#without any do-overs and very few retcons

[licensedproldier]

listening to adventuring academy in the bg

[brucewaynehater101]

hii i just wanted to ask about the accuracy of the statement of "Talia abducted Jason during when he was arguably at his most vulnerable cuz catatonic and took advantage of his state (+no Bats knowing Jason came back to life) to indebt him to her and a cult + groom him to be a tool for whatever goal she had in mind" or if it's fanon and your opinions on this idea (+ actual canon if this statement is in fact fanon)

but just like how we play with the scale of good parent, bad parent Bruce we could also fuck around and do so much with this concept (fanon or not)

Hi! I'm not as familiar with this, so let's do the research together ^^ It's gonna be a long post!

I've heard many many many people curse out a few writers (I'm shitty at remembering names) for being a racist pieces of shit. I've also heard of Talia being thrown under the bus by a lot of writers. Here's a link to a wonderful Tumblr post that goes into Talia and how writers fucked over her character.

There's other posts, but this one quickly summaries what they did to Talia and briefly mentions the assassination of Ra's character as well.

Here's a post that goes further into Ra's character.

On that note, I have seen a few fics play around with two ideas that were (as far as I'm aware) retconned: Damian's conception being unconsensual and Talia having sexual relations with Jason.

As long as you keep in mind that these were retconned and come from racist, sexist, or both connotations, it's okay to explore the impact these actions would have on all characters involved (especially if we're utilizing the reasoning that Talia wasn't in her right mind during those actions).

That's a basic summary of why there's heavy debate around Talia and the al Ghuls as a whole.

Now! Let's get into Talia and Jason specifically!!!!

The comic run we want to look into is Red Hood - The Lost Days. I am unsure if there are any other comics that cover post-death Jason but pre-Red Hood. If anyone has any other canon material that covers or mentions this time period, feel free to comment, reblog, etc.

This is Talia's initial reaction to hearing about Jason:

She expresses concern, worry, and grief for Bruce

She then has spies give her updates on Bruce's situation. Everyone else states Bruce is "stepping up his game." She calls them fools (since Bruce is obviously just hurting)

Very quickly, we get into her discovery of Jason Todd:

So. Jason's catatonic and Talia was ordered not to inform Bruce. Regardless of if she wanted to, she would be betraying her father if she told Bruce

Then I'm just going to drop all of these panels:

This shows she somewhat cares about him. Whether that's for Jason or because of Bruce, that's irrelevant. She still cares and wants him to get better. She wants him to go home.

Talia only pushes Jason into the Lazarus Pits because she's run out of time

Now... she may be an unreliable narrator. She states she's doing this for Jason's sake, but it does seem like it's more for her own. Regardless, she doesn't have ill intentions.

Talia dips Jason in the Pits and then tosses him out

That line of hers seems suspicious, but I see it more as her trying to hide the fact she had Jason for so long. It's less "go be mad at Bruce" and more "gods, what is Bruce gonna think of me if Jason shows up on his doorstep?"" Selfish, but not in the way fanon characterizes it.

She had trackers on the bag, though. She just needed him away from Ra's

Ra's tells Talia she fucked up, Jason tries to blow up the batmobile, and then tries to tell Talia he didn't lose his nerve for revenge against Bruce

Talia realizes that reviving Jason with the Pit might have fucked Jason up

Jason asks Talia for her help with revenge against Bruce. Talia did not set that up. Jason was the one to suggest it without influence

Talia obviously does not want to be helping Jason right now. She still agrees, though

Let me just toss this here too:

So... She's not doing this completely because she cares about Jason or that it's the right thing, but she also sure as hell does not want Jason to be going down this revenge path

Despite all of this, there's this:

They then proceed to fuck.

Which is gross as hell, and how some people can say that she took advantage of him

I think them fucking got retconned, though....

So, it's slightly complicated?

In my personal opinion, the final answer is: "It is fanon!"

There may be some truth or canon behind it, but that most likely comes from more racist characterizations of her character. However, the canon material that explicitly covers this topic makes it clear:

"Talia was selfish with her help to Jason. She wants Bruce to love her. She thus ends up hiding Jason's existence out of fear of Bruce's reaction. She does not want Jason to be mad at Bruce or fight his dad."

This also matches the other characterization I've seen of this: "Talia uses the distraction technique to try to hold Jason back from murdering his own father. 'You can't murder Bruce without training, Jason.'"

To continue, whether Talia should've told Bruce or not is an entirely different matter. Sometimes, I've avoided telling people shit out of fear, which made the situations worse. It wasn't great of her to do that, but in no way should this villainze her. I also 100% love that this gives her a flaw. People make mistakes. She's trying. She may have gone about it poorly, but she did what she thought she could. It was selfish, but I don't blame her.

She could've also convinced Jason to give up his mission entirely right before they fucked. That's where it gets murky.

You are absolutely correct that we can use the fanon idea of the al Ghuls manipulating Jason. On the other hand, I haven't seen enough fics where Talia treats Jason like an unruly toddler instead.

"No, Jason. We can't murder Bruce. Obviously, you need training first." Her visible reaction is a motherly rolling eyes. Internally, she's just panicking ("fuck fuck fuck fuck. How do I curb bloodlust? How do I stop patricide? Procrastination!!!")

Anyways, thanks for bringing the question up! It allowed me to look into it and put my thoughts in order ^^

Feel free to read the rest of the run!

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

While I don’t think the senti-kid story necessarily works if the writers wanted to keep the show focused on kids, I think it would’ve gone over a bit better if it was just Felix who was the senti, rather than also Adrien and Kagami (especially Kagami, she was a complete retcon in that regard).

Picture this:

Gabriel, Emilie, and Natalie find the Miraculous (Butterfly and Peacock) because they have an expensive hobby (archeology/collecting rare items, as wealthy people like to do), not because they need the magic at all. They just heard a rumor of an old Tibetan monastery and wanted to check it out, got lucky in finding the two jewels. The Peacock doesn’t even have to be broken.

We can keep the basics of the backstory shown in Representation- minus the detail of Adrien being made with the Peacock. Gabriel and Emilie conceive Adrien normally, but Colt and Amelie aren’t able to like in canon, so Colt has that same jealous outburst at Gabriel. Because Emilie feels bad for her sister, and Gabriel sees an opportunity to make a deal, they lend, or maybe trade, the Peacock to them to create a child. As in canon, Colt uses it, and his jealousy makes Felix a physical copy of Adrien.

Emilie gets sick for non-magical reasons. (I wouldn’t mind having her use it for funsies and not realizing it was broken, but it’s very obviously cracked, and I can’t imagine at least one of their two kwamis not giving them a warning.) As for what happens to Colt, I’m on the fence about him being alive in present times because that kind of abuse is really heavy, so maybe he just dies for unsaid reasons (though I vote Amelie poisoned him or something).

This version would allow for a really cool contrast between Adrien and Felix’s stories and characters. You have Adrien, a normal human, capable of disobedience, but who bends easily under others and is a people-pleaser. Versus Felix, a senti being magically compelled to obey orders of whoever has his amok, but fights to be free every chance he gets. That contrast would also further Felix’s frustration and jealousy of Adrien, in addition to his own father’s hatred of him and being identical to his cousin, because Felix would kill for Adrien’s free will, but he squanders it. But then there’s also the issue that he’s essentially victim blaming Adrien, not realizing that magic isn’t the only way to force obedience- not to mention ignoring the times that Adrien did stand up for himself (like running away to school). I think that would be a really great discussion of free will, how jealousy can blind you, family conflict (and resolution), and how different kinds of abuse/trauma aren’t automatically better than each other just because they’re opposites (ex: someone with heatstroke shouldn’t be jealous of someone with frostbite. Both suck.) The intensity might be worse for each circumstance (since Felix has magical abuse and physical+verbal abuse), but he would be in the wrong for saying Adrien has it easy.

(I think at this point my ADHD is over-explaining, so I’ll leave it at that lol)

Do you think a route like that would’ve improved the show at all? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

The sentiplot has many issues and one of the big ones is that it's not a great fit for a show where Marinette is the one and only main character. They've given Kagami, Felix, and Adrien this massive weight that begs for them to take center stage for at least a few episodes, but probably a whole season or two. The show isn't going to do that, so it's near impossible to really fix the sentiplot without truly massive changes to canon.

That being said, I think that this idea would have vastly improved the sentiplot in its current form! Right now, the senti thing truly doesn't matter to Adrien's character. His mom could have gotten sick for any random reason and the only meaningful change would be that Gabriel couldn't use the rings to keep Adrienette from kissing that one time. Outside of that, Adrien's status has no meaningful effect on the story. It doesn't even keep him out of the final! He does that on his own! The senti thing is just there for cheap drama.

There's also the issue that the current storyline makes the Agreste's look awful which is clearly not the story's goal. Emilie is supposed to be an angel and Gabriel is supposed to be a grief-stricken man who loves his family. That doesn't fit with the kind of monsters who would make a magical designer slave to be their child and then wear his control rings around as daily accessories. Remember, they picked their freaking wedding rings for his slave collars! Most people wear those every day. The implications are nasty!

It makes way more sense for the Agreste's to have the peacock for more mundane reasons and for Colt to get it somehow. Maybe even have him steal it after he finds out about it to really remove the Ageste's from the perfect slave child issue. This allows for the contrast between Gabriel and Colt that canon so clearly wanted, but failed to write. It also makes Felix's actions towards Adrien make way more sense. It feels like canon Felix hates Adrien and we still don't know why that is.

As nebulous as Felix's character is, he still feels like the kind of character who needs to be tied to something like the sentiplot. It's part of the reason I don't think I can use him in my own stuff. The sentiplot is - or at least should be - such a major, defining thing for him that the only possible way to use him is to keep that plot or to give him a plot about freeing the Kwamis since they're also slaves and his abusive childhood could make him feel a bond with them.

Focusing the sentistruggle on Felix instead of spreading it out to include Adrien and Kagami would also keep the sentistuff from dominating the story. Making the male romantic lead an artificial being without true free will whose creation killed his mother is a massive thing that needs to be the focus of his character for the rest of the story. People are on the edge of their seats waiting for Adrien to learn the truth and want this to be a big plot. I do not think they're going to get that, but they should.

Having a side character be the artificial human allows this to be something that is dealt with and then Felix either leaves or fades into the background once his story is over because his story allowed to have an ending whenever they want it to. That's not true for Adrien. Adrien's ending is happily every after with Marinette and the sentiplot needlessly complicates that plan because it means that Adrien's character is always going to be center stage, making people want the sentiplot to mean something since it's apparently impossible for him to ever be a real boy who has true free will. That's such a massive thing that it begs for Adrien to be the main character, which is an asinine writing choice. I have no idea why they keep giving Adrien all this massive narrative weight. You don't do that if you want the female romantic lead to be the main focus! You do it if you want them to be true costars or if you want the male lead to get the majority of the focus. This is writing 101!

