#and maybe annie too for experiment purposes

[im-totally-not-an-alien-2]

Halloween prompts year 2 day 17

A supervillian had captured a supernatural creature in some kind of device, the entity in question looked like a white haired teen from what they could see of him in the glass sphere he was enclosed in.

The villian was monologing about how they would use the creatures sacred powers to resurrect some evil gods or whatever when the heros intervened knocking him away and accidentally started the machine.

The teen screamed as electricity flowed through his body. Tim ran to him searching for a way to turn off the machine when his hand touched the outside of the sphere.

Unbeknownst to the heros, the machine required a piece of whoever was dead to revive them, it could be hair, blood, bone or even...a memory

That was how Tim, as Robin (or Red Robin whoever you prefer) found himself holding not his mom or dad or anyone you might have expected.

No.

He was holding someone he never thought he'd see again. Someone who didn't even think she was real. Someone who was marveling at her new body made of flesh and blood

Annie.

[enticingmelanin]

Back from seeing Sinners for the third time. I really feel like I need to do a full breakdown of my thoughts.

This time around, I really honed in on the environmental sounds. The sound design is chef’s kiss. You FEEL like you're in Clarksdale, Mississippi, right there with them. It’s not only beautifully shot, it sounds beautiful AF. Ugh! I could keep watching forever.

Okay… I wasn’t too hard on Grace the first time I saw the film, but on this second and third watch? Nah. She wasn’t a real friend to the Black characters like Bo was. When she was negotiating with Smoke about the signs, notice how Bo mentions they only have red paint, and we KNOW the color red carries heavy risks and connotations. Then once Stack is killed, Bo wants to help, but Grace is basically begging him to grab the car and bounce. Like, “Fuck them.” Meanwhile, everyone else was looking out for her and Bo. And don’t get me started on Lisa. What Grace did left that poor girl an orphan… or worse.

It really reinforces the point that other communities often want to experience Black culture, but will drop us in a heartbeat—even if it ends up hurting them too. Cough this last election cough.

And THEN when Annie tells them they’re vampires and Remmick threatens her, suddenly Grace wants us to fight for her. Like… what?? As if everybody else in that room isn’t just as important. Once again, we’re expected to fight the good fight, sacrifice ourselves for others, and it’s rarely, if ever, returned. Yes, I said never. Because it’s not a critical mass of other communities showing up for us. It’s a handful, in the grand scheme of things.

Most of the characters were selfish... except Annie, Smoke, and Delta Slim. I would say Cornbread and Bo, but once they turned, they were lost and bloodthirsty. But even that could’ve been controlled, Stack didn’t go after Sammie, remember? I don't include Sammie in this critique, he did what he was supposed to do to fulfill his purpose in life.

Annie, Smoke, and Slim did what they were supposed to do. They looked out for each other until the very end. All three of them sacrificed themselves and helped others. You can tell how much Stack loved Annie and vice versa. He could’ve let her turn and joined her, but he respected her wishes. Annie was always protecting the twins, states between them stopped nothing. She passed on all that knowledge so they could survive. Delta Slim? That man kept his word. He sliced his arm open as a distraction so the others could escape. He lived a hard life and drowned his pain in alcohol, but he died a hero.

Now, back to my favorite theory… Stack having a thing for Annie. 😏 I was locked in on that moment when he bit her. He bites her, pauses, and then bites again. It felt like he had waited forever to “taste” her. This time, he beat his brother to it with Annie, even if it meant killing or turning her. I think Stack wanted her. Maybe he even noticed her first back in the day, but she was drawn to Smoke instead. Her spiritual, empathetic side was pulled to him, probably because Stack doesn’t show emotions the way Smoke does. There was definitely a wedge at some point, but they got past it. They’re twins; they love each other, even when it’s complicated.

I honestly don’t think there’ll ever be a time when this movie doesn’t make me emotional. It’s like a bittersweet, tragic dream come true. The White “savior” complex of Remmick and Mary completely wrecked everything. And no... I’m not changing my mind about Mary. I was more lenient on first watch, but she kept putting Stack and the whole community in danger. I get the “one-drop rule” and how it worked back then, but she still passed for White, and that put everyone at risk. One glance and a White person could’ve ended Stack right there. Delta Slim’s story about his friend being lynched over a lie involving a White woman? That sealed it.

Stack told her to leave him alone. He tried to push her away to protect her. But she defied him every chance she got, and other people paid the price. I get that she loved him, but he gave her every fair reason why they wouldn’t work. I’m not thrilled about them being the last ones together as vamps. Stack especially deserved peace, maybe even to reunite with his family in the afterlife. But I guess part of him felt like he couldn’t leave her behind in case she didn’t make it to the other side.

I could talk about this movie for hours, but I’ll stop here. Again… clean sweep come award season OR ELSE! 😏😍

[sirsealery]

mentioned this a bit at the bottom of some comment thread in one of my hunger games fics and figured i might expand on it a bit here? to see what other people have to say, i think. sotr spoilers !!

fyi im wearing a homemade lorax costume right now as im typing this. happy world book day!

so, anyways, i wanna talk about the careers. i wouldnt call myself a career fan or lover, and frankly i dont have much love for any of the careers in the series, especially in the first book and sotr. the only exceptions are finnick and annie (and i suppose mags? is she a career?) because theyre written as actual people. which leads me to my first point, which is that so often, theyre just so cartoonishly evil. they remind me so much of those disney channel bullies but take it up a notch. they kill people instead of shoving them into lockers or flushing their face in the toilet. but like with the same energy and the annoying jock voice you know what i mean?? lmao

and i mean i get it. in the first book theyre like the main antagonists and we're not spending more than a couple of pages with them, so they dont need to be all that fleshed out. which is totally fine, i dont care, but in some of the other books? in sunrise, where silka is actively trying to be humanized? to me, it fell very, very flat. i felt absolutely nothing reading about her eat chocolate and cry at the foot of the tree. and panache being a cato 2.0 kind of annoyed me. i get it! dumb brutes exist, but how are there so many of them? i dont think ive ever met a single person like this. ever. i dont know though, maybe my experience isnt universal. maybe in other parts of the world there are plenty of laughably stupid hunks. basically all of the careers are complete idiots, just running around and stabbing babies.

okay now what i really wanted to talk about after ranting a bit. sorry gang. i wanna talk about how sad the career existence is. i mean, theyre needlessly brutal and mean. but they were also raised this way? id love for someone more articulate than me to talk about this too. i had a thought a while ago kinda comparing the careers to like .. the people who peaked in high school? id love to have an exploration of the career experience, either an essay or fanfiction (lmk if theres any youve found !!) cuz like .. of course youre bringing honor and glory not only to yourself but also your whole district, patriotism and all that. but i wonder if its still the same once you start killing kids? i mean its basically a given that theyre pretty desensitized to violence, gore and death at the point where they volunteer for the games, but i dont think its quite the same when youre actually like .. doing it??

and when you go home, youre celebrated and praised, but only like until someone new wins, which is next year. and theres gonna be the trauma of the games and potentially life altering injuries and while in the other districts theres some kind of sympathy for victors, but since in the career districts they idolize it, theres not really any/as much i think?? i imagine itd be really weird to work your whole life, achieve your goals, and then come to the realization that you basically have no purpose now but to watch kids under your care die and hope that at least one of them will survive. i wonder if thats why some of the careers in catching fire were so eager to rejoin the games? since its all theyre known for and theyve had nothing for the last like 10-20 years and they want a shot to do what theyre best at again? relive their glory days or whatever? im honestly not sure, but i think its worth thinking about. thanks gang 🙏

[gotham25052]

Dark Waters Part 8

As the social fabric of Gotham begins to fray and the Joker's intrusion into her life escalates, Anna struggles to maintain control. But is she threatened by the Joker or by something within herself?

Contents: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 9 Part 10

Overall fic warnings: Explicit violence and explicit sexual content.

Chapter warnings: 18+, NSFW, blood, violence, sexual content

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Author's note: Uh oh…

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I think everyone reading is well aware, but I do just want to mention the obvious, that this is a fictional, fantasy story, with the spotlight on two very flawed characters. If you find some kind of wormhole or magic passageway to the fictional world of Gotham and find the Joker there, do whatever you want! But in this world, no level of violence is ok in a relationship. So that's just my little reality check. I'm sure you don't need to hear it, but I'm just making sure.

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

Now, let's go through the wardrobe and get back to the story. :)

(I am changing it up a little this week and sharing a very short chapter, compared to the usual overwhelmingly long one, lol).

The Joker came to see Annie often now. Sometimes he came and took her immediately, entering the apartment and bringing her into his embrace so quickly she could feel the cool night air clinging to his purple jacket. At other times he would come in, eat whatever he found on the counter, and talk to her about something he'd seen that day, or lightly interrogate her about her experiences in Gotham.

Sooner or later, they always ended up in each other's arms. He seemed to study her, learning every little reaction from the surfaces of her body. His attention was an unusual luxury, a precious thing that she treasured. But as a person used to finding protection in hiding from the outside world, she was also a little unnerved by his level of understanding of her thoughts and desires.

