collective that will stay pretty consistent as we move forward: their values, their skills, the way they do magic.

This is important not only because it establishes a lot of lasting detail for stories involving Rincewind, the University, and the city of Ankh-Morpork, but also because we’re about to get our first glimpse of the witches.  (Hey-o, here comes Equal Rites!)  With a lot of this stuff mapped out in advance, it makes it easier to run a compare-and-contrast of what’s going on with the two main schools of magic users on the Disc, what’s different between them, what’s the same—and the positives and negatives in them both.  (Again, hey-o, Equal Rites!  That all is about to be the whole damn point.)

I think it’s also fun to note that The Light Fantastic features the brief run of Galder Weatherwax as Archchancellor of the Unseen University, A.K.A. He Who Dies So Granny Weatherwax Can Have His Frankly Excellent Name.  Granny Weatherwax is the steel-souled spine of the witches, and the driving force of their run of books, and it’s kind of hilarious to think that Terry Pratchett did the writer’s equivalent of digging through a graveyard to give her a name.  This theft is later lampshaded and then ignored; Granny says something briefly about Galder Weatherwax being a distant cousin she barely knew, and the whole thing is never mentioned again from then on out. I can’t exactly remember where, and it might even have been in a short story or one of the side books Pratchett eventually put together, not in a novel.  Honestly, who cares—Granny Weatherwax is such a force of nature that it only takes a few minutes to forget that her name ever could have belonged to anyone but herself.

But Granny Weatherwax is not a discussion for The Light Fantastic.  It’s time to move on to Equal Rites!

* * * * * * * * * *

Side Notes:

This is the book where the Unseen University Librarian is changed into an orangutan.  It happens early on in a magical accident, as the grimoire containing the Eight Great Spells attempts to save Rincewind and the spell trapped in his mind, and he is never reverted to human form.  

He is referenced but does not appear in The Colour of Magic.  

At no point anywhere in the Discworld does he appear in human form.  At no point does he have lines in human language.  He is never named.  At no point is he described as he was prior to this change, except that the orangutan he becomes is initially said to look “like the head librarian,” so presumably he was already a bit orangutan-ish. 

For something as weird as this is, and for something with such long-lasting repercussions, it is treated in the moment as a thing of very little importance—except, of course, that now he has to be paid in bananas.  I find this absolutely delightful.

Tim Curry plays the wizard Trymon in the BBC miniseries The Colour of Magic, which combines The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic.  Trymon only appears in The Light Fantastic in the books, and I can’t read it anymore without picturing Tim Curry in his ridiculous robes and shoes, with his ridiculous overdramatic murder plots, working his way up to the top just to die a ridiculous death.

No, really. Look at this hat.  Look at this goatee.  Only Tim Curry has the acting chops to pull this off.

Death once again appears, and this time we also get to see his house and his daughter, Ysabell!  I can see why it didn’t take long to go from here to Mort: the concept is way too good to leave to little snatches and side appearances.

Krysoprase the troll shows up for the first time in this book.  Later, he’ll be known as Chrysoprase, and will make appearances in several other Discworld novels: Feet of Clay, Wyrd Sisters, and, notably, Thud.  There’s also a troll named Breccia in The Light Fantastic; Breccia will become the name of Chrysoprase’s gang in Ankh-Morpork.

While going through my copy of The Light Fantastic to work on this post, I glanced at the cover and briefly thought I was losing my mind.  At the bottom, there’s a blurb talking about beloved Discworld character “Conan the Barbarian”—but up until that moment I was 100% certain the beloved barbarian on the Disc was named “Cohen.”  Turns out I’m not crazy, it’s just that the literal cover of the book decides to make a reference to the character that Cohen is parodying rather than to Cohen himself.  And this is the 2008 print edition, not an early run or a badly-assembled e-reader edition, which means it’s being released by a professional publishing company a full 22 years after the original novel came out.  It’s not like nobody’s had time to look over the material and do some copy-editing.

* * * * * * * * * *

Favorite Quotes:

“The important thing about having lots of things to remember is that you’ve got to go somewhere afterwards where you can remember them, you see? You’ve got to stop. You haven’t really been anywhere until you’ve got back home.”

“Do you think there’s anything to eat in this forest?” “Yes,” said the wizard bitterly, “us.”

“Not for the first time she reflected that there were many drawbacks to being a swordswoman, not least of which was that men didn't take you seriously until you'd actually killed them, by which time it didn't really matter anyway.”

“Are you a hero, actually?” “Um, no. Not as such. Not at all, really. Even less than that, in fact.”

“What shall we do?’ said Twoflower. ‘Panic?’ said Rincewind hopefully. He always held that panic was the best means of survival; back in the olden days, his theory went, people faced with hungry sabre-toothed tigers could be divided very simply into those who panicked and those who stood there saying ‘What a magnificent brute!’ and ‘Here, pussy.”