As you said at the top, I'm not sure how well this works for a show aimed at five-year-olds because it's still a pretty heavy stuff, but as a general idea, I'd be down to watch it! I didn't have a ton to add to this one because your pitch was already excellent!

[zvmz]

A few Daring Charming HCs <3

Growing up, anytime he expressed interest in anything considered girly, his father would lecture him on how he needs to be more manly or whatever

For example, He did like rom-coms, and he would sometimes watch them with darling, but got a lecture and told to ‘spend his time on something more befitting of a man’ when he was caught

Since his father considered the guitar a manly instrument, He started learning to play when he was young to impress him

his dad was impressed. And that made daring happier than anything. That’s when he realized he would do anything to earn his fathers approval. So, he worked hard at it, changing things about himself to live up to his fathers standards.

he did, of course, succeed in this goal, but in the process took on many of his fathers flaws, such as his arrogance and sexist ideals

Now at eah, he’s slowly realizing that his father is capable of being in the wrong. He can embrace all the things he likes and still be a man. He can express his emotions and still be a man. He’s realizing his life should not revolve around earning his dads approval, that he needs to become his own person.

character development!!

anyway, he really showed his growth when he finally stood up to his dad for how he treats dexter, and defended darling for everything going on with her and apple.

why am I trying to write a whole character arc rn um anyways

With cerise and darling, he learned that women can be more than just “damsels in distress”.

with Lizzie and Dexter, he learned to put others ahead of himself.

now he can admit he hates the guitar. He loves romance movies, Katy perry, shopping, theatre and acting. he even likes to wear pink sometimes. hes still finding out what he likes and doesnt like without his fathers influence

he LOVES sweet drinks. if hes at a bar hes getting a daiquiri. if hes at a cafe its a frappuccino.

when hes getting drinks with lizzie, the waiter always assumes the fruity/sweet drink goes to lizzie

sparrow makes so much fun of him for it

he doesnt like cerise like that anymore, but they are great friends now. they mostly bond over sports and movies

he excels at history and literature, but has trouble in science and math. apple tutors him.

their tutoring sessions can be really awkward, though. they dont really know how to talk to each other normally.

he never really had a crush on her at any time, but he has always very much admired her for her hard work and intellect.

hes extremely chivalrous and polite. he always holds the door open for people, always offers his seat to someone if theyre all full, never looks at his phone during a date. things like that

hes always over-dressed, no matter the occasion

probably spends at least a third of his time in the gym flexing and taking pictures in the mirror

lets bfr teens in the eah world definitely make tiktok edits of him

daring is obsessed with them. theyre all over his fyp.

understands every one of briars daily mean girls references

he only auditioned for a play for the first time in order to spend more time with lizzie, who got dragged into playing a part. they both ended up loving it.

i am retconning the whole thing with duchess in the books. never happened.

the actual reason daring and lizzie broke up was because daring felt guilty about the bet with sparrow, so he confessed to her. which ended in lizzie yelling at him for half an hour and dumping him

they missed each other SO much. daring basically tried to apologize to her almost every day, and after some months lizzie decided to give him another chance. he absolutely did not waste that chance.

he plays fortnite with dexter and darling once a week

as a kid he used to climb trees with darling all the time. they got caught and lectured on it pretty often

has been to jail for going 50 over the speed limit before. dexter and darling had to bail him out

once dexter and darling tried to prank daring by filling his entire room with merch of himself

it completely backfired bc daring loved it and kept most of it where it was

hes definitely one of those boys who says "im him" about any ryan gosling character and says ryan reynolds is hot

[spocktheestallion]

why joel was right to save ellie bc i have a lot of opinions and by god i’m gonna share em

so since the show has premiered i’ve seen this debate flare up again and a lot of people saying joel “robbed the world of a cure” when he saved ellie but lets be real, the fireflies were never gonna make that cure.

first off in the original game the hospital and operating room were FILTHY. and yes in the remaster they retconned it to be clean but that just seems silly to me. the fireflies had so little infrastructure that they were wiped out by ONE angry old man in a single night, where are they getting hospital cleaning crews? where are they getting the supplies to properly and i mean PROPERLY sanitize a working OR? more importantly WHO were the medical staff? what were their qualifications? to pull off what they wanted they would’ve needed a team of brilliant scientists specializing in different specific fields and i doubt any of them had been to med school recently. the outbreak was over 20 years old by that point, and medicine is a continually evolving field. those licenses were EXPIRED and even if they had experience during the pandemic it likely would’ve been in field medicine, which is not the same as epidemiology or neuroscience or any of the things they would’ve needed specializing in to get a cure. also the fact that they were saying “we’re gonna make a vaccine!” was another red flag, bc fungal infections aren’t even treated w vaccines. it just goes to show they didn’t know what they were doing. they were just reckless and desperate and ellie would’ve died needlessly.

secondly killing ellie especially right off the bat would make NO sense. what if they find out later on they need a live subject or more samples or whatever? well too late your only subject is dead. why wouldn’t they do blood tests? imaging? or if the cordyceps is only in the brain you can still do a biopsy without killing the person. again, these people didn’t know what they were doing. they were grasping at straws and even if they had gone through with their original plan they probably wouldn’t have been able to synthesize a cure anyway. the sample would’ve expired or been contaminated in the dirty hospital or they would’ve fucked up their sample through ignorance. the whole rushing straight to pulling ellie’s brain out was ridiculous. they would’ve killed a kid needlessly without a second thought.

which brings me to my next point. the fireflies aren’t exactly cut and dry good guys either. i may be reaching w this and i need to rewatch the premiere episode to confirm this but they don’t seem all that picky about their targets and civilians seem to get caught up in them a little too easy. the fireflies aren’t super concerned about human life if it gets in the way of their cause, i mean they were recruiting young kids and giving them weapons just like fedra did. there’s a reason tommy left them high and dry. they’re extremists and they don’t care who they hurt or exploit so long as it serves their cause. they aren’t philanthropists and they FOR SURE would not have been giving out that cure out of the goodness of their hearts. they would’ve gatekept it to themselves and they absolutely would’ve used it as a recruiting tool or political bargaining chip.

but more importantly even in the very unlikely situation they COULD make a successful cure AND mass produce it AND move it cross country which they clearly don’t have the resources for, there’s no way fedra would’ve let them get away with it. their fascist control is all justified in the name of preventing infection, if the disease is no longer a threat that’s a massive blow to fedra’s power. they might’ve been chasing around fireflies for setting off a few car bombs or whatever but if you think fedra isn’t going full extermination mode if they find out the fireflies have a cure you’re kidding yourself. and we’ve clearly established the fireflies would be crushed if they had fedras full attention given that they were pretty much eradicated by one guy in a single night.

and if we’ve learned anything from our own covid pandemic, it’s that if you want to effectively immunize a whole population it needs to be WIDESPREAD. you can’t just treat a few people and call it a day, EVERYONE needs to take the cure or the disease is going to survive and mutate until it can come back in a treatment-resistant variant again and again and again. and after a 20 year outbreak the kind of infrastructure you need to make that happens is gone. it just doesn’t exist anymore. fedra is probably the only group with the level of organization and infrastructure anywhere CLOSE to being able to achieve that kind of feat and i doubt even they could, and even if they could they wouldn’t.

so the fireflies were NEVER gonna be able to make a cure in the first place, they were NEVER gonna be able to mass produce and distribute it, they were NEVER going to be handing it out to anyone they weren’t tight with, and even if they had been well equipped philanthropists who could make a cure and were actually giving it out freely fedra would’ve crushed them immediately.

and i’ve also seen people argue that either way it should’ve been ellie’s choice but i disagree. ellie was a traumatized CHILD with severe survivors guilt. she was not mature enough or in the right headspace to make that kind of decision. JOEL was the closest thing to a legal guardian she had, and it was HIS responsibility to protect her until she was old enough to make decisions like that for herself AND HE DID. a kid should not be allowed to make that choice even if they want to because they’re a KID. also the fireflies weren’t gonna let joel live anyway, i’m pretty sure they were planning to kill him even if he complied.

and ultimately it’s not like joel was considering all this when he made his choice, he saved ellie because he LOVED her. like i’m sure he picked up on some red flags and knew things were sketch and realized the fireflies would probably fail and she’d die for nothing but more than anything he went back bc that was HIS BABY and he wasn’t letting desperate assholes sacrifice her for their cause. “save who you can save” remember? maybe you can’t single handedly change the world or make some miracle cure but you can do what you can for the people you love and maybe that’s enough. maybe you can never make the world go back to the way it was and maybe you SHOULDN’T but you can take it as it is one step at a time and you can do it with the family you’ve made. i think that’s a much better takeaway and i don’t like how the “joel was selfish and did the objectively bad and wrong thing” narrative in tlou2 minimizes that.

[sizebrained]

It's So Hot, Can We Go To The Pool? Part 1

Ok, this is the very first thing I've ever shared in terms of G/t writing so be kind.

I hit Tumblr's max length every post, sorry not sorry. I retconned this from when I first wrote it to make Ben bigger than I originally thought. Muwahaha. Also Hazel's haircolor.

It's meant to be an intro that takes place in the middle when everyone's dynamics were already established.

Content Warning: Adult themes, somewhat suggestive romantic/sexual interests. Mentions of nudity, war, death, danger, terror, injury, PTSD, and panic attacks. But also fluff.

***

The condo was eerily quiet, but that suited Ben just fine. The air inside it, however, felt heavy and still. Ben could do without that on such a hot July day. The air inside was so heavy and still because the building’s air conditioning system was broken, and it was supposed to be brand new.

“Top of the line” the realtor had told him. “Top of the line” was doing absolutely nothing for him now.

The single oversized ceiling fan in the main living space helped, but not much when the air was this humid. Ben looked up at the fan whirring as fast as it could manage to try and cool the air. He guessed that if he were to jump, he could slap it to help it along.

But he figured that he would more likely just break it, given the state of the “top of the line” air conditioning. And he couldn’t jump like he used to anyway. Well actually he just wasn't sure…

He really missed moving his body like he used to before the accident. Almost half a year on crutches was awful. But his older sister, Sam, told him that he shouldn’t be pushing himself.

She insisted that he needed a few more months of physical therapy with her before he tried to pull any stunts. He figured jumping up to slap a ceiling fan counted as a stunt. Especially one that was hanging from the ceiling 10 feet up.

But standing 7'3" inches tall, it didn't seem that high to Ben. With his reach and vertical leap, Ben knew he could have probably done it a year ago. But that was before the car accident. His basketball days are over now thanks to that wreck.

The thought made him bend over and absentmindedly rub his left knee cap with a sigh. It was like he was developing some kind of nervous tick.

His long fingers took turns gently tracing his surgery scars. Even with the surgeon’s best efforts, Ben still thought he looked like they had used a lawnmower on him. It made him self-conscious about his body, which he already had enough of before adding surgery scars to the mix. His lower back, shoulders, arms, and some parts of his legs already took the brunt of his big body's rapid expansion over the years leaving stretch marks from his growth. At least the stitches from his latest procedure had dissolved and were no longer itching him.