He was more difficult to understand - so much of him was hidden from her. But anything she noticed that made him call out or catch his breath, she would remember it for him. There was always the possibility he was leading her in the wrong direction on purpose, with his gift for deceit, but generally she felt that he was very straightforward with physical intimacy, almost as if it made more sense to him than other everyday interactions. Maybe because it was more direct, more genuine, more natural.

As the time passed, Annie seemed to adjust to her new reality, balancing out some of the habits of her old self and the newfound freedom she felt when she was with him. He was able to coax her into speaking more often, and she took on the daily tasks that were required to provide life's necessities.

After their first nights together, he had quickly overhauled her limited wardrobe. He must have waited until she was sleeping and then removed every scrap of clothing from her closet. In their place in the morning she found a hodgepodge collection of short skirts, heels, and strappy things - halter tops and backless shirts. Her new underwear seemed to provide decoration more than concealment. Though he wouldn't tell her anything about it, she strongly suspected that his friend Genevieve was somehow behind the choice of clothes. Annie was really quite lost with it all but obediently wore whatever she found there. She had her jacket for going outside, so it didn't matter too much to her what she wore inside. And he seemed to delight in it, finding a hundred ways to take the scant clothing off of her when he visited.

On the day it happened, he walked into the apartment with a distracted look and drew out his knife, alarming her. He extended his arm into the air and then brought the knife down into the cheap countertop, puncturing the poorly made plastic laminate. The force of it caused his hand to slide down the blade, giving him a terrible cut over his palm. He didn't cry out but simply pulled up his arm and looked at the blood oozing from the wound, until she brought a towel and wrapped it around his hand.

She had a hard time staying calm and figuring out what to say, but she finally came out with a shaky "What happened?" as she held the towel firmly over the cut. He looked up at her and then dug into his pocket, bringing out a roughly torn piece of newspaper. She unfolded it as best she could with her free hand and read through the beginning of the article.

The Gotham Gazette Vol LXVIII, No. 23

Mayor Harvey Dent finally scored a victory against the infamous Joker today when the largest arms seizure in Gotham history resulted in the confiscation of six freight cars worth of weapons this morning. Everything from ordinary pistols to military-grade weapons and grenades were found.

Since the food crisis and supply chain disruptions, a nationwide shortage of weapons has been an issue for police and criminals alike, so this large-scale seizure puts the odds back in favor of the Gotham authorities…

She sat by him that evening, making sure his hand stopped bleeding and quietly comforting him, knowing it must have been a devastating blow by his unusual silence. Secretly she hoped that fewer weapons might mean less violence - his obsession with fighting the authorities and tearing down the rules of society was not a passion she shared. But in a world where the backbone of the community - the police, the government, and the law - had largely abandoned her, she didn't feel any sense of guilt or a moral dilemma in comforting him after his loss. This was something about her conservative rural upbringing that did stay with her. The focus on one's own family and the disregard for the outside world, for good or for ill, made her well-suited to be the Joker's companion. Although the hesitation of the women of her isolated community to question the men's actions had often infuriated Annie when she was growing up, that habit had also ingrained itself into her personality and probably contributed to her acceptance of his position as the head of Gotham's criminal empire.

The next day they were on the bed and he was absentmindedly stroking her cheek with his fingertips. She moved to get up and he pulled her back immediately, returning her to exactly the same position, and he continued his repetitive caress. She was probably wise to decide to simply stay where he placed her. He did this more and more often after the weapons raid, seemingly distracted, his eyes focused far away. Sometimes while he was sleeping she washed his shirt and pants by hand, hanging them up to dry in the shower, to maintain some level of cleanliness, as he seemed to be letting himself go much more than usual. But his energy and passion for Annie, if anything, grew stronger, and it felt like he must be escaping from the frustrations of his days in her embrace.

Now he entered the apartment like any other day, but she soon noticed that something was off. He was preoccupied, agitated. He hung up the purple jacket and took off the gloves deliberately, with much more care than usual. She wondered if there was some new development in the shortage of firearms. She had heard his men talking in low voices about their growing weakness in the face of the police and the rival gangs of Gotham.

But when he walked toward her with his jaw clenched and his mouth curved into a subtle smile, she knew that it must be about her.

"It turns out that my kitten has been very bad," he began ominously. "I found out she wasn't the only one who wanted to leave her Church. There were others, but they didn't get out. Kitten did. She left them all behind without a backward glance." He said it in a sing-song voice that contrasted with his menacing expression. "How did she do that?" He wagged his finger at her, a half smile raising one side of his messily painted mouth.

"You know, it's so unusual for someone to be able to escape from the Church. And a woman leaving, no one ever heard of it before you, Annie."

As soon as he had mentioned her past, she stood unmoving, not appearing to even breath. She just stared at him with wide eyes. "I was suspicious early on, when you first told me about it, and I sent one of my men up there to your little town to investigate you. I almost forgot about it, but he got back to me today."

He came closer, close enough for her to feel his breath on her face. "I can't find anything else out about you and your deal. It looks like all the officers and lawyers who worked with you ran away or seem to have been assassinated by your little organization up there," he said, tilting his head to look at her with a sidelong stare.

"I have a theory. I think maybe she spread her sweet little legs for that upstate DA." He put his knee between her legs suddenly, forcing them apart, almost making her fall. "Why don't you tell me about it?" He paused, regarding her terrified face.

"I don't mind, you know. You understand what it takes to survive. I respect that. He was a young man - but maybe not as pretty as Mayor Dent, hmm? Was he a nice lay?"

When he was met with only silence again, he moved over to hiss into her ear, "Tell me about it."

Her mind was racing. She wanted to forget all about that time, and to have him bring it up now brought back her pain, her guilt after taking the deal and leaving the others trapped there.

"Yes, he was a nice lay," she said, the words feeling foreign in her mouth.

He had been running a hand through his disheveled hair but paused immediately when he heard her words. There was a shift in the room. She felt like a hiding animal whose camouflage had suddenly disappeared.

"He was a nice lay? Oh kitten, you're lying," he said, rolling the words slowly in his mouth so they fell with a deadly weight.

He nodded his head, stepping back and surveying her with his merciless eyes. He drew his arm back and slapped her, hard. She hadn't had time to shield herself, and the blow landed squarely on the side of her face. The sound of it echoed in the sparse room. She collapsed to the floor, holding her mouth and tasting blood.

He took a step toward her and grabbed her hair, intertwining it messily in his fingers and using it to pull her to her feet. She cried out from the sudden pain. She still had her eyes closed, trying to keep her head from spinning after the sudden impact of the slap, when she heard the sound of the blade extending from the knife. Her eyes snapped open and her focus stayed on it as he dragged the flat of the cold metal blade lightly over her shoulder and settled the sharp point in the hollow where her neck met her chest.

"Your heart is beating so fast, kitten - I can see it here."

He had miscalculated if he thought a threat of force like the knife was something that would make her share her secret. But maybe he wasn't threatening her as much as he just wanted to see the sharp blade on the soft skin of her neck. Maybe he didn't really know what he wanted at that moment.

In the flurry of thoughts running through her mind, she suddenly realized that holding something away from him like this gave her a rush of pleasure. He knew everything about her: how she thought, the dynamics of her body, what every touch would do to her. But here was something he didn't know.

He used his grip on her hair to tilt her head up to face him. A slow smile formed on her lips. She had some scrap of her life that was hidden - it seemed to give her a small amount of control, and that little bit was intoxicating to her.

"I thought I just found a little fallen angel there on the ballroom floor, but you're much more than that, aren't you?" he said, regarding her strange smile and the remoteness of her icy stare. "I should have known, with the way you looked at me. Those sparkling eyes. You couldn't stop looking at me, could you?"

He retracted the knife and turned his hand to let it drop to the floor. Holding her head steady with his grip on her hair, he pressed his lips to hers. The movement of his tongue mingled with the blood in her mouth in a luxurious warmth as she returned his kiss. Her dizziness after the jolting slap only made it more mesmerizing - she felt she was floating. He drug his hand around her hips to the front of her thighs and pushed up the short skirt she was wearing.

The shock of what had happened made her feel unsteady, but her body adapted to him, listened to him.

"Ok, I'll let you keep your secrets, kitten," he murmured in her ear. She leaned on him for support and he held her securely.

"I'm feeling so generous today," he said, a lustful tremor beginning to show itself in his voice. He let go of her hair and she heard the gentle ting of his belt buckle hitting the long watch chain. He brought his hands behind her and pulled her close.

Author's note: [spoilers!] Don't be mad! Forgive me, remember he is the Joker. You have to give him a little bit of a break, Dent took away all his toys.

It is probably a little bit messed up that if I could ask Heath Ledger's Joker to say any of the lines of the story so far, it would be "Oh kitten, you're lying." :)

This is fanfic, so of course I don't own any characters from The Dark Knight (Joker, Batman, etc.). The main female character is original.