Lost in his own train of thought, Ben had carelessly bent down at the waist to play with his scars. This made the massive college student’s whole upper body tilt forward at an angle.

“Mind what you are doing, please!!!” shouted a small voice from his left shoulder. It was said in a gentle tone, instead of annoyed as someone would expect given the result of Ben's thoughtless movement. Something about her British accent always made Ben think Mary Poppins was living with him.

The voice came from a tiny, young looking woman who was shorter than any one of Ben’s long fingers. Even his thumb was bigger than her. She was standing with the front of her body facing the profile of his face many times larger than her own.

Dangling away from his body, the tiny figure was clutching the shoulder fabric of the arm closest to her in the grip of one tiny hand. She was pulling on it hard enough so that the top of the cotton fabric actually lifted up off of his skin.

Ben was much darker compared to her own pale complexion, made even lighter by so many years indoors. And she stood just over 3 and a half inches tall making Ben 30 times her height.

She shifted her position and braced her feet flat against the front of the massive human’s collarbone. A long tail swished back and forth vigorously behind her, helping her steady and balance.

One hand came to rest on her hip as if to emphasize her point. She looked like she was purposefully striking a pose. It was as if she was a great pirate captain measuring the wind speed for a ship sailing across the open ocean.

But instead of such a majestic scene, the reality was far less adventurous. They were both simply waiting together for Ben’s sister and Hazel’s sibling, named Cob, to return from the store. Hazel had been perched on the top of Ben's one shoulder and rather than climb to his back, she decided to hang on till he was upright agian. The plan was for all of them to try to go to the nearly empty, and supposedly luxury, building’s pool. Ben and his passenger were a terribly sweaty and annoyed mess.

Ben still hadn’t adjusted to moving differently when he she was on him, and he worried that he may never at this rate. It put more effort onto her to compensate for his lack of continued awareness, but she didn’t seem to mind.

She relished the chance to have a human to climb on again after Mary and Jack’s passing, and Ben was like the Mount Everest of humans. She enjoyed the challenge.

Given how nimble she was, there was never a real risk of her falling from her perch. Instead, she was more concerned with his obsession over his body.

It was true that the tiny woman was very annoyed today, and her tail swished in a way that looked it. But she was not annoyed at Ben, almost never at Ben. It was becoming harder to ignore or admit, but he was occupying more space for her and not just in a physical sense. It was the heat. It was never hot like this back home. And even though she’d lived in America for most of her life now, she always considered England her real home. And it never got hot like this there.

From her spot dangling on Ben’s left shoulder, she took a look again at his knee, way, way down. Scars were nothing new for her. She’d seen far worse after four years in a war hospital during what would eventually be called World War II. But Ben had kept it wrapped in bandages at her suggestion to keep himself from itching and scratching at the sutures.

She was amazed to learn they’d invented stitches that would dissolve. She wished they had those back when she was nursing. Having to remove them once a wound had healed was novel for Hazel, at first. But by the end of the war, she reckoned that she had cut through and removed hundreds of yards of stitching from humans. She could always do it far quicker than Mary, the human nurse and her companion, ever could. It was a skill that gave her a sense of pride. That she could do so little else at her size in such a place made her relish some superior skill.

Mary, ever stoic, simply reminded the tiny woman with a tail that the stitches were a lot bigger and easier compared to her. So she shouldn’t get too big of a head over it. Still the human nurse was glad for all the help she could get on her shifts in the war hospital, no matter how small the help may be.

Seeing Ben’s healed scars now in the open, she was interested by how different the angles of the incisions were compared to what they would have back then. Although if pilots like Mary's husband, Jack, had suffered injuries like Ben -- they would have had just amputated.

She was surprised that she hadn’t noticed it before, but then again he had kept them covered. Plus, Ben’s size had the habit of sometimes making her freeze up and miss minor details.

That he had such an effect on her was the only thing that did annoy her about the enormous human. She knew he would never hurt her. Generations of her kind had ingrained in instinct into her, she felt a constant warning that Ben was too big and must be a threat.

The hours Ben spent during their first meeting proved the opposite, despite his size. He could also be incredibly delicate. It took so long getting her unstuck from that glue trap and he was so flustered and gentlemanly about it.

He made joke after joke about the situation to make both of them feel better. And he was more embarrassed by having to, ultimately, cut off some of her clothes with a pair of scissors than she had been.

Nudity, at least her own, never really phased her. That it so flustered him to see her in a state of nature was all the evidence she ever needed to trust him. Although as her feelings about him changed that started to as well.

But still, he was just so…big. It was like the word was invented with Ben in mind. Her natural impulses to flee had certainly gotten better with more time and exposure to him. But he was still so utterly gigantic even when compared to any humans she’d previously encountered in her life. And he was so fast, it reminded Hazel of herself.

The Professor always hobbled around with a cane, and Mary wasn’t the most graceful human she’d seen. Mary’s husband, Jack, who was an American pilot during the war, also moved around rather slowly and deliberately having lost both a leg and his eyesight during the war. She still marveled at how Ben could move like that being so enormous, even when he had been on crutches for most of the past several months with his injury.

“Oh Hazel! Sorry! Sorry sorry sorry…” Ben blinked furiously out of his own thoughts. Replying quickly and sheepishly, he gave up on touching his reconstructed knee and stood back upright.

This pleased the little, tailed woman named Hazel, but she found herself on the backfoot again when Ben brought one huge up to his left shoulder as if to catch her. He opened his hand to extend his fingers, straightening them out.

The span of each of his hands from the thumb to the pinky was four times Hazel’s size. His hand got measured once to potentially be drafted to the NBA. He thought it was weird to get measured like he was a farm animal.

Hazel didn't care about his exact dimensions. Just that, however many inches the hand was, it was large enough to block her whole view.

Hazel’s sharp featured face fell under the shadow of his hand as Ben made a literal wall for the small woman, more as reassurance for himself. She wasn’t going to fall, and she especially wasn’t going to fall now that he had stood up straight again leveling out his shoulder. She resumed her former position on top of it.

It had been decades since she had lost her footing, and even then it wasn’t her fault. Hazel sighed as she waited for Ben to figure out for himself why she would find his well meaning gesture bothersome.

She could have just told him, but she took her old Professor’s old approach of a Socratic method, favoring questions over providing answers as a form of instruction.

She took the time to remember the last time she had fallen. A bomb the size of a normal human, not Ben, went through the roof and several upper floors of the makeshift hospital’s building. Then it exploded. It was the loudest thing she had ever heard. Her ears rang for hours afterwards.

Lately as he started acting more like what she imagined his old self was like before the accident, she thought Ben was getting close to being the second loudest thing she’d ever heard. Even his whispered apology just now was enough to make his voice rumble through the whole of her body. It was especially noticeable when she was this close to his throat.

Every time the giant human spoke while she was this close, it sent vibrations up through the soles of her feet into her whole body. No human she’d encountered, not even Mary’s husband, had quite the same effect. Hazel always noticed the absence of it when talking with other humans or her family. Now that she was used to it, she found she would yearn for the sensation.

For a human, Ben was just so…so much. It was concerning at times. All humans were large but something about Ben’s enormous size was especially noticeable today. Conceptually, she understood what being over 7 feet tall meant. But for all intents and purposes, he might as well have told her he was 100 feet tall like the old oak trees on the Professor’s country estate.

Sometimes Hazel felt like she was a human who had been accustomed to riding horses their entire life, to all of a sudden find their preferred stead was replaced with an elephant.

Hazel had only seen an elephant once when Mary had taken her to a circus in the late 1950’s. It was the biggest creature she had ever seen. Ben was the second biggest, followed by his absent sister. That Ben’s sister had still not returned with Hazel’s own sibling, who had accompanied the human shopping, also annoyed Hazel right now.

Maybe it was just the heat making her snippy. She was annoyed at herself, that her inconvenience overtook her patience. She couldn’t stand to wait in front of his mammoth hand any longer.

“It’s fine. It’s fine. Just be more mindful please. Remember, you have a passenger. And I appreciate the gesture but it’s truly unnecessary…” She chastised him tenderly.

To Ben, even when she looked mad or annoyed she never sounded like it. He loved her accent, except that it made her sound older than she looked. Hazel reached out casually and patted the closest spot of his palm a few times in reassurance. Ben could just barely feel it. Hazel’s own outstretched hand wouldn’t even cover one of his fingernails. The boy was just so…big.

Ben lowered his own hand, closing his fingers inwards towards his palm tightening them so his knuckles cracked. Another tick of his. Hazel hated when he did that.

Hazel let go of his shirt and took a few steps back towards the center of his shoulder again. She wiped her brow feeling as if her body was making its own pool while they waited. Even the bandana she used to contain her long curly hair, and keep it out of her face, was soaked through. It was also exceptionally frizzy in this heat and humidity. The state of her hair also annoyed her.

Hazel pulled off her bandana causing her hair to nearly stand on end when it was released. Ben thought it made her look like a dandelion about to blow away if there was a breeze. But he dared not share that thought with her and risk annoying her further.

Now on the top of Ben’s once again flat shoulder, she pulled up the sliver of fabric that rested across his powerful tendon to pat her face dry.

“Pardon me.” Hazel said while Ben watched in silent amusement. It was nice to see her be less formal than he was used to her being. The heat must really be getting to her.

Hazel wrung out her bandana several times with her strong hands, the droplets barely registering as they fell onto Ben’s enormous shirt. She shook it out a few times, before rewrapping it around her head with a loud, haughty huff. It was still damp. The annoyances seemed to never end for her today.

“It is just that…I cannot see a thing when you do that you know?” She said with a slight upturn of her chin to peer at the side of his face.

“Have they returned yet?” she asked while trying to stand on her tiptoes to look out the window for herself as if she wasn’t already high enough.

“Nope. Not that I can see…” Ben said slowly.

Ben took a turn peering down through the window. The kitchen’s large single pane of glass over the sink gave him a clear view of most of the building’s parking lot. He realized that the motion made him start to lean again and he raised his hand again instinctively.

But he caught himself and lowered it quickly before he was verbally slapped by Hazel, if you could even call her admonitions something that harsh. Hazel saw him correct himself and nodded ever so slightly in silent approval.

Sam almost always parked in one of the handicap spots when she took Ben’s car. The novelty of getting to park so close to entrances spoke to her lazy core. It was quite a source of contention between them with Ben rightfully worried about someone who may actually need to use a handicap spot.

Sam promised that she would only park in a handicap space when there was an abundance of them, but that wasn’t enough for Ben. Hazel thought they could bicker over it for some time and it seemed like Sam did it on purpose.

The last time they fought over it, Hazel turned out to be correct. She was doing it on purpose in the hopes of forcing him to drive himself finally. Sam finally snapped at her little brother that if he was so concerned about her doing it, then he needed to start driving again so she couldn’t do it.

It was Sam’s unsubtle way of trying to force him to get back into a car again. But Ben had refused to even get into a car ever since his accident. Even the elevator made him jumpy now. Despite being on crutches for several months, he would still painstakingly hop up the stairs with the crutches tucked under an arm rather than feel trapped in a metal box again.

There was an entire row of more than a dozen handicap spots right in the front of Ben’s new luxury condo building. Sam usually left it parked in one of them, hoping to lure her brother into it again somehow.

As far as Ben knew, there was only one occupant who needed it because of her wheelchair. She was a rather nice woman in her late 30’s who lived four levels below him. Ben thinks her name was Susan...maybe. He was terrible with names but always remembered faces. His sister was the same, but just called everyone “Babe” to as a workaround, even with him.

Ben saw that his neighbor, maybe Susan, had parked in her preferred handicap spot right next to the ramp into the building. The rest were empty, meaning Ben’s sister and Hazel’s sibling Cob had yet to return.

“Is the store not just two of your blocks away from here? Could they not have just walked?” Hazel asked annoyed.

She still wasn't used to how quick a walk somewhere could be when she hitched a ride on Ben and guessed his older sister was nearly as fast. Sam wasn’t as big as Ben, but she wasn’t that much smaller.

Ben turned his head to look at Hazel perched on the wide expanse of his left shoulder. He could just make her out in his peripheral vision. If he took a second to really focus he could even make out her little features.

He was amazed by how strikingly beautiful she looked. Few of the human teachers that he had seemed like they could rival her knowledge looked like her. Although he guessed Hazel had a bit of an unfair advantage being over a hundred years old. She'd probably kill at trivia...except for any sports categories. But if she was on the same team as Sam, they'd be unstoppable.

Right now, Ben thought she looked annoyed. And sweaty. But he was too. Ben pinched the front of his tank top between two fingers and pulled it away from his body. He then did it again over and over so it started to flap. The flapping wafted cooler air up and down his body. When the air hit Hazel like a light breeze she smiled in grateful relief.

Ben felt a sense of accomplishment over the change in her face. He would leap on any chance he could get to make her more comfortable with him. Hopefully, this helped make up for his hand mistake earlier.

Ben pulled out his phone from the pocket in his shorts with his other hand to check his texts. He saw no missed calls or texts from his sister and only his several unanswered ones left. She always left him on “read.” Each text asked what was taking so long with increasing impatience.

“She probably ran into someone from work or they’re still out joyriding. You know Cob never turns down the chance to ride in a…”

Ben was about to say car, when he was interrupted by the familiar sound of his own pulling in faster than it should into the parking lot. Thankfully, the parking lot was almost always empty.

Out of the 50 plus units in the building, less than 10 had been bought so far leaving the rest of the building unoccupied. It meant there was lots of space in the parking lot, which Sam fully intended to really explore.

Ben and Hazel watched as Sam curved left then right, finally turning in a tight circle several times that left tire marks on the asphalt. Relieved from Ben’s shirt breeze, it was Hazel turn to see Ben be the one who looked annoyed for a change.

The car finally parked in one of the many handicap spots causing Ben to grumble in disapproval and shake Hazel’s whole body so much that her teeth chattered. Sam emerged then walked to open back of the car and pick up several large shopping bags in both hands.

“Oh that’s why…they went fucking shopping. Again. She was just there yesterday what could she possibly need now.” Ben said, agitated, still flapping his shirt for Hazel. In fact, he sped up the motion a bit making the artificial breeze sway Hazel’s clothes and hair.

Even from the 10th floor, Ben could tell Sam was wearing a bathing suit now. But she had left in shorts and a t-shirt. She was also wearing a wide brimmed straw hat like she was going to the beach. Hazel saw them now as well, but she could not tell where Cob was holding onto Sam. She guessed maybe the hat?

“Language!” Hazel said, lifting her leg to stomp a foot down on his shoulder in protest. Hazel thought she may never get used to the casual swearing of this generation of humans.

Ben only made another grumbling noise in acknowledgement, shaking her whole body up to the teeth again. He wondered how much of a bill she had run up on his credit card. Not that it mattered after the settlement, probably, but like the handicap parking it was the principle of it. Sam seemed to find excuses to buy all kinds of junk when it was his money.

Ben turned his body slowly away from the window and stopped flapping his shirt. The shirt breeze was replaced by the rustle of wind sweeping past his should as as he took long barefoot strides across the condo.

“Do you think they still want to go to the pool? That took longer than I thought it would.” Hazel asked him while peering over her shoulder at a clock on the wall in the kitchen.

She steadied herself, bending her knees slightly and swaying along with Ben as he walked. Her tail resumed swishing again, helping her keep her balance while he moved.

“Yea but would you and Cob really want to go down to the pool again?” Ben asked concern, sneaking a glance at her on his shoulder.

“I don’t love the idea of you just floating in a body of water that big or sitting on the ledge. One of those birds could get you.” Ben said ominously.

He walked over to his front door. On the wall next to it was a large monitor and several buttons. He pressed one button to buzz his sister into the building. She had his key and he didn’t need to do it, but pressing the button activated a camera that filled up the wall monitor with a view of the lobby.

Ben and Hazel saw her bounding up the flight of stairs in the lobby two at a time towards the elevators. She looked like the Grinch stealing Whoville’s Christmas presents in the night. 

“I could just get a big bowl and put some ice cubes in there for the two of you while Sam and I go down.” Ben offered thinking out loud.

Hazel’s annoyed expression returned. The idea of floating in one of his large, used popcorn bowls was more unappealing than continuing to sweat in the condo. Cob would probably love it though.

Ben unlocked the door while he spoke. Then he took a few steps back to rest his butt on the wide back of the sectional couch. The sectional took up most of the living room. He bought the biggest one they made so that Ben could lay on it fully outstretched wherever he wanted.

The movers who delivered it were expecting a place with lots of people or kids. Instead, they were shocked to see just one giant person on crutches who had to bend down so that he could see them under the top of the door frame. Ben couldn’t wait for them to finish and go. One of them was a big fan.

One half of the couch faced the tv while the other faced a wall of windows and the wide balcony after that. Ben crossed his arms over his chest, waiting on the back of the couch and facing the front door with the balcony behind him. He was trying to look as annoyed as he could muster. Hazel missed the breeze from his shirt. She hoped he may resume flapping his shirt to make it return.

“Thank you, but no I do not think I will be going popcorn swimming today. Do you not think that one of those large bags your sister is hauling up here contains some ingenious item that will allow Cob and I to fully enjoy the pool with the two of you.” Hazel asked with a sarcastic emphasis on “ingenious.”

Like the popcorn bowl idea she knew they often meant well. But Ben and Sam could often do or suggest things that were demeaning and patronizing for someone her age. It didn’t seem to bother Cob as much. Hopefully their tagging along and input helped Sam buy something that stood a chance of being useful.

If it wasn’t for Sam’s shopping trips, Ben’s new space would likely still be as empty and filled with echoes as when he first moved in. While Ben was annoyed by her spending, Hazel appreciated the clutter from Sam’s trips. Hazel loathes nothing more than clean, wide open spaces with nowhere to hide and no human objects to use for improvisation.

***

End Pt 1

[utilitycaster]

Hiya! After finishing the last episode of Downfall, i’ve seen this theory pop up quite a few times in the CR tag, what do you think of the fan theory that the kid the gods saved from Aeor’s destruction, Hallis, is Ludinus?

I personally think it’s very far-fetched and doesnt have anything to base itself on, but I’m wondering if I missed something during the watch that might lead some credence to it?

I didn't see anything that would lend credence to it; I've seen the theory and my attitude is "nothing really contradicts it except the timing, which is a complicated thing for several reasons, but nothing really supports it either, and I don't think it's especially interesting, so it's a total wash."

The precise timing of the fall of Aeor in relation to the length of the Calamity is unclear but prior to the reveal this was a century in to the Calamity, it was stated to have happened relatively early. Again, we know that unless Halas was lying or there's been a retcon, Zemniaz fell over 50 years after Aeor. Quite a number of known events in the Calamity haven't occurred, and the fact that this truce lasted decades rather than months also pushes back the timeline. In other words, I'd be surprised if Ludinus Da'leth were born early enough to have seen the fall of Aeor given that Matt has said he's still very young at the end of the Calamity. I certainly wouldn't rule it out, both for "elven ages provide considerable wiggle room for vague terminology" and "Matt is a great storyteller but math and precise timeline accuracy has historically not been his forte" reasons, but I don't think there's strong evidence in its favor either.

More generally it's a case of like...firstly, while Brennan is a very good GM and pulls off a number of excellent forced card trick moves against the players, notably in the final combat, someone saving Hallis wasn't a guarantee. It was certainly heavily seeded, but by no means promised. It's not like the Cognouza Ward where the GM can just say it happens. Secondly, and this is true of a lot of Ludinus Da'leth theories past and present, I think he becomes more impressive as a wizard if all he has achieved from Aeorian tech came without any first-hand experience of the city when it existed. I know I and many others have been dunking on him, because that's a fun thing to do with villains, but I do think "very intelligent person who, for very real reasons of trauma and anger has romanticized and bought into a mythos of Aeor that he never once experienced for himself" makes for a more compelling character than "lived in Aeor as a very young child". I feel especially given that Cassida was secretly religious and clearly had no shortage of issues with Aeorian priorities, even if he was young and ill, as an intelligent child he probably would have picked up on some small part of that. I also don't believe Cassida's race was given but it feels like a case where one might want to state on the record she was elven; it's hard to explain but the way she interacts and is described I do imagine her as human - she feels like someone born during the Calamity herself, someone who only has about 40-something years of life experience in Aeor's most totalitarian era. I get this is all very vibes-based, so again, I'm not ruling out the possibility, but there's nothing particularly strong or convincing about the theory other than "young boy during the Calamity."

[coraniaid]

I think there's something fascinating about the evolution of Darla as a character in the Buffyverse.

It's very common in the Buffy fandom to talk about the show almost as if it were fully planned out from the beginning or somehow emerged fully-formed one day in its entirety.  To analyze Season 1 episodes as if the writers had already decided on the Heart/Mind/Spirit symbolism of the core Scooby Gang; to act as though a Season 5 retcon means that Spike was really in love with Buffy as early as Season 3's Lovers Walk; to suggest the constant changes in how the show deals with soul lore or vampires as a metaphor must mean that Giles and the Council were 'really' lying or ignorant in the first few seasons; to wonder what the Watchers Council introduced in Season 3 were doing in the show's first two seasons; to insist you can't really understand Season 1 until you've finished Season 7.

And, look, I totally get the temptation to do that sort of thing.  It's unavoidable if you want to talk about the universe of the show as a real thing in its own right, or try to write fanfiction that takes every season seriously.  It can be a useful and interesting way of thinking about the show.  I've done it myself and will no doubt keep doing it.