[moonspirit]

What do u think Annie’s eating habits are like? We know she loves sweet food but what else

Is she a picky eater? Maybe due to being force fed during her training to get more powers.

Does she have trust issues around food?

Is the reason she likes sweet food due bitter things reminding her off the things she had to eat

Side note and a trigger warning for this part but does she have any disordered eating due to how she views her body. From a young age she had an extremely sexulized Titan and could this have affected her?

Hi anon!

Interesting topic tho! I have some thoughts on this, but whether or not they make any sense is beyond me xD

So the reason I have for why she likes sweets so much is because I hc that sugar was probably a hard to get commodity in Liberio. I don't have much of a base when I say this, nor do I remember if anything about daily life in Liberio was ever expanded upon in the manga, but to me, sugar sounds like something that would've cost a lot of money, something we know ordinary Eldian people in the internment zone didn't have much of. I like to think that sugar was bought and saved for the really important occasions like birthdays and weddings, and to get your hands on a sweet treat was considered something special. For fic purposes, I also imagined up an instance where Annie (already a warrior candidate) found herself staring into the windows of a bakery, drawn by the delicious smells and colours of fresh pastries, only to be shooed away from the vicinity by a military officer. That once she and the others successfully became shifters, she had her first taste of a cookie or a cake and she'd have liked more if only her father noticed she liked them and cared to get her some now that he was an honorary Marleyan (but he never did). That on Paradis, she had her first "free" taste of a donut with nobody to admonish her, and cried in her bed because it tasted so good and she could go and buy more and nobody would refuse her.

Also, the sugar gives her an instant dopamine hit lmao. Annie being the sad girl she was, would've found solace in the burst of happiness that eating a slice of cake gave her without having to rely on people-connections for it. Sugar = easy comfort.

Other than sweets tho, I don't hc her as too much of a picky eater. Only normal amount. There's probably some stuff she doesn't like, for example very spicy and pungent food, but except for those preferences, she likely eats most everything without a problem. (some veggies she's not too fond of (maybe peas?) stealthily travel on their own to Armin's plate).

Oh, for some reason, I really like the idea of Annie becoming very attached to chilled mangoes in the summers! (it's me, I'm attached to chilled mangoes in the summers)

Coming to the experiments conducted on her as a warrior tho. Again, personal opinion, but I think it would have more to do with how the thing she was made to eat "looked" rather than just tasted. Zeke's spinal fluid, for example, presented to her either as a murky liquid or as a chunk of his nape (ew T^T) could've brought her to gag on sight alone. Similarly Reiner's hardening ability could've been dished out to her in any number of ways beginning with the hardening "serum" (like the one in the Reiss underground) or as an actual part of Reiner's body (ew again T^T). Other experiments we don't know of could've also taken any form of gruesome appearance. And in all of these, the two most traumatic components that Annie faced were 1. The disgusting appearance of the "food", and 2. The fact that she was force-fed them against her will.

In that regard, I've always felt that she'd absolutely hate being forced to eat anything she doesn't want to. Let's say, even actual healthy harmless food, but if she's not hungry and some well-meaning person tries to *make* her eat, it's not going to go across well.

And now.... for the Disordered eating (TW).

Hmmm, can't say I've ever made a connection between the appearance of her titan and her eating habits tbh. Annie to me seems like a person who's *fond* of eating, especially sweet and sugary stuff and for different reasons as I've stated above. The fact that her titan is the only one that is explicitly sexed in such a way is definitely curious, and its been the subject of debate for years now. However the FT is held in high regard for its abilities and agility (all of which depend on Annie's skill alone), and as such, is considered a high performance machine, likely even by Annie herself. A war machine, a weapon. Having to always stay a step ahead of the enemy in terms of speed, lethality and effectiveness, I think what Annie would've been most worried about is her usefulness and efficiency rather than the shape of her body particularly. That said, I do think Annie would be uncomfortable not exercising or keeping herself in top form in shape at all times, even post-rumbling, since those are routines drilled into her from a very young age and not sticking to them makes her antsy.

I hope that answered all your questions :3!

[voyaging-too]

June books and such

Books

Angela Carter: The Bloody Chamber. A collection of rewritten fairytales, written when the idea of the sexy bloody feminist fairytale was already an old conceit, but not yet wholly trodden into the ground. Anyway, these are good, and are beautifully written in a type of deliberately somewhat overwrought prose, like eating a rare steak directly off a hand-embroidered silk tablecloth. It’s very strange to reread them after a decade, they read very different with time and experience (and not being a virgin.) I remember not knowing how to feel about The Tiger’s Bride back then, and now it’s my clear favourite.

Marsha Linehan: Building a Life Worth Living. This is the memoir of the woman who invented Dialectical Behavioural Therapy. She had her own horrible experiences with mental illness, suicidality and hospitalization, and devoted her whole life to developing skills and methods others can use to get through it and survive. I wouldn’t call the book well-written, but the content of it is very, very interesting and impressive.

Tove Jansson: Moominpappa at Sea. The life of the Moomin family is too happy and peaceful, and Moominpappa has a Moomin midlife crisis. The family moves to a lighthouse on an abandoned island in the middle of nowhere so Moominpappa has a chance to Provide and Protect. It doesn’t go very well. This might be my favourite of the main Moomin books, a slow melancholy story about the Moomin family drifting apart and then coming back together.

Henrik Ibsen: Ghosts. Ibsen continues to be very good at setting up messed-up families and then exploding every single one of their secrets and conflicts in three acts. Also this play is a great example of how ubiquitous neurosyphilis was before the invention of antibiotics, and how heavily it weighed on everyone’s minds.

Annie Ernaux: Simple Passion, The Young Man. Two short autobiographical novellas about two passionate and inadvisable love affairs, extremely well-written.

Philip K. Dick: Dr. Bloodmoney. A fascinating apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic novel that devolves into weird shit once psychics get involved. Worth reading, but be prepared for serious ableism, a fair bit of racism and sexism, as well as the type of plotting that happens when an outrageously talented person takes an outrageous amount of uppers and outputs a gazillion novels per year. (Reading this for the Shelved by Genre podcast.)

Anne Carson: If not, winter. Fragments of Sappho. A bilingual edition containing the Ancient Greek original and a beautiful new English translation of all of Sappho’s work. It’s truly wonderful, but unfortunately I don’t think the core conceit works. A lot of Sappho’s surviving fragments are just one or two-word little snippets, and I just don’t think the layperson can appreciate them as “poetry”, I certainly couldn’t. What I got instead is a mostly-blank book that let me appreciate how much of Sappho’s work had been lost and how interesting and cool it must have been, which makes this an interesting experimental work of art, but not a very good book of translated poetry.

Fábri-Borbíró-Szarka: A nő és hivatása. (The Woman and her Purpose). This book is a survey of articles publishes in the late 18th and early 19th century Hungarian press, concerning women, marriage, family life, women’s education, women’s role in the national project. It’s fascinating to see how shit things were, but it’s also amazing to see that two hundred years ago there were women and some men who took women’s worth and equality as a given, and fought to make it a social and legal reality.

Star War

Andor Season 2. A spy action drama about the birth of the rebellion: maybe not quite as good as Season 1, but still some of the best things to ever come out of Star Wars.

A More Civilized Age: Clone Wars Season 3, KOTOR. This podcast continues to be lots of fun, with some of the funniest and smartest Star Wars takes out there.

Star Wars Visions Season 1. A bunch of anime studios were commissioned to make Star Wars shorts films. The results are uneven. There’s a lot of visual brilliance, gorgeous character design and world design and really innovative takes on old Star Wars imagery. There’s not a lot of good plot or good dialogue, even the best episodes have a skeletally simple story, and the worse episodes are, well, painfully dumb.

Timothy Zahn: Heir to the Empire. Did not finish. This trilogy is widely considered the best and most beloved of SW tie-in novels, and I just couldn’t get through it. The prose grated on me, and the plot also grated on me.

Other

The Chemical Singers. An amateur acapella band made mostly out of middle-aged research chemists at ELTE Budapest. They sing everything from renaissance motets to jazz standards, and they are surprisingly good.

Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum: Nature’s Time. Arcimboldo – Bassano – Bruegel. A truly inspired collection organised around a few series of paintings: Arcimboldo’s seasonal portraits made up out of flowers, fruits and vegetables, Bruegel’s seasonal landscapes, and Bassano’s series on the twelve months. A lot of huge landscapes and genre paintings, a lot of small, interesting studies from the early days of natural science. I’ve seen paintings beforehand that were 98% nature landscapes with a biblical scene hidden somewhere in the background, but I’ve never seen anything like Bassano hiding the sacrifice of Isaac, the expulsion from paradise, or Moses receiving the ten commandments in the corner of a cheery painting about lambing or harvest.