But at the same time, it's very misleading if you want to think about the show as a constructed work of collaborative art: as a piece of fiction in constant conversation with itself, shaped and reshaped again and again over years by a team of different people.  Which, to be clear, is what it actually is.

The real show is almost a piece of improv or some sort of conjuring act, with the writers and actors constantly juggling with new ideas and twists without any time to worry about how exactly everything fits together. With some episodes reportedly being written in only a handful of days and lore being continually changed and ignored as fits the current demands of the plot.  Questions like "how does soul lore really work?" or "after Prophecy Girl who is the real Slayer anyway?" ultimately can't be answered, because there simply is no single truth to uncover.  It depends entirely on the current episode.

And I think the ever-changing character of Darla provides the best illustration of that reality.

In the original unaired pilot, Julie Benz plays an unnamed vampire who is nonetheless pretty easy to identify with the Darla we'll see in the show proper.  She has no links to Angel or Luke or the Master, because none of these characters even exist yet.  Just like in Welcome to the Hellmouth, she lures an unsuspecting victim into the high school after dark before vamping out and killing him, but by the end of the episode she is dead: gruesomely dispatched (or as gruesomely as the pilot's limited special effects budget allowed) after Willow douses her with holy water.

The two parter Welcome to the Hellmouth / The Harvest expands on her role slightly.  She has a name now, for one thing. She works for the Master, too, but she doesn't at all seem to be his favorite (she's very much subordinate to Luke in both these episodes), and there's no suggestion that she has any special connection to Angel.  (Unsurprisingly, as the show's writers hadn't even decided to make Angel a vampire at this point.)  And her ultimate fate at the end of this two-parter is unclear: just as in the pilot, Willow soaks her with holy water, and then she's ... gone?  Nobody mentions her again, she's not in scenes with the Master in later episodes which logically she should be. I'm pretty sure that, just like in the pilot, we're meant to assume she's dead.

But then Darla gets her first big break.  Angel is, it turns out, a vampire, and he needs some backstory to match.  Julie Benz obviously made a decent enough impression in the first couple of episodes, and nothing she did or said quite ruled her out as Angel's sire, and we never quite see her die. So suddenly she's back,  now the Master's favorite vampire, attacking Buffy's mother in her own home and sowing the seeds of mistrust between Buffy and Angel and ... oh, she's dead again.  Bummer.

Except then in Season 2 Angel's role expands again -- he's not just Buffy's intermittently seen vampire boyfriend anymore, he's the focus of the whole season and he's going to appear in all but one episode.  Of course, he's going to need more backstory (and we're all going to be treated to David Boreanaz's best Irish accent) so ... once again Darla rises from the ashes, albeit this time only in flashbacks.  And the Darla we see in Becoming's flashbacks is once again an evolution of the character we last saw in Season 1's  Angel.  More confident, more complex.  A character that it is honestly difficult to reconcile with the take on the character we saw last season, especially the one we swa in the show's first two episodes.

Anyway, Angel gets sent to hell in Season 2, but not before managing to (somehow) act his way into his own spin-off series.  And yes, that means more flashbacks, and more Darla, and more retcons about the precise nature of her relationship with the Master, but ultimately it means the writers decide to bring Darla back from the dead at the end of the spin-off's first season (for, depending on exactly you count it, arguably the fourth time, though only the first in-universe).  And this iteration of Darla -- both the human Darla we see in the beginning of Angel's second season, and the vampire she becomes again later that season -- is arguably the closest thing there is to a definitive take on the character.  This is the Darla people mean when they talk about her on the show.  Not the mid-level vampire of Welcome to the Hellmouth or the essentially single episode villain of Season 1's Angel, but the real deal.  Darla at her most complicated and rich and alive, a Darla whose history is hopelessly entangled with that of her on-again, off-again lover Angel, a character who provides the driving force for the spin-off show's greatest season.  A character who is, I think, one of the most  interesting to ever appear on that show.

Then the last few episodes of Season 2 completely drop Darla and all trace of the arc she introduced. When she reappears next season (in just a handful of episodes) it's so that her character can be written out of the show via mystical and impossible-by-the show's-previous-rules pregnancy in order for men to feel sad about it (but not for very long), and afterwards everything generally goes to shit.

But then, that tells you quite a lot about the Buffyverse and its creators as well.

[dreamsy990]

so 358/2 days, amiright? heres my thoughts

this game is just. god its an emotional rollarcoaster

i guess ill start with the things i dont like!! which is mostly the gameplay. i dont really mind the mission structure shockingly (i like being able to roam around but having a clear goal makes things easier for my adhd ass, and i think the miniature storylines are very good for the most part) but i simply could Not get into the combat. especially coming off of kh2 it feels so stiff and unfun to play the only part of the game where i enjoyed the combat was fighting riku at the very end. i think the panel system is okay but i dont like that levels take up space. why did they do that.

story-wise, i dont like the retcons!! a lot of the ones i take issue with are very minor but things like roxas only fighting riku once instead of the implied multiple times (even the dialogue doesnt make sense when you change that, why does roxas say 'how many times do i have to beat you' when theyve only fought once?) are the kinds of inconsistencies that just annoy me.

im also a little bit annoyed at the very concept of this game at all. i think roxas worked just fine as a character without this game. it feels sort of unnecessary in the grand scheme of things. also, xion. i love xion, dont get me wrong, but i dont think she adds anything to the series over all. thats not to say she doesnt add anything to this game because shes a great character and i love her, but shes just. kind of like this game in that if you got rid of her i dont think it would really change the narrative so much.

BUT DESPITE THAT ALL!!!!!!!! i fucking ADORE this game. it is genuinely so full of charm and soul that i just cant bring myself to dislike it. i think this is one of the best written games in terms of dialogue. every scene (at least for me) hit exactly as emotionally hard as i think it was meant to. i was laughing at demyx's antics and crying at xions death and yelling at saix and i think thats exactly how the game is meant to be seen.

days at its heart is a slice of life. its working a 9 to 5 its going through a depressive episode its losing friends its grieving its making fun of your coworkers its living. its a game about life and i love that.

this game really did make me forget that axel roxas and xion dont get a happy ending. i spent so much time looking forward to them making up that i forgot that roxas ran away. hell i almost forgot that xion died.

days is emotional and its story and its characters are just so fucking good. the conflicts all felt very real and you can tell exactly where everyones coming from. the way axel roxas and xion fall apart hits so fucking close to home. but god damnit if axel had any good communication skills like half of this could be avoided

its also one hell of a love letter to axel's character. hes always been one of my favorites (he recently earned first place) and i think this game does him a lot of justice. hes trying to do good. he wants to keep everything together he wants to be there for his friends he wants to make things right but he just cant. its just AUGH its so fucking good

that thing about axel's characterization really also applies to roxas. i dont have much to say about him beyond the fact that i think it does his character very well. also tism. hes so autism.

i kind of like the very limited graphics too. sue me i enjoy low quality games. the hands are not animated and they all have two expressions (blinking and not blinking) and their weapons are flat and im living for it. the very few fully animated cutscenes are good too!!

the (real, i dont count riku) final boss is unfortunately very easy. you can just stand directly in front of her and mash a she wont hit you its too easy but vector to the heavens did mess me up a bit. also earlier scene but "ill always be there to bring you back" with the other promise playing over it? fucked me up man. yoko shimomura is once again killing it

i cant believe roxas didnt get to go to the beach.

i have to give this game a 9/10. its writing is incredible but the gameplay could use a lot of work. its just not fun to play. but again the characters, emotions, and music all make up for that tenfold.

[writing-for-life]

Hi my dear, I hope you're doing well.

I've been thinking about TLOS (SPOILERS)

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and about Morpheus' "relationship" with Iris. I was shocked for a moment, but then I was like "ok".

What was it like writing this? Where did you get this idea from? It's a bit risky, but it's also amazing haha. Was it always Iris or did you think of other gods/creatures for this?

Haha, of course it’s risky, that’s how I roll 🤣

So in case people haven’t read The Light of Stars and don’t want any spoilers, this is the exit sign…

But first of all, I’ll give you Pierre Narcisse Guérin:

I mean, how could you not? 🤣

So that painting was somewhat of an inspiration. Morpheus and Iris have a short history, but they were never an item (who knows with Greek gods though, right? 😉).

Where to start? The easiest way in is probably authorial intent. I needed some hook to make Morpheus believe that Thalia was special in some way. Well, to him she is anyway, but as in, “Why can she transcend certain rules?” Of course everyone who read it until the end knows that nothing is quite as it seems, but that revelation comes fairly late, and up until then, we do believe this is a possibility. And that’s a way in, because if he has a past with Iris, it’ll of course make him think.

Then, I obviously very heavily played on Psyche in the Underworld before you-know-what happens. There are many parallels, many Easter Eggs peppered all over the story that people might only recognise in hindsight, or only if they know their Greek mythology fairly well and recognise the references to Aphrodite’s tests, but Thalia’s path is not unlike that of Psyche (and the butterfly references are also because of that of course). I can’t possibly pick out every reference now because I’d recount the whole novel, but there are many.

Now, what does Psyche have to do with Iris?

Eros fell in love with Psyche, that was obviously the whole reason for her eventually falling asleep (the Stygian sleep was brought on by opening Persephone’s box, and I just took the liberty to spin enough yarn to say that Hypnos/Morpheus/Dream has to be involved in that. Because—sleep 🤣). And generally, Eros is assumed to be the son of Aphrodite. BUT there are a few retellings that make him the son of Iris and Zephyros. And how utterly terrible would it be if

a) Iris had a child that she fears might not be Zephyros’ but Morpheus’? And she she then gave the boy away to Aphrodite to bring him up as her own so Zephyros wouldn’t find out?

b) That child was Eros, who later fell in love with Psyche, and Morpheus played a part in them nearly not getting together (all’s well that ends well of course) without knowing he nearly ruined the love life of his potential son (which is totally something that would happen, he’s just not very good with his kids 🙈).

c) Millenia later, Dream’s own mother uses this to play a slightly twisted game.

d) That c) was exacerbated by the fact that Iris had a twin called Arke who sided with the titans during the titanomachy and hence lost her wings. And I just turned her into Dusk, Night’s handmaiden. Bold move, don’t care, my fic, because it made sense for the premise 🤣

When I wrote TLoS, I probably already had plot bunnies for a The Pillars of Creation (the sequel) without intending to ever write it (that has obviously changed). Suffice it to say, and as people will probably expect from me 🙈, nothing is quite as it seems, and there will be many twists and turns, but it’s a good side plot for the bigger issues at hand.

That probably all sounds super complicated and like blasphemy for Greek mythology lovers, but the Greeks retconned their own gods and their stories so many times that I felt no shame to make it work for me. I just love playing around with Greek mythology, and it made a lot of sense if we assumed that some Greek gods were really aspects of the Endless. And that people only believed they were gods like [Hypnos/Thanatos/Teleute, Nyx etc] while others gods were truly separate beings.