Milo Rau, Elfriede Jelinek: Burgtheater. A brilliant theatrical event. Unfortunately it’s a metacommentary on another play, so it’s hard to understand without some knowledge of Jelinek’s original 1985 Burgtheater play, which is itself hard to understand without at least a passing familiarity with the 1941 Nazi propaganda film Heimkehr. I had neither, so I missed a lot, but I still got the gist: the Burgtheater, the theatre in which the play was currently performed, was actively collaborating with the Nazis after the Anschluss, and then afterwards neither the theatre, nor Austria as a whole, had the courage to openly confront that. For me, the strongest moments were the documentary theatre asides, when some of the actors dropped out of character to talk about their own history, and their own thoughts about resistance and complicity and the role of art, here, now, in 2025. (Plus there were some hilarious dark jokes about how as a German or Austrian, you can’t make an international career without playing a few fictional Nazis.)

[mecharose]

Hi! Happy Second Day of STS! Do you have any self-interests or just generally OCs similar to you (either physically or in personality)? Why/why not?

@flock-from-the-void

normally I don't because if a character is too similar to me, I slam into a brick wall of writers block! One of the most fun parts of writing for me is making up a little freak and analyzing "why would they do that," so if its my own personality, I don't think I could be objective or as interesting with the character psychology

physically I don't make them look much like me either, bc character design is half the fun for me personally ;P no pale girlies with long curly brown hair and glasses. alas

I've based a character off my personality on purpose only once and it was like. the opposite of a self insert I think? I created this character based on the way I was scared I came across to people at the time. like i would be *dismayed* if people actually saw me this way. i'm not gonna say who it is, bc i had the surprise experience of a lot of ppl rly liking or even identifying with this character! which did make me re evaluate that maybe shes not so bad lol.

jumpscare tho that my brother thought Annie Timeloop RCUniverse was a self insert bc "that's the way you would handle the horrors, just make fun of them" bc I personally don't think she's too much like me at alllll lol. i wish I had that kind of brazen & carefree audacity but ngl if i saw the eldritch horror sky eyeball i'd fold like origami

[fathertaurus]

In a world of constant engagement with one another my tumblr feels like my last safe space and right now I'm incredibly grateful for that.

I feel like everyone i know personally has too much access to me and vice versa, and because of that theres no area of the internet where i can spill my guts without fear of potentially offending someone--so I am immensely grateful I never gave anyone access to this part of me, or at least not anyone in the most recent years.

So whether anyone reads this or not, take it as a rant more than anything else. A well deserved vent.

I am constantly being met with the thought of my old best friend (who, for purposes of privacy, we'll call Margret) as I am cycling through this overwhelming change and distance between me and my current best friend (who we'll call Annie) and although it makes sense, there is a feeling of torture here. My brain has conflated the two of them and now as I'm doing my best to work through the present I am dreaming of the past.

Margret was a necessity in my life, that much I can say. I needed someone who lived on the edge and had a lack of care towards her means of control as an example for how life can be outside of my own head. And for that I am so grateful, I always will be. Too many days do I spend tightened up, jaw clenched, white-knuckling my existence and the preservation of it that I pull back from living in totality/presently. So to meet someone who consistently went after what she wanted and in turn brought me with her, it was refreshing. I had a new lens to view life through and I indulged in it without looking back. When she was first in my life and when she returned for the second time. Admittedly I truly do cherish adventure and companionship and not having to think before doing and that was a healing experience for me. But the more I got to know Margret, and people like her, I've realized they share this common thread of not thinking about anything but their secluded experience.

When you are so focused on living so wantonly everyone around you simply becomes characters in the movie you deem your life to be. Their presence doesn't hold a real weight--because if it does, then you have something tying you down, and thats the last thing people like Margret want.

Unless you are some sort of caretaker or cheerleader who makes no effort to criticize or corral their decisions big or small..yeah, then maybe, you have worth. And i found that was the biggest issue i ran into with people like Margret and, it seems, Annie.

Margret loved the way I nurtured her and believe me she's not the first (and I know with certainty of this heart of mine she will not be the last). It was a delicacy to a palate as damaged as her own from issues that stem from years before my existence in her life. And I mean, I get it, I was practically at the girl's beck and call when we first found each other due to me being mutually mesmerized for my own reasons. Anyone would find pleasure in someone who does little but praise their every move and goes out of their way to fulfill their desires--we've all had those connections where it's impossible not to feel charged by someone else's endless giving.

But I think that's all she ever truly saw me as. And the moment i decided to question that and what she was doing I was somehow an enemy. And sure, I leave space for her interpretation of things and how to her a shift in our original dynamic wasn't necessarily something she signed up for. The same could be said for me and my understanding of what we were together.

Of course that all shifted when I faulted and allowed her to take another step back into my life, but never did her understanding of my place role in her life. The character she had assigned to me was someone who sat there and took whatever wrongdoings she felt comfortable expressing her sense of freedom in. I wasn't there to ask questions, or to poke holes in her logic. How dare I share any inquiries on the probability of her executive plans truly working out? I might as well have spit in her face even though, to me, I just cared enough to ask.

That's the issue I've seem to run into here with Annie. A person I have (undecidedly regrettably) nurtured so intensely that I struck a cord against her mother wound... just as I did with Margret.

[void-botanist]

👽🌕🤖🧪for the sci-fi game!

From this ask game!

Thank you!! Let's do a lightning round of a few different settings:

👽Have humans made first contact with an alien species? How did it go? If not, is there a possibility they ever will?

Locality space: so far, no, much to Fabian's chagrin. I don't have any specific plans for this, but also, never say never.

Pajiir: no, not until later in the Delphonus Saga that TFA is the start of, but, uh. Zalen wasn't wrong when he theorized that silicon-based life could exist on Delphonus, Pajiir's Mars equivalent.

Corporate space (Derelict Corridors): yup! There are a lot of them in corporate space, including the moth/spider species that Moochia is. For most species, the first contact was decades or centuries ago, but Moochia's planet still tends to remember it as "the Corporates showed up and tried to persuade us they were right about the universe, because they're dumbasses".

🌕What planet(s) do the aliens come from? How different is it from Earth?

Pajiir: Delphonus is sort of a crossover between Mars and an asteroid planet. In general, if you imagine a brown Mars with one moon, that's it.

Corporate space: tons and tons of them. Moochia's planet is the only one I've really thought about, and it's pretty similar to Earth, aside from having a longer day-night cycle.

🤖Has synthetic life been created in your WIP? Robots/androids/etc. that can think and feel like sapient living creatures? If not, is there a possibility it ever will be?

Locality space: no. It's been theorized a lot—there are plenty of thought experiments about taking revital magic (healing) and applying it to making synthetic life forms, though as far as anyone knows revital magic can only be used through touch and not enchantment—but making robots that are like living beings is completely unnecessary and no one has actually succeeded at doing a convincing job of it.

Pajiir: yes, absolutely. Mizzat and Imjen were created for research purposes, Syndy for propping up the reputation of a dying monarchy, and Dez for funsies. Making an android still takes a whole lot of time and expertise, though—Dez took six years to build, AFTER Anni got her master's in robotics. There's really no market or need for androids in general, so they're the only ones who exist, though I've been toying with the idea of a fifth uep or neriet (tree or mushroom person) android.

Corporate space: the Companies tried to make androids and there's a persistent rumor that they were sapient, which makes the entire corporate plan to use them as low overhead biological person replacements more harrowing. The Union said "hell no", though, and the android project was axed.

🧪Was synthetic life invented on purpose or by accident? How did it happen?

Pajiir: A little bit of both. The androids were built on purpose, but no one entirely understands how they have sapience. They all have significantly different builds, so their sapience isn't a result of being biotech (Mizzat is maybe 1% biotech, if that), and it's also not a result of having the same code, because they don't, even though there was some collaboration between their builders. Everyone points to the pickling process in which they just sort of integrated a ton of information from the internet, but that's still way too broad to pinpoint what happened.