And even without that background, the story still worked. I hope 🙈🤣

Because quite frankly: There’s also something that hearkens back to Eros and Psyche in Morpheus and Thalia themselves, and how their story ends (for now). In more than one way. IYKNYK 🖤

@morpheusbaby3 ask answered

[zahri-melitor]

the 'timelines aren't real' thing always bugs me because not only are timelines real, but despite the sliding timeline fudging things, dates and ages are pretty damn real within groups of characters. there is already a sensible post-crisis bat-timeline for people, with space to make small adjustments as needed.

sure there are some edge cases where any answer to "how many years ago was this" will have problems but you have to create the circumstances for that by like. writing interactions between characters from different corners of the universe who have been small children on-page in which you want to invoke specific details of the timeline. the canon only pokes you if you poke it first.

Yeah exactly. Especially if you're staying with a family, getting the timeline to arc up and cause problems takes some creativity or deliberate confounding of events within that timeline, or you are trying to shoehorn in things that have been made non-canonical by a retcon/reset and belong to two separate timelines.

You can move Barbara's age around, for instance, from 'same age as Dick' to '6-8 years older than Dick' depending on which period you're using. But the ORDER in which things happen to her and how that fits into the greater Bat timeline doesn't change.

And heck, even most of the big Bat retcons (like Jason's resurrection, Damian's conception, working out where to fit Duke's Zero Year history into Infinite Frontier history, how old Kate Kane is supposed to be, etc) can be pretty clearly hooked onto the scaffold of the other sections of the timeline. I can tell you exactly where you fit all of Jason's signpost markers to slot his story around actual events during the 90s and early 2000s, for instance.

At worst, most of the time, you have a little bit of leeway and give for things like "how do you have three Christmases in the same year" and other fudging for the fact that Bat comics run on an approximate 5 real years:1 comics year timeframe.

To really cause timeline shenanigans you need to, as you say, hook parts of canon that don't talk to each other up together, and there's very few of those you can easily trip over without knowing what you're doing. (I have been informed Green Lantern time runs faster than Bat time, for instance. I'm going to assume that's due to time dilation effects from all the space travel) Or mix canons together, like imposing n52 backstory events onto the main timeline, and even there we have several working methods to fit those in where needed.

[sixx-writes]

Do you write for cooler? If so, may i request yandere Cooler with fem human darling?

cw: noncon, yandere!cooler, f!reader, size difference, mind break(ish), dumbification, cunnilingus, big cock Summary: Cooler takes an interest in reader upon discovering that his brother is having relations with a human. (It’s the same reader from Desire but this can be read with or without reading Desire first). (also, yes anon, I hope Cooler gets a retcon like Broly did one day.. his design is too good for it not to happen dammit T_T)

Cooler discovered something truly unbelievable when going to speak with his brother leaving him unsure how to handle it. His initial response was apprehension, disgust, and then curiosity. It seemed that Frieza had reached sexual maturity at some point since his last visit and had chosen to copulate with a human. It was shocking because Frieza hated the Saiyans even more than he. They were practically the same species visually speaking (minus the tail) so Cooler was baffled as to why Frieza would bring himself down to such a level. Furthermore, Frieza was no longer in heat, yet Cooler could smell the scent of your recent copulation. No more than a few hours before his arrival. The other aliens onboard must know as well and that was why they gave you such a wide berth when they saw you coming. Although it seemed you yourself had no idea the effect you had on your fellow army members Cooler noted.

You were so distracted you didn't notice Cooler coming towards you and ran right into him bouncing off his muscular chest and colliding with the wall where you bounced off. Your eyes were wide with shock upon seeing Cooler's face, no doubt you had no idea Frieza even had a brother, and had never seen another like him until now. Frieza doesn’t exactly go out of his way to start conversations involving his older sibling after all. Cooler doesn't feel particularly angry with your clumsiness and doesn't miss the shameless once over you give him before your eyes nervously dart back up to his face. "S-Sorry," you mutter feeling your cheeks heat up. "I haven't seen you on the ship before," Cooler said, "what is your purpose here?" He's intentionally posed the question to make you uncomfortable and it works. He doesn't hide his smirk when your blush deepens no doubt thinking about what you and Frieza had been doing a little while ago. There are bruises on the insides of your thighs that have only just begun to fade and you try to close your legs discreetly, "I'm a mechanic. I take care of the wiring and ship repairs.." "I'm aware of what being a mechanic entails. Is that all?" Cooler's tail is thrashing behind him giving away how much he's enjoying your squirming. Your eyes widen, "Y-Yes?" Cooler is then called away to speak with Frieza leaving you confused and nearly in a panic. Frieza had forbade you from telling anyone what you and he had done, were still doing, yet it seemed that his brother knew exactly what was going on from the moment he laid eyes on you. While you knew practically nothing about Cooler what you did know was that the two siblings didn’t get along if the thick tension that filled the ship were any indication since Cooler’s arrival. If Frieza even suspected you had told his brother what was happening you couldn’t even begin to imagine the shit storm that would come your way. Little did you know that the storm was already building and it wouldn’t be coming from Frieza when it finally hit. Cooler had decided to stay close for a while much to his brother’s growing agitation which he often took out on your body for hours. You wondered why he even bothered telling you to conceal the truth when it was very obvious from how much time you were spending in the emperor’s quarters. The true danger you were in became apparent when Frieza was called away to deal with affairs on some planet that would most likely end up as dust and you were told to remain behind on the ship with Cooler. You had noticed his strange growing interest in you over the past weeks with the way he would initiate conversation in the moments you were alone and Frieza was indisposed unaware of what was happening. You’d thought of saying something more than once to Frieza but it also scared you to think of what might happen with so much animosity between the brothers already. They may just end up nuking the entire ship in a Ki explosion killing you and everyone onboard. “Why do you look so guilty I wonder?” You gasped at the sound of Cooler’s voice. You could never get used to how similar he sounded to Freiza yet somehow less effeminate and more commanding. He had approached without you noticing and you felt a swell of annoyance which you quickly buried, “I’m not guilty of anything, my Lord. If you’ll excuse me-” “What does my brother see in you? I simply can’t understand it.” You froze at the direct accusation before you could stop yourself. Cooler had never outwardly mentioned your ‘relationship’ with Frieza although it was obvious that he knew. “I have no idea what you mean,” you said almost keeping the tremor out of your voice. Cooler took a step closer, “I think you do, little human.” Your heart rate seemed to double as you ran through the possibilities of escape finding none. Cooler and Frieza held all the authority here and any attempt at asking for help from any of the other army members would mean death for them and you. You opened your mouth to speak and closed it again feeling something against your leg. Cooler’s tail was around your calf stroking against your bare skin. You couldn’t help the conditioned response to the contact feeling the faintest of flutters in your stomach. Cooler was tall in comparison to his younger brother in his base form and quite muscular so it wasn’t as if he were unappealing to look at. Cooler could see you respond to him when he had barely even touched you and he smiled, “I would like to understand. Wouldn’t you like that too?” Too late you tried to speak your denial but his tail moved higher around your thigh dangerously close to grazing your covered sex. When had he gotten so close? He was towering over you, his presence filling the entire room, the entire ship reduced to the tiny space the two of you occupied. An isolated room that served as your work quarters with all of your tools inside and also away from everyone else. None of the others had any reason to come and interrupt whatever Cooler had in mind for you. You were dizzy that not only Frieza had taken a sexual interest in you but now Cooler as well. You had thought his intentions were to use your activities together to shame his brother somehow. Now you weren’t so sure. Now you were terrified of the repercussions if Frieza found out; which he certainly would given how quickly Cooler had caught on. What you didn’t know was the depths of Cooler’s interest in you. It had twisted into something dark and covetous, obsession that even he would never admit, and that was why he had orchestrated this entire situation. The two of you alone on Frieza’s ship at last so that he could relieve himself of these urges once and for all. This curiosity as he called it. Just the scent of your wet cunt defiled by Frieza’s cum had driven him into nearly taking you more than once to show you what being fucked really meant for one of his kind. Frieza was immature and lacked experience to the point that he shoved his cock into anything just to relieve his first heat proved as much. You were wavering, trembling with fear, “I-I.. we shouldn’t, my Lord.” “You would refuse?” The grip on your thigh tightened and you hissed through your teeth. Cooler’s put on smile turned sinister making your insides drop. You didn’t actually have a choice in anything you knew. While Cooler was less barbaric than Frieza towards his own men he was still cruel in his own way. “That is unfortunate,” he said, “that you are more afraid of my brother than you are of me.” “Wait-!” Cooler’s tail drags along your dampened sex and you gasp when his hand closes around your throat pinning you against the wall in a singular movement. You want to plead for him not to but your air is cut off and it only intensifies the stimulation at your swelling nether lips. With his other hand Cooler tears off your armor to expose the shape of your body to him leaving nothing hidden with the under layer’s tight fit. There are already frustrated tears bubbling in your eyes as he exposes your breasts to his lustful gaze. Cooler told himself that he would take his time with you for this and not act like a fumbling virgin as Frieza most likely had rushing things too quickly. However, the growing scent of your arousal and the sight of your nude body causes those inhibitions to falter. While he was older and more experienced it seemed he had underestimated the appeal of  the human form, or you in particular. He studies your face tearing his attention away from your hardened nipples burning your expression into his memory. You look absolutely wrecked already when he hasn’t even gotten started yet. You’re so responsive to everything that he does it’s unbelievably addictive toying with your body. He presses harder against your cunt and you let out a choked moan. He pinches a nipple roughly and your eyes roll back. All of these things are nearly maddening to witness after abstaining from touching you for so long. Cooler’s slit begins to swell and part from his cock growing too engorged to remain confined within it’s fleshy walls. You notice this and your attention drops to watch it emerging. Only partway out and it’s already nearly as thick as Frieza’s cock in his second form. Images of the first day come back to you remembering how it had felt having a cock that size inside you and you couldn’t help but salivate with anticipation. Cooler is smiling down at you with a psychotic glint in his eye from your reaction. He knows that he is more impressive than his brother in every way and he will savor the moment you know the feeling of his cock. You would only think of Cooler after this any time Frieza tried to fuck you. He would make sure of it. Cooler snaps the crotch of your armor in two without a thought and you whine knowing that you’ll have to return to your private quarters like this afterwards. The grip on your throat lets up slightly when his fingers slide along your folds spreading your wetness. Your desperate sigh betrays you showing where you’re most sensitive and he focuses there rubbing and circling at your clit. “Here, isn’t it?” he purrs, “You aren’t putting up much effort to resist me. Could it be that you wanted this all along? Hmm?” You don’t get the chance to answer before his fingers are gone from your clit and plunging inside you. A gut punched noise slips out from the sudden intrusion of your hole and your breathing goes uneven when he strokes against your spot purposefully. Cooler already understands how to touch you on some level and it’s disorienting in comparison to what it was like with Frieza. “As I thought,” he said smugly, continuing to stroke upwards. A continuous string of quiet mewls are leaking past your lips and you allow your eyes to drift closed fully immersing yourself in the sensations. In another unexpected twist Cooler’s mouth is suddenly against your own, his tongue invading your parted lips the instant your attention drifted. You had no idea if they even understood the concept of kissing (until now) but your brain was turning to absolute mush with the way his tongue and fingers were working in tandem to violate your body. The inside of his mouth was cool like every other part of him and it was such an odd sensation like kissing a corpse. Or what you assumed kissing a corpse would be like. Cooler on the other hand reveled in your warmth, the heat of your tongue against his own driving him into a feverish need to taste you everywhere. In an instant you were flung back onto the table, sending assorted spools of wire and tools flying, spread wide open and left empty with Cooler’s fingers gone from your cunt. He was standing between your legs, fully erect, staring at your exposed insides seeing how tendrils of your nectar collected there. The scent of you was maddening and Cooler could only imagine that your taste would be even better. So there is no hesitation when he lowers himself bringing his face to your cunt.

Now Cooler is the one salivating for what is to come next, his cock almost painfully hard from the sensory overload. “What..? Ah-!”

First, he had kissed you and now, now he was.. Fucking hell. His tongue was very thick and dexterous in it’s collection of your arousal starting from your outer lips and then plunging inside you. He rolls it against your cunt walls so deeply that you can feel the tip brush your cervix. You’re like a woman possessed, arching and sobbing against Cooler’s face, incoherent nonsense spilling past your lips. Kami, if you aren’t the most responsive little thing he’s ever tasted. Cooler simply can’t get enough of your cries and noises swallowing down every bit of your come when you clench around his tongue in no time at all. His tail is alternating between the soft globes of your breasts stroking and playing with your nipples sending pleasurable chills all over your body. Your clit is overly sensitive yet you already felt another orgasm on the horizon from the way his tongue expertly undulated inside you against that spongy patch. Cooler must have known too from the way you were tensing and worked harder to drag you the rest of the way to your peak. You were practically sobbing from the intensity when you came the second time in under a minute and Cooler hummed in approval. You had barely come down from your high when Cooler’s hands were on your thighs and his thick cock was lining up at your puffy entrance. His intense crimson gaze was terrifying; as if he quite literally wanted to devour you until there was nothing left. This wasn’t entirely inaccurate. Cooler’s decision to sate his curiosity had only served to further ignite his obsession for you. He had expected to be disappointed by the experience but you had exceeded this in every way. The ridges of your cunt around his cock were exquisite with the way it felt as if you were sucking him in even while your body could barely take his size was irresistible.  “L-Lord Cooler, please, I can’t,” you babbled while he forced his way deeper inside. Despite his body’s natural lubrication combined with his saliva and your own come the pressure in your cunt was almost unbearable.  The head of Cooler’s cock was much fatter than you were used to and it had you drooling with unhinged bliss. “How is it? Much better than my foolish little brother’s, wouldn’t you say?” Cooler sneered feeling you clench around him. “Feels.. aha..,” you tried to answer but Cooler pressed the last couple of inches so that his hips sat flush against your body. You arched off the table violently, causing it to slide across the floor. You were so impossibly full that you couldn’t think straight, your eyes going unfocused where you stared up at the ceiling. Cooler wasn’t having this; he would make you remember his face so that you would never forget this moment. “Look at me,” he commanded, rolling his hips to get your attention. It took a monumental effort but you somehow managed to bring your teary eyed gaze back to the tall alien glaring down at you. Cooler began to move inside you and you whined struggling to take it. “Don’t look away.” It was then that he fucked you, not merely stretching you out any longer to accommodate him, his need to fill you with his seed could no longer be ignored. You were afraid but also overcome with carnal pleasure near to adoration for what he gave you. For what only he could give you. This was what he wanted to see from you, your mind and body filled with only him, and he grinned wickedly. Your cunt welcomed Cooler eagerly now coating his cock in your creamy surrender on every thrust. The table scraped noisily every time his hips connected with your ass drowning out the choked noises you were making. You were completely lost unable to think about anything other than the feeling of Cooler’s cock bottoming out inside you and he couldn’t help the dark chuckle that slipped out. Your pussy was truly exquisite surrounding him in molten heat and wet muscles that rhythmically milked his cock encouraging him to give it to you harder. When you orgasmed it was pure insanity that struck you like a hurricaine causing you to clench so violently around him he had no choice but to follow with a snarl. His come leaked from your over-stretched hole pooling on the table and further ruining the tatters of your uniform left practically a belt by this point. After this you would never be the same, Cooler could see it in your face, you were ruined only for him now.  Perhaps when he and his brother parted ways he wouldn’t be the only one leaving Frieza’s ship.

[soulfulazrael]

Who am I and what I write. The tale of a weird as all Hell fanfic I put too much time into about an odd ship.

So... If anyone here cares I am a Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss fanfic writer (and I am 23/24 year old. Depressing isn't it?). Although I can't exactly call myself the biggest fan anymore. I do love the potential those series have and the ideas in them, but I am not a nut over the execution. In fact I say it is pretty bad in many respects and I think Viv and her writing team do not utilize the full potential of what they have on their hands.

What I want to do is well... Do something I would prefer this world they created to be. So I make several odd as hell Fics. Or at least one now. As you can see from the image about Stella and Moxxie (art btw is made by talented @Caffe1neW1tch on twitter). Now I know, I KNOW how she is in the show... I can explain my case. I do change her character quite significantly from what she is in canon show (as I do so with MANY other things). To something I would prefer her to be. Something while still deeply flawed being more dignified than what she is in Helluva Boss season 2 as I think the direction they took her character was severely disappointing. I can't say they retconned her, but I have to say they went overboard with the direction she was taken. Way too far into just pure Hate Sink. Something I would prefer if it wasn't done at all with a character tied to such a potentially interesting conflict.

Not to mention the direction Vivienne took the world of Hell and it's characters... I must say. I do not enjoy how easy it is to say who is good and bad in both of her shows and how similar Hell is to Earth. It honestly robs the setting of it's potential as it is perfect place to explore some deeply disturbing characters with interesting alien mindsets and their own unique conflicts as it is hard to grasp who are you supposed to root for in the end. But both Hazbin and Helluva greatly miss the mark on that front as every character is either without a shadow of a doubt a good guy (that at most cries, swears and likes to tell sex jokes because I guess that's enough to say character has depth these days) or are so cartoonishly evil and stupid they make Team Rocket look competent and make Micah from RDR2 and Erebus from 40k say "THAT'S NOT SUBTLE ENOUGH!". Not to mention how similar so many of her characters are and how limited their interactions are, the treatment of Heaven, the confusing character arcs... You know what. Issues with both Hazbin and Helluva are too many to count, too many for this post, but I also say they are not TERRIBLE shows, they are just shows that disappoint me at every step for the last few years.

And now I get to the crux of this elongated point. Again. I'm writing fics and one of them is Song for the Quiet Bird. A fic I say is best to read on a site AO3 (but it is also on Fanfic site if it's up to your speed) where I try to explore hell in more meaningful ways and make their culture more unique while telling a story of a very strange ship which is Stella and Moxxie. And do not worry, I am not going on any "Millie is dead" kind of cop out. I am into doing things in an easy way. And here is the link to it:

I also make another fic called Torments of Sinners and Imps which you may find on my profile as well which delves more into Angel and Moxxie, but that one for now is on a break. In a way Song is too, but I do hope I'll post a chapter for that one soon (personal issues and family issues).

Alright, if anyone is interested or sees this post I hope that you will enjoy my take on this series. Will post something more here? I dunno. Maybe? But anyway I just want more people to see it and maybe give their opinion on it which is what I always want to hear.

And I may post more things about what I do not enjoy in those shows and how I think they could be fixed. Talking about several things in both shows that irk me the wrong way.

Also given how deeply I go into the worldbuilding in my fics I may also post some stuff about how I made some things work there and things about culture of Hell I came up with and mythology there... Or maybe just talk about some philosophical mumbo jumbo that I sometimes think of. But whether or not I do it, especially consistently will be another story. If anyone sees this, thanks for sticking around. If anyone is interested in my works or opinions share your thoughts. If anyone hates my guts for the things I write about and my opinions of these series... Can't say I am surprised some people do hate those. You are free to share your discontent too. I welcome all voices. At least until they make my head hurt, then I just take a nap.

Anyway. I rambled for long enough. Again check out the fic if you are interested. Wont force you. If you do so leave a comment which is the most important thing for me when I write something. Hearing what people like and don't like. Have a good one and I hope you enjoy yourself. If not with my story then in your life whoever you are (as long as you are not a total POS).

[botanicalcanopus]

so like what denizens do you think the beta trolls have [no dupes with the humans except for echidna, and i'm reasonably sure gamzee had yaldabaoth on account of his connection to english]

I mainly stayed in the Greek/Roman side due to how much more I know about them and the trends of that pantheon being more often used. My takes for zero(ish) repeats:

Aradia: Atropos => The deity who cuts the thread of life and works with her sisters to help determine the natural lifespan of a mortal. Chosen because of Aradia's short life as well as her ability to commune with the dead.

Tavros: Aeolus => A ruler of winds that aided both gods and mortals. Chosen for Tavros as he seemingly is weak and has some very easy to blow through nervousness that becomes steadfast and eager like strong winds that Aeolus controlled.

Sollux: Thanatos => The god and one personification of death. Also a twin to Hypnos.

Karkat: Styx => Goddess of the River Styx, oaths, and another death deity. She specifically was used a form of swearing on something as she was vengeful and any oaths promised/swore under her name were guaranteed to be upheld or there would be extreme consequences.

Nepeta: Anteros => God of requited love. Should be pretty obvious due to her love of shipping but also related to her unrequited love she sadly deals with. Hopefully Anteros can give her some peace over that.

Kanaya: Echidna (as stated in the ask)

Terezi: Mnemosyne => Goddess of wisdom but specifically memories. I put her with Terezi due to how Terezi's looking to the past is part of her personality. I mean this in the sense of both ability to help retcon things as well as her trials she would hold relief on witnesses testifying what they remember

Vriska: Cetus (in the actual story)/Eos (my choice) => Goddess of the dawn who delivers light. Also known to have many desires that she acts upon without others consideration and is known to be a bit selfish. I think a brat dealing with a brat would be fun as a denizen challenge for Vriska.

Equius: Harpocrates => Greek rendition of Horus that is deity over secrets and silence. Pretty obvious void connection but also pulls on Equius's land which was the Land of Caves and Silence

Gamzee: Yaldabaoth (as stated in the ask), but I'd also agree with it

Eridan: Zelus => God of eagerness, jealousy, and the root of the word zeal. He is also one of the few gods assigned to be under Zeus and sees that his command is done. I think jealous and zealous can sum up the positive and negative traits of Eridan.