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

#I'm not so sure that they would have gone along with Izzy's plan#the warmth with which they greet Ed suggests that there is something genuine there#and yeah they fuck about because it's funny and they're bored#but calling the navy on ed and setting up his boyfriend for execution?#nah#I can't see them going for that @temporal-discounting

i would argue that the first scene we see of ed and jack having fun blowing stuff up together would also suggest that there is something genuine there. not to mention that jack introduces himself to buttons as ed’s friend, which is something he later goes back on specifically when ed calls stede his friend. i think jack and ed are genuinely fond of each other, it’s just buried under layers of masculine posturing and rejection of vulnerability and also the “every man for himself” culture of piracy that happens outside of stede’s ship.

as for calling the navy on ed and setting up ed’s boyfriend for execution: jack didn’t do that. izzy did that. jack went along with it specifically to get ed out of there (he also tries to poach stede’s crew while he’s at it but that’s clearly not his main goal). he doesn’t do anything to stop this plot, sure, but like i said above, typically piracy is about every man for himself. jack is not doing anything that ed hasn’t seen before—in fact, jack actually seems surprised that ed is actually upset and that ed didn’t see this coming.

there’s a thread in season one abt ed starting to let his guard down now that he’s experiencing actual friendship with stede, and he does this with jack in 1.08 and later with izzy and the crew in 1.10. but jack betrays him, izzy betrays him, stede betrays him, izzy betrays him again, and then ed betrays the crew before he gets stabbed in the back again. jack was right though: the old ed would’ve seen jack coming a mile away, because the old ed would’ve never taken jack for his word that he just “happened upon the ship” randomly. pre-show ed would’ve had his guard up, wouldn’t have trusted jack to not have an ulterior motive.

not that this justifies any of it lol obviously jack is a dickhead and helping izzy with this scheme was a dickhead move. my point is tho that the main reason jack goes along with all this is bc he doesn’t realize that this is different. similarly to izzy, jack has no frame of reference for how much ed and stede care about each other. he doesn’t realize that this isn’t the sort of thing ed can laugh off and maybe get payback for later, doesn’t realize that if this plan had actually succeeded, payback would mean having jack killed.

annie and mary come from the same pirate background, with the same incomplete understanding of who ed is as a person. in fact, they are so used to “pirates don’t have real friends” that their relationship has devolved into violence and toxicity because they’re too afraid of vulnerability to be emotionally open with each other, even after retiring from piracy together. so yeah, i think the two of them would’ve heard “ed has this new posh boyfriend he’s obsessed with and i just made a plan to get that boyfriend killed, can you guys go get ed out of there” and have thought “ooh, eddie’s got a new flinnnnnngg” and rowed over immediately to cause drama on purpose. MAYBE they would’ve picked up on the fact that this isn’t just a fling for ed, because unlike jack they actually have experience being in love and caring for each other, and maybe they would’ve bailed on the plan if they’d realized that. i can see them deciding to get the ship out of blind man’s cove before they all get trapped and then being like “oh my gosh the british! where did those guys come from??? we definitely have nothing to do with that.” but they definitely would’ve gone along with the plot before that bc the whole point of jack as a character is to show that before this, almost everyone in ed’s life would’ve just gone along with this plot izzy set up.

i love how annie and mary did all that for no reason. being completely serious here i think it’s so funny that they decided to mess with ed and stede and ignore ed’s comfort and laugh at ed when he was having an emotionally intimate moment just for shits and gigs. like arguably even jack was more justified in being a prick bc he was supposed to be driving this wedge between ed and stede so he could get ed out of there before the british showed up, annie and mary just did all that bc they were bored. i fucking love them. i’ve had enough of female characters always being the emotionally mature ones i love that these girls get to be a fucking toxic messy disaster dragging everyone down with them.

[crisalidaseason]

how do you think each of aot characters kiss?

Hard question, I'll do my best!

Warnings ⚠️ Descriptions of kissing! PDA, Making out.

AoT characters kissing headcannons

Mikasa

Shy kisser, at least in public. Her kisses are very domestic, quick and usually happen early in the morning, right before sleeping, when she's been appart from her partner for too long. I think kissing holds a deep meaning for her and making out isn't frequent unless is a super intense situation.

Eren

Clingy and annoying kisser, but not in a bad way. He just loves physical affection so kisses are a must! Also doesn't care about PDA at all, will kiss his partner in public shamelessly. He is a messy kisser, will in fact try to eat his partner's face.

Armin

Cute devil kisser. Much like Mikasa, he is not into PDA and prefers more of a domestic setting when it comes to kissing. But he is also a menace a little clingy too, kisses are very slow and soft, also very frequent although he asks for consent every single time!

Connie

Emotional kisser. I know, he is constantly joking, but I think he would be dead serious about affection. He gives his partner little pecks on the cheeks and lips out in public, but real kissing and making out is for important and emotional moments. Since he is a funny boy, he also gets sad easily, so kissing is kind of his serotonin booster.

Jean

Passionate kisser. He is a hopeless romantic, loves kissing his partner anytime, for no reason at all. A very very good kisser, be careful, your legs might not work afterwards. Loves PDA, but HATES seeing it (like, the audacity!). Does the little smile while kissing.

Sasha

Joker kisser. She can't kiss seriously, always teasing her partner. LOVES imitating the "lady and tramp" spaghetti kiss or sharing a pocky. But on a serious note, she is such a cute kisser too, she holds the partner's face and kisses them all over.

Levi

Doesn't kiss in public AT ALL! Kisses are extremely intimate and private, not so frequent. His kisses are usually very soft and long (it usually ends with him kissing his partner's forehead).

Erwin

Much like Levi, he's a complete private kisser. He is way more passionate and his kisses are way more frequent than Levi's, but still holds a lot of vulnerability and intimacy. Doesn't understand the concept of making out though, but will indulge in it for his partner.

Hange

Honestly, doesn't really understand the appeal of kissing but will try for their partner's sake. Will do it like a science experiment and probably ask people how they do it just for researching purpose. For a clueless person, they kiss very well! They prefer brushing noses.

Reiner

The crying kisser. This man is a depressed bean. Much like Connie, kisses are a serotonin boost for him. He is a very desperate kisser, maybe because he's scared of loosing his lover. His kisses are fast, intense and very wet from his tears.

Berthold

Quick and innocent peck kind of guy. He is tall, making out and intense kissing is not something his height allows him to do (unless the partner is also very tall, but Bertie is almost 2 meters!). Although in private, while in bed, he is a very slow kisser, just basking in the moment and caressing the partner's face.

Annie

Awkward kisser. Just like Hange, can't see the appeal but only because she is a little too scared of intimacy. Once she feels safe and more open, her kisses are very romantic and careful. Will hold her lover's neck. LONG kissing afternoon sessions.

Pieck

Pieck is an angel! She loves to kiss her partner anytime and anywhere. Her kisses are lazy and sleepy, but very dreamy too. Although she hates kissing with chapstick or lipstick texture going on, so she will remove it or ask her partner to remove it as well if they wear it.

Porco

Low-key pretends he doesn't like kissing in public but is a sucker for PDA. Also smiles while kissing (I love this man) and is such a messy kisser too! Lots of tongue.

Colt

Extremely shy kisser, even in private. He like to take things slow and calmly and his kisses reflect that. He loves to give small pecks to his partners lips, nose and forehead. He will absolutely die from shame if he tries making out with his partner.

Zeke

Honestly, not much of a kisser. He enjoys it, but doesn't really care (only does it for his partner). His kisses are quite good and he tries his best to keep the beard very clean and tidy to make the experience better.

[alonezz]

AOT girls find out you are a shifter

Includes: Mikasa, Sasha, Hange, Historia.

bonus: Annie.

Mikasa:

~ She will feel betrayed but she loves you too much and when she sees how scared you look all she can do is comfort you.

“I am the female titan,” you mutter, her eyes search yours in hopes of it all being one sick joke. When you start tearing up at her lack of response she takes a step forward, taking your hand in hers. 

There is no way you would do this on purpose right? Maybe you were forced she thinks. Her big charcoal eyes stare at you intently filled with adoration. “Its... okay,” she whispers. That was enough for you to break down and when you start crying she tugs you closer pulling you into a warm embrace.

“Im sorry, I- I am so sorry Mika,” you sob as she rubs your back and holds you tightly. 

“it’s okay, you will always be my princess, okay?”

You guys talk about it after and what this means to your relationship but all she knows is that she wants you close to her. And she knows you didn’t choose to be this way, so she will protect you and fight for you for as long as she lives.

Sasha:

~ So confused, and she definitely thinks it’s a joke.

“I am the female titan Sasha,” 

“Lol, and I hate food,”

When she sees you don’t laugh and you stare at the floor her eyes widen. “shit,” 

When you start crying she walks up to you and pulls you into a hug, instead of thinking of how you lied to her she just thinks of how much she loves you. She would never let you go, you aren’t getting rid of her that easily. After all you are the one that was always there for her. 

You talk about it after and she is surprisingly unaffected by it. Cuddles you all night long, promising that she will never leave you.

Hange:

~ Excited but a little hurt.

“why- why didn’t you tell me before?” they ask and when you explain to them why, they will simply smile softly at you. It wasn’t your fault. you never chose to be a warrior. So they cuddle you close, whispering words of reassurance, they aren’t leaving you.

They will run all sorts of secret experiments on you though.

Historia:

~ So hurt.

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier? Do you not trust me enough?” she whispers tears welling up in her eyes. You try to grab her hand but she flinches, pulling it away from you.

She doesn’t talk to you for a few days, but she starts realizing how empty she feels without you and tries to talk to you. She doesn’t know when you plan on leaving, so she might as well spend the rest of your time here by your side.