Feferi: Hera => The Goddess of marriage, women, family, and main wife of Zeus. This is more a reference to the Peixes lineage, as it is matriarchal, the leader of the troll race, long-lived, and all about royalty. I think Hera and Fef would butt heads and the presented Choice would be interesting.

[princess-of-the-corner]

the villain competency thing was something I was thinking about recently like. at least with Gabriel we have the whole kids vs adults, new generation vs old generation type thing and we didn't know much about him other than he was bad. additionally, since he was Adrien's dad, he had a control over him even without the sentinonsense. he posed a threat on both sides of the fight.

With Chloe and Lila, we were given them as civilians except they've made one so stupid that she's become an illiterate puppet scapegoat and the other can't even lie well without making other actually established smart people stupid enough to fall for it. And yeah they tossed in that bs with her fooling three separate adult women but like, idk i feel like that says more about them being incredibly negligent parents than it does about her cause is she just doing it for fun? what's that got to do with our heroes at this point in time? what's it show besides the fact that rather than making Lila actually great at manipulation you decide to show her manipulation by giving us scenes of something more "horrible" than her lying about knowing celebrities to a bunch of high school kids.

so if they decide to make this dumb blonde and plot armor liar our Big Villains from this point forward, they've got their work cut out for them. Like they're gonna keep retconning shit so it doesn't actually matter but if they cared at all about continuity then they can't make Lila the main lead villain without making her or the miraculous team look useless. If they're going with the callback to whatever scared her at the end of season 5 and have that help her be the main villain then damn she couldn't even do the evil shit herself huh? and if it's mainly just her and the akumas then high chance they'll toss in the heroes and have them be just as dumb as when they were around her at school. but then it'd be "why did Marinette give miraculouses to such pathetic heroes?" in the same vein of "wow the class was stupid enough to believe Lila's shitty lies" and it wouldn't even be their fault, it would be because they keep giving Lila plot armor. at the very least, the fact that Gabriel just kept doing the same thing over and over and kept losing was because that was established before they decided to be more story driven.

Chloe can't be smart. Austruc would absolutely refuse. so then you run into the same problem again except this villain is easy to beat and if you're all going against her at once then you're all the bullies at that point tbh. but also like, 18 vs 1?? gross. And she wouldn't even be a fun villain if she was stupid either. nowhere near Team Rocket levels of amusing cause at least they were their own characters. if they decide to make her a senti, it'll be bad either way cause they're def not gonna add any nuance to that. if they decide to make her good (highly highly highly doubt), it's going to be like those fics where Chloé has to go through so much shit as "punishment" that she's basically going deeper than the rock bottom of being literally abandoned by her dad and being abused by her mom that it's still a salt fic no matter how you spin what side she's on.

it's just like, the worst of characterizations of these characters and you picked every single bad story thread/end of each story arc of the past few seasons and it's a mess i don't have confidence in their writing to fix. but considering the writers' (specifically Austruc tbh) tendency to "we do what we want when we feel like we need to" attitudes to plot (side eyes that tweet about timeline) then highly doubt they'll even touch on old shit cause, as said by a different tweet, the Agreste Family Arc is over. they're def just gonna move on.

Yeah it's a mess

[mikansei]

i got tagged by @bleachbleachbleach! hello 👁️👁️

5 things you can talk about for hours without preparing any material:

well. obviously an awful lot of aspects of bleach qualify, lmao.

1:

i love digging into the underpinnings of systems like kidou (why do they call out the numbers? are the numbers part of the incantations? are they part of the actual spells themselves? who numbered them? who created them?), zanpakutou (what does it mean that so few shinigami have zanpakutou spirits whose gender is opposite their own? does it signify something in particular? does society in-universe believe it signifies something in particular?), the ins & outs of how Soul Society, the material world and Hueco Mundo connect to each other (is SS superimposed directly over the earth of the human world, like the Wandenreich was hidden "in" SS, or is it in a physically different place? what does it mean that HM is "between" the human world and soul society? why is HM's moon "in the opposite lunar phase" to the human world's??? WHY IS THE MOON BACKWARDS KUBO 😫)

2:

a particular subset of that is trying to figure out how soul biology works. reiryoku is energy that can be utilized by the soul; we know what produces and regulates the energy, the hakusui (soul sleep) and saketsu (chain binding), which exist at physical points in the body, if not as discrete organs. how does reiryoku circulate? is it analogous to Quincies' blut vene/arterie? are there spiritual blood vessels? nerves? meridians? what's with the "reiatsu vents" that were mentioned in relation to 1 (one) singular kidou spell and then never again??? (i'm imagining them like the pinhole punched thru thermos lids - they have a small but very important job, b/c if they're not there, Shit Don't Work Right)

3:

also obviously, my Blorbo Of All Time, Kisuke 💚🤍💚🤍💚 (the rest of this is under a cut b/c i am SUPER DUPER NOT KIDDING about being able to talk for hours lmao)

there are precious few lines in canon that address Kisuke's backstory pre-TBTP arc, and fleshing out how he and Tessai came to be at Shihouin manor is certainly not an unpopular theme in headcanon and fanworks, but i fear i may have taken it to a very OTT level...

like, ok, listen. listen. if he was from rukongai (a common HC), most people there aren't really from rukongai, they're from the human world, right? so where was he from that he was platinum blond in Ghost Japan? obviously the easy answer is that people from all over the world end up in rukongai indiscriminately - but that wasn't as fun as deciding he was the son of Portuguese traders in Nagasaki during the tail end of the Sengoku era, and during the lead-up to the Edo era's isolationist policies, he was killed and subsequently wound up in rukongai. is that extremely convoluted YES, did that deter me in any way NO. i could not, though, find much information on what the Nagasaki dialect may have sounded like in the late 1500s, which i looked into even tho the fic i'm writing will be in English, not Japanese, and CERTAINLY not late medieval Japanese.

(i also looked up what the imperial era names would've been then even tho they're not going to feature in the fic in any way, shape or form. Tenshou, Bunroku and Keichou, btw. this is taking up valuable space in my brain right next to the permanently-memorized-since-2002 lyrics to Hamasaki Ayumi's Dearest)

4:

FINALLY getting out of the worldbuilding and backstory morass into actual canon events(!!) - i could also talk for hours about Kisuke's motivation and reasoning behind early canon's Hougyoku Plot™ (keeping in mind that it's likely just an artifact of kubo's plot swerve at the end of the SS arc, where he'd probably started out intending Kisuke to be a villain in league with Aizen, and the late retcon meant Kisuke's actions no longer made any damn sense.)

anyway, my favorite element of canon here to play with is that most of what we know about it comes from Aizen's dialogue at the end of the SS arc. so what if Aizen wasn't being strictly truthful? even if he wasn't outright lying, he certainly could've spun things to sound much different, much worse, than they really were - and, of course, in ways that would make Kisuke sound terrible if he tried to explain himself and his actions. maybe stashing the hougyoku in Rukia's soul was never meant to be permanent (he invented the only non-fatal method of removing it himself, after all); it was just a way to keep it close to Ichigo, to awaken & evolve his powers, but still concealed. maybe Rukia's gigai was never meant to turn her fully human (he would recognize the name Kuchiki and know she'd be missed were she to disappear); it simply used a similar composition to Isshin's gigai, so that a shinigami soul with a "dose" of human would balance out Ichigo's hollow.

that leaves room for Kisuke to have still been using Rukia and Ichigo like pawns on a chessboard, so it's not like he's totally innocent and absolved of guilt - but it makes him guilty in a way that both 1. patches the plothole and 2. makes Aizen even more petty, spiteful and dickish, which is delightful to me. it also leaves room for Rukia's powers not coming back after she transferred them to Ichigo to be because of the hougyoku's influence instead of gigai tampering - subconsciously, she wanted to stay in the world of the living, and she knew she could only do that while Ichigo was still taking on her shinigami duties. the consequence of a magical wishing stone that grants desires is that it doesn't only grant the desires you consciously voice (which is ALSO delightful to me).

5:

i love finding ways to explain Kisuke's Weirdness. like, sure, maybe he's just a weird person - but with the power of projection on my side, he, too, can be ADHD and maybe autistic! has trouble making eye contact, so he wears his hair in a way that lets him hide his eyes, and starts wearing a hat and using the fan to hide his face even further! Only One Outfit Syndrome isn't just an artifact of the episodic visual medium, it's because he's so particular about the types and cuts of fabric he wears! his favorite food is plain white rice and his dislikes are "too many to list," for heaven's sake! he just like me fr!!!

as a rukongai street rat transplanted into one of the most prominent noble households in all Soul Society, i can only imagine he and Tessai adopted their default polite modes of speech under relative duress - if they were ever found to be out of line, the "proper" nobles (obviously barring Yoruichi, who wouldn't give a fuck) wouldn't hesitate to put them in their place. in Tessai this evolved into pure formality; in Kisuke it evolved into a mild, polite register that he pointedly refused to make any more or less formal - a.k.a. "just polite enough to piss everyone off" lmao.

also on the subject of speech, i found out where Kisuke's "atashi" comes from!! it's shitamachi ("lower city") dialect, the old working-class dialect of Edo/Tokyo. in TBTP he still says "boku," so he picked it up only after he and the Visored came to the human world (Karakura is supposed to be somewhere nearish to Tokyo) and set up the shouten. as far as i can tell, "atashi" is the only aspect of that dialect that Kisuke uses - other more common aspects, like turning the ending vowel sounds of adjectives into -ee or -ii sounds ("urusai" -> "urusee", "warui" -> "warii", etc.), are actually used in Ichigo's speech to make him sound like a delinquent tough-guy shonen protag, lol. how and when "atashi" went from working-class street hawkers' slang to a feminine pronoun used almost exclusively by young girls, i have no fucking idea lmao... (also i have no idea if canon bears this out in their dialect, but the Ishidas are totally yamanote in contrast, right?? high-class, well-to-do, prim and proper, Old Money™, etc etc - they gotta be!)

one more thing and then i'll actually end this post jdfksjdf but! years ago i saw a post from @saranel about why, at the beginning of the arrancar arc, Kisuke talked about the Visored to Isshin as if he didn't know them that well. obviously the most likely explanation is "kubo hadn't finalized their backstory at that point yet" lol, but filling in doylist plotholes with watsonian pavement is part of what makes fandom fun! and her theory (i can't find the post 😭 sorry) was that Kisuke'd had a falling out with the Visored at some point during their exile - probably, given the Visored's initial animosity toward shinigami, regarding Kisuke using the shop to help the shinigami in Karakura. this is SUPER juicy to me, because i can imagine how shinji, hiyori etc. would've taken it as a betrayal, a backstabbing, from one of the few people in their world they thought they could trust - and how kisuke never, ever intended it that way, probably didn't anticipate it could be taken that way at all, he was just trying to help out - everyone involved is walking away from that confrontation emotionally scraped raw and bleeding, and i am LIVING for it 🥰

i don't have a good conclusion here so uhh. if u read this far pls have a gold star for putting up with my rambling ⭐