She never cared you were the titan, so you two get back together quickly. She was just hurt because she thought you didn’t trust her.

bonus: 

Annie:

“Y/N I know, we are on this mission together idiot,”

[esther-dot]

I don’t care for that particular post, I saw it and didn’t reblog because I disagree, but I knew it was going to be controversial. Regardless of that I am genuinely confused because I think calling someone a bastard is worse than calling him half brother. Am I missing something here? I thought Sansa was being polite by calling him that and trying not to offend him by using the word she knew was hurtful. But maybe that is just me and my personal experience. My grandpa was a mess and my Dad was one of his bastards. When my Dad was born the birth certificates in my country actually stated whether parents were married or not, so growing up obviously he resented that his certificate said “illegitimate”. He has several half brothers and sisters -remember, grandpa was a mess-and guess how they would introduce each other? Half-sister, half-brother. For instance, “Here is Annie, she is my half-sister”. I think they called each other “bother” and “sister” in private but in front of other people it was always “half”. The whole situation was awkward for the families of course, but I fail to see the offense of that particular word. My father certainly preferred it to “bastard”.

*****Note: feelings are getting hurt so I’m dropping all the rest of my anons on this topic into this ask, and then we will give it a rest!*****

———————————————————————— I didn’t mention this before, but several of my family members are “illegitimate” too. I’m American and we are indifferent to marital status as a rule, there is no stigma associated with kids whose parents aren’t married, but, if someone were to call one of my loved ones “bastard” —the hell I would reign down on their head! It’s still an intentionally offensive term, so much so that it’s noted as part of its definition. Obviously half-brother is preferable to bastard. Obviously that is a more thoughtful term because it’s indicating you have one parent in common without bringing marital status (scandal and shame) into the conversation.

I think the issue is, there’s a distance in the Jon and Sansa relationship and some people blame Sansa for creating it. So, they take that line as evidence that the distance is entirely on her shoulders, which I think ignores everything we know about the way their gendered education worked, about how Cat felt towards Jon, and about who Sansa is. There are many reasons for them not being close that Sansa isn’t in control of, and, even if Sansa did create distance…I think a charitable reading of it would be the most in-character for her ie Sansa didn’t play with him because she saw how upset her mother was when she did. Obviously, that is a headcanon, we don’t know yet, but to me, that’s the point. We don’t know yet. Insisting we know Sansa intentionally hurt Jon is not the same as saying Jon was hurt by Sansa’s actions. We simply don’t know that Sansa knew she hurt Jon’s feelings or that she purposed to do so. Maybe she did, but I still don’t think it’s terribly likely. Pointing out the lack of evidence isn’t denying her flaws. It’s just saying the idea isn’t presented in the text.

I’ve certainly seen posts on those subjects, anon! Jonsas are particularly fond of Sansa experiencing bastard life because of how it is connected to Jon. As in, they have speculated that Martin wrote it to allow her to better understand his formative years/him. I suppose the weight is generally put on the positive outcomes of these issues, the belief that Martin is going to do something good with them rather than focusing on how it makes Sansa a bad person. Our focus when talking about the flaws isn’t actually on the flaw, so maybe people miss that it’s been discussed?

I have seen others clarify that OP is not a Sansabut and apparently one of my asks made it sound like I was saying they weren’t a Sansa fan, and that wasn’t my intention. I don’t know that blogger, I have nothing to say about that blogger. But, I think as whole the fandom’s attitude around Sansa almost demands that you be a “Sansabut” or they won’t treat you seriously. Essentially, you have to situate your love for her amongst her flaws, and it’s a strange, strange thing.

I’ve taken to saving things in drafts before posting, even asks. It’s just my habit now, and when I come back later, I routinely delete or reword something and it has made a huge difference in my feelings and that has impacted my tone. To the point that my initial response is much better. I think if OP had given themselves a moment, they’d have rethought some of their words and everything would have been very calm. As it was, it did feel like an anti take, and if people hadn’t been saying No, this is a Sansa fan, I wouldn’t have known because yes, we do still routinely get hate in her tag, hate in our inboxes etc. We’re protective because some of us had to read the fantasies they had of Jon murdering her before and after s8. We had to encounter hate fics in her tag on AO3. We have been called racist, received threats of violence, we were famously “excommunicated” from the fandom etc etc. When you’re bombarded with negativity and personally attacked over Sansa, it’s hard not to have a strong reaction when she is called names in her tag! But, the point wasn’t to insult Sansa, the OP was just frustrated with the fandom. The good news is that we now have The Harlot of Lemons and Sansa the slayer of lemons jokes, so all is well that ends well! 🍋

I can’t find it rn, but once I searched for all the bastard/half-brother stuff in the books, and you’re right. The other kids did this too, it isn’t a Sansa centric issue. The difference is, Jon had a good relationship with them, so fans can forgive it. He didn’t have much of a relationship with Sansa and people infer a lot from that. They’re free to do so, but I maintain that the idea that Sansa mistreated him, that she was intentionally mean, is still a headcanon. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Thank you all for the messages! I’m sorry for not responding to each one individually, but I hope you feel heard regardless. <3

[moonspirit]

what would the alliance be doing if they hadn’t entered politics? like careers and hobbies and stuff like that

Hi again!

Oh welp tho, I haven't thought too much about this xD

But okay let's see. If we go off the last headcanons, then maybe...

Armin would definitely enjoy sailing the seas. Learning, discovering, exploring. He'd understand people and bring new understanding to them too. Considering his never ending curiosity and hunger for learning new things, it'd be nice for him to go places, seeing it all until his eyes are full to the brim with sparks.

Annie, uh... Listen, not that I think she's not going to be doing anything on her own, but I think she'll just rest for a good long while xD She was exhausted and fed up well before the end of the Rumbling, just give her a nice bed, some furballs, plenty of cuddling opportunities and leave her alone.

Tho I do see her travelling with Armin and getting the chance to experience the world and all the wonderful things in it in a way she was never able to in her life before.

Also maybe later on she ends up starting a martial arts school for small kids because they think she's awesome and won't stop asking her to teach them.

Pieck? I honestly think she's going to be doing it all. The way I often characterize Pieck, she's eccentric and carefree on the outside for the most part. Perhaps today she's going to star as the lead actress in a silent movie, and tomorrow she's going to be on that high stakes bake-off for the neighbourhood. You cannot tell me she's not doing 826353 things at once and getting great sleep and keeping her head witty and flirty and sharp all at the same time. She's Pieck. She's gonna be living the best life.

Jean - oh boi. Okay. He's gonna do fancy things like wine and dine with important people, and then come home and listen to music and contemplate the purpose of life and existence as his very expensive small dog refuses his affections.

He will then write a haiku and send it to Armin who will not understand a single fucking word of his nonsense.

Reiner - He's good at plumbing. And electricity. And leaky roofs. Plus firewood chopping and kitchen fires and other daily accidents that need fixing. Don't ask me why, he's just a great handyman. Useful big brother. He's very happy like that.

Connie - This boy is gonna be running a kitchen! A restaurant! And he's gonna be fucking great at it! It started out as a small venture, just something to keep him busy and make ends meet but then wooaahh oh waaaa there's a lot of customers?! They're all there to hear him singing as he cooks? They love the food?! He's a boss now?! But he still serves customers because he's a nice boy like that.

Mikasa Ackerman - Swimming teacher. Masterclass on how to cross oceans carrying a head or two as baggage.

I'm going to hell for this.

Levi Ackerman - The man has a tea shop. What the fuck more do you want? Tch.

Falco and Gabi - They're too young to be doing any one thing - let them live and plant trees and run around and grow up nicely.

[kyberphilosopher]

Mᴏʀɴɪɴɢ Lɪɢʜᴛ

Word Count: 2061

“The Sun card represents radiance. Like the sun itself, it gives strength and vitality to all those that are lucky enough to feel its rays. There is much joy and happiness that is coming to you. On the other hand, the Sun reversed might be indicative that you are being unrealistic. It might be a sign that you have an overly optimistic perception of certain situations. Be warned, for when the sun ceases to shine on you, depression is soon to follow.” - ‘The Sun’ Tarot Card; Full Meaning.

Tap Tap Tap. 

How early was it? Too early. You knew you had training today, but you were certain that wasn’t for another few hours. So what was that insufferable tapping for?

Tap... Tap Tap. 

You shift against your pillow. You can feel your hair stick against your neck, in sync with the tightening fist by your face. Your eyes do open, slowly but surely. You feel groggy, despite the growing alertness inside of you. You’re waking up. What’s more, you’re waking up before you really have to. 

Tap... Tap. 

Your sleepy eyes search around the room. Behind the glass of the window, you can make out a blurry image of yellow and pale skin. Still, you’re exhausted. It could be a silly little trick pulled by your own brain. But on the off chance that it is-

Annie. 

You sit up. Your vision is still smeared like oil, but you stumble out of bed. Your heel skims against the wood of the floor. It probably gave you a splinter, but now that you’ve started thinking about her, you know it’d be difficult to stop. 

You partially hop to the window across from your bed. Your right hand reaches out to unlatch the thing, while the left rubs at your eyes to get the gift of clear sight. As you turn the wood to the right to unlock it, you step back and away. 

The blond handles the rest. Her palms slip under the window and pull it up, and then she pushes herself through. She brushes the clear white curtains to the side and lands on the floor, just as your vision returns to you.  

She’s wearing her favorite white sweatshirt, and standard brown slacks. There’s ODM gear at her hips, complete with all the strappings and buckles. But her face... oh, her face. Despite the time apart, it’s the same one you’d fallen in love with. The big, still blue eyes were gazing at the wood she landed on. Her pale blond hair is pulled back in the usual bun, her bangs hanging loose as always. But her lips look shinier today. Perhaps she tried the new lip tint you’d bought the last time you’d gone shopping. 

“Annie,” you sighed with a soft smile. Any kind of stress you’d been feeling in the past few weeks without her was fading away, at long last. You knew she’d see you again soon, but you hadn’t realized she’d pick today. She must’ve wanted to surprise you. 

Annie’s right hand reaches up to rub the back of her neck. “I should’ve known you wouldn’t be up yet.” The girl looks your form up and down. “Or dressed.”

One of your feet rubs against the opposite shin. She’s not wrong. You’re wearing an oversized white shirt and cheap underwear that she can’t even see. Your hair is a mess, your eyes groggy, and your breath making your own throat want to gag. But you’re overwhelmed with happiness to finally see her again. 

“Yes you did,” you challenge firmly, but tiredly. 

Annie’s eyes soften. You’re right. She could picture your tired form in her head long before she’d even set out to surprise you. That and the fact that she’d purposely arrived before the morning chimes. 

“Whatever,” you wave off. You step towards her, your heart reaching out to hers. Her chest is like a magnet to your own. 

Your arms stretch out to embrace her. And you do. Tugging her to you, you feel her warmth. Her chest and neck flushed against yours, feeling your heartbeats fall into sync. Annie smells so good. She always has, but it must be that body wash the Military Police get to use. 

Annie is everything to you. The attraction was immediate, and the build up of trust came naturally over time. Despite the two introverted natures, you spent time together. You ate silent dinners, went through the motions of the days with each other. You taught Annie more about life and perspective more than she cared to admit, and in turn, she had made you feel more confident in your own character. It became fact among the cadets that where either you or Annie was found, the other was never far behind. 

And then, sometime in the midst of it all, the dynamic changed. 

Your faces got closer when you pinned the other down during sparring. You’d share your food from the same spoon when there wasn’t enough. Even begun sharing the same shower. You’d always thought Annie was attractive, but now the attraction was rapidly becoming a solid, almost tangible force. 

The heat radiating between the two of you was undeniable. One night, in the top bunk of your barracks, she crept into your bed and shared a kiss. It was wet and sloppy, but you were close to her. You didn’t care about the lack of experience from either of you. Annie mattered to you. You wanted to be with her, and apparently she felt the same.

Things were never made official by title, but you were even more inseparable than before. You’d witnessed her threaten Reiner for both hitting on you and insulting you on separate occasions. You judo flipped a boy for getting handsy with her. You went to winter markets, stargazed, and spent late nights sparring ending in clumsy make-out sessions. You loved her. You’d do anything for her. You’d already made a nonverbal promise to each other that you’d grow and mature together. What more could you ask for?

“I really missed you,” you admit, taking her in as much as you can. Annie sinks into your touch, closing her eyes in affection. 

“Yeah,” she replies, which is her own way of letting it slip that she missed you too. Both her hands come to rest under your elbows, effectively keeping them in place around her. Pft, as if you were going to remove them for longer than a split second anyway.

“So,” you drawl as you saunter back to your bed. You collapse on it, rubbing the space next to you as a call for Annie. “Tell me what I’ve been missing. The MP’s still treating you alright?”

Annie shifts and averts her eyes in thought. Then she follows your lead, sitting on the edge of the bed as she starts to unbuckle her harnesses. “It’s the same,” she tells you. 

“I know you don’t like them, Ann.  You don’t have to pretend.”

And with anybody else, Annie would’ve been quick to annoyance. But with you, she was glad. Even though she definitely didn’t tell you the truth about everything, she knew she could still be herself around you. She knew you could sense she kept some secrets from you still, but you’d never forced the issue. Everything about your love was focused on understanding. It was more than the girl thought she deserved. 

“What about the Scouts?” Annie decides in return. It’s a tactic at changing the subject, and one that doesn’t slip past you. Still, you don’t push. 

“Just as annoying as we thought. I have to officially get up and at ‘em in a few hours.”

Your lover unties her boots. “Have you been outside the wall yet?”

She already knew the answer, but she wanted to hear you say your piece anyway. 

“No,” you sigh. Your hand rests on your forehead, your elbow bent as you stare up at the ceiling. “We have our first expedition this week. We’re taking Jaeger out to try the Commander’s new strategy.”

Annie freezes. Then she continues her movement. “Right. I’d almost forgotten Eren was here.”

You doubted that. “The bastard talked about the Scouts non stop back in cadet training,” you say as Annie twists around to face you. “You sure you didn’t hit your head on the way over here?”

Annie doesn’t answer. But she does gift a hint of a smile. It’s gone in a flash, but it’s more than others get. 

Her ice blue eyes pierce into yours. It’s not threatening, however. It’s loving. Appreciating. She’s trying to memorize all the details inside of them like she’s about to do so for the last time. 

Then Annie lowers head head slowly, until it rests by the crook of your neck. 

“You got up early to see me today,” you say softly. 

Your love shifts off of you, and props her up on her elbow at her side. You mirror her movements to observe her as well. 

“I skinned my knee climbing from my barracks. My gear was giving me trouble.”

Some people may have expressed concern, but you knew your other half was strong. She didn’t need your pity. “Well maybe you shouldn’t have done that,” you shrug with snark back. 

“Heh, thanks,” she responds, looking down to stare at your white cotton sheets. 

There is quiet. The sunlight illuminates her hair. Her long eyelashes flutter up and down slowly. Annie is beautiful. No. Annie surpasses the boundaries of being beautiful. 

“Y/N,” she whispers. “Would you love me, if I were evil?”

What?

“What did you say?”

Silence. Annie doesn’t look at you. She seems solemn, troubled. Haunted, even. No, not quite haunted. Maybe just hollow. 

“Nothing,” Annie says decidedly. “I’m just muttering.”

You frown anyway. You know that Annie is weighed down by things that you can’t explain, or understand. It’s different from other soldiers, or just other people. But you didn’t think there was anything she could do to be evil. You had already shown and told her that you were in love with her. You wouldn’t go back on that if you even could. 

Annie was your world. Your lion. Your entire purpose for even making it this far. 

One of your hands reaches out to brush her fringe behind her ear. “I’d always be on your side,” you tell her softly. “There’s nothing you could do to change that.”

You’d be surprised, thought Annie. 

“I didn’t mean to be depressing,” she mutters further. “I was looking forward to seeing you again.”

Annie is sad today. 

Both of your arms wrap around her slim figure. You pull her close to you, so her head is between your chest and your neck. Both your bodies cradle against each other as you stroke the soft strands of yellow hair. The sun is seeping through the windows for only a passing moment, before it is covered by a blanket of grey clouds. 

“Let’s go back to sleep,” you whisper to her, your eyes transfixed on the drops of rain hitting the roof one by one. 

“I am sorry,” you hear her speak against your shirt. 

You pull away, your palms against her cheeks so you can look at her stunning face. “Don’t ever apologize to me, Annie.” What more can you say to reassure her? “I’m with you.”

Annie is heartbroken inside. Maybe it was better that she didn’t say anything. Or maybe it was better in another timeline, where you knew. But Annie kept her mouth shut and tried to just relax her nerves. There was no reason to wake up feeling as guilty as she had. She was with you now. You would protect her against the nightmares with her father, or Reiner. Nothing to be afraid of. 

“After this,” Annie says as you coax her head back against your body. “I’ll buy you one of those breakfast sweets you like so much. From the village.”

The rain taps against your window. The sun has all but disappeared by now. Surely the open window mixed with sheets of light rain will result in a damp floor, but there’s no way in hell either of you are going to get up and close it now. Instead you watch the water fall, thinking about how the shade of the sun matches that of your lovers mane. 

.✫*ﾟ･ﾟ｡.★.*｡･ﾟ✫*.

I wrote this really fast. I just really love Annie and wanted to give her some appreciation. A weak plot, but oh well. 

[softinkshadows]

Shingeki no Kyojin Astrology: sun-moon-rising combinations

I was looking around tumblr for detailed astrology speculations of my fave anime characters, but there aren't that many! Being q well-versed in astro myself, i thought why not do my own version (very spoiler-free, don’t worry)! I followed the birth dates given by isayama:

Eren Jaeger - Aries sun, Scorpio moon, Cancer rising Aside from the fact that he can be hotheaded and impulsive, Eren's feelings of vengeance run deep and explosive. Remember that time he was chained to the bed after the attack on trost, and his eyes were wild with the need to violently eradicate all titans? He's so tenacious and emotionally stubborn too (a Scorp moon trait) to the point of being closed off from everyone else, especially towards the end where he seems to take the weight of the world's burden on his own shoulders. And all for the sake of protecting his community and ensuring the safety of his friends for the rest of their lives. His comrades and family are his motivation. This is his Cancer rising steering his life.

Mikasa Ackerman - Aries sun, Aquarius moon, Aries rising "Look that moody brat is running off on her own again." Mikasa is similar to Eren in her impulsiveness and determination, but different in two ways- what they aim to protect and their extent of fearlessness. Eren is aware of his own weaknesses and helplessness, but Mikasa's amazing physical prowess makes her act without any hesitation at all. She's hella fierce and driven to keep herself in shape too, doing all those sit-ups and chopping firewood post-injury. I think she deserves a double Aries! An Aries rising means a Libra descendant too, which is reflected her whole-hearted devotion in her close partnerships (Eren and Armin). Her aquarius moon really shines thru with her stoic independence, focus and perseverance.

Armin Arlet - Scorpio sun, Virgo moon, Pisces rising He's the brain of the 104th cadet corps, and is second to Erwin in terms of strategy! An intelligent planner with low self-esteem often found second guessing his own analytical abilities, Armin is a true blue Virgo moon. His emotional self stands out the most from the main three protagonists - Eren & Mikasa mostly express anger and desperation, whereas Armin is usually shrouded in fear and worry. He's a very soft bb, hence the Pisces rising, not to mention he gets so dreamy imagining the sea, the vast plains, and the magical world beyond the walled universe he knows. A spiritually-attuned and curious explorer :")

Levi Ackerman - Capricorn sun, Scorpio moon, Virgo rising Levi is such a complex person, thanks to Isayama's brilliance. Like many Cap suns, Levi is authoritative, cold and incredibly savage. That's not to say he doesn't feel anything either. Levi is an evolved Scorp moon (maybe even moon in 11th house) because his feelings are never for himself, but he hurts so much for others - you can tell every death hits him so hard, but he doesn't show this to anyone else. He also exudes this quietly intimidating aura of natural competence, a common characteristic of this sun-moon combo. He can take things personally as well (re: height issues) but it never snowballs into more than passing irritation. The turbulence of his emotions and habit for violence is balanced out by his earthy Virgo rising, which is emotionally subdued, quite thin and delicate in physique, and super neurotic and nitpicky when it comes to cleanliness and health. Cap, Virgo and Scorp are some of the most guarded signs, and a combi of all 3 are hellish. You can tell this poor beautiful man is always caught between feeling and thinking, between maintaining his humanity and forsaking it.

Erwin Smith - Libra sun, Capricorn moon, Leo rising In another life, Erwin Smith would be the damn CEO of a global conglomerate because he oozes so much charisma. Hell if charisma were energy Erwin Smith would be its prime, eternally renewable source. His stature alone is so commanding, and I find some strong Leonine traits in his thickset physique, strong eyebrows, beautiful hair, and that way he shouted in full glory atop wall Rose in that one episode to the cheering masses below. He might be a Libra sun, diplomatic in political affairs, but his Capricorn moon is what drives his decisions. Cap moon has a rep for being cold and unemotional, but i believe they are way more than that! Cap moons rarely boast about their long list of achievements, instead looking forward to the next goal. They struggle with emotional expression, and are super driven and disciplined. Erwin is capable of making the hardest decisions, putting aside emotions to strive for an abstract ideal, and this is to be expected of the commander who takes on the role of the devil.

Hange Zoe - Virgo sun, Sagittarius moon, Gemini rising All hail our favourite mad scientist!! Hange is such a breath of fresh air in the Survey Corps, balancing out the heaviness of missions with their wacky tales of titan research and experimentation. Their penchant for study and higher knowledge is typical of a Sagittarius moon, who is drawn to advanced academic study and spiritual truths. It's also a lighthearted and optimistic sign, true to Hange's upbeat personality. The Virgo in them contributes to their sheer intelligence and obsessiveness with research subjects. We also know they LOVE to talk, and once Eren asks Hange about experiments, they cannot stop (Gemini governs communication). Virgo, Sag and Gemini are the most intellectual signs, and because they are mutuable Hange tends to follow orders rather than give them, making it difficult to adapt to their new role towards the end of the series. Mutable signs also means rapidly-changing emotional states, and a whole lot of chaos, which suits our beloved squad leader.

Jean Kirstein - Aries sun, Virgo moon, Taurus rising Our third Aries on the list ohmygod. The snk universe is full of feisty hotheads. Jean is always seen clashing with Eren, fuelled by Eren's closeness with Mikasa and his own adorable jealousy. I mean, they had a full on fist fight right after dinner in the mess hall, although everything went downhill after the first few punches. Our first impression of Jean during his cadet days is coloured by his desire to work in the interior, and this favour for material safety and wealth is perhaps common to a Taurus rising. Also, Taurus is ruled by Venus, planet of beauty and harmony, and thus often figures in the charts of artists. If you've seen Jean's drawing skills in that special episode, you'll know that his artistic abilities are the finest we have seen, exceeding even that of isayama himself. Jean's strong principles such as being averse to killing people and oftentimes cynical nature, is also characteristic of the moral and cautious Virgo moon.

Sasha Braus - Leo sun, Gemini moon, Taurus rising Not all Leos are showmans. Sasha is the type of Leo who displays more of the quirky, unabrashed personality suited to her opposite sister sign Aquarius. Authority doesn't exist when food comes into play, as we see when she breaks potato with Shadis and later steals a slab of meat from the officer's warehouse. Unlike the visual artistry that Jean possesses with his Taurus rising, Sasha's Taurus centers around her love for food, and hell she can have fiery determination for it (rmb the wild night she mistook Jean's hand for meat?). I love that both of them were pitted with each other in that cooking special episode. I considered placing her as a Taurus moon, but Taurus moons are usually steadier and classier in emotion, whereas Sasha is often breezy, gets nervous and chaotic, with stellar intuition, making her likely a Gemini moon.

Connie Springer - Taurus sun, Cancer moon, Gemini rising Although not much attention is paid to Connie's growth, his character development reminds me a lot of Aang from ATLA. Cheery and happy-go-lucky at first, before the incident with his mother made him more prone to feelings of anger and vengeance, especially near the later chapters. His strong protective bond with his mother is what compels me to say he is a Cancer moon, which is a moon sign that is very homebody and drawn to family and traditions. His goofy self and him referring to Sasha as "his twin" puts him as the spunky Gemini rising, another sign he shares with her.

Reiner Braun - Leo sun, Pisces moon, Capricorn rising Aside from his natural leader personality (Leonine), Reiner likes to take on the persona of the big brother of the group. His outward stoicism, decisiveness and task-oriented nature is typical of a Cap rising, who is often serious and solemn in appearance. He reminds me of that Cap rising workaholic who does his best in a corporate organization, working 9 to 5 plus overtime as it fulfills his sense of purpose. Beyond his stoic facade reveals a more troubled personality. Like a Pisces moon, Reiner is impressionable, and it's difficult to tell if his emotions and personalities are his own, wavering and absorbing traits from those around him. His internal war with his identity and the ensuing fatigue characterises him during the second half of the series.

Annie Leonhart - Aries sun, Aquarius moon, Virgo rising Annie is the kind of Aries that is so motivated to achieve her goals that everything else is sidelined, including her own emotions. She's quite ruthless in chasing her objectives, and her composure, focus and endurance is highlighted with an Aquarius moon. I'm guessing she has a 4th house influence somewhere because of her motivations to go home to her father and lead a normal life. I find the daintiness and delicateness of her features similar to Levi, who is also a Virgo rising. The Virgo effect also registers as a brutal, unfiltered honesty (also seen in Levi), and Annie doesn't hesitate to speak the truth about her own or her opponent's capabilities.

Other characters which I won't go into much detail about:

Bertholdt Hoover - Capricorn sun, Virgo moon, Pisces rising Bertholdt is quiet with an unobtrusive personality. His lack of supposed iniative and aggression can perhaps be attributed to the mutuability of Virgo and Pisces, which goes with the flow instead of charging forward. He keeps his feelings to himself, but reacts when the people he wants to protect are threatened.

Historia Reiss - Capricorn sun, Libra moon, Cancer rising Historia initially lives for the sake of others (esp Ymir), and is more co-dependent than many of her other squadmates. She also tends to put up a front of pleasantness, afraid of disappointing or offending people. She has a strong tie to family, and a profound sense of duty.

Ymir - Aquarius sun, Pisces moon, Aries rising Ymir is extremely astute when it comes to evaluating human behaviour. The religiosity of her background is also usually found in this sun-moon combination, which tends to attract paths of strong spirituality. She also has a bold and noble sacrificial streak for the sake of her companions.

Zeke Jaeger - Leo sun, Capricorn moon, Scorpio rising A headstrong, intelligent and radical character. In a way similar to Erwin in his ruthlessness, but emotionally darker and much more sinisterly private.

Kenny Ackerman - Aquarius sun, Sagittarius moon

Rod Reiss - Virgo sun, Libra moon

Dot Pixis - Virgo sun, Sagittarius moon

Hannes - Capricorn sun, Taurus moon